After The End (8 page)

“These must be vacation rentals. They’re way
too empty and ugly to have been lived in.”

Her observation echoed in my thoughts; there
had to be a better way to do this. I approached the doorway.
Carving a large X on the door with my belt knife, I put the choice
to the group.

“This place is done; how does switching
neighborhoods sound?”

Everyone leapt into the trucks and the
decision was made. I sheathed the blade and walked to the Ford.
Daemon plopped down next to me wiping his gore-drenched hands on
someone’s sailboat towel.

“This is messier than I thought. Anyone find
hand sanitizer?”

I responded with a goofy grin before settling
in for the next potential hazard. We turned down the street away
from the site of the accident from September 16th.

I was driving home from work; the theme parks had
been closed and evacuated without explanation. All of the cheery
background audio shut off and an announcement sent us home to the
nearest exits. Every radio channel spoke of the outbreak of Z-bug;
I thought it was just a silly hoax.

The Pontiac in front of me ran over a man on the side
of the road and streaked away. I threw my car in park and ran to
help. I dialed 911 as I ran to the motionless form. The victim was
mangled, unconscious, and had several ribs exposed. As a small
crowd gathered I checked for a pulse. Finding none, I ran to read
the street sign for the 911 operator and the deceased man reached
out to an onlooker.

I dropped the cell phone and jumped back in my car
while the Dead victim began devouring his rescuers. Seeing other
fleshies approaching, I gunned it for my parents’ home.

I was shaken from my reverie when Sunny
plowed down two stumbling Dead. I felt an elbow in my ribs as
Daemon pointed at an approaching zombie; it kept falling over its
sagging Rocawear jeans and still bore several pieces of bling
around its bony neck. We laughed at the sight as it penguin-walked
towards us and tripped before pulling itself upright. The corpse
repeated the cycle every four steps.

“Someone gonna kill it or what?”

I could feel the Mom Glare from the front cab
without looking.

“Yep. I got it.”

I notched an arrow and fired. The tip went
through the creature’s neck as the hip-hop wannabe stumbled again.
“Dammit.” I took aim again, crouching in the truck bed and loosed
the arrow. It found its target in a spray of gray matter and
coagulated blood. The penguin was now extinct. I considered taking
the gold necklaces as I sat back, but they had no value.

“Nice one, but now what will I do for
fun?”

Daemon pinched my side playfully, his smile
relaxed and reassuring. Our eyes locked and held for a minute, his
smile changing from playful to intimate.

Sunny cut short the moment.

“This one looks good. Everyone out!”

The scavenger hunt was back on. We cascaded
out of the pickup and poured into the cream house in the
cul-de-sac. After the sweep yielded one already destroyed body, we
split up to search. I grabbed several pens and pads of paper off
the desk and started opening drawers.

“JACKPOT!” somebody yelled from the master
bedroom.

I ran to see the cause of the outburst and
was instantly overjoyed. The walk-in closet was full of desired
supplies. As we unpacked the wardrobe we found it contained: cases
of water, MRE’s, two wind-up flashlights, a new beer bong, playing
cards, a first aid kit, fishing equipment, two sleeping bags, a
large cooler full of Jack Daniels and Bud Light, a box of condoms,
puzzle books, canteens, and board games.

Not only had we found a place someone
actually lived in regularly, but also that person had kept
hurricane supplies in stock. The motherload was carried into the
backs of the trucks; we all had smiles super-glued on our
faces.

Sunny’s jaw dropped while she evaluated the
procession of goodies.

“Holy crap.”

After forty minutes, the house was emptied of
everything we needed and then some. We’d even pulled the battery
out of a golf cart from the backyard in hopes of powering a couple
of rigged lights at camp. I strode up to the door to mark it and
froze as a familiar clicking sound echoed through the night. I
turned slowly.

A muscular man was standing behind Dane with
a sawed-off shotgun pressed against the back of his head. The
stranger was dressed in a black shirt and camo pants, a Yankees cap
pulled down over his eyes. They stood ten feet from me and I hadn’t
even seen the gunman.

“Step away from the trucks right now!”

We stepped back a little but I knew we
couldn’t let him take the supplies and vehicles; we might not make
it back to camp in one piece. The look on Dane’s pale face revealed
panic.

He started pleading with his captor.

“Please, just let me go. You can take my bag,
just let me go. They might won’t give you the trucks, but you can
take the stuff. Don’t shoot me, just take what I have, please.”

Dane broke down sobbing as the interloper
gripped him tighter, the veins visible both there and in the
assailant’s thick neck. A gush of urine darkened Dane’s khakis and
pooled around his feet. Every time he moved his feet, they
squished.

The brawny man growled his threat at us,
spittle flying into Dane’s black hair.

“I’ll blow his head off if you don’t toss
those bags into this truck and back up. I’m taking this truck and
that pretty girl with me or this scrawny bitch in front of me gets
some real sloppy brain surgery.”

I tried to negotiate with the cretin; Dane
was aggravating, but he didn’t need to die.

“Look, we can’t do that. We can give you a
portion of what we gathered, but we need the trucks. Others are
counting on us and we need to be able to get back to them.”

The goon adjusted his brace on the weeping
man and flared his nostrils; I took slow steps towards him.

“You aren’t taking her with you, I’m not
going to let that happen. Sunny won’t either, I’m sure. And there’s
no way I’m telling her husband we let you kidnap her at gunpoint.
We can work something else out. Just lower the gun and we can come
to an understanding.”

Tears rolled down Dane’s face as he wept,
sucking snot back up his nose while he whimpered. Sunny’s face
oozed fury and her spear tip was pointed at the Herculean intruder;
she was a Valkyrie ready for war. The man sneered at me and blew a
kiss at Sunny as the shot sounded.

Everything slowed down for an instant, while
Dane’s face was rent asunder by the shotgun round exiting through
his tear-streaked face. His left eye landed on my shoe as the taste
of pennies filled the air. The eye stared up at me and the body
collapsed in a pile.

“Now I get my way, or you’ll be…”

Daemon materialized behind the murderer and
cut his sentence short. The vampire grabbed the gun and tossed it
aside, engulfing the outsider in a fatal bear hug. His eyes shone
green and he sank his sharp teeth into the attacker’s throat,
shaking and ripping the holes wider like a wild predator.

No one moved; we were too stunned by the
events we were witnessing. The slurping sound betrayed how deeply
the fledging drank as he took the stranger’s life. Vibrant eyes
looked through me as the vampire unceremoniously dropped the body.
His face was covered in crimson and his dripping fangs remained
bared. Scraping sounds were coming from behind us; the blast had
drawn the fleshies right to our location.

Daemon ran the back of his hand languorously
across his stained mouth and chin, gathering the remaining blood,
and licked it from his knuckles. A low growl of contentment escaped
him. His eyes flickered red as his smile widened.

In my peripheral vision, weapons were being
drawn while I instinctively took a stutter-step back. Realizing the
potential outcomes, I took a gamble and drew the tiny bottle I’d
located from my pocket. As the hand sanitizer somersaulted through
the darkness towards the vampire, I saw the first of the blundering
Dead traipsing between the driveways.

A blood-streaked hand caught the little
plastic container; he looked down at the contents. The gentle
breeze circulating did nothing to relieve the stillness trapped in
the apex of truck lights. The departed edged closer, their
movements slow and jerky, but steady nonetheless. Daemon closed his
eyes and took a deep breath, his fangs receding into his gums.

“Thanks, Squirrel.”

His usual upbeat tone and innocent smile
returned as he cleaned the sanguine fluid from his hands and rubbed
his chin clean on the inside of his shirt collar.

Eyes went wide in confusion and blades were
lowered insignificantly; only Sunny squinted with distrust. The
young Undead looked around and blushed – although he may have
simply been flush from the blood he’d consumed.

“Sorry guys, just lost myself for a second
there.” He stared at the weapons still aimed in his direction. “I’m
going to work on this with Cal when we get back and I’ll keep it
together for the rest of the raid.”

Silent looks passed from person to
person.

“Um, shouldn’t we relocate someplace a little
less unfriendly?”

Daemon gestured at the growing swarm of
cadavers in varying stages of decay. He was right, Dane’s killer
may not have been alone and these zombies were already too many to
make a stand. I wiped the splatter from Dane’s cranium goop off my
cheek and barked out orders.

“Someone grab the gear off those two bodies
and let’s get to an elsewhere while we can. This place is too
dangerous.”

Randolph and Ellen’s Father lightened the
corpses of all things useful and our troop receded into the truck
beds. We set out in search of a haven for the coming day. Dawn
would arrive in a few hours and we were already down one person on
the first night. Ellen’s Father sat across from me, clenching the
rabbit’s foot as Sunny drove over fleshies while making our
retreat.

At least there was no one back home to grieve
Dane’s demise.

We drove five miles in search of an adequate
place to barricade ourselves for the daylight hours. Randolph
spotted it first; it was a tan house with the blue windows boarded
up and the garage door half open. Both trucks would easily fit
inside.

Our drivers stopped in front. Daemon and I
leapt to the ground, preparing to check the potential sanctuary. I
looked back and found everyone else hanging back; they stared at
the young vamp with unease. Fear crossed his face as he gazed at
our companions. Watching this wordless conversation, I decided to
act like the leader they seemed to think I was.

“Daemon and I will clear the house for
enemies: living or otherwise. When we’re finished, I’ll come out
and we will all secure the building for the day. From here out
we’re also going to buddy-up so everyone has someone to cover their
backs.”

The pack started pairing off with whomever
they trusted.

“I call dibs on the guy who’s been watching
all of our asses; you know, the one who killed the douchebag with a
shotgun who murdered a member of our community. That asshole that
tried to rob us and carry off Sunny for God-knows-what. You guys
consider all that while Daemon and I are inside.”

I turned on my heel, drew my sword, and
stormed up to the door. The vampire followed. The home was empty of
anything but furnishings. We turned back to the door outside and I
took a deep breath. I steeled myself to face the probable backlash
of my earlier rant. With my hand on the doorknob, I felt fingertips
softly run up my forearm and grasp my hand.

“Thanks for what you did back there. You’re
the only person they would’ve listened to. I owe you major and I’ll
make it up to you.”

Tendrils of warmth and red climbed my face. I
returned Daemon’s smile and proceeded outside. We rejoined the
others and lifted the garage door the rest of the way open, guiding
the trucks into their daytime storage. The sole Undead carried a
few bags into the living room before excusing himself to patrol the
area. We worked without sound, making pallets of bedding and
unpacking some of the food. All minds were churning over the
night’s events.

An hour before dawn, Daemon knocked on the
front door; after checking the peephole, Randolph let him in. The
fledgling shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his
throat.

“There aren’t any fleshies roaming about
nearby and I found a place to crash that’s close, so if it’s
alright I’m going to bail now. It’s pretty obvious that I’m making
most of you uncomfortable. I’ll come back after sunset.

Sorry again for not being able to keep my
cool earlier; and for not preventing that dickhead from shooting
Dane. I was dealing with some zombies and wasn’t aware of the
danger over there. I’ll be more vigilant and composed from now on.
Night all.”

He stepped back out the doorway and
disappeared into the predawn fog.

We all knew his reason for sleeping
elsewhere; the guy was afraid of what we might do to him. Daemon
was immortal, fast, strong, and petrified of us. I understood his
concern; while the sun was up, he’d be helpless and there was no
trust between him and the group. I drifted off in a Despicable Me
sleeping bag wondering what it would take for us to all feel safe
again. Somewhere outside I heard what sounded like a bobcat
defending its territory.

It was almost noon when I was roused for my
turn as guard. I looked around the dim room. Ellen’s Father was
adding toys and children’s books into his backpack; his face was
drawn and he seemed despondent. It occurred to me I should learn
his name soon, as I walked into the kitchen to join Sunny for some
gator jerky and oranges. She and the other driver had just finished
their turn on duty.

After we quietly fortified the residence in
case of multitudes of dead or gun-wielding maniacs, we’d agreed to
return to camp the next evening. Our scavenging had already yielded
everything on the list – including condoms — as well as a shotgun
and shells, various books, booze, and toys.