Rotten Chance
Copyright 2017 Jeffrey McElyea. All Rights Reserved.
Rotten Chance
Jeffrey McElyea
1
Adam pulled out his phone and tried to dial out. It didn’t work. The internet didn’t work, either. The television played a looped broadcast. It implored everyone to remain in their homes until further notice.
"Great,” he said to himself as he panicked and packed what he could into his duffle bag. “I already had a lot of problems. It couldn’t possibly get worse than this. I better head to Mom’s. Okay, let’s see. I’ve seen all the movies and read the books. Travel light. Too much stuff will slow me down and make me tired. That’ll get me killed. One set of dark clothing for moving around at night, the shotgun and all the food and bottled water I have. That’ll fill the duffle bag and backpack. Two bags is fine.”
Adam raided the kitchen and ran out the front door. The hallway was empty. Half of the front doors of adjacent apartments were open. Frightened and thinking quickly, he shut the doors. The staircase entrance was open. A large crowd of people was at the bottom of the stairs.
“Hey!” Adam addressed the crowd.
Then he knew. A crowd of zombies was staring up at him. Their faces were torn and caked with blood. Some were missing ears, noses, lips, eyes and more. Step by step, the mass of zombies slowly and carelessly made their way up the stairs towards Adam. Adam shut the door and ran back into his apartment. He then dragged his couch into the hallway and hastily left it in front of the staircase entrance. He also grabbed every chair he had and strategically placed them. Lastly, he moved the loveseat and lofted it on top of the couch.
“I hope that holds them,” he whispered to himself as he shivered with fear and moved away from the door. “If they make it through, I’ll be trapped.”
The zombies reached the door at the top of the stairs but couldn’t force their way through. Adam thought it’d be best to stay away from the door. The closer he was to them, the more frightened he’d become. He sat at the end of the hallway and cried.
“What am I going to do?” he whispered as he listened to the impact on the door. “Will they get through the door? Are my parents and my little brother okay? Are my friends okay? This just had to happen. This is unbelievable.”
Adam sat at the end of the hallway for twenty minutes before snapping out of it. He ran inside his apartment and thought about what he would and wouldn’t need. He took knives, toilet paper and a rag.
“I might come across something I want or need,” he thought. “I’m not leaving until I search every apartment on this floor.”
Thoughts swirled through his mind as he examined what he had to work with.
“Will I be eaten by one of them? Will I be scratched or bitten and become one of them? Will I ever see another living person again? Will I have to live like a mouse hiding from a bunch of hungry cats? Do I really have to do this? Do I have what it takes? What am I supposed to do? The movies and books are garbage. It won’t be that easy.”
Unsure if the zombies would get through the door, he kept a firm grip on his gun. He kept a butcher knife in the back of his pants. It fit snugly. He cowered in the bathroom.
“Jesus,” Adam prayed. “Please help me. I don’t know what I or anyone else did to deserve this. Please make it all go away. In your precious name, I pray. Amen.”
2
Adam couldn’t sleep. He sat in the bathtub and tried to convince himself that it was all a bad dream. When he came to terms with it, depression sank in.
“Nobody,” he thought. “Nobody to help me. I can’t go out there. I’ll be killed. I’m not ready for this. No one was ready for this.”
He sat in the bathtub for another hour before moving into the kitchen to take a quick peek out the window. He saw the grim truth. Buildings were engulfed by flames, cars were wrecked in the streets and zombies were shifting in all directions. Another tear rolled down his face. A feeling of doom swam through his being.
“I can’t die here,” he said softly. “Those people down the stairs and in the streets have died, but I can’t.”
When morning came, he pushed himself to get to work.
“I better do something before it gets a lot worse,” he thought. “I don’t want to do this. I have to. I have to try.”
He stashed his bag in the corner near the front door. He made sure his shotgun was loaded and looked out the door’s peep hole. The way appeared to be clear. He mustered up the courage to search the apartment to his left. It was one of the apartments that previously had its front door open. Shotgun at the ready, he opened the door and ran inside.
He searched the corners of the living room. Nothing was there. He continued searching the rest of the place. He noticed a horrible odor right away when he opened the door to the bathroom. A corpse lay on the floor. The man had committed suicide by gunshot to the head. He gagged.
The body held a revolver with five rounds. Using the strap, Adam put the shotgun over his shoulder and held the revolver. He had used a lot of firearms. He and his father had a lot of fun going to the shooting range on the weekends.
Adam nearly vomited again. He quickly shut the bathroom door and searched the rest of the apartment for anything of use. He found several small bottles of flavored liquor and a can of beans.
“Nothing,” he said to himself as he walked out of the apartment and shut the door behind him. “I’ll need a lot more than that to survive.”
The second apartment to his left was empty. No one lived there. At the other end of the hallway was a large window. He looked outside to see nothing but the dead slowly hobbling from one spot to the next.
“This is crazy,” he mumbled beneath his breath. “What am I supposed to do?”
He wondered what would become of the city. A massive crowd of the monsters were on the ground floor of the apartment building, waiting for him to give up his precious safety. He walked back into his apartment to see if he could find out more on the television. All channels were playing different emergency broadcasts. The local news broadcast was quite unsettling.
“A viral outbreak has reached American soil. The location where the virus originated is unknown. Do not attempt to travel. The streets and highways are not safe. Avoid contact with other infected people. If you have been bitten or scratched, you are infected. Remain in your homes until further notice.”
The looped broadcast gave Adam no comfort. He felt trapped and scared.
“I need to get out of this city,” he mumbled. “I’m at the edge of the city. I might be able to make it out. All I’d have to do is run out into the street, go around the building and drive to Mom’s. No. Can’t drive. Not enough room to get through in the car. If I can just get out of the city, I might stand a chance. How am I going to be able to make it there without being killed? So many zombies in the streets means a lot of people failed to make it out of the city. I need a plan. Oh, I know. The fire escape. I hope I don’t fall off the ladder. If I injure myself and can’t run, I’m done for. No bicycles around. I’ll have to go on foot. From now on, everything I do and don’t do will determine my fate. Let’s see here. I’m not going to trust anyone I didn’t know before this happened. Trusting people got people betrayed all the time before this. With people being so desperate, it’d be foolish to place trust in anyone. I have to be quick and smart at all times. Even the smallest mistake could mean my death. I need to stop thinking about this so much. One step at a time.”
3
Adam made the crucial decision to not try to find most of his family and friends. He didn’t like it but figured he’d try to find them if and when everything got back to normal. Even if every
thing did get back to normal, nothing would ever be the same again. He felt had to adapt quickly.
He decided to take the backroads to reach his parents’ home. He assumed it’d be the best route. Another thing came to mind. The living would be just as dangerous as the undead. Before leaving the apartment building, he did an inventory check.
-one pack of AA batteries
-several bottles of water
-oatmeal
-knives
-shotgun, thirty rounds
-flashlight
-liquor
-revolver, five rounds
-vegetable seeds
-pocket knife
-two books of matches
-canned beans
-snack bars
-thin blanket
-set of dark clothing
“It’s going to weigh me down,” he thought. “I need all of it. It’s going to be rough getting it all down the fire escape. I have to make this work.”
Before embarking, he stared out the window for a few minutes. He gazed upon the destruction of the city, his world. He knew he would have to travel through hell before feeling the slightest shred of comfortability.
Adam walked out onto the fire escape and looked down before making his descent. The way appeared to be clear. He kicked down the ladder, slid down and ran as fast as he could. He ran into the street at the end of the alley and peeked around the corner. He was caught off guard and frightened by the sight of a crushed zombie beneath a flipped car.
Butcher knife in hand, he approached the zombie. He walked around the zombie desperately reaching for him. He tried to find a good angle to attack from. No matter what angle he came from, the zombie reached for him in that direction. He was too scared to attack.
“Harder than I thought,” he thought as he walked on. “I don’t have time for this.”
Adam walked away from the zombie and rushed to the backroad that led to his parents’ house.
“I was too scared,” he thought as he turned onto another street. “It’s okay. It’s okay to be scared. There are zombies roaming all over the city. Only the incoherent wouldn’t be frightened by this. I’ll destroy many later.”
He was happy he didn’t try to take his car. Vehicles were scattered all over the roads. Seatbelts still on, what were once people were trapped in many of the cars. They moaned and reached for him as he walked by. The sight of each undead monster made him flinch. His slow and careful walk turned into a fast yet uncoordinated stride. He could feel his entire body pulsing. Eyes wide open, he found the road he was looking for and moved on.
“If I can just get to the end of this road,” he said to himself as he kept moving, “I’ll have a chance. The neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of people. It should be a good place to stay. I wonder how the outbreak started. It happened so quickly. How can so many become infected in such a short amount of time? Could it be the water? Some of the people who died in car wrecks didn’t appear to have been bitten.”
4
Adam walked past the local middle school with caution. He was careful not to make noise and attract unwanted attention. He thought he heard something coming from behind him. He turned to see nothing was there. Paranoid, he walked faster. He felt he was being watched. After walking a few more steps, he quickly spun around to see a young man. He readied the revolver and aimed it at the man.
“What do you want?” Adam asked as he carefully watched for sudden movements. “You want to kill me? Take what I have?”
“Keep your voice down. They’re everywhere.”
“Why were you sneaking around?”
“I’m sorry. I’m just desperate.”
“You were going to hit me with that bat, take what I have and leave me for dead.”
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“It’s not okay. Not in the least bit.”
“Let’s keep moving. I’ll help you.”
“Walk in front of me until I figure out what to do with you. I don’t trust you.”
“I understand. I swear I was just desperate. I’ll prove I can be useful.”
Adam kept the man in front of him. He wouldn’t let him get too far in front of him or run away. They walked down the road at a quick pace.
“Where should we go?” the young man asked.
“We’ll see.”
“We need to trust each other.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Look. I know I messed up. It’s the zombie apocalypse. Yes, I was going to leave you for dead after knocking you out and taking your possessions. I’m sorry. I really am. I was desperate and not thinking straight. My name’s Justin.”
“I still don’t trust you. Time will tell if you can be useful.”
“Useful as in?”
“If I need to push you down or shoot you so I can get away from a group of the things.”
“You would really do that?”
“If we were to be ambushed any time soon, yes. I definitely would.”
“Is there anything I can do to convince you to trust me?”
“Not right now. Let’s keep moving.”
“Where are we going?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
Adam and Justin continued down the road until they reached a church.
“Stop.”
“Okay.”
“We’re going to spend the rest of the day and night here.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“Come on. Just tell me.”
“I feel like we should spend a little more time in a safe place before we go further.”
“Why?”
“I doubt people are done murdering each other and looting in most areas.”
“Don’t you want to take what you want? It’d give us an advantage.”
“No, it won’t.”
“Why not?”
“You’re getting on my nerves with the questions.”
“I’m sorry, alright? I just want to know.”
“Right now, it’s more dangerous than it ever will be. People are probably killing each other over food and water. You can’t trust anyone right now.”
“You’re smarter than I thought. What’s your name?”
“Adam. Let’s get inside. Be careful. There might be zombies or crazy people inside. Check your corners. I’m assuming those monsters may get stuck in enclosed spaces.”
Adam and Justin approached the door.
“Can I have a gun?”
“No.”
“Alright. I doubt I’d be able to use it correctly, anyway.”
“Be quiet. Yell if you see zombies or people.”
Adam opened the front doors of the church. No one was inside. The two rendezvoused in the main room.
“Not a soul. Find anything, Adam?”
“No. Any food drive cans or reserves have been looted.”
“Someone’s already been here?”
“Maybe.”
“How old are you, Adam?”
“Thirty-one. Let’s move these pews in front of the front doors.”
“Okay.”
After moving the pews against the front doors, they sat in the floor. They used baby blankets from the nursery as pillows.
“So,” Justin prodded. “What do you do for a living?”
“You mean before this happened?”
“Yeah.”
“I worked at a club not far from where I live.”
“The Wild Stable?”
“Yeah. I was one of the bartenders.”
“I was a cook at the authentic Mexican food restaurant.”
“Did you get free food?”
“Nope.”
“How old are you, Justin?”
“Nineteen.”
“You look like you’re around fifteen.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“You’re kind of mean.”
“Says the guy who planned to knock me out with a baseball bat, take my belongings and
leave me to die.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Were you in school?”
“No.”
“Any family?”
“I have an aunt. I lived with her.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“Probably dead. She was in the hospital. She was going to have a tumor removed.”
“Looks like we both don’t have anyone.”
“Looks that way.”
“I wish I was at one of the big supermarkets. Lots of food that’d last us for a long time.”
“But wouldn’t going there put our lives in jeopardy?”
“Yeah. It’s just a nice thought. I’m sure you’ve seen zombie flicks?”
“Yeah.”
“I have, too. Food and shelter matter a great deal. So do weapons.”
“True. Food is going to be hard to come by. I don’t know what we’re going to do for food.”
“We’ll just have to scavenge. We’ll do what we can.”
“What kind of food and supplies do you have?”
“Do you need something?”
“No. Not right now. I just want to know what we have to work with.”
“So, we’re a team now?”
“If you want, I guess you can put it that way. Without you, I have a smaller chance of survival. I just hope you don’t do anything stupid.”
“What kind of stupid things would I do?”
“Get me killed.”
“I’m not going to get you killed.”
“Just don’t make any mistakes.”
“What kind of mistakes?”
“Don’t make loud noises. Don’t go inside a building unless you have to. Buildings are bound to be full of those things. Make good choices. Don’t screw around. Take care of yourself. If you injure one of your feet, you’ll be at a big disadvantage and probably die. When you get hungry, you won’t be able to think clearly. Your judgment would become clouded. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Kill anyone you think is a threat.”
“I’d think just about everybody is a threat right now.”
“Exactly.”
“So you’re planning on shooting anyone we come across?”
“Probably. We can’t be too cautious. We can’t take stupid risks.”
“Okay.”
“So, what do you think about all this?”
Jeffrey McElyea's Zombie Compilation Page 1
