The Zombie Zovels (Book 1): Zombie Suburbia

by Lake, D. K

  “I can imagine. The virus probably spread like wildfire in that place.” I said.

  “How about you two?” Crystal asked, stroking Ozma's curly black hair.

  “Um, we sort of found each other last year.”

  “Where are you guys headed?” Thom asked.

  “We don't really have a destination. Just looking for some place safe with other people. We found one place, but... the people weren't that friendly so we moved on, and we've been on the road ever since.”

  “I heard most of the safe houses are hidden in the mountains. We've been searching too, and still not found anything.” Crystal said.

  “Where'd you hear that from?” I asked.

  “From an official source.” Thom said.

  “An official source?” I said, wanting to know where they were getting their information from. “We met a couple of military guys back in the city before we left, and they said the majority of safe houses in Idaho are hidden in the mountains and deep in the forests.”

  It was probably true, we were yet to come across one.

  “So why are you going to Colorado? I overheard you before.”

  “We came across a small group of travelers, they had come from Colorado, and they told us the military were handling it very well that way. And all are welcome there and there are no restrictions. They have opened their safe houses to everyone.”

  “Then why were the people you met leaving if it was a safe place?”

  “They were traveling to find family members across the country, we happened to meet them. We haven't seen anyone else except you two in over five months.” Thom said.

  “Colorado huh?” Lane said, jumping out of the van. “My brother was sent there just after the virus started to break.”

  “You never told me that,” I said.

  Lane shrugged. “Why was he sent there?” I asked.

  “My brother was a medical research scientist.”

  “Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?”

  “It's not like it matters, he's probably dead already, so there was no point bringing it up.” Lane and I had shared everything in the last six months, and he hadn't once told me about his brother. I didn't even know he had a brother.

  “I need to pee.” Crystal interrupted our awkward exchange.

  “Yep, me too.” Thom said.

  “Me too.” I muttered walking off.

  I ducked down behind a tree and took a much needed morning pee. I stayed there for a few extra minutes. I was secretly upset Lane hadn't bothered to tell me about his brother, maybe he had more than one, who knew? I let it go. He was probably right, his brother was likely to be dead by now. I peeked around the tree. Thom was leaning against the van chatting to Lane, holding his arm out for Crystal so she could twirl around underneath it like a small child would do. These two were the most unprepared human beings I had ever seen. How had they survived this long? I wandered back over and avoided Lane's eyes glaring at me.

  “So Colorado it is.” I said.

  “Yay!” Crystal squeaked, before planting a huge kiss on Thom's lips... I saw tongue and had to look away.

  Really?

  They better not do that the whole way there and they better not get any ideas about renting out the back of the van.

  Ugh! Calm, Alex.

  Lane was staring at me. He knew what each of my expressions meant, and right now I was pulling my crazy face, where my eyes darted around while I had a conversation with myself inside my head... and it happened a lot. I was the only other person to talk to apart from Lane. Maybe we did need some company.

  I climbed into the back and sat near the partition, closer to Lane. Crystal and Thom hopped in and Lane closed the doors.

  “This is kind of nice, kinda cozy,” Crystal said. “A little love shack.”

  “Babe, they said they were just friends.” Thom said.

  “Okay, if they say so,” she smiled at me, unbuttoning her jacket.

  Lane not me. Lane labeled us, not me. Friends? Pffff! Friends, I'll remember that next time he tries to get into my panties.

  “Where'd you guys get all your food from?” Thom asked, eyeing the box in the corner. “The last town we drove through, we hit every house we could.” Lane said, poking his head through the hatch door.

  “The place was deserted so we made the most of it. The van helps. Before we could only take what we could carry.” I said.

  “Where'd you find the van?” Crystal asked.

  “We got lucky in Oregon, and Lane managed to get it running. It's only let us down a few times, thankfully not when we were trying to get away from a mob of zombies.”

  Thom helped Crystal take off her jacket. Underneath she had Ozma sitting in a baby carrier. She pulled her out and sat her on the mattress while she untangled the baby carrier from her arms. “How do you keep it running?” Thom asked.

  “Every time we see an abandoned vehicle Lane checks for gas.”

  “You guys have got it sorted.” Thom said, looking around the van.

  “Just trying to survive like everyone else.” I said.

  Lane started the van and cranked up the music. Crystal's eyes lit up and she started bouncing around on the mattress.

  “We haven't heard music in quite some time.” Thom said as Crystal knocked shoulders with him. Thom pulled out a tin. “Do you guys mind if I smoke?”

  Great! Just when I got Lane to quit.... again.

  Every time we found a gas station with smokes he stocked up. He had no self-control and smoked the things one after the other until they were all gone, then he'd get in a strop about it and I'd have to put up with his ratty moods for weeks or, until, we found more cigarettes. I was starting to think he'd never quit.

  “Um,” I was about to say not in the van, but Lane talked over me.

  “Do you have one going spare?” Lane asked.

  Typical! I thought.

  There are days when Lane conveniently doesn't hear me (even when I'm standing right next to him and ask him to help me with something), oh, but, he heard Thom over the music and all the way back here.

  “Sure do, it's the least I can do to repay you guys,” Thom said, holding out a cigarette for me to pass to Lane.

  “Do you want one?” he asked me.

  “I don't smoke.” I replied, gingerly taking the cigarette from him, not impressed he was okay with smoking inside the van where Ozma was. I stood up and poked it through one of the gaps. “Here's your death stick, friend.”

  “Do you need a light?” Thom yelled.

  Of course Lane doesn't need a light. I think he was born with a lighter, he probably shot out of his mom and smoked a whole pack within the first hour.

  “Nah, I'm good.” Lane called back.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked Crystal, trying not to stare at her tiny frame.

  “A bit. You sort of get used to not eating. I don't feel that hungry anymore.”

  “When was the last time you ate? Minus the Oreos.”

  “Um...? I don't know.”

  “What about Ozma?” I asked, watching her crawl all over Crystal.

  “I'm still breastfeeding, and I've got her on a bottle in-between. Bottled water and I just add sugar, she loves it, but I have been introducing her to solids. Her favorite is chocolate cookies.” “How old is she?”

  “Twelve months.” Crystal answered, tickling Ozma's tummy.

  “Was she planned?” I asked.

  I mentally cringed. Why did I ask that?

  Who gets pregnant in a zombie apocalypse? What was wrong with people?

  You'd think if people didn't have contraception they'd keep their legs shut. At least, that's what I did... even if Lane harassed me some nights... we usually did other stuff instead. There was no way I was going to risk getting pregnant. I was already a slow runner, if I took on extra weight I'd get eaten for sure.

  “I'm sorry, that just slipped out.” I said.

  Crystal smiled and pulled Ozma onto her lap.

&n
bsp; “No, she wasn't planned. We couldn't always find contraception. Well, you know how it is. I mean, what else were we supposed to do?” She winked at me.

  Not-Have-Sex!

  I wanted to tell her exactly what I thought, but I had to bite my tongue, and smiled instead. Crystal kept the conversation going, asking me all sorts of questions about where we'd come from and the different places we had traveled through. Thom was quiet and kept Ozma amused most of the time. It was weird seeing such a small child. It made me think about Amy and Jo. They would have both had their babies by now. We made a few stops for the toilet, mainly for Crystal, I wasn't so sure if she wasn't pregnant again. We stopped for lunch at the side of the road, and Thom stretched his legs walking Ozma up and down the road. I didn't really know how I felt about seeing the child out in the open. It didn't feel right, I wanted to tell Thom to put her back in the van. Thom and Lane had plenty to talk about, PlayStation, Xbox, what music they were into. I warmed up to the pair after awhile, they were what they seemed, young, in love, and not prepared for anything.

  After lunch Thom sat in the front with Lane, we had been following the signs for a town, but we had taken a few wrong turns, we were lucky to find another vehicle with gas to top up the van. “Alex?” Lane called.

  “Yeah,” I replied, standing up and going over to the hatch.

  “There's a town coming up.”

  “Okay, you know the drill, drive straight through, if it looks quiet we stop, if not we don't risk it.” “You've done this before?” Thom asked, looking over his shoulder at me.

  “Yes, we don't stop if it looks too risky.” I said.

  “Not even to have a quick snoop around the stores?”

  “No, the chances are if there are a couple of zombies, there's probably a load of them inside the stores. They like to group together, we've seen it happening more and more over the past months.” “I thought zombies ate each other?” Crystal said.

  “They do, they usually pick off the weaklings, that is if they can't find fresh meat.” I replied. “I hate zombies!” Crystal muttered.

  “I think everyone shares that opinion.” I said, sitting down beside her and Ozma. I fiddled with a gum wrapper, trying to keep my hands occupied. I hated this. I couldn't see what was outside. I was used to sitting in the front with Lane. I didn't know if we were already in the town or not.

  “You see anything yet?” I asked loudly.

  No one replied. The van slowed down, and someone shut the music off.

  Crystal looked just as confused as I was.

  “Lane?”

  “Shh...”

  Thom shushed me. I hardly knew the guy and now he was shushing me. Something bumped against the side of the van. I stood up staring at the spot where the sound had come from. “Why have we slowed down?” I asked, opening the hatch door. “And what was that...? Shit!” I said, taking in the view outside.

  The road was crawling with zombies, and I didn't mean it was just overrun, I meant there were half eaten zombies actually dragging themselves across the road. I tried to get a better view and saw more on the grass mingling around outside the houses.

  “We are not driving through that.” Lane said, taking a side turning into a small street with different colored houses. The driveways and front yards had zombies all over them.

  “What is this?” I whispered.

  “This is a nightmare!” Lane said, reversing the van into a driveway.

  “There are so many. I've never seen anything like this before. Did the whole town become infected?”

  “I think they've just realized we're here.” Tom said.

  A few zombies were crossing the street heading toward the van. I guess they weren't used to seeing a moving vehicle, they only knew to go after moving humans.

  “What's happening?” Crystal asked.

  “Zombie hell, that's what!” I replied.

  Lane swung out and a group of zombies blocked the road.

  “Just drive through them. We need to get out of here.” I said.

  Lane pressed his foot on the gas pedal.

  “Hold on!” Lane said.

  I ducked down to the floor and leaned against the partition. Crystal grabbed Ozma and sat on the mattress.

  Thud-Bonk-Thud-Thud-Bonk

  Then the van slowly speeded up, and Lane turned a corner a little too fast. I slid across the floor, and Crystal fell onto the mattress with Ozma, who was now crying. I stayed on the floor as the van swerved from side to side, dodging zombies.

  “You okay back there?” Lane yelled.

  “We're fine, just get us out of here.” I shouted back.

  “I'm on it!” Lane said.

  I closed my eyes and prayed we wouldn't break down or become surrounded by too many zombies and not be able to escape. The van had broken down before, but we weren't inside a zombie infested town at the time.

  Lane took a side road leading around the town, we couldn't go through, not even in the van, and we couldn't go back the way we had come, there was nothing back there. So we had to go around the town instead.

  Once we were a good distance away, Lane pulled over to the side of the road.

  “I need some air.” Thom said, jumping out.

  Crystal had managed to settle Ozma down by breastfeeding her, she still had her top-half uncovered when Lane opened the door.

  “Oh, sorry!” he said, turning away.

  Ozma had dozed off in Crystal's arms, and Crystal carefully laid her on the mattress. “It's okay. I'm sure you've seen a pair of breasts before.” Crystal said.

  “More than a pair.” I said, not being able to resist.

  Crystal laughed and climbed out of the van.

  I looked at Ozma fast asleep without a care in the world, she had no idea she was growing up in a world full of flesh-hungry zombies. It sort of made me angry that Thom and Crystal hadn't been more responsible. The idea of getting pregnant and bringing a child into this world was the worst idea ever.

  Lane was still holding the door open for me. I hopped out and looked back at Ozma, I felt sorry for her, that this was going to be her life... that was if she even survived that long.

  I realized Lane was watching me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Nothing,” he said, quietly shutting the van doors so not to wake Ozma.

  Crystal and Thom were huddled together beside the van. I looked around and decided to make a quick toilet trip. I crossed the road and ducked down behind a tree, within seconds, Lane walked around the tree.

  I jumped, nearly falling over.

  “Shit! I thought you were a zombie. What are you doing?” I asked, standing up, tugging my jeans up.

  Lane unzipped himself and started urinating beside me, up against the tree.

  “You couldn't have done that somewhere else?” I asked, moving away.

  “I bet that town is full of supplies.” Lane said.

  “Probably. But I doubt many people got the chance to raid it, and if they did they never left again. There's no way I'd go back there, even if you paid me in clean undies and chocolate bars.” “What are we going to do?”

  “What we always do, we keep going... wait, where are the van keys?” I asked, on the verge of panicking.

  “Relax, Alex, they're in my pocket.”

  Lane zipped himself back up. I tried to walk around him, but he grabbed me.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I'm fine.”

  “No, you're not.”

  I sighed. “I feel sorry for the child. Those two don't care about ANYTHING! I have no idea how they made it this far.”

  “They're just really easy going people, Alex.”

  “Easy going? Easy going gets you killed. Did you hear Crystal earlier, the way she was talking about her life, they don't really care if they end up dead or not, they just want to be happy together until the end, blah blah blah, and then she started spouting fate and destiny bullshit, and how destiny wanted them to have a baby, blah blah...”
/>   “They're not that bad. They've accepted the situation and they're living day by day, making the most of it.”

  “They're idiots, that child doesn't stand a chance. They've just been incredibly fucking lucky up until now.” I said, crossing my arms. “And now we're stuck with them.”

  “We're just giving them a ride,” Lane said.

  “No, we're not just giving them a ride, Lane, because now there's a small child involved, we're going to have to take care of them and keep them alive until we get to Colorado.” “You make it sound like a chore.”

  “It is, we have to feed them and make sure they don't get eaten.” I sighed, pushing past him, but stopped, and reached back to grab his arm. “C'mon they're going to wonder what we're doing behind the tree together.”

  Lane laughed and followed me back to the road. We found them on the other side of the van, Thom was waving his arms around, showing Crystal something, and Crystal was laughing. “What's that smell?” I mumbled.

  Lane looked at me, trying not to smirk. I wondered what was so amusing.

  “You want some?” Thom asked us.

  “I don't smoke.” I thought I had already told him that when he decided to smoke inside the van and contaminate us all with his cigarette smoke.

  “Um,” Lane was looking at me as if he was asking for my permission.

  “I don't care, smoke what you want, your lungs not mine.” I said, searching through my bag for lip balm.

  “That town was...” Lane trailed off.

  “The worst I've ever seen.” Thom said.

  Crystal hugged Thom around the waist while Lane and Thom started chatting. I realized Lane hadn't spoken to anyone other than me either in the last six months, he was probably enjoining the male company.

  I climbed into the driver's seat, not being unsociable, but not wanting to stand outside getting cold waiting for them.

  Lane knocked on the window, I rolled it down, and he stuck his head inside and pointed down the road.

  “What's that?” I asked, following his line of sight to a sign further down.

  Thom and Crystal were already halfway there, strolling hand in hand.

  “Dunno, let me in, it's freezing.” he said, and I scooted across for him.

  He pulled himself in beside me, still smoking.

  “Ugh! Lane, not in the van.”