Zombie Games (Book 4): Road Kill (4 page)

“Maybe they’re getting some of their human qualities back,” said Tiny.

“Or just plain adapting,” said Bryce. “I doubt they’re actually becoming more human.”

“Let’s get inside,” said Paige. “Those nosy bastards are really pissing me off.”

They stepped into the house
through the garage and then split up, searching for something that would give them a clue as to where the girls might have gone.

“Here,
” said Kristie, after looking through a box of old birthday cards in Cassie’s bedroom. “This
has
to be them.”

“Steve and Dianna Wild?” asked
Paige, her eyebrows furrowing. “I thought their grandmother’s names were Judy and Irene.”

“Crap,” said Kristie, shuffling through the cards. “Oh, here’
s one. It says ‘Happy Birthday, Cassie, from- ‘Grandma Judy’, but the address on the envelope is somewhere in Florida.”

Paige nodded. “That’s
got to be her. Cassie mentioned she travels a lot. In fact, she was supposed to have been on some kind of European cruise when all of this stuff started going down. She didn’t like talking about it, though. I guess her grandmother got the zombie vaccine before she left for the cruise.”

Kristie cringed. “Oh. Well, maybe that was actually a blessing. Could you imagine being trapped on a cruise ship with thousands of zombies?
There’d be nowhere to run.”

“All those poor old people,” said Paige.
“How horrible.”

“I don’t know,” said Kristie. “Henry certainly knows how to take care of himself.”

“Yeah, but he’s not your typical old man.”

“True. Oh, here we go,” said Kristie, pulling out a pink envelope. She stood up. “This has got to be the other grandparents. Steve and Irene- Willow Lake. That’s only about twenty minutes from here. Let’s go tell the boys.”

As they turned
to leave, there was a chorus of snarls and groans moving towards them from down the hallway.

“What the he
ll,” whispered Kristie. “How did they make it into the house? I thought all the doors were locked?”

Two
zombies shuffled to the doorway as they sniffed at the air.

“
Hhhhhaaaa…..” gurgled one of the zombies, its foul lips turned up in pleasure at it found the source of the smell.

“Did that thing
just say something?” said Paige, grabbing a metal lamp from the nightstand. She removed the shade and held it in front of her. “Because I could have sworn it just said ‘ha’!”

“I don’t know. Dammit, w
here in the
hell
are those men? Tiny!!!”

“
Hhhaa….” rasped one of the zombies, a bald guy about her age with a goatee and black plates in his ears.

“
Ha
yourself!” Paige growled at the zombie as it stumbled into the bedroom and reached for her. She raised the end of the lamp and slammed it down onto the zombie’s skull, but it only stunned him for a few seconds.

“
Hhhaa…”

“O
h for the love of God,” mumbled Paige.

“
Hhhaa”.

This time she rammed it into the zombie’s
left eye and grimaced as it fell backwards with the lamp still imbedded.

“Paige!” screamed Kristie, holding up her lighter
in defense as a second zombie moved towards it, staring in awe.

“Seriously, mom?”
 

The flame went out and Kristie
flicked it again. “I’ll bet this sucker used to smoke in his previous life,” she said with a smirk. “Look at his face. Now he’s having flashbacks, aren’t you boy?”

“Enough, he’s not a dog
, mom.” 

The
zombie, who was a tall older guy with a pocketed face and oozing sores, growled and reached for Kristie as she waved the lighter in front of his face a few more times. Unfortunately, he stumbled over the box of greeting-cards they’d left on the carpet and fell forward, knocking both of them to the ground.

“Mom!” screamed Paige
as Kristie pushed the zombie’s chomping teeth away from her face.

“Oh man
,” shuddered Kristie, “you could really use a Tic-tac.”

Just then, Tiny charged into the room, picked up the zombie
and slammed the creature over his knee. The sound of bones cracking made them all wince.

“Oh my God,” said Kristie,
as she stood up on shaky knees, her voice quivering. “I thought I was a gonner. Five more seconds in that guys arms and he would have put a whole new meaning to ‘sucking face’.”

Tiny slammed his heel
into the back of the zombie’s head, sending what was left of his brains across the shag carpet. “Sorry babe,” he said, wiping his boot. “There were more of them downstairs. They kept us pretty busy.”

“Hello!”
hollered Paige. “Can someone help me with this thing?”

A third zombie had slipped ins
ide of the bedroom and had her trapped in a corner.

“Hold on,” said Tiny, grabbing the comforter from the bed. He threw it over the zombie’
s head, wrapped him inside, then picked him up and walked out of the bedroom.

“What ar
e you going to do with him?” asked Kristie, following close behind.

“Babe, can you find something to kill it with,” he said, as the zombie struggled to get out of the comforter.
  “I think I may have twisted my ankle a little when I killed that last one.”

Kristie reached inside one of the drawers and pulled out a large rolling pin. 

Paige burst out laughing.

“No, that will work,” said Tiny, setting the
struggling zombie onto the floor.

“Don’t underestimate your mother,” said Kristie, handing the rolling pin to Tiny. “I’
ve got me some mad skills when it comes to killing zombies.”

“Amen sister,” said Tiny as he raised the rolling pin and smashed it down on
to the zombie’s skull.

“Everyone oka
y up here?” asked Bryce, holding a long metal crowbar covered in blood.

“We’re fine,” said Kristie, “Wha
t about you? You don’t look so good.”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “
I’m fine. Damn zombies broke the glass patio door downstairs. Caught us all by surprise.

“Where’s Billie?” asked Paige.

“Right here,” he replied, stepping into the kitchen.

“Did you guys block that
patio door?” asked Kristie.

“Yeah, we moved the
computer armoire in front of the entrance,” said Billie. ‘Sucker weighs a ton.”

“
Well, I found what we needed,” said Kristie, holding up the envelope. “We should get moving.”

“I’m going to
leave a note,” said Bryce as he started searching through drawers. “In case one of them shows up here, so they know where we’re heading.”

“
Well, just tell them to stay put if they make it here,” said Kristie. “We’ll come back this way after checking Cassie’s grandparent’s and then my house.”

Bryce nodded and began writing on a notepad
when the loud banging began.

“
Great, what’s going on now?” asked Paige.

Billie
walked over to the window and looked outside. “Shit.”

“What?”
asked Kristie, joining him at the window. “Oh…”

Dozens of zombie surrounded the house, slapping at the wood and glass with their hands.

“They’re going to eventually break through those windows,” said Tiny, looking over Kristie’s head. “We’d better get out before that happens.”

The sound of shattering glass from somewhere down below confirmed their fears.

“Let’s move,” said Bryce, picking up the crowbar.

“Don’t forget your bat this time,” said Kristie, handing it to Paige. “It should
be your new best friend.”

She nodded. “
Especially since my old best friend abandoned me.”

Kristie sighed. “She didn’t abandon you, honey. I’m sure she just wanted to keep you safe.”

“Still,” said Paige as they stepped back out to the garage. “She took Nora, why not me?”

“No,” said Billie. “Nora took Cassie. It was her idea in the first place. She’s looking for her father.”

“I don’t care whose idea it was,” said Bryce as he opened the door to the Expedition. “They’re both getting their asses chewed out when I find them.”

“All of them are getting their asses chewed, starting with Luke,” said Kristie
, getting into the back of the vehicle. “Taking those girls across country when neither of them can drive, let alone shoot a damn gun.”

“Mom, Kylie and Allie a
re definitely not victims. If anyone, you should feel bad for Luke. He’s already learned his lesson stuck in a vehicle with those two, believe me.”

Kristie smiled. “
Yeah, when those two start talking, it can certainly make your head spin.”

“Especially about boys,” said Paige. “Both of them are so boy-crazy, it’s ridiculous.”

Kristie’s face darkened. “Don’t remind me Paige. I don’t need anything else added on to my current list of worries- two girls alone with a fifteen year old boy, hormones running wild.”

Bryce put the key in
to the ignition as Billie and Tiny lifted the garage door.

“Get in!” shouted Paige as a g
roup of zombies moved towards the men.

Billie raised his gun and began shooting while Tiny used his crowbar to defend himself.

“What the hell is that?” shouted Kristie, holding on to the dashboard
as the truck began to shake.

“I
…I don’t know,” said Bryce, staring down at the dashboard.

“
Earthquake!” yelled Billie, jumping inside. “Pull out of the garage, so we don’t get trapped inside of here.”

Paige’s face turned white. “I didn’t know Minnesota had earthquakes
!”

Tiny jumped into the front seat next to Bryce
. “Back out now, brother, quickly!”

Bryce threw it
in reverse and the tires rolled over two zombies who’d lost their footing.

Paige threw her arms around her mo
ther as the tremors grew more intense. “Oh my God, are we going to die?”

“Honey, calm down.
I won’t let anything happen to you,” she answered, closing her eyes.

Seconds later, the vibrations stopp
ed.

“Well, that was odd,”
said Billie, staring out the window. Besides the zombies gathering around their vehicle, everything seemed so normal. As if the quake had never happened. “First zombies and now tremors in Minnesota?” he frowned. “These are some crazy days.”

“Very,” said Kristie, releasing Paige. “Hasn’t been any of those in this state since the seventies.”

“
Is it going to happen again?” asked Paige, staring out the window at the clouds that were headed their way.

“I don’t know,” sigh
ed Kristie. “Let’s just pray that Kylie and everyone else, is safe.”

“Dammit,” said Bryce, rubbing a hand over his face. “This is getting more dangerous by the minute. What in the hell was she thinking of when she left Atlanta? When I get my hands on her…”

“Chill out, Bryce,” said Paige. “It wasn’t
just
Cassie who left and besides, she was only trying to save the rest of her family. Don’t try telling us that you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

His face darkened. “I wouldn’t have taken off in the middle of the night and I
certainly would have planned it out a lot better.”

“
You’re
the reason she took off in the middle of the night,” said Paige. “She knew you’d try and stop her.”

His eyes widened. “
Oh, now it’s my fault?”

“Well, you’re kind of bossy,” she said.

“Obviously she
needs
guidance,” said Bryce. “And the fact that she took off like that just proves it.”

“Listen,”
interrupted Kristie. “Pointing fingers isn’t going to solve anything. We’ve all done some crazy shit in the last few weeks and it was done out of desperation and the will to survive. Now, we have to work together and find these kids before they end up dead or, God forbid, undead. So quit with the dramatics and let’s get rolling before you find out how frightening a woman out of cigarettes
and
on the verge of menopause can get. You all feelin’ me?”

“Yes
, mother, I feel you,” said Paige.

“Me too,” smirked
Bryce.

“Good
,” said Kristie. “Now, let’s see if we can turn our luck around and find everyone before it gets dark.”