Path of the Horseman (8 page)

A thunderous boom made me jump and spin
around. My machete was raised high and ready to strike, staring at
a Plagued that had been coming toward my back. I blinked, stunned
not only because it would have bitten me and I never would have
seen it coming, but because there was a gaping hole in the side of
its head. I watched the permanently-dead corpse topple onto the
ground, then turned to see who’d saved me.

A girl not much younger than me stood about
six feet away, holding a black Sig Saur pistol and a hard
expression. Her honey blonde hair draped over the shoulders of her
dusty black leather motorcycle jacket. She wore matching skinny
pants and securely tied combat boots. Her golden eyebrows were
narrowed intensely, hiding her denim blue eyes. Her lips were set
in a tight pout, which I think she meant to be menacing, but came
across as unintentionally cute.

I would have kept staring at her, but a
Plagued with a half eaten face was careening to her right, swinging
its arms like pendulums.

I shouted “Look out!” but she was already
turning. She pistol-whipped the Plagued with one hand while her
other drew a sleek hunting knife from the holster belted to her
thigh. She stabbed the Plagued in the temple in one fluid motion,
twisting the blade once to ensure its brain was destroyed. The girl
pulled her knife free and watched the Plagued drop. She stared at
its body, nudging it with the toe of her boot to make sure it
stayed dead. Once she was satisfied, she holstered the knife and
looked at her now empty hand.

“Gross,” she muttered before wiping her hand
on her pants. “Zombie goo.”

I couldn’t help the sputtering laugh that
escaped my lips.
I think I’m in love
. At least that was what
I was hoped for, until she swiveled around and pointed the gun at
my head.

I raised my hands reflexively, letting her
see that she wasn’t the only one armed and covered in Plagued
blood.

“Jeez, that’s harsh,” I complained. “Save my
life one minute then point a gun at me the next? That isn’t very
nice, sweetheart.”

The girl shrugged innocently, though her grip
on the Sig never wavered. “It’s a tough world, cupcake. I can worry
about being nice after I know I’m not going to be devoured or
stabbed.”

Oh yeah. I was definitely in love.

“Maddy!”

The girl’s head moved to profile, but she
never took her eyes off me. “Over here, Josh! I’m okay!”

I looked over the
girl’s– Maddy’s– shoulder as the rest of the humans
jogged over. I turned into a little boy who was meeting his
childhood heroes in the flesh. I couldn’t believe that there were
seven of them here. Aside from being a little thin and dirty, they
even looked healthy. Not all of them were dressed like a
survivalist biker chick, but the two other women and three men had
the same idea. Long sleeved shirts, form fitting jeans or cargo
pants, hiking boots, backpacks and messenger bags, and belts with
guns and knives.

The only person who stood out from their
group was the guy with the biggest gun I’d seen in six months. He
walked out of the crowd with the confident aura of a leader. He
looked like he was in his late twenties, and there was no doubt in
my mind that he’d been a pre-Tribulation soldier. He still wore his
sandy camouflage get up and his head was just starting to regrow
its light brown fuzz. The army guy’s steel blue eyes locked on mine
and surveyed me as a threat. When this guy frowned, he did it way
better than pretty little Maddy. He actually looked dangerous, and
if his muscles didn’t back him up, the AR-15 gripped in his hands
would do the trick.

“Was he bit?” Army Guy asked.

“He was not,” I replied.

Army Guy scowled. “Keep the gun on him. I’ll
go check.”

Maddy nodded once, and cupped the butt of the
gun with her free hand to steady her aim even more.

“Drop the blades,” Army Guy commanded.

“Aren’t you gonna say please?”

“No. And I’m not telling you twice.”

I sighed and let the machete and the knife
slip from my fingers. I took the second knife from my belt and
tossed it on the ground next to them. But was that good enough? Of
course not.

“Spread your legs, put your hands behind your
head, and turn around.”

I quirked an eyebrow at him. “You wanna spank
me or something? You’re not my type, Rambo.”

I should have seen his fist coming, but Army
Guy was faster than I anticipated. He slugged me square in the jaw,
wrenching my head to the side. My teeth sliced along my tongue so I
tasted blood.

“Keep pushing me, asshole.”

I spat the red saliva out and rubbed my jaw.
“Bet you say that to all the guys.”

His fist cocked back, and I shifted my weight
to the balls of my feet. The rarest, luckiest of strangers only get
to punch me once. Then my shots turned unlimited.

“Oh my God, can you guys quit the pissing
contest?”

Army Guy and I looked at Maddy. Her hands
were lowered, but she still held the gun. Her entire body was
slumped with impatience, and I couldn’t help but admire the way her
body curved.

“You, Machete Guy,” she pointed at me, “let
him check you to make sure you didn’t get bitten or scratched.
Yeah, you’d probably be rolling on the ground screaming right now,
but we need to be sure.” Maddy turned her attention to Army Guy.
“Josh, he’s the first new living person we’ve seen in months. Don’t
be a dick.”

Josh, formerly known as Army Guy, frowned but
listened to Maddy. He turned to me and waited. Amazingly, I did
most of what he asked earlier. I spread my feet shoulder length
apart and laced my arms behind my head. What is it about a tough,
gorgeous girl that turns guys like us into putty?

Josh patted me down quickly, enjoying it
about as much as I did. When he got down to my legs, I sighed.

“I save some lives and in return I get a gun
pointed at me, punched in the mouth, and an awkward groping.
Christmas came early.”

I didn’t turn my head, but I swore I saw
Maddy trying to hide a smirk. Josh finished the pat down and
stepped back. “You’re clean.”

I unlocked my hands from the back of my head.
“Thanks, Sherlock. I couldn’t have figured that out on my own.”

Josh bared his teeth like he was ready to rip
out my throat, then changed his mind and walked back to his Mickey
Mouse Club. Maddy put her Sig Saur back on her belt. The humans
behind her risked stepping closer. There was a balding,
forty-something man in dirty blue coveralls, a skinny,
ebony-skinned teenage boy with fuzzy black hair, a mousy red-haired
woman with thick rimmed glasses, a Hispanic man with the build of a
boxer, and a motherly woman whose hair was too gray for her age.
They stared at me like I was a tamed tiger. Look close and be
amazed, but don’t get too close. He might have missed his afternoon
snack.

“So,” said Josh, standing just in front of
Maddy and folding his arms defensively. “Who the hell are you, and
what are you doing here?”

One of those questions was easy. “Name’s
Avery,” I told them.

The second question… Well, that was a little
more challenging. It wasn’t as if I could tell them I was the
destroyer of their world and I was about to take up demon hunting
as a hobby. But I wanted them to trust me, and more than that, I
needed to convince Simon that these people were worth saving.
Keeping them alive meant Ciaran wouldn’t be able to dominate the
world or whatever the hell he planned on doing. Even if they were
being as friendly as rattlesnakes.

“I’m hiding out with my brother. He’s locked
the place down. You’ll be safe here. There’s tons of rooms.” I
looked at Josh. “We don’t have to be neighbors, even. I promise I
won’t knock on your door asking for sugar.”

The mousy redhead practically drooled when I
mentioned ‘sugar.’ They all looked a little hungry, actually. Even
tough guy Josh and his sexy sidekick Maddy. I glanced over their
heads and got a better look at the school bus they’d been driving.
It looked like the Magic School Bus, if the Magic School Bus had
been learning a lesson about the human digestive system during a
severe case of food poisoning. Patchy brown stains covered the
already rusting yellow metal. The cracked windows were boarded up
with chicken wire and strips of sheet metal. The hubcaps looked as
reliable as tinfoil, and there was some kind of sludge leaking out
from the exhaust pipe. That was probably why they stopped. The
Magic School Bus needed a tune-up in the middle of the
Apocalypse.

“Looks like ol’ Rusty there needs some love,”
I commented. “But you guys are probably too hungry and worn out to
do anything tonight, right?”

“We can sleep on the bus,” Josh proclaimed.
“We’ve done it before, and we have food.”

“Yeah, but when was the last time you slept
in a real bed? Or had semi-decent food? My brother’s a hoarder, and
he’s got a deluxe suite. I’m sure he could find something that
isn’t growing fungus and find a way to cook an actual meal for you
all.”

Almost everyone, even Maddy, was cracking at
the mere thought of a good night’s sleep. Josh stood there with his
arms crossed and his eyebrows pinched.

“No. We don’t need your help.”

Wow. Talk about a tough customer.

“Josh,” tried the skinny kid. His arms were
wrapped around his stomach. Underneath his heavy clothes, I got an
idea of how thin he was. “Come on, man. We can’t fix the bus
tonight. We should go inside.”

Josh turned his head to the side, as Maddy
had done earlier so he could look at the kid, but keep his eyes on
me. “I’m not putting our lives in the hands of this guy just
because he’s making promises.”

“But Josh, what if this is the place?” That
was from the motherly woman.

“It’s not.”

“But maybe they know about it,” Maddy
pressed. Josh looked down at her. “Theo’s right about the bus. We
can’t go any further tonight.” She leaned closer to whisper in his
ear.

I tried to listen in, but something else
caught my attention. A low hissing growl in the distance. I turned
around and glared at the darkness, daring for the sound to come
again.

It did, and this time it was loud enough for
the humans to hear. Some of them whimpered and gasped. Maddy took
out her Sig and Josh raised his rifle. I picked up my machete and
knives, holstering the KA-BARs and gripping the longer blade.

“This way,” I told the humans. I knew I could
run and not have to wait for them to catch up with me. I reached
the front door to the suites and was about to open it when a hand
slammed it shut. I followed the hand to see Josh pinning the door
in place.

“Are you serious?” I asked, not sure if he
really was.

Josh held the door in place and gave me his
fiercest glare yet.

“Do anything to hurt these people, and the
only pieces left of you will be what I throw to the Plagued for
chum.”

The man did know how to make a threat.
“Noted. Now why don’t we get the fuck inside?”

Josh pulled his hand back and turned,
sweeping up his rifle like a pro. The Soulless screamed as I yanked
open the door. I held it open and ushered the humans inside. Maddy
and Josh were the last ones to enter before me. As I swung into the
apartment building and closed the door, I saw humanoid shapes
darting through the ruined hedges. I didn’t know if the Soulless
had seen us, but I was willing to place my bets on their side.

I locked the door and stepped back. The
humans breathed heavily and nervously behind me. I heard a few
stomachs growl.

Simon was going to kill me.

“You asshole! I should have left you in the
pool to get eaten!”

Simon was righteously pissed. Before we
trudged up the stairs, we looked around the service areas for
anything heavy to barricade the doors with. I wasn’t sure the
cleaning cart and metal shelf combo would block off the doors from
the Soulless, but they seemed to hold okay. I didn’t know how many
were out there, but they’d pull back when they realized they
couldn’t get in.

I hoped.

Simon thought otherwise, of course, and now
he wasn’t keen on letting us back into the penthouse.

I stood with my foot in the door, holding it
open with one hand while the humans huddled behind me.

“Chill out, Sime. The Soulless will get
hungry and fuck off soon. They’re not going to stick around long
and you don’t have to give them all your food.”

“That’s not what this is about and you
fucking know it, Avery!”

He had me there. After our conversation
earlier tonight, he was probably thinking that this pack of humans
were the blood that would lead the sharks to dinner. He wasn’t
entirely wrong.

“Send them back outside,” Simon ordered. “And
you can go with them. I never should have let you in. I was safer
on my own.”

He shoved the door hard, planning to smash my
foot and break a couple of my fingers. He put in more strength than
I expected. But I was still stronger than he was. I dug my fingers
into the door and yanked it open. Simon’s hand slipped, and
suddenly he wasn’t holding onto anything.