“Is this the garage?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah. There are two doors in here. One leads to the back yard and one over here near the front. I’ll check this one, you check that one.”
“I can’t see shit.”
“Just feel around, that’s what I’m doing.”
The two of them parted ways as they made their journey to the doors. Kyle made it to his with little to no trouble, while Victor struggled.
“Need help?” Kyle asked. He didn’t wait for Victor to answer. Unlocking the door, Kyle pushed it open, letting in some sunlight.
“I can see,” Victor said as he reached the door and made sure the deadbolt was secured. He walked back to the door that led into the living area.
Kyle surveyed the outside. The backyard to the house was pretty big, about an acre. A tall brown wooden fence stood on the property lines, which made it almost impossible to see anything that might be going on in the backyard. There were a few trees scattered about the enclosure. All of them looked to have some sort of fruit on them.
“Apples,” Victor said as he snuck up next to Kyle.
“Any good?”
“I dunno. Wanna go get one?”
“Can we?”
“Sure,” Victor said, stepping outside. “I don’t see why not.”
The air was crisp and fresh. The recent rainfall was the cause of such fresh air. The sun beamed a bright yellow that would sometimes poke itself from between fast-moving clouds.
Victor was the first to reach one of the trees. He put the icepack down and began to jump into the air, trying to catch a branch. Kyle walked to the tree trunk and began shaking it violently, as though he was trying to rip the tree from its roots. The wet leaves and apples began to quiver as the loose apples fell to the ground. They poured down on Victor like red oversized raindrops. One of the stray fruits hit the boy on top of his head. Kyle began to laugh hysterically as he stopped shaking the tree. Victor rubbed the top of his head and glared at Kyle, who was now leaning back laughing.
“Don’t laugh,” Victor said, crouching down and picking up one of the fallen apples. He hurled it at the uncontrollable Kyle. It bounced off his chest like he was made of rubber.
Kyle instantly stopped laughing. They stared at each other like two men in the old west about to draw. Victor bent down to grab another apple and flung it to Kyle. This time, Kyle was able to react. He caught the apple with his right hand and stared at Victor as if saying what next? Kyle raised the apple to his mouth and took a large bite. He chewed on the piece of fruit and let the rest of it fall to the ground.
Without warning, Victor sprinted toward Kyle and jumped in the air. Kyle braced himself for the impact and caught him in mid-air, but he didn’t realize how heavy Victor really was. He felt himself slipping and after a millisecond, Kyle fell on his back. He rolled Victor off of him and popped up like a spring. So did Victor. They grappled, each one trying to make the other one fall, but they were holding their ground well.
Kyle knew that at any second he could drop the kid on the ground, but they were just horsing around. He wanted to let Victor think that he actually had a chance of pinning him; something that any good father would do.
Victor pushed Kyle backward, but Kyle countered by twisting the boy’s arm, not to cause any pain, but some discomfort. Kyle threw his arms down and quickly grabbed him in a head lock. Victor dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks, his head slipping out of Kyle’s grip. Victor swung his arms at the back of Kyle’s knee. He fell off balance but didn’t fall to the ground. Victor repeated the attack again, but this time Kyle tripped and landed on his knees. Taking the opportunity of the fall, Victor pushed Kyle’s body forward and grabbed hold of his ankle. He twisted it as hard as he could.
Kyle felt that Victor had hold of his ankle and was twisting, but he didn’t feel any pain. Victor didn’t have enough strength to actually cause him pain from doing his submission move. But again, like any good father would do, he tapped out and let Victor win the match.
Victor jumped into the air in triumph while Kyle lay on his back, holding on to his ankle as if he was in a lot of pain.
“You lose!” Victor taunted.
Kyle reached for the back of Victor’s ankle and knocked him off his feet. He came crashing to the ground on his back. Kyle began to laugh, and so did Victor. They lay there, looking at the clouds in the sky, their clothes wet from the moist grass.
“I love ya, bud,” Kyle said, between breaths.
“Gay,” Victor said. “Thanks for bringing me home.”
“I’m gonna miss you when I leave tomorrow.”
“Me, too. Do you want to stay? I know we have the extra room.”
“I don’t think your mom would like having me around. Besides, I got a hottie waiting for me in California.”
“Will you come back after you find her?”
“I’ll think about it.”
They lay there for a few more minutes before standing and heading back into the house. The entire time they were outside, Morgan was watching them through a window above the sink. She scrutinized their antics worriedly.
Chapter Twenty-One
The three of them sat at the dinner table. The radiance of sunlight began to dim as twilight quickly approached. There were lit candles around the table, which made it a lot easier to see.
“This is you guys’ first time in the neighborhood the way it is now,” Morgan began. “There are a few things that you need to know. When the sun goes down, the streets flood with them.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen them at night,” Kyle added. He thought back to the night they spent at Susie’s house. “Have you seen any jets?”
“Jets? You mean like fighter jets? No, I haven’t.”
“That was crazy what they did,” Victor chimed in.
“What happened?”
“We were at my neighbor’s house. She survived the outbreak by just hiding out inside. It seems like everyone who just went into hiding survived. But anyway, we spent the night at her house and saw them just overtake the streets. I was hiding underground when it first started, so I’d never seen what the streets looked like at night. That was a shock to me.”
“You’re rambling, dude,” Victor said.
“Sorry,” Kyle replied as a sudden ding echoed within the dining room. “What was that?”
“Dinner’s ready,” Morgan headed for the stove.
“How’d you get it to work? Do you have some electricity in the house?” Kyle asked.
“No, it’s connected to a propane tank and I used a match to turn it on.”
The smell that escaped from the oven was wonderful. Kyle could smell chicken with potatoes and cream of mushroom. It was a very easy meal, as all of it was made from canned goods. All Morgan had to do was open the cans and empty them into a glass baking dish.
Each of them had paper plates sitting in front of them. Morgan came around with the baking dish and gave them all a few scoops.
“My favorite,” Victor said as he grabbed a plastic fork and began eating.
“It does smell lovely, Morgan,” Kyle admitted. He reached for his fork and took a bite. The smell didn’t do the dish justice. It practically melted in Kyle’s mouth. “Really good.”
“Thanks,” Morgan said taking her seat. “It’s the best I can do with what I have. Continue your story.”
“Oh, right. So we were hiding in the house eating dinner, kind of like what we’re doing now. I wanted to get to the roof to check out the Existing Dead and when I did, I saw some lights in the sky. They were jets.” Kyle raised his hand into the air and mimed the jets. “One of them broke formation and came hurling down in our direction. They started blasting the dead on the streets with some heavy artillery. We ran back into the house and prayed that they wouldn’t hit us.”