The Dead Hunger Series: Books 1 through 5 (103 page)

Hemp did not close the door.  Instead he unsnapped his drop holster, then reached over and unsnapped Charlie’s.

“Be ready to kill them if necessary.”

“I’m always ready to kill them, honey,” she said sweetly.

The reanimated creatures did not touch their faces or cry out in pain.  They exhibited no fear.  They stood against the wall, facing away from Hemp and Charlie. 

Hemp walked up behind Red Dress and put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her around to face him.

She turned.  As she did so, Blue Eyes turned the opposite direction, but in equal measure.

Hemp stopped and looked at Blue Eyes.  “Charlie, what did that look like to you?”

Charlie’s hand rested on the butt of her gun.

“Connected,” she whispered.  “Like they’re connected.”

Hemp nodded and took Blue Eyes by the arm.  She did not fight him.  He pulled her away from Red Dress approximately two feet, then pulled her forward, toward the door.

Red Dress copied her movements exactly, but opposite.  Whereas Blue Eyes moved 45 degrees left, then straight, Red Dress moved 45 degrees right, then straight.

When one stopped, so did the other.

“Hemp,” said Charlie.  “Her face.”

“Oh, my God.”

It was the lack of effect that shocked both of them.  The zombie was unharmed by the urushiol.  Utterly undamaged – beyond what life and death had done to her.

Hemp dropped her arm and rushed toward the door, grabbing Charlie as he reached her, pushing her out ahead of him.  He closed the door and stood there, his back to it, breathing too hard for the effort.

“What the hell was that babe?” asked Charlie.  “You just scared the shit out of me.”

Hemp shook his head.  “I don’t . . .”

Charlie stared at him.  He knew she needed an answer.  He didn’t know if he had one.

“Charlie.  I think you were right.  They were connected.  They
are
connected.  In just the short time they’ve been together here, they’ve formed a union of some sort.”

Charlie looked at the spray bottle still in her hand.  “Baby, is this full strength?  Maybe this bottle’s just water or something.” 

“It killed the rats on the way in here,” said Hemp.  “It works.  Just not on them.”

“This is fucking serious,” said Charlie.

Hemp nodded.  “I have a strange feeling that while that is a huge problem, it’s not the worst problem.”

Hemp fell silent.

There were no words to describe the image in his mind.

Organized armies of the untiring walking dead, plotting against the humans at their weakest.

While they slept.

“I need to open them up,” said Hemp.  “Both of them.  I have to see what’s going on inside those heads.”

“Literally?”

“Of course.  But I want to get them into our real lab first.”

*****

“Get on the radio again,” said Flex, spinning the Chevy’s wheel left, bouncing the crew cab onto Park Street to avoid an oncoming pack of rotters heading dead south toward them on State Street.  Flex had originally intended to take
State Street to Loudon Road, but they’d been forced off their route by the impassable wall of bodies and ratz, staggering their way south.

“If anyone is in the State House, be on alert!” shouted Dave into the radio.  “Whit, if you’re out there, tell me where the hell Lisa and Serena are!  We’re coming to get them!”

Nothing came back.  Flex hit Green Street and cranked the wheel right.  They could see Loudon ahead. 

“Try again, Dave.  I gotta know where I’m going.”

“Dave? Is that you?”  It was Lisa’s voice, and she sounded frightened.

“Lisa!” he shouted.  “Where the hell are you?”

Flex looked at Dave, and at the relief on his face.  His entire body language had changed.

“I’m not exactly sure,” she said, her voice low.  “I’m hiding.  Serena and I got out of the car with Whit and Jacko, and everything looked good.  We loaded up with ammo and started off.  We ran into a huge group of freaks and a bunch of ratz, too.  I turned and ran, assuming they’d be right behind me, but when I got to a group of industrial buildings, they weren’t anywhere.  I used my gun to shoot the lock off the door to a metal building, and came in.  Now I don’t know where they are, and –”

“Lisa,” cut in Dave. “I’m sorry to cut you off, but you have no idea where Serena is?”

“No, Dave.  She was right there with me, but –”

“Okay,” Dave cut in again.  “Where are you?  You have to figure it out and tell us so we can rescue you.  Then we can focus on finding the others.”

Flex held out his hand.  He’d been keeping his calm in tough situations for a long time now, and might have a different approach.

“Lisa,” he said, spinning the wheel right, bringing the truck onto Loudon Road.  Within seconds they were at the bridge, and plowing into another ten or so shambling bodies.  Flex dropped the radio again, held onto the steering wheel as the front tires sunk into the soft, writhing bodies.  The ratz had become so commonplace that they hardly saw them anymore.  They were there, and they were dangerous, but it was as though they filled in the gaps on the ground and could be missed if one wasn’t careful.

When he got through the mess, he held out his hand and Dave returned the radio.

“Sorry, Lisa.  Had to deal with something there.  Now where is the truck parked?” asked Flex.  “Do you remember that much?  We’ll start there.”

“Yeah, I do,” said Lisa, her voice cracking.  “By a Dunkin’ Donuts.  Does Franklin Pierce sound familiar?  I think that was the street.”

“Yeah,” said Flex.  “I know where that Dunkin’ Donuts is.  How far did you go from there?  Where did you walk?  Down the street the donut shop was on?”

“No,” said Lisa.  “It was the street intersecting Franklin Pierce right across from there.  I don’t know the name, but it leads to an Army facility of some kind.  That’s where I am.”

“That’s not far,” said Flex.  “We can get to her fast.”

Flex pushed the button again.  “Okay, we’ll find you, Lisa.  Tell me which way you turned when you got inside.”

“I remember some military jeeps.  Jacko wanted to get one because they’re all full of fuel and they’re open.  Easy to shoot from.”

“Did you make it there?”

“Yes, we did.  But that was when they came, and I just ran.  Flex, I thought they’d be there!”

She started to cry, and Dave took the radio from Flex.

“Lisa, don’t be scared.  Just tell us.  You were standing with them, and you were at some military vehicles?  How many were there?  How many cars?  Were they camouflage?”

“Yes, they are.  I don’t know, Davey, maybe fifteen jeep-like things.  All camouflage.  As you’re facing the front end, I ran toward the buildings right behind them.  Or in front of them.  Whatever.  I’m in there.”

“Okay, now if you hear gunfire or you hear a car engine in the next few minutes, it’s most likely us.  Make sure it’s clear and come out.”

“I’m out of ammo,” said Lisa.  “I’ll make noise, but I can’t move from this spot.”

“Why not?” asked Dave, desperation touching his voice.  “Why can’t you come to us?”

“I’m in a place where there is only one way in.  I can see.  I have one bottle of urushiol blend, and it’s almost empty.  If I run into a pack of ratz or a horde of zombies, I’m afraid I don’t have enough of anything to survive it.  You’re gonna have to find me, big brother.”

Dave looked at Flex.  “Then we will.  We’ll find you, sis.  Hang tight.”

“Hurry,” she said.

Dave clicked off.  “There’s the donut shop.  Crank right on that street across.”

Flex reached the street and turned, immediately seeing some members of the horde that may have forced Lisa away from the others.

Dave grabbed the AK-47, but Flex quickly put a hand on his arm.  “No, Dave.  We don’t know where anyone is.  We might hit them inside a building.”

“Shit!” shouted Dave.  “Look.  I’ve got the WAT-5.  So does Lisa.  Why the hell … hold on.”

He pushed the button on the radio.  “Lisa, you’re on WAT-5, right?”

“I don’t know,” came her voice.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I don’t have a watch, Dave.  I expected to be with everyone else.  I don’t even know what time I took it, for sure.”

“Did you take a second dose at all?”

“No.  Not since this morning.”

“Jesus, Lisa!  They’ll smell you out.”

“Hurry!”

Dave opened the dashboard and took a baggie of WAT-5 out.  He withdrew four wafers and tucked them into his shirt pocket.  “We’re good, but those guys might all need it when we find them.”

Flex turned in, cranked a left on Pembroke and a quick right, driving into the facility past an abandoned guardhouse.  The pivoting arm had long been broken away, so nothing prevented their smooth entry.  Flex turned right, and the military vehicles lined up in a distant parking lot came into view right away.

“Where the hell did the others go?” asked Flex.  Whit and even Jacko were not the types to shun responsibility, and if Lisa and Serena were with them he couldn’t envision anything that would cause them to lose track of them.  Flex also couldn’t see them failing to call after her if they saw her run in the wrong direction.  Now he wondered if there was more to the story.  Maybe they’d been hurt.

He looked at Dave, whose intense eyes scanned the parking lot beyond.   What if Serena had been hurt or killed?

Flex knew the answer.  If Serena was dead, Dave would put Lisa on a bike tomorrow.  Their trip out west would begin within hours, not days or months.

And Flex wouldn’t blame them.  Hell, he might even grab his crew and go with them.  Concord was a fuckin’ mess.

“Right there, Flex.  Those buildings.”

“Okay,” said Flex.  “Let’s park and walk.  You got the WAT-5, right?”

Dave patted his shirt pocket.  “Holy fuck.”

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s a holy fuck, Flex.  Look at ‘em all.”

“I see ‘em.”

It was impossible not to.  Unless there was a zombie early bird dinner special going on somewhere in the large, metal building directly behind the cars, they had smelled and tracked down Lisa.

The radio clicked.  “Dave?”

“Yeah, Lisa.  What is it?  I think we’re here.”

As Flex and Dave watched, the searching, clawing fingers of the monsters found purchase, and the metal door was pulled open wide.  The single-minded maggot men and women flooded in.  There had to be sixty or seventy of them.  Most had no shoes on, as if their walk, whether it began underground or simply covered miles of highway, had worn them away.

Flex opened his door and checked his watch.  “We’re good for a while,” he said.  “Let’s go get your sister.”

*****

Hemp paced back and forth, and Gem tried to think of anything she could to calm him.  They’d hadn’t heard from Flex and Dave, but they’d been out in the crazy world more than enough for everyone to be comfortable with their safety.  Plus, they had WAT-5.

“What does it look like out there?” asked Hemp, getting up and peering out the window.  “Pretty clear.  Good.”

“I’m ready to strap on Suzi-Q, go find everyone, and get their asses back in this fucking house,” said Gem.  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go out again.”

“Not out, Gem,” said Hemp.  “I need to get back in that lab and try to figure out what in the bloody hell is going on with those females.  Something is changing.”

“It’s true, Gem,” said Charlie.  “They’re connecting or something.  It’s weird and scary.”

“How so?” asked Gem. 

“That’s what we have to find out,” said Hemp.  “Gem, my concern is greater than I think anyone would realize – even Charlie.”

“Well, tell us then,” said Charlie.  “What are you thinking?’

Hemp paced back and forth.  Gem watched him, uncomfortable.  This wasn’t like him at all.  He was thoughtful, structured and methodical.  Nothing really threw him for a loop or appeared insurmountable to Hemphill Chatsworth.

Hemp stopped, took a deep breath and let it out.  He looked up at the women.  “The WAT-5 makes us invisible to these creatures, not visually, but whatever olfactory methods they use are thwarted by it.”

“Yeah, whatever you just said, I think we knew that,” said Gem.

“So what if they recognized us as food without the olfactory input?”

“You mean, just saw us and knew we were food?”

“That is exactly what I mean,” said Hemp.

“That would render WAT-5 useless,” said Charlie.  “Hemp.  This isn’t happening, is it?”

Hemp shook his head, then stopped.  He shrugged.  “I don’t know, but unless I learn how far this advanced brain ability or connectivity between them works and what is causing it, I never will.”

“What’s the next step?” asked Gem.  “How do you get beyond where you are now?”