SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2)

by Jaime Hernandez

  Just as Max was about to climb back down, he heard the sound of rapid gunfire. It was so loud that he couldn’t tell how many guns were being fired, but it had to be at least half a dozen. They sounded like they were coming from someplace nearby. The noise sounded so close that his reflexes told him to duck, but whoever was shooting was probably a street or two over. It was too close for his comfort. The zombies in the street slowly turned their heads to the south, so the backs of their heads faced Max as they clumsily turned their bodies and stumbled toward yards and houses across the street. After a minute or two of silence, Max heard the distinct sound of shotguns. The zombies were entirely focused on the noise and slowly continued their pursuit of a potential meal. Max nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Frank and Junior softly call up to him.

  “Fucking A, man,” Max whispered. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “The gunfire woke us up, so we came out to see what was going on,” Frank said quietly. Junior and Emily stood beside him.

  “Hey, you smell that?” Junior asked. Max wasn’t sure what he was talking about, so he sniffed the air, but Frank responded before Max could say anything.

  “Fire, probably a house,” Frank said. He was about to pull himself up on top of the wall when Emily stopped him.

  “Hey, give me a boost, would you?” Emily whispered. She wanted to see what was going on for herself.

  In less than a minute, all four of them were crouched down on top of the wall. About one block over, presumably where the guns were fired, flames crept up into the night air. Someone had set a house on fire. The faint sound of distant voices and car doors slamming came from the same area. As the vehicles pulled away, it sounded like a few shotguns were randomly fired. Nothing about the situation made sense. The way the guns had been fired made Max think of the drunken guys Camille had seen and hidden from. His gut told him that it wasn’t people in a fight for their lives but a bunch of idiots pulling stupid shit.

  “What do the houses look like on the other side of that block?” Frank asked Max. “Heavily treed yards, big lots, small?”

  “They’re decent-sized lots. Brick houses,” Max thought about it as he mentally pictured the exact section of the street. “Not many trees, chain link fencing, no wooden privacy fences.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” Junior started quietly. “The fire will probably burn itself out once the house is gone. It shouldn’t spread to anything else.”

  Max breathed a huge sigh of relief. The thought of leaving the safety of their home because of a bunch of dumbasses had him worried. If the fire had been anywhere on his street, they would have been screwed.

  The guys lit cigarettes, and Emily declined. They all sat perched on top of the wall for a good two hours or so. They couldn’t see the house from their vantage point, but they could see the flames dancing in the air. All of the zombies had shambled out of sight. They were probably at the burning house, drawn by the noise and the fire. The flames died down, but thick smoke still billowed through the air.

  “We’re good,” Frank said. “It may take another hour or two before it’s just the smoldering remains, but it’s not going anywhere.”

  “I think we ought to start keeping watch outside,” Max said. “We were fine doing it in the house up until now, but I don’t want to take any chances after seeing this.”

  “I’d say that’s a good idea,” Junior said. “Do it in pairs like we do everything else.”

  They continued whispering for a few more minutes before climbing down and heading for the house. They were all disturbed by what had happened, but they needed to get some rest before the sun came up. Emily said she’d wake Michelle and Maggie to take the next watch and would fill them in on what had happened before she went back to sleep herself. Max went back to bed but felt restless, not falling asleep until he’d been lying there for a good half hour.

  Chapter 29

  Day 6

  By the time Max woke up the next morning, everyone else was already up and about. It was just after dawn, but the smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen helped pull everyone from their beds. Michelle had started cooking breakfast at the end of her and Maggie’s watch and had sent Joey and Damon out for the next shift.

  “Morning, baby,” Anna greeted Max with a kiss and handed him a cup of coffee. Everyone else was standing around the kitchen and the living room, eagerly awaiting the breakfast that Michelle was just finishing up.

  “How’s the house fire looking?” Max asked.

  “From what we could see, there’s still smoke, but I think the fire’s about out,” Maggie answered.

  “It’s probably just smoldering ashes by now,” Frank added. Max looked at him and started laughing.

  “I thought my wife washed your clothes,” Max managed between laughs. Frank was still wearing the skintight short sweatpants from last night.

  “Hey, no making fun of my outfit. It’s kind of grown on me,” Frank deadpanned, then said, “Jeez, give me a minute, bro, I just woke up. I was about to get my clothes out of the dryer.”

  “Food’s ready,” Michelle said. She made up two heaping plates to take outside for the boys then everyone else helped themselves. As they all sat down and got comfortable with their waffles, eggs, hash browns, and bacon, the lights suddenly went out.

  “Damn it,” Max said in frustration. “There goes today’s plan.” There was no point in rushing to get more gas with the power finally out. They would be able to get it, but it would be hard as hell to do. Without power, getting to the gas pumps was no longer their number one priority.

  “It was bound to happen,” Emily said. “I was kind of surprised that we didn’t lose power sooner.” She was right, but no one felt like responding.

  The electricity failing put a damper on everyone’s mood, and they ate their breakfast mostly in silence. Anna lit a few of her decorative jar candles so they could see well enough to eat. With all of the windows boarded up, it was very dark inside the house. Max went to the rear patio windows and exposed the holes that Damon had made at the top of the boards. The little bit of light that found its way inside made a difference, and Anna had no shortage of candles, but it was going to get hot and uncomfortable pretty fast in the heat of the summer.

  “Camille, Lucia, go relieve your brothers so we can start hashing out a new plan for today,” Max said. While waiting for the boys to come inside, Max thought about what their next move should be. A few minutes later, the boys came in with their empty plates and sat down to join the others.

  “I guess we hit the tractor place today,” Max said to murmurs of agreement. They hoped to find at least one portable generator, solar panel kits, and some other valuable supplies when they went there. If no one else had hit the store yet, they might find everything they needed and not have to hit a big box store. They were still going to have to go to Costco at some point to get water and food supplies, but at this point, that was their second priority.

  “How do you want to do this?” Junior asked. “Same as we did with the gas stations, or should we have everyone go?”

  “Do we feel comfortable leaving the house unattended?” Anna asked in response. “After that fire last night, I’m not sure what we should do.”

  “If we leave people at the house and those dumbasses come around, there’s not a hell of a lot they can do to protect the house. They might just have to hide,” Frank said.

  “Not necessarily,” Max said. “We have more than enough guns and ammo to hold off anyone that tries to get in here.”

  “We’re talking about people, not the dead,” Frank went on. “If we leave anyone here, they have to be prepared to shoot people. That’s not going to come easy for everyone,” he finished solemnly.

  “I can do it,” Damon spoke up with his expression stoic.

  “Me too,” Joey said quietly but firmly. They had both learned that they were willing to do anything to protect their family and believed they could shoot a living person if it were an ‘us versus
them’ situation.

  Anna put her hand over her mouth and gasped. She didn’t want her son to be placed in such a position. It killed her that he volunteered to do it, but she recognized that he had pretty much grown up over the last week.

  “No,” Michelle said. “I don’t want you in that kind of fucking danger.”

  “Everything’s dangerous Mom,” Joey said. “I’d rather go out to help get supplies and kill zombies, but if someone needs to handle business here, I can do it.”

  “The odds of anyone coming around here are small,” Damon said. “We’ll probably be bored off our asses, but if anything needs doing, we can do it.”

  Max exchanged a glance with Anna then with Michelle. Both women were unhappy but were resigned to the inevitable. Whoever stayed behind needed to be a good shot, but they needed muscle for the supply run. Leaving Joey and Damon to protect their home made the most sense, and it didn’t hurt that it seemed unlikely that anyone would try to get into the house.

  “Okay, boys, you cover things here while the rest of us go out,” Max said. “The radio is on the counter, so use it if you need to.”

  Everyone got their gear together, and Frank came out of the laundry room, having changed into his uniform pants. They each wore a backpack with water, a small amount of food, extra weapons, and ammo. Everyone had a gun and a knife on their belt, except Frank. He preferred his ax. He had a gun but would use his ax before a knife every time.

  “Are we taking the three trucks again?” Anna asked.

  “Seems to be our best option,” Max said. “We can easily fit three people in each one, and the truck beds give us a lot of room to put supplies.”

  “Damon, Joey, go unload all of the gas cans,” Michelle instructed. “Put a couple in the SUV and Max’s big truck, so they’re there if we need to leave in a hurry at some point. Leave the rest out.”

  “Send the girls back in,” Anna told them. “They need to get ready to head out with us.”

  The boys went outside to clean out the trucks while everyone else finished getting ready.

  Camille and Lucia came inside, surprised to learn of the day’s plans. They’d figured that they would be left at home with Michelle again. Camille was eager to get out and made sure her supplies were ready to go. Lucia was nervous as hell. She was trying her hardest at doing better and being a valuable part of their group, but she still had less experience than everyone else. Killing some of the zombies in the neighbor's yard the evening before had helped her confidence grow a little.

  Camille noticed the look on her best friend’s face. “You can do this Lucia,” she said softly. “You’ve already done it. It’s okay to be afraid, but you saw for yourself how your instinct just kind of kicks in and takes over when it has to.”

  “Thanks,” Lucia said. “To be honest, I’m terrified, but I know I won’t freeze up again.”

  “Let’s get moving,” Max said. Everyone went outside and split up between the three trucks. They’d grown accustomed to working in specific pairs. Max was with Maggie, Anna with Emily, and Frank with Junior. Camille, Michelle, and Lucia each climbed into one of the trucks with the others. Damon and Joey waved as they pulled out of the driveway then went inside to get weapons ready just in case they had to protect the house.

  The tractor place was nearly five miles away. A quick, easy trip under normal circumstances but with their new normal, it could take them half a day or more to get there. The drive started well enough, with their street clear of the dead. It seemed that all of the zombies had been drawn to the house fire a block away. They made it to the intersection where they had gotten gas the day before, and they dodged around a dozen or so zombies in the street. Another half dozen were lingering around the door of one of the gas stations. There were the same wrecked and abandoned cars to traverse, but they were used to them. They’d driven through this area many times, searching for Camille.

  With Max leading the way, they slowed at the next big intersection. There were zombies everywhere. The streets, gas stations, and pharmacies that sat on each corner were full of them. Max looked toward the pharmacy. It held the greatest concentration of the dead. He saw that all of the windows around the door had been bashed out. He knew there had to be other people out there surviving and was glad to see evidence of other living people. There were far too many zombies to maneuver around, so he put his truck in reverse, and the others did the same behind him. He backed up to the first side street and took a right turn. It was more of a secondary road and would take him to the next street he had been planning on. Most of the north/south roads were only two lanes, and this one was no different. He slowly drove forward, hoping he wasn’t forced to take another detour, at least not until he got them to a broader street. Turning off this one into the smaller housing developments could add hours to their drive.

  Up ahead, there was a two-car crash where one car had rear-ended the other. The accident was confined to the right lane, so he carefully veered to his left to go around it while keeping his speed down in case any zombies were to walk out from around the other side of the crash. He breathed a sigh of relief when he passed by without any dead in sight. A little further down the road, eight zombies were tottering around in the middle of the street. Not wanting to risk damaging the truck nor wanting to take a detour, he slowed to a stop and got out of the truck.

  Before he could walk back to Frank and Junior, they were both already out of their truck. Their view of the zombies was obstructed while they were in the vehicle. When they saw Max in the street, their first instinct was to make sure they had his back.

  “There’s eight of them in the road up there,” Max started. “I figured it’d be easier just to get out and kill them so we don’t damage the trucks.”

  “Good call,” Frank said as Junior nodded. Seconds later, Anna and Emily were at their side.

  “There’s no reason for the three of you to take on eight by yourselves,” Anna said. “No unnecessary risk, remember?”

  The five of them approached the dead, who now had turned their focus on the new, potential living meals. The zombies had barely taken two steps by the time their skulls were getting caved in or their brains slashed through with a knife. They were all dead on the ground within thirty seconds.

  “Now for the fun part,” Junior said. “Moving the bodies.”

  Frank was strong enough to pull the first one out of the way by himself. Anna and Emily dragged another while Max and Junior grabbed a third. The other five had fallen to the left, so there was no need to move them when there was plenty of room to drive around them on the right side. Six days in, the bodies started to smell something awful, but they wore heavy-duty gloves, which kept the smell off their hands.

  “Alright, let’s get back on the road,” Max said. He got back into his truck and lit a cigarette.

  “I would have helped, you know,” Maggie said, a little annoyed.

  “I know. I trust you, or you wouldn’t be riding with me,” Max said with a bit of a smile. “I saw you in action last night when we cleared that yard.” She thought she was being overlooked because of her age but realized it was foolish thinking after hearing Max declare his trust in her. She smiled back and settled in for the ride.

  They were able to make it to the next main street as planned and headed east in the general direction of the tractor place. The street was one of the few four-lane streets in the area that gave them a lot of room to maneuver. Max was focusing on what was in front of him when Maggie pointed out smoke about half a mile ahead. As they got closer, they found another single house set on fire. Max slowed to a stop to get a better look. There were at least two dozen charred zombies shuffling around the yard in front of the house, their blackened skin flaking away with each step. The houses around on either side looked normal and separated enough that the fire wasn’t likely to spread, but Max was disturbed by the fire. The cars in the driveway were full of bullet holes, and the windows had been shot out. It looked like people were out setting fi
res for no reason.

  “Fucking dumbasses,” Max said in frustration. “There’s no need for this shit. There’s gotta be forty thousand houses in this suburb alone. Plenty of places to find supplies. But if these motherfuckers keep setting fires, we could end up with a real problem on our hands.” He was fuming at the idiocy of it all.

  “There’s nothing we can do about it right now. Let’s just stay focused on the plan,” Maggie said gently. Something about her voice seemed to have a calming effect on Max.

  He returned his focus to the road ahead and weaved around all of the static cars. About three blocks down, a cluster of about two dozen zombies shambled around the left two lanes of the street for no apparent reason. As they drove past in their three trucks, every last zombie turned first its head and then its body toward the vehicles. They were out of sight before any of the dead could take more than a step in their direction.

  “Strange how they do that,” Max said. “Grouping together in random spots for no apparent reason.”

  “Maybe they attacked someone there, and once the person turned, they all just stood around because nothing else caught their attention,” Maggie said morbidly. “I think some of them have probably stayed in one spot for days.”

  “We’ll probably never know,” Max said as he thought about it some more.

  They continued on their route without much difficulty as they wound their way around cars and occasional zombies. They had one more big left turn to go, and then it was a straight shot to the tractor place. The quiet of the day was suddenly interrupted by the sound of gunfire. It was so close that Max thought they were under attack.

  “Holy shit!” Max yelled. “Are they shooting at us?”

  Chapter 30

  Day 6

  Max reflexively ducked as he heard a cacophony of gunshots ring out. He popped his head back up and looked in every direction, trying to figure out where it was coming from. A glance at Maggie showed that she was doing the same thing. He checked his mirrors to make sure the others were okay driving behind him. Frank was gesturing wildly to the left, so Max looked again to his left but didn’t see anyone. The noise was deafening and made all the more terrifying because he didn’t know where it was coming from. Another look in his rearview, and he saw Frank turning down a long, tree-lined driveway. Anna followed him in her truck, so Max reversed and made the turn. Fearing the worst, that one of them had been shot, Max jumped out of his truck the second he put it into park. Frank was holding his hand up for everyone to be quiet.