by Kate L. Mary
We reached the end of the lobby where two zombies were chowing down. The sight of them digging into human flesh made my stomach lurch, but I knew I couldn’t look away. We had to be careful. Had to keep them in our line of sight so we were certain they didn’t decide to turn their attention to the fresh meat in front of them: us.
Logan made a wide arc around the zombies and by some miracle they didn’t seem to notice when we charged by. The hall beyond them was dark, but since all the chaos seemed to be limited to the front of the building, we kept moving. Running hand in hand, leaving the screams and moans behind as we charged into the darkness.
Chapter 9
WE STOPPED TO REST WHEN WE WERE SURE that we had put enough distance between the zombies and us. Both Logan and I were out of breath, and my shirt was clinging to my back, but I knew we wouldn’t be able to stay here for long. We had to get out of this building and then we had to find a car.
Only, leaving here would mean giving up on Tessa. I couldn’t do that. Even if we had to make a run for it, I couldn’t accept that she was gone. She was with Rick. He would keep her safe, I was sure of it. I just had to make sure that she would be able to find me.
“We can go home,” I said, and my words echoed through the empty halls.
“What?” Logan’s voice was much lower than mine had been.
“Home.” This time it was barely above a whisper. “If we go back to my house, Tessa and Rick will be able to find us. Think about it. Daniel Island is small. We’ll be mostly surrounded by water and we’ll be pretty secure there.”
Through the darkness I saw Logan nod. “Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. We just have to get to your car.”
“I don’t have my keys, Logan. They were in my backpack.”
He let out a sigh. “Okay. We’ll find another one. We’ll get out of here and we’ll find a car, and then we’ll drive to Daniel Island. It will be okay.”
I loved the confidence in his voice. Loved that he felt certain we would make it out of this. If I couldn’t have Tessa with me, he was the next best thing. Certainly better than being alone right now. Just thinking about it scared the shit out of me.
“Which way?” I asked as I searched the darkness.
“There.” Logan pointed down the dark hall, and in the distance I could just make out the green glow of an exit sign. “We head that way.”
He grabbed my hand again before taking off, and I clung to him like it was the only thing keeping me from drowning. The chaos in the distance faded even more as the blackness surrounded us, but I kept moving, my focus on the green sign that signaled safety. Or at least a way out of here.
We burst outside only to be engulfed by darkness and the sticky South Carolina air. I let out a deep breath, feeling like we were one step closer to being safe, and when I inhaled the scent of rain tickled my nostrils.
My gaze moved up. It was the middle of the night, but even in the midst of the darkness I could see the clouds clogging the sky. They were dark and angry, and combined with the wind whipping down the street and the extra moisture in the air, they told me that a big storm was on the way.
“Look at the sky,” I whispered to Logan, pointing up.
He tilted his head back and peered at the clouds, letting out a low whistle when he did. “Looks bad.”
“It’s hurricane season.”
I tried to remember back before the electricity went out and the news was still running. Had they been tracking any hurricanes? It was hard to say for sure. We hadn’t really been focused on the weather, not with the virus running rampant.
“We need to get somewhere safe before it hits,” Logan said.
His hand wrapped around mine again and he started walking, pulling me away from the building and toward the parking lot. It was smaller than the one we had parked in when we first arrived, making me think it had been for employees. There were a few cars around, but not many. Not that they would be of any use to us unless someone had decided to be a Good Samaritan and leave their keys in the ignition. I had no idea how to hotwire a car and I doubted Logan did either.
We stopped at the first car and he tried the door, but it was locked. We moved on to the next one to find the same thing. The front door to the third car opened, but since the keys weren’t sitting there waiting for us, it might as well have been locked just like the others.
Logan slammed the door and let out a sigh. “We’re not going to find anything here. We need to take a walk.” He pointed to the road. “There’s a row of townhouses over there. We’ll have better luck with that. Maybe.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled and he once again grabbed my hand before he started walking.
The street was pretty much the same as it had been when I drove down it two days ago: empty of people and any moving vehicles, with a couple abandoned cars sitting here and there. I considered checking them out, but the lack of working lights told me the batteries would be dead. Logan was right. We’d be better off raiding a townhouse for keys.
The humidity seemed to grow in intensity as we walked, and the wind was relentless. It slammed into us as if trying to hold us back, whipping my hair into my face and making it impossible to see, let alone to talk. I had a million things to say, but they were all so jumbled that I almost felt relieved that I had time to collect my thoughts before Logan and I discussed what had just happened. Zombies. I still couldn’t believe it was real, but it was. Only, it didn’t make any sense.
As we moved, I kept my eyes open for any signs that the walking dead had actually taken over the earth. There were none, though. No reanimated bodies stumbling down the street searching for human flesh to feast on. No bloody bodies that had been ripped apart. Maybe whatever had happened had been a fluke. Maybe the dead hadn’t really come back.
It took us ten minutes to reach the row of townhouses Logan had pointed out, and we didn’t see a single sign of life on the way. Just like our neighborhood back on Daniel Island, these houses were as dark as the night surrounding us.
Logan dropped my hand as he approached the front door of the first one, and when he paused to knock I held my breath. We waited only a minute to see if someone would answer. When no one did, he reached for the knob and I found myself crossing my fingers. It turned, and Logan looked back at me, flashing a smile that was barely visible in the slivers of moonlight that had somehow managed to break through the clouds.
He pushed the door open and stuck his head inside. “Hello?”
Again we paused, but again nothing happened. So Logan reached back and grabbed my hand, and then took a step inside.
The howl from the pre-storm wind was cut off when we shut the door. Inside, the house was stuffy and humid from being shut up with no air conditioning, and the faint stink of death tickled my nostrils the same way the scent of rain had when we’d stepped out of the coliseum. I had a feeling it was a smell I was going to have to get used to.
“I’m sorry we had to leave Tessa,” Logan said, breaking the silence.
“She’ll be fine,” I replied, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “She and Rick are together. He’ll keep her safe. Right?”
Through the darkness I saw Logan’s head bob. “He really does care about her, Melanie. He’ll get her back to you.”
“Good.”
We didn’t say anything for a moment, but we didn’t move deeper into the house either. The words hanging between us felt too big to say out loud, but it was something we were going to have to face at some point, because it had happened and not talking about it didn’t make it go away.
“Those were zombies, right?” I finally said.
Again, Logan nodded. “I think so.”
“Can this really be happening?”
“I can’t—” He paused and swallowed. “I don’t know what’s happening. It seems crazy, but we both saw it. Maybe it was an isolated incident. I don’t know for sure, but I do know that we need to get back to your house so we can hopefully meet up with Tessa and Rick. Before this storm hits.�
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I exhaled. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s find some keys.”
“First—” Logan turned away. “—we need a flashlight.”
Logan headed to the right and I followed. Through the darkness I saw the gleam of a stainless steel refrigerator. In my house we had kept our flashlights in the kitchen, under the sink to be exact, so I headed that way. It was as good of a place as any to start looking.
Logan and I bumped our way through the darkness, banging into the corners of hidden tables and invisible objects that I wouldn’t even attempt to identify, and by the time we reached the kitchen, I had no less than five bruises forming on my legs. We made it though, and it only took Logan a minute of rooting around in the darkness to locate the flashlight.
A second later it flicked on, illuminating the kitchen and the living room beyond that. I scanned the area, searching for keys. They weren’t on the counter and I didn’t see any hooks on the wall like we had back in my parents’ house.
“Maybe a purse?” I said as I moved back into the living room.
I spotted one on the couch, lying on its side with the contents spilling out onto the cushion as if someone had tossed it there as they walked by, and I headed that way. Logan followed, then stood over me with the flashlight as I dumped the rest of the stuff out of the purse. A key ring dropped out, the keys clinking against one another in the process, and I scooped it up.
“Got one.” I studied them for a second. “There’s a key for a Toyota. Hopefully, all we have to do is go outside and hit this button to find out where the thing is parked.”
“Good.” Logan exhaled. “That takes care of one thing at least. Now if we can just—”
Something banged against the ceiling above us and his words died away before they had made their way out. We both looked up as if we would somehow be able to see through the ceiling, and my heart beat harder. Images from inside the coliseum flashed through my mind. Blood, screams, panic.
“What do you think that was?” Logan said as he turned his back to me.
The beam of the flashlight moved across the room as he did, illuminating the space inch by inch. The bottom of the stairs came into view. Logan took a step toward it and I stood, reaching for him as he lifted the beam.
The thing came out of nowhere, shooting through the darkness before Logan had even had a chance to move the beam any further. It let out a sound that was a cross between a howl and a moan only seconds before it slammed into him. They went flying back while the flashlight soared through the air in the opposite direction. It hit the wall and the beam went out, throwing us into darkness.
“Melanie,” Logan gasped. “The light.”
A grunt followed, and then another growl. I dove across the room to where I had last seen the flashlight, grappling in the darkness for it while behind me Logan struggled with the zombie. Blood pounded in my ears and my hands came up empty. I crawled forward, sweeping my fingers across the floor in desperation, and somehow I managed to find the flashlight.
When I hit the button nothing happened. I banged it against my palm and the light flicked on. I spun around, holding it out in front of me and illuminating the struggle that was taking place on the other side of the room.
Logan was on the floor and a zombie woman was on top of him, chomping her mouth in his direction. He had her by the throat and was doing a good job of holding her back, but she wasn’t letting up. She fought against him, desperate to tear him to pieces. If I didn’t do something she might just succeed.
“Hold on!” I yelled as I jumped to my feet and took off.
The beam bounced across the room as I ran for the kitchen, my sights set on the knife block. I reached it and pulled a knife out, but quickly discarded it when I saw that it was a meat cleaver. The tip of the next one I pulled out glinted in the beam of my flashlight. It was long and sharp. Perfect.
I turned back, the flashlight in one hand and the knife in the other. Across the room, Logan grunted as he struggled to hold the zombie back. It only took me a few seconds to reach them, and when I did I lifted the knife, but it was at that moment that it hit me what I was about to do. What if this wasn’t a zombie? What if this woman was alive? Would this be murder? Could I really kill someone?
“Melanie,” Logan grunted.
I brought the knife down before I could talk myself out of it. The blade sank into the woman’s back and she let out a roar, but she didn’t ease up. Not even for a second. I pulled the knife out and did it again, but still nothing happened. It was enough proof for me.
This time when I pulled the blade out, my sights were set on the woman’s head. She was fighting with Logan, jerking around so much that the thought of bringing the knife down terrified me. What if I missed and hit Logan?
“Melanie,” he grunted out again.
“I’m afraid I’m going to stab you!” I practically screamed.
It looked like Logan nodded, and when he grunted again, it was followed by him shoving the woman back. She went flying, howling in rage as she did. She landed on her back and in seconds was twisting as if trying to stand, but Logan was too fast. He was up by then, and he pounced, landing on top of her and pinning her arms down.
“Now!”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I moved, the knife ready, and brought the blade down. The impact when it hit her skull was much more intense than I had expected, but thankfully it sank in, and like a switch had been flipped, the woman stopped moving.
Logan sat back, but didn’t get to his feet. I stood at his side and we both stared down at the woman as we tried to catch our breath. I couldn’t believe that had just happened, and I wasn’t sure if I should feel bad that I had stabbed her in the head or relieved that she was no longer trying to take a bite out of us.
After I caught my breath and came to my senses, I noticed that a foul stench had filled the room. When I moved the beam of the flashlight over the woman it illuminated the blood seeping from her wound. Only it wasn’t blood. It was black, and it was no doubt the source of the stench.
“That was a zombie, right?” I said, breaking the silence.
Logan nodded as he climbed to his feet. “I don’t know what else to call it.”
“It makes no sense. This can’t be real.”
“It is.” Logan grabbed the flashlight out of my hand and panned it around the room. When he found the keys, he swiped them up off the floor. “We need to leave.”
He paused long enough to yank the knife out of the woman’s head before heading for the door. I followed wordlessly, finding it impossible to sort through all the thoughts swirling through my head.
Outside the wind had picked up even more, but thankfully all it took was one push of the button on the key fob and the lights of a nearby Toyota Camry flashed. Logan grabbed my hand before heading that way. With any luck we would be back at my house and safe before this storm hit. I just had to pray that our luck didn’t run out any time soon.
Chapter 10
LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES INTO OUR DRIVE, IT started raining. It wasn’t a light rain, either. Big droplets of water slammed into the car as if thrown by the wind, and that combined with the lack of electricity made visibility almost nonexistent. Logan drove with his hands at ten and two while leaning over the steering in an effort to see. It didn’t help. Even with the windshield wipers on full blast it felt like we were driving through a waterfall.
“It’s okay,” I kept saying. “Just take your time and drive slow. We’ll get there.”
He only nodded in response.
By the time we pulled into our neighborhood we were both tense. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized we were about to face a few more problems. First of all, how were we going to get in the house? I’d locked it when Tessa and I left, and since my keys were gone I would have to search for the fake rock that held the spare key. In the middle of the pouring rain. Even worse, once we got inside I would have to check on my family. I didn’t know how this zombie thing worked, but if bodies were coming ba
ck that could mean my mom and dad and sister were up and walking around. Tessa and I had moved them to the garage, so at least they weren’t in the house, but that didn’t mean I could leave them like that. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how horrible it would be to not only see them as zombies, but to have to put them out of their misery.
“Which house?” Logan called over the rain pounding against the roof of the car.
We had just turned onto my street, and even though I had grown up here and had always assumed I could have driven home on memory alone, I had a hard time finding my house in the midst of the pouring rain.
I leaned forward just like he had been doing the whole drive and peered out through the windshield. “We’re almost there.”
Logan nodded and clenched the steering wheel tighter.
“There,” I said when I spotted my house. “That one.”
Logan pulled into the driveway and put the car in park, but for a second neither one of us moved.
“We made it,” he finally said.
“Yeah. Now we just have to find the key.” I pointed to the flowerbed that lined the front porch. “It’s in there somewhere, hidden in a fake rock.”
Logan exhaled. “Great. I was hoping I’d get soaked by the rain.”
“I know,” was all I said before shoving the door open and charging out into the rain.
I was soaked before I had even shut the door. Water fell on my head by the gallons as I moved, sliding down my face and into my eyes. It made seeing anything impossible, and I was forced to drop to my knees when I reached the flowerbed so I could feel around. Mulch dug into my bare knees and mud squished between my fingers as I blindly searched for the rock. The last time I’d seen the thing it had been under the azalea bush, but I knew my dad moved it frequently. Who knew where it had ended up?