***This story copyright 2012 to Michael Stewart, All rights Reserved***
Watch out!” Lisa shouted as another shambling form was
caught in brake lights, a yellow and red outline of staggering humanity.
The van screeched its tires as the driver careened around
the form, avoiding it by briefly rolling into someone’s yard and returning to
the street with a noticeable thump.
“I saw him, er…it.” Kaylee said with a thin veneer of
confidence over a high-pitched voice. I just figured it wouldn’t make it so far
across the road before we passed is all.”
“Ow.” Michael stated in a strangely calm voice, while
pulling himself off the boxes of groceries that took up most of the center
floor of the van. “Whatever you did Kaylee, please don’t do it again?”
“Look, you want to drive?” she snarled, turning to look in
the back seat, and taking her eyes off the highway ahead. Before Michael could
reply Lisa snapped, “Keep your eyes on the road, please!”
Kaylee turned around and grumbled over the steering wheel.
“You can drive too Lizzie if you don’t like my driving! What do either of you
care anyhow? It’s not your van.”
“Um…. because we’re riding in it?” Michael offered, with
only a little of his usual sarcasm in the statement. He rubbed his sore back
and continued “Not to mention we’re not even supposed to be here! On the
streets that is.” He leaned over and tried to take a reasonable tone. “Besides,
with this weird plague going around I’m not sure how long it would take an
ambulance to make it to us.”
Lisa finished the thought. “Plus, what if those people made
it to us before the EMTs did?”
The blonde woman shuddered and replied “Ok, ok, ok. But we
don’t want to keep at a crawl either do we?”
“You’re right on that.” Michael remarked while moving to
hunch between the two girls in the front of the van. “Go ahead and turn the
headlights on. We’re well within the subdivision at this point and I can’t see
police lurking around here when there’s more important stuff going on
downtown.” He glanced through the windshield, squinting to see through the rain
plummeting onto the glass. “Heck, with this crap coming down we could hit
someone normal, and we REALLY don’t want that on our conscience. I don’t,
anyway.”
As one the two girls nodded, and Kaylee flicked on the
lights. The twin white beams cut through the night and rain, illuminating about
20 feet in front of the vehicle. ‘Not great’ Michael thought, ‘but it sure
beats two feet of visibility!’
As the van turned a corner, a small figure barreled across
one of the lawns and waved frantically at the vehicle. “Huh?” Kaylee said, automatically
slowing down the van.
“It’s a little girl.” Lisa said, leaning over Kaylee to
better see out the driver’s window. “She’s moving fast, and isn’t infected.”
“How can you be sure?” The driver remarked with uncertainty
in her voice. But she slowed the van and cracked the window open an inch to
talk with the child.
“Please!” gasped the girl, a brown haired kid of about 8
years old. “You’ve got to help my Mommy and Daddy!” Despite the rain, the child
was only wearing pajamas and was barefoot. Yet she seemed not to notice in her
anxiety and fear.
“What’s wrong with them?” Kaylee asked, her suspicion giving
way slowly to concern. “Are they infected with the, whatever, that’s been going
around?”
The girl blinked, and stared at the blonde girl with
confusion. “Infecitd? No, daddy’s just sick. Mommy tried to help him but he’s
chasing her in the house. Jilly’s back there too, I don’t know where. Please?
Help us?”
Michael thought getting involved was a mistake. They needed
to get home, get this food in the house and see about reinforcing the place.
Despite a flood of reasons why they should just move on home careening through
his mind, he heard his own voice say “Yeah, we’ll help. First, get inside here
so it’s safe.”
She looked uncertainly at the van. “Mommy said we’re not
supposed to get in cars with strangers.”
“We’re not strangers,” Lisa said over Kaylee’s shoulder in a
calm and reassuring tone. “We’re going to help you. Strangers don’t do that do
they? I’m Lisa, this is Kaylee and Michael is back there. What’s your name?”
“ummm, Maggie,” she said slowly, her hair now plastered to
her scalp thanks to the torrent of rain.
“Ok, hello Maggie! We’re not strangers anymore.” Lisa smiled
and gestured to the side door of the van. “Now come in out of the rain and tell
us what’s going on.”
* * *
With a metallic slam, the van door closed and Michael walked
around to the curb. Kaylee was already out and handing her keys to Lisa. The
brunette now sat in the driver’s seat and was helping Maggie put on a seat belt
in the passenger side of the van.
“Ok, the gas pedal sticks a little
in this thing, so punch it whenever you’re going to put on the gas.” The blond
girl instructed Lisa. However, she seemed to only be half listening, looking
with concern at Michael. “Are you sure you’ll be ok, Mike?”
“Yeah, no big deal.” He tried to
sound confident, but imagined Lisa wouldn’t be fooled. “Seriously, if the
father is a zomb…er, sick…” He looked uncomfortably at the little girl, but she
seemed not to be listening. “…we can just grab her mom and the sister and get
out here.”
“If we can.” Kaylee looked across
the yard at the open door of the house. The rain wasn’t as loud anymore, but no
sounds or movement could be seen from the house and yard. “That house doesn’t
look very big, so maybe we can just run in and run out.”
Michael nodded. “That’s the plan.
If we have to spend more than 20 minutes looking then odds are they’re not even
in the house anymore.” He winked at Lisa and tried his reassuring smile .
‘Maybe it would even work this time!’ he thought to himself.
“If some of those weirdoes show
up, just circle the block,” he continued. “They’re not so bright so if you can
lead them away and zip back here we shouldn’t have to stay in the yard very
long for a pickup.”
“Uh huh…” Lisa muttered. “We’ll
try and stay safe. You do the same. Both of you!”
Michael and Kaylee nodded and
turned toward the house. He cycled a round into the barrel of the M1 Carbine,
and the blonde made an experimental swing of her bat.
“No prob!” Kaylee said brightly,
her mood apparently unbowed by the darkness and rain. “This will be a piece of
cake!”
* *
Game 3: On the way home
Scenario: This scenario is from the Two Hour Wargames
scenario book for ATZ, Haven. This was originally designed for two police
officers responding to a 911 call, but I modified it to use with our merry
trio. The only changes were:
*1. The older of the two children (Maggie) will flag down
the survivor’s van, thus already attaining one of the scenario goals. A bit of
a cheat, but I couldn’t figure out another way to fix this.
*2. I changed the layout of the house to the one in the
photo. The first one looked really odd, and I wanted something that I could use
my Dwarven Forge in. You’ll also note the very back of the house is stonework…I
ran out of wood DF parts!
*3. Unlike the original scenario, I’m allowing zombies to be
generated outside the house since Lisa is staying in the van. I imagine this
will more than balance getting Maggie as a freebie in turn 1.
Otherwise, the scenario runs as stated.
Time: It is about 3 am, and there is a rainstorm reducing
visibility to 9 inches.
Michael approached the doorway with his carbine at waist
height, so as to aim it towards whatever his body was facing. Or that’s what they
said on the Military Channel anyway. Kaylee was behind him, her earlier bravado
giving way to fear. Staying only one step behind Michael, her white-knuckled
grip on her bat revealed her tension.
The door was almost completely open, no doubt swung by little
Maggie as she rushed out of the house. There were lights on inside but no one
in view.
Leaning against the doorjamb, the man raised his weapon to
first cover the kitchen open area and then the doorless entry to a hallway.
Again, nothing could be seen or heard.
“This is weird.” The blonde woman behind him whispered.
“Where is everyone? Do you think the kid was just out of it, thinking there was
a problem?”
“Dunno, but I doubt it.” Michael replied. “Stay here and
watch the hallway while I check out the kitchen. Yell if you see anyone.”
Kaylee flexed her grip on the baseball bat. “Oh I will,
don’t you worry. You’ll know as soon as I do.”
‘So will half the neighborhood’ he thought to himself as he
slowly creeped toward the kitchen. Kaylee seemed like a decent enough girl, but
they’d only known her for half an hour. She also was a bit bossy and seemed to
have a chip on her shoulder. ‘I just hope that doesn’t get her killed. Or us,
for that matter.’
With that cheery thought he made his way into the kitchen.
It was empty of people, though he did notice a drawer on the floor. Apparently
it was a knife drawer, as several were lying scattered about. He also noticed
some smeared blood on the floor and refrigerator. Not a lot, but enough to make
his skin crawl.
‘Is this the mother’s? The possibly zombified father’s? The
kid’s?’ The thoughts made Michael’s flesh creep. Maggie was untouched, so it
had to be one of the three. Could it have been a wound on the zombie? Or did
someone get bitten? Shaking out of this train of thought, he turned and gave
Kaylee a silent “OK” sign and moved to the hallway. Kaylee started to follow,
but Michael gestured for her to close the door first. She did, and returned to
him with a questioning look.
He whispered, “We don’t want anything coming up behind us,
do we?”
“Oh, right.” She blanched and nodded vigorously.
He gestured to the right hallway, which ended at a window
with a door on the right. “That looks like a bedroom, go check it out.”
The blonde began to look mulish. “Why me? You’ve got the
gun!”
“Because…” Michael sighed, trying to keep their conversation
to a whisper. “Because it’s likely not the Master bedroom, it’s too small. So,
it’s probably one or both of the little girls’ bedrooms. And I think a little
kid is more likely to respond well to someone with a bat than a stranger with a
gun.”
“Uh huh…” She whispered in a cynical tone. “And this
wouldn’t have anything to do with me being a woman would it?”
Michael shrugged, “Frankly? Yes, and if you get over the
non-existent sexist comment and think about this logically you’ll see that it’s
a better idea.”
Kaylee grumbled to herself, but moved toward the bedroom
door. Michael rolled his eyes heavenward and muttered in return. This was going
to get real old, real quick if he had to explain every little thing to her
before she’d help.
He continued to look down the hallway to the left, which
seemed to open up in a den or something. Lights were still on, but no one was
in evidence. Weird…
* * *
Kaylee brushed her bangs with a sweep of her hand, holding
her bat tightly in the other. The door in front of her was closed, and was
decorated with construction paper flowers and hearts. Within two of the hearts
were the names Maggie and Jilly. Michael was right, but damn if she would admit
it to the jerk. ‘He obviously thinks since he’s the MAN he’ll be in charge. I’m
not going for that, and if his girlfriend buys that line from him I’ll just
take off.’ She knew guys like him, and they were always trouble. Right now,
they had more important things to think about though.
She carefully turned the knob and pushed the door open.
Huddling halfway in sight of the interior, she raised her bat and prepared to
whack anyone crazy enough to attack. Nobody did, which was a nice change of pace
as far as she was concerned.
The room was a stereotypical little girl’s room, with a
large princess-style bed on the left side of the area. Toys and some clothes
were scattered on the floor, but there was nobody in evidence. She was about to
turn back and tell ol’ Mikey that it was clear when she heard a faint noise.
Turning, Kaylee scanned the room. Perhaps from the closet?
Moving gingerly toward the closet on the other side of the
room, she passed the bed and heard it again. Like a strangled sob? Not the
closet….under the bed? Great…right now there could very well be monsters under
the bed!
Swallowing nervously, she got down on her knees and pulled
up the blanket to see under the bed. Huddled on the far side of the opening and
flat against the wall was a small girl, not more than 5 years old. “Hey there,”
Kaylee whispered. “Don’t be afraid, we’re here to get you to safety.” The
little girl just stared in terror and tried to curl up into an even smaller
ball. The blonde again brushed her stray locks away from her face and tried
again. “Come on out, we need to go.” Then, inspiration hit her. “You can trust
us, Maggie told us to come get you.”
The name of her sister seemed to click something behind the
child’s terror-stricken eyes. “M…Mh..Maggie? Sent you?”
“Yes,” Kaylee replied, trying to keep her own voice calm
while peeking over her shoulder at the doorway. “But we need to hurry, come
on!”
Slowly at first, then with speed the girl wiggled out from
under the bed and hugged Kaylee. Kaylee hugged her in return, then did her best
to free herself from the child’s surprisingly strong grip. “Ok sweetie, now
hold my hand while we go outside ok?”
The child, apparently named Jilly from the decorated door,
simply nodded and followed her; though keeping an iron grip on her hand.
* * *
Michael saw the two emerge from the bedroom and smiled,
thinking it would be a good time for a ‘maternal Instinct’ comment but for once
common sense prevailed. “Ok, the den’s apparently dead…er…quiet. So, I’ll cover
you from the door and you get her out to the van with Lisa.”
“Ok.” Kaylee replied, apparently more concerned with the
girl’s safety than to one-up Michael. Just keep us covered in case one of those
things comes around in the yard.”
“Will do.” And with that Kaylee picked the little girl in
her arms and sprinted toward the van. Her bat was held awkwardly over her
shoulder, and Michael knew she’d never get it up in time to defend herself or
her burden. So, he kept one eye outside in the yard and the other at the hallway
across the living room.
Nothing bothered the two in their short run across the yard
to the waiting van. The rain had even lightened up, only a mist at this point.
Lisa unlocked the side door and Kaylee slid it open and set Jilly inside the
vehicle near her sister. The two children hugged each other and started to sob
again.
“Everything ok in there?” Lisa asked, looking at Kaylee in
the rear view mirror.
“So far so good, but we’ve only checked out about half the
house so far.” She smiled at Lisa with some of her old confidence returning.
“Michael’s just stood around being macho with his gun while I did the real
work.”
Lisa snickered. “Michael isn’t that bad. Really!”
“If you say so.” She replied dubiously and turned to leave
the van. Moving to close the door, Jilly broke away from her sister and shoved
her little hand out at Kaylee. “Whataminit! Take this.”
Kaylee took the small set of keys from the girl. It was one
of those models where the key chain fob also turned on and off a car alarm.
“What’s this for?”
“I was gonna hide in there once I got less scared.” Jilly
said in a small voice. “You could give them to Mommy so she can find a place to
hide.”
“Ok, hon.” Kaylee pocketed the keys and grasped the sliding
door. But she’ll probably be coming with us. I’ll give her the keys though.
Their conversation cut off when the door was slammed shut. Now able to grasp
her bat again with her usual manic grip, the blonde turned back toward the
house and skidded across the wet grass to the open door. Michael was still at
the doorway, posing with his gun like some kind of commando. ‘What-ever!’ she
thought to herself. ‘We have to get some things straight if I’m going to stay
with this clown.’
* * *
Lisa watched Kaylee’s retreating form until she could see
both her and Michael silhouetted in the door opening. The lights cut off with
the closing of the door, and she sighed. What were they going to do with two
little girls if Mike couldn’t find their mother or father? Could CPS take them
in, what with everything going on?
Distractedly she glanced back into the rear view mirror to
see the two children sitting at the very back seat and chatting about being
wet, the yucky mud, anything but the current situation. ‘Can’t suppose I blame
them.’ She thought to herself. ‘Would I want to dwell on….?’
Lisa caught movement near the back of the van. She turned
the lights back on and saw illuminated in the brake lights three of those
horrible sickos. The closest one was the worst, with half his face missing; the
cartilage and tendons of his face visible and flexing as he bit repeatedly into
the open air.
“Crap!” she put the van into drive and it the gas. As Kaylee
warned, she had to pump the pedal hard and so screeched out from the house more
loudly than she wanted. ‘That’s ok, that’s ok.’ She reassured herself. ‘More
noise means they will follow the van and not go to the house. Like Mike said,
I’ll just lead them around the block then zip back here. I’ll pick Michael,
Kaylee, and the girl’s mother up; we’ll get back home and wait until all this
blows over!’
“Hey, where’s mommy?” Maggie asked, leaning to sit back in
the passenger front seat. “Where are Mitchell and Casey?”
“Not to worry dear.” Lisa replied, keeping a calm voice as
they slowed at the intersection. The idea seemed to be working, the three
infected seemed to be following the van and ignoring the house where Michael
and Kaylee went; all the houses actually. “We’re just going to go around the
block. We’ll be back in a jiffy.” She tried a reassuring smile to the children,
and it seemed to be working. That, and Jilly was rummaging through the food.
“Do you have any pop tarts?” the little girl asked, oblivious to the danger
outside.
* * *
The door to the room creaked as Michael slowly pushed it
open with the barrel of the carbine. For a relatively modern interior door it
sure made a lot of noise. ‘How very Tales From the Crypt,’ he thought as he
squinted in the darkness. As nothing jumped out at him, he stepped into the
doorway and reached with his left hand for the light switch. It flickered on,
and the room was revealed as an office. A desk with two bookshelves was the
total of the furniture decorating the area. Michael leaned over and glanced
under the desk. Nobody home, it appeared.
“Great.” Kaylee stage whispered at her squatting companion.
“Two doors and we get the one without anyone in it.”
Michael glared up at her and whispered “Shhh! Do you want to
draw whatever’s in the house?”
“Sure, if it means we get outta here quicker” Again the
blonde swung her bat at the air. “Let’s face it, nobody’s home anymore. Maybe
the mother took the guy to the hospital? Or even…”
Her ideas were interrupted by a woman’s scream coming from
the other side of the house. Pushing past her, Michael rushed to the other
doorway and kicked it open. Kaylee stared for a second, then shook her head and
followed.
Michael saw the back of a man, staggering toward a bathroom.
He seemed to have forced the door open and a woman was inside begging him to
stop it. “Hey!” Michael shouted, bringing his weapon up to his shoulder.
The figure turned around, and stared at Michael with milky
eyes. His grayish face was expressionless for a moment, then with a snarl he
staggered toward the two in the doorway; unconcerned with the carbine pointed
at his head.
“That’s all I needed to see.” With that, Michael fired at
the creature at point blank range. The bullet went into the zombie’s right eye,
but at an angle and exited out the right temple. Dark red blood spurted from
the wound and knocked the thing over to the ground. Michael realized with one
look that the creature was still active, and so walked toward the former person
and raised the weapon to his shoulder, aiming it at the man’s forehead.
“Leave him alone!” came a scream from the doorway. Michael
glanced up just in time to take a baseball bat to the side of his head. The
carbine’s stock and his right forearm took some of the blow, but it was still
enough to stagger him. With a grunt, he dropped the carbine and fell near the
creature. He moaned and held the side of his head in obvious pain.
“You leave my husband alone! He’s sick!” the unhinged woman
screamed at her husband’s shooter and raised the bat for another strike.
“Stop it!” Kaylee exploded into action, shouting and using
her own baseball bat to knock the woman’s aside. “Your husband’s not just sick,
he’s trying to kill you!”
“No! He understands me!” The wife of the undead monster
staggered back but retained hold on her own bat. “You want to hurt him too! I
won’t let you!” She charged the younger woman with a screech and the melee was
joined.
* * *
Meanwhile,
Lisa was grinding her teeth in frustration. Despite circling the block she
returned to the house only to find that the infected had turned around and were
walking back toward her first location in front of the little girls’ house. As
she pondered what to do, Maggie looked up from her pop tart wrapper and said
“Hey, those freaky people are coming back.”
“Yes…” Lisa replied in a forced calm voice. “They are…so,
we’re going to go back the other way and try to lead them down the street.”
‘What about mommy and daddy?” Jilly squealed from the back.
“They might come out and we’ll be gone!”
Lisa performed a highly illegal U-turn in the street and
then glanced in the rear view mirror again to make sure the zombies were moving
toward the van. ‘Great,’ she thought to herself. ‘Now Michael has me
calling them zombies.’
The return of the van did seem to catch their attention
again, so Lisa moved slowly back down the road. This time, she kept the van
moving at a crawl to keep their attention. This time she would wait until well
down the connecting street before speeding up.
* * *
“Stop it!” Ducking behind a TV stand, Kaylee’s shouted
attempts at reason were getting nowhere. The lady was obviously nuts! So, with
some reluctance she waited for the guy’s wife to overswing again and then
lunged in with a solid smack to her head. She’d been aiming for the back of her
head but instead she took it full on the side. With a coughing moan she
staggered and fell between Michael and what was once her husband. That
unfortunate was staggering to his feet. When it saw his wife fall down, he fell
upon her and started tearing at her flesh.
Kaylee stood horrified as the man started chewing chunks of
meat from his gurgling wife. Michael was still disoriented, but had enough
presence of mind to skitter back and fumble with his carbine. Though he did get
ahold of it, he couldn’t bring it up to aim at anyone or anything.
So, the blonde shook herself out of her stunned horror and
swung the bat as hard as she could down on the zombie’s head. There was a
sickening crunch of bone and he fell over the body of his wife. Though one of
his legs continued to twitch, he seemed to be out of the fight. Still, Kaylee
smashed his head again to be sure, then drug him off the wounded woman beneath
him.
She was coughing up blood and bleeding profusely. Jesis!’
Kaylee thought franticly. ‘What do I do?’ As she glanced around for something
to staunch the blood flow, the torn woman gave a final cough and collapsed
across the floor. She didn’t move, and her eyes stared unblinking, fixed on the
ceiling.
“Ohgod” Kaylee said, and tried desperately not to be sick.
She looked away, and saw Michael pushing himself to his feet by leaning on the
doorjamb with his shoulder and using the carbine as a cane. His eyes looked
dilated and he didn’t seem to be able to concentrate on anything in his vision.
“G.g..gotta check on her.” He mumbled, gesturing weakly at
the woman on the floor.
“No way guy,” Kaylee
said, glad of something to do other than look at the corpses in front of her.
“What we’ve got to do is get you out of here!”
“No…gotta make sure..” Michael swayed and Kaylee caught him
under the arm and turned toward the door. “C’mon let’s get going. Nothing left
for us around here Mike.”
“But, but….” The man on her shoulder kept trying to speak
but seemed to lose track of a thought again. Only when they were in the Den he
said. “S-she was bit, she might become…”
A cold hand gripped Kaylee’s chest. That’s right! Anyone
bitten by those things just might… She suddenly turned toward the door and
Michael nearly fell over with the movement. Absently she put him against the
wall and stuck her head back into the bedroom.
Dead eyes met hers from the floor. The woman was starting to
sit up, and as her filmed over eyes met Kaylee’s she tried to moan. Instead,
only a wet gurgling sound came from her ruin of a throat. This didn’t seem to
bother the walking corpse, as the once-protective wife shoved the body of her husband
off her legs and started to try to get to her feet.
Kaylee couldn’t deal with another one. Not this soon, and
not someone she saw alive not five minutes ago. Nearly leaping out of the
doorway, she grabbed the semi-coherent Michael and dashed to a back door.
* * *
“This is ridiculous!” Lisa shouted in exasperation. She had
driven the van very slowly around the turn. So slowly that a couple of times
the creatures nearly caught the van in their grip. But she managed to draw them
around and once on the side street parallel to the house she hit the gas and
speeded back around. So fast, she nearly hydroplaned on the parallel
intersection and had to slow a bit to return to the house her boyfriend was
somewhere within.
What awaited her was that same group of zombies once again
coming around the corner, backpedaling once again toward the house. In fact,
they’d apparently even gained a convert as the small group was now four in
number.
“What is this, the local zombie MENSA group?” Remembering
her passengers, Lisa kept her language from becoming more colorful and instead
decided on a change of plan. This time, they’d drive right past them while they
were still at the corner and make the trip a complete circle. Or square. Or
whatever. Then repeat the block but this time leading them further down the
side street.
Fortunately, the two children seemed to enjoy the speeding
up and slowing down of the van. They even squealed with delight at the
hydroplaning, blissfully unaware of the danger they had been in. ‘Once more
unto the breach, dear friends…’ Lisa thought sardonically as she gripped the
steering wheel and aimed the van for the group.
* * *
Using her shoulder to open the back door Kaylee dragged the
woozy Michael out the door and into the garage. Kaylee had hoped that the door
led to the back yard, but no such luck. She did see another door at the far
side of the garage, maybe that led outside? Would Lisa notice them in the
backyard? ‘Probably not, and if I left her man while I ran to the front to flag
down Lisa she’d probably run me over.’ Kaylee thought sourly.
Suddenly the garage was filled with the sound of car honking
and alarms going off! Blinking, Kaylee was momentarily surprised. What
happened? What would set off the car alarm? Then she remembered, the keys in
her pocket. She must’ve hit some button or something while pushing through the
backdoor. She dug the keys out of her jeans and quickly deactivated the alarm.
“Waitaminute…” She said to herself. “This just might do the trick!”
Gathering up Michael she unlocked the SUV with the remote
and pushed him into the passenger door. He stumbled in, unable (or unwilling)
to put his gun down so she just locked him into the seatbelt across the thing.
She slammed the door and moved around the back of the vehicle to hear a crash
against the backdoor. It had swung shut, but now was vibrating in its frame as
something hammered at the door. It wasn’t locked, so it would only be a few
minutes before that cadaver figured out the doorknob!
Not stopping to investigate if there was any kind of door
key on the ring, she fumbled at the car door to get in the driver’s side of the
vehicle. Having seem way too many horror movies, she checked the back seat
before getting in. Nothing!
As she sat in the seat she heard the deep hammering noise of
something at the garage door. It was one of the thin aluminum types and she
could see dents forming where fists were banging on the surface. “Great!” she
shouted in fury. “What now?” her luck held out though as when she started the SUV
the vehicle purred to life immediately. A quick glance at the fuel gauge showed
three-quarters of a tank! Now grinning, she put the car into drive and slammed
on the accelerator.
The zombie outside the garage had been a utilities employee
in life. He’d been killed while checking meter readings in the yard of a
delinquent customer. When he rose, he staggered out into the world and did his
unthinking best to spread his disease of undeath. One of his victims was Mr. Al
Bailey, the former owner of this house. However, he was unaware of this and
wouldn’t have cared if he had known. All he knew was there was noise behind
this metal wall. Noise meant food, so he hammered his decaying fists against
the surface of the barrier. If he could have thought, he might’ve been
concerned by the sound of a car engine starting within, and the screech of
tires on concrete. But he couldn’t so he didn’t.
It was in this state of blissful ignorance that his unlife
was put to an end by a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolling over the garage door,
which was rolling over him in turn. Kaylee couldn’t hear the noise of the
utility worker’s unlife coming to a crunching end, but if she had it would have
only added to her whoop of glee as the SUV peeled out of the driveway and into
the street.
The rain had almost stopped now, so Lisa could see the SUV
barrel out of the garage of the house and speed up towards the van. Only when
it was within 20 feet did the driver of the Jeep remember to turn their lights
on. The Jeep moved to level the driver’s window with Lisa’s and with some
relief she saw a grinning Kaylee at the wheel. Michael was next to her,
apparently sliding his arms out of the seatbelt and putting them gingerly to
his head.
“Oh my, are you two all right?” Lisa’s statement was to both
of them, but Kaylee could see her eyes locked on Michael’s hunched form. “It’s
ok,” she answered, “Mikey took a hit to the head but it’s not serious. Let’s go
back to your house…I’ll follow.”
“But what about…” Lisa cut off her sentence as she saw Kaylee
glance nervously at the back of the van where the two girls continued to
chatter away at each other. The blonde looked back at Lisa and mutely shook her
head no. Nodding, Lisa rolled up the window and led the way down the street.
Back home? Where it was safe? Lisa found herself beginning to wonder if
anyplace was safe anymore.
The End –
