They made it off the hill and sprinted up a short incline to reach a cul de sac in the subdivision they’d been aiming for. Kelly shot the three Zombies who were rushing down the street towards them. Tony sprinted for the first townhouse in the row and smashed into the front door. He bounced right off it and landed hard on the sidewalk he’d gone rushing down. Randy whipped out a hatchet and used it to bash through the decorative glass running around the door. He stuck his hand through the opening he’d made and tried to get the dead bolt undone so he could open the door.
Kelly had turned around and was shooting Zombies as they arrived. It was one or two still for the next few seconds, but the massive wave was surging this way. If they were here when it hit, they were dead. Tony had reloaded and scrounged in his pack for more grenades. He popped another smoke grenade and tossed it onto the sidewalk in front of them. Kelly hoped he knew what he was doing because he’d just made it a lot harder for them to shoot the Zombies before they were right on top of them. Randy got the door open and they all barreled inside.
“Up the stairs!” Yelled Tony.
“We’ll be stuck if we go up there!” Randy yelled back. He was bleeding on his wrist from cutting himself on the decorative glass trying to get the deadbolt to slide open on the door.
“I’ve got it! Just go!” Tony yelled. They were having to yell to be heard over the screeching and gunfire. Tony opened up on full auto again as a line of Zombies started appearing out of the smoke and running towards them.
Randy and Kelly stormed up the stairs and down the hallway at the top. At the end of the hallway was the master bedroom. It was a decent sized room with a master bath connected to it with a big jacuzzi tub. Randy ran over to the windows and ripped the curtains out of the way. The view from the window was of a large weed covered field separating the house from the back of a plaza. The weed covered field was covered in Zombies sprinting this way.
“We’re dead if we stay here! Now we’re trapped. What the hell is Tony thinking!” Randy yelled to Kelly as Tony came bounding up the stairs. At the top of the stairs he turned and threw another smoke grenade down. The stairway started filling up with the familiar green smoke.
“Give me your hatchet!” Tony yelled at Randy. Tony was looking around the room. He’d slammed the bedroom door and locked it. “Push something against the door and throw the mattresses against the wall in front of where the bathtub is!”
Kelly and Randy hurried to comply with the odd commands. Tony ran over and started beating on the wall with the hatchet. A few seconds later he yelled at them to go get in the tub. Randy was about to ask why when he saw what Tony was doing. He shoved Kelly ahead of him into the tube and covered her with his body. A couple seconds later he felt Tony land on top of him and try to burrow down as low as he could go.
The sounds of the Zombies beating on the bedroom door were blown away when the grenade went off in the bedroom wall. Tony had hollowed out the drywall and dropped a grenade in to blow their way into the next house. Completely deaf the three of them stumbled into the shredded master bedroom and saw the hole in the wall leading into the master suite of the neighbor’s house. They scrambled through that hole. Tony ran to the wall facing the plaza and stared at it for a second.
“What are you looking for?” Randy asked.
“We need one of the houses with a balcony. Neither of these cheap bastards must’ve paid for the damn upgrade. We’ll have to go through another wall. Bathrooms on the wrong side in this one.” Tony stood there for another few seconds torn with indecision. From the house they’d just left the banging and screeching was intensifying. That door wasn’t going to last much longer.
Not knowing what else to do Randy pulled the mattress of the bed and used it to cover up the hole they’d made in the wall. Maybe that’d confuse the Zombies for a minute or two. It wasn’t like they were being chased by an army of Einstein’s after all. Tony told them to get in the tub again and he sprinted down the hallway towards the room on the far side of the house. He came sprinting back down yelling for them to put their heads down as he jumped in the tub with them. Tony had barely got in when the explosion rocked all of their ears. Pieces of shrapnel cutting through the drywall like it didn’t even exist.
With their ears ringing they climbed out of the tub. They started moving towards the door to the hallway to the room Tony had hopefully just blown a hole in the wall of. As they stepped into the master bedroom from the bath the mattress Randy had put over the hole in that room fell from the wall. The mattress falling was followed by a wave of Zombies pushing to get through the hole. The Zombies were screeching their heads off as they piled through the jagged hole. Tony and Randy opened fire on the Zombies trying to get in while Kelly continued down the hall hoping they’d fall in behind her.
Running into the small room at the end of the hallway she saw the grenade trick had worked again. Another hole had been blown through another wall. Randy and Tony came crashing through the door about fifteen seconds later. Tony tossed another grenade down the hallway they’d just came from and screamed for them to get through the hole and on the ground. All three of them jumped for the hole and scrambled through then dove on the other side of the bed in the next room. Seconds later the shock wave and sound of the grenade exploding hit them again. At this point Kelly was pretty sure her hearing was toast.
Wobbling to her feet she helped Randy and Tony up. She vaguely noticed that blood was starting to seep out of her shoulder through the bandages Randy had shoved under her shirt for her. Tony ran out of the room and down the hallway with Kelly following right behind him. Randy stopped to shut the door to the small bedroom. It opened inwards so he was hoping the Zombies would get stuck against it. Worse case it’d slow them down for a minute. Even as he was shutting the door a body slammed up against it on the other side. He heard the screeching coming from inches away through the thick wooden door. Forcing his body to keep moving he followed Kelly down the hall where she was waiting to slam and lock the door behind him.
This master suite was letting in more of the fading sunlight than the last couple of rooms they’d been in. Randy saw that was because this family had decided to pay the premium to have a townhome with a balcony installed. Two big sliding glass doors led the way out of the master bedroom to the small balcony outside. Tony had both of the sliders open and was staring up at the roof. From the field below Randy heard Zombies screeching up at them. Randy and Kelly started stacking everything they could find in front of the bedroom door.
“Help me move the dresser out to the balcony!” Tony yelled. They stopped and stared at him to see if he’d finally lost his mind.
“I don’t really have anything better to do.” Kelly said with a shrug deciding to keep trusting Tony. He’d gotten them this far. Of course, ‘this far’ was trapped in a townhouse complex filling up with hundreds of the infected while they slowly depleted their supply of ammunition.
The dresser was heavy. Remembering what they’d done when they moved into their new house a couple of years earlier Randy started ripping the dresser drawers out. Kelly helped until they had the dresser light enough to drag out onto the balcony. Randy looked over the edge at the Zombies who were standing on the patio below screeching up at them. A couple of the Zombies were already banging on the sliding glass doors below to try and get in. Randy was waiting for Tony to ask for help pushing the dresser over the railing. He still wasn’t clear on what Tony thought it would accomplish to squash a handful of the Zombies. He did kind of want to see it happen though.
Wondering what Tony was up to he turned around to see him working his way on top of the dresser. Standing on the top of the dresser with both his hands extended straight up he was still a little too short to reach the roof. They heard the banging start on the door in the master bedroom.
“Send Kelly up here!” Tony yelled.
Randy helped Kelly up and then watched while Tony and Kelly performed a feat worthy of a Cirque act. Randy got Kelly to use the wall
to balance herself so she could stand up on his shoulders and pull herself onto the roof using her one good arm. Once Kelly was up on the roof Tony waved at Randy to climb up. Randy stood on the top of the dresser and it started rocking with both of them on it. Tony stuck out his hands and Randy almost fell off the balcony trying to climb up on Tony’s shoulders.
“You try!” He yelled at Tony and made a cup with both of his hands for Tony to step into. Tony stepped in and Randy boosted him as hard as he could. Tony slammed into the roofline with his hands and started falling backwards. Kelly caught him and pulled hard to get them both stable again. If she hadn’t caught him then they’d have both gone over the side. The banging inside the master suite was accompanied by the sound of cracking wood. Randy looked up at Tony and Kelly who were both hanging over the side of the roof with their arms stuck down. Like that was going to magically give him a twenty-inch vertical leap.
Rather than jumping around like an idiot until he fell off the balcony he climbed down from the dresser and ran back in the master. Looking around desperately he saw the little chair in front of the vanity. He grabbed it and ran back on the balcony as the lock to the door to the master bedroom finally gave up and Zombies poured into the room. He turned and slammed the slider closed. The Zombies slamming into it snarling and slobbering at him through the thick glass inches from his face.
Knowing he was only going to get one chance to get this right he put the chair on top of the dresser and carefully climbed up. He tried to ignore the sound of the glass door being banged into. It didn’t help knowing that if any of the Zombies just pushed at an angle it would open right up. He put both his feet on the small chair and stood straight up. He couldn’t quite reach the roof, but he felt Randy and Kelly’s hands grip onto his wrists. He jumped for the roof.
The chair flew out from under him and tumbled to the patio below. The sliding glass doors opened, and Zombies came tumbling out. All of the Zombies in the room tried to get on the balcony causing at least two of them to fall off the balcony to the patio below. Randy was holding on for dear life to the edge of the roof trying to pull himself up while the Zombies were trying to get on the dresser to get at him. The dresser tumbled over and fell off the balcony taking another Zombie with it for the short fall.
All the weight of the supplies Randy was carrying were pulling him down. He had a pack on full of ammunition and food and gear. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to take it off with both his hands clinging to the roof for dear life. He summoned every bit of energy he had and managed to do a chin up. His face cleared the top of the roof line and Tony grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him up onto the roof. Randy ended up lying on the roof on top of Tony. Both of them gasping for breath. Kelly stood up and looked down at her husband laying on top of Tony.
“Anything you two want to tell me?” She asked with a smirk.
“You’ve actually been the third wheel this whole time.” Tony gasped out without missing a beat.
Randy rolled off Tony and kissed Kelly.
“Now what?” He asked looking over at Tony.
“We lay here and check out the stars for a few hours then try to figure out how the hell to get down without breaking our legs or ending up getting eaten. Hopefully the Zombies forget we’re up here and start nesting for the night pretty soon.” With that Tony pulled his pack off and situated it to use as a pillow. He settled in to try and rest his body for a few hours. Randy and Kelly quickly followed suit.
Chapter 10: The Deep End
Myriah looked through the open gate at the two Zombies standing out on the street. The two were sniffing and shifting their heads around looking for the source of the noise they’d just heard. Cursing herself for making such a rookie mistake she tried to slide over to the side so the fence would hide her from the Zombies. She knew she’d been spotted when she heard the Zombie start screeching. That screech was echoed all around the neighborhood by other Zombies. Myriah slammed the gate shut and ran back towards the corner of the house. She heard a crash from the back porch and assumed that was the Zombie on the back porch finally breaking through the sliding glass door.
The Zombie picked itself up from the patio of the back porch and looked around for the girl it’d seen. The Zombie was hungry. It’d eaten raw meat from the refrigerator and gnawed on the family cat but had mostly just laid on the floor of the living room in stasis for the past year. Its brain was so infected with the virus at this point that there were no memories of ever being a normal human. Its thoughts weren’t even in a language anymore. It just saw things as food or sleep or kill. The screech that welled up inside it when it’d seen the girl came from some primordial part of its brain that was awakened by the virus when it burnt out the other parts.
It bashed on the glass door until it gave in. Standing up in the broken glass on the concrete patio it looked around. No sign of the food it’d seen. It knew it was on the porch for a reason though, so it walked around the perimeter of the screen. Hearing other screeches coming from all around the Zombie slammed itself into the screen a few times. The screen gave out pretty easily and the Zombie stepped into the narrow sun ledge in the pool before it could stop itself. Not seeing the food but hearing the screeches the Zombie began to walk around the yard looking to join the others it could hear screeching.
The Zombies from the street hit the gate to the backyard hard. It was the standard PVC white vinyl type fence with the different sections shoved in. As more Zombies arrived and kept beating on the fence it collapsed and the Zombies ran through it. There were ten new Zombies in the back yard within three minutes of Myriah having opened the gate in the first place. All of them walked around the back yard looking for the food they thought should be there. None of them saw any sign of a normal human though. Not seeing anything they eventually lost interest and either lie down to rest or just stopped where they were and stood there.
Myriah stood in the scum coated water of the pool with her head under the floatie. She had it tilted up enough where she was able to breathe. She’d tilted the side closest to the wall of the pool to try and avoid the Zombies noticing it. She thought she was probably ok unless she made any sudden movements. It was still pretty early in the day so unless some noise distracted the Zombies and got them to leave, she knew she was going to be standing in the pool under this floatie for a long time. She felt fine now but the water wasn’t warm. She was also standing on an inclined part of the ledge where the pool transitioned from the shallow to the deep end. That meant her legs were already sore from holding her there without starting to slip down the incline.
Realizing she wasn’t going to be able to hold this pose the rest of the day she started thinking of a way out of her mess. Ten minutes later she’d exhausted all her ideas other than doing her best to stand there until it got dark. She was starting to get cold and her leg was cramping up on her. She could hear the occasional grunt out of the Zombies hanging out around the pool. The screeches from outside the fence had died down.
Her foot slipped. She recovered quickly but the movement caused some sloshing the pool. She froze as she heard the Zombies shift around. She could imagine them staring down into the water and trying to figure out what’d made the noise they just heard. She didn’t know if they’d dive in and check or just do a quick look to see if they saw anything. She waited without breathing. She froze as much as she could willing the Zombies to stop looking. She was terrified of feeling something push down on the floatie. She kept waiting to hear a splash as one of the Zombies jumped in and came over for a closer inspection.
There were no splashes. All she heard after a few minutes was the sound of her own harsh breathing under the mold coated plastic of the floatie. To her own ears her breathing seemed too loud for anyone to ignore. Based on how cold she was starting to feel just standing there in the water she was worried her teeth would start chattering soon. Thinking about making a run for it she tried to envision where the Zombies may be standing around the pool. She doubted she
could jump out of the pool at this point and beat the Zombies in a foot race. She was thinking if she could slide closer to the side of the pool by the house that maybe she could pop up and run into the house.
The more she thought about it the more she thought that might be her only play. Otherwise she was going to just be standing there until she did something to give herself away or some noise randomly happened that got the Zombies to leave. She couldn’t bet on the random noise happening in the next hour. She calculated she wouldn’t be able to make it more than an hour without coughing or her teeth chattering or her doing something to give herself away. Once she gave herself away in the pool, she was dead. The longer she waited the harder it was going to be to force her legs to work.
Decision made she started working herself towards the shallow part of the pool underneath the floatie. She moved slowly to try and avoid being noticed. She thought about trying to swim underwater and pop up in the shallow end then run for it but was freaked out by what may be under the water. Plus, she wasn’t great at opening her eyes underwater in the first place. She was also worried getting a big face full of green pool scum could cause some serious visibility issues when she could least afford them.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 10