Land of the Zombies

by Jaime Horio

  Once everything is secure, we all head upstairs. There are two bedrooms facing the street and the master bedroom at the back of the house. No one is really ready to sleep, so everyone heads to the master bedroom to take part in planning what we want to do.

  Not surprisingly, Carrie is asleep very quickly. As much as she wanted to help, she is so emotionally drained that she couldn’t last. Everyone is just settling in, not really sure where to start.

  Ben is sitting by the sliding glass door that leads to a balcony trying out the various cell phones he has. We all lost signals a while back, but Ben thought it would be a good idea to hold on to them just in case. Being a bit of a tech geek, he knows his way around technology, and explained to us that even though there was no signal, it might just be that there are no towers in range of the phones. And maybe the power is just down and it will come back later. He has been keeping the phones charged by using a small solar charger that he had. Even though he still hadn’t found a signal, the phones were at least useful for seeing at night.

  His little solar pack had helped us out in other ways too. Although not a necessity, it felt nice for all of us to be able to shave using some of the electric razors we’d found in the neighborhood. It wasn’t perfect, but it did make things feel just a little bit more normal.

  But the best thing about his charger is that he was able to keep his laptop running. He was smart enough to cache all of the information he found on the hard drive, so even though we had no internet access, he could still bring up the pages he had saved. He had regularly visited the blog of the reporter, Lani West, who had first broken the story online. She had been posted several other stories about outbreaks, even as the traditional media continued to deny it. She had a video of someone who had been attacked, and died right there on camera, then as the camera panned around, the person woke back up. That was the first time we saw one of the zombies taken down. Someone had freaked out and hit it in the head. That’s how we learned that the head shots would kill them.

  But that sort of information would have come anyway. In time, we learned that the zombies acted a lot like they did in the movies. They largely stood around, maybe they moved a bit, but they generally just stood still until something caught their attention. They would go after it until they got to it or something else drew their attention away. Hitting them in the head would kill them, and just being bitten was enough to kill you. It took time, but most people who were bitten weren’t killed by the infection, but by blood loss or some other cause, since they were generally torn up pretty bad after the attack.

  But her reports allowed us to learn sooner. To accept that this was reality. It really didn’t sink in until you saw it in person, but once you did see it, you knew what to do.

  We had spent some time studying the zombies during days when we weren’t raiding the other houses. He watched from the roof, either the zombies in the street, or farther away through some binoculars. Watching the zombies through binoculars is how we learned that they generally didn’t move. We watched one of the creatures a few streets down just stand there. We were always quiet, and weren’t going in his direction, so he never heard us or even seemed to realize we were there. And there wasn’t much going on around him, because he just stood there, day after day. He stood there for three days, never moving, not going side to side, just standing there. We were starting to wonder if it was even, for lack of a better term, alive. But then on that fourth morning, it was gone. And we knew which direction it had gone because it had dragged one of its legs, and we could see the disturbance in the dirt and leaves on the ground.

  Closer to the house, we learned how noise affected the undead. If there was just one zombie on the street, we would risk making a sound, just enough that it could hear us, but the sound wouldn’t be heard too far away. We would get the creature’s attention, and then watch as it came toward the house. But we would duck out of sight, so we knew that it was only going after the sound, not us specifically. Then we would throw a rock down the street and duck away again. Obviously it saw us poke up into the window to throw the rock, but it didn’t realize what we were. Once the rock hit down the street, we would give it a moment, then peek out and see that the zombie was turned away, heading toward where the rock had made the noise.

  This information was very useful to our survival. We knew to keep quiet, not call attention to ourselves. This went against everything that seemed to make sense to us. We wanted to try to be loud, to make sure that if anyone was out there, they would know we were alive. But we knew that was just a dream. No one was out there looking for us. None of us had seen a sign of another living person since we found Greg. It was a sad reality, but it was easier once we accepted it.

  Ben comes over to the group shaking his head. “No signal still. But, I don’t know, I guess it doesn’t hurt to try. Oh well. So, what are we going to do? We can’t stay here, but where should we go?”

  We all start going over our options. Greg has the most recent experience with the town, so he provides a lot of insight. Most of the major stores are useless. Everyone tried to rush to the supermarkets to get food, riots broke out a lot of places, and that left lots of useless food destroyed. People went to the big mass market type stores, some of them carried small guns, but once the first few weapons were taken, fights broke out, and people turned on one another. Lots of dead in those places.

  Besides, all the big stores have too many areas to cover. Too many places that could be left unsecured and the undead could get in. Greg experienced that at the market where his family had holed up. They were constantly fighting off the zombies in areas that they started to sneak in, before they finally broke in en masse.

  There was a quarantine area set up along the highway, but that was overrun in no time. The military that was running it was largely made up of reserves, guys who went to training on the weekends and worked in an office during the week. They didn’t expect what they saw. The first few that got pulled separate weren’t too bad. They were able to contain the infected, but they couldn’t bring themselves to kill them. Soon, there were too many to contain, and the infection spread through the quarantine area unchecked. We had hoped that maybe reinforcements would come in, but no one could even remember the last time we had seen a plane or a helicopter. Obviously that spot was not an option.

  “Well, I guess that means we just need to get away. Just get as far away from the city as possible, and hope that the infection hasn’t spread too far,” I suggest. Everyone is slow to agree, but they know that it’s the best option.

  We know that if we head toward the center of town, where there are larger buildings, we’re just going to run into more and more of the undead. The living and working population were both heaviest there, so that is where the zombies are going to be. Unfortunately, that is also our best chance to find other survivors, but there is no way we could survive against tens of thousands of those creatures.

  We decide to leave the next morning. We’ll take Terry’s truck over to the other house to pick up the rest of the fuel and supplies we left there. But we’ll come back to get the van and the others. We didn’t have time to move Don’s body, and even though we know he won’t be coming back as a zombie, there is a good chance that the zombies eventually found that body and started to eat it. And even if they didn’t, then Julie doesn’t need to see her dead father’s body lying in the middle of the street and starting to rot.

  The next morning we’re all up early. Honestly, we probably didn’t sleep very much all night. We load most of the weapons into the back of Terry’s truck, but also throw in some large couch cushions we’ve got in the house. We can survive without the extra comfort they provide, but for now we’ve got the space. Ben and Terry leave with the truck while the rest of us load the remaining food and our other supplies into the minivan.

  They return soon, and they’ve grabbed some of the canvas coverings and used it to cover up everything in the back of the pickup. Julie and Maria hop into the truck, and Be
n comes to join Greg and me in the Minivan. Carrie looks torn, but ends ups following after Maria and hops into the backseat of the truck’s cab.

  We shut the all the doors on the house before we leave. Even though we hope to not come back, I’d rather not have the one safe place we had get overrun with the undead.

  We decide to head south. We did notice that the cold seemed to slow down the zombies, but we had to think of ourselves too. Going south means a more moderate winter, which will help us to survive.

  We’ve been driving for about a half hour when I hear a little chirp on the dashboard. I’d forgotten about the little walkie talkie sitting there. It’s nothing fancy, just a kid’s set that we found in a bedroom. The range isn’t great, but we’re keeping the cars close.

  Julie’s voice comes in a little staticy. “Do you guys see that, to the left of the freeway?”

  I scan to the left, but don’t see it. Ben sees and points. The area is pretty sparse, just a cluster of buildings. But right at the edge of the buildings is a school. And hanging down is a large banner with one word painted across it: “Alive.”

  Terry slows the truck to a stop. I pull into the lane next to him and stop next to the truck. He’s leaning out the window. “Well, what do you think?”

  I hesitate a little, and I know everyone sees it. “Well, we kind of have to at least check, right? If someone’s still alive in there, we should go help them.” I look to Ben, hoping to get some reassurance. I know that the guilt over leaving Don behind is still eating at me.

  But Ben is in the passenger seat, looking toward Terry. Then Greg pipes up from the back seat. “I think Jay’s right. We should at least check it out. Look, there aren’t lots of cars in that whole area, so most people probably got out of there. Less people means less zombies.”

  The look on everyone’s’ faces indicates they agree. I’m just relieved that suggesting we help wasn’t totally crazy.

  Ben check’s his watch. “It’s still early, we’ve got plenty of sunlight. Let’s head in.”

  We roll the vehicles forward and take the next exit from the freeway. We stop for a moment and Ben and Greg hop out of the van and into the back of Terry’s truck. They roll back enough of the canvas to make space for themselves, and hunker down on each side with a shotgun in each of their hands. I feel a little nervous being alone in the van, but I do know that they’re exposing themselves being out in the open, but they’ll have the best chance to take down any zombies that come at us.

  This little section of town is eerily quiet. I don’t know this area very well, although I’m sure I’ve passed it dozens of times going up and down the freeway. There are a couple of gas stations and fast food joints, clearly intended to grab people driving up and down the highway. But just to the north of that is a little town central. There’s a small grocery store and a little mini mall with a dry cleaner, a liquor store, a small post office and a hair cutting place. And just behind that is the small school. This town is clearly spread out, with everyone living quite a ways out into the country, but all of the essentials are here.

  We drive slowly down the streets, seeing no signs of any anyone, living or dead. A layer of dust has settled over everything, which we disturb as we drive by. But nothing else is disturbed, which we take to mean that no one else has been traveling through here.

  We reach the school gate. There is a chain link fence around the entire parking area, but the gate has a simple latch holding it closed. No lock of any kind. Greg hops out of the truck and runs to open the gate. We drive the two vehicles through and he pushes the gate closed behind us. Still no signs that anyone has been out here. But someone is obviously alive inside that building. Or was.

  The school is a single building, two stories. And the banner is hanging from the roof. I pull out the binoculars, but I see no signs of movement in the upstairs windows. We decide that just Terry, Greg and I will go in. Ben will stay behind with the ladies who aren’t as comfortable with the guns. And with only three of us going in, it will be easier to make a quick escape if we have to.

  The front doors to the school are unlocked, so I slowly push the doors open. I scan to the right and left. There are rows of lockers and all of the doors to the classrooms are closed. There is a distinct odor in the air. Very similar to the smell in the house with the woman and dog. Someone here has died and is starting to rot. I’m not sure if I want to find a dead body that has been torn apart, or a body that has come back. But based on the smell, someone is torn apart.

  The zombies seem to decay slower than a normal dead body. Like there’s something still going on with their system that is fighting off the bacteria. Not completely, but something is slowing the decay anyway.

  Right as we enter the main hallway, there is a set of staircases to either side of us, leading up to the second floor. This is our best option, as whoever is in here obviously was upstairs.

  We arrive at the second story to find and almost identical hallway. Once again, all of the doors are pulled closed. I can’t help but wonder if they’re always closed, or if someone went about closing them.

  To our left, there is a window at the end of the hallway. To our right is a doorway at the end, which I’m guessing leads to the roof access. We travel slowly down the right side, peeking through the glass into the classrooms. They all appear empty, until we get to the end. Right as Terry is reaching for the door at the end, Greg stumbles back from the last classroom door. He looks terrified and is obviously trying to hold back a scream.

  I peek into the window, and I nearly drop my gun at what I see. The classroom is full of children, all sitting at their desks. Near the front of the room is a mass of flesh, the remains of what I’m guessing was their teacher. Many of the children have dried blood on their faces, clearly the remains of a messy meal. But now they’re all sitting at their desks, just looking toward the blackboard.

  We manage to calm ourselves, and I take a second look into the room. None of them are reacting, so we haven’t made too much noise.

  Trying to control our breathing, we head into the last room at the end of the hall. It’s a supply closet with a ladder attached to the wall with a sign reading “Roof Access.” We decide it’s best if one of us goes up alone, so the ladder will be clear for a quick escape if necessary.

  I climb to the top, and unlatch the opening at the roof. I just crack the little door, and peer around in as many directions as I can. I see nothing out of place, so I push the door open the rest of the way and crawl out. There’s nothing on this roof except a couple of air conditioning units. I look down the hatch and signal for the other two to come up and join me. We spread out across the roof, and I head toward the front of the building. I come where the banner is attached. It’s a long piece of cloth, and it’s folded up over the top of the roof, with some heavy reference books holding the edge down.

  I wave down to Ben and pull out the walkie talkie. I signal for him that I am going to turn it on.

  “What’ve you found in there?”

  “No one alive. Pretty empty really...except...” My voice trails off.

  Ben shrugs his shoulders at me as if to ask “Except what?”

  I push the button on the walkie talkie. “Except there’s a classroom full of zombie kids. They’re all just sitting at their desks, and they apparently ate their teacher. But I don’t see anyone alive in here.”

  Ben is silent for a moment. He’s taking in what I just told him. I lift the communication device to my mouth again. “We’re going to do a quick sweep of the classrooms and get out of here as quick as we can. All the rooms have glass in the door, so we can just sweep by and take a quick look. We’ll be out as soon as we can.”

  Ben gives me a thumbs up, and I turn off the walkie talkie and put it back into a pocket. I’m looking down, and that’s when I see the writing on the paper. It’s a bit faded from being exposed to the sun, but it clearly says “Room 109.”

  I tell the others about it, and we decide that maybe that’s where t
he person is holed up. We climb back down the ladder and do a quick check of all the rooms on the second floor. Nothing is in any of them.

  We head down to the first floor and head to the left. We scan past room’s 101 though 108 and get to the last door on the left. Room 109.

  We’re all a little tentative about what we might find. I look in, and clearly someone has been living here. There is what looks like a nest of jackets and sweatshirts in the corner. Some sort of a makeshift bed. Cabinets and desks are piled up in front of the windows. This is someone’s home, but we don’t see anyone.

  I knock lightly on the door, but there is still no movement. I try the handle and it is unlocked. We head in and the smell hits us. In the opposite corner from the bed is a mop bucket, but someone has obviously been using it as a toilet. And they haven’t emptied it recently. The smell is trapped in this room and overwhelming. We choke back our coughs and back out of the room.

  I’m hunched over, but I look to the others. “I wonder if this person is the teacher who was torn apart upstairs. It doesn’t look like anyone has emptied that bucket in a while.”

  Suddenly, there’s a loud bang at the door, and a woman is standing on the other side of the glass looking at us. We jump back and raise our guns at her. But we can see in her eyes that she is alive. She looks scared, but she doesn’t have that vacant stare that the zombies have. The door handle slowly turns and she pushes the door open.

  She comes out, her hands slightly raised, indicating that she isn’t armed and she doesn’t want to harm us. I’m guessing she hasn’t seen another living person here for quite some time.

  “Who are you?” Her voice is barely above a whisper. She knows to keep her voice down.

  “We were just traveling down the highway, when we saw the banner on the building that someone was alive. We just wanted to check for any other survivors.”