Hungry Series_Book 1_Hungry_Origins of Red

by L. H. Tide

  That's when she realized that he was now standing near her, having approached her stealthily. With a soft voice, tinted with an accent coming from the Far East, he said to her, "You can't do anything for your parents anymore, but you can respect what would have been their wish: find shelter for yourself with us, at the Community. It’s an impregnable fortress."

  Despite being smaller, compared to his companions wearing military-type clothes, she sensed inside the old man, not only a powerful mind, but also an indestructible self-confidence. Their gaze met and she felt that she could trust him. She put her little hand in his, and let him pull her toward a nearby clearing.

  They followed the footsteps of the other two men, who had begun to run, as growls behind them became louder. All four joined an odd looking vehicle: it was a van, with metallic grilles covering all its windows. Arriving in front of a sliding door on the side of the vehicle, the big man named Harry slid it open with a powerful push and yelled, "Jump inside, quick!"

  The Asiatic swiftly leapt inside, leading the child who, in a kind of odd state, followed like a robot. The young black guy joined them, breathing heavily because of the run.

  The big guy leapt inside and, turning around, began to slide back the door of the vehicle.

  That’s when it jammed.

  The black man winced while making a great effort to make the door slide again. It was old and rusty, and didn't move anymore. Just at that moment a band of zombies wearing rags arrived, roaring like panthers pursuing their prey.

  Suddenly, because of the pressure, the door finally slid and Harry chuckled while, at last, he realized that he was able to close it. He yelled, "Adios, freaks!"

  Using both of his powerful hands on an internal door handle, he pushed it harder to close it completely.

  That's when a long-haired living dead blocked the door by inserting itself. Through the narrow passage, it had inserted itself between the door and the metallic side of the vehicle.

  The black colossus roared with anger while pushing with all his strength. The door was completely closed and the creature was crushed in the middle. Its pelvis fell on the ground outside with its cut spine, while the upper part fell on the metallic floor of the vehicle. The creature began to move spasmodically in all the directions on the rusty floor of the vehicle, in the middle of the group. It was as if it was having an epileptic crisis. The giant yelled to the others, "Get back!"

  He then screamed out in pain.

  "Dad!" yelled the younger black guy with horrified eyes. The upper part of the zombie had reached one of the giant’s calves, and was munching it, its mouth full of blood, while holding his leg with its white and bony hands. Blood flowed on the floor while Harry yelled again, wincing with his head up, because of the excruciating pain.

  Before the Asian could react, the little girl seized the sword out of his hand and sliced the neck of the thing. The beheaded body, which had been lying on the floor on its side, fell on its back, its hands having freed the calf of the big black guy, who moaned now. He looked down with disgust at the head, which was still attached to his leg, its jaw literally ingrained in the powerful muscle of his calf, his blood continuing to flow onto his shoe. The Asiatic man looked at the little girl who, watching this bloody scene without any apparent emotion on her face, now remained silent and immobile. She still had he heavy sword in her little hands, hanging downward, its sharp point supported on the tmetallic floor of the van. He was astonished, and said to himself, What a huge amount of energy… generated by hatred?But quickly, he quit his thoughts.

  He yelled at her, "Give me that back!" and swiftly snatched he weapon out of her hands. He then turned around and planted the point of the long blade in the skull of the living dead, producing a horrible cracking sound. He left the blade inserted in the head for a few seconds, and then suddenly extracted it, emitting another crack. The mouth of the head opened instantly, as if a peculiar nerve had been deactivated.

  It fell, rolling on the ground, freeing the wounded calf. It went rolling farther on the other side of the vehicle, making the people inside tense, fearing being bitten too.

  Finally, it stopped, its bony skull-like face toward them, its orbits full of blood, which trickled down its bony cheeks. Its opened jaw closed slowly, emitting faint cracking sounds, and finally it shut completely. The head then remained completely immobile.

  The wounded colossus, and the young man, smaller and less muscular, who seemed to be his son, looked at the impressive hole made by the jaws in his calf.

  “Shit!” exclaimed Harry who was sweating, disgusted by the gory scene.

  They were all suddenly shaken in all directions, while they heard the roar of an engine. The girl, quitting her strange state of mind, thought that there was a driver who was trying to get them all out of this anteroom of Hell.

  She saw the young black man kneel down near his father's leg, a can now in one hand. With a lot of caution, he projected a beige, liquid-like substance on the wound with the little spray can, covering it quickly. The contact of the substance with the painful wound made his father shout again, but she was even more impressed to see that the substance had completely stopped the bleeding. It seemed to diminish the pain too, since the big guy stopped yelling and, after sighing once, became completely silent.

  His son finally attached a piece of white tissue around the calf. His father grimaced a bit, but didn't push him away. He just did what he could to maintain his balance, by leaning against one of the metallic walls of the back of the rocking van.

  A sound of breaking glass startled them all. Looking in the direction where it had come from, they looked back at the only window not protected by a grid; a small window. It had been broken, and they saw a rotten hand coming inside, trying to grab something… or someone…

  The young black guy shouted, anger visible on his face, and he leapt toward the broken window. He aimed his rifle despite the movements of the van and shot the hand, making a hole in it. The deafening sound of the shot reverberated inside the metallic vehicle, making the people inside wince because of the ear pain. The hand with its smoking hole continued to move, and the young man shot it again.

  This new gunshot resonated with the precedent one, and made the noise environment in the van even more deafening, unbearable.

  The still moving hand of the living dead surprised the young man by grabbing the shotgun barrel. This made the young man lose his balance, the jarring shakes of the vehicle not helping him.

  He shot again, deafening all of them again and shouted, "I'll have the head of that motherfucker, I’ll have it!"

  The Asiatic man whose head throbbed now with pain, because of the intense sound, leapt and seized the weapon out of his hands, shouting with vigor, "Enough!"

  "It's my rifle!" the young black guy yelled, looking with anger at the impassive man's face, who was looking him in the eyes.

  "Enough, kid!" intervened his father, who held the handkerchief on his wound while scowling at him. He added, "You know, like me, that ammunition is scarce, nowadays..."

  Suddenly, he stopped speaking. The young man felt uneasy, as he realized that his father was failing. The big black man lost his balance and fell heavily on the metallic floor, adding to the remaining reverberation of the shotgun. His eyes closed and he passed out.

  "Dad!" the young man yelled while joining his father who, his face abundantly sweating, was lying on the floor.

  The engine roared even more, and the van was shaken more brutally than ever.

  Letting father and son alone, behind, with the mute little girl, the Asiatic walked with difficulty, because of the bumps, toward the front end of the vehicle. There he joined the driver, who had all his attention on the road. He was a young, serious-looking blond guy with an athletic body, and he was trying to push the vehicle through a mob of living dead. These were all extending their hands toward the vehicle, resisting its movement. It was almost as if the van had to navigate through a stream of desiccated living dead.

>   They tried to smash the windshield with their fists, but it was useless, thanks to the metallic grille in front of it. The Asiatic man stood behind the driver, holding on to the backrest of the blond man’s seat The old Asian asked, with a slight Japanese accent, "How are you doing with the driving, Bo?"

  "I'm trying to get us through all this zombie-sea."

  The old man nodded without any emotion, despite the almost funny metaphor. He calmly took his sword in his hand and wiped its blade with a paper handkerchief, dark blood staining it. He resumed, "I understand, Boris... but can't you get us all out of here quickly? Harry’s wounded, he needs medical assistance."

  “Really?” asked the young man, looking at him.

  The old man simply nodded affirmatively.

  Concentrating his attention again on what he saw through the windshield, the driver gritted his teeth and accelerated again.

  The mass of zombies in front of them resisted the vehicle's pressure once again.

  Angry, the young man shouted, and crushed the gas pedal.

  This made the engine roar and the vehicle leap ahead.

  The momentum of the van split the mob like Moses obtaining the divide of the Red Sea, and at last they were free. They heard cracking sounds coming from under the vehicle, because of the broken bones of the creatures which had fallen under the tires. Very soon, they saw no more living dead, only the rows of trees on the sides of the very poorly maintained road. Relieved at last of the stress, the young driver sighed. "So, Harry's wounded?" the young man asked, looking at the Asian. The latter didn’t answer, preferring to watch the flow of trees passing by, almost hypnotically. The young driver named Bo was intrigued, and continued, "How bad is it? What happened to Harry?"

  "He's been bitten." the old man finally answered, his expression serious.

  "Bitten? What's happened is ugly, I loved that poor guy!” The old man looked knowingly at him, but said nothing.

  "Don't speak about him as if he's already dead!" The voice of the young black guy had erupted.

  Startled by the shouting, the driver lost control of the van while it was initiating a sharp turn. The brakes shrieked as the blond guy tried to slow down the vehicle in the turn, but it was too late!

  The van began to lean to one side and the driver, fighting with the steering wheel, shouted, "My God, we're riding on only two wheels, we're going to roll over!"

  “Swerve in the other direction,” the Asiatic man shouted even louder.

  The driver obeyed and, miraculously, a few seconds later, he understood that the vehicle may not roll over. The little girl had arrived behind them with the young black teen and his tottering father, who was wincing because of the pain. She instinctively grabbed with both hands one of the arms of the driver's chair to retain her balance, and watched the scene wide-eyed.

  What she felt, while fighting to keep her balance and while looking through the windshield, wasn't reassuring…

  The world seemed oblique, as the young driver tried to control the trajectory of the vehicle, shaving closely the branches of big trees, similar to the one which she and her parents had hit, earlier, with their car. Will everyone finally die today? She couldn’t avoid this thought.

  "Hold on!" the driver shouted, making her quit her dark thoughts.

  Swerving brutally once again, he made the van reach an angle closer to a normal, horizontal position. All of them were now tense, awaiting the brutal shock which would shake them all when the two right-handed wheels landed heavily on the road.

  The bump shook them even harder than she had imagined, making her lose her balance.

  She fell luckily on her back on the passenger's seat, surprising the driver.

  Startled, he braked and abruptly stopped the vehicle, shaking everyone inside a last time.

  The engine shut down. Worried, the young blond driver looked at the little red-haired girl and asked, "Are you OK?"

  "Yes," the girl answered, a strange impassivity on her face while she was looking back at him. She sensed, with her edge to edge far vision, that the old Asiatic was watching her in the same impassive way. Analyzing her.

  She slowly, cautiously, stood up. Reassured to see that she was fine, the driver smiled and turned the ignition key to re-start the engine.

  They only heard the starter, which emitted a plaintive, nerve-wracking sound. The dashboard was briefly lighted, and briskly went off again.

  He turned the ignition key again, but with the same result. Finally, the people in the van looked at each other. An insecure mood was accumulating inside the van.

  They suddenly heard bloodcurdling vocals. The driver uselessly turned the key again while looking in the right-hand side mirror.

  “They're coming!” he shouted, as he saw worrying silhouettes emerging out of the woods. They were approaching slowly, but surely.

  Sweat trickling down his forehead, the blond young man again tturned he ignition key.

  This time there was an awful mechanical sound and, suddenly, nothing.

  The dashboard flickered…

  And then became completely dark.

  “You’ve completely flooded the engine, Bo!” the young black guy yelled at him, scowling at the young blond as if he wanted to kill him.

  The young black man turned around when he felt that his father had put his hand on his shoulder, and felt bad when he realized that he was looking coldly and disapproving at him. Turning his head to run away from his father’s hard stare he sensed the same in the glare of the old Asian, who was watching him too. After all, they were right. Bo did everything he could, and didn’t need to feel even more guilt. Roars and growls attracted the passengers’ attention and they saw hellish faces of the dead, scratching the side windows.

  The handles of the shut doors were shaken.

  "Fucking electronics!” the guy named Bo shouted, punching the dash with both fists.

  The dashboard ignited suddenly, and the driver, aghast, nervously turned the ignition key while crushing the gas pedal. The engine awakened at last and the vehicle leapt, almost making the people behind the driver lose their balance. The comforting view of the silhouettes disappearing on both sides, and the letting go of the handles, improved the atmosphere inside the van.

  A metallic noise grabbed the attention of the passengers. The young black guy looked closer at the right-side window, from where the sound had come.

  Two hideous eyes appeared and an animal roar made him shiver and get back.

  "Hey, what the fuck?" the young man shouted, frowning. Looking closer, they saw that it was a female zombie. The creature was suspended from the right-side mirror, and, its bony hands grabbing onto it, the thing was being dragged by the vehicle.

  The long-haired creature looked at them, its skull-like face showing protruding yellowish eyeballs, with their blood vessels reddish and dilated. The thing looked at them with avidity, and opened a huge mouth without lips or flesh. They all became tense as it growled like a panther, preparing to pounce on them.

  The branch of a tree beat it in its ugly face and it fell, the right-side mirror remaining in its hand because of the shock. Reassured, the humans saw now, through the windows, only a deserted wood, and trees passing by as the vehicle gained some speed.

  They looked at each other and, suddenly, laughed in unison. The little girl lost her disturbing calm and, relieved after all this stress, giggled too.

  While the blond guy named Bo continued to drive with enthusiasm, her attention was caught by something.

  Through the windscreen and its rusty protective grille she saw a dome appearing over the horizon.

  The Asiatic man knelt near her, his head level with hers, and said calmly, "That's already what one can see of the Community. Your new home." She turned around and their gaze met for a few seconds. Then, as impassive as him, she returned her attention toward the dome, which was visibly becoming bigger every second, as they approached.

  It was illuminated from the inside by what seemed to be public lightin
g. Squinting her eyes, she discerned inside the dome, through glass panels inserted on a grid on its surface, many rectangular buildings.

  "Blue patrol to the Community," the driver shouted into the microphone of a CB radio, over the vehicle's dashboard. "We have an injured man in need of urgent medical help; please prepare an emergency team before we arrive!"

  The young driver fell silent and smiled timidly at the two black people that he could see in the rear-view mirror. They didn’t respond, visibly pissed off at him. Like all the others, they preferred to remain silent, while watching the impressive scene of the giant dome through the windscreen.

  The group was especially satisfied to come back alive, with some exceptions... The young black guy, worried, took a discreet peek at his father. The latter was sitting on the metallic floor and sweating, the handkerchief on his calf red, despite the special liquid bandage. The black colossus appeared blank, clearly depressed.

  ***

  Community

  The little red-haired girl rescued before being devoured by zombies, discovers her new home, the Community.

  The small van slowed down while approaching one of the high walls surrounding the dome of the Community. The little girl watched the structure, fascinated, observing what looked like many high watchtowers on its frame. Something moved on top of one of the towers, and they were all suddenly dazzled by a powerful beam of light. Wincing while trying to see through the dirty windshield, the child saw that the beam was coming from a huge mobile projector. It was moving, following automatically their vehicle’s every movement. She saw that other beams were coming from the other watchtowers, sweeping the dark surroundings at ground level. Finally, the van stopped, the now immobile beam continuing to illuminate it. Getting used to the intensity of the light, the little girl realized that they were at the foot of really gigantic, cyclopean walls. That’s when she perceived another movement and, in the rather dark zone just in front of them, she saw a vertical slit of light appear. The slit progressively became larger and larger, resembling more, now, an enlarging rectangle, until she understood what she was watching. Double swing doors, huge and metallic, in front of them, were slowly opening outwards, revealing, through the gap between them, an interior space lit by artificial light. All at once, human silhouettes ran through the gap and quickly surrounded the van. The child saw that they were men in battle dress, armed with rifles, and that they were aiming them toward the vehicle. "Don't be afraid, they're friends. Security check." The little girl looked at the driver who had spoken and was now smiling at her, clearly wanting to reassure her. She nodded affirmatively, staying impassive, and turned her attention again to the guards outside. The armed men made a full inspection of the van, obviously vigilant and ready to shoot. One of them stood in front of the vehicle and looked through the windscreen. Suspicious, he stared one by one at each passenger visible through the windshield and its grid. The armed men were clearly ready to shoot at anything non-human which may have taken a ride aboard the vehicle. The child looked at the driver named Bo and the young black guy. They were sweating a bit, and she sensed it was because they may be frightened. This realization made her understand that errors could occur and be accepted here, even collateral losses, as her father had explained to her. He had explained to her that he had seen a friend shoot to death a living man one night. The involuntary murderer had thought that a zombie was leaping out of a shrub to attack him. And the poor guy had felt guilt during his remaining life… which hadn’t lasted very long, by the way… Her parents, she knew, had told her many terribly stories of that kind, not to give her nightmares, but to prepare her to survive in a very, very hard world. She suddenly focused her attention through the windshield, to see what was happening outside. Finally, the man standing in front of the small van, who seemed to be giving orders, made a thumbs-up and, moving to the side, gestured to invite them to enter through the huge doors, which opened now completely. A big smile on his badly shaved face, the blond man stepped enthusiastically on the gas pedal, and at last they entered inside. That's when roars came from everywhere. As soon as the vehicle had passed the gigantic doors, the armed men had run just behind it. Then, the double doors began to slowly close inwards behind them, while growls became louder and louder. Someone yelled and a last guard leapt through the closing gap, losing his rifle on the dirty ground and falling on his belly. In the left-hand mirror, the little red-haired girl saw, behind them, through the gap diminishing between the doors, hundreds of zombies coming out of the nearby bushes, and from behind the many trees. The security section which had let the van enter posted in front of the slowly diminishing gap, and seemed to survey it. Many projectors were now illuminating the scene, with so much intensity that it was as if it was during the day. Just as the doors were going to completely close, she glimpsed hundreds more of the horrific creatures coming from everywhere. They were attracted by the Community like iron to magnets. Mechanical sounds drew the girl’s attention. Looking at the double doors from where the sounds had come, she was impressed by giant hydraulic pistons. These were now completing closing the doors, hiding at last the hellish vision which was outside. She gasped as she saw dozens of hands appear through the now narrow interstice between the doors. Some of them were bony, others were better preserved, but their owners clearly had the same objective: avoiding the closing of the doors and entering the inner courtyard where the humans were. The doors began to slowly open outwards again, provoking a real panic among the guards, who began to aim at the gap and shoot through it. The noise made by the gigantic pistons increased, becoming deafening now. The people inside the van watched them with the child, apprehension visible on their faces. “No!” shouted the young colored guy, opening horrified eyes, as the pistons began to tremble under the immense pressure exerted by the things outside. The mechanical devices, composed of many geared wheels, vibrated while turning, and began emitting smoke. The gap was visibly widening now, and the gunshots of the guards through the gap doubled in frequency, for nothing. “They’re going to enter!” yelled Harry who, unstable on his legs and his rifle in his arms, was ready to go to help them. Fear was apparent on the faces of everyone, apart from the red-haired girl and the Asian man, who watched the scene, impassive. Suddenly a torrent of fire shot at the door, bumping off the metallic doors when it missed the ever-widening gap. Looking upwards, the passengers saw that the fire was coming from a big automatic machinegun on one of the towers, which was spitting fire like hell. Many putrid-looking hands let loose of the door and disappeared through the gap, which was now closing again inwards. The pistons and their mechanisms, now devoid of any smoke, emitted a less dramatic noise and worked without shaking, as the gap was finally closing. The yelling guard who, earlier, had jumped through it, a Hispanic, and who was the closest to the door, stood up and smiled. He turned to his comrades who were behind him and picked his rifle up, clearly satisfied with the way things had gone. Something squeezed itself through the now narrow interstice and leapt toward the guard, who because of the surprise fell on his back and lost his rifle. It was a zombie. This one looking more like a skeleton than all the others she had seen. It stopped immobile over the guard, blocked at its waist-level by the giant closing doors. The living dead was dangling over him, the upper part of its body, with its ribs and spine, visible. It was in a horizontal position over the terrorized man, while its pelvis was caught between the double doors, which were almost closed. The man's comrades watched the scene on both sides, pointing at the creature with their weapons. One of them generated a clicking sound when he loaded his weapon, targeting precisely the head of the thing. Another man shouted at him, "Don't shoot, Antonio is too near, you may hurt him!" The other man refrained from firing, and sighed with frustration. The thing opened a gaping mouth while looking with its empty orbits at the man named Antonio, while the pressure on its captive pelvis continued to increase, its bones beginning to crack. It tried to bend sufficiently down toward the prone man, but was unable to reach him, despite it
s jaws and claw-like bony fingers, at a few centimeters from his sweating face. A cheek on the ground, he viewed the creature from the side. He pressed the side of his face as firmly as possible against the dirty ground. Slowly, he began to crawl on his back, in order to get out of the reach of the undead. The passengers of the van, which was parked, had exited it and were watching the scene with intensity. The young colored man and the blond driver aimed rifles toward the creature, but were also frightened of harming the man. The latter was now almost completely out of the reach of the zombie, which screeched and roared, trying to grab him. "Phew, he's safe!" the driver said, lowering his firearm. That's when a big crack was heard and the pelvis of the creature was completely crushed. This freed its spine and the upper part of the thing with it. It fell on the man's legs. Frightened, he yelled as the creature clung to his agitated legs, crawling on him. It growled excitedly while rising toward his male chest, despite his efforts to repel it. The thing finally came to a standstill over its prey. The empty orbits of its skull seemed to be watching, beneath it, the frightened face of Antonio, who closed his eyes, horrified. It opened a huge mouth, showing its teeth, along with a mix of red-dark mucus and saliva. All of a sudden, its skull plunged toward the yelling man’s face. The head exploded with a boom which startled the little girl as pieces of rotten brain and bones rained on the man's face. He groaned loudly, disgusted, while dark and reddish fluids flew in his eyes, nose, and mouth. He spat and sneezed, wiping his eyes, visibly blinded by the dark fluids. The girl turned around and saw the smoking canon of a rifle near her, aiming at the prone man. Following the shotgun barrel with her gaze, she saw the big black man standing behind her, the weapon in his hands. She looked down and saw that the big man had let the handkerchief fall on the ground, and that blood had begun again to pour out of his ugly wound, despite the special liquid patch. His son followed her gaze and gasped, surprise on his face. He leaned over and attached more strongly the piece of tissue around his calf. The man called Antonio shouted again, making a pout of disgust.