Love and Decay (31 page)

Only this was the apocalypse so there weren’t
pedestrians.

Sure enough, it was a Feeder that had darted
out in front of me. It turned its head at us and hissed through
blackened teeth.

I contemplated running it over, but messing
up the truck more than I already had might get us stuck out here.
Instead I watched it sniff the air and turn toward us fully. Then
it sniffed the air again and decided there was something better in
the woods.

It took off loping across the road and into a
wooded area where I lost it in the tangle of trees and
branches.

“What was that?”

I jumped, surprised that the question had
come from Mertz.

“I didn’t realize you were awake,” I told
him.

“My head hurts,” he groaned.

“Mine too.”

“There’s another one!” Adela exclaimed.

I followed her outstretched finger and sure
enough, a Zombie crossed the road down the road.

“What is this?” I asked. “Zombie
crossing?”

“There must be something in those woods.”
King’s voice came through the back window that had been shot out
during the car chase.

I turned around to ask him his opinion when I
noticed how close we were to the burning city. “We’re just to the
west of Allentown,” I said. “I can see the smoke.”

King turned around to check. “What are you
thinking?”

“I’m thinking that if Luke and Page never
made it back to their car and the Colony didn’t pick them up
anywhere… that they had to run somewhere, right?”

“You think that’s where those Feeders are
headed?” Miller’s voice boomed from the back.

As if to prove my point, a Zombie screeched
through the early morning, shattering the still silence around
us.

“If they rescued that contact, he could be
hurt. He could be bloody. Mertz, you said he was going to be beaten
to death, right? That implies blood.”

“Lots of blood,” Joss added.

“Not to mention any one of them could have
been hurt at any time,” King added. “I think you’re right,
Harrison. I think we follow those Feeders, we find Page.”

“Or other hurt people,” Mertz added. “They
could take us straight to the Colony. This could be a trap.”

I shared a look with my brother. “Doesn’t
matter,” I said. “We have to go check.”

“We can’t leave the truck,” Mertz argued.
“What if those Colony soldiers come back? They’ll know we’re in
there. They’ll find us.”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” Miller
declared. He jumped over the side of the truck and landed with the
grace of a kitty cat.

“He’s right,” King said. “We have to at least
check it out.”

“There could be a hundred Feeders in there.”
Mertz was clearly terrified, but he was also still shaking from the
collision. I wasn’t sure if he was up for this.

And yet, we couldn’t leave him here by
himself either.

“Like he said, that’s a chance we’re willing
to take.” I looked him in the eye. “This is our sister, man. A
hundred Feeders or the Colony or hell, an army of Bigfoots is worth
fighting to get her back. You get it?”

“We’re going to die.”

I smiled at him, hoping to reassure him. But
by his flinch, I realized the smile didn’t help.

“We’re not going to die. Trust me.”

He rubbed his forehead with the heel of his
hand. “That’s the thing. I don’t trust you.”

I laughed because I thought he was joking.
Then I realized he wasn’t. “Come on, now,” I grinned at him. “I’m a
Parker. God loves us best.”

I jumped down from the driver’s seat for no
other reason than to end the meaningless conversation. It didn’t
matter what Mertz did, but the rest of us were going after those
Feeders. I didn’t have time to candy-coat this for him.

King stepped up next to me. “God loves us
best?”

I shrugged. “Don’t tell me you haven’t
thought it before.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “I can
honestly say that I haven’t.”

I patted down my chest, sides and back to
make sure all my blades were present and accounted for. I turned
back and waggled my eyebrows at my brother and friends. “Well, what
are we waiting for? Let’s go see if I’m a liar.”

I saw bloodlust reflecting in everyone’s
eyes. Even Mertz. We knew we were walking into a fight. But this
was what we signed up for.

Miller took off into the woods. We followed
behind him at an even clip. I stayed by Adela’s side because that
was what I did.

She wasn’t the best fighter. I hated that she
was with us, but I also knew I would do whatever it took to keep
her safe.

We didn’t know where we were headed, but we
followed the sounds of Feeders screaming and moaning.

The forest blotted out the early light and we
had to pick our way over fallen branches and natural debris. Our
footsteps crunched in the leaves as we pushed forward. Thin-trunked
trees would reach out with their spindly branches and snag our
clothes or catch us on the chin and cheeks.

A fun morning calisthenics routine it was
not, but it didn’t matter.

We weren’t out here for cardio.

Instinct prickled my spine and I turned
around just in time to meet a Feeder with my blade. It had sneaked
up on us without making a sound or we’d made too much sound to hear
it.

My blade sunk into its throat spurting blood
everywhere. I used muscle and the butt of the blade to lift it in
the air and flip it over. It landed with my knife still lodged in
its neck.

While it scratched and clawed at me, I knelt
down high on its chest, retracted my blade and plunged it through
the eye socket.

It didn’t take long to finish it off.

Which was a good thing because when I looked
up again, there were more Feeders to fight.

Roughly eight of them surrounded us in the
woods. They stared at their dead friend and licked blackened,
pussing lips with greed and hunger. They remained silent as they
waited for the command to attack and I realized just how deadly
this new breed of Feeders was.

If I hadn’t turned around at just that
moment, I’d have been a Feeder buffet by now.

Harrison Parker, the Golden Corral of
humans.

I was a nightly feast of prime rib and all
you can eat imitation Maine lobster.

These Feeders had to work for my delicious
morsels. I didn’t just give that shit away for free.

They attacked at once, as if they had a hive
mind. Only six of us, we were outnumbered, but we had been down
this road before.

A huge, burly fellow lunged for me with nails
at least an inch and a half long. He brought thick, dried blood and
gore and who knew what else.

I sprung away as he swiped for me again. I
brought my knife down hard this time and sliced his hand off. He
wobbled off balance, but righted himself quickly enough so he could
use his other hand to catch me.

He didn’t even acknowledge that he’d just
lost a hand.

He was too addicted to flesh to even register
the pain.

I got caught on defense, since this creature
was an aggressive one. I lunged out of the way but tried to bring
my blade down on the top of his head; he was too massive for
that.

He swiped again and this time he caught me on
the neck. His fingers came away bloody and it sent him into a
frenzied craze for brains. “Oh, you slimy bastard,” I growled.
“You’re going to pay for that.”

He charged again and I ducked, then weaved,
then thrust my blade into his temple.

Boom.

Dead.

And that ladies and gentlemen is how it’s
done.

Fear for Adela and Page spawned a machine in
me. I stabbed, sliced and speared anything I could reach. The rest
of the horde didn’t take long to finish off. My hands and forearms
were covered in Feeder blood by the time we’d cleared this
nest.

I wiped my blade on my bloody pants leg and
noticed it barely made a difference.

“There’s more,” Miller panted. “We must keep
moving.”

I turned to Adela. “You okay?”

Black blood streaked across her chest and
splattered her face. Her long dark hair had been pulled into a
ponytail, but a few tendrils stuck to her temples and framed her
face. “Stop worrying about me, Harrison. I’m fine.”

“Never,” I promised her.

She stepped toward me. “I think you have a
concussion.” Her fingers glanced over my temple and I flinched from
the unexpected pain.

“Why do you say that?” I asked with a
smile.

Her tone baffled me. “Because you’re never
this nice to me.”

“Wrong,” I argued. “You’re not nice to me.
I’m afraid of you.”

She rolled her eyes, but Miller yelled at us
to keep up, so the conversation was over for now. Besides, she
would tell me she didn’t believe me and I didn’t want to hear
it.

I
was
afraid of her.

She didn’t even comprehend the kind of power
she had over me.

She didn’t know how badly she could hurt me
or how long-term her scars would last.

The only thing Adela got was what she
wanted.

And she’d made it abundantly clear that she
didn’t want me.

That she wanted nothing to do with me.

I let her run in front of me; in fact, I let
everyone run in front of me, voluntarily taking up the rear just in
case we had any more surprise attacks.

Our pace picked up until we were running as
hard as we could. We didn’t encounter any more Feeders until the
moment we saw them all. At least fifteen of them.

They clawed at a hunting shed, desperately
working to rip it to pieces. Their mouths hung agape, drooling and
slavering for whatever was inside. The door hung off its hinges and
more than one of the windows had been bashed in.

Sounds from inside the shed resonated through
the woods. Someone was in there. And they were fighting back.
Brutally. Savagely.

With every effort to win this battle they
waged, outnumbered and boxed in.

It was a tiny place, well weathered and
obviously forgotten until today. At our approach, some of the
Feeders turned and licked their bloody chops.

I remembered my gouged neck and readied
myself for this fight.

“Is there anyone in there?” King called out
over the roar of Feeder screams.

A bloody human on the inside would be the
only explanation for the circling frenzy of starving Zombies. A
pain lanced across my chest as I waited for the answer from
within.

“King!” Page’s voice rang clear through the
woods. “King is that you?”

“Page!” I shouted with Miller and King.

Her head poked out of the broken window for
just a second before she went back to fighting Feeders. “You’re
here!” she squealed.

“Page,” I breathed. “Thank God.”

That was the last thing I managed to say
before war broke out and the raging Feeders turned on us. Intense
relief propelled me, urging me to meet them midway.

I gripped two lethal blades in closed fists
and braced my body against the onslaught of Zombies. They came one
after the next, never letting up, never slowing down.

My knives moved through the air with precise
direction. I slashed one across the cranium, temple to opposite
jawline. The soft bones and gelatin-like flesh made cutting through
easy enough. The Feeder fell at my feet, dead… unmoving… finally at
peace against the disease that had so completely destroyed it.

I stepped over it and met the next one. This
one fought harder. Its black eyes dripped with puss and its mouth
chomped with mindless hunger. It smelled the way they all did,
rotting, corpse-like and putrid.

The smell never ceased to affect me. Right in
the back of the throat. Nothing brought my gag reflex to life like
getting elbows deep in some good old Zombie gore.

I stabbed at its arm, then its neck, just
barely managing to keep it from getting a chunk of me. Finally, I
got a shot to plunge my blade through its eye socket. Once in
position, I twisted. It twitched in response.

I yanked my blade back and kicked it in the
chest as hard as I could. The thing flew back, tripping over
useless feet and landed with a thud in the bed of leaves and
branches. I jumped on it in the next second and stabbed at its
brains again.

Eventually it ceased moving and I felt
satisfied that I’d ridded the Apocalypse of one less Zombie.

People of the world, you’re welcome.

My face was in the dirt before I could
register that something had jumped on my back. The gory dead-undead
lay beneath me and my face pressed into the soft, bloody earth. I
gagged again.

Ugh, this was the worst.

I bucked, trying to dislodge my attacker, but
its teeth had clamped onto my holster. Panic infused the pumping
adrenaline; in another half second it would realize leather didn’t
quite compare to the delicacy of my prime flesh.

I’d lost my knife in the fall, but barely. I
stretched, reaching forward for the blade just beyond my
fingertips. I touched the butt with my middle finger, the breath
squeezing out of me with the pressure on my back.

I… almost… had…

I got it!

Flicking the handle into a firm grip I
blindly thrust my arm back and stabbed as hard as I could, sending
up a short prayer that I would actually hit Feeder and not stab
myself in the back.

How ironic would that be?

I got lucky. The Feeder squealed as the knife
sunk into some part of it I couldn’t see. It flailed and deepened
its cry to a guttural demon shriek that made my ears ring.

But finally I had enough momentum to toss the
Zombie off me. I didn’t hesitate; I didn’t even think about it, I
just let instinct take over. I jumped to my knees and threw myself
forward, landing my blade right between his eyes.

I pinned him to the ground like a dead insect
on a bug board. He lay there with dripping black eyes staring at
nothing.