He turned to see Keisha’s prone body roll to the side, reaching out to grab the discarded axe a few feet from the body of the dead guard. With a single slash, she swung, separating Sylvie’s head from her torso.
Keisha was panting, and she dropped to her knees. Howard raced over, propping her arm over his shoulder.
“I think I love you,” said Howard.
Keisha turned her golden eyes to him, her lips pursed. “Now you get romantic?” She looked behind her, watching as the zombies landed on Raoul’s body, their satisfied mouths chomping on his limbs. “Ugh.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
They turned to flee—a werewolf stood, growling, blocking their exit. It was tense, its muscles bulging under fur, twin green chips of glass reflecting against the fur. Howard looked into the beast’s hazel eyes, and his mouth dropped open.
Keisha tugged his arm, her breath coming in short pants.
Spinning, they saw the zombies look up, their faces cocked with interest, their lifeless eyes dark pockets of emptiness.
Keisha picked up her axe, brandishing it, while Howard took out another number-two pencil from his pocket protector.
The lone wolf howled from behind them.
“Crap,” Howard muttered.
CHAPTER 28
Wyatt scrambled through the streets, the axe in front of him, his mesh-covered arm outstretched. Bushes parted, and two men came at him—one was on his knees, which were now bloody stumps, and the other was in a lesser state of decay. Wyatt spun, swinging the axe. It connected with the soft middle of the taller man. Wyatt jumped back, avoiding the blood and bone that flew out. The corpse fell onto the artificial turf with a dull thud.
The man on his knees made a grunting sound like a rooting pig. He knocked the axe from Wyatt’s hand. Wyatt reached out with his meshed hand, the fingers sinking into the eye sockets, and he pulled hard. The head came off with a soft whish, the grinding sound of the gristle and bone making Wyatt gag. He spun in a circle, throwing the disconnected head at another group of shuffling zombies that fell like bowling pins. “Strike,” Wyatt said with satisfaction. He paused, realizing with a start that they were incredibly fragile.
Bending, he picked up the heavy axe and ran through the carnage into the house where he heard a steady thrum of knocking.
Dust motes danced in the air, the waning moonlight illuminating them like fairy dust. The sky had lightened somewhat, and Wyatt wondered what time it was. He searched the gloom. A woman lay on the floor, dragging herself toward him. She moaned piteously. He screamed Jade’s name, ducking into the dark corners, his feet shoving the slow-moving wrecks of humanity that crawled along the floor. They grabbed at his legs, squeezing his thighs. Using his axe handle, he brushed them off, watching in revulsion as body parts broke off to land with dull thuds on the floor. He picked off their relentless hands, chopping with the ease of a butter knife, their diseased limbs falling to the floor in a cascade of carnage. He kicked the slow-moving woman out of the way, yanking open the door to find Jade cowering on the floor. Wyatt put down his axe and peeled off the bloody mesh armor from his arm.
He pulled her into his arms, and she curled up against him, her body shaking with dry-heaving sobs. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“Nolan…” she stuttered between gulps. “Nolan…”
“Where is he?” Wyatt cupped her face with his hands.
Jade’s blue eyes widened until the irises were completely surrounded by white. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream. “What?” he demanded.
Jade looked over his shoulder fearfully.
Wyatt spun, placing himself in front of Jade protectively. Nolan was behind him, his eyes filled with an unholy light, his skin a sickly shade of green in the dark room.
“Nolan, man. You scared the shit out of me…” Wyatt said, turning back to Jade.
“Wyyyyatt!” Jade screamed, shrinking before his eyes.
She pointed at Nolan, who grinned evilly. Wyatt sniffed and then peered closer in the gloom. Nolan looked…strange. He smelled foul. A large chunk of skin was missing from his forearm. Nolan’s eyes had sunken into his skull, and he held his arms outstretched, ready to wrap his hands around Wyatt’s throat. His voice was as dry as a hacksaw, but it still worked.
“I knew you wanted her, you creep.” Nolan clenched his hands, and the skin on them looked waterlogged, as though he had been underwater for hours.
Wyatt’s hair stood up on his scalp when he noticed the telltale white spots on Nolan’s bluish nails.
“What happened to you?”
“Nothin’?” Nolan smiled ghoulishly. “Come on buddy, I’m desperate to have a word with you.”
Wyatt backed into the closet, feeling Jade come up behind them. There was no escape that way.
“Can’t we talk about this?”
Nolan laughed, a raw scraped sound. “You think I’m just going to let you have her. She locked herself away from me a long time ago. She told me this was our last date, didn’t you, Jade?” He leered behind Wyatt. “You think I didn’t see her making eyes at you for the last few weeks? Did you?” He tapped Wyatt hard on the chest. Wyatt pushed him away. Skin sloughed off to hang like a drape on Nolan’s wrist. He looked at the bloody hands, sucking in his stomach to avoid a second touch. “Well, babe, you were right about one thing. This will be our last date, and it’s going to last a long, long time.”
Jade wailed loudly.
“Sh…” Wyatt warned her. “You’ll bring more of them in here.” He pushed deeper into the recess of the closet.
“I hate you, Nolan. You’re a bully. I never liked you, but I was a afraid to not go out with you,” Jade whimpered. “He made me date him,” she muttered with hysteria to Wyatt. “I hate him,” she hissed.
“Be afraid, Jade,” Nolan spat. “Be really afraid. Remember when I twisted your arm. Remember how it felt?”
Jade whimpered again.
Wyatt felt his chest tighten; his face grew red. Nolan reached out to touch him again, and he intercepted his arm, knocking it easily out of the way. Nolan only had eyes for Jade.
“Yeah. Scaredy-cat Jade. I told her I’d beat the shit out of “her little brother if she didn’t go out with me,” Nolan laughed.
Wyatt reached blindly for the axe, but it fell with a resounding bang just out of his reach.
He began a slow descent to retrieve it, but the odor of decay filled his nostrils, and Nolan moved almost on top of him. His hand was inches from Wyatt’s unprotected neck.
Wyatt closed his eyes in resignation, knowing he was doomed.
He looked up to stare death in the face, his eyes opening wide in shock when Nolan’s head detached from his body.
The axe hung suspended as if in midair. It wasn’t until Nolan’s body fell that Wyatt watched in dismay as another zombie stood behind him holding the weapon. Zombies crowded against the windows, blocking what little light could come in. The thing stood before him like a ghost.
Wyatt looked up to make eye contact with the new threat, his mouth opening in shock when the zombie handed the axe to him. He could barely make out that the thing was a man.
“Out,” he rasped painfully. “Out, get out of here.” The zombie grabbed his throat from the pain of speaking.
Wyatt didn’t need any more encouragement than that. Grabbing Jade’s hand, the axe in the other, he turned sideways. Stopping for a second, he said, “Thanks.”
The zombie seemed exhausted by the effort. Raising his hand, he pointed to the open door, whispering, “Now.”
Wyatt dashed for the door, dragging Jade behind him. The zombies came at them like a driving rain, but Wyatt was fast, dodging through them as if they were a sloppy defensive line, swinging his axe like a claymore. He felt like Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
The muted light beckoned from the gate, and the sky pinkened. Wyatt’s feet tore up the grass, and he heard Jade panting behind him, but he held her in a merciless grip.
Bowing his head with deter
mination, he pressed on, his heart pumping like a steam engine, the gate his only goal.
He reached the metal barrier, swinging Jade through, turning to see that strange male zombie shoving his pursuers onto the ground and then crushing their legs so they couldn’t follow.
CHAPTER 29
Wyatt rounded the gate and then pulled it on the wheels to close it, but he couldn’t move it far enough alone. It was too heavy. He heard Jade’s intake of breath, and, when he turned, he saw a werewolf standing, blocking off the main exit. He heard his name being called and to his left were Keisha and a bloody-looking Howard Drucker holding her hand.
Wyatt looked to each of them, the breath leaving his body at the relief of seeing his friends. Between them were the torn and bloodied carcasses of a dozen zombies.
Howard Drucker looked at Wyatt and then the wolf and back to Keisha.
“I feel like I’m stuck in a rerun of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on Turner Classic Movies,” Howard said loudly.
“Well, I’m not gonna be ugly,” Keisha retorted. “So that leaves good and bad.”
Howard looked up at her with a dopey grin. “I think we’re bad. Super bad.”
Keisha smiled slightly. “Okay, genius, how are we going to get out of this one? I don’t think your number-two pencil is going to work on him.” She gestured to the wolf with a nod of her head.
Howard looked at the spot. The wolf was gone.
Wyatt ran to Howard and Keisha. “You guys okay?” He grabbed Howard by both upper arms.
Howard held up his bloody pencil. “Never better. Where’s Nolan?”
“He lost his head over this place.”
“You wouldn’t believe it. We were about to be annihilated by a group of zombies and some wolf tore them to shreds.”
“Where is it?” Wyatt looked around.
“It disappeared.”
Headlights lit up the road. A golf cart filled with four men pulled into the clearing. Behind the cart, the sun peeked its way over the rocky hills. The sky lightened to a lilac hue.
“Ah, Alec Baldwin,” Vincent said as he stepped out of the cart.
“Wyatt,” he corrected him. He watched Carter being pulled from the back of the cart. His shirt was torn, and his shoulder was bloody. His face hadn’t fared too well either. A man bashed him on his bad shoulder with a shotgun. Carter groaned then fell to his knees. Another hopped out of the cart, kicking him in the stomach.
Wyatt surged forward, but found himself imprisoned by the burly hands of one of Vincent’s henchmen. He looked around. They were surrounded by a ring of guards in a uniform he hadn’t seen before. They were all armed with shotguns.
“Carter!”
“A family reunion. Eh, Jack? What do you think of your boy?” Vincent called to the lone zombie, who staggered from the small space where he had squeezed through the gate.
“Wyatt,” Vincent directed a question to him, his face filled with mirth. “What do you call a lawyer who turns into a zombie?”
Wyatt looked at Vincent and then at the wreck of a man who stood on wobbly legs. “What are you doing?” the zombie demanded. “This was supposed to be a place of learning… and science.”
Vincent went on as if he hadn’t heard him. “You didn’t answer my riddle. What do you call a lawyer who turns into a zombie? Don’t know?” he asked. “I’ll tell you. Jack Baldwin. No relation to Alec, of course.” Vincent laughed at his joke. “To Alec, get it?”
Wyatt sagged against the guard and then his face inched up to come to land on the shell of humanity that stood swaying in the center. “It can’t be.” Wyatt’s heart sank. “It looks nothing like my father!” Wyatt shouted, tears streaming down his face.
Vincent came forward like a demented game show host. “It can be, and it is. Oh, how I wish I had the press here, but, sadly, they are all dead. No more press but mine from now on. Thank you very much.” There was a scuffle, and a group of zombies broke free from the gate to make their slow way toward them. Vincent nodded, and two guards broke off, spraying them with the shotguns. They dropped where they stood.
Carter was shoved against Wyatt. He tottered, and Wyatt held out a hand to steady him. He sank to his knees and then leaned against Wyatt’s leg, his face down.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Wyatt asked.
Carter looked up. He had a cut over his eye, and his cheek was bruised.
“Do you?” Wyatt asked again. He looked at his father, searching for something recognizable, but found nothing.
Carter shook his head. “I didn’t know about that. I know your father—”
“Worked for me, young Wyatt. He was my lawyer. Your mother was not happy with that. Said he worked too hard, ignored the family. Felt the work was unethical. Imagine that, an unethical lawyer. An oxymoron, if I ever heard one. You know,” he confided, “I helped with the arrangements in the divorce. Used a crack LA team that knows the ins and outs of hiding funds from pesky families. They hadn’t been getting along for a while, right, Jack?” Vincent supplied helpfully. “I couldn’t have my attorney distracted. He had work to do. Besides, he believed in me. Believed with so much passion that he left all his money to my research.” He turned to Jack. “You weren’t supposed to get infected, you stupid man. I told you to keep your hands to yourself. Never could keep his hands off the ladies.” Vincent shrugged. “C’est la vie. Now he’ll have his son with him for as long as he lasts.”
The zombie raised a hand—his destroyed vocal chords grunted, but the sounds were little more than groans. His mouth shaped the word no. His sad eyes looked from Carter to Wyatt. He pointed to Vincent, his face changing into a sneer. He moved toward the doctor, anger written all over his face.
Vincent backed away. “Now now, Jack. What’s all this? Suddenly you care about the boy. You and I both know you didn’t give a rat’s ass about anything except for money.” Vincent’s laugh was cut short when the zombie picked up speed in a burst of energy. Conrad’s eyes opened wide with fear, and he screamed, “Shoot him. Shoot him now!”
A shot rang out, and Jack Baldwin fell to his knees, his eyes locking with Wyatt’s before they closed forever.
Wyatt spun, grabbing the axe that lay behind him. Carter pulled himself up and then moved in front of Wyatt, knocking him to the ground as another shot rang out. Wyatt felt Carter fall against him and cried out, “Dad,” taking Carter into his arms.
Vincent turned to the guard. “Finish them off.” He walked toward the cart, dismissing them.
The guard raised his rifle. A long black shadow raced from between two buildings, ripping off his arm, and the shot went wide. The wolf grabbed the gun and then turned, laying it at Wyatt’s feet. A gold pendant with green glass filled Wyatt’s vision. The wolf panted and then spun, leaping to attack the throat of another guard.
Howard yelled, “Look, there are more of them!” He was pointing to the west.
Wyatt picked up the gun, but the remaining soldiers broke rank, disappearing into the rubble.
Vincent turned, his voice panicked. “Stop, you bastards. You’re supposed to protect me! I’m the leader of your world.”
Conrad jumped into his cart, turning abruptly to make his escape. Wyatt held up the rifle, and all things around him turned soft—the only thing he could focus on was the round shape of Vincent’s dark head. He felt a tug against his leg. Carter looked up, his face blanched white but his voice strong. “Close one eye, and aim for the biggest part of him, Son.”
Wyatt nodded, relief filling his chest. “You okay?”
“Flesh wound. Just shoot the son of a bitch.”
The gun fit against his shoulder as if he had held it a hundred times. He didn’t think about the sound. His world shrunk to his father’s corpse, the reassuring weight of Carter against his leg, and the outline of Vincent’s head. Closing one eye, he squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. He clicked it open—the chambers were empty.
He heard Carter’s soft curse as he hauled himself to his feet.
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The wolf spun, leaping over a cluster of dead bodies, its long body stretching over the road, almost airborne. The five of them watched the cart roll over from the impact of the wolf hitting it. Vincent rolled down the soft side of the road and then scrambled to his feet to run down the path. The wolf easily ran after him, leaping on his back so that he fell clumsily. He reached into his pocket to aim a small gun, but the wolf stretched out with his snout, clamping his jaw on Vincent’s wrist, pulling. Vincent watched in revolted fascination as his hand detached. He screamed, high and long, the sound echoing in the empty park. The wolf jumped on his chest—the sound was cut short. Vincent rolled, sobbing for the wolf to leave him be. The animal allowed him to crawl. Vincent looked back, his eyes wild, thinking it was letting him go. “Thank you,” he cried. “Thank you. I will take care of you. I will reward you.” He rambled on, his voice frantic with relief. The wolf raised its head to give a long howl. Everything stopped, even Vincent, who turned to look back. He must have seen something the others didn’t, because he raised his bloody stump, screaming, “Nooooooooooooo…” The wolf raced to him, the scream cut short as the wolf tore Vincent’s head off in a single yank.
They watched it trot, its prize between its long fangs, the lifeless eyes staring back at them, the mouth caught in a soundless scream.
“I guess Melvin was right all along,” Howard said, walking up to them.
“Who would’ve thunk it,” Keisha responded.
“Let’s get out of here,” Wyatt said, taking Jade’s hand in his own.
Carter nodded as he limped over to the dead guard to pick up a gun. He searched the sky, noticing the sun painting the ridge of the eastern mountains.
“First we have to lock the rest of them in.” They followed him to the barricade. They all worked together to shove the iron gate closed. There was a muted fumble on the other side followed by the soft thud of the zombies impacting the hard surface.
Monsterland Page 16
