subject Stewart turned towards Tom, “Tom we are going to have you and Amelia pile the kids into the car and head to the next house up the road and stop, like we are house hunting for a place to stay. We were followed so Max and I are going to stay here and ambush the thing following us. I think the guy has been shadowing us since town.”
“It is getting late.” Tom began, “but I guess we don't want to be dealing with this tonight do we? When do we leave?”
“Let the kids play another five minutes then move on. That should give us about a half an hour before dark to kill the bastard.”
The kids were very unhappy when they were told they were going to have to get back into the cars. Max and Stewart each took a shotgun, pistol and a fanny pack full of ammunition. They each selected a hand weapon as well, Max took a bat and Stewart grabbed Tom's crowbar. The two of them then hid in the basement while everyone else milled about the house. The kids were not told why they had to parade into the house, then out of it, but Stewart made them do it before they were herded back into the cars. Amelia made sure Seth was riding with her and Cory was in the other car when they loaded up.
As they stood in the bathroom, which was in the basement almost directly under the front door Stewart spoke to Max, “I think the zeds can see heat.”
“What?”
“It is just a theory, but why were they going after Seth and Kenny in that town? The kids were locked in the basement and there is no way they would have seen them. I think a zed wandered by and noticed a heat signature from the basement and started trying to get in, which drew more zeds to the place.”
“I don't know, if that is the case the zombie is going to see us here before he comes in, we are right under the door.”
“This is an old farmhouse, nothing like that cookie cutter place we picked Seth and Kenny from. The floor has to be a foot thick and the basement was refinished here, so I bet there is at least an extra layer of material between us and the door. Still…” Stewart reached over and turned on the shower, then turned on the cold water in the sink as well. “Maybe it will be enough to make us invisible?”
“I'm not getting in the shower. Shouldn't you put it on hot and try to build up steam instead of just running the cold water?”
“Hm, maybe you are right.” Stewart turned the hot water on in the shower and then switched the sink to hot as well. Soon there was abundant steam filling the little bathroom.
“Ah, another thing, but with the shower on, I can't really hear anything.”
“Are we relying on our ears here or your 'sense'? Just tell me when the thing gets close and I will turn the water off.”
“You're right. Okay…” Max tried to listen in with what he regarded as his zed radar, his eyes opened in shock and he turned to Steward, “Damn!”
“What? Is it here?” she asked turning off the water quickly.
“No. Not yet, but coming at us through the field to the west of the house. It…well I can sense them too.”
“Them? C'mon Max, I don't have any mind reading yet.”
“Them, the others, the kids and Tom and Amelia. They are coming through stronger than the zombies are.”
“Uh, zombies, how many are there?”
“Two, no three of them. One is a kid, a little kid.”
“Shit, can you sense how strong they are?”
“No, but they followed us all the way from town, so I am guessing they are smart.”
“This isn't good.”
“Do we change our plans?”
“Aw hell Max, we didn't make a backup plan, let's just roll with this one. We should be able to kill them right off the bat if we can surprise them.”
“Right.”
“I am not afraid, me big zombie hunter.” she said pounding her chest. “And you are not a slouch yourself mister.”
“I have come a long way.” said Max, thinking back to the very first zombie he had encountered back at his office so long ago, was it only eight days since this started? “Still we were counting on one and now there are three of them if they are the super fast kind we might be in trouble. They are coming out of the field now…almost to the drive. It is hard to tell, I can't really see anything except them.”
Stewart watched Max's face and remained quiet as he gave her a progress report, “Tom and the others are at the next house over. They are not getting out of the car, just pulling up in front of the house. I don't sense any zombies over there. One of ours is at the porch steps. He is looking down, almost right at us.” Max sighed in what sounded like relief to Stewart, “He is not a slow one, there is a woman carrying the kid behind him. She is fast too, I think faster than the man.”
“I thought you couldn't tell?”
“They get close, I can tell, I don't know why. The little one looks, weird, fast maybe?”
“What?”
Max raised his finger to his lips and whispered, “It is different than the other two, I get if they were male or female, but the kid is…different.”
Upstairs they heard the door swing open slowly. Then a muffled female voice called, “C'mon, get in here before they see! Hurry it up, don't touch anything and stay away from the windows!”
The voice moved away from the front door and they could hear some muffled movement upstairs, then everything went quiet.
“Well?” whispered Max.
“We do this. They stopped in the living room. I can hear them whispering up there, but I can't make out what they are saying.”
Max shook his head, “How can you hear them? I haven't heard a thing since the woman told the other one to stay away from the windows.”
“I just hear them is all, you can't hear them?”
“Not like that.”
“Well that is where they are and what they are doing, let's try to get them without the guns.”
Max slowly swung the bathroom door open and they quietly moved to the base of the stairs that led up into the kitchen. The stairs were normal wood and neither of them were intimately familiar with the house, they could not recall if the stairs were squeaky or not. Shrugging his shoulders Max started up slowly, with each step he planted his foot, then slowly put his weight down on it before taking the next step. At the top the door to the kitchen was closed, but they had left it unlatched. Catching a glimpse of a shadow in the kitchen Max set his shotgun down on the top step, leaving it upright and leaning against the corner of the wall where the door was.
Amelia's voice loudly spoke into Max's ear, startling him, and almost causing him to fumble the shotgun as he set it down. “Anything? We haven't seen anyone yet.” Max reached down and turned the radio on his belt off, thankful he had at least remembered to put in the ear buds. Up in the kitchen he heard someone moving around, had they heard the noise from the ear bud?
“Charlie?” the female voice called out from the living room, “You see anything?”
“No.” came the slow reply.
“You keep watch out the back, but don't stand in front of the windows or doors.”
They heard Charlie move into the kitchen a brief shadow passed in front of the basement door.
“Him first.” Stewart said.
Max nodded, and wondered how it was he was in the lead. He moved up to the top step, tensed himself and burst into the kitchen as quietly as he could. Standing in front of the back door was a tanned man with scraggly black hair who was about six feet tall. He was of moderate size with more fat than muscle on his frame, nonetheless he twirled quickly enough when the door was shoved open.
Max swung his bat sideways and Charlie blocked it with his forearm, not even attempting to catch it with his
