Dying Days 4 (15 page)

"Last chance," another person, this time female, yelled.

"Get ready, Tosha," John said. Darlene felt hurt by his words, as he'd addressed her only. She realized she was fed into the spot with Murph first, so they'd be out of the way.
I can fight, she thought
, knowing it wasn't exactly the truth. If cornered she could.

She knew John was protecting not only her but the baby, but it still stung to think Tosha was now his second when it came to a fight. And she didn't trust her. Darlene saw the way Tosha looked at John and made her innuendoes. At the first chance she'd mount him. Darlene trusted John, but the woman was beautiful. Prettier than she'd ever be.

Someone came onto the porch. They could hear the wood creaking and then the door squeaking open.

"We are heavily armed and outnumber you twenty to one. If you come out, we won't harm you. I promise," someone said. Now more footsteps could be heard inside the building. "We know you're here. Your van is outside. If you don't come out, we're going to assume you don't want anything inside it. Or the van. Up to you. Last chance."

Darlene looked up in the dark when someone began going up the stairs right above them, followed by at least four more people.

"What is this place?"  The female said, only a few feet away. "This is where the Satanists come to shop?"

A harsh laugh answered her.

"Spread out and shoot to kill. Take everything we can carry and load the van. We finally got us a working vehicle."

"The boys said they aren't in the garage, and not in the house next door. Maybe they abandoned the van?"

"Maybe. I don't know and I don't care anymore. I think this was their base and for some stupid reason they split. Tried to drive past us."

"We need to get moving before dark."

"I'm staying."

Darlene felt John touch her arm in the dark and lean closer.

"Why?"

"Because I'm sick of camping in the damn woods."

"We got plenty of food, fire pits, and the barbed wire for protection. What else do we need? This building only draws attention."

"Then why is everything still in it? I think the damn place is cursed. Voodoo witchcraft shit. The zombies are afraid of it."

"I'm going back."

"Suit yourself. You ain't the boss of me, anyway. If anyone wants to stay they can. But you aren't taking all the food and shit."

"Maybe I will and maybe I won't."

Darlene could hear the two men starting to get agitated and loud. The people walking around upstairs were going from room to room, looking for her and her group.

"You can turn around and put that food back where you got it. Some of it is mine," one of them said loudly.

"Bullshit. We hunt for the group. You can't just walk away and expect to keep what we
all
find. No way. You can stay but this is all coming with us. Those are the rules."

The people from upstairs were coming down the stairs quickly now, the noise sounding loud in the enclosed space.

"There are no rules, you twat. It's finders keepers and I found this house. I'm keeping it. You can stay and enjoy a roof over your head or you can go back to sleeping with the bugs."

"Watch your mouth," the female said. "If you want to stay, then stay. But we're taking everything with us we can carry."

"You can have the van and whatever's in it."

"No way. This place is packed with stuff. Weapons and food for months. What are you going to do with it? You're only one man."

"Two," someone else said.

"I'm staying and so is Ken. I'm sure his family would come back, too."

"No one is coming back because no one is staying. I'll burn this fucker to the ground before I leave a can of peas, and I hate peas. Do you understand?"

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, you stupid fuck."

"Call me that again and I will shoot you."

John pulled Darlene as close to the ground as he could and she let him.

"Holy shit," Tosha said quietly, and Darlene could hear excitement in her words.

"You… are… a stupid fuck."

"Uh oh," Murph said.

They heard a gunshot and a grunt.

It was followed in rapid succession by another gunshot, someone screamed; the woman began to yell, and more shots. A bullet ripped through the wood of the wall inches from Darlene's head, poking a hole in the wall and letting faint light in.

Tosha scooted over Darlene's legs and put her eye to the hole. "There are at least six I can see," she said, her words nearly drowned out by the shouting and more shots fired. "We need to do something."

"No," was all John said. He grabbed Tosha and pulled her to the floor, covering Darlene.

Darlene lost count of how many shots were fired both inside and outside. The argument had erupted into a mini-war with everyone. After a few minutes, the shooting ceased.

Someone was moaning in the main room a few feet from their hiding place, but they couldn't hear any other sound.

John leaned forward and might have been about to open the door when the sound of distant gunfire erupted. Darlene figured it was over near the van. Maybe they'd kill each other? She put a hand on John's arm for him to wait and he understood, sitting back.

Darlene sighed in relief when he heard someone walking back up the wooden steps. "What's your problem?" a man asked.

"I'm dying, you fat fuck," someone said close to the door.

"Shit. Everyone, back down," Tosha whispered. "They're going to shoot again."

Darlene tried to get as low as she could but with the baby it was so uncomfortable. They were also really tight in the space.

Three shots were fired and one slammed in and through the door. Darlene bit her tongue and tasted blood. If she had ammo for the Desert Eagle, she'd be returning fire and killing everyone in her path, regardless of the baby right now.

"Now you're dead. And that was the last time you call me a fat fuck."

"Stop shooting. We have company. A shitload of zombies in the street now, thanks to your bullshit."

"I don't care. Not my problem. I'm closing the doors and staying. You in or out?"

Darlene guessed whoever he was talking to decided to stay because she heard the door close and two sets of footsteps walking around.

If they waited it out, maybe the two would fall asleep or leave. Maybe their friends would realize they were missing and come back to shoot them. This was definitely a volatile group of people, desperate to live at any cost. The group would implode soon, but Darlene wondered how soon.

"I… need help," Murph whispered.

"Don't piss in here, old man," John said.

"Too late. I already did. I've been shot."

Chapter Twenty

The zombie stared at Russ, from the backseat of the Honda Accord, with a grin.

Russ put his eyes back on the road, weaving in and out of abandoned vehicles and bodies. "Am I heading in the right direction?"

"Sure. Maybe. Who can really say?"

Bri swung around on the passenger seat and aimed the pistol at the zombie. "You need to give better answers."

"Ever seen
Pulp Fiction
, little girl?" the zombie asked.

"No. And it's not important right now. Don't distract me," Bri said.

"It is important. Russ, tell Bri why it's important," the zombie said. "Please and thank you."

"Bri, don't aim the gun at him," Russ said.

"Why not?"

"He's referring to a scene in Pulp Fiction where a guy aims a gun at a guy in the backseat and the car hits a bump and the gun goes off and kills the backseat guy. Brains everywhere," Russ said.

"Oh." Bri put the gun on the seat between her and Russ but kept staring at the zombie. "What's your name?"

"Bad move," the zombie said. "It will be harder to kill me if you know about me. It’s better if you call me Zombie Man or something impersonal. I already know your names, and when I rip you apart I'm going to feel a bit sad."

Bri smiled. "I'm going to enjoy breaking more and more of your bones and seeing what your pain tolerance really is."

"Hey, relax," Russ said, alarmed. He wasn't liking the new Bri, the little girl he thought was scared of her own shadow. Suddenly, without the confines of the compound and a gun in her hand, she was cursing like a sailor and threatening to do bodily harm.

"I thought you said you did experiments on zombies before?" Bri asked.

"I did… but not to be cruel. I was trying to get an advantage. Find out what made them tick, and how they were evolving." Russ looked in the rearview mirror again at the zombie. "I didn't see this coming, though."

"Who really did?" the zombie asked. "I'm Ben, by the way. But you can call me Mister Dover."

"Ben Dover?" Bri asked.

Even Russ had to smile at the stupid joke. "Ignore him. Unless he's telling us we're heading in the right direction." Russ glanced again at the zombie in the back seat. "Well?"

The zombie closed his eyes. "Shh. I need to focus and find her."

"You should pull over," Bri said.

Russ didn't want to chance it. They were staying off of A1A as much as possible, taking side streets as far north as they could. He kept expecting to see Jeff and his marauders behind him every few seconds.

"We need to head west," the zombie said. "Northwest, actually."

"I'm heading north now. When do I need to turn off west?"

"As soon as you can. This isn’t like a GPS. I just get a general sense of where she is, and even that comes and goes. I'm not sure how to really use this power. And she's the only person I seem to be able to sense. Which is weird, right? Each day is something new," the zombie said.

"Where are you from? Where were you when you died?" Bri asked.

"Don't ask questions," Russ said.

"Nah, it's alright. We have nothing but time to kill." The zombie sat up and Bri swung the pistol back at his face until he leaned back and put his hands up. "Fine. I'm relaxed. Anyway… I'm from a little town called Niagara Falls."

"I've heard of it," Bri said.

"Everyone's heard of it, little girl. It's a famous place. When people started heading south and the border was breached, the survivors flooded into town. I was working at the time." The zombie smiled. "Believe it or not, I was actually a baker. A damn good one, too. Some idiot walked right through my glass front door and bit me before I could push him out. The next thing I remember is being in Florida and feeling… superior."

"Why are you telling us any of this? And I'm sure it's all a bunch of crap. You're trying to get us to like you so we don't put a bullet in your head," Russ said. "I'm not listening to your lies."

"Not lies. I'm actually telling you the truth. I might be far superior to you, but there's still one thing I can't account for: boredom. I don’t sleep, I don't drink or eat in the traditional sense, and I don't even get excited anymore. How's that for irony? I'm sure, before I gained back my focus, I was just another horny zombie, wandering around with his dick out… sorry for the language, Bri. I was banging everything in sight. Now I'm not interested. I guess it's just another way to prove how superior I am."

"Or it proves there is a God if you can't procreate," Bri said. "Eventually you'll die out and the human race will take over again. You're just going to be a small blip on the radar of history." Bri smiled at Russ.

"A footnote in history. I like the sound of it," Russ said.

"Bleh. What will it matter to you? You'll both be long dead before we die out. Ever see the movie
28 Weeks Later
?"

"Yes," Russ said. He slowed at an intersection and went up onto a lawn to get around a pileup, wary of an ambush. "Pretty good film."

"It was brilliant. I realize it now. You know why? Because the monsters in it were all dying. You're not allowed to call them zombies. Why were they dying, Bri?"

Bri shrugged. "I never saw it."

"Because they were starving." The zombie clapped his hands. "Isn't that amazing? And so simple. They had nothing to feed on and started to fall apart and die. Drying up like husks. I wish the movie had only been a half an hour long and left it at that. I would've still watched it."

"I knew something was different when I had a couple of zombies strapped to the gurneys and they weren't drying up. They were using reserve energy and regenerating. If I'd had more time to experiment, I would've learned so much more," Russ said.