She continued slowly over the tip and then down the shaft, licking and stroking, going back and forth, until he could not take her teasing any longer. She obviously sensed his desire and took him deeply in her mouth, quickening the pace as he grabbed her hair, threw his head back and guided her with vigor.
He could not help but notice that her own hand would often disappear between her thighs, moving faster and faster, which heightened his own libido even more.
On more than one occasion, she used her opposite hand on him, rubbing the moisture of his pre-ejaculation over his tip gently, and then beginning again, seeming to savor the entire experience.
Alex cupped her head gently in both hands and helped her along, guiding her mouth over him for long minutes. He suddenly felt a warm hand cup his balls, rubbing them gently in her fingers, and that was all he could take.
He spasmed violently in the thralls of it, grabbing her hair as he did, and she allowed him to enjoy it, not moving or stopping until he released her hair.
“Wow,” was the admittedly understated response that he managed through dry lips as he fell to his knees. She smiled and guided him to the blankets below, stroked his head, and allowed him to give in to the ensuing weariness.
***
Alex awoke some time later to the smell of something sweet cooking. He got to his feet, pulled on his jeans, and stared at Olivia, wearing only a flannel shirt, which she must have found in the bedroom, her shapely legs exposed for the world to see. She stared at him coyly over her shoulders and smiled as she cooked what smelled to Alex like sweet baked beans. He also took note that she had already retrieved a fresh pitcher of water from the well and had evidently been boiling a pot on the stove.
“Whatcha got going there?” Alex asked her, now sensing something nice boiling in the water in the pot.
“Thought I’d use these hazelnut flavored coffee packs and make something with a sweeter taste…you know, since this might be our last day here,” Olivia said with a wink and a grin.
“Well, sure! We won’t be able to take everything with us, so might as well use the good stuff,” he said with a chuckle.
“Even Shadow is eating well today,” Olivia said, gesturing to him as he sat before a pot full of tuna fish, lapping it all up.
She and Alex shared a meal, barely speaking during the whole feast as they simply enjoyed the tastes. Then the two of them began packing up the important things that they would take with them. Alex packed a second set of clothes, a heavy jacket, hat and gloves, a flashlight with spare batteries, all of the remaining medicine, the two rolls of duct tape, and a first aid kit in his backpack. His lighter was out of fluid, but he had a few more books of matches remaining, which he tossed into a zip-lock bag for safe-keeping, and which he tucked away in his front pocket.
He packed the duffle bag with the remaining arrows, ammunition, hammer, nails, his insulated hunting coveralls, and a fishing rod.
Olivia packed up some of the essentials from the kitchen in the empty satchel from the attic, packing some silverware, a few cans of beans, tuna and the like, and made her way outside to the well to fill her thermos with fresh water.
As Alex finished packing and bringing everything outside, his heart thundered in his chest and Shadow growled as he could see a mob of zombies coming down the mountainside above them in the distance to the south, chasing a pack of deer, and they were headed this way. They were at least a mile away still, he figured, resetting his gear in his hands and tossing them down.
“Shit, we gotta go, Liv! Now!”
“What?! She called back, not hearing him clearly over the sound of pumping the water into her thermos.
“We gotta—“ He stopped midsentence and stared behind her as he saw a few more of them, slowly moving her way, but picking up speed as they saw her. He fired an arrow right past her into the closest one, as she finally turned, understanding the meaning of his unheard words.
She put the lid back on the thermos and backed away, just as another pair appeared in between Alex and Olivia. Shadow immediately pounced on one, taking it to the ground aggressively and tearing its flesh away, but Alex was too close to get a shot off and removed his hunting knife.
It came at him in a flurry of arms and snapping jaws, but Alex stepped to the side, extended an arm to redirect the outstretched hands, reversed the grip on his knife and buried in the back of the skull of his undead attacker. He had fought many intelligent fighters during martial arts training a few years back, and to use these zombie’s momentum and lack of intellect against them was a huge advantage, despite their inability to suffer pain or acknowledge any kind of injury. He quickly rushed to Shadow’s aid, though the wolf had his attacker seemingly under control, tearing out its throat.
When Alex could gaze upon Olivia again, the blood drained from his face as he witnessed the disturbing scene before him.
Time seemed to slow down.
He observed Olivia as she grabbed at her left leg and fell helplessly to the earth. She had backed her way into one of his foot snares and she was bleeding from the ankle as she cried out in pain.
“Alex!”
He got to within twenty paces before another half-dozen zombies came into view through the thickets behind her. He removed the shotgun from his back with desperation, pumped a round into the chamber, and fired at the closest one. He repeated this five more times, closing the gap between she and him, and dropping each one he targeted.
When he pulled the trigger the last time though, nothing happened.
He was crestfallen to realize that he had emptied all of the rounds in the shotgun, and despite his best efforts, one of the damnable things fell over her.
His heart sank and he watched in revulsion as the zombie took a piece of flesh from her arm as she lay on the floor, crawling toward him, the thermos falling onto the ground and rolling toward him. Her eyes went wide and she screamed again as more flesh came away. He looked to his right, saw the second mob still approaching, the larger mob that was chasing the deer, and dropped his head in resignation.
“Fuck!” he whispered under his breath, demoralized in that instant at seeing yet another person he cared for fall victim before his very eyes.
He pushed away the despair and ran toward her, put a bullet in the attacking zombie’s brain, kicked it off her and cursed again multiple times. She bled from multiple wounds and he stared into her blue eyes, still wide with terror. He refused to believe that there was nothing he could to help her in that instant. He reached for the snare on her left leg, trying to work it free.
“Liv, there is another mob coming! Let me get this off you and—“
“Please…kill me! Before I turn into one of them! Kill me!”
She was still in tears and undoubtedly in shock, having come to the realization that she was already dead, and neither of them could do anything about it. “It was nice getting to know you, Alex.”
He stared pleadingly at her, “No! I refuse to do this! We can patch these wounds—“
“Now!” she shouted, causing him to cease his argument. “Please, kill me,” she whispered. “Before I become one of those fucking things….”
He raised the gun toward her and held it for what seemed an eternity to him.
He had reached the bottom rung of demoralization once more in this shitty world, uttering curses under his breath. He steeled his gaze, a single tear running down his cheek.
She nodded her consent in utter silence and closed her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Liv. I’ve failed you.”
He pulled the trigger and closed his eyes.
He mechanically picked up her fallen thermos, stared at it and made it back to his feet.
“Just like Sara….”
He turned and ran into the cabin, grabbed her pack off the table, and noticed the gun was still there beneath her pack.
She left the gun in here!
He gathered his things along with what Olivia had packed, called for Shadow who followed him down t
he path, and did not look back even one more time.
He spent the next half hour running non-stop, spurred on by anger, hatred, and self-loathing. Shadow followed right behind him the whole time as he ran. He made his way through Olivia’s encampment and all the way to the forest’s edge before stopping. His heart was pounding under the strain as he bent low, and even fell to his knees as Shadow came up behind him and sniffed the air. He stared at the wolf, took a deep breath, and let it out.
Alex wept for a long time.
Part 2
The Renaissance Faire
Chapter 9
He popped the hood of the van and gave careful consideration to the inner workings of the engine. He believed that everything looked intact, as far as he could see, and dropped to his hands and knees to look under the van to inspect for leaks. He checked the hoses, the oil and the other fluids and was satisfied to see they were all up to snuff. Whoever owned the vehicle before him had taken good care of it, he thought gratefully. Moreover, they were kind enough to leave the keys in it, too. He took the keys and hooked them to his own set dangling from his belt loop, and inspected the rear of the van.
He was happy to discover a gas can, along with a short length of hose, which he removed and placed on the ground, a spare tire that remained intact, and a bag full of various tools. He nodded approvingly again before heading to the passenger side, opening the glove box and inspecting the previous owner’s credentials.
Sam Irving, you were a good man, he thought, paying his respects to the man who’s van he was about to use. He could not stop reliving the death of Olivia, which in turn, brought up memories of what happened to his wife that fateful day last November.
No matter what he was doing, those dreadful images kept surfacing. He opened the back of the van and Shadow jumped right in, lying down comfortably. A headache intruded upon him as he removed and unzipped the backpack, fished around for the bottle of pain reliever, and downed a pair.
“Gonna be a long time before I forget about this,” he mentioned to Shadow, who looked past him and panted. “It’s everything I can do to shut out the image of her face….”
He stared out at the horizon and tried to laugh away the frustration of it all, realizing that talking to Shadow was somewhat cathartic. He put the key in the ignition and recognized that there was over a half tank of gas remaining. He strode across the street to a parked Honda Accord with slightly tinted windows. He peered inside for a second to see if there was anything to salvage as the doors were shut and windows were up.
“Shit!” he screamed as he instinctively recoiled away, almost leaping out of his skin in the process when something smacked against the inside of the window, clawing at it, trying to get at him. He stumbled back a few steps and almost fell on his ass. “For fuck’s sake! Enough already! Please!”
He waited a long while until his heart stopped racing and looked inside. A pair of cold, grey eyes stared back at him as it scratched at the glass, trying to break through it to get at him. The zombie inside appeared very weak. It mustn’t have fed in a long time.
His skin crawled as he peered into the back of the car and his eyes captured the image of a baby seat covered in gore.
“My God, no….”
He pushed the disturbing images from his mind, put the hose into the gas tank and sucked until the onrushing taste of petroleum infiltrated his lips. He spat it out and put the business end of the hose into the gas can until it filled up. Then he let the gas pour out under the car and onto the road while he watched and poured the gas from the can into hiss van, watching the gas pool under the vehicle.
Alex replaced the hose and the gas can in the back of his van, rubbed Shadow’s head, shut the doors, and then started the engine, revving it angrily.
He waited for a few minutes until the gas tank had emptied, all the while listening to the pounding of dead hands upon the driver side window of the car.
He spun the vehicle around, the driver’s side facing the same side of the Accord, struck a match and dropped it just as the glass on the driver side window shattered. He watched as the match fell and landed in the gasoline in his driver side mirror as he sped off.
“Fuck you and die,” he said bitterly.
He peered into the rear view mirror to witness the car go up in flames and it quickly exploded before the undead creature could emerge from the vehicle.
He smiled, happy for that small victory.
He continued along in an easterly direction and decided to look in on his old section to see what happened to his place and his neighbor’s homes. It was a small neighborhood built in a very rural setting. They had only purchased the place a few years ago, getting in when the housing development company was breaking ground on the neighborhood. They’d put affordable homes smack dab in the middle of this mostly woodland area. But the land around was developing, too. They’d put up a few major stores in the area that included a SuperMart, a grocery store, and more than a handful of fast food joints, while still maintaining some ‘mom and pop’ stores.
He counted the time on the clock and it took forty-eight minutes to get there. As he entered the development, he took the drive all the way around.
“The ol’ development looks like shit,” Alex whispered. Yards were in upheaval, streets were full of trash and gore, homes were overgrown with shrubbery and lawns were thick with grass, too, being that it was summer for certain. He hadn’t even noticed the shift in weather patterns these last few weeks, as up on the hill, in the shade of those trees, it seemed like it was always cool.
As he rounded the drive and pulled onto his street, he could see his place in the distance, seeing it half burned down. It looked like the fire had taken only half the house along with it.
He thought about going in, but decided against it. There was no way that he could face seeing Sara or any of their belongings ever again. It would take an exceptional set of circumstances for him to ever enter that place again, he admitted, reminiscing of Sara and their all too brief history.
As he sat in the driveway, he did take a quick run into the back yard and into his shed. The door was still wide open, and he noted that someone had rifled through his belongings, taking a good amount of his tools. He quickly grabbed a case of water from a shelf where he kept their surplus. He paused, scanned the area quickly, and grabbed a small pair of binoculars, too, strapping them over his neck and chest. As he made to leave, he caught a glimpse of something on the wall of the shed. It was a photo of Sara, smiling wide, a memento of their trip to the Bahamas. He snatched it off the wall before running back to the van. He opened the door, tossed the water in and climbed back into the driver’s seat, looking back to see Shadow lying quietly in the back of the van.
He could not help but shed a few tears in anger and frustration at what could have been as he stared at that photo before finally tossing it onto the passenger seat behind him.
He backed out of the driveway, staring in the rearview mirror at the shell of his former home until it was out of view around the corner. As his eyes focused back on the road in front of him, he noticed that some of the undead had wandered out of the homes there and were making a break toward the vehicle, chasing after it with varying speeds. He stepped on the gas and managed to hit one with the passenger side front quarter panel as it bounced off, rolling away with the force of the impact.
He was able to outdistance the rest of the stragglers and decided to go right back on the highway and make his way toward the Renaissance Faire.
He drove the next dozen or more miles in reflection of his recent losses and yet, when he saw Shadow in the rear view mirror, was gratified to yet have companionship of any kind.
As he continued on, he witnessed some pockets of zombies gathered around corpses, feasting on the remains, or wandering in the open fields to the left and the right.
They were once people like him…like Sara…and like Olivia.
He pushed it all out of his mind and drove on until he found a rest area wh
ere no other thing could be seen, living or otherwise, and opened the back door of the van. Both he and Shadow emptied their bladders and he was thankful that Olivia had at least had the good sense to pack up some of the canned goods as he was famished.
He opened a can of beans and split it with Shadow, dumping a portion into his mouth and then leaving the can down for the wolf, quickly devouring it and licking the inside of the can clean. Thoughts of Olivia surfaced, stealing his appetite as he stared at the wolf that had no such complications.
“Guess you were hungry, eh?”
The pair quickly resumed their journey and Alex drove for a little while longer until pulling over only once they had made it to within walking distance of the fair. It was beginning to grow dim and so, he decided to pull the van off the road, locked him and Shadow inside, stared at the photo of Sara for a long time and then tried to sleep.
He spent the next few hours, dozing off and on, but images of Olivia’s recent and horrifying demise surfaced repeatedly, stealing any chance of him getting any revitalizing rest.
He awoke a few hours later according to the clock which had moved from 11 o’ clock to 6 o’ clock on the dash, to the bright intrusion of sunshine bursting through the rear view mirror, catching him full on in the face. He shielded his eyes to it and stirred, retrieved Olivia’s pack, and then removed and opened a can of tuna. He scooped out a healthy portion and tossed the remainder of the can in the back where Shadow again licked the can clean.
The Renaissance Faire parking lot was in sight and he decided to pull the van further off the road under a copse of trees and locked it up, after retrieving his canteen and weapons, along with the photo of Sara, which he stowed in his front pocket. He took the time to throw branches and whatever else he could find over the van until you could see none of its green exterior. He called to Shadow who came out from behind the tree line, and followed Alex obediently.
He took note again of Shadow, who seemed to have grown in size again overnight, or if he hadn’t, perhaps Alex had never appreciated the size of the animal fully before now. He stared at the wolf and shook his head, unsure if it was simply his mind playing tricks or something else entirely. Again, he had no real understanding of a wolf’s growth rate as he had no good frame of reference, except to compare them to dogs. As he inspected Shadow, The wolf’s paws and canines seemed extremely formidable and he felt sorry for the zombie that attacked this wild animal, for he would tear it to pieces.
Wake the Dead Page 10