by Mark Clodi
“Where are my wife and kids?” Max asked him.
“In the attic, we didn’t do anything to them. Let me pass and I’ll leave, you don’t shoot, we both walk away. This was a dumb-fuck idea from the start. Revenge, why bother?” said the man.
“I can’t, you know I can’t let you go, you will just kill more people, I can’t.” replied Max.
“Wait, wait a minute, you’re Max, right?” Max nodded, “They call me Jimbo, and I don’t have a beef with you, even though you shot me I will just walk away and never bother you again, but if you shoot me again, well, you better shoot real good, ‘cause if you miss I will tear you limb from limb. Then, after you I will go and get your wife and kids too. You understand? You ain’t looking too good Max and that little thirty eight pistol you got there is not too accurate anyway, just let me go and we are even, you get your kids, I get to live, everybody is happy.”
“I…”
Max was interrupted by another shotgun blast, part of the shot passed into the kitchen through the back door and he heard Steve yelling, “Oh pig-fucker!”
Outside Steve was trying to get a shot on the zombie woman and was creeping closer to her when he was struck from behind by a lawn chair. Veronica had thrown the lawn chair despite still having one of the dining room chair legs thrust through her body. With a final pull the dining room chair came out and she raised it in front of her to fend off Steve's next shot, which came in her direction. Steve had spun around to see who had thrown the chair, which was too light to have really hurt him, he raised the shotgun as Veronica finally pulled the chair impaling her out, then fired a shot at her. The shot went through the chair, but missed her completely, it continued past to hit Nancy as she was trying to stand up on the patio. The effects of this shot were horrendous, it caught her at the right breast and literally blew her entire shoulder and arm off, spinning her around to face the house. Nancy stood there for a moment longer then fell on her face and lay very still.
Veronica tossed the remnants of the dining room chair at Steve and followed it up with a flying tackle. They went down in a heap, Steve dropped the shotgun to have the use of both hands, but Veronica was by far the stronger. They wrestled around ineffectively while Cory watched, he struggled but the woman holding him tightened her grip and stood up awkwardly. The zombie wanted to help out Veronica but did not want the boy to interfere again, so she tossed him over the six foot fence in the yard behind Max's house. Cory hit a pine tree, breaking off branches and spinning head over heels as he did so. He came to a rest in the dirt below the tree, winded, but otherwise unhurt.
Max looked at Jimbo, Jimbo stared back and said, “C’mon man, I walk out, you go help your friend and get your wife and kids. Just do it.”
Nervously, Max replied, “What about them? In the backyard?”
Shaking his head side the side Jimbo answered, “No man, no, I can’t control them, but if you let me go I won’t help them and won’t bother you again, I promise.”
Hating himself Max nodded once and gestured with his gun for Jimbo to leave. Jimbo didn’t hesitate for a second, he turned and lurched through the doors, once outside he saw what remained of Nancy, ‘The bitch still isn’t dead!’, he thought to himself. Seeing Veronica wrestling with one of the humans on the ground Jimbo was tempted to help, then opted to just move on. Bobby was out there somewhere, they could start their own gang, as he left though Jimbo could not help but stomp viciously on Nancy’s head as he passed, ending any thought of her ever controlling him again. Jimbo went to the side of the house, saw the police cruiser out front and opted to cut through the back yard of one of Max’s neighbors, working his way slowly and keeping cover between him and the street. Concentrating he mentally called out to Bobby, “Bobby, you got that boy? I am in real need of nourishment right now!”
An answer came back, “He got away, I have a girl with me now.” Jimbo could tell which direction and the approximate distance from him where Bobby was and immediately set off in that direction sending, “You’re away from where I thought you would be, we’ll talk in a few minutes. Get under cover somewhere.”
Max watched Jimbo go with some doubt, he paused to check his gun and then stepped through the broken out patio doors into the backyard.
Steve was in trouble with a capital ‘T’, and he knew it. 'If I don’t get this bitch off me I am going to die!' his body surged with adrenaline and he flopped and rolled away from Veronica and her friend, standing up he backed towards the swing set in Max’s yard, looking about for a weapon. He spied the shotgun behind Veronica, definitely out of reach. Veronica was no slower than Steve at getting up and he was surprised she did not rush him. Then he saw she was coordinating with her friend, 'Not good.' he thought, then said, “Ladies, maybe we can work this out?” playing for time, time for Max to get out here, he hoped.
Veronica leered at him and said, “Sure buddy, just stand right there and I will make it quick for you.” She too looked around and spied the shotgun lying on the ground, “Oh man you're dead we got you! Not so tough without your gun are you?” As she bent to pick up the shotgun Steve knew he had to rush her or face getting shot and there was nowhere to run, no cover except the swing set.
He rushed towards Veronica like a bull when she was still bending over, she saw him coming and struggled to pull the gun up and shoot him. At the same time her friend intercepted Steve from the side, tackling him in mid-tackle. They both went down while Veronica yelled, “Roll clear so I can shoot him!”
In an ironic twist Steve found himself clinging to the zombie woman so Veronica could not get a clear shot. The shotgun exploded in a loud blast. 'So this is what it feels like to be on the barrel side of a shotgun when it goes off.' Steve thought to himself, at the same time he was yelling loudly and trying to force the zombie woman on top of him. She was stronger than he was and managed to pull away, Steve rolled away as another round from the shotgun went off. He got to his feet in a rush, turning he saw Veronica pumping the shotgun one handed, she stepped in closer to him and when the barrel was about two feet from his stomach she started to pulled the trigger.
A shot rang out from the back patio and Veronica staggered under the blow of yet another gunshot wound, snarling she fired the shotgun point blank into Steve’s stomach. Steve stood there for a second, not quite understanding what had just happened, slowly the world started spinning and growing fuzzier. He saw the grass, the sky Max wildly shooting almost in slow motion, the back fence with a small arm and body climbing over it, then he saw no more.
Max saw the shotgun go off, a spray of blood and pellets erupted from his friend’s back. Steve stood there for a long second, not falling over and Max had hope that maybe Veronica had just winged him, then he started to spin around and Max saw the full extent of the damage, the shot was dead center out of Steve’s back.
“No!” Max shouted.
Veronica turned towards Max and fired the shotgun again as he continued to shoot at her, the gun clicked on an empty chamber and Veronica took a shot to her good upper arm in return. The shotgun fell unwillingly from her hand. Seeing this Max shifted his aim and his third shot was at the other zombie that had started to move towards him, catching her in the stomach, which barely slowed her. Veronica ran towards the six foot fence on the side of Max’s yard, she could not move either of her arms very well and did not even try to climb the fence, instead she took a flying leap. She did not clear the fence, she hit it about four feet up, a very good jump that enabled her to bend her torso over enough to fall into the yard next door out of sight. Barely pausing she got up and continued running through the backyard following the same path that Jimbo had taken moments before.
Max noticed a small hand appear on the back fence, as he watched a small boy pulled his head above the fence line, there was blood running down his face. As he pulled himself over the fence Max could see he was still clutching a tire iron. It was too soon to tell if he was a zombie or not, but given a choice Max would rather face a zombie chil
d than a zombie woman any day of the week.
Max leveled the pistol at the zombie woman coming towards him, hoping he had one more bullet left, as she approached to within four feet he shot her once in the head and she dropped spinelessly to the ground.
“Is Amelia okay?!” yelled the boy as Max turned towards him.
Lowering the gun, and moving towards Steve, Max replied, “Who?”
“Amelia! She found me in the hotel.” As if that explained everything. He continued to climb over the fence and Max could see he had a large bruise on his back that was oozing blood through his torn shirt, in addition to the cuts on his head. As his legs cleared the fence Max saw more of the damage, a bloody cut running down his right leg, dripping blood and finally there was another cut on the top of his left foot that was also bleeding, one foot was bare, the other had a large flip flop on it. Seeing Max watch him Cory said, “I had flip-flops that I stole from a convenience store, but one of them flew on the roof when she threw me over the fence. Amelia got me more shoes in the car. I think my game boy is broke too.” He took a small square of plastic out of his front pocket and showed Max, there was a long crack running across the front of the device and despite Cory’s insistent pushing of what Max assumed was a power button, nothing was happening.
Looking at the carnage in his backyard Max contrasted it to the small boy pressing the buttons on his game. His life had become a surreal nightmare. Going over to Steve he knelt down and checked his friend. Steve's eyes were rolled back into his head, he was not breathing, but his mouth was moving feebly open and closed, open and closed. Then that movement stopped too and his friend was deathly still. Tears wet the corners of his eyes and he stood watch over his friend for a moment, waiting to see if he would rise from the dead and reloading his pistol in case he needed it. After a couple of minutes of vigilance Max decided that Steve wasn't coming back. He turned back towards the house, dragging the boy along with him as he went, carrying the bleeding boy over the broken glass littering his back porch. As he carried him over the glass Max said, “My name is Max. What is your name?”
“Cory. Is she okay? Is Amelia okay Max?”
“I don't know, I didn't see her in the house, so...I don't know.”
As they entered the kitchen Max set Cory down well clear of the broken glass, the boy ran yelling towards the living room “Amelia! Amelia! Where are you?”
Stewart was leaning up against the wall halfway from the living room to the kitchen, a trickle of blood was coming out of the corner of her mouth. She grunted and rolled over to her hands and knees, as Max brushed by her.
Once in the living room Max called up the stairs, “Sarah! Sarah, if you are there it is me! Max! Sarah are you up there?”
Cory had gone out into the front yard and was looking wildly around, calling for Amelia.
Cries of “Daddy! Daddy!” came muffled from upstairs and Max bounded up them two at a time until he was standing underneath his attic access door. The floor was covered with loose insulation and next to the door in the ceiling was a hole through the drywall, blood was smeared along one side of the hole. As Max watched a small face appeared in the hole and looked down at him.
“Nick?” Max called up to his son, “Is everything okay buddy?”
“No mom is hurt, something pulled her leg down into the floor and hurt her, she is bleeding really bad, help her dad!” Max's son said.
Another voice joined his son's, “Max is that you?”
Nick's face was pushed aside rather quickly and Max found himself staring at Amelia, the secretary from work.
“Amelia? How did you get here?”
“I drove, I thought you would be here when we got here.”
“We thought you were dead. When did you get here?”
“About twenty minutes ago. Let me push the ladder down.”
Amelia moved sideways and Nick's face reappeared, dirt streaked and anxious. The swinging door opened and the rickety wooden stair ladder unfolded.
Chapter 50
Max climbed up into the attic, not knowing what to expect, when he was fully up into the gloomy interior Amelia pointed at the makeshift bed onto which she had brought Sarah. Jessica, Max's daughter, was near her mother's head, telling her everything would be okay. Max stepped over to them and took his wife in his arms.
“Oh Sarah! Sarah! Thank God!” he sobbed with relief, “I was so worried, when we got here and the door was open, with a body in the yard, I thought, I thought it was you!”
“Max?” Sarah mumbled, “Is it really you? You're bleeding?”
Behind Max his son came up and put his arms around his fathers waist, not saying anything. Amelia stood awkwardly near the access door, then finally cleared her throat and said she better go stop Cory, whose plaintive cries for 'Amelia' could be heard through the venting, from yelling his head off in the front yard.
“Thank God you're alright! He stayed there for a moment hugging his wife and children, before he felt Sarah stiffen. “What?”
“I think one of them bit me Max.” she said softly.
“What? No, no that can't be! Where did they bite you? You were in the attic, did they get up here?”
Sarah pushed Max back and pulled aside the blankets her children had lain down upon her. Max didn't want to believe what he saw, she had a small t-shirt folded neatly pressed against her leg, the wound underneath had bled through and Sarah gently lifted it out to reveal a wound, that was still bleeding furiously. In the darkness Max couldn't be sure it was a bite wound. “Flashlight” he said, his son let him go long enough to hand him a small LED flashlight which Max turned on and used to examine the wound. It was a bite mark, Max could see where the top row of teeth had pierced her skin.
“Oh no.”
“This is bad?” Sarah asked.
“Did you disinfect it?”
“With what?”
“Shit.” Max stood up abruptly, toppling Nick into some boxes, where Max caught him with a quick grab, “Sorry bud, stay here, I'll be right back!” moving quickly Max went down the ladder into the bathroom linen closet and grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some clean washrags and towels. He scrambled back up the stairs and back to Sarah's side, where he unscrewed the bottle cap and poured it onto her wound, she tensed up momentarily. “Does it hurt?” Max asked.
“No it is just cold. What's wrong Max? What's wrong?”
“I...human bites are very bad for you...there are not going to be any more doctor visits or co-pays or anything for a long time, if ever again. We have to take care of ourselves better now and fast, we can't wait around to treat stuff like this.”
“Is that it?” Sarah asked.
“I'll tell ya later.” Max answered, which was parent code for 'when the kids were not around'.
Sarah nodded and lay back as Max finished cleansing the wound and then pressed a wash rag over it. Finally he tore a towel into strips and used one to bind the makeshift bandage into place.
“Can you move?” he asked.
“I think so, it is deep but not like through the bone or anything.”
Together they made their way downstairs where Amelia, Tom, Cory and Stewart were waiting. The front door had been shut and the couch moved over behind it. Stewart was on the couch looking back towards the kitchen, her pistol on her lap.
“Stewart.” Max said, “You okay?”
She raised her head to look at him and answer, “Fuck no. I think I have broken ribs.”
Wincing at her language around the kids Max said, “So you will live?”
“Yeah, Steve?”
“Steve didn’t make it.”
A look of alarm and disbelief came over her face, then she clamped down and made her face into a neutral mask once more. “What happened?”
“Steve chased Veronica into the backyard, I don’t know what happened, but…”
“I do!” said Cory softly, “He..they, the zombies caught me when I came over the fence one…one had each of my hands, that guy with t
he shotgun came out and shot one of them, the other one tried to keep him from shooting her and when he was getting close that Veronica zombie hit him with a chair. Then she jumped on him and they were rolling around, only she was all messed up and couldn’t fight very well, so she called on the lady holding me for help. That lady threw me over the fence. He kinda saved me.”
“Yeah, I bet he did. When I came out, he was getting up off the ground, she had shot at him a couple of times and missed, but I missed her head when I got my shot off. She shot him with the shotgun, his own shotgun. Well your's really. Gut shot him, at point blank. He just stood there for a second, then tried to take a breath, but couldn’t, then he spun around and collapsed. I can’t believe it happened. If I would hit her in the head I could have saved him.” Max said bitterly.
“He came along knowing what could happen Max, he died trying to save a kid, not many people can say that and it is better than being eaten or becoming one of them. This is Sarah?”
“Yes, this is Sarah. Sarah this is Officer Jane Stewart, we all call her 'Stewart'. I think Sarah is okay...but one of them, I think, might have bit her.”
Stewart stiffened visibly at this news, which Sarah noticed, “What? It isn't anything fatal, I mean it hurts, but it is not that bad.”
“I poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on it.” Max began only to be interrupted by Amelia.
Addressing Max's children she said, “You must be Max's kids, what are your names?”
“Nick.”
“Jessica.”
“Well Nick and Jessica this is Cory, his about your age, huh Nick? Do you think you might have some extra cloths he could use? His are all dirty and both of you should get dressed, we might be leaving today. Why don't we all go upstairs and you can show me your rooms while your mom and dad talk with Stewart and Tom.”
The children were reluctant, but Sarah pushed them off, telling them to brush their teeth and comb their hair too. Amelia herded them upstairs and soon the other adults were able to hear the sounds of quiet laughter and running water as the kids cleaned up.
