Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 1): The Fall of Man

by Jeff DeGordick

  Something had to give. Everything was getting worse and worse as the days went on, and she couldn't take it anymore.

  She sat in her lawn chair sometime past midnight, awake. She had dozed off for a little bit, but now she was awake and her body refused to go back to sleep. She stopped crying and stopped feeling any emotion, really. She just sat and stared blankly at the roofs of the townhouses across the courtyard. She didn't know why she was so upset. Earlier that day, she was actually happy. She loved her son and she felt sorry for him. A slight part of her was maybe even considering going to North Carolina.

  A groan came from the alley. Clumsy feet shuffled along the ground. The gate in the alley buckled inward a couple of inches.

  She shot up to her feet and looked at the gate. She could see it moving through the spaces between the boards. It raised its arms and banged on the gate. Its eyes glowed in the moonlight and she knew it was staring at her.

  An angry groan came from its rotting throat and it hit the gate harder and harder. It started clawing its black fingernails down the boards, then wedged its fingers in between them, viciously shaking the gate.

  "Leave me alone!" Sarah whispered. She fell to her knees and cried again, too overwhelmed to do anything else. "Leave me alone!" she tried to scream at it, but her throat was sore and it only came out as a hoarse squeak. She was worried that the zombie would attract others and bring them here, but all she could do was sit there like a lost child and bawl.

  The townhouse door squeaked open and David walked out. He walked up behind his mom and put a hand on her shoulder then stood in front of the gate. He was so calm in how he moved and he just stood and stared at the zombie through the gate. After a few moments, the zombie settled down until it let go of the gate and quieted completely. It turned and started to walk off out of the alley.

  Sarah watched the events transpire in awe. She got up and went up to the gate, looking through the boards at the zombie as it walked away.

  And then she saw the handle of her hunting knife sticking out of its back.

  It was that same zombie from before. Suddenly all the rage and negative emotions she felt the entire day boiled up to the surface and channeled into one fiercely intense direction. She picked up a shovel that she used to tend the garden, then she flung the gate open and marched up to the zombie.

  It turned and saw her, a look of lustful hunger spreading across its monstrous face. It lunged for her and flung its arms at her, but she swung the shovel and clocked it right in the head. The walking corpse sailed sideways and fell onto the grass beyond the alley. Just as it tried to get up, she rained down another blow on the back of its head. She unleashed all her rage and fury onto it and hammered it over and over with the shovel until its skull split apart and its brain turned to jam. Even after it stopped moving, she hammered it again and again with the bent shovel. She tossed it aside and grabbed the hilt of the knife, jimmying it roughly and yanking it out.

  This time David stood in stunned silence and watched her. Without any words between them, she walked David into the house and put him to bed. All her clothes were covered in dark red blood. She emptied her pockets and took them all off and put them in a bag, then cleaned her skin with a wet rag. She slipped into bed and thought about everything. In all her eight years of living in the zombie apocalypse, that was the first one she ever killed. It made her feel powerful. And she liked that.

  In the morning, when David's eyes were just fluttering open to the sunlight coming through his window, she opened his bedroom door.

  "We're going to North Carolina, pack your things," she said simply then closed his door and left.

  His eyes shot wide open and he sat up in bed. Excitement flooded through his body and he got up and began packing. Once he had everything he wanted to bring stuffed into a black plastic garbage bag, he ran down the stairs and put it by the door.

  Sarah was out in the courtyard boiling some breakfast.

  "Can we go today?" he asked.

  "No. We have to get supplies today, then we'll head out tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long journey; we have to be prepared." She gave him a wink and smiled.

  He wanted to ask her what made her change her mind, but he didn't want to jinx the whole thing, so he kept quiet. He had a hard time containing a big smile as he ate.

  When they finished, they went out together and looked for any useful supplies they could find around the area. They got some canned food, AA batteries, clothing, some blankets, and they even managed to find a portable gas stove, just like the one Herb showed them. They dropped the supplies off at home then took the wagon with a partially empty water jug and trekked off to the spring to top it up for the journey. She even let him come with her for that, too.

  They passed only a few zombies on their errands, but they made sure to keep their distance and not even get close to them.

  When they came back with the water, she decided to make one last stop for the day before settling in. She wanted to take him to see if they could get some more supplies from the Valley View Mall in town. It was the biggest mall in the city, and she had never worked up the courage to go out that far before. He readily agreed and they went west across town for about ten blocks to get there.

  All the doors to the place had unsurprisingly been smashed, bent, or pried open, and the whole interior was dim, the only light coming through the skylights in the roof. She told him to stay behind her as she inched through the mall with her flashlight. Every store had been heavily ransacked and it didn't look like much remained. The mall seemed quiet and empty.

  "What's that?" he asked. He pointed to a nondescript metal door sitting in the wall between two stores.

  "That probably leads to an access tunnel," she said.

  "What's an access tunnel?"

  "It's just a hallway where people who worked at the mall could go behind the stores and bring in all the new stock."

  He looked at her strangely.

  "All the new stuff that they sold in the stores," she said.

  "Oh. That's it?"

  "Well, some tunnels might lead to other things like a security office or something." When he looked at her again, she continued, "It's a room where they have a big TV screen that shows what all the cameras in the mall see, so they can watch for any trouble."

  "Can we go there?"

  "I don't think there's anything there."

  "I just want to see."

  She considered for a moment, trying to keep her overprotectiveness down and keep an open mind. "I suppose we could take a quick look. I don't know what's back there, though."

  He smiled and ran to the door.

  "Hey! Not so fast. Wait for me."

  She dragged the empty wagon up behind them and left it beside the door, then she grabbed the handle and tried to turn it.

  It didn't budge.

  "Sorry," she said, "locked."

  He went up to it and looked at the handle closely, then he put his hand flat against the door and pushed it. It swung wide open, giving way to a dark hallway. The doorknob itself had been locked, but the latch jamb was broken away as if someone kicked it in.

  She smiled. "All right, buster, make me look like a fool, will you?"

  He smiled back at her and started to enter the hallway.

  She grabbed the collar of his t-shirt and yanked him back. "Hey, behind me, remember?"

  "Okay," he said and let her go by.

  She shone the flashlight down the hallway and they entered. There was a set of two steel doors halfway down that they opened.

  It was a large room with a high ceiling and gigantic machinery filling it. The machines sat dormant, covered in dust.

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "I don't know," she said. "I think it's all the machines that turned the lights on."

  "But they don't work anymore?"

  "No."

  "Did you try pressing the switch?"

  She laughed. They made their way around the room until they came to the ba
ck, and they noticed something odd: there was another machine against the back wall, smaller than the others, that emitted a little red light. She marveled at it. "I think we found your switch."

  "Does that turn on the lights?" he asked.

  "I'm no expert," she said, "but I think this is a generator. It has to be."

  "What's a generator?"

  She pointed the flashlight at it and inspected the panel on the front. "People used generators as a backup in emergencies in case the power went out. Generators aren't tied to the electrical grid and they operate on their own." She squinted, looking at each button on the panel.

  "How come they can have power if nothing else does?"

  "Well, they generate power using something other than electricity. Usually it's gas, but it's not running and the light is still on, so maybe... a battery?"

  She couldn't make heads or tails of what any of the buttons on the panel did, but there was a big red button in the top-left corner that she overlooked at first.

  "Cross your fingers," she said. She hit the button and the machine whirred into life.

  A moment later, all the other machines in the room came to life and the long fluorescent bulbs lining the ceiling, lifeless for ages, turned on. The bright lights blinded them and they shielded their eyes, waiting for them to adjust.

  They both broke out into laughter and hugged each other in victory. She had never seen him so excited before. This was the first time he had ever seen artificial light, aside from a flashlight.

  They made their way back out into the main part of the mall and his jaw dropped.

  All of the lights illuminated the entire mall, and he could see every last decoration, flourish and contour of the place. He had never been in an enclosed shopping mall before, and seeing it in all its glory was a real treat. To her, it looked like a hurricane had come through and ransacked it, but to him it was heaven. Even she had to admit that she was excited to see lights come on in a building for the first time in years.

  They traveled through the entire mall with their wagon, but came back to the start empty-handed. Everything of use had already been picked clean and she was afraid that he would be disappointed, but he couldn't wipe the smile off his face if he tried.

  Just before they were about to leave, they noticed a photo booth sitting against the wall next to the entrance.

  She smiled at him. "Do you want to get your picture taken?"

  He was confused. "It's... like a camera?"

  "Yeah, come on, I'll show you." She took him by the hand and pulled back the black curtain, leading him inside. They sat down on the bench and she frowned when she realized they needed money to operate it.

  "What's wrong?" he asked.

  "We need a dollar to use it."

  "Oh!" he said suddenly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small fold of paper money.

  "Where did you get that?" she asked, surprised.

  "I saw some on the ground in the mall," he said. "I like to collect it."

  "How much do you have?"

  "Three dollars here."

  "Here?" she asked. "Do you have more at home?"

  A sheepish grin spread over his face.

  "How much?"

  "A lot."

  She laughed. "Why?"

  "It helps me imagine what it was like before all the zombies came."

  She turned her head away, suddenly struck with poignant emotion. It was times like these where she couldn't believe how her son stayed so hopeful when she had long lost hers. She wiped the tears from her eyes and cleared her throat then turned back to him. "Well, what do you say we use one of those dollars?"

  He handed her one and she fed it into the machine. She showed him where the camera was as the machine blinked a red light at them. They both smiled and held their faces together for the camera.

  A bright flash went off and their picture was taken.

  "That was fun!" he said, and he started to shuffle on the bench.

  "It's not done yet! There are still three more pictures!"

  "Oh, okay," he said and settled back into position.

  They took another picture together, then he held up bunny ears behind her head and said "Noah's Ark!" on the third picture.

  She remembered that she had the torn paper with the symbol for Noah's Ark in her pocket. She quickly fished it out in time for the final photo and held it up between them. The camera flashed its bright light at them one last time and then the booth played a musical jingle to signify that the fun was over. It spat out a column of photos at them and she held it up for them both to see.

  They looked happier in each photo than either of them had ever been in the last eight years. Finally, they had a purpose again and she started to realize how foolish she had been the entire time to lock him up for his whole life. Yes, the world was incredibly dangerous, but a life without taking a few risks was no life at all. The final photo stuck with her the most: the two of them grinning from ear to ear with the brown boat on blue waves of Noah's Ark, their salvation, held up between them.

  "Come on," she said. "We've got to get going; it'll be dark soon."

  "Okay."

  They slid out of the photo booth and she gave the strip of photos to him for him to hold on to.

  "Should we turn the lights off, Mom?"

  She looked around the ruined mall. "No, I don't think so, honey. There's nothing here for anyone to find anymore."

  "Well, I'm still glad I got to see it," he said.

  She smiled.

  A noise came from the upper floor of the mall above them.

  They both jumped and looked up. All they could see was a railing wrapping around the second floor, but not much else.

  Then they heard footsteps. They hadn't found anyone in the mall and assumed they were alone, but she knew those stumbling footfalls all too well.

  "Come on!" she whispered. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him toward the entrance, the wagon clattering across the tile in her other hand.

  In the panic and hurry, he dropped the photo reel as they sprinted for the doors. It fluttered to the ground, their happy faces to be forever mixed with the dust and the decay.

  6

  ON THE ROAD

  They got up early the next morning and Sarah fixed them a little breakfast before they went. She picked everything out of the garden that they had room for in the wagon and packed it up tight. The two glass water jugs took up most of the room, but somehow she found a way to fit in all the canned food, clothes, blankets, gas stove, and all the other little odds and ends. They bid a halfhearted farewell to the townhouses, then they set off.

  Her heart began hammering in her chest when they took their first steps down the road. It was one big unknown and it scared the hell out of her, but she was ready for it. David's heart thumped in his chest just the same, but for him it was all excitement.

  She kept the pistol loaded and tucked in the waistband of her pants. She cleaned the zombie guts off the hunting knife and wrapped it up in a long length of cloth, keeping it within reach in the wagon. In the scavenging from the day before, she took a nice chef's knife from one of the houses and bundled it up too, to keep for preparing any vegetables or animals that they came across. The food and water they had stocked up in the wagon wouldn't last them very long, especially the water, so they would always have to be on the lookout for more. She tried to mark a route on the maps that would keep them within fair proximity to a river or some kind of body of water that would hopefully be clean enough to drink from.

  "So how long's it gonna be till we get there?" he asked.

  "It hasn't even been a couple hours yet, and you already want to know if we're there yet?" she said with a smile.

  "Well... how long?"

  "Hmm, maybe two weeks. If we make good time."

  "Okay," he said, "Day One."

  "Day One," she agreed.

  They walked south along the direction of Highway 11, but made sure to stay a few side streets away from it and ke
ep to the quiet residential roads. They stopped periodically for a drink of water, pouring from a jug into a big pitcher she brought, then into a plastic cup for each of them. She tried to plan ahead and ration out the water, deciding how much they could use each day, and for what. Walking as far as they were in the blistering heat, they would go through it pretty quickly. If they were lucky, it would maybe last a week.

  They passed a playground tucked in between some neighborhoods in the early afternoon. There was a little girl in a pink Sunday dress sitting on a swing, her back to them.

  "Who is that?" David asked.

  "I don't know."

  The girl gently rocked back and forth as her head rolled around on her shoulders.

  He left his mom's side and ran to her.

  "David!" Sarah yelled after him and followed.

  They both stopped in front of the girl and stared.

  She was beautiful and young, about five years old. Her long blond hair shined in the sun and flowed down her back. A huge chunk of flesh was torn out of her neck and blood ran down and stained the pink fabric and white lace of her dress. Her face was pale and her eyes looked glossy, but she was still alive. She hummed a soft tune to herself as she faded in and out of consciousness, not even noticing the two of them standing in front of her.

  "Can we help her?" David asked.

  "We can't."

  Blood steadily pumped out of her wound, matching the beat of her fading heart.

  "Can we help her, Mom? Please?" Tears rolled down his face.

  "No, David. Don't look at her." She grabbed him by the arm and tried to pull him away, but he resisted.

  "Please, Mom! Help her! Why can't we just help her?" he cried, and Sarah bent down and just held him.

  The girl's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped forward and fell onto the ground.