The trail I’d been looking for disappeared into a flat gully. I stayed on the slopes. Should someone surprise me, I didn’t want to be channeled into any narrows. I wanted open ground for sprinting at full speed.
Tire prints appeared in the dirt of the gully. The zombies who had taken Cleto must’ve traveled this way. Large rocks had been placed along the entrance to the gully to make it appear that no vehicle could pass through.
The smell of garbage collected along the bottom of the gully.
How close was I to the zombies?
The gully continued east and I proceeded straight over the rise toward the glow.
Something to my left moved. I slowed and stared at a juniper tree. There was no wind. How did the tree move?
The closer I got to the tree, the stronger the garbage stink. An odor of rotted pork and fruit.
When I got close to the tree, a zombie appeared from between the branches. I growled and bared my fangs.
Strands of filth peeled from the sores on his face and around his open mouth. A torn hat rested on his head. The cowboy zombie.
I picked up speed and circled past him.
He stepped away from the tree and followed. His naked feet crunched through dead cactus. He rubbed the sleeve of his right arm across his belt buckle to keep it shiny.
I slowed to a trot. I didn’t want to move so fast that I’d miss something important. If the zombie got too close, I could bound away.
We crossed the slope into the gulch. Another zombie waited. She stank of dead fish that had washed up and lain in the sun. She had hair the color of tumbleweed and pale eyes like the bellies of dead mice. A long blouse fell to the thighs of a pair of strong legs that ended in tall boots.
I recognized those boots. She’d been the one who had swung from the tree and smashed me on the head.
Cowboy zombie and I passed her. She reached into her blouse for her armpit. She flung a gob of hairy pus. I hopped and let it splatter on the rocks beneath me.
The white glow up ahead became brighter. The groan of an engine drifted through the silence.
Zombies gathered behind me, too many to count at a glance. More zombies circled on the high ground and more in the gulch. Where had so many zombies come from?
They moved quietly; the only sound came from the scraping of their feet through the dirt.
I reached the top of the rise. The engine sound got louder. The glow came from the windows of a house. It appeared much like the other human dwellings that I’d passed. It had large windows and a porch in front. The porch opened to a flat wooden platform. Another set of tall windows was under the platform, showing another level to the house. The house was well hidden until I walked right up the gulch. I trotted down the rise for the house.
Strong odors made me wince. More pungent smells stung my nose.
A zombie in a clean white coat appeared on the porch. His hair was neatly trimmed and combed. He walked onto the porch and looked at me. He remained still while more zombies staggered through a door under the platform. He was all too human-like but had no aura so he was definitely undead.
Was he the reanimator?
The Araneum had said man. So who was this zombie and why was he different from the others?
I trotted in front of the house. Tire tracks rose from the gulch to a large door on the eastern side of the house. This was where they stored their vehicle.
More zombies loomed in the darkness, appearing from behind the scrub junipers. They moved without speaking or gesturing to one another so I wondered how they knew what to do.
I continued past a large container on tall metal legs that smelled of gasoline.
Along the back, I found the source of the groaning sound. It was a big engine connected to cables leading from the house. I couldn’t think of the human word for the machine but I knew it provided electrical power.
This was the zombie farm. The smells of decay and poison. The secret road here. The many zombies.
I knew the location and layout. I’d return with human weapons and leave nothing but ruin.
Zombies stood before me in a half circle. More zombies closed behind me. They moved in loose order as if under someone’s command. Whose? I didn’t hear a thing.
I turned to my right and started up the slope. Zombies appeared from the brush. I turned right again to backtrack. More zombies.
I was penned against the house. Time to escape.
I chose a wide gap between two zombies. I tore into a sprint. They would never catch me.
The sound of more engines echoed from beyond the rise. A machine with four tires bounded to my right. A similar machine bounded to my left. The zombie riders were the large, well-fed hunters from the restaurant.
I couldn’t outrun these two. I spun around to find another way to escape.
A female zombie dove for me. She moved fast and clasped my left hind leg.
I landed on my side, snarling. I snapped at her wrist, severing the hand with one bite. The taste of rotted meat and bitter metals gagged me.
Another hand clutched my fur at the shoulders. Another grabbed my tail.
I scratched and snapped at the zombies. I’d tear apart one hand and another would take its place.
A zombie stabbed me with the stumps of his shredded wrists. He bit my left forepaw and clamped hard.
I ignored the hands clutching me and tore at this zombie’s throat. I chewed through his neck. Zombie yuck flowed into my mouth and I let go, shaking my head, hacking and overcome with nausea.
The zombie’s head remained locked onto my paw like a giant tick.
Zombies piled on top of me, hands gripping fur, legs, and tail.
I howled in fury. I pushed from the ground to shake the zombies off.
The zombies clinging around my neck suddenly let go. This was my chance to break free.
The female zombie in the long blouse and tall boots stood in front of me. She held the loop of a large metal cable. She lassoed my head and yanked hard. The loop bit into my neck, snagging fur and skin.
Hands clutched my legs and tail and pulled with renewed strength. More zombies joined the female zombie. They grabbed the cable and stretched my neck.
The more I struggled, the harder all the zombies held firm. The bones in my neck began to crack.
I fought the pain but unless I stopped resisting, the zombies were going to pull my head off.
I relaxed and hoped they’d do the same.
The zombies quit pulling but they held on to me.
Everyone knew what happened.
I had surrendered.