After Emalynn made it through the window, Bradley followed. Before he reached the window, however, gunshots were heard out in the street. Bradley hopped from the ladder onto the roof of the garage. “Hurry up, guys,” he urged Roger and Guillermo. Both men scrambled to make it up the ladder. A black woman limped past the garage out in the street followed by four fiends.
The woman appeared to be in her thirties, but it was hard to tell anyone’s age anymore. She wore a long black skirt suit with a black jacket the sleeves have been torn off of for comfort. Her long black hair was in a loose pony tail, and she had black-framed glasses. At the bottom of her long legs her feet were bare.
“I’ll see if I can help this woman,” Bradley said.
“I’ll go with you. If that is fine with you of course?” Guillermo pulled his blade from his pack and jumped from the garage before Bradley could answer.
“Can you wait here with Emalynn?” Bradley asked Roger. “We will be right back.” Bradley jumped down from the roof and pulled the handgun from his belt.
Emalynn felt terrified to know she had once again been left alone with Roger. She stepped back to give him room to climb through the window. Smiling at him, she hoped he would keep his distance. His face no longer seemed to be drained of color, but he still looked like he lacked his humanity.
Bradley caught up to Guillermo just as he had chopped into the skull of the closest fiend, a teenage boy who was wearing a torn Call of Duty t-shirt. He went down to the concrete hard, landing on his face. His front teeth shattered against the street. The fiends moved slowly, but the woman was injured and not moving much quicker.
Aiming his pistol at the next fiend, Bradley realized how bad of a decision it would be to continue firing. The woman had fired a few shots and somehow not attracted an entire horde, but Bradley didn’t want to risk it. Instead, he unsheathed a large hunting knife he had found in the bait shop, jumped on the fiends back, and drove the knife into his head.
The third fiend went down after Guillermo’s blade sliced through the back of her neck. Her body stopped working, yet she kept her eyes on Guillermo.
Clack
.
Clack
. She bit at the air. Guillermo swung the blade to the right, connecting with the face of the last. The blade was buried in the fiend’s head, entering at a slight downward angle that sliced through both eyes.
“Ma’am! You can stop now. You’re safe,” Bradley shouted to the woman.
She slowly came to a stop and turned to them as they came up to her. It was obvious she was out of breath. From the looks of her she had not eaten in days. The deep bite marks on her thin left arm spewed blood along with a foamy white substance that dripped onto the concrete. Bradley knew from the experience of the initial attack that anyone who was bitten would not last much longer.
Her southern accent wasn’t thick, but it was enough to confirm she wasn’t from around here. “Three children are on the roof of the super market just a few blocks from here. They are waitin’ for me to return with food. I can’t go back to them like this, but they will starve to death by themselves.” The words she spoke were carried with forced breathing.
“We will get to them. Are you the one who fired the shot?” Bradley asked.
“No sugah. We heard it, so I moved to the roof thinking it meant a chance at being rescued. Will you promise to get the children?” Her face was wet with tears and blood.
“We will get to your children. I promise.”
“They ain’t my children, but I couldn’t leave them by themselves. I saw what those characters did to my family, and I couldn’t let that happen to them poor babies. Promise me right now you will get them and keep them safe.”
“We will go for them now,” Guillermo said reassuringly.
“Thank you kindly.” She looked up into the sky. “It’s time for god to take me to see my own family.” Before she could be stopped, she put her gun to the roof of her mouth and pulled the trigger. The gunshot rang through the street. Her head snapped back on her neck. Skull fragments and chunks of her brain splattered sickeningly on the concrete as they fell from the hole in her head.
“I can get to the children if you want to head back,” Bradley said without taking his eyes off of the dead woman.
“No. I’ll go with you. We are close, so it won’t take long.” He placed a hand on Bradley’s shoulder when he saw the pain that he felt over the loss of a woman neither of them knew. “If we can save those children, then her death won’t be for nothing.”
The two men slowed down when they heard the gurgling moans of the fiends growing louder as they approached the gas pumps. The super market was on the other side of the station. Inside the small Shell gas station, fiends wandered around in the isles. Keeping low so they wouldn’t be seen, Bradley and Guillermo crept past. With the gas station cleared, they both ran at a dead sprint toward the super market.
Bradley found that he was surprised how easy it was to make it this distance, and it gave him hope of finding the big gunshot. Most of the fiends that were in this area had gone out to inspect the commotion from just a few moments ago. At the back of the building they found a ladder that went up to the roof. There were marks on the ground from where the woman had been moving a stack of crates to and from the ladder.
“Hello?” Bradley spoke quietly as they looked around for the children. Swaying gently in the breeze was a large blue tarp propped up as a makeshift tent. A boy about eleven or twelve stepped out from around the tent first, holding a baseball bat defensively.
He was less than five feet tall. His shaggy brown hair curled up an inch or so as it emerged from the dirty Zoo York hat. The low top Vans on his feet were also beat up pretty bad, and he wore a sweat stained blue shirt with ‘manager’ embroidered on the left breast that must have come from the super market.
“Hello. We’re here to help you. A woman sent us up here to take you back with us. You’re safe.” Bradley held out his hands to show he was unarmed.
“What did you do with Danni?” The boy demanded with a stern voice. The fear could be seen in his brown eyes.
“We didn’t do anything ok. She was attacked, we tried to help her. She told us there were three of you up here, and we needed to get to you.” Bradley kept his hands out as he slowly moved closer to the boy. “We have food and shelter. You will be safe with us.”
The boy sat the bat down against an HVAC unit and went into the tent. A few moments went by before Bradley could hear the children inside crying. It broke his heart to have to hear them taking the loss of this woman, Danni, so hard. He decided it best to give the children some time. Both men understood that losing someone who had cared for them for this long must be very hard.
While waiting for the children both men heard the sounds of a car engine coming from the south. The sound only lasted a few seconds, yet it was loud. Almost as if the driver was in a hurry or possibly stuck. They waited silently for a few minutes hoping to catch a glimpse of the vehicle on the road, but they never saw it.
“Must have come from where the gunshot came from?” Bradley asked.
“That would be my guess. It looks to be to our advantage. Most of the fiends are moving that way now,” Guillermo pointed out. Several fiends moved below them on their way to find the new noise. He crossed himself and brought his silver crucifix pendant up to his lips. “Just the Lord looking out for us.”
Over the next couple of minutes Bradley could hear the children moving around as they gathered their meager belongings. They continued to weep softly as they worked. When the boy stepped out of the tent a few moments later, his eyes were red from crying.
“We’ll go with you then. If it’s ok,” the boy said.
“Of course, that’s why we are here,” Bradley said with a welcoming smile.
The other two children emerged from the tent. They were both a couple years younger than the first boy. Bradley could tell they were twins. The eight year old boy had curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and suntanned skin. He had the typical California surfer look to him. His swimming trunks settled in just below his knees, showing off his dirty shins and bare feet.
The girl was a mirror image of her brother only with longer, even curlier hair. She wore a pink one-piece bathing suit with a matching dress and leather sandals with a broken strap on the left one. Mud streaked down her face where the tears and dirt met while she was crying.
“My name is Bradley. This is Guillermo. We are with two others who are in another building just over there.” Bradley pointed slightly north-east of where they were. “Are we looking alright to go?” He turned to Guillermo, who had been keeping watch from the side of the building.
“Si. It’s now or never. They seem to be heading south still.”
“Good, here is what we will do. The two of us will go down first and cover the parking lot. The little ones come down next followed by you, big guy.”
“I’m Tyson. They’re Andy and Amie.” Tyson introduced them as they moved closer to the ladder. Bradley could tell he was nervous.
“Just stay close and everything will be fine,” Bradley assured. “Here we go.” He slid down the ladder, holding onto the sides with his hands and feet.
Guillermo patted Tyson on the back and gave him a friendly nod. Then he started down the ladder, using the rungs to climb. As he made it about half way down Tyson helped Amie over the edge and onto the ladder. When all of them were on the ground they moved as a group toward the gas station at the other side of the lot.
Stopping against the building, they waited out a couple of fiends who shambled down the opposite sidewalk. Once they were out of sight Bradley rushed them across the street and into the alleyway. The garage came into view as they came out the other side. Emalynn waved excitedly from the window as she saw them. Roger was waiting across the street next to the garage. The bodies of a couple fiends lay at his feet.
The small party made their way to the garage. Roger did not look pleased at all to see the children. This was a change from his usual look, so Bradley felt that he had at least accomplished something today. They helped the children up the ladder and into the window.
“This place is a hell hole. Is this supposed to be funny?” Roger asked as they were all inside the building.
Amie held her nose to keep the smell out while Andy teased her about touching the blood on the floor. Bradley found himself smiling, as this reminded him of his own childhood. He would chase the girls he liked around the playground with frogs and salamanders.
“Just don’t touch any of that,” He said in a fatherly manner.
“This isn’t it. We go through to the next building. Just over there.” Guillermo showed his new guests the way to the office where his plank rested on the floor against the wall. With the help of Bradley they slid the board across the alley. Guillermo went across first and helped the rest as they crossed.
“Make yourselves at home. There are various rooms up above, and you can go all the way to the roof where there are fresh vegetables growing. You kids can eat as much as you like but don’t waste anything,” Guillermo said.
“When I was a kid we had to eat everything we took. If we wasted anything then mi Madre would smack our knuckles with a wooden spoon and make us sit at the table until we cleaned our plates. ”
Guillermo went into his own room quickly after sharing that brief story. He didn’t want anyone to see him cry. Thinking back on his childhood like that made him miss his large family. Back then he thought it was so hard to be a kid. Now he only wished he could go back.
Chapter 8
Everyone had settled in peacefully as night set in over the city. The children went to bed with full stomachs for the first time in months. Bradley was the last one to fall asleep. He had been trying to plan their next move. Without really knowing where they would be heading, he found it rather difficult to come up with anything solid. They would have to think on their feet and just go.
The group remained in the apartments above the furniture store for the next eight days. At this point they wanted to remain comfortable and close to the food source. Also slowing their progression was the high number of fiends out in the streets. The best guess any of them had was that all of the commotion from the past couple of days had stirred them up. Bradley felt positive there were others out there, and what they were up to was a complete mystery.
After another breakfast of fresh vegetables, Bradley gathered Guillermo and Roger to discuss their plan. The fiends were out roaming the streets like an army. Their moans carried through the open windows of the building as they scuffled along in the streets.
The children showed no signs of being afraid as this has been a part of their lives for far too long. Emalynn sat with them while the men discussed their plan. Several board games were found, including Candy Land, which they played the most. An old Nintendo was also there, but there was no electricity to play it.
“I think the three of us can scout the area south-east of here. Either we move as a group or on our own. There is an apartment building south-east of us about six blocks out. That is the direction the gunshot came from, and where we heard the car. After the apartment it is only houses from there on out.” Bradley carved various shapes onto a desk to help illustrate his plan.
“I think we have a greater chance traveling as a group. At least until we get there. After that we can maybe split up to investigate a couple of different options.” Roger’s transformation was captivating. He looked alive again, and he was proving to be quite useful. Maybe the fresh air was good for him.
“I agree. There are too many devils out there though. How do we make it past them all?” Guillermo wasn’t the only one concerned about this. Bradley had been watching the streets crawling with fiends. They have been moving haphazardly for days.
“We head out and down the garage, trying to stay between buildings as far as we can. Maybe even take out one or two of them as we go,” Roger suggested.
“It’s up to you guys. I’ll go with anything at this point. After being trapped in the news building for a year I don’t really want to be confined to one building for very long. We just need to make sure not to get ourselves surrounded,” Bradley stated.
“Let’s go now. I think we can test the waters, so to speak. Maybe kill a few of those fiends.” Roger seemed ready for action, his fists clenched tight enough to turn his knuckles white.
Bradley told Emalynn and the children the plan. She worried about all of the fiends outside, but for the children’s sake she did not show it. He wanted her to watch over them from the roof. Emalynn would go up, but she would not be able to bring herself to watch as the love of her life walked into a town full of these dead cannibals.
Roger made it down the ladder first and signaled for the others to follow. They edged their way around the garage and crouched down behind a stack of planter boxes. The fiends moved along in the streets. When they had a large enough gap, they jogged quietly across to the buildings on the other side.
Emalynn peeked over the roof at them as they hurried across the street. She didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t help herself. Her nerves were completely shot at this point. Briefly looking around the town, she spotted groups of fiends wandering in every direction. She turned her back to the horrifying scene below and watched as the twins played with some action figures.
Noticing that Tyson looked sad, Emalynn decided to walk over to see if she could talk to him. Realizing then that she hadn’t really spoken much to him, she wasn’t sure how to approach him. Just going for it, she sat down on the ledge next to him.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“Fine,” he replied quickly and turned his body to look out into the street below.
Emalynn stood, preparing to walk away when Tyson said, “I left Danni.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I went with her for the first time. She wanted me to know how to help scavenge for food as it became harder to find.”
Emalynn sat back down next to him. Tears ran down his face as he turned back toward her. For a short while he couldn’t hold it back any longer. Emalynn wrapped her arm around him as he wept. She let him cry for several minutes, shooing away the twins as they came over to check on their friend.
“I tripped. I wish I tripped over something, but I didn’t. I just tripped, slamming into a shelf and knocking it over,” he said when he was finally able to speak again. “The noise brought so many dead people out. Danni distracted them and told me to run back to the store. Then Bradley and Guillermo showed up—told me she was dead.”
Emalynn pulled him in tightly again as he cried once more. “It wasn’t your fault. She wouldn’t have thought that either and you don’t need to think that now.”
Several minutes passed by and he stopped crying, sat up, and wiped his face off. “I’m sorry,” he said, noticing the wet spots on the shoulder of her shirt. “I won’t leave anyone ever again. From now on, I leave nobody behind.”
Staring at the boy for a moment, Emalynn came up with an idea. She stood and walked away, leaving him to stare out into the streets below. When she returned, she handed him a tomato. He held it in his hand and looked up at her with a confused look on his face.
“Throw it,” she said. Looking down below, she picked out a wandering dead man and hurled her tomato at him. With a thud, the tomato splattered on the street about four feet away from him.
“Here goes,” Tyson said. He smiled, pulled his arm back, and flung the tomato. It too hit the ground near the man, who was standing over the first one now. As it hit, the dead man turned and walked toward the new red blotch on the concrete.
They both laughed, trying to keep it quiet, as they watched the dead man move back and forth between the two tomato splatters. Quickly losing interest, he began to wander aimlessly once more. Emalynn nudged Tyson and they ran to the tomato plants.
Down on the street across from Guillermo’s apartment, the group crept through the busted glass pane of a door leading into a sewing shop. The large window was covered in dust, keeping it dark inside. Passing by the counter, they walked into the back room where all the work was done.
Sewing supplies were scattered about making Bradley worry that he would have a needle driven through his foot at some point. The dark wasn’t as bad as it seemed it would have been back here, but it was still tough to see. Sewing machines sat on a table against the wall.
Roger let out a scream as a fiend stepped forward into him. Its grotesquely mangled body didn’t even have a head. The man pushed off the fiend’s chest and plunged forward with his spiked club, bashing at its frame.
Guillermo let out a laugh, much louder than he intended. “It’s not real man. It’s a mannequin.”
As the blood flow slowed back down in Roger’s body, he took a good look at the busted pile of plastic and aluminum wires that were wrapped in a white mermaid style wedding dress. The dress, now tore and stretched out, reminded Roger of his wife.
She wanted a nice dress, something beautiful like this, but at the time he couldn’t afford for her to have exactly what she wanted. Instead, they went to a rental place and purchased her the best used dress he could buy on a mailman’s salary. It was that day he decided to go back to school and buy her the best of everything.
After everyone but Roger had a good chuckle, the group set forth again. The back door was down a surprisingly well lit hallway off the back of the sewing room. By the time they reached the door and stepped outside, their eyes were adjusted and they kept moving.
The next two blocks were clear. The trio ducked into an Italian restaurant as a small group of fiends came into view. Watching out of the red curtained windows as they passed, none of the men noticed the man walk up behind them. The moan and gurgles caused the three to jerk around quickly. Guillermo raised his lawnmower blade and stepped forward, prepared to defend his companions.
Before he had the chance to bring the blade down, the fiend’s head burst open. Wet bits of brain along with pieces of the skull sprayed onto Guillermo’s face. Bradley and Roger turned away just in time to avoid this disgusting shower.
“You’re welcome.” The source of the cocky Australian voice was further back into the restaurant.
A fireman’s axe protruded from the split open head of the fiend. Roger handed Guillermo some dusty napkins from a nearby table to wipe his face with. The trio stood looking across the room at a young man who stood there patiently. The man was slightly taller than average, yet still shorter than Bradley. His hair was wavy blonde, and he was very muscular.
The Australian wore a black t-shirt made from thin cotton with a pocket on the left. The shirt was tucked into his faded blue jeans with a tear just below the right knee. A brown leather belt wrapped around his waist, it was more for style than to hold up his pants. Brand new boots matched the belt.
“Names Deacon Belle. Are any of you bitten? You need to leave if so, or prepare to be dealt with with extreme prejudice.” Deacon’s Australian accent was strong, and his protective stance, made him appear ready to counter any attack.
“I’m Bradley, this is Guillermo and Roger. We are not looking for a fight, and we are not bitten.”
“I know you. From the news, right?” he pointed at Bradley with a smile, then extended his hand. “We’ll get along great, I’m sure. After all, you spend your career hot on the tail of me and my career.”
“I don’t know what you mean. Besides we no longer have careers, Deacon. Maybe you didn’t notice. We are all just trying to stay alive now.” Bradley took the Australians strong hand and shook it.
“I’m a firefighter, mate. You guys follow us around hoping to get a shot of a mangled and burned up body. Lookin’ to make a buck off death and gore. Now there is death and gore all around you, walking the streets. I guess your ratings must have dropped off now that folks don’t need the news to see it.” Deacon’s tone made Bradley feel uncomfortable.
“We are just passing through. We don’t want any trouble,” Guillermo said as he shook Deacon’s hand. “If you want us out we will go. All I can ask is that you allow us to wait for another clearing.”
“Where are you planning on going?” Deacon’s curiosity was beaming. “This whole town has gone to hell, mate. I can’t imagine there are a whole lot of livin’ people left here.”
“We heard a gunshot. A few days later we heard an automobile. I’m assuming it wasn’t you, and I intend on finding whoever it was,” Bradley said hurriedly.
“Why would you assume it wasn’t me?” Deacon asked. “I don’t look like the type to fire guns and drive cars? I ain’t action-movie-American enough for you?”
“Oh geez, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you at all. Please –“ Bradley started to apologize.
“I’m just givin’ you a hard time, mate. Relax a bit.” Deacon laughed. “Why don’t you let me in on your plan?”
Over the next several minutes, Bradley filled in Deacon on their plan, as well as what they knew so far about their situation. Deacon also told the men what he knew so they could consolidate their knowledge for a better chance of survival for all.
After considering the things they discussed, as well as his own situation, Deacon decided that he could trust this group of people. He had them follow him to where he had set up a safe house. He led them out of the back of the restaurant and into the back of the dimly lit building on the other side of the alley. They stopped in front of a wall made up of bricks, pipes, boards, and various pieces of furniture. Deacon lifted a cushion on a chair to reveal a tunnel.
“Head straight through,” he instructed, than struck two pipes together twice. The clanging of metal was loud, and the vibrations rang in their ears like church bells, or more like a dinner bell.
None of the men felt confident, anymore. They eyed each other and nodded in a silent agreement that they would stay alert and watch each other’s backs. Guillermo volunteered to go first, followed by Roger, Bradley, then Deacon, who closed up the tunnel behind them.
As they came out of the other side, each one was halted by a woman aiming a shotgun at them. As their eyes continued to adjust to the poor lighting, they could see that she was short with black hair and pale skin. Her clothes were clean and gave her the appearance of a successful business woman. A gray pantsuit was perfectly complimented by a short thin tie, black shoes, and a bowler hat. She almost looked like she could be a new generation of a 1930’s mobster.
Deacon exited the tunnel and she smiled at him. As he stood to his feet, she swept the dirt off of his clothes like a mother would her child before they went into the store.
“We have guests?” her voice was soft and kind as she spoke.
“Yeah. This is Bradley, Roger (which he pronounced Rod’jah), and Guillermo.” Each one waved as his name was called. “They seemta think that the gunshot was a signal, and that there is someone else just south of us that is plannin’ on getting the hell outta here.”