The Dead Hunger Series: Books 1 through 5 (104 page)

“I operate.”

“On what?”

“I have to open up their skulls.  Look at their brains.”

“Well, slap my ass and call me Charlie,” said Charlie.  “That sounds like some freaky shit.  Let’s go.”

“I’m serious, sweetheart,” said Hemp.

“So am I, darling,” said Charlie.

“Go.  I’m going to go up and get the girls.  Meanwhile, I’ll stay on the radio.” 

Gem checked her watch, agitated.  “It’s going to be dark in a couple of hours.  I need them back here.”

“Hemp, I’m running up to say hi to the girls.  I’ll meet you in the lab.”

“Be careful on the way over, Charlie,” said Hemp.  “You’ve got three more hours of protection – if all is as it should be.”

“Let’s assume it is, but I’ll be extra careful anyway,” said Charlie.

“I need a fresh bottle of urushiol,” said Hemp. 

“Lined up on the fireplace mantle,” said Gem, pointing.

Hemp walked over and grabbed two of them.  “I’ll see you over there, babe.  Take care, Gem.  Let us know right away when you get hold of Flex and Dave.”

“Will do, Hemp.  Good luck.  I hope you’re wrong as hell.”

Hemp looked up at Gem as she stood on the stairs, looking down.  “Me, too, Gem.  I’ve never wanted to be mistaken more than right now.”

When Hemp closed the door, Gem looked at Charlie and took her hand as they ascended the stairs. 

“Charlie, do you get the feeling that nothing is as it was?”

Gem let go of Charlie’s hand and used it instead to pull along the banister railing as she climbed.  She reached the top of the stairs and stopped.  “You know, C?  We wanted to stay here.  Have our babies and … shit.  Was it a stupid dream?  Delusional?”

“I have no delusions, Gem,” said Charlie.  “You are my family and the day I’d leave you or let you go anyplace without me is the day I don’t want to live anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Gem. 

“I’m talking about the same thing, Gem.  You’re saying that Concord was supposed to be our safe harbor, and it’s not turning out to be that way.  This place had an advantage in that the gas was trapped under the granite and many of its residents didn’t turn.  But if every fucking zombie in the surrounding states is heading this way, then I’m heading out.  And I’m not leaving without my family.”

“Gunpoint won’t be necessary,” said Gem.  “I might have to use one on Flex, but for me, no.”

“Good.  Now let’s go see our kids.”

Gem pulled Charlie into her arms and held her tightly.  Their stomachs pushed together, and Gem was pretty certain that the babies just kicked one another.

“Did you feel that?”

“I did!”

“Their first fight.”

“It was a tie.”

“Agreed,” said Gem. 

The door was open, and the girls were lying on their backs on two beds, staring up at the ceiling.  Trina’s head turned when the women walked into the room.

“Hi, Mommy.  Hi, Charlie,” said Trina.  “Is it dinnertime?”

“Not yet,” said Gem.  “Just checkin’ on you.”

“We’re fine,” said Taylor.  “It was kind of a scary morning.”

“It was,” said Charlie.  “But not that scary.  We’ve got protections.  Better than anyone else in the whole world.”

“Thanks to Uncle Hemp?” asked Trina.

“Exactly,” said Gem.

Charlie sat on Taylor’s bed and she sat up and smiled at her.  “You look tired, Mommy.”

Charlie put a hand to her heart and smiled at
Taylor.  “Oh, Tay,” she said.

“What?”

“When you call me that … it breaks my heart.”

Concern filled
Taylor’s face.  “Why?”

“Because I loved your mommy so much,
Taylor.  And I know you did, too.”

Taylor
nodded.  “I did.  But Charlie, you’re my mommy now, because I asked you and you said yes.  You and daddy said yes.”

“I know, but …”

“I told you I wanted you to take care of me, and I wanted to live with you and daddy.”

Charlie took
Taylor by the face with both hands and pulled her cheek against her own.  She kissed her cheeks, her forehead and nuzzled her nose.  “I never thought I could feel this way, Tay.  I love you like I’m going to love this little one.  Every bit as much.”

Taylor
’s eyes were squeezed closed, and on her lips was a smile.

Gem watched, smiling.   Unconsciously, she had pulled Trina into her arms, and just held her there until Trina pulled back and looked into her eyes.

“Is anything wrong, mommy?”

Gem shook her head.  “No.  It’s right.  Really right.”

“You’d tell me, right?  I mean I know stuff is wrong, with the ratz and the zombies and stuff, but you’d let me know if it was wronger, right?”

“More wrong, I think,” said Gem. 

“It’s more wrong?”

“No, that’s the right way to say it.  Not wronger.”

“I’m not worried about fucking English right now, mommy.  I’m worried about you.”

Gem smiled and nodded.  “I know.  And yes, you’ll be the first to know if there’s a problem.”

“I think a snack sounds good.  Do we have any Twinkies left?”

“You liked the last ones you had?” asked Gem.

“Yeah, they tasted good.  Just like always.”

“Thank God for preservatives,” said Charlie.  “You guys have your Twinkie fix and I’ll take two to go over to the lab.”  Charlie gave Taylor another squeeze and stood, then walked over to Trina. 

“Hug time for me,” she said.

Trina jumped up and stood on the bed, wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck.  “I love you, Charlie.”

“I love you more,” she said into Trina’s neck.

“That’s crazy talk,” said Trina. 

“Twinkie race!” shouted Gem, running out of the room and for the stairs.  Trina and Taylor hit the ground running, and bolted past Gem, flying over the steps as they passed her.

By the time Gem and Charlie got to the bottom, they heard the wrinkling of Twinkie packages. 

Charlie stuffed two in her pockets, grabbed another urushiol bottle and said good bye to the other girls.

*****

Lisa sat, her back to the wall.  She couldn’t believe it.  They’d had full magazines all around her in the car, and she’d gotten out of the truck with just what was in her gun.  She had expected to get out for just a few minutes while they found a Jeep with a full battery charge.  The oncoming horde wasn’t expected, though it might have been.

That was her fault. 

She looked at the ear plugs on the floor by her legs.  That was her fault, too.  She’d had them in because the gunfire was rattling her brain.  The fluorescent yellow plugs muffled the sound when right beside her, and blocked out distant noises.

Like people calling to her.  Telling her to stop.

She popped the magazine.  There was one round in there, and one in the chamber.  Not near enough.  The urushiol bottle was near empty.

A crash came in the distance, followed by several more.

She pushed the button.  “Dave, Flex!”

“We hear you, sis,” said Dave.  “Did you hear that?”

“Yes,” she whispered, though she had been told the zombies couldn’t hear.  “What was it?”

“Look,” said Dave.  “We’re making our way in.  See if you can get somewhere up high or something.  Somewhere they can’t get.”

Despite her fear of making noise, a rat scurried nearby and Lisa sprayed two quick sprays of the urushiol and screamed at the same time.

“What?  Lisa?  You okay?” said Dave, frantic.

“Yeah, sorry.  I just saw a rat.”

“Okay, can you get somewhere safe?  Fast?”

“Why, Dave … what the hell was that noise?”

“It was the sound of a shitload of them getting inside the building.  Are you deep inside or close to the entrance?”

“I walked about five minutes when I got in.  It’s a big building.”

“Get on the second floor or a catwalk or something.  Get where you can see them before they can see you.”

“Okay.  Hurry, Davey.  Please.  I’m scared.”

“I know,” said Dave.  “We’re coming.”

Lisa clipped the radio back on her jeans and stood.  Her legs were cramped, and took a few seconds to regain flexibility. 

Light filtered in through some gaps in the building, but just where was not clear.  There were no windows that she noticed.  No skylights that she’d seen.  Lisa walked, ever conscious of the shuffling advancement of the unseen horde.

She wanted them to remain unseen and nowhere near her.  Lisa hurried faster, away from the sounds of the advancing, ashen creatures following her scent.  Their distant moans were eerily haunting, and she could almost envision the odor drifting from her body, like a jet stream lingering behind a plane that has long departed from the sky, a beacon, drawing the dead, hungry masses to her.

A stairwell appeared on her right.  Lisa mounted the diamond mesh steps and moved up at speed.  At the top a small chain dangled with a sign.  She lifted the chain and pulled it across the top, clipping it on the other side.  The sign said “RESTRICTED.”

That ought to do it,
she thought. 
They’ll read that and turn right around.

As she looked down, they came into view.  The noise grew louder and louder, and suddenly they were everywhere.

A gunshot rang out in the distance.  Then a cacophony of gunshots.  Rapid fire. 

The creatures below took no notice of the noise.  As Lisa stood looking down, her body frozen in place, afraid to move, forty or so dead, blistered and horrific faces seemed to lift at once, looking up at her.

Vapor began wafting from several of them; the true hunters who had eaten recently and could produce the gas from their tear ducts for the sole purpose of rendering their victims easier to consume.

Lisa ran along the catwalk and came to a metal door at the end.  She pulled on it.  Locked.

The zombies mounted the stairs.  Lisa had to run back by the chain she’d hooked to go in a different direction.

No use delaying.  She ran.  Her feet rang against the metal and the entire thing shuddered and reverberated as she moved.  She took the right turn, passed the group advancing upward, and found two paths.  She might not have the option to make a third choice.

She went left this time.  There was another door, but it was farther away.  She could look down over the railing and clearly see the end of the pack of zombies who had caught her scent.  In the end there had to be sixty of them.

More gunfire echoed through the building.  Lisa looked back down at the stairs. 

Full.  Pushing against one another, turning to watch her as they scrambled up, up.  The top ones had not yet reached the chain, but in two more steps they would.

Lisa shook off her fear and ran toward the distant door.  She reached for the knob and turned it, finding it free.  As she pushed the door open, she ran headlong into a man’s chest. 

She screamed as she bounced away from the thing’s clawing hands, landing hard on her back on the metal grating.  She turned her head to see two of the zombies make it clear of the chain and turn in the right direction to reach her.

The thing that stood before her was not a live man; he was a dead man with half a face but all of his desire for her flesh.  His fingers were rotted off at the first knuckle, and as she looked down at his shoeless feet, she was shocked to see nearly every bone exposed, with bits of shredded flesh clinging to them.

The urushiol bottle had flipped from her belt when she crashed into the creature, but it had landed behind her.  She scrambled back and grabbed the bottle, and as she turned he was right behind her.  She held it out and sprayed two quick pumps into his face.

His tattered hands clawed at his eyes and mouth, tearing away yet more of his dead skin, and Lisa saw an opportunity.  She leaned back and raised her right leg like a cop ready to kick in a meth lab door.  She quickly extended her leg, and sent the zombie flying over the low, metal railing, plummeting atop his brothers and sisters below.

Scrambling back to her feet, she again ran for the door, this time the urushiol bottle held in front of her.  It held perhaps three or four more sprays before it sucked air.

She hadn’t brought a headlamp, and it was darker in this next room.  If something did lurk there, she would not see it.  The clanging on the catwalk grew louder as her shambling stalkers grew closer.  She slammed the door behind her and was relieved to find a knob lock, which she quickly turned.

Lisa leaned against the door and tried to breathe.

And listen.

*****

“We can’t get in that way, Flex,” said Dave.  “Too many of them to kill them all.  Some might already be inside.”

They watched as more rotters pushed through the door, flooding inside the building.  Flex knew their sense of smell, or food, or radar, or whatever the hell it was would lead them to Lisa in no time.