Ascension

The sob had been too much warning, Ramey was already on edge from earlier in the day and Sue had just heightened the unease that he felt. 'Fuck I played this wrong. I should have just waited and worked on Sue, she would have blasted that mother fucker if I had….wait…' Red went back into her mind. 'Son of a bitch.' Sue was a much less powerful zombie than Red was, getting inside of her head was easy, not as easy as Bobby, but close. He went through her head looking over her thoughts until he found what he knew had to be there. Orders. All of the zombies knew they could give tasks to those weaker than themselves. If the tasks were loosely worded or had a loophole a smart zombie could twist what the stronger zombie wanted, given time. Sue had orders not to harm Ramey. Plain as day. She might hate the man, just like Chuck did, but she was helpless to overcome that simple set of orders.

Now Ramey was inside Chuck's head looking him over for some sign, almost as if he knew someone else had been there before him. Red stayed on the periphery, looking for a way to break one of the others. Sue was locked down, Chuck was paralyzed by Ramey as well, both were as good as useless to Red now. Finally Red found Virginia. A portly middle aged housewife, who had watched zombies devour her husband and, worse yet, her beloved dog. The woman didn't want to be here, she wanted a new dog and though she fit what Ramey needed; a zombie strong enough to help control other zombies, she was not on his favorite zombie list. She only had a revolver to work with and she thought she was down to four bullets too. Better yet she hated the man named Keith, who she had watched kill another dog somewhere during their trip. Red stoked that anger to hate and that hate to rage, then had her pull up her gun and shoot Keith in the head. This time, instead of leaving her to Ramey's hold, Red gave her a list of targets and formed a wall to shield her mind from the more powerful zombie. This meant Ramey was rebuffed when he tried to grab the woman and stop her. Something that shocked him so much he let go of Sue. In the split second it took for Ramey to regroup and breech the walls Red had erected the woman shot three other zombies, two in the head and one in the neck.

'She is a fucking good shot with the piece, a natural.' Red said to himself. He watched as Ramey crushed the walls around the woman's mind like tinfoil, but by then Red was well clear of her.

'What the fuck is going on with you fuckers?' Ramey yelled, 'Have you all gone crazy? Stop shooting each other. Do not shoot each other anymore! Do not shoot me. Only shoot the people I tell you to. If you feel any desire to kill anyone first drop your gun.'

The orders came down like a ton of bricks, crushing the insidious whisperings that Red had been starting in all of the zombie's minds. 'Six, I got him down to six friends. And two of them won't get in my way. I don't think I will get better odds than this.'

Red stood up and started walking towards Ramey.

Ramey didn't notice him at first, he was too busy trying to reinforce his orders in his companions minds. One of the other men did see Red and raised his arm to point him out to his master. Red yelled loudly, putting force behind his words, 'Do not shoot me. Do not harm me. Do not get in my way.' He wasn't certain that his words would override Ramey's, but all he needed was a moment's hesitation on their part, if they took any action against him.

Ramey pulled out of Sue and Chuck's minds, Red felt him leave, both of them were in a state of near shock. Red stalked forward, staying close to the cars, in case he needed cover. Ramey just stared at him and smiled, 'Poor Red. You shouldn't have come back.'

'You have one of my friends.'

'Oh so if I give him to you, you will just go?'

Red paused and then shook his head, 'No. I am afraid there is more to it.'

Throwing his head back and laughing Ramey said, 'Of course there is! What do you plan to do Red? I have you, you got too close. It's a neat trick how you got up here without me seeing you.' Then Ramey grew quiet for a moment before continuing, 'But you didn't did you? That was you back there that spooked me.' Realization dawned on the zombie, showing as slight surprise, 'And you fucked around in the heads of Sue and Chuck! How'd you manage that?'

Inside his head Ramey reached out for Aubrey, his 'parent' in Chicago, only to be rebuffed. She had a curt message for him; that she was busy. Focusing on Red again he tried to seize control of the other zombie to bring the conflict to a quick end. Red felt the attack coming and raised his shotgun, also hoping for a quick end. The shotgun blast hit the same time Red was physically thrown aside by Ramey's mental attack. Ramey had rebounded off of Red's shields then changed his attack as he saw the shotgun come up. To Red it felt like someone had driven a bus into him from the side, he flew up onto the truck of a light green sedan and then hit the rail of the bridge. Frantically he clawed at the railing with his hand, digging a furrow into the metal as he went over the side. The shotgun blast was intercepted by one of Ramey's men, who found himself involuntarily moving into its path. The pellets caught the zombie in the middle of the chest and twisted his body around in a diagonal summersault; he ended up face down on the ground unable to use his legs.

'C'mon!' Ramey yelled to his remaining followers as he rushed towards the edge of the bridge.

The shotgun was gone and Red hit the swollen North Platte river fifteen yards upstream, he was certain his right arm and leg were broken, 'Hell maybe some ribs on that side too. What the fuck was that he did to me?'

Above Ramey reached the side of the bridge just as Red was being swept underneath it. By the time Red flowed by the bridge his bones had healed and he was striking out for the eastern bank of the river. Ramey spotted him as he pulled himself up onto the bank and Red felt another mental assault, he braced himself to be hit by the invisible bus again. After not receiving another blow he looked back and saw that the group was moving along the bridge, heading towards him at a jog.

'I should have stayed with Jimbo another day and learned more about this mental crap.' Red thought, struggling through the thick mud to take cover under the bridge.

Red concentrated on keeping himself undetectable from Ramey and he was pretty sure it was working. Five zombies dropped down on the downstream side of the bridge, four of them landed in the mud and sunk up to their knees, the fifth landed softly and padded under the bridge as if walking on solid ground. 'Another useful trick.' thought Red. With no time for subtlety Red launched himself at the first zombie while the other struggled to clamber out of the mud. 'I guess my mind control didn't override Ramey's' Red told himself, launching a mental attack before he impacted the middle aged female. With one outstretched blow he tore her head, part of her shoulder and one of her arms from her body. Her head and mouth continued to move, making a muffled gurgle noise as Red bent over and picked up her body by the legs. He twirled it once and flung it at a three of the zombies who were close to each other in the mud, knocking two over. The one he missed ducked quickly and fired at Red with an assault rifle, the fourth man joined him a split second later.

Bullets pounded into Red's body, most flew through him, but he felt his shoulders and ribs cave in under the barrage and flung himself down to grab for the woman's gun, which lay at his feet. Rolling towards the water Red fired an inaccurate burst that did little to dissuade the two firing on him. He had some luck and one of the zombies weapons jammed. Red concentrated on the only zombie firing at him, his next three round burst struck the guy in the neck and face, shattering his jaw and blowing off one of his ears. The thing went down, but was still moving. The two Red had knocked over with the body were now prone and firing in Red's direction, but they could not see him very well from where he was laying close to the river. Fountains of dirt spit up near the top of the bank and after a furious minute of firing, all gunshots ceased. Red was out of ammo. He raised the barrel of the rifle up to one side of where he was, another short fusillade rang out and then stopped. Slipping and sliding Red rose in the mud and jumped sideways as the bullets stuttered to a stop. Feeling around mentally Red looked for Ramey. The zombie was on the upriver side of the bridge, as Red watched he jumped off and seemed to glide down underneath of it.

The bridges were very wide, the highway in this part of the country was six lanes wide and Ramey was at the end of a long, low corridor. Red felt he could deal with the lessor zombies before having to face Ramey again, but he kept a tab on the man so he would not be surprised. The three zombies who were still up moved towards Red with a purpose, their guns held as clubs. The arm and head of the woman he had struck initially had a bloated sack attached to it where the zombie's body was trying to re-grow, red counted her as out. Likewise the man he had shot in the face was still crawling around on his hands and knees. The three to one odds didn't bother Red in the least; these were lessor zombies, things not even of Jimbo's quality. Stepping up to the first one Red laughed as he ducked under the swung rifle, then came up fast and broke the zombies arm at the elbow. He launched a fist