The Rot: Book 2

Chapter 20

I slid across the hood of one of the crashed cars, and the eaters bunched up behind me. It bought me some time. Just a few seconds, but I'll take it.

Rather than continue down the alley, I sprinted down the side street to my right. I ran to the end of the block and I was standing on an intersection. I thought I had left the biters in the dust back at the alley, but the corpses were starting to get around the wreckage and they were heading down the sidewalk. Persistent fuckers. If they're interested in eating me, there must literally be nothing else around. 

Right across the street from me was a big, brick, two story house with one of the side windows open. I figured it was a good place to hide out and give my legs a break. I ran across the street and hopped into the window frame.

I didn't see any stenches that were in the house. Well, at least in the room that I decided to jump into. I flipped into the home, landing on my back. I quickly got to my feet and faced the window and looked outside the house. The stenches that were chasing after me made had it to the intersection.

Before any of the eaters could see me in the open window, I moved away from the window frame and readied my axe, preparing to chop down any eater that tried to pull itself into the house. I heard the biters outside snarling and growling, but it didn't sound like they were approaching the home. That's when I heard the low hissing sound of another eater that was standing behind me. I quickly spun around to face the dead thing.

She was a pretty short one. The biter was wearing a dirty, long, white t shirt and blue sweat pants. A piece of skin had been bitten away from her forehead. Watery, red saliva dripped from the corners of her mouth. She didn't paint the prettiest of pictures. But then again, none of the dead fuckers did.

The undead creature ran across the room, arms extended and ready to grab onto me. I didn't have the time, or space to bring up my axe and cop down into the biter's skull. I popped the creature in the chest with my axe head, and knocked the stench further away from me. I was then able to swing my axe sideways and into the stench's face, landing a shot into its left cheek area. The biter stopped moving and I hurriedly pried my axe free. The dead thing fell to the ground, making a loud banging sound as she did so.

I was worried that my little battle with the dead thing would alert the corpses that were still outside the house. But, the biters out there didn't hear me.

"Okay, how do I get back to my friends?" I wondered. But, before I did anything, I had to make sure there were no more stenches inside the house. If I had to hunker down in the home for a minute or two, I really wasn't in the mood for any surprises. 

I walked towards the doorway to my right and as I got closer to the room, the smell of death started to get stronger. That wasn't a good sign. I peered into the room and saw the lifeless body of someone sitting in a chair at the kitchen table across from me, hunched over. It was the body of a man with short black hair and still in his dark red pajamas. 

The man's scalp and back of his neck had been partially devoured and a pool of blood had formed on the tabletop, dripping off the edges. I crept into the room and approached the body, not knowing if it was going to turn into an eater or not.

Raising my axe above my head, I said, "Hello?" to the body, fully prepared for its head to shoot up and snarl at me. Which, to the surprise of no one, it did.

The dead guy made a grunting sound when he looked up and saw me standing in the kitchen doorway. I didn't give the biter a chance to get up and attack. I drove the blade of my axe down into the creature's skull, putting the dead thing out of its misery. I removed my axe from the eater's head and wiped the blade clean using a kitchen towel.

I wasn't about to go and check out the upstairs or the basement of the home either. The main floor was creepy as shit as it is, who knows what could be waiting for me on the other floors. I didn't want to wait around the home to find out, either. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and see if Angela and Janice managed to get into the office and help the rest of the group.

I went back over to the open window and looked around for the biters that were out there. Since I got a little turned around, and I didn't really know the area all that well, so I figured I'd just head back the way I came.

The stenches were still outside, but they were spread out along both sides of the street. Then I realized that if I could get in the yard across the road, I could go from yard to yard and bypass the dead things altogether. Great, more fence climbing. As if my legs weren't tired enough.

I slipped out of the window and landed on the sidewalk. I ran across the street and practically flipped over the fence of the yard in front of me. I did the same thing for the next three yards until I was certain that the biters hadn't followed. I finally slowed down when I realized that the stenches didn't notice me. That, and I was out of breath.

Going from yard to yard, I came to the dead end in the alley. There was a lone biter that was sitting on the ground with her back to me. It looked like she was resting on the fence. There was some dried blood caked to the biter's light blonde hair. She was wearing a light blue tank top and large pieces of skin had been eaten away from bother of her arms, back, and shoulders.

Luckily, the biter didn't notice me.  That is until I took a couple steps backward and the bottom of my right food snapped a twig. The stench turned her head and saw me standing there in the yard. Looking at her like a dummy.

"Hi there," I said to the biter.

She snarled at me, clambered back to her feet, and started to climb the fence. Before the biter could make it over and set down in the yard, I charged towards the stench and chopped downward with my axe, right into the side of its head. The dead thing fell down on its side in the yard and I hopped into the alley and started back towards the dentist's office.

"I hope I lured enough stenches away," I thought to myself as I ran. My calves were hurting like hell from all the running, but I didn't care, I had to get back to the office.

When I emerged from the alley, Angie and Janice were nowhere to be found and there was still two eaters that were trying to get into the building via the front door.

"Crap," I muttered. I didn't know how much longer the window glass in the front door would hold.

I looked at the office, trying to see any signs of life, but due to the covered windows, I couldn't see a damn thing. I started to think of ways to dispatch the two stenches that were trying to get inside. Then, I saw the back door open and Nicole pop her head out.

"Nicole," I gasped when I saw her.

She stuck an arm out and waved me over to the building. I sprinted across the street, too quickly for the biters to notice me and I got back inside the dentist's office.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked Nicole. "Did Angie and Janice make it in here?" I was damn near out of breath and surprised I could spit my questions out.

Nicole looked at me and nodded. "We're all okay."