Death Plague [Four Zombie Novels]

by Ian Woodhead

  “I think not. Your first plan would have worked. It didn’t because this dirty coward bolted, and he left your men to die.” I looked up, watching the clouds lazily drift by. “I suppose that’s what you get for playing with your food instead of eating it.”

  The thickset human screamed his objection, but the noise stopped a moment later when the hunter casually swung his clenched fist into the side of the human’s mouth. The force of the impact threw him over my body, his warm blood splattering over my face. The hunter followed his trajectory, diving onto the man’s shrieking body, his screams increasing as the hunter tore away his clothing and dug his fingers deep into the man’s flesh.

  The hunter sudden action took me completely by surprise. Had that thickset human really bolted? I only said that to provoke a reaction. Fuck me, I never expected the reaction to be so fatal; I got the impression that this confrontation had been brewing for some time. I wasn’t the only one surprised, the other humans backed off, keeping their distance. None of them ran, however; I guessed the hunter had trained them too well, and they all must have been completely aware of the penalty for running out.

  Hot blood and bits of shredded meat showered my face, some of it finding its way into my mouth. Each piece tasted like the best ever nectar, the power revitalizing me, giving my weakened body the strength it desperately needed.

  The hunter pulled his bloodied face from out of the dead man’s stomach cavity. He growled at me, then glared at the retreating humans. “Get back here and kill this son of a bitch.”

  What little reluctance the humans might have felt quickly withered under the strength of their master’s stare. After all, what did they have to fear from me? I might be a hunter, but compared to their master, I was just some whipped poodle to his pit bull. They gripped their hatchets and edged towards me, their confidence growing with each step. The new strength flowing through me allowed me to filter through their dull minds. Unlike the thickset human, these jokers had no backbone whatsoever. A combination of being under their master’s thrall and being in the shadow of the other human had left them acting as pale shadows.

  Their attitude suited me down to the ground. They had reached my still body, confident that it wouldn’t take too many blows to finish me off, knowing that I couldn’t do anything to stop them. After all, I was securely tied up.

  Those idiots could have used candyfloss to tie me up for all the good it did. My first task when my strength had returned was to snap those bindings. The other hunter hadn’t even thought to check on them. Why should he? As far as he was concerned, I no longer existed, and besides, right now his own urge to feed had taken control.

  I so wanted to laugh at this situation. Now I saw it as it really was. This hunter hadn’t ‘hunted’ anything in over a decade.

  He had no reason to do much of anything apart from huff and bully his way through his sad little existence.

  The turd who’d mistakenly believed that he could end my life now had his weapon held high, ready to strike. I rolled into his attack, my heavy body crashing into human’s shins. He cried out and toppled. His weapon fell from his hands as his instincts to protect his face took over.

  Not smashing his face into the ground was the least of his worries as I had already secured a grip on the human’s fleshy ankle. I resisted the temptation to bite into the meat.

  Instead, my teeth fastened over his Achilles tendon.

  His cry of shock and agony when I snapped my jaws together sent my urge to feed into overdrive, there wasn’t a chance of that happening though. Fuelled by more sweet. hot blood spurting into my mouth, I pushed the whimpering human out of the way and scrambled to my feet, intending to take the other two down.

  Unlike the other hunter, I could suppress my basic instinct to spasm at the sight of so much torn flesh. If that big fat fucker wasn’t here, then I would have let it rip. A thick layer of shredded meat, bone splinter and lumpy blood would have been the outcome for these insignificant bastards.

  I spun around, my leg sweeping the other human off his feet. I followed the move by jumping on the side of his head and grinning in satisfaction at the sound of a distinctive crack. The hunter’s remaining poodle came at me, his arms holding his axe shaft above his head whilst bellowing at the top of his voice.

  His clumsy movement was child’s play to sidestep. I slammed the edge of my hand into the back of his neck when the he stumbled past. He was dead before his body hit the ground.

  I felt no triumph over their deaths. In fact, I felt no emotion at all. That did worry me a little. Sure, they were going to try and kill me, but did that make them bad men? Hell no, they’d been conditioned over the years. The real monster was right in front of me, still gorging on the carcass. I looked down at the last human, remembering his apparent sudden change in behaviour. In fact, he hadn’t acted out of sync at all. That yelling had been a cry for help, to alert his master that he didn’t want to die.

  I cautiously leaned to the side and scooped up the dropped axe shaft, my gaze not leaving the other hunter. He hadn’t moved in inch from his feeding. He knew exactly what I’d done; the arrogant bastard just didn’t care.

  “Enjoy it while you can, shithead. That’s going to be your last ever meal.” I shouted, running forward. The slug wouldn’t even know what had hit him, even with the warning. He was so used to everything brought to him, he had forgotten how to fight. I swung the weapon, grunting with satisfaction at the sound of the solid meaty crack of wood slamming into thick bone.

  I blinked rabidly, stepping away, totally confused at the sight of the thickset human’s now smashed in skull. “No way, that’s not supposed to happen!”

  I lost my grip on the wooden shaft as another hand wrenched it away.

  “What’s wrong?” growled the other hunter. “You honestly think I’d let you fuck me over?”

  He slammed the palm of his hand into my chest, the impact pushing me backwards. I tripped over a body and watched as the sky once again filled my vision. This time I wasn’t as helpless, and he had no extra back up, meaning I wouldn’t be distracted. I rolled to the left, his blow missing my face by inches. I kicked back, the heel of my boot hitting something fleshy.

  “You little bastard!” he screamed.

  His fingers curled around my left ear, lifting me back to my feet. The hunter turned me around, his hot, rotten breath filling my lungs as he roared into my face. Even I couldn’t stop him as bit into the side of my cheeks.

  The pain doubled when his fist came up from below, smashing into my ribs. I did the only thing I could think of and savagely pulled my head back, screaming out when the tissues stretched and tore, opening the side of my mouth to the open air. The agony wouldn’t leave me, not this time. Instead of shutting it away, I fed on it, the hurting feeding my own cold rage.

  I jumped back and allowed him to come to me, hoping his own bulk would be his downfall. The hunter smiled back at me, put his head down, and charged. I dived out of the way, only to find myself back in his vice-like grip. It just wasn’t possible, how the fuck was he moving so fast?

  The hunter chuckled, then formed his free hand into a claw and smashed the steel-like talons into my bicep. I shrieked as he raked down my flesh, opening up five deep furrows.

  I was going to die. This time—I did know this for a fact—there was no way that I’d be able to defeat this fucking monster. Even so, I wasn’t going to roll on my back and five up, no fucking way. I’d give as good as I received.

  Even with losing most of my feeling in my damaged arm, I was still able to fight through his defences and push one outstretched finger into his eye. The sudden release from his grip wasn’t much of a victory, as I knew that my strength was failing fast. He staggered back two paces, his hand over his now destroyed eye.

  “Get the fuck away from me, or I’ll take your other eye as well.” My voice sounded as weak as I felt. My knees were going to go at any moment. The other hunter shook his head from side to side, his thick blood spraying in
both directions. Finally, he looked up, fixing me with his remaining eye. I saw him blink, and then felt the back of my head hitting the ground.

  The other hunter’s teeth were already biting into the side of my torso. How he had been able to move so fast was the least of my problems. I felt no pain now; all I heard was his throat greedily gulping down my chewed up muscle. There was nothing left for me to do now apart from wait to die.

  “I’m sorry, Danielle,” I whispered. “I’ve failed you.”

  The hunter finally took his head from out of the hole he’d chewed through and grinned. “Oh, don’t you worry about her, I will take good care of…”

  The hunter’s head exploded, showering me with wet lumps of cold, grey tissue. My weary mind had no time to celebrate his demise as my damaged body now screamed out in utter anguish. The fucker had been inside my head all of that time, suppressing my feelings, playing his little games, making me believes that I actually had some chance of winning. Even his eye would have grown back after a few days.

  The blue darkened. I opened my eyes, not even able to raise a smile at the sight of my darling sister looking down at me, her eyes full of concern. I shifted my sight to the left and saw she had found a hunting rifle. I started to laugh, unable to stop.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Dusty Trail

  Images from my past blurred into one continuous ribbon of vivid snapshots. I saw my sister dragging my broken body into a nearby building and leaving me for what seemed like a lifetime. Accompanying sounds pummelled my ears with high pitched shrieking followed by the wet sound of someone or something feeding. The noise died away, replacing it with the return of my sister feeding me a weak meaty broth. Then she left me again; this time she never did come back.

  I opened my eyes, finding my body lying on a bed of straw. I was lying on my back, with somebody sitting next to me, gently stroking my arm. The faint scent of crushed flowers reached my nostrils, reminding me of a perfume my sister used to wear back before everything went to shit.

  “Oh, please, say it’s you, Danielle. Tell me that you’ve come back.”

  “I’m so sorry, hunter.” murmured a familiar female voice.

  I refused to allow the despair at hearing Linda’s soft voice get to me. I wasn’t dead, I still had a chance to find my sister.

  “I’m not dead!” I shouted, sitting up.

  “No, you’re not dead, my friend,” Linda helped me to my feet, “although, you were close to finding yourself in that condition.” Her eyes darted to the side. “Come, we should get you out of here. His patience is already wearing thin, and I don’t know how long the Keeper will be able to keep him calm.”

  I looked past her terrified face and saw the curved stonework above me. I was still in the tunnel. Her words and feelings brought back my last memory before I had slipped back into the past. “What the fuck is in here?” I hissed.

  She moaned quietly and attempted to pull me towards the light. I didn’t resist; after experiencing yet again my second close brush with true death, I wasn’t going to argue with the one person who obviously knew far more about this situation than I did. I sensed something very large halfway up the tunnel wall shift its weight. From the woman’s sudden shift from a quick walking pace to a run, I guessed that I wasn’t the only one. My previous fear returned with vengeance, filling my aching body with enough energy to take myself and Linda up to the edge of the tunnel in seconds.

  Warm afternoon sunlight warmed the back of my head as I squinted my eyes, trying to see our pursuer. I saw nothing in that inky blackness, yet the absence of anything definite didn’t stop my senses from almost overloading my already battered mind.

  “Come on, turn around, Colin. We still need to continue.”

  I did as she requested and immediately saw the rest of her family sitting on an overturned shopping trolley, both eating from a woven jute bag. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or annoyed to see them. I looked at Linda in bewilderment. “Wait, so they were able to cross through, and yet I was attacked?” I paused. “So did you.”

  “We’re all immune from his touch, hunter. His essence flows through our veins. It’s what keeps our people safe from the threat of the dead.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t have allowed them to cross if I knew there would be any danger. We’re family and family is supposed to look after each other. Just like your sister looked after you. If she hadn’t shot that other hunter, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “Wait, how do you know about that, Linda?”

  Isn’t it obvious? The Keeper allowed me to share. I saw what you saw.”

  She gently propelled my weak body over to the others. “We had better keep moving. He’s getting jumpy.”

  I felt like a small child being taken to on a journey, holding hands with mummy. To say that I was way out my depths here was a massive understatement. I was weak, disorientated, and so confused. My head was still in freefall after living through that intense experience yet again. Until now, I hadn’t given much thought about the circumstances leading up to my sister’s disappearance; weird, I know, but I never saw any connection. I stopped and shrugged off the woman’s smothering hands. I did now though.

  “You were there, you say, inside my head, seeing and feeling what I saw?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “I wish I had really been there, Colin. Just to put your mind at rest and to warn you of what was to happen.”

  I wish I hadn’t spoken, I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “A silly thought, I know. None of us can physically go back and change our destiny.” She looked over at her husband. “Besides, even if I had been there, nothing would have changed apart from your sister killing me.” Linda took my hand. “Do you know why you came here?”

  I shook my head in astonishment. “You know why, for crying out loud. Why are you even asking me that?”

  “This is a big land, Colin. And there’s no cars, buses, or trains left. Yet you somehow managed to find your way here. You travelled as straight as an arrow, can’t you see that? Come on, think about it, what are the chances of you ending up in the one small human settlement left in this desolate land?”

  I shrugged. “Why all the questions? You’re going to tell me anyway.”

  “You were all like moths to a flame, Colin. The Keeper’s guest called for you, he called for all of you, including your sister. Just like he called out when he was born.”

  “Wait, so you’re saying that the thing that almost ate me in that tunnel came from my town?” I could still feel his touch upon my flesh. Whatever it was, that ‘creature’ scared the shit out of me. “And it was the reason why the place had been stripped?”

  “He was hungry. Newborns need to feed. He called out for his mother, Colin; that’s why your sister dragged you back home. She must have been the only female hunter in the vicinity.” Linda sat down nest to me. “Colin, he’s been calling out again, this time for something else, something that only a female can give him.”

  The ramifications of what all this meant hit me like a fucking sledgehammer. I couldn’t believe that I’d been so stupid. “Shit, you mean he wants my sister?”

  “That’s what the Keeper thinks, anyway. The only problem was that his calling brought every hunter from miles around into the settlement.” She paused. “That includes you, Colin, and just like you, none of them had a clue as to how they got here. As you can very well imagine, though, they thought they’d all stumbled into a hunter’s idea of heaven.”

  I felt pretty much the same, I suppose. The two main differences were that the search for Danielle blinded me from seeing just how unusual this place was. “Wait, what about the fact that your meat is poison to us?”

  “Instead of ending up as cattle for slaughter, they turned us into slaves, or bait for their sports. This settlement is still going to go extinct, only this way, the process will take longer. At least, that’s what we all thought,” Linda took my hands, “until you showed u
p.”

  “No way,” I growled. “You can’t expect me to pimp my own fucking sister out to some weird monster?” I still had no idea what this thing looked like. My mind ploughed through a dozen images stolen from the sci-fi movies that I watched as a kid. Somehow, I believed that the reality would be much worse than anything that those Hollywood directors conjured up more than a decade ago. The irony of all of this was, in the eyes of the human species, it was us, my sister and I, that were the monsters.

  “Colin, you’re right, of course the Keeper doesn’t expect that from you.” She looked at her family. “He expects you to escort all of us to your sister, making sure that we all get there in one piece. It is Danielle’s decision whether she wants to meet with the Keeper’s guest. It isn’t yours.”

  She pointed at the high stone wall behind the dense covering of greenery, and I could just about make out two thin, brown parallel lines. There was a set of ladders bolted to the stones.

  “Are you ready to re-join the rest of the settlement?” She looked back at the mouth of the tunnel. “Or do you wish to stay here and get more acquainted with the Keeper’s guest?”

  That tickertape of Hollywood monster images refused to stop spinning around my mind as I sighed and wandered over to the ladders. What other choice did I have? I suppose I should have counted my blessings, at least I wasn’t dead. My fingers curled around the pitted metal, and I began to climb, although I suspect that condition of me still living was likely to change very soon.

  Halfway up, I stopped, turned my head, and saw that the other three had only just began to climb. While I had been pondering over recent events and wondering how long it would be before one of those other hunters killed me, those three had obviously been having a bit of a family get-together; so much for Linda’s hint that I was supposed to be part of them now.

  “Care to share?” My anger at been excluded almost made me forget my original reason for stopping. I decided to let them have their secret for the moment; after all, I doubted it was all that important. I could always take it out of the mind of Linda’s husband if I was so inclined. I continued climbing, eager to get to the top. I’d wait until we were all off the ladder before asking my question.