Death Plague Omnibus [Four Zombie Novels] (47 page)

I slowly turned around, watching my sister walk towards me. Her eyes stayed on the retreating zombies while she carefully stepped over and around the slaughtered corpses. My heart soared at the sight of this fragile vision of perfection, risking her life to reach me. They might be wary of my new skillset, but it would only take one of them to realise that fresh meat had joined the party. Danielle wouldn't stand a chance!

"Don't come any closer, you silly cow!" I screamed, running towards her. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? I pulled her back inside the building and slammed the door shut. "What would you have done if—?"

Danielle slammed her hand over my mouth, leaned forward, and kissed the tip of my nose. "Stop it with the lip flapping, Colin. You did good." She giggled. "I'm so proud of you."

I wrapped my filthy fingers around her wrist and pulled her hand away from my mouth. "You mean you knew? I mean that I was one of those things, that I was a hunter?"

Danielle nodded. "If you had paid more attention to the news back before our awakening, you'd have known as well. Why do you think I wouldn't let you come hunting with me?"

I shrugged. It seemed to be the only response I had left. My emotions were up and down like a kangaroo in the mating season. I didn't know whether to kiss her or to kill her. I suspect that the latter would have found my broken body lying in the corner of this building. A crazy thought considering her manipulations had now shown me what I really was. Even so, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the feeling that Danielle was still stronger than me.

"Don't you get it yet? I've been protecting you, keeping you safe from the dead things and from yourself."

She entwined her fingers around mine and led me towards the stairs. "Let's get our stuff packed up." Danielle looked down. “Wait, on second thoughts, I'll pack. You go get that shit off your skin. You really do stink."

Chapter Seven

Unwanted Company

The family was waiting for me at the end of this alleyway, shared expressions of fear and hope dancing across all of their faces. The fear stemmed from a myriad of possibilities, including me deciding to dine on their flesh.

Why were they thinking like that? It just wasn't natural. Okay sure, if they were wild humans living on died up crap somewhere out in the dead zone, then the scared mice would be thinking along those lines. In here though, these jokers were domesticated. They were used to hunters breathing down their necks. Unless these bastards were up to something. I stopped walking and glared at the four of them. Could that be it? Something to do with these freaky flashbacks. The first travel back could be put down to all of that poisoned stuff coursing through my arteries. I wasn't going to put the second one down to that though. No fucking way.

It was obvious to me now. Those four were manipulating me for some reason. Delving where they didn't belong, looking for information. It made me shudder to think where those mind thieves had been. I ought to kill them all now.

"Colin, are you troubled?"

Those four concerned words stopped my risen fury stone dead. The wealth of empathy flowing from the woman would have melted even the toughest of hearts. Linda really did care about my health. Oh sure, she only needed me operating at peak levels so I could dispatch this town leader. It's not like she fancied me or anything. Oh hell, I was meeting myself going around a corner here. Thinking like they did gave me a headache equal to a major earthquake. A part of me is telling myself that they weren't digging inside, not daring to risk being detected. After all, I was their saviour, their secret weapon. My involvement would ensure the evil in this town would be forever vanquished or some bullshit.

"I'm just dandy, Linda," I replied, even managing a smile. "Lead on, fair maiden. I'm eager to get this over and done with."

Without a single word all four of them turned around and continued to make their way along the narrow stone tunnel. Not one of the family were making any effort to guard their thoughts now, they were all focussed on reaching some halfway house close to where we were. The images of a collection of ancient red shipyard containers filled their heads. I had no idea what this place was, but the family were certainly hoping to reach this place intact.

These herd animals wouldn’t expose their backs unless they trusted me not to kill them. It left me wondering if there could be another force at work here, something that I hadn’t even considered.

“Either that, or they think they’ve fooled me,” I whispered to myself. I felt myself ready to sigh again. I really did need to put all of these conspiracy theories in a box where they belonged. Whether I liked this situation was irrelevant. I needed these four to help me locate my Danielle, meaning that I needed to behave.

It also gave me an excellent opportunity to get to know this family a little better, considering that apart from the woman, I hadn’t taken that much notice of her males. I saw them as little threat to me; consequently, I dismissed them as irrelevant. Just looking at the three of the males without probing showed that they were all cut from the same dull beige cloth. Quite how any of them had survived up to now was a miracle. Then again, I guess that their continued inhaling of the old breathing gas has only been possible thanks to the woman. No doubt about it, Linda was the brains, strength, and will for these three losers.

Nathanial, the family’s eldest by three minutes, knew I was digging through his memories. The blonde-haired boy even smiled and mentally embraced me. It felt a little weird. Oh sure, the kid knew that to protest would be pointless anyway, he wasn’t in the same league as mummy.

I watched him and his brother, Gareth, play through the ruins of this town, glimpsing a place in transition. A decade ago, remnants of the old civilisation were still visible, not reclaimed by nature or dismantled and rebuilt by this town’s new occupants. I can’t deny that seeing those two four year old brats chasing each other through shells of stripped vehicles and in and out of windowless shops did make me feel quite nostalgic. I could even make out a few of the shop names.

One more enigma from this past memory buried its way into my head. Where was the shambling dead? Nathanial’s eyes showed me no evidence of any corpse, and with a deeper scan, I found that this kid hadn’t seen one zombie in his town in all the fourteen years of existence. Nathanial had no reason, nor did he question it; as far as he was concerned, this was how it had always been.

I diverted my attention to the older man. His name was Marcus, older than me by five years. He too knew that I was sneaking through his memories, but unlike the son, Marcus did not welcome me with open arms, and although he had guessed that this moment was inevitable, he still wished me out from inside his head. His passive resistance irritated me, like an itch that I couldn’t scratch. This man reminded me of the kids at school who would be as nice as pie to you, yet as soon as your back was turned, he’d blab to the teacher and spread a few hurtful rumours amongst your friends.

Just to cement that observation, the bastard opened a past memory that he obviously believed would freak me out. I found myself inside a dark room, my fingers resting on a damp plaster wall. The only light came from a bank of book-sized windows placed close to the ceiling. Bright sunlight filtered through the floating dust-filled air to show me two young figures lying on a bed of rags in the middle of the room.

The older Marcus gave me a single self-righteous thought sentence before this past event blanked him out. The man had wished me the best of luck, uttering that if I wanted history, then I needed to start right here. He seemed to believe that this event from his life would leave an emotional scar.

Was he trying to find that if under this hard shell I had a soft centre? Sure he did, otherwise why would he decide to show me the birth of their two kids? Everybody loved babies, right?

It took great effort not to turn the tables and drop this idiot into one of my past events, just to show him how wrong he was on that score. Instead, I crouched down and fixed my gaze on this young couple, their anticipation and fear heavy in the air. After all, I was supposed to be on a fact finding mission here, so why not start at the birth of their two kids?

I sensed fear and anticipation from both of them, but what my nostrils picked up was the thick stench of blood. These two weren’t alone after all. Hidden behind Marcus, I spotted a single grey leg, half buried under the piles of rags. With my curiosity piqued, I ventured closer, the blood smell increasing. This was such a confusing scenario. The grey colour suggested that their attacker had been one of the shambling dead, and yet I only sensed human in here, two living and one recently passed on.

My incorporeal presence meant that I couldn’t participate, only observe. I so wanted to push aside the rags covering up that body. As I leaned past the young couple, I did notice a knife handle standing upright through the material. Now I know how the corpse had been dispatched. Did the man do that? It seemed unlikely that Linda would have been able to put down the mysterious body, not in her condition. Unless she was more powerful than I thought.

I dropped to the knees, watching their faces, hers wracked in pain, his showing deep concern. Time had not been kind to Marcus. Here I saw a young man just extruding vitality, his strength evident from his large build, his taught muscles showing through his ripped clothes, whereas she looked so delicate, like soft petals, about to drop from the stem. It was as if in the next fourteen years, the pair of them had swapped roles, most strange.

The screams that abruptly left that young mouth left me in no doubt that her fragile body held a burly soul. She thrust herself hard against the man, arching her back, and the contractions built up in intensity.

I’d never seen a birth before. I leaned closer, not wanting to miss any of this incredible event. Marcus had swapped position, now in between her legs, shouting out commands and comfort while she continued to shriek and wail. As the man excitedly announced that he could see the head, I tried to work out why his future self wanted me to witness this. So far, apart from the mystery of the body, I saw nothing that would affect a human, never mind a hunter. Unless he really did believe that if he shared such an intimate event it really would bring me closer to the family.

The first baby was now out, and Marcus had just enough time to slice the cord and wrap the boy up in a dark blue blanket before the next baby’s head demanded his attention. That wasn’t the reason. I had seen at firsthand how their minds worked. There would be no simple reason for him to show me this event. This bastard’s mind wasn’t built to issue single layered explanations.

The man had delivered both babies without incident. They both were now wrapped tight and sleeping as he tenderly cleaned her up. Why wasn’t she holding the kids? I had thought that would have been his primary act. Marcus pulled a blanket over her legs, the movement disturbing the corpse. Rags rolled away exposing the dead man’s face, and I found myself staring at a carbon copy of Marcus, only with longer hair and a beard.

I blinked a couple of times whilst locked into this past event. I had no way of knowing the reasons for his untimely death, but that didn’t stop my imagination from throwing up over a dozen likely scenarios. My imagination was put on hold when the man picked up the two baby boys and shuffled over to the woman. I guessed that this would be the time for him to lay each child by Linda’s breasts. They’d have their first taste of milk and everybody would smile, end of past event.

None of that happened. The woman’s eyes shot open and she glared at Marcus, her face twisting into utter fury. Her arms shot up, and it was only his lightning fast reactions that stopped the woman’s claws from ripping those kids out of his arms.

The past event dropped away, leaving me more confused than I’d ever been. A few more light brushes over their minds showed me both brothers fighting over a young Linda. Even now, none of them knew who the kid’s real father was, as both the men had slept with the woman.

I watched the family going through their daily struggles throughout the next fourteen years. Marcus got older, but that original shine dulled to almost nothing, leaving this bitter and withered shell. The kids grew up, but neither of them flourished. It was only Linda who thrived, both in mind and body.

The man had done what he intended. The memories that he’d showed me left a bitter taste in my mouth, leaving me feeling uneasy. Yet, I had no idea why that should have affected me so. After all, why should I care about any of this weirdness? As soon as I was reunited with Danielle, I was out of here, back in the wilderness where we belonged. So what if this Linda had the ability to drain the life essence from her family? Hell, since when had that ability been unique? Some women had been henpecking their men since the dawn of time.

I attempted to shake away the unease, deciding to focus on the here and now. Weak sunlight filtered through spots of clean wire mesh a few metres above our heads. The light increased as I quickened my pace. Whoever had originally designed this narrow passageway hadn't been that concerned about hills. If this path got any steeper, we'd all need mountain climbing equipment. Still, the extra light gained as we neared the ceiling was helping to calm their minds, which in turn settled me as well. It also brought me closer to other minds.

From what I could make out, our little underground shortcut ran under one of the main town intersections. I brushed over a few of the closest minds, skimming off their views, piecing together a view of the ground above. The town’s maze of rat-runs convinced me that going under and heading straight (I hope) to the source had been the best course of action. I think that even I would have gotten lost up there.

Each and every individual had stories to tell about their lives, past and present. I found little of interest in their pasts. They all showed a depressingly similar picture of escape: close calls, running, hiding, until ending up here. I did find it interesting how a lot of those humans now believed that the ones who had died or turned right at the beginning of the outbreak were the lucky ones.

That feeling of hopeless apathy brought me back to their present. The pessimism was recent, and in most cases, just a few months old. They shared the same feelings of these four, and it pleased me to discover that they all shared this family’s experience of woe and hardship.

The thoughts from the humans above all changed from the struggle of daily routine to one of total fear in a matter of seconds. That same terror had already passed to the family. As the humans on top scattered like frightened rabbits, the two adults both turned around, their eyes bulging, expressions of utter terror showing. Linda pulled the boys down before placing a finger across her closed lips.

I’ve seen the same look many times. It was like meeting an old friend. There were hunters close by. The dread they all felt from both human and tainted had even begun to seep into my bones now. I shrugged it off and hurried over to the shivering family, noticing that their minds had now dropped below my mental radar. They had all put out a blanket of white noise, protecting my thoughts from the approaching hunters.

I sensed them myself now, three of them, strutting down the middle of one of the walkways in single file. They had one thought on their minds. These jokers were looking for me. They even knew my face. I plucked out my image straight from their heads. How the hell had they managed to do that?