Love Lies Bleeding Read online

  Seeing the missing ear triggered his deadened brain. He fumbled for his knife, conveniently strapped to his thigh in homage to Rhiannon, and thrust it in the Infected’s ear. The blade slid in easier than he’d expected, and the force of the blow dented the side of its head.

  It didn’t like that, but It did drop him.

  “Don’t kill it,” One Ear yelled, and proved he was insane.

  The Infected cat-batted the jutting knife and got it loose along with a chunk of its brain. The mushed brain matter squelched under the knife as it hit the ground. They all, including It, just stared dumbfounded at the goopy pile.

  The pain in his shoulder focused Will quicker than the others. He got the chain looped around the Infecteds neck seconds before its blood lust awoke.

  It thrashed.

  He had to climb onto its back to keep the chain tight, but he soon figured out that cutting off its airway had little effect.

  One Ear got its attention with a blood transfusion bag.

  His buddy grabbed for the chain.

  It slathered the blood.

  They got it, minimally, controlled.

  Soon as he stepped back, One Ear had a gun to his head.

  “Hurting our pal back there was unnecessary. We only have questions.”

  “Army attacked. I responded,” Will grimaced. He glanced at the burning brand that was his shoulder. It wasn’t as mangled as it felt.

  “Bite won’t infect you, doesn’t work like that, case you cared,” One Ear said, as apologetic as someone could be with a gun to your head.

  “Doesn’t mean it won’t kill me.” He made a sympathy play, but there was little to be had.

  “Drug Mart looked well stocked. But before you patch yourself up, like I said, we got questions. Answer nice and we won’t let our friend here have another taste,” One Ear said.

  “This piece of real estate we’re looking for was sighted heading this way about two weeks ago; she’s on foot, with a dog,” One Ear’s buddy elaborated.

  “Haven’t seen anyone except you —” He started in denial, but ended in a scream as One Ear whacked his gun, hard, across his shoulder wound.

  He might have blacked out for a bit, because when he came aware, he was on his hands and knees staring at his bile mixed with the Infected’s brains.

  “We’ve been gone way long,” One Ear rambled. “I’m real tired of walking ‘cause we got to drag It with us, and we’re super low on blood packs.”

  Will really didn’t feel like engaging in woe-is-me conversation, so he kept quiet and listened for a way out, but One Ear wasn’t forthcoming on that topic.

  “Point is, it needs feeding, and excepting your blood immunity, you’re no value to us.” One Ear finished with an almost friendly toe nudge.

  Will didn’t doubt the truth of those few words, but he’d never heard his self-worth laid out so precisely and with such doom saying before. One man could repopulate the earth with enough fertile women. He wasn’t that man. ‘Course, in a generation, inbreeding would be a problem. He continued to keep quiet.

  The Infected didn’t seem to be doing well without its missing brain chunk. The right side of its face was running down into its neck.

  “Shit, this guy don’t know,” the buddy whined.

  “Of the two of you fools, why Hal had to be the one to get his head bashed in,” One Ear griped. “He doesn’t ask questions, not about us, who we’re looking for, or It, means he knows or has heard about the Infected, about us.”

  “Right.” Despite his agreement, Buddy didn’t get the drift.

  As he hunkered down beside Will, One Ear twirled his gun, once, like his wrist ached.

  “You’re going to want to bind that bite, before you lose so much blood —” One Ear got his gun grabbed as punishment for his near friendliness. Will twisted One Ear’s wrist to the breaking point, got his own finger also over the trigger and the barrel up One Ear’s rather wide nostril. One Ear was more angry than scared. It bothered Will that, even with the upper hand, he just pissed people off. At least Buddy freaked out.

  The Infected, done with the packed blood, sniffed the air and started pawing the ground in his direction. One Ear smirked. ”It takes two of us to hold it.”

  “How do you know, with me and my bloody wound so near, it won’t take a bite of you by mistake? It don’t seem to hold its relationships too close.”

  One Ear looked uneasy at that line of reasoning, and they slowly negotiated a standing position that placed One Ear’s back to the Infected and Buddy.

  “I’m just passing through, you’re just passing through,” Will suggested. “We continue on, forget we met, and you two try to not get eaten.”

  “You don’t get it, Cowboy,” One Ear nasally explained. “The Boss don’t accept no empty hands or, worse, excuses.” He indicated his lack of ear.

  “Listen,” Will countered, getting frustrated, “I think we —”

  “They aren’t going to listen to your negotiations, Will.” Rhiannon, armed and dangerous, stepped into the alley.

  The Infected groaned and strained at its neck chain enough that Buddy’s feet slipped a bit in the packed dirt.

  He felt his blood pressure spike, but not in a good way, at Rhiannon’s appearance.

  “Hello, dolly! Remember me?” One Ear practically beamed.

  “Sure do,” Rhiannon answered, and then, leveling her shotgun, blew the Infected’s head off.

  The close-range blast destroyed what was left of its brain.

  It crumpled.

  Buddy, shrieking, dropped the now useless chain and pawed at the splatter of brain remnants on his face.

  One Ear’s mouth hung limp even as his eyes bulged. He shoved the gun away from his nose, and, still staring at It on the ground, let out a keening moan.

  In a step, Rhiannon had Buddy knocked down with her foot on his chest.

  “Will, have you got the asshole covered or not?” she demanded.

  One Ear had fallen to his knees by the Infected and seemed to be having some sort of breakdown. He began wailing and practically foaming at the mouth.

  “Jesus, oh, Jesus, oh Jesus,” Buddy, completely terrified by One Ear’s behavior, blubbered. He didn’t get what the hell was going on either.

  Even Rhiannon was thrown, and characteristically, she responded with anger. ”Fuck, asshole. It was already dead. I did it a fucking favor.”

  One Ear shut up. He just stopped: wailing, moving, everything. Even the echo of his howls abandoned the alley. Then finally, he turned his red, deadened eyes to Rhiannon. She met his gaze.

  “It was my brother,” he said. “You killed my brother.”

  “You chained him — It — made it eat people, prolonged its unnatural and painful existence, and you call yourself brother?” Rhiannon retorted.

  “I’ll have you, bitch,” One Ear snarled. “Own you. Boss or no Boss, not to kill, no, but you’ll beg for a bullet every time I rip you —”

  “That’s enough!” Will shouted. “You attack? You better expect people to defend! Now, get your asses out of town before I regret letting you.”

  “Watch it, Cowboy,” One Ear sneered, “you’ll find there’s lots of people willing to kill for her.”

  “And die, it seems,” Rhiannon, rather inappropriately, retorted.

  •••••••••

  He watched, for what he was aware was the second time, as morally challenged men left town. The difference was he was pretty sure these guys would be back, bigger and stronger. He figured it was better they assumed he and Rhiannon had settled in this place, but there was no way he’d let them lay eyes on Snickers.

  They didn’t take Army with them, and while he figured that was a good deal for Army, he was aware of what it said about One Ear and his Buddy, and how far they’d go to get hands on Rhiannon.

 

 

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