Zournal (Book 6): The Final Countdown

by R. S. Merritt

  Reeves came stumbling out of the surf with a metal ammo box in each hand. He looked as miserable as the rest of us felt. He walked over to us and plunked an AK-47 out of the pile on the beach and started loading it.

  “You think I should stay here and help with the beachhead or go back and get more junk?” He asked. He was still shivering. He was not good with cold. Luckily the two Seals were. This was the kind of stupid shit they did all the time. They actually seemed at home in the frigid water and as they dumped more stuff in the pile they didn’t even hesitate to go tromping back out to the boat. I was watching the pile grow and it occurred to me there was no way we could carry all that stuff. We needed to either go find a truck or something or stop dragging stuff over from the boat since we were going to end up having to leave it here anyway.

  Ann and Reeves were firing pretty much non-stop at this point as Zombies broke out of the woods up and down the beach and made a beeline for us. They made easy targets as they stumbled slowly through the rocks and sand. Realizing I wasn’t being super useful here I announce my intention to go into the woods and see if I could find a working vehicle.

  “You know the batteries are going to be dead and the fuel and oil turned to sludge in most regular cars by now, right?” Walker had shown up out of nowhere to point out the obvious. Not a lot of regularly scheduled maintenance had been occurring over the last couple of years. We’d been pretty lucky in locating military grade vehicles that had been in underground bunkers or regularly driven and maintained. Before too long we’d be trying to find horses to ride at this rate. We did have our wind-up car battery charger with us. No apocalyptic traveler would be caught dead without one. I dug through the pile. It wasn’t there yet. I looked up at Walker who sighed and turned around and jogged back into the surf as Wilson was emerging.

  Wilson was actually smiling. Dude is weird. He jogged over and dropped off more ammo and a bag full of knives and pistols. He looked around to see how we were holding out Zombie battle wise.

  “We’re going to need more ammo.” Was his assessment of the situation as he turned and ran back into the water. I took aim with the AK I had picked up out of the pile and shot at a couple of Zombies who were running at us from further down the beach by the waterline. They stumbled and went down in the surf. They’d eventually be eaten by crabs or washed out to sea for bigger predators to eat them whole. We were pretty close to the place the Great White sharks came annually to mate so there was no shortage of big, scary fish out in the ocean here.

  I continued shooting until Walker made a circuit and came back with the bag holding a bunch of our car and building tools. He selected a few things out of it including the wind-up battery charger and then stood there waiting for me.

  “You ready?” He asked.

  “Sure. Let’s go find us a car.”

  “Get one with leg room!” Reeves called out.

  “I want Sirius radio!” Ann chimed in helpfully as she sent a few bullets in the direction of yet more Zombies coming towards us. If they ever figured out how to run in the thick sand we were going to be in trouble.

  Walker handed me all the crap to carry and took point with his Nine Millimeter Beretta in one hand and a Kabar knife in the other. I agreed with him that once we got in the woods we wanted to be as quiet as possible. He was probably also the better fighter so it made sense for him to lead while I carried the duffel bag full of our car starting accessories. We took a brisk walk into the woods while Reeves and Ann shot any Zombies who popped out near us. As we got closer I could see into the woods and you could tell it was one of those drive-in campgrounds. As luck would have it there was a giant RV parked in the spot opposite where we had just entered the woods.

  Walker headed straight towards it. Pistol and knife held in front of him as he ran towards a lone Zombie who was rushing him. Rather than shoot the Zombie and cause more of them to head for us he side stepped it and kicked in its knee then pushed it over. Once the Zombie was on the ground he fell on it with a knife thrust to the back of the head that ended the Zombie. Without looking back, he hopped up and continued towards the RV.

  We got there and Walker reached up and tried the passenger side door. It was locked. He motioned me forward. I came over and he grabbed the duffle bag and started looking through it. I was looking forward to seeing him use the lock picking kit to get into this beast of a vehicle. I was slightly disappointed when he pulled out a hammer and stood up and broke the passenger side window. He climbed up on the stairs and was opening the door when a Zombie child attacked him from inside the RV. Walker had not been expecting it and had not seen the kid so fell backwards off the side of the RV with the Zombie kid holding his arm and trying to bite his fingers off.

  Walker was protected from breaking any bones in the fall since he fell directly on top of me. I went crashing to the ground as the screaming Zombie brat finally shut up. The Zombie shut up but Walker started screaming and banging the diminutive Zombies head against the side of the RV. Finally, the body slumped to the ground and Walker backed up a step or two and started to turn around as the mama Zombie came out the window screaming and jumped on him. Walker stabbed that bitch to death then fell to his knees covered in blood. Just in time for the daddy Zombie to try and squeeze out the window and attack as well.

  Luckily, the dad was sporting a massive dad bod and got stuck in the window. Walker got up and walked over and shoved his knife into the guy’s head a few times. That did the trick. Walker walked over to me and asked if I could help bandage his hand. He held his hand up in front of me and I saw that all the skin on the ends of three of his fingers on his left hand had been flayed off. I was assuming by the little kid chomping down on them. Either way, it was mostly bone and blood sticking out of three of his fingertips. He was going to end up with nubs.

  Not wanting to get into all that with him right now. Especially since he seemed to be in shock. I whipped out some field dressings and the tape and just wrapped up his whole left hand after I squirted a bunch of the antibiotic spray on it we all carried as part of our normal kits at this point. If we had a real medic his fingers might have a chance but since what he had was me he was pretty much not going to be any good on the piano again, ever. I let him cover me as I looked up at the fat ass dead guy stuck in the window.

  I climbed up and shoved him back into the RV and then after taking a long look around so I didn’t end up like Walker I opened the passenger door. I drug out fat ass and threw him on the ground. How do you sit inside an RV with no food for the better part of two years and still be fat? The inside of the RV smelled fine. There were some indented places on the floor and on the couch where I assumed the Zombies had drifted off into their stasis when they ended up not being smart enough to figure out how to get out of the RV. I helped Walker climb up into the RV and got him settled on the couch. I handed him a bottle of water and told him not to touch the bandages on his hand.

  The keys were not in the ignition so I climbed down and searched fat ass until I found the keys in his pockets. I climbed back up into the RV and was wondering how to open the hood to find the battery when I decided to just give the keys a try. Damn thing started right up. Attracting the attention of every Zombie within a hundred yards of us. I fumbled around with the radio and let Wilson know the situation. We needed to all be in this RV getting the hell out of here now before the road became to clogged with Zombies for us to be able to drive down it. I hit the button for the whole team and whispered to come to me with melee only. Then I pulled a machete and left the engine running to go help clear a path.

  Ten minutes later we were all in the RV. Everyone was winded. Ann was feeding Walker antibiotics and pain killers and taking off the bandages to try and clean the wound better. I heard her gasp as she saw what she was dealing with. I didn’t fault her one bit since I’d barely seen the wound and it had still freaked me out. We were all out of sight in the RV and had turned the engine back off. We were going to fall back on our oldest trick. Hiding out and
being quiet until the Zombies wandered away. Then we would hopefully be able to go get the rest of our stuff off the beach and load it in the RV and start rolling out of here.

  Ann finished up bandaging Walker and Reeves volunteered for the first watch. The rest of us put our heads down and tried to get some sleep. It was going to be a long day.

  Entry 33: On the Road Again, Again…

  I drew the last watch before dusk. The sky was already starting to get dark when Ann nudged me awake and motioned for me to keep quiet. She crawled towards the back of the RV and the low bunk she had claimed as her own. I yawned quietly and moved towards the front of the RV. Once there I slowly raised my head up to peer out the windshield. The small road that looped in a circle around the campsites was clogged with Zombies. I counted thirty of them that I could see standing there. There was no telling how many of them there might be elsewhere.

  I watched them as night fell and saw them disperse into the shadows of the trees where we knew they’d group together in the underbrush and inside old buildings to sleep through the night. Ann had left her AR-15 with the starlight scope on it up here so we could get a good sense of what was going on out in the darkness. I watched as the Zombies retreated into the woods until there was just one Zombie left who stood still in the middle of the road. It was a little girl and she was creeping me out. She kept staring over at the RV like she knew we were in here. She was dressed in a nightgown that had some sort of rainbow looking princess drawings on it but they were so covered in dried mud and blood that it was impossible to distinguish what it was now.

  I stopped looking at her. Hoping she’d go away. I looked out into the woods on either side of the RV instead. Then I crawled back along the length of the RV to the rear window and took a look out. All I could see that way were trees and little slivers of the ocean. I moved slowly back to the front of the RV. Moving past a crew of snorers. No wonder that little Zombie girl had been staring. Sounded like a bunch of hibernating grizzly bears in here. I moved back to the front of the RV and checked on the Zombie girl. She was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued to look out the front and back windows.

  I was thinking we could probably start collecting our gear and quietly loading it into the RV in another hour. I looked out the broken passenger side window in time to see the little girl staring at me through it. My blood went cold as she screamed and started pulling herself the rest of the way through broken window. Her mouth was gnashing open and closed as her red eyes stared at me. I froze. I waited for her teeth to sink into me as I couldn’t move. I desperately hoped I’d wake up from this nightmare.

  I was yanked backwards as Wilson and Reeves both grabbed the little girl and started stabbing her. I sat on the floor of the RV and trembled. Tears rose up unbidden in my eyes. I heard Zombies screaming around us as they came out of their slumber to see what all the noise was about. Wilson and Reeves were laying on the ground with the Zombie corpse still leaking blood all over them. Both of them were drenched in the girl’s blood. We all sat still. Afraid to move. Afraid to breathe. The slightest noise could get us killed.

  We heard Zombies moving around outside through the open window of the RV. They had stopped screaming but they were still shuffling around and banging on stuff and in hunting mode. We were going to need to put off collecting our stuff from the beach for at least a few more hours. We went back to waiting. Seeing how freaked out I was Wilson sent me back to squeeze into the bunk with Ann and let her calm me down. Him and Reeves took over the watch. Which mostly consisted of laying on the floor and staying awake while wondering if another Zombie was going to come busting through the open window.

  It was three in the morning before Wilson made the call to try and collect our stuff. He decided him and Reeves would be in charge of humping the stuff back and forth. The rest of us would be on watch and ready to pull them out if needed. If they were spotted they planned to run to the shore and get out to the boat and make a stand there. Should be very easy to defend and they should be able to get rid of a lot of Zombies pretty quietly. We spent the next two hours waiting for them to be attacked by Zombies as they loaded the stuff from the beach into the RV then made some more trips out to the boat to collect the rest of our gear and got that loaded on as well.

  The sky was starting to light up as we finally decided we were good to get the hell out of here. I was in the driver’s seat so I go the dubious honor of starting up the RV and pulling us out of the parking spot. As soon as I turned the engine over Zombies started emerging out of the bushes they had been asleep in. Reeves climbed into the passenger seat with a tire iron and whacked any Zombies who tried to get in that way. Most of them just pounded on the side of the RV as we drove past them then started running behind us trying to catch up to us. A few got in front of us and I slowed down to let them get beside us so as not to mess up the RV by hitting them head on.

  We drove down the long road out of the park. We left the Zombies behind as the sun rose into the sky. The fabled California sunshine revealing a sparsely wooded, rocky beautiful landscape all around us. It was easy to see that mankind was just a blip in the timeline of the earth as the road was reclaimed by mother nature. We had one Zombie run towards us on the road but we just slowed down and let him get beside us then sped past him.

  The fuel gauge in the RV showed us having half a tank. It was a fancy ass expensive RV. One of those that only rich retirees could afford. This one seemed like the owner must have gotten in on the ground floor with Facebook or Google because it had all the bells and whistles. Including a GPS that did not work since the satellites were going all wonky with no one tending to their care and feeding. It had a serious music collection loaded on the hard drive so we were able to rock out to songs from the seventies and eighties which was nice. It also had all kinds of cameras around it to give you a 360-degree view for parallel parking and Zombie spotting.

  While I drove, Reeves and Wilson were working on sorting the weapons. Ann changed Walkers bandages and gave him more medicine to take. He took it and passed back out. I couldn’t even imagine the pain he must be in. I was just glad we’d rescued Ann’s pill collection. It was the only thing that kept us alive and motivated half the time. Ann joined me in the front when she was done tending to Walker and she helped me navigate. We were planning on taking the 101 up to Washington then picking an interstate to get over to Spokane from there. We figured the 101 should keep us away from where the Koreans had been hanging out. It did put us along the ocean which seemed dangerous based on the Koreans seeming to like living by the ocean but we didn’t have much choice unless one of us learned how to fly a plane real quick.

  If we ran into Koreans we had rocket launchers and a fifty-caliber machine gun tucked away on this RV. We’d play easy prey until they got close enough and then we’d just blow them to pieces. That plan was pretty much fool proof. Feeling like we might actually have a shot at making it to Spokane and enjoying not being on a boat in the rough ass waves for a change we found the soundtrack to Grease on the hard drive of the radio and Ann sang along to every song. Being a man, I pretend like I didn’t know the words but I was loving her losing herself in the music and occasionally actually looking happy and carefree.

  I knew it wouldn’t last for long so I chose to enjoy it while I could. We kept on cruising north looking for a place to liberate some diesel.

  Entry 34: No Prisoners

  We took the back roads to get to US-101 to avoid the downtown area of Santa Rosa. We found a Penske place in a warehouse district and were able to fill up the tanks in there. We hurried but on leaving the place was still crawling with Zombies. We ended up having to break the fifty out to clear the ones off the gates before we could open the gate to leave. After making all that ruckus we drove as fast as possible to get out of the area and onto the highway.

  Once on the highway we made pretty good time. At some point, someone had already shoved a bunch of the cars out of the way that had been stopped on the road. This made it p
retty easy for us and we made really good time for a change. I still slowed down whenever I was going over a hill since you never knew what may be on the other side. Which is why we didn’t barrel right into the transport truck in the middle of the road when we went over the hill. There were a couple of guys with their heads stuck under the hood trying to do something to it and another ten or so soldiers lounging around.

  They all stared at us as we drove up to them. Then, conditioned by decades of war, they all scrambled to get their weapons aimed at us. The guys working under the hood were scrambling to get under cover as well. Not knowing what else to do I swerved to go around the truck and stomped on the accelerator.

  “Contact! Koreans!” I yelled as I prayed for the big RV to accelerate faster and get us out of the kill zone. Bullets started peppering the sides of the RV as Wilson and Reeves struggled to get into the game. Ann had ducked down below the dashboard right before the front window got spider webbed with bullets. I felt something cut my ear and blood started flowing pretty freely from my forehead as well. I wasn’t dead though and I didn’t see any more Koreans in front of me so that was good.