Blood Scourge: Project Deadrise Read online

  Gun tried to suppress a snicker, but he wasn’t completely successful.

  “That’s stretching it a bit,” Grey said dryly with another glance in Hanna’s direction.

  “Most zombies don’t weigh as much as a bear,” Hanna muttered under her breath.

  Grey lifted a dark brow in her direction. “The truth is that everyone here could conceivably take out someone bigger than they are,” he said. “And, yeah, you’ll all be tested. So, once again, pay attention so we can become a strong group.”

  “Another thing,” Grey went on. “Those armor pieces that Patch and Gun had on, they were a good idea. Arms are vulnerable. And so are legs if you knock a stagger down. So is your neck or any exposed flesh. Some buckskin clothing might not be a bad idea.”

  Patch and Gun looked at each other. “You mean like Davy Crockett?” Patch asked, looking back at Grey. It was another game they had played when they were younger.

  “Yeah, something like that.” Grey shook his head at the two and suppressed his own grin. “All right, everybody. Let’s get a partner.”

  “I don’t trust her, Hanna. I don’t know what kind of religion it is, but she was standing out on the balcony this morning stark naked. She was lifting some kind of dish that had smoke coming out of it. And she- ” Amanda compressed her lips. “There are other things. We’ve all heard them. After all, there are children in the house.”

  Hanna knew what Amanda was referring to. The squeaking of the bed springs, the moans that Catra and Nygel didn’t bother to keep quiet. It disturbed even her when she was trying to sleep. She suspected it kept everyone up at night.

  “Why do they have to include everyone in their- activities?” Amanda asked.

  Ana nodded her head, agreeing. “I think someone should talk to them. I know the normal restraints of society are gone, but- if we don’t say anything, how far will they go? I have tried having a conversation with Catra but she isn’t very friendly. And she seems to go out of her way to keep to herself.”

  “She hasn’t offered to help with anything so far.” Amanda said with a glance over her shoulder.

  It was true. Hanna, with Amanda and Ana, had worked very hard together cooking, organizing, tending to the children and helping to secure everything. And when the women gathered together just to talk, Catra was always absent.

  “She’s different towards the men,” Ana spoke up.

  “That’s because she sees them as conquests,” Amanda went on. “You can see it in her eyes. Especially when she looks at Grey.”

  Hanna didn’t say anything. But she had seen the same thing herself. Catra apparently thought of her body as a lure to reel men in. That must have been obvious to the other two women, too.

  “Look at Nygel.” Amanda gave the other women a significant look. “She’s got him following her around everywhere just so he can be at her beck and call day and night.”

  “Like a queen,” Ana agreed. “Just like she’s a queen.”

  Nygel walked up to Grey who was sitting at the table talking to Ellis in the kitchen.

  “Catra wants us to capture one of the zombies.”

  Grey stared at the man for several long moments. That had come out of the blue. “For what?”

  “So we can see how it reacts,” Nygel answered.

  “Reacts to what?”

  “To anything,” Nygel replied. “Catra believes we can learn a great deal from observing one of them.”

  Grey looked at Ellis who remained silent.

  “Catra thinks there might be some herbs or potions, or charms or spells that might have an effect on them.”

  “Spells?” Grey echoed. “You mean like incantations?”

  “Incantations. Yes, that’s another way of putting it.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Nygel shook his head. “No, she thinks if we could capture one of them and keep it in one of the sheds, we could conduct some experiments. She doesn’t know why no one else has thought of it already.”

  “No one else has thought of it,” Grey said flatly. “Because it would be damned dangerous keeping one of those things around.”

  “We would keep it chained up. And Catra would assume full responsibility. She has a theory that if we could feed one of them, it might become tame. Like a cat or a dog.”

  “Tame? There isn’t enough food in the world to tame one of them. You forget we are their food. It would be like getting in the water to try and tame a shark.”

  Grey set his coffee cup down on the table. “If she doesn’t get herself killed, she’ll cause someone else’s death. So, no, keeping one around here is out of the question.”

  “That’s another thing. About some of your rules- ” Nygel cleared his throat. “Catra doesn’t think that all of your rules should necessarily apply to everyone. Or that you should be making all the decisions for everyone else.”

  Why didn’t that surprise Grey?

  “Everyone else agreed on the rules,” Grey reminded him. “You have a mind of your own, right, Nygel? Do you think it would be safe keeping a stagger on a leash like a pet dog?”

  Nygel didn’t seem to have an answer. He just stared back at Grey and blinked behind the thick lenses of his glasses.

  “Out there she can follow her own rules. Here, she’ll follow the rules of the group.” Grey said. “Look, Nygel. You need to start thinking for yourself. Following someone blindly in this world is damned dangerous. Especially if you have to make fast decisions. I may make some decisions, but I always run them by everyone else first.”

  Ellis finally spoke up. “All kinds of experiments were performed on the test subjects at Cambria Research Facility. The zombies might not actually have superhuman strength, but because they don’t feel pain or fear, or uncertainty, they do have an edge over us. They’re not slowed down by those things. And because they don’t have the same thought processes, there’s no hesitation before their actions.

  “There was an incident at the Research Facility. One of the zombies got loose after they had injected it with stimulants. It attacked one of the doctors. It was so aggressive that for a while there was no stopping it. It did seem to have superhuman strength. It broke through a window and killed a lab assistant before soldiers could get to it and kill it.”

  “But wouldn’t it be worth finding out if there is something that would put us in control?” Nygel wheedled.

  “You mean she wants to try and control a stagger? Like a slave?”

  Grey had heard all this before. That’s what had started all this in the first place.

  “Maybe they can be managed- ” Nygel began.

  Grey cut him off. “And maybe little unicorns are going to come skipping over the meadow back of the house and sing nursery rhymes in the sunshine.”

  Grey quickly sobered. “No. It would be dangerous to keep one of those things around here. Not to mention that it could spread the disease.”

  Grey thought that was the end of it, but Nygel tried again later. Catra wanted him, Grey, to join them for morning worship tomorrow at dawn.

  Grey flat out said no to the invitation.

  “Has she asked anyone else?” Grey wanted to know.

  Nygel shook his head.

  “I don’t think that exclusionary behavior is something that is good for the group. And why me?”

  “She wants to get together with you and tell you about her theories, and about how we could all possibly benefit a great deal from them.”

  “I have already learned all I want to know about staggers. Mostly that it’s smart to stay away from them and that the only good stagger is a dead stagger.”

  “Life and death are the two basic forces in the universe. If we accept the dead instead of being afraid of them, we could let go of the negative energy

  that . . . ”

  “You know what, Nygel? I happen to think it’s a good idea to be afraid of them.”

  “Control would give us superiority. Instead of fear.”

  Grey tapped
a finger impatiently on the table. “Do you believe that’s possible, Nygel? Control?”

  Nygel blinked again. For several long moments he had no answer.

  But he still wouldn’t let it go. Catra must have insisted he convince Grey. “If you could come to morning worship, maybe you would understand. Catra has studied many subjects extensively. She has secret knowledges of things in the world around us. She can see things that other people don’t see. Death is natural. It is something to be embraced- ”

  Grey cut him off. “If she wants to go hug a stagger, then that’s her business, but none of the rest of us wants to be a part of that.”

  “Catra believes that we need to transcend the chaos of the world around us by stripping away our prejudices and the narrow-minded conceptions promoted by a restrictive society,” Nygel went on. “And that we need to work hard to keep our minds clear and focused.”

  Obviously Nygel was parroting Catra’s beliefs, not his own. Grey was getting bored with it all. He stretched his long legs out before him and crossed his combat boots at the ankles. “Tell her that she can transcend all she wants with someone else. I’m not interested.” Grey knew very well what those morning worships led to. Everyone in the house knew. They were simply a form of foreplay leading to an hour or so of often very vocalized sex.

  Amazingly Nygel still didn’t take the hint. He tried once again to convince Grey to join them, that Catra wanted to extend him a special invitation.

  Yeah, it would be special all right.

  “I said no. And she isn’t going to use sex to change my mind,” Grey said bluntly.

  That finally silenced Nygel. His face turned red and he looked embarrassed. Deep inside, Grey realized, Nygel did know the truth about Catra and her motives. Maybe there still was hope for him.

  “Look, you need to start thinking for yourself, Nygel. Or you’re going to go down with her. Her theories are based on one thing alone. Her ego.”

  Neither man had anything to say after that. Nygel turned abruptly and left the room. Probably to report to Catra.

  Ch apter 16

  “She’s actually poured into those clothes.”

  Grey’s voice was low, practically right next to her ear.

  Startled, Hanna gave a little cry and spun around. “Do you have to sneak up on me like that?”

  Grey had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. “I shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on you at all.”

  “I see. So this is all part of your training?”

  “Maybe it should be. You didn’t even hear me coming.”

  “Didn’t you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf? If you keep scaring me, I’ll get to the point where I don’t even react. Then what will you do?”

  She narrowed her gaze at his olive drab T-shirt that stretched snuggly across his muscular chest. He must have just put the shirt on. She watched him tuck it into the waistband of a pair of faded jeans. He still wore the combat boots.

  “I’ll bet you were a real hard-ass in the military,” she said as she turned back to the window.

  “Sometimes that’s the only way to get things done,” she heard behind her.

  “Sometimes that’s a way to be very unpopular,” she countered. “Did you ever consider that?”

  Grey, who remained unperturbed and was now resting one strong shoulder lazily against the window frame beside Hanna, breathed a short laugh. “No, but you’re right. I probably wouldn’t win any popularity contests.”

  He lifted his coffee cup to his mouth and took a drink, still watching Hanna over the rim.

  Hanna was watching something below the window. “I thought we had a rule about not wandering around alone in the woods,” she said as she slanted a glance up in his direction.

  “You can’t always keep people from doing things they shouldn’t do,” Grey remarked. He rested his coffee cup on his knee as he perched on the window sill. He turned his face to look out the window. Catra and Nygel were coming out of the woods. Nygel was holding a shovel and several small plastic bags. And some green plants that looked like they had been pulled out by the roots.

  They had found some boxes of clothes downstairs in the house and right away Catra had claimed some for herself. Everybody had. But Catra had picked out an outfit that could only be described as provocative. She wore no bra. Her midriff was bared. And the jeans she had on were so tight they looked like a second skin.

  “What do you think they’re doing? Grey asked as he frowned down at the scene below him.

  “Picking something from the woods, it looks like.”

  “H’m. Must be some of those herbs Nygel was talking about.”

  “Herbs? What do they want with herbs?”

  “Maybe they’re gathering herbs to burn for morning worship. Or- ” Grey shrugged as his gaze settled on Hanna’s face. “Maybe they’re some of the herbs she thinks she can use to control a stagger.”

  Hanna looked up at Grey. “She told you that?”

  “Nygel did. She has a plan. She wants us to capture a stagger.”

  “Capture one? Are you kidding me?”

  Grey shook his head while one corner of his mouth tightened into a half smile, deepening the dimple in his cheek. “No, I’m not kidding.”

  “When did she ask you that?”

  “She didn’t. She sent Nygel to ask me.”

  No surprise there, Hanna thought. Nygel was like Catra’s personal errand boy.

  “So what did you tell him?”

  “No, of course.”

  “And that was it? She didn’t try using her powers of persuasion on you to get what she wants?”

  “Mm mm.”

  “That’s a surprise,” Hanna commented beneath her breath. “I thought she would have tried to get you to join her at her morning worship.”

  “She did actually. Or I should say she sent Nygel to invite me to morning worship with her.”

  Hanna stared at Grey. “She did?”

  “Nygel did.”

  “Are you going?” Hanna asked.

  “No.”

  Hanna went back to watching Catra and Nygel from the window. Grey was watching Hanna watch Catra.

  “Do you know how she does what she calls a morning worship?” she asked.

  “Yeah, stark naked from what I hear.”

  Hanna got lost for a moment in the depths of Grey’s eyes. They were a clear, startling blue, and they were steadily watching her. Suddenly uncomfortable, she looked away.

  But she couldn’t get a break. Grey leaned over her shoulder to glance down at what was going on outside. He wasn’t touching her in any way, but she could feel his body heat seep right through her clothing.

  If Grey was a typical male, it was probably fine with him if Catra did dress the way she did. Or did what she called morning worship stark naked. Catra was the type of woman who used her sexuality to get what she wanted. And men were susceptible to that kind of lure. Catra certainly used it effectively where Nygel was concerned. And Hanna had seen the way Catra looked at Grey. Apparently other people saw it, too. She didn’t know why Nygel couldn’t see it. Unless he was in some kind of denial.

  Hanna was frowning as she stared out the window. ”It’s a wonder she can even bend over with those pants on.”

  Grey nodded, agreeing. “If she has to run away from a stagger or two, she’ll probably put on something more practical.”

  “Are you planning on sneaking up on her, too?” she asked.

  His answer was a wicked grin. “Not when doing it to you is so much fun.”

  “I almost think you like scaring people. And I’m sure she would like for you to sneak up on her.” Hanna said without thought, and then immediately regretted saying it.

  Over the rim of his coffee cup, Grey’s dark brows rose in surprise. It almost sounded like Hanna was jealous. She had exhibited a lot of emotions where he was concerned. But jealousy? He must be mistaken. He stared thoughtfully down into his coffee cup for a while before he looked down to see Catra and
Nygel walk back to the house. But his thoughts were on Hanna. They were definitely centered on Hanna.

  “Where is Catra?” Hanna asked Nygel.

  “She’s studying upstairs.” Not surprisingly, Catra had claimed the biggest area, the attic of the farmhouse, for herself and Nygel.

  “I wanted to ask her if she would help us with dinner tonight. I thought she might like an opportunity to share some of the work load around here.”

  Nygel immediately went into defensive mode. “Catra shares by using her mind. We all have different strengths. By using her knowledge, she- ”

  Hanna blew out a frustrated sigh. She gave Nygel a look that, surprisingly, silenced him. And then she went upstairs.

  “Catra. What are you doing?”

  Catra’s hand stopped in midair. Smoke unfurled from the herbs she was holding. She slowly turned and waited.

  “Do you think you should be doing that?”

  Catra didn’t immediately answer Hanna. “Do you think I shouldn’t?” she finally asked.

  “I think you shouldn’t,” Hanna answered her. “A fire in the house would be dangerous.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Catra assured her. “And not everyone thinks the same way you do, Hanna,” Catra went on with an air of smugness that, at the moment, she wasn’t bothering to hide.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean that some people are walled in by prejudice and intolerance, that some people think they can tell other people what they can and cannot do.”

  “That’s fine if you want to burn your herbs, or even worship the way you want to, Catra, but other people have to breathe the air here, too. Whatever it is that you are burning is really overpowering.”

  “You pray in your way, Hanna. I pray in the way I am accustomed to.”

  “Your beliefs are your beliefs, of course. But do you think you should be taking your clothes off where everyone can see you? And worshipping where children can see you?”

  Well, she’d said it. It was out in the open now.