Zombie Attack! Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Devan Sagliani

  “What the hell was that?” Felicity screamed.

  “I don’t know,” I said, then amended my statement. “A man waving his arms. He looked normal, you know, as in alive.”

  Felicity looked in her side mirror.

  “It’s him. It’s Darren.”

  “Jesus.” I gasped. “He scared the hell out of me. Why did he do that?”

  She was out of the car before I was finished talking. She ran up to him and shoved him hard in the chest. I unbuckled my seat belt, threw open the door, and hurried over to join them.

  “What was that for?” She looked angry as she shoved him again. “You trying to get us killed? Huh?! Or are you just trying to kill yourself by taking the coward’s way out?”

  “I had to stop you,” he panted, scared and out of breath. “I couldn’t let you leave.”

  “Why’s that?” My blade was unsheathed in my hand, reflecting the fading sun light. I hadn’t noticed taking it out. Must have been force of habit.

  “Your friend, Benji.”

  “What about him?” Felicity demanded. If she still had feelings for this guy they were fading fast.

  “They are going to sacrifice him. That’s why they wanted him to stay.”

  “Start explaining fast,” I threatened, my hand gripping my sword harder.

  “The Harvest festival,” he said, gulping down air with his hands on his knees and a terrified look on his face.

  “We know,” Felicity said. “We were both drugged then baptized last night, remember?”

  “But they left Benji alone because he’s just a kid,” I said.

  “Wrong,” Darren finally straightened up as he spoke. “It’s because he’s an outsider, a stranger no one will miss. Do you remember those zombie pits I showed you this morning?”

  “Where you wife is.” Felicity shook her head.

  “What about them?” I asked.

  “Bryan doesn’t believe in killing zombies. He says they are the damned but that we should have mercy on them.”

  “You kinda covered all this earlier,” I said impatiently. “Get to the part where they want to hurt our friend before I cut you in half for almost running us off the road.” I took a step toward him and he held up his hand to fend me off.

  “Hold on. My wife wasn’t just attacked by a zombie at our house on Z-day and rounded up. She was sacrificed during a Harvest celebration to them. An offering is selected and placed in the pits for them to feast on.”

  “That’s horrible.” Felicity gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

  “Bryan says it’s God’s will and that when Christ comes back he will redeem them. The others believe it helps keep us safe from zombie attacks, but I know what it’s really about.”

  “What’s that?” I loosened my grip on my weapon. He was obviously in a great deal of emotional pain thinking about his wife as he spoke.

  “Control,” he said. “Keeping us in line. You see, the whole process is supposed to be a lottery. All our names go into a jar and he selects. God guides him to the sinner who must be cleansed, or that’s what he told us. We all know it’s not true.”

  “That’s why he wanted us to stay,” Felicity said. “We’re sinners in their eyes.”

  “Precisely,” Darren said. “Nobody is attached to you. No one is going to miss you. They’ll just assume you’re paying for your earthly transgressions. That way Bryan gets to keep his facade up and no one steps out of line. He does this four times a year and almost every time it’s been an outsider. The last time, he kept a couple of hikers he found and locked them in his house for three weeks.”

  “Who was his first victim?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

  “Town sheriff,” Darren said.

  “Figures. Get him out of the way. So why didn’t he choose me? I’m obviously the sinner in this group. Half of those people would probably cheer to see me get eaten. Why pick a kid?”

  “Less of a fight, I suppose.” Darren shrugged. “It’s not the first time this has happened. They make him feel special and welcome, like he belongs, then once you are out of the way, they give him the bad news. By then it’s too late. They are probably telling him right now. From what I’ve seen they don’t like to wait.”

  “I told him I was coming back,” I said. “How did he plan on explaining Benji’s transformation?”

  “He wouldn’t have to,” Darren said. “He’d just make up a story that Benji had gone off in search of you and you’d never be the wiser. Like I said, he’s thought of everything.”

  “What time is the Harvest sacrifice?” Felicity asked in a panic. “They can’t kill him right away can they? We’ve got to go back and save him!”

  “When the full moon reaches its peak,” Darren said. “Like I said, they’ve probably already begun preparing him. There is a purification ritual for the offering that involves prayer and a sedative. They want him as docile as possible when the time comes.”

  “If they give him anything like what they slipped us last night he won’t even know what’s happening,” I said.

  “Then we have to go now!” Felicity’s voice cracked in desperation. “Get in. You’re coming with us.”

  Darren didn’t hesitate. We all ran back to the Lexus and swung it around, heading back into town.

  “You’re going to have to forgive me for asking this,” I began, “but why are you helping us again?”

  “I will never forget the look in my wife’s eyes,” Darren said, lost in thought. “She wasn’t afraid anymore. It’s like she wasn’t even there. She was already one of them. Every day I go down to the pits to see her, hoping for a sign of life in those dead eyes. Something, anything, that tells me she remembers me. I keep hoping that he is right, that she is with the Lord and that he can bring her back on Judgment Day, but I know now that’s just a bedtime story they tell the small children. She’s not coming back, not to her old life, not to the world of sin. I can’t let that happen to another person. I can’t bear that weight on my conscience.”

  “Why did he choose your wife?” I wasn’t trying to be insensitive, but I wasn’t sure I understood. I wanted to know everything I could before I faced him again.

  “To keep me under control. I asked too many questions, challenged him. You see, I didn’t think it was right that he had all those young brides. My wife didn’t either. She got me riled up and I began to enjoy putting him on the spot in front of the others. I think I embarrassed him over it one too many times.”

  “And here I figured he didn’t care what anyone thought,” I said sarcastically.

  “After her Harvest I stopped asking questions. I’ve blindly obeyed him until you came back into my life. I thought he was the Messiah, sent to save us all, but now I can see I was just a fool who wanted something to believe in.”

  Felicity kindly patted him on the arm and he hung his head.

  I raced back as fast as I could without flipping the SUV in the narrow canyon curves. By the time I came around the corner, I could see a large crowd had gathered.

  Darren was right, I thought.

  Bryan wasn’t wasting any time at all. We’d been gone less than thirty minutes and his diabolical plan was already well under way.

  I drove the SUV right up and through the large crowd. People moved out of our way like drugged sheep as we approached the inner circle where Crowe was. I wondered if they were still feeling the effects of last night’s revelry or if they had been freshly dosed again.

  It makes sense, I thought. It’s not normal to kill a child. The only way he can get them to go along with it is to keep them loaded on the blood of the Lamb, whatever that concoction is. That way no one else’s conscience gets in the way. Too bad he hadn’t given a double dose to Darren. Maybe he was planning on drugging him too. Maybe that’s why he ran away.

  “The cleansing ritual has already begun,” Darren said, pointing to a small figure at Crowe’s side.

  Sure enough it was Benji, dressed in white robes, swaying back and f
orth. I slammed the car in park and jumped out with my sword ready to taste blood. Instantly a ring of armed guards surrounded Bryan. He didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

  So that’s why they sent us out on a tour of the promised land earlier, I thought. They were getting us out of the way while they prepared the sacrificial ritual.

  They could have slipped Benji something before we got back so he’d be ready. Bryan knew we wouldn’t stay. He knew that one way or another I would leave. He’d been playing us since the moment we arrived, knowing he could pull Benji away from us. He was truly evil down to the core.

  “What are you doing here?” Bryan glanced up and saw Darren slinking out of the car. “Ah, I see. Judas has brought you back to spread discord like a serpent in the garden.”

  “Let him go,” I shouted, “or so help me I will cut your head off where you stand and throw your corpse to the zombies.”

  “You wouldn’t make it three steps in my direction.” He laughed. “You are in my world now. Mind your manners or I will make things more difficult for you than you can imagine.”

  “Benji! Benji get over here right now,” Felicity called out to him, but he didn’t move. I could see his eyes were large and nearly solid black. It was no use. They had already administered the sedative. He was so drugged out he didn’t even know what was happening.

  “It’s too late for your friend,” Bryan said. “He’s already been cleansed and had his soul sent to God above. He was a very brave little boy. He will be missed, but we will see him again when the Lord returns. Amen.”

  The chorus of each loud, echoing amen was almost deafening. Were they mad? They were willing to kill an innocent kid to appease some false prophet? I wheeled around to see that many in the crowd had the same drugged look on their faces that Benji had. They weren’t crazy, or not entirely. They were high.

  “What did you give him?” I asked, fearing that he might be poisoned beyond saving.

  “He drank from the blood of the Lamb,” Bryan said. “His soul is now clean as the fresh white snow and at peace. He is ready for the Lord to receive him. When the moon reaches the peak of the sky, he will enter into the kingdom of heaven and take his place beside God at the throne.”

  “The hell he will,” Felicity said, fighting her way through them then holding Benji. She looked frantic.

  “You promised to take care of him,” I shouted. “You lied to us in front of all these people just so you could do your sick ritual!”

  “I know it appears that way, but you are wrong. It’s been decided,” Bryan boomed. “Just as Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his only son, just as God himself gave up his only child to save the sinful world, so too now must we offer up this child to protect ourselves from the children of the damned. It is out of my hands. There is no other way but his way. God’s will be done.”

  “We’re not going to let you take our friend and throw him into a pit of flesh eating zombies, pal.”

  “I don’t see how you can stop me,” he said in a smaller voice, so only the immediate circle could hear. “You are outnumbered in every way imaginable and we have the might of the one true God on our side.”

  “You will pay for this. If it is the last thing I do.”

  “If you are suggesting violence, again I assure you it will be the last thing that you do. Know that I am ready to die for my beliefs. I have nothing to hide from my God. Can you say that?”

  “Nothing to hide?” I roared. “Except the murder of innocent people and your harem of child brides you mean?”

  “This is pointless. Arguing with the damned about God’s sacred laws is like pouring clean water into a dirty cup and expecting it to remain pure. You are obviously sent of the devil to disrupt a sacred ritual during a holy celebration. Either you leave immediately and never return or I will be forced to take matters into my own hands.”

  “It’s against spiritual law to spill blood on this day,” Darren shouted, stepping up to Bryan. “You said it yourself. Only they who are worthy to be received into the kingdom of God shall have their blood spilled on this sacred day.”

  “What’s the policy on freeing the sacrifice and letting him leave with the people who love him?” Felicity hugged Benji to her.

  “Once a sacrifice has been selected the ritual must proceed,” Darren said.

  “There,” Bryan interrupted. “From the mouths of apostates come truths even he can’t deny.”

  “However,” Darren continued, “A volunteer may come forward to take their place. I didn’t learn about that until after you took my wife from me. If I had known, I would be in that pit right now instead of her.”

  “She was chosen by God,” Bryan hissed. “You should be so lucky.”

  “Then I volunteer,” Felicity shouted.

  Darren, Crowe, and I all spun around to her at the same time. In fact, she had the whole crowds’ full attention.

  “There has never been a volunteer before,” Bryan mumbled, shocked by her words. “Do you fully understand what you are committing to, young lady?”

  “I do. I will not just stand by while you kill him. He’s my family now, whether he likes it or not.”

  “Fine. Release him and take her to the cleansing room to be prepared.”

  The guards immediately seized her.

  “No!” I shouted, pushing my way forward.

  “As for you,” Bryan said, “you are to take him and leave at once. The devil and his minions are not welcome here. This is your final warning, or so help me God I will strike you down and make it another first during this sacred day.”

  “Darren,” I shouted. “Do something!”

  Darren looked sick to his stomach as he watched Felicity being pulled away. He seemed crippled with fear and unable to move. My mind began to race, trying to think of a way to save her. Every approach I considered seemed futile. Bryan Crowe was right. We were outnumbered. There was only one way to win her back. I would have to take her place.

  I knew I could take on zombies in hand-to-hand combat, but not if I was drugged out. Maybe if I tried hard enough I could overcome the poison, or manage to spit it out. Either way, I had to do something. I couldn’t just let them take Felicity away and kill her. I opened my mouth to speak but the words came out of Darren’s lips instead of mine.

  “I volunteer,” he said. “I will take her place in the pit.”

  Bryan groaned. This was turning into much more of a hassle than he had imagined.

  I was almost close enough to him now to make a move, but I knew his devoted followers would gladly take the impact of my blade in order to lay down their lives for their savior.

  “No,” Felicity said. “I can’t let you.”

  “Are you sure?” Bryan asked, looking almost bored by now. “You won’t be able to change your mind when she is gone, you know. Think about what you are doing, Darren.”

  “I should have done it long ago. I belong in the pit with my wife.”

  “Let her go,” Bryan said, practically rolling his eyes.

  Felicity ran forward and hugged Darren. “You are so brave. So amazingly, wonderfully, brave and stupid.”

  “It’s the right thing to do,” Darren said. “I knew what he was planning the minute you pulled into town. I should have said something before. I’m not brave. I’m a coward.”

  She silenced him with a long kiss that hushed the crowd. A twinge of jealousy shot through me at the sight, but I pushed it back.

  The guy is sacrificing his life for her, I thought, for all of us. The least he deserves is a goodbye kiss from his first love.

  Darren pulled back and smiled.

  “I will never forget you,” she said, staring into his eyes.

  “I never did forget you. I love you. I always have and I always will.”

  “I love you too.” A fresh round of tears burst out of her eyes. She hugged him tightly as he turned to me.

  “Take good care of her,” he said. “I want you all to have a long, healthy life filled with happi
ness and joy. I’m paying the ultimate price for it.”

  “I will,” I said, my mouth going dry at his words. “I promise.”

  “Time to go now.” He pulled away from Felicity. “Don’t worry. I won’t feel a thing. I won’t even know it happened.”

  Two guards led Darren off through the crowd to wherever Bryan did his purification ritual. I turned and glared at him.

  “Well?” He glared back. “You got what you wanted. What are you waiting for?”

  “Nothing,” I spat.

  Felicity grabbed Benji and led him to the car. I got behind the wheel and slowly began to back up and out of the crowd. They parted for us, leaving a wide circle to flip the car around. The last thing I saw as I looked back was Bryan’s shark-like eyes glaring at us in utter contempt as we pulled away.

  Felicity rode in the back with Benji, who looked very ill. He was sweating out the toxins of whatever they had given him. Even though it was warm in the car, he violently shivered every few seconds from head to toe.

  “It’s okay now,” she cooed. “You are safe. Everything is going to be okay.”

  I pulled off the dirt road and back onto the highway out of town. I slammed my foot down to the floor and the car rapidly accelerated. Felicity didn’t say a thing. If anyone decided to jump out in front of our car now, they were getting run over. One way or another I was getting the hell out of this town for good.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The drive back to the 101 Freeway seemed far bumpier than the ride in. A cloud of black smoke rose off in the distance in the direction we were heading, and I hoped it wouldn’t be something that was gonna slow us down. I wanted to get to the base as soon as I could and have Benji looked at by medics. He seemed to be coming around some as we drove on, but I couldn’t be sure how much they’d given him or how it was affecting his circulation.

  Felicity cradled his head in her lap and silently cried. I wasn’t about to try to comfort her after what had just happened. What could I say? I just felt lucky to have escaped with my friends and my life. That unexpected confession and kiss we shared up on the ridge was still floating around the edge of my consciousness, but it was slightly tainted now by everything else that had happened.