The Hand That Feeds: A Horror Novel (15 page)

“I’m going to die up here.
”

John swore
under his breath then bolted out from his cover. Brian ran with him and reached for the shotgun first. Gunfire erupted from the stairs and before John knew what was happening, Brian was on the ground, blood splattered across his shirt from a wound in his arm. John snatched the shotgun off the ground and pull himself back, dragging Brian into the hallway with him. John pushed his back against the wall and readied the gun as he tried to figure out what happened. Dan’s coughing laughter was a clear indicator.

“That’s not my only gun.
”

“Clearly
,” John said.

Brian
grabbed the wall with his good hand and picked himself up. Blood smeared the off-white paint as he slumped up against it. “Let’s get out of here.”

John racked the
shotgun, making sure to catch the expended rounds. He got to seven before it emptied. He reloaded and then gave an unsatisfied look to Brian. “We still need the damn key.”

“Why don’t you come up here and get it,” Dan said then laughed
harder.

John started toward the back door
. “You want to play that way, fine.” He stopped a few feet from the door then turned toward the small adjoining living room and found inspiration. He and Brian stacked the couch and love seat on top of one another in front of the walkway leading into the living room. They went back to the hall when they were done and John called out one last attempt at reconciliation. “This is it,” he said, “either you throw down the key or your family is going to become dinner.”

“Go to hell.
”

John pulled Brian back toward the living room and readied himself. Brian’s strength was giving out and John knew it would be the next problem he’d have to solve.
“Hold your hand still.” Brian held his cuffed hand straight out in front of him and John brought the shotgun to bear, placing the barrel on the link between their wrists.

“You sure about his?”
Brain asked.

“Nope.”
John pulled the trigger and the shot ripped his shoulder back. He nearly dropped the gun, but he was pleasantly surprised to find he was no longer a part of a set. With one problem solved, he maneuvered himself by the back door. “When I open this door, we’re going to get back in the living room as fast as possible and slide the couches in front of the opening.”

“Wait,” Brian said
, “why are we doing this again?”

John was growing impatient
, but he knew he needed Brain’s help for this to work.

“The dead will come in here,”
he said, pointing at the door. “They won’t be able to get to us so; I’m hoping that will lead them down the hall and up the stairs.”

“
But they’ll get those people.”

John frowned. “Would you rather they get us?”

Brian kept quiet and positioned himself on the other side of the couch. John grabbed the door handle with one hand and held on to the shotgun with the other. He watched the thin line of light under the door and when the light cleared, he turned the knob and swung the door open. Not waiting to see what awaited him outside, he ran into the living room and helped Brian push the stacked couches in place.

The dead came through the door, pouring in with a wave of putrid smell and familiar moans. The first of them pushed up against the couches trying to reach around. Brian stood close, making sure the
barricade didn’t move. In a matter of seconds, rotting arms reached for him from every small opening.

“They’re not going down the hall
.”

John paid little attention
to Brian’s discovery, instead focusing on their escape. He laid the shotgun down and pulled open the drapes over the rear window. The last of the dead on the porch were pushing their way into the house. He picked up the lamp in corner of the living room and bashed out the window. John waited until the last corpse disappeared inside, picked up his shotgun, and prepared to jump. He heard the sound of pistol fire on the second floor and knew the dead had found the hall and the stairs.

“We can’t just let them die up there,” Brian
said.

“To hell with them
, I’m getting out of here and if you had half a brain, you’d follow me out.” He put a boot on the edge of the windowsill and pulled himself up with his free hand. He leaned forward to jump and a scream stopped him. He turned to find Brian trying to get away from the couches and two pairs of hands grabbing onto his shirt. “Damn it.”

John got down from the window and rushed toward Brian. He grabbed
his outstretched hand and pulled, but the dead would not be denied. With the help of John’s strength, a lifeless corpse pulled itself over the stacked couches and latched onto Brain’s neck with both hands. It bit into his face before John could react. Brian screamed wildly as the zombie bit his ear off. John knew Brian was gone, but couldn’t bear to let him end up like the mass of walking dead spilling into the house.

Another
of the dead climbed over the couches to join in the feast and John aimed the shotgun at Brian’s head and pulled the trigger. Brian’s face was reduced to unidentifiable muscle and bone. John readied himself in the window and jumped. He landed in the backyard and rolled to a stop. He took one last look at the house as the sounds of a terrible death echoed from an upstairs bedroom. He turned his attention on his escape and dashed through the gate and back down the alley with the shotgun at the ready.

16

John ran until his sides hurt. He got out of the housing track without any sign of the dead. He guessed they were converging on Dan’s house. A scan of the street outside of the track revealed the west end littered with rotting figures. He’d forgotten about the mindless mob at the gas station. It appeared they’d lost his scent when he went over the wall and returned to wandering around the area for a meal.

John crossed the street and took a knee behind a
station wagon. He looked through the car’s interior for keys, but found none. He turned his attention on the two-story apartment building behind him. He had to get a vehicle if he hoped to survive, but the idea of storming in to one of the apartments wasn’t appealing. There was a good chance the occupant’s wouldn’t be open to receiving new guests, or worse, were already apart of the infected.

He
got up to a crouching position and looked through the car’s windshield for a better view of the street. He counted more than a dozen dead to the west and another dozen further down the road to the east. He forced himself to keep moving, heading north through an alley between the apartment buildings. The street beyond was a narrow one-way with cars along one side of the road, but no sign of movement. The other side of the street was the start of the business district; most of the shops were small and locally owned. 

John skimmed through the signs
and focused on Ted’s Hardware. There were only a few rounds remaining for the shotgun and he would have to have something else to depend on. He crossed the street and approached the hardware store’s front door. He smashed the glass with the butt of his shotgun and stepped inside. A quick inventory brought a smile to his face. He grabbed a leather tool belt and strapped it around his waist. Once he was finished his shopping spree, nearly everything hanging from the belt could be used as a weapon in some fashion.

John secured the last clawed hammer in place
, and then eyed the back door. He’d heard a sound from the rear of the building when he came in, but didn’t react. He was sure he’d heard it again. He eyed the door and froze in the center aisle.  He raised the shotgun slowly, training the barrel on the door. He watched the knob in the hope that it would turn. The dead could not open doors, as far as he could tell, so he hoped whatever he heard could walk and talk.

It took
several minutes of silence before his mind couldn’t take it any longer. He took one hesitant step forward then another. He was close enough to touch the knob when the sound returned. He froze again; close enough to tell it was not the shifting feet he’d heard outside the shop, but something moving an object aside. The door was unlocked and gave way after a hard push. The old hinges screeched awful and the dark room behind offered no hint of safety. John pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped back. The light from the front of the store revealed only a few dirty tables near the entrance, but left the deepest part of the room hidden.

“Is anybody in there?”

He waited for a few seconds then decided to leave the space alone. He figured messing around in a dark storeroom wouldn’t bring anything but trouble. He backed away and looked over his shoulder to make sure the sidewalk was clear outside the front of the store. He only made it a few steps before another rummaging sound came from the back room. He stopped, this time bringing the shotgun up and ready to fire.

“I’m going to start shooting into the wal
l if I don’t hear someone.” 

He
cocked his shotgun for an audible effect, took one long stride toward the door, and prepared himself to fire. The scream that met him caught him off guard. He felt his finger pull on the trigger by instinct as a short figure stepped out of the darkness. It took quick mental willpower to keep from firing at the small boy that appeared in the doorway with his hands up.

“Don’t shoot me
, mister.”

John eyed the boy over the top of his gun
and figured he couldn’t be more than ten or eleven. The boy’s face was streaked with tears and he wore ragged clothes caked in dried mud that showed signs of a struggle. A blotch of blood on his shirt made John nervous. His dirty blond hair was matted to his face.

“You been hurt?”
John asked.

He tried to sound concern
ed, but didn’t lower his weapon.

“I’m alright,”
the boy said.

John scanned the front of the store as he lowered his gun. He eyed the boy and
part of him knew he should try and get the kid to a safer location, but another part wanted nothing to do with the trouble. He was struck with an idea of taking the boy in case Alex needed nourishment. The thought clung to him like a scene from a dirty movie. “Go hide back in that store room,” he said. “Lock the door from the inside and somebody will come along for you.”

“You’re somebody,” the boy said.

John wiped his forehead with his hand. He was itching to leave and he didn’t want to be cornered in the store if he could help it.

“What’s your name
, boy?”

“Mathew,” he said. “Mathew Roberts.”

“Any relation to Pastor Roberts?”

“He’s
my father,” Mathew said.

John grinned. “I bet he’s writing up a hell of a sermon about all this.”

The boy nodded, but his blank expression showed he didn’t get the joke. His rail thin arms hung at his sides like pipe cleaners.

“Well
, Mathew-”

“Matt,” he
said. “Nobody calls me Mathew.”

“…alright Matt,” John
said. “How did you get yourself hidden inside the storeroom?”

“My dad owns this store,” Matt
said. “He owns a bunch of stores in town.”

“Well
, the good Lord does provide, doesn’t he? I suppose your father’s congregation gives a good deal of its money to ensure his well-being?”

Matt shrugged.

“You didn’t answer my question,” John said. “What are you doing here?”

“My dad sent me down here for nails and screws t
o board up the house.”

“He sent his kid out in this?” John shook his head. “What a hero.”
He looked hard at the boy. “I’m not your hero.” He looked back at the front of the store again then started towards the door. “You can follow me, but as soon as I can drop you off with someone else, you have to go.” He looked for confirmation and Matt nodded. “Take this.” He handed him a hammer and the boy looked at it as if unable to imagine what John expected him to do with it. “You have to hit them in the head.” Matt swallowed hard. “Don’t hesitate if the time comes, they won’t. Now stay close or you’ll get left behind.”

They started for the front of the building at a quick pace
and John felt Matt grab a hold of his tool belt. They reached the broken glass door and saw two decomposing corpses moving towards the storefront. John took a hold of the shotgun with one hand and pulled out a hammer from his belt. The way east looked clear and he had an idea. If he’d learned anything, he understood that running away was always a better choice than fighting.

“Come on
, kid, let’s run for it.”

They dashed out on to the sidewalk and ran east. The insatiable lust for flesh from the dead could be heard the moment John and Matt came out into the open. The moans of the
dead grew louder as if joined by some awful symphony. John ducked into the alleyway adjacent to the hardware store with Matt close by. They hesitatingly maneuvered between several large dumpsters, and broke out into a wide rear street between the stores on the front side and those facing the street to the north. The dead littered the end of the road to the west.

“Where are
the police?” John swore under his breath. “Cops are never around when you need them, but won’t go away when you don’t.”

“Is someone going to come and save us?” Matt asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen any sign of it yet.”

The boy started to cry.

“Come on, don’t do that,” John said. “I don’t have time for this.” He got down on one knee. “Here wipe your eyes.” He offered Matt the sleeve of his shirt. Matt stared at the bloodstains and settled for his own sleeve. The boy managed to get his emotions under control for the moment. John eyed the alley directly across the street and then forced Matt towards it. “Quick now,” he said as Matt tugged on his belt.

They were between two
one-story buildings a moment later. There was a low echo in the alleyway, one John recognized. He readied his gun as the moaning grew. The road at the end of the alley was clear, but the view reveled little beyond a few feet in any direction. John felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he anticipated what was about to round the corner. He took another few hesitant steps and what he saw, was not what he expected.

He saw
it’s sad, pathetic face first. It was a dog, a German Shepherd to be exact. The dog walked with a limp on its hind legs and its coat was covered in blood. John watched the poor thing gasp for breath with its tongue hung out the side of its mouth. The animal had seen its share of trouble for the day and looked to be lucky to be alive, although it didn’t appear as if it would stay that way very long.

“I’m guessing the dead don’t care much where their meat comes from,” John said.

“Ewe.”

“Trust me
, boy, that’s far from the grossest thing you’re going to see in the days ahead.”

Matt didn’t respond. The boy kept half hidden behind John with one eye focused on the way ahead. The dog stopped in the center of the street, looking down the alley at the new arrivals.

“The last thing we need is to have that thing lead the dead right to-” John didn’t get to finish before Matt called out.

“Come here
, boy, come here.”

“
What’s wrong with you?” John slapped him on the head with the palm of his hand. “Get,” he said to the dog. “Get out of here.”

The dog stood frozen for a second
, considering which order to follow, and then looked back in the direction he’d come. It barked twice at something out of view then ran off as best as its injured legs would allow.

“Don’t you ever…
”

John didn’t have time to finish before a line of dead shambled into view. The first few continued down the street
after the dog, but some of the followers turned off into the alley. John took a step back and nearly fell over the boy.

“Wait,” Matt
said.

John looked back and found two more dead lurching toward them from the other end of the alley. He readied the gun and took aim.
A quick glance told him there were at least four figures ahead, which left the two behind a better choice. He hated to use the rounds, but liked it better than getting eaten.

“
Look there.”

John followed
Matt’s hand to a ladder attached to the side of the building. He grabbed the boy by the collar and hoisted him off his feet. Matt was on the ladder a second later, climbing as fast as his limbs would move. The dead closed in, now close enough for the smell to hit John in the face like an uppercut. He jumped on the ladder and started to climb. His head slammed into Matt’s butt as he tried to get up as high as he could. The first hand grabbed John’s boot and pulled. John screamed and kicked as another hand grabbed hold.

“Go,” John
said.

Matt was crying and yelling as he reached the top rung and tried to pull himself up out of the way.
“Come on,” he said as he reached down for John’s hand.

John kicked with both legs as they were pulled from the ladder. The rising sound of the dead enveloped the alleyway. They pulled on
him as he tried desperately to get away. He knew he would have to let the shotgun drop if he hoped to survive. The moment he released his grip on the gun, he felt it yank away. He looked up at the roof and saw Matt pull the gun up and take aim at the alley below.

The first shot hit
between the eyes and the decaying corps’ head exploded like a rotten melon, sending pieces of skull and brains in every direction. John felt one of his legs go free and he pulled up on the ladder with both hands. He heard the second shot, but didn’t look for the result. He didn’t waste any time pulling up the rest of the way.

“You saved me,”
he said bent over trying to catch his breath. “Hell of a shot, kid.” He took the shotgun from Matt and checked his rounds. “Three left.” He swore under his breath, realizing pretty soon it would be reduced to a club. He peered over the side of the building and saw the dead gathering around the end of the ladder. They waived their arms trying to reach up at them, their jaws taking bites out of the air.

“At least they can’
t climb,” Matt said.

“
Isn’t that the truth?” John scanned the rooftop. “Let’s see what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”

They walked the edge of the roof from one side to the other and found a disturbing trend. It appeared the dog had acted
as a beacon for the dead. They’d gathered around all four sides of the building and from the look of it, there were more on the way.