A loud crash from outside made Andy’s head jerk up from where he used one of Devon’s t-shirts to rebind his bite wound. “What was that? Are those French doors still secure?” Sweat seeped from his flushed face as his manic eyes darted to the side of the house.

Devon looked over from the weapons pile he’d been collecting. “No, I think it’s something else.”

“What?” Nicole asked from where she hugged her arms around herself in the corner.

“I’m pretty sure that would be my old fence being torn down, which means we need to make sure the back door stays secure. Luckily the windows in the back are a good six feet off the ground, so we are safe there.”

Tracy called out from the living room. “I thought we were letting these people stay here because they were going to help us, but I’m the only one watching the front windows and now they will be in the back yard too.”

Devon eyed his wife. The moment stretched. “Before we get to involved, let’s each grab a weapon.” He already had a hunting knife strapped to his belt, but he put two steak knives into his back pocket while saying, “I’ll stick to my bat, but there are plenty of extra steak knives. I think we learned that only head shots kill these mutants. So go for the eyes if you can. Andy I have a hand axe you can use. Nicole, I’ll give you our biggest butcher knife.”

She eyed it with a certain level of disgust, since it had already been blooded.

“What about me?” Tracy demanded.

“I was wondering if you’d like to use that machete I bought in high school.”

Without saying a word, she walked forward and picked it up off the table. A broken window caused her to jump. “Devon, we need to do something, those freaks will find a way into here soon.”

Setting his jaw, Devon said, “Then we had better get busy. I brought out all the tools I have. I’ve got a lot of nails. Let’s start boarding this place up. I have that stupid waterbed frame. We’ll start with that.”

* * *

An hour later, but still many long hours before sunrise, they had done most of what they could to secure the house. The downside turned out to be the noise of the hammering had attracted more of the madman and Devon guessed there already might be as many as thirty of the blood covered cannibals circling his home.

Tracy came up to him as he finished the last board over his office window. “Andy doesn’t look to good. I think he might be becoming one of those things.”

“All the others seemed to change quickly. He’s been a huge help to us. What do you want me to do, smash in his head with a hammer in front of his girlfriend?”

“You could ask them to leave.”

“So they help us work our ass off making this house safe and then we toss them out there to be torn apart?”

Nicole walked into the room. “I… I hope I’m not intruding, but I was wondering if there is any way we could do something with the bodies we have in here? Andy was also wondering if you had a television.”

“We don’t have cable, but, wait… we could turn on the radio.”

She struggled to smile. “That could help.”

Devon grabbed the radio and walked toward the dining room when he heard Andy cry out, “Help, Help! The broke through the back door. Help!”

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