Dead Outside (Book 1) (13 page)

I
could hear his heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, even though he was
trying to be slow and quiet. He was just too big a big motherfucker to tread
those old stairs quietly. I tried to slow my breathing so I wouldn't be too
loud.

I
worked up the courage to stick my head above the couch I was behind. I saw his
feet and legs stepping on the steps I could see. I aimed the gun, waiting for
something vital to show up. Suddenly, I saw a gun barrel and ducked back down.
He fired four shots in quick succession, and then there was silence. I didn't
hear more footsteps or any loading.

Whatever
he was shooting, it was a handgun. I saw a pillow next to me, so I tossed it
toward the bottom of the stairs, heard a shot, sat up and fired at the mass of
a body I saw, and fell back down right away.

I
heard a groan, then a couple thuds and a crash as he rolled down the stairs
into the wall at the bottom. When I heard a gurgled groan a second later I knew
it was real. I still waited till I heard labored breathing.

I
walked up and recognized him as Will, a football player from our high school.
He looked at me, and tried to raise his gun to shoot me. I kicked it out of his
hand, picked it up and shot him in the head with it.

I
waited, aiming the gun up the stairs, expecting someone else, until I heard,
"You get him?"

I
waited for a second before I answered back, "Yea."

A
second later I heard, "Good! Shut the door and get back up here."

I
went back to the back door, shut it, and grabbed my bow. I knew it was Rodger
upstairs, and I didn't want to kill him, at least not right away.

I
walked up the stairs with heavy feet, to simulate the weight of Will, and
yelled out with a deepened voice, "Where you at?"

I
heard a, "Where you think?” from a room to my left. The door was closed,
so I turned the handle, pulled the bow back, and kicked it in. I saw Rodger
standing next to the window. When he turned around and saw it was me he tried
to draw his sidearm, but I shot at his right shoulder, pinning him to the wall
behind him. He yelled in pain as he dropped the pistol.

I
shut the door behind me, walked up slow, set the bow down on the floor and drew
my pistol. “Long time no see, asshole.”

He
stared at me with a grimace of pain and anger, “Fuck you. What gives you the
right to break into my house like this?”

 “No,
in this game I ask the questions, the second one is much more important, but I
need to ask this first one just in case.” I aimed it at his head, “First
question, you got any other buddies here?”

He
looked me in the eyes. His blue eyes filled with fear at the gun pointed at his
head and answered, “Yeah, I got five other guys in another room.”

I
shook my head, “I don’t have time for your lies. I’ve traveled for too long and
too far for you to hold me back any longer,” I grabbed the arrow in his
shoulder and yanked hard.

“Nooooo!”
he yelled at the top of his lungs. “There’s nobody else!”

“See
how easy that was?” I asked, letting go of the arrow. “Now let’s see about
avoiding any more pain. This next question is very important. Where is Sarah?”

His eyes darted from the floor to the left, then back to
me, “I don’t know,”

I
grabbed the arrow again, “Lie to me one more time, I fucking dare you.” I
wasn’t messing around anymore. He knew where she was. “Where?”

“C…
Closet.” He weakly pointed at the door to his left.

I
looked at the door and back at Rodger. His blue eyes were going back and forth
between the gun and me. I lowered it and walked over to the closet. Before I
opened it I looked back at him, held the gun up and tapped the barrel with my
other hand, “Don’t be stupid.”

I
opened the door. At first I didn’t register what I saw. I saw the eyes first,
looking up at me, wide with fear, but as soon as she recognized me her face
melted with relief. Her hair was in even worse shape than Roxie’s had been, and
her face was oily from not having been washed.

I’m
not even sure how to describe the emotion I was feeling, I was ecstatically
happy, relieved, a few tears rolled down my cheek. I wanted to hug her, kiss
her, something, but I was paralyzed with shock, I just fell to my knees and
barely uttered, “S… Sarah.”

She
didn’t say a word. She just lunged, wrapped her arms around me and tackled me
to the ground. She buried her face in my chest. She tried to talk between the
sobs, but no words came out for at least a minute. Finally she composed herself
enough to say, “You’re late.”

 “No,”
I scoffed. “I said I’d be back for the Fourth.”

She
hit me in the shoulder, luckily the one that I hadn’t just been shot in, “It’s
the fifth you ass.”

Our
reunion was cut short when she saw Rodger pinned to the wall. Her face went
from relief to anger. We both stood up, but Sarah got up first and punched him
in the face, “After what you did, I told you I would kill you.”

I
wondered for a split second what she meant, but the possibilities just made me
furious. I was about to punch him myself when Sarah turned to me. There was a
fire in her eyes I’d never seen before. It almost scared me, but I knew the
rage inside wasn’t aimed at me, and I knew what she wanted. I held out the
pistol.

Rodgers
blue eyes went wide as she grabbed the gun, “No,” he pleaded. “Please, don’t, I’m
sorry!” Tears were flowing down his face, and his pants got wet in the crotch
area. He knew she wasn’t fucking around.

“No,
you’re not,” she said coldly as she aimed and pulled the trigger. She didn’t
shoot him in the head, or the chest. The wet spot on his pants turned red, and
Rodger let out a bloodcurdling screech.

I
opened my mouth to say something, but before I could she fired again, and
again, and again, all in the same spot. Every shot was followed by another cry.
The pain in his voice was overwhelming, but not once did I feel sorry for him.

She
looked at the gun and pulled the chamber back a bit and saw she had one last
round. She let the chamber slide back forward and aimed the pistol at his face.

Rodger
didn’t look up, he just stared at the ground, “Kill me, just kill me you
bitch,” he said in barely understandable English. But she didn’t pull the
trigger.

“No,”
she said coldly. “You’re going to suffer here, and die
slowly
.” She put
emphasis on the last word, and walked out of the room.

I
didn’t follow her out right away, I reached down and grabbed the pistol Rodger
had dropped. He was sobbing, trying to stand, but he was in too much pain to
control his legs. His eyes were that same shade of blue, bright and distinct
without a shade of green. I grabbed my bow and left the room, but didn’t close
the door. If any zombies got in there, I wanted them to find Rodger.

Sarah
was down the hall a bit near the stairs. She was sitting on the ground, holding
her knees to her chest, tears were flowing again. She noticed me and held out
the pistol, “Here.”

I
just shook my head, “Keep it.” I handed her an extra clip, “It’s dark, all the
noise we’ve made here has probably attracted every Zombie in five miles, and we
have a long way to go to get back to Nick and Roxie.”

Her
face lit up, “They’re alive?” she exclaimed. “We got separated at the school,
and Rodger grabbed me. So many people were dying, I assumed the worst.”

“They’re
at Nick’s uncle’s house, and it’ll take us about forty-five minutes to get
there on the four-wheeler I rode over.” I drew an arrow from my quiver, and
held it on the bow, ready to draw it back if any Zombies were close, “Just
remember to…”

“…Shoot
them in the head,” she finished my sentence for me. Her face was dirty, hair
frizzed from not having been washed in weeks, the dirt on her face was smeared
from tears that she had wiped off. She had a bit of a smile, and was looking at
me with hope in her eyes, probably the first bit of hope she’d had since this
all happened.”

I
smiled, “I was going to say be careful, but that too.”

I
went down the stairs first to make sure it was safe, nothing had gotten in yet.
Sarah was right behind me. It didn’t take her long to see the carnage I’d
inflicted on the way in. “Holy shit.” she exclaimed, and looked at me with wide
eyes. “You did all this by yourself?”

I
expected her to be surprised I was capable of what would have been considered
murder not a month ago. She didn’t have disapproval in her voice, she was
genuinely impressed.

I
nodded, not exactly sure what to say. I had a bit of a smirk, I was actually
proud of what I did, honestly it still scared me. I’d just killed four more
people, sure Rodger wasn’t dead yet, but he would be. If I didn’t still have
that adrenaline and endorphins pumping through my system, I’d probably be
freaking out. The world sure was changing, and it seemed like I was changing
with it, and I wasn’t sure I liked who I was becoming.

She
looked around, taking it all in. “Not bad,” she added, smiling a bit.

In
that moment, all my doubts and fears were gone. It didn’t matter who I was
becoming, it didn’t matter where I was going. As long as she was coming with
me, it would all be worth it.

“We
should probably gather all the supplies we can before we leave.” I suggested as
I picked up the arrows I had dropped earlier. “These guys won’t exactly need it
anymore.”

“Good
idea,” she agreed. “They kept their ammo upstairs in another closet. I’ll see
about getting the canned food.”

She
didn’t want to go back upstairs, and she didn’t try very hard to hide it. I
understood, Rodger was still groaning upstairs.

“Okay,
I’ll get all I can carry and we’ll get out of here.” I went up the stairs. Sure
enough, there were probably a hundred thirty ought six rounds still in the
boxes, about a thousand .22 rounds, along with a few rifles to go with them. I
filled a duffle bag with everything they had, and went back downstairs.

Sarah
was sitting at the kitchen table. She had fresh tear lines on her face. There
were only a few cans of food on the table. I knew there was probably more
somewhere, but she didn’t want to be here anymore, and neither did I.

“Let’s
go,” I said as happily as I could.

“What
about the food?” she asked. She got up and grabbed the few cans on the table,
“They have more we can take.”

I
shook my head, “We can get food anywhere, and I can always come back here and
get it if I need to. We don’t have to do it now.”

She
looked at me appreciatively. She must have realized I knew she didn’t want to
be here anymore. “Thanks,” she said as she grabbed me in a hug

“No
problem,” I said as she let go. “The four-wheeler is up the road a bit, and
then it’s smooth sailing.”

The
back door had a few Zombies outside, the front door didn’t. Sarah waited by the
front door, while I opened the back door and whistled. They saw me and came
after me. Sarah opened the front door and we both went out. I closed it behind
me, so the zombies wouldn’t follow us. There was plenty of food inside.

It
was so dark outside we had to use a flashlight to find the four-wheeler. Once
we found it we stowed the gear on the back. Sarah got on behind me and wrapper
her arms around me. I couldn’t help but smile, it felt good. After all the shit
I’d gone through on the road, I finally found her, and I wasn’t going to let
her go.

I
fired up the four-wheeler, which lit up the headlight. A few Zombies saw us and
were headed our way. Sarah squeezed a bit as the four-wheeler lurched forward.
I did a U-turn and we were on our way back to Nick and Roxie.

Chapter Thirteen: Reunions

11:45
PM, July 5

It
was almost midnight by the time we got back. Luckily my luring trick had
worked. Rather than a crowd of two dozen, there were only two in the front
yard. I stopped the four-wheeler and shut it down so the noise wouldn’t attract
anything else, and got off. Sarah got off and pulled out her pistol.

“Hold
on,” I said, “Let’s keep this quiet.”

“Are
you sure?” she asked. “We’re pretty far out here, there can’t be many of those
things close enough to hear it.”

“No
sense in wasting the ammo either,” I added. “Not when we can do it by hand.”

“Good
point.” She shrugged and put the pistol away and waited by the four-wheeler.

I
left the bow in favor of my baseball bat. They were spaced well enough to
safely smash their skulls without being overwhelmed.

I
could see light in the upstairs windows, so they were awake at least. Sarah
helped me push the four-wheeler back to the shed, before we went back to the
house.

I
only knocked twice before the door swung open. Nick was holding my shotgun,
aimed at me, but dropped it as soon as he saw it was me. “You stupid son of a
bitch,” he whispered, “Why the fuck did you come back at night?”

“First
of all we got lost,” I said half sarcastically, finding the dirt driveway
wasn’t exactly easy in the dark. “Second of all, don’t use my shotgun, you’ve
got your own, and third, let us in, it isn’t exactly comfortable out here.”

“We?”
he asked. Sarah was standing behind me a bit, and it was so dark he hadn’t
noticed her until I walked through the door and he saw her follow me. I didn’t
blame him for not recognizing her right away. Her hair was frizzy, clothes
stained, worn, torn, and splattered with blood. Her skin was dirty, had a few
bruises and cuts. All in all she looked like shit. “Sarah?” he finally asked
after a moment of shock.

She
walked right up and hugged him. “Nick, insightful as always.”

“Sarah?”
I heard a high pitch screech come from across the room, and Roxie pretty much
knocked me over on her way to hug Sarah. There were a lot of emotions radiating
from those two, crying, laughing, and sobbing.

I’d
been through a lot over the last few weeks wondering if they would all be
alive, and seeing us all together again, even under the circumstances, it gave
me hope.
Even though everyone had tears flowing, including Nick who was wiping his face,
it was a happy moment.

Sarah
and Roxie were still hugging, but Sarah looked me in the eyes. I gave her a
reassuring smile. I couldn’t see her mouth, but her eyes said she was returning
the smile.

The
whole reunion lasted about twenty minutes. Hugs went in circles, Sarah hugged
me again, then Nick, then Roxie. Roxie bandaged up my shoulder while talking to
Sarah, after a while Sarah and Roxie started their sob talking.

Nick
and I couldn’t understand a thing, so we went through the supplies I’d brought
back from Rodger’s house. Sarah and Roxie went upstairs to clean up and talk
while we were working.

“We’re
going to need more,” I suggested. “Any herd of significant size and we’ll be
overrun.”

“A
herd?” Nick asked, checking out the thirty ought six. “What do you mean by a
herd?”

“What
else would you call a huge group of those things?” I asked. “It’s like a force
of nature. When I was on my way down here I saw what had to have been a group
of at least a few thousand of those things around a warehouse. As soon as they
noticed me and a few others, they tore through like a tidal wave.”

“Well
why would anything like that come out here?” Nick asked. “We’re in the middle
of nowhere.”

“Tidal
waves don’t discriminate, and neither do zombies,” I pointed out. “They’ll keep
walking until they find food, and we’re a juicy target in this tiny ass farm
house.”

“Fair
enough,” Nick admitted. “Where do you suggest we go then? It’s not like there
are places built specifically for something like this.”

“Honestly,
we should go to the high school,” I suggested. “It’s got plenty of supplies
there, close to town to gather more, and it’s basically a castle.”

Nick
rolled his eyes, “You’re fucking with me right? We went to the school. it was a
fucking war zone. Why would we go back there?”

“I’m
actually completely serious,” I argued. “It’s nothing but bodies now. All the
zombies left after the food was gone, leaving the place for us to take over.”

“It
had those things before!” he argued back. “And it still collapsed. You weren’t
there, it was a madhouse. You couldn’t go five feet without one of those things
popping up.”

I
could see the emotion in his eyes, there was no sense in arguing with him now,
and we could have this discussion later. “Never mind, we just need to be ready
to get out of here if the shit hits the fan.”

“Fair enough,” he nodded. “We can get started on that in
the morning,”

 “What
are we starting in the morning?” Roxie asked as she came back in the room. Her
face was clean, she must have just washed it to clean off all the tear trails.
Sarah was right behind her, her hair was still a bit damp, which meant she must
have just showered.

“We’re
going to be packing up some supplies to be able to leave in a hurry,” I
answered. “Just in case.”

“Well
I think we can discuss what we’re doing tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s one o’clock in
the morning, and we could all use the sleep.” Roxie said in her mom voice, “The
couch pulls out into a bed. Nick, let’s let them get some sleep, they need it.”

Nick
stood up and started up the stairs. I pulled the couch cushions off and pulled
out the bed. Once Nick and Roxie’s door closed I looked over at Sarah. “I can
sleep on the floor if you want,” I offered, taking my hat off and hanging it on
a chair. “And you can have the bed.”

“Could
you sleep on the bed with me?” she asked. It was an odd question, I expected
her to either accept my offer, or shut it down, and say it would be okay for me
to sleep in the bed. Admittedly I hoped for the second outcome, but she said it
as though she needed me to be in the bed.

“Yeah,”
I said after thinking for a second. “Yeah. If you’re okay with that.” She sat
on the left side of the bed, and took off her socks. I sat down on the right
side and took off my boots and socks. I was about to take off my jeans and hesitated
for a moment, but decided it would be weirder to leave them on.

She
was already under the covers when I laid down. She was facing away from me, so
I didn’t say anything, even though I felt like I should. All of the sudden I
heard a sob. She was only crying for a few seconds before she rolled over and
grabbed me. She buried her face in my chest, it didn’t take me long to feel the
moisture of her tears soaking through my shirt.

I
searched my mind for what to say, but it all seemed cliché. I knew what happened
to her, she knew I knew, and we both knew there was nothing I could say to make
it okay. “I’m here,” I reassured her. “I’m here.”

11:00
AM, July 6

I
awoke with a start. The other half of the bed next to me was empty, which at
first made me think the previous day was nothing but a dream. I saw the light
coming between the boards on the windows, then heard Sarah and Roxie talking in
the kitchen. That quelled my suspicions that the previous night was a dream.

I
got out of bed, got dressed, put my hat on and made my way into the kitchen to
find Sarah and Roxie eating pop tarts and having coffee.

“Morning
sunshine.” Sarah smirked. “You were still out of it when I woke up, I figured
I’d let you sleep a little longer.”

I
rubbed my face and took a deep breath, “You were right, as always.” I looked
around, and noticed the absence of a body. “Where’s Nick?”

“Still
sleeping,” Roxie answered, “Though he has less of an excuse then you.”

“Well
I wish you would have woken me up earlier,” I sat down next to Sarah. “We’ve
got a lot of work to do today if we’re eventually going to leave here.”

“We
haven’t agreed on that yet,” Nick argued as he walked in the kitchen. “If we’re
doing anything we’re fortifying this house.”

“Why
are you so adamant about staying here?” I challenged. “If enough of those
things show up here, we’re fucked.”

“If
enough of those things show up anywhere we’re fucked, so why go closer to the
danger?” He made a good point, but not a good enough one.

“How
much food do we have here?” I asked, knowing we barely had enough food for a
few weeks, let alone long term.

He
didn’t answer my question, he just stared, “What’s your point?”

“The
School has all the shelter food dropped by the military, enough to feed
hundreds for a few weeks.” I exaggerated a bit, I did see food crates there,
but had no real idea how much there was. “For four people? That’s food for a
lifetime.”

That
caught Nick’s attention, but I could tell he wasn’t going to be persuaded this
easily. “We can get more food, there are plenty of stores, and hell people’s
houses probably still have food in them.”

“That’s
not the point!” I insisted. “We need better security, stronger walls, weapons,
access to supplies, communication. There’s only so much we can do here!”

“Enough!”
Roxie yelled at both of us. “We aren’t five anymore. Can we at least have a
rational discussion for five minutes without arguing?”

Nick
and I just stared at each other. We both knew the other wasn’t going to give
in. He wanted to stay, I wanted to go. Nick broke the staring contest and
looked at Sarah, then Roxie. “And what exactly do you two think?”

Roxie
still had an angry look on her face. She looked at me, then back to Nick. “We
should stay as long as we can. There’s no sense in running off while we’re
safe.”

 “I
think we should leave,” Sarah shrugged. “We’re too far from anything out here,
we’d never know about rescue, or anything.”

I
was glad Sarah agreed with me, but I could tell her reasons were bull shit. She
looked at me with a bit of a poker face, but I saw her tell. The corner of her
mouth twitched briefly.

 The
girls didn’t help the situation, I don’t know about Nick, but I knew Roxie
wasn’t going to disagree with him, and I knew Sarah wasn’t going to disagree
with me. I knew it was going to take a lot more than a rational discussion to
convince Nick to leave.

“Fine,”
I reluctantly conceded. “We’ll stay here for now, but we should still pack up
my truck with some stuff in case we have to bug out quick.”

“Fine,”
Nick had a bit of a smug look on his face, which was half the reason I didn’t
want to give in to him in the first place. “My uncle’s got a lot of car parts
lying around, and maybe you can use some of them to finally get your truck
fixed while we’re at it.”

“Maybe
we will,” I sneered back mockingly. “Let’s get to work, we’ve already wasted
half the day sleeping. I want to get this truck packed up and ready by
tonight.”

We
spent the rest of the day cataloguing all the supplies, and gathering up what
we’d need in a pinch to put in my truck. It was a tight fit, but we got as much
in as we could. We decided that having a few smaller vehicles would be helpful,
so we brought the four-wheeler and a dirt bike into the garage from the shed
out back. The dirt bike we lifted up into the bed and strapped in, Nick
volunteered to ride the four-wheeler when the time came.

Sarah
was doing her best to pack the food and water into the back seat and still have
enough room for Roxie to sit back there.

“How
much you got stuffed in there so far?” I asked, checking the straps holding the
bike down.

“That’s
what she said,” Sarah joked from inside the truck. It was a good sign. She
hadn’t talked much all day, except to Roxie.

I
smirked, “Good one.”

“We
got two cases of water bottles, about a dozen cans of beans, and a case of
ramen noodles.” She climbed out of the truck and stretched, “You know, as small
as it is back there, I didn’t know I could fit as much as I did.”

“Now
that’s what she said,” I jested. We both burst into laughter. It was the first
real smile I’d seen on her face since we’d gotten back. “Well, I’m glad we can
still laugh, I haven’t done that in a while.”

Her
smile didn’t last long, she looked troubled. I knew what it was about, but I
also knew she wouldn’t want to talk about it, at least not right away. I was
just about to say something when she cut me off.

“About
last night,” she looked down for a second. “I know you probably have questions,
and I know you’re also too polite to ask.”

She
looked up at me, her eyes were getting watery. “Guilty,” I admitted. “Sarah,
you don’t have to do this.”

She
shook her head, “I do.” A tear started rolling down her cheek. “What Rodger
did,” she paused, looking for the words she was afraid to say.

I
wiped the tear from her cheek with my thumb. “No,” I told her, and pulled her
in for a hug. “It’s over, he’s gone.” I pulled her bangs away from her eyes,
she looked up at me and sniffled, “He can never hurt you again.”

“I’m
so sorry.” She buried her face in my chest. “I should have gotten away, and I
should have run.”

“Sarah,
it’s not your fault,” I brushed her hair away again. “It’s mine, I should have
been there, and I should have been here to protect you.”

“You
saved me,” she sniffled again, wiping her face with her wrist. “And I don’t
mean when you physically saved me.”

I
was about to ask her what she meant, but I knew she was only pausing because
she was getting choked up. I waited for her to continue on her own.

“When
we talked on the phone, over a week ago, you told me you were coming for me.
When Rodger grabbed me, and I thought Roxie and Nick were dead, it was the only
thing that kept me going.” She choked up again, and I was starting to get
choked up too. “The only reason I’m alive now is because I knew you were
coming. You travelled a thousand miles to save me.”