And Hell Followed: A Horror Novel Page 6

  I squatted down, and the others did too. Doing a quick scan around the area, I only spotted the zombies in front of us.

  Somewhere in the dark, Daddy lurked, careful of the zombies and the men at the camp. He was waiting for me. Whether for me to find him or to finally charge into camp with guns blazing, Daddy was waiting. We would soon be together, but I needed to avoid drawing the zombies to us.

  Fortunately, the men at the camp got trigger-happy, shooting at a single zombie near the fence. One shot in the night drew all the attention to the camp and away from us. Turning to the others, I found them wide-eyed and Morgan shaking badly.

  “Don’t panic,” I whispered. “Move slowly and be quiet. We should move toward the zombies, but they’re not interested in us right now. Don’t make them interested.”

  They nodded, and I noticed Ryan rubbing Morgan’s head. His sister flinched before realizing it was him. Once she did, Morgan gave him a tight smile and stopped shaking so much. The way the siblings looked at one another reminded me of Leo with his little sister Ava. Just thinking of Leo forced me moving again. Though I wasn’t sure where Daddy was in relation to us, I figured he was planning to blow something else up.

  Most of the zombies only had eyes for the fencing circling a large tree. Three had already begun pawing at the gate, checking for weak spots. They were in hunting mode, quiet and careful. Two others wandered just past my group, maybe hoping to find a way into the camp before the other zombies did.

  Zombies frequently worked in teams, though often it appeared unintentional. Sometimes, it seemed like a zombie just happened to be walking with a zombie who just happened to be walking with another zombie. Other times, they were clearly partnered.

  Daddy said they were probably friends in their former lives. A few times though, I’d noticed zombies arrive separately to a location. They would hang out, looking for food. Once they began working together, they left as a group. The zombies even looked at each other and moaned, having conversations in their natural dialects.

  One of the zombies in the woods didn’t walk toward the fence or wander farther into the woods. Dressed comfortably in bloodied sweatpants and top, the female zombie stared at me. Unsure what I looked like to her crouched next to a thick bush, I just waited. She didn’t immediately react like she might have if she knew I was food. She took a step toward me. When I didn’t move, she took another step and hissed.

  The zombie was testing me. Knowing the drill, I showed no reaction. She tilted her head in thought and then walked in my direction. Somehow, she knew.

  Uncertain how to handle this quietly, I figured if it were just me I’d move back and go around the zombie. With three people who didn’t know much about being in this world, I wasn’t sure moving around would help or lead to more zombies noticing of us.

  Daddy wouldn’t want me to worry about those people. He would want me to do what kept me safe. Tired and hungry, I decided to do what Daddy wanted. Scooting back, I kept low to the ground. The zombie knew I was food once I did, but she was careful too. She moved quietly and avoided drawing the other zombies to her prey.

  Bumping into Morgan and Zippy, I realized they weren’t moving back. Then I heard the shot. Glancing upward, I saw Ryan standing with a rifle pointed at the zombie. His shot hit her in the chest, and the zombie staggered back, lost her balance, and fell to the ground. When she growled and pushed herself up, Ryan prepared to waste another bullet and draw more attention to us. Smacking him in the leg, I frowned up at Ryan as he frowned down at me.

  “Aim,” I muttered, standing up and taking away the rifle. “Bullets, trees, remember?”

  Ryan’s shot made the impact on the local zombie population I worried it would. The female zombie was on her feet, and two others were shuffling straight for us. When the zombies saw competition for their meals, they sped up and reached out, all hoping to dig in first.

  Firing at the female, I saw her fall and stay down. Then I fired on the other two zombies. One shot was perfect while the other blew out the zombie’s mouth. He floundered, his head tilting back and forth. While he wasn’t down, he was too busy keeping his head attached to worry about us.

  “Move,” I told them, handing Ryan his rifle.

  The others followed me, and I knew they weren’t the only ones keeping watch. The men in the camp would also be able to see us with their rifle scopes. The other zombies no longer cared about the fence. Food was on the run, and they gave chase.

  Ignoring the people behind me, I figured they were older, stronger, and better fed. If they couldn’t follow instructions, I couldn’t save them. Selfishly, I only cared about me and Daddy who didn’t enjoy the stew or hot shower. He deserved to get something too and what he wanted was for me to return to him.

  My swollen eye didn’t bother me once the adrenaline was pumping. Moving fast, I changed directions whenever I spotted a threat heading toward us. I fired on any zombie with a chance of harming me and avoided the rest. Morgan and Ryan struggled to keep up, but Zippy remained just behind me the whole time.

  The only zombie that gave me any trouble was a teenager who kept ducking behind trees. I lost sight of him, and then he was closer. He was gone again and then closer. Suddenly, he was mere feet in front of me.

  Jerking to a stop, I lifted my gun. Before I fired, the zombie’s head exploded. As Zippy gasped behind me, I hurried in the direction of the shot.

  Hearing zombies nearby and Zippy and the siblings behind me, I only cared about the footsteps in front of me. Daddy appeared from behind a thick tree and grinned. Smiling in return, I said nothing. We were back to being quiet. My training held this time.

  Moving toward him, I glanced back at the others. They were wide-eyed and nervous. At least Ryan wasn’t shooting at any of the zombies, though. Daddy hugged me tightly, exhaling as if he’d been holding his breath since we were last together. Smiling up at him, I fixed his cap, and we walked away from the camp.

  A few of the zombies followed us while most returned to the gates, understanding how on the other side was something worth waiting for. We picked up more zombies in the distance who saw us and changed directions. Staying ahead of them was easier in the dark.

  Walking next to Daddy, I smiled at him again. He leaned down and whispered, “Who are your friends?”

  “They helped me.”

  Daddy glanced back at them, and someone must have gestured toward him because Daddy nodded again. Then he looked forward.

  “Even the guy?” he asked, and I wondered what he had seen when Ryan and I left the tent.

  “Yes.”

  Daddy nodded, but his jaw was tight. I didn’t think he wanted the company, but he wouldn’t cut them loose yet. We had picked up plenty of stragglers, as Paul called them, during the last year. They usually died within the first week.

  Sometimes, they left our group for those mysterious south and north fantasy destinations. On rare occasions, they were eliminated by Daddy or his friends. Occasionally, a few of them stuck around and became part of our group, losing the straggler label.

  Unsure what kind of stragglers Zippy, Ryan, and Morgan were, I hoped they’d survive long enough to reach site four. Though I doubted they would last the week.

  Chapter Four

  By the time Daddy found us a house to sleep in, I was dragging. Morgan looked worse, and I didn’t understand how she could survive in this world. Refusing to let myself worry when I was so tired and hungry, I focused instead on watching for danger.

  The zombies following us from the camp didn’t see us enter the house. They kept on walking, still hoping to catch up. I watched them plod down the street and noticed two of them talking in their zombie way.

  When Ryan locked the door, Daddy looked at me, and I touched the young man’s hand.

  “We don’t lock the doors,” I whispered, unlatching the lock.

  “Are you crazy?” Ryan whispered back.

  Thinking to tell him the Tyrell story, I decided I was too tired.

&nbs
p; “If you want to have your own rules, go sleep somewhere else.” While I kept my voice gentle, he still seemed angry. “You should take Morgan into a bedroom and let her rest. We’ll probably be back on the road by dawn.”

  Ryan sighed in an exhausted way. When he studied me, I recognized the gentle gaze he gave me in the tent. His eyes then focused on Daddy, and his expression hardened. I sensed it was more of a male on male, who was better hung, type of thing.

  Joining my father on the floor, propped up next to a couch, I cuddled under a blanket. Daddy liked sitting on the floor when he was tense. Couches and comfy chairs made him nervous. As if he might become too comfortable and lose his edge.

  Ryan helped Morgan into a back bedroom my father had already searched and cleared. I hoped Ryan didn’t do anything dumb like make noise. I’d given the stragglers the quiet speech while we waited for my dad to check the house. I told them to muffle every noise. Crying, sneezing, coughing needed to be done with faces covered. I also warned them about creaking floors and bumping into objects and knocking them on the ground. I mostly cautioned them about talking because people tended to speak louder than they thought. When the group traveled, we would go days without saying anything to each other. It was all hand signals, facial expressions, and head gestures. We didn’t need to talk to play games or enjoy meals or have arguments.

  Daddy and Nick once had an extensive argument consisting of only dirty looks and raised middle fingers. Paul silently interrupted and threatened to throttle them both. Just because the silent game could be done, didn’t mean these stragglers would remember. Their training started a few hours ago, and Ryan failed his first test.

  Zippy sat across from us, keeping close to the people in the know. I liked her, though I sensed she was cold. From a survival standpoint, this was a good quality to have. Leo’s heroic measures to save me could have cost him his life. Honor and sacrifice were great qualities overall, but they tended to get people killed.

  As gentle as Zippy was, I suspected in a crunch that she would sacrifice me to protect herself. While I wouldn’t die to save her, I wouldn’t kill her to save myself. Sounded the same, but it wasn’t.

  If Leo had gone to the safe room and left me to die, he wouldn’t have done anything wrong. If he had fed me to the zombie to get a head start, he would have crossed a line. In my mind anyway. Other people figured whatever needed to happen to keep them alive was perfectly moral. Survival was a virtue.

  “You smell good,” Daddy said, grinning as I cuddled against him in the cold house.

  “They had hot water, and I took a nice shower.”

  “Don’t feel guilty,” he whispered. “I was even planning to leave you in the camp for a few days to let you rest and get something good to eat. I hoped they would treat you well. I’m sorry they didn’t.”

  Nodding, I was relieved by his words. Tears still welled up in my eyes as I thought about the luxuries Daddy never enjoyed.

  “They had a really great stew with lots of big sweet tomatoes.”

  Daddy glanced at Zippy who was fumbling around in the pile of bags the stragglers brought from the camp. When Zippy looked up and smiled, Daddy returned it.

  “My girl loves tomatoes,” he said.

  Even smiling, I felt guilty. Daddy hadn’t eaten well or enjoyed a hot shower. Worse was how I had wanted to stay longer at the camp. My plan was to let Ryan mate with me, so I could have more stew. In the morning, I would enjoy breakfast. I even hoped for a meal at lunch too. After lunch and another shower, I would escape.

  Zippy moved closer, holding a container. “I know it’s not hot anymore, but maybe it’s still a little warm.”

  Watching her with a frown as she pulled back the lid, I saw the Tupperware container was filled with stew. The second I inhaled the scent, my taste buds watered, and the hunger woke up.

  “I’m sorry Derek didn’t let you get a decent meal,” Zippy told me, playing the mom role again. “He’s usually a nice enough man, but he shouldn’t have toyed with you like that. He knows what it’s like out here and could see how starved you are.”

  I study the container she placed on a coffee table next to us and remembered when warm food was a given. My stomach growled as I sniffed the wonderful scent of vegetables and meat. While I wanted to eat it so badly, I sat back.

  “You should have it, Daddy.”

  “No, Sami. You’re hungry.”

  “So are you and you didn’t get any food last night. I got to eat and shower, and you didn’t get anything.”

  Daddy hugged me against him. “It’s okay that you wanted to stay longer.”

  “I don’t remember food tasting so good before.”

  Crying in the way I had trained myself to cry these last months, I allowed tears to fall, but I didn’t make any noise. Daddy was proud of how quiet I was. I could see it in his blue eyes.

  “We’ll share it,” he said.

  I loved Daddy. Maybe this was obvious because pretty much everyone loved their daddies. Right that moment, I really loved my daddy because he understood me better than I did myself.

  My tears didn’t stop as we ate because I knew I wouldn’t eat like this again. I also cried because a big part of me wished we lived in an enclave, even if I had to do nasty things with men. I wanted to be clean, safe, and eat fresh warm food. Daddy could sleep all night without waking up to check the perimeter. I longed to let my guard down like they did at the camp, but I knew it would never happen.

  Daddy didn’t trust enclaves. He also wouldn’t whore me out to give us safe passage into a camp. If he didn’t care about the last part, Daddy would have liked living in an enclave. He was a good soldier and had the kind of skills enclaves wanted, but they didn’t view me as a child. They viewed me as an asset. Fewer women survived than men when the zombies arose to eat the world.

  No matter how great the enclaves might be, Daddy would never let me become Zippy. Dying free was better than living as someone’s slave, he always said. Most days I agreed with him. That night though while eating the cold yet delicious stew, I wouldn’t have minded being a slave.

  Of course, once you became someone’s property, it wasn’t easy to change your mind. Zippy and Morgan only escaped because of Daddy and me. They couldn’t have simply woken up one day and asked to leave the camp.

  Suspecting Zippy was like Daddy in some ways, I figured she wanted to be free. Morgan though wanted to be safe, but she didn’t know how to be safe and keep Ryan alive. They chose a path neither was ready for, and I was glad they were sleeping in another room. I couldn’t watch them without thinking about what Morgan would look like when the zombies got hold of her.

  After we filled up our growling stomachs with the delicious stew, Daddy and I cuddled under a few blankets. He wasn’t going to sleep, though. He didn’t trust Zippy and the others to keep us safe. I could sleep, though, at least until Daddy needed rest.

  Exhausted with my hunger sated, I laid my head on a pillow resting in Daddy’s lap while he brushed back my hair and told me how soft it felt and good it smelled. Smiling, I couldn’t get my mind off the stew. Daddy knew it too.

  “Spring’s coming. We’ll be able to grow those gardens like Sherry and Molly want and have vegetables and tomatoes. Me and your uncles will go hunting and find meat. You’ll soon be eating stew again, Sami.”

  “And we can eat apples and pears off trees like we did last summer.”

  The first summer of death had been so chaotic I hadn’t known what a blessing those pear and apple trees were when we had come upon them in fields or yards. We would eat the fruit in a hurry, so scared about every noise.

  The upcoming spring and summer, I would savor the fruit like I hadn’t before or with the stew. I would enjoy every moment like someone who died in her daddy’s arms and awoke to live again.

  Dozing off, I dreamt of Kayla. She and I were walking around the mall, talking about boys and pizza. I was sad because I knew it was a dream. I wish I could have enjoyed the dream more.

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nbsp; I had another dream where I floated around in a gray room with pink lights all around me. Soundless at first, I finally heard Daddy talking with Zippy.

  “What kind of name is Zippy?” Daddy asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

  “My parents named me Ziphora. A grand, exotic, slightly obnoxious name. Then they spent the next thirty years calling me Zippy, a childish and more than slightly obnoxious name. It stuck, though, and here I am still Zippy during a zombie apocalypse.”

  “It does have a snappy ring to it.”

  “Samantha is a nice American, not at all obnoxious name.”

  Daddy chuckled. “When Sami’s mom told me she was pregnant, I knew the baby would be a boy. Maybe it was wishful thinking. After all, I grew up with a bunch of rowdy brothers. My mom was a rough and tumble woman too. Fishing and hunting, not girly girl at all. I guess I didn’t want to think about having a girl and what it would mean, but I was just as sure as shit Sami was going to be a boy.

  “I named him too. Samuel. Called him Sam throughout the pregnancy. Even after the ultrasound technician said the baby was a girl, I was still positive I was having a boy. Hell, when they handed her to me, all wrapped up with a pink hat on her little head, I still wasn’t buying my Sam was a girl. As soon as I got a chance, I stripped her down and checked her plumbing. Lo and behold, I had me a girl.

  “Her mom and I had talked girl names in the off chance my gut instinct was wrong. We picked names like Savannah and Whitney. Her mom really liked Rose. Even after I checked the baby’s plumbing, I couldn’t stop thinking about her being my Sam. I guess Cassidy felt sorry for me. Not only for getting a girl but for mouthing off for nine months about her being a boy. Anyway, Cassidy named her Samantha Rose, and I got my Sam after all.”

  “When did you and her mom break up?”

  “What makes you think we weren’t together until the end?”

  “No wedding ring. I can’t imagine you losing your wife to the chaos of the last year and then taking off your ring.”