“Shh. Listen.”
I did just that. Listened. Something dripped in the background. Rain maybe. Something sloppy, but I had no idea what the sound might be. Click, click, click. Ellis loosened his grip, but I could still feel the tension in his body. Click, click. The room was bathed in the soft glow of Matt’s lighter.
“What the fuck!” Matt yelled.
Ellis and I were already to our feet by the time Matt moved toward Connor’s grandma.
“Connor!” I screamed.
“Keep back!” yelled Ellis.
Mrs. Wahl was no longer on her cot; she lay face-down and naked on the floor next to Connor’s bloodied body. Her arms were drawn up underneath her, her torso turned partly toward the child. Her face burrowed into the flesh of his neck, her head bobbing. With each movement came the horrible sloppy glop-sound. As Ellis approached the duo, the old woman turned her face toward us. Smeared in blood, she scowled and emitted a low-pitched snarl. Connor was clearly dead, his skin blue and pale in stark contrast to the bloody holes his grandmother had chewed in his neck and chest.
“Son of a bitch,” cursed Ellis. “Get the fuck off him you fuckin’ hag!”
The woman drew back, growling. She struggled to sit up, but her frail body failed. Her face was smeared in blood and flesh, her mouth continuing to slowly masticate.
“Stay back, Ellis!” I yelled.
“Fuck no, I’m ending this here and now,” he huffed.
I watched in horror as he approached the monstrosity and physically pinned the old woman down. With his knees on her shoulders, he grabbed onto her stringy yellowed hair and slammed her head against the concrete floor. Her primal grunts quickly faded and were replaced with the shattering of bone with each head-strike. I covered my mouth with my hands, partly in horror over the viciousness of the attack and partly in disgust at the bloodiness of the entire scene. Ellis sat atop Mrs. Wahl’s naked and soiled body, his shoulders heaving from the exertion of ending her reanimated life while her grandson lay partially eaten and dead beside them. In death, Connor’s body rid itself of whatever urine remained in his bladder and a puddle formed beneath him.
“She’s gone,” said Matt in a firm tone.
“Did one of you…” I began to ask, but was interrupted by Matt.
“Inject her? Not me.”
“Or me,” said Ellis. “She must have died in her sleep.”
“Why did she…turn?” I asked, not quite sure how to ask the question.
“She must have been infected already, the bite on her leg and all,” said Matt. “We really need to get the fuck out of here.”
“What do we do with them?” I asked, indicating the old woman and dead child with a slight tilt of my head.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Ellis.
“So, we just leave them? He’s just a kid,” I said.
“Yeah, we just leave them,” said Matt.
“Let’s pack what we can and go at first daybreak,” said Ellis.
I didn’t say any more on the topic. After turning Connor’s flashlight on, we sorted through the cardboard box of his hidden supplies and packed what we felt was prudent. Ellis remained shirtless, and I shoeless. Our plan was to find a vehicle as soon as possible and leave the town, Connor, and his grandmother behind and not look back. Matt did the horrible task of destroying the young boy’s brain before we left, utilizing a screwdriver to the back of his skull.
***
Dead wandered the street in large numbers. The advantage to leaving through the front door was our ability to see what we faced. The back door off the store room was windowless and offered no insight to the dangers that lurked beyond. We left wielding Matt and Ellis’ two handguns and my tire iron. The dead wandering by seemed slow and dazed, so we did the most sensible thing and ran as fast as we could until we were clear of the bulk of them.
Being without shoes and with a wounded foot, and an ankle that was still healing, I was the slowest of our group. One of the dead walked away from us, causing me to pause. Like many of the others, it limped along awkwardly. Long stringy hair lay in a mess on its narrow shoulders and its arms were coated in blood. Something was different; not just in the direction in which it walked, but something else I had yet to identify. I slowed my pace to watch it. Ellis and Matt continued forward, not realizing a gap had formed between us. The shambling dead were beginning to take increased notice of us, slowly making their way in our direction, except for the girl who continued to walk away, ignoring our presence.
I tightened my grip on the tire iron in my hand and stopped walking.
“Hey!” I called out to the girl.
My voice drew groans from the dead. It invigorated them, causing their uneven gaits to become more pronounced as they marched forward.
“Poppy!” shouted Ellis.
I glanced at him, made eye contact, and quickly shifted my gaze back to the girl who still hadn’t so much as flinched in response to us.
Matt ran toward me, his long stride bringing him quickly to my side.
“That girl. I don’t think she’s one of them.”
“What do you mean?” asked Matt as he grabbed onto my hand and urged me forward.
“She’s not responding like the others.” I stood my ground, not moving along with him.
Ellis mumbled a few obscenities as he joined us. “What the hell is it? We need to get the fuck out of here.”
“Hang on, let me just check something out,” I said as I broke free from Matt’s grip.
Before either of them had a chance to stop me, I ran forward toward the girl who still walked away from us. Tire iron in hand and ready to strike, I quickly caught up to her quickly.
“Stop,” I huffed.
She continued forward at an unchanged pace, but I clearly heard the words she uttered under her breath.
“Follow me and be quiet.”
I turned and motioned for Matt and Ellis to join me. It had been unnecessary, as they were already on my heels.
“We heard,” whispered Ellis.
The girl straightened and ceased walking like the dead, daring a glance back at us. “As soon as we turn the corner of this building, there’s a basement window next to the garbage cans. Go through it and stay quiet until they pass.”
The dead were fully aware of all four of us, and as our pace quickened so did theirs. We followed the girl around the brick face of a single-story building. She was fast, and had she not mentioned the window I might have missed her ducking into the basement. I blindly followed her, hoping that she knew what she was doing and that none of the dead waited inside.
The room I dropped into was dark, the only light filtering in through the single small window above. Ellis joined us only seconds after my own feet touched ground, and right behind him was Matt. The girl rushed to the window to secure it. The pane of glass that would have slid downward was missing, and instead a piece of plywood was rigged to hinge at the top and drop downward. The girl was clearly familiar with the make-shift closure and expertly shut it without a sound.
“Stay quiet,” she whispered as she secured the board. The only light entering the room now gone with the window covered, the resulting darkness made me feel uneasy. “They’ll pass soon.”
We didn’t question her. None of us made a sound as we listened to the dead shuffling by, their grunts and groans of frustration growing louder. The plywood window flap thumped as something outside pushed on it. Ellis, standing behind me, wrapped his arms around me protectively. Despite the darkness of the room, I clenched my eyes shut and held my breath waiting for the danger to pass.
“Poppy,” Ellis whispered into my ear, his voice barely audible. “Your nails are cutting into me.”
I let my breath out slowly and uncurled my fingers from his forearms; I hadn’t realized I was holding onto him. His arms tightened around me and I forced myself to keep my fingers unfurled. I turned in his arms until I faced him and buried my face against his shoulder. The plywood continued to be battered from the othe
r side, and at one point the sound of wood splitting made my heart sink.
“Stay here. I’ll get them to go away,” whispered the woman as she scuttled off into the darkness.
I forced myself to breathe slowly, hoping it would help calm my nerves. The growls from outside, the pounding of the board, and the smell of decay were all overwhelming. Time seemed to slow down, threatening to make the moment never-ending.
“Make them stop.” I wasn’t sure if I had uttered the words or simply thought them. Either way, Ellis tightened his arms around me.
Above, footfalls landed hard on the floor boards. I kept my eyes clenched shut and my face buried against Ellis. The hairs on my neck stood on end and my voice threatened to betray me by screaming.
Somewhere in the distance, music blared. The pounding on the plywood flap ended abruptly, and the moans from the monsters began to fade. The sound of my own breathing took the place of that of the dead.
“They’re leaving,” I barely heard Matt mutter.
“You’re shaking,” whispered Ellis, his mouth close to my ear.
“I might have pissed myself,” I said, half joking.
The floorboards above creaked, and only a moment later the room filled with dim light from a battery-operated lantern. The girl with stringy blonde hair and blood-covered arms was a frightening sight at best. Her large brown eyes appeared black and her face was streaked with blood.
“What did you do?” Ellis asker her as he unwrapped his arms from me.
“It’s an old tape player. I threw it out the window. It won’t last for long, though. We have to move to the next room before they come back.”
“Next room?” I asked.
“Yeah. They can hear us and smell us in here, but not from the next room.”
“Let’s go,” said Matt.
The girl gingerly lifted the lantern and turned away from us. The ceiling was already low, but as we followed her we all had to duck down to clear the decreasing height of the room. The walls and floor were concrete, and long shadows from the lantern danced around us. The room smelled of mildew and decay. Directly behind the girl, I dropped to my knees when she did. The doorway she opened was short and narrow, reminding me of a small room in my childhood bedroom in which I used to play hide-and-seek.
Before long, we all piled into a narrow crawlspace which was irritatingly cramped.
“Whoever comes through last, latch the door shut behind you,” said the girl.
“Done,” said Matt. “But can they get through it?”
“They haven’t so far. I guess turning the knob is too tough for the dead?”
“How far is it?” I asked.
“Just around this corner. We need to go through one more doorway, and then it drops down a few feet.”
The girl continued onward, her movement making the light from the lantern dance. As she had promised, the crawlway turned a corner after only a few more feet. She swiveled around so that her legs hung over an edge and quickly disappeared.
“I’ll get the lights. Just secure the door behind you,” she called back.
“Will do,” answered Matt.
I followed her through the doorway, dropping down a few feet, and once my feet touched the floor below, was relieved to be able to stand upright again. A string of small lightbulbs suddenly lit the room, which was a lot like the first we had entered from the street. A bank of metal cabinets lined one wall, a plush area rug spanned the width of the room, and a short brown sofa sat off to one side. A single door stood at the top of two concrete steps. It looked heavy, likely solid wood, and a metal bar was fashioned across its face and nestled into two metal slots on either side of the door frame. A long metal sink finished off one corner of the room, a blue rain barrel sitting on top of an attached metal counter. I looked back as the sound of Matt sliding a metal latch signaled the closing of the crawlspace entry.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“The basement of my granddad’s funeral home.”
“Gross,” I said as I hugged myself close.
“Why were you out there?” asked Matt, with a hint of irritation in his voice. “And why did you ignore us?”
“Sorry. It’s the only way to avoid them noticing you. You have to act like them, smell like them.” She looked at the filth covering her arms. “I have to go out every day to look for my brother.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ellis.
“We were on the phone when things got really bad. He promised to come for me and said he’d signal me somehow once he’s close. The water tower’s the best look-out so I go there.”
“Are you here alone?” I asked.
“Relatively. Past that door there’s one of those monsters. It…it got my granddad a few days ago.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m Poppy. These are my friends Matt and Ellis.”
“I’d shake your hands, but I have guts all over me.”
“It’s fine,” said Ellis.
“I’m Agnes. I don’t have a lot to offer, but there’s some dry food and water by the sink. I need to wash up but go ahead and make yourselves at home.”
“Thanks,” I said.
The woman made her way to the metal basin, where she stripped down to her underclothes and leaned over the sink. A hose connected to the rain barrel worked as a make-shift shower. While she washed her arms, face, and hair the rest of us found her supply of crackers and cereal bars. I helped myself to a blueberry Multigrain bar and sat on the sofa while scarfing it down.
“Matt,” I said, my mouth full.
He lazily looked at me.
“Stop,” I mouthed silently.
I gestured toward Agnes with a nod of my head. I figured she deserved some privacy. Matt responded by sinking into the couch, stretching his legs out, rubbing at his face with his hands. He looked haggard, and heartbroken. I scooted closer to him and handed him the last quarter of my cereal bar. He shook his head side-to-side.
“I’m not hungry.”
“I don’t care; you need to eat.”
He sighed and looked blankly at the piece of food in my hand, eventually taking it and popping it into his mouth.
“Do you want to talk about it? About him?” I asked.
“I’m not sure I can,” he said as he made a fist and held it to his chest.
“You did what you had to, Matt,” said Ellis quietly as he sat beside me, effectively sandwiching me between them.
“He was your best friend, I know that had to make it that much harder,” I offered.
“Yeah. He was an amazing guy. One of the best out there,” said Matt as his eyes welled with tears. “He was the love of my life.”
Ellis and I both found ourselves without words, absorbing what he had just revealed.
“Matt, I didn’t realize you two were a couple…”
“Gay?” he asked, with something resembling a chuckle.
“No one should ever have to see the person they love die like that…I’m so sorry,” I said as I took hold of one of his hands.
He squeezed my hand in return and laid his head on the back of the couch.
“Where are you coming from?” asked Agnes as she walked toward us, drying her hair with a hand towel. Even in the dim lighting, I could see her hair was lighter than it had appeared outside.
“West. We’re trying to get farther into the mountains,” said Ellis. I noticed he omitted information about his family’s camp.
“I wouldn’t suggest leaving quite yet. The horde out there will probably be around for a while. My granddad had a Jeep and a hearse. If you want the hearse it’s yours.”
“Serious?” I asked.
“Yeah. I won’t need it. Once my brother gets here we’ll probably take the Jeep.”
“Where are you planning to go?” asked Ellis.
She sighed. “Not sure. Just away from here.”
Matt’s hand relaxed, and I pulled mine away as he began snoring.
“Matt’s asleep.”
�
�You should all catch some Z’s,” said Agnes.
“I can keep watch,” offered Ellis.
“No need. It’s safe here. We’re deep enough they can’t hear or smell us.”
I smiled at the girl. “I hate to ask, but do you have any extra socks? Mine are trashed.”
“I do, but not down here. I can get some for you before I take you to the hearse. What size shoes do you wear? I might have some.”
“Thanks,” I said. “A seven or eight.”
“Crap. Mine will be too small. And my granddad and brother both have huge feet.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure we’ll come across something eventually,” I said, hiding my disappointment.
I peeled off my tattered socks and laid back, resting my head on Matt’s leg. He stirred slightly, but quickly settled back in. I lifted my feet and put them on Ellis’ lap. He automatically looked them over, checking on my injuries.
“Do they look okay?” I asked.
“I think so. They’re kinda filthy, so it’s hard to tell. How’s the ankle feeling?”
I rotated my ankle joint, which still felt stiff but not nearly as painful as it had. “A lot better.”
I yawned and closed my eyes.
“Hand me one of the pillows?” Agnes asked quietly.
The couch moved from Ellis shifting his weight. I blinked when I heard the pillow hit the floor. Agnes tucked the pillow under her head, and lying on the floor she closed her eyes and nestled in.
“Ellis?” I whispered.
“Huh?”
“When will we leave?”
“First thing, I think.”
“We should bring her with us.”
He sighed. “We can try, but I don’t think she’ll go without her brother.”
“Maybe we should stay and wait for him.”
“We’ll talk to Matt about it in the morning. Get some sleep.”
Chapter Seventeen
When I woke, Matt and Ellis were already awake and making plans for the day. I stretched, trying to loosen stiff muscles, and looked around.
“Where’s Agnes?” I asked.
“Poppy. Good morning,” said Ellis. “She was gone when we woke up. She left a note.”
The Rotten Series (Book 1): Infection Page 18
