False Idols (After The Apocalypse Book 3), Page 2

  Bud wasn't at all picky about who he used his zombie serum on. Where Seth's followers had all been carefully chosen from the willing masses, Bud didn't care who he turned into a zombie. The serum had been, so far as Bud's research data indicated, 100 percent fatal to everyone who had been injected with it. The only real variable was how long it took the infected to die. Some reacted badly to the serum and lasted only a day or two. Others had lived for months before showing symptoms.

  Bud Moon intended to use his zombies to attack the city of Ra Shet, kill thousands of people and overthrow the king. Seth had decided the super zombies were too dangerous to let live.

  I agreed with Seth about the super-zombies, they truly were too dangerous to allow to go free and the city needed to be saved, whatever the cost. I disagreed, however, with his methods.

  “There are over seven thousand people in the Cube, Seth. They can't all be zombies. I won't stop you from destroying the zombies, but you have to give the surviving humans a fighting chance.”

  “And how, exactly, do you plan on being able to tell the humans from the zombies?” Seth crossed his arms over the tight muscles of his chest.

  “You can start by executing everyone who is dead, dying or decaying. It's only the healthy looking ones who we'll have to wonder about.”

  “Gauge suggested quarantining them,” Seth sounded halfway disgusted.

  “I thought it was a good idea,” I said. Gauge had been the acting leader of a small group of rebels inside the city before Seth had recruited him into the Church. While Gauge and Seth were both terrifyingly practical, Gauge wasn't nearly as comfortable with the idea of committing mass murder as Seth was. He'd been my biggest asset in convincing Seth that the 'kill first and ask questions later' strategy was not appropriate for our current problem.

  “I think it's going to be a bloody fucking nuisance,” Seth grumbled. “We could have thousands of people in quarantine for months. How exactly are you proposing we feed them all?”

  “The Powers That Be have succeeded in keeping everyone fed for decades. Half the surviving world thinks you're a god. Surely, a god can figure out how to keep the meal lines moving for another couple of months?” I brushed my wayward curls away from my eyes. “I'm thinking there's probably a stockpile of canned goods in the Cube. I know the Scavengers had a warehouse a couple of miles from here that is full of cans. We don't have to feed them three course meals. We just owe it to them to keep them alive until we're sure they're healthy enough to go on their way.”

  “You've been thinking about this.” Seth's expression had stalled out somewhere between an annoyed scowl and the broad grin he used on the rare occasions when I accomplished something especially impressive.

  I nodded. “I've been learning from the best.”

  “I'll assume you mean Gauge. We both know that I tend to be a bit on the reckless side, myself.” Seth ran his tongue across his teeth as he began undoing the straps that held the flamethrower on his back.

  I rolled my eyes. “Go tell that lie to someone who believes you're the boogeyman. You always have a plan, a backup plan and a third plan just in case your backup plan fails you.”

  Seth looked up from the straps and flashed me a subtle smile. “Do I now?”

  “Yes, though it is beyond me why you plan some things the way you do.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like planning on taking the Cube by force. You have an army of what, twenty people?”

  “Don't tell me you still think we should go into the Cube and try to talk our way into power?”

  “Who says we needed to be in power?” I countered.

  “I do.” Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “Say that I'm wrong and you're right. Assume that everyone is still human and everything is just the way you left it when you joined the Scavengers.”

  “You don't have to sound so sarcastic,” I grumbled.

  He snorted back a half-laugh. “Damn near everyone in the Cube is going to take one look at me and freak out. Even if everyone is still human, we're not going to have enough time to fight their panic, Pi. We don't have days or weeks to convince these people that we're the good guys.”

  “So you'd rather spend a single day convincing them you're the bad guy?”

  “Weapons aren't allowed in the Cube. Everyone is suffering from acute malnutrition after 20-plus years of eating slowly rotting canned foods. I don't think there's much fight left in them.” Seth bared his teeth at me. “Do you?”

  I sighed and looked away from him. I didn't want to have meet his eyes. Instead, I opted to pick at his words. “Acute malnutrition?”

  “You telling me you don't feel better after living outside the Cube for two months?”

  “This has been the worst two months of my life, Seth.”

  “I didn't ask if you were having fun,” he said. “I asked if you felt better, physically?”

  Other than checking to see if all my limbs were still in tact, I honestly hadn't thought about how I felt in weeks. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my own body. Did I feel better?

  “I'm stronger now,” I admitted grudgingly. “I didn't have much in the way of muscles when I left the Cube with the Scavengers. Swinging my machete felt like a lot of work. Carrying a backpack full of supplies made my muscles burn and ache at first. The backpack doesn't bother me anymore. The sword you gave me is a lot heavier than my old machete, but carrying it doesn't hurt either.”

  I opened my eyes just in time to see him give me another chilling smile.

  “I wish you could see the changes in you the way I can see them.”

  “Don't be creepy,” I told him.

  He laughed and closed the distance between us. “You looked sick the first time I saw you. Your skin was pale and had a tinge of jaundice because you'd spent so little time in the sunlight. You had no muscle tone. Your shoulders slumped with the weight of a half-full backpack. Your reflexes were slow. Those beautiful brown eyes were just a little bit dull, Pi. Malnutrition at its finest. It dulls everything about you. It makes you weak. clumsy and soft.”

  He reached for my chin and I held my ground rather than pulling away. Seth was a bit of a monster, but he wasn't going to hurt me. “You're so beautiful now, Pilar. I don't think I've told you how beautiful you've become.”

  The intensity in his expression sent chills down my spine. I forced a laugh as I met his eyes. “I'll never be beautiful. I'm not that kind of girl.”

  “And what kind of a girl do you think you are?” He countered.

  “I don't know. I wish I had a good answer for you.” I shifted slightly under his gaze. “I've always thought of myself as being very ordinary.”

  Seth laughed, a clear sound that seemed to echo off the trees around us. “Ordinary?” He made no effort to hide his skepticism.

  “Ordinary,” I replied. “And up until I met you, everyone in the entire world seemed to agree. My mother once told me that I would grow up to be a sturdy kind of girl, Seth.” I gestured at my own body. The broad, straight shoulders and less than delicate hips. Legs that had become thicker with muscle but no more lithe or graceful than they had ever been. Arms that were maybe just a hair too long for a short torso. Sturdy, indeed. I was more turtle than gazelle.

  Seth chuckled. “You're the High Priestess of the Church of Chaos. You can control zombies with your voice. Maybe you are sturdy, but do think that a pretty little shrinking violet would survive by my side?”

  “I'm not your High Priestess,” I said.

  “Aren't you?” Something cold flashed in his eyes then. “The High Priestess is someone I'll listen to, Pi. She's a force to reckon with. Are you sure you're not that girl?”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it before something stupid came out from between my lips.

  Seth saw me catch myself and smirked. “I don't particularly want to go inside the Cube, Pilar. I only agreed to go in because you asked me to.”

  I swallowed nervously. “We have to save the people.”


  “We have to save the people.” He said the words as if he were tasting them on the air. “Because you have decreed that we must.”

  “You'd really kill them all?”

  “In a heartbeat,” he replied. “But I'm not going to because you're my conscience, Pi. You won't let me burn this hellhole of a prison to the ground.” He abruptly released me from his grip and took a step back. His chest was rippled with muscle in the rising moonlight that surrounded us. “Of course, if you're not the High Priestess then you're just one more voice in the din of thousands of screams. If you are just an ordinary girl, then maybe I shouldn't listen to you.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face. “Damn you.”

  “You can't have it both ways, Pilar. Either you are the High Priestess or you aren't.”

  “And if I say that I'm not, then thousands of people are going to die?”

  He shrugged. “They may already be dead. Who knows?”

  “We can't know unless we go into the Cube.”

  “We may be bargaining over a thousand corpses.”

  “I hate you,” I cursed under my breath.

  Seth's smile never wavered. “Make your choice. Either be my High Priestess or walk away.”

  “Walk away?” The words sounded like an impossible fantasy.

  “Why not?” he asked. “No ordinary girl would want to get in the middle of a fight between the High Priest of the Church of Chaos and the Powers That Be. It would be madness, wouldn't it?”

  “It is madness, regardless of who you are. If it weren't for the super zombies-.”

  “Ordinary girls don't worry about super zombies, Pi. You could go back to the city and get a job. Maybe in the cleaning department. I hear they're always looking for people to keep the communal showers clean. You could get a little apartment in the Burroughs and spend your days scrubbing away at tile floors. You wouldn't ever have to think about the super zombies again. At least, not until they stormed the gates of the city and ate your ordinary little self for lunch.”

  I was severely tempted to slap him. “You've made your point.”

  “Have I?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” I swallowed unhappily. “As tempting as the thought of running away is, I can't do it. It's not in me. I'm braver than that.”

  “You admit that you are my High Priestess?”

  “Fine. Yes.”

  “Say it.”

  “I am the High Priestess.” The whispered words stung my tongue and made goosebumps break out on my skin.

  Seth's grin widened. “Louder. Say it louder.”

  “I am the High Priestess,” I repeated.

  Seth grinned at me. “You are my High Priestess.”

  I shuddered as a piercing scream cut through the night.

  Chapter 2

  “Where is it coming from?” The screams echoed too loudly through the night air.

  “Not sure.” Gauge stood in the center of our camp. His eyes were a little too bright in the light of the torch he was carrying.

  “It's not one of us,” Dawn, one of Seth's most devout followers, was hovering near the edge of the clearing. “We're all here.”

  Scream after scream carried across the wind.

  “No shit.” Liam, one of the few Church of Chaos members who had also been one of the Cube's Scavengers, cast a nervous glance in the direction of the looming former prison. “I think it's coming from inside.”

  “In the Cube?”

  “Do you see any other buildings for 30 miles?”

  “You don't have to be an ass.”

  Gauge held up one hand before the bickering could get worse. “I agree with Liam. It's got to be coming from inside the Cube.”

  The screams continued, now punctuated with a short shriek every 30 seconds or so.

  “I'm not going to be able to sleep through this.” Vera glared sullenly up at the Cube. Her long black hair had fallen across her face like a curtain. She pushed it back with obvious irritation.

  “Maybe someone's getting eaten, ya think?”

  “Eaten by what?”

  “Who knows?” The speaker was a stocky brunette boy whose name I couldn't remember. “Either the super zombies or the flesh brokers, I reckon. Does it matter?”

  “Flesh brokers aren't contagious,” Vera mused sulkily. “And they won't be that hard too kill. I'm more worried about the super zombies.”

  “If the super zombies are causing the screaming then they sure are taking a long time to kill their victim.”

  The piercing cries continued.

  “I'm going to go see who is dying,” Vera announced. She cast a sideways glance towards Seth. “You coming?”

  “Why not?” Seth shrugged as if he were bored. He looked down at me. “Stay here.”

  Vera sat down on the edge of a log that Gauge had chopped down earlier in the afternoon. She pulled on her lace-up knee boots as casually as the girls I'd grown up with inside the Cube had slipped on their little silk booties. She had a wicked looking long-bladed knife strapped to her left thigh. It was easily visible underneath the short skirt she was wearing. With her waist-length ebony hair, ice blue eyes and long, slender legs, Vera was exactly what I'd pictured the High Priestess of the Church of Chaos would look like. Dark, beautiful and oh so incredibly freaking dangerous. A very female, very sexual version of Seth.

  “Pilar can come if she wants to,” Vera said as she shot me an unfriendly glare. “Though she looks awfully pale. I think she's too scared to keep up with us.”

  I sucked a breath in through my teeth and willed myself to be strong. “I'll go with you.”

  Seth frowned down at me. He was giving me the same look I'd gotten as a child when I disappointed one of my parents. “You shouldn't let her bait you.”

  “She's not,” I lied. My face was burning from a combination of physical exertion and embarrassment. Afraid the screaming was coming from our camp, Seth and I had run back to the clearing to find everyone in a state of confusion. The screaming was not coming from our camp, but now I had sweat running down my spine. It was a disconcerting feeling on such a chilly night.

  Vera stood up and began stalking towards us. She moved with the same cat-like grace as Seth did. The fallen leaves that carpeted the forest floor barely seemed to move under her feet as she faced her brother. “Leave her here for Gauge to babysit. She's a lousy fighter.”

  “Pilar can make her own decisions.” Seth calmly cast a glance at Gauge. “Besides, I figured Gauge would want to come with us.”

  “I can if you want me to.” Gauge was easily 6 foot 4 and had arms thicker than the trunks of most of the trees surrounding us. His chest spanned too far across for most shirts. Tonight he was wearing his favorite uniform of sorts, a plain brown tunic shirt and blue jeans. He had an ax strapped to his hip.

  Standing beside Seth, he looked utterly harmless. There was no viciousness in Gauge's warm eyes. If anyone could convince the people of the Cube that we weren't going to kill them, it was Gauge.

  Vera narrowed her eyes at Gauge. “You're slow.”

  “Oh, I think we both know that's a lie.” Gauge ran one huge hand through his shaggy, dirty-blonde hair and winked playfully at Vera.

  She maintained her scowl for another minute or so and then the corners of her elegant mouth turned up. “You're impossible.”

  Gauge grinned at her.

  The screams stopped abruptly. Silence filled the clearing.

  “Maybe we should just bomb the Cube and be done with it,” the short guy said. “Blast it and all its zombies off the face of the planet. Let God sort the humans from the undead.” He let out a nervous chuckle that was far too loud for the still night.

  Gauge's smile faded as quickly as it had come. He rubbed his forehead and then turned an unfriendly glare on the man who had just spoken. “Maybe you should go to sleep. Get some rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

  “Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say. Like anyone could sleep out here.” He glared at the clearing unhappily.

/>   “Angel can.” Liam pointed to a sleeping figure on the ground near the fire.

  “Angel could sleep anywhere,” the short guy replied. “Not me. No sir. I don't like being out in the open this close to the Cube.”

  “Shut up, Roggerio.” Gauge shot Roggerio a nasty look.

  Seth sighed. “On second thought, Gauge, why don't you and Pilar stay here.”

  “Hey, I can handle it,” I said even though I wasn't sure I really could.

  “I never said you couldn't.” Seth held up one hand to stop me from arguing with him. “I want you and Liam to sit down and work on the maps of the Cube some more. We need to make sure they're as accurate as we can get them before we go in tomorrow morning. You two are the only ones who have ever been inside. I'm counting on you guys to make sure we can get in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

  “You don't want me with you?”

  “Stay here,” Seth said. Vera sneered at me from behind his back. I was almost too tired to be angry with her. Almost. If I ever did decide to use my ability to control zombies for evil, my first evil deed was going to involve setting an entire horde on Seth's sister.

  “Gauge, make sure no one decides to wander off into the night. Just on the off chance we're not as alone as we think we are.”

  “You think the screaming was coming from someone outside the Cube?” Dawn's eyes had gotten very wide.

  “No, but just in case.” Seth gave her one last reassuring smile and then he was gone into the trees with Vera on his heels.

  Gauge surveyed the remaining group for a minute and then seemed to make a mental decision. “I'll stand guard. Liam, you heard Seth.”

  “Work on the maps.” Liam rolled his eyes. “I've already worked on the maps. They're as good as they're going to get.”

  “Pilar, you agree?” Gauge asked.