The Defeated Detective: Murder in the Apocalypse
Summary: While dealing with the aftermath of a zombie attack, Detective Erica discovers someone is using the attack to cover up a murder. But investigating the murder could become very costly…
A new detective series set in a post-apocalyptic world
Genre: Supernatural crime
The moon shone bright and red. Like it always had. Not that I could see it.
I was buried deep underground. I could smell a hundred other corpses rotting in the ground with me.
Dead like me.
All my memories were gone. Well, most. I could remember the last few minutes before I had died.
It had been him. I couldn’t remember his name but I knew him. Thought he had been a friend. He was standing with a gun above me.
Making me dig my own grave.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Oh, but I do.”
And then he shot me. In the head.
I knew I was dead before my body even hit the ground.
So what was I now? Another one of the undead? Was I going to rise with a ravenous hunger for human flesh? An undead killing machine with no memories, no feelings, just a desire to kill?
Only one way to find out. I started digging my way out of my mass grave. It took a few punches but I felt cold air on my hands.
I was out.
A bit more effort and my whole body was out.
But something was strange. The moon was blue, not red. Blue like it had been in my childhood. Before the world had ended.
And there I saw her. Her. The one I had promised to save.
I hugged her tight. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I tried. I tried. But I failed. I am a failure.”
And all the memories came rushing back.
24 hours earlier
The sun was setting and a wild wind was blowing. I could scarcely see anything, nor hear anything over the angry raging wind. No one should have been out here in this weather. At this time of night, the undead became even more active. I couldn’t hear them over the screaming of the wind but I had no doubt they were just around the corner.
I shivered and wasn’t sure if it was from the freezing cold on my skin or the stench of death. I had to push my feet into the soft muddy ground to make sure I would stay upright.
But here I was. Standing outside the safety of the city walls. Standing right next to a pile of corpses that needed to be burnt tonight, in case they came back as the undead tomorrow. They were the victims of an undead attack that had somehow broken through the fence and killed 20 people. The same people whose bodies I had now been tasked with burning.
Normally, a squad of soldiers would have done this job. But even they’d had enough of the constant breaking down of the fence and the daily deaths. The army colonel had been a bit surprised. He couldn’t see how the undead were coming in as the walls and fence had no holes. The civilian government had screamed at him and the soldiers had just quit and walked off.
Leaving me to deal with the corpses. It was punishment for me. I had refused to sleep with the chief of police and so he had “volunteered” me for this mission. Who would I have complained to? As the mayor, the chief’s best friend had often told me, if I wasn’t happy with the job, I could leave the city anytime I wanted.
And so there I was. The sun was down, a crazy wind blowing, and I had to burn a dozen bodies. I really hoped none of them rose up as I was burning them. We never really understood how or why they came back to life, but it was accepted it took a full night before the corpses rose as the undead. I should be safe. In theory.
I poured gasoline on the bodies but when I tried to light a match it went out in a nanosecond. So did the second and third.
I tried to radio headquarters but of course, no one replied. It was ‘Boys night out’ and everyone would be partying.
To hell with this. I decided to leave the bodies where they were and go back into the city’s walled entrance. I knocked loudly on the big steel door. A small slit opened.
“Have you burnt the bodies? Cause I don’t see any fire. The chief said not to let you in until the bodies were burnt.”
“The wind is too strong,” I screamed. “Can't light them up.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I can’t let you in.”
And the slit closed.
I was pissed.
I banged loudly on the door again. And kept banging until the slit opened again. “What? I told you I’m not opening the door.”
I put the nozzle of my pistol against the slit. “I bet this bullet can go right through the steel door. Do you think so? Would you like to take a bet?”
Scared eyes stared at me. “You wouldn’t dare. Besides, the door is solid steel.”
“The door is also 50 years old while this bullet is brand new. And do you think I will stand out here while you are sitting with a beer in your hand and your pants down?”
I could see the anger even through the tiny slit. “Wait, let me call the boss.”
“Don’t bother, I tried.”
“Yeah, but I have the actual radio code,” he said and closed the slit again.
Bastard. So that’s why no one was answering. Not only had they sent me out here alone they had given me a fake code.
As I was waiting, I turned around and saw something. Something strange.
I had come here in a truck and the bodies were dumped at the back. The truck was broken so would be staying here for the night.
My record had told me I had 20 bodies and I had scanned and dumped each on the ground outside.
But now I could see an extra body.
I walked back to the truck. It was pitch dark by now but the truck had internal lighting. I could at the body. A young girl, barely 15. The tag around her leg said she had been eaten by the undead.
She was wearing a flimsy and very thin white nightgown. And I could see no bite marks. The undead didn’t eat the whole body but they were very vicious with what they did.
And this girl had no marks on her. I checked her carefully but nothing. Maybe it was a mistake?
And then I saw it. Her throat had been slit. Very cleanly and with a very sharp knife. The sort a surgeon would use. No undead would make a clean cut like this.
I looked at my handheld computer again. 20 bodies, all in body bags. I knew because I had cursed as I had scanned each and thrown it out.
So who was this girl?
I checked her again in the faint light. She was very pretty and except for the cut across her neck, there was no damage to her body. There was no name or address on her tag, which was strange in itself. All other 20 corpses had full details.
“You coming or what?”
I jumped at the loud noise. It was the guard.
I hurried back. “And what the hell were you doing?” he said.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just found something suspicious. But it wasn’t anything.”
I didn’t want to say anything in front of the guard. He was a low-level rent-a-cop hired only to guard the gate. Not only that, these guards ran away at the first sign of trouble.
I had to be careful now. Because it looked like someone was using the undead attacks to cover up a murder.
I barely reached the office the next day when the boss came screaming out.
JJ Smith hadn’t gotten the post thanks to his talents; rather, because he was the son-in-law of the mayor of New Luton. Luton was a privately owned city now, resided only by the obscenely rich who couldn’t be bothered to slum it in London proper.
The mayor owned most of the land and so owned the police, and hence his son-in-law was the chief of police.
Who was now screaming at me. “Why didn’t you finish the job I gave you?”
I knew I should keep my head down but a bit of anger flared, which I tried my best to smother. “Why did you not give me the right radio code?”
“Because I had better things to do than talk to you. WHY DIDN’T YOU FINISH THE JOB?”
I took a deep breath and steadied myself. “It was too windy to start a fire.”
He nodded. “And what’s this about you investigating corpses? What are you, a medical examiner now as well? Just do the damn job I give you.”
I hadn’t said anything about investigating corpses.
“Jeremy, the guard at the wall, made a complaint about your behaviour last night. He has finished burning the 20 corpses. As punishment, you are on traffic duty from today until further notice.
Great. A punishment on top of my punishment.
But what he didn’t know, I actually liked traffic duty. There wasn’t that much traffic and you got a lot of free time to think. Other cops hated it because you couldn’t get bribes or favours, but I never cared about those.
I made myself to the central junction in New Luton, where today my job was to direct traffic the old fashioned way, as the traffic lights were broken. Again. A bunch of billionaires could have caviar flown in from Russia, but couldn’t get basic engineering work done.
I thought about the girl. Who was she? Why had she ended up in that dump with her throat slit?
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. And that’s when I made my decision. Time to call in some favours.
After work, I went to see another detective. Unlike me, he was well connected. I had saved his life once when we were stuck out of the city and a gang of the undead attacked us.
I was planning to use the favour for something important, like transferring to a better division. But, for some reason, the dead girl wouldn’t leave me.
I cornered him after work as he was ready to go drinking. “Hey Malcolm. Got a minute?”
“Sure,” he said. “But only a minute. Meeting the mayor and the city’s leaders for an important meeting. What is it about?”
“It’s about the favour you owe me.”
His face went dark as I said it. He clearly didn’t want to be in my debt. So I pushed him, “Can we talk in private?”
“Sure. Come into my office.”
After he closed the door and asked me to sit he spoke. “So how can I help you?”
“I want to see a list of the dead bodies that were supposed to be burnt last night.”
“Sure. You have already seen the list. There were 20.”
He showed me the list.
“That is nice,” I said. “But there was a 21st body. A young girl.”
“That’s not possible. The City of New Luton doesn’t make mistakes like this.”
I just stared at him. He stared back at me but I won.
“Fine. What did the body look like? And why do you care?”
“It was a young girl. Maybe a teenager. You are better off not knowing any more.”
He looked scared. “I see. And if I can find out who this girl was, does that cancel our debt?”
“It sure does.”
“Give me a few minutes. Wait outside.”
I heard him typing madly and making a few calls, but I couldn’t hear what was being said. 45 minutes passed. Mr Fancy Detective was going to be late for his fancy party.
The door opened and Malcolm came out. “I hope this girl was worth it, Erica. I checked all our records, including the ones from the morgue, and those cannot be tampered with, even by the mayor. There were only 20 bodies.”
My face fell. He must have seen the look on my face as he spoke quickly.
“But, the truck driver who originally transported the bodies told me he was stopped by the police for a random check. The check took almost half an hour, during which the driver was kept in his seat by 2 armed men pointing a gun at him. The only reason the driver remembers is because of that. While random checks are common, they take at most 5 minutes and the police are very relaxed. Not that day, though. They wanted to make sure he didn’t see what was happening.”
“You think the extra body was put in at that time?”
“I am saying no such thing. I am merely pointing out a strange fact, which you may interpret any way you want. One last thing. It’s another reason the driver remembers the incident so well. The police officer doing the check: Our boss, JJ.”
I was in shock. It all made sense. Why he was so insistent the bodies be burnt overnight? And why he had personally made sure the gate guard burnt them as soon as possible.
Malcolm waved at me and left, chanting vague threats to never mention his name in this case again. I ignored him, as I had a more important thing to do.
I was going to break into Chief of Police JJ’s house.
I knew JJ would be at the fancy party, and I knew the party would run late till after midnight. This was a good time to break into his house. Why his house? Well, the office had high security but I knew that his home would not be as well protected. I took too long to think and the phone rang. It was Malcolm again.
“Listen, I know who that girl is. Or was.”
“Who?”
“Doesn’t matter. She was murdered.”
“I know.”
“Stop interrupting. Another girl is about to be killed. She will killed at midnight. 6 hours from now.”
“Hell. What do we do?”
“I’m coming to get you. Meet me by the back entrance in exactly ten minutes. Don’t trust anyone. JJ is the one behind this, so you can’t trust anyone in the police or the mayor’s office. If someone tries to stop you, use whatever force you need to but don’t get caught. Trust me, it will not be good for you. 10 minutes exact, don’t be late.”
He hung up before I could reply.
It was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I was so paranoid I kept looking around to see if someone was coming to get me. But the office, like my life and heart, was empty.
At exactly 10 minutes, I ran down and out the back door. There was only a white van parked there. It wasn’t Malcolm’s car. I went close to it slowly when two men jumped out and one hit me with a cricket bat.
Before I could react, a black bag was thrown over my head and the world went black.
The world, at least as we knew it, ended ten years ago.
That’s when the dead started rising from the graves and attacking the living. At first, it was just a weird phenomenon. Not very threatening; the dead were slow and clumsy and unlike the movie zombies, you just didn’t turn into one of them if they bit you. But they were a nuisance.
Then the moon turned red.
People started going mad and attacking each other. It only lasted 3 months but millions died. And they all came back as the undead.
The madness stopped after some time but the undead attacks didn’t. And the moon stayed red.
Humans retreated to a few big cities and built walls. New policies were enforced. Dead bodies had to be burnt and people were advised not to leave the big cities. Civilisation sort of came back, but not really. The world was dying. We all knew it, but pretended everything was A-Okay.
The army took over in most places and established a well functioning, if authoritarian, government. A few places like New Luton became Libertarian paradise. There were no rules here except that the rich could enforce with their bodyguards. There was a police, but we only did minor things like traffic and burning dead bodies. The army left New Luton alone due to a supposed secret deal.
The world had ended. What about me? Was I about to end too?
I opened my eyes to see a red moon. And the wind blowing very fast. There were no lights around me for miles. I could see a large wall with a small lantern on it.
Everything was confusing and hazy but I knew this place. I had been here in the day.
I was outside the walls. Outside the city’s protection.
And it was getting dark.
I could hear inhuman growls.
They were coming for me.
I was a dead woman. I wondered if I should try running. But what good would it do? Besides, I didn’t even know where to run. The pale red moon gave very little light.
But damned if I was going to just give up.
Help me, I heard a voice behind me and I jumped.
I turned around to see a girl. She was wearing a thin white dress and had long yellow hair. Her throat had been slit. But no blood was coming out, because she was already dead.
Help me, she said again.
“I can’t,” I said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. Will you eat me now?”
I felt surprisingly calm. This wasn’t how I had thought it would go.
Help me. They will kill my sister as well. She is only 8.
“I’m sorry. But I am stuck out here. And the undead are coming.”
They are already here. I don’t know why they haven’t attacked you yet. Something is holding them back.
She turned away. Follow me.
“Where will we go?”
She started leading me back to the fence.
“The gate will be closed. There is no way in.”
She avoided the main gate and went down a side track, where I saw a small open door! Who the hell had left a door open? No time to think. I ran in and closed the door behind me.
The girl was surprisingly with me though I hadn’t seen her enter.
Help my sister. She’s at the chapel.
“What’s her name?”
I can’t remember. Help her. Hurry! You only have a few minutes before they kill her.
She pointed to a brand new building ahead of me and vanished. I knew where I was now. That was the New Church built by the mayor and his billionaire cronies. They had imported Italian marble to line the walls. While some had wondered at the magnificent waste of money, others had been thankful they had been employed for years. Even the population of the city doubled.
People had wondered what the real purpose of the building was, and the word orgies had been thrown around. No one had believed the place had been built for worship.
The building was normally off limits to the normal people. Today, I saw it shining in a bright light, like it was holding back the darkness. I saw dozens of expensive cars parked outside but no drivers or bodyguards, which was strange.
Hurry! You have 2 minutes
I ran inside the church to see a surreal sight. 12 men wearing robes and a white mask were standing around a young girl who had been tied to a table. One of the men was chanting something in a strange language. I recognised the voice. His Excellency, the Mayor of New Luton.
Although there were no bodyguards, I couldn’t hope to take on all 12 of the men.
Looking around, I saw an old fashioned electricity fuse to my left. They might have spent millions on the marble but had skimped on electric safety.
I pulled all the fuses out and the church went dark.
But not completely.
I could see in the dark, surprisingly. A white haze filled the room. And the girl was clearly visible as a bright, light light lying on the table in front of me.
The group of men started panicking and running around trying to find out what was happening. In the confusion, I walked in between them and picked up the girl. I bumped into a few but they thought I was one of them and ignored me.
The man started screaming now, and somebody asked to fix the fuses. I’ve made my way to a side room and thought about my situation. I hadn’t thought this through. What next? How was I going to escape?
Outside, they found the fuse box and the lights came back on.
I was in a tiny changing room. The girl next to me woke up and started crying.
In a panic, I held a hand over her mouth. “Shhhh. The men will get you. Don’t make any noise.”
She stopped screaming but kept crying silently. I saw she was around 8 years old and had long blonde hair, just like the girl I had seen earlier.
“What’s your name?”
She kept crying.
I heard a scream outside. “Look inside all the rooms, she must be in here.”
“We need to leave,” I said. “Come on.”
I grabbed her hand but she pulled it back and kept crying.
I panicked. We would be found in seconds. But the girl wouldn’t listen. What was it? What was her problem?
Then I saw it. What she was hiding. A wet spot between her legs.
“Listen, what’s your name? If I get you a new dress, will you come?”
She nodded. “Ellie. I’m Ellie.”
I looked around the changing room and found a robe. It was 3 sizes too large but I forced it over her head anyway.
Outside, I could hear the voices getting louder. And the loudest was my boss JJ.
“I’ll ask the police to block all the roads. She won’t get far. Meanwhile, we still have another 10 rooms to go thru.”
They were getting closer so I just picked up Ellie like a doll and ran out. I was going to go back the way we came but she pulled my hair to stop me.
“Go here. It goes out back. Into the garden.”
I didn’t have time to ask how she knew so I just went the way she pointed. She was right, I found myself in a small garden. Walking around it, I found myself back in the parking lot.
It was empty now though I could hear screams of anger inside. I picked a car at random and was pleased to see the keys still inside.
I put Ellie in the passenger seat and quietly drove off. But not quietly enough as the door to the church opened and someone screamed.
“They are getting away in the car!”
“Get JJ! He’ll put out a bulletin on the car.”
He would, and I would be caught in seconds. But I knew one place they would never look. One place no one went.
Near the fence.
There was an area of barbed wire that looked out into the empty wastelands outside. Sometimes, the undead walked right up to them. They couldn’t get in, of course, and were shot quickly; but the place had a reputation so even the guards didn’t go there unless they had to.
I parked the car right next to the fence and turned off the lights.
“Ellie, we will hide in the back, ok? Till morning.”
She nodded. The back of the car was quite spacious and I found the seats could be pushed over to turn into a small bed.
I lay Ellie beside me and tried to sleep. But I couldn’t.
The problem was, there was nowhere to go. In the city, we would be caught in seconds. And outside…well, I didn’t know where to go. We couldn’t take the car as the roads would be well guarded. We could walk, slipping out from the many small side gates. But London, the closest city, was still too far to walk.
Ellie grabbed my hand. “Where is Sara? She said she would never leave me.”
Sara. So that was the name of the girl I had found murdered. She had indeed never left her sister.
“Where do you and Sara come from?” I asked.
“London. Our parents died. Sara said from flu. The mayor said he would adopt us. At first, he was so nice. But then he became mean. One night, Sara came to my bedroom. Said she heard the mayor talking. He was going to sacrifice us. Said we had to run. We ran but the mayor caught us. I haven’t seen Sara since. Do you know where she is?”
How do you tell an 8 year old her sister is dead?
“Sara is waiting for us,” I lied. “In London. We will go there tomorrow.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
I felt wet tears flow from her cheeks to my hands. “Just, grown ups promise a lot of things. Mummy promised she would never leave me. The mayor promised to take care of us. But grown ups always lie.”
And I felt a great pain in the pit of my stomach. Like a wound had opened up.
I told you how the world went crazy ten years ago? Well, another thing happened. All pregnant women suffered a miscarriage.
Including me.
One moment, I was 9 months pregnant, waiting for my appointment with the midwife.
Next, I was lying in pain on the kitchen floor, bleeding all over.
No ambulance came for me. There were none. The end of the world had started.
My child, had it still been alive, would have been just like Ellie.
I hugged her tight. “I promise. I swear. I will never let you get hurt. I will never let you down.”
If only I had known then…
We were woken by the bright light streaming into the car the next day. Ellie was still sleeping so I just picked her in my hands and carried her.
I knew there was a small gate somewhere here. The fence needed regular maintenance, from inside and outside. The security was to keep the undead out, not keep people in.
I found the gate and unlocked it. We slipped out.
No one stopped us.
Ellie woke up and wanted to walk, so I put her down.
A burnt out sign by the road said: London, 35 miles.
We walked. The sun came out and we could walk faster. The undead, while they were still around, were less active in the day so we made good progress. I was starting to think we had gotten away when I heard the helicopter.
“Detective Erica, you are under arrest! For kidnapping and assault. Stay where you are!” the helicopter boomed at me.
Damn. The mayor must have called in favours from the army. I picked up Erica and ran, but there was nowhere to go. Armed men surrounded us on all sides.
Leading them was Detective Malcolm. It was now clear who had betrayed me. He spoke to the soldiers.
“Get the girl. She will go back to the mayor. He has been so worried since his daughter was kidnapped.”
“That’s a lie!” I started to say but was hit so hard I passed out.
I woke up next to a cold hard ground and a shovel. Malcolm was standing there with a gun.
“I’m to give you a choice: Quick death, or we leave you out here to be eaten alive. Now, start digging your grave.”
“What the hell are you doing, Malcolm? Why are you doing this?” I said as I started digging.
“Sorry, Erica. But the calls I made for you, someone I called betrayed me. JJ was on to me the minute I left the station. He gave me a choice—join them or die with you. It wasn’t a hard choice.”
“You do know they kill these girls, right?”
He tutted. “Erica, my innocent little bunny. The whole police station knows. The mayor is a religious nut and thinks sacrificing these girls is the only reason this place is kept safe from the undead. JJ finds the girls for him. Orphans and the homeless.”
I stared at him. “You all knew? And you did nothing?”
He shrugged. “It’s a tough world, Erica. In case you didn’t notice, we are living in the apocalypse. People die every day, by the thousands. The mayor brought in 10,000 people into the city last year; including my wife and her relatives. Those 10,000 people would have died outside the walls. If the price to pay for that is the occasional sacrifice, I can live with that.”
“Every life is sacred! You are a police officer, dammit!”
“Spare me the theatrics. I’m no more a police officer than you are. We are rent-a-cops trying to survive very hard times. You never got that, Erica. That’s why you never got promoted. Now hurry up. JJ wants me to personally confirm you are dead this time. Clearly, the undead around here are incompetent if they failed to kill a silly girl like you.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“But I want to,” he said and shot me in the head.
I knew I was dead before I even hit the ground.
The moon shone bright and red. Like it always had. Not that I could see it.
I was buried deep underground. I could smell a hundred other corpses rotting in the ground with me.
Dead like me.
All my memories were gone. All my feelings were gone. All emotions. Except one.
Hate.
I wanted to kill. I wanted to take a human’s flesh and rip it off its bones. And eat it while the victim screamed in fear.
Yes, that sounded good. I would kill him. The one who killed me. I would kill all of them. Their children first, so I could hear them cry. Then I would enjoy ripping and eating them. Slowly. Very slowly.
I grinned.
I pushed till my hand was free from the ground I had been buried in. And then my arm, and then my face.
It felt good.
The red moon above smiled at me. It wanted me to kill.
kIll tHem aLL.
I was happy to.
That’s when I stumbled on something. In anger, I kicked it but whatever it was grabbed my leg. I looked down to see a tiny body holding my leg.
That girl…I knew who she was.
I knew her.
I sat down by her. “I… know…you…”. It was hard to form words. My jaw would not open and the mouth was drier than a desert.
Who was she?
And then I remembered.
Ellie.
The girl I swore to save.
She was lying on the ground, dumped there like garbage. Her throat had been slit.
I tried to scream and cry. But only a raspy harsh whisper came out. “Ell-ll-lie. I f-f-fail-ed y-y-y-ou. I am sssooorrrryyy.”
I wanted to cry. But no tears came. How could they? I was dead.
And I was hit with anger and hatred again. I would find those bastards and kill them. Rip them apart. Slowly.
gOOd. kIlL them. they think thEy caN stOP me. Here leT me opeN door fOr you.
And the fence door ahead of me unlocked with a click and opened wide.
I could go in and get my revenge. But Ellie wouldn’t let me go.
Look up.
I craned my neck with great effort and saw two moons. A red one and a white one. The white one spoke.
I am proud of you. You did not run away. And you chose the Path of Justice. Join me, I will help you avenge the girl’s death.
Then the red moon spoke: iGnoRe the bITCH. i wIll get YoU REVENGE
The White moon spoke again: He is the reason Ellie and her sister were killed. As sacrifices to him. That’s why New Luton never faced any undead attacks.
TRUE. bUT I grOW tired of THESE FOOLS. beCome mY solDIEr. I wiLl helP YOU GEt REVENGE.
You must choose, Erica. Revenge or Justice. The Red Moon is the demon responsible for the undead attacks. If you serve him you will become a mindless killer for him.
WhaT my SISTER won’t tell you iS, shE will turn YOU into a kiLLER as WELL. But she is right. REVENGE or justice. CHOOSE.
The door beckoned me and I walked in. I could see the Church in front of me. I tried walking towards it, but it was hard. My legs were jammed. Is this what it felt to be the undead?
I finally made it, taking an hour to cover the distance it should have taken 10 minutes. As I got closer I saw my reflection in the car’s mirrors.
I was clearly dead. My head had a hole in it and my eyes were missing. How could I see? And how was I even walking?
REVENGE OR justice?
I walked into the church and saw 12 men standing there chanting something. They all turned to look at me. They weren’t surprised or shocked.
“Well, at least the bitch is dead this time,” said JJ. “Though we should have burnt the body. I will do it now.”
“Use the burner out back,” said the mayor.
The time to choose. What should I do?
On the one hand, I wanted to murder them. And then bring them back to life and do it again.
But then I saw 2 young girls standing there in the middle of the men. Wearing white robes, stained with blood, their throats slit.
There are more innocents out there, Erica. Who will save them?
“But… I…failed. I am a…failure. Could. Not. Save. I Defeated.”
The girls looked at me with sad eyes and I knew what I had to do.
“Justice!” I boomed. “I want JUSTICE!”
You have chosen wisely.
JJ and a few men were walking towards me with shotguns when there was a loud boom and they all stopped.
A fire filled the church.
Everyone’s skin started melting off their bones. Their hair caught fire and their blood started boiling.
The men all screamed. It was a terrific sight and I should have enjoyed it. But I couldn’t.
For I was burning too.
And it hurt.
As I screamed in pain, my last view was of the 2 girls looking at me with sad eyes.
I woke up in the middle of the night. The big white moon was staring down at me.
“Am I dead?”
No. I had to burn your body as it had been corrupted. I stole the life energy of the 12 men and gave you a new body.
“What will happen to them?”
They will go to hell and stay there until their punishment is complete. Which is a very long time. But do not worry about them. I had to use a lot of magic to create your body. And this body won’t last long without my support. So I need payment.
“Sure. Do you take Mastercard or America Express?”
Very funny.
“I have nothing to give.”
You do. Yourself. The world has ended, but crime has not gone down. The rich and powerful have used the apocalypse to take even more power. They think they cannot be punished. But I am JUSTICE. I am the Goddess of Truth and Justice and NONE shall escape my wrath.
“Who is the red moon?”
A terrible demon trying to end your world. Do not worry about him, others more powerful than you are fighting him. Your job is to ensure that TRUTH and JUSTICE return to this world. These are my powers and I am weak in your world without them.
“How do I do…whatever you are asking me to do?”
Find out arrogant people who think they are above MY LAW. Not just murderers, but rapists, slavers, and anyone else who thinks he can hurt my human children and get away with it.
You must offer me a sacrifice every few months. A human sacrifice. I will use the sacrifice to power up your body, as otherwise, your body will fall apart.
Since I am the Goddess of Justice, you cannot just offer any soul. Only guilty souls, those who have escaped justice from your human courts will do. And I do not want small time criminals, I only want those who have crossed the moral event horizon. Those whose crimes are so great only hell will do for them.
I will take your sacrifice and judge them AND YOU. If the soul is guilty, I will punish it. If you send me an innocent soul, you will be punished. And your punishment will be worse than death or hell.
“What is worse than hell?”
Erasure. Your soul will be erased from the world, never to be born again. So make sure you do a very good investigation before you offer someone as a sacrifice to me.
“Offer a human sacrifice every few months. Must be a soul who committed vile crimes against humanity but got away with it. Don’t make a mistake and sacrifice an innocent or I will vanish. Is that it?”
Yes. And I used a lot of my power to create your body, so your first payment is due in a week.
“What! Where am I going to find an evil sinner in a week?”
Go North. Towards Cambridge. And now, time to sleep.
“Wait! What is the red moon? How is he raising the dead? What does he want?”
You know what he wants. You almost joined him. Weren’t you dreaming about eating the flesh of other humans?
I felt a great rush of shame. But before I could say anything, the world went dark…
It was nice and sunny when I woke up. I could see the fire brigade putting out the fire in the church. Had it all been a dream? Had I just passed out?
I decided to walk to the fence where I met Malcolm and the guards. Their faces went white when they saw me.
“But…we buried you. I made sure you were dead,” Malcolm gulped.
“Why hasn’t he been punished?” I said loudly.
The Goddess answered in my head. Because killing you wasn’t that heinous a crime. Sorry, but I do not handle every single crime. Next, you will ask me to punish those who jump red lights.
I felt a bit outraged.
Relax. Your old boss was sacrificing little children and getting away with it. That crossed a moral event horizon line and so I had to punish him. Malcolm here is a small time killer and corrupt cop. With the mayor dead, he will be arrested soon and face human justice. So no, I will not bother with him. Find me a more meaty sacrifice.
Malcolm was still mumbling. “Shut up,” I said. “I need to go North. Have a car I can borrow?”
He threw his keys at me and ran away.
As I drove away, I saw the guards open the main gates and run to hide. For some reason, they looked terrified of me. Like they had seen a ghost or a zombie. I shrugged and drove out of town.
10 years ago, the world ended. The majority of humans died and the undead took over.
Some people took this to mean they could do whatever they wanted. That there is no one to judge or punish them.
They are wrong.
I failed when I was needed the most. Now, this feeling of shame and self-loathing drives me. I will not stop while there are still arrogant people who think they can escape justice.
I am the Defeated Detective.
The Defeated Detective will return soon!
Thanks for reading so far! In the section below, I want to talk a bit about how this series came about.
About this series: This is a reboot of my Defeated Detective series, which was originally a bit muddled. It started as a detective series with light comedy moments. After some time, I got confused about where the story was going and let it go.
I started another series: The End of the World Detective, about an army colonel who solved crimes in the apocalypse, in between fighting demons. But there the crime part was not always the centrepiece and a few stories had to do with demon hunting.
I also wasn’t sure about the world building— as in the first story I had used the word demons but it was a bit unclear what type of demons they were.
This current story is a reboot of both stories. The Defeated Detective now lives in the post-apocalypse world. I replaced demons with the undead, but not Hollywood zombies because I find them a bit boring. With the undead and the red moon demon, I have the freedom to move the series into a bigger good-vs-evil story.
If you liked the story and want to read more stories in the series, please like/share/comment!