Dark Realms (62 page)

It was clear that Eva had no idea what had
happened in the last twenty-four hours. I knew someone had to let
her know, and Paige was having too much fun listening to her to set
her straight. I took a deep breath and began telling her the
truth.

She interrupted me right away. “Excuse me?
Have you completely lost your mind, Cassie?”

“No, she’s telling the truth,” replied Bryce
from the front seat.

Eva stared in alarm at Bryce and then closed
her eyes. She took a deep breath and then released it slowly.

“Okay…” she replied breathlessly, “well, I
would be more inclined to believe you since you were carrying a gun
and clearly saved my life. Plus, those freaks did smell absolutely
horrible. What was your name again?”

“It’s Bryce,” I answered for him with
clenched teeth. The fact that she thought I was lying really pissed
me off.

Eva’s attention turned back to me. “Well,
you may as well continue with your little story.”

“Story? It’s the facts, Eva,” snapped
Paige.

“Okay, let’s just relax,” said Kristie.
“It’s hard to accept what has happened and we’ve seen it with our
own eyes. So imagine how difficult it is for Eva to believe.”

Paige shrugged.

Kristie’s eyes softened. “Honey,” she said.
“Here are the facts; that new flu vaccine has created zombies,
okay? You’re lucky we found you because you and Chi Chi…you were
next on the menu. If not for the two zombies, then for the dead
army coming up behind us. Holy crap! Bryce, step on it!!”

We all turned to the back window as Bryce
peeled away. Hundreds of zombies were heading our way.

~~~

We decided to drive back to my house to
check on Bobby and the others.

“Well,” said Kristie, shutting off her
phone. “Thankfully my brother was in town visiting my mom when the
zombies struck because she would have been all alone. They’re at
the cabin now and didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. I
told him the girls and I would head out there after we drop
everyone off.”

“Are you sure you want to risk driving
around by yourselves?” asked Bryce.

“You’re all free to join us if you’d like.
It’s only about an hour north of here.”

I didn’t say anything. My mom, dad, and
sister were all missing and that’s all I could think about at the
moment.

“Eva? Are you okay?” asked Kristie.

Eva was staring out the window. After
replacing her contacts and getting her first real glimpse of the
zombies wandering the streets, she’d been horrified of how close
she’d been to death.

I touched her shoulder gently. “Eva?”

She turned to me with tears in her eyes.
“Um, sorry…I just don’t really know what to do at this point. I’m
just so worried about my mom.”

“Do you have anyone else you can call? Your
dad or a grandparent?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. My father is
somewhere in Asia. I haven’t spoken to him in years. All my
grandparents are dead. It’s just me and Chi Chi.”

“Did your mom get the vaccine?” I asked.

“No. Neither of us did.”

All of a sudden Bryce slammed on the brakes
and we all lurched forward in our seats.

“What the heck?” I yelled at him.

“Stay here,” he said and jumped out of the
SUV with his rifle.

“Oh, good God! Look at that poor puppy!”
cried Kristie.

Several zombies were closing in on a young
golden retriever. The dog was on a leash that appeared to be
tangled on a rickety fence in front of an old church. Its frantic
barking must have temporarily confused the zombies because they
were staying back, although I knew it wouldn’t be long before their
hunger drove them closer.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Bryce will save that
poor little dog,” said Eva.

Bryce raised his rifle and started
shooting.

“Look!” pointed Kylie. “More zombies are
coming from behind that trailer!”

A motorhome was parked in a neighboring
driveway and Bryce was about to be attacked by a larger pack of
zombies.

“I’m going to help. Lock the door behind
me,” I said.

Luckily Bryce had fixed my gun and it was
ready to go again. I opened the door and jumped out. “Bryce, watch
out behind you!” I yelled and started firing it at the new group of
zombies. By the time I used all my bullets, however, I’d only hit
two in the head. The others were getting back up.

Bryce hollered at me. “Just get back in the
truck!”

I watched in horror as another wave of
zombies approached Bryce from the other side of the church. I knew
he didn’t have enough ammunition for all of them. He started
shooting again and it didn’t take long to empty out his rifle.

“Shit!” he raged, tossing it to the ground.
The next thing I knew he was striking out at the zombies with his
feet and hands, sending them crashing to the pavement.
Unfortunately, they were getting back up almost as quickly.

I ran to the SUV and grabbed the metal bat
and the war hammer.

“Here!” I screamed, throwing the bat towards
him. He picked it up off the ground and began swinging. Decaying
zombie brains began paving the sidewalk in front of the church;
which seemed so immoral and sacrilegious. Then I remembered how
badly these things wanted to eat us, and held firmly to the war
hammer.

I took a deep breath and then moved in to
help Bryce.

“Oh, God!” I groaned as I brought it down on
the first zombie’s skull. Zombie blood sprayed everywhere and I
gagged. Shooting them was by far a lot less gross.

“Get back into the SUV!” barked Bryce,
bringing the bat down on a zombie who was dressed all in Goth and
had jet-black hair.

I dislodged the hammer and swung it at a
tall, skinny zombie woman who was missing half of her face. Now the
other half matched.

“You need my help!” I
screamed, raising the hammer again, this time I swung it at a dead
cheerleader that I recognized from school; we never
had
gotten
along.

“I’ve got this!” he replied angrily as he
rushed towards another zombie closing in on the dog.

“Yeah, I can tell,” I mumbled, heading
towards someone who was about to rush Bryce from behind. I stuck my
tennis shoe out, tripping him. He then flopped face down onto the
ground where I quickly finished him off.

“Cassie! Watch out!” screamed Kristie from
the SUV.

Three new zombies were staggering hungrily
towards me while I was attempting to dislodge the hammer from the
zombie’s brain.

“Shit!” yelled Bryce when he noticed the
stooges. He had his hands full with two others coming at him.

The next thing I knew, Kristie punched the
gas on the SUV, crushing the three under her oversized Goodyear
tires.

“Six points!” cheered Paige and Kylie from
the open window.

Kristie backed up and smeared another small
group wandering towards us.

“Ten points, mom! Woot! Woot!”

When we’d finally taken out all of the
zombies, both Bryce and I were exhausted.

“Next time…do what I tell you. You
could’ve…been killed,” he said, trying to catch his breath.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the
back of my arm. “First of all, quit telling me what to do;
secondly, ‘you’re welcome’ would’ve sufficed.”

Bryce stood up straight and gave me a
lopsided grin. “Kind of reminds me of the first time we met. Both
of us exhausted and doing hand-to-hand combat.”

“I remember. You were just as humble then,
too,” I said.

His eyes met mine. “You know, something
about the way you swung that hammer was incredibly sexy.”

I burst out laughing. “You’re extremely
warped.”

“I never said I wasn’t,” he replied. He took
the war hammer from me and examined it. “This worked great. I’ve
definitely got to get me one of these.”

“Sure, if you can get past the real nasty
part of dislodging it from the zombie’s heads. I had to fight from
throwing up each time I used it.”

The dog started barking and we both rushed
towards it, almost forgetting why we’d risked our lives fighting
zombies in the first place. It was a female and she had a tag with
the name “Goldie” engraved on it. Goldie showed her appreciation by
licking my face while Bryce worked to free her from the fence.

“What a beautiful dog,” said Bryce, petting
her soft, golden fur. She appeared to be smiling back at him with
her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.

“Yes, sweetie, you were worth the battle,” I
told her as she rolled around on her tummy.

“Looks like we have another soldier on our
team,” smiled Bryce.

Goldie barked in agreement.

Chapter
Eighteen

We returned to the SUV with Goldie and she
immediately jumped into Kylie’s lap, who was delighted. The puppy
must have been excited to see warm-blooded humans because she
couldn’t stop moving around to greet everyone.

“She’s adorable!” giggled Paige, who
received a hello slurp from Goldie.

“Those horrible zombies,” said Kylie in a
cooing voice to Goldie, “nobody’s going to hurt you now,
puppy.”

Bryce opened the driver’s side door.

“Wait, shirt first, Bryce,” said Kristie,
holding up another clean T-shirt. “I’m not sure how you manage to
get so full of gore while Cassie hardly gets a spot of blood on
her.”

“Easy, I hit much harder,” he replied,
removing his shirt.

“You were so awesome, Bryce,” declared Eva,
who was staring at his pecks lustfully.

I rolled my eyes.

“Thanks, Eva,” he replied, pulling the new
shirt on. He jumped back into the SUV and we began moving
again.

“Sorry I couldn’t help you
guys,” glowered Paige. “My
mother
forced me to stay put.”

Kristie turned to look at her. “Face it,
Paige, you’re just not the fighting type. You probably would’ve
gotten in the way more than anything.”

“Actually, Paige proved herself to be a
pretty good zombie destroyer this morning, when we were cornered in
her bedroom. She took care of both the dudes,” I replied.

Kristie turned to Paige in disbelief. “You
had boys in your room?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Yes, but they won’t
be back.”

I smiled. “Yes, and let’s just say she’ll
probably never quite get the cartilage out of the heel of her Jimmy
Choos.”

“Oh, my God, that is so nasty!” squealed
Kylie.

As we neared the middle of town, we noticed
several abandoned cars along the side of the streets and were
forced to slow down to maneuver around them. Fortunately, the
zombies wobbling by ignored us.

“Bryce, do you have any more rounds left for
the rifle?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. I used the last of
my ammunition saving Goldie.”

I felt warm breath next to my ear. “Wow, I
had no idea you had such cute relatives, Cassie,” whispered
Eva.

I stared at her. “He’s my karate
instructor.”

Eva’s eyes lit up. “Karate
instructor? Oh wow. That’s
hot
.”

“Stay away from him, Eva,” hissed Paige.
“He’s already taken.”

“Paige,” I warned. She just couldn’t take a
hint that Bryce and I were just friends.

Eva was silent as she sat back in her seat,
a small smile settling on her lips.

“Check out the zombies hovering around
McDonald’s,” said Kylie.

There had to be thirty or more wandering
around the abandoned building, some of them actually going
inside.

“At least they’re not paying us any mind,”
said Kristie.

“Wonder if some of them
are still having a
Big Mac
attack
,” I joked.

“I’ll bet they can smell raw patties in the
back. It might be drawing them here. They’re probably spoiling by
now with the electricity off,” said Bryce.

“Hey, stop at the next gas station you see.
We need to fill up,” said Kristie.

Two blocks later, Bryce pulled into a small
abandoned station and then hopped out to fill the tank. I followed
him, clutching the war hammer tightly.

“Be right back!” yelled Kristie, as she
jumped out of the truck holding the metal bat.

“Mom, are you nuts?” Paige hollered out the
window. “What in the heck are you doing?!”

“Thirsty,” she called back.

“We packed drinks,” muttered Paige, crossing
her hands across her chest.

I sighed. “I’ll go follow her.”

“Be careful,” said Bryce. “It looks empty
from out here, but you never know.”

When I stepped into the filling station, I
found Kristie behind the counter, opening a pack of cigarettes.

“I should have known,” I said.

Kristie smiled and took a drag. She exhaled
and a steady stream of white smoke curled out of her mouth. “Oh
man, I needed that.”

I smiled. “Paige is going to flip out.”

“That’s okay. Let her,”
she answered. “It’s
so
worth it.”

I stretched out my arms and yawned. “I’m so
tired. I’m going to grab some energy drinks. Want anything?”

She nodded. “Grab me a diet soda,
please.”

I walked to the back of the station and
grabbed a couple of energy drinks out of the cooler. When I turned
around, one of the former employees stood two feet away from me,
drooling.

“Crap,” I groaned throwing the cans as hard
as I could at her gray, mottled face.

The zombie growled and rushed towards me but
not before I caught her stomach with a roundhouse kick. She flew
backwards into a stack of cereal boxes.

As I raised the hammer to finish her off,
something grabbed me by the back of the hair and pulled. I quickly
smashed my head backwards with all my might, hitting a second
zombie in the nose. It screeched as it released my hair and its
horrible smell actually made it past the Vicks coated under my
nose. I shuddered and then kicked back with my foot, hitting it
hard in the shin.