Revenence: Dead Silence, A Zombie Novel (10 page)

"It's a strong possibility," Fauna replied in a neutral tone.  "I wouldn't put it past him."

They reached the garage, which Fauna had locked on their way out.  She took out her set of keys and unlocked the overhead door, opened it, and walked over to the ladder.  She took one side, and motioned for Shari to take the other.  Fauna locked the door again behind them, and they carried the ladder over to the barn.  They went in through the large overhead door that led from the corral to the inside of the barn, and set the ladder against the wall, where Nick had taken the rope ladder from.  Fauna took out her gun, flipped the switch for the overhead loft light, and carefully climbed up.  She stepped up into the loft, looking around slowly. 

"He ain't up here," she said.  She was quiet for a moment.  "That crazy son of a bitch," she whispered.

"What?" called Shari from below.

"Window's open.  He took that ladder and went out the window.  As in, the window that sits thirty feet from the ground.  That boy somehow got that rope ladder up to that window and climbed it.  The bottom of that ladder, though, it couldn't possibly reach the ground.  Means he had to drop...what?  'Bout fifteen feet or so."  She descended the ladder, and the two of them went outside and around to the back of the barn, gazing up.  Fauna had been about right.  The bottom of the ladder dangled about fifteen feet above the ground.

"Motherfucker," Fauna spat.  "I don't know what he hopes to accomplish with this stunt, puttin' us in danger for no good reason."  She started toward the garage.

"I don't think he had the mental capacity left to think much of anything," Shari said as she followed behind her.  "What are we going to do?"

"Well, for now we're gonna go back up to the loft.  He can't get to us up there.  I expect we'll see him anytime now, amblin' up to us all ghoulified.  And then we're gonna take that dumb motherfucker down.  Wouldn't be surprised if that fall did him in.  Either way, even if he is alive, we'll be safe from him up in the loft."  She took out her keys, unlocking the door.  "And neither one of us, under any circumstances, goes out alone until he's accounted for.  You understand me?"

Shari nodded.  "But if he doesn't show his face, we're gonna have to go out and look for him at some point, right?  If he's alive, we can't just have him out there somewhere, menacing us until...God knows when."

Fauna shrugged.  "Yeah, we ain't got a choice.  But for now, let's go ahead and go on upstairs, think this over.  Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get a glimpse of him from up on the balcony.  Besides, I'm hungry.  I need to get me some breakfast before we go hunt this asshole down."

"Maybe he went in the house," Shari said.

"Unlikely.  Me and Mitchell had set up alarms in there.  If Nick or a zombie or anyone else was in there, the monitors in the garage woulda alerted us.  All three horses are accounted for, and so are the cars.  He couldn't have gotten too far, and he ain't in the house.  Couldn't have gotten into the garage.  We can check the sheds and the woods, I guess.  Make sure he ain't in one of the cars.  Other than that, I can't imagine where he coulda gone."

"Well," Shari said, "I guess our work is cut out for us."

They climbed down from the loft.  Fauna was carrying a .357 revolver, and Shari had her bow and a taser.  Fauna locked up behind them as they left like always.  They checked the cars, first Shari's, then Nick's own.  There was no sign of him.  They had even looked underneath the cars before getting up close.

"Alright, there's two sheds out back.  I keep 'em locked up, but he coulda broke into one, and they both got windows he coulda gotten in through.  Now, one's where we used to do our butcherin'.  That means we gotta be extra careful in there...lotsa sharp implements for him to get into.  We'll check that one first, then the storage shed."

Neither shed showed any signs of forced entry, but Fauna unlocked them anyway.  They did a thorough search of both buildings, locking them up again as they exited. 

"Well," Fauna said with a sigh, "that leaves the woods."

"Then let's get to it," Shari replied through gritted teeth. 
I knew that asshole would mean trouble for us,
said the embittered voice deep in Shari's consciousness, the one getting quite comfortable in her head.
  I knew it from the time he showed up here.  I tried to like him, but he's the type that you just know, from the time you meet him, you KNOW he can't be trusted.  He can't help but to be a fuck-up.

"I guess we should start near the barn, work our way north," Fauna said.  Shari nodded in agreement.

They entered the narrow stretch of woods, a dense band of deciduous trees sparkling with the vibrant green of new spring growth.  They stayed mostly back-to-back, Fauna pointing her gun, Shari her bow.  Although the wooded area stretched from south to north across the length of the property, its narrow form made quick work of the search.  They were about halfway through when they heard the unmistakable sound of twigs snapping beneath the weight of a bipedal tread. 
Snap, snnnap...snap, snnnap..
.  Both women turned in the direction of the sound.  "Nick?"  Fauna called out, and at once a figure pounced in their direction.  Shari nocked an arrow and aimed for the leg, pinning the assailant back and to the ground.  They quickly realized it wasn't Nick, just some unfortunate, random bite-victim-turned-zombie...a young man whom, it would appear, had been quite handsome before his tragic fate.  Fauna took a survival knife from her hip holster, plunging it into the eye socket and rendering the undead man inert.  She reached down to pry out the knife, which she did with some difficulty, levering it back and forth.  It made a wet, cracking sound as she freed it.  The two walked on, continuing northward.

"You know, it's a shame," Shari said after a moment.  "We have a man show up to stay with us, and it has to be Nick.  The type of slimy douchebag I probably wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole even
before
the apocalypse."

"I don't know," Fauna said.  "I was just getting to like him, myself."

"Nah," Shari said, shaking her head.  "He was just pandering to us.  Trying to get on our good sides.  He really thought that if he won us over, he'd get to be the alpha dog.  I don't think there was any sincerity in the fucker, personally.  Maybe that's just my cynical nature running amok in this new world we're in, but I like to think I'm pretty fair-minded.  And don't get it wrong, I'm not some militant man-hater.  Most men, I've gotten along with pretty well.  Most of my friends have always been male.  But something about him...it's like you said, he was a livewire.  He had it written all over him.  He came here for the sole purpose of making our lives more complicated,and more dangerous."

"Is that a fact?" came a voice from somewhere above.  Nick's voice.  "You know, I never liked you bitches either."  He snorted.  "You never wanted to let me into the loft...you two must have been dykin' it out in there or something.  And now you're about to wish you'd just let the man wear the pants, the way it's supposed to be."

Fauna's gun was pointed in the direction of his voice, and Shari followed suit.  She knew Fauna was the one with the survival training and the hunting experience, so she figured if Fauna had located the direction Nick's voice was coming from, she'd trust her.  They heard another sound. 
Click
.  The unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back.

"
Gun!"
Fauna cried, pushing Shari.  Shari did the best tuck and roll she could manage, avoiding the gunfire being issued from the lower limb of a tree about twenty feet away, which dashed into the ground where she had just been standing, knocking up a plume of dirt.  Her amateur maneuver had spared her a bullet, but had knocked the wind out her. 
Not quite like in the movies, eh princess?
that inner voice teased.  Fauna took out her .357 magnum and fired back.  She struck him in the gut, and he fell the twelve feet between the limb and the ground.  His .38 revolver fell about five feet away from him, and Fauna easily made it there before he could drag himself over.  Shari came up beside her, pointing her bow at Nick's head.  He moaned on the ground, looking in shock at the rather sizeable wound in his abdomen.  He clutched around the hole, and the intestined bulged slightly between his fingers.  Tears flowed down his cheeks.

"Great," Fauna said irritably.  "Made me use my gun, ya little fuckin' turd.  Every zombie from a half-mile around is gonna be here.  Made me ring the goddamn dinner bell."  She kicked him in the shin with her cowboy boot, causing him to wince from the additional pain.  "So where'd ya keep the extra gun, ya fucker?"  He ignored the question, moaning and babbling incoherently in apparent disbelief.  She kicked him again, this time in the other shin, and harder. 

"
Agghh!
  It was in my car.  I left the barn that first night and got it out...”  He paused, gurgling and weeping.  “Got it out and hid it in the mailbox, just in case you guys searched my car.  I knew you'd wanna leave me defenseless, I needed to have something!  Then last night after I escaped, I went and got it.  I knew you bitches would come after me!”  He glared at them, a twisted, unhinged expression overcoming his sickly, gaunt features.  “I knew you two wanted me dead!  I gave you a chance, but you two just couldn’t be girls, could you?  You thought
you
could tell
me
what to do!”  He laughed, a demented sound.  “I mean, can you imagine?  Two stupid, delusional
SLUTS
trying to tell a man what to do?  And one
Arab
slut, to top it off.  I would have fucked you up right then and there, if I’d have known you’d never see reason.”

“Hey, asshole, I’m Indian," Shari replied disdainfully.  "There’s a difference." 

Fauna looked at him neutrally, then turned away, grimacing.  “No point in arguin’ with him,” she whispered to Shari.  “He’s obviously too far gone mentally.  It’d be like talkin’ to a wall.” 

“What do we do with him?” Shari asked, her gaze riveted in Nick's direction.  “I mean, assuming the gunshot wound doesn’t kill him momentarily.”

Fauna looked off into the distance, looking indecisive and sucking in sharply through her teeth.  “I wanna say kill him, but...I don’t know.  It doesn’t feel like the humane thing to do.  He’s not in his right mind.”

“Yeah, but apparently being in his right mind, in his case, means hiding how sexist and racist he really is.  At least we  know where the nutjob stands now.”

“Agreed, but--”  Fauna stopped cold, looking in Nick’s direction.  He was lying all the way back, head on the ground, eyes open. 

“Is he dead?” Shari asked, steadying her bow.

“I...think...so,” Fauna said cautiously.  “Nick!”

“Hey, asshole!” Shari taunted, kicking a large rock at him.  “I
think
he’s dead.  Not surprising.  That was a pretty bad injury he sustained.”

“I’m...not...dead, you stupid, cocksucking camel jockey,” he rasped, lifting his head just off the ground.

This ignorant prick.  He’s what’s wrong with the world, and his kind can’t be left to ruin what’s left of it
.  The thoughts crossed Shari’s consciousness before she could even grasp them.

The arrow sailed ten feet, arching down, and pierced Nick in the eye, sinking down through his skull and into the ground, leaving his head propped up at a slight angle...the death mask he exited the world with was the expression of hate he wore before he died.

“Now he’s dead,” Shari said indifferently, turning back toward the garage.  She looked back over her shoulder after she had gotten about ten paces away.  Again she heard the voice in her head, the words muffled yet clearly distinguishable, with some kind of accent she couldn't place her finger on...
You know, from this distance, he looks kinda peaceful
.

“What the
fuck
?”  Fauna cried, incredulous.  “Did you really have to do that?  Because he called you a
name
?”

“No, not really.  But he was dying anyway.  I mean, what?  Were we gonna take him to a doctor?”  Shari turned and looked at Fauna.  “Look, I know that life is precious.  Every last moment.  But that’s only for
human beings
, and Nick forfeited his humanity when he tried to kill us.  You can try and tell me that he was mentally ill, that he couldn’t help himself.  But he was a bad man. I could sense it on him from the moment he reared his ugly head around here, and I know you could too.  We had two options--sit around pointing our weapons at him until he died, which could’ve taken awhile, while he slung insults at us--or just put him out of his--and our--misery sooner, rather than later.  You saw all the blood he lost, you saw his insides torn apart and spilling out of his body--there was nothing we could do for him, since neither one of us are medically trained.  There could be more zombies in these woods--especially since
YOU BOTH JUST SHOT YOUR GUNS OUT HERE
-- and we couldn’t just sit babysitting his evil ass all day, or night, depending on how long it took him to bleed out or die of shock.  And I don’t know about you, but I was
not
willing to try and move him.  Knowing him, he’d try and bite us or some crazy shit, or maybe even die and come back
while
we're in the process of moving him.”  She paused, sighing.  The shock began to wear off, and she finally started to feel the finality of what she had done.  Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.  “Fauna, I value human life, you know that.  What I just did, I hope to God I never have to do it again.  A few weeks ago, I was a librarian, for God’s sake.  I never saw myself killing an animal, let alone a zombie or a living human being.  But sometimes, with all that’s going on, tough calls have to be made.  At least when it comes to people who want you dead.  And I made that call.  I hope you can forgive me.”  She continued trudging toward the garage.  Fauna stared after her for a moment longer, then ran to catch up.