This Is the End: The Post-Apocalyptic Box Set (7 Book Collection)

by Craig DiLouie

  “Dodge,” said a voice from inside the Corvette.

  Samuel paused and looked over at the girl. She smiled and then winked at him.

  “Ain’t even close. You got sixteen pistons under that hood. Over three hundred horses. Go pick on someone your own size,” he said.

  A voice came from inside the Corvette, hidden in the blackness. “No balls. I get it.”

  Samuel gripped the leather covering on his steering wheel.

  “I can handle the lady too, seeing as how you ain’t got what it takes to satisfy her.”

  Samuel looked at the light and back at the empty void of the Corvette’s window. He nodded and turned his attention back to the dangling traffic light, anticipating the turn to green. He set his left hand on top of the steering wheel and dropped the right on the gear shift set between the seats. He revved the engine a few times and used his left foot to push back into the seat. Samuel took his right foot off the brake and teased the clutch with his left until he felt the gears of the manual transmission edging forward, pleading to open up into a full gallop.

  When the light turned green, Samuel slammed the accelerator to the floor and popped the clutch with his left foot. The Dodge lurched forward, and he heard a giggle from the woman sitting next to him. The engine drowned out the passionate wailing of Eddie Vedder as the CD player moved on to play “Release.” The rear tires of the Dodge screamed, and the acrid smoke of burning rubber reached his nose as the Dodge pulled him underneath the traffic light and down the right side of the street, now serving as a drag strip.

  The Corvette appeared to hover next to Samuel’s car, teasing and taunting him like an angry sibling. It stayed locked in position, using the oncoming lane as its own. Samuel heard laughing coming from the passenger window until it closed, drenching the Corvette in inky blackness.

  Samuel glanced at his gauges, the needle pushing toward sixty. The blinking yellow lights at some of the intersections faded like fireflies in the summer night. He tried not to think about the people stumbling from the bars, witnessing the race. Samuel loved this college town. They knew him here. They knew his car.

  The Corvette roared, and Samuel saw it lurch forward. He smiled and shook his head, frustrated by the driver’s decision to toy with him and, at the same time, impressed by the sheer brutality of the Chevy’s 305 block. He feathered the clutch to bring the RPM gauge back into the red before shifting gears.

  Samuel watched the taillights of the Corvette move forward as his own speedometer broke the century mark. The two cars rocketed down the sleepy street like two bullets from a gun.

  When the Corvette jacked low and dipped a shoulder into the highway onramp, Samuel realized he had to concede. He knew the Daytona did not have the handling of the Corvette, and he pulled the car to the curb, feeling the effects of the alcohol replacing the adrenaline of the race. He picked up the woman’s purse and searched through her wallet until he found her ID, complete with home address. Samuel glanced at the woman and he turned the car around. He drove toward her apartment, where he would most likely need help to take her safely inside.

  The race left him dizzy as its effects receded. Samuel would have to lick his wounded pride and forego the physical satisfaction of a sexual conquest. He found no solace in doing the right thing.

  He felt her hand in his, tiny and vulnerable. She squeezed to let him know she was still there. The room came back into focus, and he recognized the same indistinguishable furniture that had been in the other cabins. Samuel’s breath hitched in his chest. He stood in the middle of the room with Mara at his side.

  “Did you see it?” he asked.

  She nodded and wiped a tear from her face.

  “I should have learned from that. It was so close to being a catastrophe.”

  Mara turned and trailed a finger down his cheek. “We all fall short. We all screw up.”

  Samuel brushed her hand aside and walked to the window. Blackened film covered the windowpanes as it had all of the cabin windows. He tried seeing out of one, hiding the rest of his tears from her.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “Another cabin. Probably a little further down the path, but not too far from the Barren.”

  The moments preceding his visceral memory flooded Samuel’s head. He recalled the shuffling horde of the undead and the distant but closing sound of the pack howling at the dead sky.

  “Major and Kole. What do they want?”

  “Not sure,” Mara said, shaking her head. “I think Kole wants to inflict pain, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. But Major, yeah, Major wants something more.”

  “More than what?”

  “More than hurting you. He wants out of here. We all do.”

  ***

  Kole and Major ambled along the path, weaving in and out between the creatures. Major expected to be blown back by their rotten filth, but the sense of smell had all but disappeared in the locality. Along with the loss of sound, he knew the reversion was almost complete.

  “Can we get to them?” Kole asked.

  “Yep,” Major said. “Looks like the walking corpses will keep ’em pinned down. Won’t hurt ’em none.”

  Kole nodded and kept walking, occasionally sidestepping a group of the creatures. He passed one on his left, looking deep into its face. Kole shuddered when the creature turned its blank eyes on him. He felt the desperation there, the pain.

  “Think the next cabin is over that ridge,” Major said.

  Major pointed along the path in the direction the horde was traveling. A throaty howl broke through the silence and made the horde stop in their tracks. Major and Kole turned to face the alpha male striding along the path as the creatures parted, the wolf’s eyes never leaving the staggering undead. Kole and Major stood between the wolf coming from the west and what was left of the place in the east with the undead lining the path like folks at a parade.

  Chapter 13

  You stole my prey, and now you must make recompense.

  Major stopped and looked at the alpha male. “I protected my investment.”

  Kole looked at Major and then back at the wolf. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked.

  The old man brushed off the question with a wave of his hand.

  Where is he?

  “Up the trail. The horde follows, like you.”

  The alpha male stopped five feet in front of the men. The other hunters in the pack flanked him on each side until they stood blocking the path. The horde froze in place, swaying in the imaginary breeze.

  He has the girl?

  “She’s with him. I’m not sure who has what.”

  Kole stepped up to stand beside Major. “Are you talking to these coyotes?” he asked.

  “Wolves.”

  “Whatever. Can you really understand them?”

  Our pact involved you and you only.

  “I know,” Major said, looking at Kole. “I know.”

  “What, man?” Kole asked. “What do you know?” He shuffled on his feet, clenching his fists and looking back and forth between the wolves and Major.

  We’ll still hunt the man in order to fulfill His command, but we also want recompense for the delay. The girl.

  “I don’t give a fuck about her.”

  Then it isn’t genuine, is it? We’ll take him, too.

  Major felt the alpha male’s mental nod toward Kole. “He is not mine.”

  “Hey, hold up. What the hell are you talking about?” Kole asked.

  Major turned to look at Kole, his eyes hard, dark, determined. “It’s out of my control,” he said.

  “What is?” Kole asked.

  The alpha male padded forward and the rest of the pack circled the two men while the horde remained fixed. Kole looked at Major and then at the wolves, understanding seeping into his mind like water running over a dam.

  “You can’t do this,” he yelled.

  The old man shrugged and took a step back as the alpha male emitted a low growl, ears up and ey
es fixed on Kole.

  “This is not my doing. I’m a subject of this place, like you. I wouldn’t worry about it. The reversion is going to swallow us all soon, anyway.”

  Kole gave Major a menacing look before tossing his bloodied bandages to the ground. A few of the hunters snuck forward and sniffed the blood as if it were an aphrodisiac.

  “In a world losing all sensory input, you throw hungry wolves a handful of bloody bandages.”

  Before Kole could reply, the alpha male sprang forward. His lean body flew through the air toward Kole’s neck. Kole raised a forearm, striking the alpha male on the head, deflecting his lunge with a whimper. The other hunters stepped forward.

  No. He is mine.

  “They want to prove themselves, the way you did. They want to fight their way to the top of the pack.”

  “Stop talking to them, you asshole,” Kole said, spitting each syllable into the still air.

  Mine.

  The hunters stopped, but their eyes remained locked on Kole.

  “Why are you letting them attack me?” Kole asked.

  “I’m not letting them do anything,” Major said. “They have needs to fulfill, like all of us, and they have beliefs about the reversion and what might stop it.”

  “Human blood?”

  “Probably. But I’m not a wolf, so I can’t say for sure.”

  The alpha male growled again, shaking its head and realigning its equilibrium after absorbing Kole’s shot.

  “What about Mara and Samuel? Let’s sell them out.”

  “Mara,” Major said, “is not worth a thing to me. Or them. But Samuel. He has something I need, and if I have to sacrifice you and the girl to get it, I will.”

  “This isn’t fair,” Kole said.

  “Of course it isn’t, you spoiled little shit. You’ve slipped into another locality, one damned for all time. Or at least until the reversion eats it. You were nothing but a disgusting human being in your life. Why do you think you’re owed any decency now? Be happy you didn’t slip into a place more violent than this. The alpha male will tear out your throat and you’ll be dead in minutes. Trust me. There are worse fates for those like you.”

  Enough.

  Major held both hands up and stepped backward. The pack stepped past him until they encircled Kole. The alpha male crouched down before him, ready to spring. Kole looked at Major with a bloody tear running down his face. He shook his head at the old man, but said nothing.

  The alpha male launched himself through the air again. This time, Kole’s defensive blow glanced off the beast’s muzzle and into thin air. The wolf’s paws landed on Kole’s neck, pushing him backward until he lost balance and collapsed hard on the ground. The wolf opened its jaws and clamped down on Kole’s throat like a steel bear trap. The wolf growled and shook its head until blood spurted from Kole’s jugular. The man’s eyes remained open as his body twitched in the dirt. When he no longer moved, the alpha male raised his head and howled into the darkness.

  Major stood by, careful not to interrupt the alpha male and his hunters. He closed his eyes as the tearing of flesh filled his ears. The locality would devour the experience like everything else, but until that happened, Major had to live it. When the wolves finished their obscene feast, the alpha male nudged a hunter. The wolves gathered behind their leader amongst the horde still fixed to the ground.

  And now the other. The female is of no consequence to me. She has no power.

  “But he does, and you’d better remember that.”

  The alpha male looked at Major, blood staining his coat.

  I know. I felt it last time. But that was before. I have become more powerful since.

  “So has he,” Major said. “So has he.”

  ***

  “I think we’re here for a different reason. I think we have work to do, people we owe,” Mara said.

  Samuel nodded, taking deep, long breaths. “Redemption?” he asked.

  “Of sorts. Do you trust me?” Mara asked.

  “I guess.”

  “Give me your hand.”

  When Samuel’s hand landed in Mara’s palm, she threw a shoulder into the door and exited the cabin. The horde surrounded them, but they stood motionless in place.

  “Why aren’t they coming at us?” Samuel asked as they sprinted down the path and away from the reversion.

  “A force has held them temporarily. They won’t remain immobile long. Hurry. Let’s get some distance.”

  Samuel looked at Mara for a moment, realizing there was more to her experience in the reversion than what she told him. She let go of his hand.

  Mara ran down the path, her dark hair swaying against her back. Samuel followed her as she continued moving east. The trees hung over the path like dangling fly paper, ready to snag them at any moment. Mara kept moving through the darkened landscape until the path opened on a plain that stretched as far as she could see. Long wheat stood still and silent. Samuel looked up and saw the reversion in the sky, constantly moving east toward the endgame.

  “They’re not behind us,” Samuel said.

  “They will be. Come on.”

  Mara sprinted again, this time through the field toward a black hole on the other side. As Samuel drew closer, he realized they were heading for the gaping maw of a cave embedded in the deep rock of a mountain. The opening appeared as a solid wall of jet-black fabric.

  “We’re going in there?” he asked.

  She ignored his question and slowed to a jog. As she approached the entrance to the cave, the wheat tapered off until there was nothing but undisturbed dirt. Samuel felt the muscles in his body tighten, and he had to fight to keep his bladder under control.

  “It feels evil,” he said.

  “It probably is,” Mara said. “But it’s our last chance to escape the reversion. And the wolves.”

  As if on cue, Samuel heard another round of howling. He looked over a shoulder and saw the first shapes shuffling from the tree line into the field. He recognized the gait and knew the horde was back on their trail.

  Mara looked at him and took his hand again. She looked at the cave and back to the undead.

  “It’s your call. I can’t make you.”

  Samuel nodded and followed her through the opening, into darkness that penetrated him to the core.

  ***

  “I could use the horde to draw him out,” Major said.

  The undead. They avoid that place.

  “I know. Which is why we must get him to give up. You and your pack are not great enough in number to pursue them through the labyrinth.”

  How did the girl know about it?

  Major felt an accusation in the unspoken question.

  “They have been running for their lives, to the east. The reversion has pushed them there.”

  The wolf licked his teeth and circled back around to survey the hunters. The old man was right.

  You have bait he will take?

  “I have many tools at my disposal,” Major said as a smile spread across his face. “I don’t know if he’ll leave the girl, but he will be disoriented, at the very least.”

  Go. I will wait for you. But realize time here is short, and the reversion slows for nothing. I will not suffer another cycle by failing Him.

  Major nodded and stepped past a throng of the undead as they approached the cave. He tried not to look at their faces as he contemplated a strategy for luring Samuel out. And he needed enough time to find the talisman before the alpha male tore the flesh from his bones.

  He couldn’t remember when he struck a deal with the alpha male because communicating with the wolf was always tedious. The animal spoke with a limited vocabulary and used its few words in the wrong context. Major remembered enough to know the alpha was doomed to another reversion without capturing Samuel, and Major couldn’t escape without the talisman. The wolf would get Samuel’s flesh if Major received the talisman.

  ***

  What appeared to be a black hole from the outside softened w
ithin. Ancient stalactites and stalagmites bit into the cavernous space. The old rock glowed with a dull, heavy cast of grey light, as if it came from the final throes of a dying sun. The floor of the cave was covered with a fine powder, dry and unlike the heavy, moist soil of the forest. Passages extended in all directions, heading into the depths of the mountain.

  Several of the walls wept. Trickling streams of water followed grooves etched in the stone over eons, the droplets crashing into puddles on the ground like cannon fire echoing throughout the space.

  Mara stopped and looked at Samuel as they stood shoulder to shoulder, their backs to the entrance. She looked into his face, shuddering at the pale complexion brought on by the inner glow of the cave. When she turned to look at the cave entrance, she saw the darkness of the locality brought by the reversion, making it seem like a heavy curtain had been drawn across the last remnants of their world.

  Samuel’s eyes met Mara’s. He let his breathing slow while surveying the inside of the cave. The glow of light produced phantom shadows that slithered over the pockmarked stone. He felt the cold, moist, subterranean air on his face and detected the faint aroma of wet limestone. The open passages reached out to Samuel like bony fingers threatening to pull him inside the mountain.

  “Now what?” he asked.

  Mara looked back to the entrance. She jogged to an outcrop of rock against the north wall of the cave, Samuel running behind her. She placed her back against the cool wall and then stood upright when it chilled her to the core.

  “We can hide,” she said.

  “From who? For how long? I don’t see how—”

  Mara cut him off by placing her index finger to his lips.

  “The horde hates this place, and I don’t know why. I remember seeing them standing out front before, a long time ago, when I first got here. Kole and I were hiding in the trees and we saw Major coming out. But the undead, they weren’t in here.”