by Rob Fox
Ken, Cole, Spook, and the new kid Brett all enjoyed taking turns blasting the women they saw. Erin, Paula, and Tonya all stood around watching, though they participated. In all, we took out close to five hundred of them. Their bodies littered the ground, making a nice body fence around the house.
Spook spent most of his time with Paula. They barely moved from each other’s side. I know Darcy and I will be the same. We will not want to be away from each other for even a second. This is the longest we have been apart since the outbreak. Let me tell you, it is true: absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Ken has promised to show us how to throw a grenade later. I remember throwing one when I was in the military, but that was so long ago. I have always wanted to see what it will do to a person. Tonight, I will get that chance.
Brett and Cole have become close friends over the past few hours. Hell, they could be brothers. They laugh at the same things and talk for hours about video games they have played and girls they used to know. It’s kind of strange how things work out. Three and a half weeks ago, I never wanted kids. Now here I am, taking care of two teenagers. How did I get put in charge anyway?
Well, it looks like we are going back on the roof. Erin wants to do more shooting. She is out there waiting for us. She looks so happy. I don't know much about her, because she is so quiet. Maybe I can find out more tonight.
Oh my God!
She fell off the roof.
Day 29
They ripped that poor girl to shreds. I guess maybe they were taking revenge for what we had done to their kind. Hell, they are brain dead. All they think about is eating. Eating us, that is. The creepy thing is that after they had eaten most of her, she began to twitch. She then rose up from the ground. All the meat was missing from both arms, and her left leg had been completely ripped off at the knee, but she still managed to get up. She would rise up on one leg, try to take a step, then fall face first onto the ground. It reminded me of a fly trying to go through a closed window. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get anywhere. We all just watched her for about an hour. Ken finally stepped up. He got down on one knee and aimed his rifle just right for a proper kill. He asked if anyone wanted to say something, like a memorial. We all kept our mouths shut. No one knew her. It's not that we didn't care about her, but after everything we have all been through, watching someone die like that didn't mean much to us. I guess we have become desensitized by this experience. Ken closed one eye, placed her head directly in his sights, and slowly squeezed the trigger. Erin's head exploded like a watermelon with an M-80 firecracker in it. She never got up again.
The rest of the night, we all sat in silence. Well, it would have been silent had it not been for the constant moaning of the undead directly outside the house. Is it the hunger that makes them moan or some kind of biological release of air through the lungs? Either way, it is beginning to annoy me again. I mean we are trapped here, unable to go anywhere, and all they can do is moan. I think it is having an impact on everyone now. We are all on edge. Arguments spring up almost every hour. We are arguing over stupid things like who turned on the light or who didn't flush the toilet.
Spook is becoming very restless. He has been pacing back and forth across the hallway for the past three hours. I am getting sick of looking at all these fake zombies and monsters. I wish I could have found somewhere else to stay. Why couldn't a nice old lady have found us? Instead, I am stuck with this lunatic. I am stuck with all the lunatics. I can't breathe. I feel claustrophobic. Why won’t that moaning go away??
Ken is screaming at Cole and Brett in the other room, something about touching his fog machine. Tonya is just sitting in the corner rocking back and forth. Paula is humming some old song. Why won’t she shut the hell up??? The moaning is bad enough.
This place is turning into a ticking time bomb. I am afraid something really bad is going to happen very soon.
Day 30
One month! This shit has been going on for one month! One month ago today, I woke up, kissed Darcy goodbye, and headed to work. Sure, I knew about all the strange stuff going on around the world, but hey, isn't there always stuff going on? Honestly, I never really watched the news, and on my way to work that day, I was listening to my iPod. It wasn't until I got to work that I heard about everything going on in the city. Now that I think back, I do remember seeing quite a few people walking down the road. I also remember seeing a lot of police cars and ambulances that morning, but in the city, I saw that all the time. I should have stayed home. Had I stayed home, I wouldn't be sitting in this hellhole of a house.
Spook won’t shut up about the lack of food and has now started yelling at Paula on a regular basis. Ken and Cole have to stay in different rooms to keep from killing each other, and Brett has been hitting on Tonya all morning. I just keep looking out the window through a couple of boards fastened to the inside. It allows me just enough room to see the front of the house. The moaning is getting worse with each passing minute. It is driving us all insane. Tonya tried calming everyone down today by telling jokes, but no one seemed to care. It was not a time to laugh. She told some joke about two guys walking into a bar, but I forget the punch line. Must not have been too funny.
Spook is right to worry about food. We are running out! We have enough to last maybe one more day if we don't eat much. Two teenagers can clean out a house full of food within hours, and we have been here for days. If we don't leave here soon, we will not have to worry about the zombies. We will die of hunger.
I think tonight I will get on the roof and try to take out more of those bastards. I have to do something. If nothing else, it will stop a few more from moaning. Please let that moaning stop! I can hear Brett screaming at them to shut up from another room. I have to go calm him down...if I can calm myself down.
Day 31
We are out of food. Someone broke into the pantry last night and ate it all! I think it was Brett or Cole. They are two teenage boys who could eat an elephant. Spook is pissed, just as we all are. What are we going to do for food now? This is all we need. We are all going a little insane, and now someone ate all the food. The constant moaning outside is still there, mocking us, taunting us, begging us to come outside and look for food. Those bastards. I will come out with a rocket to shove up their asses!
I am feeling so claustrophobic in here. Even when I get on the roof, I feel locked in. For every ten zombies we kill, twenty more pop up. I have no doubt they will break through our barricades soon. I can hear the wood creaking and cracking from inside. One good push and they would be in. They are literally squeezing the house like a zit. We have begun taking shifts on the roof. If it looks like they are breaking through, the watcher will yell for everyone. We have no escape plan, though. My suggestion is to move to the roof. It is hard enough for us to get to, so I am sure it would be impossible for the brain dead to get to us. We wouldn't last up there long, though; the lack of food and water would kill us.
The only plan I have would involve somehow getting all the zombies on one side of the house, then someone making a mad dash for the truck Paula drove to get here. I have no way to get all the zombies to one side, though. Hell, getting down there would be a death wish for anyone, not that the truck would hold all of us anyway.
I made some signs and put them on the roof in case a helicopter happens to fly by. Maybe they will see we are alive. Doubtful, though. I haven't seen anything in the sky in weeks. No plane, hell, I haven't even seen any birds. My guess is they are all down on the ground, picking the flesh off the dead. There’s so much food that their little fat bellies are probably too full to fly! God, I wish I had that problem right now. I guess that’s the irony here. Humans are the ones that normally have plenty of food, while everything else starves. Now we are starving while everything else gets its fill.
Tonya is inside, trying to keep our minds off food; I don't think it's working, though. Spook does not look amused. Neither does Paula. Ken is trying to figure out who took the food. H
e is closely looking for clues, like that show C.S.I. To him, everyone is a suspect. Brett and Cole are wrestling around in the living room, next to a ten-foot tall Frankenstein. I am sitting here, tapping away at the keyboard. I can hear bellies rumbling over the moaning from outside. I haven't gone into panic mode yet, but I can feel it coming.
Day 32
We are trying to come up with a plan to get out of here. The problem with coming up with a plan is we are all very hungry and can't think straight. We also can't seem to agree on anything. Spook just wants to throw a few grenades and shoot a LAW rocket at the crowd to clear them out enough for one of us to make it to the truck. Ken wants to do my plan of distracting them so one of us can sneak to the truck. Brett and Cole both agree with Spook but only because they want to see the explosions. Tonya is indifferent; she wants to sit right here and see what happens. Paula has not said a word since last night, after she and Spook had a huge fight.
I spent the majority of last night reinforcing the barricades throughout the house. I have no doubt they will break through tomorrow, if not tonight. We have every piece of furniture strapped and hammered to the walls and windows. The only way to see outside is from the roof. Anything that is not bolted to the ground has been used. At least once an hour, I can hear them breaking through. When you have thousands of zombies surrounding the small place you’re in, eventually something is going to break. It is just a matter of time before they are in here tearing us to shreds.
I can hear them all around us. I think it would be safer for us to move up to the roof now. That way, when they break through, we will have a little time to
I hear a truck outside! It sounds like it is getting closer. Who the hell could be out there??
I have moved up to the roof now. Some idiot is driving a truck through the yard, running over all the zombies! I have never seen so much blood! He must have hit a thousand of them. This guy is psychotic! He is hanging his head out of the cab cheering for himself! He can barely keep the truck moving in a straight line because of all the blood and guts that are now covering the ground like snow in wintertime.
Who would have thought our salvation this time would come in the form of a crazy, long-haired guy in a Mac truck? I have to go get some weapons. It looks like we might be on the road again!
Day 33
On the road again.
Oh thank God, we are out of that house, even if we are with a true nut job. The mysterious truck driver, who goes by the name Malice, said he had been driving down the road when he saw the signs I put on the roof. He said he wanted to wait for just the right moment to come get us. I guess for him, the right moment was when two thousand zombies were surrounding the house! After he went on his driving rampage, he backed the truck into the house...yes, literally into the house. We scraped off all the chunks of zombie meat and bone, opened the back of the truck, and piled in quickly. Once we were in, Malice pulled out as fast as he could, though it was a slippery ride. The amount of blood and crushed bodies was staggering. Hands and legs moved on their own along the ground like hundreds of ants.
We got quite a few miles down the road before he pulled the truck over. When the door flew open, a scruffy-looking guy with long black hair and a long black beard to match greeted us. He said he was a truck driver and was just trying to get home. He lived hundreds of miles away from where we were. He said he had a girlfriend back home he was trying to get to. (It seems we all have someone to get home to.) He said he had been in Texas delivering something for the government when all hell broke loose. He told us how he was staying with his brother Jay and his wife Kellie in Texas after he made his drop. He said they were held up in the house for days before the zombies finally broke through their barricades. He described in great detail how Jay fought off what seemed like a hundred before he was finally overpowered and mauled. He told how Kellie was so devastated at what she had just seen that she ran to Jay, only to be eaten alive within seconds. He said right then and there he would make a pact to kill as many of them as he could while he was on his way back to his girl Seras. He said in total, he has taken out more than three thousand. Hell, probably most of them at our safe house.
I am not sure what to make of this Malice guy. He may be just a guy that is upset at the way things have gone, but to me, he seems more like a serial killer. The guy just stares at me, like he knows who I am and what I have done. Maybe it's just me, though. I do have to cut him a little slack, though; he did bring quite a bit of food. He had been stopping here and there at different places, stocking up on supplies. We ate really well last night and this morning.
It wasn't until earlier this afternoon that I realized we were going the wrong way. We were heading away from the city! I needed to go through the city to get to my house. Now I am even further away than when I started. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for him rescuing us, but now what?!
We have been sitting in one spot the majority of the day. We are on top of a hill so we can see in all directions. We are also debating what to do. I will not waver on my feelings. I’m going back through the city to get Darcy. End of discussion. I will go with or without the psychotic Malice guy. Spook and Paula want to stay with him. That figures! Two people with Halloween names want to stick together. Ken and Tonya don't really want to go back to the city, but they get creeped out by the truck driver also. Brett and Cole said they will follow me wherever I go. We are going to talk about it more after we eat.
Tonya just heard a noise in the bushes. We are going to investigate.
Day 34
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
We found a little boy in the bushes. He was no older than six months or a year. He was a zombie. He just lay on the ground, arms so still he could not move them other than to flail them around. He moaned and looked at us. He wanted to eat us. My guess is his mother of father put him there to hide him from the zombies, unaware he was already infected, or maybe they knew he was infected and put him there, unable to do what needed to be done, what we knew needed to be done.
The decision was easy; it was the act that was not. Paula wanted to just leave him there. Malice wanted to "bash his brains against a goddamn radiator." We had to make it quick. Leaving him there to starve was inhumane. What if someone came across him and got bitten by him? Then we would have one more zombie to worry about. No, it had to be done. But who would do it? We all voted that Malice would have nothing to do with this. Spook and Paula wanted nothing of it. I did not want Brett or Cole to have this looming over their heads for the rest of their lives. So it was between Ken, Tonya, and me.
I found some pieces of hay close by and cut one of them shorter than the others. We decided the only way was to draw straws. Cole mixed the hay up and held it in his hand. We all drew to see who would end the life of this child. First Ken, then Tonya, then me. My piece of hay matched Ken’s.
Tonya drew the short straw.
She asked us all to leave her alone with him. I gave her a shotgun. I didn't want any mistakes. We all walked away from them. I could hear Tonya talking to the little boy. She told him she was sorry. She begged for forgiveness. And then she shot him.
The rest of the night, we all sat in total silence. What was there to say? May God forgive us.
Day 35
Last night while we were asleep, Malice thought it would be a good idea to just leave. Normally, I would not have cared, but we were in the trailer of the truck. We all awoke to the rumble of the engine and the sudden take off. The bastard locked us in "for our own good" and took off for home. He said he knew going back to the city was suicide, and he would not let us do that. We were banging on the walls trying to get his attention and trying to get him to stop. That’s when I heard his trademarked whoop as he ran over groups of living dead. Every time he would run over a few, it would knock us around. He began swerving to hit them. The truck would violently yank to the left or the right, and then we would feel the familiar bump and hear the hoot from Malice. As much fun as this was f
or him, we were getting pretty banged up.
During one violent yank, the truck tipped sideways as it had a few times before. Only this time, he could not recover. The truck began flipping sideways, like someone rolling a brick down a hill. We must have flipped three of four times before coming to a stop against a building.
The truck bed was ripped in half. Me, Cole, and Tonya were in one side; Brett, Spook, Paula, and Ken were in the other side. I lay on the wall—now the floor of the truck—where I’d landed until I heard Paula screaming and crying. I jumped up, blood rushing down my arm from a large cut on my shoulder. As I looked around, I saw Cole and Tonya helping each other up. They appeared to be okay, just a little banged up. I jumped out of the trailer and made my way over to the other side. Paula was holding Brett’s now-lifeless body. His neck was contorted in a very unnatural way. Spook was behind her, trying to help Ken, who was trapped, penned between two pieces of the trailer. His leg was crushed, blood flowing freely from just above his knee. He was pale and almost completely unresponsive. I ran over to Spook, trying in vain to pull back the metal. The more we worked, the more damage we were causing. Now, as if to mock us even more, Cole began yelling something about zombies coming. I ran to look. He was right. A massive group had obviously heard our wreck and was coming after its meal. We had a decision to make. Do we leave Ken here or pull him, no matter how much damage was done? Either way, we had to go. Ken made the decision for us. He reached down and grabbed the gun Spook had in his belt. He told us to go. He was dead either way.
