There was a lot of blood. Or something that looked like blood. It was thick and clumpy, and it was splashed across the bedroll and the concrete floor around Matt’s head and on the wall behind him. There were thick gobs of it everywhere.
Gaby turned back around and looked at what was left of Matt. She didn’t say a word.
I’m the guy…
“What should we do with the body?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe we should put it outside.”
“I guess.”
“It’s still light outside. We could take him farther away—”
Josh suddenly lost his voice when Matt sat up on the bedroll. Gaby let out a loud, bloodcurdling noise and stumbled backward, her hands clamping over her mouth.
Josh didn’t know what was happening, but found himself backpedaling with her.
Matt was dead. He had to be dead. But then dead people didn’t sit up and stare back at you. And Matt had done exactly that. Was doing exactly that. Which should have been impossible, because Matt didn’t have a brain anymore. Josh knew this because he was the one who had splattered Matt’s brains all over the bedroll and wall and floor.
So how was he still moving?
Like the bloodsucker at the store…
Josh lifted the gun, and that was when Matt seemed to notice him for the first time. Except Matt’s eyes had changed. They were black now. Like a bloodsucker’s. His skin had started to harden, and strands of his hair fell free as he sat up.
Then he heard Gaby’s voice behind him, filling the basement, shouting, “Shoot him! Shoot him, Josh!”
Josh shot Matt again.
This time he actually felt the gun kicking, and it was all he could do to hold on to the revolver with both hands.
He shot again.
Both bullets hit Matt in the chest. Except Matt didn’t go down, didn’t even seem to feel the gunshots. Both bullets had gone clean through Matt and embedded in the wall behind him, leaving two small holes in his shirt.
Matt was almost on his feet when Josh shot him again, and again, and again.
He kept squeezing the trigger until all he heard was the click-click of the hammer striking down on empty chambers.
“Run!” Josh screamed.
Gaby turned and raced to the stairs. Josh ran after her, and he was halfway to the stairs when he saw Matt’s backpack on the crates in the corner. Josh stopped at the last second and ran over and grabbed the backpack.
He heard Gaby, from the top of the stairs, shouting after him, “Josh, come on! What are you doing?”
“I’m coming!” he shouted back.
Josh ran back to the stairs and took the first step, then the second, then a third — and risked a glance over his shoulder. Matt had stood up and was looking at him, and as he tilted his head — in some kind of curious pose — something solid but also wet dropped out of the hole in the back of his head and plopped to the floor behind him.
“Josh!” Gaby’s voice, pulling him back to the present.
Josh turned and ran, taking the next few steps two at a time until he was at the top of the stairs, where Gaby was waiting for him. Her eyes met his and for a split second he recalled that first night in his basement.
He slipped through the door and grabbed it and slammed it shut. There were no locks on this side of the basement door, but that didn’t matter. It was still afternoon, and there was sunlight outside. He could feel the heat in the air. He fled through the living room after Gaby, kicking aside a chair and knocking free a vase along the way but not giving a damn.
They burst out into the sunlight, racing down the porch, and stopped only when he could feel the harsh rays against his face. Gaby lowered herself into a crouch next to him, gasping for breath. Josh looked back through the open front door. He could see easily through the house, down the hallway, with the basement at the very end.
The basement door opened a fraction, and a dark, blackened hand with prune skin peeked out from the other side, feeling along the frame. Josh waited, but no one (no thing) came out. Instead, the door closed again, softly, and there was only silence.
He looked down at the gun in his hand. He didn’t know how he had held on to it the entire time. But it was empty now, and the gun felt lighter. He looked at Matt’s backpack in his left hand and wondered if there were more bullets inside, or if he had risked his life for nothing.
Please, God, let there be more bullets inside.
They stood silently next to each other and stared back at the house, down the hallway, at the closed basement door on the other side. For some reason, Josh expected the door to open again, for Matt to come bursting out and scream that it was just a joke, that he had planned the whole thing as a gag.
They waited for something to happen, and nothing did.
Finally, Josh said, “We should go. We need to find another place before nightfall.”
“Just leave?” Gaby said. Sweat dripped from her face.
“We can’t stay here. We need to find somewhere else before nightfall.”
They heard the sound of a vehicle braking loudly behind them, and they both spun around. Three men were climbing out of a Jeep parked twenty yards away, dust still swirling around the vehicle.
One of the men had a full head of white hair. The other two men walked closely behind the first, both wearing military-style clothes over plain white T-shirts and combat boots. They were both armed with assault rifles that looked ugly and dangerous.
It had been such a long time since he had seen other people besides the three of them that for a moment Josh was paralyzed with indecision. By the time warning bells went off in his head, the men were already ten yards away and getting closer. Josh was also suddenly very cognizant that he had no more bullets left in Matt’s gun.
“Don’t shoot,” the man with white hair said, grinning at them and lifting both hands in mock surrender.
“What do you want?” Josh said.
“Right to business, huh?” He looked away from Josh and over at Gaby. “My name’s Folger. You have a name, miss?”
Gaby didn’t answer. Josh could feel her body tensing up into a ball of nervous energy next to him.
Josh didn’t realize when exactly he made up his mind, but suddenly he was standing protectively in front of Gaby and pointing Matt’s silver chrome revolver at Folger’s face, even cocking back the hammer for effect. “Stay back,” he said, trying to inject as much menace as he could muster into his voice.
The two men behind Folger raised their assault rifles and aimed them at Josh, but for some reason Josh wasn’t afraid. He didn’t know why, maybe it was stupidity, or maybe it was even courage. He could sense Gaby behind him, trembling slightly, and he realized all of a sudden that he would do anything — do everything—to keep her safe.
I’m the guy…
He expected to see fear in Folger’s eyes, but there wasn’t any. Instead, Folger seemed almost amused by the situation. “Are you sure you have any bullets left in that thing, young fella?” Folger asked.
Josh felt his heart miss a beat.
“I heard you firing it a number of times before we pulled up,” Folger continued. “How did you think we knew you were here in the first place? Sound travels these days, you know. Heard that first gunshot from a few streets down. From my count, you fired at least five times. Is my math right, Del?”
One of the men behind Folger, a big man with a bald head and almost no neck, grunted out, “Five sounds about right.”
“What about you, Betts?” Folger asked.