The Bone Puppets: A Hard SciFi Zombie Soldier Story Read online

  Madeline led Elias down several sets of stairs. Deeper they went into the heart of the City, for many miles. Until at last, they came to a place that could only be described as the harem from hell.

  Elias froze. He looked down a bleak hallway of prison cells. Each one was deep and had soiled beds tucked against their walls.

  Madeline thrust a door open with a decisive kick. She chewed her lip. As her rage intensified, the blood began to smatter her lips and nostrils. Her eyes filled with tears of hate.

  Elias lingered back, choking back the need for tears. It was his nature to hide them and yet, after the shame he’d brought to her, it felt like this girl deserved some honesty. He stumbled in behind her, feet barely remembering what they were for.

  The girl slammed the door behind them. She reached and threw Elias on the bed.

  “This is what you wanted, you elephant! This is what they always want. Oh, and they enjoy it too, but they don’t usually come here in chains! I brought you here in chains! I own you now! You’re at my mercy…Mercy! Ha! It’s a hilarious concept, isn’t it? Mercy…” The girl soldier paused. Her eyes flashed with sinister plans. She pulled a couple of knives out of her boots.

  “Yes…it is. But see I think you’re making snap judgments about me, aren’t you? Delancey is the one who insinuated that I wanted you for-for…” Elias expected that if he ever should break into tears, he would be filled with a certain amount of self-loathing. Given any other circumstance, given any other soul standing here with him, he might indeed. Yet he owed it to himself and this child to open the doors of the deep. Hadn’t he said that he wanted to leave his legacy before he died? His legacy was tears. Someone needed to know the story.

  The girl stopped. She shook her head, scoffing. Misunderstanding this as some kind of manipulation at first. Elias coughed and bowed his head against his chest.

  Madeline lowered her knives. She swallowed and drew a shaky breath.

  Elias fell into his tears. He would never have the chance again, he knew. And so, he wept for himself, for the loss of his humanity. It wasn’t so much that his manhood had been compromised in this moment of weakness. Only now that cathartic tears had come did he see it. He was a man because he could cry. Because he had a soul to overflow with tears, mighty like an ocean somewhere lost within him. Weren’t they alone the water of this world? This poisonous world where all things clean and whole and green were a vague memory…

  Elias wept for his mother. For the years that were taken from the two of them. He wept for her faith, because she had believed in his spirit, even though she could never have been there to build him into the man he had become. She had been cheated of that privilege. No one else could have been worthy of it.

  He wept for his little brother for all the years that he had suffered carrying the torch of liberty’s just cause for the vague concept of a brother that had not been there to give him the shelter that he’d needed. He wept for Riff’s good spirit. His light in this world of lesser and greater darkness called out to Elias from his black core. He let his cavernous soul be overtaken by its power and collapse. He surrendered and allowed himself to drown in its wake.

  Elias wept for humankind. He remembered their faces. The color of their eyes and the soft shapes and tones of smiles and laughter. He remembered color in the world, remembered music and sweet sounds. He remembered the smell of new morning when the world had water and trees. The soft green of a world of living things came back to him and he wept, making them watercolors in his mind.

  Elias wept for everything that had ever been and all that could never be. In the end, he wept for Madeline. How he had exploited her, even when he never laid a finger on her! How stupid all of this had been! For how could this world even be worth saving now, after all the corruption that had scraped it clean? How could he ask anything more of a child than the things that had already been asked? Horrible things…

  Madeline was shaking. Her knives fell to the floor with a clattering sound. Now her face had crumbled under the same ruin that had unmade Elias. The two of them wept. There would be no one to see and none to care. This would be the first taste of liberty that either of them had ever known. It would be the last time. Elias knew in his heart that even if his plans were to be successful, even if Meredith Yim’s rebellion led to his own rebellion, it would be of no consequence to him. Even if he became the liberator of the world and freedom and trees returned, nothing would matter. Elias Walklate would never be free. There would never be green worlds for him to pioneer. The trees of this world would become his gallows of sacrifice.

  Elias wept for the sad truth of Earth’s scarcity. How he, though infinitesimally small himself, occupied so much space in a sense that in order for others to enjoy his dreams, he must shed them.

  Madeline sat down on the bed beside him. She coughed and reached out, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. In that moment, they understood each other. Human empathy had breached the paranormal veil that had terminated all chances of life or choice they’d have ever known.

  “Think maybe…Maybe we can start over?” Madeline lifted Elias’s face by his chin. He blinked. It took a moment to gather this bearing. There had never been a time before now when he’d recognized how abysmal his own sorrow was. The admission alone was traumatic. There were no words to shape his need.

  “I wish that was possible for you, for me, for everything. You know?” Elias tried to wipe his face on his chest. Madeline shook her head. At last, she pulled his manacles away.

  Elias’s hands went to his face. He palmed over his cheeks desperately, hands trembling in the currents of his overwhelming sorrow. Unable to speak, they sat there for a long moment wondering how long they had before he lost his chance to say what he had come to say.

  “If you didn’t want me for…the usual, then what did you want?” Madeline’s hands fell open. She shook her head and, at last, out of desperation she put an arm around his shoulders.

  “I came to offer you a chance—a minute one, granted—to escape,” said Elias. “In exchange for your help.” Elias smiled. He fixed his eyes on the girl’s trembling mouth.

  “That’s…suicide.” Madeline’s mouth gaped in shock. Elias looked around the room. Softly, they both laughed.

  “We could have a chance,” said Elias. “I can’t guarantee that my offer is valid for long or is even worth much. We could die. But we could live too, for just a second. I think a second of life of living for something…Well, in my book it’s worth every drop of blood they ever drained from me. What about you?” Elias swallowed. Outside of the constant survivalist dialogue he had with Riff, this was the closet that Elias had come to a friendly conversation in his entire life.

  Madeline swallowed. Her face twisted in a doubtful expression like she had never considered that before.

  “What’s the point of ever having been alive, if we can’t find a use for all this pain?” said Elias. “Maybe you want more than just being theirs, getting by. You can’t see your own way out of this hell…But there’s the slightest chance, the scariest little chance that I do…” Elias cleared his throat.

  “If I was going to help you, what would I need to do?” Madeline swallowed. Just like that, Elias felt all of his faith rewarded. Because if she was going to help him, then his brother might have a chance at life. She might have a chance. There was still the faintest trace of humanity left in their ashes. It was like finding a chalk drawing after a long rain. Broken, smeared and yet still there.

  “What I need is someone that can lead me and my team to the hangar, where the planes are kept. I’m not sure which one exactly my employer is after, but that’s our play. We need a lift out of here if we’re to get to our business…” Elias snatched up Madeline’s hands, clutching them to his chest. He felt the breath siphoned from his body.

  All his hope rested on this, and yet this sheer madness was a greater terror than anything he could have ever imagined before. He’d trusted himself so openly with someone that should be his
enemy by rights. Enough to cry with her. Enough to propose that they die together or run away from here. It was impossible for him to wrap his mind around what he’d just done. Yet he could never have foreseen the fates aligning in a better way.

  “In the last 20 minutes, I’ve been more honest with you than I have with anyone I have ever known. Even my own brother, who will die if I fail to seal a deal here. I hate to tell you that, because it sounds like I’m trying to manipulate you into saying yes. You might be able to forgive me should that be the case, I don’t know. See, I think you’ll understand my desperation. You can benefit from it too, maybe. You could get away from here, through life or death. No one would ever take from you what you didn’t want to give, ever again. You have my word for that…” Elias smoothed the girl’s hair out of her eyes. She nodded.

  “Your brother’s life is worth it. My dignity is worth it. Okay, Elias, right? Right, my name is Madeline Hawking. I’m going to say yes. I want you to remember that I did. That I CHOSE to. That it wasn’t for any other reason than because I chose to make a decision that meant I was a person and could make a decision for myself. That’s my only condition.” The girl smiled.

  “Given all the steep particulars stacked against you, I don’t think that’s a bad trade.” Elias stuck out a hand. Madeline smiled again, laughing this time. They shook on it.

  *****

  Chapter 9

  Madeline led Elias back through another secret passageway in the interview room.

  “They usually give their guests about an hour down below. For the condemned, they give them a little longer. It’s mostly because they like what happens to me based on the desperation of the dying.” Madeline held her arm. She looked down at the shiny marble floors of the room they’d risen too.

  Elias studied her. He’d finally gotten a handle on his compulsive crying. It would be hell if broke down again.

  “Okay, so we’ve got maybe all of 15 minutes before they realize we’ve been gone too long.” Elias shrugged. Madeline smiled at him.

  “Yes, and when they realize that we sprung the box, they’ll know I’ve defected. It’s funny how the crime is punishable by death even though none of the Baltimore-born kids ever choose it.” The girl tossed her hair out her eyes, eyeing Elias curiously.

  “So, that means we get instant capital punishment. Routine. What’s their poison around here, huh? Impalement? I haven’t tried that yet. I hope they stuff my mouth with wicks so I can burn real long and pretty when they’re done.” Elias winked. The girl rolled her eyes.

  “This city sees death like a box of chocolates. They like to surprise themselves and you with a sort of impromptu Valentine-romance execution.” Madeline pushed her hair out of her eyes.

  “Right, well, I’m way past charming these days. They didn’t take our weapons, so we’re good to go on that. Don’t worry, we’ve got some to share with you.” Elias looked the girl over, scanning her for hidden pieces. She rolled her eyes and drew the knives again.

  “Not gonna be a problem.” Madeline winked.

  “Think the only thing that’s left to do is find a way for you and me to link up with my teammates again?” Elias looked over his shoulder. How was this going to work?

  “Good thing for you, I have an intercom button. I’m also a ‘special privileges’ guard because of…all of this. I can override their manacle codes and the doors that their interviews will be held in,” said Madeline. “That will tip First Street off and piss him off royally. They’ll have to make a mad dash for it.” Madeline looked up, eyes wide with instant panic. Boots were thumping down the stairs. Already they were coming.

  “Ah, right. They’ll need someone to guide them along. I’ll need…I need…a-ha!” Elias punched a glass “emergency kit” on the prison wall. Road flares were stored in it. Elias figured it was mostly for mesmerizing Street-sweepers that came after their handlers. The rumor was that IV-suspended Puppets were hypnotized by bright flames.

  “I’ll light a trail…It won’t be hard in a world made of motor oil, eh?” Elias winked. Madeline shrugged.

  “Between the two of us, you have more experience with the whole jailbreak thing. So, break a leg, buddy.” Madeline swung her EMP rifle around. She faced the next wall as shouts sounded off in a Pidgin English that Elias didn’t recognize. Madeline shouted in reply in the same dialect. Elias was distracted by his racing pulse. They’d been found.

  Please let Riff make it out of here…Elias’s hands moved on their own. He lit up the cherry bombs, breathing on them to spike the flames.

  A press of deep prison guards started breaking through the lineup. Elias threw the bombs into the firing line, just as the mother of Taser-voltage tore pavement from the floor. The smoke wall blocked it.

  “Alright, I think your friends are pretty hip to what’s going on now. Come on.” Madeline pressed a button combination in an elevator. She reached and grabbed the listless Elias by his belt, pulling him inside.

  Shrieks and fires broke out from the walls of a higher Gladiator-style prison court.

  “Walklate! Looks like your idiocy has paid off!” Yim stormed toward Elias, hands up. Her manacles had come lose. Elias shook his head, confused.

  “The elevator code also trips the manacles, if you know your stuff. They have it all on the same switchboard, so that if a prison escapes they can lock them in the elevator and clamp them back in any available magnetic cuffs at the same time. I just went backward on it all.” Madeline looked up, eyes meeting Riff’s gaze. Riff smiled. His eyes shone with grateful lights knowing that this girl’s choice had saved his life in essence.

  “Yo! Okay, so I get that this little thing did us a favor. Great, we can appreciate that later after we’ve completed phase three of the plan.” Trent loaded his rifle. He was looking over Elias’s shoulders the wall behind him.

  Elias turned. Behind him was the door that Yim and company had escaped the lower dungeons through. It still foamed at the locks with sparks and other liquid poisons that were set to trigger if the program was ever hijacked. Elias saw that Delancey had tried to give pursuit with his friends, but had been caught in this timed release.

  Elias thought that Delancey’s death would have given him some vindication. The man shrieked, turning the color of cigarette ashes as the chemicals ate through the walls of his tissue. Sparks rolled over what remained of his skin like razor blades, frenetically attracted to the chemical compounds that did him in. Elias looked on feeling nothing. No glee that he had finally met the poetic, tormented end that he deserved. No horror that it came about this way. He felt only hollow as he watched Delancey die and fall down, body disintegrating into a pile of ashes in human shape.

  Riff shrank to Elias’s side. He clapped a hand on his shoulder.

  “I know what the plan is. We’re going to steal the final Air Force One, from before America was overtaken.” Riff’s voice was a low, crackling whisper. Elias nodded.

  Elias was about to say something else. To discuss with his little brother their next play. But his thoughts were drowned out in the dropping base tones of a Street-sweeper vampire hosts approach.

  The sky blacked out. Elias jumped. It was either dry ice being flicked over his skin or the foul creature’s absorbed all the warmth in the area surrounding them. There was no air, no breath at all.

  Then Elias lit another of the road flares he’d stolen from the wall.

  At first, the flame struggled. But then, it caught its second wind and breathed, casting a bright aura around the small circle where they stood.

  Riff was still at Elias’s side, clutching a small tarnished six-gun he’d had in his boot. Madeline was beside him now, both knives drawn. Yim stood behind both of them. She had a moon-shaped knife poised, ready to throw for the kill. Her expression was intense. In this darkness, her eyes were kindled with fire.

  Elias shook his head. Except for the twitching trigger fingers of his companions and the shockwave of silence, Elias would have thought time had stopped.
r />   Out of the night stepped a bowed figure. His skin was pale and he wore a long black leather trench coat. His feet clicked with the distinct trip of riding spurs.

  The figure spoke. “I feel the blood…The blood of a fool. Of a righteous man who thinks he can stop the world…” A voice spoke out of the cold blackness. Elias felt something obscure calling out to him. Calling his name. Pure despair washed over the young man. His knees trembled and he felt like his knees caps were turning in on themselves, pushing him to the ground. He cringed and forced himself to stay standing, even though his spine felt like a piece of chalk being ground into a slate chip by chip.

  “First Street…You’re the only one of vamp kind that can read a soul’s power via the owner’s blood.” Yim took a step closer. She was practically purring with enthusiasm.

  “You are a fool. A vixen. My race will extinguish yours. You will be meat for the crows of the air and upholstery for my throne. For I am the supplanter. I am ruination. My name is First Street. I was the corner-stone of the earth when the earth had been remade. I am the first born, the gift of the wedded powers to my Crescent Lords!” First Street thrust out his hands. Wings unfolded from his back. He shrieked like a great rhinoceros.

  “I think it’s rather self-evident, gentleman. Our only play in this game is to make a run for what we came for!” Yim was pale, ashamed by what had just transpired. She tucked her fancy knife back into a round sheath on her boots’ rim, then turned and bolted.

  “Well, you heard her. Let’s move it!” Elias grabbed Riff by his one arm and Madeline by the other. He thrust them in front of himself, gaining them a little extra ground even if it was only for a handful of seconds.

  Elias ran steadily toward the massive original Air Force One. This was the first time he’d officially seen an airplane of that size and make. He felt his stomach quiver like gelatin, anticipating the idea of taking off in such a contraption.