Dex

by Claflin, Stacy

  “Sounds about right.” Laiken turned to Radley. “Unless you have more.”

  “Nope.” She shook her head.

  Crash!

  Thud!

  Thump!

  Radley shuddered. “I don’t even want to know what that was.”

  Dex pressed his ear against the armoire. “At least it wasn’t glass this time.”

  “Just the front door,” Laiken snapped.

  That did explain the noises they’d just heard—the cabinet falling over as the wanderers made their way inside from the porch.

  Scratch!

  Screech!

  Those noises were closer.

  Zianna backed away. “They’re coming up.” She ran into her room.

  Radley turned to Laiken. “Do we go up to the attic?”

  “Attic?” Dex exclaimed. “You want to go up another level? If they get up there, we might be forced to jump down three flights!”

  “They can’t get in.” Laiken gestured toward the ceiling. “The ladder’s built into the cover. We pull it up, and they can’t get up. Not that I’ve ever seen a zombie climb a ladder.”

  “True.” That would require too much intelligence and coordination. Two things the wanderers lacked. “Why don’t we head up now?”

  “You can.” Laiken’s tone indicated that he thought Dex would be a wimp if he did. “I’m going to kill as many as I can now.”

  Dex narrowed his eyes and whipped out his seventeen-inch knife. “I’ve taken down more wanderers than are downstairs with this blade—by myself.”

  Laiken stepped closer, furrowing his brows. “Good for you. I’ve killed zombies with my bare hands!”

  “You think I haven’t?” Dex closed the space between them. Their noses nearly bumped. “I’ve been on my own for eleven years.”

  “And I’ve—”

  “Boys!” Radley glared at them. “Like it or not, we’re in this together. We have to get along.”

  The armoire rattled.

  Laiken released a string of profanities.

  Zianna ran into the hallway with a gun in each hand. “I’m ready!”

  The wardrobe shook more. One of the shelves pressed against it wobbled.

  Dex reached out and caught it before it crashed. “You all ready?”

  “You’d better believe it,” Laiken grumbled.

  Lucy raised two knives into the air.

  Zianna aimed both her guns at the armoire and shot through it. Laiken followed suit.

  Hissing, snaps, and thuds sounded behind the hole-riddled wardrobe. All the furniture rattled more.

  Crack!

  The armoire split down the middle. Yellow, bloody hands reached through and pulled on the wood.

  Lucy ran over and stabbed them with her two knives. Dex rushed over by her and helped. The odor made his stomach turn.

  “The attic?” Zianna asked.

  “And let them take our house?” Laiken exclaimed.

  “What other choice do we have? I don’t want to die!”

  “We kill the jerks and take back what’s ours.” Laiken grabbed a gun from her. “If you go up there, leave these down here.”

  She reached for the gun but he held it back.

  “Would you two stop?” Radley exclaimed. “You’ll get us all killed!”

  The wardrobe cracked more, allowing the wanderers to stick their entire arms inside.

  Zianna furrowed her brows. “Do you guys really think we can take all these zombies?”

  “We have to at least try.” Laiken cocked the gun and aimed it at the arms coming through.

  “Hey!” Dex glared at him. “We’re right here. Not only that, wait until you can aim at their skulls.”

  “I’m not just letting them up here. This is my house! I’m protecting it.”

  Dex marched over to him, his pulse pounding with anger. Laiken’s unpredictability was exactly why Dex didn’t trust people. He stopped a few inches from the other man. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to chill. Got it? If we don’t work together, they win. They kill us. There are other houses.”

  Laiken pushed Dex’s shoulder. “Other houses for you. I’ve spent years taking care of and protecting this place.”

  Dex panned his palm toward the monster arms reaching for them. “And how’s that working out for you now? Huh?”

  The armoire shook more, and another crack burst down along the other side. All the other furniture in front of it wobbled, some of it tipping over.

  “They’re going to get up here,” Zianna cried. “I’m opening the attic.”

  “You can’t reach, shorty.” Laiken stomped toward the big square in the ceiling over the middle of the hallway.

  “I can use a chair.”

  Laiken reached up and yanked on the little handle. It came loose right away and a ladder folded down, stopping a couple feet above the ground.

  Zianna grabbed the ladder. “Who’s with me? Once the zombies discover this, I’m pulling it up.”

  Dex ran over to Lucy. “Want me to help you up there?”

  She shook her head no. “I fight them.”

  He turned to Zianna. “Just leave the ladder down. The wanderers aren’t going to figure out how to climb it.”

  “I’m not taking any chances. You forget these things aren’t your run-of-the-mill zombies.” She pulled herself up and climbed out of sight.

  Radley ran over to the ladder. “Give us your gun, Z.”

  Zianna lowered it to her just as the wardrobe burst apart. The frothing, disgusting monsters pushed their way through, snapping and hissing.

  Bang! Bang!

  Bullets flew willy-nilly, hitting the creatures in their shoulders, chests and arms—basically anywhere other than their heads.

  Dex ran over to Laiken and yanked the gun away from him. “At least aim for their brains, numbskull.”

  “Hey!” Laiken reached for it, but Dex jumped out of his way and shot two wanderers in the head.

  Then the gun was empty.

  He tried several more rounds, but there was no more ammo.

  Dex turned to Laiken. “You wasted valuable bullets!”

  Bang! Bang!

  Radley shot the other one, and she managed to take out one monster with each bullet.

  “At least someone has some sense,” Dex muttered.

  Laiken turned to him. “Are you saying I don’t?”

  Dex threw the empty gun at his chest. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  Laiken punched Dex in the arm.

  Dex spun around. “You don’t want to mess with me. Especially not now. Not with wanderers attacking us. Got it?”

  “You’re getting in the way.” Laiken shoved him again.

  Dex clenched his fist and hit the other man across the face. His head turned to the side and blood spurt out from his nose. “No, you’re getting in the way. I won’t let you get any of the rest of us killed.”

  Wanderers poured in, climbing over and around the furniture in their path.

  Chapter 28

  Dex ran over to Lucy to get her away from the wanderers, but she was already taking care of herself. Lucy stabbed three monsters in the time that it took Dex to stride over.

  He dug his knife into the temple of one lunging for her. Another reached for him. He jumped out of the way and stabbed the thing in the head.

  Snarls and snaps were all he could hear. His stomach continued twisting and turning at the stench of rotting flesh and loose intestines.

  Dex breathed through his mouth and swung his knife at the nearest wanderer.

  Everything went by in a blur as the four of them fought the creatures with nothing more than blades. For each one they took out, another replaced it just as quickly, coming up the stairs and climbing over all the broken, blood-spattered furniture.

  Zianna came down the ladder, balancing a couple skinny poles.

  Dex didn’t have time to question the poles. A group of three wanderers reached for him and Lucy from the massive pile
of furniture.

  He jumped in front of her and stabbed the nearest one. Lucy moved around him and dug her blade into the next one, while he took out the last of the three.

  Five more pushed their way up through the ruined armoire.

  Zianna ran over and rammed the pole into one creature’s head. When she yanked it back out, Dex noticed it wasn’t just any pole. The end had been carved into a sharp point.

  “You had time to make that already?” Dex exclaimed.

  “No. There’s a ton of these up in the attic.” She lodged the pole into a mattress so that it stuck up at a forty-five-degree angle.

  “What good is that going to do?” Dex exclaimed. “We need to keep shoving that into their skulls.”

  “Just watch.” She ran back to the ladder and disappeared into the attic.

  Dex shook his head. Leaving the sharp pole there was going to be a waste of time when he could use it to actually stop the wanderers.

  The next wave of zombies pushed their way through the broken wardrobe. One of them walked right into the pole. It impaled the creature straight through. Though it struggled, the thing couldn’t get free.

  Another stumbled into the first wanderer and fell onto the pole. Then a third one followed suit until there was no more room. It was like a shish kabob of the living dead.

  An odor more rancid than before filled the air. Dex gagged, trying to keep his food from coming up.

  Wanderers crashed into the staked ones, tripping and stumbling.

  “Over here!” Zianna called from the attic. She held down a sharp pole.

  “Go grab that,” Dex told Lucy, then stabbed a wanderer in the temple.

  She ran over and dragged the pole to Dex. Together, they jimmied it against a bed frame until it stuck up at a good angle by itself.

  Three more monsters piled on top of it. Though the poles rendered the creatures immobile, it didn’t kill them.

  Dex turned to Lucy. “Get more poles!”

  She ran back, and Dex dug his blade into the temple of each trapped wanderer.

  The flow of creatures coming upstairs seemed to have slowed. Dex peeked through the armoire into the staircase. There were more zombies than ever, but instead of pouring into the hall, they had managed to get stuck on the stairs, pinning each other to the walls and one another.

  Dex raced over to the attic to help carry more poles over to the staircase entrance. Before he worked at angling them, he thrust one at several creatures’ heads.

  Zianna and Lucy ran over, both lugging multiple poles. Together, the three of them set up the new weapons close enough that none of the monsters could get by without running into one.

  “Think that’ll take care of all of them?” Zianna asked.

  Dex shook his head. “We’re going to need to set up more. Are there more?”

  “Like I said, there’s a ton in the attic.”

  “Let’s do this.”

  She and Lucy climbed up, then lowered poles down for Dex. He took them over three at a time. It took some imagination, but he managed to get each one set up to capture the mindless attackers.

  Zianna and Radley came over, dragging several poles each. The four of them set them up in various places around the hall, barely having enough time before more wanderers pushed their way in.

  The mindless killers walked right into the traps, not learning anything from their impaled buddies. Three or even four piled on top of each other.

  Gasping for air, Radley turned to him. “How many do you think there are?”

  “I don’t want to know. Silverly could easily hold thousands.”

  She shuddered. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “Hey,” Zianna said. “Where’s Laiken?”

  Dex glanced around. He didn’t see the fool. People as rash as him tended to get themselves killed pretty quickly, but he didn’t want to worry Zianna and Radley, who considered Laiken family. “Maybe he’s getting more of those poles.”

  “Yeah, probably.” Radley grimaced. She didn’t sound like she believed it any more than Dex did.

  Creak!

  Crack!

  Dex turned toward the staircase, where the noises came from.

  Snap!

  Crack!

  Color drained from Radley’s face. “What’s that?”

  Creeeak!

  Snap!

  Thud!

  Crash!

  The wanderers in the staircase disappeared.

  “What the…?” Dex ran over.

  The staircase had given out under the weight of all the monsters. They lay writhing, hissing, and clawing at one another. Many were incapacitated as the fall had crushed their skulls.

  Radley ran over and gasped.

  “What?” Zianna came over. “Well, at least they can’t get us up here.”

  “But how are we going to get down?” Radley cried.

  “We’ll have to figure that out later,” Dex said.

  Lucy grabbed his arm. He rubbed her hand as his breathing finally returned to normal.

  “Where is Laiken?” Zianna asked.

  Radley and Dex exchanged a knowing look. The idiot was probably buried under the piles of wanderers littering the floor.

  Dex shoved a monster down to the lower level. “Come on. Let’s get these guys downstairs.”

  It took them about twenty minutes to get all of the disgusting creatures off the floor. And Laiken still remained missing.

  Dex and Radley exchanged another glance, this time concerned. If Laiken hadn’t been among the fallen monsters, where was he?

  Chapter 29

  Dex wiped his brow as he stepped out of his and Lucy’s bedroom. “Laiken’s not in here.”

  Radley poked her head out of a room. “He isn’t in his room, either.”

  Zianna climbed down from the attic. “Then where in the blazes is he?”

  “Zombies,” Lucy said.

  Dex turned to her. “What do you mean?”

  “Wanderers.”

  “What do you mean?” Dex asked again. “You think Laiken is with them?”

  Lucy’s expression tensed. “Zombies.”

  “I’m trying to understand.” He took a deep breath. “Did they get him?”

  She pushed past him and stepped over the debris littering the hallway, stopping just before the drop-off where the staircase used to be.

  “Down there?” Zianna leaped over and glanced down. “Did you see him go down there?”

  Something tickled Dex’s nose. He sniffed the air. “Fire! They’ve started a fire!”

  Lucy nodded furiously. “Zombies. Smoke!”

  “Oh, no they didn’t.” Zianna looked around with a determined expression.

  Radley’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to try to go down there, are you?”

  “You got any better ideas?”

  “Yeah.” Radley put her hands on her hips. “How about anything that doesn’t involve throwing yourself into a group of zombies?”

  “Those zombies are destroying our house and may have killed one of our family members. Nothing’s going to stop me from going down there.”

  “How about a lack of weapons?” Radley exclaimed. “You realize that’s the reason we’re up here in the first place.”

  Dex’s ears rang, probably from the earlier gunfire. He rubbed his temples. “You two are giving me a headache. We need to find a way out of here.”

  Zianna glowered at him. “This may just be a house to you, but it’s our home.”

  He shot her a glare. “Look, we’ll help you. We just need to get on the ground level—inside or outside. If there’s a fire, we don’t want to be here.”

  Snap!

  Scratch!

  Hiss!

  Radley shuddered. “Being down there isn’t so great, either.”

  Dex sniffed the air. It still smelled of smoke. Not a lot of it, but it was there. “Neither option is ideal, but we don’t want to be on the second level when there’s a fire. We don’t even have stairs anymore
! Getting out before the flames engulf everything is our priority.”

  “Laiken!” Zianna called. “Laiken!”

  Dex pressed his palm over her mouth. “Have you lost your mind? Do you want to attract more of those things?”

  She shoved his hand away and stepped back. “What if he’s up here? I’m not leaving him behind.”

  He stepped closer to her. “Then go and find him. Don’t put the rest of us in danger.”

  “What are you going to do about it? Huh?” Zianna stepped back again. “Laiken!”

  Dex clenched his fists. “I’ll tie you up and wrap your mouth shut before I let you get me, Lucy, and Radley killed.”

  “And I’m not leaving him up to burn.” She sniffed the air. “The smoke’s getting worse.”

  He narrowed his eyes and stepped even closer, leaving only an inch between them. “Find him quietly, or we’re going to have a problem.”

  They stared each other down before she stormed into one of the bedrooms. Things banged around as she looked for Laiken.

  “That’s not quiet!” Dex closed the door behind her. He turned to Radley. “What’s with her? The dude probably got himself killed. You saw how crazy he was being. Now she’s doing the same thing.”

  “I think they have feelings for each other. Let’s find a way out of here.”

  “Is there an emergency ladder, by chance?” Dex asked. It was rare, but sometimes houses he’d run across had them. He’d used more than one to escape wanderers.

  “Not that I know of.” Radley shook her head. “Where would they be?”

  “Usually in a bedroom. If you haven’t seen any, then there probably aren’t any. We’ll have to find something else.”

  Crashing noises came from the room Zianna was in.

  “Quickly,” Dex muttered.

  They dispersed into different directions. Dex rifled through the room he’d slept in—far quieter than Zianna—but found nothing useful.

  He went out into the hall. The ladder going up to the attic caught his attention. That might work to get them downstairs. It might not be long enough to reach all the way, but it could get them close enough to the ground.

  Dex climbed up and studied it. The ladder was nailed down rather than having hooks like the emergency ones he’d used in the past. Once they managed to get it off, securing it would be a challenge. But he couldn’t worry about that.