Alice knew this wasn’t a game though. She understood those people would hurt her if they caught her. It was the only reason grown-ups would be acting this way. She wished her Daddy were here. He was a police officer and could protect her. He wasn’t, though. She had Shoes, which was good. Shoes used to be a police doggy before he got too old. He worked with her Daddy when they needed to find cadavers. Alice didn’t quite know what cadavers were, but she suspected they were dead bodies. Her Daddy switched departments once Shoes was too old, because he said it made him too sad. Shoes’s job was to protect her now. He was her guardian angel or rather guardian doggy.
“Mister Walter?” Alice whispered, tugging on the hem of his shirt.
“What is it?” Mister Walter whispered down to her.
“I have to pee.” She didn’t know they would be walking so far and that she should have gone before they left her house.
Mister Walter looked at the lady, Kara. She was kind of pretty for an old lady. She was also black. There were all kinds of kids that went to day-care and to school with her, some of which were black, but Alice had never met an old person that was. It made her white hair seem very white.
“Can you go in the bushes?” Kara asked her.
“I’m not a boy,” Alice frowned. She had long hair and was wearing her jean dress. How could anyone confuse her with a boy?
“Girls can go in the bushes too,” Kara told her.
“They can?” Alice was surprised to learn of this. “Where do they sit?”
Kara and Mister Walter shared another look. Grownups did that a lot. She often wondered what they were saying with their eyes.
“Well, why don’t you come with me, and I’ll show you how?” Kara told her.
“Can Shoes come even though he’s a boy dog?” Alice didn’t want to leave Shoes.
“Of course he can. Come on, we’ll go behind these bushes over here.” Kara took her hand and led her over to some bushes. They were right in front of someone’s house, but the windows were too high up for Alice to look into them. That was good, because that meant no one in the house could see her. She peered through the bushes to make sure Mister Walter couldn’t see her. He was hiding behind a tree, watching the street with his back to her.
Kara taught Alice a way in which she could pee outdoors. It was awkward and she almost peed on her own shoe, but she managed. Afterwards, Kara handed her some Kleenex from her purse to wipe herself with. This was then thrown into the bushes because Kara said it was okay.
“Feel better now?” Kara asked as they left the bushes.
“Yes.” Alice nodded, and then patted Shoes again. He had sat patiently with her. “How much further are we going?”
“It’s hard to say. I’ve never been in this neighbourhood, so I don’t know how close we are,” Kara told her.
“Where are we going?”
“To my house.”
“Why?”
“It has a big fence around it that can keep the bad people out.”
“Where’s Paul?” Alice hadn’t seen him since the car.
“Who’s Paul?” The two of them met up with Mister Walter and continued sneaking down the street.
“He goes to school with me, and to day-care. He’s a booger head.” He is. “He was driving the car when we hit the man in the street.”
Kara and Mister Walter stopped walking and looked at each other again. This look was different from the other one, but Alice didn’t know what it meant either. It seemed bad though.
“We didn’t see Paul,” Mister Walter told her.
“Oh. What about Judy?” Alice wanted her to meet Shoes. She thought he could make her less scared.
“Was Judy in the car with you as well?” Kara asked.
“Yes. She was scared. Her Daddy was chasing her, and he jumped on the car. That’s when Paul started driving,” Alice told them.
“We didn’t see her either,” Mister Walter said.
“Oh, okay. I guess they walked home and forgot I was asleeping in the back seat.” Her Daddy sometimes took her on long trips in the car, and she would often fall asleep. She assumed that had just happened again.
They snuck down the street for another block, still sticking to cars, bushes, trees, and fences. They were in an area Alice didn’t know because she had never come this way before. Everything she knew lay on the other side of her house. All the houses kept getting bigger and the lawns larger the farther they walked. Eventually all the lawns were fenced in and they didn’t have anything to hide behind. They sat down behind a car while the adults thought about what to do.
“My feet hurt,” Alice said to no one in particular. She was getting used to whispering all the time, but it made her think about when her class went to the school library. She didn’t like the library. It had an old smell, and Mrs. Hershey read books out loud in a boring way. She didn’t give the characters voices like her Daddy and Ms. Lou did.
“We’re almost there,” Mister Walter told her.
Alice sighed. She was tired of walking. So was Shoes. Shoes was lying at her feet, and he sighed as well. Alice played with his leash while they took their break.
“What about going towards Newel Ave and going down that alley behind the shops?” Alice heard Mister Walter say to Kara. “There’s a bunch of dumpsters and things to hide behind if someone shows up.”
“No,” Kara didn’t even – what was the word? – negotiate. “We should try going through people’s yards.”
“Some of those fences are pretty high.”
“We can get over them by working together.”
“What about Shoes?”
“The dog?” Alice saw Kara give Shoes an unpleasant look. “We can toss it over if we really have to.”
“Some of the houses have perimeter alarms.”
“So? Bring the cops, we could use them.”
Mister Walter looked down at Alice. Alice looked back up at him. His eyes were brown, which was boring. Lots of people had brown eyes. Kara’s eyes were brown too.
Mister Walter turned back to Kara and nodded. He rose up from behind the car they were using as a shield and looked up and down the street. He gave them a thumbs up, and they all ran over to the nearest fence. Alice liked running, but not when her feet hurt, and Shoes grunted when he had to get up. The fence was made of metal and had fancy designs between the posts, but it wasn’t very tall, at least not compared to Mister Walter. It only reached his chin.
“I’m going to lift you over the fence, okay, Alice?” Mister Walter asked.
“Can you hold onto Shoes?” Alice held his leash out to Kara. Kara rolled her eyes around and huffed, but she took the leash. Alice didn’t know why, but it seemed like Kara didn’t like Shoes. But Shoes was so loveable!
“Okay, here we go.” Mister Walter grabbed Alice under her armpits and heaved her up in the air. Her Daddy sometimes picked her up like that and would swing her around. It was fun, but sometimes he did it too much and then she felt sick.
Alice tucked her legs up as she went over the fence; the pointy bits looked like they might hurt.
“I’m going to let go now,” Mister Walter told her. Alice nodded. “Three, two, one.”
He let go and Alice dropped to the ground. It wasn’t a very long drop, no further than when she jumped off the swings in the playground. Her teacher, Mr. Maluchi, got mad at her when she did it. She only did it though because Paul had dared her to. In fact, he double dared her, but he wouldn’t do it because of Mr. Maluchi.
After she landed, she turned around and watched as Mister Walter picked up Shoes and held him over the fence.
“No,” Alice whispered. “It’s too high for him.” Shoes had little legs and didn’t do well with falls.
Mister Walter pulled him back over to his side and put him on the ground. He had what looked like a quiet argument with Kara, and then climbed over the fence himself. He wasn’t very good at climbing, but that was probably because he was an adult.
Kara picked up Shoes w
ith an unpleasant expression and handed him over the fence to Mister Walter. Mister Walter put him down on the ground and handed his leash back to Alice. Alice patted Shoes on the head and called him a good doggy. And he was a good doggy.
Kara climbed over the fence next. She was better at it than Mister Walter was, even though she was an old person, and when Mister Walter offered to help her, she told him she didn’t need it. Alice looked at the house whose lawn they were on. It was fancy, like a castle.
Mister Walter took Alice’s hand and led her over to a tall hedge on the other side of the house. There was no fence in the hedge, so they were all able to push their way through it. It was easy for Alice since she was little, but Mister Walter had a hard time. It smelled nice in the bushes.
The next yard had a big maple tree in it. Alice would have liked to climb it, but she knew better than to ask if she could. This house was less like a castle but still bigger than her house.
“They’re missing a window.” Alice noticed the curtains were blowing outside.
“Hmm?” Mister Walter looked over at the house. “We should hurry along.” He placed his hand on Alice’s back and made her walk faster.
The next set of bushes had a short chain link fence in the middle of them. Kara climbed over first and then helped Alice over. Mister Walter then handed Shoes over the fence. It was hard for him to get over because all the bush branches kept getting caught on him.
“Walter, look out!” Kara suddenly screamed, scaring the beejesus out of Alice.
* * *
A man dressed in overalls had come through the bushes behind Mister Walter and proceeded to grab him. Mister Walter fought with the man. Another man in similar clothing started running at them. He was looking at Alice, Kara, and Shoes.
“Run!” Mister Walter yelled.
Kara grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled her out the other side of the bushes. Shoes grumped from suddenly being tugged. Alice ran with Kara into the next yard. The other side had a brick wall that was taller than Mister Walter. Alice didn’t think she could climb it, not without Mister Walter’s help.
“This way.” Kara pulled Alice toward the big fancy house. She ran up to a window and smashed her purse through it, which caused a whooping alarm to go off. Alice was scared. She didn’t understand what was going on.
She looked back at the bushes but couldn’t see Mister Walter. The second man in overalls had made it over the fence though, and was fighting to get free of the branches.
“Come on, dear!” Kara grabbed Alice, drawing her attention back to the whooping house. She had broken out the window and was urging Alice through it.
“Shoes!” Alice cried as she dropped his leash while Kara pretty much shoved her through the window.
Kara huffed but grabbed the puppy up and shoved him through the window next. She then came through the window herself. It was a tight squeeze for her, making her gasp. Alice thought that maybe she got hurt by some broken glass. She had never been hurt by broken glass because her Daddy wouldn’t let her get anywhere near any. That’s how she knew it was dangerous and could really hurt.
Shortly after Kara got through the window, the man from the bushes hit into it. He reached through the window for them, but it was a much tighter fit for him. He was fatter than Kara was. Still, he started to squeeze himself through, and Shoes started barking at him.
Kara grabbed Alice again, who grabbed Shoes’s leash, and led her out of the room. She found a set of stairs and was about to go up them when Shoes lay down and started woofing at them.
“Stop!” Alice cried over the sound of the alarm.
“What is it now?” Kara was very annoyed.
“That’s his special command when he finds a cadaver.” She said the word very carefully so as to get it right.
“He’s a cadaver dog?” Kara stepped back off the stairs, her expression changing completely.
“He was before he got too old.” Alice patted her dog on the head.
Kara looked up the stairs then back at the dog. He continued to woof, looking up toward the top.
“Come on.” Kara led Alice and Shoes over to a door. It opened up to a set of stairs leading down. Kara looked at Shoes, who looked back her, and then stepped down them.
Alice brought Shoes onto the stairs and just as a loud thump sounded from where the broken window was, Kara closed the door. They hurried down the steps. Alice noticed the whooping was a lot quieter here, which was nice, but it was still very annoying. Something started banging on the door at the top of the stairs.
“This way.” Kara led them through the nice basement to another door. They went through it into a room that Alice thought was strange. There was a cage within the room that had many bottles on shelves in it. Alice didn’t understand why you would put bottles in a cage. Kara closed the wooden door behind them, then opened the metal cage’s door. She ushered Alice inside. Once they were all in, Kara shut the cage door behind them and locked it with a key that had been sticking out of the lock. Kara took the key.
Something started banging on the wooden door that led to the rest of the basement. Kara hurried over to a pair of steps that led to these great big storm doors. She pushed and pushed on the doors, but they wouldn’t open. They were locked from the outside.
The wooden door smashed in, and the man from the bushes came through. He ran into the metal cage and reached through the bars at them. Alice was very scared. If she hadn’t gone in the bushes, she might have peed her pants.
Kara pulled Alice as far away from the man as they could get and sat with Alice in her lap. Alice picked up Shoes, placed him on her lap, and started to cry.
16:
The Mercenary
Mathias leaned forward between the front seats of the ambulance, looking at the house. The door was hanging wide open. It was a terrible sign.
“I’ll check out the place by myself,” Mathias told LeBlanc and Dr. Bishop.
“No way, man,” LeBlanc shook his head.
“She shouldn’t come in,” Mathias pointed to Bishop, “and I don’t trust her not to take off without us, so you’re going to stay here and watch her.”
Bishop made a show of rolling her eyes. “Just bring me with you. I can handle myself, especially if you hand me one of your guns.”
“You not only have to be able to identify a zombie the moment you see one, but you have to hit them in the head. A simple body shot isn’t going to work,” Mathias told her, trying to convince her that staying put was for her own safety.
“So they are zombies,” Bishop nodded to herself. “That’s what I was thinking, but it’s good to get verification.”
“Wow,” LeBlanc grinned. “You’re just totally cool with that? No, ‘zombies don’t exist,’ comebacks or arguments?”
“No,” Bishop shook her head. “Now give me a gun and let’s go in.” She opened the ambulance door and hopped out. Closing the door behind her, she looked back at the boys through the glass.
“She’s feisty,” LeBlanc grinned at Mathias. “I like her.”
LeBlanc opened the driver side door and climbed out, while Mathias headed out the back. They both left their packsacks in the back of the ambulance with Bishop’s box of goodies. Mathias checked his assault rifle again as he climbed out. Despite looking it over thoroughly in the back of the ambulance, he worried about the gun. He had been afraid that the firing pin might have been removed or swapped with one that didn’t work. The thing could be rigged to explode in his hands for all he knew. It looked to be in proper working condition, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he used it. LeBlanc’s gun clearly worked, so at least there was that.
Mathias headed around to the front of the ambulance. He took his pistol out of its holster and held it out to the doctor. “You only get one mag.”
“More than enough for one house.” Bishop took the gun from him. She released the magazine to check the bullets, then slammed it back in and cocked a round into the chamber.
“A doctor who knows
her weaponry. I like,” LeBlanc commented.
With LeBlanc in the lead, Bishop following after him, and Mathias guarding the rear, they made for the house. LeBlanc held his rifle forward and entered the house first. Mathias grabbed the back of Bishop’s white coat with one hand to make sure she didn’t follow in right away.
“Clear,” LeBlanc whispered from inside.
Mathias let go of Bishop and allowed her to enter. With guns drawn, they carefully crossed the threshold. Mathias noted that the doctor not only held the pistol correctly, but also was very careful with her line of fire. She made sure that LeBlanc was never in it, and if it was unavoidable, she lowered the muzzle to point at the floor. She knew gun safety.
“I’ll take the ground floor. You two check upstairs,” LeBlanc whispered. He spoke for the sake of Bishop; the gestures he made with his hand were all Mathias needed.
Mathias stepped around Bishop and scanned the top of the stairs. Seeing nothing, he started up, taking one step at a time and listening closely for any signs of life. Or unlife actually. Bishop followed after him. He would have preferred that LeBlanc have his back, but he also wanted to find Danny quickly. Splitting up was never a good idea, but fuck it.
He reached the top of the stairs and took a quick look down the hall. It was clear, so he continued down it.
“Wait here on the stairs,” Mathias whispered to Bishop. “The hallway is too tight for both of us to move in it safely.”
Bishop sighed, irritated, but stayed put on the steps.
Mathias went to the first room, Emma’s. He opened the door and scanned the room fast for anything standing or lying in the open. “Danny?” he whispered into the room. There was no response, just a tail flick from a goldfish. He did a more thorough sweep of the room, checking under the bed and in the closet, in case Danny was too scared, or worse, too hurt to respond. Emma’s room was clear.
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