DEAD: Blood & Betrayal: Book 11 of the DEAD Series

by TW Brown

  One of these days, somebody will get the drop on me and I will be gone. But until that day comes…the victims have one person who is out there trying to make the world a little safer one piece of human filth at a time.

  2

  Missing a Geek

  Catie stood in front of the metal surface that had been polished to an almost mirror-like reflective surface over the years. It was still a bit blurry, but not so much that she could not see a bit of her reflection. Her hand immediately went to her belly where the child grew within her. The slightest bulge was just starting to make itself apparent.

  Her naturally curly blond hair was hanging limp, mostly due to not having been washed in several days. Her blue eyes were starting to dull and she had to attribute that to the fact that she was surviving on a very minimal diet. It was enough to keep her going, and that was about it. She needed to find a place to stay…soon. Looking around, she had to consider that perhaps this might be as good of a place as any. There were definite signs of the living occupying this area that she could spot with little effort.

  There had never really been anything significant about the town as far as Catie was concerned. She had not spent her life wondering what it might be like to walk the streets or famous train tracks. Yet, for no reason other than the name had been on a dilapidated and bent sign one day, Catie now stood in an overgrown turnaround drive that had likely once been a destination for field trips and family outings.

  “So, this is the Chattanooga Zoo,” Catie said with false cheer as she patted her belly that was just now starting to show a bump where the child inside her grew.

  In response, a dried husk of a zombie lifted its head from some weeds and opened its mouth in a pathetic mewl. With hardly a glance, Catie drove the metal spike-tipped end of her walking stick into its head and continued on to the shade of what looked like an old watch tower or stilted hut. She reached the cool of the shade and began to question her plan to head south as she sought someplace to settle in so that she could have her baby and give them both a decent chance of survival.

  She knew very well how brutal even the mildest of winters could be if a person was not well situated to deal with it. Add in the fact that there would be nothing to scavenge like there had been in the old days. She needed to get situated and scour the area for any sorts of the numerous edible wild growing plants as well as bag a few animals and get the meat cured and dried. It was a lot of work, none of it glamorous, and certainly nothing she wanted to attempt when she was deep into her pregnancy.

  She held out the slimmest of hopes that she might find a nice little community, but her experience was that people had settled away from anything remotely resembling a major population center. And while Chattanooga would never be mistaken for New York or Los Angeles, it had still boasted enough people to merit heavy military response and a massive but losing war against the undead back when the scales had not yet tipped over to offer the world she now knew.

  “Pssst!”

  The sound came from behind her and to the left. On pure instinct, Catie spun and hurled one of the throwing knives she kept in little notches across her vest. She had the second one out and was already in the process of refining her aim when the girl threw up her hands and dropped to her knees.

  “I ain’t holding no weapons!” the girl yelped.

  Catie paused and examined the stranger. She guessed the girl to be in her early teens. Her dark skin was set off by the red shirt and pants she wore. Her head was shaved and shone in the sun as it reflected the light sheen of perspiration that coated her skin. She had dark eyes and full lips that looked cracked and ragged in stark comparison to how pretty she was.

  “You need to get out of the open before the patrol comes,” the girl hissed, waving Catie to where she stood at the edge of what had probably been a manicured hedge, but was now a tangled mess of new growth and old death.

  She was about to decline when she heard a loud whoop and the sounds of shouting coming from—Catie glanced at the sun and oriented herself—the south; it was to the south of her current location. She wanted to be cautious, but something about the girl made her think of somebody she knew and suddenly missed.

  Rose, she thought, and just as quickly, shoved the thought aside. Hurrying to the dense but scraggly foliage, Catie had to twist and turn to work her way into the towering and dense bush. She was just about to ask the girl what was going on when a dozen men came on the run across the cracked and overgrown asphalt that might only last another few years before it was absolutely covered by the unchecked vegetation.

  She clamped her mouth shut and held her breath as the closest of the men jogged by no less than ten feet away. With as little actual new growth as this particular bush offered, any real inspection would absolutely reveal her location and that of the mysterious young girl.

  At last, the men were gone; their ruckus indicating that they were now on the trail of something…or someone. Catie turned to the girl and used an arm to clear a few of the brown, dried branches from between them so that she could get a better look. There were a few scrapes and cuts on her face from having dove for cover so hastily. Also, now that she was this close, she could see a single thin scar that ran diagonally across the top of the girl’s head.

  “What are you doing out in the open?” the girl broke the silence. However, it was the way she spoke that piqued Catie’s interest. It had been a while since somebody had talked down to her. Also, now that she was speaking in a tone above a whisper, her deep drawl was very noticeable.

  “Not from around here,” Catie said with a weak smile and a shrug.

  She wanted to play the poor damsel-in-distress role for the time being. There was no need to advertise that she was a more than capable killer who could be almost as lethal with a weapon as without.

  “No kidding?” the girl scoffed.

  “Who were those guys?” Catie ignored the sarcasm.

  “They call themselves the Beastie Boys.”

  “Not very original,” Catie muttered.

  “They run all the territory from the tracks to the west up to Ridge Road and from the old Parkridge Hospital on the south to where the Montague Village compound takes over,” the girl explained despite Catie having already told her that she was not from around this area.

  “That’s fine, so then why are you here?” Catie asked.

  The girl opened her mouth and then shut it with an audible click. She eyed Catie with a suspicion that had not been there a few seconds ago. After a moment’s pause, she pushed back a few steps and planted her hands on her hips.

  “Who are you really?” the girl asked.

  “My name is Catie.” She let that hang in the air for a moment before she decided to ask a question of her own. “And what is your name since we have not been properly introduced?”

  “Kalisha.”

  “Well, Kalisha, I guess I am going to ask you to point me in the best direction out of here.”

  “You might want to wait until closer to dark. The Beasties don’t usually run around much at night.”

  Catie considered the thought, and then shrugged. “Not like I have anything to do or anyplace to be. Maybe you could fill me in on why exactly you are out and about in this area if it is such a no-man’s-land.”

  The girl dropped her gaze and some of the defiance slipped from her shoulders, causing them to slump just a bit. When she looked back up, the last thing that Catie expected to see were the tears brimming over the cusps of Kalisha’s dark brown eyes.

  “They took my little brother.”

  ***

  The shadows had joined from the surrounding buildings, casting the entire area in gloom. As the day passed, Catie had listened to Kalisha’s story. It was nothing she had not heard or even witnessed before. It was the way of the world now.

  Something Kevin had said a number of times popped up in her mind at one point while Kalisha was recounting some incident when her brother had climbed a tree and gotten stuck, crying until she had
come and plucked him from the branches; basically, the run-of-the-mill big sister stuff.

  “People think that humanity is in some sort of tailspin. I think we are simply returning to our more natural state. We were a tribal culture for much longer than we have been domesticated city dwellers.”

  “Did you hear anything I just said?” Kalisha’s harsh whisper snapped Catie out of her daydream.

  Catie looked around and realized that it was now almost completely dark. She shook her head to clear it, but could do nothing for the renewed ache in her heart that existed where Kevin had once filled her with love and contentment.

  “You were dreaming…kept saying a name over and over. Ke—”

  “I know whose name I was probably saying, let’s just go!” Catie snapped a bit more harshly than she intended.

  If her feelings were hurt, Kalisha didn’t say a thing; she turned and waded out of the brush that had been their cover for the majority of the day. The pair crept along, moving over to a partially crumbling wall and hugging it as they made their way. After a while, Kalisha held up a hand to signal a halt. She tugged Catie’s sleeve and then pointed to the left. Coming up the avenue were a dozen or so undead. The zombies were clustered close together and heading towards the two women.

  “They probably coming from Warner Park. Folks was saying that one of the cells broke up near the cemetery of all places. Can you believe that? Kinda funny when you think about it.” Kalisha snickered and then ducked down low.

  Without a word of warning, she bolted across the street to a destroyed storefront. She hopped into the gaping blackness that had once been a display window, and then vanished.

  Catie sighed and stayed hunched down as she made certain that there were just the dozen or so. It would be nothing to take down twelve zombies. She shot a scowling glare of disapproval in the direction that her so-called guide had vanished. If she couldn’t handle a little pack of zombies like the one currently limping her direction, then the girl had no business being out; and it was seriously a stroke of luck that the young lady was even alive.

  Once she was satisfied, Catie stood and headed in the direction of the oncoming zombies, moving on a track that would come from the side. They were not yet aware of her judging by the way that they made no alteration in their course. She figured she could get at least a few of them before they could react. She was raising her walking stick up so that she could spear her first target in the head when a massive clatter came from just past the zombies and to her left—in the direction that Kalisha had vanished only moments before.

  “Son of a…” the words trailed off as Catie drove the point of her staff into the head of the first zombie.

  Great, she thought, now this has to be a rush job so I can go rescue that stupid girl from whatever nonsense that she has gotten herself into.

  Catie made short work of the zombies and then took off at a cautious trot in the direction that the noise had been heard. She reached the end of the building and discovered a narrow and nearly pitch black alley.

  “Yeah, I’m not going in there,” Catie breathed.

  “Why would you?” a voice asked from over her shoulder causing Catie to let out an uncharacteristic squeak of fear. It also caused her to spin and lash out, connecting with a solid punch to Kalisha’s face.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” the younger girl managed around hands that were now cupped over her nose.

  “Are you that stupid?” Catie snapped, and then quieted her voice when a distant moan answered on the night breeze. “You’re just lucky that I didn’t run you through with my staff.”

  “I motioned for you to stay put,” the girl retorted, shoving Catie back with a bloody hand.

  “I never saw you do any such thing.”

  “Look, we can stand here and argue all night, but we both heard that moan. We gotta beat feet.”

  Catie cocked her head to the side and considered Kalisha for a second before she asked, “What are you not telling me?”

  The girl’s eyes opened wide and she instantly gave away the fact that Catie was on to something. Now it was Catie’s turn to plant her hands on her hips and give a level stare.

  “Listen, there ain’t been no walkers in these parts for over seven months. Not one!” Her emphasis on that last word was harsh. “Now you show up, the Beasties are out snatching kids again, and we got undead crawling all over the place like it was the beginning of the apocalypse.”

  Catie bit her tongue. This girl had no idea what the early days were like. Chances were more than high that she had no real recollection of the Old World beyond stories. If she thought that a dozen or so were big numbers, she should have seen that herd back in Wyoming.

  “…Dean wants us to just ride it out, but I say we are gonna end up either kidnapped or used as zombie lures by the Beasties if we don’t hit them first.”

  “Wait!” Now this girl was speaking in a language that Catie understood. “Are you saying that your group or whatever is deciding on whether or not to get into a war with this other group?”

  “Glad to see you were actually paying attention,” Kalisha snorted. “You had that look on your face again like you were ignoring me.”

  Catie wondered how the girl could see her face so clearly in the dark, but she had bigger fish to fry at the moment. This place had bad guys, and it had people who were considering the option of taking the fight to them. Maybe she had just found the spot to camp for the winter.

  It was in that moment that Catie realized what it was that she had been looking for as she wandered aimlessly these past few weeks. She needed a good fight to get the rest of the poison of anger from her system. Sure, she might actually be backing the wrong horse; there were always two sides to every story. That was of little consequence at the moment.

  Catie would stay if these people would have her. She would undoubtedly be the outsider, but she knew her stuff when it came to a fight. Maybe she would get lucky and somebody would challenge her. Nothing moved you up the social ladder like punching out the leader of a group.

  If she could get accepted by these people and help take the fight to these Beastie Boys, then maybe she would have a place to stay until winter passed. After that, she already had her mind made up. She would go back home. The others deserved to know how Kevin had died. After that, it was anybody’s guess.

  One thing at a time, Catie warned herself.

  Falling in behind the young girl, Catie listened intently as she was given what she considered to be way too much information. After all, she was still basically a stranger. Yet Kalisha was now reciting life stories on resident after resident of her little clan.

  “We need to be careful now.”

  Catie slowed and took in her surroundings. They had just finished crossing a large overgrown park and were coming to some sort of interstate. Up to this point, she had been doing her best to catalog all that she was being told. If she stayed with these people for any length of time, this would be one of the first things she addressed. Information was power, and this girl had all but given up her entire community in the span of a couple of hours as they walked.

  One other thing that Catie had noticed were the glows of what had to be campfires—or the modern day equivalent, which, as Kevin always liked to say, were simply fires. Some were several stories up, burning on the upper floors of surrounding buildings that were now obviously homes to a surprising number of people.

  “There are four other settlements all within a mile of each other here,” Kalisha explained; once again the girl showed no restraint in divulging information. “We all mostly trade with each other, but there is a rule about passing through each other’s territory without permission.”

  “What kind of rule?” Catie asked as she craned her neck to look over the guard rail of the overpass that they were now scrambling across in a crouch.

  “You don’t do it.”

  They were crossing train tracks. Catie fought to keep the chorus of that infernal song out of
her head and did her best to look for landmarks. That was when she realized that daylight was within an hour or so of breaking. They had been walking all night!

  She figured out their destination as they altered course just a bit towards a complex of buildings. She could see light from more than just a few towers. That was a good sign. She was even happier when they stopped at the edge of a clearing that was basically scorched earth for at least a hundred yards. Nobody was just going to stroll up to this place and take them by surprise.

  “Now we wait,” Kalisha flopped down on the ground and crossed her legs.

  “Wait for what?” Catie asked.

  “Daylight.”

  “Don’t be skimpy with the details now, missy.”

  “The standing orders are to take down anybody that approaches at night.”

  “What if it is some poor person just out and about?”

  The girl looked up at Catie, her face readable in the gray of pre-dawn. She was incredulous. “Who would just be…out and about?”

  “Umm…you were when we met. As was I if you think about it.”

  “No, I was looking for the jerks that took my little brother,” Kalisha insisted. “And you…” Her voice faded as she realized that, in all her talking, she really had not gotten any information as to what Catie was doing in the Beastie Boys’ territory. “Hey! You never did tell me why you were here.”

  “Maybe when we get to your camp, I don’t like the idea of having to do this a hundred more times.” Catie started to her feet as the first rays of the sun were creeping over the tops of a few of the buildings.

  “Now I won’t know for a week,” Kalisha sighed as she jogged to catch up.

  Of course, that comment made Catie stop suddenly, which then caused Kalisha to run into her and knock them both over. On reflexive instinct, Catie threw out her hands and twisted her body so that she landed mostly on her side, and her arms absorbed a majority of the shock.