The Undead World (Book 2): The Apocalypse Survivors (38 page)

By first light, as individuals began to claim their spots
for the coming event, Neil was all cried out. He still had his fear, however and now, with it, disgust. Like spectators at a football game, people brought blankets to spread on the cold steel decking, and one brought a pair of folding chairs. Most brought food and all chatted happily. The zombie finally turned away from salivating at the three prisoners; instead it swung about to the larger mass of humanity. It stretched out on its chain and began snapping its teeth like a guard dog. Neil had to wonder if he did have a screwdriver just then, would he free himself or would he free the zombie and let it go hog-wild on the people?

Time went slowly by and each minute was an agony of waiting. Every ten seconds or so Neil scanned the crowd anxiously. He didn't know whether or not he wanted Sarah there. Part of him desperately needed the moral support, the other part couldn't bear to see the pain in her eyes he knew he would see.

Ram passed the time meditating, breathing deeply and focusing on floor just in front of his knees. Even when the faction leaders came in he didn't stir. It was only when Yuri declared: "Now for the test!" did Ram do more than glance up.

"Do you want to go first?" he asked Neil. The three humans had moved as far from the zombie as their chains would allow. The beast, on the other hand, was having its chain lengthened.

Neil shook his head while simultaneously nodding. He then swept the crowd for the hundredth time, looking past each of the leering faces, searching for someone that wasn't there. He knew on a certain level that they weren't going to be rescued and yet there was still that part of him that held out hope. That part of him demanded to know, where were the explosions? Where was the gun fire? Where were the commandos rappelling down from silent helicopters at the last minute to save the day? He even looked for little Jillybean.

"No one's coming, Neil," Ram said, seeing the look on his face. "Like you said, it's just us this time."

The zombie was pushed toward Neil; he flinched back so that its teeth snapped just inches away and its vile breath coated him in a horrid mist. They were so close to each other that Neil could see right down its black throat.

"Step right up!" Yuri cried with flare. "Come! Let it have a taste or we let out its chain even more." The crowd called for more chain to be released regardless. They wanted blood and lots of it.

"Do it, Neil. Right now. Get it over with." Ram ordered like a drill-sergeant. "Do it! Don't let them see you be afraid."

It was easy for Ram to say. He never seemed to be afraid of anything. Neil was the opposite. Everything scared him and this, being eaten by a zombie, scared him the most. He looked down at his hands
—they curled in toward his chest.

"Just do it," he whispered to himself. This was going to be nothing compared to what Cassie was going to do to him. This was only a bite...a horrible, diseased-filled, deadly bite
, but still just a bite.

Grimacing in fear he stuck out his left forearm. The zombie did not hesitate. It retracted its black lips and launched itself on the flesh, sinking its teeth deep and shaking its head side to side like a rabid pit-bull. The pain was immediate and intense. It overrode
Neil's ability to think straight—a high scream, one that would embarrass him later, ripped from his throat, causing the crowd to roar in laughter. He barely heard. His mind was on the pain. Instinctually he began to beat the zombie on the face with his right fist—and all the while the crowd laughed and pointed.

Though it seemed like ages to him, the zombie tore out a hunk of Neil's flesh in seconds only. It then chewed loudly inches from Neil's tear-stained face while he held his arm gingerly. He could almost feel the disease running up his veins.

When the zombie finally swallowed it was prodded back by guards holding long poles and then sent toward Ram. He didn't flinch as Neil had. Instead he stepped forward and where the zombie was bound, he had his hands and arms free. With a quick move he grabbed the monster's head in both hands and spun it around to face the crowd. The move so surprised them that everyone in the front row leaned back.

"This is what
you created," Ram said in a voice that carried over the crowd's babble. "Look at it. This could've been your father or your brother. It could've been your best friend. It could've been anyone, but now it is the face of hate and greed! And let's not forget fear. You're all so afraid that it's turning you into the monsters. This is what I see when I look at all of you."

The crowd heard and began to glance at each other
—some skeptically, some with strained smiles, some with a tinge of fear, some with wisdom in their eyes. These last were few in numbers and they alone nodded at the truth.

Yuri was quick to intervene before Ram undermined him any further. "He is wrong! People
, you must not listen to him. He says the opposite of truth. He says lie. We are here to save you from becoming like this thing." Yuri pointed toward Ram and the zombie, but which he meant wasn't clear. "But if you do not want vaccine, then you are free to leave."

No one left, though many shuffled their feet and refused to meet Ram's gaze.

Shaking his head in disgust, Ram allowed the zombie to bite him. Just like Neil he gave up his left arm, though he did not flinch or cry out. When his blood ran and colored the floor he tore his arm away.

Sadie watched this with hatred in her eyes. Without thinking she strained against her chain. Ram shook his head at her. "It's done," he said.

This simple statement ended the spectacle. The zombie was killed with a blow from a bat and disposed of; callously it was flung over the side of the ferry. Then it became a matter of waiting and few hung around for very long. Neil pleaded for Yuri to release Sadie, but in a fit of depression she refused. "Where would I go? My place is here, at least for now."

What should have been a long miserable day of waiting turned out to be only miserable. Just when they wanted time to stand still, the hours flew by. At one in the afternoon Ram was unchanged. The same was true at three. He told them the story of how he'd been scratched in Philadelphia and how he had lived. There was hope and determination in his brown eyes as he recounted that day.

The people who came by, now did so with an air of disappointment. Sadie usually lashed them with her tongue:

"Keep walking, ghoul!"

"You sorry he's going to live?"

By six even Yuri was getting nervous. He had Ram's temperature taken and then retaken. "Doesn't look good for sales, does it?" Sadie asked, not bothering to hide her malice from any. "Who's going to need your fancy vaccine when both of them live?"

By seven Ram's eyes were fever bright.

Chapter 37

Sadie

New York City

"Come on, Ram, fight it," Sadie whispered. She was like the cut-man in a boxer's corner. "It's nothing but a few germs. You are tough. The toughest man I know."

The encouragement was useless. Within the hour the delirium had him raving. "Don't look at me, Trey," he screamed at Neil. "Stop it! Stop looking. With your bug eyes full of bugs. Full of bugs."

Neil turned away to look at the wall with gritted teeth and wet cheeks. He stared uselessly at a seam in the old boat. It was a natural seam created by time and weather, which, extending from the top of a girder, made its way down its length, gaining in width as it did. "This world is falling apart," Neil murmured.

"Full of bugs," Ram whispered. "The world is full of bugs. Like fishing bugs and zebras and monsters.
Trey knew it. Trey that stupid fuck!"

"It's going to be ok, Ram," Sadie soothed. She didn't know the name
, Trey, however she did understand about zebras and fishing bugs and monsters all of these alluded to Jillybean. It was a subject that she felt had to remain secret. "Trey's not here. Do you know where he is, Ram?" she asked to change the subject.

He nodded in a sweaty luster. "He's gone fishing. He's drown face down in the brown. I killed him. He drown in the brown. In the brown! There was water and I said it would be ok and he said we would drown. Like a clown, in a gown and a frown and hound and a mound..." His words tapered off.

Ram was quiet for a minute until one of the ghoulish spectators threw a pencil at him. "Come on! Let's hear more about the hound and the mound." The people with him laughed, until Sadie, quick as lightning, zinged the pencil back at them full force. One of them gave a shout of pain, much to her dark joy.

"Hound, mound, found, round," Ram said. His eyes swam in his gently rocking head; he turned them to Sadie. "I'm sorry, Julia. I love you
and I could love you more, but my head hurts...it hurts so bad. Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” Sadie whispered. Her throat was dangerously
near to closing all the way. She could feel the emotions gripping her right where she breathed.

“
I'm sorry,” Ram said.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Sadie
replied. She prayed then. As a sign of her lack of faith, she prayed that Ram would die quickly. In her mind he was so far gone that not even God could save him. "Why don't you lie down and sleep," she suggested.

His fevered mind found the suggestion agreeable and he slumped over with his face on the steel decking. More people came to gawk and though quite a few made snide or evil remarks, Sadie refused to respond, fearing to wake the man.

At half-past eight Ram began to make guttural noises from deep in his throat and a little while later he woke. He turned his cadaverous eyes on Sadie and then launched himself bodily at her. Only the chain kept him from rending her bit by bit.

Sadie went to her knees and cried, with the zombie stretching out his fingers only inches away. "I'm done!" she screeched
to the guards. "I can't do this anymore. Let me out! Let me out!"

Neil tried to yell with her, but his voice locked and cracked; he could only pound on the deck until Yuri showed up.

"Finally," the Russian said as he saw what had become of Ram.

"Please kill him," Sadie begged.

The idea seemed to insult Yuri. "What? How you say this? I can not kill my exhibit. He and this little man are now exhibit. They show my vaccine is good. Da. They stay put until black woman go away tomorrow morning, and then I don't know what. Not good for little man, I suspect. Big man? He is already dead so nobody cares."

"Then release her," Neil said, indicating Sadie. "She's not yours and she's done nothing wrong."

Yuri considered this. "This, I could do, buuuut..."

"There is no but," Neil said cutting in on the Russian
’s drawn out word. "The
Whites
bought her. She should be free to go to them."

Yuri nodded in a tepid manner. "Yes, is true, but the
White
s they are not so strong. I think your little girlfriend is better here. She keep you company. Is nice, da? Is safe."

"Safe?" Neil asked. "Is she in danger? I thought no weapons are allowed on board. Not even knives."

"What is it that I can say?" Yuri asked with an over-done shrug. "The
Blacks
have much oil. It gives them much power. Things happen. Now there are more and more bodies in river every day. I do what I can, but this girl is special. The queen black, she hates this girl. Is only safe right here."

"Maybe he's right..." Neil began.

Sadie cut right across him, "No. I can't stay here, not with Ram like this. I can’t, it hurts too much. And besides I don't want to stay on this boat." For a brief second she held her hand at waste height. Neil nodded his understanding.

"Let her go," he said to the Russian.

When Yuri left to get the keys to her shackle, Sadie moved as close to Neil as she could. The crowds were beginning to trickle back to see the final outcome. In a whisper she asked, "What do I do?"

Neil's face was
puffy and red and in the dim light he barely seemed himself. He tried to smile and it was achingly sad for Sadie. "Run,” he said. “God gave you beautiful, fast legs. Use them! Find Jillybean and make a run for it."

"What about Sarah and Eve?"
she asked. Her voice then dropped an octave, "What about you?"

"I think it's best if you forget about me," he said. "And Sarah, if she's with the colonel. And Eve, too."

Sadie couldn't believe this. "You want me to just give up. Look what they did to Ram for Christ's sake!"

Neil didn't look at the beast that was swinging its strong arms just inches away. "What do you think I'm trying to keep from happening
to you? I don't want you to end up like him, and I definitely don't want you to end up like me. You heard what Cassie has in mind for me. She's going to skin me alive and probably hang me out..."

"Stop!" Sadie whispered harshly. Her face felt hot except where newly formed tears ran streaks down her cheeks. "Don't say that, please."

"Then listen to me," Neil pleaded. "You don't have a chance to save Sarah or Eve, or anyone. From what I've overheard, the colonel brought at least thirty men with him, and he's not even the strongest faction. Cassie probably has more, while Abraham is the leader of a bunch of religious fanatics. They think he comes from God! They may be the most dangerous of all. And what do you have? The
Whites
? All they have to defend you is moral outrage. The truth is, you're all alone. Yes, you're smart and brave and fast as the wind, but it's just you against a whole boat load of people. Take Jillybean and run."

Before she could say anything, the Russian returned, waving to the eager crowd who cheered him. "Here is proof that my vaccine will save you! Look at little man. Him, healthy. Vaccine save him. But not big man. Now we begin. Tonight! First come
for vaccine, first serve. We will open the docks for unloading in five minutes."

Many in the crowd rushed away; Sadie guessed they were people who didn't belong to one of the factions. The Russian dropped his cheerful demeanor and, walking in a wide circle around Ram, said, "I have keys, but I think it is waste. Are you sure you want to be free?"

"Yeah," Sadie replied. The second she was released she ran to Neil and hugged him fiercely and didn't want to let go, ever.

After a few seconds, Neil took a deep breath and pushed her away. "You have to be quick, now. If Yuri is correct..."

"I am," the Russian said.

"Then it won't be long before someone is after you."

"Your warning comes too late," Yuri said. He pointed to where his guards and the faction guards were standing. There had been two members of the
Blacks
off to themselves. Now there was only one.

Neil's eyes bugged. He shoved her. "Go. If Sarah is with the
Whites
, then take her and make a run for it. If not..."

Sadie understood. Despite a growing alarm that had her stomach churning she hugged Neil one last time and then turned to the crowd. They ranged before
her, filling her vision from left to right, a dense thicket of humanity unbroken by the slimmest path between.

They watched her with curious eyes and with hating eyes and with greedy eyes
, and a few with sad eyes. All these eyes beguiled her and she lost her wits, forgetting how close real danger actually lurked.

Ram grabbed her.

By accident she had taken one step too close and now his hand was like a vice on her wrist. Even in death he was exceedingly strong. Slowly he dragged her closer to his gaping mouth.

"
Nyet!" Yuri cried. "Nyet. Stop!" Bravely he waved his hand in front of Ram's face. Mindless now, Ram turned to attack the closer flesh and let go of Sadie, who, shaking all up and down her body, took only a single step back.

"Get out of here!" Neil cried, also trying to distract Ram.

Sadie turned to go. People blocked her way. Some stepped back remembering old manners, while others tried to edge closer almost eagerly. These she ran from, pushing roughly through the crowd. Saying over and over, "Excuse me, excuse me."

Someone called her name, but in the crush she couldn't tell who it was. Everyone seemed a villain. She was jostled and knocked; a hand grabbed a hold of her coat from behind. It was a black man
—one of Cassie's men—he was recognizable by his yellowed, jaundiced eyes and his particular anger which he wore as a mask over his handsome features.

He had Sadie's coat in one hand and in the other was a jagged flash of bright silver. The one hand on her coat pulled her close, attempting to impale her on the barely hidden knife.

With a shrug, Sadie let her coat slide from her shoulders and the man was left holding nothing but cloth as she sprinted away. Using every bit of her speed she ducked and dodged through the crowd. When she had almost made it to the end of the boat, and perhaps to safety, another man grabbed her hand.

He was a white man and, for a brief second, Sadie mistook his skin color to represent some sort of haven or safety. But his grip was crushing and his lip curled.

"What are you doing?" she asked in confusion as he began to pull her back toward the man with the knife, who was even then fighting through the crowd to get at her.

"Sorry," he said, clearly not meaning it. "But money is money, even if it is oil."

Desperately, she yanked back, her arm extended. There were cries and yells all around, but no one helped. They only retreated so as not to get caught up in someone else's business. One woman was too slow; she flinched and made a face, but otherwise stood her ground. Sadie reversed her pull and went straight at her. With her arm and the arm of her attacker stretched, they struck the woman across the midsection—the woman went berserk in fear. Like a feral cat she scratched and bit to break the connected hands.

In seconds Sadie was free once again and running. She made it to the front of the boat which she found packed with people. Some were hurrying away to have their goods registered
, others were coming to see the freshly made zombie. Others were coming to collect a bounty.

"She's right there," a woman screeched, pointing.

Instinctively Sadie dodged to the right, away from the woman, and up a flight of stairs toward the passenger deck of the boat. Halfway up a blur of silver caught the moonlight as it passed within inches. It clanged against the railing to drop on the stair in front of her. Without losing a step, Sadie scooped it up—it was a hunk of scrap metal that had been honed to razor sharpness.

It was not balanced for throwing, which was likely why it missed her, yet she didn't hesitate to throw it herself. The black man with the yellow eyes was on the stairs behind her. One on one she knew she would lose against him, which meant she had to keep her distance, she had to evade.
At the top of the stairs she turned and very deliberately hurled the knife end over end at the charging man.

Even in the dark he saw it coming straight at his face. He threw himself to the side and the knife whizzed harmlessly past. When he looked up again, Sadie was out of sight.

She was small and speedy. Running crouched, she slipped through the upper deck crowd, most of whom could not possibly know she had been freed. Most...

As she slipped by the door to the pilot house it swung open and before she could leap away a man with hard brown eyes and
deep brown skin slapped a hand across her mouth from behind and brought up one of the steel shanks to her eye. In a single fluid move he slipped her into the darkened room and shut the door behind her.