As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Frater, Rhiannon

  “He is seriously chewed up.” Jenni set down the tacos and leaned over the wall, studying Philip’s corpse. The zombies howled and beat against the concrete bricks. “Gnawed down to the bone in some places. Wow.”

  “Let me see, Katie-girl,” Bill said as he lumbered up onto the platform.

  Katie stepped aside, motioning down below. “I’m sure it’s him.”

  Bill scrutinized the undead man. “Yep. That’s Phil.”

  “I like him better this way,” a voice called from a nearby sentry platform. It was Lenore.

  Jenni gave her a thumbs-up.

  Lenore nodded.

  “Zombies definitely had a field day with him,” Katie sighed. “Any idea what went wrong?”

  “Maybe Shane ditched him to lessen his load,” Bill said.

  “I wouldn’t put that past him. He is such a total shit,” Jenni said, eating her taco.

  Katie wasn’t sure how Jenni could eat with that awful smell wafting up from below, but from her work as a prosecutor, she knew that abused women developed extraordinary coping skills. She’d seen how adept Jenni was at disassociating herself from bad things going on around her. Sometimes Katie wished she could do that, too, just step away from the horrible reality she now lived in.

  Nerit joined their small group, her sniper rifle held lightly in the crook of her arm. She glanced over the wall and studied the scene. “I want a closer look at him.”

  “Me, too,” Bill said.

  “Why?” Katie arched an eyebrow at them. “He’s obviously undead now.”

  Nerit pointed. “Something is wrong with that leg.”

  “Well, it is chewed down like a chicken leg,” Jenni commented.

  “The way the bone is shattered doesn’t sit right with me either,” Bill said.

  “Put him down and let’s haul him up,” Nerit ordered.

  Katie drew her gun. It felt strange to shoot Phil, but somehow right. She fired once and watched his torso flop backwards.

  “He so deserved that,” Jenni said with satisfaction, licking salsa from her fingers, and shoved the rest of the taco into her mouth.

  4.

  Ghosts of the Past

  Scrambling down the ladder, Jenni landed feet first on the street below Katie’s sentry post and raised her pistol quickly. Bill climbed down laboriously behind her, his big belly giving him a little trouble as he went.

  Jenni was surrounded by the bodies of the dead zombies eliminated during the night. Jenni knew they were finally, truly dead, but she couldn’t help but be afraid. Every time she was outside the walls, she was terribly aware of her vulnerability.

  Bill set his booted feet down on the street and heaved his belly upward as he tried to get his belt hoisted up on its girth. His keen eyes surveyed the street from beneath his cowboy hat. Felix and Nerit joined them in the road. Jenni and Felix took up positions to the left and the right, standing guard while Nerit and Bill moved over to the pieces of Philip’s body.

  “That smell is enough to make me puke,” Felix grumbled, and kicked a dead body in irritation.

  Jenni looked down at the gray, decaying carcass at her feet. It had been so badly eaten that it was hard to tell what gender it had been. It was naked and most of its hair had been pulled out. Felix might be bothered by the smell, but not Jenni. No, it was seeing their empty eyes, like Mikey’s as he snarled and clawed at the window of the white truck on the first day. She blinked hard and shoved the image away.

  “Mighty chewed up,” Bill said to Nerit. “Can’t tell much about what happened before he got ate.”

  Jenni rubbed her nose and narrowed her eyes as a few shambling figures appeared in the far distance.

  “Look at his right leg,” Nerit said.

  Jenni glanced over to see the older woman squatting down by one of Philip’s torn-off limbs. The skin was shredded and muscle and tendons were ripped from the bone.

  “Shattered,” Bill said after a moment.

  “Human teeth couldn’t do that,” Nerit pointed out.

  “What does that mean?” Felix’s voice was tight with his fear. Bill answered, “I think someone shot him in the leg.”

  “Before or after he was dead?” Felix asked.

  “I betcha Shane did it,” Jenni offered, and watched as one of the faraway shambling creatures tumbled to the ground. Its struggles to get up resulted in an almost comic series of pratfalls.

  “Maybe,” was all Bill said. “We better go see if we can find Shane.”

  Nerit continued to study the shattered bone thoughtfully. She prodded the limb with the barrel of her rifle, then looked around on the ground nearby.

  Bill called in to the fort, asking for a vehicle to be brought around. Jenni kept her eyes on the figures in the distance.

  “What’s going on?” Katie called out from above.

  “Heading out to see if we can find out what happened to Shane!” Bill gave her a thumbs-up.

  Judging from Katie’s expression, Jenni could tell that her friend was probably feeling some sort of misplaced guilt. Jenni didn’t mind Philip being in pieces. She kind of wished Shane was lying out here, too. She returned her gaze to the figures a few blocks away wading through the shimmering heat. The one that had fallen had not been able to get up.

  Nerit shoved the decaying bodies out of her way, obviously intent on finding something. Bill pulled up on his belt and stared down the road at the zombies moving relentlessly toward them.

  “Helluva day,” he said at last.

  The school bus roared around the corner, Ed behind the wheel. Felix said, “Thank God.”

  Jenni understood his relief, though the walking dead were not moving quickly. She liked them slow like this. It was easier to kill them and it was more like the old zombie movies. She hated it when they were fresh and fast.

  She was the last one to get on the bus and she paused on the steps to give Katie a thumbs up. The concern in Katie’s expression was touching. It was good to know that people actually gave a damn about what happened to her.

  “Another day. Another dollar,” Felix grumbled as he slung his long body onto a seat.

  “We don’t get paid,” Jenni reminded him.

  “Oh, yeah. This job sucks.” Felix grinned and winked.

  Jenni winked back and grabbed hold of the bar over her head as Ed shifted gears and the minibus roared forward. She watched the approaching zombies with irritation. She didn’t feel like dealing with them today.

  Nerit sat across from Jenni, her rifle on her knees. One hand gripped the back of Felix’s seat as the minibus bounced down the road. She looked eerily calm, as usual. Jenni envied her.

  “Nothing is ever simple.” Bill let out a weary sigh.

  “Never is,” Felix agreed.

  “We just do our best,” Nerit said. “Do our best and hope.”

  “Do you think we’re it? The only ones left other than those little pockets out there that Peggy talks to?” Felix was staring out at the dead town, and his voice sounded weary.

  Jenni didn’t want to think or talk about other people. She didn’t want to think about anything outside their own little world.

  “Does it matter?” Nerit finally said. “Does it really matter if we are the last ones or not?”

  “Puts a helluvalot of pressure on us if we are,” Felix answered.

  Bill nodded. “That it does.”

  Ed plowed over the slow-moving zombies, following the route Shane and Philip would have taken the day before to leave town. “It don’t matter if we are or aren’t the last. We just gotta not mess up. We gotta do what we have to and hope that anyone out there still alive is doing okay, too. I know my boys are out there somewhere, doing their best to survive. I didn’t raise no fools.”

  “Where are your boys, Ed?” Nerit asked.

  Jenni didn’t want to think about the families destroyed in the first days, about her own dead children who were now seeking out the flesh of the living. She just wanted to get this job done and get back to Juan an
d the safety of the fort.

  “Got two sons up in College Station, going to Texas A & M.”

  “Aggies,” Felix muttered with the disdain only a Longhorn from the University of Texas could muster.

  Ed ignored him. “The youngest is in military school up near Fort Worth.”

  Jenni gazed out at the abandoned buildings of the town and frowned as several zombies shambled into view to watch the bus pass.

  “If they’re anything like you, Ed, I’m sure they’re fine,” Jenni said, hoping that would finish the conversation.

  “I raised them good. They’re smart boys. I know they’re fine.”

  “They’re country boys. They got a better chance than most city folk,” Bill agreed.

  “Hey!” Felix and Jenni, the only city folk in the bus, both protested the same time.

  Nerit chuckled.

  “There it is,” Ed called out. “There’s their car.”

  The outcasts’ sedan was half-on, half-off the road, with its front tire in a drainage ditch. Nearby were a few old buildings and houses. Nothing stirred except the wind in the tall grasses.

  “Let’s get this done.” Nerit slid to her feet.

  “Same drill as always,” Ed added.

  Jenni picked up an ax from the collection of weapons Ed had loaded into the vehicle and double-checked her pistol. The ax felt good in her hands. Her anger against the zombies and the terror they had brought into her life was a hot furnace inside her.

  When the bus doors opened, she was the first one out. Her boot heels kicked up dust as she quickly took up her position, covering the others as they disembarked. Felix moved to cover the other side of the road while Nerit, Bill, and Ed went to examine the car.

  From where Jenni stood, she could see that one side of the car was smeared with zombie gunk. Nerit picked up a discarded weapon and scrutinized it thoughtfully. Bill squatted down and picked up a box of ammunition.

  “All shots fired,” Nerit said.

  “This box is filled with gravel. I’m not liking how this is looking.” Bill stood and adjusted his belt. It was a common gesture for him. He’d been getting thinner since Travis and Katie brought him to the fort from Toombs Hunting Store. He was always hiking up his belt. Jenni found it an endearing and amusing action.

  “Got six zombies dead on this side of the car,” Ed called out. “And another box of gravel.”

  “Someone sabotaged them,” Felix said. “Who could have done it?”

  “A number of people,” Nerit answered blandly.

  Jenni thought of Juan and briefly wondered if he had done it, then pushed the thought away.

  “Why is the car abandoned? Why did Philip head back to the fort?” Bill stood back a few feet from the car and peered in, while Ed hunkered down to look under it.

  Jenni saw the zombie lunge for Ed out of the corner of her eye. “Ed!”

  The man scrambled backwards quickly as the zombie under the car reached for him. It was terribly mutilated and missing a good chunk of its torso, so it was slow. Its feet scrabbled at the ground, trying to find purchase. Ed got to his feet and kicked it in the face, knocking its head back. Yanking his hatchet off his belt, he motioned to the others that he had it under control.

  “Hurry up and kill it,” Jenni said, trying not to yell loudly enough to draw more zombies to them.

  Ed slammed the hatchet down on the fearsome, growling face thrusting toward him. The zombie shuddered. Its skinless fingers clawed at Ed’s boots.

  … like those tiny fingers pressed under the door on the first day … those tiny little fingers …

  Jenni shook her head to break the memory.

  Ed slammed the hatchet down one more time. The thing’s fingers finally stilled.

  “And here we go,” Felix sighed as two badly decomposing zombies appeared from around a nearby building.

  “I hate company,” Jenni grumbled. Her head was throbbing. She felt off-kilter. Seeing the zombies’ fingers straining to reach Ed had sickened her. She tried hard not to think of Benji.

  “Especially the kind of company that wants you for dinner,” Felix agreed. “I hate zombies. I hate them. I really, really hate them. I wish they would just go away.”

  Bill popped the hood behind them while Nerit walked slowly around the car. Ed joined her. They studied the area together.

  Jenni frowned as more staggered into view. “At least these don’t move too fast.”

  The shambling dead were a strangely reassuring sight. The zombies were a mess now, often indistinguishable as male or female; white, black, Hispanic, or Asian. Four months of rot, exposure to the elements, and general wear and tear had the walking dead in bad shape. Their skin was dry, cracked, and shredded. Their limbs were mangled and twisted.

  Since zombies felt no pain, they had no concern for their bodies. They struggled through brambles, bushes, and low fences, tripped down inclines, fell from heights, and sometimes rammed themselves repeatedly against obstacles. On her trips outside the walls, Jenni had seen the undead do extraordinary damage to themselves while trying to get the living.

  “They’re getting closer,” Felix called out.

  “Almost done,” Bill answered.

  Jenni felt uneasy despite the slow advancement of the zombies. Her rage had dissipated and been replaced by a low pulse of fear. But she couldn’t let it get to her. One of the zombies, a female in a truly tacky pink tracksuit, was drawing too close.

  “Ax time!” Jenni moved toward the female zombie reaching for her, moaning that terrible sound, and forced back her fear.

  The zombie lunged at her. Jenni slammed the flat of the ax head hard into the creature’s sternum and knocked her on her back. Jenni quickly pinned it down with one foot placed solidly on the dead thing’s chest and heaved the ax over her head. As the zombie grabbed at her boot, Jenni brought down the ax as hard as she could and cleaved its head in two.

  “One down!” Jenni yanked her ax out of the zombie’s head and took a few steps back.

  “I got visitors!” Felix yelled. He successfully took down one zombie with his double-bladed spear, but he’d miscalculated how far away the second zombie was, and it grabbed at him from behind. Felix shoved the spear back hard and impaled the thing. Jenni moved to help him as the zombie pushed its body along the spear, but Felix turned and shot it in the face.

  “I got it, Jenni, I got it,” Felix said, grinning.

  “Good job.” She held the ax, her eyes scanning the approaching dead, trying to figure out her next moves.

  “I would really like to go now,” Felix called out as more dead stepped into view around them.

  Bill motioned to Ed. The two men talked in soft tones.

  “C’mon, guys! Hurry up!” Jenni called, exasperated.

  The limping, gruesome dead were drawing ever closer. They were too clustered together for Jenni to destroy them individually.

  Ed got down on the ground and slid under the sedan.

  “Guys, seriously! Seriously, this is not good!” Felix wailed.

  “I’ll thin them out,” Nerit said reassuringly. She raised her rifle and fired at the less mutilated, more dangerous zombies.

  Jenni watched with fascination as the zombies went down one by one. A plume of blood, brains, and bone erupted out the back of each one’s skull before it crumpled to the ground.

  Felix also fired at the growing crowd of zombies. A small group of zombies was manageable, but too many swarming together was hard to survive.

  Jenni pulled her handgun from its holster and aimed at the remains of a mechanic that was shambling toward her. It didn’t have much of a face, but its tongue flicked out between its stained, broken teeth.

  Mikey’s torn face flashed across her vision … .

  Jenni shook her head, trying to force the memory away.

  “Kill it, Jenni!” Felix shouted.

  She had to force her mind to focus as she looked at the zombie again. Now it was Lloyd, her dead, abusive husband. His mouth was open in th
at terrible zombie moan and his shirt was covered in the blood of her children.

  Join us, Jenni, Lloyd’s voice whispered.

  “Jenni!” Nerit barked.

  “Fuck you, Lloyd,” Jenni growled. She fired. The bullet sheared off the top of his head.

  Lloyd swayed on his feet for a second, then collapsed at her feet. Jenni lifted her foot and slammed it down several times on the zombie’s head for good measure.

  “Who the hell is Lloyd? Did you know that zombie?” Felix yelled.

  Jenni ignored him and looked down at the zombie that was no longer her husband, but some pathetic mechanic. She raised her gaze and lifted her gun to fire into the group of zombies nearing her.

  “Let’s go! Done here!” Bill called.

  Jenni and Felix backed toward the minibus. Nerit disappeared into it, only to reappear at a window, which she slid down so she could provide cover.

  Bill jogged around the back of the minibus and headed toward the open door. More zombies were appearing, probably drawn by the gunfire. Jenni reloaded her weapon as Felix backed toward her. Ed fired up the engine.

  “You first,” Jenni told Felix.

  “I’d say ladies first, but—” Felix ducked into the bus.

  Jenni slowly backed toward the open door. She was almost to safety. A little boy around Benji’s age walked into view, trailing behind the other zombies. When he spotted Jenni, he gave a small cry and lifted his hands. His small fingers reached for her.

  Let him bite you. Die and join us . Lloyd’s voice again.

  An uncomfortable tightness gripped Jenni’s throat. She wanted to scream. She stumbled back, gasping. The little boy wasn’t just Benji’s age—he was Benji! Her baby had found her. He was coming for her. His fingers were reaching for her so he could claim her.

  His tiny fingers reached for her … strained for her … .

  Bill grabbed Jenni around the waist and dragged her into the bus. She stared, transfixed, at Benji. The doors snapped shut between her and her son.

  “It’s Benji,” Jenni gasped.

  “No, it’s not,” Nerit said sharply. “It’s not him.”

  “Who’s Benji?” Felix asked, sounding completely bewildered.