Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle
Page 56
*****
The ceremony was short and sweet. We’d all been through enough. Last night, Hemp and Charlie had wrapped Jamie’s body tightly in stretch wrap that’s normally used for palletized goods, making the cocoon airtight. They then dug the hole, put her in the grave, and covered her with about two feet of dirt. Two more feet remained to be filled, so as far as Trina knew, this was just a symbolic hole.
I had a tee-shirt from a Billy Vera and the Beaters concert that Jamie had given me, and I put that in the grave. Gem had a tattered copy of Watership Down that she had left at my place before we split up, and was delighted to find it. She knew it was the perfect tribute to her Rabbit, so she kissed it and dropped it in as well.
Hemp had picked up some Earl Grey tea at the store, and threw two teabags in – one for Jesse and one for Jamie. His British contribution.
And following in my footsteps, Charlie tossed in her beloved AC/DC concert tee shirt.
And finally, in a gloriously decorated little cardboard box, Trina knelt down and dropped the box containing her lost pup Beaker into the hole.
We stood back in silence, and I closed my eyes.
“We honor the lives of Jamie and Jesse, the love they shared and the light they shined on this Earth. As we stand here missing them in our hearts and souls, we also turn our faces to the heavens and know they’re looking down upon us with love and hope for the future. God bless the two newest angels – our guardian angels – whose presence will give us comfort for the remainder of our lives.”
Tears streamed down the faces of each of us. We all came together, arms around one another, and when our group embrace met its natural conclusion, Hemp and I picked up the shovels and began filling in the hole.
When the earth was mounded over the grave, Trina took the handful of tiny wildflowers she’d found and put them in the center of the grave.
She was a brave, strong little girl, like her mommy and sister. My heart ached for the loss we shared.
Then we all began walking back to the house.
Gem and Charlie got there first, with Trina between them, swinging on their hands. Hemp and I brought up the rear, our guns over our shoulders.
The girls had entered the house already, but when Hemp and I were twenty feet from the door, we heard a sound from beyond the tree line.
A snapping, crackling sound, the sound of a tree branch rustling. Startled moans.
Then again. And again.
The moans were constant now.
I looked toward the forest, then back at Hemp, then checked my gun even as he checked his. We both had additional magazines on us.
“You and me,” I said. “Now.”
“You’ve got to warn them,” Hemp said.
He was right and I knew it. I ran to the door and stuck my head in. “Stay inside, get your weapons and wait for us.”
Gem looked at me, her face pale. “Flex, what is –”
“No time,” I interrupted. “Be ready, but stay inside.”
I rejoined Hemp and we jogged toward the forest.
*****
As we ducked under the low-hanging branches, we scanned the line of traps. The four we could see had all snagged zombies. Three males and one female struggled against the snares, but to no avail. Hemp ran toward the first one and fired a shot into the thing’s brain and it fell still.
I didn’t like going in, but we’d committed. I ran to the second trap and as the woman-creature floundered there, snarling, snapping, and trying to scratch me with her remaining fingernails, I fired directly into her face, destroying it, and the brain behind it. That one also fell motionless.
And then we heard rustling all around us. I looked up to see twenty – no, at least thirty of them closing in.
We were surrounded.
Hemp ran to me, and we positioned ourselves back-to-back, our guns held up.
And we worked our way through magazine after magazine of ammo, knowing we would run out before they were all dead.
“The girls,” I said, turning my head toward Hemp.
“I know,” Hemp replied, in between shots.
“God help them,” I said. “Please, let there be a God to help them.”
I fired my weapon with intensity, exploding the heads of the zombies approaching me and Hemp from all sides, and I felt his back against me reverberating as he did the same.
My eyes glanced at the sky, and for just a brief moment, I prayed that the guardian angels that were once my Jesse and Jamie – the ones we promised Trina were there – really existed, that they were really looking down on us, and that they were truly guarding us.
All of us.
A new chapter of our war with the walking dead had begun.
The End
(Of The Beginning)
Other Books By Eric A. Shelman
And Dolphin Moon Publishing
Dead Hunger II: The Gem Cardoza Chronicle
Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles
Dead Hunger IV: Evolution
Dead Hunger V: The Road to California
Dead Hunger VI: The Gathering Storm
Dead Hunger VII: The Reign of Isis
Dead Hunger VIII: Peace, Love & Zombies
Dead Hunger IX: The Cleansing
Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson
Case #1: The Mary Ellen Wilson Files
Scabs: The Gemini Exception
The Camera: Bloodthirst
Shifting Fears
A Reason To Kill
The Witches of Laguna Beach
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