Chapter Three : Exodus

Outside again he could breath and his heart was slowing from the fever pitch that it had been next to the corpse. The front door was closed now but no matter, the house was no longer a safe haven and the thought of spending the night here chilled him. Better to move on than be here if that woman resurrected, not that she would. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know how they turned or if a dead person could return. Personally he had seen living people consumed by sickness to the point of death only to reanimate. But could a corpse become infected postmortem? If she did resurrect he wouldn't stand a chance of taking her on, she would overpower him easily. The thought sickly dawned on him that it might be prudent to disable her now.

Not sure how he was going to do it and not even sure of the best method either. If he destroyed her head would she be unable to come back? He would like to think someone without a head was never going to arise but he wasn't betting his life on it. He sat in the kitchen quietly thinking of his next move. After a minute the ticking of seconds passing from the clock on the wall made him aware that for three and a half days, time had had no bearing on his life. It was mid morning now and the day was slipping away. With no way to remove or even be sure that the dead woman would never rise again, it made his next choice easy.

Racking his brain for a safe place to go seemed a futile endeavor. Before the event there were lots of places he would be safe, people he could rely on and ways to get there. Now the he was sure of nothing and the loneliness was haunting him. Being here was the all time low of his life and there was no bright side to the situation. Nothing good could come from this, not for him anyway and for a moment the thought of giving it away, just letting go and passing on flicked through his mind. Really he didn't have the strength to follow through with any thoughts of suicide and every impulse in his body was telling him to survive at all costs, no matter what. The next two hour he spent snacking and drinking, trying to regain some of his strength. Really a couple of days would be best but he didn't have the time. It was already after noon and he hadn't decided on a house to shift to. He had searched all the rooms for a bag to carry supplies in and found nothing with the exception of a collection of old supermarket bags made from thin plastic. Not the most stealthy thing to be walking around with. He would need a backpack if he was going to brave the streets. He thought of his school backpack next door and shuddered. Not knowing the danger was better than returning to his home, never again in his life would he set foot in that house. The next place he could think of that would have a backpack was another kid from his school that lived at the end of the street, his house was on the corner with a large fence running around the side and enclosing half the front yard. With a lack of other options he made his mind that this would be the next place he would venture. Hopefully the house would be vacant or even better have survivors. He hadn't seen any since this hell started but he was sure there were some out there. For the first time he realized that he had no idea how far the outbreak, if that's what it was, had spread. So little was known and it happened so fast. family's were told to stay indoors, national emergency protocols broadcast, non of it mattered, people turned anyway and all major communication went down.

Now that he knew where he was going he started thinking about what he would need. Water was the first thing that came to his mind, he had no wish to be stuck without water again. And maybe a little food, something easy to carry. So far the garden fork was the best weapon he had come across. It would be nice to have a couple of pointy sticks so he set about using a knife from the kitchen to sharpen the broom handle. Deciding he had better go soon, he jammed the water bottle into one of his pants pockets and a bag of lollies into the other pocket. He detached the broom head and put the fork by the front door. Finally he used a scrap of newspaper to make a seal on the first bedroom. He had seen it in an old bond film, how to use a hair to tell if the door had been opened while you were out. With no need to conceal the seal he spat on a strip of news paper and stuck it across the door and frame. Taking the keys he found on the kitchen bench he checked the lock. He felt confident that if things went bad he could make it back here. His fear of something getting into the house outweighed his fear of being locked out in an emergency and with that he locked the front door behind him.

Outside the street was calm and almost serene, no dogs barked and no cars came or went. As he started walking towards the end of the street the hair stood up on his neck and his arms prickled with goose flesh. Towards the end of the road was a car diagonally across the road with two doors open and a body slumped out of the drivers door onto the road. It was almost like he was drunk and hit the curb, tried to get out while his legs were sleeping and passed out. He froze and watched for any sign of movement, there was none but still he was hesitant about going past the car. The house was on the right, the car was to the left he would be a fair distance and the man didn't look like he was going to get up in a hurry. Standing in the street made him anxious and he wanted to move on. He crossed the road and started walking close to the fences until he was at the fence that enclosed the back yard of the house he sought. He found himself standing under a large tree that grew next to the fence.

Suddenly a large bang down the street made the boy start, a man ran from a house at the opposite end of the street and ran across the road into the front yard directly across, as two others followed him into the street. The others were slower and their arms hung strait down when they ran. They followed the fist guy across the road, but came back onto the street after a moment and started going from yard to yard and back again. Edging slowly around the trunk of the tree the boy slipped from their line is sight, he had known from the moment they ran from the house that they were compromised people. Leaning his weapons against the trunk, pulling the water bottle from his pocket and putting it on the ground he started to climb. Grabbing at the bark on the tree he tried to get enough height to reach the lower branches. The bark was fragile at best and wanting to break off, he was quite fit and probably a few kilos lighter from his recent fast in the shed. It held just enough for him to get his hands over the lowest of the branches, once he had a hold he began to pull himself up. When his chest was over the branch found himself looking down the street, the scrambling movement had attracted the attention of the two non human beings down the road and they were speedily making their way towards him. Quickly he began to turn and swing his leg over the branch, he would want to be higher than the lowest branch by the time they reached him. His other leg gave a jerk just as he went to lift it, his shoe came off and he almost toppled over headfirst. Scrambling on to the branch and reaching for the higher limbs he looked back, the man from the car stood at the base of the tree. He was badly sunburnt, blood dried on his face from small cuts and he was holding the shoe. Panic filled him, watching the events down the street he hadn't noticed the man dragging himself out of the car and making his way over. Looking down at the mans black blue flecked eyes he shivered, he had almost been grabbed. He climbed higher as the other two approached and began clawing at the tree. They could reach the bottom branches quite easily but they seemed to lack the coordination to climb. Still being trapped in a tree was not any better than a shed, the garden fork and broom handle leant neatly together against the trunk but there was no way to reach them. Furthermore there was nothing he could do to fight off what were three grown men. They stank of sweat and blood and had a slight odor of meat gone bad. The one from the car was slow, like someone just awoken, he was turning the shoe over in his hands and trying to eat parts of it. The other two had eyes much brighter and were trying furiously to climb up after him. He climbed a little higher but it only made them more frantic. From up here he could see the back yard of the house he was hoping to reach. It seemed peaceful and empty, the tree came close to overhanging the yard but the larger branches that went that way had been pruned off and there were only smaller branches leading that way. Still there was a chance they could support his weight and get him close enough to the fence. The fence was corrugated iron and a good two meters tall. Looking around he couldn't see any other way out, starting to pick his way though the branches towards the yard he could see the other side and it looked clear. Even so it was a long way to jump, risking twisting an ankle wasn't something he took lightly. Behind him the three men flailed around trying to reach him as he moved. Looking around there really wasn't any other way out of the tree than to jump, now that they had him pinned as a food source he doubted they would move far while they still had a line of sight on him.

He edged closer to the fence and the branch he was on became much smaller. He had to hold on to a couple of smaller ones above his head just to keep stable. He tried to distribute his weight evenly, pulling up to avoid putting too much strain on the branch he was standing on. He went up and down with the flexing branches and when he looked down, the three dirty human faces peered up at him, like hungry animals waiting for their prey to make a mistake. He was almost a foot from the fence when he decided that he could go no further. The other side of the fence was a large lawn, it seemed like a good place to jump to so using the branch under his foot he slipped the other shoe off. It offered little distraction to the waiting undead. The branch was to flimsy to push off from and if it snapped at a critical moment he wouldn't stand a chance. Instead he bounced slightly up and down in the tree foliage and tried to use any momentum he had to launch forwards. All that mattered was clearing the fence cleanly and landing on the other side. With a terrifying push he leapt forward and made it over the fence. Leaves and twigs scratched his face and his legs hammered with the force of the landing he tried to absorb the shock by crouching and leaning forward but it still sent a strain through his body. He stumbled forward and put his hands down on the grass for support. Not being a heavy kid had helped and he avoided spraining an ankle this time. The fence behind him moved as the three men banged into it trying to push their way through.

He looked around the yard, there was a access gate to the left of the house leading to the front yard. The driveway ran to the right of the house and was covered with carport and a secure roller door. That led to a two car garage, next to the garage was a garden leading up to the lawn where he stood. The back of the house had a raised verandah running the length with only a few potted plants on it. He tried the garage side door and found it unlocked. Since he had left the garden fork on the other side of the fence he had been hoping to find something as good or even better. The family car was parked in the shed, it seemed to menace him with its presence. It meant they were probably home, suddenly he wanted to be out of the garage and out of the yard. Besides the car there was an assortment of stored stuff, boxes for things they had bought, Christmas decorations and lots of things which one would use only on the odd occasion. Unfortunately no one had foreseen this particular occasion and most of the stuff was a complete waste. There was no keys in the car and it wasn't automatic so there was no chance of him using it anytime soon. He had only ever watched his parents drive and driven in computer games. The back corner of the shed were garden tools, so far these were the the best kind of weapons he had come across and he dared to hope for another fork. No such luck this time and he had to settle for a short handled shovel, the long handle one was too weighty and he didn't think he had the strength to wield it. With a new weapon he turned his attention to the house.

He regretted leaving his water behind not to mention the fork. He should have thrown them over the fence. Still he didn't dwell on it, he hadn't wanted to attract attention and after all he had gotten over the fence safely. Standing in the back yard looking at the house it took on a menacing feel. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was the wrong move to make but neither could he think of any other thing that was giving him less goose flesh. He longed to be getting back to the house with the dead woman rotting into her mattress but the thought of the men in the street made him feel sick to his stomach. A lot of people fled the city and suburbs when the news announced widespread sicknesses. Maybe the house was empty, maybe this was a good place to hole up and weather this storm. Thinking of storms he looked at the clouds and tried not to think about needing a drink. Reaching the back door he found it locked, looking through the glass on the door he peered into the laundry. Once again it looked natural with washing baskets, broom cupboard and shoes strewn about in jumbled disarray. At least if he could get in here he would have shoes, even shoes that didn't fit the best were better than running in socks. The glass made a satisfying popping noise as he taped it with the shovel head and after carefully removing the glass shards from their seal, he reached in and unlatched the lock. Trying hard to avoid little shards he made his way over to the shoes in the corner. There were a couple of pairs too big for him by several sizes and a couple that were almost his size. He picked the more fashionable pair and made his way to the cloths hamper. The washing hadn't been done and the cloth bag was full. after rummaging for a minute he found a pair of thick socks, it felt good to be lacing shoes onto his feet again and a nice pair as well. Taking what you wanted was the best thing about this new situation he found himself in. He would never have gotten a pair of shoes like this from his parents and just having them strapped tightly to his feet made him smile. It felt out of place to be happy, even if it was only a small piece of happiness. With renewed confidence he took up his weapon and opened the inside door.

He knew something wasn't right as soon as he looked down the hallway. The pictures were all crooked and there was blood on the wall. The bedroom doors were all open in various positions and some clothes lay half out of one of the rooms. To the right lay what was left of a child his age, his head faced down the passage and although mutilated it was the face of someone he knew. The corpse haunted him with a dead gaze and the smell of death hung in the air. The unblinking dead eyes bored holes in him but he couldn't tear his eyes from it. The body was stripped of cloths and flesh alike, as if a large cat had eaten its fill and left the remains for the scavengers. Slowly he backed away closing the door, he turned to make a hasty retreat and came face to face with a man. He stood outside looking through the hole in the glass at him, his eyes searching him up and down. He had just enough time to recognize him as one of the men from the street before he leaned in through the window arms first and tried to grab on. At first he was frozen to the spot but now that the thing was upon him it's lips tight and those blue black orbs eating him up, the life flowed back into him and he backed away swinging the spade. It hit the thing in the temple causing its head to jerk and body lurch sideways. Still it pushed grunting and groaning as it tried to get in. He hit it again from the top and felt its skull crunch. It moved more jarring now jerking and twitching as it clawed to get at him. He gave it a final stab with the shovel, a large cut under the eyes and across the bridge of the nose opened up. Blood oozed out the cut instead of the gust you would expect from such a wound. It didn't even registered that it had been hit, instead it tipped forward and the legs flailed in the air as it tried to pull through the window.

He turned and ran blindly, through the passage way and through the mess of intestines that was left of the corpse. Something to his right caught his eye as another person moved in on him. From another room in front of him came a female, all with bright blue unwavering eyes. He swung the shovel but they didn't even register he had done so. He crashed into the front door to his left and fumbled with the handle. It was dead bolted, he fumbled blindly for any kind of release latch until from the corner of his eye he could see figures coming up on him and he spun to run through the open living area. The living room had sliding doors leading into the back yard and he yanked them so hard the framework flexed. Raising his eyes fearfully to face the coming occupants he couldn't breath, his chest was tight and the shakes had him almost convulsing. The two figure were joined by a third and they seemed to be more alert now. The closest one looked like the father with bite marks up both arms an chunks of meat missing entirely in places. As he got closer he lurched forward, falling over the coffee table in the process. The right side of the room opened up as the other two tried to go left around their fallen ally and the boy took his chance to bolt right. Halfway around the table and his feet slid on the polished floor and he came down hard on his side. The shock jared his teeth and made his ears ring, before he recovered they were upon him. He tried to stand and face them but they were both grabbing him. Forcing himself up he pushed back against the onslaught and threw himself against the windows. Broken glass sliced through his head opening a large gash on the top of his scalp as he landed in the front garden bed. His attackers wasted no time in following him through the window falling clumsily into the garden with him. He was up and running before he thought about it, blood gushing from his head wound. He ran as fast as he could, out the front and down the road, tears washing the blood from his eyes and bite marks across his hands.