Hunter Of The Dead (4 page)

Chapter Four

“Shit,” Eden breathed, earning a sharp glance from Kaede. After a quick look around to make sure there was no one in sight, she walked to the faded blue walls of the nearest house. It was actually more of a shack, barely twelve feet by twelve feet. Her mind clung to the mundane things as she stared at the door hanging half off its hinges, at the tiny red-brown handprints covering the bottom half of it.

“Shit,” she said again. Guess she wasn’t as unaffected as she liked to think. Eden reached up and clicked on her earpiece. “Jordan.”

“What’s wrong?”

Of course her sister would pick up on her worry from a single word. How typical. Eden exhaled and tried to get a hold of her emotions. Losing control wouldn’t help anyone. “We’re at the village. There’s no one around—no humans and no infected.” Hopefully there were humans hiding in houses because thinking about an entire village killed and turned made her blood run cold.

Jordan swore a blue streak which made Eden smile despite the circumstances. It took nothing short of a disaster to loosen her sister’s language up. “Okay, okay, we can deal with this. Do you see anywhere you can set up shop?”

Eden looked around. The village was built on a slight hill and the house in front of her blocked of the rest of the village from sight. With a nod at Kaede, she scooted sideways until she had a better view. “Yeah.” Up at the top of the hill there was a large building—well, large compared to the rest of them. She squinted at it, catching sight of the cross at the top. “A church.”

A small thread of hope burst in her chest. There might be survivors there.

“That’s your objective,” Jordan said. “Barricade yourselves in. If the village is empty, it means they’ve all been infected or fled. Watch your back because they’ll be newly turned.”

Eden hadn’t really considered the full implications of what kind of mess they’d be walking into if the entire town was infected within the space of twenty-four hours. Zombies began deteriorating as soon as they died, but for a short period of time—from several days to two weeks depending on the weather and state of the body—they were nearly as quick as a living person. The thought of being chased through the jungle by a horde of fast zombies was not one she relished.

Jordan continued, bringing her back to the present. “We’ll be coming through in the morning.”

Eden bit back a sarcastic response. “See you in on the flip side.” She clicked off the earpiece and turned to Kaede. “We go up.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the church.

Kaede raised her eyebrows. “I’ll take point, princess.”

Eden nodded. She had no problem covering the other woman. She settled Bernice more comfortably against her back and adjusted her grip on her
bolo
; they couldn’t use guns until Jordan showed up since they didn’t want to attract the zombies before the team was in place. It was now or never.

She and followed Kaede into the village. The streets were barely wide enough to drive a car through. The closed space made the spot between her shoulder blades itch. It was still too quiet. The sounds of their boots crunched across the rocky dirt, echoing obscenely.

As she passed the third house, a figure flew out from between it and the next building. Eden didn’t think, she moved, ducking beneath the zombie’s grabbing hands and tossing it over her shoulder. The infected—a female with stringy black hair and covered in blood—was back on its feet almost immediately.

Eden cut off the female’s right hand as it reached for her again, dodging away from the short spurt of blood. She didn’t get a chance to do much more before Kaede was there, swinging her
nagamaki
with the ease borne of a lifetime of practice. One second the infected was lunging for Eden, the next it was sliding to the side, its head falling from its body in an almost graceful motion. Eden’s breaths came in gasps while Kaede was completely unruffled.

A moan came from somewhere deeper in the village, carried on a breeze reeking of death. New death. Crap.

“Do you need a break?”

Eden shook her head. “I got it.” Rule number one when dealing with Kaede: show no weakness. If the Japanese woman thought she couldn’t rely on Eden, she wouldn’t hesitate to stuff her somewhere until this whole mess was cleared up.

Trying to still her shaking limbs, she strode forward again, this time keeping a careful watch on the space between buildings. A few times she thought she heard something rustle from within the houses they passed, but there was no telling what made the sounds. Right now they had to focus on eliminating the infected threat, and survivors invariably screwed things up. If there were humans in those houses, they would be safe enough as long as they stayed put. If there were infected...well, they weren’t going anywhere. Checking these houses would be the ground team’s job once they took care of any zombies walking around. Eden’s job was to get her ass to the roof of the church.

An open space separated the church from the last row of houses. A shiver of dread worked its way through her when she realized it was a graveyard...a graveyard with freshly dug graves. Fan-freaking-tastic. Just what she needed to make her day.

Eden scanned the shadows created by the houses. Nothing moved, but it didn’t mean a whole lot. The most surprising thing was that, with the exception of the bloody door on the first house, there weren’t any half-eaten bodies, blood, or any other indications the village had been attacked. That was, if you didn’t count the graves. She did. And what kind of church had a freaking graveyard as a front yard?

Focus, Eden.

They had two options. They could head straight across the graveyard to the door of the church or they could circle around.

She glanced at Kaede. “What do you think?”

“We cross here. There’s no point in going around.” And that was that.

Eden looked back at the church, bypassing the graveyard for a moment to see exactly what they were running towards. It was made of wood and painted a bright yellow that had probably been cheery ten years ago. Now, it was faded and peeled which gave the building a look of a rotten banana. The door appeared sturdy enough, as long as no one put too much pressure on it. It was closed. A small burst of hope sprouted in her chest. Maybe there were survivors.

Damn. She was getting as bad as Jordan. Dad would have a thing or two to say about that, none of it good. At Kaede’s hand signal, they started across the graveyard, careful to avoid stepping on any graves. Eden quickly discovered it was impossible. The graves were so close together they nearly overlapped and she mentally cringed with every step she took, but she wouldn’t let her revulsion affect her stride.

A moan came from their right and Eden half turned toward it as another sounded from their left. “Shit.” The word was quickly becoming her mantra-of-the-day.

Two infected lumbered around the edge of a brown building to her right. She hissed softly to Kaede and cursed when their heads came up at the sound.

No point in being quiet any more. Eden said, “Two on this end.”

“Three more over here.”

It was really a shame she couldn’t use Bernice because she could have every one of them down within thirty seconds. As it was, bullets would cause more problems than they’d solve. “Do we fight or run for it?”

Kaede laughed. “Fight. If more come we can get the hell out of here, but we should be able to take down five zombies without trouble.”

Easy for her to say. She was a freaking master with her blade. Not that Eden was a push-over, but there was a world of difference between the two. Still, there were no other options. They needed to get into that church. She nodded and turned to face the approaching zombies, trusting Kaede to keep them off her back. Kaede assumed the same thing of Eden, so there was no choice. She had to take them down.

Instead of waiting for them to mob her, Eden sprinted at the pair. She kicked the smaller male, sending it sprawling onto its back, before turning to engage the larger one. This nasty boy was missing half his jaw. Yummy.

Knowing the shorter one would be on her in seconds, she swung her
bolo
at the big zombie’s torso. Her blade snagged on his spine a split second before the bone gave. Thank God for the upgraded metal. Before the zombie could do more than groan, she beheaded him with one, clean swipe. Eden turned to face the smaller male as he sprang. She jabbed him in the chest with the heel of her free hand, knocking him back a step, and went in for the kill.

A hand burst out of the dirt as she stepped forward, snagging her left ankle, and sending her tumbling face-down to the ground. Only years of training kept her
bolo
in her hand. Eden rolled onto her back as another zombie clawed its way out of the ground. And,
oh God
, it was a child. A cute little boy if you ignored his throat being torn out.

She didn’t have time to be squeamish. Eden kicked it in the head and yanked her foot out of his grip. Before she had a chance to move, the adult zombie was in her face, its mouth gaping as it dove for her.

Eden rolled again and the zombie went to his knees in the exact place she had been. She scrambled to her feet and took his head before he could cause any more trouble. Then there was only the child, still stuck in the half-open grave, grunting as it reached for her.

She stared as it tried to climb out so it could eat her. Eden was still frozen when Kaede appeared and sent it to its final resting place. She didn’t say anything as Eden shook off her misery and they headed for the church door.

It was sturdier than it looked, but opened easily beneath Eden’s hand. She exchanged a guarded look with Kaede and then threw it open, plastering herself against the left side of the building as the Japanese woman did the same on the right. Nothing happened. There were no moans from inside, no gunshots, no screaming. Nothing.

A knot formed in Eden’s stomach. This was the logical place to run to if you found out the dead are coming back to life and gunning for you. The church was easily the largest building in the village and it stood in a tactically sound place. Not that people were thinking about stuff like that when running for their lives. No, they were more likely to run to it because it was familiar and it represented sanctuary to them. So why was it empty?

After another shared looked, Kaede went in first, her blade raised. Eden followed two steps after, scanning the interior of the building. It was nothing to write home about—several rows of homemade pews facing a lecture stand. She kicked the door half shut behind them. They’d have a warning if something tried to come in, but their escape wasn’t cut off. After one last look behind her, she started down the row between the pews. There were no infected lying in wait and she was left absurdly disappointed. Eden nodded the all-clear to Kaede, who then shut the door. There was a thick piece of wood on the floor and two racks where it was obviously meant to lie across the door. Kaede dropped the wood onto the racks and walked over to Eden.

“So, the roof?”

“Yeah.” Eden looked up. Since the ceiling was flat, there must be an attic. Her gaze latched on to a small square in the middle of the ceiling. Now they just needed a ladder or something to get up there. “We can’t get to it from here, but we should check the attic just the same.”

They split up, each going over their side of the room, looking under the pews and along the walls, both coming up empty. Finally, with sweat running down her spine and a headache starting behind her right eye, Eden stopped and propped her hands on her hips. “Okay, I give up. Where’s the ladder?”

“We could call Marco.” The last word echoed off the walls and Eden half expected someone to answer “Polo.”

“And I thought you had no sense of humor when you’re sober. I was thinking you could ninja it up there.”

“To the middle of the ceiling?” Kaede raised her eyebrows. “Princess, I’m good but I’m not that good.”

Eden snorted. She was about to fire back a smart-ass comment when a thump sounded above their heads. She looked up in time to see the trap door lift. A woman’s terrified face appeared in the newly open space and she started babbling in Spanish. Something about her husband being sick and...
oh shit
.

The woman looked back at something they couldn’t see and screamed. “No, no, Manuel.
Por favor
!”

There was more thumping and then the woman threw herself from the trap door, falling the fifteen feet to the ground where she hit with a sickening crack. Shit.

Chapter Five

Eden took a step towards the fallen woman, but movement up at the trap door caught her attention. A man—no, it wasn’t a man anymore—slipped through, landing hard on top of the woman. If she hadn’t been dead before, she certainly was now. The male’s legs must have shattered on impact because he inched towards Kaede and Eden, pulling himself along on his elbows, grasping the wooden floor with his fingers.

This time she didn’t hesitate. As its head rolled across the dirt floor, its limbs stopped their nightmarish motion and lay still. It was only when the infected finally stopped moving that Eden allowed herself to check on the woman who was, as she suspected, dead. Broken neck.

“At least she felt no pain.”

Kaede snorted. “Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

Eden dragged the woman’s body to the corner of the room before coming back for the man’s. “Get the head.”

“As you wish, princess.”

Jordan and the others would be arriving at dawn and they were expecting an eye in the sky to let them know if they were about to walk into a deathtrap. Plus, Eden wanted time to rest before shit hit the fan.

After a long moment’s consideration, Eden turned to Kaede. “Do you think you could reach if I tossed you?” It was a trick she’d used a time or seven with Alejandro. At least her obsessing over him was good for something.

“Tossed me?” Kaede looked up at the open trap door, considering. “If you can get me high enough then, yeah, I think so.”

“I think they pulled the ladder up when they climbed up. So find it and drop it down.”

“I’m not an idiot. I know what to do.”

Eden grinned. “Whatever you say.”

As Kaede backed up to the edge of the room, Eden crouched and cupped her hands together. She nodded to the other woman and braced herself as Kaede sprinted towards her. If she screwed up, this was going to hurt.

She didn’t.

Kaede stepped into her hands and Eden stood, pulling up with all her might. She had considerable power behind her thanks to countless hours of training, and Kaede wasn’t all that big to begin with. Kaede flew in the air as if she’d been doing stuff like this for years. Hell, maybe she had.

The tips of her fingers touched the edge of the trap door and latched on. After a quick grin at Eden, she scrambled up, agile as any monkey, and disappeared into the attic.

Eden breathed deeply, listening to Kaede’s soft footsteps. Less than a minute later, Kaede reappeared and dropped down a ladder. “All clear.”

As great as that news was, the knot in Eden’s chest twisted deeper, spearing towards her heart. “No survivors?”

“No anything. Those two were the only ones up here. But there were a lot of footprints on the floor, as if there were more people up there recently.”

“Maybe there were others and they moved to a secondary location.” There was that eternal optimism again. Dad would be so proud. Or not.

“Maybe. There’s no access to the roof from up here though.”

She double-checked Bernice and looked over her shoulder at the door. “We’re going to have to go back outside.”

“Pretty much.” Kaede slid down the ladder in a fancy move Eden had never seen outside of action movies.

“Show off.” When her comment got no response, Eden sighed. “You want to carry the ladder or you want me to?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she shook her head. There was no question of who would carry the ladder. Kaede was better with her blade. She would keep any infected off Eden while she set up the ladder. “Never mind. I will.”

Kaede pulled the ancient metal ladder down, sliding it until it was half the size—a mere seven feet. Eden picked it up, testing its weight. It wasn’t heavy, but its ridiculous length made it awkward to carry. “Let’s do this.”

She waited while Kaede pulled the bar from the door and cautiously opened it. After a brief pause, she looked back. All clear. They rushed out the door and around the side of the building to where the roof was the lowest. Eden yanked the ladder open and hefted it off the ground. As she turned to set it against the church, moans sounded behind her. Too close behind her.

She resisted the urge to spin around, trusting Kaede to protect her exposed back while she made sure the ladder was secure. After a few seconds it was. “Let’s go, Kaede.” Eden glanced back to find another four zombies streaking towards them. Too fast. “Run or fight?”

“Get your ass up that ladder.” Kaede could take them without a problem, but she obviously didn’t want to wait around while more infected showed up.

Eden flew up the ladder, nearly tripping over her hands in her haste. She spun around as soon as she reached the relative safety of the roof. “Come on.”

Kaede didn’t need further encouragement. She took out the nearest zombie and kicked another in its chest, sending it careening into the remaining two. It created a brief window and she was able to scramble up and onto the roof. Her feet touched the wood just as the zombies reached the church. Their uncoordinated efforts tumbled the ladder to the ground. Ignoring the fallen tool, they moved forward, clawing the side of the building as if that would do anything. The zombies’ mouths opened in a parody of pain, teeth grimy with old blood.

“You know,” Eden panted. “We’re really lucky they aren’t smart. If they were, they’d rule the world.” At least until they decomposed.

“Shut up. I don’t even want to think about that shit.” Kaede moved up the roof and perched on its peak. “Give Jordan an update.”

Eden followed, albeit a lot less gracefully. She clicked her earpiece on. “Jordan?”

“What’s the situation?” Apparently they were getting straight to business. Jordan was a lot more like Dad than she’d ever admit. It made Eden smile just thinking about the look her sister would give her if she ever said so.

“We’re on the roof of the church. We haven’t found any survivors, just infected.” She chose not to include the woman from the attic. There was no point and it would just upset her sister; Eden wanted to spare her the pain over something she couldn’t change.

“How many are we looking at?”

Eden glanced over the village. There was movement here and there, but not nearly as much as there should have been. “I count twenty. But, Jordan, the whole village is emptied out. There’s got to be more than I’m seeing.”

“Or the others got to safety.”

Eden shook her head and realized her sister couldn’t see it. “I don’t know. Where would they go? We came in on the road and we didn’t see a single person until we hit the village. If there were survivors, don’t you think they’d try to leave the valley? To go any other way would be suicide.” If they went deeper into the valley, they’d be trapped. While zombies slowed down after a while, they never got tired, and didn’t need food or water to survive. Humans couldn’t run forever without stopping and they certainly couldn’t do it in such a limited space.

“Maybe there’s another way out.”

Eden closed her eyes and fought back her impulse to argue. It didn’t matter if there were survivors or not. They had come to eliminate the zombie threat and that’s what they would do. As Dad would say,
Don’t let the details distract from the endgame. We’re not heroes, my girl. We’re killers, no matter which way you paint it
. Then his face would go still and they would both think back to the day Mom died, to the day he killed her. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Set up. We’re coming into the valley at sunrise. Do you see a good place for us to do our thing?”

From her vantage point, she had a perfect view of the road leading into the village. There was a square of open space that branched from the road to the north. If she set up along the peak of the roof, she could cover them easily. “Yeah. There’s a square about three hundred feet into the village. Take the right fork and you’re there.”

“Sounds good. Are you secure for now?”

“Yeah, we’re good.”

Jordan paused like she wanted to ask something else but she finally said, “Okay, try and get some sleep. We’ll see you in seven hours.”

“See you then.”

“Keep your earpiece on from here on out. Tell Kaede to do the same.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Eden slid out from Bernice’s strap and sat down on the peak of the roof. It took her less than thirty seconds to have the rifle set up and ready to go. She lay down and looked through the scope, taking in the town. There were two groups of infected in the immediate area. It would be so easy to take them out now, but that would attract more and the team needed to be in place before she started shooting.

The roof dug into her ribs and she shifted, trying to get comfortable. It was then she saw it, a flash of black, its movement too smooth to be of the zombie variety. She pulled her scope around, trying to see what it was and where it was going, but it was too late. Whatever she’d seen was gone. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she searched the immediate area. Logic said it was a survivor, but that didn’t feel right. The movement had looked like a professional, as much as a flash of movement could look like anything. She groaned and barely resisted knocking her head on the roof a few times. The heat must be getting to her because she was losing it. Professional movement. Eden snorted.

“Something funny, princess?”

“Nah. I just thought I saw something.” Eden held up a hand, knowing exactly what Kaede was going to ask her. “I’m fine. I can do this. It was just a flash of movement and I thought it might be a survivor.”

“Where?” She felt Kaede move closer, scanning the village.

“It’s gone now.” Eden looked up at the sky. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon while they were in the church, leaving the jungle in a hazy twilight. Darkness set in quickly in this part of the world. It was nothing new, but something like unease slithered through her just the same. Eden knocked softly on the roof, the wood rough against her knuckles. A stupid superstition, to be sure, but she couldn’t help it. She had the sneaking suspicion that they were going to need all the help they could get in the coming hours.