That's All Folks! Enjoy.
Laura Marks sat outside the library, a small shortwave in her lap. Rain had just left to go inside and the sky above her was burnt with the setting sun. Contrails from Hegemon jets lazily diffused overhead, their gaseous fingers pointing east towards Denver. She fiddled with the dial on the front until the static gave way to a fuzzy, yet distinct message.
?Unincorporated citizens of the United States, I, Nehemiah Scudder, invite you to join me in my glorious effort to rebuild our great land. Survivors living in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico are encouraged to congregate at the Four Corners Monument. I will personally arrive at 2200, Sunday night to greet you. Bring only what you need for the journey, space aboard the flights will be limited and we seek to evacuate as many of you as possible. The undead threat still looms and therefore refugees will be given asylum behind the protection of the Reddeker Line. God watch over all of us.?
Laura listened intently as the Hegemon calmly described the itinerary for the evacuees. Apparently, Scudder had secured a large enough tract of the Great Plains to support farming collectives and was now moving into Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The rest of the speech consisted of marvelous claims of economic strength and quotes from the Bible. His style of oratory seemed like a strange cross of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Hitler. His strong, paternal voice carried a vehemence not seen since the heyday of the Third Reich.
She got up and went inside. Rain and Shaz were busy playing a heated game of Scrabble and trying to find the correct spelling of the game-ending ?onomatopoeia?. Rain seemed a bit uneasy about being near Shaz, the game seemed to be a distraction from something else. They didn?t notice her slip past them into the backroom. Laura stepped into the storage room and began to root through her belongings. ?Hmm?the state line is only a couple day?s biking from here. I won?t need all this?? She arranged a few rations, water packs, an atlas, and the radio on a bedroll. She decided to take her bow and even her iPod, the Hegemon must have gotten a few of the power plants back online. He seemed fascist enough to have several large projects going on at once. A knife tucked into a makeshift boot sheath completed her traveling pack.
As Laura tried to slip out the back, she heard someone calling out to her:
?Hey! Laura! Where are you going??
It was Killion?s voice. She turned about a saw him silhouetted through the doorway, he looked a bit troubled.
?I?m eh?going to look for some new stores of water. We seem to be in need of some new stocks.? her ruse didn?t seem to convince him. Through the glare of the inside, she saw a puzzled look on his face.
?Well, I better go tell Rain and Shaz then. They?ll want to know.?
?No! They don?t need to know! Just?just stay there??
?Laura, what?s going on here?? Killion stepped out into the twilight.
?I?I?m leaving. I?ve got a better chance with the Hegemon than out here. You?d better come too. If he finds you, you?re dead.? Laura figured that she could dissuade Killion from ratting her out. She figured wrong.
?Oh?Listen. I?ll go get the others, we need to talk. Don?t leave like this, we need all the help we have.?
Killion turned and was about to set foot through the door when he stopped. He clawed at his back and tried to pull out the knife but it?d been thrown too hard. He staggered into the building and collapsed before he could shout a warning. Laura ran over to him and yanked the blade out of Killion, wiped the blood on his shirt and stole one of the bikes. She pedaled off through the parking lot and into the town.
An hour or so later, Shaz went to go look for Killion. Within minutes of discovering the body, he found the tires of their bikes had been slashed. In his mind, he heard someone shouting ?LAURA! IT WAS LAURA ALL ALONG, DUNDERHEAD! I TRIED TO TELL YOU BUT YA DIDN?T LISTEN!?
He rushed back into the building to find Rain picking up the pieces of Scrabble. His alternate spelling of onomatopoeia did not win him the game but other matters were now surfacing. Shaz explained his theory to Rain, who quietly nodded in relief. At least now he wasn?t on death row. They resolved to track her down and bring her to justice. They both accepted that their dream of living out their lives in the ruins of Mexico was out of the question, but at least they could still get revenge. Perhaps it would add some closure to the needless deaths of all the others. Maybe Galt and Patrick wouldn?t have been gunned down back in Colorado if they had more people. Maybe Maeror would still be with them, and not lying in a grave dug in the tarmac, if Galt didn?t need to satisfy their bloodlust. Maybe they could have made it to the border if Gremlin still had his bus. Now all those ?maybes? burned in their minds, adding insult to injury.
A brutal hike following faint tracks in gravel and dirt led them through the night. Their resolve not wavering through broken boot-soles and blistered feet. Laura had made good time to whatever bizarre destination she?d planned, but a few hours before daybreak, the duo had caught her. They found her camped out on the bank of a washout under a defunct overpass, her bike lying next to the bones of a fire.
They crept along quietly, not wanting to stir their quarry. Rain drew his pistol and held it out in front of him as he crawled onto a boulder overlooking the camp. Shaz slid down into the washout and freed his rifle from its strap. Rain stood up and aimed his pistol at the sleeping form below him, unsure whether or not to fire. His decision was made for him as he slipped on the loose gravel atop the peak. His fingers clenched and Laura sat up as Rain fell from the face of the rock. Shaz scampered up the bank and tried to rescue Rain.
When Shaz crested the rocky embankment, he found Rain lying on the ground, his legs bent at unpleasant angles. Laura crouched over him, her knife at his throat. The carbine in Shaz?s hand jittered up and down, the same uncertainty that had claimed Rain held him in its grip. As he stepped forward, Laura took notice of him and lifted Rain up in front of her.
?Shoot ?er Shaz, just shoot her!? Rain gasped. Shaz couldn?t respond. He didn?t trust his hands enough to pick the right target.
?Don?t listen to Rain, there?s no need to get violent. We don?t need anymore blood spilt.? Laura?s voice had a slight tone of command, she seemed trained.
?For Christ?s sake do something Shaz! She?s killed everyone off, don?t let her just walk away!? Rain sounded desperate, his battered legs quivered.
Shaz level his rifle and fired several times. A chunk of the rock beside the pair was blasted to pieces yet none of the shrapnel struck them. Shaz collapsed, his body finally finding its emotional limit. Laura dropped Rain and picked up the pistol lying at his side. She calmly walked over to Shaz and knelt down. ?It?s over Shaz, we?ve had a good, long run, but it?s finally over, you can rest now.? She held out the gun and contemplated shooting him but decided against it. He was pitifully lying on the ground, wracked with sobs, within a few minutes he would tire himself out.
Laura got up and looked at Rain, his face seemed to scream ?Why??. She sat across from him and opened one of her canteens. She offered the first sip to Rain but he shook his head, still filled with resentment. Between sips she explained her story.
?Listen Rain, the Hegemon is the only chance we?ve got for survival. The man?s got an ?Us or Them? attitude. He won?t stop till he?s got the whole damn continent under his thumb. When the zombies run out, he?ll invent a new foe, and I sure as hell don?t want to be that poster child. So I figure I?ll throw in my lot with the old bastard, see how he?s running things.?
Rain looked up at her, ?Bah, you? Running about with the Hegemon? You won?t make it, you ain?t got enough Nazi in you.? he hissed.
?Nazi? That?s what you think we?ve got here? No, we don?t have a Fourth Reich brewing here, Rain. It wasn?t monsters who crucified those men back in the library, it was normal people, just like you and me. Men and women consumed with fear, the fear that if they slip up, they?ll be riding crossbars out in the hot desert sun. I don?t need to be a monster to lead these poor folks, I just need to know how to make ?em listen. It takes a certain amount of sadism to lead any group of people. Look at Galt, the fucker was probably mad by the end of it but he kept us in line.?
?You know Laura, you?ve changed quite a bit. What happened to the happy-go-lucky girl knocking back drinks in the mall? Since when did you pick up this mean streak touring around with bands??
?Bands? Oh, yeah?that. Rain, I might as well level with you, seeing as how I?ve been meaning to tell at least one member of the group. Rain, I never was that starry eyed talent scout roaming the country. I?ve been working with the CIA ever since I got out of college. Remember when Rob got it back at the base? He?d found my dossier on the computer network. I couldn?t let that happen. My bosses were still alive and if I?d let that slide either Galt?d have me shot or the spooks would get me.?
?This is just a cleanup? Why didn?t you stop once the Hegemon came in. Even if we found out, who?d we tell? We?re scared to death of that man, just as much as his cronies, maybe more. Why?d you kill Gremlin? We all could?ve died out in the desert!?
?As someone who?s never killed before, Rain, you wouldn?t understand. Let?s just say that it?s damn good fun, watching you scratch your heads and hold your midnight meetings. Once my buddies back in Washington bought it, I decided I?d rather go out in flames than live forever.?
?Then why not? Why not just kill yourself? If you?re mad enough to do this, why not just spare us all this misery??
?Rain, I?ve still got to look out for number one. Maybe when I sign up with old Scudder, I?ll be driven to wit?s end. But I know about those smokes he hands out and I ain?t gonna bite. Scudder?s set up a whole new system for me Rain! Used to be you had to answer to some empty suit just to keep your job. Now there?s a niche market for a hard case with enough ambition to make a difference in the world. Imagine the opportunities! A terrified world, a crippled population, infrastructure in shambles, and then in steps Nehemia Scudder, offering his own bit of paradise on Earth. People were chomping at the bit to get at it. Hell, they?d even kill apparently. Now I?ve got a chance to leave my mark on civilization, a grand old middle finger spray painted across the pillars of society.?
The sun began to rise in its arc across the sky. Laura looked up and decided it was time to make her getaway. She gathered her pack and walked over to her bike. Rain seized his chance and rolled over to the pistol she?d dropped. He picked it up and as she mounted the bike he fired. Two shots ripped through her calf and she dropped. Laura and her bike tumbled down into the washout and came to rest at the bottom. She got up and continued on, limping and stumbling over the gravel. Rain lay back down, contented that she wouldn?t make it far. Shaz was still crumpled in a ball next to him, it?d take hours for him to come out of it.
However, Rain was incorrect in his assumption that Laura would die that day. Sunday night, a haggard figure crawled onto the crude helipad constructed at the Four Corners Monument. Her leg was scabbed over and infected but she continued towards the man robed in white. Men in flight suits stood about with rifles guarding him like a dignitary. Each one had a small ember floating before their face, illuminating the bulging visors that obscured their eyes. As Laura arrived at Scudder?s feet, one of the men offered her a cigarrette, but Scudder stopped him. ?No my dear boy, I?ve got a feeling about this one.?
Laura looked up at the smiling gentleman before her, his arms open wide. He opened a small canteen of water and gave it to her. Instantly she knelt on the desert floor and whispered:
?My life for you??
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Epilogue:
The trucks rolled through the desert, brimming with scavenged goods and new ?recruits?. The dusty windows of the foremost truck rattled and scratched with the wild sand crashing against it. The driver flicked on the wipers in a vain attempt to help clear the dust. The road ahead remained visible, but the scratchy-scratch of the sandstorm was starting to annoy him. He was content with his new job as a driver. It didn?t require all of his time and he wasn?t expected to down a pack of smokes a week as part of his rations. It paid just as well as any other entry level job the Hegemon was handing out and frankly that?s all he wanted. He knew his conscience was clean and that no matter what happened, he?d always have the Nuremberg Excuse, he was simply following orders after all. He hated his boss though.
Laura stood atop the back of the truck, her hands resting on the cab. A turban wrapped around her head kept out the dust and her new prosthetic was doing nicely. Her features had taken a different turn, the time she spent in the desert had worn her complexion to a leathery finish and her eyes were faded. Her feminine charms wouldn?t be getting her anywhere now. She looked behind herself and marveled at how many people she was able to round up. Who knew that the Mormons had gone to the Indian reservations? She looked at a few as they were loaded onto the trucks, a couple looked like they had enough in them to go somewhere in the new order, but most would become rank and file. Destined to be nothing more than a statistic. She turned her attention to her real pride and joy, the small lead box marked with black and yellow triangles. The Hegemon had promised a nice reward for the first live warhead and she had every intention to claim it.
Back in the cab, the driver tried to hold the truck on its course. He still harbored thoughts of hatred against Laura for what she made him do to that poor man out in the wilderness, sure he?d wanted it to be over, but he wished it had turned out differently; Rain deserved better.
