One Hour to Live

by Gary M. Chesla

  Bill looked at Bob.

  “If we see them, we’re going to have to take them out,” Bob said. “Or at least as many of them as we can. If they know what they are up against, they will try to figure a way to deal with us. We only have a few shells and the range of a shotgun is about fifty feet. We need to lure them in and surprise them.”

  Bill thought for a second.

  Bob watched Bill roll his eyes around as he thought.

  “Let’s say we let those three guys walk right up to the back door,” Bill said. “How the hell can we get the door open, run out on the porch to surprise them. By the time we get the damn door open, then you and I stumble out on the porch, they would have used us for target practice by the time we got out there.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Bob replied, “That’s the problem. Once we get them where we want them, the plan falls apart.”

  “We could leave the door open and shoot them as they came in the house,” Bill added.

  “But if we didn’t get them all, then they would be in the house. All they would have to do is keep us pinned down until we ran out of ammo,” Bob replied. “The house is our only place of refuge. Even without any ammo, we could hold them off for a few days in here. No, they mean to take the girls and kill us. We’re not going to let them do that. If we don’t surprise them, we’ll lose our only advantage. If we give them a chance, I’m afraid they’ll wear us down and get in here somehow.”

  “So, what do we do?” Bill asked.

  “I don’t know,” Bob replied. “I’m trying to think of something. My damn mind doesn’t work as well as it used to.”

  “You should try the prune juice,” Bill said. “It will get your mind clear.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t do my best thinking on the toilet,” Bob growled. “Just keep an eye on Sandy and let me think.”

  Except for a half dozen zombies that stumbled down Market Street, the rest of the day was uneventful.

  Bob never thought he would think seeing six zombies walking down the main drag through town was an uneventful day.

  It was, however, a sign of just how fucked up their lives had become.

  When the sun began to set, Bob told everyone he would sit in the kitchen and take the first watch.

  He told Bill he would wake him for the next watch when he was too tired to stay up any longer.

  However, around midnight, Bob closed his tired eyes for just a second.

  He didn’t open his eyes again until he heard the sound of glass breaking.

  Chapter 20

  September, One year ago

  Lisa opened her eyes.

  She was surprised to see the soft light of the morning sun.

  It had taken her forever to fall asleep last night.

  Every small sound she heard make her body begin to tremble.

  When she had been able to fall into a light sleep, she kept seeing images of Kevin lying on the bridge with his head bleeding from where he had been hit with the wrench.

  Then she would see images of Steve laughing as they dragged her into the brush.

  She realized how close she had come to losing Kevin.

  After the last week, the idea of being alone again without Kevin, was something she didn’t want to think about.

  The idea that she might not be able do a thing about it, made the feeling she had even worse.

  She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.

  Lisa stared at the ceiling for a few minutes as her nervous stomach seemed to quiver, sending chills through her entire body.

  When Lisa turned her head, she was surprised to see Kevin staring over at her.

  His eyes were clear and he had a smile on his face.

  Lisa’s feeling of dread immediately disappeared as a warm feeling came over her.

  She wrapped her arms around Kevin and gave him a kiss.

  “Good morning,” she whispered.

  “Good morning,” Kevin replied as he slid his hand over to Lisa and took her hand in his.

  Lisa put her finger on Kevin’s lips.

  “Shush,” Lisa whispered, “Sandy is sleeping.”

  “Where?” Kevin asked.

  “On the floor beside the bed,” Lisa whispered back, “She has been staying here ever since we brought her back. It was either here, your dad’s room or in the living room with Bill. I thought she would feel more comfortable in here with us for a few days.”

  Kevin nodded.

  “As soon as you’re feeling better, she is going to be sleeping somewhere else,” Lisa grinned as she gave Kevin another little kiss, “So I can have you all to myself.”

  “You look much better this morning,” Lisa whispered.

  “I’m feeling a lot better too,” Kevin smiled.

  “I can see that,” Lisa grinned, as she felt Kevin’s hand on her leg. “I don’t think you should be doing that.”

  “Why, am I bothering you?” Kevin asked as he smiled at Lisa.

  “You bother the hell out of me every time I look at you,” Lisa smiled. “It’s just today, I’m not sure what to do with you. You need to rest.”

  Kevin grinned as he rolled up onto his side and looked at Lisa.

  Lisa pushed Kevin back down on the bed.

  “Maybe you should try to go back to sleep and behave yourself,” Lisa smiled, “I really think you should try to rest.”

  “I’m feeling fine this morning,” Kevin replied.

  Lisa’s grinned, “Stop teasing me. You’re injured and Sandy is sleeping ten feet away from us.”

  Kevin laid back down on his pillow.

  “Come here,” he said.

  Lisa looked at Kevin.

  “Come on,” Kevin smiled softly and patted his chest with his hand. “Lay your head right here.”

  Lisa looked at Kevin and smiled as she snuggled up next to Kevin and put her head on his chest.

  “OK, what’s wrong?” Kevin asked.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Lisa replied.

  “You can’t lie to me,” Kevin smiled. “I know you too well. Well, I guess you did lie to me about that damn pink phone not being able to make movies, but that’s only because I don’t know shit about cell phones. But I think I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you.”

  “What makes you think something is wrong?” Lisa asked.

  “We’ve been awake and in bed together now for at least ten minutes,” Kevin smiled, “and I haven’t thought I was going to have a heart attack once. And it’s not because Sandy is sleeping on the floor next to the bed. That’s the kind of challenge that you normally can’t resist.”

  “I’m sorry I’m ignoring you,” Lisa said.

  “I don’t feel ignored. I feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Kevin smiled. “Talk to me Lisa.”

  Lisa hugged Kevin.

  “I’m scared,” Lisa finally said. “All the damn zombies and creeps running around out there. Then you got hurt. I’ve been watching you for the last three days and all I could think about was what if you didn’t wake up. I just felt so helpless. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.”

  “As you can see I’m fine,” Kevin smiled. “You probably were right to tell me to rest, I probably couldn’t handle you right now. It’s all I can do to handle you when I’m perfectly healthy. But just so you know, I was willing to give it a try. But hey, this isn’t about me. As far as something happening to me, I survived an entire summer with you, I think my chances out there are pretty damn good.”

  Lisa laughed. ”You holding me like this feels so good. You should have been a psychiatrist. You make me feel like I don’t have a trouble in the world.”

  “After the summer that I spent with a certain crazy girl,” Kevin laughed, “I feel like a psychiatrist. A very lucky psychiatrist.”

  “I’m the lucky one,” Lisa smiled and slid her hand up Kevin’s chest.

  “Behave yourself,” Kevin smiled, “Your session isn’t over yet.”

  “Kevin McNally,” Lisa lau
ghed, “are you playing hard to get with me?”

  “You of all people should know better than that,” Kevin replied. “I just thought maybe you needed to talk a little more.”

  Lisa snuggled up to Kevin and squeezed him tightly.

  “Well, I do have a question I always wanted to ask you.”

  “Is it one that’s safe for me to answer?” Kevin grinned.

  “This is probably a dumb question, Lisa laughed. “But I’ve always wondered about it.”

  “About what?” Kevin ask.

  “I want you to tell me the truth,” Lisa said.

  “You know I can’t lie to you,” Kevin laughed as he kissed the top of her head. “What do you want to know?”

  “That summer before we left for school, why did you ask me out?” Lisa asked. “All through school you never seemed to pay any attention to me before that. With all the girls in our class, why me? There were so many pretty girls at school, I couldn’t believe you even looked at me.”

  “It was your eyes,” Kevin replied.

  Lisa laughed, “My eyes? You? I find that hard to believe.”

  “I can understand why you say that,” Kevin smiled. “But I’m serious, it was your eyes.”

  “I didn’t even think you knew I had eyes,” Lisa grinned. “Believe me, I’m just happy you noticed me, but I often wondered what it was that first made you interested in me.”

  “Remember the day I asked you out for the first time?” Kevin asked.

  “Yeah, it was on the school bus about a week before we graduated,” Lisa replied. “You asked me if I wanted to go to the ball game.”

  “Do you remember what happened on the bus before that?” Kevin asked.

  “Yeah, you fell on me,” Lisa laughed.

  “That’s when I knew I wanted you,” Kevin said. “I looked down to see who I fell on. When you looked up at me and smiled, I thought I was going to die on the spot when I looked in to those eyes. I wanted to lean down and kiss you. I might have too if there wouldn’t have been so many kids looking at us. I was kind of shy and you don’t know how hard it was for me to ask you out that day. I was scared to death.”

  I didn’t notice,” Lisa smiled.

  “Why did you say yes?” Kevin asked.

  “Because you fell on me,” Lisa replied.

  “Were you afraid if you said no, I would fall on you again?” Kevin laughed.

  “Just the opposite,” Lisa grinned. “A lot of boys had asked me out. I always hated it when they tried to kiss me goodnight when they brought me home. I was beginning to think something was wrong with me. I started to think I just didn’t like boys. The girls always talked about going parking with their boyfriends and the things they did. I couldn’t understand how they thought that was fun.

  When you fell on me, I suddenly realized there wasn’t a thing wrong with me. I just hadn’t met the right guy. You, the guy that made me want to do everything I swore I would never do.

  When you put your hand down to push yourself up and you touched my leg, the feeling that shot through me was something I had never felt before.

  As shy as you were, you were lucky you didn’t kiss me right then, we might have been expelled from school.”

  “I’m glad I asked you out,” Kevin laughed.

  “If you wouldn’t have asked me out, I would have asked you,” Lisa smiled.

  “I was a little shy back then, wasn’t I?” Kevin added.

  Lisa laughed, “That didn’t last very long.”

  “Well, when you started to take off your clothes in the car on our second date,” Kevin laughed. “I decided that I didn’t want to be shy anymore.”

  “So, it was really my eyes?” Lisa smiled.

  “At first,” Kevin smiled. “Then I discovered you had more than eyes. Who knew!”

  Lisa laughed, “You’re crazy.”

  Kevin smiled. “So, if I would have kissed you right then?”

  “I guess you’ll never know,” Lisa grinned. “But I think you should have kissed me. In fact, I think you should kiss me now.”

  “You do remember that I’m injured,” Kevin smiled.

  “I’ll take it easy on you,” Lisa smiled.

  “That doesn’t sound like any fun,” Kevin replied.

  “Sorry,” Lisa smiled, “Sandy is sleeping. Now are you going to stop playing hard to get and kiss me.”

  Kevin slid down next to Lisa, but they both jumped when they heard a loud crashing noise coming from out in back of the house.

  Sandy woke up, sat and looked around.

  Lisa jumped out of bed and ran over to look out the window.

  “Shit,” Lisa swore as she stared out at the Subaru.

  The little blue car and Bob’s truck, both sat in the driveway with all their windows smashed out.

  The vehicles both sat low to the ground.

  All the tires had also been flattened.

  Lisa watched as Steve, Al and Carl ran back to the van.

  Carl ran with a distinct limp, a result of the crowbar.

  They hopped into the van and sped off.

  A cold chill ran through Lisa.

  “What the hell was that?” Kevin asked as he pulled on his pants and walked over to Lisa. “Did I just hear a car?”

  Kevin looked out the window.

  “What the hell happened to our cars?” Kevin yelled. “Did you see who did this? Was it that car I heard? Where the hell did they come from? I didn’t know there was anyone else around. Why would someone do this?”

  “Come sit down Kevin,” Lisa said nervously. “I need to catch you up on a few things.”

  Kevin looked at Lisa, feeling confused.

  Lisa took Kevin’s hand and led him over to the bed.

  As they sat down, Lisa told Kevin what had happened on the bridge after he had been knocked unconscious.

  About how she and Sandy got him back in the car.

  Kevin smiled slightly when Sandy told him about her harrowing ride home with Lisa driving a car for the first time.

  Kevin began to look concerned and even angry when the girls told him about the green van that had been driving by the house the last two, now three days.

  About Sandy and now Lisa, seeing Steve, Al and Carl.

  After the girls were done telling Kevin what he had missed, he sat back and began to rerun everything that he had just heard through his mind again.

  “So, Dad and Bill are trying to come up with a way to deal these three assholes,” Kevin asked.

  “That’s what he said last night before we all turned in,” Lisa replied. “In fact, he and Bill were going to take turns standing watch last night so they couldn’t sneak up on us while we slept.”

  “Let’s go down and talk with Dad and Bill,” Kevin said. “I don’t feel real confident about any plan that Bill has had anything to do with.”

  Kevin grabbed his shirt and pulled it down over his head as Lisa and Sandy finished getting dressed.

  When they all started for the door, Lisa stopped and put her arms around Kevin.

  “I’m sorry this is happening,” Kevin. “But I didn’t tell you about any of this before because I didn’t want you to worry. I wanted you to get better first.”

  “So, this is what has you as upset?” Kevin asked.

  Lisa nodded.

  “You’ve been through a lot, you probably shouldn’t even be out of bed yet,” Lisa added. “I worried to death about you. I just didn’t want you to worry.”

  Kevin smiled, “I don’t want you worrying any more. I can handle this.”

  Lisa smiled and hugged Kevin, “I guess if you can handle me.”

  They walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen.

  “Kevin,” Bob said. “Are you well enough to be up. You looked like hell yesterday.”

  “I’m OK,” Kevin replied. “Lisa told me about our three friends checking us out the last two days. And I saw what they did to our cars.”

  “Sit down,” Bob said. “You may feel OK but you need to
save your energy until you get your strength back.

  Kevin walked over and sat down at the table.

  He was feeling better, but it did feel good to sit down.

  Kevin took a deep breath and looked up at his dad.

  “I don’t have a lot to tell you, I feel asleep last night and didn’t get up until that damn racket started outside. I never saw a thing.” Bob said. “Sandy saw their van drive by the day before yesterday. She didn’t say anything until yesterday because she didn’t think it was important. She told me she saw them again yesterday because they started laughing when they saw her looking at them. She got scared when she recognized who they were.”

  “Have you seen them do anything else besides drive by?” Kevin asked. “Other than when they decided to trash our cars.”

  “No, in fact until today, Sandy has been the only one to see them,” Bob replied. “I can’t be certain, but there is a chance that they don’t know Bill and I are here. They may only know that you, Lisa and Sandy are here. They knew that you lived in Bolivar and had a blue car, so they probably were just driving around looking for the car. When they spotted the car, they came by a few times to scout the area and try to spot one of you. When they saw Sandy, they knew for sure it was your car and where you were staying.”

  “Even if they haven’t seen you and Bill, the truck might have made them suspect there are more than the three of us here,” “Kevin said.

  ‘Maybe,” Bob replied, “but so long as they don’t know for sure, it can still be an advantage for us.”

  “Lisa said you were working on some ideas about what to do about these guys?” Kevin asked. “What were you thinking?”

  “First, it’s my guess they want to take Lisa and Sandy,” Bob said.

  “Shit,” Kevin said looking disturbed. “That hadn’t crossed my mind until now.”