October Frights blog hop day 3! #OctoberFrights

4/8/2017

Day three of the blog and I hope you're all having fun!
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Story time! All Good things part 3

He was humming. Loudly. He had been humming for several miles now, the sound started
off quiet, and had gradually gotten louder and louder until it was almost an ear-splitting roar
in my head.
My teeth were grinding together, the crunch of tooth on tooth giving me a splitting headache.
I glanced sideways at him, wishing, not for the first time, that I could shoot lasers from my
eyes and scorch his damn face off. He was looking up to the sky, watching the trees above us swaying in the light breeze, a smile on his face. He must have noticed me staring because he looked down at me, the extra couple of inches that he had over me putting him at around
six foot, compared to my five foot seven.

“It’s not all that bad, not really,” he said, his humming finally ceasing.

I blinked and looked away.

“Come on, you don’t have to be a hard-ass all the time, Andy.” He slapped a hand on my
shoulder and my nostrils flared at him until he removed his meaty paw. “Sorry,” he murmured
and looked away. "I'm just saying that you don't always have to look at things like it's the end of the world."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "But it IS the end of the world!" I hissed.

He glanced across and smiled. "Or is it just the start?"

I looked away in disgust. He was a fucking idiot.
We continued on for another mile before the sun began to duck below the horizon and dusk
began to fall. We needed to set up camp for the day, find something to eat and drink, rest,
yada yada. It was a never ending cycle of survival. But I can't say I hated it. My whole life had been built around survival.
Only now the monsters were dead instead of alive.
Besides, the monotonous constant cycle was something that I clung to. In school they had
said it was merely low level OCD. In college they said it was extreme OCD. By adulthood, everyone that knew me, knew that there was something majorly wrong with me. I loved that it
had taken them so long to draw that conclusion, it had given me time to perfect my skills. And by that point, there was no chance that anyone could stop the journey I had set out on.

“We need to stop for the day,” I said, pulling the map out of my backpack and unfolding it.

“Thank God, I’m beat,” he replied, wiping the sweat from his brow.

I examined the map, seeing that about a quarter of a mile off track there was an old
maintenance shack, and I pointed at it.
“You sure?” Conrad frowned, not looking convinced. I silenced his question with a glare and
folded the map up back up, and we set off.

*

The shack was in surprisingly good condition, considering. Most of these places tended to be almost wrecked beyond their usefulness, and more than once we had had to keep on moving
to find another place to stay for the night. Yet this place still had a door on its hinges and a
roof overhead. Not bad going by all accounts.
Unfortunately there was ten or so zombies surrounding it, which meant two things. One, that
there was at least one person inside, and two, we had to deal with these zombies before we
got to that prize. And this many zombies, meant I had to be traitorous to my kind once more
and kill me some zombies.

One by one they caught hold of our scent, slowly turning with low, guttural growls to face us.
My stomach pinched in anxiousness and self-hatred, knowing that what I was about to do
was not good. It went against every damned instinct in my body to kill these soldiers. But there was no other choice, not with this many.

“Get out your blade,” I growled at Conrad.

“You can’t handle this on your own?” he laughed nervously, trying to goad me into taking
care of this all my own. But I couldn’t, there was just no way I could kill this many in one go
and not go insane with regret.

“Get your blade out, and earn your keep, man.” I stepped forwards, mirroring the zombies
in front of us, and with an ache in my belly that had more to do with remorse than hunger, I
began hacking away at their rotting bodies.

At some point, Conrad joined in, though I wasn’t sure when exactly that happened. As their
black blood rained down on me, and their teeth snapped but never found purchase, I took
them down. I rammed my hatchet into the back of a child zombie’s skull, watching as the bone crumbled beneath the heavy metal, and she fell to her knees forever silent. I swallowed,
squeezing my eyes shut at the sight of her poor dead body, and wishing that I could take it
back. Begging a god that never listened to take back my terrible actions. This kid didn’t
deserve to die, she deserved to be the queen in this messed up world. She was weak,
yet equally strong, dead, yet more alive than me. And I was a goddamned murderer.

Conrad slapped a heavy hand on my back and cheered. “Yeah, we did it! Fuck you
zombies,” he laughed, kicking the head of the poor dead kid at my feet. My hand tightened
around the handle of the hatchet, knowing I couldn’t take another damn minute of his.
He. Had. To. Go.
I took a steadying breath, flexed my shoulders and turned to face him, before raising my
hatchet to shoulder level. His eyes widened as my intentions became clear, and he backed
up a step.

“Come on, Andy, we’ve been friends a long time,” he pleaded, his voice sounding whiny and pathetic, just like him.
I gritted my teeth, my mouth quirking up in a grin. “I don’t have any friends.”

“Hello? Is someone out there?” the soft female voice sang out from the shack, and Conrad’s
gaze drifted over my shoulder.

“Err, yeah, we saved you, you can come out now.” He looked back to me, his expression almost desperate. “Come on, one last hoo haa, for the road, huh? How about it?”

Copyright Claire C. Riley 2017

Look out for part four tomorrow!

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Here's the link to the list of participating blogs! Make sure to go visit them all!

Welcome to the October Frights Blog Hop!

A cadre of horror and paranormal authors are offering chills and thrills from October 10th-15th.
We have stories, books, giveaways and more! Come along the dark path for all the scares!

1. http://afstewartb...Are You Afraid of the Dark?
2. girlzombieauthors...GirlZombieAuthors
3. Jim-Mcdonald.netJames P McDonald
4. www.debbiechristi...CURIOSITIES - Debbie Christiana
5. letaphawk.wordpre...Hawk's Happenings
6. alicedesampaiokal...Alice de Sampaio Kalkuhl
7. carmillavoiez.wix...Carmilla Voiez Horror Author
8. stephanieayersaut...Stephanie Ayers
9. mhablas.blogspot....McCallum J. Morgan
10. blog.danitaminnis...Danita Minnis
11. www.solitaryminds...Philip Harris
12. www.authorcarolin...Caroline A. Gill
13. frightenme.weebly...Naching T. Kassa
14. ourwriteside.com OWS Ink
15. katiemjohn.blogsp...Katie M. John
16. www.authorsloanem...Sloane Murphy
17. laviniaurban.blog...Lavinia Urban