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Chapter 1
Leader
“Are you sure you can handle this?” I ask August distractedly as I run a scan on my computer for all current cyborgs living within the city. A total of five pulls up. Four are currently working for either a company or are personally owned, which only leaves one that I can track down and ask to come work for me. Great. His last listed residence is down by the wall. “Shit, this isn’t good.”
“What isn’t?” August replies, sounding a tad bit bored.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” I leave the data open on my computer so I can return to it after I send August on his mission.
He needs to leave ASAP, not only because Ava’s—my next potential superhero—curse is about to be collected, but also, it’s a little unnerving having a zombie in my office.
“Then what do I need to worry about?” August asks, reclining back in the seat across from my desk. “Because you never explained that to me when you asked me to come here. You’re lucky I even showed up. I usually don’t agree to do a favor without knowing what the favor is.”
“Then why did you agree to come here?” I place my overlapped hands on the desk. “I mean, not that I’m not grateful. But usually zombies have zero emotions, well except brain hunger, so getting them to do anything for someone else is nearly impossible.” Then I quickly tack on, “No offense or anything.” The last thing I want is to upset a creature that could and would eat my brains directly from my head.
He lifts his shoulders, giving a sluggish shrug. “I’m not really sure, other than I guess it seems like I owe you for saving me from death.” He wavers. “Well, maybe ‘saving me from death’ is the wrong choice of words since technically I’m still dead.” He chews on his bluish black lip as he studies me with his eyes that are thankfully a silver-ish grey instead of blood red.
If his eyes were red, I’d be pressing the emergency button in my top desk drawer, since red eyes on a zombie mean hungry. And if you know anything about zombies, you know what they’re one and only food choice is.
My hand instinctively wanders to my head in a protective gesture.
“You’re worried I’m going to eat you,” August notes with a trace of amusement.
“You’re amused?” I lower my hand to my desk, intrigued by the hint of emotion in his eyes.
August shrugs. “Perhaps. But only by the idea that you think I’m going to eat you.”
“Why do you find that amusing?”
“I’m not really sure, other than I don’t think I ever would eat your brain.”
“You wouldn’t, huh?” My tone carries a bit of skepticism.
“You created me.” He props his foot onto his knee and restlessly taps his black fingernails against his leg. “And you let me feed off the discarded brains left over from your mad scientist experiments. I may be a cold hearted zombie, but I know better than to bite the hand that feeds me.”
“Have you ever fed off someone?” I ask. When he blasts me with a cold, dark look, I raise my hands in front of me. “I’m not judging you. I’m simply curious.”
His knee bounces up and down as he grows more restless. “I may have slipped up once or twice.”
“That’s not too bad for your kind,” I tell him. “Most slip up every day.”
He frowns. “But I’m only able to control my hunger better because you created me to be this way, right?”
“Yes, I created you to have a stronger will against giving into your brain hunger, so you wouldn’t run the streets murdering people, which is a good thing. But I don’t understand why you seem so upset that I made you that way.” And why does he seem upset at all? Zombies aren’t supposed to get upset.
He fiddles with a leather band on his wrist. “I’m not upset. I just get a bit lonely sometimes.”
“I’m not sure what you mean… Lonely how?”
“Lonely in the sense that I’m the only one of my kind. All the other zombies I’ve ever met want to eat brains all the time. They crave them more than anything else, and they’ll do anything to get them. Me…” He bobs his head from side to side, deliberating. “I rationalize before I attack, which more often than not, ends with me not attacking at all and coming here to eat brains instead.”
“Which is a good thing,” I remind him again. “And it’s the main reason why you’re not hunted by my zombie trackers.”
“I know that…. But being the only zombie who doesn’t want to kill for brains all the time can get…” He shifts uncomfortably. “Well, like I said, lonely.”
Interesting. A zombie who wants a friend. Who would’ve thought? Then again, I did create him a bit differently than the average zombie, making him faster, stronger, and wiser, so I guess it’s not completely crazy that he wants a friend.
“Did you know the favor I’m asking from you has to do with a girl?” I tell him, leaning forward in my chair.
“Yeah, so? I see girls all the time, but it’s not like I can get close to them. Well, not without scaring the shit out of them.” A sad longing flashes across his expression.
“This girl isn’t a normal girl,” I explain. “Her name is Ava Mikiley and she’s currently cursed to a painful demise that will happen on her eighteenth birthday. But you’re going to bring her here so that I can make her like you. She’ll be strong, fast, and have enough intelligence that she shouldn’t want to go around, killing everyone.” At least that’s the plan.
But since Ava is cursed, I’m concerned she may not be as easy to control as August, which is why I need him to stick around and help me train her. I haven’t figured out how to ask him that, though. Perhaps he might get excited by having another one of his kind? If he is right now, he isn’t showing it.
“So, I’m just supposed to, what? Bring this girl here so you can change her into a zombie?” He shakes his head. “I don’t want to be part of ruining some girl’s life.”
“If you don’t bring her here, then she’s doomed to become like all those other zombies you despise. The only way to save her from that future is to make her like you.” I cross my arms on top of my desk. “If you help me, after tonight, you won’t be the only one of your kind. But I can’t do it without your help.” It’s true, too.
Since zombie bites are infectious, I can’t risk letting anyone else help Ava with her transition. I need August to help me or else I won’t have my superhero zombie. And I need my zombie just like I needed my maddening and reaper.
“What are you going to do with her?” he asks. “After you make her like me, I mean.”
“I want you to help her learn how to control her power, so she can help save the world.”
“Save the world from what?”
“From a paranormal portal that’s about to open.” I don’t bother mentioning that two other portals are opening as well, since I still haven’t figured out where those portals lead to.
He shows zero shock, but that’s a zombie for you. Normally, I’m unbothered by August’s lack of emotion, but today he’s driving me crazy. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, if he’s actually considering helping me or just toying with me.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” he finally agrees, lowering his foot back to the floor.
“Good, I’m glad to have you on my team.” I lean over my desk and offer him my hand to shake.
He eyeballs my hand warily before placing his cold, dead fingers in mine.
After we shake hands and I give him the information on Ava, I send him on his way. Then I move onto my next problem—tracking down a cyborg to spy on my colleague who I’m fairly sure is keeping information about the portals from me. I don’t know why he’s withholding info from me or what the info is, but it makes me extremely nervous. He also knows about my superhero experiment and I fear perhaps his secretiveness has to do with that. The last thing I need is for someone to mess around with my potential superheroes. Potential paranormal superheroes.
No, I need to have a cyborg spy on him and find out what he’s up to. I just wish the cyborg didn’t live by the wall, a place where only wild cyborgs live. But as of right now, he’s my only option.
“I guess I’m going to the wall.” I push to my feet, grab a voltage gun from my weapons case, and step out into the hallway.
I don’t head for the exit doors, though, instead making a right toward the training corridors.
I’m not going on this mission alone. Why would I when I have a reaper and maddening who needs some real-life experience training?
I cross my fingers that they’re trained well enough to step out into the real world.
