by Weeks, TJ
“I was kidding, what the hell happened?” Kris asked.
“I met him at the gate, talked to him for a minute and went on. He hit me over the head and that is what the fuck he got. Serves the mother fucker right.” She expressed.
Kris just walked with her until they got to the shack. “Sit here and let me go get Martin.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
GIZMO PULLED at his arm and Justin joined in shortly pulling on his other arm.
“Get the fuck off of him you two-hundred and fifty pound bastard!” Justin hollered.
I had one hand around his throat and doing all I could to hold him back while he chomped his teeth at me and started drooling on my face. I had my other arm stretched back trying to grab the rifle and hollering to Gizmo and Justin. “Fucking shoot him!”
Gizmo finally let go and grabbed the rifle. “Please let him go Josh.”
There was no response and my arm was starting to weaken. I no longer had my elbow locked straight, it was starting to give way and his teeth were getting closer to my face. His normally bald head was covered in cuts and slices and part of it hung down over my face. I couldn’t hold up his weight anymore and my arm fell in place. Just as I tightened my teeth and accepted this was it, I heard the gun shot and felt his blood slap my face.
“You shot Josh!” Justin still in shock.
I rolled him off of me and laid there on my back trying to gather my thoughts as well as regain some strength. I blew out trying to keep the blood from going into my mouth. I looked above me to see Gizmo still standing there holding the rifle firm and still with it up to his eye from taking his aim.
“Fuck Josh, he almost ate me.” I told Justin once I caught my breath.
“I killed Josh.” Gizmo stated out loud, but mainly to himself.
“That wasn’t Josh.” I told him and rolled over to catch my feet and stand up.
“What the fuck do you mean that wasn’t Josh? I’m standing here looking at him.” Justin stated while making short paces back and forth.
“I told you, we’re in the zombie apocalypse. He was already dead.” I responded.
The rest of our little group started running down the hill from hearing the gun shot.
“Is that Josh?” Tina asked with her hand held up over her mouth.
I just looked at her and pulled my shirt up to use it as a rag and get the blood off my face. “We can either stay here and talk about it or we can get the fuck out of here.”
“And go where?” Gizmo asked.
“We need to find something big and with solid walls.” I responded.
“Let’s go to the old high school.” Justin suggested.
“Sounds like a winner, now let’s get everyone loaded up and get the fuck out of here.” I answered.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
STEVEN, GIZMO and Donald were the first to wake. They left the rest of us to sleep and they walked next door to grab fishing gear. They stepped over to the back of the store and started browsing.
“All they’ve got is little kiddie rods.” Steven stated.
Gizmo picked one up and started looking at the little Minnie Mouse on the side of the reel. “Better than no rod, I guess.”
Steven picked one up too. “I guess you’re right.”
They heard the bell on the door ring and they knew someone had walked in. Gizmo and Steven started laughing because they figured it was me not being able to wait to go fishing, but I was still at the bar sleeping.
A bearded man stood there and instantly put his hands up to show he meant no harm.
“Who the fuck are you?” Gizmo questioned quickly.
He kept his hands in the air. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Jason, Jason Neilson. I’ve been staying next door and I saw your group come in yesterday.”
Gizmo set down his fishing pole. “Okay, what do you want?”
Jason started to put his hands down and Donald pulled up his rifle. “Whoa! I just wanted to see if there was any more room in your group. I’ve been here alone for working on a year.”
“You’ll have to talk to TJ. We’re part of his group.” Donald stepped in and stated.
He took a step forward and held his hand out for someone to shake it. “Great, which one of you is TJ?”
Steven started walking forward and Jason directed his hand his way. “Yeah, I’m not TJ. Wait here.”
The man awkwardly put his hand down as Steven walked passed him and out the door.
I woke up when I heard the bar door open.
“TJ, there’s a man at the station that wants to speak with you.” Steven stated.
I looked up at him and took a huge drink to empty my bottle and to prevent a hangover that I’m sure I had ahead of me. “What guy?”
“He says his name is Jason something. Said he saw us coming in last night.” Steven answered.
“Well, by all means…Let’s go talk to Jason.” I responded with a nasty morning breath and liquor pouring from my pores.
“After you.” Steven sarcastically stated as I walked passed him.
I ignored the gesture and kept walking. I hadn’t woke up enough to be talking to anyone.
I walked through the door of the gas station and walked directly behind the counter and grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
“You must be…” Jason started to say.
I quickly held up my index finger to nicely tell him to shut up for a minute. I ripped the cellophane from the top of the pack before pulling the paper lining and pulling out one of the Marlboro goodness. I struck the lighter and lit my cigarette and took a few drags before even looking at the man. “Okay, I’m TJ.”
“Yes sir. I was told that you’re the man I needed to talk to for joining your group.” He responded.
I took another drag from my cigarette. “Look, I’m not a morning person, so let’s make this short. Have you killed any kids?”
“No! Who the fuck kills kids?” He responded.
“Good enough for me. If you have anything you want to grab, you may want to do it quickly before we head out…Oh and if I turn out to be wrong about you, we’ll kill you…slowly. You don’t have a problem with that…right?” I added.
“Let’s hope you don’t think you’re wrong. So do I just need to meet you back here?” He responded.
“No, you can meet us in front of the bar in ten minutes.” I directed.
Jason walked out to get some of his things and we started grabbing the fishing gear. Gizmo and I grabbed a couple extra packs of cigarettes.
“What are we going to use for bait?” Donald asked.
“It’s way too early in the morning for me to deal with you.” I stated as I walked out of the station.
“That guy is such a dick!” Donald stated.
Steven and Gizmo started laughing. “You have no idea.”
Everyone followed me out and walked back to the bar where Howard and Rachel were just waking up.
“Damn, did I really sleep this late?” Howard asked as he stretched out.
“Yep, but I’m sure it was needed.” I replied walking through the door.
I sat the fishing poles down and made the other two aware that we had new company that would be joining us in a few minutes.
“Who is it?” Howard questioned.
“His name is Jason. Apparently he’s been living around here and something or another, I’m still not fully awake, so you may have to ask him yourself.” I answered.
Howard started laughing. “I feel ya brother.”
“Well let’s gather our stuff and go fishing.” I suggested as I grabbed my camelback and weapons before walking back outside where Jason was already waiting.
“We good to go?” He questioned.
“Yep, we’re all peachy.” I stated before starting to introduce each of my guys as they walked out of the bar.
“Nice meeting you all. I’m Jason Neilson and I guess I’m part of your group now.” He introduced himself.
Gizmo and I
weren’t enthused and started walking toward the lake. It almost seemed like we’re trying to replace Justin in too little time of his death. I figured we just had to look at it different and in time would be able to.
We crossed the train tracks with a heavy heart weighing us down. Gizmo and I could hear Jason making conversation with the others, but didn’t pay it much mind.
About three miles out we could see the hoard that had chased us into the train cart and had took out Justin. Everyone froze except me and Gizmo. We faced it head on. Several must have broken off or we must have strongly miss counted because there were only about one-hundred of them.
I dropped my fishing pole and placed a firm grip around my machete before taking off in a dead sprint and burying it into the first skull I came to. I repositioned my hand and thrusted my blade behind me as soon as I felt the grubby fingers brush across my shoulders. I flipped it back to the front and started slicing into the necks. I saw Gizmo start moving forward and the sound of his motor start up.
One by one we started mowing them down and were so caught up in the moment of revenge that neither of us heard the gun fire going on behind us from the rest of our group.
After a solid fifteen minute massacre, we stood victorious.
“What the fuck was that?” Steven shouted.
I looked up at him then brushed my blade across one of the Rotter’s shirts to clean my blade before holstering it and walking back to pick up my pole.
“Are you wanting to die?” Steven shouted further from me not answering his first question.
“Are we fucking dead? Are you just wanting to wait around for those bastards to surround another one of us?...Well I don’t!” I finally shouted back.
There was a fat grub worm wiggling from one of their eyes. I reached down and pulled it out, then pocketed it.
We continued to walk for hours until we could see a high wall of grey stones.
“That’s it.” Gizmo stated.
We climbed the stones to see the huge body of water as far as we could see. Almost looked like staring out into the ocean.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the grub worm and inserted it on my hook before casting out while everyone else shimmied the dirt around for night crawlers. It didn’t take long before the end of my pole took a “U” shape and I pulled back to set the hook. It felt like a monster. My line had ran out so far that I thought I would run out any second. I kept reeling and pulling back on the rod.
Steven finally caught onto all the action with a bite of his own. “I got one!”
I finally started getting the better of my fish and making headway with bringing it in.
“Goddamn, you got Moby Dick on the other end of that line?” Gizmo asked after watching me fight it for at least ten minutes.
“I hope so.” I answered.
Finally pulled it from the water to see it was only about a pound and a half crappie.
Gizmo busted out laughing. “That’s Moby Dick’s snack.”
“Fuck you, you haven’t caught anything.” I responded before turning to see Steven’s catch.
Steven reached down and grabbed his line to pull up a six pound largemouth bass. “You can always feed your fish to mine.”
“Fuck both of you.” I stated.
I was about to throw mine back when I noticed Jason and Rachel gathering wood for a campfire. She walked over and took my crappie from me while Jason started the fire.
“Thanks.” I told both of them.
“Well, I’m not much of a fisherman, but I’m a pretty good cook.” Jason responded.
“Let’s see what you’ve got.” I told him.
“I’ll clean them if you’ll let me use your knife.” Rachel stated.
I pulled my pocket knife from my right pocket and handed it to her, then started stirring around the dirt to find another worm.
We ended the night with eight fish and a total weight of about twenty pounds. Rachel was better at filleting than I’ve ever been. She inserted the blade behind the side fin, ran the blade down, flopped the meat over and ran it right back down.
We hovered around the dancing fire from the wind blowing across the glossy lake.
“You know what we’re missing?” I questioned.
“What’s that?” Howard asked with a mouth full of bass.
“Some ice cold beer.” I responded.
“You got that shit right.” Gizmo stated.
“Well guys, let’s get some shut eye because tomorrow it’s home.” I suggested.
GATHERING
WE GOT the kids loaded up in each vehicle we had there and I put on my spare tire. I went back in the house and wrapped up the ribs and started shoveling all the food from their cabinets into an empty trashcan.
“What are you doing?” Steven asked from behind me.
“We’ve got to have food and water.” I responded.
He joined in and started gathering up all that he could grab as well and running it out to my truck.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE WIND started blowing hard with an ear piercing whistle. The fire started sparking and caught some nearby grass on fire. It took seconds before it was engulfed in high rising flames. I looked over after hearing screams to see everyone was engulfed in flames as well. I tried to grab Gizmo and push him into the lake, but the flames were too hot for me to withstand and I could barely breathe or see from the smoke choking me up.
To make things worse, I could start to hear the sound of moans coming over the hill. The rotter’s walked through the flames and were coming my direction with nothing that I could do. The flames were too hot to get close enough to take them out and my rifle was surrounded by my burning friends. I screamed in complete agony as one reached out from the ground and grabbed my ankle. I could feel my skin being burned into my leg.
“Hey! Hey!” I heard someone call out before I felt a tight grip around my wrist.
I opened my eyes to Steven dragging me.
“What the fuck!” I called out confused about the situation.
“You woke me up by screaming some crazy shit and then I look over to see your foot in the campfire.” He explained.
I looked down at my still stinging ankle to see my burnt pant leg. “I can’t believe I dreamt all of that. That was some fucked up shit.”
“What was your dream, little brother?” He asked.
“It was the end…for all of us.” I answered before catching my feet and standing up.
“You need to get some sleep.” He responded.
“I’m just going to walk it off for a bit.” I told him.
“Well, care if I join you?” He asked.
“What, you think I’m going to just run off?” I questioned.
“Never know what’s on your mind, little brother.” He made clear.
I started walking down the bank and he followed closely behind.
About a quarter mile down I could see the outline of something big. “What the fuck is that?”
He cupped his hands over his eyes as if he was blocking out the sun for a better view. “I don’t know.”
I started laughing. “You turning your hands into binoculars?”
He didn’t respond, just kept walking with me. As we got closer I could see the moon casted over windows.
“Holy shit! That’s a backhoe!” I shouted.
“What does that mean?” He questioned my excitement.
“It means we’re getting the fuck out of here!” I hollered as I ran up to it.
I was surprised to see the keys were still in it and it had three quarters of a tank of gas. I fired it up with a single turn of the key and started lifting the anchored legs up as well as the front bucket and stinger.
Steven climbed inside with me and closed the door. “Does this thing have a heater, because it’s cold?”
“Yeah, but we’re going to conserve gas. I don’t want to be stranded again.” I told him before I took off.
“Yeah, I’m definitely tired of this walking shit.
” He answered.
I bounced up and down in my seat with every rock I rolled over. I could finally see our camp fire in the distance that looked like a firefly staying in place. The closer I got, the bigger it grew. By the time I pulled up, everyone was awake from the rumble of the motor.
Gizmo had already snatched his rifle and had it aimed towards me. I lowered the front bucket and stepped out.
“You guys coming?” I called out.
“Where the hell did you end up with that?” Gizmo called back after lowering his rifle.
“Found it down the bank a ways.” I answered.
Gizmo climbed inside with me and Steven and the rest jumped in the front bucket. I raised the bucket a few feet and leveled it up before I pulled off.
“How did you learn to drive one of these?” Gizmo questioned.
“Well, before I became a full time author, I worked for the City of San Angelo at the water department. I was an equipment operator, which is just a fancy way of saying that I operated the backhoe.” I responded.
“I never knew that.” He replied.
“You never asked.” I suggested.
It was funny watching the guys in the bucket. I was bouncing, but they had it way worse being in the front like that and they had no way to really brace themselves. I did try to ease down the wall of rocks so I didn’t sling any of them out.
SEARCHING FREEDOM
WE STOPPED and picked up all the people that looked normal on the way to the high school. We examined each of them to make sure none of them had been bit once we got to the school.
The school was already fenced off and bunkers had already been set in place from the military before they had gone in to try and stop the spread. Martin Holsinger was the only survivor we found and he was still at his post watching the gate.
In time, we each got jobs and the apocalypse had become a way of life. So in the name of our squad, let’s go kick some Rotter ASS!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I LOOKED over to see Gizmo fast asleep against the side glass with drool streaming from his mouth. I started bumping the break to see him start to fall over, but would catch himself, sit back up and pass right back out. I did it three or four times for good measure. Steven and I laughed. He finally woke up and wiped the drool from his mouth.
