Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1

by Michele Notaro

  The Feral landed next to me, but fell to the ground, so I knocked her head with the bat, then chopped her head right off with the axe.

  The poor human woman was staring at me with wide eyes full of fear, so I told her, “You have to remove the head or they come back to life.”

  All she did was nod.

  I was distracted again by a Feral running around with a metal pan in her hands. She swung at Nolan, who ducked, but he got tackled to the ground by another Feral from behind. I ran over to help him and ended up in a weird bat versus pan sword fight. It felt like it took forever, but I eventually knocked the stupid pan out of her hands and was able to take her out.

  I turned back to Nolan who was wrestling with a giant-of-a-man-Feral on the ground. Nolan was underneath him and was trying to knock the guy’s head with his bat, but didn’t have a good angle. I was afraid of hitting Nolan, so I jumped on the guy’s back and raised the butt end of my bat. Right before I made contact with the Feral’s skull, I got knocked off, sending my bat flying out of my hands as I fell on my side.

  The Feral that attacked me fell to the ground next to me, so I rolled and jumped to my feet, brought up my axe and slammed it into his neck. I heard Nolan scream out in pain next to me, so I brought my axe down one more time, then turned back to my friend.

  The Feral had his teeth in Nolan’s shoulder where his collar was. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  “Don’t move, Nol,” I yelled as I raised my axe.

  I brought it down right on the Feral’s neck and it instantly started twitching. I grabbed the thing’s shoulders and hauled him off of Nolan, then finished him off. I knelt next to my friend and covered his wound with my hands to try and stop the bleeding. The thing had eaten a small chunk out of him.

  I knew I had tears in my eyes, but Nolan was shaking and crying himself, so I said, “It’s going to be okay, Nol. It’s gonna be okay.”

  I kept scanning our surroundings, checking for any potential threats, but I couldn’t see anything or anyone, so I looked at Nolan again and said, “I’m going to stand up and see where everyone is, okay? I’m not leaving you, I promise.”

  He gave the subtlest of nods, so I stood and looked over the cars. I saw both Cal and Colt fighting a Feral together and the woman from earlier was watching them with two other men standing near her. I scanned again and didn’t see any other Ferals around, so while Colt was batting his Feral, I yelled, “Cal, Nol’s been hurt.”

  I didn’t wait for a reply, I just knelt back down and replaced my hands on Nolan’s neck. It was still bleeding, but it seemed to be slowing down some. A second later, I looked up at the sound of footsteps.

  “What happened?” Cal asked as he knelt down on Nolan’s other side and put his hands over mine, applying more pressure.

  Nolan opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it. “He was bit,” I said to Cal, before looking at Nolan. “Don’t talk or move until we get the bleeding to stop.” As I waited for a reply like an idiot, I added, “Blink twice if you understand me.”

  Nolan rolled his eyes, but then blinked twice. I smiled because he must not be as bad as I initially thought if he could get annoyed with me.

  Colt made it over to us with the other humans following slowly behind him.

  After I told him what happened he said, “We need to find a sewing kit or something.”

  “Uh…” the woman I helped started. “I think I have one.”

  “Can we use it?” Colt asked her.

  “Sure. I’ll go get it.”

  She came back a few seconds later and handed it over. Colt took a needle and a lighter out and held the needle with his shirt and burned first one end, then the other. I could tell that he still burned his fingers, but nobody said anything about it. It took a few tries to get the needle threaded because his hands were a little shaky, but eventually he did.

  Then he looked at me and asked, “Do you know how to sew?”

  I made a face and shook my head, but Cal said, “I’ll do it.”

  Colt handed his brother the needle and he started shuffling through his backpack, finally producing a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

  “I’m glad one of us is prepared,” I stated without sarcasm.

  He shrugged. “I grabbed a bunch of first aid shit, but no needles. We’ll have to find some later.” For next time went unsaid.

  I removed my hands and Nolan’s wound kept bleeding slowly. Colt poured the peroxide on it, followed by some water, then peroxide again. He also dumped some on the needle and thread. Then Cal and I switched places so he could start sewing.

  I grabbed Nolan’s hand and made it my job to distract him, so I started talking, “Do you remember when our dads took us camping when we were in fifth grade? We stayed in that giant tent, all us kids and our three dads.”

  “I remember that,” Colt chimed in. “Wesley was there too,” he reminded me of my younger brother.

  “Yep, just the girls stayed home that time. Or no, they went to a hotel or something because the babies were too young,” I continued as Nolan winced in pain. “Well, anyway,” he flinched again, but I kept going, “we snuck out of the tent after our dads fell asleep the one night and we decided to hunt for that ghost that’s supposed to live in those woods.” I spared a glance at the other humans, but they were just standing back, whispering amongst themselves.

  “The Ghost of Mr. Resner,” Colt said.

  “Yeah. They said he hung himself from a tree in the camp somewhere and liked to scare the shit out of kids at night.” Nolan was looking at me, but he was biting his lip hard and kept jumping and tensing.

  Colt laughed a little. “You three were so scared, you were practically on top of each other. It made it easy to fall back and sneak into the trees.”

  “You scared the shit outta us when you jumped out,” Cal added in a distracted voice.

  “It was hilarious. I thought all three of you were gonna piss your pants.”

  I leaned over and punched Colt in the shoulder with my free hand. “That’s for scaring the shit out of us that night. You ran away before we could retaliate.”

  Colt rubbed his shoulder with a frown and said, “I’m pretty sure one of you pissed in my suitcase to get me back.”

  Nolan laughed a little, but immediately winced.

  “That was Nolan’s idea,” I offered, peeking at the humans that still hadn’t moved.

  “Really?” Colt asked, glaring at Nolan.

  “Um hmm.”

  “I had to throw away my favorite comic,” Colt complained.

  “That’s what happens when you mess with Nolan,” I said. Colt punched my arm.

  “Which one of you actually pissed on my stuff?”

  “That’d be me,” I answered. “Those two were too chickenshit to go through with it.”

  Colt shook his head. “I can feel the love.”

  I chuckled.

  “All done,” Cal said.

  “Am I going to turn into a zombie?” Nolan asked immediately.

  “What? No!” I yelled.

  “I got bit,” he said as I helped him sit up.

  “They aren’t zombies,” Cal countered.

  “But I was bit.”

  “The Taoree are using mind control, Nol. It’s not an infection or a virus or whatever like in a movie,” Colt told him.

  “How do you know the Taoree are controlling those things?” the woman quietly asked.

  I answered her, “We saw them. The first time the Ferals attacked, w—”

  “Ferals?” one of the guys asked.

  “That’s what we call the crazy people that keep attacking us,” I offered, waving at the dead bodies around us, and he nodded. “Anyway, we saw some Taoree walking with the Ferals and the Ferals weren’t attacking them. Then we heard a Taoree give them orders and the Ferals repeated it back a few times.” I shrugged. Cal was cleaning off the needle.

  “That’s… I don’t know what that is,” the guy said. “My wife said that you told her that you have to decapi
tate ‘em to kill ‘em?”

  Colt answered this time, “Yeah. That’s the only way we’ve been able to. Shooting them in the chest doesn’t even slow them down. If you knock them in the head hard enough, they’ll stop and twitch for a few seconds or minutes or whatever, but they always get back up.”

  “Okay, thanks,” the guy said. “Thanks for stoppin’ and helpin’.”

  “No problem,” Cal said as he stood and held out the needle and extra thread to the woman.

  “You can keep it,” she said, “I have more in my bag.”

  “Sweet,” Cal replied, “Thank you.”

  The woman nodded.

  “Where you all headed?” the other guy asked.

  “South,” Colt answered vaguely before I ended up giving out too much information to complete strangers.

  “Why you going south?”

  “We’re looking for our families,” Colt told them.

  The guy nodded and looked away. “Is there anything else we need to know about these Ferals or the Taoree?”

  “Uh, I would stay off of main roads and out of cities. We ran into some Taoree that were… collecting bodies.” I thought for a second and added, “They had a ship with them, so if you hear that humming, run.”

  “Okay.” He nodded. “Well, we’re trying to make it into Maine, so good luck to ya.”

  “You too,” I said.

  When they were a little farther away, Colt said, “I think I have some gauze. We should cover that wound before we move off the road.”

  After that was done, we headed off the road, but I turned around and ran back, scooping Colt’s blue hat off the ground. It must’ve fallen off during the fight. I swear that thing had a life of its own. It somehow caught my attention when we were walking away. When I caught back up, I shoved the hat on Colt’s head, earning a little grin from him.

  Chapter Eight

  The eye was talking to me through the fence; he had been for a while now. “I wish I could keep you safe.”

  I snorted, “Yeah, I’m sure some Taoree really wants me to be safe and not kill me like everyone else wants to.”

  “I do want you safe,” he insisted.

  I rolled my eyes, but decided not to argue. “Who are you?” I asked, even knowing it was a stupid question.

  I heard him take a deep breath. “You know who I am.”

  “No, I don’t,” I argued, “that’s why I asked you.” I was getting a little annoyed with his cryptic words every night.

  “Reach inside yourself, Jeremy, and you will find me.” Yet another cryptic riddle from him.

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Close your eyes,” he told me. I stared at the eye for a long time before finally closing my eyes. Then he continued, “Concentrate on your center.”

  I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I tried it anyway. As soon as I thought about it, I realized I could feel a strange comforting warmth inside of me, so I focused on it.

  “Yes,” I could hear the smile in his voice. “That is it. You can feel me there.”

  I sucked in a breath, feeling like he was correct in that, but then I thought of Colt and immediately felt a weird kind of guilt. I snapped my eyes open, letting go of that strange sensation. We made eye contact and I noticed how sad he suddenly looked and I was hit with another round of guilt, though I couldn’t really place the source.

  “This is just a dream,” I told him stupidly.

  “I know,” he whispered back.

  “Why am I having some weird dream about an alien?” I mused to myself.

  He answered anyway, “I think we are…” but then he trailed off.

  “We are what?” I prompted.

  “I cannot…” he trailed off again.

  “What? What are you not saying?” I was annoyed again. Annoyed with the alien, annoyed with myself, and definitely annoyed with this damn dream I couldn’t shake off.

  He sighed, but then gasped loudly and started panting.

  I took a step toward him, seeing him start to panic. “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

  “I am so sorry, Jeremy, but I do not think all of your friends are going to make it.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked angrily, stopping in my tracks.

  I heard him sigh. “I can feel it, the one closest to you. I do not think… he is not going to make it, Jeremy. I am so sorry, but I cannot save him.”

  “What…” I whispered as I felt my eyes fill with tears, “Why would you say that? He’s fine. Colt is fine. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  The eye looked sad. “There is not anything you can do, Jeremy. If there were, I would help you.”

  I shook my head and started to back away. “No. This is just a stupid dream—a nightmare. Nothing is going to happen to him. You’re wrong. You. Are. Wrong.”

  “Jeremy…” The fence started to crumble. “I am so sorry.”

  I turned and ran before I had to face him.

  We traveled for three more days, slowly making our way back home, fighting for our lives during the day and guarding one another at night. We cleaned and changed the bandages on Nolan’s wound several times a day. Most of our time was terrifying and disgusting, but we stuck together and took care of each other. We had been trying to get home for over a week now—about nine days, I thought—but we figured it would be another two or three days before we reached it. We had to skirt around Baltimore and Washington DC which probably added at least an extra day to our walk, but we didn’t want to take a chance with those overcrowded cities.

  Every night the alien at the fence visited me, and every night I felt safe with him until he said something freaky and I ran. I didn’t really understand why I kept having those weird, very vivid dreams, but I figured it was just a byproduct of the crazy we were now living. I also figured that the others were having crazy dreams and nightmares, but none of us wanted to talk about it. Our world was a living nightmare filled with blood and death; we didn’t need to freak each other out with ghost stories, too. Plus, every time I jolted awake, Colt would simply wrap me in his arms, joke around calling me every nickname under the sun and help me relax until I could fall back asleep. Just that right there was almost worth the freaking out.

  We lucked out and found a stream or a small river to bathe in, so Cal and Nolan went down first while Colt and I packed up the camp we had made the night before and found what little food we had left. We’d have to risk getting closer to a more populated area in order to scavenge for food today. When Cal and Nolan came back, Colt and I headed down. I was happy we’d be able to get clean, even though it would be freezing. Everything we had was covered in dried blood. By now we had stopped worrying about cleaning our clothes off too often, since we couldn’t go more than a couple of hours without getting some Feral on them. Whenever we went into a house to look for food, we would change our shirts and underwear if we found any. I kept my two pairs of cargo pants and my leather jacket since they were warm and had pockets for my weapons.

  As I undressed on the edge of the river, I was very aware of Colt getting naked right next to me. We hadn’t had any privacy since we started this… whatever you wanted to call it… relationship? That was probably accurate.

  “Hey, Babe,” I called over to him. He turned with a brow raised as he started pulling his pants down. He was already shirtless, and though he had lost weight in the past week, he still had some definition in his abs and chest. Not to mention that gorgeous V-shape leading down into his underwear. I could practically feel my mouth watering. I took a step closer to him in just my underwear. “Let me help you with that.”

  He smiled at me as he stepped out of his pants. “We are finally alone, Sexy.”

  I hummed, “That’s my favorite one so far.” I grabbed his hips and yanked him to me.

  He held onto my shoulders. “Sexy? Hmm… Hot Stuff would work for you too.” He shot me a cheeky smile.

  “Are you trying to get into my
pants?”

  “Yes.” He pulled my head in and met my lips with his.

  As I kissed him with everything I was, I rubbed my hands around his back, down to his ass and pulled him tight against me. I felt his growing erection rub against my own, making me shudder with excitement.

  I shoved my hands under his waistband and pushed them down until they fell to the ground. He ran his hands down my arms, then grabbed my waist and pushed my underwear down too. We both stepped out of our clothes without letting go of one another, then I pulled him down to the ground with me. I quickly let go of him, opened my bag and pulled out my sleeping bag, the lube, and a condom that had been sitting there waiting to be used. After I lay inside, I pulled Colt in the sleeping bag with me so he wouldn’t freeze his sweet ass off. I didn’t let our mouths part as I lay on my side rubbing my hands all over every part of him.

  He shifted to lie on top of me and kissed me. I ran my hands down his back and ass, and right before I touched his hole, I pulled back and whispered, “Do you bottom?”

  He grinned at me. “Sure.” Then kissed me again.

  He moaned when I grazed his pucker, so I reached for the lube I had next to us and dribbled some onto my fingers as we continued making out. I moaned when I slipped my first finger into his warm heat, and he moaned back. I continued opening him up with him grinding into me, creating a wonderful friction. I added a second finger and worked him with one hand while the other explored the hardness of his body.

  He broke our kiss and panted, “I’m ready.”

  Then he sat up, grabbed the condom and backed up to sit on my legs so he could cover my cock with it. He poured lube on me and made me groan as he spread it around. He moved back up my body and lifted his ass as he grabbed my cock and placed it at his entrance. Then he slowly impaled himself on me, making me cry out from how amazing his body felt surrounding my cock.

  Once I was fully seated inside, I held my breath and bit my cheek to keep from moving while he adjusted. I looked up at the gorgeous man who was looking right back at me with his blue-green eyes and his messy curly hair that I loved to play with. I scooted up to my elbows, then keeping all my weight on one hand, I used my other to grab his neck and pull him down to me, capturing his lips. He kissed me back and I felt his body start to relax.