The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 2, The Aftermath (8 page)

Doug joined her from the last guest bedroom in the hallway bringing along a pillow case with a few items that he had salvaged. At the landing
to the main staircase Miranda dropped her bag for them to grab on their way back down. She still wanted to do a quick search of the master bathroom in the hopes that a medicine cabinet in there would hold more potent medications or other treasures that they could use. The footprints disappeared on the far side of the staircase and she was unsure if that meant the visitor had taken the stairs back down or that the dirt on their feet had worn off as they walked on the carpet and they had continued down the hallway. Not wanting to be caught off guard, she drew the pistol from the waistband of her pants. She thought back to the brief lesson that Garrett had given her earlier about using the weapon. Grabbing the slide with one hand, she pulled back just enough to peer inside the chamber and ensure that a round was already loaded. She flipped the safety catch off and then kept the barrel pointed out in front of her, angled slightly down towards the floor until she had a target to raise it towards. Miranda knew that if she was forced to use the gun there was a good chance that a shot would announce their presence in the home and bring unwanted attention coming their way. But she was also keenly aware that she was alone on the second floor of a large home with a man who could probably not change his own car tire and that those dirty footprints pointed to the possibility they might have company up there. She considered forgetting about a search of the master suite for the moment and going back downstairs to get Garrett or Calvin to come along with her, but she knew that they were busy with their own portion of this supply run. So far she had proved herself to be a valuable contributor and didn't want to all of a sudden come across as a helpless female scared of her own shadow.

Continuing
down the hallway past the stairs they were left with a single closed door at the end of the hall leading into the master bedroom. The door was closed but unlocked and Miranda pushed it open several inches only to be immediately confronted with the sickening smell of putrid decomposition overriding the already heavy odor of lilacs from the crushed vile of air freshener. She froze in her tracks as the hair on the back of her neck stood up as though she had been electrocuted, she already knew that something was waiting for them in that room.

"Uggh, what is...." Doug started to say, but was cut short as Miranda's hand flew up to cover his mouth and stifle his next words. When his eyes fell on her face and he saw the wide eyes and color draining from her skin
he understood that something was very wrong. Miranda's other hand was still clutching the pistol that she had now raised to point at the sliver of open door. She removed her hand from Doug’s mouth and returned it to the door knob and started to pull back on the knob to close the door when they both saw the shadow fall across the opening. Miranda was shoved back hard into the hallway against the far wall as something hit the door from the inside with enough force to crack the wood down the middle. The door hit the frame hard but the latch failed to catch and the door just bounced off it and opened wide. A figure suddenly loomed in the doorway just a few feet in front of Doug, he saw the bared and snapping jaw already heading straight for him and reacted purely on instinct. Instead of trying to run back down the hall, Doug dropped his head low as if going in for a tackle in football and dove his body into the chest of the zombie coming towards him from the bedroom. He had recognized the creature as Cameron's mom, a petite woman who he outweighed by at least forty pounds. By ducking his head he was able to keep just out of reach of the snapping jaws, the woman had been intent on charging forward to meet him in the hallway and had been caught off guard by his sudden lunging attack towards her. Doug drove his feet down hard into the carpeted floor and managed to get her completely off her feet while continuing to propel himself forward. He drove her thrashing body backwards straight into a tall wooden dresser where the impact caused her head to bounce up and away from him for a moment. Seeing her head snap backwards, Doug took advantage of her teeth being momentarily out of range and rammed his forearm up and into her throat, pressing upward hard against the underside of her jaw. She recovered from the hit against the dresser and was already trying with all of her strength to bring her face back down and line her mouth up with Doug, but he managed to keep his arm firmly in place against her throat keeping her mouth high and clear of him. In seconds blows from fists and forearms were raining down on his upper body and she struggled hard against him. Even with his weight advantage he knew that he would not be able to keep her pinned down for more than another couple of seconds. She was incredibly strong and the first few hits to his body had already knocked the wind from his lungs, a couple more like that and he would either be driven to his knees or forced to step back from her and release his hold against her neck.

"Help me!" Doug cried out, hoping that Miranda had recovered from being knocked into the hallway and was in a position to assist him.

He sensed movement next to him and before he could turn towards it there was a thunderous boom that echoed in his ears and he felt the zombie’s body suddenly relax and go slack against his arm as her struggling instantly ceased. A warm, thick liquid splashed across the side of his face and down his arm and he released his hold on the woman jumping back away from her as the body dropped like a stone to the carpet and lay still. Turning to his left he saw Miranda standing just inches away from him, the smoking pistol still held in her outstretched hand. Following the trajectory of the barrel he noticed a half dollar size hole in the wall just beyond where he had been holding Cameron's mom at bay. Grey and yellow colored ooze traced an outline around the hole, glancing down at his arm he found a splatter of similar looking gunk coating his entire forearm and soaking into the sleeve of his shirt. Looking down at his feet he saw the crumpled body of Cameron's mom, her face turned slightly upward so that her open and vacant eyes were staring right back at him. A neat hole the size of a nickel marked around the edges by dark powder burns was evident just under her right eye socket, a slimy trickle of destroyed brain matter was oozing out and running down the side of her face into a small puddle on the carpet underneath her. He felt his stomach starting to gurgle and his knees growing weak, the sight of this small woman with a bullet hole punched neatly through her face, his second near death experience in just a few minutes along with the dank rotting smell of decomposition trapped in the room with them was too much for him to handle. Before he could stop it, an explosive surge of vomit fired from his mouth coating the body at his feet. Seeing his own puke soaking the dead woman's face and chest unsettled his nerves even more and pushed him further over the edge into a fit of retching. Sensing his predicament, Miranda grabbed him by his shoulders and guided him away from the grisly spew covered remains and turned him towards a small alcove at the far end of the room with a trio of bay windows. She unlatched the middle window and jerked it halfway open to allow some fresh air to help carry away some of the more stomach churning odors wafting through the room.

The sounds of heavy footfalls racing up the stairs in the hallway behind her caught her attention and she turned back towards the bedroom door with her pistol raised and ready.

Calvin was the first one through the door, his eyes took in the lifeless corpse just inside the door and then fell on Miranda with a pistol raised and directed at his chest, he raised his hands out in front of him, "Whoa girl, easy now. It’s just us." Garrett's anxious face appeared in the doorway next to him, his rifle up and ready for action.

Miranda dropped the pistol to her side and then turned back to Doug who had moved closer to the window and was now taking in deep breaths of fresh air, his green skin color starting to slowly return to normal.

"What the hell happened?" Garrett exclaimed.

"She was
waiting just inside the bedroom. I think we both surprised each other. There is a broken air freshener on the far end of the hall, it must have masked our scent and she didn't know we were upstairs until we opened the door. Doug had her pinned against the wall and I had no choice but to shoot her, another few seconds and she would have been able to get a bite on his arm or face." She recognized her mistake in firing the gun. If they had heard it all the way in the garage, there was a good chance that the sound of the shot had also carried well outside the house.

"It was Cameron's mother, she lived here." Doug said in between ragged breaths as the fresh air started to do its job and allowed him to return to his senses. "She must have come back inside the house after it all started. Some small spark of memory of her former live had to have guided her up here to her bedroom. Cameron last saw her days ago out in the yard and she was trying to chase him down along with others."

"That's all well and good doc, but we need to get this little shopping trip all wrapped up right now. I have a feeling we are about to have company." Calvin said as he turned towards Miranda, "Any luck with meds?"

"Nothing useful, we were just about to check in there." She replied pointing to the nearby door to the master bath, "
When we found her."

Garrett had moved over to the window and was looking out across the front yard next to where Doug was still trying to take in enough fresh air to cleanse himself of the sights and smells he had just experienced in the bedroom.

"Times up, grab what you can in the next ten seconds. We’ve got visitors." He exclaimed without taking his eyes off the front yard. The three zombies they had crawled through the drain to avoid along with at least eight or nine others that must have recently returned to the area after being drawn off by their drive by in Garrett's truck, were now rushing through the neighboring yards and converging on the house they were in.

Miranda didn't need to hear anymore, she snatched the half full pillow case that Doug had dropped and raced into the bathroom. Ripping open the medicine cabinet she didn't take a second to even see what was inside and instead scooped the contents of each shelf into the bag. She was about to turn a
nd leave when she had a thought. Kneeling down in front of the cabinet under the sink she opened the doors and quickly tossed aside the various cleaning products and other routine bathroom supplies neatly arranged just inside the door. Just behind the pipes running through the cabinet she caught a glimpse of two brown prescription containers hidden in the far recesses of the cabinet. It was a trick she had learned from her parents and the parents of some of her friends when she was growing up.

"We'll have to come back for the food and other supplies, no way we can carry it all to the truck on the run." Calvin said.

"Wait. What about my wife? Cameron?" Doug cried out, "We can’t just leave them behind."

"Shit." Calvin exclaimed, "We don't have time for this guys, we need to get going."

They started out of the room and back down the hall as Garrett had a thought, "Doug, you said there is a secure room in your basement where your wife and the kid that lives here are hold up, right?"

Doug's breath was still coming in ragged gasps from the incident back in the bedroom and getting worse as they raced down the staircase heading towards the back of
the house, "Ye...s, sto...rm r...oom"

Garrett and Miranda were coming along just behind them after stopping for a moment at the top of the stairs so Garrett could scoop up the laundry bag full of supplies that Miranda had dropped
there. "That’s our best option at the moment. There is no way he is going to make it if we end up in a running fight."

Stopping at the back door
, Calvin and Garrett both scanned the back yard for threats. Calvin saw four zombies moving quickly through the woods in the back of the house on the opposite side of Doug's and closing fast. Other than the zombies in the front of Doug's house the area between the two houses on the side and in the back appeared clear at the moment.

"Looks like we are going to hav
e to go that way no matter what. Our friends are coming from just about every other direction." Calvin said as he flung the door open and stepped onto the porch without waiting for a reply.

"Keep close to him." Garrett said to Miranda
as he gestured towards Doug. Miranda nodded resolutely that she understood.

They all stepped out onto the back porch, Calvin taking the lead while Garrett dropped back several yards to pick up the rear and keep Doug and Miranda in between the coverage of their rifles.
Garrett could see that Doug was already having a hard time keeping up and it would be a miracle if they all made it as far as his house without him dropping out on them. He saw how Miranda held the pistol up and at the ready position just like he had showed her. Even though firing the pistol had put them all in a particularly difficult situation, he had to admit that he was impressed with how she had handled that situation. It took a lot of guts to pull that trigger back in the bedroom like she had. Most civilians not accustomed to violence would have frozen in fear when suddenly faced with the option of having to take a life. Miranda had not only acted decisively but she had also come through it still able to function and ready to take on any other threats that came her way. She was quickly making an impression on him as not only a beautiful and desirable woman but also a formidable asset. Doug on the other hand was a mess, he was still a little green around the gills from his encounter with the zombie in the bedroom. While Garrett had to hand it to him for thinking quickly and pressing his attack in the first few seconds of the encounter, something that most likely saved his life, he was clearly still shook up from it. The fact that he was a doctor was definitely a bonus for them, whether or not he would be able to help Kimberly was something yet to be discovered, but beyond that, it appeared as though the man was going to slow them down when push came to shove.