Zombieboy

A loud scream came from the house the train engineer had entered. Jeremy looked towards the noise and Kyle used the distraction to slip into his garage before Jeremy could notice. The garage was dimly lit by the morning sunrise, well enough that Kyle could see the door to his house from where he stood. The garage was empty, his mom's car was in the street, his dad's car was missing. Kyle approached the door to the house cautiously, keys in his hand. Kyle's dad always locked the door between the house and the garage, he said garages were easy to break into so if you left the adjoining door open you might as well invite burglars to come in and rob you blind. Kyle tried the knob, it turned easily. This made Kyle very nervous, the door was ALWAYS locked. Always.

Pushing the door slightly he opened it until he could just squeeze in, then quickly shut and locked it behind him. Faintly he could hear the screaming from up the block, it sounded like a man's voice, then a womans. Shaking his head Kyle started forward to look through his house, softly calling, “Mom?”.

No one answered his calls, he went towards his parent bedroom first, past the 'ruckus room' where there was a pool table and a great big picture of the Wall of China. Through the kitchen he entered the hallway and turned left onto the soft green carpet. His feet appreciated the deep shag, just as they had a million times before when Kyle had come in from playing or swimming or school. If his mother were anywhere he thought she would be in bed, it was very early still and his mom usually did not get up until later. Part of his mind realized it was not logical to think his mother might still be here, in the house when her car was out in the street. Still he had to start his search somewhere. His parents door was right next to his, both doors were open slightly, he pushed the one to his parent's room until it slid all the way open. The bed, unmade and mussed, was empty. Kyle stepped into the room, the carpet here was different, slightly less shaggy and more firm beneath his feet, he ducked down and checked under his parents bed. Nothing, turning he stood and went into his parents bathroom. The tile was cool beneath his feet as he verified no one was in that room either. As he passed the mirror he caught a glimpse of himself and realized he was mostly naked, just in his dirty underwear, his room was next on his list anyway and he headed into it without any hope of finding his lost parents.

Kyles room was how he remembered it, clothes on the floor here and there, a whole bunch of paper on his desk folded into dozens of types of airplanes and his glow in the dark dinosaur sitting on his window, guarding the room from any menacing back yard monsters with its all seeing luminescence every night. Working quickly he disrobed, grabbed clean undies and pulled on his favorite overall shorts. He did pull on a t-shirt before buttoning them up and looked around for his favorite sandals to put on, he could not find them, and figured they might be at the front or back door. Grabbing the blue crocs his grandma had bought him two weeks before he carried them in his hand while searching the rest of the house. Heading down the hallway from his room to the front of the house Kyle checked out the bathroom and the spare bedroom before ending up in the large living room with its fireplace and the huge flat television his father loved so much. The front door was slightly open. Not enough to see out, but no latched either. Kyle rushed forward to slam it shut and tilted the lock on, he didn't want the engineer visiting him next. Looking around he did not see his sandals here either, he checked the closet, in case his mom might have thrown them there and found nothing. Heading towards the back of the house he passed through the kitchen and into the ruckus room before making his way to the back door. The back door was shut and locked up tight. Kyle backpedaled a little and looked down the stairs into the basement. It was very dark in the basement and still quiet, the screams from outside had stopped while Kyle was getting dressed. Glancing at the floor Kyle still did not see his sandals. Shrugging he resigned himself to his crocs, he was reluctant to wear them, not because they were uncomfortable, but because his dad had made the mistake of calling them girl shoes. He started down the stairs quietly, not expecting to find anything other than an empty family room with another large television and two empty rooms, one which was an office where his parents kept their computers and the other which was a kind of playroom for Kyle. The basement was empty, he was just heading back up the stairs when he heard a noise at the front door of his house, the sound of his screen door being opened on rusty hinges. Kyle froze.

He heard someone at the door, but did not hear them knocking and was simply too far away to hear if they were trying to open the door. Creeping up the stairs into the ruckus room Kyle crouched down so he would not be seen from the large windows to the outside. Now he could clearly hear the door knob being jiggled. Then someone pounded on the door, like with their shoulder. Kyle's house had been built in the seventies, the doors were wooden, not metal and not exactly of the finest quality. Most normal doors of a house are more of a demarcation stating that what belongs to the owner is inside, than they are effective as actual barriers to entry. Kyle's front door was no exception, the first shoulder the engineer gave it caused it to crack down the center, the second hit and he stumbled half through it as the lock was pulled from the socket by the buckling door. Standing in the ruckus room Kyle heard the front door give and yet he could not force himself to move. Doors were not supposed to be broken in that easy, they were supposed to hold until the cops got there and arrested the bad guys. He backed away towards the back door until his buns touched it beneath the handle. Meanwhile the engineer disengaged himself from the mess and called into the house, “Anybody home?”

Kyle murmured “No-no-no.” softly to himself and turned and pulled his back door open quickly, keeping his eyes on the room and the other entrance to the ruckus room he back out of the back door. Straight into Jeremy's waiting arms.

Jeremy wasted no time with pleasantries but socked Kyle right across the face, kocking the smaller boy to the patio whereupon he proceeded to kick him, while yelling out, “Grandpa! Grandpa! He is back here, I got him! He is back here!” Kyle tried to roll away and flung his crocs up at Jeremy's face while crawling along parallel to the house wall. “Uh-huh you!” cried Jeremy, then Kyle was jumped on and wrestled to the ground, Jeremy on top. Struggling Kyle was unable to get the older boy off and Jeremy was thrilled to finally be exacting his revenge on his mortal enemy. Finally the engineer made his way out of the house and pulled the older boy off of Kyle, saying “Don't you move son, you stay right there you hear? Jeremy stop it, you stop it right now or I will beat you blue!” Shaking the boy fiercely until he stopped fighting, while keeping an eye on Kyle.

Petrified, Kyle lay still. The old man's clothes were dark red, almost black and were wet, soaked with what Kyle knew was blood. Jeremy had blood on his shirt too, and a long half dried smear down his left leg, from mid thigh to mid calf on his bare skin.

Putting the now compliant Jeremy down, the engineer said, “So this is your friend huh? Just like us? Well we can use him right?”

“No grandpa!”, screamed Jeremy, “No Kyle is a mess-up, he ruins everything!”

“Kyle huh? Where have I....oh THAT Kyle the one who beat you up a couple of years ago?”

“He had a CLUB grandpa and he hit me when I wasn't looking!”

“Didn't you get in trouble for fighting with him a couple more times?”, the old man chuckled, “Boys are always fighting though, usually they grow out of it. What is the goddamn matter Jeremy?”, this last was in response to Jeremy's face screwing up in rage, he had pointed a shaky finger at Kyle.

“He is the meanest kid in the school! Ask anyone, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!”

The old man looked at his grandson and then to Kyle, “Well I guess there is not much to do for it then, I won't have you two fighting when my back is turned and I sure ain't gonna share food with you.”, shrugging his shoulders apologetically the old man brought a booted foot up and stomped on Kyle's head. Three swift stomps and he backed off surveying his handiwork. Nodding he turned to a sobbing Jeremy and said, “There, that is that, no more Kyle to worry about, right? Lets go, I am starting to get my wind back, feel like I am 55 again, a few more people and I should back into my twenties.”

Together the old man and his grandson left the backyard, exiting the chain link fence through Kyle's gate. Jeremy took sadist glee in stomping on Kyle's head one more time before they left.

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