Mad World (Book 2): Sanctuary (11 page)

“I think
there are
at least two more zombies in the house,” I whispered, reloading my shotgun and turning toward Risa. She hopped down and stood next to me, listening.

“I wish I could hear them, I hate not knowing where they are,” she said.

As if on cue, more growling sounds could be heard, this time coming from the ground outside the house. We ran back to the front of the deck and looked out. Three zombies were making their way past the house and toward the open field where Jacob was standing. I looked out across the fields and thought I could see two people out there, but I wasn’t sure.

Chapter Thirteen

“Come on,” I said, and went back through the window and down the stairs. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I heard growls coming from the back of the house. I kept going. I knew for sure there were zombies outside, and heading toward Jake. We ran out the front door and down the steps and turned right. Out in the open, we sprinted in the direction from which Jake’s voice had come. I didn’t see the zombies as I ran, and I wondered where they’d gone. Convinced they were nearby, we kept a watchful eye out for them as we ran - about 150 yards out past the house and barn, past some fenced pastures with cows and horses. Then, finally, we caught sight of Jacob. Caitlyn was with him.

“Hey!” I said, running up to them, puffing a little. “You missed all the fun.”

Jake looked at me sharply. “Did you find Luke?” he asked.

“Zombies. A whole extended family of them. We took out most of them, but we saw two of them coming this way.” I looked around, but saw nothing.

“Well, let’s go up to the farmhouse and barn,” Jacob said. “Did you search the buildings for Luke?”

“We didn’t have a chance,” Risa said. “We’ve been fighting zombies the whole time, since we got here. There were more than a dozen. One of them jumped Alyssa.”

Caitlyn looked me up and down worriedly. “You okay, Alyssa?”

I shrugged. “I’m fine. Jake’s right, we should go search the buildings. But keep a lookout, there’s at least two zombies still standing.”

“You seen DeAndre?” Caitlyn asked.

“No, he must still be searching. Or on his way here,” I said.

We walked back toward the farmhouse as we talked.

“Risa handled the .33 really well,” I said to Caitlyn and Jake. Risa continued walking and looking forward, but I could see my words had put a small smile on her face.

“Did she?” Jacob said, looking at Risa. “That’s awesome, Risa! Maybe we should get you your own gun. You had no problem with the kickback?”

“Nope,” Risa said, smiling.

“Your arm may be a little sore for the next day, until you get used to it. But I agree, I think you’re ready for your own gun,” Caitlyn said, smiling.

We had walked up near the
farmhouse;
it was off to our right about twenty feet. Suddenly, a zombie hobbled toward us from behind an old tractor.

“Grrrrrr…” It stumbled toward us. “RAWR!!”

I quickly brought up my shotgun and took aim. Two seconds later my shot rang out: POP! And the thing dropped. We stood there for a minute, looking down at the thing. It looked like it’d been a 12-year-old boy. I looked down at it sadly. “What a shame,” I said.

Caitlyn made a sad sound. It was never easy to see a zombie that had once been a child. Jacob studied the thing more closely. Its overalls had a homemade slingshot sticking out of one pocket. This kid had played with that once. Sadly, the boy that creature had once been would never play with it again, nor would he ever grow up. Now, he was a corpse.

We all jumped as a sudden POP! Resounded behind us. Turning around swiftly, I saw that there had been the second zombie, it had crept up behind us, and Risa had dropped it with the .33 not two feet from Caitlyn and Jacob. She had gotten it good, and at a safe angle too, moving to stand with her back to me so the shot would veer away from us all. The zombie lay on the ground, a bullet hole in its head, staring sightlessly up at the night sky.

I looked at Risa. She stood there nonchalantly, putting her gun back into the holster and looking up at us. “You want to be more careful, make sure to be aware of what’s behind you at all times,” she said with a slight smile. It was a rule we had drilled into her, one we had failed to observe ourselves in this situation. It had almost cost us big.

Caitlyn gave Risa a hug. Jake patted her on the back. “Great job, kiddo,” he said.

“Thank you, Risa,” I said, smiling at her gratefully.

She just shrugged and smiled. “Let’s go find Luke,” she said.

Smiling, we all walked up to the farmhouse. Risa and I had already searched most of the barn so we went to investigate the house.”

“When we ran out of here, I thought I heard something,” I said, looking around the living room.

We all searched the first floor but found nothing. It was a big house, and it looked like a lot of people had lived here. We could see family portraits in the hallway and going up the stairs against the wall. People smiled at us from out of the photos. Happy people. This had been a large farming family. I looked into each picture and grew sadder by the minute. A little girl in a pinafore dress smiled out from one of the photos. She looked to have been about 4 years of age when it was taken. I wonder what had happened to her. I didn’t even want to know.

Shaking my head, I wordlessly began to climb the stairs. The others followed me, and we stopped on the second-floor landing. The dead zombie I had shot was still hanging out the window. Looking off to the side a dozen feet, I saw the door out to the deck. Risa and I told the others about how we’d gone out on the deck, and what had happened there. Jacob and Caitlyn wanted to see for themselves, so we all went outside onto the deck. Jake looked at the zombie hanging out the window, shaking his head. Then we showed them the rear deck area and the two zombies there.

“This was that old man zombie. He acted different, he acted smart,” Risa told him. I explained how it had gotten the other zombies to band together to knock down the water tower.

“Wha…?” Jake said, flabbergasted. Caitlyn looked bewildered. Then a troubled look crossed both their faces.

“If they are starting to organize, to think, that is really, really bad,” Jacob said.

“You’re telling me. Pffttt! It will be really bad. These things may be evolving,” I said.

We went back inside and searched the second story. It was all clear. We were about to climb the stairs to the third story when we heard a faint growl coming from the third floor. We all froze and looked at one another. I pulled my shotgun forward out of the holster on my back, and checking to be sure the safety was off, I turned back to the stairs. The others had also drawn their weapons and we all tiptoed our way up the first half of the stairway toward the third floor. Halfway up was a small landing where the stairs changed directions. I stood there, looking up at the top of the stairs as the others gathered behind me.

We paused, holding our breath. Sure enough, we could hear a low growl and a snuffling. There was a zombie up there. The house was nearly dark, with only faint light coming in through the windows illuminating the third floor landing as I tiptoed up to it. This top floor was smaller than the two below it. The hallway extended about a dozen feet before turning a corner to the left. We crept slowly out to this juncture, our guns held at waist level, alert for anything.

Approaching the corner, I peered around the edge of the wood and saw it. The zombie was at the end of the hall, where there was a bedroom. The door of the bedroom was open, but the zombie was not interested in anything in there. Its attention was focused on the ceiling right outside the bedroom door. I looked in the dim light and wasn’t sure what I saw, but there might have been a cord hanging a few feet down from some kind of panel or trapdoor in the ceiling.

As I tried to make out what the thing was concentrated on, it suddenly noticed my presence. Growling sharply, it began advancing on me. I brought my shotgun up to my shoulder, sighted down the short barrel, and pulled the trigger. POP!!!

The sound was deafening in the small hallway, reverberating between the walls and making my ears ring. The buckshot caught the zombie in the face and neck and tore most of its head off. Being shot at such close quarters tended to separate body parts rather cleanly.

The thing fell heavily to the floor, and lay slumped there partially against the wall. It looked like it had gotten tired of walking down the hallway and decided to sit down and rest for a spell. Except its head was half off.

“Huh,” I said, looking down at it and then up at the ceiling. As far as we could tell, the house was now silent except for our breathing. I switched on my flashlight and pointed it at the ceiling. And nearly jumped in surprise when a voice floated down through the crack I saw there.

“Hello?” said a young male voice. We heard fumbling, and suddenly the trapdoor swung down and stair folded out from it. A face appeared in the dark square above the foldout stairs. “Is the coast clear? Are they gone?”

Chapter Fourteen

Well. This was a surprise. Finding out there was one family member who had survived being infected or eaten, I couldn’t help grinning from ear to ear.

“Alright, let’s back up and give him room to come down,” Jacob said. As the young man descended the stairs, Jake asked, “What’s your name?”

“Jonathan,” the teen said. “Jonathan Moore. My family…” his voice trailed off and he glanced back at the zombie I had just shot. “Oh,” he said, then went silent.

He looked about 6 feet tall, with light brown hair that kept falling across his blue eyes. He wore a dark blue t-shirt and faded jeans and tennis shoes.

“Jonathan, is there anybody else up there?” Caitlyn asked.

“N...no. I was the only one who ran up here,” he fell silent again. He seemed to be feeling mild shock.

“Jonathan, we should get out of here. There may be other zombies around,” Jacob said.

“Yeah…” Jonathan answered, still looking at the zombie corpse. This was once, not long ago, his family member. And now he was seeing this zombie like this. It had to be shocking.

I took hold of his hand and gently pulled him away down the hallway and to the stairs.

“How old are you, Jonathan?” I asked.

“Fourteen. I just turned 14 last month,” he said.

We all went down the stairs and out to the porch. I looked out into the night air and around the farmyard. Everything was quiet, but I didn’t trust quiet. Not since I’d been jumped by a quiet zombie in the barn. Scared me half to death. I shook my head.

“Oh my God,” Jonathan said, looking at the fallen zombies and the toppled water tower.

We walked over to look at the scene.

“Man, you guys were on top of this thing when it went over?” Jacob asked.

“Yep. We jumped at just the right time, and hit the ground running,” I said. Risa had been silent, when I was expecting her to pipe up with her own version of events. Glancing at her, I saw her watching Jonathan with interest. Smiling, I turned back to Jake and Caitlyn.

“There’re zombies in the barn too,” I said.

Remembering suddenly, Risa said, “And there’s a mare and her newborn foal, too. He’s so cute!”

“That would be Sadie. Her foal was born last week. We were going to turn them out to pasture tomorrow,” Jonathan said. The thought of the horse seemed to pull him out of his shock. “I want to go check on them.”

Let’s all go,” Risa said, smiling.

So we all went around to the barn doors and with flashlights, found our way over to Sadie’s stall and stood watching her and her foal.

“Jonathan, we can’t stay here with you. I don’t know if any other of your family survived. Do you want to come with us?” Jacob asked.

Jonathan looked down at the mare and foal. He nodded. “I need to release Sadie and her baby into the west pasture before I go, so they’ll have a chance.”

Jonathan put a halter on the mare and foal, then led the mother horse out of the stall and across the farmyard and over to a big fenced-in pasture. Risa got to lead the foal, which had her grinning from ear to ear. She was in heaven.

“There, they should be fine in this pasture. There’s tons of food and a creek running through it at the far end,” Jonathan said as he closed the pasture gate. He looked out as the mare and foal began to wander and explore. The baby horse was still a bit wobbly on its legs, but that didn’t stop it from trotting out and making a small jump, kicking out its little hooves. We smiled.

“You should also get whatever you want to bring with you. At least a couple of changes of clothes,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,” Risa said.

“Come on, Jonathan, let’s get your stuff,” said Jake.

Jonathan and Jacob went into the house, followed by Risa. Caitlyn and I stood watch outside.

“I am getting more worried about Luke,” I said looking around. “Where on earth did he go?”

“I think he came this way,” Caitlyn said. “All the signs point to this farmland.”

I turned around, looking and looking.

“LU-UKE!!!” I called.

“LU-UKEY!!!” called Caitlyn.

Nothing.

I closed my eyes in worry, trying to sense where my little boy was. Tilting my head back, I breathed in the cool night air, smelling the different scents of the barnyard. I smelled horses and cows, manure, I even smelled the water from the spilled water tower. Suddenly I opened my eyes. “Hay. I smell hay,” I turned to Caitlyn. “Do you remember last fall when we visited that pumpkin farm? I had to drag Luke away from playing in the—“

“Hay!” cried Caitlyn, smiling.

Looking around, I tried to see where the hay smell was coming from. “LU-KE!!” I called.

Caitlyn ran back to the barn, calling, and I ran down past the water tower to huge stack of hay under a two-story lean-to. “LU-UKE!!!”

I tilted my head back to look at the top of the mountain of hay. Grabbing a bale about 6 feet up, I tried to climb the stack, but it wobbled and then I fell. It was too unstable. “LU-UKE!!!” I called. Running around the side of the lean to, I pounded on the wood walls. “LU-UKE!!! ARE YOU IN THERE?”

Just then, Jacob, Jonathan and Risa came out of the house. When they saw me they trotted over.

Looking up at the fifteen foot stack of hay Jacob said, “Do you think Luke went in there?”

“I don’t know. He loves hay, but I’ve been calling and calling and he doesn’t answer,” I said.

Jonathan asked, “Who’s Luke?”

“He’s my 5-year-old brother and he’s lost,” Risa said.

“We were looking for him, and that’s how we happened on your farm. The trail runs here, to your land, but then …” I shrugged, sounding worried.

Jonathan dropped his canvas bag on the ground. “I’ll climb it and search it. I know where to hold on to, I climb this thing every spring to help stack it.”

“Oh, good,” I said with relief. “Good.” I patted him on the back as he walked up to the base of the hay. Grabbing onto the bales near the edge, he leaned toward the wood and began to climb. Up he went, like a monkey, until, in less than a minute, he was at the top.

He scrambled around, looking. He looked in the back, on the sides, everywhere.

“LU-UKE!!!” Jonathan called up there. No answer. Nothing.

“I don’t think he’s in here,” Jonathan said, climbing down, “but I’ll help you look for him.” He jumped the last 5 feet and landed on steady feet. Grabbing his bag and shouldering it, he said, “If he’s really crazy about hay, there are a few more places we can look.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully. It was getting quite late, and while we had taught Luke how to hide from danger, we needed to find him. I guess we’d taught him to hide a little too well.

“LU-UKE!!!” called Caitlyn.

“LU-UKE!!!” called Risa.

“Are there any more buildings that way?” I asked, pointing past the big barn.

“No, just some small sheds full of manure and a toolshed full of rusty farming equipment,” Jonathan said as we walked. “But I think there might be a few possibilities this way.” He gestured the way we had come.

“I didn’t see much when I passed those fields,” Jacob said. “But you never know. Lead on, Jonathan.”

As we walked past the farmhouse once again, the moon came out from behind some clouds. Although it was just the quarter moon, it illuminated the fields somewhat. They seemed to glow with points of light.

“Fireflies,” Jonathan said.