Zomb-Pocalypse 3 Read online

  Bringing the boys back is the right thing to do. It’s even the right thing to do for my family since our best chance at survival is with those three. As far as I know, zombies can’t open doors, but we might need an alternate escape route, so I go into the kitchen and unlock the backdoor as quietly as I can. Then I head to the front. It feels like the long walk to the executioner. I can’t be sure what’s on the other side, but from what I saw upstairs, the zombies are heading towards the gunshots.

  Guilt swamps me that I’m actually benefitting from our neighbors’ misfortune, but it’s an opportunity that I’d be foolish to pass up. I press my face to the window and stare out, but it’s impossible to see anything from this angle, so I go to the door instead and do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I purposely walk out into the zombies.

  I ease the front door open, looking left and right, certain that at any moment a zombie is going to lunge at me from the porch and sink his teeth in, but nothing happens. I slip out quietly and shut the door, and that’s when I hear the hungry moan. I look to my left and see an eager zombie coming at me. That sight alone nearly has me jumping back into the house, but he’s seen me and now I have to deal with it. I raise my gun and fire, and I am surprised by the muzzle flash. Damn, I hadn’t taken that into consideration. The flashes will attract zombies; I just have to hope that they are still more interested in the noise. It’s dark and hard to see, so it takes me a couple extra shots to put him down. I don’t even get time to draw a breath and there’s another one behind him, eager to take his place. I don’t fire right away this time. I want to let him get a little closer first. It’s hard to stand and let a zombie run up on you, but the closer he gets, the easier the shot will be. It will cut down on the muzzle flashes and save a little ammunition, win—win, as long as I don’t miss. I don’t miss and he goes down, but it’s so dark that I can’t be sure if there are any more coming my way. I try to reassure myself that if I can’t see the zombies, then they probably can’t see me—or so I hope. Thinking about zombies with night vision just about makes me pee my pants.

  I step off the porch with shaking legs and force myself to keep walking. I hear another zombie well before I can see him. I freeze, straining my ears, not really sure where to look. Finally, I hear some brush rattling to my right and I spin and squeeze the trigger. I actually make the shot on my first try, and the adrenaline spike makes me decide to throw caution to the wind and just run. Otherwise, I’ll probably be standing in the yard all night playing the zombie version of whack-a-mole.

  I run as fast as I can towards the trailer, colliding with a body in the dark. “Silas?” I whisper, but my only answer is a low growl. I aim at the dark head bobbing around in front of my face and hit him point blank. The flash illuminates his gruesome face and the spray of gore from his temple as he falls to the ground. I leap over the corpse, rather than waste the time going all the way around. Finally, I reach the trailer. I try the door, but it’s locked—I should’ve thought about this possibility. Of course they would lock their door. Knocking will be noisy and might bring the dead, but I don’t have a lot of choices. I make the snap decision to knock anyway. I came this far and I can’t stand out here all night. I hear dragging footsteps and spin, planting a bullet in the head of a zombie that hadn’t even seen me yet. It was just wandering by, too close for comfort.

  The door opens a crack, and I see Silas staring out at me in shock. He’s fully dressed and loaded down with enough weapons to go to war; behind him I see Ryan and Chad are outfitted the same. This is my first bit of luck tonight. They are awake, they are ready, and they know what’s happening.

  “Let’s go,” I growl under my breath, and they don’t stop to question me. I guess the fact that I made it is enough for them. Silas jumps out of the trailer with his gun up and the others do the same. I feel Silas grab me and pull me to his side, not letting go as we fan out and make our way back to the house without too much incident. We take down four zombies and then another two once we reach the house. We want to be sure we kill any zombie that might’ve seen us. When we get closer to the front door, it’s thrown open by my dad.

  He doesn’t say anything, but I can feel the anger radiating off him as we dive into the house and he locks the door behind us. “Dad,” I say tentatively. In the dim light of the moon, I see him glance at me sharply. “I left the back door unlocked too,” I tell him, and he shakes his head.

  “I’ve already locked it,” he snaps. None of us say anything else as we move through the house, back upstairs. We will probably be screwed if the zombies bust in here, but right or wrong, upstairs feels like the safest place to be right now. I squeeze Silas’ hand, and I’m shocked to my very core to feel that his hand is shaking slightly. His fear terrifies me. If Silas is scared, then I should probably be scared times about a million.

  When we get upstairs, my dad grabs me by the arm and jerks me off to the side. I see Silas stop with a frown on his face, but I wave him away. After a moment of hesitation, he goes into the room with the others.

  “I swear to God,” Dad hisses, getting right in my face. “If you EVER pull a stunt like that again and it doesn’t get you killed, I will put you over my knee and spank you like you have never been spanked before!” My dad has never been very strict with me, but the anger I hear in his voice right now is enough to convince me that I don’t want to experience it again.

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” I start to tell him, but he shakes his head, refusing to accept my apology.

  “No,” he tells me. “Show me you’re sorry by never doing something so stupid again, you’re words are meaningless to me right now.” I watch him storm away and feel hurt, even though I know I deserve his anger. I probably took ten years off his life tonight—I probably took ten years off my own life! I feel bad for scaring him, but I can’t regret it because Silas, Ryan, and the Sarge are out of that tin can in the yard and at least have as much of a chance as any of us now.

  “What a shit show,” Silas is saying as I slink into the room. My mom is sitting beside Sunny and she doesn’t rush over and hug me. Either Dad didn’t tell her about my little walk through the yard or she’s super pissed at me too.

  Silas turns towards me and wraps me in his arms. “That was the stupidest, bravest thing you’ve ever done,” he murmurs in my ear, and I sag against him. I’d been worried he would be mad at me too. “You shouldn’t have risked your life for us,” he continues, and I shake my head against his shoulder.

  “That’s bull,” I tell him. “If it had been me out there, I know I could count on all three of you to come and get me.”

  Silas doesn’t seem to know what to say. ”That’s different,” he finally argues, and I manage a small laugh—earning me a glare from my dad.

  “No, it’s not. We’ve never left each other for any reason and I’m not going to start now.”

  Silas squeezes me extra tight. “You’re right,” he says, and I nearly fall over in surprise. “Thank you.”

  Ryan catches the tail end of Silas’ thanks as he’s walking up and he claps me on the back. “Yes, thank you, Jane. I’m glad you thought I was still worth saving.” I reach out and take his hand in my own.

  “Of course, I did promise to always protect you,” I remind him, and Ryan grins.

  “I know you did. I just can’t believe you had the chance to prove it before I did,” he jokes, and I shake my head at him as he walks away.

  Regg looks over at me and gives me a nod of thanks as well, but he is too busy talking with my dad to come over. “We need in on that conversation,” I tell Silas, and he hesitates.

  “Your dad is pretty pissed at you,” he cautions, and I shake my head.

  “So what?” I challenge. “I’m sick of never being included in any of the decisions around here. This is my life on the line too, and if I’d sat back and left all the decisions up to them, you’d still be out sitting in the driveway.” Silas takes in the stubborn look on my face and gives in.

 
Dad shoots me a glare when we walk up, but thankfully doesn’t tell me to get lost.

  “It’s too late to board up the windows,” Regg is saying. “The noise would bring them down on top of us.” He looks mad at himself. “I should’ve thought of it,” he says with a self-depreciating frown.

  “It’s on all of us,” Dad reminds him. “We just didn’t think something like this could happen up here.”

  “You might not be able to board up the windows now, but we can still black them out and cover them with garbage bags,” Ryan says, suggesting the tactic we used when we were on the road.

  “It won’t keep them out, but it might keep them from getting interested in what’s inside,” Regg agrees.

  “The garbage bags are in the pantry,” my mom pipes up from the bed with Sunny. Ryan, Silas, and I all dig in our bags and pull out our rolls of duct tape—Silas insisted we all keep some in our bag for emergencies.

  “The sooner it gets done, the better,” Regg says, nodding that Silas, Ryan and I can all go. My dad frowns. ”Jane...” he starts to say, but I cut him off.

  “I’m not a little girl anymore, Dad,” I snap, making my dad frown. “If we don’t do something, we are all going to die anyway.” Sunny whimpers from the bed and I instantly regret my word choice, even though it’s true. “You need to stop treating me like a baby and let me do what I need to do. I’m not special and you’re crazy if you think I’m just going to sit up here and wait for everyone else to save us!” My dad stares at me for so long that I begin to get nervous.

  “Fine,” he says with a sigh. “Go.”

  “Arthur!” Mom snaps, but I don’t wait around to hear the argument. I take off out the door, forcing Silas and Ryan to follow me, or fall behind. I stop at the top of the stairs and listen, but again, everything seems normal, or as normal as it can be.

  Thankfully we have to be quiet down here, and I’m not forced to talk about anything that I don’t want to get into right now. We move through the kitchen, only bumping into one chair in the process. We feel around like a trio of blind mice until we locate the large boxes of garbage bags. We each take a box and fan out. Silas goes to the living room, Ryan stays in the kitchen, and I make my way into my parent’s bedroom.

  I skip over the creaky floor board this time and step into the room, coming to a stand-still when I see the outline of the zombie standing just outside my parent’s bedroom. He isn’t scratching at the window or anything, but I don’t want him to start either. I creep forward, my heart beat reverberating through my chest like a drum. Maybe I should turn around and go tell Ryan and Silas that I can’t do this, but then my window will be the weak point.

  It’s pitch black in the room, so there is no way the zombie can see me, at least not as long as I stay back in the shadows. I quickly tear off several pieces of tape and hang them off my bottom lip for easy access and then I spread out a garbage bag and hold it in front of my body as I slowly shuffle closer, unable to see around the bag. I gently bump into the wall and raise the garbage bag higher so that it will cover the whole window. Then, I quickly tape it in place.

  When I’m finished, I freeze, waiting to hear if I’ve made a deadly mistake. No crazed scratching or moaning happens, so I sag against the wall and let myself take a couple deep breaths to calm down before I go back to the living room and help Silas finish taping all the windows in there. We head back upstairs when we’re done and find everyone sitting around in silence.

  “It’s done,” Ryan tells them, and Regg nods.

  “What’s the plan?” Silas asks after we’ve sat down for a while, and no one else says a word. The only thing that interrupts the absolute silence is the gun shots from down the road—that and the angry moans of the dead. I’m glad that whoever’s shooting is still holding his ground. I really hope we all make it out of this, but realistically I know that’s probably just a pipe dream.

  “We’re waiting for dawn,” Barry answers when everyone else doesn’t rush to supply the information.

  “We can’t make a plan until we see what we’re dealing with,” Regg adds.

  “We have a lot of ammo,” Silas says thoughtfully, and my heart leaps at his optimism.

  “It will be okay,” I tell him. We’ve made it out of sticky situations before...maybe not quite this sticky, but I need to have hope to get myself through the rest of tonight.

  “What time is it?” Sunny asks, and I’m wondering the same thing.

  Megan and Ryan both automatically check their watches, and I promise myself that if I survive this, I’m going to get myself a watch too. “Ten after three,” Megan says, beating Ryan to the punch.

  “We have a few hours yet,” my dad says, finally speaking, and I’m relieved he doesn’t sound as angry as he did before. “You should all try and get some sleep. We’ll set up a watch, but it’s going to be a long day tomorrow no matter what happens. I settle in beside Silas with my mom on my other side, but no matter how good my Dad’s advice is, there is no way I’m going to be able to get a wink of sleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I’m woken by a rough shake to the shoulder, and I blink and look blearily around. “You should’ve let her sleep,” I hear my mom chastise someone, and then I hear Silas’ signature grunt.

  “She’d want to be awake for this,” he says, and even though I’m half asleep, I grin. It’s so nice to have someone who doesn’t treat me like an invalid.

  “He’s right, Mom,” I say as I stretch. I’m a little stiff. “What do I want to be awake for?” I ask, realizing I have no idea what they’re even talking about.

  “The sun is coming up,” Silas tells me, and I perk up. He’s right, of course I want to be awake when we can finally see what we’re facing. I can’t believe I fell asleep, but I guess my body probably crashed from the adrenaline rush of playing zombie tag in the front yard.

  The blast of a gun firing draws my attention to the window. “That guy is still alive?” I ask in surprise, and my dad nods.

  “He’s been firing all night long, I’m surprised you slept through it,” Dad says, and I walk over and give him a hug. I’m thankful when he hugs me back after only a small moment of hesitation.

  “Did you get any sleep?” I ask, and my dad shakes his head.

  “What about you?” I ask Silas and get another shake—apparently I am the minority here. I look around and see Abby and Sunny curled up on the bed together asleep. Barry is sitting on one of the air mattresses, but he isn’t sleeping. He’s staring off into space.

  “It’s almost time,” Ryan says from the window, and we all gather around and watch as the dark sky begins to fade to a light gray. The bright orange and pink sunrise is beautiful, but the scene that it illuminates below isn’t.

  Zombies are everywhere, mostly gathered around a cabin a few houses down, and I’m surprised that the press of bodies hasn’t collapsed the wood yet. There are several figures on the roof, and as the sun comes up and they can finally see what they’re doing, their shooting starts in earnest. We all stand and watch as zombies start to fall left, right, and center.

  They are making a dent, but it’s a small one. There has to be at least four hundred zombies out there. “That is a huge hoard,” Silas mutters, and I have to agree with him.

  “Do we have enough bullets?” I ask, and Silas looks thoughtful.

  “We should,” he says.

  “The problem here will be getting them before they get us,” Regg says, breaking in on the conversation. “That many zombies can cause a lot of damage. They can break in here by sheer force, and then we would be screwed. We need to make sure we have a solid plan before we make a move.”

  I watch the figures on the roof blasting away in desperation and shiver. “I don’t think we should wait too long,” I warn them, and the grim look on everyone’s face tells me that we are all aware of the time crunch.

  Having all this time to think is so much worse than the usual, see a zombie and fight for your life, situation. Usually the adrenalin
e has kicked in and you don’t know how stupid what you are about to do is, but sitting here waiting to fight four hundred zombies feels like we’ve been handed down a death sentence.

  “Almost all of the zombies have migrated over to the other cabins,” Regg hesitates. “We could have time to get into the vehicles and leave,” he says, and I frown.

  We all think about that for a moment. I personally don’t want to leave the cabin. It’s no longer safe, but it’s our home. Besides, I doubt we will find a place that is any safer. Nothing is safe anymore, and what would it say about our humanity if we just abandoned our neighbors to die. We never met them, but they are human beings.

  “We can’t just leave those people over there,” Abby burst out, and I hadn’t realized she was even awake.

  “I agree,” I say, hoping I’m voting for the right choice. Abby looks surprised that I would side with her, and I’m a little bit offended.

  “Hey, I don’t agree with running either,” Regg confesses. “But I needed to let you all know that there are options here, other than taking a stand.”

  “Where would we even go?” Barry asks, and I momentarily think about that Wal-Mart warehouse—Silas still has the keys.

  “There is nowhere else to go,” Silas says, breaking the silence. “We’ve seen that even military strongholds can be overrun. I say we stay and fight. We already have a lot of supplies for winter. There is no way we’d be able to take it all with us, and it’s getting late in the season to start over somewhere else.”

  “I vote we fight,” Ryan adds, and we all turn and look at my mom and dad.

  “Stay,” my dad says after a moment of looking over at my mom. ”But we have to be smart about it.” He motions to Regg. “You didn’t have a bad idea about the vehicles. I think if we can get to the trucks, it would pay off to have some mobility.”