by Ben Reeder
“Vivat the Blackstar!” I sang as I kicked the middle one, a tattooed hipster in the remains of a plaid shirt, square in the chest. The momentum of my kick left me standing between the other two, and I brought both weapons forward as I sang “Hurrah for Calontir! And Ansteorra!” Black gore sprayed as both points erupted from their backs. It took a moment to pull the blades free. By then, the last four were almost on me. I spared a split second to stab the hipster ghoul in the eye, then wiped the Tainto off on his shirt and sheathed it.
With the Deuce in a two handed grip, I ran at the last quartet. My first blow sheared the top of the lead ghoul’s skull away. I let the swing drop low as I took a step to close with the second one, and gutted it, twisted the blade in midair and slammed it into the face of the third, then pulled it free and spun it over my head to shear through the neck of the fourth one.
“The Lion and the Falcon stand together o’er the foe!” I finished, standing only a few feet from Bach. A line of partially liquefied ghouls stretched along the beach behind her, and her arms and legs looked less raw, but they didn’t look quite right. Her limbs weren’t the same length, and the shapes were off, like they’d been made by someone who didn’t quite know how human anatomy worked. As we faced each other, I crouched down and wiped the Deuce off on the last ghoul’s dress.
“You’re dying, Survivor,” she said with a hiss. Her voice sounded strange, like she couldn’t quite decide on a signature tone. “You did all this for nothing.” Her face creased into a smile.
“Maybe,” I said as I struggled to rise again. My legs shook as exhaustion started to have its way with me. “Or, maybe,” I panted, “I just wanted… to get closer… to you.” I turned the Deuce in my hand so that the blade was facing me and ran my bloody right hand along the side, with my thumb resting lightly on the edge. Crimson smeared against the dark, acid washed metal as I gave my weapon one final caress.
“Did you think you’d die fighting us?” she asked with a cackling laugh. “We’ve already killed you, little monkey. All we need to do is wait for you to turn.” I drew the Tainto again and held it down at my side, fighting to keep my grip on its blood-slicked grip. I watched in fascination as a line of crimson slid down the blade, then a single drop fell from the point.
“Actually, I thought I’d kill you before that happened,” I said as I slowly caught my wind. She threw her head back and laughed at that, sending a shiver down my spine at the sheer inhuman glee in her voice.
“We are the Asura!” she said. “We can’t die. You’ve tried before, and you failed. You…can’t…kill us!” She reached out and grabbed me by the throat, then lifted me off my feet as her grip cut off my air.
I stared into her eyes, and saw something there that I wasn’t supposed to. I wasn’t seeing one alpha zombie in front of me. All of them were looking at me through her. Something deep in my brain understood exactly what I was seeing, even if I couldn’t put words to it. I was staring into something ancient, something so malevolent that my sanity rebelled at its very existence. Whatever the Asura was, it was older than humanity, and it wasn’t from around here. Its motives and where it came from were things I’d probably never know, and as I tore my gaze away from the horrors that lurked behind her soulless gaze, I knew I was happier not knowing. I only had one thing that kept me sane, and Bach or whatever was looking at me through her must have seen some glimmer of that knowledge, because her grip loosened enough for me to get a gasp of air into my lungs.
“What..?” they/it managed to get out before I brought the Tainto up and plunged it into the misshapen arm that was holding me up. She dropped me, and I fell to my knees as she staggered back, her other hand gripping the injured limb. My lungs expanded on instinct, drawing precious air down my burning windpipe. But as good as it felt to breathe again, I forced myself to look at where I’d stabbed her.
The wound was turning dark red, and the flesh around it began to pucker. Thin red lines began to appear under the gray flesh, slowly widening as they crept up her arm. She pulled the knife free and her eyes went to line of my blood that stained the blade as she fell to her knees.
“How?” she asked, her face suddenly expressing a new and alien emotion to her: abject terror. I pushed myself to my feet, my body trembling from the effort. With shaking arms, I raised the bloody sword and spoke the only truth I knew.
“I’m Nephilim. Killing you is what I do.” I grabbed the blade in both hands and raised it over my head.
“You won’t survive this,” Bach, or whatever was speaking through her said. I could see hundreds of ghouls emerging from the lake behind her, their legs splashing water as they tried to run.
“I might not survive,” I said with a weak smile. “But I will win.” With a final defiant yell, I brought the blade down on her skull with all my remaining strength.
I don’t know what I was expecting when an alpha zombie died, but a surprised gasp sure as hell wasn’t on the list. Maybe I’d hoped for something more spectacular, but I guess for something that never thought it could be killed, dying was something of a shock to it. I wrenched the Deuce free with the last of my strength, then staggered back. Behind her, the ghouls faltered and stopped. The world started to go fuzzy and bright around the edges, then I felt my legs give way, and I fell. I could feel my heart pumping fast in my chest, and there was a buzzing in my ears. I could see the ghouls closest to me start to move into my peripheral vision. My arms felt like they weighed a ton as I tried to reach for the Deuce.
The buzzing got louder, and one of the ghouls dropped to its knees beside me. Gray hands reached for me as it opened its mouth. Then there was a boom and its head just disappeared from the shoulders up. Another ghoul came closer, and its chest erupted before its head disappeared as well.
“Get away from him, you bastard!” I heard a familiar voice scream, and Amy stepped up. With one foot on either side of me, she pumped another round into her shotgun and fired again. More gunshots reached my ears, and more people joined Amy. Hernandez and Kaplan came up on her left while Nate Reid took a spot to her right. He’d grown in his beard but his dark hair was sill black and thick under his bandana. He brought a boxy SMG to his shoulder, and my brain put a name to it. HK UMP I thought as he fired it in tight bursts. Amy put the last round from her shotgun through a ghoul’s chest, then drew her Browning and started shooting.
“Not today motherfuckers!” she yelled as she dropped ghoul after ghoul. “Not today!” More people joined them, and I saw familiar faces. Captain Adams and his team, Willie and his squad. If I could have screamed at them to get away, I would have. Right after I told Amy I was proud of her.
“Get him out of here!” Nate called back over his shoulder between shots. “Will, keep that right flank secure.” He stepped forward and Amy moved with him. Gunshots came from behind them, and I heard Willie say “Thank you, ma’am!”
When Maya came to stand over me, I thought I was hallucinating. Porsche appeared to her left. Both of them were shooting to the side of the group, then they slung their weapons as another woman showed up wearing a tac vest and a helmet.
“I’ll cover you!” the new woman said as she hefted a short M4.
“Porsche, grab his arm, Kaplan, take his legs!” Maya said as she knelt beside me and hooked her right arm under my left armpit. Porsche copied her move, and I felt someone grab my legs behind my knees. “Amy, with us! And…up!” Maya called out. I was lifted into the air, and my head fell back. In my upside down view, I could see two Strykers and a double handful of Humvees pulled up at the edge of the lake. The woman in front of us turned and shot at a couple of ghouls that were coming up from the lake, and I could see a pair of white wings on the back of her vest. Then Maya’s hand was on the back of my head, pulling me up to face her. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you,” she said as she carried me between two of the vehicles. Behind me, I heard Nate’s voice calling out something, and people started running past us.
Then I was in one of the Strykers, b
eing laid gently down. Another voice lifted above the sound of gunfire, and for a moment, silence fell. They were putting me in a small space with people. Not a good idea!
“Black Magic, what’s your status?” I heard Nate’s voice over the radio. Someone handed Maya a radio.
“I’ve got him,” she said. “Precious cargo is secure, I mean.”
“Roger that. Kill zone is clear. Rock and roll, boys and girls!” The roar of machine guns was drowned out by the Stryker’s engine. The unknown woman grabbed something on my vest and then started pulling it off of me. Amy undid the gorget and arm protection like a pro, and then Maya was cutting the bandage free of my arm. As they worked, I felt the revolver slide from the holster, and I forced my hand to grab it.
“Amy,” I rasped. Everyone froze. I tried to push the gun toward her, and she reached out for it. “Don’t let me turn…not in here….please.”
“Not today,” she said as she took the gun from me. Tears ran down the side of my face, and I wasn’t sure if it was from pain, pride or fear.
“She’s right, Dave,” Dr. Lennox said as Maya made room for him at my side. “If you were going to turn, you probably would have by now. It’s just a matter of surviving the bite now…” The rest faded away as my eyes closed.
Chapter 11
No rest for the wicked
~ Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men. ~ Herodotus
“Good morning, little brother,” Nate’s voice reached my ears. I blinked sleep away from my eyes and inhaled the scent of coffee. I was in the guest room at Nate’s place. The big bed was the most comfortable thing I’d felt in a month. On my right, an IV was hung from a stand, with a couple of machines that went ping beside it. Nate was sitting beside the bed with a white mug in hand and a faint smile on his face. “Looks like you decided not to die on us.”
“Not yet. Can you inject a little of that in the IV?” I said as I pointed to the mug in his hand. He laughed and set the mug down. He wore a green flannel shirt open over a black t-shirt, with a pair of faded blue jeans. He shifted and I could hear the thick soles of boots on the floor.
“How you feeling?” he asked.
“Like every mile of bad road between Springfield and here,” I said.
“You look it,” he said, but most of the humor was gone from his voice as he leaned forward. “While we have a minute, and you can’t defend yourself, I wanted to say thank you again for getting Cassie and Bryce out of Springfield.”
“That was mostly Maya,” I said but he shook his head.
“They told me what you did. You let yourself get captured to make sure they got away. Impressed the hell out of Adams. Shafer, too. Don’t be surprised when they volunteer you to join the team.”
“Dude, I’m not Special Forces,” I said. He just gave an amused grunt.
“You’re a hard core, zombie killing son of a bitch,” he said seriously. “And right now, you’re a god-damn hero to a lot of the folks here. Hell, Morris wants to pin a fucking medal to your chest for that dumbass move you pulled the other day. So don’t think you’re done just because you got here.” He leaned back and glowered at me. I managed a weak smile.
“Bet she wants to give you one, too.”
“Yeah, and I blame you for that. And your kid. God, don’t get me started on her.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“That bad, huh?” I asked.
“Biggest damn case of testosterone poisoning I’ve ever seen.” I laughed with him over that for a few seconds. “It ain’t all parades and speeches, Dave. There’s a group of folks who want to toss you over the fence because you were bit.”
I tried to shrug. “Guess I should’ve expected that. Let me guess. People are starting to believe they’re right?”
“Yeah, and we’re going to have to get ahead of that somehow. But…not right now. Right now, you need to rest. And I need to wake my relief up.” He got up out of the chair. My head felt heavy as I tried to lift it, but I managed to see the rest of the room for a few seconds. Nate was squatted down next to a cot on the far side of the room. Seconds later, Maya stood up and came over to sit on the bed beside me.
“Hello, sweetie,” she said.
“Hello, sexy. I missed you.” She leaned down and put her arms around me, and for a little while, that was all we could do besides kiss and murmur to each other.
“Amy said you had something you just had to ask me when you woke up,” she finally said. “What’s so important?” I ran my fingertips along the side of her face.
“Well, I kinda hoped to make a big production out of it,” I whispered. “But…I made a promise to Amy when we crashed in Kansas City. And the whole way here, I kept wondering why it was so easy to make it. But, when I was driving toward that lake…the one thing I kept regretting was not asking you sooner.”
“Asking me what?”
“If you’d be my partner for the zombie apocalypse. Be River to my Doctor, Irene Adler to my Sherlock Holmes…”
“Catwoman to your Batman?” she said with a smile.
“Why, Miss Weiss, are you asking me to marry you?” I asked.
“I don’t think we have a lot of choice. Besides…” she kissed me. “It’s mostly a formality by now. Everyone else calls you Amy’s father, and she hasn’t been telling anyone any different. I think a June wedding is too much to hope for.”
“We’ll be lucky to make it past Thanksgiving,” I said. “Or did I sleep through that?”
“You were out for a couple of days. We almost lost you a couple of times the first day, but you spiked a fever last night, then it broke after a couple of hours. After that, you were just…asleep. The Ghostly Trio said you were probably suffering from exhaustion.”
“The Ghostly Trio?” I asked.
“Our three doctors in residence. Your friend Dr. Lennox, Dr. Harris from KC and the president’s virologist. They wear their lab coats all the time, and someone started calling them that. So, congratulations, you’re the second person to survive a zombie bite.”
“The second…so that’s how you knew I wasn’t going to turn. Who was the first?”
“Cheryl Carson. She got here a couple of days before you did. She was the one covering us when we dragged you away from the horde. But…we weren’t sure if you would turn or not. She got bit a long time ago.”
“In Nevada,” I said, realizing I’d heard her last name before. “She was in Providence, during the second incident. The one I wrote about in The Frankenstein Code. But they never mentioned that she’d been bitten.”
“She never mentioned it. She said it didn’t seem important at the time. Anyway, even if you didn’t turn, the bite still could have killed you.”
“Not a chance,” I said with a grimace. “That would have been too easy. But you know what I want right now, more than anything?”
“What’s that?” Maya asked expectantly.
“Breakfast.” I grabbed her for a kiss before I let her go. After she helped me sit up, she headed down to Nate’s kitchen, leaving me alone for a few moments. Outside, I could hear vehicles running, the sound of people working on a hundred different things and life in general. People were building a life from the wreckage. For the first time since Zompoc Monday, I let myself hope a little. Maybe, I mused, we had a shot at making it through this.
Dear Readers,
Thanks for picking up Zompoc Survivor: Odyssey and joining me on Dave’s latest adventure. I’ve been waiting for a long time to reveal some of the secrets of the Asura virus that Dave discovers here. Odyssey marks the end of the first chaotic stages of the zombie apocalypse, and the first hints of humanity’s attempts at organization and recovery. As you can imagine, Dave’s adventures are far from over.
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed writing Odyssey, and at the same time, how difficult some parts were to get through. Seeing Dave’s relationship with Amy get stronger, and being able to give them some good memories in the face of world-ending horrors was also enjoyable. In the fut
ure, in addition to more of Dave’s exploits, I’ll be releasing the stories behind his two books, which will give you more of the background behind the world of Zompoc Survivor.
I always like knowing what my readers think, which is why reviews are so very important. Feel free to leave a review, and let your voice be heard. Or, you can leave a comment on my author page on Facebook. And, as always, come on by my website to keep up with the latest info.
In closing, I want to say thank you again for picking up Zompoc Survivor: Odyssey. You are the reason I write. While you wait for the next in the series, turn the page to check out more books from some other talented authors. And until next time,
Stay awesome,
Ben Reeder
From The Paean of Sundered Dreams!
At the end of the world, one woman holds the only key to the future, written in madness and blood.
Fifteen years after the events in Rationality Zero, Earth falls to an apocalypse that none could have seen. In this whisper of a possible future, the worst nightmare of the Facility comes into being.
But is it true? Or are we simply peering into the mind of a deranged woman, who cannot tell fact from fiction?
In this odd story, which nestles uncomfortably into the timelines of Rationality Zero, The Herald of Autumn, Collateral Damage, and The Primary Protocol, Rational Earth falls to the darkness of the Shroud. Will our world recover from the desolation of darkness and madness that storms at the center of creation? Or, like the world of Cæstre, will all that man has wrought be lost?