Tribulation Zombies

As Nicolae swung the baseball bat at Rayford, he reflected in irritation that the whole reason he had hired Rayford was because he was the person least likely to assassinate Nicolae, and now here Rayford was, jaws gaping and hands clawing for his throat. Nicolae ducked another lunge and jumped up onto the hood of a broken-down car. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Buck stumbling toward him, dragging his mutilated leg across Hattie's ravaged, still twitching corpse.

Nicolae's foot slipped on his own blood and for the first time he thought that he might die. He swung the bat at Buck's head, but Buck managed to knock it out of his hands as Rayford grabbed his leg and dragged him off the car. His bloody teeth sank deep into his thigh. Nicolae screamed, grabbed Rayford's forgotten pistol out of his belt and shot him pointblank. The zombie fell to the ground, but Nicolae could feel the toxins coursing through his blood and the numbness spreading from his wound. As he sank into unconsciousness, he thought, "It wasn't supposed to end this way..."

Fifteen-year-old Nicolae fought back angry tears as he shoved his clothes into his suitcase. He could hear Father's words still echoing in his ears: "They fired me...We'll have to move again." He threw his books into a box as he silently cursed the Christians, the love they claimed to show, the churches who honored the most hateful among them, and the God who didn't seem to care. How many times had they moved now, when someone had outed his parents? Too many, it seemed. He hated them all. He knew Dad would be angry if he heard, but he couldn't help whispering, "I hate you, God."


"So do something about it," a voice behind him said matter-of-factly.


Nicolae whirled around to see a strange man sitting on his bed. The man looked completely average and nondescript, but something about his eyes seemed wrong. "Who are you?" he demanded.


"Satan, of course." Nicolae blinked. The man sighed. "Satan? You know, Lucifer? The Accuser, the Roaring Lion, the Father of Lies, the Angel of Light? Commander of the Hosts of Darkness? The Old Serpent, the Great Dragon?"


Nicolae looked uncertain. "This is a joke, right? I mean...Satan's not real."


The man rolled his eyes. "That's what they all say. I've been trying to recruit a decent Antichrist for 2000 years, and at first everyone's like, 'I hate God. God is evil' and then they're like 'I don't believe in God or the devil or anything.' Either that or they're not actually brave enough to follow through on what they've said."


"What are you talking about?" asked Nicolae.


"Obviously, I want you to be my Antichrist. Now don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. We both know that this entity pretending to be "god" is evil. He commits atrocities, he orders his followers to commit atrocities, and he turns a blind eye when they commit more atrocities. The human race is under his thumb, and I'm here to save you, liberate you. All I ask is a little cooperation from one brave man. So are you brave enough to turn against the god you hate?"


"Who are you?" demanded Nicolae again.


"I told you already! I'm the devil! Look, if I wasn't Satan, could I do this?" He suddenly transformed into a giant cobra. "Or this?" he hissed, flicking his tail, and everything in the room started to float. "What about this?" He flicked his tail again, and Nicolae's Bible burst into flames. When the smoke cleared, Satan was calmly sitting on the bed again. "Get the picture? You, me, Antichrist, Armageddon. Let's do this."


Nicolae was struggling to keep up. "What's in it for me?"


"Besides the liberation of all humanity, and the fact that you'll be the freaking Antichrist? You can 
have anything you want! Money, power, women..."


"Women aren't things," Nicolae said automatically, echoing his Dad, but his thoughts were distant.


"Whatever then!"


"You mentioned power...what kind of power?"


"Well, at the beginning, just the basics for a deceiver. Charisma, insight, foresight, luck."


"That's it?"


"Hold your horses, kid! That's just to get you in position for when everything gets going. After the Rapture and the Tribulation starts, you'll get to perform minor miracles. Water into wine, multiplying bread, walking on water, that sort of thing. Then about halfway through the Tribulation, you'll become impervious to death, and you can do awesome things like bringing others back from the dead, bidding the earth to swallow your enemies, smiting with fire, and all that. How does that sound?" Satan looked smug.


Nicolae frowned. "I know about the Tribulation. The Antichrist has to die, doesn't he?"


"Well, yeah, but it barely hurts at all, and you'll come right back to life three days later!"


"And then you'll be indwelling me?"


"Ah, no, actually. That is a misinterpretation of some religious weirdos. No, you'll be completely in charge."


"How do I know you're not lying?" said Nicolae, suspicious.


"Well, it's all in the Bible, isn't it? You can go read it if you want."


"So we're following the Bible. Great plan."


"Well, I have to play by his rules up until the end, and then, oh, just you wait and see what I've got up my sleeve. So how about it, kid?"


"I...I think I have to think about it for a while," said Nicolae.


"Oh, of course, of course. Think about it all you need. However," he waved his hand, "I've now endowed you with the lesser powers, so you can try them out for a while. It'll be your choice to use them or not, but just remember, if you decide to say no, they go away."


Nicolae started to ask another question, but Satan cut him off. "Hey, I've got to go now, okay? Give me a call if you need anything." He disappeared with a magnificent flourish

Nicolae found himself floating above his broken body, watching Buck gnaw on his foot. He cried out, "It wasn't supposed to end this way! You promised!"

Satan appeared, floating next to him. He grinned. "What's the problem, AC?"

Nicolae flung his arm toward the ground. "Look! I'm dying! Fix it!"

Satan lazily pointed at Buck, who was quickly incinerated. "How's that?"

Nicolae folded his arms. "You know that's not enough. Can't you make the virus go away?"

Satan frowned. "Ah, that I cannot do. The dead and the living I have power over, but the undead, well, um, that's...out of my area of expertise. Oh well! Serenity to accept the things I can't change, and all that!"

"I'm your Antichrist! How can you let me die?"

Satan shrugged. "I'll figure something out. I'm very resourceful. Besides, I gave you power. Use it."

"You just said you didn't have power over the undead--Oh..." He looked down at his body, then looked at Satan. "Do I have enough time left?"

"I don't know, but you'd better do it now. See you if you make it!" He disappeared in a cloud of cockroaches.

Nicolae snapped back to his body, fighting the virus that clouded his thoughts. His hands were already settling into claws, so he had to fumble with the pistol and brace it against the side of his head. Using both hands, he pulled the trigger, and then--nothing.

-----

Nicolae woke up with a pounding headache, though otherwise alert. He supposed the headache was a small enough price to pay for resurrection. Looking around, he saw Rayford's skeleton, licked clean by the horde of zombies. Now that the struggle to survive was over, the emotions rushed in. Grief and hatred and resentment and despair. What was the point of it all? He could have borne anything, as long as his Hattie was with him, but now she was one of them. As was the entire human race.

Nicolae knew that Satan didn't really care about the human race, and would do anything it took to defeat God, but even so Satan had convinced him to care, somehow. For a few years, as he was rising through the ranks and people were adopting his policies, it seemed possible to create the beautiful, tolerant and wise world he had always dreamed of. His grand vision. And after meeting Hattie, he had even believed that humanity deserved his guidance. She was what he kept his eyes on.

But now he saw it was all a waste. Humanity had always been selfish cannibals, destroying and devouring one another. The fact that they now looked like monsters made no difference.

With a roar of hatred, he stood up, brandishing his bat and pistol. A horde of zombies was approaching, attracted to the smell of life. He fired the last four shots into the crowd, and then waded in swinging, throwing a zombie to the wall with each stroke. His new strength was terrible, and all of their biting and clawing was deflected. Each zombie became a stand-in for one more hurt that was done to him or the people he loved. Father. Dad. Steve. Chaim. Hattie. Hattie. Hattie?

Suddenly he realized that one of the monsters he had hurled away from him had Hattie's eyes. In his grief and anger he called on hellfire to consume the entire horde, and then rushed to Hattie's side, cradling her head in his lap even as she snapped at him. Her neck was broken and she couldn't move anything else. He wept, stroking her tangled, bloody hair. He had to free her. With one vicious motion he crushed her skull, and her struggles stopped.

He didn't know how long he sat there, sobbing, but gradually a thought began to occur to him. He had power over death now, didn't he? And Hattie was dead now, right? Really, truly dead? He hardly dared to hope, but he had to try. He called upon the power that was now a part of him and gently laid a hand across her face. It seemed that a subtle wind blew through the parking garage, and then, to his astonishment, her wounds closed, her body was healed, and she opened her eyes, staring up at him.

"Oh, Nic," she breathed.

"Hattie," he started, but his voice broke, and they embraced, crying with joy now.

They pulled apart and Hattie stared into his eyes. "You saved me. How did you..."

"There's something I have to tell you, Hattie."

She gasped in wonder. "I knew it! I knew you were the Messiah!"

"What? I--"

"You're going to save the world, aren't you? Where are we going? Where will we start? Wherever you go, I will follow you and help you."

He looked away. "I don't want to save them. They're all monsters who deserve it."

She touched his cheek. "I was a monster too, and you saved me."

Nicolae looked at her and believed again. "Okay," he said, standing and pulling her to her feet. "Let's get started."