Apocalypse: The Savior with System

22 Rahu Knight's Revenge

“Tell me what is Morgan planning.”

Yardley snorted. “Why?”

“Tell me what is Morgan planning,” Rahu repeated, then added, “And then, you can run.”

The two men stared each other down for many seconds before Yardley said, “Pearse has been developing some new weapon for close to a decade now with his wife’s help. Some kind of nanotechnology that will rid the world of the zombies once and for all. By then you’d been disappearing more and more frequently into the underground and who was left to take care of your business here?” Yardley pointed to himself. “Me. But, you know he’s David Morgan’s rival. Morgan most likely wanted to get ahead of Pearse.”

“And then you told Pearse I was infected?”

“I didn’t but he assumed it already, given your penchant for drugs and rubbing elbows with the lowest of the low,” replied Yardley. “It was only a matter of time before he found out via the database and I had to tell him the truth. I promised to get rid of you and he promised me control of the nanotech project you developed for Pearse-Sachly, which also happened to be the boon Morgan was waiting for.”

“And you believed him?!”

“What’s not to believe? After you basically went off the grid with your druggies, Pearse had let me tour one of the major arsenals in America, conveniently located here in Texas. Unlimited supply of resources, manpower, and nuclear energy. It was a topnotch laboratory and factory, better than what you even envisioned for this place. I had free access to the arsenal through Pearse’s good graces, which was what Morgan wanted.”

“So it was never about Samantha?”

“Of course it was about her!” Yardley yelled angrily. “She was my wife! And she was my co-designer! But you! You always have a way with her, mucking up her mind, her priorities! Even when you were hitting yourself up with drugs and hobnobbing with all those people, she still wanted you to come back and be part of the project! I said no and she ran after you!”

Rahu felt as if he had been upended all of a sudden. All that suffering, all the regrets, Samantha’s death…all because of Frank’s ambition.

“So, can I run now?” Yardley had the audacity to ask.

Rahu nodded. Quick as a flash of lightning, he pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Yardley between the eyes. Yardley was dead before he fell to the ground.

“You can do that in hell, Frank,” Rahu said to the wind.

Without bothering to bury the body, Rahu turned away and walked back to the house.

“You think he’s okay?” Judith uncharacteristically asked while she and Paul tried to set the living room to rights. The front of the house was already severely damaged, nothing could be done about that for the time being. Paul had managed to get the dead—and their scattered body parts—to where he spotted a security van that obviously belonged to Yardley’s group. Whether the van was still occupied, he no longer cared. Likely, no one would attempt to storm the compound in the near future after what they saw.

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Paul replied, dusting off a portion of the couch and sitting down. “Rahu is Rahu. Anyway, he didn’t seem to be mortally wounded but the fight must have sapped his strength. How was the weapons vault?”

Judith, who had also dusted one of the single couches and was now sitting on it, raised the used electric gun. “Thankfully, everything was labelled. I seriously thought I was more in danger of dying in there than out here.”

Paul grinned. “You got out just in time to help Rahu.”

Judith shrugged then asked, “Where did you get the idea of playing a zombie?”

“Ingenuous, right?” he teased. Judith rolled her eyes “It just came to me. And then there were all these oils and substances—nontoxic—all over the place. Got a bit of old rags, tarp, and netting…voila! Instant zombie.”

Just then, Rahu arrived, looking more haunted than Paul had ever seen before. He rose and met Rahu at the threshold. “Man, you okay?”

Rahu patted Paul’s shoulder and sat down on the couch, passing a hand over his weary face. “Yardley has been working with Morgan and Pearse, separately, behind my back and behind theirs. He’s been playing both fields.”

“What?!” Judith and Paul asked at the same time.

Rahu nodded wearily and leaned back on the couch, eyes closed. “A copy nanotech project he deliberately kept from me.”

“Where’s Yardley now?”

“I let him go.”

When he was not forthcoming with details, neither Judith nor Paul pressed him.

Opening his eyes, Rahu turned to Paul. “Yardley told me of a government-run arsenal with unlimited resources here in Texas. It’s being run, though, under the auspices of Pearse-Sachly.” He sat up and gave Judith a sideways glance before returning his gaze to Paul. “If we can get inside and take over the facility, you can upgrade faster.”

“I need to get in there.”

Both men looked at Judith. She sighed and rubbed her temples. “I need to know the latest data on the UCL virus. I think…I believe there’s still chance and time to develop a vaccine for it. I know someone who can help me but he does not have the access like I do.”

Paul thought long and hard. It was not going to be easy to storm into an arsenal with only the three of them. Even the mere act of walking in was not going to be a walk in the park, not with him and Rahu identified as infected and Judith, too, possibly.

He thought again of the assassins that had tried to kill him.

If only they could get to a safe zone and at least have Judith be checked there and be let in…

Yes! That’s it!

Judith and Rahu gave him a startled look. Paul hadn’t realized he said the words out loud.

“A safe zone!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Eric!”

“Who is Eric?” asked Judith.

“An old comrade from the military,” he answered. ‘We were in the same tour of duty in Pakistan. He’s in a safe zone and he’s really good with computers, databases, and all that stuff. He could help us.”

Rahu grunted. “That is, if they let the Doc in. With her prolonged exposure to us, they might just consider her infected and make us leave.”

Paul’s initial excitement deflated. “That could happen. But we won’t know unless we try, right?”

The three of them were silent for a long time until Judith said, “We can try seeing your friend, Paul. If he’s willing to help us from the inside, even if I don’t get in, that will be enough.”

Rahu nodded, yawning. “We don’t have transportation, though.”

Paul and Judith exchanged glances. Then, Paul groaned.

“What?”

Paul stood, hoisted his pants higher, and took Judith’s electric gun. “I guess I’m going to have to remove the bodies again.”

Judith smirked. “There’s unlimited soap and water here, you know.”

“You have a cruel sense of humor, Doctor Merkel,” Paul huffed, exiting the house.

Rahu closed his eyes and lay down across the couch, but not before grabbing a carbine and hugging it to himself. “Where’s he going?”

Sighing, Judith closed her eyes, too, eager for the night to last a little longer so she could sleep. It was probably almost dawn now.

“Getting our transportation.”

In seconds, Rahu was snoring and Judith was back into the depths of a dark and dreamless sleep.