Riders eyes shoot awake. She hears banging coming from somewhere nearby. A man is standing in front of her. Aside from herself, there's no one else in the room. Her vision is still slightly blurry, pulsating. All she hears are echoes. And as she regains her hearing she hears a familiar voice “and the hound returns from undeath!” It's Jared. He’s standing in front of her with his gun in his hand. He leans in from an arms length away, and dangles a piece of zombified flesh in front of her.
The banging continues “Jared! Come on man, open up! Be reasonable!” It's Raylen. There's desperation in his voice. He does everything he can, but the door won't budge. Other voices gather around, in support, confusion, and fear of the zombie woman.
From the looks of it, the two are in a janitorial closet. She's tied down with chains clamped on to a car battery. A makeshift electric chair, all it needs is a tiny bit of juice. “What are you doin-?!” He pushes the flesh into her mouth mid sentence, and she spits it out immediately, she feels sick, like she's going to vomit.
“Oh? The dog isn’t happy with her gift!” He strikes her with the butt of his gun. She starts to bleed from her brow. She looks up at him, pissed. “Come on you fucking freak, you wanna eat me, huh?” the blood trickles down into her mouth. The taste. She tries to fight it, but a slight crave starts. She closes her eyes, its smell intensifies. It's intoxicating. She looks at him, strange eyes. No emotion behind them. She almost seems bored.
The blood recedes upwards into her wound, closing it up like a seamstress with worn clothes. Her wound was healed, Jared smiles.”There it is”. He backs away, pacing left and right. “Just what the hell are you? You weren't on the map for four fucking years and suddenly showed up outta nowhere. You dove head first into a fucking horde- twice from what I hear! And yet… nothing. Not even a scratch. You came back a freak, even worse than those monsters.” Those parts of her history, she remembers, flashes of a woman she used to know.
And then it’s gone. That same feeling of emptiness and something missing that she’s used to. “You’ve become something powerful. A predator amongst predators.” He sits down on another chair, legs wide, back hunched over, and hands clasped together. He looms over from her position on the floor, chains digging into her back, arms and legs. “Now, eat.”
The flesh on the floor beckons her, and she looks at it, blank eyed and bored. The chains shatter around her arms, as she grabs the flesh languidly and bites into it. She stares right into his eyes as she chews, like an animal showing off their dominance. It tastes sweet, and bitter at the same time. Fresh and old. A mix of her own emotions warring inside her.
Yet she refuses to show that to Jared. “Don’t stop on my account.” He smiles crudely, leaning back, with one foot resting on a switch connected to the car battery. But she knew better. His eye twitched when she broke out, he almost got up to shoot her. The sweet smell of flesh is mixed in with his fear, his anxiety. It's almost intoxicating. She takes another bite.
“Good dog.” He scratches his beard with his gun, staring at her, conveying a thoughtful expression. “Tell me, what does it taste like?” Her silence is deafening. He frowns.
“Talk, Dog.” His foot pressed down on the button slightly. The battery seems to hum even louder in her ears. “What. Does. It. Taste. Like?” she reaches over, for a second losing her mind over the pain, and tries to shove it in his mouth. The moment just before the flesh reaches his lips, the button is pressed down hard, a thousand volts pumped into her system in an instant.
As the volts run through her body she lets out a pained howl, her skin rips and tears as protective spikes of blood protrude from inside of her. Jared jumps backwards, letting go of the switch, and is now standing against the door, flesh dropped on the floor. The spikes barely reach him, a massive grin on his face, yet his forehead is covered in sweat and his eyes twitch from each bloody spike near his face.
The voltage dies down, and Rider falls to the floor in a slump, spikes slowly receding. She grips the chains on her legs and breaks them off. She pants hard, gasping for air, the blood closing her wounds on the way in, she looks down and over herself, confused as to why the blood spears the maniac had, had come from her.
She looks up at Jared, a gun pointed in her face already. His grin is gone, a stern look on his face. “Talk.” He pokes her with the barrel. “Prove to me you’re still human.”
“Zombie flesh tastes like shit.” She grins slightly up at him, Jared sighing in a confused manner. Before his face matches hers, and he swings the gun over his shoulder with its strap. He unlocks the door, leaving her to get up on her own. By the time she gets up, he’s already gone.
Ray rushes in, and tries to help her up, before noticing she's in her undergarments, his eyes averting their gaze as much as he can while also assisting her. “Are you alright?” He whispers in concern. She nods, and he walks her over to a spare room. Along the way, she couldn't help but notice the amount of eyes on her.
Fear, the smell still lingered, yet it wasn’t the same. It came from everywhere instead of a single source. They fear what they don’t understand, more so than she did herself. She sits down on a bed inside the room, Ray searching the closet for clothes that would fit her. Yet is interrupted by the sound of small footsteps rapidly approaching and bursting through the door.
Eliza is quickly wrapped around her, quietly crying. “Thank God you’re alright, Rider.” Rider looks down at Eliza, and pats her on the head, smiling fondly.
“Thank you…” she looks over towards Ray, a new set of clothes in his hands. “So… what happened? Why did Jared tie me up?” Ray looks at her confused, but also concerned.
“You don’t remember?” Rider shakes her head, absentmindedly stroking Eliza’s hair. “After that ginger fella started killing off all our men, and then attacked you, you went crazy, eating him and all the zombies that helped him. Even the ones that were from that huge horde from before.” Rider was taken aback. She had trouble recalling these events, but short glimpses soon came to mind. She felt sick. But she managed to keep it down.
“Well, here ya go, I know it's not that mechanics jumpsuit you've worn for 4 years, but it should be a lot more comfortable.” he presents her with a white long sleeved t-shirt with some decal on it. It read “Shirt”. She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “I got it in the city. Some sort of minimalist fashion trend at the time. Now come on, put it on before you get a cold.” She puts it on, it's loose. Next, a pair of black sweatpants.
“I swear if these say pants-” She says, holding it up and looking all around it, only to find them to be plain and slightly baggy for her. Next, a pair of gray canvas shoes. “Thank you. Do you have a mask or helmet of some kind I can wear? I'm not used to having my face shown” Ray shakes his head, but then remembers an old costume. After a while of searching, he comes back with a mascot head. Specifically a giant teddy bear head, from some half remembered commercial.
She looks at it. And feels its soft cloth. Then she remembers. “Where's Frankie?”
“I don't know, I didn't see it on you when we brought you back” Ray says, he knows her rabbit is important to her, and feels terrible about losing it.
Though, Eliza tugs on Rider’s shirt. She looks down, and sees Frankie in her hands “I was taking care of it while you were out. When you fell over, it got dirty so I cleaned it for you and patched it up… it looks like it got ripped during your fight…” her fingers are wrapped in bandages. Rider picks it up, her tears drop onto her rabbit.
“Frankie… I'm glad you're okay…” Eliza looks at her with a soft smile, with a little more context as to what the rabbit really means to Rider, she’s happy to see the two reunited.
The following morning, Jared looks up to see Rider sitting in front of him at the main cafeteria, and he dons a more cautious expression, yet slightly more relaxed than before. Rider pokes at her food, and tries her best to ignore the stares of the farmers around her, with eyes wide in fright. “Don’t eat that, she could’ve infected it!” The pair overhear in hushed tones.
Jared looks at Rider, her expression unbothered. She understands the situation and doesn’t blame them for acting the way they do. Jared sighs, pointing at her with his fork. “You look pretty good for a monster. I’m still surprised that car battery did fuck all to you.” He grins in humor. “What’s your secret? Human flesh?”
The farmers gasp at the conversation, whispering to each other. One even looks as if he’s pissed himself. Rider stares daggers at Jared, while he chuckles to himself, taking another bite of his food, which was some leftover beef and greens from last night.
Eliza sits down next to her, a plate of her own in her hands, who smiles at Rider. “Ignore them. They don’t see how kind and helpful you are.” She then turns to look at Jared, a frown set upon her face. She goes to say something but closes her mouth quickly after. She gives Rider a quick glance, and a few seconds later she just lets out a hum of anger and digs into her food. Jared looks pleased with himself.
Ray spots them and quickly runs over, a sullen look on his face. “Rider, they’re asking for you to meet up in The Townhouse with your.. Friends.” He says that last part glaring at Jared, who only grins in return. “They’re having a meeting about the guy that attacked us last night. And you.”
Rider nods, getting up, but is stopped. “Finish your food first. Make the fuckers wait for us. After you saved their asses, monster or no, they gotta learn to give some fucking respect.” She looks at Jared in surprise.
Eliza pulls her back down into her seat, and continues eating, a smile on her face. Ray looks at Jared again, this time confused, who is now ignoring him, digging into the beef with renewed vigor. “Well alright then. I’ll tell them you’ll be there in 30 minutes.” Ray nods, and walks off.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The settlers stare on, some decide to leave, others approach. “Hey there miss, i just wanted to thank you for keeping us safe and giving us both our routes back.” The large mustached man tips his hat at her, and leaves the cafeteria with his buddies who also tip and nod in her approval.
Rider’s smile gets a little brighter, and the world feels less bleak.
Later
There’s shouting from inside The Townhouse, people screaming at each other, and a couple farmers outside chanting. “Get Her Out! Get Her Out! Get Her Out!” And they jeer at Rider as she passes them to get through the doors. Once they open up, the shouting inside overpowers the ones outside, Eliza wincing at the sudden noise increase.
Behind them, Jared slams the doors shut, and follows the group to the ever increasing ruckus inside a great hall with a large table, all the seats filled with important people.
“This has gone on for long enough! We’ve been too peaceful letting the zombies approach us!” “You think the zombies outside are a problem? We’ve got a monster lurking within our midst! Even worse, she’s paired up with one of Mike's Raiders! And who knows how long before he goes back to his old ways!” “Bah! We should be thanking her!” “THANKING HER?” “She saved our fucking lives from that horde!”
One of them shouts “ENOUGH! We shall talk about this civilly! OR NOT AT ALL!” A big beefy black man in doctor’s attire who sits down, looking slightly sheepish after having taken the attention and shouting. “I apologize. But would it not be better if our conduct allowed us to speak with each other rather than over each other?”
A more heavy-set man with a reddish twirling mustache nods in agreement, adorned in a fancier suit. “Aye, the lad has a point. There’s no point squawking like seagulls if none of us can hear each other.” The rest look slightly ashamed. “Speak of the devil and she shall appear. No offense intended Miss.” He smiles at Rider, pointing to three seats left at the front of the table.
Half of them seem to look uncomfortable at the sight of her, and a small part with murderous gazes, while the rest seemed to look kindly upon her. The three of them sit down, Jared with his feet up, Eliza almost curled in on herself and Rider seeming to size them all up with a steely gaze.
“First things first on the docket-”
“Get that monster out of here!” A skinny and tall woman with a gaunt face shouts, wearing a simple farmers outfit, a few of them shouting in agreement, wearing much of the same garb.
The fancier man coughs into his hand, before starting again. “First things first, regarding the man you fought near the end of the horde attack. What do you know of him, and can we expect more of people like him? Other than yourself, we haven’t ever seen anything like that before.”
“I'm not sure. It is my first time encountering that too. In fact, up until last night I didn't know I myself was someone like him.” she keeps quiet about the memories for now. Although it would answer their question, for now they only seem to be after her, and she wishes not to frighten these people any more than they already are.
“LIAR! That monster is just hiding what she knows!” One of them shouts, pointing at her with vitriol. The bear mask helps Rider hide her expression as she looks downwards towards the table.
“You think the person who not only opened up a road, but also gave you shit for essentially free would hide shit like that? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for killing zombies, but if you don’t use them for your own advantage as well, well you’re a fucking idiot.” Jared laughs, leaning back further into the chair and looking at the ceiling in slight annoyance. Politics.
“Succinctly put, even if a bit crude. At the moment, we’ll assume she knows as much as we do. That means we have to speculate from what we saw. Dr. Mann, if you would.” He nods to the large doctor, allowing him to get up and access the whiteboard.
“Well as we know, these new monsters, or zombies, whichever you prefer, only have two cases, the ginger man, and Rider, the one who killed the first. We’ll call the ginger one Vampire, on account of the blood weaponry he seemed to create.” He said, writing down notes quickly on the board, with circles and lines linking to different concepts. “Both have showcased increased durability, strength, speed and a healing factor. And they both have a working human mind.”
He writes down Vampire, underlined with bullet points. “Blood based weaponry, directly controlled zombies, possibly through blood as well, blood-clones and constantly healing. Hard to stop, and hard to fight against. Rider on the other hand.” He wrote down her name, underlined and bullet pointed. “Doesn’t seem to have any of that, instead, she was stronger over all, and with pure brute force, could eat the Vampire alive, healing any wounds she may have had.”
Rider looks down at her hands in disbelief. The way he talked felt clinical and almost like a briefing. Her entire inner self laid bare before these people, who feared her. She looked to Eliza, who was reading the notes with great concentration, and then Jared, who was distracted by staring at one of the other women.
“Either each one of these newer strands of monsters we find has unique abilities, or they’re more of the same type. And I don’t know which is worse. For now, we’ll have to study this new strain that I’ve dubbed Mephistopheles.” He points at Rider, and she stares back at him in reply, a puzzled expression on her face. That name seemed familiar. “In my own opinion, if we ever get around to having to vote her out, I’ll choose to keep her, so that I may study her without having to endanger myself with another variant.”
“Very well put Dr. Mann, you may take a seat.” They nod at each other. “Now, as he said, I know a lot of you wish to kick her out, but we may also learn a great deal from her, especially how to defend ourselves against others like her that may not be so kind as she is.”
“Then lock her up!” The same farmer shouted, getting another chorus of agreements. At that point, everyone seems more in favor of that idea. Study her safely and don’t deal with the risk of getting attacked.
“Very well, all in favor of kicking Rider out?” All of them shout Nay, save for three. “And those in favor of keeping Rider, but keeping her under lock and key?” They all shout aye, except three voices.
Rider stares onward to the board. To the people. Her companions. She lets out a sigh, and takes off the mask. There, she stood. “I’ve done my job for all of you. I don’t plan to stay any longer. I’ve lost my bag, my bike, and you’ve lost a lot of your men. They’re afraid of me. And so am I. None of us know who I am. What I am. So I understand where both of you are coming from. I really do. But I have my own business to take care of. All I ask is reimbursement for my lost property and you’ll never have to see me again.”
“Reimbursement? For a monster like you-” Jared unslings his rifle, pointing it at the one talking.
“If you don’t give us what we’re due for saving your asses, then we’ll just take it for ourselves. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have shit to do.” Jared nods to Rider and Eliza, letting them go out first, keeping his gun lowered but ready.
“And if you want to stop us? Well I wish you would just go ahead and try.” He grins toothily, walking backwards and then turning around halfway, his footsteps loud in the ears of those sitting down.
The men lay back in their chairs “Holy shit I thought she was gonna eat us when she took that thing off!” “Eat us? I was more worried about that barbaric raider about to shoot me!”
At the gate, several large men in sunhats wait for the trio with arms crossed. “Glad to see you miss.” It's the men from before in the cafeteria. They seem to be standing in front of something. “I know it's not much, but the boys and I recovered what we could from your bike, now- it's fairly fragile, but it should at least get you to where you need to go. Oh, and we got this for you too.” She's handed an old crossbow, it's metallic as opposed to her wooden craft so It's slightly heavier, but it looks like it could bash in a skull or two.
“Thank you…” a tear falls down her cheek. The men smile.
“No monster or zombie I ever heard of cried before. Don't let them get to you. You're a good kid”
She smiles back, and walks over to her bike. Another Frankenstine’s monster, much like the rabbit. There's missing pieces, the sidecar is the most noticeable, but she’ll be able to make repairs when she gets home.
The trio ride back to the treehouse, but before they could ride off together, Jared whistles to the dog “I'm heading back to Mike’s, gonna warn them about the new zombie type.” Rider nods and waves as he rides away.
She's interrupted once again, by Raylen “hey! Wait up!” He pants out heavily. “Long-... ah, long- way… any… haaa…! Anyway!” he perks back up. “Here, I got you this, it's my old duffel bag. Since I heard you lost your backpack, this should help you until you find a better one” he hands it to Eliza who’s holding onto Rider.
Rider smiles at him, “thank you, i appreciate it.” He gives her a two finger salute before running off. However, Eliza notices that it's somewhat heavy. She unzips it, and aside from Rider’s jumpsuit, there's several bagged provisions. Water, and food.
They finally head out, it's a long journey, though the bike was full of gas, the engine was somewhat faulty, it would break down more often than not, but through her gathered skills, she managed to patch it up. Leaky gas tank, wobbly bike, though they meant well, reality was the bike was in shit condition. But once she gets to the treehouse, she’ll be able to make the proper repairs.
Approaching her home, the rumbling of generators catches her ear, causing her to crouch down, while leaving her bike next to a tree. Eliza follows her towards the floor, confused, but on alert. They both get closer, and see several large vehicles, each bearing the signature insignia of skull and a lower fleshy face sprayed on.
“Goddamn cultists. Immediately squatting when you're away for a day.” she whispers to herself, Eliza picks up on it thinking back to the strange men and women she witnessed kneeling before the caged heralds back at the kingdom. Rider instinctively reaches behind herself, and grabs her new crossbow. It has a small pack of bolts taped on, it's not nearly enough to take them all down.
“Shit!” She surveys the area. They’re ransacking the only real home she’s known. Closing her eyes for a moment, and taking a deep breath in then out, she gathers her thoughts. “Either I take back my home, and waste what little resources I have, and possibly gather another horde. Or I leave.” She looks down at Frankie, holding it in her hands.
“What do I do…?”
The rabbit’s head flops backwards, looking up at the sky.
“Yeah. I thought so too. We can’t win.”
The duo leave, they mount her bike, and set off. Past jones. Past mike’s. Past the farm. She did what she could. Monsters are chasing her, she's back down to nothing but a rabbit, a scrap bike. Only now, she’s not alone.