Tears, real tears of grief, burst out in hitching breaths. He hadn’t cried like this ever, the fear and shock he felt after the fire didn’t give him time to grieve. He lost control, making loud howls like a wild animal caught in a trap. His body flailed as his mind reeled and he threw himself to his knees, prostrating himself and screaming into the dining room floor. Flames danced in his blurry vision, same as the night the Neighbors trapped him inside and burned his house down. A face emerged from the fiery vision.
Llewelyn Wither.
I will kill you.
A rumble sounded from in front of the house. Kahn caught his breath and jumped to his feet in a careful crouch. He hadn’t dared touch the loaded pistol Jesse had left on the table, but now he grabbed it and held it toward the front window. The engine noise was an old gray muscle car pulling slowly into the driveway.
“Kahn,” Kimble whispered. Kahn shushed him and knelt at his side.
“Don’t talk. It’s a car. Someone got one running, I think.” Kimble nodded and stifled a few wet coughs that were coming from deep in his chest. His pallid complexion made his lips and eyes look sunken. Loose skin seemed to hang from his neck, making him look like a monster in the darkness. Kahn patted his shoulder and put the gun in the back of his pants.
Exiting to the garage brought him to the hood of the rumbling car. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle and the sky had lightened to a bright gray shine. The day was cool after the storm. Kahn welcomed the breeze and light droplets.
Private Lars was admiring the roaring engine with a smile. Ricky was running in the grass of the front yard as his brother watched, leaning on his carbine hanging comfortably from the sling over his shoulder. Lars noticed Kahn coming toward him and slammed the heavy hood shut.
“I can’t believe it, this thing runs like a dream!” he exclaimed.
“Loud car! Loud car!”
“Ricky, quiet, man. That car’s gonna save our bacon,” Wiggs replied, voice raised over the purr of the classic car.
“Bacon car! Bacon car!”
Kahn couldn’t help but laugh. It came out in a similar burst of emotion as his hard cry just a few minutes before. Lars and Wiggs laughed with him as they all felt a similar sense of relief over getting a vehicle.
“This beauty was just sitting on the street, not even a mile away. Can you believe it? We found the keys inside the house and push started it down the hill. The others must have heard the engine pop and sputter. I wasn’t sure it was gonna start,” Lars said.
“Maybe you should go get the other cars running, the two SUVs you found. If they heard the engine, I’m sure they’ll come back here,” said Kahn. Lars pursed his lips and nodded in agreement.
“Yep, you coming with?”
“No,” Kahn shook his head. “I should stay with Kimble.” Lars kept nodding and looked at the ground. He grunted in acknowledgment before quickly entering the driver’s side and plopping behind the wheel. He honked twice and waved for his partners. Ricky sprinted to the car and dove in the big backseat before Wiggs joined Lars in the front. He waved at Kahn as Lars backed out and sped away.
Kahn was alone in the driveway with slight tinnitus from the loud vehicle. He sighed and the happiness and laughter seemed to melt away from him again.
We’re no closer to finding the Neighbors…
Defeat, shame, and guilt throbbed in his ears. He clenched his fists in what he thought was rage, even though he was unable to shake the anguish he felt over Kimble. The ringing in his head began to deepen and warp, like the barely functioning solar alarm from the day prior. He closed his eyes as he started to lose his balance, struggling to retain control of his body.
The low ringing began to warble and chortle, his imagination turning the noise into an unending echo. It bounced around his consciousness, taking control and becoming a breathy sigh. Then a growl. Then a moan.
His awareness of his surroundings popped back to reality with the resounding snap of teeth coming together. Kahn’s eyes were immediately open as he spun toward the sharp sound.
A man, formerly a man, had come around the corner of the house and walked to within a few feet of Kahn. Walking through the squishy grass muffled his steps, one foot clad in a tennis shoe and the other bare. Without the involuntary snap of the creature’s jaw, it would have reached Kahn in a matter of moments. The flesh from the lower jaw had been torn or chewed away, and the lack of bottom lips left his skull-like visage in full and terrifying view of the grieving man.
Kahn first threw himself back in terror, landing on the wet concrete and shimmying hurriedly away from the biting corpse. He felt the shape of the pistol dig into his back and reached for it just as the dead man dropped to his hands and knees to attack Kahn’s feet. He kicked at the corpse, barely connecting with the protruding bone of the jaw, and got the gun free. He hastily aimed and fired once, missing, before taking a solid grip and lining up the sights.
The second shot struck the monster in the cheek, tearing away the remaining tissue that held his jaw into place. The bone disconnected from the left side of the creature’s face, flapping as it tried to bite, as Kahn took a third shot. This last report hit the target, spilling the creature’s brains and splattering fragments of white skull back into the saturated ground.
Kahn leaned back and gulped big breaths against the panic he felt. The corpse lay still inches away with black and gray matter splattered across the back of its still bright green shirt.
“Garcia, look out!” Louis shouted from the front door. Kahn jumped and saw a second of the walking dead, a woman, tearing quickly up the driveway to his right. He scrambled to his feet as the captain let off a few rounds from one of the M-16s. Several tore chunks of road as they passed around and through the fast mover. It growled instinctively through the stringy hair plastered to its face as Louis’ final shot hit the head. The corpse dropped with a wet thud.
Kahn swiveled his head and saw at least a dozen more of the dead things walking in scattered lines down both cross streets. He aimed toward the closest pair, both dressed in puffy winter coats, and shot a few rounds toward them. As one dropped, the second raised its arms and seemed to hiss at Kahn. His final round struck the attacker’s throat and the hiss turned to a wet gurgle. More striking to Kahn was the snap of the pistol’s slide catching on the empty magazine. A shockwave of air cracked past him as a round from the captain’s rifle took down the overdressed corpse.
Sweat was now rolling down Kahn’s forehead as he saw five or six more of the dead come into view down the block. He spun and ran to the front door of the house, ducking against the semi-automatic fire coming from his boss. He could see the two children just behind Louis, watching the melee outside their home.
“Get inside!” Louis yelled.
“There are too many, they’ll break down the door!” Kahn still held the spent gun as Louis dropped one coming around the corner where the garage door stood wide open. If they were going to have any chance of defending this house until the others got back, he needed to close that door.
Kahn ran, sliding on the slick concrete of the driveway, and grabbed at the door with his free hand. He felt a tingle of growing fear at the nape of his neck. The rifle fire stopped as Louis paused to reload. Now there were at least twenty of the creatures still standing, with a few making it over the corpses of their predecessors and onto the yard of the house. More and more were coming toward the sound of the firefight. He yanked on the edge of the garage and for a moment thought it wouldn’t come. It creaked, but it moved, and he prepared to slam and lock the slide when he saw the small figure of Jack run past Louis and down the driveway.
“No, Jack! Come back!” Bella screamed as she sprinted after her brother. The little boy dodged the grasping arms of one of the creatures as it spun and followed him with an unsteady gait. Bella followed to the creature’s right, ten steps behind her sibling.
“Shoot!” Kahn looked to Louis, giving up on the door momentarily.
“I can’t
, I could hit the kids!”
The supply officer turned and shot at a second corpse coming around the garage corner and it fell onto the body of the first. Kahn realized his boss was right, a bullet could strike the kids, so he tossed the useless firearm into the garage and ran again. This time his feet skidded in slick blood mixed with the residue of the rain like a cartoon before he caught his footing. The dead moved in a confused and unpredictable way now, some still coming toward the noise of the M16 and some spinning to follow the running children. Kahn used his shoulder to knock the first corpse that had reached to grab Jack and the creature skidded onto the street.
Kahn was faster than either child, but they outpaced him by enough time that they ran in a staggered line toward a group of the dead. Jack was bellowing now through panicked, high-pitched screams and Kahn could catch the word he kept repeating.
“Mommy! Mommy!”
Bella was following as fast as she could, but the boy was quick. A stitch rose in Kahn’s side and he could feel each time his boots hit the pavement at a jarring, painful pace. The boy was coming upon a group of gray dead, and the vaguely familiar ringleader in the center raised her arms. Jack raised his as well as he prepared to jump into her arms. He paid no attention to the snapping jaws or the half a dozen additional grasping hands jostling to get to him first.
The loud roar of an engine angrily buzzed the air around the group. They moved, confused by the additional input to their dead senses, but the leader still kept her arms toward the little boy. Gunfire erupted and the creatures began to fall in front of them. A big pair of hands grabbed at the shoulders of Jack and Bella’s mom, tearing her away from Jack just as his fingertips reached hers. He screamed and Bella grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him away from their mother.
“Wait, stop!” Kahn yelled. Wiggs had tossed the rail-thin body to the side and was drawing his pistol to finish the job before it could get back on its feet. “Not in front of the kids. That’s their mom.” Wiggs nodded and left the gun in the holster. The growls of the angry corpse were drowned out by the sobs of both of the children. Kahn stood next to them with hands on knees trying to catch his breath. He heard Captain Louis’ footsteps approach and stop. He was hugging both kids and pulling them away, back to the house now several blocks away.
Quentin Lars gently took Kahn’s arm and helped him to the vehicle. It was a beautiful Range Rover with leather seats. He let the mechanic move him into the passenger seat where he sank into the comfortable bucket seat and closed his eyes.
The single shot behind the truck, ending David Wither’s wife’s life for the second time, brought him back. He was only out, passed out more than asleep, for a few moments. When his eyes snapped open he saw a second SUV, another late-model Range Rover, pull into the driveway of the Wither house. Deb and Daisy jumped out, each brandishing one of the identical carbines, and sprayed the approaching dead with a waterfall of lead. Daisy was still wearing the sundress she had found this morning. Kahn found himself staring at her as each shot rattled her shoulders and blew the knee-high skirt around in a wave. She was the color of a sunset and at that moment, shooting the walking dead, she was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen. He found himself thinking about new love as his thoughts drifted away from the attack and back to the previous night.
Jesse caught up with Louis and the kids before they reached the house and shuttled them into the back of the vehicle before joining the women in taking out the approaching walkers.
Kahn heard the doors of his SUV open simultaneously. Wiggs and Ricky jumped into either side of the backseat as Lars popped back into the driver’s side. They all breathed heavily as Lars moved the SUV to the house and parked it behind the first. By then, the gunfire had stopped and at least forty bodies lay around the formerly protected home.
Kahn let himself out of the passenger side and Daisy lay her rifle down and ran to him. They embraced and kissed. Kahn could smell her sweat and feel her hot breath joining with his. She pulled back but held him tightly still.
“We heard the shots before we got the second SUV started,” she said. “We left before Lars but ran into a cluster of them at the end of the street. We had to stop and shoot our way through. Hal, there are so many!”
“The alarm isn’t working anymore, listen,” Deb said, voice flat and emotionless. They all listened. There were a few insects chirping over the low rumble of the engines but she was right, there was no longer a warbling alarm. The day had cleared as the rain faded and yellow sunlight shone through wispy clouds. The heat was coming back with a vengeance with wet humidity from the storm intensifying the discomfort.
“We need to get going,” Jesse interjected. “We can head back to our place, near downtown. I think we’ll have to drive north for awhile, but then we can backtrack to where we found y’all and make it back the way we came.”
“We aren’t any closer to finding the Neighbors, how is heading back to your place going to help?” Lars said.
“We left on our own, without a plan. They had attacked us and taken my wife, I wasn’t thinking. We thought they were at the Alamodome, but we couldn’t get close enough to check,” he drifted away.
“We have a leader. We’ll talk to her. We will come up with a plan and check the Alamodome again,” Deb finished.
“What leader?” Daisy asked.
“We call her the Burned Woman, nobody knows who she is and she doesn’t talk to anyone but Reverend Green. But she spoke to me. She told me Mel was alive,” Jesse stopped again and this time Deb touched his shoulder.
The moment was interrupted by the roar of another vehicle’s engine. The gray muscle car seemed to dance down the street before stopping on the curb. The velvet-skinned Ice jumped out of the driver’s side.
“We need to go, now! This loud bitch attracted a whole horde of the bastards! All the ones from the highway are lurking around the neighborhood now. Where’s Kimble?” she shouted. Kahn had forgotten all about his friend in the excitement around the children. He released Daisy and followed Ice and Jesse through the front door and into the dining room.
Kimble lay still.
Jesse held his hand out to the other two and unclipped the small semi-automatic he kept on his belt. He pulled out the gun and took a few light steps toward the big man in the corner. His thumb switched the weapon from safe to fire with a loud click.
“Hal,” a voice sounded from the corner followed by a slew of wet-sounding coughs. “Is that you?”
“Oh Jesus, Kimble, we thought you were dead.” A flush of relief washed over Kahn as he pushed past Jesse and reached his friend.
“Not yet, man.” Another series of hacking coughs turned the big man into a vibrating mess. He rolled to his side with effort and spit wet chunks onto the floor. Kahn could see his wound, festering and angry against the brown skin of Kimble’s arm. The flesh surrounding the bite had turned a deeper shade of brownish-gray and began to seep black liquid down to his wrist.
The small group heard another set of shots from the people outside. Something had gotten close enough to shoot at, Kahn guessed. Ice hissed, “we need to go,” in a tone just above a whisper.
“Hey, Kimble, we need to go,” Kahn said in a soothing voice. Kimble shook his head.
“Can’t move, ain’t going nowhere,” he wheezed.
“C’mon, we’re helping you. You aren’t going to die here, remember?”
“Yeah man,” Ice added. “I’m taking you home. Let’s go so the rest of us can get home, too.”
“Charice, I love you, girl.” Kimble tried a smile but there was blood between his teeth so Kahn only saw a dark grimace. “Let’s go then. Help me up.” Kimble held his arms up and they each pulled him to his feet. Kahn was careful to avoid the bite, and pulled from under Kimble’s armpit. Ice got the other side and Jesse helped first from the front and then went around back to help hold the big man’s bulk. Together, they half-walked, half-dragged him toward the door.
A few steps later and they escaped into t
he sunlight. Kahn thought his friend looked even more gray in the natural light. Deb and Daisy had once again taken up firing positions, shooting and reloading from either side of the Range Rover. Wiggs and Lars stood near the rear car, shooting as Ricky held his hands over his ears. Jesse, Kahn, and Ice struggled to get Kimble across the soggy lawn before leaning him on the rear fender of the muscle car. Kahn could see now that there were more coming, the bullets only occasionally stopping one, and both sides of the street would soon be choked with the dead.
“Let’s go, get him in the car,” Ice pulled open the door and reclined the seat forward, allowing for Kimble to slip in the back.
“Wait, Kimble,” Kahn said, shocked at the speed of the moment.
“No time to wait, let’s go,” Jesse pushed, trying to get the sergeant to move off the fender and into the seat. The exhausted, dying man tried to raise his arms and couldn’t.
“I’ll go with,” Kahn said as more gunfire ripped past them. The creatures were closer now and the carbines weren’t stopping them quickly enough to delay their advance as a group.
“No,” Kimble said, almost whispering. “No Kahn, you find those bastards. You find the Neighbors and you find Llewelyn and you tell them, for me, tell them to go to hell. You kill those assholes. Now get outta here.”
Jesse and Ice heaved under Kimble’s armpits as Kahn was shoved aside and up the curb into the yard. He stood speechless as his friend was awkwardly shoved into the backseat, making the frame jump. Ice ran around and jumped back in the driver’s door, firing up the loud engine, as Jesse grabbed at Kahn and tried to pull him away. Jesse slammed shut the passenger door and pulled on Kahn’s arm, yelling and trying to get him to move.
Kahn didn’t say a word as he locked eyes with Kimble through the window, for the last time, before allowing Jesse to pull him toward the rest of the survivors.
Nation Undead (Book 2): Collusion Page 20