by M. E. Betts
Whatever you say, Kandi Cane, Shari thought.
"Stop calling me that! You've just got a bruised ego because I pointed out your lack of insight, you know." She pouted at Shari's side as they walked back to the radio tower.
Shari saw that Daphne had chosen two sticks from the assortment, and was now etching out marks in the middle of each stick. She put the sticks together in a cross shape and began to bind them together. Shari stepped forward to look closer, knitting her brows.
"What is that you're tying those with?" she asked.
"Intestine," Daphne replied non-chalantly. She paused for a moment, looking up at Shari. "Don't worry, it's not people."
Shari nodded slowly. "Okay." Ew, she thought. She really is one with the forest, isn't she?
"Indeed," Kandi agreed.
"There," Daphne said, pleased with her work. "Now I just have to wait for the intestines to dry." She set the wooden throwing star down and turned to Shari. "You mind if I ask why you decided to come out? I mean, you were safe where you were at."
"Well...." Shari began. She sat down on the ground near Daphne. "The fact that I was safe...I don't know, it made me feel a little guilty. I mean, I didn't know--still don't know--what happened to my family. And after all I learned from Fauna, I just thought that coming out into the world to help in whatever way I can...it's the least I can do, you know? Besides...." She sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "It felt a little awkward being there, especially after Fauna died. It was Jon and his wife, their kid, and...me. I was the odd one out."
"And you were attracted to Jon?" Daphne ventured.
Shari's eyes grew wide. "You didn't see us, did you?" she asked.
"No, I could just kind of tell," Daphne said, noticing the skeptical look on Shari's face. "I really didn't see anything, okay? If I saw you guys going at it, I would have looked away. I'm not gonna stand there and gawk! I might like to sneak around and spy on people, but I'm not a creepy perv like that!" She giggled.
Shari smiled. "Well anyway, I guess you got the answer to your question. Yes, I was attracted to him, and yes, that was one of the things that made it awkward for me to be there."
Daphne suppressed a giggle. "At least you got some!"
"Yeah," Shari laughed, "it was a long time comin', and it'll probably be a long time gone, too."
"So where is your family?" Daphne asked.
"Carbondale. I guess that's my plan for now...try and make it up there, see if I can even get to my parents house, or if it's...." She paused, steeling herself. "If it's too overrun. I mean, I'm not trying to fool myself. Maybe my mom and dad are fine, but there's a good chance they're not. But I have to at least try. I was on my way to their house for Easter when all this happened. Another hour, hour and a half, and I'd have been there. But I guess I should be grateful that I wound up with Fauna. I don't think I'd be the person I am today if she hadn't taught me to be."
"Well," Daphne said, "I don't know about you, but I think we should stick together. It's me and you against a world full of sadists. At least until we meet someone else who doesn't want to rape or kill us. I'm normally a loner, but considering the circumstances...I think the good people are gonna have to band together against the bad people. What do you think?" She looked at Shari expectantly, a bashful smile on her childlike, freckled face.
"I guess you're right," Shari said. "I don't really see any plus-side to being alone in this shit. And I think both of us have something useful to bring to the table. I can teach you what I know, and...." She laughed. "You can teach me to be a wilderness woman!"
Daphne pointed to her head. "I've got about a couple dozen survival manuals in here, memorized. Between the two of us, we'll be a force to be reckoned with."
"And most of the sadists won't even see it coming," Shari said. "They'll just think of us as tail."
"Until we castrate them!" Daphne said with a tone of mock innocence.
"Figuratively and literally!" Shari added. "So should we take off pretty soon?"
"I don't see why not," Daphne said. "There's really no reason for us to stick around here."
Shari nodded. "I'm just gonna mess with my talkie talkie a little bit. I might as well, while we're right here next to the tower." She took the transceiver from her bag and scanned the band. She had checked the AM and only come across a station playing old blues songs. At around 77 GHz, she heard a transmission carrying a hurried, distressed male voice.
"This is Adrian. I'm outside of Marion, Kentucky. Um, I just want to warn anyone in the area who can hear this that, uh...that danger is probably headed your way. There was this group of---of raiders or something, they came through here a little while ago. We had about fifty people here in our settlement, living in about a dozen houses in a small subdivision outside of town. I guess someone found out about what we had going here, 'cause a group of about thirty assholes showed up. Most of 'em were on ATVs, but about five or six were riding dirtbikes. They killed all the men, except--except me. Most of the women, too. A few of the females got kidnapped, but mostly they just mowed 'em down. They took everything we had that was worthwhile...food, guns, ammo, walkie-talkies. I hid on the top of a building where I was keeping watch, and I sniped...I don't know exactly, I think a dozen of them from up there. After they fled, I ran back home to look for my daughter, Celia, who was at home sleeping when they came into town. When I got there, she was gone. Our neighbor, Judy, had been there, keeping an eye on her while I was on watch duty. She was lying dead in the hallway outside of Celia's room." His voice cracked. He paused, collecting himself. "She must've died trying to stop them from taking Celia. I'm gonna go out and see if I can hunt those fuckers down and find my little girl. I heard one of 'em say something about the Wal-Mart down in Princeton, so I guess that's where I'm going. God damn them, taking a twelve-year-old girl to get passed around by a pack of two-dozen or so animals! Sick fuckers. I can't let them get away with this...that's my baby girl!" He paused, collecting himself before he continued. "I'm leaving now to go find her, but I just wanted to try and warn the rest of you--if you have somewhere safe to go, a bomb shelter or something, do it! Do it now, hide, fortify your defenses, put out traps if you can, whatever you can do, do it now. Be ready, because they're out there and if you're a survivor, especially a whole settlement of survivors, they're gonna want what you have, and they'll kill whoever they have to in order to get it. Good luck, I'm out."
Shari took it all in, nauseated by the repulsion she felt for the new breed of sadists thriving in the apocalypse. She looked at Daphne.
"So what do you think about all this?" she asked.
Daphne looked her square in the eye and said flatly, "I think we should hunt them down and kill them." She held her titanium knife, as if the enemy were already before her.
"Again, I'm glad we're on the same page," Shari replied.
"Now this is what we came out for, isn't it, Princess?" Kandi said as she sat sidesattle on her horse, facing Shari.
"Killing sadists?" Shari whispered. She shrugged indifferently. "Pretty much, I guess." They had been on the road for about twenty minutes. Daphne was up ahead in the ATV, leading the way down highway 60 toward Marion. They passed a billboard on their right. "LOU'S RT. 60 MOTORCYLE SUPERSTORE...WE HAVE YOUR BIKES, GEAR, AND ACCESSORIES ALL UNDER ONE ROOF! 5 MILES EAST, ON THE RIGHT," the billboard read. Shari rode faster to catch up to Daphne.
"Hey!" she said, astride with the ATV.
Daphne slowed, then stopped. "What's up?"
"Did you see that sign back there? For the motorcycle shop?"
Daphne shook her head, smirking. "No, why? You wanna trade your horse in for a hog?"
"I was just thinking, they probably have some useful stuff in there. Helmets, Kevlar suits, stuff of that nature. It's bout five miles from here. You wanna stop, have a look around? It's about five miles from here."
"Sure, why not?" Daphne replied. She pressed the gas, continuing on eastward.
After about 4 miles, they entered a small
town. Shari supposed the shop was on the far side of town.
Daphne twisted back to look at Shari. "Let's hurry up through here!" Shari nodded. Daphne put the pedal down on the ATV, and Shari slapped the reigns. As they got near the edge of town, Shari looked back the way they came. The road was still clear, and there was no apparent sign of any undead. She looked ahead, noting that the shop was now within view. They approached the building, which was a large, one-story structure with few windows other than the large display window on the front. The two large, rounded front windows were reinforced with bars on the inside. A large garage sat behind the building, with a sign reading, REPAIRS. Daphne got off of the ATV and walked over to the large glass doors on the side of the building.
"Locked," she said, trying the doors. "Should we break it?"
"No," Shari said, "it'll leave us vulnerable. Anyone or anything could come in through the hole. Let's look for a back door." They went around to the back entrance. She searched her bag, quickly finding the item she was looking for. She walked back to the rear door, crowbar in hand.
"You think that'll pry that door open?" Daphne asked.
"Well," Shari said, "I guess we'll see." She slid the edge of the crowbar under the lock mount, and to her surprise the door swung open into the back room.
"Was it unlocked?" Daphne whispered, whipping out her titanium blade. She peered into the building, puzzled. "Or did someone open it?"
"No, I think it was open," Shari said, inspecting the lock closely. "It looks like it's electric. I guess it doesn't stay locked if there's no power." She led Eva into the building.
"You're taking your horse in with you?" Daphne asked.
"Yeah, just in case zombies show up," Shari replied. "We made a lot of noise riding through town, and I don't want to leave her here to be eaten if a whole parade of undead heads this way."
Daphne shrugged. "Fair enough." Shari took out her flashlight and glanced around the room. "Help me move this," she said, pointing to a large cabinet with rollers. They slid the cabinet in front of the door and locked the wheels in place.
"There," Shari said. "That'll keep it closed, at least until somebody's ready to put in the effort to open it."
They made their way carefully to the front of the store, checking the back rooms as they passed them.
"Eww, what's dead in here?" Daphne wondered as they entered the main part of the building, the showroom.
Shari peered behind the counter. A corpse lay on the floor, bloated and discolored. There was a large hole in his forehead, encrusted with blackened blood. There were several small cuts on his face, and his lower lip was split wide open. She noticed a nametag on his chest.
"I think someone killed Lou when they looted the place," she said, bringing the neck of her shirt up to crudely cover her mouth and nose. She looked around the showroom, where about two-dozen motorcycles sat under a large dome covered with skylights. She walked to the side opposite the counter, where she saw racks displaying jeans, jackets, and full-body suits. She looked at the tags on the apparel. "Hey, these are all kevlar," she told Daphne. "You might want to see if they have anything in petite, 'cause this shit is useful." She picked up a pair of form-fitting, boot-cut black jeans. "And some of them are cute!" She took off her pants and wriggled into the kevlar pair she had picked up.
Daphne was examining a pair of titanium-plated kevlar gloves. "These are nice...now do they have them in a small?" She perused the shelves. "Here we go, these should fit my tiny hands. Shari, you should pick out a pair of these for yourself."
Shari nodded. She had donned a kevlar motorcycle hood which covered her entire neck and face, short of the eyes. The face of the hood was a skull print.
"So," Shari said, "how does my butt look in these pants?"
Daphne burst into laughter. "For a skeleton, your butt looks so round in those jeans! Man, that' s creepy! All you need is some sunglasses, and the whole look will be complete."
Shari moved on to jackets. She picked up a leather jacket with a kevlar backing and titanium plates. The back of the jacket was embroidered with an image of a heart being pierced by an arrow. This jacket was made for me, she thought.
"Well yes," Kandi replied, looking through the apparel with an expression of distaste. "After all, your name means 'arrow' in Indian, doesn't it?"
Does it? Shari thought. I didn't know that.
"You must know it in some part of your mind, if I know it," Kandi said. "I'm glad I don't have a physical body, I'd hate to have to give up this rather lovely period garb you imagined for me in favor of this dreadful biker gear."
I like it, Shari said. And not just because I'm real.
"You wench!"
Shut up, Kandi Cane. She looked at the tag on the jacket. "Oh my god," she said, "this thing costs over six-thousand dollars!" She slipped into the jacket, tearing off the tags. "It's my lucky day, they're having an end-of-the-world sale!"
Daphne smirked. "Everything must go!"
After about half an hour of scouring the racks and shelves, Shari and Daphne were satisfied with their selections. Shari had her hood, the jeans and leather jacket, boots, and gloves, all kevlar, plus a pair of wrap-around sunglasses. Daphne had picked out a full-body, titanium-plated, kevlar dirtbike suit complete with helmet, plus boots and gloves.
"It's not my usual look," she admitted, "but it beats the rotted zombie look that everyone seems to be wearing lately."
"I guess we should be back on the road," Shari said. She glanced out the window. "Holy shit...!"
"What?" Daphne spun around to look out the window behind her. "Oh, fuck! Jesus, I can smell them!"
A large group of undead was making its way down highway 60, heading east from town. Daphne and Shari both ducked down, making their way toward the back of the store with slinking, clandestine steps.
At least they haven't noticed us yet, Shari thought.
"Well, not in here anyway," Kandi said, sneaking beside Shari. "They noticed you two barreling down Main Street. Red rag to a bull, I think."
"Wait--!" Shari said. "I left something important back there."
"Hurry up," Daphne said in a muted, sing-song voice, her lips barely moving, "and be careful."
Shari crept back to the front of the store. So far, so good, she thought, noting the procession of zombies steadily making their way east, continuing past the motorcycle shop. She advanced to the spot where she had stood, changing into her new zombie survival gear. She picked up Fauna's hat from the shelf where she had absent-mindedly set it. She placed it on top of the kevlar skull hood she wore and silently crept to the back of the store, where Daphne and Eva waited. She stopped for a moment near the counter, looking back. She saw, much to her chagrin, a young male zombie in a Wal-Mart shirt making his way toward the shop. Now I KNOW I saw that guy shuffle past the store and down the road. As she gazed out the window, she saw another familiar one, and another, and another. An elderly female, two little girls wearing their best Easter dresses. They were all headed in the opposite direction, now they're coming back. That can't be good.
"Well, princess, it would appear they are, indeed, hunting you and Daphne. They're just not that skilled at it, I presume. But it would seem they've got their sights set on you now, wouldn't it?"
She made her way to the back room. She looked at Daphne and pointed toward the road. "They're coming back," she whispered, though it was really more mouthing the words than whispering them.
Daphne nodded. "I know," she mouthed. "I can hear them out there." The undead were piled up against the front door. One fifty-something male zombie wearing a uniform was awkwardly beating the door with a large pair of channel locks. A thin crack appeared in the door. Shari was guessing the undead man had been a plumber, based on the uniform and the tool that he still held in his undead state. Judging from the state he's in, she thought, noting his discolored, well-rotted flesh, he might've been walking around with those channel locks since the first day of this plague. Since the day he was still just a p
lumber, and I was just a librarian. The plumber continued to batter the front door, which was already compromised. The crack began to deepen, sending out smaller cracks along its length.
Shari climbed onto a desk. It was situated underneath a window, which was high up on the wall. She stood on the desk, peering through the window. Aw, shitstain! she thought. There were roughly a dozen undead wandering around the back parking lot. They know we're in here, for sure. She racked her brain, wondering how she and Daphne should proceed. She looked around the back of the store and the hallway leading to the front showroom. She approached the front door carefully, realizing upon close inspection that there was a metal gate which could be retracted from the wall, providing a barrier between the foyer and the rest of the store. She silently pointed it out to Daphne. Daphne nodded, giving her a "thumbs-up." She walked briskly to the front of the store, no longer worried about being stealthy. She unlocked the front door, then the outer door of the foyer. She grabbed the gate, attempting to pull it closed. Fuck, it won't budge! she said internally. Kandi, what the hell do I do!?
"Hurry up! Lock it!" Daphne whispered, her face contorted into an expression of horrified urgency.
Kandi piped up from behind her. "You might want to disengage that lock," she said, pointing to a locking mechanism near the floor. "And hurry, because trouble's headed this way." Shari heard a zombie stumble toward the open foyer. She fumbled with the lock, beginning to panic.
"It's stuck," she whispered to Daphne. She continued her attempt to slide the locking mechanism down as Daphne crept toward her and took out her Titan blade, ready for a showdown with the undead. She saw that there were another eight of them wandering toward the foyer.