Clickers vs Zombies (38 page)

Rick’s aim swayed as he glanced around in panic. More zombies came out of hiding, quickly surrounding them. Melody whimpered in fear. Richard tensed, fists clenched at his sides. Mary closed her eyes.

“Fuck this,” Paul said, and ran.

“Paul,” Richard yelled. “Don’t…”

The dead fell on the fleeing teen before he’d taken a dozen steps. A zombie yanked a canister of pepper spray from its pocket and sprayed him in the eyes as he ran by. Paul fell to the ground, shrieking, eyes clenched shut. Then Samhain darted forward, going for his throat. At the last minute, the stunned boy managed to blindly throw his hand up to ward off the attack. His hand slid into the dog’s mouth and the slavering jaws snapped shut, severing his fingers at the knuckles. Paul yanked his ruined hand free. Blood spurted from the stumps, squirting all over his attackers.

Rick swiveled the rifle toward them, and fired a shot at the dog. Instead of hitting its target, the round slammed into the thigh of the zombie with the pepper spray. The creature simply laughed.

“Lower your weapons, Jim.”
Anthony grinned.
“And tell your friend to do the same or we’ll tear Tammy and Danny apart right here in the street.”

Jim knelt, laying the .45 and the hatchet on the asphalt. Then he glanced back at Rick.

“The hell are you doing?” Rick’s eyes were wide.

“Do it,” Jim gasped, glancing back at Rick. “Please? He’s got my family.”

Scowling, Rick did as Jim requested.

Anthony smirked.
“They’re not your family anymore, Jim. You’re divorced. They’re my family now. Well, my host form’s, at least.”

“Anthony,” Jim pleaded. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I’m not Anthony. My name is Ob. Now I want all of you to watch this, because if you don’t obey me, this is what will happen to Jim’s family—and to all of you.”

Writhing in the street, Paul screamed as the dead encircled him. He kicked and thrashed as they held him down and tore into him with their bare hands, clawing open his stomach and reaching inside.

“No,” Mary cried.

Rick reached for her as she ran to help Paul, but she slipped past him.

“Humans,”
Ob muttered.
“They never listen.”

A zombie Clicker charged into the street, blocking Mary from reaching Paul. As she skidded to a stop, it jabbed forward with its tail, plunging the stinger into her abdomen. Gasping, Mary reached down and grabbed the appendage. Her hands came away slick with her own blood. The tail pulsed and throbbed as the zombie pumped venom into her. Then, with a wet sucking sound, the creature withdrew the stinger. It glistened in the sun, and parts of Mary’s insides clung to it. She fell to the ground, the gaping hole in her stomach bubbling and steaming as her flesh began to melt.

“Oh God,” Richard moaned. “Do something, Dad. We’ve got to do something!”

“I…” Rick shut his eyes, unable to watch.

The horde continued shredding Paul. His intestines, kidneys, and lungs were yanked from his body and pulped in the zombies’ fists. One of the creatures stuck its head inside his open chest and made motorboat sounds. The others cackled gleefully.

“He’s still alive,” Melody wailed. “Paul’s still alive, Dad!”

Rick opened his eyes again, and stared. Paul was indeed moving, but the smile on his face told him all he needed to know. He hugged his daughter tight, turning her head away from the carnage.

“He’s not alive, baby. That’s not him anymore. It’s one of those things.”

Ob nodded.
“Very good, Mister…?”

“Rick Sycheck. And go fuck yourself.”

“I like him,”
Ob said, turning his attention back to Jim.
“He reminds me of you.”

Tammy and Danny’s captors reached the rest of the group. They shoved the two forward. Both of them rushed to Jim’s side. He picked Danny up and hugged them both tightly.

“Daddy,” Danny sobbed. “I’m scared. You said they wouldn’t get us.”

“Ssshh.” Jim kissed his head, breathing in his son’s scent. “It will be okay, Squirt.”

“Awww, how touching.”

“Anthony, if there’s any of you left alive in there, then let them go. It’s me you have a problem with. You loved Tammy, right? So why do this?”

“I told you once before, I am not Anthony. My name is Ob. Do you not know me?”

Jim shook his head. “Should I have?”

“We’ve met before, on other worlds than this. You blew me up once, in the sewers beneath New York City. And you dropped me off a mountain in West Virginia. And out of an airplane, once. Oh, and you cut my head off in Japan. Those are the times I remember, at least. I’m sure there were more. When you are as old as me, you sometimes forget the little details. But I certainly haven’t forgotten you, Jim Thurmond, or your brat there, or your friends Frankie and Martin.”

“I don’t know anyone named Frankie or Martin. And I don’t care who you are—don’t talk about my son that way again.”

“Always defiant to the end,”
Ob replied.
“Well, you got one thing right, Jim. I do indeed have a problem with you.”

“Fair enough. Let my family go then. And these folks, too. They’ve done nothing to you.”

“Yes, they have. They were born. That is affront enough. They are beloved by the Creator, as are you all. That alone is cause to hate them.”

“What are you going to do with us?” Rick asked.

“With you?”
Ob asked.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something creative. There are so many different ways to kill. But you’ll have it easy compared to the Thurmonds. I want Jim to suffer.”

Tammy moaned. Jim squeezed her tight, keeping Danny protected between them.

“But in general,”
Ob continued,
“we will continue with the corruption of all flesh. Normally, that takes some time, but the Clickers, as you call them, unwittingly helped us speed up the process. Remarkable creatures. I wish I could be one all the time. When the last of the meat on this planet has been conquered, my brother Ab will then arrive with his fellow Elilum, whom he leads just as I do the Siqqusim. They will decimate the plant and insect life. Then, when all life had been extinguished, our brother Api and his Teraphim will burn this planet to cinders. Pity we won’t be here to see it, but we will have already moved on to the next version of Earth.”

“I don’t understand half of what you’ve said,” Rick replied, “but do you honestly think we’re just going to let you destroy our planet without doing something about it?”

“And what would you do, little man? Look around you. Behold the small army I have amassed against you right here on this suburban street.”

He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. The zombies leered and grinned. The human corpses raised a cheer.
Engastrimathos du aba paren tares! Hail, Ob!”
The dead Clickers raised their claws and clacked them together. The noise was nearly deafening.
CLICK-CLICK…CLICK-CLICK…CLICK-CLICK…CLICK-CLICK…CLICK-CLICK…

Inside the SUV, Princess howled.

“Stop it,” Melody screamed, slipping loose from Rick and clapping her hands over her ears. “Just make it stop!”

“As you wish,”
Ob said.
“We’ll kill you quickly, let one of my minions inhabit you, and then Daddy can watch while you choke him with his own intestines.”

Melody collapsed to the street, skinning her knees on the bloody pavement. Rick glanced at the rifle, but two zombie Clickers edged toward him, tails hovering menacingly in the air above him.

“Oh, don’t take it so hard,”
Ob said, turning back to Jim, Tammy, and Danny.
“That’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to Jim’s little brat. Here, I’ll show you.”

Danny screamed.

Mount Shasta, California

“Keep them off me,” Clark said. He sat cross-legged in the dirt. “And whatever you do, don’t break the circle.”

Michele glanced down at her feet, insuring that her toes were indeed inside the line that Clark had etched into the soil with a sharp stick. She was dizzy and out of breath. The two had left a mound of twice-killed corpses on the trail behind them, just above the monastery, and both had numb hands and a persistent ringing in their ears from all the shooting. When there had been an apparent lull in the pursuit, they had plunged ahead, reaching a small clearing a few hundred yards up the mountain. Despite their exhaustion, Clark had wasted no time in unpacking and preparing for the ritual.

Beyond the tree line, something growled, low and menacing. Michele shivered. She studied the array around her, but it was beyond her understanding. As a remote viewer, she only knew the basic tenants of magical theory and practice. What Clark was attempting was something beyond a mere adept. He had drawn a series of concentric circles in the dirt, and had bid her stand inside the one farthest from the center, which he filled with salt. Then, closer to the center, he’d etched both a pentagram and a hexagram, along with a series of runes and symbols. He’d then placed black, white, and red candles at various points, as well as several copper bowls filled with sage, bay leaf, coriander, garlic, jasmine, and more salt. He lit the dried bundles of sage, letting the smoke fill the air around them, and then lit the candles, as well. Finally, he’d sat down, cross-legged, and concentrated on his breathing.

The trees rustled. Michele spotted a flock of zombie birds nestled in the branches. She heard the growl again, and caught a glimpse of a large, furry form pacing in the shadows.

“They can’t cross the circle,” Clark told her. “Remember that. As long as you stay inside of it, they can’t touch you.”

“Then why do you need me to cover you? Why bother shooting them?”

“Because they might have guns.”

“But a bullet won’t penetrate a circle of protection, sir.”

“No, it won’t. But if they fire it at the ground, and break the circle. That would be very bad. Also, don’t step into the circles closer to me. The energy will be very high in here, and I don’t want you getting caught in the backlash. I don’t think you’d survive it. Just stay in that outer ring, and keep the Siqqusim from breaching it. Okay?”

“Got it. Anything else I need to remember?”

“Yes,” Clark said. “Just one last thing. There is one ingredient I forgot to tell you about. One thing we couldn’t find at the store in town, and that we didn’t bring along from San Francisco.”

“What’s that?”

“A sacrifice.”

Michele paused. “What?”

“To conduct a working of this magnitude, to exile the Siqqusim back to the Void and seal them off from our world, a sacrifice is required—at least for someone of my skill level. That’s the only way it will work.”

Michele had a sinking feeling in her gut. She took her eyes off the perimeter and slowly turned to face him.

“Are you saying—?”

Clark stared at her with half-lidded eyes. When he saw her expression, he smiled.

“No, Michele. For God’s sake, I’m not talking about you. What kind of monster do you think I am?”

“Then who?”

His smile grew sad.

“You? But sir, you can’t just…”

“I can and I will. It’s our only chance, Michele.”

“So you knew all along? What about all that talk on the way here?”

“I wanted to keep your spirits up. Also, I didn’t know how familiar you were with the greater rituals. But I meant what I said about the accommodation. Were I to survive, I would have most certainly recommended you for one. Now, eyes front. No more arguing. They’re creeping up on us, and it’s time to begin. Don’t let me down.”

“But—”

Clark pulled a pocket knife from his pocket and faced East. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was clear and strong—free of the fatigue and fear they’d both felt only moments before.

“I present these herbs and other offerings to the four Elements—Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. I have placed them in the acceptable manner and ask that you find them pleasing. I have made the signs to the four corners of the Earth—East, West, North, and South, and to all that is contained within. Yod, Nun, Resh. Virgo, Isis, Scorpio, Apophis, Destroyer. Osiris, who was slain and then rose again.”

Upon hearing his words, the dead emerged from the forest and rushed toward them. Michele took her time, reminding herself that they couldn’t breach the circle, and lined up her shot. Steadying herself, she took a deep breath, held it, and then fired. A dead Buddhist monk collapsed. She exhaled, took another breath, and brought down the corpse of a deer.

“Vegevura,” Clark continued. “Vegedul, leom…”

Michele felt the air begin to vibrate. A persistent low drone that seemed to come from the ground itself filled her ears. Her arms prickled and her hair crackled with static electricity. The zombies halted, obviously surprised by the incantation. Then, they crept forward again. One of them searched the ground, found a softball-sized rock, and picked it up. Before the creature could throw it, Michele gunned it down.