by rebel4477
ENDWORLD
#28
DARK DAYS
DAVID ROBBINS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Robbins is the author of over 300 published
novels. He is perhaps best known for two long running
series Endworld and Wilderness. He has also written the
best selling novels Men of Honor, Hell-O-Ween and
Blood Feud.
Copyright © 2012 David Robbins
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means by any individual unless otherwise noted in any form including but not limited to; photocopying , recording, electronic or mechanical methods or any other means yet to be invented without the prior written consent of the publisher and or author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by the applicable copyright law. Any such distributions and or reproductions of this publication will be punishable under the United States Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the fullest extent including Profit Damages (Sec. 504 A1), Statutory Damages (SEC 504 2C) and Attorney Fees and Court Costs.
DISCLAIMER: This is a fictional work. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by Mad Hornet Publishing
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-9894713-1-2
www.davidrobbinsauthor.com
www.madhornetpublishing.com
Dedicated to Judy, Joshua and Shane
SPECIAL NOTE TO ENDWORLD FANS
Also included is an ENDWORLD short story, BOYS NIGHT OUT, that has never been in print.
Plus an excerpt from A GIRL, THE END OF THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING, an extraordinary ENDWORLD prequel.
Armageddon was just the
beginning.
Nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons have ravaged the planet.
Toxic clouds devour all in their
path.
Pus-covered mutates crave flesh.
The dead rise.
Sanity hangs by a shred.
The Freedom Federation has been
decimated by the dark science of
the madman Thanatos.
And now, at the survivalist
compound called the Home,
the terror continues.
CHAPTER 1
The creature came out of the wasteland in the dark of a moonless night. It stopped at the edge of the clearing and reached out with its enhanced senses. A human was on the west rampart. Fainter, it registered two others. That fit the intel. The Warriors were divided into Triads.
It grinned in anticipation and bared its razor-edged teeth. Already it could taste the delicious flesh and the warm blood.
The creature reached out again, this time into the forest around it. It detected no mutates or zombies or death clouds. No threats of any kind were near. It would be safe for the few minutes it was vulnerable. Closing its eyes, it spread its long arms and willed its glands to release the chemicals that brought about the change. Pale fluid flowed from every port.
Its body seemed to fold in on itself, to shrink until it was barely a fourth of its original height. Blond curls sprouted from its scaly pate. Its slanted eyes became round and blue. Where before its naked form showed no evidence of gender , now it resembled a human female.
The clothes were always the hardest. Or, rather, the illusion of clothes. It molded its flesh with great mental care, its skin assuming the aspect of a dress. Its feet became shoes.
The change complete, the creature looked down at itself. Of all the shapes it was capable of assuming, it liked human guises the least. Humans were frail and pathetic and it was anything but.
The creature thought of its mission and moved toward the compound. It forced tears from its eyes and sniffled and whimpered.
On the west rampart the sentry stopped walking and peered down at the field. “Who’s there?” The creature whimpered louder and went on sniffling and stopped when it was close enough for the Warrior to see it. “Mister,” it said, “can you help me?”
“May the Spirit preserve us!” the man blurted.
“I’m all alone,” the creature said , and dabbed at its eyes. “A green cloud killed my mommy and my daddy.”
“Stay right where you are, girl. Do you hear me? We’ll send someone out for you.”
“Thank you,” the creature said. “Thank you so very much.” The plan was working, as it knew it would. Soon every mammal in the Home would be dead, dead, dead.
CHAPTER 2
The giant was on his back with one arm behind his head and the other around his wife, his broad chest cushioning her soft cheek. Her light snores filled the bedroom in their cabin.
The window was open a hand’s -width to admit the night air, and through it came the pad of running feet. Instantly, the giant’s eyes snapped open. He slipped out of bed and was up and tugging his pants on before the first knock.
“Blade?” Jenny said, drowsily rising on an elbow. “Is everything all right?”
“Someone’s at the door,” Blade said, reaching for a leather belt draped over a chair. From it hung matching bowie knives in twin sheaths. “See to Gabe.”
Jenny rose and clutched her robe. “I hope it’s not serious.”
“Makes two of us.” Blade donned his vest and quickly pulled on his boots. The urgent knocks continued as he left the bedroom and crossed to the front door. He opened it as wide as the chain allowed and saw who it was. “Shane?”
“Spartacus sent me to fetch you,” the young Warrior said. He was dressed in black save for a splash of white at his hip where a pearl-handled Ruger Vaquero nestled in a holster. “There’s someone outside the compound.”
“This late at night?” As Blade was all too aware, the wastelands were barely survivable during the day. After the sun went down they were killing fields.
“It’s a little girl,” Shane said.
Blade snatched up the Commando Arms Carbine propped next to the door and worked the bolt. “Am I to take it she’s not one of our own?”
“No. Bertha wanted to lower the drawbridge but Spartacus wouldn’t let her.”
“He did right.” Blade had given a standing order that no one was to be admitted to the compound without his approval . Over his shoulder he said to his wife and son, “I’ll be back shortly. Bolt the door after me.” He hurried out.
“It’s just the girl and no one else,” Shane said, trying to match his stride to Blade’s.
“Hard to believe,” Blade said skeptically.
“You think she might be bait? That there are more out there waiting to attack?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time. We never take chances.” If Blade had a cardinal rule, that was it.
“Should I sound the alarm?”
Blade debated whether to have the eighteen Warriors who served as the Family’s defenders assemble at the drawbridge. Divided into six Triads, they trained hard to be
lethal masters of their craft. “We’ll hold off until I see what’s what.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve told you before. You don’t need to call me ‘sir’ all the time.”
“Sorry, sir.”
The thirty-acre compound lay dark and quiet under a canopy of stars. Lights at night were dangerous. They drew the undead, for one thing. And worse.
Blade climbed the stairs over the inner moat. He nodded at
Spartacus and Spartacus pointed. A small figure stood pale and frail in the starlight, staring up at them. Blade noted the blonde curls, the dress. “It’s not a zombie?” From that high up he couldn’t be sure.
“Would I have sent Shane to wake you if it was?” Spartacus said. He always wore his hair cropped short, military fashion. The broadsword on his left hip seemed incongruous with the Desert Eagle on his right.
The muscular black woman in fatigues next to him fidgeted with impatience. “Call her she, not it,” Bertha said. “She talks, for God’s sake. When do zombies do that?”
Blade searched the forest beyond the clearing but saw no cause for alarm. “Speak to me, girl,” he called down.
“What do you want me to say, mister?” came the reply.
“How can this be?” Blade said.
“I told you she ain’t no walkin’ dead,” Bertha snapped.
“What’s your name?” Blade asked.
“Mary.”
“Do you have a last name?”
“Wilson. But we never used it. My mom used to say that no one uses last names much anymore.”
“You’re all by yourself?”
“A green cloud killed my parents. Please let me in. I’m awful scared.”
“Come on, Blade,” Bertha urged. “Let me go get her.”
“When I say.” To the child Blade said, “Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from?”
“We lived in the Twin Cities,” Mary said.
“Your parents were part of a gang?” Blade had been to Minneapolis and St. Paul. They were overrun with warring factions.
“No,” Mary said. “My dad didn’t want anything to do with them. We lived near Lyn Lake.”
“What are you doing here?”
“It wasn’t safe there anymore. The dead things came. They ate most everybody.”
Bertha smacked the top of the rampart. “Blade, dammit. Somethin’ nasty could happen by.”
“My dad heard of this place,” the girl went on. “He said we’d be safe here.”
“Stay there,” Blade said. “We’ll be right out.” He turned to the other Warriors. “Bertha and I will lower the drawbridge. Spartacus and Shane, stay up here and cover us.”
“About time,” Bertha said.
They quickly descended to the large metal control wheel. The chains clanked and rattled as they turned it.
Bertha muttered, “If a mutate or somethin’ else gets that child, I’ll never forgive you.”
“How has she managed to survive on her own?” Blade wondered. “With no weapons?”
“Sometimes a squirrel is just a squirrel and a little girl is just a little girl.”
The drawbridge thumped flat.
“Keep me covered,” Blade commanded. Unslinging the Commando Arms Carbine, he moved to the far end of the drawbridge. The unnatural stillness preyed on his nerves. “Come here where I can get a better look at you.”
The girl started toward him.
At that moment, from out of the pitch black woods, came an inhuman howl.
Chapter 3
Blade didn’t recognize what made the sound. It could be, literally, anything. The wilds swarmed with genetic deviates. There was no such thing as ‘normal’ anymore. Spawned by a mix of radiation , chemical weapons and bio-bombs, the sane world of over a century ago had been remade into a monstrous version of Wonderland. Humankind had fallen through the rabbit hole and there was no climbing out.
“What are you waitin’ for, damn it?” Bertha said, and came running across the drawbridge.
“Don’t,” Blade said.
Bertha didn’t listen. She ran a dozen steps past him and squatted and spread her arms. “Come here, child. I’ll protect you if no one else will.”
The girl smiled. “You seem like a nice lady.”
Blade hadn’t taken his eyes off the woods and saw something streak into the clearing. He raised the Commando Arms Carbine. “Bertha!” he called to her in warning.
A second something appeared.
“Look out!” Spartacus shouted.
The things weren’t especially fast but they didn’t have to be to reach Bertha and the girl before the Warrior could spirit the child into the compound.
A lantern flared on the rampart, spilling light halfway across the clearing.
Blade saw the creatures clearly, and even after all the other abominations he’d encountered over the years, his gut churned with revulsion.
What they once were was impossible to say. Now they were hideous monstrosities, nearly hairless and covered with oozing sores. Each had short, multiple legs and a thick, powerful body. Their heads were a lunatic’s caricature; their eyes were mismatched, with one inches above the other, their nostrils were small holes, their mouths rimmed with gleaming fangs.
Spartacus opened up with an M-16 and Shane with his Ruger but their shots had no more effect than a rain of peas.
The little girl turned toward the genetic deviates and put a hand to her throat.
Bertha rose to run to her.
“Both of you, down!” Blade yelled even as he moved to get a clear shot. He stroked the trigger and the Commando thundered. Green pus and blood that wasn’t red geysered from the first creature. It slowed but didn’t stop. The second nightmare caught up to it and both roared and came on.
Bertha reached the girl and scooped her into an arm and cut loose with her AK-47, firing one-handed.
It was incredible, the amount of lead the things could absorb.
Blade reached Bertha and the child. Grabbing Bertha’s shoulder, he shoved her toward the drawbridge. “Get the girl inside!”
The two horrors bore down on him, their stubby legs churning.
Planting himself, Blade ejected the spent magazine and slapped in another. He would buy Bertha and the little one the time they needed, whatever the cost. He was set to fire when two men rushed up, one on either side.
“You havin’ fun without us, pard?” asked a blond man in buckskins. Strapped around his waist were a matched pair of pearl-handled Colt Pythons.
“Shut up and shoot, you idiot,” said the other man, who wore military green and was raising a Marlin .45-70 to his shoulder.
Blade cut loose with the Commando. So did the Warrior in green, Geronimo. Their combined hailstorm caused a deviate to stumble but neither went down and now the aberrations were so close that when Blade’s magazine went empty again and Geronimo fired his last shot, they heard the gnashing of saber teeth.
“Can’t you two do anything right?” said the man in buckskins. A devil-may-care grin on his handsome face, he stepped in front of them.
The deviates were almost on them.
In an instant the blond man had a Python in each hand. He fired from the hip, one shot from each Python. Both cored an oversized eyeball. The deviate on the left pitched forward and slid. The deviate on the right kept coming and as quick as thought the blond man shot it in the other eye and the second brute imitated the first. Both came to a stop almost at the blond man’s feet.
“The chances you take, Hickok,” Blade said, and let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
“Piece of cake,” Hickok said.
“If brains were gold your head would be an empty vault,” Geronimo declared.
“Speakin’ of which,” Hickok said, “how many times do I have to tell you? Always go for the head.” He scanned the clearing. “Are there any more of these critters or is playtime over?”
“Let’s not wait to find out,” Blade advised.
Bertha had crossed the drawbridge and set the girl down. “Thanks for the save,” she said as the three of them hastened across.
The girl stared at Hickok in awe. “That was awful brave of you, mister.”
“Shucks, child, they were wimps.”
“Did he just say ‘shucks’?” Geronimo said.
Hickok squatted and put a hand on the girl’s arm. “Welcome
to our Home, youngun. Folks hereabouts call me Hickok the Magnificent.”
“Oh brother,” Geronimo said. “Modest much?”
The little girl laughed. “You two are funny. My name is Mary, by the way. I think I’m going to like it here.” She beamed. “I think I’ll like it very much.”
Chapter 4
Blade wanted to question her but he’d hardly started when Bertha took him aside.
“Will you listen to yourself? Interrogatin’ that poor girl after all she’s been through. Look at her. She’s worn out. Can’t it wait until mornin’?”
“I suppose,” Blade said reluctantly. “I’ll take her to my place.”
“Like Hades you will,” Bertha said. “She’s comin’ with me.”
Blade had the final say . He was the head Warrior. But he saw no reason not to let her, and Bertha and the girl walked off hand-in-hand, talking and smiling.
“I like how you handled that, pard,” Hickok cracked. “Forceful as always.”
“I’d like to see you tell Bertha she couldn’t do something,” Geronimo said.
“Not me,” Hickok said. “I’m partial to my teeth.”
They raised the drawbridge and Blade instructed Spartacus to keep a sharp lookout. Bidding his friends goodnight, he made his way to his cabin. He entered quietly, stripped to his waist, and slipped into bed beside his sleeping wife. Or so he thought.
“I heard shots,” Jenny said, sitting up.
Blade told her about the girl.
“A small child all by her lonesome?” Jenny said, aghast. “Thank the Spirit you got to her in time.” On that note they turned in.
Blade tried his best to get back to sleep but couldn’t. He was uneasy and couldn’t account for why. At the crack of dawn he was up and fixing breakfast when there was a light knock on the door. He opened it to find his fellow Warriors from Alpha Triad. “You two are up early.”
“Mr. Personality showed up on my doorstep ten minutes ago,” Geronimo said with a jab of his thumb at Hickok. “White dummy not let red man get his beauty sleep.”
“Lord knows, you need it,” Hickok retorted. His thumbs hooked in his gunbelt, he ambled to a chair at the table and sat. “How about whippin’ up a mess of eggs for us, big guy?”