Zombieboy

Chapter 16

“Kyle? Kyle!”, yelled Chuck, as if he couldn't see the boy.

“Yeah I am right here Chuck? Right next to guy with the long coat.”

Squinting, Chuck kept his gun pointed in that general direction and said, “Come on, the noise will probably bring more of them.”

“Yeah, just a minute though, go back in the house and wait for me, their might be more.”

Surprise played over Chuck's face, he wasn't used to being given orders by 9 year olds, still he glanced around nervously and quickly headed back into his house, calling over his shoulder, “Knock if you come through the back, okay, and I will let you in. Oh, hey get their guns too, right?”

“That is what I am doing.”, Kyle called back with exasperation.

Bending over he made sure the punk in his long coat was permanently dead, then rifled through is pockets. Not only did he come up with more bullets, in little metal boxes, (they were clips), but he also found a long knife and three sets of keys. Kyle took everything and even stole the holster the kid had attached to his belt. Trying to hook the thing up to his waist band Kyle was thwarted, it was too big and heavy and wouldn't stay clipped on. Going over to zombie Dan's body he found another holster and a whole box of ammunition in the fanny back clipped to his body, finally Kyle turned to the fist zombie he had killed and found only a few loose bullets in one of his pockets. As Kyle worked he had felt a compelling reason to stay as close to the punk kid's body as he could, looking at the zombie's color Kyle noticed them fading away into nothingness, they seemed brighter on the side towards Kyle than on the opposite side and Kyle raise his hands towards them, noticing a faint, wispy aura as the colors drained from the body and were absorbed by his hand.

Moving closer Kyle pressed his hand up against the body and the colors immediately pooled there and moved into Kyle, it felt, it felt....wonderful. Kyle didn't know how long he stood there, it seemed like hours, returning to himself he gathered up the holsters, the guns, the ammunition and put it all into the fanny pack Dan had been wearing, picking this heavy bundle up he hopped the fence without touching it and headed to her back door.

He arrived at the door and knocked politely, he could see Chuck and Katie in the room just beyond the portal.

“Kyle?”, Chuck's voice asked quietly.

“Yeah, its me mister Rand.”

Chuck opened the door and let Kyle in, quickly shutting it as the boy cleared the entry way.

“It took you long enough, what were you doing?”

Kyle held up the fanny pack and one of the guns, “I thought we could use these, I checked for bullets too, I got everything I could find off the three of them.”

“Three? I only saw the one? What happened?”

Kyle told the story quickly, adding what he had found out about being able to see Katie and Chuck from about a house away when they were in the basement.

“We can still get my mom's car, right? And get out of here?”, Kyle asked.

“Yeah, thats the plan, we got everything we can take ready in the kitchen, I just gotta go pull the car in. I was thinking if you watched out again I could open the garage and put the car in here, then we could load up inside, instead of having to haul all the stuff out into the street. We are not quite done gathering everything, I wanted to ask if you need anything? We are planning on heading up into the hills, it might get cold, do you still get cold?”

“I got my pack, maybe we could stop by my house and I could get stuff? I don't know, I haven't yet. Got cold I mean. It hasn't been that cold.”

“Sure Kyle, we'll stop by your place grab your stuff and get out of here, first the car, lets go to the garage.”

The three of them filed out and stood by the garage door, without power Chuck was going to have to open it up by hand, something Kyle didn't know you could do. Katie stood back by the door to the house, Kyle stood with Chuck next to the closed garage door.

“Ready?”

Kyle nodded.

With a grating sound, Chuck pulled up the screeching garage door, once he had it up to his chest level he was able to push it upwards without much effort. After making sure it would not creep back down again Chuck looked around and then darted for the vehicle just up the block from his house, when he started moving two others started moving as well, one was a middle aged woman Kyle recognized, but didn't really know, she was his neighbor from across the street and up about six houses, practically a world away for a nine year old. The other was a darker man he didn't recognize, he looked latino and sported a black mustache crusted with dried blood. Of the two the latino moved faster, but still much slower than Chuck. Once he was to the car Chuck barely hesitated at the bloody mess on the seat after opening the door, hopping in he slammed the door and fumbled to get the key in the ignition. The car didn't turn over on the first try it gurgled a bit and the lights went on real dim. Chuck shut off the lights, the radio and every other electronic device that was trying to power up when he turned the car over then tried to start it again, this time the engine roared to life and he was able to put it into gear and drive it towards his house. The two zombies were almost to the car and he left them behind as he lurched up his driveway and into his garage, narrowly missing Kyle as he went by. Opening the car door he yelled at Kyle to close the garage door.

Kyle jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the garage door with both hands, he didn't have any trouble holding on, but his body weight was not enough to pull the door down. The latino was within reach when Chuck finally managed to get to the door and heave it down. He gave Kyle a quick grin as the zombie outside pounded the door once.

“I guess we should have tried that before I got the car huh?”

“Yeah.”, Kyle nodded again.

Exhaust fumes were starting to fill up the garage, Chuck looked around and spotted some thick drainage hose he had never installed for his underground gutter system, he bent over and placed one end over the exhaust pipe and motioned Kyle to hold it there while he unrolled the rest of it and ran it out the back door. The hose didn't want to unroll and it took several minutes of fighting to get the hose out into the back yard. Chuck pulled the back garage door as closed as he could get it then wrapped a bungee cord around the handle and hooked it to his cluttered workbench, the air in the garage didn't clear up noticeably and Chuck was coughing hard by the time he got back to the house door. Katie quickly handed him all the goods they had piled by the door and Chuck moved them to the back of the minivan. Finally chuck picked up plastic gas can and loaded it into the back too. Looking at Kyle he asked, “Can you lift the door and then jump through the side door if I leave it open?”

“Sure.”, Kyle said without thinking, “I can do that.”

Katied got into the front passenger's seat and Chuck got hopped into the driver's seat, he hadn't unhooked the hose from the exhaust of the van and after revving the engine he called out for Kyle to lift the door up.

The woman was there, in her faded flannel pajamas, but the hispanic man was nowhere to be seen. Chuck gunned the engine and the car lurched backwards into the woman, knocking her sideways into the grass alongside Chuck's driveway. Kyle grabbed onto the doorway and pulled himself through sitting down and automatically reaching for the seat belt to buckle himself in. Before he had it on Chuck was slowing down in front of Kyle's house, he did not pull into the driveway.

“Go Kyle, go! We'll wait here, but don't take all day, okay?”

Kyle hopped out and headed for his front door, once inside he raced back to his room and then remembered he had left his backpack at Katie's house and it had everything aside from warm cloths in it. He quickly grabbed up several hoodies, his winter coat and two pair of jeans, not thinking so far ahead to grab warmer shoes or socks, Kyle raced back to the front door. He got there and stopped. The van was gone. They had left him.

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