No Zombie for a Neighbor - 10B

No Zombie for a Neighbor
Day Ten
Part Two: More than One

I raced to put on my clothes worried about my husband. Luckily, my home and the back yard of the Phillip’s house was surrounded by a protective gate, as I did not feel that I would have been able to properly handle any undead along the route. My desire was to support my husband and I did not want anything to get in my way.

I heard combat as soon as I opened the back door to the house. I thus took off to the front room. Theo was there swinging the crowbar at something attempting to get in through the door. He had set the bed frame on the door, and its large rectangular presence prevented the door from fully opening. I worried about my husband as I saw quick attacks from an arm extending a good distance to try and kill him.

Theo and I discussed strategy after I tried a swing with my long-handled hammer. He mentioned the arm not allowing him to get to the head. I spoke of getting a large knife from the kitchen. My husband did not feel that a kitchen knife would break bone, but I spoke of the splatters that resulted from his strikes to the arm and mentioned that I was not certain about the quality of the monster’s skeleton. He however told me to open the window and see if I could strike at it from behind. I did not want to leave my husband, so agreed with that strategy.

A slam at the door confirmed that another of the new zombies was present outside. What bothered me was seeing one climb the fence to get at Rita and Sandra who were noticeably watching from the window of my mother’s house. Becoming worried about the children as well as my husband, I stayed at the window while attempting to reason out my best response.

There was a large knife in the kitchen. It was not a great blade like one sees in cartoons and the movies, but it was still large enough to work at slicing a whole stalk of celery or a handful of carrots. I grabbed it, thought of putting it on a long handle, but worried about my husband I simply ran with the knife back to the front door.

Both Theo and I looked to each other in shock when my slice sent the arm to the floor. The movement at the door had him look up, then he took a strong step forward to strike with the crowbar. A strong spatter of substance came upon him. I looked at him with worry as he spoke while keeping his lips tightly together.

“We take a bath.”

The monster behind the one that dropped moved up, so both of us positioned ourselves for the next fight as I replied, “You just like seeing me naked.”

Even with lips set together, I could make out the words, “Yes, I do.”

That was enough for me, and I set myself to the next battle. I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed looking at Theo’s naked body, but I did enjoy spending time with his naked body. The work and the fights were beginning to add some muscle to his lean form, but I still could not feel any desire to simply spend time watching it. I did however want to keep his body as my own, so I did what I could to battle the thing that wanted to make him a zombie.

Again my knife easily sliced through the tissue. Before I could take Theo and wash him so we could discuss the new threat, we turned at the sound of a gunshot. I continued to hold the knife in my hand as I stood with my husband in the doorway.

“Don’t waste the bullets!” Rita yelled to the pizza man.

“If it made a kill, it wasn’t wasted!” he yelled back.

“I have to support the man there,” Sandra said. “Annette, what do you think of him?”

“Not my type. I like country, and he likes rap.”

“How about in other ways?”

The man replied, “We talked, nothing else.”

“Is that true?”

Annette supplied the answer, “He will be a good man for someone, but not for me.”

It was my mother that said, “You might not have a choice.”

“Listen, Livonia found herself a man, and I believe that I can find mine as well.”

Sandra said, “Steve, darling, you can come spend time with me. I am probably not your type either, but I don’t want you getting all frustrated.”

The man appeared as if he was about to reply, but he then looked around. He was standing outside the door. He saw a couple of zombies, then commented about killing the rest then working on securing our perimeter. I knew that Theo wanted to talk on the subject, but I told him and the others that I needed to clean him off first. Some rude comments came in reply, although I took Theo telling him that I would be willing once I did not have anything to fear except getting pregnant.

Once in the bathroom, Theo stripped, rinsed himself off, then scrubbed his face with a toothbrush before speaking to me. I was naked when I approached to speak in return. I felt glad that I had not done the act earlier when he smiled widely upon seeing me. I really did not know what it was about my body that he enjoyed. He spoke of my bouncing nipples, but his hands traveled all over my form. I let him do with me as he wanted while waiting for the activity that I enjoyed. We then took a bath together.

Steve and Sandra were sitting in the kitchen when Theo and I came out of the bedroom. We had on clothes taken from the closet. They did not fit the best, but were not covered in zombie goop. Feeling glad that I had dressed, and not just stayed naked for my man, I approached the couple.

After exchanging pleasantries with me, the two spoke with Theo about his plans. He showed them the bed frame, then mentioned using them and strips of cloth to form a more substantial fence. After speaking about removing the frames from all the beds in the houses with the box springs and mattresses simply resting on the floor for us to sleep upon, Steve made an observation.

“The fence should be good against everything but the animals. Of course, if we get another crowd of zombies like what brought down that fence…”

Sandra interjected, “Well, luckily most of those have moved on.” She then looked to me and Theo as she fearfully added, “We cannot plan for every problem, but we can plan for most.”

Theo replied, “Well, as least we are planning for some. Sitting in my house with the children, I wasn’t planning for anything. Livonia has shown me that much.”

Steve replied, “Yeah. These zombies aren’t going away.”

Sandra said, “Listen, maybe the fence is not the right way to go. Maybe we should advance to the surrounding houses.”

We sat for a time and discussed what was around us. Steve managed to give us an idea about where his pizza parlor was located. I mentioned the Herrings behind us. Considering that they were alive and doing what they could to survive in some civilized manner, we all decided that they needed to be brought into our group. We thus left the Phillip’s house to look at the back fence.

The Herrings watched as the men went through the hedge at the back to take on a couple of zombies. The elderly couple managed to relax on their back porch because the zombies stayed on the street. There were a few zombies in the back yard, but most stayed where the main noises were created, which happened to be produced by the mass of undead on the street. Not being able to see, a few of the undead got redirected to the back yards, and it was those in the yard behind the Phillip’s house that the men killed.

Considering every other house we checked, I understood the look of shock on my husband’s face when he turned the knob and realized that the door would open. It slammed shut from the zombies inside, but none of us minded. Sandra and I took positions where we could watch for undead coming from the street as the men readied themselves at the door.

It was actually entertaining watching the men. My husband had height on the white guy, but I believe that Steve had the weight advantage. Even on a step to the back door, Theo could get a downward slam with my crowbar. The white guy went for a knee, then killed the zombie when it dropped. I cheerfully watched as they went through the motions again before calling the house clear.

As the men checked the house, Sandra and I made tea. As with the other houses that had zombies, it would require a lot of cleaning before it could really be used. Feeling that we had cleared another home, we took the pitcher of tea and went to visit the neighbors.

The Herrings basically cried as they visited with us. Having real visitors, real people that they could socialize with, touched the elderly couple very deeply. They would both reach out a hand to touch ours, and as it squeezed tight as if expecting us to disappear their other hand would wipe tears from their eyes.

We got a sense from speaking with the Herrings that we were basically going to have to restart with them the very thing that we had done for ourselves. The house to the other side of the elderly couple we felt could be done without any major problems. It was getting across the street that bothered us. The Herrings agreed with us, speaking of the avenue between the houses being quite filled with zombies.

Theo listened, then spoke a plan. “Okay, I believe that it is best if I continue with the bed frames. It might not be much, but it will secure our area from the majority of zombies. We can then get the two houses further on our street, and the houses behind. That will not only buffer our own properties, but give us enough options that we should be able to safely plan on expanding further.”

Steve replied, “That will take time.”

“Yes, but it should be manageable. It is also a plan that also can be passed to others. If we find others like me simply holed up, they should have the support system to get them taking over.”

It sounded like a plan to all of us. The Herrings hugged us, then warned us again about the ropes near the ground that were set up to trip the zombies. We promised them that we had learned to watch our step, then left.

We set up the bed frames in the Phillip’s house, then watched as Theo and Steve moved out to put the first one in place. There was not much to be done to the first one. It basically just got set against the chain, then tied. The clanking of the metal did cause some zombies to advance, but those were killed as the simple barrier did stop them. I however noticed what I thought was another of the new type of zombies coming through the throng of undead. Theo and Steve did not discount my words, or my fear, but rushed with the next bed frame to secure it with the first so as to provide what they felt would be something effective in blocking the undead advance.

I held my husband as we watched the simple barrier hold back the regular zombies. It made noise, so we feared it attracting more and more undead until it collapsed as had the fence. We however broke our embrace while speaking words of shock as the new type of undead moved under the chain and through the bed frames to head to us.