I opened the door and just about jumped out of my skin as I heard a loud moan erupt from the chained-up occupant sitting in the broom closet. It was an infected man. I stood there dumbly because he looked familiar. Then I realized it was the man who had been dragged behind the bulldozer and attacked the other day. He glared at me with milky eyes, extending his open jaw toward me.
I jumped again at the muffled whap sound of Albert’s rifle discharging right next to me. The man’s body slumped, his head lolling to the side, dead at last. It took me a second to compose myself. We listened for a moment, but heard no sounds from outside.
I looked at the man, a bullet hole in his forehead. I looked at Albert, impressed. “I’m surprised you managed to hit him at this distance.” I whispered.
Albert flipped me off and we moved on to the next door across the hall. This time after I pried the hasp off the door, I stepped back, my weapon at the ready. Albert opened the door and stepped back out of the way.
The room was an 8 x 8 foot step down room with a concrete floor. The smell of human waste assaulted my nose. My light fell on an older Hispanic couple in ragged clothes huddled in the back of the room, human. The man hugged the woman protectively and rattled off a string of pleas in Spanish.
“Hey! Quiet!” I hissed at him. “We’re not with these biker assholes. If you want to get out of here, shut up and come with us.”
The man stopped speaking and put his hand up, shielding the light from his eyes. I lowered the barrel and motioned them toward me. I put my finger to my mouth to remind them to be quiet. They emerged from the room and Albert motioned them to stand by the back doorway and wait.
We crossed the hall to the next door and repeated the process. This time when I opened the door, I saw a body lying in an identical room with its back to us. I was just about to close the door when the body moved. I readied myself to fire when the person rolled over, revealing a woman in her mid-twenties, wearing only panties, and definitely human. Her blond hair was plastered to her face and her body was bruised and grimy, but even so, she was very attractive.
She blinked at the light on her and then glared defiantly, not even bothering to cover herself. I lowered the light and repeated what I had said to the Hispanic couple. She stood up and took a tentative step toward me. I stepped out of the way and she joined us in the hall.
“There are others like me here.” She croaked.
I pointed to the couple at the end of the hall and nodded, telling her to go wait with them. The next room was unlocked and empty.
We crossed the hall again and pried off the padlock hasp. As we opened the door we saw a middle-aged black man huddled in the corner and chained to a ring in the wall. He pulled against his chain and yelled at me to stay away from him. I repeated what was quickly becoming my trademark speech and he stopped and stared at me. I stepped down and entered his cell, let my carbine hang on its sling, and pulled out my bolt cutters.
As I snapped one of the links of his chain away I felt a sudden explosion of pain to my nose and face. I staggered back and covered up as the man rained blows down on my head and shoulders.
I regained my balance and slammed into him, firing the open web of my hand up into his throat. He gagged and started coughing. I drove my knee up into his groin, doubling him over. I retreated backwards, putting my hand on the wall for balance.
I reached around and brought up my carbine, training it on the man as he started to rise. He shielded his eyes from my light and I backed out into the hallway. I sniffed and wiped my nose with the back of my coat sleeve, leaving a greasy bloodstain on it.
“We’re leaving this dickhead.” I growled.
“No!” He cried, between choking coughs. “Please don’t leave me here. I’m sorry. I’m just scared, man. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Albert and I both hissed at him to shut up and he finally did. Pathetic asshole. My nose was pouring blood and I was seeing spots from one of his fists connecting with my temple.
“You try that shit again and I’ll kick your ass into the ceiling.” I snarled.
He nodded and lowered his head submissively. I stepped back and he emerged from his room. I nudged him in the ribs with the barrel of my weapon and told him to stand at the other end of the hall away from the others. He started to protest but complied when I aimed my carbine at his face. I whispered to Albert to keep an eye on him.
We went across the hall and pried open the last locked door. By this time I was wired so tight that I was tempted to bail out before even opening the door. As the door opened I trained the weapon and light into the room, but kept my peripheral sight on the Mike Tyson wannabe down the hall.
Albert stepped down into the room so fast it startled me. My attention was torn between Mr. Punchy and what was in the room. Albert’s light played across the room, revealing two girls, one in her teens, and the other a young girl. Albert’s weapon dropped to his side and he starred at the girls, not saying anything.
Finally he said, “I’m Albert Lazaro, I’m here to rescue you.” The girls looked at each other and then back to Albert.
I reached into the room and yanked on Albert’s scruff, pulling him out of the room. The younger girl began to cry, but the teenager hugged her and escorted her into the hall. They ran to the others without being told.
Albert watched the little girl until I shook him. He looked at me, distracted.
“I’m here to rescue you?” I asked. “What are you, Luke Skywalker? Get your head back in the game, man.”
As we had rehearsed it last night, Albert took the lead, telling the group to stay behind him. I motioned to the black guy and as he passed me I whispered, “You stay where I can see you.”
He glared at me but nodded.
Once outside and at the edge of the building, Albert strolled out across the grounds toward the back of the lot. We all watched anxiously, waiting for an alarm to sound. When he was safely among the piles of cars, he looked around and then motioned for us to follow. I stayed behind as the group crossed the open compound, my weapon trained toward the trailers and buildings.
When it was my turn, I walked out into the open, stopping halfway to bend over and pretend to tie my boot. This gave me a vantage point of the entire complex.
There were three people in sight, two in the garage working on a truck and one smoking a cigarette outside of a trailer, but none of them even looked my way. I joined Albert and the others and one by one we slipped through the cut section of fence and into the relative safety of the forest of wrecked steel and cars…or so I thought.
We made our way through the wreckage and I stopped to cover our trail. Before I could turn back around I was tackled and knocked to the ground. My first thought was that it was my new sparring partner looking for round two. I was instantly pissed and spun in his grip, wrapping my arm over the back of his neck and locking my forearm up under his chin in a reverse guillotine headlock.
I got my knees under me and started to stand up, pulling on his neck. That’s when two things hit me at once. The first was the stench, and the second was the sight of Albert and the entire group, including the black guy I thought I was struggling with, standing nearby with their mouths hanging open.
I realized then that my assailant was one of the Infected. I tried to snap the thing’s neck, but the leverage wasn’t right. I started to panic, worried that the thing might get its teeth into me.
I dropped us both to the ground, landing on top of it. I shifted my hand up under its chin and turned its face upward, keeping its body pinned with my body. I grabbed the top of its head with my other hand and cranked its neck around. It didn’t work so I relieved the pressure and torqued its head around again.
This time it gurgled and I heard two wet, grinding cracks as its neck finally snapped. The thing lay still. I gasped, trying to catch my breath. My carbine, attached to me on its sling, had jabbed into both my ribs and my leg as we had rolled around on the hard ground. Albert had his finger to his lips and was making an exaggerated “shushing” noise.
I got to my feet and glared at Albert. I now knew why the bikers had allowed people to become infected. They were using them as junkyard dogs. It explained the double fence too. I motioned Albert to move everyone out quickly. I didn’t want to run into any more of them.
We made it to the back wall and I cut the zip ties on the chain link and we left the compound. We led the group to our staging area a block away and finally stopped to catch our breath.
That’s when I realized that the Hispanic couple was missing. When I asked Albert about it he said that they had run off as soon as we got out of the compound. I was so busy looking for the undead I hadn’t even noticed. I also noticed the CB radio tucked under Albert’s arm. When I asked him where he got it, he said he took it off the seat of the tow truck in the yard. Where the hell had I been this whole time? I wondered.
We all stood there awkwardly. It was the black guy that spoke first. “So what happens now?” he asked.
“You can do whatever you want.” I said.
He looked at me skeptically. “Oh, you went to all this trouble just to let us all go, huh? I don’t suppose you’d give me one of your gats, seeing as how you both got two each?” He asked.
He looked down at my .45 secured in its thigh holster.
I raised my carbine slightly. He nodded smugly then eyed the girls. Albert stepped in front of them protectively.
“Yeah, OK. I get it.” He said.
He took a step back, then another. He spun and disappeared around the side of the building. Albert went around the corner to make sure he was gone. The near naked blond woman looked at me apprehensively. I took off my leather jacket and handed it to her so she could cover herself. She nodded her thanks as she put the jacket on.
The little girl’s lower lip started to quiver. I was worried she would start crying again and attract attention. The teenager hugged her and shut her up.
“Look, we don’t want to hurt you. You’re all free to go.” I said, mostly because I didn’t know what else to say.
Albert came back and without warning blurted out, “We have a secure place with food and water. You can stay with us for as long as you want. You’ll be safe.”
It’s funny; I hadn’t even considered what to do with anyone that we rescued. Apparently, Albert had put quite a bit of thought into it already. I was a little pissed that he offered up my house and food so easily. The little girl looked hopeful, the teenager dubious, and the woman at the verge of tears.
My mind urged me to say something. I wanted to tell them that we didn’t have enough food, or room. They would only complicate things and the last thing I wanted was to be responsible for anyone else. I searched for a delicate way to rescind Albert’s offer.
I was just about to tell them that we would help them find a car to get them out of town when the woman’s striking green eyes looked into mine.
“Thank you.” She said simply.
She looked at the other girls and they nodded to her. She looked back at me and smiled slightly. Inside my head I screamed, “You Idiot! Tell them no!”
I looked down at my feet instead. “We should get out here.” I mumbled.
On the drive back I noticed that our new guests were in serious need of a bath. Albert and I were polite enough not to say anything.
When the little girl asked where we were going, I looked back at her and asked, “You like dogs?” She smiled.
The rest of the today was spent settling the girls into the house. By the way, the little girl’s name is Grace, the teenager is Roz (I guess that’s short for Rosalyn), and the woman is Alison. Albert and I heated several large pots of water on the propane stove and let the girls bathe themselves in the bathroom. My clothes look ridiculous on them but they will have to do until we can go shopping.
We made enough pasta for all of us and ate in silence. I groaned inwardly as I watched each of them eat as much as Albert had on his first night here.
As I thought about the new sleeping arrangements, I became even more depressed. Alison followed me as I walked back to my aunt’s bedroom. The only times I had gone in there since she died were to vacuum and dust. Alison looked around at the room and finally at the empty hospital bed on the far wall.
She picked up a framed picture from the dresser top. It’s a photo of me and my aunt that was taken several years ago. She had just gone through chemotherapy and had lost most of her hair. She had been pretty self-conscious about it, so I shaved my head hoping she wouldn’t feel so alone. In the picture, we are both smiling and wearing matching bandanas on our bald heads.
Alison glanced around the room again and then looked at me curiously.
“It’s a long story. Don’t ask.” I said. “I’ll get that bed out of here. There’s a queen sized bed out in the garage I can set up and I’ve got an extra cot too.”
Alison nodded quietly.
I set everything up and left them alone. They can work out the sleeping arrangements themselves. Everyone was exhausted and went to bed early. Albert went into my room and shut the door. Chloe and I went back to the couch in the TV room. It’s my damn house and I don’t even have a bedroom to sleep in. It figures.
DAY 25
I woke up a little after 2 a.m. with a start.
I listened for a few minutes but didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary so I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 11 a.m. to the smell of cooking food. I felt groggy and a little disoriented.
Alison smiled at me when I walked into the kitchen. She was making pancakes and cooking up sausage. She told me breakfast would be ready in ten minutes. Roz was in the living room. She had found my iPod and had the ear buds on. She ignored me. I walked out back to find Albert tinkering in the garage. Grace had found the dog brush and had already brushed five pounds of hair off Chloe as she sat patiently and endured the process. Chloe was in heaven.
I felt like I was dreaming. The normalcy of the situation was strange. I went around behind the garage to relieve myself. I had thought of solutions for our plumbing and shower problems but they could wait until after breakfast.