Induction

I half ran, half stumbled, to the kitchen table and threw on my sneakers. Not wasting any time lacing them, Jake and I swung our bags over our shoulders and armed ourselves. I beat Jake to the back door and pulled it open, revealing a rotting corpse standing in my path. Not thinking, I lifted the hammer and, with one hard swing, plunged the tool deep into its cranium. My arm reverberated with shock as the head of the hammer struck bone.

As I pulled the hammer back, its eyes rolled and its muscles went slack. It fell to the ground in a heap, and gray matter spilled out onto the concrete pad. I turned back to Jake to ask where to go and my mouth went dry as I spotted several of the undead crawling through the broken window. Daphne barked a protective warning at the approaching horde, darting forward and snapping at them.

The storm had knocked out a twenty-foot section of fence, taking the gate with it. Zombies swarmed the area, and our only option was to jump the fence at the back of the yard and into an empty lot. Oh yeah, and hope there was nothing waiting on the other side to catch and eat me. Jake lifted me and I peered over. “It’s clear.” He shoved me over the top without pause and I toppled to the saturated earth on the other side. My ass struck a rock and I gurgled out a high-pitched screech of pain.

I got up and held my arms up. “Hand me Daphne,” I instructed him. He didn’t say anything, and no dog greeted me at the top of the fence. “Jake, hand me the dog.” I heard her still barking on the other side and saw Jake’s fingers over the top of the fence, no dog in his hands.

I screamed at him, not caring what attention I was calling to us. “Jake, DON’T DO THIS. Please, Jake, no! I need her. She needs me. She won’t survive on her own.” Jake hopped the fence, landing on his feet. I was in shock. I clawed at the fence trying to get back over to my dog, but I was too short to gain leverage. She was going crazy on the other side. I could hear her digging in the dirt to get to me. I knelt and began digging from my side. Her nose stuck through the bottom of the fence, rippling the surface of the pooling rain water with her panicked exhalations. Her cries leaving my soul tortured and twisted, I dug until my fingers bled. There was just enough space that she could see me under the fence.

I spun on Jake and reached for the ax, but he grabbed me and swung me over his shoulders. He began running as I beat my bloody hands on his back and begged for him to stop.

“I’m sorry. Oh, Jesus, I’m sorry,” he sniveled as he ran.

Daphne howled in anguish and disappeared from the small opening. “NOOOOOOOO,” I sobbed. “Daphne!”

We cleared the empty lot and Jake put me down. Before he could get a word out, I began to run back for Daphne. The opening in the fence swarmed with bodies and I knew I would never get to her without being taken down. My knees went weak and gave out. I found myself on all fours sobbing and blubbering out her name.

The splash of his shoes on the wet ground alerted me to his arrival behind me. “Oh, God. What did I do?” He agonized. “It was only a mistake. I made a mistake.” His voice was hoarse and came out strangled as he pled for forgiveness. He paused for only an instant before he passed by me at a sprint toward the hole in the fence.

Terror held me in place like a vice-grip and the torture of indecision and fear threatened to crush me. On one hand I was crazed by the loss of my dog. On the other hand, my husband was running to certain death in a foolish attempt to right his wrong.

I opened my mouth to scream for Jake to come back, but before I could call out, a bark sounded. Daphne burst through the opening like a bullet and weaved between the arms of the grasping corpses. She shot by Jake and leapt into my outstretched arms. Tears of happiness replaced my tormented sobs.

“Jake Rossi, don’t you ever pull a stupid stunt like that again.” I shoved him backwards with my free hand and waved my finger in his face. “How am I supposed to process what just happened. First you leave Daphne to die then you try to throw your own life away to save her? I don’t know if I should be pissed or proud.”

“My, God. I am so sorry, Em. I wasn’t thinking. By the time I knew what happened, it was too late.” The look of torment on Jake’s face was heartbreaking. “I love you so much. I love Daphne too, I just, I don’t know. The thought of something happening to you made me insane.”

I stepped into him and put my head on his chest. Emotions jumbled around in my head like gum balls. I was angry and confused, but more than that I was terrified. I couldn’t tell him it was okay; not yet at least. Because nothing about this was okay, and I wasn’t ready to deal with it.