The Greater Number: Still As Death

  Hadji the Great was speaking to his followers.  "My brother's and sisters, will we allow the carelessness and negligence to continue destroying our environment?"
  The crowd answered, "No!"
  "Will we allow the love of money to continue ripping this world apart?"
  "No!"
  This had been going on periodically on the cross-country reign of terror that Hand of Karma had waged against the evils of humanity.  Roger Titian and his wife, Paula were shouting out their agreement with Hadji's tirades, but Paula was just a little less passionate.  The two of them had started following Hand of Karma immediately after their house had gone up in flames.  They didn't know who Hadji was, but they had nowhere else to go.  They had not yet participated in one of Hadji's raids.  Roger noticed Paula's expression of unhappiness.
  "Sweetie pie, is there something wrong?" he asked.
  "We've been following this guy since this morning, but he hasn't mentioned helping anybody or saving people's lives.  We've left our home town and I don't even know where we're going.  I thought the zombies were the problem these days, but we've got zombies all over the place within our group."
  "Yeah, I've noticed that too.  Maybe the zombies carry out his wishes," suggested Roger.
  "Zombies do one thing and that is kill and eat people.  If those are his wishes, I don't want to follow him."
  "But he does have a lot of good points."
  Paula shuddered.  "Yes, that's what makes it so easy for these people to follow him.  He does have many good things to say, but the solution isn't to kill the people we don't agree with."
  "We're not killing anybody, the zombies are."
  "But we're on the side of the zombies."
  Roger was bipolar and struggled with grandiosity.  "Don't think of it that way.  Think about the fact that we're on the side of righteousness.  When you're right, nothing else matters."
  Paula knew the signs when Roger was in a manic episode.  At those times, he had no access to the pre-frontal lobe of his brain which controls cognitive reasoning.  This meant that he was not able to process the consequences of his actions or words.  He had lost view of the big picture, so to say.  She knew that there was no reasoning with him.  His medication and perished when their house burned down earlier that day.
  The group was advancing toward Yuma, Arizona where there was a reported safe haven.  Paula had no idea what to expect whenever they would arrive at Code Gray.
  Up ahead, it looked like there was a military base of some sort.  Hadji was giving orders.  As per orders, various groups were storming the gates of the base and others were looking for other ways in.  As soon as the gates had been broken down, Hadji sent in the zombies.
  Paula stood back and watched in horror as she heard screams of agony emanating from within the walls.  She wanted to be able to stop the madness and help those who were in danger from being killed.  As she grew more and more hopeless, some of the zombies were beginning to pay attention to her.
  One of them grabbed her by the hair and sank his teeth deep into her jugular.  Roger had been holding a gate open for the zombies to enter the military base, but he started to come to help his wife when he saw what was happening.  He went over to the zombie, grabbed him and growled primally in his face.  Seeing that his prize kill had a stronger competitor contending for it, the zombie let go of Paula and stumbled toward the gates in search of fresh meat he wouldn't have to fight for.
  Roger collapsed to the ground, holding his wife in his lap.  "Sweetie pie, you can't leave me now.  We're supposed to grow old together.  Til death do us part."
  Paula's eyelids fluttered weakly as she tried to look her husband in the eyes one last time.  They locked eyes and then she let out one last breath.  After that she became still as death.  Roger just held her there, rocking back and forth in the sand and gently weeping.
  Moments later, focus came back into Paula's eyes.  She sat up and looked around.  Roger stood up as well.  By then his tears had been dried by the Arizona sun.  Together they approached Code Gray.  Now, as a couple they would follow Hadji everywhere he went.  Hand of Karma had two new devoted fighters in the battle against the evils of humanity.

The Greater Number: Days of Mayhem

  "Alright, so this trip we're making to Oregon to escape from zombies can either be called Oregon Entrails or the Organ Trail, eh?  What do you think?" I asked.
  "Or we can call it the shut the hell up or I'll kick you where the sun doesn't shine trail, mouth breather," suggested Mbu with a smirk.
  "Do not speak so lightly of hell, son," pleaded Father Ng.
  "Father dearest, my freedom of speech doesn't infringe upon your freedom of religion," retorted Mbu.
  "Please, Father, allow me to submit my rebuttal to your son's eloquent jibe against my lively and jocular attempts at lifting the mood in the car.  Mbu, my old buddy old pal, I only breathe through my mouth around you because you've go halitosis, so why don't you take your grumpy attitude and stick it right up your..."
  "Hey, there's some people out there!" shouted Yanluo.
  We all looked out the bullet proof windows and saw that, indeed, there was a scuffle going on between a small group of people and some zombies.
  Thinking quickly, Enma took out a bottle of hand sanitizer from her purse, unscrewed the top and stuffed a sheet of tissue paper halfway inside so that enough of it stuck out for her to light with a match.  She shouted out the window, "Any humans out there, scatter now!  Fire in the hole!"
  Two of the people backed up, leaving four still grouped up.  Enma lit the tissue and threw the bottle of hand sanitizer into the middle of the group.  The improvised Molotov cocktail didn't exactly explode, but it did cause a lot of fire.  All four of the figures lit up like a toasted marshmallow.
  The thing about zombies, which makes it kind of creepy to watch when they're on fire, is that since they don't feel pain, they don't flail and thrash about like a person in pain would.  They just stand there until either their brains boil or their muscles are no longer attached to their bones.  Three of them continued what they were doing.  The only problem was that the fourth started to thrash around wildly.  All four eventually fell to the ground and remained still.
  The two people had watched the entire scene unfold.  One of them, a teen aged girl fell to her knees in body wracking sobs.  The other, a grown man, suddenly ran at the vehicle and started beating on the passenger side, shouting, "You son of a bitch!  That was my wife!  That was my..."  His voice trailed off, as did the fists on metal and he too crumpled to the ground in tears.
  Enma was horrified.  She was going to exit the vehicle, but Father Ng put a hand on her shoulder.  "Give him a moment.  I'll go speak with him.  Enma wept while her husband went to comfort the mourning widower.  He whispered a prayer over him.
  The man got up weakly and put his hands up in protest.  "Please, mister, I'm an atheist."
  Father Ng backed up a bit, giving the man a respectful distance to honor his beliefs.  The man walked over to where the teen aged girl was crying and reached a hand out to her.  She took his hand and got to her feet.  Father Ng asked them if they would like to ride in the vehicle with them.  Reluctantly, they accepted.
  For a while, the Centimator drove on in silence.  The sobbing came in waves ebbing and flowing with cycling emotions.  Enma finally mustered the strength to attempt speech.  "I take full responsibility for what happened and I apologize from the bottom of my heart."  Having said all that can be said in such a situation, she gave the two newcomers time to process.  She expected no response and got none.
  After a long while, the man felt compelled to at least express appreciation for the ride.  "My name is Edger Holts and this is my daughter, Cyril.  I want to thank you for picking us up."  After that, it looked like he wanted to say more, but he restrained himself.
  "Oh Lord, there are so many of them!" Father Ng exclaimed as a wall of zombies came into view.  Just then he hit the brakes as a huge lumbering furry humanoid form stepped out of the bushes and into the road.

The Greater Number: Alive Again

  "Okay, so we're in the middle of the Himalayas in a bus with a few days worth of food, lots of gasoline, but a leaky gas tank and we're surrounded by zombies.  Sound about right?" asked Liam.
  Everyone on the bus was not paying attention to him.  Some nodded, some were in shock, some were in a panic mode.  The situation did look pretty dire.
  Eddie the bus driver raised his hand and spoke at the same time.  "I know how to patch up the gas tank and thankfully, most of you are good shooters since this is the wall duty bus."  So it was decided that Eddie would go fix the gas tank while three others would cover him with their rifles.
  To lighten the bus so they could jack it up, the gas canisters were off loaded and stacked by the tail end of the bus in the snow.  All non-essential personnel in the operation then got back onto the bus to await its successful completion.
  Inside the bus, a conversation started about Hand of Karma.  "I, for one, agree with Hadji.  No one on this planet cares about anything anymore.  In the old days, if a kid misbehaved, you smacked him.  Nowadays, you put him in time out.  What's that do?  Now you've got kids shooting each other at school and having sex and doing all kinds of drugs.  Well, the day for retribution has come.  Hand of Karma is going to weed out the wheat from the chaff."
  Beau Ottoman couldn't believe his ears.  "So your solution to people not loving each other is to kill them all? Is that any more loving than shooting up a classroom?  Hand of Karma is killing many innocent people."
  "Who's innocent?  No one's truly innocent.  I tell you it was human evil that brought these zombies."
  Darion Morris remembered something.  He turned to the Japanese scientist.  "Kojira, you seem to know a lot about these zombies.  How do you know so much?"
  Kojira put his face downward and said nothing.  Clark wanted answers and was getting frustrated by the scientist's silence.  He pointed his rifle at Kojira's chest.  "You have a choice.  This can either be a deathbed confession or a friendly conversation."
  Tears streamed down Kojira's face.  "It wasn't my fault.  There had been some well preserved remains of a woolly mammoth in Russia.  Some of the remains were brought to Japan because we wanted to clone a mammoth using DNA from the remains and splicing them into the DNA of a modern elephant.  I headed up the team that was working on this.  The only problem was that people who were exposed to the remains started getting sick.  I was somehow immune to whatever was going on.  People started dying, but that wasn't the worst part.  Then they started coming back to life.  That's when I fled Japan and came here."
  "You son of a bitch!  I knew it was human evil that brought these zombies to us!" Clark took aim, but then there was a commotion that started outside the bus.
  Several zombies had come, attracted by the smell of the small team of people outside working on the gas tank.  Miriam, Father Mucker and Shirah were shooting at each as it came.  Eddie was a trooper and single-mindedly kept at his task, trusting his team to keep him safe.
  Unfortunately, a stray shot hit one of the gas canisters behind the bus.  An enormous explosion rocked the area as the one canister started a chain reaction with all the others.  If they had been on board the bus, it would have been destroyed.  As it is, the rear of the bus was blown wide open.  Eddie was instantly killed.
  Inside the bus, the tour guide, Ling-Yu and the Smith sisters, Ravensong and Sythrain, who had been in the back of the bus were killed by the explosion.  Julianne and Kojira had been in the middle of the bus and were injured by flying debris.  Beau, Clark, Darion, Liam and Father Fen-Chang had only some minor scrapes and bruises.  The heat inside the bus was unbearable so those who were well enough helped the injured to exit the bus.
  Shirah had been hit in the head by a chunk of metal from one of the gas canisters.  Her body lay in the snow while Father Mucker and Miriam were searching for a pulse.  There was none.  Every one of the shooters was now carrying their weapon while the others tended to the injured.
  Julianne had bandaged her own wound and was helping Kojira who was in bad condition.  There were still zombies around, but the fire had scared most of them off.  The shooters took care of the few straggling zombies who were brave (or hungry) enough to ignore the fire.  After all the zombies they could see had been dispatched, it was time to stop the fire.
  "We should use snow balls," suggested Liam.  It was agreed and all the non-shooters started making snow balls and throwing them at the fire, which had already begun to die down on its own, having depleted its source of fuel.  Soon the fire was out.
  Julianne was cradling Kojira in her lap.  "He's lost so much blood.  I don't think he'll make it even another hour even though I've bandaged his wound."
  Father Fen-Chang considered the situation.  He had overheard the conversation between Kojira and Clark earlier.  He came up with a plan.  "When he dies, it won't be long before he comes back to life and attacks us."  He turned to Clark.  "Clark, here's your big chance to be the Hand of Karma."
  Clark froze.  "What are you saying?"
  "Come on.  You blame Kojira for bringing the zombies.  You want to rid the world of evil.  You want to be the Hand of Karma.  Well, this is your shot.  Kojira here is going to die and become a zombie.  What are you going to do about it?"
  Clark's hands were shaking.  "I was just talking.  I'm not a killer."
  "Well, the man you profess to admire is a killer and if you follow him, that makes you a killer too."  Father Fen-Chang motioned for Julianne to leave Kojira in the snow.  She stood up and stepped back several paces.  Father Fen-Chang calmly aimed his rifle at Kojira's head and pulled the trigger.  Following the explosion of brains and blood, Clark crumpled to the ground, sobbing hysterically.  Father Fen-Chang laid an hand on his shoulder.  "Now please, help us figure out what to do."  Clark nodded his head and got up. 
  Miriam had gone back inside the bus to investigate the damage.  She came back out.  "All the food was in the back of the bus, which was destroyed.  There's also a large hole that we'll have to cover up for both warmth and safety from the zombies."
  "We can use tools from Eddie's tool box to detach some of the chairs from the bus to use in patching up the hole in the back," suggested Liam.
  Miriam was still standing in the doorway of the bus and suddenly hands grabbed her from behind.  Those who had died on the bus had reanimated and were ravenous for living human flesh.  Immediately, Clark was in motion and he shot the newly undead Ravensong between the eyes.  She lost her grip on Miriam who was then able to exit the bus.
  She hugged him and burst out in tears at the same time.  Something in him had fallen into place, turning him from coward into hero within the span of moments.
  Ling-Yu and Sythrain awkwardly stumbled off the bus on a quest for flesh.  Father Mucker fired a shot straight into the ear canal of the former tour guide.  She went down like a chump.  Sythrain's entire right cheek had been ripped off in the explosion.  Beau shot her, but first got her in the throat.  She reached out for Miriam and was able to take a bite of her throat, matching wound for wound.  Unfortunately for Miriam, it was a wound that she could not sustain.
  Clark tried to free Miriam from the zombie's grip, but succeeded in getting bitten as well.  Sythrain took three of his fingers in one huge bite with her cheekless toothy mouth.  Miriam dropped to the snow where she bled out in less than a full minute.
  Beau lined up a second shot which hit its mark directly into Sythrain's left eye.  Her head became a pink mist.  Beau's shooting wasn't done yet.  He reloaded his weapon and shot Miriam's lifeless form in the head, then turned to Clark.  He paused a moment.  Clark was in shock and bleeding badly.
  Beau almost lost heart.  "Clark, I know we've had our differences, but I want you to know I consider you a friend now.  I hate to have to do this, but it's for the best.  I'm sure you don't want to be walking around as one of those things."  Clark nodded his head and looked Beau straight in the eyes.  It was with eyes locked in mutual respect that Beau pulled the trigger and Clark was no more.
  The fathers Fen-Chang and Mucker prayed over all the bodies of the deceased once they had been laid out in a row behind the bus.  In the mean time, Liam and Beau were detaching bus seats and fastening them to the back wall of the bus in as secure a way as possible, considering what they had to work with.
  Once everything was taken care of, everybody boarded the bus and closed the door.  There was nothing more that could be done.  There was no food, no gas, little ammunition and only a few more bottles of water left for all of them to share.  That night, they went to sleep with heavy hearts and empty stomachs.
  The next morning, there were more zombies outside, but they had left the bodies alone because they did not smell of fear.  The survivors used an emergency exit at the top of the bus to go up and relieve themselves over the side of the bus.
  Father Mucker had not slept much because he was pondering the thought of what to do about food.  They wouldn't last long without any and they couldn't stay there forever.
  Beau and Julianne, who were an engaged couple, were at the front of the bus.  Julianne was weak from her injuries sustained during yesterday's explosion.  Beau was looking after her.
  Father Mucker voiced his hard to swallow opinion.  "We're not going to make it without eating.  I've been thinking about our options."
  "What options?  We're screwed!" shouted Liam.
  Father Mucker put up his hands in a gesture that said, 'I understand your concerns'.  "We can gain sustenance from the meat laying out there in the snow.
  "I knew it, you old bastard, you're talking about cannibalism.  Aren't you a priest?  You're not supposed to be telling us to eat each other, man.  Whatever happened to love your neighbor?"
  Father Mucker nodded his head.  "Does anyone else have any thoughts?"
  Darion raised his hand.  "Those things out there are trying to kill us and eat us.  If we start eating each other, how are we any better than them?"
  Beau spoke up while holding his ailing wife.  "We're not killing each other to eat.  Anyone we've killed was to keep them from coming back and killing us.  Any of the bodies lying out there in the snow are not people anymore in the same way that those zombies aren't people anymore.  When you go to the supermarket, you buy a steak or a tenderloin.  You don't buy a cow."
  "Well, I don't know if I can live with myself if I know I've eaten somebody," said Liam.
  "I don't know if I can do it either," said Julianne.
  Beau brushed her hair off her cheek.  "Sweetie, you've got to.  You're weak as it is."
  Father Mucker said, "You know, Jesus could technically be called a zombie, but he had a different idea.  He told his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood.  If we thought of this as communion, perhaps it will be easier.  Our friends out there have sacrificed themselves so that we can be saved.  We honor their lives by making sure their deaths were not meaningless."  He leaned over the bodies.  "Farewell, my sunward friends. You have died in pain, but you shall not have died in vain."  He raised a knife.
  Just then, a large and furry humanoid figure emerged from the trees.

The Greater Number: Showdown At Xi' an

  When the zombie outbreak started in China, many scientists were brought in from all over the world to study the cause.  A Japanese scientist, named Kojira DeSoto just kinda showed up unannounced.  He seemed to know an awful lot about the zombies.  He didn't want to talk about it though, so he volunteered for wall duty a lot.  The bus drove him the 200 miles from the walls of Xi' an to the Great Wall of China so that he could patrol the wall with a rifle and defend the city from zombies.
  This left the scientific team, led by Darion Morris, his assistant, Liam Moor and two other scientists named Jasmine Basmati and Thadduceus Horowitz to figure out what they could about the zombies.  All they could squeeze out of Kojira was that the zombies were attracted to the smell of fear.  That was how they knew the living from the dead.
  Jasmine was a beautiful young female scientist from India who specialized in animal behavior.  Thadduceus was a middle-aged Greek scientist who studied mental disorders.  Darion was an American scientist from Arizona who was familiar with many infectious diseases.  Liam was an Irish kid straight out of college who was really just an apprentice under Darion's tutelage.
  As usual, they were all gathered around a table for their daily brainstorm session.  Jasmine had come up with a brilliant idea of extracting the smell of fear from volunteers and using it to turn the terra cotta army into a distraction tactic against any potential zombie infiltration.  The only problem is, how the hell do you extract the smell of fear from somebody?
  Dirty chop sticks and empty plates sat around.  "How can these people eat Chinese food every day?" complained Liam, sitting with his feet up on the table.
  "To them, it's not Chinese food, it's just food.  Now will you stop thinking about the food and try to help us keep from becoming food for the recently reanimated deceased?" suggested Darion.
  "Look man, you wanna extract the smell of fear from people, why don't you just make them afraid and hot at the same time?  Collect their sweat and call it a day."
  Darion, Jasmine and Thadduceus exchanged glances with each other across the table.  None of them could come up with a suitable hole in his theory.  "That's actually pretty good," complemented Thadduceus.
  "Shit.  Y'all trying to be all scientific and shit.  I'll even be your guinea pig.  Bring it on."
  With that, the team devised a system that was crude, but workable.  They had five captured zombies chained to a wall in a room.  They turned off the air conditioning in the room and put Liam in with them.  He had been given a lot of water to drink.  As soon as he was near them, they were all reaching for him and trying to grab him.  The scientists watched with some measure of pleasure as he broke out into a sweat as he frantically avoided the reaching hands.  After fewer than ten minutes, he was let out of the room.
  Sweat was skimmed off his skin using special tools and it was collected into a vial.  His theory still needed to be tested so they asked him what he would do.
  "Do I have to do everything around here?  You just take two tennis balls.  Rub some of my sweat on one of them, then roll both of them into the room with the damn zombies.  Make sure you can tell the two apart visually.  If the zombies go after the one we know to have my sweat on it, we'll know my idea works."
  It was simple and decidedly unscientific, but it would work.  They did as he said and the zombies tore up the tennis ball with Liam's sweat on it while completely ignoring the other one.  They had a working theory on their hands and there was no time to waste in implementing it.
  Not to be outdone by a punk kid from America, Thadduceus volunteered to be next.  They put him into the room and, as expected, the zombies were reaching for him.  Unexpectedly, one of them was able to break free.  It grabbed Thadduceus and sank its disease infected teeth into his fleshy throat.  The scientists outside the room knew there was nothing they could do for him.  They could only watch in horror as he thrashed about.  His eyes were frantically pleading for help, though his vocal cords could no longer function.
  Seeing that the other scientists had abandoned him, Thadduceus flew into a rage.  Still spewing blood everywhere, he grabbed the key from his pocket and unlocked the other four zombies.  He used a length of chain to shatter the observation window.  This was his final act before he was overpowered and devoured.
  Darion and Liam ran out of the building.  Jasmine was lost in the shuffle of people trying to figure out what to do with five escaped zombies.  They were scientists, not soldiers.
  There were regular guards posted on the walls of Xi' an.  Liam was roommates with the current guard on watch over the gate to the city.  He wanted nothing but to get out because he thought the city was doomed. He and Darion approached the guard.  "What's up, roomie?"
  The guard pointed his rifle at them.  "What are you doing here, Liam.  You know you're not allowed to leave the city."
  Somehow, a fire had started at the laboratory, which set off the fire alarm.  The guard looked at the building to see what was happening.  Liam used this temporary distraction to make a break for it.  Darion followed him because he knew the danger of the escaped zombies.  The guard turned around and shot his rifle.  The shot went all the way through Darion's thigh.  He managed to duck behind a rock.  He and Liam were able to use the large rock as a blockage to disguise their escape.
  Back at the laboratory, the zombies had bitten several people on their way out of the building.  Jasmine was one of them.  Many of the people of the city had shown up to investigate the cause of the alarm.  The zombies were able to get them as well.
  By this time, Thadduceus had come back to life.  He was patient zero in a new outbreak.  This was the beginning of the end for a city that had been the safe haven for many.  As the numbers shrank on the one side, they grew on the other.  Many fought valiantly, but eventually they all joined the greater number.

The Greater Number: The Unflowered Grave

  Mbu turned toward me.  "Hey, mouth breather.  What's your brilliant plan now?"  It was getting dark.  We had run away from that crazy town.  We didn't even know it's name.  All of a sudden there was some commotion in the brush on the side of the road.
  "Holy Krizmak!" I yelled, hiding behind my best friend.  A figure emerged from the bushes.  This ugly creature only had one arm.  We looked at each other and then took off running down the road.
  "Shinies!  It's me!" came a voice from behind us.  We slowed down and slowly came to a halt and risked a glance behind us.  The one-armed figure was walking toward us, yelling.  Since it was talking, we thought maybe we could see if it was someone who needed our help.
  "Dude, it's that old lady from Crazy Town.  I thought she was dead, man!"
  "I most certainly am not dead, you chicken shit son's of bitches."  It was Helen Hiawatha.  She was alive!
  "How the hell did you survive that zombie chomping on your fingers?" I asked.
  "When I was in the Navy, I lost an arm in a skiing accident.  That got me a medical discharge and a lot of medical benefits.  I thought I was going to evade that damn zombie.  I guess I zigged when I shoulda zagged.  I've always been a learn things the hard way kinda gal.  You witnessed the unfortunate demise of my prosthetic arm.  That's why I look so silly right now.  That which doesn't kill you or make you stronger can sure make you look like an idiot."
  "This is all fun and interesting, but those zombies are still back there coming for us," mentioned Mbu.
  We continued our trek in the direction of Marble Cliffs.
  "Hey, mouth breather, remember when we were kids and you called me Mad Mud and you were Bad Bud?  We were weird back then," reminisced Mbu.
  "Yeah, we were weird.  The bullies sure thought so.  Remember that guy who was twisting my arm wanting me to say uncle?  You came and kicked him in the nuts?"
  Helen was impressed.  "That's a friend.  You know, someone wins when you say 'uncle' not by breaking your arm.  It's your will he wants to break, not your arm."
  "Well, I haven't always been innocent of childhood meanness.  Remember that day we had a picnic at Marble Cliffs Lake with all those Asian families after church?  There was that kid who thought he could catch 600 sharks with a twig and a piece of string."
  "Oh yeah, we were all making fun of him.  He didn't even have a hook or bait."
  "Well, I saw him crying later that day.  I thought it was because we were making fun of him.  My mom told me that he had an inoperable brain tumor.  He had less than six months to live.  He was crying because he had gotten a headache.  I felt so bad."
  "Oh my God.  I had no idea.  I feel terrible!" I said.
  "Yeah.  He was eight years old.  I wish I could go back and let him live his whole life believing he can catch sharks with a twig.  I think about that whenever I pass by the lake."
  I wanted to help cheer Mbu up, but I myself am socially inept so I opened up my mouth and, "Remember that one Halloween when you dressed like Anubis and I was Hermes.  We called it the Night of Anubis."
  Helen looked at me like I was Hermes.  "Uh, you lost me at hello."
  "Well, maybe that's cuz I wasn't talking to you," I said like a petulant two-year old.
  Mbu elbowed me in the ribs and pointed to a sign up ahead down the road.  It very clearly stated, 'Marble Cliffs 7 miles'.
  "Holy Krizmak!  We're almost there!"
  "Is that the god of the Shinies?" asked Helen.
  "What the?  No!  It started out as holy crap, then became holy crizzap, then somehow morphed into holy krizmak.  It's just something I say when I'm excited."
  "Again, you lost me at hello, and this time you were talking to me, you Shiny asshole."
  "Myeh myeh myeh.  You know, that's as funny as a two-legged moron," was my socially inept retort.
  "Will you two just keep walking?"
  We did.  And before long we started seeing familiar landmarks.  All in all though, the place was a ghost town.  Luckily we hadn't bumped into any zombies, but the occasional tumble weed had us cowering every time.  We decided we needed a place to sleep for the night.
  "How about McGee Cemetery?" asked Mbu.
  "What the?  Are you out of your mind?  It'll be a three dog night in hell before I sleep in a cemetery in the middle of a zombie outbreak."
  "Okay, did you put any thought into your response to my suggestion or are you just being chicken shit?"
  "D, none of the above."
  "Alright then, let me break it down so that even you can understand.  Imagine you're a dead guy looking for living human flesh to consume.  Do you think a cemetery is the first place you'd think of to go to so that you can scare up some grub?"
  I was beginning to see the logic in his plan, darn it.  "Yeah yeah, you wouldn't go to New Orleans for their sushi or to Korea for their banana splits."
  "And I wouldn't go to you for intelligent conversation," dug in Helen.
  So it was decided that we'd hole up at the local cemetery for the night.  We each picked a spot in the cemetery to lay our weary heads to rest.  I noticed that all the graves had flowers except for one.  Always rooting for the underdog, that's the spot I chose.  It was the grave of Sierra Dophlet.
  That night I had a dream in which I saw a young lady in black.  I approached her.  "Hello, my name is Hewlett Fen-Chang," I said.
  "I'm Sierra Dophlet."
  "Hey, wait a minute.  Didn't they name the hospital after you?"
  "What hospital?" Sierra asked.
  "Oh yeah, that too.  I guess that was after your time.  How did you die?  I mean is that a sensitive subject like asking a woman her age or a moron his IQ?"
  "No.  I'm okay telling you.  Years ago there was a guy named Brian Bexton who moved into a house by a field.  That house used to be my house and that field used to be my dad's.  I am the daughter of Clifford McGee.  He was one of the first settlers here in this town."
  Like a moron I was about to ask if he was the one they named the cemetery after, but I caught myself in time.  Asking the same stupid question twice in one night would just be embarrassing even for me.
  "The field was my father's farm land, but with no rain, the crops failed.  My mother left my father and moved me and her back to Tucson where we are originally from.  I ran away from my mother to come back here, but my father had died while we were gone.  I stayed in a small cabin by the field which had become known as the Field of Treachery.
  "Brian Bexton and I were friends because he used to work for my father.  Brian had always wanted to see cranes.  They always flew over head, but would never land because there was no water.  The townsfolk thought he was crazy to think a crane would ever come here to Marble Cliffs."
  I had a question.  "Why do they call this place Marble Cliffs anyway?"
  "I found out when I moved back to town that my father had discovered copper when he was digging in his field one day.  Him and a fellow named Chargood Johnson made a copper mill by the field.  My father's name was Clifford, but they called him Marble Cliff because he had a glass eye.  Apparently, the Johnson McGee Copper Mill brought enough prosperity to this town to put it on the map.  When he died, they named the town after him.
  "So anyway, I wanted to help Brian Bexton achieve his dream of seeing a crane up close.  I decided to flood the field.  Late one night I grabbed a bucket and went to the river.  I kept bringing buckets of water to the field in hopes of making a small pond for cranes to land in.  In the dark, I slipped in some mud, fell and hit my head on a rock.  That's how I died.
  "Brian saw what I was doing and was inspired to continue it.  The whole town was touched by my story and helped him.  The day of my funeral, there was an entire lake on what used to be a barren field.  Brian eulogized me and at the end of his speech, a crane landed in the water. That was my gift to him."
  "You're talking about Marble Cliff's Lake!  It's still there and so is the Johnson McGee Copper Mill.  Gosh, you know, you've got hospitals named after you and lakes that you've built.  I don't have anything to show for my life.  As a matter of fact, I always feel like everyone's smarter than I am.  I just want to help people feel good about themselves, you know?"
  "Well, do you know what you could do for me, Helwett?" Sierra asked.
  "Me?  No."
  "You see that headstone with my name on it?"
  "The unflowered grave?"
  "It doesn't have to stay that way.  I noticed how you chose this spot as a place to sleep."
  We hugged and I awoke.  It was morning and it was time for the three of us to leave.  We walked into a nearby neighborhood.  On a sidewalk, there was a sign that said, 'Found Mattress'.
  "Yeah, found mattress.  If you want to go reclaim your lost mattress, they'll return it to you but only if you can make it come to you.  'Here boy.  Come here, my good boy'," I said.  Nobody laughed.
  We found a house that was abandoned.  We went inside to see if we could find any food and hopefully a radio so that we could find out where the safe haven was.  Luckily, we found both.  Unluckily, the radio said the nearest safe haven was in Yuma.  We left the house with back packs full of as much food and as many supplies as we could carry.  On our way out of town, we happened upon a zombie walking around aimlessly holding a broomstick.
  Mbu shook his head.  "Miles to go before I sweep.  Yep.  I know how you feel, buddy."
  "Well you Shinies better take me to your mother ship soon.  I'm old.  I wanna see the heavens," said Helen.
  I wanted to tell her we weren't really aliens, but I remembered that little boy who thought he could catch sharks with a twig.  I decided I'd let her live the rest of her life believing she'd met aliens who were taking her to the mother ship so that she could see the heavens.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 9

  Announcements went out over the loud speakers saying, "Emergency report, emergency report!  This is not a drill.  All hands not currently on watch must immediately report to the West Perimeter Road.  Muster with the Small Arms Supervisor at the West Gate Guard Shack."
  "Guess this shit's for real," was all I could come up with to say on such short notice.  Mbu was just as speechless watching all the citizens of Code Gray scramble about.
  Father Ng found us then.  "Your mother and I have decided we're not going to stay here any longer.  Hand of Karma is at the fence trying to get in.  We've heard about a safe haven in Ashland, Oregon.  We're going to escape from here and go there."
  "Dad, what's Hand of Karma?"
  "You haven't heard the radios?"
  "We've been on foot without a radio since we left that crazy town."
  "Well, apparently, there's a crazy monk who is leading the zombies to fresh kills.  He also has a cult following comprised of living people.  He believes that he has been chosen by God to wipe out all evil in the world.  He believes that anyone the zombies kill must have been evil in the eyes of God."
  "That sounds like Hadji!" I yelled.
  "Yes, that's the monk's name," said Father Ng.
  "This is all our fault.  We must have led him here.  He must have been following us this whole time!" Mbu said, slamming his fist on a wall.
  "You can't blame yourself, son.  They've been roaming all over.  They're a rather large group.  They would have come here anyway.  Right now, it's time to help your mother and me to keep your brother and sister safe from the attack on our refuge."
  Out the window of the mess hall, we could see that the perimeter had been breached.  Zombies were spilling in.  The six of us mad for the East Gate.  The Centimator was there as the sole guardian of the East entrance.
  Hadji had sent a contingent of the living to attack the East Gate because he had heard the announcements on the PA.  He knew it would be a weak point.
  The Ng family and I entered the guard shack and armed ourselves.  The small arms locker had been left open and unattended in all the confusion.  Father Ng, Mbu and I found all kinds of weapons from firearms to hand grenades.  We went out to help the Centimator defend the East Gate.
  The soldiers had their hands full using their machine guns to mow down the coming masses of people.  Luckily, Hadji had his zombie hordes concentrated at the West Gate.
  I pulled a pin from a grenade and threw it into the heart of the crowd.  The explosion seemed to disperse them all around.  From there, it was a simple matter of mop up for us.  It should've been smooth sailing from there, but then the zombies started coming.
  I tried the whole grenade tactic again, but that didn't send them scrambling like it did with the living.  As a matter of fact, even some of the fallen zombies were still crawling and clawing their way toward us.  The three of us sought shelter in the guard shack.
  The Centimator had a turret on top, manned by a soldier armed with a machine gun.  He tried his darndest to get the closest of the undead, but there were just too many of them.  The zombies surrounded the Centimator.  Higher math couldn't calculate how many pieces the machine gunner ended up in.
  The panicked soldiers inside tried to escape the assault vehicle.  They were immediately set upon by the zombies.  Within seconds there were intestines, blood, exposed bones and raw flesh everywhere.  The screams stopped then.  From the guard shack, where we were hiding, the three of us watched in horror as the bloodbath ensued in dramatic detail.
  At this point, there were only a dozen or so zombies.  They were temporarily distracted by their unholy feast.  We took this opportunity to take them out one by one from the safety of the guard shack window.  I felt like a sniper in some shooter video game.
  There was a huge din still coming from the base.  The three of us cautiously exited the guard shack and made our way to the Centimator.  We worked together to clear it of bodies both dead and re-dead.
  The Centimator comfortably seats six in the back, two up front and one on top.  We loaded the six of us up inside and made our way around to the West Gate to help with the fight there.  Unfortunately, it was fairly vacated.  The fight had moved inside the walls.  With heavy hearts, we decided it was time to head west.  Multitudes of people joined the greater number on this day at the Battle of Code Gray.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 8

  The bus slowly made its way toward the safe haven in Tibet.  Now there were fourteen people aboard.  The bus driver, Eddie Chong was resting in the back.  Father Mucker was doing the driving for now.  Father Fen-Chang was keeping him company.
  When Father Mucker failed to avoid a rather large fallen tree branch, Father Fen-Chang was surprised.  "Hey man, us Asians have a stereotype that you Americans are supposed to be, like these amazing drivers or something.  What's up?"
  Moe Mucker retorted with, "I thought it was the other way around.  I thought us Americans have a stereotype that you Asians are supposed to be bad drivers."
  "Well, I don't know about me, but you are certainly not living up to your stereotype."
  "I guess you can't believe everything people say.  I'm willing to bet that you don't even like fried chicken."
  Father Fen-Chang looked at his feet.  "Alright.  You got me on that one."
  The other passengers on the bus were from all over the place.  Most of them had been tourists when the outbreak erupted.  That group consisted of Miriam Divan, sisters Ravensong and Sythrain Smith, Shirah Couch, Clark Lutes, Julianne Davenport and Beau Ottoman.  Their tour guide was Ling-Yu Fu.  There was a scientist from Japan named, Kojira DeSoto.  The two newest arrivals were an American scientist, Darion Morris, and his assistant, Liam Moor.
  Darion had sustained some injuries when escaping Xi' an and Julianne who had studied nursing was tending to him.  When he awoke, she asked him how he was feeling.

  "I'm hurting in places I'd need three mirrors to see," he managed to weakly say.
  The group was deep into the Himilayas at this point.  Ling-Yu knew the way to Tibet, but the path was a treacherous one.  It didn't help that there were many zombies milling about, despite the remote location and the bitter cold.
  They were less than one hundred miles from their destination when disaster struck.  Father Mucker's less-than-perfect brand of driving finally took its toll and the bus ran over a large rock.  The rock just happened to scrape a rather large hole into the gas tank.  Not good.  They only got a little bit farther before the bus inevitably ran out of gas.
  They had plenty left on board, but someone had to patch up the hole in the tank first and the zombies were closing in quick.  They were safe as long as they remained on board, but eventually, their food and water would run out.  Something had to be done.