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But then I faintly heard music. Some kind of old school rock n’roll that sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite place. It didn’t help that the music was slightly muffled from the walls inside the butcher shed, where Waylon had branded me. Had they sound-proofed their torture room for screams?
“We have to check there,” I said, even though the thought of going back into the butcher shed made me want to vomit.
“You think Kimber is in there listening to music?” Lazlo asked in disbelief.
“We have to check,” I repeated.
I opened the door, and the blast of the music and the metallic scent of fresh blood hit me all at once. Standing with his back to me was Wyatt, shirtless underneath his denim overalls stained all red and green. He was at his butcher block, and all I could see were the limbs draped off of it – a bony girl’s legs and an arm.
One of her shoes was falling off, dangling off her toe so it nearly touched the zombie corpse slumped on the wall beside them. She appeared to be naked from the waist down, revealing the LFR mark on her hip.
The brand hadn’t been enough to protect her from Wyatt’s butcher shed. Or had Wyatt been the one to brand her, making her his to do with whatever he wanted?
Wyatt turned around, and that’s when I finally saw the girl. It was Tallulah, her mouth agape and her eyes blank.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Lazlo demanded.
“Who the hell are you?” Wyatt asked, and then, he cocked his head, likely hearing the warning alarm for the first time because I’d opened the door.
He suddenly lunged at me, but Lazlo pushed me out of the way. I fell to the floor of the shed, covered in blood-soaked sawdust that stuck to my skin. Lazlo punched Wyatt, and I scrambled out of the way. As Wyatt stumbled backward, Lazlo grabbed an axe off the wall. Before he could even get to his feet, Lazlo brought the axe down right in the center of Wyatt’s skull with a sickening crack.
I looked away as the blood started spurting, and I got to my feet. I rushed to Tallulah to help her, but she was cold and lifeless.
She was on her back, vivisected from her bow to sternum. A section of her intestine had been cut and reattached to a rotten tube of zombie intestines.
“Was he… connecting a human to a zombie?” Lazlo asked. “What on earth for?”
“I don’t know. His mom says he’s trying to correct the zombies, but…” I shook my head and closed Tallulah’s eyes with my hand. There was nothing more I could do for her.
“Was she your friend?” Lazlo asked.
“Sort of. She was someone, though, and she deserved better.”
I grabbed a tool that looked like a giant icepick off the wall, and then I headed back outside where the air wasn’t completely filled with the hot scent of Wyatt and Tallulah’s blood.
“I’m sorry,” Lazlo said as he followed me, and I noticed he had a distinct limp now. “Not just for your friend, but everything you must’ve gone through here. I should’ve found you sooner.”
“All that matters is that we get out of here alive today,” I said, because I didn’t want to think about anything else.
“I always expected better of you than this, Harlow,” Elmyra said from behind us, and a zombie howled beside her.
39
Harlow
I slowly turned back around to face the matriarch of the Loth Family Ranch. She was still in her housecoat, and with her hair nicely plaited to the side, she looked every bit the pioneer woman she pretended to be. Except, of course, for the fact that she had a zombie on a leash, like some kind of messed up guard dog. The zombie was a young strong man, gnashing his teeth at us and straining at his lead.
“How can you betray us like this?” Elmyra asked, sounding genuinely distressed and bewildered. “We welcomed you into this family, we offered you food and shelter, and you would’ve had even more. And this is how you thank us?”
“You starved me and made me sleep in a barn for animals!” I shouted back at her. “You branded me and offered me up to a child bride to your middle-aged son! I didn’t start this fire, but I hope that all that is left of your family is nothing but ash.”
“You spoiled little bitch,” Elmyra snarled, and any warmth finally evaporated, leaving only unbridled rage burning in her eyes.
A whistling sound cut through the air, then Elmyra’s eyes widened in surprise, and I saw blood pooling at the corners of her mouth. Her hand holding the lead fell to her side, and her other hand went to her throat when I finally noticed the arrow jutting through her neck.
Elmyra sputtered and fell back to the ground, and the zombie sprinted toward us. Lazlo lunged forward and stopped it with an ax to the chest. The zombie only fell to his knees, but he still gnashed his teeth. Another arrow suddenly split him between the eyes, and the zombie finally fell dead on the ground.
A woman came out from between the buildings. I had never seen her before, and she didn’t look anything like the Loths. Her hair was long and black, her skin was a tawny color, and she carried a bow in her hands.
