Animals

by David A. Simpson

  The fire got real hot real fast and it felt good at first. It didn’t take long and he had to move away, his snow dampened clothes were starting to smoke. Gordon fired up the Snowmobile and goosed it. The treads dug in and he shot forward. He nearly flipped over the handlebars when the chain snapped taut but the old doors tore loose and he regained control. He quickly unhooked it and fought the urge to leave now. Get out while the getting was good but he kept his hand off the throttle and watched the door. He waited for the undead to see him and give chase as the fire reached the roof and burnt bright in the night sky. He could hear the crackle of the flames and the hissing of melting snow but not the hungry sounds they made when they were chasing prey.

  “Hey! Dumbasses, I’m out here!” he yelled with more bravado than he felt and revved the engine, worried they might stay inside and burn up.

  One of them stumbled out to the stoop and zeroed in on him. His hair was starting to smoke and his jacket was singed but he recognized fresh blood. He shrieked and sprang down the stairs, landing only yards away from the idling snowmobile. Gordon screamed and hit the throttle and was nearly thrown off the machine as it careened out to the road. He’d never seen anything move so fast. He’d never come across a zombie that had been inside since the beginning. One that wasn’t chewed up from animals, broken down from ceaselessly chasing the living or worn out from the elements. They poured out of the church and came for him, some on fire, some just smoking but all of them fast and hungry. The snow on the road was packed down by snowmobiles and the dead were sprinting for him, clothes and hair aflame Gordon had to slow down not to leave them far behind. It only took a few minutes to cover the distance back to the Park and he saw the gaping hole they had cut in the fence line. He left the hardpack and shot through it with those things screaming and reaching for him only a hundred yards behind. He raced across the field towards the house. They would probably all be inside, they shouldn’t be expecting another attack. They were probably fussing over the beating he’d given Mr. High and Mighty. He had to get close but now too close. Donny and that psycho Swan were deadly with their primitive weapons and he was a big target.

  Drawn by the noise and flames, two huge hunchbacked shapes loped along through the darkness. They smelled the seared flesh, remembered the taste of cooked meat and followed the shrieking horde through the hole in the fence.

  41

  The Tribe

  Almost as one, the animals stiffened and turned their heads. Otis sniffed the air, abandoned his spot by the fire and joined Yewan and the wolves by the big picture window. Daisy and Popsicle were enjoying the snow, rolling around in the yard and both stood and stared to the north. The little capuchins abandoned their game of chase with the triplets and scampered over to Murray, each trying to hide under the blanket covering his legs.

  “They’re back.” Swan said.

  Cody stood, brushed Harpers hydrogen peroxide and cotton swabs aside.

  “They’ve come to kill.” he said. “If not us, then the animals.”

  “Then we kill them first.” Swan said and shrugged back into her gear. “I knew I should have put an arrow through his head.”

  Cody thought furiously but there was nothing they could do. They didn’t have any place to hide and running blindly away in a snowstorm would only get them lost and frozen. They’d be easy to track anyway. They could try to talk but he knew how that would end. More beatings, butchered animals and the girls being carted away. Maybe all of them. Had Gordon’s gang degenerated to slavery?

  The others were throwing on their equipment and they knew the stakes, too. The animals were growling and chuffing and Yewan was pawing at the front door. In the distance they heard the rev of a snowmobile coming in from the back of the Park.

  “Hit them hard and fast.” Cody said as he jumped into his spare armor. “They won’t be able to shoot anything while they’re riding. With the animals charging them, maybe they’ll be too scared to get off and take aim.”

  Donny threw open the door and Yewan bounded along beside him as they leaped from the porch and melted into the darkness. Swan barked a command at her wolves and they flew past the twins as they swung bareback onto the Polar Bears, battle axes in hand and a war cry on their lips.

  Vanessa and Harper ran for the barnyard to get their companions as they strapped on their protective armor. Halfway there the saw the headlight of a lone snowmobile in the far distance dancing across an open field. They heard the screams of the undead, too. They were faint and far away but they were coming. They were being led in and from what they could hear, there were a lot of them.

  Cody almost didn’t catch up to Otis as he jumped off the porch and ran toward the intruders. He caught a handful of fur, swung up on his back, bent low and urged him to go faster.

  When he topped a rise, Gordon saw the panther first and knew Donny and his damn spear had to be close behind. Yewan was running straight for him, standing out in stark contrast against the snow. A second later he was gone, the headlight beam picking up nothing but falling snow. Gordon didn’t know what to do. If he turned now, the horde would follow him. If he got any closer, he might have an arrow sunk in his chest or a wolf tear him off the machine. He crouched down low, hiding his whole body behind the front cowling and windshield.

  A little closer. He told himself. I want the horde to be on top of them.

  He rode down into the next small valley and gunned the machine towards the top. He would turn once he was over the rise. The horde wouldn’t see him and that would be close enough. He craned his neck around to see how close they were and was satisfied as he saw them streaming down the last hill. When he looked to the front again, he screamed and involuntarily jagged the handlebars. A nightmare visage with a soot blackened face was jumping for him, a tomahawk in each hand. The machine turned and she missed plunging them through his face shield. She twisted and sunk the spike ends of her hatchets into his back, tearing deep into his heavy coat and imbedding in his plastic armor. Gordon was ripped off backwards and landed with a grunt when he hit the snow. Swan rolled to her feet, had a snarl on her lips and dove for him. Lucy got to him first. Gordon got an arm up as the wolf tried to tear into is neck and she bit down on plastic instead. While Lucy tried to crush his arm, Swan aimed her spikes at his face. Gordon screamed again, was jerked sideways by the wolf savaging him left and right. Her tomahawks bounced off his helmet and before she could choke up on them and start using them to slash him to ribbons, a spear whizzed by them and into one of the undead only yards away. Zero leaped past them to plow growling into a keening blood hungry child. Donny retrieved his spear without breaking stride and aimed for the next one running through the snow.

  “Take care of him, Lucy.” Swan said then joined Donny to fight the more immediate threat.

  The polar bears crested the hill with the twins screaming their battle cries and urging the beasts to go faster. Their war axes would drink deeply from the blood of their enemies this night. Vanessa was right behind them and Ziggy knew what to do. All of the animals did. Their keepers and their wards were in danger and they knew no fear. The unnatural things that smelled of death but didn’t die still had to be destroyed and they didn’t hesitate. Bert ran right through them, stomping and breaking as many as he could. Harper swung her morning star and sent gouts of slow rotting brains and blood splashing across the snow. They undead screeched and reached for her but Bert drove them down.

  Cody rode into the fray swinging his hammer as Otis plowed into the middle of the horde, snapping his massive jaws and ripping them apart. He reared on his hind legs and slashed with long, sharp claws. He bellowed his rage and Cody rolled off, got his back against the bears and started swinging with both hands.

  Yewan fought silent like her master. She didn’t waste energy on snarls and growls, she ripped and tore and bit as Donny spun his metal spear to impale faces or crush heads.

  A group of three lunged at Cody and he met them head on with skull popping blows from his hammer. T
he heavy steel crunched through bone, destroyed the brain and the zombies dropped. He spun, swung his hammer like a baseball bat and shattered the head of another. The third one was almost on him when Otis turned with a roar and raked a paw across its face to send its head flying away with a streamer of black goop painting the snow.

  Donny withdrew his spear from the face of a well-dressed old lady, sent hundreds of pearls flying from her broken necklace and drove the butt of his spear backwards through another a chomping mouth and out the back of its head. Yellowing, splintered teeth joined the pearls and the zombie joined the growing pile of unmoving corpses.

  The battle raged as animal and warrior worked through their ranks. There was no order to the fight, only chaos, the undead cared about nothing but biting and spreading the virus. They shoved and clawed at each other to get closer to the untainted blood and were met with tooth, claw or steel.

  Vanessa guided Ziggy with her knees and used her spear to thrust through heads until it was ripped from her grasp. A machete filled each hand and she continued the fight, slashing without mercy with a war cry on her lips. The ostrich danced and slashed, her wings up, her talons tearing open the undead and her powerful beak caving in their heads.

  Swan worked beside Zero and the pair were merciless. Her arms moved like machines as the wolf tore into them and she caved in heads. They were on the outskirts of the mayhem; she didn’t dive into the center of the mob like those riding their animals did. That didn’t slow down the fight, though, they kept coming to her, mindlessly chomping and reaching for her pure blood.

  Gordon still screamed, his terrified voice lost in the battle cries of the animals and children and the shrieking of the undead. The wolf was jerking him around like a rag doll, the only thing preventing her from ripping his arm off was his armor. They rolled over to the idling snowmobile and slammed against it. Stark raving terror and uncontrollable panic was blinding him to everything except the snarling wolf shredding his arm. Blood poured freely from the punctures and every time she snapped and bit, more armor was torn away. He tried to push himself up and his hand fell on his machete strapped to the inside of the cowling. Lucy shook her head and ripped loose the last bit of plastic protecting his arm. She spat it out and sprang again for him and he swung with the strength of a man knowing he is about to die. The blade bit deep into her shoulder and she yelped in pain as the blow knocked her aside. She found her feet and turned to attack again

  The hulking, hunchbacked shadows had been pacing on the outskirts of the fight, waiting to join until they saw weakness. Saliva dripped from their toothy maws as they smelled the living, breathing, warm blooded animals and humans. They hadn’t had a warm meal in months. They couldn’t catch the rabbits and the deer smelled them from long distances and bounded away before they could get close. They’d been feasting on the undead and the smell of freshly blooded meat had the hyenas drooling. They weren’t picky: human, bear or giraffe, which ever fell first, they would be there to finish it off and eat their fill of meat where the blood still ran hot. The cry of pain from one of the wolves sent them running for the sound. It meant weakness. It meant little resistance. It meant fresh meat.

  Swan spun towards the sound of one of her pack in pain. Gordon had a machete and swung wildly at Lucy but missed. Her wolf darted aside and readied herself to spring again but blood was spurting from a slash in her shoulder. She yelled for Zero over the screams and shouts and roars and snarls of children and bears and wolves and he came. They ran for Lucy but when she saw the laughing shapes leap out of the darkness, everyone heard her shrill cry of warning over the pandemonium of battle.

  Diablo and Demonio sprang, the scent of Lucy’s’ blood hot and thick driving them wild.

  Gordon fell over the snowmobile then threw himself onto the seat. He snapped the throttle all the way open and launched away in a high-pitched flurry of noise and kicked up snow as both hyenas blindsided the injured wolf. She turned her teeth against them and slashed and tore at the one snapping at her spurting shoulder as the other clamped bone crushing jaws around her haunch. Swan shrieked in fury and fear as it landed atop the spotted beast splintering Lucy’s hip. She drove twin spikes into its massive humpbacked shoulders and felt them bottom out against bone. It yipped a bark of pain and swung it’s gaping, blood drenched jaws around to rip her off but it couldn’t reach her leg. She clamped her knees and held on as he bucked and twisted in a frenzied effort to throw her off. Zero launched himself at its throat and with Swans spiked tomahawks pulling him off balance the wolf tore into the exposed flesh, found the jugular and ragged viciously back and forth. Demonio shrieked a high-pitched hyena shriek and ran. He bound after the snowmobile, chasing the light away from the pain and the hurt. Zero was pulled off his feet and dragged along but locked his jaws and ground them deep into the muscle as hot blood splashed across his muzzle. Swan pulled a spike, held on with the other and drove it back down into the undulating shoulders. She repeated with the other hand, pulling them out and driving them in, stabbing over and over, trying to sink one into its head. Blood covered her legs and thighs, the thick heavy snow blinded her and the hyena ran after the fleeing headlight and through the hole in the fence. He followed the road where he could run the fastest for a while but he couldn’t out run the girl on his back or the wolf with its jaws locked on his throat. He dove into the woods, running in blind panic and pain through the brambles and thick undergrowth. A plunging paw caught one of Zero’s bouncing legs and ripped him loose. A mouthful of muscle, fur and veins tore free and came with him. Demonio stumbled, lost his footing then plowed muzzle first into the snow. Swan tumbled free, slammed up against a tree and lay stunned for a moment. She heard Zeros challenge to something, shook her head and choked up on her blood slicked hatchets, the lanyards the only thing that kept them from flying free.

  Diablo stopped in his tracks when Demonio didn’t rise and fight. He had the she wolf in his oversized muzzle, intent on dragging her deeper into the woods to feed in peace. He was confused when his brothers’ prey stood and snarled but his brother lay still, his life pouring out into the snow. Zero laid his ears back and bared his teeth, the rumble coming from his throat vicious and promising death. Diablo dropped the dying Lucy and crouched, ready to answer the challenge. He was twice the size of the bloody wolf and would gorge himself on both of them. Swan pushed herself to her feet and crouched beside Zero, a snarl on her lips and hate in her eyes. Diablo took a step back. He was a killer of opportunity and didn’t like to fight very hard for his food. Lucy whimpered as he snatched her up and ran.

  42

  Tribe

  The clouds scuttling across the moon threw the valley of death into deeper shadows but enough light reflected off the snow so they could see their enemy. A few were still moving, those mauled by the bears, but Donny and Vanessa were darting from corpse to corpse thrusting spears through heads. Cody was leaning on his Warhammer, still breathing hard as Harper tried to fuss over his wounds that had torn open again. The twins were arguing over who killed the most and were debating about taking trophies. Ears or something.

  “No ears.” Cody yelled over at them. “Come on, you know how bad that would stink?”

  They reluctantly agreed then went after Donny and Vanessa to make double sure the undead stayed dead. The bears and Yewan sniffed around but they ambled away from the killing field, the smell was too much for them.

  “Where’s Swan?” Cody suddenly asked.

  Everyone looked around then at each other.

  “The wolves are gone, too.” Vanessa said.

  “Who saw her last?” Harper asked “I lost track of everyone; it was hard to keep Burt under control.”

  Donny pointed away from the piles of dead, near the snowmobile tracks where she and Gordon had been fighting.

  “You think Gordon snatched her and the wolves went after?”

  “Swan getting whooped by that moron? I doubt it.” Annalise said. “It would take more than him, even if she was unarmed.�
�

  Donny shook his head vehemently and pointed at the churned-up snow and the blood starting to freeze. He looked closer at it and held up an almost frozen piece for all to see. It was red, not black. Human or animal, not zombie. They looked around and there was a lot of it. Way too much to come from one person. Or animal. The snowmobile track was still visible and as they followed it past the where the fight took place they could see the prints of two animals. A blood trail ran along with both sets of tracks but there were no human prints at all.

  “What the hell made those?” Tobias asked as he placed his own booted foot in the snow beside one of them. “They’re not from Lucy or Zero. It’s huge.”

  “Hyenas.” Cody said. “And one of them had something in its jaws.”

  The imprints were filling in quickly but they could see the smeary blood and wide drag marks in the scattered snow.

  Donny signed with his hands and they watched. He was the best tracker and hunter and he could read the tracks better than anyone.

  “He says the thinks Gordon has Swan and the hyenas had a wolf each in their jaws.” Harper said.

  “I don’t believe it.” Annalise said. “No way, no how could Gordon take Swan.”

  “No way.” Tobias agreed. “She’d beat him stupid with her bare hands.”

  “Unless he shot her.” Vanessa said. “There is a lot of blood.”