Resurrection (Eden Book 3) (23 page)

“Come on, you sons of bitches,” Evan peered into the darkening shadows between trees.

“How many magazines does everybody have left?” Riley asked.

“Two,” said Anthony and Troi said “three.”

Evan lied. “I’ve got ten.” He looked at Riley and whispered, “You wanted us to lie, right? In case they’re listening?”

…
click
…
click
…
click
…

“They’re not close enough to hear us.” Riley noted the time between Anthony’s Geiger meter’s readouts.

As if to belie her words a devilish laugh broke from the trees in the distance—

“What is that?” Troi jumped back.

—and was joined by a second, and then a third and a fourth cackle, an unearthly cachinnation that raised the hairs on their respective necks.

“What is that!?” Troi shouted again before firing a third magazine into the trees.

“Troi! Stop it!” Riley pushed the woman. The laughter had stopped as abruptly as it’d started.

“Move,” Evan hissed.

They ran.

“Stick together!” Riley was in the lead and called back. “Anthony, closer to me!”

“You get closer to me.”

“Troi!” Evan brought up the rear. “
Do not
shoot. You hear me? Don’t shoot again. You’ll shoot me.”

“I won’t. I won’t shoot.”

“Dammit!” Evan slapped himself in the forehead as they jogged.

“What is it?” asked Troi.

“I left Bertha—I left the grenade launcher back by the rock.”

“Forget it,” Anthony called to him.

Riley moved as fast as she could while scanning the way ahead. Who knew where the mutants were, how many of them there were, or what they had planned for her and her brother and friends. Part of her wanted to fire into the trees like Troi had, like they all had earlier, but she knew that’s
exactly
what the things in the woods wanted her to do. Because once they had spent all their ammunition, they would be completely vulnerable. Judging by the size of the things at the farmhouse, Riley wasn’t so certain how well her taekwondo would fare against whatever was in the woods with them.

“Look, Riley. I’m just—if we don’t—”

“Shut up, Anthony. Just shut up and keep running.”

“I’m kind of glad…” Troi huffed as she ran. “…that Krieger isn’t around…for this.”

“Are you kidding?” Evan replied. “He wouldn’t have let us…wouldn’t have let us walk into that.”

The trees ended at the base of a vertical rock face. The rock reached up above their heads several meters.

“Drop your guns!”

Two men and a woman with chop sticks in her short, red hair stood looking down at them. They had guns aimed at the four friends.

“Don’t shoot us!” Troi pled, hands on her knees.

“We can’t…” Riley managed between pants. “…we can’t put our guns down!”

“We’re being chay…we’re being chased!” gasped Evan.

“Okay then,” said one of the men. “
Don’t
drop your guns.”

“Who are you?” asked the other man.

“Please…you gotta help us,” Troi was nearly crying.

“Lower your weapons at least, all right?” said the first man. “Look, I’m lowering mine.”

“Okay…okay…” Riley pressed her hand palm-down in the air and she, her brother, Troi, and Evan all lowered the barrels of their M7s.

The woman on the rock was still drawing down on the four of them.

“Red, come on,” said Keith. “Lower your gun.”

“I’m not lowering my gun.”

“Who’s chasing you?” David called to the people below.

“They’re out there!” cried Troi.

“They’re going to kill us!” seconded Anthony.

“
Who
?” Keith was intrigued.

“They’re—” Riley looked for the right word. “…they’re monsters or something.”

Keith looked at David and David looked at Keith, and then they both looked at Red. Little Red lowered her Noveske N4.

“Cosmo.” Keith nodded his head as he said the name.

“What? You know them?” Riley stared up at the three. She and her friends looked even more frightened.

“Yeah, we know them—but they’re no friends to us.”

“You better get yourselves up here,” said David. He disappeared for a moment, and then a rope dropped down to them. “Up then.”

They clambered up the rocks one at a time to where Red, David, and Keith waited. Each introduced themselves to the others as they gained the top of the rocks then turned to watch expectantly as the next of their friends ascended.

Evan was the last up, and he half expected to feel one of the mutant things wrap its hand around his boot and yank him down off the rope to his death among its freak brethren. But he made it to the top unmolested.

David pulled the rope up after Evan.

Keith cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to the forest below. “Cosmo! Hey, Cosmo!”

There was no response, and then a lone figure came out of the trees and walked into the open.

“Cosmo—that you?” Keith squinted.

“Yeah.” It was darkening, but the thing who answered looked like a normal-sized man. He didn’t look like either of the things at the house and barn. “And who’s you?”

“It’s me, Cos. Keith.”

“Keith who?”

“Keith Carradine. And my brother, David. You remember David, don’t you? And lil’ Red.”

“Oh. Red’s there?”

“She is.” Keith glanced over his shoulder to Red. “Want to say hi?”

“No.”

“Keep that bitch away from me,” the man Keith referred to as Cosmo warned.

“Cosmo, now why are you chasing these people?”

“They killed Chilly and Guntag. Winslow too.”

“They killed Chilly and Guntag?” Keith mulled it over. “And Winslow too. Damn, Cosmo. Why’d they do that?”

“I don’t know. Ask ‘em yourselves.”

Keith turned to look at the four new comers. “I think I know the answer, but humor me, here, all right? Why’d you go and kill Chilly and Guntag and Winslow?”

“Because that fre—” Riley caught herself “They came after us with a power saw.”

“They were going to kill us and eat us,” said Anthony.

“They killed a bunch of people,” said Evan.

“They wouldn’t have eaten you,” replied Keith. “All the other stuff—
yeah
. Cosmo,” He turned back to address the man below. “They said Chilly and Guntag were going to try and kill them.”

“Yeah, well, be that as it may they killed my kin. They ruined my house. And little Winslow never really hurt nobody.”

“So…” Keith called back. He paused, looking at the four friends, winking at them, turning back to the man. “What do you suggest we do about that?”

“Send ‘em down to us.”

The four friends shifted, fretful and disquieted, looking from each other to the two brothers and the diminutive red haired woman.

“You know I can’t do that, Cosmo.”

“I knew you’d say that. Damn you, Carradine.”

“Right. Listen, Cos. They’re ours now, okay?” Keith looked over his shoulder at the four again after he’d said this. The word “ours” evoked uneasy glances among the friends. He mouthed “It’s okay” before giving his attention to Cosmo again. “They’re with us now.”

“It’s okay,” repeated David, loud enough for only the four to hear him.

Cosmo did not sound happy. “And I knew you’d say that, too.”

The man was not alone down there any longer. A larger, sinister form, similar in size and girth to the thing that had come out of the house, was between two trees where they could see it. Twilight shadowed most of its body but they could all discern its fat nose, the expansive slab of forehead hanging heavy over its eyes, and its enormous ears. In one hand it held an improvised club, a rounded trunk of wood with rusty nails driven through it. Its other hand gripped something that it had pressed down to its crotch.

“What are they?” Troi whispered so only those on the bluff could hear her.

“Mutant family Robinson,” Little Red quipped a little too loud.

“Red,” said David.

“Hey, Red.” Cosmo addressed her. “You want to come on down and play with the boys?”

“No.”

“Show her what we’re playing with, Cletus.”

The thing named Cletus lifted its hand away from its groin and showed them the severed male human head it gripped by the hair. An enormous, engorged penis jutted from its overalls.

“That’s
that
guy!” said Evan.

Troi looked away.

“Oh…” said Anthony.

Guffaws and hyena-like laughs echoed out of the trees below.

“How many of them are there?” Riley asked quietly.

“Who knows?” answered David. “They breed like rabbits.”

“Now you know how we feel about that sort of thing, Cosmo,” said Keith.

Cletus, laughing, fitted the head to his swollen member again.

“Say hello to Mergatroid,” said Cosmo.

Another creature stepped into view. Huge like the other, this one was distinctly female and wore some kind of dress made out of canvas. In her enormous hands, she clasped Bertha. The Hawk MM1 grenade launcher looked minuscule against her gigantic frame.

“Damn!” Ev blurted when he saw the weapon.

“Hello, Mergatroid,” acknowledged Keith. “Damn, you got big, girl.”

“Didn’t she?” Cosmo sounded proud. “You know, we’ve done good, avoiding trouble between us and Thomas and you. Now why’d you want to go and ruin that?”

“I’m not.” Keith’s voice was firm. “And I am sorry to hear about Winslow and Chilly. Guntag too.”

“Look at that one…” Troi pointed as Mergatroid raised its dress and let loose a stream of thick, noxious urine that steamed in the evening air.

“Man, that thing has a small pecker,” said Evan, thinking of the possible side effects of too much radiation on the genome.

“That’s not a dick,” announced Red. “That’s her clit.”

“Winslow wasn’t even but three,” Cosmo lamented. “Just send ‘em down to us, Keith.”

“No can do.” He spoke over his shoulder. “Get them out of here.”

“Follow us.” David said to the four. “Red.” Little Red ignored him.

Anthony, Riley, Evan, and Troi followed David away.

“You know what this means,
right
?” Cosmo yelled up to Keith. Another of Cosmo’s monstrous children had stepped out into the open. It clutched an undead about the neck. The zombie shook in place, spasmodically.

“What? Some Hatfield and McCoy bullshit? Come on Cos…”

Red stepped forward to the edge, next to Keith, and before he could react she opened fire with her N4, spraying the ground around Cosmo. The man didn’t flinch. He stood there until Red had fired out the three hundred round drum magazine.

A deep, guttural sound of hostility emitted from the acromegalic thing gripping the zombie.

“Easy, Cleetus,” Cosmo said.

“Oh, Red…” Keith blew out his breath.

“That was a stupid thing you did,” said Cosmo. “Shooting at me like that. Even stupider thing is you didn’t kill me.”

“I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

Mergatroid and Cletus had faded back somewhere among the trees and dark.

“You go back and tell Thomas,” said Cosmo. “You tell him the peace between us is over. And you be honest, and you tell him you fired on us first.”

“You go home and fuck your wife or sister or daughter,” shouted Red, “or whatever she is.”

“You’ll regret you said that,” promised Cosmo.

A roar preceded a circular object that flew out of the trees and landed at Keith and Red’s feet. It was the human head Cletus had been sodomizing.

“Now why’d you go and do that, Cletus?” Cosmo was walking calmly back to the trees. Red looked down at the head and considered kicking it back down at them.

“Your brothers weren’t done playing with that yet.”

She decided against it.

“Ma’m? May I sit?”

Gwen looked up from her table in the hospital cafeteria. A young woman in uniform was standing next to her table, looking down at her expectantly, not unfriendly. She had her leather visored hat under her arm.

“Go ahead.” Gwen turned one bony hand up in assent.

“Thank you.”

The woman settled into the seat across from Gwen. There were only a few other people in the cafeteria at this time in the evening. A nurse sat smoking a smoke-less cigarette as she read a print magazine on her break. There was the occasional muted clang from the kitchen.

“My name is Weigand.” She placed her hat on the table. “I’m a lieutenant in the Department of Public Security.”

“You’re here about the zombie,” Gwen cut through the small talk, “is that it?”

“Well,
yes
.” Lieutenant Weigand looked momentarily befuddled. “You’ll have to forgive me. This is all so…odd to me. I don’t really know how to proceed.”

“Just proceed, Lieutenant.” An untouched cup of coffee had stopped steaming in front of Gwen.

“You can’t keep doing what you’re doing to the zombie, ma’am.” Gwen thought the woman looked uncomfortable telling her this.

“Because?”

“Because the Zed is property of the state, ma’am. Same way you couldn’t deface a bus or train. We can’t have you going and chopping parts off our undead.”

“
Our
undead?”

“I think you understand me, ma’am.”

“It’s all he’ll eat.”

“That’s…” Lieutenant Weigand was at a loss for words. Of course she knew what Gwen was doing with the limbs she cut off from the zombie outside the hospital, but Weigand couldn’t believe she was having a rational conversation about it. “That’s unfortunate. The doctors are working to find—”

“The doctor’s aren’t going to find shit. Pardon my French. Mickey survived out there, all those years, by eating what he did.”

“Of course your friends’ presence has led to all sorts of interest in the latent preservative properties of the undead—”

“Of course.”

“Ma’am, I’m sorry. Try to see this from my point of view. It’s absurd that I’m sitting here having this conversation with you.”

“That I agree with.”

“Obviously you’ve got your own concerns,” Weigand ventured, and Gwen remained silent because the lieutenant was correct in her assessment. “So let me say my peace and I’ll leave you be. You can’t go doing what you’ve been doing anymore. We’re going to be stationing an officer outside with the zombie—”