All That I See - 02 Read Free

“It’s coyotes, I think.”
    Sara was quiet for a moment.
    “But we’re so close to town,” she said. “I didn’t think coyotes got this close to people.”
    “What people?” I said.
    The sound was getting louder. They were howling and yelping. It gave me shivers. They were very close, and it wasn’t even dark outside yet.
    “They sound like the hounds of hell or something,” she said.
    “Yeah,” I said. “They do sound creepy.”
    There was another sound mixing in with them now—something similar to the lowing of cattle.
    It was the moans and howls of the undead.
    “I’m going out to see what’s up,” Sara said.
    “Out?”
    “On the roof,” she said.
    “Okay,” I said, “I’ll be right up.”
    I heard her footsteps on the staircase, and I started rinsing away the soap. The noise outside had migrated past the house and had settled in at a location nearby.
    I dried, put on some clean clothes, and stepped out of the bathroom. It was dusk, and it would be dark soon. I went to the living room and grabbed a pair of the night vision goggles that I’d taken from the Chinook helicopter.
    The window was open in the bedroom upstairs and the sounds from outside were coming in clearer. I climbed out then up to the roof. Sara was seated on the chimney, silhouetted against the dim sky. She had the rifle to her shoulder, and she was looking in the direction of the house we’d been trying to signal. I ducked under our bed sheet sign and walked along the peak of the roof until I was next to her.
    “What do you see?” I said.
    “They’re not coyotes,” she said. “They’re dogs—lots of dogs.”
    She handed me the rifle. I looked through the scope.
    There were maybe ten dogs down there. They were family pets that had been forced to fend for themselves. Most of them were still wearing collars. There was a collie and a yellow lab and two beagles. The rest didn’t look to be any specific breed.
    There was a fight going on between them and the undead, but I couldn’t tell who was attacking whom. It might have been both ways. I’d never seen a dog eat one of the infected, but I knew they would eat a carcass, and that was really all these things were—ambulatory carcasses. I knew the infected would go after live animals. Jen had shot a man eating a dog, and they’d killed and partially eaten our goat.
    Two of the infected creatures had a beagle and were pulling it in opposite directions while the animal tried to writhe out of their grip. Just a few feet away from them , a zombie was on the ground and three dogs were tearing into it.
    “This is new,” I said.
    “Do you think the dogs are hungry?” Sara said.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “It looks like they’re feral, but I can’t imagine why they would want to eat those things when there are still plenty of penned up goats and chickens out there.”
    “Maybe the smell is attracting them,” she said. “I’ve noticed it more now that the weather is warming.”
    “Could be,” I said.
    “Look,” Sara said.
    “I see it.”
    There was movement in the window of the house we’d been watching. There was a man standing in the window. He was wearing a dirty white sweatshirt and a cap. His face was gaunt behind a thick horseshoe mustache and soul patch. He looked down at the commotion outside then, after a few seconds, looked directly at me. He stared at us then stuck his arm out of the window and gave us a big wave. I saw Sara wave back out of the corner of my eye.
    I put the rifle down, so I wouldn’t shoot him by accident, and continued to watch the fray down the street. The man made a few gestures at us, but I couldn’t tell what he was trying to say. Eventually, it got too dark, and I put on the goggles.
    “Great minds thing alike,” Sara said, sliding her own pair of goggle s down over her head.
    The goggles had a zoom feature on them with a 4x magnification—not as good as the scope or a pair of binoculars, but good enough.
    The yelping