Alive and Fighting: Revelations (3 page)

             
"I've got guys, I'm arming them myself and paying them out of my pocket. The safety of Blood Oak's people is worth the investment, and besides, I have more money and guns than I know what to do with. I'm actually mad at myself for not doing this sooner. This place is gonna be the start of something new, I guarantee it. New stalls, professionally built will be up by tomorrow, anyone who's got things to sell can just ask for a stand and it's theirs. Guards posted on the nearby roofs will keep watch and an evacuation plan will be laid out and old hat by the time it's ever needed…if it's ever needed." Craven excitedly elaborated, gesturing to the men working to clean and rebuild the Bazaar.

             
"You keep saying if, like Hivemind won't attack it again. Your plan sounds like a huge lure for him. It's a bunch of people all packed into one small area, it'd be another massacre…" Spike trailed off, the previous day still fresh in his mind.

             
"Hivemind may be a zombie, but he's not stupid. I don't know how much of the battle you were conscious for, but that Zero does not risk his zombies' lives. Anytime they'd go towards someone holding a gun he'd call'em back and send them away from the market entirely. In fact, the only zombies that we could even shoot yesterday were him and his Horsemen, all the others got pulled out of the fray, or died from close quarters combat and shotgun shells…there's a thinker somewhere in that corpse, and I'd bet everything that a defended market is more risk than reward to him." Craven rationalized, pointing to the zombie corpses, all either in many pieces or splattered beyond recognition. Not one had bullet wounds.

             
"I hope you're right…were there many losses?" Spike finally managed to ask, the question looming in his mind since he'd seen the destroyed Bazaar.

             
"Fewer than you'd expect, more than we're okay with. The Millers, Eli Jensen, Chet Goode, Kristen Martinez, and a handful I'd never had the pleasure to meet. Luckily the other forty or fifty got away thanks to people like you. I was pleasantly surprised at how many took up arms and fought for people they'd never met…even more shocked damn near every gun I gave out has been brought back," Craven answered, counting on his fingers. "Rose is unaccounted for though…I don't know what happened to that girl…"

             
"I do, she was frozen, shocked from it all I think. I tried to lead her away, but…one of the Riders grabbed her, threw me into that tree. Last I saw before blacking out, he was retreating back to the Hive with her," Spike admitted, head hung. "It's ironic, I finally work up the courage to talk to her and that's the day she gets taken into the Hive."

             
"All we can do is pray then." Craven solemnly said, taking off his old battered brown cap and putting it over his heart.

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              "It…It's August thirteenth twenty thirty four, first entry of the day, diary. I've been…captured, I guess is the best word…I'm inside the Hive, in a dressing room…I can see the night skyline through my window…It's been…about an hour since Hive- no, I guess he said to call him Sigma, well, The Zero…It's been about an hour since Sigma talked to me. I don't know why I'm here, but Sigma said he'd explain it all when he got back…Oh God, diary, I must sound like a crazy person, talking to a zombie, believing it, calling it by a name that it gave itself! I…I don't know what to think. The last thing I remember is the Bazaar being attacked and Spike trying to keep me safe…then I woke up to Sigma talking to me. I need to think things over, I'll explain more when I know more, Diary." Rose recorded, having found her bag, with all her things exactly as they were at the foot of the bed she still sat on.

             
All around her, Rose could hear buzzing and humming of movement. The Hive was very much alive in its state of undeath, with its inhabitants methodically traversing its floors. Occasionally, a loud crash or thump would echo just beyond Rose's walls, but never directly against them. She could not ever remember being more
apprehensive
, or curious. Within the Hive, where no one had ever been and returned from, she still drew breath. The stories people told of the beasts within this bastion of undeath were all around her, but she still remained. Deep in thought, Rose sat bolt up when the light knock on her door came twice in quick succession.

             
"Uhm, come in?" Rose confusedly spoke, surprised to be granting permission for anything in her current state.

             
"Thank you, I was hoping to continue our talk if you were up for it," Sigma said, entering the room and resuming his seat in front of the mirror. "Is there anything you would like to know?"

             
"Why am I here?" Rose asked quickly, having decided shortly after Sigma's departure that this was the most important question to have answered.

             
"Of course, and as I said before, there are two answers: short and long, two reasons: practical and selfish. One is very simple, practical. If you are here, it keeps my Flock from straying out there," Sigma answered, with a sweeping gesture of his bladed hand. He quickly retracted his arm, realizing how terrifying it could have seemed. "My flock, when confined as they are now, inside a building, seek prey through smell. With you so close, they have no reason to leave and wander the streets where they can be killed, or commit their own sins."

             
"So I'm just…bait? A carrot on a stick?" Rose questioned, unsure whether she was even upset.

             
"I hate to put it in such terms, but essentially yes. You could also consider yourself a lock on the shackles of many dangerous individuals. By being here, you keep people safe by keeping the Flock in the Hive." Sigma explained, trying to comfort her.

             
"But…can't you control them? Just order them to stay in the hive?" Rose asked, Sigma's answers only bringing more questions to mind.

             
"Yes, but I also feel what they feel. When I first came here, so long ago, that is exactly what I tried. However, I'm only human…or was, I'm sorry, old habits. I don't always refer to myself correctly. Anyway, in my first days, weeks, months, I tried to keep them here. What I really wanted was to starve them out. The people meant more to me than I did to myself, or so I thought. Eventually though, their pain became unbearable, each of them crying out to each other, every scream coming to rest in my ears…that day I let go of my control and allowed the madness think for them…and when they returned home my flock had nearly doubled." Sigma recounted, his head hanging under the grey shroud.

             
"I've heard stories about that, A harvester calls it 'The Red Awakening.' He tells it every March to remember the dead." Rose added, looking to Sigma for some reaction.

             
"Spike does the story justice, he remembers it well for someone who was but a child at the time," Sigma said, chuckling slightly at Rose's look of surprise. "There are so few things I do not hear in this city. I know everyone's names, where they sleep, what food they like…the knowledge makes it even harder to bear if they ever join my flock."

             
"You said that there was a…selfish reason I was here. What is it?" Rose asked, not sure whether or not she wanted the answer.

             
"I needed someone to talk to, who could understand what I say…the Flock listen to me with rapt attention, but they can't comprehend anything that isn't an order. I needed someone who wasn't afraid after they saw they weren't in danger. That is why Gabriel chose you at the Bazaar. You were clearly afraid, but you didn't panic." Sigma explained, lifting his right foot to rest on his left knee.

             
"Gabriel? You mean the zombies still remember their names?" Rose inquired, her curiosity actually piqued.

             
"No, they remember nothing of who they were, or if they do it's buried so deep that not even I can reclaim it for them. No, I simply give them a name when I feel they have learned some form of self control. The one you call Pestilence is Gabriel, Famine is Michael, they…enjoy having names." Sigma responded, pausing to consider his word choice.

             
"Are they all so biblical? It seems…I don't know, ironic?"  Rose questioned, almost forgetting the situation she was in.

             
"Is it? Isaiah 26:19 begins with 'But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise,' and no not all the names are biblical. To you he is death, to the Flock, heheh he is just Kevin." Sigma laughed, and despite everything, Rose laughed too.

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              "Spike, it's been two weeks…I don't like it anymore than you do, but I think we have to assume that she's gone." Craven said, placing his hand on Spike's shoulder.

             
Since the attack on the Bazaar, Spike hadn't left the area. All around him the Bazaar sprang up with quality construction and excited shoppers. Armed guards patrolled the market and word quickly spread through the city that the Bazaar was back in full force. Gravers came everyday from miles around to trade their wares and catch up on the local news. Every Graveyarder seemed to know something new and fascinating about the world and Spike was eager to tap this new wealth of knowledge. He asked everyone who passed through about Rose, but the answer was always no.

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              "Again, my apologies about the food, there are only canned goods in the kitchens here and I don't trust the Flock to bring back anything sanitary." Sigma joked, entering Rose's dressing room with a can of ravioli from the Hive's kitchens. Rose laughed with him and simply turned on her hot plate.

             
"You know I don't mind, food is food," Rose replied, twirling her fork. "What's today's topic? Loss, triumphs, revelations?"

             
"I thought perhaps you could pick a topic today, after all, I brought you here for conversation, not lectures." Sigma responded, handing over the can of pasta.

             
"Well, I've actually been wondering about…you. Who were you before all this?" Rose asked, opening the can with her knife, before putting it on the hot plate.

             
"I knew I'd be talking about this eventually…well, where to start? I was twenty when the Infection hit, I had just lost my parents days before, so naturally…I was upset. But, I had friends, and we actually were able to do some good before I started to turn. We founded a community to the west of here, one that I felt was safe when I…left, and it still is today." Sigma began, taking his usual seat, this time leaning back against the vanity.

             
"Oh…did your friends make you leave?" Rose questioned before thinking, and instantly regretting the question. "I'm sorry, that was rude. I…"

             
"No, it's only natural to wonder these things. My history is…interesting. But no, they didn't make me go…actually…they thought I died. Leaving them was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I had to. I needed to leave, if I'd stayed I would have endangered my, well it wasn't official, but my wife…and our son. I couldn't do that. It was better they think I died." Sigma continued, his face even now, still hidden in the gray shroud.

             
"You had a son?" Rose asked, taking the can of ravioli off the hot plate.

             
"Have actually, he's still alive. His mother…isn't. He's doing well too. He doesn't know about me, and that's for the best. I'd still love to meet him one day…tell him how proud I am of who he's become…everything he's done and all the people he's helped along the way…I think that's enough about me for now, is there anything else?" Sigma asked after regaining his composure.

             
"Why don't you talk to the Gravers, show them who you are. When they see how human you are…I don't know, I just think it'd end a lot of people's fears." Rose requested, looking at her food.

             
"It's a nice idea, but…well, you've never seen one of my turns, and I pray you never do. They're right to fear me. I like to think I'm still more man than not, but deep down…I'm just a monster that can feel remorse." Sigma answered, hanging his head.

             
"No you aren't, you're more than that! I've been here for weeks and you've completely opened my eyes! I never thought of your people as anything more than beasts, but now I know better. You have emotions and thoughts and…you are not a monster!" Rose argued, standing up.

             
"How could you know" Sigma roared, rising from his own seat. His shroud fell back, revealing his face as the scar on his chest flared open. Both of Rose's hands shot to her mouth before she could react, holding in a scream that couldn't rise. Sigma's chest gaped, his ribs spread out like a bear trap to display his fanged maw of a heart. From his now detached lower jaw a low gravelly groan escaped. As fast as Sigma's outburst, his ribs retracted and chest sealed itself once more. Sigma's jaw clicked back in place as he raised the shroud back over his head.             

             
"H-h-h-h-how…b-b-b-but…" Rose stuttered, her words utterly failing her as she fell back onto the bed.