As the afternoon wore on, they talked of their fallen brothers. Neither of them had seen the guys getting attacked, but they had seen them after they had become zombies. They didn’t know what had happened and hoped they hadn’t suffered too badly. All that mattered was that they were dead. Watching them mingle within the crowd of zombies was a painful thing to see. Steve and Jake both had dried blood on their faces and mouths, but Shawn looked like he hadn’t yet found a meal. They knew he would though, and just hoped that it wouldn’t be them.
“I can’t see any way out of this truck,” Frank said. “We die of heatstroke and dehydration or we get out and get torn apart by zombies.”
“Choices, choices,” Junior said with a weak laugh. “I haven’t seen one car or truck or hell, even a living person since yesterday. I don’t think any kind of help is going to come our way.”
“I watched for headlights in the dark last night. I didn’t even see any off the highway. I didn’t hear anything but the fucking zombies,” Frank said.
They both zoned out while watching the dead, feeling disturbed each time they saw one of the guys. There was no sign of the paramedics, but they weren’t wearing stand-out firefighting gear. They knew they were in the crowd somewhere.
Junior was watching one particularly pathetic zombie hobbling around on the outer edge of the crowd. It had a knife stuck in the middle of its throat, causing its head to bob up and down with every movement. His eye was drawn back to the middle of the crowd by a couple of charred zombies. They were badly burned, resembled ashy charcoal, and pieces of them flaked off as they stumbled into other zombies. Their eyes, ears, noses, and lips were gone, and he couldn’t imagine how they were still standing. They looked like skeletons sheathed in black cloaks.
A sudden movement in the distance caught Frank’s attention. “Holy shit!” he said. “I think there’s a truck coming this way.”
Junior jumped up to look out the window. There was a white pickup driving down the highway headed in their direction. “Gear up, Frank. Looks like we might have a ride,” Junior grinned as he quickly pulled on his uniform and grabbed his equipment. Frank was ready just as fast.
They both jumped at the sound of gunfire. With no other noise other than that of the zombies, each gunshot sounded like an explosion. They saw where the truck was pulling up along the left side of the truck and quickly smashed out that window. Before the truck had come to a complete stop, both Frank and Junior had jumped from the firetruck down into the bed of the pickup.
Frank slapped the top of the cab with his hand and yelled, “Go, go go!”
Focusing back on the gazes of Michelle and the boys in the kitchen, Frank said, “And that’s how they saved us. We would have died up in that firetruck if Max and Jesse hadn’t come along.”
Chapter 9
Day 4
Anna and Emily had both dozed off and on during the early morning hours. There wasn’t a single place to get comfortable in the entire bar, and the moans of the dead outside were relentless, so neither of them slept well. Every now and then, Anna looked out one of the small darkened windows and saw nothing but zombies. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought the crowd outside had probably doubled in size. She went behind the bar to rinse her face with some cool water, then filled a glass and drank the whole thing. Emily was stretching on the pool table and doing some yoga. She said it helped to center her and helped to clear her mind. Anna thought it was pretty weird but kept that thought to herself.
“We’ve gotta find a way out of here,” Anna said for the hundredth time.
“Unless and until something draws the zombies away, I don’t see what we can do,” Emily said. They’d had this discussion so many times that she didn’t know what else to say.
The bar was fully surrounded by hundreds of zombies. There was no way to shoot their way out. They didn’t have a waiting vehicle outside. Unless something else drew them away, they would probably surround the bar indefinitely.
“I’m going to try that ladder to the roof. At least I can get a better view of what we’re dealing with,” Anna said. With no way for the zombies to get inside the building, they didn’t need to keep watch at all times, so Emily decided to go with her.
“I’ll go too,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind getting a look for myself.”
They went to the storage room, and Anna climbed up first. She had difficulty opening the square panel at the top that granted rooftop access. She didn’t see any kind of lock on it, but the hinges were rusty, and it didn’t appear to have been opened for some time. She pushed on it some more until finally, it snapped open. Anna stepped out onto the roof with Emily right behind her.
“Holy fuck,” Anna said. There had to be five hundred zombies surrounding the building. Less concerning was a fire burning in the distance. The fire couldn’t have been more than a mile or so away and appeared to cover an entire block of houses.
“What happened?” Emily said, not expecting an answer.
“Maybe the zombies will get distracted by the fire,” Anna said.
“Maybe, but I don’t think so,” Emily said. “Maybe if there was an explosion, it would draw them away. Otherwise, I don’t think they’ll leave when they know we’re here. I mean, look at them. They’re just staring straight at the building. None of them are even looking at the roof; they think we’re still inside.”
“Damn it, I don’t know what the fuck to do,” Anna said in a frustrated voice. “My daughter is out there, my husband is out there, and I’m stuck in this damn bar.”
They looked around and saw a couple of large trees near the rear of the building with branches nearly touching the roof. The ends of the branches were way too small to climb or try to jump to. Even if they could somehow do it, the zombies below were at least ten deep. They would just end up stuck in a tree.
Anna slumped down and sighed. It wasn’t in her nature to give up, but no matter what she tried to come up with, there was just no way out of the bar. She needed some kind of distraction.
“Emily!” Anna said suddenly. “We’ve got a bar full of alcohol which means we’re sitting on a building full of fuel. Maybe we can use it to distract them.”
“Wait, you want to start more fires to try to get out of here? We could set the whole building up in flames. It would take a hell of a lot to distract them,” Emily said.
“It’s worth a try, though,” Anna said with determination in her voice. It was killing her that she couldn’t look for Camille. She was willing to try just about anything.
“Anna, no, it’s not,” Emily said firmly. “There’s got to be at least five hundred of them down there. Do you think you’re going to make Molotov cocktails or something? You’ll end up killing us too.” Emily was just as adamant as Anna was.
“Well, I don’t know what the hell else to do,” Anna said.
“We wait. We have food, water, and shelter. We have to wait for some kind of opening,” Emily said.
The faint sound of an engine approaching in the distance gradually filled the air. It was hard to hear over the noise the zombies made, but with no other competing sounds, they both realized that the vehicle was heading their way. Both women looked around eagerly, hoping that this might finally be their chance. Then they saw it. A gray pickup truck was speeding down the road, driving far too fast, and headed for a specific place. No one would drive that fast with zombies around unless they were hurrying toward someone or something. Anna and Emily both yelled and waved their hands, but the driver seemed to be focused on the road ahead of him and never glanced their way. Even if he had, it would have taken a lot of luck for him to see them on top of the building. They sighed with frustration as the pickup sped out of sight.
“Maybe the zombies will follow it,” Anna said hopefully.
As they watched, some of the zombies between the bar and the road turned toward the noise of the retreating truck. It was an agonizingly slow process, but gradually about a hundred of the dead stumbled and shuffled about in the di
rection the truck had gone. Some of the zombies around the front of the building were drawn by the moving crowd and started to follow as well. Within an hour, about half of the zombies that were surrounding the bar had left to follow the others. They were left with about a hundred or so to contend with.
“This may be our chance,” Anna said. “There are only about a hundred of them, and they’re spread out around the building.”
“What’s the plan?” Emily asked. “We still can’t just run through them, and we don’t have a vehicle.”
“Maybe we shoot our way out the front door then run around the corner to the houses back there. We’re bound to find a car at one of them.”
Emily shook her head, and a shiver ran up her spine. She’d run through plenty of zombies during her initial escape from the beach. She was worried about the gunfire drawing too many of them in and having to run through a thicker crowd without a clear path of escape.
“If we can fight past the crowd, where are we running to?” Emily asked and waved in the general direction of the house-lined street behind the bar. “We should pick a house now. Preferably one with a vehicle in the driveway.”
“They’re all going to be drawn to the gunfire, and most of them will come after us. But remember, they’re slow as fuck. If we have a solid plan, I think we can make it,” Anna said. “I say we run between those houses until we’re on the next street over, then find a house over there. It’ll give us a few minutes of breathing room to find a car.”
Emily walked around the roof of the building, looking at the zombies down below. Some of them shuffled about aimlessly, seemingly confused as to whether or not there was still a meal awaiting them inside of the building. The others remained pressed up against the walls and front door. The back of the building was far less crowded, with only a dozen or so zombies lingering near the rear door.
“All right, I think you’re right. It’s time. There are only about a dozen around the back of the building,” Emily said. “I think we may be able to do this without using our guns. If we can run around them, I don’t think the others will see us or follow.”
“Let’s get moving,” Anna said as she started down the ladder back into the storage room. She didn’t want to wait another minute.
Emily followed her back down to the storage room. Their backpacks were still full of supplies and ready to go. They both wore guns on their belts and readied their knives. When Emily opened the door, Anna was going to charge out first to kill any zombies blocking their exit with Emily following behind her.
“Are you ready?” Emily asked. She’d removed the drop bar and unlocked the other two locks on the door, prepared to push it open as soon as Anna gave her the word.
“Open it,” Anna replied.
As Emily pushed the door open, it hit two zombies that had been standing directly in its path. The first fell to the ground while the other was wedged in place and became a doorstop. Unconcerned with closing the door behind them, they quickly darted around both zombies. Before the remaining dead could react, both women took off, running for the street behind the bar. They dashed between houses and shoved a few zombies out of the way. They continued forward until they were two streets over, hoping that the zigzagging between houses was enough to throw the zombies off their trail. They stopped to catch their breath and get a good look at the area. There weren’t any zombies nearby, but further down the street, a couple of dozen zombies shuffled aimlessly.
“Let’s cut over at least one more street, maybe two,” Anna said quietly. She didn’t want to do anything with that many zombies so close to them. They carefully cut between the two closest houses and found both had fenced yards. Anna took a quick look at the gate to see that it was unlocked then quietly opened it. They crept silently through the yard until they reached the rear of the chain-link fence. With no gate in sight, they had to climb over it. Seeing no zombies nearby, they climbed over the fence as quietly as they could, landing in another backyard that was free of zombies. They slowly made their way to the side of the house to look at the street in front of it. There weren’t any dead in sight, so they stopped to take a better look around and decide where to go next.
“What do you think? Look for a car here or keep going?” Anna asked.
“Let’s look around here. For all we know, the next street could be full of zombies,” Emily said. There weren’t any zombies shuffling around nearby, and knowing the closest that they’d seen were two streets over gave them some time to find a car and figure out what to do next.
“Let’s look for a house with an SUV or truck in the driveway,” Anna said.
They kept low as they moved from house to house. When they were three houses down, four zombies seemingly came out of nowhere and crossed their path. One was a tall man with a muscular build and his cheek torn halfway off his face but with no other visible injuries. Another was a child no more than ten years old. She had numerous bite marks up and down her arms. A morbidly obese woman in a torn summer dress splattered with dried blood pushed past the child in her eagerness to consume a fresh meal. A thirty-something woman missing a chunk of her neck completed the pack of four.
The tall man immediately reached for Anna and managed to grasp her arm with his hand. She was surprised by his brute strength and the pain that his grip caused. Unable to pull her arm away, she started to panic. A glance to her left told her that Emily was struggling with the obese woman and the other two zombies were about to close in on them. With no other option, Anna pulled her gun from her holster and fired directly into the face of the zombie that gripped her arm. He went down instantly, but his fingers still grasped her arm. She turned and fired three shots at the obese zombie bearing down on Emily with the third round striking it in the head. The last two zombies were close enough to bite, so Anna quickly shot them both.
“Are there any more?” Anna asked, gasping as she tried to pry the dead fingers from her arm.
“Not yet, but there will be after those shots,” Emily answered. She was absentmindedly rubbing at a cut on her hand as she looked around.
“Holy shit Emily, were you bitten?” Anna asked worriedly when she saw the lightly bleeding cut on Emily’s hand.
“No,” Emily said. “That bitch scratched me while I was trying to fight her off.”
“Are you sure? Let me take a look at it,” Anna said.
“It’s just a scratch, Anna,” Emily said, annoyed. “We’ve gotta move now before all of the zombies around here home in on us. You can look at it once we find a place to stop.”
As Emily spoke, zombies started to appear up and down the street, coming out of houses and from places unknown. Knowing they had very little time, Anna and Emily hurried across the street to cut between the houses there. As they neared the rear of one house, a zombie came around the corner. Anna shoved it out of her way, but it was replaced by another, then another. They had no choice but to take out all three zombies. Since they had already made so much noise shooting the other zombies, Anna fired at all three of them. Nerves frayed, even at such close range, it took six shots before all three were down.
“Damn it,” Anna said. They were going to have to go further to find a vehicle because there were too many zombies around that had been drawn by the sound of gunfire. She quickly reloaded just to be safe in case she had to use her gun again before they found a place to stop.
They continued past the three dead zombies on the ground and into the backyard they had been heading for. It was a small enough piece of land that they could see that there were no zombies, so they rushed through to the rear of the yard. The back of the garage bordered the rear of the yard, so they dashed behind it for a moment as they looked around to see where to go next. Both backyards they faced were clear of the dead, so they continued to move forward. They were very careful as they reached the sides of the houses to make sure they weren’t caught by surprise again by zombies coming their way. They eased their way toward the fronts of both houses and saw dozens of zombies in the s
treet ahead.
“Fuck,” Anna said. “Let’s get back behind this house.”
They eased their way back to the rear of the house and checked to make sure that the yards were still clear.
“I’m going to take a look inside the patio door,” Emily said just before sprinting away. Anna watched and was amazed when the door slid open freely. She hurried over to Emily, and they carefully made their way inside the house. Finding themselves standing in a dark kitchen, they both stood silently to listen for any noises coming from within the house. After about two minutes of silence, they crept their way through the house. It was a small ranch-style home sparsely furnished with very few decorations. The kitchen counters were bare, and the dining room held nothing but a table and chairs.
Emily opened the fridge to find it empty then turned on the faucet to get a drink of water, but no water came. The living room was nearly as empty. It all felt very strange until Anna braved a quick look out the front window and saw the ‘FOR RENT’ sign on the front lawn.
“Of all the houses we could have tried,” Anna started as she shook her head. “There’s definitely no vehicle here.”
“At least there aren’t any zombies,” Emily replied. “And we’re not surrounded for a change.”
Anna looked out the front window at the numerous zombies in the street. They were wandering aimlessly and didn’t know that the women were inside the house. About half a dozen houses down across the street, she saw a red SUV parked in a driveway. If the zombies continued to shuffle about as they were, they would probably continue to make their way down the street and beyond until something new caught their attention. Once that happened, Anna wanted to head for the house with the SUV. They couldn’t do much without transportation.
“You’re right. We’re not surrounded, and they don’t know we’re in here,” Anna said. “Once they finish making their way down the street we can leave and try for that SUV.”
They both opened bottles of water from their packs and sat quietly as they waited.
SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2) Page 8
