In bad movies, someone tripped, fell, and twisted an ankle. I almost held my breath as we ran, waiting for such a cliché to happen. It did not.
We reached the end of the lower half of the “L” shaped plaza. Here, we did stop. I held up my fist. The kids were behind me. Allison behind them. I checked around the corner. I expected to see at least some zombies.
I’d been wrong.
There was more than some. I counted ten.
“Chase?”
“Zombies. Ten,” I said.
“Fast ones?”
“Can’t tell.”
“I want my ax,” Charlene said.
I closed my eyes. “We can’t go this way.”
“We can’t go back the way we came. We don’t have time for that,” Allison said. I wish she’d stayed with Dave. The Humvee would be there, or was there. She’d be safe. It would be one less person I had to worry about. “Try the radio.”
“There’s nothing Dave can do,” I said.
“Maybe the Border Patrol is there, and they can help.”
“And if they’re not? Then Dave’s going to come. I don’t want him trying to save us. He has a chance to get out of this,” I said.
“We all do.”
I bit my lip and lifted the radio. “Dave? Dave you there?”
We waited. Silence. It boomed. Nothing.
“Dave?”
They might be gone already. Rescued. I lowered the radio; fit the clip onto my pants.
It crackled. “Chase? Chase, where are you? Over.”
I looked at Allison. “We have my kids. We’re behind the Toys R Us. Making our way back to you. The Humvee there?”
“Not yet. Over,” he said.
“You guys safe?”
“So far. We’re staying low. Keeping quiet. Over.”
“Listen, you don’t wait for us. Got it? You hear me?”
Allison reached for the radio. “What are you doing?”
I was saving lives. “Stop it,” I said.
I knew what I was doing. My kids were with me. I wanted them out of here more than anything. I shut the radio off. “We’re going to make it,” I said. “Humvee’s not there yet. So we have time.”
Allison shook her head. “Whatever you say.”
I ignored the poison in her words. Passive aggressiveness wasn’t going to change my mind. Not this time. I was going to save us. All of us. I just wasn’t sure how. Yet.
Chapter Forty-One
So far, we’d made it nowhere. We stood, the four of us, with backs to the cinder block wall. Possibly only minutes had passed. Felt like hours. I kept checking around the corner.
The zombies were still there. They milled about. They were closer though. We’d have to move.
“What are we going to do?”
I stared at Allison, then past her, and smiled.
“What? You have an idea.”
The sun finally worked to our advantage.
The daylight, you might say, had saved us.
I pointed.
Allison turned. She looked back at me. She was all smiles. “Let’s go kids,” she said.
I hoisted Cash up onto the Dumpster. It sat behind a Chinese takeout place. I couldn’t read the writing on the back door.
Sure, we could have tried all the back doors into the different shops. I didn’t want to be trapped inside. Who knew how many zombies might be lurking about.
Charlene climbed up next, on her own. She set her hands inside the slid-open Dumpster door, and planted a foot as high as possible, and hoisted herself up. She pushed up and stood onto the dumpster next to her brother. She held out a hand for Allison.
I gave Allison a lift.
Then I heard them. Unmistakable moans. Groans.
“Behind you, Daddy,” Charlene said, as Allison and she clasped hands. I pushed. Charlene pulled and Allison was up. And safe.
I handed them the ax. I copied my daughter. Hands inside the opening on the sliding door. Planted my foot.
“Daddy!”
I knew they were more than right behind me.
My dress shoes slipped on the outside wall of the dumpster.
I turned around, and ducked.
The zombie lunged. He fell halfway into the garbage. I grabbed his legs. He flopped inside the Dumpster.
I had mere seconds to try again. I wasn’t comfortable climbing the dumpster by the open door, so I closed it. I pulled myself halfway up.
“They’re all coming, Chase. Hurry. Hurry.”
I refrained from telling Allison she wasn’t helping by panicking.
My girls lifted me by tugging on the backpack.
I heard Cash. He was crying.
I’d comfort him, but not yet. We had to move.
Once we were on the dumpster, the ladder to the roof was easy to access. Would have been better if the dumpster was slightly closer to the back of the building. We’d manage.
The gathering zombies surrounded the dumpster.
We had no way down, or out. The ladder, the roof, was now our only option. My face felt hot. I knew I was sweating. “Allison, you’re going first.”
She didn’t argue. She knew she’d need to help get the kids over and up.
She stood on the edge of the dumpster. Fingertips of the zombies clawed at the toe of her shoes -- just out of reach from grabbing her foot and yanking her off, and down for their mealtime.
“Daddy!” Cash was shaking.
“We’re almost there, buddy. We’re almost out of here.”
Allison stretched a leg out towards the first ladder wrung.
“I don’t reach,” she said.
“You’ll have to jump to it,” I said. It was obvious.
“I don’t think I can,” she said.
“Alley, you almost reach. It’s not a far jump. Just keep your eyes on the ladder. Reach for the ladder with both hands,” I said.
She clapped her hands together. It would be cute if she were working up nerve to jump into a swimming pool. Right now, I was simply annoyed.
“Alley! Jump!”
Startled, she jumped.
In my mind’s eye I saw it. She fell. Twisted her ankle. The zombies were on her. Tore at her flesh.
It was not what happened.
She’d made it. One arm wrapped around a wrung at the bend in her elbow. Her feet dangled, taunting the zombies below. Except where she was, they could reach her leg. “Get up the ladder,” I shouted.
She climbed. Clung to the iron. I heard her panting.
“Alley?”
“Piece of cake. Easy, peasy.”
She either said it for the sake of the kids, or for herself.
“Okay, Cash. You’re next,” she said.
I grabbed Cash by the waist and lifted him. He squirmed. “No! No!”
I didn’t stop. Allison held out an arm. The other locked around the ladder. I set Cash into her hand, and she pulled him to her chest. “Climb all the way up,” she said.
He did, stepping around Allison. He stopped just as his head peeked over the top.
“Anything?” I said.
“No one’s up here,” he said. He finished the climb, and stood on the roof.
“You wait right there,” I said. “You’re next, Charlene.”
I reached for her waist.
“I got this,” she told me.
This was no time to demonstrate independence. Or was it. To prevent becoming an obstacle for my daughter, Allison climbed all the way up to the roof with Cash.
“Okay,” I said. “Go.”
Charlene made the leap from the dumpster to the ladder easier than Allison had. She climbed up and over.
Three down. Me to go.
Chapter Forty-Two
We stood on the roof of the plaza. I looked down at the dumpster. Thankfully, the zombies looked dumbfounded. They’d been outsmarted. Watched it happen and still couldn’t figure out how to get up her to eat us.