Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 (42 page)

“Get in line,” Liam responded. “She's pretty
much the top person responsible for giving us the zombies.”

“I almost can't believe that. I was with her in Cairo. I've
seen her operate. She's smart and seems full of herself, but
destroying the world? I always thought it would be a man in a big
chair with a white cat.”

“I've been trying to figure this out,” Liam explained,
“because I promised the dead fiancé of that maniac I would find
out whoever was responsible and make sure the world knows who to
blame. Does this ship have recording equipment?”

Bill, working the controls of the ship, nodded.

“Then we have the evidence we need. If we get this to
someone in charge, we can—”

“There is no one in charge,” he replied to Liam. “The
government has been pared down below the critical mass needed to keep
things operational. Yes, there are military units still fighting
along with the convoy, but I'll be damned if I can find anyone higher
than me in the chain of command. And look at me—a two-star
general piloting a barge. That's the extent of my authority.”

The three kids gave him serious looks.

“One thing at a time. First, we save the ship. Then, we get
that bitch—”

“She's my mom,” Debbie said vacantly.

He paused to consider the poor girl's situation.

“I'm sorry your mom is the queen of all bitches.”

Debbie gave him the faintest of smiles in return.

2

Bill the pilot had the barge moving at what John thought was a
high rate of speed. The water was fairly calm, but swirled in muddy
eddies all the way across. The dull green superstructure of the
bridge towered above them and the shadow of the highway soon eclipsed
the sun. They were heading for a gap in the fleet of parked barges.
Apparently, the towboat operators frowned on parking barges near the
bridge pylons. That gave them all the room they needed.

“You're gonna feel a jolt,” Bill warned. “Brace
yourselves.”

Ten seconds later they all leaned forward as the front of the
barge ahead of them ran part-way up onto the riverbank underneath the
bridge. Bill gunned the engines then throttled back. The towboat
drifted with the current, but he increased the propeller speed. He
used the powerful engine to push against the current. As long as they
kept at it, they could hold the barge partially on the shore.

“With a little luck, we can pull her back off.”

Luck. Yes. An ICBM's-worth of luck.

“What do we do now?” Liam asked.

“You guys go back down into the hold. Make sure those SS
guys knows what we're doing. Keep an eye on those snow birds,”
he said with a smile.

The two girls ran out right away, but he stopped Liam.

“Your grandma is still alive. I saw her this morning back in
Cairo.”

Liam stepped back in the room.

“Where?”

John pointed down and across the river to the point of land formed
where the Mississippi River and the Ohio river joined together. It
wasn't more than a mile away.

“I left her with Chloe, one of the few people I trust over
there. She'll get her to that point," he showed Liam the
southern tip of land where his people were waiting for him, "and
then they'll get out of Dodge. The zombies have taken the rest of the
town. Be quick.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Your grandma was very proud of you. I thought she was nuts
when she first told me about you. Going off into the wild. Getting
yourself in sticky situations like this one. But you did good. I had
a whole Army battalion behind me, and I couldn't pin Elsa down.”

“Well, we don't have her yet, but thanks to your recording
device we have the evidence we need.”

Liam gave him a thumbs up before taking off after the two girls.

“Bill, if you show me what to do, I can man this station
while you get below.”

“Pfft,” he huffed out. “You Army men are all the
same. Always want to be the heroes.” Bill gave him a harsh look
but cracked himself up before John could reply.

“Let me guess. Navy?” he said cheerfully to Bill.

“Yep, did a tour in 'Nam on the
America
. SAR,
mostly.”

“Well Bill, USN, we're about to see the might and fury of
United States Air Force.”

“So they're going to miss us by a whole state?”

They shared a laugh as the roof dropped in on them.

Liam's awareness returned, slowly.

His face was on well-manicured grass, which was odd because his
previous memory was running down the length of the industrial-metal
decking of a Mississippi River barge…

“What happened?” he asked himself.

While sitting up, he discovered Victoria. She was similarly
sprawled on the turf next to him but also stirring. Her black tank
top and faded jeans appeared fresh out of the washer. His “gifted”
black honey badger t-shirt had returned to just-bought condition as
well.

“Liam?”

“I'm right here.” He reached out and touched her hip
to let her know he was close.

The grass was bright green, as if lit by the sun, but when he
turned to the sky it was dark as night. Stars and constellations
graced the heavens from horizon to horizon around him. Only the
waterfall blocked his—

“A waterfall from space,” he said rhetorically.

“I'm not feeling right. I'm hallucinating,” she
answered.

“No, I think we both are.”

They helped each other so they could stand and properly take in
the view. The waterfall fell from the darkness above, which made him
realize something was affecting his perspectives. Stars above were
clear, like each one magnified when he looked at it, but if he saw
them from the corner of his eye they fell back among their peers.

“It's all real,” said a weak voice behind them.

Liam spun around, knowing it was Grandma.

“You're alive!” he shouted, followed a moment later
by, “I think.”

His excitement was tempered by the impossibility of everything
around him. They all hugged while Grandma sat on a stone bench at one
edge of the grassy patch, near a cliff overlooking an ocean. They
watched the green-tinted water light up with the ferocity of an
electrical storm. As far out as he could see, the water appeared
agitated under the surface.

“I'm so happy to see you,” Victoria said while they
held each other tightly.

“Grandma. That woman dug up—” his voice wavered,
“—Dad. Elsa infected him, like those soldiers we saw in
the mine. He attacked Mom.” It was all he could say before
getting too emotional.

The hug continued while Grandma spoke.

“Mercy, me. I'm so sorry you had to see that. Just remember,
it wasn't your dad. Jerry died a long time ago.”

Liam found himself impressed with her composure. Jerry was her
grandson, after all.

Finally, with one final squeeze, he stepped back. He and Victoria
took a seat on opposite sides of her, so they could all watch the
spectacle in the water.

“What is this place?” he asked, assuming she would
know. “Are we dead?”

“I don't think so,” Grandma replied. “This is
where Al has been taking me ever since the zombies arrived. He said
this was inside my own mind.” Her speech slowed as if she
didn't believe those final words. “Which means you two can't be
real.”

Liam protested. “We're real! I was running with Victoria,
and Debbie, when I...blacked out...I think. I'm not really sure. But
I'm not in your imagination,” he said with conviction.

“I remember the same thing. I was running with Liam when I
heard a loud banging noise, followed by blackness. I should be on the
barge.”

Grandma made a sound. An audible “hmm,” like she was
impressed.

“I don't know. Maybe this is real.”

“Where are you? I mean out there?” he asked.

“I'm in a truck in Cairo. I'm with Chloe. A sweet girl who
is a friend of the man protecting the town. I heard...a sound. Chloe
screamed. I think I hit my head.”

“A friend?” Liam spoke with disbelief. “Elsa
said she had an agent of hers bringing you to her. She was excited to
hurt you. She wanted to hurt all of us—our whole family—because
of Grandma Rose. She wants to be president of the country or
something.”

“Chloe isn't a spy,” she said, but Liam wasn't happy
to hear a wedge of doubt in those words.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes. No one seemed to know
what to say next. Liam certainly didn't. If they were dead, it was a
nice place to end up. If they were still alive, he couldn't imagine
what had brought them there.

“Does it always take this long when you come here?” he
asked her.

“No, usually Al is here guiding me. Or he takes me other
places, like that bridge from your book.”

He laughed gently. “I wish we were there. I'd like to go
into those books for real. Maybe if we're dead, that's what the
afterlife is all about? Experiencing the memories of others. We can
drop into story after story, forever.”

“I wouldn't want to drop into the books you read, Liam,”
Victoria said from the other end of the bench. “I've had enough
of zombies and scary stuff for the rest of my life.”

“Oh, they're not that bad. None of them really scared me.
They weren't real, you know. This is real.” He laughed. “Not
where we are now. I mean the world with barges and infected and
ICBM's.”

“ICBM's,” he and Victoria echoed the letters.

They both leaned forward to look at each other across from
Grandma. “The missile hit us. That's why we're dead,” he
said with the sound of “of course” in his tone.

“None of you are dead.” The voice sounded electronic
at first, but resolved into a man's voice. Like it was adjusting
itself.

They all got up.

2

“Al!”

“Great-Grandpa? You're real?”

“Hiya Marty,” the man said. “Hi Liam.”

“He's not really Al,” Grandma offered.

“No, it's a convenient form so that I can communicate with
you.”

“What do you look like, then?” Victoria chimed in.

Al smiled broadly. “You all love to ask questions.”

“You've been talking to my Grandma all this time and you
haven't shown her what you actually look like?”

He put on a brave face, but he was terrified inside. Dealing with
zombies was one thing, but interacting with ghosts was upping the
“OMG” factor.

“I can see there's no use in continuing until I explain what
I am.”

Liam nodded, as if that would force Al to continue down that line
of thinking.

“I will tell you, and show you, but first I want you to take
a short walk with me. Deal?”

Everyone agreed, but when he reached for Grandma to help her move,
she had already started. She didn't need a hand. Her back seemed
straighter, and thus she appeared taller. The hair remained white
like the snow, but her gait suggested a much younger woman.

They walked around the pond below the waterfall. It appeared as a
grotto of ferns, shrubbery, and exotic flowers. The water was clear
and deep, and he could see to the rocky white bottom below the
surface. A small creek flowed from the pond toward the cliff near the
ocean.

“I've explained this all to Marty. This waterfall is a
representation of how she sees my computer network. All the planets
are linked on the waterfall like computers on the internet. Some
stations are lit up, and some are dark. It all depends on a few
factors I'll get to in a moment.”

"A computer system?" Marty asked quizzically. "This
isn't outer space?"

"You'll see," Al assured her.

Liam was dizzy looking up at the tumbling water. He recalled a
photo of Angel Falls in one of his school textbooks and imagined this
was higher and wider than that one, but without any frame of
reference to compare and contrast, he had no way to know. As they
rounded the pool and approached the falling water, it became obvious
the water was frozen—not moving.

“The water is moving, Liam. But it moves at Galactic Time,
which is different than how you experience time.”

“It's amazing,” Victoria said, sharing his sense of
wonder. She held his hand while pointing to everything, like a kid at
the zoo. “Are we moving fast or does Galactic Time move
slower?”

“GT moves at a glacial pace compared to how you experience
time. It has to so that I can manage everything that
needs...managing. I'm not all-powerful, you know,” he said
while smiling at her.

“So what are you?” she countered.

“That's coming. Just a little bit farther.”

He led them to the edge of the waterfall. A rocky face sat off to
the right side, and an inset door was apparently their destination.

“I've been in there,” Grandma said, possibly to calm
everyone.

“Indeed, my dear woman. You have. She helped save you kids
when you were sucked under that debris a couple of weeks ago. Did she
ever tell you that?”

“No,” Liam said with understanding. “But I
always wondered how that zombie swam up and pushed us to safety. That
was you?”

“Oh, Al exaggerates. He did all the work. I was a
bystander.”

They all arrived at the door. “Marty, you could run down a
thief and still call yourself a bystander,” Al said with a
healthy chuckle. “I always believed you were going to save the
world. I think that day will come. But, more immediately, we talked
about how you could survive the disease, didn't we.”

“You helped me,” she admitted, “along with God.”

“Yes, but God helps those who help themselves. And you three
have been helping yourselves—I don't mean it like you've taken
from others, I mean you've kept each other alive. Always looked out
for each other, and the people you met along the way.”

“But I infected people,” Victoria said quietly.

“There are lots of carriers, my young friend. You mustn't
fault yourself for what was done to you.”