by M. D. Massey
She pushed herself away from the table. “Alright. I’ll be waiting by the exit hatch.”
After she was gone, I waited a few minutes for Bobby to calm down. “So, you going to tell me what happened?”
He took a deep breath and looked away. “My parents got killed by wild dogs, after the bombs fell. That’s messed up, right? It wasn’t the bombs or the zombies that got them. It was a mangy pack of mutts.”
“I’m sorry, Bobby. I had no idea.”
“Well, it’s not something that comes up often in conversation. ‘Hey, nice machete—and oh, by the way, my parents got eaten by dingos.”
“I guess not. No, I guess that wouldn’t normally come up in conversation.”
He shifted in his chair and worked some kinks out of his shoulders. “That’s how I ended up on my own. We were out here from California visiting relatives, and then the bombs fell. We got out of the city and found an abandoned house to hide in, way out in the ranch country, down south near the coast. Middle of nowhere. We thought we were safe, and we were for a long time. They left me by myself while they went out to look for some food, but they never came back. I went looking for them, and found their bodies a few days later, surrounded by bloody paw prints. The only way I could recognize them was by my dad’s shoes.”
“That’s horrible, kid. If I’d have known…”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. When I came across those bodies today, it didn’t really bother me then. It was only later, when I had a chance to think about it, that it hit me. That was what my parents experienced, right before they died.”
He took a swig of coffee and wiped a drop off the side of his cup with his thumb. “The dogs don’t bother me, not really. But the memories do.”
I stood up and clapped him on the shoulder. “Stay here, and chill out for the evening. I’ll get Colin to come along instead. The three of us are more than capable of handling it.”
He looked up at me with glassy eyes. “You sure?”
“I’m sure, son. And the next time something like this comes up, I want you to talk to me, okay? Believe me, I have my own demons, and I know what it’s like to be haunted by your memories.”
Bobby wiped his nose with the sleeve of his t-shirt, stretching it to reach his face. “I will.”
“Good. We’ll be back in a few hours.” I stood and turned to go.
“Scratch?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Tell Gabby I’m not mad at her.”
I stopped and considered it for a moment. “I think she knows.”
I posted guards at all the exits to the Facility, then Colin, Gabby, and I headed out. I chose an escape hatch that was well away from the entrance we’d used earlier, just in case. We spent a good five minutes listening at the hatch before I opened it, and I wished the Facility had electronic surveillance aboveground. They had, once, but the EMP from the bombs had fried the cameras and no one had bothered to replace them.
I made a note to scavenge for some working cameras, another item on a long list of things that needed to be done to make this place a permanent home for the group.
All was quiet outside, except for the usual night sounds and the wind whistling through the trees. We headed to where the missing guard had been posted, looking for signs of a struggle. What we found instead were human footprints leading away from the guard’s post. From the look of it, she’d been standing guard when something had caught her attention, so she’d decided to investigate. Alone. The kid was brave, but stupid.
I looked at Colin and whispered. “One of yours?”
He shook his head. “Naw, one of the people we rescued from the Pack. I think she said she was from Canyon Lake? Volunteered to stand guard, said she wanted to help protect the group.”
“And you let her?” I asked, trying to keep the accusation from my voice and failing.
Colin scowled at me. “Well, it’s not like I’m in charge around here—at least not as far as the settlers are concerned. I can keep my boys in line, but every time Anna, Mickey, and I tried to organize the rest of them, Nadine undermined our efforts in some way. I got tired of dealing with her, and figured I’d let you handle it when you arrived. So, the settlers have pretty much been doing as they please.”
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t assign one of your people to pull guard duty with her.”
“Honestly? Because I didn’t think it was necessary. We haven’t seen a shambler within a mile of this place since we got here. Security wasn’t really a concern, at least not until you led those dogs back here—good job on that, by the way. After security, a shortage of food has been our main concern, so I’ve had my boys out hunting wild game to keep everyone fed.”
“I still say it was negligent to let the girl come out here alone,” I hissed.
“And I say… you know what? Fuck you, Scratch. You’ve been pissy ever since you found out your girl got turned into a vamp. Guess what? I’ve been doing this shit a hell of a lot longer than you have, and it happens when you’re in this business. Nothing you do can change it, so I suggest you quit taking your guilt out on everyone else.”
Colin and I glared at each other until Gabby stepped between us. She glanced at each of us in turn as she spoke, her voice low but hot with impatience. “Scratch, Colin is right—you’re being a cabrón. And Colin, Scratch is right—that girl had no business being out here alone. Now, can we get back on task? Arguing isn’t going to help us find our people.”
Gabby’s words were sufficient to put us both in our places. “Gabby has a point,” I said. “And I had no right to question you. I’m sure it’s been difficult, holding things together these last few days. I’m just on edge about this situation. The Facility was supposed to be a safe haven for us.”
Colin cracked his neck and exhaled forcefully. “I think we’re all under a bit of pressure. No one’s had a chance to take a break since we tangled with the Corridor Pack. I for one was looking forward to getting a breather, but instead it’s been nothing but worry since we got here. No offense, but I think a lot of people in our group are having second thoughts about teaming up with you.”
“I’m sure that’s mostly due to Nadine’s influence.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Look, I’ll deal with her when we get back—after we find out what happened to our missing people.”
Colin nodded. “Fair enough.”
Gabby was already heading off into the brush, following the trail the guard had left. “Kiss and make up later, pendejos. We have work to do.”
MOCKED
Gabby followed the girl’s trail through the brush, live oaks, and juniper, and Colin and I tagged along silently as we avoided looking at each other. Truth was, I liked the guy, and I felt bad about giving him a hard time. Besides, he was the closest thing I’d had to a friend my age since the bombs had dropped and the dead risen.
Was he mysterious? Yeah, because I’d seen him do some weird stuff—like sneaking up on me, for instance. No one snuck up on me, but somehow he managed to do it, and that alone told me he was more than he appeared. But did it mean I didn’t trust him?
Hell no, because he’d stuck by the LARPers when he didn’t have to, and he’d stuck his neck out for us when we’d fought the Corridor Pack. As far as I was concerned, the guy was alright. I wasn’t used to all this friendship business, but based on past experience I figured he was a dude, and he’d get over it quick. Hell, if we’d have slugged it out, we’d probably have been laughing and joking right now. Sometimes, guys just needed to let off a little steam, and throwing a few punches was often the best way to do it.
A grunt from Gabby pulled me back to the present. “Scratch, look at this.”
She pointed at a spot where the ground had been disturbed, indicating that our missing girl had changed direction rapidly. She’d started running, and not only that—she was being chased by a pack of canines.
We picked up the pace, letting Gabby take the lead since she was likely the best tracker of the three
of us. A hundred yards farther we heard a gunshot, and a female voice yelling and cussing.
“Get away from me, you mutts. Go away!”
I signaled to Gabby and Colin to stick together, but to come around from the other side. As they snuck off, I checked the AK-47 rifle I was carrying, to make sure I had a full mag and one in the chamber. Then, I crept silently forward, closer to where we’d heard the girl’s voice.
About thirty yards on, I came to a small rise, and the girl’s cussing became more distinct. I dropped to my belly and crawled forward until I could just barely peek over the top of the hill. Up ahead, five large black dogs had an Asian girl of about sixteen or seventeen treed in a large live oak.
She was well up in the branches, higher than any of them could leap or climb, but a rangy pit bull mix was making the effort. It’d take a run at the main trunk, scramble up several feet, and try to get its front paws over a limb. I watched it try and fail several times as I waited to make sure Colin and Gabby were in position.
Along with the bully, I saw an Australian Shepherd mix, a Dobie, a lab, and some sort of heeler. Any one of them was plenty big enough to rip the girl to shreds.
The hounds were completely focused on the girl, who was trying to climb higher in the tree. I wanted to shout at her to stay put, because if she climbed any higher I doubted the branches would hold her. She shimmied farther up the trunk to reach for a limb, then slipped, dropping her rifle to the ground below. The girl held on by one hand, her feet dangling in the air only eight feet or so above the eerily silent pack of dogs beneath her.
Time to see what hurts these things, I thought. I sighted in on the bully’s head and squeezed the trigger. It dropped like a rock, tumbling to the ground where it remained still. I was hidden in the brush, but it wouldn’t take the hounds long to zero in on my position. I decided to take a few more out, when something weird starting happening with the pit bull.
The dog kind of wobbled to its feet, and stood back up.
What the hell?
I’d seen a lot of weird shit, but I’d never seen a deader, ghoul, revenant, or vamp take a bullet to the head and get back up. Well, maybe I’d seen a vamp or two take a couple of bullets to drop them, but I’d never seen one bounce back like that after they’d been dropped. A ’thrope could, though; you could blow their brains out, and they’d heal up in a few minutes or more, depending on how old and tough they were. Really, the only way to drop a werewolf was blowing them to smithereens, or beheading them.
And if that was the kind of weird we were dealing with here, then I needed to move quick before that kid’s grip gave out. I broke from concealment firing, hoping like hell that Colin and Gabby were in position already. I walked toward the pack, calmly and carefully taking head shots at each, dropping them one at a time.
My shots were answered by two more rifles from the brush on the other side of the tree at my two o’clock. Within seconds, all the hounds were on the ground, although a couple were starting to twitch. I slung my rifle and drew my katana, then I ran at the Dobie as it was starting to get up.
Cold steel flashed in the moonlight, and the hound’s head flew off into the dirt nearby. I breathed a sigh of relief as the hound’s body collapsed and lay still.
“You gotta behead them, or they’ll come right back to life!” I shouted.
Gabby and Colin took the hint, and soon they went to work—Gabby with her kukri, and Colin with that sword he always carried. Moments later, the hounds were headless and bleeding thick, dark blood in the dirt. The way they bled just didn’t look right, though. It was like their blood had started to coagulate in their veins. It was nearly black, deoxygenated, and it oozed instead of draining out of them.
Not only that, but they smelled like the dead.
What the hell are these things? Zombie hounds? Dog ghouls? I hadn’t a clue, but based on the look on Colin’s face, I was about to find out.
“I’m about to drop, so you better move out of the way or catch me—your call,” the girl yelled from above me.
I moved out of the way, because I knew better than to try to catch a hundred and ten-pound teenager falling out of a tree. She let go of the limb and plummeted, hitting the ground with a drop and roll that would have made any airborne ranger proud. I reached out a hand to help her up, but she ignored it and reached for her rifle instead, looking it over and checking to make sure it still functioned.
Once she was satisfied that her firearm was serviceable, she turned to me and stuck out her hand. “Name’s Tam, but most people call me Tammy.”
“I’m Scratch, and this is Colin and Gabby.”
She nodded at Gabby, who returned her nod. Colin was busy examining the hounds, so Tammy gave him a shrug and turned back to me.
“I know who you all are—I think everyone in the group does, after that rescue you pulled off back in Austin.”
“You hear that, Scratch? We’re famous,” Gabby joked.
Tammy smiled shyly. “Anyway, thanks for coming out here after me. I tried shooting them, but you saw what good that did.” She paused and nudged the nearby corpse of one of the dogs with the toe of her boot. “After seeing a couple of them come back to life, I decided to save my ammo. Speaking of which, what the hell are these things? Never seen anything like them, not even when we got captured by the Pack.”
“I’m… we’re not sure yet. We got chased by a bunch of them on the way back from Austin. I called everyone in from patrol and guard duty when we got here, just in case. We heard you and a few others were missing, so we came looking for you.”
She wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve. “Yeah, the patrol. Did you find them yet?” I shook my head. “Damn. I heard gunshots and went to investigate. I saw some dogs chasing two boys and took a shot at them, thinking it’d scare them off. Five of the pack broke off and started chasing me, which is how I ended up here. You think the dogs got them?”
“Maybe. Let’s go find out,” I said, trying to keep my voice neutral. Colin stood and wiped his hands on his pants. I caught his eye over Tammy’s shoulder, and he shook his head slowly. Whatever he’d discovered, it wasn’t good. “Gabby, lead the way.”
She headed off wordlessly toward the direction we’d come from, and the rest of us followed her. Forty yards beyond, where Tammy had changed direction after the hounds had begun chasing her, we found the bodies of the two who’d been on patrol. One of them was a LARPer, and the other a woman from Kara’s settlement.
“Oh, Ethan, you poor soul,” Colin muttered.
The big swordsman knelt next to the remains of the boy—or at least the largest piece, which was a torso with the head and most of one arm still attached. He laid a hand on the boy’s head and closed his eyes for a moment, silent. Then, he marched off into the brush and began chopping saplings down with his sword. I caught Gabby’s attention and inclined my head in Colin’s direction. She split off and started helping him lash tree limbs together to make a litter.
Tammy walked over to the other body, a mangled mess of flesh and bone. “Did you know her well?” I asked.
“Naw, not really. I mean, we were together with the Pack on the research campus, but they kept us separated most of the time and didn’t let us talk much. Her name was Olivia, I think.”
The name didn’t ring a bell, so I squatted down and brushed some hair away from her face. Shit. I recognized her from the settlement, back when this whole thing had started. I’d saved her from a trio of punters who were going to rape her in front of her kid. Or her and the kid both. I wasn’t sure.
One of them had been Pancho Vanilla, who’d escaped that encounter and then caused us no end of misery thereafter. He’d recently received his just desserts, and at my hands. It angered me that I’d saved this Olivia lady from punters and the Corridor Pack, only to have her die out here, chewed up like some dead animal. I wondered who’d look after her little girl, now that she was gone.
Just when I thought we were making progress, or that we’d be safe, s
ome new nightmare would rear its ugly head and prove me wrong.
Damn it to hell. Damn it all to hell.
Colin and Gabby finished their task, and we silently began the bloody work of gathering what was left of Olivia and Ethan. We would lay them to rest properly after we got back to the Facility.
Rather than risk another attack by the dogs, we put the remains in body bags until we could be certain it was safe to bury the dead properly. The Doc assured me she had a safe place to store them in the meantime. Word of the loss spread silently through the group, putting people on edge or in grieving all around the Facility.
Colin and I sat in the mess, sipping cheap vodka out of a pair of tin cups he’d produced along with the bottle. He had a habit of coming up with stuff out of the blue, but I wasn’t about to question him over it. I took a slug of the white liquid, and savored the burn as it went down.
“So… you going to tell me what you found out there?”
He stared in his cup and swirled the contents around a bit. “Ethan was a good kid. Hell, I practically raised him.”
“Been a while since you lost someone?” He nodded. “I seem to be making a habit of it lately, and I’m getting damned tired of it.”
He looked up at me, raising his cup. “To the fallen.”
I clinked my cup against his. “To the fallen,” I echoed. We downed our vodka, then he set the cup on the table and clasped his hands together.
“Scratch, how much do you know about magic?”
It was an odd question, and it threw me off a bit. Don Paco had hinted at it, what with the talk of witches and all, but I was skeptical—to say the least.
“You mean, besides the dead rising, vampires and werewolves stalking the earth, rabbi alchemists, flesh golems, and all the other crazy shit I’ve seen?” I shrugged. “Not much, and to be honest, I never really thought about it. Killing Them only requires that I accept that these things exist. If you ask me, spending too much time on why they exist… well, that way lies madness.”