ZOMBIES: "Chronicles of the Dead": A Zombie Novel (9 page)

The gunfire had drawn more zombies to us faster than we had expected, considering we could hear gunshots in the distance coming from all directions.

I’m sure it was just because of our life threatening dilemma that it seemed to us, that
we
were the only ones being targeted by all of these crazed killers.

“Move those ladders and get back here, hurry!” I yelled as loud as I could.

“We gotta go, more of them are coming!” Gin screeched, as she hastily scanned the area for more zombies.

“Hurry, get in!” I screamed, as three of the newly arrived zombies were now within five yards of our vehicle and stood between the boys and the safety of the van.

With their rifles slung over their shoulders, and with panicked looks on their faces, the boys picked up the last ladder that was blocking the road. With one at each end, they ran side by side back toward the van, and using the ladder as a weapon, they took down two of the zombies by hitting them neck high and pushing them into the ditch along with the ladder.

As the boys tossed the ladder and the two zombies into the ditch, they left the third diseased monster staggering toward my window and lined up in the sights of my Glock 19. I quickly took advantage of the close range shot by dusting off the skull of the zombie with two well-placed shots in rapid succession, sending one bullet crashing through the front teeth of the monster on its way to the Medulla Oblongata, and the other one directly into the middle of its forehead.

The zombie dropped dead onto the asphalt just inches away from my window, as the boys ran to the van and jumped in.

The side doors were still open as I pushed down on the gas pedal hard. The tires squealed as we swerved around the cable truck and the dead mutt’s remains and continued on our trek to the river, allowing the remaining assaulting zombies still in the ditch with the ladder, and the ones that were arriving late onto the scene, to concentrate their attention on the two dispatched female mutants, the zombie I had neutralized, and the damn dog.

"I guess they like dead animal flesh too," Gin said, watching the zombies feast on the deceased K-9 as we drove away.

Glancing into my rearview mirror and seeing the brains of the original two female zombies being munched on and fought over by even more newly arriving zombies, I added.

"Evidently, flesh is flesh, and any body part will do! But it looks to me like they consider brains a delicacy"

The boat launch was only about 3 miles from our house and the dog in the road, was about half the way there.

After a few more minutes on the road we could see the boat ramp, and what we thought were several abandon vehicles, some with empty trailers, and some without trailers at all.

This might indicate that some had been left by fishermen already on the river when this thing broke, or that other people had the same idea as us, and got to the river before we did.

However, because the ramp was clear of abandoned vehicles and trailers, the most likely scenario was that anglers were already on the river at the start of the zombie apocalypse.

Either way, it meant that at some point we were likely to encounter other people on the river.

Pulling up to the boat ramp, I reminded everybody.

“Just because we don’t see any danger at the moment, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be in great peril at any time. Those eaters back there came out of nowhere. If it can happen back there, then it can happen here. We have to hurry! We can take it a little easier once we're on the river."

I turned the steering wheel hard to the left, and maneuvered the trailer into position so that I could back it into the water.

“Boys loosen the straps and everyone into the boat,” I ordered.

“I’ll hold onto the boat while you park the van dad,” Jacob said.

“No need to son, we won’t be coming back, get in the boat.”

“Oh yeah,” Jacob said sheepishly as he and Billy continued to release the stern of the boat from its trailer.

“Look out dad!” Billy yelled, just as the cracking sound of Jacobs's carbine ripped through the calming sound of the small waves breaking on the shoreline.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Got'em dad," Jacob proclaimed, smiling.

“Where did those two come from, I didn’t see them until Billy yelled and they were almost on me,” I said, feeling my heart pounding wildly in my chest. "They scared the shit out of me, figuratively speaking of course."

“They were behind that tree, they must have just been standing there until they heard us,” Billy said.

“We are going to have to be more aware of our surroundings if we want to stay alive,
we
of course meaning me," I said aloud this time.

"Let’s get out of here,” I said, as I gave the boat a shove and hoisted myself up and onto the bow.

“Start it up Billy. Jake, open the air valves on the gas tank," I commanded.

Billy started the motor as I made my way through our hurriedly packed supplies, and took my place at the boat’s controls.

As the sky became dark and the warmth of the sun abandoned us, I slowly maneuvered our little craft toward the middle of the river where the current was the strongest.

I took one last look back at the dock, and at my mini-van that I had abandoned there.

That solitary vehicle left there on the boat ramp. That familiar mini-van that I had driven for so many miles, sitting there alone by the water's edge, sadly reminded me once again that we would never be returning to this place.

The river was high, but not even close to flood stage as we putted out to the middle, and as we did so, a cool breeze began to blow in from the north. We were on our way to parts unknown, and we even had a tail wind to help us on our journey.

There was no turning back now.

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THE RIVER

"We didn’t have much time to organize our
stuff
back there, so let’s get some of these things moved around a little and everyone find a spot to bed down for the night. Billy, go up front and watch for anything that we need to be concerned about, and take an extra drum magazine up there too,” I said, pointing at the shoreline with one hand and handing him an AK drum magazine with the other.

“Do you want me to shoot at the eaters on the shore?” Billy asked, looking a little puzzled.

“Not unless they pose a threat to us, and out this far that is highly unlikely,” I answered. “But that doesn’t mean we'll never shoot one of them on the shore. There are going to be times that we will be in very close to the shore, and I don’t know how far these diseased dead people can jump, or even if they can jump, and I don’t want to find out.”

Turning to Jacob, I said. “You make sure you help your brother keep watch, especially keep an eye on the bridges we’ll be going under, who knows what will be on them.”

“Okay, the currents pretty strong here, time to turn off the motor and drift," I said as I turned off the Morphadite's outboard and our boat began to sluggishly float down stream. "We only have so much gas, and we don’t know when or where we can get more. So we’re going to stick to the plan and drift most of the way. The only time we’re going to start the motor is when we get too close to the shore and we can’t paddle back out into the current, or we need to high tail it out of Dodge in a hurry.” I said, trying to get my point across before they were told that one of us was going to have to stay awake, and on watch at all times.

Then Gin inquired. “Are you saying we’re going to just drift along at this slow pace, it's going to take forever to get anywhere?”

“That’s right, it will, but if we run out of gas we’re going to end up drifting anyway, and we won’t have any way to get out of trouble quickly if we need to,” I replied. “And I have a feeling we’re going to need to at some point!”

“I guess you’re right,” Gin mumbled. “I mean what’s the hurry anyway; we don’t know where we’re going or what we’re going to do when we get there anyway, right?”

“Right, at this point that’s about it in a nutshell,” I said nodding my head.

“Let’s put one of the oars in the front of the boat and one in the back, that way we can push things away from the boat or push the boat away from the shore at any angle,” Jacob said, as he reached for one of the oars.

“Yeah," Billy said. "And we can use them as a club if we need too, instead of firing a gun and drawing the attention of other eaters in the area.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Gin said, handing the second oar to Billy.

As the night wore on, we each burrowed out a small area to sleep in among our stacks of supplies, then I announced that I would take the first watch and assigned Billy the second, and Gin the third, and Jacob the last one; each of us taking a two and a half hour shift.

To my surprise, there was no resistance from anyone regarding the imposed sentry duties. I guess they all realized that it was a necessary evil and an unavoidable chore that had to be done to ensure the safety and security of our family.

Although the temperature dropped to an uncomfortable level that night, we didn’t suffer too much, as our coats, blankets, and sleeping bags were thick enough to keep us warm, and the gentle rocking of the boat on the river along with the pillows that Gin insisted on bringing, allowed us to get some sleep.

The night passed uneventfully, and the sunrise signaled the start of the first full day of our journey south. It was to be the first of many days that we would never forget on our way to our new life under the dark cloud of the horrific disease that had taken over the world.

When I woke up, I saw Jacob at the bow of the boat aiming the .243 Steyr hunting rifle off the port side of the boat, pausing for a moment, and then slowly rotating to the starboard side, pausing again, and rotating back to the port side and back again.

“What are you doing son?” I inquired.

“I’m checking out this scope dad. You know I could take out any one of them, or all of them easily with this rifle.”

“Any or all of what son,” I asked, a bit confused.

“All of those eaters. Look at all of them!”

I sat up, looked over the side of the boat at the riverbank, and I could hardly believe my eyes.

Hundreds of zombies were standing on the bank snarling and snapping at us. Of course, we were too far away too distinctly hear their hungry growls or the clatter made by their teeth pounding against each other as they mimicked chomping down on our delicious flesh and bones, but we could clearly see their ominous presents and menacing body postures.

Some were just swaying back and forth leering at us as we slowly floated downstream past them. Others were stumbling around in a somewhat controlled frenzy as if they were going to charge into the river in pursuit of us, yet stopping short of entering the water and then quickly backing up, acting as if they were afraid of the flowing liquid. Some had walked to the edge of the river but no further, and stood there drooling as they ogled us with their minatory stares.

With the voracious appetite for flesh and brain that these undead cannibalistic abominations had exhibited in the past, along with their undaunted resolve to satisfy that hunger, it was hard to believe that something as simple as water would be enough to halt the onslaught of these horrendous monsters. However, it was all too clear that they had a deathly fear (another opportunity for a pun) of the water.

However, one thing was for sure. Almost every one of them had taken notice of us and would have attacked us if it weren't for the fact that we were at a wide part of the river and there was about fifty yards of water between them and us.

“This is very interesting,” I said, as I rested my elbow on my knee and my chin on my hand. “The CDC did say that they thought the sickness had come from feral dogs. Maybe it mutated from rabies, you know
hydrophobia
, the fear of water."

"Okay Jake, you want to check out that scope, let’s see if it is sighted in.”

"Okay dad, what do you what me to do?"

“Pick out one of them that’s close to the water and see if you can take out its knee. Try to get it to fall into the water," I instructed.