Dead Bones - Six Pack. The Ultimate Zombie Collection

by Ian Woodhead

  “There is nothing wrong with my wife!” shouted Jack.

  The magistrate felt discontent spreading through the room. Jack Roach was not the only one who had lost a loved one tonight. The magistrate nodded at the captain and then took solace in the collective gasps as his man plunged the room into darkness. He had effectively cut off their anticipated bleating with one single action.

  “Without my guidance and direction do you believe that any of you would have made it this far? If by some miracle you had managed to keep one step ahead of the hordes of dead, the climbers, and the hunters, where would you be right now? Maybe barricaded in some squalid, dark, damp house perhaps? Huddling there with no food, no fresh water, or light and jumping at any sudden noise, wondering how long it would be before one of those nightmares bit you.”

  The magistrate paused to allow all that to sink in, knowing that the absence of light would help them focus their fears.

  “Okay, Captain. Now, let us show them what we are up against. Show them all what we are protecting them from.”

  The wall behind the magistrate lit up as his cinema projector whirred into life. The huge number of shambling dead pressed up against the fences replaced the blank white rectangle.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a live feed, showing you just what is happening at our boundary. Just look at them all, there must be thousands of the bastards there, all wanting one thing. It is only the actions of our brave officers that are keeping them at bay, stopping them from swarming through our community.”

  In actuality, the dead were not swarming anywhere. As soon as the fuckers reached the fence, they just stopped moving. He had never seen anything like it before. The magistrate had no intention of sharing that news with his captivated audience.

  “Did I say they were here for only one thing? Would it surprise you if I said that we were just the bonus for the dead monsters? They are here for their own kind. These things are here for the tainted.”

  Harsh white light suddenly flooded the room. The magistrate was ready for it, but even he blinked. The townsfolk cried out in unison, but their reaction was mild compared to how they reacted when they saw the new guests that his officers had brought in.

  The adjustment officers who were stood at the back of the room simultaneously pointed the barrels of their shotguns at the panicking crowd.

  “Sit back down!” he bellowed. “The thing is secure. There is no danger.”

  He looked at their pet dead thing. This time he made sure that two officers had poles over its neck. The only person in the audience who had not panicked was Jack. The man was too busy staring in confusion at the other guest, his wife.

  The magistrate looked at the captain who rushed down the aisle and pulled Jack out of his seat.

  “We will never be safe here in our homes unless we get rid of the tainted," he shouted pointing at the woman.

  He did find it very difficult to look past the fake human emotions of the tainted. The magistrate had no idea how they were able to keep up this facade for so long. Her pathetic expression was enough to melt even his heart. Fuck knows what she must be doing to her husband.

  “Please,” she whimpered. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I am normal, just like you. Let me go.” she looked pleadingly at her husband. “Jack, please tell them that there’s nothing wrong with me!”

  The Magistrate looked across at his two officers holding the creature. The two men looked frightened as they both let loose the straps and lifted up the poles.

  He had to admire their bravery as it shambled straight past the other officers holding the struggling husband. The woman shrieked when it lunged at her. The captain ran forward and plunged his spiked weapon through the side of the monster's head.

  The officer holding the woman roughly pulled up her sleeve.

  “Can you see the bite mark?” shouted the magistrate, sounding more like a carnival barker than a politician. "She is one of them. Have I just not proven that to you, Jack? She is no longer human. She hasn’t yet turned or… maybe she has? We all know just how well the hunters can hide their true feelings” He looked deep into Jack’s eyes.” I’m truly sorry, really I am.” He walked over to the weeping man and handed him a long bladed knife. “Think of Kim. Be brave like her.”

  The officers released the man. There was a moment when the officers were unsure of exactly what Jack was going to do.

  The Magistrate sighed as Jack stepped up to his wife.

  He looked into her pleading eyes and said, "I'm so sorry."

  With tears rolling down his cheeks, Jack thrust the knife through the bottom of his wife's jaw.

  He fell to the floor and wept, holding the hand of his wife's dead body.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The boy should be dead, either from the loss of blood or from the shock.

  Dominic leaned back against the cage bars, watching several women tend to the bleeding socket where an arm had once been.

  They had changed his dressing four times now, ripping off strips of material from thin cotton shirts or from their dresses. There had not been a shortage of volunteers. Everyone wanted to help.

  For the first time in his life, Dominic truly felt alone. The people in this cage were all just like Clarisse. He shared the cage with the tainted population. While nobody had shown any outward aggression, nobody had gone out of their way to make him feel welcome, either.

  Even Clarisse had abandoned him after discovering that she was no longer alone. Dominic could not understand why the adjustment officer had segregated the girl, and by listening to their hushed conversations, neither could anyone else.

  He watched Clarisse step over the boy’s legs and sit beside him. She placed his hand between both of hers and cuddled up next to him. Dominic was unsure whether the poor boy even knew that he had attracted the attention of a beautiful girl. He didn’t want to think about how much pain he must be in. He sighed and told himself off for making assumptions.

  He opened his eyes and noticed a large blonde haired man glaring straight at him. Dominic had seen him around a few times, usually arguing with someone. The man stood up and pushed his way through the other people. He stood over Dominic with his hands on his hips.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here with us? We all know that you’re not special. You are just another normal, dull human. Have you been put in here to spy on us, is that your dirty game?”

  “Why don’t you leave him alone!” shouted Clarisse.

  The man leaned down and pulled the scrambling, frightened Dominic up to his feet. “You don’t fucking belong with us. I want to know what you’re doing in here.”

  “I wish I knew. Please, try not to judge me just because I’m not one of you. I have no truck with you. Believe me, I know all about how it feels to be different.”

  The man growled, he pulled his arm back and punched Dominic square in the face. Dominic's head snapped back and he saw bright stars as warm blood dripped into his mouth.

  “Leave him the fuck alone, you stupid fucking ape. Christ almighty, he saved my fucking life.”

  The man leaned closer to him, “God, that felt so good.”

  Through tear-blurred eyes Dominic watched the man’s leer abruptly turn to agony. Clarisse lunged forward and pulled him off and away from danger. He turned around and saw two strangers on the outside of the cage, one of them had hold of Dominic’s attacker. The others on the inside had all rushed to the other side of the cage.

  Dominic watched his eyelids close like slow motion metal shutters. When the blackness was absolute, every trace of his previous panic just slipped away, leaving the man calm and tranquil. He would have smiled if Dominic could remember how to operate his muscles. He saw a window appearing directly in front of him. The scene had not changed, but now he viewed with the luxury of detachment.

  A grimy hand momentarily obstructed the window, it then reached through the bars, towards the man on the other side. The wet blood now covering up the grime like a scarlet raincoa
t was, in his opinion, an improvement over the dirt. Of all the luxuries that the outbreak had denied him, having to do without a twice-daily shower rated very highly.

  Somewhere behind his mind he heard a soothing female voice telling him not to worry. He still had no control over his muscles, but that was okay, Dominic just imagined he was smiling. The female voice giggled. It struck him at just how much that voice reminded him of his own mother.

  He watched that hand smear the blood across the face of the man holding his attacker. “I’m one of the infected,” he heard himself say. “My disease is now yours, James. There is no need to thank me.”

  The hunter yelped and let go of the blonde. James stumbled back, frantically wiping Dominic’s blood off his face. The other hunter turned and growled at Dominic. He strode forward in fury, his hand reaching through the wire, but suddenly stopped dead and fell to his knees. Dominic saw the crossbow bolt buried in the back of the second hunter's head. The other hunter turned around and fled into the darkness.

  Two men dressed in dark clothes ran up to the cage, one of them carried industrial bolt-cutters.

  “Move back,” he uttered, as he cut through the wire.

  Dominic squealed as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

  “I won’t forget this,” whispered the blonde man.” You saved me.”

  The rescuers pulled back a section of the wire and led the prisoners out. As Dominic emerged, one of the men placed his hand over the man’s arm.

  “Please, can you follow me?”

  The man veered off to one side and hurried towards an open door. Dominic did as he was told, noticing that nobody else had seen him leave. He wondered for a moment if he was doing the right thing by following this stranger. As he entered the interior of the building, his nose picked up the scent of burning candles. The man stopped by a closed door. He inserted a key, unlocked it, and pushed the door open.

  “Please, go inside, Dominic.”

  He took a deep breath and entered the room. He saw an old lady sat up in bed. She saw him, smiled, and waved him over.

  “We don’t have much time, Dominic; keeping the dead inanimate takes up a lot of my energy. You are to lead my people out of this place. My carers will show you the route.”

  Dominic had no time to ask any questions, the woman sighed and lay down. As she closed her eyes, the carer walked into the room and guided him out.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, confused and starting to feel a bit panicky.

  The carer shrugged. “I wish I knew. I only follow her instructions.”

  He took him down a set of stairs into a cellar. Dominic saw two people waiting for him, Clarisse and the blonde man.

  “What’s happening?”

  Dominic shook his head. “I’m sorry, Clarisse, but I really don’t have a clue.”

  The carer gave him and the blonde man a weapon.

  “Lead them through the tunnels under the town and keep heading west. Be warned, there are those two hunters above ground and they will sense you. Keep our people safe. All of our faith is resting with you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  No matter how much he struggled, the thick ropes secured across his outstretched body and the thick tree trunk would not loosen. Lee refused to bow to the inevitable and continued his verbal barrage, screaming at the three translucent figures standing to his left with huge smirks on their faces.

  The hunter openly wept, feeling hot tears stream down his cheeks, watching helplessly as his only source of food slid down the grassy embankment, picking up more speed as the mountain of fresh meat tumbled like a rolling log. His captor’s manic laughter blew through Lee’s wrought head. He growled in fury, savagely trying to free his arms.

  Lee’s eyes snapped open and he cried out as he fell off the bed. The side of his head crashed into the filthy green carpet. Lee moaned in pain when his teeth clamped shut, trapping his tongue.

  “Bastard!” he shouted. Lee pulled his arms from the thick blanket wrapped several times around his hot body and rubbed his head. He slowly sat up, feeling warm blood fill his mouth.

  “It was only a dream,” he said, unnerved by the slight tremor that he heard as he spoke. “Them and their giant man fantasy; I bet they are still in that fucking house, snoring their heads off.”

  Lee lifted up his body and leaned against the bed, and despite the mild headache and his sore tongue, he felt a lot better.

  “That’s what a good meal does for you.” He pushed the blankets off him, eager to examine his leg.

  “Oh, thank you!” gasped Lee, feeling a huge sense of relief surge through him when he discovered his leg, all the way down to his foot had regained its normal colour. Lee compared it to the other leg. It was now a little thinner than the other one but he was sure that another meal would sort out that discrepancy.

  He looked past the healthier looking leg and sighed in irritation at the foot. Lee bent down and gingerly prodded the discoloured flesh, cringing at the cold and slimy texture. It felt like the surface of a damp toadstool. He wrapped his fingers around the meat and twisted, groaning in disbelief when he felt the flesh shift. It reminded him of a roast beef joint, ready to fall off the bone.

  “There’s still nothing to worry about,” he muttered, rolling his sock over the offensive, stinking limb. He had only eaten one arm; he should not expect immediate results. “Just be thankful with what you have achieved,” he said, nodding.

  His false upbeat emotions just wouldn’t stick. The disquieting afterimages from the stupid dream refused to leave him. He shivered and pulled the blanket around his chest. It wasn’t any help, the cold came from within. It felt like his innards had been ripped out whilst he slept and replaced with crushed ice.

  He stood up, jumped as the gnawed humerus rolled off his legs and clattered to the floor, rolling under the bed.

  “Fuck,” he snarled, hobbling over to the window. He would feel a lot better once he had stuffed his face with more tainted flesh and given that humerus another bone for company.

  The dream image of that giant rolling down the hill passed through his mind when he found to his horror that the cage at the other side of the market square was now empty. Lee sank to the floor, moaning in despair. He had lost his chance to feed again because of his terror of leaving his mind open. Lee frantically removed the mental safeguards and opened his thoughts. Although they were no longer in sight, he still tensed up, bracing his mind for that onrush of mental energy.

  His probing mind latched onto a dozen active minds close by, all of them belonging to infected flesh. His cage full of delicious food had seemingly vanished, leaving only a fading collective signature just hanging there to torment him.

  “They can’t have just gone,” he said.

  Lee ran out of the room and into the bedroom opposite. He hurried over to the window and gazed over towards the boundary. The shuffling dead were still there, pressed up against the fence. The numbers had lessened somewhat since he last looked but even so, there was no way that his dinner could have gotten out of the settlement.

  “Cool down,” he whispered, sitting on the edge of the bed. They could not be that far away. Lee looked over to the door and saw the finger bones that he had arranged in a star pattern. It had been known for humans to try to hide their thoughts, it stood to reason that the special humans would try to do the same now they all knew that he was amongst them.

  Lee stood up, feeling a little calmer. It was just a matter of searching. The fuckers couldn’t mask their minds forever. He wandered back into the other room, slipped on his shoes, and picked up his jacket. He knew it wouldn’t be too long before Lee tasted their meat again.

  Before he had formed the order his hunting skills were finely honed and he had not lost the talent. They would not stay hidden for long. His nose would soon sniff them out.

  Lee descended the stairs, trying to keep the weight off his damaged foot. He kept his mind open, waiting for any indication of the special minds. He tried to stow away
the nagging concern that the rot would begin to spread once more.

  “You could have removed the foot,” he whispered.

  At least with his mind back to how it was, he would receive advance warning of the approach of any of those uniformed idiots. If Lee had not been on a desperate mission, he would have had to hunt down every one of those cunts, just on general principle. The presumption that they thought it was perfectly acceptable to threaten hunters was just ridiculous. He guessed that humans getting uppity was the unfortunate consequence when his own kind melted away to live in drafty old churches.

  “I really do miss the good old days.”

  He reached the open kitchen doorway and stepped out of the house. Just at that moment he would have given anything to find one of those uniformed idiots leaning against the side of the house. Just to see the expression on his face before Lee pulled his head away from his body.

  He ran across the square towards the empty cage, hoping to find some evidence to show him where his food was hiding. His heart beat a little quicker when he saw a man lying face down on the cobbles. Lee found himself grinning; maybe the picture was not as bad as he thought. A dead one would keep him going for a few days, at least. Lee was confident that it wouldn’t take him that long to find the rest of them.

  His mouth had already filled with saliva by the time that he had reached the body. He dropped to his knees and pulled out the crossbow bolt embedded in the back of its head. He had to fight to stop his tongue from licking the shaft clean. He grabbed the coat and turned over the body.

  “No!” he gasped, when he saw the blank face of his companion. “What the fuck are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dreaming of giants.” He laid his hand on his cold face and closed Geoff’s eyes. A rage ripped through his body that matched his desire to feed on the tainted. “Don’t you worry; I’ll get whoever did this. I’ll rip the bastard in two.”

  He threw the bolt behind him, glad that he had stopped himself from licking off the dripping fluid. He gazed down at the corpse. It made sense that if Geoff was here, then James could not be too far away. It also made sense that the bastard might have a clue where the rest of his food had gone.