The Blade's Edge - Book 3 (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare)

by Daniel White

  Eric waited for an awkward moment to drag on before finally saying, “You seemed to handle yourself fairly well. Why didn’t you tell me you could fight?”

  She touched his thigh and he instantly knew she was playing the same game he was. “Well I guess back at the office I was just so overwhelmed by your skills that I was stunned into inaction. You were amazing. How do you take on so many in the dark and survive? Most people would have been dead, or fast becoming one of them already.”

  Eric narrowed his eyes a little bit, “Hmm,” he wasn’t about to tell her any more than she needed to know. She didn’t deserve it, wasn’t trustworthy, and most of all he didn’t have much to tell. “Just prepared and lucky I guess. What about you? You were fast asleep when they stormed in, and yet you were up and ready very fast. It was so impressive I thought you knew they were coming. Damn impressive at that.”

  Sam didn’t answer and actually grew deathly still and quiet. This girl had something she wasn’t telling him. That was fine though. Now he knew she did, and he wasn’t going to tell her either. That should pretty well make them even. Finally, wanting to chip away another layer from her secrecy, he said, “You should probably tell me a little more about where we are going this time. That way in case something should happen I will know where to go next.”

  She didn’t answer immediately. Finally she simply smiled and said, “Yeah I should probably do that. Lets head out just before dawn and I’ll explain more on the way.” With that, she turned away from him and lay down on the bed again. That was strange. He was the best fighter she and many others knew, one of the best in the world, yet he wasn’t feeling that safe. Sleep would not be finding him for the rest of this night. There she lay just as peaceful as the day she was born. He would have to keep a very close eye on her.

  Chapter 3

  After the strange ambush at the abandoned hotel and the equally as strange exchange between them, Eric and Sam had been fairly quiet. From the moment that Sam had acted like she wasn’t worried about going back to sleep, things had been easy going. Only once had they come across a few zombies and they were stragglers that were mowed down by mini howitzer. Eric had taken to calling the large truck-mounted weapon as the “bagger.” It included the acronym B.A.G. for Big Ass Gun, and also was a nod to how easily it wasted zombies. The old “bag ‘em and tag ‘em” slang for what the morgue did with dead bodies was woven in the definition as well.

  “No matter how well you explain it Eric,” Sam said, “It's still a stupid name.”

  Eric looked over, “You should be careful insulting my gun. Bart here is already pissed at you for taking his seat. If you insult my big ass gun again, I can no longer guarantee your safety. If you know what I mean.”

  “Oh I know what you mean. I know how to pull the trigger on that thing too slick. If you know what I mean.”

  “Don’t even joke about that. No one with self respect shoots a man with his own big gun.” Eric was still doing what he started doing the other night in the hotel. He was trying to get closer to her. The adage that one should keep his friends close and his enemies closer applied here more than ever. He didn’t trust this chick farther than he could toss her tight ass. The best way he figured to make sure he knew what she had brewing, or at least was ready for it, was to get close to her.

  Sam added, “Well if I have to shoot you with your gun, I can probably get counseling or something to get over the self respect problem. Really, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first person you have killed or helped kill, would it?” he said it with a disarming smile and in a playful tone. What he was trying to get to was deeper than that. Again, she played her hand well. She knew there was a cat and mouse game here and she planned to win.

  “Maybe. If you are concerned about that though I can just shoot you and then we’ll both agree that I have and can.”

  “Nah,” Eric said with his genuine appearing smile, “I’m good, thanks.”

  “You sure? I don’t mind, believe me.”

  “I bet you don’t.”

  Shortly after that he pulled off the road in what once was a roadside parking area. It was a place for families to picnic and rest on the way to their destination. He could tell Sam was surprised they were stopping. That was a good thing. He hadn’t seen that expression on her face yet. When the vehicle stopped, she asked what he was doing and where they were. He simply said, “Get out.”

  Eric got out first and she watched him walk around and open the door for her. Sadly, he wasn’t being chivalrous. Still surprised and clearly trying to work out what was going on, Sam was careful where she walked and kept an eye on Eric. That further confirmed for him what he was trying to figure out. Finally she broke her silence.

  “Eric, what’s going on here?

  Eric smiled and slowly paced in the dirt parking area. He laughed to himself and rubbed his hand across his stubbly beard. “You really don’t know do you?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Ha, I know you don’t. That’s why we stopped.”

  “What do you mean? You’re scaring me Eric.”

  “Oh cut the shit!” her expression was one of hurt. She was really good, he would give her that. “This is the first time you’ve worn a genuine surprised expression on your face sweetheart. It’s also the first time you’re really being careful around me. You weren’t worried at all about going back to sleep minutes after being attacked by zombies. All of that begins to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. You aren’t just along for the ride are you? What exactly do your informative masters want from me? I honestly am just trying to get through this god forsaken time and people like you keep hanging around and wanting something from me. I don’t get it and I sure as hell don’t like it. So tell me, what is really going on, where we are really going and what I can expect when I get there?”

  Sam held a hurt and shocked expression for seconds that felt like minutes before finally relaxing, and looking Eric in the eyes, “I underestimated you Eric. Everyone that has heard of you knows you are tough physically, but they have obviously short changed your intelligence. Okay, when you stormed into the Sharaan complex, I wasn’t surprised.

  A small few have kept themselves plugged into the government network enough to send and receive information. It seems pretty clear that these or at least some of these people are responsible for the virus outbreak. They are watching and listening to reactions of the common people. They have informants and spies everywhere, possibly as many as there could be given the situation. These people have alerted the big guys to your amazing ability to somehow survive. They have told their informants…”

  “Like you,” Eric interrupted.

  “…well, yes, like me. They have told us to be on the lookout for someone who matches that profile. They want to know what makes you tick. I was lucky enough to see you coming. So I gave you what you wanted, played a little bit of dangerous damsel, and took notes.”

  “So that’s how you knew the zombies wouldn’t be back a few nights ago at the hotel?” Eric asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You set me up. Somehow you gave them your location… and they somehow are able to move those creatures to wherever I am. That explains how they all turned up at the train yard just in time for the big guy there to have a clever little anti-zombie device. How did you know they wouldn’t kill you?”

  “I didn’t. That part was real. These people don’t care if I live or die unless I give them something huge.”

  “Huge,” Eric said, “Like me? Information on me would be considered huge? Why?”

  “That’s above my paygrade. All I know is what the info-wire says. They said if someone had information, to send it via the info-wire.”

  “Info-wire, what the fuck is the info-wire?”

  “It's what they call their primitive comm system. They say it’s a throwback. Anyway, all goes by the info-wire unless something really huge is on hand. Then they have an address to meet. That,” she stop
ped and looked down as if embarrassed, “That is where we were going.”

  “I see. So you have me in hand. You plan then to deliver me to them so they can presumably kill me or infect me or what?”

  “I don’t know Eric! Honest I just know where to take you.”

  “So let me have the sword and the bagger?” Eric asked.

  Sam shrugged, “Honestly...”

  “That would be a first in our short time knowing each other.”

  “…yeah well, I honestly couldn’t think of a good way of stopping you.”

  Eric thought for a few moments then said, “Hmm… I guess that makes sense.”

  Sam looked hopeful, “I take that to mean we are good then? You’ll still let me take you to these people?”

  “Good?” Eric laughed shortly, “Oh hell no, we’re not good. Listen,” he held a hand up to cut off her reply, “Don’t bother faking shock or anything like that. You misled me, and could have gotten me killed. Am I not supposed to have a problem with that? I trust one person to lead me to a few answers that I honestly shouldn’t care to find in the first place, and look what happens. I just want to know how they can shoot these fucking things at us like their bodies in a cannon. How is that possible to lead a zombie to a certain place?”

  “Beats the hell out of me. Maybe it’s supernatural or they are aliens or something. Either way we need to decide something quick.” Sam seemed actually worried this time. Eric wondered why and then noticed her glance down at a bracelet she wore on her right hand. Nervously she looked at it then back to Eric, “What are you planning?”

  “Well, I can’t tell you, can I? It’s really not that hard to work out if you have so much intel on me. Why so eager now though? You were so calm at the hotel. Maybe it was seeing me almost naked? Should I disrobe for you Sammie?”

  Eric had a guess for how they were locating this chick and how they knew where to find the big boss from the train yard. It must have something to do with a tracking device of some kind. She seems to think it’s in that bracelet and he had no reason to deny it. Either way if he was right, things were about to get a little crazy around here. He looked around the empty lot and he thought for a second that he could smell them. Her comment about them possibly being supernaturally controlled would normally have been completely ignored by him.

  It took him right back to that weird dream at the hotel. Maybe there was more going on than met the eye. In the end, just like so many other variables, it simply didn’t matter. They were about to send another legion of zombies his way and he wasn’t exactly pleased about that. Still, he wasn’t exactly unarmed. He was so focused on listening for the attack he felt sure was coming that he was totally ignoring Sam.

  Distantly he realized she was making a flirtatious comment about his lack of clothing at the hotel during the fight. Other more immediate concerns were garnering his attention however. The old parking area where they were wasn’t like the huge open parking lot that the large group of zombies attacked at the weapons complex. The truck was parked at the apex of the parking semicircle that at one time would have been populated by families and campers as they took a break from driving.

  There was probably twenty feet of pavement on either side of the truck. On one side of the highway, the trees started about one hundred yards beyond the pavement. The other side sloped down steeply for fifty feet then more moderately towards the empty highway after that. He didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver except for straight ahead and behind. It didn’t seem important right now but it would soon enough. He could feel it in his gut.

  About that time Sam finally realized he was out of the conversation, “Excuse me! Are you ignoring me? Here I am flirting away and reaching out to you…” She turned red.

  Eric spun around and cut her off, “I thought we cut the bullshit already!” She took an involuntary step backwards from the roar of his voice, and then appeared to begin to say something but Eric was done. “No. No more talking. You have your nose so far up your information sources asses you can’t even see what’s going on.”

  “Wha… what do you mean?” she seemed too interested to be insulted.

  “Oh come on. I had you pegged as a bitch already, but don’t tell me you’re a stupid bitch too!” Her mouth fell open and she instinctively slapped Eric as hard as she could. He ignored the slap completely and caught her hand the next time, throwing it down away from his face. “You think they gave you that bracelet to pinpoint my location? Well you’re half right. See I figured out that they used that to know where you were. Fuck knows how they sick those damn zombies on a specific location but they sure as hell can do it.”

  “What’s your point asshole?!”

  “My point is that we aren’t meeting anyone anywhere, you naïve airhead!”

  “The hell we’re not! I can hold my own in a fight you know. I’ll bring you in myself if I have to.”

  Eric sighed heavily in frustration, “You still don’t get it! We aren’t going to them,” he paused and looked towards the tree line and she followed his gaze. “They came to us. You used your connections really well, so well in fact that you didn’t realize they were playing you. They used your need to get in good with them, to trap both of us. Now they just probably want to kill you.”

  Eric could see real fear and panic spread across Sam’s icy blue eyes, it took everything he had to not execute her on the spot. The only reason he didn’t put a bullet through her head was that he might need another body to use as fodder.

  The first few came through where they could be seen. Expressions were always different on these things. One wore a look of horror while another could appear almost serene. It was very bizarre. Each one seemed to be completely as unique as the people they once were. Now they just had slimy, grayish skin and filth covering them. Some had worms crawling around with bugs on their faces, while others only appeared to have a terrible skin condition, but were otherwise human. He was surprised by the way they were similar to their former human selves. They were all the same, yet still unique.

  He then started towards the back of the truck then stopped to think in spite of the little window of time he suspected he had. Glancing at the trees again, he noticed the way they were moving. All of them as usual, advanced at the same time. The notable difference this time was that they weren’t tripping and stumbling over each other quite as badly. It made him wonder if the virus had mutated or evolved.

  They broke the tree line and the time for talking was over. Sam spoke up sounding as genuinely worried as he had heard her in the short time he’d known her, “If they are trying to trap us they are doing a damn good job. If they are that good at trying to kill us, we’re done. What are we going to do?”

  Eric shot back, “What is this we business? As I recall… you have been planning to send me into this of trap the whole time I’ve known you. Now you want me to help pull your ass out of the fire?”

  Her eyes looked hopeful, “Please?”

  “Your intel about me has some gaps” he said broodingly. Eric dashed from the back of the truck and into the cab to start it. Sam knew what he was thinking, or at least knew it wasn’t good. because she began to scramble for the passenger side. He had the truck moving just as she jerked the door open but not fast enough to hop in. Displaying her skill that she obviously wanted no one to know about, she tried to hop onto the side of the bed as he drove off towards the highway.

  The door was open so he couldn’t discern much by the mirror on that side where she was, and the large gun blocked his view through the rear window. He assumed she wasn’t able to hang on and weaved back and forth a few times just in case. The group of zombies was closing in on the spot he had been; he floored it trying to escape before the ambush could become successful.

  Like a battering ram two feet flew through the open door and slammed into his ribs knocking the wind out of him before he could react. His head and body slammed hard into the door, dazing him. Small gloved hands were working around his body, trying to open
the door. He knew he needed to fight her off, but before he was able to get his bearings the door swung wide and he tumbled out.

  Only his death grip on the door handle helped him cling to the truck. He saw in her eyes that she planned to take off and leave him just like he did her. They struggled for control and Eric thought victory was at hand. He had one foot in the cab, and one hand on the steering wheel. Pain exploded in his hand as she bit the soft fleshy part between his thumb and index finger. He was forced to let go as she swept his other leg out of the door.

  Eric hit the forgiving grassy slope at a menacing speed and tumbled further than he could know, until his roll came to a halt. His foot was on fire and his ribs felt broken, but that wasn’t the bad part. He forced himself to look up from his spot on the ground and no fewer than three dozen zombies were coming straight for him.