CHAPTER 9: MEETING THE HACKERS
1567 Words
They had left the wrapped body of Eli just inside the main gates of the community.
That night, when all the survivors were inside the rooms allocated them, Zeus approached the gate with three men. One of them was pushing a gurney. When they got to the spot the body was lying, Zeus pointed.
“There he is,” he said softly. “He’s a big one. Be gentle with him. He receives a burial, remember. Make the coffin ready by morning for the burial.”
“It shall be so, Saint Zeus,” one of the men said with a chuckle.
The two men tried to lift Eli, but he was too heavy, so Zeus joined in, and after a bit of huffing and puffing, they finally managed to get the son of Eli onto the gurney.
The two men then pushed it away from the main settlement. They took the gurney towards the north-eastern part of the valley. Luckily for them, the land was flat and relatively level, so they did not have to exert too much effort pushing the body of the strapping lad.
“Boy’s built like a giant,” one of them said and spat against the wall of the kitchen as they passed behind it.
“Wonder what he’s been feeding on the last eighteen years,” the other said. “And I wonder what killed him.”
“p***y! Only p***y can kill a kid this fit.”
They laughed.
They continued pushing the body and eventually walked past the white-picketed burial ground. They pushed the gurney through a clump of trees and shrubs and soon came upon a long, rectangular shed-like structure. It was made from wooden planks and had previously not been on the barracks. It had been constructed under Doug Holy to cater for a specific requirement.
The side doors of the shed opened and a heavyset man and a plump woman wearing blue overalls with blood splotches on them came out of the shed.
The heavyset man rushed to meet them. He helped them push the gurney up the short flat incline to the veranda of the shed, then rolled it into the huge space within.
The interior of the shed was surprisingly clean and well-kept. There were various workbenches here. There were water troughs at vantage points. At the far end were four charcoal fireplaces with huge round metal cooking cauldrons on them. The cauldrons had been blackened from the smoke from the fires.
There were also some buckets, barrels of water, and a lot of utensils. Hanging to the wall on one side was an array of knives and other cutting edges.
They pushed the gurney to a white-topped bench and hoisted Eli on top.
“Oh!” the woman cried as she scratched her armpit. “He’s a fine one. What a pity! He is indeed grand! Oh, my God, look at that d**k! Damn, save that for me! What a bloody waste!”
“Bring a coffin,” said one of the men who had brought Eli. “This one’s slated for burial.”
There was another bench across from where Eli was lying, and on it was the corpse of a man. He had been shaven bald, and all hair on his body had been scraped off. His arms were folded neatly across his chest. He was an awfully skinny man, and his ribs showed with sharp relief through his skin.
The other two walked to the far side of the shed and took black overalls from hooks in the wooden wall. They slipped them on quickly and brought down rubber aprons which they slipped over their necks and tied the straps. Next, they picked up transparent plastic face masks and slipped the handles over their ears. Finally, they slipped their hands into arm-length gloves and approached the corpse of Eli.
One took a sharp knife and honed it for a few times on a sharpening rock fixed on the side of the bench.
“Bring the soap, Paddy,” the man said briskly. “This one has a lot of hair. Gonna take a bit of time to get him hairless!”
The others giggled.
The huge woman was stirring the contents of one of the huge cauldrons with a long wooden spatula. The other man had picked up a sharp, long, double-edged knife and was approaching the bench where the skinny man was lying. He spread the dead man’s hands apart and then paused with a silly grin on his face.
“Hey, what the f**k! You guys saw this s**t?”
The two who were preparing to shave Eli looked up at the heavyset man and grinned.
“You mean the f*****g tattoo?” the one called Paddy asked.
“Yes, s**t, ain’t it a crock?” the huge man said and pushed the body of the skinny man sideways so that the others could see the tattoo on the man’s chest:
Fuck Life
“Well, his life just got f****d up indeed,” the woman cried from across space, and they all laughed.
They were still laughing when the son of Eli opened his eyes and wrinkled his nose with distaste.
“What’s that foul smell?” he asked softly.
“Kiiiiiiish!” Paddy screamed, and the shaving knife dropped from his hand as he back-pedalled with sheer horror on his face. “He spoke! Fuuuuuck! He spoke!”
Eli’s eyes fell on the tattoo on the dead man’s chest, and he smiled sadly and moved his hands. The heavyset man and the other man standing by the bench exchanged frantic glances. At the fireplace, the plump woman had stopped stirring and was staring at them with her hand across her chest, her face falling apart with shock and fear.
“Lay him down!” the heavyset man shouted and leapt towards Eli with his two-edged knife raised. As he rounded the bench and came rushing at Eli, the young man swung a heavy foot straight into the heavyset man’s face before rolling off the bench as the shaving knife came swinging towards his throat.
Eli landed on his feet and swung around in a vicious arc, his fist smashing into the guts of the heavyset man with such power that the man crashed to the floor immediately and retched with horror.
The man with the shaving knife – called Divi – stared first at the heavyset man on the floor, then at the handsome, powerful, naked man in front of him.
He shook his head dazedly.
“You!” he whispered tragically. “You’re dead! You’re f*****g dead! What’s this?”
“I am not dead!” Eli hissed angrily. “Why are you attacking me? Where’s Kate and the rest? If you have hurt them, I’ll break all of you!”
Divi suddenly swung the knife in a wild arc, aiming for Eli’s throat. Eli drew his head back, moved into the sweep of Divi’s arm and smashed a blow into his jaw. Divi groaned and would have crashed to the ground, but Eli caught him by the neck, raised him with one hand around his neck, and slammed him down sickeningly on the bench. He kept his hand around Divi’s neck and pulled out another sharp knife from the rack.
“Where’s Kate?” he grated tightly.
“No, no, don’t kill me!” Divi screamed. “Please, please, please! I don’t know who you’re talking about, but there are new visitors here, with the Saint!”
Eli raised the knife with an expression of wrath on his face.
“Stop it, goodness me! Stop it!” came a new voice from the entrance, and Eli looked up. It was Zeus, and his eyes were popping up with shock as he moved forward. “You’re alive? But how? Kate, her mother, and Farida are all safe. We found Zion and gave him to them too!”
Eli looked at him darkly. He dropped the knife, picked up Divi, and threw him on the floor with a horrible thudding sound. Divi groaned and remained on the floor; he had no intention of getting up.
Eli walked naked towards Zeus.
“They tried to kill me,” he said darkly.
“Because they are scared!” Zeus said with a nervous chuckle. “I’m scared shitless too! We thought you were dead. Kate wanted us to bring you here to bury you. These men, they were just getting you ready for the burial. They’re Hackers, our undertakers.”
“Take me to Kate,” Eli said.
“By all means, yes, I will. I heard her calling you Eli.”
“That’s my name.”
“Good, good, but you can’t go out naked, my friend. Your clothes and boots and weapons are intact, but first, you must cover yourself. Please, bring him an overall now.”
When Eli put on the overall, Zeus smiled and turned towards the door.
“Please, come with me, Mr Eli.”
- Writer
