The
mid-morning light poured fitfully through the bay windows as Michael stared
bleakly through them into the front yard. A nice, open front yard. A yard with
no obstacles, and nice, BIG bay windows of fine glass between him and the
outside. Nice, clean, easily shatterable glass that wouldn't hold those freaks
out at all. With a deep sigh, he turned to the slim brunette girl standing next
to him.
"This
isn't going to work Lisa." He began with what he hoped was a judicious
tone to his voice. "There's no way we can barricade this window. There's
just too much of it and not enough wood. Or supports to brace against, for that
matter."
Lisa
absently flicked back a strand of her hair that had escaped the ponytail she
usually kept it tied in. "Why not? Don't forget the bricks make the
approach to the windows tough. Not more than a few people could get to the
windows thanks to the terrace." She shrugged her shoulders and turned to
the back wall. "And don't forget this big old china cabinet; it'll cover
the main window with room to spare."
Michael
looked at the huge Waterford cabinet. Its true the thing was massive, and
solidly built. It would cover most of the front glass. The step-terraced
brickwork would certainly keep all but a handful of zombies from pushing at the
glass. He smiled to himself when he thought about his return to the apartment
and trying to convince Lisa of the danger waiting not six blocks from them.
He'd made a mistake calling them 'Zombies'; but it was too late to change it
now. The moment he mentioned the 'Z' word to Lisa and she refused to take his
worries seriously. Even with the KTYS TV news reporting riots and assaults, she
would only agree that something weird was going on. She didn't like the thought
of the walking dead, and refused to give it credence. She was still thinking of
human burglars, and Michael knew that only direct experience would change that.
"You
know..." he began tentatively. "We could just go into the country,
maybe to Helen's old cabin in the woods? Where we do the Medieval Recreation
events? We could even..."
She cut
him off. I am not going out to BFE. My parents house is far out enough."
She gestured around them with her hands. "Besides, mom and dad's place is
plenty big, they don't mind us staying, and we're in a good neighborhood; not
like those riot areas north of Fifteenth Street."
'Actually'
he thought sourly to him 'only your mom doesn't mind us being here.' Lisa's
father wasn't a bad sort, but unless it was on talk radio he didn't think it
was true. They were beginning to talk about the riots all right, but they
blamed it on Communists and Democrats. What was worse, her father refused to
stay at home and insisted on going in to work, in downtown Tyson no less. He
promised to keep calling in every few hours to the house, but Michael was
becoming more and more concerned that he and Lisa might have to go pull him out
of the Bank of America building. 'If there's time...' Michael thought sadly.
But it would do no good to get Lisa's dad back here if they couldn't make sure
this place was secure. "Ok,..." he conceded "Let's move the
cabinet over there and see just how much it can cover."
To his
surprise, it really did cove most of the class. The thick wood took nails well,
and removing the shelves gave some nice treated oak boards to cover the two
smaller adjoining windows flanking the main glass. The two then pushed the
dining room table flush against the cabinet. Lisa looked triumphantly at
Michael and smiled. Michael was still skeptical, though even he couldn’t admit for
sure if this was sincere or his own stubborn determination to admit he was wrong.
“Well, it
LOOKS decent.” He reluctantly said, his voice giving ample evidence of his uncertainty.
“But we still need more reinforcement.”
“Oh please!
The only thing we need to worry about is my mom’s irritation at us wrecking the
china cabinet.” She tapped experimentally on the boards covering the flanking French-style
windows on each side of the main glass. “It’ll be fine.”
Michael
admitted defeat with ill grace. “Ok, but if some of those people come through the
window I’m going to say I-told-you-so.”
With that
the two went to the other windows further in the house. Michael still insisting
that further in the country would be better than the suburbs. Lisa, of course, blithely
ignored his mood and began pointing out more furniture that could be sacrificed
for security.
