Zombies and Shit (32 page)

Over the course of a few years, Heinz collected followers among the wretched starving youths of the Fifth Reich. He inspired them to hold their heads up high, to work hard, and believe in the future of the Aryan race. Eventually, his men were practically running the ship. They were the strongest, most skilled members of the Aryan population. They were organized and little by little they improved the living conditions of their brothers.

“I’m taking over the ship,” Heinz said to the Captain of the Fifth Reich.

The Captain looked at Heinz. No longer was Heinz a teenaged kid, he was now a fully-grown man and a leader. Behind Heinz, stood a row of his soldiers, armed with shotguns. The Captain stood up from his desk and removed his hat.

“I’m grateful to have you on board,” said the Captain. “You have helped discipline and motivate the men. I haven’t seen the ship run so smoothly in over a decade.”

“So you will relinquish your command?” Heinz asked.

“No,” said the Captain.

Heinz nodded at his lieutenant. Then all of his men pumped their shotguns and pointed them at the Captain.

“I beg of you, Heinz,” said the Captain. “Our people need food, not war. You don’t yet have the experience to run this ship. I’d like you to become my second in command. You can learn the ropes, see what it means to be the leader of this ship before you sit in the Captain’s chair. Then you will understand where I’m coming from.”

The Captain held out his hand in friendship.

“You are weak,” Heinz told the old man. “I would never serve under such a pathetic coward. It is your weakness that allowed this ship to fall into disrepair. It is because of you that your people have fallen into such a pitiable state.”

“And you think you can do better?” asked the Captain. “You think you can reshape these people into the Fists of the Fifth Reich?”

“No,” Heinz said. “That army died a long time ago. We are now the Hammers of the Fifth Reich. And within five years time, I promise the island of Neo New York will be ours.”

Then Heinz turned his back on the old man.

“Don’t listen to him,” said the Captain. “If you attack Neo New York you will fail. They have superior weapons and a larger military force. If you follow this man you will die.”

As Heinz left the room, his men closed in on the ex-Captain. After the chorus of shotgun blasts, Heinz placed the Captain’s hat on his scalp. Marching down the hallway with his head held high, whistling Wagner’s
Das Rheingold
—
the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla
.

Heinz takes the girls from office to office, trying to find another way out.

Gogo twitches and holds her stomach as she walks. Popcorn wraps her arm around her shoulder, trying to hold her upright so that the nazi doesn’t realize she’s infected.

“Are you okay?” Popcorn whispers.

“Hungry,” Gogo responds, looking over her shoulder at Heinz. She widens her mouth at him, imagining what it would be like to suck on his fat moist brain.

Although Popcorn never hungers for food, Gogo couldn’t be more different. Gogo is indulgent. She is always hungry for food, drugs, and sex. The three are inseparable to her. She finds the act of eating erotic and sensual. Gogo’s voluptuous body is as close as any citizen of Copper comes to being fat. Not many people have the money to gorge themselves in the poor quadrant. But with the money she takes in as a stripper and prostitute, Gogo has enough to indulge on rich, greasy foods whenever she wants. She is always either fucking or eating or doing Waste.

Unlike Popcorn, Gogo wants to eat brains. She craves to taste a piece of Heinz’s brain. She craves to lay her body in a bed of brains. She craves to lick, suck, and fuck brains all day long.

When she rolls her tongue out of her mouth at Heinz and sucks on the tips of her fingers, Heinz believes the slut is just trying to seduce him into letting his guard down. He has no idea what depraved thoughts are going through her head at the moment. Popcorn yanks her friend forward, trying to get her eyes off of the nazi. If Heinz catches on that the two of them are undead he will surely incinerate them as he did to Brick.

After searching the entire floor, it seems as if the stairwell is the only way out. They either need to barricade the collapsing door or figure out a way to fight through the undead.

“So what are we going to do?” Popcorn asks.

“We fight our way through,” Heinz says.

Within five years, Heinz had turned the Aryans of the Fifth Reich into a lean fighting force. Overpopulation had been the problem under the previous Captains’ reigns, but Heinz solved that by starting the Population Control Program. His men exterminated all Aryans who proved too weak or too useless to join the Hammers of the Fifth Reich. They also exterminated anyone who disapproved of their methods or seemed disloyal to the commander in chief. He executed many of the breeding slaves, stating that they would have plenty of new breeding slaves after they took Neo New York. It was not the time to raise children. It was the time they answered their calling and finally took what was rightfully theirs.

When he tried to send word to his father in Platinum, Heinz learned that his father had died a few years back. Then he tried to get in contact with other operatives who had infiltrated the island, but the majority of them were no longer supportive of the Fifth Reich. They had become fat and lazy, content with the luxurious lifestyle of Neo New York. They cared more of their own happiness than that of their brothers. They had been dominated by lesser races for so long that it no longer bothered them.

This setback was not enough to dissuade Heinz from his mission. He directed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier for Neo New York and went into battle.

“Mein Fuhrer?” said a young soldier to Heinz.

Heinz stopped marching and turned to his soldier. The boy was only twelve-years-old, but he wore his uniform with pride, holding his rifle tightly to his shoulder, standing in line with troops twice his age. Under Heinz’s command, children had to pull their weight just as much as the adults. Those who could not pull their weight were put to death. He wasn’t willing to waste precious food and water on children who could not work or fight. His men could always make more children later, once they had achieved their goal.

As Heinz looked down on the child soldier, the boy smiled up at him. He was so excited to fight for their cause.

“Yes, soldier?” said Heinz, annoyed that the boy spoke without first asking permission.

“Are we really going to win?” asked the boy. “Are we actually going to live on the island and have all the food we can eat?”

Heinz placed his hand on the child’s soldier and smiled.

“Lieutenant?” Heinz asked the man standing by his side.

“Sir?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Have this soldier shot,” Heinz said, his smile turning to a frown. “I don’t need men who lack faith in our strength. A true Aryan would know that our victory is ensured.”

The boy’s face deflated beneath his leader, tears filling his eyes. The boy cried out as the Lieutenant grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the line. He cried not because his life was about to end, but because he disappointed his leader.

As the gun was fired and the body fell into the sea, Heinz marched down the line to find any other weak-willed soldiers that had to be weeded out. Such men did not deserve the honor of battle.

“We cannot possibly fail,” Heinz told himself, over and over again.

Heinz directs the two women to lead the way down the stairwell. The three of them face the door as its metal frame bends inward.

“How are we supposed to fight them with these?” Popcorn asks, holding up a chair.

Heinz wasn’t about to hand over any of his weapons to the girls, so he gave them each a chair to fight the living dead with.

“All you have to do is shove them back,” Heinz said. “If any of them get past you I will take them down.”

Gogo leans against her chair, eying the nazi’s body up and down. The hunger builds stronger in her by the second. She’s finding the man completely irresistible. Her mouth fills with drool. She’s dying to sink her teeth into his moist fleshy brain.

“You know how fucking strong those things are?” Popcorn asks. “Especially when there’s so many of them.”

“You have no choice,” Heinz says. “You do what I say or you will die.”

Popcorn groans at him and points her chair at the door.

“Fine,” she says. “Let’s get this over with.”

Heinz gets behind the two girls, pointing the submachine gun at their backs.

“Open it,” he says.