Chapter Nine : Reflection

Sleep avoided Ethan that night, he knew he had a lot to be thankful of Ava for but that seemed to pale in comparison to the feelings he had about his family. Ava meanwhile was silent, he didn't mind her silence, it was clear she didn't know what to say, who would? Even he didn't know how to feel about it. It wasn't the fact that his father had turned, he had witnessed that first hand and it wasn't the fact he was alive still, although he hadn't really thought about it, he had assumed they were still locked away at home. He shuddered thinking of his old home, his room with all his pointless stuff, his parents? Suddenly it struck him like a blow to the pit of his stomach, he was going to have to go back there and look. He kept going over it in his mind and it always came back to the same thing, he had to be sure, he would have to go. The night was long and it was early in the morning before he fell into a restless sleep. Ava let him sleep late the next morning knowing he had struggled with sleep and with seeing his father again, it was mid morning before he roused and when he did it was with purpose. Ava had asked very gently how he was and he had to force a smile, it caused his scabs to crack making him wince, he put on a brave face as he told her his plan.

An hour latter they stood in the driveway of his safe house looking over the headless corpse, it had dried in the sun somewhat but still showed signs that something had made a meal or two out of it. They had driven there using the car to block the driveway somewhat sealing the yard. The roads had a lot of dead about but everywhere did these days. It was clear as soon as they arrived that Ethan wouldn't need his key, the door was open, handle smashed in and the doorframe splintered. He hopped the fence quietly, sneaking over to check the front door on his fathers house. He already knew what he was going to find but he had to see it for himself. It had fared no better and he could see down the hallway into the living area. He shuddered at the memories he had of the end of his time here. Leaving the front yard he motioned to Ava and they went together into the former safe house, now a zombie death trap. They drew their glocks neither of them confident enough to wield the shot gun. Ava started to open the door of the first room before Ethan stopped her, pointing down the hallway, he let her know they would come back to that one. They continued down the passage pointing their guns into the rooms until they reached the back door. The house was still empty, just how he had left it, Ethan gave a sigh of relief and stunted laugh, spooking Ava as he did so.

"What's with the first room?" She quizzed him as they trudged back to shut the front door.

"There's a body in there." He replied bluntly. "The lady that lived here suicided in there."

"We should still check it though." Ava gave him a dark glance in return as she got to the door and readied herself to open it. Already Ethan could smell the death and he wanted nothing more than to be free of this place. It was clear that the strange man had smashed all the doors in on the street, now all he wanted to do was leave, he wasn't even sure why he came he only knew he had to see it again. Ava opened the door slowly to the buzz of a host of insects many of them flies. Their pupae shells littered the carpet like mouse droppings while new flies still drying their wings from birth hopped and scurried around the carpet. The corpse was less than one third it's size having being consumed in the process and was black to look at. Ava backed out of the room before gagging and retching bile onto the floor.

"Are you ok?" The concern in Ethan's voice was genuine but Ava missed it and pushed him.

"You Asshole." She stumbled out into the front yard, not really meaning it but feeling ticked off none the less. The street was occupied by one woman, obviously dead, her clothes in taters and her face sagging. Attracted by the movement she came to push against the front fence looking desperately for that meal to keep her going, she came up a couple meters short. Ava went to shoot the wretched thing but thought better of it.

"What now?" She inquired of Ethan who stood on the porch watching but not really seeing. He was deep in thought about what to do next, he didn't just want to leave the house this way, from the porch he could see the small herd (was that the collective word for zombies now?) meandering in the backyard. The man had smashed the door on the house but hadn't taken the time to unlock the gate. Slowly in the yard they were starving, the ones that fell feeding the remaining abominations. He wished he could end them all now buy no matter which way he thought about it he couldn't think of an easy way forward. His eyes kept returning to the corpse in the drive, headless with its rib cage exposed, they weren't easy to kill unless they used the guns and even then he wasn't sure.

"Can you make petrol bombs?" He blurted out as a light came on inside his head.

"Sure." The question took Ava by suprise. "I mean I haven't ever done it... but you just stuff a rag in a bottle of petrol right?"

"I guess so." Ethan ran into the house returning with a couple of glass bottles from the pantry and a sheet from the linen press. He set about pouring the contents of the bottles which were mostly oil, onto the lawn while Ava tore the sheet into strips. Hopping the fence he opened the garage door, looked for the petrol tin he knew his father kept for refilling the mower. It was against the wall like any ordinary day, taking the can he paused to kick the side of the shed, making a loud bang to announcing his presence to the horde out back. It took them nearly five minutes of fumbling to fill the bottles, stuffing them with rags before tipping them up to let the fuel soak through. By the time they finished the zombies were threatening to break the gate down and the commotion was attracting more along the street.

"Get in the car!" Ethan yelled to Ava, pulling the lighter from his pocket ready to light the rags. Things were snowballing fast, panic was creeping into his chest making it feel tight. The woman who had been trying to get to them through the fence began to follow Ava as she moved to get into the car. He panicked, pulling at the glock strapped to his belt before remembering that a stud held it in place. Pulling it free he fired wildly, the bullet hitting the former woman in the shoulder making her jerk and turn. Ava fired as well taking part of the cranium off with a well aimed shot. "Go...I've got this." She beaconed to him. He watched her get into the drivers seat before he lit the first of the Molotov's before throwing it over the gate against the side of the house. The flames flared up the weather boards, showering the zombies with the contents that didn't light strait away. The second one he tried to land over the top of them but it hit a man in the head and fell out of site between the huddled mass. Desperately he hopped the fence into the front yard looking for something to break the window with. The horn on the car honked causing him to look up at Ava who was signaling him to hurry. Picking up the first pot plant he found he heaved it through his parents bedroom window followed by the flaming bottle. The cocktail got caught on the curtain, smashing on the window frame, it mattered not, the curtains caught easily and flames ran up the wall. Back at the gate the zombies were standing in a puddle of flame now and some of their clothes smoldered. The pressure on the gate lessened as they became preoccupied with the fire. The street was slowly filling up as they drove away, dead people began to fill the street attracted by the noise, light and the smell of cooking flesh.

The roads on the way back to the shop were littered with the dead. As they turned into the home stretch they could see the shop in the distance, there was a sight that made them stop. There was a group standing around in the car park, not so many that they were inherently dangerous, although it was obvious they couldn't just waltz up and step through the hole in the glass that was the entrance to their hide away.

"What do we do now?" Ethan asked as much to himself as Ava. "Should we snipe them?"

"I don't think that's a good idea." Ava shot him down quickly. "We wouldn't be able to sit here long enough to get them all and besides, a pile of rotting corpses outside our place isn't exactly what we want." She made a good point, he hadn't thought of that. Out side the car three zombies enticed by the movement of the vehicle and it's contents, began to make their way over. The closest one was worse for wear, something had torn the flesh from its face exposing bone and teeth giving it a permeant skeletal grin. Wounds festered leaking fluid onto torn cloths and the jerky movements it made showed it was probably close to second death. Still it made every effort to keep on surviving, ruthless and uncaring or forgiving it carried it's weary body towards them. It occurred to Ethan that this was the back of the pack that wandered in front of the shop, the weakest animals in a herd of many roaming from one food source to the next. Ava gave an audible gasp as he got out without a word. She said something but he didn't hear it as the car door shut behind him. This time he didn't forget to unclip his gun and with a powerful feeling coursing through him, he took aim. At five meters he couldn't miss, the bullet passed through the wretched skull dropping it. The other two quickened their pace, he took aim again dropping the second with three shots to the chest. Although they didn't seem to need their hearts the trauma of bullets tearing through them seemed to be enough to set them down. He fired twice at the remaining one hitting it both times in the torso, it didn't go down but slowed up quite a bit. Taking careful aim he finished the wounded creature with a headshot.

He felt nothing for them as he got back in the car, his hair standing on end and goose bumps on his arms. It was a powerful feeling to snuff out something so easily and he shook with adrenalin. He glanced out the window still in the grip of the moment. It had worked, the dead up the road were quickly making their way towards them. The fit were merging with the stragglers forming a flood of bodies as they got nearer.

"What now?" Ava said, starting the car and looking to him for guidance.

"We take the back way and come in from the other end." He spoke to the window not taking his eyes off the approaching zombies. Sitting quietly he mused, scanning the surrounds looking for that one face he knew, as Ava backed away and turned down the side road.

"Are you ok?" She asked cautiously as they drove down various side roads, slowly weaving their way around the shop.

"Yeah." His reply came off abrupt and he paused to think of something to say to fill the hole. "I think it's finally sunk in that life will never be the same again. It's just... The world is different now and I'm not the same person I was only three months ago. I mean, I just shot three people without a second thought and it doesn't bother me, not even a little." He paused to exhale deeply, the spiel felt good to get off his chest. "I guess seeing my dad made me think of my old life, how quickly it fell apart and how much I've lost." It was the first time he had put his feelings into words and it sounded more pessimistic than he actually felt but neither of them had any time to dwell on it as they pulled into the car park.

The zombies had mostly left and were massing down by the carcasses Ethan had downed. Still they felt uneasy about leaving the safety of the car to enter the shop. The hole was a big weak point in their hide away and it relied on the lack of curiosity in their enemies to prevent them becoming overrun. They sat quietly with the car off as they pondered the dilemma that had been plaguing them since taking up here. It was Ava who finally came up with the solution to use the side of the car to block the hole, parking in front of it and climbing through the car window into the shop. The plan sounded good in theory but was easier said than done but neither of them could think of a better one. Getting the car hard up against the window proved harder than expected, the verandah had poles every three meters or so and there wasn't a lot of space to maneuver around them. Once they had the car parallel to the window it proved to be the wrong shape altogether. The top tapered away from the window leaving a large gap at the top while the car was as close to the glass as possible. The door was impossible to open and climbing out the car through a window surrounded by broken glass was the biggest challenge. Being the passenger Ethan went first climbing head first out the window and using his hands to pull his legs through. He wished now that they had taken the effort to sweep the glass up as he gently used his hand to sweep the glass aside. His swollen legs scraped painfully over the door as he wriggled through landing awkwardly on the ground. Once he was through he used a shirt from one of the racks to wipe the glass away. By the time he had the glass clear, Ava had moved over and was ready come through as well. As he put his arms around her in an effort to support her weight, she was warm in his arms and felt so very alive, a feeling of such emotion rose in him that it made his heart race. The weight of her was so comfortingly real, combined with the thought of her being the person he now considered family. They collapsed on to the floor in a heap laughing and groaning in pain. Joy sprung up through him causing goose bumps to form on his arms again. Her face so close to his own, her gaze so intense but in a good way. As quickly as it happened it was over, she rolled of of him and helped him up. He thought he seen her cheeks flush a little and he wondered if she could see the heat in his own face. He smiled causing his scabs to crack again making him flinch, it didn't matter that it was awkward, things were good and he was feeling better about everything.

"Well... they will have a hard time getting past that!" Ava smiled pointing to the car blocking most of the hole. True there was still a gap at the top but anything coming in that way would have to climb over the car and slide in on their belly. It was with a satisfied feeling that they both took to the kitchen for some food.

The boy stood like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar as two armed strangers cornered him in the room. He had been hoping they would not look in here but he never truly thought that they wouldn't. When they first pulled up he wondered what the noise was, he was used to hiding, waiting for things to pass by him. After a bit he realized they were coming in and he heard them laughing. He couldn't work out what was funny as he looked for somewhere to go. There was a ceiling panel missing but he didn't think he could get up in time or quietly enough, instead he stood waiting, hoping they would pass the room and leave him in peace. He had no such luck, as the door opened he flicked his head to get the blond hair from his eyes, it had been many weeks and his hair was long all over and in dire need of a trim. At sixteen he was fit, even the hard life on the run, scrounging food where ever he could hadn't reduced his peak. The strangers stood dumbstruck, not drawing their weapons, he considered going for his knife but his eyes kept going back to the pistols the strangers had and he thought better of it. They covered the exit, looking them over, he sized them up. The girl was older and quite hot with her dark hair pulled back in a pony tail, her features quite striking and the top she wore was tight revealing a nice figure. His eyes went to the gun protruding off her hip before scanning the boy. He was young but how young he couldn't tell. His face had large cuts and scrapes across it, he didn't look like he was in a good way but he wasn't about to curl up and die either. The boy with the gun wore track pants which he thought was a little strange especially with the gun belt. It hung low not having any loops to keep it up. For a long moment he waited to see what they would do and when they didn't do anything his boyish impatience got the better of him.

"Well I'll be going now, if that's ok?" He said not taking his eyes off the guns.