Will To Live (13 page)

The gun goes off almost even with my left ear and my ability to hear is gone. Will shoves me and my mom inside, and sends us both to the floor. He slams the door, and immediately, bangs come from the other side. We watch in horror as the door moves in the frame violently.

Will doesn't waste much time running over to us, apologizing for being so rough with us – as if we mind, considering the alternative – and helps us quickly get back to our feet. Then he screams at everyone to get upstairs.

Everyone does, and it takes forever before the last one in the house starts up, even though they are all hurrying. Will sends my mom up first, then me, just as the door in the kitchen flies inside and slams to the floor. Almost at the same time, windows shatter and spray glass that glistens like diamonds into the air. Arms and bodies enter the house and we rush up to the top of the stairs. Once I see Will is to the top and safe, I search for my boys.

I push through all the people, some I know, some I don't. What is at first a calm – or as calm as can be expected right now – calling out for my babies, soon turns into a frantic scream of desperation.

I can't find them!

“
Will! Will, I can't find the boys,” I scream into his face, too terrified to control myself.
 

Will grabs my arms as if he intends to calm me, but I see the panic and terror flood his own face before he can. He runs to the window facing the barn across the yard and opens it. I hear him yelling out to someone, and I run to his side. I can see my brothers, Ryder and Ricky, in one of the barns upper windows. The massively large hordes of zombies covering the grounds outside and in the lower levels of the buildings, make hearing anything almost impossible. Almost, but fortunately, not quite.

Will asks them if Bo and Ash are with them, and they call out for us to hold on. They disappear from the window, and my hope rises.

Suddenly, Ash is standing in the open window and waving at us, although his face is showing his fear. I immediately have tears of relief stream down my face as I wait for Bo to show himself. But he never does. Instead, Ryder comes back with a look of horror on his own face and slowly shakes his head no.

I gasp, my heart bursting with pain and panic, more than I have ever felt before. More than I ever thought a person
could
feel.
 

I run from window to window, room to room, looking for my son. I refuse to look at the undead, terrified I might find him there, instead of alive and safe.

As I turn from one of the front bedroom windows, something catches my eye and I turn back. There, inside one of the Hummers, I see my son's blond head just under the hatch opening in the roof.

I shout at my son to get down, to hide, and his beautiful blue eyes look up and lock onto me. His terror matches my own, but he hears me, listens to me, and disappears from view.

I scream for Will multiple times, unwilling to leave my son for even one second to go find him. Eventually, my shouts are passed forward from person to person, until they finally reach Will and he comes running through the doorway and across the room.

I don't say a word to him –
I can't –
but instead, I point at the Hummer and he knows right away that our son is in it. Stuck alone in a vehicle, and no matter how strong that damn vehicle is, there are just too many zombies.
 

Will turns his terror-filled eyes to my own, but doesn't say a word. I see the moment he forces his mind to clear and focuses on how he can save our son. So I force myself to do the same. I can't be helpless now. Nothing matters but my boys.
Nothing!
 

My eyes search for a way to help, my mind plotting and planning. But before I can think of anything useful, Will shows me just how much he's changed since I've been gone. He takes charge, shouting out orders to everyone within earshot. Weapons are in hand, and people are quickly lining up at every window on this side of the house.

Then he really surprises me.
 

Will shoves me hard against the wall nearest the window we were both just standing at, and my breath leaves me in a whoosh from the impact. He presses my head back hard against the wall with only his lips on mine, and kisses me with an intensity he's never shown before.

Just when I become desperate for air, he pulls back slightly.

His lips move against mine as he says, “Move from this room, and I'll beat your ass.”

Then he presses his lips to mine again, but softer this time, before he shoves himself away from me and walks out of the room.

I can't move from the shock of it all, and my brain lost all ability to function. Then slowly, it starts to work again.

Will. Hot, sexy, threatened me, left me...wait. What the fu–!

Then I rush toward the door and jump up and down, doing my best to spot him over all these damn people.

What the hell is he planning? Where did he go? He can't just leave me like that with no explanation!

But I can't see him, and my shouts to him go unanswered. By him, anyway. Everyone else has something to say – “He went that way.” “No, that way!” “He never came out of the room.”

Shit. Just shut up!

I turn back to the room when I hear shots being fired from the people inside. Everyone is pointing a gun out a window and shooting. I scream at them to stop, that they might hit Bo, but no one listens to me. I run to the window, shoving a teen boy out of my way. He just moves over to the next window and continues shooting, ignoring me.

I look down, horror fills me when I see how many undead are surrounding the Hummer with my son in it.

They know he's there!

The first window shatters from the massive amount of beasts beating on it.

No!

My one and only thought is to get to him, no matter what it takes, even if it's my own life. I lean out the window to find something to climb down on, not really caring at this point if there
is
something or not.
 

If I have to jump, I will!

But just after I decide that
that
is exactly what I'm going to have to do, and just before I actually do it, a frikken guardian angel dressed in black – black t-shirt, black jeans, black boots, and dark hair – appears from the side of the house.
 

A gun in each hand and a couple more tucked into the waist of his jeans, my husband starts blasting one after another of the rotting corpses. They go down like a damn video game. Every shot makes three more undead turn and go for him...but he's ready for them.

More shots come out of the windows along this side of the house, taking down the threats to both my son,
and
now my husband – and I finally understand what's going on. Grabbing my own gun, I aim and shoot. My hatred, fear, and rage at the damn things that want to kill my family overwhelm me. I have no sympathy for them, it's not as if they're still alive, and I know the antidote is much too late for them.
 

I shoot and kill, while still keeping an eye on my husband and my son. I can hear Bo's screams as the undead reach in for him in a frenzy of hunger. Those zombies are on the opposite side of the truck from where we're able to reach, so we can't help him. When I hear more glass breaking on the Hummer, I almost freeze from the terror.

One of the damn undead is half inside the truck when I see a flash of light and a bang come from the vehicle. I'm confused, until I recall the weapons that are stored inside. Bo must have remembered them and is now using one of the guns. The zombie that was almost completely inside the truck with him stopped moving, so I can only hope he got that one for sure. Will is just making his way to this side of the truck, where the undead are a hell of a lot thinner, when a runner comes racing straight toward him. The undead's mouth stretches wide, anticipating the opportunity to sink into Will's flesh, when I scream out a warning to Will. I watch as he turns with just enough time to raise the gun level with the head of the undead...but when he pulls the trigger, the gun clicks instead of releasing a bullet.

Immediately, Will slams the solid metal of the gun into the thing's mouth, its teeth becoming a mess of slivers and chunks. It doesn't stop the zombie, though. Its arms and legs go into a frenzy of lust for my husbands flesh and blood. I watch as gashes appear on Will's face and arms, blood rising to the surfaces.

I'm too terrified to scream, too terrified to move.

Then Will starts slamming his fists into the things head, over and over. Its body finally slams to the ground, but Will just follows it down. He doesn't stop until the undead's head is smashed in, its movements stopped permanently.

But now, Will has attracted the attention of even more zombies, the ones who had been on the other side of the house, and even more that had been at the barn, doing their best to get to the living inside the other big building. I regain the ability to speak, and scream out for him to hurry. He looks up at me, then around at the new threats, before taking off at a run to the passenger door of the truck. Bo unlocks the door for his dad and Will scrambles inside, slamming the door shut with just seconds to spare.

Soon the truck starts up and begins to move through the flood of undead, and actual dead, bodies. I can only assume Will is planning to get closer to one of the buildings so that they might be able to get inside where it would certainly be safer, but it doesn't take long before the crowd swells to a massive amount, and the truck can go no further. I hear the engine die, and not long after, Will appears through the hatch and settles on the roof of the truck. I see Bo start handing up weapon after weapon, then he joins Will, and sits beside him.

Those two, along with everyone else who's safely inside wherever they happened to find shelter at, slowly reduce the zombie population until no more zombies are free to moan and eat.

Cautiously, we all emerge from the buildings we had taken cover in to track down any missed zombies and make this a safe place again. When I step from the house, the stench of rotting flesh is so overwhelming, that I gag a few times. I quickly cover my mouth and nose with my shirt, noticing others do the same.

With my gun reloaded and ready to fire, I start toward the Hummer in the front, needing to first make sure my two guys are really and truly safe. I run into them as they round the side of the house, and the relief of seeing that they are indeed alright, cause my knees to shake and threaten to drop me on my ass.

Will notices and wraps his arms around me, giving me a tight squeeze to reassure me. When he steps away, Bo throws his arms around my neck and gives me a quick hug, and an “I love you, Mom.”

Then, we all three turn as one, and look around at the bodies littering the ground of our safe haven. The clean-up is going to take some time, but the repairs to the wall takes top priority.

Bo and I follow Will as he walks toward the barn, gathering the stronger people as we go. We meet up with my brothers, my dads, and some other people I don't yet know, outside the big building.

As I hold Bo close to my left side and Ash to my right, we listen as Will talks to Dad Rex and Dad Ben. They organize some of the men to drive the semis loaded with the extra wall pieces and supplies, and set them up so that work can be started immediately where the wall had fallen in. My sister-in-law, Coco, and I are ordered to drive a couple of the Hummers that are fully stocked with weapons and follow the semis.

Will then orders the rest of the able-bodied to follow on foot, killing any and all zombies they can find. My husband informs us all that he will catch up to us soon, before turning and walking toward the people who are searching the front of the property for any stray undead.

Everyone leaves to follow his orders. The boys ride with me as we make our way toward the breached wall. Gun blasts every so often inform us that we have no reason to let down our guard. Once we reach the wooded area, the blasts sound even more often.

I'm scared for the ones on foot, but I have to learn to trust that the others can take care of themselves. I can't protect everyone, even though I damn sure wish I could, but they've done very well staying alive and turning this place into a much safer haven while I was gone, so why wouldn't they do well now?I guess maybe I have just way too much of the protective instinct in me.

When we get to the wall, the gunfire seems to increase. Once I can see what's going on, my mouth drops.

The undead are incredible in their numbers and are trampling each other to get through the gap in the downed wall, but not a single living person runs away screaming. Instead, everyone works together, shooting, stabbing, and beating the heads sitting on top of the molded stinking flesh of the undead.

Finally, we outnumber the zombies and are able to let most of the people work on the wall, while the rest of us keep them safe. In no time, the wall is back up and even more secure than before. Then we take our time checking out the other walls, making absolutely sure that they won't be knocked down so easily.

Once we finish with that, we work on cleaning up the undead. The bodies are loaded into the back of a couple empty semis and taken outside the property a few miles down the road, where they are then tossed into a pit and set on fire.

I understand the need to burn the corpses, but it's still something I don't want to think about too much.

Everyone else seems to feel the same way, some avoiding gazes with others, shame and heartbreak evident. Others make jokes to cover the pain of doing a job that we can no longer rely on others to do. Then there are those that just can't hide the emotions, and tears stream down their faces. Yet no one
complains or attempts to protest, because we all know that it
has
to be done.
 

Finally, it's finished, and we can all go home and clean ourselves up.

As I leave the bathroom, I dry my hair with a towel and sigh at the feel of my nice comfortable pajama pants and an old t-shirt against my skin.