Zed Days (Book 1)

by Harland, Nick

  So, a week after waking up from my gaming bender I came to the decision that I would try and make it to the park and water treatment building. I still really liked the idea of the Range Rover outside but thought the noise probably wasn’t worth it. I knew I could run to the gate to the Blue Diamond place in under five minutes and still have some puff left. I had a decent hacksaw, good clothing, gloves and helmet, a decent back pack full of food, water, and tools. I also had a couple of bike locks I could re-lock the gate to the building with. I was as ready as I would ever be.

  I had no idea if I would make it down the road but I had to try. Obviously you know that I do make it, or I wouldn’t be writing about it in the past tense, but just go with the flow for a bit and imagine how I was feeling. I could outrun normal Zeds but if I attracted more than one Sprinter I could be in deep shit. I knew stealth was the best option, but run like hell was a decent back up plan.

  I didn’t want to get caught in the dark but I figured for the stealthy option dying light; one Zombie game I never really fancied playing for reasons that still elude me, would be good. I waited for dusk and talked myself into going.

  Chapter Three – “If it wasn’t for those pesky kids.”

  I snuck out the back of the cycle shop and opened the gate of the yard that led to the cut. Worst case scenario, if a horde turned up I could run around the block to lose them and get back into the bike shop. There was a row of houses behind the strip of shops and as it was usually a quiet road I figured it would be easier than the main road which currently had about ten Zeds stood around on it. I entered stealth mode and felt a little comical hugging the wall of the cut, crouching and peeking around corners, and generally acting like some ninja wannabe twat some shit head recorded and put on You Tube for a laugh. The road behind the strip ended in a T-junction. One way went back to the main road and the other went into the estate. I managed to sneak down the cut and halfway down the road without incident.

  Halfway down the road before the T-junction another road led off left into the estate and two Zeds stood on the road spotted me. They came groaning and shambling over. It was decision time. I had barely made any progress to my destination and I knew running might draw more attention. I couldn’t see any other Zeds on the street but I knew there would be Zeds inside houses or where I couldn’t see them and that I might attract them if I fought. So far though, it didn’t seem like Zeds could open doors.

  I didn’t want to run yet so I backed up against a garden wall and waited for them. One was just ahead of the other and although it sped up a bit when it was a few feet away from me, arms outstretched in typical Zed fashion, I hit it clean and it went down like a poleaxed cow. The other one promptly tripped over the body and landed at my feet. I took a second to smile and, wham bam thank you mam, it was all over. Now in many computer games, Zombie or otherwise, you search the bodies of fallen victims for loot. I couldn’t really see the point, and it was a bit icky, but I figured car keys wouldn’t be the worst find. I wouldn’t know exactly which cars any keys I found were from, but I could make a note where the Zed was when I killed it and hope it hadn’t wandered too far. I got over myself as far as the ick factor was concerned but found sod all of any use.

  I carried on and made it to the end of the road. I saw several Zeds inside houses and those that saw me walked towards me until they hit windows or doors. Every door and window was double glazed so there was no smashing glass, but it would only be a matter of time, and I didn’t want to be around when it happened. I hurried on but kept low. I turned right towards the main road, then left back on to the main road.

  Between me and the end of the road, under half a mile away, were a load of big houses set off the road and a big secondary school opposite them. One boarder of the building site was on the left at the end of the road. I realised I really didn’t know exactly when it all happened. It was a Thursday night when I started my bender, waking up Saturday morning. I assume it was Friday when at least some of it happened and probably around the middle of the day for Lucy to have been at the Pizza shop. If I was right, the school could be filled with 950 very angry teenage Zeds. I berated myself and said ‘fuck’ a lot because I hadn’t really thought about the school. I was committed to my plan though and had to get out at some point, so I carried on.

  The school was set back off the road with a big carpark and small reception building out front. You couldn’t see into the school from the road which was useful. I crept down the opposite side of the road and looked at the expensive cars parked on the drives of the expensive houses. There were cars stopped on the road but not so many to block it, several had pulled over onto the curb or had crashed into hedges. Taking a car was really tempting but I resisted.

  I was about to creep around one of cars stopped on the pavement, looking eagle eyed over the road at the school as I did so, when a hand reached out from a car window and grabbed me. Fucking idiot that I was I yelled in freight as I instinctively tore myself free. Of course there would be Zeds in cars, you utter fuckwit. (That’s me thinking to myself by the way. In those early days I still had a lot to learn and really was a bit of a fuckwit.)

  I scanned around and slowly saw bodies start to appear between the cars of the school’s car park and head in my direction. I couldn’t count how many there were but it was waaaay too many. It was definitely not decision time, it was time to run away. I started running but made sure to pace myself. I didn’t want to run out of puff before the end of the road where they could still see me. I glanced over my shoulder to check their progress and the double-gated main entrance to the school was bottle necking them a little, but not enough. I knew I could outrun them, my fear was any groups between me and the end of the road, and of course Sprinters.

  It didn’t take long for the nightmare to come true. I was only about sixty or seventy feet down the road when I saw two had separated from the pack and were catching up to me. I had no idea if they could just keep sprinting like that forever but I had to assume they could. My only luck was that they were about ten feet apart. I spotted a pickup truck just down the road and figured a height advantage and a bit of shielding would be very nice thank you. I sprinted to the truck and vaulted into the back. I just had time to drop my rucksack and grab Seven with both hands before the first one hit. The fucker launched itself at me, it literally jumped full stretch at me hands reaching out to grab me.

  The Sprinter may have been athletic in, as it happened, her day, but she obviously wasn’t one for the steeplechase and she wasn’t tall. She landed half way over the back of the truck and it was easy to one-shot her. The other one was taller but now I was ready. I stood my ground until the last minute then stepped to the side as it launched itself, this time right into the back of the truck. It landed full length in the back and immediately started flailing.

  My first shot missed and in my panic the impact with the metal truck base almost jarred Seven from my hand. I barely manged not to fall out of the truck and started swinging repeatedly, knowing the hoard was only a minute away. There was goo everywhere and it proved you needed a headshot to kill them but eventually the bastard stopped thrashing. Unfortunately, by the time I had finished I was puffing like a fat man running for the train.

  I tried to calm myself and resist the urge to sprint off. I grabbed my pack, jumped onto the road, and started jogging. I knew I could still lose them if I was sensible. My problem now was that there were at least 60 or 70 Zeds headed in the direction of what I hoped would be my new base and there was a really tough padlock on the gates into the compound. I needed to lead them elsewhere or at least some of them would keep heading in the direction they last saw me and would end up at or close to my new base. I thought about the building site and although it was still uncomfortably close to the base, it had some deep foundation trenches they might fall into. It was also littered with massive piles of earth, equipment, and pallets of bricks, so wouldn’t be too hard to sneak through.

  There was a fence around the site
made up of six foot by six foot sections of steel mesh with one and a half inch steel tubing around the outside and big feet to keep them upright; it was strictly a temporary job. The fence sections were joined together by braces. One of biggest piles of earth was right next to the pavement, just behind the fence. I climbed over the swaying fence, falling over the other side and winding myself. After I got my breath I scrambled the ten feet up the pile of earth and waited for the Zeds.

  I could have just disappeared but as I said, some might have ended up close to my base if they kept going straight. I waited at the top of the mound and scanned the scene inside the building site. There were no Zeds I could see that were a threat, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any I couldn’t see from where I was. I could see a couple wandering up and down a trench, apparently unable to get out.

  The horde from the road started to gather against the fence and it didn’t take long before it started to bend backwards, straining the braces attaching the sections together. By the time the whole horde gathered the fence began to buckle and there was a grinding sound; time to go. Even as I slid down the other side of the earth pile I heard the sound of clattering metal. The nearest trench was about thirty feet away and it was about twenty feet long. I ran and jumped over it. The horde started streaming around the sides of the earth pile and I waved my hands to get their attention. The trench was about four feet wide and five feet deep and I wasn’t sure how many it would hold, but it was quite a few. If some came around the sides I could run around a nearby container and jump another trench that already had a couple of Zeds in it.

  Standing my ground and waiting for the horde while they streamed towards me like a wall of death was scary as hell. I backed up as they hit the trench and it was just as well. Within a few seconds the part of the trench immediately in front of me was full and they started to scramble over the ones who had fallen in. I turned, ran around the container and jumped the next trench, but landed awkwardly and twisted my ankle. My ankle wasn’t too bad or that would have been it, but it was enough to tell me I should be more careful. From where I was on the building site the exit onto the road leading to the track the base was on was about sixty feet away. I limped quickly towards the exit hoping the vast majority of what was left of the horde would get caught in the trench, or lose sight of me among all the other things littering the site.

  I risked a look back and it seemed very few would make it over. My relief was short lived as I turned around a corner made by a big container and almost walked straight into a huge Zed. It’s strange to say, but it seemed almost as surprised as I was and it certainly took a moment to catch up with itself and go for me. It was bigger than the average Zed, muscle bound, and made a different scarier noise than the ones I had encountered so far. I admit I bladder control was, yet again, an issue.

  I backed up as it came towards me, its powerful arms lunging for me. I swung Seven but it knocked her clean from my hands and she went clattering against the container and on to the ground. I didn’t have time to turn and run and in that split second I remembered the Zed from the road behind the shops falling over the one I had just killed. Insanely, I threw myself to the ground in front of it as it lunged towards me and prayed. Its legs hit my curled up form and its momentum sent it falling over me and sprawling to the ground. I scrambled for Seven as it scrambled for its feet, but I was quicker. It was just getting to its feet when I swung Seven and smashed its ugly bald head in.

  By the time I had killed the huge Zed I was breathless, my ankle hurt, and I could hear the few that remained of the horde coming around the container. I could have run, slowly and painfully, but it felt like a long way to safety and they would just keep coming. If I was going die I wanted to go out fighting. I gripped Seven, tried to get my breath, and waited. The body of the Beefcake Zed, as I will call the big fuckers from now on, was in front of me, and I hoped a one or two of the remaining horde would trip over it. After all they were still dumb to say the least and really not nimble on their feet. The first one fell and the next one fell over that one and it only took a couple of seconds to finish them both.

  Two more shambled around the bodies and were really close together. I could hit one but I knew the other one would be on top of me before I could get Seven ready to swing again. I hadn’t tried to tackle any of the bastards hand to hand yet and it looked like it was time to see what would happen. As they came close and lunged for me I launched myself at them with my head down, cycle helmet on, as if I were trying to shoulder through a locked door. We collided hard and although there were two of them, I was ready and braced for the impact and they were not. I managed to shove them backwards, the one in front hitting the one behind hard enough to push it over. Unfortunately I was now toe to toe with the one left standing and its arms reached around and grabbed me.

  I have to admit I lost it, I was tired and pissed off and I lost it. The Zed grabbed me, its arms around my shoulders, and went to bite me. My arms were inside its grip so I grabbed it by the collar and head butted its biting mouth with my helmet, the helmet’s strap cut into my neck. I stopped its bite and started yelling with rage. Still holding onto its collar I twisted my body with all my strength and threw the fucker against the side of the container. This dazed it for a second and its hands dropped from my shoulders. The other one was getting up so I twisted again, still yelling like an idiot, and threw the one I had hold of against the one that was getting up. My aim was good and they both ended up sprawled on the ground. I smashed their heads in while screaming, ‘Die you fuckers’. I was beyond caring about the noise I was making by that stage, adrenalin pushing me to my physical limits and passed my intellectual ones.

  When I was done I staggered back against the container and bent over, hands on my knees, gasping for air. I kept an eye either side of me but no more came. I had survived my first real battle, which felt great, but I had travelled less than half a mile from my flat without having to get into it with the fuckers and almost dying, which didn’t bode well for the future. I knew the school wouldn’t be the only densely populated building or area I would come across and that there wouldn’t always be foundation trenches to help me. At the back of my mind I knew at some stage I would have to go to a big DIY store because I wasn’t eating cold food or making fires all the time. For now though, I was alive.

  Chapter Four – Bastard Base Security

  I made it off the building site without any more trouble and greedily eyed up all the building materials as I did so. I knew building was easier in the games than it would be in real life, but I had time on my hands and a furtive imagination. I walked up the rocky road to my future base feeling knackered but good about myself. I had taken on a large horde single headedly and with some strategy and Seven I had personally killed, let’s see; two on the road behind the shop, two Sprinters, one Beefcake, and two others, seven in total. If it wasn’t an apocalypse I’d be a famous serial killer as it was I was a bad ass Zombie killer. Including the the two bike shop guys and Lucy that was ten in total, with barely a scratch on me. I figured I was doing pretty good.

  I walked up the rocky road to the base. It took a few minutes to cut through the padlock on the gates and just when I’d finished I saw something I guess I should have expected at some point, but took me completely by surprise. It felt surreal as hell at the time, another survivor, sort of. A black dog that looked like a Labrador crossed with something bigger, muddy lead still attached and dragging behind it, trotted down the path towards me and stopped about six feet away. It stared at me with apparent interest and I didn’t sense any obvious aggression. Loads of dog walkers used the park so I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised.

  My first thought was thank fuck it wasn’t zombiefied, or I would have been in trouble. Of course, images of Zed bears and crocodiles, and then hamsters and worms immediately ran rampant though my head; how would you tell if a worm was zombified anyway? My next thought was that having a dog to help out would be awesome. I slowly undid my pack, mak
ing no sudden moves, and opened up a small container of peperoni. It must have smelled the peperoni immediately because it came straight over and sat down in front of me looking eager and wagging its tail. I handed it some and it gratefully noshed the lot before slightly pathetically wagging its tail and looking up at me again.

  Now the electricity was off the meat I had wouldn’t last long, and I was getting bored of peperoni anyway. I emptied the tub, tentatively stroked the dog as it gobbled up the meat, and picked up its lead. It was definitely thin, ribs sticking out, but it didn’t seem in too bad shape. I reckoned it would still be useful in a fight and I’d soon have it up to full Zed mauling strength. Remembering there was still a Zed apocalypse on I opened the gates and led the dog in before finding a bike lock to secure them. I took the lead off the dog but it pretty much stayed by my side.

  I felt much better behind the very sturdy metal perimeter but getting into the area was always going to be the easy bit. I examined the doors to the water treatment building. They were on opposite walls but both were the same. They consisted of two steel doors painted blue, each with three heavy duty hinges attached into the new looking brickwork. There was a single stainless steel keyhole with a handle above on the right hand door. There was a row of six 45 degree angled vents in the bottom of both doors I could squeeze my fingers through but couldn’t see through. Overall it was a bit of a nightmare.