Conversion [Plot]

After receiving the customary Kanite greeting specially reserved for his kind, the Zed church pastor found himself in the U-boat's brig. A woman in red robes and body armor sat on the other side, nursing a tea cup. The pastor looked around and reached out his mind to look for any infected. There were some, a few zombified fish, a few walkers around the river as the submersible chugged away beneath the surface. "Would you like some tea?"

"I only drink blood, but thank you Ma'am." He smiled a small smile at her, pulling through his mind to look through the eyes of the infected. He saw the U-boat gliding through the currents, two sets of large treads on either end. On the surface he saw a Federal coal barge pass unknowingly overhead. Someone on the barge took aim at the watcher.

"Very well. Tell me why you joined the church."

"Because the undead will live forever, and with them I can be with my family. Why did you join your church?"

"I was born into it. Have you ever seen the Zed God or seen his influence?"

"Every time I see the dead walking among us, or see the half infected have powers that make old comic book super heros look pathetic."

“Does he ever talk to you or communicate his wishes?"

"His mind is so far from a humans, how could we understand him if he tries to speak to us directly? However there is one thing of his that comes through so clearly that everyone can understand it."

“The infection?"

"The hunger." The man almost growled. He forced the infected to start swimming onto the sub.

“What kind of god hungers for anything that they cannot get themselves?"

"He gets it every time part of him feeds, and we are all part of him."

“Is there some way to experience this without becoming infected?”

"No. You can only touch him by letting him touch you."

The hooded lady looked down into her cup. “Special pleading. If I look at a zombie I have evidence that a zombie exists. I don’t have any reason to believe that some power is manifesting itself through that zombie.” The infected had clambered onto the ship's hull, with difficulty.

"Oh I'm sorry miss 'I have a god talking to me through my mind so I can shoot electricity'. Can I talk to Kane without ingesting him?" He had the infected search for a vent or opening. The sub was most likely hybrid diesel electric, so it had to have an air intake.

“There’s no need to be combative. I’m only asking questions."

"Said the lady who kidnapped me."

They found an exhaust vent of some sort, but before they could get to it the ship suddenly rocketed forward. A siren buzzed inside. “You may want to hold onto something.” The woman took hold of a railing as the whole ship shuddered and lurched. Outside, the motors switched to powering the treads as the sub hauled itself out onto a sandbar. It chugged across the sand, venting heat and exhaust, before quickly sliding back into the water on the other side of the shallows. “It’s true that I can’t see or hear Kane, but I know of people who can. Are there any who the zed god takes more interest in?” The man used the eyes of the infected to get a quick survey of the area while they were on land, giving him a rough idea of his location. He sent out a pulsed message to travel through the infected like a mesh, hoping that the message would reach the church in time.

"The more powerful the half infected the more of the zed god they have in them. Take Death Empress, she was one of the most powerful half infected to walk this earth, but now after rejecting the Dead one, she has almost no power. She cant' even hold back a small horde. She has grown weak as she strays further from him."

“If that’s the case then how do you explain independent organizations like the Undead Meritocracy or the fact that our king is a powerful half-infected? Wouldn’t a god want those wielding his power to be devoted to him?"

"He wants to be fed, and I hear your king feeds him much blood. And the merchants feed him human slaves all the time."

The woman looked like she was about to say something, then thought better of it. “How can you be sure he wants to be fed if you can’t communicate with him? Just because you feel this hunger doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than the infection imparts a sense of hunger."

"You've never felt the hunger of the dead. It's like nothing I've ever felt as a human, not even my old meth addiction came close."

She sighed. Perhaps if she rephrased the question? "I'm still curious as to how you know the zed god's intelligence is beyond comprehension since it never communicates directly."

"You can see his intellect in the movements of a horde, in the mutations of his gift, in the movement of the world to one that has zombie supremacy."

"Zombie supremacy? Death Empress and the Chosen of Gaia are no more and the Federation's stopped the super hoard. Why would this god allow for so many setbacks?"

"Death Empress had to have multiple nations join together to kill one person, I don't think that's a failure at all. As for the Chosen, well Noah was trying to replace the Zed god with himself. Of course he'd fall. And now the most powerful nation on the planet is run by a half infected, and the second most powerful run by the man who was influenced by the Zed God to make new and more powerful bodies for him, and that man's wife and daughter in law, are half infected."

"I have met Wallace Lokison. I doubt he considers himself beholden to any gods."

"Aren't those the best pawns though? The ones that don't even realize they're being manipulated?"

"They're not very good pawns if they use the infection as their servant and create things like the control towers."

"Oh I'm sorry, how well are your people's master plans going? This is what, try three at a city?"

"I notice that you become more aggressive when I ask questions you have no answer to. Is that standard church practice or just a personal failing?"

"Oh I have more answers, they just aren't for the uninitiated, and really not for the enemy."

"More special pleading. Does the zed god have any associates? Any other gods?"

"That's a debate that hasn't died sense we've been made aware of his presence. Some think he works with the gods of death and underworlds from different religions, some think he's a lone god, some think him too devided up between himself to have time to consort with other gods."

"What about entities such as the Edward creature that can control infected without being infected themselves?"

"You mean the one made by Anabel June and Warnik Odinson, the two most prolific spreaders and improvers of the gift? Most of us see him as being something that will spread zombies even more, once he grows up."

"But not as another god? What about Kane?"

"He's also a god yes, but a god opposed to the purity of death."

“Kane is a god of life. If death is purity then wouldn’t killing yourself be the only moral option?”

"I did, I took in the virus, and look how my god rewarded me." The man smiled, gesturing at his body. "Immortal, stronger then I ever was, faster then I ever was, I never tire, I'll never die of thirst, nor hunger. I have powers I could never dream of having before this."

“Many take in the virus and become mindless beasts and killers. What have you done to earn his favor that they’ve not?"

"You misunderstand, you don't earn his favor then take him into yourself with a guarantee that you'll survive. Taking him into you is the test. You pass by surviving and keeping yourself together when you die. Dying is his test, and I passed. Now as long as a pure one walks this earth, I'll never truly be able to die."

“And what sort of qualities does he favor? What pleases him so much as to purify one that’s been destroying his servants?"

"You really don't get it do you? He's already won. No matter who wins in these cultural struggles his purity has already infected them all in some way."

"If we're all touched by purity then why seek to destroy us?"

"Not all of you are touched by Purity, but all of your leaders are."

This line of questioning was going nowhere. It was time for a change of direction. The heart of his faith. "What is it about death that is pure?"

"It's the great unifier were everyone is equal. Everyone dies, and in death we are all the same. It reminds me of a poem I once read. I'll have to paraphrase so please excuse me.

Life and death are in love. Everyday life makes millions of gifts to send to death, some large and some small. The gifts take a while to get to death, but once he gets his gifts, he loves them so much he keeps them forever."

"That sounds like a somewhat one-sided relationship. What about people like Wallace or Davey that are functionally immortal?"

"Even in the end they will die too, even if it's trillions of years from now as the last star burns out, death will get his due. And at that point death and life will lie together forever more, finally with each other."

"I see. So why kill if everyone will be sent to death eventually?"

"It speeds up the process."

"Sounds like you simply seek a reason to kill and inflict pain."

"Well if you ignore everything else I've told you, sure. Just like your people only want to kill people, drink their blood and wear there bones, for no other reason then it's fun. See I can be polite and still say stupid things too."

"I could always release you back to the loving ministrations of my brothers in you'd prefer to only answer with insults. They're less polite than me usually. So you're saying that to worship the zed god is to worship death, and the infection is just the greatest purveyor of death in history. Is that correct?"

"A form of worshipping death, and this form let's you experience death and temporarily return from it. This makes us more pure and gives some powers in this purity. As for your brothers, please do. My change burned out my nerve endings, so the only way I feel anything is by going very deep. Something your brothers are good at."

The channeler sat in silence for a long time. The zed god was so far proving a... less than ideal candidate. Was it a fallacy to call the infection, or by extension death itself, as a god? "What would you say if I told you I wish to convert my people to the worship of Zed?"

"That would be great. How would you like to go about it?" His willingness surprised the priestess, though she kept that to herself.

"Direct proselytizing would be suicidal and unproductive. The religion would have to have a different name, and an appearance not outwardly of the church. There are many among us, young ones, that are dissillusioned with Kane. We could harness their restlessness and only reveal ourselves when our numbers are too great to ignore."

"I see... Does Kane have some sort of anti-god?"

"To an extent. You worship him. We could perhaps have them worship the Edward creature. Death Empress would be too transparent." She wasn't lying, there was indeed nascent energy about the 9 Tribes that needed directing. Perhaps if she could steer this preacher in the desired direction...

"It has to be something associated with death... Your king?"

The half-infected couldn’t tell if his captor was smiling beneath her bone mask. “That would annoy him to no end, but also play to his ego…. I suppose it could work."

"We can send in people to make death cults to your king, they will eventually pass through the Zed God and be tested. Those that survive will be pure and help to spread the word among your people."

“Individual cells, but how would we prevent diversion or heresy in them if they spread out?”

"Prevent? We aren't a unified religion under one force with a holy book. That's how we survive everything that's ever happened to us. We move into an area, we grow, we spread, we split up, we fracture out into new areas, and we start over. We'll send in multiple starter cells and let them be. Some will grow, others will die, some will be eaten by bigger groups, but each one will be slightly unique and that will make the whole resilient."

Unacceptable. This new church, her church, would need to be monitored and guided closely. To do otherwise could lead to disaster. “We can do none of that without converts first. To do that we need a centralized place of worship."

"You're thinking too much like those Christian's of later years. Think like a Christian of the early ages. You send a few charismatic and smart people into the cities and they target the weak and vulnerable to start making fanatics, and then fanatics make martyrs, and martyrs make converters."

“And where would we find such people? I doubt either of us trusts the other enough for splitting up to be feasible."

"I can let my group know and they'll spread word to other groups, who will spread word to other groups, and without you having to do a thing, eventually the men will show up in your cities. We've done this before with Satanist cults in New America, Coyote cults in Native groups, Hel cults in the North Sea, and Demon cults in Japan."

Was he telling the truth? Was the church truly that wide-spread? She supposed worship of the infection wasn't a terribly hard conclusion to come to after the outbreak. Perhaps different cults had sprung up separately. It merited thought for later at least. “So why not simply do it? Why would you need my help or permission?"

"We didn't think your people had that weakness to exploit."

“Hmm, well I suppose you could. I apologize, this all seems to be spiraling out of my control too fast. And since your god evidently is not particular with how he’s worshipped it appears I’ll need little theological instruction from you, informative though you’ve been.” With that she produced a pistol and shot her captive through the head. His skull dropped and blood trickled from the hole in his forehead. He seemed to smile some as the light left his eyes.