A Girl a Dog and Zombies on the Munch Read online

  “I can answer that for you, sweetie,” Gramps said. “The bitch is trying to warn her friend. Thanks for letting me know.”

  Courtney debated swinging the shotgun toward him and cutting loose but he must have guessed her intent.

  “I wouldn’t, girl,” Gramps declared. “You shoot at me and your friend Sally gets clipped.”

  “Got that right!” said someone inside the market.

  A rifle barrel jutted out the open door, fixed on Sally’s back.

  Courtney recognized Rufus’ voice. If she fired at Gramps, Rufus would kill Sally. If she shot at Rufus, Gramps would blow her away.

  “We’ve got you dead to rights, girl,” Gramps gave voice to her fear. “Be smart and set that cannon down, nice and easy.”

  “Don’t listen to him!” Sally Ann finally spoke.

  “What other choice does she have, stupid?” Rufus snapped. Only part of his arm and shoulder were visible. “Or are you that eager to die?”

  Gramps surprised Courtney by coming toward her. It made him an easier target, and made her easier to hit, too.

  “Listen, we’re not going to kill you if you don’t make us,” Gramps was saying. “Not even after all the crap you and your boyfriend pulled.” He stopped and glanced down the road to the south. “Where is he, anyway?”

  “Dead,” Courtney said, the word an anchor in her heart.

  “Shouldn’t have turned on us,” Gramps said. “He’d be alive now.”

  Sally Ann glared. “Don’t act so noble.”

  “Noble, hell,” Gramps said. “We would have kept our word. Not laid a finger on any of you. Or snuffed you.”

  “Only until we reached the compound,” Sally Ann said. “We were wise to your ruse.”

  “So you broke away first chance you got and what did that get you?” Gramps said. A few lumps and pretty boy dead.”

  At the mention of ‘lumps’, Courtney looked at Sally Ann and noticed a bump on her temple and a bruise under her right eye. “Did one of them beat you?”

  Gramps said, “She brought it on herself. Wouldn’t listen.”

  “If it’d been up to me,” Rufus threw in, “I’d slit her damn throat.”

  “Enough gab!” Gramps declared. He aimed his pistol. “Put the shotgun down or this gets ugly.”

  Courtney hesitated. To resist was suicidal. Yet part of her yearned to. It was Sansa who decided the issue.

  “Don’t do it, Courtney! I don’t care if we do have to die!” the girl urged.

  “You win,” Courtney said. She slowly stooped and set the shotgun on the asphalt, then raised her arms.

  “Courtney, no!” Sansa cried.

  Sally Ann bowed her head. “She has no choice, little one.”

  “Take three steps back,” Gramps commanded.

  Smothering a wave of despair, Courtney obeyed.

  “Don’t try anything.” Keeping his weapon on Courtney, Gramps advanced and snatched the shotgun off the ground.

  Out of the store ambled Rufus, looking like a cat that ate three canaries. “Well, that was awful disappointing. I was hoping I’d get to shoot one of you bitches.”

  “What now?” Courtney said to Gramps. “The deal still holds? You’ll take us to the compound and keep your hands to yourself.”

  “About that,” Gramps said. “You might be of use finding the place. But as for our hands....” He grinned and licked his lips.

  CHAPTER 20

  It turned out that Gramps and Rufus had their bikes hidden behind the market.

  “They’ve been waiting to see if any of their buddies showed up,” Sally Ann explained after the two Claws ushered Courtney and Sansa and her into a storeroom and shut the door.

  “Where did you disappear to after that mutate attacked?” Courtney was curious to learn.

  “Gramps and Jenks tied me and left me in some brush while they and Rufus went back to look for the others.”

  “I shot Jenks,” Courtney said.

  Sansa tugged on Sally Ann’s arm. “What about Willis?” she anxiously asked. “Where’s he at?”

  Sally frowned and gave the little girl’s shoulder a squeeze. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. When Gramps pulled me off the bike to tie me, he kicked Willis and Willis yipped and ran off into the woods.”

  “Oh,” Sansa said bleakly. Averting her face, she moved to a corner and leaned her forehead against the wall and quietly began to cry.

  “Poor kid,” Sally Ann said.

  Courtney was about to go comfort her when the door opened and Gramps filled the doorway. An energy drink was in one hand and a candy bar in the other. His pistol was wedged under his bulging gut. “All right. We’re letting you out. But give us grief and we’ll keep you in here until we’re ready to leave.”

  “When will that be?” Courtney asked.

  “A day or so,” Gramps said. “We’re giving our bros time to catch up.” He scowled. “If any of them are still alive.”

  “Spike is,” Courtney said. She didn’t why she told him. Unless part of her was hoping that if they stayed there a good long while, Gramps and Rufus would let down their guard.

  “That better be the truth,” Gramps said.

  “So help me,” Courtney said.

  “Then he’ll show up eventually,” Gramps predicted.

  “Where’s Gaga?”

  “Your mutt is out front, whining,” Gramps said. “Be glad she’s still breathing. Rufus is for carving her into pieces.” He beckoned. “Move your asses.”

  Sally Ann followed him out.

  Courtney went to Sansa, who was still weeping. “I’m sorry about Willis.”

  Sansa made a choking sound.

  “Are you hungry? Let’s go find something to eat.”

  Shaking her head, Sansa whispered, “I’d like to be alone. Please.”

  “Sure.” Courtney was loathe to leave but she remembered the few times in her own life that she had cried. Misery didn’t like company.

  One of the bikers had lit a propane lantern and placed it on the front counter, relieving the gloom.

  An odor permeated the market, from food that was spoiling. The smell would grow worse over the days ahead.

  Rufus was contentedly chomping on jerky. Several cans of beer were next to him.

  Gramps had helped himself to a bag of pretzels.

  Sally Ann was waiting for Courtney. “What would you like? There are sandwiches in a cooler.”

  “I’d like a gun,” Courtney said, and nodded at Granps and Rufus.

  “We’re lucky they’re letting us live,” Sally Ann said.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve given up?”

  “Never.” Sally Ann lowered her voice. “But we have to be smart. We may only get one chance.”

  “What are you two whispering about?”

  Courtney and Sally Ann both gave a start.

  Rufus had come up on them as silently as a slinking cat.

  “I asked you bitches a question.”

  “Nothing,” Sally Ann said.

  “Don’t make me beat it out of you” Rufus took a bite of jerky and noisily chewed.

  “We were talking about how we’d like to be free of you,” Courtney admitted.

  “Do tell?” Rufus said, and kicked her in the shin.

  Pain exploded up Courtney’s leg and she doubled over, barely able to keep her balance.

  “Hey!” Sally Ann said.

  Rufus punched her on the jaw.

  Tottering back, Sally Ann clutched at a shelf for support and cans crashed to the floor.

  “What the....!” Courtney got out, and Rufus slugged her, too. The jolt slammed her against the wall and pinpoints of light danced before her eyes.

  “You dumbasses need to get a few things straight,” Rufus growled, and drew back his fist. “Which of you wants to lose her teeth?”

  Courtney cocked her knee to kick him where it would hurt a male the most but just then Gramps gave a holler.

  “Rufus! You hear that?”


  Courtney heard it, too. The metallic thrum of a motorcycle in the near distance.

  “Guess who it is?” Gramps said cheerfully.

  Rufus lowered his arm, spat on the floor in contempt, and headed up front.

  “Are you all right?” Courtney asked Sally Ann, who was woozily shaking her head.

  “The bastard can hit,” Sally said.

  “He’ll get his.”

  Gramps and Rufus were at the front window, both grinning. The reason for their delight was the familiar figure of the skinny man with a Mohawk on the approaching bike.

  “Good ol’ Spike,” Rufus declared.

  “Now there are three of us bad boys,” Gramps said.

  Courtney nudged Sally Ann, put a finger to her lips, motioned, and together they hurried toward the storeroom.

  Sansa was huddled in the corner, dabbing at her eyes. She bleated in surprise when Courtney scooped her up, and

  Courtney put a hand over her mouth to silence her. “Shh. We’re getting out of here.”

  Courtney was half afraid the back door to the market would be locked. Fortune favored them. A hinge creaked but not loud enough to be heard up front.

  The bikes belonging to Gramps and Rufus were parked close to the rear wall.

  Courtney was tempted to knock them over in the hope of disabling them but the racket would draw Gramps and Rufus.

  Sally Ann quietly closed the door.

  A stand of trees about half an acre away caught Courtney’s eye. “There!” she said, and ran.

  “They’ll know that’s where we went,” Sally Ann said, catching up.

  “Can’t be helped. It’s the only cover.”

  “What’s your plan? Sticks and stones against their guns?”

  “Save your breath.”

  Sansa was keeping pace, her shorter legs pumping.

  Plunging into the trees, Courtney skirted a thicket. In less than thirty feet, the stand ended at an open field.

  There was no place to hide.

  “They’ll find us easy,” Sally Ann said.

  “Keep going.”

  They burst into the open space.

  Materializing as if out of nowhere, Gaga was with them.

  To their left a fair way was the road. To their right, nothing but more open field.

  A bellow from the vicinity of the market warned them that the Claws were in pursuit.

  Fury coursed through Courtney. Fury that the bikers wouldn’t leave them be. Fury that the world had gone mad and there was nothing she could do about it. Fury that life would do this to her.

  “Listen!” Sally Ann exclaimed.

  It took a few seconds for the new sound to register.

  From overhead came the unmistakable sound of an aircraft. A small plane would be Courtney’s guess. Despite herself, she slowed and scanned the thick cloud cover. The plane was low in the sky but she couldn’t see it. The engine sputtered and coughed, then picked up again. Only for a bit. Again it sputtered.

  “The pilot is having trouble and must be looking for a place to set down!” Sally Ann guessed.

  As if that were a cue, out of the cloud dipped the aircraft, a yellow-and-green Piper Cub, Courtney believed they were called.

  She stopped in astonishment. “How can it be flying?”

  “Those bikes and some cars and trucks still work,” Sally Ann reminded her.

  The Piper Cub dropped lower. It flew the length of the open field, sputtering all the while, then banked and flew in a wide loop to come at the field from the far end.

  “It’s going to land!” Sally Ann cried.

  The engine died and the Piper Cub shimmied. The pilot steadied it and descended smoothly, if abruptly. The front wheels touched and the plane bounced once, twice, three times, and then the wheels were down and the plane was slowing. It hit a hole or maybe a ditch and a wheel caught. Suddenly the aircraft spun crazily, the wings tilting.

  For a moment Courtney thought it would flip over. But the pilot again regained control and the plane slid to a halt with the propeller pointed toward Courtney and her friends.

  “They made it!” Sally Ann said.

  “Good for them!” someone snarled

  Courtney spun.

  Gramps, Rufus—and Spike—were only yards away and training guns on them.

  “Miss me?” Spike said, and wagged his semiautomatic. He blew Courtney a kiss. “I sure missed you.”

  “The plane,” Gramps said.

  “What about it?” Spike said.

  “We should see who it is.”

  “Duh.”

  “Maybe there’s women!” Rufus said.

  “We’ve got these two,” Spike said, and winked at Courtney and Sally Ann.

  “Why isn’t anybody getting out?” Gramps wondered.

  “Let’s go see,” Spike said. “Ladies first, if you don’t mind, and even if you do.”

  “My kingdom for a gun,” Sally Ann said.

  “Huh?” Rufus said.

  “A play on Shakespeare.”

  “A what on who?” Rufus said.

  “God, you’re dumb,” Sally Ann said.

  “Shut up, bitch!” Spike snapped. “Get walking!”

  Courtney hoped the people in the plane were watching and would catch on that the Claws were trouble. The cockpit windows were tinted and there was no way of telling how many were inside.

  “Smile, fellas,” Spike said to his brothers in leather. “Pretend we’re friendly as can be!”

  “That’s us,” Rufus said, laughing.

  Courtney desperately yearned to warn whoever was in there. She silently mouthed the words, “Help us!” a few times.

  “This is close enough,” Spike announced. He had lowered his pistol close to his leg. Rufus and Gramps had done the same with their guns.

  “Hey, in there!” Gramps hollered, waving. “You folks okay?”

  “Need any help?” Rufus said, and snickered.

  The door on the pilot side of the Piper Cub opened. A black boot appeared, a cowboy boot, and slid to the ground. Than another, and legs in jeans. Around the door sauntered the man who wore them.

  “Howdy,” he said.

  Courtney was thunderstruck. He was young, not much over twenty, if that, and so strikingly hot—at least to her—she felt something that she never felt before; a strange sense of excitement.

  He wore Western garb, including a black belt with a large silver buckle in the shape of a wolf’s head, a checkered read and black shirt, and a dark blue coat of some kind that fell down to his ankles.

  “Nice slicker you’ve got there, hoss,” Gramps said.

  The pilot’s eyes were a piercing blue, his curly hair blond. He stood with his thumbs hooked in a second belt that crossed the first at an angle. His teeth, when he smiled at Courtney and Sally Ann and Sansa, were as perfect as those in a TV commercial.

  “Ladies,” he said.

  His voice was low and deep, and to Courtney, seemed to strum a chord deep inside of her. “Hey,” she blurted, feeling supremely stupid but unable to think of anything else. Her mind wasn’t working right.

  “Hi,” Sally Ann said. She introduced herself and Courtney and Sansa. “And this is Gaga,” she finished.

  “Aren’t you forgetting somebody?” Spike said.

  “Get to you in a minute,” the pilot said.

  “How’s that again, ace?” Spike said.

  The pilot was staring at Courtney. She felt herself blushing and didn’t understand why. “You need to.....,” she was going to say ‘be careful’ but he spoke before she was done.

  “Gar.”

  "Excuse me?” Courtney said.

  “Gar,” he said again. “My name.”

  Spike shouldered past Courtney and Sally Ann. “Gar, is it?” He held out his empty hand. “I’m Spike. Pleased to meet you.”

  Gar didn’t shake.

  “What’s your problem, mister?” Spike said.

  Gar ignored him. To Courtney he said, “You
and Sally and the little one should move to the left a bit.”

  “Hey!” Spike said. “I’m talking to you, damn it.”

  It wasn’t like Courtney to do what a complete stranger told her but she pulled Sally Ann and Sansa aside and waited breathlessly for the next development.

  The Claws were glancing at one another in confusion.

  Finally Spike fixed his glare on Gar. “Where do you get off ignoring us? Treating us like dirt?”

  “Who do you think you are?” Rufus chimed in.

  Unruffled, Gar said calmly, “Saw you out the cockpit. Saw you chasing the ladies. Saw you point your weapons at them.”

  “You misunderstood, mister,” Gramps said, smiling. “It’s not like you think.”

  “Oh, it’s plain as can be,” Gar said.

  “Enough of this,” Rufus said. “Let’s look in that plane and see if he’s got anything we can use.”

  “Not going to happen,” Gar said.

  “Why the hell not?” Spike said.

  For an answer, Gar used his right hand to slowly move his slicker aside.

  Everyone stared.

  CHAPTER 21

  Courtney didn’t know a lot about guns. Calibers, hollow points, muzzles-whatever, she’d never paid much attention. But she did know a revolver from a semiautomatic.

  Gar wore a revolver the likes of which Courtney had never seen. The grips or handles looked to be made of pearl. Her mother owned pearl earrings, and they were the same color and texture. Oddly, they had a curve to them that brought to mind the beak of an eagle or a hawk. The revolver itself gleamed like silver. For some reason the term ‘nickel-plated’ popped into her head.

  The holster was black leather, decorated with silver conchos, and cut low so that over half of the revolver was visible.

  Gramps let out a whistle of appreciation. “Nice piece you have there, mister.”

  “Been in the family a good long while,” Gar said quietly.

  Spike was eyeing it as if it were made of diamonds. “Remington? Smith and Wesson?”

  “Colt Lightning.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d let me hold it?”