As hard as he tried to pull Tau’s arm away from around his throat, it wasn’t enough. Chidi’s face darkened and the pressure in his head felt so great he thought it would explode. As blackness creeped into the sides of his vision, he stopped his futile attempt to pull Tau’s arm away. As a last hope, he pulled his blade from his belt and jabbed it between the ribs on Tau’s side.
Tau let out a cry like a wounded animal, but maintained his death grip. Consciousness drifted from Chidi, but his survival instinct was in control again. With all of his will, in one last attempt to save himself, he pushed the blade deeper—the full foot length to the hilt—finding the man’s heart.
Tau’s body flailed violently. The blade bit into his muscle of life. He pushed Chidi off and grabbed onto the blade’s handle. Death overtook him before he could pull it out.
Chidi lay on his side for a long time. His throat hurt so badly that he didn’t know if he was ever be able to speak again, but at least the air that now filled his lungs gave him a feeling of hope.
The smell of the cooked chicken in the sack reminded him of why he’d attempted this mission in the first place. He managed to sit upright and shake some of the cobwebs out of his head.
Tau was dead. His face twisted in a bitter grimace. Cold fright ran down Chidi’s spine as he looked upon him. The man was so powerful in real life Chidi wondered if he was fighting death to regain his body and get his revenge.
Darkness was setting in, and he still had eight more hours to travel before reaching home. He went to Tau’s side and withdrew his blade. Fearing the entire time that Tau’s eyes would open and he’d be captured in the dead man’s grip.
Tau didn’t wake. He would remain a prisoner of death for all eternity.
Chidi set out for his journey home.
*
It wasn’t long past dawn when Chidi arrived at the mouth of the cave. The sight gave him renewed strength as he finally realized his victory. Soon he would be allowed to rest and enjoy the spoils of the previous day.
The air from the cave was cool and moist, bringing a sense of peace and security. Chidi’s entire body was weighted with fatigue, as if he were four times heavier. He walked into the belly of the cave until the edge of light lost ground to the dark. Stepping close to the wall, he removed his blade and tapped it sharply against the limestone three times is succession, paused, and then tapped three more times.
It was only seconds, but it seemed to him like hours until the lithe form of his wife emerged from the darkness and into the soft light.
“Chidi, Oh, Chidi, I’m so glad to see you,” she cried, and ran to his embrace.
He let out a sigh of relief. He had been holding his breath and hadn’t even realized it. This had been the first time he’d left his wife, Xhosa, behind while searching for food. The horrible thought that raiders would find her had constantly been in the back of his mind.
He and Xhosa had been on their own for two years, leaving the chaos of the city, and traveling as nomads for survival. But now that she was into the fifth month of pregnancy, he felt it best she not exert herself more than necessary. Not only for the health of the baby, but for her health as well. They had discovered the cave and decided it would be their home as long as it remained a safe refuge.
Chidi held her tightly, tears rolled down his cheeks. He gave silent thanks that everything was okay, for now.
“Oh, I can smell the cooked meat. What did you bring?”
Chidi removed the sack from around his neck and pulled out a chicken, handing it to her. Xhosa grabbed it with both hands and ripped out a large piece with her teeth. “This is heaven! It’s so good.” She took another bite and chewed hurriedly. “Thank you so much. Thank you, Chidi.”
He watched her and smiled. His stomach growled too, but he couldn’t stop looking at her. She was so beautiful. Watching her enjoy her meal and be happy was a precious gift.
When she finished, she smiled back at him, pieces of chicken stuck between her teeth.
Chidi laughed.
Xhosa let out a long burp and titled her head to the side inquisitively. “Chickens couldn’t have been easy to come by.” She hesitated. “How did you get them?”
Chidi closed his eyes as the memories he’d pushed away came flooding back. He saw himself on his knees sucking another man’s cock. The urine smell and grime almost made him puke. The humiliation he felt as the warm semen shot in his mouth tormented him, but he endured.
He saw innocent Dada fall to the ground as the red blood pooled around her sliced throat.
Images of the warriors falling under his rocks brought questions of what families had he denied a son, a brother, a father. In his darkest nightmares, he could only imagine the pain the two warriors felt as they were skewered by the sharp spears of his deadly trap.
Tau had hated him so much he could feel it. Tau had every right to hate him for all the evil he’d brought to his family and his village.
Chidi brushed his guilt from his mind and smiled back at Xhosa. “It was nothing. Nothing at all.” His words trailed into silence.
He would not ask God for forgiveness. As long as his wife and his child needed him, he would repeat those atrocities, and worse, in order for them to survive another day.
They would survive by any means necessary.
The End
From Severed PRESS
Alien microbes mutate with the DNA of the dead, reanimating corpses to life. A cop, Rico, and a junkie streetwalker, Angie, barely escape the onslaught of zombies. As they head for sanctuary, a jealous pimp seeks revenge, and Angie’s drug addiction, become a greater threat than the undead.
From Severed PRESS
INTRODUCTION BY JOE MCKINNEY
“Scioneaux and Hatchell double-down on the horror and thrills in this gritty, action-packed zombie thriller. This one has real bite." – Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of Rot & Ruin and Dead of night.
"Scioneaux and Hatchell give you a fast-paced narrative full of oozing bodies and narrow escapes and poignant ruminations on the fragility of a man’s body and the resiliency of his character" – Joe Mckinney, Bram Stoker award winning author of Flesh Eaters and Inheritance.
From Severed PRESS
««««« Rated “The Perfect Read” by The Bookie Monster!
“SLIPWAY GREY is just as lovably cheesy and sleazy as you’d expect from its wonderful serial killer + giant shark premise. It’s goofy, gory fun!” -- Jeff Strand, author of WOLF HUNT
Apocalypse³ Page 6