Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes

by Lilly,Shawn L.

  Crack! The driver side window to the SUV began to break. Matt started to panic now and was getting ready to open the side door when a couple came from nowhere and were now on that side of his car. With no other choice he started to climb to the back seat and tried the back hatch when the glass broke. Something strong grabbed a hold of his legs and started pulling him back to the front. Turning around he could see the driver window was now smashed in, and the zombie had him by the legs and was pulling him. Matt tried to kick it off, but the space was too tight to move around. Before he knew it the zombie was on top of him and watching him closely. It opened its mouth wide and leaned down to bite him. Matt closed his eyes and started to pray.

  “Matt! Matt, wake up. You’re having a bad dream,” came a voice. “Matt! Matt!” Reaching his hands out the voice gave Matt a shake.

  Matt awoke breathing hard and kicking around as if to get something off him. After he found there was nothing there, he started to search himself for something. Frank stood next to the SUV with the side door open watching him. Matt saw the sun was up and looked over to find his friend just watching him.

  “Where am I?” asked Matt.

  “You’re in the car you’ve picked to sleep in, and it’s in front of the church still,” answered Frank. “The real question is: Where were you?”

  Matt sat up and rubbed his face with the palms of his hands. That was all a dream? he asked himself in his head.

  “I’m all good. I’m here now. I must have been having a bad dream.”

  “A bad dream isn’t even close to what you were having. You were kicking and bouncing around in there. What was the dream about?”

  Matt didn’t feel like reliving the event over again, so he didn’t answer his question. He only answered with “It must have been something I ate.”

  “It would have been if you had eaten something. Maybe next time you eat something before you go to bed, you’ll have a dreamless sleep,” said Frank. Moving out of the way, he allowed Matt to get past him. “Go into my bag and grab some fruit or something, and I’ll have a look around.”

  Matt didn’t feel like arguing. He just did it and went to Frank’s car and rifled through his bag. The only fruit in there was in a can, and it had no pop-top. So he dug back into Frank’s bag and found a pocket knife and used it to stab a hole in the top. The can was full of peaches, and the juice was sweet to the taste. Once he drank all he could, he opened it all the way and started eating till it was empty. Looking up he could see Frank making his way around the whole church and coming back to him. Tossing the empty can on the ground, he walked over to him.

  “That’s called littering,” said Frank, who saw him toss the can on the grass.

  “Zombies are leaving dead bodies all over as are we, and you’re worried about a tin can?”

  Frank didn’t say anything but just kept staring at him. Matt gave out a great sigh and walked over and picked up the can and tossed it into a trash can closest to him with the windows rolled down.

  “Happy?” asked Matt.

  Frank smiled and nodded his approval and turned to the church.

  “There is still not enough light to see inside the windows. Besides, I think they have covered them up on the inside as well. So maybe even at midday, we would not be able to see inside,” said Frank, scratching his head for ideas. “I think they might have split and the place is empty.”

  “You could be right. We might as well go in and try to find any food they left behind. There could be a note or something telling us where they went or headed when they left.”

  Frank was taken aback by his comment to still go in and find out something. He was all against going to the house with the first note and then going on the quest to find the man and his son. Now he wanted to go inside and see if there was someone or something to help them out. Frank hid his smile of hope for his childhood friend and walked to the front doors of the church. The doors were shut but not locked, and that sent warning signals all up their backs.

  Frank stood to the right and grabbed the door handle, while Matt had the left one. In their other hand each held their sword axes and began to count together.

  “One…two…three,” they said at the same time and pulled the doors open.

  The doors to the front let out a screeching sound as they opened. Matt and Frank opened them all the way and stood at the ready for whatever was to come at them. With the doors open they could see a barred gate closed as well; this was like their second line of defense in case the doors were breached. There was a heavy padlock on the chain that kept them together. Matt lost the gun he had found, but it was out of bullets anyway. He did have the gun his father had given him when he was young. But that gun had one bullet, and it was for something special.

  Frank walked over and pulled on the gate and found it too secured to open by just yanking on it.

  “How are we going to get past that?” asked Frank, pulling on it still.

  Matt took a second look at it and snapped his fingers and took off. Frank watched him run away and didn’t feel like following him. A couple of minutes later, Matt returned with a long metal wire, and on the end was a hook.

  “Where did you find that?” asked Frank, looking behind him. The wire ran around the open doors and out of sight.

  “It is on a truck nearby. I will wrap it around the bars and yank the bars off.”

  Frank gave help and pulled the cord so they had enough to wrap the bars. With the hook in place and the wire looking good, Frank followed the wire while keeping a strain on it. Matt jumped into the truck and looked around the inside for the keys. Above and below he looked, but there were no keys inside the vehicle.

  “No keys. Do you think you could hot-wire it to start?” called out Matt from the driver seat.

  Frank looked back still holding the wire tight.

  “Yeah, sure. I used to steal cars all the time while I was young. How about I hack an ATM later and we can toss a party?”

  “A simple answer would have been ‘No, I can’t,’” said Matt to himself. “I will have to find us another car and wrap it to that and try it out.”

  “Good. You go do that, and I’ll just stay here and hold this tight. It’s not like it’s not hard to hold it like this while you find cars with no keys.”

  Matt jumped out of the car and ran to others looking inside for keys. By his fifth car he found some hanging in the ignition.

  “I found some!” yelled Matt.

  “About time. I felt like I was about to fall asleep while you were looking.”

  “Ass,” said Matt not too loud.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing. Just bring it over as close as you can, and I will bring the car closer,” called back Matt.

  As Matt turned the key, the car whined and died out. He took a couple of tries to get it to turn over. As soon as the car was running, the gas light popped up, and the gauge said below E.

  “We need to hurry. The car’s out of gas, and I’m not sure how much longer it will run.”

  Frank looked up at him from the front of the car as he was pulling up to a stop near him. He had heard him yelling to hurry, but he had no idea how much energy it took to hold the wire straight. If he was to let it a little slack, the wire would pull back and unwrap and the hook would fall off. In which case the whole process would have to start all over again.

  Doing his best he wrapped it around the bumper of the car, and when it felt good, he smacked the hood with his hand. Matt tossed the car in reverse, and the car took off backward. As the cord pulled tight the bars started to buckle outward making the gap in between bigger. The car itself was setting on E and also grass. It might have been sunny all day yesterday, but the day before it poured so the grass was a little wet still.

  As Matt started to see the bars bend, the car started to slide all over the place. It was like a kid playing tug of war with three really strong guys. The car was the kid and the bar the strong men. Giving it all he had, the bars bent some m
ore, and the car puttered and died out. Matt slammed the palm of his hand on the steering wheel and cursed out loud. Frank ran to the gate and waved at him to look.

  The gate was pulled back enough that they were able to slide just by. Once they had both made it to the other side, there was another set of double doors to open. Frank leaned in close and listened to see what he might have heard. There was no sound coming from the inside at all. Matt did the same and heard nothing the same as Frank. Gripping the handles of the door, he started to pull them open. As the door cracked open, the smell hit him square in the face. It was the smell of death.

  Matt gagged and pushed the doors back shut and set back leaning against the wall. Frank wasn’t as close to the door as Matt was, but the smell and the sound of his friend gagging started getting to him.

  “It’s ripe in there,” said Matt, spitting trying to get the taste he just smelled out of his mouth.

  Frank could only shake his head and wave at the door. The smell was gone, but it was like it was burned into their clothes now.

  Matt told Frank to step out in the courtyard and he’d open the door and meet him out there in a second. Frank did as he was told and climbed through the gate and waited some distance away. Matt undid the cable and the hook around the gate and attached the hook to the cable. Running the hook and cable around the farthest bar, he then placed the metal hook on the door handle. Stepping away he made sure it was not going to fall and then climbed outside the gate himself. Once outside he grabbed the slack and began to pull on it, and the cable started to tighten up. But the door wouldn’t open. Frank stepped in to toss some extra muscle on it. After a bit of tugging, the door stopped creeping and swung open easily.

  Even with the air blowing outside, the smell seemed to go straight at them and smack them in the face. Matt wrapped the cable around a car mirror and then around its front bumper in case it slipped. Now done he pulled his shirt to his nose and looked to Frank. Frank’s eyes seemed to be watering from the smell, or was he crying? Either way the smell was too bad to bear from where they were. So Matt started walking further back away from the door till the smell faded.

  “How long do you think we have to wait?” asked Frank, holding the shirt to his nose still.

  “I’m not really sure. I don’t really think it will truly air out.” Matt let his shirt fall back down and smelled the air around them. “I can’t smell it no more. You can let the shirt drop now.”

  Frank let go and took a deep breath. “I still smell something.” Matt took a deep breath and said he couldn’t smell anything. Frank leaned in close to him and sniffed again.

  “I found it. It’s you who stinks,” said Frank with a smile.

  Matt grinned back and waved him or his smell away. Frank wasn’t sure. All he knew was that those inside were all dead and this crazy trip about following a note to help someone out was for nothing. All he wanted was to feel human again helping out where he could. Killing and running all the time was just too tiring. Every time Frank killed a zombie, even though they’re dead already, Frank felt a piece of himself slip away and slowly disappear. Killing was wrong even if it meant he had to just to live another day, hour, or even minute. Matt on the other hand wasn’t sure how he felt about killing. But knowing him, as long as he had life, it had to be taking its toll on him as well.

  Deep in thought Frank didn’t even hear when Matt called him to come on as he walked to the church. Frank shook his head to clear his thoughts and followed suit behind Matt. The smell was still strong and only getting worse the closer they got. By the time they made it to the gate, the smell was so bad they had to try and shield their noses while getting fresh air.

  “This is some foul shit, dude,” called Matt to Frank standing close by.

  “I don’t think we, meaning I really, can’t get any closer than this,” said Frank back.

  Matt was feeling the same way and went ahead and grabbed the bar of the fence and pulled himself inside them. Matt didn’t even look back to see if his buddy was following. He just went and opened the other door to help air it out some more.

  With both doors open they could see the eight long benches in front of them. There were four on each side of the church with a walkway down the middle like most churches had. The windows were stained glass and looked to be covered with dirt and something else. Just past the doorway was a set of stairs on each side leading upward. It wasn’t a big church, so there had to be a landing up ahead for them to watch from above and maybe the bell rope was up there as well.

  Taking a step inside the dust in the air made it hard to see well, but the smell let them know the dead were close by. Once their eyes refocused on the light coming in from outside and hitting the dust, they were able to make out more things. There were several bodies on the floor near the church altar. It was too hard to see how they died, but there looked to be more there. It looked like they were praying and all died at one time.

  “What do you make of that?” asked Matt, pointing at the bodies with his free hand.

  “I’m not really sure. Maybe they drank the Kool-Aid.”

  Matt knew that wasn’t meant to be a joke. He could actually see that happening to a group of people having lost all hope.

  Walking inside they looked around more and found sleeping bags and suitcases along the walls. There appeared to be lots of them on both sides. Matt then came to an idea that it made sense seeing all the cars outside that there had to be more. But there was only a couple up ahead, so where were the rest of them?

  “If that’s all in here, then where are the owners of those bags and cars outside?” asked Frank.

  “I was just asking myself the same question.”

  Walking a bit further Matt kicked a small ball on the floor. The ball rolled down the walkway path to the church’s altar and hit the group of bodies. Most were lying down, but one looked to have fallen a little forward and its head rested on the podium. The ball came to a stop as it rolled and hit the one resting against the podium. All fell still and seemed good till the arm of the podium man fell off its body to the ground. Matt froze as did Frank as they watched it fall.

  As the arm fell to the ground, they took a closer look at the corpse. It was at a great stage of decay, but people couldn’t have been there that long to be this bad. It only meant one thing: Something got in and killed them and nearly ate them off before moving on. Now the real question Matt was thinking was: Was it still in the church or was it gone? Seeing as the doors were closed, he started betting on option one.

  Matt lowered his pack to the ground as did Frank, pulled the sword axe, and stood ready for it.

  “Be ready. If it’s in here, it’s most likely fast. Hopefully there is one or maybe two,” said Matt.

  “One would be nice, but I think we can still handle two,” said Frank, watching the shadows and everything.

  In the dark corner of the room in the back was a doorway to the other chamber of the church. Both Matt and Frank would not have seen it if the undead didn’t start flowing out of it. Around ten to fifteen of them tried to squeeze into the doorway to see what had just came in.

  Matt knew right then they were a couple of dead men. To his left the stairs leading up were blocked off, so the only way up was the right side. Looking back they could make it back to the gate, but if they had trouble getting through it, they were still dead. So the only way was up. Pushing Frank forward he headed up the stairs. The stairs had a slight bend and wrapped back around toward the other way still leading up.

  Up top was just a platform that looked over the benches below to the church altar. There was a beautiful what looked to be hand-carved banister along its edge. In the middle was a nice-sized rope that led up to the bell tower and was hooked above the bell. There was a circle-shaped window as well to the front of the church, but it looked to be closed and nailed shut.

  Frank was first up with the help of Matt’s pushing from behind him. Once they made it up, they could see some of the undead were heading to
ward them. They were most likely heading for the stairs and on their way up. The other side was blocked off, so they had only one way up and this could work to their advantage for once.

  “They’ll be up here in a matter of seconds!” yelled Matt, looking over the side of the banister.

  “Good. Bring it on. They will be jam-packed in the stairwell and easy picking,” said Frank, holding up his sword axe.

  Matt looked back and saw some had not followed the others but looked up at him watching them. Before he could think of it too long, the sounds of stomping coming up the stairs were getting louder. Matt made himself ready and waited for the undead to show up.

  The sound of so many coming up at them seemed like a freight train crashing into the stairs. Their growls made the hair on their arms stand on end. If there was a place to go and hide, they would have chosen it first. But they were trapped, and only two choices came to him: Fight their way out and live and move on or die and turn into one of them. Either way, one choice was going to be shown to them soon enough.

  The first came around the side and looked at Frank and then Matt. Its eyes were hell and cold to look at. Frank took a step back willing it to come closer and meet its maker, again. It didn’t need inviting. It took a step forward and looked as to skip two steps and was at a hop and a skip away from Frank now. Frank saw more coming up behind the first one and took no time killing the lead. With a quick slice upward, the blade cut deep into its chest and fast, and it spun by him and landed on the ground in front of Matt. Matt raised his foot and looked down at it as it started to get back up.