Chapter 16
Day 4
An unfamiliar black SUV pulled up to the garage, and Damon saw his mom and Emily climb out. It was immediately evident that Camille wasn’t with them. He was out the front door and the door of the enclosed front porch before they could take two steps toward the house.
“Holy shit, mom,” Damon exclaimed. “What the hell happened?” He saw that her hair was jaggedly and unevenly cut short, and blood stained her head, neck, and shirt. He glanced at Emily and saw purple hand-shaped bruises on both of her arms and bloodstains on her shirt as well. He took his mom’s hand and led her toward the house while Joey grabbed their backpacks of supplies from the car. Joey looked at both women worriedly. It was clear they’d been through a lot.
“Has your sister come home?” Anna asked though she knew in her heart that she hadn’t.
“No. Not yet,” Damon said. “But dad made it home last night.” Before he could say more, Anna started questioning him.
“Dad’s home? He’s okay?” Anna’s eyes teared up with relief, knowing that her husband was safe and at home.
“He came home but left again to search for you and Camille,” Damon started. “Mom, Jesse’s dead.”
“Oh my god,” Anna gasped, then looked at Joey. “Joey, honey, I’m so sorry.” She let go of Damon’s hand and pulled Joey in for a hug. She hugged him so tightly that he dropped the backpacks. When she finally pulled away, Damon grabbed the backpacks and ushered everyone into the house.
“Dad brought three other guys home with him. A man named Vince, and two firefighters, Frank and Junior. Vince went back out with dad last night to search,” Damon said. “Frank and Junior are here, and they’ve been doing perimeter checks and keeping everyone well fed.”
“What about Michelle and Lucia?” Anna couldn’t believe that Jesse was dead. A hundred questions ran through her mind. She was worried sick about her best friend losing her husband and was upset that she couldn’t have been there with Michelle when she found out. She felt like she was in shock herself, finding out that Jesse died and that Max had come home but left again. She was terrified that she was going to lose both her husband and her daughter. She shook her head, trying to fight back the tears that threatened to overflow.
“My mom is in pretty bad shape,” Joey said as tears filled his own eyes. “She’s been in bed all day. Once she realized that the guys had things covered and she wasn’t needed, she took a sleeping pill and hasn’t been up since. I’m worried about her.”
“Lucia’s in the kitchen. She’s having a hard time, too,” Damon said. “She feels guilty about Camille and thinks it’s all her fault that Camille had to take off running the way she did. She blames herself. Between that and losing her dad, she’s having a rough time of it. She’s pretty tough, though, Mom. She killed her first two zombies today.”
“That poor girl, it’s not her fault,” Anna said as she shook her head. She was surprised to hear that Lucia killed a couple of zombies but supposed she should get used to the kids maturing and growing up overnight.
“We’ve been teaching her about weapons, and we finished going through the Wright’s house. We just finished eating, so she’s cleaning up the dishes. She’ll be okay,” Joey said. “It’s just going to take some time. For all of us.”
“I’ve gotta check on Michelle,” Anna said.
“Anna,” Emily spoke up. “We have to clean you up first.”
Anna was so caught up in everything the boys were telling her that she forgot all about her head. She nodded, and they headed for the kitchen instead. All of the first aid supplies were gathered up on one of the counters with the rest of the supplies that they had bagged up.
She saw Lucia and immediately pulled her in for a hug. “I’m so sorry about your dad, sweetie.” Lucia nodded, and tears filled her eyes, but she fought them and pulled herself together. “Thank you,” Lucia said as she wiped her eyes. She would let herself cry some more later on. She stepped back to allow the others more room to move around the kitchen.
As Anna looked through the first aid supplies, Joey started refilling the backpacks from the car to make sure Anna and Emily were well stocked when they went back out.
“What happened to you?” Damon asked. He was really worried about seeing his mom injured and bloody.
“I’m fine, kiddo,” Anna said. “A zombie ripped out a few handfuls of my hair, that’s all. I just need to clean up the wounds, so I don’t get an infection. Emily has nearly the same injuries from a different zombie that got a hold of her last night. Mine are just a little bloodier. We should clean yours up again too, Emily.”
“Why don’t you lean over the sink?” Emily said. “Let me rinse away as much as I can, and then I’ll pour peroxide over your whole head.” Anna leaned over the sink while Emily cleaned her up. The peroxide burned so badly that it felt like straight alcohol, but she held back from letting out a yelp. She didn’t want to worry her son any more than he already was.
“Damon, grab some scissors for me,” Anna said. While she waited, she cleaned up the wounds on Emily’s head and checked the bruises on her arms. “Ouch, those bruises look pretty bad. How severe is the pain?”
“It feels like my bones are bruised. That’s how much it hurts. I wouldn’t mind an aspirin, but I don’t want any painkillers that might cloud my head,” Emily said.
Anna nodded and grabbed a bottle from one of the bags. She took a few for herself then handed the bottle to Emily as Damon returned with the scissors.
“Would you like the honor?” She asked Emily with a grim smile as she held out the scissors. Her once beautiful, long dark hair was now just past her shoulders but the length varied by inches in some spots because of the rough knife cut she had to do. She was too stressed and worried about everything else to care about her hair anymore. She just wanted a quick chop straight across, and then she’d pull it back in a short ponytail. Emily made quick work of it then asked Anna to cut hers off.
“Are you sure? We can just pull your hair up in a bun or ponytail,” Anna said as she looked at Emily’s beautiful long blonde hair.
“Yes. Same cut as yours. I don’t want either of us nearly getting killed again because of our long hair,” Emily said resolutely. As Anna was making the quick cut, she was startled by the voices of two men as they walked in the front door.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Damon said. “It’s Frank and Junior. They were doing a perimeter check.”
She finished chopping Emily’s hair off as the two men entered the kitchen.
“Hi, you must be Anna. I’m Frank, and this is Junior,” Frank said. “We heard the car pull up when we were checking the perimeter and figured it had to be you or Max.”
“Yeah, and this is Emily,” Anna said quickly.
“Hi,” Emily nodded to Frank and Junior. “So you guys are firemen? I dated a fireman once. He worked downtown somewhere.”
Frank and Junior shared a glance, chuckled, and both said, “Dan!”
“That’s right,” Emily perked up. “We had a fun time. Did he make it?”
Junior started to tell the story, but Frank interrupted, “Don’t know, ma’am. He worked at a different station.”
“How has the perimeter been?” Anna interrupted, picking up on Frank’s cue.
“Well, the boys had a close call late last night and took out a good seventy zombies in the yard behind yours. Since then, we’ve killed half a dozen,” Frank said.
“What the fuck? Damon!” Anna started. “What the hell happened? Are you okay? Why the hell would you go up against so many zombies by yourselves?” She was shocked to learn that Joey and her son had been in such mortal danger.
“We’re fine, Mom,” Damon said with a sigh. He could tell his mom was going to lose it and tried to head her off. “We didn’t realize how many were back there until it was too late. Some guy helped us, but he ended up getting bit. We made it through without a scratch.”
“We didn’t lose any hair, either,” Joey said
with a grin knowing that Anna was either going to laugh or tell him off.
“Funny,” Anna said with a little laugh, and the boys breathed a sigh of relief. Her laugh faded, and she turned to Frank and Junior with venom in her voice. “Where were you? Letting the boys take on so much risk out there like that.”
“We didn’t know, or we would never have let them go out there,” Junior spoke up. “We’ve taken over doing the perimeter checks since it happened.”
“It’s not their fault, Mom,” Damon said. “After dad came home, and we found out about Jesse… we needed to get out and kill some zombies. We never would have gone over the fence if we’d known the yard was full of them.”
“I needed it,” Joey said as his expression darkened thinking of the memory of finding his mom sobbing on the floor in Max’s arms. Anna read Joey’s face and decided to let it go.
“We’ve gotta get back out there,” Anna said. “Camille is still out there somewhere.”
“Mom, wait, I almost forgot,” Damon started. “We have a radio. Dad and Vince stopped back home last night to give us one, and he kept the other so we could call him if you or Camille made it home.”
“We have a radio? Where is it?” Anna asked quickly. Her mood lifted considerably after finding out they had a radio. She couldn’t believe that she had a way to contact her husband and that she would finally hear his voice.
“Here you go, Mom,” Damon said. “It’s already on the right channel.”
Anna tuned out her son and everyone else around her as she pressed the button to call Max. “Baby?” she said into the radio.
Chapter 17
Day 4
Max was driving around, continuing with his search, when he suddenly heard Anna’s voice come from the radio. Stunned and elated, he immediately picked it up and responded.
“Anna, holy shit babe, I can’t believe it’s you,” Max said.
“Baby, I’ve missed you so much,” Anna said, her voice full of emotion.
“I’ve missed you too,” Max said heavily. “You have no idea.”
“Are you okay?” Anna asked. “Damon told me about Jesse.” She held back a sob. Saying the words aloud made it feel more real.
“I’m just fine babe,” Max said.
“I love you so much, Max,” Anna said. “Where are you?”
“I love you, too. I’m just a couple of miles away. I should be there in twenty minutes,” Max answered.
“Emily and I just stopped home to clean up some minor injuries. I’ve got to get back out there to look for Camille,” Anna said. “I can’t waste another minute.”
“You can wait twenty minutes, baby,” Max said. “I need to see you. I need to see for myself that you’re okay.”
“I’m fine, Max. I just lost a few chunks of hair to a zombie with a good grip. I’m all cleaned up, the boys restocked our bags, and we’re getting ready to head back out,” Anna said.
“Wait until I get there. It’s been twenty-four hours; another twenty minutes isn’t going to make a difference.”
“Max…,” Anna started, then hesitated a moment. She desperately wanted to see her husband, but every second that she wasn’t out searching for Camille was killing her. She was so afraid that she would never find her.
“Anna, please wait. I know she’s your baby girl, but I need you to wait for me,” Max said.
“Damn it, Max, fine, I’ll wait. Twenty-one minutes and I’m gone,” Anna said with a little laugh.
“I love you, babe. I’ll be there as fast as I can,” Max said with a grin on his face as relief flowed through him.
He set the radio down and focused solely on the road in front of him. He increased his speed since he was temporarily suspending his search and heading straight for his house. He glanced at Maggie and the small smile set on her face.
“She sounds pretty tough, like she can handle herself,” Maggie said.
“She is, and she can, but I would feel much better if I knew she was safe at home while I was out searching. It’s the same reason I wouldn’t let my son help me look for Camille. Knowing he’s safe, I can focus fully on looking for my daughter. Now that I know that my wife is safe, with her going back out again, I’m going to be worrying even more about both her and Camille,” Max said. “She’s smart, stubborn as hell, and she’s fiercely protective of our kids. There’s no way I’m going to be able to get her to stay home.” He sighed in resignation.
“Maybe the two of you can search together instead of going off separately,” Maggie suggested.
“That’s my plan. If she won’t stay home, then I want her with me,” Max said, but he knew it would be a battle to get Anna to agree. Sometimes she was too stubborn for her own good.
He weaved around a few zombies in the middle of the street then sped up a little more.
“You afraid she’s going to leave if we’re not there in twenty minutes?” Maggie asked with a grin.
“Shit, with Anna, who the hell knows,” Max said with a little smile. He honestly was a little concerned that she might take off before he got there if he didn’t make it home quickly.
Up ahead, a few dozen zombies filled the street, so Max made a quick turn to avoid them. Cutting down the little side streets was always risky because if he came upon a big enough crowd of zombies, he could get caught up and have to ditch the truck. He made a couple more turns, dodging abandoned cars, zombies, and bodies in the streets, before getting within a half-mile of his house.
“We’re almost there,” Max said excitedly. He drove around half a dozen zombies, then turned onto his street. Zombie slush still covered the road. Blood, guts, arms, legs, feet, entrails, shoes, clothing, and occasional dead bodies covered the road from one side to the other. Not much had changed since last night other than things seemed to be a bit more dried up. He made a slow pass by his house while looking everywhere for the dead. He had to make sure there weren’t any up the street or in neighboring yards that might see him pull into his hidden driveway. Several houses down, three zombies stumbled about in the middle of the street.
“Shit,” Max said. “I’ve gotta stop and take these out, so they don’t follow us. Keep a lookout to make sure there aren’t any more in the yards or anything.”
Maggie nodded and kept a sharp eye out for more zombies as Max got out of the truck.
The three zombies were walking close together, which made them a little bit harder to take down, but Max had killed so many that he knew how to use caution while killing them quickly. One was an old man that looked pretty frail. He wore ripped striped pajamas with bare feet. Several large chunks were missing from both arms. The second zombie looked like he’d been a middle-aged businessman of some sort with the suit, tie, and dress shoes he wore. Dried blood ringed his mouth, and one visible bite wound exposed tendons under stringy flesh where his neck met his shoulder. The third looked like he’d been a twenty-something bodybuilder in a bloody wife-beater and torn jeans. His muscular arms bore several bites with dried brackish blood, and tattered pale flesh hung loosely. Max went for him first, giving him a solid kick to the chest to knock him backward while he took down the two easier kills. A quick thrust of his knife and the old man dropped to the ground. He gave bodybuilder another kick while he grabbed the former businessman and plunged his knife into his ear. The bodybuilder was relentless but much easier to take out once the other two were down. When he reached for Max the third time, Max plunged his knife into his eye. He bent down and wiped his knife off on the stained wife-beater, then stood back up to look around for other threats. Seeing nothing, he looked at Maggie, and she shook her head.
With no other zombies in sight, Max backed the truck up to his driveway and made the turn. He hopped out to unlock the gate, pulled forward, locked the gate, and pulled down the driveway until he reached his garage.
“Wow,” Maggie said with wonder in her voice. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were a bit off the grid. I would never have found this house on my own.”
&nbs
p; “Home sweet home,” Max said, feeling a bit giddy about seeing Anna. “Let’s go.”
As Max walked toward the enclosed front porch, Anna met him at the front door. He climbed through the bars then walked inside with Maggie following closely behind him. He wrapped his arms around Anna, and they stood there embracing for a moment. As they let go, he got a good look at her and saw that her hair was chopped short and blood stained her shirt.
“Are you okay babe? What happened?” Max asked with concern.
“I’m fine. A zombie got a good hold on my hair, that’s all. I had to cut it off with my knife to get free of its grip, even after I killed him,” Anna said dismissively. She didn’t want Max worrying about it. “You almost missed the twenty-minute mark,” she said with a grin. “I was just about to take off without you.”
“No you weren’t,” Max laughed at her grin. They were both ecstatic to see each other. If their daughter wasn’t missing they’d be having an entirely different kind of reunion. Seeing her did wonders for his state of mind.
“Who’s this?” Anna nodded toward the fifty-ish woman standing just behind her husband.
“I’m Maggie. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Anna. I’ve heard so much about you,” Maggie said.
“Hi Maggie,” Anna said simply, then turned back to Max. She knew she was coming off bitchy, but she wasn’t in the mood to deal with new people.
“Her house was surrounded, and I managed to drive off all of the zombies. They’d done too much damage for her to finish securing her house, so she packed a bag, we emptied her pantry, and she’s been helping me search for Camille,” Max said. “How is everyone doing here? I haven’t checked in since last night.”
“Michelle’s sleeping, the kids are making themselves useful, and the guys have been doing perimeter checks. Firemen make good cooks, too,” Anna said.
They headed for the kitchen since that was where everyone was waiting. Max wanted to make a new game plan that would involve some of the others. Upon seeing his son, he pulled him in for a hug, then looked to Joey and Lucia and asked them if they were doing okay. They both nodded in response.
SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2) Page 13