by T. Gault
CLICK, “Well, what do you want us to do?” asked Matt.
PFFFF, “Go do what you guys were gonna do. We’ve got some beef jerky in here. We’ll be alright,” said Jim.
“He’s right. They’re fine. We’ll just make it worse by trying to do something right now,” said Matt.
“Yeah, you’re right, but we could have done without the shotgun going off inside the truck,” I said.
“Well, Curtis was kinda about to get his face eatin’ off. So, I think a little noise was worth it,” said Matt with a raised eyebrow.
“I want to see Fran,” said Curtis, sounding very scared.
“Did you just hear and see all the same things we did? Would you settle for talking to her?” asked Matt.
“Yeah, I guess I could settle for that,” replied Curtis.
Matt handed the radio to Curtis and he spoke to Frannie. He also asked her for a more clear position for his mom’s van. She described what was in the parking lot as we circled the shopping center.
“There it is,” said Curtis pointing to a dark gray van parked where Frannie had described.
“You sure you want to do this?” I asked Curtis.
“Yeah, she might need help,” replied Curtis.
“She might be dead,” mumbled Matt.
Curtis glanced at Matt and looked back to the van, “I have to know.”
We quickly pulled up to the van on the passenger’s side and Curtis scrambled to get out. Matt looked at me and glared for a moment as he followed Curtis out of the truck. I pulled the parking brake and put the truck in neutral. I grabbed my sword and stepped out of the truck. Curtis ran up to the passenger’s window and looked inside.
“Where is she?” he said.
Matt looked into the van beside him. He looked back at me and pointed at the front seat. There was an obvious bloodstain on the seat and the driver’s door was still partially open. Curtis quickly walked around the van to the driver’s side. Curtis walked to the driver’s door and began to spin, looking in all directions.
“Mom!” he yelled.
“Shut up!” Matt whispered loudly.
“Mom!” Curtis yelled again.
I ran to him and threw my arm around his mouth.
“This was one of the possible outcomes. You knew this. We had talked about this. She’s gone, just like my brother and just like his sister. We move on.”
“Look out!” said Matt from beside me.
I jumped back as an arm reached out from under the van and pulled the rest of the corpse toward my legs. As the carrier’s head came into view, BOOM, Matt unloaded a shotgun round into its head.
“NOOO, Mom!” yelled Curtis as he shoved me away and ran to the corpse.
It appeared that she had pulled herself under the van trying to get away from her attacker, but had only been able to make it halfway under. They had eaten her legs off. Curtis knelt down beside the corpse and began to sob violently. Matt and I began to look around and could see the entire parking lot beginning to move.
“Curtis, I know how hard this must be, but we’ve got to go right now,” I said as I kept an eye on the advancing hoard.
“I can’t just leave her here,” said Curtis.
“We’re not taking that...her in the truck, now let’s go,” said Matt.
“We have to take her,” cried Curtis.
“Leave him,” said Matt as he grabbed my arm.
“What, we can’t just leave him, he’ll be...” I replied.
“Yes, we can. He’s dead weight, therefore he is dead. Leave him,” replied Matt as he began to pull me toward the truck.
I looked around the parking lot and the closest carriers were only about fifty feet away. I looked back at Curtis and began to run toward the truck. I started the engine and Matt got into the passenger’s side. I started to move and came around the side of the van where Curtis was sitting. He was gone. I slowed and looked around, but he was nowhere on that side of the van. I started to pull off when I heard a thump on the back of the truck. I looked in the mirror expecting to see a carrier on the camper, but it was Curtis climbing into the back. Once he was inside, I stomped on the gas and sped toward a narrow spot in the crowd.
“Hold on!” I yelled just as we smashed into the first couple of corpses.
Matt did what he could to keep them off of the truck. He actually ran out of shotgun shells and had to start using my Glock. Curtis was completely useless. He sat with his back against the cab, staring out the back of the truck. When we finally made it out of the crowds, I found myself back on the main road that led to my house.
“There is something I have to do,” I said to Matt as I pushed my foot into the gas pedal and shifted the gears.
“Where are we going?” asked Matt very confused.
“My house, and you can keep all of your ‘This is a dumb idea’ crap to yourself. I’m going,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Well, you said it, not me. But what about Mr. Meltdown back there...” said Matt just as Curtis cut him off.
“I’m fine. I am not as worthless as you guys are making me out to be. It was just a lot to take all at once. I just wanted to be able to say goodbye to her.”
“It’s alright Curtis. We understand. I might have to do the same to my brother when we get to my house,” I said.
As I drove, I noticed an astonishing amount of new damage and additional vehicle wrecks. The thrift shop Matt and I had stopped by was burned to the ground when we passed it. The number of carriers in the parking lot to the Food Lion made it impossible to consider it for any kind of a food run. The sunlight from the earlier part of the day was gone and it was becoming overcast again. It looked almost like the day everything had started. I narrowly maneuvered around the wrecks at the intersection just prior to my street, but decided to take the back road to avoid a large crowd on the main road. I passed the place on the road where the reporter had been standing when I was watching the news report a few days ago. She was gone and so was the cameraman. The truck was jammed between several trees heading into the park on the opposite side of the pond behind our house. The expensive video equipment lay smashed on the side of the road.
I slowed as I rounded the last corner before my house. I could see it in the distance. I took a deep breath and started to move toward it. Matt was carefully scanning the neighborhood for groups of them while we moved. Curtis had flipped up the window on the rear of the camper and was watching for any that came out as we passed. Matt and I had talked about how to approach the house and we both agreed that the best way would be to drop me off, and Curtis and he would circle the block. We didn’t want to get the truck trapped in front of the house if too many of them showed up. Halfway up the block, Matt and I switched seats and he drove me to the front of the house. The front door was still closed, just as I left it. I got out of the truck and Matt keyed his radio just to make sure it was still working.
“Just hit the radio when you’re ready for me to come get you and if you get into trouble let me know,” said Matt in the most concerned voice I had ever hear him use.
“I got this. I’m going to go in grab the camera and head out to the garage to get the charger. Then I’ll run to the gate and be waiting by the road, quick and quiet,” I said, trying to fill myself with confidence.
I opened the door and stepped out with my sword in hand. I started walking toward the front door, looking to each of the front windows as I walked. I didn’t see any movement. I looked back at the truck as Matt slowly pulled off and headed down the street. For the first time since I met Matt, I was alone again. I looked down the street from where we had come from and noticed several of the carriers stumbling out into the street, like some extremely late attempt to catch the truck. I stepped up onto the front porch and took a deep breath. I envisioned Thomas standing in the hall just as I had left him. I pictured the single shot to the forehead it would take to release him from his mindless wandering.
I reached for the doorknob, but realized that
the curtain in the window to my right was moving. One of them grabbed onto the curtain, trying to grab at me, and pulled it off of the wall. The entire front room where the video camera sat was full of them. I could count at least twenty from where I stood. They all began to slam their rotten hands against the glass, but their decaying state had left them unable to exert very much force. I slowly backed down off of the porch and pulled up my radio, ready to tell Matt to come get me.
“No, change the plan,” I said to myself.
“I’ll get the charger and fire a shot off in the back yard. They will all start coming out of the house through the back door and I will run to the front to get the camera,” I mumbled as I ran to the gate on the side of the house.
There were only a couple of them in the backyard. They must have followed Thomas inside and couldn’t figure out how to get out. I looked at the back door and noticed that it was still open. I carefully made my way to the garage and again had the thought run through my head, Dad is going to kill me when he sees this footprint on the door. Halfway to the garage, an old man missing his left arm at the elbow noticed me and began to amble toward me. I slowed down and prepared for the strike. I brought up my sword and waited for him to get into range. I buried the blade into his skull and kicked him to the ground. The blade slid free as he fell and I jogged to the garage door.
I looked around inside the garage and quickly found the power adapter for the camera. I also took a look at the other yard tools and equipment. But most of the tools were either too heavy or were just not practical to use as a weapon. I started to walk out of the garage just as another one stepped into the doorway. I picked up my dad’s sledgehammer and swung it into the side of its head, nearly removing the head completely. But I knew from the past few days that I wouldn’t be able to continuously deliver many more swings like that one. I dropped the hammer and looked back into the garage one last time. I looked out toward the pond through the large window on the side of the garage and saw a familiar figure. I quickly stepped out of the garage and carefully made my way down, near to the edge of the pond.
On the opposite side of the water Thomas stood with his back to me. I couldn’t see his face, but I was sure it was him. His clothes were discolored from his decay. He didn’t appear to be looking at any particular thing on that side. He seemed almost peaceful. There were several other carriers on that side of the water, but they were all shuffling around. Thomas stood in place, just swaying. I raised my Glock and sighted in on his head the best I could and tried to match his motion.
I thought to myself, Why? He’s just another one of them now. He’s no threat to me and I probably won’t even be able to hit him.
I lowered my gun and stared for a moment. I almost envied him. He didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. He was free. He wouldn’t be attacked. He didn’t have to fight every day of his life or have to wonder where his next meal would come from. I turned and began to walk back toward the house and remembered what I needed to do. I looked around the yard and saw one other carrier. I leveled my gun at her head and looked back at the house, I hope this works.
POW! The corpse fell to the ground. I looked at the windows on the house, but didn’t see any movement inside yet. The shot had struck the female in the shoulder and she was trying to get back up. I became impatient and walked over to the carrier and leveled the muzzle at her head.
POW! The second shot rang out, echoing off of the empty neighborhood around me. I began to see shadows moving inside the house, but they were not able to make a conscious effort to go out the back door. Instead they began to pile up against the glass of the large window in the den facing the backyard. I fired another shot into the air out of frustration, but the group inside just couldn’t figure out that they needed to use the door to get outside. Then it hit me. I raised the gun and pointed it at the glass of the den window. Several of them were being crushed against the window from the weight of those behind them. I shot out the window, and they came pouring out of the opening onto the back porch. I let out a chuckle as I started to move toward the gate.
I looked over my shoulder to get one last look at my brother before I left, but he was nowhere in sight. The other corpses at the park had started moving toward all the noise I had made, but Thomas had somehow wandered off. Some of the others had already started wading through the disgusting water. I turned and began to run around to the front of the house.
PFFFF, “Is everything okay?” I heard Matt talking over the radio. “We heard the shots. I’m on my way there.”
CLICK, “I’m okay. Just give me a minute,” I said as I stepped onto the front porch again.
I flung the door open and brought my Glock up to aim. There was one straggler standing in the hallway near to the body of the carrier I had shot in the hallway. He wasn’t paying any attention to me as I walked into the front room. The video camera wasn’t on the table where I left it. I looked around on the floor by the table, but it was gone. I started to panic, but then I saw the AV cord from the camera sticking out from under the couch. I reached under the leather couch and pulled out the camera. I let out a sigh of relief and stood up. The carrier in the hallway had noticed me and was moving as quickly as his stiff joints would allow. I shoved him to into the wall near the hallway and jumped over his legs as he fell. I turned and took one last look, knowing that this would be the last time I would see this house. Suddenly a strange realization crossed my mind, I was supposed to go to work tonight. I stepped onto the front porch just as Matt pulled up in the truck.
The entire street’s worth of them were coming toward the house. The sound from the shots went out, unobstructed by any city noise. There were already several of them in the front yard. I raised my pipe sword and ran for the truck. Curtis was in the front passenger’s seat with Matt’s shotgun. I wasn’t sure where they had found them, but Curtis apparently had more shotgun shells. He was blasting the corpses around the truck to help clear a path. I slashed through the ones that were left. I climbed into the back of the truck and slammed the tailgate shut.
“Go!” I yelled to Matt once inside.
Matt made the little four-cylinder move and pounded his way through the carriers standing in the street. I crawled up to the window to the cab, avoiding the leftover legs that had been severed the night before.
“You guys couldn’t have gotten these legs out of the truck?” I asked.
“Be my guest,” said Matt, “Did you get it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” I said clutching the camera.
“We might have found our next place,” said Matt.
“Huh, where? I can’t really think of any fortresses in this area,” I responded.
Curtis looked back at me, “A church, a few miles from here.”
“Is that where you found the ammo?” I asked.
“No, I actually ran across that up the street from your house. Some poor guy had armed himself to the teeth and I’m guessing he wasn’t fast enough. He had some kind of assault rifle too, but neither of us knew how to shoot it, so we left it,” Matt said.
“Why this church? You need to get some things settled before you go?” I asked.
“Nah, I’m good, but there aren’t too many low windows on the place. The doors on the lower level are heavy steel doors. Could be a solid place to stay,” said Matt.
“And if we’re lucky, they ran a soup kitchen,” added Curtis.
“Oh, did you...take care of...your brother?” asked Curtis.
“No...he was...gone,” I replied.
“Well, at least you know what happened to him,” said Curtis.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said.
“So, let’s see this church,” I said to Matt.
“Okay,” said Matt as he turned the truck around.
He drove for several minutes until we came to an older brick church building. The sign out front read, “The Church of the Second Coming.” They also had one of those, saying-of-the-day type of signs out front. That sign read, “The devi
l is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
“That’s ironic,” I said as we circled the building.
The building was mainly made of red bricks, but it had some white molding around the roof. It also had a large arched window with some circular patterns in front of the vestibule. But the bottom of that window was also high enough off of the ground that the infected or anyone else for that matter wouldn’t be able to get in. The back of the church had a fenced-in playground and picnic tables. Not that I planned on sitting outside and eating. The location was not too bad either. There was only a small group of houses on the opposite side of a chain link fence surrounding the property.
“Sure it’s a great place, but how much is the rent?” I asked Matt.
Matt chuckled, “Don’t worry, it’s affordable on even your budget.”
