The Zombie Zovels (Book 1): Zombie Suburbia

by Lake, D. K

  “She's not ours.” I said.

  “Oh,” Josh said, looking at us both differently.

  “Her parents got killed, so we took care of her.”

  I left out the part where Ozma's mother got eaten and bled out in the van, and I shot her father in the head.

  “That's a really big thing to do. Not many people would have done that.”

  “Well, I wasn't about to leave her and let her die of starvation or get eaten.”

  “How long have you had her?”

  “Just over four months.”

  “You've done really well by the looks of it. So did you two meet while traveling?” “We, um...” I trailed off and looked at Lane then back at Josh. “Brother.” I blurted. “Married!” Lane said.

  “So you two are brother and sister? And you're married?” Josh asked slightly amused. “No, that came out wrong. I'm still on the defence from the last place we were at.” I said. “You don't need to worry about that sort of thing happening here.” Josh said. “So how do you really know each other?”

  “We went to school together, we're friends.” I said.

  “Close friends.” Lane added.

  Another boy jogged over to us, he wasn't dressed in military gear, but he did have dog tags around his neck.

  “Ah, guys this is Luke, Luke this is Lane and Alex, and this is Oz..”

  “Ozma.” I finished for him.

  “Well, it's great to see some new faces. Welcome, mi casa es su casa.” Luke said. I smiled, not getting any weird vibes from either of them, they both appeared to be the real deal. And Josh couldn't stop looking at me, it wasn't until someone called him away to help with the boxes that he tore his eyes away from me.

  “I'll show you inside,” Luke said. “That's Jenny and Stew helping with the boxes.” Luke pointed. The girl waved at us before Stew dumped a box into her arms.

  Lane tapped me on the shoulder. “Brother? Friend?” he mouthed.

  Oh, so now he was annoyed when I used the term friend. And as for brother, I didn't really know myself why I had used the word brother.

  “I don't know it just came out. What, it's not okay when I tell people we're friends, but you can?” I waved him off, not wanting to discuss this right now.

  Luke looked at us trying to hide his smirk over our obvious couples squabble.

  We walked in through the gate as more unfamiliar faces walked past us to help with the boxes. Luke led us inside, into a long grey corridor where the boxes had been stacked against the wall. It took me a moment to realize the lights were switched on.

  “Generators?” Lane asked.

  “Nope, the power was already on when we got here.”

  “No way!” I said.

  “I know, we were just as surprised, the prison must be running on different power cables or something, but don't ask me I'm not the electrician, that would be Dudley.

  Josh came through the doors behind us.

  “Luke, I can walk them inside, you go help Jenny with the boxes.”

  “Sure thing.” Luke said and ducked out the door.

  Josh waved at us to follow.

  “You don't want us to strip?” I said.

  “Well, I'm not stopping you if you want to, but it's not necessary.” he said, trying not to smirk. “But we could be infected.” I said.

  “Are you infected?” Josh asked.

  “Nooo,” I said.

  “Then I'll take your word for it. You seem like decent people.”

  “A little too trusting, don't you think?” I said.

  Josh stopped in front of a door.

  “If you're really that desperate to take off your clothes in front of me then you should drop by my cell later, it's the one with the Batman mural on the wall, Luke's doing not mine.” Lane cleared his throat and Josh looked at him like he'd forgotten he was still standing there. “It was a joke,” Josh said, holding his hands up innocently.

  He held the door open for us, and we walked into another long corridor, then we followed him along several more corridors, passing a large cafeteria room, a gym, and a games room which even included a Xbox. We eventually came to a stop where the individual cells were.

  “There are bunks in each cell, we have plenty spare so just take your pick. Will you two be sharing?” Josh asked, aiming the comment at me.

  “New people!” a girl squealed, running down the stairs.

  The girl was about the same height as me, straight brown hair, curvier, with a little more weight on her bones. Her nails were painted bright pink, her eyelids had been brushed with smoky grey eyeshadow and her cheeks were shimmery.

  She bounced to a stop in front of Lane. “Hello,” she said, grinning at him.

  “Hi,” Lane said politely.

  “This is Stacey,” Josh said. “Stacey, these guys just arrived, do you think you can show them around and help them pick out a cell, I need to go and help with the rest of the boxes.” “Of course,” Stacey replied.

  Josh stepped over to Stacey and they exchanged a few words quietly, then he looked back at me and winked again before walking off, and Lane glared at the back of him.

  “What are your names?” Stacey asked.

  “Lane, I'm Alex, and this is Ozma.”

  “She's so tiny.” Stacey said, letting Ozma grab her finger.

  “This way,” she said, jogging back up the metal stairs. “I'm so pleased you're here, it can get a bit boring in this place stuck with the same people day after day. How old are you?” “We're both nineteen.” I answered.

  “I'm sixteen.” Stacey supplied.

  She walked along the walkway and stopped in front of one of the cells. The cells were small, with open bars and reminded me of the TV show Prison Break. The cell Stacey had stopped in front of had voile curtains hanging up inside and a dream catcher on the barred door.

  “Josh tells me you're brother and sister, so Alex can bunk with me.” she said excitedly, pointing at the bottom bunk. “I've always wanted a roomie.” she added.

  I wondered if the poor girl had any friends. She was acting almost desperate for me to share a cell with her.

  I couldn't help but laugh at the looks she was giving us, she was probably wondering if either one of us had been adopted or if we were step-siblings because Lane and I looked nothing like each other. “Why did he say that? He knows you didn't mean it.” Lane huffed.

  I shrugged. I didn't care where I slept as long as it was under a roof, and the bed was a bonus. “Jasper needs a roomie, he's kinda on his own.”

  “Right, Jasper, the one Tammy traveled here with?” I said.

  “Yes, he's five cells that way.” Stacey pointed.

  Lane looked at her as if she was joking, and Stacey looked at me with pleading eyes. “It's just... I get really lonely in here on my own, I don't have any friends.”

  “I saw other girls in the cafeteria area.” Lane said.

  I tried not to laugh. Of course Lane had seen the other girls.

  “What, Meghan and her whore friends? No, thank you!” Stacey crossed her arms. I looked up at Lane and held up my arms. “Go and meet Jasper and see what you think, if it doesn't work out we can bunk together.... We can bunk together, right? There aren't any weird rules about boys and girls sharing a cell is there?”

  “Not that I know of. There's a couple on the lower level, it's all you can hear some nights. Jasper's that way.” Stacey said, pointing again, practically pushing Lane out the door.

  She spun around and beamed at me. “We can make a little bed on the floor for Ozma, and this door slides across, it's a little stiff to push it manually, but it will keep her in the room during the night.” “No, it's great.” I said, looking around. There was even a toilet hidden behind a curtain. “Does that work?” I asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I like what you've done with the place.”

  She had draped voile over the walls, and made colorful creative paper butterflies and dangled them from the ceiling, and made a curtain around the
toilet.

  “There are cubicle toilets downstairs, but I can't be bothered to walk all the way down there in the middle of the night if I have to pee.”

  “Lane will be pleased, he's always making bathroom trips in the night.”

  “So is he really your brother?”

  “No,” I laughed, leaning my bat against the wall, I didn't think I would be needing it anytime soon. I kept my bag on me, I didn't know Stacey and I didn't want her going through my bag when my back was turned, even is she did seem friendly.

  “Are we allowed weapons inside?”

  “Of course, how else are we going to defend ourselves if the zombies get inside?” “What about guns?”

  “Why, do you have a gun?”

  I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her, I was still amazed Josh hadn't searched us.

  “If you have a gun on you that's fine, a lot of people here carry their own guns, I don't have one, though.”

  Well, that cleared that up. I always felt safer with my gun nearby.

  “Is Tammy around?”

  “You know Tammy?”

  “Yes, I'd love to see her.”

  “Sure, I'll take you to her now.”

  She walked the other way along the walkway and stopped at another cell.

  A scrawny boy was sitting at a desk and Lane was leaning over him. They were looking at a comic book. Lane's head whipped up and his eyes lit up.

  “Alex, Alex, this is Jasper. Jasper this is Alex.”

  Lane reminded me of an excited puppy dog.

  “Hi.” I smiled at Jasper.

  Jasper stood up, came over to me, and shook my hand. A little weird for a teenager, but I didn't say anything.

  “Welcome, Alex, and small child.” Jasper said, looking at Ozma.

  Jasper was tall, skinny, dark brown hair that curled just below his ears, he was wearing a Spiderman T-shirt, trousers (that were actually pajama bottoms), and stripy pink socks.

  “Do you want to see another? I've been collecting them, there is more under here.” Jasper said, kneeling on the floor and pulling out a box from under the bed.

  “Ooo... kay, that's our cue to leave.” Stacey said. “Comics are so not my thing.”

  I waved bye to Lane who had perked up and actually looked pleased about sharing a cell with Jasper.

  Stacey led me along the walkway, then along a corridor, and down a set of steps. Corridor after corridor, it was going to take me some time to get my bearings. She stopped at a door and I stuck my head inside. The room had been converted into a kiddie play-zone. There was a large mat in the middle of the floor with soft toys and a couple of toddler toys, and against one wall was a long table with paper and crayons. There was even an area at the back with bedding and pillows set up for nap time I presumed. There were five children in the room. The youngest ten-month-old was sitting on the mat chewing a toothbrush and the other children looked to range from four to eight-years-old. One girl was sitting at the table drawing, and the others were making a car out of empty boxes. “Alex!” Tammy gasped.

  She was sitting on the mat with the youngest one.

  I waved, and she jumped up to her feet and came over to me.

  “Hi,” I said, as she side hugged me the best she could because Ozma was still attached to my chest. Stacey walked over to the table and started drawing a picture for the little girl... she looked familiar. “Where'd you get the baby from?” Tammy asked, smiling at Ozma.

  “Long story.”

  “She's so small. What's her name?”

  “Ozma, and she's not as light as she looks, my back is killing me.”

  “Here, let me take her for you. Did you just get here?”

  “Yes, we heard the airplane and saw it making a drop, then Josh found us.”

  Tammy helped me get Ozma out of the baby carrier and lifted her into her arms. This was probably the fifth person ever to hold Ozma. Ozma had only known Crystal and Thom, then Lane and I, she wouldn't remember anyone else Thom and Crystal had met. I watched as she took everything in, her eyes following the other small children around. “She's a curious little thing.” Tammy said.

  “You have no idea. Hey, what happened to Amy and Jo? Did they have their babies?” “Um, Jo eventually popped and gave birth to a boy, but he died a few days later, we don't know why, then Amy went into labour, but there were complications.”

  “Complications?”

  “She died giving birth and the baby was stillborn.”

  “That's horrible.”

  Tammy glumly nodded, then talked to Ozma in a babyish voice, obviously not wanting to talk about Amy and Jo anymore.

  “So who's Jasper?” I asked.

  He turned up a couple of weeks after we lost Amy. By this time, Dom was starting to lose control of his men, there was a lot of quarrelling, and constant shouting going on. After Dom lost Scottie it changed him, there was not one ounce of compassion left in him.”

  “I'm sorry about Scottie.” I mumbled.

  “Dom was furious, he wanted to chase you down and kill you both, but it was dark and he was chickenshit.”

  “Scottie tried to pull a gun on us...” I didn't want to tell her Scottie's gun was empty. After it had happened I came to the conclusion that not even Scottie knew the gun was empty. I think Dom kept all the bullets hidden and gave people empty guns, to make them feel big, and kept all the bullets for himself. That was my theory anyway.

  “I figured that.” she said.

  “So how did you get out?”

  “One day Dom had a major argument with Ron, and killed him with a knife from the kitchen, everyone became afraid of him, I think he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, and then a few days later he caught Jasper stealing and chained him up out front with no intention of bringing him back inside.”

  “You unchained him?”

  She nodded. “It was a tough journey, we had quite a few zombie encounters, and there were times I thought this is it, but we somehow managed to survive, and eventually stumbled across this place.” “Where's your cell?” I asked.

  “In the kiddie section, I have my own little bed set up over there.”

  “I thought that was the sleeping area for the children.” I laughed.

  “Oh, it is, but it also doubles as my bed. The youngest one lost his mother and I'm caring for him, he likes to wake up a lot during the night and we end up playing in here so it made sense to sleep in here. Has Stacey given you the proper tour?”

  “Not yet.” Stacey called over.

  “I can get one of the other girls to watch the kids for a bit and I'll come with you. You don't have to carry that around.” she said, looking at my bag.

  “I didn't like leaving it in the cell.”

  “Don't worry, I was just the same when I arrived, but no one steals from each other here, it's not like the Lab, things won't just disappear from your bag. You'll see, you're gonna love it here. Oh, and we have the best showers here, really hot and steamy... sorry, I'm getting carried away.” She smiled, bobbing Ozma up and down.

  “The sound of a hot steamy shower is actually making my mouth water.” I said.

  I looked at the blond girl again, the one Stacey was drawing a picture for.

  It couldn't be?

  “Who's that?” I asked.

  “Lilly,” Tammy replied looking at my curiously.

  I opened my bag and dug around. After the van broke down I had kept the keys, sentimental reasons, I know understood why Lane still had his house keys.

  I pulled out the van keys with the photo keyring and looked at the picture inside, then I flipped it over to show Tammy.

  “That's Lilly.” Tammy said amazed. “Where'd you get that?”

  “Lane and I found this van, the owners had abandoned it, but Lane got it running and it's where we lived for some time. These are the keys to the van. Are her parents here?”

  Tammy shook her head. “It's a terrible story. It was a complete miracle Dudley found her hiding in a dumpster.”

&nb
sp; “She should have this,” I said, about to detach it.

  “No, you hold onto it. Give it to her when she gets to know you a little better, then you can tell her how you found it, she'd like that, she doesn't really talk to anyone, she's very quiet.” I nodded and Stacey hopped up and came over to us.

  “Ready for that tour?” Stacey asked.

  “I'm coming too, let me just grab Abby to watch the kids.”

  “Just show me to the showers.” I said.

  “It's the same with everyone when they first arrive here, they all go gaga over the showers.” Stacey laughed.

  Chapter 20

  Four Months Later. I woke up to the sound of music playing in one of the other cells. I liked to lay in like any regular teenager, but Ozma normally woke me up at the crack of dawn. It must be late. I tried to roll over and felt the warmth of another body cuddled up beside me. I wriggled over and turned to look at him. Lane was fast asleep, I leaned up and looked over him, Ozma was still asleep in her bed, with her face in the pillow and her bum in the air, I wondered how that was even comfortable. I laid my head back on the pillow and gently touched his face. His face twitched and he hung his arm over my waist, still asleep.

  Over the past four months, we had become distant. It wasn't just us anymore, we were making new friends, and in Lane's case, he now had stalkers. The main one being, Meghan, a busty blond, eighteen-year-old.

  Lane was the hot topic around here, and every girl with a pulse old enough gave him that look when he smiled at them, it reminded me of high school, and because of it, we had grown apart. We didn't spend every day with each other, we didn't eat every meal together, we no longer showered together. I didn't even have to wash his clothes anymore. Some days we got along, other days he couldn't keep his hands off me, then there were days when we didn't speak at all. Life was different. Don't get me wrong I loved living in the prison, but sometimes I missed us... the way it used to be. Stacey followed me around all day, filling every second of silence with her constant chatter, she was like an annoying parrot that wouldn't shut up. But I put up with her, she didn't get along with the other girls, the pretty ones that divided themselves away from the group because they thought they were better than everyone else. The other females here were all a little older and did their own thing, most of them took care of cooking, cleaning, and laundry. I hadn't been asked to do a single thing since I'd arrived, and I had offered many times. Lilly, the little five-year-old with blond hair, had become attached to Ozma, it was kind of cute, I think she thought of herself as an older sister, always wanting to help out with Ozma. I helped Tammy some days with the other small children, and whenever I felt like a break I usually left Ozma with her. She didn't mind, though, she loved every minute with the small children. She apparently wanted to work with children when she left school so she was making the most of this experience. Lane spent his days with Jasper, they had become close buddies, and when I say close I mean real close, they even had their own handshake. Jasper was a little bit strange, a bit of a weakling if I was honest, and he couldn't lift a single thing in the gym, which was where Lane was most days. Jasper had sort of super-glued himself to Lane, he didn't quite fit in with the others, military guys, older teenagers that were all big talk, and the men that took care of the building and the perimeter. We had a nurse, an electrician, a plumber, and there was even a hairdresser living here. Altogether we made up thirty-three.