BITTEN Omnibus Edition (Books 1-3): The Resurrection Virus Saga

by Tristan Vick

  It wasn’t that she couldn’t take care of herself. In the city, she had managed just fine. But knowing about her bum ankle and all the uneven terrain of the forest, Kevin feared what might happen if she lost her footing and … well, he tried not to think about it. It was best to simply find her before anything bad happened to her.

  A branch suddenly snapped just behind Kevin’s head, and thinking it would be Kana, he sighed in relief. Turning around, he began, “Thank God! I thought you were…” Kevin stopped talking when he saw the snarling maw of a gnarly woman lunging at him. It wasn’t Kana, that was for sure.

  Kevin jumped out of her way and let the woman stumble past him. Circling around to get a better look at her, Kevin noticed that besides not having any top on, the woman didn’t have much of a top at all. Her upper torso was horribly mutilated. From her collarbone down to her pelvis, her body was severely gutted. A white ribcage poked through strands of red muscle tissue where her breasts should have been. Her platinum bleached hair looked oddly out of place on her Asian features, and although she had a pretty face the rest of her was the worse for wear.

  As she staggered forward, her shredded intestines dangled out from where her bellybutton used to be and swayed back and forth whenever she moved. If her disfiguration wasn’t bad enough, Kevin could see her beating heart through her ribcage. However, it didn’t beat like an ordinary healthy heart. Unlike the rhythmic pulse of the living, this blackened, withered heart twitched and spasmed irregularly, and then, mid-beat, it ceased altogether.

  Kevin squinted hard and watched the woman’s heart intently; then, as if the heart had been jump-started back to life, the twitching resumed. Kevin considered this could only be the postmortem pulse of the undead. Some kind of nightmarish physiology that kept the dead animated long enough to continue wreaking terror and havoc on the living.

  “Grah!” the platinum blond snarled, taking a swipe at him.

  Kevin stepped back, and the creature hissed at him from behind beautifully white teeth. Her pearly white smile contrasted with the rest of her horribly disfigured image. She hissed again. The warning hiss was as close to manners as the damn creatures ever got. But it was a message Kevin received loud and clear.

  Slowly, Kevin put his hand on the hilt of his sword and took another step backward. Not wanting her prey to get away, the blond staggered forward like a clumsy drunk and swiped her arms in a failed attempt to grab him. Kevin kept his distance and continued to back away, matching her step for step.

  Agitated, she stopped, hissed again and then took yet another step closer. And, as was the rules of their little tango, Kevin took yet another step back. This time his heel caught on a large stone, and he toppled over backwards.

  “Shit!” he cursed, landing on his back.

  Within a split second the dilapidated female pounced on him, like a rabid animal, and clawed at his eyes and face. Kevin deflected her advances and tried to get to his sword, but, unfortunately, he was lying on top of it and was unable to dislodge it from underneath his own body weight.

  “Oh, come on!” he growled in frustration. The woman kept reaching for his face so he gripped her by her bony wrists. She was feistier than she looked and he struggled to hold her at bay. Just enough to keep her snapping teeth away from him. She strained her neck, her mouth barely a couple of inches above his face. Kevin cringed as the putrid stench of her decaying body flooded out of her mouth and into his nostrils.

  Recoiling from the stench, Kevin turned his face away. He knew he had to get out of this mess as quickly as possible or he’d wind up being dinner for the pretty little blonde with appallingly bad breath.

  Looking around for something to use as a weapon, like a rock or heavy stick, to his disconcertment Kevin couldn’t find anything practical within reach. Not a single damn thing.

  “Balls!” he cursed again, his frustration building.

  Kevin tried to push the blond off to the side, but the female zombie had the leverage over him and pressed down on him hard enough that it made it near impossible for him to break free. Even though his arms rattled something fierce as he used all his strength to hold her at bay, she continued to relentlessly press down onto him. The only problem was he didn’t think he’d be able to hold her off for much longer.

  Like a light bulb going off in his head, Kevin suddenly had an idea. With precision timing, he let go of her left wrist with one arm, reached up and grabbed one of her ribs firmly in his hand, then with a loud roar he snapped it off as if it were an ordinary dry branch of a withered old tree.

  Inches away from his face, the frosty-eyed zombie bitch hissed at him—her drool dripping down onto his jacket’s lapel and causing him to feel nauseated. Acting fast, Kevin quickly stabbed the fractured rib straight into the blond zombie woman’s temple and into her brainpan. With her own rib lodged deep within her head just above her left ear, the woman tumbled off Kevin and hit the ground next to him with a thud.

  Kevin rolled away and then slowly pushed himself onto his feet. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he scanned the surrounding woodland for signs of more Walkers but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary—nothing that would get his hackles up at any rate. Brushing off the dirt and leaves, Kevin cleared his throat, snorted, and spat to try and clear out some of the stench that still lingered in his mouth and nostrils.

  Looking down at the unfortunate woman, Kevin feared that if he didn’t hurry Kana would meet a similar fate.

  44

  Lost and Found Again

  Somewhere Near Mount Fuji, Japan

  Night had settled on the forest, and Kevin had lost all hope. He had searched through the Stygian blackness for what seemed like hours now, but still no trace of Kana.

  As he searched through the forest, he was about to give up all hope when he caught a glimpse of an orange glow just beyond the crest of a nearby hill. A sudden wave of optimistic anticipation washed over him. He crept toward the direction of the fire, careful not to make a sound. If there were Walkers nearby they’d surely be drawn to the fire too—like moths to a flame.

  Approaching the location of the fire, he looked around for signs of footprints on the ground. It didn’t appear to even be a campsite. It was only a pile of dried kindling and some thick dead branches set ablaze—a diversion.

  “Smart girl,” Kevin whispered. Right then and there he beat himself up over that fact that he didn’t give Kana enough credit. She wasn’t an invalid. She was a smart woman fully capable of taking care of herself. Now, at least he knew she was still alive.

  Navigating the forest in the dark proved rather difficult, but the moonlight was bright enough to aid Kevin, and he was determined to catch up to Kana. Determined to find her before the night was over, Kevin picked up his pace as he ran through the bamboo forest. He jogged along for several minutes until, unexpectedly, his foot caught on a trip-wire, and he plowed face first into the dirt. He groaned and then rolled over onto his back, when suddenly a screaming banshee of a woman leaped up with a rock and attacked him. Not this again, he thought to himself.

  They rolled around together in the dirt, but she somehow managed to get the upper hand and sat on top of him. Kevin quickly knocked the rock out of her hands and disarmed her. With tiny balled-up fists, she immediately started thrashing at his face. Deflecting her blows, he said, “Ow! Ow!”

  “What?” the woman said in alarm. “You can talk?”

  “Of course I can talk!” Kevin grumbled.

  “Kevin? Is that you?”

  Kevin lowered his arms and dropped his guard. Looking up, he saw Kana’s round face, quivering lip, and big watery eyes. Tears of elation streamed down her cheeks.

  “It’s me,” he said, smiling up at her.

  Suddenly Kana was plastering his face and lips with overexcited kisses.

  “I can’t believe it,” Kevin began. “You ambushed me!”

  “I was so scared!” Kana said, her voice breaking into a light sob. “But I knew. Deep down in my heart, I knew
you’d find me.”

  “It wasn’t easy,” Kevin said with a relieved smile. “But I found you.”

  Kana kissed him some more, and before they knew it the kisses deepened into hot passionate soul kissing. “I want you inside of me,” Kana said as her hand found the zipper to Kevin’s pants. “I need you inside of me. Right now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kevin asked. “We’re dirty, sweat-stained, covered in blood and …”

  “Shut up,” Kana said authoritatively, sliding down her jeans and hastily tearing her panties off. With a gentle touch, she guided his throbbing member up her thigh until it passed through the soft curtains of her inner sanctum and she let him inside. And he gladly complied with her wishes.

  They were filthy, sweaty, and covered with dried mud, leaves, and blood, but none of that mattered. Glad to once again find the comfort of each other's arms, Kevin and Kana laid on the mossy green earth and made love beneath the moon.

  Arching her back, Kana sat down onto him and pushed out her sweaty chest and demanded that Kevin never, under any circumstances, stop fucking her.

  The soft glow of moonlight fell across Kana’s white skin and illuminated her fresh wounds. Small red scratches plastered her arms and chest from where the sharp branches had cut her. Running his hand up her waistline, he moved them up around the curves of her breasts and then back down the hump of roundish belly.

  As they fell into a steady rhythm, Kevin asked, “How? How did you know to make the fire?”

  Kana paused as she contemplated how to tell him about the mysterious woman and everything that had happened to her. She decided she wouldn’t trouble him with the stress of knowing that there was some crazed sword-wielding woman roaming the forest slicing up zombies, so she lied. “I think you mentioned something about it once, maybe. It must have stuck.”

  Even as she lied through her pretty white teeth, she couldn’t forget the striking image of the raven-black haired girl, her icy penetrating eyes and a gaze as hard as tempered steel. Kana couldn’t forget a look like that.

  Squeezing her tits together, Kana gasped out loud as she orgasmed and then fell onto Kevin’s chest. Her entire body quivered from the electric rush she felt surging through her. After catching her breath, Kana felt a whole lot better, and climbed off Kevin’s still throbbing member. She finished him off with her mouth, then, wiping her lips with the back of her hand, let out a pent-up sigh of relief.

  “That was … unexpected,” Kevin said, a big smile plastered on his face.

  Kana merely smiled at him then fetched her clothes and dressed herself. Kevin followed her lead and did the same. Having gotten themselves ready, she turned to him and asked, “Where to, Romeo?”

  Kevin, having noticed her ankle was shot, hoisted Kana onto his back and began trekking through the forest in search of shelter. “If I remember correctly from checking the map,” he said, breathing heavily, “there should be an old Shinto shrine just over this hill. We’ll hole up there for the night.”

  45

  Living Ghost

  Somewhere Near Mount Fuji, Japan

  A little over five weeks ago, Saeko had been almost raped by that son-of-a-bitch Shinji Terajima. The only reason she had managed to escape her violent molestation was because of the curt timing of the zombie apocalypse.

  Incidentally enough, the outbreak ruined the plans of her attackers, saving her years of humiliation and anguish, but adding to her already broiling inner rage. Fortunately, the outbreak also ruined her attackers—turning them into mindless monsters. As fate would have it, the very next day she was confronted by the zombified asshole who had tried to rape her. With great pleasure she had bashed in Terajima’s stupid zombie skull. Truth be told, she probably did him a favor by putting him out of his misery.

  Yokohama, and the rest of Tokyo, had gone to hell in a handbasket. It all began with that airline crash that hit the Tokyo Dome in the middle of a baseball game, Flight 93Z. She thought the name was fitting. Flight 93 Zombie. Numbers of people were killed. Numbers more were injured.

  The tragic event made national news while the smaller, more peculiar, reports of animal bites went virtually unnoticed. That evening over fifty thousand spectators who had been at that game had mysteriously come down with an infection quite insidious. Almost a month later, Tokyo was a wasteland in which barren concrete streets were prowled by the walking-dead. That was how long it took to topple the world’s largest metropolis—four measly weeks.

  Saeko remembered it like it was yesterday. Reports of the infection came out of Chicago, New York City, Newcastle City, and finally Paris, Beijing, and Moscow. All of them reported similar strange occurrences. Similar incidents of the resurrection virus bringing the dead back to life—or something like it. A week after that was when things went dark all over the world. A global blackout.

  Not long after things took a turn for the worse in Japan there was a wave of mass suicides across the nation. Saeko expected it was probably the same elsewhere, just not on the same scale. With so many people trapped on such a small, densely populated island, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from the growing scourge of undead, ending one’s life was the easy way out.

  After the mass exodus, as it was ironically coined, things got easier for a time. With the city virtually emptied out, foraging became easier. There were no more laws. No social conventions. No rules. It was everyone for themselves. Survival of the fittest, as the saying goes.

  In those days, the dread days of the first few weeks of the zombie apocalypse, Saeko and Kevin lived by a simple code. Don’t stop, don’t give up, and don’t you dare leave this life with a whimper. They sealed the promise with a kiss.

  She recollected the words he had said while lying next to her in bed.

  “Live each day to its fullest and just…live,” he had said while stroking her hair. “Scream, cry, and scream some more if you have to. But don’t give up. Never give up. As long as you have a single breath in your body, you can keep fighting.”

  Those words meant twice as much to her now as they did then, and she vowed she’d never forget them.

  After leaving that stingy little love shack called Paradise Hotel, she and Kevin spent several weeks together fending off the zombie horde, trying to find food, and just doing their best to survive. During that time, they’d honed their zombie-hacking skills. They counted their kills. Then when each one had hit a hundred, well, that’s when they considered themselves bona fide zombie slayers. An arbitrary number, sure. But at least it made them feel better about the whole bloody scenario.

  Then, one gloomy day Saeko found herself alone, facing impossible odds. Ripped up. Torn apart. Eaten alive. Her worst nightmare had come true as she was viciously dismantled and devoured by ravenous flesh-eating monsters. That was the day she died.

  Six hours later she opened her eyes and sat up. Not a mindless corpse, but a real breathing, flesh-and-blood girl. She couldn’t have believed it even if she’d wanted to. It was a miracle. No, it was something worse than that. It was a curse. Either way, she couldn’t explain it. There weren’t words adequate enough to describe coming back from the dead.

  After a moment of psychological weakness, feeling heartbroken and forlorn, Saeko had made the bad decision to jump off Tokyo Tower and end her life. It didn’t work. Dying was, for her, becoming an increasingly difficult task. Whatever turned the monsters into the living-dead had turned her into the unable-to-stay-dead. She could only imagine it was some kind of freak genetic mutation that allowed her to survive whatever pathogen caused the dead to reanimate, but whatever it was, she now realized that she had a special ability. Even so, she was still getting accustomed to how it worked.

  Coming to her senses, Saeko vowed to never be so emotionally brash again. So she used her emotional fire to temper her will into one of steel. No more attempts on her own life. She told herself that she’d use her pain and rage to make her stronger, fiercer, and a more lethal warrior. Someday she’d take her city ba
ck and then…then she’d take back her country. After all, she mused, she might be the only one capable of doing it.

  After escaping death for the second time, she fought her way out of a horde of fifty-six zombies. She was still keeping count.

  After it was finished, with her blood dripping down her arm and branching off to her sword, her body numb, her legs trembling with fatigue as she stood there looking at the bloody, gory mess she had caused—she found herself smiling. It was strange. She had never felt better. Maybe that wasn’t right, but the world wasn’t right anymore. So, maybe—she thought—just maybe it was perfect. And that thought frightened her.

  The idea that she might be losing her humanity frightened her so much, in fact, that she decided it was best to take a break from the city. As such, she headed toward Mount Fuji. Its plumes of smoke rose high into the blue sky. She felt at least there she’d find some peace and quiet—there she could gather herself and piece the fragments of her psyche back together—maybe she could regain whatever small part of her humanity still remained deep down inside her withered soul.

  Just her luck, the very instant she had entered the green haven of bamboo and trees, she heard screams. To her disenchantment, the yelping wench was none other than Kevin’s fat pet cow. For a moment Saeko had seriously considered letting her die, but something tugged at Saeko’s heartstrings. Some small sense of compassion. Her humanity kept her tethered to reality, whether she wanted it to or not. So Saeko saved the stupid girl. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do.

  She tracked Kana until she reunited with Kevin, and then Saeko secretly tailed them to a humble shrine tucked away in the woods. It wasn’t anything luxurious, but it was perfect for providing shelter from the rain. Which brought her to the present.

  Saeko leaned against the back wall on the outside of the small building, just out of sight, and watched Kevin get a small fire going in the pit-styled fireplace near the entrance.