by Russ Watts
“Look, Dad, let’s—”
A short scream interrupted her, and she looked at her father. “Did you hear that?”
Kyler got up and nodded slowly, a frown spreading across his face. His eyes went to the window when they heard another scream.
“Christ, Dad, who is it?” Charlie felt afraid again and walked to the window to join her father. They couldn’t see the road from there, but there was no mistaking where the screams had come from: Mr. Riley’s house next door. Whoever was out there wasn’t on the road. They were in the neighbor’s property. Who the hell was it?
“I don’t know,” said Kyler as he took his daughter’s hand. “It is not happening again,” he said firmly. The anger in his eyes masked his fear, but Charlie heard it in his voice.
Charlie pulled her hands free as she understood. “I’m not leaving them out there to die.” Even as she said it, she could hear her mother’s voice in her head saying much the same thing. It was the last thing she had heard her mother say.
Kyler nodded. “I know. You’re just like her. Too damn kind for your own good. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body. Jemma would run across a busy street if it meant helping someone.” Kyler sighed and looked at his daughter. There was no way they could stand by and listen to someone die. “Okay, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right this time. You follow my instructions and stay behind me, got that? And if I see any sign of trouble, I’m pulling the plug.”
“Got it.”
Kyler lead Charlie outside into the cool evening, and they stood there waiting for another signal. There were voices, shouting, but no more screams.
“They’re inside Mr. Riley’s aren’t they?” asked Charlie. “What the hell are they doing? Is it the military? You think they’re going house to house?” Suddenly Charlie began to hope that this was the rescue; that this was a sign that things might get back to normal.
“No. It’s not help. Wait there.” Kyler ran to the garage and returned a moment later with tools. He handed Charlie a crowbar and held a hammer in each of his hands.
“What are we going to do?” asked Charlie as she looked at the huge brick wall separating them from the neighbor’s property. “There’s no way into Mr. Riley’s except through the front gate.”
As her father looked at her, Charlie understood. “Fuck.”
They ran down the driveway and approached the fence. Three zombies were banging on it, their hands wrapped around the metal. Kyler dropped the first one by smashing it over the head with a hammer. He dropped the second in the same fashion, but the third was standing too far back and couldn’t be reached without opening the gate. Kyler put his hands on the lock and prepared to unlatch it so they could get out and around to Mr. Riley’s. He looked at Charlie.
“Ready?”
Charlie looked at the zombie at the gate, at the dark road outside, and then her father. She held up the crowbar and steeled herself.
“Do it.”
CHAPTER 7
“We weren’t prepared. We didn’t have enough weapons to fight them off,” said Schafer. “I had planned the route, but I hadn’t expected to encounter such a large group of them. It was almost as if they were waiting for us; as if they knew we were coming. I know it’s ridiculous, but. . . Look, I take full responsibility for what happened. I can’t promise you anything or offer you anything, but I know how to get there. If we could just find some more weapons, maybe even a gun. . . ”
Charlie stood up. “We have weapons.”
Kyler glared at her. “Sit down, Charlie. This doesn’t concern you.”
“Shut up, Dad, of course it does. And we do have weapons. No guns unfortunately, but we have plenty of things we can use out in the garage.”
“Fuck, Charlie, why don’t you just give them the house keys while you’re at it? Sit down and be quiet. We don’t know these people. We certainly don’t want to go telling them about everything we have. For all we know—”
“I know that they came to us for help, Dad.” Charlie remained standing. She wasn’t going to back down, not from this fight. “Schafer knows how to get to Attwood’s, and we have the weapons. What is it, three miles? We can do this. You’re not going to keep me a prisoner here anymore.”
As Charlie and Kyler stared at one another, Schafer decided it would be best to stay quiet at this point. He was indebted to them for his life, for saving his family’s life, and didn’t want to cause a fight between them. They had been lucky enough to come across them, and if they hadn’t have randomly picked the house to hide in when they had, then they would probably not be here now. Schafer reached across and put his hand on Magda’s lap.
“Listen, Schafer, just tell me again how the fuck you all ended up in my neighbor’s house.” Kyler wished he had a gun, but refused to have one in the house while Charlie was at home. It was something he regretted now, especially with them at the door, but he couldn’t change the past. Next time he knew who he would be voting for.
“Of course.” Schafer felt Magda squeeze his hand. She was nervous, but Schafer felt confident that these two people were okay. They had helped them and, if anything, they seemed to be interested in how to get to Attwood’s. Jeremy and Lyn looked uncomfortable sat opposite him in the darkness with Victoria wedged between them, but they were keeping silent. Schafer just hoped Jeremy would keep quiet long enough to get Kyler on side. They were all sat in Kyler’s kitchen around the table. Rilla was awake but still felt sick. She was sipping on a glass of cool water letting her father do all the talking.
“Have you been out there, Kyler?” asked Schafer. “Do you know what it’s like outside of these walls?”
“I saved your ass, didn’t I?”
“Then you know what it’s like. Facing them isn’t as easy as I thought. We were vastly outnumbered, but if we go now, this minute, then we have the advantage.”
“You want to go out in the dark? Have you lost it?” Kyler paced up and down, his eyes casting suspicious glances over all of the new guests. “Let’s just reassess the situation. So you were all tucked up safely in his house, right?”
“Correct,” said Jeremy.
His black shirt clung to his sweaty body, and Kyler could tell the man was nervous. It was obvious that Schafer led this little party.
“And you left it to go to Attwood’s?” asked Charlie.
“Correct again.” Jeremy whispered at Victoria to stop fidgeting. “Schafer thought we should go.”
“Nice,” said Kyler. “You going to throw him under the bus, just like that?”
“It’s okay,” interjected Schafer. “We’re okay. I get it.”
“So how did that work out for you? I’m guessing not so well as you’re sat at my table instead of sipping champagne with Attwood out of a crystal glass.”
Charlie sniggered, and Kyler threw her a glare. “Well, let’s hear it.” Kyler’s question was aimed at Schafer.
“We had some trouble out on the road. My daughter, Rilla, encountered some trouble, and we narrowly avoided some zombies. I took care of them, but our path was blocked. Something caused the dead to converge in one place which cut us off from the route I had planned. We couldn’t get back to Jeremy’s place, so we had to find somewhere else. I guess we got lucky and ended up at your neighbor’s.”
“Lucky? Is that what you call it?” Charlie refilled Rilla’s glass. “I don’t think Mr. Riley saw it that way. He was about to—”
“Yes, I know, thank you.” Schafer remembered all too well the encounter with Mr. Riley and did not need any reminders. After breaking into the house with Jeremy, they had gone from room to room downstairs to ensure they were alone. Rilla had taken Victoria and started to barricade the front door while Lyn and Magda went upstairs to check they were in the clear. That’s when the screams had started.
Mr. Riley was still in the bathroom when Magda had first come face to face with him. As she rummaged through the mirrored cabinet looking for some pain-relief tablets that she could give to Ri
lla, his bloated body rose from the bathtub and was on her before she had time to react. Lyn had screamed seconds after Magda and uselessly stabbed her knife into Mr. Riley’s back. There had been a brief struggle before Schafer had come to the upper floor and finally put Mr. Riley down with a swift blow to the side of the head. The old man had been in the tub for months and his reanimated, fragile body hadn’t put up much of a fight.
“I’m feeling a lot better now,” said Rilla. “Thank you for helping us, Charlie.”
It was the first words that Charlie had heard the girl say. She seemed to be of about the same age yet was quite different. It wasn’t just the accent. Rilla wore a light blue jacket that looked expensive even though there was a tear in one arm. Her brown hair was tied up in a bun, and she looked a lot like a slimmer version of her mother. Rilla had been quiet and withdrawn, but Schafer had mentioned how she had fainted and felt sick in the subsequent escape that had ended up with them next door.
“Do you want anything to eat?” Charlie saw her father glare at her again, but ignored it. “I can find something, I’m sure.”
Rilla smiled sweetly. “No, I don’t feel much like eating.”
“Actually, I do think we should be leaving,” said Schafer.
“After what we’ve just been through don’t you think we should rethink our strategy?” asked Jeremy. “I think poor Victoria has had quite enough for today. Your route is compromised, Schafer, and if it weren’t for Kyler and his daughter then, quite frankly, we’d be history right now.”
“Hold on, hold on. By the time we got to you, you seemed to have things under control.” Kyler approached the sink and looked out of the window at the black night sky. He could see stars forming through the twilight.
“Exactly.” Schafer pushed his chair back and rested a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “You cleared the path between these two houses which is precisely why we should stick to the plan and go now. This is a perfect opportunity. We’re close to Attwood’s, and that crowd of corpses is on their way here. If we go now, then the road to Attwood’s should be clear. We can be there very soon and hopefully not encounter any of those things.”
“Those things don’t sleep, Schafer,” said Jeremy. “Look, you can’t just tell us what to do. Kyler, listen to me: it’s not safe out there. We have to stay. We need to stay here tonight. I’m sorry, but I’m not putting my wife and daughter through that again.”
Kyler knew he had a decision to make. Things had come to a head much sooner than he had hoped. He had expected to have more time with Charlie, more opportunity to make her understand. There didn’t really seem to be much of a choice. The hundreds of zombies that Schafer had reported were on their way here. Drawn by the others and the screams, they would surround the house, and then there would be no way out. If they went outside, they risked everything. But staying put was playing a long-term game that he wasn’t sure they could win. Whatever they were going to do, they were going to have to do it fast. Suddenly going out in the dark didn’t seem like such utter madness.
“Charlie, come here.” Kyler waited for his daughter to join his side. “You did well out there earlier.”
“I didn’t really do anything, Dad. You did the hard work. I didn’t even have to kill any of those. . . people.”
“Still. You didn’t freak out.”
“So... ” Charlie wondered what her father was looking at. It was dark outside, and with the street lights not working, the town was no longer bathed in that eerie orange glow. The stars were bright but somehow she didn’t think they held much interest for her father. She also wondered why he was paying her a compliment. It wasn’t like him, at least not recently.
“So, I think we should make up the spare rooms. These people need a bed for the night.” Kyler was thinking about the garage and the poor array of weapons inside—that and the bottle of whiskey he craved so much.
“Are you serious?” Charlie had been waiting for him to give the go ahead for them to leave. “But you heard Schafer. This is our best chance of getting out of here.”
“Why, Charlie? This place is safe. Just like Jeremy’s. And you see what happens if you go out onto the streets ill prepared. It’s a war out there, and you can’t face them without being armed.”
“But—” Charlie couldn’t believe he was blowing it.
“Kyler, if I may say so, I think you’re making a mistake,” said Schafer from the table. “I appreciate your offer of hospitality, but do you have enough food and water for eight people? How long do you think we can make it before we turn on each other? How long before those people outside are inside?”
“With respect, Schafer, I’m only offering you a bed for the night. I didn’t say anything about long-term. Tomorrow you’ll be on your way. Charlie and I are just fine here.”
“You’re throwing us out?” Jeremy stood up and pointed at Kyler angrily. “You can’t do that. What are we supposed to do?”
“Jeremy, calm down,” said Lyn. “Victoria is stressed out as it is.”
“Listen to your wife. Sit down.” Kyler faced the table. “This isn’t a democracy. This is my house and my rules. You will do what I say. I’m the President here, and if you don’t want me to kick you out right now, then you need to start listening to me.”
“Dad, just listen for a moment. We have an opportunity for change here, to make our lives a little bit better; not just for ourselves but all these people too.” Charlie felt bad for siding with the others. She felt like she was betraying her father, but she couldn’t agree with him. He would have them close up their house, and they would die in it. He was so stubborn he would rather do that then open their doors and consider helping these people. If they worked together, they stood a chance. All Kyler wanted to do was build a wall around them. He thought if he built it tall enough and strong enough they would be all right, but he misunderstood that walls could be broken down. “Attwood’s is achievable, Dad. It’s right there. I know we can do it. I know it. Please?”
“Attwood doesn’t care about you, Charlie. He doesn’t care about any of you.” Kyler began to raise his voice and talked over Jeremy’s whining protests. “That house he built on the rise is just a rich man’s playhouse, somewhere to keep his sports cars and do some organic farming. Fuck, he probably paid cash for it and avoided the tax. I know how they work. I know how people like Attwood think. I used to see rich people like him come up all the time from Boston. They would come out here to fish, and I would have to listen to their inane stories about how they only made a million last week, or how they were fucking the maid behind their wives backs because she’d put on too much weight. These people live in a different world to us. You think he’s going to let us in? If you believe that he’d even give us the time of day then excuse me, but you’re all going to die out there at his front door. A world of zombies, and you think he’s going to risk opening the door to his mansion to let a few hicks in? I don’t think so. You want to go on your suicide mission then do it. Leave. I’m not stopping you.”
The room fell into silence. Charlie watched as the girl, Rilla, slowly got up and walked around the table to her parents. She leant over her mother and kissed her on the cheek then took her father’s hand and made him stand up. She leaned into him, and as they embraced, she whispered something in his ear. Charlie saw Schafer’s face change. Even in the darkness she saw the edges of his lips curl upwards into something approaching a smile. Beneath his bushy beard lay a kind face, a face that she trusted. His clothes were splattered with blood. He understood what it was like to be out there, and yet still wanted to go.
“Kyler, thank you for getting us out of a fix back there,” said Schafer as he approached Kyler. He held out his hand. “We’ll be going now. My family, Magda and Rilla, don’t want to inconvenience you. I understand your thoughts. I don’t want to force anyone to do anything. I think if we stay here we would probably starve to death or end up hating and killing each other. I don’t want to contemplate such a thing. We’ll be out of yo
ur way in a moment.”
Kyler looked Schafer up and down and then shook his hand. “Okay. Well, if you’re certain.”
“We are. It’s best we go now. By morning the streets will be full of those corpses again.”
As they released hands, Charlie saw Lyn stand and drag her daughter to her feet. The younger girl, Victoria, looked scared and tired. How long had they been dragging her around?
“Come on, Jeremy, let’s go.”
Charlie watched as Jeremy shuffled his feet nervously and drew in a deep breath.
“You still want to go? With Schafer?”
Charlie understood that these people, these two families, were together only out of necessity. There was clearly no love lost between the two men.
Lyn looked like she was about to slap her husband, but Charlie watched as she simply pushed her daughter around the table and joined Schafer. One by one, they filed out of the kitchen. Schafer, Magda, Jeremy, Lyn, and Victoria walked past Charlie and Kyler silently. It felt like they were being led out to a hanging; as if they were on death row instead of going to fight for their future.
“You’re still welcome to join us,” said Rilla. “I can see you’re both good people. You helped us when you could easily have ignored us. I wish you would come with us. My father is right about Attwood’s. He can get us there. He will get us there. It was my fault that we stopped. I hadn’t seen them up close like that before. The dead were... were not how I imagined.”
Rilla stepped forward and shook Kyler’s hand. He said nothing and stayed by the sink. Then Rilla turned to Charlie. “Thanks for the water. Good luck.” Rilla leant forward unexpectedly and hugged Charlie, wrapping her slim arms around her.
Suddenly the tears welled up in Charlie’s eyes, and she hugged Rilla back. This girl who had only been in Charlie’s life for half an hour at most had shown her more compassion in the last thirty seconds than she had known or felt for the last thirty days. Her father would never dream of holding her or comforting her. Even on the day that Jemma died he had kept his distance. Rilla didn’t know her, didn’t know anything about her. Even with her family and friends gathering outside, she had stayed behind to thank them. Charlie’s feelings changed as she hugged Rilla back. The pain and regret were gone, the animosity she felt toward her father turned into pity, and she knew she had to change her life.