A Zombie Survival Series (Book 1): Infestation Iowa (10 page)

“Basement!” David yelled “Holiday get the nails, they are in the basement!” David said looking at Holiday while helping Eric by holding one end of the table up to the window. Once again, Holiday was lost in his mind. David had seen this too many times. He walked over to Holiday and raised his fist. Eric quickly moved to the middle of the table to better hold it up as David moved away. David was fed up with Holiday freezing; he then swung so hard that when he hit Holiday, the entire couch tipped over bringing Holiday’s legs up over his head.

“Fuck!” Holiday screamed getting up and holding his jaw with one hand. He looked at David with anger in his eyes.

“Snap the fuck out of it Sheriff!” David yelled. “We need your help right now!”

Holiday stood up and screamed back “My only reason to live is lying dead out that door son!”

“I don’t care!” David yelled, causing everyone to slightly gasp. David looked around at everyone. “Well I do, but we are about to be overrun by thousands of zombies!” He kicked the bottom of the tipped over couch. “We can mourn later! Right now, if we breakdown, everyone in here dies!” David stepped over the couch causing Holiday to slightly flinch. David stepped beside Holiday and headed toward the door to the basement at the end of the living room.

“Alright!” Holiday said as he raised his hands to stop David. “Nails? Where in the Basement?” David paused and glared at him tensing his lips. He wondered if he was able to trust Holiday anymore. He had broken down so many times already and he was the Sheriff. The sound of moaning outside interrupted his doubt.

“First shelf on the right at the bottom of the stairs.” David said walking back around the couch. Holiday turned and swung open the door. He ran downstairs as the zombies closed in on the house. Eric let out a loud grunt as a pack of zombies pushed up against the table he held. An arm flew in through the opening at the bottom of the window swinging everywhere, trying to grab anything. Destiny cradled her broken wrist in front of herself. She still had one pistol holstered in her pants and held the other one with her good hand. She raised it and fired through the opening in the window on the bottom. The arm receded as she hit a zombie in the head causing it to fall back dead.

“Holiday!” Eric yelled.

David ran to the next room on the other side of his stairs; it was his kitchen. David paused in front of the stairs and looked back, searching for Holiday to run back up out of the basement.

‘He should have found the nails by now.’ David thought and started heading back into the room and toward the door leading to the basement. Before he reached it Holiday sprung out holding a giant jar of assorted nails. David smirked and ran back toward the stairs. He headed into the Kitchen and flipped over the table. He kicked off the legs and dragged the table back to the living room. The only window in the kitchen was a small one above the sink. Even if it was wide open a child wouldn’t be able to fit through it.

“Destiny, help with the other window!” David yelled as Holiday handed Eric nails from the jar. Eric hammered away driving the nails through the table and into the window frame.

Destiny set her gun on the ground and rushed to the window on the next wall to help David hoist up the kitchen table. It completely covered the window as it was a massive table. “I got it, you go grab some nails!” He screamed as the moans seemed to overpower his words.

Destiny rushed over to Holiday and grabbed a handful of nails out of the bucket. She ran back, dropping a few nails but didn’t pause for a second. The window behind the kitchen table David held smashed away as a group of zombies snarled and tried to crawl in. Destiny threw her body against the table while holding up nails for David. He grabbed one and using his massive pistol, pounded the nails into the window frame. He finished nailing his side then quickly did her side as she held the table with her body and nails with her good hand.

“Done!” Eric yelled, backing away from the window but still watching it.

Holiday and Eric waited a few moments to see if the table would hold. After a few pounds they nodded as the table shook but held its position. Then they heard a smash from the kitchen and ran into it. They saw a few zombie arms waiving around in the broken kitchen window. None of them could fit through.

“Next room?” Eric asked Holiday. He nodded and together they jogged into the next room on the opposite side of the house from the Living Room. Books lined the walls and a table with two chairs sat in the middle. Eric and Holiday looked at each other puzzled; they never knew David was such an avid book collector. David then ran into the room.

“One more room!” David said motioning for them to follow him, “Bring that table!” Holiday and Eric grabbed the table and lifted. It was heavier than the other one they just nailed up.

While they heaved the table into the next room Holiday asked. “What’s with all of the books son?”

“My Dad’s study. He loved books, even wrote a few. I haven’t gotten around to changing it yet.” David replied.

The rain outside stopped suddenly and now the moans were all the group could hear.  The last room attached between the living room and the study was the bathroom. Smaller than they expected it to be, it had a tall window that extended from floor to ceiling. Out of it, they could see zombies slowly moving towards it. A small girl in a dress seemed to be leading the other zombies. She held her mouth open wide as Holiday glared at her, remembering the girl in the dress from the station David had shot. Holiday had not, until now, thought about how these people were once people he knew. He knew the girl heading closer to them. It was his old friend Jerrod’s daughter Michelle.

“Sheriff?” Eric said snapping Holiday out of his thoughts.

“Table is too big!” Holiday said stomping at the table trying to break it with his foot. The sturdy table barely even dented.

“Hatchet!” David yelled.

“What?!” Eric yelled as the zombies got closer.

“I have a hatchet in the basement … somewhere.” He said, unsure of its exact location. The zombies now pressed against the massive window with the little girl in the front.

“Go! We will hold them off!” Holiday said as David ran into the living room, “Hurry!” Holiday checked his shotgun to see how many shots he had left in it. He pulled a few out of his pocket and reloaded quickly. Eric held his hammer with anticipation as the glass began to crack.

“Here!” Destiny yelled, kicking the gun she had set down earlier towards Eric. With her wrist broken, she could only hold one gun easily with her good hand. Eric picked up the gun, smiling. Holiday pointed his shotgun at the window; Eric did the same as Destiny walked into the room to help.

“Help David find the hatchet will ya?” Holiday said. “We got this.” Destiny nodded and headed down into the basement with David. The glass continued to crack as the zombies moaned and bashed against it. Then suddenly the zombies stopped.

The thousands of zombies all throughout the fields and around the house just stopped. After a few seconds the zombies turned and began walking away from the house. They just suddenly walked toward the field away from David’s house. Holiday and Eric grew confused once more.

They lowered their guns and walked into the living room to make sure it was every zombie that was walking away. Holiday walked up to the window Eric and he had boarded up earlier and he knelt down. He looked out of the hole and watched as the zombies walked further away very slowly. Ahead of them, deeper in the field, faster zombies sprinted away off into the distance.

Eric walked to the front door and opened it; he stepped out into the front yard slowly looking around. He took a few steps out until he was at the Sheriff’s car and leaned against it listening as the moans gradually faded. Then a loud snarl drew his attention down the driveway. There he saw The Beast lumbering toward the house. It smashed a group of zombies to the side with its massive arm as it ran closer and closer toward them. Eric jumped and ran back inside, locking the front door. He turned to Holiday, the expression of fear on his face told Holiday everything he needed to know. The only thing they had seen that made the zombies leave was The Beast.

A slow rumble slightly shook the house as it grew closer and closer to it. In the basement David and Destiny were unaware the zombies had left. They threw boxes and old furniture around looking frantically for the hatchet. As the rumbling of the house grew, David and Destiny paused their searching and looked at each other. They walked over to the stairs leading up to the living room and listened. They should be hearing gunshots by now and maybe the occasional moan, but they heard only rumbling. A mighty crash rang through the house as The Beast flew through the wall in the kitchen.

“Go!” Holiday screamed pointing to the stairs leading to the second floor. Eric sprinted from the door he had just locked and hit the first step with his foot. The Beast lunged from the kitchen and flew through the house toward Holiday in the living room. Its bulging muscles brushed Eric’s foot as he brought it to the stairs to continue going up them. He flipped over the beast in such a way, that he landed in the kitchen beside the massive hole in the wall that the Beast had just made. Holiday dove to the side, landing behind the tipped over couch as The Beast hit the wall with an enormous thud so hard it dented in the wall. Holiday lay motionless, staring at the ceiling and slightly shaking; he knew The Beast could only see by sound. The Beast loomed over him looking from left to right in a fast snapping motion as its gigantic hands pressed down on the tipped over couch nearly crushing it into the floor. Eric began to stand up in the kitchen; he held his head and groaned in pain. When he had landed, he hit his head on the floor and blood was trickling out of the back of it. The Beast turned its entire body toward Eric, it had heard his groan. It roared loudly, still perched over Holiday and punched its fist into the couch.

In the basement, David and Destiny had heard the commotion. Once they heard the crash of the Beast through the wall they began to head upstairs. When they got to the top, the Beast let out its massive roar toward Eric in the kitchen. It had only taken seconds for everything to go so badly. David and Destiny stood at the door to the living room and opened it slowly. They saw the massive Beast overtop of Holiday. In a flash, it pushed itself off the couch and headed for Eric. The couch slightly slid on the floor as Holiday raised his head, watching The Beast fly over him

“No!” Holiday yelled and jumped to his feet. The Beast slid to a stop as Eric stood completely still in the Kitchen, too afraid to make any noise for once. It turned toward Holiday and roared once more. Just then Eric had an idea.

“Keep yelling!” He shouted at Holiday causing the Beast to whip its body around once more toward Eric. Holiday realized what Eric was thinking and started cursing at The Beast.

“Look here you fucking ugly bastard!” He started yelling.

“No! Over here, you lazy sun-of-a-bitch!” Eric continued. They both yelled at The Beast in unison as it whipped its body and head back and forth wildly. It didn’t seem very bright. Anytime it had attacked, the second you stopped making noise, it would lose track of where you were. Now it had two noises on either side of it and it didn’t know what to do. Finally, the Beast reared its head into the air and let out a piercing howl. It smashed the floor wildly with both fists as David and Destiny ran out of the basement and to Holiday’s side. The Beast crushed the bottom step and shook the entire staircase. Then it had a third sound to worry about. The sound of clinging and clanging flew down the stairs. Eric and Holiday both fell silent as they watched in awe. The piano David was so proud of and had been keeping at the top of the stairs, rolled down them with a thunderous noise.

David was careful last time he had gone down the stairs. He noticed it rolled a little as he ran past it that first night, but he never thought he would watch as it plowed down the stairs and out the front door. It hit with intense speed and The Beast grunted loudly as it was thrown outside making a large hole where the door had been moments ago. Everyone was completely shocked.

David walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked outside. He saw the piano in pieces on his front lawn as The Beast ran away into the field, toppling the occasional zombie as it moved faster and faster.

“I liked that piano.” David said, staring at the wreck of twisted wood on his lawn. The others walked up beside him and looked at the piano with him. Destiny and Eric smirked slightly. Holiday’s face got incredibly angry.

“That mother-” He said and took his Sheriff hat off, throwing it hard onto the ground. Holiday’s car had been ripped apart. The roof was now crushed down into the floor and the doors were lying unattached beside it. Holiday shook his head slowly as David patted him on the back.

Chapter 9 – Rescue?

Destiny walked in the front yard, her arm was in a splint. Holiday had made it the same way he made the one for his leg. He used wood wrapped in clothing. It still hurt but somehow it helped. She walked toward David as he leaned against the tree with his back to her. “About another hour and the sun will be setting.” She said. David turned around to face her.

“I think I actually knew this guy.” He said holding up the I.D. card he had placed in his pocket two nights ago. “I forgot I had it until I leaned up against this tree.” The two of them had just finished moving the body of Worker #938 to behind the house. Afterward, David came to his tree and had been there ever since. Destiny had gone inside to grab a drink out of the now destroyed fridge from the kitchen. Destiny handed David a soft drink in a can. He smiled and gulped it down quickly. “That’s warm!” He said with a twisted face.

“Well duh!” She said to him. “Beastie trashed the fridge like six hours ago. The pop has been sitting in a puddle outside in this damn heat.” She squinted up at the sky as the sun slowly moved toward the horizon. “At least it will be colder when it gets dark.” She looked back at David who was still examining the I.D. card.