Page 21 of Reanimated Ruin (Hearts In Horror #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Cat

SADIE AND DOM had managed to find a pistol in the bedside table of the main bedroom with a decent amount of ammo. She was the only one of us with any experience with one, so we decided it was best if she kept it on her. There was also a pretty large hunting knife in a box of men’s stuff in the basement, which the guys insisted I take after the skills I exhibited yesterday.

In the garage, we were able to find some other makeshift weapons among the gardening stuff and other random tools. Sadie and I both chose a metal baseball bat as they were lighter and easier to swing than the crowbar or carpenter’s hammer Jules and Dom chose.

We found two empty backpacks in a closet and loaded one up with as much nonperishable food and water that would fit in it. The other one we put a first-aid kit we’d found, a few bottles of useful medications we scrounged from the medicine cabinet, then some odds and ends we thought might come handy.

Thankfully, we found some flashlights too. We had to be careful using them, though, because we had to do whatever we could to avoid being detected once we left the safety of these four walls. Right now we had to worry about the fact it was daytime, and I really wished we could wait for the cover of darkness.

“I think I have a plan on how we can get out of here,” Jules spoke up once we had everything gathered in a pile in front of us, prepared to leave. “We’re gonna have to use the balcony in the back as an exit. There’s no way we can safely make it out the front door anymore. It’s only about twenty feet to the ground, so as long as you lower yourself as far as you can with your arms before you drop, it shouldn’t be that bad. I grabbed the remote door opener out of the car in the garage downstairs. When we’re ready to leave, I’m gonna open it and set off the car alarm. That should hopefully lure any infected in the back around to the front and give us enough time to get away.”

“What are we gonna do once we get down there?” I asked.

“We need to look for a car that’s a push start with the keys still in it. It won’t be locked if they’re in there,” he responded. “I’m sure a lot of people abandoned their cars in a panic when shit started to hit the fan, not even thinking of taking their keys. Remember the kid that set off the alarm in the first place? He said the keys were in it. Just look for a newer looking car, it shouldn’t be that hard to find one.”

“Can’t we just try to hot wire the first one we can make it to?” Sadie asked, looking around at all of us anxiously.

“No, unfortunately not,” Dom answered her. “Any car made in the last twenty years or so wouldn’t be able to be lifted that way easily. Theoretically, we could try to find a standard and pop start it, but we need to think about the quickest option and Jules is right.”

“Since when are you an expert on grand theft auto?” I questioned him.

“I’m not. Jules and I took over his dad’s automotive repair shop when he passed away, so I’ve learned a thing or two since then. Thank you very much. No criminal activity for me,” he shot back with sass.

Jules closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he was trying to contain his temper at Dom letting that slip. I froze and stared at him in shock.

“Your dad passed away?” I breathed out, trying to hold back the tears suddenly trying to spring to my eyes.

I’d spent so much time at his house around his parents, they’d become like a second family to me before I’d moved away. They were genuinely good people. I’d wished plenty of times that I’d been born to their family instead of mine. Considering my feelings toward their son, I should thank my lucky stars I wasn’t, but I could only imagine the life I could have possibly led with parents like them. They cared for each other deeply, it reflected in the way they raised their child with the same affection and unconditional love they held for one another.

“Yeah, car accident. My mom too, about two years ago,” he mumbled, looking down at the ground. “But it’s okay. We don’t really have the time to talk about it right now, so don’t worry about it.”

“Shit, I’m so sorry Jules.” I said, leaving it at that and not attempting to pry further.

I had a feeling he wanted to change the subject and not only because we didn’t have the time for it, I could only imagine the pain that’d caused. My heart broke for him. I wish I could sacrifice my parents in their place to get them back. It’s never the people who deserve the shit luck in this world that are on the receiving end of it.

We each grabbed our weapons and a backpack each, Sadie and Jules taking ones carrying the supplies. We had combined our personal clothes split into our two others. I insisted on adding Sadie’s clothes to mine personally. I didn’t want her to see the cash that took up the majority of it.

I was glad she only had one change of clothes with her because with what I’d packed for my weekend at the lake and the money, there wasn’t much room left. It felt kind of silly still toting around all this cash when I wasn’t even sure if it even still held any value, but what I’d gone through to make it and then get it back, I wasn’t ready to rule it useless just yet.

“Okay, we ready?” Jules asked, standing by the window, holding up the remote in one hand and keys in the other.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” I responded with a nod.

Dom and Sadie nodded, too.

“Here goes nothing,” he said, then pressed the button to open the garage door.

We heard it roll up, then we all raced to the window to watch and see how the plan would play out. Just the sound from the door beginning to rise was already garnering a decent amount of attention. Once it was up all the way and the alarm was triggered, they went absolutely feral. Dom raced to the back of the room to the rear facing windows, right when more infected started to appear from around the side of the building, he called out the all clear.

It was officially go time.

We all barreled up the stairs towards the room with the balcony, bursting with anxious energy, not knowing how much time we truly had to work with. When we got to the balcony door, Dom was in front and he cracked it open, peeked his head out briefly, then motioned with his head for us all to follow him out. Once we were all out there, I looked around and couldn’t see any infected in the immediate vicinity. After everyone else did the same, Dom began to lower himself down first.

He was well over six feet tall, so he made it look effortless. When Jules followed him, he did the same. Once it was time for my turn, they looked up at me, nodding and motioning that they’d catch me. I dropped down into their arms with a huff, my hand shot to my mouth and I looked around panicked. Afraid even the smallest sound would attract attention back to us.

When no biters came tearing from around the building, I moved to the side for the guys to catch Sadie. Now that we’d all reached the ground safely, we began creeping towards the street to try and find a get-away car. I’d been worried that we’d have a hard time driving out of here if there were cars littering the roads, but they were relatively clear. With being so close to the quarantine zone, they must have kept them free of congestion so they’d be able to fit the large military vehicles down them.

We got to the street and split up into two groups to start looking through the car windows. It only took Dom and Jules a few minutes to find what we were looking for. Sadie and I began silently running to them as they got into the car. Jules shut his door and the sound must have drawn an infected out of its hiding spot where it’d previously been unaware of our presence. All of a sudden, from between the two parked cars to my right, a man who had to have been around my father’s age lunged for me, covered in blood with the agility of a house cat, and knocked my bat from my hand.

Even though he was missing a few fingers that appeared to have been bitten off, he could still get a firm grip on my arm. While I was scrambling to get my knife out of my belt loop, cursing myself for not making it easier to access, Sadie ran over and began attacking the infected with her bat.

It only took three strikes before his hold on me went slack and he fell to the ground. It hadn’t even gotten the chance to lower his mouth to try to bite me. She stopped for a moment to take in her surroundings and make sure we hadn’t attracted an audience, then hit him a few more times for good measure, absolutely caving in his skull.

She dragged me behind her, racing to the black SUV the guys had found. When we opened the rear and spilled inside, they were looking at us with horror. Jules was turned around gaping at Sadie and Dom was eying me in the rear-view mirror with concern on his face.

“What are you waiting for!!” Sadie screamed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

That snapped them out of their shock. Dom started the car and threw it into gear, pulling away from the curb. As we got further down the road, we began to garner a fan club. We had at least ten infected attempting to chase us, but they weren’t able to keep up with the speed of the car. As we approached a stop sign, the car started to slow, and they finally could gain some ground on us.

“Don’t stop! Fuck the stop signs!” I yelled to Dom, still turned around in my seat, looking behind us. He looked in the rear-view mirror again just in time for a hand to slap the back window and he floored it, leaving our groupies behind in the dust.

“Are you okay?” Jules asked me. “I saw it grab your arm. Did you get bit?”

“No, I’m fine,” I responded. “She got to it before it could even lower its mouth to bite me. It was stupid. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings. From now on, if we’re out there, we all need easily accessible back up weapons. We can’t get caught unprepared.”

Even though I had said I was fine, my hands were still slightly shaking. He looked down at them and I shoved them under my thighs.

“I’m okay too,” Sadie piped up. “Thanks for asking, by the way. You’re welcome for saving your girlfriend when you drew that dick-head out by slamming the car door.”

Jules’s eyes narrowed at her. She crossed her arms and smiled at him sweetly, challenge alight in her eyes. When he turned back around, she glanced at my hands, then winked at me. I realized she had done that to distract him from his mother henning of me, I was super grateful. I didn’t need to be coddled. The guys had no idea the true scope of my resilience.

“I’d choose your next words very carefully,” Dom chuckled. “I don’t know about you, but we all just saw what she was capable of with a baseball bat and I’d do everything in my power to stay away from the receiving end of it.”