Raising the Dead... Ch. 15

"Hard to say, they keep moving. But there's definitely six now, if there weren't before," Iga says.

"Argh! This is all turning out very not-to-plan!" I pull at my hair, "Eve, did you at least bring the-"

Without a word, she lifts up a large rectangular metal box with her left hand. Er, one of her left hands.

"Good!" I feel some marginal relief, "Bring it up to the top floor balcony, the one above the front door. I think that'll be the best position for maximum transmission. And hopefully they won't be able to see too clearly what we're doing from that angle. At least the ones already at the door. So we'd better hurry before more arrive. Or they get restless and break down the door and storm the place with pitchforks."

"Victoria, I don't think it's going to be a literal torches-and-pitchforks mob," Iga rolls her eyes, like she's got any idea what to expect.

"I'm expecting it as a bare minimum," I say, "The knocking is very angry, though, so let's get this done while they're still on the porch and in prime transmitter range. It'll be harder if they get past the-"

My eye twitches. From below, I hear what is almost certainly the sound of the front door opening.

"What the hell is he doing?!" I exclaim, probably a little too loudly.

"It could be the cop," Iga shrugs.

"No, Karen was given specific orders to stay put until I come back," Eve says, "Eli is less likely to be compliant to my commands."

"He's also too smart to do something like that! Ahh!" I pull at my hair again.

"Maybe he's trying to stall them?" Iga offers.

"But he knows the plan! Goddammit!" I turn and start running towards the stairs.

"Victoria!" Iga shouts as I get to the door.

"What?!"

"Transmitter?" she gestures to the machine on the floor.

I hold up my hands and groan in frustration. I can't be everywhere at once. Not yet. At some point I will have that power. Mental note for that. But not now.

"And does he know the plan?" Iga then asks, "Because I, myself, am not completely clear on the finer det-"

"Not the time for that, Iga!" I snap.

"Yes, the time was like an hour ago," she complains about things we can't help.

"Look, just... just go on damage control. Go downstairs and see what's happening and if you can keep things from escalating any further," I tell her, then turn to Eve, "Eve, grab the-"

"What... you mean at the door?" Iga talks more, isntead of moving.

"How else would you do that, Iga?" I throw up my hands.

"It's just... I mean... then they'd see me. And they'd know that I live here. And that I know you. It's..."

My eyes widen in frustration and I purse my lips. Is she completely fucking serious?

She raises her hands in defeat and backs up, "You know what? It's fine, I'll just go see what's happening. Desperate times, desperate measures.

When Iga finally departs, I turn my attention back to Eve, "Eve. Transmitter. Upstairs. Let's go."

"What the hell are they even doing down there?!" I say as I squint, looking down over the balcony.

"Victoria, were we not in a hurry?" Eve complains from behind me.

"Yes, yes. It's just... there's more of them now, and they seem to be talking, but they're not really, you know, doing anything," I sigh in frustration, "What kind of fucking lynch mob even is this?"

"Victoria..." Eve reiterates.

"Right..." I stand and pull back my hair, "It's... try turning it. Like 20 degrees to the right. The angle should be pretty wide, but the strength can vary, so I want it as focused on them as we can get it."

She goes to turn the transmitter, then stops, "My right, or your right?"

"Universal right, Eve. True right. Obviously," I say.

I'm greeted only with a blank stare, "That isn't a thing, Victoria."

"The hell it isn't! Which one of us is the doctor here?" I exclaim.

More blank staring, but not as long this time, "I've actually yet to see any evidence that you are, in fact, a doctor of anything, now that it occurs to me."

My palm feels drawn to my face, but I restrain it, "My right, Eve. Just turn the damn thing."

She rotates it... probably a bit more than 20 degrees, but it's close enough that I don't feel the need to nitpick. Though I do note that I -could-, if I were so inclined.

I walk back behind the trasmitter to examine the angle, "I think it's about good..." I lick my finger and stick it up, "I don't think the wind is going to come into it."

I can feel Eve's expression from behind me.

"What?" I ask.

"Wind doesn't effect radio-"

"I know that wind doesn't effect radio signals, Eve!" I snap, a little too loudly, "It's not the signal, it's... Nevermind that right now. I just want to make sure... give me a boost, will you?"

She helps me climb up onto the transmitter assembly and I carefully angle the antenna. From above, I can spot the crowd gathering down by the porch. I swear it's even larger now. I crane my neck for a better view, but unfortunately I don't control gravity. Yet. I tumble forward, only to be caught by a variety of very quick hands, keeping me from hitting the floor and possibly from falling off the balcony.

"You should be more careful," she says, quite flatly.

"Did you need to catch me by my tits and crotch, Eve?"

"No. No I did not. That was a choice, and I stand by it," she says, "Would you prefer I let you fall?"

"Um... no. Thank you for catching me," I clear my throat, "You can put me down, now."

She does as I ask, but then suddenly shoves a hand down the front of my pants and forces a finger into me. Did not expect that. I don't know why, considering Eve, but still.

"Eve!" I shout, again probably too loudly, "Of all the moments that are not the time, this is one of them."

"You felt warm when I caught you, I wanted to confirm my suspicion," she says, pressing deeper into me.

"What suspicion is that, detective?"

"You are aroused right now. Your pussy is both warm and wet," she says, pulling her finger free and holding it up, rubbing moisture between her thumb and forefinger.

"Of course I am, Eve, even if it's not much, we're doing science up here, everyone gets turned on by science!" I point out the painfully obvious.

She tilts her head to the side.

"Yes they fucking do, Eve, it's a fact," I say to a blank expression, "Look, let's just get down there before something else goes wrong. It's as ready up here as it's going to get."

"So, no, she didn't really specify exactly where she was going, just that she would be out of town, and likely out of the country, for an indeterminate amount of time. We don't really know her all that well, really, but it is such a nice house, so how could we turn down the request to watch it? I mean, free rent, right?" Iga is standing on the porch, door open, prattling on about something or the other, when I approach.

Eli is beside her, with the hive unit for the Homing Hornet Holocaust by his feet. I really do need to get that tracker detached, it's getting a little silly that he's lugging that thing around everywhere.

Iga's also got Eli right at her side, and has her arm around his waist like they're a couple. Getting a bit presumptuous again. I swear, she acts like she owns Eli, instead of me.

I gesture for Eve to stay put and out of sight, and she seems to comply. At least for now. I pull the door wide and march directly out with them. Time to take charge. They opened the door to the mob, it can't get any worse.

"All right, you illiterate yokels, what do you think you're doing on my property?!" I announce to the group.

The response is more sedate than I expected. There's also more of them than I expected. They just kind of stare in confusion. At me, at Iga, and between each other. I didn't think it was a complicated question. I know they're dumb, but are they really that dumb? In the silence, I can hear Iga's hand impact with her face.

One man finally speaks up, "You said she left to conduct brain research in other-"

"Yes obviously that was a lie!" Iga shouts, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"She is here!" someone shouts, followed by a chorus indecipherable yelling and people raising hands and implements in anger.

One in the back actually has a pitckfork, and I have to admit I kind of appreciate the dedication to tradition. No torches, but it is a daylight mob, so that's maybe to be expected.

I sigh and clench my eyes, "Again, what the hell do you all want?"

"You've made a monster!" someone angrily shouts, followed by, "...um, again!"

"And you're a graverobber!" someone else contributes, "We have a witness!"

A woman is ushered to the front of the crowd, which I quickly recognize as that corpse-counting bitch. My eye twitches.

"It's true. She's made a monster. Out of corpses. Or something," she says, as if unsure of herself, then looks up at us on the porch and mouths, "Sorry," with a shrug.

"This is absurd. Don't tell me you ignorant hicks actually believe this drivel?!" I demand of the group.

There's a brief silence, followed by a resounding chorus of "Yes!" from among them.

"This isn't the first time we've had this problem up here!" a man up front shouts, then turns back to the crowd, "You all remember the thing with the doplin?!"

"I said I was sorry, goddammit!" I shout, "And that was really your own fault anyways. It literally had it written all over it to not stare into its eyes, but some of you idiots just couldn't help yourselves!"

"If you haven't done anything this time, where are all the bodies?" someone asks.

"How should I know?" I throw up my hands, "You just assume that I took them because she said so, you're just going to trust her word? All these bodies disappeared on her watch, doesn't this seem a little convenient that she's got someone to blame it on, when the only common factor is her?"

A man in the middle of the crowd clears his throat after a moment of silence, "No one ever said they all disappeared on her watch."

Shit.

"Look, that's just basic logical extrapolation, if that's something you stupid rednecks would understand," I argue.

"She was kidnapped!" someone shouts, echoed by, "And one of our officers disappeared up here, too!"

"It's, um, it's true!" the bitch speaks up again, in a fake sobby voice, "She wasn't content with making an abomination for perverse lesbian sex acts. She subjected me to all sorts of deviant sexual experiments. She said it was for the good of science!"

There's a lot of disapproving stares and comforting of her for her obviously fake story.

"The short one, too! She helped her!" she adds.

"Oh you traitorous bitch, I want my fifty bucks back!" Iga screams and lunges forward, only to be held back by Eli.

"Enough!" the sound of Eve very much not stay out of fucking sight erupts behind me.

My palm makes one of its frequent trips to my face. I guess the diplomatic approach, if we could call it that, is out at this point. I had this under control, or at least, not entirely out of control. One can practically hear my sphincter clench in irritance.

I almost trip as she walks forward between us, pushing us all aside. I nearly trip over the collected bundles of tarps on the side of the porch. Which I'm noticing are not laid out like I asked Iga to do. At least I think I asked Iga to do. In either case, if this goes badly, she's cleaning up any fluids liberated on the front walk.

It probably won't, though, maybe.

"I demand that you all leave our property at once," Eve shouts, standing there in her robe.

Karen wanders out at her side. Good, we're all here now. Also, what the fuck does she mean 'our' property.

"Karen?!" a woman rushes from the middle of the crowd to the front. I didn't expect that to be the first reaction.

"Oh... um, hi Chloe," Karen sheepishly smiles and waves her hand.

"Where the hell have you been?!" the woman shouts, "The police said you disappeared on duty! You've been here? Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"Oh, no, no, no, I'm fine, sweetie," Karen dismisses the allegations, fortunately.

"That's all you have to say?!" the woman demands.

"No... I... I have a lot to say, it's just... we'll need to have a long discussion later. About Eve here," she pats Eve's arm and then averts her eyes, "and penises."

The woman does not look at all amused by this. I assume this is the briefly mentioned girlfriend. I feel sort of bad for her. I also feel oddly smug and aroused by her outrage and confusion, knowing that my boyfriend has emptied his balls into her lover's every orifice.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean pen-" the woman starts, but is cut off when other members of the crowd advance.

"Who the fuck are you?!" there's a resounding shout.

"I just said, she's Eve-" Karen meekly reiterates before Eve steps forward onto the edge of the first step of the porch.

"I am the monster!" she boldly announces, before pulling the cord on her robe and pushing the whole thing off of her shoulders.

She's nude underneath, but I think we all assumed that. Shuts the group entirely up in an instant. I'd like to think they're admiring her beauty, and thus my work on creating her. But it's probably the crisscrossed stitch marks and extra arms that have their attention.

As soon as they shut up, though, they become whatever the opposite of shutting up is. There's a lot of screaming and pointing. Seems to be a mixture of shock and anger. Not as much noticing of her perfect figure, though that's hard to discern through yelling in a mob.

The phrase "Bitch has four arms!" is heard a few times, but they might be the same person repeating. You'd think the sight would inspire something more profound, but this is the crowd I'm working with, so it's probably the best you'll get.

There's a few repetitions of variations on "There's actually a monster!" as well. Which is disappointing. You'd think they'd have a little more faith in my abilities if they felt strongly enough to form an angry mob. I mean I know I was actively trying to dissuade them of that fact, but c'mon. We all knew I had a monster.

"You rightly fear me, you pathetic savages!" Eve points at them with all four index fingers.

Not gonna lie, a little proud of her commanding presence and instinct to talk down to them. She's learned well.

"Now leave this place at once!" she repeats her demands.

"Why should we just..." a man speaks up, but then shrinks back when Eve stares daggers, "...right, monster."

There's a few iterations of "You can't take us all" going about, at this point.

To which Eve responds, "I absolutely can. But I don't have to."

She produces a remote control. From where, I'm not sure, considering she's entirely nude. I'm fairly certain she did not have it a moment ago.

"There is a bomb inside of me," she declares to the group, "I am not afraid to die, I have the conviction that none of you inferiors have. And I can be re-assembled and reborn."

Barring the fact that she's over-estimating my ability to put her back together if she activates the device inside of her, when in the ever living fuck did she find out about that?! And how does she think she has the remote for it?

I clear my throat, "Um, Eve. We might need to have a chat about that-"

"Scatter like the roaches you are, or I will destroy us all!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Eli uses his power over Eve to pull her back from the edge, grabbing one of her arms and stepping forward with her, "Let's just calm down and discuss this in a less overtly insane manner. If we could."

"He's right," I try to use the opening to take back control of the situation, "No one's blowing anyone up today. That would be entirely impossible anyways, as it is an -implosion- device, and that's not how it works."

"Victoria..." Eli impatiently whispers.

"That's not important, though," I give up explaining the specifics, "Look. Let me just come clean. Yes, I did steal a bunch of corpses from local morgues. And some from neighborhing counties. And yes, the staff member on duty, now present, extorted sexual favors from Eli here in exchange for looking the other way."

I do manage to elicit suspicious looks at her from that, so bonus.

"Yes, these were possibly some of the bodies of your friends and loved ones," I continue, "and yes I did cut apart these remains into a patchwork body that fit my own designs, and I used electrochemical processes to reanimate this body into the walking affront to the natural order standing beside me right now. But in the end, is all that really so much to sacrifice for such amazing scientific progress?"

There's an exceptionally angry round of shouting. I can't really make out any specifics of what's being said, but I think it's safe to assume this is a 'yes, that's too much of a sacrifice for science, because we're a bunch of easily frightened luddites'.

"Okay, okay. I'm hearing that you're angry. I get that," I explain, "If my IQ was barely room temperature, I'd probably feel that same way. But listen. I think I can change your minds."

I pull out my own remote and back up a little, afraid that they're going to rush us and get all lynchy any moment, now.

"It would be helpful if you could stand in line of sight of the upper balcony above us. And if you'd remove any potential hats with any sort of metal lining," I explain.

I clench my teeth and hit the button to activate my transmitter. Should've probably grabbed a tarp, just in case.

Nothing.

Well this is embarrassing.

I click again. Still nothing. So I rapidly hammer at the button, generating a great deal of jack and squat, respectively. Shit.

There's an expectant look on their collective faces. Or as much as you can discern from their ordinary vapid stares. They seem confused, and worse, are potentially questioning my genius. Which we can't have. Time to improvise.

I look around for possible avenues to express my intelligence in a way that will, if not make the situation better, and least make these people regret being here today.

"Fuck it," I say, and turn to my side, where the hive unit for the Homing Hornet Holocaust sits, and promptly kick it, sending it tumbling off the side of the porch and into the bushes.

A firm grip on Eli's arm in one hand, I grab one of the tarps crumpled up on the other side of the porch with the other, and do my best to toss him forward, directly into the crowd. He stumbles with the unexpected yank, but travels vaguely where I expect him to go. I unfurl the tarp and through it over the two of us as I lunge forward and tackle him to the ground. He more just kind of falls, as opposed my weight actually pushing him down, but the end result is the same. I quickly pull the tarp tightly around us like a blanket, and do my best to tuck all the openings underneath our bodies, to seal all entrances.

I am a little envious that Iga gets to see the carnage unfold around us, while I'm bundled up in here. Not, you know, that envious, cause holy shit it sounds terrifying. Also, I hope she's okay. Eve, too. Maybe Karen. Hopefully they have the sense to run inside and lock the door as soon as my plan became evident.

There's a significant amount of screaming and running. We get stepped on a couple times, but nothing too bad. We aren't really in the path of egress, so we're pretty safe. Actually trampling us would require running towards the house, and even these people aren't that stupid. Still, I do my best to protect our heads and Eli's dangly bits from getting stepped on directly. Priorities.

It does go on longer than I expected. I figured people would flee the area post-haste and leave nothing but the sound of buzzing hornets, but they spend an inordinate amount of time screaming that's well within earshot. I don't know if they think they can fight the hornets, or they're trying to help other people who were less equipped or not smart enough to move when the buzzing started. It's like they forgot how to run away. I reassert that the group is collectively a genetic dead end.