The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 2, The Aftermath (16 page)

"Shhhh, keep your voice down. You don't want to wake her up." Shellie scolded. "She told me that she woke up when they came into the room and bumped against the bed. Both of them looked her over and even sniffed at her but didn't try to touch her or bite her. Even when she couldn't help but scream they just stood there looking at her and after a minute or so just walked out of the room."

Kyle thought about that for a while, there was just so much they didn't know about the zombies and how they acted. The one thing he thought they knew very well was that their primary motivation for everything they did was the pursuit of human flesh. For these zombies to pass on such an easy victim as Kimberly was completely out of the norm from what they had seen so far.

"Well, for whatever reason they left her alone, she sure saved my sorry ass. Another few seconds and that would have been game over for me."

"Yes, and another couple inches over with that shotgun blast and it wouldn't have mattered either.
It’s just a good thing that it," she gestured towards the zombie that Kimberly had shot, "took the brunt of the shot. Kimberly said she had never fired a gun before and when she saw you and the zombie fighting she didn't know what else to do."

Kyle would never blame her for him getting shot, the alternative would have been much worse. Even if the wounds eventually killed him he would remain indebted to Kimberly for what she did.

Both of them froze as they heard a creaking sound from outside the front door, they had grown accustomed to the third step leading up to the porch making that sound when someone stepped on it. Straining their ears they could hear multiple footfalls along the porch followed by scrapping sounds against the front wall and door. There was no doubt that zombies were just outside the door at that point, but they didn't seem to be overly eager to try and force their way inside. Instead of banging and beating against the door it sounded like they were just casually milling about on the porch. Through the thick wooden door and walls they could just hear enough to know that they had company but couldn't detect the moaning or other distinguishing noises they had grown used to when zombies were nearby. Whatever they were doing outside didn’t really matter at the moment, there was nothing Kyle or Shellie could do about it. What really mattered was that they were trapped for the time being, they could only hope that if they continued to remain quiet the zombies would eventually lose interest and wonder off. Shellie turned back to her chores of cleaning and bandaging Kyle's wounds while Kyle gritted his teeth and did his best not to cry out in pain.

Garrett woke everyone as soon as the first tendrils of sunlight began brightening up the storm shelter. Since the pounding against the door had stopped several hours earlier and they had heard nothing throughout the rest of the night, Garrett felt it was worth the chance to crack the door open and take a peek outside. With Calvin, Doug and Miranda standing ready to slam against the door if they had to suddenly shut it again, Garrett carefully released the locks and turned the knob pulling the door open an inch at a time. The hallway just outside the door came into view and appeared empty, all that remained was the lingering smell of rotting flesh hanging heavily in the air. Garrett nodded towards the rest of the group and gingerly stepped out past the door and pressed his body tight against the near wall as he took several cautious steps forward to get a look around the corner at the rest of the basement. Two steps short of reaching the corner he froze in his tracks and held a fist up over his head signaling for anyone coming along behind him to stop.

The zombie had been a young boy in life, between twelve and fourteen years old. He was still dressed in the tattered remains of a pair of pajamas that were covered in unimaginable layers of filth as if the kid had been rolling in a sewer for the last several
days. He was wondering along the base of the stairs leading up to the kitchen as if he was either physically unable to make the climb or unsure if he should. He was turned sideways to the hallway where Garrett was watching him but as he completed a circuit of the mindless path he continued to follow, he turned briefly to face the hallway before moving back towards the stairs. Garrett was pretty sure that he was still out of sight, from the kid’s point of view the hallway would be dark and difficult to see more than a foot or two beyond the entrance. As long as Garrett remained still while he was looking in his direction he should stay undetected. But he also knew that vision was not necessarily his biggest enemy at the moment, it probably wouldn't take long for his body odor and that of everyone else's to start permeating into the rest of the basement. He wasn't sure how many zombies might still be upstairs inside the house or on the property nearby and he sure didn't want to find out if that kid picked up their scent and started ringing the dinner bell. Shooting him would have been easy but also ended up with the same result, firearms would only be used if their backs were against the wall again. Garrett leaned his rifle against the wall in the hallway and drew his knife. He crouched down in the shadows and watched the little zombie kid for several moments to get his mindless little pattern of walking back and forth down pat. He had to admit that zombie’s habit of dropping into this stasis like state was in their favor. If they were patient and observant they would be able to exploit such opportunities. His best chance would come the second the kid turned away from the hallway back towards the stairs. Even then, with the distance he had to cover he would have to take a wide path to reach his target, keeping himself moving at an angle to stay just ahead of the boy’s line of sight.

Garrett let him go through his entire routine two more times before he made his move. As
the zombies eyes moved past the hallway where he was crouched he moved quickly across the open basement towards the far wall with the stairs to the kitchen. As soon as he was directly along the wall he picked up his speed a little bit, the carpeted floor muffling his footfalls. Keeping low to the ground he picked a point along the side of the zombie where he anticipated he would need to be before his head came back around and faced him. He wanted to make his strike to the back of the zombie’s neck, but there was a twisted piece of broken furniture just behind the zombie that he hadn't seen until he was just a few feet away causing him to alter his plan at the last moment and decide to go for the messier shot directly into the face. He sidestepped around the broken furniture and glass while continuing to keep just behind the zombie and out of sight. As soon as he reached arms distance from the zombie he struck. Garrett leapt forward with his knife hand slightly out to his side while he swung the blade in a sideways arch that left the bulk of his body in the zombies blind spot just long enough for the blade to make solid contact inside the zombies nostril. Spinning himself into the blow he was able to use his body weight to drive the blade effortlessly into the farthest reaches of the skull, shredding the brain into a useless paste. The zombie probably never even realized he was in danger and simply ceased to exist in the blink of an eye. Garrett caught the slumping body and helped ease it gently to the ground where he pulled the knife free and swiped it several times across the cleanest spot he could find on the boys filthy pajamas.

"You haven't lost your touch." Calvin whispered in his ear as he handed Garrett his rifle after silently moving up behind
him.

Garrett looked down solemnly at the body laying at his feet, "Yeah, well it never had to be a kid before."

Calvin patted him gently on the shoulder, "You know as well as I do that kid had already lost the innocence of age and would have torn any of us into hamburger meat if he was given the chance. Don't let it get you down."

Miranda came up behind Calvin leading the rest of their group along with her. When Emily looked down at the body at Garrett's feet her mouth dropped open and was just about to let loose with a horrified scream when Cameron's hand suddenly shot out from behind her and clamped tightly over it.

Doug was the one to offer an explanation, "he lived up the street, Anderson I think his name was. Used to shovel driveways around here for money in the winters. Really well-mannered and polite young man."

He turned back towards Emily and keeping his voice low but firm he told her, "
Keep your shit together woman. This is nothing," Doug pointed to the boys crumpled body in front of them, "you're about to witness a lot worse outside. If you scream you're going to get all of us killed." He made sure he had her full and undivided attention before nodding towards Cameron for him to remove his hand from her mouth, "do you understand?"

Emily said nothing and simply nodded her head in reply. Doug turned back towards Calvin and Garrett and gave them a thumbs up to show that they were ready to continue on.

"Ok, wait at the bottom of the stairs. We’ll go up and have a quick look around and then call for everyone to follow if it’s clear." Garrett said as he and Calvin began to ascend the stairs. Garrett stopped after two steps and turned back to the group, "once we get up there we are going to need to move quickly, you need to keep up and keep quiet. If Calvin or I tell you to do something, you need to do it without hesitation." He had been openly addressing Doug, Emily and Cameron in that statement but then focused directly on Emily, "understood?"

Emily squared her shoulders and pulled her upper body into an erect posture as she said, "I understand fully."

Garrett had his doubts that she really did, but they didn't have the luxury of time to stand around and debate the subject. Turning back towards the stairs the two of them finished their silent ascent until they were just inside the doorway that opened into the kitchen. Calvin stepped into the kitchen and focused his attention towards the right which included an adjoining laundry room and the open entrance into an expansive den. Garrett peeled off to the left covering the majority of the kitchen, the smashed remains of the back door and the hallway leading further into the ground floor of the house. Calvin made a clicking sound with his mouth, sounding more like a cricket or other insect it was something taught in patrol technique training as a means for signaling danger when hand signals with the rest of your element was not possible. Garrett froze in place, the only thing he allowed to move was his eyes as they methodically scanned back in forth over his areas of responsibility. The inside of the house he was able to see appeared clear up to that point. He could see three zombies through the back door far off near the edge of the woods in the back corner of Doug's backyard. They would be a problem but he thought it was one they could deal with. He had no illusions that once they managed to get everyone outside of the house and moving towards Cameron's house, they were going to see a repeat of their dash in the opposite direction the night before. A casual stroll between neighboring houses was just not something he could reasonably hope for.

Calvin snapped his fingers to indicate that he wanted Garrett's attention. Walking slowly backwards Garrett moved to a spot in the kitchen where a row of cabinets would conceal his movements from the zombies in the backyard and then turned around to find Calvin down on
one knee with his rifle up and pointed to the laundry room door. Garrett now realized that the laundry room was also a passageway into the garage and from his angle he could see that the door to the garage was standing open. There was a wide swath of sunlight beaming onto the garage wall that told him the outer garage doors were also open. The cause for Calvin’s alarm quickly became apparent at that moment. At least a dozen or more intermixing shadows were dancing back and forth along the wall and Garrett could just make out the sounds of footfalls on concrete in addition to the soft moaning and animal grunting sounds that often came from zombies gathered together in a flock. He was pretty sure there was a good sized crowd just outside the garage on the driveway along with a few that may even actually be inside the garage itself.

"Well, we knew it wouldn't be a cake walk." Garrett whispered. "We don't have the ammo to hold off that many for long. We need to make this quick."

Garrett thought back to the fight they had the evening before and how much ammunition they had blown off making the reverse of the same trip they were about to try. He figured they had even less than the amount they had already used, they were going to have to be extra selective with the targets they chose this time around. He also knew that with the added burden of Emily, the going would be even slower than it had been with Doug. As bad as their position was there was nothing they could do about it, they needed to make their move that morning, Kimberly and the others were counting on them. With the backyard appearing as clear as it was going to get at the moment they may not have a better opportunity. Calvin nodded to the stairs letting Garrett know that he would keep watch on the garage while he got everyone else up into the kitchen and ready to go.

Climbing halfway down the stairs, Garrett whispered a brief overview of the situation to everyone and told them to move quickly but quietly into the kitchen and crouch behind the cabinets until they were ready to make a run for it. Miranda brought up the rear and was
easily taking to the role of keeping everyone together and behaved. Garrett thought she might actually be looking for an excuse to land a stiff jab across Emily's mouth but he also knew that just that threat would help to keep the big woman on her best behavior and might actually save her life in the next few minutes so he left Miranda to handle things her own way. Calvin and himself were going to be too busy fending off zombies to worry much about stragglers or misbehavior in their own little flock.

Returning to the kitchen, Garrett took up station just inside the back door where he had a better overview of the entire yard and most of the path they would have to cover. In addition to the cluster of three
zombies near the far edge of the yard he was now able to spot two more in Cameron's backyard right in front of the shed where his father’s body was just visible peeking out from a tangle of smashed and broken fencing. Garrett was glad that it looked like his head was still covered by some of the debris, if Cameron recognized his own father laying there next to the shed during their rush to his house there was no telling how he may react.

Miranda waved to him from the other side of the counter and he retreated back to the edge of the counter to confer with her for a moment.

"She's out of breath just from climbing the damn stairs and will need a minute." Miranda reported without trying to hide the irritation in her voice or even keep her comments quiet enough so Emily couldn't hear.

Garrett pee
ked over her shoulder and saw Emily red faced and gasping for breath sprawled like a beached whale on the hardwood floor just in front of the sink. He know understood how Doug figured that having a little man cave tucked away in the basement would be a safe place to keep out of her reach. Since the stairs to the cellar were longer and steeper than those elsewhere in the house, it was a natural physical deterrent for her to ever make the attempt to go down there after him. He spotted something on top of the counter that gave him a thought, and he whispered to Doug, "Grab the biggest kitchen knives you can and give one to your wife and Cameron, if you have something nearby that you can use effectively as well get it. If they get in close at least you will have some way to defend yourselves."

Doug lifted himself up just enough to reach the ornamental container on the top of the counter that Garrett had noticed with
several wood handled knives sticking out. Selecting the two biggest blades he gave one to Emily and Cameron and then scooted a little further down the counter where he slid a draw open and pulled out a meat cleaver that Garrett thought would have been much more at home in a butcher shop than in someone's kitchen. Doug noticed his confused expression and explained, "It came with the set she ordered, never been used and still as sharp as a razor."

Calvin worked his way back over to the opposite end of the counter while keeping his eyes and the barrel of his rifle pointed squarely at the opening into the laundry room. "Guys, I think they are starti
ng to pick up a scent they like. A couple more just moved into the garage and several are now just outside the laundry door. It’s now or never."