'Til Death Do Us Part (79 page)

BT’s eyes got wide.

“When the zombies get to the house, seven more people upstairs will now have a chance to blend in and maybe get the fuck away from this death house. Seven more of the people we love were just given an extra chance to hold on. And if the dip wads outside had played their cards right
,
I’m pretty sure the two vials would have been enough to protect all of them. Sure
,
they would have to know each other a little better than they may have wanted to, but they would have survived. And already they’
re turning on each other.
I doubt two of them make it back. They’
re killing each other. T
hey would have had no problem killing us. I say fuck ‘em, you should
, too,
” I told him as I got back to scooping brain and scrubbing blood.

The folding chair sighed in relief as BT
heaved himself to his feet. H
e squeezed my shoulder as he went by. “Is there another sponge?”
he
asked
,
pointing to the utility room.

“Enough to make it through the apocalypse.”

“I hope so.”

The Backyard

“What now?” Xander, the silent one of the remaining three live men said as they stared across the abyss.

“Well
, near as I can tell,
” Steve
,
aka Steel Balls
,
began, “we have two vials and three
people,
and since I’m holding one and so is Chaz
,
it looks like you’re odd man out.”

“That’s not right
,
man, if
we stay together we can make it,
” Xander
complained
.

“
Not a chance,
” Steve said as he jumped the gap. The zombies in the front row could not yield
fast enough
as Steve s
truck chest to chest.
He
bounced back
,
grabbing onto the zombie
’
s tattered shirt pulling them both back into the pit.

He pulled the zombie to the side in a desperate attempt t
o avoid the deadly steel spikes. I
t worked to a point as a barb cleaved him on the left side of his abdomen. His hand clenching the vial opened to brace his body to stop any further damage. The zombie came straight down
flush on the spike;
it broke through his sternum and impaled him completely. The duo were locked head to foot
,
and without the vial to protect him
,
the zombie unaffe
cted from the damage to his mid-
section began to feed.

Steve started to pull frantically, his muscle and skin stretching violently as he tried to rip himself away sideways from the spike before the zombie could break through the denim pants he wore. “Xander
,
help me
, man,
” Steve asked frantically.

He was crying out loud as he tried to sever through three inches of his being. The zombie was making s
hort work of the heavy material.
Steve was kicking his leg so that the
zombie could not seek purchase;
he was losing the battle. Steve’s skin split
with a wet rip
from the pole just as the zombie took a small ribbon of meat from his calf.

“Oh fuck
,
man!”
h
e yelled as he scrambled to get away from the zombie. One hand was clenched over the wound in his side. The kerosene fire below was threatening to ignite his shoes and the zombies at the top
,
beginning to realize he was fair game
,
started to walk into the fire to get at him.

“Xander, Chaz
, please help me,
”
h
e begged.

Chaz was lost in the depths of his mourning and barely cognizant of the happening
s
in front of him. Xander had come to the conclusion that if Steve started to burn he wouldn’t even piss on him.

“
Come on,
” Xander said to Chaz as he led the brother away and to the other side of the yard w
h
ere the
steel framing to the foot bridge still remained
. Steve screamed out four more times before either the fire or the zombies devoured him.

Xander made sure he had a handful of Chaz’ shirt at all times as he led the man out of the zombies. The zombies pressed tightly as they passed, sometimes not yielding their spot even after Xander walked into them. He kept his head down thinking that somehow
,
by not making eye contact
,
he would not illicit a challenge. The zombies were within tongue range almost consta
ntly
and Xander had enough wet marks to prove that they were tasting the validity of the food. He was happy they weren’t like sharks that bit first to determine taste.

Xander almost cried in relief when they made it through the brunt of the zombies and were stopped by a guard.

“
Oh thank God,
”
h
e said nearly collapsing.

“What happened to the rest of you guys?”
t
he guard asked.

“
Dead,
”
w
as his one word reply.

“Holy shit, come on follow me. Kong gave us all orders that if any of you stumbled back to come and meet him personally without the woman.” Nobody wanted to use Eliza’s name
,
as if to speak it was to invoke her presence. And nobody wanted that cold beauty next to them. “Tell Kong I’
ve got two coming,
”
t
he guard said
, speaking into a small two-
way radio.

“Roger that
,
bring them out to
Dowb
oin road and have them
wait
,
”
t
he man on the other end said.

“Chaz
, man, y
ou alright?”
t
he guard asked.

“
I need to bury my brother,
”
h
e answered through a mourning haze.

“We will
, man, we will.
You
want some help carrying him?”
t
he guard asked.

“It’s just for a
little while longer I can do it,
” Chaz said.

It was another ten minutes through their circuitous route that the men found themselves on the roadway that led into the Talbot compound.

Kong was waiting impatiently. “You
can go back to your post,
”
h
e told the guard. “What happened?”
h
e asked when the guard was out of range.

“
We never had a chance,
” Xander said. “They were waiting for us. Killed the first four through the door including Chaz’ brother before we even knew what was going on.”

“And the rest of you?” Kong asked.

“Chaz made us put down our weapons when the guy inside, Mike I think his name was
,
said that if he wanted to keep his brother alive that’s what we had to do. Chaz shot Ned when he didn’t want to. So when all
of
our guns
we
re gone, he takes our vials except for Pete’s and Adam’s. Pete shot most of his foot off when he tried to hide his gun and Steve pushed him into the trench, so that he could take his vial.”

“What a cluster fuck, where is Steve?”

“He fell into the pit, a few zombies ate him.”

“
Christ on a cracker!
What
the fuck am I going to tell Eliza? She’ll want me to assemble another team. The men already think this Mike guy is supernatural.”

“
He is,
” Xander replied.

“What?” Kong asked.

“I’m telling you
,
man, there’s something different about this guy, he’s not normal. He was just in a gun battle and was as cool as a cucumber. Eliza is as mean as a rattlesnake, he
is
the rattlesnake. Why are we here Kong? What is it about this guy she hates so much? I think I
deserve to know,
” Xander said.

“Deserve? You’
re better off not knowing,
” Kong told
him.

“I th
ink we earned the right to know,
” Chaz said
,
standing up from where he had laid his brother down. “Is the bitch even human?”

“I’m telling you
,
Chaz, you’re better off
just leaving it alone,
” Kong told him
,
trying to placate the other man.

“We’ve loaded trailer
s full
of zom
b
ies
and hauled them
close to a thousand miles to fight a guy that has wiped out two insertion teams and killed my brother and you’re telling me to mind my own business? Well fuck you
,
Kong!” Chaz shouted.

Kong punched the man so hard in the side of the temple, Chaz’ legs locked up before he pitched over. “You got a problem with that?” Kong asked Xander.

Xander was backing up holding his hands in front of him. “No
,
man.”

“Get him u
p and help him bury his brother,
” Kong said as he turned to relay the bad news to the one really in charge.

“There’s something else
, Kong,
” Xander said. “
The zombie
s
…
they’
re acting weird.
Yeah
I know, but even weirder for zombies. There’s a seven
-
or eight-
foot deep trench
,
and it’s lined with spikes and fire it’s pretty nasty business. The zombies they won’t even try to get over it. They’re just standing there.”

“Are they looking down the trench?” Kong asked.

“No
,
that’s the thing, I don’t think they
give two shits about the trench.
They’re
every one
of
them looking up at the house l
ike they’re under a spell or something. It’s fucking creepy. The ones outside the fence keep moving in
,
then they stop. I noticed it when we were going in
,
and especially when we were leaving
,
because we were trying to get around them.”

***

“I expected to have Michael’
s head by now,
” Eliza said.

Most people would say that as a euphemism, Kong knew she meant it literally. “The team is back.”

“And yet I see none of the Talbot
s,
” Eliza said
,
looking around
with an exaggerated swing of her head
.

“
Only two of them made it back,
”
h
e told her hopelessly
,
hoping that would appease her.

“Did they exact any type of revenge for their losses?” Eliza asked.

“
No,
” Kong answered honestly.

“Perhaps some of the Talbots were mortally wounded?” Eliza asked.