Dawnland (Book 1): Pockets of the Dead
Page 13
When I turned the corner, I saw that there wasn’t just one zero lying on the ground. There were three and their brains had popped out of their mouths, noses and eyeballs. It was obvious that my virus had struck them. If Lily and Trevan saw them, they would be able to recognize the distinctive brain explosion as well. I had to do something to cover them up. I had to smash their brains.
I only had one choice. I aimed the shot gun and lowered it again. I recognized the necklace on the woman’s neck. She wore a chain with a heart on it, the bloodied clothes, and velvet gym shoes. It was a zombified Ara. She had made her way all the way to Walmart.
Sickened from seeing my friend this way, I closed my eyes and fired. Suddenly, I was on the ground, having fallen backwards after the blast. Lily was right, the gun had quite a kick. Trevan and Lily yelled my name. I was able to obliterate two of the zero’s heads, but one was left. Trevan and Lily were coming toward me. I aimed and shot the last one and once again ended up on my ass.
Trevan reached me first. I was grateful that he was so interested in my survival. He had his gun ready to shoot. When he saw the three zeroes at my feet, he grinned widely.
“Wow, Hella. You are one heck of a Zombie killer.” He gave me his hand and hoisted me to his feet. “Good job.”
“Thanks, Trevan.” I felt myself wretch as I glared at Ara’s shoes, not daring to let my eyes rise to her destroyed head. I looked around for Lily, but she was no longer behind Trevan.
“You disturbed everything in the store though, so we should probably get going,” Trevan said.
“Where’s Lily?” I asked.
Trevan’s face went ashen. He turned around with light speed. We both ran up the aisle. She was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, we heard her scream. It couldn’t be a zero, but Trevan didn’t know that. She screamed again. I wondered if Huck and his friends could have returned, but why were they hurting Lily?
Chapter 16: Bites Can Kill
March 6
Walmart
South of Haverlyn Village
Lily was being attacked outside. Trevan and I rushed out the exit to the lawn and garden center, where rows of lawn mowers, dead plants, wheelbarrows, dirt and pumpkins were rotting. In between rows of tables were three kids and one of them was holding Lily around the neck. He had a handgun pointed toward her head. It wasn’t Huck. He was nowhere in sight. There were two boys and a girl.
“Let go of her, Maxwell,” Trevan shouted.
When Trevan said the kid’s name, I knew who it was. The one holding Lily was the same kid that tried to beat my head in with a baseball bat downtown so many months ago, and who tried to take advantage of my leg. The boy who I had helped was not with them.
“Not until you give up the keys to the Lexus,” Maxwell shouted at Trevan. “I’ll blow her head off.”
Maxwell was emaciated, his face hollow, his eyes bulging. He wasn’t going to last long in a fight against us. Lily let out a Hi-Ya and elbowed Maxwell in the gut. He keeled over, dropping the gun in the process. Trevan grabbed Maxwell’s gun while Lily pulled hers out. Maxwell grabbed Trevan’s legs and pulled him down. That kid was strong.
I stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to do. I had never been in a fight, so I wasn’t sure how to help. The other boy grabbed Lily by the hair and started to pull. Lily tried to pry the boy from her body, but couldn’t dislodge his grip. I jumped in and bit the boy on the arm, which freaked him out so much that he released Lily and started screaming.
“She bit me. She bit me. I’m bleeding,” the boy called out. “Harper help. I’m going to die.” The boy fell to the ground. Blood dripped from his arm, which I felt horrible about. He was so young. No older than ten. I tasted the saltiness in my mouth.
“She’s not a zombie, Renoir,” Harper called out. She was wearing a red party dress and shiny black shoes, which seemed totally out of place.
“Let go of me,” Maxwell said. Trevan had managed to get on top of him and pointed the gun to his head.
“Let go of you?” Trevan asked. “You tried to shoot my wife, so I am going to shoot you. You stupid little brat.”
“Trevan, don’t.” Lily placed her hands on the shoulders of the girl in the red party dress.
I knelt down next to the boy, Renoir, on the ground and touched his arm. “I’m sorry,” I said. I brushed his hair out of his face. His skin felt hot, in fact he was burning up. He spat at me and then he threw up.
“Leave me alone, you vampire,” Renoir said.
“We’re going to have to clean that,” I said, regarding my bite mark on his arm. “And you’re going to need some antibiotics. We’re going to have to take them back to the village.”
“These kids are trouble, Hella,” Trevan said.
“What else are we going to do with them?” Lily said. “Kill them?”
Trevan regarded Lily like he was considering the idea.
“No, Trevan,” Lily said.
“Get me some rope,” Trevan said.
I went to the trailer and brought back some twine.
“That’s not going to hold them.” Trevan threw the twine on the ground.
“Here,” Lily took off her belt and pitched it at Trevan. “These two aren’t going to give us any trouble.” She gestured at Harper and Renoir, who was still on the ground.
Trevan strapped Maxwell’s wrists behind his back with Lily’s belt and pushed him into the trailer. “Load them up,” he said to us.
“She’s sitting in front with us,” Lily said. She guided Harper to the Lexus and opened the back passenger door for her. “Go on in, sweetie, we’re here to help.”
“My brother,” Harper said, regarding the lump on the ground as she sat in the Lexus.
“We’ll get him,” Lily said.
Renoir was too weak to stand. Trevan insisted that he be put in the trailer, so Lily and I carried him there. His clothes were wet with sweat and he body was shaking. I was scared he wasn’t going to make it much longer. He seemed fine before I bit him. He had to live.
“Wait a sec,” I said. “Don’t leave without me.” I ran back into Walmart, to the pharmacy section, hopped the counter and found some antibiotics. On my way out I grabbed a water bottle and went back over to the trailer. Lily was sitting inside the Lexus with Harper and Trevan was guarding the two boys.
I slid in the trailer next to Renoir and tried to prop him up, but he only slid back down again. “Help me Trevan,” I said. Trevan didn’t move. “He’s not going to do anything. He’s too weak. And that one is still belted.”
Trevan helped me slide Renoir up to a sitting position and I crammed several pills in his mouth. “Drink,” I said as I handed him the water bottle. He was able to hold the bottle to drink from it. I hoped that meant he was getting better. We rested him back down on the floor of the trailer and closed it up.
Trevan drove back to the village since I had never driven with a trailer before. I made sure he drove slow to keep my virus bubble protection around us. My excuse was that I didn’t want to jostle the patient in the trailer. While we drove, I thought of Ara and how I wanted her to have a proper burial. It wasn’t fair that she lay, cold and dead, on the floor and I was alive and breathing on the way back to the village.
My thoughts were halted when Maxwell let out a blood curdling scream and started banging on the wall.
“Help me,” he screamed. “Get me out of here.”
“My brother,” Harper said. “We have to help Renoir. Stop the car.” She started kicking Trevan’s seat.
“Help me,” Maxwell screamed.
Trevan stopped the truck and we all rushed to the back. Inside we heard growls and screams and gurgle filled moans. I knew what they were, Renoir must have turned into a zero, but why hadn’t my virus killed him? Trevan wasn’t going that fast. And how had he turned? I had bitten him. I wasn’t a zero. It couldn’t have been my bite. He must have been bitten before and it took a while for the change to happen.
“Don’t open it,” I said.
Trevan and Lily aimed their guns. I grabbed Harper and pulled her away from the door. I knew what was coming, but when I saw him my heart wrenched. Staggering out of the truck, with a clomp-thunk, was a zombified Renoir.
“No,” Harper screamed. She tried to twist free of my arms.
“Shoot it,” Lily said.
Before Trevan could shoot, Harper jumped in the way. “You are not going to kill my brother.”
“That is not your brother,” Trevan said.
Suddenly, Maxwell staggered from the truck and fell to the ground. His hands were still cuffed, but he was able to get up to his knees. His face was ashen and twisted, but his expression was still human. Blood ran from his forehead and eye, but I hoped it wasn’t a bite.
Trevan and Lily aimed their gun at his head. I shielded Harper’s eyes.
“Don’t kill me,” Maxwell said.
“The blood, where’s it from?” I asked.
“The hook on the wall of the trailer,” Maxwell said. “Please don’t kill me. He didn’t bite me. I swear.”
“Alright, fine. Not this time,” Trevan said.
Lily and Trevan aimed at Renoir, but Harper and I were in the way. Harper kept trying to go to her brother. She was stronger than I expected.
Renoir’s arm, where I had bitten him, was puffy and dripping with ooze. My bite had turned him into a zero. I had turned him into a zero. I was infected.
“Move,” Trevan said.
“You can’t kill my brother,” Harper wailed.
She tried to bite me on the arm. Not knowing what blood contact would do to her, my blood contact, and not wanting to find out, I let her go. Tears were streaming down her face as she ran straight for her brother. Lily ran after her and tackled her just before she reached Renoir. But, Renoir was right there, on top of them.
Renoir clutched Lily’s shoulder, she kicked him away, and he bounded back. All the while Harper was screaming for her brother’s life. Trevan holstered his gun and pulled Renoir from the tangled group, but Renoir grabbed Trevan’s arm and went in to bite it. Lily grabbed Renoir by the hair, took out a blade and slammed it into his head. Renoir dropped to the ground. He was dead.
Harper broke free from Lily’s grip and went to her brother’s side.
“Harper, get away from him,” Maxwell said. He hadn’t been able to stand from his knees. He was one tough kid to defend himself against a zero in a locked trailer while handcuffed. I went to Harper and tried to console her, but I didn’t do a very good job. She had lost a brother, he turned into a zero and then was murdered right before her eyes. It would take her a long time to heal, if she ever did.
“Let’s take them back to the village,” Trevan said. “We can lock them up.”
“You’re not locking her up,” I said, still trying to coax Harper away from her brother’s body.
“We can lock him up in the church,” Lily said. “It has a small room behind the pews. It’ll be more comfortable for him.”
We un-handcuffed Maxwell and put him in the back seat. I sat between him and Harper, both children were too overcome with exhaustion to be a threat. Trevan and Lily got in the front and he drove into the village.
Chapter 17: Silence
March 6th
101 Oval Park Place
Purefoy Church
Haverlyn Village
Trevan pulled up in front of the church and turned off the engine. Lily got out and opened the door for Harper. Harper’s beautiful red dress, made out of soft chiffon, flowed over the seat as Lily helped her out of the Lexus. Where she had buried her head in my lap, there were wet spots from her tears. I touched them, thinking of my own sister thousands of miles away. How many tears had she shed before her death? I had come to believe that my family had not survived. It was easier that way.
Maxwell still sat on my other side in the back of the Lexus. No one would open the door for him and he wasn’t moving. He had tucked his fingers under his armpits and tried to stop his teeth from chattering by clenching his jaw.
His body touched mine, but I felt no fear. He wasn’t the same person that had fondled me in the streets of downtown. A boy, a virgin his friend had teased him. He had been bold and cocky and extra violent from what Lily had told me. Now he was a hollow crust, a burnt out empty shell.
Maxwell stared out the window, far out into nothing. Was he thinking about what had just happened? How Renoir had turned into a zero? Or what lay in store for him in the village? Neither truth would feel real. It didn’t to me. A friend who turned into a zero without a zero bite, or a village who had some kind of secret immunity. Salvation was waiting for him, but his friend's life was taken before he had a chance to get there.
“Bitch,” Maxwell said. He then spit in my face and left the Lexus.
I wiped the spit from my cheek and laughed at myself for trying to guess what he was thinking. Obviously I had been completely wrong. He must have connected Renoir’s change to my bite. Why else would he be so mad at me? I hoped to Hell that it wasn’t me and that Renoir had been bitten before. I would have to uncover the truth if at all possible.
I got out of the Lexus just as Trevan opened the door to the church. I screamed and Trevan drew his gun as an elderly couple emerged from the church. People. Not zeroes. They walked toward us, pale-faced and bewildered and absolutely incredibly human. They appeared just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.
The man was wearing a red spotted tie, a light green suit-shirt and black trousers. His clothes were remarkably clean and free of wrinkles; even his black dress shoes were polished. He showed his age around his bespectacled eyes and his hair was gray, like the woman’s. She was equally clean and wearing a pale blue dress, large gold earrings and bright red lipstick.
“Bless this America,” the man said. “You are alive.” His voice was deep and strong and made me feel safe. The man raised his hands to the sky and the ground. “Bless this Heaven and earth,” he said louder. “You are alive.” He opened his arms to us. “Bless these people. They are alive!”
“Alive and kicking!” Trevan said. He withdrew his weapon and put it in its holster. “You must be the pastor of this church.”
“Yes, I am, son.” The Reverend extended his hand, which Trevan took. “They call me Reverend Mac, and this is my wife Shelly Mac.”
The Reverend’s wife, Shelly Mac, smiled through tears, but didn’t speak. I had the feeling she was overcome with emotion and couldn’t get any words out. I felt the same way. More people, living-breathing people, were filling in all around us. Humanity was coming back to earth.
The Reverend put his arm around Trevan. “And who might you be, son?”
“Trevan McAlister Foster, Sir.” Trevan shook the Reverend’s hand again.
“That’s not good enough, Sir,” the Reverend said. “Come here.” He brought Trevan in for an embrace.
“This is my fiancée, Lily,” Trevan said, breaking free of the Reverend’s hug.
Lily came forward and the Reverend hugged her too, which made his wife, Shelly Mac sob even harder. I felt so bad for her that I went to her and gave her a giant hug.
“I’m Hella,” I said. “It’s so good to meet you.”
“Oh the Good Lord knows how pleased I am to meet you,” Shelly Mac said between sobs. She returned my hug and then looked m in the eye. “But what kind of name is Hella? Is it any relation to. . .?”
I laughed. “It’s short for Helena, not long for Hell.”
“Oh thank the Good Lord.” Shelly Mac gave me another hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“What about these kids?” the Reverend asked, moving toward them. “Children, what are your names?”
Harper shook her head back and forth and covered her face with her hands.
“Oh poor girl.” Shelly Mac brought Harper into her arms. Harper didn’t look at all pleased. “You are saved. I promise. We wil
l take care of you, won’t we dear?” Shelly Mac turned to her husband, who nodded and smiled. Harper struggled in the woman’s arms and looked over her shoulder at Maxwell.
“Her name is Harper,” I said. “She just lost her brother.”
“That’s none of their business.” Maxwell motioned for Harper to stay put. His face was scrunched up in anger. I stepped back so he wouldn’t spit on me again.
“Son, we’ll take care of you, too.” Reverend Mac inched toward Maxwell. “We have plenty of room, plenty of food, and plenty of warmth.” He tried to hug Maxwell, but he ducked out of the way.
“That one has to be locked up,” Trevan said, stepping forward and pointing to Maxwell. “He’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Maxwell spat on the ground. I was glad I had moved out of range. “Are you stupid? Have you seen the thousands of zombies coming for us? Have you been out lately?”
Reverend Mac finally got a hold of Maxwell’s shoulders and examined his face. “He doesn’t look dangerous to me. How old are you son?”
“I’m fifteen,” Maxwell said through gritted teeth. “Or sixteen. It could be my birthday today. I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you let them go?” Shelly Mac asked, still holding Harper in her grip. “They can stay with us.”
“That one tried to rape her.” Trevan pointed from Maxwell to me.
“That’s not true,” I said automatically. Rape was such a strong word; it embarrassed me to think about Maxwell even trying that. “He just touched my leg.” I made a motion showing them where. “His friend stopped him from doing anything wrong.”
Harper let out a wail and collapsed into Shelly Mac’s bosom. Shelly Mac tried to sooth her by petting her hair and cooing in her ear.
“That friend was my brother.” Maxwell took a few steps toward me. Trevan interrupted his progress by a couple of kicks to Maxwell’s shin.