by Mark Tufo
'Til Death Do Us Part
( Zombie Fallout - 6 )
Mark Tufo
BT, Gary and Mrs. Deneaux race to the Talbot compound in a desperate bid to turn the tides of a lost war.
Is Michael dead? Is the question plaguing the Talbots as they prepare for the final showdown with a merciless enemy hell bent on their absolute destruction.
ZOMBIE FALLOUT 6: ‘TIL DEATH DO US PART
Mark Tufo
Copyright 2012 Mark Tufo
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Edited by:
TW Brown
Cover Art:
Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com
Dedications:
To my wife, my coffee drinking buddy! I love you!
To Katherine Coynor, beta-reader extraordinaire thank you for all your tireless work.
To the men and women of the armed and uniformed services, thank you for all of your sacrifices.
To Perla Tirado, she’s done more work for me than I could ever afford and I appreciate it greatly.
To Pauline Milbourn, the word Super-Fan seems to fit! (Is that technically two words?)
Alright if you’re this far into the series you should know this is where it gets a little crazy, on ZF4 I posted on Facebook that if anyone wanted on my dedication page they just needed to post, got a little over a hundred responses, I was floored and honored. So I figured HEY I’m going to do that again for ZF5,well got over seven hundred names that time. As much as I would have liked to do the same here I was afraid I might get in the neighborhood of two thousand names and my editor would most likely have quit.
So I changed it up a bit, mostly had some contests, some involved guessing, some were just for laughs, others were at the right place at the right time and still a bunch others helped out when I asked. I truly cannot and could not ask for a better group of readers if I tried, you guys post funny pictures, or send your well wishes, or sometimes just tell me how much you and your families enjoy my books. I just need you guys to know that EVERY time you contact me, that I’m humbled, honored and thankful.
Dean Window, happy birthday to my wonderful husband love your beloved wife Janice Window & your number 1 son Harry Window, all our love always & forever. Xxxxxx (she asked!)
Adam Trout, Aisha Blevins, Aleks Jimenez, Alethea Baldwin, Alfa Polanco, Alfred Birtz, Allen Gurganus, Amanda Udell, Amber Cichon, Amber R. Johnson, Ami LawLess, Andrew Casavechia, Angela Berube-Gray, Angela Silvers, Angela Slade, Angi Martin, Annabelle Hawkins, Anne Shield, Ash Wheeler, Avon H. Clements, Bailey Hudson, Beth Bryeans, Beth Giglio Hindbaugh, Bob Reiss, Bob Simister, Bobbi Bradshaw, Bonnie Kalbskopf Williams, Bradley Syracuse Evans, Brandon Cook, Brenda Spears, Brian Anatello, Brian Cantrall, Brian Diemart, Brigitte LaBelle, Brittany Cousin, Carleen Pierce, Carolyn Brady, Carolyn Johnson-Denton, Carrie Dileo, Cassoll Johnson, Catherine K'baum, Cathy Wagner Wallen, Char Hebert Gutierrez, Charles Ryden, Chris Enterline, Chris Harrington, Chris Leeper, Christine Knapik Myers, Christopher Botteri, Christopher Hackett, Christopher M. Moore, Cindy Sawyer, Cindy Warren, Claire Riley, Courtney Nelson, Dan Abildgaard, Dan Kar, Dan Modzik, Dani Holmes Buhrman, Dave House, David Hoffman, David Marble, David McClain, David Quincy, Dawn Raymond, Debbie Harris, Denise Keith, Diana Smallwood, Diane Johnson, Dieter Wheatley, DJ Parris, Donna Moretti, Dustie Marie Naud, Edna Anthony, Eileen Gurska, Elaine Eldridge Fortier, Elina M. Kelley, E'Lisa Gutierrez-Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Arguelles, Elizabeth McCurry Wilson, Elizabeth McQueen, Elizabeth Rawls, Emily Spahr, Eric Shaw, Fran Mantuano, Franklin Cheesecake Barger, Gabriel Garcia, Gareth Moase, Garrett Elliott, Gerard Kelleher, Gina Greco Dipalo, Glenda Dill-Franklin, Gordon Fellis, Graham Carr, Greg Lose, Haleigh Martin, Hanneke Amahorseye, Heather Knirk, Heidi Rackliff, Holly Grivois Logue, J.D. Hawkins, Jacob Hawkins, James Reamer, Jamie Bray, Jan Luckett, Jane Gomez, Janice Van Campen, Jason Heine, Jason Lenn Webb, Jayson Sacco, Jeanne Tarrant, Jeff Schmitz, Jennifer Balcom, Jennifer Dotson, Jennifer Saucedo, Jennifer Schindler, Jennifer Storm, Jeremy Allen, Jerry Chesson, Jes Kriner, Jess Hale, Jess Lucero, Jesse Gordo, Jessica James, Jessica Morris, Jessica Parker, Joanne Crissey Dixon, Jody Brooks, Joe Hollingshead, Joe McCormick, Joey Whitley, John Hawkins, John Ross, Jordan Morgan, Josh Hurdle, Josie Ribeira, Joy Burke Buchanan, Joy Welch Evans, Julie Jones, Justin Frey, Karen Clarke, Karissa Rothstein, Kathleen Leeson, Kathy Richardson Roberts, Katina Henderson, Katrina Tanner, Kayla Sylskar, Kebby-Mag Sands, Kelly Lasseigne, Kelly McCloskey, Ken Reynolds, Ken Rutledge, Kesha Adams Bayliss, Kevin Aulinskis, Kim Hennessy, Kimberly A Porto Simon, Kory Kollman, Kristina Teems, Kristy Preston Newell, Kurt Eckert, Kyrstie Walker, Larry Davis, Laura Dunn, Laurie Leeper, Lee Close, Levi Martin, Linda Bouyea, Linda Garfield Burns, Lisa Marie Williams, LoLa Simone, Lynda Thomas Guydon, Mandy Hampton Fitch, Mandy Lees, Marcus Ryan Gross, Marcy Young-Salo, Marinda Grindstaff, Mark Chivas, Marty Boren, Mary Grace Huff, Mary Philo, Matt Landrum, Matt McCarthy, Matthew Whinnett, Maxwell Nathan Frankenstein, Melissa Carver, Melissa Fitzgerald, Melissa Herevia, Melissa Kendrick, Melissa Shipley, Michael de Jager, Michael Martin, Michael Morris, Michael Turner, Michaela Seifert, Michelle Costin, Michelle Di Loreto-Pope, Michelle Harper, Michelle Way, Mike Pittman, Mindy Lenox, Minka An Bob, Misty Wehner Mackey, Neika Frye, Nevin E. Adams, Nick Anthony, Patricia Dzuba Stevens, Patrick Marshall, Paul Erickson, Paul White, Paula Best, Philip Spencer, Rachel Estok, Rachel Fuller DeAmato, Rachel McMillan Koch, Ramon Valdez, Ray Druszkowski, Ray Logan, Rebecca True Wilson, Rita A Livergood, Rob Tolliver, Robert Craig, Robert Wade, Rod Carnahan, Ron Casey, Ryan Matthew Walsh, Ryan MegaGeek Colley Garland, Sakina Pecchillo, Sandy Colella, Sara Bee Lindsay, Sarah Leech, Sarah Mayo, Sarah Olliso Flores, Sarah Pratt, Sarajane Hawkins, Scott Ferland, Scott 'skinner' Sinclair, Sean Marsh, Sean Ward, Shannon Durkin-Wade, Sharon Edelman, Sharon Payne, Shawn Breen, Shawn M Lynch, Sheila Jared, Stacy Clark Williams, Stephanie Dagger, Stephanie Sorensen, Steve Campbell, Steven Conte, Sue Pierpont, Summer Butler Bagley, Suzak Baker, Sydney Lorraine Franklin, Talea Fields, Tammy Craig Williamson, Tanya Dilworth-Cochran, Teri Selix, Terin Barnes, Tez Leaver, Thea Hollis, Thomas Aurand, Tim Root, Tom McCraney, Tom Muscle II, Trenda Lee, Trisha Smith, Tristan Simpson, Truls Fundingsrud, Vicky Bostick, Virginia Marquez, Vix Kirkpatrick, Wanda Guzman, Wes Harding, William Fortner, Willy Williams, Xavier Villalobos, Zach Rocha, Zachary John Francis Allen, Zoe Fletcher
ZF6 is an absolute trip. It takes you from the afterworld to the underworld and then back to Maine. I loved it.
- Katherine Coynor
PROLOGUE ONE
The blackness was complete within and without the tattered walls which should have housed my soul; I could not see my hand in front of my face. I could not even tell if I was corporeal.
“Michael,” an omnipresent voice rang out.
“God?” I answered.
“Some have called me that, others, have used Zeus, Allah, Jehovah, and Buddha.”
“Am I dreaming this?”
“I am an eternal being that watches over the affairs of man.”
“So God then basically.”
“My name, if I had one, matters little. You may use Yoda if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
“Oh come on, you’re telling me I’m talking to the One God and you’re giving me a Star Wars reference?”
“I did not like Jar Jar Binks.”
“Nobody did,” I shot back. “You seem mighty affable for an omnipotent being that could smite me down. Or is it smote?”
An older man of indeterminable age appeared before me at some point. In the last flash of a second, the blackness had been str
ipped away and replaced by a source of light equivalent to a noonday sun; yet I could see no hint of its origin.
“I didn’t really see You like that,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe I did…this is rather confusing.”
“Would you rather I appear as this?” The man surged to over forty feet tall; fiery eyes peered down at me and a long flowing beard almost touched the tips of his sandal-clad toes. His voice booming, “I appear as the person that stands before Me expects Me to be.”
“No, no the old man thing is way better!” I yelled up. “So if I was a feminist?”
He sighed deeply but was back to the form of the kindly stranger before I finished my words.
“It has come to My attention that Poena has deemed you as her plaything.”
“Just now you figured that out? I thought you knew everything, and I figured he was a she…almost had to be. She’s been messing with my life for decades. Maybe if you had skipped a movie or two I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“I think I know exactly why you are in this situation,” he said pointing to my mouth.
“Yeah probably right about that,” I said sheepishly.
“I will release you from the binding she has placed on you.”
“Why now Yoda?” I asked, testing the boundaries—typical stupid-ass Michael Talbot.
He looked at me with a glint of humor in his eyes; like a proud father that wanted nothing more than to scoop his wayward child up and laugh but was required to set an example. Who the hell did he have to answer to?
“Contrary to a lot of fatalistic individuals, I care very, very deeply about the world of man. But there are strict rules laid down by nature herself that do not allow me direct intervention.”
“You’re God, what can possibly stand in Your way?”
“More than you will ever know.”
***
What seemed like an eternity passed as I pondered His words. Maybe it had. Maybe mountains formed, oceans dried, the planet died and was reborn. All I knew was I loved my family and friends and I desperately wanted to be with them. I gulped hard, not sure if I was ready for the answer to my next question or not.
“Am I alive?”
“Do you want to be?”
“God, I had a philosophy professor once tell me the meaning of life.”
God arched an eyebrow and asked, “What was her definition?”
“Life is a bowl of snow.”
“Did that make any sense to you, Michael?”
“About as much as Your question.”
“Fair enough. You must answer the first question, but I can answer the latter.” It was my turn to arch an eyebrow. “The meaning of life? Well that’s simple, it is merely LIFE. To live, to breathe, to laugh, to love, to procreate, to exist. It is nothing more and nothing less.”
“What about the zombies?”
“They are an abomination created by man. They are not life, they are the antithesis. They destroy everything in their path without the ability or want to create.”
“I would very much like to be alive,” I begged.
“Then it shall be so.”
“It has been an unbelievable honor to talk with You, but I have to ask one more question.”
God waited patiently, as He watched me struggle to ask a question that I hoped would not offend Him.
“Am I dreaming this?”
He laughed…heartily, I might add. “Oh, Michael, you are a fun one to watch. Now get off the street and hide. Eliza is coming and she plans on laying waste to the entire city.”
“Will I see You again?”
“Get your soul back and we will talk some more.”
He placed the heel of his hand against my forehead. I felt as if I were being shot from a cannon. The rush of matter as it streamed by at light speed was disorientating; it wasn’t until I picked my head up off of the pavement that I knew where I was.
“I’M BACK!” I screamed triumphantly, then I remembered God’s—or my vivid dream’s—last words and I tried to get up and make a run for it.
PROLOGUE TWO
The slight woman and the stocky man walked across the parking lot as the sun blazed down. The four truck drivers watched as they approached.
“How stupid do you think they are?” Al, at twenty-eight, the youngest of the group asked.
“I guess we’ll see,” their self-appointed leader Kong replied.
He had been a decent man when the world still made sense. But these were not normal times; he would, and had done, all it took to survive and even thrive, including some things that were not necessary. Without the possibility of paying for his crimes, he had taken advantage of numerous situations.
Even from across the parking lot he could tell that the woman was beautiful, but there was something else there…something cold, deadly. He involuntarily shivered.
“She’s fucking hot!” the third driver, Dom, said. “Can I have her after you, Kong?”
Kong wanted to say he could have her first and that he was getting the hell out of there, but he stayed put against his better judgment. Her beauty only intensified as she approached, but so did his feelings of unease. She stopped no more than ten feet from where the men stood. Kong could tell from the men’s posturing that they were feeling differing forms of unease just as he was.
“Are those your trucks?” the woman asked.
“What’s it to you?” Dom asked.
Kong noticed the woman’s eyebrows furrow.
“I have a proposition,” the woman stated.
“I’ve got your fucking proposition right here!” Dom yelled, grabbing his crotch.
Randy, the fourth—and thus far, silent—driver, spoke with laughter in his voice as his 6 foot 5, 315 pound frame approached the woman, “I’d probably break her in half.”
“Let’s hear what she has to say,” Kong said, placing his hand on Randy’s shoulder.
Randy shrugged it off. “Fuck you, man. I’ll listen to what she says after I break a piece of that off. You got a problem with that?” Randy shouted as he pointed at the stocky youth that had come with the woman.
The young man merely smiled sadly. For some reason, that scared the shit out of Kong. Randy’s steps began to falter as he got closer to the woman. She did not move a muscle; even her hair seemed unaffected by the wind. Kong noticed that she was somehow above the earthly elements.
“I’m...I’m glad you’re not running,” Randy said as he started fumbling around with his fly. “I hate when they run. Oh, I catch them…always. It’s just that I’m usually sweaty by then, and then I ain’t so nice. You know what I mean?” Randy asked with a leer as he pulled his penis free from his pants. “Like what you see?”
The woman, without looking down, reached her hand out.
“Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talking about,” Randy said as he looked heavenward in anticipation.
His high pitched screams started shortly after his dismembered member landed with a wet slap on the pavement.
“Are we ready to talk?” the woman asked as she wiped her hand on Randy’s shirt before effortlessly pushing him over.
His screams became a crescendo before they started to tail off into sobs of pain. Shock and blood loss were beginning to take their toll.
“Fuck, Kong, she ripped his cock off!” Al was screaming as he began to back up.
Dom was dry-heaving. Only Kong was holding his ground.
“You the leader?” the woman asked Kong as she stepped over Randy who was now wrapped up in the fetal position.
He nodded quickly, wishing that, after he had shot his infected girlfriend, he had turned the gun on himself. Anything would have been better than staring into those twin pools of death.
“I have a proposition,” she stated again.
“And if I refuse?” Kong asked.
The woman looked back at the huddled form of Randy.
“I’m listening,” he told her.
And an hour later, when they were done talking, there were s
ome absolute truths. First and foremost, Kong was confident in the fact that he had just made a deal with the devil.
Eliza stepped on Randy’s dried husk of manhood as she walked away.
“Where we going to get more truckers?” Al asked Kong.
“I’ve got an idea about that. Shouldn’t really be a problem,” he told the younger man.
“Do you really think these work?” Dom asked as he held out the small vial Eliza had given them all.
Kong was absently rubbing his fingers over the vial he now wore around his neck. He didn’t know for sure, but he was going to check because, if they didn’t, he was going to consider their agreement null and void. Then he was going to go as far west as he could before driving into the ocean.
“Come on, Al, you ride with me,” Kong said.
“You want me to leave my rig here?” Al asked.
“Yeah. I just want to check something out, and the quieter we go in, the better.”
“Sure,” Al answered, but he wasn’t comfortable with it at all.
“What do you want me to do?” Dom asked.
“Get rid of Randy’s body. We’ll be right back,” Kong told him.
“You want me to bury the fat fuck? It’ll take me hours to dig something deep enough,” Dom replied.
“Did I say to bury him? Just get the body out of the middle of the parking lot. We’re going to have dozens of trucks in here. I don’t need someone squashing his lard ass all over the place.”
Dom lit a cigarette. “Fine, but I’m not touching his pecker.”
“Not much to worry about there anyway,” Kong said.
Kong and Al drove a few miles until Kong found what he was looking for: a small band of zombies wandering the neighborhood. They were still far off, but the sound of the huge diesel Mack engine was drawing them in like gypsies to a rhinestone festival.
“Hey, Al, can I see that new gun you lifted off that guy the other day?” Kong asked. Al handed him the piece. “She sure is a beaut,” Kong said as he looked at the extended barrel Colt .45. “Loaded too,” he said as he looked into the cylinder. “Get out.” Kong pointed the revolver at Al’s forehead.
