Chapter 4: First Encounter

Josh crawled back to my side and whispered, “So what do we do now? I just asked Derek for advice and he told me to not get in your way.”

I narrowed my eyes, “Not the time to be joking.”

“I’m serious.”

I sighed and crawled back to the living room where everyone else was. Josh followed behind me.

“Why are you both crawling like that?” Sally asked, as if we were idiots.

I looked at Josh and then shrugged, “Seemed like the right thing to do. We don’t know much about the infected.”

“That’s one of my concerns too,” said Chris. We were all whispering. I guess even quietness can be infectious. “We don’t know if they’ll be like the zombies described in the survival guide or something else entirely. I can’t even conclude if they’re zombies or not.”

Victoria seemed to react to what Chris was saying because she looked up at him, “Zombies? No, no zombies…”

“W-what do you mean?” said Angela. Her mouth was dry, which caused her to stutter when she spoke. She was trying to sound as natural and calm as possible, but I could tell how nervous and confused she was. She kept looking back at me like she expected me to say something, fill in the silence created by Victoria’s speechlessness.

I had to step up.

“Derek told us to get weapons.”

Chris said, “I already discussed with Derek about the options. It would have been great if your dad worked as a contractor or something dealing with construction and had something we could turn into a makeshift gun like a pneumatic nail gun… but your dad’s a chef.”

Chris, Josh, and I sighed.

Sally bit her lip and cross her hand over her chest. She thought for a moment and said, “Well, knives will just have to do for now. I’m sure he has some decent quality knives, right? I don’t think I or the girls could go around carrying a nail gun all day, lest even know how to shoot one properly.”

Josh said, “Well, I also saw a metal bat your brother had under his bed, and you have a few tennis racquets behind your room door, right?”

We all looked at Josh and paused.

I asked, “What made you want to look under my brother’s bed?”

Josh corked his head from right to left, looking at each of us once like a sprinkler, “What? I was kind of scared after I saw those guys outside of your house, so I had to check places where they could be hiding. I mean your house is unlocked after… all…”

We all turned our heads to the front door as Josh’s voice trailed off into silence.

How’d I forget to lock the front door?

“You locked it right, Alex?” Josh asked me.

Everyone looked at me, and I slowly crept away, crawling. Before I crossed into the dining hall, which was what connected the living room to the entrance of my home, I looked back and said, “I’ll be back really quickly.”

Sally put her arms on her hips, and Chris crossed his hands over his chest. Josh nodded at me like he understood. Not helping. I was a bit embarrassed.

“Well, for now, let’s gather the bat and stuff,” I heard Chris say as I crawled back towards the entrance of the house.

“Wait up.” Angela said from behind me.

I looked back and saw her crawling towards me. Her shirt was dangling just enough so I could see some of her… cleavage, so I looked away while tugging on my shirt to let her know her shirt wasn’t fully covering her. Well, it’s not like she was busty or anything, but it was good enough for me.

She looked down at her shirt and blushed when she realized how much she was exposing herself to me. It wasn’t much actually, but my imagination was getting the best of me. This would have been a good time to get closer to Angela, but I resisted my physical urges and kept heading towards the door.

Calm down, Alex… Not the best time for this.

When I got to the shoe rack along the wall and under the entrance window, I had the sudden urge to peak out the window. They say curiosity killed the cat, but I had looked before and nothing happened. The zombies were pretty docile. This time though, before I looked out the window, I heard a man shouting. He sounded like he was really angry.

I don’t know what gave us away. Was it Josh’s phone? Were we talking too loudly? I don’t know. The man’s roar was met with Victoria’s scream. Her scream wasn’t one of anger though. It was panic.

The window above me burst and shards of glass rained on me. I covered my head while curling next to the shoe rack as much as possible.

So much for home security.

Why I didn’t consider this a possible scenario mystified me, but I didn’t have time to consider any further. My thoughts stalled while the joints in my bones locked in place. My neighbor Sean had busted through the window and light from outside glinted off the shards of glass embedded into his skin. He looked down on me, blood dripping down the side of his face and onto my socks.

“Don’t let them touch you.” Derek’s advice resurfaced into my mind. I scrambled to get away, but the wall stopped me from going any further. I contemplated jumping out of the window, but I saw Angela’s face of horror. She wasn’t looking at Sean but outside, through the gaping hole in my house. I couldn’t see what she was looking at, but I heard other people shouting like in a riot and had a pretty good idea of what was coming.

Sean crouched lower to grab me, but I smacked his hands away, warding off each of his attempts. Then his fist collided with my face, and I cowered. It was hard for me to dodge since the shoe rack was behind me, and I didn’t have much mobility on the floor. Defense seemed like the best option, but it wasn’t going to make him go away.

He pounded on my back. I felt a few more hands on me and realized the others had arrived at the windowsill, probably climbing over as I struggled to protect my head and neck. Is this an earthquake drill? The stray thought made me want to laugh. I chuckled while tears dripped down my face. Am I going to die?

“Alex.” No! He was trying to strangle me now, but I pulled away at his arms. I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die. “Alex!” Huh? I looked at who had called me name from the corner of my eyes. Angela was holding onto me while tears flowed down her face. “Get up,” she cried.

I looked up to see Chris and Josh warding away the zombies trying to get into the house through the busted window. There were five more outside but only two could comfortably get through the window at a time.

They were all from my neighborhood, but Chris didn’t seem to mind that fact. He was swiping away at them with my Wilson racket, the one I kept behind my room door. Josh was hammering away at their heads with my brother’s metal bat. It was pretty effective because a couple of hits seem to knock them out.

“Fuck. This is just like the Battle of Chancellorsville, 2017.”

Josh’s voice snapped me out of my daze.

“No, you idiot. There’s no strategy here. Stop talking and keep pounding.” Chris said.

Angela dragged me away, and I noticed Sean on the floor, blood oozing out of his head. Sally was clutching onto one of my father’s kitchen knives with both of her hands. Blood was dripping down from its blade. She was trembling and staring at the scene before her.

Chris glanced at me before shouting, “Get Victoria. We’ll try to go from the side yard and jump the wall.”

Angela and I moved to the living room and found Victoria huddled up at the corner of room. She was rocking back and forth while mumbling to herself. I went up to her and shook her. “Victoria, we have to leave. We’re going to jump the wall to my neighbor’s.”

I lifted Victoria’s head, and we made eye contact. Her pupils dilated and her eyes scanned my face. It was like she was trying to double check who I was. I didn’t know how to respond, so I said, “Victoria. We need you with us.”

“Alex? You’re alive?” She said.

I frowned and nodded, “Of course. We’re all alive. But we have to get out now.”

She nodded and got up. Angela helped her.

Chris came into the living room with Sally and said, “Shit, I need a new racket.”

“I-I got some knives.” Sally said.

I nodded and asked, “Where’s Josh?”

“I’m here,” he said while dashing into the room trying to catch his breath, “I got everyone’s shoes as well.” He said while holding up our shoes all tied up.

“Is it safe now?” asked Angela.

Josh replied, “We handled the five trying to come in for now, but there are others out there raiding other homes.”

“Then there’s no point in jumping the side wall,” I said, “We need to get out of the city.”

What should we do next? I thought.