“Yeah? Well okay! We can sneak off when we get tired of this one. No one will know.”
Staying quiet and working his way up to the boss Bobby had been stuck on took Cory forty-five minutes or so, he had watched Bobby play through some of the levels and took full advantage of what he had seen. He also made good progress on the boss monster, almost beating it his first time around, but not quite, much to both of their dismay. A little later they decided to get up and head to the Target store, with Bobby saying, “You don’t try to run away, I can catch you and Jimbo said to make sure you stuck around, okay?”
“Sure, okay, but what happens if we run into, you know, others?”
“We hide, that is all, I will scout things out and if it is all clear you follow. You can’t outrun me barefoot.” said Bobby.
'Probably he was right.', thought Cory, however he would do his best to find that out for sure. Cory made extra sure to watch how to get back to the house and waited for his opportunity. The boys walked and sneaked their way back towards the Target store, stopping in a convenience store when Cory said he was hungry and thirsty, Bobby went in alone and seemed surprised when Cory was still there when he came back out with the food Cory had asked for, double quantities. The boys went around to the back of the store and sat down on a curb, where Cory ate and Bobby sat staring at the food, finally Cory said, “Well? You gonna try it or not?”
Bobby smiled a little and picked up a snickers bar, unwrapping it he smelled it and said, “It is like, different, it doesn’t smell bad, you know, like nasty or something, but kinda like a spring day, good, but nothing that you would want to eat.” He raised the candy to his lips and nibbled a little off the end. “Still chocolaty. Not good enough though, I don’t think I can eat it.”
Cory shrugged and said, “Is it that bad?”
“Yeah, no, not really, but it doesn’t taste right, like you know, eating play doh or wax, you can eat it, but why?” Bobby took a larger bite of the candy bar, chewed it methodically, swallowed and then tossed the bar down. “Nope, I don’t think I want to eat normal food anymore.”
“No ice cream? No chocolate bars? No popcorn or peanuts or lemonade?”
“Probably not.” Bobby picked up one of the mountain dews he had pilfered from the store, opened it, sniffed it and then drank a few swallows down. “This is not bad, I think I need water or something anyway, it is okay, it tastes different though, more chemically or something.”
“Eww, let me try it I got a bad pop once, it was really bad.” After taking a swig from Bobby’s pop, he said, “Naw, it is fine, it is just you I guess. Bummer.”
“You about done? We gotta go, Jimbo won’t like it if we are gone too long.”
“How will he know?”
“Well, it is weird, like a one way phone mostly, he can kinda see things from my side, not really see, but he can get messages and things, sometimes I can get what he is doing too, like if he is fighting or something bad is happening, mostly I try to stay in yelling distance of him. He has sent me stuff before, words and stuff, but that seems to take him more effort and he does not do it very much. If I try though I can send him messages pretty good, easy, even pictures too.”
“So you have to send him the message, it just doesn’t go on its own?”
“I don’t think so, I have to make an effort to send it out. I am not doing that now, or he would be mad. If he knew we were gone, you know.” replied Bobby.
“Okay, lets go.” Cory got up and the boys headed down Kipling Street back towards the Target store.
A couple blocks later Bobby put his hand out and stopped Cory from going forward, “There is something up there, get behind that dumpster.” Bobby pointed at a dumpster sitting behind a gas station. Cory ran towards it, hitting some rocks at the mouth of the alley caused him some pain and he wondered again why he hadn’t slipped on his new flip flops before getting out of the car. Bobby went forward out of Cory’s sight and after a few minutes Cory got worried, was this a trick? He crept forward on his hands and knees until he could peek around the corner. He saw Bobby on the ground, apparently crying as a woman and younger child approached him cautiously. Once they were next to him the woman picked Bobby up off the ground and hugged him close, in an instance she knew something was wrong and so did Cory, the woman was human, not a zombie. Cory saw Bobby sink his teeth into the woman’s neck, the woman tired to push him away and screamed at the little girl to run, the girl stood in a daze then started screaming.
Cory ducked back around the corner of the building and started to run, this was not what he had planned, however he didn’t think he could help the woman and her kid, he didn’t have his bat. He ran back to the convenience store where he had eaten a few minutes before, going in he saw a rack with flip flops on it and he tore a pair down that looked like his size and put them on. Better shod he looked around for a weapon. Chips, soda bottles, slim jims, nothing. Nothing vaguely weapon like. As he sped out of the store he ran across the street and back towards Max’s house going around a parked car he stopped as almost ran into a zombie emerging from an open door. He swerved right, but skidded to the ground in front of the car, looking back the zombie was slow and still trying to get is bearings, slowly it turned towards him. Cory realized something was under his right hand, metal, he turned to look as he got to his hands and knees, a thing for changing tires, a tire iron, he remembered his dad using one to rotate the tires on his mom’s car. It was short, only about eighteen inches long, but better than nothing and he grabbed it as he finished gaining his feet. He easily outdistanced the slow zombie as he turned down the street leading to Max’s house. He opted for another turn to get him into the back yard of the house behind Max’s, hoping that Amelia was still alive and that he could do something. Far behind him a girl continued to scream, although her mother had fallen silent.
Chapter 49
It was twenty minutes to eight, an hour or so after sunrise when the group finally turned down the street that led to Max’s house. Along the way they hit a zombie that was just turning onto Max’s street, a slow moving zombie whose back was to them, as he crunched under their car Steve asked, “Hey do you think it is a good idea to run them down like that? I mean, what if they get hung up on the car or something?”
Stewart gave him a look, took her coffee cup, sipped it and replied, “He didn’t seem to get hung up to me.”
“It is okay Steve, we are almost there anyway, we can fish out any parts later if we have to.” interjected Max, fending off a little fight before it happened, “It is the third house on the left there!” Max pointed to a house whose front door was open. There was a body lying in the front yard and the screen door was swinging open in the slight morning breeze. “Oh shit. Sarah! Not Sarah, not Sarah!”
“Easy Max, easy, the zed is dead right? That is a good sign.” Stewart’s brown furrowed in thought, “Hey Steve isn’t that the caddy from your work parking lot? It looks familiar.”
Steve and Tom examined the car closely, Max was too worked up and said, “Stop the car Stewart, stop the car!” while he pulled out the pistol Stewart had given him to replace his revolver.
“I think that is Diane’s car, our boss’s, boss’s boss. A few rungs up the ladder from us. It looks just like it, not a scratch on it either. Nothing like this piece of shit we are driving.” said Steve.
“Yeah I think Steve is right, it could be a different car though, but she was so friggin’ proud of that thing when she got it, we all had a look.” added Tom.
“Stewart, let me out. Unlock the door.” said Max. Stewart had the ability to keep the back doors locked, this car was a police cruiser, after all, she turned to Max and said, “Calm down Max, we are going in, but we are not going to go rushing in.” She slowed the car to a stop parallel to the street in front of the driveway, so she would not have to back out.
“Okay is everybody ready? We all have bullets for all the guns, shotgun shells, pistol bullets? Good. Max I think someone else should lead, me, with you second to tell me where to go. If your wife is one of them I won’t hesitate, you might. Steve you or Tom need to stay with the car in the driver’s seat and be ready to go, the driver keeps the ‘over and under’ rifle that Hank gave us. I get the shotgun.”
Tom agreed to stay with the car and moved to the driver’s seat while Stewart, Max and Steve lined up alongside the car and prepared to move into the house.
Despite the planning Max started towards the house ahead of Stewart, she looked after him, shrugged her
