by TW Brown
“…the matter, you seeping meat sack? Bet you’d love to take a nibble on this, wouldn’t you?” Her voice carried to his ears long after he had reached the other treehouse and climbed down.
Kyle ran in a crouch down the length of a tall stone wall that was made to look like it was part of the natural landscape with its dark basalt. As he reached the end and the opening that would be Easy Street, he took a deep breath and risked a look over the top of the wall. His eyes widened at what he saw.
A woman was on the ground. She was on her back and trying to keep the zombie on top of her from getting a bite out of her face, but it was clear that she’d already been bitten at least once. In her left hand, she had what looked like one of those swords he had seen in Samurai movies. Her right arm was a mess and slicked with blood. The wound was visible even from this distance. A huge chunk was missing just below the elbow.
If that was all he saw, it would have been bothersome, but the reality was that he had almost become numb to these sorts of scenes having witnessed a hundred or so with his own two eyes. No…it was the handful of child zombies gathered around the scene in almost a semi-circle. They were just watching. They all looked to be swaying back and forth a bit, but none were trying to get any closer.
What happened next would haunt his nightmares for a while. The sword fell from her grip and landed with a clatter on the street. It was as if a dinner bell had been rung. The children swarmed and began to tear into the woman. He knew enough to know that she was a goner. He was about to turn and run when another woman sprinted into view. She scooped up the sword and began swinging like someone possessed.
Kyle took just a second to get a look at her in action. She was short, maybe just over—or under—five feet. Her jet black hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore what looked like a studded leather jumpsuit. She had spiked gloves and mirrored goggles. Just before he went to offer his help—which it did not actually look like she needed—he saw her bounce to one side and come around with a roundhouse kick that shattered the skull of the nearby seven- or eight-year-old child zombie.
“You just going to stand there…or are you going to help?” the woman asked, pausing just long enough to stare directly at him. If not for the mirrored goggles, he was sure that her eyes would be boring into him.
Kyle rushed into the fray and started taking down zombies. He always hated having to put down the little ones. It did not seem right, and up until a couple of them had almost gotten Mel one night during a foraging trip in a massive apartment complex outside of Denver, he had managed to avoid it. That was when it hit him hard that these things had nothing in common with people. They were monsters…pure and simple.
When they put down the last one, the stranger walked over to the woman on the ground and knelt. He was not close enough to hear, but he saw the one on the ground shake her head weakly. Blood came in a frothy gout as she choked. The other woman stood and, in a flash, drove her blade through the eye socket of the poor doomed soul at her feet.
“My name is Ann,” the woman said as she wiped her blade clean on the shirt of the woman she’d just killed and then slid it into the black scabbard on her hip.
***
Chad climbed up on the back of the trailer and gave the lever a good yank; sure enough, just as with the others, the trailer was packed with boxes from bottom to top and front to back. The side of the trailer had no logo, so he looked at the box for any clue as to what might reside within. This one was a mixed blessing.
“Laundry detergent,” he called over his shoulder. “At least these first boxes are liquid…that means they are going to be heavy. I say we take some and come back for more on the successive trips.”
It had quickly become clear that there would need to be several runs if they chose to empty this place out. A few of the trucks had been busts. The ones carrying perishable food were now vomit inducing tombs of rot. The worst was the one trailer they had opened containing a variety of snack cakes. The myth about them lasting years due to being so pumped full of preservatives had been busted. The bugs that flooded out when the sunlight had intruded upon their sanctum had sent everybody running—man and woman.
The best part of the haul had been the Johnson and Johnson truck. From baby shampoo to Tylenol to female hygiene, the trailer was a gold mine. The Neosporin alone was worth its weight in gold. Infections could kill these days if left untreated.
“Why can’t we just hot wire the trucks or something?” Jerry had asked (Chad had finally learned the man’s name when he had been woken for his watch).
“For one, the fuel is probably bad. For another…how many of you can drive one? They are not just like the car you used to have parked in your driveway.”
“This is easily ten trips worth of stuff,” the man had said with a sigh as he ran his arm across his forehead.
The sun was out and doing its best to erase any thoughts that a season like winter even existed. It would be one of those freakish days where the heat was at summer levels, then, in a day or two, it would go back to the mid-forties or fifties. Still, nothing could be done about the heat; they would just have to bite the bullet and get to work.
Chad called the group together and they discussed the priority of what to take on the first trip. Just because this place had been left untouched this long did not mean it would stay that way. After every single case containing antibiotic cream and over-the-counter pain meds were loaded into the wagons, a variety of stuff followed.
By midday they were on the road back to the compound. It was as uneventful as the trip out. Chad almost felt a bit of disappointment and chastised himself for being so foolish. In this new world, lack of activity was a blessing. The only danger at the moment came from the boredom; if everybody else was feeling it like he was, then they would be vulnerable simply because the level of vigilance was lower than it should be.
As the compound came into view up ahead, it was clear that something was wrong. The main gate was open and it looked like just about everybody was outside fanning out in an obvious search. Chad instantly felt his heart rate kick it up a notch. That was exacerbated when Scott Colson, one of the people that he had been in the company of almost since the beginning of this nightmare, came riding his way with Dustin.
“Where’s Ronni?” he asked as soon as they were in earshot.
Scott turned and said something to Dustin, but they were too far away for Chad to hear anything. All he saw was Scott speaking and Dustin nodding his approval or consent. When Dustin pulled back a bit and let Scott take the lead, Chad really began to panic. He felt his chest tighten and his mouth go dry. Whatever it was, it was bad, and it had something to do with Ronni.
“Ronni and a few kids are missing,” Scott said, quickly holding his hand up to stop the barrage of questions that he knew were coming on the heels of this announcement. “She volunteered to go with a group that were tasked with finding the missing children that disappeared shortly after lunch yesterday. When the search parties returned last night, her group was not there. The last anybody can recall seeing any of them was about an hour after they left here to join the search. About an hour before sunrise, somebody on the tower watch at the entrance swears they heard somebody calling for help. We have been out since before sunrise searching.”
Chad felt his eyes starting to burn. He dug at them with the palms of his hands for a second and tried to take a deep breath as if that would loosen the feeling in his chest. Dustin came up beside Scott with a look on his face that Chad could not quite read at first.
“I’m so sorry, Chad,” the big man mumbled. “I know that can do little to ease your pain, and I doubt you much care that a bunch of us are praying for her safe return…as well as that of the children that she was out there looking for.”
Chad turned to the man and felt the urge to yell at this person and hurl insults simply fade. He saw very real sorrow in the man’s eyes. Besides, blame would not help find his daughter and he seriously doubted that it would make him
feel any better.
“I need a fresh horse,” Chad stated, making it clear that it was not really a request.
“Anything you need,” Dustin said with a nod. “And I will join you personally. We will find your daughter, my friend.”
Less than an hour later, the two men rode back out through the main gate. Several people followed them that far, wishing them well and telling them that they would keep not only Ronni, but them in their prayers as well.
Once clear of the last of the well-wishers, Chad put the heels to his horse and galloped in the direction his daughter was last seen. Dustin stayed with him the whole way, but it was almost as if the man were afraid to speak. This had Chad perplexed considering that, just based on the size disparity, he had no real desire to ever mix it up with the man. He began to wonder if perhaps there might be more to the story than he was being told.
As the sun dipped below the crest of the very nearby mountains, a chill settled in and Chad found himself becoming even more concerned. Being out in the elements is never as simple or fun as folks might believe…especially if you are not packing any kind of camping gear. From what he’d heard before leaving on his search, Ronni had brought just the essentials: coat, gloves, weapons, a few baggies of trail mix, and a canteen full of water.
Once it became too dark to see, the pair found a spot and set up camp. Chad’s throat was a bit sore from calling his daughter’s name the past few hours and he’d emptied his canteen. After going down to the creek to refill it, he helped get a fire started.
“You’ve been on the trail all day,” Dustin said as the two finished dinner. “I will take first watch.”
Too exhausted to argue, Chad climbed up into his hammock that was suspended about fifteen feet off the ground. He was asleep in seconds; his exhaustion was so great that he did not even stir when the keening sound of a baby cry cut the silent, late night air.
***
Jody burst through the open door and into the entry hall of the house George and Danny had ventured into. A huge glass chandelier had obviously fallen and been the source of the noise. A length of rope and a dried out corpse were in amidst the debris. The two men were at the top of the stairs arguing.
“I told you not to screw with that damn thing!” George was almost shouting.
“And I told you that I could not just leave that person hanging there. It ain’t respectful,” Danny yelled back. Despite the obvious size difference favoring George, Danny was chest-to-chest with the man and showing no signs of backing down.
“Hey!” Jody snapped. “What the hell is going on?”
“Bright boy here tried to cut down the poor sap that hung himself in the entry after I told him to just leave it be.”
“It ain’t right,” Danny insisted. “I am tired of pretending that it don’t matter. All I wanted to do was put the person to rest someplace more dignified. Would you want to spend eternity hanging like that?”
“The man was dead, kid,” George said, trying to place a comforting hand on Danny’s shoulder. “He wouldn’t know the difference.”
“Well I would,” Danny growled, knocking the man’s hand away. “I get that we are trying to do whatever we can to survive, but that don’t mean we can’t extend some decency. Otherwise, we ain’t no better than those maggot sacks out there.”
Almost as if on cue, the moans of the undead began drifting in through the still open front door that Jody and Selina had come through. Selina was the closest and looked outside.
“We got about twenty coming our way from all over. None of them are clustered. I think this place just has a bunch of stragglers,” she reported.
“We will talk about this later,” Jody called to the two men who still seemed to be on the verge of coming to blows. “Let’s take care of the more immediate concern and threat.”
He didn’t wait for them and followed Selina outside. The closest zombie was just now making its way up the driveway. It was a woman. Most of her clothing hung in tatters on her frame. Her bra seemed to be the only article that was fully intact. Her midsection was deformed and distended in an odd manner that did not sit well with Jody as he closed in.
Just as he was about to swing his heavy blade, the zombie’s midsection roiled and shifted. Jody stumbled a bit and his blade came down on the creature’s shoulder, crashing through the collar bone and becoming wedged in place. Recovering, he pushed forward and knocked the woman to her back and planted his foot on the shoulder. Giving a hard yank, he pulled the weapon free.
Just before he brought the blade down with a killing blow, the zombie rolled its milky, black tracer riddled eyes up at him and let loose with that rasping baby cry sound. With a shout of anguish, Jody brought his machete down and split the creature’s head almost in two.
Stepping away, he was about to move for the next closest zombie when the distended belly of the zombie shifted again. His mind was doing everything it could to shove out the image of what it must be…or at least to a very dark corner.
“Jody?” Selina’s voice was close, but it sounded as if it were at the end of a long tunnel.
“Stay back, babe,” Jody found himself saying.
Pulling his knife from its sheath on his belt, he knelt and sliced across the lump. A black, opaque sack spilled out with a dark sludge. The sack wriggled and squirmed at his knee.
Jody stood and shut his eyes tight after placing his boot. With a hard stomp, he brought his heel down. The audible pop and squish seemed to resonate through his entire body. He heard it in his soul.
Turning, he was almost relieved to see everybody else engaged in some sort of assault on the small group of zombies that were coming at them in their mindless and relentless march. Jody was torn. On one side, he knew that he needed to join in; but on the other, he did not want Selina to see this abomination. For some reason, it just seemed important that he hide this from her eyes.
Looking around, he saw a huge bush under the living room of the mansion. He grabbed the female zombie by the shoulders and dragged it over, using his foot to kick it underneath. The cord that was still attached to the thing that would probably haunt him until he died had unspooled a few feet, but remained attached. He could not bring himself to touch the blob at the end of that cord and again resorted to using his booted foot to push the offending mass underneath.
He turned, expecting everybody to be looking at him. Thankfully, they were all spread across the massive front yard and driveway putting down the last of the approaching walkers. He jogged over to Selina and helped put down the last few remaining threats.
“What the hell, Jody?” Danny asked as he came back wiping down his blade.
“Yeah,” George added in. “You were about as helpful as tits on a boar. What were you doing?”
“Protecting me,” Selina spoke when it was clear that Jody wasn’t going to say anything. All heads turned her way, including Jody’s. “One of those zombies was a pregnant woman. And—”
“Holy crap!” Danny exclaimed. “You’re pregnant! How the hell did that happen?”
“I’ll explain it to you later,” George said with a deep laugh as he punched Danny in the shoulder.
“We can discuss this at another time,” Jody said. “But for now, could you keep this amongst just the four of us?”
Nods of agreement came from the two men. Jody leveled his gaze at Danny who threw his arms up in the air and stalked back into the house muttering about the lack of respect.
“Hey, George,” Jody called as the big man went to join Danny back inside.
“Yeah?”
“Keep an eye on my friend…he…”
Jody didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t that he thought Danny was a danger to himself or those around him; it was just that he’d been spiraling around the drain of depression the past few weeks. This over-reaction to wanting to deal with the hanging body was just another example.
“I gotcha,” George said with a nod.
The next few days went by fast and unevent
ful. While the haul had not been much in the way of food, there were still a lot of things that made it worth the trip. When they returned to Cash, they were surprised that Remar and his group were still not back.
A week passed…and still no sign.
9
Geeks on the Warpath
“I understand what you are saying,” Aleah nodded, but the frown on her face said otherwise. “But are we really in any position to do this?”
“Is there ever going to be a day when the stars all line up and the ‘Perfect’ Fairy waves her wand to make all of our plans go off without a hitch?” Kevin was checking the fasteners on his prosthetic. He still did not have full confidence that the stupid thing would not fall off at the most inopportune time.
“Catie said that she counted over fifty people.”
“It’s not like I plan on walking into the middle of their camp and asking them to come out and fight. I’d end up like David Patrick Kelly at the end of The Warriors.”
Something about seeing the Riffs move in around that little bastard at the end always gave Kevin the creeps. He could handle all the Jasons and Michaels and Jigsaws…but those Riffs were just some really pissed off men with chains, bats, and a few hockey sticks thrown in for good measure. He was pretty sure that was not a way he wanted to die.
“What in the hell are you talking about? Who is David Patrick Kelly?”
“Warrr-eee-yurrs…come out to play-YAY!” He looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question, but she just continued to stare at him like he was an idiot. “Never you mind. Not important. What is important is that you just trust me. I heard enough about these jerks to know that they are going to be predictable…at least where it matters.”
“But if you are wrong…” She let that last word hang in the air. It was not a question. She trusted Kevin. In this case, she was trusting him with her life.