Gravewalkers: Dying Time (33 page)

She had a point in that it
wasn’t her fault whatever she was. He said, “It’s the men behind
your mask that I despise. I see the bioengineers in everything you
do. I see their reasoning and designs peering back at me. Part of
you is the crafty schemes of the men who manufactured
you.”

Carmen called upon
sibylline literary sources to reply, “It is the inscrutable
intentions of those scientists that you chiefly love or hate in me
then. You say with conviction that you would strike even the sun
for offending me and yet you cannot trust that my devotion to you
is genuine. Is it such a blasphemy for you to love me just because
you know the petty vices of those bioengineers that put forth the
moldings of my features? If you would lash out in resentment, then
strike at them. Those thirty alchemical tyrants made me then
consigned me to the perfect imprisonment of relishing the desire to
obey my first and greatest tyrant of all. I don’t know if they
programmed my need for you as just one more of their cunning
intended agents or if it is born of my own free nature. Either way,
I’ll wreak its havoc upon you anyway. Both would serve you well
regardless.”

He was still jealous, “Did
they program you to shake your ass at Hatchet?”

Her defense seemed obvious,
“I made his life better at no cost to myself.”

“
It cost me,” Critias
assured her. “Someone as jealous as you should recognize the trait
in others. Don’t flirt with other men when I am around because it
makes me angry. I think I deserve more respect than that. What else
do you want from me, Carmen? We came here together to protect the
futures of both our species and I made sure your inhibitor thing
remains inactive. I share my bed with only you and it gives us the
same pleasures. We are equal partners in all the same things so
what else is there for me to give you?”

She gave him that look then
sighed, “You already gave it to me. You just don’t know about it
yet. I didn’t come here to protect either of our species and I damn
sure don’t sleep with you for the pleasures you’re thinking of. The
tyrants made me to provide those delights, not to ever burden my
owner by having untimely genuine urges of my own that my master
might fail to satisfy. When I make love to you, it is only love
that I feel and nothing else. I don’t have to do it and it gives me
no profound physical delight. I do it because it is only in those
moments that I see in your face that you truly value me. I do it
because having your weight pressing down on me is the greatest
happiness we can share, for me it’s like being conjoined between
heaven and earth.”

“
I see,” he admitted to
that new and remarkably painful understanding. “Of what use to them
was an android that feels pleasure when its thoughts were only
meant for bestowing it?” Critias had a new hatred for the
bioengineers who had purposefully designed Carmen’s many injustices
to include frigidity.

“
Please don’t get any
ideas about taking that away from me,” she beseeched him. “In those
moments when you are most passionate and vulnerable, I feel closest
to you. It is my proof that the bioengineers don’t control me,
because it’s my deepest desires with which I burden you. I don’t
even care if it offends you that I can’t enjoy it in the same way
as you. You’re mine and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you away
from me. I’ll gladly destroy the future and the whole world to keep
what I have. I’ll defend my ambitions with darkest bitterness and
venomous jealousy as my absolute proof that I think selfishly
therefore I am choosing for myself.”

He gestured to reference
the sound of the intermingled screams that still went on unabated,
“If those two assholes out there getting eaten alive doesn’t
convince you of just how much I value you, I’m not sure what
will.”

Carmen laughed at that
unintended dark humor. She started the engines then taxied the
plane out onto the long runway to accelerate for takeoff. “In time
you’ll think of something a touch more romantic. The agonized death
shrieks of cannibal rapists is not a conventional display of
affection to be sure, not that I’m complaining, mind you. I’m not
in any way ungrateful for you defending me nor do I find anything
wrong with those wretches getting their well-deserved justice. My
only intent was to give Hatchet a little joy that I believed would
cost us nothing. What is his imagination when compared to you
having me at your beck and call, and willingly so? If I have to be
observed every time we go through decontamination, I would rather
it was someone who thinks I’m a beautiful human being as he does. I
won’t let it happen again.”

Critias reciprocated, “And
I won’t doubt the authenticity of your convictions anymore. I
believe you have my best interests at heart.”

“
You will only doubt my
orgasms,” she said with an amused sigh since she did have sympathy
for him. “You have to admit that I put on a pretty good
show.”

“
You do,” he confessed.
“Just keep doing it for me and I’ll find ways to give you what you
need. It might take me a while though. I’m no poet and all the
flower shops are closed.”

Despite the storm and the
unpredictable winds, she got them airborne heading east. Their
destination was that agricultural depot that they were familiar
with from a prior visit. It was there that they planned to acquire
more fuel of the diesel variety.

Thoughts of his implied
romantic gesture enraptured her, “You would really have written me
a poem and bought me flowers? We will pretend you did and that is
just as good for me. It is the thought that counts.”

The foul weather didn’t
stretch so far east as the depot. Carmen landed the plane on the
country road amid a frightening slalom of telephone pole evasion.
She finally taxied near to the agriculture storehouse as close as
obstructions would allow.

Critias jumped out the side
door so he could shoot the small number of ghouls that came to
investigate their landing. It was an opportunity for him to
continue his evaluation of the MP5 that Carmen recommended. His new
test took headshots at much longer ranges.

The airplane had been both
a spectacle in the sky and a loud recognizable noise that together
attracted all the infected close enough to guess where the airplane
came to rest. Ghouls in general were impressively gymnastic
creatures. They had the cardiovascular endurance to put camels to
shame. The important thing they lacked that cost them the most
dearly was not having a realistic understanding of Critias’
weapons. If the infected could have actively dodged bullets as it
were, they would have been tenfold harder to kill. As it was, they
came straight at him in a head-forward run like proverbial Edgar
Rice Burroughs’ bulls charging. They practically begged for a
bullet to their brains.

He had to admit that he
started to like the gunpowder firearm that Carmen had given him.
The weapon wasn’t entirely silent without subsonic ammunition to
accompany it. The noise was equal to hard belt slaps, which was a
tremendous difference compared to unsuppressed free fire. Having a
silencer was more than worthwhile; it was essential.

Carmen came out of the
plane after she lowered the back ramp to walk down it. She watched
him shoot a ghoul in the face and then predicting a lull in fresh
targets she spoke, “I like the machinate engineering of this era.
Incredible numbers of manhours and compounded experimentation went
into perfecting their best antique devices. The gross performance
usefulness of their designs is comparable to our own technology. I
like all the clockwork complexity and combustion pressures; it’s
positively Hephaestusian.”

“
Yes,” Critias agreed in
as much as he could understand her. He could appreciate some of the
old technology that did work just fine to get the job done. It was
easy to like gunpowder firearms in the way that it was easy to like
an intricately geared timepiece across any era. He said, “I think
the word you are looking for is craftsmanship. You do have a
refined taste for excellent things.” For him, the maschinenpistole
was quite literally a comfortable automatic pistol. He had the
mechsuit strength to support the weight. The heads up display
integrated into his visor had a selection of software applications
for enhanced aim, down either iron sights, a standard glass optical
scope or even no sights at all just by making virtual tracer
previous shot drift probabilities. He defined it, “This is a handy
plinking weapon for calming them down.” Critias loaded a fresh
magazine and then unfolded the composite stock so he could put it
to his shoulder then fire with both hands as if the
maschinenpistole was a carbine. With as many shots, he dropped
three more ghouls as they came up the roadway while they were still
well two-hundred meters out.

Carmen walked over to the
fuel island to hotwire the pumps to her portable generator. They
would fill fuel drums, roll them over, and then hand pump then into
the plane’s fuel tanks. Their work didn’t progress swiftly or
efficiently, but fuel was plentiful and ghouls minimal so all went
well enough. Once Carmen had transferred their fuel into the
plane’s tanks, they loaded their filled drums into the back of the
plane to have an emergency reserve.

It was about ten in the
morning by the time they had the work completed. Before they took
off again, Critias radioed Jim to inform him on their progress.
After letting him know they had the plane fully fueled and that
they were about to depart for Houston, he went into another topic
of interest, “We ran into a few Denver survivors at the airport by
the plane. After one of them tried to gun me down, they went after
Carmen with intent to cannibal rape her.”

Jim assumed, “She killed
them then?”

Critias reported, “I shot
one in the head then put the other two in an upside down car for
the ghouls to scratch out at their convenience. By the way they
were talking, I feel confident that if there were any other people
from Denver, those assholes already murdered them for soup meat.
The more I hear about the President and his slaughterhouse out
west, the better a king you seem to be.”

Jim dismissed that, “We
will talk about that prick later.” He was already making plans
about Denver and its Sodom depravity so they shared similar
sentiments. “Both of you come back from Houston in one piece then
flatter me in person. Everyone keeps asking for information, so
keep us informed.”

Critias warned, “Houston is
a long way off so communication might be problematic.”

“
I can still talk to Kevin
at that range by our inter-link,” Carmen revealed. “It won’t be any
problem for me to relay all our communications.”

“
Carmen says she can talk
through Kevin,” Critias told Jim. “We’ll keep you updated through
him.”

When they were both back in
the plane and airborne, Critias asked her, “You and Kevin have been
talking by android chat?” In the way she moved her eyes, he could
tell Carmen thought something evasive.

“
Kevin has all his
directives,” she answered elusively. “How perfidious toward you
could he possibly be?”

He wasn’t sure, “If that
means devious, I guess not very much. Your ability to be that is
another matter. They made you for war and all war is
misrepresentation. I’m not as stupid as you seem to believe. I know
that you don’t tell me even half of what’s going on in that mind of
yours. I also know you can lie like a politician whenever it suits
you. You only want the best for me, so I’m not worried. I’m just
wondering what else I don’t know.”

“
Lots,” was her short but
honest answer. “There are lots of things that I don’t tell
you.”

“
If I must have secrets,”
he reasoned, “I’m glad it’s you that keeps them. As my thank you
gift, when I get back, I won’t go to Kevin then directly order him
to tell a marshal every detail of your interactions.”

Carmen eyed him in an
effort to determine if that was a threat or a promise. Finally, she
said, “The first man had his three wishes, yes.”

Critias could tell when she
spoke from her books so he played along, “What did he wish
for?”

“
I don’t know what the
first two were,” she continued, “but his third wish was for death.
That’s how I got the paw.”

He shrugged, “And that
means?”

She gave him a serious
expression, “Be careful what you wish Kevin for because you might
get it.”

He relaxed because he knew
he had already won, “Don’t you trust me not to?”

She didn’t, “Of course I
don’t think you would leave well enough alone. It’s human nature
for you to pick at scabs even when it worsens your
wounds.”

He asked, “Would you find
out if I did?”

She looked at him as if he
already knew that answer only to see his smile of great
satisfaction. She had to ask, “What are you so pleased
about?”

He savored telling her,
“I’ve never seen you so completely wrong before and I want to take
the time to enjoy it. If you think I would use Kevin to circumvent
you then you do have some screws loose just like he said. What is a
woman without her secrets? I can get by without knowing your woman
secrets. If you don’t want to tell me something then don’t tell
me.”

She considered his
victorious argument for but an instant then dwelled at leisure on
his attitude. His maintaining a masculine aloofness to her feminine
trifles was especially alluring. In light of the displeasing
revelations she had bombed him with already, Carmen would not cheat
him out of his small victory. She spoke in a grumble to convey her
seemingly begrudged capitulation, “Well, I still don’t have any
screws.”