Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  “Will do. We’ll be right back.” Kelly said. Realizing what she’d just said she hurriedly knocked on the wooden dining room table to avoid jinxing the whole operation.

  Kyler had already moved to his station by the front window. He was going to be monitoring the road outside and making sure nothing seemed odd. Myriah was stationed on the other side of the house where she’d been on the lookout for the last hour as well. Randy and Kelly did a quick tour of the house and got the go ahead from Myriah and Kyler. Neither of them had seen anything that looked like it might cause any trouble. Having taken every precaution that they could think of Kelly and Caitlyn slipped out the back door to walk through a couple of backyards to the last house on the street.

  They walked quickly through the darkness. Carefully watching their feet as they walked through the backyard of a house that’d still been under construction when this whole mess started. The backyard was covered in weeds. The weeds hid all the junk the builders had left lying around which included items like boards with nails sticking out of them and random holes in the ground. Not to mention the big chunks of concrete and stacks of bricks that liked to hide behind the tall weeds. It was like the inanimate had come to life long enough to arrange themselves to make it as annoying and painful as possible to traipse through the yards.

  Cussing under her breath Kelly kicked at a board that’d literally gotten nailed to the sole of her boot when she stepped on it. Luckily it hadn’t been long enough to go into her foot. It wasn’t like she could swing by the local minute clinic for a tetanus shot. She kicked the board off her foot onto the lawn of the house they’d been trying to get to. The weeds and grass were tall behind the home, but you could still see the line on the ground where the sod had been laid back before all this happened.

  The home they’d targeted had a huge patio in the back, but the buyers must not have wanted to shell out for the screen. The husband had probably told the wife they could pay to have it added later for less money. Kelly knew better than to fall for that line. The trip over to the house hadn’t taken more than fifteen minutes. It seemed like so much longer after they’d spent the past week in the comparative safety of the model home. It was amazing to Kelly how the world had changed so much that going to check out a house a few doors down required so much planning and preparation. It was amazing how much danger was associated with trying to find enough food for her family to survive.

  This home should be easy to get into at least. The back slider was completely open. That didn’t bode well for the previous owners. It also made it a possible nest for Zombies. Reasoning that if there’d been any Zombies hanging out in the house, they were probably among the seven bodies they’d left decaying in the other house on the block she boldly walked across the weed infested lawn to the patio. Caitlyn followed along behind her trying to look in every direction at once. Being out in the open was always horrifying. It was much better to have your back to a wall, so you only had to worry about something coming at you from one direction.

  As she followed her mom her mind flashed back to the Zombie that’d beaten its way through the wall to try and get at them at the other house. So much for being safe with your back against a wall she thought wryly as she caught up to her mom. Kelly was standing on the patio staring into the black hole where the slider used to be. The interior of the house was inky black. It was as if there was a line where the threshold of the door was. Caitlyn suddenly had a strong compulsion to get the hell out of there. She didn’t know what it was, but her gut was screaming at her that this was a bad idea. She took a couple of steps backwards even as Kelly took a couple of steps forward and was swallowed up by the darkness.

  A green glow broke the illusion of the slider being a black hole. Caitlyn gulped down her fear and followed her mom into the ravaged home. Inside the home it became obvious what’d happened to the former owners. Dried blood and scattered corpses told the story. Kelly wasn’t super interested in trying to Sherlock what’d happened here. They’d seen similar scenes in multiple houses tons of times. She was excited about the fact that it looked like someone had peppered the walls with a shotgun. She nudged Caitlyn and pointed out where one of the walls was filled with holes in the tight pattern of a shotgun blast.

  They searched around on the floor until they found the shotgun. It was an antique looking double barrel. Kelly didn’t care how antique it was as long as it worked. She poked at the leathery skin covered skeleton near where the shotgun had been lying. The body had been gnawed on by Zombies, wild animals and bugs before the final scraps were left to rot inside the house. Caitlyn was turning a paler shade of white than normal. She still wasn’t comfortable being in a room full of dead bodies. She should be working on spring break plans right now not searching a skeletons pockets for shotgun shells while trying to ignore the rotted smell of flesh wafting off the moldy carpet.

  They found a box of shells on the bed in the master bedroom next to the tiny mummified remains of what could’ve been twins. It was impossible to tell for sure now, but they were about the same size. Someone had arranged their bodies on the bed and linked their hands together. A profound sadness threatened to overwhelm Kelly at the sight of the small bodies. She took the box of shells and quietly exited the room shutting the door tight behind her.

  The house was the same model as the one they were staying in which gave them a good idea of where to check for food. The pantry was fully stocked. They took turns shoving cans of food into each other’s packs. There was more than enough for them to be able to stay in the other house for at least another week. Whoever these people had been they’d definitely been huge fans of a well-stocked pantry. It looked like they didn’t buy anything unless they could get it in bulk.

  Weighted down with canned food and carrying the old shotgun Kelly decided to walk back to the house along the road instead of trying to cut through the back yards again. There was too much risk of stepping on a nail or tripping in a hole while carrying all the supplies. They’d overloaded their packs enough where if they fell then they could get seriously hurt. The road had a nice big sidewalk alongside it that they used to hurry back to the model home. Once there they circled around to the back and found Randy waiting for them.

  “Why’d you guys come back that way? Something go wrong?” He asked taking the shotgun from Kelly and trying to juggle an enormous jar of pickles away from Caitlyn.

  “Just seemed easier than trying to carry all this crap through the bushes and broken boards.” Kelly answered.

  “Kyler had you in his sights before he figured out you weren’t Zombies or Brotherhood walking along the sidewalk. You freaked him out pretty good.” Randy said as Kyler hobbled up to the back door and smiled at them.

  “I was hoping you guys would bring back enough pickles for us to fill a bathtub.” He said dryly.

  “Thanks for not shooting us.” Caitlyn joked as they all went inside and closed the slider behind them. They were all feeling pretty giddy at the thought of all the food they now had at their disposal. They’d been getting by on some pretty thin rations lately.

  To celebrate the lucky turn of events they threw a pickle party before bed. Kelly had each person say something they were thankful for before they were allowed to take a bite out of their pickle. This led to some laughter and tears before everyone turned in. Kelly snuggled up to Randy after sending Myriah out into the living room to stand the first watch. She was thinking about how wonderful the night had turned out when Myriah came back into the room and knelt down beside her.

  “There’s a Zombie standing on the patio.” She whispered frantically.

  Chapter 17: The Creep

  “Is it just the one Zombie?” Randy asked.

  “I only saw one of them.” Myriah said. “I didn’t hang out trying to see if there were any more though. I was out in the hall and sat down to look out the front window. When I turned around, I saw it standing on the porch. It must’ve creeped in while I was looking out the front window. I snuck back in
here as fast as I could without making any noise.”

  Kelly got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. They must’ve left the verticals open when they came back from gathering the supplies. Or, maybe they’d just celebrated the damned pickles too loudly. They’d done something that had attracted a Zombie to wander up and stand on the back porch. Now they had to figure out a way to get rid of it. She knew they couldn’t afford to keep screwing up like that. She was on a bad roll lately.

  “Maybe it’ll just leave.” Myriah volunteered doubtfully. Unless there was another human sounding noise from somewhere the Zombie would stand on the back porch staring at the blinds for the foreseeable future.

  “I could sneak out the window and go make some noise in the front of the house then dive back in the window when it went to check out the noise.” Kelly said. She was thinking that if they could lure it off the porch it’d get confused and wander away.

  “But then where would it go?” Randy asked. “I think we need to kill it. I don’t really want to have to wonder where the hell the damned thing decides to bed down at night. If we lose track of it, we’re pretty much stuck in this house until we’re ready to leave.”

  That was a true statement as well. If they lost track of the Zombie, they risked getting attacked by it every time they went outside. On top of the very real risk of being attacked was the fact that if it saw them before they saw it the screeching would attract other Zombies. For all they knew there was a whole herd of Zombies hanging out in the woods nearby just waiting to hear a screech.

  “How do we kill it quietly?” Kyler had joined in the conversation. He’d managed to crawl over to them on the mattress covered floor. It was risky for any of them to walk in the room due to the plethora of trip hazards. His question pretty much summed up their dilemma. They could open the slider and whack it in the head with an ax pretty quickly. The problem was it wouldn’t necessarily be fast enough to keep the Zombie from screeching loud enough to alert every other Zombie in the area that this house had some uninfected humans hanging out just waiting to be mauled.

  They whispered their way through a variety of scenarios. They couldn’t sneak up on it from behind because it was standing in the screened in porch. They couldn’t just pop open the door and kill it because it’d start screaming it’s head off. They talked about opening the door and letting it wander in then killing it when it stepped inside the house. That idea seemed to have the most merit, but Kelly wasn’t a fan. There was still the risk of it screaming plus then they’d have a dead body in this otherwise pristine model home. She liked the idea of living in a house no one had ever been murdered in. After talking through ideas that kept getting more far-fetched Kelly finally relented and agreed to go with the trap it inside and kill it quietly plan.

  Kelly went with Myriah to check out where the Zombie was standing at now on the porch. Kyler and Caitlyn were debating the best hand weapons to take out the Zombie quickly and quietly when Myriah came back in the room.

  “It’s gone.” She said simply.

  That threw a wrinkle in the plan. They’d all assumed they had plenty of time to come up with a way to kill the Zombie. The Zombie had come into the back porch via the ripped portion of the screen. To their minds that put the Zombie in a lobster in the lobster trap kind of scenario. It’d have to be a pretty bright Zombie to figure out how to get out of the porch it’d managed to get itself into. Evidently it was a scholar among Zombies. Kelly showed up in the room about ten minutes later.

  “I peeked out the curtains around the house, but I didn’t see it anywhere. So now what?” She asked.

  “We need to go all hands to battle stations and wait until one of us sees it. Once we know where it is again, we need to keep eyes on it this time, so we don’t lose it again. Once we know where it wandered off to, we can figure out how to kill it.” Randy said standing up and stretching. It was going to be a long night of staring out a narrow strip of window into the murky darkness trying to spot the person they needed to quietly murder. Just another Tuesday at home with the family during the apocalypse.

  Ten minutes later they were stationed at their windows staring out into the dimly lit areas they were each covering. Kelly had gone up into the loft to look out that window. It provided the best vantage point to observe the area in front of the house as well as most of the street. It was where they each spent a good bit of their time when they were standing watch. Randy was on the corner of the home alternating between looking out over the back porch and checking out the alley on the side of the home. Caitlyn was covering the opposite side of the house from Randy along with Kyler. Myriah was in charge of keeping the littles quiet and secure.

  They sat in their positions staring out at the bleak landscape around them. The slight illumination cast from the moon helping them see. If there’d been any clouds in the sky, then they could’ve probably given up. It would’ve been too dark to see anything until morning. Randy alternated between peeking between the verticals covering the back porch and looking out the side of the curtain covering the window on the side of the home. The window on the side faced the alleyway between the model home and the next home that’d been under construction. That gave him a great view of the partially stacked bricks the workers would never be back to finish.

  The bricks got him to thinking about all the issues they’d had getting their home built. While alternating between his two lookout posts he recalled how he’d called the builder because there were holes in the brick. He’d ripped the guy apart on the phone then sat there filled with righteous anger waiting for the guy to show up so her could show him the holes. He’d felt like a three-year-old when the builder explained the purpose of the holes was to let the water drain out so that it didn’t build up inside the walls and cause mold. That was evidently a standard feature that everyone in the world had known about except him. He’d been forced to swallow his righteous anger as the builder emasculated him in front of his grinning wife. Thinking about it now he still felt a bit embarrassed by the whole experience.

  He shifted the curtain to the side slightly and stuck his face up to that window again to see if he could see anything. He also wanted to see if he could make out the ‘weep holes’ on the bricks being laid on the wall opposite him. He couldn’t get the right angle to see out the window, so he shifted around a little bit more trying to figure out what was blocking his visibility. He reached over and shifted the blinds a little bit to see if that helped. He was thinking he’d moved something around the last time he looked out the window.

  He could almost make out his reflection in the window. His reflection grimaced and started screeching and pawing at the window. Randy dropped a couple of ‘F’ bombs as he jumped back from the window trying to get his hands on his weapons. His legs hit the chair by the dining room table. He went over backwards with his feet suddenly filling the airspace where his head had been a second earlier. The chair he’d tripped on skittering across the floor to smash into the wall as his head slammed painfully into the floor. He lay there dazed as Kelly and Caitlyn appeared in the room to see what was going on.

  “We have to kill it.” Kyler said hobbling in after Kelly and Caitlyn.

  “Let’s go with letting it in the house and whacking it in the head a few times. Kyler, you want to let it in. Caitlyn and I can take care of beating it to death.” Kelly said.

  Kyler looked like he was going to say that should be his job but then realized that he was still on the injured list. He couldn’t pitch Randy to do the killing either since Randy was currently struggling to stand up straight after the massive hit he’d just taken to his cranium. The damned Zombie was pounding on the window and screeching its head off. There was no more time to plan. They needed to shut it up now before it attracted more monsters to the party. Kyler flung the sliding door open.

  The Zombie continued to paw at the side window screeching it’s head off.

  “Here Zombie! Zombie dude!” Kyler called out in frustration trying to pitch his voic
e high enough for the Zombie to hear without being loud enough for his voice to carry farther into the night. Not that it probably mattered with Sir Screeches A Lot insanely attacking the window a few feet away. He started to say something else when the Zombie finally figured out someone was trying to get its attention.

  The Zombie disappeared out of the side window and reappeared on the outside of the screen surrounding the patio. It started screeching again when Kelly leaned out far enough to catch its eye. She’d pulled Kyler back inside and sent him to stand in the corner. It made sense considering he was hobbling around on a seriously injured leg. He wouldn’t be able to juke and jive too efficiently if the Zombie came straight at him. He still didn’t like that he was being sidelined. He wasn’t used to sitting back and letting other people fight for him.

  Kelly ducked back in positioning herself on the other side of the open slider from Caitlyn. She had had her hatchets in hand while Caitlyn was once again sporting her dad’s Lord of the Rings replica ax. It was the one that he’d snagged in the home of a Zombie they’d watched tumble down a flight of stairs in full plate armor. She gritted her teeth and waited for the Zombie to come storming into the house screaming for blood.

  A few minutes later they could still hear the Zombie screeching outside but it hadn’t gotten any closer to the door. Kelly snuck a quick look out into the darkness and saw the Zombie running back and forth along the screened in porch. It tried getting in every once in a while, but kept getting blocked by the screen. It was somehow managing to miss the huge slash in the screen that it’d come in through originally. Kelly sighed. She was getting more annoyed than terrified by this Zombie. She was really starting to look forward to whacking on it with her hatchets.