Surviving Beyond the Zombie Apocalypse (16 page)

     “Time to get down to business,” I pronounced aloud. None of the shells appeared to care.

     I opened a box and sprinkled a small amount off the back of the truck. The light grains of poison were carried by the wind and floated a few feet away. Some may have hit the ground, but most landed directly on the mob of shells. I detected not even the slightest reaction.

     The shell in the lavender sweat suit tried climbing up to me once again. This time she looked at me and said, “We can make it back before they see us.”

     The words froze me with shock. Had I been wrong to throw her to the shells? I then saw the flesh ripped from the side of her neck. “Looks like they saw you,” I replied as I pushed her back once more. As she fell backward, the shells behind her hardly responded. The mob had become distracted by something else. I had been surprised by their indifference to the poison. Perhaps I had been mistaken about the power the rat poison had and its potential for fighting against them. If this turned out to be the case, I was definitely not in a good position. The shells had me trapped in the back of the truck, and it seemed like only a matter of time before more of them started climbing up into the cargo area. This possibility did nothing to improve my mood.

     With nothing else to do, I figured I had nothing to lose by dumping more poison on the shells. I tore open another box with the strength that comes with anger and frustration. As a result, I spilled more of the poison on my shoes and on the floor around my feet. I stepped over to the edge and looked out at the shells.

     The shells continued still milling around aimlessly, but then things changed. All at once, a sort of ripple ran through the crowd. I saw the shells clustering in certain areas. Some of the shells grouped around a tall shell in a dark business suit. At first, it appeared that the others were petting the shell. However, the actions became more forceful until they had pushed the business suit to the ground. They swarmed on it. I looked out, confused as they appeared to devour the shell. A moment later the business suit got to its feet only slightly worse for wear. Apparently, the shells had merely eaten the poison off the clothes. I saw another cluster of shells crawling around on the pavement. I supposed that they had found some scattered poison on the ground.

     I was still looking out at the shells when a hand grabbed my foot. I looked down to see lavender sweat suit below me.

     “We can make it back before they see us.”

     “I don’t think so,” I answered, stepping back and then kicking at her hand.

     The poison which had been on my shoe flew off to her. I realized that she had not been reaching for me but rather the powder on my shoe. In fact, as the sandy poison rained down over her, the shell appeared to lose all interest in me. The shell’s attention was completely devoted to getting every bit of the poison into its mouth.

     As I looked beyond her to the other shells on the street, I saw that they too had become fully engrossed in devouring as much of the rat poison as possible. It seemed to take a minute for the attractive power of the powder to take effect. However, once it did, the shells were overwhelmed by it. I wondered how long the controlling power would last. I also questioned whether or not the shells would stay as engrossed as it appeared. It certainly seemed that nothing else mattered to them after they had fallen under the effects of the poison. A question entered my mind which seemed impossible to even imagine, let alone ask: Could I walk right past the shells while they were captivated by the powder? It seemed too much to hope for. If this poison worked so well, it would mean that the shells were virtually finished.

     After all of my experiences with the shells and the horrible images I carried in my memory of the destruction brought on by these undead things, I was not immediately ready to jump down to the street and walk among them.

     A theory was one thing to have as you stood at a safe distance from these murderous zombies, but simply strolling among them was something altogether different. I gazed out at them for quite a while, maybe 15 minutes more or less. I went so far as to sit down with my feet dangling off the back of the truck. Even in that seemingly casual position, I remained ready at any second to jump to my feet and back from the edge of the cargo area. As I watched them, it occurred to me that I should at least check to see if the shells could be distracted from their focus on the powder. With that in mind, I got to my feet and began making noise. It seemed totally counter to everything else I had done to escape the shells. The expression letting sleeping dogs lie came readily to mind. Yet, here I was doing my best to wake the beasts from their trance.

     I pounded my hands on the side of the truck, stomped my feet, and shouted. Nothing brought even the slightest glance from the shells. I picked up the piece of wood from the floor and swatted the metal door with it. A loud bang rattled my ears, something like one of those big old gongs at the beginning of old movies. Still, the shells remained completely oblivious to everything other than the powder which they licked off the pavement, themselves and each other. 

     I walked back to the edge of the cargo area and yelled, “Hey, you stupid, dead motherfuckers! I’m right here! Tasty flesh just waiting for you!”

     As strange as it seems, I was actually feeling a bit frustrated and kind of hurt that I couldn’t manage to get some attention from the shells. Talk about being lonely! I was still running this around in my mind when I heard a familiar voice.

Chapter 9

     “Kevin?” The voice asked in a hushed tone. “Why are you making so much noise?”

     I looked over to the side of the street. Behind a car about a hundred feet away crouched Kat. At the sight, my knees practically buckled as my legs got wobbly and my heart jumped into my throat.

     “Kat!” I was unable to keep from yelling. “Kat, you’re okay!”

     My statement of the obvious did not bother her as much as the volume I used. She instantly put her finger to her lips to quiet me.

     “It’s okay. They won’t even look at you!” I announced with some pride.

     Kat stayed quiet as she looked at me with an expression of confusion. The confusion grew even more pronounced as a group shells not far from her began going into convulsions. The movement drew our attention as a trio of shells began writhing around on the ground. After what must have been about thirty seconds, the movement stopped and the bodies of the shells appeared to melt away until only three bundles of clothes remained.

     “What the fuck!” Kat exclaimed as she looked back to me.

     “Come on!” I called to her, although she had already started toward the truck.

     I helped her into the back of the truck and showed her the boxes of rat poison stacked there.

     “You mean this stuff kills them just like that?” Kat asked me with a disbelieving smirk.

     I smiled back. “Believe me, I know it sounds ridiculous. But the thing is, it sure holds their attention. It’s like they’re totally engrossed in the stuff until they go poof into dust.” I suddenly realized how ridiculous it sounded. “Well, since they’re already dead, I guess technically it doesn’t kill them.”

     Kat started to laugh, quietly at first and then hysterically. After a moment, she caught her breath long enough to speak. “Well, when there are dead things walking around chewing people up, nothing should sound ridiculous.” She began laughing again.

     I joined her laughter as I moved closer to her and we embraced. Abruptly, she pushed back from me.

     “What happened to you?” Kat asked and slapped my arm as if for emphasis. “We waited for such a long time. Taylor wanted to go after you, but I managed to stop him. Christina spent most of the day fucking sobbing.” She paused for a moment as if to check my reaction to her swearing.

     “You mean, you’re all okay?” I started, but emotion choked off my words. “I saw the front of the store and thought…” I was unable to finish describing what I had imagined. Instead, I moved in and held Kat tightly. We stayed like that for a time.

     Finally, she managed to loosen my embrace and. “Right after you left, those things got a lot more active. Maybe seeing you leave set them off or something. Whatever, they went off and started pounding on the front and tearing off anything they could grab ahold of. Good thing whoever boarded things up did a good job. Only a couple of them got in. Taylor smacked one in the head with a baseball bat, and I got the other with this.” She patted the small hatchet which was holstered on her hip. “Found it in the camping section.”

     I smiled and looked out at another group of shells writhing around on the street. “This stuff…this fucking rat poison could get rid of all of those things,” I said more to myself than Kat. The huge ramifications of something I had discovered by sheer luck felt somewhat overwhelming. “There might actually be some reason for hope.”

     Kat moved beside me and took my hand. “Well, I have to admit that I never had much hope before, but I can give it a try.”

     I looked at her a second. “Well, then let’s get the fuck outta here!”

     I helped her down off of the truck and pulled the door closed once more. I followed her down the street, which was now empty of shells but had scattered bundles of dusty clothes.

     “You know, I’ve seen a bunch of these little piles of clothes and stuff but never paid them much attention,” Kat said.

     I nodded and smiled. “There’s so many of them around, you stop seeing them after a while,” I agreed.

     Kat got on her knees and scurried under a space in the wooden barricades near the front of the store. I took me a little longer to get to my knees and under the barricade. Kat stood on the other side, smirking as I got to my feet.

     “Are you sure you’re gonna be able to keep up?” She taunted me with a giggle.

     “Well, I’ll do my best,” I answered as I did my best to push past her.

     She was too quick and immediately darted away. Before I managed to catch up, she had gone down the alleyway and climbed atop a pile of wooden crates. Her low stance a few feet above me elicited her nickname, as she appeared truly cat-like. I almost imagined that I heard her purr.

     “Okay, you win,” I panted. “Are you happy beating an old man?”

     She laughed. “Yes, I am!” Without another word, she turned and climbed up and through an open window.

     I followed, although with a bit more grunting and groaning. Once through the window, I found myself in the middle of a small office. Kat stood near a door on the other side of the room, again, waiting for me with a smirk on her face.

     “Sorry for keeping you waiting,” I commented sarcastically.

     “No problem.”

     She opened the door slowly and called in a voice just above a whisper, “Taylor? Taylor, where are you?”

     “Say something else,” Taylor commanded from somewhere close.

     “Yea, say something else,” Christina echoed.

     Kat pushed the door open completely. “Well, what do you want me to say?”

     “How about hello?” I asked.

     Taylor stepped out from behind a big filing cabinet with the baseball bat still raised above his head.

     A moment later, Christina was at his side. When she saw me, the little girl darted forward toward me. Taylor reached out to stop her but missed.

     She threw her arms around me and hugged with all her strength. “Kevin, I was ascared those weird things got you.” She scrunched up her face with the mention of those weird things.

     Her genuine emotion touched me more that I had expected. The moment was interrupted as Taylor stepped forward. “I figured you took off on us. I mean, you had that sweet van, why bother with us?”

     I looked at him for a few seconds before answering. “Well, it was tempting, but I realized I’d miss seeing your smiling face.”

      “Uh, I hate to break up this reunion and all, but I just realized something. Where’s the van?” Kat asked.

     I had forgotten all about the van. “Well, there I had a bit of an accident, and unfortunately, the van did not survive.”

     “Damn! Now what are we gonna do?” Taylor responded with obvious anger.

     “Well, I have something better than the campervan,” I answered, thinking of the rat poison and its potential for clearing a path to safety. “Have you heard any more about that ship heading out of Tiburon?”

     “Not since you left this morning,” Kat answered with a twinge of curiosity. “Why?”

     “I thought that if we got that truck of poison to the soldiers at the ferry, I’d show them how it works. After that, they use it to clear the city while we sail off to some place safe.” I couldn’t keep from smiling at the happy picture.

Chapter 10

     We quickly gathered everything we might need to make the trip from the store to the ferry terminal. Of course, everything we believed might be needed turned out to be a lot more than we could carry. Still, we whittled down the load to things that we really might need without too much trouble and were quickly on our way out to the truck.