by Zuko, Joseph
Stay solid buddy! Fight the good fight!
In a few days she will see how strong a man you really are!
Then she will be all like, Jim who?
Leon muscled a smile onto his face, “I’m sure we will find him tomorrow. I’m going to…find a place to crash, pour myself one last strong drink, fall asleep and recharge for tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do.” He picked up his glass, nodded good night to her and slipped out of the Subaru. He snagged the bottle, poured his drink and headed for the spare bedroom.
“Goodnight Leon. I’ll see you in the morning,” Karen called after him.
Leon gave her a thumbs up as he reentered the house. He didn’t look back at her. He just left her there in the car. All alone.
Karen took a deep breath. She felt exhausted. It was time. She had promised herself a good hard cry when she fell asleep tonight and it was time to cash in and hit the sack. Both girls should be knocked out by now. She felt like she could bust out those salty tears completely uninterrupted. It was at least a start for her mourning process. Karen knew that she wouldn’t get a chance to properly grieve over her Mama. They had too much work to get finished to keep them safe and not enough manpower or time to do it. Karen popped open the car door and drug herself out into the garage. The muscles in her legs ached as she stepped back into the house. She checked on Troy in the living room.
He winked at her and said, “I’m feeling a lot better. I’m gonna get some sleep. See you in the morning.” Troy made himself comfy on the couch.
Karen turned off the TV and all of the lights in the house.
She navigated her Mama’s bedroom in the dark. She laid her Ruger down on the night stand, pulled the covers over her fully clothed body and let the tears fall. It was the hardest cry of her life. Her pillow was quickly soaked in moisture and her nose clogged with snot. She could hardly breathe and most of her thoughts focused on how she just wanted it to be over and wished she was dead already so she could be with her Mama.
Chapter 14
Jim laid on the floor of Cliff and Tina’s apartment. His body ached and the hard carpeted floor gave no comfort. His very own comfortable bed sat only fifty-feet from the spot he was laying, but with the back door busted out of his place it was not safe. He wished he could talk Frank into helping him go back down to his apartment and drag his queen sized bed up the flight of stairs, but it seemed like a pointless risk for just one good night of sleep.
The living room of Cliff and Tina’s place was dark and filled with the sound of Morgan’s snores. The lady had passed out in her wheelchair with an empty beer can in her hand. Right before she conked out she had told them she was fine in the chair and that she had slept in it many times.
Devon’s vitals had been good all evening and Tina said his youth would aid in his fast recovery. He had been asleep ever since they finished stitching up his leg so they left him up on the counter.
Frank and Jim let Sara have the couch to sleep on. She had crashed minutes after her head hit the pillow. Tina had applied a fresh set of bandages to Jim’s forehead and calf before they went to bed and Cliff had given everyone a spare pillow and a blanket. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything better than the floor for them to sleep on. Jim shifted from his back to his side and then back to his back, but couldn’t get comfortable. He double and triple checked that his spear and backpack were next to him on the floor. Frank had also given Jim a good tour of his new sidearm and rifle. He felt fairly confident that he had their workings figured out. He left the handgun strapped to the back of his bag and the rifle next to his spear. Jim didn’t want to take any chances so he made damn sure that they were ready to roll in a moment’s notice. He spent a few minutes just trying to figure out which one he would grab first. The rifle or the spear. After a well fought internal battle, the spear won out by only a slight margin. Jim figured the more he used the gun the better he would feel about it, but for now if a pack of beasts busted down the door. He would have a better chance of surviving with his trusty spear than with the rifle or handgun. The odds he would miss every single headshot was too high.
Ten minutes after they shut all of the lights out and said their goodnights, Cliff and Tina started in on each other. A full day worth of pent up emotion had spilled over into their bedroom and they got to finish what Jim and his crew had interrupted earlier.
It was one hell of a wrestling match and they didn’t seem to give a fuck that there was a room full of strangers listening to them. It sounded like Cliff was wielding the powerful Hammer of Thor in there and Mjölnir was hammering out orgasms like machine gun fire.
All the sexy noise didn’t make it any easier for Jim to fall asleep. He rolled over again and covered his ears with the pillow. Jim’s eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see Frank looking in his direction.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Frank grunted out. Jim huffed out a chuckle and then rolled over to his other shoulder. He faced the wall and stared at the nothingness of the white sheetrock. He tried to clear his mind. If he started to think about what might have happened to Karen and the girls he knew he would lose it, fall apart and start sobbing like a baby. Cliff and Tina got to their final orgasm. The windows shook and the walls creaked at the peak of Cliff and Tina’s joint sexual explosion.
“How are they going to walk tomorrow?” Frank joked. “I need a cigarette after that last one. Jesus fucking Christ.” Frank rubbed at the stubble on his chin and then he fluffed his pillow.
Jim turned his head to look back at Frank, “It sounded like they were making a porno in there. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone that hard or that long before. It kind of made me feel bad about myself, like I haven’t been doing it right all these years.”
“Tomorrow we’ll find your wife. I bet you can match the performance.”
Jim could just make out the smile on Frank’s face, “Thank you again for helping me.”
“All right, all right, you’re welcome. Now go to sleep.” Frank stretched his body, adjusted his blanket and within a few minutes he was out and snoring like a misfiring chainsaw. There was almost no rhythm to his breathing. It was unnerving to Jim. Frank must suffer from sleep apnea.
“Shit, I should have gone to sleep first.” Jim cursed the short nap he took earlier. He was never into napping. It always made that night’s sleep near impossible.
A couple of minutes of Frank’s horrible unsexy noise and Jim couldn’t take it anymore. He sat up, pulled back his blanket and got to his feet. He headed straight for the back balcony. He needed some fresh air. Jim gently slid the door open in order to not wake anyone up and stepped out into the cool night air. He gripped the rail and leaned over it to look out into the grass covered backyard of the apartment building. He could hear the shuffling sounds of the infected below but it was pitch black on this side of the unit. There was no telling how many of them were down there, but it sounded like a lot. They had wiped out most of the monsters on the way back from RS Medical, but others had appeared. There seemed to be an endless supply of infected humans. Gunfire cracked in the distance and if Jim concentrated he could hear the cries of terror on the wind.
“Someone, please save me!!!” A scared voice pleaded for help, but there was no way of knowing where it came from. No way to save them and Jim could not, would not risk his life for that stranger. Going out in the daylight was chaos. Trying to survive in the dark would be impossible. The sounds of humans meeting their end made the cool spring night feel even colder. Goosebumps populated the exposed parts of Jim’s skin and he needed to get back inside. The last thing he needed now was the dreaded “Man Cold” to hit him. His broken nose tried to take in one last fresh lungful of air, but the devastated passageways of his sinuses were swollen and the foul stench of the creeps below made it even more difficult to inhale the oxygen.
He got back into his makeshift bed and a tear wiggled its way out of the ducts in his eye. He could not stop himself, his heart ached. He didn’t remember the last time he crie
d himself to sleep. It might have been more than a decade, maybe even two since he last fell asleep with a stream of tears racing down his face, but finally there was darkness. Jim drifted off to sleep.
BOOM! The floor of the apartment shook under Jim’s body, he jerked awake and reached for his flashlight. As he sat up he clicked the button on the Mag-Lite. The cone of bright white zipped around the room.
Frank sat up and said, “What the hell? What time is it?”
Jim’s light flashed passed the clock on the wall. “It’s three-fifteen in the morning.” Jim answered.
Sara fell off the couch and crashed to the floor, “Fuck me! What now!”
The door to Cliff and Tina’s room flung open and they raced down the hall to the living room. Cliff turned on every light switch that he passed.
“What was that?” yelled Tina.
Jim moved out onto the balcony and it was much brighter than it was the last time he had stepped outside. An orange and yellow glow filled the air. He leaned over the rail again and looked down the back of the building to see where the light was coming from. Heat blasted Jim’s face like a furnace. The smell of smoke fused with the stench of the infected was intense. It was forty degrees hotter outside than it was four hours ago.
The next building over was set ablaze!
He couldn’t see what started it or what made the loud explosion. Most of the neighbors had propane barbeques on their back porches. It could have been one of the tanks. There was no way of knowing. The explosion had caught a tree that sat between the two buildings on fire and a dozen infected were lit up like Tiki torches. The breeze caught a few embers and bits of burning debris were drifting their way. The infected torches stumbled and brought the cursed fire even closer. Every mobile body joined Jim on the balcony. They watched as the fire crept like a demon across the tree and onto their building. The group was speechless. After only a few moments out on the balcony it was already too hot to stay out there and watch. They had to move fast.
“We have to pack our shit and go!” Jim left the rail and headed back inside. Everyone reentered the apartment and scrambled in a mad dash.
Cliff shook Morgan awake, “Morgan!”
Her old eyes popped open, “What Clifford?”
“Building’s on fire! We have to move!”
“Horse shit,” Morgan exclaimed. Then she noticed everyone packing up to leave. “Get the girls safe first! Don’t worry about me!”
“Alright!” Cliff bolted down the hall after Tina.
The parents headed to their children’s bedroom. They flipped on the bedroom light and the girls let out a groan.
“Get up girls, now! We have to go!” Tina pulled the blanket off of Eve, “Get dressed and help me with your sisters!”
“What time is it? I’m sleepy!” Eve rolled over to her stomach and pulled her pillow over her head to protect her eyes from the bright light.
Tina ripped the pillow off of her baby, “The apartment is on fire! We have to go now!”
Cliff moved quickly and got Brea up out of bed. It was like dressing a limp and heavy doll. There was no way to wake her, the kid could sleep through anything. He found her an outfit and shoes and got her sleeping body dressed.
Tina helped Alex into her clothes as Eve dressed herself.
“Where are we going, Mama?” Eve asked as she pulled a sweatshirt over her head.
“I don’t know!” Tina yelled. She couldn’t help herself. It was all too much. The dread of leaving their home in the middle of the night, losing all of their possessions, their food and heading out into the violent, deadly wasteland that was Vancouver was more than she could bear. Tina had watched a few hours worth of videos online about house fires. It was another obsession and a major fear of hers. She gauged they had thirty minutes if they were lucky before the whole place burned to the ground. It meant they had fifteen to vacate the place with their lives. Fifteen minutes to pack what they could and load the van with a parking lot full of biters. It took a minute to make it down the flight of stairs, drop off something in the van and race back up the steps. Plus they had to get Morgan down the steps.
SHIT FUCK!!!!
“We follow Jim!” Cliff finally spoke.
“And then what?” Tina’s voice screeched with panic.
“Hope that his mother-in-law’s place is safe! That’s all we can do!”
They had all three girls dressed and now they needed to get themselves ready. They ripped on their clothes lightning fast. Cliff whipped the police belt around his waist. Frank had helped him load it and its two extra clips. Tina tucked Morgan’s revolver into her belt. The two of them filled a suitcase with some extra clothes for the two of them and the girls.
“What about the food?” Tina asked as she slipped into a leather jacket.
“We have to leave it!”
At the same time Cliff and Tina got themselves ready, Jim and his crew grabbed their gear.
“Let’s load out the guns, clear the lot and then come back for Devon. Then we’ll get whatever else we have time for!” Jim said as he slid on his leather jacket. He quickly worked the Bert and Ernie dolls into his backpack, pulled it onto his body and secured it tight. He got his handgun’s holster placed on his belt and filled it with a pistol. Jim tucked his spear in between his backpack and his back and picked up his assault rifle.
Sara pulled one of the duffle bags full of guns and ammo over her shoulder and fit her bat into the bag. She placed her Glock in its holster and picked up her shotgun. Sara was ready to hit the road.
Frank fastened his shoulder harness that held his Berettas to his torso, he got his SKS slung over his shoulder along with his regular duffle bag. He muscled the new bag with the hunting rifle and the extra ammo that they got at the gun store onto his other shoulder. It was as much as he could carry.
Another explosion blasted into the night’s sky. It launched burning debris onto the balcony of Cliff and Tina’s apartment. The little storage shed that connected to the back of the apartment caught on fire. It was now spreading on both sides of the building.
Cliff raced down the hall and finished getting his jacket on, “We gotta take down the barricade!” He grabbed the saw that hung by the front door. He flew out onto the landing and began to chop at the barricade. It was the first time Cliff got to swing the saw at a solid object and it worked well. He chopped at the braces that held the wood wall into place. It pulverized the chunks of lumber but it was taking too long. Tina gathered the girls and their bags at the front door. Right behind them stood Jim’s crew. Sara pushed past Tina and racked her shotgun.
“Step back!” She yelled at Cliff.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Sara cycled through the shells and punched three monster holes into the barricade. It was enough to loosen the wall. Cliff stomped his boot into the wall and sent it tumbling down the flight of stairs. Cliff led the way. He moved the length of lumber and plywood up off the stairs and cleared the path to the vehicles.
A flaming zombie surprised him at the bottom of the steps. Cliff wasn’t just a strike throwing machine on his softball league, he was one of the homerun kings. He clutched the saw with both hands and swung it with everything he had. The saw ripped into its torched face. It was no Samurai sword. It didn’t possess a sharp enough edge to slice through bone, but it demolished the zombie’s face. It caved in its ugly mug and sent its body to the ground with a loud thud.
The parking lot was always pretty well lit with exterior lights, but tonight with the fire raging only fifty yards away, it was almost as bright as day.
Cliff cut down another monster as the three humans armed with guns flanked his sides. They unleashed a fury of lead onto the encroaching horde and opened up the area around the two cars. Cliff popped the lock on his van and waved Tina and the girls down.
Jim unlocked the PT Cruiser. He opened the back hatch and the two car seats fell to the ground. He kicked them out of his way and Sara and Frank dropped off the extra duffle bags into the back.
&n
bsp; Sara reloaded her shotgun, “Go get Devon. I’ll keep the lot clear!”
Tina and Cliff buckled their children into their seats and tossed the luggage into the back of the van.
“I’ll be right back with Morgan!” Cliff clicked the last buckle on Brea’s belt.
“What about her wheelchair?” Tina slammed her side door shut.
“We don’t have space for it!” Cliff pulled his side shut and the girls were safe.
The men charged back up the flight of stairs as Sara and Tina watched each other’s backs. They smoked any zombie that got close.
Upstairs in the living room, pockets of fire had begun to poke through the walls of the apartment. It was amazing how fast it spread. The other astonishing thing was that the place was filled with a ton of smoke, but none of the alarms had gone off. Jim and Karen seemed to set the alarm off every time they cooked a pizza. Here was a real life threatening fire and nothing. Not a peep.
Morgan waited for Cliff at the front door. He swooped his arms down and around her frail little body and hoisted her up out of the chair.
“Let’s go, Mom!” He hustled out the front door. Morgan held her son’s neck tight and pressed her face to his chest. He could feel her shaking. She had never held him that tight before.
The heat in the living room was intense. It was like walking into an oven. The smoke alarms began to blast and that woke Devon. His eyes opened in time to see Jim and Frank racing towards him.
“Why’s it so hot in here? What the hell is going on?” Devon reached for Jim’s arms. The cobwebs in Devon’s mind had cleared enough for him to comprehend what was taking place. “God Damn! What did you dudes do to the apartment?”
“Sorry about this!” Frank circled his arms around the young man’s legs. Jim and Frank nodded at each other and they lifted Devon off the counter at the same time. Devon carried on like a cat with its tail stuck in a closed door.