Winter's Salvation (38 page)

Drew pulled up harder than what he ever believed he could and Naomi and Sam grabbed under his arm pits lifting him up into the attic.  He was in the attic at his waist when the undead grabbed him and began to pull him down.  Eric felt the strong icy grip squeeze though the skin and muscle of his left calf and down pressing hard on his bone. 

He flailed his legs and kicked wildly, but the undead would not release its grip.  Eric screamed in fear.  This is the closest one has ever been to him.  He has never been touched by one and now could understand why they were so effective.  A single person can’t get away from their grip.  This is what Rod felt before he was bitten.  He began to think of the bite that was sure to follow.  Rotting teeth piercing his skin was the next feeling he thought he was going to feel and he counted the seconds before it happened.

The pain he felt in his calf was excruciating, but the fear of becoming one of them was worse.  Then fear set in as he felt that sharp pain in his left foot.  Eric was waiting for this bite and it just happened.  His scream was tinged with a cry and then it was hard for him to hold onto the ledge any longer.  The muscles in his arms were weak and he felt that he could no longer hold himself up and then a loud bang and the pressure on his calf was gone. 

He was lifted into the attic by his pants and laid onto a thin piece of ply wood with pink fiberglass coming up around the edges.  Naomi had squeezed the pistol between the attic opening and Eric’s body just enough to get a shot on the ghoul.  The one shot was enough to destroy its brain, causing it to let go.  The ply wood was replaced over the attic opening just before the rest of the undead made their way into the small bed room.                

Eric pulled his left boot off and saw a bloody sock.  He quickly pulled it off and saw the side of his foot just before the small toe was bleeding from the bite.  Teeth marks were indented into his skin and the side of his foot was bleeding from the pressure of the bite. 

They could hear the mass of undead pacing and circling the bedroom below them, tripping on their recently deceased dead companion.  Eric examined his foot and his boot through a single sun beam that shined through the attic’s screened vented window.  A clear bite mark was imprinted on his boot, but it did not rip through the leather or tear it.  His foot did not have any tear or bleeding punctures that he believed, but the blood coming from the side of his foot filled the punctures and he was unable to clean them completely. 

He was reaching into his bag for another sock when Naomi was putting his pistol back into his bag.  He pushed the gun back at her and looked at her, but Naomi already knew what he was going to say.  “You should hold onto it for a while.”  Eric said. 

Drew shinned his flash light on the wound to better examine it, as Eric cleaned the bite marks.  The indented teeth marks were red from his bruised skin, but no blood filled the sunken teeth marks.  This set them all at ease, but he insisted Naomi hold onto the pistol. 

The rubber sole of his boot stopped the zombie from piercing his foot.  He wrapped the bloody sock around it, putting pressure on the wound and then slid his other sock over that.  He unlaced his chewed boot to make room for his bandage.          

The children were now focused on their surroundings and the beams of their flash lights franticly swung from one end of the attic to the other.  The attic was completely empty with the exception of a row of eight foot by four foot thin pieces of ply wood that spanned the middle of the attic and long nails that jutted down from the roof in rows every six inches or so. 

Eric pulled his flash light out and crawled across the plywood to the closest corner to him.  A breeze picked up and blew cold air into the attic through the vented windows.  They were going to have to stay up here at least until the undead from down stairs decided to leave or until they figured a way out.  Eric thought of his mother and knew waiting for the undead to leave was not
going to happen.  They would have to crawl back over the dresser and there was nothing to motivate them to do so, so they were stuck up in the attic for now at least. 

“Sam, Drew, start putting some insulation in those vent, window things.”  Eric shinned his light on both of the windows, one each side of the house and they immediately went to work.   

Hundreds of large nails held the shingles in place and all he could think about was why did they use such long nails?  He started banging the nails with the butt of his flash light, so they would bend and not be straight down, but he could not see, so Naomi used hers to assist him.  He commenced banging the nails sideways and then started kicking the roof at the corner of the house with his right foot.  With a few solid and hard kicks light shot through the attic. 

After about an hour of bending nails and kicking the roof, one section of plywood was loose enough to be bent back from the foundation of the house.  Eric pushed the plywood up laying it on top of itself.  He climbed out onto the roof and looked down the street to see the hordes of zombies that lined the road and every square foot of space on this property was taken up by a ghoul and every one of them was trying to jam themselves into this house. 

Eric climbed back into the house and pulled the broken section of roof back onto its rafters.  The insulation from the rest of the ceiling was used to box themselves into a shelter with four walls made from pink fiberglass in the far corner of the attic away from the broken roof.  The sound of shuffling was still heard below them especially when one of them dropped a flash light or spoke too loudly.  It was still early in the afternoon, and the moaning of the undead, mixed with claustrophobia began setting in.  They all began to feel very uncomfortable and agitated.

Naomi and Sam held each other close and cried into each other’s arms, while Drew and Eric stumped each other on how to spell words like, ascorbic acid and why does a can of diced peaches need this to “Promote color retention”?  The only reason
why they even knew ascorbic acid was used to promote color retention was because it is written on the can.  For most of the rest of the day and night they sat in the darkness and waited for the following morning.  Eventually the sound of rain began to beat on the roof in the late evening and they all drifted away into a very uncomfortable sleep only to be awakened from one of the undead feeling the desire to let out a loud groan.        

“I think it’s morning now?”  Sam whispered as quietly as she could to Eric and he was instantly wide eyed.  Eric believed he didn’t sleep at all and was startled by her whispering in his ear.  By him jumping slightly, he woke Naomi and Drew as well. 

“Have you heard any of them?”  Eric whispered after clearing his throat as quietly as he could. 

“I hear a knock or a shuffle every once in a while, but it’s pretty quiet.”  She responded.

“How do you feel?”  Naomi whispered feeling the same way Eric did.

“My foot feels like shit, but other than that I feel the same way I’ve been feeling.” 

“So that’s a good thing then?”

“I didn’t say that.”  Eric followed that with a smirk trying to add a little humor, but none of them found it funny.  While they were eating yesterday afternoon was the first time he had seen any of them smile, but he could not criticize because he knew he was the same way.         

              Eric crawled out of the insulation refuge and moved toward the attic opening.  He used his fingernails to pick up the attic cover, because it sat almost flush with the ceiling, but got a good grip on it and slowly removed it.  After he had it picked up he began to twist his body to put it off to the side, but Drew took it from him.

             
The closet was empty, and he did not see anything in the room from the angle he was looking.  From this angle hanging upside down the only thing he could see was the big bubbly black shoes from one of the characters on the wall. 

      He lowered his head down from the attic and then something caught his eye in the closet just below him.  It was out of the usual, but he could not place it, and then grey smoky eyes opened and it locked onto him. 

              The ghoul slowly moved toward him and began to let out a groan.  Two hands slowly reached up toward his head.  The zombie was standing perfectly still in the closet and managed to stand in such a way that he was camouflaged by the hanging clothes.  Eric reached back for the cover, but as soon as he pulled his head into the attic Drew was already securing it.        

             
“Back through the house is not an option.”  Drew announced to Naomi and Samantha.  “How many do you think stayed around the house last night?”

             
Eric crawled on his hands and knees and tried to keep his left foot from touching anything.  Just the natural swing of his foot being suspended sent bolts of pain through his body.  Light filled the attic when Eric lifted the loose piece of roof and they all shielded their eyes.  Immediately following the insulting light was a wave of frigid cold air that made them shiver.     

             
It took a few seconds, but Eric was eventually able to stand and look at what awaited them outside.  The top of the roof was covered in a thin evenly layered blanket of ice.  He looked down at what remained of the hoard.  Hundreds of undead lay on the grass in the same position as if they were standing.  There was a ghoul every few feet from the house laying either face down or up, and the further from them the more spaced out they were.  There were a few that were standing, but they were holding or leaning onto the side of the house.  Eric was able to see the ones directly under him holding onto the siding had the same blanket of ice on them as the roof had on it.        

             
He pulled the rope from his back pack and tied one end onto the same back pack.  Lowering it down he bounced it off one, then another of the standing zombies.  He excitedly turned and said, “We’re getting out of here.”

             
The bag bounced on their heads, but none moved or even flinched.  The ones outside froze due to the rain and cold, but the ones inside were not exposed to the same environment.  The undead inside the houses were almost frozen and that is why the ghoul in the closet moved so slowly.  Eric tied his best knot around one of the rafters.  Not very confident in his knot tying abilities he agreed to go first only after he pulled on it with everything he could muster. 

             
He stood up and heaved his left leg over the wall carefully and straddled it.  The siding of the house had a thin layer of ice covering it.  Eric rubbed his leg on the siding trying to get a grip on it and figured he was going to have to slide down the rope.  He threw his right leg over and pain shot through his bleeding foot as he put the smallest amount of weight on it, causing him to spin on the slippery siding. 

             
He grabbed hold of the rope tightly, but was spinning and falling fast.  His body hit the ghoul he had bounced his bag off of, breaking his fall.  The noise he made flailing on the aluminum siding was incredible and it echoed down the quiet street.  Eric shrugged his shoulders in angst knowing if there were any undead, not frozen, on the street they would soon be here.  He looked up to the roof and saw Sam, Drew and Naomi looking down at him.  Eric could tell by the look of concern on their faces that he was too loud.   

             
Eric pressed a flat hand to them telling them to hold on and then hobbled to the front of the house.  He looked down both sides of the street watching to see if any undead were leaving the houses or making their way toward them, but none showed.  He limped back, nudged the zombie that broke his fall, which was now laying face first into the frozen grass and after getting no response he waved for the rest to come down. 

Chapter 19

Beauty is not skin deep

             
The trip to the farm was excruciating for Eric and Naomi both.  Naomi’s back and neck was beginning to bother her after beginning to heal and Eric’s foot was throbbing.  He knew if he did not get some peroxide or something to clean it out, it would surely get infected.  Most of the trip up to the farm was back roads and they past very few houses and the ones they did pass were many yards away from the main road. 

             
These roads they traveled were quiet.  Eric remembered these back roads were populated by people riding horseback or a random pickup truck riding through kicking up stone and dust, but a lot had changed in the three years he was away.  These back roads were now paved with black top along with stop signs at each intersection and yellow lines marking two distinct lanes.  The closer he got to his old farm, the less familiar it looked.  More houses were built and they were moving closer to the road to make room for bigger houses behind them. 

             
Eric believed they were just going to walk right up to his old farm, but now they darted between unkempt bushes and over grown tuffs of grass, to avoid being seen from anything moving within the dark houses.  They finally made it to his farm and an iron fence with the warning “DO NOT ENTER” plastered to it, greeted them.  Beyond the fence directly in front of them was a new white horse stable that was just as large as the houses they had past and to the right on top of a hill was the farm house his boss lived in, or at least used to.