Day 8

Looking thru the rubble of the house for the keys and thru various occupants of the houses pockets was taxing. Not much can be said for this task except it hardens you digging thru the pockets of someone who hours earlier was watching Jeopardy or having dinner. Now just something in my way from getting to my brothers, and possibly safety. As I searched frantically thru the house I wondered if I had a time machine and went back into time to warn everyone if they would even listen. I mean if someone came up to me saying this would be happening yesterday I would have thought them crazy. Funny how life can completely upend you and leave you on your head, looking for keys in a strange house.

I had all but given up on getting keys for the truck out front and was heading to the door to leave when I noticed it......the keys hanging next to the front door on a key hook. Dam in my haste to find them i passed on the obvious answer and first place I look when I am in my own house. Snatching the keys off the hook I made my way thru the door to the front and walked right into the middle of a pack of "things" . They must have heard the gunshot I assumed because they were everywhere and as soon as I came into view they made a B line for me. I stepped back into the house and made sure the gun had a full helping of ammo. Then I took another peek out the door crack as if they hadn't seen me and tried to get a decent head count. 12 heads is the count and it made me nervous, I had fired a gun once and damn near blew my own face off in doing so , to top that off I knew I wasn't a good shot and the icing on this cake was that I didn't have 12 rounds. Simple math and I was screwed, A plan was what I needed and fast.

Without much time to make any decisions I kicked open the front door and yelled "c'mon you dumb sums a beeches" and fired a round into the first walking thing in my path putting him to the ground like he was hit by an asteroid. The other things didn't even flinch and continued towards me and the open door. Cocking the gun I took aim at the next one closest to me and squeezed a round into his head removing it and most of the neck. The gun was getting easier to handle I thought as I pumped in another round and squeezed it off into the next thing heading towards me. The things were all converging on the door little by little and having 3 down meant 9 to go and I knew at some point I would be out of ammo.

I pumped another round into the chamber and leveled the fourth thing then started to move to the back of the house. The things made their way thru the door and towards me and I slipped out the hole in the back of the house. As soon as I went thru the back of the house I started hauling butt to the front via the side of the house and went for the truck. I fumbled for the keys and shoved my way into the front seat and jammed the keys in the ignition. I didn't have the truck running for a second when the things were all over me, apparently I was in a hotbed for activity and woke the dead....literally.

Firing up the truck I ripped it into gear and stoved the accelerator running down at least two of the fiends. One troubling thing was on the hood of the truck hanging off to the side and not giving up it's grasp of the wiper arm. Swerving left then right as I motored down the small rural road and the thing stayed on , not looking upset , nervous, or afraid, just looking at me. The most surreal thing you can have is a moment like this everything you know is out the window as the thing keeps coming, I wanted to slam a tree to shake it loose but already fought to get this vehicle and wasn't about to do anything to subject the truck to damage to make it unusable.

Further down the road and the thing was actually trying to make it further towards the windshield and claw at it trying to almost paw at me. I was far enough away from the rest of the things and decided to make a little situation easier, by jamming the brakes on sending the thing flying out in front of the truck. "bam boom boom " and another one flew off the roof onto the hood and then into the roadway in front of me. "Jesus I didn't even see that guy", I said out loud. Both of the things started getting back to their feet and as soon as they had a bit of balance were heading to me. I released the brakes and sent the truck in motion rolling right over the things. A gnarling snapping noise made its way into my cab and a growling yell came from the things as I rolled over their bodies.

I made my way about 20 yards ahead and then stopped and turned to look out the back window. The things were twitching and trying to get up from the ground, I put the truck in gear and started to head to my brothers.....