by Jeff Strand
"How?"
"Rope. We lay a noose out on the porch. When a wolf steps into it, we pull it tight."
"All of our rope is in the shed."
"Correct. We'd have to make another visit to the shed."
Rusty shrugged. "Could work, I guess."
"I'm not suggesting it as a Plan A. I'm saying that if we find ourselves stuck here for a while, like days or weeks, it could be a way of gradually lowering the numbers."
"I'm not planning to be stuck here days or weeks."
"Neither am I," said Mia. "But if we step outside and all of the wolves suddenly charge at us at once, we should probably go back inside."
Rusty placed a wooden strip over his forearm, double-checking the length. It had been cut and measured perfectly, of course. "We've got enough food to last a few weeks. If we do have to abandon the escape plan, we should be okay for quite a while, but I'd rather deal with twenty zombie animals surrounding the cabin now than five hundred zombie animals surrounding the cabin in a month."
"I can't argue that," said Mia. "I guess it just surprises me that you want to leave. I would've expected you to have a 'No goddamn zombie animals are going to drive me out of my home' attitude."
"I don't want to die. And I especially don't want you to die. I tried to be optimistic, and it didn't work, so now I believe that things are going to continue to get worse. Therefore, we need to get the hell out of here as soon as we can. This is totally in line with my world view."
Mia nodded. "We'll make it. I'm confident that all twenty of them won't pounce on us as soon as we step outside. We've got protection, we've got guns, we've got an axe, and we've got a chainsaw. We'll be fine."
"Look me in the eye when you say that," Rusty told her.
Mia looked him in the eye. "Do you want me to say the whole thing again?"
"Nah, that's all right." Rusty surveyed the strips of wood they'd cut. "We've got all of them. Ready to start taping them on?"
"Yeah." Mia went into the kitchen and retrieved the roll of duct tape from underneath the sink. As she returned, she glanced over at the living room window, where a wolf was aggressively scratching. "We're making the right decision," she said. "Even if they can't get in, listening to them constantly trying to get in would drive me insane."
"Me too," said Rusty. "Do you want to tape or be taped first?"
"I'll tape."
Rusty held out his left arm. Mia placed the first strip of wood on his forearm and wrapped a piece of tape around it. She placed the second strip and wrapped the tape around both pieces. Mia worked quickly and soon Rusty's entire arm was covered, wrist to shoulder, except for the joint.
"How does it feel?" she asked.
Rusty bent his arm at the elbow. "Heavy."
"Too heavy?"
"No, it's fine. When one of those things has my arm in its jaws, I'll be glad it's heavy. I think this is going to work."
They kept going. As wolves continued to claw at the windows, Mia duct-taped strips of wood to Rusty's body. Eventually he was covered except for his hands, feet, and head. His boots would protect his feet, and he'd put on thick gloves after he armored up Mia.
He walked around the living room, flexing his arms and legs. This was definitely going to slow him down, but it wasn't restricting his radius of movement, and, yeah, he thought that if a wolf was trying to tear his stomach open, he could slice it in half with his chainsaw before it succeeded.
Rusty began the process on Mia. She made several comments about wanting to paint her armor to make it more intimidating, and had to point out to Rusty that she was joking when he questioned whether they had time for such a thing.
"Sorry," he said. "Stress relief humor isn't working for me right now."
Something bashed into the living room window, hard.
Rusty and Mia both glanced over. Another bash. The boards held.
"What the hell is that?" Rusty asked, walking over there and peeking through the gap.
A wolf, half of its face already crushed, was running toward the window. It smashed into the boards, rattling them. It walked back down the stairs, staggering a bit, then turned around and raced at the window yet again. The impact was worse on its skull than the wood, and its left eye now protruded from the socket.
It stumbled off the porch, got another running start, and sprinted at the window. None of the boards broke or fell off, but one of them was coming loose on the edge.
The wolf flopped onto its side.
Another wolf took its place. It charged at the window, crashing into it at full speed.
The boards were designed to withstand efforts to claw through them. They were not designed to withstand suicidal wolves smashing into them.
The loose board fell to the floor. The nails were still imbedded in it, so Rusty picked up a hammer and hurriedly pounded it back into place.
Mia peeked through the gap just as the wolf smashed into the boards again.
Several other wolves were standing in the front yard, watching, as if waiting their turn.
Mia looked at Rusty. She didn't need to say, "The boards aren't going to hold!" It was very much understood by both of them.
"Let's give it another layer as fast as we can," said Rusty. "We at least need to keep them out long enough for me to finish up your armor."
Rusty grabbed a board and began to nail it diagonally across the others. Mia did the same thing. Her breath was coming so quickly that Rusty thought she might be close to hyperventilating, but as long as her hands weren't trembling so badly that she dropped the hammer and nails, all was not yet lost. Let the wolves splatter themselves. Fewer to deal with when it was time to flee the cabin.
Two wolves smashed into the boards, one right after the other. So much for the comforting idea that at least they were attacking one at a time.
Now Rusty wished they'd brought in more boards. It had seemed like plenty before. They had enough to do another full layer over the living room window, and the strips he still needed to duct tape to Mia, and then the two boards they'd use to give the truck traction to get out of the mud and that would be pretty much it for the wood.
A wolf let out a loud yip as it made a particularly brutal impact on the boards. Rusty's sympathy for the creatures of the forest had significantly diminished since the time he felt kind of bad for the grizzly bears, but he still felt a tinge of regret that the wolves were suffering like this. Though he didn't know what was causing their behavior, it wasn't any more their fault than if they were rabid dogs.
They finished putting up the second layer of boards. Rusty hoped the barricade would survive long enough for him to armor up Mia but he had very serious doubts. They should've done her before him.
Mia extended her arm and Rusty began to tape the strips of wood to it, working quickly but efficiently. Mia flinched every time a wolf smashed into the window.
A board dropped to the floor.
"It's gonna be okay," Rusty assured her. "You're almost done." She wasn't anywhere close to being done, but Mia nodded as if pretending to be soothed.
Another board popped loose but didn't fall.
That same board broke a moment later. It didn't come all the way apart but the center of it splintered. It wouldn't make it through another hit.
Rusty's cynicism was proven correct as the board broke in half and a snarling wolf shoved its head through the gap.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rusty grabbed the axe and lopped off the wolf's head with one swing. He was getting good at this.
The head dropped to the floor, landing stump-down. The wolf soundlessly opened and closed its mouth, trying unsuccessfully to bite Rusty's foot.
Another wolf ran for the window. Rusty swung the axe like a baseball bat, striking the wolf in the mouth just as its face came through, shattering its front teeth and chopping off the entire top half of its head. It pulled the bottom half of its head out of the gap, whimpering.
A third wolf smashed into the window, knocking off another board.
Rusty slashed at it with the axe, getting it in the shoulder but not effectively. A fourth wolf stuck its head into the gap.
Outside, a few of the wolves began howling.
Mia ran into the kitchen as Rusty kept swinging the axe. A wolf clamped its jaws upon his arm, and he knew it would've torn off a huge chunk of flesh if not for the strips of wood. He slammed the axe blade into its back and it released its grip.
He wrenched the blade free. There was, of course, no blood on the steel. The wolf had not run off yelping, like any reasonable mammal would after taking an axe to the back, and Rusty swung the axe at its neck. This time it only went about three quarters of the way through. Its head flopped forward. It continued trying to bite Rusty.
Mia returned to the window with a can of lighter fluid and some matches. "Great idea," he told her.
Rusty lopped off the wolf's head and kicked it out of the way as Mia doused the other wolf with fluid. Another wolf took the spot of the just-decapitated one, and Mia sprayed it as well. Then she dropped the can on the floor and struck a match.
The match burst into flame, then immediately went out.
She struck another match, which did the same thing. If they survived long enough to purchase more supplies, Rusty would buy more expensive matches.
The third match stayed lit long enough for her to toss it onto one of the wolves.
Its fur ignited right away, and the fire immediately spread to the wolf next to it. The first wolf pulled away from the window, thrashing around in pain and terror. The second wolf also thrashed around in pain and terror, but it moved in the opposite direction, leaping all the way into the cabin. This was not at all what Rusty had expected when he'd told Mia that it was a great idea. Wolves on fire were supposed to run away!
Rusty swung the axe at it. The panicked wolf sprinted past him and the blade struck its tail without severing it. The wolf began to run in circles as the flames grew more intense. The smell of burnt fur filled the cabin.
It was good that the wolf was freaking out too much to attack them, but a flaming wolf was not something they wanted running around their home.
Rusty glanced out the window. The first wolf was also running in circles, and a bobcat and another wolf got the hell out of its way. So perhaps a torch would help keep him and Mia safe when it was finally time to venture outside.
The knowledge that the undead animals were scared of fire provided about half a second of comfort, before it became necessary to address the issue of a wolf that was coming very close to the many flammable items in the cabin. Rusty went after it with the axe. A wolf and a bobcat simultaneously appeared at the window, and Mia tried to beat them away with a board.
Rusty took a vicious downward swing at the wolf. Missed by a lot. The blade went deep into the floorboards, and it took a few tries to pry it out, during which time the wolf ran into his bedroom.
He followed it, hoping it wouldn't jump on his bed.
The wolf leapt onto his bed.
Was it moving with blind panic, or purposely trying to spread the flames? If Rusty was engulfed in an inferno, he wouldn't be thinking coherently about anything, but why would the wolf have jumped up there if not to set fire to the blankets?
He was probably attributing too much intelligence to the beast. A wolf with plenty of time to ponder would not reach the conclusion that blankets and sheets were more combustible, and thus a wolf would not come up with that idea while its flesh was sizzling. There was no conscious reasoning behind the fact that the goddamn wolf was rolling around on his bed, setting fire to his blankets.
Rusty took another swing at the wolf with the axe. The wolf twisted its head out of the way at the last moment, so the axe blade struck the mattress instead. Then the axe bounced back up, startling Rusty so badly that he almost lost his grip. Fortunately, it did not slip out of his hands and imbed itself into his skull. He would not have handled this as well as the zombie animals.
Finally, he chopped its head off, unevenly. Four more whacks with the axe and the poor thing was legless. Now it was still burning but wouldn't be running around setting more fires. All of the fur on its head had burnt away, though the skull was still aflame, looking about as demonic as anything Rusty had ever seen in real life, paintings, or nightmares.
He hurried out of the bedroom. Mia smacked a bobcat in the face with a board. A couple of sharp teeth dropped to the floor, but the bobcat continued trying to squirm through the window.
Rusty ran into the kitchen to grab the fire extinguisher, then hesitated. Where was the fire extinguisher? He knew they had one, but he hadn't needed to use it the entire time he'd lived in the cabin. He'd never started an unwanted fire. Where the hell was it?
Mia bashed the bobcat again. Its face was a smushed up mess, but it didn't seem to mind. Mia smacked the wolf that was next to it, and it also was clearly more interested in trying to fight its way into the cabin than avoiding getting repeatedly hit by a plank of wood.
There. By the refrigerator. Rusty picked up the fire extinguisher and returned to his bedroom, which was filled with so much smoke that he could barely see the floor. Since there was a wolf head on the floor, he stepped carefully, not wanting to add "missing a few toes" to the challenges facing them during the trip to the truck.
The bed was completely engulfed in flames, and the fire seemed to be spreading. Rusty set down the axe, since he needed both hands to operate the fire extinguisher.
"One got in!" Mia shouted.
Rusty heard footsteps moving toward him. He spun around and saw a wolf, face misshapen from Mia's beating, running for the doorway to the bedroom. He really wished he hadn't put down the axe. It was as if every move he made, even something as obvious as "I'd better put out the fire," was turning out to be the wrong one.
The wolf snarled and leapt at him.
Rusty instinctively held his arm over his face.
The wolf knocked him to the floor. Rusty's head struck the floorboards and for an instant his vision went black. His vision returned to the blurred sight of the wolf's jaws open wide and coming at his throat.
He slammed the fire extinguisher into the side of the wolf's head, knocking its jaws away from their target. Some drool splattered onto his chin. The wolf raked its claws over his chest, an act which would have created several red streaks were it not for the protective strips of wood. Rusty coughed from the smoke and then bashed the wolf's head again. It bit the extinguisher then let it go.
His eyes were watering so badly that he could barely see anything. Fortunately, the wolf was not difficult to locate, since it was right on top of him. Rusty struggled with the fire extinguisher for a moment, then finally blasted it directly into the wolf's face. It seemed to enjoy this much less than actually having the metal canister slam into its head. It scampered off Rusty and smacked right into the bed.
Its fur immediately caught on fire. Then it fled the bedroom.
Rusty sat up. He wanted to shout out a warning to Mia but he couldn't stop coughing. He got to his feet and staggered out of the bedroom just in time to see Mia swing the board at the running wolf, hitting it so hard that its neck snapped. The wolf changed course and slammed into the wall. Mia returned her attention to fighting off the animals that were trying to get inside.
Rusty blasted the wolf with the fire extinguisher so that it couldn't run around starting new fires, then stepped back into his bedroom. He didn't care about saving the cabin, but if the whole thing caught on fire they'd have to abandon it no matter how dangerous things were outside. So he went back into his bedroom and sprayed at the flames with the fire extinguisher. His bed was an inferno and his bookshelf and clothes dresser were also on fire, and it was quickly evident that the extinguisher was not designed for a job of this scope. The cabin was history.
He really wished he'd insisted that Mia's "armor" go on first. The cabin had seemed secure. There'd been no reason to think the clock was ticking this rapidly.
He left the bedroom, shutting the door behind him
to hopefully keep the flames from spreading to the rest of the cabin quite as fast. The wolf, smoke billowing from its burnt flesh, ran at Mia, but its sense of direction was impacted by the way its head lolled off to the side, and Mia was able to bash it once again with the board. This time the board split in half.
Rusty could not imagine how bad it must hurt to have severely burnt skin get whacked hard with a board. And yet the wolf made another attempt to get at Mia. A feeble, pathetic attempt, but it still tried.
"How are things in the bedroom?" Mia asked, smacking a bobcat with what remained of the board.
"Apocalyptic. We need to leave as soon as we can." Rusty dropped the fire extinguisher. He'd hoped to conserve gasoline in case they were in an even shittier situation later, but that wasn't really an option anymore. It was time again for the chainsaw.
He glanced around, found the chainsaw, and hurried over to pick it up. He hated to admit that he was already getting kind of tired from the extra weight of the wood taped to his body—not a good sign.
"I'll take the chainsaw and the axe," he said, though he couldn't use either of them effectively if he was carrying both. They had a pair of backpacks ready, and the axe would have to go in there (handle protruding from the top) until it was needed. The backpacks also had the pistols and ammunition, along with a couple of bottles of water each. The rifles had shoulder straps.
Technically, they didn't need the boards to get the truck out of the mud. They could use sticks or rocks they gathered at the scene, or even place the truck's floor mats behind the back tires to give them traction. But it wouldn't be as quick and easy as using actual boards, and "quick and easy" might mean the difference between life and death. More importantly, Mia was getting good at using the boards as weapons, though hopefully she wouldn't break them against any wolves before they reached the truck, or if that advice was annoyingly obvious.
The shotgun would have to stay behind. Rusty hated to leave it, but they couldn't bring everything.
"Guard the window," Mia told him.
Rusty pulled the cord and started the chainsaw. He waved the whirring blade over the large gap in the boards, immediately lopping off a bobcat's front paw. This didn't remove its desire to get inside and eat them or whatever it wanted to do, of course, so Rusty was able to saw it into a couple more pieces as it tried to scramble into the living room.