Jeffrey McElyea's Zombie Compilation

by Jeffrey McElyea

  “It probably came from the stores we visited,” said Adam.

  “That’s good.”

  “In a way, yes.”

  “What do you mean, bro?”

  “We will be able to move around outside the wall. However, everywhere in that direction will be a lot more dangerous. It’s going to be hard to scavenge.”

  “At least we have breathing room.”

  “We need to not worry. Maybe the horde will move further away from there.”

  “What about food and water?”

  “Until supplies are low, we’re not going anywhere.”

  “I don’t feel good, Adam. My bad thoughts are getting worse.”

  “Just hang in there, okay? Everything’s going to be alright. There’s no need to panic.”

  “If you say so.”

  The next day, Adam came home after his shift on watch duty to see Justin on his back. His face was covered with blood and bruises.

  “What happened?!” Adam asked as he helped Justin up.

  “Your brother beat me up.”

  “What?”

  “He beat me up and ran off.”

  “How long ago was this?”

  “A few hours ago. I hit my back on the corner of the coffee table. It hurts pretty badly.”

  “So, my brother’s gone?”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry, Adam. Your brother knows how to fight. He got me good. I didn’t stand a chance.”

  “Yeah, he can fight all right. I’m going to go look for him.”

  “I’ll help you find him.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where do you think he went? He wouldn’t try to go into the city, would he?”

  “I don’t think he would. Maybe he went to one of those little stores.”

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll start there.”

  “Leslie said she wanted to go with us the next time we went out.”

  “Yeah. She’ll want to go.”

  “She’ll do good by us.”

  “Well, should we go?”

  “Let’s take Phil with us, too.”

  “Sarah would be alone. Let’s just take Leslie.”

  “Okay.”

  17

  “Be careful,” Phil said to the three. “I’ll watch over the place with Sarah.”

  “We’ll find him,” said Adam. “My brother is out there somewhere. I won’t come back until I find him.”

  They traveled to the department stores without encountering any zombies.

  “This is strange,” Justin said with a sigh. “Where have all of them gone? This place should be crawling with them.”

  “They’re probably not far,” Adam warned. “We need to get him out of here before they come back. Let’s look in the grocery store first.”

  The small group rushed into the store to hear the growls of the undead. It sounded like it came from the back of the store. They snuck around the other side of the store through the frozen food aisle and took a look from the corner of the store.

  “I can’t see anything,” Justin whispered. “It sounds like a lot of them are behind the shelf about twenty feet from here.”

  “They’re making a lot of noise,” Adam replied. “The sound will attract more of them. We should use our guns. There’s no way we’ll survive without them. I think they’re after someone. It could be Eric. We can grab more food on our way out. We’ll have to run, though. Even if it isn’t Eric, we’ll have to run after making so much noise.”

  Leslie and Justin nodded. They rounded the corner to see twelve zombies trying to force their way into the break room.

  “Fire when you get close enough for a clean shot to the head,” Adam instructed. “Keep any spare magazines at the ready.”

  One zombie turned. One by one, the rest followed.

  “Three, two, one. Fire.”

  Adam, Justin and Leslie opened fire on the walking corpses. They were careful to not waste ammunition. Only one out of every seven shots missed. One corpse fell after another. For a few moments, the sound of pistols firing painfully deafened the survivors. Adam looked through the break room door’s small glass window to see Eric sitting in the corner. Eric got up and unlocked the door.

  “What are you doing here?” Eric asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “I came here for food and stuff. I filled my backpack with lots of water before I got chased and got stuck in here.”

  They heard a scream come from behind them. Leslie was being attacked. A zombie took a chunk of flesh from her shoulder as she tried to push it away. Justin quickly holstered the pistol, grabbed the bat duct taped to his backpack and swung hard. One hard swing was all it took. Leslie got down on one knee and shook with pain as she held her wound with her right hand.

  “I’m going to become one of them, aren’t I?”

  “We don’t know,” Adam answered. “We can’t stay here. We have to leave. No time to gather a lot of supplies. Let’s fill our backpacks with water and go.”

  Everyone fit as much water as they could in their bags and ran for it.

  18

  A horde of zombies was in the parking lot. As they were spotted, the undead commenced their seemingly lazy attack.

  “I’m glad they’re slow,” Justin said as they neared the edge of the parking lot.

  “Yeah,” Eric added. “Just pace yourself and don’t hurt your foot.”

  “What are we going to do about me being bitten?” Leslie worriedly asked.

  “We don’t know yet,” Adam answered. “Justin, make sure she doesn’t fall behind. There might be a way to help her.”

  “I think I know what’s going to happen. First, I’ll get sick. Then I’ll die. Finally, I’ll come back and try to eat you. If I become one of those things, don’t let me wander. If I become one of them, just put me out of my misery.”

  “How many people do you think are left?” Eric asked.

  “Not a lot, little bro.”

  “You seem mad. Are you mad at me because I left?”

  “Yes. That is why I’m mad. If you wouldn’t have ran off, Leslie wouldn’t have been bitten.”

  “I’m sorry, everyone. I screwed up.”

  “You screwed up, all right! Look at my shoulder! It’s a wreck! You basically just killed me, you little shit!”

  “I’m sorry, Leslie. I just wanted to surprise everyone with some water. Sorry I hurt you, Justin.”

  “It’s going to be okay,” Justin said as he constantly examined his surroundings. “You didn’t mean to. You’re not well. You need to stay home from now on, alright?”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s get home and see what we can do about your shoulder,” Adam said to Leslie as he led the others home.

  “Thanks to your dumbass brother, I’m doomed to become one of those things!”

  Phil and Sarah were extremely unhappy about having someone who had been bitten inside the walls.

  “What else were we supposed to do?” Eric asked. “Just leave her outside?”

  “You better watch her and do what you have to when the time comes,” Phil asserted.

  “If I turn,” Leslie began, “Just kill me.”

  “If that were to happen, I don’t think anyone here would oppose that idea.”

  “You’re a cruel man, Phil.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re acting like I’m already dead.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “Really?”

  “You’ve been bitten. It’s only a matter of time before you die and come back as one of them.”

  “You don’t know that for sure!”

  “I think I do.”

  “For all you know, I’m immune.”

  “Your skin is already pale.”

  “Is it really?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m going to my house. Adam, Eric, Justin. Will the three of you stay with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

  Adam, Eric and Justin followed Leslie into her home. T
he place was poorly barricaded. Trash was piled up in the corners of the living room.

  “Welcome to my wreck of a home.”

  “Looks better than our place,” Eric said politely.

  “Shut up. This is your fault.”

  “How are you feeling?” Justin asked.

  “The wound hurts. I’m doomed. I have a first aid kit. It’s in the kitchen.”

  Eric retrieved the first aid kit and brought it into the living room.

  “Let’s take a look at that wound,” said Adam.

  Leslie took the pair of scissors from the first aid kit and removed the material covering the wound.

  “That doesn’t look good,” said Eric.

  “No shit. It’s spreading.”

  “You might turn out okay, Leslie.”

  “It doesn’t look that way, Eric. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Your apology doesn’t mean shit. Thanks to your stupidity, I’m going to die.”

  “No one made you leave the neighborhood.”

  “Damn it! This is what I get every time I try to help someone. A bunch of shit.”

  “If the three of you wouldn’t have come after me, you wouldn’t have been bitten.”

  “Shut up. I just want to sit down and wait to see how this turns out.”

  “Okay.”

  The four sat in the living room. The wound was stitched up and sanitized. They awaited the results.

  “I just want to relive those moments, to go back and change it. All I want is a few seconds. I should have looked behind me. I don’t know why I didn’t. It’s my final mistake.”

  “You don’t know that,” Justin said with optimism.

  19

  “Do you think I would have had a better chance of surviving this if I’d have sanitized the wound sooner?”

  “We don’t know,” Adam answered. “We did what we could. All we can do now is wait.”

  “Isn’t there something that can give me an edge?”

  “You’ve taken the antibiotics and vitamins. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do for you.”

  “This is the worst. I don’t feel good. It’s only been a few hours and I’ve puked so much. How do I look?”

  “I don’t know,” Eric lied.

  “I know it’s bad, Eric. Just tell me.”

  “It doesn’t look good, Leslie.”

  A few more hours passed. Leslie took a turn for the worse. She was vomiting blood. Her eyes were bloodshot. She found it difficult to breathe and stay conscious.

  “I really am infected with the zombie virus. Is this a punishment by God? I’m in so much pain. I’m not going to make it. The pain won’t go away.”

  Justin and the brothers were speechless. They no longer knew how to comfort her. They stood there and waited for the moment to come.

  “I’m fading away, everyone. It’s hard for me to stay awake. I’m just going to close my eyes and hope for the best. Please hope I go to heaven and not hell.”

  Leslie laid her head on the side of the armchair and fell unconscious.

  “Leslie?” Adam asked.

  No response.

  “Leslie,” he said again.

  Still no response.

  “Justin, see if she’s still breathing.”

  Justin slowly crept up to Leslie and felt her neck for a pulse.

  “She’s dead.”

  “Do we put her down now?” Eric asked.

  “I’ll do it,” said Adam. “You two go outside.”

  “Will you be able to take care of her by yourself?” Justin asked.

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll take care of it. Just go.”

  Justin and Eric walked out and waited outside the front door.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to let him stay alone in there with her?” Justin asked.

  “No.”

  “Then why did we go outside?”

  “I don’t know. He told us to go outside.”

  “I think it’s a bad idea to let him stay in there by himself.”

  “I do, too.”

  “Then let’s go back inside.”

  “We probably shouldn’t. What if we walk in, distract him and cause him to get bit?”

  Justin, Eric and the others heard a gunshot. It came from inside Leslie’s house. Justin and Eric looked at each other and ran inside. They ran into the living room to see Adam with the shotgun in his hands. He stood over Leslie’s body.

  “Was she one of them?” Eric asked.

  “Yeah. I had to do what I had to do.”

  “Why did you use the shotgun?” Justin asked.

  “Shit. I panicked. That made too much noise. I’m sorry. Let’s hope the walls contained most of the sound.”

  20

  “I don’t think it did,” Eric said worriedly. “It was pretty loud from outside.”

  “Then I just put all of our lives at risk.”

  Sarah and Phil came running.

  “What happened?” Phil asked as he and Sarah rushed in with guns drawn.

  “Leslie died and came back as a zombie,” Justin said to the angered old man.

  “Why did you use a gun?”

  “It was me,” Adam confessed. “I got lost in the moment. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m so sorry, everyone.”

  “We all make mistakes,” Sarah began. “But this was a mistake we couldn’t afford.”

  “I’m sorry. That’s all I can say.”

  “You very well may have killed us all. The least you can do is take watch.”

  “Okay. I’ll go up there. Again, I’m sorry.”

  Justin and Adam searched Leslie’s home for anything useful and closed all the entrances. They used everything they could find to further barricade the gate.

  Everyone waited for the horde to come. Hours later, Phil came up the ladder and put a beer on the desk.

  “It isn’t cold but a beer’s a beer.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I know you didn’t mean to fire that gun. You lost your nerve.”

  “I did. Like you said, I may have killed all of us.”

  “You very well may have. Nothing we can do about it now.”

  “That’s true. What will we do if they come here? How will we survive if they don’t go away?”

  “We probably won’t.”

  “And it’s all because of me.”

  “True there, young man.”

  “I hope my mistake doesn’t cost us our lives. I hope John’s okay.”

  “He’s probably dead or holed up somewhere.”

  “Yeah. I don’t know why he left us.”

  “I don’t know either, son. Maybe he found a better place to stay.”

  “I doubt it. The broadcast says otherwise.”

  “There’s a new broadcast?”

  “Yeah. Listen.”

  Phil waited for the looped broadcast to start over.

  “Fellow Americans, this illness has taken control of the entire world. I don’t think anyone knows how it started. I’ve been trapped in the radio station for so long. I’ve been living off of stale bagels, the jugs of water used for the water cooler and bottled water. I won’t last for much longer. I’d rather die of thirst or starvation than from being mauled and eaten by one of those things. I think I’ll die in this place. The government isn’t giving news anymore. One day, the rich and powerful will resurface and start anew. We’re helpless. We’re alone. We have to fend for ourselves now. The world has been taken over by the undead. I don’t know if anyone is listening anymore. I’m going to die. It’s really going to happen and soon. I was in love with a woman named Jackie. We were engaged. She worked at the hospital. I was on the phone with her when she was attacked. I heard everything. I heard the sound of the love of my life being torn apart and eaten alive by those evil monsters. Try to survive. Grow crops. Stay sharp. Burn bodies. Stay sane. This is my last broadcast. I’m out.”

  21

  Adam had the others listen to the broa
dcast. Needless to say, it didn’t help morale. Seeing that the neighborhood was once again surrounded by the undead didn’t help, either.

  “What are we going to do now?” Justin asked.

  “We do what we’ve done since the beginning of this hellish nightmare,” Phil answered. “We do our best.”

  “Isn’t there some sort of plan we can come up with?”

  “We’re doing everything we can already, aren’t we?”

  “I’m tired of this.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “You’re stone cold, Phil.”

  “Not really. I see things for what they are. If we die, we die. I’m not about to lie down and let them get me, though.”

  Adam, Eric, Phil, Sarah and Justin continued to watch from the attic’s window. Another lucky gunshot sounded.

  “Look,” Adam said with a smile. “They don’t know where the gunshot came from. They’re heading in the direction from which it came. We might be fine. For a while, at least.”

  “Stupid creatures,” Eric added.

  “Those stupid creatures have nearly wiped humanity from the face of the earth, little bro.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “When the horde moves on, we should go for another supply run.”

  “Smart idea,” Phil agreed. “Anyone who’s still alive will eventually search that store. The sooner we loot it, the better.”

  “Sounds good. As soon as the horde passes, we’ll go.”

  “I assume you want me to go with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You need me, I need you. I’ll go.”

  “Sarah, watch Eric for me while we’re gone.”

  “I will.”

  “Why do I have to stay here?” Eric asked.

  “You’re ill, Eric. Sarah will look after you while Justin, Phil and I go.”

  “Whatever.”

  22

  Phil, Adam and Justin destroyed the remaining zombies surrounding the walls and quickly headed to the small grocery store. Few zombies slowed their expedition.

  “Let’s get these carts filled and get out of here,” said Justin. “Watch your backs. We don’t need another accident.”

  “Agreed,” Phil added.

  They filled their carts and backpacks with food and water and headed out.

  “That store stinks,” Justin chuckled.

  “Yeah,” said Adam. “All those rotting zombies and expired foods. Check your corners and be wary. Anything can happen.”

  The group slowly pushed the carts through the parking lot and down the road. Few confrontations slowed their progress.