The Regulators - 02 (20 page)

She finally changed her position on top of me by lifting up
her upper body. The good thing about this was that her movement freed my knife
hand. The bad thing was that she had moved in order to strike me. Her fists
began to rain down upon me, one after another. Fortunately for me, most of them
ended up on my helmet.

It was hard to keep my wits about me under the onslaught,
but my hand once again found her neck as she came forth with another attempt at
my face. The skin of her grayish neck began to peel away under my glove.

The second attempt to bite me actually worked in my favor.
It gave me the brief moment I needed to gather my senses and go on the attack.
I started to stab at her side beneath the ribcage. I realized that it wouldn’t
kill her, but I was hoping to at least distract her enough to allow me a chance
of escape.

It didn’t really work.

The zombie woman barely even registered the fact that I was
stabbing her. The fluids in her body began to gush out of the wounds I was
creating. Following all the fluids were a number of internal organs as well. No
doubt they were pushed out due to all the pressure in her abdomen from the
bloating. It was a disgusting mess. The handle on my knife was actually
becoming rather slippery

When she pulled back to start punching at my head again, I
finally saw my best chance. I pulled my blade free of her side and grabbed the
rope around her neck with my free hand. I pulled her back towards my face. The
sudden motion on my part knocked her slightly off balance and as she came
towards me, I brought my knife up under her chin.

The kill was instant. My weapon pierced from under her chin
all the way to her brain. The poor woman collapsed on top of me.

I pushed her off immediately and got to my feet. The
adrenaline was coursing through my veins. My legs again felt weak, and my hands
were shaking. Actually, my entire body was shaking.

I didn’t know whether to let loose with a triumphant Tarzan
type yell or rush to the bathroom and get sick. The situation was just way too
close.

I almost died.

I guess it’s one thing to shoot them from somewhat of a
distance, but it’s another thing entirely to lock yourself into mortal combat with
one of them and emerge as the victor. I made up my mind. I felt sick. My head
began to swim, and I sat down on the edge of the bed.

That’s when I noticed Merrick sitting there as proper as you
please not far from the remains of the zombie. She had been attacking the
woman’s legs as I struggled with her upper half. Merrick had done about as much
damage as I had. The woman’s right leg had pretty much been severed at the knee
and her left was badly mangled. She must have been making a lot of noise as she
savaged the woman’s legs. Merrick always makes a lot of noise when she attacks,
but I never even heard the smallest growl.

“
Why do you think that
was
?”

I think I was so caught up in trying to survive that I just
pretty much blocked out the world. I ended up sitting on that bed for hours. I
was still sitting there when the sky began to darken outside. I hadn’t heard
from Jax. I hadn’t heard anything from anyone. I was alone in hostile
territory. I could still hear the moans of the living dead echoing around from
outside the house.

I wasn’t terribly safe. Jaxon had broken the back door to
the house. For all I knew, there were already some unwanted guests entering the
home in search of a living meal. The room was rather dark when I actually heard
the creaking of the back door. The only light available was coming from a
window in the bathroom.

I didn’t know where my knife was.

I didn’t want to use my firearms. The noise was way too loud
even with silencers, and I didn’t carry a 9mm on my hip like Jaxon. I carried a
.45. It was a hell of a gun, but it didn’t silence anywhere near as well as
Jaxon’s Sig. I needed my knife.

I frantically began to search the floor. Merrick was wagging
her tail as her gaze shifted between me and the door to the room we were in.
She knew we weren’t alone. I felt the icy chill of fear begin to crawl up my
spine. My stomach began to churn acid as I searched and searched for my knife.
It was the only weapon I could even begin to fathom using. I needed my knife.

I heard footsteps approaching me.

I heard the soft click as the doorknob was gently turned.
Merrick began to whine, and suddenly, my hand closed upon the handle of my
knife. I could feel the smoothness of the wood through my glove. I could feel
the metal of the guard and finally, I felt the heft of the weapon as I lifted
it in my hand.

This is funny, but I actually remember this quite well. I
stood up with that big knife in my hand and felt like I had just pulled
Excalibur out of the stone. I felt that powerful. I finally understood why
Jaxon was such a bladed weapons buff. They made you feel like a warrior. I knew
my blade was good. I knew my blade would not fail me. I had finally become a
warrior. Was I still afraid? Yes, I was, but not as much as the enemy lurking
behind the door was going to be.

I moved across the room as the door pushed slowly open. A
crouched figure entered the room. I would destroy it easily. I could destroy it
easily. My enemy was only one lonely figure, and it would take legions to bring
me down.

I swung my blade towards its head.

I have no idea what happened after that. Suddenly, my entire
arm was numb. An almost electric pain was jolting around near my armpit and I
was swung violently forward and turned around all at the same time. My back
should have slammed into the wall, but I was stopped inches before the impact.
Again I was driven forward until I fell forward onto the softness of the bed. I
had a brief moment of confusion as I awaited the final act that would surely
end my life, but it never came. Instead, I felt powerful legs wrap around my
torso and I felt the snakelike squeeze as those same legs tightened around me.
Finally, I heard the familiar laughter as my attacker began to spank me.

“
I’m sorry, did you
say spank
?”

Oh yeah, Jaxon was having a great time. He had me face down
on the bed underneath him and he was spanking the hell out of me while cackling
the entire time. I knew it was him the moment he tied his legs around me. I’ve
wrestled with him before. He said he was teaching me how to defend myself, but
in reality I think he just enjoyed bullying me.

I found myself
laughing out loud at poor Georgie’s expense. All the suspense leading up to a
massive spanking. I felt bad. I really did. I just couldn’t help but laugh
.

I’m sure it sounds pretty funny to hear, but if you were me
during that situation, well, it wasn’t really funny. The spankings only stopped
to be replaced by a drum beat on my helmet as the bastard continued to laugh at
me. The real insult came when I felt Merrick begin to hump my leg.

“Okay,” I complained. “Okay, I’m done. Let go of me.”

“Hold on,” Jaxon said. “Merrick isn’t finished.”

Fortunately for me, he was joking. He released me and
scooped up Merrick into his arms.

“Did Georgie take care of you baby?” Jaxon said to his dog.
“He better have, or we’ll beat him up again won’t we?”

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked. “Do you have any
idea what I’ve been through?”

Jaxon didn’t even look around the room as he answered me. He
had probably taken in the entire scene within a second of entering.

“My first guess is some weird type of orgy,” Jax said. “But
I’m going to be just fine if you never share the details with me.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” I snarled. “Now where have you been?”

“I was leading the zombies away from your hyperventilating
ass, or did you already forget how I totally saved you earlier?”

“You left me here.”

“Because you couldn’t run anymore. I thought you were going
to have a heart attack on me. Hell, I thought you were already dead. Why didn’t
you answer your radio?”

“Nobody called me on it.”

“The hell we didn’t. I must have called you a billion times.
I was very worried about my poor Merrick being left with your candy ass, but I
thought you might need a bodyguard.”

I then remembered that I had turned off my earpiece. I
wanted to turn it back on, but the humiliation would be more than I could even
think about bearing. I would wait to turn it back on when Jaxon wasn’t paying
attention.

“What happened to the helicopters?” I asked. “I heard you
radio in for them.”

“I just needed them to point out a clear escape route. Man,
this area is seriously hostile.”

“I don’t get where they all came from.” I said. “That was
another trap, wasn’t it? One second the street was deserted and in the next
second we were swarmed.”

“Yeah, we walked into another trap. There were zombies
stuffed in houses all up and down that road. I don’t even want to guess how our
little friend accomplished that one, but it’s the second time I fell for it.
There won’t be a third.”

“So the tracks in the desert…“

“Were probably part of the trap. She knew we would go look
for Kingsley, and she probably wanted us to be near that house so that we could
hear some noise coming from it. Not sure about the burial in the desert, but
I’m pretty sure the tracks were a plant.”

“She probably knew we would head off in that direction,” I
thought out loud. “Where else could we go?”

“Yup, and she probably has traps like that all over the
place. We just happened to step right into one of them.”

“Maybe this is out of our league,” I said. “This chick is
smart. Eventually, she’s going to either take us out one by one, or we’re going
to step into another one of her booby traps and finally get caught.”

“I don’t think Kingsley is dead,” Jaxon said.

“Come again?”

“It doesn’t make any sense to kill him. I didn’t think the
desert burial made any sense to begin with, but if this vampire is hunting us,
wouldn’t it make better sense to keep Kingsley alive?”

“No, why bother? It would be a lot easier to kill him off
and, yeah, why would she bother to bury him? That doesn’t make sense. Then
again, why would she keep him alive?”

“If you plan on setting a trap, you’re going to need some
decent bait.”

It made sense. Maybe it was too good to be true, but it made
sense. There was a chance that Kingsley was still alive. It didn’t mean that he
was going to stay that way, especially if we didn’t rescue him sooner rather
than later, but we had a chance.

“How are we going to find him?”

“No idea,” Jaxon said. “We’re going to have to wait for the
vampire to make the first move. Until then, I think we need to play things as
if we actually believe that he’s dead. That’ll cause her to show some cards.”

“Then we need to get out of here,” I said. “Let’s call back
those choppers.”

“Why call back the choppers?”

“You don’t hear all those shamblers out there?”

“So?”

“We’re kind of trapped here,” I said.

“Nah,” Jaxon said. “While you were having your little
slumber party, I already went and picked up the Jeep.”

Getting to the Jeep wasn’t exactly the easiest thing I’ve
ever tried to do in my life. There were still way too many shamblers outside
the house. That we actually made it to the Jeep is all that’s important. Jax
had Merrick and I get into the vehicle while he took out all the zombies that
had gotten close enough to make him uncomfortable.

He made it look easy.

As soon as I started the engine, he hopped in the back seat
and started popping off shots while I drove us out of the area.

“Are we headed back to the safe zone?” I asked.

“No, we are going to meet up with everyone else at that
mountain church off Westwind.”

“The church all alone on that big hill?” I asked.

“Yeah, they are extracting that lady and kid that Nick
saved. If we’re lucky, Nick will get on the helicopter as well.”

“That church isn’t off Westwind by the way,” I said.

“Well, you can see it from Westwind so we can figure it out
from there, asshole.”

“I don’t need to figure it out. I know how to get there. I
was just wondering if you did.”

“I could find it,” Jaxon said. “Does that bother you?”

“Does what bother me?”

“My awesomeness,” Jaxon said with a smile. “I understand
that a lot of people are put off by my awesomeness. So, when you pointed out
that the church wasn’t actually on Westwind, I assumed that maybe you were
trying to make yourself feel a little bit better.”

“Well, I am better at directions than you are.”

“So are a lot of people, but that doesn’t make them
awesome.”

“What’s your definition of awesome?” I asked.

“I don’t need a definition. I’m the living embodiment of
awesome. Don’t waste your time with definitions, you geek. Just pay attention
to the things I do, and possibly you will be fortunate enough to one day
understand.

“Do you actually believe that shit, you arrogant prick?”

“Only if it irritates you.”

“I’m immune to you,” I replied.

“I don’t think you are,” Jax said.

“Too bad for you then, because I am.”

“What about if I tell everyone how you hid in some house
like a little girl while I whooped undead ass all around the neighborhood?”

“I would actually be more shocked to find out that you
hadn’t already told everybody that I was hiding in that house.”

Jaxon started laughing.

“You already told them didn’t you?”

Jaxon started laughing harder.

“I’m not liking you right now. I want you to know that.”

Jaxon then tapped his earpiece.

“Dudley,” Jax said. “Tell Georgie what you said about him
hiding out in the house.”

“Not right now,” Dudley said.

Suddenly Jaxon became very serious.

“What’s up?” Jaxon asked.