Zomblog II

by TW Brown

  We managed to arrive just ahead of a nasty rainstorm. It was pouring buckets. The okay has been given, and we will stay until it passes. There just isn’t any sense in going out in that mess and being completely miserable. There will be plenty of time for that.

  Wednesday, April 22

  It’s down to a drizzle. We will leave tomorrow most likely. I was worried that Jeff and Rodney might be so happy that they’d want to stay. Jeff actively sought me out today to confirm we were still ‘go’ for our mission. I think I managed to hide my relief.

  Another surprise came at dinner, Jenifer and Jonathan are coming! Both swear they will return to Sunset once the mission is over. Both insist they have no interest in Las Vegas or any other crazy schemes cooking inside my head. What’s more, three others will be joining us: two women and one man. The consensus here is that the world will be a much better place if The Genesis Brotherhood is wiped out.

  Thursday, April 23

  It took almost no time to get our hands dirty again. We were on the road early this morning before the sky was barely tinged with light. It was decided that each of us pair up; so I was with Jeff, Jenifer teamed with Jonathan, Rodney teamed up with Darla Jones, a nineteen-year-old skater chick with a dozen facial piercings and at least two dozen tattoos, her hair is blonde, but she says it used to be forest-green and dark-blue, which I bet really made her wide, blue eyes stand out. Kenny Wilhelm, a forty-year-old fireplug of a man with a meticulously shaved head—that he keeps clean with a huge knife he wears on his hip—matched up with Shandra Hilton, a constantly smiling, African-American woman who is taller than anybody else in the group at six and a half feet tall, as well as being whip thin at a hundred and seventy pounds.

  We spaced ourselves out using hisses and arm signals to communicate. Nothing fancy, just basic stuff. Being spread out like we were was actually a nice way to move. You only had to worry about the person right beside you.

  Two hours in, we got the signal to stop from Jonathan and Jenifer. Everybody froze, and Jeff did a quick check of his weapons, so I copied. An overpass up ahead seemed the likely location for trouble by the way Jonathan and Jenifer had pointed before disappearing from sight.

  After ten minutes I caught a flash just to the south of us. It looked like light reflecting off of metal. No sooner had I spotted movement when gunfire erupted. Not from us, but whoever was up on that overpass. My hands instinctively tightened on my trusty hunting rifle, but Jeff tapped me and shook his head. When the shooting stopped, we waited, making sure it was clear. That was when a few zombies decided to crawl up to the highway from the surrounding neighborhood.

  I don’t know who saw the first one, but all of us got busy in a hurry. Jeff and I had been positioned in the rear and found ourselves surrounded. I laid my rifle on the hood of a car with one of those poor bastards still strapped into the front seat. It just stared at me with dead eyes as I brought my spear into play.

  It really did go easier than I was used to. I was jamming the business end to one, then setting up for the next. I glanced over at Jeff who was only a couple of strides away from me facing in the opposite direction. It was something to see…watching him wield a very sturdy longsword with lethal efficiency. While it was going on, we did hear a couple more shots fired from the south of us in the direction we’d seen those other people go.

  Our first test went well in my opinion. Tonight we are in an apartment complex that suffered from a nasty fire. Jeff and Rodney did a recon walk-through just to be sure there weren’t others wandering the expansive grounds. They are pretty sure they know what caused the fire. One entire four-unit building had been a meth lab.

  Friday, April 24

  That sucked. Just about dinner time, Jonathan came hurrying to where everybody was getting comfortable. He’d heard a noise that sounded like crying. Of course we all thought he meant that eerie baby-cry sound that some of the zombies make.

  Everybody grabbed a sword, axe, or spear, and headed out. Since we all wear handguns these days like it is Tombstone or OK Corral, weapons are never a problem, and sometimes you can actually have too much. We paired up and let Jonathan and Jenifer take point. Only a few units from the one we’d been camped, we started hearing sounds. There was definitely crying, but it wasn’t zombie sounds. This sounded muffled…and belonged to a girl.

  Out of the blue, Jenifer took off at a sprint. That settled it for everybody else. We all took off after her. Running through the dark ruins of an abandoned apartment complex during a zombie apocalypse is not something I recommend.

  I heard what can best be described as a scream of rage from ahead and around a corner. My flashlight was bobbing—as was everybody else’s—and I really couldn’t see a damned thing. Somebody behind me cried out, and I heard a thud, then the clatter of metal skittering across pavement. Not a thing I could do for whoever it was. Jenifer was just ahead; I heard her swearing and screaming threats, most of them unintelligible.

  My flashlight found Jonathan first, he was on his face with one of those things wrapped around his ankles. I could hear Jenifer in trouble, but Jonathan was closer, and I could see him. I veered left, coming up with my spear raised. I didn’t even think as I kicked what used to be a teenaged boy in the head, knocking it away from where it had been trying to gnaw through the ankle of Jonathan’s boot. I drove my spear down, plunging it through what remained of a mostly skinless face.

  I didn’t have any time to spare for Jonathan, because I could hear Jenifer going totally insane. I heard other skirmishes nearby, but all I wanted to do was get to Jenifer. I rounded this corner and ran face first into a big, dark plastic tarp. That totally freaked me out and had me busy trying to tear it away while keeping from getting wrapped up in it. Something on the other side barreled into me and knocked me to the ground. Worse still, something heavy landed on top of me. I felt something sharp jab me in the shoulder, and I barely rolled out of the way as something buried itself in the ground where my head used to be. Whatever it was on top of me—separated only by a plastic tarp—shifted, and I bucked my hips and tossed my head back the other direction. I guessed right, and a wet swish-thud sounded next to my left ear. I was certain it was a living person on top of me after my bucking sent it over my head and I heard a grunt of pain. Before I could take advantage of the situation, somebody stomped on my chest. That was the bad part. The good part is that they cleaved the person who’d been attacking me.

  I got out from under the tarp to discover Darla standing over a boy who couldn’t be more than sixteen. She’d buried a foot-long blade in the kid’s neck. She hadn’t quite chopped off his head, and he was still convulsing and thrashing about. Darla didn’t even blink as she put a booted foot on the boy’s shoulder and yanked her blade free. I think I said “thanks” before she turned and dashed off towards Jenifer. I followed.

  I still don’t truly believe what we found. Chained and gagged, each one on a five-foot lead that was attached to an iron manacle on one ankle, were a dozen women and girls. The youngest is about Dominique’s or Jenifer’s age. Somewhere between twelve and fifteen. The oldest is twenty-six. Most are in varying stages of pregnancy.

  Five males, including the sixteen-year-old that Darla almost decapitated, had been holding them prisoner. Sadly, the worst part isn’t that they were regularly—and by the looks, roughly—raping these women. They were using them as baby factories.

  For a source of meat.

  Yeah. These women were kept pregnant so they could give birth. The children were raised for varying lengths of time until demand called for it. Judging by some of the skulls we found being used as decorative tops for walking sticks they let some of those children get several months if not a year old. Then, they were slaughtered.

  The most recent victim was laying on a legless table-top. It had been split open; arms, legs, and head removed. It was a newborn. We could tell because the young girl who’d had him was dead a few feet away. The umbilical cord still hanging from between her legs. They’d st
rung the girl up by the wrists. No idea if it was before, during, or after she’d given birth.

  The other females won’t talk, so we don’t know more than we’ve been able to piece together from what we’ve seen. None of the males survived.

  Rodney and Kenny left for Sunset. They will be coming back with a van or something. These females will be transported back. We’ll just wait here. It’s not the best plan, but it’ll have to do. We cleared out two second-floor apartments and herded everybody inside. A couple had to be carried.

  Jeff and Darla went out on a scavenging run and brought back some food and water. These people didn’t have much. That was not a surprise, but it was tough going through their camp, seeing things in the light of day didn’t help. Oh, and that thing that my attacker tried to kill me with? Sharpened femur.

  Jenifer hasn’t said a word. I can’t get her to clean up. She’s got blood…and other stuff…splattered all over herself. She’s just sitting in a corner staring at the wretched-looking females all clustered together in the opposite corner. I’m actually a tiny bit scared to even say anything to her, or so much as approach her. I’m not even sure exactly what she saw, other than the obvious horror of cannibalism and rape, to set her off like what happened. She was a crazed lunatic. I can’t really describe it other than when I finally arrived with Darla, three men were dead. One of them missing his head. She was hacking at the last man standing. HACKING! She had an axe in her hand going all “Lizzy Borden” on this guy. She didn’t care how he cried, begged, or pleaded.

  I’m not sure I was cool with Darla grabbing me and keeping me back either. She basically kept watch and let Jenifer wear herself out on that last guy. I haven’t spoken to Darla yet about it. I will say that I’m less concerned on how people will handle themselves when we reach The Genesis Brotherhood’s complex.

  Every time you think you’ve found the bottom of humanity’s barrel, there’s a new layer of scum revealed! Yay! So we’ll sit here and stay low. We’ll wait for our team members to return. I for one, need the day or two this will probably take. I feel like I was put in a burlap bag up to my neck and beaten with a baseball bat. Also, I seem to be having a bit of a ‘girl’ problem. Doesn’t that just put the cherry on the sundae.

  On the plus side, we didn’t lose anybody. There were a few bruises and scrapes, but the zombie threat was only minimal. This was all about the menace of living, breathing types. Jonathan and Rodney checked my injuries. That femur-spear has left me with a pretty nasty purple and black bruise on my right shoulder where it connects. I’m told I was lucky. It doesn’t take much to break a collarbone. Or, if it would have actually punctured me…it could have been particularly nasty. Not to mention that my little mission would be over before it even began.

  So…I’m gonna find a little spot in a dark corner and sleep. I can’t wait to see how my body feels tomorrow. I miss Tylenol. I used to be the type who always said no to being medicated, but I really hurt. A lot.

  Saturday, April 25

  I hope everything went okay. Rodney isn’t back yet, and nobody can get these women to eat, drink, or talk. Add in that Jenifer slipped out at some point and came back late this afternoon, and my stress level is just a bit amped. Of course, Jenifer won’t say a word as to what she did or where she went. At least she came back clean.

  Sunday, April 26

  Rodney and Kenny arrived early this morning. We loaded those women up and moved out. There were three women from Sunset in this big van. It was crowded, but nobody is enforcing the seatbelt law.

  When they left, I asked why they didn’t bring a bigger rig, Kenny said that the next biggest was a full-length school bus. They didn’t believe it would be able to navigate a few of the more congested obstacles.

  Whatever. They’re out of the picture now, and we were able to move out. I couldn’t put this place behind me quick enough. I got a really bad case of the willies.

  I don’t know what exactly Jenifer saw or heard. I know what I saw, and it bothered me. I remember that whole incident with Scott and Sasha that Perry hadn’t let me see. I read about it in Sam’s journal and remember being upset. Only, I think I was more upset that Perry’d felt I needed protecting. What I saw has me shook and I can’t ignore it. I’ve tried to brush it off the past couple of days. It hasn’t worked. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, even if only to blink, I see that mutilated newborn’s corpse. I see that girl hanging by the wrists with an umbilical cord dangling between her legs.

  I know I can’t unsee something, but I wish my mind would do some mental magic and block that image from my memory. And I can’t help but wonder, what did Jenifer see? How much worse could it have been? Of course, maybe I am just being a girl about things. I glance at Jeff and Rodney every so often and see nothing. They’re entirely focused on the next step.

  You know how I know I’m slipping? I know that a couple of us—Jonathan among them—had a tousle with a zombie that night. I never thought to check anybody out. Shandra did. What’s more? She checked me while I was sleeping!

  Tonight, we are just past that huge cemetery. We’re actually staying in the same complex we stayed in when it was just Jenifer, Jonathan, Shari, Coach, and me. No deer this time though. Too bad.

  Monday, April 27

  The left side of my face feels like it was run over by a truck. We’re still in the same place as yesterday. It is raining hard outside and the wind shakes the windows. I’ve honestly never heard anything like it.

  I woke up first and had a quick chat with Kenny who was on watch. We were using the apartment across the hall as the bathroom; so, after some pleasantries, I went to take care of a few things. My plumbing has been a concern the past few days since “the incident” and I was anxious for any signs of improvement.

  The apartment wasn’t a concern as far as using it as a bathroom. I mean it’s not like zombies sneak upstairs and open doors. We’d swept it. Empty. I had my spear and the pistol on my hip strictly out of habit. I wasn’t thinking about them.

  I went in, closed the door, set my spear against the wall next to the door, and went into the bathroom. I undid my webbed belt and sat my gun on the counter. It was still pretty dark and I couldn’t really see. Not to be gross, but I needed to see what was going on. The easiest way seemed to be just slip off my pants and panties and go to a window in the bedroom across the hall for a look. So that’s what I did.

  I never saw the guy. He grabbed me by the hair from behind and slammed me face first into the wooden chest at the foot of the bed. I tasted blood, but that was the least of my problems. Things were getting fuzzy on the edges and I could hear this guy mumbling all sorts of horrible things about what he wanted to do to me. I gathered myself and tried to break loose. That’s when he slammed my face on the wooden chest again. A metal hinge busted me open good just above my left eye. I’m certain I lost consciousness for a moment, because the next thing I recall was feeling something trying to shove itself inside me.

  I felt a tearing, and the pain woke me up completely. Gripping the sides of the cedar chest I was bent over, I jerked hard to the left with my hips and kicked back with my feet. The idiot still had his pants around his ankles and fell. He let loose with a satisfying yelp. I think I sprained his poor wee-wee. I tried to stand, but that made me woozy. Grabbing the wall, I staggered a bit as I made my way across the hall into the bathroom.

  I’m certain this perverted animal simply thought he’d hit the jackpot. There’s no way he suspected I was armed and in the company of friends. As I drew the gun from its holster and turned towards the cursing, angry man who was vowing to “make me pay” in all sorts of horrid ways, I heard Kenny open the front door and call my name. My attacker stepped into the doorway across the hall. I could see a perfect black silhouette. I pulled the trigger. Four times.

  Of course Kenny came running. I think he was more embarrassed than I was when he burst in to discover me half-naked. At that moment, I truly did not care. I walked over to my would-be rapist, shoving K
enny away to reach him. He wasn’t dead yet, and even in the gloom I could see his face. Blood was bubbling from his mouth and nose. Good, I thought, he was drowning on his own blood. I made sure to look him in the eyes until he let that last breath go in a gurgle.

  By then, everybody was there. The women had clustered around me. The men were standing back. There were whispered conversations, but I didn’t listen. My eyes drifted down between his legs, he’d only started to pull up his pants, and when I shot him, they’d fallen back down to mid-thigh. I stared at my blood smeared on him. But I didn’t cry. I shut off the pain. All of it.

  Eventually they got me to return to our apartment. Jenifer, Darla, and Shandra took me into one of the two bedrooms. None of them is a nurse, but they insisted on looking me over. I allowed it, laying back, closing my eyes and rejoicing that I didn’t see the chopped-up infant or its poor mother. Instead, I saw my attacker full of pain, and his fear of the death that was taking him from this world.

  The guys did a check. Fortunately, my shooting didn’t seem to draw much attention. They had to take out a few of the nearby zombies that were poking around. Really minor if I believe what they say. Whatever the case, the consensus was that a nasty storm was rolling in and we’d do better waiting it out right here. So, that’s exactly what we are doing.

  Tuesday, April 28

  The rain is dying down, but the wind doesn’t want to let up. People are starting to piss me off, and I hurt. Everywhere.