by Kris Weeks
“Where are your kids?” Kindra blurted out then quickly covered her mouth after it came out.
Eric turned towards her as she slid to the side and hid behind her husband. “Ha, my kids know what to do.” Eric bantered. Willy just touched Kindra’s shoulder and shook his head silently telling her not to take it any further.
“You know what, that is a good damn idea. Barker, get your ass out here!” Eric hollered with a renewed pep in his voice.
Rue came barreling out of the room with Rowena on her hip. “NO ERIC!” “NowRue , he has to learn. Come on Barker, you are going to help out Karlin. It will only be for a couple of hours.” Eric retorted.
Barker walked to Eric and through the door he held open. Everyone watchedthe tears well upin Rue’s eyes watching her son walk out into the apocalypse, knowing that his only protection was a teenage girl.
Kindra ran to her and wrapped her arm around her shoulder trying to offer comfort. Rue turned, shrugged off the kindness and ran to the back, leaving Kindra to feel sorry for her.
Eric walked back in with a smug smile on his face and scanned the group. “This is how teaching children should be done.”
“Leaving them out to fight wolves? Guess I would think it is our job to protect them, but who the hell am I!” Andrew spouted as he turned away from the group.
Eric scoffed at the comment and made his way to the back room. Meanwhile, the group ran to the front door, peered out and up to see if they would be able to keep an eye on the kids. With no luck, they all made their way outside and stood behind the gate to keep watch on the two, knowing that if they went beyond that Eric would have a fit.
“Psssssst!” Adrianna hissed towards her friend. Karlin ’s head popped up and then Barker’s. Adrianna waved and smiled at them both. They both smiled and waved back.
“Ke ep your eyes peeled guys. Holler if you see something.” Willy instructed.
Both of them nodded and Karlin gave a thumbs up with Barker copying her.
The crew kept busy walking around cleaning up and readying the man made fire pit for another meal.
***
“Why do you think your dad sent you out here?” Karlin asked Barker. “He’s not my dad, and probably because he is an asshole!” Karlin giggled a bit before speaking again. “I don’t think I have ever heard you speak.”
“I am not allowed to speak. My sister and I were told that if we spoke, we would be gotten rid of.” Barker explained.
“Why does your mom stay with him?” Karlin pried. “We were getting ready to leave to go to my grandma’s when the zombies tried to eat us. Mom was packing the van when one came into the yard. We had to go back in the house, then Eric showed up and took us out of the house.” Barker told the story.
Karlin nodded, now understanding the situation. “Is Eric Rowena’s dad?” Barker nodded as he scanned the area around them. “Over there!” He pointed and whispered.
Karlin popped up from sitting on the curb and pulled her knife. “Keep back, I will take care of it.”
She got ready to fight, as the growling came closer and closer with each second. Karlin took a step forward to see into the dark better and there it was, she was face to face with a boy about her size, his hair was tussled like someone had put mud in it an ruffled it around with their hand. He had smears of dirt across his face with a deep cut that crossed his forehead. He reached an arm out and bloody goo shot across Karlin’s face from where a hand should have been but there was nothing except tendons swinging from the end of a nub. The boy reached out his other arm and grabbed a hold of Karlin’s shirt before she could jump back out of his reach. She raised her knife and gouged itinto the cut that ran across his head, pulled the knife back towards her, took a huge step backwards and tripped over Barker who was huddled in a ball on the ground.
“Get up Barker!” She yelled and pulled Barker up by the collar of his shirt.
She pushed him behind her and kept her eyes open wideto focus onthe dark area where the boy came from. She continued to walk backwards tothetop of the steps and motioned Barker to go down them. Karlin took slow steps feeling each edge with the heel of her worn out shoes. As Barker got to the fence he began rattling the chain to get in.
“Please, let me in!” He hollered desperately. The group ran to the gate, unraveled the chain and pulled him in as fast as they could. Edward and Nate hurried up the steps to Karlin. Edward grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder while Nate ran back to the top of the steps. He saw the boy that Karlin had taken out and could still hear growling in the distance coming his way.
“Get behind the gate!” Nate shouted as he ran down the steps. Edward carried Karlin through the gate and Nate followed them in. Willy closed the gate, just as a mountain lion sprung fromthe top of the steps and hit the gate hard trying to get at his next meal. The men heldthe gate and linked the chain around it while the huge cat tried to shake off the awkward blow it took from the gate to its head. All of them stepped back when they saw the cat get to all four feet and turned toward them.
“Get inside.” Nate whispered. Everyone slowlystepped backwards and into the building. Edward closed the door and they all piled around the door and watched the cat pace back and forth.
CHAPTER 10
AFTER Afew minutes of rest,
they all processed the fact that they were almost just eaten by a huge cat. “I was wondering where all of the dangerous animals were around here?” Nate stared outside.
“A few of the cage doors were open and were empty. Maybe someone let them out?” Willy wondered out loud.
“Where are those people at? If they were ballsy enough to let that out, I want to be with them.” Andrew laughed.
Adrianna leaned closer to the window to watch the beautiful creature. “It is so pretty!”
Karlin glared at her and back at outside. “Yeah pretty scary, that thing can kill us!”
“Guess that is one way to learn to survive, send us out with mountain lions.” Barker said calmly.
The group looked down and began laughing at the small boy’s comment; most of them surprised he even spoke. Edward rubbed Barker’s head as Karlin wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
A noise behind them startled them. They quickly turned to see Rue sneaking up behind themwith Rowena lying asleep in her arms.
“Hey Mom, I almost got ate by a mountain lion!” He ran to his Mother’s side.
Rue’s eyes got huge as she hugged her son. “Excuse me?” She questioned him.
Nate moved forward out of the group. “No…actually, he almost got ate by a drunk and the mountain lion tried to run through the gate after all of that.”
Rue’s jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?” “Nope, Karlin took out the zombie and the big cat is still out there, it was kind of cool!”
Rue scanned each of them as they parted to allow her through and made her way to the windowed door. The huge cat stood staring at her through the glass and then continued pacing back and forth with its eyes still on her.
“Where in the world did that come from?” Rue turned to the crowd, forgetting that theywere holed up in an abandoned zoo.
Andrew moved to a spot to settle in while explaining the situation. “We were watching Karlin and Barker from outside, theyseemed to be fine for abit until a zombie staggered up on them. The guys got up there after Karlin had already taken it out. We got Karlin and Barker back down here and Willy started to close the gate and the big damn feline launched itself toward the gate. Thank goodness we were all there to get it chained. Pretty sure whoever was here before us let all of the bigger animals out. There are no big cats, or bears, or anything big and dangerous left in their cages.”
Rue hugged her son and held her remaining daughter tight. “What the hell do we do now?”
Nate laughed at her seriousness and walked over to her. “We will get out there and shoot it, if itis notgone when we wake up.”
Eric walked into the room to see Nate with his hand on the small
of his wife’s back and yelled, “What the hell is going on here?”
The crowd jumped as they all whirled around to see him standing there. “And why the hell are you touching my wife for and why are these two inside? Get your asses back outside to keep watch.”
“Eric, there is a bobcat or lion thing out there, they were almost eaten!” Rue fired back ignoring the question regarding Nate.
Eric walked to the door and peered out into the hungry eyes of the mountain lion. “Well, is someone going to get rid of it?”
Everyone looked at each other then back at Eric and shook their head. “Y’all are all big damn babies!”
Eric went back to the back storage room and came back with a pistol. With Eric confiscatingtheir guns when they came into the group because he made the rule to not use them; none of them even thought Eric had any guns left.
Eric chambered a round and pulled open the door, he took three steps out of the door, stopped as the creature gave out a terrifyingly loud roar. He jumped back, stumbled and fell straight on his ass. The whole group laughed as quietly as they could, including little Barker.
Eric got up, mentally brushing off his bruised ego, raised his pistol, walked slowly toward the gate and waited for a good head shot. The cat turned and headed is normal path back across the gate entrance as a loud shot rang out. The cat dropped where it stood with blood pouring fromits head and trickling from its mouth. Eric turned on a heel and walked back in. “Done! Everyone get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow.”
Everyone scattered from the middle of the room to make their pallets of blankets and pillows that they had brought back.
The next morning came sooner than anyone expected. The sun brightened up the roomand everyone opened their squinty eyes trying to focus.
“Get up! Get moving now! I want the men to the van!” Eric hollered as he walked out the door.
Andrew, Nate, Willy, and Edward all pop up, pull on shoes and head out to followEric. Still half asleep, theyall pile into the van and sink into their seats.
“What the hell are we doing?” Willy mumbles. “We are looking for the other group that was here before us. They can’t be too far;Ifound some remains fromfish being fileted out, and they weren’t that old.” Eric made them aware.
“So you are just going to drive around and look for people?” Nate spewed out with a laugh.
“You have a better idea asshole?” Eric responded. “You think these people are just going to let us come into their group and hang out with them?” Nate said quickly cutting him off. “Would you do that?”
“I bet they do what I tell them to!” Eric replied while arrogantly holding his high on the horse attitude.
The men snickered at his comment. SuddenlyEric stopped the van, popped it in park and stood from the driver’s seat. “Willy drive!” He demanded.
Willy moved from the passenger seat and into the driver’s and Eric over to the passenger side.
“I’m not stupid, I know how easy it would be for all of you guys to get rid of me and how bad you probably want to do it, I have to keep a good eye on you all; it seems though you think that together you can get rid of me, but I tell you what, you don’t know what the hell I have been through in life and a few pansy ass boys will not take me out. Soon, you will all see I am just trying to keep everyone safe and weed out the bad ones. I may seem like I am an asshole, but I have to be firm to make people do what I want. I have to watch myback with people. I have had to watch my back since I was young and I am not going to stop now. I was a bullied kid with no one to teach me how to protect myself; now my job is to help others learn to protect themselves including young ones and I am going to do it the way I want to.” Eric paused for a moment, trying to decipher the group’s thoughts. “Especially with ones that want to get rid of me because I am a little harsh. I sucked it up and everyone needs to do the same.”
Edward and Nate looked at each other then back at Eric. Nate was sitting behindEric and puthis hands up as if he was wrapping them around his neck. Edward laughed out loud.
“Something funny big guy?” Eric asked. “Nah, but I do have one thing to say. Instead of being such an asshole about things, why don’t you work with us to make things easier?”
“I’m the boss; do you know what a boss is? Someone that tells people what to do because they are smarter and they don’t have to work.” Eric explained.
Edward made a surprised “wtf” face and nodded so the conversation would just end.
Willy drove in a direction they had not gone yet. “Where are we headed?” “Just to see what we can find.” Eric looked out the window glad that the confrontation was over.
Willy drove in silence as everyone else rode in silence, no one was willing to start another conversation that they just had with Eric. They all looked for whatever theymight see as theypassed by hundreds of small groups of the dead then came upon a mass of them on an open road and Willy stopped.
“I can’t make it through them without messing up the van.” Willy told Eric.
Eric sat scanning the area then flatly said, “Sure you can, just go around them.”
“Ummm…there is a drop off over here!” Nate blurted quickly.
“Yep over here too!” Andrew shouted from the back. “We need to find these others to see if they have more than we do and if we can maybe join forces. Go through them.” He ordered.
Willy peered over at Eric eyeing him cautiously then back at the road. He eased forward through the horde hitting the first one knocking it to the ground and under the van. The van jolted up and then back down. The van was suddenly surrounded. Bangs were coming in all directions from the dead beating on the sides of the van trying to get at them.
“Keep moving.” Eric instructed. Willy kept going as he ran over one dead after another. He began to worry as the van started slowing on its own fromthe drunk ones falling underneath the wheels.
Finally they could see the end of the horde so Willy stepped on it and hurried through the remaining mass of undead bodies. He ran over three more while a few others fell underneath the tires and the van rocked from side to side.
Coming to the end of the horde, Edward pointed in front of them. Everyone looked in the direction to see a truck on the side of the road. Eric held up his hand telling Willy to stop. Willypulled over near the pickup. Eric opened his door but quickly closed it just before a huge man slammed into the side of van. Nate tried to contain his laugh, but it literally burst out of him.
“Damn drunks!” Eric swiftly turned around and back handed Nate across the face. “I am tired of your mouth and you ingeneral! Get the fuck out and take out that so called drunk!”
Nate’s smile faded quickly as he watched the large man outside still banging on their vehicle. “Are you kidding me?” He questioned.
“Nope, you think you are such a badass, get after it.” Eric directly dared him.
Nate confidently nodded at the asshole of a man, sure he was just trying to get rid of himas he had others that had gotten in his way. Edward handed him his own large knife to dispatch the big drunk.
Nate slowly pulled the van door open, he stepped out and slammed it shut catching the big man’s attention. He turned to him and took a clumsy step at him. Nate planted his feet and brought his hand above his head with his knife ready to take this lug of a drunk on.
The man took another step, Nate threw himself forward and heaved the knife into the man’s skull. He yanked the knife out as the man fell then jumped up and down around the undead dead man like a boxer ready to fight. He could hear Andrew, Edward, and Willylaughing frominside the van and caught a glimpse of Eric; his face was priceless. His eyes were squinty, his jaw was askew and his face was bright red. Nate threw his hands in the air, with knife in hand and flung them around like a chimpanzee trying to get attention. The van was physically shaking with laughter. Nate made his way back to the door, slid it open and jumped into the seat without stepping up then slammed the door shut.
“LET’S
RIDE!!” Nate hollered. The laughter quickly subsided, but the snickers continued while they watched Nate bounce around in his seat from adrenaline.
“Wanna check out the truck now?” Nate happily asked Eric. Eric slowlyturned in his seat, glared at Nate, turned back around and pointed forward, signing for Willy to drive forward.
Willy pulled back onto the road but could see nothing except for the two lane highway and tree line on each side. After two more hills and three more curves, Eric swiftly put his hand up signing for Willy to stop.
“There they are!” Eric pointed at the gate!