Dead Stop (36 page)

Somewhere within
her…somewhere deep inside…a psychic gate rattled and something looked out
between the bars. Something that wanted to have its own say about this new
development. And that something had feral eyes and grinning teeth of its own.

Red tinged her
vision, a rushing filled her ears, and the bloody waitress let loose an
inarticulate howl announcing the current battle for survival had reached its
conclusion…

…and an
operation of a completely different sort would now commence.

Releasing the
top of the bat with her right hand, she grabbed the little monster by the
throat. The thing clawed at her arm and side with renewed gusto as she did. It
tore her blouse and drew blood, but Marisa ignored it as she turned with the
creature and slammed it down on workbench. The pain didn’t matter anymore. The
blood didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was what was coming
next. Pinning it again by putting her weight on the bat, she reached across to
the shop vice and spun it open. Then she yanked the thing up in one vicious
motion and slammed its head back down between the jaws of the device.

A few twists of
the handle later and the creature was trapped. Breathing heavily, Marisa stood
up before the struggling creature and surveyed her handiwork. Then she stared
at the thing with a strange, almost puzzled expression. Her hand went to her
ruined ear. It gingerly explored the damage and came back covered in her blood.
Somewhere behind her a third gunshot went off but she ignored it. The girl
stared at her bloodied hand for a second, then gazed back at the zombie again.

“You bit my ear
off.” she said in disbelief. “You bit my god damned ear off!”

Somewhere deep
inside her, the lock on that gate went
click
.

The zombie
thrashed but the vice held firm. Its mad eyes stared undaunted up at the bloody
waitress, yet this time its gaze met one that stared back with something just
as chilling. Something that grinned back with the knowledge that things had
just come unhinged, and it was completely cool with that.

“And you know
what?” Marisa added as she hefted her weapon of choice. “Mr. Bat doesn’t like
it when you bite my ear off! No, ma’am! No MA’AM! Mr. Bat doesn’t like that one
goddamned little bit!”

“Mr. Bat” then
proceeded to demonstrate his displeasure in long overhand swings. Several of
them, in fact. Unfortunately, their little conversation got interrupted a few
seconds later.

“Marisa!” Harley
shouted. “Look out! Behind you!”

It was the fear
in his voice that caught her attention.

Marisa whirled
to see another skull-faced horror coming around the end of the car near the
garage door and heading her way. More crows scattered at its approach. Glancing
to her right, she saw Harley stomping on something on the other side of the
vehicle. He obviously had his hands full and wasn’t going to be able to help.

And that suited
her just fine.

A few minutes
earlier this would have been a nightmare come true. But the primal thing now
riding inside her was its own form of nightmare and it didn’t waste one second
before engaging this new opponent. With a rage filled howl she took three long
strides towards the monster, and drew back her bat for a home run swing. The skeletal
creature lurched towards her with eager talons outstretched, and the two closed
like gladiators in an arena. Then, right before they met, the tall girl
sidestepped and slammed the weapon with all her might into the dead things
kneecap.

It was a direct
hit.

The knee gave
with an audible snap, and the corpse’s leg buckled and folded the wrong way. It
hit the floor in a thrashing heap. A split second later the same hard length of
maple met the back of the monster’s cranium as Marisa hammered its face into
the concrete floor. This time the crunch of bone didn’t bother her at all. An
ecstasy of bloodlust swept through her and she screamed in rapturous triumph as
she lifted the bat for another blow.

Four brutal
swings later and the monster’s skull lay in pieces. Its brains were splattered
everywhere, covering both the nearby floor and Marisa herself. On the fifth
swing, the end of the bat struck the concrete floor just past the ruined head
and the weapon finally shattered.

Well, that
sucked.

The girl held the
broken handle up before her and gave it a disgusted glare before tossing it
away and stalking back to the workbench. Oh well, that zombie was broken
anyway…and she still had a conversation with a certain pig-tailed zombie-nugget
to finish. Marisa hummed and scanned the line of tools on the bench in
exasperation. Nope…nope… none of this would do. Then her eyes lit up at the
sight of the large implement hanging on a wall hook at the end of the work
area.

Perfect.

She snatched it
off the wall, then returned to her previous spot in front of the trapped zombie
and held up her new prize.

“I’m baa-aack!”
She sing-songed brightly, her too wide grin almost glowing against her gore
spattered face. “And looky! I brought my new friend! It’s Mr. Pipewrench! Can
you say hi to Mr. Pipewrench? Sure you can! Now wherrrrrre were we?”

Marisa looked up
at the ceiling and tapped her chin thoughtfully.

“Oh yes!” she
chirped cheerfully and held up her finger. “That’s right!
You bit my
goddamned ear off!!
”

At that point,
Mr. Pipewrench resumed the conversation previously initiated by Mr. Bat. Being
ten pounds of solid iron, he spoke slower but with great authority.

She got in at
least fifteen full swings before Harley finally stepped in to stop her.

“Hey! Hey!
Easy!” He caught her arm as she wound up for another big swing. “You got it!
It’s dead already! Holy shit, is it ever dead!”

Marisa heard him
speak, heard what he said, but somehow the words and their meaning weren’t
connecting. Not that she really wanted them too. She still occupied that happy
place where she was the one dealing out all the death and destruction for a
change, and she wasn’t quite ready to come home yet.

But Harley
seemed determined to be a spoilsport and make her.

“Easy!” he
soothed as she struggled to take another swing. “C’mon, Marisa, let it go. It’s
over…it’s all over. They’re dead. We’re still alive. We made it.
Eeeeaaassssyyy…”

Part of her
didn’t want it to be over. Part of her wanted to feel the crunch of bone under
the impact of the pipe wrench a few more times. Okay, maybe a whole lot of more
times. But the other part of her…the part that understood one cooks a cow
before eating it…finally began to reassert control.

It really was
over.

They had made
it.

Her arm
trembled, and then fell to her side. As it did, the pipe wrench became
surprisingly heavy. It slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor with a dull
clank.

And deep inside
that gate swung shut and locked.

Marisa stared at
the smashed mass that had somehow slipped from the vise and onto the floor. It
was just a shapeless pile of rotten gobs and broken bones. Other than the
tatters of cloth, nothing remained to suggest it had once been human…or even
formerly human.

And she had done
that.

The bloody young
woman heard the rafters above rustle with feathers as the crows evaluated this
new offering. It occurred to her the crows were having one hell of a great
night. Their buffet just kept getting bigger and bigger. And now they even had
Textro waitresses serving up their next meal. She briefly wondered if that was
funny, or if the thought ought to make her sick. The former felt a little too
much like hysteria, so she leaned towards the latter.

Marisa swayed,
but then rallied even as Harley reached out to steady her.

No! I will
not pass out!
She railed at herself.
I will not faint! I will not throw
up! I will not cry! I will not lose control! Not until this is over…and not
then either.

The list kept
getting longer and longer.

“Marisa?”

“I’m okay!” she
gasped. “I’m okay. I just had a bit of a moment there, but I’m okay now.” She
actually wondered if she would ever be okay again.

“A bit of a
moment?”

Harley now held
her with a hand on each shoulder and looked her searchingly in the eyes.

 The
concern on his face touched her. He actually cared. The man was actually
worried about her.

But it was the
feel of his hands on her shoulders that demanded her attention the most. She
could feel the strength in them. Not just the mechanical power that came with
hard muscle, but the controlled and tempered grip of a man who understood that
real strength was as much a matter of heart as it was brawn. And that strength
felt good. As a matter of fact, it felt damn good, and a rebellious part of her
mind noted that all she had to do now was take one step forward and that grip
would turn into an embrace.

She had an idea
that would feel pretty damn good too.

And if you do
that right now,
her practical side noted,
you will lose it. It will take
precisely ten seconds for you to turn into a useless, blubbering mess.

Marisa suspected
this was probably true. But at the same time she couldn’t help but wonder if it
wasn’t about time for her practical side to shut the hell up. After all, enough
was enough.

She was tired,
filthy, wet, scared, hurting, bleeding, apparently half crazy, and now missing
a chunk of her ear. By god, she had
earned
this.

But even as she
stared back into Harley’s worried eyes, and struggled over whether to take the
step or not, the matter was decided for her.

A thunderous
boom reverberated through the building.

Marisa jumped
and Harley spun towards the door.

What the hell?

Another powerful
boom sounded, and the door shook in its frame. Crows squawked and flapped
overhead as the sound thundered through the building. Then another tremendous
blow landed and this time a large dent appeared in the metal door.

A dent she
recognized as the size of a certain massive fist. A second later another dent
showed up beside the first. Is sounded like the very building shook around
them. Marisa grasped the situation in horrifying clarity, and choked back a
cry.

Harley had been
wrong. It wasn’t all over. It wasn’t even close

As a matter of
fact, things were now worse.

“
Ay Dios
,”
she whispered. “It’s Buddha Boy.”

###

Maelstrom –
Buddha Boy

Thoom!

The carnivorous
giant that had once been Gary Norville drove its massive fist into the door
again. It couldn’t see the prey anymore, but that didn’t matter. It knew they
were there. Unlike its lesser brethren, Buddha Boy transcended the “out of
sight, out of mind” level. As a matter of fact, it transcended the others in a
number of ways.

It hardly rated
as intelligent in most ways the term is understood. But in many ways that
mattered, it did a good simulation. Rachel Sutherland’s trick with the LED light
would not have worked on this monster.

Its ravaged but
relatively fresh neural system simply outclassed its comrades.

Death is not
kind to the human brain, especially the delicate frontal lobes where most of
the higher functions are housed. So anything like true reasoning still lay
beyond this creature’s abilities. But where the children of the graveyard dealt
with the world on a “recognition” basis, this colossus “understood” things.
Fundamental memories, stripped of all reason, identity, or self-association,
gave the titan the benefit of many concepts without it ever truly using them.
It simply grasped the basics of situations confronting it.

It understood it
didn’t have to wait for hunger to drive it in order to start wandering for
food. It understood glass didn’t make a wall. It understood that things didn’t
simply disappear when the lights went out. It certainly understood when
something shut a door it wasn’t just gone. And it understood if it knocked hard
enough, that door would open.

And Buddha Boy
could knock very, very hard.

Gary Norville
had been no athlete, but the muscle mass necessary for carrying around his
three hundred and fifty pound bulk was more than most people might think. And
while this was not the honed or hardened muscle of a weight lifter, a great
deal of it lay buried under the layers of fat and it now operated at a level it
had never been close to before. While its skeletal companions
ranged in strength from that of a normal person to the power of an extremely
strong adult, Buddha Boy was another matter entirely.

The monster
drove its fist into the metal door again, feeling the steel warp under its
assault. It understood the door would give soon, and anticipation drove it to
strike even harder. It had already fed on the morsel torn from Gerald, and one
of the bodies from the assault on the gas pumps, but Buddha Boy had a large
capacity and a desire to fill it.

The pair of
lesser dead picked up on that anticipation, flexing their jaws and hands and
moving in close. The giant only heeded them long enough to swat one hard enough
to send it tumbling back across the asphalt, while crushing the skull of the
other that actually got between it and the door.

It also
understood it didn’t have to share, at least not until it had satisfied itself.

And satisfaction
lay only seconds away.

###

Maelstrom -
Marisa

Another
tremendous boom thundered through the garage, sending the crows swirling though
the rafters. The sheet metal roof shivered, and a couple of tools clattered to the
floor from the shelves.