After a little while, I figured it was time to go. We had been here long enough, and if we had attracted the attention of local zombies, I didn’t want to put Dot at risk.
I rallied the group and they headed out to the cars. Charlie asked me a question with his eyes and I put the question to Dot.
“Dot? I can’t thank you enough for letting us remember what hospitality is like. Would you like to come with us? We’re going to the office condos on 131 ^ st street.” I asked, taking Jake back from her.
Dot smiled wistfully as Jake went back to is daddy. “No, I’ve lived in this house for thirty years, I’m not going anywhere soon.”
“Is there anything we can do for you, before we go?” I hinted heavily in my question, and Dot picked it up immediately.
“If you’re asking if you want me to let you finish off George, the answer…,” Dot sighed, “…is yes. But, please, you can’t shoot him. I don’t want a gunshot to be my last memory of my husband.”
“Will do. Thanks for everything, Dot.” I said, heading for the door.
“John?”
“Yes, Dot?”
“Finish what you started.” Dot looked at me seriously.
“What do you mean?” I asked, shifting Jake to my other arm.
Dot pointed to Jake and then to the window. “You got two things to do before you’re done. Finish them both.”
I only half understood what she meant. “Will do.” I said, closing the door behind me.
Charlie stood before me and I nodded. He headed off to the back shed, and returned a minute later, wiping off one of his tomahawks with a bit of rag. I put Jakey back into his car seat and he promptly fell asleep.
We moved the cars out of the driveway and I waved a hand at the house. Dot did not come out to see us off, and I didn’t blame her. I could see a still form lying out in the yard in the back, and another kneeling nearby, and I just shook my head. I thought about what she had said to me and slowly began to realize what she had meant. I did have things to do.
22
We headed out again, stopping when the road finally ran out of North. Charlie looked at me and I told him to head West. We were nearly there, and I was getting anxious. I did not want to have to do anything in the dark. We passed another subdivision. God, there was enough of the stupid things. This one had huge homes, any of them could pass for a fortress if the people had sense enough to barricade the first floorwindows. As I looked, I saw the inevitable white flags decorating several expensive mailboxes. We would have passed by if it hadn’t been for a person standing on a second floor porch waving a pillowcase at us. Here we go.
“Are we stopping?” Charlie asked, slowing down the car. He had seen the pillowcase, too.
“Have to.” I said.
“Why?” Kristen asked, making a teenage face.
“You never know who lives in these places. Maybe that’s a surgeon or even better, an electrician. Be nice to have someone around to patch holes up or rig up some power.” I said, trying to put the best face on what could become a difficult situation.
“Yeah, right.” said Charlie. “You’re just hoping to score some points to make up for that fall you took.”
“There is that. But I am first a humanitarian.” I said loftily. It was a good thing I couldn’t see how much Kristen was probably rolling her eyes.
Charlie just snorted and pulled into the gated community. I could see we were not going to get out without a fight, as we had attracted the attention of about ten zombies loitering around two of the houses.
Charlie waved to Tommy and Sarah, and they pulled up alongside the car. “We got people who need help. Turn your cars around in case we need to get lost fast.” Charlie said to the other vehicles. As they hurried to comply, I took a look at the situation. We actually were in a decent spot. The community was gated, and had a fence running along the outside of the subdivision. We were blocking the only access road, and there was a large pond to our right. The houses were up on a hill, and we had a clear field of fire across the fairway of the golf course that was on our left. Could be worse.
I hopped out of the car and got us set up. “Jason and Lisa, you watch the road and protect our exit. Chelsea and Kristen, you watch their backs and keep an eye on the cars. Kristen, Jake’s your responsibility unless I say otherwise. Tommy and Duncan, you’re to clear a path to the house. Charlie and Sarah, we’re cleaning up and going in. Any questions?” All heads shook negative. “Let’s go.”
I headed towards the house while Tommy and Duncan lit up the zombies headed towards us. It would have been scary to have bullets whipping past your head to take out a zombie in front of you if you hadn’t been through it before. I never slowed and reached the house in short order. The door had been caved in and I imagined there were several little sweeties waiting for us. Tommy and Duncan stayed out on the lawn, dropping the zombies that were coming from the other houses and covering our backs.
I moved in and aimed my gun left while Charlie slid in and went right. Sarah went in the middle and we all had targets. Eleven zombies of all shapes and sizes came shuffling from their various hiding places, and we had our hands full. I dropped the two closest ones to me, and Charlie’s rifle cracked loudly in the small space. Sarah’s rifle boomed once, and then again. We could hear loud moaning coming from all angles, so this was a heavily infested house. Great. The garden level of the house consisted of a central room, with hallways to the left and right. We were going to have to be careful, as more zombies started to come from the other rooms. We could wait for them to come to us, but there was a stairwell in the middle which made coverage difficult.
I motioned Sarah to the stairs and she took up a position to nail anything coming down. Charlie went right and I went left. I went to a bedroom door and checked the knob. It was locked. Good. No worries about something hitting me in the back. I moved down the hallway, the light fading as I moved away from the windows of the central room. It was quiet, and I could hear my own breathing as I moved slowly down the hall. God, I hated this. Give me a stand up battle every time. Hunting these bastards sucked. I moved down the hall and checked the last room. The door was open, and I pushed it further with my rifle barrel. It was empty.
I turned around and was confronted with the biggest zombie I had ever seen. He was six foot six if he was an inch, and was headed my way. His huge frame was dressed in torn sweats, and his face bore the marks of several confrontations. Dried blood covered his chin, and his lips curled back in a grimace as he moved towards me. I backed up and raised my rifle, but he brought up his hands to grab and knocked the barrel out of the way. I brought up the butt of the rifle as a barrier and shoved as hard as I could. I barely managed to slow him down, and he bore me backwards to the wall. His hands grabbed my shoulders and tried to bring me within biting range of his gaping maw. I pushed back and managed to keep myself from being bit, but I couldn’t let go of the rifle, as it was the only thing keeping the teeth from me. The zombie’s decaying face moaned into mine, and his graveyard breath made me gag. I pushed off the wall and we began a dance of death around the room. I couldn’t afford to go down, as he was too heavy, and I couldn’t draw my SIG as I needed two hands to keep this thing off me. I pushed it back into the bathroom in the room, and while I had the momentum, shoved it into the bathtub. The edge of the tub tripped the zombie and he fell with me on top. I used the opportunity to shove knee into his chest and rip away from him. I fell back and landed on the floor, with the zombie moving to get out of the tub. I shot it in the head from the ground, and nearly deafened myself from firing in such a small space. The zombie slowly sank into the tub, his big head coming to a rest on his big chest.