“Should we go look?” asked Frank, taking a step toward the door.
Matt held up a hand and pointed to himself, letting him know he would do so. Frank stopped and started walking backward a couple of steps and stopped. Matt passed by him and moved to the door and peeked out to see what was going on. Through the crack in the door, he couldn’t see anything, but he could hear the sound of chewing and grunting.
Sucking in a breath, Matt pulled in his stomach and slipped out through the door to have a closer look. Taking a couple of steps out, he peeked around the corner and still couldn’t see anything. So he moved to the counter and then saw the movement of a head. Just on the other side was the undead, and it was eating something. With a little lean he could see a tail just sticking out into view. Matt leaned back and started backing up when he hit a rack behind him. The sound of eating stopped, and Matt froze. Holding his breath Matt slowly ducked behind the counter and listened.
The sounds of rustling came about as it started to move and get up. Its bloody hands slapped against the top counter, and its finger tips curved around its edge. Matt looked up and could see its decaying murderous hand gripping tight. The foul odor of its breath drifted down to him letting him know the monster’s head had just breached the top and was now looking over it. Matt moved in closer to hide against the counter’s wall so not to be seen.
Matt could easily have taken it out with one quick cut with his weapon. He could if he had not left it in the back room with Frank. Now he set there hoping it didn’t see him or even hear him any, which to Matt was going to be hard because his heart was pounding so loud it was all he was able to hear now in his hiding spot.
Just as he thought it was going to make a climb over, it let go and he heard a thump, and it fell to the ground. Soon after the sounds of chewing came back, and he knew it must have returned back to its cat meal. Waiting a few more minutes, he decided it was time to move out and go back to Frank and safety. Getting up he took a step, and this time watched what was behind him. Just as he was rounding the corner out of sight, he had a chance to look out the front door. Just outside it he could see movement, and it was all heading his way.
Once back inside the back room, Matt told Frank what he saw and they then began to look for a way out. There were windows that were letting in the light from outside near the top of the ceiling, but they were too small to climb out of. Besides, if they did get up there, Frank remembered he had seen bars on the outside of them, so it would be a lost cause anyway. But the thought did come to him that he saw a back door and began looking for it.
The back door did take long to find. It was at the rear of the building, but it was hidden behind a bunch of boxes. After they were moved, he could see that there was a long metal bar stretched across the whole door. It was setting on L-shaped hooks sticking out of the wall. This made it easy to lift it off if it wasn’t for the lock on the left-side hook holding it from lifting off.
“We need a key,” said Frank.
“I can see that, but where would one hide a key for that safety lock?” asked Matt.
“If it was me, I’d keep it on my person.”
Matt was thinking the same thing, so the next step was how to take it off now.
“We could break it off. There are hammers all over and other tools,” said Matt.
“But that one in the lobby and the ones outside will hear us hit it,” replied Frank.
“Yeah, I guess so as well, but what about if you barricaded the door so they couldn’t get in?” said Matt, thinking up ideas.
“Blocking the door should work from letting them in, but we don’t know how many hit it will take for it to break. What happens if they get smart and come around the back and then we’re screwed again?”
“OK, then let’s block the door and I have an idea,” said Matt.
So they began by closing the door slowly not to make too much noise and then placed things in front of it. There was a toolbox with wheels on it. Even with the wheels on it, it was heavy to push over. Once it was squared in the middle, they placed things in front of the wheels so it wouldn’t move. Afterward they placed boxes and anything else they could find in front of it as well. Once they were happy, they both returned to the back door.
“That should do to keep them out. What was the plan?” asked Frank, waiting for Matt’s reply.
“This.” Matt pulled the diner gun from his pack and aimed it at the lock. “I have two bullets left in this thing. I figured we shoot the lock and hit it with a hammer. It should fall off.”
Frank didn’t like the idea, but he knew Matt was right on shooting and a good hit was much better than thirty or so hit from a hammer alone.
Frank grabbed a hammer and plugged his ears with his fingers. Matt stood kind of close and took aim at the lock.
“Remember I shoot, you hit, and we both lift the bar and get our ass out of here quickly.”
Frank gave a nod to let him know he had heard and braced for the gunshot.
“One…two…three…”
Bam!
The gun went off louder than Matt had thought it was going to be. It must have been because of the close space. His own ears were ringing so loud he never heard the hit of the hammer as it knocked the lock off. Feeling his shirt getting tugged on, he saw Frank was going for the bar to lift it off. Matt came back to his senses, but his ears were still ringing badly. Grunting they both lifted the heavy metal bar off its hooks and dropped it to the floor and swung the door open to the outside.
The backyard was empty and clear to move out into. Once Matt was coming out, he looked back and could see the door leading to the lobby was bouncing, but he couldn’t hear the banging on it from the other side of it, but he knew it was there. Hurrying around the side, a couple of zombies had made it around already.
With Frank in the lead, he took easy care of them and moved on without losing a step. Matt pulled up the rear and was always looking over his shoulder to make sure nothing was there. As they both came to the front, Frank pointed north to where the church was supposed to be and took off toward it. Matt busted around the corner and saw what he saw.
In the parking lot all around the place were at least forty zombies. At the sight of both of them, they stopped trying to get inside the front door and turned to come at them. As Matt was making a break from Frank’s tail, he looked over his shoulder and saw one zombie broke through the crowd and looked at him and started running.
“Runner!” yelled Matt.
Frank stopped and turned to see it closing on his friend. One thought came to his mind—the gun and its one bullet.
“Use the last bullet!” screamed Frank back.
Matt still holding the gun stopped and took aim best he could. He was out of wind, and his hearing still was gone. Both made his vision not the best, so he aimed best he could and took the shot. The bullet rang from the gun and whizzed past the sprinter. As soon as Matt shot, he knew he missed and knew he was done for.
A second after the bullet moved past the zombie, it pinged into a metal tank on the side of the gas station, and the metal tank exploded. The gas station went up like a nuclear bomb and sent out a wave of concussion blast that knocked Matt on his rear along with Frank.
Raindrops started falling from the sky, and Frank awoke in the middle of the street. Feeling the drops on his face, he reached up and wiped his face and found it not wet but smooth and dirty. The raindrops were ash from the burning items in the gas station. Rolling over Frank slowly got up and grunted in pain with each movement. If he thought he was in pain now, he knew tomorrow he was going to feel so much worse.
On his feet he leaned over and grabbed his knees to steady and collect himself. Once his head stopped spinning, he looked up and saw Matt lying on the ground ten or so feet away from him. He appeared not to be moving at all. Matt was much closer to the blast than Frank was, so he knew he might be hurt worse. Taking off in a staggering run, he made it to Matt and called out his name.
“Matt!
Matt! Buddy, wake up if you can hear me.”
Matt remand still. Looking down at his chest, he could see it was moving, so he wasn’t dead. Frank reached into his pack and pulled out his water canteen and poured it into Matt’s face. Matt gasped and started coughing. Frank leaned him over and patted him on the back while looking around at all the damage.
The runner was lying dead a little ways from them both. It looked like pieces of scrap metal had lodged inside of it and also took a chunk of its head off. The ones closer to the station were all on the ground. Some were moving around using their hands. But most of them were dead, again, and were now going to remain that way.
Once Matt started getting to his feet, Frank gave him his canteen, and Matt drained it dry and gave it back.
“Boy, my ass hurts,” said Matt, reaching back to rub it.
“You think it’s bad now. Wait till tomorrow.”
Matt used to work building houses and lifting heavy items all day. He knew he’d be worse tomorrow. He didn’t need to be told about it. But he took his own look around and saw the sprinter and what happened to him. The zombie was closing on him fast and was directly in front of him. He had missed, and if it wasn’t there, the metal might have hit him and he might be lying there dead right now. At this point he told himself once he made it to the church, he was going to give God a prayer of thanks.
“So what happened?” asked Frank, watching Matt look around.
“I missed the runner; I think the bullet hit the propane tank on the side and boom.”
Frank didn’t remember seeing a tank, but he was going to take his word for it. Looking at the gas station, he could see it was still burning and large flames were coming out of where the pumps used to be.
“I thought it said no more gas or something?” asked Frank
“It was just a way to hoard it all more than likely,” said Matt back. “Besides, we need to get out of here. That first shot brought forty undead. What do you think that little bomb going off will bring?”
Matt was right. Frank knew it was time to go and get gone fast. So they grabbed their belongings and walked slowly away from the gas station.
“Well, the good news is we lived with minor bruises. Bad news is we lost all those boxes of food we hid,” said Frank, walking with a slight limp.
“I know, buddy. I know” was all Matt could say. He felt bad enough he brought that many to it in the first place. Now he lost all that good food.
Matt looked around the ground as they started walking away and stopped. The gun was gone; it must have been blown from his hand. Seeing as it was empty, there was no sense of looking for it. So he just said screw it and hurried to catch up with Frank who didn’t see him stop to look for it.
As they walked the gas station got further away, but the smoke from the fire was still just as clear in the sky as the sun with no clouds to hide behind.
Time for Church
With a little bit of pain and a lot of hard work, they made it to the big hill with the church on it. They were at the bottom, but they could finally see it at the top. But it wasn’t easy getting to this point. The gas station blowing up made the rest of the trip hard to travel. Their bodies were banged up and swore all over. Frank was limping, and Matt felt like if he stood straight up, he’d die from the pain. There also were the zombies. Couple times they saw lots of them walking down the street, so they went into the woods and hid out till they passed. They were so focused on the smoke cloud that they kept on walking and went right on by them.
But now they were nearing, and the church was in sight. The sun was getting low, so the darkness of night was coming down on them faster than they liked. Looking around they found an old dirty road that went up the side and around the bend of the hill. Matt looked at Frank, and they started walking up the dirty road. They could walked right up the hill, but they were too tired and the hill was tall. The road was clear, and they could see the hardened imprints of tire tracks in the muddy areas that the sun had dried out. The road kept bending around the hill till it reached the top. At the top were loads of cars, and the church’s windows were all boarded up. The place looked to be well secured, and there was no body in the grass. So maybe even the zombies figured this hill was too much a pain to climb as well. As they moved past one car to another, they saw no movement from the inside, no flicker of light, and no hushing of voices. It was like they were in another part of the church, and there were no guards. Or they could be eating. At the front of the church was a huge sign that said, “We have shelter, food, and prayer. All is welcome to join us.”
Matt looked up and saw it had to be near dinner time, and they must be eating. But that still didn’t add up to why there was no one guarding the windows or the door. Looking about the yard, there were a good number of cars, so there had to be just as many people inside.
Slowly he walked to the windows of the church. He didn’t want to move too fast in case there was a sentry and he got trigger-happy.
The windows were just as dirty as they were if not more. The light from outside was fading, so it made it almost impossible to see inside. Moving back from the window, he walked over to Frank. Frank had not moved and was still looking around some.
“How does it look on the inside?” he asked as Matt came close enough.
“Windows are too dirty to really see inside and with the sun setting and all.” Matt took a deep breath and started smacking his clothes to watch dust float off them and into the air. “All I could make out were some benches inside really I think.”
Frank waved a hand in front of his face to push the dust that Matt was tossing everywhere away. Being tired and dirty and a little hungry, going right in, with a sign saying “We have food,” seemed like a great idea to them both. But something was nagging at the back of Frank’s brain.
“What do you think we should do now?” asked Frank.
“Not really sure. I figured we should be invited inside. Now that we’re here, something just doesn’t feel right.”
“I have the same feeling. I think we should take shelter in the cars tonight and then try and go inside tomorrow when there is enough light for us to see,” said Frank.
Matt said OK to the plan and picked out an SUV that looked to be not too bad of a bedroom for him. Frank liked sports car, so he found the closest one and climbed inside and pulled the door shut. Pulling the chair’s lever the seat leaned back, and before Frank knew it he was fast asleep.
Matt had plenty of room to sleep but just couldn’t find himself falling into slumber. Setting up he climbed out of the car and walked to the hill and looked down. There was a big valley below, and he could see the undead moving around down there. With the sun about to set for the day, they must not be able to see him. All they were doing was roam around. Standing there watching them, he looked up and watched as the sun set beyond the horizon.
Night was finally here, but it wasn’t complete darkness yet. Matt went to where the cars were the closest together and nothing could sneak up on him and relieve himself. Once he was done he moved around in the dark and looked up at the church. The stars were out, but that didn’t give off much even this close. The moon itself was hidden tonight. Just standing there looking at the church gave him a feeling in the pit of his belly.
The church was all boarded up and dark inside. It looked like an evil haunted house that you would see in a 1980s movie, minus the bell tower.
As he stood there looking around, he caught movement just behind the church. Pushing himself off the car, he moved a bit to get a closer look at what it might be. As Matt stepped on the grass, the thing stopped and looked up at him. Matt froze and watched on hoping it didn’t see him. It was just then that the moon came out of hiding from behind a cloud or the trees.
As the moon’s light hit the thing, Matt saw it for what it was. It was a small fox digging in the trash can for food. Matt smiled and took a step closer for a better look. The fox looked up, and its eyes shined from the moon’s rays. In a blink it too
k off back down the hill and was gone.
Matt went to the hill’s edge and looked down and watched the fox zigzagged past the undead into the woods. The undead hearing the running took off after it. But Matt knew they’d be too slow to catch a quick fox. This sight gave Matt hope again for the world itself. If a baby fox could last this long after fighting for six to seven months not just humans trying to kill it for food but the undead too, then maybe, just maybe, they could find a place where they could live and not have to look over their shoulders.
As the moon went higher in the starry sky, Matt returned to his SUV and got inside. Looking over at Frank’s sleeping quarter, he could see the car was moving and bouncing about.
“You should have picked something with a little more comfort and not flashy,” Matt said out loud to himself.
Pulling the door of the SUV shut, he lay down and went to sleep for the rest of the night.
Matt jumped up from the sound of screaming. It sounded like his name was being called over and over again. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he rolled over and looked out the windshield and saw the sports car Frank slept in. It was covered with the undead, and they were beating on it trying to get in. Frank was inside it screaming for help and trying to stab at them from a crack in the side window he made when he must have rolled it down.
Matt jumped to his knees and jumped up into the front seat. Reaching for the handle he went to pull it open to run to his friend’s help. But as soon as he reached and went to pull the handle, that side of the SUV was slammed into by a couple of zombies. They growled and crawled at the window to get inside. Their faces were pressed on the glass. Their pupils were dark as death himself. Their eyes were bloodshot. The veins looked to have popped all at once giving them an eerie demon look.
Matt climbed into the passenger side of the SUV and was going to try and get out from there. But the sound of glass breaking stopped him in his tracks. It wasn’t the sound of his car glass breaking; the sound came from a distance. Looking up he could see that the car Frank was in was getting packed now. Zombies were climbing in the broken side window and forcing Frank to the back. Matt could only watch as they grabbed a hold of his legs and pulled him toward them. Matt heard a blood-chilling scream, and all went still and the sports car shook from side to side as the feeding frenzy began. Matt’s breath caught in his throat, and he held back his tears of sadness.
Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes Page 16
