*****
We searched the woods surrounding the cabin until Viktor realized the Volkswagen was gone. We’d almost made it to the interstate before finding the missing car. It had crashed against a tree off the left side of the highway. After finding the car abandoned, I yelled Kyle’s name in all directions. Reaching out mentally, I could barely feel the aura of dead coming from the small town nearby.
Not wanting to say it out loud, I told my dad and Viktor, “I can feel . . . something, coming from the town.”
We piled back into the Suburban, with Viktor driving in the direction of Frisco’s Main Street. We crept slowly, weaving around the few vehicles in the road. I hadn’t been here in a while. We’d long since relieved the stores of anything useful. A cat ran around the corner of a building and I pointed in that direction. “Over there. Drive around the side.”
The zombie was a small female, probably in her teens when she’d died. At the sight of us, she stopped pursuing the cat and stumbled toward our SUV. Viktor parked and disappointment was heavy in the car. “Where is he?” I questioned uselessly. “Has he even turned yet or is he out there somewhere dying alone?”
“Anya,” my father began cautiously, “He’s been gone for hours. We have to assume. . . .”
“I know,” I croaked. “But we have to find him. If we don’t, he’ll be walking around out there as one of those things.” I’d already failed him in not being there when he’d been bitten. I couldn’t fail him again.
Anger coursed through me, directed at my own failings. A little bit of it was for Kyle, too, for taking off on his own where we couldn’t take care of him. The selfish part of me was angry at him for risking his life to save strangers. Because of his bravery, I’d lose him.
Dad and Viktor were in the front seat, deliberating which area to search next. The young female zombie writhed against my window now, practically salivating at the prospect of sinking her teeth into my flesh.
Hatred grew in me, unlike anything I’d ever felt, the kind which consumes you. Some dark instinct within me, in the little corner of my brain where my ability came from, overtook me. My body felt as if it were vibrating, with rage or power, I didn’t know.
My body began trembling uncontrollably and, as if from far way, I heard Viktor shout out my name. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I felt a trickle of something run down my lip. Lifting a finger, I saw I had a bloody nose.
Anger, frustration and hatred churned inside me. My eyes finally focused on the infected girl outside my window as her writhing stopped and she started shaking. Her head snapped from side to side as her moan became more of a wail. Black sludge dripped from her bloodshot eyes.
The scene came to a crescendo when the zombie’s head exploded, splattering the SUV with decayed flesh. My body stopped shaking and I felt more tired than I’d ever remembered feeling. The last thing I saw before passing out was my dad’s fearful face.
EPILOGUE
The infected male stood beneath the tree for hours, gaping ravenously at the creature above. He’d chased the squirrel until it sought sanctuary from him on the branches. While scratching in an attempt to climb up, his nails tore from the repeated motion but no blood flowed.
Frustration
Hunger
The dark of night blinded the infected and he stumbled away until he came to a clearing where the moon lit his way.
Seek
Hunger
A mountain lion crept into the clearing, sizing up its potential meal, sniffing the brisk night air, trying to determine what kind of creature it had found. Dead flesh, beyond what it preferred, filled its nostrils and the cat’s instincts warned against feeding on the rotten, diseased man. The zombie neared the large cat, groaning in anticipation.
Feed
The animal snarled in warning but its high-pitched scream only excited the infected. Confused, the mountain lion darted away to find new prey. The zombie lurched into the dark woods again, in the direction the animal had bounded.
Follow
It stumbled into several trees before it sunk to the ground in an inactive state. At daybreak, it again had light to continue the hunt. For weeks the infected man wandered the mountains. His solitary meal during that time was a dead bird he happened upon after it fell from a towering spruce. He tore into it voraciously, crunching bones and all. The flesh was satisfying only until the small feast was over. Unrelenting hunger returned, driving him on.
After several weeks of travel, the zombie came upon a house. The sight, different from the forest it had become accustomed to, drew the infected. Circling the building, the back door was open and it clumsily climbed up the back steps. The filthy kitchen it entered was empty, as were all the other rooms the zombie explored.
Pictures on the walls of the family who used to live there captured the biter’s attention.
Food
Reaching out, the zombie pawed at the wooden frame, stroking distorted fingers against the glass-covered images.
The zombie struggled for an hour to find a way out of the house. Still unsatisfied, it resumed its trek through the wilderness, occasionally changing course as the land or sounds of nature dictated. He encountered a highway strewn with the occasional car and traveled east on it. Passed by a vehicle driving the same route on the second day, the zombie was encouraged to stay the course.
Seeing figures in the distance, he picked up speed, eager to feed on flesh. As the male zombie neared the group, it recognized its own kind. Not flesh to eat, but other infected with the same never ending drive to feed.
With mutual urges, the infected male joined the horde, passing up the weaker of the group to take his place at the front. Walking alongside the blonde female zombie, he came over a rise. Down below, buildings spread out across the horizon. As they descended into the city, hordes passed going the opposite direction, trickling into the Rockies. The pack walked for hours and hours until they came upon a swarm numbering in the tens of thousands. This throng surrounded a stadium. Inside, a group of survivors bided their time.
Book 2 of the Dead Chaos series
Late 2013
www.aprilbrookshire.net
Other works by April Brookshire:
Young Love Murder
First in the Young Assassins series
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