Hamsikker: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel (3 page)

CHAPTER ONE

A FEW MONTHS LATER

She was dead, no doubt about it. The discoloured skin, lifeless eyes, and slack jaw made it pretty obvious. The next clue was in the way she walked, so slowly and aimlessly, drawn to any noise like a dumb animal. Dead feet scraped the ground as the zombie shuffled forward, meandering across the grass verge towards them.

Javier put his hand across the gun that was aimed at the zombie’s head, and lowered it. “Don’t waste your time. She’s too far away to worry about.”

He could see the disappointment in Rose’s eyes, but he wasn’t about to waste a bullet.

“Oh come on, it’s not like there are any others around. We can drop her and move on. I need the practise,” said Rose as she raised the gun and squinted down the length of the barrel.

Javier rocked back on his feet, sucking in a mouthful of warm morning air. “No. We’re low on ammo and…”

The zombie’s head exploded as Rose fired, hitting it squarely between the eyes. The body fell slowly to the ground, and then silence resumed. A lone bird flew from a tree in the distance, startled by the gunshot, but otherwise, they were completely alone.

“Bagged me a zombie.” Rose jumped to her feet looking elated. “Down in one.”

Javier looked at her coolly. His blue eyes sparkled in the morning sunlight, and he took a step toward Rose. “What did I
just
say?” He could see her happiness fading, the light in Rose’s face diminishing with each second, as pride was replaced by uncertainty.

“Oh, come on, cupcake, it’s just a zombie,” she said. “We’ve killed a thousand already, so who gives a shit? It’s not like…”

The sting of his hand knocked her backward, and Javier grabbed the gun from her hands as Rose stumbled away from him. He holstered it, and then held out an open hand to her. She was more shocked than anything, and he knew he hadn’t hit her that hard. She’d taken worse. It was really just a warning, a reminder of who was in charge.

“Come on.” He felt her slip her thin fingers into his, and he pulled her up. Facing him, the light illuminated her long blonde hair, and his lips curled into a thin smile. She always looked beautiful to him, though even more when she was submissive. He didn’t like it when she got cocky. He wasn’t the only man to find her beautiful, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to let anyone else get a piece of his Rose.

She looked up at him, and he saw the faint red glow blossoming on her cheek where he had slapped her. She leant in and kissed him, then drew her arms around his neck.

“I’m sorry, baby.”

Her kisses tickled his neck and he pushed her away. “No harm done.”

Javier turned to the low brick wall where they had stopped and he sat down. He faced the park they had just passed through, and stared at the treeline, trying to guess what lay beyond it. Tall elm trees littered the fringes of the park, and further still, lay thick scrub over hilly terrain. It was going to be another long hot day, and he wanted to push on. Jeffersontown left him cold. It was so bland, so suburban, so very apple-pie, college football, God-damn
American
. He hated it. He wanted to keep riding, just to keep going until he found someplace he could call home. He had come with his parents over the border years ago into Texas, and they had moved around a lot, sometimes several times in just a few months. Very quickly, his father had shot through, and from then on it had been different schools, different friends - different fathers, depending on the mood his mother was in. Eventually, he gave up on trying to settle down, and simply went with the flow. His mother had left him as soon as she could. One day, he came home to find a scribbled note stuck to the fridge. She had taken off with her latest boyfriend, a truck driver from Ohio, leaving him a cold slice of ham, her discoloured wedding ring, and twenty dollars to get by. The bitch had probably whored herself all the way to Canada by now, and he let out a small laugh.

“What’s up?” asked Rose as she sat down beside him. It was warm, but early, and she zipped up the black leather jacket they had found discarded in the back of an SUV the previous night. You had to take what you could now. There were no more stores, no more hand-outs, and the law of the jungle ruled the streets now.

“I was just thinking. Where do we go from here? I mean, Jeffersontown did us fine, but I’m ready to move on, you know? Why stay here?” asked Javier.

“Can’t we stay, just for a few more days? That place we crashed in last night was comfy. It’s nice to sleep in a bed instead of the back of a truck for a change, and I know you enjoyed it too, right?”

Javier felt her run a hand over his thigh to his groin and she started squeezing him. He arched his eyebrows and looked at her. “You’re a good fuck, Rose, but there’s more to life than your tight ass.”

She brought her hand back to her lap and smiled, but he could see he had annoyed her. Her eyes were distant, her smile forced. Inwardly, he wanted to smile too, but right then, there were more pressing matters than playing games with her.

“So what then, we keep going?” Rose asked. “Just going and going and going, right?”

Javier nodded. “Stick to the plan. Keep heading north. It’s still our best shot.”

Rose mumbled something, but he didn’t hear her. It didn’t really matter what she said, so he stopped listening. He knew full well that she would go along with him, no matter how much she complained. She could be a bad-ass when she needed to be, and they got on well most of the time, but he wasn’t beholden to anyone, and he wasn’t about to let Rose tell him what to do. Last night
had
been good, that was true. They had found a deserted house, and taken full opportunity to use the luxury at their disposal. The occupants were long gone, probably joining the ranks of the undead months back. The house was locked up tight, but he had easily broken in via a back window. There was no alarm, and they had swiftly checked all the rooms. Evidently, a fairly well off couple had lived there given the size of the place and the expensive looking décor. There were no children’s toys, or clothes, and the pantry still had a few tins of food which they’d guzzled down greedily in the darkness. The boxes of oats, cereals and pasta had either gone off, or been eaten by rats and mice. The fresh food in the fridge had turned into small piles of mould, and the fetid smell was revolting. Nothing worked anymore: fridges, streetlights, televisions, computers, phones, nothing. Along with the power that had gone off months back, all those gadgets and devices supposed to make everyone’s life easier had been turned off. They were as useful now as yesterday’s newspaper.

“You’ve not given up on me, have you?” he asked Rose.

She shook her head. “Javier, you’re my hero, you know that. I’m never leaving you.”

He rolled his hand across her back, and brought it up to the nape of her neck. The sun behind them was slowly warming their backs, but still, he felt her shiver when he touched her.

“And Canada? You remember the plan?”

Javier gripped her neck tighter, just increasing the pressure of his fingers a fraction. She flinched, but not once did she take her eyes off his.

“Of course I do. Your brother is there, I get it. I’m with you, Javier, I promise. Straight up.”

Javier brought his arm back around, and cupped her face. He leant in and kissed her. Those kisses made him feel alive, more alive than he had since before the shit had started. Back then he had been nothing; a nobody doing nothing of value, not understanding how he fitted in with the world, or where he was going. He had drifted, and he knew he couldn’t blame his mother for that entirely. The bitch certainly hadn’t helped, but he had been too chicken-shit to do anything about his life. Since the outbreak though, he had grown up. He realised what he had to do to get through life. He was head honcho now, and he was proud of what he had become. Rose had come along at just the right time, just after the uprising. It was a chance for a fresh start. Those big blue eyes had drawn him to her, and they hadn’t looked back. Sure, sometimes he had to keep her in check, but on the whole, he could trust her. She was his forever, and that was as long as he wanted it to be.

“You’re my eagle,” she whispered to him as he held her. “Forever and ever.”

Javier had told her early on in their relationship how the bald eagle mated for life. He’d spent a lot of time sitting in front of a TV picking up lots of useless information. He admired the eagle, so powerful and majestic: The King of the Skies. They were loyal too, a quality he admired, but had yet to experience. Rose was like a faithful dog, always at his side, but not always obeying him. She just needed a little more training.

“Forever,” he whispered back, and he brushed his fingers through her long hair. He wasn’t sure if he loved her, but he knew she loved him.

“Let’s move.” Javier stood up and walked over the rough yard to the bike. It was nothing special, just something they had picked up a month back outside of Owensboro. He had ridden Yamahas before, so he found it easy to handle. Annoyingly, the bike was ten years old, and as smooth as riding a donkey down a dirt track. He was on the look out for a Harley, or maybe even a Ducati, but so far, they had been out of luck. The only garage they had come across recently had been ransacked. There were nothing left but spare parts and a dead man with a bullet in his skull.

Javier mounted the bike and felt Rose climb on behind him. Her arms wrapped around his waist as he stirred the machine into life. More zombies were coming through the park now, probably drawn by the noise of the gunshot. There was nobody else around, certainly nobody alive to pique the zombies’ curiosity. Turning around, Javier pulled them out onto the road, and let the engine idle as he looked around at Jeffersontown one last time. It had been a brief, but necessary rest stop. Having been on the road for several days, and running low on supplies, they needed the break. He knew it was too dangerous to go into the cities, and Louisville was no exception. It had succumbed quickly to the disease, and was now full of rabid zombies who for the most part, stayed there picking off the final survivors. Javier had no intention of becoming just another victim, and had only gone in as far as he had to. The back of the bike was packed full of food and water, a couple of guns, but not much else. They travelled light, and he liked it that way. The houses they had come across in town had been stocked, so they could have taken a hell of a lot more, but the more crap you carried, the more difficult it was to run. Moreover, they had done plenty of running of late, far more than he would’ve liked. The dead could still sneak up on you if you weren’t careful, and in the early days, he had spent a lot of time running from one place to another, not really knowing where he was going, or what he was doing. There were runners too, really fast motherfuckers who could just run and run and run. Avoiding them wasn’t easy.

Then he’d met Rose. She was holed up in a small Korean grocery store, and by chance, he had run in there to escape the attention of a herd of dead school kids. She hadn’t even locked the front door, just pushed a few crates in front of it, which he had easily brushed aside. They stayed quietly inside for a full day waiting for the dead to leave, to go and find someone else to eat. In the meantime they talked, ate, drank, and finally fucked. Ever since then, since those days spent cooped up together, she had been by his side like a loyal hound. He hadn’t quite known what to make of her at first, but she was interesting. He asked her about her past, but she kept it brief and glossed over a lot of it. It was all irrelevant now anyway. It helped pass the time, but where you came from had little relevance to where you were going in a world full of the dead.

Javier sped up and drove down the deserted streets, past burnt out buildings. Cars littered the road and the sidewalks, but there were few bodies around. At first, the dead had been left to rot in the streets, but eventually, they had either reanimated, or been eaten by the others. Only skeletal carcasses were visible now, and it was possible Javier and Rose were the only people still alive in Jeffersontown. It had been a couple of days since they had seen anyone alive, and even then, it was only from a distance. They’d passed a gated school just off I-65 and kept well away. A crowd of at least fifty zombies had it circled and were battering at the doors and walls. Up on the roof there was a figure, too far off to see clearly, but most likely one of the teachers who worked there. The figure waved their hands above their head and shouted, but there was nothing they could do for them. Javier kept driving and watched the school recede into the distance as he drove them on, away from danger. They had a limited supply of ammo, and he wasn’t about to waste it on some old fart who would only be a drain on their resources. Javier knew asking for help was a sign of weakness; he didn’t expect any, and didn’t give any.

As they reached the edge of town, Javier turned a corner and hit the brakes. Right in the middle of the road stood a boy, no older than fourteen or fifteen, staring right at them. He wasn’t moving, speaking, or doing anything, just standing there as plain as day right on the centre line. Javier stopped the bike ten feet short of the boy, and looked him over. The boy had probably been scavenging for months. He was skinny and dirty, with pale skin that was covered in spots. His dishevelled hair was long and greasy, and his clothes torn and filthy. The boy raised a shaking hand.