Odium II: The Dead Saga

by Claire C. Riley

  “So maybe he gave you a false address. I mean, why would he share his stash with you anyway?” I ask, frowning at the sight of an approaching deader.

  “Because we saved his life and then we helped him rescue his wife, and he owed us big time,” Nova says between plumes of cigarette smoke. She has it between her lips as she also sharpens her knife on a rock.

  I think about the samurai sword and worry that it might need sharpening, but it’s not really seen any action yet. I continue to watch the approaching deader; it’s close enough to be annoyingly loud now, its smell wafting over to us on the tail of a small breeze. I pull out the sword and head over to it. It’s on the other side of the fence, its hands gripping the thin metal, its fingers clawing to get through.

  It gnaws at the fence to get to me. Putrid, rotten gums squash on the metal, leaving liquid dripping from its mouth. Its teeth are broken and black, and its tongue is flapping around as if it were trying to lick an ice cream that was melting. This thing—this woman with her long brown matted hair—deserves a burial, but I can’t do that for her. The least I can do is put her out of her misery.

  I raise my sword and ram it through a hole in the fence, straight through into her skull and into her brain. I pull the sword back out and she falls to the ground without another noise. When I look up I can see more of them coming.

  With a heavy sigh, I head back to my three partners feeling depressed.

  Nova wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Cheer up, chica. It’s not all bad.” She scrubs the top of my head with her knuckles, making me yelp and jump away from her. “Just think, you could look like Mr. Miserable over there.” She chuckles and lets me get away.

  Michael doesn’t say anything, but instead climbs into the back of the truck, his lips pressed together in irritation.

  I smirk. “So we’ve decided where we’re heading next, then?”

  Rachel points to another X a couple of miles from where we are. “Supermarket.”

  “Are you serious? That’s like an Apocalypse 101 no-no. There’s no point going to supermarkets, as they are either overrun and or ransacked to shit.” I look from Nova to Rachel and then to Michael. They all seem pretty calm and unfazed by it all. “Fine.” I throw my hands up in defeat and head to the front of the truck and climb in.

  A couple of minutes pass, and the passenger door opens and Rachel climbs up. She’s been taking antibiotics since the attack yesterday; we need to get some more for her before we head back. The bite doesn’t seem infected, and she’s not in as much pain as yesterday, but we all think it will be best to keep her on meds for a couple of days at least. I think back to Duncan and how quickly his infection had set in after being bitten. Had it been a worse bite? I can’t be sure now, but I think so. It seems like a lifetime ago. And those people—JD, Duncan, Crunch—they all seem like storybook characters to me. And just like in a favorite book, I still miss some of those characters. Some days the ache in my chest is hard to contend with.

  I start up the engine. It’s noisy and we’re going to need gas soon, but it feels good to be driving again. I turn the wheel and we head out through the gates. I hadn’t noticed Nova standing by them, and I stop when I drive through. From my mirrors, I watch her close the gates and climb back inside.

  Heading back down the remnants of the road is much easier today than yesterday since we did most of the hard work by clearing debris from the path. But the storms haven’t been kind to the road, either, and the truck rocks from side to side as we drive through giant potholes. It’s nothing the truck can’t handle; if anything, the road probably seems worse because of the heavy suspension of the truck.

  Back on a fairly normal stretch of road, we travel east, the trees lining either side making me nervous. I look across at Rachel, who’s staring out the window, her gun poised in her lap.

  “So, yesterday, you said that they were testing on humans in your city.” I try for casual, but she catches on pretty quick.

  “Yep.” She looks across at me, curiosity behind her eyes. “Why?”

  “They didn’t do that in mine,” I say with a swallow. It’s funny how it doesn’t fill me with dread anymore—only anger, and worry for the people still living there.

  She looks at me with curiosity. “How long were you there?”

  “Pretty much from off the bat of this whole end-of-the-fucking-world-as-we-know-it thing.” I wave a hand around.

  “What was it like—where you were?” she asks.

  “Pretty shitty, to be honest, though there were no experiments. But it wasn’t the fucking Ritz, that’s for sure.” I laugh, and it’s genuine, too. It feels good to talk to someone about this, someone who knows in some small way how horrible it was. I can’t speak to Emily about it, because she refuses to discuss that time in her life. Though they didn’t do half the things to her that they did to me, I have a feeling she witnessed more than any child should have to. She’s growing into a woman now; I’m just glad she wasn’t a woman back then.

  Rachel watches me for a minute without speaking. Perhaps she’s thinking what to say, or maybe she’s thinking up a witty fucking reply—who knows?—but it’s me who speaks up first.

  “Are there more of these cities? Ones that do things to people?” I ask carefully.

  She nods. “From what we’ve heard, there are plenty of them. The story goes that the government knew the apocalypse was coming, and they were initially trying to stop it. Of course we know how well that worked out,” she says with a pinched expression.

  “So this wasn’t their fault then?” I add for clarification.

  She shrugs. “No idea. All we know is that they knew it was coming, and when they realized they couldn’t stop it, they tried to put precautions in place to protect themselves and fuck everyone else.” She shakes her head and looks out the window. “The testing plants or cities—whatever you want to call them—they started as a place to try and find a cure, but when I was there, they weren’t trying to find a cure, they were trying to mutate whatever causes the death virus to reanimate people. They wanted to have an army of these monsters to control.” She frowns, and I can see her jaw twitching away in anger as she grinds her teeth.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I say. “I mean, I’m completely shocked, that’s the story of horror movies. I never thought in a million years that they knew, never mind that they would be trying to put these things to work like blue-collar fucking workers! Jesus Christ, could things get any fucking worse for this world?” My body feels like snake coiled and ready to strike, I’m so pissed off with it all.

  “It is what it is, Nina.”

  “How can you be so nonchalant about it? That is seriously messed up. I know I’m new to this little horror story, but fuck me if that isn’t crazy bad!” I say, getting angrier by the second.

  “I’m not nonchalant, there’s just nothing I can do about it other than survive and protect those I care about.” She looks at me in confusion. “It does piss me off, but it’s a big world and who knows what other people are doing out there. Maybe one of them can be a hero of this sad little story and put an end to it.”

  “Don’t you think we should try and protect people, help them somehow?”

  Rachel laughs. “What, like a rag-tag A-team? Come on, Nina, get real. Most of the people back at the base barely made it there alive, most of them wouldn’t be able to last in this world without us. I’m happy that I’m helping these people. Because I can do something about that—I can protect them where they are.”

  I bite down on my lip, frustration in my veins. “I know you’re right, but it seems so…” I shake my head, not wanting to finish the sentence.

  “Unfair?” she offers.

  “Yeah.” I quirk an eyebrow. “Really fucking unfair. People are dying out there because of these deaders, and some asshole is rounding up the small amount of survivors and turning them for the sole purpose of trying to control them. That’s fucked up.”

  She shrugs. “Like I said, it is wha
t it is.”

  We travel in silence for a good while, and for the first time since this all began I realize how lucky I am that I’ve made it this far, and that I was behind the walls of a city that didn’t turn people into flesh-hungry zombies.

  We’re only driving for twenty minutes or so when we come to another town. The town looks like what you’d expect any town that has been abandoned for a while would to look like: barren, dusty, some buildings partially destroyed, burnt-out cars, yada yada, same old, same old.

  A couple of zombies come out to say hello as our noisy-ass truck passes through, but they can’t keep up with us and Michael and Nova take them out from the back of the truck. They’re scary accurate at shooting. I see the sign for the shopping mall before Rachel and begin to head to it. We pass a small supermarket on the way. The windows are smashed in and it looks as barren as the rest of the town. I suggest stopping but we agree that it’s best to head to the shopping mall and see how it looks.

  I pull the truck around a bend and over a small rise in the road, and from here I can see the large shopping mall. There’s deaders for sure, but it doesn’t look like some Dawn of the Dead-type movie, which always gets bonus points in my book. Then again, if the world were overrun with those types of zombies, we’d all be royally fucked in the ass anyway, which kinda makes my point moot.

  “Pull over. I need to let Michael and Nova know what’s going on,” Rachel says.

  I stop the truck in the middle of the road—no need for rules of the road these days. Plus I’ve learned the hard way to always stop in the middle of the road so you can see all around your vehicle before getting out. I still check my mirrors thoroughly before climbing out, already seeing Nova’s happy face looking back at me.

  I laugh as I walk around to the side of the truck. Nova has pulled some of the tarp away so she can stand up while I drive, and has clearly been like that for a while.

  “What are you doing, you crazy bitch?” I laugh. It’s dangerous, but she doesn’t seem to give a damn.

  “It’s boring back here with only miserable Michael for company.” She lights a cigarette. “So, I take it we decided the supermarket was a no-go,” she states as she surveys the landscape.

  I nod. “Place looked more looted than a whore’s panties. I’m thinking we head to the shopping mall. I think there’s less chance that everything will be gone, and more chance that we get some serious bounty. I know it’s more dangerous, but the rewards outweigh the risk—in my opinion, anyway.”

  “And that is why I suggested you come along on this trip, darlin’. I knew you had the smarts for this job,” she hoots and points at me. “And don’t worry your pretty head about getting in there. Rachel will get us in there no problem.” She grins.

  Michael stands next to her. “No explosives this time,” he says, looking between Rachel and Nova. “Well, only if they’re really needed, anyway,” he adds with a sly grin.

  “Explosives?” I smile.

  “Rachel here is a clever girl,” Nova says mysteriously.

  We all go to the front of the truck to scope out the area for a couple of minutes before we head over to it, but barring the deaders stumbling around in the front parking lot, there are no other signs of life or death, which is a good thing.

  “Head for the main entrance?” I suggest with a grimace. I don’t really like that idea, but I can’t think of any other way in. I mean, that was always the way I went into a mall—what other way is there?

  “There’s always the loading bay, but those things are usually closed off to the general public, so unless everything went to shit here when a load came in, that’s a no-go. We can check it out, though—you never know when you could get lucky,” Michael says.

  I frown at him, confused by his optimistic and—let’s be honest—slightly cheery nature. It’s out of character for him. Nova laughs and pushes his shoulder as she flicks her cigarette butt away.

  “Don’t worry about Michael, Nina. He’s just excited to see if he can get some clean pants. He’s been wearing the same underwear for months now.” Nova laughs loudly.

  We all turn and groan in unison when we hear the low moan of a deader. Stupid deaders, always ruining the moment.

  “Better get a move on then if we’re going to get you those pants, huh?” I laugh and head to the driver’s side of the truck. “You on that?” I say to Michael and nod toward the deader making its way up the road to us.

  He looks back at it. “Nah, leave it to its shambling,” he says, sounding out of character for him, and heads for the back of the truck.

  We set off again, at a slower pace so I can see the best route. The deaders turn toward the sound of our truck and begin to make their way over to us right away. Damn things always know where a meal is, like sniffing out pizza in the dark.

  I head around the back to see if there’s a way in. There’s a small barrier over the road. It’s metal and I check to see if I’ll be able to drive through it, but it doesn’t seem possible. I try to lift it but the stupid thing is locked down tight. I climb back into the truck and sigh.

  “Defeated by a length of metal,” I grumble dramatically, and begin to back up the truck.

  I hear a small pop of a pistol and watch in the mirror as a deader falls to the ground. I hadn’t even seen that one getting so close. I roll my eyes at myself like a five-year-old. I need to get my game hat on and stop being so relaxed about this shit. I keep on reversing, turning the wheel as the road forks out. I hit the curb, riding it up a little; the truck’s so damn big it’s only by pure luck that I haven’t crushed something more substantial with it—yet, anyway.

  I continue to swing round to the left until I’m facing the right way again. By now a lot of the deaders have made their way over to see what all the commotion is about, and I take the opportunity to drive the truck into them. Sure, I could swing past them, but the creepy fuckers would only follow us. Might as well kill them—or at least maim them—while I can.

  Rotten hands slam onto the hood shortly before being dragged under the truck, which bumps and jostles as bones crush beneath the wheels. I’m beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea. Rachel rolls down her window and the sound of the dead fills the cab. You know that sound—the weird, gargling phlegm-type growl noise they make at the backs of their throats. Well, multiply that by thirty, throw in a couple of bags of rotting meat and shit, and you’re living in my world. Fucking joyous, isn’t it?

  Rachel’s gun begins to pop next to me. We’re high up, so I don’t worry too much about them getting at her, and she can easily take them out. I check the mirrors and see that Michael and Nova are taking out their fair share too. I press down on the gas and ease the truck forward over the heaving mass of bodies, the crunching from them sounding uncomfortably loud with the windows down, making my skin crawl.

  Rachel continues to shoot from next to me, and I can hear that Michael and Nova are still firing away. Unfortunately, though the mass is shrinking in size, as I come back around the corner to the front of the mall, all our noise has been attracting even more attention.

  “Holy shit,” I shout.

  Deaders are coming from all different directions, across the parking lot, dodging around cars, dragging themselves from under bushes. I try to think of the best plan of action while still keeping the truck inching forward, but not going too fast as to let the next group of dead catch up to us.

  “What do I do?” I ask Rachel, since my good idea bag is running on empty.

  “Figure something out, and quick,” is her tense reply.

  Fucking helpful, is all I can think in return.

  Chapter 34

  I continue to drive across the parking lot, dodging deaders as I go. With the windows open I can hear Nova and Michael shouting to each other, and I’m pretty sure Nova is laughing at something—but that would be all kinds of fucked up given our current situation, so I shrug that off.

  I head out of the parking lot and around the east side of the mall, with t
wenty or so deaders following in our wake. There’s only one or two around this side—for the moment at least—so I floor it to the opposite end of the building. At this end is another gigantic parking lot and yet more deaders. The front doors here have all been boarded up from the inside, as have the arched windows that go along the entire front wall. It’s worrying but also relieving. If it’s been boarded up that means people are—or were—inside, meaning that hopefully the place is pretty secure with no deaders inside. That’s my thought process anyway. I just need to get us inside the damn place now.

  As I pull across the front and down the side, looking everywhere and nowhere for a great idea, I see a fire escape at the end, between a part of the wall that juts out and a security door. The door is flush against the wall, and seems only accessible with a key card, but across from that is the fire escape. I drive down to it and look up; it seems pretty doable. The fire escape leads all the way to the top of the mall and up to the roof, where there’ll definitely be doors to get inside. Effectively we’d be going in from the top—if we could get in through the doors, of course. I’m more than sure they will be heavily locked. After all, that would have been in the mall’s utmost interest—to protect everything inside. In fact, it’s more than likely only accessible with a key card, also, but it’s a helluva lot safer to work out a way to get through it when we don’t have deaders on our tails. Plus, Nova said not to worry about getting in, so I guess this is our best shot.

  I pull up as close to the stairs as possible.

  “This is the only thing I can think of,” I say, biting down on my lower lip.

  Rachel looks up and then back to me. “Let’s do it.” She climbs out, leaving me trailing behind her.

  By the time I make it to the back of the truck, Nova and Michael are shrugging on backpacks and holstering weapons as Rachel talks quickly and tells them the plan.