Revenence: Dead of Winter: A Zombie Novel (5 page)

     Shari swung the security door open.  "Think again," she said as she knelt down.  She raised her bow, nocked an arrow, and let it fly upward through the surprised pedophile's open mouth and into his brain before his hand could more than graze the revolver in his holster.  As the man's wife reached for her own gun, Shari nocked another arrow.  She aimed for the woman's right hand, the one reaching for her holster.  The arrow struck the joint where the woman's middle finger met her palm, leaving her unable to shoot and sobbing in pain and shock.  She crumpled to the ground, staring at her mangled hand, the shiny, white bone visible and cracked around the blade that lay embedded in it.  Shari took the chance to rush the woman, kneeling with both knees on her good hand so she couldn't pull out any more weapons.  She grabbed the woman by the hair, turning her head until she was looking directly into her eyes. 

     "I saw all that kids stuff in the garage," Shari said.  "The sleds, the bikes and skateboards.  Was that for your kids?"

     "Grandkids," the woman hissed.  "What the hell is it to you?  If you're gonna kill me, then just do it already!"

     Shari smiled a twisted smile, pointing to the building behind her.  "And those pictures in there, the ones with the kids in them--are any of those your kids or grandkids?"

     The woman sneered.  "No!"

     "Oh, of course not, you're not a monster," Shari said mockingly, tightening her grip on the woman's hair.  "You're worse than he is," she growled, motioning toward the woman's dead husband.  "You're a mother, and a grandmother.  You're supposed to nourish and protect, not just your own children, but any child who needs you.  And you help your husband get away with this?"  The woman gazed vacantly at Shari.  "And for what?" Shari continued, gesturing at the property around them.  "For your quasi-luxurious, upper middle-class country lifestyle?  A new hot tub and deck, complete with a state-of-the-art patio kitchen, or the satisfaction that can only come from putzing around town in the very latest model of the very biggest truck you can afford to drive?"  She sneered.  "You kept your child-raping husband around because you liked the comfortable lifestyle he provided.  How does it feel to sell your soul so badly for relatively little?"

     "You killed my husband," the woman said.  "I have  nothing to say to you." 

     "Hold on, Princess," Kandi said, smirking.  "Here comes the butcher."

     Shari smiled faintly as Daphne snuck up behind the pedophile's wife, who didn't even have time to be puzzled or surprised before she died, the blade of Daphne's titanium knife having effectively severed her spinal cord at the base of her skull.  Shari, still kneeling, released the woman's hair, and she collapsed in a lifeless heap in the dirt driveway.

     "I couldn't stand to hear her speak anymore," Daphne explained, confiscating the ears of the woman and her husband.  "Or breathe.  Or exist."

     "Yeah, no shit," Shari said, standing and turning back toward the open building where Juanita was waiting upstairs.  She sighed from deep within her lungs.  "First it was zombies.  Then it was sadists.  Now it's regular, garden-variety human trash."  Her gaze was far off and fearful as she continued.  "The types of people and things that we'll kill in our lifetime just keeps getting longer and longer."

     Daphne shrugged.  "You were right earlier this morning, back in the woods at the camp.  We have no choice but to do the things we're doing.  It's the world we live in now.  We're just trying to live."

     "And let live," Shari added.  They stepped back into the building.  Shari closed and locked the door behind them.  "Juanita, it's okay to come out!" she shouted. 

     Juanita bounded down the stairs.  "I'm so glad you're back!" she said.  "I was scared up there in the dark.  I don't like this place."

     "With good reason," Kandi said.

     "We'll be leaving here first thing in the morning," Shari promised.

     "First thing?" Juanita asked, eyebrows raised.

     "At the buttcrack of dawn," Shari said, smiling.  Juanita giggled.

     The three of them perched on stools at the counter.  "So we have, what...over eight hours before sunrise?" Shari asked.

     Daphne nodded.  "And in the meantime, at least one of should be keeping watch, just in case--"

     "Just in case there are some more survivors in this child-fucking family, lurking around?" Shari finished, leaning in close to whisper it into Daphne's ear. 

     "Yeah," Daphne whispered, "they just might have a beef with us once they see those two dead jerkoffs in the driveway."

     Shari smirked.  "Still, I'd rather take my chances on that possibilty than try and get back on the road while it's still dark."

     "You and me both," Daphne muttered.  "Although morning can't come soon enough, in my opinion."
     "I know what you mean," Shari said, her gaze panning over the interior of the building as she narrowed her eyes.  "Just being in this place feels wrong.  Even if I was still tired, I don't think I could sleep in here, knowing what we know."

     "Yeah," Daphne agreed,  "it's gonna be a long, boring, uncomfortable night."

     "Yep," Shari concurred, laying her head down on her folded arms on the counter.  She closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting.  After a few minutes, her breathing deepened as she zoned out.  In her mind, she was fighting her way through a festering, never-ending horde of undead.  She used a sledgehammer much like the one she had used to kill her first zombie.  It was a fifteen-pound weapon which had worked sufficiently for just one zombie, but she found that she tired quickly as she went from one to the next, swinging the sledgehammer at head level.  She looked out at the vast crowd of zombies, groaning with discouragement.  The crowd stretched as far as her eye could see, and she glanced at the weapon in her hand, smirking as she realized the futility of her endeavor. 

     She saw Kandi meander in her direction, brushing casually against undead bodies as she passed through the crowd.  "Don't waste your energy, princess," Kandi said.  She reached Shari, who stood with her sledgehammer raised.  Kandi put her hand on the hammer, pushing down gently until Shari lowered the weapon.  "Let the winter finish them off.  Worry about the real villains...the ones alive and breathing."

     Shari squinted as a sliver of brand-new morning sun pierced her retinas.  They were headed east once again, having left the building they had spent the night in at the first sign of dawn.  Juanita sat in front of her, happy as a clam in her new pants, shirt, and jacket.  Before they had left the house, Shari and Daphne had let Juanita pick an outfit to take, but only on the condition that they washed it first.  Shari had doused it with a healthy dose of ammonia as she dropped it into the washing machine.

     "Normally, I wouldn't let a little girl wear something that a pedophile kept to fulfill his sexual fantasies," she had told Daphne.  "But considering the circumstances...."

     "Yeah," Daphne had said.  "Her clothes were stained and full of holes, and it's not like we passed a Wal-Mart on the way here.  The girl needs clothes, and we can't really afford to be picky."

     As Shari rode behind Daphne, she glanced around herself in all directions.  Everywhere she looked, even out in the country, she saw evidence of the frenzied death throes of civilization as humanity had once known it.  The rotting contents of a bag of groceries lay scattered on a lawn to her left.  A large Easter ham, a bag of potatoes, a bouquet of flowers long dried out.  About a quarter-mile back, she had seen the undead remains of a couple as they sat in their packed car.  They had apparently filled the car almost to the ceiling with whatever provisions they thought they needed, but then died in their car before they ever got to drive away.  They had sat, windows rolled up, and melted into their seats in the warm interior of the car for several months.  Shari had thought they were fully dead until the female raised her head with great difficulty and twisted her neck in an attempt to look toward the road as they passed. 

     They had been traveling eastward for about a half an hour when Juanita pointed excitedly toward a house to their left.  It was a large, dome-shaped structure painted beige with intricate landscaping all around it.  "I remember that house!" Juanita said.  "This is close to where those guys took me from my mom and dad."

     "Then we'll have a good look around the area," Shari said.  "You said your family was near a creek?"  Juanita nodded.  "Then we know what to look for." 

     They rode on toward the center of a small, unincorporated neighborhood.  The main street had a small business district including a gas station, a bait shop, a daycare, and a diner. 

     "Do you remember coming through here?" Shari asked Juanita. 

     "I think so," Juanita replied, though she didn't sound certain.  They passed the center of town, then reached a sprawling, wooded park with a playground and a pavilion full of picnic tables.

     "I remember this park!" Juanita said, clapping her hands.  "I rode past here with those guys--we came from down there, by the creek."  Shari and Daphne rode through the park, to the far side where it was bordered by the creek. 

     "Which way did you guys come from?" Shari asked as they stopped at the creek bed. 

     "That way," Juanita said, pointing to her right.  Shari and Daphne rode on in that direction, following the water.  "It shouldn't be far from here."

     "Hold up," Shari told Daphne.  "I have to pee."  She dismounted and walked toward the treeline to relieve herself.  "Be back in a sec'," she called back over her shoulder to Daphne and Juanita. 

     She reached the edge of the woods, then ducked behind a shrub, pulled down her pants and panties, and crouched down.  As she urinated, she heard the sound of twigs snapping under a human tread, coming from her left.  She squeezed her abdominal muscles, forcing the rest of the urine from her bladder, then pulled her pants up and grabbed her bow from her back, nocking an arrow.  She stalked noiselessly toward the direction of the sound, bow pointed. 

     As she walked past a thick, dense conifer, a large male figure rushed her and attempted to push her to the ground.  She ducked and rolled to her left, evading the unknown attacker.  She raised her bow again, pointing her arrow at the man's face, about twelve feet away.  He raised a nine-millimeter pistol, holding it with two shaking hands as he pointed it at Shari, standing about ten feet away.

     Shari scoffed, then smiled.  "I wouldn't bother with that if I were you," she said.  "There's a chance you'll just make me mad more than do any real harm with it.  I'm wearing kevlar head to toe."  She tilted her head toward her arrow.  "This here, though...this doesn't have to go through shit to get to you."  She glared at him through the eyeholes of the skull on her hood.  "And I don't miss."

     The man stood holding his gun, his hands still shaking.  "Why do you have my daughter?" he asked, his voice shaking just as much as his hands were.

     Shari lowered her bow, her eyes wide beneath her hood. 

     "You're Juanita's dad?"  The man nodded.  "Well then," Shari began, chuckling, "you ought to be thanking my friend and me.  We found your daughter just south of the Ohio River, and we detoured--a major detour for us, by the way--back here to see if we could find you guys."  She shook her head.  "We really didn't think we'd find you, though, and then...."  She shrugged.  "And then I don't know what we would have done with her.  I guess we would have had no choice but to keep her, I don't know.  But we couldn't leave her where we found her, alone on 24 after we'd killed a group of bikers...you know the kind." 

     Juanita's father nodded.  "I'm afraid I do," he said.  "We've seen them a lot of them.  It makes me wonder how many sociopaths there were all along, right under our noses, before any of this happened."

     Shari continued.  "Well, it turns out that these bikers were the ones who'd kidnapped your daughter."

     "I have to go see her," the man said, turning toward the creek where Daphne and Juanita waited.  "I just...when I saw you guys, I didn't know who you were or why she was with you.  Oh, and...."  He paused, turning back to look Shari in the eye uncomfortably.  "Sorry I...you know, saw you pee and everything.

     "I'll get over it," Shari said.  "But wait up.  If I'm not with you when you pop into my friend's field of vision, she's likely to throw a sharpened stick into your brain."

     As they cleared the treeline and entered the creekside clearing, Juanita squealed with delight.  "Daddy!"

     "Juanita!"  He broke into a run, catching the young girl  as she slid down from the horse and into her father's arms.  Tears flowed down the man's cheeks as he held his daughter, kissing the top of her head.

     "I can't tell you how grateful I am," he said, facing Shari and Daphne.  "I'm Cesar, by the way."

     Shari smiled.  "I'm Shari, and this is Daphne."

     "And they're the nicest, smartest, bravest ladies I ever met, besides mommy," Juanita said.  "They killed all those bad guys that took me away, and they kept me safe and gave me food and these pretty new clothes!"

     "And you should know," Shari said, "that your daughter is pretty damn brave herself, and smart.  You should be proud of her."

     "And I promise I won't run off ever again, daddy," Juanita said.  "I hope you're not mad at me."

     Cesar shook his head.  "No, baby, I'm not mad at you."  He kissed the top of her head again.  "Me and your mom were just so worried.  What would we do without our little girl?"

     "Where is mommy?" Juanita asked.

     "She's back at the camp, down a ways," Cesar said.  He turned toward Shari and Daphne.  "We had to move our camp, but I've spent most  of the past couple days here.  I was just...I was afraid she'd come back and find us gone.  We've had at least one person out here at all times since she disappeared, just in case she came back."

     "How far away is your new camp?" Shari asked. 

     "About a half-mile upstream," Cesar said.  "I have my dirtbike, so I'll take Juanita.  You guys should come with, though.  I know my wife would like to meet the people who brought us our daughter back."

     Shari and Daphne nodded.  "Sure," Shari said.  "We're not in a huge hurry to get back on the road."

     "Wait here," Cesar said, starting for the treeline.  "I'll get my bike and we'll be on our way."

     Juanita ran after him.  "Wait up, daddy!  I'm coming with you!" 

     Shari felt herself beginning to tear up.

     "It's just too much, ain't it, princess?" Kandi said from behind her.  "Just when you thought everything in the world had gone to shit, all of a sudden you're faced with a happy ending.  Really throws a wrench in the works, doesn't it?"

     Shari smiled faintly and let the tears flow.  She saw smoke from a campfire up ahead as she rode behind Cesar. 
We must be close to that fire,
she thought. 
I can smell the fish they're cooking for lunch
.

     "Well," Kandi said, "in my opinion, they owe you a meal.  It's the least they could do, considering the enormous favor you've done them."

    
I didn't do it to be rewarded,
Shari thought. 
Although if they did offer me some lunch, I can't say I'd turn it down. 

    
After a moment, they reached a clearing beside the river where the camp was set up.  There were about a half-dozen tents and several dirtbikes.  A man and woman were hanging clothes to dry on a line strung between two trees, and a woman with a very pregnant belly looked up from the meal she was preparing as Cesar, Shari, and Daphne rode up. 
That must be--

     Shari didn't get to finish her thought before the woman abandoned the pan full of fried fish and rushed toward Juanita, who was running toward the woman's open arms. 

    
"Must be her mum," Kandi said, finishing Shari's sentence. 

     Juanita's mother covered the little girl's face in kisses.  "Oh, my baby!" she sobbed, smiling as the tears slid down her cheeks.  "My little girl!  I was so scared that I'd never see you again."

     "I'm sorry, mommy," Juanita said.  "I didn't mean to scare you.  I chased a cat, and I got too close to the road.  A bunch of guys came and took me away." 

     The woman squeezed her daughter one more time before she stood and turned to face Shari and Daphne.  "Are you the ones who brought her back?"  Shari nodded.

     Cesar stepped between Shari and Daphne, smiling as he put a hand on each of their shoulders.  "Shari and Daphne.  They're the guardian angels who found our little girl and brought her home to us.  Shari, Daphne, this is my wife, Maria."

     Maria stepped forward, engaging Shari and Daphne in a group hug.  She pulled back, looking each of the two women in the eye.  "I don't know who you two are or where you came from, but Cesar is right.  You two are guardian angels."

     "We just did what anyone else in the same situation would have done," Shari said, although she didn't know if it was true or not.

     "We're about to have lunch," Maria said.  "We'd love for you to join us."

     "That sounds great," Shari said.  "It smells wonderful.  It's been awhile since we've had real food."

     "So where did you find her?" Maria asked as she carried the pan of fish over to a picnic table near the fire. 

     "Just south of the Ohio River," Shari said.  "We had just had a run-in with a group of traveling shitheads--we've been calling them sadists--"

     Maria snorted.  "Appropriate enough."

     Shari grinned and continued.  "And once the sadists were taken care of, little Juanita here came out from her hiding place just before we got back on the road.  Well, obviously, we couldn't leave her there, so we took her with us, headed back here, and here we are."

     Maria frowned.  "What do you mean, once the sadists were taken care of?"

     Shari looked away, shifting somewhat uncomfortably.  "Well, um...Daphne and I don't take too kindly to sadists."
     Maria snorted again.  "Honey, don't worry.  I'm not going to give you grief for hurting the animals that kidnapped my seven-year-old daughter.  I'm not judging you, I'm impressed.  If you don't mind me asking, how many of them were there?"

     Shari shrugged.  "About twenty."

     Maria shook her head, glancing at Daphne.  "I don't get it--you're telling me you two girls took out twenty guys?  Alone?"

     "It's kind of our thing," Shari said.  "When I told you that Daphne and I don't like sadists, I wasn't kidding."

     "Shit," Maria said, sighing as she sank down onto the bench, rubbing her rotund belly, "people like you two are the only hope we have in this world.  I mean, between the walking pus bags and the...what did you call them, sadists?...there are only so many actual people left."  She rubbed her protruding belly.  "I don't know what kind of world I'm bringing this baby into, but it's a relief to see that there are still good people out there."

     "Trust me," Shari said, "we feel the same way running into you guys.  We've covered a good amount of distance in the past couple of weeks, and we haven't run into very many people, other than sadists.  It kind of makes me wonder, shouldn't there be some kind of...I don't know, refugee camp, for lack of a better word?  A large gathering of survivors?"

     "There is," Maria said.  "Or at least that's what we've heard.  Over near Louisville.  There was one in Sikeston, back where we came from in Missouri, but that one had been overrun pretty early on.  We never made it over there, thank god.  If we had gotten in, I doubt we would have made it back out.  But someone at some point had spray-painted on the outside wall of the place, NEXT CAMP IN LOUISVILLE with an arrow pointing east."  She shrugged.  "We figured we'd head out there, but when Juanita went missing, obviously we didn't feel we could go anywhere."