Dawnland (Book 2): Hella Kills Read online

  “It was my fault,” Stan said. He sat next to Saudah at the table and took her hand. She touched his lightly, leaving hers on top of his. “I couldn’t let you die, Saudah. I didn’t want you to die, either Hella. That’s why we left, but of course I knew you were going to follow, so did Trevan. He wanted to get her first, though, without all of you. I didn’t understand until now. He wanted to warn them. He wanted to tell them about you to take the credit.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Stan,” I said. I gazed at my friends, now together as one. They made perfect sense as a couple. It was clear to me that they belonged together. How was I so lost with my own heart? I felt it ache when I looked at Zeke or thought of Huck. I felt it ache for so many people, like all the souls in Enroy’s experiments, and all the wasted lives. It made me want to kill him.

  “Sivan told me to come.” I pressed my fingers in a crack on the table, trying to splinter the wood. “She said I had to stop Duce because he would find me. No matter what, even if you weren’t here, Saudah, I would have come.” I put my hand on top of hers and Stan’s. “I have to find him and kill him.”

  Zeke stood up and put his hands on my shoulders. “Sivan asked you to kill Mace?”

  “Yea,” I said, leaning backwards so I could look up at Zeke’s face. My head rested gently on his chest.

  “You’re going to kill Mace?” Saudah asked. “You are crazy. You can’t kill him. He’s got too many men around him at all times. Who is this Sivan anyway and what does he know?”

  “She’s a vet,” Zeke said. He smiled at me and sat with us.

  “A vet, Hella?” Saudah asked.

  “She knows things,” I said. “I can’t explain. I trust her. If I can get close enough to bite him. They don’t know about my bite, do they?” I asked Stan.

  “I don’t remember Trevan mentioning it,” Stan said. “And he mentioned everything, so I’m sure he would have mentioned it.”

  “Bite him?” Saudah asked, and then she apologized for interrupting Stan and they did a little cute couple thing, nuzzling each other and what not. I waited for Saudah’s attention before I explained.

  “When I bite people, ones that aren’t like you and Zeke, they turn into zeroes.”

  “Awesome,” said Saudah. “You can bite our way out of here.”

  “Not quite. The ones that turn from my bite are also immune to my virus. They don’t catch my virus like the other zeroes, no heads explode. They might even be able to kill us.” I gestured toward Zeke and Saudah.

  “You mean you make super zombies?” Saudah asked.

  “I hope not,” I said.

  “Have you noticed that she smells like honey?” Zeke asked Saudah.

  “What?” Saudah looked at him cockeyed. “You really have the hots for her, don’t you?”

  “Smell me,” I said before Zeke answered. “What do I smell like?”

  Saudah took my arm and gave it a big whiff. “Zeke’s right. You smell like honey mixed with something. Mint, I think.”

  “That’s it.” I pressed my arm under Stan’s nose. “What do you smell?”

  Stan smelled my arm. He smelled it again. “Uh, dirt and sweat?” he asked. When my face fell, he put up his hand. “Sorry, Hella. I didn’t mean to insult you.” He smelled my arm again. “Roses, maybe? I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing.” I took Stan’s hand, patted it, and placed it on Saudah’s where it belonged. “The people who are immune, like Zeke and Saudah, can smell the virus. It smells like honey and mint.”

  “I’m not immune?” Stan asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Because we’re more like the zeroes?” Saudah asked. “They don’t kill us, so we are like them?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “They attack you. If you were like them, you’d be able to walk among them. They’re attracted to me. Zeke and I figured it’s my smell. They must have supersonic nose hairs or something.”

  “We need to get our hands on some mint and honey,” Zeke said.

  “You think they’d follow the trail?” I asked.

  Without warning, someone opened the door making us all jump to our feet. I instinctively reached for my gun, which wasn’t there and then my other gun, which wasn’t there either. Zeke stepped in front of me as Enroy and the Beefcake entered the room followed by two other men.

  “Time to party,” Enroy said. He walked over to me, but Zeke wouldn’t let him pass. “Get away from her.” Enroy tried to push Zeke out of the way and Zeke grabbed his hand and twisted. Enroy was no match for Zeke and crumbled to the floor with a groan.

  “This party isn’t for you,” Enroy said through clenched teeth.

  Zeke let go of Enroy’s hand and stood his ground in front of me. The Beefcake and two other men stepped forward with their guns drawn. One of the men helped Enroy to his feet.

  Enroy dusted his uniform. “Gary, take this buffoon to the chair and show him what it’s like to tangle.” He turned to Zeke. “Kicking assholes around is our favorite game, and you are a big asshole. Ever tangled one-on-one with a zombie?”

  “Don’t,” I said. I came around from Zeke’s backside. He still tried to guard me with his body, but I pressed in front of him. “Zeke, don’t,” I repeated. “It’s no use. Not now.”

  “It is no use ever,” said Enroy. “You remember that, Hella.” He pulled my arm and twisted it, grabbing my hair at the same time.

  The Beefcake took out a stun gun and laughed as Zeke came forward.

  “Zeke,” I murmured. The pain in my arm was shooting through my shoulder and into my neck. Zeke grabbed Enroy’s hair, and out of nowhere produced a knife. He was going to slice Enroy’s neck open. Enroy, seeing what was about to happen dropped me.

  “Run,” Zeke said, lunging forward.

  Zeke never made it to Enroy. The Beefcake stunned him and stunned him over and over again, finally making Zeke fall to the floor. I felt hot tears rush down my face as Enroy grabbed me again. Stan and Saudah tried to help Zeke, but they were held off by the other two men.

  “You hurt him and I’ll kill myself,” I spit out. These words seemed to shake Enroy up.

  “Save yourself,” Zeke said, the pain in his eyes cutting me to the core. Pain for me, not for himself.

  “Leave my friends alone,” I said softly.

  “Shut up.” Enroy slapped me on the back of the head and grabbed my hair. He dragged me out of the room, caveman style, leaving Stan, Saudah and Zeke behind. It was then that I vowed to kill him first, right before I killed Mace Duce.

  Enroy took me down another dark hall and across the lawn to a helicopter and several dozen men surrounding it with their guns drawn, machine guns I noted.

  A man stepped out of the helicopter and walked over to us. His stride was strong and arrogant, his expression aloof. He wasn’t short, he wasn’t tall, he wasn’t fat, but he wasn’t thin. He was the most ordinary man I had ever seen and I hated him almost immediately.

  “Mace, meet Hella,” Enroy said. He held me up by the back of my neck like a mother cat holds her kittens.

  “Let her go,” Mace Duce said. He spat a thick lump of tobacco out on the ground. Enroy threw me next to it.

  “Gently,” Mace said. I jumped to my feet. My quickness startled Mace and he stepped back and addressed Enroy. “You hurt her and you are dead.”

  “You hurt my friends and you are dead,” I spat out, crouching down like a football player waiting for a pass. If only I had someone to pass to me.

  “This isn’t about your friends, it’s about you,” Mace Duce said. His voice had an alluring and tranquil tone. “You are special. We don’t need them anymore.”

  “I need them.” I lunged forward and grabbed Mace’s gun, laughing at his slowness. I didn’t recognize the type of gun, but I knew how to use it. I cocked the safety and aimed it at him, right below the neck.

  Several of his men surrounded me with their guns loaded. I’d never be able to kill him without dying, so I did the next best thi
ng. I held the gun at my temple. “You do anything to my friends, I’ll kill myself.”

  “Don’t be stupid, I can have that gun taken away from you in a second.” Mace snapped his fingers. Two men came forward. I backed up and pulled the hammer.

  “I’ll do it. If you get this gun, I’ll find another way. I won’t eat. I’ll jump from the most convenient roof. I’ll slit my throat open with a knife. You won’t be able to keep me alive.”

  “And I’ll hook you up to an IV and pump food into your stomach,” Mace said, still using the same alluring tone. “I’ll tie you down so that you can’t hurt yourself.”

  Suddenly three men converged on me at once, taking Mace’s gun away. The one who took it handed it back to Mace. He came in closer and touched my hair, looked at my skin, examined my teeth. I thought about biting him.

  “You sure smell sweet,” Mace said. He trailed his gun along my cheekbone.

  My stomach shrunk. “Like honey?”

  ‘Yea, honey.” He twirled a lock of my short, spikey hair in his fingers.

  “It’s my shampoo.” My heart sank. If our theory was right, if I smelled like honey to those who were immune, Mace Duce was immune to zero bites.

  “Blonde, my favorite color.” Mace pulled out a strand of my hair, but I didn’t flinch. “Tough girl, huh? Can you take a lot of pain?” He pinched my arm, but I didn’t flinch. “I like it.” He pulled away from me and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Enough torture for now. There’s time for that later.” He turned to the crowd of his men and addressed them in a booming voice. “Today we are going to experiment. I love experiment days. You’re not going to kill yourself, you’re too good for that.” He pinched my cheek. I slapped his hand away. “Let’s see what you can do and if you perform, I’ll keep your friends safe.”

  Mace led me toward the helicopter. I gasped when I saw who was sitting in it. It was Trevan.

  “Hi Hella,” Trevan said.

  “Trevan, you asshole. How could you?” I tried to spit at him but I was never a good spitter. It pissed me off. Something else I would have to learn, how to spit at ass-hats who betrayed me. “Lily is never going to forgive you.”

  “She already has,” Trevan said. When he saw my shocked expression he rolled his eyes. “Yes, Hella. They’re all here. Huck and Ana, they really are a cute couple.” He paused to see my reaction and I gave him none. “Lily, she’s with me. We have a great two bedroom, nicer than the one at Haverlyn. You should have done better for us.”

  Mace pushed me into the helicopter. Enroy followed behind us and sat in the helicopter next to me. Trevan opted to sit in the front with the pilot. Lucky for him, I was raging mad.

  “You can see all your friends again if you perform a few tricks for me,” Mace said.

  “What do you want me to do, bark like a dog?” I snarled.

  Mace laughed. “I want to take you for a ride, out into the midst of all of the dead. A thousand feet, right?” When I didn’t answer him, he continued. “We’ll fly over an extra-large horde, over a thousand feet at first, and then go in low. I understand that it takes a few minutes for your virus to kick in after moving, so we’ll wait and then we’ll lower you down. What do you think?”

  “I think if you hurt my friends, I will jump,” I said. “No parachute.”

  “Not that again.” Mace sighed. “Fine. If it puts you in a better mood, I’ll make sure nothing happens to your friends. Deal?” He extended his hand.

  I reluctantly shook it. “Deal.”

  Mace kept hold of my hand. “I didn’t know you would be so beautiful.” Mace put an arm around my shoulder. He moved his fingers into my hair again and gave the locks a tug. “Maybe we can work something out.” He moved his hand to my womb. “I’d be such a proud papa.”

  I reached my free hand around his balls and squeezed as hard as possible. Mace screamed like a lady and I took my hand away, shrugging at Trevan, Enroy and the pilot.

  “You shouldn’t do that anymore,” Mace said, clutching his privates with both hands. “It’s not a good idea. It’s very hard for me to be nice. Now put these on.” He handed me a headset and showed me how to operate it so that he could talk to me over the engine noise. Goody.

  The pilot started the engine. We went up in the helicopter and circled high above the city. Looking down below at Mace’s fort in the tobacco buildings, I saw the damage I had already done. Thousands of corpses surrounded the iron fences and brick walls below. I could tell by Mace’s chucking and Trevan and Mace’s overheard exchanges that they were both pleased at my work. At one point, Trevan even gave me the thumbs up, which repulsed me to no end. How on earth was he friends with these people?

  We hovered over a thousand feet in the air farther away from the tobacco buildings, to Duke’s campus. The zeroes hadn’t been affected by my virus here. We hovered in front of the library and over thousands of zeroes all reaching toward the sky, toward us like we were rock stars coming in for a concert.

  “Look at all of them down there,” Mace said. He waved at them like a child. Enroy leaned over my lap to look at the crowd. The deadly undead growled and moaned, reaching toward the helicopter, piling over each other to get to us. I hated the undead for what they had become, but liked them for not being like Duce or Enroy.

  They were mostly college students, young and athletic. Some were older, wearing old sports coats and light wind breakers. I probably knew some of them down there, the ones from UNC who were going into Durham for a fun Saturday night. My muscles remained tense and my teeth clenched as we soared around in circles. They were no longer my friends. My life was no longer the same. There was no more college, no more freshmen to tease, no more graduations, and no more easy tests. Life had become one big test, and this was my hardest test yet.

  “Lower the ladder,” Mace said.

  “The ladder?” I asked, more to myself but the speaker in my headphones picked up my voice picking up on the scared tone. He wasn’t going to make me go out on a ladder.

  “Come on, now, Girl. We’ll strap you in so you don’t fall.” Mace pushed me toward Enroy, who grabbed me roughly.

  Enroy put a safety harness over my shoulders. I looked at Trevan who smiled at me from the cockpit.

  “You try anything, we’ll take care of your friends,” Mace said.

  Enroy twisted my arms around and into the harness and fastened it around my waist.

  “Why don’t you just lower the helicopter?” I asked. “You don’t have to dangle me out there.”

  Mace laughed. “What are you, afraid of heights?”

  “I might fall,” I said. I really didn’t want to go out there.

  Mace regarded my answer with curiosity and then his expression turned to concern. “Sure, you’re right. I don’t think these things through sometimes. That’s how people end up dead. It might be a bit dangerous. We’d hate to have the rope break and then your neck.”

  “Oh come on, Duce,” Enroy said. “It’ll be fun. We can swing her back and forth.” Enroy tightened the safety harness and attached a long rope to it. The other end of the rope was fastened to the wall.

  Enroy pushed me up and toward the opening of the helicopter.

  “I said, no,” Mace Duce said. He stood up and looked like he was about to punch Enroy.

  I took the opportunity to roll back and somehow twisted out of Enroy’s grasp. Enroy, in turn lost his balance and slipped toward the open door. Without thinking about what I was doing, I gave Enroy a swift kick in the rear, sending him out of the helicopter and crashing into the mob of zeroes below.

  “Holy superstar,” Mace said as he rushed to the open door and looked down. He didn’t seem particularly upset at what I had just done.

  We both watched Enroy. He was still alive. Landing into the mob of zeroes had cushioned his fall. However, the zeroes were all over him, tearing at his limbs, his hair, and his brains. I looked away when it was too much for me to watch and glared at Trevan, mouthing the words, you’re next.

  Mace t
urned to me. “You might be more useful to me than I thought. It takes a cold heart to send someone plunging to their death. Good job.” He extended his hand for me to shake, I turned away. He grabbed the rope, which was still attached to my harness and maneuvered around to the pilot. “Johnny, take us down to about 900 feet, that’s about right Hella?”

  I nodded.

  “Time for the killing party to begin,” Mace said.

  CHAPTER 25

  Suddenly below us, like the most amazing fireworks display ever, the zeroes heads started to explode. Even the helicopter pilot, Johnny, was so startled by the action that he made the helicopter swerve to the left and right before straightening out it again.

  “Hot damn,” Mace Duce said. “Take her in a circle, Johnny. Let’s take care of as many as we can.” Mace slapped me on the back, sending me into a coughing fit. “Sorry about that lady.” He patted me more gently on the back and then let out another, “Holy shit,” as more heads exploded under my spell.

  “Boss, who’s that?” Trevan asked. He was pointing at something out of the cockpit.

  A plane was flying low on the horizon over the downtown area.

  “That masquerading fool is back,” Mace Duce said. “Who does he think he is messing with me? I will take him down like a flyswatter after a mosquito. Let’s get back to the fort, Johnny.”

  Johnny turned the helicopter back toward downtown. I watched out the window as the plane circled again and then dropped something out of its cargo bay. Shortly after, a loud flash and a sonic boom hit the air.

  “That mosquito just dropped a bomb,” I said. “Trevan, wouldn’t you agree?” I smiled wickedly at him. Internally, I was hoping that the bomb didn’t fall on any of my friends. The plane disappeared over the horizon. I hoped it was Hipslow coming to help us out.

  We arrived back at the tobacco buildings a few minutes later. The far building, one I hadn’t yet been in, was smoking and had a nice sized chunk taken out of its roof. I prayed that if it were Hipslow dropping the bombs that he would have enough sense to let us escape before he dropped any more. He made his point.