Resurrection (Eden Book 3) (31 page)

She skirted the edge, passing the pitfall. As gently as she could, she lay her brother down. She’d wanted to collapse and lie there next to him, but she forced herself back to her feet and returned the few meters to the pit, staring down into it, straining to make anything out in the dark.

There was a zombie down there. Riley could hear it. She couldn’t really see the thing, but there was motion down in the pit. Satisfied that the fiend couldn’t climb out of its hole, Riley returned to her brother. Before she sat down next to him, she searched the ground around them with her palms for something she could use as a weapon if she had to.

Her hands settled on a rock. It felt good in her hand, and Riley thought she could either use it to throw a punch or—if she had to—she could pitch the rock itself if someone got close. She didn’t want to have to throw it, because Riley didn’t know if her aim was accurate enough.

She had sat down beside her brother, her upper body naked save for her bra. Her skin was drawn in goose flesh from the chill of the evening air. Her shirt had been ripped in pieces and tied around Anthony’s wounds. His bleeding had slowed but hadn’t stopped. It seeped from his bindings and onto the ground under them.

Riley didn’t want to move Anthony again, because she knew each time she did it hurt him. Yet she took the chance, and gently raised his head as she slid under him, resting his curly hair on her legs.

“I never thought I’d actually die, not out here, Rye.”

“Don’t talk like that, Anthony.”

“It’s okay. I’m not scared.” He didn’t sound like he was.

“You’re not scared?” That was good, Riley thought. But
she
was, and she told him so.

“Don’t be scared. You’re the tough one.”

“Would you stop with that already—
please
?”

“I love you sis…” Anthony smiled up at her. He was failing. “I wanted to say…thank you…”

“You don’t have to thank me.” She didn’t want it to be like this. She should be the one lying there with him comforting her.

“Yes…I do. Thanks for coming with me…You were right. This was a crazy idea.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Sure it was.” Anthony’s grin looked too big for his face. “And thanks for always being a good big sister to me.” His breathing grew shallow, ragged. “You’re the best.”

“You’re the best too, little brother.”

Anthony smiled at that. He looked serene. Riley stared down into his hazel eyes and he looked up into her blue ones.

“You wanted to…” Anthony sounded like he was in some distant place. “…you wanted to tell me something before…”

“Huh?”

“You said…something to tell me…”

“Oh yeah, that. Forget it. It doesn’t matter anymore. Stay here with me, Ant.”

Riley brushed her brother’s forehead gently, blinking back the tears that threatened to flood down her cheeks.

“Where…where’s my hat?”

“I have it right here.”

“You never…liked that hat.”

“No, I never did.” Riley cried

“Rye…in the morning…we’ve got to get out of here…first thing.”

“First thing, Anthony. Yes.”

“First thing…”

“Stay here with me, Anthony. Stay here with me.”

The zombie in the pit made a noise, and Riley looked up into the dark. There was enough light from the stars that she could make out the hole, and she could see that the zombie had not climbed out of it or done anything she needed to worry about. The thing was stuck down there, waiting.

She looked back to her brother, and though Anthony continued to stare up at her, the life had gone from his green eyes. His mouth hung slack.

“Oh Anthony…oh Anthony…brother…” Riley shuddered, hanging her head. Her tears ran down her face and dropped onto his. “…my little brother…Anthony…”

She sat there and cried for some time. Over in the pit, the impatient zombie groaned.

“Thomas, maybe we should wait?” Dalton asked hesitantly. Dalton knew Thomas. Thomas wasn’t going “to wait” for Tommy or Red, or for any of the others to catch up to them, wherever the hell they all were out here.

Dalton and the old man stood staring across the distance separating them from the woman and her brother. She was weeping and shivering, sitting in the dirt in her bra, cradling her brother in her arms. Judging by the look of the brother, he was gone. They must have been out here all night like this, Dalton thought, the woman freezing half naked and her dead brother.

Between Thomas and Dalton and their prey loomed one of the pits. The faint sounds of an excited zombie emanated from it. The woman hadn’t seen them yet.

“Hold on.” Dalton pulled back tightly on the chain securing the muzzled zombie. Blood was in the air. The beast was excited.

The old man aimed his rifle at the sky and fired off a round. The woman looked up at that.

Thomas considered the woman there with her brother and shook his head. “Nah.” Thomas ratcheted the finger lever, the empty shell ejecting from the weapon. “Let’s go put her out of her misery.”

Dalton reluctantly followed the old man. As they walked, Thomas tucked the Winchester under one arm and lit up a hand rolled clove cigarette.

Riley looked up as Thomas and Dalton approached her. Her face was crusted with dried tears and mucus. Anthony’s head rested in her lap. Locks of his hair were pasted to his forehead from dried sweat. There were smears of blood on his cheeks. His own blood, from where Riley had caressed his face.

She gripped his beanie in both hands. Riley pressed the hat to her face. It still smelled like Anthony.

“You did good…” Thomas said as he and Dalton got closer.

The zombie on the chain was frantic, and it took all Dalton had to keep it from bolting forward.

Riley forced herself to wait.

“
Whoa
,” Dalton growled at his zombie.

“You did real good. You were this close…” The old man held up a thumb and forefinger, an inch apart. “This close to winning the game.”

Wait.

They were almost on her. Thomas had the barrel of the Winchester resting in the crook of one arm. He drew on his cigarette and exhaled.

It sounded like the undead down in the pit was bouncing off the walls below.

Wait.

“You should be proud of yourself.”

They had come around the pit, closer to Riley than they ever should have allowed themselves.

Now
.

Riley drew one arm back and whipped it forward, the rock she’d gripped in her hand under Anthony’s hat hurtling across the two meters between them, catching Thomas in the forehead. The old man dropped his rifle and the cigarette fell out of his mouth. His hands reached up to his skull.

“Wait! Thomas—
goddammit
!”

Dalton watched the rock bounce off Thomas’ head, saw the girl spring forward, rushing towards
him
. Dalton dropped the chain, letting the zombie loose, raising his submachine gun. Before he could bring it up to fire, Riley was on him, driving the palm of her hand into his chin, snapping his head back. She drove the knuckles of her other hand into his throat, crushing his windpipe. Dalton clutched at his throat, unable to breath.

The zombie, loosed from Dalton’s grip, went for Thomas. The old man couldn’t see through the blood pouring down his face. The muzzle was in place, so the undead couldn’t bite Thomas, but it wrapped its arms and legs around him.

Riley’s left foot snapped out and Dalton went down, gagging. She tore the submachine gun out of Dalton’s hands and threw it off into the trees.

“
You
did good,
you fuck
!” Riley screamed at Thomas through her tears. She picked up the chain the zombie was trailing and walked over to the old man and the undead clinging to him. “
You
should be
proud
of yourself!”

Thomas, blinded with his own blood, struggled against the undead. Riley circled around them, wrapping both with the chain. She proceeded to drag the two of them towards the pit.

Riley reached around to the back of the zombie’s head and loosed the muzzle. It came off the beast’s face and the creature immediately sank its teeth into the old man. Thomas cursed.

Dalton’s face was purple. He reached out with one hand from his side.

“You should be
real proud
of yourself!” Riley placed the sole of her foot against the zombie’s back and pushed it and Thomas off into the pit. The look on the man’s face as he went over…The creature already in the hole roared in excitement, and then quieted as it joined in the feeding frenzy.

Riley stood on the lip of the pitfall for a minute and watched the old, blinded man tussle with the zombies as the undead rent his flesh. She snorted and turned back to Dalton.

He was choking to death on his back. Riley didn’t give him the chance. She lined her foot up over his face—Dalton’s eyes widened even farther—and stomped the sole of her boot up and down until her leg tired. Dalton’s head was reduced to a bloody pulp.

Riley walked to her brother’s body.

“Dalton…”

When Red and Tommy and the others got to the pit, she
knew
. She knew without looking into the pit what they would find. The body of the guy—the girl’s brother—lay there. Dalton lay there. She could tell it was Dalton because she had lived in the same camp as the man for years, and because his knit cap and beard were discernable amid the ruin of his face. Dalton’s shirt and jacket were gone. Zombie noises came from the pit.

“Tommy, don’t—”

But it was too late. Tommy had already stared into the hole in the ground. He stepped back and went down on one knee, a hand on his forehead.

One by one, MacKenzie, Rodriguez, and the others approached the pit and looked down on what was inside. The old man hadn’t reanimated. There hadn’t been enough left of him.

Red scrunched her nose and looked down. She bent over and stood up, a cigarette between her thumb and forefinger. It was still smoldering.

“Tommy…” She didn’t know what to say to him.

“Dah? Dah?” Merv stared down into the pit.

“Get back from there, kid,” Keith ushered the boy away.

Gammon caught up to them. He saw the looks on their faces and started shaking his own head as he approached the hole. He looked down into it, and then went to Tommy, kneeling down beside him.

“It’s okay, son. It’ll be okay.”

Tommy cried silently.

“Dah! Dah!” Merv called out in anguish.

“Shhh, Merv, shhh,” Keith consoled. “It’ll be okay, kid. It’ll be okay.”

Moans rose out of the ground.

“Would someone take care of them?” Red indicated the pit and the two zombies in it.

MacKenzie stepped forward and aimed down into the hole. He fired repeatedly until the noises in the pit ceased.

“Well…” It hurt Gammon to say it. “That’s that then.”

Tommy looked at him. “What do you mean,
that’s
that?”

“She got away.”

“She
didn’t
get away.”

“Tommy…” Gammon said coolly. “You heard what your daddy told those people. And your daddy was nothing—look at me, Tommy,” Gammon said it quietly but firmly, “…your daddy was
nothing
if he
wasn’t
a man of his word. Right?”

Gammon looked towards Red, expecting her to second his words. Red didn’t say a thing.

“Well, I’m
not
my daddy. I’m gonna find that son of a bitch, and I’m gonna kill her.”

“Tommy—”

“She killed my daddy, Ed! That’s my daddy down in that pit! What’s left of him. Or didn’t you notice?”

“Red?” Gammon looked to her.

“Whatever Tommy decides, I’m with Tommy.”

“Dammit.” Gammon looked to others. “Keith? David?”

“We’re with Red and Tommy.” Keith had his arm around Merv’s shoulders as the child sobbed.

“Thomas was good to us,” added David.

“Tobi? Frankie? Chang?” Gammon didn’t bother to ask MacKenzie and Rodriguez. He figured Mac would be with Red, and Rodriguez would go along wherever Mac was going.

“I’m of a mind to agree with the brothers here,” said Frankie.

Tobias seconded him. “Me too.”

“This is crazy,” said Chang. “That woman is out there somewhere…”

“You got no heart for this,” Rodriguez said to Gammon. “You can go home, old man.”

“Yeah,” agreed Tobi. “No one will think less of you.”

“…she could be watching us right now,” finished Chang.

As if to confirm his words a shot rang out, and Keith’s hand went up to his shoulder as he stumbled back, away from Merv. “Ow shit! I’m hit!”

“Down! Down!” Rodriguez screamed, firing his H&K blindly into the trees.

David pushed his brother back towards the rocks and didn’t look up until they were safely behind them. Everyone had found cover except for Rodriguez, Tommy, Merv and Red. Tommy stood next to Rodriguez, joining him in firing indiscriminately at everything and nothing.

“Where is she?” someone called out over the gunfire.

“Tommy!
Move
!” Red physically pushed Tommy back towards the rocks, forcing him down.

“Red, get the fu—”

A second shot rang out and a tuft of ground exploded into a mist of dust, causing Rodriguez to duck and roll away.

“Where’s she shooting from?”

“She must have Thomas’ rifle!” yelled Chang.

“
Bitch
!” Tommy strained against Red. “Show yourself! Show your fucking self!”

By the time the third shot rang out, Merv clutched his stomach, sagging over.

“Merv!”

“No, Merv!”

Merv pulled his hand away from his midsection and looked down at it. The boy’s hand was slick with red. “Dah!” he started to cry out. “Dah!”

“Merv! Get down!”

“Tommy—
stay
—
down
!” Red was using all her strength to hold him back, to keep him from dashing out to his brother.

“Merv!” MacKenzie stepped out from behind the tree he had pressed himself against. He stepped forward to get to the wounded boy when a bullet slammed into the trunk, shards of bark exploding. “Shit!” MacKenzie ducked back behind the tree.

“Merv!” David called out to the kid.