The Zombie Resistance

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Becca stared in horror at the hole in Tom's head. Sara had missed, grazing his eye and the side of his skull. His eye socket was destroyed and gore had erupted from it. Bits of blood was stuck to our shoes and pants. Tom's remaining eye twitched wildly and Becca gasped, pulling her hands to her face. The eye stared at us until it finally went still. Sara's face was stony. The room buzzed with the echo of the gunshot.

"We need to go." Sara muttered. She holstered her pistol. Becca didn't say anything. She turned and grabbed her backpack. Caine and I stared at each other. My ears continued to ring.

"We need to go!" Sara yelled. She grabbed my arm tightly, dragging me away from the grisly scene.

Caine grabbed a blanket from the ugly floral couch and draped it over Tom. He whispered something quietly, then turned to look out the window. His face darkened.

"They're circling the house." He said. He was right. I could see the zombies passing by the window, their unfeeling eyes burrowing into mine. "We need to get up to the roof. There's a way up from the attic, I was up there yesterday." Sara nodded as she quickly packed up our supplies. I grabbed my bag, pausing as I noticed Tom's duffle bag. I went to grab it, but Becca's hand shot out, grabbing my wrist.

"Leave it." She said in a hoarse voice. I stared at her, my words caught in my throat. "Leave it for him."

We left the room, along with Tom and his bag, shutting the door behind us. As we climbed the ladder into the attic, I heard a crash of a broken window. They were in the house.

We climbed faster and pulled the ladder up with us. Caine closed the latch firmly. He held his fingers up to his lips. Shhhh.

We could hear pounding noises below us. The zombies were running around the house, searching for the prey they had just trapped. Garbled shrieks filled the silence, sending goosebumps up my spine. There was loud, continuous pounding. What must have been a victory howl arose. Then, all was quiet. When I strained my ears, I heard the distinct sound of slurping, as if someone downstairs was enjoying a bowl of noodles. Bile rose in my mouth. They had found Tom.

Caine took advantage of the distraction. He pointed to a small window at the other end of the attic that had roof access. Climb out. He mouthed.

We made our way around the maze of boxes, packed with the memories of a dead woman. Caine made it to the window first, slowly pushing it open. He climbed out and helped me. The sun was still out, and from this height we could see everything on the flat countryside. Zombies scattered the scenery and they were all making a beeline for the house. The too bright light illuminated our doom.

I searched Caine's face. His eyes were glazed over, like he was shutting down.

"Caine?" I breathed. I tugged on his shirt. "Caine?"

"What's going on out there?" Sara whispered. She and Becca were still in the attic. Only Caine was tall enough to climb out without help. Caine blinked and sat down.

"Just a second guys," I said.

"Caine." I hissed, "Get up. Move." I waved my hand in front of his head. "We need to get out of here-" He grabbed my arm roughly, pulling me down to him.

"We're going to die, Lana." He croaked, "There's nothing we can do. I-I let Tom die and now we're all going to die." I ripped myself from his grasp.

"Well," I stated, "I'm not going to die." He looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot. I steeled myself, willing courage. "I'm not going to die and neither are you. We're going to help Becca and Sara out of the attic, then we're going to go find your brother and my sister." I offered him my arm, which was getting sore from where he had grabbed me. I offered a small smile. "We're going to get out of here."

Reluctantly, he took my hand and got back up. He helped Sara and Becca out of the window, their faces darkening as they took in our surroundings.

"What are we going to do?" Becca wept, "We're surrounded, and the sun isn't going to go down for another hour. They'll figure out a way to get to us before then." The zombies were getting closer, like they could sense our defeat. I looked around for somewhere- anywhere- to hide. We were far out in the country, further from town than my house was. The closest house was straight past the zombies. We would never make it. Even if we could, we'd only be surrounded again later. I turned, and started climbing up the roof.

"Lana, what are you doing?" Sara asked.

"I need to get a better vantage point." I said. When I got to the top of the roof, I looked out over the house. To any side of us, zombies littered the property. I gulped. There was no way we could make it out on foot, but they would be on top of us before sunset. I looked down, quietly cursing. Then, I saw it.

I quickly scaled down the roof back to Becca, Caine, and Sara. I felt revitalized. "Hey," I said, "Does anyone know how to drive?"