by Zuko, Joseph
When she finally pulled up to her parent’s house, she found it alarming that the front door was wide open. Her father had been terrified of home invasions her whole life. To find the front door unlocked was peculiar, to see it wide open was insane. Sara walked with caution for the front door as she sipped an ice mocha she had made for herself.
“Mom? Dad?” she called from the open doorway. The living room was a mess. Sara took another sip of her cold coffee, “Maa-,” she cut the call for her Mom short when she noticed the red streaks along the back wall of the living room. From the kitchen she heard the sounds of someone kicking pots and pans across the tile floor. Something was coming her way, fast. Her knees buckled when she saw her parents. Her Mom’s right arm had been eaten to the bone. Her Dad’s belly bulged from the excessive meat he had chewed off of his wife. Sara caught herself from falling to the porch. She didn’t know what to make of this. Were her parents playing a trick on her? It was not like them to mess up the house and cover themselves in fake blood just for a chuckle. What the hell was going on? As they approached her, she could smell an iron tang in the air.
That’s real blood!
The two monsters crossed the living room in a hurry. Their black eyes zeroed in on their daughter. Their mouths cracked from the impact of enamel on enamel as their jaws snapped shut. She had to move fast. Sara’s first reaction to something coming to attack her was to throw her half empty plastic coffee cup. The mocha exploded all over her Dad’s face, but it didn’t slow the infected man down. She pulled the front door shut and slammed it closed right in their dead faces.
Sara ran. She didn’t know where she was going, but she knew she had to get as far away from them as she could. She got a block away when she heard the front window of her house smash to pieces. She stopped in the middle of the street and turned to look back at her childhood home. Her infected parents were on the loose and coming her way. A neighbor teen called her name from down the street and she ran to him and his friends. She hid inside the teen’s house as Sara’s parents found a new victim. She listened in horror as they ferociously tore the man apart in the middle of the street. His cries for help were unlike anything Sara had ever heard. Her Mom and Dad were like wild animals.
What the hell happened to them?
Why are they killing that man?
The teens didn’t have any answers for her. They were clueless as to what was happening, but for the moment she was safe. The guys suggested that they should go to another friend’s house and that they should take a shortcut through the graveyard. Sara was in such shock she agreed to go and followed them in a cloudy haze. It wasn’t long after that when Jim showed up and saved her.
Jim’s PT Cruiser raced passed the remains of the Black Rock and Sara thought, I need another coffee.
As they raced across the parking lot, nasty thoughts stabbed violently into Jim’s mind.
What if his family didn’t make it to Penny’s?
What if they died on the road?
Maybe they were torn to shreds?
Calling my name and wondering why I wasn’t there to save them.
He did his best to squash the blood soaked visions in his head. Dwelling on negative, hypothetical possibilities wouldn’t help him get his family back. He stayed focused on the task at hand. He had to get to RS Medical, get the supplies and race back to save Devon. That was what Jim needed to focus on. What the next job that had to be accomplished. Then the job after that. That was the mindset he had to develop to keep himself alive. If he spent too much time thinking about what might have happened or dwelling on outcomes he could not control it would get him killed.
Jim couldn’t believe the destruction that had taken place in his neck of the woods. The structure fires, the dead bodies on the ground, the total mayhem that had ravaged the city of Vancouver. It was straight out of a big budget disaster movie. As he moved the car through the lot he drove carefully, watching out for oncoming vehicles, looking out for monster hordes or any gun toting humans. So far the route to the store was clear. Jim had shopped there a year ago when he needed a specialty knee brace after a bad kick injured his leg in his Krav Maga class. He quickly remembered the back way to get there so he wouldn’t have to take any roads that might be choked with the dead and blocked by stalled vehicles.
Sara gnawed at one of her last remaining fingernails. The sound of the engine revving and the click of her chewing was a great mashup. Otherwise the ride to the RS Medical was silent. They didn’t have a lot to talk about and all of them were dead tired. Frank popped another stick of bubble gum into his mouth as Jim pulled into the disabled spot outside the main doors to the store.
The lights were off and the windows were intact. Jim was surprised to find the building untouched. He thought that a medical store would be the first place hit after an infection like this had swept the area.
“We should check out the building first.” Jim spoke softly. Cliff’s advice about knowing the exits was ringing in his ears.
“Look over there,” Frank said as he pointed across the street. Tucked in a tiny strip mall was a shop that had a one word name. In big black letters just above the door was the word GUN. Not a super clever name, but you knew exactly what they had to offer customers. It was a little store and its lights were out as well. “We need to hit that place. I’m running low.”
Great, another stop. Jim understood how important it was that Frank not run out of ammo, but more stops meant more time and he was not sure how much Devon had left.
Jim’s head bobbed up and down, “Okay. You got the list?” he asked as he readied his spear for action. Frank patted his breast pocket.
“Yep, got it right here.”
Jim and Frank reached to open their doors. Jim’s fingers looped into the chrome finished handle and he was about to yank it open when a group of zombies slammed into his door. Jim could not help himself, the sudden movement and noise along with the wrecked features of this infected woman at his window made him screech out in a high pitched voice.
The ear piercing sound of “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” filled the PT Cruiser’s cabin.
Chapter 4
Karen set her pistol down next to the sink in the bathroom. When she turned on the light she didn’t recognize herself. The woman in the mirror looked a decade older. Black circles encased her eyes. Her hair was matted. She was covered in a layer of sweaty salt and dried blood. She needed an hour long shower but only had time for a two minute sink scrub. She got to work. The cool water quickly turned hot as she cranked up the faucet. Karen splashed handfuls of water onto her face and she scrubbed hard to get the nasty parts of the day off of her. To make sure she didn’t waste time, she counted down from fifteen and every time she hit zero she moved onto a new spot and started cleaning it. She got most of the gunk out of her hair and off her face. She found a couple of her Mama’s hair clips and used them to keep her red mane out of her face.
Four, three, two, one and zero.
Done. She looked a little more like herself. Well at least she didn’t look like a murder victim anymore. She placed her gun back into its holster and exited the bathroom.
She entered the living room and found that the girls were zoned out in front of the TV and Troy had an icepack held to his forehead. Leon had wrapped a good amount of gauze and bandages around the wound to stop the bleeding. Troy looked up at his sister when she entered the room.
“My head hurts so bad.” Troy’s voice was rough and dry.
“I know,” Karen moved closer to him and pulled away the icepack and lifted the bandage. The gash in his forehead had turned dark purple. She replaced the bandage and the icepack. “Can you stay here and watch the girls? I’ve got a lot of work to get done around here.”
“Okay, I like this cartoon. It’s pretty funny.” Troy looked away from his sister and back to the TV.
It was like having another child to take care of. She hoped he would be better soon. They were going to need him to get back to normal fast.
Karen left the living room and headed for Leon in the dining room. He had just closed the blinds to the sliding glass door so they wouldn’t have to see the two dead bodies in the backyard. Karen kept her focus and moved straight for the garage.
Leon followed her and tried to gauge her mood. He struggled with being so somber for this long. He knew it was only a matter of time before he said something silly and embarrassed himself. He wanted so badly to impress her and hoped that she appreciated how well he had taken care of Troy and the girls. Karen left the door open to the garage for him and she fired up the lights.
He got to see the full view of the packed garage. “Wow, look at all this shit,” Leon regretted the words the second he said them, but as far as silly things to say it wasn’t the worst. Over the years he had definitely put his foot, his leg and even his whole body in his mouth.
When’s the baby due? Oh, you’re not pregnant. Sorry.
Excuse me, sir, that’s the lady’s restroom. Oh, pardon me, Ma’am.
Karen handed Leon a fully loaded tool belt. He wrapped it around his body and cinched it down to fit his slim waist.
Karen pointed at five sheets of inch thick plywood that leaned against the garage wall. Next to it stacked on the concrete was a pile of two by fours and two by sixes, “Mama miscalculated when she ordered the lumber for the chicken coop. She ended up buying twice as much wood as she needed and by the time she noticed her mistake it was past the store’s thirty day return policy. She kept it and had planned to build another coop to keep rabbits in.” Karen heard her own voice. It sounded like a computer. Regurgitating facts, but there was no emotion behind what she was saying. She was in shock. No doubt about it.
“We should be able to block up most of the windows with this stuff,” Leon said as he looked over the area. Penny had purchased a bunch of top of the line gear to build that coop outside. She had a battery powered handsaw and drills, plus a box of about a thousand screws.
“They don’t have to look pretty. They just have to be strong enough to keep a gang of the monsters out.” Karen pointed at her wrist. “I’m not going to be much help, but I’ll try.”
Leon pulled off his suit jacket and said affirmatively, “Let’s get to work.”
“Front windows first. There’s the kitchen window and one in each of the two bedrooms. Those three are facing the street and the most likely to be hit.” Karen helped him carry the tools into the kitchen. Then the two of them hauled as much lumber as they could out of the garage.
Leon measured out the window in the kitchen. It was big and would need one full sheet of plywood itself.
“Use a set of the two by fours on each side of the window. If we secure them to the wall it would give us a better place to mount the plywood to.” Karen was already working up another sweat.
“Then we can use the two by sixes to reinforce the plywood.” Leon picked up the drill and climbed up onto the counter. Karen helped hold the chunk of wood in position. Leon stood on Penny’s new granite counters and worked quickly to find a stud in the wall to fasten the two by four to. In only a few minutes he had the anchors in place and the two of them worked the large length of plywood behind the sink’s faucet. Karen handed him screw after screw as he got the big piece up and blocked out the window.
“We need to fill as many containers as we can find with water,” Karen said as she looked around the kitchen.
“The human body needs a gallon of water a day to function correctly. We also need about a gallon a day for food prep and to keep ourselves clean.” Leon rattled off this tidbit of info as he pulled a two by six up onto the counter to start building a frame system to fortify the window barricade.
Karen crunched the numbers in her head. Five humans times two gallons of water each day, minus the fact that the girls didn’t need as much water meant they needed about sixty gallons of water stored just to last about a week.
That’s a shit ton of H2O!
If the water gets shut off we are fucked.
Luckily they lived in the northwest and it rains around forty inches every year. They would need to build a water catching device and figure out how to clean and purify the water.
Leon sunk the last screw into the brace and then gave it a hard push with his hands. The barricade didn’t budge.
“I think this should hold,” he said as he climbed down off the counter. He was pouring sweat now and his shirt had pitted out.
“Good, let’s keep going,” Karen picked up as many tools as she could and headed for the nearest room.
The window in the first room was small and they were able to cut the chunk of plywood in half. Karen kept a lookout as Leon made quick work of the cut. The saw was powerful and ripped right through it in a flash. If there were any remaining infected in the area, Karen hoped they wouldn’t hear the noise and if they did she prayed they would not be able to locate its origin. This room held all of Penny’s sewing projects. She had made dresses for the girls this last Christmas and the machine and fabric was still laid out all over the room. There was bookshelf full of fabrics and patterns that Penny had saved over the years and a worktable with a very fancy sewing machine. Other than those two pieces of furniture the room was bare.
Leon had the braces up and set the frame in half the time as the first window. He gave it the test and it didn’t flex at all.
“Whew,” he exhaled as he flexed his sore fingers.
Karen picked up the tools and moved into the next room. This one was used as an actual spare bedroom with an old queen mattress tucked tight up against the far wall and a nightstand. As she reached for the string to pull the blinds shut Karen checked out the window for any new infected. It was clear. She gave the string a good tug and let the blinds fall. A scream slashed through the air outside. Karen’s fingers separated a set of blinds and she peered out across the street. A young boy, maybe ten, raced for his life from an infected woman. The dead woman chugged hot on the boy’s trail. He headed for the front door of the house directly in front of Penny’s home. His palm struck the wood surface and he pulled at the knob. His voice cried the words, “Please help me! Please open the door!” The second the woman was about to pounce on him he darted under her outstretched arms. In a flash he sprinted for the open gate that led to the house’s backyard.
“Leon!” Karen pulled her gun and blasted out the bedroom door.
What am I doing?
I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. Am I crazy?
Karen knew the answer. No matter how hard she tried to fight it she was compelled to save people. Karen was a blur as she passed the doorway to Penny’s sewing room.
“What’s going on?!” Leon called after her.
“There’s a kid in trouble!” She hit the front door and twisted the lock open. Leon called after her as she exited the front door. She was bathed in the evening sun as she zipped down the driveway. Her skin glowed and her hair fell out of the cheap plastic clip. The child’s bawling echoed out over the fence. Leon left in such a hurry to make sure he kept Karen safe he forgot to grab his axe or Troy’s shotgun. The only weapons on his body was the set of screwdrivers jiggling in the tool belt and the battery powered handsaw. He did his best to catch her, but she was blazing fast across the street.
Karen breached the gate and slowed to make sure she wasn’t running into a hiding horde or into the back of the dead lady. In the center of the yard stood a large maple with a treehouse perched in the thick branches. The ten-year-old was halfway up the tree and hanging on for dear life. The infected woman had her gnarled fingers wrapped around the kid’s sneaker and was trying to wrangle him off of the ladder made of wooden slats.
Karen lined up a shot, but at this distance she didn’t trust her shaky, non-dominant, hand to not hit the kid. She quickly moved in behind the infected not letting the thing see her. Leon joined them in the yard. He searched to make sure there wasn’t any more of the monsters hiding in the bushes or corners. His head moved back and forth so fast that it was about t
o rip off. Karen was ten feet from the infected and about to fire a round into the back of its head when the boy’s grip failed and he began to fall.
His descent off of the ladder looked like it was happening in slow motion to Karen. The kid’s chin hit three rungs on the way down to the grass. The impact on the rough, wood surface split the skin on his jaw wide open. When his legs hit the ground Karen knew right away what that snapping sound was.
The child howled in agony as he clutched his shin. The little guy’s foot dangled from the broken socket. The infected woman’s full body collapsed and covered the child on the ground. Karen had finally closed the distance to the infected woman and placed the tip of her gun to the back of its skull. Karen squeezed the trigger at the same time the dead woman sank her teeth into the boy’s arm. The bullet destroyed the brain and blood sprayed all over the child. Her infected teeth were still buried in the kid’s skin.
“Oh my god!” Leon was now standing next to Karen and unable to comprehend just how bad this was. He had not yet seen someone get bit, never witnessed the transformation and was not mentally prepared for what was about to come next. “What do we do?!?” Leon nearly shouted as he ran his hand over his forehead to clear the sweat from his brow.
Karen didn’t know. She had witnessed what happened to Steve in her apartment and now it was about to happen to this kid.
SHIT!
Karen tugged on the dead woman’s shirt and tried to pull her off of the crying child. Its teeth were locked deep into the kid’s flesh. She tried harder to yank the infected off of the boy and he cried even louder.
The boy panicked and called out, “DON’T, IT HURTS!”
“We’ve got to get this thing off you!” Leon said as he lent a helping hand and grabbed the infected by the back of its blood covered hair. He dragged the dead body off of the boy and a chunk of meat from his little arm also came along for the ride too.
