Pop. Ooze.
"Don't allow it?" I couldn’t help myself. "Dude. Have you looked in the mirror lately? You aren't exactly in a position to give orders." I cross my arms, still holding my bat in one hand and my knife in the other.
I can see his veins on the normal side bulging on his neck. Clearly, I’m pissing him off. It's a talent of mine.
"My city, my rules," he ground out and then coughs, phlegm landing everywhere.
"Daddy, please, can you give them what they want?" Carra pulls the guy down, whispers in his ear, then kisses his cheek.
"Fine. We have a little to spare.Very little. Get it for them so they can leave," he says gruffly, then looks at us, "and you will leave. I don't want anyone else to think they are welcome to come grab supplies."
Carra wastes no time leaving before he changes his mind.
"What is your deal?" Hensley was curious. I personally didn't give a shit. This man is as good as dead as far as I'm concerned. Hensley, though, has a need to understand things.
"I have no deal. Just protecting what little I have left."
"Well, do you have a name? I'm Hensley and that is my brother, Tieran."
He looks at her like she’s crazy.
"Hens, that's enough. He doesn't want to know us. Besides, he's clearly an abomination."
"Fuck that. I saved his life coming out and stopping you, and I sure as shit ain't calling him daddy. And I want to know how he managed to only half turn." She scoffed.
"Saved my life? You mean Carra saved your brother's life. And, please, don't call me daddy. That would sully the word." His arrogant stance lasts right until I behead him. When you start at the side that is infected, you are already halfway there with rotten meat. The rest comes off like butter.
"David. His name was David." Carra sits the gas can down and runs over to his body. She drops to her knees beside him and weeps openly. "We don't know why he didn't turn all the way. But his normal side protected us."
Hensley looks at me. Well shit. "Look kid, I'm sorry I killed your father, but he was disrespectful to my sister and I couldn't let that go."
"He wasn't my actual daddy. He just liked us to call him that." She sniffles, then points to the gas can. "Anyway, there you go. Please leave; you have caused enough damage."
Not that I will let any stranger tell me what to do, I’m just ready to leave. My problem is when I see the brief glimpse of someone hiding in a bush right by the road we will have to take out of town.
Ambush. Is that how we’re playing it?
Game on.
The streets are silent, and the homes—from the outside, at least—looked as though most of the residents are still sleeping. It doesn’t appear that an apocalypse is in progress.
Then I hear a rustling. Several first-floor residents from what looks like an abandoned apartment building open their windows and drop down into the bushes. They silently creep away from the building until they get some distance towards us, then they break into sprints across the parking lot. They’re all barefoot and still in their sleep-clothes brandishing tools of some sort.
When they reach us, they look down at David, then back at us. A tall woman with a sharp voice looks at me. "You should run."
Hensley holds her bowie, twirling it around, the handle in one hand and the tip of the blade against the tip of her finger, when she casually says, "yeah. We don't do that."
I don't think the crowd expected that. Or the fact that we come out swinging. There’s originally eight people in front of us, not counting Carra. Of those eight people, not one of them knows how to fight. If I have to guess, the weapons and their sheer numbers always works in scaring people off. Not only do they not fight, they don't bother to run away from my homicidal sibling and I. It's like they have a death wish.
All of the residents were dead but two. I grab the nearest weapon on the ground. When you slaughter so many people, it sometimes is a blur. By the time I’m finished with this guy, a claw hammer cracks into his forehead. It bursts the blood vessels in his eyes.
Hensley goes to town on the tall woman. Her temple was struck with such force that her eye socket collapsed. I raise my eyebrow at my sister, who shrugs at me and smiles.
"Hens." I nod my head towards Carra. She nods. "I'll be back." I tell her.
She walks toward the little girl and I walk towards the street. I want to pay the hidden bush man a visit.
When I go there, he isn't there. I don't know if he left or if I imagined the whole damn thing. There’s a brick pole that he can hide around so I walk around it. Before I check anything else, I hear Hensley on the bike coming towards me. I jog out to meet her.