Dead Life (Book 2) (5 page)

Chapter 9

              It took about twenty minutes and four trips for Al to get everything set up. He brought up twenty-four empty two liter soda bottles, a case of ammunition, a roll of duct tape, and four rifles.

              “These are Bushmaster AR 15s. Each rifle has a thirty round magazine. There's two for each gun. The empty soda bottles make good silencers and the duct tape holds the bottle to the barrel of the rifle. It's kind of hard to aim with the bottle on the rifle but with a little practice you'll get the hang of it. Gina and Cindy, you girls go first.”

              Al got everything set up.  I was designated re-loader and Al would work the silencers.  Each soda bottle was only good for two or three shots so he'd have to keep switching them out.  I know it was wrong but it was kind of fun.  Those were zombies down there but at one time they were people just like us.  Turns out, Cindy was a pretty good shot.  She and Al went to the shooting range often so she knew what she was doing.  The girls had a system.  They would aim for the center of the chest and work their way up.  Most often, by the time the soda bottle lost it's effectiveness, they'd achieved a head shot.  They went through the twenty-four soda bottles and seventeen zombies were dead.  Gina killed eight and Cindy had nine.

              I went down to get more soda bottles while Al finished reloading.  I decided we needed a few bottles of wine so I grabbed a corkscrew and two bottles of White Zinfandel before heading back up.  We drank wine and shot zombies.  I couldn't help but think how screwed up life had become.  This was some way to spend the evening—shooting dead people for fun.  At least none of the ones we shot would ever hurt anyone else.  Worst was how badly Al kicked my ass.  We had twelve soda bottles each.  Al had twelve kills on thirteen shots and I had seven kills on nineteen shots.  We were lucky to have him with us.  The man could definitely shoot.

              The only bad part about the whole thing was that we were drawing more zombies than we were killing.  When we started, there were at least thirty zombies down on the lot.  When we finished, there were over fifty.  The guns weren't loud.  It was Al and me.  Two men drinking and shooting would eventually get loud. 

              After we'd finished shooting, Gina and I sat talking about what was next for us.  We were hoping her dad and Kym would come with us after we got to Boonville.  Maybe the six of us could find a secluded house somewhere off the beaten path.  We wanted a place we could call home temporarily.  The zombie threat would always be there.  We hoped that after winter, there wouldn't be so many of them.  Al wanted to trap one off the lot and throw it in one of the freezers to see if that would kill it.  I wasn't as optimistic and didn't think the risk would be worth the reward.  Besides, I didn't want to spend any more time in the city than necessary.

              It was about that time we heard the commotion out in the street.  There was a group of people running down the middle of the road.  It looked like there were five of them.  They were being followed by hundreds of zombies.  The ones on the parking lot heard the noise and headed out to meet them.  The runners were going to be caught between the two groups. 

              “Steve, we have to get down there and help them.  Girls stay up here, shoot as many of those bastards as you can.  You each have two magazines.  That's one hundred and twenty shots.  Space your shots and don't shoot us.  We're going out there.  Grab a spare mag and a rifle.  Steve, we've got to hurry.”

              Before we were down the ladder, the girls started shooting.  Al and I ran to the front of the store and out the door.  “I'm leaving the outer door unlocked with the key in it.  We'll need to get back in fast.”

              “Sounds like a plan.  I'm going to try to keep the zombies off those people.  I want you to help but watch our back.  There may be more coming up behind us.”  Al said.

              With that, we started out onto the lot.  I followed to the side and slightly behind Al, covering our back and both sides as we walked.  Al was walking at a fast clip and shooting the entire time.  It was amazing.  I don't think he missed once.  By the time we reached the middle of the lot, he had gone through his first magazine.  I'd only shot five times and had stopped three zombies from reaching us.  Al slapped in a new magazine and hollered “Run to me!”  The five of them were almost to the parking lot by then and Al's loud drill sergeant voice got them running our way.

              The girls were doing a good job of thinning out the zombies from the parking lot and had started shooting at the horde following the five survivors.  Up the street from the other direction, came another mass of zombies.  They were behind someone else that was running our way.  He was moving fairly quick and it looked like he was going to make it too.  He ran up to the group of five heading our way and tackled one of the women.  They went down hard and started rolling.  He came out on top of her, bent down, and bit her in the face.  Someone else from the group stopped and ran back.  He kicked the attacker in the face and knocked him off.  I heard him yell.  “Sheila, get up!”  He reached down to help her up. That was when the horde swarmed over them.

              Al started to run that way.  Cindy was screaming at the top of her lungs for him to stop. 

              “We've got to get back inside, Al.  There's nothing we can do for them.”  I yelled.

              The other three had reached us by then.  There were two men and a woman.  Al told them to follow us and we ran back to the store.  By the time we got inside the doors, the horde had reached us.  It took all of us pushing on the door to get it locked.  The undead were smashed against the other side trying to get in.  Once we were inside the inner set of doors, the three we had just rescued fell to the floor.  They were exhausted.

              “You guys have got to get up.  We can't stay up here by the windows.  Those things will not quit trying to get in as long as they can see us.”  I said.

              Al and I helped them to their feet and we headed back into the aisles.  “Did you see that shit, Al?  I didn't know that was a zombie.  I could have shot it but I thought it was a person.  He was running.”

              “Looks like the rules of the game just changed.”

Chapter 10

              The girl's name was Rita.  She looked to be in her teens.  The two men, Josh and Rick, were in their late twenties or early thirties.  The two killed outside the store were Rita's parents.  She was beside herself with grief.  Gina and Cindy tried to calm her down but there was no consoling her.  You really couldn't blame the poor girl.  It must have been devastating for her to see that happen to her parents.

              Both Rick and Josh had lost their families.  They were neighbors just like Al and me, only they hadn't been prepared.  Like the rest of the nation, when the plague struck, they weren't ready.  Our government had failed it's people.  By trying to hide the truth from the population, they had led their country to slaughter.  I could just picture all the government officials safe and comfortable, riding out the reaping, while people like my son protected them.  This country made me sick.  I hoped they would get theirs.

              On the first day of the outbreak, Rick had made the mistake of letting an injured friend into his home.  His friend had been attacked by a crazed woman on the street.  He was able to escape with only a few scratches.  But that was enough.  A few hours after arriving at Rick's home, he turned.  Before they could stop him, Rick's wife was bitten, mortally wounded, and his two daughters were dead.  Rick was able to kill his friend but he couldn't bring himself to end his wife and daughters.  He'd locked them in the house and left.  It was easy to see the man was broken.  I was surprised he'd made it this far.

              Josh's story was far worse.  When Josh and his wife, Joy, had seen their neighbor Rick wandering the streets, they had brought him into their home.  They were preparing to evacuate.  Josh and Joy had heard on the radio that the Rec Plex was being set up as an evacuation center and were headed there.  Joy was seven months pregnant so they were loading the van with some of the things the baby would need.  This had delayed their departure but they were thankful they could be there to help their friend, Rick.

              The three were soon loaded and ready to leave.  They never made it out of the driveway.  Two pick-up trucks stopped in the street behind them, blocking them in.  Four men with guns robbed them of all the food and water.  Josh argued and tried to stop them but they beat him senseless.  When Rick stepped in to stop them from killing Josh, he was knocked out.  The two men came to a few minutes later and Joy was gone.  The four men had obviously taken her with them.  Josh was near crazy with worry.  He wanted to find Joy but had no idea where to start searching.  They had tried talking to some of the people on their street but no one had seen anything.  Finally, they decided to go to the Rec Plex and see if they could get some help finding Joy from the authorities. That's where they met Rita and her parents.

              The National Guard had a checkpoint set up outside the Rec Plex.  People were being checked over for bites and scratches before being allowed inside.  This was about the same time that the virus had kicked into high gear,  At first, outbreaks were sporadic.  The infection spread exponentially as time progressed.  While they were waiting to get into the Rec Plex, the first of the hordes were forming.  The position was over-ran.  They were lucky to have been outside.  The five of them were able to escape while the horde laid siege to the refugee center.  Most of the undead attacked the Rec Plex.  A few followed the people that escaped on foot but most of the horde remained behind.  They'd been on the run ever since.

              “We could see muzzle flashes coming from the top of the store here.”  Josh said.  “So, we started to make our way down here.  When we got closer, we saw the Guard trucks blocking the road and thought we could find some help.  That's when the dead spotted us and we had to make a run for it.”

              “If you hadn't come out to help us, we'd have never made it.”  Added Rick.

              “My mom and dad didn't make it.”  Sobbed Rita.

              Josh held her while she cried.

              “We've been here since this started.  What's it like out there?”  Cindy asked.

              “We haven't seen much.  We worked our way down from Mexico Road to Spencer.  From Spencer, we made our way to McClay and then to Jungermann.  We tried to stay out of sight most of the time.  There are lots of empty houses.  We spent the night in one.  Rita's parents wanted to stay there for a while but a huge group of zombies came through.  That was a rough night.”  Rick explained.

              With the mention of her parents, Rita started crying again.  Josh patted Rita's back and said.  “You had a hard time that night but we made it through.  We're going to make it now.”

              “We waited until they were gone and started out again.  We heard a lot of gun fire down here and headed this way.  I was hoping that someone from the military was here at the store.”

              “There was but the horde ran over their position in a matter of minutes.”  Al said.

              “Anyway, it took us all day to get here.  We did find a car with the keys in it but we wrecked it not long after.  We ran over too many zombies and the radiator gave out.  We had to go back to walking and running.  After a while, we could hear voices.  We thought you were closer.  I guess sound travels far when it's so quiet outside.  A large group of zombies was coming up behind us and we had to run.  That's when we saw your muzzle flashes and you know the rest.”

              “Sounds bad out there.  We're not staying here though.  We want to get out of the city and go somewhere that doesn't have so many people.”  I said.

              “Can we come along?”  Rick asked.

              “I don't see why not.  We have plenty of supplies and there's enough room in the

vehicles.  We have Hummer and a U-Haul box truck out back.  You'll have to be willing to carry your own weight.  If you've survived this long out there without any weapons, you'll do fine.”  Al said.

              “Why don't we let them clean up and get something to eat.”  Gina suggested.  “Maybe we can all get some rest and talk in the morning.”

Chapter 11

              Al, Cindy, Gina, and I were up early the next morning.  We left our new arrivals sleeping and prepared a big breakfast for them.  We made bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and biscuits.  Once again, I thought of how hard it would be out on the road.  There wouldn't be any electricity for cooking, heating, air conditioning, or any of the other modern day conveniences we took for granted.  I just hoped we could get our generators going.  Things would never be the same.  At least we might be able to keep a few conveniences for a short time.  When the gas and propane ran out, it would be back to the middle ages.