Survive (Book 1): Salvation

by Veronica Smith

  He got frustrated when he couldn’t hold up the edge of the sheet and clip it to the line at the same time. That required two hands. He was good with picking up things between his elbow and body but this was too high. He went through this every time and usually someone came out before he got too agitated, shooing him away, happy to do it for him.

  Sure enough, Edna, another elderly woman, soon rushed forward and took the sheets from him. He knew that before he went to bed that night his bed would be made and aired fresh. As he was walking away he turned back to say something and realized how they were hanging the sheets. They only used the clips to keep the wind from blowing the sheets off. The sheet was actually thrown over the rope and each half was hanging over it.

  Well, damn I can do that!

  He smiled as if he just learned a new trick and went to do a weapons check even though he did this every single day. Once back in his room, the memories from the nightmare came back to him. He had one old photo of his daughter from when she was just a baby, and it was in a frame sitting on an old box he used as a table. They had found some glassless frames on a run once and brought them back anyway. Shirley fixed this one up with Jeri’s picture for him. She cleaned it the best she could and etched “Jeri” on the frame. Chuck picked up the frame and rubbed his thumb over the etching. Lost in thought, he remembered when he finally made it back to the shack.

  Chapter Nine – Spring 2033

  Chuck stumbled, his eyes rolling around feverishly in his sockets. He lost track of time as the days blurred into one another. He kept getting lost and had no idea where he had been held. He only knew he had to get back to Jeri. He turned and puked again. He had nothing on his stomach but some water and a couple of plants. His stump was still oozing blood and now the smells of infection assaulted his nose. The wrapping, he had used the rest of his shirt, was soaked but he had nothing fresh to change to.

  He really needed to find some ginger to help with the nausea and more garlic to fight the infection. Garlic seemed to grow everywhere normally, except when really needed it, like now. It was twisted coincidence; he had been trying to find the same two herbs for Jeri, when the cannibals made him flee from the shack. Garlic didn’t work as fast as the old antibiotics did, but it was all they could obtain now. He knew there were other herbs that would do the same thing, but this was all he specifically knew of. He decided that when he got better the first thing he would do is try to find an old library or bookstore and get some books on medicinal herbs.

  If I get better.

  He was dizzy again and sat down, thinking that his surroundings actually looked familiar. He cringed when he heard a growl and saw a zombie dog had stopped, staring at him.

  I can’t, I just can’t.

  Weakly he thought of Jeri, lying in the dark, waiting for him and his promise. He got up to one knee, using the thick branch he’d been carrying to push himself up. The dog leaped and he swung it as he turned, catching the dog in the back of the head. He was surprised when the swing continued and pulled him to the ground. He looked at the branch and saw there was a broken branch on the part that impaled the dog’s head. The weight on the dog attached to the branch had pulled him down. He grasped the branch with his one hand and pushed the head off with his boot. He swung it around experimentally and realized that although it may have been helping him steady himself, it would make a damn good weapon. An idea for an even better weapon materialized in his mind. He grinned as he thought of what he could do to the cannibals with it.

  “Jeri, it’s me!” he called weakly, as he opened the door and ran into the shack. The sofa was still in place, so he was confident no one had been down there. With more effort than ever, he shoved the sofa out of the way then yanked up the door.

  “Jeri? Honey?” the silence scared him and he quickly lit a candle. In his weakened state, he slipped on the first step down and bounced the rest of the way. He stood up as soon as he hit the bottom. The candle landed on a pile of clothes and a small fire flared up, increasing his view of the room.

  “Nooooooo!” he ran to the bed and dropped to the floor.

  Jeri must have died shortly after he ran from the cannibals. He dropped his forehead to the ground and screamed until his voice went out.

  Chapter Ten – 2035

  Cocky was preparing for a scavenging run. A trader had come by the day before and mentioned that he’d seen a building that might have something salvageable but it was crawling with the undead. Traders didn’t deal with zombies unless there was no choice. Sometimes they hired protection but, unless they were syndicated with the Russian Mafia in Minneapolis, they usually couldn’t afford the muscle. Their vehicles were stronger and in better than shape than most. On more than one occasion, a Trader had to barricade himself in his vehicle for days, waiting until the zombies lost interest or became focused on other prey. If your community had a good mechanic, you could easily trade the skill for necessities. Traders relied on these mechanics to check and inspect his vehicle. If something was in need of repair, he could get them to work on it for a trade of simple supplies. Much different from the days before the apocalypse when the same repair could cost over a thousand dollars. Reputable raiders never attacked a trader; if they did that, they’d find that no trader would come to them again. The cannibals were a different story but most traders had the inside word on where they were located and avoided them like the virus itself.

  Mason Henry had just opened the gate and they were pulling the truck out, when a small caravan was seen coming down the road in the distance. Chuck called out the warning just as Mason Henry was about to ring the warning bell. He shut the gate behind them and ran to the bell, ready to ring it at Chuck’s order. Everyone bailed from the truck and had their weapons ready. The sentries were in position along the fence. He watched as the caravan slowed to a halt and a passenger from the front vehicle got out and attached a white flag to the useless antenna post. Then he got back in and they all drove forward, slowly. They stopped again when they got within fifty yards to where the members of Cocky were standing. The driver got out with his hands up, his long black braid swinging back and forth, as he walked forward. Chuck squinted in the bright sunlight to get a better look at him. He looked familiar, maybe one of the other Raider groups. As he got closer, Chuck smiled at the recognition and whistled twice. Mason Henry sighed in relief and opened the gate. Everyone cautiously went back to what they were doing.

  “Antonio!” Chuck called. “How the hell are you?”

  Chuck had started out as a Z.E.D. like Antonio, even though they had never met as soldiers. Like Antonio, he didn’t like the direction the Z.E.D.s were heading and methods being used to gain recruits. He knew Antonio went AWOL in 2030 and Chuck took his wife and daughter and, unwittingly, followed suit the year after. As Antonio got closer, Chuck was able to see his face and knew something very bad had gone down.

  “That your people?” he asked, pointing to the caravan.

  “Yeah, what’s left of them,” Antonio said, shaking Chuck’s offered hand.

  “What happened?” he asked. Antonio’s response floored him even though he had a feeling what the answer would be.

  “Cannibals.”

  Chuck and Antonio sat across from each other at the largest table in the common area and everyone else sat or stood around to hear what happened. Some people started crying and a few women led their children away from hearing while others kept them there, wanting their children to learn the dangers of the world they were living in. Steve, Rick, and several others from Antonio’s group went outside to keep an eye out. Who knew if this compound was next to be hit?

  “We didn’t know where else to go,” Antonio apologized. “I didn’t want to bring our troubles to your compound, but I was desperate.”

  “No worries my friend,” Chuck replied, placing a comforting hand on Antonio’s arm.

  Everyone else chimed in agreement.

  “If we were in trouble, I’m sure you would’ve come running.”


  Antonio said, “In a heartbeat!”

  “The Trader!” Shirley called out. “He was here only yesterday. They always know where the ghouls are.”

  Richie spoke up, “He went west, towards that new settlement. But it will take him more than a week to get to them.”

  “Can I borrow a couple of your guys?” Chuck asked Antonio who nodded. “Kerry! JJ! Take three of Antonio’s people and go as fast as you can to track down the Trader. What was his name?” he asked, looking around.

  Shirley had the memory of a steel trap and promptly piped up, “Trader Joe.”

  The older community laughed at that while the younger ones looked at each other in confusion.

  “Bring back Trader Joe but don’t scare the shit out of him,” Chuck added as the two men ran outside. Tracy followed to let the others know that Antonio okayed it and to see if she’d be chosen to go.

  They had to draw straws to see who would go with Chuck’s men and Tracy didn’t win so she hopped up at the fence for sentry duty. Joe and Sheila were constant roamers and knew most roads so they went with them.

  “I sure am glad you’re here,” Mason Henry said. “Although, I’m sorry for the circumstances.”

  “We’re all that’s left of the human race,” Tracy said. “If we don’t look out for each other, we might as well lay down and let all the zombies eat us.”

  Mason Henry grimaced, nodding and continued to watch her as she turned to face out, looking for movement on the horizon. He had noticed that she didn’t seem attached to any of the men or women that came in and wondered if he had a chance with her.

  She was so pretty and obviously tough. He liked tough women. He knew he wasn’t thought of as tough but everyone here trusted him with their lives. He wasn’t a good enough fighter to join Cocky but one day he realized something important. The guarding of the main gate was entrusted to only Mason Henry and Richie. There were others posted around the fence but he and Richie split the gate shifts. He was stronger and more trusted than he originally thought. He trained whenever he wasn’t on shift and always joined the exercise classes that Chuck had started. He was in very good shape and was confident he could jump in amidst any crisis and help.

  “When our shift is over—“ he stammered, having little experience with women, “maybe we could... perhaps you’d like to... coffee, would you like to get a cup of coffee?”

  Tracy turned to look at him and smiled. He was so sweet even though his face was beet red.

  “That would be nice,” she answered. “I can make toast to go with it if you want. I’m an expert at toast.”

  Antonio and Rick were looking at Chuck’s heavily marked up map that was tacked to the wall of the common room. Antonio smiled fondly, remembering his own map, now burned to ashes. Susan used to be a famous local artist in her town before the zombies and drew up the huge wall map with as much detail as possible. They were showing Chuck where they took shelter during the storm.

  “We’d have been done for it if we weren’t in that shack,” Antonio mentioned, looking at the map and unaware of the change on Chuck’s face. “It was sturdy enough to withstand that tornado. We went downstairs—“ he stopped when Rick nudged him and tilted his face at Chuck.

  “What is it, my friend?” Antonio asked. Chuck’s face was white.

  “You found the shack?” he asked in wonder. “Show me where it is on the map, please.”

  Antonio marked it with a stub of pencil. “We found a skeleton downstairs,” he added, watching Chuck’s face carefully. “We buried it in front of the shack. It didn’t seem right to leave it down there.”

  “No. You did good. You did great,” Chuck whispered, tears starting to creep down his face. He closed his eyes and added, “It should have been me.”

  Rick looked around and pulled both Antonio and Chuck in the hallway for privacy.

  “Who was it, Chuck?” he asked gently.

  “My daughter, Jeri,” he answered. “I had to run when the cannibals came. I had to draw them off while she hid down there. Then the cannibals got me...“ he trailed off, lost in his memories. “I managed to get away but she was sick and I tried to get back to her. Dammit, I promised her I’d come back! I could have if I hadn’t gotten sick and lost. My stump had gotten infected.”

  He waved it around, “I was too late. I didn’t have the strength to get her upstairs to bury her. I had to find some herbs to make myself well enough so I could. But dammit, when I had the strength to at least go look then more cannibals got near again. Same as before. I only had time to push the sofa back over the door and run again. The thought of what they might do to her body got in my head. I couldn’t let them know she was down there. I got so lost and I almost died. Em and Susan found me not far from here. They saved my life and this place took me in. I had no idea where here was and had no idea how to get back to the shack. Once I was healed enough, I thought about trying to find the shack but I realized they needed my help here more than I needed to find the shack. I couldn’t leave. Jeri was dead; I couldn’t change that. But everyone here was alive. And I could help them stay that way. Once I started training everyone and formed Cocky, this became my family.”

  Suddenly a bell hanging near the ceiling clanged. It was loud enough to be heard by everyone inside the compound. Four clangs—that meant zombies, not humans. Everyone knew their jobs and soon all the children were rounded up inside the most interior room with armed women and men spread out down the hall. Both Holly and Gracie immediately went to the room with the children and stood at the door. They would guard them with their lives. The rest went outside and spread out along the fence.

  “How many?” Chuck asked Mason Henry, who was eyeing them through his ancient pair of binoculars.

  Richie ran to the opposite fence corner and came running back shouting, “The other sides are clear!” Richie immediately pulled several people aside and directed them to spread out on the other side of the building to continue to watch in case it was a diversion.

  “Good! Only from this side and about twenty of them,” he replied, putting the binoculars back in their case and pulling out his machete. “All human zombies.”

  “Too bad we can’t train them,” Tracy muttered. “Send them out after Z.E.D.s and ghouls.”

  “My thoughts exactly!” Kerry exclaimed with a grin.

  “Two lines!” Antonio reacted immediately. “First line spread out outside the fence, make those zombies spread out instead of staying all bunched up. Second line, shorter and tighter, just inside the fence; about six people. Backup defense.”

  “Mason Henry, hands on that gate and be fast, we’ll be jumping in and out on this one,” Chuck added.

  Mason Henry put his machete back and manned the gate. Antonio chose Rick, Em, Terry, and three others to man the inside perimeter. The others slipped out when Mason Henry opened the gate. He shut it right on the ass of Chuck, who laughed.

  “Think you got my ass, do you?” Mason Henry laughed back. Chuck always made you feel like you were going to win, no matter the odds.

  They started spreading out even before the gate was completely shut. The zombies, of course, sped up their clumsy gait when they spotted fresh meat. They followed each one of them, exactly as Antonio had anticipated, unintentionally spreading themselves out as well. Wasting no time, Chuck roared and ran forward swinging his mighty hammer. He caught one in the side of the head with the large spike and shook it off, taking off the head of another on the return swing with the top blade.

  Rick and Terry had never seen Chuck in action and stared in awe from their places on the fence. Rick turned to Em and she just raised a single eyebrow and smiled. Antonio was on the far end of the front line and three zombies had turned their attention to him. He took two steps back and began swinging his axe in a circle. He swung it so fast it began to sing in the air. He stepped forward just as one got within reach. He stayed just far enough back that the axe would decapitate it without getting stuck in the spine. He’d barely had time to
pull it loose when the other two were on him. After beheading the first one he stepped again, but this time to the side, and raised the swing a little higher after noting how much taller this zombie was from the first. He jumped over and swung down, slicing the zombie’s head in half, vertically. The third one tripped over the second one and landed between both downed zombies. It flopped like a dying fish and Antonio stepped on the back of its neck and buried his axe in its head. He looked up and saw Chuck give him a cocky grin and bounce away after another zombie with a laugh.

  “Well, they are called Cocky for a reason,” Antonio snickered aloud.

  He moved forward and sliced the backs of the legs of a zombie that was getting too close to Kerry.

  “That one was mine,” Kerry stated simply as he turned and stabbed the fallen zombie through the eye socket with his machete, before cutting off the head of the other one that was in front of him.

  Antonio laughed and ran to help anyone else who needed it but no one did. Cocky was very good at what they did and with the help of Antonio’s team they had all the zombies down and in pieces shortly.

  “Now comes the really shitty part…” JJ grumbled. “Dragging away the bodies.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement. No one relished that job but it had to be done. Usually after an attack, half of the fighters would stay on alert in case more zombies showed up while the other half, used ropes to pull the bodies up into a truck that was only used for the removal process. Then the groups switched and they left to dump the bodies. Richie drove them to a quarry where they dumped the bodies.