“Ah, yeah, I see your point.” He almost went on about how that first one tricked him into thinking she'd kissed him but decided to never speak of it to anyone.
If they had teeth, that fake kiss would have killed me.
That brought him back to the moment. No matter who was driving up, it was a way out. Even though most of the zombies had walked toward the river, and away from the house, some still shuffled their feet on the rocky parking area below. To get to the car they had to get off the roof. To do that, they had to face the baby zombies in one room or Wilder's huge plague-stricken body in the other.
Victoria had the small shotgun with plenty of ammo, so they could reasonably enter either room and kill whatever was inside, but it was revolting to think of shooting the preemie zombies no matter what they were now.
“We'll go through Wilder's room,” he said flatly. He could almost sense the reluctance of the girls, but luckily Victoria didn't share their sense of misfortune.
“I'm on it.” Victoria didn't even try to open the window. She smashed the glass with the butt of her wooden shotgun and then hopped through.
“After you,” he said, quite impressed at her initiative.
Liam watched as she crouched through the window and stepped down. He couldn't help but notice the bling on the back pockets of her jeans because the tiny stones reflected in the rays of his flashlight.
A few seconds went by before the shotgun went off inside the room. Little Susan smashed her hands over her ears because of the noise.
“It's all right,” he said to the girl even if he wasn't sure that was true.
Victoria's flashlight beam flitted from wall to wall and wouldn't focus on any one thing, but there was lots of movement. He waved his light inside to try to figure out what was happening.
“You need help?” he asked as he put one foot in the window. There was no doubt he would go in there and help his girlfriend, but she was the one with the gun and he didn't want to get in her way.
She ran up to him screaming, but she wasn't alone.
Wilder had somehow grabbed Victoria and had her in a bear hug as they headed right for the window frame.
“Help!” Victoria yelped a fraction of a second before impact.
“Aw crap!” he responded as he jumped away from the window. It looked like they were both going to come barreling out of the rectangular frame, but Wilder's shoulder impacted the side with a crack. The two of them bounced and went back inside the room.
Liam's eyes double-blinked as he tried to understand her situation.
“Liam,” Victoria cried out in a winded voice.
The big man had Victoria and her shotgun trapped in his arms. It was like he snapped her off the ground and carried her around like his toy. Given his evil intents as a living person, Liam wondered if that made him an even worse specimen as a zombie. He thought of a zombie book that was based around the Rapture. Good people went on living normally, but bad people's souls were destroyed, and their bodies morphed into zombies. Naturally, there were far more zombies than those left behind.
He tried to use zombie books to give him hints on how to handle them in real life, but that moment of reflection offered him no advice. He figured the only way to help his girlfriend was to get inside the bear cage and do what he could. Wilder was now a mortal danger, whether he'd been evil or not.
“I'm coming,” he advised Victoria.
Liam looked at Sabella's girls and then hopped in through the damaged window frame. He kept his light on Wilder but that became difficult as the huge man spun around and continued to carry Victoria from one wall to the next.
“Choking!” Victoria wheezed.
There was nothing left in the room which served as a potential weapon. When Wilder used this room, he seemed to want it devoid of anything that could hurt him. Liam's only chance was to wrangle the shotgun from him and turn the zombie's face into spaghetti.
Liam's heart rate went up Mt. Everest as he got closer. He only made one quick swipe for the gun before being pushed over by the flailing bodies.
“Crap on a stick!” he shouted.
Victoria made a few more wheezing sounds, but it was totally obvious what Wilder was doing to her.
Is he a new kind of zombie?
Zombies had abilities largely dependent on what city they came from. Those from Chicago liked to climb. Kansas City zombies had the ability to cause momentary illusions. Some zombies could swim. Now he was seeing a brand-new attack in the form of the bear hug. Such an attack would leave a helpless, dying young woman ripe for stealing her blood as the parting shot.
He thought of Sabella's dagger, her big shotgun, and Wilder's empty handgun. So many weapons but none were right there with him. Even the canister of propane would have been useful to crush a skull here.
Wilder continued to move around the room like a pinball trapped between four bumpers.
Liam took a deep breath, still unsure what he was going to do. It crossed his mind to jump onto Wilder's back and try to hurt or somehow distract him, but Victoria needed help immediately.
He did the first thing that crossed his mind.
“God help me, this is stupid.”
His heart was beating four hundred miles an hour, but he lined up where Wilder was heading and then he threw himself toward the giant's feet. He slammed onto the wooden floor just ahead of the guy's bare foot and hoped he planned it all correctly.
Wilder's other foot kicked Liam in the rib cage but he tried to keep still so he wouldn't be dragged along. That seemed to take the zombie by surprise, and Wilder stumbled forward. A living person might have been able to compensate for the obstruction and remain upright, but zombie Wilder carried Victoria in his arms and he was unable to distribute his weight. He sounded angry as he fell forward.
Liam had no time to plan where Victoria was going to end up when the mountain of a man came crashing down, but between the darkness, the flashlight beam, and random chance, there was probably no way to figure it out.
Wilder fell over and Victoria let out a squeal as she tumbled to the floor.
He ignored his bruised ribs and made it to his knees, so he could shine the light toward her. Wilder and Victoria were still glued together despite lying sideways on the floor.
“Come on,” he begged.
“Sh-gunnn,” Victoria wheezed as if using the last of her breath.
She cradled the shotgun in her arms because that's where it was when Wilder got her, but it stuck out a lot more than it did before she fell, and the barrel pointed right at him. His insides were already shifting with anxiety, but he almost lost his bladder at how dangerous the room had become.
“I got it,” he said to her as he reached for the metal barrel and pulled.
It wouldn't budge.
Either Wilder had a grip on it, or Victoria still held it herself.
“Victoria, you have to let go of the gun.”
He tested it again, but still it was stuck in between Victoria and the zombie.
What if she pulls the trigger?
“Victoria! Let go!”
He yanked harder and she croaked words he couldn't understand. This time the gun started to move.
“That's it. Almost free.” He spoke with grim determination because she was almost passed out.
He yanked as hard as he was able and drew the gun from its wedged position. It squirted out as if Wilder had let it go, and he fell backward with the gun.
Once he was sure he had it in his possession he got to his feet, wiped the sweat out of his eyes, then tried to hold the flashlight and the gun at the same time. Victoria's light had fallen and rolled against the mattress on the floor, doing them no good. His own light illuminated the pair on the floor, but as he held the shotgun at the ready he realized it was going to be impossible to fire it and not hit his girlfriend.
While he managed to steal the shotgun from Wilder's bear hug, he wasn't letting up on Victoria in the least. If anything, he seemed to have a tighter grip on
her as they both lay side to side because she'd stopped struggling.
“Help.” Victoria barely whispered.
He recalled a move Officer Jones had shown him early on during the disaster.
Liam swallowed hard and then ran behind Wilder with the shotgun and light. When he reached the man's upper back he set the light on the floor and tried to angle it at Wilder's head.
He needed both hands free for what he intended to do next.
4
Liam raised the shotgun over his head, lined up Wilder's thinning scalp, and swung down with every ounce of his strength. In that fatal second, he had time to wonder if he would miss and end up hitting the girl he loved more than anything, but the butt of the stock cracked into the skull of the huge man before he could change his mind.
Wilder froze for a second and then kept shaking Victoria, kind of like a skip in a record, but Liam hefted the gun once more and brought it down with all his remaining strength to another satisfying crack. That stopped Wilder completely.
It was almost too grisly to scrutinize, so he had to keep it in his peripheral vision. Lots of black, oily, liquid drained onto the floor, which mixed with the fountains of blood already on Wilder's clothes as well as the floor below him. Most of that originated from his first death at the hands of Leah.
Victoria pulled herself free of the big arms as if taking off a winter coat. She rolled over on her stomach and took some gigantic breaths. Liam stood there catching his own breath after his exertion but stepped over the body to be closer to the beautiful woman he saved.
“Thank you,” she said into the floor.
“We should have kept track,” he said before needing to take a huge breath, “how many times we've saved each other since we met.”
She didn't reply for twenty or thirty seconds, but then Victoria rolled again so she could look up at him. Her smile was like looking at the sunrise after a long night.
“I probably saved you more times,” she said with obvious effort.
They both laughed a little at the exaggeration. The reality was that it was probably closer to fifty-fifty.
Liam helped Victoria to a sitting position. He kept one hand on her back to steady her and used the other to brush her arm and provide comfort.
“That was close,” she whispered.
“I'll say. I wanted to shoot him, but I figured I'd hit you.”
“It was totally my fault. My first shot was a total miss. Can you believe that? I pulled the trigger on my second shot figuring there was no way I could miss twice, and I think I did make contact, but that one didn't bring him down, either. He was already so bloody I couldn't tell where I got him, but before I could let off a third shot he got me in his arms.” She coughed as she tried to laugh.
“There's a lesson there,” Liam said with good humor.
“Don't stop until the zombie is dead on the ground,” she replied.
“Yeah, that's what I was going to say. It's called a double tap in zombie literature.”
“You two alright?” Leah finally asked through the window. Susan wasn't visible, but he heard her sobbing from nearby.
“Yeah, just a minute,” he replied.
“The truck is almost here,” Leah added. “Can we get out that way?”
Part of him wanted to avoid ever coming back into this room, or letting the youngest girls see what a mess it had become, but the other room was even worse. He couldn't imagine how messed up he'd be if he had to crush all those premature zombies. Even within sight of the goo seeping from Wilder, he got the willies remembering the sensation of being gummed by the toothless monster on the roof.
“Yes, just hurry. Bring in the bags but don't look at anything in here if you can help it.” Liam still didn't look directly at Wilder's head but picked up the shotgun and brushed the bloody stock onto the mattress.
“You gonna be okay?” he asked her.
Her breathing was getting back to normal, but her voice was still shaky and weak. “I think so. I'm ready to leave, though, if that's the question.”
He laughed. “Everywhere we go is a disappointment. One of these days we're going to end up somewhere nice. I promise.”
Liam hopped to his feet and held out his hands. The last nice place he could clearly remember was Victoria's dorm room. It was the second time tonight he'd thought about it, and not just because he and Victoria spent time together. In addition to providing his most recent restful night of sleep, the place was famous for clean sheets, lack of any blood or guts on the floor, and zero point zero zombies to worry about.
She got to her feet as the others came in through the busted-out window.
“Hang on a sec,” he said as he turned the door handle and opened the door. He peered into the dark hallway and realized he needed his flashlight. He picked up his light and snapped up hers as well.
“I'll hold the light,” she suggested. “You can hold the gun for a while.”
“Deal,” he said as he gave one light to her and pocketed the second.
In moments, the two girls were inside the stuffy room. They'd brought the two pillow cases of food and water with them. Liam didn't really want to make the little one carry the heavy bag, but he needed to focus on the gun and he wanted Victoria's attention on holding the light.
The engine noise of the truck grew louder as it sped up the gravel driveway, so he was out of time to think of a better way.
“Follow me, girls. Please drag those bags with us, okay? I'm going to the kitchen first. We need some ammo for this gun.” Liam assumed there were more shells in the magazine of the 20-gauge shotgun, but he had no idea how many. They'd fired two and that's all he really knew about it.
Also, there were probably shells in the bags of food and supplies the girls held in their hands, but it didn't seem smart to take the time to dump them out to look. There was a whole closet full of ammo in the kitchen.
As long as there were no zombies in the lower level.
Liam tip-toed at the head of the procession as they walked along the hallway. He didn't dare go back and open the door to the room with the little kids in it, and he prayed they weren't going to follow him, now.
“Hey, can you shut that door?” he called back to whatever girl was last out of Wilder's room.
He felt a tiny bit better when the latch clicked.
Victoria put her hand on his back, signaling he should keep going.
He put on his brave face and started down the stairs.
The flashlight was slippery in his hands because his palm was soaked with perspiration driven by fear. The beam of light swung from one side of the main level to the other as he came down the steps. Any couch or table could have a zombie crouched behind it, just ready to pounce.
As he hit the last step, the eerie feeling he was about to get ambushed began to evaporate. If anything was going to jump him, he didn't think they were smart enough to resist once they saw a light or some kind of movement. If there were any zombies in the main floor, at least in the main living room area by the steps, they would have already jumped them.
“This way,” he whispered.
Like a blind man leading a team through an unfamiliar cave system, he led the line of girls from the living room to the kitchen. There were no jumpers, runners, or climbers in there, either, but he did see movement through the broken windows out behind the house.
“Shhh,” he said in a barely audible voice.
He motioned for everyone to keep low as he crossed the glass-littered kitchen tiles.
Getting the ammo was easy because the closet door for the pantry still hung open from their last visit. He absently thought of his mother and how it would have driven her crazy that he didn't close the door after using it.
A pang of grief clawed up and out of his throat and he almost choked up thinking about her falling into the river with Dad, but Victoria still had her hand attached to his back and that gave him the strength to stay on his mission.
Sixty seconds later he had a ton of the
20-gauge shells inside his pockets and he'd given more to Victoria. He took an extra box and threw it in Leah's pillow case. The last thing he did was stuff two additional shells into the loading port to replace those Victoria fired.
“That should keep us in business for a while. I don't see any more to take.” He was ready to commandeer every shell he could find, but 20-gauge was nowhere near as common as all the boxes of 12-gauge. He thought about grabbing some boxes of those for good measure, but it seemed stupid because he didn't have the right gun for them.
By the time he'd gotten his stuff together the truck was right next to the house. The lights bounced off the twisted metal of the outbuilding but then changed direction as if the vehicle was turning around. The telltale sound of air brakes made him realize the car was actually a big truck.
“Leah, you take the girls to the front and wait for me and Victoria. We have to check one more thing before we leave.”
“We do?” Victoria asked with surprise.
He took a long, calming breath. His heartbeat was still going recklessly fast but that wasn't going to change while zombies were on the next floor.
“When I was living back at grandma's place, I lived in the basement. Through a door just like that one.” He pointed his light to the only closed door at the far end of the kitchen. “And they wouldn't keep all this ammo here if they didn't also keep some guns around to use it.”
“If you say what I think you're going to say, I'm going to ... ”
“Kiss me?” he said with a chuckle. He'd been thinking about kissing her all night and it was a distraction he couldn't shake.
Victoria strode right up to him, so they were standing inches apart, but instead of kissing him passionately, she slapped him playfully on the cheek.
“Liam, I'm crazy about you, too, but are you insane? We have to get out of here. Now. This instant. No, last instant.”
“I know,” he said with a bit of sadness. “If the owners of this house were collecting payment for services, they would keep the larger payments in a spot safer than a common kitchen cupboard. Probably in the basement. I think it is worth the risk to find out.”
Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 192
