Revenence: Dead of Winter: A Zombie Novel (10 page)

     Hugo shook his head.  "No, just that one.  The good news is, the body of the grenade is reusable.  The bad news...it's back there with the zombies.  In retrospect, I wish I would have taken a closer look at it, seen what it's made from, because then--then I probably would have known how to make them."  He froze up momentarily, then shook his head.  "But don't get the wrong idea, okay?  I never made any bombs before.  I mean, I know how it's done, but I know how to make a
lot
of things.  Weapons and--and implements of--of destruction have never been my specialty, but I'm sure, I'm pretty sure I could do it."

     "Okay, okay," Shari said, "we get your point.  You're not one of those homicidal smart kids."

     "I just thought that you would think--"  He paused, fidgeting.  "I mean, I know I'm weird and all, but I'm not
that
kind of weird."                                                                                                                                     

    "He's got a pair hanging, he does," Kandi blurted out, punctuated with a gurgly giggle rolling from the back of her throat. She pursed her lips and her expression shifted into a bashful, china doll smile.  "Modesty in the boot as well."

     "I just have one more question," Shari said.

     "What's that?"

     "What's up with those headphones?"

     Hugo shifted awkwardly.  "I, uh...I, uh, carry them with me.  Sometimes loud noises or bright lights are just...just too much for me.  It makes me freak out a little sometimes, so I keep noise-cancelling headphones and sunglasses with me wherever I go."  He paused.  "I can't help what's going on around me, the noise and light level, but--but I can drown it out a little, you know?"

     Shari nodded.  "Don't worry, we all have our own little unique  ways of getting through life.  Don't let anyone fool you into thinking they're any different or any better."  Hugo smiled, appreciative of the sentiment.

     "We should probably get going," Daphne said.  "If we're lucky, we might make it to Champaign before nightfall."

     "What do you know," Hugo said, uttering a dry laugh, "it turns out I'll go to Champaign this August, after all, just not to go to school." 

     Daphne started her ATV, and Shari took one final puff before stamping her joint out.  She mounted Eva and galloped after Daphne. 
He's with us now, isn't he?
she thought. 
He's with us for good.

     "Strength in numbers, princess," Kandi said, perched sidesaddle and facing Shari from her shining black horse.  "Don't deny the herd mentality within you.  It'll keep you alive, after all.  It's tried and true.  Daphne and Hugo have each saved your ass, so obviously you could use the help."

    
I didn't say I don't want other people around,
Shari thought. 
Does everything have to be an argument with you?  An excuse to belittle me?

     "Oh, dear," Kandi said mockingly, "princess feels marginalized.  Tell me, just how much do you think you need me?"
    
I beg your pardon?

     "What if I disappeared?  Right now?  What would you do?"

    
Well,
Shari thought,
I guess I'd spend a whole lot less time looking like I'm having an internal conversation with myself.

     Kandi's features slackened and her eyes went dark.  "You know, princess," she said,  her tone low and her voice monotone, "you'd be wise to value our relationship a bit more."

     Shari sighed. 
I know how much you help me, okay?  You get off on the killing and maiming that keeps us alive, and I think that's just great.  Now can we drop this?

     Kandi shrugged, gazing ahead as they continued north on the narrow, two-lane road.  "Whatever you say, princess," she said.  "Just remember what I said."  She turned toward Shari once more.  Her eyes, even the whites, were solid black as she spoke.  "Let's not get into a row which neither of us can win."

     Shari strode freely down the aisles of an abandoned grocery store.  They were in Effingham, about sixty-five miles north of the last area in which they had stopped.  She and Daphne had checked every nook and cranny of the small store with all due diligence and thoroughness.  There had been a few corpses, but no zombies.  Shari picked through what was left on the shelves, which was, to her surprise, substantial.

     "Is it okay to eat food that was sitting in this sealed-up building with these corpses?" Daphne asked, gagging as she walked past one of the bodies.

     "I wouldn't take anything that wasn't sealed," Shari said.  "And besides, we couldn't take the majority of this even if we wanted to.  It's not like we have a lot of room.  Anything small, in its own pouch or wrapper, is worth taking."  She glanced toward the rancid frozen and refrigerated section, non-functional in a building with no power.  "Well, if it's shelf-stable, obviously.  We'll have to forego the ice cream and pizza rolls."  She opened a box of fruit and nut granola bars, taking the individual bars out and stuffing them into her backpack.

     "Is it really a good idea to spend the night in here?" Hugo asked.  "I mean, I know it's a safe building, like you said, but--but--it really smells pretty bad in here.  I mean, I think it could get us sick, between the bodies and the rotting food."

     "The upstairs room is okay," Shari said, pointing toward the stairs near the checkout area.  "As long as we keep the door closed, we'll be fine for one night."  She turned and headed for the staircase.  "Although I'll admit, I can't wait to be out of here.  This place has a smell that, unfortunately, I don't believe I'll ever forget.  I think I'm gonna eat, smoke, and go to sleep a little early.  Get about...ten hours or so, be back on the road by six and th--" 

     A sound cut her off mid-sentence.  It was faint at first, but it grew steadily closer and louder until they were certain of what they were hearing.  It was a human voice, a human scream, and it was headed in their direction.  Daphne ran to the front entrance, which was protected by a security gate. 

     "There's a lady out there," Hugo called from the opposite side of the store, where he had climbed a shelf to see out the high windows.  "She's about a block away, and she's being chased by a bunch of zombies, a whole bunch of zombies."

     "Just one lady?" Shari asked.

     "Yeah, I think so.  I only see one person...and a whole bunch of zombies.  They're fresh ones."

     "Is she bloodied or anything?" Daphne asked, crouching to release the gate lock.

     "Not that I can tell," Hugo said.

     "How big of a gap is there between her and the zombies?" Shari asked, eyeing the door nervously as Daphne swung the security gate open.

     "Mmm....not much.  Fifty feet, at best.  And she's closer...she's running past the building next door."

     Shari pushed the powerless set of automated swinging doors open and rushed out into the fading daylight.  She turned to her left, toward the road and the sidewalk, and waited for the first glimpse of the frenzied, screaming woman.  When she saw the stranger's form, she grabbed her elbow, covered her mouth as she attempted to scream, and whispered into her ear as she dragged her toward the store entrance. 

     "It's okay," she said.  "We heard you screaming.  It's safe in here."  The woman whimpered, allowing herself to be guided toward the door.  Shari glanced down at the small-framed, middle-aged woman with the fake red hair and the deep grooves in her face, the kind that are caused by a lifetime of intense anxiety.  Shari realized there was a chihuahua tucked into the woman's inner jacket pocket. 
Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me,
she thought.  As they reached the threshold of the entrance, the dog squirmed free from the woman's grasp and jumped from her arms, running across the street.

     "Poco!" the woman wailed, starting after the dog.  "Poco, come back!"  Shari grabbed the woman just before she could run into the street, catching her by the collar of her jacket.  "Let go of me!" she hissed, still attempting to pull away while Shari held fast to her collar.  The undead who had been chasing the woman were now about twenty-five feet away, and it was clear they were headed directly toward Shari and the woman she was attempting to rescue.

     "
Let's go!"
Shari roared, past the point of trying to be inconspicuous.

     "Fuck off!" the woman replied, swatting at Shari's face and head as she continued to try to escape into the street, which would soon be flooded with zombies.

     "Fuck this soppy cunt," Kandi said in a low growl.  "Get back in the store, now."

     Shari released the woman and retreated into the safety of the store.  Two zombies followed her, attempting to make it through the gate just as Daphne closed it.  Shari knelt down to lock the gate, gazing outside through the glass door.  She saw the tiny woman sink into the crowd as she was surrounded.  Her screams quickly turned to death throes, and then there was only the sound of the ever-roaming undead shuffling as usual, a dozen or so of them crowded around the corpse to pick the bones clean. 

     Shari shrugged as Daphne looked at her questioningly.  "The Darwin award recipient went after her dog at the last second," she said, "just when the zombies caught up to her.  She thought it was more important than her own safety, or mine."  She paused.  "Although she didn't know me, and she didn't ask for my help.  I guess everyone is still free to make their own bad decisions, right?  No one can tell her she doesn't have the right to die in vain for her dog."  She sighed, rolled her eyes, and started toward the stairs that led to the upstairs room.  "Well, let's get outta this room, huh?"  She used the bathroom, ate a light meal, and laid on one of the two couches in the office area, her mind re-playing the scene from earlier over and over again. 
I have a bad feeling her screams are going to keep me awake tonight,
she thought.

     Kandi made a face as she lay on the other couch across the room.  "Princess," she said, "she died, dear--earlier, remember?  Oh--oh, I see.  You mean the
memory
of her screams."  She rolled her eyes.  "Princess, what might you have done differently, in retrospect?"

    
She weighed, like, ninety pounds dripping wet.  I could have forced her to come in here.

     "I say you should have kept holding the skinny little twat by the collar long enough to throw her across the street.  It would have made for a better distraction, is all I'm saying."

    
I refuse to accept that a part of me--a part of my mind--is as sick as you,
Shari thought.

     Kandi sat up on her elbow, narrowing her darkened eyes.  "Says Princess Shari, who doesn't know where she ends and I begin," she said.  "Watch it, because you're skating on thin fucking ice, understand?  You want to villainize me, because I'm not beside myself with grief every time some twit with no survival instinct gets done in by their own bloody stupidity?"  She uttered a dry laugh.  "Don't you get it, princess?  I'm not you, and you ought to be thankful  for that...because you wouldn't be alive for very long without me."

    
You're one fragment of my shattered, traumatized psyche
, Shari thought. 
I'm sure I'll manage without you.

     Kandi stood up, walked across the room, and leaned down until the tip of her nose was a few inches from Shari's.  "Say it again," she said quietly.

     Shari stared into Kandi's black eyes, her gaze defiant and unyielding. 
I'm sure I'll manage.

     Kandi sneered, then smiled.  "Goodbye, princess," she said.  Shari watched as she began to disappear down through the floor, slowly sinking until Shari saw the last of her shiny blonde curls vanish from her sight.

     Shari saw the blurred, hazy outlines of neighborhoods full of homes far down on the horizon.  They were about five miles south of Champaign.  She came to a gradual stop, and Daphne stopped  beside her. 

     "I just want to have a look before we go any further," Shari explained, reaching into her backpack for her binoculars.  "Maybe see what we're getting into."  As she peered through the binoculars, she saw the vague, shuffling forms of hundreds, maybe thousands, of undead milling around the southern fringes of the city.  "Yeah, let's go around," she said as she lowered the binoculars.  "Head north again when we get east of the city." 

     They headed east, passing a small subdivision to their left.  The wind blew south as they rode past the neighborhood.  Shari was already pondering Kandi's absence. 
She's the worst part of me.
 
She's the cornmeal bottom to my plum cake.  I'm sweeter without her
.                                                                                                                     

     As they passed the third cluster of houses, Shari peered to her left at Daphne and Hugo, having gotten slightly ahead them.  She felt the sting of chilled morning air as the wind bit into her right eye.  As she looked at them she took in the full picture.  Hugo's eyes danced over Daphne's hair as it fluttered in the breeze, hanging in ribbon-like strips of crimson flapping in front of him. Her gaze began to wander past them, catching a glimpse of a shambling undead individual clad in what appeared to be a full set of matching body armor.  At the distance she could clearly see he was relatively tall and young, maybe twenty-something and fairly fresh.  He wasn't particularly rotted, but the color was gone from his neck and face.  There was a jagged, blackening wound above his collar.     

     Shari anticipated Kandi's voice, anticipated hearing some crude remark or suggestion, before she remembered the incident from the previous night, when her companion had departed. 
Have your hissy fit, Kandy Kane,
she thought. 
Meanwhile, I still have things to do
. 

     She pulled back on Eva's reins and slowed her horse, the ATV slowing in turn behind her.   She pulled right, yanking the bit in deeply to veer the animal in the direction of her intended target.  Her hand slid down to the revolver at her hip.  As her fingertips met it, her hand recoiled away a few inches. 

     "No," she thought out loud, unaware her lips were moving.  "I'll have to get close, save the ammo, cut down on the noise and get my hands dirty."  She reached forward and down into her satchel, removing a twenty-one inch titanium multi-faceted crowbar.  She held it up into her field of vision, between herself and the zombie. The crowbar was skeletonized, keyed for metric nuts as it widened from bottom to top.  At the narrow end was a sharp nail puller, and at the opposite end a dense knob, flat on one side for hammering and two prongs for prying on the other. 

     Daphne and Hugo were to her rear.  She could hear the ATV's engine closing the distance between them.  From her position in the lead, she couldn't see the frantic sneer playing across Daphne's face, her teeth bared to the wind.  Hugo clutched hard into Daphne's sides as he bit his lip, staring past the armored zombie Shari was falling into. 

     Shari had brought Eva almost to a full halt as she leapt from the horse onto her victim.  She landed squarely on the armored undead individual, knocking it firmly to the ground with her elbow planted in its chest and her forearm tucked under its chin.  She quickly drew her knees up along its waist to secure a mounted position, pulling her arm back and slapping her palm down into the throat, pushing it hard enough to hear the lingual bone crack.  She raised her weapon high above her head, readying her strike, then swiftly brought it down in the middle of its face, a quarter inch over the bridge of the nose, destroying the once handsome young mans looks all but entirely. 

     Shari raised her head with a smile, confident in the kill she had claimed.  Daphne pulled up about three yards behind Shari, who turned slightly to look over her shoulder to see Daphne hurriedly dismount the ATV and pop its trunk compartment.  She withdrew a sturdy E-tool style shovel, hastily forcing it into Hugo's right hand while he pressed the butt of his left hand into the eye of the same side.  Daphne then turned toward Shari with a hard pivot on her rear heel, forcing momentum into her stride.  Her right hand drew her titanium talon from its sheath, and her left hand delved into the hip bag of throwing sticks, withdrawing a large double-ended sharpened stick.  As her pace quickened toward Shari, her knife caught the sunlight and flickered out a glimmer. As they locked eyes, Shari could see the grimace furrow deep in Daphne's ordinarily soft features. 

     Shari now noticed that Daphne's glare was fixed somewhere past her.  She turned forward as she sat up on her knees.  When her eyes came front and center, she began to gawk vacantly at a great throng of undead.  Shari was scrambling to her feet when she reached the spot where she would pounce on her intended foe. 

     Daphne hadn't evaded or dodged a fight since she had freed herself from the torture and neglect that was her early life.  Before them now was no small fray but a full-blown skirmish with twenty zombies, by her count. She steeled herself for the struggle like she would for any time of combat, every sinew relaxed, calm and steady.  She peered just over her shoulder to glimpse Shari hastily rummaging through her satchel on Eva, retrieving from it a fine specimen of drywall hammer to arm her free hand. 

     One relatively fresh zombie emerged from the center of the rest with sticky red blood caked to its face from mid-cheek to the nape of its neck.  It charged forward toward Daphne, and as it got within twenty paces, she launched the throwing spike into the hollow of its throat, sending it protruding out the back and through the spine.  It grounded hard onto it left shoulder, sliding forward a couple meters, its teeth still clicking in its intact head.  Daphne lunged to grab her larger throwing spike. 

     Four more zombies, not as fresh as the first, slowly began building a charge in their direction.  Shari looked down at Daphne, her eyes sorrowful and apologetic.  Daphne simply pursed her lips slightly, shaking her head. 

     Shari snapped her mind free and threw her gaze forward as she rushed toward the four zombies.  Before she could meet them halfway, the one in the rear tripped up its pace, falling and pulling down one of the others with it. 

     There were still more than a dozen left.  As Shari reached them, she struck the one to her left across the face with the crowbar.  She buried the hatchet deep into the head of the one to the right in one strong, twisting motion.  The weight of the zombie on the end of the hatchet pulled her down, bringing her to one knee with the collapsing corpse.  As she struggled to free the hatchet, the one she struck earlier with the crowbar latched onto her calf, struggling to pull itself forward into biting range.  She sat still, watching, until she realized she was panicking, suddenly very fearful all at once.  With that fear, she brought down the pointed end of the crowbar into the zombie's skull, splashing blood on her kevlar hood.  After freeing her hatchet, she slowly rose to her feet, trembling, and looked forward to see the remainder of the horde moving toward them. 

     She turned and ran to join Daphne's side.  She looked around, noting that Hugo had already taken out four on his own.  She watched for a moment as he swung the shovel at the nearest zombie, a semi-rotted male.  Hugo towered over the undead man, easily getting reach with his long, wiry arms.  The shovel made contact with the zombie's face, issuing a flat, smacking sound that caused Hugo to pause and press his hand into his eye in distress. 

     Shari took out the nearest two with her drywall hammer, one after the other.  The freshest ones had already been eliminated, leaving only the slower, more rotted ones.  Daphne incapacitated two more with throwing sticks, leaving only five more.  The three made quick work of them, the hardest part having already been accomplished.  There was a larger crowd of undead in the distance, making their way down the highway, but Shari estimated that they had at least a few minutes to make their escape before the crowd reached their present location.  They looted the bodies, taking only the most useful items besides the driver's licenses which Hugo collected, before they fled.

     Shari sauntered back toward Eva when she was done, glancing back over her shoulder at her companions.  They regarded her with concern.  Daphne gazed at her questioningly, and Hugo merely looked confused.

     "What?" Shari enquired, laughing.  "I had it covered.  We--we had it covered, right?"