Trepidation (3 page)

“Hold on now, Dirty Clairey,” I said. “Like you said, we’re outnumbered, and if you go on a shooting spree, telling everyone to make your day, it will only make things worse.” The whole brutal scene brought back horrible memories of when I’d killed a man in self-defense. I was a survivor, not a murderer, and his death would always haunt me, even if he had tried to cause mine. I knew I’d have to shoot to kill again if the gangsters left me no other choice, and that was a reality that was difficult to face. Killing the undead was a far cry different than killing a living, breathing person, no matter how vile.

“Okay, I’ll hold off, but I’m not gonna surrender!” Claire said. “If we do, we’ll be eating bullets.”

“Let’s just calm down and see how it all plays out,” I advised. “We may not have to go out in a blaze of glory after all.”

“You honestly think we can talk our way out of this, Dean?” she retorted. “I’m sure they killed our comrades back there, and we’re gonna be next if we don’t take ‘em out first. I say we shoot first and let God sort ‘em out.”

“You sound like every eighties action movie I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah? Well, Rambo lived through all those sequels, and I plan to do the same.”

I shook my head and held my gun steady. I really didn’t want to fire at them, but dying wasn’t on my itinerary any more than it was on Claire’s, and I would fire if I had to. “If they start shooting, I say it’s game on, but let’s wait and see what happens first.”

She nodded. “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”

“We just wanna talk,” yelled a man with a deep voice. “Drop your weapons and get outta your car.”

“No! Giving up our weapons is suicide. We’ll be unarmed, and they’ll slaughter us,” Claire said.

“We blew up the lab!” I yelled. “We even saved some of your friends and family.”

My heart thundered as sudden gunfire erupted like we were in some kind of warzone. We both instinctively ducked down as glass shattered and we were sprayed with a cascade of glittering shards. Once all the windows were shot out, I was sure they were going to exterminate us once and for all. Claire and I had escaped the warehouse after they’d set it on fire, and they didn’t seem too keen on gratitude for  saving their friends and relatives from that crazy lab. 

Claire took careful aim and positioned her gun out the window, then started firing. If I wanted to live another day, I knew I also needed to fight with everything I had. It really was all about survival. As much as I hated firing on humans, I refused to die like that, trapped in a Mazda in a ditch. If I had to go, I was going to take some of those jerks out with me. I exhaled as I squeezed my trigger, letting off several shots. Another spray of bullets came at us, bursting our tires, so loud that it sounded like someone was beating the car with a Louisville slugger. Almost in slow motion, I saw a bullet fly beside my head, and I ducked and gasped. 

“I’m not in the mood to die today, Dean!” Claire said. “If we stay here, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen. We gotta distract ‘em somehow so we can make a run for it. I’m sure we can lose them in those weeds and that brush over there, but we gotta move fast. Got your steel-toed sneakers on?”

“I’ll cover you,” I said as more bullets rang all around me, dinging the car. I returned fire and let out one shot after another. My ears were ringing, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before one of those bullets pelted my head.

“No, Dean! We’re both going. I’m sick of being a damsel in distress.” Claire slammed another magazine in. “I’ve got the better weapon, so don’t argue with my plan. I’m gonna go full force. Open the door, get to those weeds, get low, and start crawling. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “On the count of three. One—”

Before I even got the chance to put the plan into action, a man’s voice echoed from my right. “Cease fire, John!” he said. “Tell ‘im,
Marla
.”

Marla was the name Claire had used when we spied on them at the warehouse.

When I turned, I gasped at the sight: One of the thugs was holding the barrel of a gun up to Claire’s temple.

“My name is not Marla,” she snapped.

“I know, Claire,” he said with a smirk. “Just havin’ a li’l bit of fun.” He looked at me harshly, and the smile from his sick joke left his eyes. “Now drop the gun, boy, or she’s dead.”

I pondered my options for a second, wondering if I could take the guy out. Before I could contemplate any further, I felt the cold barrel of a gun against the side of my own head.

“Hand over your weapons,” the thug said.

Glaring at him, I handed my gun over.

“Get out!” he shouted in my ear.

Due to the tumble we’d taken, the door was dented and wouldn’t open. The next thing I knew, several men were brutally jerking and tugging me through the shattered window, then pulling me through the snow by my hair and jacket.

“Get up!” a bearded man commanded like some kind of angry drill sergeant. “On your feet now!”

Claire screamed when they pulled her by her hair, dragging her next to me.

The presumed leader approached, his footsteps crunching in the deep snow.

Pain exploded in every nerve of my face when he pistol-whipped me, and the last thing I heard as I slipped into darkness was Claire’s long, shrill, helpless scream.

***

A
s I slowly came to, I could hear snapping and a thudding sound. My ankles hurt, and my feet felt numb. My eyes fluttered open, and I glanced around as they slowly focused. It was dark, and the stench of death made me want to vomit. I noticed I was tied up by the ankles, bound and gagged and suspended upside down in the air. When I glanced at the floor, I gasped. Dozens upon dozens of decapitated zombie heads lined the ground below me.
What kind of butchers are we dealing with here? This takes a special kind of sick.

Gruesome, cut-off heads thrashed and chomped, lunging for me, desperate for a bite of fresh meat.

Great,
I thought
. Just freaking great. 

S
evered heads with decaying skin and round, white, filmy eyes viciously snapped at me, then landed back on the floor. Luckily, I was high enough that they couldn’t reach me, but I knew that wouldn’t last long. I stared at their vacant eyes and rotting flesh and wondered how Z could be so cruel.

“Hi, Dean,” a voice said in a tone similar to a hiss.

Speak of the devil.

“I can’t believe you’re alive,” Z said. “I left you for dead in that warehouse, yet here you are.”

I didn’t say anything, as I couldn’t think of anything pleasant to say, and I wasn’t about to give him the pleasure of hearing me beg for my life.

“My people treated you well, fed you like a king, gave you nice clothes, and showed you their...Southern hospitality,” he continued, “and for what? So you could spy on us!” He grabbed a broom and swept several zombie heads out of his path, just so he could reach over and punch me right in the gut.

I sucked in as deep a breath as I could in such a compromising position. Before I knew what had hit me, I felt a blow to my back. I couldn’t breathe as pain shot through me.

When the zombie heads inched toward him, he backed up into the safe zone.

Glaring, I met his gaze. “Where’s Claire?” I demanded.

“She’s alive,” he answered snidely, “barely.”

“I’m gonna kill you!” I roared.

“Yeah? I got those same empty threats from Claire too.”

I yelled through the pain radiating down my back. “Let her go! You’ve got me now.”

“You certainly do fight for the girl, Dean. But I’ve done a little recon, and I know she’s your brother’s woman, not yours. I also know you’re all new to the group.”

“If you’ve done your research,” I said, groaning and struggling to breathe, with the blood rushing to my head, “you know I wasn’t with those scientists.”

His face twisted as he contemplated my words.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“You’re with that crazy nut, Max. And being associated with him makes you my enemy.” He looked at the group of men who were next to the rope that was holding me. “Fellas, I think Dean wants to talk to the Talking Deadheads.”

“He’s fish bait for the piranhas,” a man said with a laugh and a grunt. 

“No!” I shouted. “Why don’t you just put a bullet through my head? Let me die like a man.”

“Aw, that’d be way too easy. Besides, if you had died like you were supposed to, been incinerated back at the warehouse, we wouldn’t be going through this now, would we?”

The rope lowered, and I stared into the milky, white eyes and snapping jaws, knowing full well that if they even nibbled on my face the slightest bit, I would be a dead man. My heart lurched as they lowered me close enough to smell the rotting scalps, a stench that made my stomach clench. I’d smelled it before, but my current predicament already had my stomach in knots, and as I vomited, my tormentors only laughed. “Just shoot me!” I shouted. I didn’t want to die, but I would have rather taken a bullet to the head than to feel those things bite my face apart, chunk by chunk. I lifted my body into the air, doing a suspended sit-up, of sorts, but I didn’t know how long I could hold that position. I knew Z was going to kill me, but the sick part was that he wanted to watch me suffer. It sickened me all the more to know he got some sort of rush to watch me squirm. I didn’t have much time, so all I could do was try to toy with his sense of empathy, if he had any at all. “Look, Z, I took down that lab, my friends and I. We went in there and took it out, just like you wanted. We even helped to free some of your people. I’m sorry I spied on you. Truly, I am, but surely I made up for that. We almost died in that lab, trying to get your people out.”

A woman approached and I noticed it was Sandy. I had chatted with her when I was undercover in Z’s warehouse. She was really nice and seemed to like me a lot. Maybe she could talk Z down.

“Z, he did save many,” she said softly. “This isn’t right. We oughtta hold a banquet in his honor, serve him another ham—not hang him like a piece of meat in a butcher shop!”

He slapped her hard across the face. She looked shocked as she wiped blood off her lip and I wondered if she realized she had joined forces with the wrong side.

“He didn’t save my brother, though, did he?” Z shouted at her as she cowered in fear. “No, he left
him
to die in that underground house of horrors. He probably did that on purpose!”

In that moment, I realized that what I’d done, the risk I’d taken to eliminate that lab didn’t mean anything to Z and like-minded thugs. I’d solved the mystery of the disappearing members of his group, and I’d blown up the lab and saved lives, but I hadn’t saved the one life that mattered most to him, his brother’s, and now he was going to make me pay for it. I hadn’t done it on purpose though. The hybrids, zombies, and infected animals had been killing people left and right. Havoc, panic, and confusion had been running rampant. In all that chaos, all that horror, I had no idea who his brother was. I could only guess it was the man who’d taken my weapons and left me with nothing more than a pipe to fight the mindless killing machines. “I didn’t let anyone die on purpose, Z,” I said very honestly. “Please just untie me, and let’s talk face to face,” I said.

“Or maybe I’ll kill you.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead already,” I said in a tone that was much braver than I actually felt.

He smirked. “Smart boy.”

“So what’s this all about then?” I asked. “Why am I hanging upside down, being beaten, yet still alive? What’s the bottom line? Is this some kind of weird hazing ritual for you people, a rite of passage?”

He sneered. “Hardly. I’d never let
you
join us.” He motioned around at the zombie heads. “I’m going to send you back to Max, your leader. I want you to tell him everything. Let him know I’m insane—a crazed, dangerous madman. See, this is just the beginning of what I’m gonna do to every person who lives in that city. If you don’t heed my warning and get the heck out, know that the next wave is coming soon. We want that city, and if you won’t give it to us, we’ll take it.”

“They’re innocent,” I said. “They’re just ordinary people like you and me, just trying to survive.”

“Pssh. Those idots, those helpless, mindless sheep are nothing like me. It’s survival of the fittest, and I will do whatever is in my power to prove to everyone that Max is not at the top of the food chain like he thinks he is. I will ruin the man, destroy him for sending spies here!” he roared. “This city is now at war, and I will destroy anyone who sides with him.”

“Can’t we come to a compromise?” I asked. “Is there no way to stop this war?”

“Sure. Just convince everyone in Fairport to leave town and never come back. That city is mine, and I want every single one of you out.”

“But the town is the only safe place to live. If they cross those borders, most of them will die. You know what it’s like out there, because you were out there yourselves. There are kids in the city, some of them very small, as well as elderly people who can hardly get around. If you make them leave, you’re sentencing them to death.”

“Dean, I am not out to save the world like you are. It is not my problem if the weak cannot fend for themselves.” With that, he motioned to his guards to release me.

The men began shoveling the chomping heads to the side, then released me, dropping me harshly onto the cold concrete in a stiff, sore heap. A man with brown, greasy hair cut my bindings, and I quickly stood. I felt pins and needles as the circulation slowly returned to my feet.

Z’s gaze narrowed into snake-light slits. “You are only alive because I need a messenger who can safely get to Max. You will tell them to leave. Do you understand?”

“Where’s Claire?” I asked.

“The redhead?”

“You know exactly who I mean.”

“You can see her in a minute, but first let’s go get your friends.”

“My friends?” I asked, shocked that they hadn’t killed them already. “Where are they?” I asked.

“They’re in one of my special holding cells outside,” he said. He gripped me by the shoulder and dragged me through the dimly lit room, then out a door and into the freezing cold. He and a group of his brutish cohorts walked me down the street, turned left, and then led me to the back of one of the other warehouses.