Gravewalkers: Executive Decision

Gravewalkers

Book Two

Executive Decision

Richard T. Schrader

Copyright © 2013 Richard T. Schrader

Copyright © 2022 Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Contents

Conquest of Kingdoms

Thus Always to Tyrants

Wild Hares

Heijira

Full House

Roar of the Rat

Longer than Death

No Prince for Verona

Tobacco of the Gods

Chapter 1: Conquest of Kingdoms

A knock on the door of his small apartment in King’s Tower awoke Critias. It was in the afternoon, a few hours before suppertime. He had to push off the contentedly sleeping Carmen so that he could get up.

Critias opened the door on Jim who waited out in the hallway to hit Critias with a most unanticipated invitation, Do you want to come with me to assassinate the President?

Critias needed a moment to absorb that into his head, You mean that horror-house asshole out in Denver?

Jim nodded, That’s the one.

Just let me get my hat, Critias meant yes. We can meet you in Funland in half an hour.

Jim considered the hasty answer, Don’t you need to ask Carmen before committing her to this? It’s not going to be pretty, and I’m not going all the way out there to make friends with him.

Critias rightly assumed that the hardware-half of Carmen’s conjoined brain paid attention to what was going on even while the organic-half slept blissfully.

He told Jim, Carmen wouldn’t give me permission to go without her even if I demanded it. She followed me back in time; I wouldn’t ask her to let me go off alone now. We are partners and I trust her with my life a thousand times over. Besides, we’ll need her skills. She’s the smart one after all.

Jim silently agreed that Critias was correct, then went on his way to make his final preparations for the journey to Denver.

Critias went over to wake Carmen with a gentle nudge, Time to wake up, princess. We’ve got work to do.

She stretched languidly then combed her fingers through her hair to gather it out of her face before a wispy thought made her sit up with a confused expression.

Critias noticed her consternation, Are you feeling alright?

I’ve never been better, she answered truthfully meaning physically, but I have this odd feeling like I’m supposed to be doing something only I’ve forgotten what exactly.

Because Kevin’s software upgrades deactivated most of her empathic emulators, Carmen had never before needed to act on only her own inspiration.

In that moment, she gazed upon her master’s masculine abdominal muscularity with its gender trail of body hair. It was as though she saw it for her very first time. Carmen experienced a frighteningly unnerving physical desire for him that was unlike any sensation she had ever known previously.

That intense sensual realization caused her to remember that her temporarily forgotten normal morning ritual had always been to provide him with a bedroom entertainment viva voce.

Prior to her transformation, she had empathically sensed that Critias greatly enjoyed having her hum him a really good morning, and making him happy had been her duty in life.

With those emulators currently deactivated, the motivation to perform that lewd act upon him with her mouth that morning came purely from her own authentically self-generated lust. Her burgeoning self-awareness that she genuinely desired to do that to him only intensified her spiraling discomfort.

Carmen’s distressingly fulgent appetite for him surged right past mere fluster into the realm of chagrined panic. She manifested her virginal bashfulness by snatching up the bed sheet to conceal her newly mortifying nudity while also stumbling out of bed to find her clothing.

Critias observed her reactions intently mindful of the risky changes he had requested from Kevin, Are you blushing? She was, and he found her rosy-faced timorousness adorable, and her effort to conceal herself even more so because of her innocent naiveté.

No, I’m not blushing, she denied it even as she became ever more bashful, turning away to hide the color in her face, so flushed as it was with uncharacteristic embarrassment that she had no explanation for. With the sheet to her front, she also inadvertently offered him an unobstructed view of her rear.

Very nice, he complimented the firm curves.

She deftly wrapped her whole self in the sheet, Stop it. You have no cause to be teasing me. I wouldn’t be embarrassed if you weren’t staring.

He chuckled, Shouldn’t I stare at what is mine to stare at?

Critias drew upon the warnings Kevin had imparted about how he caused her unfulfilled codependence so he offered to calm her with attention, If not me, then who should watch you so closely?

He held his hand out to summon her, Do you think there is some part of you that I don’t claim as mine? I indulge your independence only because it entertains me. Come to your master. You are too devoted to refuse me anything, pretend however you may.

Carmen could not deny to herself that she greatly desired him, even to curl herself about his feet, yet even so, some new part of her was terrified for an as yet elusive reason. She found that she took his hand without having consciously decided it.

He drew her into an embrace to kiss her and it was delightfully terrible; she was so clumsy, as if she had never done it before and her heart hammered in her chest with unreasonable affright.

The empathic emulators had once been her guide through tumultuous experiences. Since the upgrade, those templates had abandoned her to wandering blind in darkness only able to feel her way forward by searching with lesser senses.

I will die for you, she blurted out as testament to her loyalty.

Don’t die for me anytime soon, he playfully tucked in the sheet around her to better enshroud her dignity. Now ready your things. We have to meet Jim in Funland in short order. There is important stuff going on and I need you with me.

Carmen grinned into a shield-wall of perfect gleaming teeth. Having Critias admit that he comprehended her absolute fealty toward him was both her comfort and her pleasure.

Right away, she pledged before rushing to gather her things. She was careful not to drop her sheet prematurely. Do you know how long we will be away? I don’t know what extra clothes to pack.

Take enough for a few days, he advised her on the assumption that if they were gone for any longer than that, they would make other arrangements for doing their laundry.

Pack yourself some nice pajamas while you’re at it. I have a sneaking suspicion they will be coming in handy from now on.

In addition to his bodyguard Hatchet, Jim would take the android Kevin on their hunting trip to Denver. Bertram Gray would go along with them as one of their pilots.

The six of them met in Funland.

Fat Jack had everyone repack their luggage and weapons after they had first spread it all out on the long tables.

I want you to take a careful look at what everyone else has, Jack advised. If everything goes to shit and you are one of the last still alive, you may find yourself trying to survive on the wild streets. Now is your chance to know what you can salvage from the others if they die. This is your final opportunity to remember something you forgot or think of something you will need later.

Fat Jack offered them further advice, Every ounce of prevention is one you’re still going to have to carry.

Bob pushed a grocery cart into Funland that had stout canvas carrying-pouches both inside and out so that it functioned as his mobile ammunition stand. The pockets had assorted specialty tools, cleaning supplies, and spare parts. Bob handed Critias and Carmen mint condition boxes of 10mm ammunition for their maschinenpistoles.

He informed them, We had to search through the storerooms to find these. They are two-hundred and sixty grain with fully charged casings. After he gave them five boxes each, Bob withdrew from within his cart a pair of new silencers that he had custom built.

As he handed them the suppressers, Bob said, Those bullets are so heavy that they’re practically subsonic by nature. These new suppressors are more efficient than your old ones and they disassemble for easy cleaning. You can upkeep them to maintain optimal efficiency.

When Jim and his team finally got everything repacked, they all gathered up their gear to move out.

As they headed off, Fat Jack told Jim, I will throw everything you have into getting things ready on our end for when you return.

Jim took them on a long walk through the underground tunnels of his community. They pulled all their assorted baggage inside two-wheeled plastic carts.

Most of their walk went due east along a creepy antediluvian brickwork tunnel. It had the look of a Victorian English sewer like would befit a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The passage was high enough in its arched brickwork to be comfortable without the need to stoop. The shape also seemed to promote a convection of air. If the antique tunnel had a flaw, it was in it being too narrow for a group to walk comfortably abreast.

This passage must be pretty old, Critias tried to estimate the true age from the various clues.

Bob thinks it’s about two-hundred years old, Jim told him. Perhaps it helped fine gentlemen sneak in and out of the best whorehouses in the city.

As I understand it, much of this tunnel is remodeled natural cavern. It originally reached the river or so the Underground Railroad stories say. The state highway project cuts this tunnel off a good distance from the water. It ends at a plug of reinforced concrete.

They walked eight-hundred meters before they entered a perpendicular actual heavy railroad passage. It was another old place. No train had touched the rail in half a century. The tunnel had been out of service for fifty years before the ghouls arrived.

The railway was remarkably similar in construction to the Smugglers’ Passage only on a greater scale. The brickwork vaulted-roof of the tunnel was so high that it maintained impenetrable shadows.

As Jim led them northward up the spacious rail tube, he lectured, Bob says this railway used to deliver the giant megaton rolls of paper to the newspaper machines back in like the time of the last world war. Both ends of this line eventually dead end at walls now.

Their group approached a guard who stood watch at a homemade freight elevator that went up through a chopped-out hole in the ceiling, presumably to enter into the basement of a building somewhere up near street level.

This is the Garden Building, Jim said pointing up. I have a truck here in the garage that Carmen can drive us in to the airport. Watering these crops is why we need Fat Jack to get us the pumps and water pipes from that industrial zone.

"I got that assignment with the Milk Wagon," Critias revealed his personal involvement with the issue.

Sally Headshot has the gift and she trained good people, Jim praised his gravidly inactive Forager Captain. You would be wise to trust in the advice of her Henry and Gloria.

The Milk Wagon truck was Sally’s machine and its name predated her pregnancy. The comical similarity between the two was purely coincidental.

The custom-made elevator delivered them into the basement of the Garden Building. The place served as storage space for the community’s horticultural interests. There were all sorts of hoses, plastic buckets, and ceramic flowerpots. Penny Gardener made her own nutrient soil among other endeavors like compost, fertilizer, and mushrooming.

Jim led them to a nearby stairway that took them up to the ground floor of the old hotel. That level was a dirty mess with the remnants of brick construction and the concrete they had used to plug up all the vulnerable entrances into the building along street level.

That sturdy reinforcement was already in place, so the area currently served as more space for loose storage. To judge by the mess alone, it had been a Herculean labor when the survivors had organized to brick off the lower floors of the building as defense against street roaming infected.

Their group finally loaded up into an armored military four-wheel-drive that stayed parked in a vehicle garage on that floor.

Carmen drove them all to the airport in only twenty minutes by the light of sunset. She followed the same route she had taken in the Betty, so she knew it well.

As they crossed the airport runways, Jim got ready to take over the driver’s position when he said, Carmen needs to jump out and do that gravewalk act over to get our plane started. I’ll keep driving around to keep the ghouls chasing us away from the plane.

Carmen climbed out from the roof hatch as Jim moved over into the driver’s seat and then he slowed down enough for her to jump off near the plane. After she rolled out the momentum of her jump along the ground, she imitated a crawler the rest of her way to the aircraft.

Plenty of ghouls saw and heard their truck through that calm clear night. At least a hundred of them howled up a storm as they ran after it. Jim led them to the far side of the airport and then herded the infected there by driving in wide circles. He wanted to give Carmen time to start the plane’s engines.

When she radioed that she was ready, Jim raced back to the plane at top speed.

He parked their truck near the plane’s ramp and then they all quickly unloaded their baggage under the watchful protection of Critias and Hatchet. Jim left the vehicle locked up behind them.

Carmen raised the ramp once they were all aboard and then she soon had the plane safely airborne. They were on their way to the country agriculture depot refueling station with Bertram acting as her copilot.

Critias saw that Kevin carried an assault rifle, You do combat now, science man? I thought you techies were more at home in the laboratory.

I will attempt to plug the hole if you happen to get shot, Kevin replied coolly, so I believe that combat medic would be the proper term.

Until such a mishap occurs, I’m also more than proficient with all forms of weaponry should I require to use them. My lack of a specially reinforced skeleton and bionic eyes does not by association diminish my ability to accurately discharge a weapon, should such a necessity present itself.

You will find some necessity, Hatchet said amused, cause we’re gonna get some, baby! It’s really kind of ironic too; I’ve wanted to kill the President since long before the zombies tore up all our shit. I always knew that slick-tongued weasel wasn’t worth a tinker’s dam and now I get to tell him to his face, right before we give him a confederate impeachment, Abe Lincoln style.

Jim offered them all a look at his hand-drawn annotated floor map as he informed them, Doctor Clara gave me maps, names, and all the information I need to take this place out a hundred different ways. I want you all to take a look at it to get at least a basic familiarity with what we’re dealing with.

It wasn’t long before Carmen and Bertram landed them at the agriculture depot for refueling under cover of evening gloom. Experience served them well in getting the plane topped off, and then Bertram piloted them off again as they headed for Denver with Carmen acting as copilot.

During the flight conversation, Critias asked Jim about the reasoning behind their mission, Why are we doing this anyway? Did you vote for the other guy in the last election?

Jim replied, I’m not old enough to vote even now, much less then. From the information I have collected, worthwhile survivors still populate that Denver base.

When the President and the other elites decided to stop feeding the people they considered expendable, their victims could purchase food with sexual slavery or other unequivocally detestable methods.

For all those lacking that option, he feeds them human flesh, which is how their common phrase of rape-stew came about. The people they murder end up as meat, but only after suffering unspeakable cruelty.

Some of the military officers were real men of honor and went to war to stop it. Unfortunately, they were not successful. Rather than come to us with the others in this plane seeking sanctuary, they stayed behind to fight the good fight.

There are innocent people who need our help and there are men with castiron balls there shaming us to equal their heroic actions. When the realistic opportunity fell so perfectly into my hands like providence from above, I knew we had to go out to Denver and put an end to it once and for all.

The explanation worked on Critias because he could see it now, I can’t think of any good reason not to roll in there and then peel his scalp back. He still didn’t understand what Jim expected to accomplish beyond the executions of the ringleaders, What are we going to do there specifically?

I want what’s mine, Jim answered decisively. If everything goes as I plan, you’ll see for yourself. Of all people, I expect you to understand this best. Brave men, those officers gave their lives for the common good and we shall arrive to help them like daring eagles’ heroic wrath of the good guys.

I’m going to take all that is worthy into my kingdom and then destroy all that is unclean by fire. We are going to get biblical on their asses. I won’t live out my days knowing we did nothing when we could have done what we shall do now.

I’m with you, Critias pledged. I have a special devil in my heart that I only let out for evil bastards, so whatever you need, I’ll back you up.

Carmen had followed their conversation with interest, Who am I allowed to kill? I need some clear perspicacity about our rules for engagement. I’m not supposed to kill humans, only ghouls, and I don’t think this situation really qualifies.

Critias sanctioned Carmen, Anyone that eats human flesh, provides it to others, or defends those who do, is a ghoul. That’s what they are, ghouls. You won’t be killing men. You’ll be dispatching monsters. You are a devil slayer, never a butcher or an executioner. We’re going to hunt monsters and that is something you do exceptionally well.

Jim considered the qualities of his enemies, Anyone not starving will almost certainly need to die. I will offer amnesty to the unfortunates and I want their leader alive.

Critias liked the sound of it, How much resistance are we looking at?

Jim speculated, Since there was an armed revolution against the President, I’m thinking he has lost a lot of his best men and he no longer trusts the ones he has left. We will just have to wait and see.

I know a thing or two about being a king. When you can’t trust all of your people owning guns, you can’t really trust any of them with guns. If we’re lucky, he may have few armed men left at all.

Hatchet handed out bowls, I brought hot thermos soup for dinner. Because they had all skipped supper, the food was a welcome comfort during the flight out west.

Bertram gave ample warning before their plane arrived at the Denver airport where they would set down. They were on approach for a runway at the far north end of the extensive complex in that city.

Even though the man was intimately familiar with their destination, he still needed Carmen’s help to perform the night instrument landing without the aid of any lights or traditional beacons.

The others prepared themselves for going out into the dangerous dark and then waited anxiously for their pilots to get them down on the ground with cut engines.

With the help of Carmen and her nightvision in particular, Bertram executed a perfect landing with no immediate signs of complications.

As soon as they had the engines shut down, Jim warned his team, We’re in a bad spot already. A lot of ghouls will have heard us come in for a landing. If we sit here quietly, they won’t be able to figure out which plane at this airport is the one they’re interested in attacking. They will eventually get bored and then go back to their routine.

On the other hand, if the President knows we’ve landed, we are sitting ducks. His smart move would be to kill us all right here and now, along with this whole damn plane.

Unless anyone has any strong objections, I want to move out immediately. I’m more worried about humans with heavy weapons than I am about the ghouls with their fingernails and teeth.

Critias volunteered, We’ll go first. This won’t be any different than what we had to go through in Houston and we’ve been practicing.

Critias is right, Carmen agreed. We should go first to eliminate any curious ghouls and then the rest of you can come join us.

Once Jim was confident that everyone was ready with their weapons and nightvision goggles, he quietly opened the side door so that Critias and Carmen could slip out.

A delightful breeze of cool night air greeted them when the door finally stood open. What at first seemed like an indistinct fluttering sound soon delineated into the noise of many bare feet as they slapped hard tarmac.

A moment later, a loud shriek erupted closer at hand. It came from a ghoul that flew at their doorway from a sprinted leap.

For all of its frightening intensity, the scream didn’t stop Critias from intercepting the airborne predator with a mechsuit boot that he planted into its angry face from where he stood in the doorway.

After Critias punted the ghoul down to the pavement, he used his MP5 to blast a slug of sound suppressed lead through its forehead for the long goodnight.

Critias jumped down first and then Carmen quickly followed. With their excellent nightvision, they saw that perhaps sixty infected were in the immediate vicinity. Only about half of them rushed for the airplane while the rest were still confused and somewhat lost in the dark.

Between the two of them, Critias and Carmen rapidly shot down all the infected that charged in at the plane. The first scream had gotten some ghoulish attention, but the subsequent silence left the general impression that it had been a false alarm rather than an actual indication of a ready to eat meal.

The couple pretended to be ghouls as they scouted the rest of their situation. A signal from Critias let Carmen know that he wanted to continue to clean up the area around the plane. They took more time to deliver careful headshots that eliminated all the other ghouls still close enough to be worthy of their consideration.

Critias then sent Carmen off to circle the plane while she pretended to be a limper. She would destroy any ghouls that came close enough to be a potential threat. While she moved off, Critias provided security as Jim and everyone else exited their aircraft.

Bertram was no soldier; he opted to wait behind to guard their plane, which wasn’t unreasonable since he could radio for help if he required it and without the aircraft they wouldn’t be able to return home.

Once everyone else was out on the tarmac, Jim said, There is an underground tram that used to transport passengers from the baggage reception terminal out to the three flight embarkation buildings. The maintenance end of that rail track goes to a small building just over there. That will be our way inside.

Critias took the lead while he sent Carmen to guard the rear of their small column. Everyone moved cautiously toward the rail maintenance shed. It proved to be a brief and uneventful journey.

Not a lot of headshot bodies, Hatchet observed with a whisper that wondered why that might be. I mean besides all the new ones they just made.

President Asshole never offered anyone sanctuary, Jim divulged. He made a point not to advertise to the locals that there was any safety to be found here. They didn’t even want anyone to know there was a secret underground city below the Denver Airport. It was never in their interest to put up a fight over the surface.

The maintenance shed bore no identifying signs or other markings to indicate its true purpose. It was a square solidly fabricated structure, windowless and secure compared to the lighter construction materials of residential housing.

There is electrical power here, Carmen pointed out the functional electronic keypad that controlled the locks on the steel door.

Jim tapped in the proper security code that he had learned from Doctor Clara. The door unlocked to the passcode and then everyone shuffled inside.

Critias followed up last to guard their rear. He paused long enough to use his panga-bowie to slice the head off the shoulders of a curious ghoul before he closed the door.

They needed their nightvision goggles to see at all in that inky interior. Jim led them through the greasy maintenance garage, past one of the airport passenger subway railcars, and then on a walk down into the earth as they followed a sloping tunnel.

After a hundred and fifty meters, Jim stopped at a thick steel slab on the floor that was actually a concealed hatch that covered a ladder that headed down.

You go first, Critias instructed Carmen as he pried up the cover plate. Keep watch for any kind of booby traps or surveillance equipment that might give us away. I’ll watch the back.

She expertly performed a veteran navy man’s slide down the ladder to disappear submerged in the deeper darkness. A gentle rap from her against the metal told the others to follow. They found themselves in a long corridor of overhead utility pipes.

Jim pointed the way ahead, There are eight levels to this base. These pipes bring fresh water and fuel oil from supplementary storage systems up in the mountains.

Clara told me that the first three levels no longer have inhabitants, but may be under control of the revolutionaries if any of them are still alive while banished to the surface.

Being honest soldiers, they would not destroy any mechanical equipment knowing that the prisoners below would be the ones who paid for it. We can expect to find access to electricity and clean water here, but any food will be deeper down and under the control of the President. If friendly soldiers are still alive and surviving here, they are foraging all their food from the wilds.

The slave caste are whoever is left of the innocent people. They live on the fourth floor in a communal dormitory. Food storage is on level five along with most of the leader types and their bully guards. The President’s personal rooms are on level six. The bottom two levels are continuity of government areas that Clara says are not in regular use by anyone.

Their narrow utility corridor ended in a strong steel door with another coded key panel. Jim also had that password to open the electric locks.

Beyond that door was a vast subterranean chamber both impressively wide and extraordinarily long. No electric lights illuminated the area, but their nightvision revealed the place had once been devoted to handling the deluge of travelers’ baggage that flowed about during normal airport operations.

It had since become a garbage dump of looted suitcases. The floor had dirty piles of discarded clothes reduced to rags. Here and there were dilapidated luggage trucks and their cargo wagons that had once efficiently transferred tons of baggage in both directions.

Critias communicated by radio with the others, How big is this place? From what he could see, the chamber seemed impossibly big like an underground highway.

Carmen estimated by the echoes of their footsteps, This passage is about one and a half kilometers long.

Halfway down is our elevator and stair access, Jim told them to give a sense of direction. Clara told me that all the lights are off on the first two levels and only a few lights will still be burning on the third level.

Hatchet preferred not to have to use stairs, Does the elevator work?

"None of