Revenence: Dead Silence, A Zombie Novel (20 page)

"Who the fuck is throwing those sticks?!" she had heard one of them yell.

"I don't know, and I don't give a shit," another had replied as they jumped onto their ATVs and raced back out to the highway.  "Let's just get the fuck out of here.  We got what we came for." 
Jesus,
she had thought. 
All they came for was a few guns and a token amount of ammo?  That's what all those men are dead for?  That's why those kids are now without a father?  Talk about bottom-of-the-barrel human scum.

She had gotten back onto her stolen vehicle and pursued them, nailing one more in the head before ATV began to lose power.  She had looked down at the gas gauge. 
Damn it, anyway!
she had cursed to herself.  She was out of gas, and then the sadists were the ones pursuing her.  She had killed four of them, but another six remained.  She had bolted toward the woods for cover, narrowly avoiding the gunfire that the sadists were isssuing from their ATVs.  She had sprinted about two-hundred feet through the densely-treed copse before she scurried up a tall pine. 
I hope they can't follow tracks,
she prayed, although she doubted they were savvy enough. 

"
Where the fuck you at?"
one of them had thundered a minute later.  From the sound of his voice, Daphne had guessed that he was about fifty yards to the north of her, and facing in the opposite direction of where she was hiding.  "You go ahead and hide, we'll find you!  And if we don't, we'll wait for you to try and make a run for it."  She had heard him pacing, even as far away as he was from her. 
Not as skilled as you think you are, are you?
she had thought.  One of them had wandered into her field of vision, and she figured she could probably take him out from where she sat.  After a moment of deliberation, she had decided she'd better not, just in case they were wise enough to determine the direction the spike had come from.  Once he had wandered away a bit, she had slithered down the tree and retreated soundlessly in the opposite direction. 
Sun's going down,
she had noted.  She had doubted the men had night vision as good as hers. 
Time to be the hunter again
.  She had prowled silently, getting within fifty feet of one of the men. 
Say goodnight, you prick
, she had thought, launching a spike into the man's ear.  He had sprawled awkwardly onto the ground, blood trickling from his open, lifeless eyes.  When the rest of the pack discovered his corpse, they took off for their ATVs and fled before she could slay any more of them.

"Fuck it!" one of them had conceded.  "It's too dark, and we don't know what the hell's out in those woods.  I'm getting the fuck outta here."  By the time she had made her way out to the road, they were too far away. 
I'm good,
she had thought,
but I can't throw that far. 
The next morning, she had seen the smoke of their campfire nearby.  She had still been on their trail when she saw Shari heading in their direction.  She raced westward, keeping within the the cloak of the woods.   She unsheathed her titanium blade, caressing its smooth surface as she ran. 
If she dies, I'm not just gonna kill them...I'm gonna make them regret being born
.

"Mm-hmm," she grunted.  "Looks like a campfire."  She wondered what type of person had started that fire.  Should she be afraid?  Should she run for her life?  She raised her binoculars, the ones Fauna had often used.  She surveyed the woods, but didn't see any obvious sign of anyone watching her.  She rode faster, anxious to put some distance between herself and whoever was out there.  As she began to speed up, she heard the crack of gunfire, and felt a bullet whiz close by her head, rustling her hair as it passed. 

"Well now, they certainly are cutting to the chase, aren't they?" Kandi noted, riding faster alongside Shari.

"Sure as shit," Shari agreed, a slight twang in her voice.  "I don't know what their beef is, but I'll be damned if they're gonna get away with this."  She saw a house about 250 yards away with a huge, aging barn near it.  She could hear the dull roar of motors headed her way from behind her as she closed the distance between the unknown assailants and the barn.  When she got there, she saw it was an ancient husk of a building with no doors.  She rode Eva up to the barn, dismounted, went inside and climbed up into the loft.  She hurried to the window, her sniper rifle armed and ready.  She gazed through the scope and saw at least three men headed her way on ATVs, less than a hundred yards away.  She crouched in front of the window, fixed her sight on the first one in the motorcade, and pulled the trigger.  She watched as the the man slumped back in the seat, a large spray exiting the back of his head.  As his vehicle slowed, it was rear-ended by the one behind him.  The man who had been driving the second vehicle shot out onto the asphalt, skidding on his face for about twenty feet before coming to a lifeless halt. 

"
Ooh,
two for one!" Kandi cried with excitement.  "You gotta love that!"

Shari fixed her sight on the third man, who had avoided colliding with the first two.  He was now no more than fifty feet away from the barn.  It took her only moments to reach for the bow on her back and nock an arrow.  She shot the arrow through the glassless window, skillfully piercing the man in the eye.  She picked up her sniper rifle again and peered through the sight, searching for signs of movement.  She couldn't be sure that the three men had been the only ones.  She slowly scanned the area until she saw another man on an ATV, about 150 yards away.  She squinted, trying to identify the weapon he was holding.  It was a rather large gun with an abnormally large revolving mechanism.  
Jesus,
she thought. 
Is that a fucking grenade launcher?

"It would appear to be," Kandi replied, standing to Shari's left and peering out the window.  "You can shoot his gun, and mostly likely blow him to smithereens."

"Yeah," Shari said, "but that would ruin both the ATV
and
the grenade launcher."  She began to line her sight on his head when she saw him raise the weapon, pointing it in the direction of  the barn. 

"Shit!" she cried, scurrying halfway down the ladder, then leaping the rest of the way down.  "He knows I'm in here.  And this place is nothing but a huge pile of tinder.  It's gonna go up like paper."

"Well," Kandi taunted, following behind Shari, "it's just an enormous red barn from which one could snipe, that's all.  Certainly not a likely target."

"
Eva, go!"
Shari commanded.  There was no time to mount the horse.  Shari had just barely cleared the entrance to the barn when there was a muted, barely audible
Click, click, click
which was followed a moment later by three concussive blasts inside the barn.  By the time the barn was ripped apart by the explosions, Shari and Eva were about fifty feet away, cowering behind an RV.  The barn was obliterated, just as she'd expected, its flaming pieces raining down across the yard.  She glanced toward the house. 
I hope nobody lives here...or at least they're not hostile.
 

Her mind raced.  Without the loft of the barn, she had no high ground to scope out her enemy. 
I don't hear any motors approaching,
she thought. 
He must be coming on foot.

"Most likely, princess," Kandi agreed.  "You'd better run.  There's just one little problem."

And what would that be?

"Your horse is gone...I presume the explosion spooked her.  I suppose in this case, 'bombproof' can't be taken literally."

  Shari looked around...Eva was nowhere to be found.  "Why the hell didn't you say something sooner?!"

Kandi shrugged.  "Sometimes I don't notice these things any more than you do!" she said defensively.  "Still, I'd suggest running.  Maybe you'll find the horse later, and maybe you won't.  In the meantime, there are more pressing matters at hand."  Shari was already running as Kandi finished the sentence, heading for the woods behind the house.  She reached the edge of the woods and raced into its depths.

"Um...Shari, dear?"

Piss off, Kandi.  I'm a little busy
.

"Yes, but I thought you might be interested in the zombie behind you."  Shari's eyes snapped wide open.  She glanced back, and grabbed her bow.  Kandi was right.  There was a very fresh, very fast young undead man closing in on her. 
I guess there was someone near that house, after all.

"Yes, I suppose there was," Kandi patronized.  "Shoot the bloke, already!"  Shari let an arrow fly, probing the skull of the young zombie.  She came to the top edge of a steep slope, and was preparing to jump downhill.  She slowed before she jumped down the gradient, wondering if she had time to check the corpse.  Just then, she heard the familiar, hushed
click
, which made her forget at once about searching the body.  She leaped down just as the grenade landed very near to where she had been standing.  She braced herself for the impact, freefalling about fifteen feet and tumbling gracelessly the rest of the way down the slope.  She came to rest momentarily at the bottom, then jumped to her feet and continued fleeing.  The air was filled with the aroma of wet leaves and wood as they burned, and Shari could hear the crackle of the flames up the hill behind her.  She glanced back briefly, and when she turned back around, she ran full-speed into a petite human form that had seemed to appear out of nowhere.  The stranger pushed Shari to the ground and hurled a long, sharpened wooden stick in the direction of the grenade-wielding aggressor.  The stick penetrated the man's cranium and exited the other side.  The force propelled him backward, pinning him to the tree.  The stranger, whom Shari could now see was a woman, marched up to the man.  She placed one foot firmly on the tree and wrenched the stick free from both the tree trunk and the man's skull.  Shari watched uneasily while the young lady cut off the man's right ear and placed it in her bag.

"That was the last one," she said.  She turned to Shari.  "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied.  "I guess I should thank you.  He'd have cremated me if you didn't show up when you did."  She offered her hand.  "I'm Shari."

"I know," the strange young woman answered, "but there's no time for introductions now."  She started toward the demolished barn.  "That place is going to be crawling with undead soon.  That jackass gave every zombie in a five-mile radius a firework display that they couldn't miss."  She bent down to pick up the grenade launcher which lay at the lifeless feet of its owner and searched his pack.  She found a dozen more grenades, plus some more ammunition and three bottles of water. 
I guess this is what they wanted from that settlement
, she thought, examining the weapon.

Shari ran to catch up with her, an expression of bemusement on her face.  "What do you mean, 'I know'?  Do I know you from somewhere?"

The woman was silent for a moment, eyes straight ahead.  "We'll talk about that later.  Let's see if we can find your horse and get the hell outta here."

Shari scowled. 
I don't trust this,
she thought.

Kandi appeared at her side.  "Do you trust the fact that she just saved your arse, princess?"  Shari glared at Kandi and kept walking. 

They passed through the yard and out to the road.  Shari ran to the far side of the ruined barn, retrieving her arrow from the skull of the sadist she had killed earlier.  There were undead wandering in from both directions...about a dozen in all, at least within her range of vision.  None of them were too close yet, so she got to work putting them down with her bow.  The mystery woman helped, throwing her sharpened sticks at the ones who were close enough.  When they were all successfully rekilled, the two women retrieved their arrows and sticks.  They could now see more shuffling in their direction from farther off.  Shari clicked her tongue loudly, hoping Eva was still in close enough range to hear it.

"Eva!" she called.

"No time for that," the stranger informed her, pointing to the woods across the road from the house.  Shari gasped...about two dozen undead, in various stages of decomposition, were pouring out of the woods and toward the road, forming a rather tight cluster. 
What on God's green Earth are they all doing here?
she wondered.

"Migrating herds, dear," Kandi said.  "Keep in mind, they've had several months to form groups.  I guess perhaps it's instinctual for them."

The two women ran over to one of the ATVs near where the barn had been.  Shari kicked away the corpse who was still seated behind the wheel and got on. 

"Hurry!" she urged the stranger.  She climbed on behind Shari, and they took off down the  road, headed west.  Shari glanced down at the gas gauge.  It appeared to be about half full.  She sighed, relieved. 
Good, we don't have to worry about gas for awhile.

"So now that we're safe, do you want to explain to me what the hell you're doing here?" Shari demanded.

"No, not really," the young woman responded flatly.  "We're not that safe right now.  I'll tell you later."

Shari sighed in frustration.  "Do you at least want to tell me your name?"