WILLA, стр. 29
“I get that, but destroying things we’ll need in the future is foolish. I know the trinkets and the like are needless, but houses need doors, windows, dishes, cooking utensils. Someone somewhere down the line could use what you broke.”
The look on the man’s face said he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Besides, you don’t want those things in the country where come next year we’ll have to start growing food.”
Again, the man looked as if he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Before anyone could say anything else, Roy screamed again.
20
Roy died seconds after his last scream. A minute after that, Dana put a blade through his temple.
“What the...” I screamed.
“Oh my...” Chase hollered at the same time before turning his head to gag over the sofa.
Sam didn’t appear fazed by what the woman had done. He merely asked, “Do the dead turn?”
“We haven’t waited to find out. To be honest. Most people who die do so after an attack. We’ve had very few people die of something else. However, from the start, we’ve damaged the brain to be safe,” the man in charge of the group said.
“We did the same, though we’ve only had a handful die of other ailments,” Sam said.
“Did you do that to Uncle Ray?” I asked, looking disgustingly at my cousin.
“I didn’t. Dad did. But yeah. Kris said in many of the books he’d read that the dead automatically turn whether they were bitten or not, so Dad and Uncle Jamie did it to everyone who died.”
I could do nothing but gape at him.
Logically, I understood the sense of doing something so grotesque, but I couldn’t imagine going through with it.
“What should we do with Roy?” Wayne asked.
“Take him outside. We don’t have time to bury him. Those creatures will be here soon,” the man said.
“What are you going to do with us?” Sam asked.
“What do you want us to do?” the man asked.
“Leave us. We don’t have anything you want. We barely have enough food to last us a day, but it won’t last the four of you an hour or so. Leave us here along with our meager supplies.”
“You can’t stay here. We’ve told you. The zombies are coming. We’ve been doing this long enough now that we can almost time their arrival. It won’t be that long.”
“Then I suggest you and your people should get a move on,” Uncle Jamie said from the top of the stairs.
He had a gun in each hand. One pointed at Wayne. The other at Dana. He motioned for the two to go downstairs.
Relief settled over me. The group didn’t seem to be as dangerous as we initially feared, but I was glad to see my uncle and his guns.
“Whoa...” the main man said, holding up his hands and stepping away from us. “We didn’t come to hurt anyone?”
“Then why were your friends carrying a dead body up the stairs, and why does another one of your people have a bloody bandage wrapped around her leg?” Uncle Jamie asked, taking the last step down to the basement.
“We scared these kids by accident when we opened the door to their closet,” the man said.
“How did you expect them to act when you ruined their house?” my uncle asked.
“We didn’t know anyone was here. The house has looked abandoned that few times we scouted it out. As I was telling the kids, we’re trying to lure the zombies out of the city, and we do that by making noises to get their attention.”
“I’m not even going to explain to you all the ways that that is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Uncle Jamie said, coming to stand behind the sofa. “So how about you and your people go now. If you’ve taken any of our supplies, you can leave it. There’s plenty in town if you know where to find it. Now go.”
My uncle swung his guns in the direction of the stairs. Dana and Wayne helped Liz off the floor and up the stairs with the first man following behind them. Every few seconds, the man would look back at us. Wayne did the same. His look was highly unpleasant.
Uncle Jamie didn’t take his guns off them.
The second they were out of sight, Sam leaped from his seat and went for our weapons. Chase went to our uncle and hugged him. I couldn’t do anything more than stare at the place where the man named Roy had died. I was still in shock over Dana putting a knife in his brain.
Before Uncle Jamie could ask us anything about what happened, we heard someone yell from upstairs, “They’re here.”
Uncle Jamie and Sam ran up to see what was happening. Both were ready in case it was a trap. Chase hid in the closet, and I stared at the bloodstain for a few more seconds before mentally getting my shit together and going after my uncle and cousin.
A dozen or so of the creatures surrounded the house. Dana, Wayne, and the man whose name we never heard were out on the lawn, fending them off while Liz stood propped against the railing and firing from the porch. Uncle Jamie and Sam had joined the three in the yard while I went to the opposite end of the porch and began shooting.
The battle seemed to take forever as a half-a-dozen or more joined us before there were no more zombies in our area. In the end, Wayne was dead, and Liz was dying. Uncle Jamie had a slight limp, Sam had ripped jeans, a skinned knee, and a scratch on his forehead, and Dana a bloody nose. The unnamed man and I seemed to be the only ones unhurt.
I hadn’t seen or heard one of the creatures get Liz, but she lay on the ground in front of the porch with most of her leg missing. Three dead zombies lay scattered around her.
“Kill me,” she coughed