Zombie Nation

Chapter 1

“I always like California this time of year.” Sherman Chu said to his partner, Jean Emory. They were standing on the top of a building looking down at what looked like a deserted street, waiting patiently.

Jean, looked at him, however she kept her thoughts to herself.

“You can talk, they won't hear, it is too late for them now anyway, we have them.” Jean smiled and shook her head slowly from side to side.

Below them a couple of wasters came out of the building they had been sheltering in for the night, they moved with eerie ease down the block, clinging to the edge of the building near the sidewalk.

“See? We found them.”

Jean smiled, “Sure Sherman.” Her voice barely above a whisper. The two humans on the street below continued to slither along the road, then broke left at the next street and headed towards the outskirts of town. “They move smooth. How many of us have they killed, do you think?”

“Not enough. They didn't even see us. We are not even hiding.”

“Its dark.” she said, her voice dripping like warm honey in the cool night air.

Sherman shrugged, “Shall we?”

The two ran towards the edge of the building and jumped across, spanning the fifteen feet with ease. When they got to the building overlooking the cross street they stopped and looked for their quarry. The humans were nowhere to be seen. Jean smiled faintly.

“I think they have killed a lot of us. I think they played us.” Jean said.

Sherman looked up and down the street using several different spectrum of his sight. “Well I'll be damned. I am inclined to think you are correct. They would not have sent us if these were easy wasters on the loose.”

“Yeah me and a founding father of our great nation. Stun me with your brilliance.”, the sarcasm in her voice came through even at the soft level she was speaking.

“Watch and learn young 'un.” Sherman said in his best southern drawl. The man turned and dropped three stories to the sidewalk below, landing with barely a sound. Jean smirked and went down the old fashioned way, climbing down the face of the building with the ease of a spider.

Sherman looked like a man, if he were alive he would be in his thirties, his hair was black as night, matching his eyes, which were set a bit too far apart and back into his head to make him handsome. He stood about six feet tall and had no facial hair at all, not even a five o'clock shadow. Jean, by contrast was a thin wisp of a girl, about five feet five inches tall and looked to weigh about a hundred pounds soaking wet. Her hair matched Sherman's, however her skin was alabaster, in contrast to his, which was a deep tan.

Sherman bent his head down to the pavement and sniffed, pulling in a lungful of air that he didn't need. Raising his head he pointed down the street. Both of them moved silently, Sherman crouched over pausing periodically to stay on the scent. They moved quickly, gone were the games from the rooftop. The humans had ducked into one of the abandoned buildings and then out the back. Their trail weaved through buildings, over fences, through abandoned cars and down into a ravine with a trickle of water in the bottom. The two in pursuit finally caught sight of their quarry near an old water tower, the two humans were climbing a ladder.

Sherman put his hand over Jean's chest, pausing the both. He crouched and she followed his lead, leaning in close. “What?”

“It makes no sense, they ran all this way, kept to the ground and now they are climbing a tower, with no escape? We better go carefully here Jeanie.”

Jean snorted, “They're human.”, yet she did not move. Taking a look more closely she pointed out a trip wire strung through the grass. Sherman sighted along her hand and nodded.

“An ambush? No way. I haven't had a human try to hurt me for almost a year.” said Sherman seriously, “What does it hurt to wait for a moment? I don't think they are going anywhere, do you? Why don't you go around to the other side, make sure they don't have a way out, then we will close in slowly.”

“Yell if you need me.” said Jean before disappearing.

“Jean.”, Sherman called. Jean paused and looked back at him, “Be careful, these guys are different, right?”

She nodded.

Crouching down Sherman waited, trying to figure out an angle, what were these guys doing here? Sherman was still crouched down when the bullet tore through his chest, passing completely through and into the soil behind him, raising a puff of dust.

“Shit.” he yelled softly as he rolled to his right. Ending on his hand an knees he pushed himself up and into the pine trees, trying to keep his all important head behind the trees. The shot had been silent, no warning. Sherman was slipping, he knew it, too much soft living had dulled his senses. He should have seen the men. Looking around for Jean he could not see her anywhere, another shot thudded into the tree trunk near Sherman's head. He pushed off of his tree and leaped for another forward and down from where he was. His journey could not quite be considered 'flight', although anyone seeing it would assume it was. Forty feet from his original tree he caught a branch and swung himself over, flipping into a completely new direction. Sherman brachiated closer and the rifle fire slowly started to lose track of him. While moving he tried to spy out exactly what was going on up in the tower. He could make out three forms on top of it, they all seemed to be facing his direction, one was messing with some sort of equipment on the top of the tower, while the other two held weapons. Moving, he could not keep sight of them, they were fast, perhaps as fast as he was, which had some very disturbing connotations.

There! He spotted Jean, making her way up one of the tower legs like a super large spider. The men with the guns were getting closer again, they were alternating shots, one would shoot while the other re-loaded. The third person started a fire of some sort. A flame thrower? Sherman wondered, probably not, flames would hurt like a bitch, however it would not kill them. Jean appeared beyond the third man, who did not see her. Whatever the man had set alight took off, it burst into flame and briefly lit up his bearded face and Jean's beyond his. Then the entire scene disappeared in the flash of an explosion that obliterated the four figures on the top of the water tower and knocked Sherman out of his tree. He sprang back to his feet in an instant and darted towards the carnage, the tower, still full of water, had a long ragged tear down one side, water was flooding out of the crack and pooling beneath it. Sherman searched and eventually found the remains of four bodies, none of them were alive.

..home.. next...