Twenty-One
theo
“Where’s it coming from?” Laura cleared the condensation on the door with a swipe of her sleeve. As she leaned in closer, the heat from her body re-fogged the glass.
I stopped beside her and checked the lock before I scanned the street, finding leaves and litter tumbling down the road. No cars. No people.
“What is it?” Sadie appeared on my right as Owen slotted in between Laura and me. Her hand hooked my upper arm, her warmth steadying me.
“I don’t know yet,” I said.
The others joined us, spreading out in a line across the glass panels on either side of the main doors.
Wearing a mask suddenly seemed pointless, so I tore mine off. The action had a ripple effect on the group, and in seconds, every face was exposed.
“Can you see what’s going on?” Tim asked, leaning from side to side.
“Not from here,” Laura said. “What do you think? Are we going outside?”
“We need weapons first.” Owen smacked a rough kiss on her temple. “Back in a few minutes.”
He took off, pounding up the stairs.
“I’ll help Dad.” Ellie ran after him, with Varesh not too far behind them.
Sadie bunched in closer with Laura, Willow and Tim.
When it registered I’d lost track of Dustin, I backed away from the entrance and turned. He hadn’t moved from the spot where I last saw him, his eyes glinting as he tracked our movements.
Asshole looked like he was waiting to watch us die.
I pointed at his apartment as if disciplining a stray dog. “Go home.”
He repositioned his glasses and squared his shoulders. “I’ll do no such thing.”
I took a step toward him, fist at my side, every muscle begging for release. “Go the fuck home.”
Dustin hesitated. For a second, I thought he might test my restraint, and a hidden part of me wanted him to try. Then his composure broke, and he scurried back into his hole.
I waited until he’d shut what was left of his door, the gleam in his eye a reminder never to let my guard down.
“He’s gone.” Sadie tugged me back to our observation spot, clearing a foggy patch with her palm. “Forget him. We’ve got scarier things to worry about.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. At least we knew what to expect from the infected.
“Look.” Willow tapped the glass urgently, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Shhh.” Laura grabbed her hand. “We don’t know if noise matters yet. Where?”
“Over there.” She pointed to the opposite side of the road, where three green wheelie bins were grouped together at the curbside, waiting for a garbage truck that would never come.
From Willow’s other side, Tim leaned in until his forehead was almost pressed to the door. “What are we looking at exactly?”
There was a movement in the narrow gap between the bins. Too low to the ground to be a person, too big to be an animal. My brain still wanted to connect it to something human, something that made sense. A kid, a dog, anything but the word none of us wanted to say out loud.
I slipped my arm around Sadie and drew her against my side. Were we about to see our first zombie? Fuck. Did I want to?
“Is it… is someone crawling?“ Laura wiped the glass again as sobbing reached us from the other side of the door. Hitching breaths with hopeless silence in between. “Maybe you shouldn’t be watching this, sweetie,” she said as an afterthought.
It didn’t matter. Even if we shielded Willow from it now, she’d still be exposed to it tomorrow, and every day after that.
“I’m not scared,” she said. “I’ve already seen them on the news.”
My gaze sharpened to a pinpoint, my fingers flexing against Sadie’s shoulder. I kept catching myself holding my breath.
“See?” Willow pointed again, keeping her hand off the glass.
Tim leaned back, flinging a wide-eyed glance in my direction. “I’m not going outside until we see what it is.”
Smart move. Blood leaked between the bins and ran into the gutter. A horrific amount streaming over the concrete—too much for anyone to survive the loss.
Adrenaline zipped through me, but I kept my feet planted. Even a week ago, I would have barged out there and helped, but not now. Maybe never again.
A door slammed somewhere above us, followed by another. Three sets of footsteps travelled together, stopping only when someone dropped a few weapons and swore. The metallic clang ricocheted off the walls and sent a vibration through the entire building.
Sadie jolted, and the shock had us all turning toward the stairs.
“What are they doing up there?” Laura asked. “Just throwing things straight down the stairs?”
“Not operating in stealth mode, that’s for sure.” I clocked a shadowy figure moving outside in my peripheral vision, closing in on the entrance one lumbering step at a time. Human-shaped with an inhuman gait.
Awareness rippled through me, and every nerve in my body screamed at me not to look, to protect myself from what was coming. Once I saw this fucking thing with my own eyes, it was real.
Willow didn’t have the same sense of self-preservation. “Oh, my God, Mum. Mum.”
A beat passed. Two. Then we turned just as a mangled face smashed against the door, rattling the frame and splattering the glass with blood and bits of flesh.
Laura and Tim screeched.
Sadie scrambled past me, clutching my shirt from behind.
My mouth opened and closed as I struggled to process the details.
Seeing these things on TV was bad enough, but in person and close enough to touch? It scared the shit out of me.
Half of the man’s face was missing, with one eye no longer in its socket. It just dangled there, and the god-awful smell seeping through the crack made my throat close up. “Jesus Christ,” I said. “I never even thought about the stench.”
For the first time since I’d known him, Tim was speechless.
A milky film covered the man’s good eye, and his hands slapped the glass, fingers curling as if he—it—wanted to grab our faces.
Willow didn’t move, not even a backward step, the determined set of her chin a stark contrast to the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
“You don’t need to be here, honey.” Laura’s voice quivered, then she cleared her throat and injected more confidence into her words. “Go upstairs. We’ll take care of this.”
“I’m okay.” She was twelve, but she stood her ground like a soldier refusing to break rank.
The man’s mouth mashed into the door, teeth grinding against the glass.
Sadie gagged and pressed her face into the back of my shoulder to block the smell. Any other time, I would have let myself appreciate her closeness, her softness. But not now.
Owen returned to the scene first, juggling an armful of tools as he ducked in between Laura and Willow. “Whoa. It’s just… there.” He puffed and stared at the thing in awe. “Decomposing right in front of us.”
“Still human enough to have some strength left.” I rattled the handle, praying like hell it would hold. “Can’t see it backing off unless something outside grabs its attention.”
Ellie joined her family and made an exaggerated choking sound when the smell of rotting carcass hit. “Oh my God. Look at it. Is this even real?”
“Don’t breathe too deep,” Laura said.
Varesh sidled in next to Tim and handed over a prospecting hammer, keeping the Bowie knife for himself. He didn’t say a word. Just searched our faces for confirmation we were seeing it, too.
Pissed at the glass barrier, the infected man pulled back and smashed his forehead into the door, shaking the frame on its hinges.
I flinched and stared into his eyes, seeing nothing but a single-minded goal. There’d be no reasoning with these things. No option but to fight, run, or hide.
Ellie gasped, and Tim tripped over his own feet.
The man repeated the motion hard enough to cave in his damaged eye socket, smearing the glass until patches of it had been made opaque.
Sadie made a squeaking sound but stayed close, her arm brushing mine, her eyes on the broken face in front of her.
“This is horrifying,” Varesh said.
No cracks had formed in the glass, but it wouldn’t be long.
Owen moved among us, distributing the armload of weapons and tools, passing the long-handled hammer to me. “Better take it down now before it breaks the door,” he said. “If it gets in here, we’ve lost our one refuge.”
“Agreed.” Laura gripped the maul Owen had handed her and stared at the dead thing, tucking her hair behind her ear with a jerky movement.
Tim tested the weight of the prospecting hammer, stepping away from the others to do a practice swing. The thought of driving that sharpened tip into the skull of a man who appeared mostly human made me sick to my stomach.
“You think you can do it?” I asked. “I mean, really do it.”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged and swung again, sending a sidelong glance at the infected man. “If I hesitate, I’ll be as dead as him, so it should be a good motivator.”
“They’re slow,” Laura said, “and uncoordinated. Plus, there’s only one of them out there.”
“Don’t forget the one who screamed.” Sadie stepped away from me and checked the street behind the infected man. “There’s no movement back there anymore,” she said, “and we all know what happens next.”
How long would the transformation take? Minutes? Hours?
The dead man stared at Willow and took another run at head-butting the glass, but she stood her ground, braver with a barrier between her and danger.
Ellie clasped her hoodie and eased her back from the door. “Stay away from it,” she said. “You’re being weird. It’s like you’re playing chicken, but you’re just making it crazier.”
“Can you distract it from here?” I asked Sadie. “I’ll go out the back and come up behind it.”
Her gaze darted from me to the thing on the other side of the glass, the dark smudges under her eyes a reminder she wouldn’t be up to physical activity for days yet.
“Okay,” she said, letting out a resigned breath, “but if you run into trouble, I’m opening the door.”
“Deal.”
A long, mournful moan drifted through the glass, and bloody fingers spread another arc of gunk across the door.
Laura raised her eyebrows. “Why don’t we keep things fair and send out one from each household? I’ll take our spot.”
Owen tucked the sheathed knife into his waistband, shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “No. Nope. I don’t want you out there.”
She faced him and tilted her head. “Can you explain why without spouting any sexist crap?”
His jaw flexed, but he didn’t bite back. I’d never known a more determined woman than Laura, and he knew how to work with her better than anyone. “Sorry, honey, all I have right now is sexist crap. I love you, and I want to protect you.”
“We all need to go out there eventually,” she said, her tone gentler. “The girls, too. Hiding behind glass won’t help any of us.”
“I’ll be her back-up,” I said.
Owen kept his attention on his wife, his features torn. An imaginary clock ticked over our heads, and the glass shuddered under another attack. “If I see anything—anything—I don’t like,” he said, “I’m going outside.”
She nodded, her eyes soft. “I’m good with that.”
“I’ll come out too,” Willow said.
Despite the seriousness of what we were about to do, Laura let out a crack of laughter. “Absolutely not.”
“I’ll represent our apartment.” Tim stepped up to the door and performed another practice swing, aiming for the infected man’s forehead. “If I don’t do it now, I’ll lose my nerve.”
“Will it even go through that part of the head?” Ellie asked.
“Possibly not,” Varesh said. “Target the eyes, ears—under the chin if your weapon’s long enough.”
“Gross.” She couldn’t seem to tear her gaze from the dead man.
Owen took a few seconds to fire off instructions to Laura while her daughters crowded her, the number of demands matching his rising stress levels.
Varesh hugged Tim and shared a few parting words of wisdom.
Without thinking, I turned to Sadie and cradled her jaw, pressing a lingering kiss on her cheek.
Surprised, she sucked in a breath and gripped my shirt, holding me to her.
As the activity ramped up in the foyer, nervous energy buzzed between us, and I rested my lips beside hers, wishing I’d chosen a better time and place.
“Be careful,” she said, turning her head and bringing our mouths even closer.
A shiver lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. I could almost feel the pressure of her lips, the softness. I’d lost sleep over this moment, and I brushed my thumb along her jaw. A few millimetres more, and our mouths would be touching.
Then Owen clapped my shoulder. “Good to go?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, pulling back. “I’m good.”
Sadie’s eyes were unfocused, her cheeks tinted red. She wanted this as much as I did, and now I had to leave her here.
As rotting hands scrabbled away at the glass beside us, Laura gave me a shove. “Come on, lover boy. She’ll be right here when you get back.”
My gaze dropped to Sadie’s mouth. “I won’t be long.”
“Don’t lose sight of it for a second,” she said with a passing glance at the others. “I mean it, Theo.”
She cared about me—no doubt more than she’d expected to after the way we started. The thought of being needed by someone for the first time in so long made my stomach clench. “I won’t.”
Fuck it. I couldn’t walk away from her without showing her at least a glimpse of what she meant to me.
“Let’s go,” Laura ordered, striding across the foyer with Tim.
We hadn’t even talked tactics yet, and the woman was ready to bust some heads.
“Two more seconds,” I called back.
With the hammer gripped in one hand, I clasped Sadie’s chin and touched my lips to hers.
Her mouth gave way beneath mine, and a long breath left me.
Her lips were soft and warm, her body swaying toward me as if out of her control.
If we’d had more time, I would have taken it deeper, slower.
Kissed her again and again. But I made myself pull back a fraction, then murmured against her lips, “We’ll talk about this later. ”
The door rattled with another attack, and she flinched, forcing a small smile. “Make sure you’re alive to keep that promise.”