“That was closer than I wanted it to be,” Jerry said, getting out of the vehicle.
“Aww, were you scared?” Maddie ribbed him.
“Guys.” Benny tried to interrupt their games.
“Fuck you. I wasn’t scared. Just saying it was closer than I wanted,” Jerry shot back, defensive.
“Nice neighborhood. If we can make it through, then we have a clear run on into the city. Not sure we want to go that way, mind you,” Sanjay said, joining the group outside the vehicle.
“Guys,” Benny called louder this time.
“We need to recon. Check out the city and get an idea of how the virus’ spread. That was the mission,” Lou said, his voice unwavering.
“I know that, LT, but we’ve not heard anything from the base in three days. Besides, we can survey from outside the city. I mean, look at what we have seen so far. We know inside it’s going to be worse. They can send a bird up to get a closer look,” Sanjay suggested, not for the first time since they left the base.
“Guys!” Benny yelled, finally getting their attention. He too moved over to them, leaving the vehicle unoccupied. With all eyes turned toward him, Benny lowered his voice and spoke. “We’ve got a small problem.”
“Small problems don’t interest me, Benny,” Lou answered.
“Okay, then we have a big fucking problem,” Benny answered without hesitation.
“That’s more like it.” Lou smiled in spite of their situation. “Pray tell, what’s gone up shit creek this time?”
Benny looked at the group and patted the Hummer. “This beast is thirsty. She ain’t got much left. Maybe a couple of miles, at the most.”
“Then we will trek out of glorious suburbia and find some gas. Or hell, we’ll just take it from whatever we have parked here. There are enough options. I don’t call that a big fucking problem.” Lou waved his arms around in a sweeping gesture as if to draw their attention to the expensive cars.
“No, but there is more. The engine is fucked. I won’t be sure what’s up until I get under the hood, but it means we are going to be holed up here a while.”
“All right, then we clear a house and claim it for our own. Clean up, chow down on whatever we can find, and regroup. Plenty of options all around us. I don’t know what they call problems in your old unit, Benny, but you are with the Lucky Bastards now, and these, these ain’t problems.” Lou clapped their driver on the shoulder and gave a laugh. “Let’s take one on each side of the street. Maddie, take Jerry here and sweep a couple of properties. Use your flashlight if he gets scared. Benny, Sanjay, come with me. We’ll check ‘em out, reclaim, and regroup.”
The afternoon was drawing on, and the shadows of the houses loomed long over the ground. The dead milled around, but until then, had not shown much interest in the group. A few had wandered close by, but Maddie had taken care of them with swift efficiency. The first house was locked. They tried it once before taking a look through the letterbox. A set of snarling jaws greeted them, only not from the family dog, but rather from the family themselves. Three bodies stood in the hallway, snarling at the sound of the rattling door. A child, who could not have been long into the double digits appeared at the opening, her teeth snapping shut while her face crammed against the door as if trying to force her way through.
“Let’s try around back. Maybe we can sneak in and take them out,” Jerry said, looking at Maddie as she calmly closed the letterbox and stood staring up at the house.
“What I wouldn’t give to live in a house like this,” she said, as if the presence of the undead were now so commonplace they barely deserved a moment’s thought.
“If we take care of these zeds, then maybe you can.” Jerry winked at his partner, but there was something in her expression that held his smile at bay.
“Nah, man, I’m serious. I grew up with nothing. My dad was dead, killed in the Gulf, and my mom turned to drink to cope. I raised myself and my brother. It was toughen up or die. We’re getting old now, and sometimes I think about the civilian life. Husband, kids, soccer practice, and a big-ass house like this.” Maddie stopped talking as if catching her words and feeling embarrassed for them. “I don’t know, I’m sorry. It’s just these zeds, and the world now. It’s changed, and well, maybe a normal life is gone.”
They walked around the back of the house and pulled out their identical Honcho MT-122MR knives. Six-inch black steel blades, with a double stacked leather handle. Normally used as part of a survival kit, the weapons had already proven their worth in the field.
“Careful, I hear something,” Jerry said as he opened the gate.
Maddie swept through first, and came to a sudden stop, with Jerry just beside her. The source of the noise was clear. The seething mass of flies and maggots rumbled even louder on the other side of the fence. The torn up remains of what had once been the family dog, lay rotting in the sun. The shriveled-up remnants of its insides trailing away from the carcass like snakes.
“Sorry, Rover,” Jerry said under his breath as they moved around the side of the house. The garden swept back for quite some distance. Children’s toys were scattered about the place, revealing something for all ages, a large sandbox and a climbing frame that would not have looked out of place in a community park. They also spotted a soccer goal that was not quite full-size, and a treehouse that had clearly been purchased rather than built.
“Fuck, I bet that damned tree house has more things in it than my old house on base did,” Jerry joked.
A life-long bachelor, Jerry lived in the on-base accommodations, and for as long as Maddie had known him, never spoke about any love interests or family. He was very much a lone wolf.
That was part of the reason she was so attracted to him, but at the same time, his obvious inclination to be alone kept her from letting down her aggressive walls. Built as a means of self-preservation, she had spent enough of her youth stuck under the power of a succession of men, doing what she believed needed to be done in order to protect her brother.
“Check the windows. We need to know what we are walking into,” Jerry whispered, pointing at the two wide windows that sat either side of the rear door.
The paved ground along the side of the house gave way to a raised patio area, complete with a garden furniture set and an oversized barbecue. They followed the bloody footprints that had been left by the family as they ambled back inside, splitting once they reached the threshold where Maddie took the near window, and Jerry the far. It was hard to make much of anything and took them a moment to realize some sort of screen was lowered on the inside, blocking any clear view.
“Looks like we are going in blind,” Maddie said, looking over at Jerry.
“Ain’t that always the way?” Jerry replied, as he tried the door. Neither was surprised to find it open.
“Be on guard, there is bound to be more than just three of them in there.” The warning was not necessary. Jerry knew that Maddie knew the dangers, but he felt the need to offer his protection, not because she couldn’t handle herself, but because he couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her. He had seen enough fucked up shit in his years to appreciate it when something good came into his life.
Having seen his father kill his mother in a drunken fit, only to have him slit his throat before his seven-year-old son’s eyes, Jerry had grown up quick and grown up hard. He closed himself off from those around him. Turned away by the little family he had left, he bounced around the system for a while before eventually running away. The streets honed him; they taught him aggression, but also respect. A few severe beatings, gained for looking at the wrong person in the wrong way, soon made him understand the system and the rank that came with age and status.
Had it not been for a chance encounter with an off-duty marine, who broke up a fight Jerry had been in, the streets would have undoubtedly killed him long before now. Enlistment had saved his life in more ways than he dared think.
“Got it. Sweep this room, I’ll take left, you righ
t,” Maddie said, adrenaline beginning to surge.
Jerry didn’t answer, there was no need. They moved off, disappearing into the house. The kitchen was vast and spacious. A marble-topped center island replaced the more standard dining room table, and countertops lined the three sections of wall to the immediate left. The look was completed by quite possibly every piece of kitchen apparatus known to man.
To the right, a solid wood cabinet stood against the wall, flanked by two smaller units, which together, covered the entire wall. The tall ceiling housed two ventilation fans with two lights apiece. The tiles on the floor were tainted red with blood, and a pool had congealed between the sink and the central island. The outline of where it had spread before shrinking away stained the tiles like beetroot.
Maddie didn’t say a word as she moved to the left, skirting around the island, checking to make sure the coast was clear. She raised her hands and signaled a green light, and Jerry set off into the hallway.
The long hall extended down toward the main front hall where the three snarling zeds still stood, focused on the door. Jerry knew it wouldn’t last. As soon as they caught wind of fresh meat, they would turn and descend like a pack.
A dining room sprouted from the right-hand side of the hall. The open room housed nothing more than a sideboard cupboard and a dining table with enough seating for at least a dozen people. It was easy to see the room was unoccupied, but in the interest of being thorough, Jerry slipped inside. The soft carpet of the room felt strange beneath his boot. Even before the world went to shit, Jerry could not recall the last time he had stood on anything other than tile or linoleum when inside.
There were two tall windows in the room, the very ones he had peered through from the outside just moments before. A large clock was slowly ticking on the wall to his left. The table, which was not set, had place settings before each stool, and only served to emphasize the emptiness of the house. The dead did not count; they were gone the moment their hearts stopped beating, just as it always had been. Only now, they rose back up and ate you, but it didn’t change the facts. Dead was dead. Gone was gone.
Jerry heard something in the doorway and spun around. Maddie looked at him and nodded. He returned the gesture, and together they continued on their sweep of the house. There were two other rooms, one on each side. A spacious sitting room and a study. Neither could be accessed without alerting the three dead family members who had lost interest in the door and so returned to their near-catatonic shamble.
Stuck in such close quarters, they barely moved at all, their motion reduced from a shuffle to something that closely resembled a sway, a gentle slow dance performed without a partner. They moved no more than a few inches in either direction before swaying back the other way again.
For a moment, both Maddie and Jerry stood staring at them, their knives at the ready but lowered. Both saw it, and a quick meeting of their gaze confirmed the other felt the same. The sadness and loneliness of the house were the driving factors, far outweighing the fear, that, while subdued, still lurked just beneath the surface of it all.
The moment did not last long. Their scent inevitably reached the nostrils of the youngest zed, whose sudden animation seemed almost fast by comparison and only served to alert the other two. Their snarls grew, and like ferocious watchdogs, they turned and set after the intruders.
The child moved without issue, its injuries restricted to a single bite mark on the arm. Nothing a long sleeve shirt would not have hidden. Maddie finished him off with a swift and merciful blow that came from above, splitting his crown and piercing what remained of his brain.
The parents showed more extensive injuries, the mother hobbling on one foot, the right leg ending in a weeping stump of mangled meat, while the father, or at least the male of the pair, was missing his throat and upper trap area, which caused his head to hang with an inquisitive tilt.
Neither Jerry nor Maddie were in any rush, and so waited for the dead to reach them, the ulterior motive being to try to draw out anything else that may have been waiting in the adjoining rooms.
No further undead folks joined in the fun, and so it was left to a two-on-two showdown. The fight was so uneven, it was almost unfair. Maddie and Jerry finished their respective zeds off in near synchronicity, both plunging their Honcho blades through the temple up to the hilt.
“Well, that was easy,” Jerry said before a strange wailing sound came down to them from the upstairs.
Both of them froze. “That’s not what I think it is,” Jerry said.
“I … we have to go check, don’t we?” Maddie asked. The look in her eyes was pleading with Jerry, begging him not to answer the question.
“We could just leave it behind,” Jerry said, offering Maddie the out she was looking for.
For a while, neither spoke. All they heard was the growling wail coming through the baby monitor planted on the small cabinet by the front door.
“We can’t, not … not if it is what … well, you know,” Maddie stammered.
“I can go check if you want.” Jerry was not sure which unsettled him more. The sound from the floor above them, or the look on Maddie’s face. He had never seen her rattled or even so much as a little bent out of shape.
“No, we’ll check it out, no telling what else could be up there,” Maddie said, catching herself.
She closed her eyes for a few moments, and when they opened again, the Maddie he knew, was back. The cold eyes of a killer and the stony face of a woman who was in control.
They moved up the stairs slowly, ready for anything. With each step they rose, the wailing sound seemed to grow on an exponential curve.
The upper floor of the house was one long corridor with five rooms sprouting from it, and a flight of stairs leading up to another floor. The plush carpet under their feet crunched intermittently as their footfalls fell on the blood-encrusted sections.
“What the hell happened here?” Maddie whispered as they stared at the blood-smeared walls. Gory handprints marked out the passage of someone and led them beyond the empty bedrooms and bathroom, and right up to the door that housed the source of their nightmarish screams.
They stood against the door, neither wanting to open it for fear of what they would find. Jerry raised his hands, giving a thumbs up to his partner. Maddie saw the gesture and gave a slight nod in response. Jerry reached for the door handle and gave a gentle push.
The door swung inwards, the special hinge coverings giving the door a bit more resistance, no doubt to keep small fingers safe and sound.
The room was smaller than the others, but not by much, and decorated almost entirely in pink, from the pale walls to the darker shaded stencils that adorned the wall opposite them. To the immediate left was a short wall with a wash basin and mirror. Beside it was a baby changing table, adorned with all manner of products, from lotions and talcum powder to special baby shampoos and wash gels. A plush cuddly toy, itself the size of a small child, sat guard over the bounty.
The door was on the right-hand side of the room, meaning the majority of the open space extended to the left. A wardrobe adorned with stickers of unicorns and faeries sat along the door-side wall, and the plush carpet once again told of the affluence of the family who had lived there. The crib was an expensive, solid construction, painted white with a pink netting that hung suspended from the ceiling.
“She was their princess,” Maddie whispered, unable to take her eyes away from the crib.
Jerry looked at her and did a double take as he saw the tears reflected in them. Thick, blackness-inducing curtains hung before both windows on the long rear wall and the far side one. Those by the far window were drawn shut, but the others were pulled back and held in place by restraints a darker shade of pink than the curtains themselves.
At the sound of their approach, the howls of the baby in the crib increased, reaching what could only be described as a fever pitch.
“You ready?” Jerry asked as they approached the crib. They could see the oc
cupant moving around through the material.
“No,” Maddie answered, but reached forward toward the net drape.
Pulling it back, the stench that wafted up to them was overpowering. A heady concoction of vomit, excrement and the almost standard scent of rot, which hung in the air, not only inside the house but outside of it too. The world was lost to the concept of fresh air, as no matter where you were, the breeze carried with it the taint of death. A continuing reminder that nobody was safe, and most likely never would be again.
Leaning over the crib, Maddie took one look and withdrew, her tough shell finally cracking. It broke Jerry’s heart to see it happen, and under such conditions, but he could not help but feel a little relieved, for it showed that Maddie was not just the tough lone wolf she painted herself to be.
Jerry took a breath and leaned over the crib. Unsure what to expect, and taking Maddie’s extreme reaction, he expected the worst, but what he saw went so far beyond that, it made his imagination look like the colorful drawing of a child.
The child lay on its back, its bald head as white as the sheets she lay on had been. Dark veins snaked over its face, marking it like a road atlas, the black blood that filled them had thickened, causing them to rise up and bulge beneath the infant’s fragile skin. Its face had sunken, the eyes burrowed deep into its skull. It looked as if the baby had two black eyes. Its body was equally frail, the exposed arms and legs that protruded from the filth-encrusted onesie were similarly tattooed with veins.
The creature––for Jerry reminded himself that it had ceased to be a baby the moment its tiny heart stopped beating––was thrashing around on the mattress, covered in a thick half-solidified layer of its own waste. Blood smeared its face from where it had eaten. The stumps at the end of its legs were black with rot. The feet were missing, chewed away by the few teeth the baby had in its mouth. What remained of a big toe lay beside the creature’s head, the aroma of the decayed flesh wafting and teasing the baby who could not reach the tasty morsel.
ZPOC: The Beginning Page 7
