Dead Days

Chapter 25

Cassie crying is what slams time back into motion. "Get upstairs!" I scream over the cacophony of moans. Cassie struggles to get Wolf to move. I don't blame him, death is literally surrounding him, he has every reason to be scared.

      A window shatters from somewhere in the kitchen and Cassie screams and kicks it into overdrive. She picks Wolf up and runs up the stairs.

     A zombie reaches in and grabs a hold of the sleeve of my t-shirt. I hop away from the door and it swings open and my shirt tears diagonally in half. What remains on my body falls to the ground. I sprint to the stairs.

     A quick glance into the kitchen shows me that if I would have waited any longer, I would have been cut off by a surge of zombies that came through the window.

     I take the stairs three at a time and see that the door at the end of the hall is open, the one with the body in it. I sprint in and close the door, moving a near by dresser in front it. "It won't hold them, but it will give us time to think," I say, catching my breath.

"Jack..." is all Cassie can say, the rest of the sentence eaten away by fear and hopelessness.

"We're getting out of this." I walk up to her and hug her, I didn't say it, but I do have my doubts. Wolf puts the top of his head against the side of my knee and whimpers.

"Okay, help me move the bed," I say, letting go of Cassie and grabbing a corner of the bed frame. "On three," I say. "One, two, three!" Together we pull the frame halfway across the room before Cassie needs a break.

She grabs the frame and looks at me, determination prominent in her green eyes. The door starts to rattle in its frame, the dresser struggles to hold back the tides of death.

"One, two, three!" I say, and we pull the bed frame the rest of the way and push it up against the door.

     "What now?" Cassie asks through heavy breaths.

     I walk to the window and look out of it. In the light of dawn there's a lot of the undead, but they're spaced out enough for us to run through.

     "It's ballsy, but I have a plan, Cass." She looks at me, concerned.

     "When are your plans not ballsy?"

     "Right, what we do is uncover the dead body, use it as a distraction once they get in here. By that time, we'll be sprinting through the dispersed crowd down there." I say, pointing outside.

     "Are you insane!?" She says, her eyes wide with fear.

     "I have been hit in the head a lot of times." I say trying to lighten the situation but failing miserably. "Look, it's the only chance we've got, Cass."

     Almost as an emphasis, the knob on the door broke loose and the hands of the undead began to push through the frame of the door. Cassie looks at me and gives a reluctant nod.

     "Alright, whatever you do, do not stop running and keep your eyes peeled for outstretching hands."

"What happens if one of us does get grabbed?"

I didn't say anything, I just looked at her and she understood. I walked to the window and looked out, the crowd became more dispersed in the short time it took us to talk, but they will converge just as fast.

     "I'm going to uncover the body as a means of distraction. They'll go after that first." I say, walking over to the bed.

     She moves to look out the window. I throw the cover off of the corpse and walk to Cassie. "You ready?" I ask, trying to keep her from looking back at the words carved into the body.