THEM: Aberration

by M. D. Massey

  Vamps were smart, and they quickly learned what sort of things humans would trade for; drugs and alcohol, dry goods, gear, weapons, and the like. Since they could go anywhere at night with impunity, in some urban areas the vamps had developed quite the partnership with local punter clans. All the punters had to do was keep the abductees from getting eating by deaders before they could deliver them, and they’d make out like bandits on a good run.

  Which explained why I liked killing punters. And vamps, for that matter. But I’d never seen a rev’ work with a human before. Revs generally only retained a rudimentary intelligence, and little to no memory of their former existence. And what little intellect they displayed was mostly instinctual, more of a predatory intelligence than real brainpower.

  But was it possible? I had little previous experience to go on. I’d seen some settlements use deaders for the punishment and execution of criminals, but revs were too hard to control and too dangerous to use in that manner. Even so, something about what I was seeing told me that I shouldn’t discount the possibility. Moreover, it raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I’d most certainly be on my guard moving forward.

  Finding nothing else of interest in the cave, I picked up the trail a few feet further north of the cave entrance and continued tracking the creature. Hopefully, I could find its lair before it got dark. The last thing I wanted to do was to tangle with a rev and a potentially unfriendly human after dark.

  The trail went on for miles, winding along long forgotten paths and deer trails through the rough Hill Country landscape. About an hour before dusk, I reached a large area that had long ago been cleared of trees and brush. Peering through the trees, I saw a dilapidated farmhouse and some outbuildings about a hundred yards across the clearing. There was also a dirt drive that the local vegetation was attempting to reclaim, and several junked vehicles that had been stripped of anything that might be of utility in a world where working oil refineries were a distant memory. All in all, the place looked like it had been abandoned for some time. Despite appearances, I took a knee and watched the area for any sign of activity.

  About thirty minutes before dusk, I heard laughter coming from the other side of the house. It was faint, but it sounded like a little girl. I decided to investigate, and slowly picked my way through the brush and trees along the edge of the clearing, making an effort to remain concealed and to make as little noise as possible. I kept an eye on the farmhouse as I stalked around the far side of the clearing, making sure that no one was moving around who might spot me through the trees.

  As I continued my slow, meandering course around the clearing, the girl’s laughter became more distinct. I also began hearing a high screeching noise, like rusted metal scraping on rusted metal. Once I’d made it far enough to see around the rear corner of the house, I was greeted with a sight that threw me for a loop. There was the little girl, playing on an old backyard swing set, laughing and carrying on as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

  And there was the rev’ I’d been tracking, standing behind her.

  I popped the dust covers off my ACOG and raised my rifle to my shoulder, sighting in on the rev’ through the optics to take advantage of the slight magnification the ACOG offered. As I got the rev’ in the crosshairs, thought I saw the thing reach for the girl, so I flipped the safety off my rifle and began easing back on the trigger, taking my time to get a clean shot that wouldn’t endanger the child.

  Then, the damnedest thing happened. Instead of grabbing the girl, the rev’ gave her a small shove, to which the girl responded with even more laughter.

  “Do it again, Belle – do it again!” she squealed as the rev’ gave her another gentle push. I continued to watch through the ACOG, stunned as I realized that the rev’ posed no danger to the little girl whatsoever. The more I watched, the more it became apparent that the girl was incredibly comfortable with the rev’s presence, and that the revenant displayed what I could only describe as affection for the girl.

  I stayed there watching them in the moonlight for a few more hours, shocked by the revelation of what I saw, and yet still trying to convince myself that the girl was in no danger. All the while, I kept thinking back to the people at the settlement, and how cagey they’d been with me. Finally, satisfied that the girl would be safe until my return, I quietly slipped away and made a cold camp a few miles distant, determined to get a few hours of sleep before heading back to the settlement to get some answers.

  3

  Chapter 3

  Truth

  I woke up early and hiked back to the settlement, sneaking to a vantage point from which I could observe the area without being seen. Before long, I was rewarded for my patience as I watched Deke head out in an easterly direction with a compound bow and a quiver of arrows. After taking the time to stash my gear under the thick foliage of some juniper, I stalked after him, making sure that I wouldn’t reveal myself to any of the other settlers.

  I soon figured out where he was headed, and set up an ambush on the trail a short distance ahead of him. He didn’t even have an arrow nocked, and was paying little attention to his surroundings. Honestly, I didn’t know how some of these people had made it this far, considering how careless they were. I had no problems sneaking up behind him and placing the barrel of my Glock at his temple before he even knew I was there.

  “Make a sound, and I blow your brains out and leave you for the vultures. Got it?” He nodded and let out a small whimper. “Now, let’s head off down this trail a ways and find someplace where we can chat, alright Deke?” He nodded again. “Start walking.”

  I followed him to a small clearing where there was a small fire pit, a large sawn off tree stump that was stained to a dark burgundy and scored with knife marks, and a few log benches surrounding the pit. This area was where they cleaned their game, to avoid drawing predators and deaders into their camp. I motioned at Deke to sit across the clearing and took a seat with my sidearm pointing lazily in his direction.

  I stared him down for a minute or two and watched him sweat bullets while avoiding my eyes. After I was sure he was good and scared, I began questioning him.

  “Tell me about the girl.”

  He sighed, apparently relieved that I’d broken the silence, and eager to save his hide. “I swear, I had nothing to do with that. Cyrus is the one who made the call to abandon her, not me!”

  I glared at him. “Who in the hell is Cyrus?”

  He gulped and let out a small, wet fart. It was an effort for me to avoid laughing, as this was the first time I’d ever literally scared the shit out of someone. “Uh, Elder Thompson. You remember him from yesterday?”

  I let the silence hang in the air for a moment. “Yes, I seem to recall meeting him.” Deke grimaced at the thought that he’d offended me. “Why’d he decide to abandon her?”

  “Because her parents got killed by some shamblers, and wadn’t no one wanted to take the girl in. So, Cyrus said the only thing to do was to leave her to fend for herself. She hung out around the houses for a few days and got caught stealing food. That’s when Cyrus sent two of us to take her out to the caves and leave her there.”

  I almost shot him right then. Instead, I pointed the gun at him, resting it on my knee as I did so. “You mean that no one had the guts to stand up to Cyrus–or maybe just no one cared. So two of you assholes took a little girl out in the hills and left her all by her lonesome.”

  He coughed and cleared his throat. “Ah, yessir, that’s what we done.”

  “You say ‘we,’ meaning you and someone else.”

  He broke eye contact and nodded. I could barely hear his confession from where I sat. “Yessir, me and Clinton.”

  I chewed my lip and shook my head. “Deke, anyone ever tell you that you are a worthless piece of dogshit?”

  “Yessir. They have.”

  I pursed my lips. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just shoot you right here and now?”

  His eyes widened, and he let a longer, wetter fart this
time. “No sir Mr. Scratch, please don’t kill me! I swear, we had to get some help, cuz’ they was stealing all our food! Ain’t no way we can survive out here with them taking from us, not with all the mouths we got to feed.”

  “Deke, you and Cyrus and Clinton don’t look like you’re missing any meals. Am I right about that?”

  He nodded several times in succession. “Cyrus says the menfolk gots to keep their strength up, bein’ as we got to hunt for meat.”

  I gestured toward the settlement with the barrel of my pistol. “Sounds like you blame an awful lot on Cyrus. Maybe it’s time you stood up like a man and thought for yourself, you think?”

  He nodded with enthusiasm. “So Deke, say that Cyrus was no longer around–what would you do different around here?”

  Deke looked like he was thinking hard in a sincere effort to come up with a suitable answer. “I’d share more food with the youngin’s and womenfolk?”

  I grunted. “That’d be a start. And?”

  He squirmed on the bench as if he were experiencing an uncomfortable sensation in his drawers. From the smell, I had a good idea of the cause of his distress. “I suppose I wouldn’t run off no youngin’s, just cuz they’s got no one to take care of ‘em.”

  “You suppose, or you’re certain? Because I need us both to be clear on this point.”

  He nodded his head vigorously. “I wouldn’t, Mr. Scratch! Not never again!”

  “You mean ‘never again’ – ‘not never again’ is a double negative. But I understand your meaning.” I stood up and gestured for him to stand as well. “Leave the bow and arrows – you can come back for them later. Head back to town and take care of Cyrus. I don’t care how. I’ll be back to follow up with you by tomorrow evening, and if everything has been handled to my satisfaction, I’ll let you live. Deal?”

  “Yessir, Mr. Scratch. That’s a deal.”

  After I had watched Deke head off, I reclaimed my gear and marched back to the abandoned farmhouse where I’d seen the girl the night before. I needed to speak with her to get her side of the story, and before dark so I could avoid having to deal with her pet rev’. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do about that situation, so I decided to play it by ear for the time being.

  I reached the farmhouse shortly before noon and walked openly into the clearing. I called out loudly toward the house. “Amanda, my name is Sully. I need you to come outside so I can speak with you. I’m not going to hurt you–I just need to ask you a few questions.”

  A curtain moved back in an upstairs window, and I saw a flash of movement in the shadows behind it. I waited for several minutes, but nothing else happened. So, I backed away several feet and set my rifle on the ground. I pulled my sidearm from the holster and set it down as well, along with my tomahawk and my Bowie knife. Then I walked up closer to the house and spoke again in a conversational tone.

  “I’m not going to hurt anyone, Amanda. Not you, and not Belle. I just want to find out if you’re okay, that’s all.”

  Several moments later, the front door of the house cracked open just a hair. A child’s voice answered softly through the door. “You aren’t going to make me go back?”

  I knelt down in the dirt of the drive. “No, sweetie, I’m not going to make you go back. And I’m not here to kill Belle.”

  “But you’re a hunter.”

  “Yes, that’s true. And I did come out here looking for a rev’. But now things have changed, and I need to ask you some questions so I can know what to do from here.”

  The silence seemed to drag on for an eternity; finally, the door opened wider. “Okay, but if you try anything, I can’t say that Belle won’t get angry.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough.”

  Amanda walked out onto the porch and sat on the first step, straightening her faded gingham dress as she sat down. She was all of nine, or maybe ten years old, with bright blonde hair that had been recently brushed and pulled back into a ponytail, and scuffed white Keds that had seen better days. But, the girl was clean and didn’t look malnourished. In fact, she looked like she was better fed than the kids back at the settlement.

  I cleared my throat and spoke up. “My name’s Sully–the folks in town told me about you.” I watched her closely to gauge her reaction, but she seemed indifferent to that revelation. “Amanda, am I to understand that Belle is your friend?”

  She nodded sagely. “She is my friend. If it weren’t for Belle, I would’ve starved, or died of boredom. She’s my best friend and my only friend in the whole wide world.” As she spoke, four gray and leathery fingers reached around the edge of the door, pulling it open just a little wider. I’d kept a small automatic clipped in a concealment holster under my shirt tail, so I wasn’t concerned for my own safety. Even so, I shifted my weight slightly to ensure that my movement wouldn’t be impeded if Belle decided to attack.

  “How did you and Belle meet?”

  She smiled, just for the briefest moment. “Well, when they took me away from the town and my house, they left me by myself. I sat and cried and cried and cried, until way after dark. That’s when Belle came and found me. She took me back to a big cave, and let me stay with her.”

  “Does she speak to you? I know you talk to Belle, but does she ever say anything back?”

  Amanda nodded. “Oh yes, but only a few words. She says, ‘baby girl’, and ‘food’, and ‘eat’ – stuff like that.” She paused and looked sad for a moment. “I think she misses her family. I know I miss my family.” Amanda looked up at me and squinted in the sunlight. “You think that’s why we get along, mister? Because we’re both all alone?”

  “Yes, Amanda, I think that has a lot to do with it.” I paused to get my next words right before I spoke. “Amanda, what does Belle eat?”

  “Oh, she don’t eat people no more, Mister Sully. I taught her that was wrong, and all she eats is animals now.”

  I rubbed my chin and considered what she’d said. “Hmmm. You’re sure about that, Amanda? Because if Belle were a danger to anyone, it might mean that other people would come and hunt her down. That would mean that you might be hurt as well, and I can’t allow that to happen. So, I need you to be very sure that Belle isn’t any danger to anyone else.”

  “I’m sure of it, mister. She wouldn’t harm a soul. Not now, at least.”

  “That’s good to know, Amanda–that’s really good to know.” The question was whether or not Belle would start killing again if anything ever happened to Amanda. But, one problem at a time. “Amanda, how have you survived so long out here when it’s just you and Belle?”

  She laughed. “Oh, that’s no big deal. Belle steals all the food I need. And I don’t feel bad at all about it, not one bit. Stupid Cyrus, he whipped me good for stealing food after my folks died. Left me out here to die, and that’s no kind of nice at all.”

  “Amanda, I have to say that I’m very impressed that you’ve survived like you have. Not many people would have done as well as you, faced with the same situation. I just wonder if you’d be better off with your own kind.”

  A deep, throaty voice responded from the house. “Noooo. ‘Manda. Stay.”

  I looked up toward the door, where I knew Belle was hiding from the midday sun. I had good reason for approaching the house in the middle of the day. “Belle, you know that even if I leave you alone, others may come after me. Can you hide yourself and Amanda from others?”

  “Yessss. Hide. ‘Manda.”

  I looked at Amanda. “And that’s what you want, too?”

  She looked down and trailed a toe in the dirt and dust on the step below. “I can’t leave her, mister. Belle takes care of me, and I take care of her. And that’s how I like it.”

  In all my years as a hunter, I’d never had to face a decision like this before. But, I couldn’t see any good reason why I should kill Belle and force Amanda to go back to the settlement and people who’d so sorely mistreated her. Sure, I could take her back with me and find a home for her, but what bitterness might r
eside in her heart if I killed her only friend? What evil might I unleash in a little girl, one who had lost everything, if I took away the thing she held most dear?

  And, what if that thing loved her back?

  Who would be the monster then?

  I nodded once and stood up. “I guess that’s that then.” I looked around for a moment, trying to decide my next move. “Well, I suppose I have to talk to those asshats back at the settlement. Would it be okay if I swing back by later, to let you know how it goes?”

  Amanda looked back at the doorway, and Belle was the one who responded. “Yessss.”

  4

  Chapter 4

  Break

  I made it back to the settlement before sunset and found the same hidden vantage point from which I could observe the town. In the center clearing, I saw a body swaying gently from the bottom-most limb of a large live oak tree. It was old Elder Thompson, swinging from a rope, his face blackened and his tongue thrusting out of his mouth at a grotesque angle. I whistled softly, then stood and hiked back to the path into town.

  I entered the village with my M4 at port arms, ready for trouble but not expecting any. As I approached the tree where they’d hung Cyrus, Deke and Clinton came walking out, their heads hung low, but at the same time not shying away from the deed they’d done. As they walked up to me, they made eye contact and stopped a few feet away.

  Deke spoke up. “I remember when I was just a kid, and we had law around these parts. Cops and judges and such to keep the peace, and make sure folks did right. After the bombs fell and the shamblers started coming, old Cyrus just kind of took charge and he became the law. I knew it was wrong, but I was just a kid. What was I supposed to do then? I guess it took an outsider coming in for me to find my sack and do what needed to be done.”