Chapter 6: The Homestead
Date: 5/15/2009
Chris sat with his back to the wall for quite awhile, oblivious to the world and everything that had happened. His smile never faded, as his thoughts raced at how much better his life would be now without his brother. It was only when there was a banging going on outside, that he snapped out of his daze.
The banging was slow at first, but gradually became louder and faster. Chris stood up and looked out the window to find the source of the banging. he hadn't realized how long he had actually been sitting against the wall, but he was wide eyed at the fact that it was dark.
"How long was I out of it?" Chris whispered to himself, before he was drawn back outside to the banging.
He squinted to get a better look through the dark abyss outside. He turned to the alarm clock in the room and then back. He wondered why the street lights were out when the power was apparently on inside his house.
The alarm clock was flashing 12:00. "I guess the power went out at some point." Chris said to himself before his mind snapped back to reality as there was a shattering of glass after a one last big bang outside Chris' eyes searched to find where the shattering had come from as a thought had raced through his mind.
He ran downstairs to check every window inside his house. He rushed from room to room checking all of the windows to make sure that the shatter hadn't come from his own house. After a once over, Chris let out a sigh and a breath that he hadn't even known he was holding in.
He was glad that the noises weren't coming from outside the house, yet he still wanted to know what caused the noise, and just what broke. He walked over to the windowed door that lead to the front of the house, and stared outside. He had never seen it so dark in his life. It was as if the shattering and the darkness were compelling him to leave the safety of the homestead. Drawing him in, to find out what was going on.
Thoughts traveled at a mile a minute in Chris's head, he kept trying to think of away to find out what was going on outside, without actually stepping foot into the black entity that was almost taunting him to walk into it.
He had an idea that caused him to seriously consider if he was an idiot at the time. He reached his hand out for the light switch on the wall that turned the lights on the porch on. Yet he paused as there was another thought that hit him.
'If I flip this switch, whatever or whomever it is that caused that noise outside might be drawn over here' He thought as his hand lingered on the switch. His curiosity was trying to get the best of him to find out what it was haunting the night.
"Come on, honestly Chris? This is the same dumb thing that happens in horror movies." Chris said under his breath as he thought back to the many conversations he and his friends had after every horror movie they watched. How they wouldn't do the dumb and stupid things the actors would do if they were in that situation.
He laughed to himself as his let his hand slide of the switch and started to turn away, before something in the darkness moved and he pushed the switch. The light flickered on for a few seconds before going off and on rapidly. Those few seconds was all it took for Chris to see the faces of a dozen battered, bleeding and chewed up bodies turn and dash towards the light source.
As the bloody mob charged his front porch, Chris' eyes opened wide in shock and fear. He froze where he stood and watched as the leaders of ravenous pack, slammed in the wall and door facing him, only to turn around in a hurry towards the light again as it flickered like a candle.
Chris' mouth hung open as he watched the crazed people searched frantically for something as if they didn't it would kill them. He slowly moved his hand to the switch, trying not to be seen through the window. As Chris' patients wore thin, he shot his hand for the switch, as if he did it would end everything that was going on outside his door. As his hand hit the button one of the psychos saw the movement and stared Chris in the eyes.
If Chris had ever heard a scream from someone being killed or about to die, then he could come close to comparing what he heard then to what just attacked his ears. The crazed person at the door began to scream at the top of its breath and started to beat at the door with everything it had.
Chris backed up against the wall adjacent to the deranged person as the pounding grew more rapid. The more the person screamed, it drew the attention of the others around it and they began to grow in a frenzy and beat the door as well.
The glass began to split and crack as more screams pierced Chris' ears like daggers. Everything was moving to fast in front as all he could do was stare at the dark door began to give way. He was staring at the door, waiting for the same agonizing death his brother had suffered.
"Ha..hahaha... I'm going out just like that dog," Chris said as he smirked to himself. He closed his eyes and sat on the floor. He relaxed every muscle in his body and listened to the noises, waiting for his end.
As the pounding and screaming grew louder, Chris was going over his life, coming to turns with everything he had done and happened to him. His eyes were still closed and his smirk still present on his face. He wanted to be able to end his life on a lighter note and make sure he didn't regret anything in his final minutes.
He began to remember all the things wrong that happened in his life, " At least that asshole died before me," Chris said as he had door give way more. He smiled to himself, satisfied with his life and ready for death.
Chris' eyes shot opened as a beam of light passed by the house and shining through the windows for a second causing the pounding to halt. He saw the shadows pass in front of the light for a second until it faded. The screams became distant until they finally passed from Chris' ears.
To say that Chris was awe struck would be an understatement. He was in a state of shock and all he could think was that the crazed mob of people had killed him. His brain kept playing tricks on him, and it took him several moments to even blink.
As Chris stood up, his entire body was shaking at the fact that he was spared. His eye's looked down and was filled with sadness at the fact that he could have died, he was ready and could have been take at that time, but for some reason, it seemed like some high power let him live.
Chris was filled with relieve as he realized he really didn't want to die. He smiled a genuinely honest smile and walked over to the door, his knees were weak from fear that Chris didn't even know had affected him.
He eyed the damaged door but didn't dare to even think of looking out side of the cracked and close to shattering window on the door. He walked cautiously towards the closet in the hallway next to the entrance to the house. He found the handle in the darkness that filled the home and opened it to began digging around inside of it for the flashlight that took residence inside it.
It was an effort to find but find it he did. He turned on the flashlight and let its beam focus on the floor, he didn't want any light to shine on the windows. He looked back inside the closet and took out the metal bat that he had hidden in it.
As he was closing the closet and walked towards the dinning room, he stared at the bat and remembered how he had placed it inside the closet in case he had to use it against his brother. "Well, you may not be going to be beating on my brother but you might be able to help me survive long enough to beat on the people who killed him." Chris said to the bat as if it were another person.
Chris walked into the dinning room and looked at for candles he could use instead of turning on lights that would attract more of the crazed people.
Chris sat down as those last two words rang in his head. "What's going on," He said to himself as he began to go over everything that had been going on the past two days."This has to be what the news what talking about the mobs of people, but they looked like they had died" Chris said to himself think back to the faces he saw outside his window. They had pale white eyes, and some looked like they had chunks of body parts missing all over themselves." Chris closed his eyes to remember anything else."The neighbors that attacked Jacob were trying to bite him so that could be why they had bitten off pieces, and the news did say that the mobs were trying to bite the officers." Chris let out a sigh at how everything was turning out.
"It's as if this is like a-" Chris stopped and looked down with a blank yet confused stare. He shook his had and had an empty laugh. "That's impossible, this isn't a movie." Chris said while getting up to get a match from the kitchen draw.
He pulled it open and placed his hands on the box of matches bu didn't pick it up. He stared at his hand and lowered his head. "It can't be that. Zombies don't exist," Chris said as he picked up the matchbox and walked back to the table. He opened the box and took out a match and struck it against the side to light it.
He stared at the flame pleadingly. "It can't be zombies, the government isn't as dumb as they are depicted in movies, they would have taken care of it before it even started." Chris said as he placed the flame on top of the candle and blew it out before it could reached the bottom of the match.
Chris stared at the flames burn on top of the candle with his eyes half closed,"Who am I kidding, they are probably the ones that would start it up in the first place or try to cover it up." From Chris' facial expressions, one wouldn't be able to even think that he was alive yet he was in deep thought.
He was in a deep conversation with himself in his head, his mind was torn in two as one half tried to make accuses to rule out the idea that it was zombies outside that he had saw, and the other trying to convince himself it indeed was.
He stared long at the flame before drawing in a long breath and standing up from the table. He grabbed the three other candles that weren't lit and put the wick of one of them into the flame of the candle that was on fire.
He walked up towards the stairs but stop in front of them. He turned towards the recked door and frowned. "I've got to do something about you," Chris said to himself as he put the candles down on the coffee table in the middle of the room.
He walked to the door and stared at it, pondering what he could do that would support it a little better. An idea popped into his head as he picked up the lit candle and walked to the closest room. He stopped in front of it as the stench that was lingering inside of it enter his nose as he opened the door.
The smell was something he knew to well, because it was the smell that was always on his brothers clothing and breath. Sure enough, not four feet from the door was the cause of the stench. Cigarettes, blunts, booze, and cologne, to Chris it was a stench that just filled him with anger. He shut his eyes and pressed forward on into the room to do what he had too.
He walked up to the big closet-like dresser after putting the candle on the table in the room. He began to slide it across the carpet with easy, which surprised him alot, which also worried him because if he could move it with easy, what if something that used all its power on it. He sighed as he kept pushing it towards the doorway, figuring he would have to something in front of it.
Once he had gotten it though the doorway and onto the tile floor, the dresser stopped and wouldn't budge. Chris smiled as he apply more and more force on it until it began to tip. He pulled it back into its position it was in before it tipped. "I guess I don't need to put something that big in front of you," Chris said with a grunt as he tried to pick up the dresser and inched his way to the door.
Awhile later and a little elbow grease, Chris had the dresser against the door. He walked proudly back into his brother room to grab another dresser to put in front of the bigger one to make sure it was stationary. Where the big dresser used to be, was a long carrying bag for something. "Oh, must be some sort of golf club," Chris said as he went to the bag and picked it up.
"This...doesn't feel like a golf club," Chris said as he looked for the zipper. He smiled when the object inside of it was shown in the light, 'Looks like I won't have to use that bat.' Chris looked at his new found source of inspiration. He was holding a hunting rifle, with the gun in his hands, Chris was brought into his memories.
His mind was replaying the times when he was younger when he and his father would go to the shooting range. He smiled at the fond memories as he cocked the rifle and looked down the site. "Alright, at least now I have something I can truly defend myself with if I need to," Chris said as he pulled the strap of the gun over his shoulder. 'Well if he had the gun here, he should have ammo around here.'
Chris started his search at the only dresser left in the room. He pulled out the top draw out and emptied its contents on the ground, he moved the clothing around until he was sure there was nothing there. He put the the clothing back and decided it was best to move this dresser against the other one before searching for the bullets.
He struggled with the dresser as he placed it against the other that was supporting the damaged door. He opened the dresser/closet that he had put there earlier and dug his hand in the back until he felt a box shape under his fingers. He took hold of it and brought it out form its hiding place.
"Well looks like I was right. Lets see how many shells we have here," Chris said as he counts the bullets that were in the box. 'Twenty-five, great that's not that much, I guess I'll have to aim carefully.'
He paused and stared down at the box but shot his head back up when he heard a scream coming from far away outside. He closed the box and grabbed the candles as he ran upstairs into his room. He lit the other candles and spread them out so the entire room was filled with light.
Chris grabbed the blankets off his bed and a few tacks he had on his desk and pinned them up so the two windows in his room were covered. "Well these are thick blankets, it should stop the light from coming through," he said as he finished putting up the last tack.
He sat done on his bed and laid back so he was staring at the ceiling. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes as he went into deep thought again.'Okay, I truly need to think this out. They seem to attack like zombies, I mean the whole biting people, not ever stopping or caring about there injuries. That would make sense because when Jacob crushed that guys skull he went limp.,' Chris thought as he rolled over.
' Then again, you cave any persons skull in, it will kill just to make sure, I better just aim for their heads.' Chris frowned as he continued to stare off into space, 'Will I really be able to kill someone, especially with them frantic like that.' He thought back to what happened awhile ago. ' I can't believe I just froze up like that, well from this point on, I won't again. Whatever it takes, I am not just going to let myself die.'
He shot up as he searched himself. He pulled out his cell phone and check to see if he had any messages, ' Shit, nothing.' He tried calling his girlfriend but it went straight to her answering machine. "Listen babe, it's Chris, call me when you get this please." He hung up and tried calling his cousins house. " I'm sorry, the phone line you are trying to reach has been disconnected," was all Chris heard before he hung up and dialed the number again. " 'I'm sorry th-' Fuck me," Chris said as he tried Ivan's number.
The phone rang 6 times before a machine picked up and said that his mailbox was full. " AGGHHHHHH, FUCK, dammit Ivan, can't you ever clear your voicemail out." He cursed as he tryed the number three more times to no avail.
"Dammit, I can't go to his house now, not with those things out there. Agh, I'll have to go in the morning so I can at least see." Chris said as he rolled over again to look up at the ceiling. "May as well try to get some sleep." Chris sat awake for two hours, replaying the events of the day in his head until he passed out.
'I'll be at your house in the morning, don't go dieing on me.'
A/N: (old) Sorry for the major hold up, alot of stuff happened over the course of these past 2 months, and I just didn't get much inspiration but I should be updating again soon. Review please :D
