by Mark Clodi
“How do you know that?”
The boy just looked at him and shook his head side to side, saying nothing. Again Cory forced himself to think calmly, this kid was not normal, he knew that, the guy had barely struggled to get him off the fence and drag him under this bush.
“You’re a…uh, I mean you are one of them? Right?” he asked tentatively. The other boy nodded ‘yes’, but did not say anything. Curious, despite his situation, he sat up and tried to get a look at what the other boy was playing on his gaming device. “Is that ‘Silent Hill’?”
Again the boy nodded yes so Cory continued, “My mom wouldn’t let me play that, she said it was too violent, I have a DS though it ain’t out for that yet anyway.”
“They don't make it for the DS, they only make games for little kids for that. I didn’t get this until yesterday, I picked up a DS too, hardly had a chance to play anything until last night. My name is Bobby, what’s yours?” said Bobby, his eyes never leaving the screen.
“Cory. Are you with them?”
“Yeah. No. Kinda. I am with Jimbo, and Jimbo is with them. It is complicated. I am like a ‘field agent’. Jimbo says I am his secret weapon, his eyes and ears in the field. Like ‘Ghost Recon’ or something. All I know is I got a DS now too, it is in my bag. What happened to your shoes?”
“Ah, Amelia left them at the hotel room, there was this other lady, Diane, she got bitten and hurt real bad and started to turn into one of them, um, I mean one of you. We left in a hurry I guess, I was asleep. She remembered my games though. I have new shoes in the car.” replied Cory. “So what is it like? You know, changing?”
Bobby put the game on pause and said, “Cold. Really cold, I kinda don’t remember much about it, but I am always cold now, unless it is just after I eat, then I get warm for awhile, I feel almost like I have the flu, unless I eat. Eating is pretty gross, I don’t like it, even though it makes me feel better.”
“Do you have to? I mean what happens if you stop or ate normal food?”
“I don’t know, you can do that when you turn. I think Jimbo wants another field agent.”
“Oh.” said Cory, “When?”
“Dunno, when he can sneak out, I think he wants to do it himself, you get something over anyone you make, so if I did you, you would kinda be mine, even though Jimbo has me, it would not really be the same as him having you too. Probably later this afternoon. Maybe. He might not want another little kid. I dunno.” Shrugging his shoulders he went back to his game.
Thinking to himself about what to do Cory, came up with a plan, not much, but something. He scooted around to sit beside Bobby and stared intently at the screen for awhile, watching him play. After awhile Bobby hit a ‘boss’ monster and could not get by him, he turned to Cory and thrust the machine at him, “Your turn! Start a new guy though, don’t use mine, I have only been playing an hour, so catch up.”
“I think we need another one, then we could play co-op, that’d be awesome.” said Cory.
“No dork it is single player, not even a death match mode, but another PSP would be awesome, ‘cause there are a lot of games that do co-op or head to head play.”
“Uh, we passed a Target store on the way here, stopped by there to get my shoes, they have em too. About eight blocks or so.” said Cory his eyes never leaving the screen as he entered in his user name.
“Yeah? Well okay! We can sneak off when we get tired of this one. No one will know.”
Staying quiet and working his way up to the boss Bobby had been stuck on took Cory forty-five minutes or so, he had watched Bobby play through some of the levels and took full advantage of what he had seen. He also made good progress on the boss monster, almost beating it his first time around, but not quite, much to both of their dismay. A little later they decided to get up and head to the Target store, with Bobby saying, “You don’t try to run away, I can catch you and Jimbo said to make sure you stuck around, okay?”
“Sure, okay, but what happens if we run into, you know, others?”
“We hide, that is all, I will scout things out and if it is all clear you follow. You can’t outrun me barefoot.” said Bobby.
'Probably he was right.', thought Cory, however he would do his best to find that out for sure. Cory made extra sure to watch how to get back to the house and waited for his opportunity. The boys walked and sneaked their way back towards the Target store, stopping in a convenience store when Cory said he was hungry and thirsty, Bobby went in alone and seemed surprised when Cory was still there when he came back out with the food Cory had asked for, double quantities. The boys went around to the back of the store and sat down on a curb, where Cory ate and Bobby sat staring at the food, finally Cory said, “Well? You gonna try it or not?”
Bobby smiled a little and picked up a snickers bar, unwrapping it he smelled it and said, “It is like, different, it doesn’t smell bad, you know, like nasty or something, but kinda like a spring day, good, but nothing that you would want to eat.” He raised the candy to his lips and nibbled a little off the end. “Still chocolaty. Not good enough though, I don’t think I can eat it.”
Cory shrugged and said, “Is it that bad?”
“Yeah, no, not really, but it doesn’t taste right, like you know, eating play doh or wax, you can eat it, but why?” Bobby took a larger bite of the candy bar, chewed it methodically, swallowed and then tossed the bar down. “Nope, I don’t think I want to eat normal food anymore.”
“No ice cream? No chocolate bars? No popcorn or peanuts or lemonade?”
“Probably not.” Bobby picked up one of the mountain dews he had pilfered from the store, opened it, sniffed it and then drank a few swallows down. “This is not bad, I think I need water or something anyway, it is okay, it tastes different though, more chemically or something.”
“Eww, let me try it I got a bad pop once, it was really bad.” After taking a swig from Bobby’s pop, he said, “Naw, it is fine, it is just you I guess. Bummer.”
“You about done? We gotta go, Jimbo won’t like it if we are gone too long.”
“How will he know?”
“Well, it is weird, like a one way phone mostly, he can kinda see things from my side, not really see, but he can get messages and things, sometimes I can get what he is doing too, like if he is fighting or something bad is happening, mostly I try to stay in yelling distance of him. He has sent me stuff before, words and stuff, but that seems to take him more effort and he does not do it very much. If I try though I can send him messages pretty good, easy, even pictures too.”
“So you have to send him the message, it just doesn’t go on its own?”
“I don’t think so, I have to make an effort to send it out. I am not doing that now, or he would be mad. If he knew we were gone, you know.” replied Bobby.
“Okay, lets go.” Cory got up and the boys headed down Kipling Street back towards the Target store.
A couple blocks later Bobby put his hand out and stopped Cory from going forward, “There is something up there, get behind that dumpster.” Bobby pointed at a dumpster sitting behind a gas station. Cory ran towards it, hitting some rocks at the mouth of the alley caused him some pain and he wondered again why he hadn’t slipped on his new flip flops before getting out of the car. Bobby went forward out of Cory’s sight and after a few minutes Cory got worried, was this a trick? He crept forward on his hands and knees until he could peek around the corner. He saw Bobby on the ground, apparently crying as a woman and younger child approached him cautiously. Once they were next to him the woman picked Bobby up off the ground and hugged him close, in an instance she knew something was wrong and so did Cory, the woman was human, not a zombie. Cory saw Bobby sink his teeth into the woman’s neck, the woman tired to push him away and screamed at the little girl to run, the girl stood in a daze then started screaming.
Cory ducked back around the corner of the building and started to run, this was not what he had planned, however he didn’t think he could help the woman and her kid, he didn’t have his
bat. He ran back to the convenience store where he had eaten a few minutes before, going in he saw a rack with flip flops on it and he tore a pair down that looked like his size and put them on. Better shod he looked around for a weapon. Chips, soda bottles, slim jims, nothing. Nothing vaguely weapon like. As he sped out of the store he ran across the street and back towards Max’s house going around a parked car he stopped as almost ran into a zombie emerging from an open door. He swerved right, but skidded to the ground in front of the car, looking back the zombie was slow and still trying to get is bearings, slowly it turned towards him. Cory realized something was under his right hand, metal, he turned to look as he got to his hands and knees, a thing for changing tires, a tire iron, he remembered his dad using one to rotate the tires on his mom’s car. It was short, only about eighteen inches long, but better than nothing and he grabbed it as he finished gaining his feet. He easily outdistanced the slow zombie as he turned down the street leading to Max’s house. He opted for another turn to get him into the back yard of the house behind Max’s, hoping that Amelia was still alive and that he could do something. Far behind him a girl continued to scream, although her mother had fallen silent.
Chapter 49
It was twenty minutes to eight, an hour or so after sunrise when the group finally turned down the street that led to Max’s house. Along the way they hit a zombie that was just turning onto Max’s street, a slow moving zombie whose back was to them, as he crunched under their car Steve asked, “Hey do you think it is a good idea to run them down like that? I mean, what if they get hung up on the car or something?”
Stewart gave him a look, took her coffee cup, sipped it and replied, “He didn’t seem to get hung up to me.”
“It is okay Steve, we are almost there anyway, we can fish out any parts later if we have to.” interjected Max, fending off a little fight before it happened, “It is the third house on the left there!” Max pointed to a house whose front door was open. There was a body lying in the front yard and the screen door was swinging open in the slight morning breeze. “Oh shit. Sarah! Not Sarah, not Sarah!”
“Easy Max, easy, the zed is dead right? That is a good sign.” Stewart’s brown furrowed in thought, “Hey Steve isn’t that the caddy from your work parking lot? It looks familiar.”
Steve and Tom examined the car closely, Max was too worked up and said, “Stop the car Stewart, stop the car!” while he pulled out the pistol Stewart had given him to replace his revolver.
“I think that is Diane’s car, our boss’s, boss’s boss. A few rungs up the ladder from us. It looks just like it, not a scratch on it either. Nothing like this piece of shit we are driving.” said Steve.
“Yeah I think Steve is right, it could be a different car though, but she was so friggin’ proud of that thing when she got it, we all had a look.” added Tom.
“Stewart, let me out. Unlock the door.” said Max. Stewart had the ability to keep the back doors locked, this car was a police cruiser, after all, she turned to Max and said, “Calm down Max, we are going in, but we are not going to go rushing in.” She slowed the car to a stop parallel to the street in front of the driveway, so she would not have to back out.
“Okay is everybody ready? We all have bullets for all the guns, shotgun shells, pistol bullets? Good. Max I think someone else should lead, me, with you second to tell me where to go. If your wife is one of them I won’t hesitate, you might. Steve you or Tom need to stay with the car in the driver’s seat and be ready to go, the driver keeps the ‘over and under’ rifle that Hank gave us. I get the shotgun.”
Tom agreed to stay with the car and moved to the driver’s seat while Stewart, Max and Steve lined up alongside the car and prepared to move into the house.
Despite the planning Max started towards the house ahead of Stewart, she looked after him, shrugged her shoulders and jogged after him. Worse yet he called out “Sarah!” as he burst through the front door.
Steve paused a second before jogging after Stewart, making the line of them a bit staggered, he was just reaching the front door when Max’s first pistol shot rang out.
Max ran into his living room, past a female zombie who was standing there and heading towards his kitchen, where he saw a confusing scene in his dining room. His table and chairs had been shoved to one side to make room against the far wall. The zombies in the room were standing in the space shouting at each other, they looked almost human, the large male that Max had seen in the bathroom at work had a red face from arguing. Max recognized Nancy, her eyes widened and she started to move when she looked at him. A split second passed then Max started firing bullets into Nancy, trying to get a clean head shot, he was pretty sure he hit her in the neck and chest, the other shot went high or left or right, she was so fast!
Stewart meanwhile was not content to leave a zombie behind her and before entering the kitchen she paused to put two shots into the zombie in the living room. She turned back to Steve and said, “Watch our backs, we’ll call if we need you!” and then hurried towards the kitchen.
The male zombie, Jimbo, quickly grasped the nature of what was happening and taking Veronica by the arm he pulled her close, lifted her up and hurled her bodily towards Max. Max tried to duck, but the stitching and pain in his ribs did not afford him enough agility to do so, he went down in a heap with Veronica on top of him at Stewart’s feet. Stewart was hit high by a chair as soon as she entered the kitchen, by a follow up throw by Jimbo, who was calling out, “Julie bring those guys in! It’s Max! It’s Max!”
Jimbo, then reached over and broke off a wooden table leg, as easy as someone would snap a twig, and advanced quickly over to Max on the floor. Underneath a screaming and yelling Veronica, Max could hardly move, his gun hand was sticking out from under her body and he fired off a lucky shot that somehow caught Jimbo in the thigh, momentarily spinning him around. Veronica, instead of pulling herself towards Max to bite and rend him with her teeth, pushed herself up and rolled sideways off his body.
“Fucking asshole!” Jimbo screamed as he tried to duck, get closer and hit Max with his table leg all at the same time. He succeeded in none of his efforts, missing Max because he was not close enough and while he was able to duck, the close quarters could not get him out of the way of Stewart’s shotgun, which caught him on the left shoulder, neck and head, flipping him completely end over end, his table leg went flying up into the air to be snatched by Veronica as she climbed to her feet. She spun and hurled it at Stewart with deadly force. Taking it full in the chest Stewart let out a small moaning sound and fell back into the living room.
Veronica turned, looked at the overall situation, picked Nancy up and hurled her out through the back patio doors onto the patio. Badly shot and now sporting a few deep cuts, Nancy was still clinging to her undead life.
Meanwhile Max scrambled to regain his feet. Steve, seeing Stewart fall back into the room, rushed to her side, Stewart said weakly, “I’m alright, Go help Max.”
“Sure, you just stay here and cover our asses.” Steve said proping her body up against the wall. He then pressed his pistol into her hand and asked, “Can you lift it? Stewart! Can you shoot it?!”
She nodded ‘yes’ and said, “That bitch was Nancy's girl, Veronica? I’ll be okay, I’m wearing my vest, I just. Got. The. Wind…” and she passed out.
“Fuck! Fuck! Stewart! Goddamn it!” hearing more shots and the sounds of fighting from the kitchen, Steve looked around the living room for any remaining threats, seeing none he made the decision to help Max. Crawling over to the shotgun he picked it up, stood and headed into the kitchen. Reloading the shotgun with extra shells he had in his own pockets.
Max stood up and leveled his pistol at Veronica.
“Fuck, don't move! You're Veronica, right? Don’t Veronica, don’t!” Veronica didn’t listen and picked up a chair to throw at Max. Max shot her, he missed her head, but she flinched when she threw and the chair ended up embedded in the drywall next to Max’s torso.
“Fine
bitch, just die!” and he aimed more carefully and pulled the trigger, the first shot was loud and on target, striking Veronica directly over her heart, she staggered back through the patio doors, a second later she came flying back through them at Max, halting at the sight of his pistol about eight feet from her head. The silence was audible as he pulled the trigger. Click. He was out of ammo.
“Shit!” Max leaped backwards and pulled the chair from the wall, swinging it around he met Veronica's charge with it. He felt the stitches in his stomach rip out as he did this and let loose a feral scream as he turned with the chair.
Veronica surged forward pressing Max back, the force of her rush pinned the top of the chair to the wall behind Max and one of the legs slid into her rib cage impaling her with her own momentum. “Fuck!” she screamed, one of her hands did not seem to be working right anymore. Stepping back from Max the chair was pulled from his hands and she then tried to pull the impaled leg out of her torso with her one good arm. For all of her strength it was not working!
Max stumbled and tried to follow up on Veronica’s weakness, when he found moving around was too painful he fumbled in his pocket for the extra bullets he had there, remembering Stewart’s instructions he pulled the slide on the pistol back and carefully put a bullet in the chamber. Veronica went down on one knee, seeing Max reload the gun, she half rose and scrambled for the door, yelling, “Julie! Get in here!” Max popped the clip out of the gun trying to concentrate on three things at once which was not making his job any easier, first he had to load the clip again, there was no spare with the pistol, second he had to watch Veronica, and third he had to try and remain on his feet as blood poured down the front of his stomach. One bullet, two bullets, three bullets, four, Veronica reached the patio doors and lurched outside, still yelling for Julie. As she went Max could still hear her grotesquely pounding on the chair leg, trying to get it out.
Suddenly Max was pushed from behind as Steve rushed into the kitchen, he lost hold of the clip, tracked it with his eyes as it fell down in slow motion to the tile floor. Steve looked at Max, offered him an arm to steady him and said, “Sorry Max!” then headed towards the patio door.