Trepidation (9 page)

“Me too,” Val whispered.

“Ulterior motive,” he muttered, then trailed off into some kind of babble that none of our hazy brains could understand.

I
literally felt as if my head was underwater, and I could have sworn Rita had admitted to drugging us. “But...why?” I managed. 

“Because you’re my guests of honor,” she said.

Val cocked a brow. “What does that mean?”

“It means you’re the feast.”

“Is that why you didn’t eat much?” I asked.

She nodded and smiled a smile that would have looked grandmotherly under any other circumstances. “I was saving my appetite.”

Val threw up her arms. “Not again!”

“What?” Kate asked.

“I’ve dealt with cannibals before. It wasn’t all backwoods like this one. It was very organized and precise. It happened on my way to the island. This fake hospital tried to harvest me for meat...but I was able to escape.”

Rita laughed. “Not this time, sweetheart.”

“If I could move, I’d punch you!” Val shouted. “Why kind of drugs did you give me?”

Lucas glanced over at me. “Why is it that no matter where we go, we run into the nuts? She did say she could eat you right up, ol’ blue eyes,” he said, turning to me. “Maybe we shoulda taken that literally.”

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said to my sister and friends, as if they didn’t already know that.

Rita laughed. “Heh. I’m just pulling your leg. I’m not gonna eat you!”

“Really?” Kate asked hopefully.

“Well, not tonight.”

“Dean!” Kate frantically yelled. “This woman is crazy. We’ve gotta go now!”

Rita grinned like a shark, an unstable, dangerous predator who literally wanted to devour us. “The door is right there. Feel free to show yourselves out.”

“But everything is spinning,” I said. 

“If you choose to stay, my boys will skin you with a cleaver. Then we’ll cut you up piece by piece. I was an idiot to eat beef for so long. Human flesh is the tastiest morsel of them all, and it’s a whole lot easier to get than a cow or chicken these days.”

“You’re worse than the zombies!” I said. “You’re sick!”

“How can you say that, Dean?” she retorted. “Those zombies will rip you apart and eat you alive. I kill my livestock with mercy.”

“Livestock? Lady, you’re insane!” Kate said as she suddenly lifted her head. “Don’t you even have a conscience?”

“I used to, but I will do whatever I have to keep me and my sons alive. I kill as humanely as I can and only eat to survive. I’m not a maniac or a cannibal or anything. This is all about staying alive till we get our world back, till the zombies rot into extinction. Then I’ll go back to normal food.”

My stomach churned at the thought of being murdered and eaten.

“Just out of curiosity,” Lucas said in an unnervingly rational tone, “what part of me will you eat?”

I knew then that Lucas was out it; if he had been in his right mind, he would have already knocked the old fiend to the floor, and we would have been out the door.

“Do you think she has road kill in the fridge?” Kate asked.

“Why would she?” Lucas said. “She prefers people-burgers. I bet her fridge is filled with jars of eyeballs and fingers in pickle juice.”

I shook my head in horror.

“No, I am not grotesque about it,” Rita calmly explained. “I only eat thighs, calves, livers...all the things you would eat from any animal that is slaughtered for food. Of course, I can make a to-die-for stew from tongue. I just converted it from an old slow-cooker beef recipe my great aunt gave me. When supplies are scarce, I do have to throw in some stray cats or dogs now and then.”

“How many people have you...eaten?” Kate asked, almost throwing up.

“I’ve lost count,” she said, “but it isn’t hard to lure people in. Everyone needs help out here, and there are no police or firemen to lend a hand. I guess you could say I kill ‘em with kindness. I had to find a way to feed my family. This nice woman from Toledo was running from zombies, so we had to help her. We were so hungry that we were practically going mad, so I guess the first time, it was...instinctual. We just killed her and fed. It felt nice to have a full stomach, and I knew that it was something we’d have to do from then on.”

“It’s repulsive!” Val said.

“It’s better than starving,” Rita retorted, “and it’s better for the victims to be killed humanely by us than to be ripped apart by those zombies.”

“I can’t believe you’re rationalizing this,” Val said, “especially since you already have normal food. Look at this dinner.”

Rita crossed her arms. “That’s only for luring people in, and there isn’t much.”

“So let me get this straight,” Lucas said, slurring. “Are you gonna eat me tonight, or am I gonna end up as part of a bunch of little frozen TV dinners?”

“Actually, we’re stockpiling for winter,” she said.

“Like squirrels?” he said, obviously unable to keep track of the conversation.

I wasn’t thinking straight, and I knew Lucas wasn’t. I had enough presence of mind, though, to know we had to find Nick and get out of there. “I-I need to slap water on my face.”

“There’s no running water, but there is a bathroom upstairs. You won’t escape. There’s no exit up there.”

I gripped the banister. Each step seemed almost impossible, and my feet felt like lead. When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw the bathroom. I walked in and gasped. The walls were splattered in blood, but I couldn’t even be sure that was real. I opened the shower curtain, and a shudder ran through me when I saw a mutilated, headless corpse in the bathtub. “Nick!” I screamed, fearing the worst.

He didn’t answer.

Where’s his room again?
I couldn’t remember and turned to the left. I heard death moans echoing faintly through the dimly lit halls. My mind was clouded, but I forced myself to try and focus. I heard footsteps in the room I thought was Nick’s, and I hoped it was only him pacing. “Nick?” I whispered. My fingers gripped the doorknob tightly, and I called for Nick again.

A long, intimidating
hiss
was my only reply.

Still, I had to see if Nick was okay. As soon as I opened the door, a black-haired zombie lunged at me and snapped its jaws. I gasped and instinctively kicked it hard in the chest, sending it whirling backward.
What the heck is a zombie doing in this room? Was it Nick? It had thick, black hair like Nick’s, and it was just as tall.

The zombie came back and leapt for my throat. My vision blurred, and strange, multicolored spots, like moving Smuckers jelly, seemed to fill my eyes. A gunshot echoed, and the zombie collapsed in a gory heap. I screamed, certain that Rita had killed my brother. My heart ached, and I was suddenly paralyzed with grief. I reached for the bedside table. As I fell, I grabbed the tablecloth, and a vase shattered into pieces next to me. I stared at the colors of the broken pieces. I knew I needed to get him, but I simply didn’t have the strength. All I could think about was my brother.

Rita’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Get up!”

“I-I can’t.”

“Yes you can. Try.”

I stumbled to my feet as anger washed over me. I refused to let the heinous old hag win. I was going to take her down, gun or not, was going to make her pay for the stomach-turning things she’d done. She was a skinny, bony little woman, and I knew I could easily overtake her, even drugged as I was.

In spite of my resolve, though, to conquer my feeble foe, everything was a blur, and the next thing I knew, Rita was guiding me down the stairs and outside.
Why am I not even trying to escape?
I couldn’t make out the details, but I heard a door open, a creaking sound. I couldn’t hold on any longer, and within seconds, I melted into darkness.

I
woke up to the steady, rhythmic dripping of water. Lying on my stomach, I glanced around and tried to figure out where I was. My mind was still a bit cloudy from whatever the crazy woman had put in our food and drink.
I shouldn’t have had a V8,
I thought, but the joke wasn’t enough to make me smile in my condition. It was dark, and I couldn’t see a thing. My mind raced as I tried to make sense of it.
Where am I?

I felt something scratchy beneath me.
Hay or straw or something
. I wasn’t out in the open air, and the place had a foul stench to it. I would have bet a million bucks that I was in a barn.

A drop of water hit my face, and I assumed it was from all the rain coming through the leaky roof. When I sat up, I hit something hard. I couldn’t see what it was, but it really made no difference. I just wanted out of here.

I took a cautious step, feeling through the darkness to find the door and praying to God that the others were alive and okay. I gasped when the memories of the most recent events flashed through my mind in severed fragments:
Nick’s room. He’s...a zombie. But Rita shot him!

Glass crunched, and a chill shot down my spine. I could hear tiny footsteps, and that meant only one thing: I wasn’t alone. That thought alone made my stomach gurgle. When I heard a tiny growl that didn’t seem to come from a human throat, only one thought occurred to me:
Zombie
!

To make matters worse, the creature had a distinct advantage over me, because I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t have a weapon or even know where the exit was. I wondered if I’d been put in there on purpose, to feed the zombie, maybe the woman’s dead husband or one of her sons or even her alleged cat.

The crunching grew closer, and I sucked in a deep breath as fear coursed through my veins. I could barely hear the footsteps over the sound of my pounding heart and frantic breathing. I clenched my fists, ready to fight. It let out another soft growl, and I could hear it breathing. Blood pumped hard through my head, almost dizzying me. I couldn’t even see my opponent, but I was sure it was stalking toward me. Terror gripped me and squeezed even tighter as I strained to see in the darkness.

“Dean?” I heard a voice call from behind me.

“Val?”

“Yeah?”

“Get up! There’s something in here with us!”

“Wh-where are we?” she groggily asked. “Something’s dripping on me,” she said.

“Get up!” I said, repeating my command more sternly. “I know your mind is foggy, but there’s a zombie in here. I need you to fight. We’ve gotta take it down. Besides, I need your eyes!”

“Dean...” she said.

I followed her voice. “You’ve gotta get on your feet, sis,” I said, feeling around for her. When I felt her arm, I shook it. “Wake up!”

“I can’t open my eyes. In my pocket. There are keys, with a little flashlight on them. Max gave it to me.”

More footsteps shuffled around, and I almost threw up as they came nearer. “Val, you’ve gotta open your eyes and see how many there are!” I frantically said. “Do you see anything we can use as weapons?”

She didn’t answer.

At that point, I was sure she’d blacked out again, and I figured I’d have to fight the threat off by myself. I reached into Val’s pocket and grabbed the apartment keys, fumbling with my nervous fingers for the little flashlight. When I found it, I was glad to see that it let off quite an impressive LED beam for such a tiny little thing. I shined it around the dark barn, but I didn’t see any zombies. Of course, I didn’t see any suitable weapons either, nothing but hay and walls constructed of old and decaying wood. “Wouldn’t you know it?” I complained to myself. “In those Jason movies, there’s always a pitchfork or a shovel or something. Why isn’t it like that in real life?” I knew I had heard something, so I glanced around again. “They aren’t smart enough to hide,” I reasoned, “unless...” The thought of it being a hybrid caused me to sweat profusely, and I wiped by brow. 

When the low growl pierced the air again, I knew I had to get myself and Val out of there in a hurry. I’d never been so scared and disoriented before. Even if it was only one zombie, being trapped in that dark, dank, unfamiliar place with no weapons was a nightmare all its own. The increasing dread only made it harder to suck in air, but I knew I had to push beyond the fear, for myself, for Val, and for the others. “Breathe,” I told myself.

In a blur, something shot toward me.

My heart stopped.

It barked, and I let out a sigh of relief as the German Shepherd sat down by my feet, a friendly, furry beast who just wanted to check me out. I patted its head, still trying to get my breath back, and then I rushed back over to Val. I flashed the little light she gave me and gasped.

It was at that moment that I caught sight of something so gruesome, so horrible that I would never ever forget it: dead human bodies dangling from meat hooks, like deer carcasses in a hunter’s garage. They looked fresh and were still dripping crimson blood that splashed the hay beneath them. It became instantly clear to me that Rita had lied about her family being away for over a week, because she couldn’t possibly have killed all those people and hoisted them up there by herself. I was horrified when I realized it wasn’t rain I’d felt dripping on me earlier; the thought made me gag, and I had to fight the urge not to vomit. Clearly, the barn we’d been thrown into was a makeshift butcher shop, and we were next on the chopping block. 

“Val,” I said, “you’ve gotta wake up!”

She didn’t budge.

Just as I was considering throwing her over my shoulder to carry her out, the door creaked open. The beam from a flashlight poured in, and heavy shoes crunched on grit and rocks, carrying a group of armed men inside.

I quickly shut off the mini-flashlight, lay down, and played dead. There was no way I could take on such a group by myself, so I just remained completely still, not even breathing. When a huge glob of blood dripped onto my forehead, I didn’t dare wipe it off. I opened my eyes just a slit and saw a man in a bloody apron.

“These carcasses aren’t ready,” one of the men said. “They need to hang out for a few weeks before we can butcher ‘em.”

I swallowed hard.

“One of them is ready,” a woman said.

“Okay. Sal, this’ll be your first one. Sure you can handle it?”