The Feral Children [A Zombie Road Tale] Box Set | Books 1-3

by Simpson, David A.

  Tobias bumped past Otis as he approached them. His face was an unreadable mask. Donny set her down gently and met the boy’s eyes.

  “That’s my sister.” Tobias growled.

  “Remember that whole being a jerk conversation we just had?” Analise asked

  Donny’s face lit up in surprise when Tobias wrapped him in a hug and lifted him off his feet and spun him around as he’d done Analise seconds before.

  Tobias grinned at him as he let Donny go. “Take care of her, or answer to me.”

  Donny nodded once. It was enough to cement the bond between the warriors.

  “I guess half a jerk is better than all jerk.” Swan said as she gingerly hugged her sister, mindful of both their injuries. “Glad you made it, I knew you were too tough to kill. Who’s this?”

  Spivey had staked out the balloon and observed the tribe after the animals sniffed at the basket and lost interest. They were just as Analise had described them. Wild and savage looking but clearly dedicated to one another. He was still amazed at the fact that these children had managed to survive on their own for all of this time. He took in their long hair, braided and adorned with ornaments. Feathers, beads and jewelry were woven into it. Their armor was much like Analise’s. Some was repurposed plastic guards from various sports, some was thick, boiled leather and some was metal. Most of them wore furs of some sort and they all bore the scars of close quarters battle. The dark-haired girl with the wolves was wearing a splint on one arm. He could see the line of sweat on her brow from the injury that had to be causing her endless pain yet she endured as she welcomed Analise back into their group. He marveled at the strange new world they lived in where the dead walked the earth and humans ate each other. A world where a band of feral children met the new reality and didn’t give up. They had forged something special, something unheard of. Like flowers through a crack in the sidewalk, they had blossomed and found a way.

  The pale boy approached him. High cheekbones and dancing blue eyes hinted at a mischievous streak. The scars and tattoos showed the warrior side of the young man. He held out his hand to greet the boy but the kid ignored it. Instead he stepped in close and looked in Spivey’s eyes.

  “I don’t know who you are,” He said. “But thank you.”

  Tobias wrapped him in a crushing hug that surprised him with its strength. He patted the boy on the back.

  “Call me Spivey. Your sister is very special Tobias. She touched me and my family deeply. I’m glad we got the chance to know her.”

  Tobias stepped back and very solemnly said. “I owe you a debt I cannot repay. I prayed to Odin and he sent you to return my sister on the wings of a Valkyrie.”

  “No, you don’t owe me anything.” Spivey said. “We just did what was right.”

  Tobias reached up and untied one of his braids. He slid a diamond ring free from his hair and held it out. “For your family.”

  Spivey took the ring and dropped it in his shirt pocket. It would have been immensely valuable once, but now it was just a shiny rock. The sentiment behind it is what gave it value.

  “My wife will love it. Thank you.”

  The rest of the tribe gathered around him with praise and questions. The female polar bear licked his face while the giraffe sniffed at his hair. It was the strangest thing and he wished Sara could witness it.

  “Feast!” Tobias yelled. “We must feast the return of my sister and the hero who brought her!”

  “We don’t have any food unless motor mouth over there,” Swan gestured at Donny, “can manage to hunt something. Otherwise, it’s whatever we have left from the ice cream truck.”

  “That’s not exactly true.” Spivey said. He reached in the balloon and pulled out the food basket Laurie had sent.

  Cheers went up from the tribe. Blankets were spread and a small feast was shared between man, beast and children.

  Spivey was a little intimidated at first, it wasn’t every day a panther stared at you until you gave her a bit of your sandwich. He wiped crumbs from his shirt and stood. “I have to be going. My own tribe is waiting at home. It was a pleasure to meet you all. If the wind currents cooperate, I’ll be telling my wife and daughter an amazing tale tonight over dinner.”

  Analise hugged him once more and kissed his cheek. “I’ll never forget you.”

  “Better not.” He kissed the top of her head. “You know where to find us. All of you can have a place there if you change your minds.”

  She nodded and stepped back. He climbed into the basket and made his preparations. Tobias and Donny loosed the anchor ropes at his command. Spivey hit the lever on the burner and the balloon rose gracefully in the air. The pups chased it for a while until the Valkyrie was far across the field and high in the sky.

  32

  Tribe

  Analise’ return to the tribe reinvigorated the spirits of the children. Tobias fussed over her like a mother hen, making sure her every need was catered to. She quickly tired of his hovering and told him to get away before she stabbed him.

  She was content to sit in the saddle atop Daisy, stroke her fur and watch the silent countryside pass by. The songs of distant birds, the occasional chattering of a squirrel and the click of claws on the pavement were the only sounds in the silent world. Occasionally a screen door would creak back and forth on its rusting hinges or a loose piece of tin would rattle in the breeze but the world was quiet for the most part. Electric lines drooped on poles, cars sat dust covered in driveways and lesser creatures scurried to hide from the predators as they passed.

  She talked quietly to Donny about her ordeal and how much she had missed them all. Especially him. They talked about the nameless man and wondered who he’d been. What he’d done to be sorry about. They had no answers and would never find any. It would remain a mystery. He was happy to walk alongside her and pleased in the acceptance the tribe had shown of their feelings for one another. The end of the world had taken away everything from so many but it had given him everything he’d ever wanted.

  Despite their wounds, the tribe made good time. Houses and abandoned cars were more frequent the further south they traveled. Scavenging became easy and Donny’s spear flew true when a young buck ventured under the tree where he and Yewan waited.

  Otis milked his sore shoulder for all the attention it was worth. His limp seemed to get worse when someone was watching but the bear was healing quickly. Kodiak had removed his stitches and the wound was a healthy shade of pink. The days passed pleasantly as they cut through the empty lands and the winding roads. A small horde of undead scented them and came hissing out of a field, hungry for flesh. They were slow and broken, walking nonstop for a year in all kinds of weather had worn them down. They got tangled up in a barbed wire fence and Swan sent her wolves to kill. The rest of the tribe watched from a distance, glad they didn’t have to get dirty.

  Swan scratched at the splinted bandages on her fractured arm. It was sweaty, smelled bad and itched to no end. She muttered curses under her breath as the pain radiated outward from the injured bone. She practiced tossing her left-hand tomahawk at fence posts along the road and one of the wolves would happily retrieve it on the rare occasion she missed. She worried how the wound would affect her aim once it healed and tried not to think about it. She wasn’t bad with her left hand but she was much more confident with her right. Her bow was still in the woods by the corpse of Diablo. In the confusion, she hadn’t thought to send someone after it. It irked her that Donny was providing all the fresh meat. He hadn’t teased her, he probably wasn’t keeping count of his kills, but she was. By her score, he’d have to have a serious run of bad luck once she got healed or she’d never catch up.

  Kodiak and Harper walked at the front of the pack, talked for hours sharing plans and ideas about what it would be like in Lakota. He didn’t like to think about the serious aspects, he supposed they would all go back to school and pick up where they left off. He was itching for some X-Box trigger time. Some mindless violence where no one re
ally got hurt and the stakes weren’t real. An escape where when people died, they just hit reset and started over. Harper hoped they had a hospital set up, she wanted to learn more about medicine and repairing damaged bodies.

  Vanessa ranged a couple of miles ahead of them on Ziggy. The Ostrich was much easier to handle than Bert and she could run farther and faster than Donny so she took over the duties as their forward Scout. She marked spots where she found supplies so Tobias or Kodiak wouldn’t waste time walking down long country driveways if there wasn’t anything worth having. She would find the best place for them to camp out and be waiting when they arrived. Sometimes she had to clean out a house and sometimes the undead were still fast and vicious but she had gotten good at killing. Most of the time she simply poked around, made sure there weren’t any infestations of fleas and had a fire going so the twins could cook.

  They crossed into Oklahoma without much fanfare. They’d come down paths and backroads through Missouri and Arkansas and the sign that welcomed them to the Sooner state was faded. It was a milestone though and they celebrated that evening as they ticked another day off the journey.

  33

  Twisted

  The miles melted behind them as they drew closer to the walls of Lakota, the fabled city they’d heard so much about. Some of the roads they traveled ended at streams and rivers but only once did they have to backtrack to find a bridge. Bert could wade through most of them but he was head strong and if he thought it was too deep, no amount of cajoling could get him in. Ziggy didn’t care much for deep water either but she would follow wherever Vanessa led her. As they got closer, now only a half finger away on the map, excitement, a little nervousness and anticipation filled each of them. They thought they might see or hear cars but they never did. There was no reason for anyone to be driving on the backroads, the truckers, retrievers and Hell Drivers stayed on the main route that linked the communities. Only a retriever would go off the safe roads anymore. There were so many trees and branches laying across many of them, it was slow going.

  The weather was weird and everything seemed oddly quiet in an already quiet world. The air was heavy, almost ominous and from the looks of the clouds, there was a storm brewing. The sky was turning a strange shade of yellow they’d never seen before as they passed a sign at an overgrown crossroads.

  Lakota: 10 miles.

  The animals were acting skittish and kept sniffing the air, almost as if they could smell something troubling coming their way. They unconsciously picked up the pace and kept searching ahead for Vanessa. Miles away the horizon was thick with heavy rain clouds. The tribe wasn’t too concerned as long as they had a dry place to sleep, they’d been through storms before. They’d been trapped inside for days when a blizzard had howled outside Piedmont house. At least the weather was warm, they would welcome a nice gentle shower to wash away the stink and grime of life on the road. The clouds ahead were anything but nice. Evil was the only way Swan could describe them.

  They were glad when they finally spotted Vanessa and Ziggy trotting towards them under the darkening sky. They hoped she found a good spot because the heavens were starting to look downright menacing.

  Vanessa came in fast and the ostrich danced as she reined her around.

  “It looks even worse up the road.” She said “But there’s a farmhouse with a barn about a mile up.”

  Blacks and blues and grays shifted and roiled. Mother Earth was upset about something and was about to unleash her full fury. They felt small in the big, open plains. The breezes had stopped and stillness settled across the fields. The insects had ceased their noises, the flies that sometimes pestered them had gone to ground somewhere. Even they knew something was happening, something big and dangerous.

  “Guys, I think we need to hurry.” Swan said with awe in her voice. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

  “No but I think a downpour is coming.” Kodiak said. “A real gutter buster. Show us what you found, Vanessa.”

  They could feel the charge in the air as lightning danced through the clouds, silent and eerie. It was unlike anything they’d ever experienced. The atmosphere seemed heavy like it too was waiting for something to happen.

  It was scary.

  It was amazing.

  The wind came out of nowhere, they could see it and the rain racing across the fields. It was uncanny. They were perfectly warm and dry, the sun was still shining down but they saw a wall rushing at them. When it found them, it was like being drenched by a bucket of water. Rain drops the size of golf balls were blown nearly horizontal by the wind.

  Vanessa dropped her goggles, leaned low over Ziggy’s neck and was gone in a flash. They could barely see her when she crested the hill in the road. Swan swung up behind Kodiak on Otis while Donny leapt on Daisy’s back behind Analise. The three bears broke into a fast lope, the wolves and Yewan pacing them on either side. Harper and Bert galloped ahead and followed Vanessa down a muddy driveway already being washed away in the torrent.

  When she caught up, Vanessa was trying to open the storm cellar that was halfway between the house and the barn. She tugged on a big steel door that looked like it opened into the side of a grass covered hill.

  “Help me, I can’t get it open!” Vanessa screamed up at her over the howling wind.

  Harper twisted in the saddle to slide down Bert’s backside like she’d done a thousand times but he shied, ducked his head and bucked when lightning struck and thunder boomed loud enough they felt it in their bones.

  She tumbled over his side, grabbed frantically for the reins and barely caught them before she fell fifteen feet to the ground. They broke her fall but the homemade harness snapped and she landed on her back with a meaty thud. Bert’s eyes were wide and wild as he spun and ran away from the flashing, thunderous cacophony of the storm. Hail pelted them as Vanessa tried to help her to her feet and keep a firm grip on Ziggy’s reins at the same time. The bears ran up and Kodiak slid gracefully off Otis. He and Donny snatched the door open and held it against the wind

  “Get in, get the animals in before they panic and we lose them!” Kodiak bellowed, his shouts nearly drowned out by the raging winds.

  Swan sent the wolves down in the cellar and they went willingly. Ancient instincts told them to go in the cave, to find shelter, and they hurried in with tails tucked and the pups shivering. The bears shared the same instincts and nearly fought to be the first down the stairs and into the man-made den. Donny helped Vanessa drag Ziggy down the steps and Yewan slunk around investigating the concrete cave before settling down in a corner.

  Harper was drenched, her blonde curls plastered to her leather but she was getting her breath back. The air had been knocked out of her. She spotted Bert running from them, heading for the trees in the distance. She started after him when Kodiak grabbed her by a shoulder pauldron.

  “Let go!” she yelled above the roar of the storm and before he could answer the buffeting winds stopped. The torrential downpour turned into a light sprinkle and they could see rays of sunshine peeking through the darkness above. Both were surprised and momentarily forgot about the runaway giraffe. They felt the sudden change in air pressure and it became deadly calm. Too calm. Something that sounded like a faraway train cut through the silence and they turned to see the massive black funnel cloud bearing down on them. It took them a second to register what it was. A tornado. The bane of the Midwest, the killer twisters that could flatten everything in their path. They’d never seen one before, only on TV. They stood transfixed and watched as the landscape was ripped towards its center. Trees were buffeted and ripped from the ground and the yellowed corn stalks from the fields were sucked up into the swirling maelstrom. The sound grew louder and the winds started buffeting them as it grew closer and seemed to be aimed straight for them. He snapped out of his stupor and dragged Harper towards the open door as Donny frantically motioned for them to hurry up.

  She tried to pull away, to run after Bert, the broken harness still in her hand
.

  “Leave him!” He yelled.

  “NO!” She cried “We have to save him!”

  “It’s too late!” Kodiak screamed above the deafening thunderous freight train bearing down on them. Boards and shingles and deadly pieces of tin flew past them. A tractor tumbled end over end and crashed through the back of the house as all the water from a fish pond was sucked into the swirling, black funnel.

  She tried to twist out of his grip, she had to get to Bert, but he jerked her off her feet. The roof of the barn sucked up into the sky and the wooden boards followed. His heart raced and fear drove him towards the shelter, he could feel the winds trying to pull them into the hungry turmoil that was sucking up everything in its path. She fought him, punched at him, and cursed him. She was in a panic, a wild cat, he was leaving Bert outside. He would be killed, sucked up into the tornado and ripped apart. Kodiak wasn’t gentle as he forced her through the entrance and dragged her down the stairs. It took Donny and both the twins to muscle the door closed and slide the locking bar into place. The vacuum pulling everything towards the outside died instantly as the world beyond the doors was ripped apart.

  “I hate you!” Harper screamed as they untangled from where they’d fallen. “You left him to die!”

  She slapped him as hard as she could but the loud crack of skin on skin couldn’t be heard above the roar of destruction all around them.

  The doors heaved against the pull of the storm and dust poured down from the ceiling. Something heavy slammed into them and shook the bunker. The pandemonium lasted for long minutes as they found their companions in the dark and tried to stroke their fear away. Whisper to them that everything was fine and scratch them in their favorite places.

  After minutes that felt like hours, the wind eased its howling and the swirling cloud of destruction moved further away.