Joe screamed again and attempted to throw the zombie off his back, but the other two had returned by now, both biting and ripping at his legs. From there it was all over. Joe fell to the floor and out of view of the camera, but you could still see the room as new zombies came into the picture and fell upon the fresh kill. Joe’s screams went on for a minute at most before the feed switched back to the female anchor who was visibly shaken by what she had just saw. She looked off camera to somebody whom I am guessing was the producer.
“Holy shit Steve. How safe are we in here?”
I couldn’t hear what Steve had said to her, but I imagine it was something to the effect of “Pull it together we are on live.” This was not what our ragged reported wanted to hear.
“I could care less if we are on or not. How safe are we in here? I am not going to sit in this chair reporting about the end of the world until those dead things burst in and take me down like they just did to Joe. Did you just see that?!”
Steve said something else which did absolutely nothing towards earning him some good will with his reporter.
“Kiss my ass Steve. You really think I’m worried about my career on a day like today? Those things just ate that guy. Do you get that? THEY ATE HIM.”
The screen went to a graphic which stated that the station was having temporary problems but would be right back. A few seconds later the picture returned and there was a man sitting at the desk.
“Hello. I am Ryan Johnston filling in for Malory Kilgore while she takes a much needed break. Now let’s recap the only story today. The dead have returned to life and are busy hunting and eating any of the living they can find. A bite or scratch from these dead terrorists will lead to infection causing you to die and become one of the dead. The only known form of protection is to barricade yourself somewhere safe that doesn’t have low windows or easy to burst through access points.” The camera angle changed at this point to give the straight on hero shot of the reporter.
“If you do find yourself under assault by these denizens of the underworld the only recourse you have is to attack the head. Severe head trauma or decapitation is your only hope of survival. Now I think we are set to check in with Major Carr at West Point where the cadets have set up a base of operations and have began to fight back against these monsters. Major Carr, are you there?”
The video changed to what looked to be a classroom. Major Carr was there along with several armed soldiers. The audio was lagging behind the picture again so we found ourselves waiting for the Major to start speaking. While we were waiting, Amanda’s voiced flooded the downstairs.
“What are you two doing?”
“We’re watching the news.” Sass said.
“Yeah, Joe just died.”
“Have you not been paying attention to what is going on outside?”
“What’s going on outside?” Sass asked.
“The fire, it’s drawn some zombies to us.” Randy said.
“They are still across the road in the field but this situation could get dangerous in a hurry. I say we get out of this house and back to the main road as quickly as we can.” Amanda said.
“Once on the main road it shouldn’t take but fifteen or twenty minutes to get us to the safe house, but we are going to have to move a little faster than we have been. That sound doable?” Randy asked.
He was looking at me as he asked this. Yeah, you got to check and make sure the big guy can jog. Funny.
“I’ll hang with you guys as long as I can.” I said knowing that out of the four people here I was in the worse shape. I was well aware that if this turned into a footrace I was going to have to turn and fight long before any of the others would. However, none of the zombies in the field noticed as we slipped out of the house. They were busy standing and watching the movement of the flames. Some of the zombies were walking directly into the fire as if they thought they could catch it. I imagine they were simply responding to the movement, but what bothered me was, if some were reacting this way, why weren’t they all? Shouldn’t they all behave in the same way? Did this demonstrate that there were varying degrees of intelligence within the zombies? Could this mean that somewhere out there was some great thinker among the dead? And if there were variances in the mental states then also couldn’t there be varying degrees of physical abilities? Were there some fast movers out there that would never slow down no matter how much they ran or jumped? Were there alphas amongst the dead?
And then the truly scary question of the day popped into my head. What were the chances that there could be a zombie out there in the world that was an alpha in both mental and physical attributes? If the alpha theory proved itself to be true then you had to not only speculate but accept the fact that there had to be at least one zombie that was an alpha in both traits. It goes back to that old theory of a hundred monkeys given an indefinite period of time to peck away on a hundred typewriters.
Of course all of this was simple speculation based on me watching a few zombies congregate around a fire. The alpha theory could be nothing but a fantasy I had made up in my head. But until the idea was disproved I had to accept the possibility that these super zombies could and most likely would exist somewhere in the world.
“It’s okay if they do exist.” I said to myself, “Just, please God, don’t let them exist in northeast Tennessee.”
We reached the main road and stopped to look behind us. There were no zombies in sight. Slowly we began to make our way into Gray.
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y
The road into Gray was so vacant it was kind of spooky. As we topped a slight rise we could see a group of buildings to our right. The most prominent of these was the Food City grocery store which sat on top of a hill directly in font of us.
“So, we heading for Food City?”
Randy shook his head.
“No, the grocery store would have never been a safe
place to dig in. The entire front of the building is glass.”
Randy turned right onto a side street. There was a row of businesses to our right and to the left was the paved entrance to Food City running up the hill, but we weren’t heading in that direction. We were continuing to walk straight down the road towards what looked to be row after row of town houses.
Just as it seemed we had passed all of the businesses, Randy began to angle into a parking lot on the left side of the road. I found myself looking at a building that I had never known existed. Instead of facing front like the other buildings it faced the old access road. This meant that the building itself was older than every other business in this area. I liked it already. Old building meant old construction methods. I was hoping that the walls were made of block behind the heavy wooden panels that covered the outside. The sign above the door read “Gray Farm, Garden and Western Store.” Looking at it as we approached I really liked what this place brought to the table. In the front there were only two glass doors which had already been blocked off with some form of metal from the inside. The only other entrance that I could see was a thick metal door on the far end. I can say it was thick because they had it open for Randy to bring us through and there were two armed guards out in the parking lot just in case any dead decided that now was the time to make a run for it.
The door had a deadbolt as well as two slide locks. The only drawback for the building that I could see was the size of it. It was only one level and it wasn’t very wide. I’m only guessing dimensions, but I would say that it was maybe thirty feet deep and about eighty to ninety feet long. As we passed through the door I could see that they had arranged the shelves in a way that would force any zombies who made it inside into a narrow, metal hallway. This would create a single file line shambling straight into a massacre. Who ever had set up the inside of this building was a genius and I would have liked to have been able to shake his hand.
Once inside Randy slid a piece of metal back revealing an opening in the wall that led out of the hallway and into the store. After going through the ga
te we were led directly into a hallway that shot off to the right at the far end of the store. Down this hallway sat a conference room on the left and a men and women’s restroom on the right. At the very end of the hall was a table that already had some objects laying on it, as we got closer I could see that one of these objects was Shawn’s baseball bat.
“You have to leave all your weapons here on the table. It’s just a necessary step to help you trust us and everybody here to trust you.”
Amanda looked at Randy. “At no time did you mention that we would be surrendering our weapons.”
“You’re not losing them. You will get them back as soon as you become part of the community.”
Amanda didn’t budge. She stood there looking at Randy.
“I would like to see you try to make me lay these weapons down.”
Randy sighed and stepped closer to Amanda. He spoke in a softer tone trying to keep what he was saying from reaching anyone’s ears.
“Look, it’s a show of trust on your part more than anything. After you do that I will let you in the conference room where your friends are.”
“You’re going to take our weapons then lock us up in that room? What the hell kind of trust issues do you all have?” I asked.
Randy dropped his head. He acted like he hadn’t seen this argument coming. Had he simply thought we would lay down and roll over when he said to do so?
“Listen Charlie, I know how you think this looks, but that it isn’t how it is. This is just how things are done. We have to put you all in this room until our doctor can look you each over and assure us that you haven’t been infected. It’s for our safety. Once the doc gives you the okay then you will be able to roam about anywhere you want.”
“And where is this doctor? Why can’t they see us now?” Sass asked. I smiled because with all three of us tearing into Randy I couldn’t help but think, “Now, it feels like a party!”
“The doctor went to check on getting medical supplies at some of the local businesses. She should be back soon.”
I smiled at Randy thinking how convenient this story was.
“Is anyone else’s crap-o-meter blaring like an air raid siren?” I asked.
“Mine is.” Sass said.
“Mine has been since we left the strip club.” Amanda said.
Randy walked to the end of the hall and opened the door to the room where the others were and said loud enough for them to hear him.
“That’s the rules guys. I’m sorry if you don’t like them, or don’t trust us, but that’s how it is. You can either leave now or you can do as we’ve asked. There is no middle ground.”
"What a bastard", I thought. If we decided this place was a trap and we left now then the others would know we left them behind. We either had to be assholes and leave or be heroes and stay. Who knew what position we would put ourselves in if we stayed, but on the other hand who knew what we were abandoning the others to if we left. It came down to whether I was in this for myself or here to protect the group as best I could. This was a question I had already answered more than once today. I walked to the end of the hall and placed my hammer and baseball bat on the table. I looked at Randy once more before I walked into the room.
“If it turns out that you’ve screwed us, I will find you.”
Randy smiled at me, “You don’t have to worry Charlie.”
Sass walked up behind me and laid his tire iron and his baseball bat on the table. He looked at Randy but kept his mouth shut. Amanda was another matter all together.
“I know you don’t take Charlie’s threat seriously because he comes off as more of a clown than anything else, but understand me. If you are setting us up I will kill you. You won’t be able to run or hide from me. I will find you, and I will kill you.”
Randy stared Amanda down as she walked into the room, but said nothing. Once she had cleared the hall he shut the door and I heard it lock from the outside.
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - O N E
The others were sitting in chairs around a conference table which took up one side of the room. I found myself wondering what did the Gray Farm, Garden and Western Store need with a conference table. How many businesses came here to hold their most sensitive of meetings? Did the local rotary club meet here to discuss what flowers they would be planting in the spring? Or maybe what needed to be done about that damned Mrs. Tilldale out on Possum Holler Road and her selfish desire to plant every gaudy damned thing she could get her hands on?
I moved to the last empty seat.
“Okay, let’s catch up.” I said. Sass, Amanda and I told of the side trip to the farm house. Amanda and I spoke of our concerns and thoughts that the farmhouse was a simple diversion to break the group in half and sort out the dangerous ones. The warriors as they had put it. Sass spoke of his belief that Amanda and I were being paranoid and that he thought Randy was an okay guy. We told of the fire in the field and of the house and the trip inside. Amanda told of being upstairs with Randy and that she had come to the conclusion that he was a very competent hunter and was not one to be taken lightly.
Then Sass and I told of the news broadcast that we had watched. We told about the president’s speech that was supposed to take place tonight or tomorrow. We spoke of the rumors of the president and vice president being dead and of Australia being the only unaffected area on the planet…so far at least.
“Australia?” Judy asked.
“Australia.” I confirmed.
“How the hell we gonna get to Australia?” Shawn asked.
“We’re not.” Amanda answered. “We will not even engage in the discussion of Australia. It’s a fool’s errand and everyone here knows it. If there are no zombies there yet there will be in a matter of days unless they can build a wall around the entire island before the sun sets. We need to focus on the situation at hand. When we find a safe place to live then we can discuss ocean voyages, but until then we won’t even think about it.”
“She makes a good point.” Sass said.
I looked out across the table, it had grown quiet again.
“I am going to Johnson City.” I said. “Those of you who want to come with me are welcome to. Those who want to stay here, no hard feelings. There is now one constant in this world and that is that each of us has to decide for ourselves what path will lead us to safety. Once you make up your mind don’t second guess yourselves, you are responsible for your own continued existence. There are no hurt feelings, there is only survival. I can’t shake the feeling that my survival is in Johnson City. It’s a feeling I won’t dismiss so I am going there to see how right or wrong I am. I think some of you are still on the fence so I think we should hear from those that have been here.”
I looked out across the table giving anyone who wanted to speak an opportunity to do so.
“Nothing happened as we made our way here.” Veronica said.
“Yeah, it was pretty much a game of follow the leader. I got Veronica to lag a bit behind and told her what you wanted.” Shawn said.
Daniel looked up at Shawn’s statement.
“What are you up to Charlie?” Daniel asked.
“Before we left to go check out the farm house I told Shawn to keep his eyes and ears open once they got here. I told him that we would want a good idea of exactly what we were dealing with when we arrived. I also asked him to get Veronica to do the same. It is my opinion that Veronica has a certain skill set that could easily be used to get information where Shawn and I would be unsuccessful.”
Veronica placed a hand on each side of her breasts and pushed them together.
“He means I’ve got these!” She said smiling.
I couldn’t help but smile myself. I shook my head and said, “Yes Veronica, I meant that you have those. You also have a personality that makes people like you almost instantly. Since this place seems to be ran by men I was betting that they would talk a bit more to try and get in your good graces.”
Daniel sighed at no one in particular, I brace
d myself for another attack.
“I knew you would try to find some way to mess this up for us. I knew that you couldn’t be content to just join up with these guys and surrender your power. I knew it.”
He hadn’t raised his voice. For that matter he hadn’t even looked at me. He was looking down at the table and didn’t speak again. We sat in silence for maybe ten seconds before I snapped out of my trance and found my voice.
“I’m not trying to mess this up Daniel. All I am saying is that we need to know what kind of bed we’re laying down on before we decide how comfortable it is.”
Now Daniel did look up at me.
“Always have the right words to say don’t you Charlie? Always have the cute little smart ass answer. Some stupid little metaphor to make the girls giggle and the coffee shop crowd think how deep you are.”
“Like a teacher of mine used to say, ‘Blind them with brilliance or dazzle them with bullshit’.” I said. Daniel didn’t look impressed.
“That’s what I’m talking about right there. How do you think that remark helped this conversation? You’re like a court jester who found the king dead. You put on the crown and think that gives you all the answers, but in reality you’re still just some clown. You are not a leader Charlie, you’re a joke.”
Somehow I thought that a fight with Daniel would be easier to handle if he was screaming at me red faced with rage. My father used to tell me that as soon as you lost your temper you lost the fight. Anger leads to rage, rage clouds up your mind obscuring your thoughts. A war of words can’t be won if your thoughts can’t be given voice. Taking dad’s wisdom to heart meant that this was the first argument between the two of us that didn’t have a clear cut winner already. I had to decide whether I wanted to pursue this argument or if it would be better off left alone. I did my best to change the subject.
A Good Distance From Dying Page 17
