face the undead on their own.
They ran to the edge of the barn, being as quiet as they could. There was the smell of pig shit. Frank went first. Kelly stayed behind them. Frank moved up the side of the barn and then looked in, peering around the open door. It was like looking into the mouth of a giant monster.
The light was dim. Two dead freaks were face-down on the pine boards in the barn. Four live zombies were looking up at the hayloft from below, making their sick hungry moans and growls. There was something they wanted up there. Frank looked up at the hayloft and saw a shadow move.
One of the freaks broke away and went to the wall. There was a ladder hanging there. The freak started to take it down. The damn thing was going to climb up for its meal with the ladder. It made Frank shake his head. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Not even in the movies.
There was a defiant voice shouting from up in the hayloft: "Stay back. I'll fucking kill you if you try to come up here." It was a girl's voice. Frank thought she sounded young. Maybe ten. She was telling off the freaks. She moved and Frank saw she had a rifle.
The zombie at the ladder dragged it to the other freaks. It was lifting it up to put it into position. Now it was obvious it wanted to make a meal out of the girl. It might have been smart enough to know that if the girl had had more ammo she would have used it already.
"Stay back," shouted the girl. "Fucking stay back, motherfuckers." She pointed the gun at them. Her voice sounded desperate.
Frank gestured to Todd to take the one pulling the ladder and the one closest to it. Frank took aim for one of the two right under where the girl was standing. Frank told Todd, "On three." He counted down.
Frank and Todd walked into the barn with their guns out. Frank told the freaks, "That's right, motherfuckers; time to eat your medicine."
Todd fired six times. Four of the shots hit the freaks, but one of them didn't drop. It was just pissed.
Frank squeezed off two rounds and vaporized a freak's head. The next one he shot spun around when the bullet grazed the side of its skull. It was grinning. One of its eyes was missing. Frank put a bullet in its forehead and it fell backward like a cartoon character playing dead.
The one Todd hit but didn't kill ran at him. Todd shot it in the knee and it dropped for a moment before getting back up, hissing with hate in its eyes. Now it had a limp.
The zombie was fifteen feet away from Todd. The freak had long, dirty blond hair. It was a woman who might have looked good before she got bit and changed over. It went for Todd and Frank didn't shoot it. He figured Todd wanted the satisfaction.
Todd let the freak get to six feet before pulling the trigger again. This time, he blew the thing's jaw off. The bullet made a big hole in the zombie's brain stem and it crumpled down and fell to its knees before keeling over face first.
Frank scanned the barn again, then looked up into the loft. "You okay up there?" he said. "We're not here to hurt you. Come with us. We'll help you."
The girl up in the loft said, "They got everyone. Mom and dad and Rick. We tried to keep them back but they broke the door down in the back of the house when we were trying to keep some from coming in the front. I was the only one who got out." She started to cry.
"Come on down," said Frank. "There are three of us. We'll keep you safe. We're getting out of here."
The girl said, "Are any of you bit? It takes a few minutes to change over. I'm not coming down if anyone's bit."
"Smart girl," said Todd to Frank.
"None of us is bit," said Frank. "Now come on down. We can use someone who can shoot straight."
The girl hesitated. She said, "I don't have any more ammo for the gun." She let out a rope and used it to shimmy down from the loft. Her feet made a soft landing on the floor of the barn. The girl saw Kelly at the barn door. She paused for a second and then she ran to Kelly like she knew her.
Kelly looked like she didn't know what to do. That was because she didn't know. She didn't know the girl coming at her and when the girl hugged her at the waist still holding the rifle in one hand and buried her face in her side it felt warm but Kelly was at a total loss. The girl wasn't crying, just breathing like she had been. Kelly put her arm on the girl's shoulder and said, "These cops are good guys. We're all getting out of here." She patted the girl's shoulder.
"Those things scare me," said the girl. She still had the rifle.
"I know," said Kelly. She told the girl her name. The girl said, "My name's Josie. I'm eleven."
Kelly shook the girl's hand when she stopped hugging her. Kelly thought it felt good having another woman around, even if the girl didn't break five feet and hadn't hit puberty yet.
"Okay ladies, enough of the touchy feely; we've got to move," said Frank. "If those things get wind that we're all having a party here we'll be in trouble." He didn't like this. Saving the girl was the right thing to do, but now they'd made a hell of a lot of noise with the shots. There was no telling what might have heard them.
They all left the barn, the girl staying close to Kelly. There was a distant moan in the night, a moan that sounded like it was made up of a lot of different undead voices at once. It was hard to tell where it was coming from, more than just a general direction. The only thing that was clear to all of them was that if they wanted to live, they had to move.
Frank went to the girl while they were walking. He said, "What's the best way to get out of here if you want to disappear quick?"
"There's a culvert you can walk through that goes under the highway. It's up on the outer edge of that field." The girl pointed in the dark. "Then there's a trail I used to take with my dad when we went deer hunting."
"You're a good shot," said Frank. It was his idea of finding something nice to say, even if he'd already told her. "We'll have to find you some more bullets for that rifle."
"Thanks," said Josie.
Frank got a flash of his daughter's face but for now he managed to push it away. His daughter was at camp and the survival situation was happening right here, in town. As far as Frank knew, the outbreak was contained, which was why the Army was being so strict with the quarantine.
Frank and Josie led the way to the culvert. All of them went into it. It was at least as long as the highway was wide, plus a little more. It was dark inside and smelled like shit and mud. Frank was glad when they got to the other side of it. Inside it felt like a tomb. An ugly one.
The girl said, "Up that way," and pointed. The trail went up to a power line trail, which wasn't the best place to hide out. The power lines were more exposed than Frank liked. The woods were better.
A dog barked.
They all stopped and froze. Todd brought up his gun and looked around them. Frank did the same. He didn't know if dogs could get infected by the zombies as easily as people. Was it a cross-species thing? He knew that some viruses did that -- the flu came to mind. He wasn't as big of a meathead cop as some people thought.
There was the sound of running now, something crashing through undergrowth. Frank tried to see into the night. Was it the dog coming at them? Would he have enough time to shoot it?
The form of the dog came into view, a fast-moving shadow. Frank aimed for the body, since it was moving so fast. He figured he could put one in its head after he'd dropped it. But before he squeezed the trigger, Josie shouted: "No! Don't shoot."
Frank thought he should shoot anyway, but he didn't. Maybe that was because he was a dad himself and he didn't want to see Josie cry. Whatever it was, not shooting was against his better judgement and he knew it. He kept the rifle trained on the dog, telling himself that he'd give it no more than three seconds to live. It was a threat until proven innocent.
The dog stopped right at Josie and looked at her. Frank exhaled; in the pause just after he felt the pull on the trigger as he started to squeeze. Then the dog laid down on the ground, whimpering. It was a German Shepherd, at least a hundred pounds, but it might as well have been a puppy.
Frank took his finger off th
e trigger and lowered his gun. So did Todd.
The dog reached for Josie's foot with its paw and she knelt down to pet it. She had a smile on her face and said, "It's Hutch. He made it. They didn't get him." She went back to petting him and scratched him behind the ears. The dog rolled over, exposing its belly, and she petted it there, too.
If everyone's survival hadn't been in doubt Frank might have stopped to watch some more. But he couldn't let one good thing get in the way of what they had in front of them. They were going to the Morrison place. They had to avoid getting eaten or bit by freaks on the way there. They had to hope that the plane they found worked. And Frank didn't know if Kelly (he looked at her and she was kneeling with the girl petting the shepherd's belly) had the nerve to fly them the hell out. From what she'd said before, it sounded like she'd only taken some lessons. That meant she wasn't even a real pilot. Fuck me if we make it, he thought. We're in a world of hurt.
Frank looked at Josie and said, "Can he smell them before they get close? The freaks?"
"Yes. Yes I know he can. He'll help us."
"Okay. The dog can come."
They all started marching again, this time up the power line trail. There weren't any trees big enough for cover. It was mostly short brush and juniper. The footing was rocky and loose and rocks slid and rolled when they walked up the trail. Frank thought it wasn't quiet enough to stay hidden.
Were the zombies waiting