Her elbow broke free and slammed into the bloody man’s jaw. He fell over to the side. Sue shot up and started running through the woods once again. The dead man was moving quickly behind her. She tripped. Slamming into the ground, Sue let out a gust of air. The wind had been knocked out of her and she just stayed there. Unmoved by the madness that was behind her.
When the man let out a moan, Sue slowly rolled over looking up at the monster that was there to take her life. The zombie grabbed hold of her arms once again but now he was sitting down on her, pinning her to the ground. He smelled of rotting meat as he started to lean in closer to Sue, his jaw opening wide. Sue screamed, then a loud blast was heard and warm blood quickly covered her body. Sue fell to the ground with the zombie's lifeless body on top of her, she pushed and fought once again to get out from under it. When she was finally free, Sue looked up to see the woman from the house pointing a shotgun in her face.
Catherine was smiling as she hovered over Sue with her shotgun, she lowered the barrel and said, "I'm Catherine Briggs, and you better hope none of that blood got in your mouth."
CHAPTER 3
“Wait up!” Sue said as she bent over, panting while a river of sweat ran down her. She looked up to see Catherine soldiering through the heat with most of their gear on her back. “I said hold up!” Sue shouted. Her hair was still stained a dark red from the blood that covered her just hours before. Sue longed for a hot shower, but those days of bubble baths and hot meals just felt like misguided daydreams now. That stage of life was over.
In less than three months the United States had fallen into an undead circle of hell with the rest of the world. The dead outnumbered the living and humanity as a whole was over. Death was all that remained.
“Wait up Briggs! You act like we have a deadline or something,” Sue said.
Catherine stopped and turned around slowly, she stood still as she watched Sue struggling her way down the black road.
“All you do is complain. I should have let that guy eat your little ass back there.” Catherine placed her hands on the top of her head looking up into the clear blue skies, she closed her eyes and hoped, damn near prayed for just one slight breeze. Yet as she opened her eyes and felt the sting of sweat making its way past her eyelashes, she knew there was no saving grace to come. “And don't call me Briggs. Uncle Sam’s dead and the war’s over.”
Catherine took in the sight of Sue’s dirty white shoes awkwardly slapping into the black top as Sue ran up next to her. The girl was young, skinny, blonde, and severely out of shape. Catherine had to look back every few steps just to make sure Sue was still alive. Catherine’s hands dropped from her head. “You’re not gonna make it,” Catherine said very matter of factly.
Sue was once again leaning over gazing into the sweat that was dropping between her dirty white sneakers as she attempted to catch her breathe. Sue’s head slowly came up as Catherine started to speak once again in that tone, that tone of truth and petty mixed into one, much like a teacher’s tone as they listed all the reasons why you failed the semester.
“Life is like a fucked up horror movie now,” Catherine said.
Sue cleared the sweat from her brows. Hanging over staring at the asphalt, Sue fought to catch her breath and said, “What?”
Catherine patted Sue’s back. “Being young, pretty and popular isn’t enough,” Catherine said. Pulling out their last bottle of water, Catherine slowly opened it and handed it to Sue. “You gotta fight if you wanna make it out alive and by the looks of it, you're not a fighter,” Catherine said with a laugh.
Sue put the clear liquid heaven to her lips and closed her eyes. A luke warm rush of relief made it’s way past her lips and danced along her tongue before both air and water was rushing their way down her throat When Sue opened her eyes the water bottle was an empty sunken in shell. Sue’s hands ran down her sweaty thighs trying to ease the itch that the repetitive movement was starting to create. Sue looked up at Catherine, their eyes locked for a small moment and Sue tossed the bottle at Catherine’s feet.
“ Go fuck yourself.” Sue pushed past Catherine and continued down the road yelling, “Had I known the world was going to be taken over by zombies, I would have spent a little more time in the gym.” Sue put her hand over her eyes to block out the sun as she turned to look back at Catherine and asked, “How much longer till we get there?”
Catherine laughed and casually strolled over to Sue, she knew women like her from the Army. Barbie dolls who weren't worth a damn in a firefight. Soldiers you couldn't count on for a glass of water much less having your back. Yet, one thing Catherine learned from her years in the Army was that in every toy box full of Barbies, there was always one that doubled as the G.I Jane edition, she just had to break her heels before she could put on her boots. Now Catherine wasn't sure if that was Sue or not but she hoped that was the case because the alternative was too dark to think about.
“We’ll be there soon enough,” Catherine said.
Catherine’s tan combat boots slowed to match the pace of Sue’s dirty white sneakers as the two women made their way along the dead road, towards their gas station of hope. Catherine ran her hand along the back of her neck, clearing away a river of sweat that ran down her hot skin. She could feel the handle of the shotgun brush against her knuckles. She thought for a moment how there was no sweeter feeling than the cold metal of a shotgun. Then the thought of Robert popped into her head, his big arms wrapping around her as he whispered ‘it’s gonna be okay’ there was something far more sweeter than a shotgun. She just needed to get to it.
“It’s crazy isn’t it?” Sue’s words pulled Catherine out of her heartbreaking moment, her hand went up to clear a tear from her eye, one that she was ready to call sweat if asked about it. Catherine’s head turned towards Sue who was walking with her hands on her head.
“What’s crazy?” Catherine asked.
Sue’s eyes scanned along the long road ahead, she told herself she was scanning the area, that she was being Catherine’s eyes, in hopes of removing the feeling of being a burden from her mind. “All of this, I mean fucking zombies? Of all the things I thought would happen, seeing the dead come to life wasn’t one of them,” Sue said.
Catherine nodded but she wasn't fully listening, her mind was on the heat and the lack of food they had. One of them would be passing out soon and Catherine just hoped it wasn’t her. The thought of Sue being their only line of defense scared the shit out of her.
“I heard that this all happened because of some drunk driver,” Sue said as she looked over at Catherine “It was some truck driver over in Russia.” hanging her thumbs through her belt loops and rested her hands along her side as she looked around and continued her story. “Dean saw an article about it, the driver was carrying a large shipment of toxic waste.”
Catherine stopped walking and put her hand up, “Wait a minute, where did you say you heard all this again?” she asked.
Sue kept walking and didn’t even look back at Catherine as she said, “It was all over the Internet.”
Catherine rolled her eyes and started walking slowly along side of Sue once again. “You know that's bullshit right?” Catherine said.
Sue shrugged and said, “Dean said the Government covered it up, and with who we put in office..”
Catherine shook her head and laughed “Shut up!”
Sue rolled her eyes, “That’s what happened.”
Catherine ran her hand over her face and cleared away the sweat. She sighed and then started laughing as she walked and said, “Sounds like you and Dean watched too many comic book movies.”
Sue laughed and nodded, “Well, Dean did have a pretty big comic book collection.”
Catherine’s full lips started to form into a large grin and through the smile she asked, “So you and Dean were, you know?” Catherine winked and elbowed Sue.
Sue laughed shaking her head “No, we didn't even know each other before all this. I mean he was in some of my classes but w
e didn't hang around the same people.”
Catherine nodded and pulled at a strap adjusting her backpack. “So you three just ended up together in some house?”
Sue nodded as she squinted her eyes to look over at Catherine, “It was my sorority house, well the new one, because we got kicked off campus”
Catherine quickly let out, “I knew it!”
Sue stopped walking, “Knew what?”
Catherine scanned the area and pointed, “It’s up ahead.”
Sue folded her arms and stood her ground as she watched Catherine “You knew what?”
Catherine rolled her eyes at Sue and said, “That you were one of those Alpha Alpha Alpha, partygirls. You know jello shots and bad decisions.”
Sue started walking down the street again, her pace much faster than before, she pushed past Catherine.
Catherine laughed and wagged her finger at Sue. “You’re gonna stop pushing me like that, before I start pushing back little girl”
Sue turned around throwing her arms in the air. “You don’t even know me! You don’t know shit about me!”
Catherine rushed towards the girl, her hand slapped over Sue’s lips, holding her mouth shut.
“I know you need to keep your damn mouth shut,” Catherine whispered.
She held Sue still, she looked over the blonde girl’s shoulder to see the figures moving about by the gas station. Catherine pushed Sue back and started to remove the backpack she was carrying, dropping it to the floor.
“They’re waking up,” Catherine said.
Sue looked over towards the gas station that was just a few feet down the road. Sue put her hand up to block out the sun as she watched the figures under the awning slowly start to come alive, her hand dropped.
“I didn’t think they slept,” Sue said.
Catherine said, “They don’t, they just get real still when there isn’t anything to chase.” She pushed her shotgun to the side and tossed her leather jacket to the ground as she pulled something out that reflected the sunlight into Sue’s eyes.
Sue’s head turned away from the light and she could see more zombies making their way out of the gas station.
“Oh fuck,” Sue said and she pointed at the gas station. “We got more of them.”
Catherine walked past her with a shiny metal machete in her hand.
“Really? You think? Grab the bag!” Catherine said as her tan boots were making a B line for the gas station.
Sue ran back to the bag and zipped it up as she swung it over her shoulder and started running behind Catherine. Sue’s footsteps came to a quick stop as Catherine stood still staring at the hoard of zombies that were one by one turning to face them. Sue dropped the bag and pulled out her gun.
Catherine shook her head, “No guns.”
Sue’s eyebrow raised, “You’re kidding right?”
Catherine shook her head and her fingers tightened around the handle of her machete. “We’re running low on bullets.”
Sue laughed lowering her gun, “Bullets aren’t gonna do us any good if we’re dead.”
Sue’s words caused Catherine to look over her shoulder at the girl. Nodding at the blonde girl, Catherine took one deep breathe before she took off running towards the mass of zombies that were forming. Sue looked down at the gun in her hand and then up at the path that Catherine had blazed.
“You can do this, you can do this.” Sue closed her eyes and whispered to herself again, “You can do this.” When she opened her eyes Sue saw Catherine’s arm swing savagely towards one of the oncoming zombies, before Sue could blink again she saw the zombie’s severed head flying through the air, casting a stream of dark blood through the blue sky and onto the black asphalt.
Sue shook her head and shouted, “I can’t do this!”
Catherine was too deep in the bloodshed to hear the cry of self-doubt coming from Sue’s lips. A tan boot went lunging into the chest of a large black man in blood stained gray overalls, The man fell backwards toppling over a trash can as he crashed into the ground. The man, or what was left of the man, was fighting to get to his feet before Catherine’s blade came down into the middle of his head.
The blade was sharp enough to slice through the body but Catherine had to tug hard to rip it from the man’s skull. Catherine turned around swinging her machete into the neck of another near zombie, when her eyes went back to the road.
“Sue!” Catherine screamed out, but the only reply she received was the low hungry moans of the zombies that were quickly surrounding her. She spun the machete around in her hand, her eyes hopped from left to right.
From female zombie to male…
From young zombie to old.
Catherine’s blade flew forward and connected with an old woman’s head, the blade drove deep into the bone of the skull, causing Catherine to drag the old woman’s head and body to the ground as she attempted to yank the weapon free. Just as she felt the blade start to wiggle loose, a pair of arms wrapped around her. Catherine’s hands released the handle of the machete and her elbow went flying back into the ribs of the dead, but as she connected she felt her elbow cave into the body cavity of the zombie.
Catherine’s arm came back covered in blood and black rancid smelling tissue. Yet, even with his organs falling down onto Catherine’s tan boots the man wouldn’t release her. Catherine leaned back and then swung forward, pushing her hips back as she sent the zombie hurling towards the ground in front of her. Catherine had no time to bask in her beautiful escape. There was a handful of zombies left, but more than she wanted to deal with. Tightening her jaw as she thought about how she allowed herself to fall into a mess like this again. Catherine trusted another person and just like the last she was left high and dry. Her fist went up slowly and a small bit of guts fell from her elbow onto the ground.
“Bring it on, motherfuckers!” When the words left her lips she heard a loud blast and saw the kneecap of a nearby zombie exploded sending blood splattering along the concrete.
The zombie did its best to maneuver towards his would be dinner, but he quickly fell over as his hands were swinging and slashing at the air. Once he was out of the way Catherine could see clearly what had stepped in to pull her from the jaws of death, or better yet whom, she could see Sue slowly getting up from the ground rubbing her lower back.
“Son of a bitch!” Sue said as she leaned over to pick the shotgun up off the ground, she rested the butt on her midsection and she turned to aim at another zombie. Sue’s finger tightened around the cool metal trigger and she closed her eyes as she pulled back and heard a loud click. Sue’s eyes opened and she turned the shotgun upside down looking into the barrel.
“What happened?” she said softly.
Looking up, Sue could see Catherine racing towards her, with machete in hand screaming, “Reload it!”
Sue’s head spun from left to right looking for the large backpack. She started ripping open the pockets, every so often she would look up to see Catherine going to war with what was left of the zombie hoard. Flashes of metal and splashes of blood cut through the hot summer air. Sue’s eyes connected with one zombie whose attention had quickly moved from Catherine and onto Sue. Sue’s head dropped back to the backpack as her hand trembled pulling out the box of red shells.
Sue lifted the lid, and then jumped as Catherine screamed out “Motherfucker!” The bullets leaped from the box and scattered across the ground.
“No. No! No!” Sue said repeatedly as she crawled across the floor trying to get two of the red shells. Her hand went out and grabbed hold of the two red cylinders, she rolled over on her back and fumbled with the shotgun, pulling at every bit of metal that would move. “Come on!” Sue screamed, her eyes went up to see a pair of grey eyes staring at her.
Sue’s eyes quickly started to water as the rancid scent of the woman filled the air, the tears blurred the image of the zombie as it's mouth opened wide showing its blood stained teeth. That feeling of dread and death washed over Sue once again, as the zombi
e let out an ear splitting scream. Sue closed her eyes, she was sure she would feel the pain of torn skin and the rush of warm blood cover her, but all she felt were warm droplets, like a summer rainfall. When Sue opened her eyes she could see the tip of a large blade pushing through the open mouth of the zombie. Sue’s eyes went wide and her hands finally clicked the shotgun into place as Catherine pulled her machete up and through the skull of the female zombie.
The zombie fell over to the ground and Catherine smiled. “What's that now, three times, I’ve had to save your-”
Catherine’s words were cut off as Sue swung the barrel of the shotgun up at Catherine and pulled back on the trigger. Catherine dropped down to the ground with her hands over her ears trying her best to block out the effects of the blast. Her ears were ringing and she could see Sue laying back on the ground once again with the shotgun to her side. As Catherine started to raise a large body dropped down by her feet.
Where once was a head was now a stump shooting out dark blood all over the blue handicap parking space.
Catherine looked at the body then looked over at Sue and laughed, “Well look at you!”
Sue put her hand over her face, “I’m just gonna lay here for a little bit.”
Catherine cupped her hand to her ear and screamed, “What!”
Sue sighed into her hands and sat up looking at Catherine, who was snapping her fingers along her left ear.
“I’m not like that,” Sue said and Catherine’s eyes slowly made their way towards Sue.
Catherine walked over and dusted off a section of the ground next to Sue and sat down with her blood soaked jeans, she rested the machete between her legs and took in the view of dead bodies that lined the gas station.
“Like what?” Catherine asked.
Sue looked over at Catherine and said, “I’m in recovery...” She laughed and looked at the puddle of blood that was quickly surrounding her sneakers. “..or I was.” She looked over to Catherine. “What's the worse thing you've ever done?”
Catherine looked over at the blonde headed girl with the sprinkles of blood that cover her face and then looked away. “When I first got out of the military, I got a job with this law firm.” Catherine rubbed her thumb over the black handle of the machete and closed her eyes. “There was this little girl. I can't remember her name, but she came in with her aunt. They wanted me to represent the little girl in court. She was a cutie or would have been if she ever smiled.” Catherine opened her eyes to look back at the bloodshed that covered the ground. “ They said the girl’s daddy had been doing things to her, some very un-fatherly like things.” She looked over at Sue.
Planet Dead (Book 1): Bloodthirsty Page 4
