The Dead Hunger Series: Books 1 through 5 (110 page)

And then it began.  The vapor.  All at once, and in quantities Dave had never seen.  The color was deeper, and for a moment, Dave wondered if it was just because of the dimness of the room below and the moonlight being the only illumination.

No, he thought.  The color was a darker crimson.  Not even pink at all anymore.

As the females began pushing out clouds and clouds of this somehow changed chemical compound, they pushed their way into the group of males like attacking cells in a microscope.

Dave looked at Lisa, who tore her eyes away from the scene below to look back.  “What the hell, Davey?”

“This is like an organized process,” said Dave.  “There is definite planning and structure that led up to this.”

With an outer ring of women surrounding the men, and the four dozen or so who penetrated into the center of the group, the vapor had now become so thick you couldn’t see anything.

What stood out was the silence of the group below.  No moans, no cries.  Just the perhaps imagined sound of the vapor escaping their tear ducts and the shuffling of many feet on the hardwood floor.

Then the vapor reached the open skylight, and the smell hit Dave like a blow to the face.

Lisa began coughing uncontrollably, and Dave’s eyes burned as harshly as his nostrils.  Like sulfur and charred flesh, it filled their nostrils as it billowed from the skylight, directly into their faces.

They both rolled away from the skylight, and lay on their backs, coughing toward the heavens, trying to catch their breath.

“I feel fucking weird,” said Lisa.  “Confused.”

“We got a good dose of that shit,” said Dave.  “Crap.  Didn’t knock us out, though.”

“WAT-5,” said Lisa.  “Probably the only reason.”

“I’m as close as I want to get,” said Dave.  “Don’t think I’ll be walking among any one of ‘em tonight.”

“I want to go home, Davey.  I’m scared to try the ladder.”

“I’ll help you,” said Dave.  “You feel alright?”

“I don’t,” she said.  “You?”

“A little lightheaded,” said Dave, and it was true.  The taste of the vapor still remained bitter and sharp in the back of his throat.

“It’s dissipating,” said Dave, moving back over to the skylight. 

Lisa coughed twice more, and rolled back onto her stomach to look inside the room again.

The room had almost cleared of vapor, and all the males were still on their feet.

Dave felt a tickle, tried to suppress it, but a hacking cough escaped him in a rush.

Of the crowd of probably two hundred zombies below them, only the females stared upward, their dead faces lit by the eerie glow of their own eyes.  The males stared straight ahead.  It was a sight that put fear into Dave Gammon’s heart.  Dead eyes, dilated and fixed – on them.

“What the –” Dave began, then stopped.

Dave realized whatever Hemp had uncovered, it had not been a moment too soon.  The women of this strangely dead life form were somehow changing.  And it appeared they were attempting to either control or change the males, too.  With their vapor.  How, or for what reason, Dave could not speculate.  This was something for Hemp to figure out.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here while the getting is still possible,” said Dave.  “I don’t like this at all.”

“Want to spray them with the urushiol?”

“No,” said Dave.  “We’ll only get those under the skylight, and if they can do what they just did, I have no idea what else they’re capable of.  And hell if I want to find out.”

Dave helped Lisa down the ladder by going down first and making sure her feet were solidly on the rungs before allowing her another step down.  When they got to the bottom, Dave looked at his sister.

“Lisa,” he said, a chill slicing down his backbone.

“What?”

“Your … your eyes,” he said.

She looked up at him, his beautiful sister, her dark, red hair mussed.  “What, Davey?”

“They’re glowing.”

“What do you mean, glowing?  Glowing how?  Are you talking figuratively?”

Dave’s heart began to pound in his chest, so loud it drowned out his own voice.  He shook his head, put his arm around her, and  practically pushed her alongside him, back toward the house.

“No, sis.  Your eyes are glowing crimson.  We need Hemp.  Now.”

Chapter Eight

When the door burst open, Hemp sat bolt upright and dropped his hand on the 9mm beside their bed.

His other hand hit the button on the battery-powered camping light.

He wasn’t surprised to see Charlie sitting up, her breasts exposed, holding her crossbow squarely on Dave Gammon.

“Sorry, guys.  Really, you can stow the weapons.  But Hemp, I need you now.”

Charlie seemed to suddenly realize she was on display, and set the crossbow aside, simultaneously pulling up the sheet. 

Hemp lowered his Glock, too.  The concerned look on Dave’s face made his wife’s prolonged exposure seem unimportant.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It’s Lisa.  We went on a walk, and ran into a warehouse full of fucking females.”

“Jesus, is she okay?” asked Charlie.  “Are
you
okay?”

“I don’t know.  Shit, Hemp.  Her eyes.  They’re … red, like the zombies, but not pink.”

“We’ll see you down there in a minute,” said Hemp.

“Okay.”

Dave closed the door, and Hemp and Charlie swung their legs over the sides of the bed and dressed in seconds flat.  Charlie threw on an oversized night shirt and Hemp a pair of pajama bottoms and a v-neck tee.

They hurried downstairs.  Lisa was sitting on the sofa, fidgeting.  She kept intertwining her fingers and separating them.  She looked up at them when they came into the room.

Hemp was fixated on her eyes, which did, indeed, have the zombie eye glow, only as Dave had said, far more crimson than pink.  Almost blood red.

“Okay, tell me everything and don’t leave anything out,” said Hemp.

Dave told the story, and Lisa jumped in when she apparently thought he was short on accuracy.

“Did they come after you?”

“No,” said Dave.  “We were on the roof, and they were inside.  We never got physically near them.”

“But the vapor got both of you.”

“Did you pass out?” asked Charlie.  “Or feel anything?  Faint?”

Lisa shook her head.  “I choked like hell,” she said.  “And I was lightheaded.  We were both on WAT-5.  That’s probably why.”

Hemp’s mind was churning like a Mixmaster.  He had so many questions forming in his brain at once, he did not know where to begin.

“Hold on,” he said.

Hemp made a beeline to the kitchen, pulled a small  voice recorder from the drawer, and switched it on.  He hit the record button.

“I have to remember this,” said Hemp.  “If I forget a single thing later, it’ll no doubt be important.  Okay, you said the females blended in with the males, whereas before they were somewhat segregated.”

“Yeah,” said Dave.  “The women were all in front and the men were packed in the back.”

“I need a sample of this new vapor,” said Hemp.  “The red variety.  I’ve got a feeling its properties are vastly different than the pink vapor.”

“Why?” asked Charlie.

“Because they’re changing, and this offensive mechanism is evolving, too.  I don’t know how.  But before very recently, we’ve not seen any change in the eye vapor.  It was pink.  Males and females, no difference.  The chemical makeup is obviously different.”

“Do you feel okay now Lisa?” asked Charlie.  “Sick or nauseous?”

“I’m a little shaky,” she said, tucking her hair behind her right ear.  “But other than that, I feel normal now.  Are my eyes still red?”

“Hells yes,” said Charlie.  “Like fucking glow sticks at a Dead concert.”

Lisa smiled.  “Charlie, this is no time to make me laugh.”

“I agree,” said Dave.  “Hemp, what can you do?  Can you do a blood test or something?”

“Tomorrow,” said Hemp.  “We need light.  Fuel of all kinds is in shorter and shorter supply, and besides, nothing is brighter than daylight.”

“Lisa, I want you to stay in Dave’s room with him tonight, okay?” said Hemp.  “I don’t think it’s a good idea that you’re alone, in case you have some sort of reaction.”

“Absolutely.  I insist anyway,” said Dave.  “And I’m tired.  But Hemp, what about me?”

“How do you feel?”

“Okay, but I was doused, too.  What if I’ve been affected in some other way?”

Hemp thought about it for a moment.  The females had been administering the vapor to the males.  That much was clear.  It was no longer being used to subdue their prey; now it was being used for something else.  Some sort of conversion.

“Look,” Hemp began.  “There are two ways to find out what the vapor does.  We track these females and the males with them, and we see what they do.  Or we use my female test subjects – the first place we noticed the variation in vapor color – and we take a sample.  Either way, we monitor you closely, Lisa.  You too, Dave.  We need to make sure you haven’t been permanently altered by the stuff.”

“Altered?” asked Dave, his eyes wide.  “Fucking
altered?
”

Hemp put on a smile that he had no confidence was convincing, and lay a hand on Dave’s shoulder.  “It’s the least likely scenario.  You know me.  I take precautions and I don’t take bloody chances.  I care about both of you like my family, and we will discover what this means for you and for us.  Okay?”

Lisa stood up and Charlie stepped forward to steady her.  “You good, girl?”

“I think so,” said Lisa.  “But I don’t think I want to go back outside to get to our house.”

“Let me get you guys some bedding stuff,” said Charlie.  “These couches are comfortable as fuckall, according to Taylor.”

“Girl’s got a way with words,” said Dave.

Charlie smiled.  “Gem, Trina and I taught her everything she knows.”

“I’ll update Flex and Gem in the morning,” said Hemp. 

“I’ll go get the pillows and blankets,” said Charlie.  “Come up if you need something.  But Dave, could you knock first?”

“Speaking of pillows,” Dave said with a wink.

“Didn’t I hear you were going to California?” asked Hemp.

“You’ll miss me and you know it,” said Dave, smiling.

*****

“So this shit happens and you don’t wake me?” said Flex, incredulous.  “Me and Gem?  What’s that about?”

Flex  patted Bunsen on the head and poured a cup of coffee.  He walked around the table and sat next to Gem.

“There’s nothing we could’ve done last night, babe,” she said.  “Everyone’s still alive.”

“Hand me that radio, would you?”

Gem reached across the table and slid the radio to Flex. 

He hadn’t spoken with Kev or anyone else, and Whit had told him he’d call.  Kev was important in Concord, and if he was injured or dead, the place could have a meltdown.

“Kev, come in.  Whit?  You read?”

The reply came almost immediately.  “Flex?  Damn, it’s good to hear your voice.”

“Ditto that,” said Flex.  “Where are you?”

“At the State House.”

“How the hell did you manage that?  It was practically under siege last time we were there.”

“Urushiol and WAT-5 played a big part.  I’m just glad we had an enormous supply.  We got lots of volunteers here who weren’t willing to concede a goddamned inch to those bastards.”

“Anybody lost?”

“A few.  All related to timing, except one.”

“Who?”

“Janine Chambers.”

Flex thought for a moment.  He’d heard the name but couldn’t pinpoint where.

“Did I know her?” he asked.

Kev came back on.  “Briefly.  She was at the gate when your crew got into town.”

“Shit,” said Flex.  “She must’ve laid low.  Never saw her after that.

“Lots of people were trying to do that.  She went to karaoke over at the ladies’ place sometimes.  But you didn’t, I guess.”

“Hell no.  Not much of a singer.  Ask Trina.  So what’s the plan?  They still coming in?”

“No slowdown, Flex.  A constant stream.  But I’m beginning to wonder where they’re all going.  Seems to be more coming in than we have to kill.”

Hemp walked in the room with Slider on his heels.  Slider walked directly to Bunsen and nosed her face, and was rewarded by a quick face cleaning from his mother.

“Is that Kev?” asked Hemp.

“Yeah,” said Flex.  Got something for him?”

Hemp held out his hand and Flex passed him the radio.”

“We have a situation with the females, Kev, and it could be serious.  We need to get the word out, and we need to do it as fast as possible.  Did you ever get the public address system up and running?”

“What is it, Hemp?  What’s going on?”

Hemp looked at his watch.  “It’s 8:30.  If you have messengers, have them get out to the populated areas of the city and tell everyone we’re having a meeting at the State House at 11:00.  Can you do that?”

“Sure, but – ”

“Kev, the females are changing, and they’re doing it fast.  Urushiol may not be effective on most of them.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Kev asked.

“Wow,” said Gem.  “I’ve never heard him use that word since we met him.”

“Kev, I said it was serious.  Now you know how much.  Tell anyone you can, and have them tell their friends and neighbors.  But the ratz are still out there, too, so WAT-5 without exception.  We also need to be making more of it, so if you can, figure out a team for that.”

“Can’t make it any earlier?  My head is spinning.”

“So are our collective heads,” said Hemp.  “The job of fixing this mess just got a lot harder, but I have lab work to do.  I might be able to come up with more answers before our meeting.”

“Okay.  We’ll see you at eleven.  I can’t believe this.”

Flex took back the radio.  “Neither can we, Kev.  We’ll get our shit together and see you there.  Be careful.”

“Okay.  Say hi to Gem and Charlie.”

Charlie walked into the room.  “You just did!” she yelled.

“He didn’t hear that,” said Flex.

Charlie walked over and grabbed the radio from Flex.  “You just did!” she yelled again.

“Good.  See you later, Charlie,” said Kev.

“Bye, Kev,” she said, turning to Hemp.  “What’s up, babydoll?”

“Meeting at the State House at eleven,” he said.

“What are you going to tell them?”

“The latest discoveries,” he said.  “They’re more dangerous now.  They’ve become at least partially immune to the urushiol.  If the same thing happens with WAT-5, we’re back to square one.”

Gem’s face scrunched up.  “Wait a minute.  The men aren’t immune, so we’re not at square one.”

“No, but if there is some kind of control being exercised over them by the females, they’re all more dangerous than before.”

Dave and Lisa stirred on the couch in the adjacent room.  Flex stood and walked over to them, sitting on the edge of Lisa’s sofa.

“How you feelin’ darlin’?”

She looked at him, and he was sickened to see her eyes were blood red, as Hemp had described to him that morning.  Not as though she’d been on an all night drinking bender, but as though coated with zombie vapor.

A new vapor.

“I’m … I don’t know.  How am I, Flex?”

“I don’t know, girl.  I didn’t see you last night.  Hemp, come here.”

Hemp carried his tea into the room and looked at Lisa.

“Look any worse, Hemp?” asked Dave, who now sat up on his sofa, the blanket over his legs.  His beard was frazzled and his hair stuck out in all directions like a Barbie Doll whose mop had been abused by a five-year-old hair stylist.

“Doesn’t look any better,” he said.  “How do you feel, Lisa?”

“My eyes feel fine.  My head still feels foggy.”

“Will you come into the lab with me?”

“Are … they in there?”

“They are.  I can cover them if you like.”

Lisa thought for a brief moment, then shook her head.  “No.  This is life.  I’ll deal.”

“Good.”

“How do I look?” asked Dave.

“You look like you could use a fuckin’ comb,” said Flex. 

“You’re hilarious.  I’m glad to see the zombie apocalypse hasn’t affected your sense of humor.”

“Fuck yes, it has,” said Flex.  “You should have known me before.  I was goddamned hilarious, 24/7.”

“He never was,” said Gem, draining her coffee.  “Jesus, are those girls going to sleep all day?”

“You don’t have kids, do you?” said Charlie.  “Ever known any?”

“Now
you’re
hilarious,” said Gem.

“Seriously.  8:30 is like the middle of the night for them, and it doesn’t get any better when they’re teenagers.”

“I’m raising my rugrats on the graveyard shift,” said Gem.  “Turn their little lives upside-down.”