Still Alive (Book 5): Zombie River Run

by Bonds, Javan

  We sure didn’t mind sending one man to the edge of the woods by himself. If it wasn’t supposed to happen, it wouldn’t have. We’ll all make it back like we always do. Or at least, he would.

  Why didn’t we send two scavengers to the edge of the woods? The mayor was mentally kicking himself for such a lapse in judgment. He always believed in the buddy system and made sure to partner survivors to cover one another if the need arose. There were squirrels in the tree line and deer grazing without apprehension. He smiled and was hoping the worst was over.

  Maybe the peevies are dying out. We can finally relax and take it easy. As he was thinking this, a shotgun blast and terrified screaming could be heard from just over the hill. He was naïve in his hoping.

  ☠☠☠

  Travis was picking blackberries from a thicket growing just outside the tree line. The young man was somewhat apprehensive at first. The longer he stayed outside, the more he felt completely alone. There were no gnashing teeth coming at him. He was aware of no yellow eyes watching his every move. The young survivor felt he could relax and actually enjoy being outside alone for the first time since May Day.

  The fact that everyone who traveled outside the wire wore long sleeves and usually covered their hands in thick work gloves prevented more than just bites. His skin was protected from the thorns of the blackberry bush as well. I don’t guess we are all special enough to have superhero armor like the boss, Travis thought. My flannel shirt and construction worker gloves do just fine.

  He reached deep into a thick bush to grab one of the largest clumps of blackberries he had ever seen. Just as the berry picker did this, a raving blunatic launched itself from the blackberry bush before him. It grabbed at his forearms and he successfully pulled away. Travis didn’t realize he had made no noise to alert the others and there was no backup coming. The only thing he could focus on was pulling the 12 gauge from the scabbard on his back to put this blue monster down.

  The terrified berry picker brought the muzzle of his gun around the same instant the animal latched onto his wrist. It began clawing at the glove and sleeve of his shirt as it brought its mouth down to try and find some bare skin. Travis pulled the trigger and blew the thing’s body away below the sternum, spraying blood, organs, and liquefied shit everywhere.

  He did this at the exact moment its teeth cleared the edge of the glove. An impression was made of teeth marks; the puncture of the skin was so small that no blood came forth. But either way, Travis knew.

  Over three fourths of the zombie’s destroyed body laid just within the bush. The juice from the smashed blackberries intermixed with the blood pouring from the open corpse. The creature still lived for the briefest of moments. Travis understood that he was infected when the dying beast stopped attacking. The insatiable hunger for human flesh usually came before unbearable agony. Now that the monster could only writhe and scream let him know without a shadow of a doubt that he was infected. He could do nothing but wail in disgust at the realization that he was no longer among the living.

  ☠☠☠

  JB, the man positioned in the ladder stand, watched a big buck walk cautiously into the field. A large group of doe stood at the edge of the parking lot and watched for confirmation they could come feast. The twelve point sniffed and slowly looked around, making his way to the bounty in the middle of the field.

  JB lined up a shot. The laser dot from his rifle let Randy and the shotgun wielding Hunter know that this was his kill. They were welcome to take all of the females they wanted, but he called dibs on this trophy rack. Though it would gain him nothing more than bragging rights, bagging a monster buck was still an accomplishment in the eyes of most. Plus it would feed many people on the island.

  The survivor attempted to steady his shaking finger on the trigger as the other deer took their time moving into the field. He was prepared. Just before he could drop at least 200 pounds of meat, a shotgun blast could be heard in the distance.

  The massive twelve point stood still and looked back over his shoulder. A mournful, definitely human cry was heard just before the monster deer bolted. The entire herd scattered. None of the hunters were willing to shoot at frantically moving game. It was nearly guaranteed they would miss or wind up only injuring the animal. A peevie would definitely come out in the sunlight for slow, bleeding food.

  ☠☠☠

  The three hunters who had just been interrupted ran to where they expected to find the fourth member of their quartet. There he sat looking up at the sky from his position on the ground in the middle of a small valley. Pieces of a zombie lay strewn around him. JB and Scott remained at the top of the ridge while Randy jogged down to their sobbing companion.

  He came within a few feet of the young man. “What’s wrong, son?”

  Spittle flew from Travis’s mouth as through tears he forced out the words, angry and disbelieving. “It got me. The mother fucker got me!”

  The mayor moved closer. He wasn’t going to tell the boy it couldn’t be a bite and everything would be okay. If someone was convinced they were bitten, they probably were. Before Randy could say anything, the young man jumped up and turned to him, extending his forearm. “See? It’s barely a fucking mark, but it’s enough!”

  There was only one thing Randy could do. He embraced Travis in the most fatherly way possible, considering the plate armor. It couldn’t be made better. There was no way to fix it. The mayor barely held back his own tears. “At least you got it.”

  Travis looked over to the dead body and smiled. The mayor kept an arm over his shoulder and turned them both. “Well, let’s head back.”

  ☠☠☠

  Scott, the second shotgun bearer went into a panic and threw up the muzzle of his long-gun. “What? Fuck. No!” He wasn’t going to allow what was now a peevie near him and gestured with the gun. “Get away from it, Mayor. I’m not letting this fucking zombie get anywhere near us!”

  Randy looked to Scott without changing his position. “Son, he’s not a zombie. Think about it for a second. I have my arm over–” a shotgun blast.

  Travis was dying. He didn’t feel bad yet, but he was dying all the same. Having survived this long, he wasn’t willing to be taken out by some idiot with an itchy trigger finger. Knowing he was infected, he wanted to enjoy what little time he had left. Travis brought up the muzzle of his 12 gauge in a flash and sent a shell at the man pointing a shotgun at him. “I’m choosing how I go!”

  Buckshot collided with Scott, ripping into his entire body. What seemed as if gallons of blood, along with muscle and bone were exposed as he collapsed into a crying heap. Travis knew that being a murderer wouldn’t weigh on his conscience long. Scott would be dead sooner than he, himself.

  The recently infected young man didn’t take into account JB being only feet away from the idiot he just dropped. Scott absorbed the majority of the shotgun pellets launched at him, but JB obviously received some of the spread.

  The small balls of lead tore into the left side of his torso. The pellets ruptured vital organs and a few even chipped between ribs to puncture one of his lungs. He gasped and sank to his knees the instant the shot painfully exited a gaping wound in his lower back.

  His body was weeping crimson.

  JB tried to shout but could only strain out a whisper as he gasp for more air. “What.. the.. fuck.. man?”

  Travis was sincerely apologetic. “Shit! I’m sorry, bro. I was just trying to take out that stupid bastard before he shot me!”

  JB was incredulous. If he survived, he would be severely maimed and crippled for the rest of his life. The young man’s left forearm was a jumbled mess of meat and shattered bones. In his raging anger, he raised the pistol from his hip and pointed it at Travis.

  The two of them had never been close, simply local acquaintances tasked together on missions as of late. Angry he may have been, but he didn’t actually plan on shooting the other man.

  “I’m a goner.. because of you!.. I
didn’t.. really give a shit.. about Scott,.. but you could.. have at least.. told him to.. put the gun down.” His aim was growing visibly shakier by the moment.

  Travis didn’t like all the guns that had been pointed at him today. “I said I was sorry. Stop pointing guns at me!” He leveled his shotgun at the kneeling JB.

  The man who had just shot him was pointing a gun at him again! JB panicked and started squeezing the trigger, sending multiple rounds at Travis.

  Travis took it in the shoulders, chest, and a bullet in the center of his throat. Travis couldn’t be certain what was ruptured; only that something vital had been irreparably damaged.

  He wasn’t expecting the mayor or any of the survivors to waste time and resources giving him a tracheotomy or something. This was it. He wouldn’t even get his eight final hours. Death would come now, swiftly and painfully.

  Before he blacked out from lack of oxygen, Travis screamed through the blood and the pain the only thing he could before a shell exploded from the end of his gun. “You too!”

  By the will of The Screen Writer, the spread on Travis’s shotgun appeared to be tighter for this shot. Just a few would have been fatal to JB but it seemed like more pellets than could have possibly been in that shell peppered the front of his body. Holes were ripped into his abdomen, his chest was punctured, and his head was riddled. JB’s upper body was minced by what had to be millions of pieces of burning lead. The leaking blood from the holes in his cranium made it clear that he was dead before he hit the ground.

  Travis turned to Mayor Collins and smiled. It was a strange feeling, he felt victorious over humans who had only a few minutes ago been comrades. Randy’s arm was still around Travis’s neck when the young man sank to his knees and slowly faded away.

  ☠☠☠

  This was amazing. That entire shoot out had taken no more than a few seconds. The mayor could not understand how three humans could have so easily blown each other away. He could only stare in stupefied silence, watching Travis and wrapping his mind around what just happened.

  He looked down his right arm and noticed a bloody stump where his hand used to be. What the hell? The pain was only now coming to him, now that he was focusing on the missing appendage. When did I lose my hand? It must have been when JB shot Travis.

  Wait. Travis was infected. If any of his blood had splattered wrong... He was unwilling to think about it. Main protagonists, replacements for main protagonists, don’t get infected. I’m safe. And if I’m not, I guess I’ll know in a few hours.

  The mayor used his other hand to pull up the body condom from his ragged wrist to try and make some kind of tourniquet over his missing hand. He would have to call on the walkie-talkie and let the others know he needed some medical attention.

  Randy almost laughed bitterly. Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead graphic novel had a similar missing appendage.

  Maybe it was a SIGN.

  6

  Lonesome Dove

  Prophecy from The Book of Smokes:

  THE WOLF IS a human antagonist, who is a disgusting, sick, twisted sadist that preys on innocents unable to defend themselves. The Wolf often wears sheep’s clothing, appearing to simply organize and do what’s best for the community of survivors as a whole. Main protagonists will see through the lies of this character from the beginning and The Wolf’s villainy will be uncovered just in the nick of time. That is, for the core survivors but possibly not for members of the general community. The Wolf may be subservient to another antagonist, The Alpha.

  ☠☠☠

  Tommi Lea Jones. She hated her name. It had always sounded like a boy’s name to her. Especially now, in her seventh year of life, people began teasing her about some old male actor. He was an old man, pretended to be a cowboy, and had a stupid, twangy voice. Nobody could ever think he was cool.

  That was what Tommi had always thought, until she got a new neighbor. All her friends, their parents, and even her dumb daycare teacher had become sick people, started turning blue, and running around with no clothes on.

  Tommi’s mother made her stay inside so she wouldn’t have to witness the nudity. She wasn’t sure what kind of cold these people were getting. Someone on TV call them played victims.

  Her parents were somehow able to keep all the blue people from getting in the house. Her daddy had cases of bottled water and a bunch of dried up food in bags. He said he had been preparing for an ergonomic collapse or something and he was glad, even though he wasn’t expecting this type of Cyclops-a-lips, to have his pepper supplies”

  Tommi had also been glad her mama had been staying home from work and she didn’t have to go to daycare, almost like every day was a sick day. They stayed home for four forevers and she didn’t have anyone to play with. They would go down into the storm shelter when it started getting dark and spend the night in there. It was nearly like camping! The strangest thing was, they never saw any animals. There were no dogs, raccoons, or even a single squirrel that Tommi saw on most camping trips. There were definitely no chirping birds every morning when they woke up.

  It had to be a year before they spotted somebody walking down the road. Daddy pointed his gun out the window and yelled at the guy. They talked back and forth and the short little man explained he was headed to Guntersville. The man eventually offered to travel with the whole family down the mountain. After a long discussion between Daddy and Mama, it was decided they would take a hike with the homeless guy. That was okay. Tommi had not seen anyone for a long time and she was ready to make new friends!

  They were able to walk down the middle of the road most of the way. Daddy had crammed all of their backpacks full of food and water before they left. Tommi couldn’t figure out why. They could always stop at a gas station if they got thirsty! Before they got all the way down the mountain, the man traveling with them suggested the family wait at the fire hall while he went further and did some looking around. Daddy agreed they would wait until he came back for them. When their new friend got halfway down the mountain, the sick people started coming out in the day. She heard from TV that the played victims didn’t like the light because they must not have had enough sunscreen! So she didn’t know why they would start coming out now.

  The man dashed into an apartment building over to his left. Tommi briefly wondered if that was where he lived. They made themselves comfortable in the fire station and waited for the rest of the day. It was morning and they awakened to their new friend knocking on the door. He said that he would go down to the bridge and talk to the people there to see if they were anemones. Her daddy agreed to wait and watch before they made any moves.

  Daddy watched through a pair of bone-ocular’s for their chubby friend to give the thumbs up. The okay sign was not obvious so they continued to wait at the fire station. After what seemed like hours some people in funny suits came to the fire hall. A man talking over a speaker asked, “Are you still alive? Roberto asked us to come get you and take you to Guntersville and safety.”

  Mama and Daddy were ordered to lay down their weapons. Other than that, they were not hurt. After driving over a boat bridge, the family exited the vehicles just past the small shed. Tommi could see their new friend was talking into what looked like a boxy cell phone. The man in some kind of astronaut suit led them to another vehicle. Next, they were driven to the county courthouse. Tommi found it strange the lights were on when she entered.

  Her parents went into a room and talked to a man that looked really old; he had to be her grandfather’s age. She sat in an office with a nice lady who played tic-tac-toe on a small chalkboard. Tommi wasn’t going to complain, but she knew the lady had to be letting her win most of the time. She was having so much fun; she let the time slip away. Her parents could have been in there for an hour.

  “... It’s a nice little two-bedroom on Sunset Drive, right across from the water. And no, I haven’t been in it myself, but I hear it’s in pretty good shape, pretty clean. You can come by tomorrow aft
er y’all get settled in and we can talk about what your job will be.” The older guy led her parents out of the room as he was explaining a house to them. “We should have both your IDs ready tomorrow. If you have the keys to your house–” he caught himself and smiled, “– former house, we can send a salvage team to try and retrieve anything precious to you.” He pointed over to the lady that had been playing games with her. The lady and Mama exchanged the key to their house for another key. The nice lady asked the question as she handed over the key. “You know the address?”

  Tommi’s parents seemed excited. More excited than she was when she got to go see Frozen the movie. As they walked out of the building, they talked about how this refuse was unbelievable. They would soon be going to their new home and wanted to do everything they could to forward the community chest.

  A long while later they walked into a dark but clean house. Tommi had seen that most places before they got to Guntersville were full of nasty baby poop, but everything around here seemed perfect. It was nearly like Disney World.

  ☠☠☠

  Tommi was playing out in the yard of their new home one day when the neighbor that had just moved in next door came outside. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt with snaps, a pair of really tight blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a big, black, cowboy hat. He walked over into the Jones’s yard and looked down at the little blonde girl. “So I guess you’re the Jones’s kid. What’s your name?” He seemed curious and friendly.

  She answered shyly. “Tommi.”

  The neighbor thumbed up his hat as he looked on in amazement. “Tommi Jones. What’s your middle name?”

  She hated when people got around to that. It wasn’t expected so soon from the neighbor she had just met. She dropped her head and spoke with shame. “Lea.”

  The neighbor took a step back in shock. “Tommi Lea Jones? You’re kidding?” She sighed and shook her head.