by B. T. Wright
Jake spun around a couple of times, axe at the ready, feeling like at any second one more of those things would grab him. But for the moment, he was alone at the side of the house. His arm was wet with blood, and his lungs were still playing catch-up after the fall from the roof.
A whisper came from above and Jake nearly jumped out of his skin.
“You okay down there, son?”
It was Tom.
Jake let out a sigh of relief. He looked up at the roof and could barely make out Tom’s figure against the clouded night sky. “I’m fine, just be ready. I’m going for the RV now.”
“Copy that.”
The thought of the helicopter leaving Cincinnati without them flashed in his mind. That’s all he needed to sprint forward, then make a left toward the RV that was about four houses down. He stayed close to the front of the neighboring house, as far away from the road as he could. There were two infected walking lazily toward his home. They seemed not to notice him. He glanced back over his shoulder. No infected on his heels. The clouds had cleared overhead, and the moon rested behind Tom’s silhouette that stood watch on the slanted roof. He could just make out a head protruding from the dormer window. Jess.
Jake remained in the shadow of the neighboring homes until he drew parallel to the RV across the street. He wasn’t a religious man, but before he crossed the road, he sent up a silent prayer to anyone who might be listening that the RV would please start. There was no backup plan. This was it.
He waited for the last of the infected moving in the road to pass, then darted across the street. He made it to the RV’s door. Though there wasn’t much light, it was clear that it must have been brand new. If he could get this thing to run, they’d hit the jackpot. Another silent prayer passed his mind as he placed his hand on the door handle and gave it a tug. He then slowly lowered his forehead to the driver’s-side window in disappointment.
The door was locked.
15
Jake walked around to the front of the RV and crouched for cover so he could take a minute to think. He couldn’t let the locked door stop him. This was really the only way all of them could make it out of the neighborhood. Sure, he could take the time to check every large SUV on the block, but there weren’t that many to begin with, and he was already here. He looked over his shoulder at the house. The keys would have to be inside there somewhere. The problem was, something else might be too. Either way he had no choice; he had to get the keys.
Jake walked around the back of the house, peeking around the corner to make sure it was clear. He moved on when he didn’t see any infected lingering there. Maybe he just had never noticed, or maybe it was because no one could operate cars anymore, but the night was intensely quiet. The only thing he could hear was the faint moans of the infected, most likely still trying to climb into his house.
He walked up the back deck and tested the door. It was locked. He was going to have to break the glass to get in. He gave the backyard a scan. There was no one around. Just an empty swing set. The breeze was blowing one of the swings, creepiness at its best. Jake took a step back from the door, raised his right leg, and kicked his boot through the door’s window right beside the handle. It made a decent crash, but for as still as the night was, it could have been worse. He reached his hand inside, turned the lock, and opened the door. He was in the kitchen. There were no lights on, but the moon provided enough white glow to see his surroundings. In this room, at least.
He started down the hall in front of him. The light was fading the deeper he moved into the house. There was a table about halfway down, and he could just make out the drawers on its side. As he reached for the first knob, once again sending up some more prayers, he froze when he noticed the framed photo in front of him. He didn’t know why, but he reached for it, picking it up and turning it until the light behind him caught it just right so he could see. In the photo there was a man and a woman along with their daughter. The daughter was Amy. And her story of how she had been trapped in the house with her parents flashed in his mind, just as something flashed in his vision near the front door.
Jake set down the frame, readied his axe, and went into a crouch. His first thought was that his mind was playing tricks on him. He couldn’t have seen something at the end of the hallway, right? Impossible. If one of Amy’s infected parents had been there, they would already have lunged at him. Wouldn’t they?
Jake, something’s not right! Emily’s words came to him in the silence of the hallway. These . . . infected . . . they’re changing. Evolving. This is more than just a virus.
Jake scanned toward the front door, then to the back. The floor below him was carpeted. So it was possible something had moved without him hearing. Evolving. Emily had said they were evolving. He hadn’t seen that at his house, but maybe it has something to do with how long they’d been infected. Maybe the more time under whatever spell had taken them, the more they became aware as whatever kind of being they are now. Maybe they’d become used to their host and were starting to put things together. His mind was going in circles. It didn’t matter if they were evolving or not; he had to find the keys to the RV and get the hell out of there.
A creaking sound came from the kitchen behind him. A pang of fear moved in Jake’s stomach. Something was in there with him. And whoever––or whatever––they were, they were trying to be quiet. Jake squeezed the handle on his axe and rotated toward the sound. His blood ran cold when a figure moved in front of the moonlit window. A silhouette of a man.
Amy’s dad.
It let out a terrible screeching sound and rushed toward him. Jake maintained his crouched position and held his ground, held the axe’s blade staunchly in front of him, and let it run right into him. When he felt the infected thump into the blade, he stood, kicked it backward, brought the axe overhead, and just when it started for him again, he slammed it down on the top of its head. The screeching stopped and it collapsed to the ground. He went to pull the axe free, but on the first tug, it stayed fixed in the skull.
Thump thump thump thump thump.
Footsteps came running up behind him and all he had time to do was put up his hands in defense before what used to be Amy’s mom was on him. Her momentum pushed him down, slamming onto his back, barely able to get her by her throat with his left hand before her teeth sank into his face. The glow from the window reflected in her black marble eyes. She kept savagely lunging for him with no other goal but to make sure he no longer drew breath. As he held her off, it occurred to him that she had purposely waited to come after him. They had somehow coordinated a trap. The dad was the distraction and the mother was to come in from behind for the kill. He shuddered as he wrapped his legs around her waist, helping to hold her in place. He slid his free hand down to his holster. He undid the strap, pulled the Beretta, and placed the tip of the silencer under her chin.
As he squeezed his finger her demeanor shifted.
“Wait.”
But it was too late, he had already put a bullet in her head. He pushed her body off of him with his legs and shuffled back to the back door. Every hair on his body stood on end. Did he really hear what he thought he heard? Or was his mind playing tricks on him? Was it just a hiss that sounded like the word wait? It had to have been. These things had made no effort to talk up to that point.
These . . . infected . . . They’re changing. Evolving. This is more than just a virus.
If Amy’s mother’s demeanor hadn’t changed—softened—just before he heard it, he would have dismissed it entirely. But it did shift. And Emily’s words continued to echo in his mind as he heard the word “wait” over and over in his mind. If these things were evolving somehow, getting smarter, adapting, why wouldn’t they be able to pull the rope at his house to open the attic door?
16
Jake holstered his pistol and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. One ring later Jess answered the phone.
“You’re okay! Where did you go?”
“The RV was loc
ked so I had to go inside the house to find the keys. How are things there?”
“Okay for now, but they know we’re up here. They’re scratching at the attic door.”
“It probably won’t be long before they pull the door down, so make sure someone is watching it with a gun.”
“Pull the door down?” Jess’s tone was a mixture of fear and shock. “What do you mean pull the door down? How would they be able to do that?”
“I’ll explain in a bit. Just be prepared. Jess, I’m in Amy’s house.”
“How do you know?”
“Pictures. And I just killed her parents.”
“Good God, Jake. This feels like a bad nightmare. How is any of this actually possible?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake was quiet for a moment. The house was quiet too. But his house was in chaos, and they needed to move.
“Listen, I need you to ask Amy where her parents keep the keys to the RV so we can get out of here.”
“Hold on.”
While Jake waited, he thought he heard something at the other end of the house. He tuned his ears, waiting for another sound.
“On the nightstand in their bedroom. Far right side of the house upstairs. Hold on, she’s saying something else . . .”
Thump thump thump thump thump thump.
Jake pulled his pistol out when he saw a small figure running toward him in the hallway.
“Jake, she said they could also be in the basement on her grandmother’s bookshelf. Her grandmother is in the house!”
Jake didn’t hear Jess’s last sentence. He was pulling the Beretta’s trigger, sending a bullet through Grandma’s forehead. Her body skidded face down to a halt at his feet.
“Jake! Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.” Jake holstered his gun. “Anyone else running around here I should know about?”
A pause.
“She said no. You scared me there.”
“Get everyone ready on the roof. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Be careful.”
Jake put away the phone, walked down the hallway, then up the stairs. It was darker on the second level. He pulled his phone out and used it as a flashlight since his actual flashlight was with his go bag. Before he went any farther, he stopped and Googled directions to the University of Cincinnati, took a screenshot of the turn by turn text and messaged it to Jess. If he didn’t make it back to them, they needed to know how to get there. And Jake couldn’t help but feel like their cell phones wouldn’t be lasting much longer.
Jake turned his phone back into a flashlight and turned right––a bedroom door was open there. He walked inside and checked the nightstand, and in a decorative bowl sat two sets of keys. He took them both. He gave the room a once over with the phone’s light. House shoes on the floor by the bed. Clothes laid out above it, a man’s, probably what Amy’s dad would have worn to work––if of course he hadn’t turned into some sort of monster. The room screamed normal. Something Jake had always run from since his “normal” parents had died in such an abnormal way. It was the reason he joined the Army. Ordinary had scared him because “ordinary” had gotten his parents killed. Ironically, all he could wish for now was that things went back to normal. But he knew his wish of avoiding normalcy had been forever granted by the gods at that point. He had a feeling that life was going to be anything but ordinary from then on. However long the rest of his life lasted.
He noticed an iPod and headphones sitting on the opposite nightstand. He walked over and pocketed them, figuring Amy might a way to escape while all of them were discussing the gruesome details of this misadventure to her home. And maybe it would also be an escape for her while they were plotting the grim road ahead.
Jake left the bedroom, descended the stairs, and checked the window by the front door. He didn’t see any movement, so he opened the door and ran for the RV, pushing the unlock button and jumping inside. Before he started it up he walked back through the cabin. It was an extremely nice RV. They must have been planning a long road trip, because no expense had been spared. There was a mini kitchen, complete with a refrigerator where they could keep the Beritrix cold. A sitting area around a table with a couch across from it. And he found two bunk beds in the hallway that lead to what he assumed would be called the master suite and the adjacent bathroom. They’d truly hit the jackpot.
He noticed a skylight in the roof overhead. He pulled the latch and it opened outward. Perfect for getting everyone into the RV after jumping there from the roof. With no more time to spare he rushed back to the driver’s seat, inserted the key, turned it, and the powerful engine roared to life. He pulled his phone and called Jess.
“Jake, Tom has already shot three of them. You were right, they opened the attic door! How did they know how to do that?”
Jess was starting to panic.
“Jess! Get everyone to the roof with all of our things. Tell Tom to shoot the gas tank. When it blows I’ll be coming in hot. So be ready!”
He ended the call, put the RV in reverse, and backed out of the driveway. He watched as a figure walked out onto the roof from the dormer window on his house. Tom. Below him the moon showed a crowd of infected still pushing inside the house. He cracked the window and could hear shotgun blasts. Jess and Tyler fighting off the infected from entering the attic. If Tom didn’t blow the SUV, it was going to be almost impossible to—
Fire rocketed toward the sky down the block as the first SUV blew, then a second explosion sounded as the second SUV went up in flames. Jake mashed the gas pedal to the floor and the RV lurched forward. The crowd of infected shifted focus and began to move toward the burning vehicles. The plan had worked.
Jake turned right and rolled through the front yard, smashing a couple of infected before slamming on the brakes just before the nose of the RV hit the wall of the house. He put it in park, ran for the skylight and pulled himself up and out to the RV’s roof. Tom tossed him his go bag and his AR-15. Amy came head-first out of the window and staggered on the slanted roof. Tom took her arm at the elbow and helped her to the edge of the roof. Below Jake, two infected began beating on the passenger side door of the RV. The explosion had garnered a lot of attention, but not every infected had moved toward it. Especially the ones in the house. Two more shotgun blasts rang out from the attic. Jake moved toward the edge of the roof, reached up and took Amy in his arms. As he walked her over to the skylight he reached in his pocket and handed her the iPod.
“Here, go back to the back of the RV into the bedroom, shut the door, and put on your favorite music. Turn it up loud. But if you do hear something, don’t worry about. I’ll take care of it, okay?”
Jake began lowering her into the RV.
Amy looked at him, tears in her eyes. “Did you see my mom and dad?”
Jake didn’t have time to think about it, so he lied. “No. They must have gotten out of the house before I got there.”
Amy nodded. Jake lowered her and let go of her hands. “Do what I said okay? I’m going to get us out of here.”
The two infected beating on the passenger side door had become six. The infected that couldn’t get out through the attic were coming back out of the house and stopping at the RV. Two more came running out of the front door.
“We’ve got to go, Tom. Get them out of there!”
“Jake!”
Jess shouted his name from inside the attic. Her voice was filled with panic. Jake knew without seeing that infected had made it into the attic. They were about to be overrun.
17
Jake ran and jumped up on the roof, passed Tom, and moved quickly through the window. He was right. Tyler was holding his shotgun horizontally, pushing back a large male infected, desperately trying to keep them from coming in. Before Jake could step in, the infected forced Tyler backward, bulldozing him into the table that held the candle. It fell, and the flannel blankets below instantly went up in flames.
“Jake!” Jess screamed once again.
Jake raised the butt of his gun and slammed it down on the head of the infected man that was pushing at Tyler. He turned the gun in his hands, pointed it down the attic stairs, and began firing rounds at the half dozen waiting to get in. The shots were near deafening in that small space. Jake could feel the heat from the fire on his back. They had to go.
Two more gunshots filled the room. Jake looked over his shoulder and Jess had shot the infected man that Jake had bashed to free Tyler.
“Let’s go!” Jess shouted.
Jake turned and waved Tyler toward the window. The back wall was consumed with fire. Jake watched as Jess went through the window and he ran over and followed Tyler out. As soon as Tyler’s feet hit the shingles, he lost his footing and began to slide toward the edge.
“Help!” Tyler screamed.
Jake jumped out through the window and swiped for Tyler’s hand, but he missed and Tyler kept sliding toward the edge. He was going over. And Jake knew the fall was the least of the worry, because he knew there were several infected waiting below.
“Tyler!”
Jess tried for the back of his shirt, but it was too late. Tyler’s feet went over the edge, but just before he fell into the crowd of flesh eaters below him, Tom was able to hook his arm under Tyler’s right armpit and for a moment had him stopped, dangling over the edge at the waist.
“I can’t hold him!” Tom shouted.
Jake got up from his belly and slid feet first to Tom, digging his heels into the shingles and grabbing him by his left forearm.
