THEM (Season 1): Episode 4 by M.D. Massey Read Free Book Online Page A

slashing and hacking weapon. A lot of the skills you already have will apply, but you need to remember that in battle you’ll want to think more along the lines of dismemberment than stabbing.” She cocked an eye at me, cueing me to elaborate. “Dismemberment means cutting off arms and legs.”
    She nodded enthusiastically. “So it’s good for deaders. Got it.”
    “Exactly. Now, I took the liberty of making us some practice weapons—”
    “What for?” She looked at the wooden weapons I’d pulled out, hand-carved trainers that were identical to the kukri. The derision on her face was evident.
    “Well, so you don’t get cut.”
    She snickered. “Then how am I going to respect the weapon? My
tío
taught me that real steel is the best teacher.”
    I nodded once at that; she was right, but I’d seen some pretty nasty accidents happen with live blade training and didn’t want to be responsible for someone’s hand getting cut off. I pointed a thumb at my chest. “Okay, let’s just say it’s so
I
don’t get cut. I need you to practice attacking me as if I were a deadhead coming at you. And since I’m your training dummy, I want to finish our training session with all my limbs attached.”
    Gabby rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Alright, whatever.” She grabbed a practice kukri, swung it around a few times, and motioned for me to attack her.
    I decided to indulge her and lunged toward her at about the speed that a deader would attack. She stepped straight in and slashed at my arms and torso in a flurry of movement that would have left me in shreds, finishing by slashing the blade across my neck. I heard Bobby applauding from across the room.
    I backed away, nodding. “That was excellent. However, I want you getting off the line earlier. Since your uncle had to leave you alone a lot, I’m assuming that he mostly taught you to defend yourself against humans, correct?”
    She nodded. “He always told me to keep moving in and cutting ’til they back off or fall down.”
    I nodded my head in deference to her uncle’s advice. “Forward aggression is an excellent tactic when you’re fighting humans who feel pain and fear death. But when fighting deaders you need to end the threat while moving off the line of attack, because there’s almost always more than one. You can’t risk getting tangled up fighting with one deader; if you do, his buddies will be on your flanks before you can say ‘dinner time.’ Make sense?”
    She nodded again, but with less enthusiasm. Time for a demo. “Bobby, let me borrow you for a moment.” Bobby glanced up from licking deer blood from his fingers, looking around the room and behind him. I shook my head. “No, I meant the other ’thrope named Bobby.” I pointed at him emphatically. “Yes, you, ya meathead. I need you to pretend you’re a deader. Shouldn’t be much of a stretch for you.”
    Bobby hopped up and zombie walked over, arms extended in front of him, his eyes rolled back in his head. “Braaaaains. BRAAAAINS!!!” he cried out as he shuffled toward us.
    Gabby furrowed her brow at him, and whispered to me behind her hand. “What’s wrong with him?”
    I laughed. “He thinks he’s being funny—it’s an old zombie joke from before the War.”
    “Yeah, but zombies eat meat, Scratch. Not brains.”
    I looked over at Bobby. “Sorry, buddy, but your joke fell flat. Gabby here hasn’t seen any Romero films.”
    He looked crestfallen, then perked up. “Hey, let’s hit some stores and get some more DVDs when we head to Austin!” He looked over at Gabby. “You’d love this movie called
Blade
, the hero has the best one-liners. Like this.” He deepened his voice and started talking like Christian Bale’s
Batman
. “Some mother-truckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.”
    I rolled my eyes; as much as I enjoyed the
Blade
trilogy, I couldn’t help but to think that Wesley Snipes would shit his pants if he ever met a real life nos’. “Let’s just stay