by A. L. White
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Lori got to the top of the stairs in time to see Jay fire an arrow at the faces outside of the family room window. With a crash the arrow smashed into the window causing it to shatter and the creatures were gone. Jay turned and ran out the front door in what Lori thought was a futile attempt to kill them, whatever they were. Virginia started screaming and drawing the attention of the zombies around the backyard fence as they surged forward. The weight of so many of them pushing was causing the fence to give in places. Now even the backyard wouldn’t be a safe haven to venture out in occasionally. She rushed to her baby sister and hugged her close.
“Shhhh Virginia, we have to be quiet for a few minutes okay?”
Virginia stopped screaming and buried her head into Lori’s chest, shutting the world out. At that moment there was only her and her big sister, nothing else. Lori on the other hand, was trying to keep Virginia calm and assess their new predicament. One thing was clear to her; she was going to have to retrieve Jay if he didn’t come back fairly quickly. That wouldn’t be easy to do dragging Virginia along with her. Virginia could shoot a crossbow, that wasn’t the problem. She was in fact probably the best shot out of all three. On a target range, not with something coming at her as far as Lori knew. How would she react out there? Unfortunately they were going to find out. She couldn’t be left here now. The broken window was a breech to their security. There wasn’t time to find Jay and board up the window.
Lori decided that finding Jay and keeping what was left of the family together was the important thing now. She knelt down to Virginia and told her what they had to do and that she needed to be strong for all of them. Lori handed her a crossbow and quiver and then led her to the wide-open front door. She could see that the zombies had already started gathering around the front porch. Luckily they were not like whatever the other thing was and couldn’t climb the stairs. She could see that if she went to the right, they could easily out-maneuver them. Before Lori could give her the plan, Virginia was out the door and heading toward the large bush on the right side of the yard. Lori followed right behind her as the surge of zombies shifted like a wave to follow them. Once off the porch Virginia cut through the large evergreens on Mr. Gowwers yard that marked the end of his property and the beginning of theirs, then left onto the street and crouched down behind a van that was there. For the moment they were safe; the zombies were not agile enough to navigate the evergreen branches very easily.
Before Lori could say anything Virginia was off across the street hiding behind another car. Lori followed and said “Okay, now what?”
“I am following you silly,” Virginia said with a smile that reminded Lori of better times.
She looked down the street toward the way Jay had been running. There was no sign of him anywhere on the street. They would have to make their way up the street looking between all the houses for any sign of him.
“Okay, let’s just move from car to car and look for Jay. And Virginia, keep an eye out for other things too!”
Virginia nodded her head yes and they left the safety of the car and headed toward the next one. Luckily the Smiths across the street had half of their family living with them at one time, so the front of their house was lined with cars. When she caught back up to Virginia the little girl pointed toward the windows of the house. Lori could see the zombies moving around in the living room. Well, she thought, I guess that explains why they hadn’t seen any candlelight coming from there for the past month. They worked their way up to the last car that was part of the Smith family. From here it would be three or four houses before another car could be used for cover. The street looked fairly clear with the exception of around their house.
Instead of making mad dashes, Virginia now followed Lori down the street mimicking her every move. They walked slow and cautiously with their crossbows at the ready. As she passed each house Lori would make a slow spin to check in between the house to her right and then to the left. Then they would inch forward to the next small piece of land dividing the houses. When she felt comfortable they would move forward to the next one. They were almost at the end of the street, about three houses to go, when she saw the arrows stuck into the vinyl siding. Lori motioned to Virginia that they were going to be crossing the street now. The little girl nodded and followed behind.
As she moved between the houses Lori counted the arrows on the ground and the ones stuck in the house. She counted eight, so Jay had time to shoot at something even if it looked like he hadn’t hit anything. Her mind quickly calculated how many arrows were in her quiver and knew that Jay didn’t have many left. Why hadn’t he picked the ones up on the ground and taken them with him? That was when she began to see the blood on the grass; at first a little, but then too much for Lori to even imagine unless it was in a B-rated horror movie. She quickly motioned for Virginia to stop and stay. The last thing she needed right now was for Virginia to scream again. Virginia stopped and quickly picked up the arrows on the ground and placed them in her quiver. She’s daddy’s little girl Lori thought before the blood pulled her back to reality.
She could see that the blood was getting thicker as it rounded the corner of the house to her right and could hear an odd sound coming from that way. It was kind of like a murmur she thought, a low constant rumble or murmur. She raised the crossbow up and inched forward expecting something to jump out at her any minute. With each step the murmur got louder and the blood began looking like a small puddle. Everything else was silent. She could hear her heartbeat, the squishing sound her shoes were making as she walked through the blood soaked yard and the murmur. As she reached the corner of the house she took a stance with her back to the wall and took a quick glance over at Virginia. She was there kneeling on one knee aiming her crossbow toward Lori with three or four arrows stuck softly into the ground. She didn’t look like her baby sister, but like a child who had grown up in some war-torn part of the world.
Lori took a deep breath struggling to control herself, and then peeked around the corner. She quickly snapped her head back and fought the urge to vomit. Her heart took off at what felt like a million beats per second as a crushing weight constricted her chest. She wanted to just run as far from here as she could and never turn back. An arrow shot past her with a swishing sound and then another. She looked over at Virginia who was sighting something else and then another arrow went past. Lori could hear thuds all around her and then another swish.
“Lori let’s GO!” Virginia screamed and Lori took off running and flew past her sister. She could still hear the swishes and thuds behind her but she kept running. Then there was an explosion of sound behind her and she fell to the ground only then turning to see if Virginia was behind her; she wasn’t. Virginia was standing in the middle of the street with a white haired fat man and two large black dogs. The man was shooting a machine gun into the hoard of zombies and the dogs were attacking any of them that got too close. Her baby sister was right in there too, using what arrows she had left and then hitting zombies with her crossbow. Lori rose up and took aim, firing arrow after arrow as she joined the others.
“Little ladies, I think it is time for you, me and the Lads to head to safety. Follow me,” he said, yelling “Lads!” and the big black dogs followed him.
They were led into the house on the corner and then down into the basement. There the man had a bunker built below his basement. He motioned Virginia and Lori inside; the dogs followed them and sat off to the left. It was large Lori thought, really large. He then closed and sealed the door leaving them in darkness for a few minutes until the lights glowed to life. He noticed the shocked look on their faces and said “Generator and solar panels on the roof,” with a smug smile.
“Thank you for helping us out there but we should probably try to make it back home in a little while” Lori stated.
“You can leave whenever you want - no one is going to force you to stay,” he said. “You may want to consider staying longer than a little while though. Th
at young fella that was out there and you two have really whipped up a hornets’ nest. It has been pretty calm around here for the past month until today.”
“Jay? You saw Jay, the young fella?” Virginia asked.
The man looked over toward Lori with a quizzical look on his face. The little girl didn’t know or see what happened to the young fella he thought. Well, that may not be his place to say then. Instead he introduced himself. “My name is Bob Watson and these lads here are Zeus and Perseus,” he stated and motioned toward the dogs who sat up at the mention of their names. “And you are the Littles’ kids from down the street. I knew your father fairly well. Forgive me but I do not remember your names though.”
“I am Lori and this is Virginia,” Lori replied as she felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she thought of her brother. “The young fella as you called him was our brother Jay.” She quickly grabbed Virginia and hugged her, the tears broke free now and she sobbed. Bob noticed that the younger one didn’t cry; she hugged her sister back and stared at the Lads but there were no tears, no emotion at all.
“Listen, why don’t you gals stay the night here? The Lads and I sure could use the company for a change of pace. We can have a good meal, trade information on what’s going on out there and maybe watch one of those old DVDs I have back there. Let’s take a night off from the end of the world,” he said. Then he motioned to two bunks on the far side of the bunker. “You can sleep over there - even has those curtains you can pull around the bunks for some privacy.”
Lori started to decline when she heard Virginia say “Thank you Mr. Watson we would like that very much. I am up for any movie that doesn’t have zombies or the end of the world in it.” They all laughed at that and he replied “How about a good Chuck Norris film? We could use him right about now!” That caused Bob to laugh even harder remembering all of the Chuck Norris jokes about Chuck taking on just about everything and winning.
CHAPTER 3
Last night had been a breath of fresh air and he thoroughly enjoyed himself and the company of the girls. It took him back to better days before the wife had left and he couldn’t even put a value on hearing laughter again. He had taken the Lads on a scouting mission right after the sun came up this morning. Bob had wondered if he should wake the girls up before he left. He had hoped that the little one wouldn’t wake up and think he abandoned them. His luck had held out on both accounts; he made it home safe with both dogs and no one had awoke in his absence. Drinking his coffee now, he knew that he faced the hard part. He would have to tell his guests that something had inhabited their house overnight. That, he thought, would be the easy part - the hard part would be to explain what he thought was in there. Bob was sure that they probably had stayed inside this whole time until yesterday. He knew they had seen the zombies. How could you not see them if you had windows? They were pretty much everywhere. That wasn’t what was in there though. Of course he didn’t see what was in there, didn’t hang around that long. He learned early on that keeping on the move when he was outside was the best way to keep living and that was what all the prepping had been for.
Lori came out from behind the curtain drawn around the bunk bed. She reminded Bob a lot of her mother but acted more like her father. Bob poured her a cup of coffee and offered it to her. Lori took it and sat down, keeping her eyes on him and said, “Did you have to take your dogs out this morning?”
“You could say that.”
Lori started to ask if he had gone by the place where Jay was last seen and then thought better of it. It was too hard to even think about that right now.
“The Lads and I went for a little scouting mission to check out your house.”
“And?” she asked.
“I have bad news and bad news,” he said with some concern now.
Lori giggled and replied “If you put it that way, let’s start with the bad news.”
Bob took a sip of his coffee, pulled out a pack of Pall Malls from his pocket and fetched a cigarette from it. He held it to his lips and slowly raised the flame from the lighter to it. He was trying to stall for time; he really hadn’t expected her to be so direct. I guess when the world goes to shit this is what you get, he thought.
“You have seen what you kids call the zombies?”
Lori rolled her eyes at that question not trying to hide her annoyance in the slightest bit.
Bob smiled, “Please, humor an old man for just a little while.” He took a long drag off of his smoke then continued, “I am not sure if what you have seen are zombies, mutants or creatures from Hell. Don’t really care what they are or what you call them; what I do care about is that they are here and they are a threat to all of our existence.” He paused to see if she was following along or ignoring him. You never knew with young people when they were apt to tune you out and go through the motions to make you think they were paying attention.
“Let’s call the zombies for now, okay?” he asked, and she nodded yes. “Okay, so we have the zombies out there, slow, clumsy and as far as I can tell dead. Then there is something else out there, are you following me?”
Lori nodded yes and felt the fear rising up again.
“I am not sure what we would call the other that is out there, but it is one pretty nasty creature.”
“Zombie 2.0,” Lori replied.
Bob laughed. Everything, to the kids these days had some digital value to it in being or name.
“That will do just fine,” he replied. “Zombie 2.0 it is then. The 2.0’s are fast and I think they have more intelligence. Yesterday, and this is just a theory mind you, yesterday your brother was led to that spot behind the Thompson house. I am guessing they started being seen around your yard?”
Lori replied, “They were looking in the back windows, leaving handprints on all the rest of the downstairs windows.”
“Hmmmm,” Bob said as he mind calculated it out. “One or a bunch?”
“We only ever saw one as far as I know. It started yesterday morning.”
“You may think it did, but your brother had been making little trips out after sun-up for the past three weeks. I am sorry to say that I never made contact with him. If I had things may be different today.” Bob lowered his eyes in shame toward the now empty coffee cup.
“So you’re saying that Jay attracted these things to us?”
“For lack of a better way to put it, yes I am. Come with me for a minute and let me show you something,” Bob said as he rose from the table and motioned her to follow him. They went upstairs into what had been the living room in better days, now a water storage area filled with five gallon bottles.
“What do you see outside?” he asked her, pointing toward the street.
Lori looked at the empty street and saw nothing. Bob motioned her to follow before she could answer and led her to a window facing out in each direction on the ground floor.
“Well?”
“You don’t have the packs hanging around your house - why not?”
“Because little lady, when the Lads and I go out we don’t attract attention. It took me over an hour to go just down the street to check on your house this morning. It took that long because I never go the same way more than a few times and I am always on the lookout for anything that could cause me or the Lads harm. Now the Lads help because they can smell these buggers from way off and they will not let me walk into an ambush either intentionally or by accident. Your brother was like a noisy old truck without a muffler going down the middle of this street every morning. Probably had a few following him and never gave it another thought because they were so slow, how could they possibly have caught up to him?” Bob calmed himself as he felt his temper begin to boil at the boy’s out and out stupidity. After all, he was a boy and he learned his lesson the hard way didn’t he?
“This is what I have observed so far: those things just walk and eat, that is it period. I have seen them move in large herds until something catches their attention, then like a flock of birds they turn and he
ad toward it. There is no lightning quick attack. They just follow and wear out their prey then eat it. So if they were following him, they followed him home and more than likely more followed every day. I don’t know and don’t care if they communicate or how a herd ended up outside of your house. The fact is that they were there and I am telling you these creatures don’t have the intelligence to find something without that something making itself known.”
Lori knew all along that Jay had been sneaking out of the house; she started to say something once but had let it slide. He had started to become a little unbearable being cooped up and after his little clandestine adventures she found him tolerable. Going over everything in her head Lori didn’t recall ever mentally putting two and two together as far as the herd gathering around their house.
Bob pulled out a map and opened it on the table, turning it around so that Lori could read it.
“You know where the storage yard is?” he asked Lori.
“The one over by the Wal-Mart?” she asked him back.
“That’s the one, about three miles from here. A little too far to go by foot I think. Well a lot too far to go by foot for me,” Bob said smiling.
I have an RV there that I had planned on using as my secondary bug out vehicle for me and the wife. Now it isn’t near as versatile as my truck but I don’t think we have the issue I was planning on dealing with. It may work out better for the three of us.”
“Three of us? Virginia and I can’t leave here.”
Bob ignored her and continued, “Every place you see a red “X” on this map is a secret FEMA camp. If we try out a few of those we may find a little help as long as we are cautious.”
Virginia came out to the table and sat down looking very much still asleep to Lori. She didn’t say a word, yawned and looked like she was studying the map before her. They both decided to wait for her to speak first. Bob, because he had little or no experience with kids and what they could or could not handle and Lori because she knew it was best to just let Virginia wake up on her own.
