Z-Burbia 7: Sisters of the Apocalypse (4 page)

She stares at me. Doesn't say a word, just stares at me. Then her head turns and she looks at the bug smear on the wall.

"I can learn," she says. "Please. Take me with you. I know those beans are bad. That's all I got left. Once those cans are empty then so is this town. There ain't a scrap of food left. I already found all that hasn't been stolen or scavenged. Used to be more hidden away, but it was stolen."

"Stolen?" I ask. "Are there others around here?"

"It was strangers," she says. "From out of town."

"I'm looking for strangers," I say. "How long ago was this? Were any of them kids?"

She sniffles hard and nods. "Yeah. Kids."

"They were? What kids?" I snap and grab her again.

She squeaks and tries to get away, but that ain't happening.

"What kids?" I snarl.

"I don't know," she squawks. "Some kids. About six of them, maybe. They're, uh, creepy. Slink around like lizards."

"Are they blind?" I ask. "Did you see their eyes?"

"No," she says. "They wear sunglasses or goggles. But they sure don't act blind."

"No, they wouldn't," I say. "But they are. Well, not all. Some of them are just deaf. I think. Not sure no more since we can't find the little fucks."

"I can take you to them!" Inez shouts. "I know where they are!"

Dammit.

That goes on for like forever before I finally give in. It's either that or kill the crazy, whiny bitch. She's annoying as all shit, but not enough to get a knife to the temple.

"Okay," I finally say. "I'll take you with me. But I'm only gonna keep you safe until we find those kids. After that you are on your own."

"You don't need to worry about me," she says, jumping around the room and clapping her hands. "I've survived this long. I can survive just fine on my own."

"Yeah, right," I say and sneer. "Now, where the fuck is the other way out?"

Chapter Four

Turns out there's another room. You wouldn't know it when you first look at Inez's little shitbox. I guess you'd call it a bathroom? I ain't got no clue.

Yeah, there's a toilet and a shower stall, but those only take up a small part of the space. The rest is all shelves with cleaning stuffs on them. They ain't doing no cleaning anymore, just collecting lots of fucking dust. Lady got a room of cleaning supplies, but she don't clean a thing.

"Through here," Inez says and points at the shower.

"We going down the drain?" I ask. "Because I can't fit. You can't either. You know that, right?"

I got to ask. Inez is cuckoo pants and I ain't got no plans on hanging with a cuckoo pants lady that thinks she can fit down a drain. That's just fucking nuts.

"No, no, not the drain," she says and gives me a smile as she grabs onto the side of the shower stall. "Help me shove it out of the way."

I grab the other side and we pull. The damn shower comes away from the wall like it's made of nothing. We get it a few feet back and stop.

"I'll be dipped in Z shit," I say as I check out the huge hole in the wall. "Where does it go?"

"Under everything," Inez says. "Under the streets and other buildings. Connects to lots of places, but most places aren't worth being connected to. Most is overrun with the undead, anyway. Don't want to go in those places."

A thought hits me in my brainpan and I frown.

"Why do you have Zs chained up outside your place?" I ask.

"Keeps the undead and other people away," she says.

"What other people?" I ask. I turn to her and put my hands on my hips. The only weapon I have on me is my knife on my belt. I left the lamp out there. "You mean other than the strangers you mentioned?"

"What? Uh, no, no, just the strangers," she says. "People coming into town like you. Scavengers and cannies. Got to watch out for cannies around here."

I narrow my eyes because Greta says I look scary as shit when I narrow my eyes. Inez don't flinch. She gives me an uncomfortable smile and points at the dark tunnel that was hidden behind the shower stall.

"This is why I stayed here," Inez says. "Back way out. In case too many cannies come and break into my place."

"You don't know that the undead are called Zs, but you know that cannibals are called cannies?" I ask. "Why's that?"

There's a loud groaning of metal from the other room. The front door ain't doing so well. Reinforced or not, you put a whole shit ton of Zs up against anything and they will eventually take it down. Charlie has some big, fancy, sciencey name for it, but I just call it "duh."

Inez grabs a short metal bar from the floor and walks into the tunnel. She bangs on some exposed pipes in the ceiling and steps back.

"Making sure there aren't any undead in the tunnel," she says. "They'll come to the noise and then we can bash them over the head with the bars." She points at a pile of bars in the corner. "Grab yourself one. They're good and solid."

She waits then steps back into the tunnel and bangs on the pipes again. While she does that, I pick up two bars, one for each hand. They ain't sharp like my blades, but they got some good heft and I know I can do some major damage with them.

Inez bangs again.

"Stop that," I say. "If the Zs ain't heard the first banging then all you're doing is giving away our position."

"Giving away our position?" Inez laughs from inside the tunnel. She's gone a ways in and it's too dark for me to see her anymore. "Are you in the military, Elsbeth?"

"Not quite," I say. "But close."

I wait for more banging, or for her to speak again, but there's nothing. Just the Zs from the basement smacking the metal door and groaning their asses off. I take a step into the tunnel.

"Inez? Where you at?" I call out. "Hey! Inez!"

She doesn't call back. I tilt my head, but can't hear her footsteps or anything. Still too much noise from the Zs out in the basement.

I ain't stupid. I got some problems in my head, no joking about that, but stupid ain't one of the problems. I got a couple choices. I can follow Inez and see where the tunnel leads. Or I can wait for the Zs to break down the metal door and fight my way back into the basement then find my way out from there.

That first choice, the one where I follow Inez, ain't so good because I am beginning to think she ain't what she says she is. Gut feeling. Like those beans. She says she's been eating them, but ain't no way a person can eat those bad beans and still be walking around. Not without shit dripping from her ass. And the not knowing what Zs are called, but knowing what cannies are. That don't fit either.

But fighting a basement of Zs don't sound like a good choice at all. I can hear a lot of them out there. Probably every Z in the building fell down that bathroom hole and is knocking to get inside. They want my tasty Elsbeth flesh. Long Pork used to joke like that and I see why. Shit be true. Zs want tasty meat and I am the tastiest they've seen in a long time.

Got to make a choice here. Tunnel or basement?

Fuck me.

"Hold up," I call as I hurry into the tunnel after Inez.

I get a few feet then skid to a stop. I look back at the opening where the shower stall goes. Hey. Look at that. The back of the shower stall has handles. Like for pulling.

So I pull. Don't have to worry about the basement Zs coming after my ass now. That way is closed.

"Inez?" I whisper, but there ain't no answer.

The metal bars are gripped tight in my hands and I take a few deep breaths to center myself. This is something the sisters have taught me to do. I can get worked up and sometimes rush into things. They say to breathe deep and get centered so you don't make no mistakes. I probably already made one by following Inez, so I don't need to be making any more.

My eyes adjust to the darkness. So do my ears. The tunnel gets louder as I tilt my head one way then the other to pick up as many sounds as possible. I tune out my own footsteps, which ain't so loud since I can walk like a cat, if I want to. But right now, I don't want to. I want Inez to hear me coming. I also want anything else in here to hear me coming. It'll draw out any Zs.

And it'll make any humans careless because they'll think they're hunting me, not me hunting them. And I'm always hunting them. Always and shit.

No Inez. No weapons except for a couple metal bars. No idea where my sisters are or if they are trying to find me. No clue where this stupid tunnel leads. I don't like it.

After about fifty yards, I see small pricks of light spill out from above. I squint up at them and smile. I'm under the street. It's about twenty feet above me and the light is coming down through cracks in the pavement. No idea what street it is, but I'd hate to be driving on it with a heavy truck. That shit'll fall right through.

The light is messing with my eyes, so I close them and walk a few feet before opening them back up. Gets me adjusted to the gloom again. A few more feet and I hear water running. That's different. This is New Mexico. Water ain't easy to come by around here. But you never know what's under the ground.

I come to a junction and look at five different ways to go. Six ways, if you count where I'm standing. There's a stream of water running from one way to the other, but the rest are bone dry. The stream ain't so big, maybe four feet across and probably a foot or two deep, running in some man-made trench.

Is this a sewer? Am I in a sewer? That'd be dumb if it was because then sewer stuffs would flow down the tunnel and into Inez's place.

Where the hell is that crazy bitch? Yeah, I've gotten to the calling her a crazy bitch point. If she wants to play hide and seek in sewer tunnels then she's getting called a crazy bitch.

I walk the entire junction and listen at each opening. The only noise I hear is water running from the two that have the stream. The rest are silent. No footsteps, no Inez. Crazy bitch has led me into something that I ain't liking so much and she is going to regret it.

I have no idea where the other tunnels lead, but water usually has a way out, so I decide to follow the water. There's about two feet of walking space on each side of the stream. It's like a sidewalk, but with moldy-looking gunk on it and slick as shit. Gotta watch my footing as I follow the stream down the dark tunnel. And it is fucking dark. No points of light from above in this stupid ass tunnel.

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Get my shit centered.

Even with pretty good night vision, there's still a trick to walking around in the dark. The trick is you turn your head. I learned this from Foster back in Kramer's mad science lair, after he was driven out. Your eyes can see better from the side. Charlie explained it to me once that it was because of cones and rods. I made a joke about his rod which he didn't like. Greta laughed, though, so I got points for that.

I count off my steps in my head. I almost count them out loud, but that would let the folks know I'm coming. What folks? The folks that are waiting for me because Inez has led me into a trap. I totally call bullshit on the crying and begging to be taken with crap. This is a stinking trap. Someone is going to try to grab me or tackle me or sneak up behind me and hit me with a baseball bat.

I don't think anyone's gonna shoot me. This trap don't feel firearmsy. I don't how I know, but I do. Just trust me.

Football field. That's how long I'm walking before I hear the first signs that I ain't alone. Someone is close. They ain't up on the sidewalk with me. No. They're in the stream, swimming under the surface, pacing me. I can hear them pop up now and again.

Another half a football field and I'm bored.

"Just come on out," I say. "I know you're there. You make drippy drippy sounds when you come up to breathe."

They don't respond. I don't expect them to. Creepy people in water ain't gonna respond. Not their way. They'll just wait me out and attack at some point. I bet there's like three or four of them up ahead. The frog guy following me is probably a distraction. Too bad for all these people that I don't give a shit about distractions or traps.

I'll just throw down when it's time to throw down.

I walk another half a football field length and wait for it. I can feel air breezing by. There's an opening somewhere close and that's where they're waiting. Drip drip behind me and air in front of me. It's gonna go down soon and gonna go down fast.

The metal bars in my hands are slick with my sweat and the damp from the tunnel. I stop and tear off a couple strips of my shirt and wrap them around the ends so I can get a better grip. Ain't no fun to have your weapons go slipping out of your hands when you're killing some crazies. And that's what these folks are. They're crazies, for sure. Luring people down tunnels and following in sewer streams. That's crazy.

Light.

I can see it ahead. Maybe that's where the air is coming from, not from some side opening. I keep walking and soon come to a bend in the tunnel. I'd have missed it and stepped right into the stream if there wasn't more light to see by. When I get around the bend, I stop and blink a few times.

The tunnel ends. Ends with a heavy grate that's pouring water right into some culvert thingy. Looks like a lot of concrete outside the tunnel. Man-made, not a natural stream.

Drip drip, scrape. Froggy is coming out of the stream. I grip my bars tighter and keep moving towards the grate. I gotta know what I'm dealing with.

The grate is solid. Half-inch iron bars with just enough room to stick an arm through. I don't do that. No point. The grate's on hinges, so I know it can open, but the rusty lock on it tells me I ain't opening it anytime soon. Not with Froggy coming at me fast.

I spin and land a solid blow to Froggy’s head. She screams and falls into the stream. It's a girl. Teenager, from the quick look I get before she goes under. I stand on the sidewalk ledge, my back to the grate, and wait for her to come up. I keep waiting. Teenage girl don't come up.

"What the shit?" I mumble and step closer to the stream. I know, I know, this is where she leaps out and grabs me.

But she don't do that. I don't know where she is.

I step away from the stream and put my back to the grate again. My eyes are all messed up because of the light from outside, so trying to see anything down the tunnel is impossible. Maybe there? Way down there I see a glint of light off metal? Maybe. Can't say for sure.

Is that a scuffle of shoes? The stream is loud as it empties into the culvert, the water dropping a few feet before hitting the new stream outside. Makes it hard to hear anything else.

Nope. There. Yeah, there. I see a shadow. Someone's standing down the tunnel. A couple of someones.

"Come on then!" I yell. "This is stupid! Come at me or fuck off!"

No answers.

I'm about to say more, but it gets hard to when a rope goes around my neck and squeezes tight. I drop the bars and grab the rope. Some son of a bitch is outside the grate! They snuck a rope in and dropped it down around my head! Shit fucking asshole shitfuckers!

My fingers dig at the rope as the rope digs at my neck. I feel my nails tearing into my skin as I squeeze them between the rope and my throat. I yank as hard as I can and gasp as air fills my lungs before a heavy weight pulls back on the rope and the air is cut off again.