Avenging Angel: Z is for Zombie Book 7 Page 3

  Many places in the East were getting low on readily found canned food and were stripped of game by surviving hunters and the desperate, hungry zombies. They had as many as fifteen at times with them, and as few as eight at other times as they stayed in reliable buildings and homes for weeks, searching and finding food and water. Big cities were in burned rubble from the bombings, so they moved among the smaller towns.

  As long as they were quiet, they did fairly well with the zombies since the creatures gathered in larger hordes to wait out any survivors they might find.

  Some areas were fairly safe, but others were filled with the moaning ghouls. Several times over, large parts of Tennessee burned as if someone were trying to wipe the state away, and maybe he was. Someone could have been a pyromaniac having a thrill or survivors could have been trying to take out more zombies or maybe accidents caused the fires. In the long run, who cared? No one.

  Kentucky had more supplies and was a lot easier to travel through. But zombies from colder areas already moved down into that area so they didn’t freeze like some did in the more northern states plus Canada. People figured it was a flocking habit or a hive reaction, but the reason wasn’t clear.

  What was left of Missouri was crawling with Reds.

  In Arkansas, the landscape was prettier, the zombies were fewer, but the food was harder to find without hunting for game.

  At each state border and outside many towns were make-shift blockades where the National Guard or desperate citizens tried either to keep zombies out or tried to lock them inside; bodies, stripped by time, animals, and insects lay in bleached-bone and rag piles.

  There was a warning, but in a normal small town, the number of Reds who attacked others might be a quarter of the population, at home, and violent. The entire town population would be fully infected within hours; then, of those left, there would be suicides, murders, accidents, and normal illnesses, and if a half dozen walked out of the chaos, it would be a miracle.

  Dave told them, “We’ve fought a lot of them. Sometimes, we lost people, and sometimes we put down some people or watched others do it. They were bitten or even…well…chewed up. We saw a lot of hurting people: sick, starving…bad creatures you couldn’t even imagine, but a lot of those creatures, we killed. Again. I mean we put them down for good. Shot ‘em or hit them in the head.”

  “Red zeds die and become dead zeds,” Hannah said in a singsong voice, “the head is the way to a zed.” Sadly, these were the rhymes taught to children, now.

  “So you saw a lot?” Jet asked.

  “Sometimes. We saw thousands that we had to sneak by. Sometimes we saw a hundred at a time. Most times we were quiet; then, we ran and ran until we got away from them. Sometimes we fought them, like I said, but it was always rough ‘cause they bite and we didn’t wanna get bitten. We also saw some regular people, humans, yanno,” Dave said.

  His friend, Jud moaned with pain, and Dave grimaced.

  “Some were okay; some were bad. I don’t mean all were evil or even trying to be bad like you’d think, but people got hungry or scared, and they shot without thinking or tried to get food or weapons.

  You can see it in their eyes: the fear and desperation. People lost kids or husbands or wives…they went crazy. Those went dangerous. People had no jobs or no places to go, so they roamed, and they saw it all. It was scary. Everything was busted up and gone for miles, nothing but garbage and emptiness. Sometimes, people acted like the zombies; they just moved around and stared at things with no emotion….”

  “Were there many?” Andie asked.

  “More than you’d think. We fought some, and sometimes we won; sometimes we lost: winners take all; the situation was bad. Kids were the worst. You get about twelve or so of them in gangs, and they’ll kill for a can of tuna; they’ve forgotten what it used to be like. Maybe they don’t wanna remember anyway.”

  “Dangerous twelve year olds, I can imagine that,” Andie said with a sharp look at Hannah. Although she stopped listing all her fears of Hannah to Hannah’s parents because the list went on deaf ears, Andie still got chills thinking of her suspicions that Hannah chopped up her own family with an axe and killed an innocent woman for her criticism of the girl.

  “Choppy, choppy,” Hannah responded. Andie felt goose bumps on her arms.

  Jet motioned for Dave to go on.

  “I don’t wanna go on about what we saw and had to do out there. It was bad is enough said. Over that way, we ran into something new, at least to us. A girl cried for help, sounded pitiful, but she was the bait, a trap. We should have known, but we felt bad for anyone hurting or needing help.”

  “Unless he points a gun, an empty gun, at people,” Andie snorted.

  Dave frowned. “People came out and took us at gunpoint. You know people used to say ‘never go with anyone who has a gun; a person should try to fight him and never go back to his lair’, but we didn’t think about that.

  Thing is they seemed like good people, a family, didn’t curse or act mean, and I couldn’t imagine they were bad people. They lived in a nice farmhouse, and that’s when it all started: horrible things.

  It was a nightmare; I wished they would just kill us, but they didn’t. There we were, and then things got worse; one of ours got loose,” Dave said as he began to cry. “I ran. Jud and I ran, and all we had was that empty pistol we grabbed as we ran….”

  “What happened?” Hannah was curious. Even Sadie and Izzy listened.

  “They shot at us and hit Jeb. We just kept running. I guess it was adrenaline, but he kept running, and finally we were too tired to move. Jeb was scared to death they’d catch us again. He said I needed to go on and get away, but hey, we’re buddies; I stayed. I ran and left the rest, but I didn’t leave Jeb, weird huh?”

  Dave and Jeb found a house with some food, a little water, and a few supplies. Dave said they debated, and then Jeb calmly said that he’d rather die than be caught again by those who had way-laid them on the road. He used a knife and tried to cut his own throat, but Dave took the knife and bandaged him as best he could, begged and threatened until Jeb got up and went with Dave to find safety farther away from the farmhouse. The bullet wound and neck gash bled out, and the pair barely got to the safe house.

  Then, they saw Andie, Sadie, Izzy, and Jim. “I don’t trust no one, now; I thought they could fix Jeb and we’d be okay,” Dave finished, “I just wanted this to be over.”

  Sadly, he looked over at Jeb.

  “He didn’t make it,” Sadie said, “sorry, we did try.”

  Dave cried a little and then wiped his eyes and nose on his shirt. “I know you tried. Thanks. Now, I’ve screwed up with you; here I am anyway. I wish I had died long ago. Really.”

  “First of all, I am sorry about your friend, but you are safe with us. We seriously won’t hurt you,” Jet explained, “drink and eat; get yourself comfortable, at least.”

  “They shot everyone else?” Andie asked.

  “No. And if you’ll let me have some ammo, I’ll go back to kill a few of them if I can.” In fact, the group might even want to help him kill people, too. “If I can’t, well, maybe I can at least put a few of my friends down so they don’t suffer anymore.” He didn’t mention it, but they could tell he would save a bullet for himself; he had the thousand-mile stare.

  “Your friends are alive?”

  “If you call that being alive, then yeh,” Dave said as he met Hannah’s eyes with a hard stare, “I owe it to Ponce and the rest at least to put them down so they don’t have to go through any more....”

  “Ponce?”

  “John Ponce. He is with us…been with us a year and was gonna lead us south where he thought it was best. He dreaded that stretch of road for some reason, said he had been here before, and the situation went bad. He’s a good man, better than me. I aim to gut them like I figured you’d do to me.”

  “Ponce.”

  “Yes, Ponce. Why?” Dave wondered why they belabored the name.

  Hannah
looked at the others. Dr. Henry Diamond, the designer of the infection, inoculated Ponce, and although Ponce was immune to a bite from a Z, he was contagious if he bit anyone. They called them hybrids since they craved raw meat, had a higher pain tolerance, and carried the infection in body fluids. Hannah’s mother hated hybrids with a passion but respected Ponce for his help; Len had a chance to kill Ponce but didn’t, saying he was repaying a debt.

  Hannah kind of liked Ponce, and for sure, she respected the man.

  “He’s a prisoner?” she asked.

  “Last I saw. Do you know him? How do you know Ponce?”

  “Yes. Weird as that is, we do. We always got along well, but he had a bad time of it when his group went really bad,” Jet said, “small world after all. He was with the remains of an army, and they were taken over by some assholes callin’ themselves the Reconstruction Army.”

  “And they had it out at the airport, not too far from here, he told me.”

  “He tell you about those jerks trying to crucify some men? One was my dad,” Hannah said, “there was a zed break out inside, and Dad got away….”

  Dave nodded. He knew bits and pieces of the painful story.

  Hannah hummed.

  “I feel bad for your friends. That’s unreal,” Andie said, “too bad we can’t help you.”

  Hannah stood, knotting her long hair back into a tight ponytail. “We can. Let’s go get Ponce and his friends out.”

  “Ummm…you’re just a girl though,” Dave said.

  It was the one thing guaranteed to set Hannah off, proving how wrong he was. Jet groaned aloud.

  Hannah stared at the boy a few seconds and then got one of her looks that meant she was going to do something incredibly stupid that their parents would be livid over. The first thing that the parents would ask was why Jet didn’t do something to stop his nutty sister. Jet groaned again, “No.”

  “Jet, you can go back and get more help if you want or at least let Matt and Mark know. I’m going to help Dave. Can you double on one of their horses so he can ride?”

  “Oh, hell, no, Hannah. I am not nearly crazy enough to let you go or for me to go tell Mark or Matt. Matt will kill me.”

  “He won’t kill you, and we need a horse for Dave,” said Hannah as she shot Dave a crazed grin, “Matt is cool, and he doesn’t kill people…well…not us anyway. He will be very pissed off, however. He’s only three years older than Jet, and he is learning to run security. I need a horse, people.”

  “Take my horse,” Izzy said, watching. He feared Hannah far more than all of the rest put together, especially if she threw one of her fits. She glared at him once, and he gave in.

  “Can you ride?”

  “Never tried,” Dave admitted, “I can try, I guess.” He was on his feet and ready. The girl was crazy, but she made Dave feel something he forgot long ago: hope.

  “He held a gun on us, and you want to go rescue his friends, just like that? What if he’s trapping you? Are you crazy? Why would you want to do that?” Andie yelled. “For Ponce? You wanna be the one explaining to your mother that you risked your life to rescue a hybrid? She freakin’ kills them.”

  “A what?”

  “Long story, Dave,” Hannah glared back at Andie.

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “Get on my horse with me then,” she ordered Dave, “we’ll at least look around. Jet, tell Mark….”

  “Nope, Izzy, you tell Mark and Matt what is going on. I’m going, too, Hannah if you plan to. It’s one thing for our parents to kill me, but Mom and Dad will kill me more if you go alone.” Jet knew that made no sense, and he also knew Izzy struggled with speaking English, so they could get a few things accomplished before Mark and Matt got someone to help translate.

  Dave got on the horse with Hannah, clutching her desperately as he looked down at the ground. Both Sadie and Jim wanted to go. Jet knew this situation was ‘going south fast’ but didn’t know how to stop it. No one here was senior-in-authority really. Andie reluctantly decided she would go along, and although Hannah started to argue and complain, Jet said that it was the only way he would condone the plan. Andie might be many things, but she was dependable and a strong fighter.

  Hannah muttered something to Dave that made the boy glance at Andie with a strange look. She hated this, but with Jet’s help, they had a better chance, and their parents wouldn’t be so hard on Hannah for this stunt.

  Dave gave directions as they went, finding it a lot faster than if they were on foot and wounded. He pointed out the house where they rested and where Jeb and he found food, water, and the knife he had. Andie went over to check out the house and nodded as she climbed back into her saddle, letting them know the boy’s story checked out so far. She still watched him with suspicion.

  “That’s it?” Jet asked, jaw open. The farmhouse was large, with a barn, a once-tidy yard, and a few rusted vehicles to one side. While the windows were carefully boarded up as a safety maneuver, a few zombies shambled about the tall grass aimlessly, only a little interested in the house but not able to move on either. They had obviously seen prey at some points and didn’t know where the people were. The house seemed cozy and a pleasant refuge.

  They stayed hidden as they watched the house.

  “The first night, they took a girl; she was a student. I think…name was Connie. The basement was the place where they do it all so that you can see and hear all; you know what’s coming. They gave her something that made her all drugged up and sleepy, but she came awake, screaming when they started on her leg….”

  “Her leg?”

  “Yep. They tied it with a tourniquet thing? Whatever it’s called. And then they lopped the leg off, using a hot iron thing to stop the bleeding,” Dave whispered. “They had a spring with ice cold water, and that was how they could wash everything in the basement.”

  “Why?”

  “To clean it.”

  “No, why did they take her leg?”

  “You know, they had plenty of stuff they’ve looted. The food was the best we had eaten in some time…canned crap but still food and water…not a lot, but steady. They wanted us healthy, fed, yanno. They don’t need weak ones. And they acted as if they were sorry, that we mattered, and that they wished they didn’t have to do it, but I don’t think they give a shit what they were doing, or they’d not do it. Right?”

  “Connie’s leg?” Andie prompted.

  “Oh yeh, they cut if off and then the other one the first night. The next day, her arms, and I guess the shock, were too much. I don’t know about doctor shit, but Connie just died. She screamed, and then she lay there all dull and crying; it smelled like burning pork roast,” Dave gagged, “I admit it; I cried like a baby watching it.”

  “Why did they cut her limbs off?” Andie persisted, “was she injured?”

  “No, not until they cut on her. God, she just screamed and screamed, and they said they were sorry, but they kept going, and we could see her, locked in a cage and handcuffed. I’ll never forget those screams.” Dave’s eyes were glassy.

  “Her leg? What did they do with it?” Hannah demanded.

  “I didn’t tell you? Their children, the kids are Reds; they fed them,” he said softly. “They fed them her leg.”

  Chapter 3 Farm House

  Hank and Peggy sat at the heads of the dinner table with the children, Elizabeth, Rachael, Samuel, Thomas, and Rebecca who picked at the warmed ravioli, green beans, corn, and peaches. “We gave thanks for the food, so show you appreciate it by eating it. Not everyone has food and a family.”

  They always ate the big meal at noon.

  Elizabeth glanced at her father and ate another spoonful of beans. Sometimes, she sat and daydreamed about biting into a juicy, tart green apple or about munching a buttery ear of corn.

  A handful of roasted pumpkin seeds or a crispy, greasy taco sounded like a dream. Peppery, crisp bacon and fluffy, scrambled eggs would send her drooling out of her mind.

  Samuel and she were supposed to take their turn
s later after lunch washing out the cages downstairs; she hated it, dreaded it, and thought it was horrible, but she wouldn’t say a word. It was sinful to dislike her chores so strongly.

  Once, there were nine people in a group when she lay in the road and pretended to be injured to lure the people over closer so they easily could be taken prisoner. One was sick, and she was in the barn where the youngest kids weren’t allowed, now.

  At least, it wouldn’t be her turn to lure anyone again for a while.

  A girl and then a young boy already were rendered. Momma and Daddy took each one and prayed with each, or over each, whatever the case might be, and then shackled each one to a table in the basement so each could be offered.

  They had medical supplies, and Momma used something to help the offerings so the victims didn’t suffer so much. It made them drowsy and more relaxed, but the people still screamed and cried with pain and fear when the cutting began.

  They always begged and pleaded, but the limbs were removed. Because of the lack of electricity and refrigeration, only one at a time could be offered so it would stay fresh.

  What else could they do? If anything else were possible, they would have done that.

  A long time before, Mary was bitten by the demons that now walked the earth‘because there was no more room in hell, so they roamed the earth,’ Daddy said). Some people who talked on the radio, a Christian station, no less, said those bitten had to be put down, but even Elizabeth understood that “putting down” someone was another term for murder, and no one was supposed to murder.

  Momma and Daddy said that the youngest two members of their family were alive inside the husk of demons that the rest saw; their souls were fine inside the terrible possession that had taken place.

  But in their state, they were dangerous and couldn’t be trusted as Satan was the Master of Lies, so the little girl and little boy were kept safe in the basement, in a huge, well scrubbed dog cage surrounded by toys and blankets and other things that they no longer seemed to recognize, a place where coon dogs were once raised.