Apocalypse, Book Two

CHAPTER 1

Apocalypse

Day 10

Detroit

Downtown

Boom.

A hole opened up in the roof and gravel sprayed Latrell’s legs.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” said someone from the shadows.

Mala recognized the voice.

“I’ve shot zombies and some of them do come back to life. That’s the way with zombies. Humans, not hardly. But maybe you want to see if it works for you the same?

“Move and we’ll find out.”

It was Deke.

The others who had been laughing and mocking just seconds before now had shocked looks on their faces. They stood there as if frozen solid.

“Deke, my man,” said Latrell who was still stepping gingerly on his foot. “We was just lookin’ for you. You was late and not where you said you was going to be. I take that as unfriendly since we was agreed when we talked before.

“Very unfriendly. And now we come to find you and you got a gun on us.

“I’m thinkin’ that maybe what was unfriendly now is downright hostile.

“You can’t treat your business associates like this and still think you goin’ to do business with them.”

“Shut-up and untie her,” said Deke threw clenched teeth.

“And there's that, too,” said Latrell pointing to Mala stretched out on the table. “You can’t keep something like this here away from your friends either and think that they ain’t goin’ to be sore about it.”

“Such a juicy thing like this kept away from your partners like that. And with you tellin’ us the wrong place and all.

“I’m thinkin’ now that maybe you didn’t want to be found. That you got some private things goin’ on all by yourself, things you want to keep away from your partners and not be sharin’.

“But unlucky for you we knew about these here ways you got here up top and we knew where we could find you.”

He laid a finger on his forehead.

“You can’t hide from Latrell, Deke.

“So maybe you were gonna ditch us and do some business on your own and take this piece here for yourself and diss your friends. That’s what I’m thinkin’ now you was gonna do.”

He waved a finger in the air.

“To your friends, Deke,” he said clucking his tongue. “To your friends.”

Latrell shook his head and took a step toward him.

Deke responded by leveling the shotgun at Latrell’s head.

“Untie her!” he shouted.

“Now there you go bein’ all unfriendly on us again,” said Latrell with a wide open grin that exposed a lot of teeth. “After all we been through. After all we done together.”

“We done nothin’, Latrell.”

“Oh, now there you go tellin’ lies. I guess you got to look good in front of your, umm, friend here. But you know we done lots and you got as much of it on your hands as any of us do.

“And now you do this to us.”

He shook his head and clucked his tongue again.

“That just won’t do now we know you got this private stock here.”

He moved a finger and pointed it in the general direction of Mala.

“We got to go shares on this like we done everything else.

“So we ditch the baby and then we take shares with this just like with everything else.”

“You’ll get shares of this, Latrell,” he said gripping the shotgun tighter, “if you so much as touch her again.”

He pointed the barrel of the gun at one of the others.

“Since Latrell don't hear too good, you, Jam, you untie her and you do it quick. And then you take that wire and you tie up Latrell there with it.”

Jam looked at the shotgun and then looked over at Latrell. It seemed as if he couldn’t decide which represented the biggest threat to him.

Boom.

Another hole opened up in the roof but this one at the Jam’s feet. He dropped and cowered and there were sounds coming from him of whimpering.

“I said untie her!” said Deke between clenched teeth.

Jam leaped up and went over to Mala. He untied her quickly and then took the wire over to Latrell.

“After you tie him up, you tie the rest of them up,” said Deke. “And then we’re gonna tie you up. You understand me?”

Jam nodded and there was another whimper from him.

“Now, there you go bein’ all unfriendly like that again,” said Lattrel.

He was smiling but it was the grin of a python.

“I’m thinkin’ right now that this partnership is at an end.”

His voice suddenly got cold.

“You better use that gun there cuz I’m gonna come for you, Deke, and when I do I’m gonna cut you and gut you nice and slow. Not fast, no. You’re gonna be alive but barely just long enough for the zombies to come and find you. And they’ll eat your guts and you’ll see it all with your eyes wide open while you scream your last breaths away.

“And then we gonna drag what’s left of you through the streets to let everyone else know that it don’t do to cross Latrell.

“You remember that, Deke.”

This stopped everything. The man named Jam stood frozen to the spot. Fear was all over him. It seemed as if what Latrell had said he’d do to Deke had somehow been directed at him. And he wasn’t going to do anything that would bring it on. Not from Latrell.

“Tie him up!” shouted Deke.

When Jam didn’t move, Deke rushed over to him and jammed the barrel of the gun up against his cheek.

“Do it now!” he said his voice as cold as Latrell’s had been.

Deke’s back was to two of the other men. He hadn’t been careful enough in showing his displeasure with Jam and this put two of them behind him. Being the loyal Latrell men they were this provided them an opportunity.

They made their move.

They crossed the distance between them and Deke in an instant. One of them grabbed Deke in a bear hug while the other one grabbed at the gun.

But Deke was in his anger and he twisted in the grip of the man who held him and elbowed him in the solar plexus. That man went down on his knees and gasped for breath.

Deke batted the other one across the side of the face with the barrel of the shotgun.

That put him down.

But that emboldened the others. They moved toward Deke and Latrell attacked from the other side.

But Latrell only moved a couple of feet before he was struck. His eyes went wide as he hit the roof and slid on the gravel a bit before he came to rest.

He was unconscious.

Mala stood there with her coat and blouse open but she was unaware of that. In her hands was a length of pipe and she stood with it over Latrell looking down at him.

The pipe was bent in the middle.

This stopped the others and they turned in shock to look at Mala.

“You want some of this?” she shouted to them shaking the pipe almost uncontrollably. “You want some of this?

“You come and get it!”

Not one of them moved.

“Then I’ll come to you.”

She started toward them across the roof but Deke stepped in between.

“You get them tied up,” he said to Jam, “or I’m gonna cut you in two. Simple as that.”

To the others he said, ‘Maybe I should let her have at you.”

The others looked as if they didn’t like that at all and stood frozen to the spot.

But Jam did move. It looked like the present fear of getting hit with a shotgun blast overcame anything else.

“On your knees,” said Deke to the others.

They didn’t move. They looked like they were thinking about it.

“Jam’s gonna tie you up,” he said coming over to them and jamming the shotgun in their faces one at a time.

“On. Your. Knees.”

They looked at the gun and then at Mala. One of those two seemed to decide them. They lowered themselves to their knees and Jam tied them up.

There was a moan and Latrell sat up.

He rubbed his head.

“Tie him up,” said Deke.

Jam went over to Latrell and began tying him up.

Latrell looked like he didn’t know where he was for a moment but his eyes settled on Deke and they narrowed.

“Maybe you will come after me, Latrell,” said Deke, “but you better come loaded because I will be.”

“Ohhhh,” said Latrell his voice coming slowly as if he were having a hard time keeping conscious, “I’m gonna enjoy what I’m gonna do to you! We all gonna enjoy it.

“You better have eyes in the back of your head, Deke, because I’m comin’ at you. You won’t know where, from the shadows, from the light, in the day or at night, I’m comin’ at you.”

Rhyming was a part of Latrell’s shtick. Before the comet, he had flattered himself that he was some kind of rapper who just needed his main chance. But after the comet it was part of his persona—what others would describe as his charisma—what he saw as his ability to control his followers.

That and spoils. The pickings were pretty good these days—if you could keep them. And with Latrell they did.

“Oh, yeah,” said Deke. “Poet Latrell, the sensitive type who feels the pain of humanity and puts it in verse.

“Tell that to Keisha. And to Carol and the rest of them.

“Oh, that’s right, you can’t because they’re dead. Killed by you.

“Sensitive tough guy.”

Deke spat.

“It’s all nonsense, Latrell, but that word’s got more than one syllable so maybe it isn’t in your vocabulary.

“You know what it means?

“It means stupidity, that’s what it means. Stupidity is what comes from your mouth.”

As he was speaking, Deke got angrier and angrier. Finally, he crossed over to Lattrel.

“Oh, you come ahead, Latrell!” said Deke his jaw set. “You come after me! And you come remembering this.”

He slapped him.

“And this.”

He slapped him again but with the back of his hand.

Latrell’s face screwed itself into rage. He was fully conscious now.

“You sealed your fate, Deke,” said Latrell. “I’m gonna hunt you down and you gonna be dead. And there ain’t nothing’ you gonna be able to do about it.

“And that piece there you got with you? I’m gonna take care of you and then I’m gonna take care of her. And when I get tired of her, I’m gonna kill her nice and slow, just like I’m gonna do with you.”

Mala looked at Latrell. He was grinning a big wide grin at her.

She saw this and walked over to him. When she got close she kicked him.

Hard.

And then she kicked him again and again and again. And when he tried to turn and protect parts of himself from her, she just kicked him harder in others.

When she was finished, Latrell was on the ground moaning in pain.

“I don’t think you know what you just did,” said Jam. “He gonna come after you and he ain’t gonna let up until he got you.”

“Let him come,” said Mala. “He will find more where that came from.”

“Where’s the baby?” she said to Jam.

“Over there,” he said pointing with his face.

“Where?”

“The other side.”

There were vents in that direction and Mala disappeared behind them. In a moment she was back with the baby.

It was crying.

“Remind me to stay on your good side,” said Deke to her when she came back. “You do know that he’s got a vindictive streak in him a mile wide. He will do what he says and that means you’re gonna have to watch your back.”

“For someone who doesn’t know the man you sure know an awful lot about him.”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t know him.”

“So you do know him. And from the sound of it you know him pretty well.”

“Maybe I do,” said Deke wearily. “But that has nothing to do with here and now. We’ve got to get moving. The noise I made with that shotgun’ll bring what’s behind us running.”

“Don’t nobody do this to me!” said Latrell now upright on his knees. But he was obviously in pain.

“Don’t nobody do this to me!”

Deke reached down and picked something up off the gravel and went over and shoved it in Latrell’s mouth.

“What’s that?” asked Mala.

“A rag,” he said.

“That’s doesn’t look sanitary,” she said.

“I think you might be right,” said Deke.

He turned back to Latrell.

“You get sick, you sue me, okay, Latrell?”

He reached over to shove the rag further in but Latrell turned his head.

The others kneeling there were in shock.

“Oh, he ain’t gonna be in no good mood after this,” said Jam when Deke came over to tie him up. “No, he ain’t.

“If I was you, I’d find me the deepest hole I could and bury myself in it because he ain’t gonna let up until you be dead.”

Deke said nothing to this but finished tying him up.

When he was done, he came back to Mala.

“Let’s go,” he said and he started walking in the direction he had come from.

The men started to whine when they saw Deke leaving.

“You just gonna leave us like this?” said one of them.

“What’s gonna happen to us?” said another.

“You get yourself loose,” said Deke, “and you take care of Latrell over there. And then you come after me like he says.

“I’d say it’s pretty simple even for some of you.”

“What about them zombies?”

“Not my problem. If you’re trash you gonna get taken away when the garbage men come.”

He took Mala by the arm and they walked away to a spot back behind some vents.

“You should button up,” he said stopping and pointing at her blouse. “It’s cool out.”

Mala looked down. Her jacket and shirt were still open. She couldn’t button her shirt but she quickly buttoned her jacket.

“Here’s this,” he added holding a bottle out to her.

Mala took it. It was still quite hot.

“What did you do, boil it?” she said.

“Yeah, I thought that’s what you were supposed to do.”

“You don’t know much about babies do you?”

“What’s there to know?”

Mala clucked her tongue, shook the bottle and kept shaking it.

“Everything,” she said exasperated.

Minutes later, she squeezed out a couple of drops onto her wrist. Then she gave the bottle to the baby. It immediately quieted down.

“Okay, so, sorry about that,” said Deke when the baby was quiet. “I took too long, I know. But it took me a little bit to find some milk. And then I had to find a bottle and then something to warm it up with.”

He pointed to the bottle.

“It’s canned milk,” he said. “I can’t stand the stuff myself. Doesn’t taste like milk to me.”

Mala said nothing but just looked down at the baby.

“Maybe you’re surprised I found anything at all,” he continued.

Her saying nothing made him nervous.

“Well, these are my stomping grounds. I’ve searched the buildings around here quite a bit and just remembered where the bottle and milk were. But they weren’t in the same place.

“Heating it was a little difficult.

“No microwaves.”

He chuckled.

“I had to use a portable stove. In a completely different place.”

He looked at her.

“I am sorry about that,” he said motioning back the way toward the others they could still hear back there grunting and swearing.

Mala looked at him and then slapped him in the face. She slapped him hard.

“What was that for!” said Deke rubbing his cheek.

“For being late.”

She slapped him hard again.

“Ow!” he cried.

“And that’s for being with them. He said you were with them. And you seem to know a lot about that Latrell which means you are with them.”

“Latrell says a lot of things,” said Deke rubbing his face.

“So you deny that you were with those pieces of trash?”

“I deny it’s what you think it is.”

“And what do you think I think it is.”

“Something that makes me out to be the same as they are.”

“Aren’t you?”

“No.”

“So you’re telling me that you weren’t going to meet them?”

“No…well, yes and no.”

“So you were going to meet them?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t going to do what you think I was going to do.”

“Which was what?”

“Whatever you think it was I was going to do.”

“Well, then I’m here to listen to what it was supposed to be that isn’t what I think it is.”

Deke looked at her. He wasn’t smiling now.

“Okay, maybe you’re entitled to some kind of explanation and maybe it would be better to get the whole thing out in the open right now. But I think it might be better to wait until we get some place that’s safer than this. We have some men behind us who are in the mood to kill me and what they might do to you you had a preview of back there.”

He looked back behind him. There was nothing to see but vents.

Then he looked down at Mala’s jacket.

“I’m really, really sorry about that.”

He shook his head and looked genuinely sorry.

“But what’s behind them are worse,” he continued, “maybe not by much but still worse. The zombies. Staying here we chance them coming up through the building. So it would be better for us to get away from here.”

Mala wanted to know who this man was and if she could really trust him at all. But he was right; this wasn’t the place for that discussion.

“Okay, but when we get someplace safer I want to know what you were doing with that man.”

“And I will tell you just as soon as we do.”

He made an x across his chest.

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” he said with a smile.

That smile. Now he smiles. Serious and intense before but he’s all smiles now.

What is it with this guy?

“So let’s go,” he said and he grabbed her arm.

Mala pulled it quickly away.

“I don’t know who you are so don’t you go grabbing me like that,” she said.

He smiled and stuck out his hand.

“Well, okay, maybe I didn’t introduce myself well enough before. My name is Clarence Tecumseh Jones. I’m Detroit born and raised though what that adds to my biography now is hard to say.

“My friends called me Deacon early on for a number of reasons but that was shortened to Deke somewhere along the line.

“So my name is Deke.

“And now we have to go.”

He grabbed her arm again and she shrugged it off.

“Where?” she said.

“This way,” he said pointing.

She took a couple of steps in that direction but thought better of it. She was tired of going and going and not knowing where she was headed.”

“I want to know where we’re going.”

“Okay, but while we move.”

He didn’t grab her arm this time but started off himself.

Mala followed.

“We’ve got to get someplace safe from the joobs,” he said as they walked.

“Joobs?”

“Jejubah men.”

“Jejubah men?”

“Yes, the jejubah men. Joobs for short. Though I have to say that there are women among them too so men doesn’t quite describe them all.

“Jejubah persons, maybe?”

He laughed.

Mala didn’t understand. Jess called them no-souls. She called them zombies when she referred to them at all, which she tried not to do. But this?

“Jejubah men,” she said.

“Yeah, they look like jejubah men to me.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“Well, you probably don’t. Sometimes I think that maybe grandmamma was pulling my leg. But she was a believer. She said many times that this world is made up of what you see and what you don’t see and that there were things in it that were up to no good. Ones we can see and ones we can’t.

“She kept them off with the standard stuff. Sometimes it got pretty smelly especially with all the garlic. Pastor Williams came over a few times to tell her that it wasn’t the Christian way, but she just kept on with it.

“But let me tell you the older I get, the more I come back to grandmama’s way of thinking.”

“Jejubah men sounds like some kind of candy.”

“Maybe it does. She took me to a museum when I was small and they had a display of some native masks. From Africa. One of them had big eyes and a wide open mouth in the shape of a big O.

“Scared me to death.

“When I asked her what it was, she said it was a jejubah man. When she told me that, it took some of the fright away. Maybe it was the word itself— it sounded funny— or maybe it was putting a name to it, but I wasn’t as frightened of that kind of thing after that.

“Thinking about it now, I think maybe my grandmamma meant that.

“So to me, these creatures, these walking dead, are just jejubah men.”

They got to the other side of the roof and there was another bridge spanning the distance to the next building. This time it was some kind of planking.

“And here we are,” said Deke.

“Over?” she said giving voice to the obvious.

“Over.”

Deke took the baby from her and helped her up. Mala wasn’t as reticent this time as she had been. She hated the men they had left behind them. They were dangerous and the zombies were dangerous and they had to get away from them. That was a pretty good incentive for her to move.

Mala swallowed as she looked at what she had to do but she was more confident this time. She had done it enough times already that she knew she could at least get across it. Before she hadn’t thought she could do even that.

She slowly walked across the planking. But it took her only a short few minutes this time before she was down through the window and into the building on the other side.

Deke was across only seconds after that.

To pursues this book, go to Apocalypse, Book 2