Walter's breath came slowly as he watched the things walk around on the first floor. He did his best to let only the very top of his head peak out from around the doorway, and he seemed to be well hidden by the darkness. But still, he wasn't about to take any precautions with them in his house.

A loud crash had woken him up twenty minutes earlier. He sat bolt upright in bed as a week's worth of adrenaline was dumped into his system instantaneously. He strained to hear what had happened, and when nothing came, he laid back down and almost shut his eyes when he distinctly heard the floor creak downstairs. Someone was in his house.

He had grabbed the phone immediately to call the police, but the line was dead. His cellphone didn't work either - he had always gotten terrible reception at home, which hadn't bothered him much until now. Lacking a way to get help, and at least wanting to know how many intruders he was up against, he had gotten up and crept to the top of the stairs. He brought his fire extinguisher with him, since it was the closest heavy object he could find and any weapon was better than no weapon.

The intruders were not what he would have expected.

They tromped about in front of the landing, knocking over things and milling about seemingly randomly. They would bump into each other or the bannister or the wall. Or knock things over, as they did several more times after he pearched at the top of the stairs. This would normally have seemed odd, but it made some degree of sense in this case, since as best as Walter could tell, the intruders had no eyes.

Or clothes. Or skin. Or anything other than bones. Walter's house was filled with walking skeletons. Needless to say, Walter almost had a heart attack when the first one trudged by in front of the stairs, but he quickly decided it was a joke. Until he saw the sheer numbers that were walking around down there. It would have needed to be quite an elaborate joke.

So he sat in silence and watched them bang into things, trying to remember to breathe on occasion. So far, they hadn't discovered the staircase.

Unfortunately, it didn't take them too much longer. One rounded the corner at the base of the stairs, crashed into a second one, turned, and began to ascend.

That was enough for Walter. He didn't wait to see if more were coming or where this one was going or what was going to happen. He also didn't think that whacking them with his fire extinguisher would do much good, so he simply turned and ran into his bedroom and dove through his window.

The last thing he as he fell towards his lawn were dozens of skeletons, all standing still, holding arms up to catch him and add him into their numbers.