Ascension

started grabbing whatever they could find locally to eat.

'I see why every pack comes with some sort of hot sauce.' Javier said when he slowed down from eating his second meal, 'It adds a little spice to them. I mean, I don't even like hot sauce.' He said this as he dumped the small glass container of the red liquid into the open pouch in his other hand.

'Better than the crations we had in my day.' Ruben said.

'I think it is 'cause they all taste the same. I mean you might call one 'Chicken with Noodles' and another 'Chili and Macaroni', but they don't taste all that different to me.' Bill said.

Javier shook his head and said between bites, 'No way man, the breakfast one rocks!'

The other men nodded and Ruben said, 'It always seems like one meal pack in any generation is better than the others and that everyone will trade anything to get it. I never would have thought packaged sausages and blueberry granola would be in such high demand. So, Javier, what happened?'

He shrugged, swallowed and said, 'I don't remember much, I knew they were going to hit me, I remember that and being just…stuck to the truck. Like I couldn't move, I wanted to jump out before they hit and I froze up. I was so scared, then..' Javier waved his spoon around at the two police cars, 'Waking up. What happened?'

Bill spoke to him about getting the police cruisers and their mad dash through several states over the course of the last sixteen hours, ending with them stopping at their current location.

'Is it safe?' Javier asked.

'Max hasn't seen anyone close to the main road. At least not really close. He says that there are a lot of dead people out on the edge of his mental zombie radar. He couldn't see any zombies when we stopped here, so we thought we could get a few hours of sleep. Me and Ruben drew short straws and get to watch first. Max and Stewart will take over in a couple hours and let us get a little sleep. How's your leg Javier?'

Javier looked down at his legs, 'Which one? What was wrong with it?'

Ruben laughed, 'Well I guess that answers that.'

'Your leg was busted up ten ways from Sunday when you played 'stiff man' on us. I'm no doctor, but what I saw…well you shouldn't be able to walk on it now. Do you know what happened?'

'No.' Javier shook his head and smiled in the moonlight, 'I guess I got something too, huh? I was hoping for wolverine claws or maybe flying like superman, but healing up fast is sort of like wolverine isn't it?'

Ruben shook his head, he had a hard time keeping track of what the youth of today was talking about. Bill nodded and said, 'I guess, bummer about having to zonk out like that though. I wonder what would happen if you got shot or worse, bit? Would you turn? Would you heal it up and be fine?'

'Let's not find out.' Ruben said.

Javier nodded and reached for his third meal pack.

'Better be careful you don't burst your stomach, we wouldn't want you going all comatose for that.' Bill said.

'What? I'm starving here, I missed three meals while I was out and I think I need to make up for them. So what do we do now?'

'Well, Max thinks the guy is over on the coast, from what Aubrey told him, the east coast near the north end of Florida. We got a map and plan to scout the area starting later this morning. Max should be able to scan for the guy as we get closer. I think we are about a hundred miles from the coast, so it's not like we are on top of him yet.'

Javier kept eating while Ruben and Bill chatted about their plans. Wiping his face after finishing Javier said, 'So let me get this straight, we are just going to drive in, find the guy in his Doctor's office and shoot him?'

'It probably won't be that simple.' Bill conceded.

'We have the bomb, we might be able to set it close by and just turn tail and run. Nothing ever works out the way it is supposed to, but the simpler the plan the less we have to change when everything goes wrong.' said Ruben.

'Not much of a plan.' Javier said with a shrug, 'I don't have a better one.' He walked around the parked trooper cars, as if testing his legs.

'You have any pain?' Ruben asked him as he completed the first circuit.

'It's…stiff. Like all tight and stuff. Were you ever in track Ruben?'

The old man gave a derisive laugh, 'When I was young there was no internet, no video games and the television only had three channels, of course I was in track.'

'Ah, okay. Well it's like the first time you get outside for the first day, you are all stiff and tight, it takes you a week to get back into things. That's how I feel. Like the first day of track.'

'Well, I hope you don't feel like the first night after the first day of track practice.'

'All sore? Me either. That would suck. Are you sure my leg was busted?'

'It was busted.' Both Bill and Ruben answered together.

Javier kept on walking, leaving Bill and Ruben at the back of the cruiser Stewart was sleeping in. 'What does all this mean Ruben?'

'Coming to me for my ancient wisdom? Sorry, I've got nothing. Everything changes. I've lived long enough to know that. I think of this as the next step. You believe in God Bill?'

Bill shook his head, then stopped abruptly, 'No, I mean, I'm not a church goer or anything. I just never caught the bug. Max's wife was though, she talked about all the stuff she did with the church. I think she was trying to nudge us into it. It was lost on Max though. Why?'

'Well, I went to church. I mean for years. It goes back to that lack of video games and three channels on the television thing; there wasn't much else to do and church was a good place to meet up with other people.' Ruben paused for a moment, then fished around in his pockets and brought out a pack of cigarettes, 'Do you mind?'

'You don't smoke. I mean, I've never seen you smoke.'

'I gave it up years ago, but the last couple of weeks has given me reason to believe that I might not be dying of cancer any time soon. So, I can light up?'

'Sure.'

Ruben tapped out a cigarette and tamped it down on the trunk of the car, he lit it and inhaled a deep breath, 'Ah! And the Lord said let there be light! Besides, what if I start? It's not like they are still making cigarettes, even if I live through all of this, I think the cigarettes will only last a few more months before they are too stale to be worth it.'

'You'll go through withdrawal again?'

'I'll deal with it. So you don't believe much in God. Like I said, I was a church goer, but Bill when you do something year after year, decade after decade, you can't help but start to see the cracks in the walls. I've been to enough preaching that I've probably heard the bible a dozen times over by now. It is fair to say I was leaning towards agnostic before all this, if not downright atheism.'

'What changed?' Bill asked.

'Max. Stewart. You. Javier. Me. We changed. Them. They changed. They eat people and get 'better', if that makes sense. The dead have risen and among them we walk. The more they consume, the more 'alive' they get to be. And here's the funny part of this improbable situation. If we kill them, we get stronger and better too. A heathen would call it magic. A scientist would analyze the living hell out of it until it turns up being….what's that made up shit from Star Wars?'

'Ah…the stuff in the blood…midi-chlorians? Fans hated that.'

'Sounds right, I was going for the 'Force' though, I don't know about blood or anything. Well they got it wrong. It's not magic, it's not the force, it's people's souls. The zombies consume a person's soul. We can't do it without them processing it first, but if we are close by we can absorb it from them before it gets free to go to its reward.'

'Interesting theory.' Bill said.

'It makes sense. It throws all the church leaning into perspective. There is a soul. We have seen it at work. Twisted to Satan's ends, for the most part, but it proves there is a soul. And with a soul, there must be heaven and a hell. It fits.'

'It could, but I am still skeptical, where is God in all of this? Why doesn't he just step in and end it all? Send down the golden ladders or whatever and close this chapter of the book.'

'Ah, that sounds like a scientist. I don't have all the answers. I am pretty sure about this one and I am