Gotham: City of the Dead #2 (of 4)

Somewhere down below Dr. John Dee entered the dusty room where Seth Newman lay sleeping deeply. Connected to him were several wires with tape attached to his chest and temples. His eyes moved rapidly beneath his young lids.

“Mother, it’s ready.” Dee walked across the dirty room to a machine and flipped a lever.
“The boy’s special ability will kick in instinctively. In moments, his nightmares will fill the streets of Gotham.”

Ted landed the bug behind the house where Batman was having his nightmare. He slowly entered the house and made for the living room where he found Batman coming to.

“Batman! What happened?”

Batman was shaking uncontrollably. But at least he was awake now and relatively in control.

“Fear gas…we have to get to Arkham…”

“You have to come to the cave for an antidote, Master Bruce.” Alfred said, interrupting the Dark Knight on his earpiece. “I have the coordinates to the satellite cave uploading to Master Kord’s hovercraft as we speak. Batman tried to stand up and staggered a bit. Ted caught him and held him up.

“Very well, Alfred. We’re on our way.” Bruce responded slowly, still shaking off the after effects of the toxins.

Batman and Blue Beetle entered the satellite bat cave. The one below Wayne Manor had been destroyed during the invasion. Alfred had already prepared a shot full of anti-toxins. Bruce sat down at computer console and removed his cowl and gloves. Alfred came over and gave him the shot. Blue Beetle looked around at the cave. Then he walked over to a monitor and turned up the sound. It was the Gotham city news.

“...Again, just moments ago, what appears to be the walking dead suddenly appeared from nowhere…oh my god…I… I’m sorry…I can’t…” The pretty young reporter started crying uncontrollably and the cameras paned around to show the fresh chaos. Walking dead filled the streets as they appeared from thin air, smiling. The camera fell to the ground and all that could be seen was people running in every direction. The camera got kicked as people ran by and pointed skyward. The bat signal hung low in the sky.

“My God…” Ted uttered.

“Let’s go.” Batman said, pulling his cowl back on.

“Do you think it’s connected to the invasion?” Ted asked as the two ran toward the batmobile.

“It’s possible…get in.” Ted climbed into the batmobile, looking at it in amazement.

“What you been doing over there at Waynetech?” Ted asked while checking out the controls and all the gadgets.

“Military applications remember?” Bruce said grinning.

“Yeah, heh.”

The Batmobile rolled through panicked streets of Gotham, gunning for the GCPD headquarters. Moments later, the Dark Knight and Blue Beetle arrived on the rooftop. Jim Gordon waited, and he wasn’t alone.

“Governor Newman.” Batman said, not showing his surprise at Newman’s presence.

“Batman, you did so much for this city last month during the invasion. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Batman said nothing as the Governor went on. “I wanted to tell you more about my son. I think he may be inadvertently responsible for this insanity on the streets.”

“How so?” Batman asked.

“I…” the Governor sighed, “My family carries the meta gene. I was hoping it would pass him, but…a few weeks ago, we were having a family dinner. Seth wanted desert. His mother told him no and he threw a fit. From nowhere an entire cake appeared on the table. It came from the neighbors house.”

“Are you saying he can teleport things?” Batman asked, intrigued. The Governor sighed again

“Yes, he has done it several times since. Toys appear in his room, from a toy store down the streets. In his sleep, the most random things appear in our home. Never anything big, just whatever kids dream about. I dreaded to think what could happen if he had a nightmare…” The Governor looked away toward the chaos down at the street.

“Batman, the dream tech from the labs, the fear toxins.” Blue Beetle spoke up for the first time.

“We have to go see Crane. He’s obviously not alone on this. Jim, these …these zombies, what do you know so far?”

“They are very much real. They have been attacking everything in site. The worst part is, whatever is powering them it’s spreading.” Gordon explained, taking a long draw from his cigarette.

“Just like the movies.” Ted said looking at Gordon.

“Jim, do anything you can to stop them. If this is the boy’s power at work, those bodies are coming from somewhere. Get one and see if they’ve been embalmed. They must be coming from the cemeteries. Governor, is there anyone else who knows about Seth’s abilities?”

“Just the family and maybe his nanny.” He answered.

“Her name?”

“Ethel, Ethel Dee.” The Governor replied.
“Let’s go.” Batman said to Beetle.

“Batman?” Newman asked, a pleading look on his face. Batman turned to look at him. “Please bring my son back home.” Batman gave him a nod and the two heroes headed down the fire escape.

Down below, in the back alley behind the GCPD station, a horde of zombies were lurking around the batmobile. Batman leapt from the fire escape, lobbing batarangs at them. A few of the zombies had fallen by the time he landed. Blue Beetle was close behind, firing off the BB gun. Volts of electricity and flashes of bright light emanated from the gun. More zombies fell to the ground. With the area temporarily cleared, the two got into the car and headed for Arkham. Once inside the Batmobile, Ted spoke up.

“He said the nannies name is Ethel Dee?”

“Yes.”

“That’s John Dee’s mother.”

“Yes.” Batman fired up the turbines and continued the drive in silence.

Las Vegas

The New Outsiders were still reeling from the damage of the invasion and were catching the first real rest they had had in months. Ollie and Company were watching television and going over plans for a sting operation they had been working on pulling together.
GNN was reporting live from Gotham City.

“Ollie, turn it up.” Said Barbara Gordon as she entered the room. Ollie looked at the T.V and used the remote to turn up the volume. The room fell silent. A reporter leaned out of a helicopter that overlooked the downtown Gotham City skyline.

“…You can’t see very much from up here, but reports have been coming into us that, and you’re not going to believe this, the dead are walking the streets. We were unable to get a comment from any one in the police department, but this, combined with the extensive destruction from last months invasion, have left the Federal Government with no choice but to declare Gotham City a Federal no-man’s land. Again, Gotham City has been declared a Federal no-man’s land. It looks like we have a live feed from the Oval Office coming in. President Lord is making the official announcement.” The screen changed over to Oval Office. President Maxwell Lord sat poised at his desk.

“Good evening, citizens of America. You have seen the reports of the situation in Gotham City. We are announcing at this time that Gotham city is being declared a no-man’s land. Having suffered significant damage in the invasion, the city is no longer safe and all citizens headed for Gotham should be advised that no one will be allowed to enter. In no way, shape, or form is this problem going to be allowed to spread across the country. I have ordered the National Guard to enter the city in aid of the local police.
We ask that our fellow Americans stay calm once again in a time of chaos. We lost many friends and neighbors only a month ago in the invasion. It is a scary time to be alive, but I want all Americans, and the world, to rest assured that the situation is well under control and will be dealt with diligently. Good night and God Bless America.”

“Ollie…” Babs looked up at him with tears swelling up in her eyes, “My father…”

“No worries kiddo. I’ll get us there.” Ollie answered before she had a chance to ask.

“We’re coming.” Huntress said, getting up from her seat.

“No.” Ollie answered, not caring to give an explanation.

“Why the hell not?” Huntress demanded.

“It’s okay, Helena.” Barbara swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Batman won’t like having a ton of capes around for this. Babs dad lives there, and I have to go to annoy the hell out of Batman.” Ollie said finally deciding to answer. “He does things his way. It’s his city and we’re the only ones who know him.”

“Fine.” replied Huntress plopping down on the couch.

Meanwhile…

There he stood listlessly, with the walls of persistence echoing around him. Locked between two worlds. One whose very existence hinged on the digital. The other so archaic it made him puke with laughter. The only common thread they shared was “they”.
Who are “they”? That was the question. And the answer? It was “they” who played Dick Sergent and Dick York like dueling banjos. It was “they” who sold hot dogs by the tens and buns by the eights. It was “they” who was behind the so-called coincidences that so many rock stars died in plane wrecks. It was “they” whose power the red-eyed monster spewed into his room, but “they” called it a radio. And it was “they” who would steal the moon from the very sky that hung above us now, if only “they” had a place to keep it.
But then maybe the paranoia was setting in?

“Nah.” He thought to himself as he looked in the mirror. He was thinking of these two worlds. Where up was down, left was right etc. etc. Where cops could be crooks, priests were pedophiles, whores were Hollywood royalty and killers could get their face on a cereal box. They all shared the front page of the paper with their big stupid grins, leering at us like the world was an elevator and they just farted before walking out. Where are we left? Riding the same crap filled elevator all the way to the top floor.

“Nah.” he said again to himself, this time with a grin. He walked out of the bathroom of his little apartment and looked across the room at the television. His eyes widened and he picked up his mask.

“Cool, zombies. I am so going to Gotham.” Vic Sage turned off the T.V and headed out his door.

Back In Gotham…

Batman and Blue Beetle were approaching Arkham Asylum. Batman looked up and saw a helicopter disappear into the horizon. He pushed the accelerator all the way to floor.

“Hang on.” He said to Ted, who was already clutching the dashboard with both hands.
When they reached Arkham, the smoke was still billowing fresh in the air from the explosions. The two heroes leapt from the batmobile and ran toward the building. As they approached, they saw the inmates still filing at a frantic pace out of the Asylum. Edward Nigma was among them.

“Nigma!” Batman shouted. Edward turned to look at him and smiled from ear to ear.

“You got bigger problems than little old me, Bats.” The Dark Knight hated it, but Nigma was right. “I’ll be seeing you around.” Edward said and ran away toward the city.

“Come on.” Batman uttered, biting his lower lip.

The two ran into the Asylum and tore down the halls. They had to at least stop more villains from getting out. When they found the Scarecrows henchmen still hard at work letting prisoners lose, Batman greeted the first one with a chop to the back of the neck. He went down and Blue Beetle did the same to the other one. Beetle turned around just in time to see Batman grabbed from behind by a reanimated guard who was trying to bite the Dark Knight. Batman sailed a short, quick punch into the guards face, knocking him to the ground. He cuffed the guard to a nearby cell door. The guard tried frantically to get lose. Batman stood close to him and studied him. He saw that the man had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the left side of his chest.

“This man is dead.” He muttered to himself. “We have to end this soon.”

“If we find Dee, we find Scarecrow.” Ted said.

“Yes, but don’t count on it. Crane doesn’t play well with others. Once he gets what he wants out of this he’ll betray Dee faster than you can say quid pro quo.”

“What do you think he wants?” Ted asked.

“My corpse I imagine, a reputation, money. Same stuff they always want. We need to go back to the cave.”