The Last Legacy (Season 1): Episodes 1-10 (36 page)

“What do you want Marcus?” Something banged upstairs and then footsteps moved down the hallway. I breathed heavily now. We had to get out of there fast. She appeared at the top of the stairs, her hands on her hips and her face twisted in a grimace.

“Margaret, there are about a dozen eaters outside that door.” I pointed to the broken door. Two eaters both clawed and stepped through the threshold. Luckily, they were too stupid to wait their turn, and their wide builds bought us time.
 

“Oh my God!” She clamped her hand over her mouth as she stood frozen at the top of the stairs. A selfish, bitchy part of me found some pleasure in her scared appearance.
 

“Get Maggie and go out through the front bedroom window. There’s a canopy, and you can jump down or slide down the railing. Don’t try to come down the stairs!”
 

I had to protect myself and Marcus first. We were the main priority. She nodded and ran, her footsteps loud. The two eaters made it into the house and slowly walked towards Marcus and me. I grabbed his hand and ran to the door. I swung open the front door and ran with Marcus in tow onto the front lawn.
 

“Miss Lana, I’m scared,” Marcus said as he held onto my waist.
 

I thought the front would be safer. An eater shuffled towards Marcus and me. I looked out in street, and there were a dozen more. Their heads seemed to move in unison as they noticed us and then changed direction, coming forward with their red eyes on one thing—us.

How did we not notice the eaters circling the house? How did we not hear them? I should’ve been more prepared for this. I didn’t think anyone was being particularly loud in the house to attract the monsters. Maybe they could smell us from that far away. Whatever their reason, they wanted to eat us alive.
 

Marcus clung to my side as I tried to figure out an escape plan. I surveyed the area. Eaters flooded the road in front of the house. Two emerged in front of the crowd, moving seemingly faster than the others. We didn’t have many options.

“Here.” I handed Marcus my knife and pulled out the handgun from the back of my jeans. I grabbed his hand. Something bashed into the front door behind us from inside of the house. The eaters from the backyard must have made it in. I pulled Marcus with me off the porch. He stumbled over his feet.

The drop from the raised porch wasn’t more than a few feet. I left Marcus up top as I jumped over the white railing. I landed on the grass in a crouch.
 

“Come on, buddy.” I reached my arms up and helped get Marcus over the rail and over. An eater walked where we had just been, thumping into the siding and grabbing at it. The railing contained them, the immediate threats gone. Another eater came from behind and pushed into the rail, scratching. But the porch began creaking. We had to get out of there before it broke.
 

“Where’s my mom?” Marcus cried, looking towards the house.
 

Suddenly, a window crashed open. I bent down and covered my head, pulling Marcus beneath my arms. I turned towards the breaking sound and saw the kitchen window smashed by an eater. His head poked through it, stuck in the jagged edges. His neck bled profusely, coating the normally clear glass in thick blood.
 

“Come on.” I spun Marcus around so he couldn’t see the nearly decapitated eater and took his hand. We sprinted towards the street around the side near a bush. Our front was clear. But the moans from behind us had me constantly peeking over my shoulder to make sure we weren’t getting flanked. My mind focused on getting to safety, but thoughts of how this could happen still intrigued me.
 

I looked up towards the canopy of the house when we were a safe distance. The eaters were slow, the majority still near the porch. I paused in the middle of the road, but I didn’t see anyone up there. Margaret was missing, the window still shut. I couldn’t hear much over the sound of the many eaters groaning and panting as they continued to walk towards us. I grunted as I debated our next move.
 

“We have to go,” I told Marcus. I peered down at his face, his eyes full of tears and lower lip slightly shaking. I tugged him against my side.
 

“But my mom,” he whined as his forehead pinched. I glanced up at the house, debating what to do. I had no idea how to get to Maggie and Margaret. There was no trellis to climb, or ladder in sight. I didn’t want to leave them. It went against everything I preached. Yet if I went back in, I knew Marcus and I would be dead.

“She’ll find us.” I bent down so that Marcus and I were eye to eye, holding both of his shoulders. “We have to get out of here, okay? I need you to be strong for me. I might need your help. You remember what I showed you, right?” I smiled, acting strong so he could feed off my positivity.
 

“Like this?” He held the knife facing outward in front of his chest. He widened his eyes, the tears drying, and I nodded. If I could distract him, he might forget that his mother was still in the house.

“Great job. We have to get going.” I stood up but was thrown forward. I stumbled face first into grass, my face hitting the ground hard. An eater came at me from behind. I quickly rolled over with my arms blocking my face. He stood above me, gargling with blood creeping out of the corner of mouth.
 

I dropped my gun during the fall, so I scrambled to grab it. As the eater bent down to kill me, I pulled the gun up with both hands and aimed for the spot right between his beady eyes. I pulled the trigger.

My arms jerked backwards. Its blood spattered onto my face. I turned to the side and shut my eyes and mouth, not wanting anything to get on me. The eater fell beside me. Marcus ran to my side and grabbed my elbow, helping me to my feet.

“You were awesome!” He smiled up at me like I told him there was ice-cream for dinner. I shook my head as the eaters all shuffled towards us. Most from the porch had changed direction, the sound of my loud gun attracting them.
 

I grabbed onto Marcus’s hand, and we ran. An eater charged forward from the side of the street but I dodged him, pulling Marcus behind me. The two-lane road was clear, but eaters loomed near the houses on our left and the woods on our right.
 

“Jim!” I screamed, not caring that the eaters could hear. I needed help. I couldn’t do this alone. I didn’t know where Jim and the group were. Hopefully looting nearby.

I didn’t know what happened, but Marcus’s hand unhooked from mine. He fell backwards with a grunt as he called out my name. An eater I had thought to be dead crawled for Marcus like it sensed the body. It grabbed Marcus’s shoe and tugged.
 

I pressed the gun to the eater’s forehead and shot. Marcus sprang up from the pavement, wiping his now-torn jeans and latching to my side. His breaths were loud and fast. I glanced down at his ripped Converse sneaker.

“We have to keep moving away from the herds. Are you okay?” I asked him. I bent down and pulled where his jeans had been ripped, making sure he hadn’t been bitten.
 

“I’m good.” He glimpsed behind us and ran in the opposite direction, me on his heels. Four or five eaters broke off from the group in front of the house, coming towards us alone.
 

I focused on our heavy footfalls and not the eaters that seemed to come from all over. I had no idea what was going on, only that there were more eaters in one place than I had ever seen.
 

Silhouettes appeared down the street like mirages. In the bright afternoon light with the sun beaming behind them, they looked like angels. But then Jim’s distinct face appeared right in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. I let myself believe they were real. It was Jim. My body relaxed.

“What are you doing out here?” Gabe asked me. Marcus ran to his father and wrapped his arms around his waist. Gavin limped behind Mike like he’d hurt his left leg. I prayed he wasn’t bitten. “What were those gunshots?”

“The house got overrun.” I pointed behind me in the direction of Gavin’s home. “Margaret and Maggie are still inside. Scarlet’s missing. They were upstairs, and Marcus and I were downstairs. I tried to tell her to jump from the roof, but she never came out. More eaters came, and we had to run.”
 

“What?” Mike pushed Marcus off of him and sprinted past us in the direction of the house. Even half a mile down the road, I could still see the large mass of eaters crowding the sidewalk and street. It was a deathtrap.
 

“Take Marcus and keep walking.” Jim put his hands on my shoulders and lifted my head so I had to face him. “We saw a lake at the end of the road. Gavin, do you mind going and showing them?” Jim asked behind me. “You okay?” His eyes searched mine as his thumb rubbed blood off my cheek.
 

“No,” I whispered. I shook my head because truthfully, I hung on by a very thin thread of sanity. The faces of the eaters flashed in my mind. The eater in the window, the eater I had to kill. They all taunted my vision and toyed with me. I couldn’t see another dead person.
 

“I’ll find you at the lake, okay?”
 

I nodded, taking a deep breath. I had to relax; otherwise I’d die. I needed to be strong for Marcus and Gavin and not let them down. If someone had to be killed, I should do it. I preached strength, and now I had to live up to my own standards.

I faced Marcus and melted. Tears streaked down his face. His body shook, his hand jiggling with the knife still in it. I walked to him and wrapped my arm around his shoulder, pulling him against me. His dad just left him, so I knew that must have been what upset him. Or maybe it was the fact that his mother was still missing.

Gabriel and Jim chased after Mike. My stomach dipped as Jim got closer to the eaters. It was too dangerous to walk in like they were. There were too many eaters. I should have warned them more. But they would’ve gone anyway, so it didn’t really matter. Mike would never leave his wife and child to die. My throat knotted with anticipation.

I took Marcus’s hand and followed next to Gavin as we turned our backs to the overrun house. It felt like we deserted them, a final goodbye. But I refused to believe that. They’d all come back alive, and we’d continue our journey. I especially worried over Scarlet.

“Did you hurt yourself?” I asked Gavin, noticing his limp. My handgun rattled in my hand as it refused to stop shaking. I tightened my hold on Marcus.
 

“I got some old bones. Just sore after walking all morning. Nothing some Advil wouldn’t fix.” Gavin looked at me with a lopsided smile and shrugged.
 

“I have an idea,” Marcus said as he pushed away from me. He ran towards the woods next to the road, and I lunged after him. Eaters could be anywhere. I didn’t want him out of reach.

“Marcus!” I whisper-yelled.

He grabbed a stick from under a large pile of leaves and stepped on it, making a loud crack. My heart raced in my chest. I thought the kid was running away! And he was getting a fucking stick. He ran back to Gavin and handed it over.

“What a swell idea. Thanks, young man.” Gavin tested out the stick, banging the bottom against the pavement. He then stepped forward, using it like a crutch. Marcus beamed with pride.

We trekked down the residential street. Two-story ranch houses lined the road on our left. Painted in muted tones with matching structures, it was hard to tell them apart. The woods on our right weren’t so dense you couldn’t see through. But with squirrels running and birds chirping, my paranoia peaked. The noises the animals made reminded me of eaters, so I kept looking around us, searching for threats.
 

We walked up a large hill. Gavin panted so loudly that I thought he might pass out on our way up. Marcus remained quiet, glued to my side.

“The lake is right there,” Gavin said as he walked ahead of us. We caught up and stared down at the large body of water. “Would you mind checking out that boat house before we go in? I’m real sorry, I just can’t do it anymore. I’ll stay with the boy.” He pointed to a small building that sat at the edge of the road and the water. It looked more like an outhouse than anything else.