Dawnland (Book 2): Hella Kills Read online

  “You’re going to blow the bridge?” Huck asked with bewilderment in his voice.

  “We don’t want anyone coming after us.” Galen grimaced and moved his arm like he was in pain. “We have a good thing in Pittsboro. We don’t need strangers with tanks and guns running into our little town.”

  “I’d blow it too,” Zeke said.

  “We don’t have the time for this,” Zora said.

  Minnesota wheeled over to us followed by Lily. “Who is going to roll me out there?”

  I gave Lily a puzzled look. “He’s got a setup on the island out there,” Lily said.

  “Right there between the trees,” Minnesota pointed. “See my little house.”

  I saw a small tobacco barn on the island no more than fifteen feet from shore. It looked ancient and dilapidated.

  “When we’re all back across the bridge, and if anyone is following us, you press the button.” Galen placed a leather pouch on Minnesota’s lap.

  Minnesota nodded and laughed. “You better get our ass across fast, so that I can wipe them out. I’m ready to press that trigger on those assholes for what they did to us.”

  “You know them?” Stan asked.

  “Shut up, Minnesota,” Galen said. “There’s no use in talking about that now.” He turned to Zora. “We won't take but a few minutes. We set some charges already weeks ago. We had plans to blow this bridge for a while now, seeing that we don’t want a bunch of zombies showing up at our door. You have just given us the opportunity to do so for another more dangerous reason.”

  “You can’t just ruin the,” I said. “We might need this bridge after every one of those zombies are gone and after those other guys are gone. What about the future? We won’t be able to build another one like it, not on our own.”

  Galen laughed. “A future? You think we have a future? I only know today and tomorrow, next week and maybe next year. And I know I won’t need a bridge for any of those occasions. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to help Minnesota to the boat.” Galen took the handles to Minnesota’s wheel chair, turned around, and maneuvered it down the river bank backwards. “Miles, I need you,” Galen shouted when he got to the bottom. Miles scurried down the hill.

  “They can’t do this, Huck.” I pressed my hand against my brow. Candy came up behind us.

  “They can,” Candy said.

  “There’s another smaller bridge down the road,” Stan said.

  “Not anymore.” Candy flipped her hair and tied it up with a scrunchie. “They blew that one up for practice.”

  My attention focused on Zeke, who was helping Broder set up the metal box under the bridge. Helping him. Something didn’t match up. I had been to Pittsboro many times and Candy didn’t fit in with the culture.

  Hipslow, while slow and cool, made me think he was trying too hard. I let it drop because my prime objective was to get Trevan and Boa back. I’d ditch the whole town, and go on my way to find Saudah after that. They could have Pittsboro and the strange little life they created. I was going bigger. I had to save the world.

  CHAPTER 11

  Galen rowed Minnesota over to the island. Galen managed to get Minnesota out of the boat and into his wheelchair and they disappeared into the small tobacco barn. The barn was overgrown with weeds on one side and on the other the roof sloped toward the ground looking like a fresh breeze would take it right off. I wondered how many nights Minnesota had spent alone on the island and why.

  Broder and Zeke immerged from under the bridge, Broder carrying a few fishing poles that he must have picked up from some secret stash and Zeke holding the metal box Broder had originally brought down with him. It could have been a box filled with lures the way he was carrying it but I knew it contained something more sinister. Galen emerged from the barn, went back into the rowboat and began rowing to the shore.

  The whole scene, on another occasion, would have been idyllic. I imagined we were all getting ready to have a picnic, go fishing, maybe skinny dipping in the river. I imagined Huck naked, his slender and muscled back, his firm buttocks, walking down to the river. I imagined a life we still might have, a life in the future, if only we could conquer the remaining obstacles, wipe out the zeroes and defeat the thugs. With my virus, one was a possibility, but I doubted we would ever be able to restore order on the planet, not in my lifetime.

  Zeke looked my way and our eyes locked, his unmoving in their expression. His eyes were lighter than I remembered, blending into the sky’s pale blue color. They filtered over my body, almost absentmindedly, stopping at my chest, and then lowering to my legs. At once I felt ashamed under his gaze, and tugged on my tattered and worn pants and ran my fingers through my short cropped hair. I saw myself mirrored in Zeke’s expression, depraved, hollow and alone.

  “Come on, Broder, let’s go.” Zora waved Broder back to his 2-Up where she had retreated. Candy was sitting in the passenger side of the van with the door open and her feet resting on the rolled down window’s edge.

  “Getting out of here,” Lily said. “This is too weird, better left ignored. See you up at the top.” She hiked up the embankment back to the vehicles.

  Broder and Zeke reached us, with Zeke stopping and Broder stopping for Miles and then continuing the hike up the hill. Galen, was left with the rest of us, Stan, Zeke, Huck and myself, and we all regarded him with nervous concern.

  “How is he going to get off the island if we don’t come back?” Stan asked.

  Everyone looked at him.

  “That’s what you ask?” Huck said.

  “He’ll be stuck there for a while,” Galen answered. “The others will figure it out eventually, when they hear the explosion and he doesn’t return. Minnesota will blow the bridge if we aren’t back by dusk. Better hurry up now.”

  Galen hiked back up the hill, and the rest of us followed back to the vehicles. Zora and Broder were already on the road. Galen, Lily, Stan and Miles went back to the Van where Candy swung her legs down and closed the door. I regarded the Mini Cooper and the dead woman with the rock on her hand and the RV where Huck found no sign of life before I mounted the 2-Up behind Huck.

  We agreed to the same plan as before. The ATVs would go first, and at any sign of trouble, one of us would head back to the van to warn them. The only thing we changed in the plan was to meet before the WalMart parking lot, guessing that it would be too dangerous to ride in there.

  Broder drove so fast that Huck and Zeke had trouble keeping up with him on their less-speedy ATVs. One moment Broder would be on the road, the next he would drive into the shrubs and then farther into the woods. Once Huck and I caught up with them, giving me a chance to watch Zora’s multicolored scarfs as they blew in the wind, wrapping and unwrapping around her rifle and arms and anything else thin enough for them to twist around. Zora and I were both wearing the shades she had found us, which kept us from making eye contact but I knew she felt exhilarated and charged with the same kind of energy that I had.

  Broder dashed out of the bushes again, finding Zeke and Candy on the road. Huck followed as we all turned a sharp bend in the road and came to a screeching halt. Farther down the road, no more than a quarter mile, staggered several dozen zeroes, all coming toward us. They were walking with such determination, downhill in one direction, that I wondered what had provoked them. They shambled into each other, strong and fast with the push of gravity, which made their approach rapid. It was like watching billiard balls roll down a hill bouncing off of each other and gaining kinetic energy.

  “Where did they come from?” Huck asked.

  “Fearrington Village,” I said. “They’ve seen us.”

  “We have to warn the others,” Candy said. She was panting and hanging on to Zeke’s shirt with such force that his face flushed with anger.

  Zeke shook free of Candy’s grip. “We don’t have time to go back. We’re going to have to kill them all.” He brought his gun down, aimed and moved toward the horde, making Candy jump from his ATV.

  “Not w
ith me, you aren’t.” Candy began to walk down the road the opposite direction.

  “Candy, stop,” I said. She was right next to us, so I grasped her arm which she did not like at all, turning on me like I was the enemy.

  “We will all be eaten,” Candy shrieked. “We have to retreat. They’re coming.” She staggered backwards down the road, watching the horde come toward us.

  Suddenly, Broder pushed Zora from his ATV and drove straight for the horde, pulling out his gun at the same time. He stopped no more than ten feet away from the closest zeroes and aimed. When he pulled the trigger and kept shooting and shooting and shooting, I realized that he had an automatic weapon. Broder didn’t shoot them in the head. He wasn’t killing them. He shot their kneecaps, making them immobile.

  “Crazy son of a,” Huck stopped talking. He grabbed my leg and pulled it close. The zeroes were coming closer and closer. Broder couldn’t kill them all. I was scared but not yet terrified. I knew all of the zeroes would be dead in a few minutes. I exchanged hesitant glances with Huck.

  “Come on Zora, ride my back,” Zeke said. “You’re shotgun.”

  Zora got on behind Zeke, and held on with her legs as Zeke maneuvered toward the undead who managed to escape Broder’s bullets. She fired with precision, dropping one every few seconds.

  “Hang on,” Huck said. “Point and fire. We have to get all of them before you do.”

  “Not a chance,” I said. There were too many. They just kept marching down the hill, marching toward us.

  Huck drove the ATV up the hill, closer to the zeroes. I pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. Candy had snapped out of it and hooped and hollered in the distance every time we killed one of them, like it was a game.

  Huck rode near Zeke. “Drive them out of the center of the road, the van needs to get through. They can’t all die here.” Huck and Zeke worked together to lure the zombies away from the middle of the road and to the side. Broder caught on and did the same thing.

  Suddenly, Candy screamed. I turned to see several zeroes rambling her way. They had come from the other direction.

  “Shit,” Huck said. He looked at Zeke, Zora and Broder. They were holding their own, but there was no way they could help Candy.

  “It’s up to us,” I said. “We have to help her.”

  Huck let out a slew of expletives and drove the ATV toward Candy. Seeing us, Candy ran forward in such an erratic motion that Huck had to turn sharply to avoid her. The sudden motion surprised me. I lost my grip on the back of Huck’s shirt and toppled off the ATV. My gun arm hit the ground elbow first. I screamed out in pain as my body rolled over the ground.

  “Help me,” Candy screamed.

  Two zeroes were converging on Candy. I tried to get to my feet, but stumbled. My arm was throbbing. Another zero was coming at me. Huck drove in between me and the oncoming dead. Candy rushed him, grabbed his arm and tried to mount his 2-Up, but instead managed to topple over the whole bike and Huck went with it.

  Candy screamed. I rushed forward. Huck was trapped under the bike and two zeroes were approaching them.

  “Huck is stuck! Help me,” I yelled to Zeke.

  My arm burned so much, that I feared it was broken. Zeke rode over and told Zora to get off and guard us. He dismounted as well and rushed over to Huck. Broder still defended us against the horde coming down the hill. Three more zeroes approached us. Candy was a sitting duck, frozen in fear. Zora killed one, but then she ran out of bullets.

  Huck’s face registered immense pain.

  “Kill the zeroes before you take care of me,” Huck said, wincing in pain as he spoke. When I hesitated, he pinched my arm. “Now.”

  A zero grabbed Candy by the hair. She screamed. Zora came up behind it and lunged her knife into its brain. I rushed forward, pulled another zero from Candy and dug out my own knife, lunging it into its head. I couldn’t penetrate the freaking skull.

  The thing opened its mouth and before I could stop it bit hard into Candy’s shoulder. She screamed again, this time a mixture of pain and fear. I felt faint, woozy, but managed to lift my knife one more time and sink it into the skull of the zero, killing it instantly. It fell to the ground and then Candy plopped down next to it. I knelt down beside her and examined her wound. It was deep and bleeding furiously.

  Zeke managed to get the ATV off of Huck’s leg. Huck tried to stand, but couldn’t. His leg must have been hurt badly. Broder rushed down from the hill when he saw what happened to Candy. She was bit.

  “Please help me,” Candy muttered. She grasped her shoulder and pulled away her hand quickly, looking at it like she was surprised to see blood.

  I stayed next to her and felt her head. It was sweaty and hot. Her eyes were dilated and focused on me at moments like she was still human and at other moments like she was not. She wasn’t immune and would turn into a zero any minute.

  “We’re going to have to kill her,” I said.

  I tried to step away from her, but she clung to my shirt and my arm, staring at me hopelessly. Broder kneeled beside her and smoothed her hair away from her face. Several tears were running down her face.

  “We’re going to have to kill her,” I repeated, touching Broder on the shoulder. He put his hand over mine, the one that still held my gun, and nodded his head. He wanted me to do it.

  “No, I can’t.” I shook my head, pleaded to him with my eyes. I looked around for anyone else to do it. Zeke and Zora were still fighting off the rest of the zeroes, Huck was incapacitated. It was either me or Broder.

  Candy’s chin dropped to her chest. Broder kept his hand on her head, clenching his teeth in sorrow. Candy’s grip on my arm suddenly went soft and then stronger than it had been before. She raised her head at the same time and gave me one last beseeching glance. She was going to turn any second. I pushed Broder’s hand from her head and pulled the trigger, nailing her right between the eyes.

  She slumped over on the ground. Broder picked her up, pulled her to his lap, and let out a long, grieving howl. I stood up, resisting the urge to throw my gun in the bushes. I felt sick and cold. Killing zeroes was one thing, but I had just killed a person with a name. Candy. My gut wrenched in sorrow and pain as I surveyed the scene. Zeke and Zora had killed of the last of the zeroes travelling down the hill and were rooting through the bushes hunting for more.

  I stuffed my gun back in its place and rushed to Huck’s side, noticing at once the blood seeping through his pants.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you,” Huck said.

  “I didn’t need your help,” I said through clenched teeth as I ripped open his jeans.

  “I know that,” Huck said. He touched my chin and turned my face toward his. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s not easy to do what you just did. I know that.”

  I ran my hand over Huck’s shin, still feeling the pain in my own elbow. Having read loads of first aid documents during my time in Haverlyn Village, ones I had saved on my computer, I had an idea what to do. There was a three inch gash on his leg that would need to be fixed. The bone felt smooth and hadn’t broken through the skin, but it did have a dip that made Huck wince when I touched it.

  “I think it’s been chipped,” I said. I pulled out a tube of super glue that I had in my pocket for this exact occasion.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Huck asked, his eyes showing surprise.

  “Glue you back together.”

  “No, you are not,” Huck said.

  “I read about it, Huck. Superglue has the same ingredients in it that the doctors use to glue wounds together. You will be fine.” I squirted the glue in his wound and did my best to stick it back together. I hoped the journal I read was correct. “Can you walk?”

  “I’ll try,” Huck said. He put his arm around my shoulder. “My ankle’s twisted. Help me up.”

  I helped Huck to his feet just as the Van approached the carnage on the road. Galen slammed on the breaks and raced from the van, followed by Lily, Stan and Miles. It took them a fe
w short seconds to size up the scene, Broder still holding Candy’s body, dozens of corpses lying all over the road, Huck’s flipped 2-Up and Zeke and Zora splattered with blood from their fight.

  Miles screamed out Candy’s name and rushed to where Broder held her body. Galen’s face took on a pallid sheen as he strode behind Miles. A few minutes later we had explained everything to Galen and the others.

  I watched Galen’s reaction carefully. He seemed upset, but resolved, and bade us no ill will. He mentioned that Candy had many loved ones back in Pittsboro. Her whole family had been able to escape the apocalypse and would not take her death lightly. This seemed to make Galen nervous and at once he began planning the move forward. We weren’t giving up on our mission. We were moving forward after we buried Candy.

  CHAPTER 12

  Burying Candy was hard work. Miles wanted to find the perfect spot for her to be buried, which turned out to be fifty feet from the road under a large oak tree. Broder and Miles carried her body to the tree while Zeke and Galen dug the hole with a hoe they found in the field, taking turns to dig with their hands. They had trouble digging in the hard ground and had to stop and restart in a different place several times.

  Lily, Zora and I rested under the tree with Huck. I doled out the water supplies and made Huck take some antibiotics. They were expired, nonetheless I hoped they would still work.

  The hole was no more than two feet deep when they placed Candy in it. We said a little prayer before covering her up with dirt and rocks and grass from the field. We then brought out the picnic that Fareva and Georgia had packed for us and ate some of it to regain our strength. Broder took his food and walked back up to the oak tree to sit near Candy’s grave. The rest of us walked a short distance into the field so we wouldn’t have to be disturbed by the smell of rotting corpses while we ate our lunch.

  Galen retrieved a bandage from the van and wrapped Huck’s ankle, which turned out to be only a bad sprain. He was somber but talkative and told us more about Broder. He had always been a soft spoken man, and a man of few words, but had stopped talking completely after the apocalypse hit in October. He was so traumatized by what he had witnessed, his whole family succumbing to the virus all at once, that he became mute. Galen was with Broder when it happened. They were on the other side of town with everyone else when it happened. He described it as a giant stench-bomb hitting the crowd, and the next thing you knew they were zombies.