DEAD: Reclamation: Book 10 of the DEAD series (31 page)

My backhand caught him across the face and sent him flying. I was on him in a flash. He started to try and make deals, but I had no desire to hear it and I quickly pulled out one of my gloves and shoved it into his mouth. I heard a couple of teeth break in the process as the large steel studs held up better than his teeth did. A piece of leather wrapped around his head once and tied tight ended all but his gurgles.

I was not going to have all the time that I wanted to make this animal confess or even really get into detail as to why I was here to kill him.

I will die knowing that he had no doubts as to what had brought me to his door. Sure, he might wonder which specific person he had hurt was the reason, but his eyes told me that he was aware of his wrong doings.

I wish I had the time to share more, but the door is giving. They stopped trying to break it in and are now smashing in the top half. I will give them a good fight, maybe take one down on the way, but I know that I will be reunited with my loved ones soon…and that will have to do.

18

The Geek’s Girl

“If we do this, it probably ends with us getting killed,” Sam repeated his stance for perhaps the tenth time. “I say we hightail it outta here and just start over.”

“I think we have talked about this long enough,” Rob spoke as he stood. “We need to cast a vote, but before we do, is there anyone amongst us that will have a hard time following the consensus of the masses such as it were.”

Catie didn’t need a vote to know what these people were going to decide. These weren’t soldiers or warriors. They were just people. None of them had any reason at all to take this fight to the person responsible. They’d obviously seen this sort of thing before.

They would all run and hide, using some sort of excuse like this Erin was too difficult to get to without putting themselves in grave danger. They would slink back into whatever cracks they had oozed out of until somebody else came along to lead them. They would follow for a while until they got their panties in a bunch over something, and then…they still wouldn’t do anything except maybe run away again.

This world was full of followers but very few real leaders. One of the best leaders she had ever known was dead. The only man she believed worthy of her love had been taken. Somebody had to pay.

Catie slipped into the shadows. She glanced back just as the vote was being taken.

“Show of hands,” Rob stage-whispered, “who is for taking the fight to Erin.” One hand rose. His own. “And for getting on with our lives and getting the hell away from here with our skin intact?” Everybody else’s shot up fast. “So be it.”

Big surprise
, she thought as she allowed the shadows to take her into their embrace.

***

Catie moved in the darkness. Her mind drifted back to the last time she had actually been alone. It had been the day that she decided to walk away from that all-female army unit and follow Kevin and his people.

She had known right away that he was different. However, he only had eyes for Aleah at the time. She didn’t begrudge him that; the girl was a natural beauty. It is not every woman that can lose part of her nose to frostbite and still be gorgeous.

Sadly for the couple, Kevin would eventually discover that he was immune. And while it was possible that Aleah shared his immunity, the only way to be sure would be if a zombie bit her. Once things settled down after the arrival at Beresford, they had to eventually face the harsh facts.

Kevin had known long before, but as is human nature, he held on to some hope until the last strands of it were peeled away. When the couple parted ways and vowed to remain friends, Catie had wanted to finally make herself known to this man who had wedged into her heart much like a popcorn kernel between the teeth.

Something just kept her back. Every time she would start to build up the nerve, some job or another would need doing, and if she was not elbows deep in getting it done, then Kevin was heading it up in some capacity.

Then the “Heather” thing happened.

She kicked herself a while for waiting to the point where Kevin felt his only choice for companionship was that silly girl. And that was the perfect way to describe Heather Godwin. Yes, she had her moments, but Heather was a girl. Once the walls of Beresford went up, once the illusion of safety and security had been cast, (because Catie knew that it was nothing more than an illusion as long as one zombie existed) Heather returned to being concerned about her hair, nails, and if a pair of pants made her butt look big.

It had been a rainy night when somebody knocked at her door. She was not surprised to open it and discover Aleah standing there. They had remained friends over the years. What she was surprised about was the topic of conversation.

Kevin.

“Why aren’t you going after him like you do everything else that you set your mind on?” Aleah had asked.

Catie had not insulted the woman by feigning ignorance. Instead, she had simply stared at her and not said a single word. That had always worked on people in the past. If she sat there and said nothing, then they usually got intimidated and changed the subject. She should have known better than to try that with Aleah.

“Kevin has never seen me as anything but a soldier. I have been his muscle, I have been his enforcer, and his sheriff. What I don’t think I have ever been in his eyes…” Her voice had faded as she simply could not bring herself to say the words.

“A woman?” Aleah had no such reservations.

That had opened a floodgate. The women had cried, laughed, and come to an understanding. The next day was that fateful argument where, out of the blue, Aleah blurted, “Oh, just kiss and get it over with!” Or something to that effect. They had kissed. And in that moment, the world melted away. Their romance had started slow, but it had burned hot and steady ever since.

Even when they argued, there was something about it that was wonderful. And as the years fell away, it was clear that she had everything she wanted. Only, she began to realize that Kevin still had a hole. When the realization came, Catie almost broke down and cried. Kevin had been largely responsible for bringing her home. He had helped her create this safe place for people to live. But how could she not have seen sooner that he needed the very same closure that she herself had craved so desperately all those years ago?

And that was why she began gathering supplies. On his celebrated birthday (he refused to say how old he was, but Catie believed he might have actually forgotten) she had all their friends come over to say good bye. He was going to have closure in this part of his life one way or the other.

The trip had been an adventure of its own. In fact, Kevin had started to keep a journal. He said that maybe he would write a book about their adventures. He enjoyed the irony of the idea of being an author of post-apocalyptic fiction during the post-apocalypse.

As the journey went from weeks to months, the two saw the best and worst of what had become of the country, of humanity. There had been a field in Iowa with bodies stacked like cord wood for no apparent reason. They had walked one stretch of highway where bodies were hung every hundred or so paces—each one with a placard around his or her neck announcing their supposed crime. On the other end of the scale, there had been the wedding they witnessed in the shadows of an old stately courthouse that was a verdant green from the vines that were climbing and wrapping around every surface. There was the morning they woke to a strange sound and watched as a massive herd of buffalo stampeded across an expansive plain. There were all those sunrises, many witnessed as the two simply held hands and took in nature’s beauty. Catie loved sunrise, it was a colorful promise of the potential awaiting in the new day.

And now, she was alone again.

Catie moved down one slope and followed the banks of whatever river ran through this area. She could hear the sounds of the camp as she drew closer and closer. People were going about their night with the blindness of sheep trusting their sheppard.

Catie pressed herself into the ground when she reached the edge of the faint and flickering shadows created by this many people camping on an open parade ground. While they did not have bonfires or anything of that nature, there were a few lanterns or torches lit inside a handful of tents. Those would be the people who considered themselves to be in charge. Leaders that gave themselves a different set of rules than what everybody else was expected to follow.

A figure was less than ten feet away. Judging by the way the person was moving with a deliberate slowness, she had to assume this was some perimeter security. It was that person’s misfortune to have drawn a watch shift in this location and on this night.

Catie’s hand went to her hip and the knife she had. At the moment, it was her only weapon. She still could not believe that these people had handed her one. If they’d only known…

Quick and quiet, she rose to a crouch and scuttled up behind the person. In a flash, she came up, wrapped an arm around the person’s face, effectively covering their mouth, and then drove her blade up and into the kidney. There was a muffled cry that died as the pain seized the person and made any sort of noise a near impossibility.

Catie felt a bit of sticky warmth on the hand that held the blade. Once the person was still, she lowered the body to the ground and dropped back into a crouch. She never even bothered to look at the face to see if it had been a man or woman. She didn’t care. At this point, they were all sheep, and she was the new wolf in the field.

As she reached the first tent, she paused. Inside she could hear a muffled voice. It had the steady cadence and supplicating tone of a man in prayer. Slipping down the side of the tent, she decided that it would do her some good to perhaps find a backup weapon. She cursed herself for not searching the sentry. She would go back if needed, but it could not hurt to check here first.

Hugging the inky black of the shadows that had devoured the fringes of this camp that were farthest from that small cluster of tents with lights inside giving off a dull white glow, Catie moved with caution and paused at the entrance.

“…and bring strength to our leaders as they steer us through these trials. Please forgive my sins and accept me into your kingdom when my time on this earth is finished…” the man was whispering fervently.

Catie slipped in, covered the man’s mouth and slit his throat. This time, a geyser of blood sprayed, making a wet splat sound as it met the taut wall of the canvas tent. Letting the body drop, Catie briefly wondered if he had gotten the answer to that final prayer as she went about searching for any sort of weapon. She was happy when she found a bow and quiver of arrows. It was not the best quality, but she did not need anything special. In addition, she found a machete. Its rough construction told her that it had been made as some sort of batch weapon. Again, low grade, but capable of what she needed tonight.

She left the tent and fixed her gaze on the cluster of tents that were lit. She did not care how many people she had to go through, but she would do it tonight; she would avenge Kevin and kill Erin Crenshaw.

She tried to remember all she could about this girl. She remembered that she had been with Kevin’s people. She also knew everything from what Kevin had shared about how he had come to meet the Bergmans. The problem was that most of his stories were about the eldest sister Ruth, and then Shari. Erin’s name seldom actually came up except as a side note. The only story centered on her was the one involving the loss of the girl’s baby and the guilt Kevin carried for not having been able to save her.

She recalled the girl staying when Kevin and his group left. She had not paid it much mind. Whatever had happened between now and then was a mystery. However, she decided that she did not care what she knew or didn’t know about this girl and her past. If all went well, she would be dead by morning.

If it worked out that she was able to take out Cherish Brandini, that would just be a bonus. Catie moved silently through the camp. She had discovered over the years that large groups of people eventually fall into a false sense of security. This seemed to be the case here.

Of course, they had just side-stepped a herd. When she had evacuated to that hilltop, she had seen that Erin was smart enough to send trailers on the heels of that herd to ensure that they continued on a course away from the camp they had made in the parade grounds of the Virginia Military Institute.

As she passed one tent after another, she was actually finding herself becoming more and more angry. While it was unlikely that every one of these people had seen what happened to Kevin, she knew that plenty had watched it firsthand. Also, she had no doubt that word had spread. These people felt nothing in regards to that death. Well, perhaps they would feel differently when she was finished.

A part of her wanted to slip into each and every single tent. One at a time, she would kill them all. But her rational mind forced her to dismiss that fantasy. It only needed to go poorly one time to stop her from her ultimate goal.

At last, she was at the edge of the glow provided by those tents in the center of this sea of canvas. As she expected, there were armed sentries. The problem was that they were at the entrance to not one, but three of the tents. She would have to either risk playing a lethal version of the shell game or hope for a miracle where Erin would simply pop out for some trivial reason and reveal her location.

Her mind allowed Kevin’s voice to filter in and remind him in that way he had. “This ain’t the movies.” She could not and would not hope for such a miracle. Then she heard a laugh.

It was familiar. She knew the sound of a flirtatious Cherish Brandini when she heard it. That laugh was coming from the tent on the far left. If things were in a logical pattern, she would expect Erin’s tent to be the one in the middle. She would pin her hopes on that.

Dripping back into the shadows, she circled around. Every so often, she would stop and check the sentries. Were they being vigilant, were they talking to one another? These were all things that she would need to know in order to give herself the best chance for success.

At last she had worked her way around to the rear of the large tents. She waited patiently and was rewarded when the roving sentry walked past. She counted with a steady deliberateness to try and gauge the timing. Once she reached a hundred, she no longer cared. She doubted there was some kind of elaborate scheme where the guards came by at staggered intervals to eliminate somebody being able to time an attack. Hell, she was almost willing to bet that there was enough arrogance here that these people did not actually even expect one to ever occur.