Dying To Live & Fighting To Live-Book One and Book Two (Zombie Overload Series) (3 page)

I turn around and check on the
boys. Both sets of eyes are wide with terror. I want so much to sob
with the heartache from knowing there's not a lot I can do to take
that terror away, but they need me to be strong and in charge, not in
the fetal position on the floor, bawling like a baby.

"Boys?
You alright?"
Of
course they're not alright, you Dumb ass!

"Everything's
going to be ok."
What?
When? Say's who?

Ok. So I'm bad at reassuring with
words. At least I'm trying! I squeeze their hands and give them what
even I know is a weak smile, but it's all I've got. They give me an
equally weak smile in return and go back to staring out the windows
in horror.

I turn back to the front and look
over at my husband. His hands are clenched on the steering wheel. His
eyes darting from side to side and front windshield to rearview
mirror. Even though it's Mid-October and quite cold at night, he is
covered in sweat from the stress of having to try to keep his family
alive and probably the shock of the situation, as well. I rub his arm
and tell him I love him. He replies he loves us, too.

My husband is an amazing man.
We've only been married five years this past August but it feels like
forever, in a good way. Bo and Ash aren't biologically his but all
three feel the same way I do with my dad, don't call him their
step
-dad, those are fightin' words! He is actually in the
process of getting the boys adopted, but I guess now, that doesn't
really matter. If things go to all kinds of hell, (ok, worse than
they are now) then who would know, or care, that his last name isn't
legally their own?

He works at a small school in a
small town as a maintenance man. Almost everyone, young and old,
thinks the world of him. He's the type of guy who will do anything
for anyone, which can be good
and
bad. Bad, because his
willingness to help others is oftentimes taken advantage of. He's not
violent unless he has to be. And he's very protective of me and our
boys. We never have to question his love for us. Oh, he drives me
freakin' crazy, don't think he doesn't! But I do love this man.

I turn away from him and look
straight ahead, my mind racing. So now what? Where do we go that's
safe?
IS
there
anywhere safe? Where do we get a gun? (I'm much better with guns than
swords and knives.) Are my brothers and sister and their families
safe? Do we____

"SHIT!" I'm yanked out
of my thoughts by Will's yell and look around wildly, trying to find
the zombie he's freaking out over. Nothing. No zombies here, yet. "We
are almost out of freakin' gas!"

_____turn into looters to get
what we need to survive? I finish my last thought from before he
interrupted me with a different ending. I tell him to calm down, that
we have enough to get to a gas station, not mentioning we have no
money. Why worry him even more?

I'm trying to plan what needs to
be done, where to go, what to do to be as safe as possible, but I
realize our plans can and probably will, change minute by minute. I
mean, really! I seriously doubt the zombies are going to stick to the
movie scripts.

It's completely dark now and we
are almost to the highway that, making a left turn on, will take us
to Little Village, when I see the road across the highway that leads
to the school my husband works at. Like a flash of light (which
reminds me of that damn sensor light which still pisses me off) I get
a
brilliant
idea.

"Honey! Go straight! Go to
the school!" I'm so excited about my
brilliant
idea, I’m
actually bouncing in my seat.

Will looks at me and by the
expression he's wearing, I think I'm scaring him. So I force myself
to calm down and explain my idea to him.

"Babe, think about it. That
school has some basic medical supplies and MAJOR food supplies. And,
even better, most of that food will last for a long time. If it
didn’t have so many windows, I would even suggest staying
there. But there's no way we can keep that building zombie-proof."

"No. Not even close. But the
supplies are a great idea."

No.
It was a
brilliant
idea,
damn it!

He drives across the highway, and
a few blocks later, turns into the school. Pulling up to the front
doors, he unlocks them and goes inside to turn the security alarm
off. Coming back out, he re-locks the doors and drives us around to
the back of the school. He backs up to a mini enclosed trailer thingy
(forgive me, but I don’t know what those things are called. But
they kinda look like a mini horse trailer) and proceeds to hitch it
to the back of the van. Small enough my van should be able to handle
it. I hope.

Then he positions the van
sideways to the door of the school's kitchen (no room to back it in)
and goes to unlock the big heavy door. I tell the boys to stay in the
van and keep watch for any of those things. If they do see any honk
once,
if
we have
plenty of time to get back inside the van. If not, they are to hide
on the floor and not make any noise. They nod their heads and start
watching with wide, frightened eyes.

I grab a couple swords and follow
Will inside. Handing him a sword, I tell him that I will work on the
food if he will gather the medical supplies. He agrees and heads to
the nurse's office. I make my way to the pantry and start hauling out
the bulk bags and cans of food. I find a cart against one wall of the
kitchen which I push over to the items. I load what I can on the cart
and push it out the door slowly, looking for danger. I see the boys
in the van. Bo looking out the back and Ashton looking out the front.
Seeing them on guard, and not hidden on the floor, makes me feel a
whole lot better.

I continue pushing the cart to
the back of the trailer. I grab the handle but it doesn’t
budge. You've got to be kidding me!

Just then Will walks out the
kitchen door and heads for me. I tell him it's locked and he holds up
his keys. Thank God! He unlocks the trailer and starts putting the
groceries inside. I grab the bag of medical supplies he brought out
and put them inside the van. I take a moment to give my boys hugs,
kisses, and I love you's. I really needed that. Even my teen seems
not to mind, for once.

I close the van door as I hear
Will pushing the cart around. The boys go back on watch and Will and
I head back in the school. We load the cart with more of the food and
again head back out. Then back in for the third and final load. Will
asks me if I think we will be able to take anything out of the
freezer, and although I very much wanted to say yes to it all, I knew
we couldn’t keep everything cold for too long in our cooler.
But I did agree to take the huge block of sliced cheese and sliced
ham. Those, we can eat alone or make sandwiches with the bread we
have on the cart.

Finally, I lead the way towards
the door. I glance at the van and stop dead in my tracks.

My breath leaves me in a
whoosh. Will bangs into my ass with the cart and almost knocks me out
the door. He backs the cart up and starts to speak when I turn and
throw myself to the wall beside the door. I know I had THAT look
because he moves away from the cart and raises his sword.

I'm not thinking about me. I'm
not even thinking about Will. I'm thinking about our babies. What if
the damn things can see our babies? What if they can smell them? How
the HELL does this work anyway? I want my babies!

Fortunately, I have the sense not
to run out the door like a moron, flapping my arms, and screaming
like a banshee to protect my young, like every instinct is screaming
at me to do.

Because now, I hear it. The
shuffle of dead feet. The moan from a dead mouth. The
smell
of
death. Rotten and overwhelming. Close. So close.

Will moves to his right in order
to see out in the direction the sounds are coming from. I bring my
sword up but stay pressed against the wall. Will motions for me to
move further in the room near the cooler. I do and just in time. As
soon as I get where he wants me, a rotting corpse staggers inside,
banging his shoulder against the doorjamb. I look at his face and can
see several
somethings
wiggling and moving under his skin. As
I watch in fascinated horror, a maggot crawls out of his nose and
plops to the floor.
I am so close to gagging!

He's wearing a suit and covered
top to bottom in a mixture of dirt and grass so I assume he had
already been dead
before
the 'virus'. His head turns to Will
and he starts forward like a drunk who should have been cut off a
long time ago. Will's ready. He waits for the thing to get close
enough and then thrusts the sword through it's chest and pulls it
back out. As all of us zombie movie freaks know, that doesn't work. I
guess I need to educate the man.

"In the head! Stick in in
his damn head!" I scream at Will.

Will takes the sword and does
exactly what I said. Pulling the sword back out, the zombie drops to
the floor, really dead this time. At least I
hope
they got that part in the movies right! Will wipes the sword off with
a thick potholder lying on a nearby table and throws the ruined
material in the trashcan next to him. He moves slowly towards the
door, listening and watching. I follow at a safe distance, safe from
him,
in case he has to go all
He-Man on another one.

At the door he leans out and
looks around. Is there only one? Please say that was only the one! He
waves me closer and as soon as I’m behind him he moves outside
and walks me to my door. Helping me in, he still doesn’t take
his eyes off the surrounding area. Once I'm safely inside, he goes
back and grabs the cart, hands the boys the cheese and ham to be
placed in the cooler, then unloads the rest of the groceries in the
trailer. Shoving the cart away and locking the trailer doors, he jogs
to his side, gets in, and shuts his door. Then he looks past me and
sees that we left the kitchen door wide-open. I already know what
he's thinking.

"Don’t you dare!
Doesn’t matter if it's open or shut, you've already lost your
job."

He nods and starts the van. We
both embrace our boys and do our best to calm them down from thinking
we were going to be zombie food. They explain that they
were
watching but that one was in the shadows and they couldn't see it in
time to warn us. We assure them they couldn't have helped it and that
they did the right thing by hiding.

Now we leave the school behind as
we head to my parents' home.

As we turn onto the old highway
between Little Village and Stephan, we see abandoned vehicles every
once in awhile. Engines still running in some. Some on the shoulder.
Some in the middle of the road. A few bodies lying here and there,
which means the rest have either escaped safely into the night or
have been turned into zombies and are feasting on every bit of warm
flesh they can find.

We see a man, with several chunks
of meat missing from his body, laying in the center of the two lane
highway and Will has to steer onto the shoulder to get around him. As
we slowly creep past, he starts to twitch. Then jerk. Then sit up.
Looking at his right leg, someone had obviously run it over recently.
But that doesn't stop him from trying to stand and get to us. Of
course, we get past him and continue on. We don't look back.

Finally, we make it to the
turn-off for Little Village. So far, nothing. As we get closer to the
village, I have to keep reminding myself to breathe. I can't lose my
parents. Can't lose
any
of my family. Every block we pass with
no sign of the undead, makes me feel better and better. We pull into
my parent's driveway and see my dad coming out the back door, his
arms full of items he's loading in their van. Will rushes to help him
and I turn to the boys.

"Do you two want to stay in
the van or get out" , I ask.

"I want to get out", Bo
says.

"Me, too." says Ashton.

"Ok. But stay close to an
adult, stay quiet, and keep your eyes open". I look around and
see nothing dangerous, so I press the side door's release button. I
jump out and, with my back to them so I can see what's coming, tell
them to go. They move quickly to the gate of the back fence and then
inside the house. I move towards the back of the van so I can see in
all the directions that are easy access for the dead to get to us.
Seeing nothing, I turn my head towards the men standing beside the
van having a man-talk about the zombies. Really, guys? Really?

"Hey!" I call out to
them. "Kinda need to go."

They both stop and turn my way,
shooting me the universal "who the hell do you think you are to
interrupt and order us men around, little woman" looks. Then I
see the "oh, shit!" look when their brains start working
again and they finally start moving. Both run into the house and I
assume, and hope, they are getting everyone out.

Shaking my head, I turn and
continue my watch. With relief, I still see nothing. That relief
quickly turns to dread when I hear the scream.