With that, Juliana put on a light jacket and headed out into the early morning air. She had her sights set on a very specific building today.
Business buildings were pretty easy to tell if anyone used them. If a business building was closed for any reason other than holidays or renovation, it was probably out of business. A for sale sign would be a for sure sign but that usually means the inside has been cleaned out unless it used to be a big factory. Boarded up windows indicated a goldmine.
Residences, on the other hand, were harder to tell. Even if no one went in or out for weeks, it might still be a summer home. Or in a school town like Brakket, a winter home for students during the school year.
The house Juliana had her sights on today hadn’t been used all summer. It had looked interesting at the start of summer, but Juliana couldn’t tell for sure back then. So she had discretely stuck a bit of painter’s tape over the doors and garage. They hadn’t been disturbed once.
That combined with yellowing grass from a lack of water, general disrepair of the exterior, and a broken window on the second floor led Juliana to believe it was, in fact, abandoned.
If it was intended for use during the school year… well, school was going to start in two weeks and no one had shown up so far. If she was supposed to live in it, she’d probably just choose to live in the dorms rather than spend the effort fixing the place up.
Juliana made a quick staircase out of earth and hopped over the wooden fence, flattening the earth once she landed. She wasn’t particularly worried about neighbors being nosy, but going in through the back door would give her more time to get in without displaying her obvious breaking and entering to the whole street.
All the residences in Montana, or at least around here, were very spread apart. Large houses on larger properties. This house wasn’t the biggest she’d seen, but it was decent sized. There was bound to be something interesting inside.
Juliana removed the bit of tape on the back door. The front door still had the bit of tape over it. She tried jiggling the handle and was surprised to find it unlocked. Won’t have to force my way in at least, she thought as she cracked the door open.
Reeling back, Juliana began coughing and gagging. There was something foul in there. Wishing she was a better air mage, Juliana slapped a cloth over her face.
Right inside the back door was a small dining room and kitchen. Dishes had been left all over the table. There might have been a meal on them but flies and maggots swarmed over the whole thing. The fridge was hanging open and full of even more bugs.
Underneath the cloth, Juliana smiled. This was interesting.
She carefully moved forward with her wand out. It wouldn’t do to be surprised by some rabid animal that managed to get in. A quick test of the light switch produced no results. As expected of an abandoned building.
Carefully maneuvering her hands, she brought up the flashlight to her hand holding the cloth. Enough light was coming in through the large windows, but some corners still ended up dark. In all honesty, she should just toss the cloth. It wasn’t helping much anyway.
The dining room connected with a small room at the front of the house. Several couches and seats were set around a low coffee table. Several shelves of books lined one wall. Sadly none were both interesting and something Juliana didn’t already own.
There was a fancy mask hanging off one wall. It was half black and half white with what looked like tarot cards cut out over the eye holes. A fake gold medallion hung in the center of the forehead depicting a moon encircling a sun. Several sheet music covered curls sprang off the top.
Juliana plucked it off the wall. It felt flimsy in her hands, like papier-mache. She replaced it on the hook. If she wanted it, she’d get it when she left.
The rest of the ground floor had nothing of interest. A small office with some computers set up, a room with a big couch and a bigger television, and a bathroom.
Juliana crept up the stairs to the second floor. She made it to the top and frowned. Not a single step creaked. What kind of abandoned house didn’t have creaking stairs.
The stench, however, followed her up. It might have been stronger on the second floor.
The first door she tried led to a bathroom with nothing of interest. The second door was a bedroom. A single, small bed lay inside. Juliana poked through the dresser. Each drawer was full of small boy’s clothes.
Juliana’s heart hammered in her chest.
Something was wrong here. A half eaten meal she could see. The family decided to eat before abandoning the town. All the books, all the furniture, and an expensive looking mask were suspicious. But full drawers of children’s clothes? Either this kid had a lot of clothes or this family left in a hurry.
And the smell. Oh the smell. It got worse as Juliana crept towards the last door.
She threw it open.
And almost threw up. The smell assaulted her the same time the sight did.
A king sized bed had its sheets torn off. They were wrapped up at the foot of the bed. White sheets were stained black. A gray foot stuck out from one end. Maggots crawled all over and in it.
Juliana was about to shut the door quietly when the sound of a bare foot slapped against the hard wood hall. She slammed the door and spun around.
A half-naked woman stood in front of her. Her jaw hung slack. Her clothes were torn to shreds. A kitchen knife stuck out of her chest.
Her skin most definitely was not alive.
Rustling and a moan could be heard through the door behind her. Retreat was not an option.
Situations like this were why her mother trained her. She sucked in her fear and got serious.
Juliana flicked her wrist. Her flashlight melted in her hand. She launched bits of sharpened metal at the woman’s head. She swiped her hand over the brass doorknob before the shards even struck. Brass marbles flew from her fingers into the woman’s chest.
They sunk into her with a sickening squelch, but they managed to stagger her.
Juliana sprinted past, knocking over a small table in the hallway on her way.
The doorknobs melted into her hand as she ran past. Juliana desperately wished the banister down the stairs was made of metal. The supports holding it up were made of metal and she settled for grabbing that as she flew down the stairs.
Juliana dashed out the back door, not waiting to see if the zombie followed her. With another flick of her wrist, columns of earth erupted from the back porch to completely cover the door and window. Another few flicks of her wrist saw other windows being covered.
She jumped the fence with the help of a large earth mound and covered the windows in the front as well. Not waiting to see if anything had already made it out, Juliana created a platform on their front grass about twice as high as a person.
Finally she relaxed atop her platform. She could still smell that stench she knew was rotting flesh.
From her backpack, she pulled out a small business card. She gave it three taps and the circle began glowing faintly. She gave it three more taps. Then three again.
Finally Mrs. Baxter appeared next to her on the platform.
“What is it, Miss Rivas. I am quite–” She cut off as she noticed the house half encased in earth. “Mind telling me what is going on?”
“Zombies,” Juliana breathed out. She felt like choking.
“Zombies?”
“At least one. But I saw another corpse and I swear I heard it moan. Plus there was a kid’s room but I didn’t see any kid corpses.”
Kid corpses. Juliana knelt and hurled her breakfast off the edge of the platform.
A light rubbing on her back brought her out of her fit. She leaned back from the edge. Mrs. Baxter had her phone out and was typing something into it.
Juliana wiped the spittle off her lip just as Mr. Lurcher appeared on the platform.