They Walk (38 page)

He returns my look and stares at me intently for a few heartbeats, before he turns to my father and waves his hands in the direction of the trunk.

“
No problem, just I need you to open the hatch for the trunk. There are some guns and ammo in there for you, we might need them.”

As he turns around he flicks on the overhead light. As the car is floods with light that blinds me, my mother shifts closest to the car door, so that my dad can open the back and reach inside. When he pulls out a heavy pack and begins digging through it, I return my attention back outside. There are about ten of the dead shuffling out around the car now, but no more are coming around the front of the building. So it seems this is all we’ll have to fight through to get inside, thank goodness. My dad is handing my mom a handgun and a box of ammo now, and I can’t help to notice how she takes it from him with shaking hands.

I glance away again, when he gets a gun and ammo for himself and I try to tune out the sound of the both of them loading the cartridge. This is definitely not something a daughter like to see her parents do, it might be worse than knowing they do the nasty some times. Or maybe not, it might be the same type of thing I really don’t want to know about.

Picking up the ax off the floor and ignoring the way the hilt is still sticky with wet blood, that didn’t have time to dry, I look over as Gabe reloads his handguns, yes plural. He peaks at me as he works, and I notice the way his hands clench the gun, as his eyes drift to my bloody ax. He sighs to himself when he looks away, and I force myself not to remind him that he doesn’t have to worry about me.

But I know that isn’t true, I can’t exactly prove that I can today.

“
Mark, pass me the other pack that is in the trunk, if you could please.” Gabe says softly, as he clicks the cartridge together in the gun causing me to jump from the sound.

I watch as my dad nods, and reaches back into the trunk for another pack. He doesn’t stop to investigate it or anything and he just hands it over to Gabe. Who takes it without looking up and quickly straps it over his shoulder, before taking both his guns in each hand. He looks fully at me now, and his eyes get dark with intensity, but then he turns and gives the same look to my parents.

“
Here’s the deal, we only have one chance to get to the door in one peace. We’re lucky that there isn’t that many of the dead here now, so we should make it if we stick together and are precise.”

Gabe flicks a glance to me, before fixing a look with my father, who turns serious all of a sudden.

“
You and I Mark are going to take point. After Bates, I know you’re a good shot. Maggie and Karen, I want you both to stick close to us and be careful.”

Both of my parents nod in agreement to him, but I’m too much in awe of him to really do anything of the sort. When did he become the de facto leader? This makes me remember the boy who saved me that first time at Austin’s and it makes me so proud of who he becoming. He turns back in his seat and after rolling his shoulders a bit, he turns off the car and starts to reach for the door handle, but I stop him before he can.

I snag his arm and force him to look at me, and he does so with wide eyes.

“
You be careful to Gabriel. I mean it.” I whisper to him and ignore the fact that my parents are listening in.

Gabe’s face softens then, and he gives me a slight smile.

“
This cowboy has experience remember? You don’t have to worry.”

Knowing he’s right doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to lose him any less. But I let go of his arm, and quickly grip my ax in both of my hands again. When he turns back to open his door, I now reach for mine and can hear my parents shifting in the backseat as they do the same.

Here’s hoping we’re not going to fight our way inside for nothing.

I push open the car door and get out.

Chapter Sixty Five

As soon as I’m standing I have to hold onto the door for support, since my head spins a little from moving too fast. That can’t be a good sign. I ignore it though as I notice that Gabe and my dad are already out and don’t waste any time at all as they immediately begin firing into the dead. The dead here look as bad as I remembered, as they are all burnt husks of people. The flesh is seared away almost completely and I can’t even figure out what gender some of them were. But it doesn’t matter as my mother gets out of the car too and as she inches closer to me, some of the dead approach us. With Gabe and my dad both, I know we’ll have to take care of them, and I’ve done it before. For some reason though, I can’t seem to get my body to move like I want it too.

I just watch as two of the dead get closer to us.

My mother is at my side now, and with one hand she grips my arm, while the other limply holds her handgun at her side. She is saying something to me, but I can’t hear her as my ears fill with static and all I seem to hear in the distance are the guns being fired. I shake my head to clear it, but nothing changes and the dead get closer still as my mom grips my arm tighter.

I know I should do something and that the dead will be on us in seconds, but my head feels like syrup and my body like lead. When one of the two dead people are close enough for me to smell it’s charred flesh, that’s when I come back to myself. Everything is loud for a second and I feel like I’ve just been pumped full of adrenaline. When my mother yells and tries to push me away from the car, I just shrug her off and lift the ax up in front of me.

The dead is only a short space from me and before its broken fingers can touch me, I spin away from it with a yell and draw it to me and away from my mother. It turns with me, on instinct I think, and in the short time it takes to be within reach again, I pull the ax out and back. It is almost to me, and I let the ax swing out and I catch it easily in its neck. Like most of them that have been dead for a while, its flesh is soft and the ax slides right through its neck and I spin with the ax as it goes through. By the time I get my balance again and reposition the ax, I realize that I forgot about the second dead person that was coming for us.

I search for it quickly, expecting it to jump me from behind, but I don’t have to worry about that.

As I turn, I see my mother lifting her gun and shooting the dead that was going for her instead of me. I watch as she hits it right in the head and it falls back to the ground. It’s not completely dead though, and still it struggles to get to her. I’m about to step forward and help her finish it off, but she walks over to its quivering body. Raising the gun in her shaking arms, she points it to the center of his forehead, and before I can even let out a breath she pulls the trigger. The body lay still now, and she looks right up at me, and I can see how it destroys something inside her to kill it.

I know how she feels though, since that part of me died a long time ago with Matt.

I don’t get the chance to tell her any of this though, because my dad and Gabe are trying to finish off the rest that are still standing. My mother turns away from me then, and joins them with the shooting. Knowing it’ll be over soon, I let my guard down as I slowly pace behind them as they inch closer toward the door of the building.

Later, I’ll be kicking myself for being so stupid and not paying attention.

But honestly, I blame it on the headache that is forming behind my eyes as the adrenaline fades from me. The reason I’ll want to kick myself, is because the others aren’t shooting the only dead left standing, and I’ve left my back as an open target. I don’t know this of course, until one of the dead is already on me and knocking me to the ground.

It hits me from behind, and as we fall to the ground in a heap, I can feel its bloody fingers getting tangled in my hair as it tries to pull me to its mouth. Yelling, I hit back with my elbow and try to dislodge it, but its fingers are tightly woven in my hair now and I only succeed in rolling us. Now on top I push myself up, and it comes up me as I can feel its teeth getting closer to the flesh of my neck. Remembering that I have the ax still in my hands, I use the hilt of it to hit behind me at the thing. This doesn’t do anything other than keep its mouth from me, and while I have it almost pinned with the ax, I pull myself forward with a cry of pain. Ignoring the way my scalp burns from the hair stays in the dead’s fingers, as it’s pulled free, I quickly bring the ax up.

The dead snaps its teeth at, and when it places my hair covered fingers on the ground, I know it’s going to rush me. The roaring in my ears is back, and this time everything slows down to just the dead person in front of me. I can hear my parents and Gabe still shooting and I hope they are having better luck than I am, because seriously, I could really sit down for a while.

But instead, as the dead practically leaps at me, I swing the ax around at it at the same time.

The circumstance of this one is different though, and I’m starting to get shaky now and so I don’t have the as aimed high enough to slice it’s neck and instead I get its shoulder. Even though this dead is burned as bad as the other one, its flesh isn’t as soft, and when I hit its shoulders the ax gets lodge inside.

The hit even off center, still sends it falling to the ground, and with the ax still inside it, I fall to the ground right with it. The fall makes my head spin, and I’m not sure of what is up and down. The roaring of my ears hasn’t left me, and now I’m beginning to see spots dancing in front of my eyes. I shake my head to clear it, knowing this isn’t the time to pass out. Instead, I focus on the ax in my hands and gripping it tightly I try to get to my feet. That’s easier said than done though, as the ax is lodged inside its flesh. It’s still trying to get to me, and I can feel its nails break through the flesh on my arms as it claws at me.

I don’t leave it to run away even though I know I should, rather I quickly get to my wobbly feet and struggle to pull the ax free. It doesn’t come out like I anticipated it would, and when I hear a grinding sound distantly in my near deaf ears, I have the feeling it might have got caught on its bone or something.

That would just be my luck right about now, wouldn’t it?

I still don’t leave the ax stuck inside it though, and I struggle even harder with the hilt as I yank it from side to side. With still no effect, the dead is almost sitting up now and I know it’s a matter of time it’ll be on me again while I no longer have the weapon. It sits up suddenly and I jump back before it can reach for me. I wish that I hadn’t though, because my head spins and I lose my balance. The black spots in front of my eyes turn into grey blobs now, and are slowly taking away my sight. I have the sense that I’m falling onto my knees, but I don’t feel anything as I hit the ground, and all I feel is the pounding in my head that takes my breath away.

I can see the dead coming for me again, but it seems so distant that I don’t care about it, and its body tilts as I sense myself falling over onto my side. Its bare charred and bloody feet are in my line of little sight, and I can only feel as my body goes numb and I don’t even care as I know I’m probably going to die soon. I’m about to close my eyes, when a popping sound rings inside my head so loud, that it causes my body to jerk and I open my eyes. I watch as the dead that was about to eat me, falls to the ground in a lifeless heap right beside me. I don’t have any time to think that’s strange, because another set of feet are walking into my line of sight and instead of coming for me it goes for the dead on the ground. They walk right up to where my ax is still sticking out of it, and grip it with both hands.

Placing a booted foot on its chest, they pull the ax out with no resistance.

It’s only when he is kneeling beside my head that I realize that it’s Gabe. And when I see the gun in his other hand, I know why I hear the loud popping, he shot it.

“
Oh come on, you just made that look easy.” I say in a barely audible whisper.

Gabe hears me though and while he chuckles at me he puts his arms around me.

He helps me to stand, and it’s not easy either. I swear at one point, I made him hold me still while I dry heaved up nothing. By this point both of my parents have joined us, and even though my ears are ringing now instead of all static filled, I can hear them yelling at me. I know they mean well, but really, do they have to yell so loud? Gabe guides me to the door of the apartment building finally with my parents hovering, and I realize that all the dead are finally just that, dead. I start to feel a little like myself again the closer we get to the door.

When my father pulls it open, I notice that it wasn’t even locked.

Chapter Sixty Six

Gabe and I share a look, as my father pulls the door open with no resistance, and I know we both think it’s not a good at all. How can it be, if anyone was still here, the doors wouldn’t have been locked. But neither of us says anything though, and we follow in behind after my parents. Once we are all are inside, Gabe pushes the door closed behind us and I immediately wish he hadn’t.

The stairwell that we walked into is plunged into darkness, that makes my parents and I gasp in alarm.

Not Gabe though, and while I ponder his braveness, he shifts me to the side and uses his arm to dig into the pack on his opposite shoulder. He pulls something out, but it’s too dark for me to see clearly, and with a quick scratching sound the hall is filled with light.

Blinking against the bright light, I find that Gabe has one of the flares we found at the army base so long ago. I completely forgot about those, and thank the stars that Gabe did not. The flickering light now allows us to see in the small space we are in, and as Gabe lifts the flare up higher we can see up the through the three flights of stairs. Straight ahead of us is an open door that leads to the first floor apartments, and the way it’s so quiet in here, I have to wonder if we really are alone.