Dying Days (Novella): Family Ties

by Rosamilia, Armand

  Mason didn’t want to think about Emalee being kidnapped or leaving against her will.

  There was another railroad track that intersected the one he was following and he saw what looked like a few houses in the distance. He decided to follow the tracks even though it wasn’t going exactly south. Maybe Emalee would be able to figure it out?

  Mason stopped and looked south, which was only the railroad tracks and woods on either side. He couldn’t see anything in the distance.

  If he went to his right, he’d have a chance to find food in a house or at least find somewhere safer than the railroad car.

  He decided to take the chance and followed the tracks to the houses.

  There was a wooden fence running next to the tracks. The ground dipped down to the fence, filled with rocks and weeds poking between.

  About a hundred feet down, Mason could see one of the sections of fencing had pulled away, leaning down and creating a gap he knew he could fit through.

  Mason turned back and looked the way he’d come. The zombie girl would still be way behind and might not even follow, if she didn’t see or sense or whatever it is they did to find their prey.

  He walked down the embankment, careful not to make too much noise or kick too many rocks as he moved.

  The yard was overgrown but only up to his ankles. He didn’t see any zombies or anything else to be afraid of.

  There was a wooden fence to his left, blocking his view of the house and yard on that side.

  Right in front of him was a ruined house. It looked like it had been on fire at some point and the roof and top floor were nearly gone, just blackened beams and melted siding.

  Mason walked to the front of the house, sticking to the fence as closely as he could. The windows of the house were busted out and it smelled like something had died inside, even from this distance.

  He got to the street and looked at the house with the fence.

  The house looked intact. All of the windows still held glass and the front door was closed.

  He decided to peek through the nearest window to make sure no one was hiding inside or about to shoot if he tried the front door.

  The house looked abandoned but untouched. He could see dust on the furniture under the window and it looked like there was a big comfy couch and a recliner off to the side.

  Mason couldn’t remember the last time he’d sat on something that looked so nice.

  His mother had had an overstuffed chair she had watched TV on and it was the running joke they weren’t allowed to bother her once her butt was in it and she had a big glass of Coke and her potato chips.

  Mason was cautious. He went around the house, carefully walking through the tall weeds and bushes beginning to press against the building. There could be a nest of snakes or rats inches from where he was stepping.

  The side gate was closed but not locked. He managed to pull it open, slamming it against the dirt and grass built up on the bottom.

  He got to the back porch and was glad to see the wooden slats weren’t too warped. Grass peeked between a few of the boards but nothing major was hanging out on the porch, like a lion or a horde of zombies.

  There was a sliding glass door on the back of the house still intact. It was dirty and covered in streaks of brown and yellow. Mason didn’t want to know what was on the door.

  If he could get inside, he could look around and maybe find some food. It could also be a nice place for them once Emalee came back. They could stay here for awhile and figure out what they were doing.

  Mason had no idea what he was doing. He felt so lost without Emalee to protect.

  Now he wished he hadn’t freaked out the nice redheaded lady who’d given them a ride.

  Maybe they’d be on the beach in Florida right now, building a sand castle and swimming in the ocean. Emalee had loved to swim in their pool at home. He had teased her because she still wore her floaties on her arms even though she was a strong swimmer. She said she liked the look of them, which always gave Mason more than enough ammunition to goof on her.

  She was too big for them. She looked ridiculous.

  Mason missed her so much, and it had only been a few hours and not days or months.

  He didn’t want to think about not seeing his sister for too much longer, or never seeing her again.

  Mason knew he’d get made fun of when he saw her again but he was going to give Emalee a giant hug and squeeze her tightly. She’d yell and push and punch but she’d love every second of it, too.

  He took a last glance at the yard, overgrown and maybe hiding snakes and monsters.

  Mason felt like he was being watched.

  He turned and fell backwards at the sight of a young girl with a smile on her face, standing in the doorway.

  She started laughing when Mason landed on his butt and rolled off to the side, scrambling to save face and get back to his feet.

  The little girl was carrying a very large sword in her hand.

  Chapter Twelve

  Emalee had trouble believing her eyes as she stood in the doorway. She’d been so focused on getting away from the brothers she hadn’t noticed her surroundings.

  She was upstairs in a giant warehouse. She’d been in an office area and come down a hallway with no windows, only the door she’d opened at the end.

  How was she to know what was below her in the warehouse?

  Rows and rows of bottled water and canned goods.

  She guessed there might be a million cans of food. She could easily spot carrots and corn and green beans just by the color schemes of the cans.

  Bottled water, case after case, stacked on pallets and taller than she was.

  There were cardboard boxes piled in neat rows as well, hundreds of them.

  A Jeep was parked halfway down the middle aisle, too.

  And there were also about a hundred zombies shambling around the warehouse below.

  Emalee turned and walked back down the hall.

  Parker and Reading were both sitting on the window sill of the office she’d been in but didn’t speak when she entered.

  She sat down between the brothers, glancing outside the filthy window, and let out a sigh.

  “Why am I here?” she asked.

  “We need your help,” Parker said.

  “You keep saying you need my help but what does it mean? How can I help you? I can’t fight zombies. There are, like, a million of them downstairs. I just want to find my brother,” Emalee said.

  “There’s someone controlling the zombies,” Reading said. He tapped the side of his head. “A smart zombie.”

  Emalee laughed. “There’s no such thing. They’re stupid. Why do you think they call them zombies?”

  “He’s not lying,” Parker said quietly. “We’ve seen him.”

  “What does he look like?” Emalee asked. She thought they were messing with her. Trying to scare her into doing something she didn’t want to do, like Mason always did. He’d get her all scared about something he’d done like running over the flowers in the yard with his bike and try to convince her she’d also get into trouble unless she backed up his story about the neighbor’s dog getting loose again.

  Emalee shook her head. She didn’t even know if the neighbor even had a dog. She’d never seen one but Mason used the excuse a bunch of times.

  Reading waved his hand in front of her face.

  She’d been daydreaming again about the past. The good times.

  “He looks just like you and me. That’s the problem. We didn’t even know he was a zombie at first. We thought he was another lost survivor and we tried to talk to him,” Parker said.

  “How do you know he’s a zombie? Maybe he’s just another grownup doing bad things,” Emalee said. She and Mason had run into a few of them so far.

  Reading pointed at his face. “He has gray eyes.”

  “So what,” Emalee said.

  “He commanded the zombies around him to attack us,” Parker said. “We used our gifts to escape. He ye
lled at us, as we ran, that he’d find both of us and turn us into zombies, too.”

  “What you see downstairs is just a few of the zombies under his command. He might have hundreds more. Millions, even,” Reading said.

  “The main reason we know he’s a zombie is because we can’t get into his head. Not just one of us. I bet if we had Mason to do it at the same time we could,” Parker said. He started pacing around the room. “I’m sure of it. If we combine our forces, we could beat him.”

  “I’m not working with them. They creep me out,” Reading said.

  Emalee balled her fists and took a step towards Reading, who put up his hands in defense.

  “If you say that again, I’m going to punch you in the nose,” Emalee said.

  “No, you’re not,” Parker said and grabbed his brother by the shoulder. “I’m going to punch him in the nose.”

  “Fine. Whatever,” Reading said. He turned and started looking out the window. “I’ll keep watch. Maybe we’ll get a break between the zombies and be able to leave.”

  “We’re trapped?” Emalee asked.

  “Not really,” Parker said.

  “Yes, really,” Reading said, still looking outside. “We must’ve been followed. This area has been completely clear the past few weeks, except inside the warehouse. Now you and your brother show up and the zombies are everywhere.”

  Parker gave Reading a nasty look but Reading was still looking outside.

  “That’s weird,” Reading said and pointed.

  Emalee joined the brothers at the dirty window. At first she didn’t know what she was looking at but then she saw it: a group of zombies, all chained together, walking in a pack. She counted at least two dozen and they were linked with only a foot or two separating them.

  “What does it mean?” Emalee asked.

  “I don’t know. No one is leading them or walking behind, holding the chains,” Reading said.

  The three watched silently as the group of chained zombies continued shuffling down the street and past the warehouse. A five foot long chain trailed behind them. If someone had been their master, they were gone now.

  It made no sense to Emalee and she wished Mason was here. Even if he didn’t know the real answer he’d be quick to make something up to make her laugh.

  It took nearly a half an hour for the Zombie Chain Gang (as Emalee began calling them in her head) to get past the warehouse and out of sight.

  Other zombies had been wandering around in random directions, coming and going. She noticed one, a tall woman with a pretty yellow dress now ripped and filthy, kept walking into a chain-link fence across the street and moving off into another direction until she hit another barrier and turned back around.

  “I’m getting hungry,” Parker said.

  “I’ve been hungry.” Reading finally stopped looking at the zombies, gave a quick glance at Emalee, and went to the door to the room.

  “Where are you going?” Emalee asked.

  “To the warehouse. We’re wasting time looking down on the street for the zombies to move away so we can escape. We should be trying to get some of the food downstairs instead. I’m going to go and stare at them for awhile,” Reading said.

  “It’s too dangerous. If they see you, they’ll try to get you,” Parker said.

  Reading snorted. “Have you ever seen a zombie climb steps? I haven’t. If they see me, they’ll pile up and try to get at me.” He smiled. “Maybe what we need to do is create a distraction. Have someone chased by the zombies so the other two can grab some boxes and take them back to this room and open them.”

  Emalee didn’t like the sound of this at all. Besides being very dangerous and stirring up hundreds of zombies, she had a really bad feeling Reading was going to try to convince his brother she should be the bait for the zombies so they could get the food.

  She was right.

  Reading pointed at her. “How fast are you?”

  “Not fast enough to run from a lot of zombies,” Emalee said right away. There was no way she was going down into that mess and getting chased by those monsters, even if she was hungry.

  “I’ll do it,” Parker said.

  “You’re not fast. I’m way faster than you are,” Reading said.

  “Then you do it,” Parker said and smiled. “Prove how much faster you are than everyone else and save the day.”

  Reading sighed and nodded his head slowly.

  Emalee covered her face because she wanted to smile. Parker had tricked his brother into volunteering for the job.

  Parker clapped. “Let’s do this. I’d love to eat something real for a change.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What’s your name?” the girl with the sword asked Mason.

  She didn’t say it angrily or meanly but she still had the sword in her hand, leveled at his face.

  Mason decided not to get up off the warped wood of the deck and get stabbed.

  She had a slight smile on her face, like his mother would have had when she had found something they’d said funny but didn’t want to tell them why she was amused.

  “I’m Mason.”

  “Are you alone?”

  He wanted to be smart and ask her if she saw anyone hiding behind him but the sword moved slightly in the air, the blade aiming at his nose now.

  “Yes. I’m by myself,” Mason wisely said. “I’m looking for my sister, Emalee.”

  The girl hesitated. “Is she like you?”

  “Yes,” Mason said and smiled. “She’s also human.”

  “I’m Rihanna. I don’t suppose you have any food?”

  Mason shook his head. “I was searching for something to eat. That’s why I’m here.”

  “None of these houses have any food or water. They’ve been cleared out. Maybe when this all started. The adults left in a hurry but marauders have come through a few times and looked as well. We lead zombies into the other houses now so if someone breaks in they see the zombies and might not try anymore,” she said.

  “You said we.”

  Rihanna nodded.

  When she didn’t elaborate, Mason looked past her to see if anyone was in the house.

  “They’re not here. I left to find food,” she said.

  “Can I get up? I don’t have a weapon and I’m not a threat,” Mason said.

  She didn’t move.

  “You have a sword,” he said.

  Rihanna pulled the sword away and took a step back. She didn’t trust him which was fine with Mason because he definitely didn’t trust her, even though she seemed to have relaxed.

  Mason stood and dusted himself off, even though his clothes were dirty to begin with.

  Her clothes looked like she’d just washed them.

  “Now what?” Mason asked. He had a million questions but wanted to let her tell him what was going on. He thought she looked like she was either going to stick him with the sword or turn away, never to be seen again.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never run into another kid, by myself. Usually the group finds others to add. Devon has the final say on what we do with you,” Rihanna said.

  “Then let’s go talk to Devon,” Mason said.

  She shook her head.

  “Why not?” Mason really just wanted to leave and go find his sister but there was safety in numbers. Maybe he could find some help to locate Emalee and find others to work with. They’d been by themselves for too long. The people they’d run into hadn’t lasted.

  Mason made a mental note not to use his powers to read her mind for fear he’d say something she’d been thinking instead of saying and ruin another connection.

  She held up the sword again. “You should leave.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Rihanna waved the sword between them. “This was a mistake. You best run before I stab you. Stay away from me and Devon and all of us. Got it?”

  As much as Mason didn’t want to use his powers, he knew he had to. Something weird was going on. She’d suddenly changed
on him, without warning.

  “Where are you all hiding?” Mason asked.

  “None of your business,” she said but he got the mental image, from her, of where they were. Nearby in an office building on the outskirts of this area, where it turned into the actual city.

  “How many people do you have with you? Are they all kids?” Mason asked.

  She waved the sword but he’d gotten what he needed from her thoughts. They had two dozen kids, aged between ten and sixteen, led by Devon, who she was definitely scared of.

  He was an older kid and he had organized the group and found shelter and food in the beginning but he’d gone off the rails at some point and started intimidating and threatening everyone if they didn’t do as he said.

  “I’ll see you again,” Mason said.

  “No, you won’t,” she answered quickly but he knew she wanted to tell him about where they were and they needed help against Devon.

  “If you’re ever in trouble or just want to talk, I’ll meet you back here on this porch,” Mason said.

  She said nothing.

  “I’m going to go. Don’t stab me in the back,” Mason said and turned away, walking down into the overgrown yard and around the side of the house.

  He looked back to see her watching and he thought she might cry but talking more with Rihanna was only going to make her mad.

  Mason went back to the street and decided to go back the way he’d come, hoping he wouldn’t run into any zombies along the way.

  It really didn’t matter which way you went because there were always going to be zombies nearby.

  His mother had once told him a regular person swallows eight spiders a year while they sleep. Mason didn’t know if she was trying to scare him or make fun of the way she had said he slept with his mouth wide open. Besides, he was anything but a normal person. He had an extra chromosome 21. This made him extra special, a rare gift as his mother put it.

  Same with Emalee; although, Mason loved to tease her about anything and everything she did. He smiled, thinking pleasant thoughts about his sister and trying not to get all worked up missing her again.