Zombies On The Block | Book 8 | Better Off Dead

by Evans, Mike

  Harry knew that Dean was a few years younger than he was and had quite a bit more piss and vinegar than anyone else on the shop team. Anytime something needed lifted that they couldn't get a jack under, typically Dean was the man to go to. Harry, to Dean's surprise, pointed saying, “I might not be a fucking doctor but I sure as shit know the difference between someone who isn't dead and is. I don't understand why in the hell they are purple though?”

  Dean and Travis, who were both focused on Harry, had not seen Joe and Phil practically, more so in this case, quite literally sit up unassisted from the ground. Joe had the longer arms of the two and used them to his advantage to get a firm grip on the rear of Travis's blue work shirt. Joe pulled back quickly, sending Travis off balance. He couldn't help himself but to reach out and grip on to Dean. Dean, who might have been one muscular son of a bitch did not necessarily have the greatest balance given his height and weight. Dean's arms began to look like a bird spinning in the wind on a weathervane as his giant frame came backwards.

  Travis knew that this was going to hurt something bad. He instantly let go of Dean and tried to roll to the side. There would be no escape from the behemoth of a man coming in his direction. All he saw was the giant blue shirt of Dean's back getting wider and larger until it was all that he could see. But if Travis had seen the horror show that was about to happen going on behind him by the looks of his two work constituents, he would take the rear of Dean's shirt for a view any day of the week.

  Dean practically crushed Travis when he fell; with no way to slow himself in his descent to the ground. Travis let out an oomph as the ground beneath Travis quickly disappeared. Travis tried to breathe but there was no way his already depleted lungs were going to be able to push Dean off his body to fill his lungs with the sweet cool air that he so desperately required.

  Dean didn't waste any time and rolled to his side. He currently had every intention of killing Travis and was running through a million different ways that he could potentially make that happen. He did not like falling, not that anyone really did. However, given his size and frame, he had fallen before at work and typically it would result in something broken, sprained, or ripped. The time that it took him to heal he always felt took twice as long as anyone else and as he had been aging over the years realized it was not getting any easier at all.

  Travis wanted to apologize but when he saw the look on Dean's face, he realized in an instant something was horribly wrong. Dean had looked like he was going to commit murder at first glance but that instantly transformed into fear the likes of which he had never seen on Dean's face.

  Travis became scared when a man who he had never seen scared in all his life looked like he had been witnessing a nightmare while awake. Travis instinctively yelled, “What, what the hell is it? Are you guys both fucking with me?”

  Dean crawled backwards on his hands and knees, not answering. He tried to get up to his feet but now was somewhat paralyzed mid-crawl. No description would be able to explain anything anyone would see here today.

  Harry screamed, “Watch out, before that thing…”

  Travis, not appreciating them screwing with him, asked frantically, “For the love of God would you make some sense, you dumb son of a bitch?”

  Everything became perfectly clear the moment that a pair of teeth gripped on to the side of Travis's ear. The meatless flesh came off in his mouth, blood gushing out of Travis's ear. When Travis looked over his shoulder, his face went white at the horror scene as Joe eagerly ate away at the ear.

  Joe had not let go even though he had gotten his first bite of flesh. Unfortunately for Travis, the moment that he tried pulling away was when Phil, who didn’t have quite the reach that Joe had, was able to take a grip of Travis' hair.

  Travis thought that the hand was going to tear the hair from his head, but it only immobilized him further as Phil leaned in and put his lips around Travis's jugular. Dean finally shook out of whatever was putting him in his current state and realized he needed to do something, because chances are if they were going to go after one of them, they would have to probably go after all of them.

  Dean didn't understand what in God's name was happening but he sure as shit wasn't going to have anyone snacking on his face. When they didn't think things could get any worse, Phil pulled free, chewing viciously on Travis's neck, and his Adam's apple popped out of his mouth, rolling down and landing near Dean's hand.

  Dean had never seen one before, because no one ever saw them, outside of doctors, he figured. Harry leaned in, all the while trying to keep as much distance as possible from Phil and Joe. They’d moved on from Travis and had their sights set on Dean. When Harry thought he had enough to get him to his feet, Dean felt a firm grip on him pulling hard, trying to get Dean up and out of reach.

  Phil continued to try and pull back on Dean’s shoulder. When Dean could feel little droplets of blood from Phil’s mouth on the back of his neck, he gave a quick look behind him. Dean realized that Phil was less than an inch from connecting with his shoulder. He brought his elbow back three times until the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking echoed. He might as well have been giving him sweet kisses, for it would have gotten the same reaction from Phil.

  Dean’s force did one thing right. It freed him from the grasp of Phil. Joe had reached up, gripping the tail of his shirt, but Dean leaned forward, letting all his muscle and belly fat propel him into Harry. The two of them landed on the table with Harry’s legs on either side of Dean. If it hadn’t been in lieu of the death-defying situation happening at the moment, it would have been comical. Harry pushed him up the best that he could. When the two got to their feet they saw that Travis was very quickly going pale and then stopped moving.

  Harry said, “Why don’t you and I get our big asses moving before we don’t have any choice in the matter.”

  Dean realized just how fabulous of an idea that was, but Joe and Phil had both gotten to their feet. Neither of them wanted anything but to get away from the two of them. Dean, who had had more than enough of this bullshit, ran to the opposite side of the table. It took about a second before he dead lifted the solid heavy table up without hesitation. He launched it towards the two men, hitting Joe across the neck and Phil in the chest, sending both backward to the ground. He didn’t slow down a second but could not figure out how to get it off him...this was fine by Dean as well as Harry.

  Both hit the ground hard and were temporarily pinned. Neither of the two men had any idea where they should go or what they should do. The engine shop where the planes and everything were stored was always on display for visitors like a centerpiece. They had a glass partition which circled the entire area. Dean looked up seeing people racing for their lives. From as high up as it was, it seemed that those working in the shop could be ants or little people. Harry said, “We need to get in the office and out of the shop before Joe gets up!”

  Dean was looking at the scene surrounding him and realized this wasn’t looking like it was an isolated event. He pointed up, not saying anything that the eye couldn’t answer. Harry was trying to think of what they could do, what options there were, and couldn’t think of any.

  Dean pointed to the corporate circle surrounding everything, yelling, “Would you look at what is going on in the office! I don't think going in there is going to do much good for either of us. Would you look at what is happening! It looks like all the goddamn suits are trying to kill one another.”

  Harry looked up at the windows where Dean was pointing. He realized that these people were in no way trying to kill anyone or anything. He simply was realizing that it was just the effect of the aftermath that these things were trying to eat those that it could only assume were not purple. He really didn't know what in the hell he should do about any of this. Harry said, “Do you think that it is going to be smart to go out on the strip?”

  “I highly doubt it, if we don't have a pilot to take off, we're just going to be a couple fat fucks sitting out on the tarmac, and even
tually those things, whatever the hell they are, are coming after us.”

  Neither of them was thinking far enough ahead to remember the precious commodity that they, and they alone, would have available to them this early in the morning. There weren't a lot of people coming in for gas just yet. Their busy morning time wouldn't be for a few more hours unless someone wanted work done on one of the planes that was already there.

  The two men seem to come to the conclusion in unison or the bright light hit them both at once thinking Nick was here. Nick was somewhere, and they just had to figure out where they were, or he was, so they could find him.

  Harry yelled pointing towards the bathroom, “He's in the shitter, he's taking a shit!”

  Phil and Joe had finally wiggled out from under the table and they realized Travis was getting back up to his feet, but he definitely didn't look like the Travis of old. Dean was going to ask Travis if he was okay, but from the amount of flesh missing from his neck, alongside the fact he didn't have an ear, there seemed little that he could offer him in the way of help. Dean thought it might not be the worst idea to try and pick up some sort of oversized wrench that he could use to swing like a baseball bat and potentially take care of any issues that may or may not arise in the very foreseeable future.

  Any microscopic questions of if Travis was okay got answered the moment he locked eyes on Dean and Harry. The two men were almost to the bathroom when they heard footsteps coming rapidly behind them. Harry was in the lead somehow, potentially because he wasn't looking behind him like Dean was hell bent on doing. Harry knew, so long as no one bit him, that he didn't need to see what was on his tail. That was his most important thing.

  Harry ran to the door and for some reason didn't think about the fact that if someone was in there taking a crap then the chances of it being locked were strong. Harry hit the door hard but it held strong. The only thing that was about to take any sort of punishment was his head. He tried to put his arms up, but it happened too quickly, he was incapable of protecting himself, and his head bounced straight off the solid locked wooden door. Before Harry could register the amount of pain in his head, things got worse. Dean was coming in strong right behind him with more than enough weight to take the door off its frame and Harry off his feet.

  Chapter 7

  Michael, Jake, and Trevor trio

  Michael only had one favorite sport. Which, unlike some, he did very much consider a sport, and that was the great and mighty NASCAR. If a big race was on, you were guaranteed that you were going to see him sitting there watching it with a shit-eating grin spread across his face. He did not have a lead foot whatsoever, but today the way he was kicking the shit out of his truck you would think he was doing trials for one of the biggest races every year.

  Trevor was doing his best to not look nervous, but at the speeds speed-racer was going, swerving in between zombies on the street, racing after the shiny black object coming their way, anyone would have been a little nervous to be where he was. Trevor said, “Just remember we can't get there if we are dead. Not to be a backseat driver or anything, but I think you're scaring the kid.”

  Jake was in his own world up until that point. He was having a conflict of interest thinking that while this was horrifying, he knew that his mom and Mickenzie were in a very dangerous circumstance, and he was terrified about it. At the exact same time, he thought if this was a video game, he would probably never want to go to school or be forced to go to school again.

  He could barely wrap his young mind around the fact that he was racing across the zombie filled town, at his age, loaded to the teeth with guns and bullets. Without his parents as well, and was racing towards his mom like his life, or more accurately, her life depended on it. The word kid had caught his attention and he saw Michael looking over, ready to apologize. Jake shook his head no saying, “No I don't think so, don't put this on me, Trevor. If anything, he needs to go faster. My dad's already going to be livid at the fact that I had to leave when he doesn't see me when he and my grandma and grandpa show up. On top of that, when he sees all the zombies, he's going to feel absolutely horrible. He's going to think I died, my sister died, the dogs both died. Then once he finally figures out that we're all still alive, he will go from livid to advising me how far he's going to stick his quite large boot up my ass. True story. I mean you've met my dad, right? Does he seem like the type to screw around with?”

  “He probably wouldn't be my first choice. I know if I thought Penny or Ruby were gone and then I found out later they weren't, I don't know if anything potentially would ever make me as happy as that.”

  Michael was nodding his head and Jake said, “You know, I guess, guys, in the long run we might want to worry about getting out there.” Michael pointed up ahead saying, “Speak of the devil. They said they're at the college and hopefully they were able to think of a smarter plan than just jumping into a damn pool.”

  Jake was shaking his head, knowing that if that's what it came down to that the shit had most definitely hit the fan. When they pulled into the parking lot it didn't look like there was any shortage of purple zombies surrounding the area. It looked like there had been a construction zone at one point which now came off more like a crime scene. Jake said it more to himself than anyone but spoke softly, “Well... This doesn't look very promising, does it?”

  Trevor and Michael both knew as adults it was their job to try and not freak the kid out. Both of them at once said, “No, it isn't.”

  Michael pulled to a stop where there was the least amount of the dead and would provide them with the opportunity to hopefully clear enough of them that they could fight their way inside. Michael was just hoping that he had enough bullets and luck to pull this off.

  Trevor asked, “Jake, are you staying in the truck? I mean do you want to stay in the truck?”

  Jake was nodding his head yes and saying without filter, “No, I don't want to stay in the fucking truck. If you guys start firing off and don't kill every last single one of these things, they're going to come to the truck and kill me. Now I have this weird feeling that if that story got back to my dad that there would be no possible place you could hide that would stop him from trying to kill you. I mean, as sweet as he is, I'm pretty sure it'd be bad, okay I'm just saying, I'm just saying. But absolutely, if there weren't the zombies and you know, a million other horrible reasons then yeah, I'd like to stay. Of course, on a side note, I could have just stayed home if I wasn't going to do anything to contribute. Especially given the fact we didn't know we would find you running for your life from John Deere and be able to save you.

  Trevor knew when he was wrong and held up both hands in defeat saying, “I get it, you win, kid. Jesus you are a spitting image of Mike.”

  “I'm probably closer to my grandpa, given the fact I still have a full head of hair.”

  Chapter 8

  Ames, IA

  Tony wanted to slow down, but the footsteps were only growing louder behind him. Slowing down meant a certain death, making it to the street they hoped at the very least would give them a chance, however small that might be.

  Holly said, “Tony, they’re getting closer, why aren’t you running faster?”

  “Oh, because I’m working really hard right now at trying to decide which tunnel to take.”

  Steven, not quite sure what he was talking about, asked, “But the map just shows that there is one tunnel the rest of the way?”

  “Right, but every time that I think I am sobering up I realize I’m still really drunk or hungover, probably hungover. Running a straight line isn’t all that easy.”

  Steven was going to say something much nicer about needing to move faster but Chad cut him off yelling, “Hey, why don’t you get your fucking ass moving. If you’re drunk, then fall back and maybe buy us some time.”

  Tony didn’t respond, the energy spent wasn’t worth the effort. He really just hoped that by the time they made it back to Ankeny that he was levelheaded. The last thing that he need
ed to do was be this shit faced when he saw his dad, or god forbid, his Grandpa Denny. The lack of emotional sympathy level of his father was only trumped tenfold by his grandpa. He loved the man more than anything, but unless you cut off a limb, you could expect not to have too many worries or coddling.

  Tony was watching the wall, seeing markers for the first time, or maybe he was just realizing it. Tony saw a thirteen on it and started feeling hopeful that they were going to see the end. Steven screamed, “They are coming, there’s five of them, get moving, god damn it!”

  Tony knew there wasn’t a chance in hell of everyone making it up the ladder. If he couldn’t get everyone up the ladder, he was going to get Holly up there first. He fell back a step, locking eyes and said, “Get up the ladder first. Don’t slow down, get moving, head out of town, hide somewhere, just stay away from those things!”