Zombie Road by Simpson, A. (best ereader manga .TXT) 📗

waiting to gun him down as soon as he pulled into the parking lot. If they couldn’t be trusted to do the job, he could just as easily send a message. A warning to himself. Kill the Road Angel as soon as he arrives.

Jessie took a deep breath and let it out. He had to make them understand or they would be against him too. They would try to stop him from destroying the machine. He closed the door and spoke softly to his reflection in the glass.

“I went back many times.” He said. “One time the Anubis cult won the war and had taken over the tower. This was the last place of refuge, the last known humans on earth, but the building was dying. It was over crowded and surrounded by a hundred thousand dead. I met with you, Marilyn. You helped me even though it cost you your life. One time the world went to war and was in the grip of a nuclear winter. Everyone was dead and everything was frozen, a new ice age. One time we thwarted their plans to release the virus but it happened anyway. It was worse, the slow dying. It took months for the contagion to spread instead of days. The survivors starved to death, there were no warehouses full of food. It had all been eaten. They would kill each other over a can of beans. One time the nuclear power plants weren’t decommissioned by the radicals. They melted down and most of the world was a radioactive wasteland. One time they released a fungus instead of a virus. All vegetation was shriveling up and dying, the planet was becoming a desert with dust storms and dead forests. One time I came back and all the zombies were gone but the people hadn’t been able to preserve any technology. They were living in the stone age again after just a few generations. Knowledge had been lost. I’ve tried to fix things in the past and it was a disaster. I’ve been to the future trying to get to the past and sometimes it seemed okay and sometimes it wasn’t. Things were never like they were before, though. One calamity or another left the planet in ruins. This world we are in right now is the best possible scenario we can hope for. If you consider everything that had to happen, every little incident that brought us to where we are now, it’s a miracle. Look around, the future is bright.”

Jessie turned to face them with his weary, scarred face and sad, bloodshot eyes.

“What we’ve gone through was bad but it could have been worse. I’ve seen worse.” He said. “We are lucky, so damned lucky, to have the world we live in now. In the end, I stopped trying to change things. I only wanted to get back to last month. From where I was, it was impossible. I finally stopped trying and accepted things the way they are. If you attempt to fix it one more time, you could destroy what we have and you might not get a chance to try again. I believe the future I saw where gleaming towers grew up out of the woods, where there weren’t ruined cities and mutated creatures, came from this reality. From the world we live in now. The new cities I saw were clean and bright and I think they were built using this Tower as a model.”

They tried to wrap their heads around what he said, what it meant. They had been hoping and praying everything could be fixed. Ever since they learned about the machine, they thought all the wrongs could be righted. Like Jessie, they thought they could fix the world.

They had questions, they wanted answers, they were sure if they did things right and with a careful plan they could undo the past year. They started to argue but quieted when they felt the low thrum of the machine as it fired up again.

“We may blink out of existence as soon as he hits the button.” Jessie said. “If whatever he is sending back changes anything, it will change everything.”

They let out a collective sigh when the faint humming wound down and they were still there. Still alive and debating about the best way to use the machine.

“It has to be destroyed.” Jessie said again. “The next time we might not be lucky.”

3

Destruction

“Jessie.” Marylin said and placed a hand on his arm before he could barge out of the door. “We have a little time. They’ll study the results of their test, they’ve been doing this for weeks now. It’ll be at least an hour before they try again. If you rush down there without a plan, I don’t think you’ll succeed.”

He knew she was right, especially if Horowitz had been experimenting with a serum derived from Scarlets blood and a bunch of super goons were guarding the machine. This timeline was subtly different, Horowitz was using disposable human hybrids to try to figure out how the machine worked. He wondered what else had changed.

“How many people do you have?” Jessie asked. “Have you raised your own group of fighters?”

“I have three men I trust.” Macon said. “They know as much as we do.”

“Not enough.” Jessie said and drummed his fingers on the door frame. “We need more. I’ll get some of the retrievers.”

“They’re intoxicated.” Marylin replied. “I don’t think they’ll be much good if you’re thinking about doing this now. We should wait until tomorrow…”

“There’s no time.” Jessie interrupted. “The next time Horowitz fires it up it could be the last. Besides, they fight better half crocked anyway. Gather your men, I’ll get the ones I know from the Cowboy bar and meet you back down here to gather weapons. It has to happen now.”

“He’s back!” Charlie Safari yelled when Jessie walked in “Give the man a drink, scrunch up people, make some room!”

Mindful of the cameras and some of the