DEAD: Reborn (27 page)

Just as quickly, he decided that it was not worth being co
ncerned about. Now that the dead walked, there were really only two “races” if you asked him: living and undead.

“You are all family,” Ann broke the silence. It was a stat
ement, not a question.

“My wife, the one who was shot, is the sister of the tall fe
lla,” Glenn said with a little bit of a laugh. “Most folks think that it is Kyle and I who are related. Personally, I don’t see it.”

“And the child belongs to Kyle and the blond wo
man? I do not recall her name.”

Ann opened the door of the second treehouse and paused a second before going to the basin and pouring water from one of the large plastic containers. Kyle closed the door and when he turned around, felt his heart leap to his throat. The woman had already peeled out of her outfit and was standing naked with her back to him as she began to dip a large piece of cloth into the basin and wipe at her arms.

“M-M-Melissa…but we just call her Mel.” Glenn spun back to face the door. “Umm, I will just step outside until you are finished.” He reached for the knob, but a hand on his shoulder made him freeze.

“I will not be able to reach my back. If you could do that b
efore you go.”

Kyle felt his throat tighten and his mouth go dry. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned back around. He felt a wet rag stuffed into his hand. Then, a hand guided his up and placed it against soft, warm flesh. He winced just slightly, but tried to wipe at what he hoped was the woman’s back.

“Such a modest man…and a gentleman.” Ann’s voice was soft and held a hint of playfulness.

Kyle re-doubled his efforts to not
think about the fact that he was standing in a room with a naked woman that was not his wife. He tried to bring the image of her ruined left eye to his mind in order to assure that his body did not react inappropriately. It was a difficult battle as he realized that he and his wife had not been intimate in quite a while. It was simply not a comfortable situation sharing a single room with her brother just a few feet away. It was not that the thought did not cross his mind, but there simply had not been any time that had offered itself in quite a long while.

The last time had been just after a fresh snow. They were still holed up in that cabin west of Denver. Mel and Kyle were both down with a bit of the flu and he and
Cynthia went to get some fresh water from a nearby creek. The sun had peeked out and hit her face just as she looked back and laughed at one of his terrible jokes. He had been overwhelmed with just how pretty she was at that moment. One thing led to another and pretty soon he was—

No!
he thought with all the force and energy he could muster. Already his body was trying to betray him.

“That should do it,” he blurted as he dropped the rag, spun and ducked out the door as quick as possible.

Left alone, Ann continued to clean herself up. Killing was always such dirty business. Once she finished, she went to her pile of dirty clothing and retrieved the Glock nine millimeter. Looking around, she discovered a secret compartment on the upper level that was disguised to look like a knot on the trunk of the tree that grew up through the floor and vanished through the ceiling. It was not perfect, but these people did not look like the sort to do a lot of snooping. They were just happy to still be alive.

As she climbed down and prepared to exit this treehouse and rejoin the others, Ann smiled. It was not something that would have brought warmth to any who saw it.

***

“This way!” Chad called over his shoulder as he waded into the brush.

Dustin climbed off his horse and quickly followed. He paused as he passed the downed corpse of the Madding family’s oldest daughter Kaja. Kneeling, he closed the eyes and whispered a quick prayer.

By the time he caught up with Chad, the man was at the top of a ridge looking down into a gated community. The undead roamed the streets, wandering in and out of houses in a twisted parody of a
block party. Three of the houses stood out from the rest. They were surrounded on all sides by dozens of the undead.

Chad glanced at Dustin. “I am going down there. That is where Ronni is.”

“How can you know that?” Dustin grabbed Chad’s arm. The man spun on him with a look in his eyes that actually made the larger man let go and take a step back.

“I can’t be sure, but it is the closest thing to a chance that we have seen. Something has those walkers gathered around those houses.”

“Then let’s go,” Dustin said with a sigh after he looked down one more time. From this distance, it didn’t look like such a daunting task, but once they went over that wall, he knew that perspective would change.

The two men went back and got their horses. There was no fenced field close by that they could set the horses free in, but they could not just tie them up. If a zombie arrived, the animals would not have a chance. It was quickly decided that they would have to let the animals go free and hope for the best.

Both men checked their protective gear and slung their crossbows onto their backs. Each had two dozen bolts and would need to make every shot count. They reached the five foot wall that circled the entire development and Chad went over first.

Dustin followed and was dismayed to discover a handful of the walking dead already heading their way. He watched Chad head right for them with an axe in one hand and a machete in the other. All five were dispatched before Dustin could even catch up.

“There were three houses with crowds around them,” Chad said. “The best thing to do is just take the closest one first.”

Together, the men headed over to the closest house and moved along the wall. Chad led the way and raised his hand when he reached the end and peeked around the corner.

The yard was busy with a dozen or so zombies milling forward and scratching at walls and a boarded up picture window. The glass was almost ground to dust under the feet of the zombies, leading Chad to believe that the window had been busted out long ago. More zombies could be heard in the fenced back yard. Since there was no gate on this side, the obvious assumption was that it was on the other side of the house and open—if it was still even in existence.

Chad held up his hand and pointed to Dustin, then scurried in a crouch to the car that sat in the driveway with all the doors wide open. Peeking inside, he could see a few suitcases and some boxes in the back seat of the Lexus. The keys were in the ignition. Looking closer, he saw a dark stain on the driver’s seat. It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened here.

Reaching the rear of the car, he was able to give the front of the house a good look. The upstairs windows were intact, but in one, a single figure stood. Chad didn’t need to look that close or that long. The filth that smeared the glass told him all he needed to know. He crept back to Dustin.

“This place is a bust. The zombies gathered around are probably drawn here whenever the zombie or zombies inside make a noise.”

“How do you know there are more inside?” Dustin whispered.

Chad explained about what he’d seen in the upstairs wi
ndow. Dustin shrugged in a non-committal way that had Chad wondering how the man had actually lasted this long. It was obvious that the big man was not exactly understanding the dynamics of what he was being told about basic zombie behavior.

Taking a few seconds to gather his bearings and try to recall what he could remember seeing from the ridge above, Chad set off for the second house. It turned out to be more of the same situation. He tried not to be too discouraged. If the third house was a bust as well, they would be back to square one when it came to searching for his daughter.

The last house would take them the farthest into the deve
lopment. They used the fenced back yards to travel in order to minimize the chances of being seen.

On a couple of occasions, Chad thought that their location might have been given up when a zombie trapped inside the house of the yard they were crossing would bang on a back wi
ndow or sliding glass door. The first time it happened was the worst as both men let out a little shout of surprise. They were better prepared on subsequent events, but Chad was amazed at just how loud those poundings or slappings seemed in the near silence.

At last they reached a large open park that was seriously overgrown. Crossing it would be the quickest way, but there was practically no cover. If they took one of the bordering streets, they would have to pass through seven more back yards.

“What do you think?” Dustin nudged Chad.

A few zombies could be seen scattered around the park, but nothing too serious. The real problem was the house that they were all seemingly headed towards. Already it was clear that there were about five times as many zombies clustered in front
compared to the others. There was no telling how many might be in back or coming to join as the ones crossing the park were in the act of doing.

“If we take the road that borders the park on either side, we will have to use the back yards. That will slow us down
, and if there is somebody holding out in that house…every second counts,” Chad explained. “They could have the place blocked up pretty good, but we have no way of knowing. What I do know from being out in this crap is that sometimes your safety is based on a matter of seconds where things go right or wrong. If that place is overrun while we are sitting here debating our route…or, God forbid, it falls while we are making our way there…we will have to live with it forever.”

“Then let’s g—” Dustin was cut off by a sudden crash and a chorus of shrieks and screams.

***

Jody flashed a series of signals to Danny from across the street. They had come together for a moment when they reached the entrance of the blazing inferno that was like seeing through the gates to Hell.

At first they considered just calling it a loss. Going in there did not seem like it was going to serve any purpose other than to risk their lives. Zombies were wandering around in there, most of them ablaze and seeming to be completely oblivious to that fact. The worst for Danny had been the little girl no more than four or five years old. She was missing both arms and had a good portion of the right side of her face torn away. She was engulfed in flames and looked right at him just as her eyes burst in their sockets and began oozing down her blackening face.

“I don’t see how Remar or any of his crew could still be in there,” Jody voiced Danny’s thoughts to the tee.

“Maybe we go back and tell folks there were no survi—” a horrible scream cut that statement off in Danny’s throat.

It was disturbingly close. The problem was that not one si
ngle house that they could see was safe from the flames. As unlikely as it seemed, every single house in this two hundred-plus development was on fire to some degree.

Jody held up a hand and pointed. Danny had nodded and swung the crossbow into his hands after making sure that the sword on his back was ready to come free at a moment’s notice. The two men ventured in at a crouch. Jody gave Danny one quick glance and wave before he sprinted for the fence of the house they both believed to be the source of the scream.

The plan was for Jody to move in from the rear and Danny was to cover the front in case somebody inside tried to escape. Danny began to count in his head. When he reached a thousand, he would move for the front door. He looked around at the flames and tried to figure out how an entire development this size could go up at once.

…one hundred and six, one hundred and seven…

A flaming zombie staggered his way, but fell over about fifty feet away and stopped moving. Danny found himself curious and inched forward to the smoldering husk.

…three hundred and eighty-one, three hundred and eighty-two…

Kneeling beside it, he used the toe of his boot to flip it over. The face stared up at nothing, eye sockets empty and the lips burned away adding to the creepiness of the thing.

…six hundred and eleven, six hundred and twelve…

He was almost convinced that it was good and dead until the jaw moved slightly.

“Poor, pathetic bastard,” he whispered and drove his knife into where the left eye should be.

…eight hundred and thirty-seven, eight hundred and thirty-eight…

Inside the house, Jody looked up just as two figures came tumbling down the stairs. They were oblivious to his presence, each with his hands around the other’s throat. One of the men was Remar, but the other was a burly looking biker type with a bushy handlebar mustache.

Jody had no idea what was going on. Remar had never been anything but confrontational and rude since they’d met. Still, he was the ‘evil’ he knew versus that which he did not. Stepping in from behind, Jody muscled himself into position and put the biker in a sleeper after Remar’s hand moved out of the way, although obviously with great reluctance.

The huge man struggled briefly before going limp. Jody was thankful that the man had seemed to already be lacking a bit of steam. He wasn’t sure he could have maintained the hold for very long. Rolling off, he climbed to his feet. Remar did the same, but was eyeballing Jody with obvious suspicion.