Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  The rain began to really pour down. Even with the noise caused by the rain starting to really pound down on the roof they still maintained their silence. Kelly was ashamed of the fact that it’d been her and Randy losing their temper with one another that’d brought the Zombies down on them in the first place. It had either been that or the noise from the car she’d driven back to the house. Either way it’d been directly attributable to her. She was determined not to exacerbate the situation by making any unneeded noises now. The kids were sullenly sitting in the closet. It looked like Doreen had fallen asleep and the other two were headed in that direction. As long as none of them had a nightmare that ended in a screaming fit, they should be good.

  A window vibrating peal of thunder woke everyone up. The noise so loud the lightning might’ve struck in the backyard. The wind had picked up as well. The drapery was flapping all around over the broken window in the room. The tape had come off at some point, so the window was only partially covered now. Kelly wasn’t too concerned about that since the chest of drawers covered most of the window anyway. What was slightly concerning was the deluge of rain that was getting blown into the room. It looked like they were going to either have to drag Kyler’s mattress away from the window or hope it could float.

  A series of glass shattering noises and loud bumps completely took everyone’s mind off the rain pouring into the room. It sounded like the Zombies were making a much more concerted effort to enter the home now. Best case that was due to the rain driving their need to nest. Worst case the Zombies were sensing there were people in the home. Kelly didn’t know how anything could have heard them over the howling storm outside, but she supposed anything was possible. Considering the circumstances, they needed to roll the dice and hope the Zombies were just looking for a place to crash for the night.

  Not wanting to make the call herself since doing that had gotten them into this situation in the first place, she grabbed the notebook off the bed and started writing in it. When she was done writing she handed the notebook to Randy. He looked like he was much more concerned with listening to the Zombies breaking into the front of the home than reading her scribbles. She held up the notebook in his face until he finally grabbed it with his good arm and scanned through what she’d written. He paused for a second when he was done reading then shrugged and nodded at her.

  They’d sit in the room unless the Zombies tried to get in. If the Zombies tried to get in, then they’d head out the window into the storm. They’d attempt to figure out some way to carry Kyler and sneak out without the Zombies hearing them. There were a lot of details to work through around the jumping out the window and running for their lives plan. Hopefully they wouldn’t need to use it.

  Sitting in the crowded wet room with the rain pounding down and the wind blowing the curtains around they all tried to figure out what was going on in the rest of the house. After the sounds of shattered glass and the thumping noises died down, they hadn’t heard anything else. Not that that meant anything considering the volume of the storm outside. A hundred Zombies could’ve climbed in through the broken window by now. They could be spread out in the living room having a dance party and they’d have no way of knowing. Kelly was tempted to just open up the bedroom door and start serial killing all the Zombies that they could find.

  She was pretty sure there were only a couple of Zombies out there. She had nothing to back up that gut feeling though. She didn’t want to risk her family’s life on a feeling. With the storm howling she sat in the slowly darkening room stroking Zoey’s hair. Deciding she wanted to be able to escape quickly if they needed to, she got up to move the dresser out of the way. She’d rather have the curtains blowing in and be a little more visible than have anything slowing them down if something started trying to beat its way into the room.

  She put her hands on the dresser to push it. A Zombie did something in the living room and there was a loud thump on the wall behind Ali. Ali screamed and jumped up wide-eyed. She realized immediately that she’d screwed up by screaming. She slapped her hands over her mouth and started silently crying. No one went to comfort her. Everyone was too busy holding their breaths in fear of what could come next.

  Seconds passed and nothing happened. Sitting up in bed Randy was starting to let himself hope they may still be safe. Not one to risk their lives on an assumption though he remained sitting upright and ready to roll. Kyler was still sleeping. At least they all hoped he was sleeping. He hadn’t moved for a while. The steady rise and fall of the sheet Caitlyn had tucked him in with the only indication he was still alive. Kelly walked carefully on the carpeted floor in her socks to give Ali a hug and try to comfort her. It wasn’t possible to be quiet all the time. All the girls had done it so much that they were starting to take for granted that the little girls were able to stay silent under extreme situations. Of course, there were going to be times when they messed up. It looked like this time Ali had messed up. She really needed to find them all some valium or something. She wondered If they made it in kid gummies.

  A guttural screech followed by the sound of fists slamming into the walls and door to the room interrupted Kelly on her way to Ali. More screeches erupted from the direction of the living room. The wall started shaking as the Zombies hammered through the drywall without bothering to try and figure out the door. Ali had both hands over her mouth trying not to scream. Zoey was up and running to her mom. Caitlyn had already picked up Doreen. With Doreen in one arm she ran to move the dresser out of the way. Randy hopped out of bed and helped Caitlyn fling the dresser to the side so they could all exit via the window. A hand came out of the drywall on the far side of the room. The ghostly hand covered in drywall dust clenching and unclenching as its owner struggled to push the rest of its body directly through the wall between the wooden studs.

  Kyler was sitting up now with his pistol in his hand coldly eyeing the wall the Zombie was beating its way through. Randy and Caitlyn fought with the window to try and get it open. One of the windowpanes was shattered but the pane itself wasn’t big enough for any of them to fit through. The room had descended into almost total darkness at this point. Needing to see what was going on Kelly pulled a glowstick out of her pocket. She snapped it open putting it on the top of the dresser. It didn’t provide a ton of light, but it illuminated enough that she could tell this was going to suck.

  Caitlyn pushed Randy out of the way long enough to unlock the window he was struggling to open. Once the window was unlocked it slid up smoothly. Some additional pieces of glass fell out of it to the floor. The sharp crack of the glass breaking spurring the Zombies outside to double their efforts to get in. The one Zombie now had two arms through the drywall. It looked like it was stuck on a stud and couldn’t get any farther. The wall was being beaten apart. The door wasn’t going to hold once the Zombies figured out that they could ram it versus just punching it or whatever they were doing right now.

  Kelly shoved her feet into her boots and handed Ali to Caitlyn. Caitlyn had gone through the window already and was standing in the rain. Myriah handed the little kids to Caitlyn then jumped out the window after them. Once all the girls were outside Kelly and Randy helped Kyler to his feet and basically threw him out the window. He tumbled out and lay on the ground dazed with pain. A loud screech in the room with them alerted Randy and Kelly that the Zombies were in. They spun away from the window with weapons raised screaming at the kids to run. They’d talked earlier about the two places they’d meet up afterwards if something happened. It was a talk Randy always insisted on. He was justifiably paranoid about losing them. It wasn’t like they could just track them down with some iPhone app in this new normal. If you wandered off and got yourself lost there was a real chance that you’d never see your family again. The odds had been a million to one for Kelly and Randy to have been able to reunite with the kids in the first place. He didn’t want to have to try their luck again.

  By the eerie green light radiating from the glow stick sitting on top of t
he dresser Randy saw a massively muscled naked Zombie shoving its way into the room through the door it’d knocked off the hinges. The Zombie saw them and screeched with raw animal ferocity in its desire to rend them both apart. It was swiping at them from where it stood behind the smaller dresser they’d put up against the door to the room. The Zombie reached down and hurled the dresser into the wall. Kelly and Randy opened fire.

  The massive monster kept screeching as its insides were scrambled by the rounds slamming into it. Kelly raised her aim and started blowing wads of its skull and brains out of its head. Randy was slamming in a fresh magazine as more Zombies followed in the path of the one now lying on the ground covered in blood.

  “Run!” Kelly screamed out the window when she glanced over her shoulder and saw Myriah standing in the rain staring at them through the window.

  They kept up a full-on onslaught on the Zombies attempting to rush in the room. The coordination challenged beasts taking turns being shot in the head as they rushed in tripping over the dead bodies of the ones who’d come before them. Kelly had been dead wrong on her count of two in the living room. When the gun smoke cleared there were seven fresh corpses in the small bedroom. That didn’t mean they had time to take a break though. All that gunfire was bound to attract some attention. Even with the thunderstorm raging around them.

  Kelly took a few seconds to lace up her boots then went out the window. Randy snagged the glow stick off the top of the dresser. He shoved it in his pocket and then being careful not to bang his injured shoulder into anything he followed his wife out into the storm.

  The rain was really coming down by then. They might as well have been standing in the shower with their clothes on. They were both soaked to the bone before they made it around the corner at the back of the house. On the lookout for any Zombies who may be rolling this way thanks to hearing all the gunshots they slow jogged towards the first rendezvous point. The screened in back porch of the model home had a big hole ripped in the side of it. Myriah was busy trying to break into the actual house. The rest of the crew was standing around miserably wishing the screened in porch had a roof.

  After a quick hug and a kiss for each of the kids Kelly squatted down beside Kyler. He was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall of the house.

  “Sounded like you and Randy went off on some Zombies back there.” He said quietly. The noise from the storm so loud that she had to put her ear near his mouth to hear what he was saying.

  “Yeah. We left a pile of dead ones. How’s your leg doing?” She asked.

  “Better than my head.” He answered.

  “What’s wrong with your head?” Kelly asked thinking she may have some Advil she could give him.

  “You threw me on it when you tossed me out the window. Not that I’m complaining about you saving my life and everything.” Kyler said smiling.

  Kelly gave him a quick eye roll and stood up to see if Randy and Myriah had made any progress on getting them into the model home. There was an extra-large sliding glass door that opened up to the porch they were all standing around on. A couple of peels of thunder echoed after lightning split the sky above them. The roaring of the thunder making her hopeful their gunshots may not have even registered with any of the local Zombie population.

  Caitlyn went to help with the door and Kelly settled down to watch the kids. She made sure she got a vantage point where she could keep a lookout for any Zombies. Not that she’d have any chance of seeing them before they saw her in this weather. She really hoped the inside of the model home had somewhere they could at least hang their clothes to dry. She caught herself sighing loudly at the thought of being able to pull toasty warm clothes out of a dryer. What an unimaginable luxury that’d be.

  “Checking the back of the house for any doors. Otherwise we wait for some thunder and break a window.” Randy said bending down to talk to her. Kelly nodded in agreement and watched as he unlocked the screen door and disappeared out into the darkness. After that last crazy battle with the Zombies back in that bedroom she was wondering how much ammunition they had left. She’d need to do an inventory if they got into the model home anytime soon. She’d already noticed that only Zoey was wearing her knapsack, so they’d left some stuff in the other house for sure. She wasn’t planning on going back for it at this point.

  “Daddy’s inside!” Doreen said a bit too loudly. She had a big grin on her face though, so Kelly let it slide. She looked towards the glass doors Doreen was pointing at and saw Randy making silly faces as he tried to figure out how to get the door unlocked from the inside. Being stared at by a half dozen soaking wet females desperate to get out of the rain didn’t seem to be making him any better at getting the door open. Finally figuring it out he bowed and waved them in. He’d sat the glowstick on the dining table to give everyone a little light to see by.

  Caitlyn and Kelly went back into the rain and got Kyler off the ground. Randy was pretty useless at picking up people with his shoulder as messed up as it was. Kyler was able to hobble along with them into the house as long as he could lean on the two of them. As soon as they got in Randy closed and locked the slider.

  “Let’s get him in bed and check this place out.” Randy said after doublechecking that he’d locked the door correctly.

  “Clear it first.” Kyler muttered. He directed Kelly and Caitlyn to set him down on the large sectional taking up the bulk of the living room. It didn’t look like the builders had spared any expense on having the model home staged. All of the furniture was expensive looking, high quality stuff. The house itself looked like it’d been locked up when the apocalypse started, and no one had messed with it since then.

  Despite how safe it looked they went through the motions of clearing it anyway. They’d established rules for what they did when they wanted to secure a house to spend the day or night in. Those rules were what kept them alive in this world. Tired, wet and completely miserable they took the time after checking every room for Zombies to pull the curtains closed and make sure every door and window was locked. Kelly picked out a room downstairs with bunkbeds in it. They dragged in a couple of mattresses from the other rooms until the whole floor was basically one big mattress.

  “I try to learn from my mistakes.” Kelly told Randy. He nodded in agreement. Splitting the group up could’ve had some real bad consequences for Kyler at the last house. They’d gotten lucky with how that all played out, but that luck may not hold out the next time.

  “I think we’re good here. I don’t think anything could’ve heard those gunshots and screeches over the sound of the storm outside. How’s our patient?” Randy asked. Kelly had removed the wet bandages from around Kyler’s wound and cleaned it up as best as she could. She was leaving it uncovered to air out for a little bit before reapplying bandages to it.

  “I gave him another Oxy. He was wincing every time I touched his leg. It’s red all around the bite. He’s already taking antibiotics like they’re multivitamins, but I gave him another one anyway. If we can stay in one place for at least a week I think he should heal up. He’s going to have one of the weirdest scars ever though. How’s your arm?” Kelly asked him. She was already tugging at his wet shirt to get him to take it off.

  “You trying to get me naked?” Randy asked with a lecherous smile.

  “Quit avoiding the question.” Kelly told him as she watched him pull away from her. She noted he pulled away in pain right when she tried to pull his t-shirt off over his wounded shoulder.

  “It only hurts when I move, or when I’m still.” Randy said with a smile before getting serious knowing she needed an honest assessment. “It feels like a hundred fire ants bit my shoulder and chest and they keep wandering around biting me more. That ointment you picked up helped some if you have some more of that.”

  Kelly began searching in her bag for the tube of Neosporin. They had the glowstick sitting up on the shelf in the corner of the room so they all could see. Zoey and Ali were up on the top bunk. They’d gotten
all excited about sleeping in bunk beds as soon as they saw the room. Caitlyn and Doreen were curled up on a mattress in one corner of the room while Myriah had collected a couple of comforters and nice pillows for herself from the master suite. They were both trying to fall asleep knowing they’d be woken up soon enough for their turn at sentry duty.

  Kelly found the tube of goop and began applying it to Randy’s skin after carefully pulling his bandages off. She tended to him while praying that nothing else would come up to chase them away anytime soon. They had to get some rest. They needed time to get well. They’d been going a million miles per hour since this had all started. All she was asking for now was a week of rest. A week of laying on a mattress that’d steadily get dirtier as they tromped all over the top of it. A week of dealing with finding food, water and places to put the human processed results of the food and water. She hoped that wasn’t too much to ask for because she was beyond tired. Looking around at how zonked everyone else was she sighed and left the room to take the first watch.

  Chapter 15: Heads Up!

  It wasn’t anything like he’d pictured it. Krantz had envisioned the smooth lines of the cloud city from Star Wars. Sleek bridges interconnecting the roofs of the tallest buildings in the city. Reality looked a lot more like the Ewok village after it’d been attacked. From where they hovered to take it all in it was obvious someone had gotten overly zealous with the explosives. In at least one case they’d managed to blow a hole through the roof. That must’ve taken a nice amount of dynamite to do.