“We all need to be extra careful.” Josh wished that Chad wasn’t walking so close to Corina. He wanted to tell her what they’d discovered. The first chance he got he’d tell her, but not Sam. Sam was already in Chad’s crosshairs, which made Josh very worried.
“I wish we could ditch him,” Troy muttered.
“First chance we get, we will,” Josh promised.
“Good. Because he’s going to get us killed if we don’t,” Danny said before rejoining his cousin.
“I hate the zombie apocalypse,” Troy declared.
“Tell me about it,” Josh answered, and squeezed the spear even tighter.
Chapter 21
The sound of thunder rolled across the sky. Glancing over his shoulder, Josh stared at the thick curtain of rain flowing across the field. The cows were crowded under trees and a rickety shelter. It gave him a bad feeling in his guts to see them hiding from the storm. The kids definitely needed to get a roof over their heads.
“I hope someone is home,” he muttered.
The drainage ditch emptied into a culvert under the gravel road. The barbed-wire fences ended at the edge of the farmhouse property and a rusty hurricane fence bending under heavy vines took its place. Oak and mesquite trees shaded the farmhouse, and oleander bushes overran the back porch. The strong wind from the oncoming storm ruffled the grass and weeds filling the spaces around the many old cars and sending leaves bouncing along the cement slab in front of the big garage.
“This place is kinda creeping me out,” Troy said.
The garage was intimidating. The doors were slightly ajar and the darkness beyond the threshold was unnerving. Josh didn’t like the lack of visibility around the house either. It was impossible to see what was in front of the house. The one good sign was that the back door was closed.
Chad scurried along a well-beaten path toward the back gate to the property. Huge signs, battered by time, read KEEP OUT and TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT.
“Crap!” Josh ran after Chad with Troy close on his heels. “He’s going to get us in trouble!”
Josh didn’t want to shout at Chad so close to where people or zombies might be lurking. Chad reached the back gate, and attempted to open it. It rattled loudly against its hinges. Either rust, or the vines woven through the links, prevented it from opening.
“Hey! We need help!” Chad called out.
Letting go of Sam, Corina ran to Chad and clutched his arm. Josh couldn’t hear what she said, but she was vehement in the delivery. Chad shrugged off her hand and gave her a mocking smirk. Shaking the gate, Chad laughed at Corina’s distraught expression.
It was clear that the situation was already spiraling out of control. Josh sprinted along the path to confront Chad. The heavy air was moist against his skin and sweat ran down his face in rivulets. He was so tired he just wanted to sit and rest in a safe spot. The farmhouse promised a possible safe haven for a little while, but already Chad was inviting trouble. With him around, they’d never catch a quiet moment to recharge.
“Hey,” Josh huffed when he arrived at the gate. “Stop making so much noise.”
“Look, no one is here. Obviously.” Chad spread his arms. “See anyone?”
“Then if you think no one is here, stop yelling,” Josh retorted. “We can’t take chances.”
“Look, little dude, I understand that you think you’re the big boss in charge of some stupid kiddie club, but this is the real world. I already survived more stuff than you can imagine. Plus, I saved you guys over and over again.”
“More like nearly got us killed,” Troy interjected.
With an all too familiar sneer, Chad shoved Troy. “Shut up. No one wants your lip.”
“Leave him alone!” Corina stepped in front of Sam and Troy. “I’m so tired of you bullying them.”
“I’m not bullying. I’m just being honest.”
“You’re not in charge here, Chad. I am. And I say we go in quiet and see what the situation is. We need to make sure the area is clear before that storm gets here,” Josh said in his most commanding voice. “We need shelter.”
“You afraid of a little rain?” Chad snorted. “So lame.”
“I’m afraid of the lightning,” Sam piped up. “It can fry you.”
“Of course you’re afraid, fatty baby,” Chad scoffed.
“It’s getting colder, and if we end up wet, we might get sick. Which will make all of this worse.” Corina turned her back on Chad and said to Josh, “What do we do?”
Chad snatched her glasses off her face and danced away before she could reclaim them. Holding them up to his face, he said mockingly, “Look at me. I’m a hot girl with glasses and I act like I’m everyone’s mother.”
“Give me back my glasses. I can’t see!”
Corina stumbled forward, and Josh caught her before she could fall.
“I’ll get them, Corina” Josh said.
There was a loud whack, and Chad howled.
Josh spun about to see Chad on his hands and knees in the tall grass with Dulce standing behind him. She reclaimed the glasses, and walked over to Corina to return them.
“What did she do?” Troy asked.
“Yeah, I totally missed it.” Sam was grinning ear-to-ear.
“Hit the back of his knees with her stick,” Danny replied with a satisfied look on his face.
“Thank you,” Corina said with relief and slid the glasses back onto her nose.
“You stupid... I’m gonna...” Chad struggled to stand, clearly hurting.
Dulce took a sharp step toward Chad, and he cowered.
“Oh, shut your trap,” Troy ordered. “So sick of hearing you.”
Dulce muttered something in Spanish and pulled the vines free from the latch. She yanked the gate open and glanced back at Josh, waiting for him to give the go ahead.
“Everyone, spears at the ready. Keep together. We’re going to head to the back door and see if we can find a way into the house.” Josh moved in front of everyone and held his spear in a defensive position. “If you see movement, say something.”
The group, except for Chad, gathered into a tight cluster and squeezed through the gate. The thick, overgrown grass crunched beneath their feet as they inched forward, straining to see behind the rusted hulks of old cars. The newer cars that were in better condition were near the house.
“Is this a junkyard?” Sam whispered. “There’s a lot of cars.”
“Nah. But it is junk,” Troy replied.
Thunder rumbled and lightning streaked across the tops of the nearby hilltops. The need for shelter increased with every passing moment. Weaving between the old cars was nerve–wracking. Josh found it hard not to imagine zombies lurking behind every sun-bleached vehicle. Though he was concentrating on his surroundings, he kept one eye on the garage. The darkness beyond the doorway made him very nervous. He’d seen way too many horror movies to not be wary of the structure that creaked in the rising wind gusts.
They were halfway through the jumble of cars when the sound of buckling metal made them all flinch at once. Leapfrogging from car to car, Chad whooped as he bypassed them. He made a long jump from the hood of one car to the trunk of another, then scrambled over the top and landed on an oil-stained cement slab in front of the garage.
“Losers!” he shouted.
“That’s it. I’m killing him.” Sam rushed past Josh, his staff clutched in front of him with both hands. He wove through the rows of the last few cars toward Chad.
Laughing, Chad skipped toward the farmhouse.
The wind moaned and whistled through the garage. Tarps tied over some of the cars flapped wildly, slapping against the windows.
“Keep together,” Josh ordered the rest of the group. “We still don’t know if this area is safe.”
Danny nodded somberly and held his spear out in front of him. “I’m ready.”
With a nod, Josh advanced through the winding path through the cars.
Sam pursued Chad across the cement slab and into
a small yard area. The day’s events had sapped him considerably, and by the time he reached the steps to the porch, it was clear his energy was sagging.
“I’m going to kill you, Chad!” Sam shouted.
In the shadows of the porch, Chad banged on the back door with one fist, still taunting Sam with his laughter.
The wind growled fiercely, blowing the first drops of rain into Josh’s eyes. Blinking, he lowered his head to shield his face.
“No one’s home, losers! I’ll look for a key!”
Sam finally reached the top step and attempted to smack Chad with his staff. Instead, he was shoved off the porch and landed on his rump with a pained cry.
Chad laughed and lifted the back door welcome mat. Apparently not seeing a key, he started overturning plants and decorations heaped along the edges of the porch.
Josh led his group through the last row of the car maze. It felt foolish being so cautious when Chad and Sam had run ahead, but he knew from zombie movies that caution was a life saver. The branches of the trees around the house flailed wildly in the gusts. The moan of the wind was even louder than before.
Josh took another step, and froze. “Wait.”
“What is it?” Troy asked.
“Shh!” Josh cocked his head, listening.
His sweaty hands began to tremble around his spear.
It wasn’t the wind moaning.
From around the corner of the farmhouse came a group of bloodied zombies.
Chapter 22
“Sam! Zombies!” Corina screamed. “Run!”
On the porch, Chad whipped about, a key clutched in his fingers.
The zombies were slowed by a propane tank blocking their path, buying the two kids on the porch precious time. Sam scrambled to his feet while Chad fumbled with the lock on the back door.
“What do we do?” Troy sputtered.
There wasn’t enough time to reach the farmhouse. The garage was just as risky. The best choice was to turn back, go through the gate, and run across the next field.
“Go back! Go back! Head through the gate!” Josh urged.
The kids turned and retreated through the maze of cars, moving faster than before.
“Sam! Run!” Corina shouted again as she clambered over the back of a car behind Danny and Dulce.
Seeing the zombies rounding the propane tank, Sam let out a startled cry. He darted up the porch steps. Chad finally unlocked the back door, stepped inside, and slammed it shut.
“Open the door!” Sam wailed. “Open the door!”
“Just run, Sam!” Josh hated how much time the kid was wasting. “Just run!”
Sam bolted off the porch and ran past the zombies shambling toward him. Pumping his arms furiously, he dashed across the cement pad and into the garage.
“No!” Josh cried out. “Sam, no!”
The zombies were instantly drawn to the sound of Josh’s voice. There were around a dozen, all ages and sizes. They surged away from the back porch and toward the sprawl of cars.
“Josh! Move!” Troy called out.
Corina paused between cars, looked toward the zombies, then swept her gaze over the area. “Where’s Sam?”
“In the garage.” Josh hurried to catch up, but tossed quick looks over his shoulder to keep an eye on the zombies and the garage entrance. “He might be safe if he closes the door.”
“We can’t abandon him,” Corina protested.
Josh pushed her past a big gold Lincoln with no tires. “We don’t have a choice.”
As the door to the garage started to slide close, one of the male zombies dressed in jeans and a t-shirt separated from the group to limp surprisingly fast toward the narrowing gap.
“Shut the door, Sam!” Josh shouted.
The sliding metal door was almost closed when the zombie caught it and slipped through.
“No!” Corina gasped. “No!”
“It got him!” Troy groaned. “It got poor Sam.”
Feeling sick to his stomach, Josh turned away and concentrated on hurrying through the tangle of cars. The zombies pursued the children with terrifying speed. Josh suspected they were freshly dead, therefore faster than the ones at the truck stop.
Ahead, Dulce came to a sharp halt, her cousin smacking into her back.
“Don’t stop!” Troy skid into both of them.
A weird sound punctured through the moans and grunts of the zombies. It was like someone pounding a rock on the ground. The thudding grew louder. Huge chunks of ice were falling from the sky to slam into the ground a few feet from the chain-link fence. That’s what had made Dulce stop.
“Hail! Big hail!” Troy gasped.
“We can’t run into it! We can get really badly hurt!” Corina exclaimed.
Josh spun about and studied the area. The zombies were a few cars away, but closing in. Running back to the big Lincoln, Josh tried the door. To his relief, it opened.
“In here!”
He dove into the hot, musty interior and scrambled to the passenger side. Dust rose from the seats, and Josh sneezed violently.
Troy scrambled into the car and climbed over the seat into the back. “It’s gross in here!”
Danny was right behind him, still holding onto his spear. “Better than being out there!” He nearly jabbed Troy in his haste to scale over the seat.
Corina was next. “Be careful, you guys!”
She slid along the front seat into Josh to make way for Dulce.
The first zombie in the group reached the car just as Dulce was about to climb inside. Without hesitation, the girl punched the end of her spear into the creature’s eye. The zombie clawed at the stick, trying to reach her, and took another step forward. Dulce planted her feet apart and pushed the spear further into the zombie’s eye socket, knocking it off its feet and into the other undead creatures. She slid behind the wheel of the car and slammed the big door shut before the scrabbling fingers of the zombies could get a good grip. She pushed the lock down, and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.
“Lock the door, Josh!” Troy waved at the passenger door.
“Can zombies open doors?” Danny asked.
“Who knows? Better lock it anyway,” Troy replied.
Josh locked it for good measure.
“Hey, you killed that one, Dulce. Check it out. He’s not moving,” Troy said, clearly impressed.
“One down and how many to go?” Corina sneezed on the dust and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“Too many,” Josh answered, feeling lost and helpless.
The zombies slowly encircled the car, pounding on the windows. Their glassy white eyes devoid of life sent shivers down Josh’s spine. They reminded him too much of his mother after she’d returned from the dead.
“Not good,” Dulce said in heavily accented English, her dark eyes concentrated on the view outside the very dirty and smeared windshield.
“You did really good, Dulce,” Corina assured her, patting her shoulder.
“No, not good,” Dulce said, pointing out the window.
The thudding noise evolved from sounding like a brick hitting the ground into hammer blows against metal. Beyond the zombies clawing at the long hood of the Lincoln, the giant-sized hail battered another car. The windshield splintered beneath the onslaught. A few more blows weakened the glass enough that several fist sized holes appeared in it.
“Not good, not good, not good,” Troy chanted.
“We’re about to get pounded by the hail.” Danny let out a long breath. “This is gonna suck.”
Like a curtain being drawn over a window, the front edge of the hail storm was heading straight for their car. Soon the Lincoln would be bombarded by the baseball-sized hail.
“They’re going to be able to get us if the windows bust!” Danny exclaimed.
“Look for weapons,” Josh ordered.
Dulce and Danny spoke in Spanish while Corina searched the glove compartment. Josh felt around in the door pocket and along the floor, but came up em
pty. There was a loud snap, and Josh jumped in surprise. Embarrassed, he realized Dulce and Danny had bent the spear over the back of the front seat until it broke into two pieces.
“I got a tire iron!” Troy held it up triumphantly. The tool was greasy and looked pretty battered, but it would work as a weapon.
The zombies continued their assault on the car, beating on the windows with their hands and even their mouths. One of the zombie kids kept trying to bite at them through the glass. Josh tried not to look at their bloody faces and broken teeth. There were two little girls among the zombies and an older woman that reminded Josh of his grandma. A woman with lots of red frizzy hair was missing most of her face. She left gross smears of blood and bits of flesh on the window as she tried to get to him.
“It’s Zoey,” Corina said sadly.
“The girl from the bus?” Troy asked.
Corina nodded, and looked down at the screwdriver clutched tightly in her hand. She’d found it in the glove compartment. “I guess she didn’t make it to safety.”
Josh tried not to look at the zombified girl and felt under the seat for anything he could use to fight the zombies. “She went off alone. You can’t survive alone with no one to watch your back.”
A loud thump on the roof announced the arrival of the hail. The children froze, raising their eyes as more struck the roof. Soon there was a steady, terrifying staccato. The chunks of ice bombarded the car and zombies. Josh had never seen hail so big. Jagged, white, uneven balls of ice smashed into the hood of the car.
Out of the corner of his eye, Josh saw Zoey jerk and fall against the car door. A huge dent in her forehead was clearly visible as she slid out of sight. The zombies didn’t have any sense of self–preservation. Instead of seeking shelter, or protecting their heads, they continued to claw at the glass, hoping to reach the children inside the car. Massive welts started to appear on their exposed body parts as the hail pelted them.
“Last year a big storm hit Dallas and hail this size hurt people,” Corina whispered. “Put a bunch in the hospital.”
The hail slammed into the car with terrifying speed, denting the metal and cracking the windows, but it was also striking the zombies with enough force to knock them around.
The Living Dead Boy (Book 2): Lost in Texas Page 11