The Rot

Chapter 9

 "Oh fuck," I said. I dropped down from the fence and ducked. Peterson's shot missed the top of my head by a few inches.

Cynthia, who was climbing the back gate to get into the alley jumped back down into the yard. She had a terrified look on her face.

"Keep going, Cyn!" I shouted. "Peterson's right behind us!"

"There's dead things all over the alley," Cyn replied.

"Shit! Next yard then." I grabbed Cynthia and hopped over the chain link fence to our left.

Peterson popped his head into the yard and tried to shoot at us. "Go on, keep running!"

"That's what we plan on doing numb nuts!" I yelled back. I was getting really frustrated with this prick.

"Reid, do not antagonize the whacko with the gun please," Cynthia said.

"Good idea."

The two of us kept low and tried to stay out of Reid's sight. I knew that if Cyn and I were to try and hop over another fence, Peterson would have a clear shot at both of us. In addition to that little problem, the eaters that were in the area were starting to converge towards the gunshots. I could hear the dead things snarling and growling. Some of them were starting to filter over the top of some of the nearby fences.

Cynthia and I cut in between two more houses and made for the street out in front. When the two of us made it to the road, there were eaters coming at us from several directions: they were coming from both sides of the street, from out of several houses, the dead things were really coming out of the woodwork.

From the backyards behind us, Peterson was shooting at the undead.

"What do we do, Reid? We're fucked," Cynthia whispered.

"Think, Reid, think."  

My eyes locked onto the house to my left, to the basement windows. I kicked in the glass and motioned for Cyn to get inside. "Go on, it's our only chance. We have to hide from that fucker."

Cyn dropped down and crawled inside. She slipped down into the basement and I followed suit. I wish I would have known that the windows were higher up in the basement because when I hurried inside, I fell flat on my back, making a loud thud on the cement floor.

"Oh fuck, that hurt," I groused.

Cynthia helped me up, "Are you okay? Did you hit your head?"

"No. And even if I did, there's nothing in there worth damaging anyhow."

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK. Peterson was still out there shooting at the dead things. We saw the legs of an eater dart past the open basement window as it headed towards the backyard.

"That asshole is drawing out the dead with every damn shot," Cynthia whispered.

"Hey, let him," I replied. "Let him deal with the eaters so we don't have to. He'll run out of bullets eventually."

CRACK CRACK.

"Where the hell did you two go?" Peterson called out to us. He was close to the open basement window.

Another dead thing rushed towards Peterson. "Get away from me!" Peterson screamed at the corpse. "I have business that I need to handle." We heard him fire, and the dead thing fell right outside the basement window. Cyn and I could both see the bullet wound in the center of the eater's forehead.

I quickly looked around the basement, trying to see if there was a place the two of us could hide. There wasn't anything we could duck behind to get out of Peterson's view. Cynthia and I had no choice but to hug the wall directly underneath the window.