Darlings of Decay

by Chrissy Peebles

  Nick grabbed Claire’s arm and whispered into her ear, “Wait! Hold off. The house is surrounded now. There’s no way can we just walk out the front door.” He glanced at me. “If zombies break in, we’ll need the mountain men to help us fight them off.”

  I nodded, and Claire slipped her stun gun into her pocket. Our plan was ruined, and it was too late for us to make an escape. We all knew we should have run the second we saw the zombies entering the back yard, but the two sasquatches had foiled that little plan. We could’ve been in the Jeeps, long gone before the zombies had come around to the front of the house, but that chance had slipped away. Now Nick was right: We needed the mountain men conscious so they could help us battle the undead. On our own, we might not make it out alive.

  “What the…” Earl said, locking the door. “We’ve never had to fight this many before.”

  “I tried to tell you!” Jackie said.

  Earl rubbed his chin. “I thought there might be a group of them running around, but I never would have imagined anything like this…and it’s all your fault!”

  “What!?” Val screamed, furious.

  “That’s right. Y’all brought them here to my doorstep! Look at all those corpses in my front yard. I bet you idiots used a gun, attracting them from everywhere!”

  The banging and scratching sounds made my stomach churn. Twigs snapped under their rotting feet as they shuffled around the place, hammering against the glass in various locations with various body parts. Something began to shatter, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure whether the sound was coming from the walls or the door. I even heard muffled footsteps somewhere at the back of the house, or maybe it was the basement. They were fighting their way in, and that meant only one thing: We had to fight our way out, and the front door was out of the question.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a zombie licking and clawing at the glass in front of me. His decomposed face with black and brown muscle wrinkling over the skull stared at me as though he had already chosen his main course for the evening. I didn’t want to be trapped while those monsters fought their way in, but just walking out there and hoping for the best wouldn’t work either. I looked out the glass wall of the living room and saw zombies dotting the entire front yard. Earl’s right. I bet the gunshots we fired off earlier attracted the herd. We’ll have to be way more careful next time…if there is a next time. The dead army surrounded the entire house, like some kind of scene straight out of Night of the Living Dead. The only thing that kept us safe from them for the time being was a towering sheet of glass. I shuddered and vowed to never set foot inside a glass house again; that was one nightmare I wouldn’t soon forget. “I need a weapon!” I shouted.

  Earl thrust my gun into my waiting hands, then handed Nick and Jackie their weapons.

  “Hey, girl, catch! You look like you know how to use this,” Tahoe called out a moment before he tossed Val a rifle.

  My sister caught the gun in midair and wore a proud smile.

  My rifle was already packed in the Jeep, but I still had my handgun. My grip tightened around it, even though I doubted it’d do any good against an entire herd of zombies.

  A crack echoed in the air a moment before the door splintered and the hinges burst. I froze in place as countless zombies fought with each other to get first pick.

  Chapter 9

  The penetrating howling noise outside the house grew to ear-splitting levels. My finger found the trigger of my weapon as my gaze steadied on the door. Recklessly determined to sooth their constant hunger, I knew the zombies would find a way in. The fact that we were having such a near encounter with so many in such a confined space wasn’t exactly confidence-boosting, but I vowed to fight until my last breath.

  My gaze focused on the door a moment before it splintered open from the weight of countless zombies leaning and pushing against it. Some of them fell headfirst on the floor, gnawing and thrashing. Horrible odors of rotting flesh seeped into my nose, making me want to bend over and puke my guts out. Their unearthly moans echoed in the air, and I shivered at the thought of them tearing through my flesh, devouring me little by little.

  I waved my arm, beckoning the others to follow me upstairs. “C’mon! This way!” My voice reverberated from the walls, but it didn’t quite manage to drown out the zombies’ hungry calls.

  Without waiting for an answer from the others, I bolted up the spiral staircase, jumping two steps at a time, faster and faster. My boot glided on the smooth surface, and I tripped. Crap! This is not the time to panic and lose your cool or your balance, Dean! I scrambled to my feet but stumbled again, nearly losing my grip. As I hung on to the railing, I peered down. No flipping way! The door had been broken in completely, but the opening was too narrow to fit them all through. The zombies who had managed to squeeze in had gathered in front of the doorway in a messy heap, pushing and pulling and attempting to get up, while the ones coming from behind kept tripping, making any ascent impossible. I gawked at the way they had buried themselves, thankful for the tiny distraction that might just buy us a few minutes to get upstairs and find the safest room.

  “Come on, boy! Move!” Earl yelled. “You’re in my way. If you don’t move your butt, I’ll personally shove you down there to get acquainted with those things.”

  I didn’t need to see his face to know he meant every word he said. The edge in his voice betrayed his sincerity. So, my legs rose under me as I pushed up the stairs, focusing on my feet so I wouldn’t trip again.

  The moment I reached the top step, Earl jammed his elbow into my stomach, making me double over, then made room for Tahoe to hurry past. “Blow the staircase up, Tahoe!” he yelled.

  “Blow it up?” I asked. “With what?”

  “Don’t you worry about that!” Earl said.

  Tahoe motioned to his friend, then they took off down the hall and disappeared through one of the doors I hadn’t inspected before.

  My brother raced past me, shouting over his shoulder, “Dean! Come on, man! Don’t just stand there! Move it!”

  “Coming!” I yelled, taking off after him. By the time I reached him, Nick was already pushing a large oak dresser toward the door, leaving scuff marks across the shiny wooden floor. “What are you doing?” I asked, stopping in my tracks.

  “Help me roll this thing down the stairs,” he said.

  “Why bother? I thought we were gonna lock ourselves in a room and then climb out the window.” I peered at him from under raised brows. Granted, my grand plan seemed a lot more fascinating inside my head, before I spoke it out loud, but it still wasn’t as bad as the expression on his face made it seem.

  “Right. We’re just gonna let those things slither up the stairs after us while we pick a random room, lock ourselves in, hear them bang on the door, and then jump out the window to the million zombies waiting for us below? Sorry, bro, but that’s a dumb plan. We’ll be even more trapped and screwed than we are now.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” I said, but he was right. Creating a blockade gave us extra time to find the perfect window to jump from. It would also help us save ammo, since we’d be out of bullets in no time. Our piddly little arsenal was no match for the number of zombies waiting to devour us.

  “Come on, Dean,” Nick said, unable to suppress a tiny sneer. “We don’t have time for discussing it. Just trust me and do what I say.” With that, he dashed past and turned his back on me, signaling the conversation was over.

  We hauled the heavy dresser to the top of the landing, and then I kicked it until it tumbled down the stairs. It crashed into some zombies on the way down, knocking them to the ground like bowling pins. When I turned around, the girls were sliding a fancy antique couch toward me. With a last heave, I pushed it down the stairs toward a zombie who was heading toward us. I let out a few choice words. Of course it wasn’t the most mature thing I could have done in front of Jackie, but I couldn’t help myself. The adrenaline running through my veins was making me say things I wouldn’t usually say. Be
sides, every single triumph—no matter how tiny it was—counted when death was lurking savagely around the corner in the vacant eyes and slimy mouths of those things.

  Val had dragged an enormous chest of drawers to the top of the stairs. Jackie and Claire began slipping out the drawers and throwing them down on the zombies, hitting them on their heads. Finally, the two girls gave the furniture a final shove, and it flew down, taking out a couple more of the hissing creatures. Nick threw a box spring, followed by a mattress tossed by Val. Our furniture onslaught wouldn’t last forever, but we hoped it would grant us enough time to find a spot where we could safely jump from a window into a smaller crowd of zombies that we could fight off.

  “Watch out!” Earl called from behind. I moved out of his way as he lit up a stick of dynamite and threw it down the stairs.

  I watched the fire eat through the cord, slowly but steadily flying through the air in what seemed like slow motion. It all happened so fast, yet I felt as though a million years must have passed.

  “Get down!” Earl yelled as it landed with a dull thud with uncanny precision, right in the middle of the gathered zombie herd.

  I ducked and threw my body over Jackie and Claire as a loud boom echoed in my ears and smoke swirled all around me. Raising my head, I coughed and peered through the blanket of fire at the gap between the upper and the lower levels of the house. The stairs had evaporated into a huge mess of wooden splinters, interspersed with blood and gore. My stomach protested at the sight, but I didn’t have time to digest the image because the next wave of zombies was already gushing in.

  I peeked over the banister. There was absolutely nothing left of the stairs, so our only way back down was gone. I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or pissed off that the guy didn’t consult us before doing something so bold and irrevocable. What if Nick’s plan fails? What then? He blew up the freaking stairs! We’re stuck up here! “Where did you get the dynamite from?” I asked, miffed.

  “That’s no concern of yours, boy,” Earl spat.

  Again I had to bite my tongue hard to keep from lashing out at him. I could only assume he must’ve hidden a stash somewhere and didn’t feel the need to tell us about it. For all we knew, the doomsday mountain dudes probably had a stash of every kind of weapon known to mankind hidden all over the place, so I mentally prepared for more surprises to come along the way. “You should’ve told us,” I muttered under my breath. “We had the situation under control.”

  “Right, like furniture would’ve stopped all those things!” Earl said, shooting me and Nick a glare as he bolted down the hallway with Tahoe on his heels.

  “It did slow them down some,” Val shouted, as if defending our honor.

  “Hey, Dean,” Nick called out, “now’s the time to put that plan of yours to good use.”

  “Great. I’ll go look out the windows for a possible escape route,” I said.

  “I was talking about myself,” he said. “I need you guys to stay here and be a distraction.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry,” Val said. “We’re safe up here. They can’t fly.”

  Nick continued, “If the zombies see food, they’ll focus their efforts toward this part of the house. We need as many of them as possible here in the living room and front yard so we can sneak out the back or side window.”

  “I like it,” I said. “Let the freaks gather up here while you find the perfect place for us to sneak out. Then we’ll be gone…and they’ll still think we’re up here, the dummies.”

  “That’s the plan,” Nick said. “So stand here so they can see you.”

  Claire grabbed his arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’m coming with you. There has to be a way out of this place.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Nick said.

  “Um, okay. Be careful, man!” I said, scrambling to my feet. The idea of splitting up sat in the pit of my stomach like a rock. Especially when I was the distraction…the human bait.

  With a nod, he shot off down the hallway, with Claire following after him.

  “They’ll be right back,” Val muttered to no one in particular.

  I opened my mouth to tell her everything would be all right, but the sound of shattering glass boomed in my ears, stopping my words from coming out. I peered down at more zombies breaking through the towering glass walls and gasped.

  “Oh my gosh!” yelled Jackie. “They’re busting through the walls!” Her gaze bore into mine, questioning the meaning of it all.

  For once, I was at a loss for words and couldn’t give her the answer she wanted to hear. If the walls were coming down, it would be only a matter of time before the upper floor was compromised.

  We fell silent for a moment. The crunch of dragging feet on broken glass as the zombies flooded into the spacious living room was all we could hear. My stomach lurched when a loud choir of the undead groaned, echoing in my ears. The giant room had filled up with moaning, groaning, and hissing, as though the zombies had multiplied. I’d never seen anything like it. I had only seen such horrific scenes in movies and videogames, but now it was happening right in front of me. I was witnessing a real-live (or dead, as the case was) zombie apocalypse with my very own eyes.

  Val clapped my shoulder. “Stay calm, okay? The plan is working perfectly. They’re all coming to the front of the house. Nick will be back any minute with the perfect spot to sneak out. And then we’ll run to the Jeeps as fast as our feet can carry us.”

  I nodded and forced the fear that was quickly grabbing hold of me to the back of my mind.

  “You still got the keys?” she asked.

  I nodded, remaining stunned and silent.

  She continued bravely, “Good. We need to be ready to pound the pavement the second Nick comes back.”

  I felt my pocket, just to make sure the keys were still there, but they weren’t. Much to my dismay, I suddenly remembered that I’d left them on the table. I pointed at the living room. “No flippin’ way! I left them…they’re down there!”

  “I can’t believe this!” She took a trembling breath as she regarded me. Her face became an impenetrable mask as her mind began to weigh the possibilities.

  I breathed in sharply to calm my nerves. With the staircase gone, no zombie could climb up, but we couldn’t climb down either. Unfortunately, the keys were down there. Our chances of getting out before the walls collapsed down on us were pretty slim, and I felt it was my fault for stupidly leaving the keys downstairs.

  “How are we going to get down there to get them?” Jackie asked, her eyes wide, mirroring my own thoughts.

  “We aren’t,” Val finally said, “but I can hotwire the truck.”

  Earl and Tahoe came from behind, making me jump.

  Earl’s eyes shimmered with malice as he looked at me. “We need a big, giant distraction. How about some blood?”

  “Yeah,” Tahoe said. “You know how predictable the little freaks are.”

  “One whiff, and we’ve got ourselves a huge distraction,” Earl mumbled, still looking at me, making it impossible to miss his vile and threatening insinuation. “Hmm. Blood. Where can we possibly get any of that? Any suggestions, boy?”

  My heart raced. I put my hand on my holster, already determined that if I had to shoot either of the bushy-haired crazies in self-defense, I wouldn’t hesitate to use a bullet.

  “Do you have any more explosives?” Val asked, unfazed.

  “Fresh out,” Earl snapped, “but you know what? You reek of death.” He suddenly reached for her.

  Val let out a scream as he ripped the bandage off her arm, revealing the infected flesh. I couldn’t help but stare at the darkening gash and the white bone peeking from beneath.

  “I knew it!” Earl yelled. “She’s nothing but zombie bait!” His eyes shined, his sneer revealing tobacco-yellowed teeth.

  For a moment, I thought he might be talking about himself, because everything about him was far more grotesque and rotting than Val’s wound—including his soul,
if he even had one.

  Val kicked him in the nuts and turned to run, but he grabbed her around the waist and forced her to stay put.

  My hand instinctively moved to the gun in my holster, but someone gripped my arms from behind and yanked them hard, sending jolts of pain through my shoulders. Crap. My weapon flew out of my hands and clattered to the floor, not far away from my feet. I peered at it and pulled toward it, but the guy was in the more advantageous position, making it impossible for me to twist out of his grip. Earl followed my line of vision and kicked the weapon under the railing. It sailed across the floor and under the banister, landing in the crowd of zombies below.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I yelled, “Tahoe, let me go!”

  He continued holding me in his iron grasp as he hissed, “I have my instructions. He’ll kill me if I don’t follow them.”

  “No!” I shouted. “Then at least let her go!”

  “Ain’t happenin’, boy. You might as well just give up now before the same fate befalls you!” Earl said.

  “Take me instead!” I begged.

  “You’re not infected. She, on the other hand, is. She’s one bacteria away from being one of those nasty things!”

  Jackie whipped out her gun, her eyes shifting nervously from Earl to Tahoe, then to me. She seemed hesitant about shooting another human being, and I knew we were losing the battle. Before she could even make up her mind, Earl shoved her back, and she crashed helplessly through the glass banister, almost plummeting into the void below. She clung on the second-floor railing as her legs dangled dangerously close to zombies. The way they kept reaching up made it obvious they wanted nothing more than to devour her legs as an appetizer.

  My stomach clenched as their mouths started to snap open like hungry piranhas. “Val!” I flailed against Tahoe, but he only tightened his grip on me.