by Joseph Zuko
The Big Man is going to be so broken hearted when I take his girl!
This is it.
I can catch them off guard and leave before the others see me.
Ryder moved quickly for the gate. Their laughing and the splashing water covered the creaking of the fence. A shovel was stabbed into the dirt. He clutched its handle and removed it from the earth.
What happened next was a blur. Ryder acted on pure instinct. No thoughts. No planning. If he saw an opening he took it.
He cracked the Big Man in the face with the shovel. Kicked Red in the gut, punched her face and shoved her to the fresh pile of dirt.
Ryder’s hands moved quickly as he pulled the roll of duct tape from his jacket. He checked the door. No one was coming to her rescue. The Big Man was out cold and laying in the new grave. Red moaned as he tugged her limbs behind her back.
He taped her ankles together in case he had to put her down. Old Red looked like she could beat Ryder in a foot race and he didn’t want to take the chance. He didn’t want her to scream for help either, so he slapped a strip of tape across her pink lips. He grabbed her by her thin hips and hoisted the limp body onto his shoulder.
His rib stabbed at him with a white-hot pain. It no longer just stung when he took a breath it was constant. His broken nose was plugged with blood and made it difficult to get a good lungful of air. His entire skull throbbed under the strain of her weight. His swollen balls pulsated with a stomach-turning ache as they bounced off his meaty thighs.
But he had her!
She was all his to play with.
He sprinted into the alley. Unsure where the hell he was going. Thanking the Dark Lord for his help. Not really.
Ryder knew he was against the clock. Red’s people would come looking for her, so he had to find a hiding spot fast and then the real fun could begin.
Chapter 4
Jim collapsed in the street. His physical pain was nothing compared to the terror of losing his children. The wound at his shoulder seeped blood and the tear on his ankle poured crimson into his boot. His heart pounded. His vision had gone black. The world, cold and merciless. This life didn’t seem possible. It went beyond nightmare and entered Hell on Earth.
Jim was close to passing out. Sweat stung his tearful eyes. He had run harder than he thought possible in his state, but it wasn’t enough to catch the bus. With every passing second they were getting farther away.
Why did I put them in there? He questioned his sanity.
At the time it seemed safe. There was no way to conceive that Shawna was planning an escape at the same exact moment.
Troy had been screaming in the backyard that Ryder had Sara. That seemed like the main threat. Sara was in the hands of a madman, but Jim couldn’t save her this time. He liked the woman and she was a good ally against the hordes of zombies, but his children came first. It wasn’t even a competition.
Get up and move! Jim commanded himself. Without hesitation he was on his feet. Jim limped his first few steps but pushed through the pain and got his legs turning. He expected to see Karen still laying on the ground. He wasn’t sure how he could face her. Not after what he had done. How could she still love the man that caused her so much pain? Jim rounded the corner. Desiree’s street came into view. Last he saw Karen she had fallen apart at the end of the block, but his wife was gone.
Karen raced though Desiree’s house. She was on a mission and nothing could stop her. Karen was going to find that bus and save her kids. If she ever saw Shawna again, well it was hard to say what she would do.
Tear her apart? It was as if a switch in Karen’s brain had been flipped to overdrive. Yes, she was a complete wreck. Her sanity had been delicately teetering, but now it was broken. Unhinged didn’t describe her anymore. Karen had blood lust. For the first time she truly understood the term.
Bathing in the blood of my enemies.
There wasn’t time to think in the terms of wrong or right. Karen had been pushed too far and Shawna was going to suffer her wrath. Too many blows had been struck.
This morning Karen had buried her mother.
Fought off a sadistic rapist.
Killed a man that was about to murder her husband.
Everything she experienced.
All the pain and suffering.
It all paled in comparison to what she was going through at this moment. The woman she was two days ago would have guessed one of those traumatic events would have sent her to the insane asylum. Yet, she kept going. Why? Because her family needed her.
Children weren’t something you have and love, like a puppy or kitten. It’s a hardwired connection. Deep, powerful, and consuming. Her girls were the loves of her life.
A scene flashed through her broken psyche.
Both girls bawling their eyes out. A monster drenched in gore closes in. Terror has a stranglehold on their sweet little souls. The beast pounces. Its teeth ripping. They beg for their Mama, but she isn’t there to save them.
Stop it! She barked at herself.
Karen was losing her mind, but somehow, she kept moving. She found Troy on his knees in Desiree’s backyard. His face bright red and bleeding. His gaze unfocused. He looked confused and feeble. The day before he had suffered a head injury during a car crash and the blow to the skull had incapacitated him for hours. Karen didn’t have time to hold his hand through this again.
She grabbed him by the collar and yanked him to his feet. Her voice had gone hoarse and when she talked it sounded like an ancient demon. “Get up! We gotta go! Shawna took off with the bus and the girls were inside!”
Troy had to play the sentences back in his mind. He heard the words, but the meaning was outside his grasp. At first, he thought his sister was talking about how Ryder had Sara, but it didn’t make any sense. Ryder didn’t take the bus. Troy saw him leave on foot.
Troy knew he had to get moving. No way in hell he was going to let that maniac get away.
Karen’s frustration with him mounted and she screamed it again. “Shawna has the girls! We have to go now!”
Finally, it clicked.
He couldn’t believe he was going to abandon Sara, but Valerie and Robin were family. They came first. His legs were unsteady, and everything was out of focus, but he nodded to her and said, “Let’s go!”
Troy found his shotgun on the ground. By the time he picked it up Karen was gone. His steps were shaky as he moved for the house. Desiree and her father’s dead bodies lay on the ground next to each other. He promised himself once they found the girls and Sara he would come back and finish the job.
Leon’s world spun around him. His skull throbbed. He rested on the cold linoleum floor of Desiree’s master bathroom. The solid surface gave no comfort. The harsh and final words Shawna yelled at him swirled around his clouded mind.
Her voice shrill and cutting. ‘I wouldn’t have sex with you. You’re a disgusting creep.’ Then her boot came down on his face and it was lights out.
Any confidence he had was gone.
How could I have been such a fool? Leon asked himself. The crushing reality of his hopelessness was all consuming. It wasn’t the first time a woman had said no to his advances and it wasn’t the first time he had been called a creep, but no one had ever said it with such conviction. If someone makes fun of you and says you have silly green hair, but your hair is brown it doesn’t hurt your feelings. But if deep down you fear you might be a sad lonely creep, and someone you care about calls you one, it can be devastating.
The slammed door to the temple and the kick to the face made Leon’s brain seem two sizes too big for his skull. He didn’t want to get off the floor. He was a sad sack and he wished someone would end his misery.
Another part of their encounter came to him. Right before she broke his heart she dug through his pocket and snagged the keys.
The bus! Leon filled with guilt. That war rig was the group’s best chance at survival. It had their weapons, a large stockpile of food and medicine, but because
he wanted to try to get laid, she’d gotten the better of him and made off with their gear.
Before he could dive deeper into despair there was a pounding at the bathroom door.
Karen wailed like a banshee. “Leon! We gotta go! Shawna took the bus and the girls were inside it! Leon! Get out here! You have to hotwire a car!” Karen kicked at the door and shouted. “Leon!”
Leon wasn’t ready to face anyone. He wanted to hit the snooze button and lay there on the floor until he died. It wasn’t until she said it again that it registered.
“Shawna took the girls!”
Leon’s memory travelled back to earlier that morning. He was in Penny’s kitchen whipping up a batch of pancakes. His plan: impress everyone with his cooking skills. Then the girls woke up before Karen and came out just as he got started. They asked him so many questions. One after another. What are you doing? What are you putting in there? Why do you need that? How did you learn this stuff? At the time Leon was sure he was going to be their new Dad. He tried his best to answer every question with a kid friendly joke and the girls laughed. Their giggling was contagious. The more they chuckled at his silly faces and crazy answers the more it fueled him.
How did you learn to make such good pancakes?
A monkey taught me.
Why were you in that jail?
I was arrested for being too handsome.
They laughed the hardest when he made a fart sound for every turn of the whisk in the pancake batter. They were such sweethearts. In that moment of playing house they brought him so much joy. He didn’t want to save them because he thought it would score points with Karen, or to clear the guilt from this fiasco that was partially his fault. The reason he wanted to save the girls was because when they laughed at his silly jokes he felt normal. He wasn’t a creep to them. He was Cool Uncle Leon.
His world stopped spinning and he sat forward. He used the bathroom sink to get to his feet as he opened the door. His gaze stayed glued to the floor like a puppy that made a mess on the carpet. There was no time to comfort his hurt feelings. She didn’t even ask what happened to him because none of it mattered. Rage pulsated off Karen. It was unlike anything Leon had come across before.
He looked up and said, “I’m so-” Leon stopped midsentence when he spotted the wreck of a human in front of him.
Karen’s eyes were bloodshot, and snot ran from her nose. She reached into the bathroom and grabbed Leon by the arm. “I don’t care. Let’s go.”
Jim raced onto Desiree’s yard just as the others were leaving the front door. He lost it the second he saw Karen. Jim wept, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know!”
Karen shot daggers at him. “We don’t have time for that! Leon, pick a car and get it going. Troy, you watch his back.”
Jim wobbled. “I’m losing a lot of blood.”
“We’ll have to glue it shut!” Karen charged back into the house. “Come on!”
Jim followed her as Leon got moving and scanned the street for the best option. Troy kept pace with him and racked a fresh shell to replace the one he had used on Desiree’s father.
Leon grunted, “I’ll need a knife and a screwdriver.” He spotted a promising Dodge Caravan at the end of the block. He checked on his cohort and noticed the red mark on Troy’s face. Blood dripped from Troy’s beard. Then it dawned on him they were missing someone. “Where’s Sara?”
Troy’s eyes were already glass. “Ryder took her!”
“What!?”
“He found us, clocked me with a shovel and grabbed her.”
“Fuck!”
They closed in on the van.
Leon was at a loss. They knew her chances of surviving alone were slim. Yet, neither of them could attempt to save her while the children were missing.
“We’ve got to get the girls back and then find her,” said Leon as he checked the vehicle for any hiding infected. It was clear.
Troy nodded.
Of course that’s what they were going to do.
Then reality set in. They were never going to see her again.
Leon grabbed at the handle and gave it a yank. The door popped open. That tiny bit of luck would save them some time. It smelled of smoke and mildew. The van was twenty years old and its owner hadn’t taken care of it. He searched the visor and the ignition. No keys. Leon found the button for the hatch and punched it. He jogged to the rear and opened the door. Inside was more garbage. Old clothes and plastic bags filled with junk. He combed through the trash and searched until he found a tiny tool box. Leon cracked it open. Laying on top was a flathead screwdriver. He snagged it and closed the hatch.
“You got a knife?” Leon raced back to the driver’s side.
Troy dug through his pocket and handed Leon a Swiss Army knife.
Leon’s hands shook as he crawled under the steering wheel. He didn’t really know Sara. In fact, he had only met her a few hours ago. But the idea of anyone being held captive by that nut job was enough to turn his stomach inside out.
His fingers moved with purpose as he cut and stripped wires then tied them together. Leon broke the plastic case around the steering column, jammed the screw driver into the ignition and gave it a twist. The engine came online. The van had a quarter tank of gas.
“I hope that’s enough.” He peeked at himself in the mirror. His cheek was bright red, and a knot was growing under the skin. There was swelling around his eye where she had kicked him.
Leon asked, “If we catch up to Shawna, what are we going to do to her?”
Troy was in a fog and grumbled. “I don’t know.”
Leon hit the locks and slid the side door open.
Troy climbed in and shut the door. “I don’t think she knew the girls were in there. I bet she doesn’t have a clue. We kidnapped her, man. She just wants to get back to her people. When she does find the girls, I doubt she’ll hurt them.”
Leon put the van into reverse and backed out of the driveway. He pointed at his face. “She did this to me. We don’t know what she’s capable of.”
“She saw an opportunity to get their bus that’s now loaded full of supplies, back to their church and she took it. Like I said, I don’t think she will hurt the girls…” Troy wiped the blood from his beard. “My worry is on…” He couldn’t bring himself to say her name.
Leon put the van in gear and maneuvered toward Desiree’s front door. He knew what he wanted to do to Shawna if he found her.
Karen crashed through every drawer in Desiree’s kitchen until she located the one full of junk. She ransacked it. There it was a little tube with a picture of a gorilla on it. She set it on the counter and kept looking for other supplies. She tossed a towel and a roll of packing tape next to the glue.
Jim slumped. The only thing holding him up was the counter.
She could tell he wanted to say something. To tell her he was sorry. To explain why he did what he did. No matter the reasons, Karen wasn’t ready to hear it. Her goal was to patch him up and hit the road. That’s it.
She bolted for the master bathroom. Karen dug through the cabinets until she found hydrogen peroxide, Neosporin, and a bottle of ibuprofen. She also came across a bottle of caffeine pills in a drawer and she took them too.
She raced back to Jim.
His skin was pale and clammy.
Leon honked the van’s horn.
Karen loaded everything into a grocery bag and headed for the exit. Jim limped from the kitchen and through the living room. A trail of blood trickled after him.
Troy had the van’s door open and ready.
The frog in Karen’s throat said, “Troy, get in the passenger seat. I’ve got to close Jim’s wounds.”
Troy jumped out and headed for the front seat.
Karen climbed into the van. “I bet she’s taking the same route we came in on.”
Jim grunted as he got himself into the van and closed the door behind him. He was out of breath and pouring sweat. Karen guessed he was going into shock.
As soon as Tro
y closed his door, Leon took off. The van rumbled down the road. It’s engine in desperate need of a tune up.
Karen figured Shawna had about a ten-minute head start on them, but if they guessed wrong and took a bad turn the chances of them ever finding her babies were next to zero.
She pushed the thought from her mind and kept on task. There was no time to fall apart. Not now.
But what if we never get them back? The question tore at her heart.
The answer, however, was simple. If Valerie and Robin were lost forever, Karen was going to eat a bullet and put herself out of her misery.
Chapter 5
Sara couldn’t breathe. Hanging upside down caused the blood to rush to her brain. She was disoriented. Ryder knocked the wind out of her when he kicked her in the stomach. Then he covered her mouth with duct tape. With every step, his shoulder jabbed into her guts. Panic and fear consumed her. The side of her face burned from Ryder’s brutal right hook. Her arms were pinned behind her back. The muscles in her shoulders screamed for mercy as the duct tape dug into the skin around her wrists. She thought her situation was bleak before. Now it was something concocted by the Devil himself.
No matter how hard she tried, there was no stopping the tears. The caused her nose to run with snot and add to her suffocation. She told herself to calm down and think. Panicking only crippled her. If she froze, she might miss a chance to escape.
Her brain wasn’t playing fair and terror took hold.
The ground spooled out from under Ryder’s feet. Asphalt, sidewalk, then grass.
Where is he taking me?
Another round of tears fell. Her breathing, labored.
Calm the fuck down! She screamed at herself. Maybe it was the blood rushing to her gourd or the extremely dire situation she faced, but an argument broke out in her mind.
You didn’t think you would survive in the graveyard and you did.
That’s because Jim saved me.
You’re not the same girl you were two days ago.
