The others followed Samantha and Joe’s lead, and before long they pulled away the broken and splintered boards.
Soon there was a hole big enough for them all to fit through.
They turned their heads as the steel barbell wedged into the door clanked to the ground. The hands of the zombies could be seen through the crack in the door.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” shouted Walt.
“I’d usually say, ‘ladies first,’” David said to Cheryl, “but let me go just in case we have friends waiting for us out there.”
There was no time to argue, and Cheryl stepped aside and watched as David jumped through the hole.
Luckily, the outside motion-lights had already been triggered, so David had some light. As his eyes adjusted, he looked down and saw the outline of a zombie at his feet. Acting purely on instinct, he swung his axe down, severing the creature’s head from its neck.
Now able to see, David realized he’d wasted a swing. The zombie was already dead. About fifty feet away, David saw a figure standing between the trees. David squinted as he tried to get a better view and saw something in the stranger’s hands. David was certain the figure wasn’t one of the infected.
The figure started to lift whatever it held in its hands and David instinctively put his hands up and shouted, “Don’t!”
A loud crack filled the nighttime sky and David heard a noise right behind him. David turned to see a zombie’s brains splattered against the side of the house.
The creature had snuck up behind David, and whoever was over by the trees had just saved his life.
“Is it clear?” yelled Cheryl through the hole.
Looking around, David didn’t see any other threats.
“It’s clear!” he yelled back through the window. “Come on.”
Cheryl, Samantha, and Dennis came through the window first, quickly followed by Jonas and Joe.
Walt handed Stevie to David and was putting his right leg through the window as he heard the gym door come crashing in. Walt counted somewhere around ten to twelve creatures flood into the room and run straight toward the window.
Outside, the group heard Walt shouting, and David grabbed Walt’s leg and pulled him through the window like he was a rolled up carpet.
“They’re coming,” Walt said. “Which way do we go?” he asked no one in particular.
“Let’s just run,” said Samantha.
“We can’t do that,” Joe said. “If we scatter off into the woods, we’re done for. We need to find someplace to lay low until the morning.”
“Where the hell do you propose we do that?” Samantha barked back. “The entire house is overrun.”
“Follow me!” Walt yelled over the others. “Come on!”
David looked around for the mysterious figure who had saved him, but in all the confusion, David had lost him in the darkness.
Walt ran alongside the house and hesitated briefly as he reached the corner. He looked around and motioned for the others to stop.
“Around the corner are the doors to the root cellar,” whispered Walt
“We have a root cellar?” Cheryl quietly asked.
“It is another leftover from the house the Center took over,” explained Walt. “The root cellar hasn’t been used in close to a decade, and the door to it in the house was boarded up. There’s no way the infected could find it.”
“What the hell are we waiting for?” asked Dennis.
“There’s also four zombies walking around over there,” Walt continued.
David peaked around the corner. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll take the one that’s off on its own. The rest of you pair up and take them out.”
Jonas and Samantha, Dennis and Cheryl, and Walt and Joe teamed up. Walt held his hand up and used his fingers to silently count to the three.
As Walt’s third finger went up, they all charged from around the corner to see that the zombies had come closer to them. Walt crashed into the nearest creature and fell on the ground, losing hold of Stevie. Walt looked up to see the zombie glaring down at him. What surprised Walt was that he recognized the zombie standing over him. Walt stared directly into the eyes of Hector.
The price of Walt’s hesitation would have been deadly if not for Joe’s quick response. Joe swung the piece of pipe against the side of zombie-Hector’s head and cracked its skull.
Despite the injury, Hector jumped onto Walt, ignored the assault by the pipe, and immediately pushed down to bite Walt.
Just a few feet away, Jonas and Samantha faced off against another creature, this one no older than ten years old.
Samantha hesitated with the mallet as she saw the face of her long dead baby boy on the creature.
“Samantha!” yelled Jonas. “Snap out of it!”
Samantha shook her head and brought the mallet down on the infected child’s head. At the same time, Jonas thrust his hedge clippers into the creature’s belly, pushing it to the ground. Samantha kept beating the zombie on the head as it fell to the ground, stopping only after the creature stopped moving.
David easily took down his target with two swipes of his already-bloodied axe. David’s first swing caught the zombie in the ribs on the left side. When the thing bent over from the first hit, David brought the axe down, decapitating it.
As David turned, he saw Cheryl as she pulled the heavy broomstick out of a zombie’s eye socket while Dennis had it pinned to the ground with his knives thrust through the creature’s arms. With his cleaver, Dennis chopped almost all the way through the thing’s neck.
“Over here!” the others heard Joe shout.
They ran over to see Joe’s rebar through the thing’s cheeks as zombie Hector tried to bite Walt.
Samantha gasped as she recognized that the creature who was trying to kill Walt was once the man who sat for endless counseling sessions with her.
Walt stared into Hector’s dead, yellow eyes and recognized something almost human. The zombie had a look he was all too familiar with.
Hunger.
But it wasn’t just the hunger to eat that Walt saw in Hector’s eyes. He saw a craving—a desire that was beyond the zombie Hector’s control.
Walt saw addiction.
“Walt!” David yelled. “Push the damn thing up higher!”
With his remaining strength, Walt leaned into Hector and pushed him up.
From the corner of his left eye, Walt saw a man dressed in combat fatigues racing toward him. Before Walt could say anything, he saw the butt of a rifle slam into Hector’s head and shatter what was left of Hector’s skull.
Hector’s yellow eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body fell to the right. Cheryl didn’t hesitate as she slammed Stevie down into the dead, familiar face.
Bone, blood, and brain squirted everywhere as Cheryl pushed down on Stevie harder, making sure there was no coming back for this thing.
“Holy shit,” Walt said as Joe helped him up. “I thought that was it for me. Hector…”
“We all got your back, Walt,” said David, interrupting Walt. “We all have each other’s backs.”
“You know damn well,” said David as he placed his arm around Walt’s shoulders, “that that thing wasn't Hector.”
Walt nodded as the image of Hector lunging toward his face continued to flash through his mind.
Walt looked at the stranger and started thanking him.
“I’m glad I could help,” said the stranger, cutting Walt off before he could continue, “but we better get the hell out of here. I lost count of how many of those things flooded into the house.”
Walt nodded and was about to say something when he heard Dennis.
“Over here!” Dennis yelled to the group. “I found the cellar doors.”
They ran over to Dennis as he brushed aside the dirt and leaves that had accumulated on the doors. As Dennis pulled open the doors, they were met with blackness.
They all nervously looked at each other as they imagined what kind of Hell waited for them in
that darkness.
“It’s my idea,” said Walt as he pushed his way to the doors. “I’ll go in first.”
Cheryl handed Stevie to Walt and rested her hand on his shoulder.
“We’re right behind you, Walt,” Cheryl said.
“We need to hurry up,” Jonas said. “It’s not gonna take those things long to realize we’re outside. They’ll be running around the corner in no time.”
Walt took a deep breath and jumped into the root cellar. It wasn’t a long drop, but he remained in a crouched position as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.
He didn’t hear any noises or sense any movement.
“Come on, everyone!” Walt yelled up. “It is safe!”
David was the last one to jump into the cellar. As David closed the doors behind him, Cheryl handed him his axe. Everyone got real quiet as they listened to what sounded like a herd of zombies trampling across the closed doors.
They all stood in silence, barely breathing, surrounded by the darkness.
2
Lago Vista Golf Course
Lago Vista, Texas
Mears, Jones, and Hall were in a tight “V” formation as they swept the woods, looking for the source of the noise.
Mears, the most seasoned soldier of the three, took the lead, and no detail escaped his eyes. Looking at the ground, he could see what looked like half a dozen or so footprints, and there were many broken branches and signs of visitors.
Mears even looked up in the trees, just to be safe.
They were about half a klick from the clubhouse, and Mears knew that Wilder had their six. Mears always tried to find the positive side of every situation, no matter how screwed up things might be, and being able to work with Butsko and Wilder was the silver lining.
Mears had never met anybody like Butsko and Wilder in all his days in the military. Butsko was mysterious for sure, but he was also one of the most intelligent CO’s he’d ever met. Wilder was the same—intelligent and a fierce warrior on the battlefield. Mears had only seen Wilder go into “warrior mode” a few times, but it was something he wouldn’t wish on even his worst of enemies.
Mears stopped and put his fist up to let Jones and Hall know to stop as well.
Mears figured they were about half a klick from the clubhouse, and he spotted something ahead. They were getting closer to the shores of Lake Travis, and the sound of the water drowned out the other sounds.
Mears dropped back and motioned for Jones and Hall.
“There’s something ahead of us beyond those trees and that large rock,” Mears said to Jones and Hall.
Jones squinted. “Yeah,” he said, “I see it but can’t make it out.”
“I don’t think it’s moving,” added Hall. “Or even alive for that matter.”
“It’s not the living that I’m worried about,” Mears said stoically.
“I think we’re far enough away from the clubhouse,” Mears pointed out, “and I don’t think we should go any further.”
The other two soldiers nodded their agreement.
“Let’s check out whatever it is up there just to confirm it’s not a threat,” said Mears, “and then we’ll head back.”
The three soldiers fanned out again and approached the potential threat. The sound of water as it lapped against the shore became louder as they got closer.
Mears and Jones had their M4 carbines at the ready, while Hall kept a check on their six. Hall would be damned if he let anything sneak up on them from behind.
As they stepped closer, Jones snapped a dead branch under his boot, and all three of them stopped. If there was any kind of threat out there, it would now know they were there.
Mears raised his fist again and motioned Jones and Hall to rush whatever was beyond the large rock on the count of three.
One…
Two…
Three…
The soldiers ran past the large rock. What they saw made them gag.
“Holy shit,” said Jones as she choked. “What the fuck is that?”
“Beats me,” responded Hall, whose arm covered his nose.
“I think we need to get Butsko and Wilder out here to check this out,” Mears finally said, looking away from the mass on the ground.
*****
Wilder and Butsko looked at the mass on the ground and neither one knew what the hell it was. The others in the group stayed behind, with Vasquez and Mane setting up a security watch.
“I’ve got no fucking clue what I’m looking at,” Wilder finally said. “What about you, Sir?” he asked Butsko.
Butsko was silent as he studied the sight in front of him. Scattered over a few feet was a mound of what they all assumed used to be human bodies. The mound was about three feet high and was just a pile of flesh, bone, and innards, but what made Wilder and Butsko so uneasy was that these bodies weren’t torn apart in the typical zombie attack manner. This was something different.
The bodies in front of them were shredded and decimated. Skin was stripped off of appendages, eyeballs were popped out of their sockets and squeezed, and Wilder could’ve sworn that, toward the bottom of the pile, it looked as though intestines were dangling out of a prolapsed asshole.
What they didn’t see were teeth marks.
“I’ve seen some crazy shit these last two years,” said Jones, “but nothing like this.”
Wilder agreed.
“Who,” Mears started, but corrected himself, “what could’ve done this?”
“This isn’t the infected,” Butsko finally said. “This is something else. Something new.”
“New, Sir?” Wilder asked.
“From what we have observed of the infected over the last two years, these things have one and only one motivation,” Butsko said. “They infect others to propagate the survival of the bio-nanotechnology.” He looked at the others and continued. “The nanites want to live, and they want to be the dominant species.”
“The proverbial ‘top of the food chain,’” Hall added.
“Exactly,” agreed Butsko. “But this is not part of that plan,” he said as he pointed to the mound of gore. “This is the complete destruction of the organism. Whatever did this made damn sure the nanites wouldn’t be able to repair the body.”
“Do you think non-infected humans did this?” Mears asked.
“Very doubtful,” answered Butsko. “That pile of mutilated flesh wasn’t done with a knife.”
“You’re right, Sir,” Wilder added. “There aren’t any clean cuts. Everything is just torn apart.”
“So you think other zombies did this?” Hall asked.
“Not the zombies that we’ve fought for these last two years,” Butsko said. “Remember what I said: this goes against their primary motivation to infect and create new hosts for the nanites.”
“Wait a second,” said Wilder slowly. “Maybe this is the work of zombies.”
The others looked at him.
“Hear me out,” Wilder said as he put his hands up before anyone could interrupt him. “We know the infected have gotten smarter and that they can learn.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“We also think,” Wilder continued, “there might be some kind of ‘hive intelligence’ going on where information can be passed among all the infected.”
“Right,” Butsko said.
“So there’s definitely some kind of evolution going on with these bastards,” Wilder said. “I don’t know if ‘evolution’ is the right word, but you know what I mean.”
“You’re suggesting,” Butsko concluded, “that these things evolved into something new.”
“Yes,” Wilder said. “Wait, no… not exactly. I don’t think the infected as a whole have evolved into something different. Maybe a new, separate mutated kind of zombie has evolved.”
“You mean like a new species of zombie?” asked Jones. “I really hate the sound of that.”
“Yeah,” Butsko agreed. “So do I.”
“Maybe that’s why there’s no z
ombies around here,” Hall added. “Maybe the zombies we’ve been fighting for the last two years are afraid of this new mutation.”
No one liked the sound of that, but it explained why they haven’t encountered any of the infected since they arrived at the golf course.
“There’s something out there that scares zombies,” Wilder said out loud to no one in particular.
“Fucking fantastic,” added Jones.
“Something tells me that the old saying, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ doesn’t apply here,” Hall said as he stared at the pile of gore in front of him.
“Come on,” Wilder finally said after a few minutes. “We should be getting back to the clubhouse.”
3
Around Spicewood, Texas
10 miles outside the city
Fi walked along route 71. She had been skipping but had grown tired of it a few miles back. Fi was amazed at how long she could walk without having to stop.
A vague, distant memory tried to surface in her mind. It was like trying to clearly see an image through the thick fog. She could remember holding hands with someone a long time ago as they’d walked through someplace full of animals in cages.
Then the memory was gone.
Fi felt happy. One memory she could remember was the fun she’d had next to the lake. There’d been so many zombies to play with there. She would catch them one by one, play with them, and then throw them onto the pile.
Fi also realized that hunting and catching the zombies was almost as much fun as playing with them.
Almost.
When she hunted, she felt like she was playing hide and seek, another vague memory that had surfaced a few days ago. But hunting didn’t ebb the anger inside. To do that, she needed to play.
And she did.
She’d played for hours over the course of two days. She’d forgotten how many zombies she’d played with, but she did remember playing hide and seek many times.
Fi smiled as she remembered the various bodies. She’d completely skinned one zombie while it was still alive. That was something new. She’d felt the fear of the zombie as she’d slowly removed its skin. Fi had removed the flesh from the left arm like it was a huge glove and had worn it as she’d skinned the other arm.
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