“Oh, that, no, it just sort of happens.”
She made a sound of approval and whispered something to herself before pulling out a notebook and a pencil, which Kate quickly snatched away, “Not the time or place Clara!” The bus backed up her concern by crunching down another half foot.
Harry looked up at the approaching seats and shuddered, “Agreed, let’s get out of here.”
“What about the zeds?”
Wolf listened out for a second, “I haven’t heard any so far, you?”
The bus joined in on the argument against me by dropping another foot and hitting me in the head with one of its seats.
I swear the bus is not going to be a regular part of the story, unfortunately.
We cramped into the aisle, all of us watching the fast approaching floor. I looked down for a moment and noticed the metal window frames had started to bend outward. With a second to spare I managed to shout “Down!” as they gave out. All six of us managed to land on our bellies just in time to prevent a rather nasty head injury.
It had dropped on an angle, the front first, leaving the rear mostly unaffected, it was clear though that that half wasn’t far from going either.
Now the only things stopping us from being very dead were the steel seats, but even they were starting to whine. “Go! Out the back!”
We belly crawled wildly for the smashed out rear window. Clara was the first out, followed closely by Harry, Kate and Wolf and then me. I went into a crouched position and turned to face Mark, who was still a few feet from the exit. “Oh for… Someone grab my legs!” I dove into the back of the bus and grabbed a hold of Mark’s arms, “Pull!”
With a swift yank I was free with Mark shortly behind.
We both got to our feet and started dusting ourselves off before joining the others in a few moments of cheerfulness.
It was nice to have that moment together.
But, as we know, all moments must end.
Mark started tugging on my shirt, an almost perplexed expression sitting on his face, “Hey John…”
“Yeah?” I asked with my joy still in full swing, I swear, nothing could bring me down.
“How long’s he been standing there?” He pushed past an audible gulp.
The rest of us turned to face the never-dying bastard not ten feet from us, and all I could get out was “Well… That’s about right. Hey Steve.”
Killing Steven
“Why’s he just standing there?” Harry whispered.
He was in the middle of the road at the foot of the hill, twitching and watching us, a smile clearly painted onto his dirty and blood covered face, “I don’t know Harry. How would I know that? Honestly, how? Was there a manual on the apocalypse that I was supposed to read?” I growled as quietly back at him.
It wasn’t that I blamed him for asking, it was just that I was frustrated with myself that I hadn’t figured it out yet. He should’ve tried to attack us by now, or at least set his cronies on us.
We’d formed a line across the barren street to face him while his inquisitive eyes darted between all of us. I’m not sure why a line seemed better than a clustered group, but it did.
“Well, how’d you get rid of him last time?”
“He just sort of… left.” I’d tried to think back to the last time I’d gone toe-to-toe with him, but it was hard with all the distractions. His pants were ripped and blood covered while his shirt had thick tire tracks across and torn through it.
He must’ve caused the accident, thrown himself in front of the bus at the last second and used his strength and healing factor to his advantage.
“Oh well, that’s real reassuring.” Harry snapped, “What the fuck are we meant to do?”
Part of me wanted to say ‘Just let him eat us.’ It seemed preferable to being hunted down by the seemingly invincible son of a bitch, but I knew the group wouldn’t go for that, “Ok… on the count of three…” Steve’s gaze had come to lock on me, like he was listening to what I had to say, “… We run in separate directions. Clara with Wolf, Mark with Kate and you’re with me Har. Har!?”
Turns out Harry thought that plan was piss and had decided that he preferred the idea of being a mother-fucking samurai.
He charged at the confused Steven screaming something unintelligible with the sword held low and pointed forward. Steve moved just in time to avoid a headache, but the blade still managed to drive through his shoulder right to the circular hilt.
He seemed more interested in the weapon than concerned, not even bothering to address his attacker with so much as a chomp, who still clung to the blade and was trying to pull it out.
“H-hey g-guys? This isn’t a good thing, right?”
Steven answered for us by grabbing Harry’s hands and starting to shake him around, slamming him into the ground and just generally using him like an old toy and he was an over-grown undead toddler.
“Any help would be appreciated!” Harry cried out, I hadn’t noticed but it seemed that the rest of us were just as hypnotised by the rather hilarious sight as me.
It was time to break the fight up though.
“Wolf! Get Harry off him! Kate and Mark, you’re on my back! Clara! You… I don’t know, take notes.”
Wolf shot toward the side of the road and then used his new angle of attack to get to the other side in a single bound, with Harry and his sword in hand.
My target was clear and I prepared myself for his attack.
But it didn’t come. No, instead Steven stomped angrily toward the fool who’d decided it’d be wise to stab him.
“Hey-!”
He silenced me with his hand and continued toward my two teammates who were still getting to their feet. I was less than comfortable with the idea that that creature had the presence of mind to get me to shut up, let alone be actually angry.
Was the old Steven still in there?
Was he just consumed by rage and hunger?
While I pondered he froze in place, like something inside him got turned off. Then he was twitching and trembling.
And then, with a final scream into the sky, it was back.
He spun in place, looking for fresh meat, anything to sink his teeth into. I clapped my hands a few times to get his attention, possibly a poor decision.
Scratch that, definitely a poor decision.
I had five people left in the world though and being selfish was no longer an option. Steven took the taunt and lumbered toward me with incredible speed. I shifted a fraction to the side and let him plough into the back of the bus.
Unsurprisingly, he did not like that, but it gave me an idea, “Get him in the bus!” Steven charged at me again and I caught him in a bear hug.
Not the best position to be in with a zed, a fact that I didn’t realise until he started trying to bite my face, “Kate! Wolf! A little help!?” I yelled out as I ignored every safety alarm in my head and drove my forehead into Steven’s nose, temporarily incapacitating him.
Very temporarily.
Pretty much the second Kate and Wolf hooked Steven under the arms and started dragging him away he was back and chomping. The two powerful vampires had a difficult time holding him as he lashed out and kicked and screamed into the air.
It was hard to watch, but being dead was a less than appetising thought.
“Put him through the back window. We’ll use the bus to pin him.”
They stuffed him in, kicking him back every time he tried to get out, and, when I reached them, pulled down as hard as they could on the back of the bus. We were a fraction too slow though, his top half managing to escape its bottom half’s crushed prison and we leapt back as he snapped at us.
I went to step on the hungry head, but Harry pulled me back and went past me.
“He’s definitely less scary now that he’s all trapped, ain’t he?” He crouched down and looked at the calming creature, the it apparently returning to its slumber, replaced again with the curiously intelligent version, “You guys ever wonder if t
hey’re still in there?”
That was a question that I’d rather leave unanswered, and apparently so did Harry. He got to his feet, drew his blade, raised it high above his head and, with one second of hesitance, sliced off Steven’s confused head.
We all stood in shock as our once friend’s head rolled around on the ground.
Then it blinked.
While the rest of us looked on at the disturbing image Harry shrugged, before grabbing a handful of its hair, lifted up the head, which seemed to be resetting its jaw, above the tip of his sword and dropped it onto the glinting metal neck first.
Even I shuddered a bit at the sound as the sword slid clean through the neck hole, a full two inches of the blade pushing through his matted hair and sticking out the top of his skull.
Steven’s eyes twitched a few more times before peacefully closing, causing a stillness to fill the stretch of road that we’d found ourselves on.
We’d done it, well, Harry had done it.
He dropped the blade to the ground with the head still attached and walked around to the other side of the bus.
The rest of us followed him and watched as he roughly tugged the duffel bag out of one of the smashed out windows, “Har…” he ignored me, focussing entirely on the stuck bag. “Har.” I walked up to him and lifted the warped metal enough for him to pull the bag out.
“Thanks, I’ll do a check of the weapons and then-”
“Harry!” I’d shouted just a bit louder than I meant to, but it got his attention, “Look, mate, are you alright? First those people in the tunnel, then the bandit, now Steve. I need to know you’re dealing with it.”
He dropped the bag and leant against the dented metal, “Yeah. Yeah, I just… I think I could use a few hours of sleep. You know?”
I nodded and clapped him on the shoulder, “I think we could all use some r and r,” I turned to face the others, “we should- Guys, come here. Slowly.” Kate went to turn and look at what I could see, “No! Just come over here, now. Harry, give me a weapon.”
The group made their way over to me while Harry rummaged through the bag and gave me a rifle. I took aim and waited for the others to reach Harry and I.
“Steven… Buddy… If you’re still in there I need you to-” he was gone and over the hill before I could finish, “Leave…” I refused to lower my gun for another few seconds, confirming within myself that he was gone.
“Harry took off his head! How is he still getting around?” Wolf blurted out, “I mean, his head wasn’t even anywhere near the body.”
A disturbing thought hit me, “Mark, you’re with me, the rest of you hold back.”
The two of us made our way to back of the bus, me checking the surroundings while Marcus crouched down next to the very much there body, “It must have something to do with the brain… The body hasn’t grown back a new head, as you can see. Kind of like a lizard’s tail.”
“Yeah, I’ll remember that when a magpie tries to take my head. Are you sure that the body is dead? We’re not gonna have a clone army of Steves are we?”
Mark got to his feet and shook his head, “Highly unlikely, I’m no biologist but I’m pretty sure that he won’t be making copies of himself any time soon, at least, not alive ones.”
That was enough to make me feel a bit more comfortable, not enough to make me stop watching the horizon for Steve, “Alright, that’s some good news at least, but how do we kill him?”
“My best guess?” He paused for a long while, watching his thought float away into the clouds, “We don’t.”
Live and Let Live
The group had taken the fact that we’d deduced that Steven was basically invincible pretty well.
Except for Harry, that is, “So you’re telling me that an unstoppable and crazy strong vampire zombie is now in permanent position of my sword? My only possession. Literally the only thing that I could call mine in this anti-superficial world?”
“Yes.” I said flatly as we made our way into an empty house about a kilometre from the bus. Getting as far away from the potentially explosive hunk of junk as possible seemed the best decision. We knew it wasn’t our last stop for the day, despite how tired and worn down we all were.
I’d given the rifle to Mark and had the knife that Gabe gave me held up and ready to slash at anything that decided to poke its head out.
Harry stuck with me while the others fanned out and checked the other rooms that led off from the extended hall. We came to the end of the hall where there was a sliding door. Harry pulled out my pistol from his pocket and kept it aimed at the floor, “Where did you find that?”
He looked at my gun and shrugged, “Must’ve picked it up in the tunnel, can we focus on the door?”
In that moment I understood why losing the sword was such a big deal. I’d gotten so used to sharing and I’d forgotten what it felt like to own something, “Fine, but you’re giving that back the second we’re down.”
With a roll of his eyes he nodded and gestured at the sliding door.
I counted down from three with my free hand and then tugged on the simple metal handle, revealing a dark living room, wooden planks and shelves blocking out the morning sunlight while one tall fridge blocked the back screen door. Someone had been staying there, and, judging from the smell of cooked canned ham, they weren’t far gone.
I stepped in, checking the left most corner first.
Someone grabbed me in a headlock with one arm from behind and knocked my knife from my hand, “Now tell your man to drop his gun and come in with his hands up.” He said as gruffly and scarily as he could, but the fear was obviously pushing through. He jabbed me in the back with something, “Do it! Or your gonna get it!”
“Oh yeah big boy? You like it like that?” I whispered saucily.
He jabbed me with it again, “Stop it! Get your man in here!”
“Oooh, now that sounds like fun.”
“Stop it!”
Harry poked his head around the corner, “Listen to him John. I don’t need that mental imagery. How many?”
I looked around the clearly empty room, “Just the one.”
Harry retreated back around the corner and I heard the thump as he dropped the heavy duffel to the ground, “Oh come on mate, do you really plan to hold me off by yourself? Just let the sexually voracious vampire go and we’ll talk about this.”
“I’ve got a shotgun pointed at his back!”
I grinded against what he had wedged into my lower back, “Don’t sell yourself short. I’m sure you know what to do with it.”
“Shut up!” Harry and my very uncomfortable captor said in unison, “John? Has he?”
I shifted against it again and tried to build a mental image, “Nup, my guess is a wooden spoon.”
Harry didn’t waste a second, coming into the room with the gun aimed directly at the utensiller behind me, “You can make this easy or messy. Let him go.”
Neither of us heard the rattling in time, Hell, we didn’t even hear the little nutbag running across the room until the last second as he started screaming, before smashing a brick on my pistol making Harry drop it.
It seemed, though, that he hadn’t thought past that point, not even reacting as Harry wound up for a punch before cracking him across the face. “Ow! My fucking..! Ow! Oh…”
The guy who’d been holding me let me go and ran over to unconscious brick soldier, “What did you do!?” His weak voice cried out, matching up with his frail figure, a small white shirt barely clinging to his bony body.
“I knocked him out.” Harry said as he shook away the pain in his hand.
“He’s a child!”
Harry looked at me, a pleading expression on his face, “He hit me with a brick!”
I examined the father and son relationship for a moment and something kind of shattered inside me, I’m not too proud to admit that I may have whispered ‘Papa’ under my breath.
Screw you guys, I was under the impression that I’d never have children at
that point.
The rest of my gang rolled into the room, Wolf being the first to question, “What happened?” He asked while aiming down the sights of his M4.
“Har knocked out a pre-teen.”
Everyone turned to him instantly and he jumped to the defensive, “He hit me with a brick!” He said in a variety of pitches.
I walked over to my smashed up gun and scooped it up, “My gun! I loved my gun…” The slide was bent and warped and the clip was stuck hanging halfway out, “How the Hell did you manage to do this?”
“It wasn’t me!”
The father was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the present situation, couldn’t blame him really. Six armed people crammed into what I assume was his house? I’d be pretty thrown as well, “What do you people want!?”
“Shut up for a second. Har, you borrowed my gun without permission and now it’s broken, who am I supposed to blame?”
Harry pointed at the unconscious kid and winced, “Goddamn… Clara, can you come have a look at my hand?” he said as he walked over to her. She nodded and they both left the room.
“Oh sure, go cry in a corner somewhere with your boo-boo. Mark, can you-” Mark snatched my pistol from my hand before I could finish and started looking over it, his over-eagerness to have something to fix was almost adorable.
He looked at me and gave me an excited nod before disappearing into the hall, grabbing the duffel as he went and going into one of the rooms.
Now that I think about it, the humans of our group were probably in such a rush because of what they feared was going to happen next.
Kate pointed at the two people curled up on the floor with M4, “What are we gonna do with these two?”
I rolled my shoulders and cracked my knuckles before grabbing my knife back up, “I’m not sure Kate. I mean, can we really just leave people who attack on sight?”
Wolf and Kate both picked up on the fear tactic that I was using. Wolf shrugged, “Seems like a bad idea to me, you know, for other people’s safety.”
The father started waving frantically, “Nonono! We’re not bad people! Please!” His boy started to come to, with the yelling right next to his head.
The Mulligan Planet 2 (The Mulligan Planet Trilogy) Page 15