Jake's Undead Nightmare

by McElyea, Ben

  “There’s always a chance an attack will happen.”

  “I’m too scared, Jake.”

  “You have to do it.”

  “It’s so cold.”

  “I don’t like it either, but we’re going to have to endure it.”

  “As soon as we get to the new place, I’m staying put.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “How do you tell the difference between a cannibal and someone who isn’t one?”

  “I’m not sure if someone could tell the difference.”

  “I’m going to assume every living person we don’t know is a cannibal.”

  “Not a bad idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people had to eat others to survive. Dan and I were starving for a while when we lived at the supermarket. We ate grass and bugs and drank rainwater. It was a gruesome sight to see them kill one of their own, tear the person apart, cook the person, and eat. It’s unnatural. I don’t know how someone could do such a thing.”

  “I’d never be that hungry.”

  “I doubt I ever will be, either.”

  Like always, Melissa sat in the corner of the living room and whispered to herself. She ate, went outside to relive herself, drank, and slept. Everyone was wary of her declining behavior. Jake spoke with Eric in private about whether or not she should be left behind. They agreed to keep her with the group.

  Aaron was getting worse. Only Courtney believed the boy stood a chance. Aaron sat next to the fire and whimpered. Deep down, they really wanted to help him. Some of the group felt bad for not being able to do anything to help.

  That night, a gunshot was heard.

  “That sounded like it was very close,” Sam said. “I think we should have someone looking out the window at all times.”

  “Sam’s right,” said Jake. “Dan, look out the window and tell me if you see anything. Have your weapons ready, everyone. We could be ambushed.”

  All was quiet. Everyone stared at Dan, hoping he wouldn’t see anything.

  “What can you see?” Courtney asked.

  “It’s snowing really hard. It’s hard to see much. I can see the gate from here. I don’t see anyone or anything.”

  “Someone’s out there.”

  “You’re probably right. We’re dealing with the worst people and creatures known to man. No matter where we go, they’re not going to be too far away. It’s very unnerving. I wish we could just live on the beach and catch fish.”

  “I doubt we’d be able to get that far.”

  When the sun came up, Jake and Eric rushed outside and looked around. They found nothing out of the ordinary. He and Eric came back inside and frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Megan asked.

  “We’re nervous,” Eric answered.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Melissa said angrily.

  “I think someone was here last night,” Jake said as he began packing up his things. “We need to get to that trailer park. I get the feeling it isn’t safe here anymore.”

  “Jake’s right,” Dan said as he also began to pack his things. “I’m not comfortable with staying here for any longer.”

  Only Jake, Dan, and Eric were completely on board with the idea of leaving. Nonetheless, the group of eight moved. Every zombie encounter was extra frightening. The blizzard was so strong they couldn’t see zombies until they were close. The wind whistled loudly as they slowly made their way towards their destination.

  After five miles of slow walking and killing the occasional small flock of zombies, Jake looked back to see that Megan and Sam were no longer with them.

  “Stop!” Jake yelled.

  The wind was so loud, not everybody heard him yell. He had to tap some of them on the shoulder. Everyone huddled up to hear what he had to say.

  “Megan and Sam are missing!”

  Everyone looked around.

  “There’s nothing we can do for her now. We don’t know what happened to her. We have to keep moving. If you get left behind, you’re done for.”

  When they reached their destination, they quickly huddled in the corner of one of the trailers. Cold and tired, they said nothing for several hours.

  31

  “I wish my sister was here,” Melissa said as she held her knees and rocked back and forth. “I want my sister.”

  “Don’t dwell on it,” Eric said as he and everyone shivered.

  “We need to build a fire,” Jake said as he began to unpack. “I guess we’ll have to start a fire in the living room floor and keep the front door cracked to let the smoke out.”

  “We need some dishes to keep beneath the wood,” Eric said, unpacking as well. “It’ll prevent the fire from spreading. I don’t like the idea of the front door being cracked, though.”

  “We’ll have stuff put in front of the door. No one will be able to get in. Courtney, how’s Aaron doing?”

  “Not good. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Don’t get too close to him. He’s probably contagious. Melissa, you’re freaking me and other people out. Calm down.”

  “The song of sadness will never stop playing.”

  “Listen to yourself.”

  “I’ll be fine. I just don’t feel good right now.”

  “I can tell. You’re rocking back and forth in a fetal position.”

  Jake and the others barricaded the door and blocked the curtains. Eric built a fire. It became warmer, warm enough to stop the shivering.

  “We need more stuff to burn,” Eric said as he came out of the hallway. “We only have so many books. We might not get sick if we keep the fire going.”

  “I don’t know how we’ve gotten so far,” Jake said before laughing loudly.

  “It’s nothing short of miraculous.”

  “We’re going on another search in two days. I wish you had something to do to occupy your mind, Melissa. Read a book.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Melissa replied. “I can get into a book. I don’t care what the book is about. I just want to think about something else.”

  “You’re a good leader,” Eric said to Jake with a pat on the back.

  “Thanks. I’m doing the best I can. I just wish we had Larry, Chris, and Angela. They would be of great help right now.”

  “I’m not so sure about Chris and Angela.”

  “Adam was an idiot,” said Sam. “It’s a shame we had to put Helen and Nancy down.”

  “It’s the way it had to be,” said Dan. “I feel horrible about it being done, but it was for the best. They would have held us back.”

  It snowed for the rest of that day, all night, and for the entirety of the next day. Eric, Jake, and Dan struggled as they walked through a foot and a half of snow. They were extra careful, wrapping their legs with spare shirts and bobby pins.

  “There are groupings of houses down in the valley,” said Jake. “I think we’ll be alright here for a while.”

  “How many zombies do you think there will be?” Dan asked.

  “I’m sure there will be at least a few of them,” Eric said with a discouraged tone.

  “What’s wrong?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t like the deep snow. We might miss a zombie lying beneath.”

  “Just try not to think about it. We’ll walk in a single file line. I’ll be up front. We’ll get just enough supplies to last us for a while and come back. It’s too cold to peek around.”

  The first house revealed very little. The second had a half empty bomb shelter beneath the basement. Everyone laughed with joy.

  “That infected old man was right,” Dan said with a grin. “There is plenty in this area.”

  “I wonder why it wasn’t completely looted,” said Jake.

  “They probably couldn’t carry it all.”

  The bomb shelter was a jackpot. It was stuffed with an assault rifle, three pistols, ammunition, canned goods and freeze dried meals, bottled water, jars of preserves, books, pencils and pens, warm clothing, shoes, and cigarettes. Jake and Dan tried s
moking and hated it. They coughed and gagged.

  No matter how they tried to make it work, they couldn’t carry everything they wanted. They took what was most important and went back to the trailer.

  “My spear is in bad condition,” Dan said. “I need a new blade.”

  “Get creative,” Eric said as he stoked the fire. “I wonder why there weren’t any zombies where we were. We didn’t see one.”

  “I don’t know,” Jake replied.

  “I wonder how much stuff is inside the city,” said Melissa.

  “Probably a lot,” said Courtney. “But it isn’t worth it.”

  “I’m hungry and cold.”

  32

  “How did you get so much stuff?” Courtney asked.

  “We found a bomb shelter,” Eric answered. “If you would have come with us, we’d have been able to get everything.”

  “I’m not going out there right now.”

  “I’m never going around zombies,” said Melissa.

  “Yes you are,” said Eric. “You can’t live in fear for the rest of your life.”

  “Aren’t you scared?”

  “I guess we all are, but you’re going to start helping us.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You have to be useful.”

  Three days passed. Jake and the others woke up one morning to see Aaron twitching and kicking.

  “What do we do?” Courtney asked as she began to sob.

  “None of us know how to fix the problem,” Jake said with a sigh. “The kid’s going to die. He can’t eat or drink or anything. All we can do is wait for him to die.”

  Aaron eventually stopped twitching and went back to crying. He died ten days later. Eric carried the boy’s body outside and did what needed to be done.

  “This is a nightmare,” Melissa said as she sat in the corner.

  “We can’t get sick,” Jake said with a cough.

  “I think we’re all sick.”

  “Yeah. We can’t get worse.”

  When Jake, Eric, and Dan walked outside, they found a tall pile of canned goods and bottled water sitting just feet from the front door. They immediately reached for their weapons and scouted the area. They found no one or nothing. There was a note taped to the pile of food and water.

  “We mean you no harm. You stumbled across our new home. You took from one of the bomb shelters. It’s okay. Keep everything you took. We want you to move in with us. We need your help as much as you need ours. We’re good people. There are twenty-four of us. We moved here a few days ago. We can be a team.”

  “I don’t think this is a trap,” Jake said beneath his breath.

  “I don’t think it is,” Eric agreed. “I just have that feeling.”

  No one believed they were being set up. When they were ready, Jake led everyone back to the house they looted and stood outside until twenty-four people slowly surrounded them.

  “There’s no need for hostilities,” said a man in a tattered security guard uniform. “We don’t want to fight. We just want to know what kind of people you are.”

  “We’re not bad people,” Jake said to the man. “We’ve been surviving by searching neighborhoods. I’m Jake. This is Dan, Eric, Courtney, and Melissa.”

  “I’m Jonathan. You all look like you’ve been through a lot.”

  “We have been through a lot.”

  “Yeah. We’ve been through a lot, too. No one will expect you to tell your story. We know everything is bad. We haven’t searched all the houses yet. You and your people are free to do as you please. Use the house you went in as your home. If you need anything, talk to me or one of the others. You can come and go as you please. Work with whoever you want or keep to yourselves. We’ll let you know if the bulk of us decides to move.”

  “Okay. It’s good to find people who don’t want to kill you.”

  “You’re the first people we haven’t had to fight.”

  The bomb shelter they were in before had not been touched by Jonathan or anyone.

  “We got lucky,” said Eric.

  “It’s about time we got a break,” Dan said as he stared at everything they had to work with.

  “Yeah. I didn’t expect this.”

  “I think things are going to get a lot better.”

  “I don’t. We have more protection, but that’s it. We still have to search for what we need and hope we keep finding it. One bad trip and we could all die. I’ve already thought of something that makes me paranoid.”

  “What?”

  “Jonathan said he and his people got here a few days ago.”

  “So?”

  “That means all the food here was here before they came along. What are the chances that this stash belongs to someone? A larger group might come back.”

  “Maybe the original owners of the stuff died. Besides, we need it as much as the next person. If we have to, we’ll fight for it.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Let’s get a fire going in the fireplace,” said Jake as he ripped up some pages of some books. “We’re going to stay with this group for a while.”

  “Can we trust these people?” Courtney asked.

  “No, but we gain some strength from being with them. If we’re attacked by someone or something, we’ll have more defenders.”

  “Melissa and I are staying in this house for now.”

  “We need you here to keep the fire going and defend our stuff.”

  “Melissa and I might have to defend this place?”

  “Just about anything is possible.”

  “I’m not happy, Jake.”

  “No one is.”

  “I’m sitting at the window from now on.”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  33

  “We need to go out and find more stuff,” Eric said to Jake. “I think we should see if others will help us.”

  “We will get less food if other people come with us, but we’ll be better protected. Let’s go.”

  Four people agreed to go with them to search the houses not being used by the survivors. Jake and the others found out where the zombies in the area were. People died inside the houses after being bitten. Jonathan and his people came along and wiped the area clean, surrounded eight houses with vehicles, furniture, and debris. Jonathan planned to expand the territory, but Jake and his original group didn’t see the point in it. They believed they’d eventually have to move again when supplies were low. Not wanting to upset anyone, nothing was said about it.

  The four who went with Jake, Eric, and Dan were armed with guns and knives. Pete, Patrick, Thomas, and Andy wanted a fair share in exchange for their help. Jake and the others made sure not to be too aggressive or passive when the loot was divided. They would have to come back to the second house. They were overrun by a house full of zombies.

  “We could take care of them from the top of or behind the cars,” Eric said.

  “We’ll go tomorrow,” said Jake. “It’s really cold out there and we have plenty of supplies.”

  When they returned, the zombies had been slain and the house’s bomb shelter had been looted.

  “Some of Jonathan’s people took it,” Dan said with grinding teeth.

  “We’ll search a house today and take what we can,” said Jake. “It’s a race. We need to have those four with us to take care of the zombies in those houses. It’s stupid to have four of us when we know we can have eight.”

  Pete, Thomas, Andy, and Patrick agreed to accompany Jake, Eric, and Dan on a second run. The first house was full of zombies. They were caught off guard but managed to shoot them all before they got too close. There were few supplies inside.

  “Some blankets and a shovel,” Jake said as he stared at the ground.

  “How do we split this?” Thomas asked.

  “I think I speak for my friends and I when I say you and yours can keep what we found.”

  “Want to try another house before it gets dark?”

  “Sure. Let’s g
o.”

  The second house didn’t have a bomb shelter. They found wood to burn, clothing, and some candy.

  “This isn’t good,” said Pete. “Let’s search one more.”

  Everyone agreed to search one more house before retreating back to the warmth of their fires. The third house was full of the undead. The eight had two close encounters, but no one was bitten or scratched. The bomb shelter was full of zombies. When it was cleared, they walked over the dead and moved trash out of the way and grabbed what they wanted. Everything was divided and everyone went home.

  “It was worth it,” said Eric.

  “I hope we can stay here,” Melissa said as she opened some canned meat. “I hope we don’t have to move again.”

  “We’ll have to move at some point.”

  “I’m not comfortable with it.”

  “None of us are.”

  “You know I can’t handle this.”

  “You’ll have to adapt at some point.”

  The next day, the snow began to melt. In four days, the snow was gone. A horde came through and saw twelve of the survivors coming back from scavenging.

  34

  Jonathan stopped by to check on Jake and his group.

  “There’s too much death,” said Jake.

  “Happens to us every other week. There used to be over fifty of us.”

  “Two of our people killed themselves.”

  “We’ve come into houses and seen people who have hanged themselves. I’m sure we’ll lose more people. We may pick up more people.”

  “My people want to work with you and yours.”

  “Have you made friends with anyone yet?”

  “We’ve been searching places with Andy, Patrick, Pete, and Thomas.”

  “Stick with them.”

  “We’d like to be close to as many people as possible.”

  “Don’t worry. We’re a team.”

  Eric walked back inside.

  “Jonathan and his people see us as expendable,” Eric said before sitting next to the fire. “I can tell.”

  “I’m sure they know we see them as expendable,” Jake said, holding Courtney closely.

  “They’re help in a fight if they’re close by, though. Right now, we have just us. Only three of us are experienced killers.”

  “I’ll fight if I have to,” said Courtney. “I know you need the help. If Melissa and I lose you, we’re as good as dead.”