Zombie Games (Book 4): Road Kill (2 page)

I moved behind a tall
, gangly walker whose head was bent at an unusual angle and swung the ax. As it fell to its knees, I dislodged my weapon from its skull and kicked the limp torso to the ground.

“Wa
tch out, child!” hollered one of the nuns, a heavier set woman with red curls poking out of her hood.

“Got it,” sai
d Nora, delivering a roundhouse-kick to another zombie who was staggering towards me. It fell to the ground and she quickly finished it off with her newest bludgeoning device- a long wrench we’d picked up in the last town. I cringed at the horrible crunching noise it made as she slammed it into the zombie’s skull.

“Thanks,” I said.

From there, I beheaded two additional zombies while Nora experimented with different ways of using her new weapon, delighting mostly in the “ram and twist” method. When we’d finished off destroying the rest of the zombies, the nuns thanked us, profusely.

“Thank goodness, you showed up,” said the red-haired nun. “I don’t know about Sister Theresa or Sister Elizabeth, but I’m not sure if I could have really attacked one of them.” She held up a large butcher knife. “The thought
just sickens me.”

“You have to destroy them,” said Nora, kicking o
ne of the zombies out of her path as she drew closer, “if you want to survive.”

Henry, who’d gotten out of the truck,
took off his Stetson and nodded. “She’s right. Don’t you burden yourself with the guilt of saving your own life. I’m sure that God would understand.”

The nun sighed
. “Well, I’m not so sure about that.”

“Why
?” I asked, curious to know the nun’s take on the zombies and all the killing going on. “What do you mean?”

The nun turned to me and smiled
, grimly. “Because these
are
the ‘
End of Days’
, honey. These walking corpses are all part of God’s plan, to eliminate the evil and corrupt, to cleanse the earth, so that we can start fresh.”

Henry’s eyes widened.
“Excuse me?”

“Yes,” said the other nun. “This is just the preliminary to what’s going to happen next.”

“You mean it’s going to get worse than this?” I asked, not knowing what to believe anymore.

“Much worse,” she replied, laying a hand on my shoulder.

“Wake up, Alli
e,” whispered Kylie, shaking her arm.

“What?” she mumbled
, opening her eyes. “More tremors?”

“
No, if there’d have been another quake, you’d have woken up with me screaming my butt off. It’s just… Luke’s not back yet.”

She pushed herself
up. “How long has it been?”

“Well, you’ve been asleep for at least two hours.”

She groaned.

That meant he’
d been gone for four or five hours, maybe longer.

“Do you think they got him?” whis
pered Kylie, biting her lower lip.

“I don’t know,” said Allie, pulling out pieces of straw from her
blonde hair. “Probably not. He’s pretty smart.”

“Yeah.”

Allie wrinkled her nose. “Jesus, it stinks in here. Like a mixture of horse manure and…”

“Death,” said Kylie.

They were hiding up in the loft of an old barn in the middle of nowhere, while a dozen or so zombies wandered aimlessly below, sniffing the air, as if searching for a source to the succulent smell of living flesh floating in the air.

“We should have stayed in the van,” said Kylie
, playing with a piece of straw. She twirled it between her fingers and then threw it. “How are we ever going to get out of here?”

“Don’t worry.
Luke will be back and he’ll know what to do.”

“Right,” sighed Kylie.

They’d run out of gas less than twenty-four hours after leaving Atlanta, and had been forced to abandon the van. After walking a couple of miles, they’d chanced upon an old farmhouse, inhabited by rotten food and even rottener- zombies. Tired and hungry, they’d run to the barn and hid in the loft, while Luke went in search of another vehicle.

“He sho
uldn’t have left us,” said Kylie. “It’s too dangerous to be alone. We could have helped him.”

“Or we could have b
een eaten,” said Allie. “Look, it’ll be easier for him if he doesn’t have to worry about us.”

“I suppose
,” she said.

Allie crawled over to the edge of the loft and looked down into the
lower part of the barn. “None of them have tried using the ladder?” she asked.

Kylie moved
along next to her. “They couldn’t figure it out,” she said as they watched the zombies shuffle around, moaning and agitated. “One of them stood at the bottom, looking up and I thought for sure, he was going to crawl up here, but fortunately for us, he was just too dense.”

“Thank God
.”

One of the zombies, a woman with long stringy hair and a chewed-up nose,
must have heard something, because she looked up at them and began growling. Then, two other zombies joined in and soon the entire barn sounded like a bunch of cats in heat.

The girls backed away from the edge
.

“God, I wish they’d just stop,
” groaned Allie, holding her hands over her ears.

Kylie closed her eyes and began praying.

“What are you doing?” asked Allie.

Kyle o
pened her eyes. “Praying that someone will come and save us.”

Allie closed her eyes and began praying, too.
Anything was worth trying at this point.

After several minutes of praying, both girls noticed the zombies had quieted down and
they opened their eyes back up.

“
No
way,” whispered Allie, peaking over the edge of the loft again.

Not only had the zombies quieted down, but they’d
actually left the barn.

“Don’t get too excited
,” said Kylie, walking over to the open window. She leaned down and pointed. “Look.”

Allie stared in horror at the
scene outside. Luke had returned and was holding some kind of make-shift torch, trying to get back into the barn while a crowd of about fifteen zombies were moving towards him.

“
He needs our help!” cried Allie, rushing towards the ladder.

“
Are you kidding me- there’s too many!” hollered Kylie, grabbing her arm. “It’s suicide to go down there. We lost our weapons and there’s no way we can kill those things with our bare hands.”

The sound of gunfire s
tartled both of them and they scurried back over to the window. A big red-pickup was now parked outside of the barn, its owner firing his gun at the zombies surrounding Luke.

“Holy cow
,” whispered Allie, staring at the tall, muscular guy. “That guy is fine.”

“Seriously, he’s like, old,” said Kylie. He had to be in his twenties.

Noticing the two girls looking down from the window, Luke ran into the barn and yelled for them to climb down the ladder. When they reached the bottom, they both hugged him and he blushed.

“Oh my God, are you okay?”
cried Allie, noticing the pain on his face when she released him.

“Yeah, I’
m okay. I had a close call with a zombie, earlier. Thankfully, the lower part of his face was missing and he couldn’t bite me.” He shuddered. “I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything that bad in my life.”

“You weren’t
trapped in the barn with us and a group of those things, these last few hours. Even the cow dung couldn’t mask the smell,” said Kylie.

The gunfire ceased suddenly, and the three of them stepped outside of the barn
to see what was happening.

“Do you know that guy?” whispered Kylie as the stranger walked towards them
.

“No,” he said, stomping out the flames on the torch
. “I never did find help. At least, not before this guy showed up.”

“Hopefully he
is
help,” whispered Allie. “Or at the very least, friendly.”

The guy didn’
t appear very friendly, in fact, as he stepped closer, he looked more ominous than anything.

“Stay close to me,” said
Luke.

“He looks like
some kind of a biker dude,” whispered Allie. She smiled. “That’s kind of hot.”

“Oh my God,” snorted Kylie.

“Hey,” called the man, stopping a few yards away. He had a flattened, blonde Mohawk, a couple piercings on his stubbly face, and some kind of tribal tattoo on his left arm. “So, are you kids okay?”

“Yes,” said Luke, stepping in front of the girls. “Um, thanks for helping with those things.
”

He stared at him for a minute and then shook his head.
“You’d have been a real goner if I wouldn’t have seen you. Don’t you have any kind of weapons?”

“
Yeah, had a gun, but I ran out of bullets,” said Luke. “Have a knife too, but I thought that maybe the fire would keep them at bay.”

“They’re not animals.
And they’re not afraid of fire.”

“
I guess not,” said Luke.

The man stepped
closer, slipping his revolver into the back waistband of his faded jeans. “You girls okay?”

Allie moved around Luke, to g
et a better look at him and noticed he was even younger than she’d originally thought. “We’re fine. What’s your name?” she asked.

He stared at her for a minute and then answered.
“Justice.”

Kylie raised her eyebrows
. “Justice?”

He looked away.
“My mom, she was into old westerns.”

Allie smiled.
“How old are you?”

He cocked an eyebrow.
“Why?”

“Just wondering
.”

“Twenty
,” said Justice. “So, you three out here alone?”

Luke stepped around Allie, pushing her
back behind him. “There
are
more of us. We’ve just been separated, temporarily.”

“Good,” said Justice
. “Try to
un-separate
, as soon as you can. It’s too dangerous to be out here on your own. Especially you kids.” He then turned around and began walking away.

“Wait!”
hollered Kylie, running up him. “Where are you going?”

“Was going to check the house for food or
other supplies.  You guys get a chance to do that, yet?”

“No
t really,” said Kylie. “There were zombies in there when we showed up. Probably still is.”

“Well, at this point, I’m
hungrier than they are,” he said, walking towards his truck. He reached into the back and pulled out a machete. “So, they’d better stay out of my way in the kitchen. Here,” he said, reaching into the truck a second time. He picked up an old baseball bat and held it out to Luke. “Use this if you have to.”

“Thanks,” he replied.

Justice nodded and started walking towards the house, machete raised. “Stay outside,” he ordered, “until I give you the okay to come in.”

“You want any help?” asked
Luke.

“I got this,” he replied
, raising his hand in the air. “Just stay out of my way.”

They watched as Justice climbed the stairs to the porch, opened the screen door, and disappeared into the house.

“Think he’ll be okay in there?” asked Kylie.

“He seems to know what he’s doing
,” said Allie.

A few
minutes later, their question was answered. Justice stepped back outside, the blade of his machete covered in red and black slime.

He held the door open
and waved them in. “Well, come on in, then, if you’re hungry. Lucky for us, I found some food in the pantry, still edible.”

“Are they all dead?” asked Kylie.

“Yeah, there were only four left in the house. Watch where you step, though, it’s a little messy inside.”

T
hey walked past him and into the farmhouse, stopping abruptly as they encountered two headless zombies, lying on the wooden floor.

“Oh,”
croaked Allie. “It smells rancid in here.”

“Breathe through your mouth
,” said Justice, moving around her.

“That doesn’t help,” she said, following
him into the kitchen.

“
Um, you know, I’m not really hungry anymore,” mumbled Kylie as she stepped over a mangled eyeball.