Southern Zombies Three Book Box Set: A Story of Survival, Southern Hospitality, and Southern Blood (6 page)

“Well, we are going to die. I can’t believe I am letting you do this hair-brained scheme you have cooked up.” Diane says.

I get the lighter and light the cloth in the bottle. And I throw it. “Go, go, go” I tell Diane.

And we are going. I keep waiting for an explosion. Nothing. I am crushed now that my Molotov cocktail didn’t work. Well, maybe not crushed. Well upset a little. Oh ok, I am pissed off because I did it exactly like I see in movies. And then, all of a sudden it blows.

“Holy hell, look at that.” I yell.

“I would never have believed it if I didn’t see it. Remind me to keep the gas and bottles away from you.” Diane says.

“I think it has blown damn decently.” I tell her.

I get an eye roll.

“Are you ready to go get Bobby?” I ask her.

“Yeah, have to be.” She replies.

I hope you are ready for this Bobby; I think to myself.

We make our way over to the office. It is a big building. Seventeen floors. And I can see a front and two side entrances. Why didn't I ask him what floor he was on damn it?

“So how do we know where he is?” Diane asks.

“Not sure. There is a lot of windows. I wonder if we shoot one out if he can hear it?” I ask.

“Only one way to find out.” Diane says.

Diane aims and takes fire at a window over to the right on the third floor up. We wait for a minute or two and nothing happens. She fires again, this time a floor higher and at a window in the middle of the floor. Again, we wait. We see the blinds move now.

I tell Diane to wait and see if someone is going to pull the blinds. They do. An older man that I later learn is the building maintenance man looks out of the blind. I start waving my arm, hoping he sees me. He looks around. At this point we have around 100 zombies milling around and heading towards the truck. We have about ten minutes before they get over to us. Maintenance man finally sees us. Since he is on the third floor, if we get a little closer he may be able to hear us talking. I start the truck and drive towards the right front of the building.

When we get closer, I get in the back of the truck. We are almost under the window, but we can’t speak loudly as it will bring the happy eaters running our way. He holds his arm out the window to drop something down to me. Diane asks, “What is he about to drop?”

“Looks like a two-way radio.” I tell her.

I hold my arm up and catch. Thank the Gods, I didn’t drop it.

He speaks first.

“What are you ladies doing out here?” he asks.

“Looking for my husband who is supposed to be here in this office somewhere. Maybe you have seen him.” I say.

“What’s your name?” He asks.

“Tracie. What about you?” I ask.

“Sam.” He says.

“Well, Sam, we are in a hurry here as we have an entourage behind us, so maybe you can tell me about my husband. His name is Bobby Parker. He is five feet 9 inches tall and mouthy.” I tell him.

“Oh yeah. I know who you are talking about. He said his wife and sister-in-law were coming to get him. I ask him were you guys in the military and he said no, you didn’t need to be in the military because you two could send the toughest of man, monster or animal fleeing for their lives.” He says.

“Well, I’m happy to know he has been entertaining you guys while we were fighting our way here.” I tell Sam.

“Get his ass to the window, please Sam. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Man was I happy to see my husband. He looked worn out and tired, but otherwise he was fine. “Hey baby.” I shouted.

“Damn, I am so glad to see you.” Bobby says. “I have been worried about you and Diane. I couldn’t get the phone to work and didn’t know what the hell was going on. It’s been 5 days since you started this way and I didn’t know anything.” Bobby says.

“It’s bad out there. No electricity, no phones. Zombies roaming around everywhere. There are traffic jams all over from where it seems people either turned or just got out and left vehicles to try to make a run for it.” I tell Bobby.

“So how are we going to do this? There is a door that goes out the side. We have a few zombies walking around in here. But I’m not sure how many as we have not been off this floor. And we have 6 people in here, including me before you ask.” He says.

“Well, give me a few minutes to talk to Diane. Get everyone together and let them know what is going on and they can decide to stay or go.” I tell him.

“We need to get them at the side door.” Diane says.

“Yeah, I think that is the best alternative right now.” I reply.

“So, tell Bobby to start down and we will meet him. I will get in the back while you pull closer to the door he will be coming out of. I will take out any getting too close and give him some extra time to get downstairs and get out the door. Is the door locked?” Diane asks.

“Bobby, is the door locked?” I ask.

“The maintenance man is here, I have keys.” He says.

“Is anyone coming with you from in there?” I ask.

“No, they live close to here and around the area and are going to wait for another day or two before they make a run for it.” Bobby said.

Diane and I look at each other. “Well, they may never get the chance then, but they are adults who can make their own decisions.” I say to Diane.

“Bobby, start down the stairs. Be careful. Watch your surroundings and don’t get bit or scratched or I will kick your ass when you get down here.” I tell him.

“Such hostility.” Bobby says.

“Just get your ass down here.” I say.

Diane gets in the back of the truck and I slowly pull closer to the door he will be coming out of. Stopping, we sit and eye the door. I open my door and get out with my 30 06 and look around for visitors. None yet. Please stay away, I think.

I hear a shot. I look at Diane. “She was staring at me.” Diane says.

I think she is enjoying this a little too much.

I hear the door knob rattle and look over to see Bobby peeping around the door.

“Get your ass moving Parker.” I yell at Bobby.

“I’m moving, I’m moving, hold on.” Bobby says.

“I’m glad you have the time to piddle around, but you may want to get your ass out of the door and over to the truck as we have a group coming with the munchies. So step it up a little smart ass.” I tell him.

For those of you who don’t understand southern slang, piddle means to “ass around”, “to take your time”, “to not hurry.” Just thought I would clarify because some people use it to express the need to use the restroom.

Bobby gets out of the door and starts to the truck. Another shot rings out. Diane at it again, obviously.

“What?” She asks.

I ignore her and tell Bobby to speed it up or I would run his ass over myself. He starts moving after that. He gets in the truck and has a hanger-on. He starts swinging.

“Catch. Take a swing.” I tell him.

And he swings. He takes out two in one swing and sends them rolling across the concrete. He climbs in and Diane asks about anyone else coming for sure and he tells her no. At this point Diane is having to take shots to clear us a way out. I hand my rifle back to Bobby so he can take some shots and we can get the hell out of here. They get the path cleared out for us and we get out of the parking lot. There seems to be more zombies moving around now than when we got here. Are more people turning?

We stop at the convenience store we stopped at on the way in. I get out and Bobby comes over to me and hugs me. Riley is so happy to see him, he just pees all over himself.

He asks what the hell is going on. So I start telling him what I have heard on the news about the outbreak and how it started. I tell him how it started at our home and how Riley and I got out and went to Diane’s house. And I tell him we will be going to her home when we leave here as our neighborhood was over run when we left home. I tell him about our trip, finding Janice and getting here to him.

“I think maybe that some are immune to the parasite and virus.” I tell him.

“Why do you think that?” He asks.

“Well, we are not sick. No, we didn’t get the flu shot, but Diane was scratched and I pumped her full of antibiotics. She was sick with fever, but she pulled through it. She isn’t showing any signs or symptoms of being sick now so maybe some have an immunity to it. I don’t know. But I do know this whole thing is crazy as hell. How could this have happened?” I ask.

“This is a total fuck fest.” Bobby says.

“You don’t say.” Diane says. Then she hugs Bobby.

“Thank you for coming.” He tells her.

“Well, I couldn’t have left you here. I would have never had another moment of peace and I would have had to kick your wife’s ass if she came alone and got killed.” Diane says.

“First, how are you going to kick my ass if I got killed first?” I ask.

She ignores me.

“So what will we do?” Bobby asks.

“We are going to Diane’s home. Marc and Trey are busy getting electric fencing up around the houses. She has food canned everywhere. Marc hunts, so there is food. You can start hunting with him and we can eat. Becky is getting things moved around and making room. I would guess Tammy and her family and Kelley and her family will make their way there too. We will be fine.” I tell him.

I get on the radio and call Marc. He is happy to hear we are ok and coming home. Marc tells Bobby, “Hey man, drive my truck. Your wife has beat the hell out of it for 5 days. I don’t know if I want to see it or not when it comes back.”

“Oh well, that’s really rich Marc. Next time how about I will stop and invite a few riders in and stink it up a little. Or how about I let them smear their……. goo all over it on the way home. Oh, or better yet, how about I see if I can push this post over before we leave. I don’t think your truck has enough power to do it, but hey, I will try like hell to. It may be fun.” I tell him.

“Yeah man, I will take over driving.” Bobby says.

“Oh goody. Well, you will need new brakes now nephew as your Uncle Bobby likes to slam on the brakes at every stop.” I say.

“Can we go now?” Diane asks.

“Yep, let’s hit the highway. I hope it doesn’t take five days to get back home. On our way back Marc. We will keep in touch.” I say.

“Fine. When y’all get back, I got some ideas in the making. We need to all talk about what is going on and how we are going to make it through all this shit. We will need a way to trade things we have for things we don’t have and I been talking to a few people around here and I have taken out some zombies for a few people that were either scared to do it or didn’t have the weapons to do it. Trey and I take turns watching and checking the perimeter and the edge of the woods on the Pioneer. Well, I think Trey is fooling around most of the time, but he has been good at helping. So I will discuss that when y’all come back and see what you think.” Marc says.

“Ok” Bobby tells him.

We are on the highway and it looks to be more cars than when we came through. It looks like things are getting worse. There are wrecks all over. It takes time to get around all the cars sitting around.

We look out to the right towards a light copse of trees and see about 300-400 zombies walking around.

“Holy hell.” I say.

“What are they doing?” Diane asks.

“Waiting for food?” Bobby tells her.

We make it back thorough South Carolina and Alabama in 2 days. We took turns driving. We have crossed the Mississippi line and are about an hour and a half away from home.

“There are no people anywhere.” Bobby says.

“Maybe they are locked in a house or something. Hiding maybe. I hope they would be anyway.” I tell him.

Diane takes a nap and I am driving. Marc is going to love to see me driving when we get back home.

Almost home, and shit happens.

Five miles from Marc’s home, we run into a shitload of zombies surrounding a big barn. We stop on the highway and listen and you can hear horses and other animals in the barn.

“We can’t leave them in there. They will be lunch for the ass hats at the door.” I say.

“What do you suggest?” Bobby asks.

“Well, since Marc is mad about his truck anyway, I am going to try to get to the back of the barn. It doesn’t look too steady so I hope we can pull the back corner wall down. Then we can get the animals out and they will at least have a chance to run.” I say.

I drive around to the back of the barn while Diane watches for stragglers to follow us around and takes them out. I swear she was an assassin in a previous life.

I jump out and hook Marc’s winch to a couple of planks on the barn wall. I turn it on and wait for the wall to fall or the whole barn too since it looks so shaky. The wall starts bending out like it is going to break. I get back in the truck to avoid getting a big ass splinter shoved through me in case the planks break in half. And it falls. The whole back wall falls. Animals start running out. And yes, zombies come around the corner when the noise gets their attention.