Nancy and I looked at each other amazed, not saying anything for a few moments. From the height I could see dimly a plane roughly connecting all of their heads.
“What is it?” Liz asked quietly. Dad started walking up the hill, crunching over branches every step.
“No,” I said, holding up my hands. “Come on Nanc’.”
We picked our way back down the ridge as carefully as we could, but made a lot of noise anyway.
“There’s a house,” I said.
“And,” said my Dad.
“There are a lot of them,” Nancy said.
Liz rolled her eyes. “Great, which way should we move around?”
“No,” I said, “I think we can make it.”
“Make what?” said Liz.
“I only saw about twenty; you guys know how they move.”
“Yeah,” said my Dad, “but…”
I interjected, “But the house. It’s on stilts.”
“Stilts?” Liz asked in a hushed voice.
“It’s raised off the ground,” Nancy said evenly, gesturing up with her hands.
My Dad just shook his head.
“It’s about a story and a half up. There is a set of stairs leading up to one side, but there are some of them are on it.”
“Twenty?” my Dad asked.
“Seven, or eight on the stairs.”
“This hammer’s no good,” Nancy said. “I’ve got to be too close.”
“Maybe there’s a branch, or a log somewhere,” said Liz looking toward the ground. She looked down. We all looked for a few minutes, but there wasn’t anything big enough, really.
“You can stay behind us,” I said. Liz gaped at me. “It’s better than nothing until we find something new. I’m sure there’s something inside the house.” I stood for a moment, and she closed her mouth. “I really think we can do this. If there’s some food in there, maybe some water, we could live here for a while. There would just be one door to board up.”
“And what if the inside’s full of them?” asked my Dad.
Nancy gestured back through the ridge, “I didn’t see any in there. It’s mostly made of glass.
“A glass house,” said my Dad.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, ready?”
Liz clutched her bat tightly making a noise.
Liz and I went over first. Four that were near that side of the hill noticed us and began hobbling toward us.
“Okay,” I said.
We took them out quickly. One good hit from the crowbar usually downed them permanently. Liz got one of them on the ground, and started bashing maniacally at it’s head. Another closed in from the far side. I finished my second quickly, but before I could get to it Liz lifted her head. The zombie beneath her was still flailing with it’s arms, but it’s face was so smashed it couldn’t see where she was. Liz swung her bat around one handed. She hit it’s head so hard there was a loud wet crunch; it’s face went soft as it fell to the ground.
The noise rebounded off the glass walls in a low ebb. The relatively sedate mass of zombies started moaning ravenously. Dad and Nancy cross down the hill behind us. Nancy looked frantic.
“It’s alright,” I said. We’re doing fine.” Liz nodded behind me.
“Well,” my dad said quietly, still walking. Liz and I followed him the the next closest group, and put them all down. By the time we finished Liz was breathing hard. When we started moving toward some others and her breathing still didn’t slow Nancy said, “Let me take that Liz.” And she relinquished the bat quickly. The next bunch went relatively quickly. They were slow, and stupid. Dad worked out that he could knock them to the ground with a kick, or even get behind them and push. Once he had he put their heads in with the butt of his rifle.
After we cleared the underside of the house, we regrouped a little back from the bottom of the stairs.
“Let me go,” Liz said, moving to take the bat from Nancy.
“No,” she said, the she continued more casually “I’m actually fine. I mean…”
“I’m going to go first, anyway,” I said, “Hopefully, one good hit will knock them over the side. Nancy you take up the rear. Okay?”
When we got the the bottom of the stairs the zombies started descending unsteadily. I backed everyone up so I could get a good swing crunched into the first head and knocked it over the railing. It laid still on the ground. Dad followed me, and Nancy closed Liz in the middle. There weren’t any from the far side of the house coming, so Nancy wouldn’t have anything to deal with.
I knocked off the second one who landed noisily on the ground but kept moaning. He fell off slowly, revealing the next. It looked strangely alive. It was a man, or what used to be a man. He wore a tattered tuxedo and no shoes. His face was cut up in places and whole patches of scalp were missing but his skin looked bright. I swung the crowbar around, and he ducked.
I was shocked still for a moment and it lunged at me, a snarl on it’s face. It’s hands locked around my neck. I just had enough time to put my hands out before he leaned in for my face with his gaping rancid mouth.
The butt of Dad’s gun lanced out from behind me. It came over my shoulder and knocked the zombie in the forehead, knocking it out and pushing him back onto the metal stairs.
“Come on Dad,” I said without pause, jumping over him to the stair above. I grabbed his shoulders. “One, two, three,” I said, and we tossed him over the hand rail
At the top of the stairs the door popped opened. A dark shape moved behind a small frost glass panel set in the door. The zombies still on the top step moved toward the open crack. The door flung open hard, knocking the zombies back, toppling the rest on the stairs as we backed up. A huge black man came out from behind the door, six feet, six and a half. He was wearing a torn grey sweater, and holding a bent steel poker.
“Come on,” he said coming down the steps, poker held high.
I moved forward, and lifted the crowbar, but my arms shrieked in pain. It came down weakly on the face of a zombie who was propping itself up from the others on top of it. The black guy killed the first one and went swinging away at the others. He beat at the face of the last one until his poker hit the metal of the stair beneath it. A clang shot out filling the clearing. New zombies were standing on the hill to the west. They were all moving for the stairs.
“I’m Berke,” said the black guy.
—Introduction and Dramatis Personæ
