Zomb-Pocalypse 3 (13 page)

“Are you okay?” I
ask, but Sunny shakes her head.

“I heard them,” she
says, shaking and crying, and her words make goose pimples break out on my arm.

“It was just a
dream,” Megan soothes as she rubs Sunny’s back, but the little girl stubbornly
shakes her head.

“It wasn’t a
dream. I heard them.” She insists.

“Okay. I’ll go and
look out the window, how about that?” Megan asks, and Sunny looks terrified,
but finally she nods.

Abby stays with
Sunny on the bed, and Megan and I walk over to the window to look out. It’s
darker than the inside of a cow, and we can’t really see anything. “See,
there’s nothing—” Megan starts to say when the loud echo of a gunshot
interrupts her. We see the flair of the muzzle flash and pin-point that it’s
coming from a couple cabins over. “What in the hell are they doing?” Megan
demands as she leans forward, pressing her nose against the glass as she tries
to see what’s going on.

“We should
probably get away from the windows,” I suggest, not wanting to get hit by a
stray bullet.

“But why are they
firing?” Megan demands as she continues to search the blackness of the night.
Several more gunshots erupt, and again we can see the flashes like tiny
fireworks in the dark. Megan looks back at Sunny to see how she’s taking it.
Sunny has her face pressed against Abby’s shoulder and she’s shaking like a leaf.
“Do you think there are zombies out there?” she leans in and asks me in a
whisper, and I shrug helplessly.

“Hopefully they
are just drunk or something,” I say, but Megan doesn’t look convinced and I’m
honestly not either. We haven’t had the time to meet our neighbors yet, but
they don’t seem like the type to do something so reckless for no reason. No one
that has survived this long would do something as reckless as fire an
un-muzzled gun at night, not unless they had no other choice.

“We need to help them.”
Megan says, but I know there is no way in hell my parents are going to let us
go out there in the dark. I’m not even sure if Regg would want to risk it.

“I don’t think we
should go outside. We could get shot, or worse,” I say, my voice shaking a little.
Megan turns to me like she’s going to argue, but the moon suddenly slips out
from behind a cloud and illuminates the ground below, and all argument about
going outside or not, becomes moot.

There are zombies
everywhere.

I feel a scream
bubble up in my throat, so I slap my hand over my mouth just in case I can’t
control the urge. There has to be at least a couple hundred zombies milling
around down there. “Where did they all come from?” Megan asks, but I don’t have
the answer.

My mind races back
to that zombie in the woods today and I can’t help but wonder if that was a
precursor to all of this. I feel like breaking down and crying like a little
girl, I’m so worried and disappointed. We had all just started to feel safe
here, I should’ve known it was too good to last.

My next thought is
even more terrifying. What about Silas, Ryan, and Regg? They are trapped
outside in what basically amounts to a tin can. Fear races through my body and
makes my stomach clench, and I turn and start tearing the room apart, looking
for extra ammo rounds.

“This is going to
be bad,” Megan whispers, and I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing. She
isn’t wrong.

Chapter Twelve

“I have to go find
my parents,” I tell the girls as I grab my pistol and double check that it’s
loaded.

“Jane, I don’t
think you should go,” Abby mumbles, and I shake my head.

“Who else is going
to do it?” I ask, but she doesn’t have a more viable candidate. She just stands
there looking at me helplessly. I know she’s terrified right now; we all are.
My mind keeps asking myself how this could happen.

I know how though,
we got too complacent, in just a week and a half. We thought we were
untouchable up here on this mountain. Now I just hope we don’t die for our
idiocy. My weapons belt settles around my hip like an old friend, and I hope it
still has a little bit of luck left in it. I add a few extra magazines before I
stop and listen at the door. I doubt the zombies are inside the cabin. They
aren’t exactly skilled at sneaking around, but it pays to be cautious. I don’t
hear anything thumping or bumping, so I ease the door open and slip out into
the pitch black hallway without another word to the others.

I can’t use my
flashlight because none of the windows are covered and if we draw attention to
ourselves right now, we’ll be dead. I don’t need light though; I know my path
by heart. I pause at the top of the stairs to listen again. I can hear the
moans of the dead, but they aren’t inside the house—the sound is too faint.

I reach my
parent’s bedroom without encountering any problems and I stand in their
doorway, marveling that they are still asleep with all the gun shots sounding
off. They are on the other side of the cabin though, so maybe that makes a
difference. I step into the room and the floorboard creaks.

“Who’s there?” Dad
demands, sounding instantly alert. I hear him rustling around and know he’s
going for the light. He probably has a knife in his hand too. If he touches the
light, we will all be toast.

“Don’t turn on the
light,” I tell them, barely suppressing the urge to yell it. “It’s me, Jane.”

“Jane?” Mom asks,
sounding sleepy.

“Why can’t we turn
on the light?” Dad asks suspiciously, and I take a deep breath. I’m going to
have to shatter their illusion of safety.

“Zombies,” I say
and hear Mom gasp. I instantly regret being so dramatic. “They’re outside and
there are a lot of them.” I frown, that wasn’t really any better. “You guys
should come upstairs; you can see more from up there.”

I lead the way,
and my parents follow me back upstairs without argument. I tap gently on the
door before I open it. I don’t want Megan blowing my brains out.

The room is dark,
but the moonlight coming in through the large window illuminates the room
enough to see that everyone is exactly where I left them, and they all look
terrified.

My parents stare
out the window, and I watch their shoulders sag when they see exactly what
we’re dealing with. “How did this happen?” Mom asks, but none of us answer. I
don’t know the exact logistics of how the zombies made it up the mountain, no
doubt they probably stumbled along and followed the road, but it doesn’t even
matter now. We need to think about what to do now that they’re here, and our
best chances at survival are sleeping twenty feet away in a trailer that is now
doubling as their prison cell.

“We need to get
the guys,” I say, since no one else is suggesting anything.

“I’m sorry, Jane,
but it’s just too dangerous,” Dad tells me gently, and I know it isn’t easy for
him to say no. He cares about those three, but there is no way he is going to
sanction a suicide mission either.

I walk out of the
room, and Dad follows me. “You’re not going out there,” he tells me, grabbing
at my arm until I stop and face him.

“Do you think I’m
crazy?” I snap. “We need to figure out what’s going on out there and we can’t
see the driveway from here.” I point down the hall to the room that used to
belong to Natalie and Hank. I haven’t been in there since before Natalie turned
and attacked Hank, but I’m determined to do what I have to.

“Okay, but I’m
coming with you,” Dad says, and I shake my head.

“You should really
go wake Barry up. If he wakes up on his own and turns on a light, he’s going to
attract every zombie at the lake.”

“Shit, you’re
right,” Dad says as he hurries off into Barry’s room. My dad never curses, so
that alone is really telling about the level of stress he’s feeling with this
zombie invasion. I stand at the threshold of the third bedroom for a moment to
collect my nerve before I force myself to walk in. The room looks the same as
it always did, except that the carpet has been ripped out and thrown away. I
don’t look anywhere but the window as I walk through. I peek out the window and
see that there are zombies in the driveway too, but not as many as I saw from
my bedroom window. They are wandering around mindlessly, stumbling in the ruts.
I can’t help but notice that every time the gunfire comes from the other cabin,
it draws more and more of them off.

I stand there
watching for several minutes while a plan starts to form in my head. It’s crazy
and if I do survive, I’ll be punished severely. If I fail—I don’t even want to
think about it. If I fail and attract the zombies’ attention, then I won’t be
able to return to the cabin, or I could risk bringing this horde down on
everyone that I love.

I stare down at
the trailer, indecision gnawing at my guts. I did just promise that I’d do
anything to protect Ryan, and not just him. I would risk my life to protect
every single person in that trailer right now. I can’t turn my back on any of
them, especially not right after making that kind of proclamation.

I’d said I’d give
my life for them, and it seems like fate has decided to test me. I bite my lip
as I stare at the trailer, looking for any sign that the guys are awake and
aware of the situation. I don’t see any sign of movement, but that doesn’t mean
they’re asleep. I can’t really imagine Silas sleeping through all this gunfire.
I take a deep breath and head for the stairs, slipping out past the other
bedrooms and down the stairs before anyone has a chance to see me.

Bringing the boys
back is the right thing to do. It’s even the right thing to do for my family
since our best chance at survival is with those three. As far as I know,
zombies can’t open doors, but we might need an alternate escape route, so I go
into the kitchen and unlock the backdoor as quietly as I can. Then I head to
the front. It feels like the long walk to the executioner. I can’t be sure
what’s on the other side, but from what I saw upstairs, the zombies are heading
towards the gunshots.

Guilt swamps me
that I’m actually benefitting from our neighbors’ misfortune, but it’s an
opportunity that I’d be foolish to pass up. I press my face to the window and
stare out, but it’s impossible to see anything from this angle, so I go to the
door instead and do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I
purposely walk out into the zombies.

I ease the front
door open, looking left and right, certain that at any moment a zombie is going
to lunge at me from the porch and sink his teeth in, but nothing happens. I
slip out quietly and shut the door, and that’s when I hear the hungry moan. I
look to my left and see an eager zombie coming at me. That sight alone nearly
has me jumping back into the house, but he’s seen me and now I have to deal
with it. I raise my gun and fire, and I am surprised by the muzzle flash. Damn,
I hadn’t taken that into consideration. The flashes will attract zombies; I
just have to hope that they are still more interested in the noise. It’s dark
and hard to see, so it takes me a couple extra shots to put him down. I don’t
even get time to draw a breath and there’s another one behind him, eager to
take his place. I don’t fire right away this time. I want to let him get a
little closer first. It’s hard to stand and let a zombie run up on you, but the
closer he gets, the easier the shot will be. It will cut down on the muzzle
flashes and save a little ammunition, win—win, as long as I don’t miss. I don’t
miss and he goes down, but it’s so dark that I can’t be sure if there are any
more coming my way. I try to reassure myself that if I can’t see the zombies,
then they probably can’t see me—or so I hope. Thinking about zombies with
night vision just about makes me pee my pants.

I step off the
porch with shaking legs and force myself to keep walking. I hear another zombie
well before I can see him. I freeze, straining my ears, not really sure where
to look. Finally, I hear some brush rattling to my right and I spin and squeeze
the trigger. I actually make the shot on my first try, and the adrenaline spike
makes me decide to throw caution to the wind and just run. Otherwise, I’ll
probably be standing in the yard all night playing the zombie version of
whack-a-mole.

I run as fast as I
can towards the trailer, colliding with a body in the dark. “Silas?” I whisper,
but my only answer is a low growl. I aim at the dark head bobbing around in
front of my face and hit him point blank. The flash illuminates his gruesome
face and the spray of gore from his temple as he falls to the ground. I leap
over the corpse, rather than waste the time going all the way around. Finally,
I reach the trailer. I try the door, but it’s locked—I should’ve thought about
this possibility. Of course they would lock their door. Knocking will be noisy
and might bring the dead, but I don’t have a lot of choices. I make the snap
decision to knock anyway. I came this far and I can’t stand out here all night.
I hear dragging footsteps and spin, planting a bullet in the head of a zombie
that hadn’t even seen me yet. It was just wandering by, too close for comfort.

The door opens a
crack, and I see Silas staring out at me in shock. He’s fully dressed and
loaded down with enough weapons to go to war; behind him I see Ryan and Chad
are outfitted the same. This is my first bit of luck tonight. They are awake,
they are ready, and they know what’s happening.

“Let’s go,” I
growl under my breath, and they don’t stop to question me. I guess the fact
that I made it is enough for them. Silas jumps out of the trailer with his gun
up and the others do the same. I feel Silas grab me and pull me to his side,
not letting go as we fan out and make our way back to the house without too
much incident. We take down four zombies and then another two once we reach the
house. We want to be sure we kill any zombie that might’ve seen us. When we get
closer to the front door, it’s thrown open by my dad.

He doesn’t say
anything, but I can feel the anger radiating off him as we dive into the house
and he locks the door behind us. “Dad,” I say tentatively. In the dim light of
the moon, I see him glance at me sharply. “I left the back door unlocked too,”
I tell him, and he shakes his head.

“I’ve already
locked it,” he snaps. None of us say anything else as we move through the
house, back upstairs. We will probably be screwed if the zombies bust in here,
but right or wrong, upstairs feels like the safest place to be right now. I
squeeze Silas’ hand, and I’m shocked to my very core to feel that his hand is shaking
slightly. His fear terrifies me. If Silas is scared, then I should probably be
scared times about a million.

When we get
upstairs, my dad grabs me by the arm and jerks me off to the side. I see Silas
stop with a frown on his face, but I wave him away. After a moment of
hesitation, he goes into the room with the others.

“I swear to God,”
Dad hisses, getting right in my face. “If you EVER pull a stunt like that again
and it doesn’t get you killed, I will put you over my knee and spank you like
you have never been spanked before!” My dad has never been very strict with me,
but the anger I hear in his voice right now is enough to convince me that I
don’t want to experience it again.

“I’m sorry, Dad,”
I start to tell him, but he shakes his head, refusing to accept my apology.

“No,” he tells me.
“Show me you’re sorry by never doing something so stupid again, you’re words
are meaningless to me right now.” I watch him storm away and feel hurt, even
though I know I deserve his anger. I probably took ten years off his life
tonight—I probably took ten years off my own life! I feel bad for scaring him,
but I can’t regret it because Silas, Ryan, and the Sarge are out of that tin
can in the yard and at least have as much of a chance as any of us now.

“What a shit show,”
Silas is saying as I slink into the room. My mom is sitting beside Sunny and
she doesn’t rush over and hug me. Either Dad didn’t tell her about my little
walk through the yard or she’s super pissed at me too.

Silas turns
towards me and wraps me in his arms. “That was the stupidest, bravest thing
you’ve ever done,” he murmurs in my ear, and I sag against him. I’d been
worried he would be mad at me too. “You shouldn’t have risked your life for
us,” he continues, and I shake my head against his shoulder.

“That’s bull,” I
tell him. “If it had been me out there, I know I could count on all three of
you to come and get me.”

Silas doesn’t seem
to know what to say. ”That’s different,” he finally argues, and I manage a
small laugh—earning me a glare from my dad.

“No, it’s not.
We’ve never left each other for any reason and I’m not going to start now.”

Silas squeezes me
extra tight. “You’re right,” he says, and I nearly fall over in surprise.
“Thank you.”