“Woah,” Dad said.
They stood on the lip of a crater, peering down into the huge newly-formed indent of the earth as if Thor had slammed his hammer into it.
In the middle, pressed up against the mountain and having taken a chunk out of its base, was a lump of rock. The flowers of half a dozen spindly trees were alight, flames flickering and burning out.
“Well, I’ll be,” Dad said, pushing up the brim of his hat with his thumb. “Would you look at that.”
Despite the incredible show of natural power, Dad’s attention was taken with something else. He caught Jimmy looking and spun him around so he faced the opposite direction.
“You, uh, look over that way,” he said.
Jimmy was just as mesmerized, even if he couldn’t quite understand why. He glanced over his shoulder at the figure standing ten feet from the asteroid.
She was naked, wearing not a stitch on her gorgeous body. She was tall with dark raven hair, toned and strong. Her head moved left to right, taking in her surroundings.
Dad wet his thumb and forefinger and pressed his eyebrows down. He clucked out the corner of his mouth and led Smokey forward. Jimmy had to run to catch up.
The woman couldn’t have missed them approaching but seemed more interested in the crater. There was something odd with the way she moved, Jimmy thought. Her face was devoid of emotion, flat and lifeless. She didn’t move her eyes, only her head, to peer where she wanted to see.
Jimmy tugged on his father’s hand.
“Dad, let’s go,” he said.
“That’s a woman in need, son,” Dad said. “I’m sure I taught you better manners than that.”
Jimmy checked the woman again. She wasn’t so big, he supposed. His father was a good four inches taller than her, his arms thick and muscular. He could easily take her.
Smokey stopped twenty yards from the asteroid and stepped side to side, skittish. Dad handed the reins to Jimmy.
“Hello there, Miss,” he said, taking a step closer. “There’s no need to be afraid. We don’t mean you any harm. You’re mighty lucky to have been missed by the asteroid. Although it seems to have left you a little, uh, exposed.”
He shrugged off his jacket and offered it to the woman. For the first time, the woman acknowledged his existence. She considered the jacket with the same lifeless expression.
“Or I can put it on you if that’s all right?” Dad said.
He stepped slowly—deliberately—toward her, and draped his jacket over her shoulders. She didn’t zip it up or try to conceal her nakedness.
“You must have been close for it to have blown your clothes off,” Dad said. “Perhaps you’re in shock. Sit down. You need to rest.”
“Give me your clothes,” the woman said.
“Sure, I can give you my shirt,” Dad said, unbuttoning it.
“Give me your clothes,” the woman said again.
No inflection, no wavering of the voice. Pronounced exactly the same way as she had the first time. Dad turned to Jimmy.
“Give her your pants,” Dad said.
“Why?” Jimmy said.
“Share the load, son,” Dad said.
Now he was closer, Jimmy could see it wasn’t an asteroid at all. There was a square hole in the side like a door. The moonlight shifted ever so slightly, revealing a large egg-shaped capsule.
Jimmy wondered if it was one of those airplanes or helicopters his parents told him about. It looked a whole lot different from the descriptions his father had told him.
“Give me your clothes,” the woman said again.
“We’re going to,” Dad said, a little agitated this time. He could have a fierce temper when he got riled up.
Jimmy began unbuttoning his pants when the woman stepped forward. She wrapped her hand around his father’s neck, her movements smooth and fast. She raised him off his feet.
“Dad!” Jimmy said.
His father barely managed to squeeze out a croak before the woman twisted her hand sharply to one side, making a loud crack noise.
Dad’s body went limp. With her free hand, the woman pulled his pants off and tossed his body aside. The woman put the pants on.
“Dad!” Jimmy said, rushing to his father’s side. “Dad!”
His father stared at the night sky, unblinking.
Jimmy didn’t know what to do. He touched his father’s face and shook him gently to wake him up. He didn’t stir even when the woman bent down to pick up his father’s fallen hat.
“Where is the girl?” the woman said.
Jimmy focused on his father, tears streaming down his face.
“Where is the girl?” the woman said again, taking a sinister step forward.
Recognizing his immediate danger, Jimmy focused.
“The girl?” he said. “What girl?”
“Where is the girl?” the woman repeated.
“That way,” Jimmy said, pointing. Guessing randomly. “That way.”
He pointed east. The woman took Smokey by the reins and led him away.
“Wait,” Jimmy said. “How am I going to get my father home?”
The woman didn’t answer. Didn’t even so much as hint she’d heard him.
Jimmy put his fingers to his father’s neck and felt for a pulse. He had none.
Jimmy held on to his father’s lifeless body and cried as the woman scaled the crater and headed east.
* * *
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BY CHARLIE DALTON
After the Fall series
The Commune
The City
The Covenant
Before the Fall
Death Squad series
Zombie City
Zombie State
Zombie Nation
Zombie World
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlie Dalton is the author of the popular After the Fall and Death Squad series. He makes his online home at charliedaltonauthor.com. You can connect with Charlie on Facebook at facebook.com/charliedalton and send him an email at [email protected]. He replies to every message personally :)
Copyright © 2020 Charlie Dalton
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Death Squad (Book 4): Zombie World Page 25
