The Dead Hunger Series: Books 1 through 5 (92 page)

“Crazy, but true. 
Billy went to get something, but as soon as he’s back, we need to move, and fast.  The only ones we’ll need to worry about now are Carville’s men.  That’s him over there,” I said, pointing.  “His daughter killed him.”

They all followed my gaze, but nobody looked for long. 
Billy hobbled up holding a big, bulging bag.  One that I assumed contained every bloody CD ever compiled or containing any Sex Pistols song anywhere.  He opened it up and showed it to Charlie.

She dug in the bag briefly, then looked up at Billy.  “Did you help my guy?” she asked, winking at me.

Billy nodded his head.  “Wanted to.  I never hurt him.  I like the professor a lot.”

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks.” 

Billy offered a tired smile.  “You’re welcome.  Hope you like the music.”

“I already love the music.”  She turned to me.  “Babe, let’s go.”

Charlie, my beautiful wife, lead the way back through the door and into the stairwell.

We climbed.  There were no humans encountered.

Because it was very likely that they had encountered the hopelessly ravenous creatures of Code Z protocol.

****

Ahead, by the open front doors,
Hemp took the lead.  Several of the walking dead creatures milled about in search of human flesh.  Six of them feasted on Gary’s body, on their knees, faces buried in his carcass like livestock feeding from a trough.  Zombie rats had made their way in, too, and covered Rory’s body, pushing and melding into it like some sick art form.

I didn’t feel bad for him.  He’d turned into the worst kind of human being; worse than the zombies themselves, who only responded to their hunger.

For Rory, it had been about power.  And now he was food.

I turned away at the same time my husband did, both of us freeing ourselves from the grotesque scene. 
Hemp never broke his stride.  He walked until the monsters were all around him, and he stopped and looked back at us.

Nobody was going any closer.

“It’s safe.  Come on.  I’m not sure how much time I have.”

“I can’t,” said Serena.  “I’m scared.”

Tony looked at her.  “You’re scared?  Serena, I’ve never seen you scared since I met you.”

“You’ve never seen me show it,” she said, staring at the zombies behind my husband.

“Okay,” Hemp said.  “I’m only doing this once, so watch carefully.”

“Baby, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Watch, but don’t worry.”  He smiled.

My genius husband turned and eyed a zombie who wasn’t currently feeding.  He went to the creature and took it by the arm.  He pulled it toward us.

It allowed itself to be led toward us, no less willing than a miniature horse at a pony ride.  It was once a tall, thin man, now with half his face gone, only one finger on his right hand, and the others blackened nubs.  Hemp pulled him along and the blank-faced creature stood there for a moment wavering unsteadily, before wandering away again.

There was little to none of the scarlet vapor because they hadn’t fed.  Apparently Carville ordered his family members taken very good care of.  These might have been former business partners.

“Satisfied?”

“Freaked out,” said Flex.

“I’ll take that,” said Hemp.

We moved forward as a group.  At one point, just after we walked through the doors, there were twenty or more walkers surrounding us. 

As we passed through the bulk of them, Dave turned to me and said, “That awkward moment when you’re walking through a horde of zombies intent only on eating brains, and they don’t give you a second glance.”

Everyone gave a nervous laugh, but Dave laughed so loud I think it scared the shit out of everyone but me.

I shook my head.  I wanted Hemp to get to know this crazy dude better.

After we made our way through the putrid smelling crowd of zombies and were well on our way to the waiting vehicles, I stopped and pulled on Flex’s shoulder.

“Wait here, guys.”

I felt their eyes watching me as I walked to the Crown Vic where Nick sat inside, his eyes wide and a smile on his face.  I slapped the hood.

“Pop the trunk, would you, Nick?”

He did.

I reached in and pulled out Hemp’s MP5.  Lifting two more magazines for it from the trunk, I closed it and went back to the group.

“We’re forgetting something.”  I nodded at the milling zombies.  “They’re never gonna heal.  They are what they are.  It’s not enough to walk through them.  Not everyone can do that shit.”

We helped the injured Billy into the car, where he gave a grateful sigh as he sank into the back seat.

Flex nodded.  Tony had stopped to listen too, as had Gem and Dave. 

We lined up and walked back toward them.  Serena fell in, too.

Raising our weapons, we walked forward in a goddamned firing line and let off round after round of head-high blasts, exploding the brains into volcanoes of tissue and finally, piles of the now dead undead.

It was our version of No Child Left Behind.

No Zombie Left Alive.

When the world once again fell silent, and the sun began to rise in the east, scores of dead – really dead – zombies lay all around us.  The smell was horrific, but some how, to me anyway, the air had never smelled sweeter.

Then we heard a guttural, screaming growl from off to the east.  It sounded more prehistoric than any other sound I’d ever heard in my life, and so inhuman that my brain had nothing in its memory banks that would allow me to place it with any confidence.

I ran toward it, my crossbow up and loaded.  I realized everyone was with me, using the last bit of their strength, for if I were running toward this horrible sound, we would all run there together to silence it forever.

We rounded the corner of Carville’s great mansion to see the Sikorsky helicopter that had carried Hemp away from us.  Hanging from the door was a man in a flight suit.

He was missing both his arms, and was in the process of losing a leg while Molly the gorilla’s razor sharp teeth were clamped over his head, scream-chewing him into pulp.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” said Dave.  He ran toward them, and when the others started to follow, I put an arm up.

“He can handle it, guys.  He really can.”

We were sixty yards back and when Dave stopped and held out the silenced Walther, we heard very little except the horrific screams of the abnormal gorilla in the throes of death, its dark crimson blood aspirating in short bursts with each squeeze of the trigger.

Dave saved the last bullet for the pilot, who was probably already dead.

Now there was true silence.

I walked to Hemp and put my arm through his.  We got back to the  vehicles and took our places.  Gem drove her Crown Vic and Flex was just fine riding shotgun.

Hemp and I rode in the back seat
, not taking up enough room to disrupt Billy, who’d fallen fast asleep.

I was
curled up contentedly beside my husband, my head on his chest, my hand stroking his neck.

I was home already, no matter how long the drive ahead.

We left Shelburne, Vermont an hour later, after fueling up and dropping Tony off at ZFZ4.  Serena asked if she could come with us, and we said she was absolutely welcome.  There was a pretty good society forming in Concord, and they would need good people.  She rode in Flex’s truck.

A few moments later I heard the beginning of God Save The Queen.  Gem turned and smiled at me over the front seat. 

I love that chick with everything I got.

We don’t know what happened to the rest of Carville’s team.  We didn’t really care.
  They no longer had the protection of their wealthy benefactor.

Billy snored inaudibly, below the cranked volume of the Sex Pistols, all the way back home.

****

Epilogue

We arrived back in
Concord to streets that were, for the moment, clear of ratz and reanimated dead folk, and a cheering crowd that had gotten word of our return the moment we cleared the outermost roadblocks.

It was good to be home again.  When we got to the state house, I believe the entire town was there to greet us.

I walked in with Charlie on my arm, never happier.  Not that I can recall, anyway.  Reeves was the first to approach me, and to my surprise, he pulled me into a hug.

“Hemp, I am glad to see you again, my friend.”

I returned the gesture.

“Sure feels like longer than a week,” I said.  “So much happened.”

“And a lot learned, I understand.”

“Dave radioed ahead,” he said.  “You’ve made a breakthrough, I understand.”

I told him a little about it, and said we’d set up a lab capable of producing it in huge quantities.  The crowd around us listened intently, because this was the most important news since the zombie apocalypse had turned everybody’s world upside-down.

We didn’t spend much time at the state house.  Vikki Solms, Victoria Hansen, and Kimberly Treloar came to see me, all passing out some of the tightest hugs I’d felt, but they didn’t limit them to me. 

They had all been very concerned for Dave and Charlie when they’d set out to find me.  If pressed, I’d agree it was a foolish thing to do, but at the same time I was so grateful they did.

Betty Kapla, whom I had not seen in some time, walked into the grand room, the fireplace blazing, and smiled at me.

“Do you sing, Hemp?” she asked.  “I’ve opened a little bar in town, and we’ve got karaoke on Thursdays.  Not late.  It’s still safer during the daytime.”

“I’m afraid I might be coming.  I’d fancy a bit of Tom Petty if you think you can pull it off.”

Betty winked at me, her shoulder length hair bouncing as she walked away.

And finally, the greatest joy of my return – besides my Charlie – came running up to me.  She held Bunsen’s leash loosely, and dropped it and stopped as Bunsen charged toward me and Charlie.

I was certain Bunsen was going to knock us over, for she practically flew the last few feet, her giant paws bounding, her giant tongue flapping in the air.  When she got to us, she stood up on her hind legs, towering over us, and kissed both me and Charlie as though she could not force herself to stop if she’d wanted to.

Trina stood off, a huge smile on her face. 

“Here, Bunsen!  Come here!”

She slapped her thighs, and the ever-obedient Great Pyrenees bounded back toward her and sat.

Then Trina ran to us, and I vaguely realized she was wearing tap shoes or something, as she threw her arms around my neck and climbed me like a tree, screaming, “Uncle Hemp!  I missed you so much!  Where in the world were you, mister?”

She pressed her cheek against mine and Charlie leaned in, too, intertwining her arms with ours.  We all pulled back to look at one another.

Her little face bounced from mine to Charlie’s, and she finally forgot her smile just enough to allow her mouth to form the words, “You’re a fuckin’ sight for sore eyes!”

Charlie and I laughed.  “Who taught you that?” I asked, my face hurting from smiling so hard.

“If I tell ya, I’ll have to kill your ass,” she said.  “But I’m glad you’re back, Uncle Hemp.  So glad!  Do you think I’m gangsta?  Tay says I’m totally gangsta.”

“I don’t know gangsta from metal, little girl.  But you be just what you want to be, just as long as you keep on making me smile, okay?”

She bounced her head, and I put her down.

Trina ran back to Bunsen.  “She’s gotta go take a crap,” she said cheerily.  “I’ll be back.

Charlie and I waved to her and dropped back down to the soft sofa, both releasing a big sigh.  It really felt good to be home.

We both spotted her at once.

Taylor.

She wore a green dress, just above the knees on her long, little girl legs. 
Taylor walked slowly up to us, her face serene and beautiful, her red hair gleaming, and her profile so like her mother’s that I think both Charlie and I were both without words.

She pointed between us, and we slid apart.  She sat down and curled her arms around ours.

Holding us tightly, she said, in the tiniest of voices, “I missed you both so much.”

“Really,
Tay?” said Charlie.

Taylor
looked up to meet her eyes.  She nodded.

“How are you doing, kiddo?” I asked.

“It was hard without you here,” she said.  “I’m not gonna lie.”

Charlie smiled at me and leaned forward, planting a kiss on the girl’s head.  “We missed you, too,
Tay.”

“I want to ask something,” she said.  “And I don’t want you to be afraid to say no.”

“I don’t know that I could say no to you, Tay.  You’re one of my favorite people in the world,” said Charlie.

“That goes double for me,” I said.  “What is it, babe?”

She stood and turned around, facing us.  She took both of our hands.  “I love you.  Both of you.  And I think you love me.  I feel it.”

Tears sprung from Charlie’s eyes.  “Oh,
Taylor, I love you so much.  I was so sorry I didn’t have the words to make your sadness go away.  And then I left, and –”

“You brought him back, Charlie.  I knew you would, and that’s why it was okay,” she said. 

So mature, this one.  So wise for a young soul.  I was mesmerized.  “What is it, Tay?  Go ahead.”

“I want to live with you,” she said.  “I want you to raise me, to teach me how to be brave and good, and . . . well, and everything.”

“Do you really want that?  I think we both thought you wanted to stay with Trina, Gem and Flex.”

“Staying with them is just staying with them,” she said.  “I love them, but staying with you would be like having . . . I don’t know,
you know
.”

Charlie dropped to her knees and pulled
Taylor in for a long, deep hug.  “I do know, baby,” she said.  “And the answer is yes,” she whispered.   “As Trina would say, the answer is fuck yes!”

I joined the embrace and within another hour, all our hellos having been dolled out and accepted, we went home.

I slept for two days.

Okay.  Charlie was there, so it was on and off, so to speak.

****

There are a lot of things I have to investigate.  There have been so many observations we’ve made and questions that must be answered – for everyone’s sake.  I’m sending out regular transmissions over the short wave with regard to my area of expertise, and trying to get more scientists to come to
Concord.  Please, allow me to list some of my questions, and what I intend to work on.

1.
                   
The relationship between the zombies and the ratz:

This one I’m not sure about.  When we were in the cemetery and the rats had burrowed into the graves, the mystery of why they did this at all has left me perplexed, as I’m certain it has you.  Were they intentionally trying to free the human zombies?  What is the relationship?  Did the ratz feel a kinship?  Do they feel anything at all besides hunger?  Do they possess an ability to recognize their own? 

Did they perhaps mistake what they sensed in the ground to be more of themselves, and if so, why would they work to free them?  Or, and this is the answer I’m leaning toward until I discover something else, did they merely feel the vibration of something below moving, shifting, clawing, and believe it to be food?

I need to understand this.

2.
                  
The ability of the zombies to strategize: 

We were flanked in the church in Alabama, I’m almost certain of it.  The zombies broke into three distinct groups to come at us from three directions.  I haven’t seen it very often, but I’ve not been able to arrange any structured tests to confirm or debunk the idea.

The wafers will allow this.  We can walk among them for a time, lead them, even position them.  We can, under highly controlled guinea pig testing, create scenarios where they can wage an attack.  This can all be very helpful to those who don’t have the capacity to produce WAT-5.  This is the working name for the wafers I’ve created.

It stands for Walk Among Them - 5 hour.

3.
                  
The WAT-5 wafers themselves:

I need to learn exactly what part of the endocrine system is affected by the wafers - whether it resides in the pituitary gland or elsewhere.  I need to understand how the changes are being perpetuated – is it making us smell like them, or is it entirely masking our scent?   It wouldn’t even matter, however if I ever want to create a product with a longer term effect, or one that is even permanent, this is a crucial question that requires an answer.

There is also the possibility of building up a tolerance.  Perhaps after a time, they will no longer be effective – or perhaps the effects could become permanent.  I would call that product WAT-L – for lifetime.

Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass.  Yes, that was a bit of Charlie.  She is standing here as I write this, and suggested that bit.

4.
                  
We need to learn more about the gas, how it comes out, and if it’s changing::

The gas coming from the earth is, in my opinion, the cause of this widespread, human and rat metamorphosis.  Ultimately, we need to learn whether the gas is emitting from the core equally in all directions, or if it is like a bulging disk in your spine, pushing out in one direction, affecting one place more than another.  Perhaps there are areas of this country, or the world, where it is not prevalent, and in fact may be entirely non-existent.  But for how long?  If the gas doesn’t leave the atmosphere, and simply accumulates, how long before millions more convert?  Is the gas staying the same, or is it gaining or losing potency?  Will there be a time when it is entirely harmless?  Or is there a time when it intensifies so much it kills all of us outright, urushiol immunity or not?  So many questions.  Shitloads of time.

Thanks, Charlie.

5.
                  
Enhance and focus on our HAM radio communications:

We’ve started a list of people out there – radio operators all – which has grown quite extensive.  We’ve tossed the typical HAM operator handles and we’re just going with names.  We want to know who these survivors are, and where they are located.  So far, we’ve found people in over eight countries, including Canada, Mexico, Russia and Australia. 

China
is quiet so far.

There are men, women and children out there broadcasting, and we’ve written down their names, locations, and numbers of survivors.  We’ll continue to do so.

Some we heard from initially, and have not heard from again.  One group in Guadalajara, Mexico was being overrun as we spoke with them on the HAM. 

Horrifying.

And that’s my list so far.  We must learn all we can from everyone we contact., and pass along survival information that we’ve obtained.  We’re not the only people making discoveries, though I would guess that we’ve made some of the most important since this whole nightmare began. 

Where, you may ask, is the largest enclave of survivors we know about so far?  Right here in
Concord. 

So far.  But we must keep looking, because if this is
indeed more of a bulge than an equal distribution of gas, some areas may have been spared the conversion of the living and the reanimation of the dead.  If the component leaves the atmosphere as helium does, it may never affect these safe zones with any significance.   And if that’s true, these are the places people need to go.

We will continue to document all of this for future generations.

****

Several things happened over the coming months.  The society in Concord had grown, and it had grown safer.  I had re-created the wafer recipe, and now had a constantly running manufacturing facility.  We even had zombies – four of them – that we kept and fed well for their vapor.  I think it was a fair trade, and I also believe it was the first excellent reason for keeping them alive.

Bollocks.  It was the only good reason.

As I know Charlie mentioned in her portion of the Chronicles, Trina and Taylor got in a bit of trouble, but it all worked out.  Not with the zombies.