As The World Dies Untold Tales Volume 3 (6 page)

“Then you’re a lucky man, my brother. A lucky man indeed.”

They traded positions, with Rune shutting the door to lock himself in the small downstairs bathroom. To his surprise, Tito hadn’t left it a mess, having tucked his wet towels in a hamper. He had even wiped down the shower. Apparently, Tito’s wife and mother had him well-trained.

Rune wanted to take his time in the shower, but he knew better. His body ached and his back was one big knot of pain. Washing fast and efficiently, he kept his ear cocked, listening for any trouble. His two-toned skin — tan where the sun hit him, pasty white where it didn’t — bore the scars of countless falls, bar fights, and childhood tomfoolery. A few tattoos covered them up, but a few keloids were too thick and red to cover. Rune stared at the ones on his arm. They were from his wife’s nails. She’d clawed him until he bled when she was mad. He never hit a woman in his life, but he almost had the night she had raked his flesh open. Staring at the scars, he felt no remorse for her death. He was glad she was dead. But the thought of Lainey and Braden brought fresh, awful pain ripping through him. Raised to never cry, Rune turned his face into the water to hide the tears racing down his face. Despite the hot water, he shivered as an icy wave of air brushed over him.

“You need to keep moving,” a voice said on the other side of the shower curtain.

Rune drew it open to reveal a teenage girl standing on the bath mat. Her arms were covered in bites and her face was smeared with blood. He didn’t recognize her immediately. It took several seconds to recognize the daughter of his friend he had been trying to reach earlier in the day.

“Oh, Lord. Cassidy.”

“You have to always keep moving,” she said. Her dark hair was matted to her head and her glasses were broken and askew. Rune resisted the urge to adjust them.

“Cassidy, your pa...?” He kept behind the curtain, hiding his nudity, though that was probably foolish. She was beyond such things now.

The girl shook her head. Rune had been aware of Cassidy’s crush on him, but he had considered it cute more than anything. But apparently the fifteen
-year-old’s feelings had been true enough to draw her to him after death.

“Are they coming now?”

“Someone crashed into the fence on the far end. It’s down and now they’re coming. They’ll be here soon.” Cassidy’s big dark eyes stared at him sadly. “I thought someone would save me before they got me. I didn’t think I would die. I kept thinking you or my dad would save me.”

“I tried to get to your pa’s place earlier. I’m sorry,” Rune whispered, his throat suddenly tight.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” Cassidy tilted her head, tears in her eyes. “I was going to marry you when I grew up.”

Rune lowered his gaze. “Cassidy, I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been there for you.” Raising his gaze, he saw he was alone again.

With a sigh, he killed the slowly chilling water and stepped into the freezing cold room.

“Tito! They’re coming!” he called out.

Chapter 9

Tito was hunkered beside a chair in the shadows of the family room observing the backyard when Rune slipped out of the downstairs bathroom
, hastily dressed and braiding his long silver hair. Slipping through the gloom, Rune angled his head to look through the glass doors toward the area past the pool.

“There’s movement out there in the trees,” Tito whispered. “At first it just looks like branches swaying, but then I can just make out the shape of heads.”

“Did you check the front?”

Tito shook his head. “Almost too scared to move, man. I didn’t want them spotting me and charging the house while you were still buck ass naked.”

Rune had to admit the other man had a point. Fighting zombies naked was not something he was interested in ever doing. “I’ll take a look.”

Though the house was secured and the alarm activated, Rune tensed as he cautiously progressed along the hall, sweeping his Glocks back and forth between doorways. Finally reaching the front, he drew the curtain away from the window with the barrel of his gun. The wide expanse of the front yard slanted down toward the iron gates and granite wall, illuminated only by small lamps lining the drive. Great swaths of lawn were hidden by the prevalent darkness. Staring into the pitch black areas, Rune felt the hair on his neck stand on end. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he thought he detected movement.

On the toes of his boots, he hurried to where Tito was on guard. Just as he stepped into the family room, the motion lights outside flipped on, the brightness blinding him briefly as he dropped to the floor.

Outside, the eerie moans of the dead rose in a great wave.

Then the first zombie stepped into the light. It was a ghastly looking creature with strips of cloth and meat hanging from gnawed limbs. There was no face, but a grinning skull enshrouded in bloody gore.

Keeping low to stay out of sight, Tito crawled toward the kitchen. Rune followed, listening to the swell of the moans and screeches outside. The light was drawing the undead to the house. This was something he would have to remember in the future.

To slip over the appliances they had used to barricade the kitchen door, the men were forced to stand, bringing them into view of the creatures descending on the house. The second Tito crawled onto the washer, the noise of the approaching dead rose in volume. Rune briefly glimpsed the massive cluster of undead reaching the pool area as he scooted over the tops of the laundry machines. He hoped the front of the house wasn’t going to be as dangerous.

“Maybe most of them will fall into the pool,” Tito said while hurrying across the expanse of the large kitchen.

Somewhere in the house, glass shattered.

“Or not,” Rune grunted.

The motion lights on the side of the house flicked on, spilling bright light through the kitchen windows. More ruined bodies of flesh stepped into view. Rune paused to glance out at them, trying to ascertain the level of threat. Most were so badly mauled they could barely trudge along, but a few were whole and dangerously aggressive as they pushed their way through their slower brethren. A tall, muscled man, with his throat torn out and a few bites on his arms, tossed the shambling dead aside and raced for the kitchen window.

Drawing his weapon, Rune waited, wanting to see what the rampaging creature would do. To his horror—and amusement—the zombie struck the side of the house, its face smashing into the glass, splattering it with blood. Smashing its head and fists against the window, the thing howled, drawing more zombies toward it. There was a loud cracking noise, then fissures crisscrossed the glass, spreading outward.

“Rune!” Tito called out from the doorway into the garage.

“I want to see how far these fuckers are willing to go,” Rune answered shortly.

Somewhere in the house, moans responded to their voices.

“Dude, they’re coming!” Tito exclaimed, his words punctuated by the slap of flesh against the cracking glass.

The window shattered, the glass plinking onto the counter and into the deep stainless steel sinks. The zombie thrust one arm through the broken frame, the shards ripping away flesh. Rune shot him in the forehead, silencing him. Around the fallen body, gray-tinged bloody arms burst through the opening.

“Rune, let’s go!” Tito repeated.

“We gotta know their limits and behavior, or we won’t know how to hunt them,” Rune answered gruffly.

The thunk of flesh against metal and low growls announced the arrival of the dead at the kitchen barricade. Rune gave them a short glance, stepped into the laundry room, and shut the door.

In the garage, Tito had the door to the truck open, one foot set on the runner. “How we doing this?”

“Open the garage, and I’ll clear out anything that tries to come in. You floor it, I follow. Open the gates, we do the same thing.”

Now Tito was the one hesitating even though the moans of the dead were increasing outside. “Rune, I got some friends stranded north of here. I promised them I would go back for them after getting my family.”

“Want me to go check them out?”

“No, no. They’re safer there than anywhere else I think. I will go back for them. But...if...I show up...like my mama...”

“If you show up like your mama did, just tell me where they are, and I’ll find a safe spot for them. I’ll get them.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear.” Tito slung his lean body into the cab of the truck and banged the door shut.

Despite his gruff and somewhat calm demeanor, Rune had a knot of tension right behind his left eye. He hated facing the zombies at night. It would be harder to see once they were away from the house and the damn automatic lights. Charlene sat directly behind the larger vehicle, which granted Rune a limited view of either side of the truck. It would have to do though.

The electric motor of the garage door hummed to life and one of the four doors into the garage began to yawn open. As the heavy wood panel slid up on the rollers, Rune snorted as yet another automatic light snapped on outside. If the zombies didn’t know the men were in the garage yet, they did now. Rune slung his leg over his bike and started her as the truck roared to life. The stink of exhaust and death filled his nostrils.

The garage door wasn’t even halfway up on the rollers when a zombie slammed into it. Rune could see the spindly legs of the undead creature, covered in blood and filth. The thing didn’t crawl under the door like he expected, but banged against it, causing it to shudder under the onslaught. Another set of legs joined the first, then another. Rune’s fingers tensed around the heavy Glock he clutched in his left hand. The zombies clawed at the door while it rose, and their hands followed it after it lifted above their heads. They were confused by its disappearance and it took several long seconds for the creatures to realize they could now enter the garage. In that short period of time, Tito gunned the engine of the truck and it surged forward. A few of the undead were in the path of the truck, and they bounced off the deer guard and onto the ground.

Rune aimed and fired, killing three zombies still blocking his path. Their bodies crumpled to the ground. The Harley exited the garage at a quick clip, trailing in the wake of the truck. The undead were scattered across the drive, twisting about in confusion as the big metal beast sped past them. A few lunged toward the truck, drawing them closer to the path Rune had to take. It was hard to shoot the zombies and ride the bike, but Rune didn’t aim for almost impossible killing shots, but ones that would cripple the zombies and send them to the ground. A shattered femur or hip worked just fine.

Unholy screeches filled the air as the faster, healthier zombies tore out of the trees. Their bloodied forms were terrifyingly swift. Rune’s grip tightened on the Glock as he pressed the heel of his hand against the bars of the bike to keep his bike steady. The gates to the outside world yawned open ahead and the truck accelerated. Rune increased his speed, trying to keep an eye on the drive ahead and the zombies galloping toward him from all sides.

One large zombie, who resembled a football player, lunged for Rune. The monster was so close that when Rune shoved his Glock at the creature’s head, he could see the vivid tears on its cheek and feel the pressure of the barrel against flesh as he fired. The zombie’s head jerked back, but its momentum continued into the bike, pushing Rune off balance. The motorcycle shimmied dangerously, but Rune expertly adjusted his equilibrium to keep the bike from crashing. A less experienced biker would have definitely taken a bad spill. Briefly bringing down one foot to steady himself, Rune accelerated away from the zombies closing in on him. The runners were right on him, pacing the bike, their hands slashing out, attempting to grab him. He didn’t dare waste time trying to shoot them, so he gunned the engine, speeding up. The bike caught up to the truck just as it passed through the gates. The undead were scattered across the road, but not in the numbers descending on the house.

The stench of death and blood filled the night. Tito rammed the truck into a tight cluster of zombies near the gate, pulverizing them under the wheels. Rune deftly avoided the smear of gore left in the wake of the tires. The Harley growled as he sped past the grasping undead. In his mirrors he saw some of the faster ones giving pursuit, but they soon dropped behind.

Rune rode alongside the truck for a few miles through the open countryside. The road cleared of the zombies the further out they traveled from the house. Too close to the interstate and far too visible perched on the hilltop, it had been a potential death trap even though it had provided temporary shelter and supplies. Rune would remember those lessons.

After twenty minutes, Tito parked the truck at a crossroads and Rune stopped near him.

Rolling down the window, Tito hooked his arm over the windowsill and peered out at the biker. “You sure you don’t want to head out with me?”

Rune somberly shook his head. “I have to keep my promise to my daughter.”

Tito sighed, but nodded. “I gotcha. I just hate leaving you out here on a Harley.”

“I’ll be fine.” Rune gave him a wide smile. “You go get your family and get to safety.”

“And you?”

Flickers of light in the trees drew Rune’s attention. “I have business to deal with.”

“You’re a weird fucker,” Tito decided, smirking.

“That I am. Take care, brother.”

The men clasped hands and shook.

“You too. Hopefully, I’ll never see your face again.” Tito’s meaning was clear.

“If any man’s got a chance of saving his family from a zombie-infested, city it’s you, Tito.”

“From your lips to God’s ears.”

“Adios, amigo,” Rune said.

“Stay alive, Rune.” Tito shifted gears and the truck sped up the road.

Rune watched until the rear lights vanished around the bend before aiming his bike north and heading deeper into the hills.