Hungry Series_Book 1_Hungry_Origins of Red

by L. H. Tide

  The driver grabbed the gun near him and raised it, pulling the trigger. He shot the bony white hand, cutting its thumb.

  Without its opposable thumb, the hand lost partially its grip, and his wife was able to free her own. The painful sound of the gun reverberated in the metallic car for many seconds, making the three humans wince.

  She slammed the door on the wrist of the hand.

  Then she goggled at the bony forearm. It had resisted, hindering the closing of the door.

  The woman slammed more brutally the car door, and at last it closed, emitting a mixed sound of cracking bone and metallic noise.

  The hand of the living dead was separated from the forearm by the shock, and fell on the floor. Lying on its back, its fingers up, it began to shake nervously. The four remaining bony fingers moved erratically in the air, as if they wanted to seize something. The daughter and the mother watched it, clearly disgusted.

  Finally, after a few spasms, it remained immobile. But they both continued to feel stressed by it, thinking about stories they had heard, about zombie parts remaining active, even years later…

  A new gunshot startled them, making them jerk involuntarily. Looking at the father, they saw that another creature had been shot by him. It had been shot in an eye, replacing it with a big hole, showing a small tunnel through the skull. With what remained of its brain being destroyed, the undead fell on the ground, letting access to others behind it, which had been pushing. They remained immobile for many seconds, watching once again with avidity the passengers, inside the car, through the now accessible breach. While darkness was approaching slowly, and the group was gazing at them silently, the trio had a strange impression.

  Obscurity fell all of a sudden on them. They tried to see something through the dark, the windows of the car covered with frost, but couldn’t see anything.

  Strange metallic sounds came from everywhere, and the small girl and her mother looked anxiously everywhere around them.

  All of a sudden, an avalanche of poundings were heard on the windows and on the car doors. Some silhouettes of worrying creatures, hardly visible, like an indistinct and morbid shadow puppetry show, could be seen through the windows.

  They were surrounded and they were trapped… They felt hair-raising fear, while desperately looking for a way to escape.

  The man screamed, and his wife and daughter saw the hands of the group which had approached plunging in his wounds, wetting their bony, sharp-fingered hands, becoming wet with his blood. Some of them lucky enough to still have a tongue licked their hands, as if it was sugar, completely excited.

  The driver shot another bullet in the closest zombie’s head, making the thing fall back and fall once again on the others. Looking in front of him while the pain had diminished a little, the driver saw a big branch of the tree in front of them. It was probably broken because of the shock, and it was spread on the windscreen. It gave him an idea.

  Growls were coming from all around them. He looked up and shouted to his wife, to be sure to be heard by her, "There's a thick branch hanging down from the tree, pass through the sunroof, and climb with her onto the tree!"

  The woman looked up too, seeing with relief that no creature was on it. She looked her husband in the eye and he smiled at her. A trickle of blood fell on the side of his mouth, and he said, "Give me what I deposited in the glove box, and get out of here. Please."

  More tears inundated her eyes while she obeyed, extracting something out of the cluttered box and putting it in his extended hand.

  As she was quickly opening the sliding roof he said, "I love you… I love both of you."

  She looked at him, and, after swallowing hard, and murmured painfully; "I know."

  She then began climbing through the opening and, once she was sitting on the roof, grabbed her light daughter by one of her arms. The kid was lifted up off the backseat.

  She shouted "Daddy!" as her father sadly watched her, smiling with difficulty at her.

  He murmured, "Go, honey..."

  When the little red-haired girl joined her mother on the roof, with her backpack, they were both horrified.

  Not only by their surroundings…

  But also by the silence. No bird could be heard. Not the slightest noise or movement in the woods that could be discerned by the ear.

  And a mass of zombies around them was silently observing them, as they were sitting on their vulnerable platform.

  The little girl and her mother looked around at all those rotten faces, eyeballs mixed with worms, sometimes hanging out of an orbit. Some of them showed horrible wounds on their faces, because of the contagious bites of living dead, when they had still been frightened, fleeing humans.

  The creatures didn't move, as if they were fascinated to see two such prey, presented to them as on a platter.

  The only sound which could be perceived was the rustle of leaves in the flow and ebb of the wind.

  But this relative silence couldn't be eternal….

  One of the zombies, an almost beautiful looking woman with red eyes and with some parts of the forehead of her skull apparent, growled. She opened a gaping mouth, vomiting old, dark blood and grunting at the same time.

  As if it was a signal, the whole group roared and walked as a whole toward them. Opening wide and horrified eyes, the woman lifted her daughter and pushed her against the hanging branch, saying, "Hold tight and climb!"

  The girl obeyed, grabbing the branch with her little hands, lifted even more by her mother. There was an assembly of undead uniting around them, with dozens of hands trying to grab them. Her mother stood up, cautiously. She was trying everything she could to maintain her balance, and to avoid falling into the arms of the things. She looked up at her daughter, who continued to climb, and reached an adjacent, intact branch of the tree.

  Full of hope after seeing that, the mother began to climb on the big hanging branch too, her big, blue coat restricting the movements of her legs.

  A new gunshot startled her and, looking down, she saw that some of the creatures were continuing to fight with her husband, and that he had just shot another one. It stood uneasily on its feet, its head tilted back, the hole of the bullet having made a big cavity through which she could see the ground behind, or more precisely, under it. The zombie finally fell back on the ground like a puppet having its strings cut. It then remained immobile, its empty eyes wide open.

  A rotten hand grabbed one of her feet and retained her. She screamed as she saw many others trying to touch her other foot.

  Luckily, the shoe fell and, now in part barefoot, she freed herself and began to climb higher on the branch, while more and more hands were trying to reach her.

  She had now almost joined her daughter on the solid branch on which she was sitting.

  All of a sudden, the woman felt a force pull her down.

  If she hadn't been hanging by her hands to the dangling branch, she would have fallen back. Her feet hurt so much that she had the impression that they were being severed. Looking behind and under her, she saw that a tall zombie with long, blond disheveled hair, wearing a working suit, was kneeling on the roof of the car, and had grabbed her by the calves, pulling now even harder. She tried to resist, but the thing was powerful. Her foot still wearing a shoe was lower than the barefoot one, and arrived at the level of the creature's disfigured face.

  It opened its mouth, showing yellow teeth that it plunged in the shoe.

  The woman screamed. It was as if her foot was crushed on both sides in a trap for the wolves, while the tissue of the snicker was torn apart, the zombie emitting a growling of satisfaction. The pain made her hook on the weakened branch, and she began to go down.

  Something passed by vertically from up to down, in front of her eyes. She had the surprise to see that it was a kind of little glowing star, which had fallen from over her. Its path finished on the creature's head, and she saw that it was a lighted match. Its dirty hair was probably very dry, because it ignited almost immediately!
The mother looked up and saw that her daughter was holding a matchbox.

  The living dead opened its mouth, releasing the shoe, and began to shout, with a cry which was one looking like something between a human being's and an animal's. Animated by a will to survive, despite the usual slowness of its reactions, it tried, clumsily, to extinguish the fire with its hands. It was useless and its head looked like a torch, now. The thing fell off the roof of the car, rolling on the ground in the dirt, clearly motivated by a conservation instinct. The other living dead retreated, apparently afraid because of the fire, which was extending now on the dry face of the thing which was twitching at their feet. Quickly, the flames began to cover its body and devour its whole body while it was howling, its usually senseless body seeming to feel pain again, probably after a very long time.

  All of a sudden the trembling body was completely engulfed in the flames.

  Then it literally exploded in a mix of blinding light and thunder.

  Small body parts fled everywhere and the woman and her daughter turned their heads, to avoid receiving some of them in their faces.

  Silence came back, and the two humans looked back where the creature had been lying.

  The mother had heard stories about how the living dead were so much more flammable, compared to normal humans, and how sometimes they exploded. Some scientists had theorized that it was because their rotting flesh provoked an accumulation of explosive methane in their tissues.

  Nonetheless, while the woman had got rid of a zombie, many others were waiting for their turn to come!

  Indeed, after having been frightened by the fire, the remaining creatures turned again their attention to her.

  She screamed when a dense mass of hands tried to grab her, making her do a last effort to climb along the pending branch. She arrived at her daughter’s level. The child was still sitting on the strong branch. She had stowed in her little backpack the matchbox, finding it useless, after seeing the impressive number of zombies under them.

  Now, extending a hand, the little red-haired girl reached out to help her. The woman took it in hers, grateful.

  A new pull came from under her and almost made both of them fall.

  Looking back and under her, she saw that an undead woman had seized her two feet. The woman opened an avid mouth full of moving worms, and emitted a kind of growl of satisfaction, the offering of the tender toes tempting it.

  The mother shook violently her feet, losing her bitten shoe and freeing herself. Looking up, she observed with fear that her daughter was losing her stability on her branch, and so she decided to do what she considered to be the best thing she could do: she released her child's hand.

  "No!" the little girl shouted, steadying herself while watching one of her mother’s feet be seized by the zombie woman. This lowered her and the pending branch, now within range of the whole group of undead.

  "Mom!"

  The voice of her child made the woman shiver. Watching a bunch of hands reaching for her, she swallowed hard while hearing their roars of delight.

  ***

  Diversion

  Suddenly she heard a big metallic sound. It attracted the attention of the creatures as well as hers. They saw that the driver's door had been wide opened, and had hit a nearby rock. A male voice, with pain in it, that she easily recognized, shouted, "Come on, dinner is served, freaks!"

  The living dead crowd abandoned her to swoop down on this much more accessible prey, which was at their level. They all tried to get in the car, fighting, pushing through the open door while the woman stood up on the roof, clinging on the pending branch.

  Finally, it gave way because of her weight, and fell.

  It was so like an electroshock that she was able to jump and reach the other, robust branch. On it was still sitting her daughter, in an unbalanced position.

  They heard gunfire again. Looking down, they understood that it had come from the car, underneath, which was literally stormed by the mob.

  In the car, now rocking because of the pressure of the things’ bodies, another living dead, a big hole in its head, its eyes even emptier than usual of any soul, sank down near the driver. Its now flaccid corpse was pressed from behind by others, relentlessly. Finally, it fell completely on the grassy ground, giving at last access to the lonely man.

  The latter aimed his gun at an approaching bald and fat zombie wearing a dirty suit, with what had been once a white jacket and a dark tie. Concentrating its attention toward its nearby ilk, it grabbed the other, lighter zombies. It balanced their animated corpses at the tree trunk, making them knock their heads against the hard wooden surface.

  Then, looking again at him, it opened its mouth, showing its rotten yellow teeth, and approached him. The driver aimed the gun at the head and pressed the gun.

  'Click'.

  He had run out of bullets, and the thing was falling down on him.

  Immediately, the human turned his attention to something on the passenger's seat on his right, and he manipulated it.

  A big pain on his left side made him shout and tilt his head back.

  Looking down with difficulty, he saw that the bald zombie's head was gnawing him! The fat undead was plunging its teeth in one of his blood soaked, protruding ribs.

  It tore a little chunk of flesh, making him scream again because of the pain.

  The morphine he had taken diminished pain, but it did have its limits. It made him see the world, and the zombies around him, bathed in a strange, multicolored haze.

  He saw that, at his level, the bald zombie's head had turned toward him, and was watching him, flesh and blood between its bloody teeth. It made the human angry, almost forgetting his suffering, while he heard the right door being hit. He lifted his discharged gun and beat the nose of the bald undead with his weapon’s butt.

  The broken nose literally exploded because of the impact, splashing blood on him, making him squint. Disgusted, he took the object beside him and worked on it. The bald zombie, a skull-like hole in his face, growled at him, many seconds passing by.

  The right door opened suddenly and another living dead, with a dark face and long, disheveled hair, leapt inside the car. Before the man could do anything, the newly arrived creature took his head between its two bony hands.

  It opened a gaping mouth, ready to dive its teeth in the flesh of his neck. The latter, putting his hands against the upper part of the face of the thing, resisted its pressure, avoiding the nauseating approach of the smelling jaw.

  Two other rotten hands immobilized the driver's head and, via his peripheral vision, he recognized the bald zombie whose nose he had disintegrated, approaching with its open mouth too.

  The long-haired living dead roared at the other, which roared back. The driver, whose head was blocked, his eyes looking at the left or the right, watched the two creatures fighting for the right to devour him the first. Their future victim was impressed by the sounds they made, they no more had anything human. Their growls, he told himself, were, strangely, beginning to look like songs. The man was astonished, but finally understood that it was because of the effects of the drug, which was continuing to flow through his bloodstream. The growls and roars were now becoming harsher and deafening.

  The long-haired one won by opening a huge mouth, which made the other one move back.

  It emitted a growl of a kind of plaintive disagreement, and recoiled. Proof that there was a pecking order, even among the living dead.

  The winning zombie turned again its attention to the man. The latter, his head a bit more mobile since now only one zombie had its hands on it, watched the rotten teeth. And the driver smiled, blood flowing down the corners of his mouth.

  "Eat this!"

  Having screamed that, the man had inserted something inside the thing’s mouth. The zombie watched him with anger in its eyes, while a grenade, with the pin out, was protruding out of his mouth. The man, who was suffering more now, because of the diminishing effects of the morphine, was nevertheless able
to smile at the creature.

  He lifted his left hand in front of the zombie's eyes and showed, between his index finger and his thumb, the metallic, missing hinge pin.

  Everything disappeared when it detonated in a white flash.

  The living dead on both sides of the opened doors were thrown back by the explosion.

  The explosion inside the car beneath them both startled the mother and the daughter. It caused the woman to release the branch and lose her balance.

  She sought to cling to the branch but missed it, and fell.

  The little girl saw her mother fall back toward the ground, facing upwards toward her, while screaming. It seemed to be like a slow nightmare, the terrified child shrieking as the woman she loved the most on Earth was plunging, her hands pointing toward her daughter, as if she was trying to grab her.

  The slow motion ended abruptly when the back of the head of the woman hit brutally a big rock.

  Her arms and legs had a last convulsive movement after the shock and finally ceased to move.

  She then remained immobile.

  The little red-haired girl watched her mother lying motionless in the grass on her back, arms and legs forming the shape of a cross.

  The eyes of the woman were wide open, as if she was still surprised. They were now devoid of any trace of life, pointing toward the sky, whose blue color was darkening ever more.

  The crying little girl heard growls coming from around the car, which was burning now, as its interior was engulfed in flames. Growls of frustration, of anger…

  The grunts approached, and the growls of frustration left room for little yelps of contentment, like those of dogs. The girl saw a group of living dead assembling now around her mother's corpse, watching it intensely. The child observed the scene, guessing inwardly, and much too clearly, what was going to happen, but unable to accept it consciously.

  Suddenly the creatures leapt in unison toward the body like a flock of vultures. Quickly they hid it under their mass.

  "Nooooo!!!" the little girl screamed, tears flowing abundantly down her speckled cheeks.