by Rich Baker
They pass the vacant lots as Kyle fires another round at the zombie in the field. He misses the mark, hitting it in the neck. It and several others home in on the golf carts and start moving toward the houses from the field, some faster than others.
“Here they come,” Kyle says. “Maybe a hundred fifty yards away. A couple of runners are coming from farther away.”
“Andy, get that door up. I’m coming down,” Robert says.
Andy opens the garage door. He sees the girls coming in the golf carts, and he sees the undead coming from the field across the street. One of them falls as it reaches the street, and doesn’t get up.
In the window upstairs, Kyle is firing at the inbound zombies, trying to figure out how much to account for the decreasing distance as they advance, but he decides just aim as best as he can and keep firing. He swaps the thirty-five round magazines twice while only killing a half dozen of the undead and wounding several others, reducing them to crawlers.
Robert emerges from the side door of the garage across the alley and hops over the low fence. He sprints across the alley.
The golf carts are secure in the garage, and the girls are out of them, rifles up, shooting at the zombies now rounding the house across the alley in pursuit of all their activity. One zombie drops for every four or five shots fired. Robert clears the doorway, and Andy pulls the door down.
Upstairs Kyle keeps shooting, his accuracy improving the closer the undead get to the house. As the bodies pile up, the rest of the zombies coming around the corner don’t know what they’re chasing. Some of them keep going toward the garage door, while others wander off course and veer down the alley.
“Everyone’s downstairs, Kyle.”
He turns around to find Annie in the doorway. She looks around at the dozens of rounds of empty brass casings on the floor.
“I probably need to reload anyway,” he says. He grabs the bag with the extra magazines, and they go down to the basement, jump into the tunnel and close the steel door behind them.
Five
“Wind it back,” Annie says.
“What are we looking at?” Kyle asks.
“Something was bothering me about yesterday,” she says. “I want to review the recordings that Robert and Marc made.”
Robert is typing and working the mouse.
“There!” she exclaims, pointing at the screen. “This is the house where we found the dead woman, and look, back on May twenty-fourth - a week after the outbreak - there’s a Nissan Leaf parked in front of it. If you go to the twenty-third or the twenty-fifth, it’s not there. Someone was in that house on that day, and that day only. I think they killed the woman that lived there.”
“Here, on the twenty-third,” Robert says. “Look at the end of the street.”
At the top edge of the image, they see a white car. At this distance, it’s hard to know for sure, but it looks like the same car.
“That’s so creepy,” Annie says. “I wonder if they tried getting in here?”
“I don’t think so,” Robert says. “Danny has motion sensors set up that trigger the cameras to record. They’ve gone off several times when zeds have crossed the front yard or the driveway in back, but never for people.”
“Plus, the two houses next door still had food in them, so it’s unlikely they made it this far down the block,” Kyle says. “It seems like they’re working their way toward us, but for some reason haven’t been back in a week and a half.”
“But it does tell us that there are other survivors, scavenging, and maybe killing people,” Annie says. “I mean, I suppose it’s possible that lady fell down the stairs on her own and broke her neck in the fall, but the way that house was trashed…I just don’t think it was an accident.”
“Well, it’s one more thing we need to be careful about. Robert, how are things looking outside?”
Robert clicks a few buttons and pulls up the cameras viewing the alley. Up and down the alley there are twenty undead wandering aimlessly.
“Wow,” Kyle says. “Way less than last night.”
“Yeah, they thin out as other stuff catches their attention,” Robert says.
“How many do you think there are?” Annie asks.
“Zeds? Here in town?” Kyle asks. She nods. “Well, it’s anyone’s guess. If we start with the population of Longview, that’s about eighty-five thousand. It’s a bedroom community, so there are a bunch of people that work in Denver and elsewhere that probably didn’t make it home. Hopefully, a lot of people ignored the ‘shelter in place’ advice and got out while they could because we saw the roads were dicey getting out of our neighborhood, so I can only imagine it’s worse on the main roads. Based on how deserted the roads were when I went for my run the morning after, though, I don’t think that’s the case. If I had to guess, and that’s all this is, I’d say we have fifty thousand zeds total in town.”
“Holy shit,” Robert says. “And that’s just here. There’s like a hundred and twenty thousand people in Fort Collins. If your numbers are right, that’s another seventy thousand zeds.”
“There are a million people in Denver,” Annie says. “Or, there were a million people there. That’s another six hundred thousand of them. What if they’re all headed here?”
“First thing’s first,” Kyle says. “We need to get Toni healed so she can travel. Then we figure out how we’re going to get out of town and meet up with Danny and my wife. I think our salvation will lie in the mountains where there are not as many people. The terrain could be enough to stop the progress of a lot of these things. We know already they don’t do well with minor obstacles, so hiking up a mountain ought to be right out of their skill set.”
Keith and Stephenie are signing to each other, and Stephenie laughs. Everyone looks at them, waiting for them to stop. Keith realizes the group is staring at them.
“What?” he says. “I heard everything. I was asking her if she’s catching everything and she laughed because I did the wrong signs. It’s not like I’ve been signing all my life or something.”
“She’ll ask one of us if she has questions, lover boy,” Robert says. “You just pay attention to what’s going on here.”
They’re interrupted by Danielle.
“Kyle, I can’t take it anymore. I have to get out of here. The lovebirds are making me sick to my stomach.”
“Well, we can move you to the workshop. There’s a cot in there,” Kyle says. Robert shoots him a look that Kyle reads to mean ‘over my dead body.’
“No, I have to get some distance. We have these tunnels built. I can sleep in the house next door, or in your house. I just can’t be in the same house as them anymore.”
“Those houses aren’t secure. And we just got some evidence that we’ve had some people scavenging in the neighborhood, and they may have killed a woman. If you go to the house next door, you won’t be safe.”
“But I’ll be sane,” she says. “Give me a gun, or I’ll sign a waiver or whatever you want, but I need to be somewhere else before I lose it.”
“We’ve got the guns, but do you know how to use one?” Robert asks. “Because if you don’t, you’ll be a danger to everyone, including yourself.”
“Fine, then give me a knife or a baseball bat, I don’t care, but I’ve got to go. If I don’t, I’m going to end up committing murder.”
“Okay, okay,” Kyle says. “Take the master bedroom in the house next door, but keep the blinds closed, and no lights after dark. We don’t need to draw attention to ourselves,” Kyle says.
“Thanks,” she says, and leaves to pack the few belongings she brought down from Fort Collins.
“Yeah, like I’m giving her a gun,” Robert says.
Six
The Parrot helo drone hovers in place one hundred feet in the air. The image on Marc’s tablet shows zombies streaming through the big empty field, heading northwest.
“Well, you can add sound for sure to the list of things that they respond to,” Andy says. “I knew I heard
an alarm. And they’re all headed for it.”
Kyle looks at the screen for a minute, then says “Could you tell if it’s a car alarm or a house alarm?”
“Hard to tell, because it was really faint. If you forced me to pick, I’d say house alarm.”
“How can you even hear it?” Robert asks. “If it’s up that street where the zeds are going, that has to be a half mile away.”
“I don’t know, man, like I said, it’s really faint. All I can tell you is I had the window open and all of a sudden I heard something that sounded like an alarm, and I started to see the zeds do that lemming thing they do.”
“It’s the perfect chance to take the golf carts and head into Starlight,” Ben says, referring to the golf course adjacent to the neighborhood with the million dollar homes. “Every zed in the hood is headed over to that alarm. We may never have a better distraction.”
“It is tempting,” Kyle says. “The rest of you feel the same?”
“I’m down,” says Robert.
“Me too,” agrees Annie.
“It’s kinda my idea, so I guess I’d better go,” Andy says.
“Ok, that’s five. Is that enough?” Kyle asks.
“Five?” Ben says. “Where do you get five?”
“Me, you, Robert, Annie, and Andy.”
“You’re going? Mom wouldn’t like that.”
“She’d like me letting you go even less. I’m going.”
“Where’s Keith and Stephenie?” Robert asks.
“Off somewhere canoodling, no doubt,” Annie says. “We’re fine without them.”
Robert bristles but doesn’t say anything.
Kyle takes a piece of paper and sketches a rough map on it.
“Okay, here’s our alley. It goes all the way down here, and at this end where you can exit to the street, there’s a greenbelt area with a gazebo and a couple of soccer goals that separates our development from Starlight. We can use this bike path to get into the neighborhood without ever having to get on the main road. The houses should provide good cover, and in the green space, there’s a hill that built around the base of one of those huge power poles. We drive on the south side of that hill and that should hide us from view through about two-thirds of the green space.”
“Looks good,” Robert says. “So, here are my thoughts. I’ll go in the houses with Andy or Ben, we load up the supplies and Andy or Ben, whichever one isn’t in the house, will ferry them to the carts and help watch for stray zeds. Kyle, you and Annie drive the second cart, draw zeds away from us and kill as many as you can. When we fill the first cart, you can come and swap it for the second one.”
“I think that driving the cart around will call too much attention to us. I’d rather find a good spot to park and shoot. We can aim better that way,” Annie says.
“Well, we don’t know what we’ll find out there,” Kyle says. “We may find the streets deserted, and we can park and pick them off like we’re at a carnival. Or we may find that there are too many to make a stand against and staying on the move is better. Or we have to turn around and come home.”
Marc comes in from the tunnel. “Are you still planning to go out?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Kyle says. “We’re wrapping up our plans now.”
“You need air support. I put a fresh battery in the Parrot. Take it with you and use it to scout ahead. Andy knows how to use it.”
He hands Andy his iPad and an extra battery for the Parrot.
“You should get about fifteen minutes of flying time before you need to change the battery. Try not to break it.”
Andy takes the tablet and battery and puts them in his backpack.
They all check their gear. Kyle is carrying a suppressed .22 pistol, one of many that Danny has in his shop, and three spare magazines. He also has his .22 rifle, also suppressed, thanks to Danny, and several magazines for it. Annie has traded her AR15 for a .22 rifle just like Kyle’s, which Danny also has several of in his shop. Robert carries his AR15 and a .40 caliber pistol. The rest of the crew just has the .22 pistols and spare magazines. Since Robert is the only one with experience shooting and carrying a rifle, they’ve decided it will be easier for them to get in and out of the houses with the pistols.
Marc goes with them into the garage where the golf carts await them. He’s been busy running power cables from his house to this one, fed by his solar-powered fuel cells. He had his system installed when Danny had the problems with his bank accounts, and Marc used his connections to get them fixed. Danny was so grateful for Marc’s help that he paid for the install, but not the equipment. Marc had no idea it would one day provide power for lights and charging golf cart batteries in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, but he’s glad to have it available for this purpose.
Robert and Andy have strapped plastic garbage cans where the golf clubs would go, so they have a place to dump the things they scavenge. Without having to hang on to duffel bags, their hands will be free for more important things, like fighting the undead.
Marc cracks the side door and tells Andy to send the Parrot up. In the yard outside the door, the drone whirs to life and raises straight up, going into a hover sixty feet over the alley. There are only two zombies in the alley, and they both turn and move toward the drone.
“Send it down the alley, Andy,” Marc says. “Go to the next house.”
Above the alley, the drone flies fifty feet away from them. The zombies follow.
Marc raises a rifle, leaning against the doorjamb for support. He fires three shots, adjusts his aim, and fires four more.
“How’s it look out there, Andy?” he asks.
Andy fidgets with the tablet, and in the alley, the Parrot spins in a circle.
“We’re clear,” he says.
Marc raises the door, and the carts pull into the alley. Andy advances the drone ahead of them, one hundred feet at a time. As they near then end of the alley, he spots a group of zombies next to a Winnebago.
“That’s Ron Jenkins’ RV,” Kyle says. “I thought he was headed to Montana for the summer.”
“I don’t think he made it, Dad,” Ben says, looking through a pair of green and white binoculars with the Colorado State Rams logo on them.
Kyle looks through the scope on his rifle and sees Ron Jenkins thrashing at the curtains in the rear of the thirty-foot vehicle, black veins tracing their way through his arms and face. The group of five zombies outside is reacting at the curtains moving around.
“Come on, Kyle, let’s go take care of this,” Annie says. Before he or Robert can object, she’s out of the cart and skulking up the alley toward the last house. Kyle gets out and runs after her, crouching low, so the zombies can’t see him.
He catches Annie by the fence that borders the last yard on the alley. She sets the barrel of her rifle on the notch made by the cut corner of the forty-two-inch fence boards. Kyle moves three feet to her left and does the same thing.
“You take the men; I’ll take the women. Okay?” she asks. “That’s an easy way to make sure we aren’t shooting at the same targets.”
“Okay,” he says, noting her use of ‘targets’ about what were once people. Dehumanizing them has started to become routine.
They both start aiming. Annie’s gun pops, the bolt racking making as much noise as the shot. One of the female zombies drops.
Kyle shoots; missing the man he’s aiming at but hitting another one in the neck. It doesn’t react.
“Dammit!” he hisses.
“Just breathe. Relax, and squeeze.”
Annie fires again, hitting another female zombie in the head, but it doesn’t go down. Instead, it turns toward them. Another shot and the zombie’s eye disappears, and it collapses.
Kyle fires and the male he’s aiming at falls forward, hitting the back of the RV and leaving a black smear as it slides to the pavement.
“Nice shot,” Annie says. She fires again, missing her shot and hitting the fence across the street.
Kyle shoots, an
d the male he hit in the neck goes down.
Annie fires at the last female again, hitting it in the temple. Its right arm flutters like its being electrocuted, then the whole body stiffens and it falls, face first onto the street.
Robert and Ben drive the carts up to the edge of the alley as Annie and Kyle climb on theirs. The Parrot flies out over the street, spins around, and then advances into the alley across the street from them.
“We’re clear here, but there are some zeds in the field to our right that might see us,” he says.
“Okay, let’s go side-by-side, so they have fewer things to see,” Robert says. “Once we’re across, use that thing to see if they’re coming after us.”
“The humans travel side by side to hide their numbers,” Ben says.
“What?” Robert asks.
“It’s a Star Wars joke,” Andy says. “He’s paraphrasing old Ben Kenobi when Luke was attacked by the Sand People, and Kenobi was played by Alec Guinness. My point. One-forty to one-forty-one.”
“I’ll give that one to you,” Ben says.
“Let’s just go,” Robert says. “You can play annoying movie nerds later, okay?”
They press the accelerators at the same time and hum across the street and into the alley on the other side. Andy takes the drone higher so he can see over the house next to them.
“We’re good!” he says.
They stutter step their way down the alley, the Parrot giving them notice of any zombies on the loose. Kyle and Annie jump off their cart twice to send the undead to their final rest. When they reach the open green space, there are scattered zombies, some nearby and some farther away.
“There’s no way we’re making it through here unseen,” Andy says.
“These close few we can get with the .22s,” Annie says. “Robert, you’ll need to get the farther ones with the AR.”
They each do their part, clearing the undead. Even suppressed, Robert’s rifle is much louder than the .22s, but with nothing else nearby to hear them, it doesn’t make a difference.
