Hungry Series: Tomes 1 & 2

by Tide, Lawrence Herbert

  "Four!" Johnny yelled, astonished.

  "A little personal surprise for you," Adams said, gesturing with a hand to the door of the nearby hospital.

  Its automatic double doors opened and everyone discovered a massive silhouette, standing in the doorway.

  "Dad!" yelled Johnny, opening his eyes wide as, like everyone, he recognized his massive father and, standing near him, Professor Harding, who was smiling.

  Harry Jackson was smiling too.

  His father began to walk toward him, a massive rifle in one of his hands. No error was possible, he was healed, and Johnny walked toward him too.

  Son and father stopped, face-to-face. They both stared at each other, smiling warmly. Johnny was only surprised to see his father wearing a red cap, something quite unusual. Besides that, he recognized very well the gaze of his father. His eyes were no longer reddish, the color of their irises and of their whites having returned to normal.

  "Dad..." Johnny whispered, ecstatic.

  "Son... My Johnny!" answered Harry, and then, his arms open in welcome, he hugged his son, who had come closer.

  The young man closed his eyes with contentment, so much this surprise had been unhoped for.

  While they were huddled together, Harry, his head bowed, had his nose near one of Johnny's ears.

  He smelled a vague odor of earwax.

  And an odor of flesh…

  Of living flesh…

  His mouth now watering, his breath quickened.

  He opened an avid mouth, showing his white teeth. He had his eye on the ear, with its cartilage, more fragile, which was going to literally melt in the mouth...

  "Your reunion is actually moving!"

  Adams' voice had, mercifully, interrupted the odd path that Harry's mind had begun to follow, making him lean back a bit briskly, much to his son's surprise.

  The latter was even more surprised when he saw his father look inside one of his jeans' aft pockets, fidgeting in it with his thick fingers, and then extracting something out of it to scratch the back of his head.

  A few seconds passed by and then Harry seemed suddenly quieter.

  Johnny frowned, having observed his little game.

  "As you can see," the old white man continued, making the young man quit his thoughts, "Professor Harding, our most prominent Scientist, not only has given you back your father, but he will also have given to you a most valuable road partner!"

  Turning around, Johnny scowled at the politician and said, seething, "A road partner? You're making him join us in this suicide mission, when he's just been released from hospital? You bast..."

  A hand placed on one of his shoulders made him shut up and, swiveling his head, Johnny was surprised to see that it was his father's, who, with a small smile on his lips, said, "He didn't order me to go with you. I volunteered!"

  Astonished, Johnny looked his father in the eye, aghast. It was clear that the tall man was serious.

  His son looked at Bo, seeking advice, but the blond guy remained silent.

  Johnny then looked at Hiroto who, smiling timidly, said, "I repeat to you what I told you, and I mean it for your dad. I don't need anyone to go outside, there, with me. You and Boris, you both volunteered to join me, and I feel honored… But you don't need to."

  "You're my Master, my Sensei," answered Johnny, visible admiring him, "I won't let you cope with all of this alone. While we're away, with the few food reserves which were allowed us, we won’t be accused of taking stuff from the Community's resources. That will mean more of these resources for all the people that we love, who remain here."

  Hiroto sighed, something which seldom happened and, glaring at him, he said, "Many dangers are awaiting us outside, and you should stay. You have your whole life ahead of you, unlike me."

  "Sensei," Johnny answered, reverently, "by joining our forces together, not only do I believe that we will survive this expedition in exile, but I'm sure that we'll come back with many things for the Community. When they see what we bring back to them, they'll welcome us with open arms!"

  The old Asian looked into his eyes, seemingly weighing the pros and cons.

  As had too often been the case, Johnny had the disturbing impression, as it sometimes had arrived, that his Master was analyzing him, and that he read his mind like an open book.

  After many seconds had passed by, the young colored man saw, gleefully, a hearty smile appear on the old man's wrinkled face. The latter nodded affirmatively, leaning over to salute him and, grinning, the young man responded respectfully, by saluting him in the same way.

  The Japanese stopped smiling and, becoming impassive again, turned his attention to Bo and asked, "And you, Boris, are you sure you want to join me?"

  "Where my Pal Johnny goes, I go!" answered the muscular blond who smiled, having taken a glimpse of his colored friend, who had been winking at him.

  The sudden feeling of a weight on one of his shoulders surprised Bo.

  Open-mouthed, his head swiveled and he saw that it was one of Harry's big hands, who was near him now, and was showing a friendly smile as he was looking at him.

  Bo smiled back and continued, "With Johnny's father joining us, I know that we have the world in our hands!"

  The sound of clapping startled them, and they realized that it was Adams who was applauding, soon echoed by the crowd there arose a deafening applause.

  Many seconds passed by like that, apparently embarrassing the group.

  The applause finally stopped and, when silence came back, the Administrator, seeing the surprise on Johnny’s face, said, “A group ready to conquer the world, we can only admire and applaud! Now, you can…”

  A clamor interrupted him and, like all the others, he turned his head in the direction from where it had come.

  A little group was cutting through the crowd, which split to provide room for four security guards, who were pushing a man who tried to resist.

  Everyone opened wide eyes on recognizing one of Adams’ two hit men, the bald one. He was bluntly pushed toward the pulpit and the little group of volunteer exiles. These observed that the man had his hands handcuffed.

  The Administrator showed surprise and asked, “What’s happening? You, Vlad?”

  “Many weeks' worth of food, which was missing, from the Community's reserves. It was found in his apartment,” said one of the guards, who, apparent from his uniform, seemed to be of the highest rank.

  “I can explain everything,” yelled the man, fright visible on his face, and while watching him, Hiroto and Johnny recalled that he was the man with the goatee beard who had shunned Hiroto and him, a moment ago, in the TV recording studio.

  “He’s been providing no explanation. The fact is that he’s a thief,” shouted the chief of the guards, scowling at the man.

  This finally made the prisoner lower his gaze, shame visible on his face.

  “Vlad, you make me feel ashamed of you,” the Administrator yelled at him, anger visible on his face, continuing, “Life in the Community is already sufficiently difficult as it is, because of the hunger which will soon make people suffer… we can’t allow thieves to live among us!”

  Fear appeared on Vlad’s face, growing as he listened to Adams say, “Gentlemen, you have a final member who joins you in your expedition.”

  “No!” yelled the man, as he was being pushed, despite his resistance, toward the group standing in front of the van.

  “Yes!” many of the people of the crowd shouted angrily, booing.

  Finally, the man, wearing his usual long, black leather jacket, was released in front of Hiroto, who was watching him with intensity.

  A guard took his handcuffs off and the man yelled. Surprised, the guard chuckled when he saw the released man begin to rub his wrists, complaining about having been handcuffed too tightly.

  He then pleaded, asking the crowd to take pity on him, “Please, don’t exile me, I don’t want to go!”

  His pleading only increased the anger of the population, who
roared even more angrily.

  "Who says we want you to join us?" asked Johnny, sneering.

  In the crowd someone shouted, “Hang him!”, another adding, “Let Hiroto behead him with his saber!”

  Some of the people even began to walk toward the frightened man, but were blocked by the guards, who interposed themselves.

  Frightened by such a demonstration of hatred and anger the man then knelt in front of the old Japanese, his hands joined, and begged, “Let me come with you, please, or I’m going to be lynched!”

  Hiroto looked severely at him, remaining distant and wary.

  Johnny told him, “Sensei, we can’t let that accomplice of Adams come with us!”

  The old man looked in turn at his young student, then Adams, the crowd, and finally, his eye was drawn to his daughter, who was standing in front of the group of people.

  She clearly nodded, and it didn’t surprise her father, who knew that she was a person of the compassionate type.

  Finally, after many seconds that seemed to last centuries for the kneeling man who, his eyes shut, was bowing his head, Hiroto said, “You’re authorized to join our group.”

  Grumbles erupted from the crowd as Vlad got up on his feet, saying, “Thank you, Master, thank you very much,” and he ran toward the opened sliding door of the van, jumping inside, out of view and hopefully out of harm's way.

  “Well,” said Adams, his voice amplified by a speaker. “Farewell… or, who knows, goodbye.”

  Johnny became tense, having seen a mocking grin on the man’s lips.

  “Only goodbye, Administrator,” Hiroto answered, with a calm, cold, Asian smile, which made the old Administrator’s malicious grin fade away.

  Then the Master turned around and, moving towards the front of the vehicle, he sat on the passenger’s seat, while Johnny Jackson got behind the wheel. Bo and Harry jumped inside, the latter sliding shut the door of the van as the crowd cheered.

  The engine was started and the vehicle began to roll toward the giant doors, which were opening slowly.

  The young colored man drove the van skillfully as the vehicle slid through the opening, almost touching the doors, jostling the living dead trying to enter.

  They then rolled toward a narrow road, entering the nearby woods.

  As Johnny looked into the left mirror, he saw, with a twinge of regret, the doors shutting behind them, crunching between them a bunch of other creatures which had been trying to enter.

  He saw impressive flames coming out through the closing gap, flames grilling some zombies standing in front of the closing doors, the creatures agitated like flaming cockroaches.

  He lost sight of all this when he turned onto the minor road and they entered a thicker wood, and he smiled.

  Taking a glimpse at Hiroto sitting at his side, he saw that the old man was watching the landscape flitting past, with his usual impassive attitude.

  Johnny turned his attention to the bad road and concentrated on the task of driving.

  ***

  Confession

  Johnny had been driving for half an hour, while the other members of the group were sitting on the seats, behind the partition separating them from him. As the van was rolling on a bad road, between the trees where, sometimes, he saw a worrying silhouette, he felt, progressively, something odd. It was as if someone was watching him from behind...

  Suddenly he looked back and, startled, saw the hated face of Vlad, who was looking over his shoulder.

  “Pay attention,” the hit man yelled while watching the windscreen, stressing even more than Johnny.

  The latter turned his attention back to the road and, wide eyed, uttered a cry of surprise while violently turning the wheel, escaping a collision with a big oak.

  The young colored man grunted, remorseful because of his lack of attention as much as being angry at the hit man. Focusing more on the bad road, now, he asked, "What do you want, Vlad, apart from making me lose my concentration, and killing us all?"

  "Me? But... Hey, it's not my fault if you can't drive alone!"

  "What?" Johnny shouted, and he braked all of a sudden, making the man standing beside him almost smash his head against the windscreen. He avoided that, thanks to putting his hands on the glass surface.

  "Hey," bellowed Harry's voice behind them. “Why did you brake like that?"

  "That bloody servant of Adams drives me completely mad," shouted the young man, as he saw his father's head stuck out of the separation wall, behind them.

  "Hey, it's not my fault," Vlad yelled, upset, and he added, lowering his voice, "I only wanted to ask him to change his course."

  "What?" the black giant in the cap said, as he looked through the windscreen and its protective grid. They were in the middle of the wood. The numerous high trees around them intercepted the sun's light and gave to the scene a dark, gloomy appearance.

  "There's nothing here, man!" shouted Harry Jackson, scowling at him.

  "Not here, but not very far," yelled the man wearing black leather, in a whining, almost imploring voice.

  "But before that," the man added, "I've got to confess something.

  The colored giant scowled even more at him, replying, "A confession? Do I look like a fuckin' priest?"

  "Let's listen to what he has to say," intervened Hiroto, who had just joined them, his attitude denoting his curiosity, as he looked at the hit man with interest. The latter smiled timidly at him, and then lowered his gaze, looking at the metallic floor, apparently ashamed.

  ***

  Vladimir was standing in front of the full group, who was sitting in the seats behind the wall, separating them from the driver's cabin. Bo, Johnny, Hiroto, and Harry were looking at him severely, and someone watching the scene could have thought it was a trial.

  "We're all ears, Mister... What's your name? " the old Japanese asked, smiling in his shy, enigmatic way.

  "Vladimir… Vladimir Hark. My name is not very well known, but I think that you've already seen me on the Community's TV Channel, next to the Administrator..."

  "You mean on Adams' TV Channel," Johnny said, mockingly, happy to interrupt him. "Everyone knows that it's not controlled by the Council, but by your big friend!"

  The bald man winced, not used to being cut off, and after sighing, he resumed, "He's not my friend, or I would not be here with you. He'll be condemned, and God knows how much he will have to pay, when we reveal to the Community all the things that I know about him.”

  The emphasis that he had put on the last sentence had clearly captivated the attention of the small audience, because the others were watching him intensely, waiting for him to continue. He was using Adams' technique, with silences smartly put, from time to time, in order to keep the attention of people.

  "Please continue, Mister Hark," Hiroto finally said, with a shy smile.

  "What if I said that the Community's undead infestation, at least in its surroundings, wasn't due to chance? Or should we say, to misfortune? "

  This time, Vlad was sure he had caught their attention: Bo, Johnny, and his father Harry were looking at him, eyes wide. Hiroto, for his part, kept his usual Olympian calm, a glimmer of curiosity in his gaze being the only thing betraying the surprise that had seized him, too. Vlad sighed heavily, and what he said to them, during the following minutes, astounded them.

  "You assure us that everything's true, man?" asked Harry, the palms of his hands becoming white as he was pressing on the border of his seat, so much had the news outraged him.

  "It's one hundred per cent the truth," the man answered, obviously happy to have been able to pass on the information.

  "Only God knows to what extent Adams is corrupt," the old Japanese added, thoughtful, his half-closed eyes lowered toward the floor of the vehicle.

  "You can only imagine a small part of it all," added the man in black.

  "What’s to say you’re not lying?" asked Johnny, a mix of doubt and hatred on his face.

  Vlad approached him, lowered his head so
that he glared at him too, and he said, "Let me show you."

  He then went silent. Johnny and the others looked at each other.

  ***

  Discovery

  Night had already come, as the van slowed down. Bo, who was now the one driving, was zigzagging between the trees, being careful to not damage the vehicle, in this area very well known for its zombie concentration.

  "There," Vlad said, standing beside him with the others, "we're approaching. Turn off the highlights now."

  "Really, you're sure?" asked Bo, feeling uneasy.

  "Yeah, sure! We do not want to betray our presence here, right?"

  "OK," the young driver answered, deactivating a switch with a finger.

  He immediately regretted that action, feeling suddenly stressed when all of a sudden he could only discern menacing tree silhouettes, rushing toward them along their path. Fighting with the steering wheel he almost touched a few giant oaks, in the darkness of the night, the light of the moon entering with difficulty through the thick canopy of the woods.

  "There," the bald man murmured, "let's stop here. Turn off the motor. "

  Bo obeyed as he braked to a stop.

  Everything fell to silence, creating a heavy atmosphere.

  "Where have you brought us, man?" asked the young colored guy, defiant, and the hit man answered, "It's just a short walk to get there."

  Hiroto asked, walking toward blankets behind the rear passenger seats, "And what will we do, when..."

  The old Japanese had stopped speaking as he had pulled up the cover, discovering Red who, startled, was lying underneath.

  "So, that was the shallow breathing that I thought I had heard!" yelled Hiroto, scowling at her like no one had ever seen him do, in the past. "Your mother is going to lose sleep, thanks to you, Red!"

  The ginger teen girl was clearly ashamed as she looked back at him.