Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (28 page)

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and I often wondered if I looked like my dad when he was my age.  There weren’t any pictures of him from that time, and it was hard to imagine Dad’s face as younger, unlined, and free from worry or troubles.  I had my mother’s eyes, according to my dad, but everything else was his.  At twenty years old, I was a couple of inches over six feet, and weighed a good two hundred pounds.  Physically, I was a match for my father.  That was what Mom had said.  I took her at her word, since Dad always seemed much bigger.

The closet doorknob twisted slowly and I called out to Julia.

“All clear!”

Julia opened the closet door and stepped out.  She was a petite woman, blonde and blue eyed, with a quick laugh and bright smile.  She was the object of attention wherever we went, and there were some times I think she might have started fights on purpose.  Nevertheless, Julia was about as good a zombie fighter as you could hope for, and she had a knack for always finding what we were sent out for.

Julia looked around and seemed surprised that the room was clear of zombies.  She stepped over to the window, looked out, and whistled softly.

“Nice work.  Where did you come from, the stairwell?” She looked back at me.

“Nope.
Came up from the floor below.
 
Through the window.”
  At her quizzical look, I shrugged.  “Jake was blocking the door.”

“Figures.”
Julia tossed her hair back and retied her ponytail.  She went over to the corner and retrieved her weapon, a short handled spear with a long blade on one end and a metal knob on the other.  When she started spinning with that thing, zombies tended to lose a lot of
themselves
.

“What happened?” I asked.  I was rather put out that Julia hadn’t actually thanked me for saving her butt, but maybe she would later.

“Got surprised, that’s all.  I thought there were some on the other side of the pocket door, but didn’t figure they could get out.”  Julia shouldered her backpack and picked up a small duffle bag from the closet.

“Did you get what we needed?”  I tried one more time to see if I might get a thank you, but I had a feeling, it was a lost cause.

Julia looked at me in an irritated manner. 
“Of course.”
  She looked at the window.  “You want to use the stairs or head out the way you came?”

I was starting to get angry, so I just said, “After you.”

Chapter 2

Julia went to the back of the building where the stairs were.  The kitchen was cluttered and in disarray, but had nothing we could use.  Besides, any foodstuffs would likely kill us quicker than the zombies, just in a more painful manner.  I wasn’t a big fan of trying to crap myself to death.

At the stairwell, another zombie decided to make an appearance.  This one was older, and had probably been in the house for a long time.  It was a woman, and her threadbare clothing hung off her thin frame like a towel draped over a broomstick.  Julia didn’t even bother to slow down.  She kicked the zombie down the stairs. I could hear the ghoul’s bones cracking as it bounced and clattered down the steps.

We followed along, turning in time to see Jake rapping the zombie on the head with his mace.

“Here you are,” Jake said to me.  He looked at Julia.  “You got what we need?”

“Right here, as usual,” Julia said, lifting the duffle bag.  She gave Jake a little smile and I was starting to feel a bit put out.

“All right.
  Let’s get back.  I want to be in the water by dark,” Jake said, moving down the stairs.

I followed behind Julia, and to put it mildly, I was feeling a trifle angry.  However, as usual, I bit down the thing I wanted to say and just stayed quiet.  We moved to the first floor, and there were about fifty zombies milling about outside on the street.  They were the ones that had followed us from the lakefront, and while we had reduced their numbers somewhat in the beginning, they were back up to full strength quickly.  That wasn’t hard to do, since the city had about a million or so zombies still walking around from the first days of the world’s end.

Jake looked out the window and sized up the situation.  “We can bust out of here pretty quickly, but we’re going to have to distract them again.  Aaron, why don’t you make some noise out back?”

I looked at Jake for a second before I answered. “Why don’t you make noise and I’ll lead the way.”  I hadn’t crossed Jake before on his leadership, so I surprised him with my response.  To tell the truth, I surprised myself even more.

Jake slowly turned to face me.  His brown eyes tended to look black when he was angry, and they were getting there right now.  “I hate repeating myself, little brother.  Go back to the rear of the goddamn house and make some noise.”

I don’t know what was coming over me, but suddenly I was icy calm, my breathing was slow and measured, and my eyes stared right back at Jake.  “I heard you the first time, big brother, and I’m saying the same thing I said before, since you clearly are hard of hearing.  You do it.”

Green eyes fought with brown, and it would have gotten ugly, if Julia hadn’t spoken up. 

“Oh, for shit’s sake.
  I’ll do it.  Try not to kill each other, you damn
fools
.” 

I watched Julia strolled to the back of the house, where she stopped in the kitchen to grab a pot and a wooden spoon.  With a disgusted glance at the two of us, she went into the bathroom.  A few seconds later, a clanging could be heard on the side of the house.

I turned back to Jake to find a knife in my face.  Jake stared at me over the blade that was inches from my eyes.

“Never take your eyes off your enemy, little brother.  You’ll never survive if you keep screwing up.”  Jake smirked at me and moved the knife closer, bringing the point to within an inch of my eyes.

In a flash, I grabbed Jake’s wrist, twisting the knife away with my left hand.  My right hand grabbed his neck and with a shove, I slammed my brother into the wall. 
The doorframe smacked into the back of his hand and Jake dropped the knife.  He clutched at my wrist with his free hand, but I wasn’t about to let go. He tried kicking me, but I blocked the kick with a raised knee.

I moved my face to within few inches of Jake’s.  He was spitting mad, but couldn’t do anything about it.  I was taller than he was by several inches, and much stronger.  Dad said Jake took after his mother while I took after him.  I think I got the better end of the deal. I was tall, broad-shouldered and strong, while Jake was average sized and not as broad.

“I think I’ll do fine. 
Big brother.”
  I twisted suddenly, bringing Jake away from the wall and into the middle of the room.  He stumbled as I let go and then turned to face me.  His eyes were ugly and his mouth was twisted into a snarl.

“This isn’t over.”  Jake stooped to pick up his knife and I kept a hand on my own as I waited for him to sheath it.

“It had better be,” I said calmly.  I couldn’t believe the change that had come over me.  Jake was usually able to bully me into doing what he wanted, but for some reason, I had had enough.  However, I didn’t underestimate Jake at all.  I knew from experience and training that Jake, while not as large as me, was deadly with his hands and weapons.  Our father had trained us for years, making sure we would be ready for anything that came our way.  Julia’s father had done the same with her.  Our two dads were probably the deadliest zombie killers to come out of the end of the world.  All of the lessons they had learned the hard
way,
they tried to repeatedly beat into our skulls.   Jake took to the training differently than I did.  During the last few years, he took more of an interest in not just besting the zombie, but destroying it.  I took a more practical view, just get the thing down and out, and not worry about finessing it.

Jake stared at me some more, and when it became clear he wasn’t going to try anything new, I turned away from him and looked out the window.  Julia’s banging had attracted a lot more zombies, but the ones that had been blocking the front had gone into the walkway and were no longer a threat.  Trouble was coming, though, because the banging was going to attract a lot of zombies in a hurry that hadn’t been here before.

Julia stopped and came running into the front.  “Ready?”  She looked to Jake who cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Lead the way,” he said, hefting his mace.  He smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes and I knew he was thinking of a way to get back at me.  I didn’t feel like having to watch my back the whole time, so I decided to throw him off a bit.

“On my way.
 
And Jake?”
I asked sweetly, moving towards the door.

“What now, Aaron?  Get moving, will you?”  Jake shifted impatiently.

“Did you even see me move?”  With that question, I was out the door.  I didn’t see Jake’s reaction, but I would bet a silver that he was thinking about it and wasn’t happy.

Chapter 3

I ran down the steps of the home and out into the street.  We didn’t have far to go, but it was that short distance, which was going to be trouble.  Dozens of zombies
were in the streets, and as I burst out onto the scene, they were nearly frantic.  Some of them probably hadn’t seen food in years, outside of the occasional rat they managed to catch.

Julia was right behind me, with Jake following her.  We ran in a shifting pattern, from one side of the street to the other, keeping the zombies off track.  They couldn’t shift as well as we could, and the direction changes really tossed their minds about.  We couldn’t avoid all of them, so some needed to be killed as they came too close.  The problem was that we couldn’t stop our movement and finish them properly, because we’d get swamped in a hurry.

One zombie was slightly faster than I anticipated, and he lurched in front of me.  I jumped slightly and kicked it squarely in the chest.  The zombie went flying and I kept moving.  Julia barely slowed down, while Jake actually took the time to kill the thing. 

“What the hell are you doing?” hissed Julia as she looked back.

Jake trotted up smiling.  “What needs to be
done.
”

I said nothing, as I kept
moving,
because I knew he was doing everything he could to level some criticism at me.  Jake was like that these days.  He would poke and poke and poke, and when you had enough, he would challenge you to do something about it, trusting he could handle whatever you threw at him.  I ignored a lot of it, but lately, it had been getting on my nerves.

We ran for about two blocks, and then ducked into an alleyway to catch our breath.  Nothing was chasing us that could catch us at the present, but all it took was one to see us and we would be trapped.

While we breathed quietly, I took a second to look at our map.  Our boat was on the river, but we would be crazy to run back the way we came.  The zombies that had chased us in were likely still waiting for us to return, so to go back into their loving embrace was something I’d say we needed to avoid.  The map had several routes we could take, but the problem was that we had zombies everywhere, and they were stirred up.  It was as if they knew something was different, and they were out to see what it was. 

We were about to head back out when a zombie suddenly stumbled into the alleyway entrance.  He took a second to size us up, and I could almost see his eyes widen and his nostrils flare, taking in the treats before him.  He was an ugly piece of work, with deep black gashes across his face and chest.  One eye was stuck looking down, while the other gazed at us. 

His hand reached out slowly, as if to see if we were actually real, and I took that opportunity to grab his hand and pull him into the alley.  I yanked him past me and kicked him in the seat of the pants as he went by.  He stumbled to the ground and as he was on his hands and knees getting up, Jake cracked his skull with his mace.

“Any more?”
Julia said.  She had just watched the whole thing, figuring my brother and I would handle it. 

I snuck a quick peek out into the street and while there were a lot, none were paying any attention to our particular location. 

“Not nearby, but it’s going to get tricky closer to the water,” I said, watching Jake for his reaction.

Surprisingly, he nodded.  “The ones we left behind will probably be waiting. 
Any suggestions?”

“Just one.
  The buildings here are the same size for the next three blocks.  Let’s get on the roof, so we don’t have to worry about the ones on the ground, and we can avoid the ones hanging out inside,” I said.

They mulled it over for a second, and I thought they were going to argue, but then their minds were made up for them.  At the entrance to the alleyway, about five gruesome looking specimens walked into view, and as soon as they saw us, a hideous, wheezing groan came from about three of them.  It was hard to tell what they had been in real life, but there was no mistaking what they were now.

“Back!
  Get to the dumpster!” Jake shoved Julia ahead of him and followed closely behind, running to a dark green garbage bin in the corner of the alley.  I was right behind him, and when we reached the dumpster, we both squatted down and heaved the thing onto its side.  That little maneuver raised the height of the bin another two feet, and the side of the bin was much more stable than the lid or the wheels.