The Hunger (Book 2): Consumed (17 page)

“Our plan didn’t exactly work out.”

“No shit.  Yinz plan was pretty stupid.  Now, where is the doc?”

Brown stepped forward.  “Are you looking for me?”

“Are you a doctor?”  Nathaniel lifted his camouflage baseball cap from his head.

“I am.”

“Good.  I’ve got a sick baby.  I need your help.”

Brown stood up a little straighter.  He grimaced as he adjusted his wounded shoulder.  Contusions and cuts covered his face and hands, but his eyes looked alive again.  “Where?”

“Down the road a piece.  We ain’t gettin’ there tonight though.  Goddamn vampires are out in full force cause of Greensburg.”

“What about Greensburg?” Eifort asked.

“Yinz haven’t heard?  It went down last night.  Gone.  People is scattered everywhere.”

Brown grimaced.  He palmed his face with his good hand, shaking his head.  Eifort wrapped her arms around him.

Lance extended a hand toward Nathaniel.  “I don’t know what made you follow us, but thank God you did.”

“I had a feelin’ the two of you were comin’ in here half-cocked.”  He gave Lance a small smile and grabbed his hand, giving it two quick pumps.

“Who are the rest of these guys?”

“Friends of mine.  Preppers like me, I guess you city folk would call ‘em.  They hate that piece of shit Ralph just as much as I do.  When I told ‘em what you were tryin’ to do with taking out Ralph and all, they jumped at the opportunity.”

“We owe you a beer or fifty.”  Cass wiped the blood coming from her nose again.  Her swollen eye was growing darker by the second.

“To be honest, we wasn’t planning on takin’ everyone out.  Hell, we didn’t think it was possible.  Soon as we saw Ralph and half his goons wasn’t here, we made a play.”

One of the men by the house whistled.  Nathaniel looked over and gave him a nod.  “I’m needed.  Stay away from these shot assholes—we’ll take care of ‘em.”

He jogged away, moving with agility that surprised Lance considering his age.

Cass wrapped her other arm around Lance and hugged him softly, not squeezing because of his ribs.  “What the hell happened to you?  You look like shit.”

“Oh, you know, the usual.  I was thrown in a pit of daywalkers and had to fistfight the asshole who blew up our boat.”

“Is that all?”

“Just another day at the office.”

To Lance’s surprise, Eifort came over and hugged him as well, though she wasn’t quite as easy on his ribs as he would have liked.  She released him and squeezed Cass as well.

“You came for us.”  Her eyes were watery as she stepped back and took Brown’s hand in her own.  “I thought we’d never see you again.”

“Of course we followed you,” Cass said.  “We damn near lost you because we had to take care of those guys at the farm, but we managed.”

“And almost got yourself torn in half,” Brown said, inspecting Lance’s battered torso.  “I need to examine you for internal injuries.”

Lance tried to grin, but his face hurt too much.  “It’s been a shitty fucking day.”

––––––––

L
ance sat at the table and watched as Brown inspected the damage to Cass’ face.

After Nathaniel’s men ensured the cabin was safe, they’d moved inside.  Nathaniel stayed outside, taking care of the rest of the guards and the other assorted scumbags.

Now they waited their turns as Brown probed their injuries.

Lance wasn’t sure how he would hide the bite mark from the doc, but he wasn’t ready to tell everyone about his situation yet.  He still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that he only had a limited amount of time left to live.  The idea of telling Cass that he would become a Vladdie soon made a lump form in his throat.

Eifort, who was relatively healthy compared to the rest of them, stood guard by the back door with an M4 given to her by one of Nathaniel’s friends.

“You might have a fractured orbital,” Brown told Cass as he looked over her swollen eye.  “Who did this to you?”

“Tony.  It’s OK though—we’re even now.”

“I’d say you’re a little more than even.”  Lance gave her a painful smile.  He kept his wounded arm under the table so no one could see the teeth marks on his skin.  “How did they catch you anyway?”

“Remember how I was going to go into the garage and sabotage the generators?  Yeah, that didn’t work.”

“No shit.”

“I was in there screwing around with their setup, which is pretty damn impressive by the way, when that militant piece of shit walked in.  I couldn’t use the axe or the bow because I was in a tight space, trying to tear some cabling out.  He gave me a punch that would have knocked bricks out of a wall.”  She pointed at her eye.  “Hence the shiner from hell.  He gave me a few other shots, but I was still loopy from the first so they didn’t hurt too bad.”

“How do you feel?” Brown asked her.

“Like I got superman punched in the face.”

“Any nausea or dizziness?”

“I’m not dizzy, but I have been nauseous for a few days.  I think I’ve got a cold or something.”

Lance popped his mouth open and tried to look shocked.  “And you’ve been having sex with me?  Great, now I have cooties.”

“You’re such a dumbass.”

“You might have a concussion.” Brown hissed as he stood up out of his chair and went over to a refrigerator.  He opened the freezer atop it and pulled out a few ice cubes.  Grabbing a dishcloth from the sink, he wrapped the ice in it.

Lance never thought he would see man-made ice again.  He marveled at the fact that they had a semblance of normal life here still. Or, rather, they would have if the leadership hadn’t been so insane.

A running refrigerator was akin to magic compared with the lifestyle Lance was now accustomed to.

The doc handed the makeshift ice pack to Cass and told her to hold it against her eye.  He turned his attention to Lance. “OK, let’s see what we have going on here.”

“I’m fine.  Take care of everyone else first.”  Lance shifted in his seat, but kept his arm hidden.  “Honestly, I’m feeling better already.”

That was a lie.  His body ached so badly that he felt like he’d been in a car accident.

“Don’t make me have Cass hold you down.”  Brown walked behind him and began manipulating his ribs.

Lance sucked in a sharp breath through clenched teeth.  The doc didn’t have the gentlest touch.

“Hurt?” Brown asked.

“What was your first clue?”

Cass held the ice to her swollen eye, looking at Lance with the other.  “Tell me what happened with you?  You were
supposed
to check out the back of the cabin.”

“I did, but then I overheard them talking about another place further into the woods.  I went back there to check it out and that’s when I ran into that piece of shit who blew up our boat.”

“But you said you had to fight off daywalkers?  Where?”

“They have a pit back there with a handful of the infected in it.  They were feeding them a dead body.”

“
What?
”

Brown stopped examining his ribs.  “Yeah, say that again?  Why would they do that?”

“No idea.  There were a lot of bones in there too.  This wasn’t the first time.  Not even close.”  Lance lowered his eyes, staring at a notch in the wooden table.  “And Don, my wife’s boyfriend or whatever, was one of the infected.”

“Are you sure?” Cass asked.

“Yeah.  It was him.”

“Was Liz in there too?”

“I’m not sure.”  He recalled the appearances of the other daywalkers.  “I don’t think so.”

“Maybe she’s here.”

Lance thought he should go look through the crowd outside for her, but he didn’t think he had the energy to do it just yet.

Brown took his pulse.  “I think you’re all right.  Some bruising and cuts, but I don’t think you have any broken ribs.”

If you only knew,
Lance thought.

“So why were they keeping a few of the infected as pets?” Cass asked.

Lance turned around and called for Eifort.  She appeared at the door of the kitchen a moment later.

“What’s up?”

“Do me a favor—go outside and ask around for a piece of shit named Mullins. If he’s still alive, bring him in here so we can ask him some questions.  Get Nathaniel in here too—he’ll want to hear this.”

“On it.”  Eifort disappeared into the next room.

They heard the back door slam shut a moment later.

A few shrieks from Vladdies roaming the forest were audible over the electric hum of the kitchen appliances.

Lance hadn’t realized just how much noise used to surround a person all the time.  Music and cars and just the general buzz of everyday life had been automatically tuned out by everyone.  Now that all of that was gone, Lance noticed how loud a regular old refrigerator was.

“What happened to the man who blew up the Duchess?” Brown asked.  He took bandages he’d found in the bathroom and began wrapping the nicks and scrapes on his hands and arms.

“I scuttled him.”

Cass shook her head.  “Jesus, you’re so lame.”

“I thought that was pretty clever.”  Lance shrugged.  “He’s at the bottom of the pit with my baseball bat nailed to his back.”

“Good.”  Brown put a Band-Aid on one of his knuckles.

“How much did you learn about what was going on around here, Doc?  I heard something about them assigning mates to different women?”  Lance asked.  “That sounds terrible.”

“That’s because it is.”  Brown took a deep breath.  “Ralph sees women as a means to an end.  They’re for breeding and morale.  That’s it.”

Cass mouth dropped open.  “Say what?”

“Repopulation is one of his top priorities.  According to Tony, Ralph wanted women having babies nonstop.  Those who couldn’t conceive, or wouldn’t, were disposed of.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if they were taken to the pit you mentioned.”

“Mother fucker.” Cass’ face turned a deeper shade of red.

“Only strong men were kept around.  If they didn’t have a useful skill or a strong back, they were eliminated.  He’s apparently a big believer in selective breeding.”

“This is Nazism 101.”  Lance started to sit back in his chair when he remembered his forearm.  “Hey Doc, hand me one of those bandages.  A big one.”

Brown handed him a large, square Band-Aid.  After taking it out of the packaging, Lance covered the bite mark with it.

“I’m guessing they kept you around because you’re a doctor, then.”  Cass’ free hand was clenched tight, her knuckles white.  “We hoped that would keep you guys alive long enough for us to find you.”

“Right.  I refused to help him, of course, but he used Megan against me.  Said he’d kill her if I didn’t prove useful to him.”

“Megan?” Lance asked.

Brown gawked at him.  “Eifort.”

“Jesus Christ, dumbass.  You can’t remember her first name?  You’ve been living with her for two weeks.”

“I always call her Eifort,” Lance said with a shrug.  He tried to act nonchalant about it, but he felt like a complete moron.  Maybe he was the one with the concussion, not Cass.

“Anyway,” Brown said, exacerbated.  “The people outside are mostly specialized.  There are several mechanics and engineers.  They’ve been going out every day and stripping cars for parts.  Any resources they can find, they’ve been bringing back here.  It’s actually a fairly well thought out setup they have here.”

“Except for the mass murder and rape,” Lance said.

“Yes, except for that.  The natural gas generators alone are magnificent.  We could stay here forever with the right equipment and men.  You hear the creatures out there in the woods?  Apparently, they do that every night, but they haven’t had an attack yet.  Well, except for tonight.”

As much as Lance had loved the farm they’d stayed at, this place seemed even better.  If they could get some of the people outside, those who weren’t maniacs, to stay around, then they might be able to protect everyone.  Having mechanics around to fix equipment as it broke down would be key.

It was fairly close to the city of Greensburg, which meant they would have to deal with some of the Vladdies there, but the compound would keep them safe.  The idea of having electricity again was almost too good to be true.

The back door opened again.

Nathaniel appeared a moment later.  He took his hat off as he stepped into the kitchen.  Lance wondered how long people would still hold onto old traditions like that.  They seemed pointless now.  If someone got offended because a man wore a hat indoors nowadays, their priorities were monumentally out of whack.

“You wanted me for something?”

Lance motioned to one of the open chairs.  “Have a seat.  We’re about to ask one of the scumbags some questions about this place.  Figured you would want to hear what he has to say.”

“I’d love to beat the shit out of the little bastard.  Some of the people outside have some outright horror stories of what’s been happening around here.”

Lance leaned back.  They would have to figure out what they were going to do with the rest of the survivors.  What process could they use to separate the victims from the followers?  Now that the compound was under new leadership, no one would want to fess up about their affiliation with the old regime.

“He should be here in a minute.”

“I’m Emmett Brown.”  The doc extended a hand across the table to Nathaniel.  “Thanks for the help.”

“You famous or something?”  He shook Brown’s hand.  “Your name is awful familiar.”

“Or something,” Brown sighed.

Lance chewed on his lower lip, trying not to laugh.

“I don’t mean to sound callous or ungrateful, but can we trust all of your men?” Brown asked.

“Oh yeah.  They’re good Christian folk.  There’s a lot more of us out there, in fact.  You gotta understand, Ralph is an outlier among my people.”

“Your people?”

“Preppers.  Yinz probably called us crazies.  Ralph had his followers, that’s no lie, but there weren’t that many of ‘em.  Most of us avoided him like the plague.  When things went down, most of us went into hiding because we knew Ralph would flip shit.  Now that we’ve taken his place over, I’ll get on the horn to some others and see if they’re interested in joining up here.”

“You think they’ll do that?”