Strange Trouble
Authors: Laken Cane
Tags: #Horror, #Fantasy, #Genre Fiction, #Literature & Fiction, #Urban, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban
Strange Trouble
By Laken Cane
Copyright © 2014
Laken Cane
All rights reserved.
The author
acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products
referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The
publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, association with, or
sponsored by the trademark owners.
This book is licensed
for your personal enjoyment.
Ebook
copies may not be
resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share with a friend,
please buy an extra copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
For more information
about the author, you can find her online at
www.facebook.com/laken.cane.3
,
www.amazon.com/author/lakencane
Dedications
I want to dedicate
this book to the following people. You’ve all touched this series in some
way—by answering questions, helping me get the word out about the crew, being
the most awesome of fans, or by being super supportive. And sometimes you will
write something so perfect about my books that I print it out and read it every
single day for encouragement. You are very much appreciated.
Cheryl Bennett
David Bunch
Cheryl Carpenter
DeLane
Corbin
Tiffany Dahl
Elaine
Geight
Jerah
Johnson
Lise
Lotte
Pamela Meade
Merrylee
Tammi
Porche
Jamie Lee Smith
Starla
Stimmer
Table of Contents
Chapter
One
Dozens of zombies surrounded them.
“Don’t let any of the fuckers bite you,” Rune said, her
heart racing, “unless you dig that particular rotting skin look.”
“Sexy,” Z replied. He held two long silver blades, his eyes
watchful and his body still as he waited for Rune’s signal.
“Zombies,” Lex muttered. “I hate zombies.”
Lex’s vibrations were so hard Rune could almost feel them.
She glanced at the blind
Other
.
“You
doing okay, baby?”
“She’s fine,” Raze growled.
“
Now,
Rune?”
Rune grinned and shot her claws through the tips of her
fingers. “Let’s kill some fucking zombies.”
Jack was the only one of the crew missing, and that was
because Rune had sent him back to Spiritgrove for a flamethrower. They’d have
brought the flamethrower with them if everyone they’d talked to in Rock County
hadn’t lied about what was waiting there.
Zombies.
She ignored the screams and the blood and went to work,
doing exactly what she’d told her crew to do—killing the zombies.
Lex fought beside her, mirroring Rune’s movements as though
she were an extension of her captain. It was an oddity Rune didn’t question—it
worked.
Technically, Lex couldn’t see.
At least not with the eyes her mother, the Church of Slayers
founder, had destroyed when Lex had been a child.
But Lex could
see.
And she could fight.
The berserker roared his way through the crowd of zombies.
His size and his muscles were intimidating. His rage was legendary.
He wielded his long silver spear the way Rune used her claws—like
it was part of him. Zombies fell beneath the fury that had grown even darker
because of the deaths of his wife and child.
And because of Rune.
Let me in, Rune.
She shoved those thoughts away and focused on the zombies.
Killing.
Killing was what mattered.
And protecting.
They were Shiv Crew, and that was what they did.
Rune figured the Rock County officials had been too afraid
to report the zombies. After all, the military had been known to destroy entire
cities over an infestation. Even if they controlled the zombies and got the
humans to safety, those humans would endure hell before they were declared
healthy and virus-free and sent out to find new homes in new cities.
But now the zombies were out of control and spreading. Every
graveyard in the county must have been emptied.
How it’d started she didn’t know.
Yet.
Z plunged his blade into a zombie’s belly and jerked upward,
unzipping the monster like a hideous dress. And when the zombie leaned forward
and put his hands on his ruined midsection, Z took his head.
Rune saw other things in the few seconds it took them to
occur, but mostly she was busy taking zombie heads herself.
And trying not to get bitten.
A few of the zombies seemed almost…alive. They moved with
speeds normal zombies did not possess, and had a spark deep inside their eyes
the other zombies lacked.
Luckily, most of them were lumbering, dull zombies—the kind
that could only overwhelm the humans with sheer numbers or dumb luck.
The air was thick with the strong scent of death and decay.
A curtain of blood hung in the air, shocking Rune almost enough to make her
lose her concentration. The zombies were bleeding.
A lot.
She spun and sliced her claws through a monster’s neck. She
had a second to watch, stunned, as blood spouted, a geyser of red that sprayed
her skin and clogged her nostrils.
Blood.
Why were some of the zombies
bleeding?
The dead didn’t bleed. Not like that.
She screamed in rage and terror when a zombie latched onto
her with his strong teeth. The strip he took off the back of her shoulder would
have fed half the zombie population for a week.
The pain was immediate and sharp, but she was in full battle
mode and a wound wasn’t going to stop her.
But she’d been bitten.
“Shit, Rune,” Lex yelled. “No!”
They kept fighting, all of them. They could do nothing else.
If anyone could handle a zombie bite, Rune could. She wasn’t
human—not fully human. And
Others
couldn’t be infected
by zombies.
She hoped.
She decapitated two more zombies before the berserker waded
through the monsters and the blade-wielding crew to reach her.
He slung one monster out of his way then drop kicked an
elderly zombie so hard the white-haired hag nearly broke in half.
“Strad,” Rune warned. “Don’t.” But in the melee, he wouldn’t
have heard her. And he wouldn’t have listened anyway.
Damn the berserker for always treating her like she needed
tending. She was
so
not a delicate flower.
His eyes blazed blue fire in his pale face.
Scared.
He was scared for her.
He thrust his spear into the head of a zombie reaching for
her. As it fell, he grabbed her by her good shoulder, ignoring her claws and
fangs, and forcefully turned her around so he could examine her wound.
“She okay?”
Denim yelled. He and
his twin brother, Levi, fought back to back in a beautiful, gory dance Rune
would never tire of
watching
.
But there was no time for watching, or for being pampered.
“Dammit, Berserker, you can check me out after we kill these zombies.” She
jerked out of his grip and turned, just in time to take off the head of a
zombie whose teeth were an inch from Strad’s back. “See that? Pay attention
before you get your own ass nibbled on.”
He narrowed his eyes but went back into the battle.
It wasn’t bad enough they had to worry about whether or not
Ellis was going to turn into a vampire child of the mad master Llodra—now they
would wonder if Rune was going to become a zombie.
Perfect.
Zombies fell, but it was not an easy battle. They were
strong, they had no fear, and they were hungry.
So hungry.
Rune could suddenly feel it, and that scared the fuck out of
her.
She knew what hunger could do.
Gathering her fear and her fury to her, she used it to
slaughter the monsters.
Shiv Crew lived for the fight.
Maybe they were all freaks, but that kept them alive.
And they had Rune.
She sliced through zombie after zombie with her built-in
shivs. She was faster than any zombie—her speeds rivaled those of master
vampires.
But the zombies kept coming. Some of them, necks hanging by
a thread, got back up. There were nine Shiv Crew members and eight of them were
fighting. That was a hell of a lot of shivs and fists and muscle.
But the zombies just kept coming.
Rune lost track of time, but even
her
arms were
burning. The other members, all human but for Lex, would surely be tiring under
the strain.
The monsters surrounded them, corralling the crew into a
tight knot of flashing blades. Zombie voices assaulted Rune’s sensitive ears. A
constant, low moaning in which she imagined she could hear actual words.
Hungry.
Hungry.
Long, discolored teeth snapped as the monsters tried to
bite—eat—the crew, and the sounds of groans, slicing blades, and those hideous
chomping teeth filled the air.
“Fuck,” she screamed. “Where the fuck is Jack?”
If they’d had time to prepare for the battle, it would have
been a little more evenly matched. But Rock County hadn’t warned them, and by
the time Rune understood what was really going on, the crew had to move fast
and plan faster.
They’d driven into Rock County in three different vehicles,
Rune leading the way with Lex and Owen.
Strad had been right behind her with Levi and Z. Denim and
Jack had ridden with Raze.
They’d entered Rock County and had been driving down a long,
gravel road, surrounded by woods, when they’d spotted a couple of straggling
zombies.
Stunned, the crew had destroyed those first zombies quickly,
but in moments, more had arrived.
Attracted by the scent of
hot blood and warm flesh, no doubt.
Kill the zombies. Don’t get bitten.
That was pretty much the extent of the plan.
She lost sight of the other crew members. Panic began to
beat at her brain like waves of an angry ocean. The berserker’s roar comforted
her and she fought on. Shiv Crew never gave up.
Not ever.
But things had gotten intense in a hurry. They were being
overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The zombies were bad motherfuckers, and they were
there to battle.
A battle Shiv Crew just might lose.
Blood continued to color the air as the crew sliced through
monster necks.
And they roared their glee.
They were Shiv Crew.
And that, right there—the fighting, the killing—
that
was what they fucking did.