Moving quickly to catch up, Kyler almost ran into Mike. He was standing in the foyer working his pen light out of his pocket. Standing there, they were assailed by the smell of putrid decaying flesh. They’d gotten used to catching whiffs of the smell of death as they’d been traveling but this was extreme. Extreme enough that both of them took a second to move shirts over faces and wonder how long they could hold their breaths. Mike finally got his pen light out and shone it on the floor in front of them. It was matted with blood and little black flies.
Letting the light slowly move up the floor they took in a pile of bodies in the living room off the foyer. It looked like a full-fledged firefight had gone down in the room. There were holes in the wall. The furniture was all over the place. The dead were strewn about like a giant toddler had been called to dinner in the middle of playing with his action figures. Only these action figures were bloody broken humans. Flies and crawling bugs scattered as the light hit them. Mike carefully stepped into the room. Kyler thought that was a horrible idea, but he followed along behind him regardless.
On the other side of the room was a couch lying on its side. This looked to be where a few of the defenders had made their stand. Buried underneath a few more corpses were the remains of three similar looking white men with shotguns. It looked like a whole family tree may have been wiped out from grandfather to grandson looking at the similarity of their faces which differed only in age. In death they were all just meat. All that love and joy and family tradition boiled down to stinking corpses buried underneath a badly stained couch. Still, it looked like they’d gone down together facing the enemy. This made Kyler wonder what was in the small room back behind them. What had been worth this kind of sacrifice.
Mike was busy rifling through the pockets of the corpses. He handed Kyler a shotgun and some loose shells he’d found. Kyler fumbled around in the dark until he figured out how to breach the shotgun and get a shell into each of the chambers. Mike caught Kyler’s attention by making a hissing sound then grinned like a maniac as he dangled a set of house and car keys. The big blue Ford symbol was prominent on the key chain. Kyler was thrilled with the discovery of those keys, but he still felt like they needed to look in the small room the men had died defending. He was pretty sure what they were going to find but he felt they still needed to look.
Mike had stood up and started edging back towards the front door. Kyler reached over and grabbed his arm. Once he had Mikes attention, Kyler shook his head and pointed at the remains of the door on the other end of the room. Mike shook his head no and pointed at his watch. Kyler got that they didn’t have a lot of time to screw around here, but he now felt compelled to honor these men by seeing what it was they’d died to defend. Mike shrugged, and they started slowly walking the ten feet over to where a large wooden door was hanging by a single hinge.
The door was painted white. It was covered in scratch marks. There were two more corpses lying in front of it as well. The occupants must’ve had a gun. Kyler pushed the door to the side and Mike stuck the pen light into the small room. It looked like it may have been a small sewing room, or something like that at one time. Lying on the floor with a shotgun clenched in one dead hand was a woman wearing a pair of jeans. The remains of her shirt were pulled over her head. Her torso and waist had been partially eaten with entrails streaming out onto the floor like bloody strings of dried up kelp on the beach.
Mike kept the light on the woman’s body long enough to make sure there were no easily accessible shotgun shells. Then, showing no desire to dive in and try to find loose shells he shone the light around the rest of the room. A hacking sound caught his attention and he focused the light on a drawer in an antique dresser that took up one side of the room. Lying in the dresser drawer with two straps of a soft looking material keeping it penned in was a baby Zombie. The big bite shaped scar on the abdomen revealed the source of the disease. The baby’s eyes were open. It was staring into the bright light being pointed at it. It made the hacking noise again then began screaming. It was a slightly different version of the screech they’d grown used to but still recognizable.
Horrified, Kyler jumped backwards and tripped over one of the dead bodies in the room behind them. He fell to the ground with his hand snapping through the ribs of the body that’d been lying beside it. Disgusted he tried rolling off it and got himself more slimed up from the remains. The only reason he wasn’t puking all over himself at this point was because he hadn’t had enough to eat or drink in a few days.
A loud whacking noise and the baby stopped the demonic wailing. Thinking it had to have been Mike who took care of that problem Kyler resolutely looked in the other direction and methodically worked his way back up to his feet. Stoically keeping himself from thinking of what he might be putting his hands in he worked his way back to his feet. Once he was standing again, Mike handed him the shotgun he’d dropped. Then they started trekking for the front door. Once at the front door they paused to listen for a minute. Hearing nothing, they opted to check out the kitchen side of the house really quick and see if they could scavenge some food and water.
The pantry was a treasure trove of cheezits and bottled water with some warm economy brand two liters of soda as well. They gathered as much as they could easily carry and headed out the front door. Being careful not to slip on the blood or the body parts along their path. They made a few trips and managed to get a good bit of random crap out to the truck. Once that was done, they started working up the courage to actually try and get in the truck. Mike had Kyler go around to the passenger side. Once Kyler was standing on that side of the truck, Mike quickly the keys before pressing the unlock button on the wireless remote. They heard the doors make a very welcome clicking noise.
They opened the doors and climbed in. Once inside the cab they took extreme caution in pulling the doors shut. Once the doors were shut, they felt like it was safe to talk again since the cab of the truck should block most of the noise from their conversation. They needed to hurry but they needed to think everything through as well.
“So, I’m going to put in the key and see how much gas there is. Once we’ve made sure we have some gas I’m going to start her up and get us out the driveway and onto the main road. Then we’re going south as a first choice followed by east if south doesn’t work. Sound good?”
“Sounds good to me.” Kyler answered. “Just do it nice and easy. Once we start the engine up, we’re going to get overrun really quick. As long as we don’t panic it should all work out. Just hoping we don’t get a bunch of them hopping in the back of the truck again. All I want to do right now in life is wash down a ton of cheezits with a two liter of RC Cola and change my clothes.”
“Agreed. You stink and you’re getting guts and crap all over the upholstery.” Mike replied. He wasn’t kidding. They both stunk, and they were both covered with a level of grime and nastiness that would make the most hard-core horror movie fan turn their eyes away. The smile faded from his lips as he shoved the key in the ignition. They watched as the gas gauge slowly moved up to indicate a half tank of gas. They’d made sure to turn the volume on the radio all the way down to avoid any surprises.
Nervous smile back on his face after verifying they actually had gas Mike went ahead and turned the key to start the truck. The powerful engine growled to life and all hell broke loose. Mike fumbled with the shifter to get the truck in reverse and started backing them out of the long dirt driveway. A stream of screaming Zombies erupted from the barn and raced straight for them. Mike focused on staying calm and methodically getting them out of the driveway. He knew if he let his mind wander or took a second to consider their actual situation, he’d lose his shit and they’d both die. He focused on his breathing, on making sure to angle everything so it only took one try to make the turn to get them out of the driveway, making sure the mirrors were good. He focused on anything and everything that wasn’t the spear of undead flying straight at them.
Meanwhile, Kyler was freaking out.
He didn’t have the luxury of an assigned task to keep his mind occupied. All he had was a front row seat to what was probably going to be their deaths. There were a lot of Zombies heading their way and they were absolutely going to get to the truck before they finished turning around. The slightest issue and Zombies would be beating their way into the truck to rip the skin from their bones.
Mike got them turned to the point where he could start driving forward. Once he was satisfied that they had enough space he threw the gear shifter into drive. The oversized wheels on the F-150 spun in the mud before they caught traction. The truck lurched forward as the first Zombies reached the truck. Within seconds the screeching sounds had been drowned out by the slamming of undead flesh against the metal of the truck. It was like driving through a flock of birds at about thirty miles per hour and feeling all the fleshy impacts as they collided with the truck.
Glass cracked, the engine whined and metal bent but the truck held together. Equally important, Mike held together enough to drive carefully in the midst of being dog-piled by screaming demons. Before they knew it, they were rolling down the dirt road towards the paved county road laughing together like madmen. Shocked to be alive. The relief a soldier feels after running through an open field with the enemy shooting at him and realizes he’s actually made it to the other side.
Chapter 28: Killer Legs
Randy put the gun closer to Griffins face. Was this asshole trying to get them to surrender? Did he really think Randy would let him use Kelly as a bargaining chip?
Before Randy could do anything stupid, Kelly whispered for him to chill out. Completely confused Randy watched as she started taking off her pants. Feeling like he was definitely not getting his point across he glanced back at her and made a questioning face. Then he saw that she was carefully wrapping her pistol in her pants, so she could get at it easily and it dawned on him what Griffin was thinking. He looked back at Griffin who smiled at him and shrugged. He did get some satisfaction out of the fact that Griffin was obviously endeavoring to not look at Kelly while she squatted there trying to get her pants over her shoes and her gun wrapped up. She was trying to do it all fast and not fall off the dock at the same time.
“Put down the guns. It’s just me.” Griffin stood up in the spotlight with his hands up in the air. He’d taken off his shirt and was making a big show of putting it back on as he tried to hold his hands up in the air.
“Is that you Griffin? What the hell are you doing out here on the dock?” One of the men yelled. Griffin motioned for Kelly to come out and she threw on an abashed looking face and walked out into the light holding her pants awkwardly in her hands. The seamen whistled appreciatively and one of them started laughing.
“Why the hell did you bring her out to the end of the dock?” One of them managed to ask. It sounded like he was asking more out of curiosity than out of any sense of duty to find out why they were out there.
“Can you turn down the spotlight?” Kelly yelled out he question. She was still making an act of trying to be modest with her pants in her hands. “Is it ok if I get my pants on now?” She asked loudly.
“I’m enjoying the view but guessing you’re a little bit chilly. Feel free. Griffin, did you drive over here, or do you need a ride?”
“I was kind of hoping we could just stay here. I was going to take her for a little spin around the bay on one of these sailboats.” Griffin said with a big grin as he slid his arm around Kelly and pulled her close to him. Randy was still hiding in the shadows, but he’d maneuvered to a spot where he had a good view of what was going on. At the sight of Griffin putting his arm around Kelly he almost stood up and started shooting. Controlling himself with an act of will and a silent promise to knock the crap out of Griffin later he waited to hear what they’d say about letting them stay.
“No can-do man. We’re under orders to not let anyone in the boats without the commander’s approval. We’re also not supposed to let any unauthorized people wander around the island. That’s going to include you and your uh date. If you walked, we can take you or you can get in your van and we can follow you out of here, but it’s got to be one way or the other. Sorry man.” The seaman shrugged to show he didn’t necessarily agree but orders were orders. The young sailor wasn’t going to disobey a direct order just to let Griffin hook up with one of the refugees.
Kelly kept walking closer to the men. They’d put the searchlight out now and were just looking by the glow of the headlights. Kelly hadn’t put her pants back on yet and both of the sailors were busy checking out her legs as she walked towards them. When she got within a few feet of the two young men she stood saucily in front of them and dropped the pants on the ground. Both the men grinned at her stupidly until they noticed the large caliber handgun pointed at them.
She kept smiling as she pointed it at them and casually told them to put their hands in the air. Then she told Griffin to take the men’s weapons from them as Randy came down the dock pointing his gun at the men. He included Griffin in his possible targets as Griffin slowly removed the M-16 each man had as well as the service pistols each of the men were carrying. Griffin was being very careful to keep his hands away from the triggers as he stripped the men of their weapons.
“Mind covering them while I put my pants back on?” Kelly asked Randy when he got to the end of the dock. Without waiting for an answer Kelly sat down on the dock and began tugging her pants back on as quickly as she could. It was not a warm night out and she’d pretty much been freezing up until this point. The adrenaline had caused her not to even notice it yet. She was feeling pretty pleased with herself at being able to do this so far without having to kill the two young sailors. Just because they happened to work for the commander didn’t mean they were evil and deserved to die. However, if they’d made a wrong move, she would’ve shot them and kept on going without a second thought.
Once Kelly had her pants back on Randy walked over and took the two M-16s. He put one around his shoulder and handed the other one to Kelly. Then he got the men to tell him where all the extra magazines were and show them where the safeties were on the guns. While he was getting the magazines out of the truck, he found a bag of zip ties. He asked Griffin to zip tie the two men together around a lamp post. Griffin had them both sit straddling a nearby pole and tied their legs and hands together. Once he was sure they weren’t going anywhere he stood up and asked what they wanted to do next.
“How about we don’t discuss our plans in front of the two guys you just tied to a pole?” Kelly said with an air of frustration. Griffin nodded, and they walked over to the base of the dock.
“Ok. We leave them there and now we take a boat and make a run for it?” Randy asked. He was hoping capturing those two would’ve made this all a lot easier.
“I don’t think so. Those two were on roving patrol. There’ll be other stationary guards at the harbor mouth looking for boats going in or out. We try to sail through there and they see us then they’ll throw a ton of fifty cal at us. That’ll sink any boat we find but we’ll be too dead to really worry about it.” Griffin said.
“Will they be looking for these two?” Randy asked with a nod at the two miserable looking sailors tied to each other out in the parking lot.
“They won’t notice those two are gone for a little while. They have a radio in the truck they’re supposed to report in on if they see anything but if they don’t see anything then they just report in as they make their rounds. We probably have about thirty minutes before they send out someone to try and find them. I’m guessing they haven’t found the commander yet since these two didn’t try to shoot us immediately. Not even your wife’s legs would’ve distracted them if they’d known the commander had just been gunned down and then they found us hiding like that.”
“What if we leave one of them tied up here and take the other one on patrol like they were supposed to do anyway? Use them to try to find a boat we can use to get off this island without being killed?” Kelly asked. Griffin and
Randy both looked at her with respect. Randy looked over at Griffin to see what he had to say about that plan.
“Perfect. I say we move forward with that idea. There may be something we can use over by where the ferry docks at. Anywhere else on this island and it’s probably a smashed wreck. Even over on the side the ferry docks at we’ll have issues. If we find a boat that’s usable it’s going to be a bitch getting it out to sea since there’s a sunken ferry and who knows what else in the way.”
“A sunken ferry sounds easier to deal with than a bunch of guys shooting a fifty-caliber machine gun at us.” Randy noted.
“Agreed.” Griffin said then left to go grab one of the sentries to drag around the island with them. Randy and Kelly watched while Griffin carefully used the remaining zip ties to keep one of the men tied to the pole while securing the other guy to walk with him over to the truck.
“He’s a useful little minion.” She observed as Griffin ushered the sentry into the driver’s seat.
A Small World Page 21