Darkest Days: A Southern Zombie Tale by Layton James J

Author:Layton, James J. [Layton, James J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: zombies
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-27T04:00:00+00:00

Cara watched trees blur by and an occasional corpse futilely reach out for the passing truck. They had been on the road awhile and had almost arrived at her home. Her imagination had feverishly replayed several possible scenarios. In the theater of her mind, the first scenario involved her and Bryant dying en route to the house. The second scenario did not comfort her any more than the first. She walked in the front door to find her family dead. The third was that everyone is alive and well but the house becomes encircled. Taking a break from her morbid predictions, she wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans and flicked her tongue over her dry lips.

The large home appeared around the next curve. Moonlight and a streetlight reflecting off the white paint gave the house an eerie glow. No lights were on within and nothing moved on the lawn. Cara hoped that meant that they had left and found shelter somewhere more secure, but both cars rested within open garage doors dashing momentary promise of a positive resolution.

The entire property looked deserted and desolate, but Bryant sounded upbeat anyway. “Those things aren’t around, so they should be fine.” Unfortunately, his words rang hollow because he was trying to convince himself as well.

The truck idled in the driveway producing a steady hum of a dilapidated motor. Bryant twisted the silvery key, killing the engine. An uneasy silence fell over everything. Now that they had an uninterrupted moment to take in the surroundings, nothing looked normal. It was like the entire neighborhood was dead. Neither knew what to expect as they walked up to the front door. The couple could find the living, the dead, or the resurrected.

Cara paused before turning the brass knob. She swallowed, preparing her throat for speech, wanting to request a gun. Before the words escaped her lips, Bryant extended a pistol, handle first, toward her. The girl, debatably a woman, gingerly took the weapon knowing that it might be the one to kill her parents if things were at their worst.

Bryant watched her hold the gun as if she did not want to touch it. “Listen, we’re going in armed.” He tried soothing her with words. “If the radio is right, all hell has broken loose and your parents will appreciate the extra protection.”

At the mention of her parents, she snapped her head around to face him. He smiled back at her, knowing his expression did not fool her. She could smell the fear on him. Her eyes sized him up in a slightly different way than he was used to. Instead of appraising his handsome face or his young, lean body, her eyes picked out the revolver shoved into the belt of his jeans and then the shotgun resting in his hands. It was a chilling moment to Bryant, realizing just how far the crisis had progressed.

Her hesitating hand tried the knob, which would not turn. Cara pointed the barrel down as her other hand dipped into her pocket and produced a jingling set of keys.

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