Mark Clodi - Ascension

' Why didn't he just push them through the river?' Then Red thought about it a little more, the river here was fairly slow and meandering, but it was also deep, which would sweep the mindless undead miles downstream and make it harder for their keepers to get them back together. 'I guess bridges will still have a part to play in this new world.'

He waited until the last of the zombies was on the bridge, then headed back towards the highway, confident that he would catch up to the tail end long before the last of them were through the narrow gap at the other end. The river bank on the far end was littered with the bodies of the true dead as well, for the most part they looked like head shot zombies, but there were a few incapacited zombies missing legs and arms down there as well, casualties from going up against the humans. The body count was impressive. 'How can we take this many losses and keep on going?'

Red imagined that getting rid of the slower zombies was a good thing, even if he hadn't been willing to do it himself. When Nita, Hugh and he were trying to slow the zombies down they locked them in houses or, in Nita's case, tried to fit as many into cars as they could. They rarely killed any of the zombies. What if someone found a way to reverse what had happened? Not that Red gave that serious consideration. 'We're done. There ain't no going back from this, only forward.'

By the time he reached the edge of the bridge Ramey and his crew was halfway across, following the last of the horde as it crawled along at a very slow walking pace. The cars in the one lane gave Red easy places to hide when he needed it, but Ramey and his friends were not looking back. Red was able to get within throwing distance of Ramey and was picking up snatched of his conversation as he drew closer. He went into Sue's mind and nudged her anger and resentment into rage, then watched to see what happened. She causally turned her gun on the zombie next to her and blew his head off. The other zombies reacted immediately, but Ramey held out his hand and Red felt an iron grip descend onto Sue's mind. Seeing the opportunity Red worked on Chuck, leaving Sue gasping and wondering why she just killed one of the people she was travelling with.

"What the fuck Sue?" yelled Ramey. "Don't tell me that was an accident!"

Sue's arms were slack and her rifle slipped from her fingers to clatter onto the pavement.

"Fuck you Ramey! You son of a bitch."

Better than Red had hoped for, she thought everything was her own idea, she also knew what was coming and was now choosing to go up against Ramey rather than back down meekly. Unfortunately Red knew she didn't have a chance. Chuck seemed reluctant to get involved. He was not responding well to the pushing that Red was doing. Instead of having the man shoot a random zombie Red was trying to make him go for what his old man would have called 'the money shot', in this case shooting Ramey in the head with his shotgun.

Red continued to berate Sue, escalating the tension all the zombies were feeling. Chuck finally broke, he let out a cry and Red seized control, trying to bring the gun up before Red could close down the other zombie's mind. The sob had been too much warning, Ramey was already on edge from earlier in the day and Sue had just heightened the unease that he felt. 'Fuck I played this wrong. I should have just waited and worked on Sue, she would have blasted that mother fucker if I had….wait…' Red went back into her mind. 'Son of a bitch.' Sue was a much less powerful zombie than Red was, getting inside of her head was easy, not as easy as Bobby, but close. He went through her head looking over her thoughts until he found what he knew had to be there. Orders. All of the zombies knew they could give tasks to those weaker than themselves. If the tasks were loosely worded or had a loophole a smart zombie could twist what the stronger zombie wanted, given time. Sue had orders not to harm Ramey. Plain as day. She might hate the man, just like Chuck did, but she was helpless to overcome that simple set of orders.

Now Ramey was inside Chuck's head looking him over for some sign, almost as if he knew someone else had been there before him. Red stayed on the periphery, looking for a way to break one of the others. Sue was locked down, Chuck was paralyzed by Ramey as well, both were as good as useless to Red now. Finally Red found Virginia. A portly middle aged housewife, who had watched zombies devour her husband and, worse yet, her beloved dog. The woman didn't want to be here, she wanted a new dog and though she fit what Ramey needed; a zombie strong enough to help control other zombies, she was not on his favorite zombie list. She only had a revolver to work with and she thought she was down to four bullets too. Better yet she hated the man named Keith, who she had watched kill another dog somewhere during their trip. Red stoked that anger to hate and that hate to rage, then had her pull up her gun and shoot Keith in the head. This time, instead of leaving her to Ramey's hold, Red gave her a list of targets and formed a wall to shield her mind from the more powerful zombie. This meant Ramey was rebuffed when he tried to grab the woman and stop her. Something that shocked him so much he let go of Sue. In the split second it took for Ramey to regroup and breech the walls Red had erected the woman shot three other zombies, two in the head and one in the neck.

"She is a fucking good shot with the piece, a natural." Red said to himself. He watched as Ramey crushed the walls around the woman's mind like tinfoil, but by then Red was well clear of her.

"What the fuck is going on with you fuckers?" Ramey yelled, "Have you all gone crazy? Stop shooting each other. Do not shoot each other anymore! Do not shoot me. Only shoot the people I tell you to. If you feel any desire to kill anyone first drop your gun."

The orders came down like a ton of bricks, crushing the insidious whisperings that Red had been starting in all of the zombie's minds. 'Six, I got him down to six friends. And two of them won't get in my way. I don't think I will get better odds than this.'

Red stood up and started walking towards Ramey.

Ramey didn't notice him at first, he was too busy trying to reinforce his orders in his companions minds. One of the other men did see Red and raised his arm to point him out to his master. Red yelled loudly, putting force behind his words, "Do not shoot me. Do not harm me. Do not get in my way." He wasn't certain that his words would override Ramey's, but all he needed was a moment's hesitation on their part, if they took any action against him.

Ramey pulled out of Sue and Chuck's minds, Red felt him leave, both of them were in a state of near shock. Red stalked forward, staying close to the cars, in case he needed cover. Ramey just stared at him and smiled, "Poor Red. You shouldn't have come back."

"You have one of my friends."

"Oh so if I give him to you, you will just go?"

Red paused and then shook his head, "No. I am afraid there is more to it."

Throwing his head back and laughing Ramey said, "Of course there is! What do you plan to do Red? I have you, you got too close. It's a neat trick how you got up here without me seeing you." Then Ramey grew quiet for a moment before continuing, "But you didn't did you? That was you back there that spooked me." Realization dawned on the zombie, showing as slight surprise, "And you fucked around in the heads of Sue and Chuck! How'd you manage that?"

Inside his head Ramey reached out for Aubrey, his 'parent' in Chicago, only to be rebuffed. She had a curt message for him; that she was busy. Focusing on Red again he tried to seize control of the other zombie to bring the conflict to a quick end. Red felt the attack coming and raised his shotgun, also hoping for a quick end. The shotgun blast hit the same time Red was physically thrown aside by Ramey's mental attack. Ramey had rebounded off of Red's shields then changed his attack as he saw the shotgun come up. To Red it felt like someone had driven a bus into him from the side, he flew up onto the truck of a light green sedan and then hit the rail of the bridge. Frantically he clawed at the railing with his hand, digging a furrow into the metal as he went over the side. The shotgun blast was intercepted by one of Ramey's men, who found himself involuntarily moving into its path. The pellets caught the zombie in the middle of the chest and twisted his body around in a diagonal summersault; he ended up face down on the ground unable to use his legs.