Zombies On The Block | Book 8 | Better Off Dead

by Evans, Mike

  “As of now, no, we got in through the back door. Rylan or Hayley probably left it open when they left this morning. Thank god, because when we went to get in, those zombies in the backyard were only paying attention to our distraction for a short time.”

  “Why don’t we get the kids something to eat and drink then. If we need to leave again, outside of Noah and Abigail’s, then I don’t know where we are going to go that is close enough to be safe,” Amber stated.

  Molly nodded, thinking about it, and didn’t want to waste any time. She motioned for the kids to come inside. Lilly was standing by the door still armed. Not moving an inch from her spot. Molly had no clue the things that Lilly and Alanna had done to keep the others safe today. “Lilly, honey, don’t you want to come have a snack with the rest of the kids?”

  “There’s like a million things that I’d like to go do right now...but I can’t, Molly.”

  “Okay, do you need help with something, because…”

  Lilly realized somehow, she and maybe Alanna were the only ones realizing what was happening here. This was an issue because she didn’t know why she needed to be the most perceptive one in the room. Lilly said, “We need to close the garage door all the way. Those things might tear off the door if we don't. If you guys want to go do juice boxes and pretzels instead of trying to keep those things out then I guess that’d be alright, give them a lil more to eat once…”

  “Oh my god, I get it, please stop, you are hauntingly like your father.”

  “I have the hair in the family though. I’m going to stay out here and figure this out.”

  Amber cringed knowing what the end result was going to be and she wanted nothing to do with doing this. Amber said, “I’ll just go ahead and help the kids because whatever you are doing is disgusting.”

  Lilly watched as more fingers started making their way beneath the slim crack by the second. There was nothing, nothing at all which was going to work outside of leaving or getting rid of them. Lilly looked around the garage. Alanna saw it first, she pointed to the tools hanging in the garage, the ones every Iowan or snow enduring human in America owned at least one of. She said, “Get the ice scraper, maybe we can stab them off, or something.”

  “Disgusting...I love it, we’ll chop ‘em off, push them out, and then we can just get the door like the rest of the way down. How does that sound?” Lilly asked.

  Molly was thinking about what she’d already seen today and the fact that this was needed; that it would potentially be what their fate relied on was not good. Lilly’s idea didn’t seem like it was going to work at all, but she couldn’t think of something better to go in its place. Lilly placed the blade up against a hand thinking that it would be enough that she had the balance to keep herself on it. When she got her feet on it, Molly put her hands on her shoulders trying to help her keep her balance.

  Lilly was bending and trying to jump. The blade wasn’t all that big and left little space for her to come back down with any amount of pressure on it. Lilly’s shoulders slumped after a few tries. Alanna said, “She doesn’t weigh enough, Molly, why don’t you get on it?”

  Molly who usually would take offense to something like that realized it wasn’t an insult. Alanna was one of the sweetest damn kids on the block and she knew that. Madison was looking around the garage while not having complete faith in Lilly’s idea of how to remove fingers. Molly moved the blade over to just a pinky finger and immediately started rationalizing the situation. She went up and down on it a few times and realized quickly that if it was going to take four to five good hits with this, then it would take her long past the amount of time it would take them to be able to break the door free.

  Molly said, “This isn’t going to work, we need something else, something easier, or efficient at the very least.”

  Lilly replied in the only way she could think of, “I’m ten, are you telling me that this isn’t terrifying? That it's up to me to figure this out?”

  The door was rumbling and there was no shortage of new fingers that were finding their way beneath. When the banging got too intense, they were wondering if abandoning the garage might be the best idea. Brent came back around, watching the scene in front of him and the fear in everyone’s voices. He kissed Haley and said, “Why don’t you guys head inside, I think this one can be on me.”

  Lilly said, “What are you going to do?”

  “They probably won’t be grabbing onto too many people after this.”

  “Well, that clears up a lot, thanks Brent.”

  “Not today, kid,” Brent said as he walked up behind them ushering them inside.

  Chapter 16

  Jake said, “I think that...I think that it is Grandpa Denny.”

  Emily loved his red truck and the gracefully aging man in it gave her hope. The gunfire from behind them brought them both back. She said, “It is, we need to get off this roof now, like right now!”

  “Few stories up mom, what exactly were you thinking? Or did you want to tell me about the sky being blue and the water being…”

  “You want to continue with having a tongue, Jacob Patrick?”

  “I saved your life...both of you actually.”

  “I know, now it's time to keep something bad from happening to you. Can you climb down that wall?”

  “Uh, the question is can you?”

  “We are going to find out real soon, I assure you.”

  “I’m not leaving you, mom.”

  “Well, you won’t have to if we both go down. Now you get your skinny ass going first and I’ll be right on your tail, I promise.”

  “What about the others?”

  “I don’t know but they are going to have to make a decision at some point. There’s too many of them and not enough bullets to keep shooting.”

  Mickenzie overheard this and snapped, “We can’t just leave them!”

  “We don’t have to, but we need to go. Talk some sense into him!”

  Mickenzie screamed but it fell on deaf ears. The shooting going on was hard to break in on. Emily didn’t see any of that going well and said, “Jake, get climbing down. Your grandpa is almost here.”

  Jake looked at the wall hoping his arm wasn’t going to get in the way of climbing. Worse case, he figured he’d just jump into the bed of his truck. He’d guaranteed giving his grandma a heart attack at the exact same time as well if he did that. Jake listened to his mom though, thinking about giving her the pistol but knowing it wasn’t going to do a helluva lot of good. Jake watched as the dead started taking over the roof. Michael and Trevor were falling back, there were only so many rounds, and their magazines were running out.

  Trevor and Michael took off in a race, following very closely behind Mickenzie. When Emily realized exactly what was happening, she swung her leg over the side of the roof feeling a vertigo that made her want to puke when she looked down. She wasn’t scared of heights but dying was definitely not something she was a fan of.

  Chapter 17

  Molly had zero interest in knowing what he was going to attempt, and she took it as a gift that he didn’t ask for help or for them to stay out there. He just really wanted to make sure that he got that door shut. If it was the absolute last thing he did, it was going to be to keep Hayley safe by all costs. Once they went inside, he walked over pulling out a crate and got an extension cord and a reciprocating saw. He didn’t want to worry about anything not working here and decided the circular saw was going to be the winner.

  He smiled a little wishing these things felt pain, any amount of pain would be fantastic. Brent wasted no more time as he plugged it in and cut at angle running all the way across the line of the door. By the time that he was done his safety glasses had bits of nails, blood, and skin coating the front of them. The satisfying click of the door going down the rest of the way was definitely a victory for the team.

  Brent took a second to realize why the pounding was so loud. It didn’t take him long to figure out that it was because they now could not
pound with their fists. Their only options they had left were slapping the side of the garage door open handed as they had no fingers, or enough to make a fist. Brent took the glasses off and tossed the saw on the floor, unplugging it, knowing better than to leave anything plugged in with Rylan about...something he didn’t need a reminder of. Something he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to not think of again.

  The pounding was too loud to bear, but a horn began blaring from the top of the street. He wanted to know what was going on. Brent raced to his work bench climbing atop of it and seeing the horde of fingerless zombies...most that had inhabited Amber’s house racing dead straight for it. Brent had to rub his eyes; he wasn’t sure what he was looking at for a second. It didn’t make sense, not in this neighborhood, not today...but, then again, what was normal about today.

  Chapter 18

  Anna

  Sweet Dreams.

  Anna watched as she fell down. When she hit the rock, she didn't know what to expect. She had to assume this, next to possibly childbirth, would be the most painful thing that she would ever experience. She was only partially correct, when Ashley leaned over tearing away at untouched flesh, she realized this would be the worst.

  Anna jumped when hands grabbed her. She fought pulling left and then right. She looked around trying to make sense of what happened, and what was going on for that matter, where in the hell she was. All she could see was blue sky. The rear of her head had an aching throb like every hangover she'd ever experienced, all rolled into one.

  Colby was looking down at her, dropping to his knees immediately a few tears he was trying to hold back unsuccessfully were coming down off of his cheeks landing on her own. Colby said, “Babe, babe, are you okay, are you okay? Say something, goddamn it. Please!”

  Anna, who was just realizing that the reason for the tears had to be because there had been quite a few screams without answers from her. Colby was not an emotional guy. He didn’t freak out unless he had a reason for it and apparently, she’d tipped his meter. Anna replied as simply as she could saying, “Ow.”

  Colby mouthed it aloud unintentionally saying, “Ow? That is all that you have to say. That’s the only thing you’ve got?”

  Anna said, “I don't remember what happened? Ow, is about all I got.”

  Colby said, “I have no idea. I looked all around the gym. There was someone locked in the changing room, and in the men’s, there was what I could only assume was one of the dead.”

  “Yeah, that bitch Britni can stay there for all I care. We thought we had everything planned out. When it was time, she ditched my ass and everything, to put it lightly, went to hell in a bloody handbag.”

  Colby didn't know what she was talking about, and so long as his love was okay, didn't care. Colby said, “I'm just glad you aren't one of those things. When you weren't answering, I knew how I would feel if anything ever happened to you. I felt it every goddamn second of that long ass ride home. It didn't help the fact that I had to take all the back roads because when I went through town that did not go well.”

  Anna said, “Are you okay? Did you make it to work, what happened with the guys on your crew? Have you checked in?”

  “No, I haven't checked in with anyone else from work. I made it just a little late and my boss gave me shit duty which wasn't a huge surprise. So, I took the two apprentices out with me today and they didn't fare very well. When I got to a house that I had no interest in going to, a ton of crackheads came racing out of the house using the window as their door. They didn't seem to understand pain and basically, I lost Frank and Earl within a few minutes. If they would have listened to me, they'd probably be standing here by me now still alive. I had to electrocute a lot of people and well, I won't lie, it fucking sucked. But thank God I made it. You really don't remember anything that happened?”

  “Yeah, you know I was just kidding about being passed out on the roof of my gym knowing there's like a ton of zombies out there wanting to kill me. I do that all the time; really helps me unwind, you know...you picking up what I'm laying down?”

  “Yes ma'am, loud and clear you do not remember anything.”

  Colby pulled Anna up slowly, getting her to her feet, realizing she had sustained a hell of a hit to the rear of her head. He moved her now crimson mixed blonde hair apart checking trying to see what it was. Little pieces of gravel fell out until a sliver of glass that he could only assume had already been on the roof fell down from her skull.

  It made him sick to think she was cut open like this. Colby was really hoping that one of the nurses would be home, and preferably alive, when they got there. She was going to need stitches or some sort of liquid Band-Aid. Anna saw his shitty poker face expression and asked, “How bad is it?”

  Colby, not one for being much of a sugar coater, replied honestly, “Shitty, you’re cut pretty bad. I would guess that you slipped somehow when you were rushing, or maybe that door came down on your head that you came out of. I would say the rest kind of explains itself. Maybe someone on the sac will have some liquid stitches they can use to fix you up.”

  “Leave it to me to escape a ton of zombies and then end up having to get hurt by something as stupid as a door or losing my balance.”

  “Well, from the looks of the landscaping here, I would say you're probably best off up here with a head wound instead of trying to jump down and breaking your leg or back, or God knows what on the giant rocks below.”

  “Well, with the way it feels right now, it kind of feels like, well, it kind of feels like that's what happened.”

  “Come on, let's get you out of here. We need to get home and get the pups to figure out what we're going to do.”

  “Have you spoken to anyone else?”

  “No, I pretty much have been after you the entire time. I haven't heard from anyone so far.”

  “Oh God, I hope all the kids are okay, I need to call my sister, I need to call my parents I need to…”

  Colby cut her off saying, “We need to get off this roof and get back in the truck. I would say you're pretty lucky that you guys are kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and you were passed out on top not giving many things any reason to come up here looking for you. I don't know if they know how to climb ladders, but the ones coming after me climbed poles barely with any clothes, not caring anything whatsoever about pain.”

  “I still don't understand what is happening?”

  “Anna, I honestly don't think anyone knows what is going on. Sorry to say it, but in less than two hours there's no way in hell anyone knows anything yet. I mean it, sitting here talking about that, no offense I love you, but it's a waste of time. We need to get home and regroup. I would feel tremendously better if I had at the very least one gun. We're only a few minutes from home but that's only if we are in the car…”

  She asked, “Do you want to take your work truck, or do you want to take mine?”

  “If you have your keys handy, then I say we take yours. I left my car at work and as handy as having this truck might be, I don't see it being great for getting us somewhere if we have to drive for a while. Just tell me that, at the very least, you have a full tank of gas.”

  Both of Anna’s shoulders slowly sagged. She said, “I was going to get gas on the way home. It's hard enough sometimes to go to the gym, let alone having to stop and get gas before it.”

  “Do you think gas pumps and everything are still going to be working?”

  “Like you said, why wouldn't they? It's only been a few hours, for the most part. We just need to find one where no zombies are going to be trying to eat us. I'm sure we can handle that, right? I mean we could hit one of the gas stations on the outskirts of town. There's two or three on the way home we could pick from. We just need to probably not screw around.”

  Colby, who thoroughly enjoyed a good slice of breakfast pizza, was thinking those last pieces spinning round and round in the single slice carryout cases just be the last ones mankind would ever see. It probably was not a wise idea
to try and go inside and get them, but it definitely was tempting. He was well aware how fantastic that gooey egg, cheese, bacon, pizza dough concoction was for a headache...no a hangover of this magnitude.

  Anna could tell that he was currently in a daydream and slapped him in the chest hard enough to gather his attention. Anna yelled, “Are you really not paying attention right now, dear? For the love of Christ, you're killing me.”

  “No, I'm here to save your ass. I was just thinking something really important.”