Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles (50 page)

He was back.

And then everyone was behind me, their hands on my back, on Hemp.  Flex and Tony took the man from Hemp, and when his arms were free, I fell into them and held him so tightly I never wanted to let go. 

He held me back.  My cheek to his, I wanted to stay that way forever.

“Charlie,” he said.  “Let’s get out of here.”

“Okay,” I said.  “We know the way.”

His arm still around me, he said, “Guys, we’ve got another problem. 
Billy
here has told me something disturbing.”

“What?” asked Dave.  “Is it about the Code Z?”

Billy
looked up, his bruised and battered face swollen and black.  “Yeah,” he said.  “It means they ordered the zombies to be let loose.”

“Where?” asked Serena.  “How many?”

“There are about thirty of ‘em,” said
Billy
.  “Kept ‘em for when Hemp here learned how to cure ‘em.  Also for an emergency like this.  Figured they’d be harder to fight if someone tried to take the place down.”

“Where are they?” asked Gem.

“In the yard.  They could’ve come in, too.  I don’t know.  They were kept in a cage beside the main garage.”

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” said Hemp. 

“I’ve had my surprise,” I said.  “The best.”

Hemp bent over and untied his shoe.  He pulled out a latex glove and reached inside.  He looked up at us.  “What time is it?” he asked.

Flex checked his watch.  “It’s 6:45 or so,” he said.

“Then I’m good.  Here.”

He held out a wafer.  I took it from him.  “What’s this?” I asked.

“It is a neutralizing cookie.  It makes you invisible to the zombies, in a manner of speaking.  They cannot detect your scent, and the vapor is powerless.”

“Are you fucking shittin’ me?” asked Gem?  “Is it safe for the baby?”

“Gem, I have no idea.  All I know is that it works.  If we’ve got thirty or more creatures out there, I’d recommend each of you take one, and do it quickly.”

Nobody had to be told twice.  Each ate their cookie.

“These suck,” said Tony.

“They’re effective,” said Hemp.  “Damn.  I forgot to tell you.  Sit, quickly.   All of you.”

I don’t remember sitting.

****

The moment their rear ends touched the floor, all of them had gone out.  I was immediately relieved I’d remembered to have them sit.  I’d already given Billy a wafer.  He turned to me.

“Hey, buddy.  Thanks for saving me.”

“My pleasure, Billy.  I never got the impression you were a bad guy.”

“I’m not.  That’s why I’m gonna do something for you.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll be right back.  Was it the Sex Pistols?”

I looked at him, confused.  “Was what the Sex Pistols?”

“What your lady loves so much.”

I smiled, knowing exactly what he had in mind.  “Yes.  But Carville doesn’t have any of that stuff, does he?”

“His daughter sure did, and it’s all here.  The entire … what do they call it?  Discography?”

“I believe so, yes,” I said.  “If you insist, then hurry.  They’ll be awake by the time you get back.”

Billy limped off.  He’d make a good addition to
Concord
.

In five minutes, I began lightly slapping their faces, and each awoke groggy, but all recovered fully within a few more minutes.

“So, we’re . . . neutral now?” I asked.

I nodded.  “You are.”

“That’s crazy,” said Tony.

“Crazy, but true. 
Billy went to get something, but as soon as he’s back, we need to move, and fast. 
The only ones we
’ll
need to worry about now are Carville’s men.  That’s him over there
,” I said, pointing
. 
“
His daughter killed him.”

They all followed my gaze, but nobody looked for long. 
Billy hobbled up holding a big, bulging bag.  One that I assumed contained every bloody CD ever compiled or containing any Sex Pistols song anywhere.  He opened it up and showed it to Charlie.

She dug in the bag briefly, then looked up at Billy.  “Did you help my guy?” she asked, winking at me.

Billy nodded his head.  “Wanted to.  I
nev
er hurt him.  I like the professor a lot.”

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks.” 

Billy offered a tired smile.  “You’re welcome.  Hope you like the music.”

“I already love the music.”  She turned to me.  “Babe, let’s go.”

Charlie, my beautiful wife, lead the way back through the door and into the stairwell.

We climbed.  There were no humans encountered.

Because it was very likely that they had encountered the hopelessly ravenous creatures of Code Z protocol.

****

Ahead, by the open front doors,
Hemp took the lead.  S
everal of the walking dead creatures milled about in search of human flesh.  Six of them feasted on
Gary
’s body, on their knees, faces buried in his carcass like livestock feeding from a trough. 
Zombie rats had made their way in, too, and covered Rory’s body, pushing and melding into it like some sick art form.

I didn’t feel bad for him.  He’d turned into the worst kind of human being; worse than the zombies themselves, who only responded to their hunger.

For Rory, it had been about power.  And now he was food.

I turned away at the same time my husband did, both of us freeing ourselves from the grotesque scene. 
Hemp
never broke
his stride.  He walked until the monsters were all around him, and he stopped and looked back at us.

Nobody was going any closer.

“It’s safe.  Come on.  I’m not sure how much time I have.”

“I can’t,” said Serena.  “I’m scared.”

Tony looked at her.  “You’re scared?  Serena, I’ve never seen you scared since I met you.”

“You’ve never seen me show it,” she said, staring at the zombies behind my husband.

“Okay,” Hemp said.  “I’m only doing this once, so watch carefully.”

“Baby, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Watch, but don’t worry.”  He smiled.

My genius husband turned and eyed a zombie who wasn’t currently feeding.  He went to the creature and took it by the arm.  He pulled it toward us.

It allowed itself to be led toward us, no less willing than a miniature horse at a pony ride.  It was once a tall, thin man, now with half his face gone, only one finger on his right hand, and the others blackened nubs.  Hemp pulled him along and the blank-faced creature stood there for a moment wavering unsteadily, before wandering away again.

There was little to none of the scarlet vapor because they hadn’t fed.  Apparently Carville ordered his family members taken very good care of.  These might have been former business partners.

“Satisfied?”

“Freaked out,” said Flex.

“I’ll take that,” said Hemp.

We moved forward as a group.  At one point, just after we walked through the doors, there were twenty or more walkers surrounding us. 

As we passed through the bulk of them, Dave turned to me and said, “That awkward moment when you’re walking through a horde of zombies intent only on eating brains, and they don’t give you a second glance.”

Everyone gave a nervous laugh, but Dave laughed so loud I think it scared the shit out of everyone but me.

I shook my head.  I wanted Hemp to get to know this crazy dude better.

After we made our way through the putrid smelling crowd of zombies and were well on our way to the waiting vehicles, I stopped and pulled on Flex’s shoulder.

“Wait here, guys.”

I felt their eyes watching me as I walked to the Crown Vic where Nick sat inside, his eyes wide and a smile on his face.  I slapped the hood.

“Pop the trunk, would you, Nick?”

He did.

I reached in and pulled out Hemp’s MP5.  Lifting two more magazines for it from the trunk, I closed it and went back to the group.

“We’re forgetting something.”  I nodded at the milling zombies.  “They’re never gonna heal.  They are what they are.  It’s not enough to walk through them.  Not everyone can do that shit.”

We helped the injured Billy into the car, where he gave a grateful sigh as he sank into the back seat.

Flex nodded.  Tony had stopped to listen too, as had Gem and Dave. 

We lined up and walked back toward them.  Serena fell in, too.

Raising our weapons, we walked forward in a goddamned firing line and let off round after round of head-high blasts, exploding the brains into volcanoes of tissue and finally, piles of the now dead undead.

It was our version of No Child Left Behind.

No Zombie Left Alive.

When the world once again fell silent, and the sun began to rise in the east, scores of dead – really dead – zombies lay all around us.  The smell was horrific, but some how, to me anyway, the air had never smelled sweeter.

Then we heard a guttural, screaming growl from off to the east.  It sounded more prehistoric than any other sound I’d ever heard in my life, and so inhuman that my brain had nothing in its memory banks that would allow me to place it with any confidence.

I ran toward it, my crossbow up and loaded.  I realized everyone was with me, using the last bit of their strength, for if I were running toward this horrible sound, we would all run there together to silence it forever.

We rounded the corner of Carville’s great mansion to see the Sikorsky helicopter that had carried Hemp away from us.  Hanging from the door was a man in a flight suit.

He was missing both his arms, and was in the process of losing a leg while Molly the gorilla’s razor sharp teeth were clamped over his head, scream-chewing him into pulp.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” said Dave.  He ran toward them, and when the others started to follow, I put an arm up.

“He can handle it, guys.  He really can.”

We were sixty yards back and when Dave stopped and held out the silenced Walther, we heard very little except the horrific screams of the abnormal gorilla in the throes of death, its dark crimson blood aspirating in short bursts with each squeeze of the trigger.

Dave saved the last bullet for the pilot, who was probably already dead.

Now there was true silence.

I walked to Hemp and put my arm through his.  We got back to the  vehicles and took our places.  Gem drove her Crown Vic and Flex was just fine riding shotgun.

Hemp and I rode in the back seat
, not taking up enough room to disrupt Billy, who’d fallen fast asleep.

I was
curled up
contentedly beside my husband,
my head on his chest, my hand stroking his neck.

I was home already, no matter how long the drive ahead.

We left
Shelburne
,
Vermont
an hour later, after fueling up and dropping Tony off at ZFZ4.  Serena asked if she could come with us, and we said she was absolutely welcome.  There was a pretty good society forming in
Concord
, and they would need good people.
  She rode in Flex’s truck.

A few moments later I heard the beginning of God Save The Queen.  Gem turned and smiled at me over the front seat. 

I love that chick with everything I got.

We don’t know what happened to the rest of Carville’s team.  We didn’t really care.
 
They no longer had the protection of their wealthy benefactor.

Billy snored inaudibly, below the cranked volume of the Sex Pistols, all the way back home.

****

Epilogue

We arrived back in
Concord
to streets that were
, for the moment,
clear of
rat
z
and reanimated dead folk
, and a cheering crowd that had gotten word of our return the moment we cleared the outermost roadblocks.

It was good to be home again.  When we got to the state house, I believe the entire town was there to greet us.

I walked in with Charlie on my arm, never happier.  Not that I can recall, anyway.  Reeves was the first to approach me, and to my surprise, he pulled me into a hug.

“Hemp, I am glad to see you again, my friend.”