Zombiekill

by Russ Watts

  After only a couple of minutes she heard voices from inside the annex quickly followed by receding footsteps. A moment later there was the familiar sound of dogs barking. She suspected that Butcher wouldn’t risk getting his hands dirty over a few zombies that had inadvertently gotten into the building. He would use the dogs, as usual, to tidy things up. That was her cue, and Charlie shuffled forward slowly across the bridge to ensure that not only did the camera not spot her, but that neither did the zombies in the neighboring fields and roads. She didn’t want a crowd of them coming after her. Not yet.

  The annex had been left in darkness. Evidently it wasn’t worth wasting any power to light it just for a few zombies which made it a little trickier for Charlie. Still, she had been here before and knew the layout of the room. As she slipped into the room, she saw that three of the zombies had already been taken down by the dogs. She removed the doorstop and let the door click shut. The light above it turned red, and she heard the locking mechanism click into place. There was no way back, no way out, no retreat now. Charlie felt pleased. She had no intention of backing out anyway. She let the two dogs finish off the dead men, and they didn’t even notice her as she crept to the open panels that led to their kennels. They didn’t notice when she crawled down the tunnel and made her way to the drain where she had escaped earlier. The dogs didn’t notice when she removed the wire-cutters from the small knapsack beneath her dressing gown and began to snip the wire mesh at the back of the kennel. Though the sun was setting, there was still a faint light which showed Charlie where she was. The last time she was here she had been in pitch black, unable to see anything. Beyond the wire mesh, though, she could now see open ground and further to the house.

  As she snipped open the cage that kept the dogs prisoners, she became aware that she wasn’t alone. She could hear breathing coming from the tunnel behind her. Hoping it wasn’t a zombie, she turned and found a huge Doberman staring at her. Its tongue was hanging from its jaws and saliva dripped to the floor. Its face was covered in blood from the dead, and it snarled as she drew the fish knife out and readied herself.

  “Bring it on. I’m ready for you this time, you fucking bitch.”

  As the dog leapt at her, she quickly pushed herself away and avoided its snapping teeth. Charlie rammed the knife into the top of the dog’s skull, and it died instantly, collapsing at her feet.

  “One down.” Charlie waited for the next dog to appear, but the panel stayed closed, and nothing came. Charlie sighed. “Don’t make me come get you,” she said, frustrated. The longer she stayed here the longer she risked being discovered, but she had come with set goals and wasn’t about to deviate from the plan now. The dogs had to die. It was riskier to leave them alive than to spend a bit of extra time killing them.

  Charlie crawled on her knees back to the panel and nudged it open. The four dead men were scattered around the annex in pieces, limbs and hunks of meat discarded like chew toys. In the darkness Charlie didn’t even see it coming. The last dog lunged at her as she appeared. It clamped its jaws around her left arm before she had a chance to react and searing pain erupted throughout her body as it sank its teeth into her already savaged arm.

  “Not this time,” said Charlie through gritted teeth as she pulled the dog closer to her. With her free hand Charlie plunged the knife into the dog’s throat. Steaming hot blood poured out from the dog over her, and it let go of her arm instantly. The dog staggered back and then sank to its knees. Charlie looked at her arm. It was pretty much fucked.

  “You know, I was going to make this quick,” said Charlie to the dog. She crawled over to the whining creature and held the knife above its head. The dog’s glassy eyes looked at her and it feebly snapped its jaws at her. “Fuck you. You can just bleed out.”

  Charlie put her father’s old fishing knife between her teeth and crawled back down the tunnel to the cage, leaving the dog to die slowly. After the way her father had died she had no remorse for the dogs. Maybe they were acting the only way they knew, the only way they had been raised to, but that didn’t mean they could change or even deserved a chance to. They were dangerous killers, and she had to put them down. In the back of the kennel Charlie finished snipping away at the metal cage and then peeled the wire mesh back. She crawled through onto the dirt, and pulled herself up, free of the kennel. Looking at the house she felt exhilarated. This was what she had come for. This was what they had all come for, yet there was a different reason now. There was more to this than finding sanctuary. Those animals that had killed her father and kidnapped her friends were going to realize that they had chosen the wrong option. They could’ve opened the door and let them in, but they had decided to keep this place for themselves. Looking at the massive house, she knew they could’ve all comfortably lived there. It was just greed. Butcher’s greed was undoubtedly borne of fear that it would be taken away from him one day. He was nothing more than a kid who refused to share his toys. Well, now he was going to learn the hard way that this new world was all about sharing. The living couldn’t afford to be divided anymore. If they didn’t, they would die.

  A soft rain fell as Charlie quietly walked toward the house. There were two open windows on the second floor and a couple more on the ground floor where light shone out. The trees were thick around the edge of the property, and she could see vehicles on the driveway. There was a bad smell as she approached the vehicles, and she crouched down behind a black sedan as a figure came out of the front door. It was a woman, and Charlie watched as she lit up a cigarette. The old woman sucked at it furiously as if it were the last one on Earth, and within a minute she had thrown the discarded butt to the ground. The woman disappeared back inside the house, closing the front door behind her. Charlie knew she had to get closer to the house and find out exactly who she was dealing with. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around, and she slowly made her way around the sedan to get closer to the house. As she passed a pickup truck, she discovered the source of the smell. A body lay at the rear, still tied up. In the dusky gloom Charlie could see the person was dead and had suffered an ignominious fate. The body was too small to be Rilla. Charlie hoped it wasn’t Victoria, but something in her heart knew that it was. Had they really killed the girl already? What had an innocent child done to deserve dying like that? Butcher was a sadistic fuck, and Charlie hoped that Rilla was still alive. If Victoria was dead, then Rilla probably didn’t have much time left. Charlie felt bad for the little girl although she couldn’t have got back to Attwood’s any quicker than she had. She began to hurry to the house. There would be no more delays. It was time to end this.

  Charlie crept by the wall of the house until she neared one of the windows where light was spilling out into the garden. The window was ajar, allowing her to get close enough to see and hear what was going on inside.

  “You’ve outdone yourself. Cheeseburger and chips. Although I could do without the green stuff on the side of the plate. It’s pretty good.”

  “Okay, enough small talk. I’m worried about those zombies. I still don’t see how you let them get in.”

  Charlie heard two male voices talking and tried to see if she recognized them. As she stuck her head above the window ledge she could just see one of the speakers. It was Butcher. The other man was sat at a table eating, but had his back to her. The room looked like something out of a posh restaurant. Gleaming silver cutlery and candles adorned the huge wooden table. The chairs were lined with velvet and the walls covered in flock wallpaper with a massive chandelier hanging over the center of the table.

  “I’m telling you, it looked like one of them knocked on the door. The security camera’s probably whacked. What else can I say? I thought one of them knocked.”

  “Zombies don’t knock, you idiot.”

  “Well I know that now, but—”

  “All right, enough, Tad. Just don’t let it happen again. One of them scraped against the door, and you thought they knocked. It’s dark, and you misread the situation. When you’v
e finished dinner you can go back and clean up. I don’t want those dead fucks stinking up my annex any longer than they had to. Once the dogs are through, I want you back out there.”

  “But I thought I could—”

  “Just do it, Tad. Don’t fight me. I let you do the girl, didn’t I? I thought you were getting with the program, and then you do something stupid like letting four zombies in. This is serious shit, Tad. You need to think a bit more about what you’re doing.”

  Charlie watched as Butcher raised a glass of red wine and drank. She moved to the side and saw another man at the table. It was Conan, the huge man who had taken Rilla. As all three men ate, the smoking woman came into the room and Charlie ducked. The woman had looked straight out of the window almost directly at her. The woman walked to the window, and Charlie held her breath as she crouched down in the shadows.

  “Can’t none of you dumb asses close the window? It’s raining out.”

  Charlie heard the windows being pulled shut, and then the woman walked away. Charlie knew she had been close to being discovered. She could still hear the muffled voices, though, and remained where she was. There were four of them apparently. If that was it, then where was Attwood?

  “I’m going upstairs,” said Butcher. “Verity, get the bitch cleaned up will you? She ain’t good for nothing the state she’s in.”

  “The green dress?” asked the woman.

  “Yeah, it needs ironing. And some makeup this time. Rilla’s skin is so pale; it’s like fucking a ghost.”

  As she listened to the four people in the room laughing, Charlie didn’t know how to feel. There was some relief with confirmation that Rilla was alive. Yet they obviously had her held upstairs and were abusing her. Was it all of them or just Butcher? Who could be so callous as to do that to a young girl?

  “I know, I know,” said Butcher. “Once we’ve all had our fair turn with her we’ll let Attwood have her. Should be interesting to see that old fuck eat her out.”

  With more laughter echoing in the room, Charlie crept away from the window and back to the vehicles where she could hide and reformulate her plan. Whatever was going on, they were all in on it. Even the woman had laughed. These people weren’t even human anymore. And what about Attwood? Was he just letting them rule the place, letting Butcher tell them what to do? Charlie slid her gown off. It was dirty and wet and would only slow her down now. She had an idea of what and who she would do next, but she had to find a way into the house. She had to make sure Rilla was safe before she went any further. Charlie tried the door handle of the sedan, and it opened easily. She climbed into the front seat and closed the door. The gentle rain tapped on the roof of the car, and she sat watching the house. The four people were sat at a table eating their dinner as if it was a normal day. It was as if they were blocking out the world and what was happening. There were so many people who could be saved, who needed help, and yet they had locked themselves away with no regard for anyone but themselves. They were evil. They had killed to protect what they had when they had more than they could even use. Charlie looked at the mansion. There were probably a dozen bedrooms, not to mention all the other rooms that weren’t even being used. Her father would have liked it. Schafer and Magda would’ve been happy to have found a place like this for Rilla. Jeremy and Lyn would’ve had a safe place to raise Victoria. That had all been taken away from them by these people. Charlie angrily took off her knapsack and opened it. The few things she had brought with her would be sufficient for what she was going to do next, and she rummaged through the bag until she found what she wanted. She would have to travel light and leave the rest of her supplies in the sedan. The view of the car was obscured from the house by the pickup truck. It was perfect.

  Charlie got out of the car and looked at her reflection in a wing mirror. She carefully applied a deep red lipstick she had brought with her and then slipped off the roll-neck jersey, leaving it in the car beside her knapsack. The knife hidden beneath her waist felt good. She remembered when Kyler had given it to her, thinking that she would never need it, at least not on the living. But now she would use it in a heartbeat if she had to. These people didn’t deserve a quick death. She jogged back over to the house and found a quiet spot beneath an oak tree to wait. It was only a few feet away, and she could see into the dining room where the four people appeared to be finishing up. The temperature was dropping, but it was still warm, and even the raindrops were pleasant as they fell on Charlie’s skin. She waited beneath the tree until she saw the front door of the house open. As expected, a man emerged from it and immediately began walking toward the annex. Charlie watched the man walk. He had a slighter figure than Butcher and was only half the size of Conan. He had light blonde hair sticking out from underneath a cap and looked at the ground as he walked. She wondered if it were he who had killed Victoria. He had ‘done the girl.’ Either way, he was in with Butcher, and there was no going back now. She tried to remember what Butcher had called him—Todd or Tad something? It didn’t really matter. He was already a dead man. As he got closer, Charlie saw that the cap he was wearing was Kyler’s fishing cap. That confirmed that he was no better than Butcher. He was a killer. If he was anything like Butcher, then he had probably raped Rilla too. He would be the second to die.

  Charlie waited until Tad was out of sight and then ran to the front door. Unlocked, she said a prayer and opened it, wondering if she was going to come face to face with Butcher or one of the others. Instead, she found the hallway empty. The quietness of the room was unnerving. There was a stairway to her left with plush red carpet and another huge chandelier hanging above her. As she stepped into the room she closed the front door behind her. They obviously felt no need to lock it anymore. There were three doors she could choose to go through and an open doorway to the right which appeared to lead toward the dining room. The only light in the hallway was coming from that corridor to the dining room. A couple of candles at the top of the staircase told her that they were either conserving power or more likely being cautious. Perhaps they didn’t have enough energy to sustain running the entire place. It would be unnecessary to light up all the rooms. Equally, if they lit up the whole house it would be seen from the top of the hill across Peterborough and beyond. Did they really want the place to be a beacon for the dead? Or perhaps they were more concerned about attracting the living.

  Charlie slipped off her shoes and hid them underneath a hat stand alongside several other pairs. Her bare feet would make her footsteps quieter, and she hoped that every room was carpeted. The carpet in the hallway was thick and would hide her movements. She listened, hearing clattering noises from somewhere deeper within the house. Somebody was clearing away the dishes which meant at least one of them was occupied in the kitchen. With one outside that meant there were only two left, plus Attwood. The odds of getting to Rilla first were increasing by the second, and Charlie marched over to the staircase. She ascended slowly, watching out for any creaking floorboards. She found none. Reaching the top of the staircase had been easy, and the flickering candles showed her two options. To the left was a long corridor with what appeared to be several doors and to the right the same. There was no immediate clue as to what direction she should go to search for Rilla. The options were too numerous and Charlie stepped to the left into the thick shadows so she had time to think. The stairs were dark, but the candles gave off enough light for her to be seen if anyone came by. Charlie closed her eyes and listened. There had to be something. She didn’t have time to search the whole mansion. Rilla didn’t have time. The house was gloomy, but Charlie had become used to the darkness. After the kennel and the tunnel, after the night in Peterborough’s streets and the company of zombies, she found the darkness almost soothing now. She could hide in the dark and found light uncomfortable. She liked it now, the protection the darkness gave her. It was no longer an enemy but a compatriot, complicit in her plans. In the darkness she could be anyone she wanted to be.

  A faint hissing sound caught Ch
arlie’s ear. It disappeared and then came back again. It was coming from behind one of the doors to the right. Charlie looked down the stairs at the front door. It was still quiet, so she darted across to the other corridor from where the noise was coming from. As she made her way slowly down the dark corridor, heading further into blackness, she heard the hissing sound again and then it stopped abruptly. There was a faint rattling sound and then a smacking sound, as if two wet pieces of leather had been slapped together. Charlie edged further down the corridor and noticed that a sliver of light was coming out from beneath one of the doors. She made her way to it and stopped when she was a couple of feet away. She heard another smacking sound and a muffled voice. She had found someone, though she couldn’t hear who. Charlie drew the Air Ranger out and put one hand on the door handle. The golden knob was cold and slipping in quietly unnoticed was impossible. She was going to have to go for it.