Safe House

4

Zombies were done crawling from their graves. Now they were waking straight up after the humans they used to be had died.

Norma sat, eyes glued in terror to the tube while Baron watched solemnly from his la-Z-boy, beer in hand.

"Brett went missing today," Baron said nonchalantly.

She gave him an incredulous look. Brett was possibly the only person in the world that would still pal around with Baron. She'd half expected more emotion from a man whose only friend may have been claimed by the dead side.

"What do you think happened?" she asked.

"No clue," he said. "I'm gonna go out with the search party if he don't show by tomorrow. So are you."

"Out?" She hadn't expected that. 'Out' was vulnerable. 'Out' was scary. 'Out' was where they could get you and drag you away to their hell.

"Yes, out," he mocked. "I swear, you're such a wimp. I get so tired of it sometimes. Suck it the hell up and do something for once."

How can someone want you to stand up, but keep beating you down at the same time? She wondered. But more pressing was this whole 'out' matter. Norma didn't like the sound of it, not one bit.

---

The Deckards didn't have to go out looking for Brett, because Brett came and found them.

At about two a.m. there he was, slamming at the front door. Lollie perked up and barked from the floor at the foot of the bed. Baron gave a start, almost jumping out of his long johns as he leaped clean out of bed. He scrambled for his riffle like a madman and it scared Norma half to death. She followed him closely, not wanting to be left alone. Her bare feet on the icy floor, the cool night air in the still house brushing against her exposed calves as she clutched the front of her night gown tightly, her other hand resting against Bear's shoulder as she peeked over it. Her whole body jittered like she'd drank a pot of coffee straight down.

Baron stopped at the door and shouted, "Who is it?"

It was hard to see through the lacy curtain over the glass in the top of the door. The only response was another good pounding. The locked knob twisted and Norma squeaked. She caught herself before she'd screamed.

With the long barrel of his gun, Baron eased back the curtain.

"Oh, hell," he mumbled.

That's just what it looked like to Norma. Not hell, but something from there. Brett's face was blackish-blue. His eyes looked as though they'd had liquid whiteout poured inside them. His teeth were bloody and he was missing a whole arm. His bloody plaid sleeve hung there empty.

Norma's hands flew to her face, gripping her cheeks, and she let loose her screams. She lost all reality for a moment and wasn't sure if she was standing or sitting. She wasn't even sure if she was there or in some far off dream. By the time Baron unlocked and kicked the door outward, she came back to her senses. For those few terrifying moments, she was sure Baron was going to let Brett get her. But Baron laid two bullets into Brett instead. One went into the right side of his chest and the second went through his bloated face.

Norma tried hard not to look at the sickening sight. Baron, on the other hand, bent right down to where Brett fell on the porch and stared into his double-dead face. Baron even lifted Brett's empty sleeve and inspected the wound inside. He used the barrel of the gun and moved Brett's top lip away from the teeth so he, Bear, could inspect them very closely.

"He's ate something, Norma. Get my boots, I'm gonna check the area."

Norma was shaking in her socks. She'd never seen anything like this. Never even was one for horror movies. The only pain and horror she had known was at the hands of the person she was supposed to trust above all others. The person that swore to love and cherish her forever. This whole zombie thing was on another level and Norma didn't think she was ready for that. Seeing an unmoving dead body was frightening enough. Seeing a dead, moving body that was trying to attack you was just about over the brink of the terror meter.

"Norma! I said move!"

That did it for her. She took off, slinging tears the whole way into the washroom where she'd left his boots after spending darn near an hour cleaning them. She didn't have time to think how she'd just cleaned them or how she didn't want Baron to go out, because that meant she would be alone in close proximity to that thing. Everything was speeding by so fast her only thought was to obey like a good wife, so she did.

Baron slipped his feet in without lacing up and took off into the yard. He was going toward the old barn, out where they kept a few pigs and not much else. Norma slammed the door and watched after him from the safety of inside. Anxiety kept up a steady rhythm. It would zip around like electricity, down her limbs, to her core, back again. She was at her wits end until the sight of Baron returning with his gun calmed her a bit.

He was mad as a wet hen. "He got 'em," Baron said.

The pigs. Damn, why hadn't they locked that place up tight? thought Norma.

Baron gave his double-dead friend a kick in the side. "Best two bullets I ever damn shot."