by J. W. Vohs
Now all of the monsters began moaning at the site of the young family before them, and David knew he had to make a move if he was going to save any of them. He ran to the rear of the vehicle as he shouted, “I’m Jim Carboni’s son-in-law, and I’m here to help! Get those kids in the house!”
He had no time to look back to see if his instructions were being followed, because the first three zombies were now close enough to reach for him as they opened their gruesome mouths and moved in for the kill. David began firing his weapon too fast, not bothering to aim in the panic threatening to engulf him as the monsters approached. Luckily, the creatures were so close when he started shooting that he hit the first one right in the open mouth, the bullet lodging in the brain stem and dropping the flesh-eater in its tracks. Another round entered the left eye socket of the second zombie, and it too went down and stayed down. Then the click of his trigger falling on an empty chamber echoed in his ears as the third fast-mover hit him harder than anything he’d experienced since his high school football days, and he fell tumbling to the cement with the full weight of the zombie rolling over him as he tried to push the monster off and get to his knees.
David and the foul creature reached their feet at the same time, and his subconscious mind had somehow told him to drop the pistol and grab the mace in a two-handed grip. As the zombie roared and leapt in his direction, David swung the deadly weapon and caught the monster square in the face. The creature fell sideways into the grass next to the driveway, and by the way it was rolling around David knew that he hadn’t managed to kill it. He had no time to finish the fallen zombie however, as a chorus of moans from the street signaled the arrival of the rest of the pack.
These zombies were shuffling along like a bunch of drunken sailors, but they were hungry and determined. David felt a wave of fear crash over him and he began frantically swinging the mace back and forth as the monsters moved into the weapon’s range. Heads, faces, and shoulders were crushed with every blow as an adrenaline rush fueled David’s defense. But fatigue began to weigh down his arms about forty seconds into the fight, and black dots danced in front of his eyes as he started losing his struggle for oxygen. Finally he was unable to lift the mace quickly enough and one of the four remaining zombies roughly tackled him, dragging him down to the hard surface of the driveway now slick with blood and gore.
David released his hold on the mace as he felt another zombie fall on him, followed by the remaining two just seconds later. With up to eight hundred pounds of dead weight pressing down upon him, David had no option but to try rolling into his back as he reached for the short sword buckled at his side. He found the handle of the blade and managed to pull it free, but with no room to stab all he could do was ineffectually slash at the zombies gnawing on his leather and Kevlar armor. Then he heard a ‘whoosh’ sound and felt the weight above him slacken. Another monster’s teeth tore a strip of leather free as it was forcibly pulled away from the scrum. Suddenly David’s sword arm had room to maneuver and he thrust the tip of the blade right through the ear of the zombie latched onto his left shoulder. Then the final flesh-eater fell away and David looked up to see a huge, bearded man looking at him with fearful concern, shouting, “Are you all right, mister?”
Without a word David rolled onto his knees and struggled to regain his feet, grabbing his rescuer’s hand and rasping out, “Get into the house, you’re not safe out here!”
The man tried to argue until David gave him a hard shove toward the door. The stranger caught himself on one of the support beams and turned to watch as David shakily walked up to every zombie still moving and deliberately slammed his short sword through their eye sockets. He twisted the blade until they were still, all the time looking back in the direction the monsters had come to see if any more of them were on the way. Finally satisfied that none of the fallen zombies would ever rise again, David picked up his .22 and replaced the empty magazine before retrieving the mace and returning it to his weapons belt. Another moan off in the distance convinced him that he needed to move, so he walked up to the man who’d saved him and introduced himself.
“David Smith, I’m Jim Carboni’s son-in-law. We watched you racing down the street and decided to give you a hand.”
The man waved him toward the door saying, “I’m Sal Martinez. You just saved my family!”
David followed him through the door, which was immediately closed and locked as Sal continued, “I’d gotten a call from my sister up on Lakeshore that their power was out and she could hear screaming on the street. Vickie didn’t want to stay here alone so we all jumped in the van and headed out. The road was blocked by a crash a few blocks down, and a bunch of those creatures surrounded us when we were trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t know that they followed us back here. I was trying to call my sister but couldn’t get any service when Vickie yelled that a whole pack of them were coming down the road behind us. I can’t thank you enough for stopping them.”
David wearily removed his helmet and explained, “I’d be dead or worse if wasn’t for you, Sal, so I guess we’re even.”
Sal shook his head vehemently, “No way, man. Those three runners would have caught us before we could get the kids inside, and Vickie had to scream at me before I would head back out there to pull them off of you.”
David looked over to Vickie and nodded his thanks. She smiled shyly before declaring, “I couldn’t let those things kill you after you saved my family. I would have run out there myself, but Sal’s twice as big, and four times as strong as I am!”
David finally asked, “Could I bother you for a drink of water?”
Vickie quickly filled a glass and handed it to him, and after a long drink he explained why he and Christy had left downtown, as well as how they had learned to protect themselves from the zombies. They peppered him with questions for about five minutes until David finally explained that Jim would be worried about him and he needed to get going. Sal and Vickie agreed to stay inside and remain quiet until David returned after getting some food and rest, and he swapped cell numbers with them in case service was restored before he could return to check on them.
The trip back to Christy’s parents’ home was uneventful, and Jim met him at the back door with an expression of relief and anger.
“What they hell took you so long?” he demanded.
“They invited me in and I took a few minutes to get to know them.”
Noticing the condition of David’s armor Jim demanded, “Tell me about the fight.”
“No big deal, there were three of them and I ended up wrestling with a big one.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Yeah, I ache all over and I’m exhausted! Look, the Martinez family is fine; they were trying to get to his sister’s place before a road block turned them back. I told them that I’d return later today to check up on them and share the latest news. They promised to stay inside and be quiet until they heard from me again.”
Jim grimaced as he admonished, “You shouldn’t have put yourself in danger like that.”
“Wouldn’t you hope that someone would put themselves in danger like that if it was Christy being chased by zombies?”
Jim had no response to the question so David continued, “I hate to be so cold-hearted about it, but we’ll eventually need a doctor if we’re all going to survive this mess. I don’t know if I would have gone down there if you hadn’t told me that Vickie is a doctor, and I’m not proud to admit that. But Jack said that sooner or later we’ll need other survivors if we’re going to make it, and a doctor is probably the best addition we could make to our little group right now.”
Jim held up a hand in mock surrender, “All right, you’re making good sense to me. Just don’t drag me into it when Christy finds out about your fight with ‘three’ zombies down the street, and I won’t tell her about the rest of the pack I saw heading that way that must have gotten lost between here and there! And, by the way, you probably noticed that all power and cell service went
out while you were gone.”
David sighed and explained, “They had me on the ground, but Sal came out and pulled them off so I could kill them. I didn’t intend to fight all of the pack we saw, but I had to kill the fast-movers or they would have gotten those kids. By the time I finished with them the rest of the pack was on me. We’ll have to tell Christy and Trudy the whole story later today, but in the meantime I’m gonna get some sleep. Wake me up at noon and we’ll go from there.”
As predicted, lunchtime with the spouses wasn’t fun at all. Christy’s eyes almost bugged out of her head when she heard about David’s suicidal battle with a large pack of zombies, and Trudy was upset with Jim for letting their new son-in-law out the door in the first place. After the emotion dried up, David felt that he had mostly convinced everyone that the addition of a doctor to their group was worth the danger he had exposed himself to. He also pointed out that survival in the zombie-world was going to require taking risks that would have been unacceptable to most people before the outbreak.
When his little speech was finished Christy grabbed his hand and agreed. “You’re right, honey, so when you return to the Martinez house this afternoon I’ll be your back-up!”
David knew when he was beaten, but Jim gave it a shot. “Fighting zombies is a man’s job! You’re staying in here where it’s safe!”
Two minutes later Jim and his red ears were convinced that girls had the ability and obligation to fight zombies as much as anyone else on the planet, and the rest of the afternoon was spent organizing a priorities-list for the next few days. Everyone agreed that Jack’s advice to secure the second floor as an emergency retreat should be the first thing they did. After that everybody seemed to have conflicting opinions about what was most important, but bringing the Martinez family into the fold was accepted as a wise and practical decision that needed to be acted upon immediately. They also agreed that convincing the small family to join their household was the best way to protect them. Finally, with the list approved by all parties, David and Christy geared up for their trip to the doctor’s house.
Moving through the narrow path between the wood fences of suburbia, the two former lawyers heard and saw the evidence of disaster falling upon the world. A giant pall of smoke lay across the entire eastern horizon as Cleveland continued to burn. Nearby, an almost continuous cacophony of gunshots and sirens assaulted their ears as Westlake slowly succumbed to the ravages of the virus and the results of the infection left in its wake. The couple didn’t see anything but a neighbor’s dog as they approached the Martinez home, but a foul odor warned them that they were nearing the sight of the morning’s slaughter.
When Christy saw the pile of zombies in the driveway she looked at David through her visor and hissed, “Bastard! Trying to make me a widow already?”
He shrugged and mumbled an apology, then waved her forward when he saw Sal peering out through the curtains. Vickie met them at the door and welcomed them in with a nervous smile. They quickly removed their helmets once the door was locked and David announced, “This is my wife, Christy.”
As soon as the introductions were completed the two couples sat down at the dining room table to discuss the crisis unfolding across the globe and take a few minutes to get to know one another a bit better. Sal was as big as David had described, but behind the heavy, dark-brown beard his eyes were full of kindness and he usually smiled when he talked. Vickie was petite and pretty, with intense brown eyes and long black hair framing her Hispanic, aristocratic face.
With no power the doctor and her husband were eager for news of the infection. When David gave them the latest information from the networks before they crashed, Vickie began to quietly weep as Sal took her hand and murmured comforting words that everyone present knew had no validity in light of recent events. There was no place for them to go and probably nobody left for them to see.
Vickie dried her eyes and apologized for her tears. David and Christy both spoke up to reassure her that she had nothing to apologize for, but she held up her hand and tried to explain, “I come from a large, close knit family in Puerto Rico. My parents and most of my siblings are still there. I was holding on to the hope that this . . . this . . . outbreak was localized in a few specific places like D.C. and other big American cities. I know that was foolish, but it gave me hope. With everything you just told us, I can’t keep pretending that anyone is safe anywhere in this world.”
The weight of Vickie’s words hung in the air as everyone’s thoughts turned to family members and friends out in the middle of an escalating zombie horror. Sal finally broke the quiet sadness by asking, “Can you help my family survive this nightmare?”
David shared his knowledge of the virus and the zombies it produced, as well as what he knew about fighting and destroying the infected. After he explained his theory of how they could help one another in the new world developing beyond their doors, Vickie spoke up.
“We don’t have much food and virtually no water now that the power is out. We do have quite a bit of medicine and medical supplies because Sal was always worried that a flu or some other pandemic was eventually going to break out in the United States. I guess he was right in a way.”
Sal added, “We also have a home surgical kit, and Vickie’s been a primary-care physician for six years. I don’t think my professional expertise is quite as valuable—I’m a professor of policy and peace studies at Case Western,” he smiled sheepishly, “but at least I’m 6’ 6” and have a strong back.”
Christy managed to smile at Sal while shooting David a reproachful glance, “We’re going to need to help each other any way we can in this new world we live in. I’m not going to turn my back on any of our neighbors who are still alive and fighting this outbreak no matter what anyone else thinks!”
David explained, “My brother warned me to be very careful over the next few months and stay hidden in the house until things settle down a bit. Christy’s father and I discussed whether or not we should risk ourselves to help anyone else until then. To be completely honest, I don’t know if I would have headed down here this morning if I hadn’t known that Vickie was a doctor. I couldn’t see your kids in the back of the minivan, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve been here for their sakes regardless of the danger.”
A wry smile creased Sal’s face as he admitted, “I don’t know what I would do for others if it meant placing my family at risk. Don’t worry about what you might have done; the fact is you came down here and risked your life to save us from those monsters.”
David nodded and finally asked, “So, are we a team?”
Vickie immediately blurted out, “Yes, of course!”
Christy got up and hugged her, then pulled away and exclaimed, “C’mon, I’ll help you pack!”
31
David’s Journey
CHAPTER 4
David and Sal rounded up as many packs and suitcases as they could find and helped their wives load them with what was considered essential. They had all decided that the move needed to happen immediately and that they could make return trips as needed for items that didn’t make the cut this time around. Clothes, medical supplies, and toys for the kids were packed, as was all perishable food and as many canned goods as they could carry. Remaining foodstuffs and valuables were hastily buried in the crawl space and within an hour the little group was ready to move.
Sal was a pacifist, and philosophically shared his wife’s physician’s creed to cause no harm. When he’d helped David during the earlier fight with the zombies, he hadn’t even used deadly force on the creatures. Before they left the house, David and Christy made sure that Sal and Vickie understood that the flesh-eaters were no longer human, and if they wanted to keep themselves and their family alive they were going to have accept killing as part of their new paradigm. The two couples spent a few minutes in the garage modifying some tools into short spears and spiked clubs so they would all be armed when they made the short trip to Jim and Trudy’s place.
Fi
nally, they all scoured the house for the toughest clothing items they could find. A few leather coats and gloves and a toy football helmet were the only valuable items to be found. David insisted that one of the boys wear the helmet. Christy cut a tough old canvas tarp into strips and proceeded to wrap the family’s arms, legs, and necks. Then she duct taped the wrappings to keep them in place and reinforce the fabric. Sal asked if they were being overly cautious for such a short trip, and David replied, “Yes, we are! You need to get used to always carrying weapons and being armored at all times. Even in the house you need to have those things ready for use at a moment’s notice. One bite anywhere that breaks the skin and you will be infected. Remember that fact!”
They were ready to go as the sun began to dip over the western horizon. David didn’t want to be outside after dark if at all possible, and he wished that they could have left a quarter-hour earlier. Christy took point and David positioned himself at the rear of their little column. Sal was second in line with the two children placed between he and Vickie. They made their way out the back door to the gate at the far end of the property, then quickly and quietly slipped out onto the grassy path that would have been an alley in a city neighborhood. Christy did her best to see through the dusk and the growing haze from nearby fires, but she found that her vision was limited to about thirty feet.
The fences between the first two houses were seven feet tall and solid wood, but one of the next backyards was protected only by a four-foot high chain link barrier. As luck would have it, the rear door of the house was open and two fat adult zombies were lumbering after a terrified Beagle that kept just out of their range with his tail tucked between his legs. The poor dog instinctively knew that the monsters, who’d likely been his beloved providers and companions, were now an existential threat. When he saw the Martinez children he remembered the many times they’d petted him and given him treats when he was out on his walks, and, in spite of the helmeted strangers with them, he ran up to the kids and began barking frantically for their help as he repeatedly leapt against the fence.
