Chapter 6
Highway 83
Zapata TX
“Hey Bobby, why didn’t you tell Amber about the man in the road?” JC asked. Bobby replied “Didn’t you hear her? She’s already freaked out. Imagine how much worse it would make her if I told her what we just saw.” “So, what’s the video about?” Justin asked. Pulling up his messages, they all saw that it was a video of a man being held down on a sidewalk by an older woman while she crammed her face into his neck. They were both covered in blood. The videographer was screaming that she was eating him and then it was over.
“That can’t be real, can it?” Asked Kirk, “Just more of that photoshop y’all were going on about earlier, right?” Justin said, “I don’t know, it looks real enough to me.” JC and Bobby both agreed that it looked authentic. Two minutes later, they turned onto the road the RV park was on and hit a wall of fog so thick that they couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of the truck. Kirk had to slow the vehicle down to a crawl to keep it on the road.
As they crept their way into the park, something hit the back-passenger window of the truck, making them all jump again. “What the hell was that?!?” Kirk yelled, startled. “Whatever it was, it had blood on it, don’t stop,” said Justin and he pointed to the dark maroon smear on the window. Thinking about the picture that Amber had sent him, and the man in the road a few minutes ago, Bobby exclaimed “I don’t like this. We need to get to the campers now. Who knows what’s going on?”
JC had initially asked Kirk to drop him off at his camper because he had to use the bathroom ‘something fierce’, but the rest of the guys were more worried about Amber, Bobboo and Caesar. Outnumbered, JC just said “Fine, I’ll walk over there myself when we get there.” Once on the small tar road that led to the RV’s, they saw dark shapes all around them coming out of the fog.
Just like Amber had said earlier, they looked like wet and muddy Mexicans, in tattered clothing with blood all over them. One of them, a man, was missing his entire jaw. Blood covered his shirt and his tongue flopped with every slow step he took. He was also missing half of his stomach. His intestines were dragging on the ground in front of him. As they watched, he almost tripped on his own bodily organs, but righted himself before he fell. JC grimaced, looked around and asked Bobby “Mind if I use your shitter once we get to your spot? I changed my mind, I’m with you guys.” Bobby chuckled, “Of course you can.”
Kirk was having a hell of a time trying not to hit what he figured were injured people coming out of the dense fog. A small part of him wanted to stop the truck and get out to assess the situation to see if he could help in any way, sure that this must have a rational explanation. People just didn’t make it a habit of shuffling around when they were injured though. “Zombies… They’re fucking Zombies.” was all Justin could say. Kirk laughed, “Hell no they ain’t, zombies ain’t real, dumbass.”
As they pulled into the empty parking space in front of Bobby and Amber’s camper, Kirk asked if any of them had their ‘pistolies’ with them today, thinking that they might need protection. “No.” They all said in unison. “Well shit, I brought mine. Quick, grab something to whack those folks with if they get too close,” he said as he grabbed his small handgun out of his lunch bag. Bobby found a large claw hammer in the bag of hand tools in the backseat between Justin and JC. JC procured a metal pipe from the floorboard where he was sitting. Justin found a 2x4 behind the seat where he was sitting but traded it out for a heavy pipe wrench from the bag of tools.
They all opened their doors at the same time and got out. Kirk left the keys in the ignition and the driver’s side door open just a crack in case anyone needed a quick getaway. The four men quickly made their way through the fog to the camper door. Luckily, Amber had managed to keep the kid and the dog quiet, so no one was alerted to their presence. Although the truck was loud, the fog was so thick that no one had seen them get out. If they stayed outside for much longer though, Kirk had a bad feeling that they would be spotted. Reaching the camper first, Bobby quietly knocked on the door.
Chapter 7
Beacon Lodge
Zapata TX
Amber heard the big work truck pull into the empty space in front of their RV. She had been nervously waiting for them to get here and was so happy to hear them coming, that she almost rushed out to greet them… Almost. Getting to the door before them, she waited for the sound of running footsteps and then heard the quiet knocking on the door. She quickly unlocked and opened the door, ushered the four men into the small(ish) space and closed the door again, making sure it was locked.
She wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and hugged him. She was so happy to have him home. Next, she thanked Kirk for bringing them all here safe and sound. JC used their bathroom while the rest of them sat down. Once he was done and everyone was seated, she asked “What’s it like out there? Is it as bad as I’m imagining?” “We didn't have too many problems getting to the park from the jobsite, but once we got here, things got creepy.” Bobby explained. He then told her in detail about the wet and bloody men and women they had seen.
Amber was so scared by the new information that she was shaking and having trouble holding back her tears. She was happy they were here, but she was oh so frightened! Having seen a million zombie movies throughout the years, she had knowledge of how to avoid being bitten, eaten or scratched and how to kill a zombie, but the fear of it actually happening for real was just too much for her to face in the moment and she broke down, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The three guys sat there and let her cry. All being married men themselves or had been married before (in Kirk’s case) they knew that sometimes women needed a minute to gather up their emotions. Bobby hugged her and whispered calming things into her ear. “It’s ok Honey, let it out. Shhh there, there now. It’s all gonna be okay darling, we’re here now and we won’t let anything happen to you or Bobboo.”
After what seemed like forever but was probably closer to a minute and a half, Amber stopped crying and went to the bathroom to compose herself while Bobby tried to explain to Bobboo that his mom was okay. “She’s done now son. Ladies just get emotional sometimes, I had to help her through it.” “OK daddy.” Bobboo said and went back to playing his handheld video game. “Ahh kids and their short attention spans,” he said to no one in particular.
Chapter 8
Beacon Lodge
Zapata TX
Inside the safe(ish) RV, everyone sat on the couch or on the queen-sized bed looking at their phones and trying to find out what in the world was happening in the little RV park. Finding nothing of interest online, Justin called his wife Madyson in Weatherford TX to see if anything was amiss there. “Mady, anything going on up there I should know about?” she said no and asked what was wrong. “Shit is hitting the fan here…” he said. Then explained the man in the middle of the road, the video on social media and the figures in the fog at the RV park. He told her to stay inside, that he’d head home as soon as possible and that he loved her. She said she loved him too and would look around on the internet and see what she could find that could explain what was happening in Zapata.
JC called his wife Karen in Fort Worth TX and basically asked the same question Justin had asked Mady. He got almost the same answer. He quickly told her about the morning events and then told her that he loved her and then hung up. Kirk called his son Chet in Hico TX to make sure he and his family were safe as well. Chet had no idea what was happening either. Hico was a small town with no local news, so Kirk told him what little he knew. Chet said that he and the family were going to make sure their compound was well stocked with food, water and fuel. They had plenty of firepower and all the components to make more bullets with. Chet told Kirk that their house would be a safe place for him and his friends if they could make it to Hico. Kirk thanked him and said they’d discuss it.
Bobby and Amber both called their moms back in Virginia where they were from. Bobby’s mom didn’t answer her cel
l or house phones. This worried him, since she had just retired from the college, where she had worked at for the last 25 years. She also had heart issues. He made a mental note to try to remember to call her again later, praying that she would be ok. When Amber called her mom, Star, they found out that something was transpiring in the capital city of Richmond.
“Mama what’s going on there? Is Isaac alright?” Amber asked, putting the call on speaker. Isaac was their 15-year-old son. He had stayed in Richmond with his grandparents when Bobby had taken the high paying job offer from a traveling construction company. He didn’t want to travel with them, he wanted to stay at the same school and keep his same friends. “Your big son is fine. He’s 15 and thinks he’s invincible. I’m sorry he didn’t want to travel with you guys,” Star replied.
“The governor made an announcement on the TV last night. He said that the newest form of the vaccine that Richmond just got in from Mexico isn’t safe and that no one should get the shot. It’s causing… side effects.” Her mom said. “What side effects?” Amber asked, thinking back to the article she’d read earlier. “Well for starters,” her mom explained, “the people that get the new form of the vaccine all die horrible deaths. Some don't get any symptoms and just die. Others get the same symptoms of Covid-19, but worse and faster. Fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, difficulty breathing and lethargy. Finally, they die too. In most cases, choking on their own blood… But they aren't staying dead. They have no heartbeat and aren’t breathing, but they wake up and try to attack the next person they see or hear and then that person becomes infected too.”
“They’re like those creatures in the scary movies you’ve told me about, but since zombies aren’t real, I don’t know what to call them. Isaac, Charles and I have locked ourselves into the house. Thank goodness Charles didn’t get the shot. You know, his work wanted him to get the vaccine so he could go back to work in the shop instead of working from home, but…”
“Mama! Ok, stop talking for a second,” Amber interjected. “Tell us, did the Government tell you what to do to stay safe? How is the Government going to stop this? Did he say anything useful?” “Not really,” she replied. “All he said was to stay home, lock our doors and don’t answer it for anyone we didn’t know or anyone that was pale or had blood on them. How’s that for common sense huh? He also listed off a bunch of places people could go if they didn’t have a safe place, but we’re not going anywhere. We’ve got plenty of food and bottled waters right here. Thanks to Bobby buying his son that rifle and teaching him how to shoot it accurately, Isaac can help defend us if the need arises. Besides, that boy plays all those violent video games. Not to mention his huge collection of knives. I think we’ll be just fine.” She said confidently. Amber replied “Ok mama, just stay safe. Tell our boy that we love him and that I’ll call again once we get an idea of what’s going on here in Zapata. I love you mama.”
Amber hung up the phone and looked around at each of the guys. “Fuckin’ zombies, just like I said earlier.” Justin said, a little too loudly. Bobby told him to be quiet “We don’t want any outsiders to know we’re inside.” Kirk sat there in awe, analyzing the information he’d gathered since this morning. How could zombies actually exist? What should they do? He didn’t have any answers to the questions running through his mind.
JC was the first one to break the silence. “We gotta get outta this place,” he said quietly. Everyone wholeheartedly agreed. Amber and Bobby exchanged looks. Clearly, they were thinking the same thing. How could they leave? They didn’t have anywhere else in Texas that they could go to. They’d sold their house in Virginia to buy their camper when Bobby had taken the job offer, and everything they owned was in it. The other guys all had homes to go to.
After quietly talking, they all agreed that they needed to wait until the fog cleared to get a better look at how things were outside. Maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed. Amber got up and busied herself, quietly making a pot of fresh coffee and some breakfast burritos for her makeshift family. Cooking always calmed her down whenever she was upset. When she finished, she brought it all to the table and they all ate in silence.
Chapter 9
Amber and Bobby’s RV
Zapata TX
It wasn’t long before the six people inside the camper grew antsy and were ready for some new information. Taking a chance to peek out the window, Bobby carefully lifted the window shade. Not all the way, just a few inches to get a look at what was going on outside. At first, he didn't see anything besides the fog, which was already thinner than it had been an hour earlier. Focusing his eyes on the old boat ramp, he saw more figures coming up the hill with the same pale faces as the others he’d seen earlier. Same lifeless eyes, same bloody clothing and they all looked injured in some way. They were all Mexican, and all of them were soaking wet. Thinking out loud, he said “I think they're coming from the other side of the lake. It would explain why they’re all wet.”
Hearing this from his play area Bobboo yelled “From Mexico? But Dad, that’s against the law!!!!” Everyone shushed him, but it was too late. The damage had been done. Bobby looked back through the gap in the shade and saw that a few of the figures had heard his son’s yelling. Several of them were shuffling in the direction of the camper. After quickly closing the shade, a horrified Bobby sat on the couch with the others and tried to stay quiet.
They all hunkered down and waited for the ghostly pale creatures to pass by. A few seconds later, the first sound came from outside the camper and startled the inhabitants inside. A heavy smacking sound came from the other side of the door. Someone was banging on it. More pounding and slapping sounds came after the first one and everyone inside became nervous as the sounds vibrated through the small space.
Frightened, Bobboo jumped out of his play area and ran to his dad. He tried to scream, but Bobby placed his hand over the boy's mouth and signaled for him to be quiet. His eyes bulged in his head and tears started to flow down his cheeks. Amber motioned for him to come to her and he sat down on her lap, shaking like a leaf. He was terrified. She whispered into his ear, “You gotta be as quiet as a mouse, my love. Hopefully they’ll go away if they think no one is in here.” She held him tightly, trying her hardest not to cry as well.
Just as Star had said, the figures were attracted to sound. If the sound went away, then logically the creatures should roam elsewhere as well. After a few minutes of the horrifying slapping and pounding, it died down. A stray dog was barking somewhere else in the park and when the noises from outside stopped, they heard it. JC said, “Maybe they’re going for the dog now, we might be safe for the moment.” Kirk whispered “Whew, another close one folks. I almost pissed myself when the first one started in with the banging.” Bobby again lifted one of the shades and peered out. The fog was lighter still and he could see four of the undead creatures lumbering away from the camper towards the sound of the barking dog. A collective sigh was released, and everyone calmed down a bit. A few seconds later, they heard loud growling, and then a yelp from the dog. The creatures must have gotten to it. “Poor thing,” Justin said. Everyone nodded, but no one else spoke.
For a while, they all sat looking at their phones, trying to glean more information from the internet. From what they’d found out, this wasn’t an isolated incident. The dead weren’t staying dead. The same thing was happening in most major cities all over the country. They learned that the dead people were still decaying though and that gave them hope that this wouldn’t last forever. Maybe the zombies would rot to pieces and it wouldn’t have to be the end of the world as they knew it. None of them could find out if this was happening all over the globe, or just here in North America. The only other country referenced in any of the news pages or other sites they tried, was Mexico. Pictures of white dead eyes, videos of pale figures shuffling around, and posts of people being bitten were permeating the social media networks. The internet was exploding with posts about people being devoured by their loved ones or bitten by s
trangers while they walked down the street. Chaos was everywhere. The country was deteriorating quickly.
Chapter 10
Beacon Lodge
Zapata Tx
An hour or so later, Bobby looked out the window again. The fog had finally lifted, and the sun was shining brightly. It was a beautiful day. Well, besides the obvious. Without the fog to hinder their sight, they all took turns looking out of the small openings in the window shade to see first-hand how serious the situation had become here. The street out in front of the RV was littered with shoes, clothing, splashes of blood, drag marks and what looked like excrement, but could’ve been anything from the 30-foot distance between the small camper and the road. Through the homemade peephole, they could see a bunch of people (if that’s what you called them) huddled over a form in the road. They were misshapen figures, some had missing appendages and others had bite marks. All the figures had blood on them. The dead were bent over something, pulling pieces from it and putting the bits into their mouths. When one of them moved, Amber got a look at who it had been.
It was Cynthia, the office lady. Her golf cart was abandoned a few feet away from where she was laying. Her abdomen was hollowed out, the zombies had disemboweled her with their sharp nails and two of the monsters were fighting over her bloody intestines. Another one of the monsters had her forearm in its hands, taking bites off it as if it were a big turkey leg. Her eyeballs were gone, her nose had been bitten off and there wasn’t much skin left on her face. It was a gruesome sight. “Oh my goodness! It’s Cynthia! That poor woman...” Amber croaked. She was both saddened and sickened by the sight of the poor lady. She’d always been so kind and sweet to Amber when she had questions about the internet or paid their rent. She enjoyed the back and forth banter they’d shared on occasion.
Made In Mexico | Book 1 | Day 1 Page 2
