Z Strain

by SJ Morris

  Although, I knew I was going to need every bit of energy I could muster to get away from this area, so I quickly pulled open one of the silver pouches and ate the crackers and jelly.

  I didn't have time to make the Chicken Ala King that was included, but by the looks of it, I wasn’t missing much.

  I ventured up to the front of the van to see if maybe there was a map in the glove compartment and I was in luck. I found a map of New Jersey and portions of Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. I also found a handgun with a silencer and two extra clips.

  For the first time since Chris got me out of that house with that freak trying to cut me up, I felt like I might just be okay. Funny how finding a gun will make you feel safe when you’re in a shitty life-threatening situation.

  I put the map in the backpack and looked down at myself, trying to find a place to hide my extra clips and the gun when I realized I was still in my underwear.

  Goddamn it, I never got my pants back on!

  I remembered Chris grabbing them and putting them and my boots in the van with me before I blacked out, but where the hell were they now?

  I couldn’t exactly run around the woods in my underwear, dodging the infected and possibly bands of ruthless thugs, just looking for someone to steal from, or worse.

  I swear, if I didn’t have bad luck these last few days, I’d have none at all.

  I put my gear down and started to search the van again for where my pants could be hiding.

  I found the blanket that Chris wrapped me in before putting me in the van and it looked like it had been dragged out of the van a little with Ben’s body so most of it was outside the open door.

  I got closer and saw black leather poking out of one of the corners that was, unfortunately, very outside. I adjusted my position very quietly to see if the jean-clad infected was still hanging out and he was, but he was facing away from me. I inched closer to the leather that was sticking out of the blanket with the hopes to be able to pull it slowly toward myself.

  I reached out my hand and the mid-June sun warmed my wrist instantly. It felt so good, compared to the cold gory inside of the van.

  I grabbed ahold of the belt loop and started to pull slowly. For a moment, it seemed like I was actually going to get away with it until I hit a snag and realized that one of the pant legs was trapped under not only the blanket but also the remains of Ben.

  Shit is still the word of the day.

  I pulled a little harder and the pants only gave a little, but it also made the rifle that was trapped under Ben drag on the asphalt.

  It was the smallest sound, but as it sounded, I looked right at the infected that had his back to me before and we were now face to face.

  I froze as he looked at me and I looked at him.

  I stared into lifeless white eyes for what seemed forever and he started... sniffing the air around my face.

  His eyes were so decomposed that even though I was inches away from him, he couldn’t see me.

  He moved to hover over the area where the rifle made the scraping noise and stood back up. I didn’t dare move, blink, or breathe, but I couldn’t hold this position forever.

  The infected stared out into the woods, beyond the road, for a long time, standing right in front of me.

  I had to move. I couldn’t hold my position any longer since my legs were cramping badly.

  I decided to move, but take it extremely slow. Maybe if I didn't make any noise, he wouldn’t notice my movements through his milky eyes.

  I let go of the pants and started pulling my hand back a fraction of a millimeter at a time. I wished I was smart enough to put the gun on my lap before I decided to try this little pants rescue mission, but alas I wasn’t.

  I was sure I was home free when the infected looked right down at me. I panicked as he took a big whiff of the air around him, but thankfully, turned to shuffle off.

  What…the... fuck? I thought as I sat down quickly, out of view, back inside the van. What the hell just happened?

  I was sure the infected knew I was there. I had seen plenty of infected with heavily decayed eyes still find someone before.

  They would even track your movements inside a closed car if they had a chance.

  How did this infected not see me?

  Not wanting to tempt my good-fortune, I waited a few long minutes and grabbed the gun, in an effort to try and get my pants again.

  This time quick was going to be my M.O. Rip the Band-Aid off fast, right? It hurts less. I sure as hell hope that saying applied to this situation, because I don’t know how much longer I could stomach staying in this blood and shit covered van.

  So, with the gun in one hand and the leather belt loop in the other, I took a good look around.

  Mr. Jeans was still slowly wandering away, down the road and had now made it about fifty feet from me.

  I didn’t think that was enough distance between us but I was prepared to yank my pants free, grab the pack, and bolt for the tree line. I took a deep breath and pulled like I was trying to yank a tablecloth out from underneath a vase.

  It made a lot of noise and Mr. Jeans turned in my direction, but he was not in a big rush. It seemed like the noise only shifted his direction.

  He certainly didn’t have the fervor that most of the infected had when they sensed food nearby. Something was definitely different. Something was off. Maybe the infected were changing?

  With this possibility in my mind, I took advantage of the gun in my hand and the fact that Mr. Jeans was not chasing after me.

  I walked right up to him. There were only about five feet between us and he didn’t even look up. He just kept his slow movement forward in my direction. I pulled the gun up to his forehead and he practically walked into the muzzle of the silencer. I pulled the trigger and with a soft thump, Mr. Jeans was now down for the count. I looked around and saw three more infected breaking the tree line in my general direction but it was the same thing; they didn’t seem to notice me at all.

  I walked up to the new group that consisted of an older woman in a bright flowered pants suit, a small round man in his ripped pajamas, and a very naked, fake blonde woman.

  When I say fake, I mean boob and dye-job fake. Her breasts were the only thing that was fairly preserved on her, even though they were covered in dry blood and other gore. The rest of her skin was covered in bite marks and black, oozing, open wounds.

  Still, none of them paid any attention to me. I walked around them with my gun pointed at whichever one was closest, but they didn’t reach for me or even moan. This is starting to really freak me out. I know I shouldn’t be bothered that the undead nolonger found me appetizing, but it didn’t seem right.

  I was suddenly very aware that I was walking around in my underwear, in the middle of the street and I stopped to put my pants on.

  I was pretty sweaty, so I knew that getting into my leather pants was not going to be easy.

  I figured that even though the three infected were not interested in me, that I should still get rid of them. It could be any minute that they decided they were hungry again and sprint for me. I walked up close to them and pointed the gun to the backs of their heads, three quick shots and three new, completely dead, infected hit the road.

  I took my pants back to the van and used the blanket to try and dry the sweat and blood off my legs.

  I managed to get the pants on when my luck turned again. I saw what looked like a boot string dangling from the other bench seat. I opened the lid and my snake boots, as well as a crapload of MREs spilled out.

  With my heart pounding, I peeked my head out of the van again, to see what the noise had attracted, but I didn’t see anything.

  So, I grabbed my boots and pulled them on.

  Afterward, I heaved the backpack over my shoulder and left the van of death, hopefully for the last time.

  I yanked the rifle from the remains of Ben and rolled over what was left of him to take the extra clips from his belt. I looked up and saw another
group of about five infected headed my way, but they were still about a hundred feet away; plenty of time for me to make it to the woods.

  I stuffed the extra rifle clips in the pack and was startled by a shrill scream.

  I stood and looked around, seeing nothing other than the five infected that were slowly headed in my direction just a few seconds ago, now speeding past me, towards the scream. I used a hinge from the van door to pull myself up so I could see over the van.

  I saw a man and a woman running down the road, away from me and the five infected now chasing after them.

  There wasn’t even a question in my mind that I needed to help these two and I took off running after the infected.

  My how the tides had turned!

  I ran but my broken ribs reminded me that I was not in perfect condition. I pushed harder, using the woman's screams as an incentive to keep pumping my legs as fast as my broken body would let me.

  I got to within about ten feet of the group of five infected and stopped. I took a firing stance and was about to pull the trigger when the woman turned to face me still running away.

  “Don’t shoot us please!”She screamed.

  I realized that if I did miss one of my targets, that I could just as easily shoot one of them on accident.

  I guessed now was as good a time as any to see if the infected still didn’t care for me, while they were all worked up or not.

  I started running after the infected again. They were at a jogging pace, but I caught up pretty quick, busted ribs and all. I tried to arc around them, keeping a pretty good distance, just in case they decided that I would be a good meal replacement for the two still running away, but again, they didn’t seem to notice me at all.

  Eventually, I got far enough ahead that I could stop and shoot them down one by one and that’s what I did.

  They were moving, but nine shots took the five of them down for good. I turned to see that the couple had stopped running a little further down the road and they were just staring at me and panting. I wrapped my arm around my broken ribs, that were now screaming in pain as I breathed heavily from the exertion of running.

  I waved my gun in the air above my head and tried to speak but every breath was excruciating, now that I was coming down from my adrenaline high.

  “It’s okay…They're…dead!”I managed to yell.

  I scanned the tree-line, to see if the woman's previous screams had attracted any more infected but I didn’t see any, which was amazing.

  I wholeheartedly waved at the couple again and they started slowly moving in my direction.

  I knew there was a First Aid kit in the van somewhere, stashed with the MREs.

  Ugh, I really didn’t want to go back there, but the pain in my ribs was really bad. I was going to need some painkillers if I was going to make it anywhere after what I just did. The couple finally made it to about ten feet away from me and the man pushed the woman protectively behind him, so I could only see her face over his shoulder.

  “Are you okay, ma’am?”The man spoke first.

  “Yeah. I might have a few broken ribs and some bruises from a car crash, but I’ll be okay.”I said with labored breaths.

  “You haven’t been bit, have you?”

  “No, just the scrapes from the car crash. You?”

  “No, neither of us has been bitten. Thanks for taking care of the zedsfor us. We’ve been dodging these things all day and we’re getting pretty tired.”

  “No problem.”

  “How did you get to them, though? You were behind them and then ran past them but they didn’t attack you.”He said as he took a step closer and tried to look me over better.

  “I have no idea. It seems that after the car crash the infected, or the zeds as you called them, want nothing to do with me. I came face to face with one just before and he just kind of sniffed me and walked away. Then, I walked right up to him and put my gun in his face and pulled the trigger.”

  “Wow. You may just be the luckiest person alive right now if these things want nothing to do with you.”

  “I guess so, but I would really like to know why because before the accident, they wanted me just as much as anyone else,”I said this and thought of my kids, Chris, and the others. Between the pain of my body and the ache now in my chest, I couldn’t help but start to cry a little.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s just that a lot has happened to me in the last few days and I don’t know where my group is, or even if most of them are alive still, or not.”

  “Last few days? Where the hell have you been the last month and a half? The infected are everywhere. I would give my left leg to only have had a bad couple of days. We’ve been on the run since this started and we lost the rest of our fifteen-person group last week.”

  “Well...”I thought about telling these people of the cabin and the looks on their faces told me their story was true.“I have a cabin that’s fortified against the infected with plenty of supplies and a large group of survivors. We’ve been holding up there since this started. A group of eight others and I went out to search for some people we invited to join us and ran into trouble. We ran into some really bad guys before we could find the others and all hell broke loose. I have no idea where the rest of my group is, but the cabin is up in Paradise Lakes, just north of High Point State Park. I was going to try and make my way back there. Hopefully, the rest of my group is on their way back there now, instead of out looking for me.”

  “I know where Paradise Lakes is. It’s about a three or four-hour drive from here, I think. My folks and I used to go fishing up there when I was a kid.”

  “I have a map, but if you know the way, I would be more than happy for the company and we definitely have room at the cabin for two more.”

  The woman jumped out in front of her protector immediately.

  “You would do that? Oh my God, we could stop running! Whatever you need from us, we’ll do. I’m a great cook and I can sew really well. Kamil here is really strong and good at fixing things. If it has a motor in it and it’s broken, he can get it running again…I guarantee it!”She exclaimed.

  “Relax, Dana. We don’t want to seem like crazy people in front of the nice woman.”He said with a smile.

  “No worries, I can understand you guys have been on the run for a while, so it’s expected. So, Kamil, you said, and Dana? My name is Abby. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

  “The pleasure is all ours, Abby.”

  “I hate to stop our introduction short, but we are about to have visitors.”I motioned to the group of about ten infected that were now breaking the tree-line, headed in our direction.

  Dana started to scream again and I harshly yelled at her to shut up. I don’t know if she was surprised by my brash words or if she realized that I wouldn’t have said them if it wasn’t truly important that she stopped, but she did.

  I waved my hand for them to run towards where the van was as I hobbled towards the now energized group of zombies. I figured Dana’s screams really got them worked up because they seemed to pick up the pace almost instantly.

  I had checked the clip when I took the gun from the glove compartment and it was full. I did the math that I got rid of Mr. Jeans, Flower Granny, Pajama man, and Miss Plastic, along with the other five. That took me nine shots total to kill them all.

  I spent thirteen rounds, which meant I only had two rounds left.

  I quickly grabbed my pack, yanked out a fresh clip, and changed it out. The group was getting very close, but they too seemed disinterested in me.

  They even started to split down the middle to avoid me, while they ravenously pursued my new friends, Dana and Kamil.

  The confidence this gave me made me feel a hundred-feet-tall.

  I was now the zombie hunter, G.I. Jane!

  I took my time and picked my targets. I picked off six with six shots before the group made it to me, and began shuffling quickly past me.

  I turned to fol
low them and took four more carefully placed shots to get rid of all of them.

  Again, Kamil and Dana stopped running and just stared blankly at me for a few minutes.

  After the shock wore off a little, the two of them started slowly heading back in my direction.

  To my surprise, there were no questions.

  Kamil just reached out to put his shoulder under my arm and help me back to the van.

  I decided that after the all of the unexplainable events they had already been through, they had seen enough weird shit to know that asking questions didn’t lead to much these days.

  I told them there were a bunch of MREs in the van and asked if they could grab the First Aid kit from the bench seat for me.

  Dana hurried into the van and started filling her bag with the silver packets.

  Kamil found the First Aid kit for me and came out with it.

  He sat me on the edge of a crumpled car and asked me to pull up my shirt. I reluctantly did and we both cringed. My right side was covered in dark, purple bruises where my ribs were.

  Kamil jumped back as his eyes found the long cut that came out of my pants over my hip to just under my armpit. I looked down also and what I saw took my breath away. The cut was black and the veins around it were showing black under my skin. My eyes met Kamil’s and he backed up a little more.

  I reached out to touch the cut and the skin around it was much warmer than the rest of my body.

  Is this why the infected ignored me? I wondered. Was I infected, as I had thought I was before? But how is it that I don’t have a fever anymore…Do I?

  I dropped my shirt and reached up to my forehead and my temperature was normal. I wasn’t incredibly thirsty, I was still lucid, and I was talking.

  I felt the pain that my broken ribs caused too.

  I looked at Kamil as I searched my brain for some kind of timetable of how long it was since Liam’s goon had cut me up. It had at least been eight to ten hours or more.

  That sick fuck probably wasn’t cleaning his knife; he was rubbing infected blood or something else on it!