Pushing Up Gravestones - Pushing Up Gravestones – Chapter 10

“I told you my
place was better! God, now we’re just stuck here, wandering! Damn it Denise!”
Ferrah hissed as she kicked a stray bottle that was half-submerged in a murky
puddle.

The bottle
clicked as it sped down the narrow alleyway, its sound echoed. Denise released
a pent up sigh and stared intently at Ferrah. She always hated it when Ferrah
consistently pushed her buttons.

“Ferrah, if we
stayed at your house, we would’ve been dead! We made too much noise
escaping from that zombie. It’s
not that bad, you know. We have Tina; I almost thought we lost her,” Denise responded and turned her attention to the eight
year old that was somberly walking in step with them.

Her hair was a
dirty-blonde, almost a deep mahogany, and her usually frosty eyes were fixed on
the damp alley-way concrete. Denise had an almost maternal feeling about Tina.
She wanted to protect her, like she was the little sister she never had. Tina
was far from dependent; you could see in her eyes that she could very well take
care of herself.

“Denise!”
Ferrah yelled, disrupting Denise’s intense scrutiny, “May I remind you that we
are in a zombie apocalypse? And we don’t have any weapons, parents, or plans on
where we’re going! A horde could come running in here at any moment and we
would be defenseless!”

Ferrah’s
light blue eyes narrowed and her voluminous red hair seemed to grow with her
anger. Denise brushed off the harsh comment like the light downpour on her
shoulders.

“You
don’t have to remind me of anything! I know where we’re at, Ferrah! We don’t
have anything to worry about. You’re taller than most zombies, anyway. If any
do come our way they might be scared off by your line-backer physique!”

“I’m tired of her always
bitching about me!” Denise thought as she wrapped her arms around herself and readied
for Ferrah’s comeback.

Of
course there would be one, Ferrah always got riled up when Denise commented on
her height, which was almost six feet.

“Excuse
me? You’re the one that looks like a boy! You don’t even take care of yourself!
You wear sweats all the time, and you always have your hair in a raggedy
ponytail! Hey, don’t turn around while I’m talking to you—“

“—would
you shut up? We’ll attract a horde!—“

“—You
said I looked like a linebacker!—“

“—Guys?”

Tina
pointed a plump, shaky hand at the end of the alleyway. A group of animalistic
zombies were feasting on a fresh corpse. Denise and Ferrah grew silent and the
disgusting smack of flesh and crunch of bone filled the empty space of the
alleyway. There was another exit, one to the very left they could take, but the
last time they tried to take a shortcut, they ended up lost. Now they were
stuck in this maze of alleyways.

“Crap,
Crap, Crap!” Ferrah hissed and started to back away from the group of zombies.
Denise shushed her, and Tina narrowed her eyes at the two.

“Please
be quiet, or they’ll attack!” Tina hissed.

Denise
and Ferrah nodded and slowly turned the other way. That’s when Ferrah slipped
on the very same bottle she kicked moments before. The bottle spun away,
clanking down the alley as it went.

“SHIT!”
Ferrah yelled aloud as she landed hard on the wet pavement.

The
horde of zombies snapped their necks in the girl’s direction, then wildly
started running for the group.

“You’ve
done it now!” Denise yelled, and grabbed Tina’s hand.

They
both took off running toward the narrow exit, and Ferrah quickly followed
behind. They were right not to trust the sharp exit; more zombies lurked in
behind the turn. Denise and Tina flipped the other way and stormed down the
alleyway. Ferrah yelled, but the two girls were too occupied with running to
hear her.

“Denise!
Don’t let go!” Tina yelled just before her hand slipped from Denise’s grasp.

Denise
slowed to try and regain Tina, but the horde of zombies was fast approaching,
and her body took over in a panic. Denise ran, her heart in sync with her
stride; her lazy ponytail whipping around in the downpour. She could hear the
zombies groan behind her, feel their hungry eyes bury into her back. She
couldn’t turn around; she just kept running with tears in her eyes. 

She
ran. She ran down the numerous alleyways and check unmarked doors to see if
they were locked. She reached a dead-end. There was only one door, and there
was a slim chance that it was unlocked. She prayed as her hand wrapped around
the damp doorknob, and it opened. She swung the door open and slammed it shut
behind her. A zombie’s hand got stuck in the door, and she wildly kicked at the
hand. Slamming her red Converse into the forearm, until thick blood stained the
walls and the femur of the arm stuck out like a sharp white flag.

“Get
away!” She yelled and she kept kicking the arm.

The
force from the other zombies slowly pushed the door open, and numerous arms
crept under the large opening. Her hands began to slip from the door knob, and
she could hear creaking from behind her back, more zombies. Acid started to
burn in her eyes, tears, and she prayed again that it would be over quickly.
That she would die knowing that maybe Ferrah or Tina escaped.

Then
a flash of light sliced across the numerous corroded arms, and they fell
lifelessly to the ground. She shut the door and locked it. Chills ran up her
spine as the muffled yells of the undead sounded from behind the door. She
turned to face the other zombies, but was met with a particularly hypnotizing
pair of dazzling green eyes.

“Well,
that was close,” the especially attractive boy said with a sly smirk.

Denise
felt her cheeks start to heat, and she quickly looked away from his eyes.

“Who,
who are you?” Denise stuttered as the boy whipped the gleaming samurai sword.

A torrent
of gelatinous blood slapped against the stained wallpaper, and he sheathed the
sword. He was a tall boy, about six feet, and he had stunning green eyes and
long black hair. He had a sharp nose and a wide jaw that would look weird on
any other face but his. He wore a simple grey shirt and blood-stained jeans
that coincided with his dirty Converse that were originally white but were now
stained a filthy tan color.

The
only thing that set him apart from the average passerby was the giant sheathed
samurai sword on his back, and the long healed scar that ran across his
eyebrow. His voice was unusual as well. A soft baritone that was as much
mysterious as it was alluring. The boy looked at Denise quizzically and a grin
appeared on his face.

“The
name’s Ty. Ty Whitlock.” He extended an extremely calloused hand and Denise
took it impishly.

“My
name’s Denise. Denise Roberts.” She said, trying and failing at reenacting his
suggestiveness.

Ty
quickly ended the handshake and made his way towards a battered kitchen, “You
were running from quite a few runners. You weren’t bitten were you?”

Denise
followed his voice through the house and to a torn kitchen.  Ty had a pair
of glasses in one hand and a half-full jug of what looked like water in
another. He filled the glasses and offered one to Denise, but she declined.

“No,
no. I wasn’t bitten. But, I was separated from my friends.  Um, Ferrah and
Tina—“

“—Oh,
you three? I’ve been tracking you guys for several blocks. You make so much
noise, I hope you know that! No wonder you were attacked. Listen, I saw where
the red head  ran off to, but the little
one? Not so sure,” Ty took a long sip of the “water” and slammed the empty
glass onto the chipped wood table.

 The glass cracked in response, and Denise
jumped.

“You
were tracking us? Well, why didn’t you try and help or something?” Denise
snapped, and Ty shot out of the chair.

“There’s
only one of me sweetheart, and thousands of them. Maybe if you guys didn’t yell
all the time, I would’ve made myself known.” His tone was sharp, and quickly
silenced Denise.

The
zombies at the door hungrily moaned and scratched at the door. Ty stared
intently at Denise, not in the slightest frazzled by the threat of the zombies.

“Make
yourself at home, Denise. We’ll find your friends eventually. That is, if
they’re still alive.”

Ty
started to make his way to a room marked “bedroom” in smeared sharpie. Denise
huffed and crossed her arms. She had dealt with Ty’s type before. The bad-boy,
mysterious-boy, I’m going-to-get-myself-killed because I’m a hard-ass boy.
There was no way she was going to let this guy boss her around, especially not
at the expense of her friends. She sped up to Ty and dug her fingers into his
bicep.

“No,
we have to find them, now! I swear, Ty, if they die because I stayed here with
you…” her voice trailed off when she noticed Ty staring intently at her
again.

He
let out a pent up sigh.

“It’s
not every day that I get the pleasure of having company at one of my
apartments. Can you at least stay for an hour, and then we can go look for your
friends?” His voice had suddenly changed into one thick in loneliness.

Denise
could feel a pinch in her chest and she relaxed the hand on his arm, “Yeah,
yeah, alright. I’ll stay for a few minutes.”

A
tempting smile broke out across Ty’s face and he gestured for her to come into
his bedroom. They both sat on the floor, that was covered in miscellaneous
blankets and clothing. Ty held his sword close and eyed Denise.

“Are
you hungry? Are you cold? How old are you? Have you seen someone about my
height with grey hair and green eyes? That would be my dad. How long have you
been out here?”

He
started to throw an array of questions at Denise, and she quickly retorted
answers.

“Uhm.
No, I haven’t seen your dad. You should know that we’ve been out here all
night. I hate the alleyways; I swear we need to find an exit. You don’t have a
map by any chance?”

Ty
nodded.

“Yeah,
I have a map, but there’s no way in hell I’m giving it to you! I can tell you
how to get out of here, though. There’s a back way out that back door—“He
pointed the sheathed sword at the west wall—“That will take you to another
alley way. You keep straight until you pass the green door. After that there
will be a right path.”

 “Take
it, and keep straight. You should walk onto the main road. Now, if you stay on
the main road, you should be able to get out of the town. If you don’t stay on
the main road, you’ll be out god knows where. Got it?”

Denise
nodded and sighed.

“Where
did you get the sword?”

Ty
twirled the sword as something flashed across his green eyes.

“It
was my fathers. When those runners attacked my house; he handed it to me and
told me to run. I did, and ended up in an apartment not too far from here. I
cleared out a couple of buildings and set up camp here. Then I started tracking
you and your friends, because I was bored as shit. That red-head sure is tall.”
He chuckled, and so did Denise.

“Yeah.
I sort-of called her a line-backer, and that’s how we got in an argument. God,
I was so stupid. She’s probably dead! We didn’t even try to be quiet,” Tears
started to welt up in her eyes, and she quickly rose.

“I
have to find her Ty. Please, take me to the main road. She might be there and
then we can get out of this town.” Denise said and clenched her fist.

The
very mention of the town sent anger up her back. She thought about her mom and
her dad. Were they even alive?

“I’ll
lead you to the main road, but I’m not leaving. I have to stay until I find my
father.” Ty’s voice rumbled.

Ty
lead the way to the back door. He held up a hand and safely secured the front
door with a couple of chairs and bookshelves.

“I’ll
take care of them when I get back,” he said whilst flashing a smirk.

Denise
returned the gesture and readied herself for the alleyways. Ty handed her a
crowbar.

“In
case you actually need something to bash their heads in with. I hope you know
how to use it.” He chuckled and flung the door open. They both ran down the
narrow alleyways. Everything was clear until they passed the green door, then
they made a right, and a gang of decomposed undead ran in their direction.

Ty
ran in front of Denise, and mowed down the gurgling hordes of undead. Denise
felt déjà vu as she bashed heads in with the rusty crowbar. Thick blood rained
down on the teens as they fought through the undead, and Denise silently cursed
each body she killed. One for Ferrah. One for Tina. One for her mom. One for
her dad.

Then
the unthinkable happened. A random zombie sank its teeth into Ty’s forearm. He
yelled out in pain, and urged Denise to keep running.

“Keep
going! I’ll be fine!” He yelled and cut the zombie clean down the middle.

Denise
nodded and continued to run down the alleyway the concrete changed into a sandy
dirt road, and she felt the long forgotten feeling of hope run through her. She
looked back to thank Ty when she caught an eyeful of him cutting off his
infected arm. He mowed down a few more zombies, fell back away from her.

Emotion
flooded over Denise, and she dropped the crowbar.

“Ty!”
She screamed.

“Just
go!” Ty screamed with a pained expression.

He
banged the sword a few more times while shouting, drawing the zombies away with
his good arm. Most of the zombies followed him, a few sticking behind to munch
on his severed arm. He kept moving back, and soon she couldn’t see his body as
hordes of zombies crowded around him.  

The
zombies would’ve attacked her if they weren’t preoccupied with Ty. She didn’t
know if he was alive or not. She couldn’t imagine him surviving that flood. All
she could do was run once again. She ran down the road for a few minutes and
then saw the distinctive clutter of red hair that belonged to Ferrah.

“Ferrah!”
She yelled, as large tear drops starting to fall from her eyes.

Ferrah
extended her arms, and they met in an awkward hug in the middle of the street.
Ferrah’s smell of dead bodies and dried blood filled Denise’s nose, but she
didn’t care. She was thankful to have Ferrah.

After
a few minutes of hugging the two separated, and Ferrah stared at Denise
tearfully.

“Denise, I can’t find Tina .”