Teenage Wasteland

Chapter 11

With their amount of man power they were able to keep watch turns short. Most of them got plenty of sleep. At first light everyone was awake. Will to the first look out the window, he could hear his heart and feel as it began to beat faster. Jason and Tyler looked next, Tyler swore loudly and that put the rest of the boys on edge.
“What’s wrong?” asked Brent.
“There’s more.” Will mumbled
“What do you mean more?” Brent pressed.
“What are you deaf! More zombies you idiot!” Tyler lashed out. Brent cringed for a moment.
“Tyler, ease up!” Will said. “They’ll move on. We just need to be patient.”
“I hope you’re right. We didn’t pack enough food and water.” Jason said nervously.
“How long do you think we’ll last?” Will asked.
“If we ration well, maybe tonight. But that means we should be leaving no later than the next night.”
Will took a deep breathe. “I want someone watching the front of the house at all times. Just in case we can make an escape.” He turned to Tyler. “is this house fenced?”
“Yes.”
“Okay I’ll take some of you and we’ll clear the backyard and look for a different exit.”
The back door opened onto a sturdy wooden deck. The backyard was small, the back of the fence was shared with the neighbor directly behind. One zombie stood in clear sight.
Tyler and Brent had followed Will outside, he was relieved. In sight of the past day’s events he did not want any of the other boys ‘helping’ him. Will snuck forward and quietly took the undead from behind. He sent his blade through the back of the soft skull.
Will motioned for Tyler and Brent to move around the side of the house. They disappeared for millisecond and returned. One zombie Will thought, that was easy. Next he instructed the boys to carry a chair from the deck over to a point on the fence. Will took the side that faced the parking lot they had to get to.
He wished he hadn’t looked the second he did. For some reason Will had expected to see it so he didn’t know why it had struck him with so much surprise. Most likely because he didn’t want it to happen, the sheet numbers were overwhelming themselves. There were more than the zombies outside the front of the house. Hundreds of the demons stretched from the house to super market. Just their luck.
Tyler and Brent had moved their chairs over to Will’s side. Tyler broke the silence first. ”I thought my side was bad! Wow!”
“Great so your side was bad too?” Brent sighed.
“Maybe twenty on the other side, not hundreds though.” Tyler said.
“What about your side Brent? How was the other backyard?” Will asked.
“Not that many, it might be out best bet.”
Will moved his chair to the back fence. A little bit of hope crawled back into his heart.
“Hey they had a pool!” Tyler pointed at the green algae filled above ground pool.
“And they were in the middle of a party when they turned.” Brent added indicating the various zombies wearing tattered bathing suits and bikinis.
“What on earth were they doing? This thing started in December? Who would possibly want a pool party? I mean there was even snow on the ground!” Will said extremely confused.
“Hey, there were some really weird people in this little city.” Tyler reminded his friend.
Will was about to tell Tyler that he agreed when a loud smack on the fence redirected his attention. He looked down to find an arrow sticking out. If it weren’t for the fence the arrow would have been buried in his crotch. Will was stunned, luckily Brent was able to pull him to the ground.
“State your name and business wonderer!” A voice rang out.
Will noticed the voice was young, and feminine, but it also sounded familiar. “My name is Will.”
“What do you want, Will.” The voice said.
Then it clicked, he knew who it was! “Paige?” He yelled.
There was a long moment of silence. “How do you know my name?”
“It’s Will, Will Marshall!” He stood up so she could see his face.
“And me!” Tyler stood up as well. Will looked around to find where Paige was hiding. He saw some movement on the roof and sure enough there she was.
“Come one over guys!” Paige sounded excited for the company.
“What about the zombies?” Brent said finally peeking his head up.
“Oh don’t worry about them, their tied up.”
Will looked closer at the dead. Then he noticed for the first time that each one had a rope or wire securely tied around their neck. He shrugged, good job.
The three boys hopped the fence and walked towards the house. Paige, very elegantly, slid off the roof of small one story.
“Oh Brent, can you go tell Jason to come here?” Will asked.
“Sure.”
“Jason?” Paige asked as they approached. “Jason Miller?”
Will nodded.
“Wow, I thought for sure he wouldn’t make it.”
Tyler smiled. “Well luckily he had me.”
“I’m sure you were a big factor Tyler.” Paige responded with a smile.
After their quick pleasantries, hugs were shared. Paige had been one of the few girls that could handle Jason and Will at the same time, let alone Tyler. There was a noise on the fence as Jason shambled over.
“No way! No way!” Jason said in his imitation girl voice. He ran forwards and embraced his long lost friend.
“I’m so glad to see you guys again!” Paige said.
“We’re glad to see you too! How long have you been here?” Will asked.
“Not too long, about a day. It’s a long story.”
“Well from the looks of our surroundings we have plenty of time.” Tyler said.
Paige agreed and began her story, starting on the day after Christmas. Her family had decided to stay at their house. Like most people who hadn’t seen the events happen in front of them, they didn’t think it was a big threat.
The next couple of weeks they played it safe. They kept their shades closed and stuck with eating canned fruits and salmon. Paige’s house was outside of the little city, towards the mountain. The closest neighbor was a half mile down the road.
The story moved closer to more recent events. Her dad decided that someone needed to run into town and check it out. Of course when he said ‘someone’ he meant himself. They waited hours for him to return but he never did.
Paige explained how her mom got very depressed. It was so bad that sometimes she had to be force fed. One morning she woke up and her mom was gone. Paige stayed for a few more days and then packed up and left. Living so close to the mountain provided her family with a steady supply of deer so at least half her bag was filled with deer jerky. She walked for a couple hours and settled into the house everyone was now standing by.
There was a pause of silence and then Jason raised his hand. “Yes?” Paige asked.
“How did you get all these things?” Jason pointed all around the fenced yard at the tied up zombies.
“It was tricky. Luckily these people had dogs before so all I had to do was slip the collars on.”
“Did you dress them up?”
“No, you know that there are some weird people in this town.” Paige replied. “Anyways, would you guys like to come in? Wait for this whole herd to pass?”
“We have more people in the other house if you want to come over there with us?” Will suggested.
“Sure I could use a lot of company. Just let me grab my stuff.” Paige turned and ran inside. Will looked at the restrained zombie. He frowned, which then drew the attention of his friends.
“What’s wrong?” Tyler asked.
“Do any of these zombies have bites or scratches?” The boys began looking closer at the undead. From what Will could see, these were just normal people that turned. “Weird. What do you guys think happened?”
“I was thinking…” Tyler began.
“That’s dangerous for you.” Jason interrupted.
Tyler glared at him. “Like I was saying, I was thinking back when we were up on the mountain with the… the girls. They were saying something about a rock. Maybe this whole thing has to do with meteors or something.”
“I don’t know. Do you see in meteors?” Will asked
“Maybe it’s in the pool?” Jason offered.
“The pool? Really, Jason?” Tyler sneered.
“Found it!” Will yelled. “It’s in the pool.”
Jason turned to Tyler and smiled. “Yes I do think it’s in the pool.”
Tyler and Jason walked over to will and gazed into the green tinted pool. Sure enough at the bottom of the algae soup sat a rock no bigger than a softball. Will thought about it and still wondered how the pool partiers had died in the first place. “Do you think the rock heated the pool up fast enough that they boiled or something?”
“I guess that’s possible”
“What if one of them peed in the pool and the space chemicals on the meteor reacted with it causing the creation of some sort of poison?” Tyler offered.
“What the… What is wrong with you!” Jason asked.
“Hey, it’s possible!”
“Right.” Will said with heavy sarcasm.
The door Paige had disappeared through moments ago opened once more. The 5’6” blond haired girl strolled out into the yard. Will looked at the things she considered her ‘stuff’. First a simple backpack was strapped to her back, over top of that was her bow and arrows, Will’s eyes drifter to her waist. At her side, tied to her belt, rested a short sword, Will stared in jealousy.
“Like what you see?” Paige asked.
Will brought his gaze up to her face. “Where did you get that sword?”
Paige smiled. “I found it inside on my first day. Pretty awesome right?”
“Very awesome!” Jason agreed. “Does it have a sister? I want one!”
Will shook his head and headed back to the fence. His friends followed and they were greeted by the rest of the group. There was something wrong, Will couldn’t figure it out just yet. He looked closely at the boys in the yard. Then he noticed they were all staring at something.
Paige climbed over the wall last. “Oh” she gasped as she looked up. “Hello.”
Will then realized what the staring was about. They were mesmerized by Paige! The idea of it first struck Will as crazy; it was just Paige after all. As he thought about It though, it became quite the funny sight. Paige stood her ground awkwardly. Out of the corner of her mouth she whispered “what’s wrong with them?”
Will decided to save her. “Have you guys never seen a girl before? Get inside!” The boys snapped back to reality and slowly moved towards the house. A few of them stole quick glances back.
Inside the house Will gathered everyone in the living room. Half the boys offered their seat to Paige. She chose one next to Tyler, Jason and Will, anywhere else seemed too creepy. The boy whose seat she took smiled with success while the others sunk down in their defeat. Paige smiled awkwardly and Will took that as a queue to start the meeting.
“Okay, I think you all have a good idea on why we’re here.” Will paused a moment. “How do we get out of here?”