by Adam Smith
We pull up to the pub and all seems quiet, “ I hope we get to fuck up some more zombies.” I say as we get out of the truck with shotguns and our .44 rifles. “ I wonder where that herd or mob or whatever you want to call them that we saw at the turnoff into town went?” Says Mark curiously. “Fuck knows mate, not here by the looks of it.” I say as I reach out to open the pubs door. “Wait mate, I'll stand back and get ready to fire, you stand to the side as you open it.” Says Mark. “Good idea mate” I say as Mark shoulders his shotgun and lines up the door. I pull the door open and jump to the side then back next to mark and shoulder my shotgun. “Looks clear” Whispers Mark, “Lets move in but keep it quiet.” I say, we walk inside the pub and I pull the door shut and lock it behind us. “let’s split up mate I'll go straight through and out into the garden bar and kitchen, you take the toilets, storeroom and cold room.” I Say quietly “sounds good” Says Mark. We split up and I make my way through the main bar room then out into the beer garden, we meet back in the main bar area. “toilets are clear.” Says Mark. “So is the beer garden, I'm going into the kitchen.” I say and head for the kitchen as Mark heads around the bar and into the store room and cool room. I'm in the kitchen and can't see anything when all of a sudden I here a shot ring out. I run from the kitchen and yell “Mark!” then hear another shot. I run behind the bar and into the store room, I get in there and see Mark leaning against the cool room door drinking a beer. “Mark. What the fuck?” I say. “Well there was a zombie but he's been dealt with now.” Giggles Mark and points over at a dead zombie in the corner. “There's two zombies over there mate.” I say to Mark as I'm looking at the mess. “Yeah I know, I shot that one in the legs, it was stuck behind those pallets.” Says Mark. We walk over to the zombie that's trying to drag itself over the pallets. “You want to deal with that?” I ask and point at the zombie. Mark finishes his bottle of beer and says. “Yeah I'll deal with it” he leans over the pallets and starts smashing the zombie in the head with his beer bottle over and over again until it dies, he looks over at me and says “ want a pint?” “you know it mate.” I say in reply and we walk out to the main bar area, I walk around to the customer side of the bar, grab out a stool and sit down as Mark stays on the service side and grabs some glasses and pours us some beers, he hands me a well poured beer grabs his own and walks around to the same side as me, pulls out the chair next to me and sits down. “How long 'till the power goes out do you think?” Asks Mark. “Mate I have no idea.” I say and finish my pint. “We do need to come up with a plan though.” I say as I get up and walk around to the service side of the bar and pour two more pints, handing Mark one then walking back around and taking a seat, when we hear someone yelling, and banging on the staff emergency door in the store room. “What the fuck! Someone's out there.” I yell as we both get up grab our guns and run to the store room. “ARGH HELP” we hear as someone is banging on the door. “Look out!” I yell. I kick down on the safety latch and the door flies open. We see a slender young blonde-haired lady hitting a zombie with an empty wine glass. We run outside, Mark grabs the girl and darts back inside, I line up the nearest zombie and fire, hitting it in the face it drops to the ground. Thud! I hear the door slam shut behind me. I fire again dropping another zombie. Bang, I fire again. “Mark! the door!” I yell... “Are you okay”? Mark Asks the mystery girl as they lay on the floor in the storeroom. Thud the door slams shut. Bang... bang “Mark! The door!” I yell. “Fuck!” Yells Mark as he jumps up and opens the door. “Smithy! Get the Fuck in here!” Yells Mark, I run backwards into the storeroom and fire twice more dropping another zombie. “Shut the door” I yell and run through the storeroom, as I'm running I yell out “check all the doors are locked.” after frantically running around checking doors I run out the front grab some bags from the truck then run back inside and lock the door. I walk over to the bar and Mark walks over to me. “all the doors are locked and secure mate.” He says. “Fuck me there had to be at least 70 out there.” I say and sit down. “Here have some beer brah.” Says Mark and hands me a pint. “Where's that girl gone?” I ask. “I...I...I'm here.” The mystery girl whispers and walks out from the storeroom. Mark Walks over to her as I take a drink and begin to reload. “Come, it’s okay have a seat.” Says Mark to the girl, he puts his arm around her shoulder and ushers her over to the bar stools, she sits at the end of the bar. Mark makes his way back around to the service side of the bar and says. “would you like something to drink, umm, sorry what's your name?” “Just some water please, oh and I'm Sandy.” She says. “I'm Mark and that's Travis” Says Mark as he passes her a glass of water and a pint of beer. “You think that because this is the zombie apocalypse you can just start calling me by my first name do you? You fucking dick.” I say to Mark laughing. “Just call me Smithy.” I say to Sandy. “Yeah I don't know why I started using your first name today, thought it was funny.” Replies Mark with a cheeky smile. “So Sandy why were you outside”? I ask. “Well I work here, and when I heard you guys come in I hid in the storeroom, I was going to come out here but when I saw what you did to that thing in there with your beer bottle in such a brutal sadistic way (Sandy points at Mark) I didn't know if it was safe.” Says Sandy. “Yeah that was pretty awesome, the way I ended that zombie, and they're zombies just so you know.” Laughs Mark as he drinks some beer. “So how did you get outside then?” I ask. “after you guys left the storeroom I ducked out the door as quietly as I could, seeing as it locks when it closes I thought you wouldn't ever know I was here.” Says Sandy. “Did you know those two zombies when they were people?” I ask, Mark makes his way around to the same side of the bar as us and takes a seat. “Yes I did... well one of them anyway, Troy was the manager here, and the one that you 'toyed' with was just a customer.” Explains Sandy. “Was there anyone else here in the pub before we got here”? I ask slightly concerned. “No just me and Troy, the morning shifts are always quiet on weekdays so it's just the two of us usually”. “That sets my mind at ease a little bit then, so what about the customer then”? I Ask. “Oh well he came running in with blood all over his upper arm and on his shirt, he was screaming for help. Troy came running from the office and took the bloke out the back to see if he could help him out, he told me to stay here in the bar and call the ambulance.” Explains Sandy. As she takes a deep breath, clearly confused and upset by the situation. “It's okay mate take your time.” Says Mark. “I'm okay... so I tried to call the ambulance but it was busy. I kept trying for about 15 minutes with no answer I went out the back to see what was going on with Troy and the customer. But I couldn't see them I could only see blood on the floor, that's when I heard you guys out the front, so I came to have a look, that's when I saw you two burst through the door with guns so I ran out the back again... and well you know the rest.” Sandy Explains. “Ah, starting to make sense now.” I Say. “So is everyone outside like the 'zombies' now?” Asks Sandy. “Um well we've seen a fair bit today and we've seen a lot of zombies, so considering how far we are from the next town I'd say, yeah most people are probably zombies now.” Says Mark. Sandy breaks down into tears and runs into the toilets. Mark gets up to follow her and see if she's okay. “Don't worry about her mate she needs a minute. It's clear in there anyway. She'll be right.” I say. “Yeah you're right mate. What's the time?” Asks Mark. “4:23 cober.” I say. “We just going to stay here tonight then eh?” He says in reply. “Yeah might as well, we can get some beers in us, some food, make a plan and have some sleep.” I say “Yeah that sounds good to me.” Says Mark. As I get up and rack up a game of pool, Mark re fills our beers and joins me at the pool table for a game. “What should we do tomorrow?” Asks Mark. As he strikes the white ball and splits the racked pool balls, sinking the number 2 ball in the top corner pocket. He lines up on the number 4 ball as I say “Maybe we should go out to site and get a good truck and ute, heaps of diesel, a generator and shit like that, shit that we will no doubt need to keep on keeping on, head for the coast maybe? I hear the fishing is g
ood this time of year haha.” “Fuck yeah! I could do with a spot of fishing right now.” Says Mark excitedly. “We can see if things are different on the coast, at least there's some civilisation out there.” I say “Can I come with you guys? I don't want to stay here alone.” We hear Sandy say Quietly. “Yeah of course you can.” Says Mark as Sandy makes her way over to the pool table and downs my pint of beer.
“Ah! What a sleep!” Says Mark as he sits up and stretches. “Something smells good, what's for breakfast?” He asks. “Ham and cheese toasted sandwiches.” Says Sandy as she walks out from the kitchen and places a large plate full of toasted sandwiches on the bar. I walk over from behind the bar with a cup of coffee sit down on a bar stool and grab a sandwich. Mark gets up and goes to the toilet when Sandy says “I hope they're okay, I'm not the best cook in the world.” And giggles. “They're delicious, thank you for making them.” I say. Mark joins us at the bar and sits down. “Sandy, is there any way to get access to the roof from in here?” I ask. “Yeah there's a ladder in the store room that goes up there for access to the satellite dish. Why's that?” Sandy asks. “He wants to go up there and have a look if there's any zombies or people, to make sure it's safe to leave.” Says Mark. “Spot on mate!” I say. “I think we should go to the shops and get some supplies like water and other things.” Says Sandy. “That's a good idea.” Says Mark. “We need to make a plan for now. Mark you and I will go to the roof and check it out to make sure it's clear then Sandy can load the truck up with our gear, or something like that.” I say. “Yeah sounds good mate.” Says Mark. I finish my sandwich and coffee walk over to the pool table, grab 2 rifles and bunch of ammunition, I walk through into the store room where the ladder is and make my way up to the hatch that leads to the roof. I open the hatch and climb out on to the roof. The warm morning air is fresh, the town is quiet, a slight breeze blowing, my eyes take a second to adjust as Mark follows me up. “Let’s split up I'll go to this side.” I say.
“Do you see anything over there?” I yell to Mark across the tin roof. “Nah mate got nothing over here.” He yells back to me. “Woah! I got 4 over here mate!” I yell to Mark, he turns and scrambles towards me as fast as he can slipping and sliding across the dusty tin roof. “look at them, just standing there all fucked up and shit haha!” Laughs Mark once he gets to me. “I bet you that i'm a better shot than you are.” I say to Mark. “ OH it's on! Watch this then mate.” Says Mark, he shoulders his rifle and lines up on the closest zombie. Bang! He fires, hitting the zombie in the shoulder knocking it to the ground, the wounded zombie struggles back to its feet, as we watch, we notice that the other zombies all turn around and start stumbling in our direction. “They must come to the sound mate.” I say. I line up the wounded zombie and fire. Bang! “Oh wow! Look at his brains fly! I've got to get in on this action” Yells Mark. Pointing at another zombie “I'll get that one.” Says Mark. He kisses the side of his .44 mag lever action rifle takes aim and gently squeezes the trigger. Bang! The sweet sound of the shot rings out and echoes across the empty town, the smell of fresh burnt gunpowder lingers in the air, the projectile hurtles towards its target, striking the zombie in the left hand side temple, blood, skull fragments and brain matter sprays the zombie standing beside it. “Yeah! What a shot. Did you see that shit!?” Yells Mark, he pushes the lever forwards ejecting the spent shell and chambering a new round, the empty shell casing bounces on the tin roof and rattles down the in to the gutter. The remaining 2 zombies look up at us and start walking towards the building. “ I've got the one on the left.” I say, shouldering my rifle I fire 2 shots killing the zombie. Mark fires at the remaining zombie hitting it in the forehead and ending it's flesh eating campaign.
“Is everything okay?” Asks Sandy as Mark climbs down the access ladder and runs past her. “We gotta go now.” Says Mark. “Where's Travis?” Sandy yells running into the bar behind Mark. “He's keeping an eye out. Here take these and I'll grab the rest.” Says Mark. He kicks the pub doors open and throws the bags in to the truck. “Get in and start the truck Sandy. I'm going to get the other bags.” Says Mark as he runs back inside the pub and collects the rest of the bags, he comes running back out of the pub, throws the bags in the truck and jumps in the drivers door of the truck, he starts reversing out of the parking bay. “What about Travis?” Yells Sandy. “We've got a plan.” Says Mark, he drives around to the drive through section of the pub and beeps the horn. “Wow look at how many zombies there are down the road.” Says Sandy. “Yeah that's why we're in a big hurry.” Says Mark, beeping the horn again, I jump from the roof of the pub on to the roof of the drive through then on to the roof of the truck, then on to the tray. “Go Go Go!” I yell. Mark takes off down the road towards the towns shopping centre.
We pull into the carpark at the shopping centre, I jump down from the tray and walk to the drivers door. “That was Fucking Awesome!” I say and high 5 Mark as he gets out of the truck. “We need to be quick here before that herd finds us” Says Mark. “Yes we do.” I say. “You stay here and keep an eye out Sandy, Smithy and I will go in and get what we need. Do you need anything in particular?” Mark says, I load up a lever action shotgun and hand it to Sandy. “Do you know how to use it”? I say. “Okay one at a time guys. Yeah I think I can use the gun. And yes I do need some stuff from the shop but it's a bit personal.” Says Sandy. “Tampons? That's what you want isn’t it?” I ask. “Umm Yes please.” Says Sandy. “If you see any zombies don't panic they're attracted to noise. If they get to close yell out to us and kill them.” I say. Mark and I grab some guns. “Here mate take one of these.” Says Mark as he hands me a short handle crowbar that's bent at one end. “Noise attracts them these might be good for a quiet kill.” Says Mark. “Nice.” I reply. We make our way to the doors that lead it to the shopping complex, we notice the lights flicker, then go out. “Guess that answers how long the power will last.” I say. “Yeah and that just made everything a little bit more interesting.” Says Mark. We force open the doors to the shop and walk in, we make our way to the supermarket and walk inside, we get some trolleys and grab some torches from the front counter. “I'll go to that end you start here and we can meet in the middle. Try and find some stuff to make little bombs like the ones that everyone makes as kids. Remember. Stay quiet.” I whisper to Mark. “Yeah okay hero.” Laughs Mark. We split up and start stacking the trolleys with everything we think we might need. Walking through the aisles I'm thinking to myself that this is too easy. Still nothing is going wrong, no noise no zombies nothing. We meet up at the checkouts with full trolleys and start walking towards the exit. “That was too easy.” I say to Mark. “Yeah it was. No fucking people in the way haha.” Laughs Mark. Bang we hear a shot ring out and Sandy starts screaming. We start running with the trolleys to the exit, we burst out of the shops, into the car park and see a zombie dragging itself along the floor towards Sandy who's trying to reload the shotgun next to the truck, 2 more zombies are behind the truck making their way towards Sandy. “I'll take this one you get the other 2!” I yell to Mark. I kick the crawling zombie in the mouth with my steel capped boots as hard as I can. It's teeth crunch and blood sprays from it's face as Mark runs past me I stomp down on it crushing it's skull and killing it, my boot is covered in blood and brain matter. Mark runs towards the other 2 zombies and Sandy “Fuck you!” Yells Mark as he jumps towards the first zombie smashing it in the mouth with the back of the crowbar knocking it down, he then slams the pointed end of the crowbar through the eye of the second zombie, he lifts his left leg and places his foot on the zombies chest, he pushes it away and pulls the crowbar out of it's head, he then turns around and slams the hooked end of the crowbar in to the head of the first zombie, he pulls it towards him and moves out of the way as the zombie falls to the ground it gets its mouth stuck on the tow ball of the truck. I make my way over to the truck with the 2 trolleys of supplies. Mark spits on the zombie that's caught on tow ball then lifts his right foot up above the back of it's head, he slams his foot do
wn on the zombies head forcing the tow ball through the back of it's skull laughs then says “ Wow, did you see that?” “Yeah that was pretty awesome I laugh.” We turn to Sandy. “Are you okay? I Ask Sandy as we start loading the truck with supplies. “Yes I'm fine I feel like an idiot tho, stupid thing wouldn't reload.” Says Sandy. “It's jammed that's all.” I say to Sandy I force out the spent cartridge and reload the shotgun. We finish loading the truck jump in and head off down the road towards the coast and our old mine site. Sandy asks us. “Are you guys scared at all by this?” No time for fear if we want to stay alive! I state as Mark and I burst into laughter.
As we pull up to the gates of our old mine site I say to Mark and Sandy, “ the sound of gunshots definitely attracts them, doesn’t it?” “Yes, yes it does” laughs Mark as Sandy just nods in silence. As we drive into our old work yard to get the large tray back all wheel drive truck, the generator and any other supplies we think could be helpful, I say to Mark “stop the truck mate and take a look at this would you”? “haha holy shit is that... it is it's Frank the fuckwit supervisor” Laughs Mark. “he kind of suits being a zombie. I mean he fits in now don't you think?” I ask. Mark replies laughingly “yeah 'coz now when he walks around all day doing fuck all he's got a reason!” I get out of the truck, grab my hard hat, walk to Frank the zombie smack him in the face with the hard hat and stun him, as he snarls and tries to bite me, I smack him again and again until my hard hat breaks. “well this has been fun mate.” I say as I put the barrel of my shotgun in the zombies mouth and squeeze the trigger showering the truck and surrounding equipment with a fine mist of blood and zombie brain matter. “Oh gross, I got some brains in my hair.” I say, causing sandy to projectile vomit onto the inside of the trucks windshield from the rear seats, meanwhile Mark is pissing himself laughing, he gets out of the truck to help me load gear and gather supplies. “Sandy, keep an eye out from on top of the truck, we'll load up.” says Mark as Sandy climbs onto the tray of the old truck spitting out the rest of her vomit and having a drink of water. “okay” she says.
