Wake the Dead 2 (Wake The Dead Series) (15 page)

“Sandy, I can get you help. You’re sick and need attention,” he said, staring up at her.

“Is it sick to want to keep my boy fed? All I wanna do is take care of him.”

The tone with which she said those last few words was altogether different. There was compassion and pain in her voice. She truly believed that she was helping her son, in some sick way. She was past delusional, he figured, which would make reasoning with her a near impossibility.

“Sandy, listen to me, okay? Andy is dead. He’s not alive anymore,” he said carefully, measuring his words.

“No, he’s sick is all. He’ll get better,” she said calmly and with conviction.

“Now get down them steps, or I’ll put one in your head. Do it now.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Sandy,” Alex said firmly, backing up another step, and trying a last desperate attempt to reach a rational side of her.

“Oh, but it does. My boy needs to eat and—“

A sickening gurgle interrupted her last statement before it was finished and Alex heard, and then saw, her body hit the floor. He bounded up to the step where his gun rested, not knowing what had just happened, picked it up, and was ready to fire when he saw Sandy’s dismembered head roll down the steps past him to land at the bottom.

In the doorframe was now the familiar form of Selina. She stood there looking down at him, sword grasped tightly in her hands, the blade stained with fresh blood.

“That bitch was crazy,” she said, taking a step down as Alex rushed up to meet her. He hugged her and she hugged him back, the embrace tightening with each second that passed until they heard a moan from downstairs.

“That sound is her son…
was
her son rather,” Alex corrected, staring back into her eyes.

“I heard. I was here for the end of that exchange, and so, I did what I had to do.”

“Shadow?”

“He’s fine. Still over at the house in the kitchen when I left.” He stared back at her in silence for a long minute.

“Sure took your time getting’ here,” he said with half smile.

“What?! You said five minutes! I gave you ten!”

“I'm glad you came. I’d be dead if you hadn’t,” Alex said, realizing how poorly that scenario might have played out otherwise.

Moaning was heard again in the recesses of the basement again and Alex looked at Selina, who nodded for him to take the lead. Alex chambered a round in his Glock and began descending the steps again. As he got to the bottom, he could see the zombie that was ‘Andy’, the chain that was around his neck taught as he could go no further, swiping at them. Its moans became garbled as the leather strap pressed hard against its neck, which was probably the reason they were muted in the first place.

The foul stench in the basement was stronger than anything he’d encountered before.

As Alex took a circuitous path around the chained zombie, keeping it at its furthest length, he pinched his nose with his free hand, trying in vain to keep the rank odor from penetrating his nostrils.

Selina followed behind, and Alex detected several signs of movement in the gloom before them, leveling his weapon in that direction.

To Alex’s disgust, he laid eyes upon what one could only be prisoners in various states of decay.

“Shit, try to find another light switch,” Alex said as he managed to push past the lump in his throat. Selina did that, finding a pull string on the ceiling with a single bulb fixture above them.

On the floor, bound and gagged, were a trio of women, eyes wide and full of tears. Alex released the gag on the first one, a dark haired woman of possibly Indian descent while Selina released the other two.

“What happened to you?”

“Thank God you found us,” she said, crushing him in a hug, trying to stand. Alex helped her back to the ground and shook his head.

“No, you sit. It’s okay, the woman upstairs is dead.”

“Sandy!?” she asked, her eyes filled with terror, her voice quivering. Alex nodded slightly to indicate that she was correct.

“But what about the guy?”

Alex and Selina looked to each other and Alex shrugged. He had another terrible feeling that this might go badly again.

“I didn’t see a guy…,” he said, looking toward the stairwell.

“Neither did I,” Selina whispered.

“Oh my god, no!” the woman cried. Alex covered her mouth and took a deep breath.

“Who are you talking about!?” he asked her in an excited whisper.

“There was a big guy—the one who rounded us up in the first place!”

“He might be out on a hunt right now,” said one of the other girls. “We need to get out of here now!”

Again, they heard the moaning and straining of ‘Andy’ as he tried to get to them, the chain stretched as far as it could, the leather strap continuing to press against its neck.

“Get them free, I’m gonna put this one out of his misery,” Selina said, removing her weapon and stalking straight over to the zombie. She allowed it to reach for her, glowering hatefully at the thing as Alex began to untie the other two women. He heard the sword slice through flesh as he had many time before and felt a sense of satisfaction in this particular case.

“There any more of you around?” Alex asked, finishing cutting the last of the bindings.

“None that are still alive,” said a disheveled blonde woman, her hair cropped short as if she’d cut it herself with a knife. Her dark clothes, a tank shirt and jeans, were otherwise covered in dirt and gore. ”I'm gonna kill him,” she mumbled under her breath.

“We had a few men with us,” said the Indian woman through tear-stained eyes, gesturing to the freezer. “But they killed them and cut ‘em up for food!”

“They’re in the freezer, cut to fuckin’ pieces,” said the third woman—a young girl really, Alex figured, she couldn’t have been more than late teens by his estimation. She had pink dyed hair, piercings all over her face, ears and nose. She was pale and dressed in a black skirt and tee shirt that had some kind of band name on it that he didn’t recognize.

“They would take us one by one and kill us, cut the bodies up right in front of us, then stick the parts in the goddamn freezer!” said the pink-haired one, crying hysterically. “They killed John!
My
John!”

Alex shook his head in disbelief, glaring at the freezer. Selina, her curiosity getting the better of her, opened the freezer and immediately vomited upon seeing the contents.

“We need to get out of here,” Alex said to Selina, who shook her head in disbelief and then raced over to the steps, taking them two at a time until she was at the top.

“Clear!” Selina yelled down the steps, Alex trying to help the women to their feet.

“C’mon, ladies! I know you’re all tired, and sore, and hungry, but we need to get the hell out of here…and now!” Alex aided the women in herding them up the stairs as fast as they could. He looked back at the sight of what must have been their worst nightmares and shook his head. It angered him beyond measure as he considered how helpless they must have felt.

“This way. It’s how I got in,” Selina said, ushering them out the back door, and then lading them back to the garage next-door, closing the bay door behind them.

“Stay here. I’ve got a wolf inside,” he began to explain and then stopped, gazing over to Selina.

“It’s okay though, he is our friend,” Selina said in a soft tone. “He won’t hurt anyone. But, let’s keep you three out here and get you fed before we make any kind of introductions, okay?”

They all three nodded and took seats on cabinet surfaces and the floor wherever they found space. Selina nodded as Alex went inside, leaving her with the others in an attempt to make them feel at ease.

“I’ll be back in a minute or two.” Entering the kitchen from the garage, Alex quickly found Shadow, lying curled up in a ball in the living room beside an ottoman, sleeping.

“You okay, boy?” Alex asked him. The wolf barely opened his eyes in response.

Alex quickly rummaged through the drawers and found some pasta, then some pots and half a case of water beneath the sink. He poured the water into the pot and lit the burner. Nothing happened on the first one. The two rear ones however, did engage, turning red with heat. Alex didn’t even sense how long had passed, but when he looked down the water was boiling in the pot. He poured the pasta into the pot and looked to the door as it opened. Selina poked her head inside and stared at him, then quietly closed the door and tiptoed to stand beside him.

“The blonde one is nuts,” Selina said. “Carol’s her name. I think she might wanna go after the man that captured them.”

“Is he Sandy’s husband?”

“No idea. But she wants him to pay.”

“I don’t blame her,” Alex said, looking in the cabinet and finding a strainer. He dumped the pasta into the empty pan and found some bowls, scooping some into each bowl. “And if he comes back while we’re still here, she might not have to.”

“I’m serious, Alex,” she said in his ear, more firmly this time. “I think she’s dangerous.”

“To us? Or the fuckin’ asshole that held her captive?!” he whispered back angrily, trying to put himself in Carol’s place. “I dunno how
I’d
feel if it happened to me. Or worse yet—
you
! I’d wanna kill him, too. More than I do now!”

“Okay, I get it. Just sayin’ I think she’s a bit off her rocker, okay? Keep an eye on her while she’s here.”

The door swung open behind them as they argued in hushed whispers. The pale-skinned girl peeked her head in, swinging the door wide. “She took off. Went out the side door with a bunch of tools from the counter there.”

“Shit,” Selina said, running out the door after her.

“Keep this door closed for now,” Alex said, handing the girl two bowls of pasta and running after Selina. “Wait, dammit!” Alex yelled, removing his pistol again, chasing after her to the end of the driveway. “Where’d she go?”

“There,” Selina said as she nodded toward the backside of the properties, all wooded areas choked with bushes, trees and the like. Alex looked around for the woman, scanning the tree line until he felt Selina tap him on the shoulder.

“But I'm more worried about them.”

Chapter 12

Alex looked to where Selina gestured, catching sight of a mob of the undead that wandered into view in the distance. There were at least fifty of them, Alex guessed, grabbing Selina by the arm and pulling her back inside the garage where the others were waiting.

“That doesn’t look good,” the young woman with the pink hair said to them, noting the panic in their eyes. “What’s out there? More of the freaks?”

“Yeah. Don’t panic, though. We’ll figure it out….” Alex stared at her as she shoveled a forkful of pasta into her mouth and stared back at him. “This is where you tell me your name.”

“Laurie.”

“And you? Alex asked the other woman who blankly stared off into the distance.  “Hey!” Alex said, dropping to his knees and forcing her to look into her eyes.

“Mira,” she said, finally registering Alex as being there.

“Selina, grab Shadow and sit beside him. I'm bringing them in. its gonna have to be a baptism by fire.” Selina nodded and disappeared inside the doorway.

“Okay, gals. Real quick, don’t make any sudden movements, or act in a threatening manner and you’ll be fine. Shadow won’t hurt you unless you give him a reason. Got it?”

They nodded in silence, putting their bowls down and following him inside.

Once in the kitchen, Selina brought the wolf over to the girls and he sniffed them, and then moved away, disinterested in them.

“Now let’s make sure everything is shut tight and get our asses upstairs,” Alex said, grabbing all of his gear and heading straight for the stairs that led to the upper level of the house, Selina leading the way.

“C’mon, Shadow,” Alex said, as the wolf reluctantly followed him.

And so they waited.

***

It wasn’t more than an hour that had passed before Alex climbed out of a bedroom window and onto the roof to take a look around. All of the zombies had seemed to pass through without entering the house.

“Seems like they passed,” Alex said, when he made it back inside the bedroom. “We can go outside back now.”

“Yay,” said Laurie, doing a sarcastic fist pump.

“Well, there are some folks that we know who are still alive. And they have a secure location, too,” Selina said, as Alex leveled a questioning gaze her way.  “What? You know that Nick would give them safe passage.”

“You’re probably right. But it isn’t up to us,” Alex countered in a whisper, pulling her away from the others. “It’ll be up to the man in charge, ya know? And there is the issue of food supplies….”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well, I’ll try anything at this point,” Mira said dejectedly. “Got no food, no place to live, no husband. No future either.”

“I’ll take my chances out here,” Laurie said. “John being killed doesn’t give me much confidence or trust in others. I told him, too. Don’t fuckin’ trust nobody.”

“You can do what you want. I ain’t here to stop you. But, if you wanna try gettin’ to know Nick and the people at the castle, we’ll take you there…,” Alex paused, looking to Selina, who nodded her agreement.

“Well, I’m ready whenever you guys wanna take me,” Mira said, clutching her arms tightly around herself in a self-hugging motion. “The wolf there makes me nervous.”

“Try to stay calm. He won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“Seems more like a dog than a wolf,” Laurie mentioned casually, clearly not affected by the wolf’s presence.

“Yeah, seems like that’s true,” Selina commented absently, as if realizing the same thing.

Alex considered that and knew that the wolf was a wild animal, and yet, it had been acting more and more domesticated as the days went on. He considered again that the zombie virus might have affected animals in a different way. Or maybe not all of them, but some of them were affected in ways that couldn’t be explained.

Who the hell knows?

“Alex, you okay?” Selina asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder and pulling him back to focus.

“Yeah. I'm good. I don’t think I'm gonna be able to get that car working in the garage easily, so why don’t we bring the girls—or at least Mira if Laurie really doesn’t wanna go—back to the boat and see if Nick’ll take ‘em in.”

“Okay, let’s get movin’ then. We’re burnin’ daylight,” Selina said. “And I don’t like runnin’ into jokers at night.”

The group headed down the stairs and then outside as Alex rubbed Shadow’s head. He looked back at Alex with a soulful look and got to his feet.

“C’mon, pal. Let’s get movin’.”  With that, Shadow bounded ahead of him and down the stairs, following the others out into the garage and disappearing from sight. “He’s somethin’ all right.”

A minute later Alex was with the group outside, Mira anxiously waiting to go and Laurie pacing back and forth, unsure of what she wanted to do.

“I’ll sit in the back with Mira, okay?” Selina offered, tapping the hilt of her sword and adjusting the belt into a more comfortable position.

Alex nodded and then opened the front door and called Shadow over to him, tapping the front seat. The wolf leaped up and into the seat without much of a fuss. As he shut the door, something appeared in his peripheral vision. It was coming toward them, and fast.

When he looked up, he saw the woman that they had just lost—Carol was her name—rushing toward Laurie, who was on the outskirts of the group. Alex couldn’t get his pistol in his hand before the girl was taken off her feet by the charging undead.

Carol had turned. She was a zombie, and a powerful one at that. Blood erupted from her mouth as she landed atop Laurie and sunk her teeth into her arm.

Selina was there in a hurry, slicing the zombie’s head clean off with a well-struck blow. The body collapsed on top of Laurie’s lithe frame. She was bleeding from a shoulder wound and quite possibly in shock still.

Shadow snarled inside the vehicle, pawing at the window to get out.

Mira fell to the floor in shock, convulsing as her head struck the ground. Laurie was bleeding from a deep wound in her arm, screaming in pain now.

Alex jumped on top of Mira to try stopping her convulsion as Selina ran to the back of the ambulance, threw open the doors, and disappeared inside the back of the ambulance. She came back out a moment later with a few things in hand, driving a needle into Laurie’s arm.

“That’ll numb the pain,” she said as she looked at Alex, who struggled to keep Mira still.

“What the hell was that?!” he yelled to her.

“Morphine. And I got some antibiotics for her! How you doin’ over there?”

“Not great!” he yelled back as Mira still convulsed beneath him while he tried to keep her pinned, cushioning her head with his hand. She began foaming at the mouth and Alex suddenly saw Selina standing over him. She leaned over Mira and pinned her arm, jamming another needle into her shoulder. A minute later, she stopped convulsing.

“What the hell was that?” Alex asked her, not sure of anything that was happening. He knew
a lot
about
a lot
of things, but this was not an area of expertise when it came to medicine.

‘It’s Ativan. An anti-seizure med.”

“Care to say how you knew that?”

“Yeah, my older sister Debbie had seizures all the time, and when they got to the house, the paramedics always gave it to her to stop the seizure.” Alex stared at her and was impressed at her knowledge of medicine. “I spent some time in ambulances in my younger days.”

“Care to give some attention over here then, since you know stuff?” Laurie said through clenched teeth, trying to stem the blood from her bite wound. Selina almost laughed at her sarcasm, but stifled it, hurrying to her side and inspecting the wound.

“It’s not bad, the wound isn’t that deep. Might need to be stitched, though,” Selina said.

“And you can do that?!” she asked hopefully, suddenly seeming to care about whether or not she lived or died.

“I can. I’ve sewn before, sure,” Selina said calmly. “But let’s do it in the back of the ambulance, okay?” she helped her get up and walked her into the back of the vehicle.

“You want me to put her back there, too?” Alex asked, regarding the unconscious Mira, who lay comatose on the ground at the curb of the house.

“Gimme fifteen minutes, okay?” Alex nodded and opened the front door, finally letting Shadow out of the vehicle.

“Stay close, boy.”

He watched as Shadow patrolled around the vehicle and into the front yard, sniffing all around.

It took a little while longer than fifteen minutes, Alex guessed, when Selina finally climbed out of the vehicle.

“She’s out cold. Had to give her more morphine. I didn’t do the greatest job. It’s gonna leave a scar.”

“She’ll probably love you for that,” Alex said, leveling a reassuring gaze her way. She shrugged and then moved to sit at the feet of Mira. “Okay, let’s load her up and get the hell outta here before something else happens,” Alex said, grabbing the unconscious Mira by the neck and shoulders as Selina lifted her by her feet. The pair gently placed her beside Laurie and Selina climbed in after them. Alex hopped into the front seat and threw open the passenger door. Shadow eventually came into view and Alex whistled for him to come, and the wolf complied immediately, running over to the ambulance and springing into the vacant seat.

“Good boy.”

He drove off without looking back.

***

It wasn’t long before they were back at the boat. Alex parked the ambulance in the usual spot off the road and then let Shadow out of the passenger side. Both women were still out cold, and so Alex and Selina gently carried both women one by one down the hill to the boat and gently laid them down.

“You need help with the boat motor?” Selina asked as Alex took it out of the ambulance and began walking it down the hill.

“Nah,” he lied, bringing it down to the boat and setting it in place. He was very winded from carrying the two women down to the boat, but did not want to admit it. “Much easier to go down the hill than up.”

“Okay, Mister-manly-man.”

“Too many nicknames. Let’s stick to just one…or two if you were gonna stick with Lancelot!”

“I was,” she teased, joining him at the riverbank.

“You want me to take ‘em back?” Alex asked Selina as they placed Laurie beside Mira. There was no way that they would all fit in the tiny boat without taking a chance that it would overturn, and so Selina agreed to stay behind to watch after Shadow.

“We’ll be here, tiger. Don’t be long,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“I won’t,” he said, starting the motor and then giving her a casual wave goodbye. It wasn’t long before Alex had the castle in sight. He guided the boat carefully along the river and into the moat’s path, coming to a stop at the drawbridge.

“Whatcha got there?” called a voice from above him. Alex glanced up to see Phil looking down upon him from the parapets.

“Long story. Short version is that Selina and I found these two in a development northwest of here. They were being held by a crazy woman who was trying to feed them to her zombie son.”

“Well, that’s just creepy. I’ll be right down.” A moment later and Phil joined him at the drawbridge where he tossed up the rope and tied it to the post. Alex handed the first unconscious girl up to him.

“This one is Mira. She had a convulsive fit after she hit her head on the street pretty hard. She’ll be okay when she finally wakes up, I hope.”

“And this one?”

“This one is Laurie. She’s got a bit of an attitude, but she’s mostly harmless.”

“Great…Nick will love that one then,” he added, pulling her onto the drawbridge.

“Where’s Selina? She okay?”

“Yep. Her and Shadow are fine. You good with them?”

“Yep. We’ll take care of it,” Phil said, untying the rope and tossing it back to Alex, then holding his gaze there for a long while. “But you gotta stop bringing in strays, man.”

“Well, I could have left ‘em to die….” Again, there was a long pause. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“No, you’re right. You did the right thing. Just don’t make it a habit is all.”