Survival In The Zombie Apocalypse | Book 1 | Worse Than Dead

by Brett, Cal

  “Can we go out that way?” Robbie asked.

  “No,” Kelly said. Keeping her voice low. “Too much crap against the door. Something would fall and since we don’t know what’s on the other side, it’s not worth it. I think we go out the front and back track towards the cut off down to the river. Most of those things will have followed the crowd and gone right by us.”

  “Yea,” Robbie answered, then noticed the gun in her hand, “hey, what’s that?”

  “Gun,” she answered, “found it on a dead guy back there.”

  “Can I see it?” Robbie asked.

  Kelly handed it to him. “Be careful. It’s loaded but I don’t know if it still works. Last thing we need is a gunshot to ring the dinner bell.”

  Robbie turned the gun around in his hands. “Safety is on.”

  “I know,” she replied taking it back from him. “Let’s put it away before anything happens. We can work on it later when we are safe.”

  Kelly wedged the gun into her back pack and edged around the counter towards the front window. “Come on, looks like the coast is clear.” She crawled up onto the small counter against the window. She lay there on her stomach for a moment to look up and down the street, then she dropped down onto the sidewalk.

  When Robbie heard the crunch of her feet hitting the ground, he followed her over and dropped into a crouch with his back against the wall. Once he got his balance, he saw Kelly had her back against a car parked at the curb. She motioned behind her to let Robbie know there was something, probably undead, on the other side of the street. She made a chopping sign with her hand pointing down the hill indicating that they should get moving. Then she indicated they should leapfrog like they had before. Robbie wondered why they hadn’t decided what they were going to do before they rolled out onto the sidewalk but it was too late to worry about that. He nodded for her to go ahead.

  Hunched over and with her head down, Kelly began a quick walk back towards Canal Street. Robbie watched her until she reached the corner, then hurried to catch up. When he approached he tapped her shoulder and she motioned for him to go ahead. He dashed across the gap between the buildings and past the storefronts they had sprinted passed less than an hour earlier. Along the way, he tried to keep his vision swiveling between the stores on his left, the maze of traffic on his right and the sidewalk ahead.

  It occurred to him that they sometimes went a full day like this. Moving silently through the streets without talking. Just motioning to each other with their hands and faces to indicate what they were doing next. There was some comfort in the routine of it and that they had worked together for so long that they didn’t need to say anything. Both knew what the other meant, even without words. It was easiest to get lost in the work, be totally focused on the moment and forget about the big picture.

  Kelly passed Robbie at the next corner. As they approached Canal Street, she spotted a few undead stumbling down the road, making their way in between the cars. She signaled Robbie and they hunkered behind a van until the threat passed.

  At the top of the street, Robbie peeked around and noted that the large crowd of creatures at the bottom had shrunk to just two emaciated figures who looked as if they may not have had the strength to walk back up the steep hill. Kelly raised her shoulders as a question and he answered by holding up two fingers. Then he indicated they should continue down the hill and ran his hand in front of his throat to indicate they should kill them. Kelly nodded and they stepped around the corner.

  Robbie pulled his machete from its sheath and Kelly began spinning her bow staff as they walked down the slope. The two creatures saw them coming and began slouching towards them. Robbie moved quickly and met the first in the middle of the street, chopping into its skull and sending it to the hard asphalt. Kelly danced around next to the other and swung her staff hard into its ear. The impact of the stick made a loud thwack and caused the thing’s head to spin around to face the opposite direction. Its body continued forward however causing Kelly to step back, spin her staff and bring it down hard on the things head. It collapsed to the ground in a pile and Kelly watched it for a moment to be sure it didn’t get back up.

  “She didn’t see that coming,” Robbie said with a grin.

  Kelly raised an eyebrow at his bad joke.

  “You see,” Robbie said with a straight face,” because her face was backwards she couldn’t see…”

  Kelly rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Because she wasn’t looking…” Robbie continued to rib her.

  “I get it. Shut up. Let’s go,” she shook her head.

  They turned left and walked down the middle of the road along the docks. To the left, a modern stone wall rose up, creating a level platform for the buildings up on Riverside to look out over the river. To their right were the rows of old waterfront warehouses that had been turned into trendy night clubs and shopping piers before the dead rose. Beyond the warehouses was the dark rolling river. A few large boats could be seen between the piers, long ago sunk in the shallows and resting just below the surface.

  They walked slowly and side by side rather than leap frogging as they usually did. There were too many alleys and alcoves along the way for that tactic to be effective. Unlike the streets in the city above, the two lane road here had few cars blocking the way. There were several panel trucks backed up into docking bays and a few vehicles slowly rusting in the narrow metered parking along the sidewalk. Although covered in mud and mold, they were undamaged, unlike most other vehicles in the city that had been caught up in the panic to escape or the later battles and fires that had raged in the days right after the end. These looked as if they may had been left by drivers who walked away and never returned.

  “Thursday morning,” Kelly whispered.

  “What?” Robbie asked.

  “It was a Thursday morning when it all started.” Kelly replied pointing at the cars.

  “Was it?” Robbie said looking left and right. “I don’t remember.”

  “These cars were probably parked here Wednesday night by people who worked down here.” Kelly explained, “…but they never came back. Those trucks were the early morning deliveries.”

  “Hmm,” Robbie said disinterestedly. To him they were just obstacles and potential hiding places for the undead. “How much further do you think?”

  Kelly looked ahead along the row of buildings. “About two blocks I think.”

  They moved around several downed palms that would have once served as decorative trees on the sidewalks. A gentle, salty, breeze blew in from the river shuffling their brown fronds.

  “Contact,” Robbie said quietly as he nodded ahead toward two scruffy figures slowly shambling in their direction. He motioned for them to move over to the wall and crouched low as they moved ahead. There wasn’t much to hide behind but they got as far from the things as they could while assessing the threat.

  “How many?” Kelly asked.

  “I only saw two,” Robbie whispered back.

  “Ok, let’s take them out,” Kelly said as she got a clearer view of the creatures and became more confident that they weren’t the vanguard of a larger group. “I don’t want them following us while we try to find a way inside.”

  She rose up and strode towards the things with Robbie close behind her. They became more excited as Robbie and Kelly approached. Their previous, slow lumbering pace, transformed into a lurching, snarling attack. Kelly caught the first one at the knee with her staff and used its momentum to send it face first onto the asphalt with a slap. Of course, this didn’t seem to faze it and it began immediately crawling toward her. Before it could get far, Kelly brought the heavy end of the stick down on its head and crushed its skull. She looked up to see that Robbie had dispatched the other one.

  “More.” Robbie said pointing down to a bend in the road about 100 yards away. A crowd of a dozen or so shuffled into view.

  “It’s ok,” Kelly said huskily and started walking quickly back towards the wall. “We’r
e here.”

  Chapter 13

  Robbie followed Kelly into a narrow driveway built into the wall. He guessed it was wide enough to fit two trucks. The sides of the driveway were made of thick concrete streaked with rubber, paint and scratches left by the many vehicles that had scratched along its surface in the days when there were daily deliveries. At the entrance, a tall chain link gate had a sign hung that read – ‘Riverside Condominiums Loading and Unloading Only.’ He made a brief attempt at closing the gate behind them but realized it was on a chain connected to an electrical box. The rusty chain gave barely an inch and made a loud grinding sound as he pushed against it.

  “Leave it!” Kelly whispered.

  Robbie gave a quick glance down the road and noticed the approaching zombies were still about 50 yards away but definitely locked onto them. He let go of the gate and ran to catch up with Kelly.

  He found her at the end of the alley climbing up onto a loading dock. A rolling metal garage door was closed to about a foot off the ground. It had been stopped from fully closing by a body laying over the threshold. A pair of legs wearing dirty blue jeans and work boots stuck out onto the dock. While Kelly peered underneath, Robbie walked over to a smaller standard size steel door nearby.

  “Is it unlocked?” Kelly asked as she tried to shine her light into the darkness without getting too close.

  “There’s no handle,” Robbie replied looking at a nearby keypad. “Looks like it was operated by this, but without power there’s no way to unlock it from this side.”

  Robbie glanced over to another steel door down at the end of a short alley just off the dock’s steps. He quickly determined it was too far away and not worth the risk. If it was locked, they would be trapped in the alley with nowhere to go.

  “I guess we have to go this way then,” Kelly sighed. She still couldn’t see anything in the darkness under the garage door.

  Robbie looked back down the alley and saw that the leading edge of the undead had reached the gate. “Yep, we got about 30 seconds to get through.”

  As the throng of creatures began lurching towards them, Kelly and Robbie dropped their backpacks and shoved them through the narrow opening. They took it as a good sign that nothing inside immediately pounced.

  “Go!” Robbie said, “I’ll hold them off.”

  Kelly didn’t hesitate. She pushed her fighting stick through, lay flat on her back and began squeezing under head first. She held the flashlight out in front of her and kicked with her feet, ready to start fighting on the other side. It was a tight fit and she struggled to get her chest and hips through the narrow gap.

  There was a set of steps at one end of the dock. Robbie moved to the other side hoping to keep the approaching mob from noticing the easy way up. The deck platform was about four feet above the driveway. Robbie knew this wouldn’t hold them long, but hoped it might slow them enough for him to get into the loading bay. As they bunched up against the dock, he began stabbing down into any that tried to crawl up onto the platform.

  After stabbing at several, he realized the crowd was reaching critical mass and would soon start spilling over the platform. He glanced back and saw Kelly’s feet finally disappear inside leaving marks in the dirt where she had struggled. Three of the creatures suddenly lurched onto the platform. Robbie took two out, but as he did, others followed them up and the third was rising to its feet. Further down the crowd had gotten large enough that the ones at the far end had discovered the steps.

  “Shit!” Robbie shouted pushing several shamblers back off the dock and into the crowd, “Kelly can you get that gate up?! I don’t have time to crawl under!”

  As he continued to fight, he noticed the body with the boots suddenly pulled back and disappear into the garage. There was a clanging of chains on the inside and he backed up, preparing to roll under the gate. “Kelly!” he called as he hacked down two more. “Cutting it close out here!”

  He heard the garage door begin to move behind him but as he got ready to throw himself under, rather than rising, it slammed shut. “Dammit, Kelly,” he shouted banging on the metal and lashing out at several more hungry monsters. “Not funny!”

  The crowd on the platform was growing and Robbie realized he had nowhere to go. With his back literally against a wall, he began hacking and kicking at the mob closing in around him. A man in torn mechanics overalls attacked and Robbie caught it in the chest with his boot. Using the garage door for leverage he hammered out as hard as he could causing it to stumble backwards and trip over the waitress climbing onto the platform behind him. The mechanic did a flip worthy of a Hollywood stuntman, knocking several others from the deck and slapping back into the sea of grey faces surging into the loading area. A dozen or so went down under their weight but not enough to slow the surge.

  Robbie’s safe space was slowly closing in and bodies were piling up in an arc around him. He realized the wall of bodies wasn’t helping, as those behind tripped and fell over them causing him to fight both the walking and the crawling.

  He heard a click to his right and suddenly the side door, with the keypad, swung open. It knocked several creatures down as Kelly pressed out hard into their ranks. “C’mon!” She yelled and started hammering the crowd from the open doorway.

  Robbie had to push and chop as he cleared his way to her but jumped through the door just as the excited monsters crushed into the space behind him. Kelly stepped back into the bay as one of the things lunged in and latched its teeth onto her arm. She screamed realizing she had no time to get him off, she grabbed its head and pulled it with her through the opening. The door slammed as its feet were pulled through, leaving the rest of the mob clamoring outside the metal door.

  Robbie had seen Kelly pull the thing with her into the room but as soon as the door closed they were left in complete darkness. He leapt back and grabbed at where he had last seen the biter’s shoulders but missed and only arrived in time to hear the sound of two bodies landing, struggling on the concrete floor. With only the sound of the thing’s growling and Kelly’s cursing to guide him, Robbie dropped to his knees and began grasping for where he thought the creature’s feet might be. After several misses, he finally grabbed what felt like a tattered pair of running shoes and worked his way up to a slick and shredded pair of jeans filled by bony legs.

  “Get the fuck off me!” Kelly roared and Robbie could hear her pounding the thing, most likely in the face. Apparently it wasn’t letting go, so Robbie grabbed it by the waist and rolled, hoping to leverage it off of her. The body came with him and as soon as Robbie rolled on top he jumped up to put his knees on its emaciated chest. He grabbed its arms and held them down while also keeping his head back hoping the thing couldn’t get close enough to bite his face off. It didn’t move. It didn’t fight at all. It just lay there. Dead?

  He could hear Kelly gasping and cursing as she seemed to scramble away.

  “Kelly?” Robbie called. He didn’t dare move to go find her. The thing seemed dead but he did not want to let it go and lose it in the total darkness. He listened intently for anything else that might be in the bay with them but his heart was pounding and the zombies were banging on the garage door so loudly that it was impossible to hear anything else. He called out again, “Kelly?”

  “Just a sec,” she answered from the darkness.

  Suddenly a small light came on illuminating a narrow shaft in the room. The light shined around and found Robbie. “Ugh!” he groaned and shut his eyes to the bright light.

  “Get off that thing and come help me find the head,” Kelly said.

  Robbie opened his eyes and saw that he was holding down a headless corpse. “Ew!” he jumped backward off of it and quickly rose to his feet.

  “Careful,” Kelly said shining the light around, “when you pulled it away the head came off. I hit it pretty hard and I don’t know where it went.”

  “Ok,” Robbie gasped and followed her light beam as she searched the floor.

  “There!” Kelly pointed
the beam at a grotesque grey head laying in the corner of the loading bay. Its single cloudy eye glared at the light while its teeth snapped as they approached.

  Robbie stabbed it with his machete and it ceased moving. They both leaned on their knees and breathed hard as they recovered from the fight.

  “You ok?” Robbie finally gasped.

  Kelly shined the light on the sleeve of her jacket. The leather was torn in several places but the teeth didn’t go through. “I think so,” she said in relief. “Going to be a hell of a bruise though. Goddam thing had a bitch of a grip.”

  “What took you so long to open the door?” Robbie finally asked.

  In answer, Kelly shined the little light around the room showing three other bodies lying in the dust. “One, two, three,” she counted. “Sorry, I had to take care of them first.”

  “Yea ok,” Robbie said accepting her explanation but still not happy at being left outside. Then he turned and indicated the rumbling sound of hundreds of hands banging on the metal garage. “You think those doors will hold?”

  “Probably,” Kelly answered uncertainly. “But, let’s not hang around to find out.”

  They grabbed their bags from the floor and followed Kelly’s light to a set of swinging double doors at the back of the loading bay. The doors looked like they might have been installed not long before the fall. They were still covered in plastic and with protective cardboard taped over them. There was a lock near the top of the door but the bolt was not thrown. Kelly gently pushed at the left door which eased quietly open. She shined her light in and saw an empty hallway leading to another set of large doors flanked by two service elevators.

  They slipped inside and, after ensuring there were no undead, Robbie turned back and clicked the bolt into place. The hall was marked with the scratches, smudges and stains of having been used extensively during construction. The floors were concrete and the walls were covered only by unpainted drywall. A stack of materials and tools lay off to the side as if waiting for the construction workers to arrive and start building again.