Zombiekill by Russ Watts

there is any chance of this going wrong, then I need to know. It’s not too late to back out. We can stay here. We can still make a go of it with the supplies we have. I’m sure if we just got the seeds to take and figured out an irrigation system we could—”
    “Nein.” Schafer had heard it before, heard all the excuses and reasons why they should stay. Jeremy had been the last one to agree to go, and convincing him had taken all of Schafer’s efforts. Was it a desire to protect his home, fear of the outside world, or just blind naïveté that led Jeremy to think they were better off staying? Even his wife, Lyn, had agreed that they had to do something, go somewhere, and find help. They would surely die if they stayed at Jeremy’s, and Schafer wasn’t about to let him change his mind now, not when they were all ready to go. “We go today. Now. It’s agreed, Jeremy. We will be okay. Do you think I would risk taking my wife and daughter out there if I thought it wasn’t safe enough? I would do anything to protect Rilla, which is exactly why we are leaving.”
    Schafer saw disappointment in Jeremy’s face. Surely he wasn’t going to abort at the last moment? The man wasn’t completely stupid. He and Lyn were intelligent people, teachers before the world stopped turning and became a dead zone. Victoria was well-educated and happy, she spoke politely, and they had taken in the strangers months ago without asking for anything in return. It seemed that being confined to the same building for months on end, though, hadn’t brought them close but in fact driven them apart. They had very different ideas on how to proceed from here. Part of it, Schafer knew, was that this wasn’t his home. This was Jeremy’s house, and abandoning it for the uncertainty of the outside, with them out there, was no doubt unsettling. But it was the right thing to do. It was the only thing left that they could do.
    “Look, Jeremy, if you want to stay, then stay. You, Lyn, and Victoria might be able to survive without us. Perhaps we have depleted your food reserves too much. I’m sorry. But I am very grateful that you took us in.” Schafer put a firm hand on Jeremy’s shoulder and smiled. There was no hidden agenda or anything sinister in it; he genuinely wanted the man to feel a part of the plan. “I can do this without you, but it will be much easier if you are with us, I think. We are also leaving. Now.”
    Schafer looked at the retaining wall he had climbed over a few days ago and remembered how it had been. At first, it had been quite easy. Until he had been forced to kill the woman in her own home, he had thought it would be relatively easy going from house to house. That first kill had almost undone him. It was only remembering how Magda and Rilla were relying on him that drove him on. He had killed more that day, more than he had wanted to, but it had been borne of necessity. He had passed through more houses, more streets, and eventually found a house where he had been able to look at the house on the hill that Rilla had urged him to investigate. The high walls around the estate and thick trees hid most of the property, but he could snatch glimpses of it. The house appeared quiet in the daylight, but he knew Rilla had seen lights at night. Schafer had stayed perfectly still in the upstairs bedroom of a stranger’s house for the best part of three hours watching the house. The heat of the day had warmed the house, and he wanted to stretch his stiff legs frequently, but it was important to monitor the house for activity. Once he had found a good vantage spot, he had stayed there without so much as taking a sip of water. The dead still walked beneath the window, in the streets all around him, and so Schafer had remained quiet, motionless for hours. In all that time he had seen only one sign of movement at the house. A figure had emerged from a doorway once, though it was impossible to tell if it was a man or woman. They had