Chapter 8: Love and Family (updated chapter number)

It had been an hour since Alice had been sent home since she and Jacob couldn't get anything out of Megan and the other 3 survivors and she was just pulling up to her mother's house tired eyed. She knew she was in for some more stress after the phone call she received back at the precinct which had already thrown her of her focus while she was trying to pry information out Megan.

As she walked to the door she couldn't help but feel the intensity of the situation on the inside as if an aura leaked past the closed door into the surrounding area. Knowing that the feeling of anxiety swelling up inside would go away much quicker if she got this over with as quickly as possible she hurriedly entered the house to see both Her mother and daughter going through aged documents.

"So are you gonna explain to me exactly what you said over the phone ma or are you just gonna ignore me like you hadn't said earlier that John was innocent," Alice said to Alexia as she watched her run her old shriveled fingers across the page of a yellow-ish aged white document.

Alexia looked up at Alice with whose eyes were now moist and red. Alice saw the look her mother and instantly felt disheartened as if the curiosity and snarky comebacks she had ready for her mother had been forcefully sucked away by the despair her mother showed. She knew this look that almost never changed, it was the look of a suspect who knew they'd just made a heavy and unforgivable mistake.

Before Alice could say anything else Alexia pulled out her old and dusty cassette player she used to use for when she was an interrogator back in her day. It still sported the barely legible Califone logo above its many black buttons that were all identical to one another except the usual red button on the far left. Alice had only seen it a few times when she was younger when Alexia let her listen to a recording her father made her before passing away from cancer.

Before Alice could start reminiscing of her father's inspirational message Alexia pressed play and instead another voice came through the old speaker of the recorder. It was a voice Alice had never heard before, but from the look in Alexia's eyes it was apparent that she knew whose voice it was.

It took a while for the audio to begin playing. At first, it was just a bunch of shuffling and footsteps hat stopped abruptly. Then a soft and calming voice came through saying, "Hello Mister...?"

"Dembe. You can call me Mr.Dembe." The firm and strong voice flowed through the speaker and Alice's eyes went wide.

She had her suspicions about who it could be but didn't want it to be true. The voice coming through the speaker was none other than Mattheson who was the assistant director of the FBI currently. Shocked and confused as to why Mattheson was being recorded she remained silent.

"So I hear the product here is top-notch better than any I could find in the state right," Mattheson said in a thick African accent that would have convinced anyone that wasn't as well trained as both Alexia and Alice. Although the only one in the room who couldn't tell that the voice belonged to Mattheson was Lana whose FBI training hadn't started yet.

The only reason Alexia knew the voice belonged to Mattheson was because she was quick to put the pieces together unlike her granddaughter, Lana. She remembered Alice's previous call of concern mentioning Mattheson being potentially John's brother and the package from Mattheson labeling John as a big brother.

The recording continues to play all the while revealing to all three that what John had tried to tell Alexia was all true. The director of the orphanage was pimping the children out like they were nothing more than a product in a grocery store. Alice and Lana both felt both angry and sad at the revelation that was just revealed to them, but it was something different for Alexia as she now knew she had killed an innocent man who was nothing a bigger victim than her sister who died back then.

Alexia felt the anger that was boiling over but she hid it, unlike her sadness at the thought she'd killed a man who had been punished for something he hadn't done. She felt the overwhelming sadness overflow out of her eyes at the thought of what her sister had gone through before being brutally killed. The grief that she had when she learned of her sister's death seemed insignificant compared to now along with her anger.

"Know what? I don't think your product is as secure as you believe. I'm going to have to refuse your services until you can prove to me your hundred percent secure," Mattheson said through the recorder while still pretending to be a foreigner.

After that, the recording ends with a quick shuffling noise that comes to a quick stop letting silence rule over the room they were in. All three of them now sat in silence staring at one another as if they were looking for answers from each other. The silence reigned supreme until Lana finally spoke up and asked, "So what do we do now?"

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A whole day had passed since John sent his legion of undead to the new sewer system repeating what he had done previously. If any of the homeless had been near the entrance to the old sewer system they would have sworn they had seen a flood of people flow out like a geyser had just appeared.

Camp after camp hordes of John's undead swept through tossing and turning every tent, shack, and makeshift home the homeless had made. John made sure to order them to leave nothing untouched as he made the zombie wolves sniff out any who had hidden well enough. While on the other hand making any zombified children crawl through vents and any other small areas too small for the zombie wolves.

The plan was progressing without a hitch if you didn't count the few close calls where some of the homeless almost climbed to safety through a partially opened sewer hatch they used to crawl out into alley's during the night and say. John made not of each and every one of the hatches for when the time comes for him to ascend his legion of undead to the surface.

After taking over the new sewer system John had amassed a whopping 583 zombies. It wasn't as huge as what he knew he'd gain after letting his horde loose upon the unaware humans above him. All John knew was that he needed to raise an even bigger army if he was to go up against the world he was born in.

John knew he had to wisen the hell up before making any big moves. He needed information, resources, and a plan after making his mass reveal. He knew there were plenty of holes in his plan and he wasn't smart enough yet to fill them on the spot. He needed more help than Dixie could provide. When he was alive he had a brother who helped him get on his feet financially, but now John needed someone who could help him lead and strategize. But the question that destroyed that thought was who in the hell was going to help an obsidian skeleton lead an undead army against the living.

As if someone had rung a bell Dixie quickly Materialized herself outside John's head and posed as if she was an angel on his left shoulder. John knowing this routine by now asked, "Let me guess more last-minute information?"

Dixie, losing the angelic pose made a grin to show her dissatisfaction at John's comment before saying, "Look jack ass. I do my job how I best see it succeeding. If I don't loosen up the tension you'll end up losing more of your humanity."

Feeling like an ass now after being reminded of his promise to her John caresses her head in a calming way.

After calming down Dixie looks up and says, "I was just gonna remind you that you can control how much free will they have. Meaning they can be used like Generals, captains, and etc."

Realizing what Dixie just said John felt like an idiot for forgetting such vital information. What use is having an army where you'd have to keep track of every little detail. John patted Dixie's head with his index showing his gratitude toward her overwhelming assistance.

Dixie being patted made her feel the same as when he complimented her before, but instead of smiling or acting cute she instead pretended to pout while not noticing her obvious blushed cheeks. John didn't think much of her actions as he'd forgotten the term people would have used to describe people like her long ago.

John felt he didn't need Dixie's help for this one as he believed he had the advanced understanding of necromancy down pact. All John needed was the zombie he wanted to act as his puppet general. He searched through his consciousness and through all the zombies he was connected too and remembered one in particular.

It was an old man whose memories revealed his dark history as America's former Secret General. His role in America was something little to know one knew of. He was once in charge of America's of the books spec ops units. Their goal was simple, protect America at all costs despite international laws and restrictions. It was something John hadn't expected when beginning his in the rink-dink sewers he now inhabited but it most definitely something he needed.

John felt even more compelled to make him into a puppet once the thought of his strategic prowess rising with this man at his side and commanding his legions while giving John more time to focus on his personal task. John quickly commanded the man to appear before him as he felt impatient as the seconds past.

After a few minutes the zombified man appeared in front of him still bloody from his death. John inspected him first looking from his skully down to his penny loafers. Everything this man wore made him look like the ideal street bum that everyone would walk past every day on their way to work or home. John had found the one piece of gold among the rubble.

John channeled his magic through his body and then place his hand upon the man's head. John had only awakened the cerebral cortex of his normal zombies just to bring them back and put them under his control using the mana nexuses he made within them which continued to be made in the newly turned through the effects of the undead curse John made. But he knew from when he looked through his hordes minds previously that parts of their minds are shut off making them nothing more than absolute drones. So from his experience with necromancy John instantly grasped that to make them self-aware under his control he only had to wake the sleeping portions of their brain.

John channeled his black and red mana into the man's head and felt the switches in the man's mind that governed his consciousness within his soul and flipped them all.

The man collapsed still as a rock while his eyes began to move rapidly under his eyelids. John could tell he'd finished and just stood their just waiting. While he waited for his zombie general to awake he noticed he hadn't even looked through his memories for his name, but just gave up since John saw this as the man's second life. He wanted to give the man a name he felt was both ironic and hilarious to his predicament. As if it hit him in the head John said, "Your new name will be Joseph. Instead of leading an exodus, you'll be helping lead the apocalypse and I'll be the god you'll pray to."

Dixie watching felt the coldness of one who has lost a piece of their humanity coming from John and John felt the stream of worry coming from Dixie and quickly caught himself. John before dying was one who kept his promises no matter what he had to go through even if it meant being hurt himself, John never went back on his promises.

John knew that situations in the future were going to be tough especially with him being the way he was now he needed something to weigh himself mentally before he went insane. After thinking for hours John had no idea as to how to achieve such a feat being an undead so he thought back to the one person that had brought him out of despair once before. His little brother James. He knew that he loved his brother far too much to doom him to a fate of being an undead so he thought about using him as an example for how to anchor his sanity. He remembered James had a family, a wife, three children, and six grandkids which made him feel uneasy at the thought of taking them away from his brother so he made the choice to just leave them alone when things become hectic. But out of his little brother's example, he learned exactly what he was missing, he a family.

John made sure to think hectically as to insure Dixie couldn't read his mind, as he made a separate plan in order to ensure his insanity isn't lost before completing his quest from the gods. As an undead, John knew it would be impossible to procreate like normal so that was out of the picture, but adoption wasn't.

He remembered having the hope of being adopted into a caring family crushed after being framed for murder, but he wasn't going to let that stop him as he thought back to the little girl who one of his zombie wolves had killed. The one who was being saved by the woman who cried out to her to run before seeing the zombie dog in front of her. The very girl who John had killed along with a piece of his humanity.

John thought back to her previous lifestyle compared to her flesh-eating one now. John could only think that she wouldn't have lasted long in such unsanitary conditions anyway, but he thought back to how happy a family could be and remembered before he attacked their homeless camp she was playing happily and John had her and her family torn to pieces. John, unlike the others, felt personally responsible for her now while also seeing her as his potential daughter in his artificial family.

He commanded her to use one of the wolves to ride back to The Grave Center immediately while thinking about the potential spouse that he could have filled in the role of a loving mother when he looked toward Dixie. Of course, so far she's shown great concern for him so far, but the question remained if she would welcome her role until the quest is finished. John chose to put this choice off until he could lay some of his current burden on his Joseph when he woke up and introduced himself.

John couldn't help feeling that things were becoming more complicated as he knew that bringing an end to the world wasn't easy, but to think he needed a family to keep from going insane. Thinking back to how a piece of his humanity died off he felt it was odd as to how this one girl's death made him feel go through such an ordeal. At first he believed to become a god of death one must be heartless so why didn't they take his humanity away before they sent him flying back towards earth. Out of all the questions in his skull at the moment the one question that was outstanding was, "What games are playing at gods?"