Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 (8 page)

“I want to go to the library and see if my mother is there. However, I
wouldn’t only be risking my life, but all of yours as well. I don’t think I’m willing to take that risk, yet.” I told her.

For the nex
t hour we discussed many topics; it including talk about how we could safely get to one of the vehicles in the parking lot. To get to a vehicle safely, the first task would be clearing the parking lot of any and all freaks. We came up with a few ideas of how we might do that.

As dawn neared my eyes began to grow tired. My sentences started to become less and less coherent.

“It’s time for you to go to sleep,” said Jennifer who stood up and took me by the arm, and led me to one of the tents that had been set up. I tried to argue with her, but she wouldn’t let me. She then ordered me to swallow a single, small sleeping pill.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Then why won’t you take this pill and get some sleep?” she asked.

I gave up and swallowed the pill, washing it down with the last of my root beer. On the floor of the tent were a number of blankets and cushions. I laid my body on the makeshift bed and I felt my mind drift away as everything went dark.

Chapter 6

“It
’s time to get up,” I heard a voice say from above me.

I opened my eyes slowly, and rubbed them to try and get my vision to focus. I looked up, and Jennifer was standing there, hunched over in my tent.

It took a moment for me remember why I was in a tent and why she was there. Then the memories of the past couple days hit me. I sighed as I realized I was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

I started to stand up and exit the tent when I realized it was almost dark outside.

“How long did I sleep?” I asked Jennifer.

“You slept all day. We didn’t want to wake you.” she said.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes, everything is about the same as when you went to sleep. Oh, we did kill about thirty freaks today.”

“What? Thirty? Did they get in . . .” I was in shock, and almost shouting.

“Relax,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Not a single freak is inside of the building, or in the parking lot. Follow me,” she said.

We walked to the edge of the roof and I looked down. They had been able to use the ladder to get down to the ledge below. It gave them a way to stand over the front entrance of the store. From that small platform, sticking out only a few feet from the side of the store, they had been able kill the thirty freaks.

Their bodies were lying on the pavement below motionless. Looking out into the parking lot and into the street, I
couldn’t see a single freak.

“Wow.” I was astonished.

She went on to explain to me how they had used pieces of pipe, knives tied onto poles, and even weighted objects to destroy the brains of the freaks. Often, it might have taken them five minutes to kill a single freak. Because of their awkward position it usually took multiple blows. However, they had come up with a way to attack the freaks, without the freaks being able to attack them.

“This is very impressive,” I told her.

“Now just wait until you see what we have in the break room,” she said.

As I walked in the break room I smelled something totally unexpected.

It smelled delicious.

It was dinner.

Ms. Suzy and Katie had cooked a huge meal for us. Steaks, baked potatoes, bowls of steamed vegetables, and fresh baked bread were on the table.

“This looks awesome,” I blurted out as Katie looked at me smiling.

“How did you cook this? The electricity is out.” I asked.

Ms. Suzy looked at me and provided the answer, “the electricity may be off but the gas is still working.”

We sat down together and began to eat. The meal didn’t simply smell delicious, but it tasted wonderful as well.

After thanking the ladies for all the effort in cooking and serving the meal, I thought about asking them if they had heard anything more on the television or radio. However, I hesitated. I could see smiles on their faces as they enjoyed eating a meal
in relative safety.

When we were all finished eating the dessert, a pound cake and a half gallon of ice cream, Ms. Suzy looked at me and answered the question that was on my mind.

“We watched the television for a little while today. The situation in town does not seem to be improving. According to the news lady speaking, the police departments in our region have suffered more casualties,” Ms. Suzy said.

“Did they say anything about the relief centers? What about the library?” I asked.

Ms. Suzy looked down at the table as Katie looked at me seriously.

“If what they have said is true, some of the relief centers have been evacuated and relocated,” Katie said.

“Where did they say they were taking everyone?” I asked.

“They said to some emergency relocation c
enter outside of Dublin. They claim it is secure and can hold thirty thousand people,” she said.

“The national guard is supposed to be organizing there as well,” Jennifer added.

“I’m hoping my daughter and grandchildren might be there,” Ms. Suzy added. “Maybe they’re alive after all.”

“Did they specify if the library had been evacuated?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t,” Suzy replied.

I stood up and looked around the room.

“Let’s go to the roof,” I said. “We need to talk.”

We quickly tossed our food stained paper plates into the break room trash can. A few moments later we had climbed up the stairwell, and we were on the roof. We walked into the central tent of the rooftop compound and sat down.

“I know what we’re coming up here to talk about, and I don’t like it,” said Katie. “We’re safe here. To leave would be too risky.”

She went on to mention how we now had a method of killing the freaks. As she continued to speak about how foolish it would be to go off looking for ou
r family members, I could see the concern in her eyes as her blond hair, barely combed in days, hung over her eyes. Katie was determined to stay at the store, not matter what.

I tried to respond to Katie’s objections, but Jennifer interjected before I cou
ld say anything.

“Katie, some of us have family members that could be at the library, or if not there, at the relocation center. We have to try and find them,” she insisted.

“I don’t have anyone to find,” Katie responded. “I don’t want to risk my life to find someone else’s family members.”

I continued to sit back while the women around me took complete control of the conversation.

“You don’t have to come with us then,” Jennifer told her. “No one is going to drag you along with us. If you like, you can stay here.”

“I can’t believe you would want to leave me here all by myself,” Katie said.

“I don’t want to,” Jennifer said. “But my sister could be at the library or the relocation center.

Ms. Suzy leaned over towards Katie
, “None of us want to leave you here.”

“But
you’re about to run off without me!” Katie said a little too loudly.

I sat and thought about the situation as the women around me continued their conversation, which started to become a bit more heated. As thei
r voices became louder, I started to get a little worried that the freaks might hear us.

“We need a plan,” I stated, interrupting Ms. Suzy mid-sentence.

“Once we come up with a plan, then we can talk about whether or not we should leave anyone behind,” I said. “Without a solid plan we’re as good as dead.”

“Okay, let’s talk,” Ms. Suzy said.

For the next couple of hours we talked about how we could get to the library safely. If we could get there, and our relatives were not there, we would attempt to make it back to the store where we would prepare for a trip to try and find the relocation center.

Every issue in regards to our ride to the library was discussed. We considered the best route to take, the areas of town that might have fewer freaks roaming aro
und, how we would protect ourselves, and of course the vehicle we would use.

After a few hours of listening to our discussions, Katie had agreed to come with us.

“Maybe this plan will actually work,” she said.

“It will,” I replied.

My friends were exhausted from their day of freak killing and cooking, and they needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow we would all be would be extremely busy. As they prepared to sleep in the tent I left them and sat down near the edge of the roof, looking down at the parking lot. Several more freaks had wandered into the parking lot, but none of them seemed to be trying to break inside of the store. They didn’t even seem to know we were there.

Interestingly, I noticed that without any doubt, the movements of the freaks had slow
ed down -- at least a little. Even when attracted to a sound, such as the falling of a pine cone, they were slower responding.

I wondered if their decay could be speeding up.

It was almost five o’clock in the morning when I heard soft footsteps behind me.

I then heard Jennifer’s voice.

“I have an idea,” she said.

Chapter 7

Jennifer and I opened the hatch to the dark stairwell, climbed down, and proceeded towards the stockroom. From a table we grabbed an LED lantern, and then headed to aisle three on the sales floor.

Jennifer directed me to a wall of children’s toys. I stood there unsure about what she was trying to show me.

“Look down,” she said. “Do you see them?”

I saw a half a dozen remote control cars. We
hadn’t sold a single unit of the high priced, flimsy vehicles in the last month.

“We can use these,” she said. “All we have to do is put a small radio or CD player on top of it, and we can use them to distract the freaks.”

“Good idea,” I responded.

In the now fading light of the lante
rn, she smiled.

I suddenly had a flood of memories of when I had tried to date her. She was simply not interested in me. However, my interest in her had never faded, at least not completely.

But now was not the time for such thoughts. I had to focus on the tasks at hand.

We were headed back up to the roof when we heard a sound in the distance like a vehicle that had run into something. Quickly, we rushed to the roof. Ms. Suzy and Katie were already out of their tent when we arrived.

Peering over the edge of the roof, we could see a large white utility van had hit another vehicle parked across the street. The impact had pushed away a small convertible sports car that had been blocking the pump at the gas station. A woman had exited the van and was attempting to get gasoline.

Freaks were approaching her from all directions. We watched as the short haired woman in blue pants avoided them by running inside of the station. Apparently, she hadn’t been able to pump any gas. I looked at her through my cheap toy bin
oculars and saw how she was now behind the cash register. I guessed she was trying to find a way to activate the gas pump.

“Can we do anything to help her?” Ms. Suzy asked.

“We don’t need to go out there,” I said. “But we could try to attract some of the freaks over here.”

Only a couple minutes later we had climbed down to the ledge over the front entrance of the store. The makeshift weapons the women had used the day before were still there. As I grabbed onto a length of pipe, I could hear Jennifer call
out to the freaks.

“
We’re over here you undead bastards,” she shouted loudly. “Are you going to eat us or what?”

A few of the freaks heard us and started approaching. In the first rays of the morning light, I began to prepare myself to extend the pipe d
ownward, and start cracking skulls.

“Come get us!” Katie called out as more freaks approached.

The copper pipe was somewhat heavy. I made sure to keep a good grip as I powered it downward. Aiming to hit the heads of the freaks below was not easy. It took multiple attempts to strike the head of a freak with a hideously burned face. The first knock on the poor man’s head only knocked him down. A moment later, he stood back up.

With my next lunge of the pipe I managed to kill the burnt freak. Obviously, I nee
ded more practice, because the women beside me were making more progress than myself. Ms. Suzy’s improvised spear seemed to be especially effective. The ice pick at its end seemed to be very good at penetrating skulls.

Katie had tied a length of cord to a
cinder block. She was dropping it on the heads of the freaks below. Her aimed seem to be consistently good. After she dropped the block it would typically impact one of the freaks -- knocking it to the ground. She’d then proceed to pull the bloody block most of the way back up, take aim, and drop it again. Just in case the block hit the ground and cracked, she had some spares beside her.