“What are you?” Jordan finally asked.
It opened its mouth, as if to answer, but then it stopped and seemed to pause for a moment.
It doesn’t know, Keo thought. Or it’s not sure.
Instead of answering her, the creature hissed, “The marina. Get to it.”
“Easier said than done,” Keo said, walking back. “How many are out there?”
“Hundreds.”
“You attacked them,” Jordan said. “The soldiers on the first floor. That was you.”
It nodded.
“Why?” she asked.
Its eyes shifted to Keo. “I need him alive.”
Keo didn’t know if that was supposed to make him feel better or worse. He just hoped the creature and Jordan didn’t notice when he trembled involuntarily for about half a second before he could force himself to stop.
He looked back at the door instead. “Why haven’t they attacked yet?”
“They’re confused,” it said.
“Confused? By what?”
“Me.”
Well, at least I have that in common with them, Keo thought, and said, “So what now? What are they doing out there?”
“They’re waiting.”
“For what?”
“Orders.”
“Whose orders? Yours?”
It shook its head. “Someone else’s.”
Something else’s, you mean, Keo wanted to say, but bit his tongue.
“You’re not like them,” Jordan said. She hadn’t looked away from the blue-eyed ghoul…or lessened her grip on the shotgun.
“No,” it said, resting its blue eyes on her. Keo swore the damn things seemed to be glowing-pulsating. “I’m…more.”
“Can we wait them out?” Keo asked. “Until sunrise?”
“No,” it said. “The orders will come, and when they do, they’ll attack. You won’t survive to see morning. The marina is your only chance.”
“We’d never make it. It’s a long island and you said it yourself, there’s too many-”
It turned and began walking back to the window.
“Where are you going?” Jordan asked, and Keo thought she actually sounded terrified to see it leaving.
“Stay here,” it said, and before he or Jordan could respond, the creature leaped through the broken window and disappeared into the dark void beyond.
Keo ran over and looked out just in time to see it bounding across the backyard, then catapult over the iron fence as if it were a foot high instead of ten-feet-tall. The flaps of its trench coat fluttered in its wake before vanishing into the night.
Now I’ve seen everything, Keo thought, except even when the words popped into his head, he didn’t think it was true. He had a very strong feeling that tonight was just the beginning, that things were about to get…stranger.
Jordan appeared next to him. “Keo…”
“Yeah?”
“That just happened, didn’t it?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“I just wanted to make sure.” She paused, then, “It knew your name.”
“I noticed that.”
“Keo, it knew your name.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know.”
“And it could talk.”
“I heard.”
“I didn’t know they could talk. Did you?”
“I…yes.”
“You knew?”
“I heard stories.”
“What kind-”
Thoom-thoom-thoom!
They spun around simultaneously as the dresser shook against the door.
“I guess they finally got those orders they were waiting for,” Jordan said breathlessly.
Thoom-thoom-thoom!
“The bed!” Keo shouted.
He started moving toward the king-size bed when a long, thin shadow fell across the floorboards in front of him. At first he thought it was just him or Jordan, but that didn’t make sense because he knew exactly where his shadow was, and Jordan was to his right, but this one was coming from his left and over his shoulder-
Keo turned around just as the ghoul flung itself from the top frame of the window and landed on the windowsill, impaling its bare feet on shards of jutting glass. For a split second, Keo thought it was the blue-eyed ghoul returning to finish him and Jordan off, having decided they weren’t worth the effort to save.
But no, because the eyes glaring at him were solid black and not ethereal blue.
The creature lunged into the room and Keo lifted the Mossberg and fired, punching a hole through the creature’s chest, flesh and muscle splattering the wall behind it, while the blast itself had enough force to throw the ghoul backward and to the floor.
“Keo!” Jordan shouted.
“The bed!” he shouted back, and racked the shotgun.
The ghoul was picking itself up from the floor when Keo shot it again, this time taking its entire right arm off at the shoulder joint. When that didn’t stop it, he racked and fired a third time, chopping one of its legs out from under it.
The creature toppled to one side, landing in a splash of its own thick pool of blood. Instead of trying to get back up on its remaining leg, the ghoul started crawling toward him, using its one arm to grab, fingernails digging into the floorboards, and pull itself forward. Then it repeated the process.
Keo stared at the absurd sight for a moment before taking a quick step toward the creature. It raised its head to look up inquisitively at him just before Keo fired, shattering its skull and splattering flesh and blood across the floor.
It didn’t have a head anymore, but the damn thing was still dragging itself toward him…
Keo’s stomach lurched and he took a step back before starting to reload the shotgun. He didn’t have to go very far, because even though it wouldn’t die, the ghoul had been reduced to a tortoise’s speed, sliding across the floor in almost slow motion.
“Keo!” Jordan shouted. “I could really use a hand here!”
She had cleared the pillows and blankets off the bed and was trying in vain to drag it by one bedpost toward the door. Looking at her straining, Keo wondered amusingly if Jordan would get to the door before the ghoul got to him-
“Keo!”
He slung the shotgun and hurried across the room, giving the back window one last look just in case another one of the creatures had managed to climb up the wall outside. When he didn’t see any further threats, he grabbed his end of the bed and pushed.
His left shoulder screamed and his right thigh throbbed against their bandages. Ripples of pain sliced up and down his body and he was probably bleeding again, and he was thankful he didn’t have time to stop and make sure-
Clack.
Keo spun back toward the window just in time to see the blue-eyed ghoul pick up the now-headless black-eyed one from the floor by its remaining leg and casually toss it through the window.
THOOM!
Splintered wood flew across the room and almost impaled itself in Keo’s face. He ducked just in time and watched as a pair of dark eyes peered into the master bedroom through the slit in the door.
THOOM!
Another piece slid across the floor, the slit on the door widening both horizontally and vertically. As if they knew exactly where the weak spot was, the creatures began slamming into the opening until it was big enough that one of the ghouls could begin to squeeze itself through, slashing its flesh against the edges.
Black blood arced through the moonlit room.
“The marina,” the blue-eyed creature hissed. “Now.”
*
The creature had gone to get an extension ladder, the same one Keo had used earlier to retrieve Gene’s water bottles. It was leaning outside the back window of the master bedroom and Keo climbed down first, doing his very best not to think about what awaited him below, but only knowing he had to get away from the room above him and the creatures amassed outside its door at this very moment.