The Rot: Book 3

Chapter 38

 The rotter saw us standing in the front doorway. He was taller and younger than the stench that attacked us outside. His white t-shirt was stained brown from the dried blood that had seeped from the bite wound on the front of his neck.

"Go!" I barked at everyone.

The biter growled and charged at us as we filed out of the house. I slammed the door in the dead thing's face.

"Come on, let's get the fuck back to Donovan's," said Cyn.

I couldn't agree with her more. We headed back toward Donovan's home. Right when we took off, that big ass corpse came crashing through the living room window. Bastard must've seen us through the curtains.

I knew there was no way we'd make it over the fence in time. That stench would get at least one of us as we tried to climb. We had to deal with the dead thing.

Ruby rushed toward the corpse. She attempted to drive her blade into the back of its skull, but the biter made it to his feet, turned, and saw her. It reached out and grabbed Ruby, leaning in to bite at Rue's face.

I swung my bat at the back of the corpse's left knee. The dead thing let go of Rube and focused its attention on me. The stench stumbled due to its damaged leg. My bat then connected with the side of its skull, causing the biter's head to turn. And when it did, Ruby was waiting there with her blade.

Rue drove her weapon into the bridge of the stench's nose. The corpse then crumpled to the ground.

"Oh fuck," Ruby gasped.

I just took a deep breath.

"Thank you, Reid," Rue told me.

"No problem," I replied. "Welp, my morning workouts done."

"Are you guys okay?" Cynthia asked us.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Was this another one of the family?" I asked Donovan.

"Yeah," Donovan answered. "It's their son. Well, was their son. He played college football I think."

"Judging from the height and size, I'd say he played all of the sports."

"I guess we can go back in there now," Janice said. "The biters are all cleared out."

"Yeah, we might as well get those few cans. You never know," said Cyn. "I'll go grab them.

Cyn started walking up the porch when a third rotter climbed out of the broken living room window. The wife. We had forgotten about her. Large chunks of flesh had been eaten away from both of her arms and shoulders.

"Oh son of a bitch," Cynthia sighed.

The dead thing leaped off the porch toward Cynthia, but Cyn moved out of the way, and the biter landed right on its face. Before the dead thing could get up, Cynthia stomped repeatedly on the back of the corpse's head, cracking its cranium open.

Cynthia wiped her boot off on the grass and turned to Donovan, "Any other surprises in that house? Shit."

Donovan shrugged. "I don't know, Cyn. Those three were the only ones that lived there."

"How in the hell did we forget about her?" I asked the group.

Ruby shrugged. "Kinda preoccupied with the other two dead fuckers, Reid."

We all stared at the front of the house, expecting more stenches to come out, but nothing happened.

A biter running up and slamming against the gate behind us gave the group a little jump. We turned and watched as the chomper tried climbing.

"Oh for fuck's sake," I sighed.

"I got it," Rue said. She stormed forward and rammed her blade into the dead thing's skull.

"I'm going back in there and getting the food," Cyn told us. Desmond tried to object, but Cyn charged back into the home to get the food.

Cynthia returned after only a few minutes with the few canned goods. "Now can we get the fuck out of here?"

"That's it, huh?' Mick asked us when we returned to Donovan's place.

"Yep," Cyn replied.

"What the hell happened over there?" Angela asked her sister.

"A few stenches. We handled them," Cyn answered. "You guys didn't hear anything going on over there?"

"Yeah, we did. But we were keeping ourselves busy over here, trying to get everything set up."

"Ah, okay."

That evening, we all sat around in the living room, wondering what to do next.

Donovan looked at the three cans we recovered and sighed, "That was too close back there. For these? I guess we have to get into the other houses around here."

"We don't know what each house around here has," I said.

"And that's the problem," Ruby chimed in. "And you know, it's not just the stenches that we have to worry about."

I agreed with Rue. "A fact all of us know too well."

"We do have that van. Why don't a few of us go out, find a store or two, and just load up? If we can, that is," Cyn said.

"Are there any stores nearby?" I asked Donovan.

Donovan nodded, "Yeah."

Cyn looked around the room, "Think we should try?"

I weighed the options over in my head for a few seconds before I gave Cynthia an answer.

"I mean, we can just keep trying to get inside the homes in the area," Ruby said. Then she pointed to the house next door. "But look at what we just went through. I'm not suggesting that every house will be like that one, there's no way of knowing."

"What do you think, Reid?" Cyn asked me.

"Both options suck," I answered. "We don't know what could be waiting for us at any of the stores around here either. But, we should at least go and check out the shops, see what we might be up against."

The others agreed with me. "Want to check things out tomorrow?" Ruby asked.

I nodded, "Yeah."