The stench, however, followed her up. It might have been stronger on the second floor.
The first door she tried led to a bathroom with nothing of interest. The second door was a bedroom. A single, small bed lay inside. Juliana poked through the dresser. Each drawer was full of small boy’s clothes.
Juliana’s heart hammered in her chest.
Something was wrong here. A half eaten meal she could see. The family decided to eat before abandoning the town. All the books, all the furniture, and an expensive looking mask were suspicious. But full drawers of children’s clothes? Either this kid had a lot of clothes or this family left in a hurry.
And the smell. Oh the smell. It got worse as Juliana crept towards the last door.
She threw it open.
And almost threw up. The smell assaulted her the same time the sight did.
A king sized bed had its sheets torn off. They were wrapped up at the foot of the bed. White sheets were stained black. A gray foot stuck out from one end. Maggots crawled all over and in it.
Juliana was about to shut the door quietly when the sound of a bare foot slapped against the hard wood hall. She slammed the door and spun around.
A half-naked woman stood in front of her. Her jaw hung slack. Her clothes were torn to shreds. A kitchen knife stuck out of her chest.
Her skin most definitely was not alive.
Rustling and a moan could be heard through the door behind her. Retreat was not an option.
Situations like this were why her mother trained her. She sucked in her fear and got serious.
Juliana flicked her wrist. Her flashlight melted in her hand. She launched bits of sharpened metal at the woman’s head. She swiped her hand over the brass doorknob before the shards even struck. Brass marbles flew from her fingers into the woman’s chest.
They sunk into her with a sickening squelch, but they managed to stagger her.
Juliana sprinted past, knocking over a small table in the hallway on her way.
The doorknobs melted into her hand as she ran past. Juliana desperately wished the banister down the stairs was made of metal. The supports holding it up were made of metal and she settled for grabbing that as she flew down the stairs.
Juliana dashed out the back door, not waiting to see if the zombie followed her. With another flick of her wrist, columns of earth erupted from the back porch to completely cover the door and window. Another few flicks of her wrist saw other windows being covered.
She jumped the fence with the help of a large earth mound and covered the windows in the front as well. Not waiting to see if anything had already made it out, Juliana created a platform on their front grass about twice as high as a person.
Finally she relaxed atop her platform. She could still smell that stench she knew was rotting flesh.
From her backpack, she pulled out a small business card. She gave it three taps and the circle began glowing faintly. She gave it three more taps. Then three again.
Finally Mrs. Baxter appeared next to her on the platform.
“What is it, Miss Rivas. I am quite–” She cut off as she noticed the house half encased in earth. “Mind telling me what is going on?”
“Zombies,” Juliana breathed out. She felt like choking.
“Zombies?”
“At least one. But I saw another corpse and I swear I heard it moan. Plus there was a kid’s room but I didn’t see any kid corpses.”
A light rubbing on her back brought her out of her fit. She leaned back from the edge. Mrs. Baxter had her phone out and was typing something into it.
Juliana wiped the spittle off her lip just as Mr. Lurcher appeared on the platform.
“Zombies,” he grunted.
“Indeed.”
He gave a few gruff sniffs of the air. “I can smell it from here.”
“Zombies?” Juliana asked.
“Death.”
“Juliana,” Mrs. Baxter said, “were you injured in the slightest?”
She shook her head. “I just ran past one as it stumbled. It only got…” How close?
Juliana slumped down on the platform.
Mrs. Baxter knelt next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. “Hold on,” she said, “we’re going back to the dorm. Wayne, keep an eye out for anything unusual.” She pulled out her dagger and hesitated. “And Wayne. Do not go in until I return. I would hate to have to explain to Dean Halsey why our alchemist is a zombie.”
With that said, reality folded away. The sky, the house, all folded into nothing. A moment later, her dorm room appeared and Mrs. Baxter gave her a light push into the room.
Juliana felt herself spin around and get pulled into the bosom of Mrs. Baxter. The instructor held her close and began whispering that it was going to be alright.
After a minute of Juliana pretending she wasn’t crying into the woman’s chest, Mrs. Baxter pulled away.
