What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (16 page)

Panic driven adrenaline surged through me. Max was in trouble. The thing I cared about most in this world. Suddenly it all made sense. Frye sent us here to get us away from Max. Frye set us up, he knew this was a nest of super zombies and he knew it was more than we could handle. I channeled my rage, thought about Max, all my love for him, all my hatred for Frye. “I stomped my foot, launching a blue wave of energy, similar to what Max had done, except this time it disintegrated them all, turning them into dust, which swirled up in the wind as I collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

I woke up, laying in the grass at dawn. John was sitting up holding his shirt to the side of his face.

“
Ugg,” I groaned. ”My head is killing me!”

“
Tookes, you turned them all to dust, then lost consciousness,” exclaimed Leo. Her shirt was ripped across the belly and there was a mostly healed gash across her stomach. She was favoring her left arm, holding it tightly against her chest.

Marshall walked up and knelt down in front of me. His arm had a pretty ugly cut across it, which had closed but was still red and angry looking. A black eye was fading, in that yellowed stage. It took me a second to realize I had no idea he was going to do that. Then I realized I couldn’t see his aura.

“
Leo. Can you hear me?” I thought.

The crickets chirped in the long grass all around us.

Chapter 14
Max and Friends

“
Wake up Max.
”

“
Max. Wake up, we have to move.
”

“
Five more minutes! I’m sleepy.
”

“
We’re sorry Max, but its time. We have to get going.
”

“
But its cold! I don’t want to go back outside.
”

“
We know, Max. We’ll help keep you warm, but we’re still pretty sick and can’t do much. We fixed your hands and feet while you were asleep though.
”

Max rolled over in the bed, into the cool air of the early fall morning. He climbed down the ladder and looked around the room. The table was covered in junk, piled high with metal scraps and parts of various machines. The chairs were dingy but were clean before the layer of dust settled on them. He looked around, but there was no sign of any other children, it appeared to be someone’s house, but there wasn’t much here that seemed useful to the small boy.

“
I’m hungry. I want cheese. And yogurt. Flower yogurt.
”

“
Max, there’s nothing to eat here. We’re going to have to find another house. And there won’t be any cheese or vanilla yogurt. But maybe we can find a can of raviolis.
”

“
Awwww,
” replied Max in his head. “
But I want yogurt. I haven’t had yogurt in 100 days!
”

“
We know Max. But things are different now. Things are harder for your kind. You have to work harder, be smarter. My kind is bad guys. We didn’t know it was possible to be friends, like we are with you. You’re the only one we can be friends with Max. Your body is different, different even than your Daddy. We think it was a combination of your Daddy and your Mommy put together that made you special.
”

Max walked up to the door and unlocked it. He twisted the handle and shoved the door open letting the cold air into the barely warm cabin. He shivered in the morning chill; he was wearing only thin PJ’s.

“
Max, there is a zombie out in the woods. Call to him. Tell him to obey you. You’re going to need his help. He’s a soldier, but they have their uses, including carrying you, if he’s not too rotten.
”

Max cast his mind forward, looking for the zombie. It was walking forward, stopped by a limb across its chest, one arm stuck over the limb, his bare feet were worn down to the bone. The pathetic creature continued walking until Max tapped into its mind.

“
Come to me.
” Max ordered it.

“
We come. Eat.
”

“
No! No eating!
” thought Max. He looked deep into the things mind, searching around until he found it. “
Eat. Follow Directions.
” They weren’t words, they were just primal instructions. Max imagined a pencil eraser in the creature’s mind, erasing the directive to eat.

“
Max, you can’t do that. Only our boss can do that.
”

“
I’m the boss of him now.
” replied Max, speaking out loud.

He looked once again in the things mind. There was no ‘eat’. Only the instruction to follow directions remained. Then Max had an idea of his own. He turned the imaginary pencil around and drew a picture after follow directions. It was a circle, with two dots for eyes, a line for a nose and a smiling mouth. “
That’s me, I’m Max. You can only follow directions from me,
” he thought to the creature.

“
Lift your arms.
” The creature raised both arms over its head.

“
Turn around and walk.
” It took a few steps forward.

“
Walk around the tree. Don’t walk into stuff. If you do, turn around and walk around it
.”

“
We come to Max.
”

The creature stumbled its way through the woods towards Max.

“
What’s your name?
”

“
We don’t have names,
” Max heard from his own symbiotes.

“
Your name is Steve,
” Max implanted in the thing’s head.

“
Steves come to Max.
”

“
Not Steves,
” thought Max. “
Just Steve.
”

“
Steve come to Max.
” Steve replied.

When Steve arrived, he was a mess. He’d been walking into that branch for months. There was no flesh on his side or inside his arm. The flesh on his feet was worn off, leaving bloody ragged bits of flesh hanging off his feet. His shirt hung off in tatters.

“
Can you fix him?
” Max asked.

“
No Max. We are still sick. He is too damaged. He is still useful. His smell will throw off the dogs that are looking for us.
” The symbiotes said.

“
When you’re better, then you can fix him,
” said Max.

“
Max, he is not a human like you. He is a tool, like a hammer. You use a hammer for a job and then you put it away until you need it again.
”

“
He walks. He talks. He should be fixed,
” argued Max. “
He’s not dead.
”

Steve followed Max as he took off, moving quickly through the underbrush. Max was a child and had all the energy of a kid, all that energy that we, as adults, wished we had a tenth of. Steve was a little slower, Max had to stop several times throughout the morning to wait for Steve.

After several hours of walking, Max said “
I’m still hungry. I want a cheese sandwich.
”

“
There is a path ahead. Turn down the path; it will lead to a house. Inside the house you’ll be safe for a little while. We need to rest. It’s going to be two or three days until we’re not sick anymore. Tell Steve to watch for badguys from the woods.
”

“
How is my daddy going to find me? I miss my dad.
” Max’s lip quivered as he thought the last part, tears welling up in his eyes.

“
We’ll help you find him, Max. You are sad. Why are you sad? We don’t understand sad.
”

“
I miss my Daddy. I need him.
”

“
We’ll
find him soon Max. But you have to get inside this house. There aren’t any soldiers inside. Tell Steve to tell you if there is anything coming.
”

“
Steve, please stay out here and tell me if anyone is coming. My bugs will make you better when they’re not sick anymore.
”

“
Steve stay,
” it replied.

The house was a large two story. It looked like one of those weekend retreat places that politicians from DC built way out here in the woods. It had all the comforts of big city life, backup generators, a commercial style kitchen, a swimming pool and hot tub, six huge bedrooms and gigantic old furniture. Inside the kitchen, the gigantic stainless steel appliances loomed over Max’s head. He padded across the Venetian marble floor, looking for anything to eat. The cabinets were beautiful hand crafted Brazilian cherry wood, stained in a dark reddish brown. Max opened the tall cabinets and saw a bunch of canned food.

“
What can I have to eat?
”

“
It’s all food, Max. Any of it in the cans will still be good.
”

“
I don’t like any of it.
”

“
Max, pick something. You like green beans. Look for a picture of food you like. You have to eat.
”

Max searched through the cabinet and finally found a huge can of green beans. He pulled that out and put it up on the counter with a heave. He went over to the table, grabbed one of the hand carved chairs and dragged it over to the island.

“
Daddy keeps the can opener right beside the sink. I’ll look there,” Max said, standing on his tiptoes he could just barely peer into the drawer. He reached in and shifted some of the kitchen tools; a large chef’s knife, mixing spoons and a whisk before finding a hand crank can opener.

“
You
put this on the can. But I don’t know how,
” thought Max.

“
It
looks like you put this little part on the edge and then you squeeze these two long handles and then turn this crank.
”

Max applied the can opener and turned the knob.

“
We think it is upside down.
”

He turned the can over. “
No, the opener is upside down, not the can.
”

Max turned the can back over and reversed the can opener, clipping it on the lid. He turned the crank and the can turned.

“
It’s working!
” he cried happily “
Now I need a bowl. And a spoon!
”

Max opened several more drawers, until he found a spoon and then found a bowl. He only spilled a little getting the green beans out of the can, before sitting down on the floor and eating them ravenously. When they were gone, he padded around the kitchen looking for a napkin.

“
Max, it’s time for sleeping, can you take a nap? We need you to sleep.
”

The little boy walked through the rest of the house. The downstairs had a living room with a gigantic brown leather sectional couch and a huge dining room. There was an office in the front of the house, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the overgrown front lawn. The other side of the front entrance was a big den, with a huge TV mounted to the wall.

“
Steve, are you okay? I am going to go to sleep. Please tell me if anything comes.
”

“
Steve wait. Steve tell you when something comes.
”

Max climbed the formal stairway. When he reached the top of the curving stair, he walked down the hall looking into each bedroom. The first one he came too looked like a girl’s room, but the next one made him pause for a second before he turned into a child’s bedroom. It had a small red plastic race car bed, perfectly made up with sheets from the movie Cars. He climbed in the toddler sized bed and went to sleep the second his tiny blonde head hit the pillow.