by Mark Clodi
"E-whats?", shrugging his shoulders Juan said, "So what would he hide, like that he knew where they came from or that maybe he sabotaged the radio station battle somehow? I admit maybe he glossed over a few things, things he was not proud of, but that doesn't mean he outright lied to us."
"Yeah Jack, Juan is right, we can't question everyone who comes in, Ted doesn't even want to go back to the base, you heard him, even if he worked as one of 'them', he wants to be one of us now. So let him be one of us, okay?" said Nanci.
Jack looked at Nanci and Juan and shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, or maybe they just want a spy in among us, to keep tabs on us or something. I will let it go, alright? However I may keep an eye on Ted, just to make sure he isn't up to anything fishy."
"Sure Jack." Juan started humming an old song from the seventies, by the Kinks, something about paranoia and how it could destroy you.
Jack caught up the tune, as they all headed towards the door and looked back over his shoulder at Juan, flashing him a smile he said, "Asshole!" which got a laugh out of both Juan and Nanci.
Chapter 17
'Those fuckin' bastards.' Dave had his ups and downs since joining the winning team, this was definitely a 'down'. First he had his goddamn hand blown off. That was a bitch, oh it healed, everything seemed to heal these days, but there was a lot of something Dave interpreted as 'pain' involved. His feelings were all strange lately, sensitive in some areas, almost dead in others, the shot to his hand had burned like fire and when he healed over he was afraid it was going to dumb him down a bit. Dave's theory was that he only regained his mind after he had consumed maybe a whole living being, or at least their blood, which his eyes now saw as a rainbow of beautiful color. His sentience though, seemed pretty secure he did not notice any loss of memory or reasoning, but strength? Yeah he was definitely weaker than he had been, the bullets had torn through him outside of the gas station and the hail of fire he had come under from the next ambush he had ridden right into had made his condition even worse.
Talking to himself he said, "See Dave, that is the thing, prey on the weak, let others take on the strong, otherwise you get what you have right here: You, weak as a kitten, unable to get stronger. You are a dumbass Dave for wanting revenge, revenge is of the old world, the new world is full of opportunity for those who don't succumb to the old ways."
His tirade against himself finished, Dave shut up and watched intently as a blue mini-van approached the street to the Mike's Club, some talking seemed to go on for awhile, then the mini-van did a slow u-turn and started to drive away, all the while the men at the car barricade kept under cover and kept their guns trained on the vehicle. The van went around the corner, and Dave moved along the roof top he was on to keep it in view. It stopped about halfway down the long block and sat idling. A plan came up, if only the people would wait for a bit.
Ken and his wife Amber were sitting in the van along the street arguing. The guys at the Mike's Club would not let them in, Amber had been bitten, twice, the kids were silent, only after Ken had yelled at them to quiet down so he and Amber could talk. They were in the middle of their own argument when Ken saw a man come around the corner from the Mike's Club.
"Aw shit Amber, here they come, they probably don't want us sitting here on their street now. Bunch of dumb fucks, like they can keep us out of the goddamn club, what gives them the right?" Ken said, he kept his eye on the man approaching them. The guy was wearing boots, carrying a bat and had a revolver tucked into his belt, he was also wearing a jacket with a name tag on it, Ken made it out to be 'Dave' as the guy approached. He powered down his window so he could talk to 'Dave'.
"Listen man, you can't stop us from parking here to decide what we are going to do now that your little group has booted us the fuck out of a goddamn public sto..." Ken's explanation, if indeed that was what he was attempting, was cut short when Dave shot him through the window in the chest. Amber started screaming, the kids started screaming. Dave looked them over, seeing no weapons, he calmly gut shot the woman, not killing her and leaned in through the window to rip out Ken's throat with his teeth. The warm, salty blood thrilled Dave to no end, it was almost orgasmic. Dave didn't think it quite approached the same level as sex, but unlike sex he could do this all day. While he was in the middle of his meal the woman had managed to fall out of her door and pull the side door open, she was on the ground trying to reach up to get the kids out of their car seats.
'Stupid, stupid', Dave thought as he came around the car, 'First stupid to waste Ken like this, chances are good I won't get back to him, then stupid thing number two was to let the woman get out and open the door, the screaming might bring some heroes from the Mike's Club over, and stupid thing number three was the fact that the car seat manufacturers made seats a four year old couldn't get out of in a hurry.' Not ever having kids before Dave really had no idea what he was talking about, the whole point of a car seat was to ensure the kids did not get out on their own.
Dave plucked the woman off the ground and shoved her into the van onto the floor in front of the bench seat. He shut the door, which jammed up with a crunching sound on the woman's foot, undoubtedly breaking it, then he punched the woman a few times in the gut until she stopped moving. For good measure he slugged one of the kids too, the other got the idea pretty fast and shut the hell up. Pausing a moment Dave looked the kids over, while thinking of the parapet on the roof, smiling he closed the side door, the passenger door and moved back around to the driver's side of the still idling van. Ken was still alive, Dave took another thirty seconds to suck enough blood out of him to kill him, then pulled him out of the van and casually smashed his head in on the panel beside the door. Dumping his body on the pavement he hopped into the van and drove it away.
By nightfall Dave was back on his rooftop perch watching the men at the Mike's Club intently. He had missed the caravan leaving, but he noticed a few of the nicer trucks and cars were gone. 'Interesting' he thought, 'I wonder what the plan is now?'
One thing eating had done for him was clear his head. Revenge might be overrated in today's new world, but a steady food supply was not. He thought, maybe, he could prey on the edges of this group, pick off a few here and there, or at the very least get the ones they turned away easily enough. A new softailed Harley-Davidson motorcycle sat in the alley fairly well concealed between two dumpsters. The hog should make catching up to anyone this group turned away a piece of cake, the new glock he found in Ken's van with a box of ammo, rounded out Dave's trusty pistol very well too. Dave was a bit of a throw back when it came to firearms. Automatics were nice, but for ultimate reliability and jam free action you simply could not beat a revolver. Hunkering down on the roof for along night Dave watched the club intently.
Chapter 18
"You ever think we were being watched?" asked Kevin to the men was sharing his watch with.
"Oh sure, yeah, all the time, I know they are out there. Not the dumb ones either, the smart ones, they are there, I can feel them." said Jeff.
Kevin liked Jeff, he was not bad for a know it all white guy in his forties. He had a beer gut or 'pony keg' where his belly should have been and the wife beater he was wearing in the cool night air was stained with sweat and Gatorade from the day's work. He was about six feet tall and had brown hair, eyes and an unshaven face. He carried a pistol that looked pathetically small, tucked into his belt, no holster. When he spoke his eyes never left off scanning the houses and businesses across the street from them. "I know those fuckers are sizing us up, casing the joint, if you know what I mean. Only makes sense, the dumb ones stopped coming about midday yesterday, you think they left on their own? No way man, the smart ones, they called em back, I bet they are getting ready for an all out assault right now, probably hit us in the morning, or maybe at sunset tomorrow night. That is what I would do anyway."
One of the other men made a 'pah' sound and Jeff looked up sharply, "Yeah, you don't believe me Doug? You just wait and see then."
A voice came back out of the dark, "Just watch Jeff, just watch and keep your cake hole shut. We don't need to be keyed up anymore than we already are, okay? You get us all scared and we'll end up blasting the next guy that comes around the corner and maybe it will be someone alive instead of a horde of zombies."
"So? Don't believe me hey? Care to put some money on it? I have a thousand dollars that says they attack at dawn." Jeff retorted.
"Only a grand, sure I'll see your kiddie bet, wanna throw in something useful, like our guns? I could use a spare."
Jeff stammered a bit then said, "Naw, we can't do that, I don't want you unarmed when I win, even if I disagree with you."
Mockingly, Doug's voice came back, "Sure Jeff, I understand."
Kevin's shift ended at sunrise, so he was looking forward to seeing who won the bet. He noticed movement on the rooftop on one of the corners, hissing he said, "You see that Jeff?" Kevin pointed at the building, "On the roof?"
In the pale light of the moon Jeff nodded, "Yeah I got it." louder he said, "Something on the roof on the corner, no bullshit, something moved."
Voices came back softly, indicating they understood and for a few moments every eye was focused on the building's roof, just when everyone started to look elsewhere again the movement came again, drawing them back in.
"See? I told you a dawn attack, that is their scout!" said Jeff.
"Jeff it ain't dawn! It's like three in the morning." retorted Doug from the darkness.
"Don't mean nothing, they are getting ready to attack. Can anyone see anything?"
A chorus of 'Nos' came back.
No one noticed a shadow detach itself from the middle of the street and scramble over the barricade about halfway between the more heavily populated corners of the 'wall'.
Chapter 19
'They deserve to die.' Dave thought, 'This is going to be almost too easy.' As the night wore on into morning he noticed the groups move away from the centers of the walls and people congregated in the corners. There were still a few small groups with bats wandering around inside the place, checking on the people they had confined in the parking lot and making sure no one was asleep. He saw them bring out snacks and drinks a few times too, sometimes they stood watch so people could head back in to the building. Probably they had to use the bathroom. There was a thought Dave hadn't had for awhile. No bathroom breaks for him. No urges anyway. He had 'voided' a few times, more to release pressure, especially out the 'back door', it was always a foul smelling ichor that poured out, never solid chunks. The interesting thing was he had no urge to go, he could have held it forever, and maybe just got fatter and fatter? Nothing to think about now, not when he was waiting for the next trio to march along the wall towards him. 'Here they come now', he thought, readying himself for two quick kills and a leisurely meal. He had to be quiet though, with groups less than twenty yards in either direction he could not afford any unnecessary noise. Crouching further into the shadows between two cars he calmed himself and prepared for what he was about to do.
The group he had his eyes on consisted of two women and one man. The one woman was usually in the lead while the man and woman lagged behind, Dave had seen them smooching quickly and his brain scorned the 'young love' that was developing between them. 'This', he thought again, 'was going entirely too well.'
First bringing one of the brats back had been pure genius, with the kid up there with orders to crawl for a ways then stand up and walk for a ways, then crawl and never to stop moving, it was a great distraction, just like Dave thought it would be. The little girl seemed to come back pretty quickly too, she took less effort to bring back to some sort of intelligence and while she was not back to talking yet, Dave could see a cold fire of intelligence in her eyes. The little girl may have outlived her usefulness after this venture. Dave knew he could exert a form of mental control over her, but was not sure how much of one he had and suspected that given the opportunity, the girl would turn on him in an instant. She had no name, Dave hadn't asked, his thought was that you didn't name your tools, just used them until they broke and then replaced them.
The trio approached Dave's hiding place and were about three steps beyond him towards the next corner on their route when Dave quietly jumped up and smashed the back two, one man and one woman together. Now in the movies smashing two peoples heads together was a sure fire way to promote an extended period of unconsciousness with no blood and small effort. Dave found that using his enhanced strength it actually was a fairly quiet affair, though not bloodless. The lead woman had been about three paces ahead of the other two, and half turned at the noise. Dave leapt at her and was astounded to see her duck out of his way! Not only that but she smashed him in the face as he went by! The bitch! Reaching out with one hand he tried again to get a hold of the woman, she looked to be about twenty five, white with a figure that had appeared to be a little plump. Now Dave realized it was not fat, it was her hoodie and sweat pants, she was actually in shape; his first blunder of this affair. Fortunately for him she was making a blunder too, she was not calling out for help. In fact she stood there, eying him warily, waiting for his next move, while slowly inching back into the main encampment. She had a baseball bat in one hand, but was not swinging it like a slugger, just holding it steady. Dave lunged forward suddenly, starting high and ending low, he thought he had her ankle, but he didn't, she had jumped up, anticipating his move. Adding injury to this insult she brought the bat down hard on his left shoulder, they both heard it crunch and break. Dave rolled sideways, which did seem to take her by surprise, however she recovered quickly and smoothly moved further inwards. Suddenly she seemed to realize what was going on, smiled slightly and screamed for help!
"Fuck!" Dave spat out, pulling out his Glock he fired at the woman, who at least had the sense to dodge to the left as Dave brought the gun up. The gun jammed. It didn't even fire once, just clicked and did nothing. "Fuckin' gimme a break!" he swore. He put the Glock into his left hand and reached around back to pull out his revolver when the first shot hit him in the left arm. He quickly decided that he had enough of this adventure and vaulted back over the car barricade, he could not resist taking a quick shot the woman who had gone prone behind a tire on the ground. She probably thought he could not see her in the dark, not knowing about his ability to see the wonderful colors of human blood flowing through her veins. One quick shot and then he backed up, then he took a couple more deliberate shots at each of the groups with guns before he turned and ran.
Chapter 20
The screaming started just as Jeff was 'taking a bead' on the movement on the roof. Kevin jumped about six inches and turned towards the sound, pulling his gun out as he did so. Kevin had been given a pistol, a very small pistol in his mind, but it was better than a bat. He pointed it in the general area of the screaming, but could not see much from the lights between his position and the other corner spot.
Jeff said, "Looks like they came through the middle, get some lights on that area boys, then open up."
Kevin just ran forward hearing someone curse in the night, slowly a tall dark figure came into view, back light from the other position, with a chill Kevin recognized Dave. His gun came up immediately and he fired off a shot. 'A head shot!' he thought excitedly, 'I finished the bastard!'
Then he saw Dave reel and swing about, before he jumped out of the light that was directed to the area and back into the street beyond the cars. A second later three shots rang out, one came dangerously close to Kevin's ear and he immediately ducked down by the nearest car.
Jeff ran past where Kevin had taken cover then screamed, "Jesus Christ! The zombies have guns!" before reversing direction and running back the way he had come, apparently firing blindly into the darkness. Kevin was pretty sure it was one of Jeff's bullets that plunked into the fender of the car right next to his shoulder. Kevin had a second to look at the interesting pattern the bullet made on the car fender before the pattern started to run off in crimson droplets. It was blood,
the next thought that ran though his mind was, 'Where did that come from?' then his shoulder felt like it was on fire and he knew he had been shot. His vision started to fade as the adrenaline kicked in, he started a mantra, 'I will not pass out, I will not pass out!'
His ears took in the sounds of a few more bullets, before he heard someone screaming to stop firing, after another second he realized it was him yelling for everyone to stop firing. A moment after that there were no more gunshots ringing out and Kevin rose in a half crouch from behind the car, more angry than hurt. Bright lights flooded the area from emergency spotlights running off of car batteries. The lights chased away the darkness and revealed three bodies on the ground between the corner posts.
Two were not moving at all, the third was taking cover behind a spare tire that had been left with other detritus inside the protected space of the parking lot. Now everyone seemed to be pouring out of the Mike's Club, one of them called for crew with the spot light to point it outside the barricade and the pool of light slide through over the cars into the street beyond, there was nothing there.
Kevin used this time to dart forward to the woman he could still see in the dim light behind the tire. She looked to be okay, the same could not be said for her companions. The woman knelt down and looked like she was checking their pulse, then shook her head 'no' to Kevin grimly. Still kneeling she thrust her hand out at Kevin, he pulled her up with his left hand and was surprised when she immediately kissed him!
"Thanks for that shot! I think you saved my life." she said.
"Oh. You are welcome, any time you need me, let me know." Kevin replied, he had been going to say, 'no big deal', but it was a testament of his maturity over the last few days that he didn't. Saving someone's life was a big deal.
"My name is Kristal, yours?" asked Kristal.