Hounded | Book 3 | Hounded 3

by Douglas, Ellie

  One of the zombie dogs bit into Mason’s abdomen and a flood of digestive juices ran like a river, drenching the concrete. The zombie dog pushed its head into the hole and dragged out a kidney, which burst inside the zombie dogs muzzle like an explosion of stew, before it dove back in to retrieve part of Mason’s stomach.

  Another zombie dog ripped his right arm off, leaving shards of bone and spewing gore in unnatural patterns along the pavement. It slowly seeped into the fallen rubble, a permanent stain in the new world. By the time the zombie dogs had finished masticating Mason, there wasn’t much left of him for the human zombies.

  Like crows, they circled the fire escape, waiting and watching in predatory packs and chomping at the air, their no-eyes locked on the figures clambering onto the third-floor landing.

  CHAPTER 42

  LIFE AND DEATH

  The lobby was deserted. There were no bodies on the floor, no blood, and no dead smell. It was as if everyone that had once occupied the building had just vanished. Nakos looked around for another fire escape on the other side of the building.

  “Let’s just head downstairs and walk out the door. The damn biters are all collected on the other side, so we could just sneak out,” Nakos suggested as he looked for an emergency exit. His eyes traveled up and then back down, looking over the railings and listening. He could smell nor hear anything, so he urged them to follow. Leading the way, he went down. It was dark and dusty. The flashlights were just enough to light the stairs. Shadows bounced off the brick wall, casting an eerie darkness that seemed to envelope them as a whole.

  Lucy held tightly to the dusty railing. It was chipped and clawed, as if the very biters themselves had gnawed away on it. These concrete steps go on forever, she thought as her ears picked up every sound around them. They reached the ground floor and were faced with a double door. The bar across the entire width had the word ‘push’ in bright red on it. Each of them prepared themselves, guns loaded. Nakos gave them a nod as he pushed the doors wide open. He tried to keep the sound minimal, but the doors hit a dumpster, causing a booming sound as if someone had just dropped a concrete block into it. They hovered by the exit waiting in anticipation for the zombies to arrive. Five minutes turned into ten.

  “Let’s make a move. They aren’t coming,” Harry said impatiently. Stepping forward, he turned to face the group. “Which way?”

  “Let’s head left to take us farther away from the rotten biters,” Noah said as he also moved out.

  “We’re heading back to the boat, right?” Nakos said as they carefully darted along the side of the building, practically hugging the wall as they avoided debris.

  “Yes, we’ve got enough supplies for today,” Bellamy said, sidestepping a car tire.

  They made a right on Whitehall Street, and then crossed Bridge Street onto State Street with the intention of cutting through the trees and heading straight to the ferry. The mood grew somber with the never-ending carcasses, blue bottle flies, maggots, scavenging birds, and debris.

  “Mommy!”

  “Did you hear that?” Lucy asked as her eyes darted around.

  “Nope, what did you hear?” Noah asked as he paused with his 9mm at the ready.

  Lucy pushed his arm down gently. “No need for weapons. It’s not a walker, it’s a kid. I heard it calling for Mommy.”

  “I think you’re hearing things,” Harry said as he brushed past her. His Viking hair stuck out sideways and caught the light, making it more golden than blond. His muscles seemed to bulge as he strode like a soldier toward a large tree.

  Nakos turned and walked back to Lucy. He stood for a moment and listened. Hearing nothing, he caught up with Harry. Bellamy was further ahead. Noah heard nothing, so he made tracks to the others. Lucy was convinced she’d heard a child’s call, so she stayed back, cocked her neck back slightly, and looked over her shoulder, then to her right and left. When no more sounds came, she began moving forward toward the men.

  “Mommy, where are you?” the little girl’s voice echoed in the distance. This time, Lucy was positive, so she immediately went toward the sound. With her police training, she knew in the back of her mind that walking away from the group without telling them was a bad idea.

  “Mommy,” came a tearful, quieter plea.

  Lucy leapt over debris, avoided puddles of blood, and swatted at flies as she picked up her pace. When she reached Peter Minuit Plaza, she could see a pair of feet sticking out from under a car. She raced to it, got on her knees, and peered underneath. Then she scrambled back, holding down the rapidly racing bile creeping into the back of her throat.

  The body was that of a child, no more than three years old, severed at the waist. All that remained were his legs. Around the waist area, lying in a pool of his own excretions, were a hipbone and partial spine, all shattered in various places like a jigsaw puzzle. A rat heard Lucy’s deep breathing and scurried out from inside the carcass. Lucy clapped her open palm over her mouth and nose and backed out too fast, feeling dizzy for a few seconds.

  ***

  The men had engaged in sparse, clipped conversation. Nakos was trying to get more background information from Noah, though he offered few details about himself. He mostly talked about his days as a fireman. Neither of them realized Lucy wasn’t with them. What Noah was happy to talk about was his pet chimpanzee, Artemis, and how he missed her dearly. Bellamy and Harry engaged in deep discussions about life before zombie dogs.

  “At least we know that the zombie dogs aren’t infecting us, and now we know that the human zombies do.” Harry said to Bellamy as he pushed back some leaves from an unpruned tree.

  “Yeah, just don’t let any of them human zombies scratch or bite you.” Something about Bellamy’s voice hitched on sarcasm. Harry lightly slapped Bellamy on the back as they came into the open facing the island. All the debris floating in the water was disgusting, thought Bellamy as he turned to see how far behind the others were. He saw Nakos and Noah, but couldn’t see Lucy. By now Harry was also looking past the two men, unable to see Lucy.

  “Where the hell did she run off to?” Harry snarled, and then added, “What is it with women and leaving the group?”

  “My guess is the bathroom,” Bellamy offered. They waited casually for Nakos and Noah.

  “What are you two waiting around here for? Go ahead, we’ll catch up,” Nakos said from fifteen feet away.

  “We were, dude, but we’re waiting on Lucy to return.”

  Noah and Nakos turned. Unable to see Lucy, Noah called out to Bellamy, “Did you see where she went?”

  “Negative, assumed you knew,” he called back.

  Noah didn’t answer. Instead, he took off to look for Lucy. Nakos followed. “Guess that’s our cue to help,” Harry said as he rapidly stepped into a run. With his long strides, he caught up to Nakos and Noah quickly, with Bellamy a few feet behind. Since there were four of them, they decided to split into two teams. Fanning out, they began to search for Lucy. They were reluctant to call out her name, though, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.

  ***

  Lucy hunched forward, resting her hands across her knees and regulating her breathing.

  “Mom, where are you? I’m scared, Mommy!”

  Lucy looked up, followed the sounds, and saw a shadow darting into one of the little shops by the Whitehall Terminal. She rushed toward the building, her Beretta holstered for now. She slowed to a walk, unholstered her gun, and entered the building. The area reeked with thick, congested stale air, dust particles floating everywhere. Lucy suddenly sneezed.

  “Mommy, is that you?” the little girl cried out.

  “It’s not Mommy. I’m Officer McIntosh. Come on out, little one.”

  The girl held her breath and didn’t speak. Her eyes were wide with indecision, unsure if she should trust this woman or not.

  “I can help you find your mommy,” Lucy said in a calming voice.

  “You can?” The girl’s voice seemed to drag in a slow-
motion monotone.

  “Yes. Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get out of here and find her together,” Lucy said as she sneezed again.

  “Bless you,” came the soft voice of a terrified child.

  “Thank you,” Lucy said as she walked toward the counter of the pizzeria that she’d walked into. The smell of rotten food caused her to gag. She held her stomach with one hand while using the one with the Beretta to push things aside. She couldn’t figure out where the child was hiding. The voice bounced off the walls when she spoke, and she was unable to pinpoint her location.

  “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

  After a few more moments of silence, the little girl spoke.

  “Grace.”

  “Such a pretty name. Shall we go find your mommy now?”

  Grace’s head peered over from behind the counter, just enough to see Lucy’s gun. She cowered back down, shaking so hard that she gave her location away.

  “Don’t be scared of me, sweetheart. I’m here to help you. I can protect you.” Lucy was fishing. She didn’t know what to say, yet felt compelled to help the little girl. She swallowed hard, her throat growing stickier by the second, and she sneezed again, two more times.

  “Sweetheart, please come out. My allergies are going to make me very sick. I can’t stay in here.”

  “You have a gun,” Grace said with a great deal of alarm in her voice.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’ll put it away. I had it out for the dogs.” Lucy tried to downplay her natural authoritative tone. She wasn’t sure if she’d pulled it off. Not until she saw the little girl stand up, facing her now, dressed in a pale pink summer dress, ripped in a few areas by her knees. Clearly the girl had fallen numerous times. Her face was covered in dirt and Lucy was barely able to see her features. Her dark hazel eyes gave a look of an emptiness mixed with tremendous fear.

  “Did a dog bite you?”

  Grace shook her head ‘no’.

  “Good. Let’s go find your mommy now. Where was the last place you saw her?”

  “We were going to the ferry, somewhere around there. Then the dogs came. They got my baby brother and my older sister, and my dad too, but Mom and I ran into a building. Then Mom went outside to see and she never came back.” Grace’s eyes filled with oblong-shaped tears that toppled over her eyelids and gushed down her cheeks, falling onto her chest. The streaks left behind made her look like a toddler had finger-painted down her face. War paint, in a way, thought Lucy as she stared at the timid child.

  “How old are you, Grace?”

  “Five and a half.”

  “That’s a great age…” Lucy sneezed again. Unable to finish her sentence, she held her hand out toward Grace, who immediately flinched and jumped backwards. Lucy remained still and her hand never lowered. Grace looked around the room, then settled on Lucy, her eyes locking with hers.

  “Come on, take my hand or I’m going to sneeze to death in here.”

  “I heard a man, and lots of firecrackers going off. Mom was screaming. I heard them say get to the island, go, go, go, he said,” Grace said as she pulled at her dress. Recounting her mother’s disappearance was proving to be overwhelming for her.

  “Did the man take your mom or the dogs?” Lucy asked, somewhat confused.

  “I don’t know, maybe the dogs. But when I came out of the bathroom, the dogs were dead. It was that firecracker that killed them, like your gun. It went boom, boom bang, and I got scared and ran back into the building. I want my Mommy!” she wailed.

  A couple of minutes went by. Without warning, a strange noise spooked Grace. She reached out and took Lucy’s hand. The child’s hand was cold, clammy, and filthy. Lucy led her outside. The girl covered her eyes, dropping Lucy’s hand.

  “How long since you went out looking for your mom?”

  “Um… I dunno, a while.”

  Lucy sneezed out the remaining dust her lungs had collected. Three more sneezes, and loud ones.

  “What did you do for food?”

  “You promise you won’t laugh?”

  “I promise.” Lucy held out her pinky. Grace wrapped her tiny pinky finger around Lucy’s and shook down and up.

  “I ate food from the trash at first, and then I found some food in that shop over there.” She pointed to a convenience store that nestled between a grill and an ice cream shop.

  “Well, I wouldn’t laugh at that. And if the world wasn’t as it is now, you’d be given an award for bravery.”

  “For real?”

  “For real,” Lucy said as she smiled down at Grace. “Come on, let’s see if we can’t find your mom. My friends and I have a boat, and they can help us look. They’re probably worried sick about where I ran off to.”

  Lucy was suddenly concerned about the group. She hadn’t told them she was leaving. They’d be furious and panicked, so she led the girl toward the ferry, hoping she’d bump into the men.

  Lucy heard deep-throated grunting and a thumping sound as they started across the street. Picking up the pace, she practically began dragging Grace.

  “Why did you stop, sweetheart?”

  “You’re going too fast and my legs are sore.”

  “Why are your legs sore, did you hurt them?”

  Grace didn’t answer. She stood her ground, refusing to move.

  “Sweetheart, if we don’t move, we’re going to be hurt.”

  The noise grew closer. Lucy knew they were being too loud. Her eyes darted in the direction of the noise. A blistered black nose appeared from behind one of the stalled cars, the rest of its body blocked by another row of cars. Her heart started to pound, and her ears twitched to hear more sounds as her eyes grew wider.

  “It’s one of them dogs, ain’t it?”

  “Yes, let’s go!” Lucy demanded, a little too forcefully.

  Grace watched Lucy release her holster clip and bring forth her gun, startling Grace.

  “No, God, come back here!” Lucy screeched as Grace took off back toward the pizzeria.

  Lucy broke into a run, tripping over the dead remains of an elderly man, his thick beard soaked in custard-like blood. He was missing both arms and one leg. The rest of him was filled with grapefruit sized holes. Gouges and bite marks plagued his dead body. The old man’s carcass was riddled with maggots and earthworms. The smell sent Lucy’s stomach into a fit of bubbling rage. She forced herself up, onto her knees first, and then, using her hands, she sprang up. Back on her feet and searching the area for the zombie dogs she’d spotted earlier, she was unable to see anything. She made her way to the pizzeria.

  With her Beretta out front, both hands clutched tightly to it, she made careful strides toward the building. The cars blocking the zombie dogs were to the right side of her, the building to the left. She began weaving towards the left, not taking her eyes from the row of abandoned cars. A rookie mistake, one she knew, but one she couldn’t avoid. Occasionally, her eyes fell front and center, making sure she didn’t trip on anything. The rest of the time, her eyes fixed on the row of cars.

  Unaware of the vulturine eyes watching her from behind, a huge, muscular Doberman jumped onto her back. It pushed her over, and she landed sideways. Lucy felt her right kneecap come out of its socket. The agonizing infliction grounded her. She tried to stand, but with the weight of the dog on her and her kneecap dislocated, she couldn’t get up. Lucy’s dazed expression burst into fear. Her kneecap radiated springs of electric zaps up her thigh. It felt like her knee had been crushed by a car. Her back felt hot, and it was growing hotter. And then she saw it, the blood. It spewed effortlessly underneath her as the Doberman tore away the flesh from her back.

  Lucy grew pale as starched white curtains and her body was wet like a sponge, a precursor of shock. She screamed out and thrashed her good leg widely as her hands reached forward, her fingertips barely touching her gun. The closer she got, the harder the zombie dog bit down. She could feel its teeth as if her back was being used as target practice for knife throwing.

  �
�Get the fuck off me!”

  Reaching and stretching her arm out to get closer to her Beretta, determination and a will to survive coursed through her. Her thoughts traveled to Grace. For a fleeting moment, she was annoyed with herself for having chased after the child. Then, like the police officer she was, she reined herself in, clearing her mind and reminding herself of who she was. With that, she pulled her good leg inward and dragged her body forward a half inch, but not close enough to reach her Beretta.

  The zombie dog was covered in Lucy’s blood. Another inch deeper and it would penetrate her spine. She could feel it getting closer, feel her flesh being peeled. and she heard that grating, the sound of her own skin being suckled, chomped on, and gorged at. She screamed over and over, straining her vocal cords and causing a burning pain at the back of her throat, mixed with a stickiness like tar. She could scream no more.

  Lucy clenched her muscles and threw out her good leg, aiming for the dog but missing entirely. She bit down on her lip, splitting it as a trickle of blood ran down her chin. Her ponytail limply fell to the side of her shoulder as it filled with plasma. The dog had gone up her spine and was now filling its putrid jaws with Lucy’s neck, too close to her carotid artery. She knew if he got it, there was no coming back. When the dog bit down and went to chew, she moved her head. As painful as it was, she tilted it sideways.

  Lucy smiled as she heard the gunshot ring above her. Two shots, then one more, and the dog fell limp, its heavy weight bearing down on Lucy. She tried to wriggle out from under it, but was unable to. She remained still, clenching her teeth as searing pain reverberated throughout her entire body. She looked down, instantly wishing she hadn’t. Pooling underneath her was the warmth of her own blood. It was mixed with something. At first, she couldn’t tell what. But it soon became evident she was looking at parts of her spine. Jagged pieces of vertebra had fallen to the ground like loose pebbles. She recalled a game of knucklebones she’d played as a child, before briefly passing out.