Page 27 of The Pale Rider
A
eron refused to talk to me for the rest of the day. It was pretty fucking miserable, considering we were sharing a horse. It made the lengthy ride even longer. Sometimes, he rode Meremoth hard and fast, and sometimes, we just walked. I honestly had no idea where we were. Most of the street signs were either totally obliterated by one of the bombs, or someone had spray-painted over it.
It wasn’t chaos and anarchy with the vandalism. Someone tried to warn people before they left that city. There were dire warnings on most of the street signs about zombies and Rage Heads. I guess I took comfort that at least one person in those towns got out to spray paint those warnings. I wondered if they were still alive. Did they find a city like Gabriel’s Haven to call home, or did they meet up with someone like Scooter’s gang?
Aeron shushed me like a noisy toddler when I tried to ask. I guess he was mad Cougar had to give him a spanking, and now he was pouting about it. I was pissed about what she said to us too, but for different reasons than Aeron probably was. I knew something had been done to me now, and I was somehow important, but I had no way of asking because of what they had done to make me forget. It was infuriating.
Aeron’s hand tensed on my waist, and he finally decided I was worthy of talking to.
“We have to stop for the night. We are about to enter a Rage Head infested city. No living soul exists here except them, so they will be starving. Do exactly what I say when we pass the motel sign that just saysDead Inside.We are sleeping in an abandoned train car. I know it’s not the Ritz Carlton, and there’s no running water, but it’s the safest place for us.”
“I’m not complaining about roughing it, Aeron.”
Aeron let out this little growl.
“I am. You deserve a bed and running water, Ariel. This is the best I can do tonight.”
Sometimes, Aeron said the littlest things and were so sweet. The other times, he was shushing me, and I wanted to punch him in the nuts.
“Aeron, it’s not your fault we are sleeping in a train car tonight. It’s not like there are any other options.”
“Get your bat ready and be on alert. The Rage Heads here usually congregate towards the downtown area. We’ll cut through the woods to get to the train, but there could be a stray Rage Head who has gotten a taste for wildlife. I will have to bring Meremoth close so we can kill it. We don’t want it to signal the others. If we wake up in that train car surrounded by Rage Heads, it will be next to impossible to get away. Believe me, that happened to me the last time I was on my way up here.”
“Got it.”
“Teamwork, Speedy. I drive Meremoth. You kill the Rage Heads with Smurfette.”
Aeron had alotof faith in my zombie killing abilities, which just opened up a million questions I would never get the answer to. I gave Smurfette a twirl as Meremoth broke through the trees. I could do this. I was on a huge, demonic horse that ran faster than anything I’d seen before, and they were rotting corpses. I could bash a bitch’s head in from up here.
I could see three of them up ahead milling about in the trees. Aeron spurred Meremoth, and we took off towards the closest one. I knew I could hit a fastpitch softball. I held Smurfette with one hand as we went racing towards this rotting Rage Head. Meremoth raced by, and I swung away. I felt its head crack under my bat. I let out this maniacal laugh. I probably shouldn’t be having so much fun with this, but there were only three of them, and it was like horseback zombie polo.
The one to our right let out that shriek they made when they were calling their kind. It was a little less fun when ten more of them broke through the trees and started racing towards us. Was I insane that I thought this was a good time when there were only three of them? I probably was.
Now, Aeron was the one laughing like a maniac.
“You asked me if this was a normal horse. Let me show you what Meremoth can do, Speedy!”
Meremoth let out a snort, and I swear I saw steam come out his nose. Meremoth just decided to go zombie bowling. He plowed through the crowd of zombies and just started trampling skulls with his hooves. I was holding onto the pommel and swearing up a storm. If this crazy horse threw me into a crowd of Rage Heads because it was showing off, I would be upset.
Aeron grabbed my waist in a death grip.
“Hold on, Speedy!”
When you were on top of a horse in the middle of a murder rampage, and its handler told you to hang on, grab anything. These brainless Rage Heads didn’t have a care that the horse was on a killing spree and just crushed several of their friend’s heads. They just wanted to eat us. They came at us again. I shrieked and flung myself forward when this fucking horse reared back on two legs like it would fight these zombies like a boxer.
Okay, this was definitelynota normal horse. This was some sort of zombie killing murder horse. And he was my ride to Mexico. Maybe when we meet Aeron’s friend Leif in Mexico, he’ll have a nice bicycle I could ride on the handlebars.
I had all this bravado about taking out these zombies with Smurfette, but when the horse started murdering the dead, it all went out the window. I had thrown myself over Meremoth’s neck, clutching his mane. There were two Rage Heads left, and they were coming right at us, but I was shaking so badly I wasn’t sure I could fight them.
Aeron managed to produce his sword from nowhere again.Where did he keep that thing?He beheaded both of them and chuckled. He pat me on the back.
“You okay, Speedy?”
“That isnota normal horse. You’ve got some devil killer horse.”
“Not a devil horse, Speedy, but he is a fighter. We will probably have to fight off a few more on our way to the train. You can’t freak out when Meremoth fights. He won’t throw you, and you are perfectly safe with me behind you.”
A killer horse and a guy with secrets who could pull a sword out of nowhere. Yeah, I was totally safe.
