The Zombie Zovels (Book 1): Zombie Suburbia

by Lake, D. K

I picked up the baskets. The other zombie closed in on us, strange gurgling noises came from its mouth, followed by saliva dribbling down its chin and spit flying out. Lane swung the bat behind him ready for the next one and I made a run for the doors. Something flew across the store in my periphery vision.

  “What was that?” I asked, glancing back at Lane who was catching up to me.

  “Nothing.” he said, half grinning, half laughing, grabbing my arm and guiding me over the garbage on the floor, and out of the doors.

  “Was that a head?” I asked, looking up at him.

  He smirked at me, but didn't answer, then his grin dropped.

  “Fuck.” he said.

  I looked both ways along the path and saw more zombies. Two to the right and one to the left. I ran ahead and Lane stayed a few steps behind me. We both scrambled into the van and Lane dug around in his pockets for the key.

  “Hurry up!”

  “Where is it?” he groaned.

  He pulled out numerous gum wrappers before finally locating the key, and jammed it into the ignition. Outside the three zombies limped, walked, and shuffled toward the van. He turned the key... the van wouldn't turn over. He waited a moment, keeping his eyes on the zombies as they got closer with every second.

  “What's wrong? Why won't it start?”

  “I don't know.” he said, trying it again.

  My eyes drifted back to the store. Zombies started trickling out the doors in numbers. One, two, three, four...

  I looked sideways at Lane, who was looking at the same thing.

  Five, six, seven, eight...

  “I can't believe they were all in there... with us.”

  The other zombies had reached the van and were pounding on the hood. They slowly moved around to my side, and I moved away from the window where all three of them had grouped together and were thumping on the glass.

  “Lane,” I urged.

  “I'm trying. I don't know what's wrong with it.”

  Then I heard the screams. I looked out the windshield and saw two newbies heading this way. “Newbies!” I said, informing Lane.

  “Crap,” he responded, turning the key again.

  One of the zombies outside the window thumped the glass with such force that the glass shattered, falling into the van.

  “Shit!” I said, reaching for one of the baskets as zombies' hands came into the van. I chucked the contents onto the floor and used it to push the zombies back out the window.

  One of the newbies crashed into the front of the van, placing both hands on the hood, watching us, and screaming. The other zombies outside kept trying to push their way in through the window and I used the basket as a weapon and rammed it into their faces. The newbie came around to my window and screamed at the other zombies to move and after they refused it grabbed one of the zombies and bit into its face. The zombie didn't react to been bitten and was still trying to get to me. The other two zombies suddenly became frenzied by the blood and dragged the zombie away. Ozma had woken up and was screaming in the back.

  The newbie turned its attention back to me. I backed away from the window, as long arms with black fingernails frantically clawed at me. The engine finally turned over.

  “Drive!” I screamed.

  Lane pressed on the gas and the van shot forward ploughing through more zombies. The newbie at the window clung on desperately. I switched from the basket to the bat and gave the zombie a good jab in the eye as the van swerved and bumped over something, probably another zombie. I used all of my strength and tried jabbing the zombie in the face again, this time, its head shot back and it forgot about holding onto the van and disappeared from view. The van swerved again, and I started to slide sideways, grabbing onto whatever I could to avoid sliding across the seat onto the glass. “Sorry!” Lane said.

  “Just get me out of this parking lot.”

  Lane took a shortcut and drove up onto the side, and over, bumping the van back down on the other side, and back onto the main road, then he accelerated as much as he could while weaving around abandoned vehicles.

  “You okay?” he asked, nudging me with his elbow.

  “Um..no I'm fine.”

  “Did it scratch you or anything?”

  “Err, no,” I said, inspecting my hands, I had my hoodie on protecting my arms.

  “Good,” He breathed a sigh of relief.

  “There's glass all over my seat.”

  “We'll stop in a minute and clean it up, and sort her out, my driving isn't helping, she must be rolling around all over the place back there.”

  I opened the hatch.

  “Hey, Ozzy,” I said in a babyish voice.

  Since caring for Ozma, Lane and I had both found out we speak babyish.

  She snivelled and stuck out her bottom lip, and screamed again. Nothing I would say would calm her, she either needed a bottle or Lane's arms, mine weren't good enough when she was upset. I brushed a few pieces of glass onto the floor but decided to wait until we weren't moving. I squished myself up to Lane and leaned back against him.

  “There were so many.” I said.

  “They must have been sleeping or busy eating. Can you imagine what would have happened if they'd found us when we were inside.”

  “We'd be dead. Probably in pieces right now.”

  I looked out the window at the trees whizzing past, not really looking at anything. “You sure you're okay? You look like you're in shock.”

  I smiled and looked at him.

  “Yes, I'm shocked you managed to knock that zombie's head off.”

  He hinted a smile. “That was really badass. You should add those two to your zombie-kill-list.” “Kill list? You still doing that?”

  “Yep, those two were all yours. Oh, and tripping over that box was real smooth.” Lane laughed, and I reached over and searched through the glove-box for a different CD. Ozma loved music, maybe it would help calm her down. I pulled out a handful of CDs and laughed at the top choice.

  “What?”

  I showed him the CD.

  “No.” he said bluntly.

  I laughed and placed the Justin Bieber CD under the pile. “Oooh, how about All Time Low?” “Yes!” he replied. “Hey, Alex,”

  “Yeah,”

  I put the CD in and adjusted the volume, then looked back at him.

  “What is it?”

  “Back there... that was... we need to be more careful in the future, and no more shopping trips. We can get what we need from house to house.”

  “Well, how was I supposed to know there was a nest at the back of the store.” I smiled, but he didn't look amused. “Lane, it's okay, we're both okay.”

  He nodded and relaxed back in the seat.

  “I thought you said essentials only?”

  “Huh?”

  “What's that?” he asked, pointing to a white and pink tube on the floor. I leaned over and picked it up.

  “Hand cream?” he said, reading the tube.

  “Yes. Hand cream. I don't want to get sore, chapped hands, that will crack and split and become open to infection. It's common sense.”

  “And what's that?”

  “Body lotion.... all right, I got a little carried away in the toiletries section. I'm a girl, I like to moisturize.”

  “Is that shaving foam?”

  “Yes, but I got that for you as well. You look like you could do with a shave.”

  He playfully frowned at me and rubbed the stubble on his chin.

  “Grab my basket would ya?”

  I bent over and picked up Lane's basket that still had most of the contents inside it. My empty basket was on the seat next to me and the contents were all over the floor.

  He stuck his hand in and pulled out a pair of black wayfarer sunglasses, and put them on. I reached over and took the tag off for him.

  “Yours should be in there somewhere.” he said.

  I dug around in the basket and pulled out a pair of pink heart-shaped frames.

  “Really?” I stuck th
em on my face and looked at him.

  He laughed and I playfully punched him.

  “Thanks.” I said.

  “I knew you'd like them.”

  “Hmm..”

  “So where to now?” he asked.

  “Whichever way the road takes us.” I replied.

  “You still not bothered about going to Colorado?”

  “No. I'm only interested in finding a safe house. I can't imagine Colorado is any different to here. The disease has probably spread and taken over since those people told Crystal and Thom about it.” Lane didn't answer. I think he wanted to travel that way, but I didn't see the point. At the minute we were doing just fine, traveling from town to town, not in any rush, spending nights where we thought it was safe and leaving when we ran out of food, the past six weeks had been rather uneventful until today.

  Lane pulled over to the side of the road.

  “I want to check under the hood, you look after Ozma.” Lane said, climbing out. I quickly opened the back of the van. Ozma crawled across the mattress and reached her arms up to me. I picked her up and tried my best to make a drink for her whilst she was still in my arms, at least she wasn't crying anymore. She was a happy child normally, but I think zombies banging on the van would upset anyone. She held the bottle herself and I carried her back to Lane, checking all around us at the same time.

  “What's wrong with it?” I asked, hitching Ozma up my hip.

  “I don't know.”

  “We can't be without the van.” I said.

  “I know. I need to top up the water anyhow.”

  I looked up the road and saw a house.

  “You can use the water from that house. I'm not wasting our water on the van.”

  “Okay,” Lane said, leaning against the van, stroking Ozma's head.

  Lane noticed my concerned face and reached for me, and wrapped his arms around the both of us. “We're gonna be just fine, Alleycat, you'll see.”

  Chapter 19

  Utah - Three Months Later. “I miss the van.” Lane moaned, kicking a stone across the road.

  I looked down at Ozma and pulled a silly face, she giggled and tried to turn her head around to see Lane. Ozma was so small she still fit inside her baby carrier, the one Crystal had been wearing the first time we met her and Thom. Only now Ozma had put on a few extra pounds and my back was aching from all the walking and having to carry her, but I wanted Lane's arms free for if we ran into any zombies, he was ultimately stronger, and was finally getting over his fear of zombies. They still scared the shit out of him, but at least now he didn't hesitate and it didn't take him ten minutes to finish one off. He had changed a lot over the past months, he was more responsible, and I depended on him a lot more than I liked to admit. And now I had Ozma to care for, I needed him, I couldn't do this on my own.

  Lane looked back at us, I hadn't replied to his earlier comment.

  “I miss it too, but there's nothing we can do. You knew the day would come when it would either break down for good or it would eventually run out of gas. Anyway, if it hadn't run out of gas I think the engine would have given up... or blown up, it was making some weird noises.” “Speaking of noises, do you hear that?” Lane asked, looking up at the sky.

  “Over there.” I pointed.

  The sound of an approaching airplane grew louder, and a few moments later it flew straight over our heads. I caught up to Lane and we watched as the plane dropped something.

  “What's that?” I asked.

  “It's making a drop.”

  The landscape was open, overgrown fields with trees running along the edge, and on the other side of the road, there was a very long walk over more farmland which led to a hilly mountain verge. In the distance, there was a large building with security fencing. The drop had been made right next to the fencing. We continued walking, I handed my bat to Lane and pulled out my binoculars. I zoned in on the large crate that had just been dropped, it had numbers on the side. I stood still, carefully watching the fencing, and saw movement on the other side.

  “What is that place?” Lane asked, taking the binoculars before I had finished with them. “I see people,” Lane said.

  “People or zombies?”

  “Err... no, they are definitely people, and they're opening the gates at the front.”

  “Is that a safe house?” I asked, pulling on his arm, wanting my binoculars back to see for myself. “Just wait,”

  “What else do you see?”

  “Three... no four people. One has a rifle, and one is carrying a pitchfork, the other two are opening the crate.”

  “And?” I prodded him, wanting more details.

  “And one is army.”

  “Real army, or someone dressing up like army?”

  “I don't know, I can't see that close, but I think he's spotted us.”

  “What?”

  “And now he's waving at us.”

  “Does he look friendly?”

  “I don't know. What kind of a question is that? One of them is holding a gun. Oooh...” “What now?”

  “That building is actually a prison.”

  “Are they inmates?” I asked, slightly panicked.

  “Not sure, there's a girl with them, but I can't imagine the government would be supplying criminals with supplies. And now military boy is on his way over here.”

  “Is he armed?”

  “Negative, on foot, no weapon visible.”

  Lane handed me the binoculars, and I looked through them while trying to keep them out of reach from Ozma.

  The military boy was walking this way with his hands in his pockets, I couldn't see a weapon, but that didn't mean he didn't have a knife in his pocket. More people had joined the others outside and were helping to carry boxes in through the gates, the only one that wasn't helping was the one with the rifle.

  Lane looked at me. “What do we do?”

  “Try not to get shot or knifed.” I said.

  “You don't think they're friendly?”

  “I have no idea. We can't trust anyone, though. Remember last time?”

  We started walking along the road, slowing down before the military boy got too close. “Keep an eye on his hands, you don't know what he's got in those pockets.” I whispered. “Well, I don't think he's hiding a gun in them.”

  “Shh...”

  We came to a stop, and the military boy pulled out his hands from his pockets and held them up to show us he was unarmed and meant us no harm. He stopped opposite us, looking us up and down. His eyes lingered on me a moment longer than necessary and I think Lane noticed because he shifted around on his feet. The military boy's eyes stopped on Ozma.

  “What's your name?” he asked, looking at Lane.

  “I'm Lane, this is Alex, and the little one is Ozma.” Lane replied.

  The military boy nodded and smiled at Ozma.

  His smile looked genuine, nothing like the creepy smile Dominic gave us when we arrived at the Lab. I took a moment to give him the once-over. He was wearing boots, camouflage trousers, a white T-shirt that looked spotless and dog tags around his neck. He had soft floppy brown hair, a splash of freckles across the bridge of his nose, large brown eyes, dark eyebrows and thick eyelashes, and a scar under his right eye. He didn't look much older than us.

  Well, if he was impersonating he was doing a good job of it, I didn't think the outfit was borrowed. “I'm Josh,”

  “You army?” Lane asked.

  “Yes.” Josh answered, looking between us. “Are you okay?” he asked, taking a step toward us and I instinctively moved back a step.

  “I'm sorry, we've had a bad run-in with humans before,” I said.

  “Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we've heard stories about some places. We've got one guy inside, the last place he stayed in was some science lab, they chained him to a fence which had zombies already chained to it, for stealing a cookie.”

  Lane raised an eyebrow at me.

  “What's his name?” I asked.

  “Jasper.
”

  Jasper? I didn't recall a Jasper, but other survivors could have found their way to the Lab. “Did he call the place the Lab?”

  “Err... yeah, I think he did. Have you been there?”

  “Yes, and we couldn't wait to get away from it.” I replied.

  “Jasper said a few of the men would get dressed up, pretending they were military, then they would go and steal food drops left for another safe house. Jasper escaped and came here with a girl called Tammy.”

  “Tammy's here?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing.

  “She's inside if you want to come in and see for yourself?” Josh said, smiling at me. “Is that a safe house?” Lane asked.

  Josh nodded.

  “We were in one of the new builds before, but the plumbing was a nightmare, they were built too quickly and were full of faults. The building was compromised one night, but we managed to take control of the situation, but a couple of my guys got infected and within weeks the disease started spreading. Then there was another zombie attack and we couldn't hold them off, a lot of us fled and the rest of us stayed in a group and made our way here. The prison was thankfully empty when we got here, I think all the inmates had been let out.”

  “You have drops delivered here?” Lane said.

  “Yes, Dudley is our radio guy, he managed to get in touch with another base and we informed them the safe house location had changed so they deliver the drops here instead, which is handy for us. You guys hungry? We've got plenty of food inside.”

  My stomach growled as if on cue.

  Josh tilted his head toward the prison, I took one look at Lane, then followed Josh. I noticed Josh had a gun tucked into the back of his belt, but he hadn't even reached for it once. “Where have you guys come from?” Josh asked.

  “Originally Washington, but we've been traveling around, Oregon, Idaho, into Utah, trying to find a safe house.” I replied.

  “Well, it's your lucky day, and don't worry we're all a friendly bunch here.” Josh said, giving me a wink.

  Lane scowled and I think Josh saw it.

  “We have other children here. I think the youngest is ten months. How old is your little one?” “She's sixteen months, I think,” I replied.

  “You can't remember when she was born?” Josh asked surprised.