by S. Ganley
Rushing back to take his place in front of Doug, Garrett resumed leading them to the edge of the hedges and it looked like they would reach their crossing point just a few steps ahead of the zombies on the other side. He took one quick look in all directions around Doug's yard and other than the zombies still making their way up the driveway it looked like they were clear on that side for the moment. Stepping up his pace he quickly outdistanced Doug and the others with the intent of reaching the hedges just ahead of everyone else. Taking his time he lined up each shot perfectly and cleared their path on the far side. With their path now clear for the moment, they could concentrate on getting everyone into Cameron's yard. Once they were past the hedges they would act as a barrier to keep the horde coming up the driveway at bay long enough for them to reach the house and lock some doors between them and their pursuers. Garrett turned back to check on everyone’s progress and was surprised to find that they were just coming up behind him and making much better time that he would have thought. Emily was giving it her all, but he could see that she didn't have much left in her, her face was scrunched into a pained grimace, her breathing was extremely strained and labored and she was gripping the front of her chest tightly with her hand. Garrett was sure that she was on the verge of a heart attack and whether it was fatal or not it would not be a situation she would recover from out there in the yard. They couldn't carry her and they could not spend time trying to revive her, they would have to leave her behind or risk others dying along with her. He didn't think the loss of Emily would weigh heavy on any of the others, including her own husband, but Garrett would see it as a failure and would take it hard. While he couldn't stand the woman at a personal level she was still a human being who he felt responsible for as soon as she left that basement with them. Doug was making it, but the strain was also starting to show on his face as well. Having been through it the night before Garrett was pretty sure the man would dig down inside of himself and pull up the fortitude to go the distance without falling out, but would likely blow chunks as soon as they were safely behind a locked door on the other side. Cameron was a different story all together, young and spry, the kid was hardly breaking a sweat and it almost seemed that the slower pace was actually harder for him. Garrett could tell that the tension and fear of the moment had him chomping at the bit to break out into a full on sprint, hurdle the hedges and leave the rest of them in the dust. If Garrett knew for sure that his house was still clear of any threats he would have actually considered sending him ahead to grab the keys for the Range Rover and start the loading process while the rest of them picked their way along slowly behind him. As it was, he was learning quickly to take nothing for granted, an empty house the day before could very likely have become a den of zombies overnight, there was no telling what may be lying in wait for them inside. They had left the garage sealed shut when they had left the day before so he was confident that if they could all get inside the garage with the door shut and locked behind them they would be safe for a time. They only needed a few minutes to get the truck loaded, open the outer doors and be on their way. It was the eighty or so yards of open back yard and the unknowns in the rest of the house that were still the biggest problems, for these reasons and more he would not allow Cameron or any of the others to separate from the group, at the moment there was safety in numbers.
The second that Emily reached the hedges she dropped to her knees dry heaving and gasping for breath, her hand still pressed against her chest as she looked up towards Garrett with tears streaming down her face trying to form words that she did not have the breath for.
"Doug, can you do anything for her before she has a heart attack?" Garrett asked and added, "something quickly."
Looking back towards Doug's house he saw that they had maybe thirty more seconds at best to get over the hedges before the zombies coming up the driveway would be within striking distance. Doug knelt down in front of Emily and encouraged her to hold her arms up over her head to help open her lungs and allow her breathing to catch up with her.
"She can’t make it like this. There is a history of heart disease in her family and she is to out of shape for the exertion and stress." Despite his misgivings about his wife it was clear that the man was in pain seeing the woman in that condition.
"We don't have time for this shit, here, take these." Miranda exclaimed as she dug her hand into the pack of supplies they had recovered from Cameron's house the night before and produced a bottle of baby aspirin. She popped off the top and spilled five of the small pills into her hand. Without waiting for a reply she shoved the small pile of pills into Emily's open mouth and pushed up on her chin to force her mouth closed to give the pills a chance to dissolve. "Get up and let’s move Emily. It’s either push through the pain or stay here and be someone’s lunch."
Doug and Garrett both watched as Emily gritted her teeth and forced herself first back to her knees and then accepting a hand from Miranda back onto her feet. Garrett once again had to hand it to the little firecracker for coming through in a pinch, those aspirin would instantly help serve as a blood thinner and give her a fighting chance against a pending heart attack. At the same time the inflamed voice she used in talking to the stricken woman pushed the right buttons. Emily made the choice that she was either going to make it the rest of the way with them or die trying. Garrett knew that if Miranda hadn't been there at that moment they would probably have lost Emily right there in the grass halfway between the two houses, as it was she had given the large woman a fighting chance to decide for herself to make it.
Looking back down the driveway Garrett saw they were running out of time, "Everyone, over the hedges. Let’s get moving."
Dropping back behind the group, he began methodically blasting away at the approaching herd of zombies. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Miranda was already guiding everyone over and threw the length of shrubbery. What he did know was that he didn't have enough ammo to handle all of the zombies rushing towards him, he would drop two more and then turn and make his own run for Cameron's back yard. Before he could squeeze off his next shot there was a flash of movement along the back of Doug's house and he saw Calvin running backwards out from the kitchen door, his rifle held to his shoulder as he repeatedly pulled the trigger time and time again at targets still inside the house.
"CALVIN!" Garrett shouted over the din of gunfire and the rising volume of groans from the oncoming wall of decaying flesh.
Calvin glanced back towards the sound of Garrett's voice and assessed their situation on that side of the yard. Giving up the fight inside the house he turned his back on Doug's house and raced across the lawn until he reached a point where he was directly in front of the driveway and the zombies rushing up it.
"Go, go, I got this." He shouted to Garrett as he waved him off with his hand.
Garrett knew that Calvin must be down to the last of his own supply of ammunition and didn't stand a chance on his own against that many zombies. But he also knew the uselessness of trying to argue with the man and with everyone else's lives in the balance he didn't have the time to do so. As Calvin drew a bead on his first target Garrett capped off one last shot and sent a geriatric bald headed zombie tumbling backwards into two other of his companions rushing up the driveway right behind him. Jumping back to his feet, Garrett turned away from Calvin and the closing zombies, leapt the hedges and rushed to take his place in front of Doug as he continued to lead the others to the back of the nearby house. Steady gunfire behind them told all of them that Calvin was busy holding down the fort while they continued to make their escape. Garrett wasn't sure but he thought he could even here Calvin shouting taunts and vulgarities at the zombies as he drew their attention to himself.
Emily made it to the corner of the house where she grabbed hold of the drain spout and paused to catch her breath again. She didn't look as bad as she did when they were at the halfway point but she was far from her natural color and panting like a dog without shade on a summer d
ay. They were still about sixty feet short of the back porch but at least they were in the clear for the moment. Calvin was keeping their tormentors occupied over on Doug's property but that wouldn't last for long and there was no telling where the next danger would come from, they needed to get in the house and behind locked doors as soon as possible.
"Come on girl, almost there. You can rest once we are inside." Miranda gently prodded as she eased Emily away from the side of the house with a firm grip under the fleshy part of her arm.
Doug was also starting to look a little ragged from the exertion but was holding together much better than his wife.
"We can take it a little easier from here, no need to rush headlong inside before we know the situation." Garrett offered, hoping that the knowledge that they could slow down some would help both Emily and Doug mentally push themselves just a little further.
The gunfire from the other side of the hedges stopped suddenly and Garrett glanced over to find Calvin running a wide route to the back of the yard with a group of zombies chasing along hot on his trail. Their numbers had increased in the last minute or two and from the far side of the house and they were putting the squeeze on Calvin. He had let them get to close for him to simply turn away and try picking his way through the dense hedgerow, they would have reached him before he could have made it to the other side. He now had to try and put some distance between them before he could turn back towards Cameron's yard and safely cross over. Calvin's decoy mission had bought the rest of them the time they needed to make it as far as they had but Garrett saw that not all of the zombies in the other yard had fallen for it, at least fifteen lagged behind the others and had spotted their small group near the house. They were now pushing against the hedges trying to force their bodies through the thick foliage and branches intent on reaching Garrett and his group. While the hedges would slow them down a little, it would not keep them back for long, the clock was ticking once again and they needed to get out of the open and into a secure location as soon as possible.
Garrett stopped short at the bottom step to the porch, with Calvin now playing cowboy still over in Doug's backyard he had two choices left. He could lead everyone straight into the house and just deal with anything they came across as it happened, or he could have Miranda maintain security outside with everyone else while he went on alone and did a quick sweep. Looking around him at his group of charges he decided that it would be best to leave them by the porch in Miranda’s care. Anything that happened inside the house would be in close quarters and he would need as much freedom of movement as possible without worrying about someone getting in the way. He did decide to take a chance on Cameron for this quick look inside, as long as the kitchen was clear the kid could grab the keys to his dad's truck to save them some time.
After making sure Miranda was in the best position possible to keep an eye on their backs, Garrett and Cameron mounted the wooden deck and eased across to the kitchen door while trying to keep their footfalls as silent as possible to not alert anything inside of their approach. They spotted trouble before they reached the back door, two figures were visible inside the kitchen no more than twenty feet from the doorway. Garrett motioned for Cameron to stay on the near side of the door frame with his body pressed against the wall of the house while he darted across the opening and took up a position on the opposite side. Between the two of them they could now see into the kitchen, dining area and most of the large living room visible from the back door. The kitchen was going to be their primary concern since that was the main area all of them needed to cross to make it to the garage. In addition to the two in the kitchen Garrett spotted a pair of shadows just inside the hallway leading from the living room into the front foyer and other rooms on that side of the house. He guessed that there were at least two or three more zombies at the far end of the house. He wasn't sure why the sounds of gunfire in the yard just outside the home had not lured these zombies outside to investigate, but as he watched the two in the kitchen continuing to make their slow and lumbering circuits in wide circles he saw them occasionally pause and sniff excitedly at the air before continuing on. He thought that their scents from being in the house the day before was still in the air and these zombies were more attracted to that then the sounds from outside. If that was the case then there was a good chance that even more of them could be on the second floor where their scent was probably even stronger. If Garrett started capping off rounds inside the house to clear their path it would undoubtedly be too much for the rest of them to resist and they could find themselves mixing it up with more undead than he would be able to handle. If they could take care of the two in the kitchen and keep it quiet, they should be able to ease through the house into the garage without attracting any more attention. Garrett leaned his rifle against the side of the house and drew his knife. Cameron saw what he was doing and was able to figure out what he had planned, he held the large kitchen knife he was carrying into the air and motioned towards the kitchen. Garrett was not about to try and recruit this young teenage kid to help with killing the zombies so he motioned to him with his hand to remain at the door and watch his back while he slipped inside. Cameron didn't look happy with that idea and once again pointed to his chest, then the knife and towards one of the zombies in the kitchen. Garrett understood that the kid wanted to prove himself, that he wanted to show Garrett and everyone else that he had the guts to be a contributor, but the reasons Garrett wasn't willing to put him in that situation unless absolutely necessary were too numerous and complex to try and get into with him right at that moment. Garrett indicated that he wanted Cameron to remain at the door and watch the rest of the house in case something tried to sneak up behind him while he was taking care of things in the kitchen.
Keeping low to the ground Garrett eased into the door and crept silently towards the outer breakfast bar with four stools set up on the edge of the kitchen near the windows. As long as he kept his body down below the top of the short counter top he would remain hidden from the two zombies on the opposite side who were continuing to make a small circuit around the main part of the kitchen. He followed the breakfast bar to the very edge where it opened into the kitchen and stopped just behind the last stool in line. He knew this was going to be a difficult take down for him, two at a time was not necessarily the problem, it was the potential for noise that worried him. Taking the first one by surprise would be easy, the pattern they were walking around the kitchen led one of them right to the outer edge of the breakfast bar. He could pop out of concealment just as it turned away from him, grab it from behind and deliver a killing knife blow before it ever realized there was danger nearby. The other zombie was a little deeper into the kitchen, closer to the sink and window overlooking the deck and backyard. There was no sneaking up on that one. He would be spotted before he covered half the distance and the chances were good that would be all the time that zombie needed to get off a warning and bring the rest of the shitbags elsewhere in the house crashing their little party. Watching from the edge of the breakfast bar as they continued to walk back and forth around the kitchen Garrett had an idea on how he may be able to pull it off while remaining hidden from the second zombie just long enough to get within striking distance. It was risky and not a move he would ask anyone else to do, if he was off in his timing by a second there was a good chance he was going to get bit, but he didn't see any real alternative.
Garrett heard the double popping sound of a pair of shots that could only have come from Miranda's pistol. She would only shoot if a zombie had managed to get too close to them, a third shot rang out a second later. Garrett knew he didn't have the luxury of waiting for the perfect moment, he had to make his move as soon as the first zombie completed his current circuit. Tensing his body he readied himself to spring from cover as he counted down from five. As soon as he ticked off the last second he bolted around the edge of the counter and immediately dodged to the right keeping the first zombie between him and the other one on the far side of
the kitchen. Staying low to the ground with the breakfast nook at his back helped disguise his movements from his second target and he remained in a crouch until he was right behind the first zombie. At the last possible second he popped up and turned his own body into a position that mirrored the zombie right in front of him using it as a shield from the other one. Striking out with his knife he hit a point just below the hair line at the base of the zombie’s neck with the blade angled slightly upward. At the exact instant his knife struck home, his free hand wrapped around the creatures face and clamped down over its mouth giving him momentarily control of the body. This was the part that presented the greatest risk. If his knife strike was not instantly fatal or glanced off bone before scrambling brain, the zombie could have just the second it needed to bite down on his hand as it covered its mouth. In this case he had been precise in his knife placement and instead of feeling a mouthful of teeth digging into the palm of his hand he felt the falling weight of the zombie as it began to go limp. Pulling its head back towards his own body he pressed himself tight against its back and began moving forward at the same time pushing the body along with him. Once he started forward he would not be able to stop or the body would fall off to one side or the other. He walked the body forward towards the other zombie using its frame to hide himself until he was close enough and then he yanked back hard on the hilt of the knife while using his shoulder to push the dead zombie forward into the second one. The collisions between the two zombies created just the moment of confusion he had been hoping it would. With the second zombies attention focused on its comrade suddenly crashing into him, Garrett side stepped to one side and lashed out with his knife hand sending the blade into its ear and ripping its brains into a shredded mass of useless pudding. The two bodies crumpled to the floor with arms and legs tangled together and Garrett turned back towards the hallway leading out towards the foyer and watched for a moment to ensure that the thump the bodies made when they hit the floor had not attracted any attention.
