From Ron’s front door, you could see the long gravel roadway that was his street and that was where she went. She was slightly hesitant to open the door, lest something previously unimaginable was on the other side. But Henry never turned to look at her as she disengaged the lock and pulled the door open quickly. Kind of like the band-aid removal method--do it fast before it can sting.
Ron had come quickly with rifle in hand, almost pushing past Tracy to shield her from whatever Henry was going on about. Henry was all about conservation of movement and energy and would only reveal his true inner wolf when someone he loved was in danger.
“What’s going on?” Ron asked wide-eyed, looking around expectantly for any signs of danger.
“He just started barking, but he keeps looking at that wall,” Tracy said, clearly confused.
“Mice maybe?” Ron asked, trying to fill in the knowledge gap.
“Henry? Barking at mice? Not unless they are carrying his cookies away. What’s on the other side of that wall?”
“That’s south so about a fifty-foot clearing and then the woods,” Ron answered.
“South?” Tracy asked and she began to turn ashen.
“What’s the matter?” Ron asked in alarm. “What’s south?”
“North Carolina.” Tracy was slammed with a heavy dose of vertigo. “I’m…I’m sorry,” she said as Ron helped her to a chair.
“Let me get you some water.” Ron was back in a few seconds, Tracy felt a little better as she drank. Henry barked a few more times and then yelped once before he walked out of the room with his head down. Tracy’s glass shattered to the ground as she passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“We were about three or four streets over,” Gary said.
“By the Fredericks’ house?” Josh asked, cutting through some hedges that had looked impenetrable.
“I don’t know; how would I know that?” Gary asked.
“Did you see a bright, bright blue house?” Josh said, extending his hands.
Gary couldn’t see how stretching your hands equated to brightness, but he went along. He thought for a few moments. He hadn’t really been taking in any qualities of the neighborhood. Houses, even garish ones, tend to become less important when one is looking for things that will possibly get them killed. “I don’t…wait, I think it was further up the street. I kept thinking that I hoped they got a good deal on the paint because it was pretty ugly.”
“Do we know where we’re going?” BT asked, clearly agitated.
“Yup.” Josh seemed to be reveling in this. He’d probably played this game a hundred times before, hiding from the enemy. It would have never been a real life scenario like it was now, but practice does have a way of making things perfect. Josh pulled two slats from the fence to the side so he could fit his slender form. BT ripped another five off to get through. Josh did not seem pleased, but he pressed on. Within a few minutes, they were assailed with the smell.
“This is the place.” Gary said.
“What gave it away?” BT asked, wanting to hold his nose.
Josh opened the gate from the homeowners’ backyard and was heading to the front when BT grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground.
“Hold on. Gary, go check,” BT said. “You’re the fastest at the moment,” he added when Gary passed on by.
“I think that honor goes to Josh, but I’ll check.”
“Any chance you’ll let me down now?” Josh asked, his legs kicking in the air.
“Do not go anywhere, unless it is back to your house,” BT said as he gently placed the boy on the ground.
Gary got up close to the side of the house and inched himself around, taking a quick peek. He immediately turned back to where Josh and BT were. “Send him home NOW!” Gary yelled as quietly as he could.
“Now, kid, go home! Do not turn around! Do you understand me!” BT yelled.
Gary had started firing his rifle. BT urged Josh in the opposite direction as he brought his rifle to the ready. He was wholly unprepared for what he witnessed as he turned the corner to stand side by side with Gary.
Michael was completely surrounded by zombies. His skin was the color of burnt hamburger and large curled flaps of skin were peeling away from his singed chest and shoulders. These were being torn off by zombies, struggling to get at the flesh. Michael was screaming as pink, oozing, tender flesh was exposed while the zombies tore off the blackened parts.
At least a dozen zombies were dropped by Gary’s and BT’s rifles fire before Mike’s attackers took any notice. At first, two or three went after the pair and were quickly dispatched, but as Michael went to his knees and then his face, the rest turned and went for the new meat.
Gary was dry firing, screaming in rage as the zombies approached. BT was afraid that Gary was going to go into berserk mode and just start swinging his rifle like a club. BT was getting low on ammo. “Let’s go, Gary.”
“He’s my brother!” Gary yelled, looking up at BT’s face with tears coming from his eyes.
“There’s nothing more we can do here.”
Gary took one final look back at his brother who had not moved since his head made impact with the pavement. He sobbed as he ran, tears so occluding his vision, he had to be guided by BT.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What is the purpose of waiting here, sister? Now is the time to pull back and regroup. Michael is long gone now, yet we have wasted days here.”
“We have wasted nothing,” Eliza hissed. “While you have been having secret rendezvous’ with the enemy, I have been summoning a vast zombie army to destroy everything in our path toward getting Michael, starting with this little town.”
With Eliza’s human sympathizers out of the way, Tomas had hoped his sister would give up her foolish quest, or at least, postpone it. In the meantime, he had kept tabs on Michael when he could. His former father was getting good at disguising his presence. Mike had delivered a victorious blow, and for the life of him, Tomas could not figure out why the man had not collected his things and gone home. Even with the infection in BT, that should have only delayed him a day at the most. And now his sister was planning on bringing thousands upon thousands of zombies to this town.
“What do you hope to accomplish here?” Tomas asked his sister.
“Either you are still trying to cover for him or you are not as powerful as you imagine yourself to be, but Michael is still around. And even now, he uses his limited powers to save himself. If only he would fully reveal himself to me, I would finish him off myself.”
Tomas was taken aback, he had not known his sister realized Michael was still here, but what was more unsettling was he did not know Mike was in distress.
“Don’t be so confused, brother. I have blocked you from him. This is one battle the great and mighty Michael Talbot will need to finish on his own without any outside help.” Eliza laughed as Tomas tried desperately to get around whatever she had put in place to hinder his ability to talk to him.
Tomas could feel the psychic push of thousands of zombies as they closed the distance from their original locations to get to where their mistress beckoned as he extended his powers to try and encompass Mike.
“This is insanity, sister, he is gone from here.”
Eliza was still for a moment as if she were listening for a pin to drop on a faraway floor. “Perhaps you are right for once, little brother,” she said as she turned to walk away.
Tomas was relieved, maybe something could be salvaged out of this after all. Then the barrier that had been erected between Michael and himself crashed to the ground. Tomas nearly fell to his knees as he felt the screams of Michael, and then there was silence, soulless black silence. “What have you done, Eliza!?” Tomas screamed, chasing his sister down.