Get Off My L@wn - A Zombie Novel by Perry Kivolowitz

and listening for a few minutes. I had to
pee. We had used two arrows. On the way back we’d want to retrieve these too.
    We left the grass and made our way to the deck
and up the stairs. We crouched at the sliding glass patio door and looked
inside. Nothing appeared to be amiss. Using the duct tape, I taped a circle
larger than the diameter of my fist and forearm near where the lock would be.
With Ruth Ann keeping watch behind us, I smashed the glass through the center
of the ring of tape using the pointy end of the crowbar. The outer glass broke
nicely but the inner glass, without a border reinforced by duct tape made a lot
of noise. Fortunately the intact outer glass muffled the sound to the outside
of the house. Anything inside would now be aware of us.
    Again we waited and listened. Nothing stirred. I
gave a last look inside then reached in and undid the lock. I tried the door
but it moved only an inch before stopping with a thud. The Flynn’s had placed a
wooden strip in the door’s track to prevent what I was trying right now. Given
the additional reach advantage of a break in the glass it was easy enough to
flip the strip out of the track with the crowbar.
    Upon opening the door, it chimed. Somewhere in
the house an alarm status panel started beeping. If I didn’t find the panel and
disarm the alarm it was likely that a claxon would sound. We had heard the
Flynn’s alarm before when they set it off accidentally. It was designed to draw
attention to the house, attention we did not want. If it was like our house’s
alarm system, I’d have less than 60 seconds to disarm it.
    Since I didn’t know their codes, I would have to
find their alarm box and disconnect its battery backup. The power grid was gone
so the system must be running off its lead acid battery. I bolted into the
house to follow the sound. Ruth Ann raced up the deck stairs after me. Later,
in the most loving way possible, she chewed me out for running headlong into a
space we knew nothing about. I felt flush when I realized I could have been
running into the waiting arm or arms of the undead.
    Fortunately, the Flynn’s house was truly vacant.
I followed the beeping to its source; an alarm panel placed just like ours next
to the door between the house and garage. But where was the battery? Unlike
Hollywood computer geeks I can’t just tap keys on the panel until I exclaim “I’m
in!”
    Like our house the laundry room is right next to
the garage and, like our house, the alarm cabinet was in the laundry room
closet. I opened the cabinet and removed one battery lead. No more beeps. After
another moment’s thought, I took the whole battery.
    We next secured the deck door behind us and
began our search of the house. We knew Flynn’s home office was in the basement.
That was our first guess as to where the bow and supplies would be found. This
time Ruth Ann took the lead armed with her carbine. I pointed the flashlight
from behind her. It would have been nice if we had a weapon mounted light. Put
that on the list of “needs.” Our caution proved unnecessary as the basement was
clear.
    Flynn’s bow, a complicated and scary looking
compound thing, was mounted on the wall. Below it, mounted vertically was a
T-shaped contraption with a rifle stock. Flynn had a crossbow. All I knew about
crossbows is that they looked really cool and that a Pope had outlawed them in
the 12th century.
    In the office closet we found three sealed boxes
of five crossbow bolts each and one open box missing two bolts. There were also
two boxes of a dozen carbon fiber arrows each and some supplies including more
than a dozen razor sharp broad heads. We had found what we came for.
    We didn’t want to push our luck too much and
went back upstairs to head home. On the way we stopped in the kitchen and
pantry and found a supply of canned goods and non-perishables large enough to
warrant a future trip back even after filling our pack. There was a large jar
of instant coffee. I