When the crawler came flying over the bed to get at him Drew shot it in the head and chest until it stopped moving. He pushed the fresh corpse to the side and scrambled out from beside the bed. Moving fast he hurdled the sprawled-out bodies of the dead as he rushed to rejoin his family. Yue was already standing out on the porch roof looking down. She’d shrugged on her go bag already. The weight of all the ammunition they’d shoved in it tilting her backwards on her feet. LeBron was arguing with their dad.
“We have to go now!” Drew yelled in full on panic mode. He wasn’t understanding how his brother and dad weren’t realizing how important it was to immediately get the hell out of Dodge. He also wanted to make sure he was heard. He was feeling pretty deaf after all the shooting in the enclosed spaces and assumed everyone else was as well.
“Dad says he’s not going!” LeBron shouted. Drew moved forward to get directly in Bart’s face. LeBron’s eyes grew huge as Bart pulled his pistol out and aimed it in the general direction of Drew’s head.
“Duck!” Bart screamed at Drew. Drew pulled both his legs up in the air so that he fell straight to the ground on his knees. His dad stepped forward shooting through the space Drew had occupied half a second prior. The crawlerz who’d slunk into the bathroom behind Drew absorbing the rounds from the pistol. Neither of the demonic looking crawlerz bothered to duck out of the way of the roaring gun. They didn’t do much more than grunt as the bullets slammed into them. Bart emptied his pistol for the fourth time in the last five minutes to put them on the deck.
Drew stood up breathing raggedly. He thought he’d been deaf before. Having the pistol being shot directly above his head had really set his eardrums to ringing. Without being able to hear himself he yelled for LeBron to get out the damned window. Bart was leaning against the counter working on getting a fresh magazine jammed into his pistol. He looked like death warmed over. He was waving at Drew and pointing him towards the window. Drew couldn’t hear a word the man was saying but it was pretty obvious his dad wanted him to go out the window after LeBron.
Knowing their dad was planning to stay in the house to cover their retreat Drew went a different direction. He slammed his fist into his dad’s face then grabbed him in a fireman’s carry. Turning sideways he ran and stuffed Bart part way through the window. LeBron and Yue pulled him the rest of the way out. Seeing Bart had dropped his pistol Drew grabbed it and looked towards the bathroom door. A crawler ran into the bathroom and tripped over one of its dead brethren. It tried to leap at Drew at the same time but just ended up jumping at a weird angle face first into the bathroom mirror.
It fell across the counter with a bloodied face and a snapped neck. Even as it fell to the ground its eyes were focused on Drew. It’s mouth snapping open and shut. An ancient hatred directed at him from those mad eyes. Even in the dusty, dark, mostly destroyed bathroom Drew found himself mesmerized by the intensity of the insane rage glowing in the deadened eyes. He’d have died in the bathroom staring into the eyes of a paralyzed monster if his dad hadn’t managed to kick him painfully in the ear by accident.
Hoping he hadn’t lost a chunk of his lobe Drew turned and squeezed through the window as soon as Yue and LeBron got their dad through it. Once through the window he immediately turned around and pointed the pistol back into their bathroom. Yue noted Drew was out and got ready to jump. Motion and a metallic sound beneath her feet got her attention. Looking down she saw a crawler pulling itself up the gutter to get at her. She put her rifle on the things forehead and pulled the trigger once to get rid of the threat.
She could see more crawlerz running their way. The distinctive way they ran using their hands as well as their feet was horrifying. It dehumanized the forms coming for them. She didn’t see how they were going to make it. She heard Drew open fire behind her. More of the demons must be in the bathroom already. Knowing their dad had come out on the crowded porch roof gave her some comfort. At least they’d all die together. With that cheerful thought she aimed for the hedges beside the privacy fence and jumped.
She completely missed the hedge. The rucksack full of ammunition and supplies weighed way too much. They’d seriously overestimated how much they could realistically carry while jumping off roofs. Instead of landing on her feet with the hedge taking the edge off the pain from her fall she landed flat on her back on the lawn. Her breath was completely knocked out of her and she literally could see stars circling around in the darkness above her. Those stars were blocked off a second or two later by the body of her brother who’d also aimed for the hedges.
Drew looked below and saw LeBron land on top of Yue. Hoping they both weren’t dead he flung the last two go bags off the roof onto the ground below. His dad was screaming something at him, but Drew was still mostly deaf. Assuming his
