The Living Dead Boy (7 page)

“Josh!  Josh!” Sam’s voice cried out.

“Dangit, Sam! Keep it down.  They’ll hear us,”  Josh answered, glancing back toward Sam.

“He’s coming,” was all Sam managed to call out as he tried to pick up his pace, breathing even harder.

“Who’s coming?”  Troy asked, running with his hand firmly on his brother’s shoulder, guiding him forward.

Josh’s eyes widened as he caught sight of the figure not too far behind them.  “Your dad,” he answered.

Chapter 11

Josh felt his heart skip a beat and his legs felt like rubber.  Fear rose up, choking him and making it hard to speak.

The zombie that was once Roger and Troys’ father was covered in blood and moving rapidly toward them. His body jerked as his feet skittered across the asphalt. It was if he had forgotten how to move like a human. The zombie continued his soundless rush toward them.  Since his throat was ripped out, zombie Mr. Inmon’s mouth was open in a silent scream, blood drizzling down his front.

“Josh!”  Sam exclaimed.  “What are we going to do?”

Finally, Josh answered in a low voice, “Keep running!”

“Dad! Dad!” Roger wailed as Troy shoved him down the road.  “My dad is hurt!”

“He’s not hurt, Rog!”  Troy yanked on his arm, trying to get him to run.

The boys struggled with each other, sweat pouring down their faces despite the chill in the air.

Overhead, the sky rumbled, briefly distracting Josh. Drawing a deep breath, he tried to focus the flurry of thoughts whirling around in his mind.  Arturo barreled past Josh and Yessica, pumping his arms and legs as hard as he could.  Fear painted his features into a dull color, his eyes stark in his terrified expression.  Josh tried to reach out to him, but Arturo kept running, his breath ragged.

Lumbering toward them, sweat making his red face slick and shiny, Sam grunted and groaned with determination. His huge stomach swayed back and forth as he pushed himself harder than Josh had ever seen before.  Not even in gym class. Sam had always resisted doing any physical activity until now.  Of course, he had never had zombies running after him before.

“Take Yessica with you,” Josh ordered Sam, holding out her hand out to him.  “I’m going to get the zombie.”

Sam nodded, hardly able to breathe, and grabbed the little girl’s hand, yanking her after his lumbering body. Yessica let out a small yelp, startled, clearly not really comprehending what was going on.  Her tiny body looked fragile next to Sam’s as they ran.

“What are you gonna do, Josh?” Troy called out, still trying to get his brother under control.  The tiny droplets of sweat in his hair made his afro sparkle.

Josh watched the bloody man rushing toward him while he pulled his backpack off his shoulders.  “I’m gonna be a Zombie Hunter and stop him.”  His heart was pounding so hard against his ribs that it hurt.

“No!” Roger whirled around, knocking Troy aside. “Josh, leave my dad alone!”

Arturo doubled back and slammed into Roger, tackling him to the ground before the distraught boy could run toward his zombiefied father.  The three boys wrestled on the ground, Arturo and Troy trying to get Roger under control.  With grim determination, Sam ran past the ruckus, pulling the little girl along with him.

Swinging his heavy pack down to his side, Josh narrowed his eyes on the creature running toward him. Mr. Inmon’s face was unrecognizable.  Bloody teeth gnashing, hands slashing out in front of him, Roger and Troy’s father was more terrifying than Josh could have ever imagined. Josh coughed; his breath still caught in his throat, and tried to keep his balance as the world seemed to sway around him.  This was it. He was going to kill a zombie.  He was going to kill the father of his friends. The coppery smell of blood filled his nostrils and he felt faint, like he was going to throw up.

“You have to do this,” he grimly told himself.

“Don’t hurt my dad!”

Troy and Arturo fought with Roger, trying to get him to his feet and away.  Roger, who was not about to give in to them, scrabbled along the road toward Josh.

“Run, Roger!  It’s not your dad anymore,” Josh ordered.

“Leave my dad alone!”

Mr. Inmon was almost to them, his legs jerking oddly as he ran.  There was no more time.  Either he had to run away and hope his three friends followed or make his stand.  He felt he had no choice.  As terrifying as this moment was, it was what he had been preparing for all along.

“Please work,” Josh prayed.  “Please work.”

“Don’t hurt my Dad!”

Josh swung his backpack as hard as he could, aiming for the zombie’s lower legs.  For a brief, awful second, he was sure he was going to fail as the backpack arced through the air.   Then it slammed into Mr. Inmon’s ankles. The zombie tripped, flailing about as he kept trying to reach his next meal, his feet becoming tangled in the straps.  Hands flung out to grab Josh, zombie Mr. Inmon fell.  Unlike a living human being, he didn’t even try to catch himself.  His dead gaze was fastened firmly on Josh as he slammed headfirst into the asphalt.  There was a loud crack as his skull impacted with the ground.  Thick, dark blood began to ooze out from around his head as the zombie that used to be Mr. Inmon lay motionless.

Josh let out an explosive breath, his chest heaving. He hadn’t even realized he had been holding it.  He stumbled back a few feet, trying to calm his harshly beating heart.

“Did you kill it?”  Arturo called out in awe.

Josh could see that the side of Mr. Inmon’s head was bashed in.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I think I did.”

“No!”  Roger screamed.  “No!”  He wrenched free of the other two boys, scrambled to his feet, and ran toward his dad.

“No, Rog!”  Josh grabbed for him, but Roger evaded him.

Falling to his knees, Roger took hold of his father’s shoulder and began to shake him.  “Dad, wake up! Dad, wake up!”

Fearfully, Josh picked up the tree branch he had chosen as a weapon and moved closer to the fallen zombie.  “Roger, get away from him.  We can’t be sure he’s really dead.”

“Dad, please wake up. Please, wake up,” Roger sobbed. Tears streamed down his face.

His footsteps sounding heavy on the ground, Troy bounded over to them, the baseball bat held over his head. “Let’s go. Let’s go!  If he got out, the others might, too!”

“I think his brain is leaking out on the ground,” Arturo said in awe, daring to join them.

Josh moved around the zombie’s body and pulled his backpack from Mr. Inmon’s ankles.  The zombie remained unmoving.  Josh couldn’t bear to see the emptiness in his eyes or how his torn, bloody mouth hung open, his tongue touching the dirty road.

“Dad, please,” Rog cried, shaking his father harder.

“Let’s go!”  Troy grabbed his brother’s arm.  “Now! We need to get to Mom, Rog!”

Roger blinked slowly, and then looked up at his brother.  “Mom?”

“Yeah, Rog. Let’s go get Mom. Now!”

With Arturo and Troy’s help, Roger got to his feet. His expression was like that of someone slowly waking up, but not fully understanding their surroundings yet.

Josh looked up to see that Sam and Yessica were near the curve in the road.  Their pace was slow, but at least they were safely away.  Glancing back toward the bus, he could see the figures inside trying to find their way out.  At the mouth of the road, there were figures shambling, moving in the direction in which the other students had fled.

“We need to go. Roger, get it together. Now.”  Josh wasn’t sure if he could fight off any more zombies.  He already felt sick to his stomach about Mr. Inmon.  He knew he had been lucky.  His plan had been desperate and he hadn’t expected Mr. Inmon to crack his skull open. He had thought he would have to smash it in with his stick.

“I want Mom,” Roger said in a soft, strange voice.

“Okay, then let’s go find her,” Troy said, taking hold of Roger’s arm and pushing him after Sam and Yessica.

Together, the brothers began to run up the road.

“Finally,” Arturo grunted, following.

Josh tugged on his backpack and clutched his stick in his hand tightly.  Out of the remains of the mobile home, a small figure dragged itself into view.  It was so badly mangled, Josh wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl.  It was too messed up to move very quickly and it struggled to move out of the wreckage.

“I hate zombies,” Josh whispered, turned and ran up the road.

Chapter
12

Once past the curve in the winding road with the crashed school bus out of view, the children finally stopped running, dropping down to a quick walking pace.  On this back road, the houses were few and far between and set back from the road.  Most of the structures were old trailers.  A few dogs barked at them, the sharp sound splitting the air.

In the distance, Josh could hear the sound of thunder, the pops of gunfire, and what sounded like sirens, or maybe screams. The oak and cedar trees lining the road rustled in the cool wind that rushed before the coming storm.  The birds were eerily silent. A grackle let out a questioning squawk, but no other birds answered.

Arturo took the lead, walking briskly, a metal rod from an old lawn chair clutched in one hand.  Troy and Roger were right behind him.  Roger was crying, his head down, his hands in tight fists at his side.  With his hand resting firmly on his brother’s shoulder, Troy walked with his head up, looking around, alert and ready.  Sam and Yessica followed.  She took another hit on her inhaler and offered it to Sam, who took it gratefully.  He was dragging his feet, exhaustion etched in his chubby face.  Josh took up the rear, holding his tree branch, watching the road behind them.

None of the other kids had seen the mangled child zombie emerge from the wreckage.  Josh was certain it was too messed up to catch up with them and be any threat. But if it had gotten out, maybe the others would follow.  His ears strained for the telltale sound of feet slapping against the road.

Slowly, the overgrown brush and trees started to give way to lawns that showed signs of being mowed once and awhile, and long driveways leading to houses in better condition.

Josh saw an old woman out on her porch, sitting in an old metal chair, watching the road.

“Don’t you dare come mess with my garden!” she shouted at them, waving her cane angrily.

“There’s zombies!” Arturo yelled back.

“Don’t come causing trouble!  I’ll call the police!” the old woman screeched.

“Shut up, man. The zombies will hear you,” Troy chided him.

“Maybe we should try and warn her,” Sam said, looking worried.

“Don’t you watch the movies?  She’s not going to pay attention, we’ll waste time warning her, then the zombies will come and eat some of us!”  Arturo shoved Sam angrily.

Yessica let out a soft sob, clutching her inhaler even tighter in her hand.

“Just keep moving,” Josh said, his voice tired.  He just wanted to lie down and take a nap.  “Just keep moving.”

Up ahead was the first intersection they had seen in nearly two miles.  It was a sign they had reached the main area of the town.  A few cars rushed across the intersection a few blocks down.

“We’re getting closer,” Sam said with relief.

“Yeah, we can see that stupid,” Arturo grumbled.

“Give him a break, okay?”  Troy snapped.

“I want Mom.”

“I know, Rog. We’re going to her now.”  Troy shook his head at Arturo.

“What?”

“Give the fat kid a break, okay?”

“I’m not that fat,” Sam protested.

“Yes, you are,” Arturo corrected him.

“Yeah, you are,” Yessica agreed.  “Like a ball.”

Sam started to yank his hand away from her, but saw she wasn’t judging him,  just stating the truth.

“Leave him alone.”  Josh moved up to Arturo’s side. “We need to work together so we don’t end up dead.”

“Yeah,” Troy agreed.

“I want Mom,” Roger said again.

Yessica sniffled as she began to cry.  “I want mine, too.”

“We’re going to go to the community center and they will be there.  Okay?”  Josh looked back down the road again.  He felt a cold chill rush down his spine as he saw a very small figure rounding the bend.  The zombie was following them.

“How close are we?”  Arturo asked.

“About six blocks.  Three down. Three over.”

“Josh, I’m so tired. Can we knock on a door and get some grownup to drive us?”  Sam wiped his very red face with his thick fingers.

“I don’t think we can risk the time to do that,” Josh answered.  “We got a zombie following us.”

The kids all stopped to look back.  Arturo slammed the metal rod in his hand against the road as Troy sighed. Yessica sobbed a little louder as Sam let out a soft hiss.

“It’s Mary,” Yessica wailed.

“It’s far away.  It’s not gonna catch up unless we stand here like idiots.” Josh motioned them forward and the children trudged on.

Josh glanced into a few windows as they walked. Mostly the houses seemed empty, but he saw a few old people sitting in front of their TV sets.  At one house a man was busy boarding up his windows.  He saw the children, but pretended he hadn’t.  He was too consumed with saving himself to bother himself with them.  A van tore through an intersection ahead of them.

Glancing back, Josh saw that the little girl zombie had vanished off the road.  He thought of the mean old woman and felt a pang of guilt rip through him.

The loud buzzing, then first few notes of Chopin made all the children jump.  Josh looked around in terror before realizing the vibration was coming from his backpack.  It was his emergency cellphone.  He had forgotten all about it.  He was forbidden from using it except for absolute emergencies. Tearing off his backpack, he fumbled with the zipper of the pocket. He kept walking, glancing back toward where the child zombie had been just a few minutes before. Finally, he felt the small phone slide into his hand and flipped it open.

“Hello?”

“Josh, Josh!”  It was his mother.  Her voice was ragged and frantic.

“Yeah, Mom!  It’s me!  It’s me!”

“Are you at the community center?”

“No, Mom.  The bus crashed.  Me and my friends are trying to walk there now.”

“Oh, God.  Oh, God.  Is there an adult with you?”

“No, Mom.  They...uh...died.”

“Oh, God.”  His mother lapsed into silence and he could hear Drake crying in the background.

“Mom?”

“Josh, I need you to come home.  Can you do that?”

“Mom, I don’t understand.  You said to-”

“I know what I said.  But I need you to come home. You need to come here right away.”

“Can you come get me?”

“No, no, I can’t.  The car...I need you to come now. Okay?  I want you to be very careful, avoid all the main streets, don’t go near the daycare, and come straight here.  Use the alleyways if you can.”

Josh felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore.

“Josh?”

“Okay, Mom.”

“Send your friends to the community center and come home.”

“Okay.”

“If you see an adult, flag them down and see if they can bring you here, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Hurry, Josh,” his mother said, then hung up.

Josh flipped the phone shut and looked up to see his friends staring at him.

“You had a phone the whole time?” Troy looked annoyed.

“Here,” Josh answered, shoving it at him.  “Call your Mom.  I gotta go.  My mom says I need to head home. You guys go to the community center.  If you guys find an adult, send them to get me and my Mom and brother.”

“Josh, don’t leave us!” Sam cried out.

“You guys get to the community center!  I’ll see you later!  Stay off the main roads, don’t go near the daycare, stick to the alleys if you can.  Go!”

Josh broke into a run away from them, cutting across a lawn to reach an alley that he knew would lead him to the street that would turn onto the one leading to his house.  He could hear his friends protesting, but he couldn’t wait for them.  He knew something was terribly wrong and his stomach was clenching into a tight ball inside of him.

Running across an open street, lined with nicer homes with manicured lawns, Josh felt his chest burning as he struggled to breathe.  Clothes, luggage, and toys were strewn across the grass, the driveways empty of cars.  It looked like people had already fled this area.  He didn’t even hear dogs barking.  Making a jagged run across several lawns, he scooted along the side of a house toward the alley.

Somewhere nearby, he heard a low moan that sent prickles of fear through him.  Clutching his branch tighter, he leaped over some low bushes and into the alley.  Running along the gravel passageway, he tried to keep his ears tuned to the sound of zombies.

Screams and shouts erupted nearby as an engine roared. There were a few short pops of a firearm, and then a station wagon sped past the mouth of the alley. It was full of people screaming.

“That’s bad,” he whispered, stopping in his tracks.

The road was a risk.  Looking into the yard to his left, he saw it was clear.  Crouching down, he ran alongside a hedge lining one side of the yard, moving toward the front of the house so he could see if the street was clear.  He was closing in on his own home.  It was only a block away.

The intersection was filled with wreckage.  Five cars were crushed together, two of them on fire. Zombies were trapped inside of one of them.  It wasn’t too hard to imagine that someone had been injured and being rushed to the hospital when they had turned.  Three dead zombies lay strewn along the side of the crash, bullet holes torn through their limbs and heads.

To Josh’s horror, he realized one of the smoldering cars was his mother’s blue Chevy.  As he stared through the leaves of the bush he was hiding behind, he heard the low moans of zombies.  Turning, he saw several moving down the road toward the crash.  They had yet to see him. He burrowed into the bush, hoping they would pass him.

Shivering with fear, he held tightly to his branch as he heard the zombies dragging their feet past his hiding place. They moaned with hungry anticipation and he could feel his bowels churning.  The last thing he wanted to do was crap himself.  He clenched his body into a tight knot and prayed.

Finally, the moans drew away from him and he dared to look out toward the crash. The zombies were pawing at one of the cars, and Josh wondered if someone was trapped inside.

Looking around, he didn’t see any more of the shambling creatures.  It would be a risk, but he was sure he could make it across the street and into the yard of the house without being seen.

Taking a quick, hard breath, Josh shot out of the bush and raced across the street.  He didn’t even look toward the zombies. Instead he kept his eyes fastened on the fence lining the yard he was aiming to reach. He hit the grass and tore through the garden toward the back of the house.

If he could sprint through the yard just behind this house, he would exit onto the street where he lived.  His house would be just a few houses down.

It wasn’t a screech or a moan that let him know he was being pursued.  It was the stomp of feet on the cement patio he had just sprinted across.  He dared to look behind him and his heart jumped.  It was a man, his face and neck torn, his shirt in shreds.  The zombie clawed at the air as he rushed toward Josh.  It was obvious he was one of the fast ones, one of the victims of the zombie plague that was not so torn up that he’d be slow and shambling.

Josh didn’t even scream, but pushed his legs that much harder.  He wove in between a playset and bright pink playhouse and leaped over a wagon, hoping the zombie would trip.  He heard the crash of it running into the wagon, but from the sound of its footsteps behind him, it had quickly regained its balance.

Darting across the alley, Josh blinked hard, trying to get the sweat out of his eyes.  It was hard to see as he ducked into the shade of huge pecan trees.  He almost tripped over a sprinkler, but managed to avoid it.

Rushing through the shadows pooling alongside of the house he knew belonged to a nice elderly couple that gave his mother cookies and pies at holidays, he tried not to think of anything other than reaching his own home.  If he could get to the door fast enough, he maybe could get inside before the zombie caught him.

Pouring all his energy into his run, Josh broke into the dappled sunlight and first drops of the coming rain.  The sky was half overrun by dark clouds, but the sun still shone over this part of the town.  Grunting, Josh sprinted toward the road, his home coming into view.

He was jolted to one side as the zombie briefly caught his backpack.  Josh ducked and rolled, coming to his feet near a birdbath.  He toppled it over as fast as he could. The zombie tripped over it, its hands barely missing him as it fell.

Not looking back, Josh ran as fast as he could toward his house.  He could see that all the curtains were drawn. It looked as dead and silent as the rest of the houses on the street. His mother had to be there waiting for him.  She had called him.

“Mom! Mom!” he shouted, risking that more zombies would come.  “MOM!”

His legs were so tired he could feel his muscles cramping, but still he ran.  The zombie snagged his backpack again, this time getting a firm grip. Josh brought his stick up as he pivoted, his feet tangling for a moment. He managed to ram it into the snapping jaws of the creature, point first, and shoved it hard. The zombie’s head snapped back, its hands losing its grip on Josh’s backpack.  Josh yanked back from it, losing his balance and falling hard onto his bottom. Pain shot up his spine to spark in his eyes.  The zombie howled then lunged toward him.  Josh threw up his arm instinctively.