Day One (Book 1): Alive (18 page)

I thought it was humorous that he used such a statement to portray our situation to that of a video game, with unlimited respawns and lives. Not anything like the reality we were all stuck in.

Lloyd moved away from the others and I jerked the pistol towards him. He had his hands up and stopped a few feet from the shotgun. I could see his eyes sweep over it on the way to me and I let him know I could feel his thoughts. “You touch that thing and I’ll cut you down,” My voice was cold and harsh. It reminded me scarily of the Young Woman’s voice on several occasions.

“If you’re going to shoot me, then do it. Otherwise I’m picking that shotgun up to protect myself if those things get in here,” he stated without fear in his voice.

“He doesn’t give a shit about us, Lloyd,” the Blonde said. “He’s only here for himself and will offer us up to those things out there just to save his own ass.”

Her words, without actually asking me directly, weren’t that far off. I would offer them up to escape, yet I stood my ground and tried my best to find a way out of the situation that didn’t require me giving anyone up in the process. It would be a lot easier to do it that way; it would even ensure that I got away. But if my morals kept me from shooting anyone, then how would those same morals allow me to sleep at night if I willingly let others die just to save my own ass, as she so clearly had put it.

Lloyd, still looking at me, spoke. “Is that it? Is that what you plan on doing to get out of here? Are you going to throwing us to the proverbial dogs to save your own ass?”

I wanted to nod my head and abuse the authority that I currently had. I wanted to see the fear and hopelessness upon each of their faces as they realized they were going to be ripped apart in a matter of minutes, as revenge for them trying to blind side me. The only problem I had with that was that Devin hadn’t had a real gun, so there was no way for him to kill me. He would only be able to subdue me, when if they wanted me dead, as I had first thought, they could have easily used a gun and I never would have been able to put up any kind of a fight. Their actions spoke volume to me, unlike the two assholes in the gas station. I could see the hate in their eyes, yet with those four people in front of me now, I didn’t see any of that whatsoever.

They were truly scared that they would soon be dead.

“You have one chance, and I mean
only
one chance. If you so much as even look at me the wrong way, I’ll shoot all of you,” I stated with as much determination on my face as I could muster. “We’ll continue this conversation of trust and understanding later. For now we either work as a team to get through this or I can toss you outside with those things. Your choice.”

A slight smile and a careful nod came from Lloyd and he grabbed the shotgun, motioned for everyone else to get their weapons.

“Lloyd.” I said and he looked at me. “Don’t make me regret this and have to shoot you.”

“I won’t,” he said. “I give you my word on that.”

Devin turned from the small glass half circle in the front door and shook his head. He held up six fingers, telling them that there were six of them on the front porch. Lloyd had made his way to the second door in the living room, which had a large portion of glass from top to bottom and covered with only a window shade. Through the narrow cracks he could see at least four moving around in the yard and two banging lightly on the door. He looked back and shook his head.

“We should have left in your SUV earlier when we had the chance. Now we’re surrounded and in a shit-storm of trouble.”

I looked to see that it had been the blonde speaking. The Second Man tapped her on the shoulder and she looked at him. “And how is blaming the poor guy for not trusting strangers, which we would not have done either, going to change anything?”

She had no answer.

“He did what he thought was right,” the Man said looking at me.

“No.” I replied. “If I did what I thought was right I would have brought my daughter in with me instead of leaving her all alone in the vehicle.”

Everyone turned to look at me, as though I was the worse father on the planet, but then again, I already knew that. They didn’t have to give me those glares to know I had made a huge mistake. I was… so I guess their looks were more than justified.

“You did what?” Lloyd asked.

“My daughter is in the SUV,” I stated again. “I didn’t want to bring her into a situation that could easily spiral out of control… that’s already happened more time than I can count.”

Devin quickly took another look through the small glass and couldn’t see anything moving about within the SUV. “I don’t see anyone in there.”

“Are you sure she didn’t get out?” Lloyd asked.

“She’s not even two years old yet, so there’s no way in hell she could open the door let alone get out on her own and go play in our yard,” I said, as the fear of no one seeing her began to eat at me like a ravenous cancer. “We have child proof locks, plus the doors were locked.”

Lloyd pointed toward the hallway as he spoke to Devin. “Get to the front window and see if you can see his little girl inside the vehicle. If you can figure out a way we can get to her quickly.”

Devin nodded and without any response disappeared down the hallway. I was amazed at how well these people worked together. They didn’t question each other or try and add their own input to what was instructed. They simply did what they were told to do – working like a well-oiled machine. I was impressed.

“Hey, you.” I heard someone say and turned to see Lloyd moving toward me.

“Brandon Ellis is my name. I like that better than
hey you.
”

Brandon, are there any other ways out of this place, other than the two obvious directions?” He asked.

“In the kitchen behind that white pantry, there’s a door that leads out into a narrow passage along the fence of my neighbor’s house,” I stated. “It’s wide open and if there are any of those things in the front yard they’ll see you. But a few feet back there’s a fence that leads into the backyard. If someone gets rushed they could hop the fence and it should stop those things… for a short time.”

Looking me dead in the eye without the slightest hint of humor floating anywhere nearby, Lloyd asked me a single question. “Can you run fast?”

“I’m no professional runner, but if I had several of those things on my ass, I don’t see why I couldn’t be. Why?”

“You are going to be our diversion.” Still no humor.

“Excuse me?” I asked, hoping that I hadn’t heard him correctly.

“We are going to let you outside and when they go for you, we’ll go out and get your daughter from the SUV.”

The feeling of being betrayed began to sink in. “You mean to tell me that I’m expected to run away from
here
, on foot, while you and your friends go out there and get my daughter out of the SUV… and I’m
supposed
to believe that you’re not going to just jump in and drive off without me?”

Lloyd looked at me as though I had just insulted him. He jerked the shotgun up and pointed it at me. “I have the power to kill you right now just like you have the power to kill me. You told us to either work together or you’d toss us out… well, that’s what we are doing trying to do at the moment.”

Lloyd had a point. He could easily shoot me where I stood, I could return fire and mortally wound him and the others could leave when they felt the need too. I remember my Grandmother telling me when I was growing up that you should always give people respect, that way they would give it in return and if they didn’t, at least you had been the bigger person.

I didn’t like the idea one bit, but neither did I like the fact that Kember was trapped in the SUV with several of those things out there close to her. On the interstate one of them had opened a shut car door just to get at me. Even with the keys in my pocket, the door could be opened by my Daughter. She had done several times in the past. Now, this moment, would be no different.

“Fine. But I swear as God is my witness, if anything other than what you have planned goes down…” he interrupted me before I could finish.

“I lost my twenty year old son a few days before all of this started,” he said and I was quickly able to see the change in his demeanor. “I couldn’t do anything to save him. Not even at the hospital… it gutted me.” He abruptly wiped the forming tears from his eyes and looked me hard in the face.

“But I
can
save her and as God is my witness, I’ll give every dam ounce of strength to save her.” He walked away and left me there to think a few seconds about what he had told me. It wasn’t fake… I can’t explain how I knew it was true, I just did. Call it a father thing.

The Blonde walked up to me and we scooted the pantry quietly out of the way. I looked at her dirty face and could see a pretty woman hiding underneath. “I’m sorry about the…” my words faded as I pointed toward her head. I guess she knew what I was getting at and that I didn’t really have to say anything other than to apologize.

“You were scared and thinking it was the end… I’ve been there, so there’s no need to apologize.” She grabbed the door knob and unlocked it, gripped it tightly and waited for the plan to be put into motion. I on the other hand was not ready for the plan to move forward.

I was hoping that those things would finally give up and shuffle off so I didn’t have to see if the one hundred dollar running shoes I had on, really were as fast as they said in the commercials. After all, Hollywood had been wrong about a great many things thus far, so why would a low budget sixty second commercial be any more truthful.

Damn television! 

“Get ready everyone,” Lloyd stated and looked to see that everyone was where they needed to be before he gave the order to commence with the plan. I looked around to see the others look at me, but then glance away without making eye contact. Certainly they were sure that they would be able to save my daughter, although my safety was probably just a farce. I didn’t much care for that idea and put it in my head that I would run as quickly as I could… no guarantees of course, but I would damn sure try my best for my daughter.

I tightened the one point sling around my neck, even though Lloyd had told me it wasn’t a good idea to go outside armed, I brushed such words off and pulled the SBR closer. If I was surrounded it was my last line of defense, even though it would let every crazy thing within a mile know that the living scourge were trying to force their way back into the society given up to them over a week ago.

Lloyd glanced to me and asked lightly. “Are you ready?”

I nodded my head and answered, giving him the keys reluctantly. “No.”

He looked to the others. “Here we go.”

“Break a leg.” The Blonde opened the door for me; I slipped out into the warm light, spun right to see no crazies were nearby and started down the steps. The door shut behind me and it sounded like a prison door slamming home for the last time. It was a dreadful sound and echoed over and over in my mind. For the first time in over a week I was beginning to understand that the common things, the daily lives we once lived, were far gone. All of the little things that meant something to us would never transpire again. The end of the world might as well have been the descent into hell, because that’s what awaited us all now.

I made my way up the side of the house toward the street, shifting my eyes to the opening yard to my left, saw nothing and then further toward the street. I stopped and scanned the trees and bushes for any unseen crazies, which might have wondered there and just suddenly stopped. It’s not like they had anywhere to be. They were no longer human and their cares no longer mattered. Only the living motivated them. So as long as I stayed out of sight, I would not motivate them to chase me.

From the corner of the house I peeked around to see the open carport where the SUV was parked, but still no signs of Kember moving within. Where could she be, I thought? A thought rushed through my head to hurry to the vehicle and get her, yet the fear of the unknown crazies on the front porch kept me where I was. The coward was coming out once more.

I knew there was no way she could get out on her own, unless one of those things somehow broke through a window and grabbed her. But wouldn’t there be proof of that, if that were the case? I stopped my mind from going any further and focused on the task at hand. Although, I wasn’t clear on what I should do now. I could take off running, but what if none of them followed me? I would have to make noise to draw their attention, the one thing I had hammered into my head not to do since all of this started.

I gave a quick once over of my rifle and gear, made sure everything was secure and took a few deep breaths. I pulled a cigarette from my chest rig and lit it, who said I couldn’t smoke while running for my life? If I was going to be the diversion, I should at least try and enjoy my time outside. It was then that an idea, far from what Lloyd had come up with crossed my mind.

None of the dead on the porch were in anyway drawn to the SUV, yet when I had left the house last time I had been chased by several. Perhaps it was the light rumble of the engine that got them all worked up, as well as the person driving. If that were true, then even if we pulled this off and were able to pile into the SUV and drive away. A large group of them in our path would stop us cold. If we were going to escape without difficulty, then as many of the dead as I could gather had to be lead as far away from the house as possible.