Zomb-Pocalypse (4 page)

Ryan has taped black garbage bags over the windows to keep the light in, protecting us from unwanted attention. It’s smart, and I make a mental note to remember to do that at the next place. I walk over to Abby and rub her back, but she jerks away like my touch burns her.

“Abby, I’m so sorry,” I whisper, planting a kiss on the back of her head before walking away.

“Why don’t you girls go and see what’s left in the pantry for supper?” Ryan suggests.

I practically jump at the chance to get away from Abby’s depression. Guilt is eating me alive—maybe if they hadn’t been coming to get me, they would still be alive. I firmly clamp down on that thought and turn to the cupboards. They are still pretty stocked, and the stuff in the freezer isn’t completely thawed out yet. I grab a couple of big steaks. Megan finds instant mashed potatoes and a few cans of green beans.

“Looks good,” I acknowledge.

The stove runs on natural gas, so I try my luck lighting one of the burners. It sparks to life with a woof. Ryan has already covered the windows in here, too, so it feels relatively safe. I keep staring at the black bags hung across the windows, criss-crossed with silver duct tape—half expecting something undead to come crashing through the glass. A hot drop of grease leaps out of the pan and burns my hand. I snatch it away, trying to focus on the dinner instead.

“This is the first time I’ve cooked by candlelight,” I mutter.

Megan smirks, “Not me.” I turn and look at her, but her face is mostly covered in dark shadows. The things I’ve learned about her today are pretty insane. 

Abby refuses to eat or even talk to any of us, she just shakes her head. I stare at her shaking figure on the couch, and a terrible fear begins to creep over me. It’s a fear that she no longer has the will to live, or even try to survive. We eat in the living room around the wood stove, the heat from the stove is nice. As soon as I walk into the kitchen to put the plates away, I can feel the nip in the air of the unheated section of house.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Megan volunteers, surprising me again at how smart she is for just being a kid like me.

Foolishly, I hadn’t even thought of it, and I probably wouldn’t have either.

Ryan agrees and lays down on one of the mattresses that Megan and I helped him drag into the room. He thought it would be safer if we were all together, and around the warm fire seemed like the logical place to be. It isn’t that late, but without TV, internet or even electricity, there isn’t much to do except turn in early.

I look over at where Abby is feigning sleep on the couch and grab a blanket to cover her up before stumbling across to the other mattress and laying down. I didn’t think I would be able to sleep, but the emotional toll of the day and the abundance of adrenaline that’s been pumping through my system non-stop puts me right to sleep.

I wake up, and I’m not sure what time it is. Everything is dark. I can hear furious whispering going on beside me, and I squint through the dark to see Megan and Ryan with their heads bent together.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

I’m instantly shushed by Megan. “They’re outside.”

I don’t have to ask who they are. “How many are there?” I whisper.

They both shake their heads.

“It’s too hard to tell in the dark,” Ryan answers, and it is not reassuring.

“What are we going to do?” I am already having terrible visions of those things bursting through the door and tearing at my flesh.

“We wait till morning, and hope they go away,” Ryan answers back with a grim look on his face.

I stare at him like he’s crazy. I can hear them now, the loud moans echo through the still night air, and my heart beats so fast that it actually hurts inside my chest.

Abby is awake now, too, and is sitting up on the couch, staring at us across the room. In the semi-darkness, she looks a bit like a zombie. She’s heard the entire conversation, but she doesn’t look like she even cares. I am half-tempted to get up and slap her as hard as I can to see if she can even feel anything anymore.

I look away from my best friend on the couch as Megan comes and sits beside me. Her presence isn’t reassuring, but at least she’s another living person who wants to survive the night.

We all freeze when we hear clawing sounds on the outside of the house. I open my mouth and think about screaming, but Ryan is beside me in a flash and clamps his hands over my mouth.

“If you scream, we will die,” he whispers the warning sternly in my ear.

My eyes go wide and I begin to hyperventilate around his hand. He pulls me into his chest so that my sounds are muffled against his shirt, and I let myself breathe in his scent. Strangely, it helps relax me a bit.

“Take it easy,” he warns me before slowly taking his hand off my mouth. “I get that you need to break down and freak out, but now is not the time.”

I nod.

He gives me a supportive pat on the back before getting up and listening hard at the living room window. Megan squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back as I strain my own ears, trying to listen. It sounds like the moans of a hundred zombies outside, and in the darkness my imagination runs wild.

It’s a long few hours until dawn begins to light up the sky, streak by slow streak of light. We sit, barely even breathing and definitely not moving while we listen to the moans outside the house. The windows are covered, but Ryan has a watch on his wrist and keeps checking the time. “It should be light enough to see what’s going on outside now,” he says finally after the millionth time he’s checked it.

“I’ll go upstairs and look out the window and see what’s happening,” Ryan promises as he stands and stretches, his muscles popping loudly in the silent room. We had even let the fire go out. We were afraid that the smoke was what gave away our position in the first place.

“I’ll come with you.” Megan volunteers as she begins to stand up, but Ryan shakes his head.

“No, you’re are the only one that knows how to fire a gun other than me. You need to stay down here just in case anything gets in.”

My stomach jumps at the idea of a zombie getting in. I’ve been thinking about this scenario all night, but Ryan mentioning it sets it off the panic in my head again.

“I’ll take Jane,” Ryan surprises me by saying, and I glance up incredulously.

“Me?” I ask, not sure I heard him right.

“You’re the only one here named Jane,” he says a bit rudely in return, and I choose to ignore it.

“Alright,” I mutter as I climb to my feet.

Ryan is over at the doorway that leads to the upstairs, and I stumble over something as I join him. I catch myself just in time to keep from falling flat on my face and making him think I’m an even bigger loser than he already does.

“Careful,” he warns, and I make a small sound of irritation in the back of my throat.

The stairway is completely windowless and dark, though there are windows upstairs, I comfort myself with the thought. The stairs are old and creaky, and each sound about gives me a stroke as I try my best to be quiet. We reach the top of the stairs, and Ryan chooses the bedroom that looks out over the front of the house where we have parked the vehicles.

We walk softly across the old shag carpet, being careful to stay out of the window’s view. We arrive across the room on either side of the window and slowly peek out. My heart stutters, there are at least twenty zombies outside, swarming mindlessly around the yard. A few of them loiter around the car in their tattered clothing and loose hanging skin, some with their innards trailing out and being mashed beneath the feet of their clumsy brethren. Their skin has turned a sickening greenish-white and is beginning to peel.

“Oh God.”

Ryan looks over at me when I speak, “It’s okay. We can manage this.”

I shake my head, not sure how.

He turns and we head back downstairs.

“There are at least twenty.” I tell the other two girls, and even Abby shows a bit of emotion and lets out a small whimper.

“What are they doing out there?” Megan asks.

I shrug, “Just kind of wandering around. It’s almost like they know we’re here somewhere, but they don’t know where.”

Ryan nods. “It’s weird they would just gather here for no reason.” He looks at us all staring back at him, waiting for him to make the next move. “We need to pack up and be ready to run.”

I don’t like that idea at all.

“We can go out on the roof and try and take out as many as we can. The gunfire might bring more of them here, but if we’re quick we can be away before that happens.”

He looks over at Megan, “Are you as good with that gun as I think?”

Megan flashes him a small grin. “I am,” she says.

Ryan smiles back.

“I could use the help,” Ryan admits.

Megan nods and pulls her gun from behind the pillow where she was sleeping. I watch her click the safety off with wide eyes.

“You two pack up whatever we can easily carry and run with, and wait for us. If any of them break in, run upstairs to us.”

I look over at Abby, and she’s staring at the floor. “Okay,” I say when it’s clear Abby isn’t going to say anything.

Ryan nods at me before motioning for Megan to follow him. He stops and grabs a handful of ammo clips from the small pile he kept back. The rest is outside, divided between the old pick-up truck and our suburban.

I can hear their footsteps as they climb the stairs. My nerves feel frayed beyond belief. I turn to Abby and throw her a bag to begin helping me load everything up.

She lets it fall to the floor and then just stares at it.

Anger floods through my entire body. I stomp angrily over to her and get in her face. “What are you doing? We have to get out of here.”

She just shrugs, and I feel my temper snap. I reach out and slap her hard across the face.

She looks stunned and stares at me with wide, watering eyes as she grips her cheek.

“I’m sorry,” I say, but then change my mind. “No, actually, you deserved that. Are you trying to get yourself killed? Or get me killed?”

She starts to shake her head, but I’m done letting her get away with this pity party any longer.

“You are going to get us killed. Your parent’s gave up everything trying to keep you safe. If they could see you now, do you think they would be happy that you are sitting here like a damn zombie before you even turn into one, which you will, if you don’t start acting like you have a will to live.”

Tears are running down her face, and I’m openly crying now too. “I love you Abby, you are like the sister that I never had. If something happens to you, it will destroy me.”

Suddenly, the quiet is shattered by the sound of bullets roaring from the roof top. The sound seems to wake her up a bit.

“I lost my parents too.” The admission pulls a ragged sob from my throat, but I quickly cut it off and wipe my sleeve across my runny nose. “At least you know what happened to yours.”

Abby stands up and hugs me tightly, “I’m sorry Jane.”

I give her a quick squeeze back before pushing her away. “I’m sorry too, but let’s honor their memory by trying our hardest to stay alive.”

Abby nods and actually bends down to pick up the bag I had tossed to her.

We start with the most important things, stuffing the ammo and spare handguns into the bag along with a few lightweight food items we had set aside. I look around, and there isn’t much in the room that we need. We already packed the other stuff outside yesterday. I grab a fire poker with a pointy metal end from beside the wood stove. 

The bark of the guns seems to go on forever, and pounding begins in earnest on the front door. Abby and I huddle together with our bags slung over our shoulders. I am tempted to dig in the bag and pull out a pistol, but I don’t even know how to tell if it’s loaded or not, so it would probably just get me killed.

The guns finally go silent after what feels like a hundred years, and then Megan and Ryan are pounding down the stairs, guns still in their hands.

“Everything okay down here?” Ryan asks, he seems a little out of breath.

Abby and I both nod.

Megan notices Abby up off the couch and smiles despite the seriousness of our situation.

“We got most of them, but there are a few bunched up right at the front door that we couldn’t hit because of the overhang of the roof.”

His words chill me. I do not want to be battling a bunch of zombies to get out of this house.

“Let’s go out one of the windows instead,” I blurt out as the idea occurs me.

It’s actually a pretty great idea. The window in the bathroom is on the opposite side of the house and is large enough for us all to squeeze out. Ryan goes first and peers out as best he can before sliding it open. It squeals a bit, and I feel like my heart is up by my tonsils. He carefully pokes his head out. I’m terrified that, at any minute, a zombie is going to pop up and rip it off.

“All clear,” he whispers as he jumps down. He does a three-sixty scan of the area before turning around and helping Megan down. Abby goes next. Finally, it’s my turn. His hands wrap around my waist and pull me from the window like I weigh nothing.