Dead Horizon Ch. 06

- Surviving the Madness -

Both Kaleb and Blake were quickly approaching the S.U.V. and with the back hatch still open, Kaleb was putting his crossbow in the back and grabbing the two smaller Wakizashi katanas. Pulling the two slightly smaller swords from either end of their sheath, he turned his attention toward Blake, who had ran over toward Dominic's pickup truck and was now quickly going through one of the two duffle bags. How many were down there? He wasn't sure, but none of that mattered at the moment, in the heat of the moment; from the late evening news report, to the conversations with in the truck and all other events that had led them to this moment, it had all flooded his memory.

"We can't run from this. There's probably no where to run anyways." Blake stated, not turning his attention away from the multiple gun pieces.

"We still don't know what -this- even is." Bryce was quickly trying to point out.

"Have you not been paying attention the last few days? You were inside the city right?" Kaleb was questioning, though not turning his attention away from those that had already wandered onto the property.

As one of the figures tried lunging forward at Kaleb, he quick and easily side-spun the rotten corpse. As he spun, he quickly extended his opposite arm sending the smaller katana's blade through the softer, already decaying flesh, of another's neck. Using the katana still within his left hand, he quickly thrust it forward, sending the blade through the infected male's chest. "See? I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he shouldn't still be trying to attack."

Neither of the three of them could argue Kaleb's very -valid- statement. Even as Kaleb continued on, the male seemed to be more concerned with reaching out for any one of them then it was about having the slightly smaller katana blade sticking through his upper chest. Quickly turning himself, and using the katana to guide the 'dead' weight around, he lifted his left leg just enough to give the male a good, hard shove forward with his foot. The male, still grunting and groaning, stumbled forward, inadvertently knocking another of the infected neighbors down. Kaleb took the moment he had just given himself to quickly send not one, but both blades through the side of a middle-aged female's head. The sound of gun fire from behind him had quickly taken his attention away for a moment, as he turned his attention over his shoulder.

Blake wasn't about to allow Kaleb to have all the fun. What had been several pieces only moments ago, was now a full functioning AR-15 equipped both with a red-dot scope and a slide fire accessory. The first two shots were aimed toward the slightly heavy set male that Kaleb had earlier shish kabobed, the first one catching him in the shoulder and the second, just as he began to stand up once again, through the side of male's head, sending a small quarter of flesh and bone flying away as he collapsed against the ground. The 'female' that had been knocked down and was just starting to figure her way back to her feet when Blake fired a third shot, this one cutting through her eye socket and she too fell, face first and lifeless against the soft dirt and mud.

"Where did you learn swordsmanship like that?" Blake was asking once he was close enough to Kaleb that he wasn't having to yell.

"My father has been teaching me martial arts for as long as I can remember." Kaleb replied as he quickly turned his attention toward Blake. "You ready to go see if we have any other unfriendly stragglers around the property?"

* * * * *

Inside the house things were anything but quiet, with everyone gathering in the living room, both Lisa and Bryce had managed to carefully weave through the living room and around the corner, toward the middle bedroom. Just stepping through the door way, Bryce happening to see Stacie standing alone in the back bedroom, had invited himself to join her, while Lisa watched silently as Regina continued to carefully clean away at their father's lower leg.

"It doesn't appear to be infected, so that's the good news," she said not turning her attention away from the wound. "but stitches are going to be a must." Quickly glancing up toward the shadow movement against the door frame, that had caught her attention, she offered Lisa a slightly more reassuring smile then what her own concerns really were. "Could you hand me that spool of thread and the needle with it please?"

Slowly moving around the closest of the two twin beds, Lisa stood between the two, handing the needle and thread to Regina as she took her father's hand into her own and watched Regina began using the sewing thread to stitch the large open gash closed. Finally reaching the last stitch, Regina was tying off a small knot before snipping the remaining thread and throwing it away. Leaving Lisa alone in the bedroom with her father, Regina crossed the small hallway into the bathroom and set the needle inside a small juice glass before filling it with rubbing alcohol.

Soon Lisa was leaving the middle bedroom, and after standing in the door frame quickly checking the two other bedrooms, she was soon entering the last room across the small hallway, to her right. "So, - you have a boyfriend?" Lisa had heard her brother ask, clearly talking to the sandy blonde female standing slightly closer beside him. Quietly stepping up behind them, Lisa was gently tapping against her other brother's shoulder. "Stop flirting Romeo. Dad would like to see you."

Saved by the younger sister. Stacie was currently taking a mental sigh of relief once Bryce had left the room. The question had allowed a few thoughts and mixed emotions to wash over her, as she thought quietly and continued to stare out the eastern bedroom window. Watching through the bedroom window, she had noticed Kaleb had disappeared somewhere down along the hill.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say my brother likes you." Stacie heard as she had her thoughts quickly returned to the matter at hand.

"Your brother doesn't know me to like me, your brother is just looking to get his dick wet." Stacie quickly replied pretty coldly as she turned those deep sapphires toward Lisa.

"Be that as it may. Can you honestly blame him?" Lisa asked slightly arching her brow. "I mean, you're the one walking around with half her ass hanging out of her shorts."

Stacie didn't reply, didn't even give Lisa the acknowledgement that she had heard her, as she kept her attention fixed on the situation outside the window. Lisa was soon turning her attention toward the window and with nothing happening, or able to be seen happening, she turned her attention back to Stacie once again. It wasn't until both Kaleb and Blake were seen coming back up the hill, did Stacie turn around and began slowly weaving around everyone inside the house. Stacie was just reaching the back of the house through the kitchen, as Kaleb and Blake were reaching the side of the house, but when they didn't come inside, she decided to step outside and join them.

"We're going to have to get more ammunition then what we have." She heard Blake say as she pushed open the breezeway door. Now she saw why they hadn't come right in. They had gotten side tracked. Now stepping outside and making her way over toward the four of them, she had noticed that both Dominic and Henry were now carrying either a shotgun or a rifle. Soon she was coming up on Kaleb's side wanting to be close, but even before she was close enough to cuddle, she was beginning to second guess her choice.

"You smell - like death." she kept her voice to a whisper as she turned her attention toward Kaleb.

"We still need to put a stronger perimeter around if we plan on holding out here." Dominic was quickly cutting in, trying to point out the priorities.

"Forget about the fence right now. Is any one else 'NOT' confused as to why Brandon took off in the first place?" Kaleb had quickly cut in before breaking away from the four of them and started heading over toward the S.U.V..

Pulling the back hatch open once again, Kaleb was just starting to reach inside and reaching for the old, raggedy, towel and began wiping off the two blade before sliding them both back inside their sheath. The small group currently standing outside had begun to disperse, both Henry and Dominic headed inside, no doubt to get others to come help with the fence, leaving Stacie following him toward the Explorer as Blake began making his way down toward the edge of the property.

"Do you really think we can hold up here for a while?" she asked, looking toward Kaleb, as she leaned against the side of the Explorer.

"If we keep continuing to bring people here, no! As it stands, we barely have enough to get through a solid two months, safely." he replied, now sliding the sheath of his Wakizashi katanas over his shoulder. Shutting the hatch once again he quickly started chasing after Blake, while Stacie remained close on his heels. "Hey! Where you going?"

"I'm going to go find out why a trained officer was only carrying a revolver, for one and for two, see if I can find a reason as to why he wandered off without saying anything to anyone." Blake replied.

The three of them had soon reached the edge of his parents property and once they had all crossed the ravine, Kaleb was quickly searching for Brandon's path once again. At least the second time around, the path had been easier to see since knowing what to look for. Following the blood spatters once again, the three of them were soon coming upon Brandon's resting place, the body of the officer still laying where they had found it no more than an hour ago. After making sure the area was secure, Kaleb began making his way toward the lifeless body. Trying to find some kind of answer was going to be even more difficult now that half Brandon's lower mid-section was missing, but still Kaleb slowly and quietly made his way beside the corpse. Pulling the bolt from the other male's head, he was using the toe of his shoe to push the other male away from Brandon's corpse.

Now with the infected male pushed away, it was both Blake and Stacie who were moving closer toward the officer. While Stacie looked over Brandon's corpse, she had noticed the mixture of blood and spit that had collected around his index finger and thumb of his left hand. Was that his blood then that they had followed and not the blood of any of the infected? Was it possible that Brandon, in some way, was already sick and or infected before he had ran into Kaleb? She was just pointing out what she had acknowledged to Blake as he was picking up the revolver that laid only a few inches away from Brandon's deceased body. It was only now that Blake had spotted both the entrance and then the exit wound that had taken his life. That at least cleared up -how- he had finally died. Now, the next question was why?

Unfortunately they were going to be forced to only wonder. Between the sun that was starting to lower behind the western horizon and the dark gray rain clouds that had begun to roll in, casting a darker ebony blanket over the already early evening sky line, their investigation was quickly coming to an end. A fast, bright flash of lightning stretched across the sky and no sooner then it had vanished, did the loud hard crash of thunder rumble through the silence. With that as a clearer sign than any to get out of the dense wooded area, the three of them started back the way they had came.

* * * * *

Through the remainder of the evening, as the thunderstorm continued to rumble and roll through the area, things around the 'Pierce Property' had gotten a chance to slow down and return to some sort of 'normal'. By the late evening hours, the group was starting to disperse once again between the two houses. Through the night while everyone slept, what they thought was going to be peacefully - for some that was simply not going to be the case. Regina awoke suddenly to a sharp pain coming from the side of her head. At first she had only thought she was dreaming, feeling the soft press of someones lips against her ear, but as she rolled onto her back and acknowledged that her ear was bleeding, she was now staring into the lifeless orbs of Zach.

A shriek of terror now ran through her, panic coming in a loud scream as she scrambled, beneath the blankets, trying to get away. Zach must have passed sometime during the night. But why? The wound didn't appear to have been infected. At the moment however, she couldn't worry herself about it as she slid beneath the blankets and falling to the floor on the opposite side of the twin bed. "Help!" she screamed again in panic as she scrambled for the door.

With the three bedrooms as close as they were, it wasn't hard for anyone not to hear the screams coming from the center room. No sooner than both other doors had open, Regina had finally pulled her own door open and was now scrambling out into the hallway, looking toward Bryce on her right and Kaleb and Stacie off to her left. "Zach... he turned and bit me." Regina was saying as she closed the door, trapping Zach inside the room.

Kaleb and Stacie were first to react. Stacie was quickly rushing through the door toward Regina's side, quickly guiding her into the bathroom. Kaleb, quickly grabbing one of his two Wakizashi blades from the sheath, he was making his way toward the closed bedroom door. Slightly cracking the door open, Kaleb quickly peered through the space and when he had found Zach's undead roaming corpse, he let the door fly open the rest of the way. Springing into the bedroom, he lunged forward sending the blade through the side of his head. He turned away from Zach's body and slowly made his way toward the bathroom with Stacie and Regina.

"I don't why he turned. All I know is that once you become infected, you turn into one of those. And I don't want to turn into one of those. Please Stacie." Kaleb could hear Regina pleading with Stacie from the other side of the bathroom door. After a moments pause he tried the handle and finding it locked, he quickly knocked on the door.

"We'll... we'll be right... out." He heard Stacie say between quickened gasps and sobs.

"Help me clean this up, please Bryce." Kaleb said turning his attention back toward the back bedroom before he was stepping back inside his own room. Throwing on the clothes he had worn the day before, he was grabbing the walkie from the side table, speaking in to it trying to get either Dominic or Celeste's attention.

Stacie was finally opening the bathroom door and quickly rounding the corner into the bedroom directly next to her, she slowly moved over toward Kaleb and sat against the edge of the pull out couch, trembling, as she curled in against him. "Regina needs a proper burial." She stated as she climbed back into the bed.

Soon both Bryce and Kaleb were meeting up in the hallway once again and after heading through the house into the garage for the wheel barrel and shovels, they were heading back inside the house with the wheel barrel. After picking up the two bodies from the two rooms, Kaleb and Bryce were carefully moving back through the house once again and heading outside. Taking the bodies through the large open field behind the house, they headed a short distance off the property and began digging the two graves.