What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists

by Allmond, Kirk

  John’s H&K rang out. In one burst he emptied the magazine. The 7.62 rounds punched through skull after skull, each bullet decimating the brains of two or three before becoming lodged in the head of one more. He fired in thirty round bursts. Fire thirty rounds, change mags and fire another burst, until he was out of magazines.

  Marshall put my hatchet in my hand and we fought our way to the stage. I lept on the stage and swung at the still motionless zombie that represented Frye. It dodged, dropping the little child zombie. My swing went wide and the little thing jumped at me. It grabbed my leg in a bear hug. I kicked at Frye-zombie with that leg, the small freak adding to the momentum. Both creatures went flying and landed together in a heap. I launched myself at the pile swinging my hatchet. I completely removed the top of zombie-Frye’s head, before reversing the hatchet and hitting the child zombie with the butt of the handle, smashing the back of its skull in, ending its torturous existence.

  When I stood up I was battered, bruised and exhausted. I looked back at the room and surveyed the carnage. Leo was up in the stands racing across the back of the seats chasing down the last moving zombie. I watched her drive her short sword into the back of the things skull.

  In a flash she was standing beside me. “Vic. If you ever do something that stupid again I’ll kill you myself.”

  Marshall clapped me on the back “I thought you were a goner little bro. I don’t know what you did or how you managed to survive. I couldn’t get to you fast enough.”

  John chuckled “Yer a bloody wakka, you really are aiming to be zombie tucker.”

  I felt monumentally stupid. ”I lost my temper. Frye set that whole scene up for us. He’s teasing us; he knew we’d come here. He set up the door locks to seal us in and he set this horror show up to get under my skin. And he won. I’m back in control now, let’s get the fuck outta here.”

  We walked back up the stairs around the back side of the auditorium, to the exit on the opposite side of the room. Behind a heavy wooden door we found stairs leading up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was another huge steel door, this one with a ship style locking wheel. Leo spun the wheel open and pulled the door into the stairway.

  We walked down the hall heading for the end room. I expected if a room was going to have windows, it would be the one at the end of the hall. The door at the end of the hall was steel but just a normal steel fire door, not the type of vault doors we’d encountered other places. It was unlocked and we quickly entered the office when we saw the window. We didn’t even look to see was the largest human being I’ve ever encountered standing against the side wall. He made Marshall look like a child. He was easily eight and a half feet tall. His arms bulged so much his tee shirt was ripped up the sleeves.

  The man was standing motionless when we entered. It wasn’t until we were fully in the room that the lowest voice I’ve ever heard said “Hello Tookes, I’ve been waiting for you. Did you enjoy my show?” His voice rumbled; so deep I could feel it in my chest. Fear and anger ran through me at the same time. Frye had out-thought me again.

  Chapter 18

  Max’s Army

  Steve, Jason and Max set off through the woods continuing to head north away from Frye’s men. They could move fast enough to stay ahead, but not fast enough to circle around to get behind them. Even with Max riding or being carried by one of his lieutenants.

  Steve was carrying a sleeping Max in his arms when he caught scent of humans and dropped down into the tall grass of the field they’d been sprinting across. He shook Max to wake him. ”There are humans ahead. Many humans. We cannot go forward anymore.”

  “I’ll go check it out,” volunteered Jason.

  The taller zombie sprinted forward. He was impossibly fast, but not nearly as fast as Leo.

  “I miss Leo,” said Max. ”She always gives me hugs and she always has something yummy in her pockets.”

  Steve whispered, “We need to stay quiet right now.”

  In a few minutes, Jason returned. ”There are about 75 humans in a camp. They have guards posted on towers around their fence, which is very tall. They are well defended and they appear well provisioned. I think we need to run wide around them.”

  “What if they’re nice?” asked Max. ”We need friends. They can be our friends.”

  Jason said, “Max, they’ll kill us. They don’t know that you control us. They won’t believe you even if you told them.”

  “Then we shouldn’t tell them you have bugs. We just say you’re Steve and Jason. We’ll play a joke on them,” replied Max simply.

  “Max, that has a very high chance of failure.”

  “My dad says that if I ever get lost I should find a grown up and tell them. That’s the rule,” Max said as he stood up in the field and started walking up over the hill.

  When he topped the rise, what he saw amazed the small boy. There was a huge wooden wall at least thirty feet high made of tree trunks planted upright. It was like whole huge forest of tree trunks. At the corners of the wall were round guard towers. The place looked to Max like a wooden castle. As he approached with Steve and Jason following him, the large gate made up of horizontal logs opened like a garage door. Very quickly six men with guns came running out and circled the trio. Once the men were out, the gate slammed shut. Max noted from the colors that surrounded them that they were curious, a little afraid and ready to fight.

  The six men each had different guns, two of them had small guns like John and the rest had long guns like Daddy or Uncle Marshall liked. Most of them pointed them at Steve and Jason, only one man kept a pistol pointed at Max.

  “Who are you and why are you here.”

  “I’m Max. I’m lost. My Daddy said, if I’m ever lost I should find a grownup and tell them I’m lost.”

  “You’re a very smart boy, Max. How old are you?”

  “I’m three years old,” said Max, holding three fingers up. ”But on my next birthday I’ll be four years old,” he continued, adding a 4th finger.

  “How did you get lost? Where is your Daddy?”

  “Dad is coming; he was out helping some people the night the bad guys came to our house. The good guys fought hard but the bad guys found me and took me. I ran away from them. I’ve been running through the woods for three sleeps. I found a house and then I found another house and ate some green beans. The bad guys found me there too, so we had to run again. I met Steve the first night. He helped me run, he can run so fast! And at the big house with the green beans I met Jason. He’s my friend too. He helped me get away from the bad guys that were chasing me yesterday.”

  The men seemed to consider the story. Their weapons dropped a little bit. Max saw the purple fading out of the swirling colors around them.

  Max continued to try to convince them, “This morning when we were running, Steve was carrying me on his shoulders. But bad guys with motorcycles found us. Steve and Jason killed them and we ran again. Jason said we shouldn’t come in here, but my Daddy said to find grownups. And you’re grownups. Can you help me?”

  The man with the short guns like Uncle John carried spoke first. He was big, not as big as Uncle Marshall, but taller than Daddy. He had a black and white beard and dark eyes. Max didn’t really like him and decided he might be a bad guy and that he should be careful. ”My name is Ronnie. I am a grownup, you did the right thing. We’ll help you find your Daddy, son.”

  “Thank you. Do you have any food? I’m hungry.”

  “Can you eat food?”

  “We can. It is not pleasant for us to eat what you eat but it doesn’t cause damage. It would be easier to just tell them we’re not hungry.”

  The leader spoke into his radio and then turned back to Max.

  “Come on this way, we’ll get you inside where it’s safe and take a look at you to make sure you’re not one of them zombies. Mrs. Goddell always knows the people from the zombies.”

  “That’s bad news Max. If she has your ability, she’ll know Steve and Jason are not human,” M
ax heard in his head.

  “I can just make them blue like me,” he replied.

  “That’ll make you very tired. You won’t be able to do that for long.” Max’s bugs said.

  “I’ll tell them they’re my friends. They’ll understand, if they’re good, they’ll know.”

  The three companions walked up to the gate, surrounded by the guards. Just as the gate creaked and started rising, Max took Steve and Jason’s hands and fed a little of his pale blue aura into them. They gained his light blue color and then Max changed it to green. As the gate opened they were greeted by a small party of people in normal clothes. Max felt very tired all of the sudden and ravenously hungry.

  “You must be Max. My name is Mrs. Goddell. This was my house, before all of this happened, you’re welcome here.”

  Max thought she seemed nice. She was an older woman. Her dark skin was wrinkled and her tightly curled gray hair was pulled back into a braid. She reminded him of his old school friend Jamal’s grandma. Jamal had been Max’s best friend at school, which was what Max used to call his daycare. He didn’t go to that school anymore though, but when he did he used to go over to Jamal’s house to play sometimes.

  “Miss Goddell, I’m hungry. Can I have something to eat?”

  “Sure, just let me take a look at your friends.”

  The old woman put her hand on Steve and Max heard her gasp just a bit.

  “Max. Your friends aren’t welcome here. They’re bad men. I don’t know why they haven’t hurt you, but they will.” Mrs. Goddell thought to him.

  “No, they are nice. They have to do what I say. Can you look in their head like I can?”

  “I can’t do that. I see that they have your aura. You must trust them a lot if you’re willing to do that for them. What did you do to them?”

  “I told them not to eat people and that they had to follow me, not Laura.”

  Mrs. Goddell was still holding on to Steve. One of her men stepped forward. ”Mrs. Godell, are you Ok?” He asked.

  “Don’t interrupt me,” she said.

  “Max, I dont’ know who you are, but you are too special for me to put you out. But I can’t have these two in my house. Will you tell them to leave? They can wait for you at the edge of the field.”

  “Don’t hurt them. They’re my friends, they’re nice.”

  “Jason and Steve won’t be staying with us. They’re going to stay outside the walls. They are not to be harmed. That is my order,” the grandmotherly lady said out loud, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Go wait at the edge of the field. No eating,” Max said to both Jason and Steve.

  The two zombies turned in unison and walked out of the gate. The gate dropped just after they cleared it. The pair of undead walked to the edge of the field, turned and waited for their next instruction. They stood stock still, unmoving, unblinking and waited. They waited for Max to need them.

  “Let’s go get you something to eat Max,” Mrs. Goddell said, taking his hand in hers and walking him towards her worn house where she had some beef stew cooking on the stove. Max had never been a fan of soup but he was so hungry, he finished two bowls before he pushed back from the table.

  When he was finished Max said, “I’m really tired, can I take a nap?”

  “No Max, we all have to work for our food around here, even little guys like you can do things to help out.” Mrs. Goddell replied.

  “What can I do?” asked Max.

  “For starters, I want you to teach me to do the things you can do.” She said.

  “No Max.” Said his symbiotes in his head.

  “Who was that?” Goddell asked.

  “That was my bugs. They’re my friends; no one else has ever heard them.” Said Max.

  “So you’re a zombie?” she asked.

  “No. I’m Max. I’m not a badguy.”

  “But you have parasites like a zombie.”

  “I’m a good boy, but I don’t know how to tell you how to do what I do.”

  Max felt Goddell pushing around inside him. His aura solidified around his head, like a solid blue helmet.

  “Ouch!” cried Goddell, clasping her hands to her head and bending over in pain. ”What did you do to me!”

  “I.. I didn’t want you to look in my head. I need some privacy.” He didn’t really know how to explain it. It felt a little like when he was in the bathroom, he wanted to be alone.

  “Max, that was very naughty. You hurt me.”

  “I want my Daddy.”

  Max was starting to get a little worried. He didn’t want her in his head. He felt like it was private and he didn’t like that she just went in his head.

  “Max, if you won’t tell me, I’ll be very angry,” she said.

  Max suddenly felt very afraid. Her aura was getting some purple and red streaks and he knew that was bad. He made a quick decision.

  “Max! NO,” shouted his symbiotes.

  Max dove into her mind, searching. He was looking for anything that would help. He’d only been inside the zombies; even Jason was a blank chalk board compared to this mind. He looked past her memories of children, who were now grown-ups. He looked past her grandchildren. He saw them die in her memories, eaten by their parents outside this very house. He saw one of her grandchildren bite her arm. That was how she got her abilities. He watched the memory of her killing her badguy children with a kitchen knife.

  Max changed levels, past memories, looking for her instructions, as he’d found in both zombies. There was so much to make sense of, he staggered back and leaned against the wall. His head was on fire, but he had to find it. He had to find what she wanted. He searched, finding desperation. She was desperate to protect those around her and would do whatever she had to do to save them.

  She put her hands to her head. He felt her try to solidify her aura, as she had learned from him, but he was much stronger. Her aura clamped down on the tunnel from his mind to hers, but was unable to cut it. Little innocent Max stepped forward and put his hand on her wrist. He looked up with his icy blue eyes.

  “I am nice!” he yelled into her head with all of his might.

  Chapter 19

  Intel in the Woods

  The tiny room was barely big enough for the five of us. There was no way we could all get out in time. In a split second, I decided the only option was to try to catch him off guard. Without even checking the outcome of my actions, I launched myself at the giant screaming a guttural battle cry. I brought my hatchet down in an arc as I flew towards the monster. The blade embedded deeply in its forearm, which he held up to block my chop. He grinned as he yanked the hatchet out of my hand. The old familiar shadows shot out of him. I ducked as he swung my own hatchet at my head kicking him in the thigh as hard as I could. The kick would have shattered a normal person’s femur and probably done a significant amount of knee damage. My foot bounced off its leg and the huge man caught me by the foot.

  In one quick motion it picked me up and threw me into the wall. The sheetrock broke with the force of my impact, leaving a huge divot in the wall when I slid down. I struggled to stay conscious as Marshall stepped up to it.

  “You’re a big fucker,” it rumbled.

  “I’m a stronger than my little brother too.” Marshall replied.

  Thing swung for Marshall’s head, he put his hand up and caught its fist with a grunt. It swung with the other arm and Marshall caught that one too. They locked in a battle of strength. I’ve seen Marshall pick up boulders the size of cars and throw them. One time he picked up a rock so heavy it drove his legs into the ground past his knees. In all the years since then I’ve never seen anyone or anything physically stronger than Marshall. This guy bent Marshall’s arms down to his sides and head butted him, gouging a cut above his eye. Marshall staggered back a step and braced himself with one foot against the desk. The thing head butted him again, but he was wise to that move this time. Marshall ducked his head slightly and the creature’s forehead impacted the crown of Marshall’s head.
The crown, right at the hairline above the forehead, is the hardest bone in the human body. The giant’s forehead split open and a little blood oozed out.

  Leo took this opportunity to blur around behind it, swinging her swords together in an arc downward at the thing’s skull where they bounced off ineffectively. The twin blades caused no more than a slight split in the skin. At the same time, John fired two shots. Each bullet took the giant creature in the eyeball. Its eyeballs were mutilated, but it didn’t falter in its grip with Marshall. Leo wind-milled her arms, raining blows down on the things skull. She broke one of her swords in the process. She moved so fast the blades were like a blender. She carved most of the skin off of its skull and still it stood there.