I saw the first contaminated make the move before the rest of the group. It dashed towards the center, as fast as its tired and skeleton legs would allow it. It reached the body and pulled back the neck, revealing the white bone and pink muscle below with blue veins flowing through it.
Zach’s gunshot went off in the distance, echoing throughout the town. It was a loud round, probably of higher caliber, though I was no expert on guns. It came from the direction in which he ran. I only hoped that he was no longer in that area.
“Look!” Chelsea said, pointing to the outsides of the circle. Some of the contaminated had broken off from the group and started in the direction of the gunshot. They moved towards the house, most walking slowly, others in a sort of jog. They filed through between the neighbors’ house and my own side by side.
After a few minutes they were gone in the direction of the noise, nowhere to be seen. Suddenly another gunshot rang out, then another, then three more.
Chelsea and I bolted to the front window. Zach was running down the street with a mob of contaminated at his heels. He was in the process of reloading his gun as he moved. “Hey!” he yelled, looking in our general direction. “Any ideas?!”
Without thinking I bolted down the stairs and onto the porch, remaining low to avoid being detected. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys. “Hey!” I yelled. “Hear me, Zach?”
He was only two houses away from my own right now and getting closer. “Yeah! Where are you?”
“Hidden!” I replied. “I’m going to throw you the keys to the green car at the end of the driveway! Get in it and drive!” I threw the keys at the street. They bounced once and landed about ten feet behind the car parked on the street. “Drive until you lose them! We’ll be waiting! I’m out!” I yelled, indicating that I was going back inside.
Still low to the ground, I walked through the front door which Chelsea opened. She closed it behind me as we poked our eyes through the door’s small windows. Zach had the keys and was fiddling with the lock. He got inside the car and shortly after an engine began to hum. Two of the contaminated reached the car and started slamming on the trunk just as Zach took off, honking as he went.
“He’s pulling them away from the house,” Chelsea said.
“Yeah. Doesn’t want us to get caught, I guess. Pretty good guy. Let’s hope he makes it in one piece.”
Chapter 18
“We’ve got to help him!” Chelsea said, moving in circles. “We can’t just leave Zach out there alone. He’ll need our support.”
“Chels, we can’t,” I said, stopping her from her pacing. “Don’t worry. He’s in a car and will be fine. Think about it. We were in the car before and had no problems even after we hit one of the contaminated. He can easily outrun a few of those things with the speed of the car. We’ve just got to sit back and wait. No reason to go out and do something stupid.”
She began pacing again. I heard her go into the kitchen and start boiling water for tea. I turned back to the window and looked out into the murky day. The street was blank again. The road was desolate and unmoving as were the trees that sparsely grew on the sides of the street in the former front lawns of residents who lived there.
I heard a honking again coming off to the west side of the house, though that is where the windows are located so maybe it was from the east. In other words I have no idea where the sound came from. Testing my luck, I opened the front door but left the screen door closed. I heard the honk again. It was definitely coming from the west, the windows were not wrong.
I waited at the door for another few minutes. Eventually a whistling rang out throughout the house, signaling that the tea water was ready to go. It quickly stopped as I heard a kitchen chair sliding against the hardwood floor and Chelsea quickly turning off the heat to the stove.
As soon as I turned to go to the kitchen, I heard the horn of a car sounding off again. Three short beeps followed by three long beeps and finishing with three short ones again. “Chelsea!” I called to the kitchen. “Did you hear that?”
She quickly emerged into the living room with a steaming cup of tea in her hand, “Hear the horn? Yeah, that’s Zach. Remember?”
I gave her a blank face at the sarcasm, “I think that was Morse code for an S.O.S.”
“Well, yeah,” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He’s out there dodging contaminated charging at the car. I think that he would like some help.”
“I agree!” I said, completely catching Chelsea off guard. “Only not the kind of help that you’re probably thinking of. We’re going to help him from the house.”
She shook her head, “How? It’s not like we can give him suppressive cannon fire or anything like that.”
“No, not that,” I said, walking back to the screen door and looking out. “He’s telling us that he’s ready to come back, that he has probably lost the majority of the pack and is about to stop here. We have to be ready for him just in case there are other contaminated around.”
She nodded, understanding. “I’ll get the weapons,” she said and went off into the mudroom in the back of the house, reemerging with two baseball bats. “I would’ve brought the wrench, but that thing is a bitch to carry around.”
“It’s
