Ascension

'Can you see them?'

'No, they are living. Didn't Jimbo explain this to you? I thought you were best friends or something?'

'He killed my wife.'

'So you owe him one.' Seeing the look of anger on Max's face Aubrey asked, 'Too soon?'

'I loved her.'

With a sigh Aubrey said, 'We've all lost people. You're nothing new. I was out of line. I'm sorry. I didn't lose all emotion when this happened to me, but sometimes the line of appropriate behavior gets blurry. I really am sorry.'

Max nodded, but his eyes still smoldered.

'As to your question, no I can't see the living that far. I seem to be limited to a mile or so, but as I've gotten stronger I've noticed that buildings and trees don't seem to interfere much anymore. When I first came to, I was lucky to be able to see people through a wall. But undead are like lights in the darkness. I can see them all, like maggots crawling across the corpse of the world. And I can tell how strong they are too, it is color based.' said Aubrey.

'Red told me…well he said people were like rainbow colors full of swirling life, he didn't really mention about what other zombies looked like. But what you are describing is what I can see too.' Max said.

'Have you noticed that you can see zombies farther out than living people?'

'Not really. I haven't tried much. I knew Red could see people a long way off, like a hundred miles.'

'I think it varies among us. It probably does for you too. Maybe you should try to extend your range a little. Maybe it's like a muscle; you need to exercise to get better using it.'

'I'll get around to it in all my free time.' Max said.

'Will you know Sentry? I mean will he stand out? Will you be able to tell what he looks like from a distance without seeing him?'

'I am pretty sure, yes. He'll be like you.'

Aubrey laughed, 'Oh, he is nothing like me! C'mon, get in the car.'

'No bindings?' Max asked, more than a little surprised.

'I don't tie up my allies Max. And you are my ally. Trust is hard to come by. Plus…'

'I don't have any weapons anyway.' Max finished for her.

Aubrey didn't deny it, but gestured for him to get into the back with her. Once they were strapped in Aubrey told the driver to head back to the last exit and go west. Another Humvee, a half mile behind them, was already turned around facing north on the southbound lane, it pulled out behind them after they passed.

'Friends?'

'Yes. No need to worry.'

The vehicles pulled off the highway onto Raccoon Valley drive.

'How far is it from the highway Max?' Aubrey asked.

'Not far, less than a mile, on the left.'

'Okay. Got it.' said the driver.

Max concentrated a moment and determined the driver was off the radar too. 'I can't see him either. I thought you were guarding the secret? Not handing it out like candy on Halloween?'

Aubrey smiled, 'Jimbo taught me a few other things too. Among the things he taught was how to mess a little with lessor zombie's memories. I can go in and edit their minds. I can put in false memories, I erase things I don't want them to know. It's not too precise and I've already had a few of my experiments go bad, but I am getting better. Nathan there couldn't explain to anyone why they can't see him. Could you Nate?'

The driver shook his head, 'I have no idea what you are talking about.'

'See?'

'That is…that is cruel. Can you change them back? Or is it a one way ticket?'

'One way…unless I am very careful. Like I said, I have a few experiments out there. I can't just press a key and revert to a saved copy of their memories, not exactly. Jimbo was pretty cagey about that, warned me to be careful and he only showed me the very basics of it. I had to do a lot of practice in the last few days.'

'Is that it?' asked Nathan, pointing a hand at the Campground sign.

'That's it.' said Max.

He pulled into the campground and Max scanned the area. 'They left.' he said, stunned that his friends would leave so quickly.

'Pragmatic. Are they carrying cell phones? Are you?'

'No… Wait! I've got a radio. God! How did I forget my radio?' Max fumbled in his jacket to turn it on. It was supposed to have a five mile range. Talking into it he said, 'Stewart? Bill? Anyone?'

Silence reigned in the back of the Humvee.

'Looks like you're riding with me for a while more then. Do you think they went back?'

'What?'

'Do you think they are still trying to finish the mission to kill Sentry or do you think they went back?'

'Probably they would go on. But without me…I mean, they can't find Sentry, so what would be the point.'

'Look at you, mister important! I doubt they gave that much thought, probably they figured out they could find him somehow. If they went back we might be screwed. Nate, pull up the gps and tell me where this road goes.'

Nathan did as instructed and Aubrey looked at the screen. 'This road by passes the city, if they cut over here they could rejoin the highway….about there.' She said pointing to the map. 'Nathan, take us back to the highway and we'll cut them off. We'll drop Max at the highway 162 and 75 exchange.'

'It looks longer.'

'It will be faster, the road is clear.'

'You can see that?'

'I just know, trust me.'

'If you say so. I think that was the idea, to skirt Knoxville.'

'Normally that'd be smart, they didn't know Sentry had the roads cleared.'

'Why? Do you know?'

'He didn't fill me in on that. But I think it was just to get things organized again. I did the same thing in Chicago. It's hard to get around when there is an accident blocking the road every two blocks.'

Nate took the Humvee up to slightly higher than normal highway speed and they made good time driving through the fringes of Knoxville. Aubrey was silent most of the way and Max stared at her for a few minutes before she noticed, then smiled at him, 'Sorry, I'm multitasking. I've got things going on. Many pots on the fire, that sort of thing. Did you need something?'

'What's it like?'

'It sucked at first. It could be worse, I could be Nate or one of the other lower order zombies. I wasn't much in life, but I would have stayed alive given a choice.'

'Do you sleep? Get hungry?'

'Not for flesh. I could eat more, it would beef me up, but I made a lot of children already in Chicago and it feels like each additional bit of power is less than the one I got before. Like I am getting less out of it, if you know what I mean?'

Max nodded.

'No sleep either. The weird part is, I feel like I am still growing. Like I consumed so much that it started something within me that is only getting more powerful. You want to know how many people I ate to heal up after the building dropped on me?'

Hesitantly, Max nodded.

'None. I haven't eaten in weeks. I wasn't a psycho killer before I was turned and I'm not now. I wasn't a conservative either. I wish I had been; then I would have tried to set aside a bunch of people somewhere.'

'To eat?'

'No, not that. But I don't think we can reproduce the normal way. How will the species go on if everyone is dead? I thought, maybe that setting aside a bunch of people might be good to continue the race. We might be able to live with them. With you. Maybe we could exchange safety for blood or something?'