The Living Dead Boy by Rhiannon Frater Page B

landed on his side and burst into even louder cries.  Josh scrambled over the gate, feeling the faint brush of his zombified mother’s hand against his ankle.  Snagging Drake’s arm, he dragged him, hitting the door to the laundry room at full steam.  He wrenched it open and pushed Drake through before following.
    As he pulled the door shut, he saw the zombie that had been his mother trying to get over the child gate, the gun still clutched in her hand.  She toppled over the gate head first, slamming into the kitchen floor. The gun fired with a sharp crack, the bullet slamming into the wall near Josh.
    “Crap!”  Josh slammed the door shut and turned to see his brother laying on the floor sobbing.
    “Mama, Mama,” Drake wailed.
    Pulling the curtain slightly away from the window next to the back door, Josh looked into the backyard. It was peaceful.  The high fence and locked gate had kept the zombie chaos from flowing over onto their property.  The boughs of the oak tree that sheltered his tree house were swaying in the winds of the oncoming storm.  The sky was now completely gray and threatening rain.
    The door behind him began to tremble as the zombie on the other side began to beat against it. Terrified that the gun would go off again, Josh dragged Drake into his arms.   His mother had said they needed to go somewhere safe until his dad could get them. The only place he could think of was his tree house.
    “Drake, stop crying!”
    “Mama!”  Drake whimpered, thrusting his hand toward the door.  “Mama!”
    The sound of his voice made their zombified mother growl and slam her body against the door to the laundry room.  Josh pulled open the back door and stumbled down the steps into the backyard, struggling with his brother.  Drake’s desperate attempts to get free sent them both sprawling onto the ground.
    “You’re mean!”  Drake exclaimed. He began to crawl away from Josh, sobbing.
    Josh leaped to his feet, turned and dashed back up the steps.  He heard the gun go off again. He gasped, terrified. It sounded like his dead mother was using the gun to try to break through the laundry room door. Reaching into the house, he felt his heart skipping in his chest.  It hurt to breathe.  He kept blinking sweat and tears from his eyes as he tried to focus.  Gripping the doorknob, he pulled the door shut, blocking out the sound of the zombie desperately trying to pursue them.
    Turning, he saw Drake lying facedown on the ground weeping.  A soft rain was just beginning, dotting Drake’s yellow shirt with wet spots.  Josh reached down and hooked his hands under his brother’s armpits.
    “No! No!  Want Mama,” Drake sobbed.  “Want Mama. Want Rex.”
    Lifting his brother off the ground, Josh fought down an enormous sob building up in his chest.  “Mama isn’t Mama anymore.  She’s a monster.”
    Drake threw back his head, sobbing.
    “Yeah, yeah.  Mama got sick from the monster bite,” Josh explained.  “She’s a monster now.”
    Drake whimpered, all the fight going out of him. Josh assumed that his three year old mind was trying to cope with the situation.
    “Want Rex,” Drake finally said.
    “We’ll get him later,” Josh promised.
    He felt Drake go limp in his arms as he carried him over to the tree house.  The rain started to come down at a faster pace.  The world seemed eerily silent except for the gentle patter of the rain against the leaves.  He couldn’t even hear the sound of his dead mother pounding on the door inside the house.
    “Drake, climb up.”
    “I can’t go into the tree house,” Drake whispered. “Mama and Daddy said so.”
    “You can this time,” Josh assured him as he lifted the little boy onto the ladder.
    Positioning himself directly below and slightly behind Drake, he carefully guided the little fellow up the trunk of the tree.
    “I’m scared,” his brother whispered as they climbed higher.
    “It’s okay.  I’m right behind you.  I got