Zombie Fallout 9 (30 page)

“Ron? He stays as far away from me as he can.” I don't even think it was anything conscious on his part. I walked into a room; he walked out. If I was there, he wouldn't be, simple as that. I'd taken to eating outside so that he could have people around him during meal times.

“I'm asking about Gary.” Tommy said.

“I haven't seen him. You check the basement?”

“I've checked everywhere. I need to know where he is.”

Tommy seemed panicked, and if he felt the need to panic, I think I did as well. It didn't help when Riley came out on the deck with us. She was looking off to the side. Her fur was bristled, and a long, low growl rumbled through her chest, into her throat and out her muzzle. We'd discussed the need to stay inside the house or on the deck and always visible to another person while the vampires were around. They were supernatural beings; we needed to be on a constant vigil. We'd had to double the guards and stay on high alert. I'd known through previous combat that it is difficult to keep up this level of security. Sure, for a little while you stay on your toes, a mouse farts a hundred yards away and you grip your rifle expecting trouble. After a week of pulling extra shifts and nothing happening, a bear could drop a difficult deuce ten feet away and you'll yawn. We'd definitely entered the complacency stage of danger alert.

My heart sank when we heard the opening chords to “Living on a Prayer.” Not that I didn't enjoy the song, but it was coming from Gary's tree stand, a place we'd expressly forbid him from going. It had not been a fun argument, and apparently not an effective one either.

“Mike, it's my for
trees
of solitude. It's the only place I can get away and pretend none of this is real.” he'd argued.

“For
trees
?”

“My home, my spelling.”

“I get it, Gary, I do. I wish we all could do what we wanted to. But it's too dangerous right now.” He nodded at all the appropriate times, so I'd thought he was listening. Now, I'm not so sure. Was probably bobbing his head to a tune playing inside of there.

Tommy, Riley and myself rushed over to the far side of the deck as more of the song drifted over the landscape. It was nearly impossible due to leaf cover to see much of the tree stand. That was another thing I'd asked him to do previously—cut back some of the branches.

“How private would it be if everyone could see?”

“What the hell are you doing in there that you need so much privacy?”

He'd shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Just use the bathroom, like everyone else.” I'd said bluntly.

“I'm not doing
that
.”

“Ummm, yeah, me neither,” I'd assured him, saying it like he'd brought up the subject and not me. “Then what the hell
are
you doing?”

“I like to sing”

“Okay.”

“And dance.”

“Now you're getting a little weird.”

“It's what I like to do.”

“Any chance you dance better than you sing?”

“Doubtful, that's why I like—”

“To be in private. Yeah, definitely get that. Us Talbots have about as much rhythm as sneakers in a dryer.”

“Mike, that doesn't even make sense.”

“Sure it does. They just randomly clunk around inside there.”

He stopped to think about it for a second. “Oh, okay, I guess you're right.”

“Gary?” I called out tentatively for my brother.

There was no response except for an increase in volume to the song. Drifting among the treetops like that, it was creepier than I would have imagined a Bon Jovi song could be. As per usual, multiple things happened at once, although, knowing our adversary, that had been the design. I could hear Henry barking loudly downstairs and then a scream, Meredith maybe. I was half turning when Tommy's hand shot out and grabbed my shoulder, turning me back around. Gary was visible; he was being held upside down by his ankle, below the canopy. He was limp as if he were unconscious. I refused to believe it was because he was dead, but he was pale, oh so fucking pale. The screams downstairs grew in pitch. I was torn in indecision on where to go first.

“I'll handle her.” Tommy said, pointing to the tree stand. He hopped over the railing and landed below. I was back in the house and heading to the basement. BT was on the staircase just ahead of me. We didn't bother to ask each other what was going on. Someone needed help, and that was all that mattered at the moment. I'd like to say I was prepared for what I saw, but really, why would you ever have scenarios running through your mind where two vampires are terrorizing your family? I mean, if you did, then you have other issues. Meredith was with her brother, Dizz and Sty were on the far side of the room. Monopoly pieces were strewn all over the place. Meredith had a hand cannon out, waving it back and forth between the two women. Henry was in between the kids and the vamps. I gotta admit the dog looked savage with his head hanging low, a growling so deep I could feel it in my chest. Long ribbons of drool hung from both sides of his snarling mouth. Long, glistening canines were exposed.

BT and I pulled up short right at the entryway. The room was locked in an electrically charged atmosphere, and we were both afraid that adding our presence would alter the dynamics in an unfavorable way.

The red-haired vampire turned to me. I'd forgotten the ethereal beauty they possess. My mind, I think any mind, has great difficulty correlating how something so intensely magnificent could be so utterly devoid of goodness. But what better way to hide a predatory evilness than through a mask of magnificence?

“Victor?” she asked, her eyes clouded for a moment, a look of ecstasy and confusion comingled for a moment. “No, alas no, but you are of the blood.” She smiled.

“Of the blood,” the other echoed.

“Meredith, you guys need to come this way.” I had my rifle out and pointed. I did not look away from who I imagined was Payne. I was pretty convinced that to do so would spell my doom.

“Meredith? You are of the Talbot bloodline as well. Yes … I can feel it as it beats quickly through your veins.” She licked her canines.

“Through veins,” the other vampire said.

“Who's the parrot?” I asked, trying to get Payne to stop thinking about blood, but that was like getting Henry to stop thinking about cookies.

The parrot-y vampire hissed at me.

“Do not move!” Payne shouted to Meredith, although she never took her eyes from me. “You killed our dearest Eliza?” she asked.

“She had it coming,” I told her evenly, wondering if she could feel the thrum of my blood.

“I expected more.”

“He gets that a lot,” BT said. He was as tense as I'd ever seen him. I swear I could hear his muscles rippling in preparation for a fight.

“Meredith and the kids and the dog have nothing to do with this. Let them go, and we'll deal with this, whatever
this
is.” I thought about saying “fight,” but if they weren't here to kill us, I had no desire to put the thought into their head.

“That is where you are wrong, spawn of Tomas.” Her face took on a scowling countenance. “There is a price that must be paid.”

“Must be paid … in blood,” the other said, licking her lips suggestively.

“I can get you some chickens or something.” I was stalling. I was terrified. I no sooner wanted to get into a melee with them than I wanted to get into a shark tank with chum as clothing.

Henry had upped his game and started barking. He must have sensed something was about to break; that, or he was getting tired and he needed this to all be over so he could take a nap. The spell was broken as she looked to Henry. Sly dog, he knew what was up.

“Kids, run!” I yelled, firing even as I brought the rifle up. I blew massive holes in the drywall as I sought vampire tissue to sink my lead into. Things slowed down to agonizingly frustrating slices of moments. Meredith turned to the others and started shoving them along. Payne moved with a speed I hadn't seen since Eliza. Her hand wrapped around Dizz's neck, and his eyes bulged as she applied extreme force. BT fired on the other vampire, who had not moved. She almost looked indignant that someone would even have the nerve to do such a thing.

Meredith and Dizz were off to our side. Henry had somehow sunk his teeth into Payne's calf. BT had put two bullets into the vamp I would find out was named Sophia. I grabbed my Ka-bar, letting my rifle fall to the floor.

“He is
mine
!” Payne shouted. “He is the first in a long line of recompenses.”

Where my knife should have struck temple, it whistled through the air, the memory of a laugh the only thing there to let me know she'd ever even been here. Henry had been wrenched free from his tooth hold, he came to a yelping stop against the far wall.

Sophia moved a step closer to BT before turning to join Payne, who had departed. BT swore as his rifle jammed. He got so pissed he hurled it at Sophia's head. She turned back around and swatted it away as if it were an errant hair on a slight breeze. The smile that pulled her lips back and revealed her fangs, will forever be etched in my memory. No one in the history of the world had ever gazed upon another with such malice. Psychopathic murderers had more mercy harbored within themselves. Sophia did not kill to sustain her existence; she killed for the sheer pleasure she derived from it. The food source was just an added bonus. Payne and Dizz were gone, so I went toward the only other target I had left. There was not one part of me that didn't think she was going to crumple me like an old soda can. Didn't stop me though. I'd not gone more than a step when I heard the explosion; the side of her closest to me blew out as her pelvis was destroyed by a twelve-gauge shotgun slug. Travis stood in the frame of the outside door, the smoking gun in his hands. Sophia screamed out in a savage guttural sound that reeked of pain and fury. Vampire or not, she was going to need some time to recover from such a grievous injury.

“
Again
!” I screamed to Travis. Her hip was basically a mosh pit of loose parts gliding around in a stew of meat, and still she stood. Her leg collapsed when Travis fired again. Her eyes rolled back even as she went down. The smart thing would have been to start sawing through her neck as fast as possible, removing her fucking psychotic head. I didn't—for two reasons: one was Gary and the other was Dizz, both of whom I had to believe were still alive. I didn't know if vampires negotiated, but I had to try. BT had come up alongside me, his barrel nearly touching Sophia's head. I grabbed it from him. Trading my knife, I turned it around and pummeled the butt stock into her, seven or eight times until she fell over unconscious. Her beauty had been diminished significantly with her nose lying flat against her cheek and at least one orbital socket broken. Her lips were split and bleeding, and I'd started the scalping process, as her hairline was beginning to separate from her head. A normal person wouldn't make it, but already I could see the healing process beginning in her.

“Nice job, Travis. Grab something to tie her up with.”

BT propped her up in a folding chair, and I wrapped her in over three hundred feet of rope. She looked like a mummy by the time I was done. Hardly any of her showed through the blue nylon of the repelling line. The stuff was rated at over 1000 pounds of tensile strength, I had to believe this would hold her. Tommy came back just as I was finishing off the last knot.

“Charity got away.”

“I don't give a shit about Charity. Where's Gary?”

“She took him.” His head hung low.

“Is he still alive?” I nearly choked getting those most distasteful of words out.

“I believe him to be.”

“Well then, we have something to bargain for.”

“What happened to Sophia?” Tommy lifted her head up.

“She's a Yankees fan. I had to.” I told him. “Will these ropes hold?”

He pulled on them. “For a while. She's awake.”

I stepped back once I realized just how close to her I was. I didn't notice any change other than her nose was straightening back out.

Tommy slapped her hard enough to rattle my fillings.

“Tomas!” She hissed. “Sister fucker! Sister fucker!” She said it two more times before I brought the rifle above my head.

“Say it again, and I'm going to keep hitting you until your head looks like gruel.”

She laughed. “My sisters will not fuck me, they will save me.”

“Helping others is not a strong suit for them.” Tommy told her. “They will leave you here to rot.”

She started to laugh. “Those they took will rot much faster than I.”

BT placed the edge of my blade against her neck. “I will saw your head off.”

“Please,” she said in the high-pitched voice of a little girl. “I'm so afraid.” And then she started laughing again.

“What's the matter with her?” I asked.

“Not everyone comes through the transition intact.” Tommy said.

“Shit, Talbot, you're proof of that.” BT said.

“You're holding a knife against a vampire's throat and you still have time to give me crap?” I saw his shoulders shrug.

“We should just kill her,” Dennis said, he had come to join us.

“And what of Gary and Dizz?”

He wanted to say “they're already dead,” but he just didn't have it in him.

“I bet they're delicious!” Sophia licked her lips.

I backhanded her hard enough to break two knuckles. Her blood sprayed against the far wall, and still she laughed. I walked away, wincing at the pain in my hand.

“What do you want to do?” BT had come up next to me and spoke softly.

“I want to go and get them. You need to stay and watch that crazy one.”

“Guard duty? Come on, man.” BT said.

“I need Tommy with me, if anyone can find them it's him. And I need someone here that has the mental and physical abilities to do what needs to be done if we don't return.”