Zombieboy

Chapter 17

Kyle ran outside and looked down the street, then up it. He caught sight of the glow of some brake lights, barely perceptible to his new form of vision. Hefting the loose clothing in his arms he set out after the van. When he reached the end of the block he caught sight of the van moving slowly without headlights, making a turn north about three blocks away. The brake lights still came on and Kyle had a better view of them now. He ran about half a block after the van before he knew it was hopeless, he fell down on his knees and dropped his clothing on the sidewalk in front of him.

“Why?” he whispered quietly, “Why did they leave me? I wasn't going to eat them or anything.”

Picking up one of his shirts Kyle made it into a bag by tossing his other clothing on top of it and picking up the corners of the garment. He then turned and made his way back to Katie's house where he found his backpack in the kitchen where he had left it. Instead of repacking everything right there he decided to go to his own house and do it in his own bedroom. This time he took his time and gave a little more thought to what he might need. Halfway though packing he made a decision to try and get to his grandmother Helen's house. Papa John had died years ago, before Kyle was born, so the old lady had bought a condo up near the shopping center way over a couple of hills from where he lived. He had never gone there by himself, it was much too far for a nine year old to go by himself, or so his mom always told him. Grandma Helen had been asking him lately when he was going to ride his bike over and today Kyle decided, was the day. He was pretty sure he knew the way, he knew if he got to the giant Target store he could find her place, so his first goal would be to get there.

He finished packing his bag and it was stuffed more full than he had ever packed it before. Thinking about it he tugged it on, then pulled it off and started taking stuff out. He had undies at his grandma's house. Did he really need five t-shirts? No. He ended up taking along a couple changes of clothing, a pair of underwear and a pair of socks. He tucked a windbreaker into the top in case it got cold or rained. Finally he turned to look at the two guns he had brought over from Katie's with his backpack. Mister Rand had left the two guns and the bullets in their house, Kyle had found them there when he went back for his pack. So they were going to leave me all along. He thought to himself. I am so stupid. No! They are stupid, I could have helped them.

Looking at the guns he wondered if they had any bullets left in them. Carefully he took the first one down and looked at it, never pointing the barrel towards his face. The black, tarry hand grip was covered in dirt and grime, the metal was a deep bluish black color, a bit faded in spots where Kyle thought the bullets came out. After a few minutes he discovered how to slide the clip out of the handle. There was a tarnished silver button on the side with the word 'clip' stamped into the metal. Kyle pushed on this button and it moved sideways slightly, causing a long rectangle of metal to slip out of the handle of the gun. There was still a bullet in the top of the clip. With some experimentation Kyle was able to figure out how to take bullets out of and into the clip, the loose bullets he had on the bed were not as big as the ones he took out of the clip. That was okay, because he had two other clips that looked exactly the same, only they had eight bullets in each of them.

The other gun was different, it looked like a cowboy gun, with a cylinder that could be moved around and around. The smaller bullets were the same size as the one in this gun. It took awhile for Kyle to figure out how to pull the cylinder out and even more time for him to realize that parts of the bullets were still stuck in the cylinder and had to be pulled out individually and replaced. Looking at the brass casings he got curious and a trip into the backyards where he had shot the other zombies netted him a few more empty casings, which he compared with the bullets from the other gun. So both guns use the same style of bullets, only one shoots the brass out automatically and the other I have to do it myself. I wonder why people ever use the cowboy guns? It looks easier to use the other kind.

He kept a couple of the empty casings, putting them in his pocket for no other reason than that he thought they looked and smelled cool, like fireworks. Kyle put the cowboy gun into the front zip pocket of his backpack along with the bullets that it used and then tried to tuck the pistol into his waistband, like the 'gangstas' did. The gun fell to the floor, it weighed too much to be constrained by the elastic of a nine year old's shorts.

The other zombie had a holster, but Kyle hadn't seen it anywhere when he went back for his backpack. After several tries to get the gun to stay in his pants 'gangsta' style he gave up on it and went into the kitchen to get a plastic grocery bag, he grabbed two and put the pistol in there. Going into the back yard he took his bike out from under the back porch and walked it around the side of the house, he sat it there and put his backpack up against it to run inside again. Kyle came out clutching the key to his bike lock, which went into his front pocket with the spent casings. Then he looked at his front door. If he left it unlocked anyone could get in there and do whatever they wanted. But if he locked it, he couldn't get back in. Mister Rand had the keyring that had the van and house keys on it.

Kyle walked back inside after sitting and pondering the question for a short time. He went back to his bedroom and removed the screen from his window, putting it out of sight against the wall next to his bed. His windows were opened with a cranking mechanism set into the base by the window sill, he turned it just enough so that he could get his arm through it from outside. After going in and out three or four times he was sure he could get into it, but anyone with bigger arms would be stuck outside. Finally he locked and exited his front door. He tugged on his backpack and wrapped the double bagged plastic sack around his front handlebars. After getting on his bike Kyle started pedaling down the same street Katie and her dad had disappeared down forty five minutes before.

Biking seemed easier than normal, it took awhile but Kyle realized it was because he wasn't getting tired, nor was he breathing hard, he was just able to pedal and pedal as fast as he could and not get tired at all. This brought a smile to his face as he picked up speed down the first hill on the way to his grandma's house. He was about to let out a long yell when he spotted a young woman covered in blood ahead of him, she must have been sixteen or seventeen, old, and her arm was gone. Her face was coated with blood that dripped down her jaw to stain her light blue t-shirt that had pictures of a basketball on it. She wasn't wearing any pants either, leaving her 'mommy' parts open for the world to see. This more than anything thing killed the yell in Kyle's throat. People didn't wander around without pants on. Even at the swimming pool you had to keep your shorts on. Even in bed you normally slept in your underwear. Boys never wandered around outside with their 'twig and bits' hanging out and girls were supposed to keep their parts covered up too. Kyle was so intent upon not looking at the girl that he didn't see her lunge into his path. She knocked him off his bike and he rolled onto the sidewalk, tumbling head over heels until he came to a rest up against a wooden fence. The girl got her foot stuck between the front tire and the frame of the bike, she was making noises with her mouth, but they only came out as pants and moans as she dragged the bike with her trying to get to Kyle.

“What did you do that for?” Kyle yelled, “I'm like you! You can't eat me!”

The girl took one step towards him, then paused to shake her other foot free from the bike. Kyle got to his feet and pulled his backpack off, the girl had just grabbed his left arm when his right hand found the butt of the revolver in his pack. When he brought the gun out the girl squeaked and let go of his arm, she turned and stumbled away from him at a brick trot, she only made it two steps before Kyle fired the gun into her back. Barely slowly she swerved left into the wooden fence, which leaned inwards slightly and spun her around to face the boy, who put another shot into her forehead. The bullet killed her, Kyle could tell immediately, she stood upright for a moment then slowly leaned forward to fall with her head at his feet. Looking at her Kyle saw the faded colors of what was left of her life slowly drifting towards his foot. He kicked off one of his croc shoes and rested his bare foot against the back of her head and watched.

The girl had not been full of color when he saw her. She was better than a normal slow zombie, but not much better. She had moved faster too. The colors drained out of her and seemed to be absorbed into Kyle's leg, working their way up through his thigh and into his gut, where they rolled around a little before finishing the journey up his neck and into the base of his skull.

“That feels so...nice.” Kyle said softly. So that is why she wanted me, to take this from me. It wasn't like before, with that girl, that was much better. This was like a snack before dinner. Dad would say it 'took the edge' off.

When the girls corpse was empty of everything, he pulled his foot back and put on his shoe. He remembered to open the cowboy gun and replace the three bullets he had shot, just in case.

Kyle checked over his bike and found that it was alright. These were the sorts of bikes built for the rough and tumble play of young boys, it was not a mountain bike and didn't have gears or fancy hand brakes. The bike was an orange color and had foot pegs on the front and rear tire axles. Kyle's dad had shown him a tv show where guys were doing all sorts of tricks on the pegs, but so far the only thing Kyle could do was stand on the back pegs when the bike was coasting down hill. Thinking about that made him want to do it and a minute later, all packed up, he was riding the back pegs while the bike finished the trip to the base of the hill. Kyle laughed a moment later when he almost fell getting back onto the seat to pedal again, he had to stop in order to get control back, which was okay, because he had to turn at the corner anyway.

At the street he noticed two things, the first was that there were a lot of zombies wandering around on the street going towards the Target, the second thing was all the traffic wrecks. He glanced down the street the opposite direction as the Target and stopped cold. His mom's van was rolled over onto the top about a quarter mile down the road from where he was. The glass had been broken out of the windows and it was resting up against a pickup truck, which was itself up on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.

Slowly Kyle looked around. None of the zombies around him were coming towards him. He saw a few down by his mom's van, one was on his hands and knees trying to get into the vehicle. Concentrating Kyle tried to see if Chuck or Katie were inside it still, but his zombie vision didn't go that far. Sighing the boy turned his bike towards the van and went that direction. When he got there one zombie was inside licking at the ceiling where there was a little dark, almost colorless blood pooled. Squatting down Kyle looked inside and was relieved to see neither Katie or her dad were still there. The blood had come from somewhere though. There stuff was all still there as well, except for Chuck's gun. Kyle looked at the pool of blood closely, there was a trail he saw, as if someone had been dragged out of the fan and carried down the street. Following it he came to a small park where several zombies were gathered around a piece of playground equipment, trying to get in. Kyle thought about going back for his good gun, then shrugged and pulled the cowboy gun out instead, before moving forward he tried to see inside of the play fort, to determine if anyone was alive in there, it was devoid of life.

Inching his way into the crowd of slow zombies Kyle worked his way towards the bright yellow slide and made his way up after kicking off his shoes for traction. In the upper part of the fort he found mister Rand and Katie. Mister Rand was alive again. Katie was not. The zombie that had been his friend's father was busy devouring his daughter, her colors were near gone, but brought a strange sense of compulsion to Kyle when he saw them. Stepping forward Kyle examined the scene closely. Katie had been shot to death, her head was misshapen with powder burns on one side around the entrance wound of the bullet. The zombie had wounds on his arms and legs and a powder burn over where his heart would be on his shirt.

“Shoot.” Kyle said, pointing the gun at the zombie. Katie wasn't coming back, he knew it. Mister Rand had killed her before she got bitten. Biting was the key. Leaning down Kyle got to his hands and knees above his friend's leg. Cradling it in his hand he slowly brought it to his lips, at the last second he recoiled.

“What am I doing!? You killed Katie! Your own kid!” Almost without thinking Kyle brought his gun up and shot Chuck in the head. The zombie fell sideways and his life essence flowed out of his body into Kyle's, this caused the boy to back off, yelling, “No! No! No!” finally he backed far enough away to tumble backwards down the slide. His gun fell from his hands and he slid awkwardly on his backpack to the base of the slide and into the dirt. Feet still resting above him on the slide Kyle looked up into the almost cloudless blue sky and screamed his frustration to the world.

...back ..home..