A soft crunching sound came from behind him. Glancing over his shoulder Hon saw another man, who he mistook for Greg at first glance. The guy was tall and thin and had the same kind of brown stocking cap on that Greg wore. When he realized it wasn't Greg, the man had a beard and Greg always shaved, Hon started to turn around and aim the gun at him. The man shook his head and held up one hand, palm facing Hon, in a stop gesture. He raised a single finger to his lips and smiled. Looking at the guy Hon realized he had to be alive, for one thing he was dressed just as warmly as Hon was, most zombies they had seen in town had been in summer clothing even two months ago when it was cold. Zombies didn't dress up against the cold. The man was not carrying a gun or rifle, which was a strike against him as far as Hon was concerned; most of the living went around armed. Then he shifted slightly and Hon caught a glimpse of a small double barreled shotgun slung over his shoulder.

  The man continued to smile and crouched down twenty feet up the trail from the boy, trying to peer through the trees at the zombie. Hon raised his rifle slightly, miming as if to take a shot with it. The man shook his head and held up four fingers with one hand while pointing different directions with his other one. 'What?' Hon mouthed, not saying anything, the man pointed at Hon, raised one finger, then pointed at himself and raised another finger, then he gestured back and forth at the two of them and held up two fingers.

  Hon nodded, then the guy pointed towards the zombie and held up four fingers. Looking back at the zombie Hon didn't see four zombies, he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the man on the trail. The man pointed towards the pine tree in front of Hon and made a 'brushing' gesture as if shooing away a fly. 'I can't hide in the branches.' he thought, 'I'd leave a trail.' While he was looking at the tree he saw the zombie creeping along his path towards the base of the trail, much as Hon had done minutes before. Behind him the man violently made as if to push Hon into the tree and finally Hon nodded and pushed into the heavy snow laden branches at the base of the tree. To his surprise the branches parted and dumped him into a tight clear area onto a bed of dry pine needles surrounding the base of the tree. Behind him the man stepped up to the hole he had made and looked out at the zombie from where Hon had been a moment before.

  The man brushed up against the tree, knocking some more snow off of it and covering Hon's entrance into the base. Hon then saw him creep quietly back up the trail towards the mountain top. 'He's leaving me!' Hon thought, wanting to call out for the man not to go. Then the man paused, looked back and deliberately walked off the path into some unblemished snow. The soft crunching sound barely reached Hon's ears, but the effect on the zombie was immediate. Hon could not see the creature from where he was hidden, but he heard it start to run up the path. The unknown man turned and bolted towards the top of the hill, quickly leaving Hon's range of vision. Peering out from his hiding spot Hon saw the boot clad zombie move into sight and skip to a stop by his tree. The white skin of the thing's back was facing Hon and he brought his gun up as Bubba had taught him. The zombie turned and looked at the tree, he got down and examined the snow where Hon had pushed through to the space underneath the lowest branch, then quickly stood up and spun around to face the top of the hill. More crunching sounded and the first man was joined by two others, a zombie girl, perhaps fourteen years old and another man, this one was dressed in the rags of a business suit, the jacket had started out as dark blue, but was not coated with black streaks and globs of dried blood.

  "What?" asked the suit.

  "He is here." said the bare chested zombie.

  "Where?" asked the girl.

  "Up there Tonya!" said the half-naked zombie, "His tracks are right here. I want you to go around to the other side, go fast and try not to make any noise. Harvey you go around the other way, this guy won't get away this time. And for God's sake be quiet!"

  "You going up and over the top Reggie?" asked Harvey. Tonya had already turned and fled from Hon's sight.

  "Yeah, but I gotta be careful, the guy has a gun and I know Xavier would be pissed if I get myself killed."

  "So we take him down, capture not kill?"

  Reggie stared at the man as if the questioner were an idiot, "Of course! You weren't thinking of feeding were you?"

  "I'm just saying...we eat him well away from these guys, bury him deep, make sure he don't come back and who is to know?"

  "Maybe..."

  A third voice, feminine, called out, "He'll know."

  "Fuck." swore Reggie.

  "That you Maggie? Xavier wants to see you."

  "No he doesn't. He told me he didn't want to see me ever again. So I am free of him at last."

  "Not quite, he can still catch you and it won't be pretty." said Reggie.

  "He won't catch me, I know where he is, off in town trying to get high probably, or messing with some of your brothers and sisters. Someone needs to put a bullet in that fuckwad's head."

  "Yeah, like us?"

  "That would be good, but I know it isn't possible." Zombies had an ordered society, those who made other zombies could control their children and grandchildren. If a zombie became powerful enough he could control other zombies not directly of his linage as well. It was rare for a 'descendant' to kill his maker.

  "So who then?"

  "One of these two groups you are playing with. Make a hole, let one get through, they kill Xavier, then we all go our own way."

  "Why are still around Maggie?" asked Reggie, "If I were you, I'd be a million miles away by now."

  "Where am I supposed to go? This area is pretty much deserted of anyone capable of hassling me, except for Xavier. When he is gone I could settle down here...."

  "And what? Raise a family? Catch up on some reading? Watch a little television? Tell me, what are you going to do Maggie?"

  "Well, I am not sure what I will do, but I know damn well I won't be under someone else's thumb. So sure, I could catch up on my reading, it would be a damn sight better than having the living shit kicked out of me twice a month or made to have..."

  Reggie, raised his hands and made a brushing off gesture with them, "We've all been there, we all hate him. We just didn't get the break you did."

  "Tell me Reggie, does sucking up to him work at all? You're dressed like he is, does he even notice?"

  "Fuck you."

  "We've traveled that road before, as I recall, it was bad for both of us. You didn't act convincing enough. Let's cut to the chase; be sloppy, leave a hole, let someone with a gun get through and do the job we all know needs doing."

  Turning to the other zombie Reggie said, "Harvey, you better get moving if we are to cut this douche bag off. Go."

  Harvey made as if to protest, but Reggie 'pushed' him mentally, Harvey was lower in the pecking order and, reluctantly, he went. Reggie stood for a few minutes and Maggie didn't say anything until Hon couldn't hear any footsteps anymore, then she spoke, "So you're in?"

  "As much as I can be. How am I supposed to know this isn't some staged trap by Xavier? That he orchestrated this whole thing to see who was against him?"

  The woman's laughter answered him, then she said, "That is the question isn't it? This is just the type of shit he would pull too. I suppose it comes down to having a little faith, I hate him as much as you and even if I were in on this I wouldn't mind the plan going awry and Xavier getting plugged on 'accident' because he was too clever."

  Reggie stood there a moment, contemplating, then he said, "I am in. He could kill me or stomp me flat to regress me back to a mindless zombie, but at this point there is not much else he can do that he doesn't on a weekly basis."

  "So the imitation doesn't help then?"

  "No, not much." Reggie agreed. "You wanna help us catch this guy?"

  "Catch him? You won't catch him, no way. You've played tag with him for the last month and never came close."

  "You know that?"

  "I got nothing better to do right now, so I watch and wait, this is a guy you won't catch. What I wonder is why he let you get this close?'

  "And what was he doing with the sled?" asked Reggie.

  "Sledding?"

  "I kinda doubt that. Do you think he was going to make contact with the men in the warehouse?"

  "Maybe."

  "I'll ask him when we catch him."

  "Prepare for disappointment my friend." said Maggie, "I'll keep an eye on you, watch your back when I can."

  "I appreciate that. I won't turn you in."

  "Unless he forces you to."

  "His ego it too large, he thinks you are gone, you know, the way I would have been. He hasn't mentioned your name in two weeks now."

  "It is good to be out of the picture. You better get moving if you plan on getting close."

  "'Bye Maggie."

  "'Bye Reggie."

  Chapter 10

  Later that morning Maggie was walking carefully through the woods, seemingly at random she stopped by a huge pine tree and said, "I don't know how you do it."

  A man stepped out from behind the tree, his double barreled coach gun aimed at Maggie's head. She smiled, "I couldn't catch you either, if it makes you feel better."

  The man nodded his head and shrugged.

  "Well, I've planted the seed. I still think you could get Xavier yourself, you seem pretty comfortable moving around among us."

  He shook his head.

  "Cat got your tongue?"

  The man looked hurt and gestured with his gun for Maggie to move back.

  Holding her hands up Maggie said, "Sorry! Sorry that was uncalled for, but I am getting impatient! It has been over a month and Xavier is still walking the earth, I want him dead. Why haven't you gone to talk to the men in the warehouse?"

  Shaking his head the man gestured again for Maggie to move along. "Okay, alright, no need to be rude, I will go. Wait...can I ask you another question?"

  The man hesitated, then nodded his head.

  "It is going to be soon though? We are going to kill Xavier soon?"

  The man's reply was a short, curt nod.

  Maggie forced some breath between her teeth, it came out as a hissing whistle, "Good. That is good to hear. See ya Jaye, and good luck with whatever it is you're up to."

  The man grunted and watched as Maggie trudged away into the bright noon day sun.

  Chapter 11

  "Bubba! Bubba!" screamed Hon as he rushed back into the building. "Bubba, there's zombies outside! Smart ones!"

  The men were outside standing by the grills, cups of coffee in their hands. Hon's pronouncement brought their guns out in an instant. Bubba rushed over and grabbed the boy, checking him for injuries.

  "You hurt Hon? Are you hurt? Did they catch you?"

  "No Bubba, they didn't. There's another guy, he is alive, but he hid me in a tree and then led the zombies away from me. They took my sled! I almost shot one, but the guy told me not too, he said there was more than one out there and he was right. Even though I couldn't see anyone else at first there were three other ones. All smart ones and they talked...."

  Greg and Steve were each taking up position at two different doors into the warehouse. There was one near the office and another near the huge bay doors. Both men shook their heads 'no' to Jed's questioning glance.

  "They talked?" Jed prompted, "What'd they talk about?"

  "They talked about someone named Savior and Maggie and Reggie and Harvey and some other girl was there. I didn't see the one they called Maggie, just the other girl and Reggie and Harvey. Reggie wasn't wearing a shirt, only black pants so I knew right away he was a zombie. I saw him first...then the other guy."

  "Whoa-whoa there Hon, slow down, you need to explain to us what happened really slow. First, did they follow you back?" asked Jed.

  Hon looked around and shook his head, "No I waited. I waited and waited for a long time until everyone was gone. I came out and looked around real careful, like Bubba taught me, there wasn't anyone around. And my sled was gone."

  "Okay, you weren't followed. Now you took your sled out this morning and what happened?"

  "I saw tracks, not my tracks, but other ones. At first I thought they were from a deer, but I checked, and I knew when I got close they weren't from an animal."

  "How?" asked Bubba.

  "There were boot tracks, not hooves. But I think they were from the human guy, not the zombie."

  "What makes you think that?" asked Jed.

  "Well I went up the path a little bit, the one that goes to the top of the mountain, the tracks went that way and then I heard noise behind me. I left the sled back there, and I went up the path real fast, to where it goes between the two pine trees. Once I could hide I turned around and looked and saw the zombie with no shirt drop out of the trees. Then the human guy was behind me, I didn't hear him at first, but it's like, well, I don't know...I guess I musta heard him. I pointed my gun at him, but he looked alive."

  "Why?"

  "He had on coats and stuff, and goggles, I couldn't even see his face, but at first I thought it was Greg. The guy he motioned at me to stay still and I pointed my gun back towards the zombie. But the human guy shook his head 'no', and got me to figure out there was more than one zombie. I didn't think he had a gun, but when he turned a little I saw he had a gun like Bubba's, only shorter."

  "My shotgun?"

  "Yeah, with the two barrels side by side."

  Bubba and Jed continued to coax the story out of Hon while the other two kept watch. When they felt that they had gotten everything they could out of him, Jed straightened up and said, "Well gentlemen I think we may have a problem."

  "What are we gonna do Jed?" asked Bubba.

  "I think we need to arm the perimeter and keep watch in pair, with Hon staying up a little late to help out, then sleeping and getting up a little early in the morning. Bubba we'll leave Steve and Greg where they are for now, Hon you keep your gun handy and wait while your dad and I get the packages we have all made up for this situation deployed."

  "Geez I dunno Jed, those bombs..."

  "Those bombs are what Bubba? Too powerful? You heard the boy, he was hearing four of the tough zombies talk about another one, at least! That is five of the fast ones. I never saw more'n two of them at once, I know my limits. We get the bombs out and then I crawl up on the roof for a look around to see what I can see."

  "They just...I mean it is the dead of winter here, those things could take out the whole place!"

  "That's why we got the backup location ready." Jed was talking about another warehouse, much like this one where there were two more recreational vehicles and a stock of food, in addition to another two pickup trucks and good supply of guns and ammunition. Hon had been told to never go into the warehouse and he never had, despite his curiosity.

  "Alright, fine. You're probably talking sense."

  "Let's do this then."

  Within twenty minutes the two men had moved special barricades in place by both doors and had slid the wooden cover off of what Hon had thought was another pile of crates sitting in front of the bay doors.

  "What's that stuff?" Hon asked Bubba.

  "Hmm? Hillbilly surprise. See we're all in here, the baddies are all out there, we push the rod up against the door there on the side that swings and when the people outside try and open the door, it pushes a trigger and then..." Bubba made an exploding sound with his mouth, while raising his hands and spreading his fingers. "No more door, no more side of the building on the warehouse across the way either."

  "What is the loop for?" Hon was asking about the corded loop that the men had tied to the door handles.

  "Well some of these things, they are really strong. So Jed, well he has a mind that is devious and all, he thought they might be able to pull the door off the hinges, so he made a pull trigger too. If they pull the door off...Ka-boom!"

  "Wow."

  "Yeah and he has ropes up in the cat walk too, so he can trigger the bombs manually too."

  "What about us? Is it safe?"

  "About as safe as we can make it. We'll hide out over there, on the other side of the office. Plus remember those holes in the floor that we kept having you clean out until you just put duct tape over them?" Hon nodded. "Well we slid some pig iron down into them and put up metal plates to kind of channel the blast outwards instead of inwards."

  "So we'll be okay?" Hon's voice had picked up a slight southern twang and it seemed to come through especially when he spoke softly, which he was doing now.

  Looking at the boy's face Bubba said, "Don't you be scared Honey boy! We may look and act like country bumpkins, but we know a thing or three. Jed was in the military and he did explosive stuff while there. He could tell you stories about mines and bombs that would make your head spin, so we made this place as safe as we could."

  "Is it true what he said?"

  "About what?" asked Bubba, thinking the boy was referring to Jed calling him the boy's father.

  "That you've only ever faced two of the smart zombies at once?"

  "Well, sure. We saw our share of smarter zombies too, not exactly the strongest, fastest kind, but plenty to give us experience in dealing with them. Why are you worried about that Hon?"

  "I thought....well I thought you might have seen more than that. All at once I mean."

  "No sirree and I don't think anyone who has lived to talk about it either. So dealing with five of them will be a challenge, but, like I said, we have a few surprises of our own. How many of these fast ones have you see at once Hon?" asked Bubba, genuinely curious, the boy still hadn't opened up about his past very much.

 

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