The Hand That Feeds: A Horror Novel (16 page)

“How are we going to get down?” Matt asked.

John heard the boy’s question, but didn’t have an answer. The only other thing on the roof was a small air conditioning unit. He studied the device for a few minutes, before deciding it wouldn’t be useful. He looked out at the surrounding townscape, as the sun broke from behind the dark grey clouds and light washed over the roof. To the northwest, the buildings grew in size. The few office buildings the town had were located at the heart of the business section. The pale white face of the hospital loomed in the distance beyond the tallest of the structures. John shook his head as if finally answering Matt, but his eyes found something moving in the distance.

“What is that?”

Matt tried to follow his hand as John pointed towards the tallest of the buildings, aiming his finger at the highest point.

“You see that?”

“I don’t see…” Matt hesitated as he stared. “Is that somebody waving?”

John kept his eyes trained on the small moving figure.
“I think it is.”

“Are we going to go there?”

John looked over the side of the building. “We have to figure out how to get down first.”

Matt made a
startling discovery. “There’s more coming.”

M
ost of the dead were gathered near the ladder on the side of the store, but there was a growing number on the street at the rear and the alley on the opposite side. To make matters worse, it appeared the excited sounds of the dead were attracting more in-kind. He eyed the roof of the adjoining building. At the storefront, a tall sign was held in place by a makeshift prop. Several long boards lay scattered on the roof behind the sign.

“If we could get over to that roof,”
he said. “I bet we could drop down in the far alley and have a clear shot out of here.”

Matt
examined the distance of the open space between the two buildings. “I can’t jump that.”

“Neither can
I,” John said, “but I bet we could place those boards over the alley and I could walk across.”

“That’s great
, but the boards are over there,” Matt said. “How are we supposed to get them?”

John eyed the space over the alley, trying to ignore the growing number of dead milling between the two buildings. He turned his eyes
on Matt.

“How much do you weigh?”

Matt’s face sequenced. “Why?”

John laid the shotgun down on the roof and grabbed Matt by the wrist. “Trust me.”
He grabbed his other wrist. “Hold on.”

Matt tried to object
, but before he could get out the words, John lifted him off the ground. The two spun around like a top with Matt’s body rising higher with each turn. John gauged the distance to the other roof as best he could and when he was as sure as he could be, he released the boy. Matt tried to hold on to John, but didn’t have the strength. He flew over the top of the alleyway like a sack of potatoes. The first part of John’s plan appeared to work, however; it was the landing he hadn’t considered. Matt hit the adjacent roof with a flat thud
and lay motionless.

“You all right?”
John asked.

Another minute of silence was followed by a gro
an.

“What’s a matter with you?”
Matt asked.

John shrugged. “You w
ouldn’t have done it if I asked,” he said. “You all right?”

Matt pushed up on his kne
es and dusted himself off. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and found a fresh blotch of blood.

“I busted my lip.”

“You’ll live,” John said. “Grab those boards and bring them over to the side of the building.” Matt did as he was told and a few minutes later, John was across. He patted the boy on the back and smiled. “You did good,” he said then peered over the edge of the store. The dead had been drawn to the encounter in the alley beneath the ladder. The alley on the other side of the building was clear. “When we hit the ground we’re going that way.” He pointed out the route.

“Are we going to find those people in the tall building?”

“We’ll see.”

John didn’t have a strong desire to find more people. He wanted to get home and he kept
hold of the idea that if Alex needed to feed, Matt would do fine. John jumped first and he hit the concrete and tried to keep from falling over. The impact sent a shock up his spine, but he managed to stay upright.

Matt waited for the
signal, then jumped down. John tried to keep him from slamming into the alleyway, but failed. The boy hit hard and the pain in his legs kept him on the ground for a few uncomfortable minutes. John was glad the boy was at least smart enough to keep himself quiet. Once Matt was able to get to his feet, he grabbed a hold of John’s work belt and asked for the other hammer. They started at a fast walk with eyes and ears ready for anything. The street was clear and John gave Matt a nod, and then they headed off toward the center of town.

17

The streets were littered with the dead, the smell filling the dark crevices of every street and building. Clouds rolled in from the east and blocked out the afternoon’s sunlight. In a veil of grey, the remaining survivors kept hidden in the hopes that the onslaught would soon be over. John moved from one hidden location to the next. He never let Matt rest for very long at their stops behind cars, against the side of buildings, or down behind a hedgerow. They were headed for the tallest apartment building in town. John had seen a figure waving its arms near the top floor and decided he would find out what they had to offer.

Hi
s mind was still on his family. He guessed they could survive well enough throughout the day, but his hope was to get home by sundown. He would take Matt with him if need be, but that would depend on what they found in the apartment building. The town was going to hell quick, and John figured he would be best served getting his family as far away as he could before the Calvary rode in to save the day.

The center of town loomed ahead. The half a dozen buildings were
comprised mostly of businesses, except for the tallest of them all. John brought Matt to a stop behind a long work truck. He slid his eyes up to the driver’s side window, checked for key’s, and then scouted out the road ahead.

“You see anything?” Matt
asked.

They’d managed to avoid any directed contact with the dead since getting off the roof. John nodded. He kept his e
yes trained on a gathering across the street near another parked car. The driver’s side door was open and a body lay partly on the street. He couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman, because the dead were swarming, crawling over the vehicle to get a piece of the driver. They chewed on the body on their hands and knees, pulling long bites of intestines from an exposed chest. Blood ran off the victim, gathering in a puddle against the curb. The legs twitched and moved as teeth bit into a thigh, ripping open the skin.

“We have to move now,” John said.

The dead did not see them go, locked in on their feast. Matt hid his eyes, holding on to John’s belt for guidance. They reached the far side of the street and hid down behind a row of bushes at the front of a bank. The dead were hidden from view by the other side of a vehicle, but the sounds of their feast was everywhere.

“How are we going to get over there?” Matt asked.

John put a finger to his lips. “Whisper.”

The f
ront door to the apartment high rise was one block down. The problem was that the vehicle and the corpse buffet were directly in the way. John motioned for Matt to stay put. He kept close to the ground and moved along the bank’s exterior toward the street behind them. He reached the edge of the building and slid his face out so that he could see. The street heading east would be the best option to approach the apartment from the other side. The problem with the plan was at least ten shambling figures were moving on the street, and another half dozen were pushing their way into a van parked near the far end of the road.

The
roads east of the bank made up the center of the town’s business district. On a normal day, the area would be the busiest location and today was no different. John couldn’t count the number of figures, but their slow walk gave a hint at the growing count of dead now roaming out in the open. He crept back toward the bushes and got down on his knees behind Matt. The dead near the vehicle were still eating, but he couldn’t imagine the meal lasting much longer.

“We’re going to have to run for it.”

Matt’s head snapped around, his eyes wide as saucers. “Run where?”

“For the a
partment.”

The boy’s
voice rose dangerously loud. “What about them?”

John placed his hand on
his shoulder. He could see the growing terror in his eyes. “We can’t go around,” he said, “unless we risk going back the way we came, we have to make a run for it.” He checked to make sure the way ahead was still clear. “…and we’re going to have to go now.” He didn’t let the conversation continue. He stood up with one strong pull, bringing Matt to his feet with him.

T
hey were running before Matt could object. Once out from behind cover, it was too late to turn back. They reached the sidewalk in a few long strides. The munching dead didn’t notice the movement until John and Matt were already out in the street. John didn’t look back, but he heard their moaning call as they took notice of the fresh meat. He tried not to let Matt focus on the mass of dead further down the street in the hopes they would reach the apartment doors before they found themselves surrounded.

“Get in there.
”

They reached the open double doors
, stepping through smashed glass scattered on the ground. Matt burst through first and was met by the reaching hands of a figure pinned beneath a couch laid across the main stairs. The disfigured face stared back at the boy with a single eye. The bludgeoned, bloodedly mess of his other eye socket stained the blue-grey skin on his cheek. Its back was broken, one leg lying bent over on his side, the other lost somewhere underneath the couch.

A groan gasped from its blacked mouth as Matt leapt backwards into John
, as he crossed the doorway. John raised his shotgun to fire, but thought better of it. He scanned the foyer and found both side doors barricaded. He leaned over the couch, avoiding the dead man’s flailing arms.

“We have to go up.”

Matt scooted around him, being careful to avoid the outstretched hands and climbed up and over the couch. John waited until he was safely on the stairs, then adjusted his grip on the shotgun. He held the barrel and bashed in the pinned corpses head with the butt of the gun. It took two hits to crack the skull, then a third to splatter its brains on the foyer floor. John jumped over the couch and took up the lead. He kept close to the outer wall of the stairwell with hesitant steps. They reached the second floor landing and he used the drapes strewn on the floor to wipe off the muck from his shotgun.

“How far up do we have to go?” Matt asked.

“Not sure. I think the person we saw was waving from the top floor.”

“Can’t we use the elevator?”

“Don’t be stupid. We don’t want to trap ourselves anywhere we can’t run away from.”

Matt shrugged then nodded.
John eyed the four doors on the second floor landing. Each was shut and showed no signs of damage. A long hallway extended away from the stairs with doors running along both sides.

“
There could be survivors in all of them,” John said.

“You think they’ll come out?”

“Not likely, probably scared to death like everyone else.”

They
started toward the ascending stairs when movement drew their attention back to the hall. A single figure walked toward them, moving slowly. John was on guard as the figure drew closer. He knew they had to run, which was highlighted by several figures rounding the corner at the far end of the hall.

John turned to look for Matt
, but found the boy already halfway up the next set of stairs. He caught up with him in three long, climbing strides. By the time they reached the third floor landing, the sound of the dead echoed clearly up the staircase. John took one look at the third floor hall and the view revealed how much trouble they were in.

Three bodies lay in contorted positions on the hallway carpet
, each lying in a pool of blood. The largest of these was a man and by the look of the other two, they had been a family. The body of an unrecognizable child lay the furthest from the landing. Two figures crouched over the woman’s body on their hands and knees, each taking turns devouring pieces of her innards. In unison, the dead looked up at the new arrivals and started to rise.

“They’re everywhere,” Matt
said.

John grabbed his collar as he headed up the next
staircase. “Hold on,” he said as he slowed their pace. “We don’t want to run into more trouble than we can get away from.” He eyed the dead as they got to their feet and started toward the stairs. The sounds of the zombies from the second floor grew louder as the grunts and moans combined throughout the third floor landing. John took one step at a time, eyeing the fourth floor landing over the banister before he reached the top of the stairs. “Come on.”

He
found Matt was already standing on the stair directly below him. The walking dead reached the bottom and struggled stiffly up after them. John and Matt continued in a slow, but steady pace up four more flights. Each floor had its own hall crawling with the dead. Most of them were focused on the apartment doors, no doubt smelling the living flesh hidden somewhere within. John moved on, trying not to attract attention. Once they neared the top floor, he cursed for entering the building in the first place.

“One more,”
he said in-between deep breaths.

He could hear Matt panting heav
ily behind him. The boy fell behind over the climb and was rounding the landing on the floor below.

“You said that two floors ago,” Matt
said.

“Just motivation,
would you rather stay a while where you’re at and see who comes up behind you?”

Matt didn’t complain anymore
. He took a deep breath then hit the stairs. He was running when John reached the top floor landing and nearly slammed into him from behind.

“Hey
, watch out,” Matt said. “I almost fell back over the…”

Matt lost his words as he noticed John holding
up his hands. A look to the right over the banister revealed several people behind a makeshift barricade covering the entire hallway. They were well armed and currently aiming directly at John.

“You injured?”

John could barely see the man who asked. He was dark skinned and spoke with an accent that placed him as an outsider. His stained, button shirt and torn suit coat, looked to be fancier than the day to day business in town.

“I asked you a question,” he
said.

John
counted at least six others and there was movement down the hall behind them. “No,” he said.

“Put the gun down on the floor and step away from it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” John said as his eyes slid back toward Matt, and then returned to the barrels pointed in his direction. “I’ve got a kid here.”

Matt took another step up and his head cleared the top of the banister. He smiled and waved. The
speaker among the group eyed the boy and the tightness in his face loosened.

“We need to be sure,” he said.

John placed the gun on the ground and stepped away from it. He spun around slowly and let the group inspect him. Matt came up to the landing and stood facing the barricade.

“Walk toward
me slowly, keeping your hands up.”

John did as he was told
and Matt followed closely. They stopped a foot away from the barricade and the speaker lowered his barrel.

“We saw a person in the window waving,” John said. “I thought someone needed help.”

“Not all of us agree about attracting attention,” the man said. He eyed a woman near the end of the barricade. “I’m guessing you have followers?”

John nodded.

“Get your gun and come in.”

There was a loud screeching as three of the men forced open the barricade.
John could see shopping carts, dressers, and a kitchen table among other things. The speaker stepped into the hall and waited until they were inside before he moved any further. Once the barricade was closed, the growing sound of the dead nearing the stairs a floor below echoed up the hall.

“The names Sean.”

John shook his hand. “I’m John and this is Matt.”

“Helen Wright.”

John turned to find the lone female offering her hand. She was a tall woman with a natural beauty to her face. The strain of the moment was apparent in her eyes and John couldn’t help but think that he’d seen her before.

“Just you and your boy?” she asked.

“He’s not my son,” John said.

“Come on, I’ll get you two some food.”
She led them off, ignoring the clear aggravation on Sean’s face as well as a few hard stares from the other men. “They don’t want to share what we have,” Helen said when they were out of earshot. “I think Sean is some kind of ex-military. He seems to think we need to be prepared to hold up here for a while.”

“Won’t they need help?” John asked
, looking back at the barricade.

Helen shook her head. “We’ve found as long as you can get far enough away from the dead
, they seem to lose track of you.”

“
They smell us?” Matt asked.

“Not sure really.
” She stopped and bent down close to Matt’s face. She smiled and wiped some dried blood off his cheek. “You’re going to be okay.”

Matt forced a smile then loo
ked around her at John. Helen followed the boy’s gaze.

“Won’t
he?” she asked.