They Walk

Chapter Twenty One

The tires of the truck squeal for a second before we’re flung forward as the truck goes backwards. It hits the garage door hard, and I can hear it bending as we push through it. It barley slows us down, as we clear the garage with the hood flipping over the top. Claire hits the breaks and spins the wheel. We get tossed to the side, as she turns us around with the garage behind us.

Pushing myself off a stunned Sam, I look back to the garage. The door hit at the dead as they were trying to get to us. So we have a head start at least. I look to Maria and pray she’s still on the phone with Dan, but she’s not holding it. Hopefully she already told him to jump, because the truck is already turning toward the yard.

Claire slows us down though, as the yard still has a ton of cars in it. When she speeds up to pull up to the road, I hear Maria yell as she points behind her. I swing my head around and try to see what caught her eye. It’s so dark in the front of the house that I try to catch any movement. The dead are all in the house trying to go through the garage so that’s not what she’s looking at.

Then I look up.

It’s Dan and Brian; they made it out onto the ledge of the roof. It overlooks the front of the house, and is about ten feet high. Too slowly for my liking, they walk to the edge. Pausing for a moment Dan jumps down first and lands on his feet. He turns right away and faces Brian, who is about to jump.

I glance back towards the garage to make sure they still have enough time. The door only slowed them down so much, and the others beyond are already making their way around the fallen ones. The guys have a minute or less before they have company.

I look back as Brian jumps down beside Dan, but he must have landed wrong because he instantly falls to his knees. I hear Claire’s cry of panic as Dan helps Brian up, and they jog towards us. Neither of them have any weapons, so if the dead catch up to them, they won’t be any match. They are about ten feet from us, when the dead start to gain on them. The guys pick up they’re speed, but Brian stumbles to the ground and Dan loses his hold on him. By the time Dan has time to turn around to help him up again; a dead guy in swim trunks is on him.

I can hear his screams of pain from inside the truck.

I force my eyes to not look away as Dan rushes to Brian and pulls the guy off him. There is a spray of blood as the guys teeth tear at the flesh on Brian’s neck. When Dan hits and shoves the guy away, Brian had already stopped screaming and has gone still. As he slowly begins to move again, there are at least four more of the dead making their way to Dan. He hesitates over Brian, and is about to be surrounded without help.

I hear a door open, and I whip my eyes off my brother to see Gabe getting out of the truck.

“Stay here!” He looks at me as he yells.

No sooner does he get out, that the dead separates and goes for him too. He doesn’t waver though, instead just goes running and swinging the bat as he goes. The dead are tossed aside and Dan meets him half way. The dead come pouring out of the garage then, and there are so many of them that the guys get surrounded quickly. Gabe is swinging and batting them as fast as he can, and Dan is hitting and kicking and dodging.

I lose sight of them as the truck gets surrounded.

Everything slows down to me suddenly, and I can almost hear my heart pounding loudly in my ears. I distantly hear my friends screaming and can feel the vibrations of the truck being hit. In my mind I flash to when this all started and how everything happened so fast. There was no time to decide what to do or how to react. But things are different now, and I’m suddenly not afraid. I’m pissed off. I reach down to my feet and grip the blood covered ax and I don’t even think as I push over Maria.

And open the door.

Maria yells and falls back onto the seat as the door is opened. It takes longer than I’d like, there’s a dead nerd trying to get in. He gets shoved back slightly and I have enough room to kick at him. He falls back easily and I jump out. I’m moving as soon as my feet hit the ground. The others yell for me, but it doesn’t even faze me. The dead around the truck turn to me, but I only pay attention to the ones before me. They are all hands and teeth, and I swing at them with a strength I didn’t know I possessed.

I knock down the fifth dead person when I begin yelling for Dan, and I think I hear him yell back but my ears are ringing and I can barely hear my own voice. Suddenly, a red haired girl in front of me gets knocked aside and it’s not by me. I’m facing a red faced Gabe now, and Dan comes from behind him and I’m so relieved to see him that I almost run to him. But the large dead guy behind him makes me charge forward for a different reason.

I reach Dan before he does and knock him aside with my hip.

I hit at the guy, but he only shuffles to the side. I don’t have enough time to bring the ax around again, and he’s already coming forward. He’s about to hit me when Gabe brings the bat down on his head. He’s so close to me I can hear his skull crack, as he falls to the ground. Dan pulls me back and we make our way to the truck.

Gabe is in the lead, with Dan in the middle and I take the back. Gabe clears a path hitting at everything in the way and as we run by I hit them again and make sure they stay down. We must have knocked aside at least thirty of the dead, when we make it to the truck. It’s still surrounded by a handful of the dead hitting at the windows. Gabe is about to hit the short girl attacking the door we want, when it gets shoved open and Sam jumps out.

“Need a hand?” He’s grinning as he starts swinging the fire poker knocking aside the short girl again.

Dan jumps into the car, and I grab Sam’s arm and shove him at the door. I turn to make sure Gabe is coming; he’s busy keeping us from being surrounded again. I bring the ax up and around to a guy that is trying to get Gabe from behind and he easily falls to the ground with a gaping hole in his face.

I yell for Gabe, and he backs up quickly to me.

He gives one more swing of the bat, before shoving me back into the truck and follows in beside me. He leans over to close the door and hands reach for him, and claw at his arms. He’s struggling to close the door so he can’t hit at them to move also. As he swears, I turn the ax around and bring the hilt up into the faces that are coming into view.

They get pushed back long enough for Gabe to slam the door.