Dying Days 4 (20 page)

Stop being such a chicken
, he thought. He took a step back and stretched his hand out, just touching the handle. Russ held his pistol out, rocking on his heels. If he needed to jump back he thought he could. Maybe he'd open it and immediately lunge back to give some space.

"Russ," Bri called. "I have something."

Russ realized he'd been holding his breath. He let it out and ran outside to join her in front of the strip mall. "Whatcha got?"

"Someone's been living here," she said. The flashlight shone on a sleeping bag and empty cereal boxes. "There are footprints in and out. Fresh ones, too." Bri pointed past the center. "It leads into the woods."

"It isn't Darlene and it isn't Jeff," Russ said.

"How do you know?"

Russ turned toward Bri. "I don't know. I don't really know shit out here. I never claimed I did. But if it was either of them, they'd have people with them. Whoever is living here has been squatting for awhile. See the candy wrappers and empty aluminum cans? This is someone who's been hiding for weeks. I'm guessing Jeff and his crew scared this person off into the woods, or we did when we pulled up."

"What if Jeff chased him into the woods?"

Russ looked back at the zombie, smiling, in the back seat of the car. "We can't split up. I don't trust Ben. I'm sure the closer we get to Darlene the easier it will be for him to turn on us. He can't walk or we'd both be dead already."

"I'll go," Bri said.

"Absolutely not."

"If Jeff is out there, I can sneak up on him. You hide the car and wait here in case he comes back. Either way, we'll kill him," Bri said.

Russ saw, with dismay, Bri was serious. There was no fear in her eyes or pain at talking so casually about ending someone's life.

"Park on the other side of the Pizza Hut. Or better yet, across the street. I think it's a doctor's office. If I'm not back in two hours, I'm dead. Find Darlene," Bri said.

Before Russ could protest further she was off, running into the woods behind the strip mall. He wanted to call out for her and tell her to be careful but that would be really stupid to do. If Jeff was out there, he'd be warned, if he wasn't, even now, hiding and watching them split up. And Jeff would go after Bri.

Ben cleared his throat loudly, forcing Russ to abandon running after her. "That wouldn't be too smart. She's likely on a wild goose chase. I think she wants to prove to herself she's a badass. She's not, but she wants to be."

"She can take care of herself," Russ said defensively.

"If you really thought it, you'd have let her go without a fuss. Instead, you're standing around hoping she'll return. You should move the car before the bad men come back for their rides," Ben said.

"I don't like it when you're right," Russ said.

Ben leaned back and stretched his arms over his head. "Get used to it. I didn't get this way by accident."

"Dead?"

Ben laughed. "Okay, you got me on that one. But you know, I can see everything so clearly now. How petty my life was. How petty everything is."

"You make it all sound wonderful. Except for the biting and raping parts." Russ started the car and drove slowly across the street, parking between two cars. He killed the engine.

"I don't want to rape anyone anymore. I wasn't really aware I had raped anyone. Did I? Did you see me defile someone?"

Russ shrugged. He sat against the car door so he could watch the Pizza Hut and Ben at the same time. He didn't trust him and with good reason. "I didn't see you personally, but I saw more than enough of yous doing it."

Ben laughed. "You's?"

"Shut up. I'm from Jersey." Russ looked out the window. There were at least two bodies splattered on the pavement. "Isn't it funny how the sight of body parts no longer offends? It's like seeing flowers now."

"And the smell, too."

Russ turned back to Ben. "Do you have extra special smell, too?"

Ben smiled. "Everything is special now. My sight is better than it ever was. I can perceive things around me." He looked out the window. "See the palm tree across the street? I can feel it move in the wind if I concentrate. I can tell you about the horde of rats inside the house over there, too. They're drawn by a carcass or spoiled food."

"Are you messing with me?"

Ben sat back. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"What else can you sense?"

"I know there was a guy hiding in the Pizza Hut you clearly missed."

Russ shook his head. "No way. There was nowhere to hide."

"Really?"

Russ cursed and opened his door. "Stay right here and don't fucking move."

"If I decide to leave, I'll be crawling down the street," Ben said.

Russ ran across the street, looking both ways out of habit. He burst back into the Pizza Hut and stopped short.

The pizza oven was now open.

Chapter Twenty Seven

What a mess they'd made. Jeff stared at the two idiots holding guns to a group of women and children.

"Where's RJ? We heard a gunshot," one of the men said.

Jeff shrugged. "He's gone. Let them up."

"Why? They're our prisoners." This was the other man speaking now. Jeff swore he didn't want to ever learn their names. They wouldn't last long, anyway. "We captured them."

Jeff walked into the mass of people. There were at least twenty women and children. All of them scared. None of them killers. "Where are the men?"

"Out hunting. They said a van tried to pass and they were chasing it down."

Jeff closed his eyes and sighed. "A van most likely filled with the pregnant bitch and her crew. But instead of taking that nugget of information and reporting back to me, so we could figure out in which direction they went, you hold these innocent people hostage. Do you think their men are going to pay a ransom for them?"

Both men kept quiet.

When Jeff opened his eyes, he looked at each woman in turn. "I don't suppose, at this point in the game, you're going to let us walk away and forget we were ever here?" He turned back to the two men. "You've put a large target on our back. Both of you."

If it had been one or two women, Jeff would've thought nothing about shooting and burying them, but he wasn't going to waste all their ammo on defenseless people. And it would take too long to slash everyone's throats. Plus, he'd end up chasing down most of them through the woods. "We're leaving." Jeff smiled at the people, knowing they were going to stare back and not say a word. "My apologies. I hope we never see you again, and you all live long and fruitful lives."

The two men put their heads down and walked back through the woods, Jeff behind them but making sure no one from the camp got a stupid idea and tried to follow.

But the women were staring and memorizing their faces, trying to hide their fear and anger. They'd just been shown how vulnerable they were and they didn't like it. Jeff and his group were the reminder of how shitty the world had become. And, when their men came back, they'd make sure to erase this feeling by destroying Jeff and the two idiots who scared them.

"We just thought…" one of the men started to say.

"Shut up and keep walking. I am so close to pulling this trigger. Don't look back. Just walk," Jeff said. Now he'd wished he'd held off on trying to eliminate Doug so early. They'd still have three more men at his disposal. He had no idea how close they were to finding Darlene and the baby.

"There's a zombie," one of the idiots said matter-of-factly. "He's coming at us."

"Then kill it," Jeff said and sighed when he saw the man pull his pistol. "But don’t shoot it, you fucking moron. You want to call another dozen to our position? Think. Why did The Lich Lord give me such incompetent men?"

Jeff watched the men walk to the zombie with guns drawn but holding them to club it. Now Jeff began to wonder: why had he been stuck with these specific men? Was this mission doomed to fail? Could The Lich Lord see into the future, and know he could eliminate Jeff, Doug and these men, and still get the mom and her baby? Had he been played?

They began clubbing the zombie while Jeff kept walking, his eyes searching for more undead. Zombies were like cockroaches. There was never only one. Someone once said for every roach you killed in your home another hundred were hiding, but he knew the number was closer to a thousand. It was the same with zombies.

Movement to the far left caught his eye, but the zombie was too far off to matter. As long as it wasn't one of the smart ones, he'd be safe.

"Hurry up," Jeff said. He looked back again, expecting one of the children to be following them, but the woods were silent.

The two men finished bashing in the brains of the zombie and wiped the gore on their pant legs, which Jeff thought was yet another stupid move. They both smelled bad enough already.

As Jeff caught sight of the road, knowing they were a couple of minutes away from where he'd left Doug and Lilly, he heard car engines in the distance. "Shit. Let's move," he hissed, and ran through the woods, keeping the road close.

Doug and Lilly came running, waving at Jeff. They met and dropped to the ground behind a blockade of trees.

"I hid the bikes deeper in the trees. As long as they don't stop, they'll miss them." Doug caught his breath. "Is everything alright?"

"Did you see anything?" Jeff asked. He didn't want to get into what had happened, and it was none of Doug's business.

"No, but it's more than one car."

The engine's grew louder and everyone got as low as they could.

"We're too close to their camp," Jeff whispered to Doug. "If they reach it and turn right around, we're dead. Even if we get to the bikes, they'll hear us."

Doug tapped his rifle. "If it's only one car, I say we ambush them."

"I agree. There are only women and children waiting for them."

As the sound grew louder and closer, Jeff knew they needed a Plan B. A van was the first vehicle to pass but it wasn't the last. Two pickup trucks, three cars and a school bus went by. All filled with men with guns.

"The Lich Lord said something about a van," Jeff mumbled. "He said to look for their van."

"That's information that would've been useful before this minute, don't you think?" Doug sighed when the convoy passed. "I guess we head back through the woods and see if they're captured."

"As soon as the cars get back, the women will tell them we've just been there," one of the men said.

"Then we should attack them before they can organize," the other man said.

Jeff shook his head. "There are four of us who can shoot against fifty."

"I can shoot. Probably better than you can," Lilly said.

Jeff grinned. "Ten to one odds isn't any better."

"What if we send someone back to see if she's on the bus?" Doug asked.

"Good idea." Jeff pointed at the two men. "You both go, but, this time, don't walk into the camp like fucking idiots. One of you go further than the other and see what you can see. Relay the info back as soon as you see her or don't. Understood? We are going to need to move quickly on this."

As the two men ran off, Doug laughed. "Do you trust them?"

"Not at all."

"You're not as dumb as you look," Doug said. "I'm heading to the bikes. Even if she's there, we can't do anything just yet. I say we split and find a better spot down the road. They'll come looking for us."

"I agree," Jeff said reluctantly. "Let's go."

"What about your two buddies?"

Jeff shrugged. "Maybe they'll be enough distraction until we return."

"Wow, dude, that is cold," Doug said but he was already running through the woods. Lilly was right behind him, which made Jeff jealous. The bitch was his to command, but he couldn't very well start screaming at her now. They'd find a safe haven and then he'd show the bitch who was boss soon enough.