Zombie D.O.A. (57 page)

“These dumb asses will never figure it out.”

The noise of the Humvees was louder now and it had attracted the attention of the Zs. Some of them had already started to move in the direction of the sound. Suddenly a heavy machine gun opened up and those still at the window charged off into the darkness. We walked quickly towards the rotating door, slipped through and walked away from the building without even having to break into a run.

“We need to find a place to hole up until daybreak,” Joe said. “We stand a much better chance if we can see the fuckers coming. Shit, what am I saying? You probably know better than me.”

“No, your town, you lead.”

“Okay then. You a golfer?”

“What?”

“Do you play golf?”

“What’s that got to do with…”

“Neither do the Zs. Let’s head for the course.”

We spent the night sleeping in a bunker on a golf course, with the profiles of the skyscrapers we’d just left behind looming over us. A few times during the night I heard gunshots and once a helicopter passed overhead, but other than that it was the best sleep I’d had in a long while.

“Fore!”

I woke with a start, crawled towards the edge of the bunker and peered over. The man approaching me was wearing a pair of plaid pants, a striped polo shirt and an argyle-patterned sleeveless sweater. He was swinging a club and whistling to himself, and it took me a while to recognize Joe Thursday.

“Mornin,” Joe said cheerily, “Thought I’d get in a few holes before breakfast. Oh, and I stopped off at the club shop.”

“I can see that,” I said. “You look like an explosion in a paint factory.”

“Really?” he said with a mock pained expression on his face, “Well, perhaps the sweater is a bit much.”  He pulled it over his head and tossed it aside, then was suddenly more serious. “We need to talk about what needs doing.”

“Are we safe here? Shouldn’t we get moving?”

“Safe as anywhere, and we need a plan before we go rushing off.”

“And I’m assuming you have a plan.”

“I
had
a plan. A plan I’ve been working on for the last fifteen months. Get the right people on board, stage a bloodless coup, ease Knox into retirement, give Rolly the heave-ho, and then start getting the Corporation back on track, creating safe communities for people to live in, trying to find a long-term solution to the Z situation.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Problem is it won’t work. Not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because Rolly’s probably cleaning house as we speak. Clearing out my people, getting his own people in place.“

“So we’re basically fucked.”

“Not by a long shot. As Mother Thursday, used to say, ‘when life throws you a lemon, toss it right back, and put some stank on it’. All the situation calls for is a change in focus.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know the people Rolly is likely to promote. They’re a bunch of incompetent assholes, just like him. And I know Rolly, he’s not going to go for a gentle transition. Most of the military commanders and quite a few of the board members are likely being shuttled to the Pendleton Hilton as we speak.  They’ll be in disarray. So while a bloodless coup may no longer be an option, a short and bloody coup most definitely is. This is the perfect time to hit them.”

“The Pendleton Hilton? I heard Rolly mention that yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s his pet name for the little torture camp he’s put together on the base. Just one of his many amusements.”

“One other question Joe, you say now is the perfect time to hit them. How are we going to do that with just the two of us, a couple of M-16 carbines and 30 rounds?”

“Ah, I was just getting to that. You see that’s where Joe Thursday’s cunning plan for world domination falls short. You wouldn’t happen to know of anyone with some heavy hardware to spare and a beef with the Corporation would you?”

“As a matter of fact I do.”             

Joe looked at me with a grin on his face before suddenly realizing that I was being serious. “You’re shitting me right?”

“Think you can get us to Yorba Linda?”

“You’re not shitting me. Yorba Linda, you say. On foot, through Z Central, with the Corporation trying to hunt us down?  Piece of cake!”

The best way to get through a Z infested city is to use the freeway system. Actually, scratch that, the best way to get through a Z infested city is in an Abrams tank but, as we didn’t have one of those handy, the freeway system was going to have to do.

We worked our way to the Santa Monica Freeway, eight lanes of blacktop now jam-packed with bumper-to-bumper vehicles baking in the mid-morning sun. We’d seen a few Zs getting there but mostly we had avoided them, conserving our ammo and trying not to attract attention. The one Z that had gotten a bit too friendly had earned a face full of Callaway putter from Joe.

“We’ll keep working east,” Joe said, “Join up with the Santa Ana Freeway and Interstate 5, that will get us in the vicinity.”

“Sounds like one hell of a walk.”

“It is, but we won’t be walking all the way. I got a plan.”

“Which is?”

“Just a little something, I have in mind.” Joe said and I left it at that.

I’d been wanting to ask Joe for more information about Ruby, and with the long walk ahead, and no Zs in the immediate vicinity I took the chance.

“What you said last night about me being prepared to let Ruby go, what did you mean by that?”

Joe walked for a while before answering, “You ever see that movie, Rain Man?”

“Yeah, not my kind of movie, but Rosie rented it one time. Tom Cruise wasn’t it?”

“Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Do you remember the end?”

“I don’t think I made it that far,” I laughed,  “Think I dozed off, I remember Rosie was pissed.”

“Well, I’ll give you the abridged version,” Joe said. “Basically Tom Cruise kidnaps his autistic brother, Dustin Hoffman from an institution, they go on a road trip and get up to a lot of shit, including making a shit load of money counting cards in Vegas. In the end though, Tom realizes that he’s not equipped to take care of Dustin. So he sends him back to the people who can. It’s a real fucking tearjerker I can tell you.”

“So what you’re saying is, I won’t be able to care for Ruby and I should leave it to the people who can.”

“In a nutshell. Look, I know your heart is in the right place on this. I’d be thinking along the same lines in your position. But Ruby has special needs and, I’m not going to bullshit you here Chris, she’s dangerous.“

“Dangerous how?”

“You saw the little show with Justin yesterday.”

Yeah, but taken out of that environment, Joe. Without people handling her, without them making her to use her powers.”

“Nobody can make Ruby to use her powers.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Do you know why they use Justin for field exercises and not Ruby? Because Justin is stable. He can turn on and off at will, as easily as operating a tap or turning on a light switch. Ruby is different, unpredictable.”

“How do you mean unpredictable?”

“Ruby switches it on when she’s under emotional stress. There’s been a few minor instances in the last three years, and one major one, when Rolly Pendragon tried to have Dr. Gish removed as her caregiver.”

“What happened?”

“She hurt some people, Chris.”

“People? Not Zs?”

“People.”

“But still, Joe…”

“Can you imagine what will happen if you have to scold her, Chris? Can you imagine what will happen when she goes through hormonal changes in adolescence, when she starts having her period? 

“So who would look after Ruby? If not me?”

“We would Chris, the corporation. Dr Gish specifically.”

“Because you’ve done such a great job so far you mean, using these kids like they were loaded weapons.”

“That’s not fair, Chris. Dr. Gish is a good woman. You don’t know how many times she’s gone up against Rolly to protect these kids. If it wasn’t for her they’d probably all be burnt out by now, like Fiona.”

“I wanted to ask you about that, Rolly mentioned the name yesterday.”

“Just one in a long list of Rolly’s fuckups. He pushed the kid too hard despite Dr. Gish’s warnings. A few months ago during an exercise Fiona just collapsed, curled herself into a ball and started sucking her thumb. She’s been that way ever since. Excuse me Chris.”

Joe pushed me aside as a Z came charging up behind us between the rows of cars. He waited till the Z was almost on us then opened a car door. The man crashed into the door and Joe instantly grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, pushed him inside and closed the door after him. “Get out of that, dumb ass,” Joe said as the Z vented his fury at the inside of the car window.

I’ve never seen anyone move as quickly as Joe Thursday, except maybe for Virgil Pratt drawing his silver plated six-shooter.

“Where was I?” Joe said. “Oh yeah, Dr. Gish. She was a highly respected child psychologist before all this went down, you know. And she has a special bond with Ruby. You’ll understand that when you see them together.”

“I’m glad that Ruby has someone who cares for her,” I said, but I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy, that someone else had a bond with my daughter that I would likely never have.

“It goes beyond caring, amigo. Dr. Gish is the only one who can see past these kid’s special abilities. She relates to them as kids, not as assets, which is how the likes of Rolly Pendragon view them.”

“What are these special abilities, Joe? Does anyone know?”

“We’re not sure. We think it may have something to do with the frequency that Zs transmit when they’re in a group, you know that crazy humming…”

“You hear that too, I thought it was just me.”

“No, it’s very real. We think these kids somehow have the ability to disrupt the frequency and turn the Zs on each other.”

“But where does that ability come from? Does it have anything to do with Ruby’s…with the conditions of her birth?

“We don’t know Chris. We know very little of Justin or Fiona’s medical history, so we have nothing to draw any conclusions from.”   

“But...”

“Aw Christ, here we go.”

For a moment I thought Joe was talking to me, but then I saw the black helicopter come into view at the side of the highway. It hovered for a while and then swung around so that its guns were trained directly on us.

“Mr. Thursday,” a voice boomed out from the chopper, “I’ve been instructed by Mr. Pendragon to bring you to Pendleton immediately. I’m going to have to ask you to put down you weapons and lay down on the ground.”