The Days Are Tired (Book #1 of the Dark Skies series) - A Zombie story

Chapter 41: Pain

I won't make excuses for Jo or her sons. While I understood they wanted to hold on to their loved one, they took things too far. Not realizing that their loved one was already gone.

Jo had her sons cut up people and feed them to her infected husband.

I knew the feeling of losing the person closest to you. The person who you considered your protector. The thing is, if you let that loss drive you to become something evil and dark, you risk losing yourself as well.

And they had lost themselves.

I thought back to Rob and the enjoyment he took in killing my friends. He hadn't shown any signs of remorse or even pity. It was no longer taking a life to save his father; he killed because he liked it. Using his father as a facade to make his actions right in his mind.

I followed Will and Leo down the wooden stairs. The steps groaned each time our feet made contact. Reaching the bottom floor was like reaching the oasis in a hot desert - it meant escape from the nasty conditions. Escape from this prison of a house.

The floor by the front door was soaking wet, and a stingy sweet smell tickled my nose, causing me to cough. A red gasoline can lay tipped over near the bottom of the stairs.

"Bri here." Will handed me a box of matches. "When we get outside, I need you to light this place up."

"Where are we going when we get out there?" I said, taking the box with shaking hands.

"To the break in the woods. We have a van parked on the dirt road back there." Will's forward voice reminded me of a drill sergeant dishing out orders to new recruits. "There's a lot of Reds outside right now, so we have to be very careful. They should be preoccupied with Jo and her sons, but you never know."

Without giving me time to think, Will snatched the front door open and shuffled Leo outside. I followed, not wanting to be left behind. Before fully leaving the house, I struck a match and threw it on the puddle of gas that bathed the entrance floor. The fire caught on impact and I hurriedly shut the door.

When I turned around, I was met with pure chaos. The smell of fumes became overwhelmingly strong. Dark smoke permeated the air like a cloak of darkness, making visibility slightly blurred.

Bodies were all over the yard, some dead and unmoving, while others chased after their prey. Gun-holding men who I assumed were the rest of Jo's sons were trying their best to hold back the string of infected that chased after them.

The blast of a gun made me jump.

Thatcher was standing at a particularly rickety part of the fence, his back pressed against the wires. A mob of Reds surrounded him. The Reds were in various states of undress and their clothes were all drenched in blood. The mob swallowed him up like a sea of pure death. I turned away as Thatcher's screams rang through the air.

"Will, you found them!" Lacy stood at the bottom of the steps. She was holding Will's axe, and the mountain of fallen bodies by her feet showed she'd put the axe to use. Her jet-black hair seemed to blend in with the smoke and her face was smeared with ash.

I never thought I would see her again. I wanted to hug her and tell her everything that had happened since we'd last seen each other, but I knew that would have to wait.

A loud crash drew my attention to the right, where I found the once rustic red barn in a bursting blaze. It was a crumbling mass of ash and burnt wood; the flames eating away at the structure unchecked. Multiple Reds walked around like human torches, their clothes licked with fire. And as they stumbled and ran forward, the fire spread more, attaching itself to everything, from the grass to the surrounding trees.