“It was your idea,” Ally shouted back. “I told you your stupid sock puppet wasn’t cute.”
“Hey, it took me a day to make that.”
“Just to sew on two buttons?”
“Yeah.”
“It was kind of pointless, Charlene, now you’re short one sock and my right hand smells like your foot.” Ally peeled the sock puppet off her hand and flung the piece to the floor. “I don’t know why she spends time making sock puppets,” she whispered to herself.
Joni smiled. “I thought the sock person was kind of cute.” She rubbed her eyes with her shirtsleeve.
“Apparently, Charlene does too, which is why she has conversations with it.” Ally took Joni by the armpits and hoisted her off the top bunk, the blankets slid off her. Joni was small for her nine years, short and thin. People used to mistake her for a five-year-old.
“I just wanted to let you know we’re leaving soon.” Ally set Joni on her feet and pecked the top of her head. “And check it out.” Ally pointed at herself, presenting her outfit to Joni. “Cool, huh?”
Joni examined the colorful armor and smiled. “Wow, Titan Storm Brigade.” She giggled. “That’s excellent.”
“I knew you’d like it. It’ll actually work like real armor, against their teeth, when we go outside.”
“You were gonna say goodbye?” Joni said.
“It’s not really goodbye. I’ll be back tonight. Maybe even in the afternoon if everything goes well.”
Joni had forgotten that Ally, Sonya, Lawrence, and Tristan were heading out today. They didn’t talk much about it during Thanksgiving dinner. “It’ll be dangerous out there, Ally.”
“I know,” Ally gave a smile, “but we gotta find some more food, don’t we?”
Joni could tell Ally tried to sound happy. Joni’s dad used to do the same. It was to show he wasn’t afraid, so she and Caitlyn wouldn’t be afraid. Joni knew that grownup trick too well. Yet she knew telling Ally “I don’t want you to go” wouldn’t help, it’d only make Ally scared and worried.
Joni nodded and tried to smile back.
“Don’t worry,” Ally lightly pushed Joni’s hair back with her gloveless hand and brushed her scalp with her fingers. “We’ll make it back. We’ll have weapons and we won’t be far.”
“I know.”
“You managed to survive out there and you’re smaller than me, and you didn’t carry a weapon, did you?”
Joni smiled at that. “That’s true…but I only survived because my dad and Therese protected me.”
“Lawrence, Sonya, and Tristan will protect me, and I’ll protect them. So don’t worry about them either, okay?” She smiled again.
“Okay.” Joni nodded. She threw her arms open and wrapped them around Ally’s waist.
Ally bent down and hugged Joni over the shoulders. “I’ll think about you all the time while I’m out there, so, I’ll be all right.”
Joni hugged her tighter. She decided she wasn’t going to cry like a baby because Ally was leaving. She was going to be brave just like Ally, her new big sister.
Lawrence
Lawrence stood with Kasey, both stared out the window of the storage room where Therese still hung below—of course she hadn’t walked off anywhere. The dead still clawed forth and shoved against each other, fingers scraping against Therese’s shoes, no change in their progression.
“I won’t lie, Kasey, I’m so fucking nervous,” Lawrence said.
“I’m sure the others are, too. I’d be too, no doubt.”
“How about some fucking encouragement, lady?” Lawrence meant to think the words in his head, but it came out as a harsh request. It was a nervous quirk for words to escape his head. Once when he was twelve-years-old, he had called his teacher a skanky twat because the old hag announced a pop quiz, which he hadn’t studied for. He didn’t realize “skanky twat” slipped from his lips. He had failed the test and was given two weeks of detention for the obscenity. He didn’t even know what a twat was at the time. “Sorry, Kasey, sorry. I…”
“You’ve faced those things before.” Her reply was with patience. She seemed understanding toward his edginess. “You’ve killed those things. You’ve outran a bunch of those things.”
“Yeah, I know, but I was always scared. This situation’s gonna be different. I don’t know what’s going on outside this house, this neighborhood, this residential area.”
“No, you’re ready for this, boy. You’re ready. Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re fucking crazy. Ain’t that right?” Her voice grew louder. “You’re crazy, boy! You’re a…fucking madman!” She punched his arm hard.
Ow, shit, that hurt. “Um…Yeah! I’m crazy!” He picked up the axe he had set against the wall below the window. He lifted it up and brandished it at the dead horde outside. “Raaaahhhhh! Raaaahhhhh!” He had no clue why he started roaring, but it felt good. “I’m crazy!”
“Y’all better watch out for this motherfucker!” Kasey bellowed out to the undead. “This motherfucker be crazy! This fucker be…desensitized!”
“I’m ready for this.” Lawrence turned around and marched for the door. He looked back. “When she’s down, Kasey, shout go.”
Kasey pulled a pocketknife from her belt and flicked open the blade. She went to the ground and began sawing at the rope. Therese’s corpse would serve as a diversion to the dead horde while Lawrence and party ran out to the car.
At a quick, determined pace, Lawrence rushed through the hall, reached the top of the stairs, and hurried downward. He patted his belt to assure himself the gun was there. It was at his right hip, easy for him to grab with his left hand. The axe would be his primary weapon. He planned to use the pistol in a desperate situation.
Tristan, Ally, and Sonya awaited him in the living room. Their packs were on. Tristan and Ally each had a large gym bag over their shoulders. As Lawrence reached the bottom of the stairs, Sonya tossed him his pack. He caught it with his free hand and threw it on. He hurried over and stood with the rest of the group.
Sonya carried the other pistol in her pants brim. Strapped to her thigh was a sheathed combat knife that nearly stretched hip to knee. Clutched in her right hand were her car keys. “You ready, Captain Desensitized?” she said.
“Yeah,” Lawrence said, “I’m ready.”
Tristan had his sword gripped with two hands. He puffed in breaths. His eyes shot from the front door to Lawrence then back to the front door.
Ally had a makeshift spear in her hands, a four-foot metal pipe with a knife fitted at one end. Lawrence had watched Kyle craft the weapon for her a few months back. The knife’s blade was eight inches long, its handle fastened into the pipe with a strong glue they had once used to fix broken bathroom tiles. Kyle had shredded up his dad’s old leather jacket into strips and wrapped it around the pipe to serve as handgrips.
For a moment, Ally gazed into Lawrence’s eyes, a lost, forlorn look, which could’ve meant, “Lawrence, I’m scared” or “Lawrence, will you protect me?” Her eyes went to the front door, she licked her lips and switched on a game face.
Lawrence tried to fathom what that look meant. She must be just as nervous as I am, maybe even more so. She’s never faced these things before. Lawrence remembered Kyle’s words “Please protect Ally.” I’ll protect her, Kyle—this isn’t exactly protecting her if I’m allowing her to leave this house—I have no right to tell her what to do—she could take care of herself, I think. “Stop fucking thinking.”
“Huh?” said Sonya.
“Nothing,” said Lawrence. Talking out loud again, asshole.
“How does it look out there?” Sonya asked Charlene, who was peering through the quarter inch slit between boards of the front window.
“It’s empty.” Charlene had a kitchen knife in her hand. “You have a clear path to the Honda so far.”
Helena was close to the front door. She was to be the opener once Kasey shouted, “go.” At the side of the door, a
foot away from the knob and locks, Miles had a hammer in one hand and a cutting knife in the other. A distance away behind the dining table, France stood with Joni clutched at her side.
“What’s taking Kasey so long?” Sonya said.
“Be patient,” said Lawrence. Telling Sonya to be patient was like telling a crocodile to eat a salad. He thought it’d take Kasey some effort to slice through the rope with the pocketknife. The woman might’ve given up on the dinky blade and searched the storage room for the hacksaw.
Miles leaned against the wall and sighed. “Hey, you guys mind picking up some booze while you’re out?” It sounded like a joke, but Lawrence thought it was a reasonable suggestion.
“If we have room for it and the time to grab it,” said Sonya. “Essential items first.”
“I was kidding.”
“I don’t think you were, but I could really use some.”
“Same here,” said Helena. “I haven’t gotten wasted since college.”
Miles grinned at his wife and laughed. “I remember that time.” He looked over to Lawrence and the other three. “Guess who got head that night?”
“Miles did,” said Tristan.
“Bingo.”
Surprisingly, Helena laughed. “You’re being bad, Miles. No pussy for you later, you bad man.”
“Do we have a very long nail somewhere?” France asked everyone. “I’d like to stab my fucking eardrums.”
“Such a dirty mouth on you, young lady,” said the woman who blurted “pussy” seconds ago…in the presence of a small child.
Everyone laughed, even Joni.
When the laughter subsided, silence filled the house. The atmosphere was tense, as though everyone awaited a bomb to go off.
What’s taking Kasey so long? An anxious pang wriggled in Lawrence’s stomach and pelvic area. “Oh, my pelvis.” Again, he didn’t intend to speak aloud. His housemates looked at him.
“What about your pelvis?” said Sonya. “Take a piss now if you need to.”
“No I don’t need to piss…just…Never mind. Don’t worry about my pelvis.”
Everyone quieted as they awaited the word from Kasey.
Through the silence in the living room, the swallows and breathings, the small noises of saliva splashing in mouths and stomachs grumbling became audible to Lawrence. He felt his hands sweat inside his gloves. Does it have to be this quiet? Does everyone have to—
“Dat’s mah mama,” Miles said, loud and abrupt.
The tension broke as everyone laughed. Miles’s black guy impersonation was far worse than Lawrence’s. Even Charlene’s was better. Right now, Charlene looked ready to burst as her head swayed and bobbed with the quake of her giggling, her face reddening.
“Go,” the word came from Kasey.
The laughter cut to silence.
“Go, now!”
Helena’s fingers shifted from one lock to the next. She twisted the knob and pulled the door open. Lawrence squinted from the white light of the misty morning and saw the Honda straight ahead at the curb. It looked far away. He had forgotten how large the house’s lot size was. The four of them could easily make it over with a fast run. Or maybe not, as everyone knew, those things ran incredibly fast. He hoped those things’ feast on Therese would distract them long enough.
Miles lifted his weapons in a readied stance. “Good luck,” he told the four.
Lawrence, Sonya, Ally, and Tristan charged out.
Kasey
Kasey watched as the dead tore Therese apart. Therese’s eyes appeared half-open and seemed to stare up at Kasey. Within seconds of Therese’s drop, her clothes instantly became tatters, as those things clawed at her the way a dog dug through dirt with its paws. Flesh stripped away at all parts of her body. One monster bit off her cheek, stretched it from her face, and slurped it up, exposing Therese’s row of molars. Two of the hungry monsters ripped away a breast and played a gruesome tug-of-war with it. An arm tore off from her shoulder and four of those things swarmed it like piranhas, teeth chomping away at skin and flesh, droplets of red flying in all directions.
Kasey covered her mouth. Tears started to well in her eyes. She wanted to look away, but had to watch over the horde for the next few seconds as the group made their way to Sonya’s car.
About a dozen of the dead had fingers and faces sopping with blood, while another dozen or so made feeble attempts to reach through the crowd to get a piece of the half-devoured corpse.
Kasey heard the door downstairs slam shut, followed by scuffing noises against the outside pavement, which must’ve been the four running through the front yard. Heads rose up from the undead crowd. They heard the echo of footsteps, too. Three of those things, who’ve seemingly given up on grabbing a morsel off Therese, broke away from the horde and ran off toward the front of the house.
“Oh shit,” said Kasey. “Oh shit.” She lifted her head out the window and shouted, “Y’all run, hurry, they’re coming!”
End of book one.
ALSO BY JAMES M. GABAGAT
An epic fantasy adventure…that has nothing to do with zombies whatsoever…
Be virtuous, be bold…
Amidst corruption and impending revolution, the Kingdom of Valtasia becomes a shadow of its golden age. In an era come to be known as the “Free Enterprise Movement,” commoners have banded into martial guilds to combat the threat of crooked nobles and organized crime syndicates. These guild affiliates, mercenaries, outlaws, and champions alike, have become icons, unorthodox heroes amongst the people.
Live without regret…
Guild commander Qinjai Altavi, son of a revered Valtasian lord, leaves behind wealth and his inheritance to pursue purpose and an unknown destiny. He leads the Dawn Power Dream Regime, individuals with checkered pasts and questionable lifestyles. Recruited into his ranks, Siamprima Bubette “The Prince of Peacocks,” an infamous rogue criminal, and Suvessi “The Huntress,” an enigmatic bounty hunter and vigilante of rising prominence.
Die young, or die old…
Either for the need to test courage or for the want of extra coin—or out of absentminded impulse—Qinjai Altavi and his “Regime” accept a contract issued by the nobles, a rescue mission on the secluded island of Manganga, where the creatures of the old world dwell. The Dawn Power Dream Regime will journey, discover dark conspiracies and forgotten magic, and battle rival guilds and monsters of legend. This is the tale of wickedness, retribution, and bloodshed, and of redemption, loyalty, and the strength of friendship.
Dawn Power Dream till death.
Flesh Ravenous (Book 1) Page 9