Escape (24 page)

John shook his head. “We used everything we had.”

On the floor was the pile of weapons that Meredith and John had gathered earlier—knives, garden tools, and hand tools.

“You two protect the downstairs. Quinn and I will go to the second level and see if we can pick some off through the window. If things get bad, yell.”

John nodded. “Got it.”

Dan watched as the two of them retrieved knives from the floor, then each of them grabbed a rifle from the dining room table. Meredith sprang for the nearest boarded window—where a set of fingers had wormed their way through the cracks—and began to thrust a kitchen knife through the opening. The creatures hissed and spit from the other side.

Dan hoisted a rifle of his own and handed a pistol to Quinn.

“Let’s go!” he told her.

The two of them pounded up the stairs, rounding the hallway and back into the main bedroom. When Dan looked out, his mouth fell open. The creatures fell over each other in a swarm, each trying to get ahead of the pack. They groped the house with hungry hands, eyes focused on the house and the people within. He noticed a few trying to clamber up the side, but the smooth vinyl provided little assistance, and they slid back to the ground without finding purchase.

Dan unlatched the window lock and flung up the sash. Then he lifted the screen, poked the tip of the rifle outside. With limited ammunition, his best bet was to aim for the thickest pockets of their attackers. If he could pick off those closest to the house, perhaps he could incapacitate several with one shot.

It was hardly a solution, but it was the best he could come up with for now.

The bedroom was seated on the corner of the house. When he looked down, he could see the boarded up windows of the dining room, and when he looked diagonal he could see the front porch. A cluster of creatures hovered against the front door, limbs flailing.

“Stay back, Quinn!”

His daughter stood behind him and blocked her ears.

He fired off a shot, watching two heads explode and another thing collapse from a gunshot wound to the chest. The fallen creatures were quickly overtaken, the porch still a teeming mass of flesh.

Dan aimed carefully. Fired again. The shot hit home, sending another few creatures sprawling off the porch and onto the lawn.

The sound of wood cracking distracted him, and when he looked down, he saw that the things had broken one of the boards that covered the living room window. He trained the rifle at the culprits, squeezing off several more shots to stave them off.

Despite his accurate shooting, they were hopelessly outmatched. There were more creatures than bullets, and even if he used his shots sparingly, there’d be no way to kill them all.

“Dan!”

Shouting erupted from downstairs, and he reared back from the window. Meredith was calling for assistance. Quinn squeezed in next to him and pointed her pistol through the window.

“I’ve got it, Dad,” she said.

He patted her on the back and rushed to the stairwell just as gunfire erupted from below. He took the stairs two at a time, his breath ragged.

Meredith and John clung to their rifles, taking turns firing through a broken-out window in the back of the dining room. Two boards had given way; the nails had been ripped out of the wall. One by one the creatures poked their heads through the hole.

“We need to board it back up!” Meredith shouted.

“On the floor!” John shouted to Dan.

Dan put down his rifle, scooping up a box and the tool, and walked toward the opening.

“Hold your fire!” he shouted. “I need help!”

With the last burst of gunfire, the window had been temporarily cleared. Dan grabbed hold of one of the loose boards and put it back in place. Meredith scooted over next to him and held it while he fumbled with the nails. A pair of grotesque hands pushed against the other side, and Meredith lost her hold.

“Dammit!” she cried.

Dan swung the hammer through the window frame, battering it against the creature’s skull, and the thing toppled to the ground.

“Try again!”

Meredith resumed putting it in place; this time Dan was able to get ahold of a nail and begun pounding. The board continued to shake. Undaunted, he grabbed an additional nail and hammered it into the wood. With one board in place, he reached for the next, dodging a pair of mottled gray hands.

He swung the hammer through the opening again. This time he caught the creature with the claw-end, and the metal dug into the thing’s scalp. He pulled upwards and pried it loose, spraying the room with a stream of fluid.

After another minute of struggle, Meredith and Dan had repositioned the second board and covered the window. Even still, others were beginning to give way; it was only a matter of time before one broke.

“This isn’t going to work for long!” Dan yelled.

“How many of them are there?”

“Too many! We need a better plan!”

John had taken hold of the knife, and had returned to jabbing it through the cracks in between the boards. Dan swiveled around the house. In each of the gaps, indiscernible masses flitted back and forth. Occasionally he saw an eye, an ear, or a nose, but he was unable to tell one from the next.

Dan grabbed a knife and joined his companions, watching the scene with increasing dread. With the windows covered and the lights on, he felt like an animal in a cage, the subject of a failed science experiment. For the past week, him and his daughter had been able to cheat death, staying one step ahead of the carnage that followed them.

Now they’d painted themselves into a corner.

Or rather,
he’d
painted them into a corner.

We shouldn’t have stayed here. We should’ve left.

Try as he might, Dan was unable to dispel the thought that he’d made a mistake. And this time, that mistake was going to cost them.

29

M
eredith cringed as she thrust the blade between the boards. Each time she stabbed, the knife made a sickening crunch, and every time she pulled it back it contained a new smattering of fluid.

Just a week ago her greatest worry had been producing enough vegetables to haul to the local farm stand, now she was engaged in a struggle for her life, sticking a kitchen knife into the townspeople’s flesh. The thought made her sick to her stomach.

At the same time, there were no other options.

It was Meredith’s own hubris that made her stay, and now she’d put others in danger as well. She should’ve agreed to leave the farm. She shouldn’t have stayed. A house could be replaced, but there’d be no replacing the ones she loved.

I’m sorry
, she thought.

Rather than speak, she continued to stab through the window, thrusting and plunging while the others next to her did the same. If she let up for one minute, the creatures would prevail, and she wasn’t about to let that happen. Not willingly, at least.

Not while I have any fight left in me.

A gunshot rang out from upstairs, and she jumped at the sound. Dan fled his post at the window.

“I’ll be back!” he yelled.

She watched him disappear upstairs, saying a silent prayer that Quinn was all right. In spite of all the little girl had been through—in spite of losing her mother—she possessed a resilience that Meredith couldn’t believe. She could already tell that Quinn would grow up into an amazing woman.

She just hoped they’d all be there to see it.

I have to figure a way out of this. There must be a way to get rid of these things.

Although it was possible they’d lose interest, she wasn’t banking on it. The more likely scenario was that they’d get in the house first. Sooner or later they’d break through the doors and windows.

There had to be a way to distract them somehow, to lure them away.

Think, Meredith, think.

She wracked her brain, searching for an answer. Behind her, Ernie’s nails clicked the hardwood as he paced the house, running from window to window. His bark filled the house. Meredith turned to check on him, then returned her gaze to the window.

There was no way they could shoot all the creatures, not with their limited ammunition. But what if they could lead them away and contain them?

A thought struck her.

“Dan!” she shouted.

She heard several more gunshots from upstairs. The noise echoed through the house. Afterward, the voice of her brother-in-law wafted down the staircase.

“We’re all right!” he said. “Just holding them back!”

She looked next to her at John, who was thrusting his knife through the adjacent window. He met her eyes, perhaps sensing she had an idea.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We need to lure these things away from the house.”

“How are we going to do that? We can’t even get outside.”

“If one of us can get out, maybe we can lead them to the barn. Maybe we can trap them inside.”

“I love you, Meredith, but that’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard.”

She dropped her knife to the floor and bridged the gap between them, grabbing hold of the fabric of his shirt.

“If we don’t do something, we’re going to die in here.”

“Leaving now would be suicide.”

The boarded windows in front of them shook and rattled.

“And staying here isn’t?”

John stared at her, his face hardening with resolve. “I’ll go,” he said.

“No offense, but with your wounded leg you wouldn’t last a second. And I know this property like the back of my hand. If anybody stands a chance out there, it’s me. If I can lure them away, you, Dan, and Quinn can get to the SUV.”

John opened his mouth to speak, but she silenced him. The groans of the creatures increased in volume, as if they were preparing to step through the walls themselves. She kissed him on the lips.

“I’ll be back.”

Without giving him a chance to respond, she darted from the dining room and up the stairs. John was right—the odds were stacked against her. Regardless, she owed it to her companions to try.

“I don’t like this idea one bit,” Dan said, shaking his head. “You can’t go out there. Not now.”

Meredith looked out the window of the second bedroom. Beyond it was a sloped roof about ten feet across that formed an overhang over the front porch. In the driveway were the two cars.

“I can get to the truck, Dan. All I need is a distraction.”

“There are too many of them. Even if we could draw them away, they’d be back in seconds. It’s just too risky.”

Meredith furrowed her brow. Below them, several of the creatures leapt up and slid down the vinyl siding. The overhang was about fifteen feet from the ground, just out of reach from their groping fingers. Dan clutched his pistol.

“How much ammunition do we have left?”

“I’m not sure, but it can’t be much. Listen, Meredith, I wouldn’t feel right letting you go out there.”

She handed him the rifle she held in her hands.

“You’re the best shot we have. We need you in here to hold them back.”

He shook his head while she continued.

“It’s my fault that everybody’s chosen to stay here, Dan. If we’d left sooner, we could’ve gotten away. Now we’re all trapped. Let me make this right. I can get us out of this. You just have to trust me.” She grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye.

After a long hesitation, he nodded.

“Please be careful, Meredith. And don’t take any chances. If things get bad, just keep driving.”

“I will. I promise.”

Meredith lifted her leg over the windowsill and climbed onto the roof. She patted the top of her pants, verifying she still had a pistol, and then tapped her pockets for the keys. The creatures stared up at her, eyes glossed and hollow. She looked back at the window, taking in the worried forms of her brother-in-law and niece.

“Are you ready?” Dan asked.

“Go,” she mouthed.

She heard Dan and Quinn flee from the windowsill, then footsteps padding down the stairwell. Moments later she heard all three of her companions screaming and shouting from somewhere in the back of the house to create a distraction. She flattened herself against the vinyl siding.

The creatures below her changed direction, moving in tandem like a frightened herd. Were it not for their incessant moans and salivating mouths, it might have seemed like they were wounded prey fleeing an unseen predator, scared for their lives.

The yelling and banging continued. Meredith watched them leave, her heart pounding as she contemplated what she was about to do.

The ground was fifteen feet below her. If she were to twist or sprain something, that would be the end. Once she was on the ground, she’d be fair game for all of them. Even one would be enough to incapacitate her.

She clenched her eyes shut and thought of her sister.

You can do this, Meredith. You have no other choice.

Then, before she could have second thoughts, she crept to the edge and leapt off.

Meredith was only in the air for a second, but the sensation of falling seemed to last much longer. Before she could cry out, the ground sprung to meet her, and Meredith did her best to roll and absorb the impact. Her shoulder throbbed, but she was otherwise intact, and she was quickly able to roll sideways and away from the house.