The Dark Trinity (Book 1): Shuffle (30 page)

The beast released a roar that almost gave Nathan's dead
flesh goose bumps. It then stood up on its hindquarters, raising the creature
to almost eleven feet. Those silver eyes pierced his own. He waited for the
inevitable, but instead of what was sure to be a horrible death, a deep powerful
voice spoke to him in his head.

["Do that again and you will be missing an arm. Now,
listen to me Nathan Ackland..."]

It had a hint of an accent, but he couldn't quite place its
origin.
How does it know my name?
The voice continued.

["You must reach your beloved alive. She needs your
protection. It is imperative that you find each other. We are here to ensure
your reunion. My name is Maalik and my companion is Bataviah. Come with
us."]

Maalik turned and walked towards the woods.

"Aw, shit. Dude, I think you should come over
here," Ronnie said in a sullen tone as he gently laid Boomer down on the
ground.

The dog had lost a lot of blood and was barely breathing.
Nathan rushed over and knelt beside his dying friend. The wolves paused and
looked back at the two friends grieving for the little dog. Maalik glanced at
Bataviah and then walked towards Nathan, as Bataviah sprinted off into the
woods.

["Please move aside,"]
Maalik said in as
soft a voice as his powerful presence would allow.

Nathan looked at him with uncertainty. Reading his
expression, the wolf gave a reassuring nod. Reluctantly, Nathan gave Boomer a
loving scratch behind the ears and stepped back a few feet.

"What are you going to do?" Nathan asked, with
obvious concern in his voice.

Maalik didn't acknowledge the question. Instead, he reached
back and pulled a single quill from the back of his neck. It was colored
differently from the rest of the grayish-black "fur" that covered the
wolf. It shimmered a deep sapphire blue. Then Nathan saw a drop of blue liquid
drip out of the quill tip. The werewolf took a large clawed hand and stroked
the dog and with the other, stuck the quill into Boomer's neck. A moment later,
he extracted the quill, took a few steps backward, and watched.

Nathan moved towards Boomer. "What did you do to
him?" he demanded.

["Stay where you are,"]
Maalik commanded.
["I
assure you that your little friend will be alright, but for your safety, you
must keep your distance."]

Nathan was confused. "Why the hell do I need to..."
Before he could get the rest of the sentence out, Boomer let out a horrific
wail.

Nathan and Ronnie watched in amazement as Boomer's body began
to convulse and contort. The sound of snapping bones and stretching, tearing
flesh seemed to echo amongst the surrounding apartment buildings. He began to
get larger; his fur was falling out in clumps and in its place, jet-black
quills began to emerge. His snout elongated, as well as his fangs. His eyes
glossed over and clouded to a silvery sheen. His whimpers and growls became
deeper and deeper as he continued to grow.

Finally, it all stopped.

"Ho-ly shit!" Ronnie exclaimed.

Nathan stood in shock as he stared at his dog, although he
wasn't sure if "dog" was an appropriate term any longer. Slowly the
Boomer-beast raised his head and rose to his feet. The transformation had
healed the wounds in his side.

"JE-SUS!" Ronnie said with escalating surprise.

Boomer now stood a good four feet high at the shoulder. He
shook his body as if he had just got a bath. When finished, he looked at Ronnie
and then to Nathan. His large quill-laden tail began to wag.

"Boo-Boo, you okay buddy?" Nathan asked
apprehensively.

Immediately, Boomer trotted over and licked his face with an
immense wet tongue.

["It's done,"]
Maalik stated.
["There
is not much time. You must feed now for what is to come."]

Just then Bataviah emerged from the woods dragging three dead
deer behind her.

"Hold up, what the hell do you mean? What's
coming?" Ronnie asked.

["Daylight,"]
Bataviah answered.
["No
more questions now. Feed."]
She tossed a deer carcass each to Ronnie,
Nathan, and Boomer. Before the word 'daylight' registered in their heads, all
three of them tore into the deer. Instinct overrode any semblance of reason.
The hunger was fierce.

After only a few minutes, Maalik interrupted the gorging
threesome.
["We must go. NOW! The sun arrives soon!"]

Nathan stood from his carcass, blood smeared across his pale
face. The horizon had the glow of the approaching morning. "What happens
at sunrise, Maalik?"

["You'll find out soon enough."]

With that, the two wolves started towards the trees. Nathan
and Ronnie and their new were-dog Boomer followed.

"Dude, this is some CRAZY shit, huh?!" Ronnie
asked, obviously excited.

"That doesn't even begin to describe this," Nathan replied
under his breath as he kept gawking at Boomer, who trotted on huge paws beside
him. He seemed just as happy as he ever was, perhaps even more so.

The five travelers continued towards McKnight Road, where
Evelyn, Sunshine, and the Horde awaited.

CHAPTER 40 
  DEAD SLEEP

The eleven-year-old zombie queen, the matriarch of the
teeming mass of her progeny, unleashed the most inhuman scream imaginable. The
interference of the wolves was inevitable, but she had hoped that they would
have been too busy with the evening's onslaught to concern themselves with her
prey. Anger pulsed through her body. The horizon was growing brighter with
every passing moment. There wasn't much time left until the Dead Sleep took
hold of her army.

Backing away from her vantage point on the cliff, her zombie
children surrounded and enveloped her. They held her in their embrace and
cocooned her within their bodies as they formed a protective carapace of limbs
and torsos in anticipation of the coming dawn.

****************

All the humans inside the adult bookstore stood silent,
looking up at the ceiling as if attempting to peer through the layers of
concrete. They waited motionless as the horrific undead scream shattered the
tense tranquility.

"We can't wait any longer," she said as she walked
towards the mutilated bodies of her former comrades.

"So who's the lucky one who gets to do this?" asked
Alison.

"I'll do it," Shawn replied. Noticing the looks he
was getting from the group, he cracked a half-hearted smile. "Look, I don't
WANT to do it, but we don't have time to debate about it, so I'll go."

"Thank you Shawn," said Evelyn. "You're not as
big of a dick as you let on."

"Let's just get on with it before I change my mind,"
he replied with a wry smile.

Evelyn crouched down next to Bill's corpse. Using her hands,
she scooped up a large puddle of the thick, dark blood of the dead zombie. She
covered Shawn's clothes with the putrid blood, making several trips to the
corpse. Within minutes, she had basted Shawn's body with the muck.

She bent down and gathered two more handfuls of blood.
"You're almost done."

"You're sure this is necessary?" he asked with
obvious reluctance.

Carlos answered "Yes, unfortunately. It's the only way
to be sure your pheromones are masked. In theory, you will be completely
invisible to them."

Shawn gave Carlos a defeated look and took a deep breath.
"Alright, hurry up with this."

Evelyn smeared the zombie blood all over Shawn's face, neck,
head, and hands. Finally, he was ready.

Sam headed to the front door and readied himself. Chatty
stood on the other side of the doorway for support, should the creepers try to
enter.

"Okay, if they buy the ruse, get your ass onto that bus
and get ready to fire it up," Sam said.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," he replied with annoyance.

"We're going to lose the darkness soon," Shawn
observed, trying to speak without letting any of the rancid blood into his
mouth. "We'll be easier to see."

"I don't think the dark has been much of an advantage
for us, do you?" Sam asked, trying not to gag from the smell.

Shawn grunted in agreement.

"Okay, here we go," Sam said as he unlocked the
door and opened it for Shawn to leave.

Shawn stood in the doorway a moment, surveying what he could
see of the parking lot from behind the bus situated a few feet in front of the
entrance. Looking in both directions, not a single creature was in view. The
waning night was dead quiet. The distant screams no longer echoed throughout
the hills of North Pittsburgh. The gunfire had ceased. The human resistance to
the overwhelming threat was unsuccessful. The smell of death weighed heavy and
thick in the putrid air. Fires still burned nearby, their orange light blending
into the gloom of the nearing sun.

His eyes scanned along the top of the bus, then along the front
ledge of the building roof. No sign of any of the dead. He took a cautious step
out into the lot. A second step, followed by a third. He made his way from
behind the bus. Shawn paused between each step, as if he were walking out onto
a frozen lake. Now he could see the entire parking lot.

Shit,
he thought.

Towards the far left corner of the lot, a lone zombie stood
facing the bus. He took in another deep breath and another step. Shawn
continued past the creeper towards McKnight road, bringing him past the
creature.

Damn, I think it's
working!

As if the zombie read his thoughts, it turned to face him,
only ten feet away. It approached him, releasing a quiet, sustained hiss. Shawn
stood motionless as the creeper drew within arm's-length.

Sam and Chatty stood glued to the front door window, peering
through the blinds. They had lost sight of Shawn once he moved behind the bus.

"How's he doing out there?" Evelyn whispered.

"Can't tell. He just moved behind the bus," Sam
replied in a hushed voice.

Evelyn waited about eight feet from the door, shifting her
weight from leg to leg. She stared unblinking at the two men gazing through the
blinds.

Shawn stood statuesque in the gray dawn light. The creature
stood there and stared at him with vacant, red eyes. It made no aggressive
movement towards him. It just stood there, looking. He was afraid to breathe.
The seconds that passed were excruciatingly long.

From deep within her undead sarcophagus, Sunshine projected a
command to the minds of all her children surrounding the humans below.

KILL ANYTHING THAT LEAVES THAT BUILDING!

Shawn locked eyes with the thing before him. He watched as
the creature tilted its head, then sprang into action. Claws grasped his head
and before his brain could register what he was seeing, he was dead. He stood
there for a moment; his head now facing completely backwards. His body fell to
its knees. The ghoul shoved two talons into his mouth and in one swift jerk,
liberated his skull from his body, leaving the lower jaw connected to the mangled
neck. The zombie tossed the remains of Shawn's head over the bus towards the
front door, where the humans awaited the results of their experiment.

Sam and Chatty watched the object that sailed over the bus.
It landed with a wet splat on the pavement between the vehicle and the door. It
rolled a few inches and stopped. Staring back at them were Shawn's lifeless
eyes, glazed over and empty.

"Jesus!" Sam exclaimed.

Evelyn hurried to the door and locked eyes with the vacant
stare directed at her. She gasped and stifled the urge to cry out.

"What happened? What's going on?" Carlos asked,
desperate to know what was transpiring outside but too afraid to look for
himself.

"It didn't work," Evelyn replied. "Shawn's
dead."

Carlos stood in silent repudiation. He was certain that the
plan would work. It HAD to work. Evelyn's hunch was the best idea they had and
was even scientifically viable. He tried to reconcile their latest failure, but
all he could do was accept the fact that they were all going to die; most likely
in horrific and painful ways.

The remaining survivors stood in disbelief and defeat. Heads
bowed as everyone contemplated their own grotesque fates. Tears flowed as hope
evaporated from the group. Humanity's arrogance made them believe that they
were invincible. That no matter what threat presented itself, they would
overcome it. The shock of reality had begun to sink in. The human race wasn't
going to prevail. It wasn't even going to go out in a blaze of fiery glory. No,
instead, this scourge would eradicate them with nothing more than a whimper
heralding their demise.

****************

"So does anybody want to clue us in on what happens at
dawn?" Nathan asked as the two large wolf-things hurried them down Cemetery
Lane towards Babcock Boulevard.

No answer. The group followed the winding road through
snow-covered trees, which arched over them. Boomer was enjoying the benefits of
his new form; bounding back and forth between Ronnie and himself and the wolves
who saved them. Every few moments, Bataviah would give a little snort at
Boomer, like a mother to a pup. Boomer calmed down a little.

The sky was getting brighter. The day was almost upon them
and Nathan still had no idea what was going to happen. Maybe they were all
going to burst into flames. The thought made him anxious. They finally came to
the bottom of the hill and were now standing at the intersection of Cemetery
Lane and Babcock. Maalik and Bataviah looked left and right, their nostrils
flaring as if searching for a scent. Boomer stood with them and imitated his
new creator. The quills on his back perked up and shimmered in the growing
light as he let out a low grunt. The other two wolves snapped their heads to
the right, catching the same scent as Boomer had. Without hesitation the three
sprinted down Babcock.

"C'mon dude, we'd better keep up," said Nathan,
nudging Ronnie in the arm.

"How much more running are they gonna make us do?"
he asked. "I'm beat, yo."

"Let's just try to keep up," he said as they ran
after Boomer and their new companions.

Nathan hadn't noticed until now that he too was getting
tired. It was the first time all night that he had even felt the slightest
fatigued. The horrible hunger in his gut was also returning with a vengeance.
His anxiety ratcheted up another notch. The two zombies followed after the
wolves and managed to catch up. Nathan was now acutely aware of how much more
exhausted he was.

They stopped underneath a nearby underpass, which happened to
be the four lane McKnight Road.

"Why are we stopping here?" Ronnie asked.

Maalik turned to face them, his stature was no less imposing
than it was when he first arrived at Forest Glenn. Nathan expected to hear the
deep, commanding voice of the wolf in his head, as he did before, but he did
not expect what happened next. A low rumble of a growl began to emanate from
the wolf. His fur-quills shimmered as they undulated in waves across his body
as his form began to diminish. Seconds later, the quills seemed to elongate and
wrap around Maalik. A moment later, the quills cascaded to the ground,
revealing a tall, muscular man where the wolf had just been. The quills seemed
to evaporate as they touched the ground, giving off a subtle chiming sound,
like faint, little bells.

Maalik stood before Nathan and Ronnie, clad in what appeared
to be a black alligator skin trench coat, vest and pants. It wasn't alligator
skin, but thousands of small little plates that overlapped, much like shark
skin. He still was an imposing character to behold. Reaching a height about 6'5",
with broad shoulders, fair complexion, and chiseled facial features. His
jet-black hair stretched back into a ponytail and formed an intricate braid
that travelled halfway down his back. Bataviah shimmered just behind Maalik and
soon her quills evaporated, revealing a stunning brunette in its wake. Her
shoulder length hair was as black as Maalik's and framed her pale skin
exquisitely. She too was clad in the same non-alligator, sort-of-shark skin
leather that her male counterpart wore. Boomer shimmered as well, and shook off
his quills like water. Looking like his old furry cuddly self, he trotted over
to Nathan and licked the back of his hand and curled up at his feet.

"God DAMN girl, you are one FINE lookin' bitch!"
Ronnie exclaimed as he stood ogling Bataviah, who shot him a disarming scowl.

"The Dead Sleep will be upon us in moments," Maalik
said in the same deep, commanding voice, although this time he verbalized his
words.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nathan
implored. "Will one of you just tell us what’s going on?"

Bataviah drew closer, speaking with an accent that Nathan
couldn't place. The same accent that Maalik had, but more pronounced.
"Calm yourself Nathan, the two of you need your strength for the coming
day."

"But WHY? What's going to happen?"

Bataviah stared with icy blue eyes which pierced his soul.
Her expression softened and her mouth curved into a subtle smile. She continued
in a slow, deliberate manner.

"Our kind, both yours and ours, go into a dormant state
during the daylight. While the sun rules the sky, Maalik and I cannot change
into what you saw us as before. We are essentially mortal during this time;
weakened and vulnerable. We call this the Dead Sleep."

"Now THAT is some fan-fucking-tastic news!" Ronnie
exclaimed. "I can't wait to feel like myself again...I'm literally dying
for a hot dog or some real food!

"That isn't going to happen, my young friend,"
Maalik interjected. "The Sleep is different for you, I'm afraid."

"Aw, what the fuck, man!" Ronnie protested.
"That ain't fair."

Maalik continued. "Your mutation is different from ours.
Once you turn, there is no going back. You are forever damned to be a demon of
the night."

Before Ronnie could offer a rebuttal, Bataviah spoke.

"Once the sun rises, both you and Nathan will become
nothing more than shambling corpses. You will lose most of your coordination
and muscle control, as well as any enhanced senses. In fact, you will most
likely have worse sensory capacity than humans. You will not be able to
regenerate. You will not be able to hunt with the cunning that you have grown
accustomed to up until this point. You will be able to feed; providing that you
can catch your prey. The hunger never fades. It is always present. During the
Sleep, the hunger will be the only thing that motivates you. The only thing you
care about."