Ashton Memorial (17 page)

She stuck her head out the window to look
around, blinking in the cold rain. All clear. Satisfied, she
climbed out the window, doing her best to avoid any glass she'd
missed. The corpses from the hallway pounded away at the door.

“Whatever, dumbasses,” she
muttered, dropping to the grass below.

A corpse came around the backside of the
house and stumbled toward her. It was on her before she had time to
regain her footing.

The corpse was the dried husk of what had
once been a very old woman. A tattered faded-blue dress clung to
her withered frame. Her eyes were gone, long rotted away. She had
no lips and her teeth, yellow with streaks of dirt, clacked
together as she pulled Maylee close to her.

Maylee dropped to her knees, slipping free
of the corpse's feeble grip. She crawled away and stood, turning
back to face the corpse and brandishing her bat. The woman bit and
reached blindly at her.

Maylee stared at the woman for a moment,
almost feeling sorry for her. Then she swung the bat in an upward
motion, striking the woman on the jaw. The woman's head whipped
back, the dried skin of her neck cracking and splitting open. The
woman staggered backward.

Maylee screamed and raised the bat over her
head. She brought it down hard, slamming into the woman's lolling
head. The woman jerked, grunted, and fell.

Maylee stood, holding the bat and panting,
for several seconds. The cold air made her lungs constrict. The
corpse at her feet was still. She heard screaming from inside the
house.

Human screaming.
Mom. Dalton.

Maylee raced up the side of the house, heading for
the front.

* * *

Dalton stood on the bed, struggling to keep
his balance on the mattress. Part of him felt guilty for getting
his dirty shoes all over the sheets. Most of him was concerned with
the burnt corpse crawling around on the floor, trying to get to
him.

The corpses in the hallway were loud now. He
heard glass breaking somewhere nearby. Was someone hurt? Maylee?
Mom? He had to get out of the room. He had to get to them.

But first, he had to get past the corpse on
the floor.

The corpse craned its burnt and bloody neck
around, the skin creaking as it did. It ground its teeth, biting up
at Dalton but unable to reach him.

Dalton sighed and stared down at the corpse.
He had an idea for what to do with the corpse. After that, he
didn't know what he'd do to get out the door. But first things
first.

He did his best to ready himself, watching
the corpse crawl around on the floor. He waited until the corpse
craned its head to face away from the bed. Then he ran, leaping off
the bed and aiming to land on the corpse's skull.

He did, his left foot landing square on the
back of the corpse's head. The corpse's head slammed to the carpet,
cracking. Dalton's ankle twisted, sending pain up his leg. He cried
out and fell forward. For a panicked second he saw the door racing
toward his face. Then his forehead smacked against the door. The
thin wood of the door cracked and Dalton slid to the carpet.

“Oww!” he said to no one in
particular, rolling onto his back. His forehead hurt bad. His ankle
hurt worse. To his side, he could see the corpse was still. The
corpses in the hall banged on the door behind him. Dalton knew he
needed to stand, needed to get out of there somehow. But he was too
dizzy to move.

* * *

Maylee rounded the corner into the front
yard. A few corpses wandered around, far enough away from Maylee
not to be an immediate concern. She ignored them and ran toward the
front porch. The SUV's alarm was still wailing, piercing through
the moans of the corpses. The dog across the street was still
barking, angry and staring at her.

As she reached the porch she saw the front
door was jammed with corpses, all facing away from her and into the
house. Beyond them, the living room was jammed with corpses. And
beyond that, the kitchen and hallway, both jammed with corpses.

Maylee heard Mom and Park yelling to each
other. She heard clanging metal and the sounds of struggle.

“Mom!” she yelled. One
corpse, a man with a loose eyeball and torn tongue, turned to groan
at her.

“Oh go fuck yourself,” said
Maylee, whacking the corpse aside with the bat. “Mom!” she yelled,
straining to see over the corpses. Several more corpses responded
to her cries, turning to face her. They grunted and worked their
jaws.

Maylee looked back at them,
an idea forming in her mind. “Yeah! Look over here, asshats!
Here!”

She whacked the bat against the siding,
making as much noise as she could. She backed up across the porch
as more corpses turned to face her.

“Yeah! That's it,
dumbasses! This way!” she yelled, backing up farther. More corpses
turned to groan at her.

Then more crashes came from the kitchen. Mom
and Park yelling and fighting corpses. The corpses who had trained
on Maylee lost interest, and turned back to continue crushing
toward the kitchen.

“Dammit!” yelled Maylee,
slamming the bat into the face of the nearest corpse. It fell back,
teeth falling from its newly-bloodied mouth. Maylee stomped to the
edge of the porch, feeling like she could cry. “Mom!
Dalton!”

Her eyes roamed to the garage. She realized
it might be attached to the house.

“Mom!” she yelled, running
off the porch and toward the garage.

“Shut up!” she yelled at
the squealing SUV as she pushed past it, heading for the back of
the garage. She grinned when she saw a door set into the back wall.
She ran to it.

She grabbed the handle and twisted. She
cursed when she found it locked.

“Shit!” she yelled,
twisting the handle as hard as she could. “Mom!” She pounded on the
door. She could hear Mom's voice inside.

She backed up and readied
her bat. The SUV's alarm squealed in her ears. “I said shut up!”
she yelled, feeling like she was going crazy. The dog across the
street barked furiously.

She yelled and slammed the bat down on the
door handle. It shook and the wood around it splintered. Screaming,
she hit the handle again, harder this time. It broke free and
clattered to the cement floor of the garage. Maylee let out a
little cry of triumph and shoved the door open.

Running inside, she found herself in a
laundry room just off the kitchen. Looking to her right, she saw
Mom in the kitchen. Mom was cracking a corpse's head open with a
large metal pot. The corpse jerked from the blow and fell away.
Many other corpses crowded the kitchen, reaching for Mom and Park,
who stood a little farther away brandishing a skillet.

“Mom!” Maylee yelled,
running inside the kitchen.

Mom stopped mid-swing,
gaping at Maylee. “Maylee? Where did you come from?”

A corpse came up behind Mom
and reached for her. “Mom look out!” yelled Maylee, pointing with
the bat.

Mom turned to fight the corpse. Maylee ran
to help, but a group of corpses moved to block her. More poured in
behind them. They groaned and came at her.

“Ah shit!” Maylee yelled,
backing up toward the laundry room.

“Language!” yelled Mom,
ramming her stock pot into the corpse attacking her. The corpse
fell aside.

“Seriously Mom?” yelled
Maylee, backing up farther.

The corpses moved to block Maylee from Mom.
Maylee was pushed farther back. The corpses groaned and
reached.

“Not again!” yelled Maylee,
smacking the nearest corpse with the bat. She rammed it across the
jaw, sending blood and thick drool up along the wall.

She cast a quick glance back into the
garage. Still empty. Just the wailing SUV. She looked at the
corpses. They were still coming for her.

“This way!” she yelled,
backing into the garage and waiting for the corpses to follow. They
did, stumbling into the garage.

Then a loud crash came from the kitchen.
More clanging and Mom and Park yelling. The corpses groaned and
turned back toward the kitchen.

“You gotta be shitting me!”
yelled Maylee. “I said this way!” She stepped to the SUV and
smashed the bat into the windshield. The safety glass cracked and
splintered but held. Maylee smacked it again and again, making as
much noise as she could. “This way!”

The corpses stopped and turned back to her.
They grunted and pawed at each other, trying to get to her.

“Yeah! You know it!” yelled
Maylee, backing out of the garage along the side of the SUV. “This
way!”

The corpses followed her through the
garage.

“Ha!” yelled Maylee,
running out of the garage and into the yard. The dog barked crazily
at her. “Shut up dog!” she yelled, stopping and looking back to the
garage. The corpses stumbled out after her.

Maylee ran across the yard and back to the
side of the house. She heard the corpses stumbling after her. Rain
pelted her. Her joy at getting the corpses away from Mom began to
fade. The corpses behind her groaned and she began to worry she had
made a fatal mistake. She ran, her feet pounding on the wet grass.
All she heard was the moaning behind her and her own panting.

She raced under the bedroom window she'd
climbed out of. She tripped on the fallen window screen, stumbling
and almost running into the wall. She paused to regain her footing,
gulping air and looking back at the corpses. They were still coming
for her, groaning loud and long. Rain stung her cheeks.

She grunted and kept running, clutching her
bat in her right hand. She heard the corpses behind her. She
reached the corner leading to the back yard. She wished she had
time to peek around it. She didn't. She ran blindly into the back
yard.

She stopped, almost stumbling when she saw
five or six corpses standing around the back yard. They staggered
around aimlessly.

“Shit!” she yelled in
frustration. She turned to look at the corpses coming up the side
of the house. They were close.

She heard moans from the back yard and
realized her mistake. She turned back to see the back-yard corpses
staring at her.

They groaned and came at her. The closest
one was a fat shirtless man, covered in yellow and white boils. He
worked his flabby cheeks, splitting one of the boils open. Pus
oozed down his ashen face. He reached for Maylee.

Maylee swore under her breath. She swung the
bat at the fat man's face, hitting it with such force three more
boils broke. Yellow liquid splattered across her bat and onto the
lawn. The fat man gurgled and stumbled to one side. Maylee ran past
him, doing her best to ignore the disgusting liquid coating her
bat.

She dodged a second corpse, a woman with
most of her scalp ripped off, and was clear of the second group.
She heard the corpses from the side of the house round the corner
and join the group she had just gotten past. She stopped, wiping
the bat against the wall as she cast quick glances back to make
sure no corpses drew near. Satisfied the bat was as clean as she
could get it, she ran around the corner and along the other side of
the house.

Thankfully, this side was clear. She ran as
hard as she could. She heard the dog barking and the SUV alarm
squealing as she neared the front of the house. Rain pelted her
face and her feet nearly slipped several times in the wet
grass.

She rounded the corner so fast she nearly
lost control. The yard was clear of corpses, save the ones clogging
the front door. They still faced inside. She stopped at the corner,
heart pounding, and prayed she'd find the garage empty. She had to
get back to the kitchen. Back to Mom. Then Dalton.

Oh god, Dalton.
What if she'd left him to die? What if she'd
failed to protect him? He was the kid. He was just a
kid.

Running into the garage, she would have
cried for joy when she found it empty, but her lungs burned from
running so hard. She hit the cement floor, nearly skidding from her
wet shoes, and ran past the SUV. The alarm howled in her ears. She
was too tired to yell at it.

She screamed when a figure burst from the
door leading into the house. She couldn't stop herself in time. She
fell into the figure's arms.

“Maylee!” said the figure
as it resolved into Mom. “Are you okay?”

“Mom?” said Maylee,
panting. “Oh god, Mom. Mom.” Maylee hugged her tightly. Behind Mom,
Park was smacking a corpse across the temple with the skillet. Dark
red splattered across the skillet and a nearby wall.

Mom hugged Maylee back.
“Where's Dalton?”

Fear and shame flooded
Maylee and she pushed away from Mom. “Oh god, Dalton. He's still
inside.” She turned to run out of the garage.

“Which room?” yelled Mom
behind her.

“Follow me!” Maylee
shouted, exiting the garage and running back into the front yard.
The dog barked viciously at her.

“Maylee!” yelled Mom from
her back.

Maylee ignored her as she ran across the
yard, struggling to do quick calculations in her head. She tried to
remember the layout of the house. Based on the window she had
climbed out of, the room Dalton was in should have a window
somewhere around ...

Shit,
Maylee thought, realizing something. What if the other room
didn't have a window? She pushed the thought down and ran around
the corner of the house.

She was overjoyed when she
saw a second window. “Dalton!” she yelled, stopping beneath it. She
brought her bat up and swung at the window. The overhead angle was
awkward and the outside of the window was covered with a screen,
but she managed to break the glass.