“Would you rather I appear as this?” The man surged to over forty feet tall; fiery eyes peered down at me and a long flowing beard almost touched the tips of his sandal-clad toes. His voice booming, “I appear as the person that stands before Me expects Me to be.”
“No, no the old man thing is way better!” I yelled up. “So if I was a feminist?”
He sighed deeply but was back to the form of the kindly stranger before I finished my words.
“It has come to My attention that Poena has deemed you as her plaything.”
“Just now you figured that out? I thought you knew everything, and I figured he was a she…almost had to be. She’s been messing with my life for decades. Maybe if you had skipped a movie or two I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“I think I know exactly why you are in this situation,” he said pointing to my mouth.
“Yeah probably right about that,” I said sheepishly.
“I will release you from the binding she has placed on you.”
“Why now Yoda?” I asked, testing the boundaries—typical stupid-ass Michael Talbot.
He looked at me with a glint of humor in his eyes; like a proud father that wanted nothing more than to scoop his wayward child up and laugh but was required to set an example. Who the hell did he have to answer to?
“Contrary to a lot of fatalistic individuals, I care very, very deeply about the world of man. But there are strict rules laid down by nature herself that do not allow me direct intervention.”
“You’re God, what can possibly stand in Your way?”
“More than you will ever know.”
***
What seemed like an eternity passed as I pondered His words. Maybe it had. Maybe mountains formed, oceans dried, the planet died and was reborn. All I knew was I loved my family and friends and I desperately wanted to be with them. I gulped hard, not sure if I was ready for the answer to my next question or not.
“Am I alive?”
“Do you want to be?”
“God, I had a philosophy professor once tell me the meaning of life.”
God arched an eyebrow and asked, “What was her definition?”
“Life is a bowl of snow.”
“Did that make any sense to you, Michael?”
“About as much as Your question.”
“Fair enough. You must answer the first question, but I can answer the latter.” It was my turn to arch an eyebrow. “The meaning of life? Well that’s simple, it is merely LIFE. To live, to breathe, to laugh, to love, to procreate, to exist. It is nothing more and nothing less.”
“What about the zombies?”
“They are an abomination created by man. They are not life, they are the antithesis. They destroy everything in their path without the ability or want to create.”
“I would very much like to be alive,” I begged.
“Then it shall be so.”
“It has been an unbelievable honor to talk with You, but I have to ask one more question.”
God waited patiently, as He watched me struggle to ask a question that I hoped would not offend Him.
“Am I dreaming this?”
He laughed…heartily, I might add. “Oh, Michael, you are a fun one to watch. Now get off the street and hide. Eliza is coming and she plans on laying waste to the entire city.”
“Will I see You again?”
“Get your soul back and we will talk some more.”
He placed the heel of his hand against my forehead. I felt as if I were being shot from a cannon. The rush of matter as it streamed by at light speed was disorientating; it wasn’t until I picked my head up off of the pavement that I knew where I was.
“I’M BACK!” I screamed triumphantly, then I remembered God’s—or my vivid dream’s—last words and I tried to get up and make a run for it.
PROLOGUE TWO
The slight woman and the stocky man walked across the parking lot as the sun blazed down. The four truck drivers watched as they approached.
“How stupid do you think they are?” Al, at twenty-eight, the youngest of the group asked.
“I guess we’ll see,” their self-appointed leader Kong replied.
He had been a decent man when the world still made sense. But these were not normal times; he would, and had done, all it took to survive and even thrive, including some things that were not necessary. Without the possibility of paying for his crimes, he had taken advantage of numerous situations.
Even from across the parking lot he could tell that the woman was beautiful, but there was something else there…something cold, deadly. He involuntarily shivered.
“She’s fucking hot!” the third driver, Dom, said. “Can I have her after you, Kong?”
Kong wanted to say he could have her first and that he was getting the hell out of there, but he stayed put against his better judgment. Her beauty only intensified as she approached, but so did his feelings of unease. She stopped no more than ten feet from where the men stood. Kong could tell from the men’s posturing that they were feeling differing forms of unease just as he was.
“Are those your trucks?” the woman asked.
“What’s it to you?” Dom asked.
Kong noticed the woman’s eyebrows furrow.
“I have a proposition,” the woman stated.
“I’ve got your fucking proposition right here!” Dom yelled, grabbing his crotch.
Randy, the fourth—and thus far, silent—driver, spoke with laughter in his voice as his 6 foot 5, 315 pound frame approached the woman, “I’d probably break her in half.”
“Let’s hear what she has to say,” Kong said, placing his hand on Randy’s shoulder.
Randy shrugged it off. “Fuck you, man. I’ll listen to what she says after I break a piece of that off. You got a problem with that?” Randy shouted as he pointed at the stocky youth that had come with the woman.
The young man merely smiled sadly. For some reason, that scared the shit out of Kong. Randy’s steps began to falter as he got closer to the woman. She did not move a muscle; even her hair seemed unaffected by the wind. Kong noticed that she was somehow above the earthly elements.
“I’m...I’m glad you’re not running,” Randy said as he started fumbling around with his fly. “I hate when they run. Oh, I catch them…always. It’s just that I’m usually sweaty by then, and then I ain’t so nice. You know what I mean?” Randy asked with a leer as he pulled his penis free from his pants. “Like what you see?”
The woman, without looking down, reached her hand out.
“Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talking about,” Randy said as he looked heavenward in anticipation.
His high pitched screams started shortly after his dismembered member landed with a wet slap on the pavement.
“Are we ready to talk?” the woman asked as she wiped her hand on Randy’s shirt before effortlessly pushing him over.
His screams became a crescendo before they started to tail off into sobs of pain. Shock and blood loss were beginning to take their toll.
“Fuck, Kong, she ripped his cock off!” Al was screaming as he began to back up.
Dom was dry-heaving. Only Kong was holding his ground.
“You the leader?” the woman asked Kong as she stepped over Randy who was now wrapped up in the fetal position.
He nodded quickly, wishing that, after he had shot his infected girlfriend, he had turned the gun on himself. Anything would have been better than staring into those twin pools of death.
“I have a proposition,” she stated again.
“And if I refuse?” Kong asked.
The woman looked back at the huddled form of Randy.
“I’m listening,” he told her.
And an hour later, when they were done talking, there were some absolute truths. First and foremost, Kong was confident in the fact that he had just made a deal with the devil.