Chapter 11

Chapter 11


“Don’t stop!” Katharina moaned. Tom was in heaven, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been with a woman. The sound of a gunshot floated to his ears as he lazily fondled Katharina’s breasts. Was that a gunshot? Or did something fall? He was too messed up to comprehend anything, and wished he didn’t smoke the weed. Deciding to shrug it off he slapped her ass, she groaned in approval. Somebody said something from the doorway, Tom didn’t bother looking.

“Oh God…” He closed his eyes as his head began to spin, high off his ass. Every sense in his body seemed to be fully aware, he felt so alive it was starting to scare him. He heard shouting. Lots of it. “Hey Kath, hold up…” He slowly said, his hands clenching the camp bed sheets.

“No, baby, no!” She moaned even louder, riding faster.

“Shhh!” He was starting to snap out of it. His worldly spin was slowly calming down. Voices downstairs started to become audible, and he didn’t recognize them. As much as it pained him to do so, he gently unmounted Katharina off himself and crept over to his pants and slid them on, along with his holster. He didn’t bother with a shirt. The unknown voices drifted up to the bedroom once again, this time Katharina heard it.

“Tom?” She whispered now, questioningly.

“Stay up here, do you still have your gun?” He asked, she nodded as she hopped out of the bed and dug through her clothes until she found the small .32 he’d given her earlier that day. “Hide in the bathroom, I’ll come get you when I find out what the hell is going on.” She ran up and hugged him tightly before planting a kiss on his lips.

“Be careful…” He turned away and slowly crept down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. It wasn’t hard, he and his dad had helped his grandfather replace the wooden stairs a couple years ago. Tom stopped at the bottom on the stairs, his Taurus clenched tight in his hands. Sweat dripped down his back and face as he risked a glance around the corner. An unknown assailant had his back towards him and a gun aimed at Nick and Mike.

“What the hell are they doing in my house?” He thought himself as he crept forward, keeping the Taurus trained on the man’s back. He stopped suddenly as he heard someone else speak, the voice coming from the kitchen. Damn, how many were there? He saw Nick looking over at him for a split-second before averting his eyes elsewhere, not wanting to draw any attention towards him. He didn’t waste any more time.

Tom rushed forward and slammed the butt of the Taurus down on the back of the man’s skull. He heard a dull crack as he collapsed to his knees and Tom wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him back to his feet, keeping the barrel of the Taurus pressed firmly into his temple.

“What the-” Nick sprang forward towards the other attacker, whose gun discharged as he screamed in shock as Nick punched him in the face. The attacker whipped his gun across Nick’s and delivered a swift kick to his chest, aiming his handgun down at Nick.

“Drop your fucking gun!” Tom shouted as he pushed the gun deeper into the man’s head. “Or your friend gets it!” Tom took in the guys features, and realized that he was actually just a kid, probably still in high school.

“You drop yours!” The kid yelled back at him. The kid in his grip struggled.

“Jake, drop it man!” He yelled.

“Shut up!” Tom whipped him in the back of the head again, this time drawing blood. “You have three seconds before bullets start flying. You’ll get one shot off on me, boy. You better hope it fucking kills me.” Tom narrowed his eyes as the kid’s widened. “One.” The kid adjusted his aim towards Tom. “Two.” Tom shoved the kid in his grasp towards his friend. “Three.”

“Wait!” The kid, Jake, tossed his gun to the ground, holding his hands up in defeat. “I surrender, d-don’t shoot man!”

“Nick, grab the weapons.” Tom said, keeping his gun trained on the two kids.

“Yeah, I’m alright! Thanks for asking.” Nick said sarcastically as he grabbed the two handguns and set them on a counter away from the kids.

“What the hell are you two doing here? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t down you like those maggot sacks outside.” Tom growled. If those delinquents had really harmed any of them, he wouldn’t have given them time to explain.

“Look dude, I’m sorry- we’re sorry.” Jake explained. “You don’t understand what me and my friend have been through the last couple of days though-”

“Like hell we don’t, bitch.” Mike piped up as he picked up his own gun. Tom ignored him.

“Please just listen!” Jake’s friend said.

“Yeah, we’re listenin’.” Nick said.

“Me and my friend Freddy didn’t think anybody would be home when we got here. When we saw you guys were… I don’t know-” Jake started, but was interrupted by his friend.

“We panicked.” Freddy finished. “People have… changed. People have been mugging anybody they’ve come across, even killing over little things. We figured you all would do the same to us… if we would have known…”

“Save your sob story for somebody else. Get the fuck out of my house.” Tom said coldly.

“Please!” Jake pleaded. “You don’t understand what’s out there!”

“Oh, but I do. We all do. Now I’m not going to ask again, get out of my house!” Tom yelled. Before the kids could object, a bloodcurdling howl outside made everyone freeze.

“Shit dude, they’re back!” Freddy whimpered. Another howl was heard, along with a crashing sound in the distance followed by the sound of a car alarm.

“What is that?” Nick asked, looking around before snatching up the lever-action rifle.

“I told you! The zombies aren’t the only things out there!” Jake cried as he made a grab for one of the handguns on the counter.

“Whoa, not so fast.” Tom stepped in front of him, blocking his way.

“Dude I’ll fucking leave! I don’t want to be here when those things find you!” Jake screamed. More howls could be heard now. What the hell was out there?

“You two try anything funny and you’re both dead, got it?” Tom said. They both nodded, grabbing their guns quickly.

“Alright, you two, Nick outside with me now. Mike, grab some bigger firepower from the basement… we might need it.”

“We’re going to fight these things?” Freddy asked, fear in his voice.

“Damn right we are.” Tom growled as he jogged over to the stairs. “Kathy!” She appeared at the top, face pale and worried.

“Tom?” She asked, not sure what was going on. “Who are they?”

“I’ll explain later, get to the basement and lock yourself in the gun room.”

“But-”

“Just go!” She ran down the stairs, barely clothed in her lingerie. Tom turned towards the front door. “Ready?” Nick nodded.

“Now or never, man.” Tom opened the door and stepped out into the night, sweeping his Taurus across the front yard. Nothing.

“Fan out.” He whispered. He headed towards the driveway with Freddy, while Nick and Jake took the lawn towards the street. Tom strafed slowly along each vehicle, making sure nothing nasty was waiting for them. His nose wrinkled as the stench of rotting flesh enveloped the street. It smelled bad out earlier, but now it was... different.

Another cry erupted from down the street. Everybody looked over and saw a large group of people sprinting towards them, screaming in rage. He squinted his eyes in the darkness to see what was coming their way, when a primal growl behind him made the hairs on his neck raise.

“What the fuck-” Freddy screamed suddenly. Tom spun around as something jumped from the roof and onto Freddy’s back.

“No!” Freddy cried as he fired his gun wilding behind him. The creature howled as Freddy’s head slammed against the bumper of the Titan. The thing thrashed about wildly as it tore into the flesh on the back of Freddy’s neck, coming up with a large chunk. Light from the house dimly illuminated the creature. It looked somewhat like a shambler, except its eyes weren’t pale and murky. They were bloodshot. While a shambler had a pale white tone to it, this thing looked almost red, or crimson. Large claws had grown on the end of each finger, which it used to take off Freddy’s head in one quick jerking motion.

“Jesus…” Tom raised his Taurus and let loose hell. The blasts from the powerful handgun lit up the driveway. The creature sprang up, diving towards Tom. Tom jumped out of the way, letting it slam into one of the garage doors, leaving a bloody dent. Tom emptied the rest of his magazine into it, blossoms of red exploding out of its chest with each gunshot, only stopping when one of his rounds blasted a hole in its skull.

He spun around, seeing Nick curse as he jacked the lever on his rifle and fired again. The round punched into the closest… Howler’s shoulder, causing it spin around mid-sprint before continuing its advance.

“That’s what I’ll call ya… a howler.” Tom took quickly ejected his magazine and loaded another in, two left.

“Get ‘em in the head, Nick!” Tom yelled out of the gunfire. Jake was firing blindly into the small crowd that rushed towards them, only momentarily slowing them down. Tom jogged over to Nick, firing off a few shots and downing a howler in the process.

“When the hell did these things start running?” Nick yelled as he jacked the lever again and shot one in the head. It collapsed mid-sprint, tripping two others behind it. Before they could get back up, Tom and Nick took them out.

“Damn it!” Tom cursed as he ejected his magazine and loaded in his last one. The howlers kept coming, weaving in and out between houses, crashing over fences.

“This day just keeps getting’ better yo!” Tom glanced behind him and saw Mike walking out of the house, an MP5 in his hands. There was another MP5 strapped to his back, along with a duffel bag full of magazines. “Heads up!” Tom snatched the MP5 out of the air as Mike tossed it to him. He dropped the bag of ammo down by Nick, who was crouched down on one knee, picking off the howlers methodically now.

Tom chambered a round in the machine gun and open fired. The flashes from the automatic lit up the street as Mike began firing as well. The howlers closest to the gunfire fell first as the 9mm rounds peppered their bodies.

“Come on, you bastards!” Mike cried out as he stepped forward and whipped his gun across a howler’s face, dropping it to the ground and caving its head in with a hard stomp.

“Empty!” Tom shouted, ejecting the large magazine.

“More in the bag, dumbass!” Mike hollered back. Tom dove for the back, hands shaking as he reloaded the gun. He turned back and joined the battle again.

“Damn!” Jake cried, throwing his empty handgun to the ground and running back towards the house, not stopping until he was inside, the door slammed shut behind him. Tom looked back towards the street, there were far less howlers now, but they were starting to spread out, surrounded the small group.

“Shit- fall back!” Tom yelled as he stood up, blasting two howlers to hell. The screams of the incoming howlers chilled him to the bone. “I’ll cover!” Nick got up first and ran back to the house, turning around with his rifle to provide more covering fire. Mike and Tom backed up, both their MP5s blasting simultaneously. Mike bailed out and ran towards the house as Tom fired off a final blast before fleeing. Mike made it into the house, Nick waited outside with his rifle, ushering Tom on.

“Let’s go!” Tom made it to the lawn when one of the downed howlers grabbed his leg.

“Shit!” He kicked as hard as he could, trying to break free and avoid the death sentence of a bite or scratch. Nick’s rifle went off and the howler’s head popped, Tom scrambled to his feet. Four howlers has made their way to the driveway, blocking his access to the house.

“Get in Nick, I’ll go around!” He yelled, Nick yelled something that Tom didn’t hear as he ran to the side of the house. Another bloodcurdling scream behind him made him run faster. When he hit the deck he spun around and let loose the rest of his mag, downing two of the four howlers behind him. He tossed the empty gun aside as he jogged backwards, pulling out his Taurus and firing.

Panic set in as he downed one, and the slide on the gun slid back on empty. The remaining howler screamed in fury as it halved the distance between them. Tom shoved the gun in its holster as he grabbed the shovel still sticking out of his father’s grave just as the howler reached him. He fell backwards, putting the shovel up like a bar between him and the monster. It’s face bled from ever pore as it screamed in fury. Tom cried out for help as it raised a clawed hand and thrust it down into the grass, temporarily making it stuck. Hands gripped tight on the shovel, he bashed the wooden part against its head, getting it off him.

“Son of a bitch!” He swung the shovel hard, cracking the howler in the jaw causing it to fall back down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bottle of alcohol he and his father had shared earlier, half of its contents still inside the bottle. Tom ran over and scooped it up, tossing it at the howler as it struggled to get back up. The alcohol doused the creature as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, grinning as it stood up and sprinted towards him and he flicked open an orange flame.

“Yippie kai yay, mother fucker.” He tossed the lighter and jumped back as the howler burst into flames, howling as its skin bubbled and popped.