Mad World (Book 3): Desperation (16 page)

Twenty Three

“Dad!” I pointed.

We all looked, and fell as silent as Leia was. Back at the vehicle, we could see Risa in the window. She was frantically waving her arms, gesturing, trying to get our attention. We stared at her for a second, then back at the makeshift wall lined with severed heads while the moaning call surrounded us.

“AAAARRRRRRRRAAAAOOOOOOOH!!!!!”

“Come on…”

I slowly backed away from the barricade, my head moving back and forth, trying to find the source of the moaning cry that filled the air. Fog swirled up, thicker than ever. Looking back at the SUV, I saw Risa waving and gesturing wildly. As we walked slowly back to her, swinging our guns all around, we realized the sound was coming from the vehicles. Fear curled in me as I focused on the SUV. Its wheels were huge, all-terrain vehicle tires designed for off-roading should the need arise. The big vehicle was mounted on suspension that lifted it more than two feet off the ground, ready to get over rough terrain, and the space underneath was dark, with lots of hand holds where anything could tuck itself up in there, undetected.

“OOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRAAAUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOO…”

Fear crawled up my spine and I shuddered.

I saw Tim and the others from the Hummer running back to their vehicle. It was just as well; they didn’t have any weapons.

We were about 20 feet away from the SUV. Fog curled around a scene that emerged slowly in front of us, like something out of a surrealistic nightmare.

Crawling out from under the SUV was the zombie king.

“OOAAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOO…….”

As it crawled out and stood up, it let out another low groaning call that carried to every corner of that park. The sound started out as a moan and rose in volume and intensity to a long howl.

It stood there, calling, and they came. Out of every corner, from behind every tree, rising up from every bush in the park, they came. Loping, shuffling, some even running, they came in answer to the call of their leader. Zombies of all sizes, all stages of decomposition, of every race, height, and age; they came.

The moaning filled my ears. I watched as hundreds, maybe more, filled the park and street. They surrounded us, closing in from all sides, some even crawling from up over the barricade and dropping down beside us.

They stunk. More than usual. This was something new, I thought.

“What’s that smell?” Zach said beside me. He held my hand with an iron grip, fear making him nearly immobile.

Leia clutched her flashlight and clung to Dad for protection, her body rigid. DeAndre, Jonathan and I held our shotguns at the ready and watched the zombie king shamble toward us. The thing had been hanging on to the undercarriage of our vehicle the whole way from Thunder Bay, watching, biding its time, just waiting for the right time to emerge. I remembered the odd scratching sound under my feet while we were driving. I remembered my senses tingling as if I were being watched as I stood beside our vehicle. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and goose bumps prickled all along the length of my arms. Fear clutched my heart like a vise and refused to let go, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

“That’s close enough, zombie,” called DeAndre as the creature drew within ten feet of us. He leveled his shotgun at the thing, finger itching to pull the trigger.

“Why have you followed us?” Dad asked.

The zombie king looked up at Dad, who was several inches taller, and spoke.
“Wwwhee… we wantttt the zommm…”

“The what?”

The zombie king’s arm rose, and a boney finger covered with muck pointed to me.

“Ohhhh no!”

“No way, zombie monster.”

Suddenly, Dad ran up to the thing and kicked at it, sending it flying backward six feet. “Why? Why do you want my son, dammit? WHY?”

The zombie king picked itself up and slowly came forward again to speak.

“Zommm…”
It gestured to me.

“I have a name,” I said, spitting on the ground, fear melting out of me, replaced with anger. The thing disgusted me. I don’t know how I could ever have felt like I was part zombie. I hated the things. I had nothing in common with them. Nothing at all. “My name is Luke.” I stared back at it defiantly.

“Luuukkkke… Luke.”
It was getting better at speaking.

“Yeah? What the hell do you want?”

It crept closer to me.

“Stay away!” Dad let a round loose at the zombie’s feet. Shot bucked up and hit the thing in its legs. It stopped.

“Luke. You come… with usss.”

“Like hell.”

“We will not… let you go thisss time.”

“You don’t tell me what to do, monster.” I spat on the ground again. This thing was giving me a bad taste in my mouth. Beside me, Zach grasped my hand reassuringly.

“Luke, you belong… with ussss.”

I shuddered at this. I would never belong in their world. Never.

“Why do you want Luke?” Dad asked.

“Luke… cannot go… further…”
it seemed to struggle to find the right words.
“Luke… will be… the end…”

“The end of what, zombie?” DeAndre stepped closer to me, shotgun held steady.

“The end of usss…”

I looked sharply at the zombie. How could he know?

“What?”

“WHAT?”

“I have… forssseen ittt…”
The zombie king stumbled forward, fast as lightning, and grabbed DeAndre.

“NOOOOO!!!!!!”

“AAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUAAAOOOOOOO!!!!!”

And all hell broke loose. Again.

Twenty Four

I jumped at the zombie king as it lowered its mouth to D’s head, but I needn’t have worried. DeAndre gave a heave, and the thing flipped over D’s back with ease. But Sanctuary’s toughest fighter wasn’t done with the monster. He grabbed the zombie king’s head in a Nelson grip and held it there while he wrapped his legs around the thing’s torso. I landed next to them and immediately brought my huge bowie knife from its back holster and in one swift movement, I drew it through the midsection of the monster. I had had enough of this creepy thing. I was through.

“Give me it sideways, D,” I said quietly, and DeAndre instantly unhooked his legs and moved his body sideways and out of the way of my knife. He kept a good hold on the thing’s head, so that, as I jabbed downward and across again, this time with both hands on the small sword, it provided the leverage I needed. With a final muscle-tensing wrench, the thing’s spine snapped and the legs and hips were liberated from the upper chest. The zombie king’s mouth opened in a silent motion, and its arms grasped where its body ended, feeling for its waist. Black gunk poured from its torso.

“You’re half gone, monster,” I said grimly, black muck covering my hands. Its hands rose up to grab me and wrapped themselves around my legs.

Without a sound, DeAndre wrapped his arms around the thing’s head, and his legs around the thing’s shoulders. Then, with a mighty twisting motion, he tore the zombie king’s head off.

“Bah,” spat DeAndre, and threw the head as far as he could. “Good riddance.”

“LUKE!” I turned around fast and saw three more zombies coming at us in a rush. Swinging my knife in a wide arc, I caught the nearest one in the neck and its head went spinning off to my right, the torso falling at my feet.

“AHHH!” Leia’s high-pitched scream caught my attention.

“Go, I’ve got these two,” said DeAndre as he pumped a shotgun load at the zombie in front. It fell back, half its head gone.

Nodding, I ran over to where Leia was crouched. She’d run behind a nearby tree when Dad had begun fighting two zombies at once. She was halfway up, about seven feet off the ground. Five zombies were at the base, two already crawling up the trunk.

“Hold still, Leia,” I swung my knife and decapitated two with one blow, then brought my shotgun up and blew the head off a third. Two more faced me, and I dispatched them quickly with my knife. Turning around, I blasted another off its feet and back ten yards. Pausing to reload, I called up to Leia.

“Stay up there, Leia; you’re safer in the tree. In fact, get up higher!”

She nodded and began to climb. I felt a hard thump at my feet and looked down to see a zombie grabbing at my lower legs as it died, its middle blown out by Zach. I looked up to see him grin and give a thumbs-up sign. I leapt after him, and we both jumped into the main fight, knives swinging and shotguns blasting.

BAM!!!

Bub-BAMMM!!!!!

Shotgun blasts sounded over and over as we fought the monsters. Dad and DeAndre fought back to back, and Zach and Jonathan too. This is how we’d been trained to fight when faced with overwhelming odds, and as I looked out and saw how big this horde of zombies was, I began to worry we might not be able to win. There weren’t hundreds, there were at least a thousand. The call of their king had brought them, and even though we’d killed it, enough had heard that call and had responded. They were coming from all around.

I looked back at the SUV and saw Risa running from it. She limped as she ran, but as she hobbled along, still gravely injured from the attacked at Thunder Bay, she held two backpacks in her arms. I saw a third on her back. Reaching into the bag, she grabbed something and lifted it to her mouth as she ran, then threw it.

BADABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DeAndre’s percussion grenades.

Risa ran up to me and handed me one of the backpacks, and I swiftly grabbed two out and dropped the pack at my feet. Pulling the pins, I threw the things as far as I could.

BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

BA-BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were designed by DeAndre himself, to shock the monsters, to catch them by surprise and disorient them. Our scientists had found that much of their navigation depended on sound, and with such loud blasts so close together, a huge wave of them fell to the ground, holding their heads.

“LOOK OUT!!!”

We were rushed from behind by a group of them, and Risa and I swiftly turned and began blasting away with our shotguns. They had us badly outnumbered, though. Grabbing my pack, I motioned to Risa and we ran to the tree Leia had scampered up.

“Leia!” She looked down at me, and I tossed up my backpack. “Toss a few of these into the zombies, and be sure to keep ‘em far from us, okay?”

She nodded and began to dig in the bag. Within 20 seconds I heard the first blast.

BA-BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I swung my knife and lopped off three more heads. Looking up, I caught sight of Leia as she threw another grenade. This girl would do fine. Lowering my face again, I saw three zombies jump onto Risa, and she fell to the ground.

Holstering my knife, I grabbed at two zombies and flung them away from us, then twirled around and blasted them both in the head. They dropped instantly.

“You shouldn’t be out here fighting, Sis.”

“Like I’m gonna just sit back while you guys have all the fun?” She kicked the third one off and brought her shotgun up: BOOM!!!!! Bye-bye zombie.

I held my hand out to her, and she grabbed it with her good hand and jumped up to her feet.

“Jonathan pumped me full of painkillers right before he got out, so I’m good for this fight.” As she spoke, however, one of her legs gave way and she swayed to the left.

“Whoa,” I said, grabbing her and tucking my shoulder under her arm.

BOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leia was having a field day. Those grenades made everything easier; they stunned a good portion of the zombies so we could tackle them piecemeal. We must have killed several hundred or more of those things, fighting hard, fighting fast, the Sanctuary way.

BBBOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Luke, cover me!” I swung around as Dad reloaded, taking down ten more in a few moments.

“Jonathan, throw me that sack!” Risa had dropped her backpack and had been fighting near her husband, but the action moved fast, and now she was a dozen feet away, fighting with DeAndre.

Jonathan swung the pack over to me, and I grabbed it out of the air and ran up to Leia’s tree.

“Here!” She reached down and grabbed the sack and dug into it, then climbed up higher and began throwing them far into the north edge of the park.

BOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!

BABOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

“LUKE!”

Zach was going down. I ran toward him, but Dad was faster. Shooting his way through three zombies, he grabbed one that had Zach almost onto the ground and, holding it up and away from them, put the business end of his shotgun to the thing’s head and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!!!

Black muck sprayed on the two as the things head came apart.

“Ugh,” Dad said.

“Thanks,” Zach smiled up at him. Dad reached down and helped him onto his feet.

“Luke’d kill me if anything happened to you, son.”

I smiled.

Zach smiled broader and hugged Dad, and I joined them.

“How’s it looking, Dad,” I asked, scanning the area. The fog, grenades, and shotgun blasts had combined to create a thick haze over the scene, and it was difficult to see very far.

DeAndre and Jonathan were fighting a group of zombies, there looked to be about 10 of them. Risa soon joined them, and then Dad, Zach and I ran over. Pretty soon we were all fighting in a circle, facing outward, as the zombies just kept coming.

BA-BOOMMMMM!!!!!!

BADABOOOOOOOOMMM!

Leia was still at it with the grenades, thank god. It really helped.

“They just keep coming,” Zach panted.

“They do that sometimes,” I said beside him. “Just don’t let your guard down.”

“If you get tired, son, get behind us a bit, so we can cover you.”

I swung at two more zombies that jumped at me together. One’s head came off cleanly, but then my knife stuck in the other’s skull. I reached down to pull it out, placing my boot on the thing’s shoulder. It grabbed at me feebly as I wrenched out my blade. I pointed my shotgun’s muzzle at it and finished the job I’d started. It lay still.

Looking up, I could see fifteen more rushing toward me. I leveled my gun and began blasting. They flew back several at a time. I loved the high-caliber shots. They plowed through and really knocked them down. Swinging my big knife, I cut down the last three, kicking at one at the last minute and chopping its head off as it fell.

Suddenly, I noticed Leia’s grenades had stopped sounding. Oh, no.

“I’m all out!” She called from fifteen feet up her tree.

“Uh oh.”

“Let’s pack together under the tree.”

“Should we try to get to the vehicle?”

I looked back at it but saw a flood of zombies come rushing around it.

“Look out!”

There must have been at least fifty zombies coming around the two vehicles, like water around two boulders.

“Luke!”

I swung to the left and saw another hundred coming from that side.

“Oh, god, this is not good.”

“Luke, get up this tree,” Dad was frantic.

“They’d just climb it anyway.”

“I don’t care, get the hell up the tree, Son.”

DeAndre grabbed me and boosted me bodily ten feet up. I grabbed a branch and hauled myself up to sit beside Leia.

“I hate this.”

Blasts and yells sounded from below as the Sanctuary team fought without me.

“I can’t do this.” I leaned out and began shooting, my blasts too high to be very effectual. “Dammit.” I began to climb down.

As I dropped to the ground again, I swung my knife wide and caught a zombie that had been about to grab Risa as she crouched down by the trunk of the big tree.

“My stupid leg …” I looked down and saw her leg had begun to bleed again. It was useless. Risa looked into my face and grimaced. “Painkillers wearing off …” Her face contorted in pain as she crumpled to the ground.

“Stay still, Sis,” I cut down three more zombies that had made it to the base of the tree.

“Jake!” DeAndre had gone down in a rush of at least twenty zombies.

Zach and Jonathan were fighting to get to DeAndre. Dad got there first and began chipping away at the monsters, but three more jumped onto him, and he turned to fight those.

“AHHH!!!!!!”

“I got this! I GOT THIS… OH GOD!!!”

“AIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“GET OFF ME!!! AAAHHHH!!!”

We weren’t going to win this one. They just kept coming. They stream of zombies seemed endless. I kept chopping at them, and blasting at them until my ammo ran out. Zombie bodies fell at my feet and began to pile up. I kicked them off, but more replaced them. After a few minutes, I didn’t hear DeAndre or Dad’s voices anymore.

“DAD!!!” Nothing…

Silence. Except for…

“LUKE!!!” Zach cried out, from farther away. His voice cut off in a scream.

I choked back a sob. My family was dying. My mother Alyssa would die. We would not succeed in saving her. And we were so close …

I blinked back tears. No. NO. It couldn’t end this way. I would not accept this. Two more zombies came out of the fog, and I swung my knife and they fell at my feet. A third followed them out of the swirling mist. Swinging my knife, I stumbled a little as I lopped the zombie’s head off. Gotta be more careful, I thought, regaining my footing. Two more came at us, and I chopped at them. I kept chopping, until …

I felt a hand on my leg as I fought, and looking down, I saw Risa looking up at me.

“Luke.”

I swung and cut down three more zombies.

“Luke, I think…”

I handed her my shotgun. “Reload both of ours, Risa.”

She began to fill the clips with shells. Handing one back to me, I swung it around and let loose three blasts in quick succession.

The air was filled with smoke, separating us from the others. For a few seconds, time seemed to stand still in the thick haze, and I could hear Risa breathing roughly.

“Luke, this may be the end…”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“But, Luke …”

“LUKE!!! RISA!!!” Leia screamed from the top of the tree where she was still perched. “LOOK!!!”

I looked up at her and saw that she was pointing off to the south.

All of a sudden I heard a huge blast come out of the fog.

BABOOOM!!!!!

“What the…?”