“We were followed.” Max told her.
“Damn. You got a bead on him?”
“Or her, no. I am sure it is a super and I am sure they were behind us and are still over that way somewhere.” Max gestured westward from where they had come.
“So much for crashing here a few days.” Stewart gazed off into the distance at nothing, “Unless….yeah, I think I have a plan, it might work.”
Max scanned the tree line again, he could neither see, nor sense any zombies from that direction. “What is your plan?”
“Has it stopped following us?”
Thinking about it Max said, “Yeah I think it has. I think it is just watching us now. So it is probably at that farm house to the west of us. That is what? A mile away?”
“Probably half a mile. So if we move on, it moves on.”
“Maybe.”
“What if I stay here with the radio and you load up the kids and move on to the next house down the road. The zed would use this place as natural cover, I would be here to ambush it. Or is there more than one?”
“I think there is just one, but it might be bringing friends. I think Tom should stay with you, just have me and Amelia drive out with the kids. You could hide in the basement and wait for it to come in the house, then get it.”
“Yeah, how about you instead of Tom?”
“Okay, Tom did go with you last time. Maybe me and Amelia instead, you guys did the hardware store, we could do this guy.”
“I am good with that plan, we should handle this.” said Amelia.
“Max…” Stewart began, the caught herself before she told him there were not any zombies in the hardware store, instead she shook her head and said, “I don't know, I guess fair is fair, but Amelia you do better with the kids, especially Kenny and Seth. I just want to throttle Seth and let the rest of them live their lives in peace.”
“What? You said my name what are you talking about?” called Seth from near the tire swing and giggling girls.
“I said we need to get you to a place you can live your lives in peace!” said Stewart loudly, then muttered, “Fucking good hearing he has too.”
Max laughed and Amelia asked, “So am I going or staying?”
“Going.” answered Stewart, “Either that or Tom is driving the new boys.”
Tom came out onto the porch carrying a mid-sized cooler and approached them, “I have cold drinks here if anyone is thirsty!” The kids all ran towards him and reached in to grab cans of the various soda pop that he had in the cooler.
Cory held up a light beer and Max snatched it from him, “Thanks buddy, just what I was after!”
He put his hand down into the cooler reaching towards another cold beer and Amelia's voice rang out, “I know you are not reaching for a beer for yourself young man.”
“Aw.”
“Let him have one if he is so keen.” said Stewart.
Amelia gave her an incredulous look and shook her head, “No Cory! Just get a pop and go back to the swing.”
Stewart raised her eyebrows questioningly, “What? It is the best way to turn kids off of beer, let them try and drink one when they are ten and they won't want to try again until they are thirty. No one likes beer, it is an acquired taste.”
“Maybe so, but I don't want him acquiring a taste for it right now, he is stubborn enough to drink the stuff just to prove he can and because he knows I won't approve. You seen how he keeps running around without shoes to bother Seth don't you?”
“I hadn't really noticed. Oh fine! Have it your way, no beer for the twelve and under crowd.” changing the subject Stewart turned towards Tom, “Tom we are going to have you and Amelia pile the kids into the car and head to the next house up the road and stop, like we are house hunting for a place to stay. We were followed so Max and I are going to stay here and ambush the thing following us. I think the guy has been shadowing us since town.”
“It is getting late.” Tom began, “but I guess we don't want to be dealing with this tonight do we? When do we leave?”
“Let the kids play another five minutes then move on. That should give us about a half an hour before dark to kill the bastard.”
The kids were very unhappy when they were told they were going to have to get back into the cars. Max and Stewart each took a shotgun, pistol and a fanny pack full of ammunition. They each selected a hand weapon as well, Max took a bat and Stewart grabbed Tom's crowbar. The two of them then hid in the basement while everyone else milled about the house. The kids were not told why they had to parade into the house, then out of it, but Stewart made them do it before they were herded back into the cars. Amelia made sure Seth was riding with her and Cory was in the other car when they loaded up.
As they stood in the bathroom, which was in the basement almost directly under the front door Stewart spoke to Max, “I think the zeds can see heat.”
“What?”
“It is just a theory, but why were they going after Seth and Kenny in that town? The kids were locked in the basement and there is no way they would have seen them. I think a zed wandered by and noticed a heat signature from the basement and started trying to get in, which drew more zeds to the place.”
“I don't know, if that is the case the zombie is going to see us here before he comes in, we are right under the door.”
“This is an old farmhouse, nothing like that cookie cutter place we picked Seth and Kenny from. The floor has to be a foot thick and the basement was refinished here, so I bet there is at least an extra layer of material between us and the door. Still…” Stewart reached over and turned on the shower, then turned on the cold water in the sink as well. “Maybe it will be enough to make us invisible?”
“I'm not getting in the shower. Shouldn't you put it on hot and try to build up steam instead of just running the cold water?”
“Hm, maybe you are right.” Stewart turned the hot water on in the shower and then switched the sink to hot as well. Soon there was abundant steam filling the little bathroom.
“Ah, another thing, but with the shower on, I can't really hear anything.”
“Are we relying on our ears here or your 'sense'? Just tell me when the thing gets close and I will turn the water off.”
“You're right. Okay…” Max tried to listen in with what he regarded as his zed radar, his eyes opened in shock and he turned to Steward, “Damn!”
“What? Is it here?” she asked turning off the water quickly.
“No. Not yet, but coming at us through the field to the west of the house. It…well I can sense them too.”
“Them? C'mon Max, I don't have any mind reading yet.”
“Them, the others, the kids and Tom and Amelia. They are coming through stronger than the zombies are.”
“Uh, zombies, how many are there?”
“Two, no three of them. One is a kid, a little kid.”
“Shit, can you sense how strong they are?”
“No, but they followed us all the way from town, so I am guessing they are smart.”
“This isn't good.”
“Do we change our plans?”
“Aw hell Max, we didn't make a backup plan, let's just roll with this one. We should be able to kill them right off the bat if we can surprise them.”
“Right.”
“I am not afraid, me big zombie hunter.” she said pounding her chest. “And you are not a slouch yourself mister.”
“I have come a long way.” said Max, thinking back to the very first zombie he had encountered back at his office so long ago, was it only eight days since this started? “Still we were counting on one and now there are three of them if they are the super fast kind we might be in trouble. They are coming out of the field now…almost to the drive. It is hard to tell, I can't really see anything except them.”