Death's Awakening (29 page)

Either that, or they
were stronger and less afraid.

The boy shivered and
brought his legs up tight against this ribs. He put his hands over
his ears. He didn’t want to hear them out there. He didn’t
want to hear the screams of the people they tore apart.

The growls and moans of
the undead echoed off the tall buildings and no matter how tight he
held his hands to his head, he could still hear them. What if they
came for him next? What would happen to him if they found him?

Terrified, the boy
crawled low across the floor and climbed in to the closet near his
mother’s bed.

He pulled the pillows
and blankets up over his head, forming a cocoon against the noise.

Night was coming and
the darkness felt like it lasted for an eternity.

He would hide for as
long as it took. He would hide until the screaming stopped.

The group of infected
was impressive.

The Dark One would be
proud of her. Not only had she used her tracking to locate most of
the guardians, but she had also been working on a very special new
spell.

She was excited her
plan had worked so beautifully. Getting rid of the evacuation site
had been the most difficult part of her newest plan. It had taken a
lot of infected to scare off the soldiers and such a large group of
survivors.

If the three guardians
had gotten on that transport, she wouldn’t have been able to
get to them very easily, but outside, on their own, they were much
more vulnerable.

And thanks to Crash,
the rest had simply fallen in to place.

The Dark One had been
right. Once she’d tracked down the guardians and established a
strong connection with them through the stone, she’d been able
to see their dreams as if they were her own.

The one called Crash
had a very special talent with his dreams. He could see the future.
Which worked out perfectly for the witch. It had helped her stay one
step ahead so she could set the ultimate trap.

She knew he would
contact the three guardians and guide them through the city.

Tonight, she had
managed to round up five beautiful specimens for her experiment.

The witch walked down
the line, inspecting each one thoroughly. The short, athletic woman
would be agile and fast. The two tall, muscular young men would be
even stronger once they were infused with her new spell. The fourth
infected was an older woman with a thin frame and long, bloody
fingernails. She must have been using them as an effective weapon
against her prey.

The fifth and final
infected, however, was the real prize. A giant of a man. Thick, rough
skin. Bear-size hands big enough to crush a human head with a single
squeeze. He was wearing a long black trench coat that made him look
like some frightening character from a horror comic. The witch was
anxious to see what her new spell would do to him.

“Your
instructions are very simple,” she said to them, still pacing
like a commander in front of new recruits. “Kill the
guardians.”

The group of zombies
groaned and grunted. She knew they would obey. It was the Dark One’s
magic that flowed through their blackened veins and gave them this
life after death. They had no choice but to obey.

As the sun began to set
behind them, a tingle of excitement traveled through the witch’s
body.

The Dark One had
commanded her to keep the guardians apart. To get rid of them in
whatever way she could.

It had taken the witch
a full week to come up with a spell that would turn a zombie into a
deadly weapon, but she had done it. More than three dozen infected
had been lost during her experiments, but tonight, it will have all
been worth it.

Of course, these five
would also be lost. Their bodies would corrode quickly once the virus
was magnified inside them, but she was certain they would hold up
long enough to get the job done. It wouldn’t take long.

Soon, the guardians
would be dead.

As individuals, they
were powerful. But as a group of five, they would be nearly
unstoppable once they reached their full potential. Killing even one
of the guardians would be a victory.

The witch looked down
on the office building across the street. Inside, she could see the
guardians fighting the first wave of servants. They had already
succeeded in killing more than half of them, but their swords and
guns would have little effect on this new breed of zombie. When they
left the shelter of the office building and emerged into the
near-darkness of the twilight hour, her super zombies would be
waiting for them.

It is time.

The voice of the Dark
One whispered to her, and the witch turned to the line of zombie
soldiers and smiled. She began reciting the spell she had perfected,
calling forth the element of fire. Above her, the sky responded with
a bright crack of lightning.

Storm clouds rumbled
above, moving in fast and blocking out the sun’s remaining
rays. A great power coursed through her like electricity as she cast
the spell. The blood in her veins turned to a fiery lava, thick and
hot. She gave herself over to it, letting it burn from the inside
out. She welcomed the pain, because with great pain came great
reward. She had learned that during her weeks here in this world.

Words of magic spilled
forth from her mouth and she raised her hands high into the air.

Lightning cracked
again, this time connecting with her and flowing through her body.
She screamed in agony as the power coursed through her, then fell to
her knees when it stopped.

Slowly, she rose, eyes
blazing with the power of pure fire.

Her hands dripped with
a red-hot liquid that seemed to glow from within. The witch commanded
the first zombie to open its mouth. The short woman fell to her knees
and opened her mouth, and like a child receiving her first communion,
she welcomed the magic potion as it poured down her throat.

The infected woman
grabbed her neck in pain, then crumbled to the hard surface of the
rooftop. Disappointment and fear flashed through the witch. This
spell had to work. She had practiced it over and over again. It had
to work. She could not fail the Dark One tonight.

Then, with wonder, she
watched as the woman’s body shook with a violent seizure. Her
already damaged skin bubbled up as if her blood were boiling inside
her veins.

The small woman’s
body stilled, then her head snapped up. Her eyes were no longer a
milky blue, but instead glowed a deep and fiery red. Her teeth had
grown longer. The skin of her face stretched as her mouth opened and
closed with a horrible snapping sound. She was animal-like, hunched
over on all fours.

The witch, confident
now, instructed each of the zombies to drink from her poisonous
fingertips. The tall men grew taller, their skin ripping apart to
reveal their now elongated muscles and bone. The old woman’s
nails grew to a terrifying length, now as thick and sharp as daggers.

When the giant man in
the trench coat drank, he let out a roar that rivaled the coming
storm. He doubled over, his muscles rippling with the power of the
virus. He cried out as his body transformed into a hulking brute of a
thing. When he stood, he was well over seven feet tall. His muscles
were thick and strong.

“Go and find the
guardians,” she told them. “Kill them for the glory of
the Dark One.”

With that, the witch
walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down. The guardians
stepped out into the street below, the first wave of zombies
defeated. Above her head, lightning cracked and rain began to fall.

She looked back on the
new monsters she had created. They were beautiful in their grotesque
new forms, their skin stretched to the point of breaking open. With
her index finger, she pointed down at the guardians and the
super-infected soldiers took off into the night to fulfill their
morbid destiny.

The witch turned away.
She wished she could stay and watch, but tonight, she had one more
job to do for the Dark One.

Crash pulled the Hot
Pocket out of the microwave and tossed it onto a paper plate. Dang,
those suckers got hot. He blew on his fingers to cool them off.

It wasn’t the
healthiest meal, but he’d become addicted to these things when
he’d started gaming.

If only the zombie
fight he was watching on his screen now was a game.

He took a bite and
sauce oozed out onto his desk.

“Damn,” he
muttered, jumping up to grab a paper towel from the kitchen.

“Everything okay
over there?” Noah’s voice shouted through the speakers.

“Yep,” he
said, wiping up the red sauce and tossing the napkin in the trash.
“Just had a minor food accident, but all is well. How are you
guys doing? Is the room clear?”

“Yeah, the office
is cleared out. We’re about to head back into the street. Can
you see anything on any of the security cameras or infrared? Or are
we clear?”

Crash sat down again
and studied his live video of the streets surrounding the office
building where Noah and the others were hiding. “Actually, it
looks like you’ve got a pretty clear shot right now. All you
have to do is head back out onto Florida Avenue and look for Trinidad
Avenue somewhere to your right. You’re still a couple blocks
from my apartment, but if you hurry, you should make it here before
the sun sets completely.”

“I’m not
going back out there. Why can’t we just stay in here for the
night? We already cleared the room. We could lock the doors and wait
it out. I do not want to risk going outside with the sun already
starting to set. Look how dark it is out there.”

That was Barbie
talking. She always had some objection or complaint.

Spoiled little rich
girl.

“It’s up to
you guys what you wanna do,” Crash said, leaning back in his
chair. “You’ll just be a hell of a lot safer here in my
apartment where there’s food, water, electricity, and most
importantly, sturdy locks.”

“We’re on
our way,” Parrish said. “Even if I have to drag Karmen
there by her ponytail. Just stay on the phone and help guide us to
your place. If we stay here, we might not make it through the night.”

Crash chuckled. He was
starting to like this Parrish girl.

“Fine,”
Karmen said, obvious distaste in her tone. “But if we die,
don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Crash took another bite
of food and watched his new friends on two different security cameras
as they came back into view on the street outside the building. They
had taken quite a beating from their fight with the Z’s in the
office. Noah looked like he had taken a bath in blood. And Barbie?
Well, her perfect blond curls were matted together in sticky clumps.
She was definitely going to need a shower when she got to his house.
He briefly considered the thought of putting a secret camera in the
bathroom. That girl might be a pain, but she was smokin’ hot.

Crash laughed and shook
his head, finishing his dinner and throwing the plate in the trash
can under his desk. He couldn’t really do that to her, but man,
the thought of seeing her naked sent his temperature up a few
degrees. Too bad she was so annoying. Especially since she was likely
one of the last women on earth at this point.

He grabbed a bottle of
soda from the mini-fridge and took a long hard drink. Out of the
corner of his eye, something lit up on the infrared scanner. Just a
second ago, it had been completely blank except for the three of
them. Now, besides his friends, there were five distinct figures.

And they were bright.
Like, impossibly bright. Crash moved to the edge of his seat, his
toes tapping. Something had to be wrong. He reconnected with the
infrared in his mind to run a diagnostic, but everything seemed to be
functioning fine. He leaned in to study the images more closely.

Their shapes looked
basically human, but there was no way a human could be that hot
unless they were literally on fire.

He needed to pull up
the spot with his regular satellite feed or a camera so he could see
exactly what it was.

“Hold on a
second, guys. There’s something really weird on the infrared.”

“What is it?”
Noah asked.

“I told you,”
Karmen said. “Just wait. We’re all going to die, and it’s
going to be Parrish’s fault. I told you we should have just—”

“How would it be
my fault? I’m not the one who destroyed the military convoy,”
Parrish said. “Besides, I never forced you to come here.”

Crash was only half
listening to their conversation. He could move the satellite image
around with his mouse, but pinpointing the exact location of whatever
was giving off the heat signature wasn’t easy. Whatever was out
there had disappeared inside the building and he couldn’t get a
good look at them.

But their images were
still showing up on the infrared even though they were deep inside
the stairwell. Holy crap.

They were headed
downstairs. Fast.

“Guys,” he
said, trying to keep his voice calm so they didn’t panic. “I
think you need to get out of there.”

“What is it?”
Parrish asked.

“I don’t
know exactly,” he said. “Zombies maybe, but not like
anything we’ve seen so far. They’re giving off a crazy
high heat signature.”

“Wait,”
Noah said. “I thought you told us that the zombies don’t
give off any kind of heat signature.”

“They don’t,”
he said, tapping his foot nervously. He didn’t have time to
explain, not that he could anyway. He needed to get them out of there
before they got killed. “But these do. I don’t know why,
and right now, I don’t care. Just get your butts moving
people.”

He zoomed the satellite
image back out so that he could watch his friends and make sure they
were on the move. The tightness in his gut had him seriously
regretting the Hot Pocket.