Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes

by Lilly,Shawn L.

  Putting a foot on the head of the undead, he gave it a pull, and it started to give a little. Matt then started to jerk it around to free it all the way. Giving a look up he could see he was out of time. The zombie was now right on him, and its arms were outstretched with its fingers flexing to grab a piece of his clothing. Matt released his hand and stood up and went to push the zombie away to give him more time. Just as he went to give it a shoulder tackle, a glimmer of light went by his face, and Matt turned his head from it.

  A grunt sounded out, and a thud was heard as something hit the ground in front of Matt. Opening his eyes he could see Frank standing there weapon in hand, blood dripping off the end of its tip. Shadowing next to him Frank reached out a hand and patted his friend on the arm. Reaching down Frank grabbed Matt’s weapon and pulled it clear of the zombie’s head it was stuck in. Once it was clear he wiped it on the zombie’s dirty torn shirt and handed it back to Matt.

  Matt watched as his friend walked away to where he seemed to have dropped his pack alongside his own on the street. Making his way over next to his friend, he reshouldered his own pack and gave him a nod, and they started walking again past the gas sign next to the road.

  “Thanks for the quick save back there,” said Matt, looking at Frank but focusing on the road and the trees around them.

  “It’s what friends do for each other. Besides, it seems to become a habit of mine saving your life these past couple of days.” Frank gave a little smirk when he finished talking.

  Matt refused to comment on that statement because he knew it was all so true. Instead he reached out and gave Frank a quick, not so hard punch in the shoulder to let him know he’d do the same for him if he needed help.

  The ten miles seemed to fly by as they walked in silence. The road was starting to do brutal things to their feet. Matt started thinking how could people go running for miles back in the day. They had been walking for a couple of hours now, and his feet were starting to hurt. Then a thought came to him that once he had time, he would find him new shoes with some soft interior. But till that time to go shoe shopping, he would have to just deal with his current shoes.

  As the sun in the sky looked to be around three o’clock, the gas station finally came into sight, and the boys both stopped and looked on. The sight of it was like a cold breeze of relief washing over them both. With the station in sight, it meant the church wasn’t further away, and their journey was finally going to be over. Matt began to smile and looked over to Frank who also had a grin of his own. Matt took a look back, and his smile started to fade away when he saw movement up ahead.

  The gas station was filled with the undead all around. It was too many, more than they would have liked to deal with after such a long walk that day. Then Frank pointed out something Matt had seen at the same time as he did. There seemed to be one coming toward them faster than the rest. Matt’s heart jumped into his throat when he realized what it was. It was a sprinter coming toward them.

  “He will be on us in no time,” said Frank, looking around to find higher ground or a hiding place.

  “I have an idea, Frank. It’s just one. We can handle it,” Matt said, looking around as well.

  Frank wasn’t so sure about taking on a fast flesh-eating killing machine. But if Matt had an idea on taking it on, why not give it a try? It was mostly Matt’s ideas that got them this far alive, so why not take it on and kill it?

  Matt hurried and told him the plan, and they spread apart at least two arm’s length. As the undead sprinter ran up on them, it stopped and was looking at both of them, not certain which one to kill first. Matt watched as it actually looked to be thinking on its own on which one of them would be the best choice. Its clothes were warm he could tell. It must have been a guy out for a good run and was attacked. They were a little torn and dirty, but his flesh was not as rotten as some of the others he had seen lately. So this guy must have just been killed and turned no more than a month ago.

  As its bloodshot eyes looked from one to the other, it focused on Frank and took a step toward him snarling like a dog. As it took his second step toward him, Matt stomped his foot, and it turned and looked at him and drooled all over itself. It gave him a look as if to say, “Come on or run so I can eat you.” It never looked back at Frank and started moving toward Matt, and as it was about to jump at him, Frank took his pack off and tossed it behind it. The zombie looked back fast, and as soon as it spun around, Frank stooped and it started to look at him in an almost complete circle. As it started making its turn, Matt took this to his advantage and sprung forward and took it in the side of its head. It stopped in its circle and was facing Frank still. Matt placed a foot on its back and gave it a push, and its skull slid off the blade and fell to the ground.

  Matt was standing there breathing hard, and it felt like his heart was about to explode from the rush of killing a sprinter. Frank walked over, and as Matt looked up, he saw Frank hold out his fist toward him. Matt smiled and balled up his fist and bumped his friend’s, and they both smiled and turned to walk toward the gas station with pride of what they had just done.

  “You know that was crazy as hell,” said Frank.

  “Crazy yes, but it worked like a charm.” Matt smiled again and waited till Frank picked up his pack. “Now we just need to clear the gas station, and we will be all good.”

  “I’m glad you’re all better. I don’t think I could have killed that fast bitch all alone,” said Frank, being serious.

  “You’re a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. Besides, I don’t have fever no more, but I still have a nice booboo on my head.”

  Frank started laughing. “Booboo,” he said. Matt looked over to him and told him to shut up, and they started their track back down the road toward the gas station.

  The gas station was crawling with walkers that didn’t see them approach. The sign out front of the gas pump said “No More Gas.” Just around the pump were four walkers, and around the back side of it looked to be maybe two. There were a couple of cars on the street just outside the gas station and only one in the parking lot.

  The day had plenty of sun left, but the sky was cloudy and the sun kept disappearing behind the clouds every so often. The only ones moving faster than the zombies that were not really moving but shuffling around were the two shadows making their way to one of the abandoned cars near the pump.

  “So many cars around here to not have any gas,” said Matt.

  “Could have stopped and begged for it and was attacked and died or fled into the trees or down the road.” Frank was always the glass-half-full guy.

  Matt stood up a little and took a look at the side glass to see where the zombies were positioned in the gas station. As he looked through the driver’s rolled-up glass window, a zombie that must have been lying down inside set up and slammed its face against the glass and started beating on it. Matt fell back into a crouching position and gave Frank a look like “There goes the element of surprise.”

  Frank said “Screw it” and stood up as did Matt. As they stood they got full view of the zombies moving around.

  Once the zombies came into sight, they both could see that the one beating on the window in the car had already alerted them that the living was nearby. So they were starting to move toward the car to investigate. Matt moved around the rear of the car as Frank moved around the front of it. As the first walker walked up to Frank, Frank gave it a downward swing of the blade, and the blade dug three to four inches into its brain. The zombie dropped like a pile of rocks and lay at his feet. There was no time to waste because the others were coming toward him now.

  Matt watched as Frank killed his first one and moved to the second one. He didn’t have time to watch the second kill for his own attacker came at him. With all he had he gave it a chop from right to left, and as the blade was so sharp, the swung went so hard that it went clean through the top of its head and out the other side like a hot knife through butter. Moving onward he took out another one and
another. Looking back Frank was still fighting one as well, and their eyes caught for a second.

  “I thought there were only four or maybe five,” called out Frank.

  “They must be coming from the back or lying down somewhere we couldn’t see them,” called back Matt.

  They fought for a good three minutes before the zombies were all dead lying in a heap on the ground around them. Their total went from only four to nearly thirteen of them. Matt breathing hard looked back to Frank to see he had his back to him also taking deep breaths. Just behind him on the ground was the zombie from the car that gave them both away. It had finally crawled out of the car and was now reaching up to grab a hold of Frank. There wasn’t enough time to make it there in time to save him. Reaching behind him he stuck his hand in the lip of his bag and removed the gun he found at the diner that was setting on top.

  Matt took careful aim as fast as he could. What Frank didn’t know was that Matt’s uncle took him to a gun range all the time to help sharpen his shooting eye as he called it. His uncle wanted him to be some kind of marine sniper killer or something, and the marine people would fear his deadly accuracy. When the zombie reached up, so did its head pop up, enough to have a clear shot.

  Bam!

  The shot sounded off, and the bullet rang clear and hit the undead in the temple. The zombie’s head popped like a zit, and its brain started to pour out of the gaping hole before it slumped back to the ground to die for good. Frank jumped nearly ten feet in the air at the sound of the shot and froze in his spot. Too scared to even turn and look back, he wasn’t going to till he caught the smell of something foul and looked just behind him. On the ground was the crawler with a hole in its head. A green liquid stuff was pouring out of the hole and kind of looked like the Spam he ate.

  Matt saw Frank looking up from the zombie and at him shocked. Putting the barrel close to his lips, he blew the smoke from it and spun it in hand and stuck it in a pretend holster.

  Frank was still too scared to move. The sound was so loud and close he had no clue what it was and nearly pissed his pants. Not saying anything to Matt, he walked away to the corner of the building.

  “Where are you going?” asked Matt.

  “I have to pee now. Thanks to you,” Frank replied.

  Matt smiled to himself and decided to wait to put the gun up. The sound of the shot would bring others to him if they’re close by and if one happened to be a runner. Well, he wanted to make sure he had it out to deal with it fast and move on to the church before it got too close.

  Frank returned and started to walk around. He then started to look into the huge gas station window for anything useful. Walking to the door he gave it a tug, but it was locked, and so was the garage door that was close by. So if it was locked he thought there might be some good stuff still inside.

  As the gunshot went off by Matt, breaking the glass was not such a good idea. The sound of the shot echoed in the trees and off into the air. So it might be kind of hard for them to locate where it came from, thought Frank. Matt seeing his friend deep in thought about how to open the door went into his back and pulled out his lock picks and walked up beside him.

  “Excuse me,” Matt said with a smile, and he kneeled down and started working on the lock.

  “We don’t have time for that” was Frank’s reply before walking off to find another door or window to use to get in.

  While Matt worked on the door up front, Frank moved around the side of the building. There were small windows, but they were really small and had bars on them. So he kept going till he made it to the back, and once there he peeked around the corner. The back was empty, and the coast seemed clear. Moving to the back door, it was tightly shut and locked as well. Frank cursed to himself and looked around for something to pry the door open with. There were all kinds of scrap metal lying around but nothing that looked strong enough to rip a door open. There were even a couple of junk cars back there. They were mostly stripped down. But there might be a jack bar or something like the Club one used to lock their steering wheel with. Least he could do was go check, and if he had to kick it open, he would just have to he guessed.

  The cars seemed to be as useful as themselves intact as they were useless. There was nothing in or underneath them at all. Also the grass was swarming with gnats and bugs, and the spider inside the car was enough to only get a quick look and not a full body cavity search.

  Standing up he dusted off the knee of his pants and was going back up front when he heard something move from inside just on the other side of the door. Frank stopped and walked over to the door and slowly placed his ear against it and listened. And there it was again, a little quieter this time, but the door was to thick to hear it clear. It was the sound of someone moving something around on the other side or something being dragged behind, maybe a broken leg of a zombie.

  Frank took off back to the front to warn Matt to stop on the door in case it worked and the door opened and he was caught by surprise by what was inside. As he rounded the front corner, he found Matt was gone and the door was ajar. Frank stopped and looked in the window and couldn’t see anything still. The window was covered with dust and grime. Frank moved closer to the door and saw it wasn’t smashed but that Matt actually succeed in picking it open. He was rather impressed at Matt, but he sure wasn’t going to tell him that out loud.

  Pushing the door open he slipped inside. The bell on top of the door went inward but didn’t fall and ring out. Frank had reached up and grabbed it so it wouldn’t do so. Pushing the door closed behind him, he found it muggy, and the air seemed stale inside. There was no smell of death or decay in the place. But it didn’t mean nothing really. They could be in the back room behind an airtight door or something. Moving by the cash register, he exchanged the weapon from one hand to the other. He wiped his right hand, which was now free, on his pants to get the sweat off. Once it was dry he transferred the weapon back to his right hand and proceeded to the back. As Frank made it to the back room, he found the door leading to the storage room which would lead to the back door. Leaning close to the door, he could hear eating on the other side and moaning. Lifting the weapon high, Frank pushed open the door and ran inside screaming.

  Inside was Matt setting down on a stool eating some beef jerky and some stale crackers. There also seemed to be a cat, because when Frank busted the door open screaming, it hissed at him and ran off to hide. Even if he hadn’t seen the cat, he would have known one was in there because the room reeked of cat pee and cat dung.

  Frank covered his nose and mouth with his hand and looked over at Matt enjoying his snack. Matt’s mouth was so full he couldn’t even make words of greetings to his friend when he came in. All Matt could do was lift his hand and wave at him of fair hello. Frank took his hand away from his mouth and walked over and saw the plastic jar of jerky and grabbed a handful. He was too hungry to complain to Matt about what he thought of him. Instead he just sat there, and they both ate in peace. He finished the jerky in a matter of minutes. The crackers were consumed just as fast, and both pulled out their water bottles and set back and had a good drink. Matt was the first to get up and look around the room for things.

  “There are loads of good stuff in here,” Matt called behind himself to Frank.

  “I wouldn’t know. I was too busy looking to make sure the place was clear.”

  Matt looked back and waved off his concern like he was being a big baby about it.

  “You’re just mad because I was able to pick the lock and you walked around the whole building and still couldn’t get in.”

  Frank ignored him and went on looking what was left behind. There were loads of tools, but of course it had a garage for cars to be worked on. But one box he opened held the jackpot. Inside it held small bags of chips. They might be a little stale, but the salt on them would help keep their mouths wet. Also, with all the salt they had been losing by sweating from running and fighting all day, it was a good plus for them both.

  Frank
held up a couple of bags, and Matt smiled with a piece of beef jerky hanging out of his mouth. Matt clapped his hands together, and Frank tossed him one. After that the search was on for more food items. Frank came across loads of canned goods and boxed food items like noodles, cereal, powdered milk, and potatoes. It was mostly the small boxes one usually would find in a gas station that were way overpriced. But to them it was like Thanksgiving had come early.

  Matt hopped down and started stuffing what he could in his bag, as did Frank.

  “This will hold us over for a while I hope,” said Frank, making room for two cans of pork and beans.

  “It should, unless you start eating them all,” said Matt, tending it to be a joke to an old friend.

  Frank didn’t find it funny seeing as he was a chunky kid growing up and was always picked on every day. But he shrugged it off and went back to stuffing his bag. The stuff they couldn’t fit in they placed it in boxes and hid them in the corner of a room and covered it with items. This way, if they needed more one day, they were close by to get them. Or better yet if the church needed food, they could make a run back to collect them and so forth.

  As they placed an aluminum car ramp over to hold a tarp down they used to cover the boxes, a thought came to Frank.

  “What was that I saw when I came busting in?”

  “That was a cat,” replied Matt, looking around.

  “OK, then where did it run off to?” asked Frank.

  Matt still looking around looked up with one answer, “That’s a good question.”

  The door from which Frank charged in was wide open still. So they figured the cat must have slipped by and ran out. If it did, it most likely wouldn’t last long. But Frank was thinking it wouldn’t last long with them either, because if they ran out of food, then it would become lunch, eventually.

  As soon as they both saw the door was open, they both heard the bell on the front door ring out, which was followed by the growl and hiss of a cat; and then all went still. It was the sound of the bell that made both Matt and Frank’s blood run cold and their hearts seem to stop. It was like the diner all over again.