by J. C. Diem
We finished our meal quickly and I barely tasted mine. None of us wanted to linger over coffee, so we took to the streets again. There was no point patrolling the cemeteries until dark, so we drove around aimlessly. We all kept watch for Officer Mallory and his partner.
Once the sun began to sink towards the horizon, the tension in the SUV grew. I’d already assembled my rifle. It sat between my knees with the barrel pointing over my shoulder. The safety was on so I wouldn’t accidentally shoot anyone in the event that we were involved in a car accident.
Almost as soon as darkness blanketed the city, I felt hidden eyes watching me. I had a brief memory of a woman appearing behind me in the restaurant bathroom. Then the picture was gone, hidden behind a mental haze and I forgot about my stalker.
A few minutes later, I sensed a swell of power when the reanimated sorcerer began his spell. I didn’t want to think about where he’d gotten the blood that he needed to draw a circle and to mark the graves. “I can feel the necromancer to the north,” I told Mark. The connection between us was faint, which meant he wasn’t close by.
Reece put his foot down and surged through the streets, zeroing in on a cemetery that we’d patrolled several times already. We again avoided the cameras rather than shutting them down. Our mission was almost over and we didn’t want the local cops involved now.
Green fog permeated the boneyard once again. It stretched to the outer limits of the grounds, almost spilling out onto the street. Everyone but Mark heard a voice chanting and we cautiously moved in closer. Periodically peering through the scope of my rifle, I held up my hand to alert the others when I spotted our target.
Speaking in its native tongue, the necromancer was chanting in an almost hypnotic rhythm. He’d found clothing to cover his nakedness, which I found highly disturbing. He’d regained enough intelligence to realize that he stood out. He was trying to hide the fact that he was a walking corpse. He’d fed well and had regained enough of his jaw to be able to speak. Even his nose was growing back and the hole in his cheek was closing. With a few more meals, he’d be indistinguishable from the living.
I moved in closer and chose a crypt to use as a brace for my rifle. The zombie appeared in my scope again and he turned as he sensed me. With a triumphant grin, he shrieked a final few words and ducked down an instant before I was about to pull the trigger.
“Damn it,” I hissed and let the pressure off so I didn’t waste the shot. “He knows we’re here.” Taking him out from a distance was out of the question now. He was already scurrying away as crypts and mausoleums exploded and dozens of corpses came back to life.
The necromancer had put far more energy into this mass resurrection. His minions were so fresh that they almost looked alive. Once they began to move, it was obvious they were far from normal. Their steps were hesitant and they lurched rather than walked. Moaning in hunger, they shambled towards us as more and more graves broke open.
Hiding behind a crypt, the necromancer hissed a command and half of the newly risen broke off to follow him. The rest continued to move towards us, intent on feeding.
“Form a circle,” Mark ordered and we complied. I was on his left and Flynn was on his right. Kala and Reece were at our backs. My flamethrower was slung over my left shoulder. I put my sniper rifle on the ground at my feet and reached for my other weapon. I flicked the safety off and pulled the trigger as a zombie came within range. It gave a buzzing mental and vocal shriek as a twenty foot flame shot out to engulf it.
It quickly grew hot with flames intermittently flaring to take down the ravenous creatures. I armed sweat away and sent another blast flying. Mindless with hunger and following their master’s command, they climbed over the bodies of the fallen to get to us. Their ability to recognize danger had been crushed beneath the weight of their order to kill us.
By the time we finished off the last of the walking dead, I was almost out of fuel. Kala shook her canister to hear nothing sloshing around inside. “That was a close one,” she breathed.
Mark wiped sweat away from his forehead with his handkerchief. His hand was shaking when he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He called for the Cleanup Crew and I didn’t envy them their job this night. Over a hundred bodies lay smoldering on the ground. Nearly the same number had gotten away from us.
“We might need to call in reinforcements,” our boss said when he turned in a circle to survey the battle scene.
All three of my fellow shifters instantly scowled. “We can handle this,” Reece said.
Kala pointed in the direction where the necromancer and his minions had fled. “We’ll follow them on foot and you can catch up to us in the SUV.” We were far faster than the newly risen. We should be able to find them quickly enough.
“How much fuel do you have left?” he asked. Almost all of our canisters were empty and we needed to restock. Reaching his decision, Mark jerked his head for us to follow him. “You need to restock first.”
I knew the PIA had other teams working for them, but I knew very little about them. It was obvious that the Shifter Squad believed they were superior to their human contemporaries and that we didn’t require any help. Personally, I thought a few extra guns would come in handy right about now.
Reaching the SUV, we each took a fresh flamethrower. Flynn shoved extra canisters into a duffle bag then slung it over his shoulder.
Reece addressed Mark. “Kala will keep in touch with you and Lexi while we hunt them down.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. No way was I going to sit this one out.
He turned to me and stared down his nose arrogantly. “I’m the team leader and you’ll follow my orders.”
“I’m the only one who can sense them if you lose their trail, oh great and mighty Team Leader,” I said with heavy sarcasm.
Flynn was brave enough to come to my rescue. “She has a point.”
“We don’t have time to argue,” Mark said impatiently. “You can’t treat Alexis like a porcelain doll, Agent Garrett. She’s tougher than you think.”
Brown eyes a few shades lighter than mine scrutinized me, then Reece shrugged his shoulders in capitulation. “Fine,” he ground out unhappily. “Let’s move out.”
Kala and Flynn fell in behind him and I brought up the rear. We ran back through the cemetery and picked up the stench of zombie and followed it to the far side of the grounds. The undead had swarmed over the wall rather than using the gate. We leaped over it as well and went in pursuit.
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Leaving both the graveyard and residential neighborhoods behind us, we entered an industrial area. We followed the trail for several blocks then found ourselves at the edge of the city. “I can sense them just ahead,” I whispered and we slowed down. Dawn wasn’t far away and a low mist was beginning to rise.
We came to a fence that bordered a boggy marsh. It had been knocked down by stampeding zombies. We cleared the wire in a single bound. Far across the field, we saw our quarry approaching a stand of trees. Half a dozen old buildings stood off to one side. The remains of a sign had been propped up against a wall. I did a double-take when I read the word ‘Billings -ter Ya-’. The rest of the sign was obscured by mud.
“We need to catch up to them before the sun rises and they burrow beneath the ground,” our team leader said and we hastened forward.
The sign bothered me, but I couldn’t figure out why. As we closed in on the small army of undead, the necromancer glanced back and saw us. Gleeful malice sparkled in eyes that were now a clear brown rather than milky.
Smelling fresh blood, I glanced down to see that we were approaching a ritual circle. With a dry chuckle, the necromancer sprang his trap. Uttering the last words of his spell that he must have begun before we’d arrived, he called forth a very different type of army.
Long dead cows, pigs and sheep spewed out of the earth all around us. Their bones must have been tossed into a mass grave decades ago.
“Am
I really seeing this?” Flynn said in a horrified tone.
“I hope not,” Kala replied. “Because if you’re seeing it, then that means I’m seeing it, too.”
The necromancer had used just enough power to restore the animals to a state of quasi-life. Emaciated and almost fleshless, their skin hung from their bodies. Their bones showed up starkly through holes in their hides. Hollow sockets, where their eyes should have been, gaped darkly. Blindly sensing that food was within their reach, they lurched and stumbled towards us with moos, oinks and baas of hunger. I realized now that the sign must have read ‘Billings Slaughter Yard’.
My fear and loathing of the undead didn’t extend to these things. Maybe because their thoughts weren’t battering at my mind. My hands twitched on my weapon from my need to kill them. Thousands of the horrors crowded the field, barring our way. We didn’t have enough fuel to kill them all.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
Reece had already made a decision. “We’ll have to lead them away from town until dawn. They’ll have to seek shelter from the sun then.”
It would have been easy enough for us to outdistance the pursuing herd of zombie animals, but that wasn’t our goal. Saving our fuel for when it would be needed, we headed away from New Orleans. Using ourselves as bait, we led the mob like pied pipers. Kala called Mark to tell him about our plan. She warned him to keep his distance so he didn’t accidentally lead any of the animals astray.
The reanimated herd converged on anything that was unwise enough to show itself. Each meal restored them a little, but it would take a lot more than the occasional squirrel or fox to fully flesh them out.
After half an hour or so of leading them into the marsh as deep we could go without sinking, the sun finally came up. Letting out harsh bellows of frustration, the animals sank into the ground, leaving small mounds of disrupted dirt behind. My mind shied away from the catastrophe that awaited come nightfall when the herd would rise again.
Mark parked the SUV as close to the field as he could get and followed Kala’s directions to reach us. His shoes and pants were filthy when he finally reached us. I looked down to see that my cargo pants and sneakers were in the same poor condition. “How many of them are there?” he asked.
“Thousands,” Reece replied. “Too many for us to handle alone.” The admission cost him and he received sympathetic grimaces from Kala and Flynn.
Agent Steel surveyed the field, noting the numerous mounds of disturbed earth. “We might not have to call in outside help just yet.”
A mischievous grin appeared on Kala’s mouth. “What are you planning, boss?”
“We have a weapon in the compound that should be able to wipe out all of the animals when they rise. I think there should be enough of the stuff.”
“I thought fire was the best way to kill them,” I said in confusion.
“Oh, we’ll be using fire,” Mark confirmed. “We’re just going to need a different type of accelerant to eradicate this many targets. Garrett, Bailey, make sure no one approaches the area. Girls, I’ll need your help to load up the SUV.”
The two guys nodded, looking as alert as ever. We’d been up all night and now that we’d stopped leading the herd away from the city, I realized that I was unusually exhausted. I trailed behind Mark and Kala, almost stumbling in my tiredness.
It was a relief to sink down onto the backseat. For a change, I had the whole seat to myself. I stretched out, being careful to keep my muddy shoes off the upholstery. My nose wrinkled at the stench of marshy soil then I leaned my head back and dropped off to sleep.
“Lexi, we’re here.” I started awake when I heard my name and stared at Kala uncomprehendingly. I’d been in the middle of a nightmare about being stalked by a strange and frightening woman. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked in concern.
Shaking my head in an effort to clear it, I offered her a weak smile. “I’m a bit tired,” I admitted. I was terribly thirsty and felt as if I hadn’t slept in a week and I wondered what was wrong with me.
Mark had already climbed out of the SUV. He waited impatiently for us at the door. “Let’s get a move on, ladies.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Kala said and snapped him a salute. I smiled at her hijinks, but couldn’t quite dredge up a laugh. Exhaustion was still sucking at me, trying to drag me back to sleep.
Leaving our flamethrowers in the back of the vehicle, we followed him down the long hallway to where the weapons were stored. Mark scanned his palm to open the door and we filed inside. We moved past the empty pegs where our flamethrowers usually hung and headed to the far end of the long stretch of cupboards. Mark hunkered down, opened a door and pulled out a bright red five gallon container. Strain showed on his face as he handed it to Kala. Liquid sloshed inside. It must be the mysterious accelerant he’d spoken of.
Rolling her eyes, she passed it to me and motioned for him to move aside. “Why don’t you let me do that? I wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle,” she said sweetly.
Conceding that she had greater strength than he did, he stood and used his handkerchief to mop his brow. “How many do we need?” she asked as she knelt down to grab the next container.
Calculating the size of the field and the number of monsters that we’d be facing, he shrugged. “We’d better take all of it.” He was adopting an attitude that it was better to have too much than too little.
I ducked down to see red containers stretching out to both sides. “How many containers are there?”
“Thirty,” Mark said with a bland expression.
I could see why he needed our help and hefted the next container that Kala handed to me. While we managed to carry four apiece, Mark struggled to carry two. He set one down to open the door for us.
Far quicker than he’d have been able to manage on his own, we had the SUV loaded up. There was barely enough room to hold all of the containers. We had to rest some of them on the backseat and the floor. Kala and I cradled two containers on our laps as we headed back to the field.
My tiredness grew worse as we slogged across the field carrying an armful of containers. Reece and Flynn jogged over to the SUV to assist us with the heavy lifting. Mark oversaw the operation as we poured the liquid as evenly as we could across the entire field. He made sure that every mound of disturbed ground was soaked in the acrid smelling accelerant. The moment night fell, the herd would rise and would become coated in the liquid. One small burst of flame should be enough to turn them all into deep fried steaks.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty
It took us hours to empty all of the containers. We were starving by the time we were done.
“Can we get some food?” Kala complained. “We haven’t eaten since last night.” Hers wasn’t the only stomach grumbling. Strangely, I felt less hungry than I should have. I was too exhausted to worry about eating.
We were all filthy from head to toe and we weren’t in any condition to enter a restaurant. “Wait here,” Mark said. “Lexi and I will grab some takeaway.”
“You don’t look so good,” Flynn said to me. “Are you feeling alright?” That was the second time I’d been asked that question and I wondered just how bad I looked.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just need some sleep.”
Leaving the team at the edge of the deadly field, Mark and I climbed back into the SUV. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked as soon as we were too far away for the others to be able to overhear us.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I’m just really, really tired.” New Orleans was hot and humid and we kept bottled water in the vehicle. I cracked open a bottle and drank down a few mouthfuls.
He snatched quick glances at my face as he drove towards the city. “You’re very pale. Maybe you need more iron in your diet.”
I’d never suffered from an iron deficiency before, but anything was possible. I made a noncommittal sound and we lapsed into silence. Unused to eating takeaway so often, I asked for a semi-healt
hy salad rather than a burger and fries. While Mark waited for our order to be filled, I took a trip to the bathroom.
When I was done, I felt a sense of trepidation as I washed my hands at the sink. My stomach fluttered nervously and I kept glancing in the mirror, expecting someone or something to pop up behind me. Nothing did and I escaped from the bathroom safely. I was mystified as to why I should have been afraid at all.
My eyes tried to slide shut during the drive back to the field, but I snapped awake each time. I was reluctant to slide back into the nightmare of being hunted by an unknown pursuer.
“Food!” Kala cried happily when we pulled to a stop beside the team. We’d only passed a few cars on the way to and from the field. We were in an area that had been almost utterly devastated by Katrina years ago. Few had tried to rebuild their homes here and the land was largely deserted. We couldn’t have picked a better place to face the horde come nightfall.
“Just how flammable is that stuff?” Flynn asked after he’d finished his meal. He hiked his thumb at the stinky field that was coated in the oily looking substance.
“Extremely,” Mark said dryly. “There’s a good chance they’ll be able to see the flames from outer space.”
“You’re joking, right?” I said, suddenly feeling much more awake. We’d been as careful as possible when splashing the stuff around, but our shoes and lower pants were soaked in it.
“Not even a little bit,” he replied seriously. “That’s why I’ll need you all to stand well clear when I set the field on fire.” He’d stayed at a safe distance back as he’d directed us to coat the ground. Mark was the only one who wasn’t a walking incendiary device waiting to happen.
There were still a couple of hours left before the sun would fall from the sky and Reece pointed at the SUV. “You’re exhausted. Why don’t you try to get some rest before the bonfire starts?”
