Alive and Fighting: New in Town (2 page)

             
The zombie that crossed her path looked to have been a young man. His bones were just barely visible beneath the taut gray skin. Clearly visible and covering what remained of its flesh were the distinct spidery blood webs that marked the infected. Its relatively bloodless face led Amy to believe that he was a fresh convert. He was halfway across the road before realizing that he was being watched, and turning quickly towards his prey, tripped over his own ankle. Amy heard his chin crack against the pavement, but still the rag adorned body pulled itself back up and resumed course, quicker now, in Amy's direction. Without hesitation and like a long practiced art, Amy unsheathed a smooth bladed hunting knife from her belt and met her attacker at the curb, sinking the weapon up to its hilt upward through the soft part in zombie’s lower jaw. For a long moment it struggled, and every muscle and nerve in Amy tensed responsively, but it was dead in less than a second, crumpling to the street.

             
"Impressive." A wispy voice cooed from the shadows of a nearby alley, causing Amy to rip the knife free from the muscular flesh and whip around to face the speaker.

             
"Who are you?" Amy asked, still brandishing her knife, her other hand gripping the handle of another smaller knife in her belt.

             
"Who I am isn't important right now, what I have to offer is though." The voice said seductively, stepping into the light, showing itself to be a young woman. She wore dark jeans and a thin black hooded sweat shirt, the hood up and covering most of her face, but a black choker around her neck stood out, a silver pendant shining, radiant at its center.

             
"And what would that be?" Amy questioned, her guard still raised.

             
"Let's call it a job…audition. Few could kill a target so efficiently, and you didn’t even flinch. Most women, and a few men I've met too, would have cowered a little." The woman answered, her hands in her hoodie's pockets.

             
"Still haven't told me anything. Who do you even work for?" Amy countered, the woman having done nothing to ease her defensive demeanor.

             
"I thought the hood would've given it away, guess you're new in town. I'm a Reaper, and we'd be interested in seeing if you’re up to our standards." The woman freely admitted.

             
"Not interested and I don’t think this conversation needs to continue." Amy said rather bluntly, circling the woman, knife still in hand.

             
"Thank you! You see, I'm not allowed to kill potentials, but as your mind's all made up, my bonds are gone!" the woman harped, taking her hands from her pockets and reaching quickly behind her back.

             
Before Amy had sufficient time to react, she heard a crack just to her left. The woman had pulled out a whip and snapped it right towards Amy's face. From her quick glimpse, it looked as though the weapon was lined with tiny metal barbs. Smiling maliciously, the woman circled Amy and cocked her arm back again. As the barbs came straight for her, Amy managed to quickly duck down behind the corpse she had slain, not minutes prior. The tiny spikes lodged into the dead flesh and Amy took her chance and leapt up towards her assailant, pinning her against the dumpster in the alley, the whip having fallen to the ground.

             
"One chance." Amy said, holding her knife to the woman's throat.

             
"You should have killed me." She cooed into Amy's ear, striking her solidly in the stomach and shoving her to the ground. "Next time it'll be personal!"

             
The woman dashed off through the shadows, but her whip still lay in the street. Amy clutched at her gut, still spinning and disoriented from the hit as she dislodged the weapon from the zombie's body. As she turned to head back again towards Harvester HQ she saw a glint in the alley. The woman's choker had been broken by Amy's knife point and fallen off as she'd escaped. Amy picked up the choker and started to cautiously make her way through the streets back home. After making her way down several streets, the Harvester Compound finally loomed ahead at the end of a short street lined with ramshackle guardhouses. A wall of jagged scrap metal and splintered lumber surrounded the handful of buildings nestled within that made up the complex. Towering over the fence was a massive, rusty, blood red spike-shaped structure jutting from the earth at the back of the fenced area. This was The Thorn, the seat of the Harvesters power and the home of their leader, Mr. Williams. At the end of the guard huts stood a large rolling gate made from giant interstate signs from bygone times bolted and welded together.

             
At this imposing gate to the complex, Amy was met by Johnny, the second in command of the Harvesters who answered to no man, but Mr. Williams. He was a tall man, and bore many telling scars and bruises. He wore his hood up in a way that shaded most of his face, the rest of which was covered by a worn red bandana and dark sunglasses. Johnny carried an authoritative and watchful air that seemed to emanate a feeling of safety to all those around him

             
"Where stalkers only watch?" Johnny questioned, his face tilted towards Amy.

             
"Uh…shit I know this…uh…The hunters observe!" Amy remembered from her brief orientation the previous day, she still had yet to even be assigned a room.

             
"Relax, I thought I recognized you from yesterday, I'll learn your face soon." Johnny said with an easy smile, before noticing her holding her stomach, "You okay?"

             
"I should be fine, a Reaper attacked me on my way back." said Amy trying to downplay the facts with a casual tone, as she passed by Johnny into the Harvester compound.

             
"Whoa, Reaper attacked? And you survived? Trip, watch my post. You, follow me." Johnny directed, shocked.

             
Johnny led her through the compound which was comprised of three distinct structures: a warehouse, The Thorn, and a graveyard. The graveyard was merely a façade of black plaster and plywood to cover the vast network of tunnels, barracks, and storage rooms beneath it. One building seemed to be an abandoned warehouse, black with graffiti and a grim reaper adorning its walls. The other building, despite being over twenty years old, seemed somehow newer. It was The Thorn, a giant, black and red building made of steel that looked like the jagged spike of a flail that rose over one hundred feet in the air, with other spikes branching off at various intervals. Though the building appeared empty, lights were just visible through small cracks that must have served as windows in years past. Pushing open the Warehouse door Johnny took her quickly to the infirmary.

             
"Nero, you in?" Johnny called into the room as he entered.

             
"He's with Mr. Williams, but I can help you." An olive skinned young woman in white scrubs with a red arm band said, showing Johnny and Amy in. "What seems to be the trouble?"

             
"This is…uh…Amy! She was attacked by a Reaper, Jenny. I've got questions for her, but I want to make sure she's okay, just joined us yesterday believe it or not." Johnny explained.

             
"Wow, day one and tackling Reapers. Where's it hurt, babe?" Jenny asked as Amy hopped onto the table.

             
"She punched me in the stomach and shoved me to the ground, honestly I'm surprised it's still hurting." Amy said, gesturing to her torso.

             
"Mhmm, Johnny if you could step back I'm gonna pull the curtain closed. Amy, could you take your hoodie off?" Jenny requested, to which both Johnny and Amy complied. "Feel free to ask your questions Johnny, I'll be able to figure this out silently. Lie back if you would Amy."

             
"Did you get a name?" Johnny quickly asked, very interested.

             
"No, I asked her, but she didn’t tell me." Amy told, as Jenny observed the dark bruise on Amy's stomach.

             
"Hmm. Any defining marks? Tattoos, jewelry, weapons?" Johnny questioned, still interested.

             
"She was covered by her hood and pants, so I don’t know about tattoos. She was wearing a choker and had a whip. Does that help?" Amy said, remembering all she could.

             
"Well that's impressive. Only their top field agents get to wear chokers, your survival is surprising me more and more. The whip is a bit of a dead end, that's kind of their signature secondary weapon to their scythes. Did she want something from you or did she just attack?" Johnny asked, respect clear in his voice.

             
"Yeah, she saw me kill a zombie and offered a job audition. When I refused, she attacked. I used the zombie's body to block her whip. The barbs on it got stuck so I pinned her against a dumpster with my knife to her neck…I offered her a chance to leave, stupid I know. That's when she hit me." Amy somewhat shamefully admitted as Jenny checked her bandaged arm, giggling when she found out it was a tattoo, not a wound.

             
"I admire your respect for human life, but Reapers don’t deserve second chances. You see one, you kill it. Well, I'm damn proud of you and I'll be talking to Mr. Williams about an immediate promotion. Anything else?" Johnny asked from behind the curtain.

             
"Yeah." Amy responded, remembering the spoils of the fight. "I got her whip and choker, the whip was still stuck in the corpse and my knife freed the choker."

             
"Toss the choker over the curtain, it might be enough to tell us who she was or what her rank was." Johnny excitedly requested, to which Amy complied.

             
"Do their accessories really tell that much?" Amy asked, throwing it over.

             
"You’d be surprised…Holy shit. The fact that you're still breathing puts you in a group probably no bigger than seven. The woman who attacked you is Angel. She's ruthless, loves killing, prefers torture. As far as I know only you, me, and a handful of Great Apes have fought her and lived. Fuck asking, you're promoted." Johnny proudly exclaimed through the curtain.

             
"What? It's only my first day, I haven't even been assigned a barrack, or a field test, or anything." Amy babbled, stunned by the news.

             
"Amy, did you hear me? You lived where veterans have died. I do understand you're not experienced in our day to day, but I'll take that into consideration as to what type of promotion you get. Also, screw barracks, you're getting a room in the Thorn. I'll send someone to take you to your room once Jenny's done." Johnny stated plainly from behind the curtain.

             
"Speaking of, I figured what's causing the pain. It's actually something I've seen come through here a lot recently. Angel used a localized nerve stimulant, doesn't actually cause any damage, just mimics severe wounds to cause the body to overreact. My guess is she had a ring or some other small piercing weapon on her knuckles coated with it." Jenny announced, handing Amy her hoodie back.

             
"Same stuff that had Spike out for a few days?" Johnny asked, after Jenny reopened the curtains for Amy.

             
"It would seem. Luckily Amy here only got a nick of it, the introduction site was tiny, barely a pin prick." Jenny answered, cleaning her hands.

             
"Are we working on a counter measure? We can't afford to have our top field agents incapacitated by punches." Johnny asked, before turning to Amy, "No offense of course."

             
"None taken, and it's fine, I'm starting to feel better anyway." Amy said, standing up off the table.

             
"Lie to yourself Amy, but don't lie to us, especially in front of a doctor. We know how this stuff affects people." Johnny laughed, putting his hand on Amy's shoulder.

             
"As to that counter measure, yeah we've got some people working towards that. Vultures are closer though. Odds are they'll have it worked it real soon. We can just start making it ourselves when they start shipping it out." Jenny added, drying her hands off.

             
"Odds are higher that they engineered it too." Johnny chuckled, leading Amy from the room. "Thanks for the help Jenny, give Nero my regards if you would."

             
"Of course, try not to get hurt out there!" Jenny jabbed in reference to his many scars, to which Johnny stifled a laugh.

             
"Follow me, if you would Amy. Gonna get you all set up in the Thorn." Johnny said, heading out of the Warehouse towards the towering Thorn.

             
"Great, should I get my stuff first?" Amy asked, remembering all the gear she'd brought from the Alamo Graveyard.

             
"Spike, can you get Amy's things brought up to room…seven-twelve?…Thanks bud." Johnny requested through a walkie-talkie.

             
"Oh, thanks." Amy said, as her stomach hurt again at the thought of carrying all her belongings.