“Calise! Where’s your brother?!” Sarah said with panicked breaths as she chased immediately behind me.
I had been so focused on the pink target that Maddox’s absence from direct view escaped my notice. Calise stood at the corner of the mini fence that separated the play area from the rest of the jungle, frozen as if in shock. I skidded to the ground on my knees and scooped her up. Sarah joined the embrace a moment later facing the other direction.
“Oh thank God!” she said through tears. “There! There he is!”
I spun towards the opposite corner near the planked clubhouse to see for myself. Our relief transformed into terror before I even finished turning. Maddox stood with his back to the outer clubhouse wall. His right arm was outstretched towards a disfigured shape on the ground, the rest of him was paralyzed in fear. My heart stopped completely upon realizing that a mangled reaper was nearly within arm’s reach of my son. It was on the ground, wiggling prone in the leaves towards my unsuspecting son. Desperation catapulted me the eighteen or so feet between us while my arm brought up the Kukri for an imminent strike. I didn’t look towards Maddox at all; every ounce of vengeful attention was focused on the ghoul I intended to slice to bits.
Nearly upon them, my feet skidded to a stop and centrifugal force practically sent me tumbling through the wooden pole that connected him and the creature. This encroaching undead specimen looked like it had somehow been the victim of a piranha feeding frenzy who escaped mostly shucked of its form. Both legs were missing, along with the left arm at the elbow. A tattered Pittsburgh Steelers jacket covered most of its body; something I really only recognized from the stained yellow sleeve covering an arm that was now limp but stretched towards Maddox. It was slightly propped up as if it was in the middle of an aborted push-up. Only the square shovel embedded inches inside its skull kept him suspended.
“Monkey…” I said as calmly as I could.
He didn’t look at me or even flinch upon hearing my voice. I grasped the wooden rod to try to pull it out of his still extended arm, but it didn’t budge. For an eight year old, the boy had one hell of a strong grip. I shook the shovel trying to snap him out of it. His unblinking eyes were locked on the decrepit monster in front of him.
Calise started to cry back by the slide - the first sound she’d made since Sarah and I reached them. Sarah cradled her, rocking her like a baby. Through her own tears she loudly whispered in our direction, “Nathan… was he bitt—”
“No. He’s fine. I think he’s just in shock.” Calise was buried in Sarah’s shoulder facing the other direction. Regardless of the fact that she’d already seen far too much I still attempted to block the girl’s line of sight to the zombie. “Get her up to the attic. Maddox and I will be up in a minute. We should be out of the yard when the ones that were drawn by the noise make it closer.”
Sarah took a long look at me, then at Maddox, before starting up the path that led back to the line of winter-faded grass. Much like the way I had attempted to block the little one’s view, she placed her hand gently over Calise’s eyes during the retreat to the house.
After they disappeared into the safety of the house I turned my attention back to Maddox. Inside, I was tearing myself to pieces for letting him be in this situation. I’d thought the area was safe because the gaps in fencing weren’t big enough for any person to squeeze through. The thought of something that was less than a ‘person’ being a threat had never occurred to me but it should have. Any rules of normalcy had died along with the rest of the world. The sheltered time in the house had made me blissfully ignorant to the new way of things.
The shovel remained in Maddox’s catatonic grip. I shook it harder, which only jostled more muck out of the beast’s split cranium.
“Listen to me, Maddox,” I said, my volume reaching levels reserved for calculated scolding. “Monkey, you have to hear me. This one can’t hurt you anymore, but the group that’s about to be on the other side of our fence can.”
Still no response; his unshakable grip on the wooden handle remained in place. I shifted to hold the middle of the shovel with my left hand so that my right became free.
“MADDOX! Let go!” I commanded, using my right hand to give his opposite cheek a light smack.
His eyes pulled free from the corpse and his posture relaxed. “Daddy… I… I…”
“You did fine. You protected your sister and yourself; the rest can be discussed later tonight. Now let go and follow me back to the house. We don’t have long before they—”
Pounding fists on the driveway side of our fence cut my sentence short while simultaneously confirming what I had begun to say. Maddox looked back like a deer in the headlights then returned his eyes to mine while releasing his grip on the shovel. After he stepped back I also released my grip, allowing the mangled corpse, with its wooden extension, to face plant.
I could see the thoughts running through his young mind as he tried to make sense of what had occurred. His face reflected the pain I too experienced when I first cut one of the creatures down the night everything went to hell. His present fragility demanded a certain delicate response that the growing chorus of hungry claws drumming on the fence nearby would not allow. I tried to shift my voice from that of reprimand towards suggestion, hoping that he wouldn't burst into justifiable tears.
“Don’t worry about this mess; we can deal with it later. Head to the house now and walk softly. I’ll be behind you the whole way.”
Maddox looked at the oozing abomination on the ground and shuddered. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder to guide him back towards the house. More fists met our wooden divider, which created enough noise to overcome the crunching of our feet on the leaves. By the time we reached the window, clatter reverberated throughout the yard. If the predators in the area remained focused on the fence then I was certain it would give way sooner or later. I moved the trap door out of the way so Maddox could get in first. It would take a few more minutes for my still-healing body to climb through the opening.
When he moved closer I whispered directly in his ear, “Once you're inside I want you to go right up to the attic. Don't stop in any of the rooms or go by windows. We need to disappear so the zombies think they missed dinner and hopefully move on. I'll be up there too as soon as I can get into the room.”
Once he nodded an acknowledgement I lifted him by his armpits while biting my lip. Maddox climbed into the window with little support from me. I was surprised, proud, and relieved that he didn't need the assistance. He disappeared from view in the dark room to scurry up to the attic to meet Sarah and Calise. I took a deep breath and slowly released it to prepare myself for the physical exertion.
Suddenly his little arm extended out of the window and I jumped as if I was being attacked. “I got you, Daddy,” he whispered downward barely loud enough to hear over the noise. “We can go upstairs together.”
Chapter 7 – Inconspicuous
1630 hours:
The dead persisted for what seemed like an eternity. All four of us held onto each other in the center of the attic hoping to obtain a level of inconspicuousness that might break the infected group’s interest. Time crawled along to the constant droning of pounding fists. Although we had been hidden since the moment we went inside, they still tore at the fence like a platter of flesh was waiting for the first one to break past.
We sat in the darkness. Any hint of daylight was blocked by the sound-dampening wall of boxes around the attic vents. A pair of cheap tea lights were lit in between the huddled circle in which we sat.. There were moments I thought I heard a board splinter or a window shake. With each one I cringed and waited to hear a predatory tsunami wash through the level beneath us. If it weren’t for the little girl weeping in my arms I would have the Kukri in a white-knuckled grip waiting for the moment I'd have to rectify this vile intrusion.
Maddox sat still and silent next to Sarah with a blank expression; a disturbing state to see him in since he hadn't stopped moving a single day i
n his life. Occasionally his eyes darted about as if they were sketching a recreation of his troubled thoughts in the air. Sarah stroked his thick brown hair in a regular interval; I know the action was meant to comfort him as much as it also kept her own thoughts at bay.
Holding him there defied her fears by confirming he'd made it out of the encounter with the mangled ghoul in one piece. We exchanged glances in the dim light; a palpable worry overcame her delicate features and it horrified me. Seeing such a strong woman in such a fragile state forced me to face the undeniable truth that we could not stay in this house much longer.
Calise whimpered into my chest non-stop for the duration of it all. I held her tight while occasionally kissing the top of her head hoping to diffuse her terror. She deserved to be sweet and innocent; innocence is the God-given right of any five-year-old. All I wanted was to keep the monsters relegated to story and myth so that she could dance on worry-free in her pink tutus without a care in the world. However, thinking that we could keep her from seeing one of the beasts up close was a foolish delusion.
Desperate to calm her, I subconsciously shifted my weight, setting us both into a slow back-and-forth rocking. The pointed lip on my Kukri’s handle was lightly brushed causing it to gradually spin on the plywood floor. At that moment I also became aware of a cool spot on my chest from Calise’s drenching tears. Staring at the Kukri, my insides grew incensed with red-hot rage. It was as if the blade called my name, beckoning me to make the infected mob pay for what they had done to my family.
My mind wandered beyond the present circumstances. A wandering mind was likely the only real preventative action one could allow to avoid madness in such maddening times. One would think that I’d mentally escape to the happy times before the end of the world but I could hardly remember them. The horrors of my flight home still gripped my subconscious with parasitic determination. Those memories were so palpable that it didn’t take much to transport me right back to where I was weeks before.
In the blink of an eye I'd find myself peering off the railroad bridge into the James River, the turbulent rapids dotted with the refuse of the dead. Splashes from a recently reanimated corpse pulled my attention one way while a motionless figure floated face down past the place I'd just been staring. Then some sound from the outside would snap me back to our isolated hiding place. My thoughts screamed within my tortured mind, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER! YOU’RE NOT OUT THERE ANYMORE - YOU’RE HERE WITH THEM AND THEY NEED STRENGTH YOU DON’T POSSESS ANY LONGER.
A more recent curiosity of recalling the sound of the lunatic on a dirt bike we’d all heard the night before brought me closer to the present horrors. I ran through all the possibilities that the reckless stranger could present... could he be an ally? Or was he an even greater threat to us then the undead? Someone who rode around on a dirt bike taking potshots at walking viral disasters couldn’t possibly be entirely ‘stable’. Regardless of who the zombie vigilante was, considering the possibilities helped me keep memories of the past from the forefront of my mind. Calise coughed; I’d become so lost in my thoughts that I nearly forgot she was sitting on me.
Finally the pounding simmered to a stop. I handed Calise to Sarah so I could get some visual confirmation that the worst was over. Moving like a teen sneaking out of his house at midnight I tiptoed across the attic floor to the driveway side where the vent was blocked by Maddox's box wall. I eased the 'peephole' box out of the wall with bated breath. Glancing over my shoulder I saw everyone else frozen, looking on nervously while I fumbled with our fragile barrier.
When I turned to place the box down Maddox sprung to his feet from his place at Sarah’s side; if Calise hadn't occupied her lap I'm sure the boy would have been snatched back down as quickly as he rose. Light footsteps brought him next to me within seconds. I couldn't say anything and Maddox knew it; any noise might negate our hours of forced silence. He met my glare by grabbing hold of the box I was holding to move it aside, hell-bent on assisting me whether I liked it or not.
I inched myself closer to the vent. The loudest sound inside was the popping of cartilage in my neck as I strained to hear out of the awkward opening. My head creaked to the side, listening for any hints of the imminent threat. Normal sounds of apocalyptic chaos became apparent as they typically did, but the clatter from the fence line was gone. It was difficult to see much of anything out of the peephole but the area closest to the fence looked clear. I backed off at a normal speed compared to the snail’s pace I used to reach the vent. When I was clear from the opening Maddox resealed the hole again with the box. For once things seemed to be going in our favor.
Sarah cleared her throat to get my attention. She shot me a quizzical glance, looking anxious about breaking our silence. I returned the unspoken question with a raised finger to tell her to hang on. Maddox stood patiently at my side waiting for our next move. A snapping motion locked his eyes on mine. I pointed at the opposite vent; he nodded in response. Like an eager soldier Maddox immediately shifted to fulfill his mission. Before he could fully turn I placed my left hand on his shoulder, pantomiming a listening motion then pointed at my eyes with my right pointer and middle fingers. His shaggy head bobbed up and down. I placed my right pointer over my mouth to mimic a 'shush'. He nodded once, his face wearing the composure of a war-hardened veteran.
My boy is eight years old, I thought with disheartened angst.
He glided across the floor with a deadly precision that would make a trained assassin proud. Several agonizing minutes passed while Maddox studied the situation on the opposite side of the house. After a step back his little man-hands returned the box to the wall and hustled back to my position. Now I was the one with a serious expression waiting for his report. He stood on his tiptoes in order to place a palm lightly on my right collarbone to which I bent down in compliance.
“I didn't see anything, Daddy,” he said, his warm breath on my ear. “It didn't sound like anything was in the yard but I could hear some banging somewhere else in the street.”
The smile on my face broke the tension in the room. Sarah stood with Calise's arms wrapped around her neck. Maddox saw my smile and looked confused.
“Thank you, Monkey,” I said. My volume was far from normal but I didn't feel the need to whisper any longer. “You did good... in fact, you did great.” His seriousness faded and he smiled back.
“We need to talk about what to do next,” Sarah said without preamble. She set Calise down and the little pink ball of fluff immediately went to her brother and hugged him tightly.
“I know.” I reached into one of our food boxes and handed both kids bags of Welch’s fruit snacks. “Enjoy these guys and eat them slowly. Mommy and I need to go downstairs to talk. I want you both to stay up here. You don’t have to stay as quiet as we just were but follow the same rules we’ve been using for noise.”
“Daddy...” Calise’s little voice came as a welcomed change to the whimpering she had been relegated to for the last few hours. “Can we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s soon? I don’t want to stay home anymore.”
My heart sunk even lower. I was already close to the edge, but ire truly seethed from my pores after the confirmation that our home was no longer a castle to my little princess.
“Soon, baby girl. Don’t worry about it for now, Mommy and I will figure it out. For now spend some time with your big brother - the monsters don’t stand a chance when he’s around.”
Maddox beamed with pride. He had already settled with a book to read her, a silly story about a little girl who ate so many pink things she turned pink herself.
“Are the monsters going to keep us from having our Thanksgiving dinner?” Calise asked.
With all of the commotion in the morning I’d completely forgot the significance of the day.
“Yes, love,” Sarah said, “we’ll still have a special dinner. I’m not letting all of the food go to waste! We just might have to scale it down a little bit since using the grill is probably a bad idea with the monsters in t
he area.”
I forced a smile then followed it with a kiss on Calise’s soft mess of hair. Satisfied, she bounced down to the side of her big brother bodyguard to hear the story of the pink culinary disaster. Sarah eased the pull-down ladder into its extended position then guided me away from the kids.
“I’ll go first. Let’s give the dynamic duo some time to unwind.”
1735 hours:
In a small house privacy was difficult to obtain under normal circumstances; add the ever-present fear of every whisper alerting the unholy drones outside the walls and privacy became a fairytale. Sarah and I sat facing each other in our bedroom shower. The shower was built with two seats that typically served as a resting place for a dozen partial bottles of body wash and shampoo. Between the pipes, tiles and construction innards that filled the inside of the walls, we figured any sounds would have a harder time making it to undead ears.
“The car is still packed,” Sarah said directly. “We can hold them off long enough for everyone to make it to the driveway and then we need to be out of here.”
I agreed with her but the fear of putting my family in danger was still too much, especially after the ordeal we had just gone through.
“What about the roads?” I asked. “It took me days to make it here from the police station. We will be lucky if we can make the drive to my parents’ house in a week.”
“Nathan,” her volume elevated for a minute before she regained her composure. “Nathan, we could all be dead in a week if we stay here. We don’t know what will be waiting for us on the road but at least we can see it through as a team.”
(Book 2)What Remains Page 6