by Rik Hunik
Chapter 3
The cabin was about seventy kilometers from town on Nazko Road but before they got there thick clouds blotted out the entire sky and deep, black night obscured everything but the road in front of their headlights.
When they turned off the highway onto the road that ran the last few kilometers down to the cabin something shuffled onto the road at the extremity of the car’s headlights. “What on earth is that?” Sue asked from the back seat.
Sam said, “It’s a zombie warrior, just like you fought in the game.”
“Look out, you’re going to hit it.”
Sam ignored the warning, kept his foot on the gas pedal and steered the vehicle straight at the zombie. As the car neared they saw that this zombie warrior was little more than a walking skeleton, clotted with mud and covered with rotting vegetation. There was a crunch as the bumper and grill impacted the skeleton, then a rattle as bones scattered off the hood and bounced off the windshield.
The noise was so real and in his face that Eddie suddenly believed the whole story, as if somebody had flicked a switch in his mind. “There’s another one.” He pointed and Sam ran over it without slowing. “Where are they coming from?”
“Does it really matter?” Sam growled. “They could be growing spontaneously from the ground or coming from another dimension for all I know.”
They spotted several more zombies but they all stayed off the road. Sue looked out the back window and said, “They’re following us.”
“Of course they are. Evil knows it has to stop us and it knows where we’re going. I just hope we have enough time left when we get there because there’s lots of them coming.” The heavy vehicle slid around a corner and then bounced through some potholes in the old pavement as Sam accelerated up a straight stretch. When they reached the driveway Sam killed the lights and coasted silently down to the cabin to avoid attracting attention.
Everything in the cabin was exactly as they’d left it in the morning. Sam said, “Grab that damned game, set it up the way you had it last night and start playing.” Eddie retrieved the game from it’s hiding place and set it up while Sue rolled a joint and Sam went around closing blinds and curtains and making sure all the doors and windows were locked.
“How long is this going to take?” Sue asked.
Sam shrugged. “Impossible to say. The easy version you picked could be over in fifteen or twenty minutes if luck is with you, but it usually takes more like forty-five minutes, and it could take a lot longer, so you better get started. I’ll be right back.” He turned on the porch light and disappeared out the back door, leaving it open a couple of inches.
The cards felt cold in Eddie’s hands as he shuffled them, and he didn’t remember them being so slippery. It was almost like they had their own ideas about where to go. He shuffled the deck a few more times and set it down for his wife to cut. She lit the joint and he rolled the ten-sided die. It came up a zero. “Damn it, the front door is open already.”
They placed half a dozen zombie figurines in the door and windows on the game board. He rolled the die for the strongest hero, the ex-marine Security Guard, to attack but the number was too high so the attack missed.
He moved the figurine into the next square and took an equipment card from the top of the deck. “Zombies’ Free Move,” it read. They moved the zombies according to the rules.
Eddie moved his hero a second space and pulled another card. “The Zombie Master,” he declared with disgust, throwing the card down so it slapped on the table. “And I can’t move out of that square now.”
Sam pushed the door open and dropped an armful of three- and four-foot-long two-by-fours and two-by-sixes onto the floor. He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “How’s the game going?”
Eddy looked out the door and saw a wheelbarrow stacked high with more two by fours. “Not good at all,” he admitted. “Do you need a hand with those?”
“No! You two Just concentrate on that game.” He hurried out to get the rest of the boards himself.
Eddie turned his attention back to the game. The other heroes couldn’t reach the Zombie Master, who he attacked the Security Guard twice. The Security Guard failed both his defense rolls so he was wounded and killed. A few more turns passed while they finished smoking their joint. They’d had no luck with any of their attacks and when they went to set up the zombies for the next turn they were one short.
Sam had all the boards inside so he closed and locked the door and turned off the outside light. He held a two-by-four across the door and used a rechargeable drill with a screwdriver bit in it to drive a three inch screw through the board into the framing. He sensed them watching him and turned. “What’s wrong?”
“We were just overwhelmed. We lost again.”
“Well quit wasting time and start again. And every time you lose, start again, until you either win the damned game or you’re dead.” He turned his back to them and sank another screw.
