Page 41 of The Black Rider
“What did I tell you about cutting off any body parts besides the jaw? I need all their parts there. Do you know how hard it is to take blood from them?” Leif ranted.
“If Ariel is in here with you, your pet zombies aren’t going to be able to bite or scratch. Since I know you like stories, this one was locked in the back room of a supermarket. She must have holed up there because of the supplies and locked herself in after she got bit. Her nametag read Magda. I don’t know why you insist on knowing their names when you are working on the way to kill them.”
“I have a working vaccine and a way to kill them, but I need to synthesize it first, so I’m not draining Ariel of her blood. All these Rage Heads are Isaiah’s victims. Show some respect. You didn’t use to be this heartless.”
“The Antichrist’s victims weren’t cannibal corpses suped up on demon blood before. They weren’t constantly trying to eat me. All that’s left of them is the demon’s influence.”
“We should still remember who they were before that was taken from them.”
“No, we should just kill them and get it over with. We don’t know if their souls can get to where they need to go like this. Who knows what’s happening to their souls while their bodies mutate? Magda could be stuck in limbo and end up in Hell over this, and you’re worried I cut her dead arms off so she wouldn’t hurt Ariel.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. Leif had given me the perspective that these zombies I was bashing brains in without a second thought used to be people with hopes and dreams. Aeron had just given me another. Concepts of Heaven and Hell were still new to me. I believed in reincarnation before I found out my mother was an actual angel.
What really was going on with all these people who got turned into Rage Heads? I knew their bodies were walking corpses, but what was going on with their souls? Was this part of some bigger plan to get more people in Hell? Could my father be any more of an epic shit? How many people did he kill that lived exemplary lives and did everything they were supposed to so they would have a good afterlife only to have him steal that from them?
Still, we didn’t know, but we needed to move fast. Aeron started shoving Magda towards the back where the cells were. She was leaving a trail of black blood all over the floor. I got why Aeron did it. He was always trying to protect me. Leif was still pissed.
“You’re mopping my floors, Aeron!” he called towards the back.
“I’ll gladly mop your precious floors, knowing your new pet can’t hurt Ariel!”
“He’s a little protective, Leif,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, I know. He was a miserable bastard when you got taken. He was willing to kill the entire world just to get you back. He didn’t calm down until Dice was called. Dice can hack just about anything. I think that was the only reason he contributed to ending the war. Dice told him he wouldn’t help look unless he got his shit under control.”
“Wow, and you guys want me to let Dice in on the Oval Office orgy?”
“Dice was always looking for you, Ariel. He knew you were important and needed to be rescued. He also knew Aeron, and I were in love with you. He just had to lie to Aeron because it was the only way he could focus. Dice never stopped looking. He was the one that found the lab you were in. He offered to go with Aeron and bring trained soldiers. Aeron had finally gotten his head out his ass for the most part. He told Dice to stay and train his men. We couldn’t let Isaiah know there was still an active military left. Dice was the one that found the lab, and Aeron went to break you out.”
“You don’t talk about Asher very much.”
“Asher is all about the job. His is a hard one. He doesn’t mingle with humans when he’s called unless it involves beating the Antichrist. He won’t admit it, but I think the only thing he enjoys when he gets called is food. He’s kind of a food snob. I’m sure all this is driving him crazy. He hangs with us, but he doesn’t really congregate with the other angels.”
“I thought they wanted him to play sports with them?”
“Yeah, because he’s the fucking Horseman of Conquest, but they don’t really like him because he won’t let them.”
Aeron came back in and set to mopping without complaint. He was totally serious. He would sanitize this entire fucking lab of zombie blood if it meant Magda couldn’t bite or scratch me. He didn’t look the slightest bit pissed either. He was whistling to himself.
“I noticed your other pet was still back there. Did your theory not pan out?” Aeron asked.
“It works, but Ariel doesn’t enjoy getting her blood drawn. I’ve tested my serum on his blood, but I won’t test it on live subjects until I’ve synthesized it and made it into a form it can be mass released. We will also need to go on a run to gather important ingredients for the vaccine so the other lab can mass produce it.”
“What do I need to loot?” Aeron said.
“The lab has been stockpiling, but it might not be enough. We need egg-laying chickens and antibiotics that aren’t penicillin. They’ve got a coop with hens and roosters, and they’ve been preparing for this, but not only do we have to kill all the Rage Heads, but we also have to vaccinate the entire world because Doctor X was cooking up something in that lab they were keeping Ariel in. We know it was the Rage Mutation, but they were trying to infect the people with immunity. I doubt he succeeded, but we can’t take that chance, and there are years’ worth of research and emails to go through. We don’t have the time.”
“You expect me to ask the soldiers here to fend off Rage Heads carrying live chickens? Seriously, Leif? Do you know how mean chickens are? They are like velociraptors who are pissed off they got the short end of evolution. We try to run with a squawking mini dinosaur, and they will peck us until we bleed and draw every zombie in the area to us!” Aeron growled.
“You might not have to find chickens. Go to the lab and see where they are on supplies. You might not even have to go scouting. They are supposed to be making the antibiotics for the vaccine too, but they need supplies for that too. Find out what they need. You might not have to go out. You’re talking out your ass if you’re trying to say you wouldn’t love the challenge of fighting off Rage Heads holding chickens.”
“Chickens are straight-up evil,” Aeron grumbled.
So, the big, bad Horseman of Death had this thing with chickens. Interesting. I was dying to know what a chicken had ever done to Aeron because he seemed to really enjoy driving that fucking horse straight into danger. What could a cute little chicken do to him; he stood there and yelledfree mealto a horde of Rage Heads, but he didn’t want to touch a chicken?
Aeron just shrugged and put his mop away.
“Want to come to the lab with me, Ariel?”
