Gravewalkers: Dying Time (26 page)

Critias explained,
“Gathering the stupider ghouls into packs, patience, and timing
seems to be their primary influence. Without satellite thermal
imaging, it would be difficult to locate them gathering in nests. I
suspect that if such a watcher knew where you were, the ghouls
would start gathering in one place nearby. They wait for you to
make some mistake then come streaming out all over in your moment
of vulnerability. I’ve never seen them build barricades or use
tools beyond the rare club, so I guess that’s beyond their
talents.”

“
When my father took over
and built Foragers’ Castle,” Jim related, “some of his men told me
a ghost story about the coliseum dome here in town. Today the place
has a huge hole blown out through the roof to leave it open to the
sky from when the National Guard was using their helicopters to
dump in thousands of infectious bodies, but early on that coliseum
was the first rescue shelter the government set up in the city
before the ghouls overran it all. That rescue shelter attracted so
many of the worst sort of scum that no decent people dared stay
there among all those savage street criminals and junky rapists. My
father’s men used to say that place bears a curse now and if you
ventured close to the doors you would hear strange whispers and
ringing bells coming from inside trying to lure you in to your
death like sirens of Odysseus. They gave their demon a name,
calling him Jinglebells, saying he lives in there. The boogieman
lives in there is what they told me when I was little. We’ve always
stayed away since we had no need, but the things you say make me
wonder about it now.”

“
If a watcher were to
build a nest,” Carmen reasoned, “it would be in a metropolis where
ghouls are plentiful. They would choose a spacious underground
place where no human would dare go.”

“
If that dome was such a
place,” Jim replied, “then they have never attacked us in force
before and the Castle is right on their doorstep.”

Critias considered all he
had ever seen to assemble an explanation, “If there is any truth to
all of this and I’m not entirely sure that there is then I would
say the watchers are much akin to us. We see each other as
dangerous and prefer to avoid one another whenever possible.
However, if one side threatens the home or food supply of the
other, we will attack to put an end to it. So long as we don’t
become a threat to their survival they wouldn’t do anything to draw
attention to themselves.”

“
Live and let live is a
strange philosophy for a marrow sucking ghoul,” Jim
commented.

Kevin offered his opinion,
“I have seen the reports from the fall of the Chicago reclamation
center and the likelihood of the least-mobile infected advancing
first in concentrated numbers is extremely improbable unless caused
by some exterior influence we have yet to identify.”

Jim looked to Kevin, “Do me
a favor and write up a bulletin for Funland. I want the guards and
support crews to report any unusual ghoul behavior they witness on
our perimeter. Tell the Foragers to report any odd activity they
observe, like too many crawlers banding together. Have them send
their reports to you and then you can try to tell us what else
improbable is going on with them. There’s always a chance we
haven’t being paying close enough attention to their range of
activities. If we’re going to reach some tipping point with our
growth, I want to know it’s coming before it hits. What happened to
that Chicago base is not going to happen to us.”

“
I will prepare the
document right away,” Kevin pledged.

“
Is that everything for
now?” Jim was ready to leave, “We can go over some ideas for
Houston at dinner tomorrow or the day after.”

“
Yes, I think we’re done
here,” Bob answered. “If I learn anything new I will be sure to
keep you informed.”

As Jim was leaving, he
paused for one thing more, “And Kevin, put on the bulletin that
anyone we catch sleeping on guard duty will suffer an unmerciful
fate at the hands of their King. I’m also going to start doing
surprise checks for medical and weapons inspections. Hatchet will
flog anyone we catch with an unloaded gun. People we find with no
gun at all, he will flog then put in a cage for a month to heal so
he can flog them again. We have gone so long without any deaths; it
worries me they might start getting sloppy. After they’ve had
twenty-four hours to get the message, you call for spot checks once
a week, or more often if you think the situation requires
it.”

“
It will be as you say,”
Kevin confirmed his instructions.

Carmen grabbed Jim’s
shoulder before he could exit, “Let me see if your gun is
loaded.”

He pulled up his pants’ leg
to reveal the small revolver in his ankle holster, “Which one do
you want?” He tapped his hip holster, “Or you want to see this
one?” He drew another automatic pistol from a concealed holster at
the small of his back, “Or perhaps you mean this one?”

“
Just checking,” she
smiled innocently.

“
Good,” Jim told her as he
walked out in less than a cheerful mood. “It is best if everyone
understands that I’m not fucking around. If anyone thinks this is
all fun and games, they can go ask that fat kid.”

Once he was gone, Carmen
felt confused about his reaction, “Did I make him angry with
me?”

Critias put his arm around
her ready to leave too, “It has nothing to do with you. In fact, I
think you made him feel better. He wants us to know he expects the
same from himself as he asks from everyone else.”

She needed an explanation,
“Then why is he mad?”

Critias explained, “I
wouldn’t let you toss out that tub-of-shit Danny because you and
Jim are alike. You have a moral sense and such dirty business
leaves a mark that you don’t soon forget.”

“
But you’re the one who
tossed him into the street,” she pointed out still confused. “Do
you have a mark on your soul?”

He pushed her ahead of him
out the door, “I’m the First of Thirty Tyrants. I don’t even have a
soul.”

Chapter 10: Leap of
Faith

After the meeting with Bob
and Kevin, Critias and Carmen returned to their small room to
relax. On the way, they didn’t discuss going to Houston since there
wasn’t really anything to debate. Critias would go as a matter of
duty and she would follow out of inseparable devotion. If anyone
else were to join them, it would only make their quest all that
more difficult. Together they could survive almost any number of
ghouls by using escape and evasion, at least so they believed.
Anyone else would hold them back as a burden and
liability.

Carmen didn’t want to talk
shop since she had other ambitions in mind for their evening. His
open declaration of love still lingered acutely in her thoughts.
The way his fluster over the admission had prompted Critias into
the remorseless execution of a worthless lummox only heightened her
romantic zeal. It was undeniably true that Jim bore the
responsibility for denying the cretin admission into his community,
but Critias’ cathartic confession of their love had aggravated the
impulsive timing of his prosecution on that warrant. She knew that
Critias was a true stoic at heart. He was a man that strived to
maintain an attitude of acquiescent dispassion whether it was with
his violent profession or his recreational fornications with his
proprietary slave. Carmen felt thrilled to be his taboo amour that
enflamed him into breaking with his practiced restraint. She loved
him so much that even her freedom best served her as a means to
prove that she was his willingly enthralled concubine.

The day had proven to be
more than memorable for Critias as well; not only had he admitted
to his proscribed infatuation for Carmen, Bob had explained that
she was far more than the mere automaton that the bioengineers had
so carefully led people to believe. Furthermore, it wasn’t every
day that he tossed a person to their death, not that he regretted
it. That wretch was a menace waiting to happen just as Jim had
wisely decreed. The rescue itself had been venturesome in the
extreme with all their leaping about amongst a ghoulish super
tribe. Critias was mindful that Carmen’s bodacious audacity had
been the foundation of their success and he was man enough to admit
that her gift for the work gave him a dram of jealousy. They had
only just arrived and the community already recognized them as
officers, even paladins of the king as it were. Carmen’s skill had
gone a long way into making that a reality.

Critias stretched out on
their bed with his hands behind his head while he watched Carmen
cavort about in her unimaginatively conventional underwear that he
had procured for her with the other wardrobe.

“
I have no need for
modesty,” she grumbled. Carmen only pretended to complain about how
he insisted that she should dress herself with propriety. In truth,
his assertion of dominance captivated her sensibilities.

“
But you do have need for
dignity,” he corrected her while he admired the view. “True beauty
should be unobtrusive and never vulgar.”

His reasoning made her
thoughtful, “You want me to remember that there is a proper dignity
and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of
life.” She drew upon the meditations of Marcus Aurelius in the
belief that it would appeal to his stoicism.

“
Just so,” he approved of
her quotation that so admirably mirrored his own
thoughts.

Carmen crept onto the bed
to prowl atop him until they were nose to nose. “For your touch,”
she purred, “I would cheerfully bear the reproach of having
descended below the dignity of propriety.”

He reached around her to
help shed her trappings of formality. “Between us there could be no
vulgarity,” he replied. “You are that grace beyond the reach of
art.”

She had been right about
the limits of his strength. Carmen failed to get even a single
spark from her hair no matter how well he charged her electrocells.
They made love till exhaustion then Carmen gave an amazing
demonstration of contentment by falling asleep against him even
though sleep wasn’t something any android ever required. When
Critias awoke in the night, his test to be sure that she was
genuinely unconscious caused her to awaken. Carmen had truly been
asleep and took his rousing touch as invitation to exhaust him yet
further before they passed out once again.

Kevin had spoken truly that
the bioengineers had designed Carmen to appeal to Critias’
subconscious effigy of the perfect companion. Everything about her
enthralled his senses, whether it was her scent, her softness, or
her excited rigidities. If her capacity for fierce independence
coupled with an even fiercer devotion were not enough to ensnare
him, she had even found a way to legitimately sleep curled against
him complete with an angelic expression that could break his heart
if he admired her for too long. Her sleepy cuddling had been
adorable enough when she had to fake it. He found her really
sleeping doubly so.

Critias awoke rested a few
hours before dawn to discover Carmen was gone and she had taken his
mechsuit with her. The suit wouldn’t fit her even if that were her
intention and the only person with the skill to do maintenance on
it would be Kevin so he had a good idea of where she had gone with
it. He dressed in some running shorts and shoes then left their
room to jog. Critias took the stairwell down toward the lobby only
to find that heavy gates blocked his way to the bottom. There was
no guard around to open the padlocks so he just turned around then
ran the stairs back up to the top where he used the elevator
instead.

The guard at the front
entrance by the quarantine cells offered a friendly wave, “Hey,
Critias, you’re up late. You might want to avoid sneaking up on
anyone at this time of night to not have someone popping off by
mistake.”

“
I don’t think we’ve met,”
Critias emphasized that the guard already seemed to know his
name.

“
Kenny,” the guard offered
his hand for a friendly shake. “I’m the new midnight to six watch,
just started tonight.” Kenny knew who Critias was because of the
marshal’s recent heroics on the road with the King.

Critias got to what was
actually on his mind, “You didn’t see Carmen come past here did
you?”

Kenny knew who Carmen was
as well, her especially because she was so beautiful. He described
her as a demonstration that he understood whom Critias was asking
about, “Carmen is the pretty one with the colorful hair. She must
still be upstairs because I haven’t seen anyone all night. If I do
see her, I’ll tell her you asked about her.”

Critias asked, “Do you live
here upstairs?”

Kenny thought it was odd
that anyone would think he could live there, “Me? Nobody lives here
but the King, Tinker Bob, and the adrenaline-junkies who let ghouls
chase them around town. Some of the exterior-gate and Foragers’
Castle support-crew leaders have worked their way up to an
apartment here in King’s Tower. I suppose those support jobs are
kind of the same thing. The drivers bang up the vehicles and get
those edges sharp as knives, just one scratch and you’re a freak.
That’s not for me. I used to be a welder’s assistant, but I can’t
weld any good, so I switched over to guard patrol. I live in the
rapid deployment barracks in the Customs House.” He pointed through
the wall to the right of facing out the front entrance, “That’s the
other building over there where you’ve seen Funland. Many people
like me live upstairs. There are some real nice apartments people
have put together, but I don’t mind the barracks.”