Chương 372: Book Nine, Chapter 19: Caster

Since the beginning of the storyline, I had toyed with the idea that Carousel might be doing something creative with the movie's point of view. Despite the plot being about Kimberly, we didn't really shoot much footage with her before she turned, which led me to think Carousel must have gotten everything it needed before we even showed up. But then what? Kimberly gets infected and psych, she's not the main character anymore? That was a common enough trope, but this was a unique storyline.

The monsters were just sick people who could recover, which meant theoretically the main character could become a monster and then cease to be one later. That meant Carousel could follow Kimberly longer than other zombie films. I wondered if it would. It turned out I was onto something. Now that I could see a livestream of the On-Screen footage, I could tell that Kimberly was being treated special.

As I made my way through the stands toward the broadcast booth, while everyone in it was Off-Screen, I watched Antoine, Kimberly, and Anna down in the safe room. I had never seen this kind of camerawork from Carousel before. Not only were there lots of close-up shots of Kimberly showing her every movement, but there were also shots from her literal viewpoint, with her blindfolded and her ears plugged. I had only seen it do that for the Die Cast.

Anna and Antoine were attempting something that I thought was a little risky. They were trying to get Kimberly to drink water. They pulled up her racing helmet just enough to uncover her mouth, then carefully raised a bottle of water to her lips and poured. Most of it ended up running down her front, but some of it she actually drank. The audio was so sensitive I could hear it going down her throat, although it was a choking hazard because she was still repeating her chosen phrase softly.

These meetings are always pointless. She said it so many times that the words lost meaning, and all I could hear was the sad mewing of a sick person, of someone I cared about.

"These meetings are always pointless," she repeated. She was in pain. Carousel cut to footage of other zombies. Those rampaging on the other side of the Speedway, as well as some who were still down below in the tunnels, who were much calmer, trying desperately to sleep. What was it trying to convey by juxtaposing Kimberly against these other infected people? After a few moments, it became clear.

The shots showed that Kimberly was getting better, while the others seemed to be succumbing to their symptoms, mostly dehydration. It didn't help that they also had broken toes and all kinds of cuts and scrapes in addition to the bites they had endured. Carousel was communicating to the audience that Kimberly might recover even if the other zombies wouldn't. It was possible that Kimberly was infected even earlier than I thought.

And that was important, because it would be really weird if Kimberly got better but the horde continued to rampage under the control of Captain Kangaroo, or whatever his name was. Cadet Carver. Commander Kevin, something like that. It was easier to remember bad guys after you had seen them on the Red Wallpaper, I realized.

After Carousel had taken its time showing the tenderness with which Kimberly was being treated, it switched to something not so tender: the various NPCs still being found and demolished on the other side of the Speedway. It was honestly hard to watch. I moved as fast as I could up the stairs to the broadcast booth, but even when I got there, I didn't enter. Instead, I ducked beside the entrance. Because I had seen footage of Camden, Kelsey, and Danny inside, I knew where I could hide if they went On-Screen.

I was right outside on the back of the booth, next to a potted plant that hadn't been watered in quite some time.

"How are things going in there?" I asked. Everyone inside froze, and no one answered. At first I didn't know why, but then I figured it out.

"I'm not a zombie," I said.

"I'm actually asking." A breath of relief came from someone inside, and Kelsey casually came over and peeked out the back window of the booth to see me on the back platform crouched down.

"It's not going so well," she said. Before I could ask for details, Camden decided to provide them.

"There's some technobabble nonsense preventing us from broadcasting," he said.

"I can get around it, but I need time, and I don't think we're going to get it." He didn't know how right he was. They squabbled there for a few more minutes while Carousel got footage elsewhere. It was clear they were about to be up to bat. It was too early into the finale for them to succeed at their plans, and I had a hard time believing that the horde would stay away for long. They went On-Screen. I continued to duck down out of view.

"Who do we have here?" The voice of the military leader sounded over a nearby speaker that had been dropped onto the stands sometime earlier. It was the same kind that was being used to broadcast the various sound bites that controlled the zombies. He tutted three times into the microphone and then said, "Is someone trying to upset international security by broadcasting this horrible secret to the world?" Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Camden, Kelsey, and Danny ducked down below a desk in the broadcast booth. I could see them on the Red Wallpaper. Carousel was closed in on them, listening to them whisper back and forth.

"He knows we're here," Kelsey said.

"We're screwed. We have to abandon this. I'm telling you, we can climb down the back of the grandstands. They might not see us."

"They absolutely will see us," Camden said. Moments later, after a high-pitched squeal, the military leader's voice came over a different speaker. Not the one that had been placed in the stands to help coordinate the zombies, but one that was inside the broadcast booth.

"I understand your instinct for survival," the man said.

"I applaud it. But you must understand, I have been tasked with ensuring knowledge of these creatures never gets out. This is nothing personal. I do hope you believe me, though I don't expect you to make your peace with it in the time you have left." Commandant Caster. That was his name. Something silly and pretentious, neither of which matched the tone of the voice, which seemed sincerely apologetic.

Camden reached up for a microphone that was on the desk above them and hit the button as he said, "So what's the play here? How are you going to cover up the death of thousands? Will it be a nuclear incident? If so, why are you messing around with these creatures? Why are you commanding them to kill us instead of just doing it yourself?"

"Ah, he speaks. This would be Camden Tran, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, we found your informant. It was rather unpleasant. You may have been wondering why he wasn't contacting you over that radio in your pocket. Now you know. To answer your question, it is only a product of much thought. Using these malleable assassins has a high chance of working without creating questions about the use of other ordinance, and on the off chance that this plague is discovered, your deaths will look natural to it. None will suspect us.

It is purely logical."

"Hedging against the worst case scenario," Camden said.

"Some would call that cowardly."

"They might," Commandant Caster said.

"But they won't be around to call it that for long." Just at that moment, all the speakers that had been dropped into the Speedway near the broadcasting booth came alive with the same animalistic phrase used to take out all the NPCs. I didn't need to look to know that thousands of fast zombies were on their way to the broadcasting booth.

"It would have been nice to meet you on a field of battle on a day in which you were equipped for the fight," Commandant Caster said.

"Farewell. We received some of your footage of the young woman fighting through the virus. Very touching stuff. Our benefactors will be pleased to see the film." Something in the broadcast booth sparked, and then, from what I could tell, the power went out. They weren't sending out the footage anytime soon. It was always a long shot. More of an opening move, really. Still, it was disappointing to get shut down so hard.

The camera cut away from those in the broadcasting booth to a shot of Commandant Caster from behind as he drank a cup of coffee or tea. It wasn't clear. I took the opportunity to begin my climb down from the broadcaster's booth. I couldn't take the stairs. I would risk being seen On-Screen. It was always difficult to know where to be when you had to remain out of the shot, but this was more frustrating than most. Luckily, whatever fear of heights I might have had disappeared because of Dead Nerves.

Strangely, even with that trope equipped, I felt very afraid of the sound I heard in the distance of the horde closing in on the broadcasting booth. They screamed their chosen phrases, matching the pitch and tone of the sound bites coming through the speakers. The sound moved like waves through the crowd, creating a rhythmic marching of the dead. Up above, Camden, Danny, and Kelsey were doing their best to escape. We knew that Kelsey would be next, even though she was a Final Girl with Last One Alive.

She had the lowest Plot Armor of the survivors. This was the double-edged sword of the trope. She would technically survive to the end, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be targeted. No matter, if it wasn't her, it would be Anna, and we much preferred to keep the bulk of the zombies out of the tunnels for a little while longer. Eventually, my climbing down the back of the grandstand turned into a coordinated fall.

I sprained my ankle when I hit the ground, but I felt nothing, and it didn't seem like anything more serious than that had happened to me, so I walked on. The others were running as fast as they could, but they were seriously outmatched. The horde came upon them quickly. I wasn't around to give him commands, but Danny did what I would want him to do anyway. He gave Camden and Kelsey a wide berth so that Carousel could get footage of him surrounded by zombies who attacked as if they were piranha.

He didn't last long, and while he might have held the horde off for a few seconds, that was all. Camden and Kelsey managed to make it all the way to the entrance to the tunnels. Just as she was trying to close the door, Kelsey got caught by an infected. He got a good bite on her hand, but she managed to make him regret it by punching him in the throat. These weren't the type of zombies that could ignore such an injury. He stumbled back, falling on the ground and tripping several of the zombies behind him.

Kelsey was injured now and likely infected, but she managed to close the door to the underground. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to make it down there before they got there. The zombies were beating at the entrance and would eventually get their way down. The cameras were watching Kelsey and Camden as they ran toward the safe room. Which meant I was free to do something stupid. I yelled at the top of my lungs. Cursing. Screaming.

Getting whatever attention I could from the zombie horde, even though it felt hopeless. Fortunately, screaming, yelling, and cursing were the exact kind of thing that could distract this specific type of zombie. Even with the speakers playing nearby, the zombies turned their attention away from the entrance to the underground, and instead they looked at me. What was I thinking?

"You know we're Off-Screen, right?" I asked softly. It was a joke. I truly felt I was about to be killed. But right around that time, the speakers in the area cut off. The zombies ran toward me, but as I spoke to them calmly, some of them started to slow down, and that calmness reverberated through the crowd as each zombie matched my tone, moving from a raging murder machine to a lazy herd once again. Zombie see, zombie do. It was a neat trick, but it wasn't enough to save me.

They didn't actually stop raging until they had bitten me upwards of twenty times, some taking chunks of flesh, but for the most part just covering me in thin bite-shaped wounds that I couldn't feel. It wouldn't have worked for anyone else. It was a completely surreal thing as the zombies bit into me, took me to the ground, and then just kind of mellowed out. They stood up and started walking away slowly, like I was yesterday's news.

This all happened Off-Screen, and after they started wandering away, I was left alone for the most part. Dead Nerves came in for the win again. Because even though I had been bitten more times than I could count, my Infected status didn't light up even a flicker.