Dying Days [Book 9] Read online

  “You seem calmer than the last time we, uh, hung out,” Mitch blurted.

  “The time we hung out and fucked or the time I told you we were never going to fuck again?”

  “Oh, the second time. Well after we, um, had sex.” Mitch felt his face getting red. This woman had a strange hold on him still.

  Tosha made her way back into the house. “Is there a point to this?”

  “I haven’t known you that long, especially compared to other people in The Promised Land, but I’m guessing Tosha Shorb from a few months ago would’ve been long gone by now. As far away from this mess as possible.”

  “You saying I’m a coward?”

  Mitch put a hand up. “Of course not. I’m saying you’d look at your options and know damn well the best course to save your ass would be to go your own way. We both know the people across the river have had a horrible night of fighting. I’m not hearing any gunshots. Haven’t since the sun came up. It leads me to believe everyone ran out of ammo or there’s no one left to shoot.”

  Tosha had been getting the weapons ready for the boat but stopped and stared at Mitch. “Again… your point?”

  “You care about people. You’re not just a tough woman who is only out for yourself.”

  Tosha started packing the weapons again.

  “No comment?” Mitch asked.

  “I don’t need to comment. You have your opinion. I know the truth.”

  “Then I’m wrong?”

  Tosha shook her head but didn’t say a word, carrying the handful of rifles to the living room.

  Mitch was behind her but didn’t step outside. “I’ll cover you from the porch.”

  Tosha nodded and was down the steps, bent down and moving in a serpentine across the overgrown yard.

  Mitch couldn’t help glancing at her ass as she ran but his eyes and rifle swept back and forth, waiting for someone to fire at her.

  It was already warm. Today was going to be a hot one.

  Mitch wondered if it would be their last.

  Chapter Eighteen

  There were seven men, all huddled around a working grill.

  The smell of cooking meat made Jada’s mouth water.

  “Shit. We’re screwed.” The man next to her narrowed his eyes. “I knew I should’ve killed you. Then I could’ve gotten the drop on them two before they met with their pals.”

  Jada put a finger in his face. “Back the fuck down or I will end you. I’m the one who should be pissed. I’ve been following them a lot longer than you have.”

  He sighed and looked away. “What do we do now?”

  Jada leaned back on the part of the wall they were hiding behind, making sure she moved an extra foot away from the guy. She still didn’t trust him and he had the machete in his hand at all times. Plus, he kept glancing at her chest when he thought she wasn’t looking.

  She knew this could go a bunch of different ways right now, most of them south.

  “I didn’t come all this way to give up. But we need to be smart. Not do something stupid. Got it? We’re screwed because the sun is up. We can’t just walk around now. We need to keep close to them and hide. See if either of them separate from the group. Take them out before anyone knows what’s happening,” Jada said.

  And take you out as soon as your done being useful, Jada thought. She toyed with the idea of knocking him out and letting the men know he was here so she could get behind them. Maybe take a few out.

  And then what?

  Jada wondered what she was even doing right now. Why was she following these guys? Hanging around with someone who had actual revenge on his mind. This poor bastard had been wronged by these guys. She couldn’t even remember why she’d begun following them now.

  It was all becoming a blur.

  She knew she was tired and hungry. The smell of meat was overpowering.

  “I can’t wait until nighttime. We need to create a distraction,” he said. He pointed the machete at her, a not so subtle move. “You let them chase you and I’ll kill the two we need to kill.”

  “That’s a horrible plan.” Jada sat up and looked at the group again. Two of the seven, not their two, were keeping watch as the others cooked food.

  It smelled delicious.

  “Come up with a better plan. I’m listening. I’m the only one with a real weapon. You’re probably a faster runner than me, too.” He stared at her thighs. “Long, powerful legs. I bet you could outrun them. No problem. Circle back around and I’ll let you finish off one of them. We can grab the food, too.”

  “Give me a minute,” Jada said but she knew it was probably the best idea right now. She didn’t think hiding behind a wall in the heat all day was a smart move. They hadn’t seen a zombie in awhile but it didn’t mean they weren’t around or one or more wouldn’t wander by. It was only a matter of time.

  “While we were wasting time, they finished cooking the meat. Now all seven of them are about to dig in. We’re going to miss revenge and a meal.” The guy was staring at Jada.

  She stood. “I’m heading in that direction. Close enough they’ll see me but it will give me a big lead. I doubt they’ll all give chase. You’d better take care of them.”

  He nodded with a smile.

  Jada wondered if she could trust him. If she even had a choice right now anyway.

  “Good luck,” he said. She didn’t know if he was being a dick or not.

  She decided to save her breath and not threaten him. It was no use.

  Jada stood and began walking slowly, angling away from the group so she had a clear path to run down the street. She didn’t see any zombies, which was a bonus.

  She got parallel with the group and one of the men she’d been following turned and stared. For three steps he didn’t say a word, his eyes not registering what he was seeing.

  His hand went up and he pointed as Jada began to jog, keeping an eye on him.

  With any luck, she’d get a few more steps away and only one or two would give chase.

  “Holy shit. There’s a chick trying to get away,” the man finally managed, his voice rising.

  Six of the seven started to run after Jada.

  She had a good head start but she wasn’t familiar with the terrain and where she was going. She figured she could slowly circle to the right, get between a couple of buildings and lose them. Double back. If she couldn’t shake them, maybe she could lead them back to the grill, where her supposed partner would be ready with the machete.

  Jada knew her plan sucked but she had no choice but to go with it.

  As she rounded a fallen building, blocking the right lane of the road, a zombie stepped out and nearly gave her a heart attack.

  She dodged away from it, ignoring the men yelling for her to stop running.

  There was no way in Hell she was stopping.

  She saw a gap in two buildings but, as she neared it, she saw it was blocked by debris. She turned and ran across a weed-choked lawn, something long and black slithering past her foot.

  If the zombies or the not-yet-zombies didn’t kill you, the wildlife would, Jada thought.

  Jada was already winded. She was weak. Out of shape compared to the condition she’d prided herself on in the past. It had been a rough couple of days fighting.

  She hopped over a leaning chain-link fence and onto a side street, the sound of pursuit behind her.

  “You’re only making it worse, girl,” one of the men shouted.

  Jada made a right turn behind a building, getting a quick glance at her pursuers.

  She counted only three.

  They’d split up.

  Jada didn’t have time to stop and assess which way was the right route. If she stopped, the men behind her would close the gap.

  She was only a block or two from their camp. Maybe the other men had doubled back to make sure she wasn’t doing exactly what she was doing: coming back around.

  The Machete Guy was hopefully in place.

  She made it to another side street and
turned right. If she was correct, she was only a block away from their camp.

  Two men stepped out as she ran past, one of them managing to grab her arm and spin her.

  Jada tried in vain to keep her feet, slamming to the ground. Her outstretched hands kept her from hitting face-first into the pavement.

  Before she could recover, they pounced, driving her into the ground with kicks and knees, subduing her but keeping her alive.

  Jada was led back to the makeshift camp. She could smell the meat.

  She counted six men but no one seemed to notice one of their buddies was missing. She wondered where Machete Guy had gone to.

  Two men pushed her onto the ground and, before she could sit up, a boot to her back knocked her over.

  “If you move before we’re ready to have fun with you, you’re also going to get a beating. Nod if you understand.”

  Jada nodded.

  She watched as the men began to dig into the meat.

  Jada glanced at the ground near the grill and swallowed.

  A mutilated human head topped the pile of discarded corpses, thick slabs of meat sliced from the bodies.

  Despite her horror over them eating people, her mouth wouldn’t stop watering.

  “Hey… where the fuck did the guy with the lisp go?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The smoke finally cleared enough Darlene knew everyone was safe. She did a quick scan of the rubble but no one was alive.

  If Bernie and Profit hadn’t escaped, they were dead.

  You can’t save all of them. Not sure why you’re wasting your time saving any of them, in fact. I’m planning on killing every single one of them. I think you know this.

  “Fuck you,” Darlene said and blocked her son again. It was a small, slow power drain to keep him blocked and it needed to be a conscious thing to do when she used another power. She hadn’t yet mastered how to multitask and didn’t think he’d back the fuck off and let her learn how to do it properly.

  There were still too many zombies in the area.

  “You need weapons. I can only protect you so much. You need to fight back,” Darlene said. She scanned their minds to make sure everyone was really a survivor and not one of the enemy. Satisfied they were a group and she knew their names, she turned to April. She seemed like the one with the clearest thoughts in her head and was a take-charge person. “We’re going to go three blocks north. Just beyond the parking garage is a tourist store with surfboards on the windows. Inside the stockroom someone piled six rifles and ammo as well as two swords. They’re collecting dust now. Forgotten. Let’s head in that direction and I’ll scout for more weapons and food. Maybe supplies. We need to get you as far away from The Promised Land as possible.”

  Instead of taking the time to wander near the wall and find a gap, Darlene wasted precious energy blasting a hole through it big enough for two people to walk through.

  “Let me clear a path,” Darlene said when the first zombie stepped through.

  There were over a dozen and they all tried to move past her to get at the humans. She dispatched them quickly, discarding the bodies out of the way.

  Once she stepped through the gap and cleared the zombies in the area, she motioned for them to follow. Darlene needed to slow down so she didn’t get too far ahead. Her normal gait was twice as fast as it was when she was a human.

  She needed to stay far enough ahead a zombie couldn’t get too close. The survivors were exhausted. They dragged their feet. The sun was brutal, beating down on them, and Darlene felt sorry for their plight.

  Do I? She didn’t know. If she was being honest, it was indifference. Getting them to the cache of weapons was a goal and nothing more. She wanted them to live but it was only because her son wanted them to die.

  As shitty as that sounded she knew it was true.

  There was no real connection with them anymore. She wasn’t one of them. Couldn’t remember what it was truly like to be human. She knew too much. Had seen too much.

  She sensed zombies coming from the west and swung back around in time to intercept half a dozen of them, all shambling towards the survivors.

  While she knew they’d be able to discharge a handful of zombies, it would only slow them down. They needed to conserve their own energy because they’d need it.

  Darlene knew their only hope was to escape north and break through the waves of zombies heading for The Promised Land.

  She knew her son had summoned all of them.

  All of them.

  Millions of zombies would eventually be crowded into this location, miles packed with the undead.

  Her goal was to not only defeat her son but destroy the zombies, too. Maybe then the few remaining survivors in the world would be able to rest a bit easier and rebuild.

  Darlene spun around and went for another group of zombies coming at them from the east, still dripping wet from dragging themselves from the surf.

  Before she simply ripped them apart with her hands, she studied the zombies and shook her head. They looked awful, with missing limbs and one missing most of his face and left side of his head. They’d been eaten by the sea predators. Clothing gone, pulled away by the waves. Their bodies were bloated and white. Wounds puckered and dripping water.

  If she wasn’t trying to save the world she would’ve enjoyed seeing exactly where they had come from. How far had these zombies floated or walked to get to this spot? Another continent? An island off the coast of Florida? Maybe a cruise ship.

  Not that it mattered.

  Darlene took them out and waited for the survivors to catch up before heading for A1A. They’d have a safer route if they stuck to the center of the road while she was with them to block any shots or push away the zombies.

  Stealth wasn’t what was needed right now. Escape as quickly as possible was the best action.

  Three men with rifles were hiding on the fourth level of a hotel across the street. Darlene collapsed the two floors above them, crushing all three.

  She scanned the area for more enemies with weapons and made their heads explode.

  All without the group she was protecting knowing how many enemies were trying to get into position.

  Darlene tried to be discreet with her powers and conserve them but she had to kill another eight men and women with guns and push a large group of zombies to the west and into the river.

  They made it to the shop, which still had the windows intact and gaudy surfboards painted on the dirty glass.

  Darlene blew out the windows.

  “You’ll find the weapons inside. You need to hurry so we can keep moving,” she said, rattling off everything they’d discover so nothing was left behind.

  In minutes, they were armed and looked happier.

  Darlene started to move.

  At the next intersection she knew, as much as she wanted to keep going with them and make sure they lived, there was more important work to do.

  “Head north. Maybe stay to the beach so you have a clear sight north and south. Watch for zombies in the surf, too. A few miles up the beach are a few stilt houses. One or two might still be standing. I’ll meet you there when this is all over,” Darlene said.

  “Where are you going now?” Carlie put the rifle against her shoulder and smiled. “We could use your help, you know.”

  “I’ll check back with you but I have something to do first. If I stay with you, my son will send all of his allies at you. I can’t risk putting a bigger target on your back than you already have.”

  “I’m not sure that’s even possible.” April smiled. “Thanks for the help.”

  “Not a problem.” Darlene nodded to everyone, hoping they’d make it.

  They had to make it.

  “If you find any stragglers, send them our way,” Mimzie said. “Especially if Bernie or Profit somehow survived.”

  “I’ll do my best. Now go.” Darlene was out the door and headed south, killing zombies with her fists as she walked.

  Chapter Twe
nty

  “Just a few more feet,” Profit whispered next to her.

  She was too busy trying not to fall into the water to respond, clinging to the side of the wall.

  They were dangling twenty feet in the air on the western wall of The Promised Land, overlooking the river.

  If anyone living was watching from across the water they’d have a long but clear shot at them. Bernie tried not to think about it.

  They’d barely managed to get outside the wall with a horde of zombies in pursuit. Unfortunately the road had dropped off into the water, the bridge connecting it to the mainland previously destroyed by The Lich Lord.

  The only way to go was into the water, where more zombies waited, or try to climb using the walls as their escape.

  Bernie glanced down to see a group of zombies, pushing against one another, moving as she did, hands outstretched and trying to reach her.

  “Another few feet,” Profit said with a grunt.

  “You’ve said that too many times. My fingers are slipping. My arms hurt.” Bernie went back to looking at her shaking fingers, white from the pressure of gripping the wall.

  “I’m almost there,” Profit said and glanced back at Bernie. She could see how much he was also straining. “Whoever thought this was a good idea is an idiot.”

  “Yes, you are,” Bernie said and slid her hand another few inches, feeling the layer of skin getting ripped off as she moved.

  Bernie tried to look past Profit to see how far they really needed to go. She knew there was a break in the wall where it had been demolished, a huge gap for the zombies to enter The Promised Land. With any luck there wouldn’t be too many of them waiting to pounce.

  She blinked and saw the gap, only ten feet ahead.

  The reason Bernie saw the gap was because Profit had fallen off the wall and splashed in the water below.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Bernie waited to see if he had swum away or if he was being pulled down.

  The zombies were like slow, methodical piranha, churning up the water where Profit had gone under.