Ascension

A smell of decay wafted passed her as Katie stood in the doorway. In the street the argument was reaching a new height. 'Decay means dead-dead, not living dead.' thinking this to herself she shut the door as well as she could behind her and scanned the room. There weren't any bodies lying around, or moving either. 'Upstairs, in the bedrooms. I bet you five Randy, that is where I find the family, all suicided.'

She took the stairs two at a time as fast as she could, just in case there was a smart zombie lying in wait. The stairway opened into a loft like area that overlooked the main room, there was a bathroom directly in front of her, two open doors down a short hallway to her left and a closed door that screamed 'Master Bedroom' across the loft room to her right. The door was ornate and oak. Not good, hundred year old oak, but the newer faux oak door that was lightweight, yet still cost a few hundred more than standard doors and looked nice.

'I could just leave it. I know what is in there. Dead people. I don't have to go in.' Katie said out loud. She put her hand on the doorknob, or latch rather, it looked and felt like some sort of brushed nickel. 'Nice.'

It was also locked. Pressing her ear to the side of the door she listed for a moment, but only heard faint yelling from the street. With a heavy sigh she shouldered this door too, breaking a chunk out of the frame on the first hit. The stench of rotted flesh rolled over her, but the room was pitch black. Katie backpedaled and crouched down pulling her pack around to the front of her to get her flashlight.

Nothing came crawling out of the black doorway. Katie left her pack on the floor and turned on her light, the beam was almost painfully bright. From her position outside the door Katie could see a set of feet lying on the carpeting, the rest of the person was out of sight behind the bed. What she could see of the body gave her the impression it belonged to a corpse, not a zombie. The feet were gray and swollen; the flesh of the ankles was tightly bound by the cuffs of a pair of men's sleepwear pajamas.

Before she stepped in Katie moved to the far right side of the door, the angle gave her a better view of the rest of the room as she approached. She knew she had to go in, if the couple had car keys they would be in here, not someplace sensible, like the kitchen. 'That is how my luck runs. I kinda hope I am right, otherwise I am going through a whole lotta gross for nothing!'

It was a family of five, the wife and children were tucked into the king sized bed, the man lay on the floor beside them. Katie's eyes were drawn to the rifle the man had, a thirty ought six. 'Respectable, maybe he was a hunter.'

She reached down and picked up the rifle, which had fallen beside the man and was out of the bloated rot of his remains, as she was bent over she heard a faint sound, as if someone were continuously squeezing water out of a sponge. 'Maggots.'

Even as sealed up as the house was, flies had gotten in. 'I don't even see any flies around, but I can hear their babies in the bodies.' Standing with the gun, she looked around for any ammunition and spotted a case on the desk, next to a set of keys. 'Bingo!' Katie grabbed the ammo and the keys and run out of the room.

In the loft room she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and pulled the door shut behind her, it didn't stay closed, but only crept open a few inches. 'Fuck it, I am not staying here anyway.'

She turned off her light and tucked it and the rifle ammunition into her pack. The keys went into her front pocket. By the time Katie was downstairs Kent had dragged Robert up the sidewalk to the door. Jess hesitantly swung the front door open, using the barrel of her gun instead of her hand. Katie paused on the stairs to wait for them to come in.

'It's okay, there aren't any zombies in here, just dead people.' she said.

'Okay. It's dark. And smells bad.'

'I didn't say the house was empty. The family committed suicide, it's a mess, you'll want to stay out of the master bedroom.'

Robert and Kent continued to bicker, but at least the wounded man was walking, albeit with one arm around his spouse's shoulders. The boy, Bobby, brought up the rear, pointing the gun he had taken off of his dead sister behind him as he came in.

'Did you draw their attention?'

'Yeah.' Bobby said.

'That's what got those two moving huh?' asked Katie as Kent dragged Robert into the bathroom on the ground level against his wishes.

'Uh-huh.' Bobby hesitated, then asked, 'Is my dad really going to die.'

Katie held his gaze for a moment, then Bobby flushed and she asked, 'How many zombies are out there?'

'I saw eight.' said Jess quietly.

'Or nine.' Bobby added, 'More were coming.'

'Yeah, noise seems to draw them. It's not the only thing though. I had good luck sleeping below ground once, which seemed to throw them off. What is the plan?' as soon as she asked Katie silently cursed herself, the kids would not know. True to expectation they shrugged.

'Get my dad to a hospital.' Bobby said.

Katie shook her head, 'No. Every brother and his dad brought their relatives who got bitten to the hospital; they are probably Zed central now. Not worth the risk. Besides there aren't any doctors there now.'

'We can't just let him die!'

'We aren't letting him do anything. We didn't do this. I want to have some compassion for you, but I just… can't. I just can't. I'm sorry.' Katie pointed to the kitchen, 'Go see if they have any food we want. You, Jess, find a bowl and try to pour water into it from the tap, but find the bowl first. If the water is off a little might drain out and I bet your dads will want it to help get cleaned up.'

Their dads did want it and more water too. Katie eventually had to go upstairs and raid the toilet bowl tank for more, but not before she and Bobby moved a heavy leather couch in front of the broken front door. As the men cleaned up Robert's bitten arm Katie eyed the glass patio doors nervously. So far no zombies had appeared in the back yard and only a couple were banging on the front door, but zombies doing something interesting tended to draw more zombies, like some sort of weird zombie herd mentality.

'Kent, we need to leave or I need to do something about those zeds out front. They will draw more of a crowd.'

'We aren't ready. He is still bleeding badly.' Kent said, pouring a bottle of hydrogen peroxide he had found in the linen closet over Robert's still bleeding avulsion.

'I'll take care of it then.' Katie looked around the kitchen; she found what she wanted in the pantry closet, a box of recyclables, which included some empty two liter bottles.

'Watch that door Jess! I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Bobby you keep an eye on the back door. If either of you sees anything, yell. I am going into the garage, but will keep the door to the house open.'

Katie took her flashlight with her and after a few minutes searching she found a healthy roll of duct tape, barely used. Nothing had gone super nova in the few minutes she was gone, but both kids seemed glad to see her. 'That's me, Katie; Idol to the disgruntled youth of the mid-west.'

She set the duct tape and empty bottle on the counter then picked up her new rifle. She had already checked it over while Kent was cleaning up Robert. It was not an heirloom; the thing was new, brand new; if it had been fired more than fifty times Katie would cut off her right tit. However, there was no one she cared to make that bet with now. She placed the rifle on the island counter top and fitted the empty bottle over the barrel. Using the duct tape she bound the bottle to the rifle barrel, then taped a spiral along the sides of the bottle and over its bottom. By the time she was done the bottle was pointed as straight out from the barrel as she could make it and though it sagged slightly.

'What are you doing?' asked Jess.

'Inquisitive youth, maybe she could learn to be worth something.' Katie answered her as if she were a younger soldier asking her for information, 'I am taping this bottle to the barrel of the rifle, then I am going to shoot a couple of those persistent zombies in the head. The bottle will help deaden the noise when I fire the rifle by capturing the escaping gas from the bullet. It is not perfect, it won't be totally silent, but I doubt anything will hear it from even a block away.'