Annie twisted her lip and glanced across the table at Larey. “Ya’ know, I’ve heard you have a habit of serving some of your customers, coffee with a side of piss, so I think I’ll pass.”
“Suit ya’ self.” Lucille’s glare turned to Larey. “Make sure you take that cup with ya’.”
After she walked away, Larey lifted the lid and dumped a couple of sugar packets inside.
“And she’s one of the nice ones,” he said, stirring his hot coffee. “So, catching her in the act. Of what? Hunting?”
“This is what I wanted to talk to you about. Currently ‘zombie hunting’ is a gray area. Could get her ten years. Could get a her a five thousand dollar fine and a wink from the judge. Until the laws are revised, prosecuting people like her is gonna be tricky.”
“Five thousand?” He scoffed and took a quick sip. “The way they feel about zombies in this town, they could pass a hat around at a few churches and collect that in an hour. The locals actually consider her a hero, fighting for human rights.”
“I know, right? So here’s the thing. My office wants to make an example. Something that will make headlines and show we’re serious about enforcing these laws. We feel the best way to do that is to catch her in the act of actually killing one of you.”
“What?” He almost choked on his last sip. “I’m not doing that.”
“Mr. Batz, I know how it sounds, but it’s the only way to send a real message. She’d get the maximum under the federal statute. Twenty years per kill. Multiple killings would mean life.”
“You want me to sacrifice my own kind?”
“No. Not exactly. Just the wanderers. Their brains are too infected to think the Protocol shots will ever bring them back to any real state of consciousness.”
“That’s why we’re pushing the government for a cure! If there’s hope for me, there’s hope for them.”
“You’re … one of the lucky ones. The newly turned are showing remarkable progress. The older ones, we don’t know yet. They could be in that mindless zombie trance forever. Some doctors think it’s actually more humane to—”
“To kill them? I’ve seen some of them get better.”
“Really? How many are we talking about? I mean, it’s good that they stay to the woods and away from the city until they die off, but I have to be honest. Some people aren’t convinced that we should allow them to just roam around like animals in the wild. Some people think they’re still dangerous.”
“To who? The drugs have made them completely passive. They only eat what they find in the woods. Squirrels, snakes, mice. They don’t require much to live and when they do feed, it’s on animals we consider pests anyway.”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Batz, good causes sometimes require martyrs. Their deaths will serve a higher purpose. I believe in your movement and I’m telling you, this is the only way to achieve real progress. Some of your kind will have to die.”
He clasped his hands together and stared at her. As much as it pained him to admit, she was probably right. Seeing a human kill a zombie, forcing the country to come face to face with the horrors of its prejudice, might be the only way to rally true support for his cause.
“Fine. Then I’ll do it. I’m highly visible in the movement and I’m renewed. My death will do a lot more for publicizing this than a few wanderers.”
“No. It can’t be you,” she said. “You’re too important to the cause and my agency considers you a prime asset.”
“Well I don’t feel comfortable sacrificing one of my own.”
“Mr. Batz, she’s going out to hunt tonight, regardless of what we do. You asked for our help, this is me helping you. 10 o’clock. Wait for my call.”
She slid out of the booth and headed for the door. This time the eyes that watched her, weren’t focused on how her jeans hugged her thighs. They were suspicious. They all wanted to know what business she could possibly have with him—a zombie. The chimes danced and pinged off one another as Annie pushed her way outside. As soon as the door closed, glances shot in Larey’s direction. The sounds of throats clearing, faint whispers, and ominous mumbling soon filled the room. He stood, left his money for the coffee, plus tip, and headed for the exit.
***
He met Annie in the rural woods along the outskirts of town. It was where the wanderers gathered at nightfall, staggering around in search of food. They’d become conditioned to waiting until 10PM or later, when most of the town was asleep. Larey looked around, spotting a few wanderers in the distance, their faint growls and moans barely making it to his ears.
He turned to Annie. “Uh, excuse me, but where’s your team?”
“Yeah, about that…” She held binoculars to her eyes and scanned the area. “I am the team. I sorta lied about having full agency backup on this one.”
“Just me and you? Are you crazy? This woman is an expert hunter. We don’t stand a chance.”
“Pipe down, Batz. I’ve taken out highly organized terrorist cells. I think I can handle one country gal with a gun.”
“Why would you come here all the way from D.C., by yourself, to help us?”
“Because I believe in what you’re doing. Six Ditch isn’t the only place where they still hunt wanderers, but you’re one of the few infected that has the balls to speak out about it.”
“All I want is for the government to enforce its laws.”
“It’s gonna take more than laws,” she said. “Attitudes have to change. As long as the hunts are just rumors, no one is going to face any real consequence for killing people like you. Too many have lost people they care about, because of fear-mongering and prejudice. We can’t afford to just sit on our asses and let ignorance get in the way of helping the infected.”
He turned toward her. Her words were laced with a passion he rarely saw from the uninfected, unless it was a politician or a police chief pandering to political correctness. He believed her.
“You lost someone didn’t you?”
She lowered the binoculars. “A good friend. He was part of the first wave of infections.”
“Was he F.B.I.?”
“No. Civilian. Doctor. A shame he’s not here to see …”
“See what?”
She released a heavy sigh. “This is off the record. I could lose my job for telling you this.”
“Tell me.”
“The government has a cure. They’re just waiting on CDC and FDA approval. They’re running trials now.”
“Are you serious?”
“That’s why I came here. We need to keep as many infected alive as we can.”
“Jesus. Why don’t they just tell people they have a—”
“Because what happens if it doesn’t work? You think people are going to be patient? The last thing the government needs is for people to start thinking this thing is incurable. ‘Close to a cure’ is as far as they’re willing to go.”
“Why me? Why Six Ditch?”
“Like I said. I believe in what you’re doing.” She looked away. “And…”
“And?”
“You … you sort of remind me of h—” Her head snapped around. “You hear that?”
Before he could reply, headlights appeared in the darkness. A faded red jeep appeared, and then rolled to a stop at a clearing about fifty yards away. The engine idled for a while before going silent. Two men jumped out of the back with pistols, followed by a woman wearing a mesh hunting cap, and holding a Mossberg shotgun. Under a thin fleece, she wore an oversized football jersey with the number ‘0.8’ on the front. She waved the men forward, and turned her attention to the trees.
While her friends chased after a pack of wanderers roaming across a nearby field, the woman spotted a closer target and headed into the woods. Seconds later, there was a growl, followed by the sound of a shotgun blast and the woman’s signature kill celebration—“Woot!”
A minute later, another shot, another celebration.
“What are you waiting for?” Larey asked. “I think this qual
ifies as ‘being in the fucking act’.”
“Quiet down. You wanna get us caught?” She tucked the binoculars away and retrieved her sidearm from its holster. “I wasn’t counting on her having other people with her. You said she hunted alone.”
“This is a disaster.”
BANG!
“Woot!”
“That came from nearby,” she said. “She must be headed our way.”
“We need to get the hell out of here.”
“I just need to film her in the act.” Annie pulled out her phone. “Gonna see if I can sneak up on her.”
Larey grabbed her arm. “You’re leaving me here?”
She reached inside her jacket pocket, producing a small handgun.
“It’s a G41.” Annie handed it to him. “It’s lightweight, but there’s no external safety, so be careful. Do not shoot unless you have to. The last thing you wanna do is draw any unnecessary attention. Just wait for me here. I’ll be right back.”
Annie crouched and headed off in the direction of the gunfire. Larey sat in the grass behind the trunk of a thick cedar tree, his head pivoting in every direction.
BANG!
“Woot!”
He’d never fired a gun in his former life, so having one in his possession provided little comfort. A few months earlier, he’d rejoiced in finding that sensation had returned to some of his extremities. As the injections worked through his nervous system day by day, he gradually learned to feel things again. Touch, pleasure, pain, all returned in slow increments. The warmth of sunlight was most welcomed. Now, he was experiencing the wind across his face on a cool October night. Yet he was sure the chill in his spine had nothing to do with injections. He was paralyzed with cold fear.
Three shots sounded off in the distance, followed by two more. It wasn’t shotgun fire. Sounded like handguns. Could have been Agent Walls. Could have been the two men.
BANG!
“Woot!”
The woman’s voice sounded like it was right behind him. He couldn’t stand sitting there waiting to be found so he darted deeper into the woods. He kept low, moving between the trees, keeping eyes and ears open. When he thought he’d heard another ‘woot’, he spun around waving the gun in the darkness. He looked up and saw an owl perched on a branch.
“Larey!”
He turned around and saw Annie standing next to him, out of breath.
“I thought I told you to stay put,” she said.
“I was scared. It sounded like she was right next to me.”
“Okay. Calm down.”
“I heard shots.”
“That was probably me. I took out her friends so it’s just her now. I got some good footage, so we need to—”
BANG!
Annie’s head exploded right in front of him, showering him in blood and bits of her brain. Meanwhile, her nearly beheaded body thumped the ground and rolled to a stop at his feet. There were strands of her dark hair, still clinging to scattered fragments of skull. When he looked up, he came face to face with a smoking gun barrel, gripped tight by the hands of Outlaw Josie Weiss. Licking her lips, she yanked the sliding pump handle, releasing a spent shell and loading a fresh one. He stared into her rabid eyes, the taste of gunpowder coating his tongue.
“Woot!”
The small Glock by his side felt as if it weighed a ton. It dangled in his fingers as he took a step back.
“Well glory be. If it ain’t the leader of the Zombie Rights Movement,” Josie said. “This is gonna be my best hunt yet.”
“That woman was F.B.I. You just … just killed a Federal Agent. You won’t be able to cover that up.”
“This is Six Ditch. Ain’t no law out here but what we say. By the time they find her body, my granddaughter will be sitting in a rockin’ chair with a full head of gray.”
“No. They know about you now. I made sure of that. They’re gonna come for that woman and they’re gonna get you.”
“I’m sick of you and your meddling. Trying to integrate. This town is for humans!”
“Is that what you said to your husband before you shot him in the head?”
She shook her head. “That thing wasn’t my husband no more. Once he went and got himself bit, he was one of you. Y’all took him from me. I just put him out of his godforsaken misery.”
“Look at me,” he said. “The injections are working and that agent told me the government has a cure. They’re just waiting for it to be approved.”
She scoffed. “Lies! Ain’t no cure for y’all. Not in this life.”
“It is true. You just don’t wanna hear it. Because that would mean your husband didn’t have to die.”
Water formed in her eyes. “He was dead to me the moment your kind got him.”
“No. You could have waited … given him a chance to renew … like I did. The truth is, it was your black heart that killed him, not the infection.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, trickling past the corners of her quivering lips. “Shut up! Your kind don’t belong nowhere but under the dirt! And if the law ain’t willing to put you there, I am.”
He stared straight ahead, his gaze fixed at a point beyond where she was standing. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good to know. Thankfully, fear is not required when it comes to dying.” She sniffled and raised the shotgun to his eyes. The barrel trembled in her grip. “Head or gut?”
“Head.”
She smirked. “That’s what I was thinking too. Nice knowin’ y—Ommph!!!”
A decaying arm clubbed her over the top of her head, knocking her forward.
BANG!
Her gun exploded just before she lost her grip, sending a wayward shot into the woods. Another blow to the back of her head sent her cap flying and her body to the ground. She rolled over and reached out for the weapon, but a heavy foot pressed her arm in place. The creature growled, drool forming in his mouth and leaking out to splatter her face.
“No! No! Nooooooo!!” She spit the goo from her lips and tried to wrestle free. The monster sat on top of her and pinned her arms back. She watched, horrified as jagged teeth tore into her left shoulder, ripping out a mouthful of flesh and fabric.
While she screamed out in pain, a crowd of wanderer zombies stepped forward from the shadows of the woods. One after the other, they came to watch their apex predator twist and bargain for her life. Soon, she was surrounded by the very menace she wished to exterminate.
“Why?” Her eyes were wide with panic. “Why did it bite me? They … they don’t eat humans anymore! You said the inject—Ahhhhg!”
The creature took another helping from her arm, chewing her bloody tendons before spitting the remains across her jersey, leaving a clump of red meat between the ‘0’ and the ‘8’.
“My guess, Ms. Weiss, is that the Zombie-American on top of you at the moment, is one of that .8 percent you and your friends are always crying about. That means you’re about to become one of us now.”
After flashing its rotted teeth and blackened gums, in what could only be described as an attempted smile, the zombie climbed off of her, growled and walked away. As if sensing the show was over, the rest of the undead gathering parted and disappeared into the woods. Meanwhile, Josie lay on the ground, grimacing at her wounds, frantically trying to slow the bleeding with her hand.
“You son-of-a-bitch! You can’t do this to me.”
“I didn’t.”
“You can’t leave me here! Take me to the hospital dammit! I need the shots. The injections. I need the cure! You can’t leave me!”
Larey picked up the shotgun and walked across the muddy grass until he stood directly over her. “Ain’t no cure for your kind. Not in this life anyways.”
He placed the end of the barrel flush against her forehead and fumbled around with the pump mechanism until a fresh shell clicked into position.
“No. Please. No! I won’t hunt. I’ll support your rights. Hell, I’ll march for your rights! Please!”
; “Now remind me. What’s your favorite word again? You know. The one you like shouting after every kill. Oh yeah… I remember now.” His finger tightened on the trigger. “I think it goes something like … Woot!”
Accepting defeat, Josie sighed. “Unwoot.”
BANG!
*~*~*
Author and Screenwriter Larey Batz is a native of Memphis TN, but currently resides in Philly, PA. Influenced by writers such as Poe and Langston Hughes, he writes across multiple genres—primarily horror, suspense, sci-fi and dark humor. He is currently finishing “Obey”, the sequel to his debut novel “Second Dawn” and has several other projects in the works.
You can follow Larey at:
https://www.facebook.com/lareybatzauthor
https://twitter.com/LareyBatz
THE END
May all the departed rest in peace.
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