The Ringmaster laughed, and Sue started to sweat as she braced her feet against the lid of the trunk. She bit down on her lip as the slashes on her back pressed against the wood. The Ringmaster rushed towards his brother swinging the chair across the room “Fuck me?” The Ringmaster shouted, he stared at Adam.
The Ringmaster’s chest was rising and falling as the white makeup on his face started to crack to reveal a twisted smile. His white face turned up towards the deem light in the room. It was a silent moment, the kind where all you can hear is your heart beating.
Sue’s heart wasn’t just beating it was pounding out of her chest. She didn’t know what was going on. All she knew was she was bleeding, and locked in a trunk. So no matter who opened that lid she planned on giving them hell.
The Ringmaster’s face came down slowly with a large smile, which was enhanced and even more terrifying due to the red lipstick covering his face. The Ringmaster winked at Daniel and the large man quickly grabbed a hold of Adam, slamming him into the old wooden door.
Adam kicked his legs, trying his hardest to get a foot back on the ground, but it was useless, Daniel had him up in the air once again. This time Adam could feel his lungs fighting for air as Daniel held his throat tightly. The Ringmaster slowly started walking over to Adam, he leaned down and picked up his cane from off the floor.
“No, no little brother. You won’t be fucking anything tonight, but we will be,” The Ringmaster said with a laugh.
The cane came out over Daniel’s shoulder and slowly started to push into Adam’s face. The cold gold metal pressed against Adam’s cheek, helping his face turn a darker red than it already was. Adam was fighting, he would have slapped the cane away but he was too busy using his hands to keep Daniel from strangling him.
“You wanna know what we’re gonna do with her? Huh? I’ll tell you! We’re gonna do whatever the fuck we want with her,” The Ringmaster said and then smiled before he continued. “We’ll do whatever the fuck we want all night and then I’ll kill her.” The Ringmaster’s head turned to the side as he stared at his little brother, he made a sad face and said, “Not because we’re hungry, not because she’s a threat. No, no, no! I’ll kill her because I can!” The Ringmaster leaned into the cane with great force then pulled it back, leaving a large red mark on Adam’s face.
“That’s just how it is little brother and that’s just how it will always be.” The Ringmaster looked over his shoulder at the trunk once again.
Footsteps echoed through the wood as Sue’s feet pressed along the lid.
“Don’t act like we haven’t done this before,” The Ringmaster said as he started to pull the key out of his pocket.
Sue swore she could feel her heart pounding against her rib cage. Her eyes were wide when the lid started to lift, Sue kicked her feet with all her force slamming the lid into The Ringmaster’s face.
Sue sprung up and balled her fist, her heart was still pounding, and her back was still burning from her last beating, but she wasn’t going to just sit and wait to die, not like this. Sue’s right fist went flying towards The Ringmaster, but it was all for nothing as the monster took hold of her small balled up hand and pulled Sue in close to him.
“Awe somebody wants to play rough?” The Ringmaster said with a smile as he turned his head to spit out a bit of blood. He slowly turned towards his brothers as he softly said, “Daniel, give Adam a nice seat for the show.” The Ringmaster licked his bloody lips as he turned back to face Sue. “He’s not gonna want to miss this.”
Sue’s eyes were filled with tears now, she was pushing and pulling, but she was too weak and he was too strong. The Ringmaster leaned in closer to Sue till she could feel the heat coming from his lips, his hand went onto his belt buckle and Sue closed her eyes.
“What the fuck’s going on!”
The Ringmaster’s shouting caused Sue’s eyes to pop open, but when they did it was to total darkness, the lights in the room had gone out, there were loud bangs coming from downstairs, and The Ringmaster swung his head towards his brother Daniel.
“Go see what that is!” he hissed through the darkness.
Sue could hear the big man stumbling about trying to find his way through the blackness of the room. Sue started to laugh, it started small then it grew, it was a broken set of cackles that was somewhat haunting to hear in the darkness.
The Ringmaster grabbed her hair and bent her head backwards, “What the fuck is so funny?”
Sue smiled in the darkness, as she softly whispered, “You’re dead and you don’t even know it.”
CHAPTER 6
“T his was a dumb plan!” Tennessee screamed from behind.
Catherine turned her head only for a moment to see the two women hauling ass behind her. She wanted to scream ‘shut the hell up’ or ‘this is gonna work’ but as her eyes moved past Tennessee and Faith they found the fast moving pack of zombies behind them. Catherine thought it best to just keep her head forward, her legs moving, and her thoughts on happier times. Any time other than this moment would have worked.
“Just keep moving!” Catherine finally shouted out as they were sprinting towards the old farmhouse that stood at the top of the hill. As they rushed through the tall grass of the hillside, that house seemed like their safe haven, the only thing to save them from their misguided attempt at an ambush. Yet, even with this pretty picture of their newly found safe zone, Catherine knew once they got through those doors there was gonna be a whole other world of problems.
The burning started off small, a slight annoying itch on her foot. Then it grew beyond her toes, to her calf, then her thighs. As she felt the burning take over both her legs and lungs, Catherine immediately wished she didn’t cancel that gym membership last year. She wished she had stayed in fighting shape like when she was in the Army, but sadly late night pizza and movie nights with the family sounded better than laps in the pool.
As her mind came across that long forgotten memory of watching random comedies with her boys, she found herself pushing past the burning. Catherine kept her eyes forward, focused on the door of the farmhouse, she told herself she was racing towards her family. She told herself, if she didn’t make it to that door, that she would never see them again. A fire started up in Catherine and she sped up the hill faster.
“Keep fucking moving!” Catherine shouted.
The three women were fighting their way up with Catherine leading the charge, and poor Faith falling behind. With every step she took she could see Tennessee and Catherine taking two or even three steps more. They seemed to be built for this, built to survive, built to fight, but not Faith. Long before the dead started roaming the earth Faith knew that she wasn’t meant for a long life. Faith came from a broken home, her mother had walked out on them when she was five. The woman packed one bag and kissed her daughter on the cheek saying ‘be good Faith’ and that was it. She ran leaving Faith alone with a monster for a father. Faith’s life was just one hellish beating for 13 years till Faith found a way out.
It was an escape that came in the form of a young soldier named Mark. Faith had gone to school with Mark and never really thought much about him, till he showed up in his Army workout uniform. It wasn’t the uniform that got her heart racing, it was all that came with it. Mark was going places, far off places away from the monster that lived in her house. Faith thought Mark could keep her safe, so they got married. She was full of hope as she unpacked her life to start a new one in Georgia, far from the monster in Texas, but overtime Faith realized she had just traded one monster for another.
With every hit Mark delivered, Faith knew she wasn’t built for a long life and as she watched the farm house moving out of her sight and the ground coming closer to her face, she knew for a fact that she wasn’t built to survive, wasn’t built to fight, she just wasn’t built for any of this. Faith rolled over onto her back and watched as the Zombies started racing towards her
“Oh my God!” Faith screamed. Her voice was high and cracking, a sound that just cut through
the night sky causing both Catherine and Tennessee turn around quickly.
Faith closed her eyes in hopes that if she didn’t see her fate coming, that it wouldn’t hurt as bad. It was an old trick she developed with her father and perfected with her husband. Faith would close her eyes tightly, waiting for that chilling sound of a fist or an open hand hitting a body part and then the pain would follow. This time she was listening for ripping or teeth tearing into skin. Yet, all she heard were feet slamming into the ground and all she felt was her legs burning and her wrist cramping. As she opened her eyes she could see the zombies falling farther and farther away as the grass around her zipped past her dress. Faith leaned her head back to see Catherine holding onto her left hand and Tennessee holding onto her right. The two women were dragging Faith with everything they had.
“We’re almost there,” Catherine pushed the words out of her month and Faith closed her eyes once again, they were risking their lives for her.
They could have left her, turned away and acted as if they didn’t see anything, like so many had done before. Yet, they saw her at her weakest and picked her up, or dragged her in this case. She didn’t know how that made her feel, to know that everyone she trusted or loved, worked their hardest to break her and here were these women she hardly knew, working their hardest to keep her alive. When this was all done Faith was going to have to rethink the meaning of love, that was for sure.
They were racing towards hope, and with one sound of the wooden steps creaking from the weight of Catherine’s boot, they realized they had finally made it. Both Catherine and Tennessee dropped Faith’s arms at the same time.
“Get the fuck up Faith!” Tennessee shouted without even looking down at the woman or offering a helping hand.
Tennessee raced towards the front door only to have a hand slap into her chest.
“Hold on,” Catherine whispered.
Tennessee slapped Catherine’s hand away. “We don’t have time to hold on,” Tennessee hissed back causing Catherine to turn to look at the zombies that were just feet away from the front steps.
“We can’t just go in through the front. We don’t know what the hell is waiting for us.” Catherine whispered as she started walking around the wrap around porch.
Faith stood up to watch Tennessee roll her eyes and quickly rush behind Catherine, both the women were moving swiftly hugging the walls, trying to stay below the windows. Faith stood there for a moment, she turned her head to the side and then took off running along the house.
Catherine’s head shot forward. “What the fuck are you doing?” She shouted as softly as she could.
Their eyes watched Faith running through the grass, she moved quickly, darting past a wooden shed, then past one of the pillars of the house, and then she was gone. Catherine and Tennessee looked at each other puzzled.
Tennessee softly said, “Where’d she go?”
Catherine shrugged her shoulders, they slowly started moving towards the railing of the porch, Catherine’s hand went out to touch the wood and then Faith’s head popped up.
“You two coming?” Faith whispered.
Catherine looked over the railing to see two large doors and steps leading down into the house’s cellar.
Tennessee smiled and stood up, “And here I was thinking you were useless.” She said as she tossed her legs over the railing, one after the other.
Catherine stood up and saw the zombies making their way up the steps. She put one hand on the railing to steady her body as she leaped over landing on the grass below. The three women raced down the steps, Catherine was behind them as she pulled the two doors shut. Catherine held them together in her hands and looked back at Faith.
“Good job, now find me something to keep these doors shut.” Catherine said.
Faith smiled for a moment before turning and searching through the dark cellar, moving slowly to avoid tripping over anything.
Tennessee put her hand in her pocket and then pulled out a lighter, her thumb rolled down along the metal creating a flame to brighten up a small area in front of her face. “Where is it?” she said softly.
Faith’s head turned towards Tennessee’s voice. “Where’s what?” Faith asked.
Tennessee ignored Faith as she continued to search slowly throughout the cellar, her eyes moved from the walls to the ceiling, routing back and forth before she said, “Got it!”
The lights of the cellar went on and Faith jumped back, she was gonna scream but Tennessee shot towards her, slapping her hand over Faith’s mouth. Both the women’s eyes were wide and they started walking backwards towards the steps they just ran down moments ago.
Looking over her shoulder as she held the doors for dear life Catherine shouted, “Hello! What the hell are you two doing?”
Tennessee pointed.
Catherine’s eyebrow went up and her fingers fell from the door handles as her eyes followed Tennessee’s finger to four bodies hanging in the middle of the room, much like they once were, but these four women were upside down. Their throats were cut and blood over flowed the buckets that laid under each of their heads. Once their eyes took in the sight their noses took in the smell. It ran up Catherine's nose burning every inch of it, then through that opening it raced down to her stomach and tried to force any of it’s contents out, and with each bit of air that went in her lungs came that scent that was forcing her body to just purge itself.
While Catherine was fighting to hold it together, Faith let it all fall apart as she started throwing up into Tennessee's hand.
“Oh fuck nah!” Tennessee said pulling her hand back.
“I’m so sorry,” Faith said as she dropped to her knees.
Catherine eyes were just as wide as the others, but from the corner of her eye she could see the cellar door slowly opening up. “Get me something!” she shouted as she spun around to hold the door shut once again, this time she could feel the force behind it, fighting to get it open.
Tennessee started shaking the vomit from her fingertips as she started looking around the room. Tennessee’s light brown eyes came upon a large crowbar sitting in the corner of the room, she ran towards it and quickly scooped it up in her hands. It wasn’t until she passed it onto Catherine that Tennessee realized it was covered in blood. Catherine pushed it between the handles and took a step back from the doors that were now being frantically pulled at. Catherine looked down at her blood covered hands, then back at the bodies hanging in the room.
“This isn’t gonna hold. We need to move fast,” Catherine pushed the words out, trying her best to pull her their thoughts away from the evil that occurred in that room.
Faith sat there staring down into the pool of vomit on the floor, she refused to look up. “That’s what they did with them. That’s why they never came back,” Faith said softly.
Tennessee nodded looking over at Faith as she said “Come on let’s go.”
Catherine started cleaning the blood off her hands by rubbing it into her blue jeans. She shook her hands for a moment and then rolled her shoulders before walking towards the steps that lead to the upper level of the house. Catherine’s foot went on the first step and then she felt a hand on her shoulder pull her back.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Tennessee said crossing her arms over her chest.
Catherine rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna go get Sue, or did you forget why we’re here?” Catherine said softly.
Tennessee looked up at the top of the steps for a moment and then looked back at Catherine. “I came here to kill some clowns and since your last plan almost got us killed...” She stopped and looked over at the bodies, “And I don’t want to end up looking like these bitches!” Tennessee whispered sharply.
Faith shook her head. “Don’t call them that!” Faith cried out and Tennessee sighed closing her eyes for a moment before opening them and looking back at Catherine.
“All I’m saying is, we need another plan” Tennessee said soft.
Catherine looked a
t the top of the steps for a moment, she didn’t have a plan. Catherine knew that letting the zombies go would make for an easier escape, she knew that she needed to get into the house, she knew she had to save Sue, but aside for kicking down some doors she didn’t really have a plan.
Catherine turned her head back to the dead bodies hanging in the room and nodded, “You’re right!” She said.
“Thank you, so let’s come up with something-” Tennessee was cut off as Catherine ran off towards the bodies.
Catherine's arm went out under the head of one of the dead girls, she was trying not to look the girl in the eyes but she couldn’t really avoid it, the bright blue just seemed to stare right into Catherine’s soul. Before she knew it she was looking over the whole body, she could see bits of it missing, like large chunks had been torn away, no cutaway. They weren’t tears, like you would see with an animal or zombie attack, they were clean cuts into the girl’s body.
The smell, the cuts, the blood it was all spinning around in Catherine’s head now, and she came to two conclusions. One, she needed to get Sue out of here and two, those clowns needed to die. Catherine leaned into the body causing blood to rub up along her cheek, she pulled her hand back finally after moving her hand about, it came back covered in blood and with a blood stained wooden bat wrapped in her fingers.
“There isn’t time for a great plan.” Catherine said as she started getting to her feet.
Her eyes were locked on the baseball bat in her hand, she focused on the blood stains for a moment then she looked back at the bodies as she continued “Even if there were time, I don’t think there is a good plan for something like this. There are no cops to call, no prisons to hold them in.” Catherine sighed and then softly said, “No judge and no jury. There’s just us.” Catherine turned around slowly to look at Faith and Tennessee who were now standing at the bottom of the steps staring at her.
The baseball bat slammed into Catherine's open hand and she smiled as she said, “It’s just us and them, so the plan is simple. Grab something, head the fuck up the stairs, and make sure we’re the only ones walking out when it’s all said and done.”
Planet Dead (Book 1): Bloodthirsty Page 8