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

on task here. Bobby, you pretend you’re a deader and attack me from the front. Gabby, you come up on my flank; it doesn’t matter from which direction.” I stepped back a few feet. “Whenever you’re ready.”
    Bobby, smartass that he was, lunged at me full speed, which for a ’thrope was somewhere between Usain Bolt and Bruce Lee on meth. Without thinking about it, I stepped off the “x” with a forward V-step, and slashed with the wooden weapon in a
crossada
motion, “severing” his arm at the inside of the wrist and behind the elbow as I reversed it. Continuing the combination, I slashed his quadriceps and hamstrings as I passed him by, using his momentum to get behind him. Finally I turned and struck the side of his neck and kicked out his knee simultaneously, just as Gabby was trying to move around him to attack me from my blind side.
    Bobby was moving so fast, he tripped and fell into Gabby, who I also noted was moving at normal, and not deader, speed.
Trying to get one over on the old guy, eh?
I thought to myself.
Age and treachery, my young friends.
The crazy thing was, I didn’t really think I’d moved that fast at all. Then it hit me.
Timing. My timing is perfect. Interesting.
    I suppressed a grin as Gabby and Bobby untangled themselves and stood up. Bobby was alternately rubbing his wrist and neck, while Gabby’s eyes lit up like Christmas morning. She jumped up and down excitedly on her toes. “Show me how to do that! Show me-show me-show me!”
    I laughed. Even when the subject matter was deadly serious, kids would always still be kids. “Alright, let’s go through it more slowly this time. Bobby, you attack again, but slow so Gabby can see what I’m doing.” I demonstrated the same motions, and then had Bobby attack Gabby so she could practice. Within half an hour she had the basic footwork and cutting patterns down and was wielding that kukri in a manner that’d make any gurkha proud.
    After that, I spent the better part of two hours drilling Gabby on how to deal with multiple opponents of the undead variety. Bobby took some lumps until he settled down, but I didn’t feel at all bad for him, especially considering that the marks were already fading by the time we finished up. We all ate in the mess together and racked out early so we’d be fresh for the coming trip to the Corridor.
· · ·
    The next day we packed up Donkey with our munitions and supplies and headed for Austin. Based on the route that Bobby and I had settled on the night before, I planned to swing by to check on Bernie and Margaret and then head north on the back roads so we could come at Austin from the west. No way was I traveling through downtown Austin, even though it was the shorter route. I figured it’d take us four days to get there, if things went smoothly.
    We left early in the morning, but the Doc was nowhere in sight. I asked Gabby about it and she just shrugged. “Probably down in her lab. She’s never told me goodbye before. I think she’s superstitious about it or something. Anyway, she knows where we’re headed.” I nodded and finished cinching Donkey up, and we struck out, the whir of servos and clank of the diamond-plate steel doors closing and locking behind us.
    I didn’t intend to stop at the Canyon Lake outpost any longer than necessary, but I’d found some ammo for Bernie’s rifle and wanted to drop it off to him along with some reloading gear. Besides, I’d taken a liking to the old man and wanted to make sure he was safe. I also wanted to try to talk him and his wife into coming back to the Facility with us on the way back. I couldn’t think of a more secure location where we could all start over and try to rebuild after the ’thrope attacks. Hopefully within a week that threat would be eliminated, and we could start focusing on getting back to normal. Well, as normal as we could be after a combination nuclear-and-monster apocalypse.
    We reached the lake settlement before noon and found