by Oliver, Nick
"Fuck it," I thought out loud, and drew my pistol from its holster. They know I was here now. My shoulder was hurting bad, but when I felt the wound I could tell it only grazed me, but it still got me pretty good. Luckily I wasn't bleeding too badly, so I focused more on the big guy who shot me and was still there.
I could hear his heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, even though he was trying to be slow and quiet. He was just too big a big motherfucker to tread those old stairs quietly. I tried to slow my breathing so I wouldn't be too loud.
I worked up the courage to stick my head above the couch I was behind. I saw his feet and legs stepping on the steps I could see. I aimed the gun, waiting for something vital to show up. Suddenly, I saw a gun barrel and ducked back down. He fired four shots in quick succession, and then there was silence. I didn't hear more footsteps or any loading.
Whatever he was shooting, it was a handgun. I saw a pillow next to me, so I tossed it toward the bottom of the stairs, heard a shot, sat up and fired at the mass of a body I saw, and fell back down right away.
I heard a groan, then a couple thuds and a crash as he rolled down the stairs into the wall at the bottom. When I heard a gurgled groan a second later I knew it was real. I still waited till I heard labored breathing.
I walked up and recognized him as Will, a football player from our high school. He looked at me, and tried to raise his gun to shoot me. I kicked it out of his hand, picked it up and shot him in the head with it.
I waited, aiming the gun up the stairs, expecting someone else, until I heard, "You get him?"
I waited for a second before I answered back, "Yea."
A second later I heard, "Good! Shut the door and get back up here."
I went back to the back door, shut it, and grabbed my bow. I knew it was Rodger upstairs, and I didn't want to kill him, at least not right away.
I walked up the stairs with heavy feet, to simulate the weight of Will, and yelled out with a deepened voice, "Where you at?"
I heard a, "Where you think?” from a room to my left. The door was closed, so I turned the handle, pulled the bow back, and kicked it in. I saw Rodger standing next to the window. When he turned around and saw it was me he tried to draw his sidearm, but I shot at his right shoulder, pinning him to the wall behind him. He yelled in pain as he dropped the pistol.
I shut the door behind me, walked up slow, set the bow down on the floor and drew my pistol. “Long time no see, asshole.”
He stared at me with a grimace of pain and anger, “Fuck you. What gives you the right to break into my house like this?”
“No, in this game I ask the questions, the second one is much more important, but I need to ask this first one just in case.” I aimed it at his head, “First question, you got any other buddies here?”
He looked me in the eyes. His blue eyes filled with fear at the gun pointed at his head and answered, “Yeah, I got five other guys in another room.”
I shook my head, “I don’t have time for your lies. I’ve traveled for too long and too far for you to hold me back any longer,” I grabbed the arrow in his shoulder and yanked hard.
“Nooooo!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “There’s nobody else!”
“See how easy that was?” I asked, letting go of the arrow. “Now let’s see about avoiding any more pain. This next question is very important. Where is Sarah?”
His eyes darted from the floor to the left, then back to me, “I don’t know,”
I grabbed the arrow again, “Lie to me one more time, I fucking dare you.” I wasn’t messing around anymore. He knew where she was. “Where?”
“C… Closet.” He weakly pointed at the door to his left.
I looked at the door and back at Rodger. His blue eyes were going back and forth between the gun and me. I lowered it and walked over to the closet. Before I opened it I looked back at him, held the gun up and tapped the barrel with my other hand, “Don’t be stupid.”
I opened the door. At first I didn’t register what I saw. I saw the eyes first, looking up at me, wide with fear, but as soon as she recognized me her face melted with relief. Her hair was in even worse shape than Roxie’s had been, and her face was oily from not having been washed.
I’m not even sure how to describe the emotion I was feeling, I was ecstatically happy, relieved, a few tears rolled down my cheek. I wanted to hug her, kiss her, something, but I was paralyzed with shock, I just fell to my knees and barely uttered, “S… Sarah.”
She didn’t say a word. She just lunged, wrapped her arms around me and tackled me to the ground. She buried her face in my chest. She tried to talk between the sobs, but no words came out for at least a minute. Finally she composed herself enough to say, “You’re late.”
“No,” I scoffed. “I said I’d be back for the Fourth.”
She hit me in the shoulder, luckily the one that I hadn’t just been shot in, “It’s the fifth you ass.”
Our reunion was cut short when she saw Rodger pinned to the wall. Her face went from relief to anger. We both stood up, but Sarah got up first and punched him in the face, “After what you did, I told you I would kill you.”
I wondered for a split second what she meant, but the possibilities just made me furious. I was about to punch him myself when Sarah turned to me. There was a fire in her eyes I’d never seen before. It almost scared me, but I knew the rage inside wasn’t aimed at me, and I knew what she wanted. I held out the pistol.
Rodgers blue eyes went wide as she grabbed the gun, “No,” he pleaded. “Please, don’t, I’m sorry!” Tears were flowing down his face, and his pants got wet in the crotch area. He knew she wasn’t fucking around.
“No, you’re not,” she said coldly as she aimed and pulled the trigger. She didn’t shoot him in the head, or the chest. The wet spot on his pants turned red, and Rodger let out a bloodcurdling screech.
I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could she fired again, and again, and again, all in the same spot. Every shot was followed by another cry. The pain in his voice was overwhelming, but not once did I feel sorry for him.
She looked at the gun and pulled the chamber back a bit and saw she had one last round. She let the chamber slide back forward and aimed the pistol at his face.
Rodger didn’t look up, he just stared at the ground, “Kill me, just kill me you bitch,” he said in barely understandable English. But she didn’t pull the trigger.
“No,” she said coldly. “You’re going to suffer here, and die slowly.” She put emphasis on the last word, and walked out of the room.
I didn’t follow her out right away, I reached down and grabbed the pistol Rodger had dropped. He was sobbing, trying to stand, but he was in too much pain to control his legs. His eyes were that same shade of blue, bright and distinct without a shade of green. I grabbed my bow and left the room, but didn’t close the door. If any zombies got in there, I wanted them to find Rodger.
Sarah was down the hall a bit near the stairs. She was sitting on the ground, holding her knees to her chest, tears were flowing again. She noticed me and held out the pistol, “Here.”
I just shook my head, “Keep it.” I handed her an extra clip, “It’s dark, all the noise we’ve made here has probably attracted every Zombie in five miles, and we have a long way to go to get back to Nick and Roxie.”
Her face lit up, “They’re alive?” she exclaimed. “We got separated at the school, and Rodger grabbed me. So many people were dying, I assumed the worst.”
“They’re at Nick’s uncle’s house, and it’ll take us about forty-five minutes to get there on the four-wheeler I rode over.” I drew an arrow from my quiver, and held it on the bow, ready to draw it back if any Zombies were close, “Just remember to…”
“…Shoot them in the head,” she finished my sentence for me. Her face was dirty, hair frizzed from not having been washed in weeks, the dirt on her face was smeared from tears that she had wiped off. She had a bit of a smile, and was looking at me wit
h hope in her eyes, probably the first bit of hope she’d had since this all happened.”
I smiled, “I was going to say be careful, but that too.”
I went down the stairs first to make sure it was safe, nothing had gotten in yet. Sarah was right behind me. It didn’t take her long to see the carnage I’d inflicted on the way in. “Holy shit.” she exclaimed, and looked at me with wide eyes. “You did all this by yourself?”
I expected her to be surprised I was capable of what would have been considered murder not a month ago. She didn’t have disapproval in her voice, she was genuinely impressed.
I nodded, not exactly sure what to say. I had a bit of a smirk, I was actually proud of what I did, honestly it still scared me. I’d just killed four more people, sure Rodger wasn’t dead yet, but he would be. If I didn’t still have that adrenaline and endorphins pumping through my system, I’d probably be freaking out. The world sure was changing, and it seemed like I was changing with it, and I wasn’t sure I liked who I was becoming.
She looked around, taking it all in. “Not bad,” she added, smiling a bit.
In that moment, all my doubts and fears were gone. It didn’t matter who I was becoming, it didn’t matter where I was going. As long as she was coming with me, it would all be worth it.
“We should probably gather all the supplies we can before we leave.” I suggested as I picked up the arrows I had dropped earlier. “These guys won’t exactly need it anymore.”
“Good idea,” she agreed. “They kept their ammo upstairs in another closet. I’ll see about getting the canned food.”
She didn’t want to go back upstairs, and she didn’t try very hard to hide it. I understood, Rodger was still groaning upstairs.
“Okay, I’ll get all I can carry and we’ll get out of here.” I went up the stairs. Sure enough, there were probably a hundred thirty ought six rounds still in the boxes, about a thousand .22 rounds, along with a few rifles to go with them. I filled a duffle bag with everything they had, and went back downstairs.
Sarah was sitting at the kitchen table. She had fresh tear lines on her face. There were only a few cans of food on the table. I knew there was probably more somewhere, but she didn’t want to be here anymore, and neither did I.
“Let’s go,” I said as happily as I could.
“What about the food?” she asked. She got up and grabbed the few cans on the table, “They have more we can take.”
I shook my head, “We can get food anywhere, and I can always come back here and get it if I need to. We don’t have to do it now.”
She looked at me appreciatively. She must have realized I knew she didn’t want to be here anymore. “Thanks,” she said as she grabbed me in a hug
“No problem,” I said as she let go. “The four-wheeler is up the road a bit, and then it’s smooth sailing.”
The back door had a few Zombies outside, the front door didn’t. Sarah waited by the front door, while I opened the back door and whistled. They saw me and came after me. Sarah opened the front door and we both went out. I closed it behind me, so the zombies wouldn’t follow us. There was plenty of food inside.
It was so dark outside we had to use a flashlight to find the four-wheeler. Once we found it we stowed the gear on the back. Sarah got on behind me and wrapper her arms around me. I couldn’t help but smile, it felt good. After all the shit I’d gone through on the road, I finally found her, and I wasn’t going to let her go.
I fired up the four-wheeler, which lit up the headlight. A few Zombies saw us and were headed our way. Sarah squeezed a bit as the four-wheeler lurched forward. I did a U-turn and we were on our way back to Nick and Roxie.
Chapter Thirteen: Reunions
11:45 PM, July 5
It was almost midnight by the time we got back. Luckily my luring trick had worked. Rather than a crowd of two dozen, there were only two in the front yard. I stopped the four-wheeler and shut it down so the noise wouldn’t attract anything else, and got off. Sarah got off and pulled out her pistol.
“Hold on,” I said, “Let’s keep this quiet.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “We’re pretty far out here, there can’t be many of those things close enough to hear it.”
“No sense in wasting the ammo either,” I added. “Not when we can do it by hand.”
“Good point.” She shrugged and put the pistol away and waited by the four-wheeler.
I left the bow in favor of my baseball bat. They were spaced well enough to safely smash their skulls without being overwhelmed.
I could see light in the upstairs windows, so they were awake at least. Sarah helped me push the four-wheeler back to the shed, before we went back to the house.
I only knocked twice before the door swung open. Nick was holding my shotgun, aimed at me, but dropped it as soon as he saw it was me. “You stupid son of a bitch,” he whispered, “Why the fuck did you come back at night?”
“First of all we got lost,” I said half sarcastically, finding the dirt driveway wasn’t exactly easy in the dark. “Second of all, don’t use my shotgun, you’ve got your own, and third, let us in, it isn’t exactly comfortable out here.”
“We?” he asked. Sarah was standing behind me a bit, and it was so dark he hadn’t noticed her until I walked through the door and he saw her follow me. I didn’t blame him for not recognizing her right away. Her hair was frizzy, clothes stained, worn, torn, and splattered with blood. Her skin was dirty, had a few bruises and cuts. All in all she looked like shit. “Sarah?” he finally asked after a moment of shock.
She walked right up and hugged him. “Nick, insightful as always.”
“Sarah?” I heard a high pitch screech come from across the room, and Roxie pretty much knocked me over on her way to hug Sarah. There were a lot of emotions radiating from those two, crying, laughing, and sobbing.
I’d been through a lot over the last few weeks wondering if they would all be alive, and seeing us all together again, even under the circumstances, it gave me hope.
Even though everyone had tears flowing, including Nick who was wiping his face, it was a happy moment.
Sarah and Roxie were still hugging, but Sarah looked me in the eyes. I gave her a reassuring smile. I couldn’t see her mouth, but her eyes said she was returning the smile.
The whole reunion lasted about twenty minutes. Hugs went in circles, Sarah hugged me again, then Nick, then Roxie. Roxie bandaged up my shoulder while talking to Sarah, after a while Sarah and Roxie started their sob talking.
Nick and I couldn’t understand a thing, so we went through the supplies I’d brought back from Rodger’s house. Sarah and Roxie went upstairs to clean up and talk while we were working.
“We’re going to need more,” I suggested. “Any herd of significant size and we’ll be overrun.”
“A herd?” Nick asked, checking out the thirty ought six. “What do you mean by a herd?”
“What else would you call a huge group of those things?” I asked. “It’s like a force of nature. When I was on my way down here I saw what had to have been a group of at least a few thousand of those things around a warehouse. As soon as they noticed me and a few others, they tore through like a tidal wave.”
“Well why would anything like that come out here?” Nick asked. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Tidal waves don’t discriminate, and neither do zombies,” I pointed out. “They’ll keep walking until they find food, and we’re a juicy target in this tiny ass farm house.”
“Fair enough,” Nick admitted. “Where do you suggest we go then? It’s not like there are places built specifically for something like this.”
“Honestly, we should go to the high school,” I suggested. “It’s got plenty of supplies there, close to town to gather more, and it’s basically a castle.”
Nick rolled his eyes, “You’re fucking with me right? We went to the school. it was a fucking war zone. Why would we go back there?”
“I’m actually com
pletely serious,” I argued. “It’s nothing but bodies now. All the zombies left after the food was gone, leaving the place for us to take over.”
“It had those things before!” he argued back. “And it still collapsed. You weren’t there, it was a madhouse. You couldn’t go five feet without one of those things popping up.”
I could see the emotion in his eyes, there was no sense in arguing with him now, and we could have this discussion later. “Never mind, we just need to be ready to get out of here if the shit hits the fan.”
“Fair enough,” he nodded. “We can get started on that in the morning,”
“What are we starting in the morning?” Roxie asked as she came back in the room. Her face was clean, she must have just washed it to clean off all the tear trails. Sarah was right behind her, her hair was still a bit damp, which meant she must have just showered.
“We’re going to be packing up some supplies to be able to leave in a hurry,” I answered. “Just in case.”
“Well I think we can discuss what we’re doing tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s one o’clock in the morning, and we could all use the sleep.” Roxie said in her mom voice, “The couch pulls out into a bed. Nick, let’s let them get some sleep, they need it.”
Nick stood up and started up the stairs. I pulled the couch cushions off and pulled out the bed. Once Nick and Roxie’s door closed I looked over at Sarah. “I can sleep on the floor if you want,” I offered, taking my hat off and hanging it on a chair. “And you can have the bed.”
“Could you sleep on the bed with me?” she asked. It was an odd question, I expected her to either accept my offer, or shut it down, and say it would be okay for me to sleep in the bed. Admittedly I hoped for the second outcome, but she said it as though she needed me to be in the bed.
“Yeah,” I said after thinking for a second. “Yeah. If you’re okay with that.” She sat on the left side of the bed, and took off her socks. I sat down on the right side and took off my boots and socks. I was about to take off my jeans and hesitated for a moment, but decided it would be weirder to leave them on.