Tonight The World Dies (12 page)

“We need to go, now!” Sully said, spotting Brennan and his gun.

“Then go! I’m already dead. Don’t wait for me.” I said.

Andy and Bobby saw us, and rushed over.

“You guys need to leave before the others get out.” Andy said.

“You can’t leave!” Bobby said. “There’s still so much to study!”

“If she stays, she will be killed.” Andy said.

“It’s too late.” Dean said, blocking me from the door.

The front door swung open, and Megan, Steven, Todd, Mary, and Elizabeth flooded out.

“Where is she?” Megan called.

“I don’t know.” Brennan shouted. He was only a few feet from us now.

“Get under the RV,” I whispered.

“We aren’t leaving you.” Sully whispered back.

Brennan turned the corner and raised the butt of his gun.

“Why haven’t you killed her yet?” A voice hissed nearby.

I didn’t bother opening my eyes. I didn’t really care who was talking, I just wanted them to stop.

“Because she is a living, breathing human being.” Bobby said; I knew his voice at once. “She’s a murderer.” The other voice said. It was female, full of hate and anger. It had to be Megan.

“So you would have someone else become a murderer over her?” Brennan said. He sounded tired.

“It would be justice. She ate . . .”

Bobby cut in. “I know. We all know, and were upset about it too. We’ve been through this already. You know as well as I that your brother was asking for something bad to happen.” Brennan said. A sharp hiss, like Megan was about to utter obscenities and possibly hit someone. “I’m not saying he deserved it, but he came down here to hurt her. You ask me, Sully was right. It was self-defense taken too far by someone who couldn’t control herself.”

“No one asked you old man, and for a damn good reason.” Megan growled and stormed off. I could hear each stomp of her feet as she retreated upstairs.

“What are we going to do with her?” Brennan asked after the door slammed shut. I peeked in the direction of the voices. Turns out I was locked in the cage, sprawled out on the floor. Bobby looked exhausted; Brennan looked pale and nervous. I couldn’t smell them, but the insatiable hunger rose slightly as I watched them.

“We can’t let her roam around the house and we certainly can’t leave her anywhere the others can get to her.” Bobby said.

“Are we going to just leave her locked down here then?” Brennan asked.

Bobby thought for a moment. “No,” he said. “We may be able to use her.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“She still has part of the virus in her. I’ve been running tests, and introducing infected cells into her blood doesn’t do anything. They just die out. Her condition cannot get any worse. She’s immune to scratches and bites now.”

“Is that why she’s all marked up?”

“Yes. When we brought in that other zombie, it ignored her. Granted, she was sedated, but it never even looked at her when they were in there together. He treated her like she was another zombie until I introduced fresh, uninfected blood.”

“But how would we be using her?”

“She could be sent into infested areas to retrieve things. We wouldn’t have to risk lives to gather more supplies. If zombies attacked her, she would be unaffected.”

“What about transporting her? We won’t always have gas for the vehicles, and it wouldn’t be safe to just walk with her. She could hurt someone or run off.”

“We could use a muzzle and shackles.”

“I think she’s a might bit strong for shackles.”

“Secure them behind her back and connect them to leg shackles. She wouldn’t be able to do much then.”

“Until you have to take them off,”

“I hate to say it, but whoever took her would have to have a partner, holding a gun on her.” Bobby said, sighing.

I huffed.

“She doesn’t seem to like your idea much.”

Crap. He heard me.

“You’re awake.” Bobby said, turning to face me.

I looked up at him, trying not to swear when I said “Gee, you think? You have such wonderful powers of observation.” I rolled to my feet, taking a deep breath. From that height, I could catch little wafts of their scent, making me drool. “I’m hungry.” I said, stepping toward them. “Got anything to eat?”

They must have seen something in my expression that scared them, because they moved back, away from the glass.

“We . . . We could get you some hamburger meat.” Bobby stuttered.

“You guys are having hamburgers tonight? Where’d you get the meat?” I asked.

“The missus ground some up from the cow we slaughtered.” Brennan said.

“I want it raw,” I said.

“I’ll get you some,” Brennan said, giving me a weary look before heading upstairs. He looked glad to be leaving.

I looked down at myself, seeing fresh cuts and bites all over my body. I couldn’t feel any of them.

“Set another damn monster on me, huh?” I said.

“I had to run further tests.”

“How long ago?”

“Yesterday,”

“I’ve been out since then?”

He nodded.

“Where is it now?”

“Dead,”

“It came in that way. I was asking what you did with it afterwards.”

“The others . . .” He trailed off.

“Good. There’s only room for one flesh eating pshyco in this house, though I’d really prefer it wasn’t me.” I pressed my hands to the glass, tilting my head to the side, trying to look more human. “Let me go,” I whispered.

“I can’t do that.” He said.

“Can’t, or wont?”

“I can’t. You’re too invaluable.”

I punched the glass, making it shiver.

“You’re keeping my friends prisoner and I don’t like it”.

“It’s not safe out there.”

“Don’t talk to me about safe,” I all but shouted. “We survived a whole year on our own. Nothing really horrible happened to us until we came here. They would stand a better chance out with those corpses walking around, where at least their motive is singular and simple.”

“We have shelter and fresh food.” Bobby said.

“They have weapons and brains.”

“And what about you?”

“Me? I have nothing, not even death. You took that away from me.”

“I gave you new life. You’re stronger, harder to injure.”

“You gave me an eternity in hell. You stuck me between the living and the God damned dead for your own stick amusement.”

Brennan came back, carrying a plate of raw hamburger. It didn’t smell as appetizing as the hand that pushed it through the slot, but I ate it none the less.

“Before, after . . . The incident, you said another dose of your so-called-cure would kill me. How would it do that?” I said, shoving the empty plate back out.

“Well,” Bobby said. “I tested it with some of the blood I drew from you, and it destroyed all of your blood cells since they all show signs of infection.”

“So I’m so thoroughly infected that any further attempts at eradicating it would be like three months’ worth of chemotherapy in one day then?” I asked.

“Basically, yes. But chemo only attacks white blood cells, and this would destroy all of your blood cells, leaving you unable to transport anything in your body.”

“I didn’t think a full on zombies heart beat at all.”

“It doesn’t,”

“So it would completely turn me and not give me real death. I would go whole-hog face-muncher.”

“Yes,”

Chapter twenty-two

The days that followed were dull, blending into one another like one long nightmare from which I could not wake. It seemed my whole entire bloody life was a nightmare. My friends were held in the attic, Brennan and Andy taking turns to guard them. I was stuck in the basement. My bursts of anger increased with restlessness and boredom.

When Bobby tried to knock me out again, I fought back, resulting in him having a black eye. Served him right.

I woke up hog-tied in the back of an SUV. Though I could barely feel the ropes biting into my skin, they effectively restricted my movement. The door swung open, sunlight burning my eyes before two dark figures loomed over me, blocking out the sky behind them.

Bobby loosened the ropes while Andy trained a shotgun on me.

“Let me guess,” I said, glaring up at them. “You ran out of tampons and want me to get more.”

“Ha, ha.” Andy said, shaking his head.

I sat up, letting my legs swing out and dangle over the rear bumper. Both men backed up several paces.

“Paranoid?” I asked, rising an eyebrow.

“We need you to go in there,” Bobby said, indicating the store we were parked in front of.

“And?”

“And try to find us some toothpaste and toilet paper,” Bobby said.

“Toothpaste,” I said.

“And toilet paper.” Andy said.

“You knocked me out, tied me up, and dragged me here to get toilet paper and toothpaste.” I said.

“Yes. Oh, and these medications. We’re running a bit low,” Bobby said, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. He flinched when I took it from him.

Not that eating him didn’t cross my mind.

“Right. Anything else?” I asked, annoyed.

“There are several zombies in there. We haven’t been able to get in safely before now, and this is the only place in town that has what we need.” Bobby said.

“I smell like human.” I pointed out.

“I think you’ll be fine,”

I stood up, holding my breath as I sidestepped them.

“Good luck,” Andy whispered.

“Bitch, please,” I mumbled, striding past.

It smelled horrible inside, like the normal death and decay, but stronger. It was worse than the poor sap we had found in that gas station last year.

Zombies shuffled about, moaning softly to one another. A blast of air followed me through the door, blowing the scent of the living in with me. As the door swung shut, each and every
undead head turned toward me.

Chapter twenty-three

“Oh, frack it all to hell,” I groaned. Yeah, this was going to be a freaking cakewalk.

The nearest weapons where at the endcap of an isle twenty feet away with a handful of freaks in-between.

They lumbered nearer, whispers of ‘food, food’ echoing ahead of them.

“I’m not food,” I said. They ignored me.

They were getting closer. I ran, sliding on my leg beneath their grasp, crashing into a display of shovels.

They turned, confused.

“Food?” They chanted.

I swung a shovel hard, decapitating the nearest zombie. The others growled, angered.

“Wait,” One of them said, his papery voice shockingly loud. He- it stepped forward from the crowd. He was different from the others. He seemed older; more decayed. His leathery skin stretched tightly over sharp bones. Its face reminded me of a mummy- brown and shrunken like dried fruit. He scowled. “You don’t smell right.” He said.

“You can talk?” I asked.

“Yes,” It said. “Humans can’t hear us though.”

“I’m not human,” I said. Why was I standing there talking to him? Why the hell wasn’t I killing the undead freaks?

“I can see that,” He said, which I doubted. His eyes were covered in cataracts. “But you smell like them. And you move like them. You’re freshly turned aren’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

“Where are the others?” He demanded. When I still didn’t answer, he took an uneven step, teetering on withered feet, the others following suit.

I didn’t have time for this. Instinct set in and I started swinging. The metal clanged as it collided with the hard skulls; squishing deliciously as it sliced through soft necks. I cut through a handful of them before they surrounded me, forcing me to drop low and crawl between them.

I could feel their fingers gouge deep marks in my back; ripping out locks of hair. One zombie latched onto my leg, refusing to be shaken off, so I turned, driving the heel of my boot into its forehead. The softening bone shattered under the force, the rest of its body falling limp.

I found myself running down the hardware isle, grinning to myself at the ideas flooding through my mind. Two new zombies were closing in, getting within easy striking distance. Slowing down just a little, I snatched up a screwdriver and a saw blade, spinning in place to force the blade through one zombie’s neck, the screwdriver into the ear of the other.

I was running out of weapons, too many of the undead getting too close for comfort as I neared the end of the isle. I couldn’t just double back. What was near-by? The paint section. I turned, running at a right angle to the horde still chasing me.