The Feral Children II
Savages
David A. Simpson
Wesley R. Norris
Contents
The Feral Children
Also by David A. Simpson
Prologue
1. Late May
2. Swan
3. Gordon
4. Donny
5. Harvest
6. Donny
7. Tribe
8. Diablo
9. Swan
10. Call Me Bob
11. Chores
12. Bob VS Tribe
13. The Truck
14. Truth and Secrets
15. Murray and Bob
16. Murray
17. Diablo
18. Tribe
19. The Battle for Piedmont House
20. Aftermath
21. Cleanup
22. Kodiak
23. Gordon
24. Tribe
25. Swan
26. Gordon
27. Gordon and Murray
28. The Triplets
29. Ruins
30. Farewell Old Friend
31. Tribe
32. Captured
33. Gordon
34. Pursuit
35. The Prisoner
36. Smith’s Landing
37. Swan
38. Fight
39. Party Crashers
40. Kodiak and Misty
41. Goodbye
42. Lakota Bound
Epilogue
Afterword
The Feral Children
Book Two:
SAVAGES
A Zombie Road Tale
DAVID A. SIMPSON
WESLEY R. NORRIS
Also by David A. Simpson
Zombie Road: Convoy of Carnage
Zombie Road II: Bloodbath on the Blacktop
Zombie Road III: Rage on the Rails
Zombie Road IV: Road to Redemption
Zombie Road V: Terror on the Two-Lane
Zombie Road VI: Highway to Heartache
Zombie Road VII: Tragedies in Time
David A. Simpson and Wesley R. Norris
The Feral Children: Animals
The Feral Children 2: Savages
Anthologies
Tales from the Zombie Road: The Long Haul Anthology
Undead Worlds: A Reanimated Writers Anthology
Undead Worlds 3: A Reanimated Writers Anthology
Treasured Chests: A Zombie Anthology
Trick or Treat Thrillers: Best Paranormal 2018
Trick or Treat Thrillers: Best Horror 2018
Coloring Book
Zombie Road: The Road Kill Coloring Book
Copyright
Feral Children 2
Savages
A Zombie Road Tale
This is a work of fiction by
David A. Simpson
and
Wesley R. Norris
ISBN: 9781672846554
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No portion of this text may be copied or duplicated without author or publisher written permission, with the exception of use in reviews
Copyright 2019 David A. Simpson
All rights reserved
Prologue
July
10 Months After the Outbreak
Kodiak hunched low over Otis’s back as the big bear lumbered through the night. The strange procession that followed the savage boy and his massive bear moved rapidly with barely a sound. Occasionally the click of a claw against a rock or the plod of a hoof marked their passage to anyone or anything that was paying attention.
The scent of animal lather competed with the smell of blood seeping from torn stitches and the stink of infection from vicious wounds that hadn’t been properly treated nor had time to heal. Modern medicine was gone. You made do with what you could scavenge, or you went without.
The young warriors rode on the backs of armored beasts painted with stripes and symbols. The riders appeared little more than animals themselves in their mix of furs and battle-scarred armor. Their faces were streaked in war paint and soot. Their hair was adorned with feathers, beads and other mementos woven into braids. They carried Warhammers, tomahawks and primitive weapons they built themselves. Machetes and knives hung at their hips, were slung across their backs or lashed to saddles.
Anyone from the fortified towns would be laughed out of their favorite bar if they swore they saw a feral beauty barely in her teens with flowing white hair and Nordic tattoos riding a polar bear. Surely, the bartender would cut him off when he told of the tiny girl riding in front of her with a baby doll clutched in one hand and an icepick bunched in the other.
Kodiak peered through the darkness ahead, his eyes alert for the undead or signs of an ambush by their enemies. They pushed hard and ignored the exhaustion. They were in a desperate race against time. The tribe was down by two members. He couldn’t lose another. He was nearly overwhelmed with grief at the loss, at his failure, but he pushed it aside and let rage fill the holes in his heart. He resisted the urge to scratch at the rough stitches that itched under his armor.
His mind drifted as the miles disappeared behind them and moved them closer to what could be their last stand. He’d give anything to go back to those simpler times before the zombie virus wiped out most of the world, but that wasn’t going to happen. This was reality. Fighting and scratching out an existence in a post-apocalyptic world just for the chance to see another sunrise.
He thought about one of his most cherished memories before all of the blood. Before the undead walked the earth and the creatures of the forest went insane with unnatural hunger. At the time, it had been one of the worst and best days he’d had in his short life. He ran his fingers lightly over the stitches, swayed gently with the motion of the bear and let the memory replay in his mind. He pulled resolve from those fateful words. With what was to come, he didn’t know if he’d have another chance to visit old memories.
He remembered.
“When the mountains turn blue, it’s as cold as it gets.” Derek said with a laugh and twisted the top off a bottle of Coors Light.
He handed it to the gangly teenager sitting beside him on the bank of the Mississippi River. The soft gurgle of the slow-moving river was hypnotic and was the perfect spot to unwind after a hard day.
“Go ahead. I won’t tell.” Derek clinked his bottle against Cody’s, and then took a long pull. He smacked his lips and uttered an ahh.
Cody took a tentative sip. Ugh. The first swallow of his first beer went down hard. Burned his throat and the carbonation tickled his nose. He pressed the cold bottle against the black eye he was sporting.
Derek grinned at the look on the boy’s face. “The second one goes down a lot smoother.”
He was right. The second swallow did. By the fourth swallow the bottle was near empty and Cody decided beer was a good thing. He felt the warmth of his first alcohol buzz as it dulled the throbbing in his split lip and bruised eye. He let out a hearty belch and sighed.
Derek pulled himself another one from the cooler.
“You good?” He asked the boy.
Cody nodded. He was already in enough trouble and showing up drunk would only make it worse. He felt mighty fine from the beer though. If only he wasn’t dreading the impending doom his mom was sure to visit on him over his three-day suspension from school.
Derek watched the boy out of the corner of
his eye. He’d had it rough in his short life but he was a good kid. His father was gone, he’d lost his life on the job as a fireman. The insurance settlement was a joke and his mom worked eighty hours a week to make ends meet. The boy had practically been raised by his surrogate family at the zoo.
“Buddy, I know I’m not your dad, but there’s things a young man needs to know, and your mom asked me to talk to you.” Derek flicked the wheel on the US Coast Guard engraved lighter, then snapped the lid shut. He didn’t smoke but always carried it. It had some special meaning for him that he’d never shared with anyone. He sat silent for a moment and gathered his thoughts.
Cody stared out across the river, slightly embarrassed. Was this gonna be the birds and the bees talk? He was a teenager, he already knew about that stuff. Had Mom recruited Derek to break the news to him that she was shipping him off to reform school for fighting and being a troublemaker?
“You’re at that awkward point in life. Not really a boy anymore, but not a man either. Not sure where you fit in the world or if you fit at all. But today, you did the right thing. Standing up for that other kid took courage.”
“Yeah, but I got my ass kicked.” Cody muttered.
His pride hurt more than his injuries. Mom had made him leave the principal’s office while she talked to them. Well, maybe talked was an understatement. He’d heard her icy, angry voice directed at the school administrators but couldn’t make out the words. She’d slammed the door on the way out of the office and hadn’t said anything to him on the drive. She surprised him by taking him to the zoo and not home to be loaded down with extra chores and grounding him for the next five years. She’d simply parked the car, spoke to Derek for a moment then walked to her office.
“What did you expect? Three on one is never a fair fight.” Derek chuckled. “Don’t let it get you down. No shame in getting your ass kicked when you are fighting for what’s right.”
“Mom is going to murder me and ground me forever.” Cody said forlornly.
She was probably going to take his Xbox away for a year.
Derek raised an eyebrow at him. “You might be surprised. Murder you? I doubt it. Ground you, possibly. But even if she does, it’s not the end of the world. Before you know it, you’ll be out of high school and off to college chasing girls and going to keggers. You’ll be making your own way in the world and all this stuff you’re feeling now will just be a memory, if you even remember it at all.” Derek said.
Cody nodded, unsure.
“But, doing all that and turning eighteen don’t make you a man. That’s something you gotta earn. You follow me?”
Cody shrugged.
“What I mean is, it ain’t easy. Every decision you make has a consequence. Every choice means something and sometimes every choice is a bad one, but you still gotta choose. Deep down you had to know they were gonna win, but you couldn’t stand by and do nothing either.” Derek paused. “I’m proud of you kid.”
Cody watched the beads of perspiration slide down the nearly empty bottle. Why had he stuck his nose in it? He didn’t even know that kid. It just pissed him off when he walked in the locker room and saw the three football players with the much smaller boy jammed up against the lockers.
“Life happens fast. I remember when your mom first started bringing you to the sanctuary. You were all snot nosed and toddling around. Trying to eat the animal’s food and getting into everything. Now look at you. Damn near six-foot-tall and breaking all the girl’s hearts. Enjoy it pal, before you know it, you’ll be an old man like me, and those girls won’t be so easy to get.” Derek tousled his hair.
Cody punched him in the shoulder. He was barely thirteen and had no idea what to say to a girl even if he got up the nerve to talk to one. Derek loved to tease him about girls because he knew he was scared to death of the fairer sex.
“You ever made a bad decision?” Cody asked him seriously.
“Yeah, I did, and people got hurt. A couple even died. I carry that every day in my heart. It was back in my military days, but it feels like yesterday. Thing is, I wouldn’t forget it even if I could.”
Cody let that sink in.
“Why?” He asked.
“You can’t really appreciate the good things until you survive the bad ones. Knowing how to win isn’t near as important as knowing how to lose. Somebody knocks you down, you get back up. You keep getting up no matter how many times they knock you down. You may lose anyway but you won’t have any problem looking in the mirror at yourself, because you didn’t quit. Those lessons you learn from failure shape your way of thinking so you don’t make the same mistakes again. Listen to me, your mom might be hard on you, but that’s because she loves you. She wants you to understand that real life mistakes have real life consequences. She’s probably not gonna tell you this, but she’s proud of you for taking a stand against those guys. I never met him, but I’ve heard stories about your dad and I really believe he would be proud too. I’d hate to have been in that office when she unloaded on the principal.”
Cody smiled. The effort hurt his busted lip. He could imagine Mr. Bracewell, the principal, all red faced and looking like a gold fish that’d jumped out his aquarium, gasping for air as he flopped on the linoleum. His mom could be a real fireball when her buttons were pushed.
“All I’m really trying to say buddy is that life ain’t fair. You gotta roll with the punches, but don’t compromise your values. You got suspended for doing what was right but I bet those guys don’t miss a single game. The world makes excuses and allowances for the privileged but throws the book at the regular guys like you and me. There’s no justice in that. There are always gonna be bullies. There’s always gonna be people that judge you by your looks or the brand name of your clothes. Truth is, none of that matters. What matters is that you lay down at night knowing you did your best and gave it your all. You hold the line for those that can’t. You could have walked away today and that pretty face wouldn’t be all skinned up, but you didn’t. You took a stand. You did what a real man would do. It’s ok to be scared. It’s normal to want to run when the odds are against you. I’ve known too many people that turned a blind eye to things they could have prevented and I wonder how they live with it. I don’t know what your future holds, but I’m pretty sure you will meet it head on. I’m proud of you and I’ll take a friend like you any day in my corner.” Derek flicked the Zippo again and snapped it shut.
“What’s the deal with that?” Cody asked him. “You always do that thing with the lighter when you’re trying to be serious.”
“That, my friend is a story for another time.” Derek handed him the lighter. “It belonged to someone who I owe a debt I can never repay. I want you to hold onto it for a while. It’s good luck. I ain’t giving it to you, so don’t get all mushy on me. It’s just a loaner until I ask for it back. You cool with that?”
Cody nodded. “Thanks. I’ll take good care of it.”
“Alright then. Let’s go see what your mom has lined up for us.” Derek stood and dusted off his pants. He put an arm around Cody’s shoulders as they walked towards the zoo.
Kodiak snapped back to the present. His hand drifted to his pocket where the old Zippo rested against his hip. Derek’s words echoed through his mind. It was time. Time to make that stand. Time to end this, once and for all.
His physical wounds hurt but they would heal. Bruises, contusions, bites and gouges from sharp claws covered his body. No doubt there would be more scars. More of the roadmap of old healed wounds that crisscrossed his body. The wounds in his heart would never heal, though. That pain was too raw and too deep. Too new. He couldn’t process it, didn’t know how to process it and he didn’t have time to properly grieve. Grieving would have to wait until after the blood spilling was done.
He felt the power rippling through Otis as the bear padded along and tried to draw strength from his giant friend.
I’m coming Gordon. This time though, only one of us is walking away.
1
Late May
8 Months After the Outbreak
Kodiak
The winter snows had finally melted. The days became warmer and the fierce northwestern winds ceased their howling as spring gained its foothold in the forgotten corner of the world that encompassed the Piedmont Animal Sanctuary. The nights stayed cool, but the days grew progressively warmer and longer as the calendar inched towards summer and the new challenges that waited for the tribe.
Nestled in the northeastern corner of Iowa, the Sanctuary was off the beaten path, miles from the nearest freeway. It was a destination location that drew crowds from around the States but it was also one of those places that if you weren’t looking for it, you probably wouldn’t find it by accident. That was fine with the tribe. They didn’t want to be found. They were safe and isolated and that suited them just fine.
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