That’s when I let out the loudest scream I could muster. Freddie slapped me hard.
“Shut up bitch. You want to attract every zombie around.”
“That’s exactly what I want,” I said. “You can’t rape me if your skin is being ripped off your bones by the living dead.” I said and let out another scream.
He raised his hand to hit me again. Before he brought it back down, a grey face came and latched its teeth to his hand. The blood splattered down onto me.
Freddie yelled in pain. His attention was now on the zombie attacking him and he took his weight off of me.
I crawled to my knife and got up. I turned to see Freddie winning his fight with the zombie.
He turned towards me. “I can cut off my hand and be fine,” he said.
I raised my knife to stab him as he began to walk forward. He took two steps and then I heard a gun go off. Blood shot out of a small hole in the center of Freddie’s forehead and he slumped to the ground.
I turned to see Daniel with his .45 pointing at where Freddie had just stood. “Better safe than sorry,” he said.
Chapter 17
Daniel walked over and helped me up from the ground.
“Thanks,” I said as I wiped the dirt off of my shorts.
Phoebe came rushing over to me. I didn’t see her open the door to come out.
“You alright?” She asked.
“I think so yeah.”
I heard the sound of faint growling. We all looked at each other. We all knew without saying it, we needed to head back to the house and fast. We made our way quickly to the front porch.
I looked back before going in. A small herd of those creatures was coming from just past the stables. They looked to be maybe 25 feet away.
We hurried in and shut the door behind us. Daniel tied the door of with the rope. Phoebe and I helped him with the bookcase.
“Do you think our safety is compromised?” Phoebe asked pointing to the boarded up window Freddie had thrown the rock at.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Daniel said observing the wood more closely. “Just don’t have that extra layer between us and the undead.”
“I like that extra layer,” I said,
I could hear the growling getting louder. Between the alcohol, the zombies, and being attacked I felt like I was going to be sick.
“Daniel, can you hold down the fort for a little while?” Phoebe asked.
Daniel looked at her a moment and nodded, “Yeah. I really think we’re fine.”
“Okay. Shelly, why don’t you go take a shower and then join me in the other room,” she said.
I nodded and Phoebe handed me my bag. I headed to the bathroom and took a cold shower. I felt disgusting with Freddie’s blood on my face, although that was the least of why I felt disgusting.
I dried off and got dressed. I headed into the bedroom. She shut the door behind us and gave me a big hug.
“You really are alright?” she asked in my ear.
“I don’t know,” I said.
She let go of me, “Me either.”
We both sat down on the bed. We were silent for a few minutes.
“He was really going to rape you?” she asked. “Wasn’t he? I mean I always knew how much of a jerk he was but I never would’ve guessed he’d attempt something like that.”
I shook my head, “I think something in him snapped. He looked strange. He was a bastard before but there was a sense of evil in him that was really creepy.”
I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. The mere thought of it made me feel ill. I was thankful it didn’t go any further than it did. He didn’t even rip my clothes. I was lucky. I wondered what other women surviving this crisis might be going through. Was it not only the undead that they had to fear?
“How are you holding up?” I asked Phoebe, desperate for the change of subject.
“I’m breathing. I guess that’s as good as can be expected.”
I nodded, “Yeah, it’s not easy but you’ll get up every day and catch your breath. Something inside you won’t let you give up. Even at the worst of times, something deep inside will drive you to somehow stay alive.”
She swallowed, “Did something happen to you? Did you lose someone?”
I nodded, “My daughter and my husband.”
“I’m so sorry.” She said as she sat up in the bed. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I talked about it with Daniel but I really didn’t want to bring too much attention to what I’d been through. Didn’t want to seem weak you know? I didn’t want to appear as broken as I felt.”
“You could have said something. No one would think you were weak.”
I smiled and gave her a hug.
Phoebe and I ended up talking for a long time. She told me stories about Robert. I let her do most of the talking. I did mention a few things here and there but I still wasn’t ready to go into detail about my life with Jackie and Adam.
Both of us fell asleep after a little while. When I woke up, I was disoriented. I felt really bad to have left Daniel out there by himself for so long, protecting us from the zombies. Phoebe was still asleep so I quietly went to the bedroom door and walked into the main room.
Daniel was sitting on the floor on his sleeping bag when I came out of the room. He was facing the door covered by the bookcase.
“Hey,” I began. “Everything alright?” I sat down next to him.
“Yeah, I could hear them eating on Freddie but most of
