Zombie Reign (Book 1): Death in Detroit

by Joseph Edward

Kate went into full nurture mode, as I gave Kate the closest to PG-13 run down on what had occurred that I could muster. Leaving out some of the details for the sake of Claire’s fragile young mind, Kate was brought up to speed. Kate was busy doting over Claire as I spoke, which gave me the first glimpse of what a wonderful mother she was going to be for our child. Not that I had any doubts. It’s just that I hadn’t seen Kate around kids that much and definitely not under these set of circumstances. (I know that anyone would have probably done the same damn thing - I was just so relieved that Claire saved me from an ass chewing that my rose colored glasses became hypersensitive!)

  Having the false sense of security that I just dodged a nuclear warhead from Kate, I attempted to nonchalantly remove the large bag of armaments from the kitchen table. The look Kate gave me while tending to Claire told me that unless I wanted to expose the young girl to something more frightening than zombies, I had better explain how they got there. I figured the direct and honest approach would be the best option.

  “Kate, Tommy brought these over for us.”

  Her eyes got wide, her brow began curling, and her lips did that airlock thing. Okay, so I was being direct without the honest part, so I started over.

  “Tommy brought these over for me. He felt that we are really unprepared and unequipped to deal with protecting ourselves against what is going on out there. Look, I know how you feel about the guns, but without them Claire wouldn’t be here with us. I wouldn’t be here with us. Things are different now, things have changed. I’ll be damned if I’m not going to see us through this and I’m not going to let anything happen to you or the baby!”

  Kate stood there motionless for what seemed like an eternity.

  “Fine,” she finally replied, “but let’s get this straight right now.”

  “Let’s get what straight?” I asked, puzzled as to what was coming next.

  “You teach me how to shoot.”

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 12

  The night passed with a rough sleep had by all. I found it impossible to sleep with one eye open, so I don’t know who ever came up with that saying but it’s just plain stupid. I drifted in and out of rest, my eyes snapping open with every noise heard all night. The sound of gunfire was sporadic at best and seemed to be distant most of the time. It was impossible to get any real deep sleep, but I was thankful for the rest I did have.

  Kate and Claire came into the kitchen as I took inventory of the weapons cache at our disposal. Kate made a hearty breakfast of bacon and pancakes, which Claire easily consumed half of all by her lonesome. I was glad to see that she had an appetite given all that she had been through in such a short time at her age. If this was her normal appetite however, it became apparent to me that I was going to need to forage for supplies sooner rather than later.

  After breakfast and a quick run through of our food inventory, we hoped to catch up on some news from the television. Unfortunately, every channel was still broadcasting the same warning message and nothing new was being delivered. I did not see this as a good sign. When was there ever a catastrophe that the press didn’t overkill with coverage? Seeing as there was no coverage on this problem it sent a chill up my spine. In addition to the food we needed to gather, we would have the concern that our running water and electricity may be a short lived commodity. I began writing out a quick action plan for some of the other emergency survival gear we would need. Most of the items we probably had on hand, but I wanted an idea of what I would have to get once I travelled out – the less trips the better.

  My attention was quickly diverted as I heard a shriek and then crying coming from the second floor. I grabbed a tomahawk from the table and ran upstairs to see what the problem was. As I entered our bedroom I found Kate on the bed holding Claire, who was sobbing. Kate looked at me and pointed to the window with a horrified look on her face. As I approached the window I had the horror movie jitters that I would peel the drapes away and something hideous would be staring back at me. I came back to reality, seeing as the window was in our second floor bedroom and I doubted very much that there was such a thing as a 16 foot zombie. At least, I hoped there wasn’t.

  I peeled back the drapes slowly from the side as to not draw any attention from the movement. As I peered down to the street below, I could see what had scared Kate and Claire. There were about two dozen people, or what used to be people, shuffling around our street. They just swayed and staggered about – all except for one. Granted he was the furthest from the house and down the street, but his eyes were now affixed to the window I was peering from and he was now heading our way.

  “Kate, remember how you said that you wanted to learn to shoot?” I asked wryly.

  “Yes…”she responded.

  “Then follow me.”

  On the trip back downstairs, Claire had regained her composure and apologized for opening the drapes. I gave her a quick zombie survival tutorial on what to do, and what not to do. Peering out of the blinds was risky enough, but opening them like it was a fresh spring day was going to attract unwanted attention from the undead. Her unbridled attention during my short class was enough to tell me that she was absorbing what I was telling her. I hoped that she retained 100% of it – anything short of that would end up getting someone killed.

  We gathered around the table like it was a Thanksgiving dinner buffet. Only this one was made of some pretty hefty weaponry and ammo to boot. I exchanged the tomahawk I had brought upstairs for an AR-15. Looking over the selection, I chose a shotgun for Kate to begin on. I know, I know - I could have given her something other than the man cannon known as the boomstick. I just felt that I should go with something that she had to point and shoot with less attention to aim in the event that we needed some close quarter coverage. She could work her way up to weapons requiring a bit more finesse once she had some introduction to firearms under her belt. I gathered up my .40cal Glock and some spare rounds as well.

  I didn’t want to begin training in the house. As much as I knew the resell value for our home recently took a shit, and homeowners insurance wasn’t going to cover anything that happened to it in the near future, I still didn’t want any accidental discharges indoors. As I walked to the sliding door wall to the backyard, Kate grabbed my arm in a panic.

  “We are not going out there!” she yelled at me.

  “Kate, we sure aren’t doing target practice in the house, and unless you value your eardrums I suggest we move to the open outdoors,” I replied.

  Our backyard was secured by a black decorative chain link fence. The decorative part was that it was coated with a black polymer. Looking back, I really wished I would have had the money to invest in one of those PVC privacy fences. Looking out into the backyard, it didn’t feel like a safe haven of solitude anymore. It looked and felt like a cheap petting zoo, and we were the animals trapped in the pen.

  “I’ll go first and make sure the backyard is secure. The gate is locked and unless the zombies practiced track and field while they were alive, we will be fine,” I explained.

  I quietly slid the glass door open and stepped out onto the deck. I had the AR-15 slung in front and my .40cal at the ready. For those of you without military or police training, ‘at the ready’ means exactly what it sounds like. I was ready to bust a cap in anything trying to take a bite out of me. As I traversed onto the deck and into the yard, I confirmed the backyard to be secure of any threats. However, peering around the side of the home revealed that our friend making his way down the block as still coming – only now he was attracting additional company. Maybe they had some uncanny communication ability?

  I told Kate and Claire that it was all clear and they exited onto the deck. I told them that we should probably conduct everything from there, since it allowed for the back of the house to cover our backsides and give us a point of retreat should something make it over the fence. Claire had brought her bow with her and was nervously tugging at it, with an arrow primed for drawing. I asked her to sta
y by the door wall to act as cover and be the first to retreat should the yard be compromised.

  Kate handled the shotgun and I showed her the difference between the buckshot and slug rounds. I then showed her how to load the storage area on the stock and familiarized her with the various parts of the shotgun. When I was comfortable with her ability to load and unload the shotgun, I taught her how to combat (or speed) load it.

  The sudden rattling of the chain link fence towards the side of the house started Kate so much that she dropped the shotgun, rounds and all. Claire drew back an arrow and pointed it at the moaning mess of undead that was stopped in their tracks by the fencing. It was the man (or what he used to be) whom I saw from the window. He looked to be in his early 30’s, wearing blue jeans and a hoodie. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, and his socks were worn down to his feet at the bottom from shuffling down the street. His face was gaunt and his skin was shrinking tight against his face. His lips were no longer where lips should be and hung off the sides of his face like flaps of meat. He was baring his teeth and made a chilling click-clacking noise as he bit down into the air. All the while he was staring at us with those unsettling milky white and yellow glowing eyes, his arms reaching out and requesting an embrace of death.

  I gathered up the shotgun and rounds, again instructing Kate on the importance of gun control and keeping the direction of the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Kate loaded the shotgun with buckshot rounds and turned the safety off. Kate faced off with the zombie at the fence and had the shotgun held at her side, pointed at the zombie like something out of Resident Evil. I couldn’t help but be caught up in how absolutely gorgeous she looked with her long dark hair flowing, shotgun at her hip and “BOOM!”

  Kate had fired at the zombie and hit it square in the chest! At the same time I heard Claire scream and turned to see that she was lying on the ground with the shotgun next to her. Kate had fired from the hip and the blast of the shotgun sent it flying out of her hands and backwards into Claire. I went over to make sure Claire was okay and she stated that she was more startled than hurt. Kate was shaking and apologized in a panicked repetitive manner, which I snapped her out of with a shot from my .40cal into the forehead of the zombie at the fence. In addition to missing his lips, he was now missing his midsection and cranium. Problem solved.

  I helped Claire up off of the ground and gave Kate a hug, explaining that shotguns only work like that in the movies. Kate cussed me out for showing her everything about the shotgun except “how to fire the damn thing”, and recovered the weapon and rounds. It was a good thing, because the friends of the first zombie were starting to show up – and there was no guessing how long that fence would hold this herd of hungry bastards.

  As the first two zombies reached the fence, I reminded both Claire and Kate that they needed to aim for the head. I asked Claire to hold her ground and cover Kate and me, as I didn’t want her wasting her arrows. I demonstrated the proper shotgun shouldering to Kate, and her first (proper) shot took the face and top of the skull off of the next zombie. Kate had to fire twice at the next one, as the first shot ripped out an eye and took off an ear as the zombie had shaken its head back and forth in a fury to feast. The second shot finished the job and sent skull and brain matter showering into the faces of three more zombies that were approaching from behind.

  Kate readied the shotgun again, and I gently pushed the muzzle down and had her place the safety on. Behind these three new uninvited guests were about a half dozen more walking up the lawn from the street. I wanted to get a jump on expiring them quickly before they became too much for us to defend against.

  I tucked my .40cal in my waistband and brought my AR-15 up, turning on the EOTech XPS2 holographic sight as I brought my targets into sight. Yes, I know that the XPS2 was marketed as the “Zombie Stopper” – something I thought was cool before all of this happened. Just think how many they would sell now and the marketing potential! Then again, good luck on getting UPS to deliver. It probably wasn’t the best idea looking back, seeing as the battery life is only 600 hours. If I live beyond that, finding a replacement battery is going to be a bitch.

  I was able to dispatch the remaining zombies in little time, only missing one shot when one zombie tripped and fell over another one that I had previously brought down. I walked up to the fence, making sure that all the head shots were successful and that none of the zombies were going to be making a surprise crawl and grab at the ankles. It was no easy feat as the last few had been moving at a pretty good clip towards the yard. Suddenly, I was alerted to a yell coming from the front of the house. I cautiously walked the fence line to get a better look around the side of the house and motioned Kate and Claire back inside to safety.

  I saw a zombie lumbering up my lawn from the street, who looked to be in his late teens or early 20’s. He would have been running if not for the sagging jeans and untied hi-top shoes. Ironically he wore a t-shirt with “Got SWAG?” on it. Even the undead seemed to have their share of douchebags. The pleasure was going to be all mine with this one.

  Before I could raise the AR and get a sight alignment, the yell became louder and more distinct and it wasn’t coming from the zombie. It was Tommy, and he was running full tilt towards the zombie from behind and to the left. The zombie wasn’t paying him much attention, as he was focused on making me his meal and began picking up his shuffling pace towards me.

  Tommy jumped through the air and gave a flying kick to the zombie at hip level. The zombie came crashing to the ground and face planted in the lawn. Tommy stood there over him a moment, and as the zombie rose he was now missing the tendons that held his jaw in place. He looked like a broken Pez dispenser, as the bottom jaw was now broken and hanging down. Drool strung from the lower mandible as his tongue liked the top teeth wildly.

  The zombie swung around to face Tommy and almost took him by surprise. Then again maybe it was the hideous appearance of the disjointed jaw that shocked Tommy, but he was able to recoup quickly and gave the zombie a swift ball punch. That move registered on the completely ineffective scale and if not for the broken jaw, Tommy would have been bitten as the zombie came down over his shoulder looking for a morsel of living flesh.

  Tommy followed up by pushing the zombie backwards and tumbling to the ground, then jumped into the air and finished him off with a double heel curb stomp. The momentum of the jump and strike squashed the rotting skull of the zombie, releasing the tainted brain material and fluids onto the lawn. This created a zombified slip and slide, as Tommy lost his footing on the mashed goo and fell ass first onto the chest of the zombie. Fluids shot out of the zombie’s mouth and straight into the air like an oil strike, and Tommy scrambled to get out of the way of the viscous spurt as it was called back down by gravity.

  “Get fucked!” is all Tommy could muster to save his pride as he got back up and started heading my way.

  “I heard some shots and figured you were in deep shit, so I made my way over,” Tommy said, “and I see that my babies did you proud, eh?” as he looked over the carnage courtesy of his shared armory.

  “Yeah, they saved our asses for sure man.” I replied.

  “Let’s get in the house and clean them up. Since I’m here, there’s a lot that I want to go over with y’all,” Tommy stated as he jumped over the fence and we made our way into the house.

  Chapter 13

  The first order of business in our extended family meeting was to commit to staying put. It was agreed by all that maintaining the security of our homes and holding familiar ground was a priority – for now. We then began to assess what provisions we had on hand and what supplies we would need for the long haul, in the event that we lost our utilities and running water.

  Out of the blue Tommy suggested a “shit bucket”, which would equate to an indoor outhouse should the sewer system fail. The repulsive look from Kate and Claire were an indication that this planning meeting was heading south. I quickly dismissed that suggestion and was a bit worried for Tommy
that this is what was high on his priority list right now. I advised that I was thinking more along the lines of blankets, bottled water and non-perishable goods. We could always devise a bucket for waste, should that time come. The girls were both shaking their heads in confirmation that it never would.

  Tommy stated that he had a few portable generators in his garage and ample fuel, things that he luckily had on hand from his nomadic construction gigs. That would solve the problem with any electricity needs, but it wouldn’t keep us from starvation.

  We had enough to live off of for the normal week or two, but beyond that would be stretching it. At first the obvious choice was to venture out to the local grocery store. The only issue was that I was concerned that we should stock up on meds as well, seeing as the cold and flu season was approaching. Tommy made a good point that we wouldn’t need to worry about catching a cold since there wasn’t anyone around to catch something from and suggested the local supermarket. I still thought we should steer clear of the obvious places people would go to stock up on supplies. I had a difficult time as it was defending our lives against the undead – I was less enthusiastic about fighting angry mobs for our survival.

  I suggested the local drug store, which I felt had an ample supply of non-perishable goods and domestic supplies. It was agreed that Tommy and I would recon the local supermarket as we made our way there – that way we could hit both if needed. Kate and Claire would remain at home and wait for us to return. Tommy suggested we take his truck, which would make more sense for transporting large amounts of goods and we weren’t planning on making this a daily shopping trip. We hoped to get enough provisions to hold out for the long term, however long that ended up being.

  We left Kate and Claire with ample weaponry and ammunition. I chose to stick with the .40cal in a side hip holster and the AR-15 slung in front. I took my small duty bag and loaded it with extra ammunition, one tomahawk and a small pry-bar. Tommy stated that he had his gear already loaded up at home and just needed to throw it in the truck. With a kiss goodbye and a long endearing hug with Kate, we were out the front door and began our hunt for supplies.