“You have two women, a traitor, a fag and an S&M whip.”
“Who are you calling a fag?” Alex asked defensively.
“Shut up, pretty boy.” Calvin said and pointed his shotgun at Alex.
I motioned for Alex to calm down. Calvin was clearly the one in charge in their group and he was in charge of the situation as well.
“You better keep your bitch in order.” Calvin said to me.
I could see from the corner of my eye that Alex was furious. He did not like the word fag very much when it was used to describe him, but he was trying his best to stay calm.
“What do you want?” I asked Calvin.
Calvin looked us up and down and said, “You’re very clean for people who are fighting zombies.”
“And they look well fed.” Derrick added.
“That whip is brand new.” Calvin said, “Your clothes are clean… too clean.”
“So?” Alex asked.
“You have a camp somewhere.” Calvin said, “Or you’re holding up in a house with food.”
“There are houses all over.” I said.
“None of them have any food left.” Calvin said, “We want what you have.”
I had to be careful of what I said next. The man had a gun and seemed desperate; anything could happen.
“We do not have a lot.” I said, “But we are willing to share with you.”
“I don’t think you’re getting what I am saying.” Calvin insisted, “I said we want what you have. I did not say anything about sharing. And I do not think I would want my men to share a house with people who were harbouring a traitor.”
He kept saying traitor. I was not sure what he meant by it.
“I can see he did not tell you.” Calvin said, “Pedro was one of us. He abandoned us when we needed him the most. We were surrounded by hoards of the dead and he decided to steal our food and shack up with his sister in some abandoned house. I lost three of my friends. They were good men who did not deserve to die. If it wasn’t for him leaving us for his sister—”
“So you killed her?” I asked.
“She had a bite mark on her arm.” Calvin said, “I did her a favour. She would have turned, but I will not be as lenient this time.”
I did not trust these guys. Something about them felt terribly off and I had a feeling that they would kill us even if we gave them what they wanted. I slowly laid my hand upon the coiled up whip hanging on my hip. I had to be ready for anything these guys threw at us.
“I do not know what you are talking about.” I said adamantly.
Calvin raised his shotgun at Pedro and pulled the trigger. Pedro’s head exploded and his body collapsed as mom and Michelle screamed in horror on the next roof top.
“That was a warning shot.” Calvin said, “I will not ask you again, next time I will kill someone you care about.”
11
I cautiously removed my hand from the coiled up whip which hung from my belt. I could tell that Calvin was not playing around. I might have super fighting skills to defend us from the dead, but I was not faster than a bullet. There were four of them and four of us. I could not save all three of my companions from a bullet should things go sour.
“Now that I have your attention,” Calvin announced, “Let’s talk business.”
He nudged his head at Derrick who came over and took away my whip. I loved that whip. Alex carefully lowered the pipe and laid it down on the rooftop before kicking it aside. It was better to do what they said and live to see another day in the world of the dead.
“You’re making the right decision to cooperate.” Calvin said.
Calvin turned to me and said, “You look like the one in charge of your little group. I know you aren’t staying in the library. It’s filled with walking dead… or it was. I will make this easy on you; tell us where you’re staying and we will let you live. All we want is the food.”
“Okay.” I finally said.
There was no use arguing with them.
“I will take you to it.” I said with a sigh.
“Good.” Calvin said and nodded, “We aren’t bad people.”
“Then why did you kill that man just now?” Mom called over.
I motioned for her to quiet down and then turned to face Calvin again. He was growing impatient.
“We lost all our food because of him.” Calvin said.
“And so he deserved to die?” Alex asked confused.
“It’s a whole new world out there.” Calvin said, “You either kill or die… or die and kill and I would much rather stay alive. I could not keep a weak link in my chain. He had to go… and so did his good for nothing sister.”
Derrick glanced over the edge of the rooftop and then hurried over to Calvin. He whispered something that rattled Calvin a bit. Both of them walked over to the edge and glanced over. Calvin turned to me and gestured for me to come over to the edge. I was a bit reluctant, but had no choice.
I got to the edge and glanced at the street down below. It was crawling with the undead. There had to be at least a hundred, maybe even more.
“We can’t stay up here forever.” Derrick told Calvin, “They can smell us, you know. They aren’t leaving.”
“We can take most of them out from up here.” Calvin said.
“No.” I pleaded, “Gunfire just attracts more of them.”
“So what do you suggest?” Calvin asked annoyed.
“Hand to hand combat.” I said.
Calvin and Derrick looked at me with completely blank faces. I could not tell whether they understood what I said. They definitely heard what I said, but perhaps they did not understand.
“Are you insane?” Calvin finally asked, “We are outnumbered. It will be suicide.”
I shook my head and said, “I can do it. I just need my whip.”
“No way.” Calvin exclaimed, “I am not giving you your sex toy weapon back.”
“He is pretty good.” Michelle yelled over, “He can take them.”
I looked Calvin in the eyes and it was evident that he was contemplating his next move. Should he trust me or not? Did he have a choice?
“You can trust him.” Mom yelled over.
Calvin nudged his head at Fred and Garth and the two of them jumped over to the other rooftop. Garth pistol-whipped mom in the face and she fell to her knees crying in pain. Every inch of me wanted to jump across and kill both of the men for hurting mom, but my logic told me that they would execute both mom and Michelle before I got there.
“If you try anything,” Calvin said and handed the whip to me, “I will kill both of them.”
I stared at Calvin for a moment before taking the coiled up whip. I had never hated anyone as much as I did at that moment. I wanted to crush his skull with my bare hands, but restrained myself. I did not know how yet, but before the night was over I would kill Calvin. He would not see another sunrise.
“This isn’t over.” I warned him.
“You don’t scare me, little man.” Calvin chuckled.
I wished he choked on his own laugh and died. I glanced back over at the other rooftop and watched as Michelle helped mom to her feet. She held her head back and Michelle tried to help stop the bleeding. Fred and Garth stood with their guns pointed at Michelle and mom. I gave Calvin one final glare and walked over to the fire escape.
Corpses lay on the stairs of the fire escape, but none of the undead in the street below seemed to know how to get up the stairs. I still had no idea how I would slay over a hundred walking corpse. I climbed over the lifeless corpses as I made my way down the fire escape. When I got to the halfway landing, I noticed that a handful of the walking corpses were inspecting the base of the fire escape. I spotted an open area between some of the walking corpses which was about six feet away. I could make it if I jumped.
I vaulted myself over the railing and jumped to the opening below. I landed on my feet and then uncoiled the whip. One by one the surrounding corpses turned around to face me. Most of them had flesh missing from their
blood-stained faces. It was time to step up. It was time to put down the dead and show Calvin and his men that I was a force to be reckoned with.
The zombies were getting closer from every direction and I readied my whip. I heard a growl and then out of nowhere Fluffy jumped and tackled two zombies to the ground. He chomped at the one’s neck and tore its head clean off. Fluffy glanced up at me as if letting me know he has my back and then he started attacking more zombies. At least I had back up, so it shouldn’t take long.
I gripped the handle and with a quick motion of my hand, I threw the whip into a half wave. The end of the whip made a cracking sound as it sliced through the heads of three zombies to my left. I took a split second to savour the satisfactory feeling of handling the whip and then threw the whip into a full wave and the end of the whip decapitated five zombies. Fluffy jumped past me and tackled a nearby zombie to the ground.
More and more of the undead were approaching, which meant I could not slow down. I threw the whip into a loop and sustained the loop as I walked forward. The whip decapitated zombies left and right as it whisked around me. I continued the motion and cut down more and more of the undead. The more zombies approached, the faster I looped the whip and cut them down before they could even get within a foot of me.
All I could see as I walked through the crowd of the dead was the blood-stained faces being severed from their rotting bodies as the whip sliced through their necks. The crowd thinned out and then the last zombie fell. I slowed down the loop and the end of the whip fell to the ground. I scrutinized the vicinity around me; there wasn’t a single zombie left standing. Fluffy barked proudly and ran up to me with his tongue flapping out of the corner of his bloody mouth. I patted his head and then turned around to face the library. Though they were far away and masked by darkness, I could tell from their body language that Calvin and his men were impressed.
I motioned with a wave of my hand that it was safe to come down.
12
Calvin hurried mom down the fire escape by shoving his shotgun muzzle in her back.
“I’m going, I’m going.” Mom said.
Derrick, Fred and Garth led Michelle and Alex down and were less rough with them. There was just something purely evil about Calvin. The way he spoke and walked suggested that he used to be a gangster or something while the others were just survivors that tagged along to stay alive. Gangsters were trouble. They weren’t the suit-and-tie gangsters you saw in movies. Real life gangsters were from the streets and their brutality was unmatched.
“Move.” Calvin yelled and shoved mom again.
They walked down the street and met me in front of a fire hydrant.
“I am impressed.” Calvin said, “You have some pretty good fighting skills for a boy.”
“Thank you.” I said calmly.
Derrick grabbed my whip and stuffed it into his backpack.
“How am I supposed to defend myself?” I asked, “I need my whip. We can be overrun by the undead at any time out here in the street.”
“I’m pretty sure you can get along quite fine without it.” Calvin said, “Now take us to where you hide your food.”
I nodded, but I was not about to lead them to our house on Elm Street. As soon as they got their food they would kill us; perhaps not me, but the others. I turned around and stared down the street. Though I grew up in Kingston Valley, everything looked different at night – especially after the apocalypse happened. Some of the buildings no longer had signs up and a few crashed cars lined the streets.
“Hurry up.” Calvin said while analysing the area.
The air was thick with concern and hatred as the two groups were forced to walk together down the abandoned streets of hell.
Fred jogged up to me while holding his shotgun firmly in both hands.
“That is quite a dog you have here.” Fred said.
“Thanks.” I said, but didn’t really pay attention to him.
“How long did it take you to train a Husky to be an attack dog?” Fred asked.
“I didn’t train him.” I said