Zombiekill (13 page)

“Maybe Attwood has a weak bladder, or maybe his girlfriend forgot to brush her teeth. All I know is someone is there.” Kyler clutched his hammer firmly. “Let’s not worry about problems until they present themselves. Have a little faith. They
will
let us in.”

Charlie joined the procession directly behind Rilla. She thought she heard a dog whining, but whatever or wherever it was didn’t matter and was soon drowned out by the zombies by her feet. Some clutched at the grass as they walked past, and some increased the splashing as they fought to get out, but none could reach them. Charlie saw one reach up for her, its arms stretched up to the sky as if in prayer. The figure still wore a cycle helmet and tight fitting Lycra. A black hole in the corpse’s neck told Charlie how it had ended up the way it had, and she saw a glimmer of metal flash in the moonlight under the water. There was something circular and dark attached to it, and she figured it probably belonged to the cycle the man had been riding before being attacked and killed. That’s how a lot of people had gone. They were going about their business when it happened—just out shopping or going to work. So many people had gone out and never returned home.

“Hey, you okay?” whispered Rilla.

“Yeah, I’m good,” replied Charlie. “Thanks for looking out for me back there.”

“It’s okay. One day you might have to do the same for me.”

“I hope not.” Charlie almost smiled as she spoke with Rilla. Getting through Peterborough hadn’t been easy and if Rilla hadn’t helped her back at the mall, then she wouldn’t be here now. Rilla was almost like a sister to her, and her family was nice too. It was better this way, better than if it had been just her and Kyler.

They kept walking over the bridge, and Charlie felt her heart beating faster. This was it. This was what she had been hoping for, dreaming of for so long now. Attwood simply had to hear them. She didn’t know if she could wait for hours out there with the zombies splashing around. She could picture one of them managing to get out, climbing up, and slithering over the road in the darkness, on them before they even saw it coming. Charlie shivered. If there was any comfort to be had it was that her father was with her. They had a lot to talk about, but the main thing was that he hadn’t left her. Although it was her leaving their home, he had been the one about to abandon her. She felt better knowing he was there. She was still angry with him, but at least they were together and would have plenty of time to go over things once they got inside. It felt like they had turned a corner.

Reaching the end of the bridge, Charlie stared up at the building blocking their way. Through the moonlight Charlie sensed it was a solid construction with both walls connected to the fencing that stretched around the border of the property. There was a small door to one side and an even smaller window above it. There was a roller door in the center that could be raised to let in cars or small trucks, though she doubted they would be lucky enough for it to be open now. Attwood wasn’t stupid. He would have the place locked down tight. She watched as Schafer tried the handle in the center of the roller door. Nothing happened. There was a faint rattling as the metal jostled under his weight, but the door stayed shut. He moved to the side door under the window and tried the handle, pushing and pulling, yet it refused to budge even an inch.

“Should we try calling out for help?” asked Lyn. “Victoria’s getting cold. She doesn’t want to be out here.”

“Yeah, hurry up, Schafer, I don’t like this,” said Jeremy. “I thought this was going to be simple.”

Charlie watched as Victoria looked at her parents with disdain. Even in the darkness it seemed like Victoria was unhappy, yet it wasn’t the cool night air or the presence of the zombies. Victoria looked at Rilla who looked back, and the two smiled. Charlie looked at her father for reassurance, but he was preoccupied in monitoring the road behind them.

Schafer rattled the door again, but it wouldn’t open, and he let out a curse.

“Schafer, how long is this going to take?” asked Kyler. “There’s movement in the field over there. I can’t tell from here what it is, but I’d prefer not to find out.”

“I’m not sure,” said Schafer. “I think—”

“Jesus, look at that thing.” Jeremy pointed at the bridge behind them.

A woman was crawling up the side of the creek using the tall grass to haul her body out of the water. The dead woman had no legs, and her naked torso had been ripped up and carved open. Her head hung so low down between her shoulders that her neck must be broken and Charlie wondered how she managed to know where to go. Did they use sound or smell to find their way around? The woman slipped back a few feet when a clump of grass came free from the loose dirt holding it in, but that did not deter her. The corpse resumed its quest to escape the creek, and Charlie noticed its body was covered in mud and slime. There was a faint smell of sulfur, but mostly it just smelt like shit. It smelt like the whole creek was full of it, and Charlie tugged on her father’s sleeve.

“Dad? Dad, what should we do?” It was partly a rhetorical question. Charlie knew exactly what had to be done, but didn’t want to admit it. She also knew that her father would take care of it, and by asking him she was letting him take responsibility for it, just as he had done with the bird.

Kyler waited a moment until the dead body had found the lip of the bank, and then he smashed it over the head with his hammer. It took three strikes before the back of the woman’s head caved in and she stopped moving.

“Right, Schafer, decision time,” Kyler said, returning to Charlie’s side. He put an arm around his daughter as he wiped the bloody hammer on his leg. “What now?”

Schafer looked at Magda and Rilla. “Okay, well I guess it isn’t going to be as easy as we thought. I guess it was too much to ask for the door to be unlocked. Here’s what we need to do. I’ll go—”

Suddenly a powerful, bright, white light from above the annex illuminated the bridge. It was so strong that it blinded them all. Their eyes had grown accustomed to the dim moonlight, and it took a moment to adjust. The whole area around them was bathed in light and Charlie saw more clearly the zombies thrashing around in the moat. She looked across at the field where her father had indicated earlier that he had seen movement, and she saw a black horse bolt. Half a dozen zombies were in the field with it, and with the horse galloping away they had seen the light flick on. Now they were heading towards the bridge, and Charlie knew they had to get the door open soon or face a fight with them.

“What is this, Schafer?” asked Kyler as he rubbed his eyes. “Did we trip something?”

“There could be a motion sensor up there. Perhaps me trying the door set off a security system.”

“Well, that’s great, but what are we going to do now?” Jeremy looked at Rilla. “You. You wanted to come here. You said you’d seen lights at night, so there must be someone in there. What do you know about this place?”

“As much as you, Jeremy.”

Charlie saw that Rilla was looking nervously over the edge of the bridge. From the groaning noises coming from beneath it, there had to be a few zombies trying to reach up.

“Look, if the security light still works then they have power. They might—”

“Hey, let us in,” shouted Jeremy. He looked up at the roof of the annex scanning for a camera or a sign that somebody maybe watching them. “Attwood, you hear me? Let us in right now!”

“Look, just be quiet a moment and wait,” said Schafer. “We can figure this out, but if you go shouting your mouth off you’re going to drag a thousand zombies here.”

“My husband is trying to
do
something about this fucked up situation that you got us into,” said Lyn firmly.

Victoria pulled her hand free of her mother’s, not that Lyn seemed to notice. Charlie watched as the girl grabbed Rilla’s hand. They obviously shared a bond like sisters even though there was a large age gap between them. Rilla caught Charlie watching and smiled at her.

“It’ll be okay,” mouthed Rilla silently.

Charlie suddenly felt like a small piece of a jigsaw. The people around her all had their own motivations and relationships; they had a history together that wasn’t as simple as she had first thought. She wasn’t sure how she and her father were going to fit in with it all, but it had to work. They simply had to make it work. Charlie knew they were running out of time. The figures in the field were getting closer, and the light that shone over them all would make them stand out for miles. She saw Schafer getting angry as Jeremy continued shouting.

“Attwood, you asshole,” shouted Jeremy, ignoring Schafer. “Open the door!”

“Jeremy, calm down.”

As Schafer and Jeremy started arguing, and Lyn chipped in with barbed comments about how Schafer was going to get them all killed, Charlie heard a click. It came from the garage, and then the side door slowly creaked open. The door that had been so clearly locked when Schafer had tried to open it was now ajar.

“Dad?” Charlie pointed to the door. “Dad, look.”

Kyler actually let a half a smile spread over his face. “All right, ladies, cut it out.” He pushed his way through to the door and pulled it open. “Seems Attwood heard you.”

“I knew it,” said Jeremy. “That rich asshole was just playing with us. He’s probably been watching us the whole time. Come on, Lyn, let’s get inside. Thank God I started shouting at him and made him listen. You can’t treat people like that and just leave them to die. You can’t do that anymore.”

Schafer tugged on his beard and frowned. “If he was watching us the whole time, then it wasn’t your shouting like a fool that got us in then, was it?”

Kyler nodded for Charlie to follow him, and he stepped through the doorway into darkness.

One by one they stepped through the doorway, and Charlie watched them all disappear until it was only Rilla left.

“You know he’s not always this bad,” said Rilla. “Jeremy, I mean. He’s a dick, but he can be okay. He saved our lives a long time ago. You don’t need to worry about him.”

It was as if Rilla had read Charlie’s mind. She was more concerned about Jeremy right then than facing Attwood.

“Where are you from, Rilla?” asked Charlie. “Your accent. You were on vacation, right?”

“Yeah. Some holiday it turned out to be. We’re from Germany. I’m sure we’ll go home one day. I think so anyway. Maybe you can visit me.” Rilla crossed the threshold to the annex. “Come on. Let’s see what this Attwood is really like. I’ve never met a millionaire.”

Charlie followed Rilla into the cold building and found everyone standing in the center of the room. A single bulb hung from a tall ceiling which gave them little light. There wasn’t enough energy coming from it to penetrate the gloom, and Charlie couldn’t see the walls on either side of the building, which made her feel uncomfortable. The ground was solid concrete like the garage at home but was stained and filthy. There was a bad smell to the room as well, almost as if the room had been used as a toilet. She assumed it must be because of the building’s proximity to the creek. With so many decomposing bodies in it then it made sense that the smell would find its way in here.

“Attwood, turn the damn lights on. We can’t see anything in here,” said Jeremy.

“Do you think you could just hold your tongue for a minute,” said Kyler. “I don’t think we’re in any position to start making demands. We got this far. If he wasn’t going to help then he wouldn’t have opened the door, would he? So chill out.”

Charlie smirked as Jeremy eyeballed her father. She knew from experience that doing that would get him nowhere. Kyler stared back until Jeremy backed down.

“You think he’s watching us now?” asked Rilla, quietly.

“I guess so.” Charlie saw Victoria come up to Rilla’s side again. “Maybe he’s got a camera up there somewhere. Probably how he keeps an eye on the door and knew to open up for us.”

“This is your party,” said Kyler to Schafer. “You do the talking.”

“Hello, Mr. Attwood,” said Schafer, loudly, his voice echoing around the annex. “Thank you for letting us in. We’re just looking for help and a place to stay. You can see we’re not armed. Can we talk?”

They waited patiently, but there was no reply. After a few seconds of silence there was a clicking noise, and Charlie whirled around to see that the side door had closed on them.

“Must have a self-closing mechanism,” said Rilla.

“Uh-huh.” Charlie heard a faint whining sound but couldn’t quite place it. It sounded like an animal, but with the zombies out in the creek, it could easily be one of them. She dismissed it and took Rilla’s hand.

The three girls stood in a line waiting for someone to do something. There was still a nervous tension in the air. Even with the door closed behind them and the zombies behind the wall, they couldn’t feel completely safe until they knew that Attwood wasn’t just going to throw them back outside.

“Can we talk, please?” asked Schafer again. He was prepared to wait as long as it took. They were relatively safe in the over-sized garage, and diplomacy was now the name of the game. Making threats or shouting like Jeremy could potentially scare Attwood off. They were guests now and needed to respect the fact that they were asking a lot of a complete stranger.

“Can we—”

Another light flickered on high above them revealing a man stood on an upper gantry. There was no obvious way up there as the light was only enough to see the man’s face and a few feet around him. The man wore a black hooded jacket, and the lower half of his face was covered in a thick black beard. When he finally spoke he had a much younger sounding voice than his face suggested.