Chapter 22
A form flew through the room from the opened lower door and landed on the window frame. Katherine could see that it had a humanoid shape and a large growth on its right arm. Whatever it was, it had free reign over them. It leapt out of the smoke and was revealed to not be a beast from hell, but Liz with an angry look on her face. She yelled, “Everyone downstairs. We’ve secured the busses and cleared a path. Move now; some time today would be nice!”
As they filed out of the burning building, Katherine turned to Liz and said, “Well, you sure did come in the nick of-”
“Can it, witch. I hope you understand that you have no power anymore.”
Katherine did not answer her. She simply turned around and followed the procession out of the building. As her men ran through the burning building, debris fell on their heads. Holes started to appear in the walls and undead arms tried to make one last meal while they could. A giant fist grabbed the leg of the man next to Katherine, and he knocked her over. Liz severed the arm of the giant and picked up the man with apparent ease. She also grabbed Katherine and ran out into one of the busses.
They started to file into the busses and Colson yelled from the back, “Would you like me to blow the charges, ma’am?”
Katherine was about to answer, but Liz said, “Are we out of the blast radius?”
Colson answered by taking a little black cylinder and pressing his thumb to the top of it. He could be a god, Katherine mused, because he destroyed over a mile of area and created a giant fireball with his thumb. As the buses began to pick up speed, Marcus turned away from the undead invasion and hovered over the convoy of now refugees. Mish and Dragoon took positions opposite each other, as did Karen and Demetrius.
The titanicus surrounded the busses of six hundred people as they escaped. The ride home was harder than before. The men and women were filled with regret and it was obvious that the army behind them was in close pursuit. Katherine looked out of her window and looked to the rear. Marcus burned a section of the road fifty feet thick and rammed his tail into the side of each building. He did what he could to separate the undead from the humans. Ten miles later, the buses made it to the bridge and they passed over it four by four. Once all three rows and the last of the titanicus were over the bridge, Mitch reactivated the turret systems and the automated barrels held off the invasion.
Marcus wondered how long their ammo chains would last and remembered that they only had until tomorrow morning to decide how to deal with the new numbers of undead. When they reached the island, Marcus stopped the bus he could smell Katherine within. He said to her, “Come out, Katherine. Let’s take a walk.”
Seeing as she did not have a choice, Katherine walked out of the bus and moved alongside Marcus to the edge of the shore. They were completely alone at that point, and if Marcus wanted to do something, he had free reign to do it. She then realized that he always had such powers. He simply let her lead because Marcus thought she would do a good job.
Marcus said to her in a calm voice, “I did not take you all this way to kill you. I merely took you here so we could discuss what you were doing without outside influence. Tell me now; what were you thinking to take our entire armed force and pull them into a suicide mission. What's more, did you accomplish anything you planned to do?”
Katherine was quick to think; her life depended on it. She said, “I wanted our men to die in a blaze of glory. I wanted to go like that at the time. I also wanted to make your fight easier by killing as many of those damned creatures as possible.”
“And did you complete those tasks? Did you learn anything?”
“Well, we did not die like we wanted to and we didn’t kill too many of them. But you’ll see; our next charge will be sure to get rid of them for sure!”
“I asked before and I will ask again; what madness has consumed you? Neither you nor any human will pass that bridge until I say they can. I flew high above the airfield before moving in and would you like to know what I saw? Every undead was moving south past us to Mexico until your little group came under notice. Now we have a hundred and twenty million undead coming our way. Tell me now what you think of your actions.”
“I changed my idea. Now I say we take every man, woman, and child and give every one of them a gun. Every one of them marching into that fucking city and lighting up the world in a burst of-”
She was cut off by Marcus. He decided that she had had enough council and lowered his head to her height. Marcus saw a red mark trail across the sand as he silently executed the vile woman. Liz walked by and said, “Boy, Kat! Have I got news for…”
Liz trailed off as she saw the blood on Marcus’s lips. She looked up at him and said, “You really did it, didn’t you?”
“She was too far gone. Her leadership was lacking and her life was not worth the price of her future crimes. Go tell Colson that a new leader must be elected and then come to see me.”
As they filed out of the burning building, Katherine turned to Liz and said, “Well, you sure did come in the nick of-”
“Can it, witch. I hope you understand that you have no power anymore.”
Katherine did not answer her. She simply turned around and followed the procession out of the building. As her men ran through the burning building, debris fell on their heads. Holes started to appear in the walls and undead arms tried to make one last meal while they could. A giant fist grabbed the leg of the man next to Katherine, and he knocked her over. Liz severed the arm of the giant and picked up the man with apparent ease. She also grabbed Katherine and ran out into one of the busses.
They started to file into the busses and Colson yelled from the back, “Would you like me to blow the charges, ma’am?”
Katherine was about to answer, but Liz said, “Are we out of the blast radius?”
Colson answered by taking a little black cylinder and pressing his thumb to the top of it. He could be a god, Katherine mused, because he destroyed over a mile of area and created a giant fireball with his thumb. As the buses began to pick up speed, Marcus turned away from the undead invasion and hovered over the convoy of now refugees. Mish and Dragoon took positions opposite each other, as did Karen and Demetrius.
The titanicus surrounded the busses of six hundred people as they escaped. The ride home was harder than before. The men and women were filled with regret and it was obvious that the army behind them was in close pursuit. Katherine looked out of her window and looked to the rear. Marcus burned a section of the road fifty feet thick and rammed his tail into the side of each building. He did what he could to separate the undead from the humans. Ten miles later, the buses made it to the bridge and they passed over it four by four. Once all three rows and the last of the titanicus were over the bridge, Mitch reactivated the turret systems and the automated barrels held off the invasion.
Marcus wondered how long their ammo chains would last and remembered that they only had until tomorrow morning to decide how to deal with the new numbers of undead. When they reached the island, Marcus stopped the bus he could smell Katherine within. He said to her, “Come out, Katherine. Let’s take a walk.”
Seeing as she did not have a choice, Katherine walked out of the bus and moved alongside Marcus to the edge of the shore. They were completely alone at that point, and if Marcus wanted to do something, he had free reign to do it. She then realized that he always had such powers. He simply let her lead because Marcus thought she would do a good job.
Marcus said to her in a calm voice, “I did not take you all this way to kill you. I merely took you here so we could discuss what you were doing without outside influence. Tell me now; what were you thinking to take our entire armed force and pull them into a suicide mission. What's more, did you accomplish anything you planned to do?”
Katherine was quick to think; her life depended on it. She said, “I wanted our men to die in a blaze of glory. I wanted to go like that at the time. I also wanted to make your fight easier by killing as many of those damned creatures as possible.”
“And did you complete those tasks? Did you learn anything?”
“Well, we did not die like we wanted to and we didn’t kill too many of them. But you’ll see; our next charge will be sure to get rid of them for sure!”
“I asked before and I will ask again; what madness has consumed you? Neither you nor any human will pass that bridge until I say they can. I flew high above the airfield before moving in and would you like to know what I saw? Every undead was moving south past us to Mexico until your little group came under notice. Now we have a hundred and twenty million undead coming our way. Tell me now what you think of your actions.”
“I changed my idea. Now I say we take every man, woman, and child and give every one of them a gun. Every one of them marching into that fucking city and lighting up the world in a burst of-”
She was cut off by Marcus. He decided that she had had enough council and lowered his head to her height. Marcus saw a red mark trail across the sand as he silently executed the vile woman. Liz walked by and said, “Boy, Kat! Have I got news for…”
Liz trailed off as she saw the blood on Marcus’s lips. She looked up at him and said, “You really did it, didn’t you?”
“She was too far gone. Her leadership was lacking and her life was not worth the price of her future crimes. Go tell Colson that a new leader must be elected and then come to see me.”