A metal door at the side appeared to be welded shut. I would later find out that it led to a stairway on the outside of the building, and that was the only way up here, other than the hole in the floor.
There were blankets and pillows piled up on the far end. Food and medical supplies were stacked up on top of a small table. Makeshift toys were discarded all over, dolls made out of Coke bottles and pop cans. All of the walls and the floor were covered in crude illustrations, mostly appearing to be things like ponies and flowers.
I presumed the artist was the little girl sitting next to Max, the only other person in the loft. She couldn’t be more than six, with dirty tangles of brown hair hanging around her face, and she clung to the old ragged stuffed bear in her arms.
“Who’s your friend?” I asked, motioning to her.
“This is Stella.” Max scooted toward her and put his arm around her to comfort her. “She’s shy.”
“I don’t blame her.” I stood up and looked around. “You two have been living here? By yourselves?”
“Yeah,” Max nodded. “We’ve been here since the compound burned down.”
“How long ago was that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. A while.”
“What happened?” I walked around the room, looking more closely at the few possessions Max and Stella had managed to accumulate.
“The zombies broke in,” Max said. “They couldn’t hold them off anymore. London told us to escape if we could. Me and Stella made it out just before he lit the building on fire.”
“He burned it down?” I turned back to Max, and he nodded. “With himself in it?”
“It was the only way to stop the zombies,” Max explained.
“What happened to everyone else?” I asked. “What about all the other people there?”
Max frowned, looking sad as he thought about it. “Some of them escaped, I think. Some died in the fire. And the rest are zombies.”
I went back over and knelt down in front of him. I wanted to hug him again, touch him just to prove he was real, but Stella was pressed up against him, her eyes wide and terrified.
“Stella, don’t be scared,” Max said, his voice soft and comforting. “This is my sister, Remy. You know the lion? That’s hers.”
“Ripley?” Stella asked, and she seemed to brighten a little.
Ripley had sprawled out on the floor, licking herself, but she stopped when she heard her name.
“Yep,” Max said. “And anybody that has Ripley can’t be that bad, right?”
Stella seemed to think it over before nodding. Max suggested she go back to bed, and she crawled in the mass of blankets behind her, burying herself in them.
Max and I stayed up a little bit talking, but not much longer. I realized that he’d been taking care of Stella, and that was sweet but also a little strange for me. He was so young, and I always thought of him as my kid brother.
But the world had aged him, making him more mature. He’d been able to create a small safe haven, even here in a zombie-infested town. He was stronger and smarter than I’d given him credit for.
When I fell asleep curled up in the blankets beside him, it was the best I’d slept in a very long time, even with the zombies growling below us. It was the first time in nearly a year that Max and I were really together.
In the morning, Stella attempted to make us breakfast, which amounted to a can of beans in cracked teacups. Max said that he often scavenged for food and for toys that Stella might like, which explained the teacups.
Many of the zombies had moved on in the night, as Max had predicted they would, but they weren’t all gone. That meant I had to find another way to escape. I had to go find Boden and the others so we could join them on their trek north. But only if they’d lived through the night.
9.
Wrapping a sheet around my hand, I punched out the front windows on the loft. The glass shattering would attract more zombies, which meant that I really had to hurry if I wanted to get out of here without an undead escort.
Max didn’t have much in the way of weapons, so I snapped a broom handle over my leg. I shoved the dull end down through my belt loop. It would restrict my range of motion a bit, but I needed my hands free to crawl out of the window.
An old sign hung cock-eyed in front of the building. I wasn’t sure what kind of store it had been, since there was the only the word Molly’s in big metal letters. The M hung down, almost touching the doorway to the store, and the rest of the sign leaned up at an angle, so the S was at the top, nearly reaching the roof.
When I dropped out of the window onto the M, it creaked and groaned under my feet, and for one horrible second, I was certain it would crash to the ground below me. But it didn’t, so I scrambled up to the top.
A few zombies had gathered below me, drawn out by the noise I was making, and one of them made a weird retching sound. It reminded me of a cross between a cough and the sound a dinosaur had made in Jurassic Park.
I stood up on the sign, and I had to jump up to reach the ledge above me. The first time I missed it and fell back onto the S. The metal screeched below me, and it wouldn’t hold up for many more falls like that. If I didn’t make the ledge in the next jump, I’d end up on the sidewalk below.
I crouched low, pushing myself as hard as I could when I jumped up. My fingers caught the edge of the concrete lip around the roof. Using my legs, I pushed myself up, but not before scraping my stomach against the brick of the building.
Once I’d pulled myself up on the roof, I looked down over the edge, watching the zombies below me. They jumped up, reaching for the M, but they never quite made it. Even if they did get it, they would probably only succeed in pulling the sign down on top of them. Max and Stella were still safe in their loft.
I went across the roof to the other side of the building, where the stairs would lead away from the welded doorway. The rickety wooden stairs were still intact, and there weren’t any zombies loitering around them. I’d made enough noise in the front of the store to keep them there looking for me.
The landing at the top of the stairs wasn’t as close to the roof as I’d have liked. I climbed over the ledge and hung on, lowering myself down as gently as I could. I was still several feet from touching the landing, but I had no choice, and I let go, dropping down.
My ankle groaned at me, and I fell onto my back. Wincing, I pulled up my jeans to inspect my leg. The good news was that it wasn’t broke. It still hurt, but I didn’t think it was sprained. It’d just be sore for a little bit, but I could walk it off.
A lone zombie had wandered down the street, and I had to get him before he summoned the rest of the zombies. He hadn’t seen me yet, but it wouldn’t be long before he did.
I stood up quickly, ignoring the pain in my ankle, and I sat on the metal railing of the stairs so I could slide down to the bottom. As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, the zombie noticed me. He was only a few feet away, and he opened his mouth. All of his teeth were missing, but that wouldn’t stop him from howling.
I grabbed the broken broomstick out of my pants and charged at him. Just as he began to croak out a sound, I swung the stick, and it connected hard with his head. There was a loud crack as his neck snapped, and his head flew off his body.
Before any other zombies came out to play, I turned around and ran. I didn’t want to lead any of them back to where Boden and the others were hiding, so I had to hurry and remember the directions Max gave me. He knew all the best ways to squeeze around town and where to hide if zombies caught sight of me.
When a zombie did give chase, I managed to lose it when I slid between two houses and crawled underneath a porch. Then I was free and clear, running toward the house.
From the outside of the house, there was no sign of them, so I cautiously went inside. The front door had been torn off before we’d gotten there, and I knocked on the wall when I came in.
“Hello?” I called.
“Remy?” Daniels appeared at the top of t
he stairs, looking down over the box spring. “Boden told us you were as good as dead last night.”
“Well, I’m not,” I said. “I found my brother and another little girl. They’re both doing fine.”
“What about supplies?” Boden yelled from somewhere down the hall. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him fine.
“They have food, but not much in the way of weapons,” I said. “We can probably take it with us.”
Nolita came and stood next to Daniels. “You’re still planning to come with us? I thought you were set now that you found your brother.”
“We can’t stay here.” I shook my head. “This town is overrun with zombies. We couldn’t survive for much longer.”
Boden came out and pushed the box spring aside, then jogged down the stairs with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He had my messenger bag in his hand, which I’d left here last night before I ran off with Max.
“You really need to start grabbing your own stuff,” Boden said when he handed it to me, but he was smirking.
“Thanks.” I took it from him and slid it over my shoulder. “I’ll work on that.”
“Where’s Max?” Daniels asked, and I shot a look at him.
“What do you care?” I snapped.
Daniels seemed startled by my reaction. He’d been walking down the stairs, but he paused and scrunched up his eyebrows.
“I just … if he’s going with us, I thought he’d be with you,” Daniels clarified.
“He’s in a loft,” I said. “I left him and the girl there when I went to find you. No need for them to face zombies unless they had to.”
“Let’s go get them and get out of here,” Boden said once everybody had come downstairs.
“There’s just one thing,” I said, stopping him as he walked toward the front door. “The building they’re in is surrounded by zombies.”
He sighed. “Of course it is.”
“Fine,” Nolita said. “You go get them and meet us back here.”
“I don’t think I can get them out by myself,” I admitted. “Especially not with the food.”
Nolita had pressed her lips into a tight line, and they twitched when I mentioned food. She might not be willing to risk anything for me or my family, but she needed food to survive, just like the rest of us.
“You say there’s a little girl?” Bishop asked.
I nodded. “Stella and my little brother Max. They’re both just kids.”
“All right.” She nodded once. “I’ll go and help you get them.”
“I’ll go, too,” Boden said. He took off his duffel bag and dropped it to the floor. “The rest of you stay here. If we’re not back in a few hours, then go on without us.”
Bishop gave Teddy a reassuring smile as she handed him her bag. “We will be back. Just hang tight.”
I led Boden and Bishop back the way Max had taught me. When we got to Main Street, we hid beside the closest building we could, peering around the corner so we could watch the store where Max and Stella were staying.
A small cluster of zombies had gathered, but I would guess it wasn’t more than a dozen. I’d faced a lot more than that and come out on top, so I figured that we could handle this. A couple of the zombies had begun to fight amongst themselves, tearing at each other’s clothes and flesh.
“They’re hungry,” Bishop whispered, noticing the same behavior I had.
“I have a few rounds left, but we really are running out of ammo,” Boden said. “I might not even have enough to shoot all the zombies here.”
I stared at the zombies for a minute when it occurred to me. “I have a plan.”
“What is it?” Boden asked.
“Cover me,” I said, then ran out toward the zombies.
10.
The first zombie that charged at me, I stabbed right in the chest with the broomstick. It was an older zombie, so his chest and bones gave in easily as I drove the stake through his heart.
Right before the next zombie was upon me, I ducked down. It ran right into me, its legs slamming into my head, and I stood up, sending it flying head over feet. It landed on the ground, its face pressed against the concrete, and I stomped on the back of its head, crushing its skull into the street.
I heard the bang of the gun going off and felt the spray of zombie blood on my back. I turned around to see a zombie with its head blown off collapsed on the ground, and it was safe to assume that Boden had shot it.
Two more zombies were racing at me, and I had no weapons. I simply dodged one and pushed the other one out of the way. They both chased after me, and I ran until I was in front of the store.
A zombie stood directly below the M, and I kicked it in the stomach. It bent forward and collapsed to the ground on its knees. I jumped onto its back and then jumped up so I could grab onto the M.
Even as my fingers were grabbing hold of the sign, I could feel the other zombies latching onto my legs. Their fingers dug into my flesh, and when I tried to kick them back, they pulled off one of my shoes.
I swung back and forth, trying to free myself, and the sign groaned loudly above me. My pants were starting to slip off my waist. When a zombie tried to bite my foot, I managed to kick in the roof of its mouth, but things weren’t going well.
Then the sign finally began to fall. The metal screeched as it snapped, and the M began to swing forward, taking me and several zombies with it. The M moved like a pendulum as it came free, so by the time the S finally came loose, we had started to swing up higher in the air.
I let go, falling to the sidewalk. I scraped up my arms when I landed, and I rolled out of the way, pressing myself to the brick of the building. A zombie was still hanging onto me, but most of the zombies were hanging onto each other, in one mass.
The sign crashed to the ground, smashing the zombies beneath them. Even though the zombie still hung onto my leg, his body had been crushed under the metal. That didn’t stop his head from moving though, and he tried to sink his teeth into my calf.
I rolled onto my back and kicked him in the face with my shoed foot. He kept gnashing at me, so I kept kicking him until he finally stopped moving.
While the sign had managed to take out most of the zombies, one of them was still lurching toward me. I was scrambling to my feet when Boden shot it, and it fell to the ground.
Boden and Bishop had come out of hiding, and they walked across the street toward me. Boden still had his gun raised, in case another zombie came out of the woodwork.
“Is that all of them?” Boden asked.
“I think so.” I picked up my shoe that a zombie had pulled off and slipped it back on.
He lowered his gun when he reached me. “That was really stupid, you know. If that sign hadn’t fallen, they would’ve ripped you to shreds.”
“But they didn’t.” I shrugged.
I headed in to the store, which was now thankfully zombie free. Max poked his head down through the hole in ceiling. When I came in Stella had been beside him, but as soon as she saw me, she disappeared.
“Max, lower down the ladder,” I said.
“Did you get rid of all the zombies?” Max asked.
“I wouldn’t have you lower it if I hadn’t.”
“Who are they?” Max asked as he dropped the rope ladder down.
“That’s Boden,” I pointed to him, and then pointed to Bishop. “That’s Bishop. They came with to help me.”
“Hello.” Bishop smiled at him and waved.
“Hi,” Max said, but he didn’t smile.
I climbed up the ladder, and Bishop followed me. Boden stayed down on the ground, presumably keeping an eye out for zombies.
“Get your stuff together,” I told Max. “We’re getting out of here.”
“And going where?” Max asked.
“North,” I said simply. I grabbed one of their sheets and went over to the corner where they’d stored all their food and supplies. “It’s safer up there. Less zombies.”
Max did as he was told, fir
st shoving his things into a backpack, while I put their provisions in a makeshift sack I’d made from the sheet. I grabbed the lighter stuff first, avoiding most of the canned goods. They would get impossible to carry if we had too many.
“I thought you said there was a girl,” Bishop said.
“There is.” I turned back to look around and saw Stella buried in the blankets, trying to hide. “She’s right there.”
“It’s okay, sweetie.” Bishop crouched down in front of her and smiled. “We won’t hurt you. We’re here to keep you safe.”
Stella only buried herself deeper, so I got up and walked over to her, trading places with Bishop. Max had finished packing one backpack and moved onto putting Stella’s things in a smaller pink one.
“Stella, honey, it’s okay.” I knelt down. “Come out of there, please.”
She poked her head out farther, her matted hair all but hiding her eyes. “Why?”
“I need you to come talk to me for a second.” I held my hand out to her. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
She seemed hesitant, so Max chimed in, “She’s nice, Stella. You can trust her.”
Reluctantly, Stella pushed off the blankets and walked over to me. She still clung to the ratty old teddy bear. When she got closer to me, I put my hands gently on her arms, and she tensed up, as if expecting me to hit her.
“Do you have anything here that you want to take with you?” I asked. “Max is packing a bag for you, but I want to make sure you get everything.”
“I’m not going,” Stella said, her voice muffled because she spoke into her teddy bear.
“You have to go, Stella,” I insisted as gently as I could. “Max is going. I’m going. Even Ripley is going.”
Ripley wasn’t in the loft right then. I wasn’t sure where she was, since she’d left while I’d been gone. But since she’d followed me across the country once, I was pretty sure she would do it again.
“I’m not going,” Stella repeated, her little voice getting more indignant.
“Why not?” I asked, trying a different approach.
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