Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 109

I, Keveny - pt 18

From the neck tattoos I guessed that was Edrick. He was dumb as a rock, but a capable killer. Or used to be. The rest skidded to a halt over his body, except for Wynn who gained a burst of speed, rocketing up the stairs.

 

I kept ahead of him, sensing danger at the broken trails of blood leading to a bedroom door. It was cracked and I passed through the narrow opening. Sefra was holding Barrett at bay with a chair leg, swatting him in the face anytime he got near. He was in bad shape, bites on his cheeks and arms and a giant chunk missing from his neck.

 

"Sefra!" I shouted. I moved closer, but thought better than to try to touch him. That hadn't gone well the last time. Wynn busted through the door. It slammed against the wall so hard it bounced back closed.

 

"Hey!" he shouted, taking two long strides across the room. He grabbed Barrett by the collar, pivoted on a heel and tossed him neatly through a window. I peaked outside and saw the man's body, twitching. The legs scissored back and forth, but it didn't look like he was getting up anytime soon.

 

"Sefra, love, are you all right?"

 

"Love?" I said. They didn't notice. I looked at them. Wynn had been my closest friend. He couldn't have been…

 

Wait. Something else was wrong. I looked at Sefra.

 

"You're not—"

 

There was commotion from outside the room. My body came crashing through, several men behind.

 

Sefra and Wynn turned, looking in my direction, but really looking at my corpse sauntering over to them.

 

"You!" Sefra shouted and grabbed Wynn's pistol out of its holster. She pointed and shot my body straight through the eye.

 

Everything went black.

I, Keveny - pt 17

They were looking at me. I guess to be most accurate, it was looking at me, but the creature had thousands of eyes with scythe-like pupils. Some were old and threaded with veins, some were filmed over, some were budding and unlidded.

 

They were swirled around me in some sort of column. I couldn't fathom what sort of beast this was that could have a face with eyes oriented like this, but I didn't want to know. But where ever I was, I was inside it.

 

I felt it move as some massive, far away part of it shifted. Something twitched beneath my feet. Several, rubbery somethings, in fa—

 

They were beating me. I could only watch as the men were circled around my body, kicking and pounding with the butts of their rifles. It kept trying to rise just to be knocked down again.

 

"Stay down," I said. It complied.

 

"All right, boys," Wynn said finally.

 

"I still don't understand why we can't shoot 'im," one of the others said. He was new; I didn't know his name.

 

"Because as far as I'm concerned, that's still Keveny lying there. I don't know what the hell madness has grabbed hold of the world, but we can't just go around shooting our friends."

 

"But he's dead."

 

In a flash, Wynn's revolver was out of its holster and poked into one of the other man's nostrils. He didn't cock the hammer back for dramatic effect.

 

"Have I made my point?" Wynn whispered.

 

"Yeah—no," the young man said. "That's our ol' bud, Keveny."

 

"Now I want you to lock this—"

 

There was a scream from upstairs.

 

"Sefra!" Wynn shouted.

 

They flooded out of the basement and I followed, careful not to bump into anyone else. We rounded through the kitchen and down a hallway. I'd never been here before, but it was a lovely home so far as I could tell. I floated past the men and over a body splattered at the foot of the stairs.

I, Keveny - pt 16

There were voices coming from upstairs.

 

"Does somebody know you're here?" I said.

 

It cocked its head, listening, then stood up. It made for the stairs.

 

"No, no, you dummy, don't go up there." It stopped and looked at me again. "Do they have guns?" It cocked its head. "Y'know, bang-bang. Pow." I sucked at sound effects, but the point was made. My body looked down and stuck its index finger in the bullet hole in its thigh. "Yeah, that's right. They'll do more of that to you if they have guns. Okay, you need to hide. Go through there." I thumbed over my shoulder at the door I'd just come through.

 

My body lumbered over, raised its arms and crashed through it.

 

"Idiot! You broke the door down. They're gonna walk right in and shoot you!"

 

It groaned at me.

 

"Okay, okay. We need to buy some time. Drag that body over in front of the steps." It complied, but took a bite of cortex before it dropped him. "Ugh," I said. I looked around and found the light switch. "Turn that on." I thought I was going to have to correct myself before it smashed the switch, but my body flicked it on. It pulled back from the light.

 

"That's all right. Just smash the bulbs." It quickly walked around the cellar, swatting the bulbs like a zombie King Kong until it was dark again. I wished it could have shimmied out of a window, but they were just too small. I hated what I was about to do.

 

Any minute the guys upstairs were going to come through the door. I got a bright idea that should have come to me sooner and floated upstairs. I paused at the door, then went through—

 

—And came face to face with Wynn. I couldn't stop myself in time and crashed into him, except I bounced off. It didn't hurt, but it sort of reminded me of the shock I got from chewing aluminum foil. I keep feel myself blacking out, but that wasn't right, I was dead. Dead people don't—

I, Keveny - pt 15

For the second time in who knew how long, I had no clue where I was. More specifically, where my body was. Something smelled really good in here, though. If it weren't for being a disembodied spirit my mouth would probably have been watering.

 

I could feel my corpse—me, somewhere nearby. It was dark, but by some preternatural sense I could make out anything I looked directly at, like a flashlight. Whatever the smell was, it was on the other side of the door in front of me. I grabbed for it and missed. Oh, that's right—disembodiment. Could I just go through it?

 

I did. It felt kind of creepy and reminded me vaguely of something, but I was on the other side. Oh, there I was, eating somebody's brain.

 

This time I did wretch. Of course, nothing came out. It was half seeing my corpse eating another human being and half realization that that was what I'd been smelling. I couldn't help it; it smelled good even now.

 

"Stop it," I said. "Stop eating him."

 

My body looked up, a lobe or something pulling free in its mouth. It scowled at me. It was kind of weird. At first, I'd just avoided looking at my own dead body because it was awkward. I'd only really looked at the others. Their eyes were empty save for a very basic animal desire to feed. But looking in my eyes… there was something there. I didn't know how to quantify it, but I could definitely tell the look of recognition.

 

And hate.

 

Hate hurt. Like a rake scratching down my face. I guess it made sense in a way. Emotions having a paraphysical effect on a spirit. That was too much to think about right now, though.

Get 'Gone' Today!

Goners, volume 2: Left to Die will be available tomorrow.  5 new short stories hot on the heels of Goners published last year!  Join Leo and Carl as they make one last stop on Halloween, a township supervisor's wife as she investigates her first husband's disappearance, a roommate who attempts to help his best friend exorcise his wife, a lovesick wife who gets rebuffed by her husband for the last time and a mother who tells her son an autobiographical fairy tale!

 

Goners, volume 2 has all the thrills and chills of the first and now you can get both volumes for $0.99 apiece.  Get yours on Amazon Kindle and see what everyone is talking about!

I, Keveny - pt 14

"So you're saying…" I began, "that whatever who did to me, to kill me is the reason I'm still here?"

 

"Not exactly."

 

"That I haven't been able to move on like Daniel because I have unfinished business."

 

"Actually, no."

 

I was on a roll and wasn't really listening to what the thing was saying. "That I need to save someone or maybe have vengeance on the person who did this to me."

 

"Well, that first part would be nice, but the last would be very bad."

 

"I'll do it." I turned away and stepped off the porch.

 

"Sefra, my darling, we must leave."

 

"Wynn, I told you, I am not going anywhere. Besides, what better place to fortify than right here?"

 

He gripped his rifle, unsure of what to say to her. She was just so beautiful and so stubborn. No wonder Keveny had lost his life. But Wynn wouldn't. No matter how beautiful she was or how much he wanted her. He would shoot her himself and feed her to those things if it meant his own survival.

 

"The creatures, they've already reached the farm. Barrett's been attacked."

 

"Then I suggest you give him the first aid kit."

 

He hadn't heard her speak so harshly before. Those beautiful blue eyes sharpened at him… no, he hadn't liked that at all.

 

"But they know we are here. We may be able to kill these few, but more will come."

 

"Wynn, I'm expecting my sister shortly and if the world is coming to an end my intention is for us to do it as a family.

 

The door busted in. Wynn turned, his rifle aimed chest high. He wasn't good with head shots, but one to the body would push these things back and give him enough time to aim. Gary held the door knob, breathing heavily, blood running down his face.

 

"One of 'em got in."

 

"What do you mean one got in? I thought we cut them all down."

 

"Yeah, but this one came in the back. He wasn't with the others."

 

"Dammit! They must be circling the house." He turned to Sefra. "They're trying to seal us in! Where is it now?"

 

"In the cellar. It grabbed Junior and drug him down there."

 

Wynn stormed out of the room and shut the door.

 

"You stand guard here. If anything comes up those stairs without a pulse, you shut it back down, y'hear?"

 

Gary nodded, blinking blood out of his eyes.

 

"What the hell happened to your face."

 

"It caught all of us by surprise. Bit me on the head."

 

Wynn tossed his kerchief at the man and proceeded down the stairs.

 

"Wipe your face," he said. "It's a wonder Sefra didn't catch her death of fright at the sight of you."

I, Keveny - pt 13

"I can't stay, you have to let me go!"

 

The man fixed his large grey eyes on me, a slight smile playing across his face.

 

"We know by now you have no desire to stay. There is no intent to keep you." The words stung for some reason. It wasn't like I didn't want to be here. He made it sound like I was rejecting this place.

 

"Look, it's not that. It's just that—"

 

He put his hand up. "Explanation implies eventual comprehension. There is nothing for us to understand. You wish to go, so you shall."

 

"Where's Daniel?"

 

"We know not anyone of that name."

 

"Sure you do. He was the big black guy?" I held my hand over my head several inches. "About this tall?"

 

"Oh yes. He is nonesuch."

 

"I'm sorry?"

 

"He is none—no longer with us."

 

"Hey wait a minute. You're those girls, aren't you? From when I first got here."

 

"We have many forms."

 

"Yeah. Daniel said you were a bowl of apples when he got here. Why'd you bring me here?"

 

"So that you might listen. We took the form of your father to—"

 

I scowled. "I didn't know my daddy. I would have preferred the apples."

 

It morphed and shrunk. An instant later it looked like a ten year old boy with those same gray eyes.

 

"Perhaps the form of your son—"

 

"I don't have any kids."

 

"Sure you do. He was conceived when you were—uh, never mind. We are in the form of a random boy, totally unrelated to you."

 

As if to confirm this, the boy's hair went from black to blond. Whatever this thing was, it didn't know me like that. If I had a kid out somewhere, I would've known about it.

 

"I gotta go."

 

I turned and headed for the stairs.

 

"Before returning to the ground, you should be armed with pertinent information. The manner of your death is the grounds by which you are still tethered to the dust of the ground."

I paused on the stairs to think about that. He'd said the word 'ground' three times. Was that just coincidence?

I, Keveny - pt 12

Okay, I admit to being relieved my corpse wasn't following the other zombies. Sure, if that guy just stood there and kept shooting he was going to get eaten, but not before he'd taken down several zombies first. I didn't want one of them to be mine. But I was also disturbed that I did have influence over my former body. That meant we were still connected somehow. Part of me was beginning to look forward to moving on. Could I really do that if I still had one foot in the grave?

 

I looked at him. Me. Was there really something in there still? My body stopped shuffling and looked up. The eyes were out of focus, but slowly the dialed in. It—I—was looking at me.

 

"Who are you?" I said. I don't know why, there was a void in the air and I had an urge to fill it. Who it had been was all it knew and yes, it did remember on some animal level. The lizard brain had retained some semblance of who I'd been and that's what was connecting with me now.

 

"Llllnnnnn," it said.

 

The moment was lost as it broke eye contact and went back to shuffling. We were by an old barn, walking up a footpath. I didn't know where we were until we came around the corner of the barn and saw a white house up on a hill.

 

Apart from being really big it looked like every other white house on a farm I'd ever seen a picture of. I didn't recognize it, but I thought I should have.

 

"Sef," it sounded like my body said. I could have heard wrong, but he could have been right.

 

"Let's go see," I said, but just then, something pulled me. I turned around to see as I was drawn toward the other house. It sat atop a bank of mist and someone was on the porch waiting.

 

My corpse looked to me a moment before returning to walk up the path to the house.

 

"You have to let me go!" I shouted. "If I'm not with him he'll eat her!"

 

"Calm down," a voice said. It couldn't have been the person on the porch because he would have had to shout to reach me. This voice was like the person had spoken in my ear. "There's plenty of time."

 

I looked one last time but could only see the top of the white house as everything was obscured by mist.

I, Keveny - pt 11

It took about five minutes and a dozen or so zombies, but they finally brought her down. She still mooed until two others squeezed in and began chomping on her neck. The cow's gurgling cries made watching it die too much to bear. I looked away until the sounds of it gulping down its own blood ended.

 

Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as they sat down in a circle around her, chewing pieces they had stripped off. Others climbed over them to get their share. A female grabbed a fistful of tongue and yanked, but it snapped out of the zombie's hand. It reached again and got into a minor squabble with another zombie that wanted the same thing. I saw one in a business suit reach into the cow's belly and pull out what looked like a mass of blubber. If that was the cow's stomach he was going to be busy for a long while.

 

A shot cracked the air and the one holding the bag of guts fell over. I turned and saw business suit's head bursted open like overripe fruit, eyes fixed on something far, far away. There was a guy in a cowboy hat and jeans, holding a rifle. He fired again and the head of the one that had tried yanking out the cow's tongue snapped back. She kept her feet, but half her jaw was missing.

 

The zombies collectively growled.

 

Obviously, they responded to stimulus, but did they respond to attackers? I mean, why not just stay here and eat until the cow was finished off? But they gradually pulled away, headed in the direction of the man with the rifle.

 

I was nervous for some reason and looked for my body. There it was, scowling in the direction the other zombies were headed, but it hadn't moved. Strange. I looked back to the cow and wondered if animals could be infected. I thought I'd heard somewhere the virus only affected human beings, but that avian flu eventually infected people. Why couldn't it work the reverse?

 

As bad as this was going to get, it would be even worse if animals carried the infection. Dogs, cats, birds. No, if this was the start of the virus jumping to another species I had to stop it somehow. I had to do something—

 

Crunch.

 

I looked at my body again and saw it had stomped on the animal's neck, breaking it.

 

Problem solved?

Increase Your Mystery!

I've decided to change my name.  Well, kinda, but not really, but sorta. 

 

It's still my name, but it'll be my full name on all future books: Gerald Dean Rice.  I was named after my grandmother, Geraldine Hill (it could've been Croft at the time, she was divorced, I think).  But when people discuss a book of mine, they'll say Geraldine Rice and maybe the other person will think I'm a woman, but if they come to a signing and see a dude, they'll think, hey wait, I thought it was Geraldine and I'll say, "Nooooo, I'm a guy, but that's my real name."

 

I already have a famous last name in the horror genre and I hope I can get some traction with that, even though I'm not related to Anne Rice.  I have every confidence in my ability, it's my visibility I have trouble with.

 

We'll see where this 'bold' new step takes me.