In Case of Wheelchair Zombies

Chapter 5 Rendezvous

The weeks passed and our fearless leader had picked up several more Zeds with disabilities. We had a couple more in wheelchairs, surprisingly. One had been a local athlete, which made him terrifying to me. He was nimble, and a speed demon in his athletic wheelchair. The other Zed in the wheelchair looked to have Spina Bifida, but like Jack, was no less dangerous and no less eager to please.

We had one that was hearing impaired in life and still had a full grasp of sign language. To my shock and awe, he proceeded to teach it to the horde. Great! Another way for my team of murder machines to communicate silently. It was sluggish and lacked the finesse it had when they were all alive, but the horde picked it up, quickly, and it gave them a creepy advantage. Look out, humans!

Jack made sure all of his new recruits were strapped, as well. It was like Shriner's presents Day of the Dead. It was kind of cool from the perspective of someone who wouldn't be on the receiving end of their murderous wrath. It would make a badass horror.

Hunting became a far simpler and grislier affair. The horde, though small, were a force of destruction. We came across a small herd of wild horses, one day, that I thought had a fair chance. The majority of them escaped, but as many nature shows have proven, the weaker ones never do.

An older, slower horse at the back just couldn't outrun our wheeled speedster. He rolled down the horse like a cheetah, latching onto its haunches like a cartoon character. The rest of our ragtag band of undead followed suit, taking the shrieking animal down. It would have given any onlookers pause, I'll tell you that!

As the horde was feeding, a loud crack split the quiet afternoon, narrowly missing Rowena's head. Jack hissed, alerting the rest to scatter. As commanded, the ones that could vanished into the tall grass. Those that couldn't flattened out as much as possible and all made for the woods. When the hail of bullets started, and Jack was sure our horde was, at least, close to safety, he finally hunched down and followed.

Halfway across the field, we hit a rut and flipped into the grass. The rest of the horde attempted to leave the safety of their hiding places, but Jack snarled. The ones that had moved to our rescue vanished back into the darkness.

This was it. Here we were, hunched over, waiting to die, again. When I heard the chick-chick of the pump-action shotgun, I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see.

"Oh, Jack," said a familiar voice.

It was Aditya. I opened my eyes to see him staring at Zombie Jack, swiping at him, fearfully. Addy looked miserable, seeing us like this. He chewed on his lip and positioned the shotgun to blow us away.

I waited...and waited. He stood there, unwilling to end us. Finally, he looked past us into the distance.

"Octavio would be pissed, but he's not here right now, is he?"

Aditya ducked around Jack's grasping hands and carefully switched the chair into "manual".

What are you doing, you idiot?

He switched out his shotgun for a small pistol. It was a little odd-looking, but I couldn't figure out why. He pointed it at Jack's temple and fired several times. The gun made a strange, compressed whistling sound, leaving several fuzzy, pink darts in his temple.

He was kidnapping us.

Oh, god, Aditya! Don't!

I could see the horde getting restless in the trees. He was going to get whoever was left from our old group killed. I was a Zed, now, and I wasn't worth risking all their lives. I tried getting his attention in any way I could.