by Mark Tufo
***
It was a few cycles of the burning disc before the zombies in Winke and Faye’s house left or at least figured how to get out. Winke told me we would wait one more day before we went back to get Faye’s stuff. Even then we would wait until she was asleep because if she knew he was going out she would kill him.
I didn’t think she would, but Winke was scared of her and that was good enough reason for me to wait also.
The wolf disc was shining bright the night Winke asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I knew immediately what he was talking about. The house was quiet except for Faye’s snoring, which in its own way was a comforting sound.
Winke talked to me as he looked through the viewer. “It’s Christmas Eve and I want to get my wife something special. You ready, girl?”
I was. I had kind of hoped Ben-Ben was coming, the little dog had proved himself over and over in battle and not having him along by my side was slightly disturbing. But I understood it; the big man considered Ben-Ben like a child cub and would not put him in danger.
“I’m coming too,” Patches said as she rushed out the door before Winke could stop her.
“Patches,” Winke said softly. “Come back here, you’ll get me in trouble with Jessie.”
Patches was already heading for the other house. “Well, at least she’s going the right way,” Winke said as he looked both ways and stepped out. He had a very large fire stick with him and for that I was thankful.
“Oh, it stinks over here,” Patches said as she rounded the corner to get to the back of Winke’s house.
“Did you stream over there?” I asked.
“Funny, no it’s the dead zombies,” she said as Winke and I came up behind her.
“Well, they definitely don’t bury their dead or eat them. I was wondering if they would or not. Too bad about that, we’d be able to get rid of them a lot quicker if they started to take bites out of each other,” Winke said as he prodded it with his stick.
After a while of nothing happening he carefully stepped over it and into the house. The smell outside was nothing compared to what assailed us from the inside. Winke had to step back out, he took a smaller piece of fake skin from the pouch of the skins he was wearing and wrapped it around his face. I wondered if that would work for me. I waited by the door for him, partly because I didn’t want to go in, either. Patches strolled in, seemingly unaffected.
“Wooo, if it wasn’t Christmas Eve I wouldn’t be doing this,” Winke said.
“He shouldn’t be doing this at all,” Patches said to me.
I had to agree, if only because of the smell, not even including the danger. I heard something rustling on the far side of the house but I noticed most, if not all the outside viewers were broken and I could see the material covering them was moving back and forth and that easily could have been the source of the sound.
“Hard to believe this was my house for so many years, doesn’t even look the same,” Winke said with a choked voice.
Home was where my food bowl was, I thought. I wanted out of this place, it smelled worse than death. Death has an earthy naturalness to it, none of that was here. Broken clear viewer pieces crumbled under Winke’s feet as he stepped farther in, I was careful to avoid the twinkling bits.
“Seems empty, girl,” Winke said, I think to calm me, but more probably to soothe himself.
We walked farther in and then off to the right we went down the dark skinny room to the room Winke and Faye rested. I heard something move, but it sounded no louder than a mouse or maybe a rat. I had not seen the sharp-toothed ones eat any of the zombies yet but wherever there was a free meal they would follow shortly.
Patches came up behind me. “Nothing in the kitchen,” she said.
“Did you hear the rat?” I asked her. Thinking she’d be curious and maybe go kill it. She shook her head. “You going to check it out?” I asked. She again shook her head. Whatever I was picking up on, so was she. I gently gripped the bottom of Winke’s fake skins, halting his progress.
“You don’t like this, either?” he asked me. “We’ll be out in a minute.” Whatever a minute was I thought it was too long.
We finally came to the end of the skinny room and into the room of rest. It made the destruction in the house pale in comparison. A pack of rabid hippos couldn’t have destroyed this room as thoroughly, I thought.
“I can’t even see her nightstand—how am I going to find her ereader?” Winke asked.
Nightstand and ereader were both new words to me; I was not going to be of any help. Patches went to the far side of the room where there seemed a path to walk in. Winke seemed about to follow her when he spotted something on our side.
“I think that’s her stand, I see reading glasses!” Winke said triumphantly.
I looked back down the dark long room something wasn’t right but I couldn’t sense it properly, the abundance of smell had me off balance. Then Winke screamed. Patches came hurdling over the turned over human resting pad. I thought heading for the door but she was heading for Winke. Winke was still cursing as he pulled his leg free from something I could not see from my vantage point. I could smell his blood and even in the soft light I could see it staining his fake skins.
“Zombie!” Patches yelled. She had her sharp claws out and was attacking. I rounded a broken large wooden piece humans put their fake skins in. Trapped underneath the debris was a zombie, its cloudy eyes were fixed on Winke, its mouth was crimson with the blood of Winke. Patches raked claws across its eye, it would never see out that side again, not that that would be a problem for long. Winke urged the cat away as he placed the fire stick up against the zombie’s head and pulled the trigger. The smoke from the stick was still swirling in the air when I began to hear properly again. I was waiting for either more zombies or Faye to start screaming, nothing happened.
“You alright, Cat?” I asked.
“I am, but the human is dead,” she responded.
“He’s fine, there’s not enough blood to be a problem. He’ll put one of those sticky skins on it,” I told her. Cats were always expecting the worst.
“You don’t know anything, Dog,” Patches said as she left the room.
Winke grabbed a chair and sat it upright; he then sat down so he could pull up his fake skins. “Well, it got me,” he said, looking at the wound. He grabbed some fake skins out of the broken furniture to wipe the blood away; he then tied it around his leg.
“See, Cat!” I yelled. “You can barely see it.”
“Shh, Riley. I don’t want to wake the missus,” Winke said.
“If she didn’t hear the fire stick, she didn’t hear me,” I told him, quieter.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said as he leaned over. He grabbed something that looked much like the books Jessie used to read only thinner, then leaned over again and came up with a small leash the humans put into the wall that seemed to keep their devices from walking away.
“I found it, Riley. I guess that makes it sort of worthwhile. I wonder how much time I have left?”
I cocked my head to the side; I didn’t know what he was talking about. Did he hear the cat?
He sat there a long time, sometimes his head between his hands, sometimes his hands were clasped together and he was mumbling with his face upturned but mostly he was silent. We stayed that way for a long time until the disc began to again brighten the darkness.
“So far, so good, girl,” Winke said to me. “Let’s go celebrate Christmas.”
“Where have you been?” Faye asked as she met us at the door.
I scooted by Winke, to smell bacon after what was in his other house was too much.
“I had to get you a gift!” Winke said enthusiastically. “Merry Christmas!” Winke handed her the thin book with the leash.
“My ereader! You shouldn’t have, Winke,” she squealed as she kissed his cheek. “Winke, you’re hot.” She touched his forehead. “You’re burning up! Come on, go sit down.”
“
Now that you mention it, I don’t feel so good,” he told her.
“Is Santa making bacon?” Ben-Ben asked coming down the hallway.
Patches was at Jessie’s room, meowing loudly.
“Cat, you’re going to wake her,” I said.
“I know, I’m trying to, we need to get out of here,” she answered .
“Bacon, bacon, bacon,” Ben-Ben kept repeating as he walked around in small circles in the food room.
“Patches, what?” Jessie asked as she opened her door. She first looked down at Patches who was now running back toward me and over to the room of living where Faye was helping Winke lay down.
“Is he alright?” Jessie asked as she also came down the hallway.
“He’s burning up—could you please get me some water?” Faye asked.
Jessie ran to get him some water and then handed it to Faye. I saw her put her hand to her mouth and that’s never a good human gesture.
“He’s almost a zombie, Riley, make the girl get moving,” Patches said.
“What?” I asked. I wasn’t putting everything together.
“When a zombie bites a human, that human becomes a zombie. And that man is almost a zombie—we need to leave.”
“I don’t believe you,” I told her.
“These humans feed me, they clean up after me, they provide me with a warm, safe place to rest—why would I want to leave?” Patches said.
I ran down the skinny room and into Jessie’s rest room. I grabbed her fake paws, ran back down the hallway, and I placed them down loudly by her feet.
“I’m busy, Riley, I’ll take you for a walk later,” she told me.
I barked aggressively.
“Are you okay, Faye?” Jessie asked.
“I think so,” Faye answered without looking up from her husband.
“I need to get dressed, apparently someone needs to go outside real bad.” She rubbed my head.
I barked loudly at the doorway to baby Zach’s room. No response. I barked louder.
“Stop, Riley, you’re going to wake—dammit,” Jess said as Zach began crying in earnest. “Now I’ll have to take him, that’s not a good girl.”
I was fine with it. Not much time passed, but it was enough. I was beginning to get anxious and Ben-Ben wasn’t helping.
“Riley, she’s burning the bacon,” Ben-Ben said. “I mean, I’ll still eat it, but I like it when it’s all wet and soggy like when the humans drop it on the floor. Santa needs to come over here and get the bacon.”
As he tried to walk past, I barred his way.
“Riley, I just want bacon,” Ben-Ben moaned.
I stalled him long enough; Jessie was coming back down the skinny room. “A walk first and then bacon.”
“A walk? Why? Santa doesn’t care where I go,” Ben-Ben said.
“Have some pride, you’re coming out and then we’ll get some bacon,” I told him. If he questioned me again I was going to nip him and I think he knew it.
“Promise?” he whined again.
“Sure, let’s go,” I told him. Patches was already at the door.
“You too?” Jessie asked.
“Faye, I’ll be right back,” Jessie said as she let us all out, including herself. She had no sooner shut the door and walked a few steps away when we heard a blood-curdling scream from Faye.
Jessie turned to run back, I got in her way like I had with Ben-Ben.
“Riley, stop!” Jessie said, trying to force me out of her path. I kept jumping back. Faye’s screams got louder and finally stopped as Jessie fought her way through me and to the door. She opened it and stuck her head in, letting out a small gasp before quickly closing the door and then the heavy metal one in front. Something banged up against the now closed door.
“Santa?” Ben-Ben asked.
“Not anymore,” Patches said.
“So no bacon then?” Ben-Ben asked.
I answered him by walking away.
Jessie was crying as we started out again to find Justin. It was the two-leggers’ day of Christmas but none of us felt like celebrating.
I hope you enjoyed the book. If you did please consider leaving a review.
For more in The Zombie Fallout Series by Mark Tufo:
Zombie Fallout 1
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 2 A Plague Upon Your Family
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 3 The End….
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 3.5 Dr. Hugh Mann
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 4 The End Has Come And Gone
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 5 Alive In A Dead World
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 6 Til Death Do Us Part
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Zombie Fallout 7 For The Fallen
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
The newest Post Apocalyptic Horror by Mark Tufo:
Lycan Fallout Rise of the Werewolf
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Fun with zombies in The Book of Riley Series by Mark Tufo
The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale pt 1
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale pt 2
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale pt 3
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale pt 4
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Or all in one neat package:
The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale Boxed set plus a bonus short
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Dark Zombie Fiction can be found in The Timothy Series by Mark Tufo
Timothy
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Tim2
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Michael Talbot is at it again in this Post Apocalyptic Alternative History series Indian Hill by Mark Tufo
Indian Hill 1 Encounters:
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Indian Hill 2 Reckoning
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Indian Hill 3 Conquest
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Indian Hill 4 From The Ashes
https://www.marktufo.com/books.html
Writing as M.R. Tufo
Dystance Winter’s Rising
https://www.marktufo.com/yabooks.html
The Spirit Clearing
https://www.marktufo.com/yabooks.html
Callis Rose
https://www.marktufo.com/yabooks.html
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