THEM Counteraction: Werewolf Apocalypse: A Zombie Apocalypse Military Novel (THEM Paranormal Zombie Apocalypse Series Book 3)

by M. D. Massey

  Gabby sat quietly, observing me while I finished my first cup of coffee, and again halfway through another cup. Finally, I decided to break the ice. “So, kid, did that vamp hurt you at all?”

  She shook her head. “Naw, he was too busy with all that nuclear stuff.” She looked down at the table and chewed her lip. “Sam couldn’t resist him, though. That pendejo said I had to go with him, or else he’d make Sam kill himself.” She stopped and pushed around some sugar crystals that I’d spilled. “I’m sorry about your friend. He was a really nice man.”

  I looked into my cup and swirled it around a bit. “Yeah, he was.”

  “So what’s the plan?” She propped her feet up on the table, then leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms. “I mean, besides scaring old ladies who don’t know when to shut up.”

  I smirked at her. “She deserved it.”

  “Yeah, she did.” She locked her fingers behind her head. “Still doesn’t tell me what we do next.”

  I swirled my coffee again to mix the last few dregs of sugar and that heavenly nectar into a uniform, syrupy liquid that I tossed back in a single swallow. “Well, now I get you all back to the Facility. And hopefully in one piece.”

  “And then?”

  “Then…” I paused and thought about it. “Then I’m going fishing.”

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  WIFE

  We spent the day prepping for the trip back to the Facility. Camp Bullis was a long ways off, and I now had twenty-plus warm bodies to get there while avoiding any casualties. I figured that once we picked up Colin’s crew, we’d have plenty of fighters on hand to help get everyone to safety. But we still had to get them all back to the Facility, which presented a hell of a logistical conundrum.

  But no matter how much trouble Piotr had caused for me, he had given me a crazy idea. His Tesla was spotless, and it ran like a top. The research campus had generators that were still in good working order; where they got diesel that wasn’t gummed up was anyone’s guess, but they worked. Plus, they had solar, so it wasn’t that difficult to charge the thing up and use it to zoom around. I started thinking about it, and wondered if it might be possible to round up several electric vehicles that we could use to ferry everyone out of here.

  I seemed to recall that most electric cars had ranges of one to two hundred miles on a full charge. The area we were in had been yuppie central, so I was fairly certain we could find more than a few of them in the shopping center parking lots and garages nearby. If we could find some that were still operational, they might get us within walking distance of the Facility; “might” being the operational term. But the real question was whether any of them had survived the EMP from the nuclear attack.

  I tasked Bobby and Colin to search the parking garages, and Gabby and I took the parking lots. Soon we’d located and map-marked a half-dozen vehicles that might have still been in working order. I had Colin drive while Bobby pushed and Gabby and I rode shotgun, and six hours later we had them all back at the research campus, charging up off their solar and battery backups. Only those that had been parked in the garages on the lower levels showed any promise. The rest had succumbed to either the EMP or the Texas heat; it was difficult to know which was the more likely culprit. I decided to wait until morning to try them out, figuring that it was best to allow them to reach a maximal charge before testing them to see if they were still operational.

  Time was running out, though. With the wolves gone, it was clear that the local nos’ we’d run into at the theater wasn’t keeping the dead out of the area any longer. Whether he’d cut bait and run, or decided to have a little fun at our expense‌—‌well, that was anyone’s guess. What was clear was that deaders were massing at the fences in a few key points, and all our activity hadn’t done much to help the situation. In a few days, the fences would be down, and we’d be overrun.

  Yet, even by stuffing people into cars like circus clowns, we were short at least a half-dozen seats. We had four vehicles that could potentially operate, including the Tesla. That’d get us maybe twenty bodies, tops. Plus, the more people we loaded the cars down with, the shorter their range. We could end up having to hole everyone up at Canyon Lake, and then make the rest of the way on foot.

  No rest for the weary, I thought as I looked at the maps and wondered how I was going to get my people safely all the way to the Facility.

  It was too much to think about at the moment, so later that evening I set it off to the side and buried Sam. Bobby helped with the digging, and Gabby and some of the settlers who had known him showed up to say a few words. Despite the moans and sounds of the dead in the distance, it was a nice ceremony. After that, all I wanted to do was forget about things for a few hours. I stayed up late drinking cheap bourbon, playing cards and talking shit with Colin.

  “You know, we still have that bet going on,” he said as he dealt the cards out on the table. “By my count, you have me beat four to two.”

  “Eleven to two.”

  “What, you’re counting the explosion? Fine, then I get credit for the vamp.”

  I snorted. “Seriously? I did all the heavy lifting there, as I recall.”

  He shook his head. “Actually, your girlfriend did all the heavy lifting. I just finished the job.” He must’ve noticed the look on my face, because the smile on his vanished. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring her up. I know it must be a sore subject right about now.”

  I ignored him like it was no big deal. It was a big deal, and he and I both knew it, but the guy code said you didn’t talk about deep, serious shit, and especially not during a card game. Alcohol could temporarily suspend the guy code rules, but neither of us were drunk enough for an exception at the moment.

  I looked at my cards, pursed my lips, and gave a small wave of my hand. “S’okay, don’t sweat it.” I looked at my cards again. “Hmph. Well, I’ve been kicking your ass at poker all night, so I guess I can let you take credit for ganking the vamp.” I sipped my bourbon and set my cards face down on the table.

  Colin looked at me, looked at his hand, and looked at me again. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to show another winning hand?”

  I resisted the urge to grin and maintained my best poker face. “Does that mean you call?”

  “I think that means I fold.” He tossed his cards on the table, face-side down, and stood up. “At least the bourbon makes losing a little easier.” He downed the rest of his glass and grimaced. “Wow, that’s bad.”

  I laughed. “Score stands five to three then. I’ll concede the ‘thropes that were caught in the explosion.”

  “Five to three? Where’d you pick up the fifth one?”

  “If you’re taking credit for the vamp, that means I get credit for Van.”

  “You’re a piece of work, Sullivan,” he said as he yawned and stretched. “Alright, we have a long haul ahead, so I’m going to sack out. Remember, tomorrow’s a new day‌—‌there’s plenty of road between here and the castle, and plenty of time to even the score.”

  “Hope you’re not too attached to that big pig sticker of yours. From the way things are going, it has my name written all over it.”

  He laughed as he walked off. “Keep dreaming, buddy. Keep dreaming.”

  After he left, I checked his last hand; he’d had a full house.

  I didn’t take pity well. You need to get your shit together, Sully, I thought as I headed off to the couch.

  I dozed off sometime before midnight, and woke not long after with the feeling that someone was watching me in my sleep.

  “Hi, Scratch.” It was Kara’s voice.

  I cracked my eyes open and searched the room, finding her sitting across from me in the dark. I sat up on the couch and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. She’d discarded the lab coat, heels, and pencil skirt, and was wearing jeans, hiking boots, and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her hands were folded in her lap.

  I cleared my throat. “Are you‌—‌still you?”


  She sat as still as a stone, without breath or heartbeat. It was creepy as all hell, and I started to reach for my pistol just as she took a single breath and spoke. “Sorry, I often forget to breathe these days. Piotr told me that I needed to teach myself to do it without thinking about it, so I could blend in and avoid frightening people off.” She rubbed her hands on her jeans and slapped her knees lightly. “In answer to your question… I just don’t know yet.”

  I just sat there watching her and waiting for more, when I realized she was covering her mouth with her hand whenever she spoke. It was silly, because it was her movements that gave her away; the lack of breathing, her unnaturally quick gestures, and how still she could be when she wasn’t speaking. It was uncanny, it was revolting‌—‌and yet, it was still her.

  She took another, awkward breath and continued. “When they‌—‌took me, Piotr tried to put me under his control. I couldn’t be broken that way, so he started killing people. After he killed a little girl, I gave in and let him‌—‌well, I let him have his way with me. He said it was more enjoyable if I cooperated. One night not long after that, he bit me, and the feelings it gave me… I can’t describe it. It was like he knew me, knew everything about me, just as soon as he’d bitten me. Little did I know, that connection would only make it easier for him to control me with his mind.”

  She wriggled around in her seat, and after failing to get comfortable, she stood up and paced the room. “All I wanted was to save these people. I didn’t want to cooperate, and I didn’t want to help them build the gateway, or whatever it was he was trying to accomplish here. At first, I tried to resist by doing little things to sabotage the project. A few lines of bad code here, a deleted line of code there‌—‌whatever I thought I could get away with. I actually thought that I could cause a meltdown, and that even if I killed everyone, it’d be better than the alternative.”

  “But he knew what you were doing.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Yes, damn it! Every time he fed from me, I became less human, and more one of Them, and the more influence he gained over me. He could see inside my mind, he knew my thoughts, and soon there was nothing I could hide from him. After I was completely under his control, he’d spend hours picking through my memories, sifting them like wheat, playing with them. Let me tell you, there’s no rape like someone raping your mind. I couldn’t wash enough to get clean after that.” She paused and took another deep breath, letting out a sigh before she continued. “And then, he made me feed.”

  She walked to a window and looked out on the grounds below. “She was a child, no more than ten or eleven. He brought her to me in the middle of the night, after I’d been working for hours, and I was so hungry. I nearly killed her, Scratch; I couldn’t stop feeding. He had to beat me off her to keep me from killing her, and not because he cared about that child, but because he said it didn’t make sense to waste cattle needlessly. Cattle, he called her!

  “After I came to my senses I tried to cry, but you know what? Vampires can’t cry. Funny, huh? No blood tears, no real tears, nothing.” She rubbed her face and chuckled mirthlessly. “After that, I fought him harder, and eventually figured out that I could resist his will, but only at the cost of a great deal of mental pain. But I was able to do it, so I stopped working for him. That’s when he told me that you were coming for me, and that the only way he’d let you live was if I would complete the project.”

  “You could have held out, Kara‌—‌”

  “No Scratch, I couldn’t. Ultimately, you were the one thing I wasn’t willing to sacrifice. After I understood what he was trying to accomplish here, and what that might mean for humanity, I was willing to sacrifice everyone and everything else. Janie and the rest of them, the kids, myself. Everything and everyone but you.”

  I decided to change tack. “Kara, maybe there’s a way to change you back. There’s this scientist I met, and she knows about how these things work. Maybe she can fix you, and turn you back to the way you were before.”

  She shook her head, which was creepy because of how fast she moved when she wasn’t paying attention. “I’ll never be human again, Scratch. Piotr was eight hundred years old, and he knew just about everything there was to know about the undead. He said there was no cure for vampirism, no way to go back to my former life.”

  “Maybe he lied.”

  She “gruffled” at me, an affectation of hers that was a cross between a growl and a huff. I’d always found it to be endearing, but this time, her heart wasn’t in it. “No, Scratch, I don’t think so.” She sat and hung her head, and cried in tearless sobs. I got up the courage to stand, and I walked over to her and put my arm around her shoulders, holding her close. She leaned into me, sobbing on my shoulder, and then suddenly she shoved me away with a sharp, vicious palm-heel that sent me sprawling.

  “No! You can’t be that close to me. I‌—‌I can’t control it, not when I can feel your heart beating and sense the blood pulsing under your skin.” She gathered herself together, sighed an inhuman sigh, and stood. “Sorry if I hurt you, but I’m dangerous to you right now. To everyone, in fact.”

  I rubbed my chest and stood. “Nothing wounded but my pride. And my broken cowboy heart.”

  Her head tilted in sympathy. “Oh darlin’, please, just don’t.” She walked up to me, and softly cupped my chin in one cold, undead hand.

  “I promise you, my love, that if I can find a way to be with you again, I will. But for now, I can’t be around for fear that I’ll hurt the one person I can’t bear to lose.” She dropped her hand and turned to go.

  How’s that for bitter freaking irony? I thought as she started to walk away. Then my conscience overrode my self-pity, and I remembered that I had a duty to protect the innocent.

  “Wait. Kara, how will you survive?”

  She cracked a crooked grin, and I caught a flash of incisor as she spoke. “Punter blood’s as warm as any, yeah?” She winked at me. “Stay true to yourself, Scratch, and don’t wait for me if you can’t.”

  I decided that I could live with that answer‌—‌or part of it, anyway. I gulped and nodded. “Be seeing you.”

  She nodded back. “Someday, Scratch. Maybe someday.”

  And then she was gone, in the span of a heartbeat. The love of my life was gone, and I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do next.

  EPILOGUE

  SAFETY

  Now Colin and Janie are headed back to the castle house with all the rest of the settlers, and Gabby, Bobby, and I are hoofing it on foot. Colin says they’ll look for more cars near the castle, and charge them by scavenging for more solar panels and a bigger power convertor. Then we’ll ferry everyone in as many trips as it takes to get us all to the Facility. But it’ll be a slow process, and I’m nearly certain there’ll be trouble along the way.

  To be honest, though, I’m kind of looking forward to it. I have a lot of anger issues these days, and the only thing that seems to sort it out for me is killing Them. It’s only a temporary solution, and one that I find I have to repeat. I’m looking forward to getting a lot of therapy on the way to Camp Bullis.

  Incidentally, Van and Piotr look real good, tied up with barbed wire on the front gates of the research facility. As a parting gift I carved a warning into their chests, one I borrowed from the Scottish regiments:

  Nemo me impune lacessit.

  In Texan, that roughly translates to, “Mess with me, and die.”

  Thus concludes THEM: Counteraction… but the story

  will continue in the next Scratch Sullivan novel!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  M.D. Massey resides in Austin, Texas, where he hangs out with his enormous American bulldog while he writes the kind of stori
es that he likes to read. Find out more and get FREE bonus material at:

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