Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters (36 page)

              Mark was staring at the dark television screen across the room. I was sorry I said anything but it would’ve been weird if I hadn’t. “He loved pop tarts and chocolate milk,” he said through choked sobs. “He would spend hours in the yard driving his bike off a tiny jump. Pretending he got great air.” He wept for a while after that.

His tears gave way to anger and he started pounding on our side of the door. He screamed and punched the wall until he was hoarse and his knuckles were bloody. When he was done he looked at me with a terrible sadness in his eyes.

“Why would she do that, George? Why would that monster kill my Sam? She said she had to do it so I would do my part. After she did it she asked me why I was crying. I honestly believe she didn’t know.”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Well, Mark, you said yourself, she is a monster working for a delusional organization. I guess she was doing whatever she thought necessary to take me off the game board.” No sooner were those words were out of my mouth when the door shuddered and we heard a loud crack. We both scrambled off the couch in panic. “What else is up here as far as rooms go?”

              “There is a hallway, two bathrooms and three bedrooms plus another staircase which I already blocked off. The only other place we can go is the roof,” Mark shouted. “There is a helipad up there.”

              We shoved as much of the other furniture in front of the battered door and then Mark led me to the hallway. An access portal was built into the ceiling. Mark pushed a button on the wall and the ceiling panel glided back. A ladder slid down and we hurried up to a tiny room on the third level. Mark pushed another button. The ladder receded and the panel closed.

              The small room had a door which opened to the roof. We stepped out into the dark, wintry air and took in the scene two stories below. It was terrifying to see so many undead from my new unconnected perspective. I hadn’t felt fear like this since those first awful weeks stuck inside my home in New Brightown.

              “Looks like we are good and fucked,” Mark said. “I’m really sorry, George.”

              “This is my fault. She doesn’t even know me but somehow used my vanity against me. I played right into her hands.”

              “So what are we going to do?”

              I was only partially listening to Mark at that point. A new sound had registered just over the sound of the zombies in the yard below. “Do you hear that?” I asked as I gripped his shoulder.

              “The zombies? Yes, they are hard to ignore. What are we going to do about them? We can’t stay up here forever?”

              “Not the zombies. The other sound, like an engine?”

              “Sorry, I don’t hear anything,” he said. He closed his eyes to concentrate. “No wait, I do hear something.”

              It was an engine and it was getting louder. We turned to the east and spotted lights twinkling in the night sky as the plane got closer to our position. It appeared to be much lower than it should have been like it was preparing to land.

              “Is that what I think it is?” Mark asked softly.

              “As long as you think it’s a plane,” I said.

              It was a jet, possibly a 757 and it was close enough now that we could see it was billowing a continuous plume of ugly black smoke from one of its engines. For a moment I thought maybe it was going to hit the compound but it screamed by us on a collision course for the interstate. Five seconds after we lost sight of it we heard a tremendous crash followed by a flash of light on the western horizon.

              “You don’t see that every day,” Mark said. “What do you think that was about?”

              “I don’t know,” I replied as I watched the zombies react to this new distraction. “But it might just be our ticket out of here.”

Tessa was freezing. It was partly due to shock but mostly the result of being wet from the snow. For the better part of the last hour she’d been sitting motionless in the dark damp tunnel. She was watching Mailue who was watching the tunnel junction ahead them with the quiet patience of a coiled snake. How the mysterious little woman could see anything in the darkness, Tessa didn’t know.

They were waiting for the creature to reappear from the tunnel he disappeared into. Creature was a funny word to associate with a person but she could think of no other word to describe the being they’d been following. He wasn’t a man any longer and he wasn’t one of ‘them’ at least not fully. No, he was something different, a creature. She could tell by the way he moved and his awful giggle. Not to mention his circus-clown appearance, waxy skin and wormy lips.

              Candy shifted in the sling Tessa was wearing around her belly. She was remarkably quiet for a baby. She hadn’t peeped in several hours as she slept through the harrowing escape from the horde and their adventure getting into the tunnel. Tessa didn’t mind holding Candy, Mailue had saved her life and this was the cost.

              She had been running along with everyone else, doing an awkward hopping jog through knee-deep snow in a chaotic jumble of men and zombies. She tripped and fell into a snow bank and felt sure she was going to die. Then Mailue appeared out of nowhere, the baby strapped to her bosom and swinging a wicked-looking machete with the precision and skill of a ninja mime.

              Tessa had never seen anyone move so fast and silent as she dropped ten zombies in mere seconds and then wrangled Tessa out of the snow and into the shelter of a nearby building. From there they ran block by block through a dizzying zombie gauntlet until they stopped to rest in an alley. At least that’s what Tessa thought they were doing. Instead, Mailue passed Candy into Tessa’s arms and helped her into the sling. She muttered some words Tessa didn’t understand but she got the gist, protect the baby or die.

              Mailue disappeared through a door while Tessa hid behind a large green dumpster. She heard a small commotion coming from inside the building like a group of people fighting and then all was silent. The minutes ticked by and Tessa started to get nervous. She was just about to haul ass out of there when Mailue reappeared at the door carrying a rolled up area rug in her arms. She froze Tessa with an awful stare and said, “Marybeth.”

              “I’m sorry,” Tessa said, but Mailue ignored her. She placed the body on the ground and fished a small, narrow tube out of her shirt were it dangled from the end of a pendant. She put the tube to her lips and blew into it, but no sound came out. She then picked up the carpet-covered body and headed south through the alley toward the river. Tessa stared after her a moment and then hustled to catch up.

              Mailue stopped and repeated the routine with the silver tube a few times until they got down to the riverbank. She laid Marybeth’s body on the water’s edge. Chunks of ice and flotsam floated by like tiny icebergs as Mailue stared up at the night sky. She was silent but Tessa assumed she was praying and also closed her eyes. When she opened them Mailue was pushing the carpet roll into the river. It drifted out a ways but then sank from sight.

              She turned and blew a final time into the tube and then tucked it away inside her shirt. Tessa noticed something streaking in their direction from the east, throwing up a cloud of snow like a miniature tornado. She felt her pulse quicken and got ready to sprint when Mailue put a hand on her shoulder, “Dog,” she said quietly.

              Sure enough the snowy bundle launched itself in the air and landed at their feet spraying them both with water as it shook its coat. Tessa didn’t remember the dog’s name but was happy to see it. Mailue crouched down and began petting the dog. She tilted its head up and Tessa noticed the fur under its muzzle was stained red. She watched as Mailue pulled a small scrap of cloth from a pocket and put it under the dog’s nose. She immediately started growling. Mailue uttered a command to the dog that Tessa didn’t understand. The dog yipped and scampered off a few paces. She stopped and turned back to see if they were following. Mailue tipped her head at Tessa. Time to move apparently, Tessa nodded back and took off after the dog.

              The dog led them to the old movie theater and that’s where they first encountered the creature with the gimpy leg. They watched from the shadows as the tall man limped around abusing a group of the undead huddled by the theater entrance. It was strange, the zombies didn’t attack the creature but he was clearly frustrated with them for some reason. Was this another person like George?

              When he tired of screwing around with the undead, the creature slipped inside and disappeared into the theater. Mailue made them wait a full five minutes before following. With the dog as their guide they followed him into the theater, down into a treacherous basement cellar and into George’s tunnel. She couldn’t believe it, he had been right all along. She almost wished she could’ve been with him when he found it.

              They finally caught up to the creature as he stood at the mouth of a four-way junction in the tunnel as if caught in the throes of indecision. The lantern he carried made his shadowy figure appear larger than it was. Tessa was starting to get irritated listening to the creature smack his lips and giggle as he pondered which path to choose. Eventually he chose the path farthest to the right, stepping carefully over something on the floor before disappearing into the tunnel, silent as church mouse. Tessa wondered how long they would wait before following but Mailue didn’t move. That was fine with Tessa. She had no interest in getting any closer to the creature and besides, Mailue seemed to know what she was doing.

That had been almost an hour ago. Tessa was dozing when Mailue woke her with a tap on the knee. She startled but managed to keep quiet. A small orb of light was bouncing back toward them in the darkness. The creature was coming back to the junction. She could hear him coming as well, it sounded like he was playing the tambourine. She felt Mailue tense up, she didn’t need light to know the little woman was holding her machete getting ready to charge.

When he got back to the junction the creature stopped. He was holding some type of large gun in his arms and balancing the lantern in one hand. He sniffed the air like a wolf and then looked at the weapon in his arms for what seemed like eternity.
Had he seen them?
He raised his head and his ghastly grin took Tessa’s breath away. He raised the lantern slowly to his head as if he knew his gruesome face was the stuff of nightmares. Then the light went out and for a moment all was silent.

“Tee-hee-hee,” the creature giggled, the sound echoed in the tunnel like a laugh track from hell.

Mailue yanked Tessa to her feet and they were sprinting through total darkness back the way they had come. She didn’t know how many steps they had taken before the explosion ripped through the tunnel and burst her eardrums, it may have been ten or it may have been twenty. As she hurtled through the air in a graceless spin her only thought was for the baby. She landed on her back and head with an amazing snap of pain that vibrated through her body like she was a giant tuning fork. For a moment before passing out she knew only pain, darkness and the ringing in her ears.

She came to with someone gently slapping her face and softly cooing. She opened her eyes to see Candy had pulled herself halfway out of the sling and was balanced on Tessa’s chest trying to wake her up. They were still in the tunnel but it was lit with a soft glow. Mailue must have found a light. She tried to move her left arm but screamed as a lightning bolt of pain shot through her shoulder. Something was broken. “Mailue,” she gasped as Candy continued slapping her face.

“Hello, pretty lady,” a strange voice said.

It had a sing-song quality that made Tessa’s blood freeze in terror. In disbelief she leaned on her good arm to sit up. The creature was sitting just a few feet away, the lantern on the ground by his side. He stroked the barrel of the machine gun salaciously as he stared at her. There was no sign of Mailue or Mandy.

“I thought you’d never wake up,” he said with a growl. Tessa screamed, Candy started crying and the Creep laughed.

The End

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