Apocalypse Asunder (3 page)

Jessica moved up and used the gun as a club again, this time on the glass.  The noise was sharp and abruptly musical as she shattered one of the panes, followed by a scraping and tinkling sound as she used the pistol’s barrel to clear out the opening of any stray shards.  Peering through the other panes, she saw only an empty dining room and a piece of a kitchen on the left, with part of what looked like a fairly typical living room beyond the dinner table.  Nothing active, nothing in motion.  She counted off another half-minute, giving anyone who might be inside time to react, then transferred the pistol to her left hand and reached carefully through to feel for the locks.

There were two; a dead bolt and a standard knob lock, she disengaged both before withdrawing her arm.  Taking the gun back up in her right hand, she used her left to open the door and pull it open.  It swung back noiselessly on oiled hinges.  Jessica let it open fully, then eased up without going through and checked in both directions before finally stepping inside.

The house smelled stale.  The air had that still scent of having been undisturbed for some time.  It was neatly kept, but dusty with disuse.  Nothing was present on the table, counters, or in the sink to indicate someone was actively living there.  She went left, through the kitchen, and checked the laundry that was off of the kitchen.  Washer and dryer, a handsome wooden shelf that looked custom, but no clothes.  And no problems.

Reversing, she slid past Austin and headed into the rest of the first floor.  The living room had more heavy wooden furniture, again looking purpose built to fit the space; with shelves and tables that she was sure hadn’t come from any store.  Pretty good ones, actually; not cheap boards chopped and hacked into shape.  The construction had been executed with care and skill, from the sanding and stain down to some scrollwork and edging that added an extra touch.  Someone here had been a carpenter, or had hired one.

After making certain nothing was behind or under any of the furniture, she checked left and found a large parlor with more wooden appointments; though a feminine touch was more evident here with brighter and patterned fabrics on the curtains and coverings.  Moving past the living room revealed a pair of rooms that were a kid’s play room and someone’s idea of a game/TV room; both packed with toys and electronics, but nothing else.  No people, no zombies.

“So far so good.”
Jessica told herself as she retraced her steps to the stairs leading up.  Austin made room as she went in that direction, then followed her two steps back.  She took them slowly, mindful of Austin’s injuries.  As she neared the top, she felt herself tensing a little.  This was always the part she hated the most; none of the houses ever seemed to have stairs that opened out on just one end of the second floor.  They always emerged into the middle of a hallway, once a three-way intersection of corridors.  Having that many directions to keep an eye on made her incredibly nervous.

The downstairs had been carpeted, but the upstairs floor was beautiful old hardwood, burnished to a handsome sheen with layer after layer of stain and decades of feet moving across it.  Jessica checked behind herself twice, and forward three times, before leaving the stairs and heading away from them in the rear direction.

There were three closed doors here.  The first bedroom looked like a spare, lacking any of the personal effects it would have if someone had been using it.  Just the bed and furniture, all neatly made but bare and sterile.  Its closet was standing open, but she checked that carefully anyway, to make sure it really was empty, before moving on.

The moment she opened the second door, Jessica smelled it.  An old smell, but not innocuous or idle.  This was a fouler scent, with a musty tang and a stomach turning odor of decay.  It hung in the air like a warning.  Instinctively she stepped back from the door as it continued swinging open from the push she’d given it.

There were . . . bodies . . . inside.  Bodies, or at least pieces of them, and a
lot
of blood.  Old blood, dried to a rust brown crust.  It coated the floor around the bed, though the furniture and sheets hadn’t been spared.  Splatters were visible across the expanse of sheets on the mattress, and the fabric hanging down to the floor had sucked up blood unevenly from the floor in climbing vertical stain patterns.

She wasn’t sure how many people had died in here, but Jessica guessed no fewer than three just from how many bones she saw.  There were pieces of tissue and softer bits clinging to them, and the whole mess was surprisingly ordered.  It was as if each . . . person . . . had been eaten piece by piece, with the bones laid down before the next part of the meal was started.  And meal was the word; some of the bones had damage – marks – that looked like they’d been chewed on.

“Get—” Austin started to say, then Jessica caught movement on the right.  She barely had time to notice a fleeting glimpse of something upright and coming at the doorway from behind the wall and the dresser flanking the inside of the door.  Not even pausing to think, she fired the Taurus without bothering to try and properly aim.

Her reflexive snapshot sent the forty-five caliber slug tearing through a bloody figure’s chest; a man with pale, bruised, dried out skin showing signs of scratches and tears.  Whatever color its clothing had been, it was now old blood and decay, with a side of ripped abuse.  Every inch of the fabric clinging to its dead form was rust brown.  In some places it was caked so thick it was crumbling off as it lurched forward at her.

The zombie rocked back as the heavy bullet ripped into it, but only for a moment.  The hands and arms were coming up, dead and empty eyes fixed on her.  She saw the teeth were almost gleaming, in stark contrast to his grayed and desiccated face and gums.  The only thing she figured could do that was a
lot
of use.  Whatever had happened in here, the zombie had clearly finished disposing of the bodies.

But that was all trivia, irrelevant in the face of the threat.  Jessica stepped back quickly, bringing her own hands up as she got her left on the pistol in the two handed grip she preferred so she could aim properly.  She bumped into Austin and almost tripped as he tried to move out of her way.

Stumbling, Jessica’s left hand went out and caught against the wall as she staggered, trying to steady herself and keep from going down.  Ahead of her, the zombie was staggering as well, but mostly forward.  It was now in the doorway, and looked like it was having no problem at the moment staying on its feet and coming after her. 
“Too close, too close!”
her mind screamed at her as she pointed the gun one handed and fired again, then a second time as well.

The recoil hammered against her forearm and shoulder, but she barely noticed in her alarm.  Not quite panicking, but she wasn’t calm about things either.  It was too damned close!  Maybe a step and a half away from being in reach to grab her.  One of her bullets had missed it, but the second shattered the corpse’s shoulder, causing its arm to drop abruptly and hang limp.

Zombies seemed to feel no pain, but physical damage that dismantled bone or ripped muscles apart could slow them down.  A broken leg or a shredded muscle worked the same for both humans and zombies alike; it was a problem.

It was just that zombies didn’t mind the damage.

This one was no different; it ignored the non-functional arm as the limb swung down limply at its side.  The other hand stayed up and outstretched, clasping the fingers at her.  Its next step was a lot more lurching than before, since it had lost one of its upper limbs for the minimal amount of balancing the zombies seemed to concern themselves with as they staggered about, but it was still coming right for her.

Jessica had open hallway behind her now, with Austin on her right side.  She stepped back again and got both hands on the gun, finally bringing it up and laying her eye along the sights.  The MP5 in Austin’s hands spat several bullets, but she ignored that as she put the trio of dots on her Taurus into alignment on the zombie’s chin and fired.  Its head was snapping back as she squeezed the trigger.

The creature’s skull shattered explosively.  A wide mist of bits and pieces, all of them crumbling and surrounded by a surprising amount of what looked like dust or powder, erupted backwards.  Pulling her gaze back from the sights, she saw the zombie was collapsing.  There was nothing left above its neck but a ragged ruin of misshapen bone.  Very little blood – just a scattering of red gel that was almost too dry to do more than color things – but no less horrific.

Jessica watched the zombie hit the beautiful wood floor, then glanced behind herself quickly.  The rest of the hallway was quiet and empty; all the other doors were closed, and nothing was coming up the stairs.

“Good shot.” Austin said.

“You too.” she replied, her voice far more calm than she really felt.  Her heart was hammering away in her chest, and she forced herself to take a long, slow breath as she gripped the shiny steel pistol in both hands and studied the doorway.

“I think—”

“—we should find another house.” Jessica finished for him.  “Right there with you.”  The bedroom was decorated in pastels and had Disney posters on the wall.  Two of the skulls she could see inside on the floor were very small.

There was no way she was sleeping in this house, and she sure as hell wasn’t bringing Candice inside either.  It didn’t matter whether the rest of the rooms were clear or not . . . even out here in the middle Georgia sticks there wasn’t a lack of empty houses to choose from for shelter.  They could find one that hadn’t hosted this level of horror.

“I’ll lead the way down.  You cover behind us.” Austin said, moving past her, heading for the stairs.  Jessica nodded, knowing he couldn’t manage the stairs and twist to look to the rear at the same time.  Not without pain that meant he’d be undoing days of healing.  She backed from the door, still pointing the gun at it, then followed Austin downstairs.

The SUV was right where they’d left it, engine idling calmly.  Jessica looked around, but the yard was still empty and quiet.  The vehicle’s window tint kept her from seeing Candice, but when she opened the door she saw the girl was pressed right up against the rear passenger window.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’re both fine.” Jessica said levelly, far more calmly than she felt.  She checked the safety on the pistol twice, then got in and closed the door.

“What happened?”

“Zombie problem.  We’re leaving.” Jessica replied as she opened the center console’s storage compartment and pulled out her purse.  Heaving it into her lap, she dug inside for the box of forty-five caliber bullets.  Moving them up to the top of the bag, she ejected the magazine in the Taurus, then toggled the safety and racked the slide back to clear the live round in the chamber.

“Oh.” Candice said in a disappointed tone as Jessica started reloading the partially empty magazine.  “I wanted to maybe play on the swings some if we stayed.”

“Sorry Candy Bear.”

“It’s okay.” the girl said, her voice now colored with a more matter-of-fact tone.  She was adapting to the living nightmare of their situation fairly well in some ways; better than Jessica herself.  Candice seemed to not find the whole set of circumstances quite as surreal as her mother did.

Jessica managed to finish fitting fresh bullets into the magazine before Austin was able to get around to the passenger side of the SUV and open the door.  She slid the reloaded magazine back into the Taurus and made sure it was on safe before putting the gun into the holster.  “You okay?” she asked him as he got in.

“Tired.” he said.

“We’ll find something else.  Plenty of daylight left.”

“That’s why we do this first thing in the morning when it’s time for a change.” he agreed as he closed the door behind himself.

“I didn’t think one bullet could do what . . . happened in there.  Even a forty-five.”

Austin shook his head.  “I put a burst in too, but your shot was on target.”

“Oh.  Good.”

Jessica hit the button that locked all the doors, then shifted into reverse and backed up in a U-turn before driving around the house and heading for the road.  Austin produced some loose nine millimeter rounds from his overall pockets and efficiently replaced the three he’d expended from the MP5’s magazine before she reached the pavement.

“What was in there?” Candice asked.

“Just a zombie.  Don’t worry about it sweetie.” Jessica answered without turning.  “Seatbelt.”  Then she glanced at Austin briefly.  “Glad you were there.”

“You barely needed me.” he said easily, his tone light.

“A little support never hurts.” Jessica said as the tires left the grass and she turned onto the road.  Despite her casual words, she was still working to calm down.  If she’d fallen, she might have been delayed in getting her shot off.  Or she might have missed.  Or both.  The zombie could have gotten its hands on her.  Worse, it could have gotten its
teeth
on her.

One mistake was all it took.  Too close; the whole encounter upstairs had been far too close for her comfort.

He chuckled softly.  “I’ll mention that the next time you sniff when I point out I was shot.”

“Oh God.” she rolled her eyes, but the smile on her lips told the truth when she glanced across to him. 
“Thank you.”
she mouthed silently when he met her gaze.  He winked at her.