Sentry.”
“I thought you were following Neil, had to do what he said?” asked Stewart.
“Yeah Sentry told me to do what Neil said. And Neil's last orders were to make sure the remaining men in the convoy didn't come back to interfere with his plans anymore. No Neil meant the convoy people couldn't mess with him. Therefore, I was free.”
“It was just the two of you sent to Denver? You made all those zombies?”
“Oh yes, yes we did. We checked into a hotel downtown, converted it in a single night about a week before the fall, when the second shift employees came in we used them to feed the first shift and get them into some sort of intelligence, then sent them home to get their families and told them to hide the slow 'children' they had made until the twenty fifth, which is when this whole mess started in earnest. After that hotel we split up, I went on a journey up highway seventy, taking two of the single guys with me. In one day I dropped zombies off in Idaho Springs, Frisco, Vail, Eagle, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. Whenever I ran out of zombies to plant in those towns, I just stopped and made a few more. I swung south from Grand Junction to hit Montrose and Durango before heading straight east towards Pueblo. I hooked up with Neil in Colorado Springs the very next day, in three days we had over two hundred operatives waiting to strike, in four more days we had zombies smart enough to follow our orders in almost every medium sized city in the state, and I even dipped down into New Mexico after meeting Neil because he told me no one was assigned to spread the plague there.”
“Just two of you wiped out the entire state. Somehow I just can't believe that.” Stewart said.
“We didn't make zombies and send them out to terrorize people, we made them stay inside and wait for a few days, we brought some of them back to almost the super level and gave them some autonomy to act discretely. It was a quick, silent takeover of society. Believe it, it happened worldwide.”
“So this isn't just happening here?” asked Max, he could see Red shake his head through the corn, “I was hoping there was someplace we could go, somewhere safe again.”
“I wasn't in the inner circle of the planning, but when I left most of the town left too, about three thousand of us flying out of the airports in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and other locations, they had buses up the coast to catch flights out over a period of like three days, from what Neil said. He said I would like being second in command of a state.”
“What was the rest of the plan?”
“I have no idea. I know phase one was to create as many zombies as possible, that is what we did. My opinion is that it worked too well. We destroyed too much of humanity. It has been a week and almost the entire state was destroyed, if it worked that well in other places then there are not many humans left.”
“Okay this is all well and good, a nice update on current events, but what does this have to do with us again?” asked Stewart.
“All of the zombies are being drawn east, toward Chicago, I think. About half of the zombies in the Denver area are heading up along highway seventy six and turning east on highway eighty. There are some zombies coming in from Wyoming too, but not that many.”
“Great, so if we head north of the interstate the zombies will pass us by. Thanks for the warning.”
“No, you don't understand, I was second in power in for this area, I am not being compelled east; I can feel what is happening zombies are being forced west from Chicago too. Which is why I think the problem lies there.”
“So?”
“No, Stewart I see what he means” said Max “Why would they be heading towards each other? To wipe out a threat, there must be people alive between here and there.”
“Again, what does that have to do with us? We can't stop a hundred thousand zombies.”
“We can warn them what is coming.”
“No, you can stop them all.” said Red.
“What do you mean? How?”
“Kill whoever is making it happen, kill the 'Neil' that was sent to Chicago. Then the zombies will become disorganized and stop acting in concert.”
“Ah, mister, do you see who we got with us? A bunch of kids, not a carload of soldiers.”
“I didn't know that. I can see that they are there, but I can't tell how old they are unless I got closer.' Red shrugged his shoulders, 'It doesn't matter who you are with, you drive east and tell them what is coming and how to deal with it, but you have to make them believe you. The zombies coming this way are just a drop in the bucket for what is going to hit Iowa, and I am pretty sure it is Iowa where they are headed. I looked at a map last night and it makes sense in a way. Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, all low population states that may not have gotten a zombie maker of their own.”
“That is all you want us to do?” asked Stewart, “Well we can pass the word along, they might believe us, why don't you come along and tell them too?”
“No way. I like my life, or whatever it is I have left. I cannot imagine anyone who thinks I might snack on them when I get hungry is going to keep me alive too long. Plus the closer I get to Chicago the stronger the urge to go that direction gets. I, and my two friends are only going to keep slowing the horde down until the call is irresistible. One of us is weaker than the others and when he starts to leave, we are going to grab him and head west out of range. We do not want to become slaves again.”
“How good are you at slowing them down?”
“Not real good, they are still making thirty or forty miles a day, despite our best efforts. According to the mile markers we passed to get here that means it will only take another twelve days to get to the edge of Nebraska.”
“Twelve days? So we have to get to Iowa, convince someone to go to Chicago, find the guy and kill him in twelve days? Chicago is a big place Red, unless you have an address or something I don't think it can be done.” said Stewart.
“Look for the biggest building, that is probably where the super zombie is. Besides I think your friend can find him.”
“What?” said Max and Stewart together.
“You can see zombies Max. Can you tell us apart?”
“Yes, if I concentrate.”
“Is there any difference between me and my two friends?”
“Sure.”
“What is it?”
“Well you are sort of lighter colored than they are, you have a dull, light bluish color, I almost thought you were alive, but no…” Max stopped realizing he telling the zombie things he didn't want it to know.
“So you can see humans too. Let me guess they have a nice, colorful pattern that swirls around and fades and brightens as they move and do things.”
“Yes.”
“Are you a zombie Max?”
“What? No, no I'm not! Why are you asking?”
“Because you can see things the way I can, and I could see people this way from the moment I woke up after dying. It was a rhetorical question, you look alive to me. But to me zombies look like you described them, a dull, single color, the better and faster the zombie the more light their color is. I am light blue, huh? Well Neil he was sky blue, almost white. Go to Chicago, find the glowing white aura and you've found the super zombie. Then just kill it.”
“But…but that means I have to go!” blurted Max.
“Could be. We all have choices.” Red said, repeating back what Stewart had said to him in the beginning.
“What happens if it isn't just him? In Chicago I mean?”
“Then you have to decide what to do. Or what you can do. I don't know what will happen then. Sentry, way down in Florida, he is an abomination, I know that. He bled most of the people from the town dry and I doubt he was going to stop just because he sent us away, I have no idea what he is like now. I just know I plan on steering well away from where he was.”
“Why can't you circle around and meet us on the other side of Iowa, somewhere in Illinois?”
