We With Daisies Lie

Belly of the Beast

I tried to give Emily my reinforced jacket but she pushed me off- "No!" she protested, "...you're the one going out there, you need it more than I do..." she turned her back to me and faced the upstairs window. We were in the bedroom overlooking the front of the house. On the lawn below, Bambi stood in the flood lights, eyes out to the black- waiting for me."Why do you have to go?" Emily's voice broke but she stayed strong for us, she didn't cry yet.

"I can't let her go alone, you know I can't," I said.

"You were right, we need to get out of here- let's just go. She's not right... I'm sorry I didn't want to say anything before, I know she's your sister but... I thought she would be okay now that you're here. She's not. Something not right with her," Emily's eyes focused on the lonesome Bambi below. "She's been through so much... maybe too much. God, I don't know what to do."

I crossed to her, she didn't want to look at me, I could hear the sniffle in her breath. She took my hand. "I'm scared you won't come back," she said and leaned her head on my chest."I will. Of course I will."

"Are you sure you don't want Oliver and I to come with you?"

"We can't leave the house unguarded, and we can't leave either one of you here alone," I said turning her around to face me. She wiped her tears. "Want to take Menace with you?"

"I wouldn't want to bring him back there. Plus, he needs to stay here to protect you," I smiled. She returned it. I could tell she was trying to hold back her fear for my sake, but I could see through it, and I think she could see through mine too. I kissed her. We stood there quietly in each other's arms for a moment, and when the moment had passed, I left. As I walked out of the house, I put a hand on Oliver's shoulder: "Please take care of each other, barricade all the openings and keep the high ground unless you're over run, if you are go to the bunker," I told him.

"I won't let her get hurt," he said with that big warm smile of his. I gave him a thank you nod and joined my sister outside. She gave me a pistol and the twelve gauge shotgun, she had my grandpa's double barrel shotgun which she'd sawed in half and a small six shooter revolver. We moved quietly from the warmth of the house into the cold autumn night.

* * * *

The door mechanism to Spencer Town sat leaning open. The asphalt beneath had been scarred under the weight of the hundred pieces of furniture cluttered above.

We had seen some dead in the woods but not enough to be concerned. The bonfire in the center of the street had been trampled. It was no more than glowing red cinders now. We saw no bikers, heard no screams. As we moved in closer, I could see that the teenage girls who I had noticed tied up on my first trip here were still strapped- but their insides had been hollowed out, and their bones ripped and broken."This place is dead," I whispered. All three dead girls looked up- their jaws open, their eyes milky white and distant. They showed us their bloody teeth.

Bambi moved forward farther and farther down the road."We have to be sure the bikers are dead too," she said.

"We have to go back, this was a horde, if they reach the house Em and Oliver'll need back up."

"We would have seen them in the woods. If there was a horde, they must have gone another way."

"I came with you to look around and we did now it's time to go," I grabbed her arms. She pulled away."Something's not right," she said, looking around the silent town. A loud clatter rang out behind us; it was a metal can painted red with yellow decals on the side and a burning fuse sticking out. A gaunt man with a mad smile had thrown it- he stood outside the furniture wall behind the door laughing. Three other men appeared behind him and pushed against the door. "You're dead now bitch! We're taking all your food and burning your house to the ground!" one of the men yelled- and the door was closed, impossible to open with only the two of us.The can exploded in a spectacle of fire and sound, sparks shot roaring out in every direction. A trail of yellow fire hissed through the air and smashed against the fragile window of the building behind us, shattering it to a hundred pieces. 

Another loud trail of sparks whizzed from the far and faded off into the night. The can dwindled and a thin white line of smoke rose from it. For a moment there was silence. Then, the dead dragged their feet through open store doorways, filing out from behind abandoned buildings, filling the streets by the hundreds. 

Blood dried brown shirts, hollow moans, and barred teeth. In seconds they were almost on us. Bambi and I fired at the closest ones. The air caught fire as we emptied our guns. Behind the smoke, a horrific display of bones, brains and blood burst into the air as the dead came piling after us. We had more rounds but no time to reload. I snapped my head back to see if the tree branch Emily and I had used to escape was still there but they had cut it and the wall was too high- we were trapped.

"Here!" a small voice shouted to us from somewhere above. She was a tiny thing, not an ounce of fat on her. The girl jumped up in the air and waved her arms pointing to something I couldn't see. "Run!" she continued, "You wanna die?" Finally I saw that she was signaling for us to move to the alley beneath the brick building she stood on. Some of the dead had started to bleed onto out path- Bambi ran ahead pushing and tackling them this was and that, I ran behind her swinging my shotgun against approaching heads as hard as I could, the girl from the roof lowered a makeshift rope she had fashioned from sheets and towels. 

Bambi didn't hesitate. She jumped up and grabbed the rope. She climbed, the girl had tied it to something sturdy on the roof, I came up behind my sister and rolled onto the roof."You were almost dead-meat pie!" the young girl yelled leaning over me. I jumped up to my feet. "They're going to the house!" I shouted to my sister who was searching the town below for a way out. 

"You're welcome," the girl said folding her arms and tightening her eyebrows. 

"We appreciate it, really," I told her. "But those guys are going to our place right now and we have two of our group there, do you know a way out?" I asked. All I could think of was Emily and Oliver alone against the mad men who let the dead into their own town just to trap us in retaliation for their fight with Bambi. 

My sister started to reload her weapons, I did the same."There's a place where the wall is lower," the girl said. "But it's still too high to climb alone, if you can get a boost you can-"

"Where?" Bambi interrupted. The girl pointed, we followed her finger to the small dip in the wall on the opposite end of the roof. The wall where she was pointing seemed to have collapsed, though she was right, it was too high for one person to climb alone."There's a hundred of them between us and that wall," I said. Bambi put her gun in the belt of her pants. She put a hand to her forehead, thinking, maybe planning. She turned and grabbed the girl by the shirt. Bambi didn't hesitate before pushing her off the edge.

"No!" I reached out- but the girl was gone. The dead swarmed and feasted, her agonizing screams drew more in. Our path was cleared.

"Come on!" Bambi shouted and grabbed my hand. But my stomach felt as if it had been squeezed by giant hands, my legs went weak, my knees gave out. I dropped, bile building inside. She lifted me up, put my arms around her shoulders and pulled me across the roof. "Emily's not going to make it unless you get up and run right now," she said and pulled me to the side of the building. Another rooftop lay ten feet below, Bambi threw her guns across- she took a running start and jumped. She rolled her landing and waved at me to follow her. 

Time slowed, more and more dead snaked across the alley below me toward the dead girl. My sister's hand reached out to me from beneath. I didn't want it. I didn't want to follow her. I didn't know who it was wearing her skin but now I was certain all hope I had for things ever being okay again was gone. But still, I knew somewhere in those woods, the men who had done this were headed to the farm armed to the teeth and happy to kill. They planned on burning my grandparents house and tearing apart the only thing I had left in the world. So I jumped. Bambi led the way and I followed. We ran through the woods- behind us the screams had died out, and ahead the cracking sound of gunfire snapped and rolled like thunder a mile out beyond the trees.