Hungry Independents (Book 2)

by Ted Hill

  Hunter’s weary eye burned when the first rays of sunshine shot over the east. Thankfully he sat facing south on top of the grain elevator with his back against the metal building, staring at Interstate 80 running parallel to the muddy Platte River.

  Barbie stirred under his arm where she slept after exorcising the demon from the little boy. Hunter stayed up all night watching over them both, half afraid that the demon would return. That thought alone was enough to keep him up, but he couldn’t stop thinking about his new special ability.

  Was he truly invincible? And how did one test the extent of invincibility without carrying it too far? The demon thought the hundred foot drop from the grain elevator wouldn’t kill Hunter. And how the hell did the demon know that?

  The little boy lay on the concrete with his face to the sky. The same position he was in when the demon was ripped out and dissolved in a screaming fit as it was sent back to wherever. Hell? Hunter never used to believe in Heaven and Hell, but too many unexplainable things had happened in the past year for him to ignore the possibilities.

  Hunter worked free of Barbie and laid her against the sheet metal wall, making sure she wouldn’t fall over. He draped his jacket, now full of holes, over her and she continued sleeping huddled inside. Hunter stretched his back. He walked around stiffly, trying to jumpstart the feeling in his legs. His shoulder ached, but that was no surprise.

  Sunshine crept over the tower’s edge, illuminating the little boy. His eyes popped open and he hollered, “I’m me!” He burst up and lifted his arms towards the blue sky. “I’m me again, I’m me! Yippee!”

  Hunter smiled. You didn’t see a lot of ecstatic joy these days in the Big Bad. If Hunter didn’t feel like hell, he’d consider sharing the boy’s excitement by jumping around and giving his own shouts of jubilation.

  The boy raced around the grain elevator, sprinting back and forth while steering clear of the edge. He passed Hunter a couple of times before giving him any notice and slid to a stop. He flashed Hunter an innocent smile that looked very different from the soulless milky eyes and the pointy teeth that tore into his shoulder earlier.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Hunter. We helped you out of your… trouble.”

  The boy grabbed his hand with his two tiny ones and pumped it like he was airing up a flat. “Thank you so very, very much!” The child pulled hard and wrapped his arms around Hunter, giving a tight hug that reminded him of another little kid.

  “Who’s giving out the hugs?”

  Barbie stood and held out her arms. The boy broke from Hunter and rushed over to greet her.

  “Hunter said you guys saved me. Thank you so much!” He squeezed and she squeezed him back. Hunter was happy he hadn’t been caught in the middle of that embrace.

  “You’re very welcome. I’m Barbie. What’s your name?”

  “Wesley, but you can call me Wes. Only my sister calls me Wesley anymore. Oh gosh! I hope Carissa is okay.”

  “Do you guys live in Cozad?” Hunter asked.

  “Yes. We came here after the plague.”

  “Well let’s climb down and go find her. I bet she’s worried about you.”

  “Climb down? Where…? Oh gosh!” Wes scrambled away from the edge like a pack of giant spiders had crested the top looking for food and he was it. He pressed his back against the metal building. “Oh gosh, oh gosh! Too high! Too high!”

  Hunter and Barbie shared a look. “I think Wes is afraid of heights,” he said to her.

  “Guess you’re going to have to carry him down.”

  Wes closed his eyes and kicked his feet, shoving back against the building so hard that the sheet metal warped and popped. Given enough time, he might have torn a second hole in it.

  “I don’t suppose we could knock him out for the trip down? It’s going to be hard enough without him squirming in fright.”

  “Leave everything to me,” Barbie said. She caressed Hunter’s cheek with her index finger. “Big boy.”

  “I have a girlfriend.” Hunter blurted the statement out for two reasons: he wanted her to know so there were no misunderstandings, and he needed the reminder.

  Barbie paused, turning her head back to regard Hunter. “I’m sure you do.” She looked him over, toes to top and back again. “Jealous.” She laughed and continued walking. Hunter swore her hips swung wider on the trip over to where Wes was still trying to escape the scary distance to the ground.

  Barbie knelt and laid her hands on the sides of his head. “Wes, we’re going to need you calm so we can get down from here.”

  “Down! I’m not going anywhere!”

  Barbie bowed her head and her hands crackled with electrical sparks. Wes looked shocked. Hunter expected the boy’s head to explode, releasing a hardboiled brain, but Wes smiled up at her as his feet stopped squirming and his eyes drooped. She helped him stand and leaned him against the building.

  “Time to go,” she said.

  “How long will that last?”

  “Long enough, but let’s not dally.”

  “C’mon, Wes. Let’s go find your sister,” Hunter said.

  “Okay,” Wes said, sounding half-asleep.

  Hunter led them to the taller building that capped the end. He jiggled the doorknob and bumped it with his good shoulder to break the lock, but nothing doing. They were going down the hard way. He looked over a different ladder than the one on the opposite side, figuring out how the hell he would climb down with a limp body draped over him. Wes stood close by, oblivious to the dangerous height.

  Barbie opened the locked door with a simple turn and whistled Hunter over. “Hey, I think there’s some stairs in here if you want.”

  Hunter patted Wes on the back. “What do you know? Something is going right.”

  Wes gazed at him in an open-mouthed stupor.

  “Never mind. Just stay close to me.”

  Hunter led the way inside where a control panel for operating the grain elevator occupied one wall and the smell of rotten grain overpowered everything. He lifted his shirt to mask the stench. No help. Murky light crept in through filthy windows, but the light was enough to navigate the flight of stairs leading down. Hunter went first, followed by Wes, then Barbie.

  The trip ended with ease as Hunter found the unlocked door that led outside.

  “Fucking great,” he said. “I didn’t even try this door. I thought the ladders were the only way up.”

  Barbie narrowed her eyes at him.

  “What?”

  She covered Wes’s ears. “I wish you would not use language like that, especially in front of the child.”

  Hunter frowned, but conceded with a nod.

  Barbie’s hands crackled on the side of Wes’s head. The little boy’s eyes opened wide and he smiled when he noticed the ground. “Hey, how’d we get down?”

  Hunter wiggled his fingers at him. “Magic.” He used his best mysterious voice.

  “Don’t tease him.” Barbie punched him in the shoulder.

  Hunter dropped to his knees and screamed. “Motherfucker, don’t hit me there!”

  Barbie took Wes’s hand and dragged him away. “C’mon, Wes, let’s give Mr. Potty Mouth time to recoup.”

  Hunter’s face hovered an inch from the ground as he sucked in air, blinking back tears. Pain spiked in his shoulder. Half of him wanted to die and the other half wanted to ride home and leave freaking Cozad and crazy Barbie in the dust. But he couldn’t. Samuel needed information or they’d risk losing their food crops to a bunch of grasshoppers and starving through the winter.

  He stood on shaky legs, rubbing his hurt shoulder with the opposite hand, and staggered after Barbie and Wes. They were stopped in front of a sign that Wes pointed out.

  “This is the 100th Meridian sign. I’m not sure, but I think it’s important.”

  “Oh it’s very important, Wes,” Barbie said.

  “Why the…” Hunter coughed. “Uh, why is it important?”

  Barbie gave him a blank look. “W
ell, duh. It’s the 100th Meridian.”

  Barbie and Wes began walking again.

  Hunter waited a moment until they were safely away. “Stupid bitch.”

  “That’s very hurtful,” she yelled back. “C’mon, we got stuff to do.”

  Hunter jogged up behind them as they entered onto Main Street, Cozad, which looked like Independents, right down to the growing number of potholes. A scrawny brown dog barked at them from the shade of a storefront. Hunter noticed the faces peering at them from the windows. Then he saw recognition on one of the faces, and a girl tore out of the building.

  “Wesley, oh Wesley,” the girl cried. She ran to Wes and scooped him up, swinging him around, laughing and crying along with fourteen other emotions dancing across her face.

  Barbie wrapped her arm around Hunter’s waist and laid her head on his good shoulder. “It always feels so nice to do good deeds for people. This is the reward: happiness, full and abundant. Am I really what you said?”

  “What?” Hunter asked, distracted. “Oh. No, I’m sorry about that. I have a lot of pent up aggression. At least that’s what my girlfriend keeps telling me.”

  “She sounds smart. Are you sure things are working out between you two?”

  “Very.”

  “Well, we’ll see once we get you home. Won’t we?”

  “Guys, guys, this is my sister, Carissa. Carissa this is Hunter and Barbie. They brought me back.”

  “Thank you so much for saving my Wesley. I wish there was some way I could repay you for your kindness.”

  “Something to eat would be great. I’m starving. Then I need to speak to your farmers.”

  “You want something to eat?” Carissa repeated in a hollow voice.

  That’s when Hunter noticed her emaciated form, veins corded along the skin of her bony arms, her sunken cheeks below big round eyes. Then the rest of the kids in the building shambled out front onto the walkway. A couple kids stumbled off the curb and were assisted back to their feet. One chased after the dog in an attempt to do something. Hunter wasn’t willing to speculate.

  “Just take me to your leader,” Hunter said.

  Eight

  Hunter

  They crowded around Hunter like a pack of zombies and he knew his brains would not be enough to satiate their hunger. The clothes draped over their bodies would have fit kids twice their size. Their skin, drawn and grey, reminded him of all the dead he’d stumbled across after the plague first hit. The starving kids stared at Hunter with their mouths opening and closing like they were eating oxygen. No way did he have enough food in his backpack to feed this crowd.

  Carissa fussed over Wes’s bangs, brushing them to the side as she focused on his features. Wes looked healthy and Hunter guessed it came from his time spent possessed by the demon.

  “Carissa,” Hunter said. “Which one is your town leader?”

  Carissa stopped stroking Wes’s hair. She looked at the ground. “She died.”

  Hunter’s stomach dropped. He hated this. “How did she die?”

  Carissa glanced at the hollow faces of her fellow townspeople. None met her eyes. They stared at Hunter like he offered them hope on a giant silver platter with extra pickles. He maybe had two tortillas left, some jerky and an apple. Not what you would call a bountiful buffet. This crowd would tear each other apart for a single bite.

  Carissa turned dark eyes on Hunter. “She got eaten.”

  A chill swept over Hunter. His hands trembled and he tightened them into fists. His stomach flipped like a kid on a trampoline who doesn’t make it all the way around. Needing immediate clarification, his words came slowly.

  “What—do—you—mean—eaten?”

  An older boy broke from the pack and rested his hand on Carissa’s shoulder. The boy nodded at Hunter. “My name’s Henry.”

  “Hunter.”

  “Where do you come from?”

  “Town like this one called Independents. It’s southwest of Lincoln, just north of the Nebraska-Kansas state line. I was sent here because we’re having troubles with grasshoppers eating our crops, but first I had to deal with your sniper.”

  Henry scratched his head and flakes fell like a heavy snow. “That wasn’t our doing. You met the creature controlling Wes.”

  “This is Barbie. She chased it away for good, right?”

  Barbie nodded with heavy sadness in her eyes, creasing her brow. Hunter guessed her magic was capable of many things, but figured it couldn’t produce a stack of pizzas.

  “If you did, then thank you,” Henry told Barbie. “We knew something was wrong with him, but we weren’t prepared for it. He kept us penned in here for the past two weeks.”

  “What did she mean when she said your town leader was eaten?” Hunter asked.

  Henry’s sad eyes searched the crowd. “That’s why we haven’t left town.”

  The kids in the middle of the pack stared intently at Hunter and Barbie. Their eyes burned with a gigantic need. It was the kids on the edges that made Hunter worry. They appeared uninterested in the discussion. Their eyes were locked up and down the street, flickering to the shadows and the rooftops. Something else besides a demon sniper terrified the kids of Cozad.

  “Are we safe out here in the streets, Henry?”

  The skinny teenager shook his head. “We’re not really safe anywhere.”

  “Is it safer back in that building?”

  Henry shrugged. “It’s better than nothing.”

  Hunter nodded and began moving toward the building. He passed Carissa and she reached out, wrapping her stick-like fingers around his arm.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Hunter smiled at her. “You’re welcome.”

  A sudden howl tore through the quiet street. Hunter shivered in the morning heat. The crowd around him sprang to life. Wide eyed and fearful, they moved with a shambling gait to the better-than-nothing safety of the building. A couple kids fell and were trampled by others in the panicked surge. Furious at what happened, Hunter ran to the nearest fallen little girl and helped her stand. Her nose bloodied, she broke away toward the building as another howl erupted, louder, closer and a whole lot more chilling.

  Henry ushered people through the door, giving instructions. “Twelve and under to the back. Everyone else, you know what you have to do.”

  Hunter heard the fear in Henry’s voice, but the boy’s eyes were steady, focused. The last of the kids filed inside with Carissa and Wes bringing up the rear. Hunter and Barbie waited while all of Cozad packed inside the building. The older ones lined up, pressing against the large windows and looking out. This was not suitable protection from whatever howled.

  “Henry, what the hell is going on?”

  Henry looked inside, his eyes stopping on Wes in the back with the twelve and under crowd. Carissa left him there and went to the window in silent tears.

  “About two weeks ago in the middle of the night, six kids went missing, including my little sister. The next morning after breakfast, Wes started shooting anyone who tried to leave the diner.” Henry looked down the street. “Later that day, this tall kid comes walking down the street with our missing six, and when our town leader went out to see what was going on, the kid killed her and then they ate her on the spot.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me?” Hunter checked Barbie, expecting a rebuke, but she stared at the ground.

  Henry continued like he hadn’t been interrupted. “I don’t know how or why but that tall kid turned six of our youngest kids into man-eating monsters.”

  Hunter’s head spun around the idea. He leaned against the building before he crashed into the sidewalk. Another howl tore through the town, and this time Hunter realized why it was so disturbing. The person making that sound couldn’t be more than nine. He wiped the sweat off his brow and dried his hand on his shirt.

  “It’s been two days since they last fed.”

  Frustrated, Hunter’s anger sparked. “Why don’t you fight back?”

  “We
tried. They slaughtered half of us like we were a bunch of little kids instead of the other way around. The creature leading them was the worst.” Henry scanned the kids as if he didn’t want the wrong people hearing. He turned back to Hunter. “He ripped off people’s limbs.”

  Hunter looked around the street for signs of the carnage that wasn’t there. “Where have the bodies gone?”

  “I don’t know. Every night we hear a bunch of growling in the streets, like a pack of dogs or something, but we’ve been too scared to look. Every morning the bodies are gone. Last night the rain finally washed all the bloodstains away.”

  Hunter regarded Barbie. She still stared at the ground, watching ants go by in their fruitless search for a picnic. “Barbie?” She didn’t respond. He shook her shoulder, breaking her trance. Slowly, she lifted her head and met his gaze. “What are we dealing with here?”

  She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her eyes fluttered like butterfly wings. She tried again, her voice croaking the first word. “His… name is Famine. He feeds on starvation, creating more in his image, and they will spread his sickness across the land. As food sources are destroyed, the people will consume each other until nothing and none remain.”

  A screech sounded from nearby and Hunter turned in the direction. A little girl the size of Catherine stood in the middle of the street at the end of the block. She raised her head, throat exposed, and howled like a lost soul. The girl lowered her head and glared at them. Slowly, the other five filtered around the corner and stopped in line with the girl.

  A strong wind stirred up the dust lying around town and blew through the street like a big brown specter, momentarily blinding Hunter. A spray of dirt struck his face, and when it stopped he chanced a peek. There was now a seventh person standing behind the other six. He was tall and gangly, with a mop of oily black hair on his head.

  “Inside,” Henry said. “Go to the back with the young ones. You’ll be safe with them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Henry held the door open and pointed. “You’ll see inside.”

  Hunter followed Barbie into the Cozad building and was greeted by a wave of putrid smells as if a bag of dirty socks exploded in there and barfed before taking a dump. A couple of tables and chairs were spaced throughout. The older kids lined up against the window. Some of them wept, bodies trembling, and all of their knees shook with fear. Whatever was about to take place, Hunter knew it never should. The little kids in the back of the building whimpered in a mass huddle. The look on their faces showed a terror that Hunter never believed possible.