by Chesla, Gary
“Do you think the girls went down to your safe room?” Doug asked.
“Meg and I practiced going down there. I reminded her about what to do before we left. They should be down there now. Those bikes made enough damn noise coming up to the house. I’m sure they saw them.” Shaun answered.
“If they get in, I don’t think they will find your room.” Doug said hopefully.
“I know the dead would never find it, but you never know about the living. They might notice little things that would give it away. But I have heavy bars to barricade the doors. Hopefully these dumb bastards won’t look too hard. If the girls can keep quiet, hopefully they will be OK.” Shaun said but he was still worried. Shaun had seen the gangs in action many times over the past few months. He would almost prefer the dead get Megan rather than any of the gangs.
Shaun and Doug watched the bikers get off their bikes and start looking around.
“Why do you think they came here? Do you think that Fred told them about us?” Doug asked as he watched the bikers start to take special interest in Shaun’s house.
“No. Fred knew about us, but other than where we parked the van, he didn’t know anything else about us or where we lived. I think these guys are just looking further out this way. Things are getting scarce everywhere. They are probably just expanding their area looking for shit.” Shaun replied as he watched the bikers.
“Why are they looking so hard at your house?” Doug asked.
“It’s the only house with bars on the windows. Compared to the rest of the houses up here, they can tell the house is secure and no one has ransacked it. The bars are great against the dead, but they make it look more tempting for these kind of people. The other four houses are vacant. The doors are hanging open and some of the windows are busted out. They can see your house has been overrun by the dead. My house looks like a gift waiting to be unwrapped.”
Shaun said as he laid his forehead against his arm.
He raised his head and watched. Some of the bikers ran over to his house and grabbed the bars on one of the front windows and began to shake them.
A few of the other bikers ran over to help them.
When the window seemed too solid, they ran over and began to shake the bars covering the front door.
One of the bikers ran back to the other bikers that were still standing around their bikes watching.
The biker that ran over to the others began talking, waving his arms.
The head honcho turned and began to dig around in his saddle bags, pulling out a chain and handing it to the first guy.
He turned and ran back to the front door and wrapped the chain around the bars.
He signaled to the guys standing around their bikes. One of them started his bike and drove up to the front door.
They attached the end of the chain to his bike.
The engine of the bike roared. The biker threw the bike into gear and it began to tear off down through the yard.
When the chain started to get tense, the bikers all looked in anticipation. The chain straightened. The bars held firm, stopping the bike in its tracks. The bike slid on its side as the rear wheel spun for a moment before the engine stalled.
The rider flew over the handle bars and landed on his back in the middle of the street.
The other bikers began howling at the scene.
The biker lying in the middle of the street began to slowly stagger to his feet. He was cursing a blue streak as he looked at the house and then at the other bikers.
“I was hoping that bastard would have broken his neck.” Shaun cursed.
Two more bikers drove their bikes up to the front door while the first guy disconnected the chain from the bike lying in the yard. He ran back and connected the chain to the back of one of the bikes waiting by the door. Another guy ran up to the bikes carrying another chain. They fastened the second chain to the bars and to the second bike. The bikers laughed at each other as they began to roar their engines.
They both threw their bikes into gear and started down through the yard.
This time the bars gave way. The bikers ran down the yard and onto the street, dragging the bars behind them.
The bikers that were standing by the door watching the others pull the bars away from the door, started jumping against and kicking at the front door.
It only took a minute before the door gave way and crashed into the house.
Six of the on lookers yelled their approval and ran at the door. They flooded into the house.
Shaun’s eyes were a large as saucers as he stared and listened to the noise coming from inside the house. He prayed Megan had made it to the safe room and that these bastards wouldn’t find the room.
He watched as the little hibachi came flying out the front door landing in the yard.
Shaun froze with fear as the noise coming from the house stopped.
Shaun almost died when two of the bikers came running out the front door carrying two women. Then he calmed down when he realized they were carrying arms full of brightly colored dresses. Megan’s dresses! They were upstairs in his bedroom. The two arms full of dresses looked like they were carrying two girls out of the house at first, but then Shaun saw it was just dresses.
They took the dresses out and gave them to the biker girls that had been riding on the back of the bikes when the bikers pulled in front of Shaun’s house.
The girls started putting on the dresses and prancing around the yard as all the guys whooped and whistled at the girls.
Shaun looked at the house as loud crashing sounds came from the house.
His eyes were drawn to the second floor. There was a guy hanging out the window of the pulley room.
Shaun looked trying to figure out what the hell the guy was doing.
The guy started yelling, finally getting the attention of the guys down at the bikes.
One of the guys ran over under the window.
Shaun watched as the guy in the window pointed at the rope hanging down the side of the house.
The guy on the ground followed the rope through the yard and out onto the street. It ended in Doug’s yard. The guy picked up the plate that had anchored the pulley system to the wall in Doug’s house. He looked at the plate with the pulley attached. He then looked at the open window in Doug’s house.
The guy turned and whistled. Two of the guys at the bikes came running over. He pointed at Doug’s house and the two guys started running towards the house. They started going around the house looking for a way inside.
Shaun kept looking from his house to Doug’s house watching what was going on. He was nervous as hell. All he could think about was Megan.
Suddenly one of the guys that had gone into Doug’s house came running from behind Doug’s house with his arms full of food. He was yelling at the others. Soon the others were gathered around him. They all started yelling and celebrating like they had discovered Black Beards buried treasure.
“I think they just found all the food in your house.” Shaun said sounding disgusted. “At least they haven’t found the girls.”
“I’ll make that trade any day.” Doug said.
The head honcho ran over to Shaun’s front door and shouted into the house. He turned and started for Doug’s house. Soon the six guys that had been in Shaun’s house came running out and followed the leader over to Doug’s house.
Soon it looked like ants streaming from an ant hill. Man after man came out of Doug’s house with their arms loaded with as much as they could carry.
Thirty minutes later the last man came out carrying the final contents of Doug’s basement. There was a massive pile of food piled up in the middle of Shaun’s yard.
The bikers and the biker girls were all ripping open packages, eating whatever looked good to them and tossing the trash in the middle of the yard.
After a half hour of wasting food and trashing the yard, the bikers started packing things into their saddle bags. Twenty minutes later their saddle bags were full. A m
assive pile still stood in the yard.
One of the guys went over to their leader and started talking and pointing back to Shaun’s house.
Finally the leader smiled and started barking out orders.
Three bikers started up their bikes and rode over in front of the garage door. The three of them unwrapped chains from the back of their bikes and began to fasten them to the bars over the garage door.
Shaun began to become afraid. “What the hell are they doing at the garage?” he started to worry they had figured out about his hidden safe room.
He watched nervously. His heart jumped up into his throat as the bikers roared their engines to start their run.
They roared down the driveway, ripping the bars away from in front of the garage door.
Two bikers ran back in through the front door. A few minutes later the garage door began to rise.
Shaun watched, dreading what was to come next.
He relaxed a bit when the door was fully open and he could see into the garage.
The hidden door to the storage room was still intact.
Shaun watched, trying to figure what the bikers were up to. Finally one guy jumped into the van as two others ran to the front of the van and began to push it backwards out into the driveway.
Once they had it down at the end of the driveway, the guy behind the wheel jumped out. He got down and looked under the dash and began to pull wires out from under the dash. A minute later the engine in the van sprang to life.
More yelling and celebrating.
Then the other bikers ran over to the back of the van. They threw open the back doors and started throwing all of Shaun’s stuff out onto the ground as the other bikers started to load the remaining food into the back of the van.
“They are taking your van to haul the food back to where they are staying.” Doug said in astonishment. “Do you think after they load up all the food they will just go away.”
“I can only hope.” Shaun said. “But that sounds like it would be too easy.”
Soon the van was full and all the celebrating wound down. One of the bikers hopped in the van and started to drive down the street. They rest of the bikers, except two followed the van.
Shaun and Doug watched the two remaining bikers.
“Two on two looks better. Maybe we can sneak up on them.” Doug said.
“Let’s watch and see what they do. Maybe they will get drunk or something. We can sneak up on them then. I can’t wait to kick the shit out of one of those bastards.” Shaun said looking on in anticipation.
“Why do you think they left those two behind?” Doug asked.
“Maybe they are supposed to wait for us to come home. They probably would like to get their hands on the owners of all those dresses.” Shaun guessed.
Shaun and Doug watched, waiting for their opportunity.
The two guys pulled two bottles from their saddle bags. Instead of drinking, they started stuffing something into the bottles. One guy ran over and stood in front of the opening where the door had been. He lit the top of his bottle and tossed it inside the house.
Shaun almost jumped to his feet, but managed to control his emotions.
Shaun turned his attention from what had happened at his house and saw the other guy coming back from Doug’s house. The smoke was starting to rise over the garage roof at Doug’s.
Shaun looked back to see thick black smoke start to pour from his front door.
It was all Shaun could do to keep from running towards the house.
The two bikers got on their bikes and started the engines.
The two bikers roared down the street and down towards Route 217.
“Come on. Hurry!” Shaun shouted as he got up and started running towards his house.
He ran to the open garage door. Smoke was coming into the garage from the open inside door, but the flames had not yet reached the garage.
“Meg!” Shaun yelled as he went over to the hidden door and began to bang his hand against the wall.
“Meg. Lisa. It’s me and Doug. You have to come out now. Hurry!” Shaun continued to call their names.
Shaun felt relief as the hidden door clicked and began to open. He saw a wide eyed Megan peek out through the opening.
Suddenly the door fully opened and Megan rushed out and hugged Shaun.
“Thank God you are OK. I was scared to death they were going to find you.” Shaun whispered.
“I was scared to death.” Megan cried.
Lisa came out of the room slowly. She had tears running down her face. Doug ran over and hugged her.
Lisa just sobbed and was speechless.
Megan suddenly stood back. “I smell smoke.” Her eyes got wider as she saw the smoke coming in through the door from the house. Then the flames started flickering into view inside the house.
“We have to get out of here. Doug, is Lisa OK?” Shaun yelled over to Doug.
“She’s scared shitless, but other than that I think she is OK.” Doug called back.
“We have to save as much as we can from the storage room. Get in the room.” Shaun shouted and led Megan back into the room.
He grabbed four backpacks and tossed one to each of them. “Fill up the pack with as much food as you can get in it. Doug, if Lisa can’t fill one, load it for her and slip it on her back. Then everyone grab a blanket. I don’t think we have time for anything else.”
They all frantically tossed things into their packs. The crackling sounds coming from the house and the thick smoke rolling into the room made them move faster.
“They grabbed as much as they could but had decided their time was up as they all began to cough from all the smoke.
“Times up!” Shaun yelled and started to usher them out of the room and into the smoke filled garage.
They ran out into the yard, coughing as they ran.
Megan stopped and stared in disbelief as she looked at her house. Flames were now coming from the first floor windows. Smoke poured from the open pulley room window on the second floor. As she turned to look at Shaun, she saw the garbage that littered the front yard. Tears began flowing down her face as she looked at Shaun.
“Come on. We need to get away from here before those bastards come back to admire their handy work.” Shaun said and pulled her towards the field where he and Doug had hidden as they watched the nightmare going on in front of them.
Doug and Lisa stared at the flames as the heat shattered the windows in their house and flames shot out the windows rising high above the house. Their wood frame house was starting to burn much faster than Shaun’s brick home. They turned to follow Shaun and Megan as the roof of the garage collapsed down into the garage.
“What happened?” Megan asked.
“I’ll tell you when we are someplace away from here.” Shaun answered.
“Where are we going to go?” She asked.
“For now, out behind the field and hide in the woods.” Shaun said. “Then we are going to Ligonier.”
“We are going to walk to Ligonier?” Lisa finally spoke for the first time.
Chapter 7
They had walked for half an hour and had finally made it to the woods at the far end of the field behind their houses.
No one spoke on the short trip to the beginning of the forest. They were all feeling over whelmed from their ordeal and from what they had seen, from what they had all lost. Watching everything they had in the world, taken right before their eyes.
If the world wasn’t bad enough before, now they would be living from day to day, constantly dodging predators, all in an effort to survive one more day, so they could do it all over again.
At least before they had a way to get around and at the end of the day they had their own safe place of refuge to return to and escape the realities of the world, even if only temporarily.
Now they had nothing but the clothes on their back, a blanket and a few days supply of food in the packs they carried on their backs.
There was nothing t
o protect them from all the evils of the world that waited to destroy them. The protection they had received from their houses was more psychological than real, considering what they were up against, but now even the illusion of protection, the illusion of a safe refuge was gone.
They had walked through the field, constantly looking over their shoulders, back at the towering smoke and flames coming from what had been their home. Watching to see if anyone or anything had seen them and was following them.
After going about twenty feet into the trees, Shaun stopped and sat down at the base of a large Maple tree.
He looked at the depressed expression on the faces of the others. He decided to try and lighten the mood.
“Well, I have some good news and I have some bad news.” Shaun said.
Megan looked at him as if he were crazy.
Shaun continued. “The good news is that the dead had done so much damage to Doug’s house, when it burnt down, it really doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t have been able to move back into the house anyway.”
Doug left out a short laugh and shook his head as he smiled at Shaun.
“What’s the bad news?” Lisa asked.
“Doug told me he hadn’t paid the insurance premium for the last six months.”
Megan looked at him, then pushed his arm away from her. “How can you joke about this?”
“Because you’re here.” Shaun smiled.
Megan looked at him for a minute, then a tear ran down her right cheek.
“When we were trying to figure a way to get you two out of the house, those bastards started to take everything we had, set the house on fire and then left. Doug said you two traded for the house and food, was a trade he would make any day of the week.” Shaun smiled. I agree. We lost the house and our food, but we still have each other. We were thinking of leaving and moving on to the fort in Ligonier anyhow. So from my point of view, all we’ve lost is the van.”