This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet

by Lisa Biesiada

  She nodded before taking the gun off my back and making her way upstairs. Turning back to the boys, “We’ll give her 3 minutes and then go out the front door.” Ty and Bash nodded as Ty busied himself checking his ammo and making sure his safety was off while Bash kept his attention on his watch.

  I stood there, anxiously checking the guns on my side holsters, knowing that they would be my last resort. If we were attacked, I would need my sword more since it would be quieter.

  “Time.” Bash’s announced caught me so off guard I nearly hit the roof when I jumped.

  “Ok, let’s go. But stay behind me and stay very quiet.” I gave my order firmly and we marched towards the front door. I looked down at Johnny, who was still sitting by the fireplace, staring up at us questioningly.

  “Johnny, go see if mommy’s awake,” Bash said quietly to his little brother as we started to walk by. I looked back in time to see to the kid nod solemnly and race up the stairs without a sound.

  Taking a deep breath and holding it, I stopped at the door and motioned for the boys to wait. Slowly turning the lock, I pulled the door open just enough for my eye to see a sliver of the yard. Tuning out the heartbeats, I pressed my ear to the crack in the door and listened for all I was worth. There was nothing. No birds, no crickets, no traffic. There were also no sounds of shuffling feet or gurgling moans, so I knew we were still alone.

  Pulling the door open a little wider, I poked my head out, only to find what my ears had; nothing. The sun was shining, which made the dew on the grass sparkle like emeralds and I could tell it was going to be another hot, muggy day.

  Stepping out, I held my sword up and tried to look in all directions at once. Creeping slowly down the porch, I felt Roscoe brush against me as he pulled Ty out of the door; Bash keeping up the rear near the door.

  Watching Ty, he led Roscoe to the nearest patch of grass and we all waited for him while keeping an eye on the neighborhood. I didn’t like it; it was too quiet. We were still in the heart of the city and there should’ve been more people. Well, more zombies, at least.

  Roscoe had apparently finished his business and was walking back towards the front door when he suddenly stopped and stood very still. Fuck, he must’ve heard something.

  I crept around him and Ty, motioning for them all to go back inside. I waited until I saw the door close behind the boys before I crept further into the yard, looking up when the sun glinting off the rifle in Chloe’s hand caught my eye. I nodded at her and motioned for her to go back inside before continuing to the street.

  My heart had pretty much stopped beating as I tried to catch whatever it was that Roscoe had. Eyes frantic, I turned circles inspecting the area, but there was nothing besides the houses and cars and the bodies we’d killed last night.

  Suddenly I felt a vibration under my foot. Kneeling down, I laid myself down on the pavement and put my ear to it. A soft, rhythmic rumbling was pounding up at me, increasing in intensity with every beat.

  Jumping up, I ran back inside and slid into the dining room, nearly crushing Jack as I fell on him. “Jack! Jack, wake up!” I shook his shoulders and waited for him to crack an eye open at me.

  He frowned at me and tried to sit up with me still sitting on top of him and rubbed his eyes. “Jesus, Angie, what is it?”

  The fear in my eyes must’ve been pretty spectacular because I barely got a word out before his eyelids shot up and he sat up all the way. “They’re coming, Jack! I don’t know how many but I can hear their steps through the ground and we need to leave, like, now!” Panic was constricting my chest and I struggled to get the words out through it.

  He looked at me and I rolled off him so he could stand. He started strapping on guns so I started to run up the stairs to wake everyone else.

  We didn’t have time to be quiet and plan so I started banging wildly on bedroom doors until they were flung open; the people inside staring at me wide-eyed and fully panicked.

  “They’re coming, I can hear a fuckload of footsteps headed in our direction and we need to go now!” I got out between deep inhales of fear.

  Just like Jack, 3 pairs of eyes stared back at me incredulously as the understanding set in. I didn’t wait for a reply, just ran back down the stairs and started to pace in the hall just outside of the living room.

  Anxiety always made me have to pee, so I took myself to the bathroom. Done, I rushed back into the hall only slam face first into a chest.

  I pulled back and looking up, realized I’d run into Jack. He grabbed my shoulders, “It’s ok, everyone’s up and getting ready to go.”

  “You don’t understand,” I started, looking up at him desperately. “A whole crowd of feet is going to descend upon us, and I don’t want to find out what those feet are attached to.”

  My words were serious, but that didn’t stop the corners of his mouth to twitch but he just nodded. “We believe you and everyone is moving as fast as we can.”

  I took a deep breath and went back to the living room to pace, watching everyone in the house running around frantically while packing.

  Earl spotted me and walked towards me purposefully. “You said a crowd?”

  “Yes, sir,” I answered, nodding.

  He stood there rubbing the whiskers on his chin for a moment. “Could you tell what direction they were coming from?”

  I shook my head no. “I can’t be sure, but it sounded like they were coming from the west.”

  Earl nodded some more, deep in thought. Looking back to me, “How are the roads? Can we drive to the airport?”

  Shaking my head again, “No. There’s too many cars jamming the streets, plus the sound of an engine would make us sitting ducks.” I pointed towards the back of the house, “We came out of the woods around back and we came from the interstate, which we figured was the safest place to travel since it’s closed in on the sides and raised up over the busier intersections, but there’s too many cars so we’ll have to walk.”

  I watched the muscles working in Earl’s jaw as he contemplated my words. “They said you’re a force to be reckoned with; is it true?”

  I was taken back at his words. No one had ever called me that before and it scared me that much more having so much faith put in me. “I don’t know how true that is, but Jack and Ty and Chloe and Roscoe are my family and I’d do anything to keep them safe.” I looked into his eyes without blinking. I’d never been more serious about anything in my life and I needed him to understand that too.

  After staring each other down a few moments, he nodded and clasped my shoulder. “Alright. Let’s go back the way you came.”

  He stalked off, calling to Penny and Brian. They both emerged from the kitchen, arms laden with food.

  Earl shook his head at them, “You can’t carry all of that, save your strength for guns.” With that he walked over the gun cabinet proudly on display in the living room and started pulling out rifles, shotguns and boxes of ammo. Passing them out to Penny, Brian and Bash, “Alright, we’re going through the woods to the interstate and following it north to the airport.” He turned to cast a glance my way, “Far as Angie can tell, a herd’s comin’ this way from the west and we need to hightail it outta here.”

  Brian and Penny looked at me curiously, obviously wondering how I could possibly know that without them being able to hear anything and I felt an embarrassing blush creep up my neck.

  They didn’t stop to question me though, just continued to shove food and bullets into the backpacks they had sitting out. I looked across the room to see Bash stuffing a Spiderman doll into the Spiderman backpack on Johnny’s shoulders and groaned inwardly. I had forgotten about the kid. His little face was steeled with determination and I hoped he understood how serious this was.

  Brian walked over and scooped Johnny up, placing him on his shoulders. Looking up at me he said, “Penny’s a better shot than I am.” I smiled at the admission, suddenly glad to have him around. The last thing we needed was someone trying to take the lead that wasn’t
the best shot.

  Hearing footsteps crowd into the room, I turned to see every last one of us standing in a semi-circle, doing one last inspection of food and weapons. I was about to suggest a plan when Ty stepped forward, map in hand. “I think we keep the best shots in the back and head up the group with the fighters.” He looked pointedly at me as he said that and to my shock, the heads around us nodded in agreement.

  Jack stepped towards me, “Angie and I can take the lead, just make sure the kids stay in the middle.” He looked down at me, “You ready?”

  I looked back up at him and with a smile, “No, but let’s do it anyway.” He returned my smile and without a word, we started through the door.

  Chapter 6:

  I didn’t stop to make sure the coast was clear. Throwing open the front door with one hand, I pulled the small machete from the holster on my thigh and ran down the porch steps and down the pathway, stopping to look around while the others caught up. The coast was still clear and the morning sun was just starting to make its way above the rooftops of the surrounding houses. The pounding from below my feet was getting louder and I knew we were running out of time.

  No one said anything as we half ran, half jogged around the back of the house into the woods we’d come from the night before. The ground was soft and I was grateful as the noise from our feet would’ve been thunderous if there had been a lot of vegetation to break as we went.

  Catching sight of Jack out of the corner of my eye, he nodded once to me and we continued forward. The racing heartbeats of the others were drowning out my own as we moved as quickly as we could. After what felt like eternity, we reached the edge of the woods looking out over the golf course that sat between us and the interstate.

  I stopped and held up a hand to halt the group while we still had the trees for cover. There were maybe 10 zombies wandering around the golf course. I watched as they ambled about, obviously not having caught sight of us since they were still relatively dormant.

  They reminded me of background characters in a video game; when they weren’t actively attacking someone, they just slowly walked around, like they were waiting to be activated. I almost expected to see them pixel and start the loop of inactivity again but this was reality and they just kept moving.

  There was about a quarter mile of golf course between us and our destination and while there weren’t a lot of zombies, they could easily follow us up the embankment and over the wall onto the road; they had to be killed.

  “We need to kill them all so we aren’t followed,” I said in a loud whisper, steeling myself for the fight. I turned around, meeting the eyes flanking me. Fear was echoed back, but they all just nodded.

  “I’ll go clear a path, the rest of you just focus on running, try not to shoot if you can avoid it, the noise will draw a crowd.” Before anyone could protest, I started at a dead run towards the middle of course, not worrying about how loud I was as I wanted them all to see me and move towards me.

  Luck was on my side because as soon as I cleared the trees, the nearest dead caught sight of me and headed towards me at a dead run. Changing direction, I angled towards them, sword out. I didn’t stop to consider the massive stupidity of running dead out towards zombies, but hoped it all worked out anyway.

  The first two finally came within swinging distance as I skidded to a stop, let my wrist go limp and swung the katana I’d pulled from my back with my right hand as loosely as possible, like I was fishing and turned my head away as the blood from the neck of the woman splattered my face as her head fell from her shoulders, still sort of hanging on by the spinal cord that hadn’t quite been severed.

  Angling my body to the left, I jabbed the machete into the shoulder of the other one while crossing my still bloody katana across its neck, but I didn’t get the right angle and the zombie kept at me. He was tall and fat, which was a terrible combination. It’s a lot harder to cut through layers of fat than the skinny ones, so I kicked up and pulled my machete from his shoulder while my foot was planted firmly on his gut, giving me just enough momentum to pull the blade free and cause him to lose his balance. I watched my blade being released from the fatty tissue as the mountain fell, and jabbed the blade through his eye socket before his belly had even stopped wobbling from the landing.

  There were still 8 more and they were all heading towards us from various sides of the course. I started towards 5 that were blocking my path, machete in my left hand and katana in the right. The sounds of fighting behind me made me turn my head and I almost tripped watching Ty and Bash tag teaming a zombie I’d missed. I was pretty sure the whole group would be fine taking down one zombie so I kept right on my sprint towards the crowd.

  I took a deep breath and started swinging the moment I got close enough. The weight of my backpack was working against me and I was having trouble swinging fast enough. I was able to take down the first one, but I wasn’t fast enough and the other 4 were very close to overtaking me. I started to panic and swing wildly, and felt teeth graze my sleeve as the head they were attached to was suddenly pulled back at an unnatural angle and the body dropped.

  I looked up to see Earl swipe a large hunting knife with a serrated blade deep into its neck and closed my eyes to avoid the blood splatter. I smiled in thanks and he nodded in acknowledgment as we turned together and started slashing the other 3 for all we were worth.

  When the last body hit the ground, I stepped over it, jogging to where the others were finishing off the last 2. A quick head count told me we hadn’t had any casualties but we definitely didn’t have time to stop and discuss it so I turned back around and kept jogging towards the embankment.

  There weren’t any zombies left in the area, but I couldn’t be sure what was on the road so I wanted to make sure I was the first there. I knew it was crazy to go alone, but I was the only person we’d met who’d been bit and lived to tell the tale so I was the best person to be bait. That didn’t mean I wasn’t quietly shitting my pants in terror, but I wasn’t about to tell everyone else that.

  Running up the hill, I grabbed the cement divider and launched myself over. My left foot didn’t clear the wall as I was expecting, catching the cement and causing me to fall into a roll onto the pavement. I hit hard on my left shoulder and my head bounced off the ground hard enough to send vibrations down my spine.

  “Son of a bitch,” I groaned, catching my breath while I waited for the world to stop spinning.

  “Angie! Angie! Are you ok?!” Ty was out of breath as he leaped gracefully over the divider that had just taken me out and knelt down beside me.

  Pulling myself up, I sat up and prepared to stand. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I grumbled, pushing his hand off my face.

  “You’re bleeding,” He said, holding his hand up as proof.

  I looked at the blood and put my own hand up to my forehead and groaned inwardly as I pulled my fingers back to see the fresh blood mixed with dirt coating them. I wiped my hand on my pants and stood up, pushing Ty’s helping hands off me on the way up.

  Everyone else had made it over the divider by that point and had pretty much figured out that I’d completely wiped out as the giggling and snickers surrounded me.

  Without a word, I wiped the blood off my forehead and onto a nearby car and started north. A host of laughter followed behind me.

  “For as good of a fighter she is, she sure is clumsy,” Earl grumbled to someone. I didn’t turn to see who he was talking to out of sheer embarrassment.

  “You should’ve seen her before she became a mutant, this is an improvement.”

  I turned wide-eyed to face Jack, who just stood there smirking.

  “Did you seriously just call me a mutant?” I asked indignantly.

  He tipped his hat to me and smiled. I looked at him another minute, and he winked. I flipped him the bird and turned back around. I wasn’t about to let him get me riled up when there was work to do.

  Earl caught up with me and walked quietly beside me for a while. “So where did you l
earn to swing a blade like that?” He asked in his slow drawl while spitting a wad of tobacco onto the pavement.

  Still keeping my eyes alert for trouble, “I had nerdy friends awhile back. We used to sword fight for fun. I guess I got good at it or something.”

  Earl’s big hand clapped my back, nearly causing me to stumble. “Good for you, young lady, glad to have you and your fighting skills around.” He chuckled deep in the back of his throat and I couldn’t be sure if he was being serious or making fun of me.

  I wanted to ask, but thought it best to leave it alone. We’d been walking for a couple of hours and the sun was making its way higher in the sky. The air was murky and the pressure was dropping. It was hot, but a group of angry looking clouds were off to the east and looked like they might cause trouble.

  I could still feel footsteps pounding through the ground as we walked and while I still couldn’t see anything, it felt louder which just made me nervous. Earl still walked beside me and I could hear the quiet conversations behind me. Ty and Bash ran up ahead of me with Roscoe, the 3 of them seemingly having a swell time climbing over abandoned cars and trucks.

  I tried not to look into too many of the windows after seeing the first few decomposing corpses and made sure Johnny wasn’t looking every time Earl or I jammed a blade into a half-dead corpse inside one of the cars. I turned around to study the kid periodically just to be sure he wasn’t about to start crying or something.

  Brian had set him down and he was marching stoically next to his father, hand in hand. His little face was twisted in a frown and the weight of the world stared out from his dark eyes. I’d never seen a 6 year old look so serious but I guess we all looked a little more serious than usual these days.

  He caught me looking at him and met my stare. There was no fear in his eyes, no confusion. It was like he understood exactly what was going on and was prepared to face it. Fuck, I could only wish I was as calm and accepting of all of this as he obviously was. I smiled at him and turned back around and kept walking.