by Powell, Lora
“Thing is, this particular body is still alive and kicking. And after you letting me burn down your cozy little home instead of just giving me what I wanted, I’m guessing you want to keep her that way. Do you see my problem?”
The radio fell silent as we all stared at each other with expressions varying from horror, to anger, to confusion.
Shaking myself, I rushed to the front of the house. The sun had broken over the horizon, and it was becoming easier to see with every passing second. Reaching a window that had a view of the overgrown front lawn and street, I carefully moved the edge of the curtain just enough to see out.
Standing just in front of the abandoned vehicle sitting on the curb—bright morning sun lighting up that almost unnaturally orange hair—stood the man I had last seen when I attempted to chop off his arm with a machete. He was looking right at our hideout. My breath caught in my throat when he raised the radio in his hand in a mock salute.
By now, I could feel other bodies pressing close behind me. “How did he know where we would be?” Charlie was peering out the other side of the window.
No one answered. While everyone else seemed to be thinking over her question or trying to figure out how we were going to escape this time, I studied the man on the street.
I noticed dispassionately that the arm I’d hacked was actually gone midway between the shoulder and elbow. While I knew that I had cut him badly, I was fairly sure that arm had still been attached, so they must have had to take it the rest of the way off for some reason. I fervently hoped that he had suffered. Judging by how he looked like he lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, that seemed to be the case. His face appeared almost gaunt.
“There’s at least three of them around the back of the house.” Dante slipped back into the room. I hadn’t noticed he was gone until he came back.
“Ok, that’s not a surprise.” Maggie scrubbed her face hard with her hands. “Um, ok. We have the weapons: a rifle, three handguns, and some ammo. There’re also about a dozen knives. We need to plan carefully what our move is going to be.”
“We can’t leave Fallon with him,” Maya spoke up for the first time.
Maggie turned to look at her. “We are all getting out of here. Including Fallon.”
I backed away from the window. I didn’t want to look outside anymore. Drawn by the confusion, Luna had woken up from where she had been sound asleep curled up on a chair. She stood with one hand buried in Rex’s hair, the other hanging on to Shawn’s shirt. Big eyes watched the adults around her solemnly. Taking the few steps needed to reach her, I brushed her riot of hair out of her face.
The little girl wasn’t the only one who was scared and confused.
From outside, Mack shouted, no longer bothering to use the radio. “You have five minutes to send out the people I want. Do that, and I’ll consider letting the rest of you walk away. Don’t send them out, and I’m gonna start taking pieces off of the one I do have. Think I’ll start with her arm. If my shouting doesn’t bring the zombies, I’ll bet her screaming will.”
“We can’t let them do that to Fallon.” Shawn shifted uneasily next to me.
“No one else is going to die,” Maggie repeated her earlier statement.
“Well, if any of them show themselves, I’m thinking that’s what’s going to happen.” Dante gestured towards us.
Maggie thought for a second. “What if we pretend to comply, buy some time, and get them to show themselves? Charlie, if you can see them, I know you could get at least some of them before they knew what was happening.”
Charlie frowned but nodded. “Get me a good vantage point and a rifle. I’ll get it done.” She sighed.
“What do you mean when you say pretend to comply?” Bill sounded a bit suspicious.
“We send two people out, but not any of you. I’m thinking that may throw them off for just long enough for them to mess up. I’m sure it would be the last thing they expect.” She looked around in my direction. “He’s looking for two people specifically, so we need a man and a woman that aren’t from your group.”
“Tick tock,” the booming voice from outside carried into the house.
“We don’t have time to argue over this. Charlie, get that gun and find your spot. That leaves me as the woman. Does anyone want to volunteer to be the guy?”
“I’ll do it,” wobbling unsteadily into the room, Colton volunteered. “It’s my fault they found us. It has to be. They must have followed me; it was stupid of me to come here. I should have known.”
“Colton, no.” Maggie shook her head at him. “They’ve seen you before. Besides, whoever goes out there is likely going to have to run from the crossfire. You aren’t in any shape for that.”
She had a point. Colton looked progressively worse as I got light enough to really see him. He’d taken a serious beating. With a defeated expression, he conceded that she was right.
“I’ll go. I’ll do it,” Dante spoke up.
SIXTY-THREE
DAY 29
“Who here knows how to use a gun?” Charlie swept back into the room as fast as her limp allowed. A rifle hung from a strap over her shoulder, and I presumed the lumpy looking duffel bag contained the rest of the weapons.
“I do.” Bill raised his hand slightly.
“Alright.” She hastily handed him a small gun from the bag. “That’s it? No one else knows?” Frowning, Charlie looked over everyone else. I felt like a kid getting a good scolding when she muttered, “Gonna have to fix that if we survive this.”
“Here,” she continued, “I know you two know which end the bullets come out of.” She thrust the remaining guns at both Maggie and Colton. Still muttering, she pulled a box of ammunition from the bag and stalked towards the stairs.
“Here, you take it.” Maggie’s words interrupted me watching Charlie’s exit. She was handing her gun to Dante.
“You sure?” He looked reluctant to take the weapon.
“Yeah.” She looked away from him and to the rest of us. “Is everyone clear on what to do?”
I nodded. The plan was probably completely foolhardy, and we were likely all going to die. I couldn’t help feeling relieved that they weren’t simply handing Shawn and me over to save themselves, but I also felt guilty for that relief.
If I were really a good person, I wouldn’t let others risk their lives for mine.
“Ok. We are out of time. Go.”
Maggie’s order galvanized me into action. Luna was being left in my dubious protection, and I pulled the frightened girl toward the stairs. It felt wrong to hide when everyone else was going to fight, but someone had to try to keep the kid safe, and I’d been elected. I’d scowled at Shawn when he made the suggestion.
The upstairs bathroom seemed like the best place, and I ushered Luna in as I heard the front door open. The window in a room just down the hall slid open. Charlie must have found her perch.
I wished that I wasn’t blind to what was happening outside. Shooing Rex inside after Luna, I followed but didn’t close the door all of the way. In the unnatural quiet of the abandoned neighborhood, it wasn’t hard to pick up the conversation from outside.
“Who the fuck are you?” Mack’s voice rang out in the silence.
“Look, we don’t know who you are. We just wanted to be with a group, but we’ll go. We don’t want any trouble.” I heard Maggie, but she had pitched her voice higher than it was usually. The sound was startling, as was her apparent ability to act. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have bought the nervous tremble behind those words completely. Then again, those nerves were probably real.
“Is this some kind of a joke?” A long pause had me holding my breath in anticipation of what was going to happen next. “You two are not who I want. Who else is in there?” Now a hint of anger seeped through Mack’s voice.
Any reply that Maggie may have been going to make was cut off by a loud shot coming from down the hall. My already pounding heart leaped into my throat when Charlie’s gruff v
oice started cursing colorfully. Another shot followed the first.
Outside, chaos had erupted. Someone was returning our fire. Bullets made a dull thwack as they hit the sturdy house, and glass shattered somewhere downstairs. Men’s voices were yelling, and I picked out Maggie’s voice too. Tires screeched to a stop somewhere nearby. And then I heard the inhuman shriek of a zombie.
Stuffed into the dark bathroom behind me, Luna whimpered, reminding me that I was supposed to be watching out for her. “Luna, get in the tub. Get down and hide.”
With bullets flying, I hoped the tub would be enough to protect the girl.
More glass shattered downstairs and someone began shooting from down there too. Shouts and expletives filled the air. Looking back and forth between the cracked door and Luna huddled in the tub, I didn’t know what to do. I was supposed to stay with the girl, but what good would that do if everyone on our side was killed while I hid upstairs?
“Zombie!” Maya’s warning shout from downstairs made up my mind. A handful of bad men weren’t the only dangerous things coming for us. We were making a whole lot of noise.
“Luna, I’m going to go help our people. You stay in this bathroom. Lock the door behind me and don’t open it until someone you know tells you to. Do you understand?”
I waited until her wide eyes met mine before swinging the door open. “It’s going to be ok. Just stay here.”
I heard Charlie cussed again as I stepped back into the hallway. The door pushed open again just as I was about to close it.
“Rex!” I yelled after him, but his tail was already streaking around the corner toward the stairs. There wasn’t time to try to get him back. I closed the door firmly and hoped Luna remembered to lock it behind me.
A strange sort of resolve settled around me as I ran for the steps. People were dying. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that everyone was going to come out of this alive. Maybe I would be one of them. But I couldn’t just hide and wait to find out which side won.
I gripped my machete as I bounded down the stairs. I’d already used it on a living person once before, and in defense of family, I’d do it again.
I hit the first floor running and plowed headlong into a complete stranger who had just bolted into the room. The two of us crashed to the floor. I somehow managed to keep ahold of my weapon, and I flipped over and jumped to my feet, turning to face the threat.
I stopped dead in my tracks. The man had kept possession of his weapon too, and it was aimed directly at me as he lay sprawled where I’d knocked him over. His lips quirked up in a cold, half smile as he cocked the gun.
A shot from so close that it made my ears ring made me jump. I cringed and waited for the pain, but it didn’t come. Disbelieving my own eyes, I watched the man slump back onto the floor.
Bill stepped through the door behind the body, gun in hand. “You ok?” When I nodded, he kept going towards the back of the house.
The fight was still raging, and I tried to shake off my close call as I ran after Bill. Skidding into the kitchen, I found where the worst of the noise was coming from.
The back door was hanging from broken hinges. Two zombies were already inside, and Shawn and Colton were trying to keep them from getting any further into the house. Barking wildly, Rex circled the zombies, confusing the creatures, but also adding to the noise and chaos.
Bill had stopped next to the kitchen window and was shooting at someone outside before ducking back to avoid return fire. A picture hung on the wall not far from my head shattered as a bullet hit it. I ducked away from the window and tried to angle my way to help fight the zombies.
Someone started screaming outside just as I swung the machete at the first zombie. I jumped and nearly missed my target. Luckily, a hard enough blow to the neck with a machete did enough damage to take the zombie off of its feet. The other one was easier to deal with once it was three against one.
“Bri, where’s Luna?” Colton swayed unsteadily. The situation wasn’t good for him in his condition.
“She’s ok. She’s locked in the bathroom upstairs.”
He nodded. None of them commented on my sudden appearance, which I was grateful for. I’d expected Shawn to yell. Instead, he pulled me close for a quick hug, before darting across the room to stand next to Bill.
What’s going on?” I directed my question to Colton.
“There’s a lot of them. And the noise is drawing the zombies.”
“Maggie?”
“I don’t know. She and Dante started to run when Charlie first fired. I lost track of them.”
“Why are they still fighting?” I had thought that without their leader, maybe the other group would back off.
“Charlie missed. Or he moved at the last second. I don’t know what happened, but the guy with the orange hair was still alive the last time I saw him.”
The revelation stunned me into silence. Mack was still alive. Our plan to get him first had failed.
SIXTY-FOUR
DAY 29
A loud crash back at the front of the house had Colton running from the room.
“How many of them can there possibly be?” Bill muttered to himself as he dodged more bullets.
“Too many,” Shawn answered him. “This is taking too long and making too much noise. We have to end it.”
Another loud crash rocked the house. Shouting followed. Whatever was happening out there, things sounded like they were going worse than back here. With a last look at the pair of guys trying to guard the back, I bolted back to the front.
I leaped over the pool of blood that had spread from the man who had almost shot me and darted into the next room. Or what was left of it. Someone had driven a small car through the front of the house.
The mangled front end of the little red sedan had smoke rolling from under the hood. Maya and Alex were struggling to keep from being slashed by a tall man with a frighteningly large knife. Alex’s twisted ankle was slowing him down enough that he was practically defenseless, leaving Maya to try to save him.
Colton was there too, but he had his hands full trying to stop the group of zombies that were crawling their way into the house around the wreckage of the car. I took a step towards him to help, but he caught my movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking over, he hissed, “Help them!”
Changing direction, I approached the knife fight. The man, who had been looking smug, grew more worried when he realized that someone else was in the room. His attack changed to defense, giving Maya a much-needed breather.
I’d never purposefully attacked another human before. Not that I had any qualms over it, I would defend my family, whichever way I needed to, but I didn’t know how to go about it. Frowning, I attempted to circle the guy, leaving him in a position where either Maya or I were always at his back.
Seeing what I was doing, he lunged at me with his knife. I barely dodged out of the way, avoiding getting a slice that would have probably killed me slowly. His attack sent Rex, who had been at my heels, charging into the room.
He didn’t make a sound as he leaped through the air and bit down hard on the arm holding the knife. The man didn’t have time to even react before Maya swept in behind him and stabbed him in the back.
There was no time to stop or contemplate on what had just happened. Colton was slowly losing the battle to keep the zombies out. Whirling around, I darted to help him, using the machete on several zombies. By the time the last one had been killed, the hole that the car had punched through the wall was partially filled with corpses.
The gunfire was slowing down. I hoped that meant that we were winning, and not that we were running out of ammo. The front of the house was quiet for the moment, so I turned around and ran back toward the back.
I hadn’t made it to the kitchen yet when I knew that something had changed while I was gone. I no longer heard the sound of bullets raining into the kitchen. Instead, there was an ominous silence. Sliding to a stop, I peered around the corner before rushing into the room.
It was empty.
The door still hung open. The dead zombies still lay on the floor, but Shawn and Bill were both missing.
I had a flashback of Shawn’s words just before I’d run from the room.
“No! They wouldn’t be that stupid,” I said it out loud. In reality, I knew that leaving the protection of the house was exactly the kind of thing that they would do if they thought they were saving their people.
“What’s wrong?” Maya had come in behind me.
“Shawn and Bill were here two minutes ago. Now they’re not.” I looked at her, distressed.
Her eyes darted around, assessing. “That foolhardy man.” She headed for the open door.
Following Maya, I went into the backyard. No one shot at us, so I guessed that was a good sign. Maybe we weren’t running out of bullets after all.
A single shot rang from around the side of the house. Trying to be stealthy in the open yard wasn’t really happening, so the two of us just ran as fast as we could toward the sound.
Rounding the corner of the house, I almost crashed into Maya’s back. She had come to a sudden stop. The reason was easy to figure out. There, in the small stretch of grass between the house and the next, we found Bill and Shawn. And Mack, holding a gun to Maggie’s side.
“The gang’s all here!” he sang mockingly, flashing a predatory smile at us. “That’s good news. Things are getting a little too hot here for my comfort, but I didn’t want to go without the two of you. Even better, now I’ve got four.”
Maggie looked supremely ticked off, but other than a bruise that was already forming on her cheek, she seemed ok. I eyed the gun, wondering how proficient Mack was with it without his arm. His grip looked steady.
The others must have been wondering the same thing as they all had stopped a wary distance from him.
“Now, I don’t know who this lovely lady is, but I don’t, as of yet, have any quarrel with her. You four, on the other hand, well, that ship has sailed. So, how about we all walk over to my truck, nice and easy, and you all use the duct tape in the back to tie each other up. Don’t give me any problems and I won’t have to kill this pretty thing.”