Xander almost cried in relief when they made it through the brunt of the zombies and were stopped by a guard.

"Oh thank G.o.d," he said nearly collapsing.

"What happened to the rest of you guys?" the guard asked.

"Dead," was his one word reply.

"Holy s.h.i.t, come on follow me. Kong gave us all orders that if any of you stumbled back to come and meet him personally without the woman." n.o.body wanted to use Eliza's name, as if to speak it was to invoke her presence. And n.o.body wanted that cold beauty next to them. "Tell Kong I've got two coming," the guard said, speaking into a small two-way radio.

"Roger that, bring them out to Dowboin road and have them wait," the man on the other end said.

"Chaz, man, you alright?" the guard asked.

"I need to bury my brother," he answered through a mourning haze.

"We will, man, we will. You want some help carrying him?" the guard asked.

"It's just for a little while longer I can do it," Chaz said.

It was another ten minutes through their circuitous route that the men found themselves on the roadway that led into the Talbot compound.

Kong was waiting impatiently. "You can go back to your post," he told the guard. "What happened?" he asked when the guard was out of range.

"We never had a chance," Xander said. "They were waiting for us. Killed the first four through the door including Chaz' brother before we even knew what was going on."

"And the rest of you?" Kong asked.

"Chaz made us put down our weapons when the guy inside, Mike I think his name was, said that if he wanted to keep his brother alive that's what we had to do. Chaz shot Ned when he didn't want to. So when all of our guns were gone, he takes our vials except for Pete's and Adam's. Pete shot most of his foot off when he tried to hide his gun and Steve pushed him into the trench, so that he could take his vial."

"What a cl.u.s.ter f.u.c.k, where is Steve?"

"He fell into the pit, a few zombies ate him."

"Christ on a cracker! What the f.u.c.k am I going to tell Eliza? She'll want me to a.s.semble another team. The men already think this Mike guy is supernatural."

"He is," Xander replied.

"What?" Kong asked.

"I'm telling you, man, there's something different about this guy, he's not normal. He was just in a gun battle and was as cool as a cuc.u.mber. Eliza is as mean as a rattlesnake, he is the rattlesnake. Why are we here Kong? What is it about this guy she hates so much? I think I deserve to know," Xander said.

"Deserve? You're better off not knowing," Kong told him.

"I think we earned the right to know," Chaz said, standing up from where he had laid his brother down. "Is the b.i.t.c.h even human?"

"I'm telling you, Chaz, you're better off just leaving it alone," Kong told him, trying to placate the other man.

"We've loaded trailers full of zombies and hauled them close to a thousand miles to fight a guy that has wiped out two insertion teams and killed my brother and you're telling me to mind my own business? Well f.u.c.k you, Kong!" Chaz shouted.

Kong punched the man so hard in the side of the temple, Chaz' legs locked up before he pitched over. "You got a problem with that?" Kong asked Xander.

Xander was backing up holding his hands in front of him. "No, man."

"Get him up and help him bury his brother," Kong said as he turned to relay the bad news to the one really in charge.

"There's something else, Kong," Xander said. "The zombies...they're acting weird. Yeah I know, but even weirder for zombies. There's a seven- or eight-foot deep trench, and it's lined with spikes and fire it's pretty nasty business. The zombies they won't even try to get over it. They're just standing there."

"Are they looking down the trench?" Kong asked.

"No, that's the thing, I don't think they give two s.h.i.ts about the trench. They're every one of them looking up at the house like they're under a spell or something. It's f.u.c.king creepy. The ones outside the fence keep moving in, then they stop. I noticed it when we were going in, and especially when we were leaving, because we were trying to get around them."

"I expected to have Michael's head by now," Eliza said.

Most people would say that as a euphemism, Kong knew she meant it literally. "The team is back."

"And yet I see none of the Talbots," Eliza said, looking around with an exaggerated swing of her head.

"Only two of them made it back," he told her hopelessly, hoping that would appease her.

"Did they exact any type of revenge for their losses?" Eliza asked.

"No," Kong answered honestly.

"Perhaps some of the Talbots were mortally wounded?" Eliza asked.

"No, Eliza."

"So twelve of your finest men were slaughtered and it appears that Michael has not so much as suffered a stubbed toe?" she asked, more of a smile showing on her lips than her normal sneer.

"It would appear that way," he told her, wishing that right now he was anywhere except here. He would gladly even go back to 2005 and relive the worst day of his life over if it would help him escape this h.e.l.l. He had been living in Connecticut with his wife of seven years-Madeline. He had just accepted a long distance haul to bring components to a Californian firm in Silicon Valley. The pay was something the couple could not refuse, although, being away from home for ten days was not sitting well with him. Leaves blew around his yard on the bl.u.s.tery fall day, his wife blew him a kiss and he pulled out of the driveway.

He had made it all the way to Colorado when he received word from his company that InTech had gone belly up and he was to bring the shipment of electronic components back to the distributor in Ma.s.sachusetts. His pay would be cut, but it would save him two days away from his home and for that he was grateful.

The car in his driveway was not familiar and he parked his Chevy pick-up truck behind the late model BMW. He moved quickly to the front door, fumbling with his keys as he began to live the nightmare of so many other long distance haulers. He could hear his wife's first words, 'I have needs!' she would yell.

Fear adrenaline blasted through his veins making the delicate action of slipping a key into a lock exceedingly difficult. He heard her cries of pa.s.sion as he opened the door. He looked to the kitchen and the butcher block knife holder. "f.u.c.k that, I'll crush his throat with my hands," he said as he tore down the hallway.

The bedroom door was open. Why would it be closed? They had no children and he wasn't expected home for another forty-eight hours. It took him many heartbeats to reconcile the sight he saw in his bedroom with what he thought he was going to see. His wife was sitting up in her bed, tears were streaking down her face as an older gentleman sat on the bed next to her, he was holding her hands. A small satchel sat on her nightstand.

"What," he said loudly, "is going on, Madeline?" His words getting quieter with each progressive syllable.

The older gentleman turned.

Madeline struggled to look through her natural waterfall. "Kong," she sniffed. "What are you doing home?" Her words sounding guilty, but her actions belied that.

"What is going on?" Kong asked even quieter than before. His mind noticing the twin snakes wrapped around the pole emblazoned on the satchel. At that moment he hoped-no, he prayed-they were playing doctor.

"My name is Dr. Corren," the elderly man said, standing up. He walked over to Kong extending his hand.

Kong knew that most men that had just f.u.c.ked another's wife didn't generally shake the hand of the jilted. Kong reluctantly accepted the man's gesture. "Hi," Kong said, staring at the man's hand as if it contained the answers he sought.

"I'm a friend of Maddie's dad. I've been their family physician since she was in diapers," he said, smiling back at Madeline. "Maddie's mom, Gwen, asked me to stop by."

"Stop by? Maddie's from West Roxbury. You practice in this neighborhood now?"

"Not quite."

"Doc, you made a hundred mile house call?" Kong asked.

"For Maddie there would be no limits," the doctor answered.

Madeline was still crying.

"Maddie?" Kong asked, looking past the smaller man.

"I'm going to let you two be alone. Maddie, you call me if you need anything. Do you understand?" He waited until she answered. He walked over and kissed her forehead. The tenderness of the gesture made Kong realize that the doctor knew he would never have the opportunity to do that again.

Kong walked the doctor out, for a quick moment he thought about following him; irrationally thinking that if he waited the two days until when he was supposed to come home, that this waking nightmare would be over by then.

"Maddie?" Kong asked as he walked back into the room.

She broke out into fresh sobs as he approached.

"How bad is it?" he asked, sitting where the doc had been, a ghost of his body heat still present. For a moment, Kong resented the man's presence in his bedroom.

"I have stage-three pancreatic cancer."

Kong's world spun sideways, he had heard about people having vertigo, but never experienced it himself until just that moment. Had he not been sitting on the edge of the bed, he knew that he would have toppled over. As it was he had to place both hands on the mattress to keep from tipping over onto his wife.

She started to talk rapidly as she was apt to do when she was nervous; something he usually found endearing, but he kept hearing words, like cancer, and chemotherapy, life-expectancy, treatment options. It was too much for him. He could not even begin to process what she was saying.

She had barely finished her first round of chemotherapy when she died. Small spa.r.s.e flakes of snow lazily drifted to the ground as he laid his beloved to rest. The day he had found out about her disease and the culminating final few weeks had been the darkest period of his life. It had taken him years to once again find any joy, slim as it may be, in the world. And he decided that he would go back to that very moment she told him what she had rather than stand in front of the Shade Queen for one more moment.

"Kong, I suggest that when you stand before me that you do not let your mind drift elsewhere," Eliza said.

"Just remembering a happier time," he said sarcastically. "Is this one man worth it? Even now?"

"Especially now," she replied.

"Surely you have enough zombies here to take out one household."

"One would think," Eliza answered him.

"There's another problem."

"Do tell."

"They found a way to stop the zombies. They reach a point in the yard and will not go any further."

"Impossible!" she shouted. "Tomas, is this possible, does he possess the power to do such a thing?" she asked her brother.

"I do not know why you would doubt what he can and cannot do Eliza. I have begged you to stop the insanity of this quest."

"Kong you need to get me close to the house so that I can find out for myself," Eliza told the big man as she started to stride towards Ron's as if she were going on a power walk during a short lunch break.

"I don't think that's the best idea," he said catching up to her. He saw that he was not going to be able to dissuade her. "You two." Kong pointed to two men that were shuttling ammo and had the unfortunate stroke of luck to be crossing their path at that very moment, "you're both with me, put the cans down and let's go." He pushed both of the men in front of him, Eliza, and Tomas.

The zombies moved out of the way of the team as if they were repelled. Eliza was psychically pushing them away with her mind. The path she cut ahead of them closed neatly as they pa.s.sed by, they were but a schooner in a sea of death.

CHAPTER FORTY.

Mike Journal Entry 17 It took about an hour to make the bas.e.m.e.nt somewhat presentable, although it would take a strong imagination to NOT see what had happened there.

"Need any help?" Gary asked, opening the bas.e.m.e.nt door, I was three steps from the top.

"I think we're good," I told him.

BT was coming up the stairs slowly, his previous injury making his leg stiff from the awkward position he had been in while helping me clean.

"Sucks getting old," I told him from the top of the stairs.

"I hope I have the opportunity to find out, at least I have you to live vicariously through." He grabbed the handrail to help pull himself up.

"Great, I was going to help you the rest of the way up," I told him as I walked away, letting the bas.e.m.e.nt door shut in his face.

"Anything?" I asked Travis going to the back of the house and talking through the window.

He was behind the protective metal barrier. He shook his head so that he wouldn't give his position away.

I walked across the house. "Anything, Dad?"

"Nothing. I'd be surprised if they tried that again."

"Probably right," I told him.

Mad Jack's box was still keeping the zombies at bay and I had to think Eliza was rethinking her strategy. We could possibly have a small lull.

The household was somewhat subdued. We were in the midst of a siege, and when nothing was happening, generally boredom became the biggest problem. Fear was too strong of an emotion to sustain for long periods of time. Everybody more or less was doing what I expected them to be doing: either busy work or lying about. I tracked back across the room. There was one notable exception to my previous statement. Justin looked like he was alternating between seeking comfort and finding some deep dark place to hide.

"Justin?" I asked, approaching him. He immediately shied away. I felt her the moment I pulled my hat off and placed it on his head. A genuine look of confusion, then elation spread across his features.