As we approached, the sun began to sink lower on the horizon, giving an ominous glow to the scenery. In the distance, we saw no activity on the dock at St. Martin. Still, something was making my gut do jumping jacks and I knew I was missing something. I just didn’t know what.
“Anyone notice anything off?” I muttered under my breath, not risking my voice alerting nearby threats. Mills looked back at me over her shoulder, shaking her head.
“Do you see something, Eric?” I kept my eyes on the dock, squinting to block out the glare of sunlight.
“I don’t know…It could be nothing, but there’s definitely something strange going on. It just seems too quiet.”
“I wish I could say we’ve hit a stroke of luck, but I agree with Eric. Something isn’t right,” Dave chimed in, his eyes peering ahead. I stopped the engine and our momentum slowly brought us closer, but still nothing attacked. If it was zombies, they wouldn’t have strategized an ambush, so that left either people or…ferals.
Dave must have had the same thought, because as our boat drifted to rest against the dock, he tightened his grip on his M1 Garand. I tied the boat up, leaving it loose in case we needed to make a hasty exit. Of course, going further south wouldn’t benefit our cause, but I wasn’t going to try and force our way inland.
Jessica stepped off first, walking a few steps before waving us ahead. We were barely ten feet from the boat when the smell hit us, a cooked scent in the air that barely hinted it was there before hitting in a wave.
Dave’s eyes popped and Mills glanced at me, concern at our predicament that didn’t need to be voiced.
“Should we go back to the boat and try further south, or scout ahead before calling it?”
“Eric, I’m telling you I know that smell. It was the same one in the air when I found my camp, when I met my first feral.”
“We don’t know that they’re still here, or if they’re ferals. For all we know, they’re just cannibals cooking dinner. It wouldn’t be the first time they popped up, right?” The fact that she could say “just cannibals” was so sad, and a testament to how twisted the new world was. Still, she had a point. I’m pretty sure one cooked person smelled like any other.
“Is that a risk we really want to take, though? Yeah, if they’re cannibals, that’s great. I mean, they’ll still want to stick us on the grill, but at least they won’t be infected and immune to pain.”
They both looked to me, silently appointing me as the tie-breaker. Lucky me.
“Okay, here’s the plan. We stay quiet, take a look ahead, and get a feel for the situation. Once we have an idea what we’re up against, we fall back and make a plan. If anything, and I mean anything, is wrong, we bug out and get back to the boat as fast as possible. Sound good?”
I got a begrudging shrug from Dave and a reassuring nod from Jessica, so I guess that was as good as I could hope for to move up. The dock led up to a short wall, where it turned and the walkway inclined for ten feet before reaching the street. Being the apparent leader, I moved to the front and crouched against the dock wall.
Waiting until Dave and Mills were stacked up behind me, I stayed low and awkwardly made my way up the incline until my head was inches from the top of the wall. Poking my head up over the edge, I saw no movement but I did see a smoke cloud rising into the sky on the other side of some buildings. I decided to go for the nearest building to the dock, just on the other side of the street, crossing quickly to avoid detection.
Jessica and Dave waited at the end of the dock until I gave them the all-clear, waving them up. I sidled along the edge of the building, keeping my back against the wall, the scent of burning flesh becoming stronger. Next to our current cover was a diagonal building that blocked my view, so I pivoted against it and moved closer. Unable to breathe from the thick stench, I covered my nose with the collar of my shirt. Sweat and dried blood from the hotel wasn’t the most favorable tradeoff, but it beat the hell out of crispy fried person.
I pressed my face centimeters from the wall and edged one eye out, the image I saw burning its way into my memory forever.
I knew Dave hadn’t exaggerated the horrors he had encountered, and I hoped I was done with ferals after the arena, but that wasn’t meant to be. Four of the depraved creatures were spread around a massive bonfire, each tending to their own disturbing task. Each one looked different, but they all shared common traits. Smeared blood all over their bodies, both dried and fresh, red, tainted eyes, pointed, jagged teeth, and the same savage smile of greedy anticipation.
One was dragging the corpse of a zombie across the ground, dropping it near the second feral that stood at one of two workbenches. He…it…The fucking feral set the corpse on the bench before raising a cleaver and bringing it down on the thigh. It hacked away until the leg fell off the bench for the third feral to then pick up and place on its bench. It produced a hacksaw and commenced with slicing the flesh from the bone, peeling it off in gruesome strips. The combined sounds of chopping and sawing flesh overpowered the crackling fire and reverberated through the street. I felt nauseous, but then I noticed the last feral sitting in a chair near the fire.
It was stabbing chunks of flesh onto stakes and setting them near the flames to cook, creating cannibal kabobs. It used the meat that it could and tossed the bones into the fire, where I saw the worst of it all. Apparently, not all parts were edible or wanted, so they disposed of the rest. In the depths of the flames, I could see the faces of men, women, even children, and their cries of terror frozen in death.
“Motherfuckers…” I heard the words leave my mouth and felt my fists clench along with my jaw, but Dave pulled me back behind the building before I could do anything.
“Eric, I know what you want to do here, but I promise you there’s nothing we can do. Those people are dead, and no amount of carnage will change that.”
“Dave…there are children in that fire.” He closed his eyes and I heard Jessica gasp before her hand shot up to cover her mouth. She had edged past us to look, and now we all shared the worst memory.
“Listen to me, both of you. There will be a time when we have to fight, and when that happens, we’ll have to win, but this is not that fight. The choice is ours to take the risk, and I know it feels worth it right now, but don’t let your emotions make the decision. Ammunition, energy, not to mention crossing a line that I don’t think anyone wants to cross again.” He looked me in the eyes, knowing the depths of my anger and ability for violence. I never told him, but he could guess at my journey in the arena. “Let’s just go back to the dock and think this through, okay?”
I nodded and he eased off of me, turning back toward the boat. We came around the second building and I stopped short, putting my hand on Dave’s shoulder and pulling him back. A truck was parked in the street that hadn’t been there before. My instincts were on fire and I put Dave and Jessica behind me just as three men stepped out from the end of the dock, two armed with rifles and the last tapping an aluminum baseball bat against his palm.
“Did you think we wouldn’t find you, boy?”
Chapter 86
“I was hoping for that, yeah.” I knew we needed to get the hell out of there before the ferals were alerted, but these guys clearly wanted a fight. Anyone that followed you for several states wasn’t looking for a hug, at least not in my experience.
“We lost you in the snow and we were about to give up the search when we heard all hell break loose at that farm, so we just followed the gunshots. Then we lost you again down the road, found a bunch of bodies on a bridge, but none of them yours. Call it divine intervention or whatever, but we were about to turn around and head back when we heard a huge explosion and followed the smoke. Much to our frustration, we got there too late again but there were a lot of footprints to track. And frustration is the ideal word, because Larry smells like shit when he doesn’t take a bath.”
“We all smell, asshole!” Larry smacked the first guy on the arm, returning his attention, and the barrel of
his rifle, to me. The first guy looked at his friend menacingly, but ignored the comment.
“Sounds like you guys have had a hell of a time keeping track of me, and you’re damn good at it, but could we continue this conversation elsewhere?” This elicited a whistle from the first guy.
“Well, damn, I’m sorry. Did you want to sit down? Maybe rest those tired legs?” He drew in a breath through his nose and spit, shaking his head. “The balls on you! No, I don’t think we will. I don’t think I want to continue this conversation at all, actually, because I really just want to beat you to death with this bat and go home. Your friends can go, though. I don’t have a problem with them, assuming they walk away without a fuss.”
“Look, that’s all good and I understand you’re angry, but we can go be angry somewhere else and sort all this out.” He cocked his head and blinked several times, looking me up and down.
“Are you deaf or just plain stupid? You killed…a whole hell of a lot of my men, you make me drive all over for days, and now you want me to take a walk with you? Holy shit!” His torso jerked and he lifted the bat to his shoulder. “I really don’t like to get mad, but you…you really know how to push my buttons.”
“That’s the second time I’ve heard that recently, but—”
“No, you’re done talking.” He aimed his bat at Jessica and raised his eyebrows. “Friends, I have nothing against you, so please stay where you are or my men will gun you down like it’s hunting season.”
He stepped forward and I prepared for a fight, knowing if I went for my weapon his buddies would open fire. I might be able to get one, even two, but not all, so my only chance was to take on the batter. I just had to stay quiet, and somehow make sure he did, too.
As he closed the distance and raised his bat, he positioned his left leg out to swing, so I crouched low and stepped inside. With inches separating us, there was no room for him to bring the bat around, so he was caught off-guard. I kicked my right foot back, overextending his outstretched leg, and covered his mouth with my hands as he yelled. He reached up and grabbed the back of my hair, pulling at my scalp, but I held my mouth shut, knowing that no pain would rival the thought of being chopped up for a feral’s dinner.
I removed one hand from his mouth and pushed my thumb into his eye, trying to free myself from his grip, but he jerked my head back and smashed the handle of the bat sideways into my jaw, sending me to the ground. Spitting out blood, I pushed myself off the ground and spun to face him. He rubbed his eye with the back of his hand and laughed before coming at me again, the bat swinging for my head.
I raised an arm to absorb the shot, one hell of a blow that made my arm go numb from the elbow down, and got in close again, locking my leg behind his and crashing my head into his. We both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs, but I stayed locked in. His swing was not something to be taken lightly and a single shot to the head might take me out of the ball game.
We traded blows, him punching at me with his free hand, me pushing up to bring my forearm down on his throat. When he started to choke, I could feel his friends step in closer, so I rolled him on top. It wasn’t the best defensive technique to give up the high ground, but it put him between me and his friends’ bullets.
Of course, that also caused my arm to slip off his throat and he landed a punch on my exposed ribcage. I almost cried out, holding it back and feeling the veins in my neck heat up, but I ground my teeth and punched against the inside of his elbow to halt his next jab.
With his arm thrown back and his bat arm pinned against my side, I had an opportunity and took it, snapping a shot to his trachea. He choked and clutched at his throat, so I followed up with a jab to his solar plexus, causing him to fall to the side. His nerves were on fire as he spasmed, but, before I could continue my assault, a shot went off.
Larry had fired his rifle into the sky as a warning to back off, not knowing that he had just brought a whole world of shit down on all of us.
“Larry, is it? Your friend has a right to be mad, but if we don’t all work together right now, none of us might live to see the sunrise.” My eyes shifted between him and the third guy, knowing bat man would be down for a while.
I was finally regaining feeling in my other hand when I saw the first feral appear in my peripheral vision, charging straight for Larry.
Whether we wanted to or not, the fight Dave had referred to was upon us and there was no turning back.
It was time to cross some fucking lines.
Chapter 87
Larry didn’t have a chance, barely comprehending what I had said by the time the feral tackled him to the ground and pummeled him with wild swings of its arms. I guess, in a way, it was a good thing that the ferals had already eaten, because otherwise it would have already taken a bite out of him before his friend could get involved. Of course, as he grabbed one of its arms and tried to pull it away from Larry, the rest of the ferals were upon us and all hell broke loose.
I could see the panic on everyone’s faces, as the truckers had never encountered a feral and we knew what they were capable of. All were reasons to be afraid, but flight wasn’t an option here, so everyone seemed to spring into action at once. I pulled the batter up from the ground and saw him contemplate taking another swing at me, but he nodded his thanks and instead cracked his bat into the skull of the nearest feral. It took the hit in stride, stumbling to the side before righting itself and lunging at the batter despite a huge gash in the side of its head.
Dave had his M1 raised and fired a shot into the shoulder of the feral on top of Larry, spinning it like a top and allowing Larry to prop himself up, but one of the ferals was attacking Jessica, so Dave shifted his attention to help her. The third feral had seen its…did they still consider each other friends or was that feeling lost, too? Either way, it had seen Dave’s shot and watched Larry’s friend help him up before moving in while they were both distracted. It smacked into Larry’s friend from behind with enough force to send him flying, throwing itself after him with a wretched war cry. Larry tried to bring his rifle to bear, but the feral Dave had shot had crawled close enough to dig its teeth into Larry’s calf, spewing blood across the dock. Larry screamed out into the night and brought the butt of his rifle down on its head.
The scene was quickly unfolding in a matter of seconds, but that was all I could afford to see as I watched the last feral closing in on Dave and Jessica from behind. With their attention elsewhere, they would be defenseless. I let out a primal yell of my own, drawing the feral’s attention, and charged without a second thought.
It looked back at Dave for a moment, but it’s cold, lifeless eyes came to rest on me, apparently seeing the challenge. With the moonlight now in full effect, I could see the red of its eyes clearly, with black blood vessels pushed up. It was creepy as hell, especially when it grinned and flashed the most sickening set of teeth I’ve ever seen. Dark saliva foamed and dripped from its mouth before it met my charge head-on, meeting me in mid-air and sending us swinging to the ground.
I tried to angle the feral under me, but it proved too strong and landed on top of me when we hit the ground. Using the momentum from the fall, I continued to roll us until I felt the ground disappear. With my arms locked up against the feral and unable to hook my foot on anything, we tumbled off the dock and into the murky swamp water below.
“Shit!” I yelled, shutting my mouth and anything else I could force closed before landing in a massive splash. The water proved to be relatively shallow, only being a few feet deep, but drowning wasn’t my fear. Between the infected bodies scattered around and the wildlife that may or may not be alive and trying to eat me, I needed to move fast.
Of course, that’s all much easier when a feral isn’t currently trying to bash your head in with its fist, which I thankfully dodged. It dragged its arm out of the water and brought it back down with a splash, but luckily the water density stopped any real impact. Finding purchase in the loose soil, I rose from the water and put all my weight
behind an open-handed strike to its temple. The feral stumbled to the side and gave me an opening to press my assault.
I proceeded to deliver a series of blows, unrelenting and vicious as I connected with its ribs, head, anything I could see, which wasn’t much as the feral’s thrashing caused swamp water to blur my vision. With my sole focus on the onslaught, I felt something latch onto my foot and I lost my footing, slipping back into the water.
Wanting to curse, but knowing to keep my mouth closed, I kicked at whatever had a hold on my foot and tried to stand. While every movement felt slow, I didn’t let up until I felt it relinquish its grip. I was able to pull myself along the rocks beneath me before surfacing again.
“Eric!” I could hear Jessica screaming my name and I turned to help her, just as a zombie shambled out of the water, with the feral in tow. The feral eyed the zombie with a disgusting hunger that churned my stomach, but it didn’t look like it was done with me yet, so things were about to get very interesting. It didn’t help that I heard human screams from behind, followed by a huge splash.
Unable to turn and look, as that would leave me exposed to both threats in front of me, I drew my Ka-bar and decided to attack. Flipping the blade to let it rest along my forearm, I stepped toward the zombie and brought up the knife as I grabbed behind its head. The flesh of its scalp practically sponged off in my grip, but I stabbed upward into its throat, clamping its mouth shut with steel.
I continued to push forward through the water, taking the zombie with me as the feral tried to swing at me. Shifting my stance, the feral instead connected with the zombie and sent it flying into the water, but the blow was so powerful I lost my grip on the Ka-bar and saw it embedded several feet away in the side of the dock.
Knowing there was no time to draw my Sig, I planted my back foot and threw a right hook into the feral’s jaw. It didn’t seem to accomplish much, but I refused to let that deter me. I remembered how savage the prison fight had been, how desperate I had become, so I knew the extent that I was about to go to.
A Broken World (Book 2): Shattered Paradise Page 16
