Deadrise (Book 6): Blood Curse

by Siara Brandt

  They kept going to try and put as much distance between them and the zombie. Kate held Athan while they rested again and checked his injury where the fence had caught him in the chest. It was not as bad as she had feared it might be.

  “Mom, are we gonna make it?” he asked.

  She didn’t know what to tell him. She wanted to soothe his fears, give him guarantees, but she couldn’t do that. So she just said, “Shhh, Athan,” just like when he was little and he was afraid of a storm. “We just have to believe that everything’s going to be all right.”

  But it wasn’t. Not really. And it got harder and harder to pretend that it was.

  A branch cracked loudly to their left. They turned toward the sound and stared terrified at the mist.

  They couldn’t see it, but something was moving around out there. It was getting louder, closer. There was no fence between them this time . . .

  Caleb held the taser on the broom handle out before him like a spear.

  Athan could barely suppress his whimpers of fear while he gripped the bat in his hands.

  Kate held him tighter, lifted her gun . . .

  What emerged from the fog made all three of them gasp in horror.

  Kate didn’t recognize him at first. Blood covered his face and his clothes. His clothes were torn and dirty. But his eyes were focused on them as he staggered forward.

  Abram Rawles, blood-spattered and staggering, was coming straight towards them.

  PLEASANT HILL HAD BEEN THE HOME OF NEARLY 8,000 SOULS. Part of them were now wandering around in a state of living death. The other part of them were trying to stay alive.

  The ones who had been spared the still-unexplained state of living death, the ones trying to survive, had barricaded themselves in buildings. They reinforced fences, walls and natural obstacles. The high school was one of the first buildings fortified to hold a large group of people. The courthouse quickly followed, and then several of the churches. After the living had secured themselves as best they could, they began to take back their town.

  At first they had been hesitant about killing the undead. If a cure could be found, wouldn’t that be the same as murder? they wondered. Besides that, the undead were friends, neighbors and family members. But as time went on, it became apparent that to keep the living actually living, to have any kind of future at all, the undead had to be dealt with. So they began to systematically rid their town of the living corpses that were a constant threat. It was a grueling, heart-breaking task, but one that had to be accomplished in order for survivors to have any kind of healthy, safe existence.

  Under the leadership of Benson Cabot, survivors at the high school made great strides toward a better existence. Cabot, who had been nothing more or less than a farmer in his previous life, was proof that sometimes great men were still born out of adversity.

  When Vayna and Jae saw that the chain link fence around the high school had been blocked off and that lookout towers had been erected, they decided it would be a good place to start looking for Ryland.

  “I’m trying to find someone,” Vayna said to the guard at the gate. It was not something the people barricaded inside the school had not heard before. People were always looking for someone.

  “I’m looking for my son. His name is- ”

  But she never finished. She didn’t have to. Her hands flew to her mouth as she sobbed out Ryland’s name. And then she broke down and began to cry.

  It was a tearful, emotional reunion.

  “Thank God you’re safe,” they both said at the same time.

  Jae gave them space and after a little while, Ryland walked over to him and said, “I can’t thank you enough for bringing my mother here safely.”

  The two of them clasped hands, at the very same moment that Vayna looked up and uttered a single word. “Arlend.”

  KATE STARED IN OPEN-MOUTHED SHOCK at Abram Rawles as he stopped and sat down heavily on the ground.

  Bram’s chest compressed as he breathed out a deep sigh of relief. “Do you know how glad I am to see you guys? I found your note,” he went on a little breathlessly. “And your car. I knew you’d have to come this way to reach your mother’s house.”

  He paused a moment to catch his breath and to assess their condition, even though he was the one who looked like he’d been to hell and back.

  “We’re not far,” he said. “Do you think you can make it the rest of the way?”

  He was glad to see that they had some weapons. His gun was buried somewhere in the debris of he shed, and although he’d looked, he hadn’t been able to find it. Deciding he couldn’t waste any more daylight searching for it, he had set out for Kate’s. He still had his knives strapped to his body and whatever they encountered they’d have to improvise and do the best they could.

  He was getting back to his feet when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. There was something in the trees. A zombie. No, there were two of them.

  “Everybody, get down,” he said in a tense whisper.

  He didn’t have to tell them twice. Everyone scrambled for cover. They used trees and a huge fallen log to hide behind. It was the nearest thing they had for cover.

  While they were hiding, a shot rang out. Bram heard the impact of a bullet tearing into the nearest zombie’s skull. It had been a perfect head shot. The zombie dropped to the ground. Seconds later, another shot tore into the tree above Caleb.

  Who the hell was shooting? Bram wondered. That last shot had gone over them, but it had been too close for comfort. Was it a wild shot? Or had the shooter been that good? Or were they targets, too? The second zombie was still coming on.

  It was another circumstance where Bram sorely missed his weapon. With his back pressed up against a tree, he was assessing what his next move would be when he saw, to his horror, Athan begin to rise up. Bram tried to get to him and pull him down to the ground just in case the shooter was aiming at them.

  But what Athan cried out made Bram spin around in stunned disbelief.

  “Grandma!”

  Silhouetted on the ridge above them was Kate’s mother, looking like she was some kind of dark, gaming warrior rising up from the fog. She was dressed in black military gear, army boots and what looked like a virtual army strapped to her body.

  As Bram watched, she lifted the rifle, aimed it and the second zombie dropped.

  Norma Kindhart then waved her hand in a wide arc. The boys were already running to her.

  As she held a grandson in each arm, she smiled and called out,” Abram Rawles, am I glad to see you.”

  Then she said to Kate, “Someone stole my car. Otherwise I’d have set out to get you a long time ago.”

  Chapter 17

  “You need to hold still, Bram,” Ariene admonished her impatient husband. After cleaning the deep wound on his forehead, she started dabbing disinfectant on his other injuries.

  “Athan and Caleb are waiting for me to show them those self-defense moves,” he reminded her.

  “You have all day to do that.” She gave him a challenging look. “Don’t even think I’m letting you go until I put new bandages on.

  “What . . . ” she suddenly gasped in surprise.

  She was looking past Bram. The smile that suddenly brightened her face made him immediately whirl around in his chair.

  “I’ll be damned,” Bram breathed in astonishment as he got to his feet.

  Reyne had been waiting for him to turn around.

  Ariene’s smile lingered as the two men greeted each other, clasping hands heartily. Then Bram said, “Hell, man,” as he threw his arms around his old friend. “I knew you’d make it. It’s good to see you. Damned good.”

  “What happened to you,” Reyne asked, seeing the cuts and bruises all over Bram’s face.

  “Had a shed come down on him,” Jonah said behind him.

  “It’s not like it would be the first time,” Reyne grinned. “Remember that shack in Thailand?”

  As the other men gathered, there were enthu
siastic greetings all around.

  Bram looked with surprise at the woman standing behind Reyne. “Brought someone with you?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Reyne said. “I brought someone with me.”

  By now, more people were hurrying over to greet the newcomers. Wanting her to feel as welcome as he did, Reyne reached behind him. Taking her hand in his, he drew Emma forward. “Come here, Em. There’s some people I want you to meet.”

  To everyone else he said, “This is Emma.” He pointed to the tiny head suddenly sticking out of the dog carrier. “And this is Samson.”

  ARLEND BIGGERS KNEW A MEETING WITH HIS WIFE was inevitable. He swallowed his disappointment that she was here in the first place and said, “You’ve been avoiding me.”

  “I didn’t think there was anything we had to say to each other.”

  He was taken aback by her comment. It was certainly a change for her. She’d always had plenty to say.

  He lit a cigarette and after he blew a long stream of smoke into the air, he asked, “So, where did you meet him?” He jerked his head in Jae’s direction.

  “He saved my life that night, actually.”

  Arlend was silent for a few moments, wondering what she was thinking. He didn’t want to talk about that night and hoped she wouldn’t bring it up.

  “So, are you planning on staying here?” he asked, thinking that going on the offensive was his best tactic.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “What’s to think about?” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. He didn’t like her tone. “Or are you waiting for someone else to make a decision for you?”

  “I can make my own decisions,” she said quietly. “And whether I stay or not really isn’t any of your business.”

  Arlend stiffened. What the hell was wrong with her? And then he thought he had it all figured out. “Well, I can see you’ve changed. Your Chinaman have something to do with that?”

  “His ancestry is Korean,” she informed him.

  “We’re still married,” he reminded her. “In case you’ve forgotten.”

  And then Arlend stared at her in disbelief because she actually had the audacity to let a small smile show on her face.

  “Let’s just make this easy,” she said. “We’ll agree that the marriage is ended and we’ll go our separate ways.”

  Arlend didn’t like her making that decision all on her own. Who did she think she was? “That would make it easy for you, wouldn’t it?”

  The truth was that Vayna had thought about divorce for a long time, but she hadn’t known how to end it. Arlend had always been vindictive and vengeful and he wouldn’t have let Ryland go without a fight. A divorce would have gotten messy.

  “The one good thing about a zombie apocalypse is that there’s no such thing as a long, drawn-out, divorce any more. Not with more important things to think about.”

  He stared back at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “I see it didn’t take you long to forget me.”

  “Actually, Arlend, no it didn’t.”

  And then an accusing look in her eyes when she said, “You left me behind to save yourself.”

  “I did no such thing. You must have hit your head pretty hard if you think that.”

  “I know what happened,” she said quietly. “And that’s really all I have to say to you.”

  Arlend stared at her back as she walked away from him. As he stood there rigid and motionless, all the poison of his nature was seething through him. Let her take up with her rice-eating lover, he thought resentfully. Oh, he could see the way the man looked at her. She might think she could live happily-ever-after with the man. But she would be sorry, because she wasn’t taking Ryland with her. Unless it was over his dead body.

  And if she even hinted that he had been responsible for her “accident” back there, she was going to be even sorrier. Sorrier than she had ever been in her life. He would see to that.

  He blew out a slow stream of smoke and watched her through it. The way they were carrying on like that in the open was a disgrace. She was laughing like she didn’t have a care in the world. She didn’t even have the decency to pretend in front of him. He took it as a personal insult, felt they were laughing behind his back. His free hand clenched tight with anger. If she thought he would just crawl away with his tail tucked between his legs, she was in for a surprise. A big one. She might think she was going to poison his son’s mind against him. But he wasn’t going to let her do that.

  Chapter 18

  Reyne’s welcome at the Compound had been a joyous one. He also brought word of the outside world which everyone had been eagerly awaiting. For now, the Compound seemed to be the safest place to be, but they had been hearing rumors that some rogue military soldiers had taken over an old armory about eighty miles to the south and that they were organized to the point that they had a hospital and a school already set up.

  Right now, Reyne was sitting in a tree stand, several of which had been strategically placed around the Compound. This one provided a commanding view of the land for miles around.

  Bram climbed up and sat down beside him. “I do my best thinking when I’m up here,” he said with a deep sigh.

  Reyne nodded. “Lot of things to think about.”

  “The whole world turns upside down, but some things are still the same,” Bram commented as he lazily stretched and scratched his jaw.

  Reyne glanced at his friend and raised a questioning brow for a moment. Then he breathed a low laugh under his breath. “You can tell, huh?

  “Hell, I knew it as soon as I saw you. It’s about time.”

  After a long silence, Bram asked, “Have you told her how you feel?”

  Reyne shook his head. “I’m not sure how she feels yet.”

  Bram glanced over at his friend. “The fearless Reyne Coulter is unsure. Now that is something I never thought I would see.”

  “Never thought we’d see a zombie apocalypse, either.”

  They both thought that over in silence for a while.

  Finally Bram said, “Just tell her Reyne. You’ve faced life and death situations across the globe, more than any of us. I think you can face one woman.”

  Reyne sighed, ran a hand across his lean jaw and said, “Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”

  “What is?”

  “I’ve been around the world and back again more times than I could count. And I find the woman right under my nose. Now. I sure wasn’t expecting it.”

  “None of us expects it. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was a mess before I met Ariene. I thought I didn’t need anybody. She’s changed how I look at things. For the better.

  “Even before all this started,” Bram went on. “It was rare to have something good come into your life. Hell, we saw the worst that people were capable of on a daily basis. Now it’s even more important we don’t let the good things slip through our hands.”

  “What if she doesn’t- feel the same way?”

  “Come on, Reyne. You can’t be that blind. She looks at you like she worships the ground you walk on.”

  Bram shook his head, because Reyne? He looked like he didn’t have a clue. Yeah, he had it bad.

  HE HAD PUT A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO HIS PLAN. He almost smiled to himself there in the dark as he silently congratulated himself on how clever he had been. So he didn’t care if he had accidentally broken the lock. In fact, a broken lock was going to make everything look even more damning. When the missing food was discovered, with some obvious destruction, and when the Chinaman got the blame, Arlend was going to just sit back and enjoy the show. They would quickly realize that there had been no trouble until the foreigner had arrived. And when they found the gloves-

  When they found the gloves, Vayna’s lover would be banished in shame and she would no doubt follow after him. Just like Adam and Eve had been driven out of the garden, they would never be able to come back again. They would be cast out forever.

  They would have each other. And Arlend would
have Ryland. He had been working hard at making Ryland feel guilty for leaving him the last time. He felt confident that this time Ryland wouldn’t choose to abandon him, especially when Lee Young-Jae was exposed as a thief and Vayna chose her lover over her own son. So, with Lee Young-Jae’s leather gloves in his hand, he pushed the door to the storage room open.

  But Arlend had only stepped one foot inside the room when he whirled around suddenly and found himself staring into the blinding beam of a flashlight. He had to put his hand up - the one with the gloves in it - to shield his eyes from the harsh glare.

  He heard Benson Cabot’s voice call his name out sharply. And then, with a sigh that sounded a little bit weary, Cabot asked, “What have you been up to, Biggers?”

  “I was out having a cigarette and I heard a noise. I saw the broken lock.” He pointed. “And I found these.” He held up the gloves and gave Lee Young-Jae an accusing look. “Why don’t you ask him what he’s been up to?”

  Benson Cabot didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes was unwavering. And Arlend could see, Cabot didn’t believe a word he was saying.

  Arlend began to sweat as he talked to the gathering crowd. It looked like Cabot wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe him. The hostile glares directed toward him were even a little alarming. Someone yelled out that he had never trusted him. Someone else said Arlend was a cigarette-sucking troublemaker.

  Arlend edged his way through the crowd, looking for some sympathy. Someone had to feel sorry for him. Someone had to take his side. But there wasn’t one sympathetic face. Not one. They were all against him. Then, because Arlend was a coward at heart, he ran. And he kept running. No one tried to stop him.