Cat and the Belle

by Victor Cruz

  “Then what?” Colton asked.

  “Then. Let’s get ready to take our new home from those dirty dead rotheads that are already there,” Maxson stated.

  Everyone separated and went their own ways to pack up their belongings. They wouldn’t be planning on coming back so it was necessary to make sure to grab everything that they could fit in their bags. The group needed an additional five minutes to have everyone’s bags packed, ready and sitting next to Henry’s vehicle.

  The group that prepared outside were all men, aside from Inez. Leather jackets had been laid out by Suzie and Mabel for them all to grab. Mabel had also made a few sets of leather vests, long leather sleeves and leather gauntlets. The three pieces could be fitted on, but had to be laced afterwards. Reggie and Inez had chosen them because of all flexible it allowed them to be in their movements. They were helping one another lace themselves up and were otherwise inseparable. Now that they were fitted in leather armor and it was time to grab their weapons.

  Everyone had at least one spear, while some had two, but they each carried a secondary weapon outside of the spears.

  Maxson always carried his handy axe with him everywhere he went and today was no different. The heavy weapon in his strong arms felt light and capable of chopping a man in two.

  Konrad had his machete while his brother Eddie had taken a set of throwing knives that he had been sharpening.

  Reggie had his brass knuckles like always and Colton carried a metal bat, as did Inez. Pete also had a bat, but his was wooden and had nails sticking out of the end.

  Yargan had taken the sledgehammer from the noseless one that broke in the night they were attacked. Diego was using a long black metal shovel that had a long yellow hand with two thick black soft grips on them. Scott had a police baton hanging from his waist band that he had ever since Maxson met him at the rec center. It reminded him of the night that he saw one snap, along with Diesel’s arm before his demise.

  Henry, Slug planned to on stay behind with Krystal, Catalina, Mabel and Suzie. Achilles struggled to decide if he should follow Colton and Maxson or stay with Henry, but ultimately the animal stayed loyal to the old man. Maxson was happy to see that the dog wanted to stay behind. Achilles was a good alarm system and was more than willing to attack one of the dead, but he would be too worried about the furry friend on the battlefield.

  They would have to separate into the two vehicles they would take. Konrad volunteered to drive the pick up and took the steering wheel like he always wanted. Maxson was in charge of the Comanche with Colton sitting in the passenger seat. Reggie, Inez and Yargan were squeezed comfortably in the backseat of the classic muscle car. Konrad was supposed to follow Maxson, but roared out in front as they exited the Parson’s only road. He turned towards Greenbrook with Maxson trailing behind him,

  “Idiot,” Inez commented.

  Maxson remained silent. He wasn’t going to let himself be distracted when they were about to go to war.

  Konrad’s group had managed to fit three in the back and the other three in the front of the pick-up. Everyone’s spears and a couple of ladders had been placed in the bed of the truck. Maxson was speeding ahead and was going to pass him, but Konrad veered in front of him.

  “This guy is going to get someone killed,” Maxson clenched the steering wheel tight with his leather gloves on. Konrad didn’t repeat his actions and allowed Maxson to zoom ahead, but he was laughing at the steering wheel.

  “Fuck. You!” Reggie yelled, while sticking out a middle finger.

  The Comanche was now far ahead of the pickup with him over thirty feet of space in between them. A few minutes of silence went by before Maxson spoke to the car. “This thing has a CD player. Did anybody bring anything?”

  “Well, since you asked,” Colton had reached into the glove compartment. He pulled out a CD and handed it to Maxson.

  “When did you put that in there?” Maxson asked.

  “One night, I took the car out.” Colton said. “It looked like too much fun.”

  Maxson shook his head with a laugh and watched him put the CD into the stereo. It was a classic rock song that started softly. As the car drove further and the music went longer it began to crescendo setting a precedent of what was to come.

  Maxson hand Colton one of the walkie talkies they had taken earlier. “Just in case we get split up in there.”

  Yargan was rocking his head to the music and looked to be gearing himself up mentally. Reggie and Inez were holding hands, but to avoid publicly displaying any affection they kept them low so nobody in the car would see their fingers interlocked.

  “How many are there?” Reggie asked.

  “At least fifty,” Confirmed Maxson. “As long as we work together, we shouldn’t have a problem.”

  “What’s the chance of that happening?” Reggie responded.

  “Now that, I don’t know,” Maxson shrugged, thought that was a good point. The men were undisciplined and had only worked together previously on scavenging missions. Never a full-on assault.

  They had passed through Greenbrook, but didn’t stop. The rest of the ride was silent as they listened to music and everyone got use to the new scenery.

  “Just turns into woods up here,” Colton observed.

  “Yup. I bet there’s lots of things you can hunt out here, what do you think?” Maxson replied.

  “Oh yeah, but to be completely honest with ya’ll, I can hunt anywhere,” Colton said. “But up here is where you get the big game.”

  “You might have to take me hunting with you, Colt,” Reggie said.

  “What? When have you ever wanted to go hunting?” Inez looked at her husband with surprise.

  “I don’t know. What else am I going to do? Not exactly like there’s a new club opening up in Greenbrook or anything.” Reggie said. “I could hunt you a big ol’ moose or something.”

  “And what would I do with that?” Inez said as though she had no use for it.

  “Eat it,” Colton said. “Moose is good eating.”

  “We could use its rack to hang up our coats on!” Reggie eagerly said.

  “Now we’re talkin’! Any-time you want to go get wild in the woods with me.” Colton sounded more excited than anyone else.

  “I’m not sure if there are any moose in these parts, but I would welcome some big game in my belly,” Maxson said, amused by their conversation, but would rather have Colton hanging out with Reggie rather than Dustin. I can only imagine the nonsense that little twerp has been filling Colton’s ears with.

  They veered off the dark road that Maxson almost missed the first time they got there. He had turned on his headlights and Konrad did the same from behind as they pulled up to the resort’s gate with the circular crest on it.

  “Alright, here we go,” Maxson put the Comanche in park. They all began to exit the vehicle and looking at the big barred gate that locked them outside of the walls.

  Reggie clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Yo, this place looks haunted.”

  “Sure-the-hell-does,” Colton agreed.

  Konrad and the rest of the truck had also begun to unload out of the vehicle. Spears were being handed out and the ladders followed them. Maxson hushed everyone so they wouldn’t alarm the walking dead inside the gates.

  “Catalina said over here would be the best spot to enter from what she saw,” Maxson said leading the group through the woods along the wall. They took the woods a lot slower than they did the first time he was here with Catalina. They reached the stump that he had used to help lift her on top of the wall and tapped on the wall near it. “Set them up, we’ll climb over here.”

  Diego and Pete set the ladders up against the wall and held them while each man climbed up them. Once everyone was over on the other side, Colton went up the ladder. Diego went up last and pulled the ladder back over with him and put it on the other side so they could use it to make an escape.

  Just like everyone else, it was the first time Maxson got a view of the resor
t and immediately understood why Catalina thought they should relocate there. It was large and open with plenty of room to garden in the massive courtyard. There were raised garden beds that were made from stone that lined the main dirt and gravel path that lead to the main resort. All of the buildings were made of a gray stone with some areas mixed with a glass panel siding where modern additions had been made. Some of the smaller cabins that were unattached from the main building could be seen. Nature had begun to take them back and vines grew up the sides of the stone all the way up their tall chimneys.

  The main building stood three stories and possibly four, due to some of the additions that had been made. But it could clearly be seen from where they stood at the gate entrance which was at least fifty yards away. On the side of the main building was a large four-stall garage attached to the side of the main building to the resort.

  The group all took a moment to look around at their prospective new luxurious mansion of an estate. It was a nicer place than they were living currently and for most, it was the nicest place they would ever stay in.

  “Bon—eautiful,” Diego’s Spanish and English blended into a word that everyone understood.

  “I’ve been in place like this before,” Boasted Tyler. “Costed me a good chunk of hard-earned change.”

  “I could get used to a place like this,” Pete said nodding his head in appeasement.

  “Aye, I see me building a very nice and cozy little fishing cottage on that-there lake,” Scott said with his light Irish accent.

  Yargan gave a grunt in a with his eyes transfixed on the green landscape with the blue water backdrop of the lake. Nobody seemed to understood Yargan’s grunt, but Maxson who gave a grunt back. The two of the men shared a look with one another at the bewilderment of everyone else before they all heard a noise. It was a rustling from the bushes followed by a snapping twig and followed by a second snapping twig that was closer.

  Maxson got everyone’s attention. “Look alive. The dead have arrived.”

  The group all raised their weapons and faced the rustling from the bushes. A stumbling rotting figure that use to be a woman came through the bushes. Diego who was closest sent the spear right through its eyeball and downed it instantly.

  A second one followed that was killed by Scott. Yargan pushed to the front and took down a third one that followed. By the fourth and fifth one, Maxson moved the group out to the middle so they weren’t pinned up with their backs against the wall.

  “Follow me,” Maxson killed the sixth one as he took lead of the group. They killed another half dozen by the time they made it in front of the gate into the clearing at the top of the hill. Maxson called out. “Stay together. We have a better chance of fighting them as a group! Hold! Hold! HOOOLLDD!!!”

  The group held while the dead continued to trickle in one boy one. One by one turned into two by two, then became three by three until finally becoming a steady stream of flesh eaters. Wave after wave of the ocean of the dead crashed into their formation, but they stood like a rock. The creatures continued to test its weakness, but found none and were firmly repelled.

  Their confidence grew the more they killed and in the beginning the entire group was unloading months of pent up irritations, rage, hate and sadness. It was the only way for them all to deal with their problems in the new world. They were invulnerable as a fighting force, without a worry, remaining calm and calculated in their killing. Swimming through the calm cold sea of dead like fish, but they were not fish and just like cold calm water, the dead were much more lethal when not given proper respect.

  As the rowdy brawling continued, each of their spears would eventually break one by one. Individually, the members of the group would come to rely on their secondary weapon. Even without the spears, Maxson and the rest of the group held off the dead with sheer mind and body. It was clear that they were winning the test of strength, athleticism and strategy. This was becoming less of a battle and more of a massacre.

  Dozens had been downed and lied around their feet with dozens still walking towards the group. It was becoming more difficult for them to maneuver around without stumbling over the torso of one previously killed. The sheer amount of them coupled with their relentless hunger for human flesh finally caused the group’s formation to begin to weaken. It happened so fast and without anyone recognizing it, but the group had broken apart.

  Nearly evenly split with Yargan, Tyler, Scott, Diego, Konrad and his brother Eddie were on one side. With Maxson had Colton, Pete, Dustin, Reggie and Inez on the other. In between the two groups were now a countless number of slumbering corpses that had to decide between the two groups. Relying on tiring out them out by their numbers was the dead’s last hope of victory.

  Each time Maxson picked up his axe and swung the axe it became heavier and his muscles were beginning to become exhausted. He knew if he was feeling tired that others must be feeling it too. Looking to the other he could see it on his companion’s faces, even the one’s on the other side of the courtyard. While he was use to physical labor jobs, lifting weights and keeping active his entire life, Maxson knew that some of the others were not as lean.

  Scott was a bit on the round side and Yargan was a burly beast, but as he fatigued himself, his greatest asset which was his side, now because his biggest liability. Both of their movements more sluggish and with each stumble becoming more at risk of falling down over a dead corpse. A pile of a flesh eaters could rip a man apart in only a few seconds when in such a vulnerable position. Tyler had somehow made his way back over to Maxson’s side during the entire fray and was now fighting alongside of Dustin.

  The Essex brothers were looking to have the time of their lives. They were both strong, but Konrad had athletic length and Eddie had explosive speed. Eddie could stab one in the back of its head and shoulder it to the ground while spinning off of it and stabbing another one. Konrad killed with one swipe each time and had so much experience that his motions appeared effortless. However, they were more of a dynamic duo than a set of team players and were beginning to drift away from the rest of their already small group and splitting it even further in half.

  “HEY!” Maxson tried to stop Konrad and Eddie, but was struggling with a creature that had just grabbed onto the handle of the axe. With his large frame he was able to toss the creature to the ground and pry the axe back. Standing over the fallen flesh eater, Maxson gave one lift of the axe and brought it down with fury onto its head. Black coagulated tar splattered everywhere and suctioned to the axe. It made it difficult for even Maxson to pull the axe out of the creature’s head without leaning completely over and falling to the ground. Maxson freed the axe, but out of the corner of his eyes could see Eddie and Konrad disappearing.

  “Get back here!” Maxson yelled out to them, but the two had no interest in following Maxson’s orders.

  “Where are those cowards going?”, Reggie said before delivering a fatal uppercut to a creature’s jaw causing its head to snap back so fast that an eyeball dislodged from its socket. It hung loosely, still hanging on by corded flesh dripping of black goo.

  “Hell-if-I-know and the-Hell-if-I-care,” Responded Maxson before splitting a creature’s head in two. “We’re having a hard-enough time just lookin’ out for one another to care about those two numb-nuts.”

  “Ahhh!” Scott cried while a creature grabbed and latched onto him from behind.

  “See what I mean?”, Maxson called over shoulder before swinging his axe and connecting at the side of the neck of a smaller creature. The axe didn’t slice completely through, but ended the second life of the creature. When Maxson jerked his axe from his neck the creature fell to its knee its head flopped onto its shoulder. Its head was still hanging by the flesh of its neck, internal cords and the black tarry blood, but was just upside down while it continued to kneel right side up. Maxson gave it one firm boot the chest before it fell back never to move on its own again.

  Maxson felt powerful and a sense of bloodlust that he was bec
oming uncomfortably familiar with. He was conscious of himself enjoying the act of killing with his bare hands and the way it stroked his ego, but he simply didn’t care. His own introspective moment ended by the yelling for from Scott.

  “Get the fuck off me!” Scott struggled and jerked from the creature as a second one began to grab his opposite shoulder and between the two of them began to steady him.

  “Hold on!” Diego attempted to get to Scott, but was stopped by two more that had come through an opening where a bush and a shed met.

  Fuck! Maxson could see that things were quickly becoming a mess and the thought of Diesel being torn apart crept back into the back of his mind.

  Scott tripped the creature that had its arm, but it only pulled him down with it. The second creature was now on his back and a third was getting close only to be trailed by two more close by. Maxson was doing his best to fight his way through the middle, but there was no way of knowing if he would even make it himself.

  “AHHHHHH!” A roar came from the red bearded Viking of a man named Yargan. He had caught his second-wind and the adrenaline came pouring out of his mouth in the form of a war cry.

  With his war hammer raised Yargan brought it down onto the back of the head of the creature latched onto Scott. Its head exploding like a piñata filled with black sludge from a car’s overused oil filter.

  The creature instantly dropped off of his back and hit the ground with a thud. Yargan growled a disturbing pleasant growl from his throat before twirling and crashing the sledgehammer against the side of another incoming walker while Scott wrestled with the one that had his arm. It held onto him with one arm and as Scott tugged away, it dragged to follow along with him. With outstretched arms, it released him from powerful grip with a prevailing hack from Maxson’s axe. Scott fell back on his ass, with creature’s severed hand still clasping at his leather jacket while oozing its black slime.

  “Fuckin’ Hell!” Wailed Scott as he pried each of its fingers from around his arm. He stood up and tossed the arm far aside.