by Jack J. Lee
Zombie bodies didn’t seem to decay. We ended up with multiple hundreds of bodies laying out on the yard. We were lucky that they didn’t smell. There were so many dead bodies that there were huge spots we couldn’t see the ground. Zombies were infected humans. Based on how many people were infected on the 11th, the virus had to have an air or water based method of transmission. I’m a medical student. I knew it couldn’t be healthy to be surrounded by so many dead bodies. It would completely suck of have one or more of us in the house get infected.
I came up with the idea to take breaks from shooting to let the zombies clean up after themselves. When I first suggested this, Alex and Cecilia both said my plan was disgusting. Once I explained to them how dangerous I thought it was for us to be breathing air next to hundreds if not thousands of decaying meat bags filled with zombie viruses, they reconsidered.
I never expected an apocalypse to be so boring. The first time you see a swarm of zombies feeding on dead bodies; it’s revolting. After a couple of days, it’s as exciting as watching rain drops trickle down a window pane. The next week-and-a-half went like molasses. Thank God, we had my exercise room and the Xbox. It only took a couple hours to knock down four to five hundred zombies. It took a full day before the street was clear again. Every morning I talked to my family. The conversations were pretty short. There wasn’t much new happening on their end either.
On the 25th we gathered up in my bedroom to shoot zombies. We had gotten used to seeing thousands of them feeding on the ones we had shot the previous day when we opened the shutters. Usually by the time we opened our windows, the dead ones were mostly gone. I expected to see the same scene as the one we saw yesterday and the day before, a couple hundred live zombies with huge distended abdomens playing tug-of-war with some bones.
It was different this morning. Most of the zombies we had shot were still lying intact in front of our street. There were only nine living zombies. The noise we had been making had been bringing every zombie for a few blocks around us. We had finally run out of zombies. Wayne and I took care of the nine infected left. Then we waited. It sometimes took a half hour before all the zombies that were within earshot of our suppressed rounds made it to our house. A half hour came and went without another zombie showing up. Wayne wanted to go outside immediately. We were all going stir crazy; Wayne had it the worst. The rest of us convinced him to wait another half hour.
Exactly thirty minutes later Wayne and I walked out my front door for the first time since the 11th. We had decided that for now the rest should stay in the house. Both of us walked slowly among the fallen bodies of the zombies that we had shot in the last two days. I don’t know why but I thought about the zombie that had made it into our yard during the Outbreak. “Hey, Wayne, whatever happened to the body of the zombie that made it into the backyard?”
“Me and Steve tossed it back over the fence. In the first couple days we were constantly going out back trying to call our families. It made us nervous seeing the dead body lying on the ground. It was a real pain to get your ladder out of your shed and then having to haul the body up but it was worth it back then. Don’t know if it would bother me so much now.
Mike, it’s great to be walking outside again, but what’s our plan?”
“Well, my brothers in Michigan have been going outside their compound every day since the 13th. They’ve been out gathering food, ammunition, and supplies. They’ve also been looking for other survivors. Don’t know if it’s worth reinventing the wheel. I figure we should do the same thing starting tomorrow. Today, I just want us to scope out the situation in the half mile area around our house.”
“Don’t have anything better to suggest. Let’s do it.”
My house was on Blaine Avenue. We went west past 1700 East until Blaine turned into Monte Vista Circle and then into Wilson Avenue. It was on Wilson that we saw our first boarded up house. We scoped out the house. It was a one story home on a tiny lot. The windows were boarded up with chipboard. I walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell. There was no response. I rang it again. I heard a man’s voice, “What do you want?”
“My name is Mike Kim. My friend with me is Wayne Lockland. We just wanted to see if you were ok.”
“I’m fine. Now get out of here.”
Wayne and I looked at each other and shrugged. We both walked back to the street.
Wayne chuckled, “I don’t know if that’s what I expected to hear from the first survivor we came across since the 11th. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the Outbreak hadn’t happened and I was back on my missionary rounds.”
“Wherever you go, Wayne, you take yourself with you. I think the Universe is trying to tell you that you’d better get used to being rejected.”
We both still had smiles on our faces, when I saw a zombie. It was about a block away from the asshole’s house. Wilson parallels Blaine. We had been headed back east. I waved my arm until the zombie saw me. It let out a high pitched scream and headed our way. It was about twenty feet away from me before I pegged in the head with my crossbow. Wayne and I both had Mark III’s. We had left the 10/22’s with Steve and Alex.
I wanted to make the least noise possible when we were outside. We were on the outskirts of the area we had cleared from the house. Our suppressed rounds were loud enough to bring zombies from a couple blocks around us. I had no intention of attracting a swarm of zombies. I brought a crossbow and Wayne had a spear. It was a pain pulling out the crossbow bolt. My bow had a 150 lb pull. The quarrel had completely penetrated the skull. I ended up having to pull out the crowbar from my backpack to smash the skull open to get it out. I was glad I brought rubber gloves.
Wayne and I got serious again. We headed east until Wilson connected back to Blaine then went up north on 1500 East to 1700 South back to the house. Our entire route was probably less than two miles. It took us close to two hours. We weren’t in a hurry. Every time we passed a blind corner, a car, or shrub we couldn’t see past, we made some noise. Zombies aren’t smart enough to ambush you if you take the proper precautions. It was much safer to let them come out to us than to go searching for them. On 17th South, two zombies came at us at the same time. I got mine without a problem. Wayne nailed his like a pro. He handled his spear like he had been using it for years.
When we got back to the house, all I wanted to do was hang out for awhile. Our scouting trip had gone well but my heart rate the whole time had been sky high. I was mentally exhausted. Cecilia demanded that we go out immediately to her house so she could get some clothes and supplies. She was tired of wearing mine and Alex’s clothing. Cecilia was about 5’2” tall, a little over a hundred pounds. She appeared to be in her late twenties but I got the sense she was older.. Honestly Cecilia was hot. The problem was she knew it. She was used to men catering to her and frankly, I was tired of it. She had been getting on my nerves since she climbed into my backyard and I finally lost it.
“Where the hell did you get the idea, I give a damn about what you want!”
Aw shit, she looked like a kicked puppy. She looked down and quietly said, “You don’t have any feminine products in your house. Any second now I’m going to need some.”
Now I felt bad. I’m a guy. I don’t really want to know about this kind of stuff. The other guys, especially Wayne, looked like they were getting TMI. “Oh…sorry, I guess we better get what you need.
Steve, what do you think? You want to use a spear or a pistol? I’m thinking we should probably avoid using rifles when we go into Cecilia’s house.”
Steve said he’d take a spear. Wayne said he was good with one too. Alex and I took the pistols. We headed out back and lowered the section of the fence that led into Cecilia’s yard. It looked good. I did my usual call. “Here zombie, come here zombies. Come to papa.” Nothing came. We climbed up over the fence. Cecilia rushed toward the house. I grabbed her, “Whoa there. Let’s do this carefully. There still might be some zombies in the house.”
We moved cautiously, mak
ing sure to make noise before every door in the house. It was clear. Cecilia looked everywhere for her iPhone but couldn’t find it. She decided that she must have left it at her co-op. Cecilia started packing like a maniac. She filled every piece of luggage and box she could find. In the meantime, the other guys and I went into her kitchen. She had some bottles of wine, whiskey and some vodka. I took all the alcohol. We pulled all the dried pasta noodles, cereal, and can goods off the shelves. I called up to Cecilia and asked if she had any walkie talkies in the house. She yelled back “Yes” and directed me to where they were. It took us hours to get everything Cecilia wanted. She had us bring over an entire bookshelf packed with books.
Afterwards she was in a great mood and to thank us cooked a three- course meal. It was vegetarian. I’m not a big fan of food that food eats but we didn’t have any meat left in the fridge. The power had been out for over a week. The meat in the freezers in the houses around us had to be rotten. Canned meat isn’t that good. It was the best meal that we had available. Cecilia was a good cook.
We opened up a bottle of wine for three of us. Steve and Wayne of course didn’t drink alcohol. They were happy with drinking soda. Cecilia had some diet, decaffeinated crap at her house; they drank it like it was nectar. I was good with just two glasses of wine; I had enough of getting drunk. For the first time since the Outbreak the guys didn’t head for the Xbox after dinner. We hung out and talked.
It was a good evening. I called it quits early around 9. It had been a long day and I was exhausted. I was almost asleep when I heard a knock at my door.
“Mike it’s me, Cecilia. Can I come in?”
“Sure, give me a sec.” I pulled on a t-shirt and shorts. I really hoped that we weren’t going to have another ‘great’ conversation. Even when Cecilia was wearing my clothes and not wearing makeup, she was an attractive woman. When I opened the door I saw that she had put on some makeup; she was gorgeous. I have a sensitive nose. Usually perfume makes me sneeze. The scent she was wearing must have been expensive; it smelled great. The difference in her appearance was subtle; if I hadn’t been living with her for a couple weeks, I wouldn’t have noticed. She had a robe over a little bit of nothing that looked a hell of a lot better than one of my old t-shirts. She walked over and kissed me.
As she was dragging me toward the bed I asked, “Umm, aren’t you…”
“It hasn’t come yet.”
When I woke up, Cecilia was still sleeping. I wasn’t feeling like I needed to chew my arm off to escape, a good sign. There may be a better stress reliever than good sex but I don’t know of one. I walked down stairs with a big smile on my face. The other guys were up already. They all gave me a knowing grin.
Alex chuckled, “Been wondering how long it would take before you guys hooked up?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re so clueless, Mike. Cecilia’s been interested in you since she arrived. Oh Mike Kim, super tough hero during the crisis, but so sensitive when the crisis has passed. She’s been waiting for you to make the move for ages.”
Just then Cecilia walked in. I guess she didn’t mind everyone knowing because she sat on my lap.
Wayne got serious, “So guys, what’s the deal today?”
“Supplies aren’t too much of concern just yet,” I said, “but we’ll eventually need more food, ammo, and other supplies like toilet paper. What I’d like to do first is to gather up all the dead zombies out front and dump them all a couple blocks away from us. They’ve got to be a health hazard. Also they’ll keep attracting more zombies.”
Alex chimed in, “Yeah, I agree with Mike. I don’t want to play up the Medical School card too much but medically it makes a lot of sense to try to keep as far away from the zombie virus as possible. We will have to do a little bit of scavenging from our neighbors homes first. We need more rubber gloves and water resistant jackets and pants that we can afford throw away.”
Wayne nodded. Everyone was good with the plan. We started off by firing a shot in the air and waiting for half an hour. Three zombies showed up. It wasn’t a problem to take them down. It took two houses before we found enough rubber gloves. We also found an Xbox Connect and bunch of new games. Steve found some clothes that fit. At 6’2” he was so much taller than me and Alex that he looked ridiculous when he tried to borrow our clothes. Wayne claimed a cool black leather motorcycle jacket. It looked more natural on him than a suit.
We had to clear the street so we could use a neighbor’s SUV and trailer to haul the bodies away. It wasn’t until late afternoon that we finished hauling all the dead bodies out on to the middle of 15th East and Blaine. Wayne suggested dumping them all in front lawn of the asshole’s house on Wilson Street. I knew he didn’t mean it…much.
That evening all of us were exhausted, but morale was great. We could see the difference out on the street.
I haven’t had that much experience with women. I’ve had two serious girlfriends. I dated both of them for years. Both my ex’s got the opposite of frisky at that time of the month. Cecilia was different. We had to make some modifications because of the situation. I have to admit that being with her was more fun than playing the Xbox.
The Xbox was a lifeline for the other guys. Steve was trying to make up for playing on the game console by reading the scriptures. I noticed that he tried to spend as much time reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible as he spent playing on the Xbox. Steve was a good example for the rest of us; we weren’t being good examples for him.
The days went by quickly. Even though we had enough supplies for now, the last few months had taught us that life was uncertain. Our goal was to gather a few years worth of essentials. I was surprised that we still had natural gas. I hadn’t tapped into any of our stored liquid propane. This didn’t keep us from gathering up every propane tank that we could find.
On the evening of October 9th, we started playing Dance Connection using the Xbox Connect. It was one of the games we had picked up on our scavenging rounds. It was a lot of fun. It was the first game that Cecilia liked. We had only been playing for half-an-hour when our generator went out. The natural gas had finally stopped flowing. I switched the generator over to propane.
I said, “Guys we don’t have natural gas anymore. We’re ok for a while on propane but it’s going to run out too. We’re going to have to start rationing electricity, using it just for essentials for a limited amount of time each day.”
Alex said, “Mike, I agree but don’t you think it’s worth having just one last hurrah, this evening before we get all miserly with the propane?”
I looked at all the others, they looked at me. I shrugged, “Why not?”
The evening turned into a party. About an hour after we switched the generator to propane, Steve and Alex decided to dance to Lady Gaga. The contrast between the two was hilarious. Compared to Alex, Steve is so tall and gangly. Alex had the dance moves down and was boogieing like a pro. Steve danced like a white man; he was a great sport about us laughing at him.
Wayne stopped the Xbox, “Do you guys hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“It sounds like there are guns being fired outside.”
My house is soundproof. I heard nothing. “Are you sure you’re hearing something.”
Wayne said “Yes.” Everyone else looked puzzled. I know that teenagers and children have better hearing than adults. Mall retailers can buy teenage repellers, speakers that send out a high pitched annoying sound that can only be heard by kids less than 18. Wayne was the youngest among us. He wasn’t the kind to imagine things. He might have better ears than the rest of us.
We had been taking extra care to lock up when it got dark. A couple days ago, Jeff told me that they found a home that should have been zombie proof. It had been ripped apart from the outside by something with huge claws. Whether or not vampires existed, it was certain that there were other monsters besides zombies. I motioned everyone to follow me upstairs. I turned off all the lights and close
d the door before I opened up the shutters and the window. Wayne was right. It sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun west of us. The shots only lasted a few more seconds. Wayne thought that the gunfire had been going for a minute or two. We listened for a few minutes longer and heard nothing. We closed the window and shutters.
Alex spoke, “Man, I wish I knew what that was about. Why would someone let loose with a machine gun? Is it a good sign or bad sign that they stopped shooting after few minutes?”
Wayne said, “Tomorrow we need to head east.”
The party was over. We all turned in. When I got into bed, Cecilia was crying. “What’s wrong, hon?”
“I’m just tired of this crap, Mike. I’m sick and tired of being scared. I’m sick of being helpless while everything changes.”
“I know. I feel the same way.”
Cecilia fell asleep in my arms. It took hours for me to get to sleep. Walking into new territory filled with zombies was going to SUCK.
In the morning we started the day off like we usually did. We fired a shot in the air and waited. For the first time since we’d been doing this we didn’t get a single zombie. It took a while for us to decide which of us should go east. Cecilia volunteered to go out like everyone else. The rest of us nixed the idea. We’d been working out in my basement gym together for weeks. We all took turns on the treadmill. She was our slowest runner and the worst shot. After a lot of discussion, we decided that Cecilia and one other person should wait at the house. If we lost the house, we were screwed. There was no way we could leave it undefended. The plan was for three of us to head out east to see if we could find out who had fired all those shots.
Of us all, only Wayne didn’t have mixed feelings about heading into new territory; he wanted to go. I didn’t have a problem going out to the areas that I knew were mostly clear of zombies. The thought of going out to areas that weren’t cleared scared the crap out of me. The idea of it being just us five people alone forever frightened me worse. Our situation wasn’t stable. Eventually we’d run out of propane. Sure for a couple years we could survive on the can goods and if forced to I would make a zombie powered generator but I couldn’t imagine wanting to live like this forever. There had to be an organization that survived. We needed to find it.
