They were in a gated residence and he could hear the soft moans and shuffling just outside the gate. Out there were monsters that would easily rip him apart, but inside was a monster that would surely kill him without a thought. The problem was that Avery was a coward. He didn’t want to be by himself and he was afraid of what awaited him out there in the zombie infested wasteland. Either way he was a dead man. He looked over his shoulder and his lips thinned. He had to get away from Bobby. He felt his backbone stiffen. He got up slowly and threw his cigarette into the grass. Opening the door to the house the fumes hit him. Beer.
Bobby was a beer drinker and Avery looked over at the coffee table. The moonlight streaming through the windows glinted off the numerous empty bottles on the table. The snores filled the house and Avery smiled. He walked to the kitchen and found the keys to the Hummer. He took them and went back to the front door and left it wide open as he went to the vehicle and got in. He would have to leave quickly, if Bobby heard the Hummer’s engine, he’d be out and shoot Avery in the head or maybe in the leg like his wife. He’d leave Avery for the zombies to finish up.
He looked on the visor and saw the gate remote. He smiled, Bobby had attached it to the visor so when they left in the morning, they could easily open the gate. Bobby had made Avery climb the gate earlier and had laughed when the zombies clawed at Avery’s legs.
“Don’t worry, I’ll shoot ‘em in the head if they get a good grip on you. Quit your cryin’, Mary,” Bobby said and laughed as Avery scrambled over the gate. Avery felt the heat of impotent rage wash through him at the memory. He started up the Humvee and locked the doors. He pressed the remote and the gate at the end of the long driveway began to move. That drew the zombies and Avery pulled ahead. He flashed the lights and this drew more moving corpses. A grin flitted across his face. He waited until there were roughly a dozen zombies surrounding the vehicle and he slowly pulled away from them. When he got past the gate, he closed it and trapped the zombies within the property.
He was sure with all the snoring that was going on in the bedroom, the zombies would be drawn to the noise like moths to a flame. It would only be a matter of time before the zombies found their way into the open door of the home. Avery thought it was perhaps poetic justice. He’d never been a vindictive man, he thought of himself as easygoing. Go along and get along, but what Bobby had done to his ex-wife was unforgivable and Avery couldn’t let it pass. There had to be some kind of justice and he couldn’t let Bobby out there doing that to himself or someone else. He didn’t know if the zombies would get to Bobby or not. But it would at least keep Bobby busy and maybe think about what he’d done to Esther.
A giggle ran through him when he thought about Bobby waking up in the morning and walking out of his bedroom and finding zombies roaming the house. He sighed happily and turned down the street and away from the monsters.
EIGHT
Xander sat up slowly in the swing, moving Zahara off his lap. His heart thudded heavily into his chest. He had felt the world shift a bit and sorrow seeped into him.
“He’s dead?” his voice cracked. He couldn’t believe it, though he knew it might have been a possibility when he bit Ethan. Rose nodded jerkily and turned, going back into the house. He followed her up the stairs and into the bedroom. There was a lamp beside the bed and it illuminated the gray man on the bed. Xander could feel Zahara behind him, her hands on his waist.
“His temperature never went down and when it got up to 105, Ethan began to seize. There was nothing I could do for him. He never regained consciousness,” Rose said and began to weep. She sat heavily in the chair beside the bed. Ethan’s face was sunken, his eyes seemed to have sagged into his skull. His face and torso were drenched with sweat the fever had cause. The sheets around him were saturated and the air smelled of death and waste.
Xander stepped forward and laid his hand on the still warm body. Rather, it was hot from the high fever. He shivered and his throat felt tight.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work Ethan. I’m sorry you paid the heavy price,” he said softly. He took the damp sheet and pulled it up over Ethan’s still face and turned to Rose.
“You did all you could Rose. Go to bed, I know you’re exhausted. We’ll bury him beside your uncle in the morning,” Xander said softly and helped Rose to her feet. She nodded weakly and left the room. Zahara sat on the side of the bed, placing her hand in the middle of Ethan’s chest and looked up at Xander.
“He was an idiot. He should have left well enough alone,”
