October Frights Blog Hop Day 4! #OctoberFrights

21/12/2016

It's day 4 of the blog hop, and day 4 of my short story. I hope that you're enjoying it.
I had great fun writing it. I actually wrote it last year with the intention of writing it as a full
book, and who knows, maybe I will one day.
Make sure to enter the huge rafflecopter and enter my giveaway from yesterday. And for a
new giveaway for any ebook of mine of your choice, all you have to do is share this blog,
then come back here and leave a message saying that you've done it. I'll pick a random
winner at the end of the week.

Moving on.
Here's part four of the story - ALL GOOD THINGS.

Story time! All Good Things!

The idea was promising, and he was playing to my one weakness, but I vowed that I would
make him pay. I would claim some vengeance for my zombie brethren, just not right now.
I turned around, a smile lighting up my face as the door swung open and a timid woman
peered out into the early evening sky.
“Well hi there,” I said, and took a step forwards. I always put people at ease, with my soft features and warm smile. Little did they know.

The woman stepped fully outside, her legs naked and her ass barely covered by a small pair
of denim cut offs. Conrad lurched forwards, eager, always so eager. I stepped in front of him, halting him in his tracks. She was a petite thing, her arms slender but toned. She had
runners’ legs, strong and lean, and on her feet were an old pair of Nike Airs. It was always so amazing how people learned to adapt and survive. This chick was using what came naturally
to her—running. It was clever. The only thing wrong with that plan was that sooner or later,
you got backed into a corner and everything came crashing down around you. It didn’t matter
how fast you could run when you were trapped. This shack was her proverbial corner, and
Conrad and I would send her world crashing down around her.

Her eyes scanned the ground, seeing the many dead zombies and she shuddered before breathing a sigh of relief. Clearly she hadn’t realised how many zombies had been surrounding
the shack. Her usual tactic of running and hiding had failed, and she would have been screwed without us…hell, she was screwed with us, she just didn’t know it yet.

She walked towards us, stepping over the zombies, one of them wasn’t completely dead, and
its jaws snapped up at her as she moved around it. She pulled out a large flip knife from her pocket and knelt down and stabbed it right through the eye with more strength and
determination that I would have expected from her, and I was glad that I had stopped Conrad
from going straight after her. The zombie was silenced for its last time and the smile fell
from my face.

She stood back up, putting her knife away and dusted off her hands on her bare thighs. She looked over at us, a tentative smile playing on her mouth and flipped her shoulder length
brown hair over her shoulders.
“At least I’ve helped a little now, huh,” she said with a light laugh. The sound a soft tinkling in my ears that made me want to stick my hands down her throat and rip out her vocal chords. “I’m Sarah.”

“I’m Andy, and this is Conrad,” I replied as Conrad moved away from me before I could stop him.
It didn’t matter though, she was now too far away from the shack to escape back inside, and too close to us to get away.
She had walked right to her death.

Her eyes widened. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen him until now; he was six foot tall and had been stood directly behind me, but she hadn’t paid him any mind because she'd been focused on me. But the thing with Conrad, and possibly one of the very reasons that I kept him around, was that he was dangerous. At least to vulnerable women like this, and the way he leered over at her let her know his sadistic intentions immediately.

He had been being escorted across the state in police custody for rape and murder, when the apocalypse had hit. Of course he preferred a clean kill like strangling, but I could still appreciate how he liked to watch the life drain from those women’s eyes while he defiled their bodies.
He was an innocent idiot ninety percent of the time. That was until provided with a play toy
like this poor woman.

She backed up a step, but it was too late. She’d waited too long before seeing the danger
stood directly in front of her. The wolf hiding in the woods, ready and eager to tear her apart.
She turned and began to run, a scream escaping her soft pink lips as Conrad’s body ploughed
into hers and they tumbled to the ground together in a mass of limbs and zombie parts.
I hadn’t even seen him move, he’d been that quick, and I let my mouth stretch back into a
wide grin.

“No, please, no!” she cried out, looking at me with deep brown, pleading eyes. I had no idea why women always thought I would try and stop Conrad, why I would put my own life, or needs on the line for them. It was illogical, yet this wasn’t the first time that it had happened. “Andy! Please, please help!”

She fought Conrad’s groping hands off her, but it was a pointless battle, and I watched for a
few moments in eager anticipation. This was the part that I liked, the fight to the death, the life ebbing away, the horror struck expressions of victims. It was a beautiful sight.

His meaty hand slapped over her mouth, shutting off her screams and cries and leaving
behind only a mumble and her muffled sobbing. I grinned and began walking, stepping
around their writhing bodies and entering the shack to see how it would suffice for the night.

It was dark inside, a single filthy skylight in the roof providing almost all the lighting. There were blankets on the ground in a heap, and a backpack, opened up. I got down on my haunches and looked through the contents, finding some homemade jerky and some canned tomatoes.
I stuck some of the jerky in my mouth and began to chew as I stood back up and continued to survey the small space, checking draws and cupboards for anything that might be of use.

After a thorough search, I found nothing good, other than the woman’s jerky, canned tomatoes
and the pile of blankets, of which I was more than happy to have. I ate another piece of jerky, chewing slowly and savouring the flavour as I sat down on one of the decrepit wooden chairs
next to the dusty desk. I pulled out the map, but it was too dark to really see anything now.
It had gone quiet outside again, the groans and muffled cries silenced, until it was just the cool night air to keep me company.

I let my thoughts drift, thinking over those poor dead zombies that we had to kill, and saying a small prayer for them all. One day I would have the courage to become one of them, to belong,
but not today.
I bit my lip, hating that I still hadn’t found the inner strength to take the ultimate plunge. To make the ultimate sacrifice. I knew it was my calling, I felt it, deep within me, like a calling from my soul to belong. But something continued to stop me. Pain had never been something that I had feared, but for some reason, I still couldn’t find it in me to do it.

I swallowed my own cowardice, the acid in my gut bubbling away and giving me a stomach
ache. I looked up as Conrad’s large shadow filled the doorway. He was grinning from ear to ear, a sick look of satisfaction covering his ugly face.

“She’s all yours,” he said, still a little breathless from his exertions.

He came in and sat down on the blankets, running a hand through his thinning hair.
Even in the darkness I noticed the slight tremble in his hands, the rush of adrenaline coursing through his body.
I stood up, passing him on my way out. The stench of sex and sweat emanating from him in waves.
“Thank you,” I said on my way out. Because I knew it must have taken great willpower to
stop himself from killing her himself. Perhaps it was fear that had stopped him, or perhaps
respect for me, either way he was a stronger man than I was, because I knew I wouldn’t be
able to stop once I started.

Copyright Claire C. Riley 2017

Come back tomorrow for part five!