Devil's Details: Z Is For Zombie Book 4 Read online

  Devil’s Details

  Z is for Zombie:Book 4

  catt dahman

  1

  Killing Machines

  Kimball paused for a few seconds, listened and suppressed a grimace, then jumped from rock to rock, moving quickly behind the boulders that lined the river. Next, he jumped back into the tree line, blending in with the pines and brush. He was followed by people with inexperienced with techniques.

  In seconds, a tall woman and a child moved stealthily into his range of vision. They moved gracefully and kept their eyes moving, trying to find where he was, but he gave them the slip. They followed him for days, but he just now had the time and inclination to be curious about them, wondering who they were and why they followed him.

  “It took you this long to approach me?” he asked, appreciating how they both jumped at his voice, spinning in place as they brought up guns.

  “We don’t want trouble,” the woman said. Her hair was dirty blonde, pulled into a ponytail, which made her facial bones seem sharp and chiseled. Bright blue eyes looked intelligent.

  “Then why are you following me and pointing guns at me?” Kim asked, sitting against a tree. He wasn’t back to full health after a bout of severe infections from being horse whipped. Right now, the scars on his back itched as the flesh deep inside continued to heal.

  “You startled us,” she said. She moved the gun so it pointed to the ground; she turned to the child and moved his gun so that it pointed to the ground as well.

  “You are the one sneaking and following me. Is there some reason I’m this interesting?”

  “You kill zombies,” the boy said.

  “I seem to like killing them; someone has to, I guess, but I can’t think of anything better to do with my time,” Kim said, “I guess it’s either kill them or be their lunch.”

  “I guess so.” The boy smiled a little, studying Kim intensely. “We kill ‘em, too. They’re evil, anyway.”

  “I guess they are.”

  “Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

  “We’re okay, thanks. I’m Carla, and this is Robbie. Why didn’t you go with your friends?”

  “Kimball,” he said. They watched him a long time. “They had a place to go, a home, but I wanted to look around a little and kill some more zombies, see what was out here. I needed some time before I headed home.” He was suddenly furious with himself for bothering to explain. They were nothing but nosy spies. “Maybe, I just like killing them.”

  “What’s out there are more zombies,” Carla said, “I guess they are everywhere. More of them than uninfected people.”

  “You’re out here.”

  “Some people are home bodies, and some like moving around. We like moving around: fewer rules and expectations. Not too much worse than bad neighborhoods in bad cities.”

  “Never been in a bad city where people tried to eat me.”

  “You must have never been to a really bad place then. Try Detroit….”

  “I guess,” Kim stopped talking as they heard a scream, “damn, I should have known.” It would be easiest to ignore the cries for help, but he jumped back to his feet and took off running. What were all these people doing running about in the woods when he came this way to get away from people?

  The woman and child fell in, running behind him, but he didn’t stop to tell them to wait. They weren’t his responsibility.

  Since he avoided the pair following him, he skirted a rise with a cabin and a trailer under shade trees. There were a few voices, but Kim wanted no company, particularly and just moved past the campground, without saying anything.

  Now, there were the moans of the walking dead and cries for help. How the bastards located survivors camping out in such an isolated spot made little sense. Maybe they were camping, too, and infected.

  Around a blind turn in the middle of the trail and with the view blocked by big rocks, a half dozen bodies barreled into Kim, Carla, and Robbie who were slipping on pine needles and knocking them sprawling with the rest.

  Immediately, the stench from the creatures filled the air. Another half dozen came running from the same direction around the bend to join them, pulling up with all the people, who lay all over the path. Kim did a quick check as he pulled his bat back to strike.

  Biting and snapping with bloody drool roping from her mouth, a female zombie latched on to a young woman who punched and kicked from the ground. The woman’s arms were already bitten, she weakened, and she already was infected. A man sat on his butt-clad blue jeans but kicked at the zombie who clutched at the woman on the ground and at a male zombie who crawled towards them.

  A fifth man finished snapping the bones of the crawler, so it couldn’t get to its feet; he used a broom or mop handle to stab at a heavy zombie who snapped and moaned as it tried to grab him.

  The zombie was torn up and stinky; folds of open, yellow fat wiggled as he tried to feed. Of the other six, four were zombies in varied states of destruction, some had wounds that gaped and leaked, and others had remnants of dirty bandages on legs and arms, but all moaned, drooled, had milky eyes, and smelled like sewage and spoiled milk. They were eroded badly. Rotted. Whatever they did.

  Kim and Carla ran in; she used her rifle as a bat while Kim swung his bat, snapping arms and kicking the creatures back off of the people they tried to devour.

  The girl on the ground howled as the zombie she fought managed to dig dirty fingers painfully into her belly and bit into her breasts, yanking the flesh away from under her shirt. Blood gushed, but fabric prevented a good meal, so it dipped its head and bit into the soft skin at her neck, covering them both with sprays of red. The girl screamed.

  The man gave up fighting both, got to his feet, and began stomping at the crawler’s head. It took power and perseverance to finally split the head open so that grayish brains oozed out onto the forest floor, but it finally stopped moaning and fighting back as the man stomped, kicked, and jumped on the thing’s head. Mush and shards of the skull were all that was left.

  Kim and one of the other men took a zombie each as did another man and Carla. Robbie poked at one zombie’s ankles, finally tripping it. Once it was down, Kim smashed at the zombie until its head burst. His back muscles ached with the effort, and scar tissue stretched uncomfortably.

  One of the men finished off his zombie, and Kim and he went to help the other man and Carla. All four fought on the ground now; blood splashed everywhere: on the ground, on the trees, and all over them as they went at it.

  Tiredly, Carla knelt and slammed a big rock over and over into a zombie’s head, screaming at it to die as she pounded at it. The last one was at her feet, and she kicked at it for a second, and then everyone else had the thing pulled away and killed it.

  For several seconds, they all sat in the leaves and pine needles and caught their breath. Had there been one or two more creatures, they might be dead or bitten. Sometimes, it was harder to kill them; sometimes, they moved faster.

  “Who’s injured?”

  “I’m okay,” Robbie said. Carla wiped blood from her body, managing to mostly smear it around. She was also okay and nodded she was, with a look of disgust at all the blood and fluids on her. She used more pine needles to scrape the blood away.

  The scent of the pines tree made Kim think of gin.

  Two of the men were all right, but the third man and the woman were bitten. The bitten man sat next to her, crawling, cradling her close to him, and rocking her gently, murmuring something softly.

  “Appreciate the help.” Bill and Jack nodded to the three who joined them. “Guess it was a little too late. Guess none of us were as good of runners as we thought.”

  “Carla�
�.” Robbie began.

  “Robbie, it’s okay, ” she said soothingly. “Are there any more of these things? Did we get them all, or are there more?” She looked around them, listening for the moaning sound that they used to call more to their prey.

  “Just those…they came out of nowhere and got into our camp, bastards.” Bill stood. “We ran, and they chased; we tried to lead them away so some of the rest would be okay; we have five more people back at camp.”

  “These were pretty fast and strong.”

  He looked at Arlene and Richard. “I don’t know what to say. We had to get them away from camp…didn’t expect them to be of the faster variety or for us to fall down like in some stupid movie.”

  “I slipped like I was on ice,” Jack said.

  “ It is a pretty slicked up trail. Never know what to expect when those things are around,” Kim said. “They were pretty fast and made sure I wished I had a gun.” He eyed the guns Carla and Robbie had.

  “They don’t work without bullets. I think we have three left.”

  Arlene was already dizzy and unable to focus much on what was said to her; she had a lot of blood loss, and the infection drove deep into her brain. Her head ached as if someone were hammering inside her skull; nausea washed over her. She began to struggle for every breath. “It hurts.” It did hurt; also, parts went numb, her stomach tossed and turned, and in her mind, she struggled to keep focused as ideas and thoughts drifted.

  For a second, she wondered who these people were, but maybe that was from the pain.

  The man beside her looked confused, then determined, and finally gently lifted her, turning her away from him as he tried to break her neck with a sharp twist. He didn’t know how to do it, and she screamed with pain and fear, suddenly thrashing.

  “Richard, ” she screeched his name as she kicked at him, trying to free herself.

  “Oh, Jeez. Stop, don’t do that,” Bill ordered him. He yanked at his friend’s arm. “That’s in movies, too; stop it.” He looked at Kim with fear.

  “He was trying to…yanno…her neck….” He made a twisting motion with his hands.

  Bill and Jack were both ghost-white with shock from seeing that.

  “We have a few bullets, Carla,” Robbie said.

  “Might be better than that…or yanno….” Kim held up his bat. Thankfully, Arlene drifted and didn’t seem to be listening.Kim couldn’t imagine how she would feel if she heard them or understood the failed attempt at breaking her neck. It was sickening. He really wished for his gun right then.

  Carla took the gun, walked over, set the barrel against the back of Arlene’s head, and fired without another word.

  “Jeez. I would’ve….” Kim muttered at her.

  Richard began crying, his body shaking with sobs. Kim gave Carla a hard look, wondering why she did it in front of him.

  “Thanks,” Richard said between hitching sobs. “I suppose I’m next? I sure planned on being around for a bit longer.” He stared at Carla as Arlene went limp and then dead beside him. “I wanted to tell her good-bye.”

  “Sorry about this, Buddy,” Bill said, “I know it must be painful. Maybe it’s best for you since she wasn’t expecting it. Good-byes are hard.”

  “Oh, it hurts like a bitch,” Richard said, “I’m scared.”

  “I…I don’t think I have the guts, Richard.”

  “You all go on up; let me sit with him a few and pray, and I’ll do it,” Carla said. “You don’t wanna watch this. You said good-byes are hard.”

  “Alone?”

  “It needs to be done. Have some respect; it’s what’s right.”

  “Carla, me have respect? Ummm…sure, Quick-Draw.”

  “Robbie and I did fine alone this long…won’t be our first rodeo, Kimball,” Carla said. “Now go; I’d like to have my private prayer time and do my business without everyone gaping at me or at Richard. Let me do my part, and save you all some unhappiness.”

  “Robbie?”

  “He’ll stay with me. This is what we do. He’s a very calming force and strong. We’ll just sit and visit with Richard for as long as he wants to talk to us. It’ll be a bit, but we’ll be along.”

  “Thank you,” Jack told her, wondering at the kindness of a stranger, but shooting Richard or seeing him change was something he didn’t think he could stand.

  He and Bill motioned Kim to follow them back to the camp. He admitted he was a coward and didn’t want to see it. Kim looked back once to see that Carla moved closer to Richard and murmured quietly to him.

  “Nice, but strange,” Bill said, “that’s good of her to do this for us. I feel responsible, but it’s a relief.”

  “Don’t ask me; I have known them about five minutes longer than I have known you two,” Kim said. “I’m glad it isn’t me having to do everything sometimes. Sorry that she was…whatever she was. I guess bat-shit crazy, like the rest of us.”

  “With our standing around, Arlene could have bitten Richard again or attacked one of us. She was likely most right to do it fast like that.”

  “I know,” Bill admitted. He called out, and in a few minutes, two children, a woman, and two older men joined them in the clearing of the camp. There were some tears, but then Kim and the men cleaned the blood and brain goo from them.

  They heard a gunshot. That was over.

  In a while, Carla and Robbie joined them, exhausted, almost falling into the stream while they cleaned themselves, scrubbing at the blood until their skin was red and squeaky. “He went peacefully and kind of fell asleep right before I did it. Robbie and I took the liberty of covering both with branches and a bunch of rocks after we settled them off the trail a little.”

  “We would have…well, thank you both; that was kind, though unexpected,” Jack said. The rest nodded. They looked at Carla in confusion; did she make this a practice?

  “It’s what we do. We help others when we have the chance. At least, Robbie and I try to.” Carla blushed. She wasn’t particularly buff with muscles or a strong woman, and Robbie was just a child, so for them to be so helpful in battles with practically no weapons was interesting to the others.

  Kim found Carla strange. Was she that strong emotionally or that brutalized? She didn’t make sense to him, but it was good to be around someone who was all about giving, helping, and not looking to be protected in utter helplessness.

  They decided to stay at that camp after scouting around and making sure no more zombies were there. It seemed that maybe those were camped out, attacked, or already infected, and then infected one another since that seemed to happen a lot.It explained why a group roamed in the middle of nowhere. They wore sturdy boots and clothing for protection, little good that did for them.

  Dinner was plain: canned SPAM, canned peaches, canned corn, and canned ranch beans with water to drink, but no one had a large appetite. Carla and Robbie picked at the meal. Only Kim felt hungry. The newcomers thanked the others for sharing food, and they were offered a place to rest.

  “I hope there’s not more out there.”

  “Unless they are crawlers, they’d have joined the rest as soon as they started that moaning or calling to the rest,” Kim said.

  “We’re headed south…hear there’s a place there…survivors and people rebuilding with security in a compound…a safe zone. I’ve heard they have food, gardens…medical stuff and that’s it’s a place to begin living again.”

  “Hopetown,” Kim said softly.

  “Yeh, you heard of it? Think it’s real?” one of the women asked, “I hope it’s real; I’m so tired of this. I can’t stand if it’s not real.”

  Kim chuckled, “It’s as real as me sitting here, I promise.”

  “Really? You think they have guns and a governor? We heard that they do.”

  “Some of my best friends are the ones running it, and I just sent a group to join them. I bet I can even guess the man they elected as Governor. I’m from there…had a bad go for a while, and I’ve been away for a while.I was taken pr
isoner by the RA, they….”

  “They’re some mean sons of bitches,” Jack stated, “I heard stories that made my balls shrivel.”

  “Yep, I imagine the stories you heard are true. I’ve got the scars on my back to prove it, too.” Kim lifted his shirt to show them, seeing everyone wince as he looked. “You get caught by them; you’re better off dead, but I got lucky…maybe…maybe it was a bad draw, but I got away, and here I am.”

  “We’d be pleased to have you join us; we’re trying to get to Hopetown.”

  Kim didn’t have all the words he needed. “You go ahead. I have a few things to do before I go back. Being tortured stirred up some demons I need to exorcise before I go back around many people if that makes any sense. I don’t know really how to put it into words.”

  “I can’t imagine,” Jack told him, “I’m sorry.”

  “I still can’t abide being around too many people and being…fair and right; I’m still pretty angry inside. I feel mean.”

  “I think it does make sense after what you went through.”

  Carla gave Kim a sad look, “I think this was hell for some like you; it was worse than hell, thanks to bad people; it wasn’t bad enough to have the sickness and then walking dead corpses,” she shuddered.

  “I hate them; they’re abominations.”

  “How did you survive, Carla?” Bill asked.

  “I was married to a soldier, and we stayed with his unit until he was killed a few weeks after the outbreak”

  “Those damned ghouls, I wouldn’t be one of those things, no matter what; being a zombie is far worse than anything; it’s worse than hell,” one of the women said.

  Kim gave her a nod.

  “I was pretty crazed, and Robbie lost both parents. We did some training and learned a few things. I guess the military group that we were with didn’t do enough, fast enough for my husband, for any of us; they didn’t know what to do, is more like it, I guess. I was tired of it all and just left. Robbie, too.”

  “It’s dangerous though…the RA and…well…being alone….” Jack gave her a meaningful look. “I don’t know how you’ve made it. I am amazed.”