DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (5 page)

“Stop being such a damn pussy,” another voice snapped, making no effort to be quiet. “
Ooo…hope it’s not a zombie,” he continued on in a mocking tone.

“Don’t be a dick, Jerome,” a third voice scolded. “And I still think you could have picked a different place to try out your new toy…why did you have to pick a church?”

“You think God is gonna be mad at me?” the second voice, apparently Jerome, brayed.

Kevin had not laid eyes on these guys yet, but he already wanted to kill one of them. He was coming to the quick concl
usion that there would not be any sort of possible meeting with these guys that did not end in bloodshed. These were the stereotype of the “bad guys” from every zombie movie and book he had ever come across.

“Do you practice being such an asshole?” the first voice r
etorted with a bit of a whiny tone.

“Shut up, Mel,” Jerome barked.

Catie carefully slipped her leg back over to the side Kevin was on and slid to the ground. The two of them reached simultaneously for their crossbows. No sense in using bullets yet if they could get away with it. If there were indeed only three of these individuals, they could drop the first two before the one remaining even knew what had happened.

“Hey, here comes Papi and the others,” the as yet unnamed voice of the trio announced.

Catie and Kevin simultaneously sank back down. Within a few seconds, there was a lot of commotion as the group grew in size. Kevin thought that he could pick out at least ten different voices, and those were only the ones talking; he had no actual idea how many may be gathered. Also, he was almost certain that he picked out a few female voices in the bunch.

“So whose idea was it to blow up the church?” somebody called out from the group.

The more Kevin heard, the more certain he was that these were nothing more than raiders of the worst sort. He was basing his assumption purely on the way these people were talking, but he felt comfortable in his assessment.

Twice the group
responded to approaching zombies; each time it seemed like it was more of a game to them. He heard lots of whooping and hollering mixed in with laughter. His brain was already providing a mental image that was strikingly similar to the motorcycle gang at the end of the original
Dawn of the Dead
. He had already cast the Jerome individual in the Tom Savini role.

Kevin risked a look over the top of the fence into the street where this group was gathered around. From his vantage point, it actually looked like they were having a party around a huge bo
nfire. Several, what appeared to be, rickshaws were parked in the huge open and empty parking lot of the church. The best headcount he could obtain put them at about twenty or so individuals. They were actually dressed how he had expected. He saw a lot of black leather and skull cap motorcycle helmets. The women were in halter tops. (Most looked to be made of leather and resembled something found in stores that sold fetish gear.)

“So what do we do?” Catie asked.

“Actually, I say we just keep eyes on them. Hopefully they will leave soon. No sense going to war with these people,” Kevin whispered. “I think trying to make an attempt to talk to them is a bad idea. They don’t seem like the friendly type…just looters.”

Catie gave a nod. Kevin was actually surprised. He had e
xpected at least some sort of argument or opposition. When he was certain that it was not coming, he settled down up against the fence beside her.

“You think we should try to make it to that street a couple of blocks up like you planned?” Catie asked
, just as he got comfortable.

“I think we would be tempting fate with them being this close. The others should be smart enough to know that.”

“You have more faith in them than I do,” Catie said. Kevin thought she might have tried to make that comment under her breath…but maybe she did intend for him to hear it.

A shriek jolted both Kevin and Catie from whatever each was
thinking about. Together they came up to see what was happening just as a half-naked woman ran past with a man in pursuit. Catie was bringing her weapon up when Kevin grabbed her arm and nodded. It seemed that the current group activity involved a great deal of sex. Twos, threes, and a couple of groups of four or five were scattered about, each engaged in assorted sexual escapades that made Kevin blush to be witnessing them with a woman right beside him. He quickly sunk back to the ground.

“Who has a freakin’ orgy in the middle of a church parking lot?” Catie whispered. She glanced over and was further amused by Kevin’s very visible embarrassment.

The noises changed and every so often there was a shout of warning. Kevin could not help but look and discovered a few of the group (perhaps they had drawn the short straw) were on the perimeter, guarding the Bacchanalian festival taking place in the glow of the flames.

“You couldn’t write this crap,” Kevin finally whispered as it sounded like things were winding down.

Catie chuckled. “Maybe now would be a good time to move and see if we can meet up with the others,”
she whispered.

“Sounds good,” Kevin agreed.

Together, the pair moved from yard to yard. It was slow going, especially since they were doing their best to be quiet. Twice they had to put down a zombie that had found its way into a back yard. Once, they had gotten surprised when the zombie in question was a creeper hidden in the tall grass.

They had finally reached the end of the street, but nobody was there waiting for them. Twice Kevin called out in a whisper, but neither time was answered.

“You think they froze when they heard the sounds?” Kevin finally asked.

Catie only shrugged and jogged over to one of the houses and began to scale it. Once up, she crouched down and began to walk around to see if she could spot any movement. All she saw were a few individual and small clusters of the undead in the a
rea all converging towards the direction of the still raging fire. They were easy to spot since they made absolutely no effort to conceal themselves.
That
, she mused,
and the way they always seemed to be tripping and stumbling over everything
.

“Anything?” Kevin called up as he grew more and more anxious as well as impatient.

“Just zoms…but it also looks like that fire is starting to spread,” she called down as she moved to the lip of the roof, swung her legs over and dropped.

Just as she hit the ground, a gunshot rang out.

e had assumed she was making some sort of joke; the serious look on her face wiped that thought away.

3

Pleased to Meet You

“Sorry, miss, what did you say your name was?” I asked as I walked back into the bedroom with two bottles of water that I had liberated from my travel bag; which I had yet to unpack, thank you very much.

“Dick,” a muffled voice wafted through the big down comforter.

“Katrina Dick, hmm…” I said, trying to sound as serious as possible. I was rewarded with those gorgeous blue eyes pee
ring up at me from a section of the comforter that folded down very slowly. Her blonde hair was sticking up every direction except straight. On some, that might have looked awful; on her it just looked sexy.

“If you must know, my last name is…” and then her voice trailed off and her expression changed.

Why were there tears brimming in her eyes? What the hell had I done?

“Sorry,” she sniffed and waved me off as I made to take her in my arms.

I scooted to the end of the bed…almost. Actually, I scooted to the end of the bed and then kept going. That is how I ended up falling on my butt. And with that graceful act, the mood was officially dead.

“Oh, Billy, are you okay?”

Katrina scrambled out of the covers and crawled to the end of the bed to look down at me. She still had tears in her eyes, but now there was an expression of concern…which quickly evaporated and turned into a grin within about ten seconds…maybe less.

“Men are pigs,” she huffed.

Her eyes had tracked lower and now I was covering my stuff with a pair of water bottles. Yep, see through plastic, I am a genius. In my defense, I had not been aroused visibly until she came to the edge of the bed and I had her naked upper body just…dangling, for lack of a better word, right above my head. And since it has been longer than I care to admit since I have seen a pair of breasts on a
living
woman, I think my biological reaction was perfectly natural and normal. The equation is simple; teen boy plus boobies equals boner.

“Sorry,” I apologized, although not very sincerely.

Getting to my knees, I looked up to where she was now sitting at the head of the bed hugging a pillow and looking like I had just run over her puppy. In my limited experience with girls, I knew one thing for certain—I don’t know squat about women.

“I don’t know what I said, but I didn’t mean to ruin ever
ything.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said with one more big hitch in her voice. She paused, and I could tell that she was trying to get he
rself back together, so I just stayed quiet. Finally she resumed speaking, “I just had not thought about it in a very long time.”

Still keeping my mouth shut.

“I was married before all of this. So my name was Katrina Duncan, but now…” Her voice trailed off and I risked opening my big fat mouth where I was sure that I had more than enough room for at least one of my feet.

“How about just Katrina, you could be all mysterious like Madonna.” I knew there were some other celebrities that went by
a single name, but that was the only one of my mom’s CDs that I could immediately picture.

She smiled, and through her tears, that just made her all that much more beautiful. Not for the first time, I was wondering what the hell she saw in me. Here was a woman about ten years older and cute. I had just reached the age where I would have been old enough to vote; kinda heavy, I mean, I was an offensive lineman on the football team for crying out loud. What on earth could this woman see in me?

“You’re so cute when you don’t know what to do,” Katrina laughed as she wiped her eyes. “It is like there is this great big neon sign over your head flashing “Clueless” in bright pink letters.”

“Why pink?” I muttered.

“Billy?” Carol’s voice called from outside the front door, saving me from whatever embarrassing answer she was about to give.

“Just a sec!” I hollered as I searched for a pair of clean sweat pants in my field bag. I had to settle for the “least dirty”
since I had just gotten back and not had time to do any laundry.

I opened the door to find Granny Rambo (as only I was a
llowed to call her) standing with a pair of men I didn’t recognize. They were both armed and had serious expressions. I was about to ask what was up when they shoved her into my living room.

“Hey!” I snapped catching Carol as she stumbled past. She shot me an apologetic look that really had to struggle to get past the anger.

“Shut up and put your hands in the air, kid,” the man on the left growled as he and his companion stepped inside and shut the door behind them. “Now, we are gonna give you the same offer we gave the old lady here…”

I saw Carol’s face grow just a bit redder; they obviously did not know who they were dealing with. I had been out in the field with this “old lady” and seen her kick some serious butt.

“You tell us if there is anybody else in this apartment complex and we will add them to our hostage list. Nobody has to die, but your group stepped in where it was not welcome, and we don’t take kindly to strangers coming in and reaping the fruits of our hard work.”

“I just got back from the
field,” I said with a shrug. I fought the urge to glance back down the hall to my bedroom. “Far as I know, Carol and I are the only ones living here.”

A few seconds later, there was a
pounding on the door. “Other units are clear,” a voice said and the door opened to reveal three more men with M4s and dark combat fatigues.

They looked like real soldiers. I was starting to wonder if we had go
tten everybody except that bastard Winters like we thought. After all, when Jon, Jake and I were inside their little compound, it was not like we did a meet and greet with everybody.

“So, you guys must have been pals with Winters.” I really could not think of any clever way to broach this subject. Now, all I could do was hope for a couple of things; first, that they would reveal at least some sort of information; second, that Katrina would hear it and sneak out the window to tell som
ebody. Yep…a longshot on both counts, but I didn’t have any other choice that I could see.

“Who?
” the first man asked.

“I think he must be talking about somebody from that other military camp,” one of the three men who had just come in spoke up. “That group that was doing all the crazy stuff—”

“Can it, Red,” the first man cut him off. I glanced at the one now identified as “Red” but had no idea why they would call him that. His hair was sort of brown.

“So, what exactly do you boys want?” Carol asked.

“We want you and your people gone…out of
our
town.”

Th
e first man stepped up close to Carol, and I thought he was going to hit her. I got ready to jump in and go down swinging the moment that happened. Carol must have some sort of sixth sense because she shot me a warning look that had me frozen.

“I didn’t realize that this place had been officially claimed by anybody,” Carol continued. “And judging by how dirty the apartment
was that I just moved in to and cleaned…I am guessing that you or any of
your
people have not been out this way. So when you say you want us gone from
your
town…just what exactly are you referring to, young man?”

“We were here first…and then those other
bastards showed up and we have been fighting them for months…and now three other groups are in this city, each one trying to claim it. Well, since you are the last to arrive, you can be the first to leave.”

“And what makes you think that we have the authority to speak for our group?”

Carol was really giving this guy the business. For one, she had not taken a step back when he crowded her; and for another, she was simply standing there with her arms folded across her chest and glaring up at this guy who had a big ass rifle in his hands like she was the one who was armed and in the power position.

“Funny thing that you mention that
, because our plan was to take one of you prisoner and have the other deliver the ultimatum,” the man said with a sneer. “Now me, I said take the kid there because he would obviously have value. Only…now I think we are taking you. I bet he stands watch, but you are the one writing the watch list. You just strike me as somebody that I bet carries some clout around here.”

“And where are you taking her?” I asked. I wasn’t stupid. There was really not a damn thing I could do to stop them. Sure, Vin Diesel might be able to pull some bad ass stunt and kick all these guys’ asses, but I was definitely no Vin Diesel.

“We are taking her to our main camp. If we don’t see your people packing their crap and heading out of town by sunset in two days, then I will start sending pieces of her to your doorstep where you can deliver it to whoever is in charge and deciding to ignore our demands. And when this old lady finally kicks over, we’ll just grab somebody else. We have a good idea where you folks are staying. Pretty arrogant bastards the way you are sprawled in such a large area…but that just makes our job easier.”

Part of me figured that this guy was giving up too much i
nformation about the intel he had on us. He obviously wanted me to know that they had us staked out. But there comes a point when you give up stuff that you might not want the enemy to know; and yeah, we were definitely on enemy status now.

“Take me,” I insisted. “You got it all wrong about Carol. She isn’t all you think she is. She’s just a grouchy old lady with a piss poor attitude.”

I saw the way Carol shot me a dirty look, but if I could not take these guys out and save her, the least I could do was take her place. I sure didn’t like the idea of being cut into little pieces, and I honestly don’t know what made my mouth just blurt that stuff out, but I had to do something…say something to try and save Carol.

“Nice try, kid, but I think we made the right choice,” the first man said, producing a set of cuffs and slapping them on Carol’s wrists.

“Wow,” Carol said with a smile, “I haven’t been cuffed since the Sixties…almost forgot how these babies felt.”

I stood there with a helpless feeling churning in my gut. I had to do something, I knew I didn’t stand a chance of taking out all these guys, but I could not just stand here like an idiot while
they walked off with Carol. Somehow, my feet moved and before I really knew what I was doing, I charged the guy closest to me. It just turned out to be the one they had called Red.

I got in a few good licks. I even heard something snap when my shoulder caught him in the ribs. There was some yelling, and I heard Carol telling me to stop or something like that.

Then…something slammed into the back of my head.

Darkness came quickly.

***

The first thing I remember is a dull ache that seemed to come from every single part of my skull at once and meet in the middle, directly behind my eyes. I tasted the coppery flavor of blood in the back of my throat.

“You idiot,” a voice whispered as a cool damp cloth was wiped across my forehead.

I was seriously disoriented, but I began to remember fra
gments of what had happened. I felt my heart sink at the realization that those bastards had managed to take Carol.

“What were you thinking?” another voice said from nearby.

“Shhh,” I said, and then felt my skull vibrate from my own noise.

“Can you sit up yet?” another voice asked.

Damn, how many people are in my tiny apartment?
I wondered. I tried to open my eyes, but the first light that poured through my slitted lids felt as if it was a white hot poker being stabbed into my brain. I squeezed them shut and shook my head.

Big mistake!

The movement made me nauseous and I felt as if I was going to hurl. I forced it down, determined not to embarrass myself any more than I had already done with Katrina present.

“Listen, Billy,” at last I recognized the first male voice as Simon Paul, “I know you are feeling like
warmed over crap, but you are the only person that got a good look at these guys. You spoke with them. Did they say anything that could help us find them?”

I considered it for a moment, and then it came to me. It was not much, but at the moment it was the only clue that we had to go on.

“They said they thought we were pretty arrogant the way we spread out over so much area. I think that, whoever these guys are, they are holed up in a location that gives them the ability to keep eyes on us.”

“And Katrina said something about how they are giving us two days to get out or they start sending back
pieces of Carol?” Cool, Jake was here…all I needed now was Dr. Zahn.

“Can we get to the questions
after I have had a chance to look at my patient?”

Bingo!
I heard a few mumbled apologies and felt the hand slip behind my neck and probe around on what I was now certain had to be an epic knot on the back of my head. I winced a few times, but I fought the urge to scream. Two reasons: Katrina was close by, and I knew that if I screamed, the pain in my skull would probably cause it to bust open and spill what brains I may or may not have all over the floor.