Dark Realms (59 page)

I calmed myself down and continued on
towards Paige’s, noting several abandoned vehicles on just about
every road I took to get there. It was so surreal and I started
feeling as if I was the lone survivor in a bad horror flick. Even
though I was terrified, thoughts of my little sister kept pushing
me forward.

When I finally arrived at
Hillshire Commons, the posh gated community where Paige lives, I
noticed the security station was vacant and the entrance was open.
I drove through it warily, searching the streets for zombies, not
wanting any more leaping onto my truck. I held my breath for the
entire four blocks, and heaved a sigh of relief when I
made it up Paige’s cobblestone driveway without
any obstacles.

The house appeared dark and
ominous. My hands began to shake uncontrollably, imagining what I
might possibly find inside.
As I grabbed
my truck keys out of the ignition, they slipped out of my quivering
hands and fell onto the floor mat, so I bent down and picked them.
When I sat back up, two pairs of red, bloodshot eyes stared at me
through the window. I screamed in holy terror.

Chapter
Thirteen

When I finally stopped screaming my head
off, I took a deep breath and assessed the situation. Two zombies
were feeling around the outside of my truck, trying desperately to
get to me. They were hideous and hungry; they were also out there
and I was still somewhat safe in my truck.

“Scat! Go away!” I hollered, raising my
gun.

One of them, an obese zombie wearing
pajamas, cocked his head, staring at me like I was some kind of
delectable appetizer. Blood coagulated from where his nose used to
be and I shuddered in revulsion.

The other zombie was frothing at the mouth.
She was a rail-thin, revolting creature who must have been taking a
bath or something when she changed into a zombie. I could only
presume this since she was stark naked, wearing only a plastic cap.
This creature was growling and clawing frantically at my driver’s
side window. She didn’t appear to be wounded, but she had the
tell-tale zombie eyes, and her skin was gray and mottled.

I knew my situation wasn’t
good, so I decided to wait a few minutes, to see if the two zombies
would lose interest and eventually wander off. But then the skinny
female started beating on the window with her hands and I became
paranoid about the window shattering. So I decided to try a
different approach; I screamed at them, to see if
they’d
get confused and
possibly leave me alone. It was a shot in the dark…that totally
missed.

Both zombies froze and stared at me as I
screamed with all my might. I thought I was doing good and kept
screaming until the female let out a high-pitched screech that made
my cries sound like whispers. Then, in horror, I realized her
screech caught the attention of other zombies in the area who were
now coming to join the party.

Cursing, I moved to the passenger side of my
truck and opened the door.

The male zombie began slobbering on himself
as he staggered around the truck towards me. I aimed my trembling
right hand and shot him in the head. Rancid zombie brains colored
the pavement.

“Oh, God,” I shuddered, resisting the urge
to vomit. I looked towards the female, who was also moving towards
me. “Listen, you’re next if you come any further,” I warned
her.

She snarled and then leaped at me, but not
before I shot her between the eyes.

Sensing the other zombies in the
neighborhood getting closer, I grabbed the flashlight from my glove
compartment and rushed towards the front door. Unfortunately, it
was locked.

Ring the doorbell?
It was certainly worth a shot. I figured a zombie
wouldn’t have enough sense to open the door, let alone unlock it.
Plus, if one of the girls were still alive, she’d open it for
me.

A hairy chested, boxer
short sporting grandpa zombie growled at me from the edge of the
lawn and I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. I ran to the side of
the house and tried the tall wooden gate. Luckily it was unlocked.
I entered the backyard and did a quick scan of the swimming pool,
using my flashlight. There was no sign of blood, just wet towels,
snacks, and a couple of floating chairs still drifting in the
water. I decided to check out the house and went through the open
patio door to the kitchen, where I found a cast-iron frying pan
lying on the ground and a few missing knives from the butcher
block.
Then, I caught something dark and
red splattered on the marbled kitchen island. As I moved closer to
the stain with my flashlight, I let out a shaky sigh of relief;
pizza sauce.

Wiping the perspiration
from my forehead, I decided to move on. Their house is massive,
over ten thousand square feet, and I knew I had a
lot of ground to cover, so I started with the
obvious: Kylie’s bedroom. Right away, I found Allie’s pink leather
purse and overnight bag sitting on a futon, but no other signs of
either girl.

Next, I made my way to
Paige’s room, which she likes to call her “
wing.”
She has her own bathroom with
a whirlpool tub, walk-in closet, and even her own personal reading
room. By chance I found her new iPhone sticking out from under the
bed, as if she’d carelessly dropped it. I put it in my pocket and
continued searching the entire house with the flashlight. After I
scoured every room in the house, including the theater room and
upper level where Kristie and Dan slept, my eyes began to fill with
frustrated tears; the place appeared deserted and I had no idea
what to do next. As I trudged back downstairs to the kitchen, my
phone began to vibrate. I cringed when I saw who it was.

“Thank God! What in the hell were you
thinking, girl?” yelled Sara.

I cleared my throat. “Look, I have to find
my sister, she needs me. If it was your sister, you’d do the same.
You know I’m right.”

She was silent for a minute then sighed.
“Yes, you are. So… have you found her yet?”

“
No,” I replied
sadly.

“Well maybe they’ve all escaped?”

“God, I can only hope so.
Listen, have you
heard anything at all
from my mom, dad, or Bryce?” I asked.

Another pause, then, “No, Cassie, I’m
sorry.”

I closed my eyes and let out a shaky breath.
“Okay, well look, I’m going to keep searching. Call me if you hear
from anyone in my family. Bye.” I hung up before she could start in
on me again about returning home.

I put my head in my hands
and tried thinking about where Allie and the others could have
possibly went. I felt like I was missing something and it was
driving me crazy. Then it hit me like a sledgehammer, the
new
safe
-
room
! It
was a family shelter that wasn’t supposed to be finished for a
couple of months, but it would still be a good place to hide. Paige
had mentioned that it was in the wine cellar, so I ran back
downstairs to the lower level and began looking. It was supposed to
be hidden at the very back of the wine cabinets.

“Yes,” I squealed when I located the
entrance, it looked like an ordinary panel wall with a keypad
attached. As I raised my hand to pound on the wall, it opened.

Chapter
Fourteen

“Thank God!” I cried, standing face to face
with my best friend. Although it was obvious that Paige was
relieved to see me, the haunted expression in her eyes spoke
volumes. She collapsed into my arms and sobbed.

“
Paige, where’s Allie?” I
asked, trying to look beyond her into the safe-room. Unfortunately,
she appeared to be alone.

She shook her head as the tears streamed
down her face. “I…I don’t know!” she cried.

I wanted to shake her but instead forced
myself to remain calm; we’d all been through our own kind of hell
the last few hours. “What do you mean?” I asked slowly.

“I don’t know! Allie and Kylie ran away.
They were going to try and get help,” she cried through her tears.
“I don’t even know where my mom is!”

“Okay, calm down and start from the
beginning. What happened?”

Her light green eyes grew
large. “It was my stepdad, Dan. He turned into some kind of freak!
He tried to fucking
bite
me. Then my mom…she whacked him with a frying
pan. But he…he kept coming towards me with these…horrible red eyes.
Mom told me to run, so I did! I ran away and have been hiding here
ever since. God, I’m so scared!” she sobbed.

“Paige, I didn’t see anyone else in the
house.”

“Well, where’s my mom? She just wouldn’t
leave me. They’ve just got to be here somewhere!”

“Paige, it’s okay. We’ll find them,
somehow,” I replied softly. “Listen, do you have anything to drink?
I could really use some caffeine.” I’d been up for almost
twenty-four hours and was finally feeling the effects.

She pulled me inside. The hidden room was
larger than my entire bedroom. It held a black leather sectional,
an arsenal of electronic equipment, and a fully-stocked
refrigerator. I grabbed a soda and walked over to the surveillance
cameras.

“Do these things work?” I asked.

“No, I’ve already tried. They hadn’t
finished installing them yet.

I sighed. “Well, at least you’ve got the
generator, and didn’t have to sit in the dark.”

She nodded and then stared vacantly. “What
should we do?”

“Well, do you have any weapons?” I
asked.

“What…what do you mean?”

I pulled out the Beretta I had tucked behind
my back. “Well, I lost my sectional staff when I was searching your
house, but I still have this. You’re going to need something to
defend yourself, too, just in case.”

Her eyes narrowed. “From…Dan?”

Crap
. She didn’t know about the zombies.

~~~

“Paige?” I’d just recounted my last few
hours to her. The expression on her face was unreadable. “Are you
okay?”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” she finally
said. “That’s just plain nuts.”

“Believe me, I wish I was. Do you really
think I’d make something like that up?”

Paige shook her head but I could tell she
was still having major doubts. It was crazy for me to imagine and
I’d lived through it.

I shrugged. “Well, you’ll find out soon
enough. Do you have a baseball bat or something you can hit zombies
with?”

She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

“In my room,” she muttered.

We grabbed a second flashlight and hurried
to Paige’s bedroom. She took out a metal baseball bat and two
softball helmets, one pink and one black.

“
Great
idea!” I
said, putting on the black helmet. “Okay, now stay close to me. I
haven’t seen any zombies in your house but there’s a ton of walking
dead on the streets.”

She put on the pink helmet and I handed her
the bat.

“Wow, I love your nails,” she said suddenly,
grabbing my left hand.

I looked down. “Yeah, they look really sexy
when I’m shooting at a zombie,” I replied dryly.

Her jaw dropped. “Oh, my God…you really had
to use the gun?”

My cell phone started to ring. It was Sara
again.

I sighed. “Hi, Sara.”

“It’s Bryce. Where are you at?” he
demanded.

I was racked with so many emotions that my
knees gave out. I sank to the ground. “Oh, thank God!” I gasped.
“I…I didn’t know what happened to you.”

“I’m fine,” he replied sternly. “Stay where
you are and I’ll come get you. Are you still at Paige’s?”

Before I had a chance to respond, Paige
gasped in horror and backed into me.

“What?” I turned and dropped the phone.

Two zombies stood at the entrance of her
bedroom. The smell emitting from them rose like a wave of rotting
garbage.

“Holy crap,” said Paige in a strangled
voice.

The moon was shining through her bedroom
window, giving us a pretty good view of the zombies. One of them, a
skinny half-naked man with white curly hair, made an ugly gurgling
noise and then curled its lower lip, as if smiling. There was blood
dripping from his rotting face and he held what looked the remains
of someone’s arm. He tossed it to the ground and staggered towards
us.

The next thing I knew, Paige let out some
kind of ferocious battle cry, then lifted the metal bat and swung
high, bashing the zombie smack in the middle of its skull. Before I
could react, she raised it again, this time hitting a solid home
run on the creature’s head. It dropped to the ground with a loud,
sickening thud.

The other zombie, a muscular bald guy with
skull tattoos all over his head, growled at us.

I raised my gun to shoot him, but the
Berretta jammed. “For the love of God,” I mumbled trying repeatedly
to shoot it.

“Hold on!” Paige snapped as she tried to
dislodge the bat from the other zombie.

But skull-head just couldn’t wait; he
staggered eagerly towards me, white froth foaming from his mouth.
Fortunately for me he was terribly slow, with very little
coordination. I stepped out of his line of attack and he fell to
the ground. When he finally lifted himself back up, I jumped into
the air and did a hard side kick; my foot catching him in the
throat. He fell backward onto Paige’s jewelry box and that’s when
all hell broke loose.

Paige’s face turned red
and she screamed in fury. “Get your ugly ass off of my
grandmother’s jewelry box, you piece of dead rotting meat!!!” Then
she kicked the zombie onto the floor and stomped the sharp heel of
her new
Jimmy Choo
boot onto its face until it was just a bloody mass of
gore.