Deadrise (Book 7): Bloodlust

by Brandt, Siara

  Eymann was suddenly glad that his neighbors had come out for this. He had every right to be upset. No neighbor should have to deal with something like this. It was almost criminal behavior, he realized. Of course it was. There were laws against leaving dog droppings laying around without picking them up. That’s why pooper scoopers had been invented in the first place.

  But his bravado immediately dropped a few degrees when he heard someone, Dunstan Kester, groan out loud. “You mean I got out of bed for a bag of dog shit?”

  Eymann decided it would be best to explain things as quickly as possible before his neighbors misread the whole situation. Indicating the bag, with a reproving forefinger this time, he said, “That belongs to you.”

  Actually the contents of the bag belonged to Otis, but Eymann didn’t think he had to clarify that particular detail.

  “I have been keeping Otis out of your yard,” Caleb told him. “Mostly. He did wander off two nights ago and he could have gone into your yard,” he said honestly. “But that was it.”

  Eymann looked like he hadn’t heard a word Caleb said. Or else he didn’t believe him.

  “Then explain that.”

  “You’re sure that’s all from Otis?” Caleb asked with a frown as he looked down at the bag.

  “I’m sure,” Eymann said more firmly this time, thinking that surely he would have support now from the entire neighborhood. In fact, he imagined that as the details of the tale circulated, everyone would admire him for having the courage to confront Caleb Lydon face-to-face like this.

  “There are six turds in there,” Eymann informed the other man in a deep, accusatory voice.

  “And you’re absolutely sure they’re all from Otis?”

  “They’re from him. They’re all the same size. Same texture.”

  Caleb almost laughed out loud, but he managed to restrain himself when he saw how serious the other man was. However, one of their neighbors gave a chuckle, although in the darkness it was hard to say exactly who it was.

  In spite of that one anonymous snicker behind him, Eymann wasn’t about to back down now. He did, however, falter for a moment when Selia came out onto the porch.

  “What’s going on?” she asked sleepily.

  “Eymann says Otis has been pooping in his yard,” Caleb told her.

  “But Otis is in the house,” she said.

  “Eymann says it’s been going on for a while.”

  Selia looked confused now. “Is he sure it’s Otis?” She, too, looked down at the bag.

  Distracted for a moment because she must have hastily pulled on the jogging clothes she was wearing, Eymann stared openly. On Selia the casual clothing looked very feminine, sexy even. Her blond hair was falling loosely over her shoulders. As she pushed the disheveled hair back with both hands, the porch light shone fully on her face, highlighting her beauty.

  Eymann couldn’t help wonder if he had interrupted them while they had been fornicating. The idea distracted him for a moment from the subject at hand. He re-focused. Only to be distracted again when Otis came out onto the porch and started barking furiously. It made the Carlton’s dog three doors down begin to bark. Which in turn made several dogs even further down the block start barking. It was like an unending chain reaction. It was impossible to say where it would end.

  “Look, if Otis has been coming into your yard, all you had to do was tell me,” Caleb began.

  “I already tried that. I was waiting to save up enough proof- ”

  Caleb grimaced as he looked down at the bag again. “I can see that.” He looked back at Eymann. “Why don’t you come over in the morning and we’ll talk about this.”

  Eymann didn’t want to wait until morning. And he didn’t want to talk. He wanted action. He had already tried talking and it had done no good. But in the end he was willing to be reasonable. It was the Christian thing to do. And what choice did he have? Besides, by morning Caleb would have read the letter. He would know full well what Eymann’s grievances were, as if he didn’t know already.

  But in the face of the man’s stern look and the neighbors almost-hostile looks, which Eymann began to suspect were being unfairly directed towards him, he wasn’t going to argue. He had come to expect very little support from his neighbors in general. He should have expected that this time would be no different.

  Helice, who was still half hidden in the shadows of the bushes wasn’t saying anything, either. Her face looked almost sickly pale in the yellow light spilling off the porch. It looked even paler when someone directed their flashlight on her for a few seconds, blinding her and making her hold up her hands and turn her face aside.

  Caleb only noticed Helice at that moment and his gaze sliced over to her in surprise. That was the very same moment that a dog, a dog Eymann had never seen before, walked out of the shadows of the bushes. It lifted its leg on Helice’s hostas and then, looking a little surprised, maybe because of all the people gathered there, the dog ran off and disappeared into the darkness.

  “Whose dog was that?” someone asked.

  “I don’t know,” someone else answered. “I’ve never seen it around here before.”

  “Big dog,” someone commented.

  But everyone was thinking the same thing. It was just possible that Otis wasn’t the dog that was pooping in Eymann’s yard. In spite of Eymann’s proof.

  But the dog was forgotten along with everything else as a distant explosion ripped through the night, startling everyone.

  “What the hell was that?” Dunstan Kester asked profanely, earning a disapproving look from both Eymann and Helice.

  “Was that over by the chemical plant?” someone asked.

  Dogs started barking in earnest all over the neighborhood now, Otis included. Some of them started howling when they heard sirens wailing in the distance.

  “This can wait till morning, can’t it?” Caleb said to Eymann as he continued to frown in the direction of the explosion. An angry, deep-red glow was now lighting the sky. “It looks like we have more important things to worry about right now.”

  There was a general murmur of agreement among the neighbors. Everyone had already heard about the three planes that had crashed. On top of that, there had been a major train derailment out east. It looked like it might be the work of terrorists but authorities weren’t going there yet.

  “You don’t think there could be a terrorist attack in Pleasant Grove, do you?” Dunstan Kester asked.

  Which started everyone conjecturing more heatedly about where the explosion might have occurred and what had caused it and could it, in fact, be terrorists?

  Even worse than being a fool was being a fool and not being aware of the fact. Eymann wasn’t going to let himself be distracted from his mission, no matter what was happening in the bigger world around him. All he could think about was having the issue of the dog poop settled. He looked at Caleb Lydon, who said, “Come over for coffee in the morning and we’ll discuss this.”

  Suddenly wincing, Eymann gingerly touched the swelling on his forehead from where he had bumped it on the porch post. He looked at his hand to see if there was any blood.

  “You’re hurt,” Caleb told him. “You should take care of that.”

  “Don’t forget your bag.” Caleb reminded him when he turned to leave.

  Silently, Eymann climbed back up the steps and leaned over to pick up the bag. He looked like he was about to say something, but a strong storm wind suddenly came rushing through the tree tops, sweeping everything in its path and sending the neighbors scurrying for shelter.

  “We’re done here. Let’s go back inside,” he heard Caleb say quietly to Selia as he put his hand on the small of her back.

  Over at the Buckminsters, things were very different.

  “How could you let him talk to you that way?” Helice asked waspishly the moment they were alone.

  “What was I supposed to do? Get into a fist fight with him? Those who live by the sword will die by the sword,” Eymann quoted, shi
elding himself the best way he knew how.

  Irritably, Helice made an impatient clicking sound with her tongue before he could even finish. She then sighed impatiently as she looked down at the small plastic grocery bag that was still clenched tightly in Eymann’s hand. At the moment she was not completely successful in hiding the contempt she felt towards him. He should have stood up for himself. Instead, he had made them both look like idiots in front of the entire neighborhood. “You should have given him a piece of your mind instead of- ” she began.

  They both knew what she had been about to say. Instead of slinking away with your tail tucked between your legs like a whipped dog.

  It was one of her favorite sayings and she used it often.

  “I have a lot to say to the man,” Eymann defended himself with as much dignity as a man in his position could muster. “But I didn’t want to discuss it in front of the whole neighborhood. We don’t know what that explosion was,” he said, thinking to distract her.

  But the subterfuge didn’t work. The truth was, the explosion had not completely distracted Eymann, either. He was still troubled by his confrontation with Caleb Lydon and the trembling was just kicking in. It was something that always happened in the aftermath of an unpleasant confrontation. He shook uncontrollably. He couldn’t seem to help himself, no matter how hard he tried.

  In the other room, Helice was muttered something under her breath that sounded like: “Sometimes I don’t think you were born with any backbone at all.”

  With his pride smarting far more than he would ever admit to her, or even to himself, Eymann sat stiff and motionless in the darkness of his tiny office which doubled as a bedroom. In the other room, Helice continued to strip him of his pride piece by painful piece. As he went carefully over everything that had happened, Eymann’s vast array of conflicting emotions continued to seethe through him like the rising bubbles in a witch’s cauldron. He knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night. He didn’t turn on a light, however. He sat staring into the darkness by himself, envisioning Caleb Lydon reading his letter. At the same time, he did his best to drown out Helice, who was still muttering to herself in the other room. The last word he could make out was idiot and he supposed that, too, was directed at him.

  Chapter 4

  The woman, if she could be called that, looked straight at Rafe with the most terrifying eyes that anyone standing around her had ever seen. As that feral-looking gaze moved slowly down Rafe’s body, her mouth opened slightly and everyone braced themselves for another terrifying shriek. But she only rasped out a rattling sound that ended in another prolonged warning growl.

  Cujo on steroids, Rafe thought. Lots of steroids.

  Next to Rafe, Ren was still gaping in stunned disbelief. He had been holding his breath, but now he released it in a sudden exclamation of panic as her gaze shifted rapidly over to him. Saying no word, with lightning-fast reflexes that reminded Ren of a striking snake, Rafe snatched up a table and held it between the woman and everyone else in the room. He then used the table to back her up, trapping her into a corner.

  Everyone rushed forward to help contain her. Eventually, after some harrowing moments, they were able to force her down the hallway and into one of the bedrooms. They slammed the bedroom door shut before she could get at them which she was absolutely trying to do. There was no doubt about that in anyone’s mind. They heard her body slam the door hard as soon as it was closed. It was followed by another awful screech on the other side.

  For a few moments, aside from the noises in the other room, there was just a stunned silence as if no one knew what to say. Eventually Ren asked, “Is she going to be all right in there?”

  “Better in there than out here,” Kyn said soberly as he turned slowly to stare at the door.

  No one disagreed with him.

  “You saw the blood on her mouth,” Gaut began. “In her mouth. What caused that? And just what the hell was going on out there?”

  It was a question they were all asking themselves. They had heard two animals fighting out there. Was she one of them?

  “She was growling at us, Rafe,” Ren said. “Growling.”

  “Yeah, like an animal,” Kyn said.

  “You’ve been to a lot of places, Rafe,” Gaut said. “You’ve seen a lot of things. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

  “Nothing. I mean, I suppose that while a bear or a mountain lion, or even a wolf, could have done that to her, that doesn’t explain her behavior.”

  “Unless she’s been so traumatized that she’s- ” Trace began.

  “She’s what?” Kyn asked.

  “I’ve got no idea,” Trace finished. “Maybe she’s had some kind of breakdown?”

  It was more a question than an answer.

  Rafe had no idea, either. He had plenty of experience dealing with armed enemy soldiers in foreign countries, some of them real hell holes. He knew how to subdue the worst kinds of vicious criminals in this one. But this? This was a new one, even for him.

  “Whatever is wrong with her, she needs a doctor,” Ren said. “We need to notify someone about this.”

  They did. The question was, how did they go about doing that?

  “How are we supposed to do that?” Trace wanted to know.

  “I’ve got no idea,” Rafe answered honestly. Everyone else shook their heads.

  “Those cuts- those bites or scratches, or whatever they are, looked bad,” Ren went on. “I’m sure that the one on her face, at least, needs stitches.”

  Everyone nodded. No one disagreed.

  “Have you seen those news clips of people who are high on drugs trying to bite someone’s face off?” Trace asked. “She reminded me of that.”

  “You think she’s on drugs?” Gaut asked.

  “I don’t know what to think,” Trace said. “But I don’t have a better explanation for what’s going on.”

  “Could be rabies,” Kyn suggested.

  “It’s possible,” Gaut said.

  “Or maybe she’s- ” Ren began.

  “She’s what?” Kyn asked.

  “She looks- like death warmed over. And she was trying to bite us.”

  As unbelievable as that was, that’s exactly what she had been trying to do.

  Another long, unearthly wail made them all turn and look at the closed door.

  “You don’t think that- ” Ren began as he turned back around. “That she’s the hunter?”

  “The hunter?” Rafe asked, not liking where this was leading, even though the same thing had occurred to him. What else could explain a mouth full of blood, unless it was an injury they couldn’t see.

  “I’m just saying that we need to think of all the possibilities,” Ren said.

  “You’re not going to say what I think you are,” Gaut broke in. “Come on, Ren. This is real life, not one of our video games.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Kyn wanted to know.

  “You can’t figure it out yet?” Trace cut in. “Ren thinks she’s a zombie.”

  “A zo- ” Kyn who looked like he couldn’t decide if it was a joke or not, attempted a laugh but it fell flat. He looked closer at Ren. “You’re serious? Gimme a break.”

  “Think about it,” Ren said. “Something’s happening all across the country. You said so yourself. The phones are dead. The last thing we saw on TV were reports of violence breaking out everywhere. Aside from terrorist attacks, what else would make two planes crash at the same time? We have no idea what’s been happening since we heard those first reports. Things could be a lot worse now.”

  Kyn looked at Trace, who shrugged and said, “Don’t look at me for a better explanation.”

  “I’ve got about a hundred better explanations,” Kyn said. “For starters, she’s high on drugs. Or she’s in shock. Or she’s got some kind of disease like rabies.”

  But zombies. Hell, that was way out there.

  “Come on, Ren,” Kyn argued. “Zombies is just something made up.
You know that.”

  “You all saw her,” Ren went on, undeterred by the other men’s doubt. “What other explanation do you have for the way she looks, Rafe?”

  “I don’t have one,” Rafe admitted.

  “You all saw her eyes,” Ren went on. “How is that possible?”

  “Cataracts?” Kyn suggested.

  “I never saw cataracts that looked like that,” Trace said.

  “There are diseases that can change the color of the eyes,” Gaut spoke up.

  “Look, Ren,” Kyn cut in. “If we even suspected that what you’re saying is true- then we’re in a hell of a lot more trouble than we thought. And so are our families. Which is even more reason for us getting out of here.”

  That made everyone go dead silent. They were all thinking hard now. Maybe it wasn’t zombies, but it was something bad. Really bad.

  “Did anyone get bit or scratched?” Rafe asked.

  No, by some miracle no one had.

  “That’s good,” Rafe said. “One less thing to worry about.”

  “You’re not seriously going along with his zombie theory- ” Kyn began.

  “No, I’m not,” Rafe told him. “But if she has something like rabies, it could be transmitted through a bite or a scratch.”

  That made sense. But zombies didn’t.

  “I can’t believe we’re actually discussing something like zombies,” Kyn went on, but he looked a lot more troubled than he had looked before.

  “We came up here to learn to work more efficiently as a team,” Gaut said. “I think we can all agree that it’s time to apply what we’ve learned.”

  “He’s right,” Trace said. “Arguing with each other isn’t going to help. We’re not going to accomplish anything by being at each other’s throats. We don’t know what’s happening yet or what’s out there. Or what happened to that woman. For now, let’s just try to figure out what the best thing to do is and then take it from there.”

  “The best thing to do is to stay put until daylight,” Gaut told them all. “It’s just a matter of a few hours until daylight.”