Odium (The Dead Saga.)

by Riley, Claire C

  My body stills at the close contact of him. The smell of his sweat is pungent in the air, yet strangely intoxicating rather than disgusting. Our eyes meet, and a smile flits across his face as his hands roam to my ass and my eyes widen.

  Emily giggles from above us. “Come on, you two.”

  I look up to her, half-blinded by the sun streaming down, and am about to push off of him when he grabs me around my waist and lifts us both up to standing in one fluid movement, his big hands staying firmly on my hips.

  I shrug him off, half embarrassed, and half…well, let’s just stick with half embarrassed.

  “Keep your hands to yourself.” I shove him away, and he laughs as he stumbles back, holding his hands up defensively.

  “I didn’t do anything.” He grins, holding his hands up in defense.

  I roll my eyes. “Whatever. So what now, Einstein?” I look around us, but can’t see a way down. Looking over the ledge, I can see the two zombies are still there, in all their gory glory, though they look a little confused now that they can’t see their meal. Stupid zombies. I have an urge to kick a load of gravel down on them, but resist it for fear of yet more embarrassment because of my childish behavior.

  “Nina.”

  Emily’s hand touches my shoulder. She stands next to me and peers over the top too.

  “We can easily outrun them to the car.”

  “Yep,” I reply dryly. “What about those ones?” I point to the couple coming out of the woods and shambling over to investigate my beautiful Hummer. A sigh leaves my lips. I was hoping to avoid any more blood splatter, at least for today, but it seems like I’m going to have to do some killing. I am not leaving my Beast.

  I turn back to Mikey, who’s on the other side of the roof on his hands and knees, crouched down looking over the top.

  We tiptoe up to him and crouch down too, and take a peek. There are more shamblers around the back coming from the woods, and it’s looking more and more likely that we are going to have to wait them out.

  I turn back around to look at Emily. “It seems Einstein here isn’t as clever as he thinks.” I don’t even bother to glance at Mikey, but know already that he is giving me the finger.

  It’s times like this that I wish I still had my iPhone. You know, when you’re bored senseless and just want something mind-numbing to do, like play some crappy game on your iPhone. There are only so many cloud zombies a girl can make before her imagination gets bored and switches itself off. Our backs are pressed into the hard, gravelly roof as we stare up into the sky.

  “One-legged zombie,” Emily laughs, pointing up into the sky.

  “You’ve already done that one,” I grumble.

  “There can be more than one one-legged zombie.”

  “Nope, that’s not the game.” I gaze up at the cloud, trying to come up with something new. “Scarecrow zombie,” I suggest.

  “That doesn’t even make sense,” Mikey replies, and turns his head to look at me.

  “It so does, look.” I point. “The stick is what Emily thought was the leg.” I can’t help but chuckle and Emily joins in, followed by Mikey. I feel his arm hot and sweaty against mine, but I don’t move. I kind of like him being so close to me, against my better judgment, I’m sure.

  “I thought it was a…” he begins with a grin.

  “Shut up!” I laugh loudly, and dig him in the ribs with my elbow.

  “Ow!” He laughs and digs me back.

  I laugh and then feel a flush of embarrassment for some reason. “God, I’m bored.” I sit up, reaching around to brush the gravel from my back. At least we can’t smell the deaders up here, but I can still damn well hear them, and it seems like there are more of them coming and not the other way around. Mikey sits up and brushes the remaining gravel from my back. I flinch at his touch and pull away, going to look over the ledge again.

  “Fuck, I cannot stay up here all day. It’s hot, and I need to pee.”

  “Chill out, princess.” Mikey gives me a wonky smile. It widens when I lift an eyebrow at him, my mouth opening in shock at his arrogance.

  Princess!

  “You two go distract them over on the other side of the roof, and when they go over to have a look, you run back over here, and we can all climb down and get away,” he continues.

  “Do you think I’m stupid? What you mean is that you’ll climb down. Then we will be stuck up here as zombie bait while you drive off in my Beast. I don’t think so.” I stand up and cross my arms and Mikey stands and mirrors my action.

  “The Beast?” He smirks.

  “Yes, my Beast.” Now that I’ve said that out loud, I feel a bit ridiculous, actually. It was meant to be my little private pet name for the car. Damn it.

  “Now would I leave two pretty ladies like you stranded?”

  “Please,” I snort. “I’ve dealt with men like you before, and there is not a chance in hell that we’re being the bait.”

  “Well, I know for a fact that you would leave me in a heartbeat, so I’m not doing it.” He narrows his deep brown eyes at me, his smirk vanishing now that he’s realized he’s not getting his own way.

  “Less than a heartbeat, actually,” I bite back. He starts to say something but stops himself short, his face going red as he tries to contain his temper.

  “I’ll do it then.”

  We both turn to look at Emily in surprise. It seems my little mouse has a backbone after all. Not that I’m going to let her use it. I haven’t come this far to let something happen to her now.

  “No.” Mikey and I stare at each other as we say the same thing in unison, and I roll my eyes at him.

  I rub my arms, feeling a chill despite the hot sun blaring down on me. “No, Emily, I’ll do it.” I look at Mikey. “But you have to promise me that you won’t leave her…”

  “I won’t.” He finally looks serious.

  “You can’t be serious!” Emily shouts.

  “Shut up!” I snap at her. I turn my attention back to Mikey. “Not ever. You have to look after her if I can’t get to you.”

  “I will.”

  “And you don’t come back for me.”

  He nods his head once in understanding. “There’s a group of us hiding out in the woods. It’s a really safe place. Trust me on this one.” He smiles, but it’s a grim smile.

  “Nina, I can do this.” Emily pushes between us and looks into my face. “I can do this, please.”

  “No, Emily. You go with him. He has a safe place, and I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Nina…” Emily holds onto my arms as if her life depended on them.

  “No. You go with him and you don’t look back. I’ll find you. I promise.”

  Her eyes look glassy. I hope she’s not about to cry. Jesus, one minute I’m playing Guess the Zombie Cloud, and the next I feel like I’m waving goodbye to my very existence. Life keeps getting serious far too quickly.

  “Don’t start with the waterworks, Emily. I told you, I’ll be right behind you. Mikey here is going to look after you or else he’ll have me to contend with.” I walk away at my last comment for fear that I might start crying myself. I look down at my truck again. There are three deaders surrounding it now, though they don’t seem to sense anyone is in it, as they aren’t grunting like usual. I can’t believe I’m going to have to leave my baby. And Emily. I huff out another sigh.

  Mikey comes up next to me. “I’ll stay, you two go.”

  I don’t bother to look at him. “No, you need to get her away from here. I have no idea where this little happy place of yours is. I’ll just get us lost in the woods. It makes more sense, you taking her. I’ll be fine, just leave me a clue of some sort so I can track which way you go.” My eyes are still watching my truck.

  “Don’t go after it, Nina. It’s not worth it.”

  “The hell it’s not.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “So am I,” I retort.

  He grabs my arms and turns me to face him. What is it with people grab
bing me today? His face is still serious, his jaw working hard. “Like I said, there’s a group of us hiding out in the woods. We’re staying at an old outdoor activity center. It’s pretty secure. We have a little food—not much though, which is why I was out on a scouting mission—but that’s where we’ll be. It’s to the north of here. Just keep going straight if you don’t catch up to me, and you’ll eventually come to a lake. Just keep following it around, I’ll be watching for you.”

  His look is sincere and yet somewhat grim, and for a moment I feel sorry for being such a bitch to him. He doesn’t know me, or Emily. He doesn’t have to do this—hell, he might just ditch Emily when he gets off the roof, but as I look at his face I don’t believe he will. He seems a man of his word, maybe even a man of honor. There aren’t many men like him left in the world.

  “You don’t have to do this, you know. I don’t want you to think I’m a fucking coward and need rescuing. I’ll distract them and you two can head into the woods. I’ll be able to find you.” His eyebrows draw together in concern.

  I shake my head, looking anywhere but at him. “Stop saying that—I said no. I told you, she’ll be safer with you. I don’t even know where I’m heading.” I finally let my eyes stray to him. His eyes are looking deep into mine, seeming darker than they had before. “I know you’re not a coward; this just makes more sense. Let’s say you owe me one, okay?”

  He nods, still not looking happy about the decision. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  I roll my eyes. “I’m sure you will.”

  He smirks again before continuing. “Just head north through those trees.” He points to between two particularly large trees, whose branches seem to make an archway. “Follow my path. You’ll see it and you can catch up to us.”

  I nod and take a deep breath. Through the archway, follow his path, meet back up. I can do this. I think. My hand dives into my pocket and I pull out my Jolly Ranchers and hold up the pack to him.

  “Just one,” I warn.

  He smiles and reaches in, retrieving two with a smug grin, and walks off.

  Dick.

  Twelve.

  “Come on, wooooooo! Over here. Hey you, Stinkerbell.” I grab a handful of gravel and chuck it down onto the waiting deaders. They shamble forward, bumping into one another without flinching, growling and reaching up for me with dirty rotten arms. It’s a good thing that I have their attention… I look over at Mikey as he starts to climb down. He offers me a small smile. Emily follows him, looking less than cheery. She still seems reluctant to leave; I give her an angry glare, gesturing for her to move it.

  I pick up another handful of gravel and throw it at them. The ones by my Hummer have begun to stumble over to investigate the noise. That will mean fifteen when they all arrive at my happy little location. I can outrun fifteen of them, can’t I?

  I look back behind me. Both Emily and Mikey are out of sight now, and I shout louder to keep anything from wandering their way.

  “Hey, Ugly Joe! Tra, la, laaa.” The zombies—though they clearly don’t understand a word I’m saying—are becoming increasingly aggressive. They’re growling like crazed dogs and drooling black sludge from their mouths while banging their hands on the glass of the store. They won’t be breaking in anytime soon, and even if they did, they can’t get to me up here, but it’s still making me nervous. They can easily wait me out any day.

  One particularly fat zombie, with barely a scrap of material to cover her overly large and rotting bosom, is staring up at me like I’m a prize T-bone. Her jaw is hanging loose from her face, swaying with her every move and leaving nothing to the imagination. Fantastic.

  I’m totally running out of insults. My sarcasm and insults bag is nearing empty, and I’m not having too much fun staring at Little Miss No-Jaw either, but I don’t dare let their attention drop for any length of time in case they smell out Emily. Even the deaders are beginning to look bored with me and I decide that I’ve given them enough time to get away. Now it’s my turn to make a run for it.

  I grab a couple of handfuls of gravel and throw them at the zombies. The little stones bounce off their rancid faces, some even sinking into the putrid and pliable flesh, and I turn and run to the other side of the roof before they start to disperse. I’ve already decided that I’m going for my truck, there’s no point in pretending that I’m not, but as I climb down the side fire escape I see more zombies emerging from the woods closest to my beautiful Hummer, obviously attracted by my shouting.

  I land with a soft thud, and run as fast as my little legs will carry me, which actually isn’t as quick as I would like them to be, if I’m totally honest. I was never good at running or any sort of cardio, come to think of it

  I can’t seem to slow my momentum, so I shoulder-slam into the side of my truck, swing the door open, and shut it quickly behind me with a whoop of glee and a painful yelp all at the same time.

  It’s only momentary, though. When I see the keys are missing from the ignition, I curse Emily. Little clean freak must have taken them. When I get my hands on her, she’s going to be getting a mouthful of obscenities and a couple of evil glares to boot. Opening the door back up, I see that the zombies have spotted me and are slowly moving in my direction. I run around to the back of the Hummer, grab my backpack, and shrug it onto my shoulders. I glance back over at the oncoming zombies and duck back into the truck. I grab Emily’s backpack too, after a moment of consideration; I’m more than sure I can carry it, for at least a little while. These packs contain everything we need to survive, and I’m not about to let them go without a fight. I glance longingly at the boxes of canned food and other such goods that we had packed. There’s no way for me to take these with us, and I kick myself for not eating more and filling up on them, instead of just trying to stockpile it all.

  Slamming the door shut, I realize that all of the zombies have noticed me now, and new ones are emerging from the woods closest to the truck with every passing second. Sure, they’re slow, but it only takes one stupid mistake to get you killed. If there’s anything I’ve learned about zombies, it’s their mob mentality. The more there are, the less likely you are to survive.

  The smell is getting worse the closer they get, and I gag, fear and bile running through me. I run back toward the shop—to where I had previously climbed down—and head into the woods, ducking under the little archway branch. I pull out my butcher’s knife and keep on running, all the time looking at the ground for some sort of path that Mikey was meant to leave for me. There’s movement behind me, the zombies moving en masse to follow me. I don’t see anyone up ahead, no zombies, no Mikey. I can only pray that Emily and Mikey made it. He promised to keep her safe, and I believe that he’ll keep up his end of the bargain. I don’t know what it is about her, but she makes me want to care again, and I feel a ridiculous urge to protect her. Ben would be proud. He always wanted a daughter.

  My thoughts are running away with themselves and I trip over a log on the ground, the air leaving my lungs in a woosh. My face slams into the dirt, and I get a mouthful of forest earth. I spit out leaves and soil, and scramble to my knees clumsily, chancing a look behind me. I can see them in the distance, but they’re far back. Zombies are slow and stupid; that’s the human race’s only saving grace, I suppose. I climb up to stand and reach down for Emily’s backpack, my hand touching something soft and squishy.

  I look down as a growl emanates from below and eyes spring open to look at me. The ground moves, the leaves and soil parting to reveal a hideous monstrosity. A yelp leaves my throat and I jump back and trip, falling on my ass again.

  Seriously, again…

  The zombie on the ground begins to crawl toward me, commando style. It’s only now that I see that its body is all but decomposed. There’s barely anything left of it, yet it still moves. It still feeds, and it still kills. Black, stringy intestines are spilling out from the huge gaping hole where its middle used to be and dragging behind the thing. If it weren’t for my imminent departure f
rom this world if I don’t move my ass, I would most likely hurl everywhere.

  Scrambling backwards, I somehow stumble and half stand back up.

  “Shit, aah!”

  It reaches for me and I kick the thing—because it is not human anymore; this is a living (quote) dead thing—a nightmare, to be more precise. I kick it in the face so hard that its head flies backwards, coming clean off its shoulders in one attempt. Yet its mouth is still working as it flies through the air with a spray of black, rotting slime. Growling and snapping away, regardless that it isn’t attached to anything anymore. The fresh smell of decomposition hits me, and my mouth floods with water.

  I grab for Emily’s backpack once more and begin to jog north (the way Mikey had pointed for me to go, since I have no idea which way that is—why the fuck would I?), only stopping once to retch and empty the meager contents of my stomach. The only other problem now is that I’ve completely lost my bearings on which direction I should be heading.

  The sun is beginning to lower and the air is cooling, now that the day is nearly over. Jesus, another day survived; just about, anyway. Who would have thought? I shouldn’t joke about it, but it’s my only defense, the only mechanism I have left to cope with. Without it, I would be a sniveling wreck of female clichés. I was once, but I learned to harden up quickly. I guess everyone did. For a girl with a penchant for shopping and no survival skills whatsoever, I haven’t done too badly, I guess. Until now.

  My feet are sore from all the walking. It seems like it’s been hours since I left the garage. Since I left my Beast. I pout again at my loss. I shouldn’t feel such loss with an item—it’s just a thing—but I do. In this world you get attached to things very quickly, and then this is what happens: you lose them, or they die. I swore I wouldn’t let myself get attached to anything or anyone again, yet here I am, traipsing through the woods trying to find Emily-Rose like I’m Bear fucking Grylls and can save us all with my super-unique-yet-gross survival skills.