Dying Days: Origins Read online

  There were warehouses across the street behind a chain-link fence, and she went to the fence and followed it around to the front, hoping the gate was still closed. Maybe people had survived inside.

  The frozen blood told her otherwise, and a stack of charred body parts just inside the twisted and open gate made her heart sink. While she didn't need Lyssa around, normal people would be nice, someone to have her back and let her sleep without having to do it with one eye open.

  It had been a trucking company, several eighteen-wheelers lined up in a row with their loads still attached. The dock area was wide open, and Tosha knew there had been a huge struggle on the docks. There were pieces of bodies and a coating of blood where the snow hadn't covered it up, and a body, frozen and crimson, hung out of a forklift.

  Tosha got excited. What if the warehouse was filled with unspoiled goods? She could live here, comfortably, until the spring. Lyssa could have the downtown area. Maybe she'd run out of food and die.

  There was movement on the roof and Tosha ducked behind the closest truck cab next to the open gate. She peeked around to get a better look when a bullet ricocheted off the truck a few inches from her face.

  "Step out and let me see you," someone shouted. It was a male.

  "You first." Tosha didn't have any ranged weapons and throwing a golf club two hundred feet and onto a roof didn't seem too realistic. If it was only one loner, she might be able to trick him… show him her ass and get him to drop his guard. And stop shooting at her.

  She looked again and frowned. There were at least ten people on the roof and they all had rifles. She ducked back away. "I am fucked," she whispered.

  "I'll give you one more chance to surrender," the man yelled. "Then we're going to use you for target practice. It's up to you."

  "I don't want any trouble. I'm just passing through and needed to find a place to sleep and maybe some food. I'm on your side. I'm alive."

  Another bullet shattered the cab's window above her and she jumped.

  "You're not on our side, bitch. You are another living person trying to steal what is ours and eat all the food we have left. There's only so much to go around. If you step out right now, we won't kill you, but you are our prisoner."

  "What's the other option?"

  "There are no more options. I'm going to count to five."

  Tosha looked around. The only way out was through the gate and her back would be exposed. If all ten had bullets, she'd be a pincushion in seconds. Even if one had ammo, she wasn't going to make it.

  "Maybe we can work something out. I know where food and supplies are, and they are close."

  "Bullshit. Five… four…"

  Tosha went to the fence, making sure the truck was blocking their view. She pushed against it but it held. "Fuck."

  "Three…"

  Tosha dropped to her knees in the snow and wedged her hand under the fence. It wasn't bolted down or anything, the fence only attached at the posts. There was plenty of play in it, and Tosha pushed against it.

  "Two…"

  She was digging the snow out of the spot in front of her and pushing as hard as she could, moving it inch by agonizing inch.

  "One… time's up."

  Tosha got down on the ground as low as she could and began climbing through the breach as the bullets started to fly. She heard them clanking off of the metal truck and two zipped past her. Don't freak out; just keep moving, she thought, forcing herself through the gap.

  She was halfway through when her jeans caught on the bottom of the fence. She pulled but she was snagged.

  "I think she's trying to leave," someone shouted from the roof. She turned to see someone hanging off the side and looking at her.

  Tosha wedged the golf club under the fence and pulled her body, the caught belt loop pulling free and ripping the back of her jeans.

  She slid out from underneath and ran across the road as shots rang out, bullets bouncing off the pavement. Tosha dove into the ditch running along the length of the road with bullets still trying to find her.

  Because of all the shooting, there were now zombies in the area moving to see what all the commotion was. Three of them appeared close to her, drawn to the noise.

  One of the zombie's heads exploded from a bullet and Tosha heard the men whooping and yelling at the kill shot. She began crawling down the ditch slowly, face-first, and the snow numbing her face.

  Tosha heard more shots but was too busy trying not to lose a limb to frostbite or get attacked by a zombie as she was in such a bad predicament. She made it to the end of the block, vowing she'd kill those fuckers on the roof.

  For now, she needed to find somewhere to hole up and collect her thoughts. She'd never make it back to her apartment building before nightfall, and there was no way she wanted to chance it.

  "Hey, where you going, bitch?" she heard one of them yell. Tosha popped her head up quickly and saw two of the men running toward the ditch, but they were going the opposite way. Tosha saw why: three female zombies were going in the opposite direction.

  She shuddered when she thought about why these jerk-offs were so intent on chasing female zombies. She didn't want to know. She wanted to kill every one of them, but she'd bide her time. Right now, she needed somewhere to crash for the night.

  Two blocks later she found what she was looking for: a print shop with a secure backroom she could block with a desk and bookshelf.

  Tosha curled up in a corner, sweating in the still air, and hoping she could get some sleep.

  Chapter Seventeen: State of Pain

  Tosha looked out her apartment window, expecting to see a gloating Lyssa across the way. She wasn't there but Tosha flipped the bird anyway.

  Her apartment was empty. Literally looted, not a crumb remaining. The bitch had stolen everything down to the garbage can in the bathroom. She'd been gone for no more than twelve hours. "I will hunt you down and kill you," she said out loud. Tosha was losing it.

  When she turned around and saw her sister silently watching her, she exploded. "What the fuck are you looking at? Why don't you talk anymore? When you were alive you wouldn't shut the hell up. Now you just stare at me like a retard." Tosha charged her sister, who didn't move from her spot, standing near the door.

  Tosha got right up next to Mathyu but couldn't reach out and touch her. What if she disappeared forever? What if she was solid? What if, what if… "Sis, I need your help. I'm at a loss for words. I was robbed and now I have nothing again, and I'm cold and hungry. I slept on the floor last night, and that was yesterday's highlight. This crazy chick is trying to destroy me and, at every step, I keep failing. I need your help." Tosha heard her stomach growling. "I need to eat."

  Mathyu was looking at the door now and Tosha reached and opened it without thought. Her sister walked out and she dutifully followed her, even though she was exhausted.

  Tosha followed her sister down the stairs and into the street. Tosha turned off her brain and just kept being led, walking a familiar route back to the convenience store. Through the store and into the stockroom, she trudged, going back outside. Her sister was gone but the food she'd stashed was still here.

  "Thank you, Mathyu," she whispered. The snow was melting and some of the food was getting wet. She began putting it all back into the stockroom in weak cardboard boxes and pushing them as far back as she could. She ate some of the food, devouring a box of stale strawberry PopTarts and drinking some of the room temperature water.

  "I'm going to survive and I'm going to stop feeling sorry for myself," she said loudly. "And it starts right now. Fuck all this." Tosha went into the convenience store and searched for more food and a weapon but the store had been picked clean and it was a chain store so probably didn't have many guns or knives to begin with.

  Tosha went back outside. It was cold but there were no zombies in the immediate area and she was thankful. She scanned the stores up and down the block, the ruined cars and the piles of melting snow.

  She went back insi
de and found some buckets and empty milk jugs and packed them with snow. Tosha decided she wasn't going back to her apartment and wasn't going to stay in Pennsylvania for too long.

  It was too cold, too gray and too depressing for her and what better time to change her scenery than at the end of the world?

  Tosha decided to keep moving.

  "I hope, when I leave, you'll be coming with me," Tosha said to her sister, who was standing behind the counter when she broke through the door and into the corner bar. "Wherever I go, it will be shitty without you haunting me. I just need to take care of two things before I go."

  Mathyu looked down behind the counter.

  "You know I hate when you do that, right? Just open up your mouth like you did all the time and let me know what it is I'm supposed to see. I'm sure this game is fun for you, but it sucks for me."

  Mathyu might have smiled but she looked away and began walking.

  "Wait. Do I see what's behind the bar now or follow you somewhere else? I'm going to smack you, I swear." Tosha hopped up onto the counter and slipped over, coming down on a pile of broken bottles and what was a body not too long ago.

  Tosha smiled. "Why, thank you." There was a shotgun taped to the underneath of the bar and a full bottle of vodka. "What other fun toys are you going to find for me? This might be a good thing. I'll stop complaining." Tosha looked around. "Shit, where did you go?"

  This wasn't going to work if her sister kept floating off and leaving her behind.

  Tosha walked quickly through the kitchen doors to find her, carrying her new shotgun and bottle of vodka. She wasn't leaving anything behind.

  A zombie appeared next to her and Tosha only had time to smash it in the head with the shotgun. It stumbled backwards but didn't fall or stop moving, teeth gnashing and arms pumping slowly.

  "Shit, you led me into this shit?" Tosha asked her sister, wherever she was, as more zombies showed up in the tight space and came at her.

  The only weapon she could use was the shotgun but she didn't know if it was loaded and to shoot it in such a small area would make her deaf and only bring more zombies. If she kept using it as a club, she was liable to crack it or bend it somehow, and she didn't want that. How ironic would it be to find such a devastating weapon and then break it before she could use it properly?

  Tosha decided that her feet and hands would be better, even though the monsters would get closer to her than she liked. She punched the nearest in the face and thought she'd broken her hand. In the movies, their heads exploded in a bloody splash, but in reality she was still hitting a person's face with a thick skull underneath.

  She switched to her feet, and kicked out and heard a satisfying crack as she connected with a kneecap. The zombie fell forward and she jumped back, let it fall, and then stomped on the head until it stopped moving. The zombie behind it also fell, tripping over the one on the ground, and Tosha gave it several swift kicks to the temple.

  There was a row of sinks to her right and Tosha climbed into the first one, grabbing onto the overhead pipes for support. As zombies came at her, one at a time because of the close quarters, she kicked them in the face until they fell back and were replaced by another. And another.

  She was getting tired and began to panic when another one came from around the corner. Was there a back door open and a hundred zombies wandering in?

  Tosha finished off the last one she could see and hopped back down, crushing heads as she walked on the gore-streaked floor. At any moment, another ten zombies could attack and her nerves were frayed.

  Mathyu was standing in front of a closed door she assumed was the office and stepped aside as Tosha walked up. Tosha put her hand on the door knob and something slammed into the door from the other side, and she jumped back. "Are you trying to get me killed?" Tosha asked her silent sister. "I'm guessing through the door is a bunch of zombies and they'll try to bite and rape me."

  Mathyu remained silent, staring at her.

  Tosha opened the bottle of vodka and took a sip. "I swear, if there isn't a bunch of cool shit in there and I have to fight these fucking things for nothing, I won't talk to you ever again. You're not the only one who can do this silent treatment bullshit, you know."

  Tosha stared at the door and listened to at least two of them pounding on it. How big was the office? She hoped there weren't more than two of them in there.

  When she glanced at her sister again, she sighed. "Stop looking at me. I'm going, I'm going. Seriously… I'm in no rush. I have all the time in the world. Whatever that means these days."

  Tosha gripped the door knob again and turned it, the door opening. She stepped back and there were three zombies jammed into the small room and they all came at her at once, blocking one another in their haste to get at her.

  "It's like the Three Stooges," she said. Tosha waited until one of them was almost squeezed out before kicking it in the legs and hearing a nice snap of bones. It fell and the next one tripped over it and promptly got its head pulverized by Tosha's shoes.

  The third couldn't seem to get around the two twice-dead and Tosha finally stepped onto the bodies and punched it in the neck before grabbing it by the dirty shirt and slamming it repeatedly into the wall until it stopped moving.

  Sure there were no more lingering inside, Tosha stepped over the carcasses and into the office, scanning it for weapons or food. It was a mess, the former store manager (Bradley, by his bloody nametag) was propped in his office chair with his head chewed off and his pants down. Tosha looked away from his genitalia, or what was left of it.

  "Well, where are the goodies?" Tosha asked but her sister was once again gone. "I am really starting to hate you when you do this, sis."

  Tosha saw something sticking out from the store manager's jacket and slowly withdrew a blood-soaked .45. "Dude was packing heat," she said with a laugh. "Next time, pull it out and use it."

  She methodically went through the office, finding a drawer filled with melting chocolate and a full bag of breath mints. There was a carton of Marlboro cigarettes in the closet which she decided she might be able to use for bartering. A new white bandana was found and she put her hair back with it. The coffee machine was useless but the sugar, dry creamer and the can filled with dry coffee might be worth something.

  When she pushed the desk out of the way, she found a trap door. "Ah, things are getting better by the second."

  She left everything on the desk except for the .45 and pulled the trap door open, staring at a ladder leading into the cellar and darkness. When she began to descend, she felt a thin line hitting her face and pulled it. A faint light bulb blinked on.

  Tosha saw the dolly first, a big industrial-sized one sitting next to a set of double doors above, on a slant. A way out of here without any fuss.

  But what really caught her attention was the row after row of alcohol cases stacked and waiting for her.

  Tosha went back into the office and made sure the door was locked, and then took all of her findings with her down the trap door before closing it.

  Tonight she'd dine on chocolate and alcohol and sleep peacefully.

  "Thank you, Mathyu," Tosha said before opening a skunked Sam Adams beer and having a seat on the dolly. She looked around. "Wherever you are."

  She laughed when she saw the bolt cutters on a high shelf. She knew exactly what she was going to do… as soon as she finished drinking.

  Chapter Eighteen: The Darker Side

  This group was either arrogant or stupid, but Tosha didn't care either way. They were making so much noise on the roof of the trucking company it was easy for her to circle to the other side of the yard and cut off the locks with the bolt cutters she'd found.

  She carried a shotgun even though it had only one shot left. She pulled the dolly behind her, cardboard boxes stacked on it.

  Tosha had been busy the last few days, keeping focused. She swung the gate open and went down the road, making enough noise to attract zombies but, hopefully, not enough to attract at
tention from the roof crew.

  When she was happy with at least a dozen following her, she went inside the compound and made sure they were still following. Tosha didn't try to get onto the roof or into the building right away. She went to the nearest gate and quietly opened it, waving at a zombie nearby. It took the bait and began stumbling towards her and the open entryway.

  A few more from across the street at the next lot spotted her and began coming. She knew, once you set them on a path, they mindlessly kept moving in that direction until something else distracted them. Tosha hoped it would be the group on the roof.

  She found an open back door and went to go inside when she saw the trip wire. She didn't panic, even when she came so close to stumbling right into it. She traced it with her eyes, expecting to see sticks of dynamite. Instead, there were two empty soup cans attached, one at either end. She doubted anyone would be able to hear it even if it was hit.

  She stepped over and kept moving, into the building and the shadows. She left the dolly at the door, under an awning, and hoped it couldn't be seen from above. Tosha moved through the main areas of the building but there wasn't much to see. Any boxes she came across were empty.

  Satisfied she'd seen everything below she had to see, she made her way back to the door she'd come in through. Just as she got there, she heard gunshots from above.

  A zombie's head exploded across the parking lot and she heard hollering from the roof, but it wasn't panic. It was the group having some sport with zombies loose in the compound. Crazy bastards.

  The good part was not only did the gunfire attract more zombies, but no one had come down to close the gates yet. Maybe they didn't realize there was a breach.

  Tosha looked up at the rusty fire escape and figured it was the easiest way to the roof. She grabbed two bottles of rum and the pile of rags to head up. All she needed to do was leap up a couple of feet and grab onto it. She didn't know how she'd be able to carry the alcohol at the same time, though, and she wasn't going to abandon her plan.