Winter's Salvation Page 26

  They spent two nights travel in Maryland before making it to Eric’s home. They arrived at the single family house in the suburban development, just before sunset and Eric debated with himself about going in when the sun was beginning to go down, but after traveling months to get here the thought of not walking in when the opportunity was right in front of him was over powering. The thought of his parents meeting him at the door with open arms passed through his mind a couple times while they were traveling through Maryland, but then again the idea of finding them dead, eaten alive also continuously ran through his thoughts.

  The streets were quiet, but a still silhouette of a figure at the end of the street stood statuesque from the setting sun and a passing shadow moved between a few houses putting them at full attention. They traveled in trained silence and were able to make it with no unwanted encounters, but night was falling and Eric could feel Naomi beginning to become uncomfortable with the falling sun.

  His house had been broken into and was no different from any of the other hundred or so different houses they had slept in, except he noticed that his father’s cream colored Nissan was parked in the driveway. The open red front door had a large crack through the middle of it and was broken off its top hinge; the screen was ripped off and most of the windows on the first floor were broken from undead trying to crawl in or out. There is a small porch with green outdoor carpeting that was slippery from the wet and cold weather, and the dirty white lawn furniture managed to stay on the porch, but was now thrown haphazardly. Walking up the steps leading to the front door revealed something to Eric that instantly broke his heart, but gave him a strange form of relief.

  A body lay on the living room floor, but not in one piece. It was so badly mauled, it could not complete the change to a zombie. Torn and ripped jeans were close to the front door and what looked like the chewed remains of a torso was hidden under a knocked over end table. This body Eric immediately recognized as being his fathers. He was able to put together the ripped and paint stained blue jeans and the shamrock belt buckle as being the same one his dad had always worn. If it was not for that he would not have been able to identify the body.

  He stood looking down at the corpse for a few moments trying to convince himself that it was not him, but there was no denying it. Eric began to truly accept the feeling of relief, knowing his father died quickly and did not wind up as one of the undead. He turned to the three that waited just outside the door. “Come in.” He said as he stepped over the pants and deeper into the living room. Just then something moved up stairs as if it responded to his voice.

  Naomi, Sam and Drew stepped lightly into the living room and carefully over his father’s remains. He did not have to tell them this was his father, because they all looked to him with sympathy, knowing from his melancholy facial expression, this person on the ground was a family member.

  Eric began to walk deeper into the house. “I’m going up stairs.” Naomi began to follow, but he held out his hand stopping her. “I want to go alone.”

  After he walked to the kitchen and turned a corner, the sound of creaking footsteps followed every soft step he tried to make. Naomi walked quietly to the back and turned the corner looking up stairs to see Eric standing very still and looking through a railing at the level above. His hands hung by his side in defeat and not moving a muscle, he stared at something on the second floor. Eric peered down at Naomi and a clean line over dirty cheeks escaped his welling eyes. The tear rolled down his right cheek and then got caught in his unshaven face. It continued to shine on his cheek until the last glimpses of light remained in the house.

  He turned and walked down the steps no longer trying to be quiet and when he got to Naomi standing at the foot of the stairs, all he said was, “lets go.”

  **********

  They stayed in a house directly across the street from Eric’s. Everyone knew he saw something on the second level and everyone guessed that his mother was up there, but no one knew for sure. The house they stayed in was a mess with broken glass littering the floor and the smell of mold from months of open windows, but the front door’s lock worked as well. They secured the house, closing the windows and ensuring there were no surprises in any of the closets and then Eric went up the stairs to the master bed room and stared across the street to his parent’s house.

  Naomi wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and laid her chin on his shoulder looking, through the window, at the broken house with him. “What are you thinking?”

  “My Mom is up there.” He moved just a little to wipe a tear from his face. Naomi was silent and decided she was going to let him speak when he wanted to. “I used to work on a farm a few miles from here. We should probably head that way. At least there we won’t have to worry about too many undead.”

  “Sure that sounds good.” She squeezed him through his thick coat. “You are our leader and we need you.” Naomi could not believe what she was saying, but it felt good to let go. “I don’t think we could do this without you.” Letting the weight of holding onto the burden of feeling that she had to be in charge and make all the decisions felt good to her and she turned his head toward hers and put her cheek against his, matching the curves of their faces. After holding it there for a moment she kissed him. She kissed him again and he returned it with deep emotion.

  Eric felt Naomi’s invisible guard drop and he embraced her, pulling her close to him. He grabbed her by her hips and pulled her warm body against his. His hands slid up her shirt and coat pulling them over her head, revealing her soft, mocha colored body. She unzipped his thick coat and let Eric lead her to the bed. He spread open her legs and leaned over her, kissing her thick lips and then all thoughts of his family left him, as they caressed and let passion take over until they both drifted away into full ecstasy.

  Eric woke to Naomi spooning and rubbing her nude body against him from behind. This served two purposes Eric thought; one being that she was still passionate about the events of last night or she was simply cold and trying to get warm. The temperature had dropped below freezing and white smoke churned from his mouth, when he welcomed her with a moan of satisfaction and comfort; proved the temperature was below freezing.

  “Do you really want to head out in this weather?” Naomi said with a little chatter of her teeth.

  Eric smiled as her teeth rattled together and was surprisingly comfortable with Naomi’s body heat wrapping around him like a warm blanket. “Roll over.” He said as he rolled toward her and wrapped around her. He did this to warm her, but feeling her firm body fit perfectly against his excited him, but he tried to maintain his composure.

  “What did you see in the house last night?” Naomi grabbed hold of his arm that caressed her curves.

  Eric didn’t hesitate in his reply, “My mother.”

  “Was she dead?”

  The use of the word dead now could be used in a couple ways and Eric never thought about having to call his mother anything, but his mother. “She is one of them now. So, she’s” not wanting to call her anything else, “dead, I guess.”

  “I didn’t mean the way it came out.”

  “I knew what you meant. I just don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

  “With your mom?”

  He fell silent for a few moments. “Yeah.” He knew that his mother would not want to live the way she was now, but he could not kill her. The thought of taking a bullet to his mother, or even his axe was just not possible to him. That was something he could see on anyone else, even other peoples mothers, but not his own. “I can’t leave her the way she is right now.”

  “How is she? What do you mean?”

  “It’s like she never stopped waiting. She is at the top of the stairs waiting for me to come home.” Eric could not have his mother suffer until the end of time. He knew he had to kill her. He had to kill it. “It.” He said emotionless. “It was waiting for me.”

  “It?”

  “That thing upstairs is not my mother.” He slid f
rom under the covers and quickly stepped into his clothes, rubbing his arms up and down on his sleeves and pant legs trying to use the friction to warm them. The light shining through the window was extremely bright and as he stepped closer to look upon his old house across the street, he noticed the black pavement of the street was now covered with white snow and blades of grass were protruding from a white blanket that lay evenly over the ground.

  Eric looked down on a human figure standing still next to a snow covered car, on the sidewalk in front of the house they were staying in. The figure wore what looked like surfing shorts and was standing bare foot in the snow. It wore a short sleeve shirt covered with dried blood that sparkled from the snowflakes and were shimmering off the morning sun.

  Naomi joined him at the window and looked down on this young ghoul. “It looks like he froze there last night.” She said quietly.

  “Lets go check this out.” After putting on his clothes he went to the room Drew and Sam both shared and woke them up. He walked out front with his axe in his hand and walked up to the boy. The ghoul slowly turned his head to him. The zombie was young. He must have died in his early teens. It’s eyes were gray and a large wound from a bite was on his right forearm. Eric walked behind it and the boy tried to turn it’s body, but seemed to struggle with the movement.

  Eric pushed the ghoul with the head of his axe and it slowly rocked forward and then fell quickly, face first, flat on the grass. The zombie was still in the position of it trying to turn when it landed. When it hit the grass a low groan escaped from deep within its chest. Its mouth did not move, but the moan was loud and clear. This ghoul was almost frozen. Eric raised the axe and brought it down on it’s neck severing its head with very little mess. No black blood or gore splashed on him and the cut was clean.

  By this time the other three walked out and noticed a body laying in the grass to the left of them. The body was of a woman that was fully clothed but she was missing a portion of her right cheek. She looked as if she were trying to crawl, but could not. Her left leg was bent to the side, as if she were trying to push with it and her arms looked as if they were reaching forward. She had long black hair that hung into the snow and she looked straight ahead in front of her in an endless stare. It tried to turn its head, but it’s stiff hair seemed to be frozen to the ground inhibiting her movement even more.

  “I think we could probably cover some good ground today.” Eric said with a smirk louder than he has talked outside in over six months. “Go get your stuff ready. We’ll take off in a little bit.”

  He walked to the back yard of his parents place and went into the large blue shed. It was exactly how he remembered and left it. The white door that never closed properly was still hanging loose and blue paint was chipping and falling off the walls. Stepping into the shed with the familiarity of having done it for years, he reached in and grabbed the red gas can.

  The back door was open, so he let himself in with the gas can in tow. Walking up the stairs he looked onto the second floor hall way through the railings of the steps, when he was almost at the top. His mother did not move much from the night before. She only moved maybe two feet forward. As Eric took the last couple steps up the last few stairs his mother slowly turned her head down toward the sound of the creaking steps.

  She was holding onto the second floor banister looking toward the top of the flight of stairs. She was extremely skinny with her bones protruding through her skin. Her skin was no longer the pale snow white that it originally was in her life, but now the dirty grey complexion like all the other ghouls out there. She was one of the first to change and rot and decay were eating away at her muscle tissue. Her eyes were smaller and wrinkled with a shriveled grey blue dot where her pupil and iris used to be. The eyes themselves were falling out of their sockets from the amount they have dried and shriveled. The only way he was able to tell it was his mother was because she wore the same small silver cowboy pendent that now gave the impression it was huge compared to her skeletal figure, he got for her when he was very young.

  He placed the gas can at the top of the steps and walked toward her and stood silently in front of her. She did not acknowledge his presence and continued to look down toward the top of the steps. He reached for the clasp of the pendant without fear of his mother and removed it from her neck and placed it into his pocket and then felt the outside of his jeans ensuring it was in there and safe. Then he took a few steps back, “I love you.” He cleared his throat, “Mom.”

  She looked up to him opening and closing her mouth as if she were chewing or wanting to chew, but did not move. She could not move. If she lost her grip on the banister or a stiff breeze blew through she would fall or possibly just float away.

  He took the gas can and began dumping it around her feet; then down the steps and into the living room and out to the front porch. He pulled the junk drawer, in the kitchen and found the lighter he knew would be in there and stood back from the house. Drew, Samantha and Naomi were standing on the sidewalk across the street. Sam was holding his back pack and they were watching in silence, waiting for him to say his good byes.

  He looked at the house that he grew up in and began thinking of all the fun times he had in his home, and all the things he did with his mother and father. He thought about him and his father building a fort in the back yard out of the old shed and a beat up tent and the memories of his mom cooking dinner and putting a juicy, moist roast in front of him and his cousins. He remembered his first kiss with Katie McCloud on the front porch swing and a few years later playing with his friends and breaking that same porch swing.

  Then he stepped back onto the first step and lit the trail of gas. He watched the fire travel into the living room, and a blast of warm air immediately bellowed from the front door, then traveled up the stairs and then he imagined the fire wrapping around his mother’s feet and then engulfing her.

  “Good bye.” With a half hearted smile and tears in his eyes, he walked across the street toward his new family.

  Chapter 18

  The Peeping Tom

  “It’s just one.” Naomi said as the afternoon passed and the temperature rose. They had been walking for hours and the temperature was beginning to increase rapidly. They were not sure when they got the attention of this lone zombie, but they assumed it must have been in a house and was sheltered from the freezing temperatures last night. The undead walked with a limp and was missing it’s right arm from the elbow down. At the distance they were looking at it, they were not able to tell exactly if it was a male or female, but it had long hair that was disheveled into millions of knots on top of its head.

  “Yeah, but you know one can turn into a hundred.” Eric responded.

  “How much farther do we have to go before we actually even get to this place?” Samantha did not like the thought of going to a farm. She was a city girl, even though the city was no longer an option. She could not imagine herself living on an actual farm. The thought of chickens, hay, cows and blue jean overalls never crossed her mind, as even an option of a living arrangement. Sam convinced herself she was very content with digging through pantries searching for food every night if her only other option was trying to catch chickens. “Why don’t we just go back to the village?”

  “The village will soon be torn down, as soon as the real cold weather sets in. Those prima donnas are going to look for houses, once they begin to freeze in those tents they got set up. That’s all well and good when its fall or spring, but not when snow is turning your tent into a freezer.” Drew answered.

  Eric was happy someone else was siding with him. “We’re going to have to stay somewhere tonight maybe, or we might show up really late and I don’t want to be walking those twisted roads in the dark. There are houses close by the farm, just not as many as here, so there may possibly be walkers on the streets.” He turned to the ghoul behind them, “If this one continues to follow us I’ll go take care of it, if we decide to stop for lunch.”

  Another t
wo hours past and the temperature had increased causing the snow to melt. The undead that followed them was left behind many streets ago and they had no concerns of that one finding them, but down many of the streets they crossed undead began to move in the roads and the sound of their groans called to them as they passed each street.

  They were all hungry and the children began to complain about their hunger pains. Turning down a street to avoid a few undead moving between some vehicles a few yards in front of them, they walked up to the first house on the corner. It was a small white two story house with pink shutters that surrounded the front windows. Eric ran to the first window to the right of the front door and looked into it examining the living room. The front door was closed and Naomi believed it was going to be locked, but the knob turned and it glided open invitingly. The white two story house was clean and appeared to be in the same condition, as if the owners of the property had just cleaned or it had been vacant since the beginning of Z day. The furniture was clean and set up perfectly; not a single trinket from the entertainment center or Lladro porcelain figurines on the end tables that rested next to the flower printed cream colored couches was out of place. Naomi was very excited about the house, as soon as she stepped into it and felt her feet sink into the thick light green carpet. This house was home to her. The smells of a clean house filled her with warmth in the chilly temperatures. The only thing she thought this place needed was a good dusting.

  Eric believed this house was zombie free when he looked into the window, and saw the pristine condition, but once they stepped in the first thing he did was start making his rounds clearing the residence. From the middle of the living room, Sam looked out of the side window and saw one of the ghouls they passed standing in the street.