Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus by Simpson, A. (e ink manga reader .txt) 📗

would drop to one knee, thump their heart, and make their pledge.

“My life for yours.” they would say and eat the flesh.

For some, it was a new experience. For most, it was the first time they actually got to see the great and powerful Casey.

He sat his throne, accepting each oath with a nod of his head and a wave of his hand, looking aloof, royal and king-like. Just like Lucinda and Edmunds had insisted he act.

Gunny and Griz had been herded to the back of the line and were unable to get out without causing a scene without being noticed. The Voodoo Brothers stood watch with their cartel guns and ensured everyone made the pledge. Everyone ate the meat. The tables were full of tribesmen eating their meal and some were already going back for seconds. They both had their faces painted in the red stripes of the tribe, Griz had freshened his mohawk and Gunny’s braids were more like dread locks now but they were only going to be a few feet from Casey. They were going to have to take a bite of the human meat and swear the oath while he watched. Their disguises were good and the longer he sat there, the more bored he became. He was going through the motions of the ritual on auto pilot, hurrying everyone along. They let a few the other tribesmen get between them. They wouldn’t be recognized.

Everything inside of them was screaming refusal.

It was better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

There was much more than just their lives at stake, though. All of the lives in the cliff top village, all of the lives in every fortified town and all of the lives in Lakota were depending on them and whether they could finish off most of the Raiders in the ambush. Killing Casey wasn’t enough. Either one of them could have done it at any time if they were feeling suicidal. The Raiders were too well organized now and someone else would take his place. They had a chain of command and some of the tribe leaders were worse than him. They had to decimate his army and leave the survivors broken and scattered. They couldn’t ruin the ambush, it had to be tonight. If Casey caught them inside his camp, he would be suspicious and change his plans. Maybe he would keep sending small probing units up the mountain until the cliff top was out of ammo, until they were reduced to spears and bows. They couldn’t let their pride be the cause of thousands of deaths. When they saw there was no way out, they knew they would do it. They would bend the knee. They would eat the flesh.

It had to be done.

It just had to.

123

Gunny

Gunny held out his plate for a slice of mesquite smoked, golden browned flesh then nearly dropped it when the body was turned on the spit and he saw the cherry tattoo on a roasted shoulder.

“Yeah, thought you might get a kick out of that.” Python and Slick laughed.

They were standing behind Griz, eager to get at the meat.

“I caught them bitches dumping sand in the gas tanks.” Slick said, pleased with himself.

Gunny turned to stare at him.

“Yep.” Python grinned. “Since they were in my tribe, I had to answer for them. We interrogated them for hours. Them dumb bitches actually thought they could put sand in all tanks except one and use that truck to get away. Dumbest plan ever.”

Gunny thought he recognized two of the other bodies as the girls who had been helping her but with the hair burnt off, the eyes melted out and most of their faces peeled away from the fires, it was hard to be certain.

“You tortured them.” Griz said tonelessly.

“Oh yeah. I should have invited you guys, I guess. Sorry, maybe next time.”

“I got to help.” Slick bragged.

He smiled his fang-toothed smile and pointed at a deep slice on her belly.

“I cut her from cooter to breast bone and she still stuck to her stupid story of trying to escape, said there was no one else involved, so I guess it was true, right Boss?.”

“You did that while she was still alive?” Gunny asked, pointing at the long cut that had been stitched back together to hold her on the spit.

“Yeah, she didn’t last long after that.” Python said in an offhand way. “I was getting bored anyhow. The battery was almost dead and I’d already fried her so much both eyes had exploded.”

“Oh yeah,” Slick added in happy remembrance. “That was pretty awesome.”

Casey was waiting for the next in line, impatient at the delay. He looked up, caught the profile of the one in front, the one with the dreadlocks, the one causing the delay, and stood.

It couldn’t be.

There was absolutely no way in hell that asshole would walk right into his camp but there he was. And that big oaf behind him was Griz. They’d made him look weak in front of all his men and it still stuck in his craw. Casey stood dumbfounded at their audacity, unable to speak as he watched them talk to one of his war chiefs. This was too good to be true. A grin started to spread across his face.

“What is it?” Lucinda asked but before he could answer, before he could shout a warning, all hell broke loose.

Griz snatched the oversized roast fork from the startled servers’ hand and swung, he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t care if he was gunned down in the next second, Python had to die. He drove it deep into the grinning face of the Human Hunters war chief, bending the tines against the back of his skull, burying the hilt into the soft cartilage of his nose. He ripped it out and shoved it up through the bottom of Slicks chin, through his tongue and into his brain before the biker had time to wipe