by Scott, Zack
KALE
To be a hero, to follow fate, to accomplish tremendous feats, these are required tasks when sanity decays.
The dawning morning spread over them, forming a lofty blue ceiling. They’d left the shoe store to stock up on food and liquids. Henry led Kale across a street stacked with abandoned cars. Some doors were open, some closed. It seemed to Kale the cars had been stuck in traffic when the zombie swarm came. Few had escaped. In any event, the flock had moved on, the street clear of anything edible.
Henry opened the unlocked liquor store, ringing the door. He crouched and turned, pistol in hand. All Kale had as a weapon was a pair of scissors found in the shoe store’s office. His fingers shook at the thought of stabbing something.
They shut the door and moved swiftly between aisles of snacks. Henry grabbed plastic bags from under the register. “We should load up on water,” he directed.
“Sure,” smiled Kale. He liked Henry — a normal guy trying to protect his family. Why had they picked a shoe store in which to seek safety instead of moving on? He didn’t understand. But he had nowhere else to go, and helping the Wright family seemed right.
Henry had told him they were in Oxnard, California, which meant Jeff and Alec were close. Finding them would be his next move. But for now, Kale stocked up on drinks.
Four worries existed in this new world: food, water, shelter, and zombies. He wondered when the thieves, rapists, and murderers would spawn. How soon would humanity be extinguished?
Kale had survived the Embracer. He’d escaped the so-called Eradicator of Life.
Anything else would be a breeze.
Dark whispers still haunted his mind, but they seemed less and less real as time passed. Had he imagined the tentacle lashing? Had he imagined what the Eradicator required of him? He could never kill his friends. He would never give them up.
In the liquor store, someone had raided the fridges before they’d arrived, but plenty of water remained. He filled two plastic bags and dropped them next to Henry’s loaded snacks by the door.
“Apples? No apples? Darn. Benny loves them.” Henry holstered his pistol.
“Can I ask you something, Henster?”
“Henster? I like it.”
“Why did you name your kid Benvolio? Or is the answer obvious?”
“What’s the obvious answer?” Henry gave a long smile.
“Shakespeare fan?”
“More of a Romeo and Juliet fan.”
“The Leo DiCaprio version?”
“Ha! Almost all tales are a version of the original.”
“Even Battlefield Earth?”
“Yes, even Battlefield Earth.”
A very misunderstood movie. The quiet laughter grew louder and Kale found himself choking to keep it quiet. Henry smacked his back a couple times until they heard those dreadful moans.
“Shhh.” Henry crouched, taking his pistol from the shoulder holster he was wearing and yanking Kale to his level. Outside the liquor store’s one square window, they stumbled. One, two, three, four and five, side by side. Six—seven—rotten hands pressed against glass. They were searching for food. Like us. Kale peeked out from behind a stack of chip bags. Rotten breath heated against the window. A fist slammed against glass, another, and one more. Two of them went for the door, clawing at the metal. “Do they see us?”
Henry kept the gun high, whispering, “I don’t know, stay down. I’ll get us out of here.”
Kale wanted to believe that. They kept hidden as the zombies kept outside. Then it struck his ears like a ravaging fissure. “Kill him.”
“What did you say?” Kale blinked at Henry.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Let them feast on him, boy.” Kale shook his head away, trying to get rid of the whisper.
Henry noticed the shakes. “You okay, kiddo?”
Kale squinted at him. “Yes, I—”
More moaning, clawing, hissing, and salivating.
“Kill him.” The whisper became a reality that sent fear slicing down his spine. “Rip his head off.”
Kale bent over, knees digging in the cold floor. He grabbed his splitting skull with one hand. “NOW!” the Eradicator’s voice exploded in his mind. His stub waved around.
Henry grabbed at his back. “Kid! Kale,” he frantically whispered. Kale’s stub unintentionally smacked Henry but the older man grabbed his arm.
The next whisper created a migraine so extreme that decapitation could be its only cure. “Get out of my head!” Kale trembled in Henry’s lap.
A hand wrapped around his mouth to silence him. “They hear us. Kid, they hear us.”
Glass cracked as more fists snapped against it.
“It’s in me. Get it out. Christ, get it out!” Kale flailed around on the ground as Henry stood.
“Kale,” he said, aiming at the door. More cracking glass. “Listen to me, Kale. In a few seconds they will break through. Get up. Let’s go out the back door.”
Kale writhed, grabbing his head. He became still. The stabbing whispers died. Pain subsided. He rose from the ground, his head low and face hidden from Henry’s eyes.
“Let’s go, now!”
Another crunch against glass. Long cracks spidered their way across the surface.
“Come on, Kale.”
Kale’s chin rose from his chest and he stared at Henry, his gaze clearer than any other day of his life. “No.”
Henry’s mouth trembled as he stepped back. “Your - your eyes. What happened to your eyes?” He nearly tripped in his retreat.
Kale became a rushing force that lifted Henry off his feet, slamming him against a fridge. Henry let out a pained grunt, dropping his gun on impact. It slid next to Kale’s feet and he kicked it away toward the store’s window that would snap inwards any moment.
Kale pressed his arm against Henry’s neck, lifting his feet off the ground. Black veins snapped from Kale’s skin. Darkness rode up his neck and engulfed his eyes.
“Kale,” Henry choked. “What are you?”
Kale’s stub rose next to Henry’s cheek. Blood squirted out the bandage covering his cauterized wound. White cloth ripped open, unleashing a bone sharp as a blade. Kale was numb; he felt no pain from the protruding dagger that was his new hand.
“Kale!” Henry shouted as the window shattered in the liquor store. His eyes bulged from their sockets as he stared into the dark abyss that consumed Kale. “Polly, Benvolio.” Henry kicked for freedom but the Embracer of Death had him locked. “My family! Please, Kale.”
The blade touched Henry’s sweat-drenched cheek.
“Jesus Christ!”
A snarl birthed off Kale’s lips. “Christ wouldn’t believe it either.”
“What? Kale, you met my family, why are you—”
Kale retracted the bone dagger from Henry’s face and released the grip around his neck. He grabbed his head, trying to shake the darkness away. I can beat it. I can beat it.
Zombies stumbled closer to them. Henry struggled for his pistol, lost somewhere under their feet. He launched upwards, firing rapidly, blasting zombie skulls across refrigerators as their arms smothered him.
Kale kept twisting, turning, screaming as darkness sought to consume him. Somehow, Henry had escaped the first group and he aimed down the aisle. “Kid!”
Kale spun as rotten arms reached over his own shoulders. A bullet took the zombie’s undead life with one blast. Another corpse hissed, drool spilling between its cracked teeth. Kale thrust his bone-dagger into the creature’s chin, impaling skull. And in a quick twist and charge he impaled the next.
More shooting. More stabbing.
Soon the duo had the liquor store cleared.
Kale fell heavily over a corpse, heaving for breath. I can beat this darkness. I am the hero.
Henry grabbed their drinks and snacks and stepped in front of him. The barrel of the gun shook right at Kale’s forehead. “I have to leave you. I don’t know what you are, but I can’t risk my family.”
/>
Go, damn it. Go.
“I’m sorry, Kale, I am.”
“Leave me,” Kale choked out, his eyes brimming with fear. It’s coming back. Stronger. RUN. “Please, leave me.”
But Henry hesitated, wanting to do the honorable thing. “Maybe I can help you. I don’t want to leave you, Kale, but—”
The bone-dagger sliced cleanly through Henry’s wrist, creating a bleeding rainbow that showered over Kale’s face. Henry’s amputated hand fell to the floor and its fingers twitched around his pistol. Henry had managed to fire a shot into Kale’s shoulder, but Kale felt nothing. No pain. Nothing.
The Embracer of Death glided after the crying Henry, who attempted to crawl away.
“Please, no, no!”
Kale pinned himself over the quaking man.
“My son! Polly! Kale, don’t!” Henry punched the Embracer in the jaw.
Kale smiled, a rictus grin, and the bone-dagger cut a bloody red ribbon across Henry’s neck.
A warm purring whisper said, “Good boy.”
ADDISON
Still tied to the wooden chair in the living room, Addison’s head wobbled in a daze. He wanted to speak with Scot, who seemed to have not given a second thought about this apocalypse. Our savior is a boozing, charming, smart-ass. Great stereotype, cruel world.
They’d brought Sofia down to the leather couch. Cocooned in blankets, her eyes remained tightly closed. Why move her? The only explanation, he fathomed, was to put fear in his mind since they had no trust in him, his words, or his actions.
She is death.
They discussed behind his back. “If you’re tired, you sleep, and I’ll watch,” said Nasir.
Lexington replied in a deep rumble, “I want to know everything he does first.”
“I told it all!” Addison spasmed in the chair, ropes digging into his wrists.
“Quiet now,” said Nasir.
Addison silenced himself, letting them speak.
“I will keep watch with you,” Lex told Nasir. They went to the living room doorway, pulling two chairs close to one another. Addison shut his eyes but still listened.
“So you’re a bounty hunter?”
“I am,” said Nasir. “And you’re an actor?”
Lex laughed. “I am. I was going to retire in a couple months. I guess retirement came early.”
“Maybe this will end sooner than we think.”
You’re dreaming, old man. This is our world forever.
“Yeah, maybe,” breathed Lex wistfully. “So how does one get into the bounty hunting game?”
“A story for another day.”
“We might not have another day.”
Addison slowly opened his eyes, just in time to see Nasir’s half smile. “Then, my friend, a story for another life.”
Lex snorted. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“How does one become an actor such as yourself?” Nasir pulled his rifle closer.
This small talk is doing us no good.
Lex hesitated to respond, tapped his knee, looked around the room, then said to Nasir, “When we see each other in the next life, you’ll know.”
Enough of this shit. “Untie me, you idiots.”
They looked at Addison.
“You shot her.” The old man rose, then leaned over Addison’s shoulder. “Even if what you say is true, you’re dangerous.”
“She’s not her.”
Nasir rubbed a hand over his grey beard, “Who is she, then?”
“One of them, an Embracer, how many times must I tell you?”
The bounty hunter and the porn star: their dumb, clueless eyes exchanged ignorant glances.
Addy clenched his brows in a fury. “We don’t have time for this! If you can’t finish her, then I will!”
Nasir tilted the rifle’s butt into his cheek. “I will send you cold, son. You risk all our safety with your yelling.”
Veins erupted through Addison’s quaking neck. “I risk NOTHING!”
He was struck in the temple with the butt of the rifle, and his confused existence spiraled to blackness.
When he awoke, everyone was seated across from him, minus the blood-sucking Sofia, who lay unconscious behind him on the couch. Scot on his far left, Kelsey next, Nasir and Lexington, all eyes on him.
Addison licked the drool off his lips. “What is this, a goddamn intervention?”
Only Scot laughed.
Lexington sat straighter, his hands on his knees. “Look, no matter what happened in our lives before all this crap, we’re in this together, all right? So please, be straight.”
“I’m touched.” Addison smiled half-assedly. “So very touched.”
“He’s funny.” Scot nudged his girlfriend.
“Why did you shoot her?” Kelsey asked next. “She seems harmless.”
“How old are you, little girl, eighteen?”
Kelsey’s lips thinned with irritation. “Twenty-two.”
“Ah, so what gives you the right to ask me anything?”
“What makes me different from anyone else?”
“Burn,” said Scot.
“Oh, I am so, so, happy you spoke next.” Addison turned to Scot. “You rise from the dead, and the very first thing you do is go upstairs and do what? Sleep? Or maybe have a little fuh—”
“Enough,” Nasir said, standing and lifting his rifle.
“Oh, oh, the old tough bounty hunter. Yeah, great. What are you gonna do, hit me with the rifle again?”
The room went dark.
Clearing his vision was quite difficult the second time. His eyes blurred and ached. He must’ve been out much longer this time, because only Nasir was across from him now. “Where’s the party?”
“Please, take this seriously. Brody will arrive in a few days, but for now, I need you. Tell it, tell it true.”
Addison jumped right into his life story. His tirade began with his first time on the monkey bars when he was eight years old. His older cousin had de-pantsed him, right in front of his crush. He then went on to tell the tale of his pooping accident in a resort’s pool and how his father had to splash the turd into a filter.
Nasir killed the nonsense. “I will hit you again.”
“Yeah? The next time that rifle touches me, will be the last time you hear me speak.”
Nasir actually smiled, but the smile was dark and threatening. “I promise you, I know many ways to make you talk.” He stood. “But like Lex said earlier, we’re in this together, so I shall give you time.”
On Nasir’s way out of the room, Addy said, “I asked you earlier for the color of her blood. What was it?”
“The same as yours.”
Dark, quiet, lonely, he sat there bound with himself. Sofia’s short breaths became the only noise in the room. Red blood. Embracers bleed black...have I shot an innocent woman?
Addison shook his thought off. I’m not crazy, I’m not! Behind him, her breathing ceased.
“Sofia?”
No response.
Addison jolted in his chair, fighting to face her. “Are you okay? Sofia?”
Silence.
“Please. I’m sorry I shot you, please don’t die. You hear me?”
Her weak voice touched him, “I loved you once, Addy.”
She’s alive. I have to see her. Damn this chair! His fingers trembled off the arm-rest. What have I done to her? “I had to be sure.”
“You’ve killed me.”
“You’re alive. They say you’ll stay that way.” Addison jumped in the seat but was unable to move. “See? You’re okay. I didn’t kill you.”
“No, Addy, you killed me the moment you tried to save the world.” Her words burned through him as he turned, and a cold breath flushed against his cheek.
Dark eyes blinked inches from his.
Sofia grabbed the chair on both sides. Black ran up her neck, consuming her from the inside out. “It came for me that day.”
“Sofia? No, no, no!”
Her fingers wrapped up his ne
ck and under his ears, forcing him to stare at the dark death consuming her. “Now you die with me.”
“Sofia!”
Her nails dug into his flesh. My one true love is my killer.
A bullet rang across the room, slicing into her shoulder. Sofia spun off Addison, hissing at Nasir who held his rifle.
“My God,” Lexington said behind him, “he was telling the truth.”
A dark tornado swirled across the room, kicking the rifle from the old man’s grasp. Sofia caught it and fired. Nasir dropped flat on the ground but Lexington had stood in shock. The bullet tore through his arm. Sofia cocked it. Nasir swiped at her legs, downing her.
“Get Scot out of here!” Nasir yelled at Lexington as he crawled on Sofia. An old fist slammed against her face, followed by another.
The Embracer of Death laughed and flung the old man across the room. He disappeared from Addison’s eyes, flying into the dark. There was the sound of a loud crash, wood snapping and glass breaking.
Sofia rose. She touched blood dripping from her shoulder and examined her fingertips, coated in black fluid. She turned to Addison, and with a cruel smile said, “I bleed black.”
“No, no!” Addison fought with everything he had to break from his wooden prison. Sofia flashed to him, grabbing the chair and forcing the room into a spinning mesh of dark and orange. She threw the chair at a window. Glass shattered across his body as he entered the cold twilight morning. The chair snapped apart on impact. A piece impaled his leg. Dirt smacked across his cheek. He rolled on his back, his wounds stinging. He’d lost his glasses. “Help me. Help!”
Shots were fired inside. A man yelled. A girl screamed. A woman, no, that creature, laughed. Addison crawled in the blue-tinged dirt for trees, his limp leg dragging behind him.
Footsteps across the porch of the cabin. He flipped over. Lexington ran behind Scot and Kelsey, grabbing his wounded arm.
More shots fired inside.
“Nasir!” Kelsey yelled at them.
Scot grabbed her wrist. “He’s done, Kels, let’s move!”
“We can save him!” Kelsey started back for the cabin but skidded in the dirt. Sofia stepped onto the porch, holding something. Addison had to squint to see what it was. I need my glasses! She tossed the object high into the air, and it landed wetly by Addison’s leg.
