Earths Survivors The Zombie Killers: Origins

by Dell Sweet

  ~

  The moon moved slowly across the sky. Donita sat watching the children as they lay dead before her. Soon the power would come over them and they would rise from death into the world of the living dead. Her world.

  The boy sat waiting beside her. They had finished the woman, and then the old woman. Neither would rise again.

  The boy was a good soldier. The two before her, twin girls by the look, or so close to twins as for it not to matter, should be good choices too. Strong. Intact. Their bodies would turn faster as the boy's was already doing. Her own body had taken much longer. Much longer before the rotting flesh had begun to change to something else. Something, not exactly living tissue, but that was nourished by dead tissue. This new flesh was stronger... More resilient... Self healing... Probably other things that she had not yet figured out.

  The boys flesh already seemed to have made some of that change. He was completely devoted to her. Unquestioning. That is what she wanted. The girls would be as well. She knew that instinctively. She could smell it on them. They were meant to leave that world for this world... It was a gift really. It was so unnecessary to have to go through all the pleading and begging in the leaving of that life, she thought. This one was so much better. This one did not have an absolute end. This one could be forever. And forever could not even be measured...

  April 1st

  A small willing army

  The twins awakened from the little death just as the moon had reached the middle of the black sky. She turned her attention to them. The twins were hers... For her...

  The silvery light was bright, almost daylight in its intensity. The twins did not fight the changes as she had thought they might. Their eyelids fluttered almost in unison. Black liquid eyes shone out and took in their surroundings and each other. They looked around at the darkness making not a sound and then lifted their black eyes to the moon above. When they looked back down they gazed at her frankly. Seeming to accept their fate, looking to her to guide them, their eyes large, reflecting the cold, silvery moonlight. And she realized they were not the same. One was slightly taller. A streak of silver-white in her hair, falling across her forehead. She swept it aside.

  Donita rose from her crouch and set off into the night at a fast walk. The twins fell in behind her, the boy bought up the rear. The twins walked obediently, quietly looking around at the trees and the woods with their newborn eyes as they followed. They reached out and linked hands as they walked, drawing closer to one another.

  She led them out of the scrub and into the deep woods. The tall trees marching away in even rows. Absolute silence fell as they walked. The predators recognized them and left them alone. A small rabbit stopped, sniffed the air, and began to shake with fear, frozen on the path. Donita skirted it, but stopped and turned to see what the twins would do. The twins stopped when Donita stopped and looked down at the rabbit frozen on the pathway.

  They moved forward slowly, unlinked their hands and squatted beside the trembling rabbit. The shorter one reached out one hand and began to stroke the soft fur of the rabbit. The other, with the streak of silver-white hair still fallen across her forehead, dangled her own hands between her thighs and watched, but she made no move to pet the rabbit or stop the other from doing so. The silence seemed to deepen. The time to crawl. The rabbit seemed to tremble less... Leaning into the girls hand as she stroked the fur.

  Donita almost didn't catch the movement, it was so fast. The other girls hand flew from between her thighs and in one movement, closed around the rabbit's throat, pulled it into the air and then flipped it backwards with a fast snap, breaking its neck. She threw the bundle of fur back to the ground at the other girls feet. The rabbits feet kicked hard once... Twice, and then stopped. A thin trickle of blood flowed from one side of its pink nose. The smaller girl cocked her head to one side, raised her eyes to look at her sister briefly, then looked back down at the rabbit where it lay on the ground by her feet. She extended one hand, touched the blood that ran from the rabbits nose and then bought that finger to her blue tinged lips to taste it.

  Her eyes closed and her body began to shake. Her twin leaned forward and rested one hand on her shoulder, a barely audible whisper coming from her lips. Words spoken strongly, but there was no air in her lungs to move across her vocal chords.

  I Love You, floated on the dark forest air.

  Her eyes opened and locked with her sisters. The red smear of blood on her blue-tinged lips seemed astonishingly bright in the moonlight. She looked down at the rabbit once more and then stood from her crouch, took her sisters hand and turned back to Donita. Donita held her eyes with her own for a moment and then turned and began once more to make her way through the rows of tall trees, the three children following quietly behind.

  Billy and Beth

  March 28th

  Billy angled the truck off into a grassy median they had been traveling along Arizona 188, and followed a dirt road into the forested park area. About a half mile in they came to a wide calm lake. The area was completely deserted. No cars, no trucks, and only a few rustic buildings close by the water. A quick search confirmed the buildings were empty. They worked together to gather some dead-fall to build a small fire.

  Beth piled the dry wood next to a large stone fireplace, and Billy carefully arranged some wood inside the fireplace, over some smaller twigs and crumpled pieces of paper, while Beth opened the rear of the truck and pulled out the sleeping bags, as well as some metal camp utensils they had picked up earlier when they had passed through a small town. They debated on leaving the tent, but decided to set it up instead, close to the fireplace. The buildings were dark and deserted-looking, and not the least bit inviting to either of them. The tent would not offer anywhere near as much protection as the empty buildings, but to them it was much more appealing.

  Once Billy got the fire going he began to set up the tent as Beth started dinner.

  “What are you making?” Billy asked as he walked back to the fireplace.

  A large steel pot sat directly over the metal grating of the outdoor fireplace, and the aroma from it was all he could smell as he finished setting up the tent. His stomach was growling.

  “Well,” she asked, “how does it smell?”

  “Pretty damn good,” Billy replied, “in fact about the best thing I've smelled in a long time. I mean I lived alone, strictly fast food. Burgers, tacos, you know. What is it?” he asked again.

  “Well, it's nothing great, beans and corned beef,” she looked at him and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, who knows? “Smells good though, huh?”

  Billy nodded his head in agreement, and said aloud. “It's got fast food beat, that's for sure... It's going to be a few minutes, right?” Billy asked.

  “Probably more like an hour,” she replied, “That's why I've got it off the heat, simmering. Why?”

  “Well,” Billy said, “that lake looks pretty good. I'm thinking seriously about jumping in it and washing some of this road grime off.”

  Before he could say more Beth jumped up and said, “Race ya!” Billy stood dumb founded as she raced away towards the lake.

  He caught up with her next to the water, slightly out of breath, and laughing. When she started to remove her clothes, he nearly choked on the laughter though. Beth seemed not to notice, and after she had stripped down to her bra and panties she dove gracefully into the water and swam out into the lake, toward a wooden raft that was anchored about fifty feet off shore.

  Billy got over his initial shock, stripped down to his briefs, and also dove into the water. The coldness of the water shocked him, but it helped in a way to. He hadn't realized just how beautiful she was, and his body had begun unconsciously to respond. The cold water ended that, and he turned over on his back and floated as he kicked with his feet towards the raft. When he turned back over as he sensed he was nearing the raft he saw her sitting, looking back at him as he swam towards her. She smiled, and he couldn't help but smile back. Cold water or not, he t
hought, she is a beautiful woman.

  He had guessed she must be in her late thirties when he had met her, but now he thought he might be wrong. Maybe it had been the dingy apartment building, which had contributed to his observation. Whatever it had been, he was pretty sure he was wrong. She looked like maybe she was only in her late twenties: Maybe, he thought, only a few years older than I am. It was more the way she looked now, he realized, that made him think she was probably a lot younger than he had initially thought.

  In the apartment building, she had been wary and tired-looking. She seemed more alive to him now though, and the smile went a long way towards smoothing out the lines that had seemed to be embedded in her forehead. He supposed that to her he must seem awful young at twenty-two, maybe even immature. The few women he had gone out with in Watertown had been much younger than himself, girls really. He had been in a common law marriage in Mexico that ended badly, and that was his extent of knowledge when it came to women.

  Beth sat on the wooden surface of the small raft and watched Billy turn back over on his back, as he continued to float towards the raft.

  She had liked Billy almost from the first, when he had convinced her to open the door it had been a big deal to her. It was something she would normally never do at all, under any circumstances. Nevertheless, she had let him in. He seemed honest, she told herself, and reminded her of herself. She had started life honest anyway, it was just that she couldn't be as honest as she wanted too, she reminded herself. Life was just that way, she decided.

  Billy was different. She knew it was stupid, here she was entertaining what she had told him to forget, but even as the thought entered her head she knew it wouldn't work. It was comfort she needed. It was sexual attraction. He didn't move her inside like she wanted to be moved. She wondered if she could be moved that way by any man and the thought caused her smile to slip away.

  The meal was excellent. Billy's mind was not entirely impaled upon the world and what it had become. He thought they both just wanted to be part of the whole again.

  He realized, on an unconscious level, that it was even more than that. He wanted some sort of security again. Some kind of normalcy, same old, same old, he thought. The thought made him laugh.

  “What?” Beth asked.

  “Well first, this is so good. And second I was thinking that as much as I used to hate the same old, same old of the world, I find myself wishing I had it back again. Ironic, I know.”

  Beth nodded. She felt the same way. In a world that was constantly cruel to her, she had held out hope that it would not always be that way that somehow, someday, it would all change for her. And it had, and for her this was even better than she had dreamed. She didn't have to pretend about her past, it didn't matter anymore. She didn't have to be anything, or anyone, other than who she had always wanted to be, herself, the woman that she had buried deep within her. She was happier than she could ever recall being in her entire life. It was as if she had been blind, and now through some unimaginable miracle could see. It was so much and so many feelings that it threatened to overwhelm her.

  Billy spoke as they finished eating. He had been thinking non-stop about everything that had happened, in just the last few days, and he was no longer certain he wanted to risk traveling on.

  “Beth?” he began, not quite sure how to proceed with what he had been thinking. “Do you want to go? I mean, do you want to go all the way across this country? It's just that, well, I'm not as positive as I was that it has to be done, or that we should.”

  She thought for only a brief second before she answered him.

  “I think that we have to, Billy. It's not a question of whether we should. We have to,” she paused. “I know it may be dangerous, and I suppose it could mean that we may even die, but to me it would be worthwhile. To me it would be, because I am not the woman for you... And she is out there.” Beth locked her eyes on Billy's as she finished speaking, waiting for him to respond.

  Billy thought over what she had said. It was not really a decisive thinking though, as he knew she was right. It was more of an acceptance of a decision he had already made, and not really wavered from. He nodded.

  “I've changed a lot of that thinking,” Billy told her. “I really have. I don't always pay attention, but I did when it came to you. I don't think I've ever had a friend like you. I don't want to lose that. And I thought... Well, I thought there must be a woman out there like you... Not one I would compare to you, I mean one that gets inside of me and hooks me the way you did, but where it works. I'm explaining it badly, I guess.” Billy said.

  “No... No you're not. I know exactly what you mean. How about some tea?” she asked.

  “Tea?” he looked puzzled. “Where did you get tea from?”

  She held up a small package, and said, “It was in the camping gear, a free sample package. Want some?”

  “Sure,” he said, as he smiled at her, “it sounds good, actually.”

  While Beth made the tea, Billy took the small tin cups, along with the plastic bowls that had also been in the camping kit, and walked down to the water to wash them. The moon had begun to rise and a silver trail spread across the lake, seemingly alive as it rode the small ripples of the water. When he finished, he stared off across the shimmering surface. It was calm and peaceful, and he listened as somewhere in the distance an owl hooted its greeting into the night. He walked back to the fire feeling good. The night was dark, but it held no fear for him. Beth looked up and smiled.

  “Billy, where do you want to be when this is over? I mean to live?” Billy thought for a second and considered before he responded.

  “I guess it would depend,” he said. “I don't think I would want to live in a city though. I like it here... It's peaceful. I guess some place like this. Mountains, but this is a type of mountains I've never seen. I mean mountains like you would see in New York... Pines, Maples.”

  Beth lay on her back, staring up into the diamond studded sky. She rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow next to him as she spoke.

  “This place, it used to be a state park, but now it's just a nice lake. Nobody owns it anymore. It would be a good place to be... Away from the city... Build a little community here... There are thousands of places like this now... All over the country. I would like a place like this.” Beth said quietly. She removed the pot from the fire, setting it to one side so it would be there in the morning when they awoke. They crawled into the tent and were asleep within minutes.

  The silvery moonlight shown down as they slept, the nearly full circle slowly traveling across the darkened sky.

  Billy and Beth

  March 29th

  They awoke early to the chatter of squirrel-talk in the trees. Gray squirrels playfully leaping through the pine branches and running up and down the thick trunks, scolding as they went.

  Beth set the water to boil, once she had rekindled the fire from the still glowing coals, as Billy broke camp and quickly loaded the truck. They ate a small breakfast of the leftovers of the meal from the night before, and sipped the hot tea as the sun began to slowly peek over the tops of the trees across the lake. After they rinsed the utensils in the lake, and doused the fire, they climbed into the truck and drove slowly back to the main road. They both felt an urgency to be under way, and once they regained the main road Billy pointed the truck north.

  The going was slow, but the farther they traveled the less traffic there seemed to be, and, Billy discovered, if they stayed on the shoulder they could make pretty good time.

  Towards mid-morning they turned off onto state Route 260, and began to angle towards the New Mexico border. The going was much easier and they found that they could keep to the pavement, most of the time, which allowed them to make even better time.

  Late afternoon found them in the small city of Springerville just inside the Arizona border, and Billy drove the truck into the parking lot of a large shopping mall on the outskirts.

  The mall served as an anchor fo
r several large department stores, and a large grocery chain. There were several other specialty shops scattered throughout the mall. They stocked up on canned goods, as well as several packages of freeze dried meats from a sporting goods store in the mall. Beth wandered across the empty mall to a clothing store, and Billy walked off towards a small shop he had spotted as she picked out some clothing for both of them. By the time they had finished it was late in the afternoon. They left the small city behind, and continued into New Mexico on I60. Just before nightfall they reached the Cibola National Forest and Billy pulled the truck off onto one of the dirt roads of the park and found a place to park among the trees. He unloaded the truck and set up camp as Beth made dinner. She experimented with canned meat along with some freeze dried food, and the result was a tasty stew-like dish.

  “Where did you learn to cook, Beth?” he asked, “this is really good.”

  “Oh it's just a little something I threw together,” she joked, as she blew lightly on her finger-tips.

  “All I ever ate when I was by myself was fast food,” Billy said, “and it all sort of tasted like cardboard after a while. I can't believe you made this out of that stuff we picked up today.”

  “Well,” she said, “I did throw in some canned meat. If you think this is good, just wait until I have some decent stuff to cook with.” Billy bugged his eyes out comically at her, and said, “You mean this isn't the good stuff?”

  “Not even,” she joked back. They sipped at cups of hot tea as the fire crackled invitingly in front of them.

  They were at the edge of the San Mateo Mountain range, and it was somewhat cooler at the higher elevation. They had both remarked though, on how much warmer it was than it should have been. Beth more so than Billy.

  April 2nd

  Donita

  She was moving town to town. It was so easy with more help. The boy was far stronger than any human man, and the twins more than capable of taking down a full grown man. They seemed so fragile. So defenseless, innocent. She sent them forward and they easily took breathers with nearly no fight.

  They were thirty now, and there were a half dozen laying on the ground who would be coming up out of twilight any minute. Killers. Or they had been in the old world. Being dead took the killer out of you, at least at first it did. But then it came back. You forgot all the little things of the old life. You nearly forgot your name. Where you had lived, what you had done. And then it changed. Every day you got a little more back. It wasn't exactly a memory, like a memory would be in the old days, like a breather would have. It was more like found knowledge. Not there one second, and then there the next. But it was clearer than the old memories she had had.

  Donita didn't question whether that found knowledge was true or not. It didn't matter. Just like it wouldn't matter to these. What would matter to these was getting through the first bit of time. That time where heat still seemed like the only possible source of life and you struggled to find it only to realize it did nothing at all for you any longer. In fact it could kill you.

  Then the cold came upon you, found you, along with its understanding and you were fine. You began to understand that life was just a short stop on the way to dead and that dead was just a way station to dead. And dead could be forever. Death was not something as trifling as life. But all of that took time. And these killers would be nothing more than babies for a few nights.

  There was a process. She had gone through it, and the others had gone through it. She supposed any of the dead had gone through it. Everything that had to do with life, heat, that world had to come out of you... Sick it up. Shit it out. It had to go. It had to go because it had nothing to do with death. Nothing at all.

  The dead used what they took in. There was no waste. So there was no need for a system to dispose of that waste. The dead did not heal in the same way that a breather did. There was no need for time to heal. You couldn't predict it. You weren't even precisely injured. You could lose a finger, or a leg, while you were turning and that was that. It was lost. But you could lose one after and it was back in a short time. Or most of it. She had not lost a leg, but she had lost a few fingers. One of the twins had lost an ear a few nights before. It was back. Those things could be. But they did not depend on any kind of healing like the living. No.

  These were killers. For a few days they would be babies. Then for a few days they would get used to the gift they had been given. Then they would be killers again. They would be because that is what they were, and you could not change the basic truths of what you were whether you were a breather or dead.

  The turnings were coming faster. Where once seven would pass in to death and maybe one would rise, now seven passed into death and five came to be. Soon it would be seven for seven. She knew that. And soon after that the whole world would belong to the dead. The breathers would be done.

  She let her silvered eyes pass along the bodies that lay stretched out on the ground.

  She was not weak. There was a strength that came with this life. A strength that came to your whole body once you embraced the cold. They had moved silently into the woods and taken these without a sound. They had carried them here. It had been no expenditure of energy at all.

  Killers. Except one. One had not been a killer at all. But that one might not come back. If he did she would have to watch him anyway and she really didn't want to do that. She would leave him to the twins to teach. He would learn their ways or he would learn that even in UN-Death there could be death. Permanent death.

  She looked him over. The night was getting along. They would come from twilight soon.

  Billy and Beth

  San Mateo Mountain range

  March 30th - April 8th

  In the morning they broke camp before the sun was even up and headed out into the chill pre-morning air.

  As they traveled, they encountered less and less stalled traffic, until the road before them opened up, totally deserted for miles at a stretch. Mid-morning brought them to the Oklahoma border, and if they had not had to slow down and find an alternate route around the City of Clayton, they probably would have entered Oklahoma by nightfall.

  The stalled traffic had returned several miles outside the city, but once they were within two miles of the city limits, it had become impassable. Even the breakdown lanes were packed full, and the traffic had forced them into the fields that flanked the highway to find a way around. Once past Clayton however, the stalled traffic had once again given way and they spent the night camped beside the highway less than twenty miles from the Oklahoma border.

  Noon of the following day brought them to the outskirts of Woodward and more stalled traffic. After taking several shortcuts across open fields, they eventually came upon route 412, which, Billy found by checking the map; they could follow most of the way across the country.

  They spent that night by a quiet lake that reminded them of the one back in Arizona. They were just outside the small town of Cleo Springs Oklahoma. They were both becoming used to the traveling, and had each developed a routine they followed every night when they stopped. They had twice seen smoke off in the distance that day, as if to the east of them some great fire were burning. They had correctly guessed the reason long before they reached the fire. Someone, or something, had set the entire city to flame.