Hungry Series: Tomes 1 & 2

by Tide, Lawrence Herbert

  He ran away while the colossus started walking, the other technician in his arms like a doll.

  The commotion and grunts redoubled on the other side of the wall, and the girl and Johnny looked at each other with concern.

  ***

  Weapons

  The laser beam pierced the edge of the future handle of the crystal blade while, helped by his friend Lee holding the object for him, Hoffnung now gave the handle a more oval, softer shape.

  While the ray grazed the surface, shaving it as close as the width of a hair, imperfections that protruded, heated to thousands of degrees by the ray, instantly passed from the solid state to the gaseous state. The crystal vapors evaporated into the air, billions of carbon atoms, which, from time to time, made them both cough.

  Hoffnung, wearing - like Lee - specially adapted dark glasses of protection, was more focused on his task than ever, while, his heart beating hard in his plump chest, he heard shouts remind him of the roars of animals, outside the workshop, mingled with the distraught cries of the Community's population.

  "So?"

  The loud voice made the scientist jump, making him move the crystal blade sprayed by the laser beam.

  The change of the angle of reflection of the red ray made it deviate towards the jacket of his fellow engineer, who recoiled suddenly.

  Looking scared at the hole that had formed the Asian shouted, "Be careful for God's sake, I could have been killed!"

  They heard a little cough near them and, turning around, saw Bo, who was looking awkwardly at them.

  Hoffnung turned red with anger and shouted, "Do you realize that by shouting at me and making me jump, not only did you almost cause an accident, but also could've ruined an hour of work?"

  The blond and muscular young man didn't seem impressed by the anger of the obese man, and, pointing with a thumb to something behind him, he said calmly, "I did not scream."

  Looking behind the newcomer, the fat scientist suddenly became white as a sheet when he saw that there was, standing behind Bo, the colossus of color.

  The latter stomped over to him, then, leaning forward and looking at him harshly, said in the same loud and stressful voice, "So, where is the blade that Red is waiting for?"

  Hoffnung gave him a shy little smile and then passed to him a crystal sword, holding it by its handle.

  It was brutally taken from his hands and it was a miracle that, holding very lightly the saber by the blade, he let it go quickly enough not to have his fingers wounded by its sharp edges.

  Harry turned the sword between his big fingers, enjoying its lightness.

  He could not help but admire the colorful reflections that emanated from it. Illuminated by the white light of the neon lights above them, the blade rendered all the colors of the rainbow.

  The tall man seemed to relax and finally looked back at Hoffnung, now smiling at him.

  "Good job, I already saw the strangeness as much as the effectiveness of this material... Red will be delighted," said the colossus to the scientist, who finally relaxed too.

  His Korean friend, Tony Lee, near them, didn't seem as reassured, watching the huge visitor with caution.

  Harry added, "How many are there like this one?"

  "How many? Well, none other than this one, at least for the moment..."

  "Only one crystal blade?" thundered the tall black man, whose soft eyes became hard again, and whose toothy smile disappeared, his lips tightening with anger.

  "We've already started to work on the second one," the Korean intervened, who had started to laser cut another blade, and he added, "You'll soon have this one and several others."

  Harry looked at him dubiously, still tense, and finally added, "OK, I'm bringing this first crystal sword to Red. Bo, please, watch them and bring the blades to the ramparts whenever they are ready. You two, continue, please, we need all the possible weapons we can get to survive this siege! "

  He turned his back on them and started to move toward the half-open door, while Hoffnung came to help his friend on the blade being laser cut.

  The big scientist could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, his sagging shoulders making him look almost like a balloon deflating.

  "What is that?"

  The tenor voice made both of them jump again and they turned to see Harry standing in front of something near the entrance.

  "What... that?" Hoffnung asked, embarrassed.

  "Yes, that... what is it?"

  "It's something that could help you resist the invasion of the zombies on the ramparts. It was part of a project I worked on for DARPA, the military research agency. Take it, I believe it is loaded."

  The colossus lifted the heavy metal object as if it was a toy, much to Hoffnung's surprise. Harry looked more closely, from every angle, and finally, intrigued, he said, "Explain it to me."

  ***

  Cracking

  "They won't make it," Johnny murmured as he watched the scene with Red.

  "Do not be so defeatist," the girl said to him reproachfully.

  But deep inside herself, she thought he was probably right...

  In front of them, two robots were working on the breach in the wall, watering with a kind of cement gun the crack, which was like a horrible scar across the surface of the wall, usually so homogeneous. The grayish liquid had begun to solidify, but it did not fully succeed, cracking under the external pressure of zombies that were pushing to seep through.

  Having become gray themselves by being bathed in the sticky liquid, the undead were bent on passing through the fissure that humans and their mechanical servants were striving to fill up, seeking to widen it. At the same time the cement jets were trying to close it.

  Horrified, her heart beating hard, Red and her friend had the impression of seeing a bacterial invasion enlarged on a human scale: the organism consisted of the Community, which sought to avoid the intrusion of microbes through healing, but this wasn't able to take place, while its wound, symbolized by the crack, could never close completely.

  The microbes, the creatures, were more and more numerous to emerge in the "wound", and the Community would soon suffer from sepsis...

  And the final stage of sepsis, if it could not be cured, was simply...

  Death.

  "Red!"

  Bo's shout turned the girl around, who could not help smiling as she saw her other friend, who was running toward her, holding in his hand the most beautiful object she had ever seen.

  "Here, Red, here is the first in the series," said the blond man, passing it quickly to her.

  "Caution!" exclaimed the girl, recoiling sharply to avoid the blade, and then keeping herself on her guard.

  "What..." Bo asked, opening wide eyes and aghast.

  "It's super-sharp, you don't realize, go slowly when you pass it to me..."

  "You're exaggerating, you know," the other replied jokingly, handing toward her the handle of the weapon he was holding with four fingers. The fifth one, the little finger of his right hand, inadvertently ventured on the blade, on which it pressed.

  The little finger was cut clean and fell, rolling in the grass to his feet. His eyes widened in horror as blood flowed abundantly from the little stump. The surprise made him drop the weapon which fell on the ground, at his feet, on the verge of slicing his toes.

  "I warned you!" exclaimed Red, rushing toward him as she pulled out a small packet of paper handkerchiefs from her back pocket. She took one of them with a quick wave and applied it around the stub that was oozing, the pressure on the stump causing a grimace of pain on Bo's face.

  The latter, his attention focused on his stump, which continued to empty blood at his feet, became pale. He crouched awkwardly, trying to catch the cut finger, and finally sat heavily on the ground.

  "Oh, Bo, how are you doing?" asked Red, who had followed him in his motion and squatted beside him.

  "My finger..." the young blond man murmured, taking his eyes off the sliced finger on the dusty ground to glare at her.r />
  It was then that his glare became empty and he began to fall backwards.

  Johnny managed to catch him just in time from behind, having crouched at his back, and he said to his friend, "Bo, eh, Boris, stay with us! Remember yoga that we both practiced a long time ago... Use your breathing to calm down, don't panic!"

  Bo looked at him, his eyes still empty, but he pulled himself together.

  Taking a deep breath, followed by an even deeper exhalation, he began to regain some color.

  Johnny took the pack of tissues from Red's hands and, having extracted one of them, returned it to her.

  "Well," Johnny whispered softly, helping Bo to get up with one hand, while with the other, he picked up the finger on the floor and put it in the handkerchief, which quickly turned red, "I’ll take you to the hospital quickly, I'm sure they'll be able to stitch you up fast, if we hurry enough before it gets necrotic. Keep watching, huh, Red."

  She nodded and, stretching out a hand, grabbed the sword that had fallen into the dust.

  "We're going, old boy," Johnny said gently to Bo.

  The latter didn't say anything, and his face rather sickly, he finally got up with difficulty. Supported by his friend, they left for the big white building that made up the Community hospital.

  Left alone in front of the crack with the Community's defense guards and the construction robots, Red felt, like these men, more and more nervous, seeing the growing excitement of the zombies trying, no matter what, to cross the crack.

  Many began to be caught in the structure of the cement, and despite the abnormal strength that their condition gave them. The creatures eventually became one with the substance, their heads, legs, or hands protruding.

  Red took a clean handkerchief and, squatting again, looked at the little pool of blood left by her friend's little finger. And finally, she mopped up the area, standing up to look at the paper cloth that had turned purple. Then, crossing the inner courtyard, she approached a garbage can at the foot of the ramparts, and threw away the bloody handkerchief.

  A crackle was heard and, lifting her head, she saw that one of the undead was freeing its arms out of the gangue of concrete, while it glanced hungrily at her, its bloodshot eyes still almost intact.

  "Quick, direct the jet toward there!" shouted one of the technicians commanding the mixer robot, while he pointed to the thing, which was moving more and more, its pelvis still imprisoned in the hardening concrete.

  The creature suddenly released its upper body and pounced on the technician, catching his head in its crooked, bony fingers.

  The man shook himself in all directions, screaming, trying to free himself, but his head was caught in a vise, and the zombie moved its jaw-crazed jaw with its rotten teeth toward him.

  Red ran to him with the sword in her hand but already the thing had plunged its teeth in the man's hair, who began to shout even louder.

  The top of the zombie's head exploded and bits of bone were scattered over its victim and on the ground, mixed with dark-red brain gelatin.

  A smell of rottenness assailed the red-haired girl's nose as she watched the creature's arms relax, and its claw hands clattered off the man's head who fell backwards in the dust, moaning.

  Obviously he didn't even have a scratch, but was still scared to death.

  But what impressed the girl the most was the decayed head of the undead, who now had its torso hanging down. The creature's upside-down head resembled a boiled egg from which the cap had been removed to soak a slice of bread, with the difference that it was a disgusting brain gelatin that was flowing on the ground.

  "Down and out!" roared a recognizable voice behind her.

  "Harry!" the girl shouted in glee, a big smile on her lips as she turned to look at the man who was standing behind her.

  Standing, but not empty handed.

  Curious, she approached him and looked at the kind of big, strange-looking rifle he held in his hands. It was obviously a heavy weapon, very heavy, probably not usable by a man of average build, and even less by a petite woman. Around the barrel and the huge stick, there were blue LED lights flashing.

  "What is that?" asked Red, reaching hesitantly for the weapon, and touching its handle.

  "If you want to know, this is a universal rifle!" exclaimed the tall black man, pride on his face as he held the strange weapon firmly in both hands. She caressed the handle with one finger and followed its side to the end of the barrel, which was very long. There were slight traces of mud at the end of it.

  "A universal rifle?" asked the girl, taken aback. She smiled and added, "Awesome, it looks like it's been made for you... Huh, what's the caliber? I've understood that we don't have much ammunition left at the armory?"

  "It does not use any bullets," the tall black man replied with a big smile, as happily as if he were a young sales representative presenting his merchandise, and he crouched while holding the weapon with one hand.

  Further grunts erupted behind Red and turning around she saw another zombie in the process of extricating itself in turn from its gangue of gray concrete. It was the animated corpse of an old woman who had obviously had a cheek snatched, judging by the huge hole in the side of her jaw. The teeth and gums were visible on that side, giving the impression that this female zombie had a constant grin in the corner.

  "We take dirt or mud from the ground," Harry said.

  Turning her head to look at him again the girl saw that, still crouching, he was taking a handful of muddy earth that he had pulled out from the ground, digging it up with his big hand, and he continued, "Preferably mud or snow mingled with gravel or pebbles," and having said this, he opened his hand, showing several small stones that he had collected, and he brought the whole thing closer to the rifle. He closed his hand and introduced the dirt into a large opening on the side of the weapon. The latter started to emit small electric noises and the LED lamps on its periphery started to blink even more while the giant continued, "Then, the rifle compresses mechanically the mud or the collected snow, and then we only have to squeeze the trigger, as soon as it's ready."

  Red heard an animal rattle behind her and turned around, seeing that the old zombie woman had almost escaped its gangue, which eventually exploded under the pressure from the creature. The zombie fell on all fours on the floor, still wearing an old dress soiled by time, and the thing was looking down.

  The creature then raised its head, showing its ravaged cheek and opening yellow teeth still mixed with an old dental appliance.

  A little 'ding' was heard behind the young redhead who turned back to Harry. The sound his gun had just made was like a microwave oven that had just finished its heating cycle. The lights on the rifle stopped flashing and a continuous sound, like that of an ever stronger warning siren, began to hurt Red's ears.

  "It's ready!" Harry exclaimed excitedly as he squeezed the trigger.

  A loud sound of compressed air made Red jump and the creature screamed.

  Turning around the girl saw that the old zombie woman's lower jaw had literally been swept away. The thing roared again, a roar of rage mixed with frustration as it tried, clumsily, to walk towards them.

  It was a curious sight, this jawless, insistent-looking thing advancing towards them with a slow, uncomfortable gait, while a new cycle of weird sounds emanated from the new toy of the colossus of color.

  A second shot startled the girl who saw the top half of the creature's skull shatter like a July 4th firecracker. The pinkish-gray brain of the thing began to flow down the jagged edges of what was left of its skull. The creature now had only the lower part of its skull, devoid of its lower jaw. At the upper part of what was left of the skull, two eyeballs, rotten as raisins, hung against the thing's bony cheeks, at the end of optical nerves.

  Now devoid of its brain the zombie's pace slowed down, but it continued to move on, much to the surprise of the red-haired girl.

  She had heard of decapitated chickens on the run which had, for several meters, kept their momentu
m going for many seconds before stopping and falling, but she had never imagined that such a thing could happen to a human being - at least to what had been one in the past.

  The thing finally came completely to a halt, staggered, and finally slowly fell forward, as if in a movie in slow motion. Its face hit the ground and what was left of its liquefied brain flowed into a pinkish puddle which spread to the feet of the man and the girl.

  "Awesome, huh?" the colossus said proudly, recoiling like Red so that the nauseating puddle wouldn't reach his boots.

  "Yep!" exclaimed Red. "With all the land at our disposal within the Community, not even considering the land around the Community, you can shoot thousands, maybe millions of bullets with that, right? We need plenty of weapons on the same model!"

  "Unfortunately, there is a caveat, because…"

  A sonorous sound interrupted him, and he and the girl looked at each other in surprise. It had sounded like a sonorous gong, or a loud drum sound.

  A new gong was heard and from the ramparts a sentry hailed them by beckoning to them, "Come and see this!"

  They both rounded the now rigid body of the jawless undead and then, not sparing their efforts, ran to the top step, joining the guard on the ramparts.

  Leaning over the edge Red and her colossal friend opened wide eyes and understood where the noise had come from.

  A crowd of undead moved back and forth like one individual - or rather a single zombie - and clashed in synchronism with the cracked part of the wall. Hands, chest, any part of their body that could be used to hit the concrete surface in rhythm was used.

  The enormous sound of the clash of the mass of these rotting bodies echoed through the wall, and made the ground tremble beneath the feet of the human defenders standing on the guard lanes.

  Harry laughed nervously and said, "Their old carcasses will eventually dissolve into powder by bumping against the wall, won't they?"