Winter's Salvation (24 page)

The heat on his hand started to bite at his skin and right before the cocktail bombs cloth took flame, a figure moved toward him in the inferno.  The creature’s arms were out stretched reaching for whatever would land between its fingers.  Drew fell backward spilling the fuel in the first bottle on the street.  The ghoul let out a scream and fire swirled from its mouth as it bellowed.  The creature’s eyes were open, but all that remained were the pits in its burning head.  It inhaled to let out another scream and the fire from around its face and clothes, was pulled over its peeling skin and into its gaping maw as it let out another breath of flame, but no sound traveled with it.

Drew crab crawled back to avoid the contents of the spilled bottle just in time for it to light up.  The ghoul dropped onto the newly lit flame and remained still.  He took the last bottle from his other hand and lit it on the still zombie.  Running to the house, he threw the Molotov cocktail at the side of the house with the undead that were making their way toward the street.  The flame exploded against the zombies, the side of the house and the bushes that traveled the side of the home.

Naomi and Sam watched this boy risk burning alive while avoiding the undead all while trying to drag an extension ladder toward them.  Naomi shuttered when he threw the bomb toward the house, as she knew her father’s home would surely catch fire.  As the thin boy moved out of sight from the roof, she moved to look over the edge.  She could barely make out the sound of the extension ladder banging against her parents house as it was being extended, over the groaning of the burning ghouls. 

The top of the ladder almost struck Naomi as it was propped against the house and caused her to flinch backward.  “Climb down!” was clearly heard from the out of breath boy, “I’ll get them away from the house!” 

Naomi grabbed the ladder and looked over the side and saw a burning body laying face down just three feet from the bottom of the ladder.  The boy was guiding the rest of the undead into the fire and then trying to lead them away, but as they caught fire they seemed to lose their direction as their eyes began to burn. 

Naomi took hold of the ladder and fought the pain that shot through her body as she climbed down.  Sam stood up and took hold of the top as her mother climbed down.  Excitedly Sam motivated her mother to move faster as one of the zombies made its way onto the roof.  It was on it’s hands and knees trying to
stand, but another zombie crawling onto the roof from the window pushed the kneeling ghoul off the roof and onto the horde below.  

Many undead reached for Drew over the porch railing as he lead the undead by the ladder through the flames and then away from the escaping women.  Naomi and Sam made it to the ground as the flames on the side of the house had climbed up the siding.  Naomi knew the home she once lived in was going to burn.  All of her memories from that house were going to burn up with the undead in it.  She wished she could have grabbed a picture of her parents and for that split second she realized that she would never see her parents again. 

The fire was spreading rapidly and the sky filled with grey and black smoke.  They began to cough as the thick smoke hung heavy next to the house.  Drew came running around the fire with a look of confidence as he jumped over one of the burning motionless undead that lay face first in the dirt.  Naomi and Sam both watched him run toward them and waited for instructions.  “Run!” Was the only instructed given and that was shouted as he passed by them. 

They both followed and saw that the fire from the street was spreading amongst the ghouls, jumping from zombie to zombie and stretching toward the house.  The undead on the porch reached for the women as they ran past and the orange glow of the flame was beginning to lick the underside of the roof that they were just sitting on. 

Drew ran across the street and glanced back to ensure they were behind him.  As he looked back the wall of fire to his left was gravitating toward him as the undead were pushing through the flames.  The zombies were scattering to other houses on the street and many bushes that lined the street were beginning to go up in flames with the undead bodies lying in them.  He ran to the driveway and watched as Naomi and Sam caught up with him.  The fire on the street had spread just shy of his driveway, and the few undead that managed to follow the escapees were moving to close to the fire and were completely engulfed and falling before they reached the sidewalk. 

When they got to the tall wooden fence Drew closed it behind them and guided them through the back of the house and quickly went to the front window to see how far the fires were actually going to get.  The original undead that were hit with the Molotov cocktail bomb were laying in the street with their bodies still aflame.  There were no more coming from up the street, but the groans of the undead were still loud coming from the direction of Naomi’s house.   He heard the sound of the back door close and ran back toward it. 

He stood next to Naomi and watched her twist the pad lock on the door.  Drew grabbed hold of the lock and twisted it back before she could let go.  “I have to keep this door unlocked.  I have a friend that will be coming through and he can’t be out there waiting for one of us to unlock it.  He should be back anytime now.”  From across the street and as they were running Drew never realized how tall Naomi was.  He had to look up to her as he spoke and whom he assumed was Naomi’s daughter was just as tall as he was. 

A sudden movement from the back yard startled all three of them as they peered through the windows in the door.  Falling from the six foot privacy fence was a figure of a man that was made visible by the bright rays of the moon. 

Chapter 12

The Beach

             
Eric was breathing heavily by the time he got inside the house.  “Wow, that was interesting.”  He said as he bent over and put his hands on his knees.  He took a large deep breath, stood up and closed the curtains to the back door and took a look at the two visitors Drew had welcomed in.  Eric was immediately taken back by Naomi’s height and then caught a glimpse of her deep set, dark emerald green eyes.  For the first time in two months he found himself thinking about his hygiene.  He began to think of how he must smell and whether he was clean or not.  He bathed when he could, but hadn’t washed himself with a wet cloth in a few days and this meeting with this beautiful woman made him uneasy.   

             
“We can’t thank you enough,” Naomi said feeling out of place.  She felt his awkwardness and wanted to fill the few seconds of silence.  “My names Naomi,” she said to both Drew and Eric.  “This is my daughter Sam.” 

             
As she spoke Eric put his hand out to welcome her into the house.  She accepted the hand and grabbed it like the professional woman she is and squeezed it firmly.  “Eric.”  He threw his hand to Drew, “This here is Drew.  If you haven’t introduced yourselves yet.” 

“That was my parents place across the street.”  Naomi nodded her head and raised her hand to the front of the house.  “They weren’t in there.  They probably got stuck on the street somewhere going to our house.”  She looked down at Samantha who was staring at her hanging on every word she spoke.  Naomi continued to talk, but the vo
lume of her voice trailed off to a whisper.  “I don’t believe my parents will ever come back to that house.”  She began to distance herself from her old home.  “Their car is gone and their place is now on fire.”  That broke her composure for an instant, but neither Drew nor Eric caught it. Samantha, however did and that caused her to lose hers.  “Even if they did come back they have nothing to come back to.”  Tears were now pouring from Sam’s eyes and rolling over her light brown cheeks.     

             
Eric was unaware that their house caught fire and wanted to comfort the two guest, but was not sure how to do it.  Naomi didn’t give the impression that she was the type of woman that would welcome a hug or even any type of helpful pat.  He was not going to approach her daughter because the vision of an angry mother bear popped into his mind.  Instead he took the sympathetic, mournful approach.  “I’m truly sorry about your parents.” He paused, “I didn’t mean to damage their house.”

             
“No need.”  Her eyes were glassy as tears continued to well, but she fought them from pouring from her deep emerald green eyes.  “They weren’t coming back anyway.  I am not going to hold my breath waiting for them.” 

             
Eric and Drew thought this was odd maybe a little heartless, but Drew turned on the part of good host.  “Are you hungry?” Drew waited for any reply, “We have all kinds of food in the cabinets.”

             
Naomi refused politely and made her way to the front windows.  She watched as the front porch collapsed sending spirals of burning embers dancing high into the night’s sky. 

             
Sam joined her and they watched with a long, silent, hypnotic stare as the fire grew larger.   Naomi snapped out of it and turned to Eric, who was trying to think about what to say about catching her parent’s house on fire.  “Who’s house is this?”  Naomi asked.         

             
Drew looked around the living room studying his surroundings looking for an answer.  Eric paused thinking of his reply.  He didn’t know exactly how to answer and not offend her.  He thought about her fragile state of mind and whether she would blow up on him after he told her we just decided to break in, eat all the food, and sleep in a comfortable bed.  “Um, I have no idea.  The door was open and we needed a place to stay until morning.”  He thought about how he answered her question and continued with a little more buffer, “We were just making our way north and needed a place to stay for the night.” 

             
“Where up north?” Naomi asked quickly to his response with no emotion.  With the sudden destruction of her old home, she was swiftly building a new shell around her emotions and learning to adapt.  She felt inside that the best way to get over her missing parents and being homeless was not to care about anything else.  She did have one thing she could not turn her cold shoulder on and that was her daughter.   

             
He expected a little confrontation, but it never materialized.  “We’re going up to Maryland.”                  “You have a long way then.  Were you planning on walking all that way?  The news showed the highways and they are completely shut down.  All the busy or major roads are blocked and a lot of those things are on them.”

             
“So far we’ve been traveling by foot.  I would really love to find a bike or something though.”  He looked to Drew, “Maybe we should start looking for some.”  Drew responded with a shrug.   “About a month or so ago when this first started, I got in touch with my folks, but the phones died and I haven’t heard from them since.  I have to see for myself that they are ok.”

             
“What if they’re not?”  She responded coldly.  Naomi was trying to find comfort with her new persona.  

             
Eric was taken aback by this question.  It was legitimate, but he didn’t know.  He never really thought about the outcome of going home and his parents not being there.  Even worse, he would make it there and they greet him by trying to eat him.  “I don’t know.  I guess I will travel somewhere else.” He didn’t know what he was going to do.  All that he had ever known was what he has always done, everyday waking up and going to work.  Every day he would go out with his friends, or go to the local fast food or grocery store to grab a bite.  He was used to having some type of agenda that normally consisted of doing something, normal.  Yes he had been adjusting to eating on the go with every house that they stopped in, but what is going to happen when he wants to settle?  When he gets to his parents place and they are not there, is he going to move on?  The canned foods will eventually run out in the surrounding neighborhoods and he now realized that he has no skills to survive on the road or out in the country.  Eric did not respond to the question and fell into deep thought about how he was going to be able to survive and what he was going to do after he got to his parent’s house.     

             
A few seconds passed by and they all could see that he was in deep thought and angry with the question.  Drew was the first to break this silence, “Are you planning on staying here?  You can come with us if you would like.” 

             
Naomi had some doubts about traveling, but Sam did not.  Sam wanted nothing to do with traveling to Maryland.  Her thoughts were on her father.  They had wasted more than a month staying at Mr. Cooks when they could have been out looking for her father. 

             
Sam responded quickly without weighing the options.  “We are going to be headed back to find my father.”

             
Naomi was insulted that her daughter would speak for her (knowing she wanted to do nothing of the sort).  She responded with, “I think we could go with you.”  She had to make the decision, not her daughter.  Sam wasn’t thinking rationally.  The more people they have the better they will be able to survive.  Naomi knew that in her state she was no good to Sam and they are going to need someone to get the things they need.  Plus Drew and Eric have proven that they could hold the dead off better than they ever could.