by Poe, S. B.
Ash and Bone
Marionette Zombie Series Book 9
SB Poe
Copyright © 2020 SB Poe
All rights reserved.
DEDICATION
For those we’ve lost
Ash and bone
Book 9
Contents
The Shadow of the Moon
Forever Young
Where the Water Runs
The New Day
Le Cavalier du Cheval
A Return
Into this World
Revelations
The Blind Side
Beside the Dying Fire
Whatever it Takes
Afterword
The Shadow of the Moon
1
Tap. Tap. The deadun’s head snapped towards the glass. The moonlight cast a dull glow over the street outside. Bridger stood in the shadows on the other side of the window. He had seen dozens of the dead, maybe hundreds, he’d lost count, but never really had many chances like this to just look at one. He thought about that night on the bus. It seemed so long ago now. They had all watched the crowd come from the darkness into the glow of the fire. All those dead had looked the same. Almost alive, but not. Their faces were all ashen with sunken cheeks and pale eyes, still dressed in the clothes they died in and mostly, not rotten. This one was different. It’s skin looked like wrinkled leather. The face had drawn tight against the skull and he could see the outline of the eye sockets with pale orbs seeming to float in the openings. The thing came closer to the glass. Bridger tilted his head, unconsciously mimicking the thing on the other side of the window. It lifted its head and he could see the nostrils flaring as it pulled air to the holes left after the nose rotted away. It reminded Bridger of a night by the fence in the woods when he and Tilly watched another deadun. He tried to remember the name he gave that one, but couldn’t.
He could see the flashlight bouncing through the house down the street. He looked past the deadun, towards the east. Still dark. The deadun turned towards the flash of light across the street. Bridger tapped the glass and it turned its head towards him again. Tina, he thought. That was the name of the one by the fence. He smiled a little and kept watching the deadun as it drew closer to the glass.
The deadun pressed up against the window, trying to see inside. Bridger could see the tiny drips of rot sliding down the corners of its mouth. The soft parts of the things ears had rotted away to knobby openings in either side of its head. Bridger backed further into the room and slid to his left. He reached down to turn the handle and stuck his head out the door.
“Hey ya ugly fucker. How ya doing?” He whispered as he stepped back inside the doorway. The thing charged towards him. As it came through the opening Bridger slammed the door, wedging its head against the frame. Before the thing could even register what had happened, Bridger drove the tip of his knife through the thing’s eye. Pop. He swung the door open slightly and let the thing fall. He grabbed it by the arm and pulled it all the way inside. He closed the door and looked out the window. He couldn’t see the flashlight.
“You really like it out here, don’t you?” Evelyn’s voice came from the darkness behind him.
He turned and could see her outline reclined on the couch against the far wall.
“I thought you were still asleep.” He said.
“I was, the noise woke me up and the smell is probably going to keep me that way.” She slung her feet onto the floor and leaned forward.
“Yeah, he’s pretty ripe.” The room had filled with a dense smell of decaying flesh. “I’ll drag him out in a second.”
“Are they still out there?” Evelyn asked as she joined him at the window.
“Not sure. Haven’t heard the truck fire up so I’m guessing they are.”
“And this is not the same folks as yesterday?” Evelyn asked.
“Nope. That was a couple of guys on motorcycles. This sounds like a dump truck or garbage truck.” Bridger said.
“You never answered me.” She turned to him.
“About what?”
“About how much you like it out here. Outside the barricade.”
“It’s not about liking it.” He turned to face her.
“Then what is it?”
“Is that why you wanted to come with me tonight? To interrogate me?” He smiled at her.
“I’m not interrogating, just asking.” Evelyn said.
“Well, for one, having people wander through the outskirts makes me nervous, so I watch.”
“And two?” She asked.
“Let me show you something.” Bridger said as he moved towards the window. Evelyn stood from the couch and stepped around the deadun on the floor. She looked out onto the street through the glass.
“This road here. It runs all the way back to where it crosses the road by the gate. It runs the other way out of town. But here’s what I found while I was out here. Emma Grace said her father organized the barricade. He was pretty smart about it too. They blocked some streets out here. When I first walked the roads, all the blockages seemed haphazard. But they weren’t. They blocked off just the right streets so that anyone driving into the town only really has one way in. The roadblock out by the interstate and the few streets they blocked off outside the barricade made watching the roads a lot easier.” Bridger said.
“So we’re safe?” Evelyn asked. They both turned to the sound of the truck firing up in the distance.
“So far.” He listened. The sound of the truck faded as it drove away.
“Headed back out towards the roadblock. That’s where the real breakdown is though.” He said.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“From here to the edge of town, we got covered. But once you get out by the co-op and Walmart, we don’t really know. Something could get pretty close without us knowing it.” He said.
“Something?”
“Or someone. Probably time to start thinking about running out there once a day at least, just to keep an eye on it.” Bridger said. “Sorry, thinking out loud.”
“No, it’s a good idea.” Evelyn said. “What now?
He turned and grabbed the walkie from the side table. He thumbed the button.
“Lights out, we’re coming in.”
The walkie crackled to life.
“What’s the story?” Tilly’s voice came through the speaker.
“Just passing through it looks like.” He said. “Anything on your end?”
“Nope. Not a peep.”
“Alright, we’re packing up. Ask Raj if he still wants that sample.”
“Sample of what?”
“He’ll know.”
“Hold on, he’s still asleep.” The walkie went silent. It crackled a couple of times and Raj’s voice broke through between the static.
“Bridger?” The voice came through clearly. “Bridger, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“Is it one of the changed ones?” Raj asked.
“Like a big piece of jerky.” Bridger smiled as he spoke.
“Where is it?”
“We’re almost to the end of the little shopping strip. Maybe a half-mile from the barricade.”
“I’ll meet you at the door, you can show me.” Raj said through the speaker.
“Alright, we’ll head that way.” Bridger put the walkie into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. Evelyn stood.
“You gonna tell me what that was about?” Evelyn asked.
“The deadun? Something Raj asked me to do. He wanted me to keep an eye out for one of the odd ones.”
“Did he say why?” Evelyn asked as she slung her own pack
over her shoulder.
“It really was just one of those, hey if you see this let me know, kind of things. Maybe we’ll find out more when we bring him back out here.”
“We?” Evelyn said. “I’m done. You and Raj can enjoy yourselves without me, I am going to have to strip these clothes off and burn them. There’s no getting the smell of that thing out of them.”
“You keep talking about stripping out of your clothes and Raj may be doing this all on his own.” He smiled at her.
“Oh no, remember? You’re out here keeping me, and all the others safe. You should probably focus on that.”
They stepped out the door and turned down the street. A row of squat three-story brick buildings sat shoulder to shoulder down one side of the street with hanging signs jutting out over the sidewalk. Men’s clothes, Cell Phones, and Bargain Jewelry signs rattled softly as the breeze rolled through. The other side of the street was different. It was all homes. The houses outside the barricade looked almost identical to the ones behind the barricade, except for the emptiness. They sat hulking in the darkness as the foliage grew up around them. The land between the houses grew wild. The few cars sitting in the driveways all had flat tires and a year’s worth of bird shit and grime covering them.
Tilly stood and walked over to the small window. She leaned against the glass and looked into the darkness. The shimmer of starlight reflected from the wet asphalt. Clumps of grasses and weeds sprung up wherever the pavement cracked. The storm drains were long clogged and the trickles of water from the light rain traveled around the leaves and straw piled up from the fall. Tilly looked down the street as the wind moved the tops of the trees back and forth. She thought to herself about the last time the leaves fell. She and Raj had enjoyed all the fall colors on the drive from South Carolina to New Orleans for their honeymoon. They had never finished the drive back.
“They’re coming.” Raj said as he looked through the other window. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. It must have been something I ate. Throwing up made me feel a lot better.” Tilly said.
“When they get back, we’ll get you home.”
“What about the deadun?” Tilly asked.
“I’ll worry about that some other time.” Raj said.
“No, you go. I’ll be fine. I’ll just head home and wait for you there. I think I just need to lay down for a little while.”
“You sure?” He asked.
“I’m sure.”
“Well, give me a hand with this. I’ll be as quick as I can.” He said.
She and Raj pushed the filing cabinet from in front of the door. The little building sat just up the street from the doctor’s office and one of its sides sat on the deadun side of Leaf Street. They started out using the doctor’s office to pass through, but the large window openings were increasingly harder to keep sealed. The dead would gather near the door at times, attracted to the smell of living flesh. The little building next door had two small windows at eye level and a single door on the Leaf street side. It was the back storage room of a larger office that sat on the barricade side. Tilly had found stacks of tax returns in the back closet indicating this might have been an accountant’s office. The shingle on the barricade side had long since fallen away and Tilly never thought to ask Violet or any of the others about it because none of it mattered now.
She swung the door open and stuck her head out, scanning both ways. A deadun shuffled away in the starlight twenty yards down the street. She didn’t see anyone else. As she stepped out into the street, the first dusty gray light began to filter across the cloud filled sky. The dampness filled her nose with a mixture of grass, rain and rot. She felt her stomach flip just a little. The sound of footsteps brought her attention around the other way as Bridger and Evelyn rounded the last corner and walked towards her. She stuck up her hand and waved.
“What do you think?” Tilly asked as she followed Bridger and Evelyn back through the door.
“About what?” Bridger said as he turned and shook the cold off his shoulders. He swept his hand back over his head, removing his knit cap as he did.
“Our visitors.” She said.
Bridger turned and walked into the office area and sat down at the small round table. The others joined him.
“I think they were just passing through.” He said. “You scanned the walkie?”
“Every channel. Not a peep. If someone had been talking, I think I would have heard something.” Tilly shook her head in disappointment as she spoke.
“Hey that’s good.” He said. “It means they probably aren’t part of a group. At least not a group looking to settle somewhere.”
“Or it means they are part of a well-disciplined group, scouting us out and being quiet about it.” Tilly said.
“Damn, I thought I was paranoid.” He smiled.
“Nah, it's just, well you know. Sitting out there in the woods kind of gave you the feeling the whole world was gone. Then Cameron shows up, a horde sweeps through, you find a town just waiting for us, and the next thing we know we’re here. And the world hasn’t gone away.” Tilly said.
“You think we made a mistake?” Evelyn asked. “Moving here.”
“Not at all. No matter what, sleeping in a comfortable bed at night is worth everything else. I am just trying to keep an eye on the everything else part.” Tilly said.
“So are we all.” Bridger said. “Speaking of which, Raj, I got something for you to put your eye on.”
“The deadun?” He asked.
“Yeah, the deadun.” Bridger said. “What’s so special?”
“It’s nothing, really. Just curious about why they are different. I think they’re getting faster and stronger somehow, and maybe smarter.”
“I kept it entertained for over an hour just tapping against the glass. It seemed as dumb as the rest.” Bridger said.
“What did it look like?” He asked.
“Well, you can come see for yourself.” Bridger stood.
“You’ll be okay?” Raj turned to Tilly.
“Of course. Go on.” She said.
“Let’s go.” Raj said as he shouldered his bag and they disappeared around the corner within a few steps.
Tilly watched them walk around the corner and shut the door. She grabbed the backpack off the table.
“You feeling okay?” Evelyn asked. “You look a little pale.”
“Not really. Something I ate, I guess. Kinda queasy.”
“What have you been eating?”
“Same as everyone. I’ll be fine.” Tilly headed out the other door. A few minutes later Evelyn heard the door on the barricade side open. Josh and Lori came through the office into the little back room.
“Raj and Bridger should be back in just a minute.” Evelyn said as she handed the walkie to Lori.
“Tilly said there were more people outside the walls last night.” Lori said.
“Just a few. Just like the others, just passing through. We’re fine.” Evelyn said. “As long as we keep an eye on things.”
“Yes mam.” Josh said. “Get some rest, we got this.”
She turned through the door and headed inside the barricade. It didn’t escape her that when she was on the outside, the world was still dark and now on the inside the sun has risen and it was a bright blue, if chilly, day. She saw the smoke from the chimney of the big house and turned to see if she could find some coffee.
Forever Young
2
Emma Grace leaned down to look at the coals in the firebox. She added another log. She licked the tip of her finger and tapped the top of the stove. Hot enough. She sat the big roasting pan on the counter. The screen door at the front of the house squealed as it opened before banging shut. She stuck her head out of the kitchen and looked down the hallway.
“Hey Jennifer.” She said. “I thought you weren’t able to help today. I thought your Dad was going to teach you to drive.” Emma Grace said as she turned back into the kitchen.
Jennifer foll
owed her, dragging her hand across the counter as she strolled behind. She grabbed the jar of honey and twisted off the top.
“This is so good.” She smiled as she stuck her finger in the jar and into her mouth.
“Don’t dip your finger.” Emma Grace scolded as she took the jar from her. “You didn’t answer me, I thought your dad was making you learn to drive today.”
“Well I didn’t know it was going to be a whole group.” She said. “Besides, I like hanging out with you. Lori and I used to hang out a lot until she went all mushy for Josh. Now she hardly even talks to me any more. I liked hanging out with Dottie and learning to cook. She was sweet but you know, she was ancient, not much in common. She cussed a lot, but the funny way.”