10 Minutes From Home: Episode 7 Read online

  10

  MINUTES FROM HOME

  Episode Seven

  BY

  BILL HOWARD

  The journey gets bloodier as the group runs into hordes of the infected in a suburban neighborhood. Thom must make some drastic decisions when the survivors encounter a military camp. But does the camp provide safety, or just another hurdle delaying Denny’s expedition home?

  - BOOKS of the DEAD –

  Smashwords Edition

  "Bill Howard's 10 Minutes from Home might start out like a standard apocalyptic zombie novel, with scenes that could be taken straight out of a Romero script, but it slowly unfolds into a well narrated love story about one of the most harrowing experiences a couple might have to face. Bonus for those of you located in Ontario: there are plenty of references to genre hot spots, such as the town of Pontypool and Toronto's Bloor Cinema." Jessa Sobczuk – Rue Morgue Magazine

  “Heartbreaking and soulful, 10 Minutes from Home is one gut-wrenching read I will not forget. This is one meta-cool book!" - John Palisano, author of NERVES

  “A purely cinematic, heart-pounding and thrilling story.” – Susan Curran, Director of Marketing, Anchor Bay Canada

  “Folks, you need to read this book! Bill is an amazing writer and what he has forged here is a zombie lovers must have. George A. Romero himself could not have penned a better zombie tale! Check it out! Great job Bill!” – Brad Mavin – Proo(f) Paranormal

  “So many things I never saw coming, a definite adrenaline rush while reading! I felt myself reading faster as the pace picked up. This is a book I would read over and over again.” – Paul Silliphant – Proo(f) Paranormal

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, events, dialog and situations in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  10 MINUTES FROM HOME

  Episode Seven

  (Chapters 33 – 35)

  Copyright 2013 by Bill Howard

  For more information visit:

  BOOKS of the DEAD

  * * *

  This series is for:

  Joanne & Evangeline

  CHAPTER 33: TOOLS OF THE TRADE

  The next morning felt like any other morning in my life, pre-infection. I was in a familiar room with a woman lying beside me with her arm over my chest. The sunlight through the window was warm on my face. It felt like home and I was thankful for it, even if it was fleeting. A bang from downstairs woke me out of the haze and reality bled back into my consciousness. The feeling of heavy dread that had been on my shoulders for the past few days returned instantly as Ellie and I bolted up at the same time. Max lay still at our feet, not even twitching at the noise. We got out of the bed and I hastily pulled my t-shirt back over my head as Ellie ran to the door to look into the hallway. Ellie was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear; I hadn’t noticed that the night before. She peered into the hallway, then gave me the all clear. Max's curiosity finally won out over his desire to sleep and he slid off the bed and joined Ellie at the door. I opened Thom’s dresser drawer and threw Ellie a pair of jeans, which she caught in mid-air, then smiled and thanked me for. I walked over to the door as she pulled the jeans on, handed her one of the guns I had picked up off the night tables, and we made our way downstairs with Max in tow.

  Clive was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs holding a shotgun. He looked up at Ellie and me as we came down behind him, a worrisome look on his face.

  “Clive, what’s going on, what was that noise?”

  “Some infected showed up outside the house. Just one at first, banging on the windows, but then more came.”

  Stephen chimed in.

  “We did a check all around the house, looks like about fifteen out there now, mostly around the front and back doors.”

  Ellie stayed on the stairs as I made my way around Clive and into the living room. Thom was sitting up on the couch looking a little dazed. I went to the living room window, which had a large dining room table pushed up against it since the night before. I peered past the end of the table and out the window to the front lawn. Sure enough, there seemed to be quite a few infected wandering around. Some were right up at the window, just standing there, some were wandering in circles on the lawn, and a few were right at the door. From my vantage point it didn’t look like there were any more of them in the neighborhood, the other lawns were empty. This small concentration of infected was strange indeed. I turned back to the living room, where Ellie and Clive had joined Stephen and Thom. Max sat in front of the couch by Ellie, he looked tense and his head snapped in different directions every time a noise came from outside the house. Stephen was starting to panic a bit, but everyone was on edge.

  I took the floor in front of our ragtag group.

  “Okay, if we are going to get out of here, we have to go now. If any more of those things show up, we could be screwed. Thom, are you okay with this, are you up to leaving right now?”

  Thom nodded slowly.

  “Yeah, I’m good. But Isabel’s coming too.”

  Everyone in the room paused, holding their breath. Thom continued.

  “If we bring her, we might be able to find her some help. We don’t know what is going on, maybe they are starting to figure this thing out, maybe they’re working on a vaccine, a cure.”

  Nobody said anything and I am sure we were all thinking the same thing. But now wasn’t the time for confrontation, we had to leave.

  “Alright Thom. We bring Isabel.”

  I could feel the looks from around the room yet no one said anything in retort. It was settled.

  We all ran around the house and gathered up supplies. We assigned each person to specific tasks. Stephen was to gather food from the kitchen; Clive was to pack essential clothing for everyone. Ellie was on medical duty, getting all the essential first aid materials, and I was on weapons detail, making sure all weapons were working and had ammo stocked up, with extra packed away. Thom didn’t have to do anything due to his weakened condition, but I saw him gathering some personal items from the house. He took the small 5x7 photo of himself with Nicole and Sam, and some other random items that didn’t make much sense to me, but I am sure had significance to him. All in all, he had barely a pockets worth, but it seemed to be all he needed. After he got his things together, he just stood at the door to the mudroom and stared at Isabel, not particularly with sadness or fondness or anything really, just stared.

  After taking ten minutes to gather supplies, we regrouped in the foyer at the front door, but Thom hadn’t rejoined us yet. Clive whispered a concern to me about Thom’s condition and the fact that he wanted to bring Isabel along, but I assured him that if Thom said he was okay, he was okay. I would take full responsibility for him and Isabel. Clive silently accepted this, and we waited for Thom to join us. I could tell Clive was still unsure about the whole situation, and I can't say I blamed him. I was about to try to explain myself further when Thom reappeared from the basement door; he was carrying a small red chainsaw.

  “I keep my expensive stuff in the basement” he stated plainly, “I don’t trust neighborhood punks when it comes to detached garages. I’ll clear the way, but someone has to bring Isabel for me.”

  Thom looked directly at me as he said this. I gave him a stern nod and Thom walked right through us to the front door; we parted around the chainsaw blade as if it was a pilgrimage of Israelites and we were the red sea. Thom grasped the pull cord of the chainsaw tightly and gave it a strong yank. The motor roared to life deafeningly. We all cringed from the burst of noise, wanting to cover our ears, but hands full of weapons and
supplies not permitting it. Thom reached out with his other hand and flung the front door open revealing one of the infected standing dead center, one hand raised almost as if it were about to knock. Thom drove the chainsaw forward, the rounded end of the rotating chain tearing into the things torso. It barely reacted at first, just looked down at the machine carving a tunnel through its innards. You could almost hear its teeth rattling over the sound of the chainsaw as its body vibrated at an alarming rate. Needless to say, none of us had ever had a need to witness what a chainsaw can do to a human body, but there it was in all its crimson glory. Bits and chunks flew through the air, giving the front of the house a new paint job, and thoroughly soaking Thom’s front. Once the chain had eaten through and was starting to come out of the things back, Thom pushed down on the machine, driving the grinding chains quite easily through the intestines and then exiting between the its legs. Its insides emptied out like a bucket of fish, spilling out onto Thom’s front porch. The things stance changed and its feet tried to walk forward, hands reaching for Thom, but as it did, its legs just splayed to either side, dropping its body to the floor in a bizarre rendition of the splits. Once it was down, it looked up at Thom just in time for him to swing the chainsaw on its side like a sword, severing its head from its neck in one swift arc.

  There were more of them behind the first one, and after a slack-jawed moment had by all of us; we joined Thom on the porch as he cut into the next one. Clive stepped out of the door first, his shotgun bellowing its load into the faces of two infected, instantly dropping them to the lawn. Stephen and I were next out and we opened fire with our pistols on the next wave of creatures. My shots found their home in the body and head of an overweight older woman that still had bits of something or someone hanging out of her mouth in a long sinewy strand. She toppled over and I continued to fire into the next one. Ellie came out last, her rifle taking aim at the infected on the farthest reaches of the lawn. They dropped in quick succession, clearing the end of the driveway for us to make our way into the street and across to the wooded ravine. Max leapt into action as soon as Ellie gave him the go ahead and ran into the yard, tearing at anything that was still standing. Thom continued to make shredded meat of anything that got close enough for him to do so. He looked like that character Ash from the Evil Dead movies, covered in thick gore and blood. Come to think of it, he had the same kind of crazed look on his face as well. After a few more minutes and a couple dozen more shots fired, the front lawn was littered with the bodies of infected, some with barely noticeable wounds, others looking like large piles of ground chuck. Max was going corpse to corpse, sniffing them. We took off across the street, and when we got to the edge of the ravine, Thom switched off the chainsaw. He looked at me, and, for the first time since the day of the outbreak, he genuinely smiled at me, his white teeth and the whites of his eyes shining through his glistening red face. He looked like a walking nightmare. Albeit a happy one.

  "Go get Isabel now Denny," he ordered, but not harshly.

  We could hear the moans of other infected in the area, I assumed they were around the back of the house still, and suggested everyone get out of here before they found their way to the front. I ran back through the house and to the mudroom. I grabbed the control pole from beside the door and looked through the glass at Isabel. She was standing with her back to me, her hands against the outside windows. On the other side of the glass were at least half a dozen infected, all with their hands against the glass in a similar manner. I opened the door slowly, but there was no reaction from Isabel. I reached out with the pole and lowered the noose on the end of it over her head, snapping it tight around her neck as soon as I could. Isabel jumped and spun around when I tightened the rope, but did not attack me. She seemed a little pissed to be back in the noose, but was relatively calm, all things considered. I ran through the house again steering Isabel in front of me and we busted through the front door and moved down the hill into the ravine. We jogged through the thick woods for a while until we caught up with the others, who were covering Thom as he washed up at the creek bed. Clive handed him some of the spare clothes he had packed and Thom changed quickly, slung the chainsaw through some straps on his backpack, and walked over to Isabel and me. He reached over immediately and took the pole from my hands, checking everything and making sure Isabel was okay.

  "Thanks Denny," he paused. "Really, thank you."

  I wasn't sure what to say, do you just say you're welcome to someone for bringing their infected raging monster of a girlfriend/daughter figure/friend to them?

  It was only late morning, so with a little luck and no obstacles or catastrophes, we were hoping to finally make up some lost time. Every second I spent resting or tending to something or killing one of those damned things was a second more that my family was in danger. And I couldn’t let that go on any longer than I had to.

  As we walked through the woods together, I couldn’t help but reflect on my journey thus far since Thom and I left the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. It had only been a matter of days, but it felt like an abbreviated lifetime. None of these people had to be here with me, coming along with me on this absurd journey to get home to my wife and daughter. Sure, some people had reasons, Ellie had her kids, Stephen wanted to find someone to help with his infected kids, and wanted to find it safely, with our support. But Clive and Thom. They were literally just here to help me. They were risking their lives to get me to my family. I would be forever grateful to them for that; I would owe them my life. Even if Thom was not quite right now, dragging a half-dead infected girl through the woods with us.

  We rounded a corner in the creek bed we were following and went under a small bridge. We walked single file, Thom holding the pole over his shoulder like a hobo, only instead of a plaid sack he was pulling along Isabel. Around the next bend, we came across large slabs of concrete in the middle of the creek. Huge chunks, some as big as thirty feet long, just lying in haphazard heaps in the middle of the creek. On either side of the creek were high dirt walls leading up to fields. With the concrete ahead of us, it occurred to me that we were at a bit of a bottleneck. If I were a more negative person, I would have thought that to be a bad thing. We started to climb over the slabs; it looked like we could climb over a few, then under one very large one to reach the other side of the strange formation. Stephen was leading us and got to the opening first. He took one step down and stopped, his hand jutted into the air, signaling for all us to stop. Max stopped at the same time and started in with a low, steady growl. It was dead silent but for the trickling sound of the creek and Max's rumblings. At the same time, we all heard a twig snap above us, and our heads swerved in unison to the right. On top of the dirt hill, right near the edge of the drop off into the creek where we all stood like sudden Roman statues, was a soldier. He was decked out in full military gear, camouflage fatigues, harnesses, and straps galore, a gas mask over his head and a tricked out AR-15 rifle. We didn’t see anyone else; it just looked like a lone soldier going for a nice walk in a field. I was hoping the hindrance of the gas mask would keep us out of his peripheral vision, as long as he didn’t turn his head. Stephen started to move forward very slowly, stepping down into the gap under the two giant concrete pillars. I watched as he set one foot in, holding on to the top of the slab as he did. The soldier had stopped just behind our position, still looking forward. Stephen set another foot in, and seemed to slip, as half of his body disappeared into the dark gap. Clive’s hand shot out to him and grabbed his wrist. Stephen looked back from in the gap, only his head, shoulders, and one arm visible to us. The look on his face was sheer terror, and I started to panic. Stephen’s body was jerked again, this time pulling his whole body out of view, and ripping his hand right out of Clive’s grip. Clive almost yelled after him, but remembered the soldier just in time. He braced his arms on either side of the gap and leaned into the darkness, looking for Stephen. Clive’s face jerked back suddenly and he lost his footing, falling backwards onto the concrete. His face wa
s spattered with blood. Thom and Ellie leaned in and helped him up; I kept an eye on the soldier. Max seemed quite fixed on the gap, he stood in front of it, about six feet back, and just stared into it, continuing his low growl. Clive wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve and leaned in close to me.

  “What in God’s name should we do now? We have something ahead of us that just grabbed Stephen, and the military above us, so going back isn't really an option.”

  I didn’t have an answer. Isabel jerked and tugged in her restraints, but it looked like it was more out of a lack of comfort than an act of resistance. Ellie let out a quick quiet whistle and I looked over. She pointed to the left side of the slab we were standing on, where a hand was gripping the edge, followed shortly after by a head and shoulders of an infected teenager, probably about fifteen years old, female, and horribly disfigured. She was wearing a pink Adidas tracksuit, or at least it had been pink at one time, now it was stained a dark brown from dirt and dried blood. Just as she was steadying herself on the slab, she was followed by another infected, this time a full-grown man with a beard. He was probably about six foot tall and dressed in a suit. Isabel was starting to fidget at the end of Thom's contraption. I turned to Clive and the others.

  “We’ve gotta get in that hole.”

  I didn’t see much other choice. We had to move forward at all costs, doubling back or staying to fight just wasn’t going to work. Now there were two more infected crawling up the right side of the slab; we were being effectively surrounded. Thom was holding the switched off chainsaw in front of him when an infected jumped on him from behind. Thom fell forward, the chainsaw and Isabel's pole skidding across the concrete. Ellie yelled ‘NO’ without thinking about it. I glanced back over my shoulder to the soldier on the hill. He turned his head and looked down, followed quickly by a leveling of his rifle in our general direction. The air in the creek valley echoed with the pops of the automatic rifle as the soldier fired down from above. Thom was still on his stomach, arms contorted, trying to keep the thing off him, when Isabel stepped over to him. She grabbed the neck of the thing on Thom's back and hauled it off with surprising strength. Isabel turned the thing around in her hands and opened her jaw wide, locking onto its face like a magnet. Her teeth sunk into its head, yellow and red liquid pouring out the sides of Isabel's mouth. I yelled for everyone to get into the hole before something here killed us, whether it be one of the infected or the soldier. We ran for the hole as the shots from the soldier's rifle whizzed by us, chipping the concrete into tiny showers of debris. It felt like in the movies when someone is trying to run down a hallway to a door, but the door just keeps getting further away. I felt like I was running in slow motion. Thom had gotten back on his feet and grabbed Isabel's leash once more, dragging her along as he ran to the hole. I could hear the howls of the infected things as the soldier's shots connected with them, the odd hollow thumps of bullets hitting the infected things that were chasing us. Max had already gone down the gap, and Ellie was second to go. Next Thom jumped in, swallowed up by the darkness and pulling Isabel behind him like a favorite doll. I felt a sharp push into my left arm and a warm spray on my left cheek as a bullet went clean through my shoulder. It threw me forward and into Clive’s back, and we both fell right into the gap. The next thing I felt was a cool splash as I fell into the creek within the black nothingness at the bottom of the hole. I could feel that I landed on Clive, then rolled off into the water. A moment later, light illuminated the dark from a flashlight in Ellie’s hand. It looked like we had actually fallen into a shallow cave of some sort. There was no sign of Stephen, nor of Max. We all stood up and I looked up at the faint light filtering through the hole we fell through about eight feet above our heads. Nothing was coming through after us, and we could still hear the cracks of the rifle firing; in fact, it sounded like more than one now. Ellie swung the flashlight around and revealed a passage that went further back, the ceiling of which was only about five feet high. Thom got up and pulled on Isabel's leash, prompting her to get up off the wet ground and follow Thom. I was surprised that Isabel wasn't trying to attack us every chance she could; she didn’t even run off when Thom had dropped the pole that was looped around her neck. I didn’t know how to explain what was going on with Thom and Isabel, but I was concerned nonetheless.