“I think I just figured out how to kill the bastards.”
“Well, let’s get the hell out of here. Tell me later.”
Kyle started the truck at same time that a hand of the Existing Dead slammed on the passenger side window. Victor jumped back, reaching for the shotgun.
“Don’t even think about it,” Kyle scolded.
He slammed the truck into gear and it lurched forward, knocking the dead off their feet. They fell to the ground like bowling pins with the force of the truck. Victor stared at them as they fell. “Some of them have those wart things.”
“On their faces, around the cheek bones?” Kyle asked.
“No …” Victor said, his voice trailing as the dead were no longer in sight.
“What do you mean?”
“They had them in different places. I could see them on their faces like on the chin or something. But yeah, in different places. I couldn’t really see them on some of the others.”
Kyle’s mind tried to process all of this new information. It was times like this where he really wished that he was smarter. Victor seemed like a smart kid; maybe if both of them put their heads together they could make sense of all of this.
“We need to figure this out,” Kyle said.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Victor replied, not acknowledging Kyle’s comment.
“I think I know where you live. At least the general area.”
“Okay. Just keep going down this road. I’ll tell you when to turn.”
“Sure,” Kyle replied. “Listen. We need to figure out what’s going on with the Existing Dead. We have all these clues, but we need to put them together. Okay, so … they all fell to the ground and stopped moving. With the dead we saw back there, it looks like they’re all coming back to life again. But this time, a headshot doesn’t stop them. Well … it does, but they come back again. I think if we destroy that boil looking thing, we bring them down. Hopefully for good.”
Victor stayed silent while Kyle went on his little monologue.
“Do you have anything to add?” Kyle asked.
“Not really. It seems like you have all the information you need.”
Kyle thought about all the comments he had just made. It seemed like Victor was right. The solution was simple, and Kyle understood. He just couldn’t believe that it was
“Turn right at this light,” Victor said pointing his finger.
Kyle turned as the boy instructed.
“Take a left here at this stop sign.”
Again, Kyle did as instructed. Before long they were parked on the sidewalk of a two-storey house. The neighborhood they were in was generally quiet. If they didn’t know that the world was overrun by monsters, they wouldn’t have thought that anything was amiss on this part of the city.
Victor opened the passenger side door and was about to take a step outside when Kyle grabbed hold of his arm. “Stop,” he said.
“Let me go, dude,” Victor replied.
“No. Remember what we talked about earlier? A lot of shit has happened to you the past few days. Same with me. I don’t want you to go in there and find your mom dead, or worse. She could be infected and trapped in the house. That could really set you off, and I don’t know what you would do to me or yourself if that’s the case. I’ll go in first to check the situation.”
“Let me go,” Victor said.
“Listen to me,” Kyle said hardening his grip on Victor. “I’ll go in and check on her. If she’s dead, or turned, I’ll come back out and let you know so we can continue on our way. If she’s alive you can stay here with her if you’d like.” As Kyle said that, he felt a void in his belly, as though someone punched him in the gut. He didn’t want to let Victor go, even though he would have no choice. “Just stay here.”
“Fine,” Victor said, defeated. “Come get me when it’s all right for me to come in.”
Kyle checked the magazine on his Glock. There were only two rounds left. He took some rounds out of the robot backpack and loaded them into the magazine as well as one of the spares. He put the spare magazine into his pocket and gave Victor a look of concern. “This is just in case there are other things in there besides your mother.”
Victor remained quiet. He just stared out of the window toward the front door.
“What’s your mother’s name?”
“Morgan Cross.”
“Okay, Morgan. I’ll be right back …” Kyle said as he opened the door and slammed it shut. He held the Glock in front of him as he walked toward the front door. He moved slowly at first, but then began moving faster. He reached the front door and tried the door knob. It was locked.
Kyle glanced back to Victor who was motioning to check underneath the welcome mat. He was confused for a moment. Kyle had never been good at charades. Victor continued to point down to the ground until Kyle finally understood. He lifted the welcome mat and laying there was a gold-colored key. He lifted it gracefully, as if though he just solved a thousand-year-old puzzle.
The gold key fit in the deadbolt lock as well as the master lock. Both of them popped open louder than he wanted. Stealth was the key to this. He didn’t want to alert anyone of his presence, alive or otherwise. But then again, if someone was alive inside the house, he didn’t think they would be dumb enough to leave a spare key to the house in such an obvious hiding spot.
Kyle slowly opened the door when the scent of potpourri seeped outside through the crack of the door. He pushed it open wide enough for him to enter. When he was inside he closed the door behind him.
Directly in front of him was a staircase with a few framed photos on the wall all the way up to the second floor. To his left was a small living area with a sectional couch pressed up against the back wall, and in front of that was an entertainment center with a 32-inch plasma television sitting on top of it. Closer to the staircase was a small hallway that led toward the kitchen, but before entering the kitchen it split into a T-intersection where to his left was a small hallway that led to the restroom and to the right was the door for the garage.
He walked into the kitchen, still keeping the handgun on anything in front of him.
The house was completely clean, as though no one had been living there for quite some time. Kyle realized that coming here was probably a waste of time. Victor’s mother hadn’t been here in awhile. She probably hadn’t made it back home from the initial outbreak. Kyle remembered how crazy the streets where when the dead began coming back to life. He himself almost hadn’t made it back home from work.
Maybe the trip wasn’t for nothing. There could be food in the pantry or other supplies that could prove useful in Kyle’s journey to find Jasmine. Victor had mentioned that his mother was a nurse and that there were first aid kits around, along with other medical supplies. The question was, where were they?
The thought of going back outside to get Victor crossed Kyle’s mind, but Victor wandering around his old house might serve as a burden instead of a dash for the supplies. He’d probably find his old bedroom and curl up under the covers crying for his mother. No, it’d be better for him to stay out in the car.
Kyle walked away from the kitchen and headed back toward the front door. If medical supplies were going to be anywhere in the house, they would be upstairs in one of the rooms, possibly the bathroom. He took the first step and it made a loud screech. He cringed at the noise, but moved up another step. The second one was more silent.
He paused for a moment to take a better look at the family portraits hanging on the wall. Kyle wanted to see what Victor’s family looked like, even though it didn’t matter anymore. They were probably all dead anyway. In the first photo there were five people in total, an older male, an older woman, two girls in their early teens and one younger boy. Kyle stared closer at the boy. It didn’t really look like Victor, but the boy in the photograph was younger. It could have been what Victor had looked like many years ago.
Curiosity got the better of him. He continued walking up the stairs, glancing at all the photographs. Each one had the same smiling family, but he couldn’t find one photo of Victor. He finally saw a more modern photo of the young boy in the first family portrait. It definitely was
Suddenly, the situation clicked in his head. Kyle was had. Victor led him into someone else’s home, not his. He bolted down the stairs, holding the Glock forward. He opened the door and continued running toward the truck.
