Kim looked up at the sky, and started thinking.
Shaun was outside smoking a cigarette when Will came back. The sky was filled with dark clouds, and the smell of the upcoming rain was muted by that of blood covering Will’s shirt.
“It didn’t go well, did it?” Shaun asked, exhaling a column of smoke.
“Take a guess. We need to get out of here, already stayed too long.”
“I agree. What are you going to do about Winston?”
Will looked up at the sky. A single drop of rain fell on his face.
“We’re just gonna have to bring him along for now. Watch him twenty-four seven, hope for the best.”
“It’s risky. Only takes one of those fuckers to kill a group.”
“I know. Just get everyone ready, I’m going down to see him.”
Will opened the screen door to the cabin and saw Boyd and Ronnie silently seated on the couch. He didn’t know what to say so he just nodded his head and continued into the basement.
“Shit!” he yelled.
Kim and Anna wandered around to the front of the cabin and saw Shaun still smoking his cigarette. He puffed out a smoke ring at Kim. She didn’t cough or fan the air. That was important.
They didn’t really agree on anything, but Kim knew how bad it would be if anyone found out it was Anna who killed Winston. Worst case scenario, she’d get the blame. She didn’t want to think about it, and instead thought about how… whatever this is could spread if it wasn’t through bites.
It was always through bites. A zombie bites you and after a while you turn into a zombie yourself. It didn’t really make sense, but that’s how it was. So if it wasn’t a bite, what was it? For once the unknown was scarier than reality.
Kim’s train of thought was interrupted when Boyd bust the front door down. “Winston’s dead,” he said.
“He die cause of that bite?” Shaun asked.
“No, he been stabbed. A knife’s stickin’ in his chest now.”
Shaun nonchalantly got up and threw his cigarette to the ground before walking inside the house. Anna and Kim silently looked at each other before going in after him. Anna walked down the stairs, as Kim stayed at the top, unable to go in.
“What the hell happened in here?” asked Will.
“Me and Kim were just in here with him, he was fine.” Sensing she should be there, Kim came down the stairs.
“That’s right. We walked out for not even a minute or two when Boyd came running outside for us.”
“You were gone the whole time, but what happened when you came back? What’s all that blood on your shirt?”
“I know you’re not saying what I think you’re saying, bitch.”
“Hey, don’t talk to my daughter like that. And you know what? It’s a good question to ask. Where did the blood come from exactly?”
“Okay, you wanna go down that road? This is from a bunch of zombies out in the woods. They were attacking two… a survivor out there and I saved them.”
“Oh, how heroic of you.”
This was going nowhere fast, everyone could tell. The only thing it was doing was driving a wedge further in the group.
Kim felt she should say something, at least someone should, but she didn’t know what there was to say. How can you stop a pair of idiots arguing over someone’s death, especially when you’re in on the lie?
Instead she chose to go back up the stairs. To hell with any suspicion, she just needed to get out of the room. The whole situation seemed all too familiar to her.
She sat down on the front step outside and picked up the soggy cigarette Shaun was smoking. She shook her head and threw it back down. The noise of Anna and Will arguing could be heard all the way from out there.
After what felt like hours, Boyd joined her outside. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to.
“Don’t come to me for advice. I don’t know what to tell you.”
He shifted uneasily. “I ain’t know who to believe, to be honest. Yous all strangers to me, ‘specially you and your friend. He don’t seem all that… homely.”
Kim wondered if Boyd even know what homely meant.
“Well, he’s a killer. That tends to hurt his social standing in most circles.”
The arguing sounded like it had died down, and Boyd’s reaction was enough of a reflection of the others that Kim knew no one won this argument. An innocent man died for nothing, what’s new?
In the trees, towards the direction Will came, there was a noise. Kim heard it instantly and picked up a lead pipe she picked up when they were leaving the camp.
“What’ch doin’?” Boyd stood up, and saw what Kim heard. There was a group of zombies closing in on the cabin. Not nearly as big as the heard that forced them out of camp, but big enough.
“We need to get the hell out of here, come on.” She led Boyd inside and ran down the stairs. “We got a group of zombies coming our way, we need to move.”
“Why didn’t you stay out there and hold ‘em off? Boyd could have told us.”
“What the hell am I going to do against twenty of those things alone?”
By now everyone was grabbing whatever gear they sat down and were getting ready to leave through the back door. It was a forgone conclusion they weren’t going to stay there and fight.
“Alright fine, we’re leaving.”
“Shit, we’re surrounded!”
A zombie was closing in on Ronnie, who was going for his hatchet. Instead, Will pushed past him and shot the zombie in the head.
“Come on!” he shouted. The rest
