by Mike Staton
“Karl, Carlos, move the stalker out front. When you’re done, I’ll help you stitch up Jessica in the kitchen.”
A soft groan erupted from the living room and Percival spun to look at its source.
“Ohh, there wasn’t blood here last time.” Roy Joy was staring at where Morrbid had bled on the floor. “Oh, my friends must have come over and fought again. Bad Joey and Bonnie.”
Roy Joy shook his head, and to Percival it was the saddest thing he’d ever seen. Roy Joy walked over to the recliner and just collapsed.
Sarah moved around the couch and slowly sat down. Andrina walked over to Percival.
“What’s upstairs that’s keeping us from staying there? It’s a more defensible space.” Andrina dropped her voice to keep it from traveling very far.
“Only room that’s free is the game room and that’s not big enough to accommodate all of us.”
“No bedrooms?”
“They contain Roy Joy’s wife and son. Carefully tucked into bed,” Percival said quietly. He didn’t want to broadcast the message. He didn’t know if Roy Joy remembered, or wanted reminding. He knew that if he had laid his family to rest like Roy Joy had, he wouldn’t want to go back anywhere near the spot.
Andrina nodded slowly. She looked over her shoulder at Roy Joy.
“That’s probably for the best then. I assume you chose not to disturb them?” Andrina asked.
“Yeah. We checked the bodies and put the blanket back. They were stalkers,” Percival said.
“That explains so much. I’ll go talk with him some.” Andrina turned and walked away from Percival.
Percival left the living room. Karl and Carlos carried the dead stalker through entryway and out the front door. Percival waited for them to return.
Karl locked the door behind him as he followed Carlos into the entryway. “Won’t keep ‘em out for long, but it will stop a stalker from opening the door.”
Percival nodded. “You ready to go stitch up Jessica?”
“Thought you were going to do that,” Karl said.
“Your old man stitches look prettier.” Percival turned to lead the way to the kitchen.
“Your young’un stitches are more effective and efficient,” Karl countered. “’Sides, I’ve already done enough medical work today. I’ll hold the light. Sun’s already mostly set, and it’s really getting dark in here.”
“Fine.” Percival stepped into the kitchen.
Morrbid and Jessica looked up at him.
“We’re sleeping in the living room tonight,” Percival said.
“Yuh’ll might be,” Morrbid said. He started to say something else, but Jessica’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“We’ll stay in the dining room. It’s close enough to y’all and it’ll only be a door away.” Jessica looked from Morrbid to Percival. “We’ll be fine.”
Percival nodded slowly. “Alright.”
“Ready to be stitched up?” Karl asked.
“Yeah. I’m ready,” Jessica answered.
“When one of you’re going to be doing the stitches?” Morrbid asked.
“He will. He’s better at it than me. He patched up our last injury.” Karl neglected to add that Evan hadn’t made it through the night, and Percival hadn’t actually stitched him closed.
“Fine. But I’m stayin’ to make sure he doesn’t cause more harm.” Morrbid stepped away from Jessica to give them room.
Percival cleared a section of counter and tugged a first aid kit out of his duffel bag. He opened it and sifted through the disheveled contents. He took out a curved needle and surgical thread.
He took off his helmet and gloves and set them on the counter before turning back to Jessica.
In the time that it had taken him to prepare, Karl had stripped off Jessica’s bandages to reveal half a dozen deep lacerations that ran almost the full length of her arm. Percival bit his lip. This would require a lot of stitches.
Chapter 12
Percival took the first watch. It went as peacefully as everyone hoped it would. When he finally got to sleep, however, peaceful would not be the word to describe it. He dreamt of Brown College Campus with its high fences between the college buildings. They had secured the center of campus from zombies within the first month of the major outbreak and had maintained a working society until supplies began to run short.
It was then that Percival suggested they raid the nearby towns and houses for further supplies. The first expedition had gone so well that the Campus Council had chosen to send Percival and his team out for an extended search through much of Tennessee.
Percival’s dream, however, didn’t focus on the good past. His dream instead focused on the future of what he now called ‘home.’ Brown College fell not to zombies but rather to rogue military units or creeps carrying looted military gear. The Campus was nothing but a smoking zombie infested ruin on the Tennessee Kentucky border.
Percival woke with the morning sun streaming in through the big bay window that showed the street, and a horde of undead milling around a few paces from the house. He bolted upright from his position on the bed and scrambled to his feet.
“How long have they been there?” Percival asked. “Why is the window open?”
“It’s not. The curtains needed to be pulled aside to let the light in,” Roy Joy answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “My friends have been here since before the sun came up.”
“Have they come any closer than that?” Percival scrambled to get his gloves and helmet on. He didn’t feel tired despite his lack of peaceful sleep the night before.
“Christine and Matthew asked them not to, so they haven’t.” Roy Joy turned away from the window. “My wife and son are very nice and very peaceful, aren’t they? Wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Yeah. They are, Roy Joy.” Percival moved to Sarah and gently shook her awake.
“What’s wrong… Is it time to go?” she muttered.
“Yeah. Time to go. Get the others up. We need to leave, but do it quietly.” Percival turned to leave.
“What? Why…” Sarah sat up slowly. She rubbed her eyes groggily.
“Look out the window, but be quiet about it.”
Sarah eyes widened. She nodded. She swung her legs off the couch and crouched by Karl.
Percival collected his rifle and tugged his helmet on. He crept to the door separating the living room from the dining room. He opened it as silently as he possibly could. He moved toward Jessica and Morrbid. They were still asleep and soundly entwined with one another. Percival was glad that they were still clothed. Despite his anger with Morrbid the previous day, he wouldn’t wish infection on the man.
He snuck over to the pair and touched Jessica on her uninjured shoulder.
She started, blinking sleepily at Percival.
“What… we didn’t do anything, don’t worry. He knows,” she muttered.
Percival shook his head. “It’s time to get up. There’s a horde outside the front, I’m about to check the back. Get ready, we’re leaving soon.”
Somewhere between the words ‘horde’ and ‘leaving soon’ Jessica completely woke up. She shrugged off Morrbid’s arm and sat up.
“Where are they?” She asked.
“Out in the front street. Apparently they don’t want to go near the dead stalker on our doorstep, but that doesn’t keep them nearly as far at bay as a live one.”
“Wait, what?” Jessica had the distinctive look of a confused person plastered on her face. “How do you know that?”
“Empirical evidence. Carlos figured it out. Something about the stalkers keeps other zombies away,” Percival muttered. “We can discuss it at length later. Right now, we’ve got to go.”
For a moment, Jessica seemed as though she were going to ask another question. Instead, she just nodded and turned to wake Morrbid up.
Percival was glad at least one member of that pair actually listened to him. He moved away and to the nearest window. He stood to the side of it and slowly moved the cu
rtain enough so he could see the backyard.
While not devoid of zombies, the backyard was certainly empty by comparison. Only three shambling corpses meandered around in the back yard, mere feet from the house.
Percival couldn’t quite understand why the zombies weren’t swarming, breaking the windows, and knocking the doors down. He also wasn’t about to complain about the odd behavior. He let the curtain fall back to a resting position walked quietly back to the living room.
Everyone was gathered in the living room waiting for him to come back. Everyone also had all their gear ready.
“What’s the situation like?” Karl asked.
“More of them out back, but fewer in number. Just a handful.” Percival set his rifle down, and took out his sledgehammer before he looped his body through his duffel bag’s strap and pulled it tight. “I’d prefer we go out the back without shooting any of them. If we can do it silently, that’d be best. One feeding moan will probably bring the rest.”
“Does anyone know why they’re not just swarming the house?” Sarah asked.
“Christine and Matthew asked them not to,” Roy Joy repeated what he’d told Percival.
“His wife and kid,” Percival clarified. “The dead stalker out front probably has something to do with it.”
Sarah nodded.
Percival suspected that there would be a grand discussion as to what precisely caused this behavior. He hoped it would wait until after they got back to the Campus. He slung his rifle and hefted his sledgehammer. It had a comforting weight to it, and although he’d had it for less than a week, he felt it was an old and trusted friend.
The others took out various melee weapons as well. Morrbid had a machete. Karl had a crowbar. Carlos took out a trench-knife.
Roy Joy hefted an aluminum tee-ball bat. Percival thought he recognized the bat from the bin of sports equipment in the game room. He wasn’t about to bring it up, though.
He snapped his visor down and moved through the door leading to the dining room door.
“We do this quickly. As quickly as we can. Don’t give ‘em time to scream. Okay?” Percival looked around his group of melee fighters.
Each of the men nodded. Each, including Morrbid, seemed ready to rush out and deal with the undead.
Percival moved to the set of double doors and pulled back the curtain enough to see. Half a dozen zombies still milled around in the yard. Percival looked back to his group.
“Who wants two?” he asked quietly.
“I do.” Morrbid raised his machete.
“Get the closest pair then.” Percival turned back to the doors. He hoped that trusting Morrbid to kill both the zombies without screwing it up wouldn’t come back to bite him.
He tucked the sledgehammer into the crook of one of his arms and turned both the handles at the same time. He yanked the doors open simultaneously.
The air was surprisingly muggy and stank of the zombies outside. Morrbid rushed past Percival, shoving the younger man aside as he pushed out the door, machete raised high.
Percival hefted his sledgehammer and ran through the wide-open doors. The sound of stomping footsteps following after him said the rest of his team rushed out as well.
The zombies in the backyard immediately stopped milling about and looked toward the team of survivors.
Percival crashed into the farthest zombie, bringing his hammer around in a vicious arc. The heavy head crunched into rotting skull and decimated the brain-matter beyond. The zombie flowed with his follow-through and collapsed with a soft thud to the grass as he yanked the sledgehammer in the opposite direction.
He spun, half expecting to see the others needing help with their individual zombies. Karl wrenched his crowbar from a destroyed head while Carlos cleaned his trench knife. The latter zombie still twitched, though the pair of neat puncture wounds in its forehead listed it among the dead and not the undying. Morrbid’d lopped half the head off of one zombie and completely decapitated the other. The second of his zombie’s jaws still snapped, dead eyes fixated on the human that’d parted head from body.
Percival took a moment to clean off his sledgehammer’s head with a scrap of clothing from his zombie as his group of survivors collected around him at the edge of Roy Joy’s backyard. He surveyed one-by-one, then nodded. He sometimes hated being the leader of the group.
“We move, quickly and quietly down the street, away from the horde. We stick to the backyards as much as we can unless some other threat presents itself from there. Questions?” Percival said.
The members of his group shook their heads. Even Morrbid, who Percival had expected to cause some trouble, was quiet and accepting of Percival’s orders. Perhaps Percival’d underestimated the man.
“I’ll take lead. Karl, wrap up our rear?”
“Certainly, Percival,” Karl answered.
“Sarah, Jessica, you’re in the middle. No arguments, Sarah. You’re injured and until you’re back to 100 percent, you stick to the middle.”
Sarah opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Percival was glad he wasn’t going to have to argue the point of her safety with her. “Rest of you, take up positions as you see fit.”
Percival led the way to the hedge separating one yard from the next. He listened for a moment, then pushed through it. He parted branches of the brush with his hammer and gloved hands, but still felt the tugs against his jacket and jeans. He was glad, again, for his motorcycle helmet, as it kept anything from scratching his face. He emerged in another backyard.
This yard was decorated with a grill, sitting on a cement patio, a couple bits of wooden furniture, a picnic table, and a trampoline in the corner of two hedges. He waited for the others to squeeze through the hedge. As he waited, he studied the trampoline. More than a handful of its springs were rusty, and a couple were outright missing, but all together it appeared to be intact. He could climb up on it and bounce to survey the surrounding yards.
But then again, the springs were rusty and decrepit looking. Even if they held his weight, and he doubted they would as he continued to look at them, they would groan as he bounced and alert all the zombies they were taking the time to avoid.
He glanced over his shoulder at the cluster of people pushing through the hedge. Karl was just coming through and Percival decided it was time to move on. He moved to the next hedge, found a weak spot, and pushed through and into the next yard. It held similar decorations as the previous yard, cement patio, grill, picnic table and appropriate wooden furniture. The largest difference was a child’s playset instead of a trampoline. It was complete with swings, sandbox, and an aluminum slide.
The supports of the slide didn’t look near as rusted as the springs on the trampoline, and Percival determined that to be a good thing. It would be worth the risk of climbing up atop it and surveying the area around their current yard.
He crossed the yard as the others pushed through the hedge to join him. He dropped his sledgehammer and duffle bag near the playset, kicked one of the supports of the slide, and decided it was solid enough to climb. He pulled himself up the handful of rungs of the ladder at the back. He stopped just high enough, one rung from the top, to see over the neighboring hedges.
Percival looked around. Three of the neighboring backyards stretching in the direction they were headed were empty and devoid of unlife. This suited him perfectly fine. They’d make their way through two yards and cut back to the street, if the horde wasn’t terribly big and stretching four houses down. If it was, they could always retreat back to the backyards, kill the handful of stray zombies, and proceed further down the street, carefully hidden behind the buildings.
Either way, they’d need to be quick about it. The morning was fading fast as the sun climbed higher into the sky. It wasn’t noon yet, but it soon would be. It was a downside to the change in seasons and winter creeping slowly but surely toward them. Winter had its benefits, but… out in the open, those benefits hardly outweighed the risks.
It was
another reason he had to safely direct the group back home. While true winter was still a month, or more, away, the tendrils of its coming were easily felt on the horizon. He didn’t like the thought of spending the cold months away from the secured portions of the Brown College Campus. He rejoined the group to share what he’d seen atop the slide.
“There’s four zombies three yards over,” he said quietly. “We cross two yards and check the street. If we can avoid them all, the best. If not… we’ll play it by ear.”
“Haha…” Sarah muttered.
“No pun intended,” Percival said. “Questions?”
“Are we sticking to the same traveling order, Mister Polz?” Andrina asked. She was checking her pistol.
“Yeah. At least until we get to the last yard. Then we’ll check the street in a different formation.”
She nodded. Percival waited a handful of tense seconds and when no one voiced any other concerns, he turned and headed for the hedge. He pushed through, surveyed the yard, then moved to the next hedge. A handful of minutes later and the group had caught up with him and he pushed through the second hedge and into the yard. He paused, waiting for everyone to catch up with him.
“Next yard over,” he whispered, just loud enough for his voice to carry past his helmet and to the others, “is the yard with four zombies. We check the street. Rather, I’ll check the street. No reason to risk everyone going out there.”
“No reason to risk just you either. Or letcha steal all th’glory, hot-shot,” Morrbid said.
Percival stared at him for a moment. The man was undoubtedly hostile, and while Percival had trusted him to handle two zombies in Roy Joy’s backyard, he hardly wanted to trust him to watch his back as he scouted the street for zombies. He sneered, glad that the motorcycle helmet would hide the facial expression. It wouldn’t do well to be leader and let people like Morrbid get under his skin. He opened his mouth to speak, but Andrina cut him off. He didn’t think it was intentional.
“He’s right, Mr. Polz. You shouldn’t go alone. Although, Mr. Kaufman, our fearless leader wouldn’t needlessly risk himself for ‘glory.’” Andrina steamrolled whatever comment Morrbid was about to counter with. “I’ll go with you. I’m light on my feet, and am better at judging numbers than you.”