Free Monsters of the Apocalypse by Jordan Rawlins Page A

there something I don't know, Jacob?"
    "Many
things I'd expect, but to what specifically are you referring?"
    "You're
smiling. With all that horror out there, you're smiling."
    Jacob
finally held the pack up to his mouth and pulled out a single cigarette with
his lips. He then pulled the cigarette out of his mouth with fingers that
he inspected as if they were new or foreign. When he looked back up Dr.
Thomas it was with a troubling calm when juxtaposed by the glowing mushroom
clouds that backlit him. He moved slowly toward Dr. Thomas.
    "After
I became public enemy number one, when the army was sent full force after me, I
fled into the night. I knew that there was no one who would take me
in. To harbor me was certain death. I had no hope. I came to
terms with my certain death… but then I came to the Comanche Reservation and
they took me in. I told them that I would be the death of them, but they
just smiled. They smiled and made me make a promise. When I began
to fight back, when I began the Shadow War against The Government, I tried to
leave the Comanche behind. They were lucky to have lived as long as they
had, but they just smiled, reminded me of what I'd promised and fought
alongside me."
    Jacob
struggled to reach a hand into the breast pocket of his beautiful suit.
    "In the
next few days mankind will be saved, if it is saved, by smiling Comanche.
Those smiling men have been leading the inoculated, and those left behind, from
the cities to underground bunkers and subway tunnels, military compounds and
bomb shelters. Most of those smiling men will die. I know this
because I know them. I know that despite my orders they will continue out
into the chaos and the fires and the explosions in order to save more, and they
will die in that action. Tonight the Shadow Army is dying with a big
smile on their face."
    Jacob sat
back down in the chair and carefully ran his hand over his hair.
    "They
are dying and smiling because I promised that finally they would have revenge
on those who destroyed their people and land hundreds of years ago. I
promised and because of that, they know that their death won't be in
vain. Because I promised, they know that each person they saved will be
worth the trouble. Because I promised, they know that I will never kneel
or hesitate or stop until everyone on The Island, the people who've killed my
people and destroyed my country, just like they did the Comanche, will fall to
their knees and beg for mercy. I'm smiling, because I intend to keep that
promise."
    Jacob now
stood over Dr. Thomas, who managed with some difficulty to take a sip of his
drink.
    "How?"
    "One
step at a time," Jacob smiled, his hand coming out of his pocket with a
lighter awkwardly held.
    "Your
first step?"
    Jacob,
cigarette in his mouth, brought up the lighter with stiff fingers and barely
achieved the process of lighting it.
    "I'm
infected, I need a cure. My men are infected, they need a cure. You
don't want to die in agony… you need to find a cure."
    The lighter
fell to the ground and lay shaking between the two men who looked down at the
floor, away from the chaos that continued unabated outside, rumbling through
the ground and into their chests. Jacob looked at his hands, newly stiff
and gnarled.
    "That's
curious."

Chapter 22
***
    “Incoming
Ballistic Missiles detected. Impact in seven minutes. Prepare for
sealing in five minutes.”
    Nestor looked
up briefly at the ceiling speakers before he finished breaking the chair that
held him. Once free, he checked his wounds and though none of them felt
good, none of them were fatal. He managed to stand up and move down the
halls.
    He found an
emergency kit under a sink in a bathroom.
    "Three
minutes."
    Nestor,
moving with difficulty, barely able to hold the emergency kit in his weakened
state as he moved, made it out the front door with thirty seconds left.
    Outside of the
door he saw a gym bag, black and large, with a card place neatly on top.
Nestor removed the card and