Event Horizon: Z Is For Zombie Book 2

by catt dahman

  Bennie agreed, “George is right.”

  “He’s a pussy,” Johnny said, a bit nervously but feeling stronger.

  Len grinned as they allowed anger and not fear to help them. He reached over to give her a high-five, and then they all began to slap hands, cheering themselves, building stronger bonds, banishing the nightmares.

  “I ain’t afraid of no one-eyed man…” Teeg sang to the tune of Ghost Busters.

  “Pascal busters.” Some cheered.

  They laughed a while, planned their exodus across the city, and were happier until the talk once again turned to the problems at hand.

  “Why doesn’t everyone come, though?” Rev asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  Hagan said, “He means some are coming, like Jilly and Mike from California…a long way away…and like Pan did, but not all are…even if they’re closer…not to either side.”

  “Because they’re waiting, aren’t they?” Beth startled them by looking at Maryanne, then George, and then Pan.

  “For what?” Len rubbed his jaw, thinking.

  “To see what happens,” Maryanne said, “but I don’t think we need them, and neither does the other side, although I bet a few more will join both. But most people…I mean the US is huge…so many people are left, but hiding…but they are waiting…we are the…the…pawns.”

  “I don’t like that word,” Julia said. “Why do we have to be pawns in some war over good and bad, huh?”

  “Why not? Why not us?” Rev said angrily. “Is anything fair?”

  George slapped the table, “Listen to you. I’m shocked, especially at you, Julia.”

  “Me?”

  “Julia Perez, you tell me five other people whom you trust in your place to fight for this world… in your place… and to damn sure win the fight?”

  “I trust a lot of people…Len and Bethy…Kim, Mark…Bryan…you Hagan…I’m over five, and I haven’t gotten to Johnny or…”

  Bryan had been quiet. “Or all of us. George is making a point:we all know we are the best that we have to go up against any bad assholes, right?”

  “Exactly.” George sat back.

  “We are? Maybe you, Bryan…military…and Len…Kim…Mark…all of you have training, but us?” Beth said.

  “But he fears you,” Maryanne reminded her friend who was drinking water.

  “That’s crazy. I love you, M, but that’s impossible.”

  “So is the walking dead,” Pan said. “I see what you all mean, why a war with ten thousand against ten thousand? Why five hundred against five hundred? We could do this ten against ten or one on one.”

  “I’d take that deal,” Kim said, “and leave Beth and everyone out of the fight where they are safe.”

  “Fighting is no more dangerous than waiting for the raiders or Pascal to pounce on us,” Alex added.

  “Not your choice…pawn.” Pan chuckled at Kim.

  “Do we get a choice? Can things just use us?” Julia was still angry.

  “We have a choice,” Maryanne said, “to be here or with…Pascal.” She almost choked on the name. It scared her, like it did the rest to say it. “Or to go and be on neither side nor wait; you have a choice.”

  “I said long ago that I am on the side Len is leading,” Johnny reminded them.

  Len looked up from face to face. “Hey, it isn’t me.”

  “You are leading us.”

  “I am…but….” He paused. “Maryanne? George? Pan? Help me here.”

  “You are the king maybe on the board, but someone still moves the playing pieces,” Pan said, “right, Maryanne?”

  “That sounds…feels right. I get the feeling…some leader on this side…someone important isn’t even here yet.”

  “I’ll be glad when he’s here then, ’cause I have no idea what I’m doing,” Len grumbled, poking Maryanne in her ribs so she smiled.

  “Maybe it’s a she,” Julia pointed out.

  “And the other side is getting ready, too; they will have leaders.”

  “And maybe spies,” Maryanne said, “I feel betrayal will be part of this.”

  Len glared, “I’ll gladly kill anyone who does.”

  “Only if you can get to him first before I gut the cabeza de meirda,” Julia fumed. She meant it, too.

  Pan looked them over, “And it could be anyone at all.”

  “Do we win in the end, Maryanne?” Hannah asked breaking the looks they were all giving one another.

  “I can’t see the future; I just get feelings and dreams…like the rest of you. I just pay more attention,” Maryanne argued, “but I do know this…if we don’t, then we have ourselves to blame, and we will be letting down many.”

  “Amen,” Hagan said.

  Maryanne gripped the edge of the table since she would have broken her hands if she had still been holding them. “It won’t be easy and…,” she almost cried openly, “we won’t all be there at the end of this war.”

  13

  Popetown

  At the main gate, they found only two former guards for the compound, both in uniform, but both moaning hungrily as they tried to feed; it was a simple effort to put the guards down and take their side arms so the group could drive in.

  The rolling emerald green hills, dotted with trees, were beautiful, seeming a million miles from viruses and the walking dead, despite the two dead-again guards. Only in Texas could a religious compound this enormous be considered somewhat normal.

  The road wound past a large, clear pond; it was surrounded by flowering trees that would bud if the weather warmed more, a small sitting area with stone pillars and benches under shade trees and flowerbeds. It was out of place, in a Greek style, but somehow perfect for the spot.

  The compound had the main mansion and living area where Norman Pope must have stayed, then the education area with dorms for students and followers; and the media buildings:the auditorium, common buildings such as the meeting hall and cafeteria; and the barn and storage areas. The compound was so huge, covered with so many large buildings that they hardly knew where to begin. Behind the dorms, towered a bluff of giant boulders.

  Conner suggested that they divide into pairs so that his team and Kim’s could cover more ground. While it wasn’t a safe zone, the amount of infected would be limited by the fact they had been locked up.

  After over an hour, they declared the mansion cleared with only one zed found, a maid still in her uniform, who went down easily. The staff quarters and garage only contained two more. They set the bodies out to be burned later.

  Beth and Kim finished the pool house, pausing to check the view from beside the enormous pool. It had a lazy river, diving rocks, a hot tub that could seat a dozen, lap area, swim up bar, and water fall. “Can you imagine living like this?” Beth asked.

  “I suppose we will be living like this without the servants and with more people,” Kim said, looking out over the green hills, ponds, and cattle in the distance.

  “Like our own village…safe.”

  “Well, with a lot of work, it will be,” Kim reminded her.

  “Amazing how many people lived this way or wanted to live this way…entire television networks that showed these beautiful homes and made them even prettier.”

  “Did you watch them?”

  “Yes, the landscaping and redesigning the homes of the rich and famous.” Beth bit her lip. “Now, give me water, food, and a gun, and I am at least okay.”

  “We won’t live like this…not exactly, but we’ll have better than basics…maybe put all this to better use than it was before, once we clean it up more.” Kim knew Beth was still fuming over what they had found in Norman Pope’s bedroom: stacks and stacks of child porn.

  Beth took in the enormous rocks, the water, all the trees and shrubs, flowers, and seating. The compound was opulent: a testament to more money than anyone could spend in several lifetimes.

  Inside, the lounges were beautifully decorated, the kitchen industrial-sized and elegant, dining room
extravagant, and bedrooms and baths posh. Granite counters, big fireplaces, expensive rugs, and perfect, scuffed-free hard wood floors were everywhere.

  The staff quarters were larger and fancier than most apartments people could afford in the city. The cafeteria would feed hundreds at once, and the kitchen was outfitted well, with supplies of canned and dry foods that would last a long time. The meeting hall was empty as well and large for gatherings.

  “Is that…?”

  “A radio station. We can broadcast.” Conner grinned.

  Julia and several others returned to say the auditorium was clear as well.

  The church was thankfully empty, so a few took the time and knelt for prayers while the rest stood in respect.

  They found a man hanging from a building roof, his face purple. Beneath his feet was a tattered teddy bear, lying in the dirt. He had obviously climbed onto the roof, tied off a noose, and dropped himself off the edge; the livid and oozing bite on his arm explained part of why he decided to end his own life, but he didn’t know the nature of the virus. His feet still kicked at the wall as he hissed at them, reaching out. Conner shot him in the head.

  Conner said they would start on the huge dorm if the other team would begin with the other buildings. Floor by floor was checked, some of the rooms singles, some doubles, some family units; it would take them the rest of the day to go door-to-door for each room on each floor, searching. Tossed rooms indicated the inhabitants had packed up and left in a rush.

  They went to the stairwell to meet up with the rest and get a sitrep.

  When Julia, Crystal, and Josh didn’t check in, they stopped the search at once and went to the spot where they were to meet on the first floor.

  No one was there, so they all moved to the back of the first floor, watching carefully, and Juan was aware of something feeling hinky, as Conner and Len always said when things seemed wrong. This was unlike Julia, but she could be off her game a bit, as she trained the two new people on the team.

  Moaning came from behind a door. Just as Conner kicked open the door so he and Juan could enter, two young men leaped from a doorway behind them, with pistols ready to fire.

  Conner ground his teeth in frustration at falling into a trap. He had just set aside protocol and gotten his team surrounded. Had he simply forgotten his military training? Len would kick his stupid ass for this idiocy.

  Julia looked miserable as she, Crystal, and Josh stood, unarmed and held at gunpoint by another pair of men and a woman. The man moaned like a zed and laughed. “Gotcha.”

  “You got us all right, so what can we help you with?” Conner asked as they all lowered their guns. He tried to think like Len would. Another woman quickly gathered their guns, infuriating Conner as he realized their complacency and issues with the zeds had made them forget about other bad guys.

  “What does Brother Pope say about the apocalypse?”

  “That it sucks?” Julia asked.

  “Try again, smart ass,” the man said.

  “We don’t know,” Conner said, “we have no ties to him.”

  “Then you’re trespassing. Let’s try once more. What does the one-eyed man want?”

  Johnny felt a chill. “We wouldn’t know; we don’t follow him.”

  “That’s your second strike.”

  Conner felt fear creeping up his legs with a cold feeling. They wouldn’t be missed for at least an hour, and even then, it might all end badly. He should have gone balls to the walls with this bunch and taken his chance instead of being held at gunpoint. Anyone following the man with one eye had to be evil.

  “Look, we all have different views,” Juan began, but one of the men poked at him with his rifle barrel. Juan hissed as the metal hurt his injured ribs.

  “We aren’t here for talk, so save your breath since you’ll need it.”

  Conner waited to act, sending a silent message to the rest to be ready, but one of the men kept his pistol to Julia’s head, and since she wasn’t cursing him, Conner felt it was a sure bet that she knew he was ready to kill her.

  “We’re gonna just join some more trespassers, and then we’ll get to the fun part.”

  “I can’t wait,” Alex said to Johnny in a whisper. He was as nervous as the rest, but if they hadn’t been killed yet, there was a good chance they could figure a way out of this.

  They walked through another door, climbed down a set of stairs, and met a man with his pistol aimed at three more people. The three people, and Conner, Juan, Alex, Johnny, Julia, Crystal, and Josh, were told to go through a final doorway into a small, empty, dusty room.

  The series of doors and stairs would make it a little more difficult for the other team to find them.

  “This is what we’re going to do. I’m gonna shut the door, and we’ll sit right here with it locked; you can test it, but it will be locked up tight.”

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t try the door. Your goal is to go through the underground, think of it like a gauntlet to the one way that is open. I think you’ll have to back track a lot until you find your way through.”

  “And then?” Conner asked. He was relieved they didn’t intend to just kill them all.

  “Then you climb out, and we all have a nice dinner together.” The man laughed. “No, then we play a new game, maybe one a bit more fair, or you can try to kill us, and we can try to kill you, whatever sounds like giggles at the time.”

  “So we just go through and find the way out, and you meet us there?” Johnny said. “It sounds boring.”

  “Oh, it would be, except we took your guns, and you’ll find some new friends down here to keep it exciting.”

  “Zeds,” Alex said, “we get to fight zeds with no guns?”

  “You got it in one, faggot.”

  “Won’t be my first time,” Josh told them, glaring and trying to get the attention off of Alex. He just wanted all of them to survive long enough to run whatever the gauntlet. A chance.

  “It may be your last.” The man smiled. “So you go through and see how many zombies you kill and how many kill you. We’ll make a few side bets for fun and see how we do when and if you ever come out. You have your packs; how well did you pack them?”

  “Well enough,” Conner said. He wondered that himself. They would have water, food, basic supplies, and flashlights. He wondered if any of them carried an extra side arm. A chainsaw and baseball bats would be nice to have hidden in the packs as well. Wish in one hand; spit in the other.

  “You’re really a hijo de puta,” Julia said.

  “So? Doesn’t bother me, Bitch, you’re still gonna play my game. Don’t know what you just said, but it would be better if you said prayers.”

  “Some religious people you are. You think this is right?”

  “What is right and wrong now?” one man piped up.

  “It’s the new religion. Guess you shouldn’t have trespassed; stop stalling.”

  They raised their guns, and any sudden movements would get them killed, so Conner nodded and shrugged, “Whatever, see you on the other side.” He stepped back.

  “Gonna gut you on the other side, tonto del culo,” Julia promised them.

  “Riiight…I’ll look forward to seeing your spic ass there.” All the raiders laughed at the group as they backed away.

  “Maybe instead, I’ll split your gut and give it to you that way.” The man grabbed his crotch.

  “Gonna need a dick to give me anything…better find one…and appreciate the little one you have before I cut it off, too,” Julia said.

  Johnny grinned, “You gonna have fun gutting them, Julia?”

  “All night long,” Julia said in a sexy voice.

  “Freaks,” one of the women holding a gun said.

  “I got your freak,” Juan grabbed his crotch, mimicking what the raider had done.

  The door slammed shut, and Juan reached for the knob. It was locked as they had said it would be.

  “Why’d you antagonize them?”

  “Why not
?” Conner asked. “Not gonna go into their game crying and looking like we’ve lost all hope. They looked just a little unnerved; when we meet them again, they’ll remember that.”

  He introduced his group and learned the three were Karen, Mark, and Tim, former Popeites, who had chosen not to follow the preacher to his safe, new location when he had begun speaking of the one-eyed man and handing out guns.

  “Who are they?”

  “The ones he left to watch the compound, I guess, or maybe sick asses, who wanted to do something like this all along. I mean they were members here, but now, I don’t know what they are,” Mark said.

  “I wanted to ask them if he…Norman… would approve,” Conner said, “but they didn’t want to talk very much.”

  “Brother Pope? I don’t know, at one time, I would have said he would be horrified, now, I don’t know at all,” Tim said.

  “We’re going to get eaten.” Karen slumped to the floor.

  Johnny pursed her lips, “Why do you think that? This is one of the less bad situations I’ve been in.”

  “Don’t see a thousand of the zeds hunting us or bombs burning us, no rubble burying us alive, nor anyone trying to rape or roast us for dinner. It’s not that bad,” Julia said.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  Alex laughed at Mark, “She’s serious; this is pretty mild.”

  “We didn’t want them to know how mild, but we didn’t want to go in begging, either.”

  Karen touched her cheek where it was cut open and then her lips, which were swollen and bloody. “I see. Begging got me smacked by them anyway.”

  “But when we make it out…if we do…what then?” Mark asked them.

  “No clue, but we’ll figure it out,” Conner said. “One step at a time, and we’ll figure out a plan and get out of this.” He didn’t mention the other team, unwilling to trust this trio yet.

  They pulled out flashlights and opened packs to show food and water that they shared with the three. “When we go through that door, we want to break it up, if we can, then sharpen some pieces for lances, and use some to hit with. If you can hook it into the eye socket, it should be easy.”

  “Easy?” asked Karen.