Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place (25 page)

At their nods, Mick unlocked the door and threw back the deadbolt. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped out.

****

Charlie opened his eyes, and for a moment wasn’t quite sure where he was. Turning his head, he smiled at the woman lying next to him. Judith still slept, her tousled blonde hair covering her face. Charlie reached over and carefully brushed a curl off her forehead. She stirred and opened her eyes. Shoving the rest of her hair from her face, she smiled up at him.

“
Mornin’,” Charlie said in a half-whisper.

“
Mornin’,” Judith echoed back. She squinted at the clock. “What time is it?”

“
About 9, we slept in a bit.”

Judith sat up. “A bit? I should have been up at least an hour ago; they need me to help with breakfast.”

Charlie shook his head, causing him to wince in pain. When they returned last night, everyone gathered together to discuss what happened at Dave‘s Place. Someone was passing around a couple bottles of whiskey and he wasn’t sure how much he had, but it was enough to give him a bit of a hangover.

“
After what we went through I don’t think anyone expects too much from us right now,” he murmured. Leaning over, he gently kissed Judith.

“
Are you ok about last night?”

At her nod, Charlie grinned. “Are you ok?” she countered with a grin of her own.

“
Oh yeah,” Charlie growled playfully. Judith chuckled and slapped him lightly on the arm. “I’ve had my eye on you for some time now.”

Judith threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, really? You’ve only known me a few days.”

“
Well, it feels like I’ve known you longer than that,” he quipped. He reached over and stroked her cheek. “I’d like to know everything there is to know about you,” he said with a serious expression on his face. “One thing this whole mess has taught me is to take nothing for granted and to not waste the time we’re given.”

“
I feel the same way,” Judith said with a shy smile at Charlie, which made him feel warm all over. “But, I do have to get up now. Travis stayed over at a friend’s apartment after his shift, but he’ll be back soon.”

Realizing her remark was also his cue to get up and moving, he quickly rolled out of bed and pulled on his heavily wrinkled jeans.

“
I’m going to go check on things,” he replied while pulling an equally wrinkled t-shirt over his head. “Want to meet back here in about an hour? I’ll cook breakfast for all of us.”

“
Sounds good to me,” Judith said with a nod.

Charlie leaned over to give her a lingering kiss. “Ok, be back soon!”

Despite the headache, Charlie hoped they would have a good day in Shady Oaks for a change. They all deserved it and being the optimist he was, Charlie began to whistle a lively tune on his way out of Judith’s apartment. When he stepped out into the hall, he heard her laugh behind him, which made him grin and whistle even louder.

Strolling toward the lobby, he spotted Rose and Kevin sitting by the open door. They both looked up and smiled at his approach.

“
Hiya Rose - Kevin,” he said jovially. “I’m looking for Dexter, is he outside?”

Both Rose and Kevin nodded in unison.

“
Daddy’s talkin’ to Sean,” Kevin interjected. He turned and pointed. “Out by the street.”

Charlie grinned and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Thanks son.”

Kevin grinned back and turned to his mother. “Mama, can I go with Uncle Charlie to see what Dad’s doin’?”

Rose glanced up at Charlie.

“
Sure, I’ll take him,” Charlie replied with a good humored shrug. He put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder as he stood up. “Let’s go kiddo.”

Together they strode toward the street, Charlie scanning the area for anything unusual. Dexter was leaning against Barry’s truck and talking to him through the window. He looked up when they approached, and to Charlie’s surprise, held out a hand to Kevin and the boy scurried over. Charlie waved at Barry, who returned his wave with a smart little salute and a lopsided grin.

“
About time you got yer lazy backside outta bed,” Dexter grumbled. Then he smiled, surprising Charlie further. Charlie surmised that having Rose and Kevin around was a good thing for Dexter‘s mood. “We searched the big grid this morning and since we took out so many zombies already, it looks safe enough to move some families into a few of the houses next to where we’re all staying now. Been talking to Barry here about helping us out. The yards need mowed and trash picked up; Barry says he's the man for that.”

Charlie looked over at the row of small, neat homes east of the apartment building. He could see the logic in the decision and nodded his head.

“
So who’s moving in?” he asked.

Dexter scratched his head with this free hand. “Well, lemme see. Rose and I took one, so did Darrell and Megan. I think Judith and Travis are moving into one, too. The other three, can’t remember offhand, but they‘re all families with at least one kid. Oh yeah, one of the new guys - Mark I believe his name is - and his son Reggie want one. Will sure free up space at the apartment, was getting kinda crowded.”

“
True,” Charlie agreed. He liked the idea of Judith having her own place. She and Travis lived in a rental trailer on the outskirts of town, and it was out of the question for them to return. He hoped she liked the new house well enough to stay there permanently or at least for a good while.

He allowed himself the brief thought that maybe someday soon, if things progressed with Judith and Travis, that he could join them. She hadn’t mentioned the house to him, but then they did little talking the night before. Seeing movement from the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the houses again. Jenny was exiting the house closest to them, with Megan right behind.

“
Jenny!” he called out with a wave. She looked up, waved back, and hurried over.

“
Whatcha been doing?” Charlie asked.

“
We set up a small generator in the back yard, all the houses have one, so they can at least run a few lights at night and run the frig in the evening too. Megan had this idea to freeze two large blocks of ice in the freezer at night. Then we leave one in the freezer and put one in the frig to keep things cold during the day when the generator is off. Pretty smart way to do things until we have a more permanent source of power.”

Charlie nodded. “That is smart,” he said. Suddenly, he caught a whiff of something burning. “Do you all smell that?” he asked the group.

He watched them sniff the air.

“
I smell it,” Dexter said, Kevin nodding next to him.

Jenny and Megan nodded too and turning in a slow circle, Charlie scanned the sky. Sure enough, he saw smoke rising from near the school.

He pointed. “Over there.”

They looked in the direction he was pointing. Dexter took Kevin’s hand again and began moving toward the apartment. “Looks like we better hoof it over there,” he said as he passed Charlie.

Here we go again, Charlie thought as he waved the two women in front of him on, following behind as they headed for the apartment to sound the alarm.

Chapter 30

The moment Mick stepped outside shots rang out again, causing him to flinch involuntarily. He bent over and scurried to a tree next to the building, peering around the trunk. At the end of the block, he saw a group of people in firing positions. As he watched, they began to back up at a fast pace. When he glanced further down, he gasped. The entire street was filled with zombies, with more spilling out from the side streets.

“
Oh my,” he heard Cindy whisper from behind him. “Those people need to be running as fast as they can or they’re not going to make it.”

“
There’s too many of them!” Jeff exclaimed. He was positioned near the corner of the warehouse across the street, with Lindsey crouched down behind him. “What are we going to do?”

Mick frowned, trying to think. “Guess the only thing we can do is offer support for as long as possible. If they can get here before the zombies, they have a chance. If not, well they can make a stand here and we will do what we can from inside and get them in when we can or they will have to keep going.”

A sudden gunshot from directly behind caused them to jump and turn toward the sound. Sarah was aiming at something on the street that ran alongside their building. Mick quickly glanced down the street and what he saw caused his blood to run cold.

“
Everyone inside, right now!” he yelled. Not waiting for a reply, he grabbed Cindy’s arm and together they sprinted back to the door. Sarah stepped quickly inside to get out of their way. Jeff and Lindsey were right on their heels. Without a word, Mick slammed the door shut, locked it and threw the bolt. Almost immediately, the banging began.

Sarah was shaking, but she managed a weak smile. “Damn, that was a close one,” she shouted over the noise. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. “One minute the street was clear and I was watching all of you and the next - there were at least a hundred of those things coming!”

“
Let’s go upstairs so we can see what’s happening,” Cindy said above the din.

As they hurried upstairs, Mick said, “I’m going up on the roof; I think we need a good view of the whole area. Tell Scott I’ll give him a yell on the walkie when I get up there.”

“
I’ll go with you,” Jeff volunteered.

“
Sounds good, thanks.” Mick huffed.

Upon reaching the fourth floor, the women peeled off to talk to Scott and Matt, who were still firing from the balcony. Mick glanced through the balcony doors on his way to the stairs and saw Parker had joined them. He was looking through the binoculars and talking. Mick turned his attention back toward getting up the final set of stairs.

“
After all the stair climbing I’ve done, this should get easier,” he said between breaths to Jeff.

“
Yep, you’d think so,” Jeff replied. He was breathing as hard as Mick.

They ran up the final flight of steps and raced through the door.

“
I’ll look over here, you go to the other side,” Mick said as he ran to the north side of the building. Jeff nodded and trotted to the south end.

Once Mick reached the edge, he quickly looked down the street. He keyed up the walkie. “Scott, you hear me?”

“
Mick, it's Cindy,” she replied. “He’s kind of busy right now.”

“
Ok, tell him there’s no way we can let these people in, those things are growing in number by the second. I’m guessing there’s at least three hundred down there right now,” Mick said quickly. He turned his head to shout at Jeff. “What’s it looking like over there?”

Jeff shook his head and pointed a thumb down. “They’re everywhere over here,” he yelled back. “Some of them are trying to scale the back wall.”

Mick swore under his breath. Keying up the walkie again he said, “Cindy, take Parker and go downstairs. Make sure everything is secure, ok?”

“
Will do.”

“
Let me know when you’re finished and on your way back up.”

“
Ok.”

Mick turned to Jeff who was still watching the activity below. “Jeff! Stay there and keep an eye on what they’re doing. I’m going to run down and talk to Scott then I’ll be back. If you need to, take out those things back there. Last thing we need is for them to get over that wall.”

“
Was getting ready to do just that,” Jeff shouted back, swinging his rifle around to take aim. As the first shot rang out behind him, Mick hurried back down the stairs. At that moment he felt a little panicked, wishing they had all gone to Shady Oaks when they had the chance.

****

The fire wasn’t too bad, at least that was Charlie’s opinion when they first arrived at the scene. A zombie on fire probably started the blaze, which took some time to really catch. The fire began near a small shed behind a house across the street from the football field. Upon closer inspection, Charlie could see the shed only partially burned, but the fire traveled across the dry grass of the backyard and over to the house. The back of the house was now burning, threatening to quickly spread.