And Hell Followed: A Horror Novel

by Tatiana Xavi

  Even before Daddy checked her pulse, I knew Bellamy was dead. Not only because of her lifeless eyes or how the bullet was designed to be a kill shot to the heart. I knew she was dead because I felt the snap of the band Bellamy used to control the zombies.

  Flinching from the momentary pain, I looked at her mustached zombies and knew we were in trouble.

  Everything happened so quickly. From the shot which instantly killed Bellamy to the painful snap in my mind to the zombies regaining control of their natural desires.

  Zombie Earl grabbed Paige and sunk his teeth into her throat. Tearing away the flesh, he smiled, seemingly relieved.

  Unprepared for this change of fate, no one pulled their weapons in time to save Paige. The zombie Bellamy named Burt grabbed for Daddy, but I shoved him back into Magnum PI. A third zombie accidentally bit down on my hand in his attempt to reach Leo. I suspected he wouldn’t like the taste.

  By the way that he let go and frowned, he realized he’d made a mistake. Bloody mouthed, he dropped to the ground. Accustomed to sharing one brain because of Bellamy, the other zombies understood and didn’t attack me. Instead, they fought to reach the waiting food behind me.

  No matter how unprepared initially, Daddy and Paul rebounded quickly and fired on the mustached zombies who struggled to get past me. The redheaded one lunged for Ava who ducked. Kiko wasn’t as fast, and the zombie seized her hair. Immediately Kei used his bat to bash the zombie’s head in and then yanked Kiko free.

  Paige kept screaming, and I couldn’t understand how she was still alive with so much of her throat gone. Cradling her in a tight embrace, Earl fed at her neck until Nick put him down.

  Once Abner fired on two zombies attacking Morgan, Ryan hurried his sister down the embankment and away from where the shot originated. Quickly stopping, he yanked her back up.

  “Evan, we’ve got trouble,” Ryan yelled.

  With Bellamy around, we became almost oblivious to the zombies. I hadn’t even thought about how she emptied out the area so we could sleep in peace. Those zombies weren’t gone though, just waiting behind an invisible barrier Bellamy’s mind created. With the barrier gone, they charged toward the road. Along with those hundreds of zombies, every zombie in the vicinity heard the gunshots and Paige’s screams.

  No exit on the side of the road with the zombies, Molly headed the opposite direction when a bullet opened up her thigh. Leo pulled her back, preventing a fatal wound from the shooter.

  “The sniper is going to finish us off if the zombies don’t,” Paul said, taking a bat and smashing in Paige’s head. Twitching as the virus changed her, the woman was finally dead and hopefully at peace. “Which death do you prefer, Evan? Sniper fire or zombie horde.”

  “Sniper might just wound us, and we’ll get eaten anyway,” Daddy said from behind a car as he used Billy to spot the hidden shooter. “I say we try to get past the horde.”

  “Then hurry!” Sherry yelled, firing on the zombies who rushed up the embankment.

  There was disagreement, though. Willing to take a chance with the sniper, some of the group argued to run for the side of the road nearly free of zombies. Yet Daddy and Paul wanted to go through the horde.

  Hiding behind a car with Leo pressed against me, I listened to the discussion. Daddy was in front of me, convincing the others we would be sitting ducks on the other side of the embankment. The argument seemed to drag on forever, but it probably lasted less than a minute. Over the noise of the feuding survivors, I heard laughter.

  Snake Eyes wore mirrored glasses and lowered them to wink at me before laughing again.

  No one else heard or saw him even as he stood in the open. The sniper didn’t fire on him, and the few zombies on that side of the road walked around him. Snake Eyes lifted his arms into the air like Bellamy always did before making one of her announcements.

  “She is Death,” Snake Eyes said, and everyone turned to him, suddenly feeling his presence. “And hell follows her.”

  The group wasn’t the only ones to see Snake Eyes now. As the sniper’s bullet tore through his chest, Snake Eyes never flinched. He only laughed with his arms still in the air.

  The ground shook, and the air sizzled. We should have run through the horde except Snake Eyes had everyone hypnotized. Daddy finally shook his head, breaking free of the stupor.

  “We need to go.”

  The group turned to find a wall of zombies blocking our exit. The only way out was past Snake Eyes and the sniper. Before we could run, lightning struck the road, igniting a line of fire to Bellamy and setting her ablaze.

  The invisible band snapped into place, and the zombies ceased their march toward us. Even though Bellamy never moved, I knew Death was back, and we were slightly less screwed.

  Snake Eyes laughed again. “Ain’t it a fine day for a little death, my friends?”

  A fiery Bellamy sat up and stared at Snake Eyes. He lowered his glasses and stared at her. Feeling like Snake Eyes, Bellamy, and I were the only ones alive, the day stood still for the longest minute of my life.

  Then the sniper started shooting. Another gun opened fire from the woods and then another. The cars provided little cover, and everyone ran in different directions. The zombies were also moving but remained focused on the hidden shooters in the woods.

  Holding Leo’s hand while we ran past the zombies, I looked back at the road for Daddy and found Snake Eyes gone. While I couldn’t see Daddy, I noticed Bellamy surrounded by zombies who seemed to be tearing at her. I couldn’t really see, though, as Leo pulled me into the woods.

  All the screaming and gunfire made my mind spin. Thousands of zombies flooded the area, pushing past Leo and me. We got caught in a horde, and the sheer number of them separated us.

  When Leo cried out for me, I yelled to hide, and we would be okay. The zombies suddenly shifted directions, and I was left alone. Looking around the woods, I struggled to decide which direction was best. There was so much noise, and everything looked the same. Even thinking like Daddy, I didn’t know the right answer.

  Hoping to find a good hiding place, I was stopped by gunfire and barely missed being hit. I ran in the opposite direction, believing this was where the group was headed before the sniper attacked. If I could get behind the shooters, I might be able to find and stop them.

  “Sami,” Zippy cried, running toward me. “They’re coming, baby. Run.”

  Saying nothing, I changed directions as she wanted. We only ran a dozen yards before gunfire stopped us.

  “There’s so many of them,” Zippy said, grabbing my hand and pulling me away.

  When men wearing military camouflage appeared from behind a thick brush, we backed away quickly. Behind us, other men approached, and Zippy tightened her grip on my hand. Suddenly, we were surrounded by nearly twenty armed men. A blond man from the first group pointed his gun at my face.

  “We don’t want to kill you ladies. Put down your weapons, and we’ll let you live,” said a man with “Carter” written on his nametag.

  They wouldn’t let Daddy live, I thought. Leo either. Only the girls would live, and I wasn’t sure I wanted the future they offered. Humans or not, I hated these men because Bellamy died, and Paige died, and everything was ruined because of them.

  “I say we kill them,” said a man behind me with the nametag “Bouchard.” “They were with the freak which makes them the enemy.”

  His hungry gaze on Zippy, Carson shook his head. “They’re warm bodies, and we need more of them.”

  “Like the warm bodies from Overton?” Bouchard muttered.

  Carson and a few other guys rolled their eyes at the mention of the small city. “Those chicks were crazy,” Carson said. “These girls are just scared.”

  Zippy stepped in front of me. “She’s just a child.”

  “So was the bitch who attacked our base!” Bouchard yelled. “She started a war, and I say we finish it!”

  Grabbing hold of my hair, Bouchard yanked me away from Zippy.

  �
�Please don’t. Take me,” Zippy said, throwing down her weapons. “I’m the one who sent the crazy bitch to your camp.”

  Ignoring Zippy, Bouchard stabbed me in the chest twice before I realized what was happening. The others reacted slowly too, having assumed he would play with me first. As Bouchard stabbed me a third time, Carson grabbed Zippy and yelled for his friend to stop.

  Eyes wide and body failing, I reached for Zippy who gasped and stared in horror. When tears streaked down her face, I could feel her despair. Then the sun flashed off a large happy face pin on one of the men’s backpacks. The shock of light blinded me. Immediately, I felt someone digging around in my brain. The sensation grew as the part of me that was Sami faded.

  My vision sharpened like my sense of smell and hearing. Even as I could hear better, I was able to silence the sounds of the gunfight in the distance, people screaming, and zombies moaning. My hands tightened into fists and then relaxed. My jaws flexed, feeling looser now. Stronger too.

  Feeling the hunger rise, I knew only one flavor would satisfy it. My prey stood before me, twenty in all, plus the redheaded obstacle. No longer weak loser Sami, I was something bigger now. Part of the universe, eternal, and hungry.

  Twisting around in Bouchard’s arms, I ripped open his throat with my teeth. He had no time to scream and alert the others who were busy figuring out what to do with Zippy. Hearing them babble about using her as bait for the rest of our group, I didn’t care about their plans. I only cared how they were disorganized. A disorganized enemy was easier to destroy.

  Throwing the dead man at them, I knocked several of my enemies to the ground. Running at them, I felt bullets tear through my chest and stomach. Yet I was unfazed by the injuries. My only concern was destroying the enemy and spilling blood in honor of the hunger.

  Zippy fell backward as I tore into the man holding her. When she said my name, I snarled at her. Thinking to kill her too, I realized she wasn’t an immediate threat to me. These men were, and they needed to be destroyed first.

  My body was powerful now. With every life I took, my strength grew. Tearing off limbs from the enemy, I ripped open their flesh and left them to choke on their blood. The battle quieted in the distance, just as the battle before me approached an end as I destroyed one prey after another.

  Turning toward Carson, the man who was the leader before I became the leader, I lunged for him. Zippy was close by, and I reached for her too, thinking I would kill them both. Sensing we weren’t on the same team anymore, she ran and climbed a tree. Glancing up at her, I smiled because chasing her would be fun.

  The man under me struggled and stabbed at my chest. He even shoved a blade into my skull. This caused my thoughts to pause until my brain rerouted the information around the injury.

  The man was crying for his mama when I split open his throat. He thought God would save him, and I laughed at his pleas. The man’s blood tasted like my salvation. Once I healed, I could kill the others including the redheaded squirrel up in the tree watching me.

  Tearing at the man’s flesh and eating leisurely, I wasn’t sure how long I fed before I heard footsteps. Glancing up from my meal, I noticed two men approaching. Knowing them, I suspected they would be difficult to kill. Leo was weaker and looked so upset to see me like this, making him less willing to hurt me. I would attack him last.

  First I would destroy Daddy. He was strong, but he would hesitate. Those few seconds of uncertainty were all I would need to finish him off before destroying Leo.

  Daddy said my name, but I wasn’t Sami anymore, and he was annoying me. Noticing them shuffling closer, I waited to attack until they were in range. Daddy’s blue eyes glanced up at the squirrel. Would he care if I ate her? Probably not as long as he could save his precious Sami.

  Daddy didn’t talk to me anymore, but he did sing. Growling with my mouth full, I knew the song he sang and why he chose it. Once I was a little girl, standing on his feet as we danced at the wedding of Nick and Lana. I immediately imagined killing Nick but knew it was too late to kill Lana.

  Moving closer while singing Fly Me to the Moon, Daddy tried to make eye contact. I avoided his gaze, worrying he might see something in me that told him he couldn’t win.

  No matter how much I wanted to bleed the world dry, the snapping sensation in my head returned. Soon I pictured holding my daddy’s hands while we danced. I was his princess in my little pink dress. His hair was shorter then, and he was younger, but he was still my daddy helping me. I was afraid to dance in front of everyone that day, but he calmed me. Now I was lost, and he was again offering to help me.

  “Daddy?” a voice said, and I realized it was me.

  Looking at my bloody hands, I felt the two halves of me becoming one. Sami Adkins and the beast shook hands and created a solid partnership. Neither wanted to survive without the other. Sami was too weak to live in this world alone while the beast would be bored doing nothing more than killing. Two sides of the same coin, together we would make the world weep.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy,” I said, and a little part of me meant it. The part of me that killed these men felt no regret, but the part that was Sami didn’t like having Daddy see me this way. “Don’t be mad.”

  “It’s okay, Sami,” he said, slowly moving as if I might be tricking him. He was smart to worry. “I’m happy you’re okay.”

  The part of me that was Sami wondered what I looked like and that part wasn’t happy. That part cried because I loved Daddy and Leo. I wanted them to love me back, even though I was covered in the blood of the man I was just eating.

  When I reached for my father, he took my hand. Standing unsteadily, I eased into his arms. Killing him would be so easy, but I didn’t want to hurt him now. He was my ally. The world was more than destroying one’s enemies. Protecting my allies was important too. Death knew this, and I suspected Snake Eyes knew it too.

  Wiping my mouth, I was a mess. Covered in blood, only some of it mine, I awkwardly stood while Daddy searched my backpack for clean clothes. Lowering my gaze as Leo approached, I saw him lean forward to kiss me, so I backed away.

  “Swish with this first, baby,” Zippy said, having jumped down from the tree and now handing me a small bottle of mouthwash.

  Doing as she instructed, I spit the mouthwash on the ground. Leo immediately kissed me before I could stop him.

  “I don’t want you to die,” he said, and I noticed one of his eyes swelling up and his lip cut. “Now maybe you can’t.”

  Rubbing my head where the blade was inserted earlier, I felt a tender spot but no open wound. I pulled off my jacket and looked at my torn and bloody shirt. Underneath it, I was healed with only raised marks where the knives and bullets penetrated my flesh. Leaving on my bloodied bra, I slid a new shirt over my head and changed my pants.

  Standing nearby, Daddy sighed. “It goes without saying we can’t share what went down here with the others.”

  “Even me?” Bellamy asked, appearing from the woods with a new entourage, although only one of them had a mustache.

  Even after the fire and whatever those zombies did to her, Bellamy looked unharmed. She walked closer and studied us. Wearing new clothes and her clown makeup, Bellamy glanced over the dead bodies.

  “Eat up, boys,” she said, even though her large entourage now included females.

  Backing away as the zombies fed, I was disgusted by the sight of them. Considering I was still washing the blood from my mouth, the beast in me found my horror a little ironic.

  “Are you all right, Bellamy?” Daddy asked.

  “Before I tasted death, I was Anastasia. Having tasted it again, I can no longer be Bellamy. I shall be called Rue. As in the world will rue the day I was born.”

  Looking at me, Rue smiled. “If we changed your name, what do you think your new one would be?”

  Lowering my gaze, I was uncomfortable with my beast side. I felt it inside me, just waiting for a chance to sharpen its claws on someone’s bones.

  Leo took my hand
in his and squeezed. He looked tired and in shock. I didn’t blame him. The last month was overwhelming, and I was pretty sure this wasn’t the ending he hoped for when he finally accepted I was real.

  Leaving the zombies behind, Rue walked with us to the road where the rest of our group was huddled. A few sported injuries from gunshots to wounds I hoped weren’t zombie related. Morgan was nearly hidden between Abner and Ryan who both looked as if they took a beating before gaining the upper hands.

  “Good news, my friends,” Rue announced. “I have called ahead, and the road is clear from here to our destination. New vehicles have also been donated by the men who attacked us. All is right with the world. Can I get a hallelujah?”

  Nearby zombies moaned, and a few survivors mumbled hallelujah. I didn’t though because I was tired and Rue wasn’t digging around in my brain anymore. I guess I wasn’t her white horse after all.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Arriving home was an oddly anticlimactic event for our tired and beat up group. A few of them were in a lot of pain, but everyone would survive their wounds. Rue cleared out the zombies before we arrived and I saw them grudgingly leaving the area they loved so much.

  None of the twelve mustached zombies survived. Having found a new mustached zombie in the horde, Rue was excited to show the new Earl her model townhome.

  There was a bit of chaos when we arrived with no one knowing where to go. Walking away from the noise and toward the front gate of the complex, I watched the zombies walking away. Many of them looked back full of regret while others were clearly pissed to be going.

  Rue joined me to watch the zombie exodus. Her face was lax, her eyes lifeless. Thinking of how hurt she looked when Ryan took Haley’s hand, I realized Death was a girl too.

  “Maybe they’ll lose interest in each other?” I said.

  “So what?” she said, voice devoid of emotion. “It’s not like he had a difficult choice between her and me. I was never in the equation, and I never will be. Whatever is between them isn’t my concern.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You were human once, so maybe that’s why you get to have Leo. I was never human, no matter how much I pretended.”