The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Thirty-One - Day 17

Walking along the road was infinitely easier than traversing the forest had been, and we were covering a lot more ground. We walked for maybe an hour before a curve in the road appeared ahead.

"This is it. The town is just around that corner," Devon excitedly told us as he sped up.

"Devon, wait!" I knew, of all of us, he had had the hardest time these last couple of days. His leg hadn't really had time to heal, and he was walking with a more pronounced limp now than he had been when we first met him. Thoughts of finding a dry place where he could rest were probably all that crossed his mind. But we needed to approach the town with caution.

The bend in the road wasn't far, and before long we were rounding the corner, and a town that was even smaller than the other one came into view. If that was even possible. The streets were silent. Cautiously moving forward, our group worked our way into the town.

Someone had been killing zombies here. It was the only explanation for what I saw. In the road, zombies with bullet holes to the head slumped where they had fallen. In the driveway to my right, someone had dumped what must have been at least a dozen corpses together in a reeking pile. Ahead, a crow pecked at the remains of someone who had died wearing a single fluffy pink slipper.

Skirting around a rain diluted pool of blood that had come from the zombie nearest to me, I looked around warily and stayed close to the rest of the group. This place had an eerie feeling to it.

The main street was basically rows of closely spaced homes on either side of the road. No one stood out from the others, the houses stretching out ahead of us before ending abruptly. The trees on the other end of the town looked just as formidable as the ones that we had left behind us. I kept looking for any sort of store, even a small gas station, but there didn't seem to be anything like that here. Just the houses. It was really bizarre to someone who had grown up surrounded by city concrete, town houses, and carefully planned suburbs.

I almost bumped into Bill's back when he came to a sudden stop just in front of me. "Well, does anyone have a preference for which one we try?" He gestured around himself.

We all looked around, but the sameness of each of the houses made them all practically indistinguishable, from my view. Blank stares and shrugged shoulders seemed to indicate that everyone else felt the same.

"Alright." Critically eyeing the two nearest homes, Bill settled on the one on our left, and we moved up the short driveway together.

Keeping her voice low, Maya gave a quick explanation of the routine that they had adopted when breaking into a new place, to the three of us. "We need to try to see if there are any zombies inside. If there are, we'll move on to another house. It's not worth the risk of letting them out with us. If it seems clear, we'll go in and first we need to search the entire house. Just to be sure. If it's clear, we can set up camp and look for any supplies that might be useful."

I nodded unconsciously while listening. Her words all made sense. By that point, Bill was standing at the front door of the house, and Carrie had went to one of the windows. When Bill knocked lightly on the door, she peered inside. After several seconds, Bill knocked again.

"It looks empty." Carrie looked back toward the rest of us.

"I don't hear anything."

"Guys, this place gives me the creeps. Let's get inside and off of the street." Maya had been facing away from the house, watching our backs. She glanced over her shoulder to us to punctuate her words. When she turned back around, I saw her gaze go to the pile of zombies that was still visible back the way we had come.

People were nothing if not predictable, and a quick search near the front door revealed a key that had been hidden under a flower pot on the steps. Shawn handed the key up to Bill, and he used it to unlock the front door. He pushed the door open and stood at the threshold for a second. The inside of the home was deathly silent. My eagerness to finally get out of the rain warred with the fear of the unknown as we crept inside.

The people who had lived in this house had obviously taken great pride in it. We fanned out, splitting into smaller groups as we searched for any danger. Shawn and I worked our way through the small living room together, and I couldn't help but notice that everything had been left neat and very clean. Other than a faint unpleasant odor that I couldn't place, you would never know that the world had gone to hell outside, if the only thing you had to go by was this living room.

I could hear the others as they worked their way around the house. No sounds of alarm or struggle sounded, increasing my confidence that the house had indeed been empty. I was sure that, if there was a zombie lurking around inside, we would have found it before now. At the other end of the room from me, Shawn peered behind the couch. His actions might have seemed silly, but it was better to be safe than sorry, even if there was not much chance that a zombie was lurking back there. A short, dark hallway led off of the back corner of the living room, and I walked towards it with more confidence. The lighting was low, but there was enough for me to see that a washer and dryer stood against the wall along the hall. A closed door at the far end was the only other way into the space.

Shifting my knife into my other hand, I tiptoed down the narrow space past the appliances, and reached for the doorknob. It was likely just a closet, but every corner needed to be checked, and I wasn't going to be the one who got lazy and failed to open every door.

Turning the knob, I pushed the door open.

Low growling sounded from the pitch black space beyond.