Pedal to the Metal (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 4) Page 8

  He knew the others were worried about him. They’d seen him change overnight. But then, they had all changed. They needn’t worry. That was as useless an emotion as fear. So what if he’d changed? So what if he had a different outlook on this miserable journey called life?

  Einstein shook his head, remembering a conversation he’d had with one of his buddies while watching a marathon of The Walking Dead.

  “That’s not living, ya know?” Einstein had said casually, thinking of that intense fear day in and day out. “They’re more like ants trying to escape the tongue of an anteater. Some will live until tomorrow; others won’t. No thanks.”

  “What would you do? Commit suicide? Willingly become one of the undead?”

  Einstein had shaken his head. “I’d get enough people to be able to run a cruise ship. We could live off fish––hell, even plant a garden on the top deck. You’d be safer out at sea, you know?”

  Safer.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt safe. Always sleeping with one eye open was exhausting. They were all exhausted, and exhausted people made mistakes. Ignoring the Japanese would be a costly error. Of that he was certain.

  He was beginning to feel the edges of that exhaustion creep in as it always did when they were on the move. The only time he’d slept half way decently was in Angola.

  Yet, even in Angola, where they’d set up a really sweet camp, Einstein hadn’t slept well. Something about the dark coldness of it all seemed to saturate his skin down to the marrow of his bones. It was a different type of cold.

  But it had worked.

  They’d been safer there than anywhere. Hell, even the goddamn President of the United States had paid them a visit.

  That was when Dallas had told the president why she and so many others like her were still alive. He hadn’t wanted to believe it. Who did? The straight world was being served its comeuppance on a bed of cold anger. Served America right for denying others their civil liberties.

  In the end, she had sent the man packing. No, he could not have Angola, and yes, if he tried once more to take it by force, they’d go on the attack and obliterate what was left of the U.S. military.

  Einstein chuckled to himself.

  That Dallas was one big bad ass––who talks to the President of the ragtag United States that way?

  Dallas did.

  And the president had left her alone.

  But even then, Angola hadn’t been enough. There were others like Einstein who couldn’t see themselves living their lives inside a prison. That was no life no matter how you made it look or taste. It was claustrophobic. It felt just wrong, and though he tried to get used to the idea, he was more than happy when Dallas came to him to ask about going home.

  Creeping down to a more secure location, he pulled the garrote from his backpack and snapped it open, the thin wire bouncing once before becoming taut.

  The garrote was a quiet and efficient way of removing a head from the neck––the neck being the only real vulnerable place on the hazmat suit. Even with their low slung helmets, the thin line of wire could get in and then, SHIKT! Head would be gone.

  Now, all he needed to do was to sit back and wait.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  When one unsuspecting Japanese hazmatter walked by, Einstein leapt out behind him, put the garrote over the guy’s head and around his neck, pulling with all his might.

  The wire cut through skin, tissue, and the esophagus, but couldn’t quite get through the spine.

  Not that it mattered.

  The guy bled out before landing face first in the dirt.

  Einstein quickly unzipped the suit and pulled it on, marveling at the inside. There was some sort of gel lining that seemed to be making the suit cooler but also heavier.

  He was into the suit in under one minute.

  The boots, which looked like moon boots, were steel-toed and too small for his feet, but he crammed them in anyway.

  Then came the helmet. He used the socks from the dead guy to wipe away the blood before he put it on his head. He was not expecting to find such a complex computer inside it.

  “Holy shit,” he said, looking up at a small monitor on the upper left of his face shield. This was the most high tech thing he’d ever seen.

  He could hear the rapid fire of Japanese inside his helmet as different people chimed in. They spoke so fast he could barely understand what they were saying.

  Glancing down at his suit he saw the name tag read Takimoto. Good. At least he could listen for that name and pipe in when necessary.

  Stuffing the garrote back in his bag, he dragged the body behind a few boulders and stashed his backpack as well.

  Clearly, Takimoto was interior security. He carried no ranged weapon, but he did have a hand ax hanging from the belt on the one side and a police baton on the other. Einstein hitched up Takimoto’s belt and started walking toward the small opening in the fence.

  Just as Einstein adjusted the dark face mask of his helmet, another guard came around the corner.

  His helmet crackled to life.

  Oddly, so did the tiny monitor on the upper left of the helmet.

  A set of brackets surrounded the image of the other guard and flashed yellow.

  Einstein’s eyes traveled from the picture with the brackets to the person standing in front of him. It was indicating life. The helmet could tell by heat sensors if a person was a man eater or not.

  But that made no sense.

  It was easy enough to tell. You didn’t need a special helmet or a camera that––

  “What are you doing? Fucking around?” The man asked in clipped Japanese. “You know better than that.”

  Einstein said he thought he saw a dog.

  “Answer me!”

  “I did.” That was when he realized there was a button on the left side of the suit that enabled helmet-to-helmet conversation.

  Einstein had only dreamt about such technology as he pressed the button.

  “I thought I saw a dog,” he said in his best Japanese.

  “A dog? Don’t be an ass and get back to your post.”

  Einstein nodded and started to walk away when the guy called him back.

  “What?”

  “You don’t sound Japanese. You Korean?”

  Einstein froze, then nodded. “On my father’s side.”

  “Seoul?”

  “Yes. Beautiful city. Have you been?”

  “No. On my eighteenth birthday came the draft and I was sent here.”

  “And?”

  “And those fucking Americans sure jacked this up for all of us. Now what? Countries everywhere are testing for it. I wanted to go to Europe, but got shipped to this ghetto.”

  Einstein felt his heart seize. “Did they round your people up as well?” He had visions of World War II’s Holocaust. His eagerness to know more about what had been happening out in the real world would give him away if he wasn’t careful.

  “Yes. Nightly. It was awful, those bastards coming to our homes. Ripped us right out of our houses. Those of us who were not lucky enough or smart enough ended up here.”

  “Yeah. Here we are. Um...my helmet hit a mal...hit a problem and registered a couple of weird colors.”

  “Just bang it with your hand. That works for me. Just as long as the yellow displays. Don’t want to accidentally kill the other guys, right?”

  Inhaling deeply, Einstein nodded “Right. I haven’t seen any...reds.” He took his best shot at the final piece of the hazmat puzzle. The colors weren’t for man eaters. They were to differentiate straight from gay.

  “Good! I’ve never really been one to kill someone for no reason, but these Americans have turned into low forms of life. Worse than they were before the epidemic, and that says a lot.”

  “Like eating each other?”

  “Exactly! And forcing their women into carrying babies. These Americans have always been so short-sighted. Super power? Pfft.”

  Einstein despe
rately wanted to ask him how he knew all of this, so he took the best gambit he could. “Those drones have given a lot of information, haven’t they?”

  “More than I wish to know about the greedy and amoral assholes. They are sinking like a stone.”

  “I don’t remember how long they’ve been in operation.”

  “Ours? About six or seven months. It was fun at first, but then we got the call to come to this hell hole. I hate Americans.”

  “You ever meet one?”

  The guard shook his head. “Never, but I’ve read plenty. They’ve done nothing but start wars, end monarchies, and destroy the climate. They are the *sshkr* of the planet. Good riddance, I say.”

  Einstein didn’t get a word, but was pretty certain he could fill in the blank.

  “Bad enough to eat each other, eh?”

  The guard laughed. “At least they’re done eating the rest of the world, right? As soon as we’re done, the world will be free from their tyranny.”

  Einstein felt a line of sweat trickle down his spine. “Tyranny. Right. Free.” Einstein turned away. Suddenly, the zombies were the least threatening opponent in the game.

  Butcher

  8 Days Ago

  By the time Omar and Hunter reached the area where the Hummer should have been, it was gone.

  The military Jeep, however, was not.

  “Fuck.”

  “Run for it?” Hunter asked.

  “We’ll never make it. Put your hands up in surrender.”

  Hunter stared at him. “Are you kidding? We have no idea who these jokers are.”

  “No, but we’ll fucking die out here, dude, if they don’t take us in.”

  Hunter shook his head. “You’ve totally lost faith in her. Maybe she just moved it.”

  “Don’t you find it curious that Butcher and the Hummer are nowhere to be seen?”

  “You really think she left us, don’t you?”

  Omar stared at him as he raised his hands in the air. “Don’t you? She was pretty pissed off at us. She’s changed, man. You just don’t want to admit it.”

  “Please put your weapons on the ground,” one of the hazmatters from the Jeep said.

  “Come on, Hunter. They’ll kill us before we get ten feet.” Kneeling down, Omar laid his bow on the ground. “Do it.”

  “I can take them, O.”

  “Young man, put your weapon down or face certain death,”

  “Do it, Hunter.”

  “Young man? Pfft. Fucking assholes. Who are these rejects from Star Wars anyway?” Hunter knelt down and laid his weapon on the ground. “Giving up your weapon is never a good idea,” he muttered. “Dallas would never give hers up.”

  “Neither is getting shot in the back. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re not her.”

  One of the people in the white suits got out of the vehicle and walked over to them. He reminded Omar of a praying mantis with that single dark face shield.

  Lifting up the shield, a young, pretty Asian woman smiled at them.

  They were both surprised to see such a petite, beautiful face. Her name tag said Yamiguchi.

  “Don’t be alarmed,” she said in flawless English. “We have not come to harm you.”

  “Who’s we and what have you come for?” Omar asked.

  “Shut up,” Hunter growled. “Jesus.”

  She smiled. “Your friends appear to have abandoned you. You won’t make it long out here on foot. Your sun appears brighter than ours.”

  Hunter scowled. “Why? You from Krypton or something?”

  She smiled. “Or something. If you are waiting for your friend, it might be a long wait.”

  “Yeah, well, we had a difference of opinion.”

  “Fuckin’ A, Omar, shut up.”

  “What?”

  Yamiguchi bowed her head slightly. “Not very good friends to leave you to bake in this heat.”

  “Good enough.” Omar lowered his hands and motioned for Hunter to do the same. “I take it there are more of you in that vehicle?”

  “Oh yes. Many more. We’ve been arriving here for the last two months.”

  “We...”

  “Japanese, Koreans, some Chinese. We are what is now called the Asian Nation. Life has changed greatly since the United States fell. Greatly. We have come to help clean up your country before it becomes too ruined to benefit from.”

  Omar and Hunter stared at each other.

  “Would you like some water? You look like you could use a drink.” Yamiguchi walked away from them, her back completely exposed to an easy shot.

  “Wait.”

  Yamiguchi turned around. “Yes?”

  “The Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese have sent special forces to help clean out the zombies?”

  “Well, yes. I suppose special is an appropriate label. And the...man eaters…as you call them, are just the first population to be cleaned up.” Reaching inside the Jeep, she grabbed a bottle of water.

  Omar opened his mouth to reply but Hunter shoved him. “How…how did you know that’s what we call them?”

  “We? You mean your tribe?” She handed the bottled water to him. “We’ve been watching you for a long time.”

  “Watching us? Have you captured any more of my people…our…tribe?”

  “Captured? I’m sorry. You are confused. I’ve not captured you.”

  “Because how else could you know that’s what we call them?” Hunter extended the bottle to Omar.

  Yamiguchi sighed as she looked up at the sun. “There is so much you do not know about what has happened since the outbreak. Nevertheless, we’ve been chosen to assist in the cleansing of your country.”

  “Chosen?” Omar said, pushing the bottle away. “Why the fuck would anyone choose to send you into this bloody mess?

  “Because...” Yamiguchi smiled again. “Because we’re all gay.”

  Back at the lake, Dallas’s group sat around an empty fire pit waiting for Einstein to peel the suit off and report what he’d seen. The surrounding desert was silent, with the occasional cicada buzzing loudly. No one said a word as Einstein started relaying what he had discovered after he got the suit.

  “Somebody say something,” he said in exasperation. “They know what the hell is going on with us and they are here to take us over. That doesn’t strike anyone as the least bit worrisome?”

  Dallas looked around at the group before clearing her throat. “Let me get this straight. Those hazmatters are holding our people hostage?”

  “They seem to be at the base collecting Americans,” Einstein explained. “It was fucking weird.”

  “Our people are Americans,” Fletcher added. “Gay or straight, our people are Americans.”

  Einstein found himself nodding. “All I know is they’ve captured Americans and are using our people as some sort of labor to rebuild the camp.”

  “Why do you assume they were captured?” Fletcher asked.

  “Do the words chain gang mean anything to you? Trust me. The hazmatters either captured or brought captured Americans with them. The Americans at the base worked with the suits––repairing fences, working on Jeeps, you name it, but they were not wearing the suits. They are getting the base up and running for sure and doing all the grunt work. Sound familiar?”

  “Okay,” Dallas said. “So these Asians have managed to corral a bunch of Americans for a labor force. I can understand that. What I wonder about is––”

  “The Asians are all gay.” The last word fell from Einstein’s mouth like a bomb that blew up on impact.

  “Wait. Gay? All of the Japanese at the base are gay?”

  He nodded. “Every last one of them. At first, I thought my translation was off. Damn, they speak so fast. But the more I listened, the more I realized what this is.” He watched a jack rabbit skirt around the group.

  “Which is what?”

  “The Gaysian Army.”

  Ferdie burst out laughing. “That’s rich! Dude, you are hysterical.”

  Einstein
shrugged. “We had our Garmy in Angola, right? These Asians are from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and parts of China. They’ve sent in their gays to clear the country of the zombies because they discovered what we’ve known all along.”

  “Wait. How do they know which of their citizens is and isn’t gay?”

  Ferdie nodded. “Yeah, little man, and how do they know that we’re safer from the man eaters?”

  “The United States government, that’s how,” Roper answered softly. “We know virtually nothing about what our less than illustrious government has been up to since the virus. We don’t know who they are or aren’t talking to, who they’re bargaining with. We don’t know shit. Clearly, they’ve shared this information with folks who are now being used to collect us.”

  Dallas nodded. “Once it was established that we were immune, the President had to have sent out an S.O.S. or made some sort of communication with others. Once researchers determined the genetic marker that made us unique, it was only a matter of testing, right? And who better to develop a test than the Chinese or Japanese?”

  Einstein chuckled and held his hand up. “It wasn’t anything even remotely scientific. I listened to three guys talking about where they were snatched in Japan. All three from the parking lots of gay bars. The Japanese government scooped up thousands in a month, trained them, gave them special suits, and shipped them over here to clean house.”

  “Wait,” Dallas said, beginning to pace. “So they aren’t even here of their own free will?”

  “Hell no. We’ve become a dumping ground for their unwanted. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve sent felons and other undesirables over here as well.”

  “To take out the man eaters? That’s virtually impossible without a vaccine.”

  “I know. I figure they don’t want our infrastructure to completely collapse, so they are hurrying the process of dying along. Our country is no good to anyone if it falls into complete disrepair…and we all know that it is.”

  Dallas rubbed her temples. “So, they’re planning on resurrecting our military bases first and then culling the growing horde.”

  “Not just the horde,” Zoe said. “Us. They want to capture humans as well. They will attempt to assimilate into our crumbling world.”