 
The Pressures of Zombies and Parenting

By Kevin Layell Jr

Published by Kevin Layell Jr at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Kevin Layell Jr

Discover future titles by Kevin Layell Jr at Smashwords.com

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Special thanks to Joe O and my friends, for keeping me inspired throughout this whole thing.

And for my family, who continue to be the reason I move myself forward and better myself.

Chapter 1

"Just get your shoes on and let's _go_!" I yelled for the third time.

Tim, my ten year old, continued to pretend to scramble looking for his shoes while his eyes stayed glued to the television. The youngest, eight year old Garrett was already dressed, jacket and backpack ready to go, but still ready to block his brother's progress. Such is the thought process of siblings. I moaned audibly, this was the consistent morning routine, and no matter how many times you hammer it into your children to just have everything ready the night before, it never happens.

I had had enough, and flicked the television off, which immediately sent my almost two year old daughter Violet into hysterics. If there wasn't Bubble Guppies on TV, then what in the world was she to do? Her big ball of curly brown hair stuck up in every direction, as usual. I glanced down to her as she came running to me, arms up, begging me to do something to break her toddler monotony.

I picked her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "It's work time, baby. We gotta go!" She made her pouty face and wrapped her arms around my neck, holding me tight. I had to smile; I loved this stage of children. Of course, eventually they grew up to be taller, mouthier, and eventually (so they thought) smarter than you.

My wife Audrey was still upstairs, getting ready for the day. I always left earlier than her since she attended college for a few hours every couple of days. Dealing with the baby was her ordeal while I brought home the bread and butter.

Tim finally found his shoes and snatched his backpack up to wait with me by the door. "Where's your coat?" I asked. He groaned and slammed his backpack into the ground, scrambling again for the jacket he had just the night before. He started for the kitchen, God only knows what reason, just to be tripped up by his brother's outreaching foot.

"Garrett! _Seriously?_ Was that necessary!?" I yelled to him.

"Whaaaaat?" He asked in that whiny tone he had when he knew he did something wrong, "I was just standing."

I groaned again and let it go, looking at the clock. It was 8:10. They had to be at school by 8:30 so they could have breakfast, and then I was due at work at 9 o'clock. These kids had to hurry. I hate being late.

"Alright baby, we're leaving!" I said up the stairs.

"Okay, bye! Don't forget your lunch!" She yelled down the stairs. Today was her day off from classes, but I could still smell the fragrant aroma of charred hair coming down the stairs from her hair straightener.

I smirked to myself, forgetting I had to grab that and went to kitchen to grab it out of the refrigerator, baby in hand. By the time I got back to the door, both my boys were waiting for me impatiently. I turned back on her TV show, sat her down in her favorite purple chair, and headed out the door silent between my two boys. I knew what they were thinking, that now they were waiting for me, but that wasn't how the game was played.

The boys loaded up into the van, when I realized I forgot my cell phone. "Be right back," I said to them before starting up the engine to let it warm up as I dashed back into the house. My phone sat by the couch while my daughter ignored me for what apparently was lunch time on the show. I unplugged and glanced down at the power bar. 10%.

"Are you kidding me!?" I said loudly to my wife, "Who unplugged the stupid charger!?"

"I had to charge my laptop!" She responded with irritation.

I groaned and shoved the phone into my pocket. We had a car charger, but it wouldn't charge much on such a short trip. It only took so long to get there thanks to stop lights. "You're home all day, why would you need to charge it if you're sitting next to a plug?"

"Just go to work and come home a little less jackass."

I grumbled with my own irritation, not in the mood to continue the fight that would get us nowhere. There so I headed back out to start the day.

Chapter 2

"Daddy, do we take the bus or get picked up this afternoon?" Tim asked, eyes glued to the passenger window of the van.

"Take the bus, Mommy will be there to pick you up." I replied, glancing around to make sure these drivers weren't going to make me yell at them in a fanciful act of road rage this early in the morning.

"Okay..." He said, dirty blonde hair covered by the hood of his jacket. He continued glancing down at his backpack and hugging it to his chest.

I sighed, looking up at the rearview. Whenever he had that look, it only meant he was doing something wrong. It was just one of those things you learn when you become a parent. Garrett leaned back and the boys whispered something to each other, just reinforcing what I thought.

I let it slide though, and tried to listen to the podcast I had playing through my phone which was hooked up to the charger and to the speakers of the van at the same time. It was a cast about video games and interviewing celebrities that play them. The current discussion was about shooters and the likelihood of the current celebrity being put into one.

Sheridan Heights Elementary appeared ahead of us, the street lights giving me a break for once and allowing me to get there with a minute to spare. I pulled in front of the school behind the line of other parents dropping their children off. The doors to the school didn't open until exactly 8:40, but there were still tons of kids running around insanely after their parents dropped them and forgot them before school.

_That's fine_ I thought, _I wouldn't leave my kids alone to get hurt or to be kidnapped._

I put the vehicle in park while my kids scrambled and moved to the door. "Book bag check," I said.

They both moaned in unison, either knowing I had caught them or tired of me doing this. I checked Garrett's bag first. He had nothing but the usual balled up papers, pencils, and whatever math homework he had from the night before. Tim's backpack proved to have what they were chattering about. I pulled out his Nintendo DS from the hidden flap in the back.

"Seriously, Tim?"

"Whaaaaaat?" He said, in the same high pitched tone his brother had taken earlier.

"How many times do we let you take video games, or any toys to school?"

"Well sometimes you let us when we-"

"The answer is never." I said sternly, cutting him off. "You know that, so why do you still try it?"

"The other kids in my class bring theirs all the time..." He said, tears brimming in his downcast eyes. A face I knew all too well meant that he was trying to get one over on me, but it never worked... Well, today. I had known this child far too long.

"Yes they do, and they also get them taken away, or broken. You're too smart for that, school is for learning, which is much more important than video games." I zipped up his backpack and handed it back to him. "Don't be upset, you'll be able to play video games next weekend, because they're sure off limits this one."

" _Oh come oooooon_ " He said angrily, throwing open the door to get out with his brother.

"I love you guys, have a good day!" I said as the door slammed shut and they ran up the steps.

I sighed again. Sometimes being a good parent was tough. I don't like being a mean parent, but sometimes is necessary if you don't want your child to grow up a spoiled rotten little hellion.

This should be a fun day.

Chapter 3

The parking lot at Brody's was already full. Such was the life of a massive home improvement store right in the center of the city. Monday through Friday the store was uber busy, and completely dead on the weekends. The exact opposite of every other retail store in the world, but it made the day go by faster.

I sat in the van, contemplating the events of the day. I had arrived with a few minutes before I had to be walking in the door, so I sat in my wife's van thinking about the morning. I loved my kids, I really did, but once one of them became aware that he didn't want to do what he was told, the other just followed suit, making life difficult some times. On top of that, the wife's unplugging my phone for no reason irritated me further. I glanced at my phone and it's lack of a charge.

What a pile.

A horn honked nearby, and I turned to see Ben, one of my co-workers pulled up alongside. I rolled down the driver's side window while he did the same with his passenger side. "What the hell do you want?" I asked jokingly.

"You working til 6 too?" He asked, sipping his morning coffee.

"Yulp."

"Well let's get this shit started." He said, grabbing his backpack and getting out of his truck. I proceeded to do the same, grabbing my lunch, shoulder bag, and checking the charge on my phone. 15%. I shouldn't have listened to the podcast, but I might not need it much today anyways. I snatched it from the plugs and shoved it in my pocket. I lit up a cigarette as I stepped out, locking the doors as Ben walked up next to me.

"You know we're not allowed to smoke in the parking lot, right?" He said, pointing to my cigarette.

"Whoops" I replied, taking another drag from it.

"How're those monsters of yours?"

"Fine. Being hellions as usual, but fine. How are your kids?"

"I don't have any."

"I know, lucky bastard." We both laughed a little at that as I put out my cigarette in the ashtray on the way in the door.

Officer Samson was already on duty standing by the big glass automatic entrance/exit doors. Being in such a high theft area in the middle of a city, it required every larger store to have some sort of security at all times.

"Morning Samson," I said as we both waved.

"Hey there fellas. Ready to have a great day at Brody's!" He said, mocking excitement with his tone of sarcasm.

"Oh you know it. These pretty muscles were made for selling flooring." I said.

"And these babies," Ben said, kissing the biceps of his much more toned physique, "They're gonna help me tell people all about their shitter issues."

We all laughed, Samson included as Ben and I headed to the far back of the massive store, where the break room and our lockers were located. The store was about 80 aisles of every type of home improvement project you could imagine, with steel shelves going up almost to the ceiling. I heard the chatter coming from the room before we entered, what with the door being left open. I was still convinced they left it open on purpose just to see if they could get an employee in trouble for saying the wrong word as a customer passed by.

"I don't care what they say, if there's gonna be a meteor shower, I'm gonna see it. Lunch break or not." We stepped in, Bertha yelling up a storm to her co-working followers, Minerva and Daisy. She worked with appliances, and most times found her either mouthing off in the break room, or sitting behind a desk, waiting for customers to approach her. Currently, she sat confidently on the table over the others, her chunky thighs molding to the edge of it. Daisy and Minerva, known for always being together, watched her almost in wonder from seats on either side. They were polar opposites from each other, Daisy was short and bone thin, while Minerva was about six feet tall, and I'd fathom just as wide.

"What meteor shower?" One of her cronies replied. I hadn't heard of this either.

"The one that's supposed to happen today! They said it's gonna be so big we can see it during the _day_ and I plan on it, you can be sure of that."

Huh. A meteor shower. Maybe I should start watching the news instead of children's shows that teach me about my ABCs and 123s. That would be kind of cool to see. I glanced over to Ben and he twirled his finger around his ear and motioned towards Bertha. I chuckled and opened my locker, shoving my lunch inside.

"What about you, Liam? You gonna see it?" I turned around to Bertha after the mention of my name.

"The shower? Oh I dunno, I never even heard about it until you said something about it." While we talked, I was getting my jacket off and my green work vest on.

"Well you better believe I am. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm gonna _take it!_ I'm a grown ass woman, and those bastards in management can't tell _me_ what to do!" Her head swiveled like a bobble head on her neck, which I'm guessing indicated she was serious. The angrier she got, the more her head tilted like a grapefruit on a twig.

"You could always head out to the garden center and watch from there. Technically, you'd be in the building and you could see most of it I'm sure." I slipped my box cutter into my back right pocket. Check.

"Oh dayum, that's a good idea! I should do that!" Bertha said, her head moving more in a nodding motion of agreement as opposed to the angry swirling of before.

"Well, it's not just a pretty face." I replied, slipping my leather hide work gloves into my left back pocket. Check.

Everyone got a chuckle from that, and I shoved the rest of my things into my locker. As I left the break room, Ben walked up beside me. "You haven't heard about the meteor shower? That shit's been all over the news, where have you been?"

"Nick Jr." I replied seriously. He laughed again as we walked up to the plumbing desk. I glanced to the left down the many aisles of plumbing, which ended at lumber, totaling around 10 aisles altogether. No managers that way. I looked to the right. Plumbing ended at electrical, which ended a few more aisles at flooring, then paint, and then the doors that lead to the outside garden center. That was just the back half of the aisles, there was another set of the same aisles in the front of the store, doubling the amount. No managers there either. They would have a fit if they knew I wasn't clocking in at my own department.

"Well regardless," He started as we both clocked in, "It's happening around noonish, and it should be a sight. We should check it out."

"I doubt it. I got work to do." I responded tiredly.

"Yeah, I get it. Still you should try."

"Yeah... Maybe. See you later, Ben." I finished clocking in to the computer around the same time as Ben. He headed left, and I headed right to our separate departments. Flooring was easy, and even though I had no experience before they shoved me into it, I enjoyed it. Once you understood how to install it, all you had to do was act confidently to the customers, and they believed you. They were far more trusting then they should be to an hourly employee.

I stepped by the flooring desk, and immediately noticed a large pallet of new tiles and rugs sitting nicely in the middle of the floor. I sighed again.

"Hey Liam, hurry up and get that freight up, it's almost high selling hours, and a messy department isn't the type of impact we want to make on customers, is it?"

I turned to see a member of upper management, Derrick smiling broadly in his blue vest. He seemed too excited to be lording over me in my simple green one, despite the fact I was a foot taller than him and had most of my hair. "But of course not." I responded, and bent down to start on the wonderful mess the overnight crew neglected to stock.

Chapter 4

11:30. Time for my break. I dropped the last pallet off in the receiving area on top of the others. It turned out that it wasn't just one pallet that was left, but three, and the other person in my department had called in for the day. It wasn't surprising though, since she tended to do that at least once a week.

I rubbed my back and headed out of the receiving area, past the other Brody's employees who continued their work uninterrupted as I passed through. I put the chain back up at the entrance, barring any customers from entering and jumped as Ben came running past.

"Liam, let's go! It's starting!" He said excitedly, and dashed out the side doors that lead from the seasonal area, currently holding all the supplies for the spring garden season, and into the Outside garden center which held the plants. I hesitated a moment, and then followed. The flooring department could hold out a few minutes without an employee wandering its aisles.

The sky outside was still a bright blue with clouds scattered throughout. A few other employees, including Bertha, were already standing outside watching it intently. It started simply, a few lights flashed and people were oohing and aahing to their hearts content. I walked up next to Ben, who was only a few yards from the door. Bertha and some of her gang, employees from all over the store, were standing by the far fence which encased the entire right half of the store, and ended at the wall of the building.

I had to admit, it was a pretty cool show, but this was right around the part where the proverbial shit hit the fan. The ground shook violently beneath us, as some of the rocks didn't quite burn up in the atmosphere. One of them even sailed right past the store, and hit a building that shattered half of it into rubble.

"Holy shit" Ben and I said in unison. Everyone standing outside stopped what they were doing to watch the sky, or just screamed and ran inside. The employees surrounding Bertha ran for it, except for Minerva and Daisy. Some of the falling rocks were harmless and broke up in the atmosphere, but most went sailing right through and caused some serious damage. Car alarms were going off throughout the city and people all around were screaming in fear.

The meteors were coming in steady now, some whistling loudly as they sailed through the air and crashed into roads, buildings, and vehicles while their occupants assumed they could out drive the wreckage..

"Oh hell no!" Bertha yelled, and began running towards the store. Ben and I subconsciously both began backing towards the door. There were two entrances back in, one closer to the front of the store, and the one we were near in the back.

One whistle mingled with all the others became much louder, and as Ben and I turned in that direction, one of them burst through the fifteen foot tall fence line with a crash and slammed into Bertha.

I say slammed into, like she was hit by a truck, but I would assume it was more like if a chair sized bullet hit her. The bottom half of her body was obliterated in a second, blood flying up and repainting the beams of the garden aisles in a shade I'm sure the management wouldn't approve of. Where the rock hit the ground, it created a crater the size of a parking space, sending green smoke and her cohorts in opposite directions. Her upper body spun a few times before landing with a sloppy thud next to the rock.

The ground shook crazily beneath me. I somehow kept my footing, and stood there stunned. I watched the scene unfold, unable to get my body to respond to the synapses my brain was sending it of _runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun._

The green smoke enveloped a few of the aisles, and all of Bertha's (may she rest in peace) friends. Minerva and Daisy weren't visible in the smoke that was puffing from the crater.

Ben grabbed my arm and shook it, which brought my brain back into connection with my body.

"C'mon man, let's go! We gotta go!" I nodded and turned running back inside as another smaller rock fell through the steel canopy above us and rolled farther back into the garden center.

The automatic doors opened sloppily since one of them was already partially cracked. The entire store echoed with the screams of children and adults, as well the ting of repeated rocks hitting the roof. My wits came back to me the more steps we took, and I started running towards the front of the store, Ben turned for the back.

"Where are you going?" I said, stopping and yelling to be heard over the cacophony of sounds in the building. I stood hunched over, my hands on my knees, heart racing a mile a minute and fighting the tunnel vision.

"This way! It'll be safer by the break room!" He replied, still moving the other way.

"I'm heading to the front; someone has to know what we have to do!" I replied. I honestly don't know what made me think going to the front was a good idea, but on I went.

Ben didn't say another word, and turned the corner towards the break room, I assume because he expected me to follow. I ran towards the entrance, where the cash registers and management usually holed up. People were in chaos all around me, customers and employees' alike running in every direction pushing their carts or dragging their kids every which way.

I passed by a woman and her child dashing towards the center of the building, who had the decency to run into me with her cart on their way past. I groaned and clutched my stomach. The sound of rocks hitting the roof was slowly dying, and I slowed my trot as I headed to customer service.

"What the hell happened?" Derrick asked.

"I dunno. Those meteors hit hard and are tearing crap up outside." He reached for his cell phone looking for answers when one last whistle grew louder than the rest and slammed into the lumber side of the building. The whole structure groaned as it tore through the roof and through a quarter of the aisles on that side. The entire store filled up with gray dust, and I covered my mouth and nose with my sleeve.

The only thing I could think of was to get low and out of the way, so I lay on the ground next to the desk, listening to the screech of metal being sheered apart and the tall standing aisles falling over. I could only close my eyes, and force myself to breathe.

Chapter 5

A few minutes had passed. I kept trying to open my eyes to see, but was unable to because of the gray acrid smoke flowing through the air. When it was clear enough for me to see again, I slowly stood up, dusting off the particles of dirt that were now covering me. A strong hand grabbed my shoulder and I spun quickly in fear only to see Samson and Derrick standing behind me. Samson stood in his police guard uniform, but since he was a real cop outside of this guard job, he was legally able to hold a gun. That actually made me feel better, knowing there was some sense of authority calmed my nerves.

Derrick's reaction was the exact opposite of Samson, he was nervously looking around, trying to figure out what to do. He continued running his hands through what hair he had left like a boy nervous for his first prom. I'm pretty sure if he was trying to calm others down, it would have the opposite effect.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking over the cash registers at all the cashiers huddled around the desks, clutching each other as if two scared individuals were better than one. The lumber side of the store was in complete darkness, save for the dusty look to the air and the light coming through the giant hole in the ceiling. If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn it had a green tint to it.

"One of those meteors hit the right side of the store, but it doesn't look like we're gonna get any help. This is happening all over town, and as far as I can tell, the east coast. My squawk box is jam packed with reports so I don't see much chance of anyone coming to help us. I'm trying to get everyone into one place, so I can get some idea of a count and some sanity. Head to the break room, it's probably the safest place right now."

I nodded while he spoke, again glad there was someone here to take care of business. Samson headed towards the cashiers, who were already doing as he said and heading towards the back. As I was just turning myself to head there, we heard something bump into the entrance doors. All three of us turned our heads towards the sound and a man came stumbling into the store. He wore a black hoodie and gray sweat pants, all of which seemed way too big for him. What skin I could see had a hint of green to it, and it was stretched tightly over his bones. The only thing that seemed to have a hint of moisture were his eyes, and they were completely glazed over in gray. His stomach also seemed distended, hanging out over his pants and obviously full. A red liquid was drying around his wide mouth.

Samson took the lead again stepping toward the newcomer with his arm extended towards him, Derrick did the same, trying to take charge. "Sir, please make your way to the back. There are other people already there and we'll try and get you to some place sa-"

He couldn't even finish what he was saying before I damn near crapped my pants. The man seemed to try and say something, his voice raspy and dry. It then sounded like when water flows down the hose, and it's about to reach the end. I took a step back, but not before the things jaw opened to an extraordinary size, ripping his cheeks up to the ears. The sound of liquid rushing increased, and the man vomited a huge ball of bright green vomit at Derrick.

"What the hell!" I screamed jumping back. Even Samson took a step away while Derrick screamed in agony. It had hit him square in the face, and steam billowed forth where it touched him. He immediately fell to the ground rolling back and forth in pain. Both Samson and I couldn't take our eyes off of him as smoke... Or steam... I had no idea what it was flowed from every exposed piece of skin, and where it wasn't, it was puffing up his clothes like someone had stuck a fan under his shirt.

I started shaking then. I had no idea what to do. Fear had frozen me, and I couldn't see Derrick through the steam he was creating. I also couldn't hear as his cries receded and it was replaced with the hiss of whatever was happening to his body.

Samson screamed then, and I turned to him to find the man in the hooded sweatshirt had jumped him. His huge eerie jaw opened. And I don't mean a normal open, I mean it opened like when you open a book, which helped him get a firm hold of Samson's face with his teeth.

I think I started crying right about then, strong silent tears I couldn't control. I continued to try and blink it away, again, unable to move. The thing continued tearing Samson into silence, so fast he didn't even have time to draw his gun. I noticed movement to the side, and I turned to see Derrick. The steam had cleared, and he now had the same green tint to his skin, as well as the dry tightness that the man in the hoodie had. The hands that still covered his face had the skin drawn so tight that the tips of his finger bones were exposed to give him something like claws.

I slowly stepped back away from the creature eating Samson, and the twitching of my former manager. Derrick's hands dropped to the side and he sat up abruptly.

Needless to say, I started to back away much faster.

Derrick looked in my direction, and I fell hard onto my butt. He turned and started to crawl towards me. It seemed like he was trying to say something, until I heard the dry ripping sound of his cheeks at the same time I saw his own jaw open into that massive hole like the other guy had. It tore almost all the way up to his ear, so I could see the entirety of his withered tongue. He could almost fit my entire skull into that thing.

I was still back pedaling, and Derrick started to get up and move faster towards me. The guy in the hoodie did the same, turning his now bloodied face away from Samson's chewed up body to make his way towards me. I stood up quickly to try and run. Derrick started to make his way towards me, but I suppose since I was moving fast, and Samson was dead but still fresh, he decided that would be the better choice and made for the corpse.

The guy in the hoodie's stomach was visibly churning under his shirt as he made his way towards me. My brain took this chance as the opportunity to work properly, and do what was best for the collective me: Run.

I bolted away like white trash towards a sale at Wal-Mart. I glanced over my shoulder to see the hoodie creature skip-hopping after me. Turning and running down an aisle, I hoped to find something to fight him off with. It turned out, this was the aisle with power equipment, lawn mowers, and other assorted engine stuff. I got halfway down the aisle and grabbed one of the chain saws, which I then realized was both void of gas and attached to the racking as a display.

I looked behind me, and saw the hoodie creature still moving towards me. I made my way towards the other end of the aisle when Bertha's cronies, Daisy and Minerva, turned the corner. That moment of relief I felt was immediately washed away in fear when I noticed the green tint to their skin, and the way it clung tightly to their bones. They both opened their mouths, ripping their cheeks apart in preparation for a feast of my flesh.

I felt more screwed than a porn star. I again looked behind me, and hoodie guy was closing fast, on top of Bertha's bunch coming from the opposite direction. I looked up, and realized I could climb these easily. I mean, I knew that. I had done it a dozen times. Working at Brody's finding a ladder sometimes would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so climbing was quicker.

I grabbed on to the center vertical rack, and used the shelves on either side as steps and began climbing up. The oil, spark plugs and other assorted lawn mower accessories went flying in my haste. I heard their footsteps, even through the clanging of my sneakers on the steel racking as I made my way up. Maybe the sounds were just my imagination, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was getting away from whatever the heck those people had become.

I reached the top and rolled onto the racking between two pallets of snow shovels. I was around 15 feet up, and I tried forcing myself to calm down.

Slow my breathing. _Calm down_. Slow my heart rate. _Calm down. What if they could climb. Oh shit._

I leaned my head out over the edge. Minerva and Daisy were pressed against the racking, reaching up for me. The one in the hoodie was standing away from the others, and looking me directly in the eyes with his useless pale ones. His chest puffed out and his mouth opened, that similar water down the garden hose sound happening and I ducked back behind the racking, just in time for some more of that green bile to go flying over my head and hit the cross bars in the ceiling.

I laid back on the racking, well away from the edge. The green vomit from my hoodie buddy down there began dripping down into the adjacent aisle. My heart was pounding, and my mind was racing trying to decide how to get out of this situation. The creatures down below were still struggling to get to me, their fingertips scratching against the steel of the racking. Outside, I could hear the faint noise of constant sirens and alarms, when a sudden scream threw me from my reverie.

I chanced peeking again over the side, to see one of the cashiers from up front passing the end of the aisle I just came down. I remembered her, she was Carrie. We were actually pretty good friends, and had our own set of inside jokes the pass the time throughout the day. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she booked it as soon as the creatures below me saw her and began giving chase. Four of them now were on her tail, since I noticed Derrick had joined in the group that was after me.

There was nothing I could do. I sat up in my hiding spot. I couldn't believe it. Most of the people I knew that were in this store were dead or probably dying. I assumed that most of the city was destroyed as well, making normal life again almost impossible. On top of that, whatever was brought down with those meteors was changing people into... Well, I had no idea. Zombies? What if it hit my parent's house, or my grandmothers, or my kids...

...My kids...

I pulled out my cell phone, and speed dialed my wife's number. The phone immediately beeped, and an electronic voice let me know that all circuits were busy. I slid my phone sideways, exposing its qwerty keypad and I texted her, asking if she and Violet were okay. I didn't know if it would even send, but I had to at least try. I locked the phone and stuck it back into my pocket.

That was about the time I let it all out and started sobbing uncontrollably. I know those jerks heard me, and I didn't care. Screw 'em. They ruined whatever life I had for me and whatever life my children were going to have. What could I do? I was just a pansy stuck up in some rafters running while those green things tore through whatever was left of humanity in the city... or the world... My kids...

Chapter 6

I have no idea how long I sat there crying. I had to have been some time, since by the time I came to, my butt was numb from the steel I was sitting on. I looked across the aisle, and saw a box of playground equipment. It showed a little blonde haired girl swinging back and forth, being pushed by her dad. They both looked eerily happy, like that kind of smile that you know is fake, but hope it isn't for the little girl's sake.

It seemed stupid, but that was what woke me up from my stupor. How dumb could I be? Here I am, man of the house, and I'm bawling like a baby. Both of my boys were at Sheridan Heights, and I know both of them must be scared out of their wits. Then there was my daughter, and my wife... There was no one at the house. My brother in laws were supposed to come by later today, but they were alone otherwise. Who would protect and take care of them, If not me?

I had to make it home, but first, I had to get my boys. Of course, what needed to come FIRST first, was getting off of this racking and through those wannabe zombie hulks. Who knew how many more were outside? That meant I needed to kill them.

I leaned back against the pallet of bright yellow snow shovels next to me. I needed to kill. Imagining myself killing zombies is easy when you're watching it on TV. You could just back flip and karate chop your way through hordes like it was nothing at all... But in real life, I had trouble killing a rat.

I remembered one time when my wife and I had just moved into our house, and we found out we had an unwanted roommate of the naked tail, furry body variety. It took two weeks of that thing evading every trap I could buy. I spent hundreds on every snap trap, poison and live catch trap I could find, to no avail. Then Ben had suggested one day at work that I use a glue trap.

Needless to say, the next day, I had a rat stuck to a trap. He was probably as pissed at me as I was at it, but I couldn't kill it. I wussed out and threw it in a trash can, for some reason feeling that letting it starve to death was better for my conscience than me stepping on it.

These things weren't rats, these things used to be people. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Why was I doing this? I pictured my kids, happy and obnoxious, that was them. They were the most annoying little creatures on Earth, but I loved them more than anything.

My eyes opened, and I wiped the vestiges of what I hoped to be the last tears shed for humanity. This was for my kids and my wife.

I leaned out over the edge, to an empty aisle. Those bastards must still be chasing Carrie, but I'll be damned if I was going to let them catch me unaware.

" _Hey you bastards!"_ I screamed as loud as I could. I grabbed a shovel from the pallet beside me and began banging on the racks. I moved to a more comfortable position on my knees, where I could see over the edge and still duck back down if I had to. " _Come get some free meat! Yoooo hoooo!!"_

I had no idea where this newfound courage came from, but I wasn't about to let it go to waste. I continued banging, until green Daisy came around the corner, saw me, and did her little skip-hop towards me. She ended in the same position she was earlier, directly beneath me. I noticed that her stomach was still small and not poking out, which would have made a difference since she probably couldn't puke on me.

Where were the others though? I continued the noise-making for a few more minutes, pissing off Daisy more by the second. At least, that's what I imagined I was doing. Around the corner one more came crawling towards us. It was Bertha. She had been ripped in half by the meteor, but apparently that wasn't enough to kill her, and the top half of her dried out body dragged itself towards the sound.

I almost threw up, but I suppose being used to disgusting things from television kept me from losing my lack of breakfast.

Only one more came over, and it was one I had never seen before. He must have been a customer that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wondered if he had a family, then shook my head. I couldn't think about that.

My kids. My kids. For my kids.

I peeked over one last time, and both of them were still stupidly staring up at me, arms outstretched. I took a deep breath and continued my mantra.

For my kids. For my kids. For my kids.

The pallets of snow shovels were surprisingly light, so they might not even do the job, but I had to at least try. If not, there was a 100lb generator on the shelf below me, and that would take care of them if I had to. I scooted myself behind the pallets, bracing my feet on the parallel racking from the next aisle, and gave them a push. The steel shelf they were resting on was smooth and gave almost no resistance, so the pallet slid off of the edge and fell directly onto the three creatures below. I heard the pallet crush, and the sound of what I hoped were bones breaking.

As I leaned over again, I couldn't see the three zombies under the pile of snow shovels, but since I didn't see them moving it had to have worked. I decided to wait a couple minutes anyways. I had to formulate some sort of plan. Past this point, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do

Weapons. Had to start with weapons. I looked to the left, and saw lawn mowers and accessories. That sure as hell wasn't going to help me. I looked to the right, towards generators, blowers, and chain saws. This wasn't a video game, I couldn't just go through hacking them into pieces. There was no restarting this level all over again.

The aisle ended at gardening accessories. I had been in this store long enough to know that the back wall held gloves, thermometers, pruners... And machetes.

My heart raced. A machete. I could hack through them easily enough, but now that I thought about it, I didn't want to get that close to them and chance it. There were tree pruners back there too... Which was just a long pole with a blade on the end for branches. That could work.

That's what I needed. I'd get down from here, sneak over and grab one of those tree pruning poles, and a machete too, just in case.

I closed my eyes one more time before making my descent, and repeated my mantra. I had to do this. My fingers grasped onto the edge of the steel, I opened my eyes, and slid over the end, slowly making my way down and listening out for any movement around or beneath me. When I landed, I ducked low and looked to either end of the aisle, making sure none of them would try and turn the corner for me. I hadn't seen anyone else since Carrie, and I didn't want to chance it.

The pile of snow shovels was still. Curiosity getting the best of me, I lifted up a few of them to see what became of the zombies. Daisy's head was all I could catch a glimpse of, and it was crushed flat. I didn't think the pallet was that heavy, but I maybe once they turned it made them brittle, as well as skinny.

The time to debate was over. I had to get some sort of defense and make my way out of here to Tim and Garrett's school. I picked up a broken handle from one of the shovels. It was made of cheap aluminum, so it probably couldn't hold up against a bunch of those things. I needed something stronger.

I crept my way to the end of the aisle. Peeking left and right, I didn't see any of things nearby, so I made my way towards the gardening supplies. On the right side along the wall, there were gardening tools of all shapes and sizes. On the left, pallets of tropical plants covered most of my view of the rest of the store. I quickly snatched one of the machetes, realizing it even came with a nice holder to attach to your belt.

I opened the packaging, cringing every time the plastic popped or twisted. Eventually, it came free of it's plastic prison, and after attaching it to my belt, I felt more confident. Maybe I could do this.

I looked back up towards my next step, the tree pruners, and saw another one of those things coming towards me. I recognized her, it was Patty, one of the garden center associates. Her green vest was tilted off to the side, and fresh blood dripped down her face and onto her already protruding stomach. I started shaking again, looking towards my future weapon of mass destruction, and the zombie that used to be a co-worker.

I took a step back, and Patty made her way forward, her stomach shaking and her mouth opening. I reached for the machete, and couldn't pull it out. The button holding it closed was shut and I couldn't easily open it without looking at it. Like an idiot, I didn't even check that and there was no way I was turning away from Patty.

"Crap." I said, and turned down the nearest aisle toward the main run of the store. Green vomit flew down the one I had just been down. I ran as fast as I could, and reached the end of the aisle just as my old pal hoodie buddy came around the corner. I screamed as I ran haphazardly between his arms and shoved as hard as I could. Through fear and adrenalin, it felt as though he weighed nothing, and went flying backwards into the racks of light bulbs.

I didn't give myself time to think about why, and turned towards the front of the store. Three more of the creatures, including Minerva, were still feasting on Samson right across the entrance to Brody's. I made an about face and ran past the zombie in the hoodie again while he was trying to get back up. I arrived at the center of the store, unsure of where else to go as more creatures were coming down the aisles on seemingly every side of me.

The break room. I could make it there and at least have a door between them and me. I moved for the flooring desk again, knowing the aisle behind it ran directly to the break room. I made a dash for it, just as another one of my former co-workers made his way out of the darkness from the other end of the building to make a snack of my face. The machete I got earlier bounced off my hip with each step, as though taunting me with its uselessness.

This aisle had nothing but tiles, spacers... and a floor scraper. I saw it near the end of the aisle, and it held a strong and thick steel tip for cleaning up floors, while the handle was made of a sturdy durable pipe. It would do.

As I ran past, I snatched one off the wall. I looked ahead and saw a zombie clawing at the door to the break room. I screamed through my nervousness of hurting another human being, thought about my kids, and he was mine.

The monster responded to my cry, and turned towards me with its arms outstretched. _"Move, dammit!"_ I screamed, and swung the scraper over my head, and down into the monsters skull. It crushed through it easily, like a cricket bat through a watermelon. The scraper ended halfway through it's face, and it collapsed into a heap.

Wiping chunks of dried flesh off of my hands, I checked all around me. There were two coming from either side, some distance away, and whole mess of them down the aisle I had just come down, skip-hopping quickly towards me. Stepping over the corpse, I made to open the door and found it locked.

I banged on the door with my free hand. "Come on, open up!" I banged harder, and turned to see one of the zombies heading down the aisle at a fast enough to make me uneasy.

"Don't open that freakin' door!" someone yelled from the other side of it.

"It's Liam!" Someone else said. It sounded like Ben.

I didn't have time to discuss it with them. My adrenalin pumping like I'd never felt before, I baseball swung the scraper into the side of the nearest zombie when it came into range. It's ribs collapsed easily, sending the creature falling sideways, but taking my scraper with its weight. It landed on the ground, turned, and began crawling towards me, trying to make its way back to it's feet and my own.

All I had left was my machete, and the creatures were closing in all around me. I started panicking, and reached down to the machete at my side. The button that held it closed refused to budge, but it was probably due to the fact that I scared out of my wits on top of it now. As I worked at it, I kept glancing at the creatures who were getting closer. My breath came faster and faster as panic was setting in.

"This freakin' button! GRAAH!" I cursed at the inanimate object on my belt, before getting yanked backwards through the break room door.

Chapter 7

I was on my back in the break room. My eyes focused on the fluorescent lights above me, almost drowning out the voices around me yelling to shut the door.

After a moment or two to allow my heart to slow down, I sat up, taking a look at my surroundings. Ben, and a couple other guys were next to the door, trying to slam it shut from the arms jutting through the opening. The door on the other side was closed and blocked with tables from throughout the windowless room. Altogether there were about ten people, most employees, but there were a few faces I didn't recognize.

The door finally shut, and I looked over to see an arm laying on the ground and one of the others holding a crowbar, which appeared to be the only weapon in the room. Ben sighed in relief, and made his way over to me, helping me up and giving me a hug. That had never happened before, but then again, a lot of things today had never happened before.

"Man, I so thought you were dead." He said bluntly.

"I thought everyone was dead. I guess you were right and we should have gone back to the break room." I replied, running my hand through my shaggy brown hair.

"Yeah, but it's cool. You're here now, and we're safe until help comes."

"Help? Like who?"

"The army, the police. Someone has to know about this and should be coming to get us out of this."

I shook my head. I had seen my fair share of zombie movies, and even if it was centralized to this store, it was going to be a while before anyone did anything. "I don't think so. I doubt they even know what we're up against. This isn't a zombie movie where we're guaranteed a happy ending."

Ben and I got quiet, as quiet as the rest of the room. A couple and their daughter were sitting in the corner. The little girl looked to be around 8, and sobbing uncontrollably into her father's shoulder. All of them were holding each other. I looked around to each of the faces in the room. I recognized most of them, and even Carrie had made it back here.

"Thanks, by the way." I said, turning back to Ben.

"Of course, man. The rest of these guys were leery about me opening the door again, but I had to help ya out, bro."

"What do you mean again?"

Ben motioned towards Carrie, "I opened the door for her too," he said, and motioned towards another female customer, who had her forearm wrapped in a red t-shirt. It used to be white. "and that happened."

My eyes widened, and I looked at Ben in fear. "Don't worry, this isn't a zombie movie, like you said. She isn't going to turn."

I nodded slowly. "That's true, I've seen what happens when you turn. I guess they have to throw up on you to turn you."

"You saw one of them do it?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, Derrick got hit up front. One of them came in, spit on Derrick and ate Samson." My eyes started to water and found myself looking at the floor.

"Darn, Samson and Derrick too..." Ben glanced down as well, taking off his work vest and throwing it onto one of the chairs scattered throughout the room. "Well, have a seat, we're gonna be here a while."

I looked over at the snack machine, which they had decided to bust open in the short amount of time that all hell had broken loose. The drink machine was in the same condition. I moved to the drink machine and grabbed a bottle of water, as opposed to the sugar filled soda I would normally imbibe. "I can't stay. I have to go get my family." I said, taking a sip of the water.

"No way." William, one of the loaders in lumber said. "I aint opening this door for anyone."

"Who are you to keep me from getting my kids?" I said, immediately angry.

"I'm the guy who will kick your butt if you try to get out of here. I'm not getting eaten for you, or anybody." He said, holding up the crowbar offensively. The door was consistently being hit from the other side by the creatures, knowing their meal was only a wood door away. I thought about starting a fight, then rejected it quickly. The guy looked like he could bench press the Oscar Meyer wiener truck. Then eat it.

"Come on man, seriously. We can't go out there, it's anarchy." Ben said, placing his hand on my shoulder.

I looked to Ben, "It doesn't matter. My boys are alone at their school, and my wife and daughter are at home. I have to get there."

Ben gave me a pitying look, "How do you expect to get through whatever is on the other side of that door, and whatever else is farther past that? The roads are most likely torn to rubble."

"Then I'll walk." I said defiantly.

Ben shook his head, "You know I love your kids, but you can't go out there alone and expect to make it."

I glared up at him. "I don't expect anything, but I'm not going to puss out by sitting in a room and waiting for something to happen."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

I sat silently. What was I going to do? Big, buff and ballsy sure wasn't going to let me out that way, and when I got out there, I only had a machete.

"That's what I thought." He responded.

"If you give me a minute, I could come up with a plan. My plan is to book it to the parking lot, get to my van, and get to Sheridan Heights Elementary and get my sons."

Ben closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. "Dude... It's ridiculous." He turned then and sat down at one of the other chairs in the room, staring into the wall. Anything, I assume, to keep from having to hear me talk some more.

I sat there for a while, pondering my next move. The monsters on the other side of the door kept a constant scratching and pounding, in time with the rhythmic thumping of my head. That adrenalin rush of having to tear through... What was it, four people now? I killed... Four people.

No. They weren't people anymore. If I thought about it like that, I would lose whatever sanity I might have left.

William kept a constant vigil on the door. He kept glancing back, as if expecting them to break through any second. I looked at the other door in the room, the one covered in tables. They were made of plastic, so I wasn't sure what they were expecting it to keep out. That way lead out into the doors and windows department. I could make an easy escape there, if the aisles weren't totally blocked from that rock tearing them all down. I didn't even look that direction to see what had gone down on that side.

The little girl in the corner started crying harder, which got me thinking about my little girl, Violet. I had to get out of there. Now.

I stood abruptly, which sent William to glaring at me, and Ben to turn in my direction. "Can I go out that door?" I said, motioning towards the one blocked by tables. "You can shut it right behind me. It doesn't sound like there are any of those things on the other side of the door, and I'll run out real quick and take care of any of them on that side... Don't you guys want to see your family? I'm willing to go through this crap to get them. Just let me try, please. I won't let any get in."

William listened to me intently, as if just waiting for me to finish so he could tell me no, but the longer I spoke, the more he seemed to soften. "Alright, you can go out that door, but you have to take care of those assholes on the other side of this door first."

Turns out that stuff I thought was softness was actually what he thought was a clever plan. I nodded and spoke an okay in agreement, but I had no intention of doing what he asked until the parents of the little girl began consoling her about the "brave man" who was going to take care of the bad guys for them. Now I would have to get rid of those zombies. Way to use my heart against me, jerks.

I reached my hand down and undid the clip holding the machete I picked up. It was a lot easier when you weren't being chased down by things that wanted to eat you. I slipped it out and back in, making sure it was easy to do again when I needed it.

"I'm going with you." Someone said behind me. I turned to see Carrie, arms wrapped tightly around her tony frame in obvious fear.

"Seriously? I can't protect you as well as myself." I wasn't trying to be mean, but I didn't need anything keeping me from my boys right now.

"You won't have to, I'll protect myself... I'll find something on the way out." She replied quietly.

"Why do you want to go with me to the school?"

"I'm not going there, I just need to get out of here. I have a home I need to go to." I saw her glancing around for something she could use to get out of here. I know I wouldn't try and leave here without some sort of weapon.

"Fine." I said. It would be a lot easier to get out with someone else to help. The adrenalin pumping through my veins from earlier was wearing off, and I needed to hurry and do this before I lost my nerve.

My kids. For my kids. For Tim. For Garrett. For Violet.

I started sliding the tables across the floor, causing that familiar nails on a chalkboard sound. I gritted my teeth, and Ben came over to help me move them, Carrie moving some chairs that were stacked throughout the four-legged fuselage. "You can't think to do this, for real, can you?" Ben asked.

"I wasn't kidding." I said, trying to keep my nerve up. I knew in the back of my mind how I was. I'd be convinced to stay, until late in the night when my worry over my kids drove me nuts and I left. By that time, there'd probably be a ton of those things in the streets and no lights. I was frankly surprised we still had them in the store.

He sighed, "I'll help you clear those things by the door, but I'm coming back in here when we're done."

I smiled and looked up at him, "Thanks, man. I'd really appreciate it."

I checked my cell phone, no bars. Never any bars in the break room.

Chapter 8

The doorway was finally cleared. The others who were still in the room were stacking the tables against the other door, and I listened against the door for any sounds of movement. I heard nothing, except the clawing from the door on the other side of the room. Those jerks weren't letting up.

I took a few deep breaths. Ben carried one of those folding metal chairs in his hands, and Carrie held another. I had my machete in hand, shoulder bag on tight, and wondered just how much hacking it would take to get through and kill one of them.

"Ready?" I said.

Carrie nodded, and I got an "uh huh" from Ben. I took a deep breath, and braced myself against the door...

...And took another deep breath. Holy crap, I was going into anarchy. I just had to get through, they were dumb. I could get them easy. I already got four.

"We're still ready." Ben said, taking me out of my own head.

I nodded, braced myself again, and pushed against the door. It was around that time I remembered I had to pull to open it. Growling at my own stupidity, I yanked the door backwards. The alcove by the door was devoid of green creepy things, and as all three of us slipped out, one of the people inside slammed the door quickly behind us. I heard tables being moved again. The door led out on the edge of the darkness that the meteor created, even though some light was shining through the hole in the roof.

"Go, punk." Ben whispered to me. I edged slowly forward and peered around to where the other door was. About five of them were pounding at the door, I suppose the other ones just got bored. Another breath, and I was around it, inching slowly towards them. I chanced a look back at the other two.

Ben was staring determined at the zombies with a white knuckle grip on his chair. Carrie was holding hers with both hands on one side, which in retrospect, didn't seem like something that would work. Nothing was sneaking up behind us, so I focused back on the few ahead of us. Something moved in my peripheral vision. I turned quickly to my right with a gasp and realized we were walking next to the mirrored doors. I sighed quietly and faced forward, only to see the zombies attention turning to us.

Fear bubbled quickly to the surface and I ran forward, Ben on my tail and sliced at the nearest one. I wasn't sure who it used to be, but it had on a green vest that I aimed above and got it directly in the back of the neck. It's skin crunched like potato chips, and it's arms raised towards me before collapsing in a heap. Apparently severing the spine worked just fine.

One of them farther away didn't move towards us, but stepped backwards opening its mouth. The other three moved at us with arms out and jaws agape. I backed up and the ones moving with a combination skip and hop followed, the fourth stayed back as that gurgling sound echoed from its throat. I barely got out a warning before Ben moved quickly to the gurgling zombies side and smashed its face in with the chair. Green vomit splashed against the seat of the chair, and Ben let go of it to avoid getting any on him. When it dropped, the creatures jaw was snapped in half and half its face was crushed in like it ran face first into a brick wall. Apparently being changed into one of those things made you crispy and easy to break.

The other three were coming towards me, and Carrie was behind me not helping. Unless screaming in fear helped, which it didn't. The one in front was skip-hopping towards me, and the handle of my floor scraper was jutting from its chest. I wasn't about to try and get close with a machete, especially with it having two buddies following quickly after it. I continually backed up while sheathing my machete, almost reaching the total darkness of the other half of the store, but when the handle jutting out of his chest came within grabbing distance, I did. With a hard yank, I threw its weight upwards with the crackling of its skin. It fell onto its back and raked its claws across my forearms. I yelled in pain, but was able to yank the tool out of its chest and slam the scraper into the monsters skull.

The two that were following were almost on top of me, when Carrie actually became of some use and smashed the one on my left in the shoulder with a yelp of fear. She dropped her chair, and started running behind them to Ben, who was moving in the opposite direction away from the one he had smashed in the face.

When Ben and Carrie reached each other, they collectively turned and began beating on the door for someone to let them in. The pounding gave enough distraction for me to slam my scraper into their left side, knocking them into a tangle on the floor.

The only answer Ben and Carrie received was a curse from the other side of the door, and ideas of where we could stick our ideas. "We gotta go!" I said, and grabbed on to Ben's wrist, leading him down the adjacent aisle. The one Ben walloped was having trouble on it's feet since its face was properly dented in. I shoved against it as we passed, successfully knocking it over as Ben and Carrie fell in behind me.

The aisle was only half lit, and was not the one I had retreated down earlier, and boxes of sinks and faucets littered the floor. Jumping over them as I ran, I didn't bother checking to see if Ben and Carrie were following. They had to. Either way, I was getting out of here.

We reached the main aisle, and I turned to the right, planning on heading for the front doors. Before we got to the aisle that lead out of the store, four more came around the corner. I gasped as Carrie screamed, and took a quick turn down the lighting aisle for the exit.

I was running on that adrenalin that can only come when you're fighting for your life. Boxes littered the floor in this area as well, and I was kicking and weaving through boxes as I ran.

When we reached the front, cash registers were flashing repeatedly, as if the cashiers made sure to flick the lights and let the management know that there was an issue with the registers. The doors were open to our right, pushed open as people were leaving the store. Another group of zombies was coming from the far end of the lighted side of the store, I turned left and more were coming from the darkened side.

It's funny what you think of when you're scared out of your mind, and I remember thinking "Hey, my kids will want a snack when I pick them up from school." Either way, I snatched up a few bags of snacks and shoved them in my bag as we moved past.

"What the hell are you doing, let's go!" Ben said. He was holding Carrie around the shoulders, she was whimpering and literally quivering in fear.

"This way." I said, hoping by sounding confident I would become more confident. We ran towards the exit doors, which were currently being used by two creatures with huge distended stomachs. Each one of them looked as if they each had swallowed an inflated beach ball. The three coming down the main aisle from our right were much thinner.

My mind tried to wrap around what needed to be done, when Ben threw a ceiling fan. Well, not an assembled fan, but one still in a box. He threw it with enough force to trip two of them as it hit them in the shins, forcing the last to climb over them. That solved one problem, and I turned to the ones by the exit doors whose mouths were as wide as possible, about to throw up on us. I froze, but Ben luckily had the foresight to drag me down to the ground behind the desk I had hid beside earlier. Vomit went flying over the counter, the other one aiming for Carrie who also ducked down with another scream.

I glanced over and saw Samson's now fully chewed corpse not even two feet from us. He had been eaten more since I last saw him, but his gun was still sitting unhooked in its holster. I quickly crawled forward and grabbed the gun, shoving it into my pocket. I had no idea how to use one, and would probably get us killed trying to use it now.

All of us got up at once and ran for the doors. Both zombies began their skip run towards us, while the rest were coming from behind. I swung the scraper for the lead one's stomach, knocking it to the side, and Ben ducked under the second's arms, pushing it into a pallet of packaged water bottles by the door. All of us made a mad dash for the open doors.

Chapter 9

The world outside the store was just as bad as the inside. The parking lot itself was a wreck, meteors from softball size to smart car size had ripped a hole through whole lines of cars. The buildings around, from what I could see, were littered with holes, and a few were even completely torn down. Fires were rampant, smoke trails leading up into the sky from multiple points. Sirens were going nonstop.

"Whoa..." was all we could say. A crash sounded behind us, and we turned to see more of those creatures chasing us out the doors. Ben and I ran for where we were parked, while Carrie ran in a different direction.

"Where are you going!?" I yelled, but not curious enough to stop moving. I pulled the gun from my pocket to try and clear a path.

"Home!" She screamed, running towards her bright red jeep in the back of the parking lot. She climbed over a pile of cars, and that was the last I saw of her.

Ben and I continued on to our vehicles. Some skinny zombies were in the path, and I aimed the gun one handed and aimed to shoot one in the head. Needless to say, I was a horrible shot, having hardly ever fired a gun. I wasn't expecting that much recoil and the gun slipped out of my hand. The blood coming from the cuts on my arm didn't help the situation.

I cursed under my breath, and Ben bent to grab the gun. He hesitated at seeing the blood, but then picked it up and took out the few in our path with ease.

I decided he might be better off with the gun.

We were parked right next to each other, but my van was so pegged with holes and dents, I wasn't even sure it would run. The most damage his truck had taken was the driver side window busted out, and numerous meteorites in the bed of it.

"You gotta be kidding me.." I said, slack jawed at the destruction to my only mode of transportation.

Ben glanced behind us, where the monsters were still following. "Get in!" He said, and ran for the driver's side of the truck. I attempted to lift the handle, and my hand slipped off without getting purchase. I looked down, and just noticed the scratches I had received earlier bleeding down my hand and covering it in a fine crimson. I groaned, the adrenalin not letting up but knowing that it was going to hurt when it did. Both of my forearms were bleeding, but the left much worse than the right. I wiped it on my pants leg, opened the door, and got in just as Ben started up the truck.

The engine revved to life, and I glanced around for something to wrap my arms in. Ben had a shirt of the female variety balled up on the floor. I regretted what liquids I could possibly be putting into my blood stream, but would rather hold it in my body in while I could.

"What do we do?" Ben asked, looking around the truck.

"What do you mea-," I said, before cutting off at the scene around us. The few monsters from the store were almost at the truck, and a some others with bulging stomachs were approaching from seemingly everywhere. They weaved between vehicles and debris towards the only signs of life nearby: Us.

I continued wrapping my left arm, placing the scraper on the floorboard. "Just go, man. Tear em up." I honestly had no idea what to do. I didn't even know if his P.O.S. truck would make it through them, I just wanted to get away.

He revved the truck hard, It must have been for show because he still pulled out slow and normal. It made sense though, everywhere I could see wasn't fit for normal driving. He turned towards the ones that had followed us from the store, and sped up. We both braced for a hard hit, but the truck hit them with a crunch and hardly any hesitation. One went flying over the roof of the truck and the rest easily plowed beneath it.

A splat resounded on the window behind us, and I turned to see some of the other zombies had vomited a great distance to hit his truck. On top of that, I also noticed that the one that went over the truck, landed in the bed. It was struggling to get up with all the bouncing the truck was doing over debris, its eyes on us the whole time. I looked around, and didn't see any green freaks in any close proximity.

"Stop for a second." I said. Ben looked at me like I had just punched a baby. "Just for a second, then hit the gas." Ben turned to see what I was looking at. His eyes widened, but then lowered in understanding, and he stopped.

The creature in the back still struggled a little from all the trash floating around his truck bed. When it finally got on solid footing, I told Ben to go, and he did, sending our little back seat driver flying head over heels into the pavement. There was nothing but a pile of former human on the ground as we pulled out the parking lot.

"Go left." I said, as Ben looked left and right. Either way looked bad, crushed cement, zombies, and craters slowing the way, but to the left was Sheridan Heights. Ben sighed, and slowly moved the car left.

"I'm sorry, man, but I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm doing this because those jerks wouldn't let me back in..." He looked pretty mad... and scared.

"I know, but if you come to our house, you can stay with us. That's no problem." I tried to stay positive for him, anything to keep some help for this journey. Those green things were everywhere, and any help was welcome... Especially to get my kids.

Ben only nodded, I took it he was as scared as I was. We rode in silence. The city all around looked like what my daughter did to the Lego cities Garrett, Tim and I would build. A little baby Godzilla. I smiled, and tears welled up in my eyes at the thought. I had to get to them.

"They don't bleed." Ben said softly, killing the quiet.

"What?" I was lost in my own thoughts. The zombies that we were passing seemed to try and chase us, or puke at us, but gave up when they couldn't keep up with the truck. They at least were that smart.

"They don't bleed, I said. Haven't you noticed? Whatever happens to them, it just dries them out."

It was a valid point. I looked down to my scraper, he was right. Not one ounce of fluid, just dried chunks and flakes of flesh. "That explains the smoke that comes off of people when they get spit on."

Ben glanced over questioningly as he eased the truck up on to a sidewalk and around an immense crater across the center of Broad St. Sheridan Heights was almost straight down from my work, so there wasn't much need for my constant direction. "What smoke?"

"Or steam, whatever. When Derrick got barfed on, it was like this gas just shot out from every hole and puffed him up until he became one of those things. Took like 20 seconds or something, because next thing I know, he was after me." I recalled how he skipped me after changing, and went straight for Samson's body.

"Then that's how they get you to become one of them, besides that green crud that came from the meteor shower. That big one that fell through the roof gave off a green gas. Ramone got caught in it, and when we came back out of the break room, he was trying to break in the door with all the other zombies."

"That's how Minerva and Daisy changed too then. Bertha got... Well, she got hurt.." I recalled how Bertha was ripped in half, her body flailing like a marionette through the air... And then seeing her again later...

I couldn't think of that. All it did was promote fear, which I could not have any more of if I was going to save my kids. It was bad enough I felt like I was going to throw up.

Ben nodded. He was nice enough not to ask anymore. "Biting doesn't change them."

"Oh really? So this isn't just like every zombie movie we've ever seen?"

Ben forced a chuckle. "Nope. If it happens as fast as you say, then that girl in the break room would have changed."

It was my turn to nod. It made sense. "Head shots work though."

"When did you get a chance to shoot one?" He obviously didn't believe me.

"I didn't, but I damn near chopped one in half with this thing, and it kept going, but once I hit it in the head, it stopped clean." Ben began to slow the truck to a stop.

I looked forward. It was enough to scare me all over again. The front half of a building had fallen down into the street, completely cutting off the street for vehicles. Neither of us had seen another living person since Carrie leaving Brody's, and clogged streets probably assisted in that. "We should be able to go around." I said.

"No way. I've been looking up and down these streets as we've been going. They're blocked just as bad or worse."

I looked around behind, none of those things were watching us. In fact, none of them were in view at all. I knew we were close to the school, probably only blocks away. I opened the door. "Let's hoof it, we're almost there."

Ben cut the engine and took the keys, as though he would come back to get it. I almost laughed in spite of myself, but once I started, I think the stress would have kept me laughing straight to a loony bin. I grabbed the scraper, shut the door and tightened the strap to my shoulder bag. I chanced a look at my cell phone. It still had 6% of a charge, but no messages or service. I shoved it back into my pocket, and both of us moved around to the front before moving on.

I unbuttoned my machete and held it out for him, I wasn't really all that good with it anyways. "Here, they can't all be long shots with that gun. How many shots do you have with that thing?"

Ben slipped out the clip, checked the bullets, and slid it back in. "Half a clip or so, but I'll take that thing anyways. You're too much of a pansy."

I glared at him, but let it go. He was just messing with me anyways... As true as it was. Jerk. "Let's go, man... And thank you again."

Ben nodded, "It's cool."

We made our way toward the large pile of rubble, one of the few that wasn't smoking from fires. I lead the way, having to slide my scraper between the shoulder strap and my back so I could use both of my hands to climb. We were at a point near the city that had actual houses, but they were all townhouses, so when one fell, most of the rest fell as well or made the rest open to the elements. I made slow progress over the stones, grabbing a hold of a piece, shaking to make sure it was stable, and pulling myself up and over.

The more I climbed, the closer I got to my kids. The closer I got to my kids, the more nervous I became. What if I found them dead, or turned into one of those green things? Despite it all, it would be worse if I didn't find them at all. Living the rest of my life wondering would be an agonizing torture.

Chapter 10

The pile wasn't too tall, and we were at the other side in no time. Going down the other side was much easier, despite having to avoid shards of glass. There seemed to be a few stragglers down the road, but I could easily see part of the school from here.

I lead the way, Ben with his gun in hand and I with my closer range floor scraper. I felt like I should name it, the amount of time it seemed I would be spending with it. Floorie? Bah, my humor was as gone as the sanity left in this world.

We had only made it a block before the shifting of gravel caught our attention. Off to the right, a huge group of zombies were standing around a Volkswagen size crater made by one of the meteors. Only one was facing us, but by the time we had assessed the situation, they all were turning our way.

Ben aimed his gun in their direction, and I held my scraper at the ready. There were altogether about twenty from what I could tell, but I felt we would still be screwed, even if each bullet hit its mark and killed in one shot.

The first one stepped toward us, and abruptly fell flat on its face. I almost laughed, but the next few around it tripped as well. That sent an audible laugh from my lips, especially when I realized what was causing it: their pants. Each one of them, before changing, had worn their pants bigger than normal and now as zombies, couldn't hold them up.

Ben and I couldn't restrain ourselves, and burst into fits of laughter. Each one was more ridiculous than the last, trying to stand and crawl towards us with an angry purpose at the same time.

"Holy shit, I'll never insult sagging pants ever again!" I said, holding my stomach from the giggles that wracked us both.

"Yeah, I'll thank them all the next time I see them.." Ben replied, wiping the approach of a tear from his eye.

The giggles slowed, and I turned to make sure there was nothing else around us. Luckily our laughter hadn't attracted any other attention, so I motioned for both of us to keep going, leaving the clumsy zombies behind us.

This area was rural enough to have space between each house, at least the ones that were still standing. It was eerily quiet as well, but as the school appeared fully around the next intersection, anything about those houses in my mind went to the wayside. A few children were standing around the front of the two story Elementary school. Two of them were banging on the entrance that faced the west towards us, as well as two more just standing near the stairs. Part of the playground was visible around the backside, and there were still plenty of cars parked in the lot on the east side.

"Are those kids okay?" Ben asked. From this distance, I couldn't tell either.

"No idea. We gotta get in the school though." I continued on, Ben following behind me. My heart began beating a mile a minute. What if kids were becoming those monster things too? I was even more terrified at what could have happened to my children.

We crossed the street, my floor scraper at the ready. I heard Ben flick the safety off on his pistol. The two children standing near the stairs turned toward us. My heart froze in my chest, as both of them had the same dried out tint to their skin, and large stomach poking out under their shirts. One had an Angry Birds t-shirt covered in blood, and opened his mouth until his jaw hit his collar bone, his cheeks already torn like paper from an earlier snack. The second, a little girl with a now red chested dress who had to have been in kindergarten before this, did the same, strafing to the side slowly to take a puke at us.

I stood slack jawed. Little kids were even hit... Both of the children made that sound of water down a pipe, and Ben slammed me to the side as both the projectiles of vomit went overhead. Both of their stomachs spent, they came full force toward us.

Ben stood quickly, aimed at both of the children, and took them out. One shot each.

I started shaking again. My boys were here. Garrett and Tim.

"Get up, man. We gotta get in the school and get out of here." Ben said.

My fear turned to anger. I stood up quickly and made my way for the doors. Both the kids at the front had turned and were coming our way. I recognized one of them as a kid from Garrett's class. My body wanted to stop me, and I growled to try and bypass the feeling that would stop me doing what I had to. Each kid had small tightened stomachs, so the fear of being spit on wasn't an issue. I swung as hard as I could, and hit the first squarely in the side of the head, crunching it like a spherical potato chip and dropping it dead. On the backswing, I went for the other one, but just clipped it above it's head, sending it stumbling to the side.

I lost my own footing, and almost fell backwards. The zombie I missed skip hopped his way quickly towards me, but Ben came behind and sliced easily into it's tiny skull, dropping it.

I got up quickly, looking around for more. A few from the playground had heard the gunshots and rounded the corner for us. I ran for the door, as tears began falling down my face from what I had just finished doing. I banged hard on the door screaming for someone to let us in. The school was relatively unscathed save for a few windows I noticed were knocked out.

Nothing moved behind the doors. The lights still seemed to be on inside, and I banged louder, when finally someone peeked around the corner from the direction of the office.

"Let us in! Now!" I screamed, slamming my scraper against the door. Ben was poised facing the group of kids making their way towards us from the playground, the woman inside shook her head in answer to my question.

"If you don't freaking let us in, I'll break this window, get inside anyways, and let all of them inside with me!" I slammed the scraper against the door one more time to reinforce my point as I gritted my teeth, inwardly praying my kids were alright.

The woman I recognized as being a member of the office staff, her hair barely there from age. She turned and looked behind her, then ran to the door. She shoved it open just enough for us to grab it and then booked it for the safety of the depth of the school. I scrambled inside, Ben following closely, and we slammed the door just as the group of kids reached us. They all scratched at the door angrily, hungry for our skins.

Ben made his way inside, I had to have a look over the kids, hoping not to see my own. Neither of them were in the group, so I turned inside. It was eerily quiet inside for an Elementary school, save for tiny voices crying from the auditorium.

Chapter 11

"So where to now?", asked Ben. We both took in our surroundings, the main hall leading to long hallways on either side, and a stairway that lead to the second floor. Three sets of doors would take us to the auditorium, and from the noises coming inside, it would be a good place to start.

The doors were unlocked, and we looked inside to find what seemed to be most of the school packed inside. Teachers were talking with their students in hushed tones while those adults who didn't have classes were huddled near doors, discussing most likely what to do next. One of the parents near us in a bright red business suit turned to question us. She seemed frightened, her eyes darting left and right and her hands unable to stay still.

We must have seemed odd, covered in sweat and holding what we had been using to defend ourselves. My blood bandaged forearms probably didn't help either. She looked past us into the hall, then to both of our faces. "Did you guys just come from outside?"

We both nodded, but I spoke up. "Yeah, we're looking for Garrett and Tim Jones, have you seen them? They had Mr. Hunt and Mr. Pollack." I looked over the auditorium, trying to see if either of their teachers were inside. I saw neither.

A few of the people she was talking to started giving me questioning looks. "Mr. Hunt decided he felt safer with the kids in his classroom, and I'm not sure where Mr. Pollack is at... I haven't seen him since... Since..." She then started bawling while the another adult in the group started patting her back and giving her encouraging remarks.

I felt horrible that there wasn't anything I could do with all of these kids. How many of them didn't have parent's left? How many would survive this madness, and who would be taking care of them? I felt a sense of hopelessness rising up within me, but bit it down with my own anger and fear. I had to worry about my kids, then think about helping other people. It may be a jerk way of thinking about things, but it's the same thing they say on planes in the event the oxygen masks come down: take care of yourself, then take care of anyone else.

"Come on Ben, both of their classes are on the second floor." We stormed out of the auditorium, and into the barren halls of the school. Even the cafeteria was empty, despite the sounds of what used to be children banging on the windows. I took the stairs two at a time, with Ben on my heels. We moved down the hallway, both classrooms being in the middle of the school, and noticed more banging coming from rooms along the way. I stopped to look inside, and saw whole classrooms of what used to be children scratching on the glass and wood of the door. Apparently some of the meteors had fallen through the window, basically trapping them all inside. I forced myself to glance inside, past the little bloody hands scrambling to get to my meaty flesh, and saw the disgusting scene behind them of chewed up students.

I felt the urge to vomit, and I bent over with my hands on my knees. Ben glanced into the classroom himself and made a disgusted noise. I felt his hand pat my back, "Come on, man. Let's get to their class. I'm sure they're fine."

The urge to puke passed, and I got up and made my way to Garrett's classroom first. The lights were out, and I cupped my hands to the glass to see inside. Nothing. Nobody was in there.

I looked down the hall towards Tim's class, and saw movement behind the door, not to mention the lights on. It was a good thing all the classrooms kept their doors shut during school hours. I attempted the knob, and of course, it was locked. At the noise, I heard all of the kids inside scream in terror, followed by Mr. Hunt calming them down with reassuring words. I heard my oldest son's voice asking questions, as usual, and my heart leapt in my chest.

Mr. Hunt cupped his hands and looked out the door. I had met him a few times, so when he saw me, I waved pleasantly at him. At least, as pleasant as I could be when the world seemed to be ending. I glanced back at Ben, who had foresight enough to stuff his gun into the back waistband of his pants. The door unlatched, and Mr. Hunt opened the door. "Hey Mr. Jones, it's good to see you."

I knew what he meant by that. "It's good to see you alive." My son and the rest of his class were staring at the door, and as soon as it opened, Tim burst from his chair screaming my name and came running into my arms. I knelt down and hugged him tight, relishing the fact that I had finally got to him. "You too, I'm here for him and his brother" I finally responded. Tim was sobbing into my shirt, I felt a wave of love come over me, as well as full on relief.

Mr. Hunt nodded, "Of course, but how did you get here?"

Ben answered for me before I could respond, "We drove a little, but the roads are too messed up to get very far. We ended up walking."

Mr. Hunt looked around at the children in the room, fearfully keeping an ear on our conversation. Most them had the puffed up eyes of someone who had been crying hard and recently, which was understandable. I wondered again if any of the kids would see their parents again, and what the teachers would do with all of them. I sighed, you can't save everyone.

I was slowly running my fingers through Tim's curly dirty blonde hair. It was good to have him back, but I had to think about getting Garrett, and getting him back safely as well. I took a deep breath and looked at Mr. Hunt. He looked as though he were about to cry too. For the children, for their parents, or for himself, I couldn't tell. I laid my flooring scraper turned skull scraper against the jamb, and extended my hand to him, "Thank you for taking care of Tim. I really appreciate it, but we're going to get home. Do you have any idea where Mr. Pollack's class is? They weren't in the room."

Mr. Hunt thought quietly for a moment after shaking my hand, looking down the hall to the general area where his classroom was. "I'm not sure, but considering the time when this thing started... I think they were at recess."

Chapter 12

It felt as though my heart were about to burst from my chest. If he was outside, then there was no way he got away without... I didn't want to think about it. I couldn't.

"Thank you again, Mr. Hunt. Good luck." I said quickly, a little too quickly. Fear helping urge my voice along, it seemed. I stepped back for him to shut the door, and Tim waved at a few friends still inside his classroom as the door closed.

I took off my shoulder pack, reaching inside to grab one of the snacks I had nabbed from my former job before we left. I handed him a snickers bar. Normally, I wouldn't try to give my kids any candy at all, but frankly, a little sweet tooth was the least of my worries right now. It got a little smile out of him, which was worth it in itself. "What happened, dad?" Tim said after his first bite.

I sighed and rubbed his head again. "I don't know, buddy... We're going to get home and figure everything out. Until then, it is extremely dangerous. You have to stay with me and do exactly as I say, alright?"

I could almost see the gears working questions and denials in his head, "But what abou-"

"Tim." I interrupted, "I'm serious. This isn't the time for questions. You remember those video games you play? Where you get hurt, and come right back to try again?"

Tim nodded, about to say something about them again before I cut him off. "This isn't like that. There is no second life. We have to be very careful, but if you stick with Ben and I, you'll be fine. Just listen and stay with us." I could see him thinking about a rebuttal again, but to my surprise he just nodded solemnly. I wasn't intending to scare him, but he needed to know the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps then he wouldn't be so apt to do what he thought was right, and instead listen to me.

"Where is Garrett?" He asked, looking from me to Ben and back.

"We're going to go get him now. Let's go." I grabbed Floorie, and kept my other hand on Tim's back to lead him down the hall.

Ugh, Floorie. The things we think of to keep us sane.

Ben kept a quiet forced smile for Tim, and I appreciated it. It was good to have someone else to help, especially a good friend like Ben, even though I knew he was thinking the same thing I was about Garrett. I silently prayed that they got to safety before anything bad happened. I wonder how full God's inbox was today with prayers, and how many did he answer?

The hallway seemed much longer on the way back and down. Tim was staring fearfully at the windows, his candy bar forgotten as former children banged on the glass trying to get to us. "Don't look, buddy. It's going to be okay." I held him close, and he dropped his candy to wrap his arms around me.

After heading down the stairs, I knew the easiest way to see the playground was next to the cafeteria. It was lined with windows all along the wall that overlooked where children burned their energy out after being cooped up inside their classrooms. We all entered the cafeteria slowly. The doors were open to get in, but the doors leading outside were shut tight. I glanced where most of the lunch ladies worked, and saw no one. They probably left as soon as all this started. The playground was covered in what used to be children and the corpses of others laying all around. What wasn't covered in bodies, both walking and dead, was dyed the dark red of blood on the playground. Looking at some of them, I could tell what had happened to the cafeteria workers.

"Hey Ben, why don't you take Tim and see if there's something to snack on in the back?" I asked.

Ben glanced outside the windows, then down to Tim and smiled in an attempt at comfort. "Come on buddy, let's go see if there's any of that square pizza back there."

Tim shook his head, "No, I want to-"

I cut him off again, "Tim, please. I really need you to listen and do as you're told, remember?" Tim looked up at me silently and nodded. "Besides, I'm really hungry, and I'd love one of those pizzas." I smiled down to him, my heart beating a mile a minute at the thought of finding Garrett.

Reluctantly, Tim took Ben's offered hand and made his way to the back. I sighed watching them go, then turned back to the windows overlooking the playground. A few of the creatures outside had heard us talking, and made their way to the chest high windows.

Garrett was wearing his orange shirt with green camouflage pants when he left that morning. I smiled momentarily, thinking about how he loved camo anything for some reason. No one I was related to hunted, but he still wore it whenever possible as pants, shirts, jackets, whatever. Of course we fed the love by buying him anything that looked like it, but whatever made the little ones happy, I suppose. The running joke was asking him where his body was when he came in with them.

I scanned the dried up walking bodies coming towards the building. Each kid looked almost exactly the same, except for the clothes, and I didn't see Garrett anywhere. Their distorted faces reached the glass, while the ones with stomachs filled to bursting stayed back staring, as if just waiting to get a clear shot to make another one into their creepy legion. I moved farther down the line of windows toward the back of the cafeteria, the growing horde outside following me. Exit doors were at the end, and I had the foresight to check them to make sure they were locked. They were.

I looked outside a few more moments, not seeing any sign of my son, and resigned myself to checking on Tim and Ben. The school was apparently getting ready for lunch since all of the trays were filled with foods from macaroni and cheese to baked beans. I thought about Garrett again, hoping he was inside the building, and safe. That hopefully I just missed him. Checking the auditorium again more thoroughly would probably be a good idea. He might not have seen me when I checked in earlier.

I was lost in my thoughts, until Ben screamed from back in the kitchen, "Tim, NO!"

I ran to the back in a few strides, and turned the corner to see Tim cracking the door to peek outside. Ben was back in a small office running toward the door as well, while Tim turned toward us with a curious look on his face, as if wondering why we had yelled for no reason.

"Shut the door! Shut it! Get away from the door!" Ben and I were yelling, not exactly like that, but close enough.

Tim took a few steps back from the door, but by the time we got to it, arms were snaking their way around the edge of it up to the elbow. Tim saw them and screamed in terror while Ben and I were trying to shut the door. Both of our backs were to the door trying to hold it shut, and I was surprised at the strength of them considering they didn't really have any visible muscles left inside. Smaller arms curled around the bottom of door as well, trying desperately to get at my legs.

"Tim! Get out of the cafeteria!" I yelled. He still stood there, absolute terror written on his face. "Go!" I yelled, the door giving a little bit more, allowing more parts of zombies in the door. Tim started breathing heavily, but he still wasn't moving. My sneakers were squeaking as I was being pushed along the checkered tile floor.

Ben strained against the door, and neither of us were enough to shut it all the way. "Get Tim out please Ben, and shut all the cafeteria doors on your way out!" He looked down to me, took a deep breath, and jumped off the door. The push from the door was almost immediately more than I could bare, and I could only hold it a second before pushing off of it myself and running for the exit of the kitchen with them. Their raspy hisses sounded suddenly from the open door, as well as the sound of their dry skin cracking with movement. I chanced a look behind, and saw a few zombie adults, and numerous children. A few of them were falling over each other, and my heart dropped into my chest when I saw what I thought was an orange shirt.

Ben was running full speed, avoiding all the lunch tables and chairs even with Tim in his arms, screaming bloody murder. I felt tears threaten to fall from my eyes as we crossed the threshold of the cafeteria and the main hallway, slamming the doors behind us. Luckily, they opened by pushing on our side, and school doors were wooden and thick. Ben and I sat with our backs to the doors leading into the cafeteria, trying to catch our breath. Tim immediately jumped from Ben's arms and latched onto me tightly. I could feel his heart beating a mile a minute.

I closed my eyes, rubbing Tim's back encouragingly as we felt the creatures scratching on the door behind us. _Garrett. I think that was Garrett._

Please don't be Garrett...

My breathing increased when I stood up to turn around and look through the window. Children and adult creatures all scratched and growled at us through the windows of the door. Blood from previous meals smeared the glass, and I looked all around at the creatures filling the cafeteria like it used to when children ate something besides living flesh. My breath caught in my throat. My teeth clenched tight as I felt my heart rip into a million pieces.

"What is it?" Ben asked, looking up from his seat beside the door.

"It's... Garrett."

Chapter 13

He was just one in a hundred, doing the same thing as all the rest that had at one point been alive and human. Staring intently at us through the glass, his bulging stomach and formerly orange shirt turned deep crimson showed that he had already consumed a meal of classmate or teacher. While at one time he would have smiled his unconditionally loving smile, now his grin was wider with his torn cheeks, waiting to get a clear shot at one of us to turn us into one of them.

My eyes welled up immediately at the same time my hands started shaking. Tim looked through the window at the same time I closed my eyes and slumped down onto the floor at the base of the doors.

I vaguely heard Tim call Garrett's name loudly before he too started crying. I wasn't even thinking of my surroundings, simply the fact that my little boy was gone. He never even had the chance to get out of elementary school, much less the third grade. Sobs racked my body through the tears pouring between my fingers. I'd never be able to hug Garrett again, or hear him ask me to play... Something, anything. He was always asking me to play, though most times I was too exhausted from work to even consider it. I loved all my kids, and each had a special piece of my heart, although it felt like there was a section that would never work again.

Minutes, hours, days, who knows how much time passed? I felt something being pressed into my hands, and I tried to slap it away. I didn't want anything else except to be left alone. The object was insistent, and I opened my puffy eyes to see Ben looking down at me, a concerned look and a water bottle in his hand. Tim clung to his side with his own puffy eyes. The thick wooden doors were still being scratched and pounded on behind me.

"Drink this." Ben said, trying to hand me the water. I shook my head, determined to wallow in my misery for as long as possible.

"Do it." Ben said, anger evident in his voice.

"I don't need any water."

"Yes, you do. Neither of us has eaten recently, and we have to get out of here." He said, pressing the drink into my hands.

"What's the point... I wasn't fast enough, and now he's gone." I said dejectedly, dropping the bottle.

Ben crouched down in front of me, Tim left to stand to the side staring through the cafeteria windows. He was inches from my face, concern gone and replaced with severe anger. "Look at me. I'm sorry about what happened to Garrett. I am, but it wasn't your fault. There's nothing we could have done about it. I'm as torn up as you are, but the problem is, so is Tim."

I looked to Tim, trying not to look Ben in the face.

"You've had time to mourn, but you need to think about the rest of your family that's still here. We can't help Garrett, but we can help Tim, Audrey, and Violet." He picked up the bottle and put it in my hand. This time, I took it. "Man the hell up and let's get out of here. We'll have time to cry when we aren't being chased down by dead people." He had my bag on the floor in front of him, which I apparently dropped when I found out about Garrett. He tossed a power bar into my lap and then got out some more water for Tim.

I looked at him angrily. I was so pissed I could have ripped him apart with anything at hand. I even considered it, looking down to my flooring scraper turned zombie cruncher, and then sighed resigned. He was right. I had to think about the rest of my family that was still here, and save them. I looked to Tim, who stood continually staring through the window at the monsters still within.

I took a deep breath. _Just use the fear for your kids, like you did at the store_ I told myself.

I took a long drink of the bottle in my hand, and stuck it on the floor next to me, tearing into my power bar. I had to be strong for my kids.

"Tim, come here. Don't look in there anymore." Once again, Tim actually listened and curled up onto the floor next to me. I wrapped my arm around him and kissed him on his head.

"Garrett is one of those things now?" He asked, sounding much younger than he was.

I sighed and nodded, feeling the tears coming again. Should I lie, and tell him we're going to fix him? Or tell him the truth, and let him ask what questions he needed. I chose the latter. "Yeah, buddy... But don't worry, you'll be fine. We're going to get out of here and get home."

"Are we going to turn into zombies too?" I heard him start to sniffle again.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, which I do. Just listen when Ben and I tell you to do something." He nodded again, and I hugged him tight. Nothing was going to happen to Tim, even if they had to eat through me to get to him.

I thought about Violet and Audrey, and had been so busy trying to get here, I forgot to check my phone when I did. I grabbed it out of my pocket and saw I had one message from Audrey. My heart leapt and I quickly checked what she had sent.

"We're fine. Rocks broke the window downstairs. Hurry home. You need to get the boys, I can't get out."

I smiled at getting a text knowing she was okay, but my eyes widened in horror. What if it was one of those rocks that turned people into those... Things? I immediately texted her back, telling her to stay at home, away from the meteors, and that I had the boys. The message wasn't immediately sent, but it would be sent 'when service was available'. I locked the phone and stuck it back in my pocket, hoping it wouldn't be dead before the message was sent.

"What did you do?" Someone asked. I glanced up and saw one of the people from the auditorium standing near us. He was staring at the cafeteria in horror, the pit stains on his button up shirt almost reaching each other across his chest. I didn't think the A/C was have been off...

"The door in the back was opened, and they-"

"How are we supposed to eat? How do we feed the children!? What did you DO!!!" He screamed. Tears poured down his face in rivulets and the volume of his voice made us jump. Both of his chins shook in fury.

I gulped. "We could try and lead them out of there, then you can shut the door and the cafeteria will be open aga-"

I was cut off again. "You need to leave. Now." He said, and stormed back into the auditorium.

Ben and I looked at each other with shared guilt. We did have to leave, but we had to eat first to keep up our strength.

Tim, Ben and I finished off a meal of some of the snacks I grabbed from Brody's, before I finally stood avoiding looking in the cafeteria filled with the monsters and my son. My chest tightened as I thought about not being able to see Garrett again, but I knew I didn't have the strength to do what needed to be done. We all took turns looking at each of the exits to the school, to figure out how we were going to get out of there. The main entrance we took in was packed with the dried up creatures, as well as the one in the back since it lead directly out to the playground. The only other one I knew of was through the cafeteria, and that was a lost cause.

"Any ideas?" Ben asked.

I looked down to Tim, staying strangely quiet and sticking close to us like we asked him. "Do you know about any other doors we could use to get out of here? Maybe one without a window?"

Tim thought quietly for a moment, before finally answering, "There's a door in the cafeteria, and I think there's one in the auditorium... Yeah, there is!"

I nodded. If we were to get out that way, we'd have to be quick. Those parents might not even let us go since it could risk the kids. "We have to go. I'll ask one of the teachers if they know another way, just in case."

Ben adjusted the pistol in his waistband, and I was holding Tim's hands in one of mine, the flooring scraper in the other as we made our way back inside the auditorium. Although we had entered before, most jumped when I came in and opened the door. The same group of people from earlier was near the door, and they all gave us dirty looks.

I remorsefully looked down, then back up to them. "What do you guys plan on doing with all these kids?" I had to ask, I had to know if these people had any plans. My guilty conscience wouldn't have allowed otherwise.

She shook her head, feeling tears fill her eyes again, "I don't know, the phones don't seem to be working, and we can't just take the kids home since none of the bus drivers are going to come and get them to risk themselves... Those people outside have just gone crazy... And you filling the cafeteria with them didn't help!"

Ben and I looked to each other, I hoped we could at least give them some information. Something so they could protect themselves. "Those aren't people out there." I said.

The look on her face was questioning, and she was about to interrupt when Ben continued for me. "Those things used to be, but they're not anymore. They won't hesitate to eat you or spit on you. If they do, they'll turn you into one of them. Look for the ones with the big stomachs, those are the spitters."

Her gaze turned to one of fear as she turned to me to finish, "But, they are dried up husks, so they're easy to get rid of. Hit them in the head, and you can take them down pretty quickly. You have to keep the kids and yourself safe."

She nodded, looking down to the floor as if she wasn't sure what she was actually going to do when the time came. I could totally understand.

I sighed and stepped closer to her, so when I talked more silent she could hear me. "We need to leave, is there any way you can think of that might be safe?"

"Why don't you go out the front door? I'm sure your buddies would love to see you." Responded the man who had yelled at us earlier.

"I have a kid and I'm going to get him home safe! Now is there any place we can get out that isn't covered in those things!?" I said, a little louder than I should have.

Children looked to see what all the commotion was, and tears started to fall down the lady in reds cheeks again. I suppose there were a lot of tears falling from people all over today. She nodded and pointed down to a door on the far wall, the same one that Tim had mentioned. The door stood between the seats and the stage. Directly in front of everybody, but it had no windows and had a few more adults standing around it.

I sighed, this was going to be difficult.

"We need to leave from there." Ben said.

"Leave?" She asked, looking at us like we were crazier than we looked.

"We have to get home. Please. I need to get my wife and daughter." I answered, trying not to give them an attitude.

When I brought up the point of a significant other and my kid, she couldn't hold it back anymore and began bawling again. I looked to Ben annoyed, but formulating a plan somewhere in my stressed out brain. I leaned close and whispered, "That door is pretty close to the main entrance. In fact, I think we can see it from there. Let's make a bunch of noise at the main entrance, lure any zombies that could be nearby to those doors, and then we can dip out of the door in here."

Ben looked around the room, then at the door, and mimicked the volume of my own voice. "That shouldn't be a problem, except for all the adults here. You really think they'll let us just open that door and grant them access to all these kids?"

I shook my head, "No, but I think we're not going to ask. We can do it fast enough on our own, and shut the door behind us. We won't let any of those things inside. Let's try and do this as quiet as possible."

The auditorium was crowded with kids, but most of them must have been too shocked to get up and play in the aisles. Most of them were just sitting quietly in their seats now, and a twinge of guilt hit me again. These kids most likely wouldn't see their parents again. Ben nodded in agreement, "Fine, let's hurry."

I looked down to Tim, listening intently to what we were saying. His questioning glance reminded me of a face his younger brother used to make. I felt the sadness bubbling up in my gut again, so I closed my eyes and tried to let the anger overwhelm it so I wouldn't lose it again. It felt like there was a race of emotions inside of me. A race that sadness, pity and fear were trying to win, and the only other competitor I could use to slow them down was the anger of the situation, and at all the things lingering outside the doors of the school. "Stick with us, Tim. When we leave the school, be as quiet as possible, okay?"

He nodded his agreement, and eyed my makeshift weapon. I knew what he was thinking, he wanted one. "What's in your book bag, buddy?" I asked.

He glanced over his shoulder, as if he'd have to look inside it. "My books and homework."

I smiled, it would probably be a while before he had to worry about anything like that again. "Go ahead and leave those here, they're only going to slow you down."

A look almost like rapture for a moment crossed his features, before he dropped it and emptied everything out of the bag. Having no school would probably be the only good thing about this craziness going on.

"Keep the bag, buddy, you might want it for later." He did as I said, and looked back up to me expectantly. I put my hand to his back and lead him out the doors to the main entrance we had taken earlier, Ben following behind.

All of us looked through the main doors leading outside. There were probably around fifteen mulling around the doors, children and adults alike. A lot of them I recognized as people living nearby.

Well, used to live nearby, now they... Deaded... nearby? Whichever.

When they noticed us, they turned and pressed for the glass, trying to find a way to grab us. Ben and I got close to the windows and tried to see the other exit at the end of the auditorium. From what we could see, there were a few, but the actual door was invisible to our sight. I banged on the door with my hand a few times. None of the zombies by the exit we were going to use noticed us, but the few that did from elsewhere made their way toward us.

Ben slammed the windows with his knuckles, yelling at the top of his lungs. "Hey! Over here you crusty as-" He cut off, remembering he was in the presence of a kid. "Punks! Right here!"

I did the same, being loud and banging on the door, and the creatures farther out began to take notice and step toward the commotion.

"What the hell are you doing?" Someone behind us said. We both turned around to find a group of adults standing behind us angrily, the sweaty tubby one from earlier at the head.

"Luring some of them over here, so we can get out." Ben said simply.

"Are you out of your minds!? We're trying to keep them away from us!" The man speaking was a fit looking man in a polo and shorts. Maybe the gym teacher, or perhaps just another one of the parents who happened to be volunteering not of their own free will.

"You're not leaving. You'll put us all in danger." The chubby jerk added.

_If I was as big as him, I'd be worried about running a lot too._ I thought.

"We're going to leave out that door in the auditorium." Ben said, hitting the door again, and causing the things outside to freak out even more trying to get to their active meal. "If you'd like to help, we're trying to clear the door so we can sneak past without them noticing. You'll be fine."

The adults looked as though they were confused as to what they should do, all but the porcine leader.

I glanced to the area by the auditorium door outside, and most of them were heading our way, if not already there. "I think we're clear." I said, and grabbed Tim by the hand. "Let's go quickly." I lead us toward the auditorium, and the adults blocked our way.

The three of us stood there for a moment, waiting to see what they were going to do.

Ben spoke up, thinking more quickly than I did. "If you want to help, you can shut the door behind us."

"No! You can't leave!" The big one said, getting directly in my face. I had had enough of this guy, and decided it was time to make a decision. I let go of Tim's hand, and cold cocked him in the jaw.

As he fell down and the other adults stood back in astonishment, Ben pushed his way through, followed my Tim and myself. We made our way into the auditorium, and made our way quickly to the door, followed by some of people who met us by the entrance. I turned and looked out over the auditorium. We were the center of attention, it would seem. No other people kept us from the door, and Ben grabbed the handle. "Please everyone, be very quiet" I said to all of them.

There was a sudden gasp from most of the room when Ben opened the door a crack. Tim grabbed my hand like I was holding him up from the edge of a cliff, although I had to admit, my grip on the weapon didn't lessen any. Trying to be quiet, it seemed as though the lock went off like a gunshot. He peeked outside, then turned to us and motioned us to move out the door. As soon as he opened it, with all the parents around us trying to decide what to do, one of the kids decided to scream.

Chapter 14

As is always the way, when one kid screams, others follow, and such was the case then. The auditorium went into an uproar, and the three of us ran out the door as fast as we could. The adults nearby apparently finally decided to do something, and slammed the door loudly behind us. The sound of parents attempting to hush them all came through the thick doorway.

_The ruckus of those kids had to have alerted one of them_ , I thought. We could still hear them yelling inside the building, but Ben began stealthily moving along the side of the building. Tim and I followed, his hand holding mine in a death grip. The front of the school still had a few wanderers, who saw us and began moving our way. The houses lining the street across the school had doors left open, windows shattered, and some of the zombies inside were making their way out towards us. Fortunately, the way we had to go was on the other side of the school.

"Go go go!" I said, and we all began running. It felt like I had been running all day, but the feeling of loss and worry kept me going. I could only imagine what Ben was feeling.

We turned the first corner and kept close to the school as we ran. One of the creatures was standing near the entrance on this side of the school, and Ben quickly dispatched him with the machete before it could even turn to discern what we were. They were coming from all over, and I could hear Tim whimpering behind me. It was tearing me up inside that I had to put him through this, but I was going to get him home, even if it meant I didn't make it myself.

I looked across the sidewalk that lead to the school from the street we had to cross. There was a few more along the way, but nothing I didn't think we could outrun and pass. Ben passed the last corner and made a beeline across the street. Tim was now in the middle and I was behind, trying to keep an eye out for anything that could jump us from the sides. Meanwhile behind, we had at least ten or more following with their creepy skip-hop, and their skin rubbing together with a sound like someone crushing a package of crackers over and over.

The racket we were making alerted even the zombies that had wandered into the cafeteria, as those were coming out to greet us as well. It made me think of Garrett, and my stomach clenched up tight at the memory. That was one monster I did not want to confront.

"This way!" Ben said, turning toward a house with the door open. If we could get inside, we could shut the door, and get these fools off of us, even if just for a minute. We crossed the street quickly, and made it to the yard, when another one of the creatures appeared from behind a tree adorning their pathway. Ben raised his machete to take it out, but not before it had the time to vomit all over him. Tim screamed and squeezed my had so tight I thought I heard a bone snap. I slipped my hand out, grabbed the scraper with my other hand and swung it in a horizontal arc across it's face. It's skull crushed easily, and it dropped like a dried out sack of potatoes. The entire time Ben was screaming and Tim immediately attached himself to me at the waist.

I saw the steam flowing off of Ben and I knew it was too late to do anything for him. My eyes filled with tears for my friend, blurring my vision, but Tim and I still made for the door and shut it behind us. A few seconds later we heard the thump of numerous bodies against the other side, scratching and trying to get their way in. I stood with my back to the door, panting heavily. Tim was staring at me, tears falling down his face in thick streams. His eyes were asking me why and what I was going to do to fix it. It tore my heart apart, on top of Ben being gone, and Garrett... It was just us now.

I knelt down and hugged Tim tightly. He cried hard into my shoulder, and I said soothing words to try and calm him down. The pounding on the door was steady, and was nowhere near as rough as when the creatures were pounding the one inside the cafeteria. We had to get moving soon.

I thought about the losses that both of us had experienced today. I felt the tears fall freely from my face, imagining it was Ben and Garrett both banging on the other side of the door. I'd never see either of them the same again, if I ever did at all. On top of it all, when Garrett and Tim left this morning, all I could think of was how irritated I had been with both of them. If I had another moment, another second, I'd tell him how much I loved him. Let him know now that I couldn't have asked for a better pair of boys then my two.

But Tim is here now.

I felt myself falling down a pity spiral. One that I could never get out of. One that would find it perfectly acceptable to sit a corner and live out the rest of my days there.

Then Ben popped in my head again with another sudden stronger pound on the door, knocking me out of my reverie. Ben was one of my best friends, and he had saved my life numerous times today... I was going to miss him bad, but like he said, I had to man up and do what I had to do for my family.

As if to put the icing on the cake for the emotions swelling through me, my phone made the tell tale hey-guess-what-I'm-shutting-off tone. I sighed, knowing I couldn't keep in contact with my wife if I got a signal.

I took a deep breath and tried to visualize shoving all my emotions to the side, packed in tightly by my anger at the circumstances of what I was experiencing now. What if it didn't just happen here? What if it was all over the world? I had no idea, but I felt myself falling back in, and reminded myself of Ben's words again.

Once I started hearing Tim's sobs slow down, I pulled slightly away and looked at him. His eyes were red and swollen from crying, but I tried to smile for him, and ran my fingers through his hair like I used to when he was a kid and not feeling well.

"Don't worry, buddy. We're going to get home." I didn't have a clue what to do in this situation. I don't think there was a book in the stores about what to say. 'Parenting in the Apocalypse' would probably be useful right about now.

"How? Everyone is going to die!" He said, tears pouring anew down his cheeks.

"We're going to be fine, you and me. We're going to make it home. Trust me, okay?"

"How!? We can't go back outsi-"

"Just trust me, Tim. I won't let anything happen to you." I interrupted, meaning every word. I looked into his eyes again, feeling a tear of my own fall. He flew forward and hugged me tightly, and I responded in kind. I stood and just let him cry against my stomach, rubbing his back with my hand as comforting as I could be while I looked around the house we had entered.

The interior of the house was a lot nicer than my own. There were stairs to the right, and the big living room we were in continued on into the kitchen beyond and then through big glass patio doors into the backyard. This room was one of those that had furniture no one uses, a show living room or something like that. The lights were out, but it was still bright enough outside through the haze to see in the house. I hadn't thought to look and check our surroundings before bursting in, and that could have been bad. I absolutely had to be more careful.

"C'mon buddy." I said softly, and started trying to make my way to the kitchen. He whimpered and clamped on tighter, trying to keep me from moving. "We have to keep moving, Tim. We have to get home to Mommy and Violet."

"I don't wanna." He said matter-of-factly.

"Trust me, Tim. Nothing's going to happen." I said trying to comfort him.

He whimpered again, but moved slightly so we could make our way in baby steps to the kitchen. Once there, I looked more closely out the back door. The patio doors led to a covered wooden porch, and the backyard was fenced in with a nice wooden privacy fence. On the edge off to our left, I saw two more of the things hunched over and eating a corpse whose blood had stained the grass around it. Whoever it was must have lived in the house, and tried to jump the fence. I sighed, I had to take care of them if I hoped to get us through and back home. The problem being that since those things had eaten, they were going to be spitters.

I sighed, and pried Tim's arms from around me so I could kneel down in front of him again. He opened his eyes and looked to me as if worried what I was going to say this time. I whispered softly, so I didn't alert the creatures outside, "Tim, you have nothing to worry about. I'm going to protect us."

"What are you going to do?" He said, worry evident in his voice and his bottom lip quivering.

"I have to take care of something before we go, and you'll see you have nothing to worry about." I said, imploring him to just listen for once. He was quiet for a moment, and I hoped I was doing the right thing. "Just check the cabinets for a snack, and be extra quiet."

He finally reluctantly nodded, and I sighed taking one last look at him before heading for the back door. Neither of the creatures had noticed me, and I tried to open the door as silently as possible. It was relatively new, so luckily it slid open with little to no effort or sound. I slid it shut behind me, and made my way across the porch slowly. My arms were throbbing, and all the cuts from that zombie earlier burned as my sweat leaked into them. The sounds of flesh being ripped between their teeth was loud, abnormally loud it seemed. Maybe it was because of all the adrenalin flowing in my veins that made me feel like my senses were heightened.

Or maybe I was just making stuff up.

I held my breath before taking the first step down the three that lead to the yard, my eyes on the freaks that used to be people the entire time. The first step went fine, no noise. Even the second and third were fine before making my last and final step to the ground. Little red paving squares were set in a pathway to the back gate, and the first one I stepped on shifted, causing me to lose my balance for a second and bang the railing with my weapon.

That was enough, and they turned their heads in unison. One was wearing what must have been a nice yellow sundress at some point, while the other was clothed like it was turned before it could even get out of bed.

My brain tried to process what it needed to do, and all those times playing video games seemed to come in handy. I needed to take one out, or at least get it out of the way for long enough to take out the other one by itself. I ran forward, both of them starting to stand with their jaws open and ready to puke all over me. I placed the floor scraper over my shoulder and as I got near enough, and baseball swung it for the closest things head. A disgusting crunch followed as its head sunk in and twisted to the side.

The other creature in morning clothes had time to move forward as it got up from its knees. The familiar sound of water coming down a garden hose came from its wide open grin. I took a step back, and adjusted the scraper and swung the opposite direction. As I did, the thing moved forward and I clipped it's arms, sending it stumbling to the ground, the green puke flying out and hitting the fence harmlessly. I spun the scraper and thrust it hard into its head. Dried up skin and hair flaked off of its skull and my weapon hit the ground. The creature twisted to try and reach me, and I lifted the scraper and struck again and again. The first strike clipped it on the other side, while the others were just for good measure turning it's head into mush.

I stood and caught my breath while looking around, and making sure there were no other dangers in the area. I almost puked myself at the view of the corpse and two broken creatures around me, but sadly, I had almost gotten used to the scenes today. I looked down to the eaten corpse, and noticed it's hand clutching a small axe, and it gave me an idea. It was surprisingly clean, and I pried its fingers from the weapon and made my way back inside.

Tim was staring with both hands on the patio glass, fear and tears covering his face still.

"I thought I told you to look for some food?" I said as I opened the door.

He didn't respond, looking at the three dead bodies lying in the grass.

I sighed. No need to get angry at him for not listening... Again. I held up the hand axe, and held it out to him. He looked at it in awe. I could only imagine what was running through his head, especially after all those times I told him and his brother not to go using sticks as swords to hit each other with.

"Now this isn't for you to go running around trying to find a fight. This is for you to use when there is no other option, defense only, just like karate. You understand?" He nodded slowly, and inspected his new weapon. I stood there trying to smile, and hoping that I hadn't made a huge mistake.

"I'm trusting you with this. It's a tool, not a toy." I said, remembering some info from the scouts.

I turned and looked about where our next move would be. The sounds on the front door were insistent, and I could see a fair amount of light coming from the cracks at the edge of the frame. It wasn't going to hold much longer. The backyard had a gate that lead to an alley. Most of the houses nearer to the city were made in the townhouse format, which meant they had a small backyard, and an alley that stretched a long way, from block to block in a straight line. This house was no different, and I had to try and catch my bearings for where we were so I could know which direction we had to go. The river we had to cross only used one bridge nearby, and it would be the quickest way getting home. Getting across it could be hard, but it was the only way we were going to get home.

Tim was still looking in awe at his axe, and I ran my hand through his hair. I felt as though I had won a good parenting award for that one, at least for instilling confidence in my kid.

"Alright bud, we're going to get moving. We still got a little ways to go, so get a little water in ya first, okay?" I reached into my pack and pulled out the water bottles from before. We both had a few chugs of the bottle, and Tim decided afterwards we should go to the bathroom, "like men" as he called it. By going like men, it meant into the bushes. Either way, it seemed to cheer him up a little. It's funny the little things that can make a kid happy.

I replaced the bottles of water, and told Tim the plan, that we would go through the alleys until we were close enough to the bridge to cross. The only issue was that we had to be especially quiet. He nodded, holding the little hand axe tightly in both of his hands while still trying little practice swings.

Chapter 15

The alley was clear, and I was thankful. We stepped out, and I noticed the alley ran straight, since I could see clear for quite a few blocks before it turned a little too much to the right. In another stroke of luck, the next few blocks were uneventful. The end of each block stopped at another street, and I would poke my head around the corner, make sure none of the monsters were around, and then we'd sprint across to the next alley. It gave me a small chance to rest, since most of that morning it felt as though I was running nonstop.

Tim had kept to himself, clutching the hand axe I had given him like it was his lifeline. We didn't talk much, which was for the better. We heard a few groans and shuffles going on behind the fences of all the yards we passed, but even if they heard us, there was no way they could attack. A few houses were torn down from the meteor shower earlier in the day, but it must have killed everyone inside, or the creatures had moved on as soon as they turned. The relief was almost palpable, until we reached the street that would take us to the bridge.

I motioned for Tim to stay still, and I peeked around the corner to see the path we needed to take. Malvin St. ran perpendicular to the Pelican bridge, and normally was an extremely busy intersection as people headed into or out of the city. Today seemed to have been no different before the meteors, except a lot of the cars were empty. They were still parked as if turning on or off the bridge. Those that weren't empty had a crusty creature strapped into a seatbelt, unable to recall how to get out of the safety contraption. From the alley, I could also see straight across the bridge, where cars were backed up all along it. Midway down, one of the huge rocks that had fallen earlier had hit the bridge, taking out nearly half of it.

I could only imagine the panic that went on here when all of this went down. From my view, I could only see the roofs of cars all the way to the opposite side of the bridge. Once we crossed it, it would only be about a mile to home. I wasn't much a church goer, but I prayed silently again that my wife and daughter were okay, which lead my mind to think about Garrett again.

I shook my head, trying to get the thoughts out of there. _There will be time to grieve and remember him later,_ I told myself.

I missed him like crazy.

"Alright buddy" I whispered, and knelt down beside him again. My knees popped and I groaned a little in pain. I wasn't used to all this exercise, but I guess I was going to get used to it whether I liked it or not. "We need to duck down and be extra quiet and sneaky. Don't make a sound at all. If we're quiet, we should be able to get past them all and get home quicker that way."

Tim looked at me curiously, and I knew a question was coming, but at least he was quiet about it. "Are you sure?"

_Not one bit_ , I thought, but I couldn't let him know that, of course. "Yeah I'm sure," I replied confidently. "We just need to make sure they don't see us, and be extra quiet. You ready?"

Tim looked around, as if he needed to get some of his stuff together, and wasn't sure what he was going to bring. It brought a little smile to my face. "I'm really tired, Dad."

I sighed, and pulled out the next to last bottle of our water. "Me too, but we're almost home." I gave him the bottle, and he took a few healthy drinks, leaving me with a sip or two. I drank the rest down, replaced it in my pack, and then turned for the street. I was much more nervous than I let on. If he had any idea that I wasn't sure, he didn't let on, which was all for the better in our situation. It was semi quiet where we were, though the sounds of alarms going off and the occasional scream could be heard in the distance. I took a deep breath and took his hand. "Let's go."

Crouched low, we both turned the corner and moved carefully in to the street. We stuck close to the side of the building, cars even pulled up on the curbs trying to get around the traffic. Car doors were left open, as if the passengers had decided to get out and make a run for it, instead of sitting in traffic like a TV dinner just waiting to be eaten. We sped behind a big SUV, and stayed low. I poked my head above the hood, to see if any of the monsters had noticed us. None had, and were still wandering around aimlessly, just waiting for something to catch their eye.

We moved swiftly and quietly, dashing from car to truck to whatever other vehicle could block us from the view of zombies. We were lucky, and I knew it. Trust me, I was happy about it, but I knew our luck couldn't hold out.

Surprisingly, we had made it across the street and onto the bridge with no incident. It couldn't have been more than 30 feet from the alley to get across the street, but the fact we were on the bridge was a blessing in itself. Tim and I were between a truck and a bus that were touching noses in the middle of the bridge. We had to go around one of the vehicles to continue further down the bridge, or over the hood of the truck. I poked my head above the hood again, to see where the monsters around us were located. One in an EMS uniform was wandering on the other side of the school bus, and I could see many clustered together tightly in the middle of the bridge. In order to get across, we had to get through them. The bridge narrowed halfway down since one of the meteors was apparently big enough to bust through one side and tear the bridge from a four lane into one.

I sat for a moment, still clutching Tim's hand and trying to consider what to do. I couldn't fight through them all on my own. I also couldn't see perfectly from this distance, but one of them could easily be a spitter. It made me think of Ben, covered in the steam that was created from being spit on by one of the monsters. I needed him now, he would know what to do. He was the one able to keep his head during all this, while all I could do was freak out. The longer I sat still, the more the fear tore into my resilience and kept me from wanting to go. Tim looked to me curiously, and clutched my hand tightly, leaning into me with his head on my shoulder. I smiled and leaned my head onto his. I loved that little booger, and it somehow made me feel more brave.

We sat there for a few minutes with our butts on the warm pavement. I kept hearing the creature on the other side of the bus randomly shuffling in whatever direction it deemed necessary. My brain was scrambling for ideas, when a loud commotion in the distance caught the monsters attention. Both Tim and I heard it as well, and the monster's footsteps stopped. Tim and I looked at what direction it was coming from, and the former ambulance rider made his way towards it. It was coming from the direction we had come from the alley. I watched curiously, when down Malvin came a group of people, scrambling down the packed street. I got to my knees to get a better view, and my heart skipped a beat as I realized they were headed this way. The zombie on the other side of the bus made his way to intercept them.

Tim released his hold on my hand and clutched my arm in a death grip, right around the time I saw what they were running from. A horde of the creatures were chasing them in their skip-hop fashion. They were slower than someone running, but eventually people got tired, and I was pretty sure they didn't. The people were a combination of all sorts, weaving between the cars like a puck in the Plinko game.

I turned to look at the monsters blocking the narrow area of the bridge, and they started moving towards the fresh meal racing their way, which also meant towards us. The group of runners were screaming in fear, and encouraging the others on with shouts of "Come on!" and "Keep moving!".

I sighed again, we had no choice but to run with them or get sandwiched by their pursuers. I looked to Tim and said "We got to start running again, buddy."

Tim let out an exhausted sigh, but otherwise gave me no response.

I watched the runners as they closed in on us. Most of them barely gave us a glance as they shoved past us and hopped over the hood of the truck. If we were going to make it, and I felt like a jerk thinking this way, we had to let them get ahead of us so they could possibly help clear the monsters.

"Move, man!" One of them yelled as he practically hurdled over the truck hood. Tim and I stood and moved over the hood as fast as we could, when we heard something pound against the opposite side of the bus, followed by a blood curdling scream.

"Lissa!" One of the people ahead of us screamed , as he turned around to try and help whoever was being attacked with a large pipe wrench in his hand. I wished him silent luck, while Tim and I ran for our lives on our move across the bridge. A few of those faster than everyone else were already almost on the group of zombies blocking the way ahead of us. Apparently these people were more accustomed to running than I, and were dodging green vomit and grasping arms with ease. As they passed, the monsters ignored the ones behind them and turned to give chase.

Tim and I weaved between cars as fast as Tim's legs would let us. One of the runners ahead of us tried to dodge another shot of the bright green vomit, but as he twisted to dodge, it caught him in the arm causing him to scream, smoke pouring from every pore in his body.

Tim shrieked in fear, and my only response was to yell in return to keep moving. We were moving at a good pace, and the monsters were still focused on the people ahead of us in the confusion. As the path ahead narrowed to one lane, there became less cars, but more tightly packed zombies. One of the people was cornered by three that had blocked his path. As we passed them to the side one came around from behind and tackled him with a chomp to the jugular. The other three followed suit and fell to the ground to feed amongst his screams.

We had made it halfway down, and there were still more giving chase and many blocking the path ahead. We had reached the part of the bridge that narrowed to one lane, with a blue four door sedan sitting smack in the middle of it. About five of the creatures were standing to either side of it, waiting for their meal to come to them. The runners ahead of us easily hopped on to the trunk, to the roof, and over the other side and continued their escape. The monsters reached their arms out to grab them, and managed to grab a woman that was stepping a little too close to the edge. Her full white track suit turned a quick shade of red as the three on the left opened their mouths and took chunks out of her calves. The ones on the opposite side had her hands and were biting at what flesh they could reach while she cried in pain.

"Anna!" The runner behind her screamed. She may have known her, but it didn't seem to slow her down when she simply jumped over her and continued on her way. She was as athletic as her friend, but still tripped on the hood and cracked her head on the bumper of the vehicle ahead of her.

I tried to slip my hand out of Tim's grip, and he refused. I turned around as we moved, "Let go! Just for a second and follow me!" I said. He surprised me and did exactly as I said and clutched his hand axe tightly in both hands as he ran. We quickly sped to the blue car blockade, with creatures feeding on the woman named Anna, I looked to either side of the vehicle. To the right, there was only two monsters, but no way I could move them out of the way for us to pass. On the other side though, there were three, all on the edge of the hole caused by one of the massive meteors crashing through it.

We took the left in a hurry, and while they concentrated on feeding from the roof of the car, I swung my heavy duty floor scraper at the nearest creature to us. He tried to hold on to his meal as he fell over the edge, and managed to drag his food off the roof with him. I stepped back as her still thrashing and screaming body fell to the ground in front of us and the other two knelt to finish their meal. I swung again to try and knock one of them off the edge, and succeeded in moving one of them into the crater beside us, landing under the bridge with a splash.

"Dad!" Tim screamed again, and I turned to see the one of other two making their way toward us from the other side. The other was heading for the unconscious friend on the other side of the vehicle. I cursed, and moved in front of Tim to protect him from the one who wasn't distracted by a corpse. Instead of swinging though, I pressed my scraper into it's chest and shoved it backward, sending it toppling over the side of the bridge. I turned again to try and move the one blocking our path, to find Tim had already put his axe into it's crackly skull. He had apparently done it with enough force to get it in, but was struggling to get it out as it crashed onto its former meal.

I couldn't decide in that instant whether I was proud of him, or scared for his future and what he was going to be raised in. Either way, I was just happy that the path was clear. I moved forward and yanked the axe out in one pull, handing it to Tim, and then urged him to move. He did so, this side being much clearer than the other.

As we side stepped the ladies now quieted corpse, I felt the pavement give beneath me and cause me to fall for the hole. I yelped in fear, scraping my shin along the edge of the hole as I fell. I grabbed the edge with whatever panic gave me, and I hung over the edge of the precipice up to my chest.

"Dad!" Tim screamed, and leaned over to try and help pull me up.

"Just go! Run!" I yelled, trying to get myself up over the edge with no purchase for my legs. I glanced to the right and saw more runners and zombies zooming past us like we weren't even there. I suppose it was fair, since we had been doing the same.

Tim still didn't move, and continued to try and help me. "I told you to go!" I yelled, finally rolling up and over the edge. One person actually hopped over Tim and I as he escaped the chasing horde. Tim didn't even respond, knowing I was upset, and yanked me toward the other end of the bridge. My shin throbbed, and was most likely bleeding up a storm in my pant legs.

I turned to see a few of the group of humans following our path as Tim and I ran across the empty bridge, void of whatever monsters there could be. We still had many on our tail though, and I could tell Tim was getting tired of running.

Once we reached the opposite end of the bridge, I knew our home was only several blocks away. We needed to get these creatures off our tail though, and take a break. The street running perpendicular to ours was jammed with cars as well, and I saw one runner ahead of us dragged into a vehicle with it's windshield busted out, grasping arms yanking him into it's waiting maw. It didn't bode well for our own passing, despite the couple others getting through unscathed.

I took a quick second to survey our surroundings, and get some bearing on where we should head. Of course, there wasn't much time. The buildings along the street were shoulder to shoulder, with even more of the dried out zombies scattered throughout, heading towards the commotion on the bridge. A block over, the local TV station's radio tower was apparently hit by the same size rock that took out the bridge. I decided we should try the doors of the shops, perhaps get into a building and hole up for a few minutes and catch a breather.

I took Tim's hand and we ran full speed toward the closest door across the street. I was keeping an eye out for not only what was stumbling around outside of the cars, but what could be lurking within as well. We ran weaving in between cars, none of the zombies close enough to cause any real concern, since none of them seemed to be spitters. This place must have been hit mostly by meteors, and hadn't left any living flesh for them to use.

We went to the first door, a pet shop, and tried the door. It opened with no problem and a jingling bell above the door. When I peeked inside, the place was a wreck. Glass was shattered all over the floors, and when I peeked in the darkness of the back, the sound of feet slapping linoleum echoed across the store. A couple formerly human creatures moved from the back, and opened their mouths to get ready to vomit their disgusting bile at Tim and I. Both of their stomachs were filled to bursting, which explained all the wrecked cages. He screamed, and I slammed the door just as the bright green ooze flopped against the door.

I looked down either side of the street, and found the zombies that had been chasing the us were closing in, and more from either side were coming towards us. I cursed under my breath as Tim cried out for me again.

"We're alright, buddy. Let's go!" I said, trying to reassure him. Though frankly, I wasn't even sure myself. His sobs of fear weren't improving the situation either.

The monsters were in a large herd to our left, with only a few coming from the right. I turned to the direction with less of them and ran with Tim in hand right behind me. We booked it down the sidewalk as fast as Tim allowed. One of the creatures skip-hopped in front of us, and I let go of Tim's hand in time to baseball swing my scraper at the things head. I missed, and connected at it's neck. The blade made a crunch and forced the creature to stumble to the side and try to catch itself on a nearby vehicle.

"Tim, come on!" I yelled, moving behind him and kicking the creature in the back for that little extra second of time. I made sure he was in front of me, but not far enough where I couldn't jump in if one of the things came near as we closed in on the corner.

"Turn right!" I said as more came from the interior of cars with busted windows. A feeling of hopelessness washed over me. Not many were near, but I didn't feel like we had time to bust in on all the houses down this street. It would require checking each place carefully before we just barged in to attempt a rest. The pet shop showed that, and the house we found when we left the school was just a stroke of luck.

We continued down the street, and the base of what used to be the tower for the TV channel 6. Halfway up, it was collapsed over onto the roofs of houses for blocks, but the base was surrounded in a chain link fence. It could do, at least for a breather.

"Go for the fence!" I pointed, even though Tim didn't even have to look to know what I was referring to. I sped up to get in front of him again and took hold of his hand. My legs felt like jelly, and a good sit would do some good. I would have much rather gone on until I got home, but I had Tim to think about, and I had no idea if he could make it. The creatures did their skip hop in our direction from either side now, on top of the ones following. It had a gate, but door was situated on the other side. The fence was about 8 feet high, and as we reached it I lifted Tim in my arms and helped him to climb over. I followed quickly, kicking one of the creatures in the face as I flew over, landing unceremoniously on my side. I rolled quickly, and stood to find Tim waiting for me.

"Move! Move! To the tower!" I said, and we both ran for the corner of the tower, a solid piece of steel where we could curl up and catch our breath. We went around and both plopped down in the shadow, holding each other and panting heavily.

Chapter 16

Each corner of the tower formed an L shape, which allowed us to snuggle down inside it. Tim curled up in my arms, and I felt the exhaustion of the day's exertions wearing on me. My forearms and my leg were pounding with the steady thump of my heartbeat.I could only imagine what Tim was going through, but I knew we still had more to go before we could get home, and who knew if we'd be able to rest when we got there.

I reached into the bag, and gave Tim the bottle of water. He chugged it greedily, finishing the entire thing. I threw the empty bottle in a random direction away from us, and tried to relax for a moment and enjoy the shade. Littering was the least of our problems at the moment.

I hoped the cage surrounded by monsters would do a decent job of protecting us, and allow us some rest before we moved on. I could easily see the opposite side of the cage, but the monsters coming there weren't an issue at their distance. The ones chasing us knew where we were for sure, and that would probably lead more easily to our direction. I could hear the noises of them pounding on the fence, and getting louder as more joined the crowd. This, in combination with Tim's consistent crying were enough to drive me crazy.

I leaned out of our corner of safety. Even if it wasn't really safe, the feeling of not being chased was enough for me. I gasped when I saw all of the monsters pounding on the fence around us. The fence was leaning slowly inward, and giving more slack all the time. One of the zombies at the front was a spitter and opened his overly wide mouth for an attack. The flying green vomit flew short of where my head had just peeked out, and landed with a sickly splat on the ground. I noticed chunks of flesh still undigested within, but with all the stuff I had seen today, it wasn't a surprise that I could hold lack of lunch down.

I looked around, trying to think of a way out of this. The fence was surrounded on all sides by the creatures. My gaze was brought to the space above us. About a quarter of the way up, where it had been slammed by one of the meteors from earlier in the day. The hit made most of the top bend over, and rest on the buildings that were still standing. To our left, about halfway across the side a ladder rose and followed along the tumbled tower. I shivered, thinking about the climb, and putting more strain on my already exhausted body. It seemed to be the only way out though.

"Alright bud, we gotta move." I said, trying to stand. My muscles were stiff from the brief respite we received.

"I'm so tired..." He squeaked out, his inflection giving away his exhaustion as much as his words.

"I know buddy, but we have to go. They're going to be on us any minute." I felt like I had said that a hundred times today, and I tightened the strap to the pack over my shoulder. Tim peeked out and gasped when he saw the zombies trying to break their way in, and almost succeeding. That quieted him quickly, and he nodded with tears in his eyes.

I pointed, "We have to climb the ladder. I'm gonna run out and distract them, so run as fast you can for it when I say. You understand?" I turned back to look at him, visibly shaking from fear, tears in a river down his face. He stared straight ahead into nothing.

I sighed deeply, needing the courage myself. I closed my eyes and remembered again who I was doing this for. We were almost home.

"If I get hit with the green stuff, you go up yourself, Tim." He didn't respond, so I knelt in front of him again, running my hand down his face. "We're going to be okay. Tell me you understand, please..."

His eyes finally locked to mine, and nodded slowly. I nodded in turn, spun, and ran for the other leg of the tower. That sound of water running down a hose came again, only in stereo as it came from all sides. Panic hit me hard and I felt my heart skip a beat, but it gave me a boost as I booked it for the other corner.

Splats were heard all around, but most of it didn't come from the area around me. I chanced a glance at the fence line and almost laughed aloud as most of the creatures around us tried to spit through the fence, but were stopped short by the large chunks of flesh keeping them from making it through the holes in the fence. A few bits did make it, and they splattered the ground around where I had been moments before.

I slammed hard into the corner and released a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. Pressed flat into the corner, I looked across to Tim, who was doing the same thing I was in his leg of the tower. I tried to smile and give Tim a thumbs up. His eyes just stared wide at me, and I could tell from here he was breathing fast and hard. It was then I thought about not just the physical, but the mental pain this had to be putting on him. I don't think I'd be able to find a therapist anytime soon.

I ran across again towards him while I still held the courage. No spit came this time from the creatures, except for the continual sound of them banging on the fence mixed with the creaking of metal. I slowed down by the time I got to Tim this time, and held him tight in my arms. "Okay buddy, I think we'll be good." I ran my fingers through his hair attempting to calm him down, while he held me in his fifth grade death grip. "Run for the ladder, and I'll follow you up."

Tim looked up at the massive tower above them, and gulped. He looked around at the zombies pressing in at either side, then back up at the broken steel above us. He must have understood we had no other choice, and whispered an okay.

I nodded and kissed him on the forehead. "Alright let's go. Run!"

Tim hesitated only for a second, then ran for the ladder. The monsters on the other side of the fence went crazy, seeing two sets of prey at once. I stayed behind him, just in case some left over zombie had some spit saved for us. The fence finally collapsed inward and poured the crusty monsters over in a heap, the ones behind climbing over others to get to us.

Tim turned to see what was happening, and I quickly pressed him forward, blocking his view behind us. "Just move! Faster!"

Despite my effort, he saw with eyes widened in fear, and made even faster for the ladder. Once he reached it, he moved upwards quicker than I thought possible. The creatures clipped my ankles as we made our way up. I glanced down and saw our pursuers with arms up and jaws open, hoping for a slip up. Hell, I'm sure they were just wishing they could remember how to climb.

Only several feet up, I heard the familiar sound of liquid down a pipe, and panic set in. I pictured myself like Derrick, Ben, or even Garrett... Writhing in pain as I turned in to one of the creatures I had been running from all day. I looked down, unable to see which one it was.

So be it. At least Tim would be safe, and maybe I'd be lucky enough for the fall to kill me.

I moved faster and climbed up directly behind Tim, his backpack in my face, his body covered by my own. The scraper clanged against the metal of the ladder with every move I made.

"Dad, what are yo-"

Something slapped into my pack, causing me to bump into Tim. I gasped and looked at it, to see the sticky spit attached to the outside. The stupid pack had saved my life. I slipped it over my shoulder, and allowed it to drop on the waiting horde.

Chapter 17

We had finally made our way to the point of impact. The tower was originally all cross hatch steel, but now it was twisted as it laid on its side. I was determined not to look down once we had reached higher up. I knew my fear of heights was not something I needed right now, but having the numerous other ones quelled it for now.

The going was far more treacherous once we were moving sideways. The ladder was spaced about a foot and a half apart, which was great for going upwards, but caused Tim to hesitate.

"You got it, Timmy." I encouraged from behind him. "We're almost home." I was surprised it only took that to get him going again, but it worked.

Some distance forward though, I felt we were close enough to the roof of one building that we could easily drop down, and hit the streets until we were home. It wouldn't be long at all, we only had about a blocks worth of moving. I looked in the direction of my house, and saw smoke billowing upwards. I said a silent prayer that it wasn't our house.

I stayed close behind Tim, ready to catch him if he were to slip up. I felt we were close to roof, and was about to tell him we were going to drop down, when the ladder and fate decided to make the choice for us. We both heard the steel groan, and when Tim turned to look back at me in fear, the rungs pulled away from the main substance of the tower.

Both of us screamed. The part behind us was still attached, and caused us to tilt forward, the free part of the ladder slamming into the roof of the building below us. My head slammed hard into the rungs, and both Tim and I rolled off of the ladder onto the flat roof. I groaned and held my head as I sat up, looking at Tim, who had also sat up and was holding his mouth.

"Are you okay?" I asked, scooting toward him.

Tim's mouth quivered. He moved his hand and started screaming as blood flew out of his mouth. I cursed and held his mouth to look as he cried.

"It hurts! It hurts!" He said over and over as red blood dripped down his lips on to his shirt. I looked and saw that his lips were swollen. He shook his hands like he hand burned them, looking back and forth at nothing like children tend to do when they're in pain. I dabbed at his lips with my shirt, cleaning up what I could.

"Did you bite your lip?" I asked, wiping his lips and hands with his shirt. He nodded, tears still falling down his face, more in pain than fear this time. I held him tight and waited for his sobs to subside before looking around for our method of exit from the roof. There wasn't a door that lead to a stairwell, which I assumed was something for the movies. I noticed what looked like a fire escape rung hanging on the side of the building.

"Let's figure out how we're going to get home, huh? We're almost there, and you've been doing a great job." I ran my fingers through his hair once, then stood up and looked around the different sides of the building we were on with my trusty floor scraper in hand. The rail I had seen was a fire escape that lead down to an alley. Only a few zombies we were wandering the streets, enough to avoid.

Hell, I could also see my house from here. The smoke I had seen earlier was from a house a few doors down, and in the front yard I saw my car had been pulled haphazardly onto it. The glass of the front door was also shattered and left ajar.

_No. No. I did not come all this way just for them to be turned into monsters like everyone else. I don't know if I could handle if I had to see Violet or Audrey as one of those... Things._ Panic set it, and I felt my breathing quicken even more than from the physical exertion.

I held Tim's hand and looked down the fire escape. The ladder at the bottom was still up, needing to be slid down to reach the street. I climbed over without saying a word, moving as fast as my legs would take me, then helping Tim onto the ladder. It creaked loudly with the screech of metal on metal, and I checked to see if anything had heard us.

We were still safe for now.

Tim clung to my arm tightly, the blood from his lips stopped but was more swollen than before. I started slowly down the steps, Tim following and being silent for once. The building we were on was only 3 stories, but a good 8 feet above the street level, the fire escape ended. The ladder sat waiting to be slid out onto the ground, which I know would make enough noise to alert every monster in the vicinity. I wracked my brain for something else we could do, and got nothing. I sighed in defeat, and looked over at Tim beside me.

"We're going to make one last run for it. You know where our house is, right?" I whispered. He looked around, then back at me and nodded. His eyes were almost lit up with hope. It was nice to see a little happiness in his eyes, even through the pain of his mouth. "Let's go, big man."

I didn't give him a chance for rebuttal, and I slammed the ladder down. It slid down with a grind of old metal on metal and hit the sidewalk. I quickly ran down the steps, waited for Tim to follow, then made for the alley exit.

A zombie covered in red blood with a deflated stomach turned the corner, his leather jacket hanging off his shoulders like he was unable to keep it up. I stopped quickly, his mouth opened impossibly wide as it moved forward to take a bite of me. The alley was too narrow for my baseball swing, so I raised it above my head and crashed it down into his skull. It crushed his dried skin and skull easily enough to pile him into a heap on the ground.

I jumped over the pile of human jerky, and turned to Tim. "Don't stop moving!" I said, grabbed his hand, and made for the street.

We ran in tandem, I slowed down enough for him to keep up. Monsters all over were turning their heads in our direction, and making way for the mobile deli that was our flesh.

We hit our second wind and booked it fast down the street. Abandoned cars littered the streets alongside the busted glass of windows and house fronts. None of the zombies got close enough to give us any trouble, and the spitters were unable to hit us when we were running full speed. Green goop hit the ground all around us as we turned the corner, our house finally in view. On top of my car in the front yard, I also saw one of my brother in law's vehicles parked in the street to the side of our house.

Two more zombies were making their way up the porch of my house. Anger set in in all new fury as I got closer. One of them I noticed was my neighbor on the left side. Always being a bitch about where his lawn ended and mine began, as if the fact that even though we cut our lawns the same height, it made a huge difference.

The other was some random woman in a business suit. The events of the day had obviously affected me heavily, when I dropped Tim's hand, and then my neighbor with my new favorite weapon in one swing. I felt no remorse either when the woman turned her head to look at me before dropping her as well. I turned to see Tim following briskly, and I ran quickly in to the house.

"AUDREY!" I screamed as loud as I could. I didn't hear anything at all in response. I looked around my living room, and saw one of my brother in laws on the floor, chunks taken out of different parts of his body. To his right were many of the creatures that were tormenting the city, dead. Again. Some of them had bullet holes in their skulls and various body parts, which meant at least he was able to take some of them out before they got to him.

Tim saw his uncle and began bawling anew. I looked down the hall and noticed the bathroom door open, so after a quick check, I told Tim to get inside and lock the door, since even the front door was torn down. He began to protest, but I was not in the mood.

"I love you." I said, and shoved him harshly in the door. I slammed it shut and heard him hit it as he tried to come at the door and make another protest. "Do it!" I yelled, and ran for the stairs to see if Violet and Audrey were there.

I yelled both of my girl's names as I ran up the stairs. I heard my daughter yell "Daddy!?" from behind our bedroom door at the end of the hallway. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw three of the monsters banging on the door to my bedroom. They all turned in unison, adding an even creepier quality to the fact that zombies were creepy enough. Each one of their stomach were filled to bursting.

I saw that the one in the middle was my other, lazier brother in law Jacob, who lived with the one dead downstairs. The other two zombies I had never met before, one with a red baseball cap on the left, and the other was a larger woman in a bright purple muumuu.

I had been through so much today, and done things I had only thought would have to be done in my imagination. Anger flared through me, on top of the happiness I felt at knowing at least my daughter was alive. So many people had died today, and I would be damned if I would turn out to be one of them when I had a family to protect.

I let out my own version of a war cry and ran towards them as their jaws opened together to hit me with the green slime that would turn me into one of them. The one in the red baseball cap was in front, and I slammed the floor scraper directly into it's mouth as hard as I could. He fell sideways, the top half of his head from the jaw up ripped fatally and knocking him into his compatriots. My former relative behind him spit directly into the back of what was left of his head, and the other's spit went wide along the wall.

I yelled a laugh in relief, knowing that at least that portion of the problem was abated. Only two more were left.

The hit wasn't enough to knock the others on the ground, so they recovered quickly and came for me. I instinctively backed up, with purple muumuu zombie in front of the other. I reversed my grip and hit the one in the front, making it stumble and fall for the stairs. As it tried to recover too quickly it slipped on the top step and tumbled down the rest.

As I recovered from the swing, the last zombie tackled me. His claws dug hard into my shoulders and I screamed as it opened it's jaws to take a chunk out of my face. My floor scraper still in my hands, I slid it up quickly and in between its teeth. Despite the fact that each of the zombies were just dried out husks of their former self, their strength didn't lack for it.

I continued to wrestle with the creature that used to be Jacob. It twisted violently like a dog with a tug of war rope. His claws sliced at my shoulders and I screamed in pain. If he didn't eat me with his jaws, the bleeding from his hands would surely do the job. My arms begged to give out from the exertion, until I finally felt like I had no strength left, and Jacob stopped chomping his jaws. His dead eyes stared straight ahead, and his body slumped.

I shoved his body off of me finally, to see Tim standing at my feet, with the hatchet we had found in his hand. I sat up with a wince and looked at him, tears filling his eyes.

"For once, Tim, I'm so glad you didn't listen to me." I said with a sigh.

Standing with difficulty, Tim actually helping, I finally made my way to the bedroom door. I tried the knob, and found it locked. I knocked on the door, "Audrey? Violet?"

Movement sounded on the other side of the door, and it unlocked with a click before it quickly swung open.

Audrey stood there, holding Violet in her arms. Both of them screamed for me and I didn't hesitate to hold them both tightly. Tim followed suit and wrapped his mom and I in his arms. I grimaced from the pain in my shoulders.

"I missed you guys so much. Are you alright?" I felt tears gather in my eyes.

Her eyes were tearing up as well, and Violet clung to me like Velcro as we released our embrace. "I'm fine, your brother just scratched me up a little bit." We all moved into the room and shut the door, sitting down on the bed with a sigh.

Audrey gave Tim a kiss on his head, holding him close before she looked around at us confused. "Where is Garrett?" She asked, worry evident on her face.

Tears starting welling up in my eyes as I started to explain. The story took a long time, with tears of sadness and confusion. As we spoke, lines of zombies from outside poured into the house they knew had fresh meat. Mine.

###

Thank you so much for reading my first book! You may have made me just crap my pants in excitement.

You think I'm joking?

No. I'm serious. You can probably smell it from there. Just take a whiff.

In genuine seriuosness, thank you again. I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to leave a review letting me know how I did, even if you didn't like it. It's okay, I'm a big boy, I can handle some criticism, I promise.

Just ignore the tears. They're tears of joy.

About the Author:

Kevin Layell Jr lives in Virginia with his wife and three kids. This number doesn't include the other children of the neighborhood that frequent his house more than ants in the Spring. Besides reading and writing, his hobbies include drawing, playing video games with his children, and working on making everyone laugh.

Connect with Me Online:

Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/KevinLayellJrWorks>

Twitter: kevinlayelljr

Smashwords: <https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kevinlayelljr>
