A Girl a Dog and Zombies on the Munch Read online

  Gramps was frantically attempting to turn his bike, Sally Ann recoiling in fear.

  The mutate looked over at them, and then down at Courtney—and lunged toward her.

  Courtney’s doom was framed by the gaping maw of an animal driven berserk by man-made chemicals. Razor teeth, dripping saliva, filled her vision.

  In that instant a shot boomed.

  Floyd had unslung his rifle and fired before any of the others could resort to their own guns. His bike was only a few yards from Niles, and he frantically worked the bolt to feed a new round into the chamber.

  The slug had taken the bear in the neck. Gore and blood erupted from the exit wound, but the shot seemed to have no other effect. With a horrendous roar, the bear forgot about Courtney and charged Floyd. He was steadying his rifle for a second shot when the creature tore into him with its foreclaws flashing and its teeth snapping.

  Floyd was flayed alive, reduced to bone in mere seconds, his ribs and parts of his skull gleaming white. His scream was cut short.

  Gramps took advantage of the bear’s distraction to straighten his Harley and race on down the road instead of trying to turn around. He swept past the mutate, Sally Ann clinging tight to Willis.

  Courtney took advantage, too. Flipping onto her belly, staying low, she started toward the trees, stopping when she heard Sansa wail in fear.

  Bradley had been trying to turn his cycle and gotten it almost around when it stopped cold. The back end was toward the bear.

  The back end, and Sansa.

  Her cry brought the bear’s head up from where it had been savaging Floyd’s chest. Flesh and skin spattered its jaw as it stepped over Floyd’s body toward Bradley’s bike.

  The big biker hadn’t noticed. He was trying to restart his Harley.

  Courtney heaved erect.

  Other Claws were fleeing back the way they came.

  Her young face twisted in terror, Sansa scrambled off Bradley’s bike.

  In those brief moments, Courtney was up and flying. She reached Sansa and grabbed for her arm.

  The bear was almost on top of them. Rearing onto its hind legs, it slavered and snarled.

  Courtney had nowhere to go. Bradley’s bike blocked their retreat. The pus-oozing monstrosity was in front of them.

  The thing cocked an arm to swing and Courtney bent over Sansa to shield the girl with her own body.

  “Leave her be!”

  Out of nowhere Billy was there, wielding a large knife. Heedless of the danger to himself, he rushed in and hacked and stabbed at the mutate.

  “Get out of here, Courts! Go! Go! Go!’

  Courtney didn’t need to be urged twice. Scooping Sansa up, she ran into the woods. But she only went a few yards and stopped. “Billy! Come on!”

  He was still battling. His left arm was torn from his shoulder to his elbow but he was gamely trying to hold the bear at bay.

  Another biker—Spike—took off down the road.

  Billy spun to run but the bear clipped him and sent him tumbling. It started after him, then saw Bradley still trying to kick-start his Harley.

  The big biker’s back was to the mutate. He never saw it close on him. Probably the first inkling he had that he was its new prey was when its curved claws ripped into his back at the base of his neck. Bradley shrieked as those same claws raked his spine clear down to his waist, leaving bloody furrows in their wake.

  Keeping hold of Sansa, Courtney ran to Billy. She used her other arm to help him stagger to his feet.

  “I can manage,” he mumbled in obvious agony.

  “Move, damn you!” Courtney bawled.

  They fled, Billy tottering, Sansa clinging to Courtney’s leg and impeding her. Ten...twenty....twenty-five yards they covered, Courtney expecting the bear to be after them at any moment. She led them around a pine and dropped to her knees. “Get down!” she whispered.

  Billy doubled over, clutching his arm.

  Sansa buried her face in Courtney’s side.

  To the north and south, in the distance, bike engines thrummed. The Claws, making their getaways.

  Courtney peered through the pine’s branches. She saw three bikes down. She saw Niles’ headless body and what was left of Floyd and Bradley crumpled across the tank of his his fallen bike.

  She didn’t see the bear anywhere.

  Then she heard a growl behind her.

  CHAPTER 16

  Courtney spun, wishing she had a weapon but prepared to fight tooth and nail to protect little Sansa.

  But it was Gaga, crouched low and glaring toward the road. Gaga growled a second time.

  Courtney turned toward the road, anticipating the worst.

  The bear was loping north along the trees. In its mouth was Niles’s head.

  Courtney watched until the creature went around a bend. The second it was out of sight, she was on her feet. “Stay here,” she told Sansa and Billy, and sprinted to the road.

  One of Niles’s pistols lay in a pool of blood. She grabbed it and wiped it on her jeans. She also undid the belt buckle to Niles’s gunbelt, and strapped it around her waist. The other pistol was still in its holster.

  Next she collected Floyd’s rifle and Bradley’s shotgun. In Floyd’s jacket was a box of ammo. She also helped herself to a bandolier Bradley had worn

  As an afterthought Courtney checked the saddlebags on Bradley’s bike. They contained a spare shirt and socks and other stuff. She snatched the shirt out.

  She straightened to return to the others and discovered they hadn’t listened. Sansa and Billy, with Gaga trailing after, had followed her.

  Billy still had his right hand pressed to his left arm. Grimacing, he said, “We need is to get out of here. The bikers who ran off will come back.”

  Courtney held up the shotgun and the rifle. “That’s why I got these.”

  “We should stick to the woods for the time being,” Billy said. Grunting in pain, he headed back in.

  Sansa was nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot. “That’s smart, isn’t it? So we’re not spotted?”

  Courtney nodded. She hated that they were separated from Sally Ann. But it couldn’t be helped.

  About twenty feet in, Billy sank down with his back to an oak. His left arm had stopped bleeding but was covered with drying blood. “Not my year,” he said.

  “Sorry?” Courtney said, kneeling beside him.

  “Hurt my leg, my head, now this.”

  “Let me take a look.”

  Courtney gingerly pried at his sleeve. The bear’s claws had raked him good but not so deep that he would lose the use of his arm. “I’ll bandage you. Looks like you should be able to use your arm okay.”

  “Do what you can,” Billy said.

  Courtney tore the shirt she had taken from the saddlebags into strips. It was harder than she imagined it would be. She had to use her teeth for extra leverage.Once they were tied tight, she nodded and said, “That will have to do.”

  Billy experimented moving his arm. Up. Down. Right. Left. “Not bad, Courts,” he said, offering a wan smile. “You’d make a good nurse.”

  “Not hardly,” Courtney said. She couldn’t stand to be around sick people.

  Billy placed his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks. You’re the best friend any guy ever had.”

  “Don’t make more of it than there is,” Courtney said, worried he would wax romantic. “We should keep going. We have to find Sally.”

  “Gramps and her are probably miles away by now,” Billy said.

  “We don’t know that,” Courtney said. “And I’m going, whether you do or not.” Harsh words, but necessary.

  “How about you, kid?” Billy said to Sansa. “You up for this?”

  “They have Willis.”

  Billy sighed and propped his good arm against the oak so he could stand. “Lead on, ladies,” I’ll be right behind you.

  “First,” Courtney said, holding out the rifle and shotgun. “Which will it be?”

  “The sh
ape my arm is in, the rifle will have less kick,” Billy said.

  Courtney assumed the lead. She stayed only a dozen feet from the road, alert for the mutated bear, or anything else.

  Past the bend was a half-mile straightaway, likewise bounded by forest.

  There was no sign of anything or anyone.

  They were well along the straight stretch when Sansa said Courtney’s name, and stopped. “Do you hear that?”

  A moment later, Courtney did.

  The quiet was broken by the growing thunder of motorcycle engines.

  “It’s some of those bad men,” Sansa said. “They’re coming back.”

  Courtney quickly moved a few yards deeper into the woods, and crouched. She told Sansa to lie flat and hold onto Gaga.

  Billy was moving slow. He leaned his good shoulder against a tree and awkwardly worked the bolt of his rifle.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Courtney said. “Let them go by.”

  “Why not do them in here and now?” Billy said. “Spare us the trouble if we run into them later.”

  “You’re in no condition for a fight,” Courtney remarked.

  "We can do it,” Billy said. He braced the rifle against the tree and aligned the sights.

  “No. Not with Sansa so close,” Courtney said.

  “Have her move farther away if you’re worried she’ll take a stray bullet,” Billy said.

  “No, damn it. She doesn’t leave our sight. Not with all the zombies and whatnot.”

  Billy looked over. “Take her in farther if you want to. Me, I’m picking them off if I can.”

  The cycles were a lot louder. Movement on the road to the south showed how near they were.

  Against her better judgement Courtney raised the shotgun. She mentally crossed her fingers that there weren’t more than three or four Claws.

  As luck would have it, there were two.

  Spike and Jenks were riding side by side, Spike hunched forward, his face intent.

  The pair were going at least fifty.

  Billy took a deep breath, and fired.

  Spike jerked and swerved but didn’t go down. Gunning his engine, he swept forward.

  Jenks slowed and looked toward the woods.

  Courtney stroked the shotgun’s trigger. She forgot about the recoil. The upward sweep of the barrel partially blocked her view of the blast that caught Jenks in the shoulder and neck and flung him off his bike. He cried out as he tumbled and then lay still.

  Billy ran toward the road while trying to work the rifle’s bolt. His hurt arm hampered him.

  “Don’t show yourself!” Courtney yelled, running after him.

  Billy paid her no mind. Hastening out of the trees, he pointed his rifle to the north, and swore.

  Her nerves blaring, Courtney bounded into the open and brought her shotgun level.

  Spike’s motorcycle was in the middle of the road not sixty feet away. The kickstand was down, and Spike was nowhere to be seen.

  Courtney glanced right and left. They had blundered, badly. “Get to cover!” she cried.

  Billy was slow to react. He began to back up.

  Courtney was frantic with worry but they gained the trees and ducked down.

  “Where....?” Billy whispered.

  “Beats me,” Courtney said.

  “Maybe my shot did him in,” Billy said. “He made it off his bike but collapsed. One of us should go have a look.”

  “And if it’s trick?”

  “I’ll go and you watch my back.”

  Courtney thought his plan sucked. Before she could say anything, Gaga whined and pressed against her leg. “Not now,” Courtney whispered, and gently gave the dog a light push. “Go back to....” Apprehension shot through her and she swiveled on her heels and gasped, “Dear Lord, no!”

  “Hi there,” Spike said.

  He was crouched behind Sansa, a hand clamped over her mouth, using her as a shield. His other hand held a small semiautomatic pressed to her forehead.

  Sansa’s face was drained of blood, her eyes pools of mute appeal.

  Billy shifted around and went to point his rifle.

  “I wouldn’t, boy,” Spike warned. A blood stain marked his shoulder, and he appeared to be in considerable pain.

  “Damn,” Billy said.

  Spike smirked, then scowled. “You put a slug in me, boy. I owe you, bigtime.”

  “Let Sansa go,” Courtney said. She didn’t have a clear shot. Even if she did, with Sansa that close to him, she didn’t dare use the shotgun.

  “Be serious,” Spike said.

  “You harm that girl....,” Billy said.

  “Spare me your bluster,” Spike said. “She’s my insurance you’ll do as I say.”

  “What is it you want?” Courtney asked.

  “Oh, come on,” Spike said. “You really need to ask?” His eyes were shards of flint. “I want you to lay your guns down and stand with your hands in the air. I want you to turn your backs to me and stay still as hell until I say different. If you don’t, this little sweetie will take two in the brainpan and we let the chips fall where they may.” He paused. “Which will it be?”

  CHAPTER 17

  Courtney hated having to give in. She had no choice, though, with Sansa’s life in peril. She set the shotgun at her feet, then straightened with her arms straight up. “There.”

  “Turn around,” Spike said.

  Her skin prickling, Courtney did.

  “Now it’s your turn, boy,” Spike growled.

  “Like hell,” Billy said.

  “Didn’t you hear me?” Spike said. “This brat is as good as dead if you don’t.”

  “And Courts and I are as good as dead if we do.” Billy was holding the rifle at his waist, leveled at the Claw.

  “Billy,” Courtney said anxiously. “We have to do as he wants.”

  Billy shook his head. “He’s not as smart as he thinks he is. If he shoots her, I shoot him.”

  “You’d risk this brat’s life for a chance at me?” Spike said.

  Billy nodded.

  “Well, then,” Spike shrugged and smiled as if it amused him—and as he smiled, he shoved Sansa toward Billy.

  “Don’t shoot!” Courtney cried.

  Billy fired.

  For a heart-stopping moment Courtney thought he had shot Sansa. But no, Sansa wasn’t hit. Nor, apparently, was Spike, who surprised Courtney by diving into a roll and darting around a pine and out of sight.

  Courtney scooped up the shotgun as Billy worked the bolt on his rifle.

  “Where’d he get to?”

  Courtney was covering the pine. “More important,” she said, “is why didn’t he shoot?”

  “Huh?” Billy said.

  “He could have shot Sansa or you or me. Yet he didn’t.”

  “He didn’t want to take the risk of me getting him,” Billy said. “So he lit out.”

  Courtney would be the last person in the world to compliment Spike, but she had to be honest. “No, I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think he was afraid.”

  “Then why?”

  “I wish I knew,” Courtney said.

  Sansa, trembling in fear, had moved behind her and was holding onto Gaga. “What do we do?”.

  “We go after him,” Billy said. “Hunt him down.”

  “You’re in no condition to hunt anybody,” Courtney said. “And we’re not risking Sansa’s life a second time. We get out of here while we can. Head north after Sally Ann.”

  “And Willis,” Sansa said.

  “There’s two of us and one of him,” Billy said stubbornly.

  “Damn it,” Courtney said. “Use your head. He could pick us off now if he wanted.” She would swear unseen eyes were on them. But she was at a loss to explain what Spike was up to.

  “Every time we turn around,” Billy said, “we’re running from someone or something.”

  “We’re still breathing.” Courtney said. “You go first.”

  To h
er relief, Billy didn’t argue. His hurt arm hung limp as he retreated toward the road. “Come on, then.”

  Courtney held the shotgun ready to shoot. “What are you up to?” she said to the woods. “Can’t you just leave us be?”

  From off in the shadows came a low laugh.

  “I knew you were out there,” Courtney said. When she got no response, she slowly retreated, saying, “If you have any sense you’ll go your own way. We’re not worth the bother.”

  She doubted Spike would reply. But she was wrong.

  “One of you is.”

  Courtney couldn’t pinpoint where he was hiding. She continued to back off until she was out of the trees.

  Billy and Sansa were waiting. Billy looked worse.

  “How are you holding up?”

  “Fine,” Billy said. He gestured. “Let’s get while the getting’s good.”

  Courtney didn’t take her gaze off the woods. They came to Spike’s motorcycle and Billy stepped up to it, smirking.

  “What are you doing?” Courtney said.

  “What does it look like?”

  “Don’t.”

  Billy glanced at her. “We damage it, he has to come after us on foot.” He raised his leg.

  “We don’t damage it,” Courtney said, “we’ll hear him coming from half a mile away.”

  As if to bolster her point, the metallic throb of cycle engines rumbled to the north.

  “That must be Gramps and the Claw that went with him,” Billy said. “They’re coming back.”

  “And Sally Ann was riding with Gramps,” Courtney said.

  “Now we have them to take on and Spike lurking in the trees,” Billy said. “Great. Just great. What next?”

  The underbrush crackled and a zombie shuffled into the open.

  Billy raised his rifle but Courtney pushed the barrel down and ran at the zombie. Thankfully, it was a slow one. It raised its bony finger toward her but she sidestepped and slammed the barrel of her shotgun against its temple. It stumbled, and she struck again, knocking it down. It tried to rise and she kicked it in the head, over and over, her foot hurting but she didn’t care, until finally the thing stopped moving.