“No,” Mary said without hesitation. “I will not have both of my doors opened simultaneously. You don’t even know if this will work. We put the car out, Josh sends it on its way and we see if they follow.”
I didn’t like the plan. At absolute best, the car had a hundred-yard range with Josh’s controller and then it would just stop. I needed a bunch of zombies to go and check this thing out and in a relatively small amount of time before the car hit its max threshold for signal-catching. I should have given the kid way more credit. He had a trick or two up his sleeve to give me the time I needed.
“How we looking?” I asked Gary and Josh, who were peeking out a window adjacent to the door.
“There’s a few milling around, but if you don’t stop to wash your hands or anything, you should be fine,” Gary said.
“You’re on fire tonight,” I told him.
He grinned back.
“You ready, Josh?” I asked.
He spun the wheels on the truck I was holding in response. The torque and the shock almost made me drop the thing. This time, I had secured the small bag of bait on the top of the car, careful to make sure that nothing hung down that could get hooked up in the wheels.
“This sucks,” I said right before pulling the door open. Zombie heads swiveled to the noise, food recognition dawning on their eyes as they began to forge ahead. I started to fumble with the security door, which was, I guess, out of my skill set because I couldn’t get the damn thing open. Mary rushed to my aid, undoing the lock and pushing the door open. I looked at her in gratitude.
“Put the damn car down!” she shouted at me, never taking her eyes off the advancing horde.
Josh already had the wheels turning as I placed it on the ground. The car shot from my hand as it made contact with the hard surface. A zombie slammed the door into my hand. I was sure I felt a couple of bones shatter as Mary wrenched me on my back, pulling me in. She quickly locked the screen door, and I scrambled out of the way as she hurriedly shut the front door.
My hand was already turning that bluish shade of pain and internal bleeding.
“You righty or lefty?” Mary asked, holding my hand.
“Righty,” I told her, “but I shoot leftie.”
Her face sank a little as she held my rapidly swelling left hand.
“I’ll be fine,” I told her. “I have wonderful recuperative powers.”
She looked at me funny; I did not feel the need to elaborate.
“Mike, your hand is broken,” she said, pushing her finger into the bluest part as if to prove her point.
“Yup,” I winced.
“Hey, they’re following it!” Josh stated exuberantly.
I figured I only had seconds before the car had traveled its furthest radio-receiving distance and then they’d turn their attention back to me.
“Wish me luck,” I said as I once again opened the front door. Hand Slammer was gone this time and I had, at least, learned something from Mary as I got the security door opened much more easily. I looked immediately to my right, expecting to see Hugo rapidly approaching maximum distance. All I saw were zombies who were heading towards the side of the house. I ducked my head back in, Josh and Gary had shifted to another window. The kid was brilliant. Instead of just taking the car and heading for maximum distance, he was dodging and weaving it through the zombies, thereby giving me way more time to get the hell out of here.
“Go,” Mary said, her eyes wide with fear. Partly because I had the front door to her house open and partly because I wasn’t moving yet.
I jumped down the three steps and started running in the direction I had last seen BT heading. As soon as I hit my stride, I began to doubt the validity of my entire plan. I’m all for “alone time” and the need for it, but somehow during a zombie-pocalypse doesn’t seem like the right time. Should I shout? There weren’t tons of zombies out, but I also didn’t want to change that status. By my reckoning, one zombie is one too many.
I skipped Mary’s neighbor’s house, and as I approached the next, I began to wonder if BT had maybe traveled through a backyard or two and maybe got on to another street. I mean, what then? He knew where we were, but I had no clue where he was. Why don’t I think this shit out before I act?
I could hear Josh’s car off in the distance, but for some reason, that distance was getting closer.
Chapter Eight
“That’s awesome, Josh, they’re all following it,” Gary said excitedly.
Josh did not immediately answer, as sweat began to form on his head. “I’ve lost control!” he shouted. “I think the batteries in the remote are dead.”
“Shouldn’t the car just stop?” Mary asked.
“No,” Josh said in resignation. “I put the car on ‘auto’ so that it would keep running when it was out of range.”
“Well, that’s alright then, isn’t it, honey? We’ll get you another one,” Mary said, leaning up against the front door as if she thought it might open without her there to stop it.
“Which way did Mike go?” Gary asked, moving from the window on the side of the house to one of the side lights by the front door.
“Left,” Mary answered.
“Figured as much,” Gary said as his eyes tracked Hugo heading left.
“Shit,” Josh said.
Mary did not correct him, not this time. If ever there was a time and a place to use an expletive, this was it.
Hugo was heading down the street towards Mike like a heat-seeking missile.
