The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Thirty-Three - Day 18

An uneasy quiet fell over the table as everyone looked at each other. It seemed like Maya had something that she wanted to say. When I focused on her, she sighed. "Carrie's grandson was about the same age as Devon. They lived in New York City. She lost contact with them at the beginning, but the last she heard they were taking her grandson to the ER with a high fever." She looked over to her husband again. "I'll go tell Bill what's going on. We'll stay here and keep an eye on Devon and Fallon."

A few minutes later, Shawn, Carrie, and I shut the back door behind us with a quiet click. Rex jumped up and pressed his nose to the glass on the other side of the door, watching us leave. I had no idea what we were going to run into out here. It was safer to leave the dog behind.

The rain had finally stopped and a pretty blue sky stretched out overhead. With the return of the sun, the humidity was already climbing, and the smell from the decaying zombies that were scattered around the small town hung heavy in the stagnant air. Our game plan was simple. We would start searching houses and hopefully find what we were looking for without running into too much trouble. There just had to be someone who had lived in this place who had a bottle of antibiotics stashed in their home.

The yard between our hideaway and the next house over had already started to grow out of control. The tall grass was still wet, and my sneakers and lower pants legs were soaked again by the time we crossed the short distance. I grimaced down at them as I stepped onto the front porch. The three of us paused to look around before knocking on the door. In either direction, the street was silent and empty. Each of them going to look in nearby windows, Shawn and Carrie indicated to me when they were ready. I tapped my knuckles lightly against the peeling paint of the door.

Almost immediately, a crash sounded from within.

"No good," Carrie backed away from her window. "There's one in there." A face streaked with crusty blood pressed up against the window where she had just been standing. The zombie inside hissed and banged it's forehead against the glass.

"Let's try the next one."

We followed Shawn to the next house over and repeated the process. This time, there was no activity stirred inside by my knock. The owners of this home hadn't left a convenient spare key hidden by their door, so Carrie used a rock from their landscaping to break the window in the door. I flinched at the sound of glass hitting the floor inside, but there were still no alarming noises telling us to run. After carefully reaching inside to unlock the door, we finally were able to step inside.

This house was much smaller than the one that we were using for our hideout. It took almost no time for us to decide that the house was empty.

The single small bathroom didn't yield the results we were hoping for, though I did scoop up a half of a bottle of prescription pain killers I found hidden behind a jar of Vaseline. I had no doubt that they would come in handy at some point. Hopefully not anytime in the near future.

Wandering back to the kitchen, I found Shawn just finishing dumping the contents of a cupboard into the duffel bag he'd brought along. We had agreed that, while searching for the medicine, we would also take any food we came across. It didn't make sense not to.

Carrie walked into the kitchen from where she had been looking through the bedrooms. "I found a pack of batteries that are the right size for our flashlights. There's nothing else back there."

"I took all of the nonperishable's. There wasn't much." He zipped up the duffel. They both looked my way.

I held up the bottle I'd taken. "They aren't antibiotics, but these could come in handy."

"Good. Let's keep moving."

The next house had it's front door standing wide open, and we approached with caution. After looking in windows and banging on the doorframe, Carrie decided it was safe to go in. In the upstairs bathroom, we finally found what we had been looking for. I held the bottle up triumphantly and two answering grins bloomed in the dirty faces looking back at me.

Slinging the backpack onto my back, I felt lighter than I'd been in a very long time as we descended the stairs and headed back toward the front door. Behind me, the other two were talking animatedly about the things that we had picked up while searching the houses. At the front door, I glanced through the window to check for zombies. It was all clear, so I swung the door open and stepped outside.

The tall hedges that ran between this house and the next rustled. I had just enough time to turn to the left, before a zombie launched itself from their green depths and crashed into me with all of it's weight.

I shrieked as I went down hard with the zombie snarling on top of me. It's strength was alarming as it gripped onto my shoulders and pulled it's gaping mouth closer to me.

Time slowed down. I registered Shawn and Carrie yelling from somewhere out of my field of view. Using both hands to try to hold the creature back, I knew already that that was a battle I was going to lose. The zombies rancid breath blew across my face as it's teeth gnashed and drool splattered across my chin.

With a final pull, the zombie managed to yank my upper body close enough to bite. Pain exploded in my shoulder.