“You had no problem killing us,” Susie said, pointing to herself and then to Chet, “when we threatened Victor.”
“It felt real good …” Chet mocked in a slurred voice.
“Shut up!” Kyle yelled, tightening his jaw.
“Why is Morgan so different? She’s taking away your boy.”
“She’s different because she’s his mother.”
“Oh, Kyle,” Mary said. “That doesn’t bother you. You’re just afraid that he’ll hate you if you kill his mother.”
Kyle silently agreed with that statement.
“If only you can find a way to kill her without Victor blaming you …”
Kyle’s eyes opened. His shirt was drenched in sweat. He sat up and looked toward the door. There was nothing. No Mary, no Eddie, No Susie or Angel, no Chet. He took in one large breath and stood.
The symphony of moans coming from outside seemed to triple in volume. There was nothing Kyle could do. Stuffing gauze in his ears helped, but it was uncomfortable. He stared out of the window. There was a small ledge directly outside the second-storey window. It was large enough for someone to stand on. He didn’t know how far up to the roof it was, but if he had to make an escape, he could do it from there.
He thought about the dream he’d just had. This wasn’t the first time Mary and Eddie had came to him while he slept. The first time they had warned him about Victor being raped, but this time, their message was confusing. Did they want him to kill Morgan?
There was only one way Victor wouldn’t blame Kyle for his mother’s death, and that was if an Existing Dead got her. No, he had to stop thinking like that. He didn’t want to kill anyone else to stay with Victor. All he wanted was to go find Jasmine.
The sound of glass shattering startled him. He reached for his Glock and opened the door. The moans grew by a few decibels as the Existing Dead found a way into the house. Kyle didn’t understand how they knew that he, Morgan and Victor were inside.
Morgan came down the hallway with two flashlights in her hands. “What was that noise?” She handed one to Kyle who shone it down the stairs. The beam from the light pierced the darkness, illuminating a good portion of the ground.
“They broke through the front window,” Kyle replied. That’s when he realized that the Existing Dead that he’d thought had seen him earlier really had. It just hadn’t made a move until now.
“What’s with all the noise?” Victor asked stumbling out of his room.
“The damn mustard plants aren’t working anymore,” Morgan said under her breath. “They’re inside the house.”
“What? What the hell are we going to do?”
“Calm down, Victory. We’ve planned for situations like this.” She shone the flashlight beam to the door that led into Victor’s room. “Did you notice some of the living room furniture is in your room?”
“Yeah, I just ignored it.”
“Kyle, you and Victory go grab the couch and bring it back here.”
Without hesitation, Kyle put the flashlight on the ground and the two left for Victor’s room. Kyle holstered the Glock on his belt and lifted his side of the couch. They slowly brought it out the room and set it down gently.
“Here it is,” Victor said as a loud pop, followed by a flash, erupted.
Morgan stood at the top of the staircase looking down with a long barrel rifle in her hands. Smoke gasped out of the barrel as she took aim. Kyle un-holstered his Glock and stood next to Morgan. Victor quickly followed suit with his .357 Magnum revolver.
“I haven’t shown you how to use that thing yet,” Kyle said. Morgan popped off another round.
“I showed him how to use it,” Morgan said.
It was true. Victor no longer needed Kyle to show him things. He had his mother for that. Victor and Kyle shot at the advancing undead crowd.
“The Existing Dead we shoot are gonna get back up in a little bit. We need to get to the roof and wait there ’til morning. Push the couch off the stairs,” Morgan ordered.
Kyle stopped firing and started maneuvering the couch so he could use it to block the pathway up the stairs. “Move,” he said as he pushed it over the edge. The couch tumbled down until it lodged mid-way.
“That should hold them for a bit,” Morgan said. “Come on.”
She led them into the room Kyle had been sleeping in. She took a few steps inside and stepped on a tin can that had been left outside one of the boxes.
She managed to roll her ankle and lost her balance, causing her to fall to the ground. “Ahhh!” she yelled. “Help me up,” she said. Kyle lifted her by the shoulder and they both walked to the window.
Kyle opened the window and poked his head outside, then looked toward the roof. “It’s pretty high up.”
The Existing Dead below stared up at Kyle’s head. Their moans grew louder at the sight of food.
Kyle looked at Morgan. “Think you can climb?” She shook her head. “Okay, this is what we are going to do. Victor first,” he said. “If it’s high, I can help Victor climb up. Once he’s on the roof, I’ll climb up. From there I can pull you up.”
“Fine,” Morgan said between gasps of pain.
Victor climbed out of the window and stood on the ledge. “Can you make it to the top?” Kyle asked.
“No, I need a boost.”
Kyle climbed out of the window and stood on the ledge next to Victor. He glanced down for a second and looked at the dead below. Hundreds of them stared with hunger in their eyes. Kyle could only imagine what the scene would look like if they fell.
“Hurry,” Morgan said. “I think I hear them climbing over the couch.”
Kyle cupped his hands so Victor could step on it. “Ready?”
Victor nodded.
“On three, jump. One. Two. Three.”
Victor put one hand on Kyle’s shoulder and jumped. He grabbed onto the roof with his forearm and lifted himself over. The distance was far over exaggerated.
Kyle looked through the window and said, “Take my hand.” As their hands met, Kyle saw the figures of Mary and Eddie staring at them by the doorway. He did a double take but when he did, they were gone.
He helped Morgan onto the ledge. Victor stared down at them. “Move!” Kyle said as he prepared himself to jump and grab onto the roof. He jumped and with his hand grabbing onto the ledge, he used all his strength to lift himself as if doing a chin-up. He yelled in pain as he felt the muscles he hadn’t used in a long time reactivate. Victor grabbed onto Kyle’s shirt and helped him up. Kyle rolled onto the roof and lay there for a few seconds.
“We need to get my mom,” Victor said.
Kyle jumped to his feet and leaned over the ledge. He saw Morgan staring back at him. He rolled onto his belly and threw his hand down. It was six inches too short. Kyle stared back at Victor and then to the ground next to him. There was a metal vent pipe sticking out of the roof next to them. “I can’t reach your mom; this is what we are going to have to do. We need to make a human chain. You need to grab on to this pipe with one arm and hold on to mine with the other. That might give me a few more inches so I can grab her hand.”
Victor nodded. “Okay.” He held onto the pipe and extended his arm toward Kyle. They locked hands and Kyle began to slowly lean himself over the edge. “Make sure you hold on tight, Victor. If you let go, your mom and I are going down.” Their hands began to sweat. “Morgan, reach for my hand.”
She reached as best as she could but the pain in her ankle wasn’t letting up. “I can’t reach!”
“Listen to me, jump.”
“What?!” Morgan said surprise.
“Forget about the pain and just jump to my arm. I’ll grab you and hoist you up.”
An arm flew out of the window with the force of three men and swiped for Morgan’s leg. She panicked but didn’t fall over the edge. Instead she jumped into the air ignoring the pain, ignoring the discomfort, for she knew that if she didn’t jump toward Kyle’s dangling hand, she would be pushed to the pits of hell. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Kyle looked at her from his position. Her arms slowly reaching for him, closer and closer, but for a tenth of a millisecond, something in the horde below held his attention. Mary and Eddie stood in the middle of the Existing Dead watching him, as if judging him. Kyle glanced back at the approaching arm and as they almost connected, Kyle swayed his arm just out of her reach.