Caz

Caz was curled up on the chair, a book in his hand when he was jolted awake by a sound he didn’t recognize. He got up from the chair and couch by the window before he peeked over the edge towards the front yard. Caz couldn’t see anything at first, then something appeared by the gate. It was moving awkwardly and the size of it told Caz that it was an abominable zombie, and a huge one at that. It was as big as a sumo wrestler, just uglier, with strange puss filled bumps all over it’s shoulders. It was patrolling the outside of the wall, but it didn’t look like it was going to enter. Caz on the other hand wasn’t going to wait to see if it would and quickly grabbed his things, packing his sleeping bag away, the book he was reading and his water bottle before he zipped both backpacks and slung them over each of his shoulders, picked up his sniper and went down the stairs.

He glanced at Keith and frowned a little as he looked at Keith, sleeping. He had probably gotten around five hours of sleep, and Caz knew Keith probably needed more, but they didn’t have time. He poked him with the safe end of his sniper, like poking a sleeping animal. He might be, for all Caz knew was that the guy woke up violently. The moment he stirred Keith, his eyes shot open, and he grabbed a hold of the sniper within seconds and was ready to punch Caz but stopped himself. He blinked confused when he noticed Caz standing in front of him then looked around before his shoulder slumped and he let go of the sniper. Then the alarmed look in his face appeared as he sat up, looking at Caz and the backpacks he was holding.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. Caz hadn’t reacted much to Keiths abrupt awakening, not like the first time where Keith managed to grab Caz’s arm and force him onto the floor, Keith’s arm on Caz’s chest, his other hand still holding onto Caz’s arm. He had apologized profusely and felt embarrassed by his way of awakening and for hurting Caz.

“There is an abdominal zombie outside of the gate, and it’s not a pretty looking one,” Caz explained and dumped his backpacks on the ground. “So, I’m planning on leaving before it decides to burst in and make it a hell for us.” Keith looked at Caz then at his backpacks as he was thinking. Caz gave him a second before he spoke again.

“We could either fight, which I doubt we would win, split up and leave, which could be possible but unsafe, or…” Caz took off the gun holster and offered the gun to Keith, “Or we work as a team and get out of here together, and possible survive.” Caz watched Keith as he looked at the gun, thinking. He hesitated a bit when Keith didn’t move but he looked up at Caz and reached for the gun.

“Teaming up together sounds like better odds,” Keith flashed Caz a grin, which surprised him a bit but he just nodded and handed Keith the gun.

“Good, because I can’t carry all the food, and I think your backpack can handle a bit more than mine, so I think we should split up the food and water in between us, along with the gas for the burner and the jetboil. That way, if we lose one of the backpacks, we would still have the other one,” Caz crouched as he explained, while pulling out all the cans of food, water and the gas. 

Keith got up from the couch and picked up his hiking backpack and couched down next to Caz as he was sorting the food. Keith seemed surprised to see fifteen cans of food, six water bottles, three big gas canisters and one small. Caz also had a water filter, two books, two notebooks and a dagger. Caz handed Keith seven cans of food, three water bottles and one of the big and small gas canisters and watched him put it into his backpack. Caz packed his own backpack and lifted it. 

It was heavy and he knew his backpack wasn’t going to be easy to carry as it wasn’t as comfortable looking at Keith, and he had tried to see if there was one in the house, but they only had huge hiking backpacks which would be to difficult to carry, so his own backpack was better than nothing. Keith grabbed the blanket from his couch and stuffed it into his backpack and got up from the floor. He zipped it closed and picked it up before he swung it over his shoulders and buckled it close around his waist. Caz felt slightly jealous since it looked more comfortable to wear then his normal backpack, that didn’t have any support. Maybe Caz could find one if they got near a camping store.

Caz looked around the hallway then to the living room and wondered if there would be anything else they could use. He had a flashlight, that could be charged, so they didn’t need batteries, and luckily they had those type of portable sun panel and a portable charger, so as long as the sun would shine, they could use the flashlight, but if not, they had matches and candles they could use. Caz also had a normal flashlight, and had a few batteries, but it wouldn’t last long. Luckily for them, it was early in the morning, so they wouldn’t have to use them before later in the day.

Caz pulled out the two boxes of bullets for the handgun and handed it to Keith. Keith took them, removed his own gun he didn’t have bullet for and made sure Caz’s gun was secure before he tightened the holster around his waist and hid one of the boxes of bullets in one of the hip pockets and asked Caz to put the other box in Keith’s backpack.

Caz had made sure that they didn’t leave anything useful behind before he went to the back door. “I think we can get out of here through the back yard, hopefully they won’t hear us,” Caz explained and looked out the backyard.

“Well, we could use a decoy, something we could throw over the wall by the front yard,” Keith said. Caz looked at Keith a bit surprised then furrow his brow.

“How do you plan on doing that?” Caz asked. Keith grinned and quickly went upstairs before coming down with a toy firetruck and Caz knew what he meant.

“I’m not sure it will work, I’m afraid it might attract more zombies,” he said. Keith thought about it before he went upstairs again and came down with a remote-controlled car and then he went into the living room and picked up a roll of duct tape, Caz had missed when he looked through some things.

“We could put the firetruck on the car, tape it together, then remote control the car so it will move away from the house, with the firetruck blaring, leading them away from the house,” Keith explained. Caz was honestly impressed by it that he thought for a second it would work, but he was afraid the big zombie wouldn’t get fooled.

“You sure it works? I mean, do they have battery enough for that?” Caz asked. Keith shrugged, but he was still smiling.

“I changed the battery on the firetruck, and I know the remote-controlled car work, cause I checked it, the only problem is getting to the front yard, get it through the front gate and avoid the big guy,” Keith explained. Caz nodded thinking, but he was sure it would work.

“It could work. Let’s try it,” he said, and they started to tape the toys together.

---

Keith

Keith had no idea why he was the one to go out to lure the zombies away, even though he was the one to suggest it, but he was sneaking through the front yard, the toy cars in one hand and the remote in the other hand. He had taped the one joystick so the moment it’s turned on, the car will move forward. The big zombie was hanging out nearby, Keith could both hear it but also smell the rotten flesh and he tried his best not to gag.

Keith reached the front gate and placed the car down in front of the gate after he made sure it’s turned on, then he listened to the zombie before he then turned on the firetruck so it was blaring loudly. The zombie growled loudly and started Keith for a second but he quickly returned his focus on the remote, turning it on and then the car started to drive away from the gate. It didn’t take long for the zombie to follow the car and Caz was right. The monster was hideous.

Keith left the remote by the gate and hurried back to the house, as quietly as he could. Caz was waiting by the front door and the moment Keith went inside, Caz closed the door behind him and they both hurried through the house to the backyard and through the backyard. Luckily for them, there was a ladder by the wall which Keith picked up and propped up against the wall, then let Caz climb up. He moved to the side to let Keith up and when Keith reached the top, he moved to the side and picked up the ladder, with the help of Caz, to quietly move it to the other side, so they could safely climb down.

Once they were down, they moved quickly but quietly towards the park nearby. There weren’t any zombies nearby, but they weren’t taking any risk. They had decided, before starting the whole plan, to use signs to communicate when they thought it was too dangerous to speak. He looked around as they kept walking. It wasn’t that they had a certain direction they were heading too, but they knew where they had been and decided to not go in that direction.

After walking in what felt like hours, they had left the park long behind and was deep in the forest, they decided to take a quick rest. They leaned against a couple of huge rocks and took a sip of water. They hadn’t spoken for a while, but it wasn’t like they had something to say to each other, at least not before it was safe. But they hadn’t seen nor heard the zombies for a while, so they should be safe, yet it was better not to risk it. Keith looked around, he then noticed Caz move, and he looked at Caz as he pulled out a notebook and a pencil, then started to write in his notebook. Keith glanced at the book, curious at what he was writing and leaned closer. He noticed Caz was actually drawing the abominable zombie from memories and Keith was impressed, as he noticed on the other page, he had another drawing of a zombie, Keith hadn’t seen before, with detailed facts about them.

“You are pretty good,” Keith whispered, surprising Caz a little. Caz glared at Keith and made a hush sign by moving a finger to his lips, but he then smiled and showed Keith his notebook, flipping through some of the pages. Keith watched the pages, smiling impressed and gave a thumbs up. Caz grinned then closed the notebook before he packed the things away and made a gesture for them to keep walking. Keith nodded and put away his water bottle before he got up from the rock.

They walked for a little while longer, then noticed something in the distance. It looked like a building, a semi burning building, and by the huge sign in the distance, it seemed to be a motel. Keith gestured to Caz to go check out the motel, incase there could be something, but Caz shook his head, a clear sign it wasn’t a good idea. Keith frowned a little but he understood why Caz said no, since it was burning, so they decided to walk around the motel, except Keith heard something, or more someone, screaming. 

He quickly grabbed Caz who was in front of him and when he turned to face Keith, scowling, he motioned him to stop, be quiet and listen, which prompted Caz to stop and listen. Then a high pitched scream could be heard from the direction of the motel and they both flinched, looking alarmed at each other, then Keith pointed his thumb towards the motel and looked at Caz in question. Caz shook his head with a frown, but when another scream could be heard, but this time it was from a kid, Keith frowned and looked determined to head towards the motel. Caz grabbed a hold onto Keith’s arm, wanting him to stop but Keith shook his head then headed towards the motel. He could hear Caz groan behind him and they both hurried down to the motel as silently as they could. Caz had taken out his sniper gun and was holding it ready while Keith had taken out his gun too, his finger on the safety trigger.

They were coming from the backside, and they could only see the roof from that side. They had to go downhill, down to the road to get a better look. The fire was already pretty high. By the looks of the flames, the rest of the motel would end up in smoke soon, so they had to hurry

There weren't zombies here, they seemed to avoid the fire. Clever he thought, even he didn't want to get near that thing.

Keith looked around, making sure there were no monsters or anything else that could hurt them, but he also kept an eye out for whoever had been screaming. Then another scream could be heard from the motel, sadly from the burning side.

Keith put his hand up and told Caz to stop. From the distance he could barely see anything, but he was sure he just saw a figure moving near the building. He pointed at the direction of the figure and began to move slowly towards it. Keith moved closer, the smoke made it difficult to see, but the figure appeared again. It was a girl, or more a young woman, around the same age as Keith. She was on the ground, holding onto a toddler, while kicking a zombie away, or at least try to. She was struggling to keep it away from herself and the kid.