The Feral Children [A Zombie Road Tale] Box Set | Books 1-3

by Simpson, David A.

  He was tired of hauling feed and cleaning up after them. He ought to just refuse. He’d chop wood, he could see the sense in that, but there was no reason to keep these stupid animals. They should drive them all out of the gate and be done with them. What would they do if he just stopped working, let Swan beat him up? She’d just got lucky last time. He hadn’t been ready. If she tried it again, he’d knock her teeth out.

  The only job he didn’t really mind was stabbing zombies at the front gate. Whenever they started piling up, wandering in off the road for some unknown reason, they would have to go to the entrance and spear them in the head. The coyotes and buzzards and whatever else ate dead things would drag them off and have a feast. Gordon liked that job and would even volunteer for it. The others would get it over quickly, it stank pretty badly up there, but he liked to make it last. He’d jab them in the eyes, watch the gooey orbs run down their cheeks and was fascinated as they ignored their blindness and still tried to snap at him. Sometimes there was a woman zombie that wasn’t too messed up. He didn’t care if she was missing an arm or something, he’d learned to ignore bones sticking out and things like that. If they weren’t all rotten and gross, he’d hook the spear and rip their clothes off. He’d stab them in their hairy parts between the legs or poke their saggy boobs to see if they would deflate any more. Once he’d tried to count how many times he could stab one but got tired after fifty. It had holes everywhere but still tried to bite him. He wondered if he could tie one up, one that wasn’t too gross, and have a little grown up fun. The few magazines he’d brought with him were getting pretty worn out. He was fifteen, almost sixteen, the oldest of them all, and he had needs. But still, he didn’t think he could. He’d need help tying her down and besides, what if he caught something? What if the zombie virus was like an STD and his dong started rotting off? What he needed was for Harper to come to her senses and run off with him.

  The rhino had nearly stepped on him twice while he daydreamed and cleaned out her enclosure. Stupid blind creature, and the flies! Buzzing around her ass then landing on his face. It was disgusting and demeaning. Then to top it off she had sideswiped him and knocked him down right into a pile of dung. Sure, he’d given her a little jab with the pitchfork to make her give him some working room, but it didn’t hurt her with that thick hide. Ungrateful half blind bitch, he thought.

  They should be back in Putnam living it up. He’d been embarrassed when he saw the empty streets and the stores standing deserted after his rescue. All that food for the taking and he’d been surviving on army rations that were barely fit to eat. If he’d known there was only one of those zombies or how easy it was to kill, he could have gotten out. He would have, too. He would have figured it out sooner or later. He hated that Mr. High and Mighty had seen him living like he’d been. He’d seen all the girly magazines with the sticky pages. It was worse that he hadn’t told the others, like he had some big secret and was lording it over him. Like he was blackmailing him and would tell everyone if Gordon didn’t do everything he said. If he didn’t cut wood or clean the stalls.

  Yeah, Gordy was so chicken he pooped in a box, slept right next to it and looked at dirty magazines all day. Speaking of chicken, did you choke yours very much, Gordy?

  They’d all laugh at him and snicker behind his back. He hated them all.

  The town had been deserted; he could have been a king when they came instead of a prisoner. All the zombies had chased the survivors down the road and had never come back. The few that were there were locked in the deserted buildings.

  He cursed his father who’d run out and abandoned him and he cursed himself for not staying home that day. He’d gone along with him because the old man was going to kick the store owner out. He was going to shut him down for breach of contract and Gordon wanted to watch it happen. He wanted to see Gordon Lowery Senior, known as the Bulldog in certain circles, lower the hammer and watch the old shop keeper beg for another chance.

  “He was late with the lease payment for the second time and that is grounds for termination.” His dad explained on the drive down to Putnam in his new Mercedes. “When I had the contract drawn up, I made sure our lawyers put that in the fine print. I’ve been waiting for over a year for him to be late again. That old junk shop he’s been running for the last decade has become prime real estate. I can double the rent with a health food store. We’re going to demand for him to immediately vacate the premises. I’ll show you how it’s done, son.”

  The old shopkeeper had been wearing his stupid Proud Veteran hat and eating a greasy takeout breakfast at his desk when they confronted him. He’d done everything his dad had predicted and Gordon had a hard time keeping the grin off his face. He’d blustered, he’d gotten mad and finally he’d begged. His father had come down on him so hard the old man had gotten sick and had run to the bathroom. They had done a little fist bump when they heard him retching and his dad had mouthed pathetic then went out into the store to determine how he wanted to remodel it. Gordon had stayed in the office and was peeking in the drawers when he heard the snarl of something inhuman and his dad scream. There was a scuffle and when he looked out, his father was running out of the front door. Gordon yelled something, he couldn’t remember exactly what, and the bloody old store keeper turned towards him. He slammed the door and had been trapped for months. Or weeks as they claimed. Whatever. It felt like months.

  Jokes on you Dad, he thought as he tossed another scoop of rhino dung into the wheelbarrow. He was probably out there wandering around with the rest of the undead in his expensive suit, shuffling around in his overpriced shoes, self-winding Rolex still keeping time on his wrist.

  He leaned on the shovel and thought about last night. He finally got her by herself but that hadn’t worked out so well. He knew it wasn’t visible, but he still felt the imprint of Harper’s hand when she’d slapped him. He just wanted a kiss. She was the only one old enough for him to be interested in, the only girl that had boobs, and she should be grateful for his attention. She didn’t have to be such a tease. She was always teasing Cody too, laughing at his jokes or agreeing with whatever he said. The infallible Cody. Mr. High and Mighty. What a prick.

  Cody said we need more firewood.

  Cody said we should each pick a skill and learn it from the books.

  Cody said clean out the stall.

  Cody said you have to cut hay.

  Cody said it’s your turn to walk the fence.

  Cody said you have to kill zombies at the front gate.

  Cody said this.

  Cody said that.

  Cody, Cody, Cody.

  Who put him in charge anyway? So what if he’d been a Boy Scout and had a few skills? So what if he knew the zoo better than anyone else? It was the end of the world and rules didn’t apply anymore. I’m almost a year older than him, it should go by seniority. Gordon thought. And we should be in town or back home. There were probably survivors there, it was a gated community.

  But, no.

  Cody says we’re gonna keep a low profile.

  Cody says it’s safe here in the freaking sticks out in the middle of nowhere.

  Cody says the animals need us, and we are gonna need them if those zombies ever get in.

  Last night, he’d listened to everyone drone on and on around the fireplace as they discussed the weather, Christmas coming up, supplies on hand, training they were doing and things they’d learned. If they lived in town, they wouldn’t have worry about all this survivalist crap. There was plenty of food and they wouldn’t have to take care of all these stupid animals. When Harper had made another trip to the kitchen to pull the brownies out of the oven, he volunteered to help. She was the only one who was nice to him and he knew why. She had probably been thinking about getting away, thinking about him and how easy life would be in town. After all, she had baked them because he said chocolate was his favorite. If that wasn’t a blatant come on, he didn’t know what was. He was the oldest, the richest and had a plan to get them o
ut of this zoo. Of course, she had the hots for him.

  She’d acted surprised when he’d slipped up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist then went to kiss her neck. She acted like she didn’t like it, that she was offended. She’d spun and slapped him.

  He’d ran off to his room when what he should have done is slapped her right back and told her things were going to change. He should have taken charge, told them all that he was the oldest and he would be calling the shots from now on. Angry at the memory, Gordon threw his pitchfork on the ground. He didn’t care if Millie hurt her hooves on it or not. He hoped she did, dumb animal. He still seethed at the little tease, one of the others had probably put her up to it. Swan, most likely. She hated him for no reason. That was okay. He hated her back. One way or another there was going to be a change of leadership around here. Lowery’s gave orders, they didn’t take them.

  Gordon lashed out at Millie, kicked her hard and she ambled off. He was incensed, working himself into a full-blown rage. He was through cleaning out stalls and doing everything Cody said. He was a survivor, he had lived through the outbreak and he’d done it on his own. He hadn’t had any help. He had as much right as any of them to make decisions. More actually. He was the oldest and he had been born and groomed to be a leader in the community, not a go-fer or shit shoveler. He came from money, prestigious parents and expensive schools. He was their better and deserved to be treated as such. He paced back and forth, getting angrier by the moment. He’d tried to do it their way but that was over. They were going to do things his way from now on. He was the biggest and if he had to, he’d beat the crap out of all of them. He touched the machete handles tucked in his belt, nodded to himself, then set out in search of Cody.

  25

  Cody & Gordon

  Cody and Harper stood in the kitchen of the old house giving Otis a promised treat. He opened the last can of Spam and tossed the jelly coated hunk of compressed meat to his pal. Otis caught it out of the air and gulped it down, waiting expectantly for more, it was his favorite snack.

  “That’s the last of it,” Cody said and wiped his hands. “I’ll look for more when we go back into town.”

  He poured Otis a bowl of dog food. The Kodiak chuffed, but ate it anyway. It would hold him over until someone brought in some fresh meat. Swan and Donny were getting good at hunting and it was rare when one of them didn’t have something hanging in the storehouse.

  Great, Cody thought as he watched Gordon storming towards him. He reeked like dung. How could he get covered in it? All he had to do was scoop it out and dump it in the fertilizer pile. Murray had plans for a big garden in the spring so they were keeping all the droppings together instead of spreading them anywhere out of the way. Cody’s wrinkled nose at the smell pissed Gordon off even more.

  “I’m not feeding them or cleaning up after them anymore. We should either move into the town and get some real weapons and a real place to live or send a scout up to my old neighborhood. I told you it was gated and private. Most of houses have solar panels and generators. I have family there, you could probably have your own house. A mansion with a hot tub, not a dump like this! This place is just a flop house, my God, you all sleep in the same room. I can hardly even go in the den anymore because it stinks like animal,” fumed Gordon.

  “The town isn’t safe, Gordon.” Cody explained again. “We’ve been over this. It’s empty now but those hordes are on the move. What if a huge one wanders in out of LaCrosse or Cedar Rapids? What would we do then?”

  “At least we would be on a main road!” Gordon exclaimed. “At least we’d be somewhere we could get rescued if help comes. They’ll never find us out here.”

  “Nobody is coming to save us.” Harper said flatly. “You’re living in a fantasy world. There is nobody else out there with a city like it used to be. Nobody is scouring the countryside looking for survivors. If there are other people, they’re doing the same thing we are, just trying to make it through the winter.”

  “But we hear them on the radio!” Gordon practically screamed. “We know there are others.”

  “We hear bits and pieces of people talking on CB’s or something.” Cody said. “Murray told us they’re using super powerful radios, probably stuff that was illegal before, and it’s bleeding over onto the emergency channels. We don’t know where they’re at or what they have. It might be only two or three people and they could be anywhere in the world.”

  “Fine.” Gordon said. “But we can’t stay here. We need to send somebody up to scout out my old house. I’m telling you, we had security guards and high fences, better than these, and everyone had generators and lots of food. They still have electricity. We could live normal again!”

  The twins came in to start dinner and made a face at Gordon when they saw he had tracked dung all over their floor. He ignored the two weirdos.

  “Who’s going to go check it out?” Cody asked, trying to get Gordon to see reason. Trying to let him realize he was grasping at straws. “You?”

  “Donny is the fastest.” he replied. “He could get up there in a week. Heck, once he finds people somebody there can come get us. They’ll have cars.”

  “What makes you so sure they would want you back, Gordy?” Swan asked as she came out of the den holding one of the cubs. “If I were them, I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

  “Nobody asked you, dog girl.” Gordon said and glared at her.

  Swans lips curled away from her bared teeth and a slow, guttural snarl came from her throat.

  Gordon stepped behind the island, putting a little distance between them but he wasn’t finished. He needed to make them see reason.

  “Look at her.” he said and pointed. “This place is going to your heads. She thinks she’s a wolf.”

  “And look at them.” his angry finger went towards the twins. “Is that normal? They’ve got tattoos all over their bodies and they’re only twelve years old. They look like circus freaks and I’ve seen them eating raw fish with those bears. You’ve got those little kids we rescued starting to act like animals, too. Normal people don’t act like this. Normal people would have you all locked up for child endangerment!”

  Gordon had to get it off his chest, had to make them see they were all going crazy, they had to get out of here and back to civilization.

  “You’re all turning feral and acting like cavemen. Have you looked in a mirror lately, Cody? You look like an extra on some survivor show. What’s with the beads in your hair and that stupid necklace? This place sucks. The animals suck. My family would be appalled to see me living like this, eating this garbage you call food.” he finished angrily.

  “Then don’t eat our cooking.” Annalise said, “make your own.”

  Tobias nodded his head and set his jaw. He would get not one bite of their meals anymore. He’d toss it to the zombies first.

  Cody was running out of patience, but tried one last time to reason with Gordon, “We aren’t going anywhere. We have a great setup here. Besides, the animals…”

  “The animals!” Gordon screamed cutting him off, spittle flying from his lips.

  Everyone was against him. Everyone hated him. This argument wasn’t going as planned and he was getting so mad he was out of control, just lashing out.

  “Always the damned animals! It’s a goldmine out there and you want to stay here and play with your teddy bear. People are gonna hit the towns to take the food and all the good stuff. Nobody is coming here. We’ll never be found or rescued if we stay here. These stupid animals don’t matter. The zombies don’t eat them, and they can fend for themselves.”

  “Then go,” Cody said coldly. “Get your gear and go. You’ll be home in a week.”

  He’d had enough. “I won’t stop you, but I won’t be there to save you next time either.”

  “Save me? Save me?” Gordon nearly shrieked.

  He was livid, more afraid that Cody would tell them how he found him cowering in his own filth than he was of being thrown out. He was as
hamed of the others finding out and couldn’t let him say anymore.

  “You didn’t save me, I was doing just fine by myself. I don’t need you. I don’t need any of you!”

  Harper placed a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “He’s upset, just let him cool off. He’ll come around.”

  “You always take his side! He’s hiding from the world instead of trying to find other survivors. All for some stupid promise he made to his dead mama.” Gordon screamed and mimed a shuffling zombie.

  Before he’d realized it, Cody shoved Harper aside and swung on Gordon. His fist slammed the other boy hard, Gordon’s lips split open and he fell to the floor. Blood poured freely down his chin and onto his chest. Otis reared up on his hind legs, banged his head against the ceiling and roared, shaking dust down from the rafters. Cody was livid, was tempted to let Otis rip the bastard apart but saw the wide, fearful eyes of Clara staring at him from the den. He put up a calming hand on Otis’ chest and stopped the bear from attacking.

  Gordon pushed himself to his feet and stood, fists clenching and unclenching, murderous rage in his eyes. He dropped his hands to his machetes but before he could pull them Swan had a tomahawk in each hand, her fists choked up near the head, ready to slash into him. Annalise and Tobias both had instantly gripped big carving knives and were ready to spring. He stared at Cody with tears of impotent rage in his eyes and blood streaming down his chin. He raised his hand and mimed a pistol. “POW,” he said softly, turned and ran up the stairs to his room.