Belly of the Beast Warren Thomas (e novels for free .txt) 📖

            The next thing Joelle remembered was Armin cradling her, rocking her back and forth as he knelt on the ground.

            “Tane?” she asked though a dry throat.

            “Free,” Armin said.

            Turning her head, she saw Quinn tucking a cloak around Tane’s sleeping form. Raven gently caressed his brow while speaking softly to him, like a mother to a child.

            “Some wicked pirate you turned out to be,” Joelle said, unable to put the tartness into her voice she wanted.

            Raven smiled. “And some wicked witch you turned out to be. Thank you.”

Chapter 47

            “Well?” Tane asked.

            Joelle opened her eyes and looked at him. He tensed.

            “It feels safe,” she said. “The village is as deserted as it looks.”

            There was no joy in her pronouncement. Tane had hoped, prayed, that someone would have survived, that his family would be there waiting for him. But it wasn’t to be.

            Bracklin was dead.

            “We should still be careful,” Quinn said. He looked up, gauging the time by the late afternoon light. With the thick cloud cover telling time was difficult. “I suggest we split up and comb the village for food and clothes, and be gone before nightfall. Half burnt down or not, a village will draw zombies in need of food and shelter for the night.”

            Joelle’s magical probing had determined the village to be deserted, so Tane disregarded Quinn’s advice for caution. He walked out of the cover of the forest and woodenly walked down familiar streets toward his family home. He heard the others following quietly, but didn’t care.

            More than half the buildings were burnt to the ground, with most of the others damaged in one way or another. No bodies littered the streets, though bones were scattered about, sending a chill down his spine. Rumor said that the starving zombies ate any dead they found, and occasionally killed their wounded for food.

            Bracklin was large for a village, but Tane soon found himself approaching his home on the eastern side. It still stood, though most of the thatch roof was missing, burnt away. The front door was smashed in, covered in dried blood. There was a great deal of dried blood in the kitchen and his brother’s room.

            “They put up a good fight,” Raven said.

            He heard Quinn growl something to her, too quietly for him to make out. Raven stomped out in a huff, followed by the Vikon couple. Quinn continued to follow him from room to room.

            Placing a comradely hand on Tane’s shoulder once they had checked all the rooms, Quinn said, “There wasn’t anything you could’ve done.”

            “I should’ve been here.”

            “You were where you needed to be.”

            “I wasn’t where my family needed me,” Tane whispered.

            “They may still be alive,” Quinn said. “Don’t give up, my friend. If they are alive, then they need you more than ever now. Only you can save them.”

            “I’m not so sure,” he said, looking around his father’s work shop. It was the first time he remembered seeing the forge cold. “Everything seemed so clear before we arrived. Now I don’t know what to do.”

            With a fatherly smile, Quinn said, “Do what we had planned all along. Change out of your uniform and put on some of your old clothes. Preferable something threadbare and dirty. We have to blend in, look like zombies in case we stumble upon any of them by accident.”

            Tane nodded. The others had been against heading for Bracklin, it being out of their way. Everyone wanted to get to Caeren as quickly as possible, to end the reign of terror. But Tane remained adamant. He had to know his families’ fate, and he was the one person they absolutely couldn’t leave behind. So they grumbled and decided they would make the best of it by gathering civilian clothes in Bracklin to disguise themselves. If they looked like zombies, maybe they wouldn’t be challenged even though they were going the opposite direction as everyone else. Maybe not. Not even Joelle knew how much independent thought the zombies possessed.

            But as Raven had said, “We’ll ford that river when we get to it.”

            Suddenly Raven strutted into the shop, “Look at me! Gods, it feels good to be out of that damnable uniform.”

            Quinn frowned. Tane thought she looked damned good, much like the night she was brought in. She wore a white shirt, black leather breeches, and black thigh boots. Tasheba was still strapped across her back, peeking out from under a crimson cloak, but he noted several more knives sheathed on a new belt around her waist.

            “You look too good,” Quinn said.

            “Thank you,” she said, beaming with pleasure.

            “No, that’s bad. We have to look like zombies, and zombies look unkempt and dirty,” he said, starting to become flushed. “Haven’t you been paying attention to anything we discussed? You look like you’ve just walked out of a bathhouse.”

            “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “Zombies are a bunch of mindless dolts. No one will notice, and if they do, I’ll say that I was just captured.”

            “That’s not the point, Raven. We don’t want any reason for anyone, zombie or not, to take notice of us,” he said. “For all we know, they have some way of telling each other apart, or can communicate with each other in ways only zombies can understand.”

            “Oh, rot,” she said. “You worry too much.”

            “And you don’t worry enough,” he shot back, “if at all.”

            Seeing that Quinn was starting to grow angrier, and Raven more defiant, Tane decided it was a good time to go change out of his uniform.

            “Are you going to change?” he heard Quinn ask her.

            “No.”

            Tane heard a yelp of surprise from Raven, then the sounds of scuffling feet. That was followed by the sound of someone hitting the ground. A flurry of blistering curses, from both Raven and Quinn, followed. Tane decided it best not to interrupt