Avenging Angel: Z is for Zombie Book 7 Read online

  “You used to be so scared; it was hysterical,” Beth laughed, “but you worked on it, and you ride as well as I do.”

  “My fear was hysterical? Gee, Beth, thanks.”

  “Well....”

  “You know Juan spent extra hours with us, teaching us,” Teeg said, remembering the man sadly. “He was a good man, never complained about our taking so long to learn; I miss him.” When Juan died, Teeg cried beside Beth, sick with grief.

  Beth absently rubbed the emerald band on her right hand. “He was a great man. I miss him, too.” She glanced at Kim who nodded sincerely. While Juan and Kim were adversaries for Beth’s affection, she was been in love with Kim, and she loved Juan dearly. Kim respected and liked Juan a lot; it was impossible to dislike a man as generous, brave, and caring as Juan had been. Juan also saved their adoptive son Jet’s life and was a good father to Hannah, Jet, and Katie while Kim was gone; Juan died a hero.

  Beth still missed his humor and help and knew, despite the competition, Kim missed Juan as well; besides, Beth loved Kim with all her heart since shortly after meeting him.

  “He sure adored the twins,” Kim said. They were Kim’s biological children with Beth, but Juan cared about them and made sure they were safely born. Georgie and Stevie were a year old and a handful that the other kids would have to deal with for a few days. That alone made Kim grin, thinking of the havoc the girls would cause Katie, Jet, and Hannah while their parents were gone. He mentioned it to Beth, and they laughed.

  “Those are some wicked bad girls, you guys. You better get them some serious home training,” Teeg noted, “Georgie hit me with a rattle last night, and that rotten Stevie just laughed the whole time; they know what they’re doing; don’t let those cute faces fool you.”

  “Look at their parents,” Carl muttered, “can’t blame the kids.” He teased his friends but kept an eye out for any movement on the road. He still missed his monster truck and thought about when it blew up with the C4 and Juan inside; he shivered. The loss of the truck was bad, but the loss of a friend was very difficult.

  “Whatever, the twins are all Kimball.” Beth gave the rest a mock stern look as she too looked around, watching. She looked at Kim as they passed a memorable landmark: the turn off to the airport where Kim, Len, and Nick were crucified by a renegade army of misfits called the Reconstruction Army or RA. Kim unknowingly clenched his fists that were mangled by the men who tortured him. “You okay?”

  Kim nodded at Beth, breathing through the bad memories. “I imagine Len will feel bad too when he passes through here. It was very bad.” Some of the men of the RA pounded spikes in the men’s hands. Others were eaten alive right in front of their eyes; intestines and flesh stretched and chewed away. Luckily, Kim hadn’t seen when the wild dogs and wolves ripped into the women and children who were with the Reconstruction Army.

  Beth sighed, knowing it had been horrible. Juan had to save Kim’s life the night RA tried to burn him alive on a crudely made cross, carrying him in a fireman carry with Kim’s gunshot wound pouring blood. All around, the place had bad memories.

  Back behind them and to one side was George’s former home and neighborhood, where Beth shot her first person, or zombie, and then plenty more when they were trapped there. Yes, some good people were killed, but they left the front yard a bone yard full of zombies. Julia’s parents were buried there: victims of the Red and subsequent infection and both shot as a safety issue and as a kindness so they didn’t have to walk around as monsters.

  To the other side and behind them, was a hospital where they met, helping out when they could and waiting for the infection that swept the globe, then the United States, then Texas, then their city. The hospital was where the building tumbled in on them after the bombs, where they fought against raiders and zombies, where some very good men and women died in a battle, and where their friend Tink turned into one of the walking dead and had to be shot.

  There was no place that wasn’t a memorial to a friend who had died, but it was also the same place she had met Kim, become pregnant with her twins, found her adoptive children, and made close friends. The hospital parking lot was still littered with the bones of humans and of zombies, burned, and torn apart by a massive explosion and fire.

  A half mile behind the four, rode Len, the head of security for Hopetown and a former Marine; Rae, a former Israeli soldier with a strong sense of loyalty and justice; Big Bill who was a gentle giant; and Rev, a former computer nerd, turned fighter. Together, they made an unstoppable team.

  Behind them rode Alex, who had brought up this scheme, and Julia, the toughest one of them all, the one with a burning hatred of the zombies and a desire to kill the infected, no matter what shape or situation.

  Several times they saw shamblers, but the creatures didn’t notice them, so they kept on riding, ready to pick up the pace or to shoot if needed, yet a shot could bring all the zombies around. Mostly, they saw dead zeds and not the faster Reds that were far more dangerous and aware.

  Len paused for a look to the left, remembering the battle at the airport and rubbing his own palm. He guessed all of those bodies still remained as bones, stripped by wolves and wild dogs, which had done their damage. The entire night of battle had been a nightmare.

  Unless the Reconstruction Army returned to real life and Len could torture them to death, he wouldn’t feel his vengeance was complete. He wanted to beat them with his bare fists: for all the women they had raped, for the people they had forced to race over a bonfire and then who were burned alive for entertainment, and for the ones who were taken prisoner and then used and whipped as slaves, like they had Kim. The RA beat their backs bloody and made them sleep in putrid mud puddles until the wounds filled with infection. They had done almost as bad to Mark, raped Andromeda repeatedly, and beaten Earl almost to death, and those were just the ones Len knew about.

  When they all caught up, Kim was scanning the area below with binoculars, shaking his head at times. Beside him, Beth talked to herself softly while Teeg made little noises of unhappiness and sighed a lot.

  “I’m not believing this,” Carl said, “Alex, damn your ideas; these are just wrong.” He had seen a lot, just like all the rest, and had been in his share of battles and scrapes, but the scene he was looking at was a bit of a bad memory. For the first time, he wasn’t involved, but he was watching it which was equally just as horrific.

  Alex wondered what made his friends look shocked as they looked down at the mall from the highway. He picked up his own binoculars with dread. While they saw horrible things in the last few years, usually the most violent or sad events stood out, but this time, it was more than that.

  The mall wasn’t huge, like the big cities had, but it was a good-sized, two-story structure with a large parking area all around it. Aimlessly, zombies, their clothing rotted away or in tatters and faces empty, shambled and circled around the few cars in the lot and parking places. “Damn my stupid ideas,” he agreed.

  It was something right out of the movies with the desolation and moving figures, and yet, it was real. For some reason, this one sight brought out every emotion from the past three years, showing them that something once an idea on film was their reality. It was as if a nightmare merged with reality.

  Most were Reds, mouths drooled, eyes unfocused, faces pale but capable of animation when prey was sighted. Whether dressed in dirty pajamas or gowns or in street clothing or mostly naked, all of their lower bodies were caked in dried or wet feces, and their chests were covered in old vomit and dried blood unless they had fed recently. The Reds were moving at a faster clip than the others who looked more eroded and battered.

  Those hungry enough chewed at their own fingers, gnawing them away without pain. They never reacted to pain. Some left streams of urine on the pavement as they shambled. The smell was eye watering.

  “We shouldn’t have done this,” Alex said quietly, “I wish I hadn’t seen any of this.” This scene brought back the original fears and mourning fo
r a world that came undone.

  He thought a few females looked heavy, either because they fed well or because they carried unborn fetuses waiting in their bellies.

  Len shrugged. “We imagined it anyway; in the movie, didn’t people wonder why they still came to places like this. They said the Reds were there because the places were familiar or something?”

  “I think so,” Alex said, “old habits.”

  “We’ve seen them many times. They stand around or walk around until the hive mentality hits; then, they flock, right?”

  “Yep,” Kim agreed, “so it isn’t familiarity that drives them; they don’t remember anything. So what are they doing?” He thought about everything Hannah said. He looked at the scene with more curiosity now.

  The wandering ghouls numbered about a hundred or so, maybe double that if they were able to see all around the area. Each one walked toward the mall alongside the doors, then went away, and then came back again, in repeating patterns.

  While none of them moaned as they did when they saw and heard potential food, they still were drawn back every time they started to walk away, and since most were barefoot, they left bits of skin behind as they shuffled along. Bare feet showed bones and were mostly free of toes, worn away on the asphalt.

  Kim noted the lack of bare skeletons, only a very few and only a few piles of waste. Some of the creatures were thin. “They haven’t found food, but they’re still here. Why?” He saw that more were joining the others from the edges of the parking lot and from the streets where cars were still in line, some doors opened. The scene was the same as it was three years before.

  “Why are you trying to be logical?” Beth asked. She hated the things and wished she could kill them all, not caring who or what they had been before; they were monsters.

  “Because there is a strange logic to them and what they do, Beth. Based on your experience, what are they doing?”

  She frowned and looked again. “Wandering around aimlessly…no…not aimlessly…but not directed either. Ummm…they are waiting? What the hell?” Now, she was curious.

  Len mumbled, “Yup.”

  “And why would they wait here?” Kim asked.

  “You think there are people in there?” Beth asked. “No way, the things would be in larger groups and beating at the doors if they had seen them. You know they don’t stop trying…unless…no way. You can’t be thinking that.”

  “What are you all thinking?” Teeg asked.

  Len sighed. “Unless they’ve been in there a really long time…like years….”

  “I don’t even wanna think what you all are thinking,” Rev said, “those people…we’re going to get them, huh?”

  “Maybe there aren’t people in there. We don’t know,” Beth argued.

  “We’re gonna check though, huh?” Carl asked again and cursed.

  Alex rubbed his eyes and thought a headache was coming on. He had never imagined this. “Dawn of my ass, but we are.”

  Chapter 2

  Hannah

  Hannah and Jet rode to the safe zone in an easy silence. He guessed she was deep within her own mind, trying to come up with some mischief. He adored his sister since he first met her, finding her wilder than he was, more free to voice ideas, and fearless. She was what he wanted to be, sometimes.

  Very seldom did people appear at the border building to use the bedding, food, and water, and if they did, they usually took items and ran away if no one were around, so that the items need not be replaced. It was a never-ending chore to check. Boring. Today, as they prepared to relieve the others who were on guard there, Hannah thought it seemed different, somehow. Something was in the air.

  “You hear that?” she asked. She was antsy all day since her parents left, and maybe knowing that two of the people who loved her most were on a trip caused her anxiousness. Len, Julia, and Alex were the next closest to her, besides Jet, and they were gone, too. If he had gone, Hannah knew she would have been jumping constantly.

  “Usually it’s quiet, ” Jet said, trying to hear over the clicking of the horse’s hooves on asphalt. Len always said something was ‘hinky’ if it felt wrong, and Jet thought that was what this was: hinky.

  Everything looked the same. It smelled the same. There was a buzz of voices, but usually people here were bored to silence on safe-zone duty. Had the buzz been the moaning sound of zoms, they would have been flooded with adrenaline like Pavlovian dogs hearing a bell.

  He held up his hand, and his head cocked to the side in an unconscious imitation of Kimball. He dismounted, tied his horse, and motioned Hannah to do the same. Over time, he learned to be overly cautious to his sister’s dismay. She rolled her eyes at him but complied. She gave in to being stealthy, but she made up for that obedience by grabbing her katana and waving it dramatically.

  He started to glare at her jumpiness and made a mental note to complain later, but with Hannah, while she was being silly and funny, he could always bet her brain was working a mile a minute. She wasn’t just being cheeky but felt something was wrong; he saw it in her eyes.

  Worse yet, he knew she hoped for some trouble they could solve.

  Despite her impulsiveness and quick temper, irritatingly condescending tones, and habit of demanding to follow him as only a little sister could, there was no one he trusted more to have his back. Hannah would die before anyone hurt one of her family.

  Jet walked in to find Andromeda with her hands half-heartedly raised and her guard partners, Jim and Sadie, pale and animated as they tried to reason with a teen boy who was covered with blood and aiming a pistol at all three. The boy looked scared, not angry, just scared with big eyes and shaking hands.

  Andromeda, a pretty black woman whom Hannah had once respected but now disliked for reasons only Hannah knew, was dressed like a warrior, always in leather and tall boots. She didn’t seem scared, only concerned. She was another one who was dependable, willing to fight ferociously when needed, but because she and Hannah didn’t get along so well, Jet didn’t spend time around Andromeda any more than what he had to.

  On the ground lay another man who was in a pool of blood, being tended by Izzy, and an older Hispanic man who issued curses in Mexican. He looked frustrated as he packed gauze into a wound that reddened quickly.

  “Hi, Andie. Sadie….”

  “Get your hands up,” the boy demanded.

  “Whoa. Let’s calm down; what’s going on?” Jet asked. He tried to sound strong, but in his own ears, he sounded like the confused, scared, Gothic-dressing boy he had been years before. He cut his hair and removed the piercings a while back, so now what everyone else saw was a tall, handsome young man of twenty who had filled out, stood strong, and looked self-assured. He tried to look older and calmer than he felt at the moment.

  “Hey, Jet, glad you happened by,” Andie said.

  “I was out alone and came by.” Jet hoped they understood his message that Hannah was there but hidden. “Can I help you?”

  “He’s working on Jud,” the boy said.

  “I see that.”

  “I said raise your hands.”

  “I bet Izzy could use Sadie’s help; Jud needs more help. Do you think you could let Sadie help your buddy?”

  The boy thought for a second and then nodded. Sadie went to help Izzy stop the bleeding, glancing to Jet to figure out his plan. Kim often chatted calmly with people in the worst situations while evaluating them; this is what Jet did.

  “I’m Jet. You met Andromeda and Jim? That’s Sadie. Who are you?”

  “Dave. That’s Jud. They shot him.”

  “Andie did?”

  “I didn’t,” Andie snapped, “they came in with him already shot, and this one, Dave, yanked out his gun and demanded we help his buddy. If I had shot at them, they’d both be dead.”

  “That’s true,” Jet admitted.

  “Told you,” Andie said.

  “Dave, we have no problem helping people, but it has to be done with security in mind, ours and yours. Are
either of you infected?” Jet talked calmly and didn’t know that he had the same soft, understanding tones that his adoptive father, Kim, often used to make people relax.

  “Huh?”

  “Bitten? Are you bitten? I don’t think you have been, right?”

  “No, we’re not bitten. How’s Jud? Is he gonna be okay?”

  Sadie shook her head. “It isn’t good. He’s shot, Jet. And his neck is cut really deep; a fraction more and he would have died on the spot.” She didn’t look at Dave but spoke only to Jet. To everyone’s credit, none of them reacted when they saw Hannah.

  Without a word, Hannah slipped behind the boy and set the tip of the katana at his shoulder blade so it poked him, making his skin sting. “You feel lucky, Punk?” she laughed. Now that they had control, she was the usual, careless, crazy sister Jet knew so well. She really liked playing a role.

  The boy lowered his gun, and now he was the one who held his hands up in surrender. Jet waved him down as he scooped up the pistol, checked it, and glowered. “An empty gun, really? You held us at gunpoint with an empty pistol? Put your hands down.”

  “You could get killed holding out an empty gun.”

  “So? If it were full, I would have stayed and fought,” Dave said, “you gonna gut me?”

  “I would for holding a gun on my brother,” Hannah told him. She meant it, too. Hannah cast Andie a look that clearly said that she didn’t care about the gun held on Andie; she knew how Hannah felt. Dave sat, defeated, no longer full of the fire and anger he showed a few seconds before. “If I could, I would gut you nice and slowly, but then I am supposed to be civilized, so what’s the story?”

  “Civilized,” Jet agreed.

  Dave might have remained stubbornly silent, but he shared since he felt hopeless and expected to be gutted anyway. He wanted someone else to know the things he had seen and what was going on outside safe zones.

  Dave and his group of people had been traveling a very long time, having come from Georgia and the surrounding areas, headed west, and then possibly south to the western states.