World Memorial (16 page)

"You like touching kids, lady?"

"I gave them a gift, Parker. I knew what my sister planned and I knew I only had a few years before it started. So I made thousands of children all over the world immune. My sister's walking corpses can't hurt them."

Park stared at the snow moving under his feet. A realization hit him. "Wait, so Dalton..."

"Yes," said Beulah. "Dalton is one of my chosen. He can be bitten and survive. They all can. And not only that, I intensified the power within them. The life energy."

"So what," said Park, "they repopulate the earth or some shit?"

"Oh no," said Beulah. "Remember the life energy, Parker?"

"Oh yeah, I'm taking notes and shit."

"All over the world, these children are gathering. And when they are ready, I'm going to release all that energy at once."

Park stopped walking. He heard Beulah stop behind him.

He turned and looked her right in the eyes. She smiled. Park hated her for it. "What exactly are you talking about?"

Beulah chuckled. "I'm talking about saving the world, Parker."

Park looked at her for a few seconds more.

"Your children died, didn't they, Parker? They died for no purpose. Their death had no result. Except of course the result of breaking your heart."

"Just shut up," said Park. He turned and kept walking, wishing he could get away from her.

"All of these children will die for a purpose, Parker. Their deaths will set things right."

Park was silent. He kept walking.

Beulah followed after. "Tell me you wouldn't like to see it. See Angela Land's son die just like your children did. See the untouchable Lands go down. It would be justice."

"I guess those Bible shitheads are yours, too," said Park.

"Oh heavens, no. They think they are following their god. Jesus, I think, is his name. They are actually acting under my sister's influence. She has given them visions of the special children. Told them all manner of lies. She's using them as a way to get around the children's immunity."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The children are safe from the corpses, Parker, but not from other humans. She has flocks like them all over the world, trying to get to the children before the allotted time. If she gets enough of them, the effect of the sacrifice will be weakened and I can't guarantee it would work."

"Wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"No we would not," said Beulah. "The children must be sacrificed all at once, all over the world. They are gathering for it. In towns and compounds, much like the one Angela Land has put together."

"So Angie's part of your bullshit plan?"

"Yes, she has been. She doesn't realize it of course. She was very useful in making a place for all the children in this region to go. But I can't trust her, especially if one of the chosen is her own son. She may try to interfere."

Park laughed. "You have no fucking idea."

"Truthfully, I expected both her and her daughter to die that first night. I thought only Dalton would make it. But she lived and has proven very effective. Her time is drawing to an end. I have someone in mind to take over. Someone who will let the sacrifice take place."

"Please say it's not me."

"No, Parker. That is not your role. Your role is to kill Angela."

"To get her out of the way?"

"Indeed."

"Then what?"

Park could almost hear her shrug behind him. "Then you're free to do what you like."

"What I would like to do is finally fucking end myself."

Beulah was silent behind him for several moments. "Well then, I guess you know what you have to do to get there."

* * *

Maylee and Walsh walked along, keeping their eyes on Zach's footprints. The wind whistled among the dead branches around them, not yet strong enough to be concerned about.

"The footprints are good and fresh," she said. "We should catch up to him in no time."

"Yes, ma'am," said Walsh next to her.

"You don't need to call me ma'am, Walsh. I'm like two years older than you are."

"You're in charge, though."

"Quit reminding me," she said, shaking her head and chuckling.

For a few minutes they walked along in silence, their boots crunching in the snow as they worked their way through the trees. Zach's footprints snaked along in front of them.

Maylee rounded a tree and came to a small clearing. An old, rotten barn stood there, whatever farm it had belonged to long overgrown. Zach's footprints ran right up to it. Whether they stopped there, Maylee couldn't tell.

A sound came from inside the barn. Something scraping against something else.

"You hear that?" said Maylee.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Quit saying that."

"Whatever you say, ma'am."

They stepped across the clearing until they reached the barn. The wood was old and rotten, and Maylee wondered how long it had been there.

The noise came again. A snort. Something like a whimper.

"Zach?" said Maylee. She and Walsh stood quiet, listening. No response.

"Come on," said Maylee. She and Walsh stepped inside the barn.

A horse stood there, tied to an old wooden beam. The horse was emaciated, almost skeletal, but alive. It strained against the rope, trying to reach them. It snorted and grunted, its eyes full of hatred.

"How long has it been tied here like this?" said Walsh, stepping off to one side to look deeper into the barn.

"Few months, maybe," said Maylee, watching the skeletal horse strain against the rope. "Someone probably kept feeding it for as long as they could. Stupid." She thought of what Mom had told her about Old West and his dog. She wondered why people like him couldn't let go.

Then she wondered why she found it so easy.

"I'm guessing that was the guy," said Walsh, stepping back to where Maylee stood and pointing. She followed his finger and saw a dead man draped over the back of the horse. The shadows had hidden him when she first walked in. He'd been a fat man, and was now a bloated gray corpse. He wore faded overalls embroidered with “E. Lowther.”

"Wow," said Maylee. "He was devoted to that horse. Wonder where his house was..."

The horse snorted and stomped its hooves into the frozen ground. It strained violently against the rope. The sudden movement startled Maylee and she jerked back. Walsh chuckled at her.

"Laugh it up, Walsh," said Maylee. She glanced around the barn. "Zach? You in here?"

The horse tried to leap at them, jerking violently. The movement flung the body from the horse's back. It flew across the barn and slammed into Walsh. Maylee laughed as he and the body rolled out into the clearing. Walsh was laughing as they came to a stop. The body was atop him. "Give me a hand, Maylee!"

"Finally," said Maylee, still laughing. Then she saw the body start to move on its own. The corpse hadn't been dead. It just hadn't noticed them yet.

"Shit!" she yelled, rushing toward him. "Walsh!"

The bloated man groaned and leaned down to Walsh's head. Walsh screamed as the corpse bit into his scalp.

"Fuck!" yelled Maylee. "No!" she ran to one side, swinging her bat like a golf club and knocking the corpse off Walsh. The corpse fell to its back, groaning and chewing on the hunk of skin and hair it had pulled free. The horse huffed and strained against its bonds.

Maylee screamed, bringing her bat up and slamming down into the corpse's face. It split open, shooting thick dark glop out across the ground, and then it was still.

"
Fucker
!" Maylee spat down at the thing. Then she turned to look at Walsh. Just in time to hear the shot. Walsh jerked and dropped his rifle. He'd turned it on himself, firing into his left eye.

Maylee stared at him, the shot ringing in her ears. Her throat felt tight. "Dammit, Walsh. Dammit, I'm sorry."

She stepped over to his body, then spun as she heard wood crack. The beam that had been holding the horse in place split in two, sending splinters across the interior of the barn.

The horse raced out into the snow, trailing the rope and splintered wood behind it. The barn collapsed inward as beams crashed to the ground. The horse snorted and huffed, its skeletal ribs vibrating as it ran. It was too close to run from. Maylee readied her bat and braced herself.

A shot rang out and the horse stumbled. Maylee stepped aside as the horse passed her,  too startled by the shot to swing. She looked around the trees. The horse stumbled in the snow, trying to right itself.

A second shot came from the trees. The horse staggered, blood trailing across the snow. Then it fell, kicked at the snow, and was still.

Maylee stood there, her chest pounding. She stared down at the horse, its wounds slowly seeping into the snow. She looked in all directions as quickly as she could. Where had the shot come from?

"Who's there?" she yelled.

She heard footsteps. She spun in that direction. She could only see trees and snow. She held her bat in front of her as the steps grew closer. Just because someone shot an attacker did not make them a friend. Maylee could think of lots of reasons a lone survivor would save a young girl. She liked few of them.

"I said who's fucking there?" she yelled, hoping her voice sounded more forceful than scared.

A shape emerged, somewhat shorter than Walsh. It had a hood over its head, a scarf wrapped around its face, and a rifle over its shoulder.

Maylee pointed the bat at the stranger. "That's close enough."

The stranger stared laughing. The muffled voice sounded familiar.

Maylee kept the bat pointed outward. "What the fuck is so funny?"

The stranger shook its head and unwrapped the scarf. It pulled back the hood.

It was Dalton.

"Shit Maylee," he said, chuckling. "You were going to fight a gun with a bat?"

"What the fuck?" said Maylee. She lowered the bat and stepped over to Dalton. She hauled back and punched him across the cheek.

He fell back, clutching his cheek and looking shocked. "What the hell?"

"No, I said what the fuck!" said Maylee. She stepped up and shoved him back further. He stumbled back in the snow.

"Hey hey hey!" he yelled. "I saved your ass!"

Maylee shook her head at him and stepped back, knocking her bat against the ground. It sent up little puffs of snow. "You've ruined me, Dalton. You think Mom will trust me again? She'll have a fit. And that's just what we need. A big old argument with that fucking vulture Elton watching, waiting to take over."

"Hey now," said Dalton, wiggling his shoulder up and down to indicate the rifle over it. "I can handle myself okay."

"You're too young, Dalton."

"I'm almost the same age as Walsh..." Dalton trailed off, his gaze falling on Walsh's body.

Maylee slammed her bat into a tree. The tree shook with impact, snow falling from the dead branches overhead. The nails thudded into the wood and held the bat there. Maylee let go, pointing at Walsh. "He was too young!
I
was too young!"

"But you—"

"I do it because I
have
to. Don't you fucking get it?" She stomped up to him, straining not to punch him again. "I had to or we would have died all those years ago. No one said you had to. No one's fucking asking you to! You're my fucking brother Dalton. And
I
protect
you
!"

“I'm sick of being protected!" he screamed back, stepping closer. His voice echoed around the trees. "We run from place to place and you or Mom protects me! When do I get to accomplish something? Anything?"

Maylee rolled her eyes. "You spoiled little..."

Dalton ignored her. He pulled off his glove and wrenched back the sleeve of his coat to reveal a scarred-over bite mark, the one he had received years ago in Ashton Memorial Zoo. "When this happened..." He paused to shake the forearm at her. "When this happened, and I survived, I thought
finally
.
Finally
I'll be good for something other than just this thing that needs to be kept safe. But no. Nothing. No cure. No anything. Just another way I'm fucking special and protected."

Maylee kept quiet, glaring at him.

"And then..." Dalton continued, pulling his sleeve back over his arm. "And then the other kids show up. And they're like me! They have the same...whatever the hell it is. And one of them seems to know something about it. And you expect me to not help find him? You expect me to just sit back in the town and wait until the next thing that has to be done for special me? Fuck that and fuck you, Maylee!"

They both stood, panting at each other. Snow fell lightly around them. Groans sounded, but not close enough to worry about.

Maylee stepped over to the tree and wrenched the bat free. She stared at him for several moments, then swung the bat over her head and slid it into the strap that held it in place.

"If we go back now it would take me the rest of the day just to get back here. So stay behind me and don't fuck anything up."

"Fine," said Dalton, glaring back at her.

"And I'm not covering for your stupid ass," she said, tightening the strap across her chest.

"Whatever."

"Whatever," said Maylee, mocking his tone. She looked and found Zach's footprints, running past the barn and deeper into the woods. "Just try to keep up."

"Well fuck me," said Park, rounding the last tree and stepping into a clearing. He stared across it.

"You say that a lot," said Beulah as she stepped up behind him.

"I suits a lot of purposes," said Park, keeping his eyes focused across the clearing.

Across the way, past what looked like a frozen lake, was some sort of town. Makeshift walls rose tall around it, looking like they had been nailed together from whatever had been handy. Beyond the wall he could make out the tops of various structures and vehicles. Campers and sheds, all packed together so closely Park wondered how they'd done it. He realized he’d seen bits of this place in his dreams. A sheet of metal here, a battered trailer there. Suddenly the backdrop of his dreams made sense.