by Raymond Lee
“We’ll give you a boost,” Cruz said, gesturing with his head toward the fence at the back of the small yard. “Come on. Damian first, then the women, Carlos, and we’ll pull ourselves over last.”
They ran to the fence as fast as they could through the snow that had yet to start melting on grassy areas. Cruz tucked his gun back into his coat pocket and bent over, lacing his gloved fingers together. “Go, Damian.”
Damian placed a booted foot into Cruz’s hands and was lifted up. He grabbed the top of the fence and pushed himself over, landing with an oomph. “All clear this side, but it’s open space. Hurry up.”
Hal tucked his gun away and bent down to lace his fingers together the same way Cruz had. “Come on ladies”
Raven gave Leah a light push toward Cruz and directed Janjai toward Hal. Once they were over the fence she placed her foot in Cruz’s hand and allowed him to boost her up alongside Pimjai. “Damian, make sure Pimjai doesn’t fall.”
As Raven rolled over the top of the fence she saw Damian reaching his arms up to help the pregnant woman get over safely. More concerned for her safety than her own, Raven simply allowed herself to drop down, assuming she’d land on her feet, which she did but then she tumbled backward.
“Whoa.” Leah grabbed her shoulders from behind, bracing her before she fell on her backside in the wet snow.
“Thanks, Leah. That could have been bad. I didn’t duct tape my ass.”
“Unless duct tape deflects bullets, I don’t think it matters much if we get a little wet and cold.”
Carlos came over the fence next and quickly moved aside for his son who was tall enough to pull himself up and jump over. Hal and Cruz came over next, both landing in a near squat before straightening and pulling their guns back out of their pockets.
“No one appears to have followed us,” Hal advised, “but let’s get some distance just in case.”
“Aren’t we going to stay close enough to watch the house to see if they leave?” Elijah asked.
“Boy, what part of them motherfuckers got guns and pointed that shit at us don’t you comprehend?” Damian asked, his voice elevating with each word, earning him a collective shushing. “Sorry. My Oakland comes out when I’m threatened.”
“Well, don’t let it come out so loud you draw our enemies to us,” Hal warned, scanning the area.
Raven scanned it with him. They appeared to be in a small alley running in between the back yards of houses on two parallel streets. She could see the upper halves of garbage cans that hadn’t toppled over and a few small garages at the back of some of the properties. Some yards were fenced, mostly with chain link, some weren’t. She saw a few cars in the alley, a Volkswagen and another small model she knew didn’t have a prayer of moving through the snow, and a small, rusty truck.
“Do you think that truck can get us anywhere?” she asked Hal, noticing he studied it as well.
“I’m almost tempted to try, but as long as it’s been sitting there in the cold and as low as it is to the ground…” He shook his head. “Damn it. Let’s cut through one of these unfenced yards and find something on the next street. We don’t want to be in a house too close to them in case they search but we don’t want to travel out in the open for too long and risk them catching us outside either.”
Not waiting for an agreement, Hal led the way, running a diagonal line through the alley with both hands wrapped around the gun he held down before him, index finger poised on the trigger.
The rest of the group followed suit, even Elijah who had to be shoved to get in gear. Raven’s heart went out to the guy as he cast a sorrowful glance back in the direction of his home, but a picture wasn’t worth a life.
They cut through an unfenced back yard, slushing through the snow as quickly as they could while maintaining a tight unit. Although they were all armed, Carlos, Elijah, and the twins stayed in the middle while the others guarded the outside. Raven wasn’t sure how skilled Leah was with a gun but she looked comfortable holding the one they’d given her.
Hal slowed as he rounded the red brick house and raised his arm in a right angle, his hand fisted. Raven had seen the gesture used in enough TV shows and movies to know it was a military command to stop.
He peeked around the side of the house and quickly withdrew, lining his back up against the wall. “We need to get inside somewhere now.”
“What did you see?” Raven asked, the icy chill flowing through her not the result of the frigid temperature.
“Five armed people across the street, one of them on a walkie talkie.”
“You think they’re talking to whoever we saw in Carlos and Elijah’s house?”
“Possibly, which would mean we are sandwiched between two possibly hostile groups. We definitely can’t walk out there.”
“My cousin’s house is at the end of the street down that way.” Carlos pointed to their left. “We haven’t spoken in years, but if he’s still alive he won’t kill us.”
“You’re just telling us this now?” Damian asked between clenched teeth. “You didn’t think a relative in the area was some shit we should know?”
“Bad blood,” Carlos said by way of explanation.
“Come on, but stay hyper alert.” Hal pulled himself away from the wall and darted across the back yard to the left of them.
The rest of the group followed his lead, running as fast as they could with their hands wrapped around their handguns. Although more comfortable with her katana, Raven understood why Hal recommended the guns. Even if there were still some unfrozen zombies in the area, them hearing the gun blasts was the least of their concerns. They were being hunted by humans now, and humans could shoot. She didn’t plan on allowing any of them close enough to her to do so.
Janjai slid in the snow, falling on her rump. Raven grabbed one shoulder while Elijah grabbed the other and together they pulled her to her feet without missing a step.
“Sorry,” she apologized, her voice shaking, as she regained her footing.
“No problem,” Raven assured her, cutting a glance behind them. They’d made good distance, passing three houses and no one seemed to be following them from behind. Her heart skipped a beat each time they crossed the open space between houses which left them exposed to anyone who may be on the street.
“How much farther?” she asked, starting to really feel the burn in her thighs.
“You can see it.” Carlos pointed his gun hand ahead, his other hand in use clutching at his chest.
Raven observed him a moment, concerned by the wheezing sound coming out of him, before looking ahead. The last house on the street loomed before them like the ribbon at the end of the finish line. They only had two more back yards to traverse through. Two more open areas between houses. Raven held her breath as they passed the first open area, relieved to find it clear. One more exposed spot and they were home free.
“Almost there!” Hal called out.
“Almost,” a woman dressed all in black with brown hair peeking out from under her fur trimmed hood said, stepping out from in between the last two houses, almost as if she’d known they’d been running toward the one on the end all along.
The group skidded to a stop, taking in the sight of the woman and the two men behind her who trained rifles on them. Hal, Cruz, and Damian reflexively stepped in front and aimed their own guns at the trio while the others raised their guns with shaking hands, but looked in all directions at once, fearful of who else might be creeping up on them from another direction. Raven realized she’d passed her gun off to her non-dominant hand and reached back for her katana on instinct.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Hal said. “We’re just passing through.”
“Oh, just out for a stroll, are we?” The woman laughed, flipping a radio over in her left hand. She held a Glock in her right. Her coat looked warm but without a scarf, her pink face was exposed. Raven imagined she was probably incredibly beautiful before the virus broke out, but hard times had given her a very harsh lo
ok. Her eyes lacked something, that spark of life. This woman had been through things and had been changed by them. “Hand over your bags.”
“We’re not going to do that,” Hal said. “We need what we have to survive.”
“No, sweetheart. We need what you have to survive.”
“Dawn? Dawn Peers?” Carlos pulled his scarf down to reveal his face. “Is that you?”
She frowned. “Who the hell are you?”
“Carlos Garza. I worked with your father. I spoke to you at his funeral. Why are you doing this? Your father would not—”
“My father is dead,” she snapped, “and I do what I gotta do to survive. Now, hand over your shit.”
“There’s more of us than you,” Cruz said, “and we all have guns. Be smart and walk away. We’ll forget this little misunderstanding ever happened.”
She laughed. “Oh, you think you have more people than us?”
Time slowed as Dawn raised the radio to her mouth, her finger poised over the button that would send her voice to whoever was waiting at the other end of the channel. Once she made the call, the others would converge and they didn’t even know how many were in the woman’s group. She had to be stopped but Hal had seen five people on the street she’d come from so if she were part of that particular cluster, there were more nearby who would come running at the sound of gunfire.
Raven surged forward, her hand gripped tight around the hilt of her katana, but the sword did not come free of its sheath. She’d fastened her backpack straps too tight and the weight was holding the blade in place.
Seeing Raven move, the woman raised her Glock a split second before her head jerked back, red blood spraying out of her forehead. The radio and gun fell from her hands as her body fell back into snow, marring its pristine whiteness with crimson. The men who’d stood behind her started shooting.
Raven gave up on the katana and took her gun back into her dominant hand as the others screamed and yelled around her. Pain seared her left arm a moment before Cruz plowed into her, knocking her off her feet.
“Stay down,” he ordered, firing off a shot while crouched over her.
Raven raised her upper body off the cold snow she’d been shoved down into to see what was happening and saw Carlos jump in front of Elijah before his body folded forward and he fell to his knees. Elijah screamed in rage as he rapidly fired his gun at the man in black over and over until it clicked empty and still he didn’t stop.
“Carlos?!” Hal left Damian, who was on his knees in the snow holding his shoulder, to check the older Hispanic man who’d fallen onto his back.
“Dad?” Elijah seemed to crumble to the ground next to his father.
“Were you hit?” Cruz asked, drawing Raven’s attention back to the pain in her arm.
“What?”
“Did he get you?” Cruz ran his hands over her, sucking in air as he located a tear in her coat sleeve. He probed around in it, inspecting for damage.
“I’m fine.” Raven jerked her arm away, wincing as pain ricocheted up it, but she didn’t care as it dawned on her she’d just been in a gunfight. It had happened so fast she didn’t even know what exactly happened.
“Help him!” Elijah cried as a pool of red blossomed atop the snow beneath Carlos’s body.
Hal looked up from his quick inspection. “He was shot through the stomach.”
Carlos coughed and blood bubbled over his lips to pour down his face.
“Dad?!” Elijah held his father’s head in his hands. “Papi?! Papi, don’t die. I love you Papi! I love you. Don’t die! Don’t leave me, Papi! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
Tears flowed down Raven’s face as Cruz helped her to her feet. Nearby, the women cried as they scanned the area for others.
“We have to go,” Hal said. “Elijah, I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do for him.”
“No!” Elijah yelled. “He prayed with you. He believed! Where is your God? How can He let him die?”
Carlos reached up, grabbed Elijah’s coat.
“Dad?! Hold on, you can make it. I won’t leave you.”
“Beautiful,” Carlos gasped out past the blood bubbling on his lips, his skin gone as pale as the snow. “She … happy.”
“Dad?!”
Carlos’s eyes turned toward his son. “Go. We’ll come—” He made a gasping noise in his throat.
“Relax, Dad. It’s going to be OK.” Elijah’s statement came out a plea through choked sobs.
“… back for you.” Blood spilled out the corner of Carlos’s mouth as his eyes glazed over.
“Dad? Papi? Papi?!” Elijah pushed his hood back and lowered his head to his father’s chest to listen for a heartbeat, but as Carlos emitted popping sounds from his throat, Raven knew he wouldn’t find one. It was the death croak she’d heard in the hospital when her grandmother had died.
“He’s gone, son.” Hal placed a hand on Elijah’s shoulder. The teenager quickly shrugged it off.
“I’m not leaving him here.”
“Guys,” Damian said, his voice full of pain as he struggled to stand, still gripping his shoulder. “I hear them coming.”
Raven heard it too. The sound of a small group running from the street Dawn Peers had come from pushed aside her concern with why Damian was holding his shoulder and wincing in pain. If they didn’t get inside somewhere, his shoulder would be the least of their problems. She frantically looked around.
“Anywhere we run our footprints will show in the snow,” she advised. “Let’s just get in this house. At least we won’t be in a wide open yard.”
“They’ll come right through it for us,” Cruz said. “We have no choice but to run.”
“Damian is hurt,” Janjai reminded them. “He needs treatment now.”
“Shit.” Raven ran to the back door of the house Carlos had guided them toward and twisted the knob. Luck smiled down on them. The door swung open easily, eliminating the task of picking it, which judging by the sound of the footsteps almost on them, they didn’t have time for. “Everyone in. We’ll just have to take a stand from in here.”
“I’m not leaving my father,” Elijah said. He kissed his father’s pale forehead and stood, shoving his empty gun into his coat pocket and replacing it with a blade. “I’ll hold off as many as I can.”
“Your father didn’t take that bullet for you so you could die right after him,” Hal said, grabbing the boy by his bicep and shoving him ahead of him. “Get in that house and make his sacrifice worth something.”
The others quickly ran inside, Cruz bringing up the rear. He slammed the door shut and engaged the three locks on it. “What’s the plan?”
“I need to tend to Damian’s wound,” Hal said, releasing Elijah so he could guide Damian deeper into the house. “The rest of you will need to hold them off while I treat him. There’s six of you. Three on the front door and three on the back door. Shoot any and everyone who attempts to enter.
“And if they get past us?” Leah asked.
“We all die,” Raven answered, unable to think of anything positive, “so don’t let them get that far.”
Elijah, who had been turning in a circle, raised his hand like a child seeking permission to speak in school.
“What is it?” Hal asked him.
“I remember this place.”
They looked at him for a moment, unsure what to make of the useless statement in the midst of the shit storm they’d found themselves in, but the sound of voices outside snagged their attention before anyone came up with a reply.
A woman screamed in anger. “You killed my girlfriend, you bastards! Prepare to fucking die!”
“Shit,” Raven, Cruz, and Damian said in unison.
“Kill them all!” the woman screeched, followed by a hail of bullets breaking through the windows on both sides of the house.
Everyone in the group dropped to their knees, except Elijah who ran toward a door off the kitchen. He flung it open and motioned for the others to follow.
�
�What the hell is he doing?” Cruz asked, holding his hands over his head to protect himself from glass as he crouched on the floor.
“Fuck if I know but we don’t have any other options here,” Raven responded. “The death squad out there is about to come through the walls so our three on each door plan is nulled.”
She lowered herself to the floor and belly crawled toward the open door, trying not to think of the fact it was covered in shards of glass. The others followed suit, Hal and Cruz working together to drag Damian into the space as they crab walked backward.
Elijah closed the door behind them and shouldered his way past them.
“We’re in a pantry,” Raven said from behind clenched teeth, trying not to let her anger explode. She strained to see something useful, but only saw rows of canned goods lining shelves on either side of the space that was no larger than a walk in closet. “We’re just fish in a barrel in—”
Elijah pulled the entire wall of shelves on the right open, revealing it to be a door.
“Holy shit,” Cruz whispered.
“Played in here with my cousin when we were little,” Elijah whispered back as he rooted around for something behind the secret door. “His dad, my dad’s cousin, had done some stuff in his younger days and feared his old gang buddies catching up to him so he made a panic room for his family.”
Light followed a soft click as Elijah located a light switch and stepped back, ushering the others to precede him into the secret space.
They started filing in, realizing a staircase leading down was what the door hid. They heard the back door to the house smash open just before Elijah pulled the secret door closed and slid a lever in place. He squeezed past the others on the stairs and took the stairway down to another door at the bottom. He frowned as he found this one locked.
“Damn, false hope sucks,” Damian said softly, gritting his teeth against pain as Hal helped support him.
Elijah raised a finger and shook his head, urging them to not worry. He scanned the walls, feeling them with his fingers, pausing to rub a spot that had grabbed his attention. He pinched his fingers together and pulled a slim metal key free of the crack it had been hidden in.