Day One (Book 3): Alone (21 page)

Three consecutive gunshots quickly rang out.

“Shit!” I stated and pushed Rachel out of the way, heading toward the kitchen. “Watch that door!” I instructed her in a full yell. There was no need in being quiet anymore. They knew we were in the house now.

In the kitchen I found Morris pushing his entire body against the back door. The Glock lay a few feet away from me jammed and the second he saw me he cried out. “Help me, god dammit!”

I scooped up the pistol and rushed to him, throwing my full body against the door just enough to get it shut. “Lock it!” I yelled and he reached around and twisted the locking mechanism. Whoever was on the opposite side, pounded with sheer desire to gain entry.

“The lock isn’t holding!” Morris announced. “We really need to get the fuck out of here!”

“The moment we let go of this door, they’ll be all over us,” I countered. “Besides, they’re at the front door as well, so in case you can miraculously fly, we aren’t going anywhere.”

“Then what are we going to do, just sit here for an eternity holding this damn door shut?” He asked in an angered tone.

I looked at him, pulling his eyes to mine. “When I tell you too. Take off running toward the living room. Don’t stop, don’t look back, just get your ass in there with Rachel.”

“What are we going to do in there?” He asked mortified.

I was expecting him to ask why I had told him not to look back, or perhaps he would have had a shred of curiosity at what I was going to do, but no. Once again Morris’ true colors streamed into the rainy sky, tainting everything it touched. He was no more concerned about what happened to me or one of his own. All he cared about was saving his own ass. I had the urge that very moment to shoot him in the leg and run away. Whatever was on the other side of the door would break through and finish him off horribly while Rachel and I left.

“Just get your ass into the living room when I tell you too!” I demanded.

Before I could even start the count, Rachel screamed from the living room. “Dammit!” I said and pounded on the door. “Go and help her keep that door shut!”

There was no insubordination from Morris. He tucked his tail between his legs and ran like the coward I had made myself out to be. I really considered looking into that feeling once I was safe far away from this place, although with the way things were going, I might want to look into it now while I’m still had the opportunity.

I heard Morris reach her and could hear them talking to each other about what to do and how to keep the door shut, yet a good portion of the conversation was blacked out by the brutal pounding on the door behind me.

What do we do? What do we do?
My mind raced, and for once I didn’t have an answer. I
knew
what not to do, and that was letting my weight ease off the door. It had to remain closed for as long as possible while I tried to figure things out, however, I had a feeling that nothing would come to me and I would be forced to make shit up as I went. That had worked several times in the past.
Luck doesn’t last forever… eventually it runs out!
My mind reminded me, as if I needed to be told of the consequences I was facing. “Think dammit… how do I get out of this situation?” I asked aloud.

The pounding on the door stopped, yet I wasn’t that fool who was going to be lead into opening the door, thinking that whoever was pounding on it had given up and gone away. I might have been dumb, but I sure as hell wasn’t stupid. At least I hoped I wasn’t. Then again, look where I was at the moment, as that didn’t cry brilliance in any language.

I did ease off the door a few inches just to try and see what happened. No one busted through the door, took me to the floor and killed me. The door remained perfectly intact, and with that I took the few moments to unjam Rachel’s pistol, waiting for the eventual return of the one who wanted inside. I got the stuck casing out and was able to reload the weapon, allowing the one point sling I had to take the weight of my short rifle. I had bullets for her .9mm; however, the mags for my pistol would not fit into her pistol, so I would have to reload a single mag over and over as the weapon went dry. Not the best or suitable task to perform when you’re under pressure and being hunted.

“I really hope she has more mags for this thing?” I said aloud.

The sound of the falling rain had returned and the banging on the door was now dead. More and more I eased my weight off of the door until I was standing a few feet away, watching the brass knob with unblinking eyes. At some point or another I would either have to reapply my weight to the door for safety measures or simply back away and carry on looking for another way out. I really wanted to know how Morris and Rachel were doing in the living room, yet to do that would require I shouted in order for them to hear me. And if whatever had been banging on the door was still close by, it would definitely hear me and come charging back once again. That wasn’t what I wanted.

The sound of a board creaking from behind thrust me in its direction to see Rachel standing at the kitchen threshold. “Whatever was out there is gone now,” she said in a light voice.

“Same at my door,” I responded, still looking at her as the urgency of fear retracted from where it came from gracefully.

“They had to have known we were in here, so why did they give up?” She asked.

“I really don’t think they did,” my words sprouted fourth.

Confusion came to life upon her face. “What do you mean?”

“I’m pretty sure they were trying our defenses and looking for any signs of weakness. We may have won this round, but they’ll be back to try somewhere else,” I confided in her. The look now on her face told me she didn’t approve of what I had to say, although I could sense somehow that she knew I was right.

“How can those things be so damn smart?” She asked. “They’re dead and as far as I have seen, they’ve never shown any signs of intelligence or even partial wits.”

The one that spoke to me in my Ex’s house came to me and I thought about telling Rachel, although deep down I still thought she would think I was crazy. It’s bad enough she knew I had been bitten over a week ago, so the last thing I needed her thinking was not only could I turn into one of those things still, but acting crazy and babbling incoherently might force her to believe I really was changing already.

“Hey,” I said to her. “It had to be the runners. They are the only ones smart enough to pull off something like this, because if it had been other survivors, they would have let us know they were alive. They had to have heard us in here screaming at one another at some point.” I did my best to put her at ease. I don’t think it worked, but still I had given it a shot.

“We really need to get out of here,” she added.

That would be about as easy as opening the door and letting them in, then dropping our guns and hoping for the best.

“We really,
really
need to get out of here, now!” She strongly interjected.

“You want to leave the safety of this place to travel out there, into the unknown with god only knows what’s waiting for us?” I asked her.

“This place isn’t safe anymore,” she countered my statement.

“It’s safer in here than it is out there, Rachel!” I fired back. “Not only that, but where shall we go once we get out there? To another house where they can follow us, or perhaps we just stay on foot until they run us down, surround us…” my words faded as I didn’t have the strength to keep going back and forth. I was tired of arguing and fighting with people about obvious shit.

Rachel noticed my fading words and looked harder at me. In any other circumstances she would have chalked that up to a victory in her book, yet the harder she looked the less the victory seemed to manifest before her. “What’s wrong?” She asked me suddenly.

I looked at her, although my eyes would not make contact with hers.

“Seriously, what is it?”

“It’s pretty obvious,” I said as Morris walked into our conversation, stopping at the door beside Rachel.

“What is?” She asked, still oblivious to the cold hard truth.

Morris took the words before I could speak them. “We aren’t getting out of this one.”

Rachel threw her eyes to him and saw that plain truth radiating like the warm sun on a hot summer day. There was no hiding from it anymore. No denying the outcome. She quickly shook her head at his words and pushed hard against the door facing behind her, as if it would keep her from falling into the black abyss that had opened below her feet. She would fight it as long as she could, never giving in until there was no more reasons to even try. “No! Both of you are wrong on this. We have a chance and you two just want to give up?”

“And what chance would that be, Rachel?” Morris asked her.

“I don’t know, but we cannot just give up!” She babbled.

Morris pointed toward the front door. “Those things, the ones that can run, are outside right now trying to find a way in here. And let’s not forget about the other things that are growing in size as well. With each passing moment we are more and more outnumbered,” he explained harshly to her. “So unless you have some magical fucking tunnel built we don’t know about, then yeah, we’re done for!”

Rachel heard his words, but for the life of her she couldn’t register them in her brain that the end was coming. Like Brandon, she was not a badass, but the thought of just giving up and waiting to die made its anticipation even worse. “No!” She said aloud. “You two can give up all you want, but I’m not about to just lie down and die… I’ll fight to my last breath.”

Morris rolled his eyes at her words and shook his head. “You won’t last five seconds against those things, especially the runners,” he offered her in a snide spill.

I didn’t much care for what he had to say or how he wanted it said. It was his personal opinion and nothing more. That was the right he had as an individual, but that also gave Rachel and myself the ability to believe what we wanted and not follow him blindly like sheep. He was a spineless coward, I could see that more clearly now and I had come to damn far too just sit down and die. My children needed me and I’d fight the very pits of hell for them and emerge victorious at the end.

“I’m with you,” I said suddenly and reached for her. She looked at me, seeing the sincerity in my eyes and quickly took my hand. I could see the excitement cascade into her eyes.

“You two are the stupidest people I have ever met!” Morris announced, as he shook his head. “You don’t stand a chance against them. I can see it, so why can’t you two idiots?”

I turned to look at Morris and he looked away from me, although I spoke my mind to him anyway. “The only stupid person in this kitchen is the one unwilling to at least try and survive.”

“Try what?” he shot to me. “Like I said already, unless there is a magical tunnel somewhere, we aren’t getting out of here and to think we even have the slightest chance is just wishful thinking at best. When they break in we’ll kill as many of them as we can, then save a few bullets to use on ourselves when the shit falls apart, which it will. Mark my word on that.”

“Unlikely,” I said to him.

“And how do you figure that’s unlikely?” Morris asked.

“Because we’ll take the fight to them,” I told him. “That way if the shit hits the fan, as you say it will, at least we’ll have the ability to fade away in the utter chaos,” I explained. “Or at least die on our feet with some sort of dignity.”

He looked at me as though I had just punched a defenseless old lady in the head and found it hilarious. “You mean try to run away with all of those things chasing you? Things that don’t tire like we do and can now run?” Morris shook his head and wiped the front of his face. “You two are nuts, ya hear me? You’re fucking insane to even think that kind of stupid shit will work.”

“It beats sitting around here waiting to die,” Rachel threw her two cents in.

“We’ll last a whole hell of a lot longer in here than we ever would out there!” Morris said. “But if you dumbasses want to go, then by all means, have at it.” He motioned for the front door and mockingly smiled at us.

Rachel looked toward me to see me looking at Morris. There was a slight grin on my lips that intrigued her.

“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying, Morris.” I said, instantly calling his full attention. “I told you from the start that I saved you only to ensure you are punished for what you’ve done, which means you’re coming along with us, and that’s not negotiable.”

His eyes sunk into their sockets, realizing that he wouldn’t get to sneak away after all as Rachel and I were attacked. He would be in the middle of it all with us, unarmed and totally dependent upon us to keep him alive. “You’re mistaken,” he said.

“No, I am very much in charge and what I say goes!” My words rumbled like the thunder we had been hearing.

He looked at me with defiant eyes. “You can’t make me do shit, do you hear me. Not shit!”

“How’s that hand of yours?” I asked him. “I told you that if you became a problem I’d shoot you in your leg and let those things have you. It isn’t really the justice I was wanting, but it’ll do. So you can willingly tag along with us or stay behind as bait while we slip away… your choice.”

He pulled his wounded hand closer to his chest. “I’m not going out there unarmed.”