Willis was huddled in Sansa’s arms, trembling.
The woods were a scary sight at night. There were too many dark places where things might be waiting to spring from ambush.
Twice Courtney heard the crackling of brush and stopped in her tracks. Whatever was responsible passed them by, and once the crackling faded, she resumed their flight.
In her estimation they had traveled half a mile when she halted and motioned for the others to cluster around.
“What’s up?” Sally Ann said.
“Are you stopping for the night?” Billy asked.
“We’ve come far enough that we should be clear of the zombies,” Courtney figured. “Let’s head for the road. We’re too closed in here in the forest.”
“That’s a good thing,” Sally Ann said. “Makes it harder for the zombies or whatever to spot us.”
“And for us to spot them.”
“I have an idea,” Billy said. “Why not just stay right where we are until the sun is up?”
Sansa broke her long silence, saying, “I don’t like the woods.”
“Me either, sweetie,” Courtney said.
“On the road we’re too vulnerable,” Sally Ann said.
“I’m with Sal,” Billy said. “Right here is safer.”
A fierce howl proved him wrong.
Courtney whirled and clutched the revolver in both hands. She had never heard a zombie howl like that so it must be something else. Whatever it was, it wasn’t more than a stone’s throw away.
“What on earth?” Billy whispered.
Sansa’s fingers dug into Courtney’s arm.
Both dogs were staring intently into the trees, and both were shaking.
Courtney braced for the crash of brush and for something to attack them but anxious minutes crept by and nothing happened. The howl wasn’t repeated.
“Maybe whatever it was is gone,” Billy whispered.
“Hope you’re right,” Courtney said, “because we’re heading for the road. And don’t give me any of that ‘we’re safer’ here crap.”
To nip any argument, Courtney took Sansa’s hand and headed in the direction of where the road should be.
Sally Ann said to hold up but Courtney kept going. Her nerves were rubbed raw. She was set to shoot at anything that moved.
It was impossible to be quiet. The undergrowth was too thick. Courtney worried that the crackle and cruch of their passage would draw some horror.
Courtney prayed that they hadn’t gone through all they had for nothing. She hoped that they weren’t on a wild goose chase, as her dad might have called it.
Incredibly, it was only days ago that Sally Ann’s dad set up a radio in their kitchen. The kind of radio that received not just AM and FM, but shortwave and other bands too. It was while scouring the airwaves that they heard about a survivalist compound in northern Minnesota, a place where they might find shelter from the madness. ‘Might’, because they had no idea if the people who lived there would let them in. It could be they would get there, only to be refused entry.
“Psssst! Courts!” Billy whispered. “The road!”
Courtney blinked. She had been so deep in thought, she hadn’t noticed. But there it was, a wide dark ribbon running straight and true.
Courtney was cautious. They mustn’t blunder into the open. “Hold onto Sansa, will you?” she said to Sally Ann.
Sally reached over but Sansa shook her head and clung to Courtney’s arm.
“I want to stay with you!”
“It will only be for a minute or two,” Courtney assured her.
“I only want you.”
“I don’t bite, little one,” Sally Ann said with a smile.
“You’re not Courtney.”
“Will I do?” Billy offered. “Courts and me have been friends since we were younger than you.”
“Not you either,” Sansa insisted.
Courtney was resigned to taking her but Billy hefted his rifle and strode past.
“Stay with your fan club, Courts. I’ll make sure the coast is clear.”
“Be careful.”
Billy grinned. “I didn’t know you cared.”
Courtney smiled but she wasn’t all that amused. Recently, to her amazement, Billy had confided that he liked her as more than a friend. He even went so far as to hint that he had been thinking about asking her to marry him.
Talk about shocks.
Never once, in all the years she knew him, did she think of him that way. They were buds. Plain and simple. Had been since grade school. She liked it that way. She wasn’t into the idea of friends with benefits, or booty calls.
She had dated other guys but never anything serious. All the pressure that high schoolers were under to ‘do it’ rolled off of her like water off a duck. She didn’t give a good damn what others did. Let them hump their brains out. It wasn’t for her.
Nor had she given any thought to marriage. Oh, now and then she’d wonder how her life would play out and who she would end up with.
But Billy? One of her childhood friends?
No way.
Courtney gave her head a toss. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about things like that. Not when the night was filled with creatures out to kill them.
Billy was almost to the road. He looked back and waved.
Sally Ann came closer. “How are you holding up?”
“Just peachy,” Courtney said.
“We need to find a place to stay for the night."
“The first house we come to....,” Courtney began, and stopped.
Something was behind Sally Ann. Something that reared onto two legs and spread its arms wide.
CHAPTER 12
“Lookout!” Courtney bawled, and shoved Sally Ann out of the way. Caught off guard, Sally stumbled and fell, revealing that the thing Courtney believed was about to attack her....was a small black bear.
A young one, barely taller than Sally, and thinner than any bear Courtney ever saw. Instead of bareing its teeth, it whined like a puppy, dropped onto all fours, and did the last thing Courtney expected.
It ran off.
“What the hell?” Sally Ann said, rising and brushing herself off. “You didn’t have to push me so hard.”
“Next time I’ll let whatever it is eat you,” Courtney said in annoyance.
Sansa tugged on Courtney’s arm and pointed.
Billy was over on the road, beckoning.
Courtney couldn’t get out of the woods fast enough
The road appeared empty. To the south, in the direction of Marysville, the sky was lit by the glow of fires. To the north, pale starlight lent a ghostly tint to the landscape.
“Not a zombie in sight,” Billy said.
“Don’t jinx us,” Courtney said. She strode off up the middle of the road, Gaga padding at her side, Sansa quick-stepping to keep up.
“Hey, what’s your rush?” Billy said, overtaking them. “Let’s stick together, huh?”
Deceptive quiet had fallen. The woods seemed serene but Courtney knew better. She constantly flicked her eyes right and left, her right hand always on her revolver.
“Any regrets, Courts?” Billy asked.
“Huh?” Courtney said, unsure what he meant.
“I regret I couldn’t save my dad and mom,” Billy said. “I regret I couldn’t save the people at that camp we stayed at. Heck, I regret not being able to save Sal’s dad.”
“Where did all this come from?”
"Oh, I’ve been thinking, is all,” Billy said. “Don’t you have any regrets?”
Courtney did, in fact. She regretted not being nicer to her family before the world went to hell. She regretted not knowing what became of her parents and her sister and brother. She regretted not being smarter about things. Most of all, she regretted that Billy asked. “This is hardly the time.”
“How often do we get to talk like this?” Billy said.
“Save it for when we don’t have to worr
y about being torn to pieces or turned into one of the living dead.”
“When will that be? A month from now? Six months?” Billy shook his head. “You ask me, we should open up to each other whenever we have the chance.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“I can’t help it,” Billy said. “After our talk the other day....”
“I knew it,” Courtney cut him off. “I told you then and I’m telling you now. Drop it. We have too much on our minds as it is.”
“I can’t help it if I love you,” Billy said.
Behind them, Sally Ann gave a sharp intake of breath. “Say what? Did I just hear what I think I heard?”
“As if it’s a big surprise,” Billy said. “You two must be the only ones at school who didn’t know.”
As much as Courtney wanted him to drop it, her curiosity got the better of her. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you told others?”
“I didn’t have to,” Billy said. “It was obvious.”
“Not hardly,” Courtney said, but a troubling seed took root, memories of things he had said over the years and incidents she hadn’t given much thought.
“If World War Three hadn’t come along,” Billy had gone on, “I’d still be mooning over you and afraid to say anything for fear you’d throw it in my face.”
“I would never.....” was all Courtney got out.
“You’re still not taking me serious, Courts,” Billy said. “But I’ve known since third grade. The first time I saw you, I knew you were the one for me.”
Astounded to her core, Courtney didn’t know what to say.
“You honestly never suspected?”
“Billy,” Courtney said, and not knowing what else to say, added, “Billy, Billy, Billy.”
“You and me, Courts, it was meant to be. It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it just now. But before we reach the compound, I’d like an answer. Do I have a shot or not? Do you feel even a little like how I feel about you?”
“Wow,” Sally Ann said. “You two do realize it’s the end of the world as we know it, right?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Billy said.
Before Sally Ann could answer, several bright beams of light impaled them in a brilliant glare and a harsh voice called out, “Freeze or we’ll shoot!”
Courtney’s first reaction was to grab for her revolver. It was the same reaction the others had. Billy started to level his rifle and Sally Ann tried to swing her shotgun up.
From out of the glare, men were on them. One shoved the muzzle of a rifle practically in Courtney’s face. Another did the same with a pistol to Sally Ann.
They both turned to stone.
A third man slammed the butt of his rifle against Billy’s temple. Billy collapsed.
“Didn’t listen worth a damn,” snarled the man who had shouted for them to freeze. He was holding a large utility flashlight.
Two more approached from either side, holding flashlights and guns.
“We’ve got babes!” the guy holding the rifle on Courtney exclaimed, and giggled like he was ten years old. “Hot damn!”
“Shut up, Floyd,” the man with the utility flashlight said. “We don’t want to scare them.”
Floyd giggled some more.
The man who acted like their leader nudged Billy with a toe, then looked at Courtney and Sally Ann. “This how it is. You’re ours, to do with as we please. We’re taking you somewhere. Give us grief and we’ll knock you out like doofus here and carry you, so don’t waste our time by being stupid.”
“How can you?” Sally Ann said. “What kind of people are you?”
The man stared at Sansa, who was cluthing Willis and peeking fearfully up their captors. “We got us a runt two.” He paused. “Shoot the dogs.”
Floyd swiveled his rifle toward Gaga, who was pressed against Courtney’s legs. Instantly she swatted the barrel aside and bent over Gaga to protect her with her body.
“Don’t you dare!”
“Get out of the way, girl,” their leader said. “We don’t have time for your nonsense with zombies all over the place.”
“You try to shoot either dog and I’ll fight you,” Courtney said. “You might knock me out or you might kill me but I won’t let you harm them.”
“They’re just dogs,” the leader said.
“Don’t you hurt Willis, mister!” Sansa said. “He’s my friend.”
“Hell,” the leader said.
Another man with a flashlight turned it in the direction of Marysville. “Niles! Eaters on the way!”
Four zombies were shuffling toward them, the creature in the lead a broomstick with a jagged hole where its left cheek had been, exposing bone and teeth.
Niles drew one of a pair of semiautomatics he wore around his waist. “Damn it. Take care of them. Quietly. Then we’ll take this bunch to the cabin.”
“The dogs too?” a man asked.
“The stupid dogs too,” Niles said. “For now.”
Courtney didn’t resist when Floyd took her revolver. She was watching three men who peeled away to deal with the creatures. They had it down pat. Each drew a long knife. As they neared the foremost zombie, one man stood in front of it, drawing the thing’s attention, while another slipped to the side and stabbed it in the head. Neat and quick. In a heartbeat the zombie was dead—or dead again—on its feet. The other three were similarly dispatched.
“You’re good at that,” Sally Ann said.
“We’re good at killing, period, girl,” Niles said. “You’d be smart to remember that.”
“You don’t have to be so mean,” Sansa spoke up.
“Grow up, kid,” Niles said. “We do what we have to.”
“You’re just scavengers,” Sally Ann said in contempt.
“Not another word out of you, bitch,” Niles said. “Not until I say you can talk.” He smirked at Sally Ann. “That is, unless you want to get by with fewer teeth.”
“The same go for me?” Courtney said.
“Need you ask?” Niles retorted.
Two of the huskiest took hold of Billy, and Niles led them into the woods heading west.
The men turned off their flashlights and hiked under the starlight.
Any urge Courtney felt to try and escape was smothered by the rifle Floyd kept gouging into the small of her back. That, and Sansa and the dogs. She wouldn’t abandon them, no matter what.
Niles stopped and waited for her to reach him and then fell in beside her. He made a show of looking her up and down.
Courtney had no need to ask why. Her skin crawled, and she silently vowed that if he tried to lay a hand on her, she would kill him, dead, dead, dead.
CHAPTER 13
As they hiked on, their captors talked in low tones.
Courtney learned a lot by paying close attention.
For starters, she learned some of their names.There was Niles, their leader. There was giggly-boy, Floyd. A guy with a beard, called Jenks, and a balding doughnut by the name of Rufus. Another, with a hook for a left hand, was called Leroy. A big slab of muscle was Bradley. She didn’t hear the seventh man’s name.
They all wore leather jackets or leather vests. On their backs was a large white paw with red claws that dripped blood. Which made perfect sense, because above each paw in large white letters was THE CLAWS MC.
They hadn’t gone far when Billy came around. He muttered and stiffened and must have realized he was being held by two men and tried to break free.
“What the hell? Let go of me? What do you think you’re doing?”
Billy struggled, but only until Niles held a pistol to his forehead.
“Listen up, boy,” Niles said in his gravely voice. “I’d as soon splatter your brains. But we might have a use for you.” He gestured at Courtney and Sally Ann. “Do as your lady friends are doing and behave and keep your mouth shut and you’ll live longer.”
Billy looked at Courtney and she nodded to indicate he s
hould go along. He simmered down and marched along peacefully.
Niles returned to Courtney’s side. “Is he your boyfriend, girl?”
“We’ve been friends since grade school,” Courtney said.
“Just friends, huh? Good. That’ll make things easier.”
“Easier how?”
“You’ll find out.”
Behind Courtney, Floyd giggled.
“You’re bikers, aren’t you?”
Niles stared at her and for a few moments Courtney thought he was going to punch her for asking a simple question.
“Figured that out, did you?”
“Where are your motorcycles?”
“At the cabin,” Niles said, and rubbed the back of his neck as if he had a kink. “We learned early on that our bikes draw those dead things likes garbage draws flies.”
“The noise,” Courtney said.
“Of course, you dumb bitch,” Floyd spoke up.
“No need to insult me.”
Niles had a smile like a shark’s. “A bunch of strange men grab you and you have a gun in your spine and you’re upset over that?”
Sally Ann said, “The Claws? I saw a news story about your bunch a year or so ago. Weren’t you in a fight with some Hell’s Angels or somebody like that?”
“Were we ever,” Niles said, and several others laughed.
“They were trying to muscle in on our territory for years.”
“There’s just the seven of you?” Sally Ann said.
“It’s more like sixty,” Niles replied. “But we’re spread out. Me and these boys were at Little Falls when everything went to hell. We needed a place to lie low. Somewhere away from the missiles and those dead suckers. I remembered my uncle’s cabin.”
“You’re not safe there,” Sally Ann said. “You’re not safe anywhere.”
“Says you,” Niles said.
“Marysville was overrun by a huge swarm,” Sally Ann informed him.
“A swarm?” Floyd giggled.
“Ask Courtney and Billy if you don’t believe me.”
Niles looked at Courtney. “That youre name, sweet cheeks?”
“My friend is telling the truth,” Courtney said. “There was a huge number. A herd. An army. Whatever you want to call it.”
A Girl a Dog and Zombies on the Munch Page 6
