"Oh crap!" Jack let out as he raised his gun to fire.
"No guns!! There are hundreds just up the road, if they hear us we will be overrun!" Gabe grunted, trying to keep his voice low.
Running back around the truck Gabe threw a tire iron to Chris and continued to run towards the zombies. Gabe had found the tire iron and the hydraulic jack together but had felt awkward keeping the tire iron, which was the clearly superior melee weapon of the two. The hydraulic jack consisted of two cylinders, a small one inside a larger one, and luckily when it had been last put away it dadn’t been fully closed, leaving the smaller cylinder sticking out of the bigger one. Using the smaller end Gabe swung it awkwardly and caught the zombie in the side of the head. The zombie went down in a heap but two more came around the corner and lunged for Gabe simultaneously. Gabe back peddled and tripped over his own feet, sprawling backward. Chris swung the tire iron and caught one of the zombies on the shoulder. Although it wasn’t a killing blow, chris heard the snap of the breaking bone, and the zombie stumbled away momentarily. Unfortunately the other zombie dove on top of Gabe and Gabe barely managed to get the jack up between himself and the teeth of the zombie.
Billy reached into the toolbox sitting on the ground at the front of the truck and came out with a hammer and ran the few steps to stand next to Chris as two more zombies came around the corner. From the top of the truck Jack threw the change in his pocket at the zombie Chris had hit in the arm. Just as Jack had hoped, this got the zombie’s attention and it came over to the truck reaching up at him. Coming down from a standing position to one knee in one fluid motion, he drove the butt of his rifle into the face of the zombie, it went down into a lifeless heap.
As Billy ran up next to Chris he used his momentum and swung his hammer sidearm, connecting to the temple of one of the zombies. The hammer went into the skull deep and as the zombie fell over Billy had to struggle to hold onto the hammer and it pulled him down with the dead zombie. Chris swung the tire iron like a small baseball bat and caught the other zombie far back on the side of his head. With an audible crack the zombie went down, permanently dead, but landing on top of Billy, trapping him between the two dead zombies.
Gabe continued to struggle with the zombie on top of him. It was biting and clawing at him with a frenzied ferocity that made it hard to fight back. Finally Gabe was able to shove the jack hard into the zombies face allowing him to shift his weight and roll over on top. Letting go of the jack for a moment he pinned the zombie's arms under his legs. The zombie continued to try and lean up and snap at him with his teeth. His hands now free, he picked the jack up off the ground and bashed the zombie in the head repeatedly.
Jack jumped off the truck and pulled the zombie off Billy just as four more zombies came around the corner. Chris quickly dispatched another one but was set upon by two more immediately. He began to slowly back up as he used the tire iron to fend them off, but they were in to close and he couldn't get a good swing on them. The third one jumped on top of Billy as he was getting up. Jack tried to kick it off but Billy fell to the ground with the Zombie on his back and their momentum knocked Jack to the ground as well. Suddenly Donald was on top of the zombie, pounding it in the head with the butt of his gun. After a moment of struggle the Zombie went limp. As Donald went to get up he let out a muffled scream. Rolling off of Billy he could now see the zombie that was on his leg. It was already chewing at the meat and the arterial blood was gushing from his leg.
Gabe lifted the jack above his head and brought it down hard on the head of one of the zombies attacking Chris. As it went down it gave Chris enough breathing space to allow him to get a solid swing in on the other zombie, crushing its skull and ending its rabid onslaught.
Both were startled by the sudden deafening crack of a high powered gun. Turning around they saw Donald sitting on the ground, blood gushing from his leg. His gun pointed at what used to be the top of the zombies head, but now there was nothing left from the neck up.
"Crap!" Gabe let out in the worst language his upbringing would allow him to use. "That was the last one from this group, but now the whole town is going to come back!"
He ran over to Donald and pulled him away from the dead zombies and ripped his pants open. The blood was flowing freely from the bite mark.
Applying pressure above his bite, Gabe barked out instructions, "Get something to make a tourniquet, we are going to have to get him in the truck and make a break for it."
"Nonsense." Donald said sitting up against the truck. "They are too far away to trace one shot back to its source."
"What do you mean." Jack asked, handing Gabe a piece of rope.
"You can't figure out the direction of one gunshot from a distance. Two shots and your ears will pinpoint it, but otherwise you only get a general direction." Donald grunted as Gabe used a stick to tighten the tourniquet. "I figure some of them may come back in this direction but if we stay out of sight we should be okay."
"Alright, let's get him up to the building before they come back." Gabe said, signaling for a couple of the guys to help.
The group managed to put Donald in the back of the truck and drive up to the building without seeing any more zombies. Gabe didn't look forward to telling Donald's wife what had happened.
Chapter 8
If it hadn't been for the undead creatures walking the earth, the sunrise over the Friendly Traveler Camp Grounds would have been like any other. But as people stirred out of their sleep, it was with great caution that they stuck their heads out of their tents or peeked above the windows of their truck.
It had been almost a week since Gabe had fled the hospital in the company of two complete strangers, picked up some teens from his youth group, been saved by, and subsequently saved Billy Daily, a famous NASCAR driver, and gotten an innocent old man bitten by one of those walking corpses.
This all crossed his mind as he slowly worked his way out of the back of the Pick-up truck where he had been sleeping. Gabe thought about praying, which had been his habit for most of his life, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He reflected that what he had seen in the past week didn't do anything to help the lack of faith he had experienced since he had received the divorce papers in the mail the day before the dead had started to rise again.
Finally stepping out, the sight of a young man sitting in the lotus position on top of a 1960's VW bus greeted Gabe.
"Morning Eric" Gabe called up to him in a quiet voice.
"Morning preacher man. There's some coffee on the embers, it's pretty strong though, the last shift of the night and all" Eric said with an easy smile.
Gabe shot back a grimace of a smile, more at the 'preacher man' comment than the strength of the coffee.
Eric and his wife Mercedes had already been at the camp when Gabe and his friends had gotten there. When Gabe was a kid growing up in Kentucky he had never seen a mixed-race couple, but as he got older he had seen more and more of it and had made a point of making such couples feel welcome in his Church. But it had still surprised him to meet a couple composed of a Hispanic man and a black woman. It didn't bother him in the least, he had just never seen it before.
A college kid named Kevin, his younger brother Aaron, and Kevin’s frat brother Chase were also camping out with Eric and Mercedes. It turned out these five were the "kids" that Donald had said were the last ones still at the camp. Kevin and Aaron were camping out in a little hatchback station wagon. They had laid the back seats down and, when combined with the hatchback space, it made a decent place to sleep. Chase had a little tent set up next to the wagon but he had been sleeping across the front seat lately. Gabe hadn't asked but he figured Aaron to be around 17 and Kevin and Chase just a few years older. He was a little fuzzier on Eric and Mercedes ages but was sure they were in their early to mid-twenties at the most.
The two groups had made friends the first night, the ones staying at the campground had heard Donald’s gun shot and had all come to investigate. After they had settled Dona
ld into his bed and done what they could, the groups had clicked, probably due to their now shared need for survival. Mercedes had offered to let Jack and Jill sleep in the VW camper with her and her husband on the first night but Gabe had intervened. Gabe reminded them that they weren't married and didn't need to be sharing a bed. In the end Jill slept in the van with Mercedes, Eric of course sleeping in a separate side bed, giving the big bed in the back to the girls. Jack ended up sleeping in the back of the Pick-up truck with Gabe, and Chris slept across the back seat. Billy and Brad opted to sleep in a tent and despite his wound Donald had told them where to find it, and it had turned out to be really nice for something forgotten at a campground. Setting it up they found it was a spacious green canvas one that could comfortably sleep five and was tall enough for a grown man to stand up in the middle. The brothers and their friend all had their own tents set up next to VW so everyone else had camped in that same general area.
Gabe had felt a little awkward about intervening in the sleeping arrangements. In the past he wouldn't have thought twice about it, would have actually considered it his duty, but now that his wife had left him and was currently "shacking up" with someone aaaannnd had served him with divorce papers, even as he was talking to the kids about morality he had wondered if he was really gently counseling them on the word of God or just some made-up morals someone had put in a book.
"Gabe." Chris stuck his head out the back door of the only building on the campground. "Donald wants you." He shook his head sadly and added, "It doesn't look good."
Gabe followed Chris into the building. "I didn't know anyone had gotten up already."
"I came in to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and heard him moaning." They went down a hall and came to an open door as Chris continued. "I've been up with him ever since."
Gabe could smell decay as he walked into the bedroom. Donald was laying in the bed and his wife Shirley was sitting on the edge applying a washcloth to his forehead. Donald was pale and covered in sweat.
When Shirley saw Gabe she let a tear well up in her eye. She gently pulled the blanket back from Donald's leg and showed it to Gabe. The leg, infected with yellow and blue puss coming out of the bite mark, looked worse than Gabe imagined from just the smell alone. The infection spread up past the tourniquet and further than the blankets would allow Gabe to see.
"Gabe." Donald's eyes flickered open.
"Yes".
"'Some things we need to talk about." Gabe shook his head in understanding.
"First, I want you to say a few words over my grave."
"Now Donald," Gabe broke in.
"Don't give me no lip boy. I'm old enough to know when I'm done for." He locked eyes with Gabe and continued in a stern voice. "Now I never had time for religion and I can’t say as I believe in God, but I figure it will make people feel better,” He glanced at his wife who was to busy crying to notice. “And I figure it can’t hurt none either.”
Donald laid back for a moment and took several deep breaths before continuing.
“And don't ya let that boy or anyone else feel guilty about what happen. I did what I did 'cause it was the right thing to do."
Gabe just shook his head.
"Now I been talking to Chris as much as I could stay awake during the night and I asked him as a fellow vet to be the one to take care of making sure I don't get back up if ya get my meanin'."
Shirley let out a little sob and turned her head from Donald. Gabe instinctively reached out to comfort her but his mind was mauling over the fact that he had been with Chris for the better part of a week and he didn't know that Chris was a vet.
"When it is done, I want you to take my gun, there is ammo and clips and everything you'll need in the cabinet over there." Gabe looked confused and seeing this Donald went on. "Give that little gun of yours to my wife, she can't rightly handle this big ol’ Dessert Eagle. One of the few luxuries I ever allowed myself"
Donald closed his eyes and leaned back on his pillow and took several ragged breaths. "Now yall've just about eatin us out of house and home so you need to go ahead and make a run-up to the Army Surplus like you'd been talkin’ about."
Putting a hand gently on Donald's arm Gabe thought for a moment.
"I'll say a few words over you grave IF that time comes..." He thought for a second and then continued. "But I'm not even sure what I believe anymore. And I'm not sure why you are telling me the rest of this. I'm not any kind of group leader."
"Bull hockey!" Donald spat out. "Of course you are."
Gathering his strength Donald pointed at Gabe. "I saw the way you led them when you first came in my store, and the way you lead them when you saw the zombies on the road and through that whole fight." He dropped his hand and looked at the ceiling. "And more importantly I saw the way they followed you."
He rolled his head on the pillow and looked at Gabe again, but this time the steel was gone from his eye and there was a gentleness there.
"As to not knowing what you believe...Like I said, I never took to it, but growing up when I did we went to Church every time the doors open and I don't remember the Bible saying it was gonna be easy."
"Yes sir." Gabe responded.
They stood there around his bed with him in silence. The others slowly came into the room over the next half hour. His breath got more and more shallow and he didn’t open his eyes again. He was now breathing in gasps further and further apart. When the time finally came Gabe put his arm around Shirley and led her out of the room. She didn't try to resist him and just sobbed quietly as everyone else but Chris followed.
Stepping outside the back door with Shirley now clinging to him, they all stood around in an informal circle. The weather was nice with a cool breeze and the birds were chirping in the trees.
A minute later a single gunshot could be heard from inside the building.
…It was just a single shot, there was nothing to worry about.
Chapter 9
It had been several days after Donald's death before Gabe gathered everyone together.
Donald had been right about needing supplies and it had finally gotten to the point that they couldn't ignore it. Donald's widow Shirley was able to advise them on the layout of the town and the Army Surplus store, which was also a gun store. Donald had a stash of antibiotics but he had used most of them fighting the zombie bite infection, so they were now low on food, meds, certain types of ammo and other supplies.
"Okay guys." Gabe called the group to attention. Although he didn't realize it, for someone with so many doubts in his head he looked surprisingly comfortable with the large Dessert Eagle 50 caliber semi-automatic pistol strapped in a holster to his hip. Everyone at the campgrounds gathered in the sitting room of the main building at Gabe's request.
"Donald was right," Gabe's eyes glanced at Donald's widow as he mentions his name. "We are now pretty much out of supplies and it has been over a week since this thing started."
No one said anything. They waited for Gabe to go on.
"We need to make a run for supplies. Shirley says that the Army Surplus store is on the first block of the town on this side, so we are lucky there."
Shirley Cut in. "It is... was... also a gun store, not a huge selection compared to some of them spots I've seen in the city, but we liked it fair nuff."
"So," Gabe continued, not that he hadn't been happy for someone else to talk. "We should be able to get some MRE's..."
"Uhmm?" Jill interrupted before Gabe could go on.
"M-R-Es. Meals Ready to Eat." Chris answered Jill's question before she could ask it. "They are food for soldiers to take in the field with them. Little packages that have everything in them for a whole meal, including the utensils, and if you're lucky, a little chocolate or something for dessert." Chris seemed to smile at that thought.
"So," Gabe started once again. "We go there and grab food, camping supplies and ammo and guns all in one fail swoop. Here’s the plan…”
#
As they drove towards the edge of town everyone was very nervous. What had happened to Donald was still fresh on their minds.
"Remember that guy we saw getting eaten back in that little town when we drove through. The one that was hanging halfway out the car window." Brad broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Yeah." Gabe answered with a tone that indicated he was thinking that it was an odd subject choice considering.
"As we were driving by, I saw him suddenly... well I guess not come back to life, but" He paused. "Become one of the undead. As soon as he did the other two lost interest in chewing on him and started following us."
"Okay." Gabe answered slowly, unsure where Brad was going with this conversation. "Not sure how that helps."
"Oh, sorry. I guess it doesn't. I was just wondering why they don't eat each other and thought of that."
Gabe realized that it was kind of odd, but shook his head to clear his mind. Up ahead he could see the little store with the one set of gas pumps just as Shirley described. Chris pulled up several feet short of the pump and turned the truck off. No one moved, they just scanned to see if there was any movement on the streets.
From the passenger seat Gabe turned and faced the back seat. Brad, Jack and Bill were in the back seat and Eric, Kevin, Chase and Aaron were listening through the little window that opened up into the bed of the pickup.
"Alright, everyone knows what to do."
The four truck doors and the tailgate all opened at once. Brad and Billy pulled a garden hose and several plastic gas jugs out from the truck bed. Chris had parked the truck so that it was right next to the metal covers in the ground where the fuel trucks filled the underground storage tanks. Billy and Brad immediately began using crowbars they had gotten from Donald's tools to pry open one of the lids.
Gabe came over to them while everyone else couched and waited for him. He kneeled next to them and began to open the gas cap on the truck and the lids on the gas cans.
Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Page 6
