This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet (3 page)

Gravel crunched underfoot and piles of trash and lumber were scattered about in the modest yard and I tried my damnedest to not trip on the loose wood lying across the walkway as we made our way slowly to the door.

I’d never had to case a place in my life, but I knew enough that it was too quiet, and there was bound to be trouble at some point; it couldn’t possibly be this easy.

We reached the main door with little fanfare, and I held my breath as Ty tried the handle.  My heart sank when he shook his head and looked back at us.  “Nope.”

“We’ll just have to make a little noise, then.” Jack said and he stepped forward and tried forcing the door with his shoulder.  It was one of the heavy-duty solid doors with a deadbolt and I knew we wouldn’t be able to break it down.

I stepped forward and tugged on Jack’s sleeve. “Just shoot the lock, we don’t have much choice,” I whispered up at him as he rubbed his shoulder where it had met the door.

Shaking his head, his voice came out a smooth, low grumble, “Too much noise; the shot would echo for miles.  It’d be ringing the dinner bell.”  He was right, but how else were we going to get in?  It was now pitch black and it wasn’t safe to stay out in the open if we couldn’t see what was attacking us.  Sure, there were lights, but considering the city was without power, it was basically a really dark obstacle course filled with zombies.  Not exactly a place I wanted to be stranded in long.

We stood there for a moment, mulling over our options when Chloe broke the silence, “Here, hold this,” she said, handing me the leash.

I started to ask her why when she abruptly thrust the leash at me and walked over to a wooden crate that had been sitting to the left of the door and I watched her dumbstruck as she dragged it until it stood beneath a high window on the front of the building.  It luckily wasn’t barred, but it had that heavy glass with metal weaved through it, which would be a bitch to try to shatter.

“You’ll never break-“ I began to say but shut right up as she slid her little fingers under what I could now see was a crack at the bottom of the window and slid it right open.
Well, I’ll be damned, why didn’t I think of that?

I was still standing there in my stupor as Jack quickly climbed up and stopped her before she could climb in. Shaking his head at her, “I’ll go first.”

Heaving a sigh of irritation, “Fine, but let’s just not forget who the smart one is around here,” she shot out in a loud whisper.

Ty and I walked over to the crate and peered around Chloe to watch Jack shimmy through the window and disappear into the darkness. The sounds of his boots hitting the concrete echoed, but no other sounds followed; it was safe.

“Ok Chloe, go for it,” I said to her as I shifted my backpack on my shoulders in preparation for the climb.  It wasn’t a high window, but it wasn’t very big and getting through with all the crap strapped to me would be an interesting endeavor.

Ty had hopped up on the crate behind her and I picked up Roscoe and handed him the dog as Chloe slid through the window into what I hoped were Jack’s waiting arms.

“Geez, Ang, when did you start lifting weights?” Ty teased as he took hold of Roscoe and maneuvered him onto the windowsill.  He was joking, but I caught the hint of seriousness in his voice and started to think I needed to hit the road soon; I was getting too obvious.

“Whatever,” I said casually and rolled my eyes, brushing off his remark.  He looked at me, and my skin started to crawl under the intensity of his gaze; this kid didn’t miss much and I was pretty sure he was on to me.  I squirmed and looked away, effectively breaking our stare down, and gestured for him to get on with it.

With one last look at me, he followed Roscoe into the darkness, leaving me standing by myself outside.  Casting glances around the lot, I thought about just leaving now.  It would be hard for them to get back out the window and I was sure I could run fast enough that they wouldn’t have any hope of catching me but…but I had to make sure this place was safe before I left them. 
Yeah, that was it: I couldn’t leave them until I knew they were safe.

I climbed onto the crate and grabbed the wall and the edge of the window to steady myself as I lifted my leg and eased myself through.  I had to duck and twist in order to not get caught on the sill, so it took me a minute to slide all the way in.  I turned my body so I could pull myself all the way in, but my pant leg caught on something and I lost my balance.  Grasping desperately for something in the dark, I started to fall.

Chapter 2

Before I even had a chance to brace myself for the impact, strong, warm arms wrapped around me and pulled me to the ground.  Jack may have misjudged the combined weight of me plus my weapons as we collapsed into a tangle of limbs on the cement.

I was wrapped in his arms, surrounded by the smell of dirt and grease and I never wanted to leave.  Pressing my nose into his neck, I inhaled the scent of soap and the smell of Jack, which instantly caused things to stir below the belt.  I started to blush at the sudden arousal as he pulled himself up until he was propped above me on his arms and smiled down at me in the dark.  Had we been alone, I almost wondered what would’ve happened, but with a wink, he rolled over and stood up, holding a hand out to help me up.

Grabbing it, I used him for balance as I pulled myself to my feet and brushed the dirt off my butt as I looked around.

There wasn’t much to see as I squinted into the blackness; the only light was the muted moonlight struggling through the grime covered and sparse windows.  I blinked a few times to adjust to the dark until I could make out the shapes of the kids and machinery.

Roscoe was busy snuffling at the ground and Ty was inspecting a large machine in the center of the room.  It wasn’t huge; just a modestly sized machine shop with a crap-load of tools and spare parts scattered about.

I began to walk around the edge of the room along the wall to my right, gun out and trying not to trip on anything.  I dodged a large saw and caught sight of a hallway up ahead to my left.  Skirting the table of tools next to the saw, I reached the hall and took note of 2 doors on one side, 1 on the other, and a door at the end, with what I imagined was an EXIT sign above it.  I crept silently towards the first door seeing it was partially opened and used my foot to open it the rest of the way.

The door squealed loudly in protest and before I had the chance to step foot into the room, the groans of the dead rose up and headed towards me at an alarming speed.

It was darker in here than it had been in the shop so I could only just make out the 2 figures diving towards me.  I lifted the pistol and took aim, hoping I was aiming high enough, and pulled the trigger, steadying myself for the impact of the shot.

Half the screaming stopped, so I assumed I’d guessed correctly, but didn’t have time to congratulate myself as the other had reached me. 

It grabbed my arm and started for my face, but before it got closer I jerked my elbow up, effectively nailing it in the jaw and causing it to stumble backwards.  Not giving it the chance to recover, I ran towards it, jammed the pistol against its face and fired off another shot.  The sound of bone and brain matter splattering against the wall behind it was wet, like beating a wet towel against concrete, but darker somehow.  The sound crawled beneath my skin and took up residence, like it was promising to secretly creep me out for the rest of my life
.  Fucking awesome.

“
Angie!
” I heard Jack’s pounding footsteps and quickly dropped the body and started for the door.

“Angie, are you ok?” Jack tore around the corner and into the room panting and waving a gun and a gas lantern around, causing the light to cast frantic shadows on the horror scene.  I took in the blood and guts in the dim light and felt my stomach churn.  Head growing light, sweat broke out across my forehead and vomiting became a very real possibility.

Swallowing down the bile that had risen, I tried to clear my throat, but my reply came out more as a croak then words. “I’m fine.”

Jack held the lantern up to my face and studied me closely.  “You sure?”  The concern in his voice was real, and he didn’t just mean the 2 I’d taken out; I knew he meant more.

“Yeah, where’d you get the light?” I ducked around him and walked back out the door, turning and waiting for him to follow.

“We found a couple of these in the shop,” he pulled the door shut behind him as he followed me back into the hall, where I was watching Ty and Chloe finish checking out the other 2 rooms.

“Cool.”  I didn’t meet his gaze, choosing to walk to the end of the hall and tug on the exit door instead.  Fuck, I couldn’t deal with them too much longer; they cared, I could feel their concern for me and it was eating me up that I was lying to them and couldn’t stay.  It wasn’t safe for me to stay with them; I had no way of knowing how the bite would affect me.

Looking all around the edges of the door and giving it a final shove, I was pleased when it didn’t budge.  The bite on my shoulder still itched like crazy and I felt sick.

Turning around, I jumped when I realized all 3 of them had been standing there, just watching me.  “What the fuck is wrong with you, Angie?” Chloe’s voice was both concerned and accusing and I knew I was trapped.

Keeping my head down, I tried to pass by them, but they kept blocking the opening to the shop, effectively trapping me in the hallway.  Half smiling at them, “Is everything else clear?  I mean, are we alone?”

“Answer the fucking question, Angie,” Chloe said, this time moving to stand right in front of me until our noses were almost touching.  “You’ve been weird since we found you and now you’re sweating, you’re kind of green and you look like crap, what gives?”  Her voice started to rise in pitch and for a moment, I started to fear her a little; this tiny thing was kind of scary when she was pissed off.

I was trying desperately to come up with a believable lie when understanding filled her eyes and she started backing up, “You were
bit
, weren’t you?!”  She bumped into Ty standing behind her and he grabbed her shoulders pulling her behind him as they all latched onto her words. 
Well, crap
.

I leaned against the door behind me and let myself crumble to the ground.  I really felt like shit and just couldn’t keep up the act.  My breath came out in short gasps as I let the coolness from the metal seep into my too-hot skin.

I reached over and pulled my sleeve up, so they could see the bite for themselves.  I closed my eyes as the sounds of safeties clicked off and listened to footsteps approach.  Damn, it was going down like this, wasn’t it?  They were just gonna shoot me, just like that.  Made sense though; it’s what I’d want them to do.  A small smile started as it occurred to me that maybe they would be ok; maybe they’d get through this if they stuck together.

Heat from the lantern made my skin feel like I had a sunburn and I could see shadows from the light from beneath my eyelids as fingers prodded the wound.  Any minute now one of them would put a bullet in my skull and it would all be over.  I was almost grateful I wouldn’t have to fight anymore; fuck knew I’d been fighting my whole life, but there was also a huge part of me that wasn’t ready to give up; to give them up.

“Go ahead, shoot me.  What are you waiting for?” I let the defeat leak out into my words, feeling it as it slid over my teeth.

“No one is shooting anyone.”  I opened one eye and peered at Jack.

“What do you mean?  I’ve been bit, I’ll turn at some point; you
have
to shoot me.”  I was starting to sound whiny, but I was really tired.

“Um, why aren’t we shooting her?”  I looked at Jack as I nodded my head in agreement with Chloe. 
Wait, why was Chloe so damn anxious to shoot me?

Jack turned and motioned for the kids to come closer.  I closed the eye I’d been using all my strength to hold open and listened to footsteps shuffling towards me.  “This wound looks days old, how long do you think it takes someone to turn?” Jack asked, tracing the ragged edges of teeth marks on my shoulder.

Ty made a noise in the back of his throat before responding.  “Well, it only took about 15 minutes or so every time I’ve seen someone bit…” 

20 minutes, it takes 20 minutes,
I wanted to tell him, but just didn’t have the strength.

“Exactly.  Look at this, it’s not fresh, so it didn’t happen here, and it’s starting to scab, which means it’s healing,” Jack continued.  “If she were going to turn, she’d have done so already.”  He ran his hand across my forehead and down my cheek.  “What happened to you in there?” His voice was barely more than a whisper, but might as well have been a scream as it echoed around in my head and settled into my chest.

My mouth felt dry and I didn’t have the energy to explain. “Can’t,” I managed, while fighting back tears.

“Goddamnit, Angie!  I’m sick of you playing stoic and keeping shit from us, if you had just dealt with your fucking feelings in the first place, admit that you need us and actually
include
us in your plans for once, maybe we wouldn’t be here right now!”  My eyes snapped open in shock as I watched the anger play out over Ty’s face which had turned red as he turned and punched the wall for emphasis.  Watching as his ribs heaved beneath his black t-shirt from exertion and frustration, I couldn’t help my surprise; I would have expected that kind of outburst from his sister, but not him.