The Run

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter 26

I frowned as I walked into our room to see that Oratio had moved in an above-ground pool, and had filled it with my underwear.

“WOOOO!!!” He yelled enthusiastically, before he bombed into the water – I mean, underwear.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, peeved. I was seemingly more upset about the fact that he had put a swimming pool in our bedroom, rather than the fact that he was swimming in my underwear. “Are you really that stupid? Pools go outside, you dill. You’re setting a bad example for the children.” I scolded him, but he ignored me and started swimming backstroke through my garments.

I grabbed him by the ear as one of my G-strings wrapped itself around his face, and pulled him out of the pool. “Now mister, I won’t have you behaving like that in my house and in front of my children. Put this stupid contraption outside and apologise to my kids.” I scowled at him and he grinned widely in reply.

“Yes miss.” Can his polite return, just as toddler – who I identified as my baby girl Skyler – stuck her head out from the door frame.

“Mummy, why has daddy put a swimming pool in the bedroom? They go outside!” She yelled, attracting the attention of my other children… And I seemed to have a small army of them.

They all began to try to climb over one another to see the swimming pool in the bedroom, none of them noticing that it was filled with underwear…

I jerked awake, Oratio snoring in my ear, and the coldness of the floor seeping into my leg. Wait, floor? I pulled my leg back onto the mattress and glanced at the two children inbetween Oratio and myself. Good, they’re still asleep. I need to do something about the noise he’s making before he tells everyone where we are.

I sighed, but Oratio must have been psychic because for the first time in the entire time that I’ve known him, and have been sleeping next to him each night… The snoring stopped. I wriggled back into the mattress, wrapping the blankets around my small frame as I thought back to my dream.

A pool in the bedroom? Seriously? Wait, and it was filled with my underwear. Who in their right mind would fill a pool with underwear? Seriously? It’s underwear!

I frowned at myself, evidently I was so crazy that my subconsciousness thought it was normal to swim in underwear. Right. Sitting up slightly, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and glanced over to see Clyde and Speranza still asleep, although Celeste was lying on her back with her eyes wide open, her fists waving in the air.

I might as well get my day started, if I’m not the only one awake. I looked at the baby warily, I should probably wake up Speranza just to make sure that Celeste can be fed before she starts to cry. I shuddered as I thought of what the dead would do to us if they found out where we were.

Through my sudden fear, I thought to check out the links and see if anyone else had been found… and I wasn’t sure whether or not to be relieved or horrified by what came back. It seemed as though another three pack members had… expired… during the night, but none of the ones that I considered to be my personal friends were hurt.

Most of the links were inactive though, and I suspected that everyone had spent their time lying awake – too scared to sleep – before finally falling unconscious when their bodies couldn’t take it anymore. I decided not to disturb anyone, sleep was better than reality at the moment.

I slowly and carefully walked through the room, it was already getting a little messy, and gently nudged Speranza awake. “The little one is up.” I mumbled softly into her ear, and she slowly sat up. I guess she understand the hidden message in my words, but then again… Mothers tend to dislike their children crying anyway. Personal experience.

And now would be a good time to see what else is in this little room of doom, while everyone else is asleep. When they wake up we’ll probably have to sort out some rules and plans for living down here. It’s only going to get harder from now on.

I moved between the shelves of the storage section, careful to not bump anything and cause it to fall off down. It would have just woken everyone up and caused a little panic. Okay, so we have food… Food… A couple of medicine kits, and first aid kits… Blankets and spare clothing… A kettle and some pants for boiling large amounts of water. They would also be good for washing. I nodded, noting where everything was.

Jackpot. Lying underneath one of the shelves at the back of the storage area, was an old and large T.V. The ones that had an antenna at the top. It wasn’t much, but if it worked we would be able to get news of what was happening in the outside world… That was if we could get the sound down low enough so that only people in the room would hear it.

Unless… I carefully and gently pulled the T.V out from under the shelf, making as little noise and I possibly could. Even better. It has ports for earphones, plus a setting for deaf people. I’ll put both in when we fire it up, just to make sure that no noise comes out of it.

I nodded my head, cheerful for the first time since we had been stuck down here. They had obviously put a lot of thought into these rooms, even if they were stupid enough to only make one exit. There was enough to check how things were going, and to try to survive the breach outside. Who knows, maybe one of the other towns will figure out that something is wrong and be able to stop them before it’s too late.

Then again, I probably wouldn’t let my pack into an area milling with zombies. Just saying.

Who am I kidding? They aren’t coming to help us, it’s too risky. The transitioned zombies won’t be under the control of Megan and her minion. They’ve probably noticed it by now too, there would have been some of them moving out into the forest and eating the wildlife there.

I frowned, we could only hope that they would eat the bears before the bears transitioned properly. Zombie bears were the worst, they had the creepiest groans and screams, and were more powerful than any of the other animals that would transition in this area.

We would have been totally dead if they had brought an army of undead bears.

I flinched instinctively as another link abruptly flicked out in my mind. There goes another, adding to the romping monsters. I groaned quietly. If we ever get out of here alive, the town is going to smell absolutely horrible.

Hey guys! Thanks for your support and shiznaz of my writing, it makes me feel happy and makes me churn out chapters faster!

I know this is another short one, but I need to get past particular points before I can end it. The next chapter is going to be the second-last one, I think. But if you’re nice enough I might do an epilogue. J