by McElyea, Ben
Jake and Dan snuck out that night. They traveled for two days without sustenance, killing stray zombies and avoiding passing groups of people.
18
“This is what you wanted, Dan.”
“I know we’re not doing well.”
“It’s better than eating people.”
“Definitely.”
“Eating human flesh has changed us as people, Dan.”
“We’re evil.”
“No, we aren’t. We’re survivors.”
“I don’t know how much more of this life I can take.”
“Keep pushing.”
“I am pushing myself too hard.”
“Stop talking and keep walking.”
“I want to rest.”
“We can’t rest on the road. People or monsters might find us.”
“At this point, I want people to find us.”
“No way. From here on, we’re going to avoid people.”
“How will two people survive?”
“Just stop talking.”
“I want to know how just two people can survive this.”
“We’ll do whatever it takes.”
“We can’t go much further without water.”
“I know. We’ll check the next neighborhood we find.”
They searched the neighborhood a few miles from an empty cattle field. They found a bounty of noodles, bottled water, soda, crackers, pickled eggs, peanut butter, bubble gum, candy bars, and chocolate covered raisins.
“This is enough to last us for a while,” said Jake.
“Let’s rest.”
“Not yet. We have to set up a perimeter.”
“Let’s just rest around the corner nearest the front door.”
“Okay, but we’re stacking furniture against the entrances.”
“Do you really think someone’s going to try to get in here while we’re sleeping? With so few humans left, what are the odds of that happening?”
“Don’t get lazy, Dan. Always prepare for everything when you can.”
“Let’s do this so we can get some sleep.”
Jake woke up in the middle of the night. He thought he had heard something. He thought maybe it was part of a dream he had. He looked out the front window. It was raining. Thinking quickly, he grabbed empty buckets and set them outside to collect rainwater.
He felt something wasn’t right. He checked all around the house. He came to check the last room. In the last room, he heard something coming from the closet. Pistol drawn, he opened the closet to see a skinny man smiling up at him.
“Please don’t shoot me,” the man said calmly. “I’ll do anything.”
“Why are you here?”
“I was going to kill you, but I changed my mind. I slipped past you before you shut the door, after you set the buckets out. I was going to kill you, but I swear I’ve changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind?”
“Yes.”
“You changed your mind out of fear.”
“That’s right.”
“Why not try talking to us first?”
“I figured both of you would kill me.”
“How have you survived thus far?”
“This house was mine before you and your friend took it. There’s a bomb shelter beneath the basement. The entrance is under the rug.”
“Why are you so skinny?”
“I used to be in the bomb shelter with four other people. I got cast out.”
“Why?”
“I wasn’t family. I was just clustered up with them during the beginning of the chaos. I followed them down the road because I had nowhere to go. They let me stay for a while. The husband and father kicked me out.”
“You won’t leave because you know there’s food and safety down there.”
“I’ve been surviving off of apples from the trees. I was too scared to go in any of the other houses by myself.”
“Then I came along and you wanted to kill me.”
“Sorry.”
“I can’t let you live. I don’t trust you.”
Jake pulled the trigger and ended the bony man’s life. The sound of the shot echoed throughout the house. Dan came running up the steps and into the bedroom.
“There was a guy in the closet. Look.”
“How did he get in?”
“He slipped past me when I put buckets out. He said there was a bomb shelter beneath the basement.”
They searched the basement for the bomb shelter. There was no rug or bomb shelter entrance.
“That man was going to kill us.”
“I’m glad I woke up before he had a chance to.”
“You almost got us killed, Jake.”
“I was tired.”
“I wonder if the sound of the gunshot attracted any zombies.”
“I doubt it. Loud thunder and rain probably muffled the sound. What I’m concerned about is if there were people with that man.”
“I think he was alone.”
“Let’s get back to sleep.”
Jake didn’t sleep. His thoughts kept him awake.
“Where will we go tomorrow? How many of those things will be outside when we leave? What’s going to happen to us?”
In the morning, Jake woke to see Dan with his finger over his lips. He got up and followed Dan to a corner of one of the bedrooms.
“They’re everywhere,” Dan whispered.
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“Why are there so many of them here?”
“I heard gunshots last night after the storm stopped. The sound attracted them here.”
“They’re not just passing through.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone is in the house next to us. The zombies are trying to get in.”
“Will they get in?”
“Maybe if enough of them were to press up against the glass.”
“This is a problem.”
“As long as there are that many zombies here, we can’t leave.”
“We can’t make a run for it?”
“I don’t know. You said there are a lot of them, right?”
“Yeah. Take a look.”
They walked downstairs. Jake took a peek outside. There were a lot of them.
“We can’t escape, Dan. We’ll have to wait it out.”
“You shot that man upstairs in the head, right?”
“You saw the wound.”
“Just making sure.”
“I wish we had those buckets in here.”
“That’d be nice.”
“They’d probably notice us if we went out there to get them.”
“Good chance of that.”
“We’ll eventually get thirsty enough to risk it.”
“We’ll have to be very fast and quiet when we do decide to risk it.”
“We never can catch a break, can we?”
“Nope.”
“We’re probably going to die, Dan.”
“We won’t die.”
“We’ll probably endure a horrible death.”
“We’ve gotten this far, haven’t we?”
“I’m being realistic. The odds of us not dying a horrible death are against us.”
“Realistic or not, you’re being negative. I don’t want to hear it.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’ll make it.”
“Hard to do when zombies have taken over the world.”
“Look, I understand how bad it is. Let’s make the best of it. We survived the initial outbreak. Most people didn’t make it. I’m sure we’re doing a lot better than most people are right now.”
“When are we getting the water?”
“Let’s do it right now.”
Jake and Dan quietly opened the door and quickly carried the three plastic buckets inside.
“Did any of them see us?” Dan asked.
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
Moments later, three zombies came up to t
he house and began beating on the door.
“This is horrible, Dan.”
“Stay positive. I need you.”
“There are flesh eating monsters at the door.”
“We’ll get out of this.”
19
“How are we going to get out of this one?”
“We wait.”
“We wait? Waiting is your solution?”
“Our fate could be anything.”
“I wouldn’t depend on fate. We choose our own fate. We may have sealed our fate when we decided to rest here for the night.”
“We might be okay.”
“I’d feel a lot better if we had more bullets.”
“Yeah.”
For three days, nothing changed. They rested near the front window.
“Those things are going to make it inside, Dan. That window won’t hold them.”
“I see the cracks.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
“What do we have to work with?”
“We have the machetes, the two pistols, and enough ammo for a few magazines.”
“That’s not enough.”
“I know.”
“I’m not so sure we’ll get out of this one.”
“I have an idea.”
“What’s the plan?”
“When they get in, we’ll wait at the top of the steps. We’ll have a good angle to handle them with the machetes. When we’re overrun, we’ll use the pistols. When we run out of ammo, we’ll take out as many as we can in the hallway. From there, we’ll lock ourselves in one of the bedrooms. We could climb out the bedroom window and make a run for it.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“Now we just wait for the inevitable to happen.”
Less than thirty minutes later, the glass broke. The sound of the broken glass attracted more of the undead. Out of instinct, the two brothers defeated over thirty of them as they tried to get through the window. They took out six more before retreating up the stairs. Dan dropped his machete on accident.
“To the bedroom!” Jake yelled.
“Too scared to pick up the machete, Dan followed Jake to the furthest bedroom on the left. Jake locked the door. Pummeling on the door came right after.
“No guns,” said Jake. “Through the window.”
“How much of a drop is it?”
“The bushes will break some of our fall.”
20
The drop was more painful than Jake thought it would be. He and Dan quickly stood up and ran.
“Where are we going?” Dan asked.
“Don’t talk. Just follow me.”
They ran through the drenched streets. Jake tripped a few times before he and his brother made it to another neighborhood. They broke inside a house and ran into the dining room to see a family eating at the table. Intense eye contact was made for several seconds before anyone said anything.
“We didn’t know anyone was in here,” Jake said to the man sitting at the end.
“I’m surprised none of the guards saw you,” said the older man. “Get out before you’re both killed.”
“We have nowhere else to go.”
“Do you plan to hurt us? Be honest with me. I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying.”
“We won’t hurt you unless you try to hurt us.”
“We’re not giving you any of our food.”
“That’s fine. We just need a safe place.”
“No place is safe.”
“It’s safer in here than out there.”
“True.”
“I’m Jake. This is Dan.”
“Have either of you been bitten?”
“No. Have any of you been bitten or anything?”
“No.”
“Can we sit at the table?”
“Yes.”
They sat at the table and looked around them. The man and his family looked healthy, like they never endured the zombie struggle. The man had a long beard, pot belly, and wore flannel and a red hat. The woman wore a yellow sundress. The two children wore race car t-shirts and jeans.
“I have a question,” said Jake.
“What?” the man asked.
“You all look like you’ve been doing exceptionally well. I’m curious as to how that is.”
“I don’t want to reveal that.”
“Fair enough. Do you know where my brother and I can find some food and water?”
“We have a well in the back yard. Dug it myself years ago. You can drink all the water you want. Food is something the two of you will have to figure out for yourselves.”
“Thank you for allowing us to stay here.”
“Strength in numbers.”
“Do you have weapons?”
“There’s a pistol in my hand beneath the table.”
“We don’t want to fight.”
“Neither do we.”
“I’m glad we climbed over the fence and stumbled across you and your people. We would have died out there.”
“We try to work together here.”
“Can we be a part of this community?”
“That’s a possibility.”
“Great. We’re tired of moving from place to place. We’ve been through a lot.”
“So has everyone else.”
“Have you lost anybody?”
“Hasn’t everybody?”
“What can we do to contribute?”
“Bring food.”
“Scavenging?”
“Yes.”
“Is it alright if we sleep here?”
“The den is downstairs. You two can sleep on the couches.”
“You’re a lot more stable than other people we’ve come across.”
“Everyone’s desperate.”
“We’ve come across some very dangerous and psychotic people.”
“Have you?”
“Yeah. Killers and cannibals.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We were with a group at the supermarket for a while. At first, everything was fine. When we ran out of food, some of the people ate some of the weaker people.”
“That’s madness.”
“It truly is.”
“Go downstairs and get some rest. I’ll wake both of you in the morning.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, sir.”
Jake and Dan walked down the stairs and found the couches.
“Looks comfy,” Dan whispered as he and Jake sat down.
“Don’t get too comfortable. We don’t know if we can trust these people yet.”
“They look trustworthy.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“We’ll never get a good rest again, will we?”
“I don’t know, bro. We’ll each take turns sleeping. I’m going to sleep for the first four hours.”
“Can I sleep four the first four hours? I’m really tired.”
“So am I.”
“Please, Jake.”
“Fine.”
“Thank you. I’ve never been so tired in my life.”
“Me either.”
“I would let you go first, but I would pass out during my shift and possibly get us both killed.”
“I understand. Get some rest. We need all the energy we can get.”
21
Jake and Dan were surprised no one in the family tried to kill them. In the morning, Jake woke Dan as he heard the man walking down the steps. He stared for a moment.
“I hope you two got some sleep. You’re going to have to speak to everyone.”
“We’d be more than happy to let everyone know we’re good people,” said Dan.
“Come with us. We’re meeting everyone in the middle of the street. Remember you’re being watched.”
“We’re going to cooperate.”
“If you don’t, you’ll probably die. I’ll follow you up the stairs.”
The man followed Jake and Dan outside. Men and women armed with firearms and the two children were standing across th
em.
“Your wife said something about two people showing up?” a young man asked as he held his gun with the barrel facing up.
“Yeah,” the man wearing flannel said firmly.
“What are your names?”
“I’m Jake. This is my brother, Dan.”
“I’m Larry. This is Helen, Aaron, and Nick. How many people are in your group?”
“It’s just us.”
“We can’t be sure of that.”
“I’m not sure if there’s a way we can prove there are only two of us.”
“There isn’t. If you’re lying to us, we’ll kill you. Tell us your story. If we believe your story, we’ll let you live here.”
“We could tell the truth and you not believe us.”
“That’s true.”
“Okay. I stocked up on ammo, food, and drinks as soon as I thought this was going to be an epidemic. My brother bought what he could and came over to my place to try to wait it out with me. When we ran out of food, we lived in the houses on our street. Later, we moved on and reached the supermarket. Everything was fine until we ran out of food. Other people ate people. We snuck out before they got a chance to kill and eat us. We didn’t leave the moment we figured out they were cannibals. We waited until the next morning to escape while everyone was sleeping. We traveled for a while before reaching a neighborhood not too far from this one. A crazy guy inside one of the houses was inside and waiting for us to fall asleep so he could kill us. I was fortunate to have heard him moving in the closet upstairs. We ran here and came to this man’s house.”
“I believe your story,” said the man with the shotgun. “What do the rest of you think? Larry, this man broke into your home. We’ll let you decide. You know these two better than the rest of us. Should they be shot or trusted?”
“We’ll give them a chance, Adam.”
“Okay. Jake, Dan, you’re welcome to stay here. The brick house with the grey roof is yours. Use the back yard as your restroom. One of us will come get you when we want help with something.”
“Thank you. My brother and I won’t disappoint anyone here.”
Jake and Dan found the house and looked around inside. The place had been mostly untouched by the zombie apocalypse. Only a blood stain in the bathroom indicated there was any sort of trouble.
“Looks a lot better than any other house we’ve searched since all of this started,” Dan said with a chuckle. “No bad smell. Nothing has been trashed. We just received a three hundred thousand dollar home.”
“Before we do anything, we’re going to fortify this place.”
“Why? We have a huge iron fence surrounding us on all sides.”