Winter's Salvation

by Deyo, Jason

  Sam saw the cat dart from the shadow of the tire and run out into the street and the zombie opened its mouth and looked as if it were going to scream, but nothing came out. Moving closer it inhaled and let out a bellowing groan that echoed off of every house in this quiet neighborhood.

  Naomi ran to the edge of the porch and kicked the zombie through the railings and connected with it’s temple. Not flinching from the impact, the ghoul turned it’s attention to Naomi and reached through the railing trying to grab her legs.

  Sam ran back up the porch and grabbed her mother to pull her back into the house. The sound of moaning rolled down the street, as one ghoul answered the next. Sam turned as she tried to pull her mother and focused her attention on the eerie house directly across the moon lit street.

  The bald zombie continued to groan and with every noise that came from it, Naomi was quick to kick down on its face. The ghoul reached clumsily up through the bars trying for her legs. Naomi standing on the porch, had a huge advantage of dodging his grasps and continue her barrage of kicks.

  Never taking her attention off the nightmarish house, a figure emerged in the open doorway. “Mom we have to go.” She said as she pulled on her waist. Naomi was deaf to her daughter’s command. Filled with adrenaline she no longer felt the pain in her back and wanted this creature to suffer for being what it was. Holding onto the top railing and keeping her left leg back she kicked furiously at the ghoul with her right.

  Sam watched as these quiet streets quickly began to explode with excitement. The figure from the nightmarish house was now moving toward them, and lone bodies made their way toward them from both sides of the street. The moon cast shadows of these ghouls in the middle of the street making them appear much closer to them.

  “Mom their coming!” Sam yelled snapping her out of her preexisting rage.

  Naomi now conscious of her surroundings, was horrified at the sight of multiple undead lumbering down the middle of the street. There was a large crowd walking almost shoulder to shoulder coming from the south side of the street. From the other end of the street they were scattered and if Naomi briefly thought about running through them, but once Sam interrupted her aggression filled trance she quickly began to feel the pain of her injury.

  Sam stood on the porch and watched the undead begin to circle around the railings of the deck.

  Naomi quickly had the idea of running out the back. Sam, still holding onto her, pulled her through the door. They ran through the house, through the kitchen and to the back door. They opened the door and to their surprise looked down on a dozen undead that were at the bottom of the back porch steps. The undead were being drawn to the front of the house, but quickly changed direction toward them. Naomi’s stomach rushed up her throat and her knees got weak as hopelessness cloaked over her. She thought this was how she was going to die. She was going to be eaten by her father’s neighbors. Sam pulled her mother back around just in time for her to hear the first undead in the front of the house hit into the screen door.

  The screen door was almost as loud as the undead that surrounded the house. The sheet metal quickly began to fold in on itself as the weight of the zombies pressing against it tore it down and pulled it from the hinges.

  Like a beacon of light, the stairs that led to the second floor caught both of their eyes. Naomi slammed the back door, not making the same mistake twice, and ran to the stairs. The hoard of undead lunged at them as soon as they reached the first step. The first ghoul missed and fell forward, causing the ones directly behind it to fall on top it.

  They ran to the first door they saw and closed it behind them. Naomi locked the door and Sam began to push a dresser behind it. This room was Fuzzy Pop Pop’s master bed room. Pictures of Sam and Naomi fell from the dresser as it was pushed to block the door.

  The heavy footsteps and bodies that crawled up the steps shook the small house. The undead groaned with excitement; knowing their meal was within their grasps. Their moaning was becoming louder as more and more began to pile up the steps

  They stood with their backs against the wall opposite the door, staring at the dresser for a second and then Naomi tried to pull the bed closer to the door. The room was plain with white pull up blinds and pink rose petal curtains. A thick loose green carpet, carpeted the entire room. With one pull the muscles in her body refused to let her inflict pain upon her body and she could not muster the strength to even try. Sam pressed her body into the corner of the queen sized bed and moved it two inches before the carpet grabbed hold of the beds legs, preventing it from moving.

  The sound of scratching, followed by a thud signaled they were at the door and wanted more than anything to get in. The thuds became more rapid as more piled against the door. The pounding slowed to a stop, as the first few to arrive were being smashed against the door under the weight of the hundred. The door broke from the handle and the door and dresser started to push forward. Bloody fingers reached through the opening as they tried to force it open more. The carpet started to fold up creating a small curb that kept it from opening any further.

  As soon as the dresser stopped, a crack was made down the center of the door. Sam and Naomi looked frantically for a place to hide. The closet or under the bed crossed their minds, but quickly vanished. Sam opened the curtains and pulled the white blinds down and began to open the window. She pulled up as hard as she could, but the window did not budge; until Naomi unlocked it. The window flew open with ease and Sam looked out at the hoard of zombies that roared out all at once as if she were some rock star making her first appearance at a concert.

  **********

  Eric moved to the window and slightly pushed the curtain to the side, just enough to peer out with his left eye. He scanned the street looking for the “Psst!” noise. From across the street and two houses down a woman stepped out from the front door and onto the front porch. She appeared to be trying to talk to someone, but no one was there. Then from behind a car a figure stood up and a cat ran from the car and across the street.

  Something was moving from the side of the house toward the figure behind the car and he immediately recognized from its jerky movements to be a ghoul. As the person behind the car ran to the porch, Eric was able to see that they were two women. One of the women was very thin and smaller than the other. The one that came out of the house was tall, a little thicker, but very tone. The thought crossed his mind that they may be a mother daughter duo, because in the moon light their long individual braids matched each other’s exactly.

  As the two women stood on the porch, the ghoul groaned and then more began to answer its call. Drew came running down the steps with his shoes in his hand. “Are we going to help them?”

  Eric thought about this for a second in silence as he watched some undead walk past their house. He also remembered promising Rod that he would take care of Drew. “Lets see what happens. They should have a man in there.”

  “What if they don’t?” Drew’s voice was filled with excitement and frustration.

  Eric felt an anger rise up in him. Drew was being loud and going to give their position away and also because he was a little scared about having that be them. He had witnessed the old man across the street from his house get broken into and when they attempted to help him, they almost became victims themselves. “Lets just see how this pans out.”

  Drew was slipping his shoes on. “You fucking wait. I’m not going to sit and watch two women get eaten.” He got up and marched to the front door, but Eric stopped him a little more forcefully than he had intended to.

  “Grab my flash light and grab those liquor bottles down stairs.” Eric said. He looked him in the eyes and Drew instantly knew what he was going to do, but remembered him saying there was no liquor in the bottles, but Drew nodded in agreement.

  Eric ran to the back of the house and looked at the garage. It seemed so far away and in fact it was. It sat in the corner to his left at the furthest point from where he was in the yard. He did not pay much attent
ion to it before, but a paved drive way ran from the street and into the yard to the single car garage. His plan was to run to the garage grab the gas can for the lawn mower and make Molotov cocktail bombs with the liquor bottles. He understood that this plan of his would not work if there was no gas cans in the garage. He opened the door that led to the large yard and looked around at the other properties. A large wooden privacy fence enclosed the yard and those surrounding his had the same. He could see the heads of a few undead to his right that were walking in the street to join the growing crowd out in front of his house.

  When Eric came back in with a red gas can, Drew had already lined six bottles out on the kitchen table and was cutting up one of the shirts he had collected from upstairs. Eric made a mess filling the bottles, but managed not to get any on himself. He was handed a lighter and then he began to tell Drew what he was going to do. “I’m going to run out and head up the street,” He pointed in the direction of the street with a couple zombies walking down it. “I plan on running around the block, since I didn’t see any in the other yards and cutting through the yard just behind us.”

  Eric grabbed hold of the chain mail and picked it up. He was still breathing deeply from the forty foot dash from the garage and quickly decided he was in no physical shape to be carrying a fifty pound suit of medieval armor. He did however put the pistol in the back of his pants and slid the axe down the right side of his belt. They both looked out the window again just in time to see the two females climb out the front upstairs window onto a small section of roof and slide away from the window as far as possible. They both tucked their legs close to them, but the toes of their shoes still hung off the edge of the shingles.

  When he stepped out on the porch the undead marched past him not seeing him and only focused on their meal that was now in plain view for all to see. The street to Eric’s left had a small crowd that was bunched together, but the rest of the street he knew he could maneuver through them. The other side of the street was filling rapidly and he was glad he had planned to head the other way. Eric walked out with four bottles and placed two on the curb just outside the house. He lit the first bottle and walked out onto the street. The undead to his left turned their attention to the closer prey. He held the second bottle to the lit rag of the first and watched it ignite.

  Eric took one step like he was a professional baseball player and broke the bottle on the crowd to his left. Instantly they caught on fire. Ten of them moved toward him with outstretched flaming arms. He ran to the house with the two females on the roof just close enough that he knew he could hit the closest part of the hungry mob and let the second Molotov cocktail fly. The crowd went up in a flaming inferno. He ran back to the curb where he sat the other two and held the rags close as he attempted to light both at the same time.

  Naomi and Sam were both startled to see the middle of the street just a few houses up from them light up in flame and then saw a single man weave past a few ghouls, running toward them with something on fire in his right hand. The man threw this ball of fire toward the horde in front of them and Naomi instantly recognized it as a Molotov cocktail and watched as it shattered, igniting a large amount of undead on fire.

  The sound of the scattered undead were getting closer, but he held his ground refusing to move until they were lit. He knew once they caught fire he was within grabbing distance and was elated when they finally flamed up. He tossed both of them into the middle of the mass in front of the two women and then turned to look for his escape. The once scattered horde was now closing ranks and he looked desperately for a way to get around them, but could see none that opened. He knew he could make it back into the house with Drew, but the flaming group of ten were pushing together. With the closing crowd lighting each other on fire, he did not want to draw any attention toward Drew, especially with undead that were on fire. He made a break for it, away from the house and toward the houses across the street.

  Drew lost sight of him when he ran past the high flames of the burning undead and thought about what he was going to do if he were alone. He watched as the undead in front of his house turned away from him and back up the street. This must mean that Eric made it past them and was making his way away from the house. Eric was the last person he knew in this world, so he unlocked the front door just in case he couldn’t make it and had to come back this way and into the house.

  Naomi and Sam both were happy to see that the crowd in front of the house was burning up and the flames were only getting higher and spreading. As the ghouls moved they would bumped into each other lighting the next one adding to the heat and size of the inferno. They both watched as the scattered ghouls closed in on this single hero and watched as all of the holes that once existed were now closing. All the undead that were initially going after them turned their focus on this one man. A wall of fire moved toward him from one direction and a closing horde from the other. They watched him run until the trees next to the house blocked their sight of him.

  The thoughts of being rescued quickly went away when the first undead reached out the bedroom window and clawed at them. It leaned out the window and tried to grab at Sam’s legs and then began climbing out just to fall into the crowd of undead that was beginning to catch fire. As the fire grew, intense heat began to burn their exposed skin. The high flames changed the smell of rotting flesh into burnt skin and hair.

  Drew watched as the fire began to spread amongst the undead. He wanted to help, but didn’t know what to do. He pictured himself under the roof, hollering for them to jump and then pictured them falling into his arms, as he rescued them one by one and saved the day.

  The house was filled with undead, so going in to rescue them was out of the question. The fires in front of the house were growing rapidly and he wouldn’t make it anywhere near the front before he was consumed. He didn’t have an answer, so he ran to the back and watched for Eric. He saw from the opened garage door what he believed were the legs of an extension ladder.

  Drew kicked the bottom of the driveway’s fence to jolt it from the broken concrete slab that held it from swinging freely. The burning ghouls lit the right side of the street and as he left the back yard the back of the ladder dragged across the concrete driveway. He took the last two glass bombs, sitting on the kitchen table and worked his way toward the stranded women.

  The heat on the street was intense and it was becoming hard to breath. The closer he got to the house every breath he took filled his lungs with burning air. Drew faced the house and could see undead moving around from the back side of it and by the time he was able to set up the ladder they would be exactly where he wanted to be. He dropped the ladder and struggled to get close enough to the burning bodies to light the bomb, while keeping far enough away to keep himself from catching on fire.

  The heat on his hand started to bite at his skin and right before the cocktail bombs cloth took flame, a figure moved toward him in the inferno. The creature’s arms were out stretched reaching for whatever would land between its fingers. Drew fell backward spilling the fuel in the first bottle on the street. The ghoul let out a scream and fire swirled from its mouth as it bellowed. The creature’s eyes were open, but all that remained were the pits in its burning head. It inhaled to let out another scream and the fire from around its face and clothes, was pulled over its peeling skin and into its gaping maw as it let out another breath of flame, but no sound traveled with it.

  Drew crab crawled back to avoid the contents of the spilled bottle just in time for it to light up. The ghoul dropped onto the newly lit flame and remained still. He took the last bottle from his other hand and lit it on the still zombie. Running to the house, he threw the Molotov cocktail at the side of the house with the undead that were making their way toward the street. The flame exploded against the zombies, the side of the house and the bushes that traveled the side of the home.

  Naomi and Sam watched this boy risk burning alive while avoiding the undead all while trying to drag an extension ladder towar
d them. Naomi shuttered when he threw the bomb toward the house, as she knew her father’s home would surely catch fire. As the thin boy moved out of sight from the roof, she moved to look over the edge. She could barely make out the sound of the extension ladder banging against her parents house as it was being extended, over the groaning of the burning ghouls.

  The top of the ladder almost struck Naomi as it was propped against the house and caused her to flinch backward. “Climb down!” was clearly heard from the out of breath boy, “I’ll get them away from the house!”

  Naomi grabbed the ladder and looked over the side and saw a burning body laying face down just three feet from the bottom of the ladder. The boy was guiding the rest of the undead into the fire and then trying to lead them away, but as they caught fire they seemed to lose their direction as their eyes began to burn.

  Naomi took hold of the ladder and fought the pain that shot through her body as she climbed down. Sam stood up and took hold of the top as her mother climbed down. Excitedly Sam motivated her mother to move faster as one of the zombies made its way onto the roof. It was on it’s hands and knees trying to stand, but another zombie crawling onto the roof from the window pushed the kneeling ghoul off the roof and onto the horde below.

  Many undead reached for Drew over the porch railing as he lead the undead by the ladder through the flames and then away from the escaping women. Naomi and Sam made it to the ground as the flames on the side of the house had climbed up the siding. Naomi knew the home she once lived in was going to burn. All of her memories from that house were going to burn up with the undead in it. She wished she could have grabbed a picture of her parents and for that split second she realized that she would never see her parents again.

  The fire was spreading rapidly and the sky filled with grey and black smoke. They began to cough as the thick smoke hung heavy next to the house. Drew came running around the fire with a look of confidence as he jumped over one of the burning motionless undead that lay face first in the dirt. Naomi and Sam both watched him run toward them and waited for instructions. “Run!” Was the only instructed given and that was shouted as he passed by them.