Zombie Games (Book 4): Road Kill (23 page)

The whistling stopped and someone called out,
“Hello?!”

“There he is,” said Paige, pointing to a lone figure walking
towards them through the amusement park. “Hey! Over here!”

The guy
, an athletic looking blonde dressed in crisp black jeans and a blue polo shirt, raised his hand in greeting and then began walking towards us.

“Meow,” whispered Paige. “Who’
d have thunk the mall would still be a place to meet hot guys.”

I smiled, although it bothered me that his clothing did not match his style, which reminded me more of a biker with and outgrown Mohawk and piercings. Something definitely wasn’t jibing with this guy.

“Welcome,” said the man.

“Hey there young feller
,” said Henry. “Are you part of the shelter team?”

“Please, follow me,”
he replied, walking away.

I looked at Paige who shrugged.

“Okay, since he’s hot, we can excuse his weirdness,” she whispered.

“Excuse me,”
called Bryce.

The stranger kept walking.

“Dude, stop for a second!” hollered Bryce.

The man
froze and turned around.

Bryce walked up
to him. “Where are you taking us, exactly?”

“To
him,” he answered in a stoic voice. “The man you seek.”

Bryce’s eyebrows furrowed. “
The man we
seek
?”

The guy’s
face turned red and he broke out into a sweat. “Yes,” he said.

Henry shuffled over to him. “Son, are y
ou okay?”

His lips moved but he
couldn’t quite seem to answer.

“Oh my
God, is he having a seizure or something?” cried Paige.

“What was that?” asked Henry
, pressing a hand on his shoulder. “You trying to say something?”

He opened his mouth. “
Huhhh…”

Paige turned to me.
“Maybe he’s handicapped?”  “Autistic or something?”

I looked down a
t the stranger’s hand and noticed he was clutching something so tightly that his knuckles were white.

“What do you have there?” I asked, motioning towards his closed fist.

He glanced down at his hand and then back up at me, the look in his eyes, desperate.

“Bryce,” I said. “Open up his fist. He might have some kind of weapon or something.”

Bryce sighed and then grabbed the guy’s wrist.

“
Nnnooo…” rasped the guy as Bryce tried uncurling his fingers.

“Cassie,” said Paige. “Honestly, what kind of weapon could he
have that’s small enough to fit in the palm of his hand?”

My eyes met the strangers, whose expression turned from fear to disbelief. Before I could say anything, he opened his fist.

“Oh my God,” I said, staring at the cross-necklace. “That’s my sister’s!”

The man closed his eyes and fell to his knees
. “It’s true,” he croaked. “Thank God.”

Henry shook his head in disgust.
“Oh, now he talks,”

Bryce grabbed him by the front of the shirt.
“Where did you get that?”

He looked at me again
. “From Allie, her sister.”

***

Travis’s face turned red. “Dammit!” he raged, throwing his empty beer bottle at the wall of liquor behind the bar. They were in one of the nightclubs on the upper floor of the mall, waiting for Justice to return.

Kylie and Allie, who were sitting in one of the booths, flinched as he
threw a second one, shattering glass all over the bar.

“What’s wrong?” asked Dwayne, rushing into the restaurant.

“He broke free!” raged Travis. “I can’t control him anymore.”

“How?”

“He must be one of those ‘Born Agains’,” he sneered. “Gee, I wonder how that happened?”

Allie looked away.

“Why do we even need him anymore?”

He paused and then smiled
, his entire demeanor changing. “You’re right, we don’t. We have the girls and they’re going to help us locate the baby. Now, go, and kill them. Kill them all.”

Dwayne bowed and then walked back out of the bar.

The girls stared at each other in horror.

“No,” begged Allie
, turning to Travis. “Please don’t let him kill Justice!”

“
Child, not only is he going to slit your friend’s throat,” chuckled Travis, as he grabbed a warm beer from the cooler. “But he’s also going to kill your sisters and eventually,
every
person that you care about. Damn,” he groaned, after taking a long swig of beer. “This is tasty.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kylie
, standing up. “Do you know where our sisters are?”

Travis sat down at a table across from them and put his feet up. “
Why, yes I do,” his eyes turning red. “Now, sit back down before I kill Allie, just for shits and giggles. I really only need one of you.”

Kylie immediately sat down.

“Now,” he said, tapping his fingers on the table. “There’s been a change of plans. After I finish this beer, we’re going to take ourselves a little ride.”

“Where?” asked Kylie, trying not to cry.

He took another pull of his beer and belched. “Cheer up. I’m going to bring you back to your mommy.”

Cassie

“Excuse me?” I gasped.

“He has your sister and Kylie,” said Justice.

“I think she means the part of him being some kind of demon. You know, an
entity
from hell,” said Paige with a smirk.

“I know you guys think I’m crazy, hell I would too if I hadn’t seen the stuff he can do with my own eyes. He actually took possession of my body, for God’s sake.”

I tried not to smile. “And, how’d you get it back?” I asked, wondering if he was a complete nut-job.

He nodded towards the necklace I was holding. “I think it had something
to do with that,” he smiled sheepishly, “and the fact that I finally believe in God.”

“You didn’t before?” asked Bryce.

He sighed. “No. Not until today.”

“
So, you say this guy’s name is really Travis?” asked Henry.

“That’s
what he claims, but I’m sure it’s not his real name.”

“See Wild,” said Henry. “I told you it was that pecker-
head, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you did. So,” I said turning back to Justice. “I think it’s time you took us to my sister and Kylie.”

Before he could answer, the sound of gunfire exploded all around us and we all crouched down on our hands and knees.

“Cassie!” hollered Bryce, grabbing my hand
and pulling me with him. “Come on, this way!”

“Paige!” I screamed, looking back
for her.

“I’m fine!” she hollered
. She was kneeling behind a large garbage can with Justice crouched down beside her.

We scurried over to the other side of the level to a purse-kiosk and Bryce pointed. “There.”

I looked up and saw Dwayne as he aim
ed the gun towards us and began firing once again.

“Shit!”
growled Bryce, pulling me down.

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to have to get up there and take him down because I’m no marksman. There’s no way I’ll hit him from this distance.”

Just then, I looked over at Henry, who was standing up without any kind of cover, had his gun raised, and was aiming for Dwayne.

“What is he doing?” I gasped. “He’ll never hit him at that range with a shot-gun!”

Bryce swore, then raised his revolver and fired
up towards Dwayne.

“Henry!” I screamed, trying to get his attention when Dwayne ducked behind a wall.

Henry lowered his gun and crouched back down.

“I’m going up there,” said Bryce, pointing towards the escalators, which were shutdown. “You try to distract him, somehow.”

“How?”
I asked.

“I don’t know,” he pointed to my t-shirt. “Flash him or something.”

I scowled. “Very funny.”

“It wouldn’t work
anyway, he wouldn’t be able to see much.”

I smacked his shoulder. “Bryce!”

“For God’s sake, I’m saying he’s too far away!”

I stared at him for a second.
“Don’t you dare smile.”

Biting back a grin
, he turned and fired, then bolted behind a coffee stand that was closer to the escalators.

“Better give
yourselves up!” hollered Dwayne. “You can’t beat him. He’ll skin you all alive and eat you for dinner if you don’t stand down!”

“Cassie!” whispered Paige
, loudly. “Look out!”

I looked behind me and saw two zombies approaching the kiosk.

Crap!

It was obvious that they weren’t there to buy but I
began chucking purses at them anyway.

“Where’
s your bat?” asked Paige, coming up behind me just as the first zombie rounded the corner.

“I droppe
d it,” I said, as she swung her bat and bashed the zombie’s skull in.

“Nice going,” she snorted, as I raised my leg and kicked the other zombie in the face, sending him flying backwards.

I sighed. “I know, not very smart. Crap, here comes another one.”

The third zombie charged us but was stopped when Justice slammed a metal chair into his face. When the creature stood back up, he quickly grabbed a long metal paper-hole punch that was sitting on the kiosk and drove it into the zombie’s skull.

Paige nodded in approval and when he turned away, I noticed her checking out his buns.

I smiled.

If we got out of this alive, it was my turn to tease the crap out of
her
.

“Where’s Bryce?” she asked.

“He went up the escalator,” said Justice.

I looked up but couldn’t see Bryce or Dwayne, nor did I hear anymore gunfire.

“Henry!” I whispered loudly.

He was still hiding in the same spot and when he turned, I could see that he’d just stuck another wad of chew into his mouth.

“What?” he hollered.

“Where’d Bryce go?”

Before he could respond, we heard gunfire from above. This time it was deeper in the mall.

I stood up and began moving towards the escalator. They’d obviously moved and there was no way I was going to stay down here if Bryce needed me.

Plus, he only had so many rounds.

“No!” hollered Henry. “Wild, you get your ass back to that kiosk!”

Ignoring him, I ran as fast as I could up the escalator and then hid behind another garbage container.

“What are you doing?” whispered Justice, who’d obviously followed me.

“Bryce is going to need my help,” I whispered back.

Another round of gunfire and my stomach started twisting into knots.

If anything happened to Bryce…

“
Sorry, but you’re no help without a gun,” said Justice.

“You haven’t seen me in action,”
I replied, and then ran towards another kiosk, this one a calendar shop.

“Well, look who we have here?” chuckled Dwayne, popping his head around the side of the booth.

My heart sank as he raised the gun and pointed it at my face. “It’s a shame
, sweetheart. I really thought you and I could have had ourselves a good time the other day.”

“Wait,” I squeaked, raising my hands slowly to my waist.
I un-tucked my shirt.

He chuckled
. “What you doing, brown eyes, changed your mind?”

Holding my breath,
I lifted my T-shirt up and flashed him.

His eyes widened
but before he could say anything, I heard a loud blast and he fell forward.

“
You’re supposed to show all the goods when you flash someone, Wild,” said Henry, his gun still smoking. “Not just that little training bra.”

 
My face turned bright pink and I pulled my shirt back down right before Bryce arrived.

“Everyone okay?” he asked, out of breath.

“Not everyone,” said Henry, spitting his chew on the dead man’s back. “Looks like he got more than he was expecting with Wild, here.”

Bryce put his arm around my shoulders. “You okay?”