Dying Days 7

by Armand Rosamilia

  He started running down the street until he saw what she’d seen.

  There were dozens of zombies coming down the road, all veering towards the mall and getting in line behind the others.

  “The ranks are swelling,” he said. “I think we need a better count before we do anything.”

  “Agreed,” Darlene said.

  The Lich Lord jumped into the air, straight up, until he was over the tree line. He hovered in place and looked at the zombie horde.

  And it was a horde.

  The zombies were in tight, neat rows. A hundred long and at least fifty deep, zombies were pushed up against the one in front and shoulder to shoulder on either side.

  The few buildings still standing were the only spots they weren’t lined up in.

  Darlene had joined The Lich Lord in the air.

  “How many more did he call? The ranks are swelling. Pretty soon there won’t be enough space for all of them,” Darlene said. “I’m going to guess over five thousand at this point but I can sense at least another half of that within the next three miles headed this way.”

  “Your son, if he is who is doing this, has put out the call. I can only think it’s for a siege of The Promised Land,” The Lich Lord said.

  “But why? He has to know I’m not directly involved with it.”

  The Lich Lord nodded. “Yes, but did you think for a second… maybe this isn’t just about you? Maybe your baby boy has bigger fish to fry? I think he’s up to something even bigger than we can fathom right now.”

  “I’ll have to ask him, right before I tear his head off of his little shoulders,” Darlene said.

  “Your motherly instincts are impeccable.”

  “He stopped being my son when he sent someone to kill me,” Darlene said.

  “I guess I can see that. No presents for Christmas for little Johnny, right?”

  Darlene didn’t respond but she looked annoyed, which made him smile inside. He could still get under her skin as well as she got under his. They had an uneasy alliance of superpowers but he knew when this was over they’d have to go their separate ways again or try to destroy one another.

  “I think we go over there and we rip apart each and every zombie. Then we go back to The Promised Land, find the rebels and take them out,” Darlene said.

  “What then?”

  “We find my son and kill him.” Darlene started to slowly move in the air.

  “I have a feeling your son will find you long before you find him,” The Lich Lord said. He followed along with Darlene and dropped a few feet away when she landed.

  “No use in draining my energy by hovering. I can kill them just as easily from the ground,” she said.

  “Are we going to take sides? I prefer wiping out the right side if that’s all the same to you,” The Lich Lord said.

  “It doesn’t matter to me.”

  The Lich Lord laughed. “You’re so serious right now. I can feel your tension. We both know this isn’t going to be as simple as shooting a couple of death rays into their ranks and watching them blow up like in a cartoon.”

  “I keep waiting for the real enemy to show its face,” Darlene said. “I can’t sense anything other than these mindless zombies, though.”

  “Neither can I. It doesn’t mean they aren’t around. Your son has gifts thanks to you. Hopefully, he isn’t as powerful,” The Lich Lord said. He decided not to mention her son was likely way more powerful than both of them combined.

  This was not going to be easy.

  Darlene held out her arms but didn’t do anything.

  “What are you waiting for?” The Lich Lord asked. “We could be done with this and have plenty of time to find a hole to sleep the day away. I don’t feel anything out of place.” He did, though. Like the air was electric and something was about to happen. Something very bad and very beyond his intelligence and powers.

  Darlene took a few hesitant steps, looking around as if she was going to be attacked at any moment.

  “I say we rush over and do some damage,” The Lich Lord said but he was hoping she’d lead the charge.

  “Not yet… not yet…” Darlene began walking faster.

  The Lich Lord paced with her, keeping a ten foot gap between them as his senses went into overload, trying to find the problem he knew was coming.

  Darlene stopped and sighed loudly.

  The Lich Lord was about to ask what her problem was when he saw it with his own eyes.

  Six grotesque abominations appeared as if from thin air and began running across the parking lot at them.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Mitch felt like this was a mistake. Terry had called a meeting but half of the members weren’t even present. They’d either ignored the frantic knocks on their door or had said they’d be coming but went back to bed.

  This was all wrong.

  “Terry, can I talk to you in private?” Mitch asked.

  “No. We need to start making our plans. I think we can still get inside The Ocean Center and lie in wait for the zombie to get back. Who saw him leave?” Terry asked, waving his finger until it fell on a man who slowly raised his hand.

  “He left with another zombie from what I hear,” Mitch said.

  “Not just any zombie. Darlene Bobich the Zombie Killer. They’re working together. We’re fucked,” Whopper said. “Tosha was with them on the bridge. She came back.”

  “And started asking a lot of questions,” Marty said. He shook his head and took a nip from a flask in his shaking hand. “She was going around asking people on the street who was in charge of the rebellion. I think she spooked Maxine.”

  “I’m right here, asshole,” Maxine said.

  “Sorry.” Marty smiled nervously. “I think we need to go underground. Hide for awhile. Regroup. See if we can get some more members. Tosha is going to find someone to talk and then we’re all fucked.”

  “Relax. We have to move tonight. There’s really no other choice. We put The Lich Lord down and I deal with Tosha. It’s the only way. If we hesitate, we will die. By daybreak, if this isn’t taken care of, we’re all fucked,” Terry said.

  “How are you going to deal with Tosha?” Mitch asked. Now he was pissed.

  Terry had his hand on his hip near his weapon again.

  Mitch didn’t want a shootout in the parking garage but there was no way he’d let Terry kill Tosha. No fucking way.

  “Relax. I’m not going to hurt her. At all. You have my word. I’m going to distract her for a few hours. Let her think I’m on her side and I have an idea where the people she’s looking for are hiding. I’ll take her as far away as I can. Down to the boats in Ponce Inlet. Let her think the conspirators are holed up in one of the old seafood restaurants on the water. By the time we get back everything will be done,” Terry said.

  “I don’t trust you,” Mitch said.

  “You really have no choice.”

  “I’ll take Tosha to the boats,” Mitch said.

  “We need you to shoot the zombie in the head,” Maxine said. “None of us can shoot like you.”

  Mitch turned to Maxine. “How do you even know I can shoot a weapon?”

  “You look like you do,” Maxine said.

  Mitch laughed and addressed the small group. “You’re putting your faith in me… a guy you just recently met, who might or might not be someone who can shoot a gun, who you just asked to be a part of this conspiracy, who was sleeping with Tosha, who’s definitely working for The Lich Lord?”

  “Pretty much,” Terry said. He slapped Mitch on the back. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

  “This is insane,” Mitch said.

  “Living in a world where zombies rule the earth is insane. We’re just trying to survive before we get eaten by this rat bastard,” Whopper said.

  “He isn’t eating anyone,” Marty said. “I mean, he probably did when he first became a zombie but he isn’t doing it now.”

  “So we give him a pass because he no longer wants to bite us? You
do remember what the zombies also do, right? They fuck you to death,” Maxine said.

  “Not a bad way to die if you ask me,” Whopper said. Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. “What? Just saying what everyone is really thinking.”

  “We’re wasting time,” Terry said. “I need everyone into positions. Now.”

  Maxine snorted. “We don’t even know the actual plan. Half of our team is missing in action. One of them could be talking to The Lich Lord right now or telling Tosha what we’re planning to do. I don’t like it.”

  “If anyone wants to walk down the ramp and back to your warm beds, be my fucking guest. We’ll all get up like nothing happened and live out our last days under the thumb of a monster. We’ll eventually see what a huge mistake this has been and our small window of opportunity will have long past.” Terry turned to Whopper. “Tell everyone why you only put in a half a day today.”

  “There’s a zombie horde near the mall. The Lich Lord and The Zombie Killer probably went there to see what was up. Maybe they’re fighting the zombies right now,” Whopper said.

  “Maybe they’re doing it to save our asses,” Mitch said.

  “More like saving their own asses from other zombies moving in on their prison camp,” Terry said.

  “We’re free to come and go as we please,” Mitch said.

  Terry laughed. “Are we? Really? When’s the last time you took a stroll over the bridge? I know I haven’t been allowed to go searching for supplies unless I was picked by Tosha for her crew. They said, back in the day before The Promised Land was so spread out, they had a guy named Jeff who ran the patrols. He was fair. He took a lot of men with him to go hunting zombies and find shit. Rumor has it Tosha put a bullet in his head and left Jeff for the zombies. Anyone get to go on these excursions with Tosha anymore, besides other chicks?”

  Whopper raised his hand.

  “You don’t count, fat ass. Put your fucking hand down. You drove a fucking bus,” Terry said.

  “It still counts,” Whopper said.

  “Not the point. The real point I’m trying to make is we’re all trapped inside the walls. Sure, we have electricity and food but where’s our freedom? We give it up to have a king. A king who’s been instrumental in wiping out a large portion of the world. Let’s not forget that. The Lich Lord had people in cages inside The Ocean Center so he could eat them or worse. That’s a fact, too. Anyone who was here when it was only Main Street will tell you, too,” Terry said.

  Mitch didn’t know if what Terry was saying made any sense. He’d been a soldier once. It wasn’t that long ago, either. He’d fought for his country. Wasn’t this also fighting for your country?

  “I’m in. Let’s just get this over with so I can go back to bed,” Maxine said.

  “This is going to be an all-nighter,” Terry said. “I need to know everyone is totally in or this isn’t going to work.”

  “I hope you have an honest to God plan about how to do this,” Mitch said.

  “You’re going to sneak into the building and get behind the bleachers in the main arena area. That’s where he hangs out during the day, from what I’m told. Mitch, you shoot him in the head as many times as you can,” Terry said.

  “What are the rest of us going to do?” Whopper asked.

  “As soon as Mitch shoots, you’ll need to come out with the machetes and cut The Lich Lord into little pieces. It’s the only way we can insure he won’t come back to life. I heard someone say they can regenerate lost limbs,” Terry said.

  “We’re all going in?” Marty asked, looking worried.

  “No. We’ll have to have a couple of people outside the back door, ready to assist when you carry the pieces of the body outside. Then bring it here, to the parking garage, where the rest of you will be assigned burning it in the fifty-five gallon drums we’ve held onto for weeks. Everyone understand? We’re doing this with less people but it can still work without a problem,” Terry said.

  “You’re going after Tosha?” Mitch asked.

  Terry nodded. “I swear, dude, I’m only going to distract her until The Lich Lord is gone. You have my word.”

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  “I’ll take care of them. In my spare time, I’ve been doing some studying,” The Lich Lord said.

  “You’ve been studying zombie assassins?” Darlene asked, watching as the enemy came on, spreading out as they moved.

  “I read up on Dungeons & Dragons. I figured since I was named after one of their major monsters it might do me good to know more about them. I also learned a few spells while I was at it. Now I wish, when I was a kid, I had had more friends. It seems like a cool way to waste time.” The Lich Lord smiled at Darlene. “After we’re done cleaning up these little fires, I’ll teach you how to play. Can you imagine doing a marathon campaign when neither of us have to sleep or stop for food or bathroom breaks?”

  Darlene pointed at the zombies.

  “Oh, right.” The Lich Lord spread his arms and wiggled his fingers. “I’m going to throw a devastating fireball at them. Watch this.”

  His hands began to glow and a huge, hot sphere appeared between his fingers.

  “I think I can get the middle four. Then we fight one on one,” The Lich Lord said and moved his hands.

  The fireball shot across the parking lot, growing as it moved until it was a fifteen foot by fifteen foot block of fire.

  The zombie assassins jumped into the air at the last minute and the fireball passed harmlessly across the parking lot, a burnt path in its wake.

  When it got to the other side, instead of ripping a fiery path through the dormant zombies, it exploded against an invisible wall, sparks and embers tossed into the air and creating a large crater in the pavement.

  “That didn’t work. At all,” Darlene said. She pulled out her Desert Eagle and took aim at a zombie with metal armor on his arms and legs and sewn into his chest.

  She shot twice but the zombie dodged both shots easily and now it was smiling. It had once been a young man, maybe twenty, but now the body was so distorted it was hard to tell much more about him.

  To Darlene they were all like science experiments gone horribly wrong. One of the zombies had a shotgun for an arm and, just as she wondered if it was functional or for looks, the zombie reached over with his other hand, aimed and pulled the trigger attached to its elbow.

  The blast scattered and Darlene blocked with a mind-shield.

  “This is going to be tougher than I thought,” The Lich Lord said. “I say we let them come to us and we take them down one at a time.”

  “If you really think they’ll get in line and let us fight each in turn you’re nuts,” Darlene said and shot her weapon again, missing as the zombie dodged the bullet. “I say we run away and find a better place to make a stand. We’re too exposed and they’re going to circle around us.”

  “And then we go up,” The Lich Lord said. He motioned for the zombies to come and get it, setting his feet and throwing punches in the air.

  “You’re having way too much fun with this,” Darlene said.

  “Aren’t you excited? We finally found something that challenges us. These zombie assassins are going to give us a fight. What could be better? Sitting in a dark room, waiting for the sun to go down, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When you can access any knowledge floating around or tap into any database not destroyed, it gets pretty boring pretty quickly. I know you’re not having the best time of it, either. I can sometimes hear your crying,” The Lich Lord said.

  Darlene gave The Lich Lord the finger.

  “I’m not judging. You think I’m just some heartless monster, at first I was. I’ve evolved and gotten back all of my memories and remember what it was like to be human. Just be a husband and a member of society. I miss it, too,” he said.

  There was no more time for talking because the zombies had arrived, spreading out to surround the pair as the front two made the first attack.

  Darlene ducked a machete arm from the
nearest, getting inside and grabbing the zombie’s metal chest protector. She heated it up with her touch, knowing the zombie wasn’t going to cry out but hoping it gave her an extra second or two.

  As the machete came down, Darlene blocked it with her other hand, still holding the Desert Eagle, which she twisted in her hand.

  The zombie was grinning, the heated metal doing nothing to stop it.

  Darlene pulled the trigger of the Desert Eagle and the bullet, at such close range, ripped through the zombie’s cheek and into its head.

  She lifted the zombie overhead and turned. It had stopped moving when she’d shot it in the brain.

  The Lich Lord was surrounded by three zombies, all wielding insane weapons for arms.

  Darlene tossed the zombie into the closest zombie, pushing it to the left.

  The Lich Lord took advantage and thrust upwards with a wickedly curved blade, catching it right in the throat and stopping the zombie in its tracks.

  “Critical hit,” The Lich Lord yelled.

  Darlene had no idea what he was talking about. She turned to see where her other two potential attackers were and felt the blade of a sword-arm as it sliced through her shoulder. There was no real pain but it still made her jump back and grip where the blade had sunk into her.

  Both zombies were moving in for the simultaneous attack, blades swinging wildly.

  Darlene jumped into the air, her strategy to get behind one and keep it between her and the other zombie so she’d have to fight only one at a time.

  Both zombies joined her in the air and she was barely able to get away from the blades by shooting straight back, getting sliced on both arms.

  She heard another shotgun blast and looked down to see The Lich Lord, no longer smiling, as he tried to fight three at once while his left hand had been shot off.

  Darlene needed to get close to the zombies in order to get to their heads.

  She feigned a move to the ground and, as one zombie went low to intercept and the other stayed the course for a frontal attack, she changed her course and went right at the zombie ahead of her, knowing her legs would be exposed.