by Lukens, Mark
And what did it matter? What would it help if he understood why those monsters did what they did?
“You ready to take him out?”
“You want me to shoot him?” Mike’s concentration broke.
“How else are you going to practice?”
Mike shrugged, glancing down at the rifle in his hands like he’d just suddenly realized he was holding a loaded weapon. He looked out at the parking lot, not meeting Luke’s eyes. “I don’t know. I thought I’d just shoot at a tree or a car or something.”
“Trees and cars don’t move. They don’t try to attack and kill you. Those rippers down there aren’t people anymore. They’re animals. Monsters.”
“You don’t think they might still be themselves somewhere inside their heads, trapped in there, watching? But they can’t control their bodies anymore.”
“I don’t know, Mike.” Luke sighed, staring down at the dozens of rippers still hanging around the parking lot in front of the store. It had been days since the dead bodies up here were dumped over the edge and down to the sidewalk. Many of the rippers had moved on, somewhere deeper into town, Luke guessed. But a few had remained around the store, possibly remembering that they’d gotten food from here before. How long did their memories last?
“I don’t know how much human they have in them anymore,” Luke went on. “I don’t know much about them. But I do know that they won’t hesitate to rip you apart and eat you, or anyone else you care about. I know that you need to be ready to shoot them without hesitation if they are after you.”
Mike sighed like he was a little frustrated, but he hadn’t put the rifle down yet.
“You still want to practice?”
“Yeah,” Mike answered, steeling himself, a sudden hardness in his eyes like he didn’t want to let Luke down.
He’s probably going to miss, anyway.
“Okay, Mike. Look through the scope again. Find your target. It’s just a video game.”
Mike hunkered down again, squeezing one eye shut, the other peering through the scope.
“You got him in your crosshairs?”
“Yeah.” The barest of whispers.
“Finger on the trigger. Very lightly right now. Don’t squeeze it yet.”
Mike’s finger was on the trigger, his body tense and still as he perched his elbows on the top of the knee wall.
“Breathe in . . . hold it . . .”
Mike inhaled softly.
“Let your breath out slowly and squeeze the trigger.”
Mike exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The rifle rocked in his hands, but he didn’t freak out and drop it—he held on and shouldered the recoil well.
Luke had been watching Mike take his shot. He grabbed his binoculars from his neck.
“I got him,” Mike whispered in awe, still staring through the scope.
Luke looked through his binoculars, scanning for a moment then stopping on the downed ripper. “Holy shit.”
“I got him, didn’t I?”
“Check your scope. Find your target again. Make sure.”
Luke had already found the target, staring through the binoculars at the ripper sprawled out on the pavement, a bloodstain in the middle of the white thermal shirt underneath his tattered dark blue button-down, the frayed sleeves stained with dirt and blood. The bloodstain on the front of the rippers’ shirt blossomed, growing bigger and darker right in the middle of his chest. The ripper was still barely alive, staring up at the cloudy sky with bulging eyes, a thick line of blood trickling down from his mouth, more blood pooling under his head from where the back of it had smacked the pavement.
“Luke . . . Luke, I got him. That’s the one I was aiming at.”
Luke kept watching through the binoculars, panning a little to the left and the right. A few of the other rippers were getting interested in the fallen ripper, the fresh blood attracting them. A few of the rippers called out, one pushed another back and went for the dying ripper with a knife in his hands.
“You might not want to watch the rest of this,” Luke warned as he lowered his binoculars. He looked at Mike.
Mike beamed as he took the rifle off the knee wall. “I did it. First try and I shot one.”
“Beginner’s luck.”
CHAPTER 10
Josh
Josh rooted through the boxes, crates, and bags stacked up at the far end of the loading bay. He’d brought a flashlight and a lantern with him, setting them down every so often so he could move boxes and other items around, unstacking them. There didn’t seem to be an organized way that Jo and her staff at the store (all of them gone now except Jo) had piled up these boxes and supplies, just designating this stuff piled up out here as “non-essential.”
Finally, Josh came across some toys and games—what he’d been after all along. Jo hadn’t stacked the books, magazines, CDs, and other entertainment out here and Josh had gone through that area in the store earlier. He’d found a few comic books for Mike’s birthday already, only one Hulk comic, but he’d found a few other superhero comics. He’d left any zombie comics or books behind, sure that Mike didn’t want to read that kind of stuff right now. He’d also found a few books on CD, only a few from the most popular authors (or they used to be when they were still here). Josh knew Emma liked Stephen King books, or at least she had listened to a few of his books so far, so he grabbed one for her: The Institute. He didn’t read what it was about, he just grabbed it. He also selected a book on CD by someone named Neil Gaiman. He found some music CDs for Emma, some rock and country. He wasn’t even sure what type of music Emma liked to listen to, but he brought them to her along with a battery-powered radio and CD player that Jo let him borrow.
Emma had been surprised by his gifts.
“Figured I’d get you something to listen to,” he told her. “I also got a few comics for Mike’s birthday.”
“When’s the party?” she asked.
“In about an hour. I just checked on Jo and the rest of them. They put me in charge of toys and games. But I figure Mike’s already getting his best presents: learning how to drive and learning how to shoot.”
Emma nodded in agreement.
“Hell, Mike could probably look through those piles in the loading bay himself. I don’t know what he likes. I know he likes video games and Hulk comics, but that’s about all I know.”
“You’ll find something, I’m sure.”
Josh had left Emma alone in the tent after getting the CD player started with the Stephen King book. He wasn’t sure why she wanted to listen to that kind of horror stuff when there was so much real horror in the world right now just beyond the store’s walls.
Maybe she would switch to one of the other authors after the King book. But it wasn’t like she had a lot of books on CD to choose from; they’d been kind of fading out years ago, everything going to digital.
Now Josh had been picking through the toys and games for a while. He’d emptied a box to collect his finds: a couple of board games, a football, a smaller rubber ball, a package of toy cars. Nothing that ran off batteries; Jo had asked him to conserve the batteries as much as possible.
Well, these would have to do. He’d run it by Ray when he saw him.
The door that led outside opened with a slight squeal of the hinges, letting in a blast of gray daylight. Josh jumped, looking that way. He realized he didn’t have his shotgun with him, or any kind of weapon. He didn’t even have a walkie-talkie.
Why wasn’t that door locked?
Before Josh could even think about running to get help, he recognized Ray in the doorway, then Kate. The two of them had been outside. They were smiling, talking. Kate closed the door and locked it.
Josh knew Ray had been outside teaching Mike how to drive. Josh had wanted to be there, but he figured it was a special occasion that Ray wanted just between him and Mike, so he didn’t offer to help in any way. But apparently Kate had been allowed to witness Mike’s first attempt behind the wheel.
A small pang of
jealousy hit Josh, but he tried not to let it bother him. He was sure Ray would rather have had just about anyone else out there than him. But the test drive was over now; Josh had seen Mike climbing the ladder up to the roof to shoot the rifle with Luke, that’s why he knew he had some time to come back here to find a few birthday gifts for Mike. Josh figured Ray would be up on the roof with Mike and Luke. But no, he was outside hanging out with Kate.
Was something going on between them? Were they starting to fall for each other a little? Josh couldn’t help smiling, but he wasn’t going to tease Ray about it. No need to get on Ray’s bad side any more than he already was.
Ray and Kate walked toward the double doors that led to the hall, talking in low voices.
Josh didn’t want to look like he was slinking down near the “non-essential” supplies and spying on them. He set his lantern in his box of toys and picked up the box, slipping out from between the stacks of boxes.
“Hey, you two.”
“Josh.” Ray looked a little surprised.
“How’d the drive go?”
“Oh . . . uh, yeah. Mike did really well.”
“He did better than that,” Kate said with a smile. “He did great. Way better than my first time behind the wheel.”
Josh noticed Ray’s eyes on the box in his hand. “Getting some stuff for Mike’s party. Some board games. A few balls. Figured he could toss the ball around with Brooke and the other kid here.”
“Patrick,” Kate reminded him.
“Yeah, Patrick. Could be fun.” Josh looked at Ray. “You think of anything else he might like to do?”
Ray shook his head no. “I think what you’ve got is going to be fine. I think this will be a great birthday for him.”
Josh smiled, amazed that Ray was so amiable.
“I just talked to Jo a little while ago,” Josh said. “She said everything should be ready in about an hour, and that was half an hour ago.”
“Yeah, I’m going to help get the tables and chairs set up,” Kate said.
“I’ll help you,” Ray offered.
“Brooke was with Jo,” Josh said. “She seemed like she was having a lot of fun.”
Kate smiled. “Good. She deserves to have some fun.”
We all do, Josh thought.
While Ray and Kate went to the deli and the kitchen, Josh went back to Tent City. Emma was lying on her side in the tent, listening to the Stephen King novel at a low volume. She reached out and paused the CD when Josh came inside the tent.
“Book good so far?”
“So far, so good. Did you find anything for Mike?”
“Yeah, some board games and balls. Something all three of the kids can play. Hell, I might even join them if they ask me.”
Emma smiled. “You sound . . . sound good.”
“Yeah. You know? I feel good. Coming here, it’s been good for all of us. Not just the rest and the food and the safety of this place, but being around other people. Having other things to do besides just thinking about trying to survive from one minute to the next.”
Emma nodded. “Yes, it’s good here.”
“Hey, guess who I just saw hanging out together out back.”
Emma was still smiling but trying to look serious.
“Ray and Kate,” Josh said before Emma could guess. “I think those two kids might be a little sweet on each other.”
“That’s good for them.”
“I think it is. I think it’s helping Ray relax a little. He didn’t even snap at me.” Josh slipped down onto the floor next to Emma, holding her, snuggling up close to her in the chilly air. He kissed her, just a peck, then he kissed her again, a longer kiss.
“It is good here,” Emma said. She seemed like she was going to say something else, but she let the words die away.
“But?” Josh said. “It sounds like a but was coming.”
“But it’s still dangerous. We can’t forget that.”
“Yeah, I know. But if we all put our heads together we could defend this place. At least get through the winter here.”
Emma was quiet.
“You still think we should go to Avalon, don’t you?”
Emma didn’t say anything.
“I know Ray’s bent on going—”
“I think it’s important too.”
Josh was quiet for a moment. He wasn’t looking forward to going out on the road again, crossing a whole state to get to northern Georgia. But if Emma thought it was important, then he would go.
“I’ll go wherever you want me to go,” he told her and kissed her again. “As long as we’re together.”
Emma was suddenly tense.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you feel something . . . something bad? From the Dragon? Have you been dreaming?”
“No. But . . . I don’t know. I just think we all need to be ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“For danger.”
Josh agreed. “We will be. But first we’re going to have a cool birthday party for Mike. He’s going to feel normal again for a little while.”
CHAPTER 11
Dawson
Dawson and his troop had left Hell Town hours ago at sunrise, their convoy of two Humvees and two pickup trucks driving the route they’d driven to the store the last time. They’d packed the trucks last night with the weapons and supplies they would need for their second attack on the store.
Last night Dawson had tried to prepare himself for the inevitable. He’d been sure one of the Dragon’s guards, or even Jacob himself, was coming to get him at any moment. They had interrogated Petra two more times in the last two days. They hadn’t taken any more of her fingers, or any other body parts, but they’d taken more from the servant girl they were torturing in front of her, trying to get Petra to talk.
Sharon. The servant girl’s name was Sharon. She had a name. She was a person.
Petra had talked by then, Dawson was sure of it. How could she not? And even if she hadn’t, wouldn’t the Dragon just eventually know what Petra knew?
Dawson had told himself over and over again that he wasn’t afraid to die, that if he died he didn’t want to go out like a coward—he wanted to make a stand at least once in his life. But as the hours ticked by until sunrise, the greater his fear grew. He was sure he’d crumble like a jellyfish on the floor if Jacob burst into the room. He hadn’t slept all night; he’d been too nervous. And he’d been afraid of dreaming, of the Dragon slipping into his dreams, swooping over his troop as they slept like a vampire gliding on the night air, invading each person’s dreams, prodding and poking in that darkness until he found what he’d been seeking.
But Jacob hadn’t come to get him in the middle of the night, nor the Dragon’s guards. They hadn’t come for the other four Dark Angels who had dared to plan this with him, all four promising that they were willing to die for this, that living any longer in the Dragon’s world wasn’t tolerable anymore. They knew what the Dragon and his henchmen had been doing to the people in this town. They knew about Jacob’s sadistic execution contraption in the field. Dawson and two of the four Dark Angel defectors, had been at the last execution, watching Audrey and Scott, one of their own, twisting and thrashing from the steel cables as dozens of rippers hacked away at the flesh on their legs.
It would only get worse. The Dragon would get worse.
Jacob or the Dragon hadn’t even come around when they’d packed the trucks. Two Dark Angels sat in the back of the pickup that had a steel cage welded around the back of it with an open ceiling. The Dark Angels could shoot through the bars. They had a box with a few hand grenades inside if the mob of rippers got too large.
But their trip to the store had gone well enough. They’d only encountered two big groups of rippers, and one of the groups were only a few miles outside of the Dragon’s walled hell town. The rippers waited around, many of them living in the woods and the fields, hoping for a chance to rush the town’s walls. But they
couldn’t get over the walls, and the Dark Angels standing guard at the top of the walls would just pick them off for a while until the group of rippers gave up, fleeing back to the abandoned homes and the woods: the suburbs of Hell Town now.
The other large group they’d come across had been too far off the road to do anything. They’d run at them, but by the time they got to the road the four trucks had already roared past them.
Dawson drove the lead Humvee in the convoy. He thought he might be tired from not sleeping the whole night, but he was wired, jumpy, ready to get this started.
Kramer sat in the passenger seat, eyeing Dawson. “You going to tell us the plan yet?” he growled.
Dawson glanced at Kramer as he drove. “There’s no sense in sneaking up to the store—the spotters on the roof will see us coming. And trying to sneak up on foot will be too dangerous with any rippers around.”
“So what are we going to do?” Kramer said. “We’re almost there.”
“We’re going to ram the gate that leads to the fenced-in area at the back of the store.”
“The Dragon wants that fence intact so the rippers don’t get inside.”
Dawson swore he saw just the trace of suspicion in the man’s eyes. “The orders have changed. We’ll have to fix the gate later. We need to get inside the back fence, blow the rollup door, get inside. Kill who we need to, take the rest as prisoners.”
“What about the food in the store? The rippers will get it.”
“A convoy of box trucks will be coming right after us,” Dawson lied. “They’re hanging back until we give them the word to come to the store and load up what they can.”
Dawson swore he could sense that Kramer knew the whole plan was made up. All it would take was for Kramer, or any of the other Dark Angels in their troop, to radio Jacob or the guards about the plan. But Dawson was counting on, or at least hoping, that Kramer and any others were too afraid of questioning orders. Those who questioned orders might have their brand removed from their foreheads at the least, or at worst, hung from the cables in the field.