Man Eaters (33 page)

“Start backing up,” Dallas ordered.

“I had no idea there were so many.”

Because of their smaller stature, some of the kids made it around bumpers of the dead vehicles before anyone could see them.

“Run, Einstein! Stay on the road but get the hell out of here!”

“But—”

“Go!”

Dallas looked at Butcher. “You, too. Get out of here. Stay with him. We’ll find you.”

Butcher hesitated until she saw a boy hobbling after Einstein. She put him down with two shots before taking off after Einstein.

“Follow me.” Dallas made a run for the RV, knocking zombie children back with the butt of her rifle as she went. None were reaching for her nor did they follow her.

Climbing on top of the RV, she started picking off the kids as they cleared the traffic jam. With Roper next to her, they kept shooting at the two dozen or so kids and several adults following after Butcher and Einstein.

The more they shot, the more that came, and Roper knew the two of them weren’t fast enough to get them all. The child zombies moved faster and jerkier than their adult counterparts.

Butcher knew this as well, and she stopped to make her final stand.

“Keep going, kid!” Butcher shouted.

Einstein hesitated. “There’s too many,” he said, before going back for Butcher.

They were coming from every side...kids, and a couple of adult drivers, walking right for them...moaning and shuffling, reaching out with those hideous fingers where bone showed through shredded flesh.

“Come on, Butcher! Run for it!” Einstein tugged on Butcher’s sleeve.

“Behind you!” Dallas called out.

Butcher wheeled around, barely in time to blast a zombie’s face off.

“They’re boxing us in. Come on!” Einstein turned to run, but a zombie lunged for him, knocking him to the ground and clacking its teeth at him as it fell on top of him.

Einstein kicked and punched until Butcher crushed the zombie’s skull with the butt of her gun, but it was too little too late. They were everywhere.

They were surrounded.

Pulling him to his feet, Butcher knew it was too late to run. There were simply too many of them.

For their part, Roper and Dallas kept plugging away, but the children continued to move more swiftly than the adults, making them use more ammo, take more time.

“B-Butcher!” Einstein cried.

As Butcher turned to crush the skull of the male zombie that had tackled Einstein, its teeth chomping near his face, a streak of black caught the corner of her eye, and she watched in stunned silence as Safety came up and over the guard rail, lowered his shoulder, and barreled into the zombie on top of Einstein. Safety hit the creature so hard, its head popped off. In speed belying his size, Safety rose and smashed his meaty fist into the next nearest zombie face.

Butcher swung her rifle around, connecting with two man eaters and creating a large enough space for Dallas and Roper to safely pick off the remaining zombies circling around them.

“Run!” Butcher yelled to Safety, who pulled Einstein to his feet and pushed him in the direction the horses had run.

“Get to the hills!” Safety cried, stopping to deck two stragglers who’d been shot but not incapacitated. As Einstein took off into the hills, Safety turned back to Butcher, who was backing away as she shot.

“Gimme the rifle,” Safety demanded. “Go after Einstein.”

Butcher hesitated, then handed Safety her rifle before sprinting off after Einstein and into the hills.

It took another five minutes for them to dispel the remaining eaters. When Safety’s rifle ran out of ammo, he used it like a bat and busted skull after skull until there was nothing but a pile of dead man eating children at his feet.

With the freeway littered with bodies, Dallas and Roper joined Safety on the road.

“Fuckers.”

“Was Einstein—”

“Don’t think so. Couldn’t hardly tell.”

For a moment, the three of them caught their breath.

“Those hillbillies ambushed us and set those eaters free.” Safety shook his head. “I managed to get our gas can filled, though. I left it back there once I heard the shooting.”

“Grab it and let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Where we going?”

“Where else? We’re going after Peanut.”

****

They retrieved all of the horses and started after the Hummer in less than fifteen minutes.

“They didn’t have much gas,” Dallas said. “And I’m guessing they’ll head for the nearest group of cars. They’ll need to siphon just like we did.”

“Taking the horses is a smart move, Dallas,” Butcher said as they trotted along the crest line of the hills running parallel to the road. “They won’t hear us coming.”

“Maybe not, but they’ll hear us when we get there.” Roper’s voice was hard and cold. “And don’t even think about using diplomacy, Dallas. We need to go in there and end this once and for all. Once. And. For. All.”

“I have to agree with Roper on this one, Dallas. The line in the sand was drawn. They crossed it. Time to wipe them and the line from the sand.”

Dallas looked over at Einstein. “You feel the same way?”

He nodded. “Cue-Ball pulled his rifle on me. He wanted to go with them at any cost. Had he not been a traitor, we might have been able to at least get Peanut from the Hummer. As it is, I managed to cover her up with a blanket on the passenger seat floor. I don’t think their leader ever even saw her.”

“Was she scared?”

“I’m not sure. When I brushed up against her, though, she was really warm and sleeping soundly.”

“We should never have left her in the car. She must have overheated.”

“Why wouldn’t Cue-Ball tell them she was in there? What do they have to gain in keeping Peanut?”

“Leverage,” Butcher remarked. “If we go after them, like we are, all they have to do is threaten to kill her.”

Dallas tried to keep Merlin at a slow trot since Zeus was picking up the rear. “If they stayed on the main road, and didn’t stop to get gas, they should be up here shortly.”

Roper put the binoculars to her eyes and surveyed the area. “Bingo. One Hummer in the middle of the freeway about six hundred yards ahead.”

“Any signs of the truck?”

“Negative. I’m guessing that they sent it on to get gas. I see one guy pacing back and forth outside the Hummer. No sign of Peanut.”

“Okay then. We need to approach cautiously from four different locations in order to make it difficult for them to pin us down with two rifles.”

“Looks like the guy out on the freeway is...Cue-Ball.”

“Armed?”

“Uh uh.”

Dallas held her hand out for the binoculars. “That’s odd. Why would he be outside the vehicle without a weapon? Is he guarding it?” Dallas took the binoculars and looked through them. “He’s pacing like a maniac.”

“Where are the others?”

Dallas could not see anything through the small rectangular back window of the Hummer. “Can’t tell.”

“Then I suggest we send two down to the Hummer while the other two watch for the truck. And by watch, I mean shoot at. And by shoot at it I mean kill every mother fucker in it.”

Dallas stared at Butcher.

“This is war, Dallas. It’s time we put a stop to them hassling us, and all people like them understand is violence. Hardcore, in your face, violence. I am not asking permission to kill them, Dallas.”

“You’re outvoted on this, babe,” Roper said, taking the binoculars back. “And we’re burning daylight talking. It’s agreed: Those boys must die and Cue-Ball with them.”

Everyone but Dallas nodded.

“They’re no different from the zombies. For all we know, they could have kicked Peanut to the curb, and then what? No, no mercy this time. This time, we’re lowering the boom.”

Realizing she was outvoted, Dallas sighed. “Fine. We secure the Hummer, get Peanut, and then finish the hillbillies off once and for all. Roper and I will ride down to the Hummer, approaching from north and south. Butcher, you watch the northbound freeway, Einstein and Safety the south. You see that yellow pickup, fire off two quick rounds to let us know they’re on the way.”

“And then?”

“Then empty your rifles into the truck a la Bonnie and Clyde. Don’t stop shooting until that truck comes to a halt.”

“Now you’re talkin’!” Butcher said, hefting her rifle. “Everyone be safe. Dallas, we’ll meet you at the Hummer once it’s secure.”

After Butcher, Safety, and Einstein took off, Dallas glanced over at Roper. “I wish there was another way.”

“There isn’t. You know how people started looting after Katrina hit? There will always be those people who will use human suffering to their advantage. There will always be those who couldn’t care less about society. Those assholes fit the bill. If you think for one second he wouldn’t have shot the kid, you’re a fool.”

Dallas stopped Merlin just as they came to a deer trail that headed right for the freeway. “I do know that. I just...don’t want to lose my own humanity.”

“Your humanity won’t do you any good if you’re dead.” Roper scanned the area in front of them. “Here’s what I think we oughtta do. You bring Morgana up behind the Hummer on that path. Merlin and I are going to make a kick ass entrance over there by jumping the guard rail and landing smack dab in front of the Hummer and nearly on top of Cue-Ball. That oughtta get his attention.”

Dallas nodded. “Don’t kill him until we find out where Peanut is.”

“Roger that.” Turning her horse on a dime, Roper rode hard and fast toward the Hummer. As she got closer, she leaned into the large horse and whispered, “One last ride for old times, dear friend.” And up and over the guard rail they went, gliding on air, sweat glistening in the late afternoon sun. The horse was magic in motion as he landed with as much grace as his take off and in five long strides, Roper towered over Cue-Ball.

“Oh my god! Thank god, thank god!” Cue-Ball exclaimed, holding his head in his hands. “Please. Help me. You have to help me.”

Ignoring him, Roper aimed her rifle at the Hummer. What she saw turned her skin inside out.

“What. The. Fuck?”

“She turned! Right there in the Hummer! One second, she was sleeping under a blanket, the next she was all over Callaghan, biting his neck and shoulders. When he turned to fight her off, I shoved the door open and jumped out just as she lunged for me. She would have…would have attacked me, too!”

Lowering her rifle, Roper watched with a churning stomach as Peanut ripped large chunks of meat from Callaghan’s body and stuffed them in her small mouth. She was joined at dinner by Delray, whom she had apparently bitten as well and had already turned.

“Jesus...” Roper pushed the bile back down her throat. Waving Dallas to come, Roper leveled her rifle at Cue-Ball. “You’re the cause of this, you sorry ass motherfucker.”

“Look...I know it must seem like—”

“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear it. Save it for someone who gives a shit about you, because I sure as shit don’t.”

As Dallas’s horse clipped by the Hummer, she had her rifle aimed just as Roper had, only when she saw the activity going on inside, she leaned over the side of Morgana and vomited.

“Where’s the truck?” Roper asked Cue.

“Went for gas. There’s a mini-mart off the road back there and they went for gas cans and gas.”

When she was done vomiting, Dallas rode over to Roper and Cue-Ball.

“They went back to that mini-mart for gas and a gas can since Safety had taken ours with him,” Roper explained to her.

Dallas nodded. “Let’s release the horses and hide behind the Hummer. If they get this far, we should be able to easily pick them off or, at the very least, incapacitate the truck.”

“What about him?” Roper jabbed her rifle toward Cue-Ball.

“We’ll deal with him later. Get behind the Hummer.”

Both women dismounted, and Roper sent them toward a small hill.

Cue-Ball did not move. “I...I can’t go near that. What if the door accidentally opens?”

“Then you’ll get what’s coming to you. Now get behind the goddamned Hummer.” Roper slammed him between the shoulder blades, pushing him forward.

When they came around the back, Peanut whirled around and started beating on the back window leaving fresh bloody handprints all over the glass as she snarled at Cue-Ball.

That was when Zeus saw her.

Roper and Dallas just watched as the dog stood on the bumper with his front paws and whined. Peanut didn’t give the dog a second glance, but growled like a trapped animal at Cue-Ball.

“She hates you almost as much as we do,” Roper said, pulling Zeus back down. “Down, boy. She’s not who you think she is.”

Suddenly, two shots rang out, followed by a cacophony of gunfire.

“That’s Butcher. They’re returning fire.” Roper looked down her sights, just waiting for the truck to come barreling down the road right toward them.

Roper sent her first shot into the windshield, causing the driver to veer away from the Hummer and onto the cement center divider, catapulting the Jethro in the bed of the truck over the cab and into the oleander bushes lining the freeway.

Roper, Dallas, and Zeus surrounded the truck. The driver was slumped over the wheel, blood running down the side of his face.

“Get out of the truck!” Roper ordered the passenger, who raised his hands in the air in surrender.

“Don’t shoot. Please.”

“Get out and shut up.”

When the passenger got out, Dallas opened the driver’s door and pulled him to the ground.

Moaning came from the side of the road; the ejected passenger slowly coming back to life.

Reaching in, Dallas took the keys.

“What...what happened? Where’s Callaghan?”

“Dead. In the Hummer.”

“You killed him?”

Dallas shook her head. “No. We didn’t. Now, step away from the truck.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, we are going to get in our Hummer and get the hell out of here. What you assholes do is none of our concern.”

“You’re not gonna just leave us here.”

“Actually, we are. Get in the back of the truck.”

The guy looked over at his friend, who was trying to get to his feet without realizing his leg, from the knee down, was shattered and bloody.