Revenence (Book 2): Dead of Winter

by M. E. Betts

  "Well," Daphne said, "let's search this place. I'll get the upstairs, if you want to finish down here."

  "Alright," Shari responded. "Whatever you bring down here, just set it on the breakfast bar." Daphne went back out into the front room to climb the spiral staircase to the second floor. Shari spent the next hour searching closets, drawers and cabinets, and storage boxes. After she was done, she set the items she had gathered on the counter next to the others and turned the oven on. She opened the freezer, taking out unopened boxes of egg rolls, jalapeno poppers, and chocolate ice cream. She washed a cookie sheet she found in a cabinet, filling every inch of the sheet with frozen food. She sat at the breakfast bar eating a bowl of ice cream as she waited for the food to cook. After about ten minutes, as she sat having a smoke, Daphne joined her, laying a pile of goods on the countertop.

  "This is everything I could find," she said. She sniffed. "What are you cooking?"

  "Delicious, frozen convenience foods that I've missed so very much," Shari said. "I made extra so we could take some on the road with us. They should be okay to eat for at least a handful of hours after we leave here."

  "God only knows when'll be the next time we can cook anything," Daphne said. "It's a nice break from the shelf-stable TV dinners and protein bars."

  Shari finished her ice cream, leaning back on her stool. "Hopefully next year we'll be somewhere secure enough to grow some of our own food....you know, real food, like fruits and vegetables, maybe some grains."

  "It would be nice," Daphne agreed, smiling faintly. "We could cook, actually cook, with real ingredients. Both of us can already hunt, all we need is a great, big produce garden, maybe a couple acres for grains."

  "And an orchard full of fruit trees," Shari said. "Some peach, apple, cherry."

  "And I know what else you'd grow," Daphne teased, grinning.

  Shari laughed. "What? Weed? I don't have to grow that. In case you haven't noticed, it's growing all over God's creation now that no one's really concerned about stopping it." She grinned. "At least here in Kentucky, the Bluegrass State." She reached for her silver cigarette case and lighter. "Speaking of which, I think I'll have another while we're here." She crossed the room to her backpack, taking out her MP3 player and charger. "And we might as well have some music while there's free electricity."

  She and Daphne bantered back and forth for another twenty minutes, mostly about music.

  "I know you never had any good musical influences," Shari was saying. She grinned. "I mean, I'm just assuming that the Andersons weren't rocking out to The Who or Pink Floyd, am I wrong?"

  Daphne snickered until she started to get red in the face. "Does Christian country count?"

  "Not even close!" Shari said. "That's alright, you keep hanging around me and you'll be a rock music nerd in no time."

  Daphne smiled. "If you say so."

  As Shari opened her mouth to respond, they heard the rumble of an approaching engine, which increased in volume until it stopped just outside of the building. Daphne and Shari exchanged concerned glances.

  "Go get your knife," Shari said under her breath. "Here comes trouble."

  She and Daphne rushed over to Juanita.

  "Juanita, honey?" Shari said, shaking the girl's shoulder. "Honey, wake up."

  Juanita rolled over, her eyes squeezed shut in response to the light from the nearby lamp. "Are we leaving?" she asked sleepily.

  "Pretty soon," Shari said. "Juanita, sit up, honey, I need you to listen carefully."

  Juanita sat up and snapped her eyes open, alarmed by Shari's urgent tone. "What's going on?"

  "Somebody's here," Shari said. "I don't know who it is, but it's probably best if you go upstairs for now."

  Juanita's eyes widened, and she shook her head in protest. "But what if something happens to you guys? What will happen to me then?"

  "We won't leave you alone," Shari said. "Me and Daphne, we can handle ourselves. But if somebody comes in here firing a gun, we don't want you to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. So can you please wait upstairs?"

  Juanita nodded, sighing heavily as she stood and started for the stairs. "Don't leave me here by myself," she said softly, looking back over her shoulder before she climbed up the stairs.

  Shari could clearly hear a male voice outside of the building.

  "I'm tellin' you, someone broke into the fuckin' garage and took my ladder, and there's a broken window upstairs. Somebody's in this god damn building, and the fuckers are dead when I find 'em."

  "So are you going to shoot him, no questions asked?" Kandi asked, squirming with excitement.

  Just the scar, Shari thought, smiling as her eyes narrowed into thin slits. I just need to see the scar first. Then I'll know it's him. She made her way to the utility room, opening the breaker box and shutting off the power for the building.

  "They'll probably have flashlights, you know," Kandi said.

  And I'll probably shoot them out of their hands, Shari thought. What's your point? She crept back toward her backpack, rummaging for her thermal goggles. She found two pairs, one of which was the pair she had worn to aid her in her earlier ambush. The other pair was an extra she had picked up when they found a crate of the goggles in a hunting supply store. She and Daphne had each taken two pairs, in case anything happened to the first. She handed one pair to Daphne.

  "These'll give us an edge," she whispered. Daphne nodded, fitting them over her head. Shari picked up her bow and quiver, then slunk over to the security door, gazing through the peephole. She could see a tall, thin, fifty-ish man with his sparse, graying, shoulder-length hair pulled into a ponytail. He was leaning against his Ford F-350--the latest model, from the looks of it--while a heavyset woman who looked to be about his age, presumably his wife, leaned in through the driver's side door, reaching across to the glove compartment. She took out two revolvers, handing one to her husband.

  "Suppose someone found what you had in there?" the woman asked her husband. Shari felt seething disgust course through her body, her pupils dilating with hatred.

  This witch knew, she thought. She knew her husband was doing this, and she let him keep doing it.

  "Someone like who?" the pedophile scoffed from outside. "Who would find out, the police? Hello, woman! The world ended, like, four months ago!" He chuckled. "Ain't no one comin' to punish me for what I've done, not anymore."

  Shari swung the security door open. "Think again," she said as she knelt down. She raised her bow, nocked an arrow, and let it fly upward through the surprised pedophile's open mouth and into his brain before his hand could more than graze the revolver in his holster. As the man's wife reached for her own gun, Shari nocked another arrow. She aimed for the woman's right hand, the one reaching for her holster. The arrow struck the joint where the woman's middle finger met her palm, leaving her unable to shoot and sobbing in pain and shock. She crumpled to the ground, staring at her mangled hand, the shiny, white bone visible and cracked around the blade that lay embedded in it. Shari took the chance to rush the woman, kneeling with both knees on her good hand so she couldn't pull out any more weapons. She grabbed the woman by the hair, turning her head until she was looking directly into her eyes.

  "I saw all that kids stuff in the garage," Shari said. "The sleds, the bikes and skateboards. Was that for your kids?"

  "Grandkids," the woman hissed. "What the hell is it to you? If you're gonna kill me, then just do it already!"

  Shari smiled a twisted smile, pointing to the building behind her. "And those pictures in there, the ones with the kids in them--are any of those your kids or grandkids?"

  The woman sneered. "No!"

  "Oh, of course not, you're not a monster," Shari said mockingly, tightening her grip on the woman's hair. "You're worse than he is," she growled, motioning toward the woman's dead husband. "You're a mother, and a grandmother. You're supposed to nourish and protect, not just your own children, but any child who needs you. And you help your husband get away with
this?" The woman gazed vacantly at Shari. "And for what?" Shari continued, gesturing at the property around them. "For your quasi-luxurious, upper middle-class country lifestyle? A new hot tub and deck, complete with a state-of-the-art patio kitchen, or the satisfaction that can only come from putzing around town in the very latest model of the very biggest truck you can afford to drive?" She sneered. "You kept your child-raping husband around because you liked the comfortable lifestyle he provided. How does it feel to sell your soul so badly for relatively little?"

  "You killed my husband," the woman said. "I have nothing to say to you."

  "Hold on, Princess," Kandi said, smirking. "Here comes the butcher."

  Shari smiled faintly as Daphne snuck up behind the pedophile's wife, who didn't even have time to be puzzled or surprised before she died, the blade of Daphne's titanium knife having effectively severed her spinal cord at the base of her skull. Shari, still kneeling, released the woman's hair, and she collapsed in a lifeless heap in the dirt driveway.

  "I couldn't stand to hear her speak anymore," Daphne explained, confiscating the ears of the woman and her husband. "Or breathe. Or exist."

  "Yeah, no shit," Shari said, standing and turning back toward the open building where Juanita was waiting upstairs. She sighed from deep within her lungs. "First it was zombies. Then it was sadists. Now it's regular, garden-variety human trash." Her gaze was far off and fearful as she continued. "The types of people and things that we'll kill in our lifetime just keeps getting longer and longer."

  Daphne shrugged. "You were right earlier this morning, back in the woods at the camp. We have no choice but to do the things we're doing. It's the world we live in now. We're just trying to live."

  "And let live," Shari added. They stepped back into the building. Shari closed and locked the door behind them. "Juanita, it's okay to come out!" she shouted.

  Juanita bounded down the stairs. "I'm so glad you're back!" she said. "I was scared up there in the dark. I don't like this place."

  "With good reason," Kandi said.

  "We'll be leaving here first thing in the morning," Shari promised.

  "First thing?" Juanita asked, eyebrows raised.

  "At the buttcrack of dawn," Shari said, smiling. Juanita giggled.

  The three of them perched on stools at the counter. "So we have, what...over eight hours before sunrise?" Shari asked.

  Daphne nodded. "And in the meantime, at least one of should be keeping watch, just in case--"

  "Just in case there are some more survivors in this child-fucking family, lurking around?" Shari finished, leaning in close to whisper it into Daphne's ear.

  "Yeah," Daphne whispered, "they just might have a beef with us once they see those two dead jerkoffs in the driveway."

  Shari smirked. "Still, I'd rather take my chances on that possibilty than try and get back on the road while it's still dark."

  "You and me both," Daphne muttered. "Although morning can't come soon enough, in my opinion."

  "I know what you mean," Shari said, her gaze panning over the interior of the building as she narrowed her eyes. "Just being in this place feels wrong. Even if I was still tired, I don't think I could sleep in here, knowing what we know."

  "Yeah," Daphne agreed, "it's gonna be a long, boring, uncomfortable night."

  "Yep," Shari concurred, laying her head down on her folded arms on the counter. She closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting. After a few minutes, her breathing deepened as she zoned out. In her mind, she was fighting her way through a festering, never-ending horde of undead. She used a sledgehammer much like the one she had used to kill her first zombie. It was a fifteen-pound weapon which had worked sufficiently for just one zombie, but she found that she tired quickly as she went from one to the next, swinging the sledgehammer at head level. She looked out at the vast crowd of zombies, groaning with discouragement. The crowd stretched as far as her eye could see, and she glanced at the weapon in her hand, smirking as she realized the futility of her endeavor.

  She saw Kandi meander in her direction, brushing casually against undead bodies as she passed through the crowd. "Don't waste your energy, princess," Kandi said. She reached Shari, who stood with her sledgehammer raised. Kandi put her hand on the hammer, pushing down gently until Shari lowered the weapon. "Let the winter finish them off. Worry about the real villains...the ones alive and breathing."

  Shari squinted as a sliver of brand-new morning sun pierced her retinas. They were headed east once again, having left the building they had spent the night in at the first sign of dawn. Juanita sat in front of her, happy as a clam in her new pants, shirt, and jacket. Before they had left the house, Shari and Daphne had let Juanita pick an outfit to take, but only on the condition that they washed it first. Shari had doused it with a healthy dose of ammonia as she dropped it into the washing machine.

  "Normally, I wouldn't let a little girl wear something that a pedophile kept to fulfill his sexual fantasies," she had told Daphne. "But considering the circumstances...."

  "Yeah," Daphne had said. "Her clothes were stained and full of holes, and it's not like we passed a Wal-Mart on the way here. The girl needs clothes, and we can't really afford to be picky."

  As Shari rode behind Daphne, she glanced around herself in all directions. Everywhere she looked, even out in the country, she saw evidence of the frenzied death throes of civilization as humanity had once known it. The rotting contents of a bag of groceries lay scattered on a lawn to her left. A large Easter ham, a bag of potatoes, a bouquet of flowers long dried out. About a quarter-mile back, she had seen the undead remains of a couple as they sat in their packed car. They had apparently filled the car almost to the ceiling with whatever provisions they thought they needed, but then died in their car before they ever got to drive away. They had sat, windows rolled up, and melted into their seats in the warm interior of the car for several months. Shari had thought they were fully dead until the female raised her head with great difficulty and twisted her neck in an attempt to look toward the road as they passed.

  They had been traveling eastward for about a half an hour when Juanita pointed excitedly toward a house to their left. It was a large, dome-shaped structure painted beige with intricate landscaping all around it. "I remember that house!" Juanita said. "This is close to where those guys took me from my mom and dad."

  "Then we'll have a good look around the area," Shari said. "You said your family was near a creek?" Juanita nodded. "Then we know what to look for."

  They rode on toward the center of a small, unincorporated neighborhood. The main street had a small business district including a gas station, a bait shop, a daycare, and a diner.

  "Do you remember coming through here?" Shari asked Juanita.

  "I think so," Juanita replied, though she didn't sound certain. They passed the center of town, then reached a sprawling, wooded park with a playground and a pavilion full of picnic tables.

  "I remember this park!" Juanita said, clapping her hands. "I rode past here with those guys--we came from down there, by the creek." Shari and Daphne rode through the park, to the far side where it was bordered by the creek.

  "Which way did you guys come from?" Shari asked as they stopped at the creek bed.

  "That way," Juanita said, pointing to her right. Shari and Daphne rode on in that direction, following the water. "It shouldn't be far from here."

  "Hold up," Shari told Daphne. "I have to pee." She dismounted and walked toward the treeline to relieve herself. "Be back in a sec'," she called back over her shoulder to Daphne and Juanita.

  She reached the edge of the woods, then ducked behind a shrub, pulled down her pants and panties, and crouched down. As she urinated, she heard the sound of twigs snapping under a human tread, coming from her left. She squeezed her abdominal muscles, forcing the rest of the urine from her bladder, then pulled her pants up and grabbed her bow from her back, nocking an arrow. She stalked noiselessly toward the direction of the sound, bow pointed.

 
As she walked past a thick, dense conifer, a large male figure rushed her and attempted to push her to the ground. She ducked and rolled to her left, evading the unknown attacker. She raised her bow again, pointing her arrow at the man's face, about twelve feet away. He raised a nine-millimeter pistol, holding it with two shaking hands as he pointed it at Shari, standing about ten feet away.

  Shari scoffed, then smiled. "I wouldn't bother with that if I were you," she said. "There's a chance you'll just make me mad more than do any real harm with it. I'm wearing kevlar head to toe." She tilted her head toward her arrow. "This here, though...this doesn't have to go through shit to get to you." She glared at him through the eyeholes of the skull on her hood. "And I don't miss."

  The man stood holding his gun, his hands still shaking. "Why do you have my daughter?" he asked, his voice shaking just as much as his hands were.

  Shari lowered her bow, her eyes wide beneath her hood.

  "You're Juanita's dad?" The man nodded. "Well then," Shari began, chuckling, "you ought to be thanking my friend and me. We found your daughter just south of the Ohio River, and we detoured--a major detour for us, by the way--back here to see if we could find you guys." She shook her head. "We really didn't think we'd find you, though, and then...." She shrugged. "And then I don't know what we would have done with her. I guess we would have had no choice but to keep her, I don't know. But we couldn't leave her where we found her, alone on 24 after we'd killed a group of bikers...you know the kind."

  Juanita's father nodded. "I'm afraid I do," he said. "We've seen them a lot of them. It makes me wonder how many sociopaths there were all along, right under our noses, before any of this happened."

  Shari continued. "Well, it turns out that these bikers were the ones who'd kidnapped your daughter."

  "I have to go see her," the man said, turning toward the creek where Daphne and Juanita waited. "I just...when I saw you guys, I didn't know who you were or why she was with you. Oh, and...." He paused, turning back to look Shari in the eye uncomfortably. "Sorry I...you know, saw you pee and everything.