“Time to go!” I shouted.
The runners on the street seemed to become agitated at the noise and broke from cover.
“Go, go, go!” I shouted and began firing at the remaining threats while Rachel pushed Morris along the side of the house and into the backyard. I fell in behind them and at the corner of the house I stopped and covered them further. A single runner rounded the side of the house and I put three bullets into its chest, neck and head. We were only dealing with one now; however, with the car alarm still blaring it wouldn’t be long before the undead shuffled up to see what was going on and added to the ranks of rotting flesh.
In the backyard, Rachel stopped at the privacy fence and glanced around for another way out, although there was none.
“Listening to him is going to get you killed,” Morris told her. “We need to head out on our own. The school isn’t far from here.”
She shoved the barrel of the Glock into the side of his head hard enough to cause pain to swell within him. He cringed as she forced the weapon forward a few extra inches. “You mean he’s going to get you killed? Isn’t that what you mean, you sorry piece of shit?” She said angrily. “That’s all you care about after all, isn’t it? Whether or not you get out of here alive… screw the rest of us. Screw the guy that put his life on the line to save your sorry ass.” Her voice was increasing. “You took from him what wasn’t yours to begin with, toyed with him about it, and then blame him for acting like any
real
father would have. If I was him, I would have let those fuckers tear you apart just out of spite… or simply killed every one of your guards in that school! I bet you wouldn’t last two days by yourself… if that long.”
I moved up to them in time to hear her words die away. My eyes caught Morris’ and I could see the doubt as perfectly as I could make out his eye color. “I’d do what she says,” I offered him and squeezed past toward the fence. Once there I was able to pull myself up and have a glance over at the yard on the other side. It was empty of anything that would kill us the second we climbed over, so I dropped and spoke directly to Rachel. “The next yard over is clear. We can hop the fence and keep moving that direction,” I told her.
“Eventually we’ll either outrun them, losing them altogether or we’ll find a place to hide in for a few hours. Whichever way you look at it, they won’t know where we went and maybe they’ll give up looking.”
She nodded to me. “What about this asshole?”
I locked my eyes on him and smiled. “He stays with us.”
“I say we leave him here for those things and use the time to get away,” she countered. “They’ll be so focused on him that they’ll forget about us.”
“No!” I said quickly, looking sharply at her and shaking my head. “I risked my life to save this guy a few minutes ago, so I’ll be damned if I’m just going to let those things have him now. He stays with us.” I wasn’t going to argue any further with her and I think she could either see that in my look or hear it in my voice.
I shifted my gaze to Morris. “Start climbing.”
Rachel cut in. “And what if he runs once he reaches the other side?”
I pointed the barrel of the SBR skyward. “I’ll shoot him in both legs, and then we’ll drag him wherever it is we are going,” I happily replied. “I wonder how painful that would be? I’m pretty sure he would last at least a few days before he bled to death.” My morbid question had everyone looking at me and I could see the fear growing in Morris’ eyes.
“I’m pretty damn sure that would hurt like hell,” she said, adding to the moment.
“You don’t even know where the hell we’re going,” Morris said, possibly to cover that growing fear he was sinking into.
I pointed toward the fence. “That way,” I said and motioned for him to start climbing.
Morris shook his head for a moment and mumbled something I didn’t hear under his breath. He mounted the fence and glanced over to see an empty yard, and then looked at me. “And what do I do if I get over there and one of those running things comes out of nowhere?”
“Then I’d suggest you scurry your ass back over here pretty quick,” I responded. “Now get moving.”
All three of us made our way over the fence one at a time, that way if anything ran up on us from behind or in front, there would be someone there to defend the others. The thought of being attacked during the climb never crossed my mind. It was the thought of Morris trying something after he and Rachel made it over that bothered me. If that happened I was not much help to her and at the same time would be an easy target for Morris after he shot Rachel. The thought was like an annoying bug flying around my head. No matter how many times I swatted the pest away, it came right back, even more persistent and annoying than before.
Apparently that same idea had been roaming around in Rachel’s head and she forced him to move away from the fence as she climbed over. Once on the other side, she kept her distance from him, putting him near the fence in order to watch me cross and him at the same time. If he tried anything, she’d have him and if anything happened to me she could back me up. What a smart girl she was turning out to be, but deep down I still didn’t trust her. That would take time. This was the same woman Morris sent to get my son in order to stall when she knew he wasn’t there and probably hadn’t been for some time. Until she proved herself to me, she was just as expendable and dangerous as he was.
“Now where?” Morris asked mockingly.
I pointed in the direction of a nearby house. “That way. We’ll check that house out and go from there.”
“I think we really need a better plan. Perhaps one that doesn’t require us aimlessly roaming around or entering houses that could be infested with dozens of those things,” Morris said as we moved across the backyard toward the next house.
I kept my eyes moving as we walked looking for trouble while Rachel watched Morris.
“Well, no one asked you, so shut up!” I told him. To say the least, I was already tired of his complaining and snide remarks. There was a part of me that wished I would have left him for the runners to nibble on. Hell, the remaining part of me just wanted to shoot him now and get it over with. Why drag it out any longer?
The rain was beginning to fall harder than before and with all the noise it made, locating anything that wanted to kill us by sound alone became next to impossible. We would have to physically see the threat in order to deal with it and if we were attacked from the rear, they’d be on top of us before we even knew it, and then it would be too late. We needed to find a place to lay low for a while and allow the storm to pass by before heading out again. The only problem, I saw anyway, was we hadn’t gone very far enough yet to simply stop, as there were still Guards at the grove, or at least that’s where I hoped they still were. They wouldn’t give up the search for Morris and they could be coming up to the fence this very moment, so I spun and laid that thought to rest when I saw no one.
“We do need to get out of this rain, that’s for sure,” Rachel said.
I followed them, putting myself in the rear to keep Morris from trying anything stupid. If he did, I’d have a better chance at stopping him before things got too far out of hand. “Rachel,” I said aloud.
She looked at me.
“You think that place is as good as any?” I asked her, pointing at the house in front of us. She shook her head, apparently feeling that we haven’t traveled far enough to hide yet either. I agreed with her by nodding my head and let hear lead the way.
Morris had to offer his abrupt two cents. “Now you’re going to let her decide where we die?
I ignored his question.
Thunder rumbled overhead as we rounded the side of the house, made our way along the narrow yard, stopped to check that the street was clear, and then crossed quickly, while I covered them, and then disappeared into another backyard.
Thirty minutes later and after a very thorough inspection, we entered a darkened house several blocks from where the first contact with Morris and his goons had played out; Rachel shoved Morris onto a comfortable couch, covering him from across the room as I quietly did a quick sweep of the house.
“I can’t believe you,” Morris said to Rachel. “I took you in, clothed you, fed you, gave you safety and this is how you repay me. By taking his side and bullying me around.”
“Oh, you mean like you do to everyone you think is below you?” She shot back. “You treat us all like a bunch of redheaded step-children that you cannot stand. You belittle us, make us do all of the work while you sit on your ass going through our supplies like it’s a buffet, but when the rolls are reversed you want to whine like some sissy little bitch!”
He was awe struck at her words and quietly thought of something he could say to trump her, although I returned before he could think of anything and let them know the house was clear and with duct tape in one hand and a rag in the other.
“You think this will shut him up?” I asked Rachel.
“Are you serious?” He asked me.
We bound and gagged Morris to a comfortable recliner and put it in the corner of the spacious living room in order to keep a good eye on him. He could not see out any of the windows, so if any of his buddies were still looking for him, he’d never see them and thus any further confrontation would be avoided.
As it had been since day one, the power was still working and we made perfect use of it by running a window unit air conditioner, but kept any and all lights off, lessening our chances of being detected by the living or undead. All the windows and doors had been checked and locked. Any curtains or shades were drawn, keeping what appeared from the outside as a normal house to remain that way.
Rachel had raided the cabinets and whipped up a few bowls of ramen noodles and grilled cheese in the kitchen. We ate them in the living room in front of Morris, who eyed us with obvious anger, and hunger, glowing in his eyes.
“So, what’s our next move?” Rachel suddenly asked before shoving a spoonful of noodles into her mouth.
“We sit here and rest for a while,” I said. “It’s the only logical thing to do at this moment, that is unless you feel like fighting a large group of undead and those damn runners. Because I sure as hell don’t.”
She didn’t have to answer the question; instead she shoved more food into her mouth and wondered her eyes toward Morris. “What are we going to do about him, because you know as well as I do he’ll try to escape or do something stupid eventually,” she added. “He’s a liability to us… and dangerous.”
Morris glared at her.
“He’s no threat right now, and I plan on keeping it that way,” I replied. Thunder rumbled heavy overhead, as if attempting to argue with me. I brushed it off as I pushed the empty bowl away and downed the last of the soda.
We finished the meal and sat there with full stomachs and smiles. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything, although it felt like months. Morris wasn’t too fond of being tied to a recliner, although there could have been far worse places to tie him and once I named a few of those places off to him, he saw things my way and remained quiet as I unbound him and allowed him to eat. He ate in utter silence with Rachel and I a few feet away.
“How long do you think we should stay here?” Rachel asked, playing with the nails on her right hand. “Maybe hang out here until dark and then make our move?”
“No,” I said standing at a nearby window peering through the side of the closed curtains. “The storm doesn’t seem to be letting up any,” I told her. “It would probably be best to just stay here until morning, and considering I’m the only one with night vision goggles, it would be foolish to fumble around in the dark and it doesn’t appear to be getting any lighter out there.”
Morris rolled his eyes, to which I spotted and turned to him. “Since you seem to not like that idea, then why don’t you wonder on out there and we’ll see how long you last,” I said harshly. “Because if you think those things got to sleep at night, then you my friend are in for a very rude awakening. If anything, they seem to be more active then.”
“I’m not your friend, so let’s get that straight,” Morris stated.
“Maybe we should try and find a car; I mean there’s a shitload of them out there. All we have to do is find the keys and we are out of here,” Rachel threw out in order to keep a fight between Morris and I from going any further. She knew that was a bad idea, so I just assumed that she had spoken to keep me directed at her and not Morris. I really hoped in my head that she knew that was a very bad idea, anyway.
I was still looking out the window. “And go where?” I asked. “There’s a large group of them out there, so if the vehicle stalls for some reason, we are sitting ducks. And running them over will only lead to more problems. If the radiator is punctured in anyway, we wind up back on foot with a hundred or more undead right on our heels, plus the runners.” I took a deep breath to try and calm myself. “I don’t like those odds, nor is it a risk I think we should even consider at the moment.”
She focused fully on me. “Where were you before you came here, to this town I mean?”
“I was at some kind of military base,” I said and looked her way. “That’s where I got all of this cool shit. We had a helicopter as well, but as soon as this asshole started shooting at us, my friend had no choice but to leave and carry my daughter with him.”
“You should have died in the fall, and if you would have, we wouldn’t be here in this damn house right now,” Morris added to my words. I could smell the poison in his words and it agitated me.