The hatch popped open, and Nick climbed through making sure his M4 and his vest didn't catch on the sides. He stood up on top of the bus, and unslung the M4, doing a quick sweep of the area.
Nothing. None of the so-called skinnies were in sight. Only a dead quiet prevailed over the neighborhood.
Mike was through next. He climbed through the hatch even faster then Nick had, and he also made sure his 870 and his bandoleer of shells didn't catch.
Nick turned and saw Mike stand up to his considerable full height, and pull his shotgun off his shoulder.
"Let's check this window out.", Nick said simply, as he took a quick few steps to the side of the bus closest to the large window.
The window itself was about three feet by four feet, and slid open as many window do. This left about a three foot high, two foot wide passage for the group to pass through. It would be a tight fit for some, Mike especially, and no one knew how far the window was above the ground, or how far the fall to the floor would be.
Everyone except Ashley, that is.
Mike realized this fact first, "Maybe we should get Ashley up here. I mean, she's actually been to this house.", Mike said, looking over his shoulder nervously and still seeing nothing.
Nick nodded, "Yeah, good idea. Help her up here would you?"
"Sure. Let's just hurry this fuckin thing up, alright?"
Nick nodded, Im game."
Mike turned and walked to the hatch, and leaned over to see inside, "Ash, we need ya up here. Grab your shotgun, and lets go."
Ashley just stared back for a bit before nodding, "Okay...", she muttered, not protesting, but not quite sure just why exactly she was needed up there.
She grabbed her Ithica 37 shotgun, and Chad, giving a nervous, but disarming smile, helped her through the hatch. Mike helped her on the final part of the journey by grabbing her by the shoulders, and easily pulling her through.
Ashley had barely even gotten settled in, before she heard Nick addressing her, "Ashley, how much of a drop to the floor is the window?"
She turned to Nick, and thought for a moment, "Uh, Id say maybe five feet, tops."
"Alright, how many people lived here?", Nick asked.
"Uh, Aunt Lisa, Uncle David, and my two cousins, Carter and Marie."
Nick nodded, "Alright, you're cousins were probably at school. Do you know when you're aunt and uncle usually went to work?"
Ashley shook her head, "No..." She didn't like the way Nick was using past-tenses. It made it sound like everyone was dead
Nick paused for a moment, but was apparently satisfied, "Kay, Mike, lower me in. Let's see if this thing's unlocked."
Mike took position beside Nick, and grabbed Nick's left hand with both of his, and slowly lowered his smaller friend to the window, while Ashley kept a very nervous lookout post a few feet away.
All three teens felt more then a little exposed on the bus roof.
Nick had his M4 slung on his shoulder, and had a look of pure concentration clearly plastered all over his face. The look remained as he crossed the thirty or so inches and got to the window. Mike didn't have to lower Nick very far, in fact it was just a precaution. Nick probably could've just carefully leaned over himself with no help. But no one was taking any chances. It was a pretty long fall to the ground.
Putting his right hand flat against the window, Nick pushed against it, hoping to slide it open. It didn't budge. Nick tried harder, putting more force into it. Slowly but surely, the window slid open, the full two feet that it could, leaving a three foot by two foot gap that everyone in the group could pass through.
Look looked through the window, and saw what the inside of the house looked like. The walls were a dull white, and the carpet that covered the stairs was a light brown. There was, in fact, a landing that the group would have to drop to in order to get inside the house.
"Pull me back, Mike.", Nick said softy. Nick had relied completely on Mike to hang on to him. If Mike had let go, Nick would've been able to stop himslef from plummeting to the ground.
Mike pulled his friend back. Truth be told, Mike didn't have to expend much effort to hold on to his friend.
"What's goin' on, man?", The huge teen asked.
"We go in.", Nick said simply. He walked calmly to the open front hatch of the bus and peered inside, seeing Chad staring back at him. "We're going in, kay Chad?"
Chad nodded, "Kay, man. You take care of yourself."
Nick nodded, "Always.", he replied, giving a slight grin, which was quickly returned by his best friend.
Then Nick turned, unslinging his M4 as he went, and gingerly stepping over the gap between the bus and the house and perched in a crouched position on the window sill, as he held the edge of the window with his left hand for support, M4 held pointed in the house in his right.
Nick turned his head to stare at the , "Lower Ashley in when I say to. We'll need her inside. You okay with that, Ash?"
The girl nodded, "Yeah, sure..."
Nick nodded once, and fell the five feet to the landing, bringing his left hand to the M4, and landing in a crouch. There was a slight 'thud' as he hit the carpeted landing.
He stood up quickly, bringing the M4 to it's ready position, and scanning the immediate area. The upstairs, which was maybe ten stairs up, was not really in the line of sight, and the downstairs, which was maybe a dozen stairs down on Nick's left didn't really show off much either.
Nick sat in silence for a moment, listening for any noises that could mean either humans or the undead creatures. He heard nothing, Not a sound.
He didn't lower his weapon.
"Mike?"
"Yeah?". Mike's voice was slightly dimmed by the wall that now separated them. Nick imagined that Mike was hitting the same speech obstacle.
"Help Ashley in."
"Got it."
Moments later, a very pale Ashley appeared in the window, and Nick turned around and helped her in her small hop to the floor. She landed with a similar but noticeably lighter thud.
"You alright?", Nick questioned, bringing his M4 back to his shoulder.
"Yeah.", she said, unslinging her Ithica 37, and bringing it to her shoulder as well. The weapon was fairly small, but it looked almost a bit big for her. Nick hoped she'd be able to handle the recoil.
It didn't take more then five seconds for Mike to appear in the window, and hop to the landing with more ease and control then anyone else.
"Let's do this.", he said, all business, as he brought his large shotgun to his shoulder, "What do you want to do, man?"
Nick thought, as he glanced around, "We'll clear the upstairs first. Then the downstairs."
"Sounds like a plan.", Mike agreed, "You okay, Ashley?"
The blond girl nodded, "Yeah, I'm alright. Let's just get this done already."
"Amen, brotha.", Mike nodded.
"Right, I'll go first, Ashley, you follow me. Mike cover our asses."
"You got it.", Mike said.
"Sure", Ashley muttered.
"Good. Remember, if we fire in here, it will be loud. Very loud. Especially those shotguns.", Nick said, mounting the first stair to the upstairs.
"Lets just fuckin' do this thing, man," Mike muttered, "The fuckin' suspense is killing me."
"Fuckin' A.", Nick replied whole-heartidly. The sooner this got done, the better.
The three teens slowly moved upstairs into the hallway, where there were maybe five or six rooms to check. Most of the doors were open to some extent. Ashley explained what each room was before the small group reached it.
The first was a bedroom" the guest room.I was pretty small, and wasn't hard to confirm that there was nothing inside. Next was a bathroom. It was empty as well. Then the two bedrooms which Mike and Nick were told had belonged to Ashley's cousins. Those were empty as well. Then the master bedroom. That took a little longer the look over completely. as it had a smaller bathroom in it off to one side.
"Clear.", Mike muttered, as the group pulled back into the hallway to check the final room. The last room had a closed door. It could be any kind of room.
"What's this, Ashley?", Nick asked.
"Uh, that's a closet."
"Open it, please.", Nick aimed the M4 at the closet, and was joined by Mike seconds later, as Ashley opened the closet and scrambled to get out of the way, as Mike and Nick aimed their weapons in the closet.
Nothing. Just a typical closet.
Nick lowered his weapon, and Mike breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Ain't no monsters in this here closet", Mike muttered, trying to keep the mood light.
Then a dull crash was heard coming from the downstairs.
All three teens' weapons shot up, and were aimed back down the hallway towards the stairs leading to the first floor. The way the teens had just come from.
Mike put what the three were thinking into words, "Aw, fuck."
Nick looked grim, Ashley looked scared, and Mike simply looked ready to kill something.
"Let's go.", Nick said, as he nearly jogged down the hallway, Mike hot on his heels, Ashley recovering quickly and following third.
The three teens made it back to the stairs in record time, and put on the breaks.
Nick went first, and inched his way down the stairs, followed closely by Mike. Ashley a few feet behind both guys.
Then, seconds seeming like hours, the trio descended down the stairs, one at a time. No sound was heard. But the group wasn't just hearing things. They had all heard it. Something was in here besides them.
It took nearly three minutes for them to inch their way down the dozen or so steps, and hit the tile where the mudroom was. The front door was only a few feet away.
Mike broke off from Nick and Ashley for a few moments to check if the door was locked. It was; bolted and locked. Someone had beaten them to it.
"Door's locked.", Mike reported, bringing his 870 back to his shoulder.
"Kay.", Nick muttered, not turning to look back and check himself, "Don't suppose anyone has any idea where that came from?"
"Not a fuckin' clue..." Mike said, Not looking at Nick, but rather at the house itself. It was unexplored, and unknown. And there was something out there. And Mike, as well as Nick and Ashley, knew that full well.
"Well, what else is new.", Nick replied, a bit frustrated with the goings on of this entire day. "Let's get this done. Ashley, what are we lookin' at?"
"Uh, well, that's the family room, through that door, that is. And, uh, The kitchen's that way over there.", she said, taking her left hand off the wood pump of her shotgun to point in each direction as she called it.
"We'll check the kitchen first. Everyone stay sharp.", Nick whispered, starting to move down the dull white hallway that led to the kitchen.
Mike, trusting Nick and Ashley to cover the front, spun around and walked backwards
One step at a time, still hearing nothing, the trio slowly, ever so slowly, made they're way down what seemed like an endless path. In reality, it was only maybe fifteen to twenty feet. And it led to a very light brown door, which was closed.
Hearts beating very fast, now, Nick led the group up to the door itself, and about six feet from it, stopped completely, and listened.
It hit the group all at once, but somehow all three maneged to keep completely silent about it: There was the sound of movement coming from that room. It was very soft, but it was there. The cause of noise was in the kitchen not more then six feet away, and everyone realized that at the same time. It was a small, shuffling sound.
"Mike.", Nick said. It was all he had to say. Mike stepped up behind him, and whispered, "Nick get the door, I got this. Ashley, cover our backs."
Nick nodded. The shotgun was the obvious choice in this situation, and Mike was a much more skilled shot then Nick.
Ashley didn't respondat all.
Nick inched forward first, followed closely by Mike, both their weapons raised, Ashley covering them from behind.
The light brown kitchen door opened to the inside, so what Nick intended to do, was to simply open it, and get out of Mike's way.
Nick reached the handle, and slowly reached for his left hand out to grasp it. He did, and took a breath, and in a very small whisper asked Mike, "You ready?"
Mike nodded, a nod that Nick, of course, couldn't see, "Yeah.", he said.
Nick shut his eyes, and snapped them open, taking a breath, and twisting the handle, and throwing the door open. Nick lunged out of the way and got behind Mike. He had view of the kitchen as Mike was in the way, but he raised the M4 none-the-less.
Mike grasped his shotgun tight, and in the few moments he had to view the kitchen, he experienced a completely new type of utter horror.
There were two people in that room, one, a male, was laid strewn in the middle of the kitchen floor. What would have been white tile under normal circumstances was painted a deep red with more blood then Mike could've imagined a human body could hold. Organs such as the man's liver, intestine, both large and small, lungs, heart, etc., were also strewn around him in a good four foot radius.
His face was torn apart and unrecognizable, eyes seeming to be torn out of his skull. And his right arm was almost ripped completely off, only a few scarce tendons were fighting a losing battle to keep it affixed to his body.
The kicker here, was the man was still moving, and even seemed to realize that Mike was there.
The second person present was a woman, who had several bite marks on her body, and had bled profusely while she was actually alive. But other then that, she was miraculously unscathed.
The woman, being completely mobile, unlike her counterpart, spun around at the door suddenly being opened, and she snarled, revealing her face covered with blood that wasn't hers. It was the man's. She took a step towards Mike.
She only got the one, single step.
Mike cliched his teeth and fired. The woman was so close he didn't even have to aim. It was all point and click. The shotgun shuttered sharply, and the room filled with an unimaginably loud boom.
The woman took the shot in the chest and neck, and she literally split apart, as the force pummeled her to the ground.
Mike didn't wait for her to even begin her inevitable fall, he racked the shotgun, and fired again, the boom once again shaking everything in the room this time hitting the woman square in the face, basically blowing her head away. A cloud of blood, brains, and pink mist, which consisted of both, billowed from the back of her head, as the back of her skull exploded off.
Mike racked the weapon again, and by that time the woman was flat on her back, unmoving, and Mike controlled the urge to fire a third, unnecessary shot.
He suddenly realized that the man on the floor was moving, and giving a small, constant hissing sound.
Mike didn't hesitate. He aimed and fired. The man then had even less of a face, and didn't move again.
Mike racked the shotgun, and barley heard the satisfying sound of the spent shell hitting the tile floor.
The whole engagement lasted less then seven seconds, and Mike just stood there breathing hard.
Nick appeared at his side, and his eyes widened, as he suddenly turned back, took several steps to Ashely, and said, "Ashley, stay there."
The girl didn't even have to see inside the room to know that her aunt and uncle were dead.
Mike took a breath, and surveyed the room again. It seemed to be more red white at this point. The blood had found it's way to some of the walls, and there were crimson speckles everywhere. Even dotting the ceiling.
The big teen checked the bodies one last time to make absolutely sure they weren't moving.
They weren't.
He then closed the door with a small click, and turned to face Nick, who wasn't quite as wide-eyed anymore, but was calmly thinking through what to do next. He held his M4 tightly as he turned his head slighlty to meet Mike's gaze.
Ashley stood stock-still and pale as a ghost a few paces away.
Mike took a small breath, "Kitchen's closed."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This chapter went about 1500 words longer then I expected, and no, I haven't got to the other zombie fight yet. Just hold on.
Anyway, would really like to know how this one went. Hope y'all enjoyed it, and Ill try to upate at least a couple of days earlier next time!