Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (38 page)

Alec’s voice was the last thing Danny heard as the door was wrenched open and Michelle, with a new, paler look and a bloody hole in her neck, came flying out of the room with hands reaching for Danny.

The Little Girl

Shoes was a very good dog.  He didn’t pull on his leash or anything and walked right by Alice’s side.  She reached down to pet him every now and again.  This was a very long and slow walk they were on, and Alice decided he needed encouragement every now and then.  He was, after all, a very old dog.

Alice wondered where the lady and the man were taking her.  She knew she shouldn’t go places with strangers, but they seemed like really nice people, and she didn’t want to be alone after what had happened with Judy’s daddy.  Something was going on, something bad.  She just didn’t know what it was.

Well, the man was really nice, but Alice hadn’t quite decided about the lady.  She seemed kind of like a witch, but she hadn’t really done anything bad so far.  It was funny the way they were walking.  They didn’t walk on the sidewalks unless they had to, and they hid behind trees and bushes a lot.  Something was wrong with the people on the street because whenever they saw one, Mister Walter would stand in front of Alice and Shoes and hurry them over to a hiding place.  It reminded her of a game she liked to play that was sort of like tag and sort of like hide-and-seek.  So
far, they had been good at the hiding part and no one chased them yet.

Alice knew this wasn’t a game though.  She understood those people would hurt her if they caught her.  It was the only reason grown-ups would be acting this way.  She wished her Daddy
were here.  He was a police officer and could protect her.  He wasn’t, though.  She had Shoes, which was good.  Shoes used to be a police doggy before he got too old.  He worked with her Daddy when they needed to find cadavers.  Alice didn’t quite know what cadavers were, but she suspected they were dead bodies.  Her Daddy switched departments once Shoes was too old, because he said it made him too sad.  Shoes’s job was to protect her now.  He was her guardian angel or rather guardian doggy.

“Mister Walter?” Alice whispered, tugging on the hem of his shirt.

“What is it?” Mister Walter whispered down to her.

“I have to pee.”  She didn’t know they would be walking so far and that she should have gone before they left her house.

Mister Walter looked at the lady, Kara.  She was kind of pretty for an old lady.  She was also black.  There were all kinds of kids that went to day-care and to school with her, some of which were black, but Alice had never met an old person that was.  It made her white hair seem very white.

“Can you go in the bushes?” Kara asked her.

“I’m not a boy,” Alice frowned.  She had long hair and was wearing her jean dress.  How could anyone confuse her with a boy?

“Girls can go in the bushes too,” Kara told her.

“They can?”  Alice was surprised to learn of this.  “Where do they sit?”

Kara and Mister Walter shared another look.  Grownups did that a lot.  She often wondered what they were saying with their eyes.

“Well, why don’t you come with me, and I’ll show you how?” Kara told her.

“Can Shoes come even though he’s a boy dog?”  Alice didn’t want to leave Shoes.

“Of course he can.  Come on, we’ll go behind these bushes over here.”  Kara took her hand and led her over to some bushes.  They were right in front of someone’s house, but the windows were too high up for Alice to look into them.  That was good, because that meant no one in the house could see her.  She peered through the bushes to make sure Mister Walter couldn’t see her.  He was hiding behind a tree, watching the street with his back to her.

Kara taught Alice a way in which she could pee outdoors.  It was awkward and she almost peed on her own shoe, but she managed.  Afterwards, Kara handed her some Kleenex from her purse to wipe herself with.  This was then thrown into the bushes because Kara said it was okay.

“Feel better now?” Kara asked as they left the bushes.

“Yes.”  Alice nodded,
and then patted Shoes again.  He had sat patiently with her.  “How much further are we going?”

“It’s hard to say.  I’ve never been in this neighbourhood, so I don’t know how close we are,” Kara told her.

“Where are we going?”

“To my house.”

“Why?”

“It has a big fence around it that can keep the bad people out.”

“Where’s Paul?”  Alice hadn’t seen him since the car.

“Who’s Paul?”  The two of them met up with Mister Walter and continued sneaking down the street.

“He goes to school with me, and to day-care.  He’s a booger head.”  He is.  “He was driving the car when we hit the man in the street.”

Kara and Mister Walter stopped walking and looked at each other again.  This look was different from the other one, but Alice didn’t know what it meant either.  It seemed bad though.

“We didn’t see Paul,” Mister Walter told her.

“Oh.  What about Judy?”  Alice wanted her to meet Shoes.  She thought he could make her less scared.

“Was Judy in the car with you as well?” Kara asked.

“Yes.  She was scared.  Her Daddy was chasing her, and he jumped on the car.  That’s when Paul started driving,” Alice told them.

“We didn’t see her either,” Mister Walter said.

“Oh, okay.  I guess they walked home and forgot I was asleeping in the back seat.”  Her Daddy sometimes took her on long trips in the car, and she would often fall asleep.  She assumed that had just happened again.

They snuck down the street for another block, still sticking to cars, bushes, trees, and fences.  They were in an area Alice didn’t know because she had never come this way before.  Everything she knew lay on the other side of her house.  All the houses kept getting bigger and the lawns larger the farther they walked.  Eventually all the lawns were fenced in and they didn’t have anything to hide behind.  They sat down behind a car while the adults thought about what to do.

“My feet hurt,” Alice said to no one in particular.  She was getting used to whispering all the time, but it made her think about when her class went to the school library.  She didn’t like the library.  It had an old smell, and Mrs. Hershey read books out loud in a boring way.  She didn’t give the characters voices like her Daddy and Ms. Lou did.

“We’re almost there,” Mister Walter told her.

Alice sighed.  She was tired of walking.  So was Shoes.  Shoes was
lying at her feet, and he sighed as well.  Alice played with his leash while they took their break.

“What about going towards Newel Ave and going down that alley behind the shops?” Alice heard Mister Walter say to Kara.  “There’s a bunch of dumpsters and things to hide behind if someone shows up.”

“No,”  Kara didn’t even – what was the word? –
negotiate
.  “We should try going through people’s yards.”

“Some of those fences are pretty high.”

“We can get over them by working together.”

“What about Shoes?”

“The dog?”  Alice saw Kara give Shoes an unpleasant look.  “We can toss it over if we really have to.”

“Some of the houses have perimeter alarms.”

“So?  Bring the cops, we could use them.”

Mister Walter looked down at Alice.  Alice looked back up at him.  His eyes were brown, which was boring.  Lots of people had brown eyes.  Kara’s eyes were brown too.

Mister Walter turned back to Kara and nodded.  He rose up from behind the car they were using as a shield and looked up and down the street.  He gave them a thumbs up, and they all ran over to the nearest fence.  Alice liked running, but not when her feet hurt, and Shoes grunted when he had to get up.  The fence was made of metal and had fancy designs between the posts, but it wasn’t very tall, at least not compared to Mister Walter.  It only reached his chin.

“I’m going to lift you over the fence, okay, Alice?” Mister Walter asked.

“Can you hold onto Shoes?”  Alice held his leash out to Kara.  Kara rolled her eyes around and huffed, but she took the leash.  Alice didn’t know why, but it seemed like Kara didn’t like Shoes.  But Shoes was so loveable!

“Okay, here we go.”  Mister Walter grabbed Alice under her armpits and heaved her up in the air.  Her Daddy sometimes picked her up like that and would swing her around.  It was fun, but sometimes he did it too much and then she felt sick.

Alice tucked her legs up as she went over the fence; the pointy bits looked like they might hurt.

“I’m going to let go now,” Mister Walter told her.  Alice nodded.  “Three, two, one.”

He let go and Alice dropped to the ground.  It wasn’t a very long drop, no further than when she jumped off the swings in the playground.  Her teacher, Mr. Maluchi, got mad at her when she did it.  She only did it though because Paul had dared her to.  In fact, he double dared her, but he wouldn’t do it because of Mr. Maluchi.

After she landed, she turned around and watched as Mister Walter picked up Shoes and held him over the fence.

“No,” Alice whispered.  “It’s too high for him.”  Shoes had little legs and didn’t do well with falls.

Mister Walter pulled him back over to his side and put him on the ground.  He had what looked like a quiet argument with Kara, and then climbed over the fence himself.  He wasn’t very good at climbing, but that was probably because he was an adult.

Kara picked up Shoes with an unpleasant expression and handed him over the fence to Mister Walter.  Mister Walter put him down on the ground and handed his leash back to Alice.  Alice patted Shoes on the head and called him a good doggy.  And he was a good doggy.

Kara climbed over the fence next.  She was better at it than Mister
Walter was, even though she was an old person, and when Mister Walter offered to help her, she told him she didn’t need it.  Alice looked at the house whose lawn they were on.  It was fancy, like a castle.

Mister Walter took Alice’s hand and led her over to a tall hedge on the other side of the house.  There was no fence in the hedge, so they were all able to push their way through it.  It was easy for Alice since she was little, but Mister Walter had a hard time.  It smelled nice in the bushes.

The next yard had a big maple tree in it.  Alice would have liked to climb it, but she knew better than to ask if she could.  This house was less like a castle but still bigger than her house.

“They’re missing a window.”  Alice noticed the curtains were blowing outside.

“Hmm?”  Mister Walter looked over at the house.  “We should hurry along.”  He placed his hand on Alice’s back and made her walk faster.

The next set of bushes had a short chain link fence in the middle of them.  Kara climbed over first and then helped Alice over.  Mister Walter then handed Shoes over the fence.  It was hard for him to get over because all the bush branches kept getting caught on him.

“Walter, look out!” Kara suddenly screamed, scaring the beejesus out of Alice.

* * *

A man dressed in overalls had come through the bushes behind Mister Walter and proceeded to grab him.  Mister Walter fought with the man.  Another man in similar clothing started running at them.  He was looking at Alice, Kara, and Shoes.

“Run!” Mister Walter yelled.

Kara grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled her out the other side of the bushes.  Shoes grumped from suddenly being tugged.  Alice ran with Kara into the next yard.  The other side had a brick wall that was taller than Mister Walter.  Alice didn’t think she could climb it, not without Mister Walter’s help.

“This way.”  Kara pulled Alice toward the big fancy house.  She ran up to a window and smashed her purse through it, which caused a whooping alarm to go off.  Alice was scared.  She didn’t understand what was going on.

She looked back at the bushes but couldn’t see Mister Walter.  The second man in overalls had made it over the fence though, and was fighting to get free of the branches.

“Come on, dear!”  Kara grabbed Alice, drawing her attention back to the whooping house.  She had broken out the window and was urging Alice through it.

“Shoes!” Alice cried as she dropped his leash while Kara pretty much shoved her through the window.

Kara huffed but grabbed the puppy up and shoved him through the window next.  She then came through the window herself.  It was a tight squeeze for her, making her gasp.  Alice thought
that maybe she got hurt by some broken glass.  She had never been hurt by broken glass because her Daddy wouldn’t let her get anywhere near any.  That’s how she knew it was dangerous and could really hurt.

Shortly after Kara got through the window, the man from the bushes hit into it.  He reached through the window for them, but it was a much tighter fit for him.  He was fatter than
Kara was.  Still, he started to squeeze himself through, and Shoes started barking at him.

Kara grabbed Alice again, who grabbed Shoes’s leash, and led her out of the room.  She found a set of stairs and was about to go up them when Shoes
lay down and started woofing at them.