Dying To Live & Fighting To Live-Book One and Book Two (Zombie Overload Series) (9 page)

I lift the carrier
holding the baby, swing the diaper bag over my shoulder, and start up
the stairs. Will goes ahead of me carrying Kaleb. Suddenly, the
weight of the carrier is considerably lighter. I just dropped the
baby out! Swinging my head around, and down, in terror, I see Jake
with his hands on the bottom of the carrier. He grins at me and even
though I want to kick him in the head, and I can now that I'm on some
steps, I can't help but grin back.

"You scared the
hell out of me!" I tell him. He gently tugs the carriers handle
from me and pulls it to him.

"I know." He simply
says and brushes past me, leaving me behind.
That's it?
Just,
'I know'?
No, I'm sorry?
No, I didn't mean to?
Nothin'?
I shake my head and follow him up the stairs.

The top level has at
least ten offices, some larger than others but all of them pretty
good-sized. The hallways are in a U shape and have half walls on the
outside, overlooking the downstairs area. We find the one our kids
picked and are relieved to see it's one of the larger rooms. Setting
the carrier down against one wall, Jake salutes me and walks out with
a grin.
Damn the man!
I roll my eyes then help the boys spread
the blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags out. Will tells me he's
going to go get his sister and help her with Wes.

I tuck the boys in
and check on the baby. I walk over to the office door and look out.
Will and Kim are on each side of Wes helping him up the steps, then
leads him to the room that is directly in front of the stairs. I rush
down to the main floor and run over to our Hummer. Pulling out the
bag of medical supplies Will had taken from the school, I rush back
up. Inside Wes's room, I am surprised to see what appears to be a
break room for the employees. I see a first-aid label on one of the
cabinets and walk over to it. There’s a lock on the door but
why let that stop me? I run to our van, grab a tire iron, and run
back to the room. Sticking the iron into the crack of the door, I
push the iron back until the door gives a good loud crack.
Hmm, I
bet Jake would have had the key.
All well!
This was
fun!
Opening the cabinet door, I'm excited to see so many useful
items.

Grabbing one of the
bottles lined up on a shelf, I read the label. Shocked, I see it says
Tylenol w/ Codeine. Another read Penicillin.
Really?
Hell
yeah!
My excitement grows bigger and bigger with each label I
read. Grabbing some of the antibiotic and pain relievers, I crouch
next to Wes, whose arm is being cleaned and bandaged by Will. I hand
the correct dose to Wes
(a chart inside the cabinet told me what
the correct dosage is. I'm no doctor!)
and a bottle of water I
found on the counter. He gulps them down with a swig of the water
then finishes the bottle. He tells me thank you and I ask him how he
feels.

"Well, I feel
like shit and hurt like hell but that's good. Means I'm still alive."
His words come out slowly and you can hear the pain in each syllable.
I feel horrible for him.

Peg and the kids
come in and none say a word. The kids look like they are in trouble
and Peg looks pissed, so they probably are.
I wonder what the kids
have done now?
Did they laugh?
Did they talk?
Did
they BREATHE?

Still crouching next
to Wes, I hold my arms out to them and they start toward me. My heart
breaks as I take in the expressions on their little faces, so scared
at seeing the condition their dad is in, and their fear of their own
mother. Peg flings her arm out stopping the kids, and snaps at me
that they are in trouble and I don't need to be babying them. I stand
and march right up to her, ready to rip her damn face off. She
doesn't need to wait for a zombie to do it! She quickly backs away,
falls on her ass, and flings her arms up over her head. I take two of
the kids by the hand and the oldest girl grabs the younger girl's
hand. Gently, I lead them to their daddy, who they haven’t even
seen since shortly after the attack. They sit beside him and the
youngest little girl pulls his head down onto her lap. Looking down
at her daddy, she softly pats his face and says, "Daddy be ok.
Unkie Will fix Daddy." Wes smiles up at his daughter and tells
her he loves her. Turning his head, he repeats his love to the other
two. Tears fill my eyes and I notice Will brushing an arm across his
own.

Wes looks over at
Peg, who has backed up to the wall on the other side of the room, and
who is now glaring pure hatred at us all. She says nothing. She looks
away when she notices Will's looking at her. He sighs and then
relaxes his head back onto his daughter's lap.

Will finishes and we
leave them to rest. Going back to our own room, we are relieved to
see the boys and the baby fast asleep. Exhausted, we collapse on the
floor, holding each other close.

Crying. Lots of loud
crying.
Damn it!

"Boys! Turn
that damn TV down!" I yell.

"Honey. Honey,
wake up." Will says and lightly shakes me.

"Noooo. I'm
tired. Just tell them to be quiet and go back to sleep." I
mumble as I'm covering my head with my pillow.
Damn, we need a new
bed.
Might as well be sleeping on the floor..........OH SHIT!

I sit straight up
and almost whack Will in the nose with my head. I look around and
it's just as I feared. It was all real. The boys are wide awake, and
look as if they have been for some time. They have their backs
against the far wall and are playing their Gameboys.

I look over at the
carrier rocking back and forth as the baby lets us know how pissed
she is. I pull the carrier and the diaper bag toward me, then unstrap
Grace and place her on our makeshift bed. I change the baby then make
her a fresh bottle from the can of ready to use formula. I feed and
burp her and she's fast asleep again. I leave her on our "bed"
and walk over to where the boys, and now Will, are sitting.

Will and I have them
put their games down so we can talk to them without everyone else
around while we have the time. We talk about what's happened and they
seem to be dealing with it as best as they can. We then talk about
lighter subjects. Such as, seeing their aunts and uncles, whom they
adore, when we get to Missouri. Too soon, Will tells them we need to
get our stuff loaded back up. He agrees to let the baby sleep on our
bedding until she wakes or we leave. As Will and the boys take an
armload of stuff downstairs, I leave our room to walk around and
stretch a little. I make a few laps down each of the two walkways
that overlook the downstairs.

Needing to use the
restroom, I walk toward the break room where Wes and his family spent
the night.
I really hope they are awake because I've got to go!
Opening the door slowly and quietly, in case they are still asleep, I
stop in horror. I scream and slam the door shut. Will yells out my
name and starts running up the stairs. Office doors open on both
sides. Heads pop out in curiosity, but no one leaves their room. The
door behind me bangs and rattles. Growling. Fingernails ripping into
the wood. Voices get closer, louder. All of this I barely hear from
all the blood rushing through my head. Everything is spinning. Things
are going black. I'm falling........

"Canada.
Canada, wake up. Honey, wake up!" I feel a light tap on my
cheek. I force my eyes open and slam them shut when the light hits. I
moan and grab my head.

"It's ok. You
bumped it when you fell."
Bumped it my ass!
Feels a
hell of a lot worse than a 'bump'!

I'm confused.
Why did I fall?
Suddenly, the scenes of horror flash across my
mind, and the screams burst out of my mouth. I can't stop it. I want
to, but I can't! Will lightly smacks my cheek again and again.
Begging me to stop, that he can't stand hitting me but I have to
stop. My mom runs in and falls to her knees beside me, grabbing my
shoulders and shaking the hell out of me.

"Canada, you
stop this
right
now
. You're scaring your kids and
husband to death. Now, stop!" I finally see my boys standing
against the wall of the office we are in. They look terrified. I look
at my husband and he is wearing the same expression on his own face.
I lie back, breathing hard but no longer screaming. Tears are pouring
from my eyes and I can't stop the sobs from escaping. My boys run
over and wrap me in a hug. My husband wraps his arms around all of
us.

Finally, the sobs
ease and my breathing is getting closer to normal. I tell them I'm ok
now, and after more hugs and kisses, the boys leave the room with
their grandmother. I sit up and look at Will.

He looks back at me
and he knows what I want to ask him. "We took care of it. Tell
me what happened to
you
. Maybe it will help if you talk about
it."

I tell him about
having to go to the restroom and opening the door. "As I’m
opening the door, I start seeing red splashed on the walls, the
floors, the counters, everything! Then I see a little girl's leg with
her little pink stockings still on but it wasn't attached to her
body, hair with no head, and then an arm. I see Kim's body bitten and
torn. The little kids! Oh my God, Will! Those babies!" I start
sobbing again. Will grabs me and pulls me to him. Holding me tight,
he says I don't have to talk anymore about it. But I
do
need
to! I do!

"Then I see
Peg. How, Will? How did this happen? She was bent over eating Wes!
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?" I cry out.

Holding me tighter,
Will says, "I don't know. But Wes couldn't have been the one to
turn her. She wouldn’t have been eating him if he were already
one of them. I don't understand either, Honey."

I look up into
Will's eyes and see tears falling. Ashamed of myself for not thinking
of his pain first, I throw my arms around him and do my best to
comfort him. He just lost his sister, nephew, and great-nephew and
-nieces. I tell Will how much I love him and how sorry I am. He holds
me close and I give him the time he needs.

Eventually, Will
pulls back from me and looks down into my face. He kisses me slow and
deep then rests his forehead against mine. We close our eyes and just
sit there like that....until the next scream makes us both scramble
to our feet and run out the door.

That
scream
belonged to my mother! I stumble twice trying to get out of the room.
Will races ahead of me. He runs down the stairs and I follow, my head
swinging in every direction trying to find my mom. Following Will and
the sounds of fighting, I whip around one of the vans and see my mom
putting some unofficial karate moves on a zombie's ass. Fists
punching. Legs kicking. Hell! She was even making the sound effects.
HIYA!
Go Mom!

I stand with my
mouth hanging open, eyes bulging.
Damn!
Never knew my mom had
it in her. Before Will can get close enough to help her, she has that
nasty thing down and dead. Will just stands there staring at the
zombie, then Mom, then back to the zombie. His mouth is dropped just
like mine. Eyes bulging just like mine.

I
move closer to Will and, wrapping my arm around his, we both stare
straight at Mom. Saying nothing. Hell, we
can't
say
anything. Mom just looks back at us. Then, as if it was no big deal,
says, "Ok, kids, let's get loaded up."

She walks away, our
heads turning to follow her. Then we look at each other with a 'what
the hell' look. I shrug. Will shrugs. We follow her after Will tosses
the zombie's body inside our old van.

Dad is coming down
the stairs and from the slow and casual way he's moving, I know he
has no clue what his wife had just done. Mom comes out of nowhere and
steps in front of us. We jerk back. In a quiet voice, she
asks
us to not tell Dad what happened. I look at Dad, then back at Mom,
and nod. No way in
hell
am I going to piss her off now!

(I guess I should
formally introduce you to Mom and Dad. Mom's name is Marie. She's
fifty-five years old, a nurse, mother of five kids, and a grandmother
of, uh, a bunch of kids. Her and Dad have been married twenty-five
years and this is her second marriage. Her first marriage was to my
other dad. I'll stop there.

My dad , the one
Mom's married to, is a truck driver. His name is Ben. And he's in his
early to mid 60's. I never can remember what age exactly, because he
doesn’t act or look his age. And yes, that probably makes me a
horrible daughter, but I could do worse! )

Ok. Back to the here
and now......

Up on the second
floor, office doors start opening and their occupants file out, arms
loaded with their belongings. Will and I wait for a break in the
procession of people and then head off to get our own items. We find
the boys in the room we slept in all night. Ash asleep and Bo playing
with the baby. The same baby I had totally forgotten about!
Hey!
It's been years since I had one of my own.