Decaying Humanity by James Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

lie in the grass for all I cared; we just had to fix the sheet. After that we found ourselves sitting at the window just waiting for something to happen. We took shifts staring at the white mass on the ground. Periodically the white lump would cuss at us or try to make a bargain. I never responded. I couldn’t remember all the stages of dealing with death, but our friend had covered them all at least twice.
    “We got four shells total now,” Harvey said, breaking the silence.
    “It’s more than we had before. I’m afraid we may have to leave soon.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    I simply gave him a look.
        “Oh, you think his friends might come back for us,” he said.
        “This is the last place I want to be if more of those guys come stomping by. They don’t seem to care about this guy, but they might come back for revenge.”
        Harvey just frowned, still not looking away from the man. “Where the hell would we go?”
    “I haven’t figured out that part yet.”
    And so we waited … and waited. Four hours went by and nothing had happened. I cracked the window an inch and called out to see if John was okay. He responded with his usual “Fuck you.” He was fine, but as I was about to call Harvey over to switch shifts, I saw it. Auto-Fixit was in the park across the road. He was staggering his way towards us. I cracked the window and called out to John, “Keep quiet, one is coming this way.”
        He retorted with a colorful response and then grew very quiet. Auto-Fixit was taking his sweet time, but he was clearly centered up on our house. He wasn’t moving with outstretched arms or swatting at the air like he had when he was closing in on the girl’s corpse. This time he just moved in a straight and direct path, shambling to the side only slightly to go around a park bench.
        “He is coming right at us, I mean him,” Harvey said.
        “Yeah, seems that way. Which way is the wind blowing?” I asked. We both looked for anything moving and there didn’t seem to be any wind at all. I got out the black and white book and jotted down a small note.
Barely any wind, zombie 100 paces away seemed to catch scent.
        
The next few moments took forever as we watched the zombie cross the street (without looking both ways mind you) and stumble into our yard. He had moved directly to us without any hesitation, but once he stepped into the yard he lost track. He wandered very close to John and then would stumble past him by only a few steps. He seemed to have a basic understanding that his prey was close, but pinpointing his exact location was a challenge. I jabbed Harvey to go and he snapped out of his trance and sped to the back door. He unlatched the back door and stepped out onto the small wooden set of stairs. He began banging a cooking pot with a metal spoon. The sound even startled me and I knew it was coming. I watched closely as the zombie looked in the direction of the sound. His head moved somewhat quickly as it scanned around, surveying the yard. It started to move along the exterior wall of the house, honing in on that sound.
        The white lump in the grass began to shout. My mouth dropped as he started yelling.
        “Stop that banging! You’re not scaring me. You just wait until they fill you full of holes tonight!”
        Auto Fixit jerked in that direction and the banging pot was suddenly very uninteresting. It moaned and started moving at a more rapid pace, swatting and chewing at the air. Harvey had stopped banging the pot soon after and I could hear the latches being locked. He sat next to me and looked out the window. He turned to me with wide eyes. I looked back even more surprised. He had his machete gripped tightly in his right hand and the shotgun at his side.
        Auto Fixit made audible gasps for air and short grunts as it seemed to move right for him. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, please save me!