The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Buried Instincts

by Henson, Lynn

  forty-eight

  He awoke to knocking at the door. His body was on autopilot as he got out of the bed and plodded over to see who it was. At the door was a boy, about five years of age, dressed in blue shorts that covered his knees and a t-shirt with Ironman on it. Ironman was flying into the sky, one hand balled into a fist and raised up over his head. He had brown hair that had been combed into place earlier today but was now in need of some minor maintenance. Freckles adorned his face and he looked up at Blake with brown eyes. “Hi,” he greeted him.

  “Hi,” Blake responded.

  “I’m supposed to tell you that it’s dinner time.”

  “Ok. Thanks,” Blake replied.

  “Bye,” the boy concluded.

  “Bye,” Blake replied and closed the door.

  Blake turned and staggered back to his bed, falling into it.

  “Whowazat?” he heard above him.

  “Some kid. Said it’s dinner time,” he mumbled.

  “Wanna go?”

  “Sure.”

  He got to his feet again and took some deep breaths. Tiffany seemed to slither from the top bunk feet first and then dropped to the ground like she’d been pooped out. She staggered unsteadily and her hands went to either side for balance.

  “Bleh,” Blake observed, “Why am I so tired?”

  Tiffany managed to stand normally and walked into the bathroom. “I think it’s because our lives are in flux.”

  “Wha?” he replied, not understanding.

  “Well,” she called out from the bathroom, “A few days ago we’d settled down into a house. We were just getting used to that when we were forced to leave. And now it kind of feels like we’ve joined the military.” She emerged from the bathroom looking slightly more groomed. “It’s exhausting. To be paying attention all the time and learning how to shoot guns and learn where everything is. We don’t have a rhythm yet. I think once we get a little more used to our new routines, we’ll find balance. Once we find balance, we won’t feel so tired anymore.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Blake agreed still not really understanding.

  “Let’s go eat. I don’t want to miss meals,” she said brightly.

  They walked next door, a pair of men wearing contractor security uniforms walked past them, greeting them as they went by. They knocked and Doris opened the door.

  “Dinner?” Blake asked in a friendly tone.

  “Yeah, we’re going down there in a minute. Save us some spots,” Doris nodded.

  They moved on to the next door and knocked. Bree answered the door looking fresh somehow.

  “Dinner?” he asked, upbeat.

  “Let’s go,” she agreed and walked out to join them. Kim followed after her with Lisa pulling up the rear, hopping on one foot as she struggled to get her shoe on.

  They headed towards the mess hall together at the same time an old black man holding the hand of a small girl of Hispanic descent who had her hair tied up in cute pigtails. It hung down to her shoulders and she clutched at a light green turtle plushie. She had white shorts on and a yellow tank top. Her guardian wore black slacks and had a buttoned purple silk shirt that was completely open, revealing a white undershirt. His gray hair was cut very short and trim. His wrinkled face had a set, determined look to it. He nodded amicably at them as they walked next to them.

  “Are you going to eat dinner too?” the girl asked them.

  “Yes,” Bree said, looking down at the girl.

  “Oh,” she replied.

  “Is that where you’re going?” Kim asked, smiling at the girl.

  The girl nodded seriously. “Yes. I hope they have peaches tonight.”

  “We’ll just have to see,” Kim told her.

  “Manners,” her guardian rumbled in a deep voice.

  “My name is Cammy Maria Espalsa. It’s very nice to meet you. This is Herbie.”

  “Meetcha,” he nodded at the group.

  “It’s very nice to meet you,” Tiffany said sounding bubbly. “I’m Tiffany, this is Bree, Kim, Lisa, and Blake.”

  “Where are you from?” Cammy continued on, thrilled to have people’s attention.

  “Well, most of us came from Vegas, but Blake and Bree came from Los Angeles,” Kim answered.

  “I’ve never been to Vegas or Los Angeles. I hope I can go someday,” Cammy said seriously.

  And so the conversation with Cammy went on until they arrived at the mess hall. She was full of questions and delighted in talking to everyone. After collecting their meatloaf dinners, they found a table and all sat down. Cammy waited patiently as Herbie carefully cut everything on her plate into bite-sized pieces. She carefully removed a straw from its paper wrapper and put it into her glass of milk.

  “She’s so cute,” Tiffany whispered to Blake.

  Blake nodded. “Yeah, no joke.”

  Herbie finished cutting up Cammy’s food and she concentrated on eating. Everyone became engrossed in their own meals. After everyone had more or less finished eating, Lisa asked, “Where are your parents?”

  Her face fell, saddened by the question. “I don’t know. Herbie says they might come here. I’m waiting for them to come back.”

  “Is Herbie your grandpa?” Lisa asked her.

  “She shook her head. “Herbie’s my friend. He saved me.”

  There was a pause as everyone waited for elaboration. Herbie sat there trying to pick gristle out of his crooked teeth and Cammy looked from person to person. Then looked to Herbie seriously, “My mommy and daddy will make it here, won’t they Herbie?”

  “Sho’nuff,” he replied and ruffled her hair. She relaxed at this and hugged her turtle to her chest.

  Lisa looked guilty so Tiffany pointed at the turtle and asked, “What’s her name?”

  She perked up at this and held the turtle out so she could see it better. “Her name’s Sheila!”

  “Hi, Sheila!” Tiffany waved. Cammy giggled at this and hugged Sheila to her chest, pressing her cheek against the turtle’s head.

  “How’d you know Sheila was a girl?” Blake asked her in a low voice.

  “She’s that type of girl,” Tiffany whispered back.

  Herbie grunted at Cammy, and she put all of her trash on her tray then got up to properly dispose of it. Herbie followed after her while everyone cleaned their stuff up as well. Everyone exited the hall and Herbie raised his hand at them. “Night,” he said.

  “We’re going for a walk,” Cammy said. “We always go for a walk after dinner. Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow.” She gripped Herbie’s hand and they headed out.

  They took their time walking back to the barracks. Blake guessed that during the day, people’s work spread them all around the depot and probably kept them inside buildings and out of sight. During a meal time though, everyone came out and it was time to be social. It was nice. There was a strong sense of community here and people got along because they wanted to stay safe. They paused near a barracks where a group of children with ages ranging from five to fifteen played basketball on a court with hoops of a height meant for adults. Despite the relatively low amount of successful baskets, everyone was having fun. The bigger kids were letting the smaller ones have time with the ball, and the parents looked on silently with content looks on their faces. The setting sun caused the players to cast shadows three times as long as the bodies that cast them. The ball went over the head of one of the children and bounced over to where Blake and his group stood. He caught the ball and one of the kids ran over to recover it. It was the boy who’d come by their room to make sure they’d come for dinner. He lightly tossed the ball to him, and the boy caught it with ease. The boy smiled at him and turned to get back to their game. They walked back to the barracks after that, enjoying the slightly less hot period just before nightfall. Blake and Tiffany returned to their room and Tiffany went over to one of the desks engrossing herself in a novel she’d found in the community area downstairs. Blake went into the bathroom and enjoyed a nice hot shower. He took his sw
eet time and didn’t think about anything for once. He’d dressed in light clothes appropriate for sleep and came into the bedroom to find Tiffany asleep at the desk, her book loosely gripped in one hand, but mostly closed with all the pages slightly fanned out from each other. He shook her awake and she looked up at him disoriented. She let him help her up then climbed up into her bunk, getting under the covers. He turned off the light and was able to find sleep quickly.

  forty-nine

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

  He was jolted awake by an alarm in the building. For the first minute, he’d pretended he was still asleep. He refused to acknowledge that Tiffany had climbed out of the bunk and called his name out as she shrugged into her clean set of army clothes. After the first minute, he’d rolled onto his belly and placed his pillow over his head and ears like a pair of headphones. Blake felt a hand touch his shoulders and when he didn’t react, she tried to remove the pillow from his head. He stubbornly held it in place. Finally, he had to concede that the world would not leave him alone and he threw his pillow to one side and rolled over furiously. Tiffany looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but mostly there was fear in her eyes. That helped him to accept the reality of their situation.

  “Sorry, Tiff. Give me a minute.”

  She nodded and sat at her desk, waiting with obvious nervous energy. Blake shrugged into his own set of clean army clothes and sat on the edge of his bed to lace up his boots. He stood up and nodded at Tiffany who got up quickly and moved to his side. Bree, Kim, and Lisa were all assembled in the hallway. The door to Doris and Gao’s room opened and Doris came out wide-eyed and scared. Gao came out as well, still dressing himself in some of the new clothing they’d procured in the last town. He looked especially grumpy and Blake felt a tinge of shame at possibly acting as Gao might have been. Some of the security contractors ran by. “Get to the armory!” one of them suggested as they crashed into the stairwell door and noisily ran downstairs.

  Their group also trundled down the stairs. “Does anyone know what’s going on?” Kim asked as they reached the ground floor and had to slow down to file out of the exit to outside.

  “Maybe it’s a drill?” Lisa said hopefully.

  “I sure hope so,” Blake said.

  They jogged outside where the sun was just about to show itself to the world. Bree, Kim, and Lisa were piling into the GT-S while Blake got into the minivan with Tiffany, Gao, and Doris loading into the back. Blake drove towards the nearest armory as the security guys had suggested. When they arrived several military and civilian vehicles had already gathered around it. He parked the van and they all got out. The GT-S pulled to a stop next to them and Bree got out with Kim and Lisa close behind. The door to the armory was propped open and they went inside to find a small queue of people lined up at a counter where an elderly woman in a security uniform was handing an assault rifle to the first person in line. The first four men in line were all dressed as Tiffany and Blake were. Blake guessed they were civilians who had been evacuated to the depot. Once the men had collected ammunition and weapons, they walked back outside. Blake and everyone with him walked up to the counter. The elderly woman whose name tag read, “Capelli” looked at them and started laying out assault rifles on the counter, she had a clipboard nearby and handed it to them. “Write down your last names please.” She pulled out three magazines for each rifle and arranged everything neatly. When they had all written their names on the clipboard she took a moment to inspect each weapon and wrote down a series of numbers next to their names. “What do we need these for?” Lisa whispered sounding a little panicky.

  “I’m sure it’s just standard procedure,” Kim reassured her. “You’ll probably just have to carry that stuff around tonight and then tomorrow it will be back to normal.”

  Capelli finished up quickly and waited patiently as everyone took a rifle and their magazines. “Do you know where we’re supposed to go with this?” Blake asked her.

  “East perimeter. They’ll tell you what to do when you get there,” Capelli replied.

  He filed out with everyone as a group of teenagers walked inside. “Damn,” he commented. They got into their vehicles and drove out to the east part of the depot. Though their tour of the depot was brief, they had been shown only the most relevant structures that they’d likely be dealing with. The actual fence that defined the eastern perimeter of the depot was miles away from their barracks, and they only knew where it was by looking at a map.

  “What is going on?” Gao asked finally after a long period of driving past bunker after bunker.

  “What else could it be?” Blake pointed out.

  “Do you think we’ll actually have to shoot people?” Doris asked after a moment.

  “I don’t know,” Blake admitted. “The commander said that they’d lost contact with the other bases. And he also said they don’t have a cure yet. We might have to if they decide it’s us or the infected.”

  “That’s screwed up,” Tiffany observed. “Those people... They’re not in their right minds. I mean, what if their immune system or whatever clears up the virus and they go back to normal? We could be murdering the innocent.”

  “That’s true,” Blake agreed, “But what if there is no recovering from it? What if the end result is turning into a zombie?”

  “They might be able to cure it though,” Doris said. “What if they just have to fly over cities and spray medicine on people?”

  “That’d be great,” Blake said, “But we don’t know if we’re even close to finding a cure. And based on what the commander said, this is only getting worse.”

  Silence reigned again. After more driving, they finally could see the eastern edge of the depot where a large number of vehicles were parked. “Are you going to shoot the infected people?” Tiffany asked in a quiet voice.

  “Based on everything we know, I will.”

  “Will we be able to live with ourselves?” Tiffany asked, mostly to herself.

  “If we get infected as well, it’ll be a moot point,” Blake told her as he parked in line with the other vehicles. They got out of their cars, linked up with the girls that came in the GT-S then walked over to where people had gathered. The group was made up of people who were mostly civilians. Though most were wearing military garb, only the people with rank insignias were actual soldiers. The man who was addressing everyone had full desert camo on complete with helmet. A glance at his chest revealed his name to be Mathias.

  “We’re deploying everyone along the fence. Stay at least ten feet away from it, we don’t want to risk infection. Do not open fire unless told to,” Mathias said as if he did this every day. “Stay within sight of the person to your left and right. We have people all along the fence already so just space yourselves out as they have. Again, do not fire unless ordered to. Let’s do this.”

  People walked along the fence, spacing themselves out as ordered, and were looking anxiously out at the area beyond the perimeter. Blake took a step toward Mathias who nodded at them. “Catch most of that?”

  Blake and others in his group nodded. “Just to space ourselves out along the fence, hang back, don’t shoot unless told to. What we didn’t hear was what exactly is going on,” Blake answered.

  Mathias nodded again and handed him a high tech looking pair of binoculars. He accepted them and the soldier pointed in the direction he wanted him to look. He looked through the binoculars and everything was tinted green. “What am I looking for?” Blake asked, not seeing anything.

  “Zoom is here,” Mathias showed him. Blake adjusted the control and looked out again. This time he could see people walking toward them. A large number of people. He looked to the left and the right and the procession went on without end. Their slow pace, their disheveled look, it could only be one thing. “What do you see?” Tiffany asked in a small, excited voice. “Um. Uh oh,” he replied. He handed the binoculars back to Mathias as a helicopter whirled overhead and flew out towards the zombie horde. A light cut thro
ugh the darkness from the chopper and played over the walking figures in the desert making parts of the massive group of zombies visible even from where they stood.

  “DO NOT CONTINUE TO APPROACH. THIS IS A MILITARY INSTALLATION. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY WE WILL USE FORCE. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING,” the helicopter blared.

  “Would you please head out along the right side of the fence?” Mathias asked them.

  Blake nodded and their group walked out in the requested direction. They passed men and women spaced out evenly along the fence. A few couples had opted to stand next to each other, and the actual soldiers who were intermixed along the line didn’t make a big deal of it. After five minutes of walking, they had reached the last person in the line, some middle-aged guy who looked like an office worker who had eaten a tad too many donuts during the course of his career. He shifted around nervously, peering out beyond the fence. He had barely even acknowledged their passing. After getting to about the right distance, Gao stopped. “I call this spot,” he declared. Doris stopped as well. Kim rolled her eyes and they kept walking. Bree glanced back at Gao after about a minute and said, “Here is good. Kim and Lisa stand here.”

  “You sure?” Kim asked.

  Bree nodded, “Better to spread out. But I don’t think Lisa wants to stand by herself. I’ll be ok.”

  Lisa nodded gratefully, and Kim nodded and waved to her sister. They continued on and when they came to the next appropriately distanced spot Bree asked, “Is it alright if I stand here? I want to keep Kim in sight.”

  Blake and Tiffany nodded, “Of course. That’s fine.” Bree nodded appreciatively, kneeled down and checked her assault rifle. Tiffany and Blake continued on until Blake felt they’d gone far enough. “How about here?” he suggested.