Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes

by Lilly,Shawn L.

  Its face was nearly human still which meant it was a fresh kill. It was the freshest kill he had seen as long as he could remember. Killing it wouldn’t be hard, but with it looking to be human still, he had to close his eyes before stomping on its head.

  “Sorry,” said Matt, giving it a quick look to make sure it was dead for good this time.

  Frank heard Matt say something and looked back to see him standing there and a zombie coming up behind him.

  “Matt, behind you!” yelled Frank, trying to fight the ones coming at him and fight the urge to run to his friend’s aid.

  Matt spun around and felt the weight of the undead fall on him. On the ground the zombie was lying on top of him trying to bite him around the face or neck area. Matt held him at bay by pressing the sword axe, which pushed the zombie away.

  Its teeth snapped at thin air, like it was showing him what it was about to do before it actually did it. Matt used all his strength to keep its mouth away from any of his body parts. The whole time he watched its mouth, he could feel its hands trying to rip away his shirt and skin. Matt knew he had to do something before it broke his skin and dug into him.

  Frank had killed off his third zombie and looked back as Matt was keeping the zombie just away from his face. Frank tried to step back and kick it off him or at least try and do something to help. But no sooner as he took a step back, one squeezed by the rest and came up at him. Frank stood in front of his oncoming attacker and when it came closer lifted his foot and kicked hard.

  The zombie fell back down the short flight of stairs toward its buddies. Watching, they tried their best to move by the one Frank boosted down toward them. But the walls were too close, and they were way too many. Seeing this gave Frank time to turn and help out, using the same maneuver. Frank turned and kicked the zombie on top of Matt square in the jaw. The sound of braking bones rang out. The zombie resting on top of Matt looked up at him.

  Its jaw hung there broken unable to close. Even with a broken messed-up jaw, it was still just as dangerous. But at this moment what it had suffered from Frank’s boot was enough. Matt kicked hard and rolled over some to throw the zombie off him. Matt jumped to his feet and thanked Frank. Frank didn’t give him a thing back but turned to the stairs and waited for the others to come to him.

  Matt watched as the zombie he pushed off of him slowly got up. Its jaw hung in place, but it still growled and moaned some at him. It was close to Frank, and if it realized it, it only had to turn and bite and Frank would be a goner. Matt had to think quick and saw the rope close by. Grabbing it high he jumped up and swung to the zombie. With his foot out he kicked it dead in the chest, and it toppled over the side of the banister and back to the ground floor.

  Once it fell over the side, the rope gave in to Matt’s weight and came down to the floor fast. Matt fell back to the floor and looked up and saw the bell leaning sideways.

  Ding! Ding! Ding!

  The bell in the bell tower sounded out. All the zombies in the church stopped and looked up as to say “Where did that come from?”

  Frank shot a look back at the sound and looked up to see the bell sounding out.

  “Way to go,” said Frank.

  Matt lay there and couldn’t say anything. All he could do was shrug and get back up. Back on his feet he looked around and saw the fight was back on. Frank took the stairs, and Matt looked around to try and find out where that zombie came from. The stairs on the other side were still blocked off, and nothing was disturbed. Running to the edge he could see no ladder or anything else to help them get up there. As he was about to give up, he saw one zombie at the bottom looking up at him from the church altar. It began to run at him, and as it got closer it climbed the bench and, at the top of it, jumped up and grabbed the edge.

  Matt was in shock for a second or two as he watched it pull itself toward him. Using his sword axe he swung it down and drove it into its undead brain. It fell to the floor and landed on a couple of other zombies below dragging them down to the floor with its weight.

  “They can freaking jump!” yelled Matt.

  Frank dispatched another one and looked back in shock at what he had just heard from Matt’s mouth.

  “Are you shitting me?” asked Frank. Just then he saw it on his own eyes. One came running and vanished from sight, only to hear a thud on the floor as if something ran into it. Then out of nowhere a hand grabbed the railing and tried to pull itself up.

  Matt ran over and cut off its fingers, and it slipped and fell like the other one. Frank was getting heavily winded now, and Matt could see it. It was time to switch, so they did. Matt took over fighting the stairs, while Frank watched out for the frog zombies.

  The fight went on for so long Matt felt like he was holding a tree branch the size of a dinosaur bone. Frank was just as tired and was having trouble catching his breath. It wasn’t till Matt was at the verge of giving up that he saw that nothing was coming up at him anymore. Frank noticed it as well and walked over to the rails and looked over. There was nothing moving below, but that didn’t mean nothing. Using a little more willpower, he knocked his blade on the railing and listened to it echo out in the church.

  They both stopped and listened for anything else to get up and come at them both. But nothing did. There was no stomping or growling or moaning. It was all quiet again for a time being. Matt dropped his weapon and fell to the ground. Frank was already ahead of him on that and was resting against the wall on the other side. Matt walked over there and plumped down next to him and set there. Neither one of them spoke. They just set there too out of energy to even speak.

  It took like ten minutes before one of them stood up and waited. As Frank stood there he held out his hand, and Matt took it. Frank pulled him up to his feet, and they both went and retrieved their weapons off the floor. As they walked down the stairs, they saw a couple of them try to move again. So they stopped and stabbed each one of them in the head to make sure they stay dead this time.

  At the stairs, it was difficult to move around all the bodies and to get to the bottom without falling. Matt decided to climb over the side of the railings and drop down. But the fall looked to high, and he was too tired. He thought with his bad luck he would land on a dead one that wasn’t all the way dead and would get him. So he took the stairs as well right behind Frank who was leading the way. At the bottom they could see another pile of them just below where they were standing up top. These ones were those that jumped up and tried to climb to only meet the end of a blade to the face. Taking care they stabbed at will as they passed and made their way by.

  They walked down the path to the altar looking in between the benches for crawlers or anything hiding out there. There were still Bibles in the seats. Next to them were blankets and pillows. There were items all over the floor as well making it hard to walk to the church altar. Once they made it to the altar, they stabbed the armless guy leaning there in the head.

  Looking back the scene made both of them sick to their stomachs. There were so many dead decaying bodies there that it was hard to see the front door from where they came in. Also the smell was gone. They had been inside so long they had gotten used to it.

  “You know it’s going to take us forever to get this smell out of our clothes,” said Matt, sniffing his shirt to see if he could smell it.

  “I will just have to stop by a store and pick up some different attire,” Frank replied back.

  “Oh, good. Bad news on that. You think you could spot me a five? Because I’m broke and I can’t pay for my new duds,” said Matt with a smile.

  “No problem. I got you, buddy.” Frank started laughing and walked to the back of the room to the doorway the undead rushed in from.

  Frank walked into what looked to be the kitchen-cum-confession room. At the far wall to the left were the stove and refrigerator and a table with some bowls upon it. Ahead was a door that said “Preacher’s Chambers.” And to the right were a couple of booths with a pull curtain on them. But what caught M
att’s attention and Frank’s were the three medical cots in the middle of the room next to the table. One had a dead body on it torn to pieces, while the other two were covered in blood.

  Matt walked to the table and looked around it some. In the bowls were red water and a towel half in and half out. Frank walked to the confession booths and used his blade to pull back the curtain in case something was hiding inside.

  Matt looked around the kitchen for food and clean water to replenish their own. Everything was gone. There were boxes and cans, but all were empty.

  “There’s nothing here,” said Matt to Frank.

  “That strange. Do you think they had loads of food here if they had this many people staying here?”

  “You don’t think the zombies ran out of humans and decided to have a snack, do you?” asked Matt with a grin.

  Frank shook his head, smiled, and went back to looking around a bit. As he came to the cot with the ripped-apart dead guy, he looked down at him and leaned in close to have a look at him for real. From all the fighting he did, he didn’t see a child in the group or as he walked by the rails. So where were the man who wrote the note and his son at? The note said they would be here.

  As he got up the cot, the man’s eyes opened up and looked up at him hungry. Frank froze and looked at him as if studying him some. The man was so ripped apart that his muscles weren’t attached anymore. All it could do was watch him with those bloodshot eyes and follow his every movement.

  Matt moved up close to Frank to see what he was looking at. As soon as he saw the undead monster looking at them both now, Matt stabbed it and put it out of its misery.

  Frank took a second or two to get back up to his feet. Matt could see he felt funny being that close and not getting attacked. It was one thing to fight to live, but to see one that looked up at you and couldn’t move was another. Well, to kill it was kind of like murder to him he guessed. Placing a hand on Frank’s shoulder, Matt patted it a couple of times and went to move on when a sound came from the preacher’s chambers.

  Both guys snapped out of their worry and looked at the door with weapons raised. Frank gave a quick look at Matt, and he nodded. Matt ran up and turned the knob and pulled it open. The curtains were closed inside, but they could see something standing in the back corner. As soon as Matt let the knob go, the sound of the twisting of the doorknob went off as it went back to normal. The thing standing there spun around and looked at them both. Frank spit on the ground in front of him and waited.

  The shadow guy ran to the doorway and stopped. It was a man in a long robe that was supposed to be white at one time. Now it was blotched in red stains all over it. The undead preacher looked at them both figuring out which one to kill first. Frank spit again and this time hit the zombie in the face egging it on. The zombie growled and came running at them both.

  Matt jumped forward and dropped to one knee and swung hard with his sword. The zombie was amputated at one of its knees and started to fall. As it fell it reached down to grab a hold of Matt’s anything to take it with it. Frank watching Matt’s low cut stepped up as well and aimed high. His blade caught the zombie in the wrist and passed through it and into its neck. The blow was mighty, and the zombie’s fall helped as well to have the blade pass in its neck and out the back.

  Matt heard a thud and looked back to see the zombie preacher’s head roll away. Getting up he saw Frank standing there looking down at it as well. Before Matt could do something about it, Frank crushed it under his boot.

  Matt turned around and used his blade to smack the door in case more was inside and needed to come out. Nothing came running out or moved. Matt walked to the doorway and peeked inside. The room was a mess and dark as well. Moving to the window he pulled the curtains open and saw a beautiful stained glass there with an angel on it. The glass was unable to be seen out, so leaving it open was OK.

  The room was empty except for the thousands of books all over the place. Some of the papers were ripped out and scattered all over the place. Moving to the desk he found a notebook in the drawer. Opening the pad he could see names on the first page. And there were notes on the other pages that followed it. Matt flipped to the last couple of pages and started to read out loud.

  Date: September 17

  Today the Lord has been kind enough to us to allow some of our children to return with more food for us all. They also came back with a couple more of the Lord’s family. One is hurt pretty bad and needs medical attention. The army hasn’t made it this far yet to lend us a hand. But we will keep faith and hope and pray they make it soon, because I don’t see this young man who is hurt will make it much longer. But all we can do is pray for him to do so.

  Matt flipped the page and began reading again.

  Date: September 18

  The young man isn’t getting any better. His fever is getting worse, and some of the people here are getting scared he might be infected. I reassured them it doesn’t look like a bite mark. But one man and his son wanted to leave. I tried to explain to him the army would be on the way and to please just hold on for his son’s sake. He wouldn’t listen and wanted to leave, still in fear of his only son. This being a house of our Lord, I’m unable to keep people here, so I let him go. As he left he passed me a recorder to keep here in the church. The man said he used to be a reporter and left a note at his house to have others in need of shelter to come here. I thank him for leading the Lord’s flock to his house of worship. I took his recorder and placed it in my desk for safekeeping. Our prayers will be with him and his son tonight. God bless John Stolks and his son, Ben. May you watch over them in their journey in your world, my Lord.

  Matt looked up and pulled open a drawer and found a recorder he wrote about. Frank walked over and looked at it himself.

  “Well, at least they got out before it got too bad,” Matt said.

  “Yeah, I hate to have spent the last seven days trying to get here for nothing.”

  Matt had to agree with him on that comment. Turning the page he found some pages were missing. The page he did find looked to be the last entry and the messiest written one.

  September 26

  The flock is beginning to worry about their chances of rescue. The injured man who came in has died. But before he died he went crazy and bit my hand. I was able to wrap it before others saw what had happened. Some might believe that the will of God would save us all from this virus. But I have to believe the devil is playing his part as well and has them turned on me.

  Summer is fading, and the heat from outside is beginning to dissipate, but why do I feel so hot? If the man has passed his sickness to me, I must do something to be on the safe side for me and my children. So I have locked myself in the room. The food is still safe with me in the next room, but I’m not hungry anymore. I feel rather funny and have a strange taste for odd things now. I…don’t…know…what’s…happening…God help us all.

  Matt looked up as he finished the last page and looked about the room. He saw what he was looking for in the back corner in the shadows. There was a door there where the food was supposed to be kept. Frank saw it too and moved over to it and placed his ear to the door. Nothing was coming from the inside of the room. Grabbing the doorknob he stopped and looked at the door. There were marks all over it, but it was hard to tell what they were. Pointing to the window’s curtain, Matt walked over to them and pulled them back to help shine light on the new mystery.

  The door was covered in claw marks from the fingernails of the preacher trying to get in. But the real question they were asking themselves was why he wanted to be in there so bad. In some spot he could see the blood was fresh, and he must have been digging at it not too long ago. Some marks were even deeper than the rest. Those were most likely when he first started going at it. As time passed he must have lost his nails because of overuse of ripping the door apart to get in.

  Matt let the blind go and walked over to the door with Frank and waited. Seeing as Frank took the stand on the last door opening, t
his one would be all his now. Frank turned the doorknob and pulled it open. The room was dark as night, and Matt couldn’t see a thing inside. Then out of the darkness of the room ran a shadow. It screamed and jumped on top of him beating away at his face. Matt raised his arms to block the blows from this attacker. But the hits were soft and didn’t even hurt at all. Also it wasn’t trying to bite his face off or rip his body open with its fingers.

  Frank took no chances and grabbed the unknown person and tossed it across the room. The person hit the chairs just on the other side and fell with a rush of wind escaping from its mouth. Slowly getting up the person looked at them both and waited for them to make the first move.

  Matt got to his feet and yanked back the curtain to let the light in once again. The unknown person turned away and hid its face from the sunrise.

  Matt stood shocked at what was in front of him hiding its face. It was a woman. She had long black hair. She was wearing dirty clothes and didn’t look clean herself. But if she was trapped in the room for as long as they thought, then what other options did she have about taking a nice bath somewhere?

  Matt slowly lowered the curtain but not all the way. He wanted to keep some of the light inside the room. As the curtain lowered the woman looked up at them both. In her hand she held a long hard loaf of bread. If that was what she was hitting him with when she came out, then Matt thought that bread was old and hard as hell.

  Frank lowered his weapon and laid it on the desk in front of him and held up his hands to her. Matt watching did the same thing and waited for the next move. The woman kept looking at them both and toward the door where she came out of. After several seconds she dropped the bread and fell to the floor and set there crying.

  Matt walked over to her and kept some space still in between them in case she jumped at him again. She might have been locked in there, but there was no telling how long ago or if she was bitten or scratched before going in.