Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel)
Author: G. E. Swanson
Date: 2012-06-24 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Zombies; Fiction; Fantasy
Description: A deadly virus is ravaging the world. Zombies roam the streets and mankind is nearing extinction. In an attempt to escape the virus and zombie's grasp, the Jacobs family and a group of young adults must travel 1,300 miles up the West Coast to a cabin located high in the mountains of Washington. Things don’t go as planned and their trip quickly turns into a life or death struggle. Along the way they fight zombies, psychos, freaks, and sometimes amongst themselves. This book contains adult content: graphic violence, sex, and language. This is the first book in the Apocalypse Z series. A deadly v
Publisher: G.E. Swanson

Apocalypse Z

Written by G. E. Swanson

Cover by Z. Schoeb

©2012 G. E. Swanson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be given away, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.

If you have a copy of this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased specifically for you, please check your favorite online bookseller to purchase a copy for yourself. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction as are the characters in it. They are all products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any real person, living or dead.

I

Steve Jacobs looked through the blinds of his window out onto the street. It was a warm Saturday morning and normally there would be children outside playing and neighbors working in their yards. However, today all he saw were empty driveways and yards littered with suitcases and clothing tossed to the side last minute as the residents left in haste. He just stared outside as he thought. It took mankind thousands of years to achieve what we have, and less than a month for it to all go to shit.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard his wife Joan. “Do you think we waited too long before leaving?”

Steve shook his head. “No, we had to wait or we would have been detoured east to the Medical Quarantine Compounds out in the desert like everyone else. We need the roads clear so we can head north to Dad’s cabin.”

Nervously biting her lip, she asked, “Do you think its okay to leave now? I know those damn things are out there and this waiting is driving me crazy. I’m afraid if we stay any longer, they’re going to find us.”

Steve stepped away from the window. “Alright, have they boys get their gear on and put their bags in the Expedition.”

Joan went to the back of the house to get their sons, Mark and Jeff. Steve opened one of the black duffle bags sitting on the couch. He reached in, removed several stacks of new $100 bills, and set them on the coffee table. He took out a bag of gold coins and poured some of them into his hand. By this time, Joan came back, saw the bills on the table and asked, “Why did you do that?”

Steve looked at the stacks, then back at Joan. “It’s worthless. Right now, it’s just paper. Even this gold isn’t worth what it used to be. The best barter we have is food and bullets.” Steve put a couple of the coins in his shirt pocket before putting the rest back into the duffle bag. “I’ll hang onto these just in case.”

Mark and Jeff came from the back of the house with their backpacks and took them to the garage. Steve picked up two duffle bags and Joan grabbed the other; then they headed to the Expedition parked in the garage. Mark stood on the passenger side and Jeff on the driver side, each with a P90 rifle.

Steve stood between them and said, “Okay, boys, I want you to remember that bullets are precious. I know we have a lot, but we don’t know how bad it is out there. We’re going to have to make every one count so only shoot when you have to.”

They nodded and raised their rifles up, ready to fire, as Steve raised the garage door. They did a visual sweep of the area as their father started the vehicle and drove forward. They both jumped in the back seat and pointed their rifles out the open windows as they pulled onto the street and quickly accelerated away.

As they drove through the neighborhoods, Mark zoned out while he stared at the houses they passed. In another week he would have graduated from high school and started preparing for college. That’s the way he expected to leave—not like this. Everyone he knew was either a zombie or imprisoned in one of those MQCs.

He didn’t like much of what his father had told him about them. Originally, they had been set up to quarantine the infected, but the virus has spread so fast that they were turned into housing for those that hadn’t been infected. Facilities designed for 10,000 now housed over 30,000. But for now, the people inside them were safer than those wandering the streets.

They approached the freeway and Mark was happy they hadn’t come across any zombies yet. Once Steve had cleared the on-ramp, he kicked the truck up to eighty mph. They saw a few broken down and abandoned cars on the side of the road, but for the most part, the lanes were wide open and the road was clear as far as they could see. Everyone closed their eyes and relaxed as Steve raced down the freeway.

Joan felt a little more at ease, but they still had a long ways to go. She didn’t know what lay ahead so she kept one hand on her shotgun just in case trouble reared its ugly head. When the vehicle started to decelerate, she opened her eyes. In front of them were three military vehicles blocking all the lanes. Posted beside them were six armed soldiers. Steve whispered, “Son of a bitch!”

Joan looked over at him. “What are we going to do now?” Then she turned to the back seat. “You boys cover your weapons.” And she tried to hide the shotgun between her seat and the door.

Mark and Jeff put their rifles on the floorboard behind their feet as the vehicle rolled to a stop. One of the soldiers told Steve to go down the off-ramp where he would be escorted to MQC-147. Instead, he held up his Department of Defense ID card and called out for the sergeant to come over. The sergeant approached and looked at it. “That’s a civilian contractor ID. I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to exit here.”

Steve paused before speaking. “Sergeant, I need to keep heading north.”

“What do you do for the DOD, sir?”

“Test and develop weapons and weapon systems.”

“Believe me, sir, we really appreciate everything you folks do, but I have my orders.”

Steve reached into his pocket and held up a gold coin. “Do you know what this is?”

The sergeant looked at it. “Yes, sir, I do. It’s a gold double eagle.”

He held it to where only the sergeant could see it. “Let us through and it’s yours.”

The sergeant looked at it and thought. He slowly reached out and took it before asking, “What if I keep it and don’t let you through?”

Steve smiled. “Then your men find out and you have to turn it in to your superior or split it six ways. Or you can let me through and keep it all for yourself.”

The sergeant smiled and casually put it in his shirt pocket. “Well, if you all want to travel straight into zombie land and get yourselves killed, be my guest. But I have to warn you, we’re no longer extracting people out of that area, and at 1600 hours tomorrow, we’re pulling out of here to help defend the compound.”

Steve nodded and said, “By that time, we’ll be halfway to our destination.”

The sergeant stepped back, stood at attention, and saluted. In a loud voice, he said, “Sir! I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t realize who you were.”

Seeing this, the others followed by jumping to attention and saluting. Steve looked them over then returned the salute. The sergeant turned and yelled, “Corporal Dickens! Move this Humvee so the colonel can get through!”

One of the soldiers ran to it and quickly moved it out of the way. After they had gone through the roadblock, everyone let out a sigh of relief. For the next few miles, Steve kept checking his rearview mirror to make sure the sergeant hadn’t changed his mind and sent someone after him. Almost an hour had passed before he began to relax and the fear of pursuit subsided. As he looked at the gas gauge, he realized they had another problem. “We have to pull off and get gas.”

Joan turned and in a panic asked, “What do you mean, we need gas? I thought both tanks were full when we left?”

Steve reached over and put his hand on hers. “It’s okay. We’re not out. We still have one full tank, but the other is at a quarter. I don’t think it will last us until tomorrow morning and I don’t want to stop and fuel up when it’s dark. I want to get it now while we still have daylight and can see what’s going on around us.”

She relaxed a bit and set back in her seat. “Scare me to death—I thought something was wrong.” She turned to Mark and Jeff. “Okay, boys, get ready to cover me and your father while we do this.”

Mark and Jeff answered in unison, “Okay, Mom.” And they both readied themselves to jump out as soon as they stopped.

Steve took the next off-ramp and began searching for a station. The first one they found had a car sitting where the pumps should have been. The car had been burned and the hull already had rust setting in. They slowed and passed cautiously as they looked over the area.

All the windows had been broken out of the building, and dried blood had been smeared all over the outer walls. Between the burned-out car and the front door, they saw two arms and a part of a leg rotting on the ground. A few feet from the leg was a head that looked like it had been opened up and hollowed out.

They pulled back onto the road and continued. Two blocks down the street, they passed a grocery store with a large parking lot. In the center, there were three bodies on the pavement. They were definitely zombies and it looked like one was missing a head. All three were severely bloated and looked like they would pop any second. They saw another one eating the fingers off a hand, standing by a bus stop. As they passed, it pulled the hand closer to its chest and hissed at them.

Steve drove another two blocks before finding a station. As soon as the truck stopped moving, Mark and Jeff jumped out and did a sweep of the immediate area. After checking the inside of the store and around the outside, Mark signaled the all clear. Steve went to the back of the truck and took out some bolt cutters. After he lifted the inlet cover, he went to work on cutting the oversized lock.

Joan brought the pump over and stood next to Steve with her shotgun in hand. Before he could get through the lock, Jeff heard movement from around the side of the station. As he lifted his rifle, he said, “I have something over here.”

A moment later, they heard a moan as a zombie came shuffling around the corner of the building. Its face was drawn up and part of the left cheek was missing. The eyes were blue-white and had started to shrivel in their sockets. It had on a set of blue coveralls with the name ‘Bob’ stitched above the left pocket.

Jeff lined up the shot through the scope and fired a single round. Small amounts of spatter flew from its forehead and even more from the back of its head where the bullet exited. The zombie went limp and dropped to the ground like an old rag doll. He turned toward his dad and yelled, “We have company and probably more on the way.”

A few moments of silence went by before they heard moans coming from all around them. Mark and Jeff backed up closer to their father, who was still working on the lock. They stood with their backs to him, facing out. Steve thought they must have heard the shot because there were a lot of them and they were coming from every direction. They began firing shots and dropping them as they drew closer. The numbers continued to grow quickly and they were having trouble keeping up.

Mark and Jeff were becoming overwhelmed so they switched to full automatic and continued to fire. It seemed for every zombie they killed, two more would take its place. They each went through two magazines before they started to feel like they were making any progress.

While they were focusing on those approaching from the streets, another one came up from behind the station and jumped on Jeff’s back. He yelled and tried to shake him off, but the grip was just too tight. Mark was still working on full auto just to keep from getting over run.

Joan ran over, started to pound the zombie in the face with the butt of her shotgun, and yelled at the same time. “Get… off… of… my… son… you… prick!” And with the final blow, it let go and took a couple steps back. It looked at her and hissed like a pissed off cat. Joan flipped the shotgun over and pulled the trigger. The zombie’s head exploded and pieces of it flew in every direction.

Jeff looked over with a smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

She returned the smile and in a loving motherly voice, she said, “You’re welcome, Jeffrey. Now go help your brother so your father and I can gas up the truck.”

Jeff returned and opened fire until Steve yelled, “Hold your fire! The gas tank is now open.” And he switched the pump on.

Mark and Jeff ran away from the vehicle and distracted them with occasional fire as they yelled and drew the zombies toward them. Joan grabbed an old piece of rebar from the ground and swung it like a bat on the few remaining behind. Zombie heads caved in and bones snapped under her assault.

Once the tank was full, Steve put the pump back in an empty ammo box and threw it in the back. Joan started the truck and as soon as Steve had jumped in, she drove toward her boys. She ran down half a dozen of them as she pulled up next to Mark and Jeff. They quickly jumped in the back seat and they were off.

As the truck sped down the road back to the freeway, Steve said, “I had no idea it was this bad out here. How many did you boys take out?”

Mark shrugged and said, “I lost count after forty.”

Jeff said, “Just a guess? I would say about ninety all together.”

Mark and Jeff looked at each other, smiled, then bumped fists. Steve couldn’t help smiling too. When it came down to it, no one panicked and they all worked well as a team. Joan shrieked as she hit the brakes hard and the truck went into a skid. Everyone looked up and saw something blue to the right. They heard the sound of crumpling metal and breaking glass as their world spun out of control, and then everything went black.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dedee and Jet ran along the shelves in the store, searching for canned food, and sticking it in their bags. Lisa stood watch just inside the glass doors with her shotgun. She turned to them and asked, “Are you two done yet?”

Jet looked up. “Not yet, a lot of this stuff has already expired.”

They all stopped when they heard gunshots off in the distance. Lisa knelt down and raised her shotgun. “Hurry up, that might be the goon squad and those shots aren’t that far away.”

Dedee looked at Jet before saying, “But they’ve already made their patrol through this area a few hours ago.”

They all stopped and listened. The shots soon became longer sustained bursts and Jet said, “That isn’t them, they don’t have guns like that. Hey! Maybe it’s the Army?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen them here in almost a week. Even if it was, you know how they operate. They figure everyone’s already a rot-bag or infected, and they only shoot to kill—no rescues.”

After a few minutes, the shots tapered off to a few sporadic bursts, and then it was silent again. Lisa waved them over. “Let’s get out of here.”

Jet and Dedee grabbed their bags and headed for the door. Once outside, they slowly started making their way down the sidewalk back to their apartment, using the abandoned cars to keep out of sight. They traveled a block when they heard the screeching of tires and a loud bang, followed by the sounds of metal bouncing across asphalt.

They looked at each other and listened for a minute before Lisa broke the silence. “That didn’t sound good at all.”

Jet tapped Lisa on the shoulder. “Maybe we should go check it out? Someone might need help.”

“She’s right, Lisa. Somebody might still be alive and we can’t just leave them as zombie bait. That’s something only the goon squad would do.”

They both stared at Lisa and waited for her reply. She looked at them and sighed. “Oh, alright! We’ll make it quick and move on.”

Lisa led the way as they quickly headed in that direction, grabbing cover occasionally to avoid being seen by any wandering zombies. They worked their way to a corner and Lisa cautiously peeked around. In the road, she saw the crumpled body of a man not far from a blue pickup lying on its side. Beyond it was a black SUV in a smoldering heap. Slowly, they rounded the corner and approached the wrecked SUV. Lisa stood watch as Dedee and Jet check checked the passengers.

Dedee checked the man and woman in the front for any signs of life. The woman behind the wheel was crumpled in a very unnatural position and was not breathing. The man in the passenger seat had blood coming out of his ears and nose. She checked and he wasn’t breathing, either. She told Lisa, “These two are dead, probably killed on impact.”

Jet looked into the back seat through the broken window. On the floor, she noticed the two rifles and she opened the door. Jeff moaned, but he didn’t move around. He looked like he was about her age and she thought to herself, he’s really cute.  She saw the other one in the back with him was breathing, but he didn’t move, either. Jet called out with panic in her voice, “These two are hurt, but they’re still alive.” She stepped back and held up one of the rifles. “I think these were the people we heard shooting a little while ago.”

Lisa smelled the odor of gasoline and saw a small trail running from under the vehicle. “Okay, let’s get them out and back to the apartment before this thing blows.”

They had just gotten them and their bags out when a small fire started to burn under the hood. Within a few minutes, the vehicle was engulfed in flames and the fuel tanks exploded. A large fireball and black smoke shot high into the air.

II

Mark slowly opened his eyes and saw a girl looking down at him. She had straight black shoulder-length hair with dark red streaks running through it. He squinted as he tried to focus and get up. She put her hand on his shoulder and whispered, “Don’t try to move yet.”

“Who are…”

She put her finger over his lips. “Shhhhh. We have to be quiet or they might find us.” She looked around, then back down at him. “My name is Jet. We found you and brought you back here. But don’t worry. You’re safe for now.”

Mark started to get up, but quickly pulled the sheet back over himself as he realized that’s all that was covering him. “Where are my clothes?”

“Hold on. I’ll go get them for you.”

Mark watched as Jet left the room. After a few minutes, another girl came in. She looked like she was a few years older than Jet. She had long sandy-blond hair that hung down past her shoulders and blue eyes. Mark was caught off guard momentary; he never expected to see someone like her walk into the room. Handing him his clothes, she said, “Sorry about that. We had to make sure you hadn’t been bitten.”

Mark blushed and felt a little uncomfortable as he looked toward the door. “We?”

“Well, actually I did. My name’s Lisa by the way. Like I said, I needed to make sure I wasn’t bringing someone in that had been infected. You also had some nasty cuts we had to clean up, but don’t worry, you were covered while they were in here.”

He looked around the room. “I’m Mark… Where am I and why am I here?”

Lisa went over to him and sat on the edge of the bed. “Don’t you remember?”

He thought, but drew a blank. “Remember what?”

“You were in an accident yesterday. We found you and brought you back to our apartment.”

Mark started to feel a little anxious. “Where are my parents and my brother?”

“Was that your brother in the back seat with you?

Mark was becoming impatient and said, “Yes, his name is Jeff. Where are they?”

She held her finger to her lips. “Shhhh, we have to keep the noise down so the rot-bags don’t find us.” A look of dread came over her face. “Your brother is in the other room with Jet and Dedee.” She paused before breaking the news. “I’m very sorry about your parents.”

Mark had a lost look on his face. He was hoping she didn’t mean what he thought she did. His jaw tightened as he spoke. “What do you mean by sorry?”

She set her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, but they didn’t make it. They were already…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word. “when we found you and your brother.”

Mark fought to be strong. Tears filled his eyes and he tried to keep his jaw firm. Lisa sat next to him and tried to comfort him. Finally, it became too much and he buried his face in his hands. She whispered, “It’s alright. Just let it all out.”

Jet came back into the room and stood there. She looked at Lisa and lipped the words, “You told him?”

Lisa nodded and lipped, “Give us a few minutes.” Jet nodded and looked down as she left the room.

Lisa stayed with him until he regained his composure. Mark looked up with red eyes and he cleared this throat. “I need to see my brother.”

Lisa stood up and said, “Go ahead and get dressed. I’ll be waiting outside in the hallway.”

After she went out and closed the door, Marked picked up his clothes. He noticed they had been cleaned and neatly folded. When he stood up to get dressed, his muscles felt a little sore and his body ached, he saw his right side had several cuts and bruises. When he was dressed, he stepped out into the hallway where Lisa waited for him. He ran his hand over his shirt. “I want to say thanks. I appreciate the clean clothes and what you did for us.”

She nodded. “You’re welcome. We’ve been trying to keep up with everything while we still have electricity.” She paused and her expression became serious. “Before you go in, I need to tell you something else. He’s having trouble remembering things.”

“Okay, but I didn’t remember the accident either.”

She was silent as she tried to figure just how to word it. “It’s not just that, he doesn’t remember where he is or what’s going on. He remembers his name and who he is, but other than that, he has little to no personal memories at all.”

This was very difficult for him to hear. All he had left was his brother, now he might not even have that. “Does he have a head injury?”

“Nothing we could see. It just might be from stress and his mind has locked some of his memories up. I knew of someone years ago that had it happen to them. It took time, but everything came back.”

Lisa opened another door and walked down the hallway. When he looked in, he saw Jeff inside sitting on the bed talking to Jet and Dedee. Dedee had long sandy-blond hair and he though she looked a lot like Lisa, just younger. They were smiling and seemed to be having a good time. Mark closed the door and found his way to the kitchen. On the floor next to the table was all of their gear and duffle bags. He knelt down and opened them.

Lisa came up behind him. “Did you talk to your brother already?

Mark glanced at her and shook his head. “It looked like they were having a good time. I figured it would best if I let him enjoy it.”

Lisa brought in another bag and set it down. “Here are all your weapons. I was just curious, I was going to go out with Jet and see what we could scrounge up for food. And… well… would you like to come with us?”

“Sure, but why not let them have fun? You and I could go out a grab some things. Just let me get my gear together.

Lisa hesitated, she usually didn’t trust someone she just met, but for some reason her gut had already told her he wasn’t a danger. She went over and started to put some shells into her shotgun.

Mark came over and looked at it before asking, “Have you ever fired a pistol before?”

“Yes, once a long time ago.”

“Come over here.” He reached into the bag and brought out an auto pistol. “This is a Glock 17, it fires 9mm rounds.” He dropped the magazine, cleared it, then handed it to her, “Let me show you how it works.” He stood behind her and started to reach around, but stopped. Feeling a little nervous, he asked, “Is this okay?”

She nodded. “Yes, but only to show me how to use it.”

As he reached around her, his arms touched hers and she felt a tingle. It was like static electricity dancing just above her skin. It caught her by surprise and she became distracted for a moment.

“Here is the safety. Just pull it back flush with the trigger like this, then continue to pull the trigger back. Remember; never rest your finger on the trigger. The only time you touch it is if you’re going to shoot. Hold it just like this. This hand goes here and the other goes here, just like that. These are your sites. Just line them up and pull back on the trigger, never jerk your finger back. Make sure your hands are out of the way of the slide. Take slow breaths and exhale as you take your shot. This is the slide lock and this button here is the magazine release.” He stepped back and looked at her. “Okay, think you got it?”

“Umm… I think so. You might need to show me one more time just to make sure.”

“Okay, let’s do this one more time.”

He stood behind her and went through it again. This time he noticed her palms started to sweat. After the lesson, Mark got into one of the bags and took out a gear belt, a magazine pouch, gloves, and a tactical holster.

He handed her the gloves. “Put these on. I noticed your hands were sweating a little and these will help you keep a better grip.”

She noticed it too and didn’t understand why it had happened. She put the gloves on and said, “Yeah, that usually doesn’t happen.”

When he had everything all put together, he knelt down in front of her. He put the belt around her waist and started adjusting the size so it would be snug. While he was working on this, he heard someone behind him say, “Oh my gawd! Get a room!” He turned and saw a girl, about thirteen-years-old, with dark brown, shoulder-length hair standing in the kitchen doorway with her hand over her mouth.

He stopped and turned. “No! It’s not what you think.”

The girl turned away and ran back into the living room. Lisa chuckled. “That was Amy. She lived down the street from us. Her younger brother, Todd, is here too.”

“Are there any more people here I haven’t met?”

“No, that’s all of us.”

“No parents or other family?”

Lisa got quiet. With sadness in her eyes, she said, “Dedee is my sister, but our parents disappeared when all this started. Jet’s parents were bitten and infected, but before they turned, they dropped her off and asked if she could stay with us. One night Amy and Todd knocked on our door. They said their parents hadn’t come home yet and wanted to wait here with us until they did, but they never came home.”

He lowered his eyes. “Oh.”

He went back to work and adjusted the belt so it was snug, and secured the holster strap around her leg. He reached back into the bag and pulled out three magazines. He put two in her pouch and one in the pistol. Before they left, he showed her how to draw it from the holster.

Lisa went back to the room, said she and Mark were going on a food run, and gave Dedee the shotgun. As they entered the streets, Lisa took the lead. She was more familiar with the area and knew the best routes to take. Lisa cautioned Mark, “Not only do we need to watch for rot-bags, but we have to watch out for the goon squad as well.”

Mark was a little puzzled. “What is the goon squad?”

“They’re a bunch of armed criminals that run the streets. They’ll patrol in groups of five or more, looking for survivors. If they catch you, they’ll rob you and use you as zombie bait.”

Mark shook his head. “That sounds pretty sick.”

“Follow me. I’ll show you one of their victims.”

Mark followed her for five blocks. When they came upon the scene, Lisa pointed to a tree next to the street in a city park. When he saw the carnage, he froze in shock. There was a naked body hanging from one of the limbs. It had been slit open from the throat all the way down to the groin.

The intestines had been pulled out and mangled. They looked like they had been partially eaten and the legs had been stripped to the bone. Below on the ground, were the bodies of eight zombies. She had to look away before speaking. “They’ll hang people up and slice them open while they are still alive. The zombies hear the screaming, smell the blood, then come for an easy meal. The squad will sit off somewhere in the distance and snip them as they show up and start eating.”

Mark shook his head in disgust. “Sick bastards.” He saw the body move and heard it hiss at him. Instinctively, he raised his rifle and fired a single shot into its head.

Lisa jumped at the sound. “Keep it down! If the zombies or goon squad hears that, they’ll come this way.” She looked around and said, “There used to be a store just a couple blocks this way.” She pointed to the left. “Let’s get out of here.”

They had made it another block when they heard movement and several groans in front of them. They quickly ducked down behind a car parked alongside the curb and watched as seven zombies came around a corner.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the apartment, everyone had moved to the kitchen and sat around the table talking. Jeff pointed to Dedee. “Okay, you’re Dedee, Lisa’s sister.”

She nodded and pointed to everyone as she spoke. “Yes, I’m Dedee. This is my friend Janet from school, but everyone calls her Jet. This is Amy and her younger brother Todd; he’s only nine.” She pointed to a heavier-set boy with short hair.

Todd asked, “Jeff, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Okay, if zombies eat people…”

Amy cut him off. “Stop it, Todd. That question’s so gross!”

Dedee wrinkled her nose and Jet said, “Ewwww!”

Todd looked around. “But I really want to know. It’s a serious question.”

Jeff said, “Okay, Todd, ask your question.”

“Well, if zombies eat people, where do they poop?”

Jeff realized he should have let that question go unasked. He looked around the table and saw everyone looking back at him, except for Amy. She had her face buried in her hands as she shook her head. He thought before he said, “Ummm… I don’t know.”

“Do you think Mark would know?”

“No, if he did, he would have told me and I could tell you.” Jeff quickly looked at Dedee and asked, “Why did you stay here? Don’t you have a car?”

Jet spoke up, “Dedee and I have our license, but no cars.” She lowered her head. “But I guess that really doesn’t matter anymore.”

Jeff smiled a half smile. “But at least you got them and that’s something this mess can’t take away.”

Dedee and Jet thought about it and smiled at each other. Dedee leaned over and lightly bumped Jeff with her shoulder and said, “You’re right. We have our license.”

Jet scooted away from the table and went over to the counter where she picked up Jeff’s rifle. “Where did you and your brother get such ass-kickin’ guns?”

Dedee quietly said, “Jet!”

As soon and the words left her lips she realized he probably wouldn’t remember. Jet closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry, Jeff; I don’t know why I asked you that.”

Jeff turned in his chair. “That’s okay.” He got up and went over to her and Dedee followed. When he picked it up, it was like a light had come on in his mind. “This is a P90 rifle with a fifty round magazine of 5.7mm armor piercing rounds. This is the optical scope, this is the laser sight, and this is a rail light. Right here is the safety and here is semi-auto and here it is full auto.”

Dedee and Jet just stood there with their mouths agape staring at him. Amy sat at the table and listened, then asked, “Jeff, how did you remember all that?”

He stood there confused. “I don’t know. I really didn’t think about it. It just… was there when I picked it up.”

Amy got up from the table and ran down the hall. A minute later, she returned with a deck of cards and a jar of pennies. Every one sat down at the table as she shuffled the deck. Todd opened the jar and counted out pennies. He made sure everyone had an equal amount in their stack to start.

They played draw poker for a while; but no one seemed to be gaining any ground penny-wise. Jet thought Jeff was very nice and she kept watching him as they played. The few boys she knew from school all had a habit of looking at her chest when they talked to her. But Jeff was different. He didn’t do that. He looked into her eyes when they talked and she liked that.

Several times, Jeff noticed Jet staring at him as they played. Occasionally, he glanced up, but she would quickly turn her eyes another direction or down toward her cards. As they quietly played, there was a hard knock at the door and everyone jumped. They all looked around at each other, afraid to move. A few seconds later, there was another hard knock.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa and Mark quietly watched through the car windows as the zombies came up the street, only slowing as they walked around a car sitting out in the middle of the street. These didn’t look like they had been zombies too long and walked at a pretty good pace. From the opposite direction, they heard the roar of an engine and screeching tires as an old green pickup came flying around the corner.

Lisa motioned for Mark to stay down and be quiet. They watched as four men with guns jumped out from the back of the truck and two more got out of the cab. The men yelled and opened fire on the zombies in the street.

Lisa tapped Mark and lipped the words “goon squad” as she pulled the pistol from the holster. They listened until the shooting stopped; then they heard one of the men yell, “Spread out and check the area. I’m sure the shot came from around here.”

Mark set his rifle on single shot and motioned for Lisa to stay down and keep quiet. Before she could react, he jumped up and started firing rounds at the men as he ran down the sidewalk. Two of them immediately fell where they stood as his bullets found their target and sliced through the men’s bodies. The others aimed and started firing at him as he ran. Rounds hit the walls and ground in front of and behind him, sending chunks of concrete and stucco flying. He ran into the street and took cover behind a car.

All of their fire focused on that car. The tires blew out and it shook as the bullets punched through the metal skin. The glass shattered and fell to the ground. Lisa watched as the car began to disintegrate before her eyes. Her horror became real when the car exploded. She could feel the heat from the flames as they lunged out and up. She screamed, “Noooooooooooo!”

There was a brief silence, as the men looked her way. One yelled out, “Get her!” She knelt down and moved to the front of the car, hoping the engine block would provide better cover. She held the pistol up over the hood and blindly shot toward them. Returning fire, they cautiously advanced on her position.

When she emptied the first magazine, she quickly swapped it out with another and started firing again. One of the men was hit and thrown to the ground as the bullet ripped through his chest, but the other three continued to advance. Hot brass fell all around her like rain, making hollow pings as they hit the sidewalk. The smell of gunpowder filled the air.

When she dropped the second magazine to insert the third, one of the men came around the front of the car and pointed a large-caliber revolver in her face. She heard the double click as he pulled the hammer back and said, “You move and I’ll blow your fuckin’ head off.”

She slowly raised her hands and stared into the large bore at end of the barrel. Another man came up from behind her and took the pistol from her hand. Given a choice, a bullet tearing through her head was far better than being cut open and eaten alive by zombies, but she wasn’t ready to give up and die.

She felt someone from behind grab her hair and pull her flat onto her back. The man kept his gun pointed at her face as he straddled her and squatted down. “I see we have a pretty one here. I think we should have a little fun with her before we feed the zombies.”

She was disgusted by his dirty, sweaty face. His smell was foul and she almost gagged. His eyes were cold and she swore he had no soul. Thoughts raced through her mind and she wondered how she was going to get out of this mess. Mark was dead and everyone else was too far away to help. There was no way around it. She was all alone and about to meet a grizzly death.

One of the men grabbed her hands and held them on the ground over her head. The man on top of her set his gun to the side and unfastened her belt and holster. She struggled, but he was too heavy to throw off. He unbuttoned her pants and started to unzip them.

Gritting her teeth, she said, “Over my dead body, asshole.”

He put his hand over her mouth and reached behind his back. When he brought his hand around he had a large hunting knife in it. “That can be arranged. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re breathing or not.”

Her eyes were fixed upon the large blade as it drew closer. She struggled and let out a muffed scream as he held it in front of her face, taunting her with it. She closed her eyes and felt the sharp steel against her throat. Knowing she was about to draw her last breath, she let out one last muffed scream.

From somewhere behind, there was a loud pop and she felt the knife as it fell to the side. Her eyes opened and she saw the man staring down at her. There was a small round hole in his forehead with blood trickling out of it. He slowly slumped forward and lay on top of her. She heard two more pops and the other two men dropped to the ground next to her.

Lisa struggled to get the man off, but he was too heavy. His dead weight was forcing all of the air out of her body and she couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, his weight was lifted off her and she was finally able to take a deep, cool breath. When she looked up, she saw Mark standing over her with his hand extended. Grabbing it, she was pulled to her feet.

She looked over at the burning car, then back at him, trying to figure out what had happened. Lisa had an urge to throw her arms around him and took a step. When she realized what she was about to do, she stopped and stepped back. She straightened her shirt and buttoned her pants. In a firm voice she said, “I thought you were dead.”

“Well, for a minute there, so did I.”

“I can’t believe you just went off and left me!”

“I didn’t. I was trying to get them to follow me so you could get away. I didn’t intend to get pinned down behind that car.”

She looked back over at the car. Puzzled, she said, “But I saw you behind it just before it exploded. How did you survive?”

“Once I got over there, I saw an open manhole next to it and remembered seeing another one around the corner. I went down it and came up through over there so I could get behind them. As I went down I tossed a grenade in the car to distract them so I’d have more time to get into position.”

She thought for a minute, then slapped his chest, causing him to flinch and take a step back. “Then what took you so long?”

“I ran into a zombie down there. Did you know there’re zombies in the sewer?”

She fastened her belt and holster and then picked up her pistol. “I want you to know, that while you were down there playing with zombies in the sewer, I was up here by myself about to get my throat slit and gang raped!”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I moved as fast as I could. I didn’t intend for you to get hurt.”

She looked around. “We need to get out of here. I’m sure the rot-bags heard the shots and are going to smell the blood. They’ll swarm this whole area in a matter of minutes.”

Mark ran over to the truck, got in, then jumped back out. “We need the keys.”

They both heard a chorus of moans and saw dozens of them coming around the corner behind them. At the other intersection in front of them, more approached. They ran over and started pulling everything out the pockets of the dead men as the zombies moved toward them.

When Mark pulled the keys out of one of the pockets, a zombie reached down, latched onto his back, and tried to bite his shoulder. It was stopped short when Lisa fired a single shot into the front of its head. Black goo spattered out and onto the side of Mark’s face. He reached up and quickly wiped it off as he stepped away.

Mark and Lisa ran for the truck. Once inside, he locked his door. Lisa started to panic as they surrounded the pickup. She screamed, “I can’t lock my door! There’s no lock!”

Mark struggled to get the key in the ignition as he told her, “Push the door handle down.” She did and heard the click.

Mark turned the key and the engine fired to life. He put it in gear and it rolled forward about three feet before it came to a dead stop. By now, zombies surrounded the truck and they started banging on it and the windows. He put it in reverse and tried backing up, but it stopped again. He repeated this two more times before the windows started to crack.

He set his rifle on automatic and handed it to Lisa. He told her to pull the trigger and sweep over the front of the truck as he drove forward. She did and the front windshield blew out. Small fragments of glass fell on them and scattered across the hood. The zombies in front of the truck jerked wildly as the bullets ripped through their rotting flesh and into others behind them.

Most of the ones in front were cut in half and the top sections of their bodies tumbled and fell to the ground. The hood and grill of the truck became black and sticky from the zombie-gut blowback as pieces flew. Finally, it crept forward, crushing the rotting bodies beneath the wheels. When they broke free, Mark drove toward the apartment as fast as the old truck would go.

When they arrived, Lisa jumped out, ran to door, and banged on it. She waited, but no one answered it. There was no sound or movement from inside the apartment. She banged on it a second time and started yelling for someone to answer the door. When Dedee opened it, she ran inside and said, “Everybody grab your stuff and get it out to the truck. We only have a couple of minutes, so only take what you need.”

Jet asked, “We have a truck?”

Dedee was scared. She could feel every muscle in her body tighten as she asked, “What’s going on?”

“Yes, we have a truck right outside. Right now we have a bunch of rot-bags on the way here.”

In a panic, Dedee asked, “Lisa? Just how many is a bunch?”

She didn’t want to scare them, but at the same time she didn’t want to downplay it. “I’m not sure—a hundred, maybe two.”

Dedee’s eyes grew and she started moving faster. After they grabbed what they needed, they headed out of the apartment, Lisa bringing up the rear. As they climbed into the back, a wave of zombies came around the corner two blocks away. They were moving pretty quick and closing the gap fast. Lisa got back into the cab with Mark and he pulled onto the street heading away from them.

III

They drove ten miles through town before they stopped next to a line of cars parked along the curb. Mark got out and stepped to the back of the truck. He handed Jeff a screwdriver and hammer, then pointed to the gas can in the bed of the truck. “I need for you to punch some tanks and fill this thing up.” Jeff took the tools and hopped out of the back.

Lisa came up as he watched for zombies and said, “I owe you and apology.”

“For what?”

“Back there, when you saved my life, I shouldn’t have criticized you like I did and… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I understand. But just so you know, I would never let anything happen to you.”

She smiled and leaned against the back of the truck. Mark watched her from the corner of his eye. He thought Lisa was probably the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He was more of a tech geek and knew girls like her were always out of his league. Usually, he was a clumsy wreck around them and would end up looking silly, so he knew the most he could hope for, was for them to be friends.

It only took three cars for Jeff to fill up the truck’s tank. Mark put the tools back under the seat and they resumed their journey. Mark was not familiar with the freeways in this area, so to avoid heading the wrong direction or running into a checkpoint, he stuck to surface streets. Around 5:00 he began to check residential areas for a safe and suitable location for the night.

They drove through half a dozen neighborhoods before they found a house they felt would be safe. Mark carefully backed the truck into the garage. Lisa closed and latched the door from the inside. Before anyone went inside, Mark and Jeff cleared the house. Once inside, Dedee and Jet gathered blankets and began covering the windows. Lisa, Amy, and Todd brought in the bags from the back of the truck and set them on the floor.

Mark sat on the couch and broke his rifle down on the coffee table. He had just started cleaning it when Lisa came into the living room and stood over him. “We need to go through some of the other houses in the neighborhood.”

Mark glanced up as he cleaned the barrel. “What for?”

“Food.”

Mark pointed to the pantry. “There’s food in there.”

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke in a low voice. “Okay, we need to try and find some hygiene products.”

“What? I thought I saw soap and towels in the bathroom.”

Lisa just stood there with her hands on her hips, staring at him. After a minute, she huffed and shook her head.

“Am I missing…” Then it hit him. “Oh!... You?”

“No, it’s not for me. She’s already self-conscious enough, so don’t say a word. Just come with me and we’ll get some food.”

“Alright, just give me a couple of minutes here and we’ll go.”

As he reassembled his rifle, Lisa asked, “Have you given much thought of where to go? I mean, we had planned to stay in the apartment until this thing blew over.”

“Well, Jeff and I were headed north to our grandfather’s cabin in the mountains. He saw something like this coming a long time ago and set up a safe place.”

Quietly, she said, “Oh.” She nervously looked around the room before continuing. “Are you still going there?”

He smirked. “Yeah, of course we are.”

Lisa had a tone of uncertainty in her voice when she asked, “When are you leaving?”

Mark detected it and stopped. Looking up, he said, “I know I didn’t ask, but I kinda assumed we’d all go together. There’s plenty of supplies and room there for everybody. So, do you want to come with us?”

In a mildly sarcastic tone, she said, “I’m not sure—let me think about it.” Then she smiled and said, “Okay, we’ll go with you.”

He looked up and returned the smile. “Okay, let’s go find some hy… umm, I mean food.”

The first house they came to had dried blood smeared on the front door and it was locked. They went around to the back and found an unlocked sliding glass door that led into the living room. It was dark so Mark used the light on his rifle to illuminate the room. He worked his way over to the switch and turned the light on.

From there, they went into the kitchen. Going through the cabinets, Lisa found several cans of generic beef stew. She took them out and placed them in her bag. Checking around, they soon discovered this house had just about everything they were looking for.

They slowly worked their way down the hallway until they found the bathroom. Looking in the drawers and cabinets, Lisa found everything she needed. Just as they turned to leave, they heard a thump on the wall from the next room. They stopped and looked at each other. Mark took the safety off his rifle and Lisa reached for her gun. She patted her leg and whispered, “Shit!”

Mark lipped, “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot my gun.”

Mark looked at her and she could see disappointment written all over his face. She looked around and the only thing she found that could be used as a weapon was a toilet plunger. She picked it up and held it over her shoulder like a baseball bat. He tried to cover his smirk as he asked, “Do you know how ridiculous that looks?”

She gave him a harsh look. “Shut up!” Then she motioned for him to move. “Let’s go.”

They crept down the hallway to the bedroom door. Mark raised his rifle as Lisa stood in front of the door and slowly opened it part of the way. He shined the light inside the room and saw a dresser against the wall. As she pushed it open a little farther, the door was jerked from her hand.

Standing inside the room only a couple of feet away from them, was a zombie. Its face was like over dried leather and it looked like the lips had been eaten off so the mouth was only a drawn up a circle with teeth inside. The eyes were blue-white and set deep into the skull. It hissed as it took a step toward them.

Startled, Mark jumped back and hit the wall. Lisa shrieked and began to mercilessly beat it with the handle. Under the barrage, it fell back to the floor. She continued screaming as she stood over it and repeatedly slammed the plunger cup into its face as fast as she could until its skull collapsed. Black goo slowly ran out from the both sides of the head and into a puddle on the carpet.

Mark got back to his feet and covered his mouth. He was bouncing around and she knew he was laughing. His face was red and tears streamed down his cheeks. He only removed it to say, “Oh my gawd! I have never seen anything like that in my life. You literally...”

Lisa cut him off, “Shut up! It’s not funny.” She sighed. “I almost peed myself.”

It only took a few seconds for the stench of rotting flesh to slap them and work its way down the hall. They ran out of the house choking and gagging, only drawing a breath when they were outside in the fresh air and the door was closed.

When they returned, Lisa went to the back of the house and Mark sat down at the kitchen table. A few minutes later, she came back and sat with him.

“Lisa, I think we need to stay here for a few days. We both know how the zombies are attracted to blood, so what I need you to do is discreetly let me know when one of the girls starts menstruating so we can hide out somewhere.”

“Alright, but we’ll need to give another reason why. Like I said, some are very self-conscious.”

“We’ll figure something out. If it takes a little longer to the cabin, then it will have to be that way. At least we’ll all get there.”

Lisa opened the cans of stew and warmed it up. As much as everyone would have liked it hot, they couldn’t chance of the smell of the hot food bringing unwanted attention. Meat was becoming a rarity, so everyone enjoyed it. After they got their fill, they sat around the table and talked.

Omitting the part about the hygiene products, Mark told the story of how Lisa killed the zombie with a toilet plunger. By the end of the story, everyone but Lisa was convulsing with quiet laughter. She shot Mark an unappreciative glance, but then smirked when she thought about how silly it must have looked.

Jeff had first watch that night so he sat on the couch while everyone else went to bed. He sat and listened for any signs of movement outside; occasionally he heard a dog barking off in the distance and would take a peek through the window. About an hour and a half into his watch, he heard movement in the hallway. He watched Jet come out of the bedroom and into the living room. “Hey, Jeff.”

“Hey, Jet. Having trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah, I figured I come in here and see how you were doing.” And she sat next to him on the couch. She looked up at him and asked, “Do you think things will ever go back to the way they were?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I hope they do. Sometimes I think I’ll wake up and this will only be a dream.”

She looked at him for a moment before she spoke. “I know. Sometimes I feel kinda sad if I think about it too much. I miss the way things used to be.” She was silent for a moment, then asked, “Is it okay if I stay in here for a while?”

“I don’t mind. Do you want me to get up so you can sleep here?”

“No, don’t get up.” And she laid her head on his shoulder. “I can sleep like this, if it’s okay.”

Nervously, he moved his arm and put it around her and said, “Yeah, it’s okay.” She leaned into him and put her head against his chest. They sat there quietly for a long time and she eventually drifted off to sleep.

At midnight, the alarm on Mark’s watch went off and woke Lisa. She looked at it and sighed, then got up. She went into the bathroom and took the band from her hair, letting it fall. She looked in the mirror and picked at it with her fingers until she was satisfied it wasn’t tangled. Before going into the living room to take her shift, she reset the alarm and set the watch on Mark’s pillow.

When she walked in the living room, she told Jeff to go and get some sleep. She heard a faint moan and stepped closer. Looking through the dark, she asked, “Is that Jet?”

“Yes.”

“How long has she been in here?”

“I’m not sure, a couple of hours, I guess.” Jet moaned again and moved slightly, but she didn’t wake up. “If it’s alright with you, I’ll just crash here. I don’t want to disturb her sleep.”

“No, that’s fine.”

Jeff laid his head on the back of the couch and before long, he was asleep. Lisa stood by the window with the blanket pulled back just enough for her to see out. Occasionally, she glanced over at the couch and wondered what the future held for them. Some thoughts were pleasant while others were downright frightening. She was happy to have found Mark and Jeff, especially Mark. Before that, she was the one who had to make sure everyone was safe and fed. It was her burden and she felt like she bore it alone.

Since they came along, some of the weight had been lifted off her shoulders. There was someone to share her burden, who could also watch her back. She felt safer now they were there and she thanked the powers that be for letting their paths cross. She glanced back at the couch. By the looks of things, Jet was just as happy about it as she was, but in a different way.

Most of her watch was very uneventful, but at 3:00, she noticed a group of twelve zombies shuffling down the street. As they passed by, one of them stopped and stared at the house. She stepped back, her pulse raised and she looked down the hallway toward the bedrooms, wondering if she should wake Mark. When she looked back outside, she saw there were now two zombies standing out front, staring at the house. She felt goose bumps rise on her skin and she became nervous.

She quietly woke Jeff. When she did, Jet woke up and stretched. When she saw Lisa, she froze and looked like she had been caught doing something wrong. She swallowed hard and asked, “Am I in trouble?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, Jet, you’re okay. I’ve been here for a while. Go back to bed now.

She got up and slowly walked down the hallway. Before she went into the room, she looked back and said, “G’night, Jeff.”

“Good night, Jet.” He turned to Lisa and saw the worried look on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“There are two zombies outside standing in front of the house.”

Jeff jumped up and pulled the blanket back a little. Looking out the window he said, “Lisa, there’s nothing out there.”

She ran over and peeked outside. He was right; there were no zombies in sight. “But there was a minute ago. I swear. I saw them out front staring at the house.”

Still looking out the window, he said, “They must have moved on.” He checked his watch. “I’m going to bed; wake me if they come back.”

“I will. Night, Jeff.”

Jeff went down the hall and into the room where his brother slept. Lisa got a piece of paper and noted the time and what she saw on it. When Mark came in for his shift, she filled him in. He thought it was a good idea to keep a running log of what was observed. They might notice behavior patterns that could be used later on.

When Lisa went back to bed, Jet was still awake and said, “Lisa, I really like Jeff.”

She smiled. “Yes, I noticed that.”

“I’m kinda nervous though; do you think he likes me?”

“Yes, I think he does.”

Jet smiled softly. “Good… night, Lisa” She watched Lisa climb into bed before she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Mark took watch and stood in the dark room alone. So much had happened so fast. Less than forty-eight hours ago, he was in his own bed asleep with his parents in the next room. The plans were all laid out and simple, just leave the house and drive. The trip would have only taken about three to four days and they would have been at the cabin.

His grandfather had been an officer in the military during and after World War II. He saw the kind of chemical and biological weapons that were being developed and the atomic ones they already had. He knew they would always strive to make something stronger and deadlier, and eventually, it would come back and bite them in the ass.

Planning ahead for his family, he had built a cabin on top of a bomb shelter way up in the mountains of Washington. Over his life, he had stocked it with an ample amount of weapons and plenty of ammunition for hunting and self-defense. He also had food, water, and later on, power covered. In a worst-case scenario, they could easily hold out for about ten years up there.

Now, his parents were gone and his brother only had a fraction of his memory. He felt an anger growing inside him. These damned rot-bags have taken just about everything away from me. He had no idea how long it would take them to get to the cabin and that they would only be able to travel as fast as the slowest member of the team, but they were a team.

They had saved him and his brother, plus moved them three blocks to their apartment. They had gotten all the bags too, not to mention they had managed to survive the goon squad and zombies for weeks on their own. There was no doubt in his mind they were resourceful and could be depended on.

Mark took another look through the window before going over to their bags. He began going through them and doing an inventory of what they had. Until he had taken out and separated the full magazines from the empties, he didn’t realize just how desperate their situation was becoming.

Besides what their weapons held, they only had two more rifle and five more pistol magazines left. One shotgun had four shells and the other had only three. All it would take is just one medium sized zombie attack and all the ammo would be gone.

They had used almost all of it up and had barely covered 200 of the 1300 miles. He looked around the kitchen as he thought. He went over to the drawers and started pulling them open and rummaging through them. He took out several large wood spoons and set them on the table before returning to the window.

As the sun began to rise, he heard Todd and Jeff moving around in the bedroom before they came out into the living room. He waited another ten minutes then went to the girl’s room and knocked on the door. A moment later, Dedee opened it as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. “Hi, Mark. Is there something wrong?”

“No, I need for you all to get up and meet me in the living room.”

Lisa came to the door and asked, “What’s going on? Are there zombies gathering out front?”

Jet jumped up in a panic and ran over to the door. “There are zombies out front?”

Mark shook his head. “No, there aren’t any zombies out front. We just need to have a meeting.” He glanced at his watch as he said, “Ten minutes, be in the living room.”

IV

Everyone sat down waiting to hear what Mark had to say. “I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but we are running dangerously low on ammunition. Jeff, we have to set the rifles to single shot only. Lisa, Dedee, and Jet. You need to make every shot count and fire only when you absolutely have to. From now on, every shot has to count and be for defense only.”

Mark went into the kitchen while they sat in silence. When he returned, he handed everyone a wood spoon. “These are for practice. Everyone is going to have to learn how fight hand to hand. Right now, pretend those spoons are knives. I don’t claim to know everything there is, but I will teach you what I do know.”

The furniture was moved from the center of the room to give them more space. Mark used Lisa to help him demonstrate some of the moves he knew. Jeff picked them up quickly as some of them came back to him; then he helped Amy and Dedee with a few of the moves they were having trouble with. Jet and Todd seemed to pick them up pretty quick. About an hour and a half into it, Dedee and Jet were getting tired and started to pretend sword fight with the spoons and giggle.

The stress of the last couple of days was starting to build up inside Mark and he snapped at them. In a gruff voice, he said, “Just stop it! This isn’t a game! The danger out there is very real and this just might be what saves your life!”

The room got quiet as all eyes turned to him. Mark’s face was flush and his eyes were full of anger. Dedee and Jet had the look of utter shock on their faces and they took a couple of steps back. Both could feel a lump growing in their throats as they swallowed. Jeff pulled Mark to the side and said, “Hey, c’mon, bro. They didn’t mean anything buy it. Cut ‘em a break.”

Lisa went over to Mark and asked, “Why don’t we take a break and go into the kitchen?” Then she turned to Dedee and Jet. “Break time, guys.”

She followed Mark into the kitchen where he sat down at the table. He rubbed the back of his neck as he took a long, deep breath and let it out. He realized he shouldn’t have jumped on them in the way he did, and he felt bad for doing it.

Lisa sat down next to him. “Don’t you think you were a little hard on them in there?” She said as she tried to look at him, but he turned his eyes away. “Mark?”

He looked over. “I just don’t want to see them get hurt like so many other people I know have.”

“I understand that,” she said sympathetically. “We’ve all lost friends and family. But you need to remember these are teenage girls—they’re not soldiers. I agree we need to know this, but maybe we could just try shorter sessions.”

He looked into the living room and nodded. “Okay, we’ll do that. Maybe a couple of shorter sessions each day for say, thirty minutes each?”

“Yes, just focus on one technique each session instead of everything at once. I bet they’ll pick up on it faster too. You have to remember we’ve been in that apartment for a while and had to improvise with what we had available like broom sticks and bats.”

Mark cut in, “Toilet plungers.” And he looked over with a smirk.

“Yes and toilet plungers. I don’t think you’re gonna let me live that one down.” And she smiled.

“In time I will. Okay, we’ll have a short session tomorrow and cover only one move.”

Mark sat in the kitchen alone and tried to relax. He tried to think of happier times, but somehow those thoughts always circled around to what was happening now and was more of a reminder of what had been lost. He got up and went into the living room. Dedee and Jet were sitting on the couch and when they saw him, they grew quiet. They lowered their heads and looked like scolded pups.

He went over to them and said, “I want to apologize for earlier. I shouldn’t have jumped on you like I did.”

They both looked up and Jet spoke, “We’re sorry too.”

Dedee added, “Yeah, we know you were doing it to help us.”

Mark thought for a minute before he asked, “Weren’t you two on a pep squad together in school?”

Dedee sat up proudly and said, “I was.”

“Can you two do me a favor?”

They both nodded and said, “Sure.”

“Since we have some down time here, I need you to figure out some exercises we can do to keep us from getting stiff and lazy. Then you can show them to us. Think you can do that?”

Dedee smiled and said, “Yes, we’ll get some together have them ready whenever you are.”

“Okay, I have a few things to do right now, so have some ready by tonight.”

Jet and Dedee jumped up and ran to the bedroom. Mark went out into the garage and started rummaging around. There were cabinets, drawers, and boxes everywhere. Looking it all over, he was amazed at just how much worthless stuff was laying around. While he was digging through one of the boxes, he heard the door open. When he looked back, he saw Lisa standing behind him.

Looking over his shoulder into the box he was digging in, she asked, “What ya doin?”

“Just looking around to see what’s here. I never knew anyone could have such a collection of junk. I swear, these people must have kept everything.”

She chuckled. “I think it’s nice what you did.”

“What’s that?”

“Having the girls teaching everyone exercises. They feel like they’re contributing and it gives them something to feel good about.”

“What they’re doing is important. We need to stay limber and keep in shape. Do you know what Jeff, Amy, and Todd are doing?”

She leaned back against the workbench. “Jeff and Todd are watching the front and Amy is going through the closets and dressers to see if there are any clothes we can use. We left the apartment in such a hurry; we didn’t really have a chance to pack much of anything.”

“And you?”

She said with a smirk, “Trying to keep you out of trouble.”

He pulled a few things from the boxes and set them on the bench. “Good, I could use some help in here.”

She turned around and looked the stuff over. “What can I do?”

“Start going through the drawers and find me some tools. I need screwdrivers, pliers, electrical tape, and some wire cutters.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dedee sat on the edge of the bed. “Jet, what do you think is going to happen to us? I mean, where do we go and what do we do?”

She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I just figured we keep going like we have been. Eventually, the zombies are going to fall apart and things will go back to normal.”

“But what if they don’t? What if it takes a real long time? Don’t you want to get married and have kids?”

“Well… Yeah… I guess so… Maybe later on.”

“I know I would. But what if we’re the last people on earth? You have Jeff, but what am I going to do?”

Jet said, “I like Jeff, but he’s not really my boyfriend, at least not yet, anyway.”

“I like Jeff too, but I can tell he likes you.”

Her eyes lit up as she smiled. “Yeah? Do you really think so?”

“I know so. If you and Jeff get married, can I at least borrow him?”

Jet was caught completely off guard and her smile disappeared. “What?”

Dedee felt a little uncomfortable, but asked anyway. “Not like a boyfriend or anything, just to…”

“Nooo! Ewwww! Dedee, that’s so gross.” She shuttered. “Ewwww. I promise it won’t come to that. There’s someone out there for you and I’m sure you’ll find him. Besides, you’re only sixteen and have a lot of time.”

“But if there’s not, will you at least think about it?”

She sighed. “Since you’re my best friend, I’ll tell ya what I will think about... Pretending you never asked me that question.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff and Todd continued watching the street through the window. Amy sat on the couch and flipped through all the channels on the television. Todd wasn’t sure why she was doing that because the last few news channels had gone off the air two weeks earlier. Jeff heard Jet and Dedee in the bedroom and noticed their voices were getting a little loud.

Curious, he went to check on them. He knocked and Jet opened the door. He asked her, “What’s going on in here? I can hear you all the way down the hallway in the living room.”

Jet walked out of the bedroom and said as she passed him, “Dedee’s being gross.”

“Wait… What are you talking about?”

She stopped, held her hand out, and looked at Dedee. “Do you want me to tell him about it? Or maybe you could just ask him for yourself, right now.”

Dedee’s eyes got huge; she shook her head and said, “No.”

He looked into the room. “Ask me what?”

“Nothing,” Dedee said quickly as she jumped up from the bed and ran down the hallway to the living room.

He returned to the living room and went back over to the window. Jet stood back and thought about what Dedee and Lisa had said about Jeff liking her. But what if they’re wrong? What if he likes Dedee better and becomes her boyfriend? What would I do then? She thought about what Dedee had asked her and wondered. Would I be the one asking to barrow Jeff someday?

She had to find out and wondered if she should just ask him. But what if the answer I get isn’t the answer I want?
Maybe it would be better if I didn’t know—that way I could at least still have hope. But not knowing would always leave a cloud of doubt hanging over her head. She was becoming very confused and her mind felt like it would explode. Jet began to feel insecure and nervous and wondered what she could do to find out.

She took a slow deep breath and let it out. Slowly, she made her way over to the window and stood next to him. She moved her hand over slightly and brushed the back of his hand with hers, but he didn’t respond. When she tried it again, she held it there so it was almost touching his. She felt disappointment as his hand moved away from hers.

She felt like her spirit had just nosedived and crashed hard. Just when she was about to walk away, she felt his palm then his fingers gently lacing up between hers. She smiled and her whole mood changed, she felt like her spirit had grown wings and started to soar. The fear of rejection had scared her so much, that she almost let the chance slip by and she was relieved she hadn’t.

With a beaming smile, she looked up at him as he watched the street. He looked down and smiled at her, then gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She felt there was a reason why they were there and had heard the accident and why she was the one who found him in the backseat. She knew somehow fate had played a part in it all and they were meant to be together.

Jet heard the door leading out to the garage open. She noticed Mark and Lisa come in and sit at the table. They talked for a minute and she saw Lisa smile. It was a genuine, happy kind of smile, something she had not seen Lisa do since all this stuff started. Mark got up, came into the living room, and asked, “Dedee, Jet, are you ready?”

Dedee had been watching Jet and Jeff, and her reply was slow. “Yeah.” Then she slid off the couch and sat on the floor. She watched as everyone came into the room and found a place around her. She started with some basic stretches and demonstrated them. After the first two stretches, she stopped. Everyone sat waiting for the next one, but Dedee didn’t proceed.

Concerned, Lisa asked, “Is something the matter?”

She stared down at the carpet as if in a daze. Without looking up, she asked, “Why are we doing this?”

Lisa looked around at everyone, but no one spoke up. “Just like Mark said, we can’t afford to get lazy and sluggish.”

Dedee sighed. “No, I mean… this whole thing?” And she waved her hands around before she continued. “What is the purpose of just surviving? What is there to look forward to?” Her eyes started to swell with tears and the room was silent. “We fight these stupid zombies just to live? Only to exist? There has to be more to it all. Why did all this have to happen? Why?”

Lisa looked at Mark, hoping he may have an answer, but he too was looking around for one. She hoped someone had the answers because, at times, she wondered the same thing. As they all sat in the living room, they heard several loud moans from outside. They were followed by a loud rumbling and the floor beneath them began to shake and bounce violently. The lights flickered and then the room plunged into darkness. Amy screamed as she heard a loud crash right next to her and her brother crying out.

Mark got up and struggled to get to his rifle in the dark as the ground shook beneath his feet. The front window shattered and sent large shards of glass onto the floor and the concrete outside. They heard pictures falling from the wall and breaking as they hit the floor. There were several bright flashes of blue light outside that lit up the wall all around the blanket covering the broken window.

By the time Mark had gotten to his rifle and turned on the side light, the shaking had ceased. It had only lasted about twenty seconds, but it was clear it had caused severe damage. Slowly scanning the room with it, he found Todd on the floor with a bookshelf over part of his body. Jeff ran over and lifted one corner while Dedee and Jet carefully pulled him out and helped him up.

Lisa noticed Todd cradling his right arm and went over to check on him. When she touched it, he turned away from her and cried out in pain. She looked over at Mark and said, “I think it’s broken.”

Mark sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought. “I guess we have to find a hospital and see if we can find something to make a cast with.”

Amy picked up some of the wood spoons they used earlier and gave them to Lisa. “Will this help?”

Lisa took the spoons and looked around the floor. “This will help for now, but we still need something like a cast. Can someone please find me some stockings or something soft to tie these with?”

Jet found an old scarf and gave it to Lisa. While she was gently tying the ends together, Jet asked, “Is there a wind blowing outside?”

Jeff answered, “No, I don’t hear any, why?”

She pointed as she asked, “Then why is the blanket over the window moving?”

They turned and watched as the blanket jerked around. Jeff said, “That isn’t the wind.”

He crept over and peeked around the edge. Suddenly, he found himself face-to-face with a zombie climbing in through the broken window. The blue-white eyes and pasty gray complexion sent chills through his body. He grabbed the blanket and ripped it from the wall. Covering the intruder with it, he began to wildly punch it in the head and sides.

Jet ran over and slammed into it as hard as she could and they both pushed it back out the window. The moon was bright enough to give them just enough light to notice more zombies coming toward the house.

Mark said, “Everyone get in the truck!”

Lisa grabbed a bag. “C’mon, get your stuff and move!”

Grabbing what they could see, everyone headed for the garage. Mark went over to the workbench and started throwing some things into a box. He yelled out, “Lisa, start the truck.”

She threw her hands out and said, “I don’t know how to drive stick.”

Mark sighed. “Okay, Jeff, you drive.”

Jeff stuttered, “I.. I.. don’t know if I can… I don’t remember how.”

Mark shook his head and groaned as he put the box in the back of the truck. “Okay, I’ll drive. Everyone get in and hold on. Jeff, after I start the truck, you open the garage door.”

Jeff ran over to the door and stood ready. Mark cranked the engine over and turned on the headlights. Jeff threw the latch and pushed it up. As he turned, the zombie they had just pushed out the window came around the corner and grabbed his back. He struggled to throw it off, but he wasn’t able to.

Seeing a horde of them slowing coming toward the garage, Jeff yelled out, “Just go, and hurry.”

Jet screamed out, “Nooooo!” Jumping from the back, she fumbled through some yard tools along the wall and grabbed a leaf rake. She ran over and started jabbing the zombie in the face with the end of the handle as she screamed. “Get off of him, you bastard.” The last jab hit the zombie in its right eye. The handle easily penetrated into its eye socket as it slid deep into its skull. It fell to the ground and jerked a few times before it lay still. She grabbed onto Jeff’s arm and tried to pull him, but he stood frozen, staring off into nothing.

A dense, white fog surrounded him. He was looking through a gun site and firing at something in the fog, but he couldn’t make out what it was. He felt trapped and lost as he fired, like there was something very dangerous just beyond his sight. Fear permeated his body as he stood there. Then there was a heavy weight on his back. He tried to move, but it pulled on him. He felt death had latched on and it was there to claim him.

He saw something move to his right. A figure came closer, but he felt no fear as it stood next to him. He could only make out a silhouette, but it looked like a woman. Looking at her gave him a feeling of safety. The figure had something long in her hands and begun to swing it just a few inches from the side of his head. With every pass he felt death jerking and tugging on him, then it let go.

He looked hard, trying to see the face, but the fog would not allow it. He strained and was only able to make out a set of lips as they curved upward into a smile. They began to move as if they were saying something to him, but no sound came from them. He watched as the figure slowly moved away and disappeared back into the Fog.

In an instant, he looked down at Jet. Her eyes were wide and full of panic as she pulled on his arm and yelled. “Jeff, c’mon! We need to get out of here!”

He looked around briefly and they both ran for the back of the truck. Just as they climbed in, the truck moved forward and out onto the street. One of the zombies managed to grab onto the side as they passed and started to climb in. He wore black jeans and a blue polo shirt, he looked like he had been about Dedee’s age before he turned and might have even gone to the same school as her.

Dedee screamed as she rolled on to her back and brought her feet up. Kicking as hard as she could, she drove the bottom of her shoes into the zombies face. There was a thud and a tearing sound as its head snapped off and flew back into the darkness. She kicked again, knocking the body off the side of the truck. It bounced and rolled across the pavement as they sped down the street.

V

The headlights of the old truck dimly lit the road. The streets were dark and had a gloomy feel to them. It was clear the earthquake had taken out power throughout the city and it might have even taken out the grid that powered the entire West Coast. The moon above gave off just enough light to make it possible for them to see movement in the shadows as they passed. As they drove through an older part of town, Mark had to go around debris from some of the storefronts that had collapsed and now littered the sidewalks and streets.

Lisa nervously watched and waited for something to come out from the darkness and charge toward them. Mark sensed it in her voice as she asked, “Wouldn’t the freeway be faster and safer?”

He answered without taking his eyes from the road. “Maybe for a little bit, but all we have to do is come upon a collapsed overpass and we’d plunge anywhere from thirty to fifty feet straight down.” He glanced over. “That would end the trip real quick.”

“Do you know the way to the hospital?”

He shook his head. “With all this damage and these weak lights, I don’t even know where I’m at right now.”

Dedee leaned around from the bed of the truck to the open passenger window and said, “Lisa.”

Lisa shrieked and slid over against Mark, causing him to drive over some debris in the road. She looked toward her and said, “Damn it, Dedee! Don’t do that! You just scared the shit out of me!”

“Sorry, Todd’s hurting pretty bad. Are we close to the hospital?”

Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know. Hopefully, we’ll find it soon.”

Mark continued to navigate the dark streets. A few times he swore he had already been down a particular street. After driving for over an hour, Lisa spotted a large building several blocks away with the lights on and pointed it out. He approached it cautiously figuring the lights would attract every zombie in the area. He was right; outside of the hospital, they saw about a hundred of them roaming around in the parking lot.

He turned off the headlights and pulled into the main parking lot. It did little good though. As soon as they pulled in, the zombies heard the engine and started toward them. Mark quickly calculated a plan in his mind. He would wait at the entrance to draw them as far away from the building as he could. Then he would rush to the door and they would run in. Having the zombies farther away might buy them another minute and he hoped that would be enough.

They sat and waited. The zombies drew closer and Lisa began to fidget in the seat. Nervously rubbing her legs, she continued to look between Mark and the approaching silhouettes. He could hear Amy and Jet in the back asking him what he was waiting for and Dedee began to hyperventilate.

Finally, when they were almost on top of them, Mark hit the gas and popped the clutch. The back tires squealed as they spun and the truck jerked forward. Plowing through the horde, about nine zombies were mashed under the wheels and body parts could be heard banging against the bottom of the truck as it passed over them.

The truck raced across the parking lot toward the door. When they were twenty feet away from it, Mark stopped and everyone started getting out. Lisa helped Todd from the back while Mark ran over to the door. He turned and brought his rifle up ready to fire. He pushed on the door and discovered it was locked. The zombies had already reached the truck and started to come around. Lisa kicked and beat on the door, trying to get it open.

Mark stood between his friends and the zombies and started firing shots into the horde. The bodies jerked and fell as he continued to fire, holding them back the best he could. When they were less than ten feet away, he felt someone grab the back of his collar and pull him through the door. A man in a security uniformed quickly closed and locked it. He heard another man’s voice from behind him say, “Easy now, just stay perfectly still and don’t move.”

Mark raised his hands as he slowly turned and saw another man in a security uniform with a revolver pointed at him. Everyone else already had their hands in the air, except for Todd. The guard that had locked the door went around, took their weapons and gear, and then put it all in a box.

The guard kept his gun on them while the other spoke. “Okay, one at a time through the metal detector.”

Todd was the first and Dedee followed, both got a green light. When Lisa went through, the light turned red and the guard stopped her. He asked, “Do you have any more weapons on you?”

Lisa shook her head and said, “No, I don’t. You took them.”

“The detector shows you have metal.”

Lisa thought before she spoke. “But I don’t… wait… I have an underwire bra on.”

“I’ll need you to take it off and go through again.”

Mark cut in, “Oh come on, is this really necessary?”

The guard looked directly at him. “I’m responsible for keeping everyone in here safe and I don’t know who you people are. So yes, it is necessary.”

Lisa reached up under her shirt, took it off, and dropped it on the counter. She noticed the guard staring at her chest, so she crossed her arms. When she went through the second time, she got a green light. She waited while the guard inspected her bra. He was taking longer than what she thought was necessary and she became inpatient. Keeping her left arm over her chest, she reached out with her right hand and said, “It’s a 34C. Can I have it back please?”

The guard rolled his eyes and handed it back to her. He barked, “Next.”

Amy, Jet, Jeff, and Mark all got a green light when they went through. They were told they would get their weapons back when they were ready to leave, but not until then. They were all escorted back into a small ER examination room. The guard walked behind a counter and picked up a phone. A minute later, he returned and told them a doctor would be down shortly to see Todd.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A doctor stood next to a patient in the ICU ward. “Okay, Paula, I’ll be starting your tests in just a few minutes.” Then he double-checked the four-point leather restraints that held her to the bed. He picked up a set of forceps and placed some cotton gauze in them. He went into some of the other rooms in the ward where zombies were secured to the beds with similar four-point restraints. He placed the gauze in the zombie’s mouth and soaked up as much saliva as it would hold.

The doctor repeated this with five other zombies, and then squeezed the saliva into a small plastic dish. He took a syringe and drew it up inside. When he returned to Paula’s room, she saw the syringe and struggled to free herself. Her eyes grew wide with fear and she tried to scream for help, but the gag prevented that.

The doctor smiled at her. “I know all the other vaccines have failed, but this one will work. It will attach itself to the virus, prevent it from multiplying, and keep it from passing through the brain-blood barrier.”

Paula knew it was it was hopeless, but she tried to fight anyway. The doctor leaned on her arm, holding it still. She stared at the syringe as he brought it close to her arm. She shook her head and tried to cry out. Her body jerked as the tip of the needle broke the skin and went in. He smiled as he injected the virus into her. Afterward, Paula just laid there and wailed through the gag as tears flowed down her cheeks.

The phone at the counter rang and he went over to it. He answered and listened before speaking. “A broken arm? In the ER? Okay, I’ll be down in a minute.” Sticking his head into Paula’s room, he said, “I have go. I’ll be back later to check on you.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“It’ll be okay, Todd. The doctor’s on his way down,” Lisa said.

Todd was beginning to look pale and somewhat dazed. A few minutes later, Mark saw a man wearing a long white jacket come through the door, followed by a nurse. Mark did a double take when he saw her. Her hair was a caramel brown. She had it up, but he could tell it was very long. Her complexion was smooth and nicely tanned. She had hazel eyes that leaned more toward blue than brown. Her waistline was trim and it gave her chest the appearance of being large.

As she past the guard, she smiled and said, “Hello, Sam.” And she ran her hand down his arm.

He threw her a goofy smile and said, “Hello, Sheryl.”

The doctor came over and checked Todd’s arm. “Yes, it’s broken. We’ll need to put a cast on it. Our X-ray is down with the power so I’ll set it the best I can.” Then he carefully checked his eyes. “Sheryl, please start an I.V. on him.”

Alarmed, Lisa looked over at Mark, then back to the doctor. “What’s with the I.V.?”

The doctor stepped away from Todd and said, “He’s a little dehydrated. Combine that with the broken arm, and he’s basically going into shock. But don’t worry. We’ll get a little fluid in him and he’ll be fine. I just want to keep him here until tomorrow.” He went over to a cabinet and took out a little bottle. Handing it to the nurse, he said, “Give him this to ease some of the pain.” Then he turned and went back through the door.

Sheryl smiled at Mark. “He’ll be fine.”

The doctor came back a few minutes later with a small box. He took out the contents and started the cast. Lisa watched the nurse set up the I.V. and noticed she wasn’t paying much attention to anyone in the room except for Mark. No matter who asked a question, she would always look directly at him when answering. Dedee and Jet noticed this as well, but Mark seemed not too.

After the doctor and nurse left, the guard said he would show them the cafeteria and they could get something to eat and drink. Jeff and Jet decided to stay with Todd while everyone else followed him to the cafeteria. They walked out the door the doctor had entered and left through.

Following a long hallway with closed doors on each side, they came to another and made a right turn. This one was longer and seemed to go on forever. Finally, they came to what looked like a lobby. The guard pointed to the right and told them the cafeteria was just inside the double doors.

Once inside, they went to the serving area and grabbed a tray. Mark and Amy got some Salisbury steak while Lisa and Dedee got the spaghetti and meat balls. They chose a table and began to quietly eat. Lisa watched as Dedee got up and went back to the serving area. While she was gone, Lisa saw the nurse from the ER come in and sit at a table on the other side of the room. When Dedee returned, she had a large soda with ice.

Lisa noticed the nurse kept looking over at their table and she started to feel a little nervous. She had got a strange vibe from everyone so far who worked there and wondered if the nurse was there to keep tabs on them.

Mark asked Dedee where the soda fountain was and excused himself from the table. Lisa watched the nurse as Mark walked away and the nurse’s eyes seemed to follow him. She was looking him up and down like she was sizing up a side of beef. Lisa pursed her lips and said, “I don’t trust that nurse.”

Amy asked, “What nurse?”

“That one from the ER. She’s such a fake.”

Amy looked that way and asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Well… just look at her. That hair is obviously from a bottle. That tan? She got that from a booth in some salon. Her boobs are so fake and I bet she even had a butt job. She must be about 30… there is no way a person can have a body that perfect.”

“Oh,” Amy said as she took another bite.

They watched as the nurse got up, started walking toward the serving area, and stopped Mark as he came out. Glancing over toward the table and smiling, she put her hands on Mark’s shoulder and whispered something into his ear. Running her left hand down his back, she slid it into the back pocket of his pants.

Not realizing it, Lisa let out a little huff. Dedee and Amy looked at her, but didn’t say a word. Mark returned to the table and sat down. Lisa asked, “What was that all about?”

Mark set his soda down and pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket. He read it silently before he said, “She wants to meet with me tomorrow morning. She has something very important to tell me and I have to come alone.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The doctor entered Paula’s room where she remained in the restraints. He took a syringe and drew a blood sample from her arm as he spoke. “You’ll be alright, Paula. You know I need to test it before I can announce it. Just wait a couple more days and you’ll see. It’ll work this time. I promise you’re not going to die or turn into one of those zombies. I’m just going to check your blood for progress, okay?”

Having little choice but to hope he was right this time, she nodded her head. He went out, put the sample on a slide, and looked at it under a microscope. After studying it for a long time, he finally looked up and smiled. He walked over to Paula’s door. “It looks like its working; they’re attaching themselves to the virus.” Paula mumbled through the gag. The doctor shook his head. “No, not yet, but I will let you up in a few days.” She pulled at the restraints and began to sob.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Everyone was in the room with Todd. Jeff was sitting back in a chair with his arms around Jet. She was asleep on his lap with her arms folded up and her legs hanging over one of the arms. Todd had some of his color back and looked much better. With his meeting in mind, Mark checked his watch for the time. Lisa paced the floor in the silent room. This was playing on Dedee’s nerves so she told her to stop and sit down.

Lisa turned and noticed everyone in the room was watching her. “Sorry, I’m just a little nervous I guess.”

Jeff asked, “Why? We should be out of her soon.”

“No, it’s not that. Mark is supposed to meet that nurse. Apparently, she has something very important to tell him, but he has to go alone. I don’t like it and I don’t trust her.”

Mark spoke up, “Well, I don’t think I need to worry about her overpowering me or anything. Besides, it’ll be a lot less conspicuous if only one person goes.”

Lisa leaned back on the counter and crossed her arms. Looking away, she shook her head.

Mark got up. “I’m going to have a look outside to see what the zombies are doing.”

Amy asked, “Lisa, you seem kinda edgy. Why don’t you go into the room next door and get some sleep?”

“I think I’ll do just that.”

Before she left the room, she heard Mark coming back and saying, “Just flippin’ wonderful. When you think things can’t get any worse than what they already are, you get shit slapped right upside the head.”

Lisa waited there for him to come back in. Curious, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Mark sat down. “Do you really want know what’s wrong? Those dammed zombies flipped the truck. Right now, it’s outside the door, resting upside down on its roof.”

Amy said, “Why don’t you and Lisa get some sleep? We’ll figure something out in the morning.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark woke to the sound of the alarm on his watch. Climbing out of the bed, he rubbed his face, trying to wake up. Lisa was leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. “Do I need to say it again?”

Mark shook his head. “No, you’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”

She stared at him for a minute then said, “And you know you could be walking into a trap?”

“I’ll admit it is possible, but then aren’t we already trapped here anyway?”

Her face softened a bit. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

“Let me go see what she wants. I promise I’ll come right back and we can all met up here. Then I’ll tell you what she had to say.”

Lisa threw her hands out and said, “Fine!” She stepped back as Mark left the room and she watched him walk down the hallway. Going over to a chair next to the bed, she plopped down in it and crossed her arms as she said, “Fine!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When Mark entered the room, Sheryl was already there waiting. “Good, you made it.”

“What is it you need to tell me?”

“You and your friends are in danger.”

Mark’s insides started to knot up. “What do you mean?”

“The doctor has gone off the deep end. He has been trying to come up with a vaccine that will stop the zombie virus.” Mark tried to speak, but Sheryl continued. “The bad part is that he has been using the patients as test subjects and he’s turned them all into zombies.”

Mark felt a chill and had to sit down. “But how? He’s a doctor; he’s supposed to help people.”

“He was at one time, but his wife was one of the first to become infected. From what I hear, he went home one night and found her in the kitchen. She had cut her abdomen open and was eating her own intestines.”

Mark had a vivid visualization and felt his stomach beginning to tighten. “What are we supposed to do? The truck we came in is sitting upside down in the parking lot.”

Sheryl put her hand on his chest. “I need you to help get me out of here. In turn, I will help you. You see, the doctor has run out of patients to test. My friend Paula has gone missing and I fear he’s now using the staff.”

“Why can’t everyone stand up together and stop him? You easily out number him.”

“It’s not that simple; people are scared to. The last nurse that tried was thrown out. She only got about thirty feet before those things out there got a hold of her. Everyone in the hospital could hear her screaming and begging for help while those things ripped her to pieces.”

“That’s fucked up.” He shook his head in disgust. “But right now we don’t even have a vehicle and I don’t know where to find one.”

“I think…” She stopped when they heard footsteps out in the hallway. They both listened carefully as they drew closer.

Sheryl pulled her scrub shirt off, “Hurry, take off your clothes and get in the bed. If the guard catches us in here talking, we could be thrown out.”

Mark pulled his shirt off and froze. Sheryl stood before him wearing only a tiny black thong. She was perfect, what every eighteen-year-old boy fantasizes about, and she was standing there before him in the living flesh. She helped him get his pants off and shoved him onto the bed. She climbed on top of him. Just as the door started to open, she leaned forward and began to kiss him.

He heard a man’s voice say, “Oh, sorry, Sheryl.” And the door closed.

She sat up and looked down at him. “He was supposed to have been through here half an hour ago, but I think we’re okay.” She moved her hips, her eyes got big and she smiled. “I can tell you have been blessed. What do you say we finish what we started here then figure out a plan?”

Mark was unable to speak, all he could do was look at her so she asked, “Don’t you want me?”

He thought to himself. Do I want you? Oh hell yes I want you. He grabbed her and rolled her over onto her back. She started kissing his chest. Her lips were soft and the feel of her body under his, drove him wild. He caressed her face and gently ran his fingertips over her breasts and down her sides to her hips. Slipping his fingers under her thong, he slowly pulled it down her legs. She kicked it off her ankle and onto the floor as she ran her hands up his sides to his shoulders.

She let out a gentle moan as he slid himself inside her and began thrusting. Looking into her eyes and the feel of her smooth soft skin in his hands only intensified the experience. He lowered his head and began kissing her neck. She ran the tips of her long nails gently over his back and up to his shoulders. She felt him swell up as he released and filled her. She held onto his arms tightly as she arched and took it all in. Biting her lip, she let out a satisfied moan.

He lay on top of her, both of them out of breath. Neither one could speak. He started to get up, but she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him back. She looked into his eyes and smiled, then barley got out the words, “That was incredible, can you do that again?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paula watched the doctor enter her room and take more of her blood. The last two days had been pure torture for her. He had put her into this situation against her will and she wondered how he could so easily take the lives he swore to save. He said with a smile, “This will only take a few minutes. So far everything looks good. Maybe in a day or two, I can let you up.” He walked out of the room.

She closed her eyes tightly and prayed for good news. She waited for what seemed like forever before he returned. This time he wasn’t smiling; his face wore the look of defeat as he spoke. “I’m sorry, Paula. The virus has started to speed up. I give you a couple of hours before it has completely taken over your body. But look on the bright side, your death will come quicker and you should feel less pain than the others did.”

Her heart sank and tears filled her eyes as all hope of getting out of this alive faded away. She wanted to reach out and hurt him in some way for what he did to her. She pulled at the restraints and struggled to get free, but she couldn’t. All she could do was lie there and wait, hoping it would be like drifting off to sleep. She thought about her husband and two children waiting for her in the MQC and how she would never get to see them again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa paced in the hallway outside of Todd’s room while Amy sat inside with her brother. “Lisa, why don’t you come in here and sit down?”

She continued pacing as she said, “Where is he? It’s been two hours already. I didn’t want him to go alone, but he wouldn’t listen. I swear that man is impossible.” And she flung her arms out. “He is going to drive me nuts.”

Amy asked, “Do you like him?”

Lisa stopped. “What?”

“I said… Do you like him?”

“You mean Mark? Well… yeah, as a friend, but that’s all. I mean, I trust him. I know when shit starts to fly, he’ll have our backs. Who I don’t trust is that nurse. I just know she set a trap for him! I knew something was going on by the way she was sizing him up like a cougar about to pounce on some meat.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a trap. Maybe she was just horny.”

Lisa turned and threw her a hard stare. Amy tried to push herself farther back into the chair. Feeling the stress, she bit her lip and slowly said, “And maybe she’s not.”

Twenty minutes later, Mark came walking down the hallway. Lisa asked, “Where the hell have you been?”

Mark had a surprised look on his face. “You know where I was. Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re asleep a couple of rooms over.”

“Well, wake them up and get them in here. This is serious and we don’t have much time.”

The tone of Marks voice and look in his eye sent a shiver down her spine. Lisa wasted no time in waking and getting them into the room.

He sat down in the chair and said, “It seems our doctor has been experimenting with a vaccine against the zombie virus. In pursuing that, he has turned all the patients and maybe some staff into zombies. Sheryl believes we may be next. So we’re getting out of here tonight. She’s going to help and in turn, we’re taking her with us. So with that, here’s the plan.”

VI

Lisa and Sheryl stood in the third floor hallway, just around the corner from the main elevators, waiting for Sam. She still didn’t trust Sheryl so she had her guard up. They had already been there for five minutes and Lisa was becoming inpatient. “This plan of yours better work,” she said quietly.

“It will, and it wasn’t all mine, you know. Mark came up with part of it.”

“Really? Did he come up with our part?”

She turned her eyes down. “No, this part was mine. He didn’t really like it, but I assured him we’d be alright”

Lisa pursed her lips. “I already dealt this perv when we first got here. All I have to say is this man isn’t going to touch me, let alone get sex.”

Sheryl waved her hand. “Don’t worry about Sam. He’s harmless. Even if he tried, you’d never even know it.”

Raising her eyebrows, she asked, “Really? How’s that?

Sheryl held up her pinky and giggled. Lisa almost smirked, but was able to keep a straight face. They heard the elevator door open and footsteps in the hallway. Sheryl pulled her scrub shirt down a little to expose more cleavage. Lisa straightened her shirt and pushed her chest out a little.

Sam came around the corner and stopped. Sheryl put her hand on his shoulder. In a very soft and seductive voice, she said, “Hello, Sam.”

That same goofy smile came across his face. “Hi, Sheryl.” He looked over at Lisa and said, “Hi.”

“You know, Sam, we’ve been feeling kind of tense lately.” She rubbed the side of her neck with her fingers and slowly moved them down over her shoulder and breasts. “I was just wondering if you could give us a nice oil massage… all over.”

He looked at Lisa. “Both of you? Together?”

Lisa gave him a soft smile. “Sure, that is if you think you can handle us both.”

He let out a jerky little laugh. “Yeah, I know I could. I just hope I’m not too much for you two ladies.”

Sheryl ran her fingers down his chest. “Meet us in room 344 in five minutes.”

Still smiling, he said, “Okay, I’ll go get some oil.” And he hurried down the hallway.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark slowly pulled the stairwell exit door open and peeked down the hallway. He turned and whispered to Dedee, “I don’t see anyone. Let’s go.”

Quietly, they crept down the empty hallway until they came up to another that crossed it. Standing with their backs to the wall, they listened for footsteps. When they were satisfied they were alone, he peeked around the corner. Mark thought for a minute, then asked Dedee, “Was it right here, then left at the next? Or left here and right at the next?”

Dedee shrugged and shook her head. Mark waved for her to follow him as he turned right. The hallway was long and they followed it to the end where it ran into another. From there, they turned left. They followed that one and just before the end, they came upon the set of double doors they were looking for. After Mark peeked in, both of them went into the room and started looking around. Dedee found the switch and turned on the lights.

They went over and started looking through the metal cylinders. Mark looked at his hand trying to match what Sheryl had written on it and the markings on them. He stopped and put his hand on Dedee’s shoulder. “Shhhhh.”

She asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I think I heard something.”

Standing perfectly still, they listened. They heard footsteps outside in the hallway and they were drawing closer. They ducked down behind a gurney close to the doors and listened. The footsteps stopped and the door opened, then the person stepped inside. A woman’s voice asked, “Who’s in here?” When they didn’t respond, the woman said, “If you don’t tell me who you are, I’m going to call security.”

Mark pushed the gurney to the side and quickly came up behind the woman before she could react. He covered her mouth and pulled her into him as she let out a muffled shriek.

He calmly whispered in her ear. “We’re not here to hurt you. If you understand me, nod your head” And she did. “If you cooperate, you won’t get hurt. Do you understand?” She nodded. “If I move my hand, do you promise not to scream?” She nodded her head again. “Now when I move my hand, if you scream or make any noise, I will hurt you in a most unpleasant way. Do you understand?” And she nodded.

Slowly, he moved his hand and stepped back. Trembling, she turned and looked at him, her voice cracked as she whispered, “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you want as long as you don’t hurt me.”

“I want you to show us where this is at.” He held out his hand and she looked at the writing.

Surprised, she asked, “That’s it? That’s all you want?” Then she looked toward Dedee, and Dedee nodded.

Mark nodded and said, “That’s all we want.”

She took them through another set of doors, showed them where it was, and set it up for them. Then she said, “An eight second exposure would put someone out for a couple of hours.”

“Alright, now I need you to get on the gurney and lay down.”

She began to tremble as she complied. “But you promised, if I cooperated, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Mark put a mask over her face. “We’re not going to hurt you. You’re going to take a little nap, and when you wake up, we’ll be gone. Now breathe deep.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff and Jet waited by the corner with their backs against the wall. Jet reached down and pulled his hand up. She looked at his watch, then put it back down. A few minutes later, they heard footsteps from around the corner. They waited until they were almost on top of them and Jet shot around the corner. She looked at the guard and smiled as she walked by.

He turned. “Can I help you with something? You’re not allowed in this area?”

She said, “I’m just looking for a bathroom.” She saw Jeff sneak around the corner and she turned to walk away.

The guard reached out, grabbed her by the hair, and jerked her back. Jet let out a little cry and tried to take a step back as she reached for the guard’s hand. Jeff reached up, grabbed a handful of the guard’s hair, and jerked his head back. He brought his arm up and slammed his elbow down across bridge of the guard’s nose as hard as he could. His legs wobbled and he fell to the floor. Jeff straddled the guard, picked him up by the collar of his shirt, and punched him in the face two more times in rapid secession.

With blood flowing from his nose, the guard begged, “Please, no more.”

Jeff looked over at Jet; she was wincing and rubbing the back of her head. Jeff felt an anger growing inside him. Gritting his teeth, he said, “This is for hurting my girlfriend.” Then he punched him in the face even harder, causing blood to spatter on the front of his shirt. He looked at his hand that was covered with the guard’s blood and said, “And this is for bleeding on my fist.” He hit him in the face once more and the guard went completely limp. Jeff let go of his shirt and let him fall to the floor with a thud. Reaching down, he wiped the blood from his hand on the guard’s clothes.

Jeff gently ran his hand over the back of her head. “Are you alright?”

She looked up at him and smiled as she said, “Yeah.”

Jeff pulled the guard into a nearby janitor’s closet and cuffed him to the sink’s drainpipe. Jet took the mop and quickly cleaned up the blood in the hallway. As they closed the door, Jeff made sure it was locked.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa and Sheryl went into room 344 to wait for Sam, but he was already there with a small bottle of oil in his hand.

“Are you ladies ready?” he asked as he held it up.

Sheryl took the bottle from his hand. “We sure are.”

He turned to Lisa. “I thought you wanted some too?”

Nervously she said, “Uh… yes… I do.”

Sam waited for Lisa to come closer then he heard Sheryl. “Hey, Saaaammm, Aren’t you going to rub it in?”

He looked back over and was unable to move. Sheryl had her scrub shirt off and had oil running down over her breasts. He stuttered, “Uh… uh… yeah.”

Lisa quickly picked up a metal bedpan from the counter and slammed it down on the crown of his head. It made a loud ping when it hit and he dropped to the floor with a thud. She gasped and her eyes got big. Stepping back, she said, “Oh my gawd! I think I killed him.”

Sheryl wiped the oil off with a towel and put her scrub shirt back on then ran over to check for a pulse. “No, he’s alive. He’ll just wake up with one hell of a headache. Quick, get his clothes off and help me drag him over by the bed.”

They took his handcuffs, ran them around the frame of the bed, and cuffed his wrists. Sheryl went through his pockets. She took a folding lock-blade knife, a set of keys, and his notebook. Placing the keys and knife in her side pocket, she started flipping through the notebook. On the inside front cover, she found the keypad codes to all the doors. Lisa stuffed his socks into his mouth and ran some cloth tape around his head to hold them in place.

They started for the door; Lisa stopped and said, “Wait.” She ran back over to Sam. “This is for the crap you pulled in the ER.” She pulled off his boxer shorts and placed them over his head, backward. She looked down at his groin and gasped, then started to laugh. “Oh my gawd!” She turned to Sheryl. “You weren’t kidding, were you?” Sheryl started to chuckle. Lisa patted him on the chest and said, “You poor man, it looks like a little baby string bean.”

Sheryl said to Lisa, “I have to do something real quick before we leave. Go get Todd and Amy. I’ll meet you by the pharmacy door in a few.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark and Dedee made it back to the stairwell and worked their way down to the second floor. Quietly walking down the hallway, they heard people talking and had to duck into a room. Mark kept the door cracked open and watched as a group of three nurses walked up the hallway. One of them was talking about a missing nurse and the other two kept nodding their heads.

After the nurses had passed and turned down another hallway, they went back out. They took a wrong turn and got lost, ending up in the wrong wing. They worked their way back around to the stairwell and started again. Once they got their bearings, it didn’t take them long to find the room where the guards slept.

Mark removed the mask and slid the hose under the door. He listened carefully and heard the other four guards inside snoring. Dedee placed some towels under the door and turned the cylinder on. There was a hissing sound as the room filled with the gas. After two minutes, she turned it off. They took the cylinder and towels and hid them in a laundry basket down the hall.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl ran to the ICU doors and looked in through the small window. Not seeing anyone inside, she took out the notebook and entered the numbers into the keypad mounted on the wall. Once inside, she ran over to the desk and went through the files. When she found Paula’s chart, she checked the room number and went over to it. Inside, restrained to bed, was something, but it was not Paula. It had on her scrubs and she found her ID sitting on the counter. Sheryl realized she was too late. Paula had already been infected and had turned into one of the living dead.

“I’m so sorry,” she said as tears filled her eyes.

Then she heard the doctor behind her. He asked, “What are you doing in here?”

She turned and shouted, “You bastard! You killed her!”

Surprised by her outburst, he jumped back. “I’m calling security.” He went behind the desk and picked up the phone.

Sheryl took the knife from her pocket. Holding it behind her back, she opened it. Walking up to the doctor, she said, “You’re a real son of a bitch.” She took it and jabbed the blade into his chest.

He grabbed the wound with his hand as blood ran down the front of his shirt and between his fingers. “You stabbed me, you stupid bitch!” he said with a combination of anger and surprise.

She stepped back as he lunged at her and reached for the knife. She swung it in front of her and sliced the palm of his left hand open, exposing some bone as blood ran down his arm. He quickly pulled his hand back. Taking a step forward, she jabbed it into his chest again.

He cried out through gritted teeth. “Stop it! That really fuckin hurts!” His legs started to buckle under him.

She stepped behind him, grabbed the back of his collar, and put the knife to his throat. “Come on, this way.” She guided him into Paula’s room and over to the bed.

He yelled out, “What do you want?”

In a harsh voice, she said, “Justice.” Then she shoved his face against Paula’s. She hissed and took a large bite out of his cheek and ripped it away. He cried out and attempted to push himself away from her. Between Sheryl’s anger and his weakened state, she was able to hold him down. Paula bit off his left ear and spit it back in his face, and then she went for his neck. She bit and ripped until the doctor’s blood shot out, painting the walls and cabinets red.

When he went limp, Sheryl let go. She walked around and looked down. Paula’s blue-white eyes stared back at her and she fought to get free. Sheryl took the knife and plunged the blade into Paula’s temple. She jerked a few times, and then stopped. Sheryl reached down and closed her lifeless eyes. She stood there for a moment then softly said, with tears on her cheeks, “Good-bye, my dear friend. May you rest in peace.” Then she turned and walked out of the room. As she left the ICU, she picked up a glass vase and smashed the keypad by the doors.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa ran into Todd’s room. She took the I.V. out and tossed it to the side. Todd got up and Lisa helped him put his shirt on over the cast. When he was ready, they quickly went down the hallway toward the pharmacy. Amy helped Todd, and Lisa followed behind them. When they got there, they saw Jeff and Jet standing by the door. Mark and Dedee got there a couple of minutes later.

Mark asked, “Where’s Sheryl?”

Lisa shrugged. “She said she had to take care of something and would meet us here.”

Mark checked by the elevators and down the main hallway. “I don’t see her anywhere; we need to get this thing on the road.”

A minute later, they heard the elevator ding and the door slid open. When Sheryl stepped out and walked over, Dedee and Jet gasped. Mark did a double take and Lisa’s eyes got huge. The front of her scrub shirt, face, and left arm was covered with blood spatter.

Stunned, Lisa asked, “Sheryl, what happened? Are you alright?”

She looked over and said, “I’m fine.” Then she pulled out the notebook and found the entry code for the pharmacy.

When the green light flashed, she opened the door. Everyone ran in, grabbed the bags, and started putting on their gear. Sheryl handed Jet an empty box and said, “Hold this and follow me.”

Jet followed along as she took medical supplies from the shelves and put them into the box. When it was full, she waved Dedee over with another box and did the same thing. When the boxes were full, they stepped back out. Lisa, Mark, and Jeff were already geared up and standing by the exit door. Sheryl took the keys from her pocket.

Holding up the ring with two keys separated, she said, “One of these is the shop key.”

Mark turned and brought his rifle up as two nurses came from around the corner. “Stop right there,” he ordered. They both stopped and raised their hands.

The man looked like he was in his late twenties and had short brown curly hair. He asked, “Are you guys leaving?”

Mark kept his rifle pointed at them as he said, “That’s the plan.”

The girl was in her early twenties and had shoulder-length, light brown hair. She asked, “Can we come with you? Please?”

Mark looked them over before responding. “Yeah, I guess so.” Then he lowered his rifle. “I want you to know it’s pretty dangerous out there. It’s not just zombies—there are nut jobs too.”

They nodded and ran over to the door. Mark looked across to the shop and guessed they had about fifty feet to cover, and then had to open the door once there. “I need one person to stay and hold this door just in case we have to run back in.”

The male nurse said he would do it. Mark and Jeff were the first ones to step out and raised their rifles to provide cover if needed. Sheryl ran across the way to the shop doors with the keys. She was followed by Dedee and Jet, then Amy, Todd, and the girl. Lisa brought up the rear, and the young man stood by the door.

The zombies smelled the blood on Sheryl’s clothes and started toward her as they hissed and moaned. In a panic, she dropped the key ring and had to search for the shop key again. She screamed as the zombies drew near, but managed to find it and opened the door. Everyone scrambled to get inside. Mark waved for the guy to run over. As he ran out the door, he yelled out that a guard was coming.

A second later, the door flew open and the guard fired two shots. The young man who had just warned them was shot in the back and fell as he ran. He bounced when he hit the ground face-first and slid a couple of feet on the sidewalk. The zombies wasted no time in swarming his body like a pack of starving wolves on a steak. Not realizing his mistake until it was too late, the guard let the door close behind him.

This was the same guard who Jeff and Jet had beaten and cuffed to the sink in the closet. The blood covering his face and shirt attracted the zombies. He leveled his pistol and took another shot, but missed. Before he could fire again, a zombie came up and began chewing on his wrist. Another came from behind him, and yet another from the side. Within a matter of seconds, they circled and swarmed him as he screamed. From the center of the circled zombies, his blood shot up into the air like a crimson fountain.

Jeff and Mark jumped back inside the shop and closed the door just as the zombies arrived. Their bags and the boxes of medical supplies had already been put into an old ambulance, sitting in a bay. Mark got in and looked around. “Hey, where are the keys?”

Lisa, Amy, and Dedee started to look around, but couldn’t find them. Lisa asked, “Did you check the visor?”

Mark flipped it down and they fell into his lap. He started it up and yelled, “Okay, everybody in. Jeff, you push the door up and let’s go.”

Jeff unlatched the door and pushed, but it didn’t open. He pushed harder, but still no luck. “I think it’s locked from the outside.”

Mark turned the engine off and went over to where Jeff was at. They both pushed and could tell there was another latch outside. They looked out through the window in the shop door and saw close to a hundred zombies outside.

Mark went over and sat down in a chair by a desk. Disgusted, he said, “Perfect! This is abso-fuckin-lutely perfect!”

Lisa asked, “How are we going to get out of here?”

Mark threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know. Someone has to go outside and throw the latch, but they will probably have to cut a lock first. Only thing is they have to sneak past the hundred zombies out in front of the shop.” Mark looked around and asked, “Any volunteers?”

Everyone was silent and looked at each other for some kind of hope. Sheryl stepped out of the ambulance and got a set of bolt cutters from the wall. She asked Mark, “Who’s faster? You or your brother?”

“Both of us are about the same, I guess.”

“I’m going to call over to the hospital and see if I can get them to yell out the door, from the roof, or bang on the windows. Anything they can do to draw the zombie’s attention their way. One of you run out, do what you need to do, and get your ass back in here.”

Mark sat up. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. It just might work.”

Sheryl went over to a phone on the desk. She called several extensions before she got an answer. Within three minutes, people were on the roof yelling at the zombies. One man held the door open and yelled until they started coming to close, then he retreated back in. Others banged on the second floor windows. Some were open and people yelled out through them. One person must have gotten into the blood bank, because a bag of blood was poured down the outside wall.

The blood worked fine and they swarmed around that area of the building. Mark ran out, and while he was busy cutting the lock, two zombies came back. When he threw the latch and turned around, one was practically on top of him. He swung the bolt cutters and connected with the zombie’s jaw, sending it flying off into some bushes and the zombie fell. He stood beside it and swung them like a golf club. Its head caved in like a raw egg sending dark, thick blood across the grass.

He stepped toward the second one and jabbed at it. The cutters went in the zombie’s chest and came out through its back. He stepped to the side and jerked the handle. There was a gushy, wet, tearing sound as he almost ripped the zombie in half.

Mark quickly ran back into the shop and Jet slammed the door behind him. Mark got in and started the engine while Jeff pushed the door up. He ran to the back and got in with Jet, who was waiting for him. Mark pulled out and started to leave. Just before he hit the parking lot, he stopped. He sat and looked in the side view mirror.

Lisa yelled, “Mark! What are you doing? Let’s go!”

He thought, I really should return the favor, as he watched the zombies start walking toward them.

Lisa slapped his arm and screamed at him. “Mark, I know what you’re thinking! Don’t do it!”

Mark smiled and glanced at Lisa. She slapped his arm again, “Shit! You’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you?”

Mark put the ambulance in reverse and accelerated backward into the horde of zombies. Lisa grabbed onto the dash and screamed, “Maarrrrk! Noooooo!”

The ambulance bounced and swayed as it plowed through them. Everyone in the back screamed as they were bounced around and off the sides. He stopped and went forward, mowing even more of them down. Thumps, rips, and squishes could be heard coming from under them. Once he was clear, he said, “Just one more pass.”

Lisa buried her face in her hands. “Shit, Mark, let’s just go now.”

He threw it in reverse and backed through them again, taking even more out and greatly reducing the number stalking the hospital. When he put the ambulance in drive, the back wheels lost traction and started to spin. Zombie hands, arms, and legs flew through the air and splattered against one of the walls.

Lisa screamed at him again. “Damn it, Mark! Now look what you did. You got us stuck in flippin’ zombie guts! You couldn’t just go like I said. Nooooo, you had to go off and do it!”

Slowly, the tires burned down through the black slime and grabbed traction in the dirt. They started to move forward while the wheels still spun, plastering chunks of zombie flesh and thick black goo down the sides of the ambulance. When they broke free, they heard a loud cheer and applause coming from the roof and windows of the hospital. In just a few passes, Mark had reduced the number of zombies from about one hundred to only nine.

When they left the parking lot, Todd said, “Shit, Mark, I thought you were going to break my other arm.”

VII

Mark pulled out onto the street heading north. They zigzagged through commercial and residential areas toward the I-5 freeway. Every time they came across a zombie walking in the street, Mark made it a point to hit them with the van. One zombie burst and pieces flew everywhere. The hand flew in through the open passenger window and nearly hit Lisa. She shrieked and almost jumped out of the seat when it landed on the floorboard at her feet.

Mark smirked and she gave him a stern gaze. “I swear, Mark; you laugh at shit that is so not funny.”

After driving for a little over an hour, they found the freeway. Even thought the lights on the van were bright, he kept it at forty just in case they came upon a collapsed overpass. The nurse who came with them from the hospital said her name was Tami. Dedee pointed around the van and introduced everyone else.

While they sat in the back and told Sheryl and Tami what they had already been through, Lisa talked to Mark. He told her he wanted to be over the Grapevine and down into the valley by sunrise. Mark glanced down at her legs and pointed to the floorboard. “Give me the hand.”

She looked him. “What?”

“C’mon, give me the hand.”

“I ain’t giving you that hand. I ain’t goanna touch that nasty thing.”

Mark looked at her. “Okay… please.”

Lisa sighed and took a tissue out of the box and reached down on the floorboard. She held it by two fingers with the tissue around it. After she set on the console, she quickly moved her hand away. “What do you want with that thing anyway?” Lisa noticed Mark kept looking into the back through the rearview mirror and knew what he had in mind. “No, don’t you even think about it!” She said giving him a hard stare.

He picked up the hand and looked at it, then held it out. “Hey, Lisa, high five.” And he waved it around.

She glared at him as he held it out. “I’m not touching that damn thing!” Turning away and looking out her window, she smirked.

Mark looked into the back. “How’s everybody doing back there?”

Jeff said, “It’s kinda crowded.” Jet and Amy agreed.

Mark smirked. “Well here, let me give you a hand.” And he tossed it into the back.

When it landed on the floor, the back was filled with shrieks and screams as everyone pushed themselves against the walls. Mark started to chuckle.

Dedee said, “That’s not funny, Mark.”

Jeff spoke up, “You are such an ass, bro.” And he started to laugh.

Lisa glared at him again. “See what I mean? So not funny.” And she shook her head as she sighed.

Jeff picked it up and held it in front of Jet as he wiggled it. She let out a little shriek and buried her face in his shirt. He looked around, and then tossed it under the gurney. They settled back down and after an hour, managed to fall sleep. Lisa reclined the seat back as far as she could, though it wasn’t much, and tried to get some rest too. It didn’t take long for her to drift off to sleep. She awoke when she felt Mark shaking her. Groggy, she looked over and asked, “Where are we?”

“We just passed Gorman,” he said as he looked between her and his mirror.

“What’s up?”

Mark nodded to the side view mirror. “We have company coming up on us fast.”

Lisa pulled the seat back up and looked. There was a set of bright headlights a couple of miles behind them, and she could tell they were closing fast. “Shit!” She looked over and asked, “Are you sure there coming after us?”

Watching between his side view mirror and the road, Mark said, “That or their ass is on fire… and I don’t see any flames.”

She leaned back in the seat and sighed. In a few short minutes, the car had caught up to them and started to pass on the passenger side. Lisa jumped and shrieked when shots were fired from the back seat of the car. She looked and recognized it; it was the goon squad. Mark tried to bump the side of it with the van, but the car fell back behind them. Everyone in the back tried to stay as low to the floor as they could to avoid being hit by the bullets as they punched through the side of the van.

Mark increased their speed to almost seventy, but on a downhill stretch that was risky. The car came around to the driver side and pulled next to them. Four more shots were fired and hit the van. Mark felt his muscles tighten and a cramp in his leg. He tried to swerve into the car, but he was going too fast. They saw him coming close and the car fell back behind them again.

He slowed a bit and when the car came up beside them, he managed to bump them. The driver side of the car hit the guardrail and sent sparks flying. Mark veered to the right, giving the car enough room to pull alongside again. When they did, he hit the brakes and turned the wheel slightly to the left and he was able to just barley clip the rear passenger quarter panel of the car.

He watched it swerve across three lanes. The driver of the car over corrected as it slid out of control and shot back across the three lanes and right into the guardrail. The impact caused it to go air born; it flipped end over end and disappeared as it fell into the ravine below. Mark checked his mirror and saw a bright flash followed by a large fireball rising into the air.

He only felt relieved for a minute, then he saw another set of headlights closing in on them. He shook his head and sighed, “Son of a bitch!”

Jet asked, “What?”

He glanced into the back. “Here comes another one.”

He watched as they drew closer. The car was about half of a mile behind them when it slowed and kept an even pace. As they reached the bottom of the hill, the sun began to peak over the mountains to the east. The car continued to keep a safe distance behind them, neither coming closer nor falling back. Mark figured they saw the fireball from the first car and decided not to make the same mistake.

As he veered right onto another freeway, the other car sped up and stayed on the I-5. He looked over at them as they passed, in the front passenger seat was a woman looking back at him. Right behind her, in the back seat, he saw a little boy, about five-years-old, looking over and waving at him.

Mark continued north bound on the freeway. When he started to drift over into another lane, Lisa looked over at him. She saw his eyelids slowly closing. She reached over, grabbed the steering wheel, and asked him to pull over so she could drive. When he didn’t respond, she shook him. Mark slowly leaned forward and slumped over onto the wheel. She screamed, “Mark!”

Everyone in the back woke up. Lisa grabbed his leg and took it off the accelerator as she steered. As they slowed and finally came to a stop, she put it in park. Sheryl leaned over the seat and looked at him, his face was pale and he wasn’t responding to anyone.

Sheryl and Tami jumped out the back and went to his door. When Tami opened it, she set her hand on his left thigh and felt something wet. She lifted her hand and shrieked. Her palm was covered with his blood, that’s when she noticed there was also a small pool of it on the floorboard.

Sheryl called for Jeff to come help. Between the three of them, they pulled him out and around to the back. After he was inside, they placed him on the gurney. Everyone got out of the way and stood outside as Tami and Sheryl went to work. They cut the pants around his wound and assessed it.

Lisa was by the back doors of the van trembling. She asked them as she paced, “Is he going to be okay?”

Sheryl said as she worked, “A bullet entered and exited his thigh, but it doesn’t look like it hit the artery.” She looked up. “He’s lost a lot of blood and needs a stable place to rest.”

Lisa thought before she said, “There is a place about forty miles up the road that might be safe.”

“Then we need to get him there and make sure the van doesn’t bounce around a lot.”

Lisa nodded and went to the driver side door. She paused; there was a lot of blood on the seat and more than she cared to see on the floorboard. She began to feel very ill and asked for towel. She started shaking as she cleaned the seat. Lisa threw the towel to the ground as she got in and started the van. Amy climbed in the front passenger seat and they continued north.

She watched Lisa as she drove as carefully as she possibly could. Sheryl and Tami cleaned his leg the best they could under the circumstances. They came to a crossroads and Lisa turned right, then drove two more miles. She pulled off the road and stopped in front of a little white house with an old barn on the other side of the yard.

Lisa and Jeff went in to clear the house and barn before anyone else entered. Tami and Sheryl moved the gurney into a bedroom and carefully slid Mark over onto the bed. Lisa looked down at Mark and asked again, “Is he going to be okay?”

Tami and Sheryl looked at her and neither one said a word. Lisa put her hands on the sides of her head as she groaned. She felt dizzy and light-headed. “Somebody, please answer me! Is he going to be alright?”

Sheryl softy said, “I don’t know. His blood pressure is really low and his pulse is weak. It could go either way. We just have to wait and see.”

Lisa felt a lump in her throat and a cold tingling in her body. She quickly walked toward the front door. Once she was outside, she ran away from the house and went into the barn. She sat down on a bale of hay and bit her lip as she stared at the ground.

She didn’t want to be attached to anyone like this; she wanted to finish college first. Now with this zombie thing going on, having feelings for someone had been the last thing on her mind. Over the last two years, she hadn’t allowed herself to get close to anyone in this way and it was working out fine for her. But now, her heart had other ideas and had taken control. The thought of not having Mark around overwhelmed her.

She felt the tears start to run down her cheeks. It finally became too much and she buried her face in her hands and wept uncontrollably. In between breaths, she pleaded, “Please don’t take him from us. We need him” She looked up toward the roof and said, “And… I need him.” She looked down and covered her eyes.

Lisa felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up. Amy stood there looking back at her, tears building in her eyes too. Softly, she said, “You do like him. You like him a lot, don’t you?”

Lisa wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded, her voice cracked as she said, “Yeah, I guess I do.”

Amy sat next to her. “You know, I like him too.” She smiled. “But I won’t get in your way.” Amy giggled and gave Lisa a hug.

Lisa smiled and returned the hug, “Thank you, Amy.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff stood next to the bed. “C’mon, bro, I need for you to hang on, man. I can’t remember shit and I need you to tell me about my life.”

Jet put her arm around his waist. He looked at her and put his arm around her. She looked up at him and said, “He’ll be okay, Jeff. I know he will.”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, I know he will. He has to.”

Tami came into the room and checked Mark’s bandages. Jet and Jeff stepped back to stay out of her way and watched. When she finished with his bandages, she checked his pulse and blood pressure again. Right after she finished, Sheryl came in and looked him over too. She talked to Tami for a minute; then Tami left the room.

Sheryl stood over Mark for a few minutes, and then she turned to Jeff. “I appreciate what your brother did for Tami and I. Then what he did for the others still trapped inside the hospital by killing all those zombies. At least now, when the generators run out of fuel, the people will have a better chance of getting away.” She was quiet for a moment and then left the room.

Dedee and Todd came in and went over to the bed. She touched his arm. “Get better, Mark. We need you to keep us safe.”

Todd agreed. “Yeah, Mark. I want you to get better.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa and Amy came from the barn and started for the house. They saw Sheryl and Tami taking some of the boxes from the van into the house. Sheryl noticed Lisa’s eyes were red and puffy as she passed. “Lisa, are you alright?”

Lisa turned as she walked. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Hey, I’m going to do everything I can to get him back up and around.”

Lisa stopped and turned. She glanced down as she nodded her head and then looked back up. “Thanks, Sheryl.”

Sheryl picked up the box and followed them into the house. Jeff and Lisa decided to go outside and check the surrounding area, just in case there were zombies wandering around. Sheryl and Tami went the through the boxes and organized the medical supplies Sheryl had taken before leaving the hospital.

Sheryl grabbed a small bottle and a syringe then went into Mark’s room. Jet and Dedee noticed this and looked each other in silence. They both got up and followed her in. Jet asked, “What’s that?”

Sheryl drew the liquid into the syringe. “It’s just something to help him with the pain if he wakes up. I don’t want him flinching from the pain and start bleeding again.”

“Oh,” Dedee said. “That’s a good idea.”

They watched her inject it into his leg around the wound. After that, they started to go through other rooms in the house to see what they could find as far as useful weapons. The first room they came to was a sewing room. Inside, were bolts of fabric and balls of yarn organized by color and stored in tubs. Dedee looked through a cedar chest while Jet checked the closet.

Jet stepped back and said, “Whoa! Check this out.”

Dedee glanced over and jumped up.”Whoa! Where did you find that?”

Jet held a scabbard in her hand. When she pulled the handle, an antique katana slid free. “Oh yeah, I like this!” She said as she set the scabbard down on a small folding table and looked the blade over.

“Oh my gawd, that thing looks old.” Dedee tilted her head. “Isn’t that kinda short for a sword though?”

“No, it’s a katana. That’s how long it is supposed to be,” Jet replied. “I’m petite, so it’s just right for me.”

Dedee stared at the blade and said, “I’d love to have one of those too.”

Jet held it out in front of her with both hands on the handle. “This feels nice, not heavy at all.” She handed Dedee a piece of scrap paper. “Here, hold this.” She set the blade on the edge of the paper. It cut cleanly the entire length of the sheet with only the weight of the blade pulling it through. “I’m keeping it. I bet I could dice up some major zombie ass with this.” She smiled.

“Is there another one in there?”

Jet looked, but only found an aluminum bat. Handing it to Dedee, she said, “Here, take this.”

Dedee looked at it like she had just been given a consolation prize before she said, “Let’s check the other room. Maybe there’s another one in there.”

While they were in the back bedroom, they heard Jeff and Lisa outside yelling. It went on for almost five minutes before they heard a single gunshot. Nervously, everyone gathered in the living room peeking out from around the drapes, but they couldn’t see them anywhere.

They waited. Several minutes passed and no one heard anything else. Dedee picked up her bat and said, “Jet, get that old sword you found and lets go outside and see if they need help.” Jet ran to the back and returned with it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff and Lisa did a visual sweep along the front of the house, then went out and around the barn. Behind it, they found about a dozen chickens inside a coop. They went out about two hundred yards from the house and checked an alfalfa field. From there, they swung around and checked the back, then the other side of the house. The land was mostly fields with some pastures and they could see for almost a mile.

They went and double-checked the inside of the barn. Once finished there, they started looking over its contents more closely. There was an array of old farm tools that had been retired long ago. In the back corner, under a tarp, was an old tractor that appeared to be in the process of being repaired. Hanging on a wall over a workbench were some wrenches, hay hooks, and a small hatchet.

Jeff picked up the hatchet. “Hey, Lisa.”

She looked up from the box she was digging in. “Yeah?”

Holding it up, he said, “Check it out.” He nodded toward the back of the barn.”

She didn’t know what he was insinuating so she asked, “What?”

“You know how to clean a chicken?”

“Kinda. When all this crap started I watched a ton of ‘How To’ videos on the internet. It was something to do and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to know some of the stuff, just in case.”

He smiled. “Okay, looks like fresh fried chicken tonight.”

They went around and into the chicken coop. It only took Jeff a few minutes to corner, catch, and kill the first chicken. Lisa knew one wouldn’t be enough for nine people so she went in to get a second. It turned out to be much harder than Jeff made it look. Just when she thought she had it, it would dart around her.

Jeff stepped back into the coop to help. They yelled back and forth, trying to coordinate their strategy. After a few minutes, they were both winded and had to stop. She was leaning forward with her hands on her knees as she tried catching her breath.

Jeff said, “C’mon, let’s try it again.”

Puffing hard, she got it cornered and when she reached for it, it went around her again. She shook her head. Jeff started laughing and asked, “Are you going to catch it? Or wait till it drops from exhaustion?”

Gasping for air, she looked at Jeff, then the chicken. She said, “Screw this!” She drew her pistol, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The chicken spun around and dropped as feathers flew all around it. She walked over, picked it up by the neck, and victoriously said as she held it out, “Dinner!”

They had to sit down for a few minutes to catch their breath before heading to the house. When they walked in, Jet asked, “What’s that?”

Lisa held up her chicken. “It’s dinner.”

Dedee said, “We heard a commotion outside and though you ran into zombies. We were just about ready to come out and help you.”

“There weren’t any zombies outside.” Jeff said, “We found the chickens and had to catch a couple.”

“Then what was with the gunshot I heard?”

Jeff said, “Lisa couldn’t catch hers.” He started laughing. “So she shot it!”

Dedee and Jet looked at each other, and they too started to laugh. Jet held up the katana. “Look what I found.” And she pulled it from the scabbard.

Jeff looked at it closely. “I know what this is.” He stared at it and started to shake his head. “Damn! I know, but it’s like… right on the edge of my mind and it won’t come out. I can almost see it. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but won’t come out. It starts with a ‘K’.” He groaned and shook his head in frustration.

Jet ran her hand over his shoulders. “I know you do… it’s alright. Don’t worry about it right now.”

He sat down on the couch and pulled her next to him. Putting his arm around her he smiled and said, “Hot chick with a sword.”

Jet blushed and asked with a smile, “Really? You think I’m hot?”

Jeff pulled her in closer and gave her a little kiss. “Yep, scorchin hot.”

Lisa sighed. “Okay, you two. Jet, come in here and help me with this.” She pointed. “Dedee and Amy, you too. I want you all in the kitchen now. You’re going to learn how to butcher and cook a chicken.”

Lisa went over what she knew with them and it finally made it into the oven. She thought about her feelings as she walked into Mark’s room and sat on the edge of the bed. These were feelings she wasn’t even aware of until this morning, or maybe she was and had convinced herself otherwise.

Confusing as it was for her, she had to face them now. She looked at him as he lay there in the bed. She imagined what things would be like if he wasn’t with her tomorrow. An empty feeling started to grow inside of her and she had to drop the thought, then she wondered if she should tell him.

She felt afraid and vulnerable. What if he didn’t feel the same way about her? His rejection might make things even more difficult and awkward. She decided she needed to say something now because she may not have the chance later. Softly, she said, “Mark, there’s something I need to say.”

He began to move and looked over at her. With his eyes partially open, he asked, “What’s going on?”

She slid off the edge of the bed. “Hey, he’s awake.” There was a since of relief at seeing him awake. It was like a weight had been lifted off her. She moved closer and asked him, “How are you feeling?”

“My leg hurts like a bitch and I’m really tired. Other than that, everything’s peachy.”

Tami and Sheryl were the first ones through the door, followed by everyone else. Tami took his blood presser and said it was better, but still very low. Sheryl checked his wound and applied a fresh wrap. Jet showed him the sword she found in the sewing room and Jeff told Mark about him and Lisa catching chickens for dinner. Mark seemed to tire quickly so Sheryl had everyone leave the room.

On her way out, Sheryl turned to Lisa. “I’ll leave to two alone to talk.”

Puzzled, Mark asked, “What did she mean by that? Is there something going on I don’t know about?”

She thought about telling him the truth, but instead she replied, “Oh, we’re just going to need to stay here until you get your strength back. Jeff and I will keep checking for zombies, but we’re way out away from town so it should be safe.”

“Hey, Lisa, when I was waking up, you said you needed to tell me something. Was that it?”

“No, it was something else.” She hesitated as Mark looked into her eyes and waited for her response. “We’re having chicken and I was going to bring you a piece if you wanted one.”

“Yes, I’d love a piece.” He gave her a gentle smile.

VIII

Lisa woke to the sound of a heavy thump. Looking around the room, she saw that Jet, Amy, and Dedee were all in bed asleep. Carefully, she got up and grabbed her pistol up off the nightstand. She quickly moved to the door and peeked through the crack, but she didn’t see anything. Stepping as lightly as she could, she went down the hallway and into the living room.

Sheryl was asleep on one couch, but she noticed Tami was not on the other one. She checked the front and back doors and saw they were latched from the inside. After she holstered her pistol, she started back for her room. When she passed by Mark’s room, she heard some grunting. She cracked the door to look in to see if he was all right, but what she saw inside shocked her.

Mark sat on the edge of the bed with his arms over Tami’s shoulders. Tami stood between his thighs with her arms around him and she was breathing very heavy. Bothered by what she saw, Lisa turned away. She felt like a fist had punched through her chest and was squeezing her heart. She returned to her room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Her jaw started to quiver as she thought about the chance she had to tell him about her feelings the night before and had let it slip away. She thought to herself, Would it have made a difference? It could have. Tami and Mark have only known each other for a little over a day. If Mark knew how I felt, things might be different. It could be me in there with him now, instead of Tami. Tears began to fill her eyes as she fought to hold them back.

It’s not like Tami has anything that really makes her stand out. She’s just average, but she does seem like a very nice person, Lisa thought. The least Tami could have done, was say she was interested in Mark before she made a move on him. But if they do like each other, who am I to get in their way? But she liked Mark too and asked herself, Is it selfish of me wanting to take him away from her?

Lisa fell back onto the bed and put her hands on her forehead. This was confusing to start with, and it just became even more complicated. The weight on her chest turned into an aching pain. She felt like running into the room and telling him, but she would feel really stupid if he didn’t feel the same way about her. She decided it would be best if she just kept it to herself, at least for now, anyway.

Jeff knocked on the door. “Hey, Lisa, are you up?”

She sat back up and quickly wiped her tears away as she said, “Yeah, what do you need?”

“Since we’re going to be here for a while, I figured we’d make a run and get a few things.”

“Okay, give me a minute.” She woke Dedee and Jet. “Come on, get up sleepy heads.”

Half asleep, Dedee asked, “What’s the rush?”

“We’re going to make a run and you’re coming with us.”

Dedee rolled her eyes and moaned. “Alright.” She climbed out of bed.

Jet looked up from her pillow and asked, “What about me?”

“No, you’re staying here. Keep that sword thingy you have close by. Mark is in no condition to fight, neither is Todd. Sheryl and Tami… Well, I don’t know, so it may be just you and Amy if something goes down.”

Jet swallowed hard before asking, “Can Jeff stay with me?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, I need him with me.”

Jet sighed and woke Amy. “Come on, we have watch.”

Lisa and Dedee met Jeff in the living room. She noticed Tami was back, sitting on the couch she was supposed to have been sleeping on. Lisa dogged her for a minute, then pointed at her. “You, you’re coming with us.”

Tami stood up. “But I think I should stay here, just in case Sheryl needs help with Mark.”

Without looking away, Lisa asked, “Hey, Sheryl, think you can handle it by yourself?”

Sheryl looked at Tami, then back at Lisa. “I suppose I could.”

Nervously, Tami said, “But I don’t have a weapon.”

Lisa went back to the sewing room and returned a few minutes later. Holding out a metal vacuum pipe, she said, “Here, use this.” Then she turned for the door. “Come on, let’s go.” Once outside, she handed Jeff the keys. “Here, you drive.”

They all got in the van. Jeff asked as he started it, “Which way are we going?”

“Back the way we came. We passed a store on the way here. Let’s see what we can find there first.”

Jeff nodded, put the van in gear, and pulled out onto the road.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet went into Mark’s room and sat in a chair next to the bed. “Felling any better?” she asked.

He was on his back and staring at the ceiling. He let out a deep breath. “I’m board as fuck.” He rolled over to face her, propping himself up on his elbow. “Every time I try to get up, I get all light headed. Sheryl said I should be okay in a few days, but that’s going to be a long few days.”

“Lisa took Jeff with her to go hunt down some supplies. I wish he coulda stayed here with me.”

“You like my brother, don’t you?”

“Yeah, he’s really sweet and I like that. Most of the guys I knew in high school just wanted to be friends, a few wanted this ‘friends with benefits’ thing, but I didn’t want that. I wanted a boy friend, someone who was interested in me.”

“So you never had a boy friend before?”

“I did. I had a couple in junior high and one in high school. He turned out to be a real jerk though. While he was going out with me, he got another girl in our school pregnant.”

“He does sound like a jerk, but that’s his loss. You don’t have to worry about anything like that with Jeff.”

Jet smiled. “I know. It’s not like I’m super pretty like Dedee is. She had all kinds of guys in school wanting to go out with her, but Jeff makes me feel like I am.”

“You are. You shouldn’t sell yourself short.”

She blushed. “You know what’s kinda weird though? The day we found you, we never went into that area before. We always avoided it, but for some reason that day, we didn’t. It’s almost like fate brought us together, like it was meant to be or something.”

Mark’s face lost all expression. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Mark. I didn’t mean to bring up a bad memory.”

“No, I’m not blaming anyone. I miss them a lot, and as much as I wish they were here, they’re gone and not coming back. I have to accept that. I just wish fate would have dealt us something like a flat tire instead.”

Not knowing what to say, she nodded in agreement. She saw he was deep in thought and waited for him to say something. After a few minutes, he said, “I’m glad you and my brother are together. I know sometimes he gets frustrated when he can’t remember something, but you’re patient with him and able to calm him down.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff drove down the long country road. Lisa kept glancing into the back of the van at Tami. She saw Tami was nervous and scared. It was written all over her face, but she didn’t let it bother her. If Tami was to be a member of the team, she would have to learn to fight these things. To survive, everyone would have to pull their own weight and sometimes, a little more.

Jeff slowed and pulled off the road and onto a dirt driveway that led to a light blue house with several out buildings. Lisa looked at him and wondered what he was doing. Town was still a mile away so she asked, “Why aren’t we going into town?”

Jeff pointed through the windshield. “See that big green and yellow tractor? The way I figure it, is that hog has to suck a shit load of diesel. And if I’m right, they keep a supply of it close by.”

A grin came across Lisa’s face. “I bet you’re right. They probably have a big tank full of it somewhere here on the farm.”

Dedee notice the road had gotten bumpy and asked, “What are we doing?”

Lisa glanced back at her. “We’re going to fill up.”

Jeff drove by the tractor and went around a large tin shed. Behind it, there was a large tank with the word ‘Diesel’ painted on it. Pulling up next to it, he stopped and they all got out. They did a check of the immediate area for zombies and discovered it was clear.

Lisa pointed to the tank. “Okay, Tami, fill it up”

Tami ran over and took the nozzle, removed the cap, and squeezed the lever. She looked around and nervously said, “Lisa, nothing’s coming out.”

Lisa pointed to the tank, “You have to turn the valve on.”

Jeff ran to the tank. “I’ll get it, Tami. Just give me a sec.” He picked up a wrench and gave the valve a quarter turn. “Okay, go ahead.”

She squeezed the lever and let out a sigh of relief when the fuel started to flow. While she filled the tank, Lisa threw her a couple of hard stares. Tami noticed this and it made her feel nervous and uncomfortable. She wondered if she might have said something to piss Lisa off, but she couldn’t think of a single thing.

When the van was full, Tami hung the nozzle back on the tank and Jeff closed the valve. Lisa watched Tami carefully as she put the cap back on. When they all got back in the van, Lisa said, “I want to go check the house and see what’s in there.”

Jeff drove over and parked by the back door. As they got out, Lisa said, “Jeff and I will go in and clear the house. Dedee, you stay out here with Tami and watch our backs.” She looked directly at Tami and said, “Stay alert and don’t screw it up.”

Jeff and Dedee looked at each other, but didn’t say anything. Tami felt a large lump grow in her throat and nervously said, “Okay, I won’t.”

Lisa and Jeff went in and cleared the back porch first, then the kitchen and the living room. As they moved down the hallway, they heard the floor creek. It sounded like it came from the bedroom at the far end of the hallway. They checked all the rooms they passed as they worked their way back to it.

The first room to the left was an office. There was a messy array of papers on the desk, but it didn’t look like it had been ransacked. The next room was off to the right; it was a child’s bedroom and was also in array with papers and clothes strewn throughout it. When they got to the last room, they readied themselves. Just as Jeff started to turn the knob, the door was jerked from his hand.

A small boy, about seven-years-old, charged him. His skin had a greenish tint to it and one ear hung by a flap of skin. Jeff jumped back and swung the butt of his rifle up and hit its face. The boy’s ear fell to the floor as he shook it off and hissed at both of them.

Lisa brought up her foot and kicked the boy back against the wall. Before he could take a step toward them, she raised her pistol and fired a single round into his face. The back of the boys head flew off as black goo and what looked like gray gelatinous matter spattered against the wall behind him. Some of the larger chunks pulled free from the wall and fell to the floor while the smaller pieces stuck in place.

Lisa heard a timid voice coming from down the hallway that asked, “What’s going on? Is everybody okay?”

She looked and saw Tami peeking around the corner. Lisa asked, “Where’s my sister?”

Tami said, “Outside, by the back door.”

Lisa growled, “Get your ass out of here and stay by the back door.”

Tami flinched and quickly ran back outside. Lisa turned back to Jeff and they went inside the room. In the bed, were a man and woman. They didn’t look like they had become zombies, but they had definitely been eaten buy one. Besides their faces, there was little left of them. It appeared the boy had been trapped in that room, feeding off them for at least a week.

Lisa stormed down the hall and out the back door. Getting up in Tami’s face, she screamed, “Just what in the hell did you think you were doing?”

Tami tried to speak, but all she could do was stutter.

Lisa threw her hands about as she continued, “You were supposed to be out here watching our backs! Just what the fuck were you thinking by leaving my sister out here by herself? Huh? I swear, if anything would have happened to her, I’d be beating your ass senseless right now!”

Jeff stepped between them, facing Lisa. “Okay, ladies, let’s take a deep breath and calm down. The house is clear so let’s go back in and see what we can find.” He set his hands on Lisa’s shoulders and calmly had her step back. “Tami’s sorry and promises it won’t happen again.” He looked toward Tami. “Right, Tami?”

With a petrified look on her face, she nodded.

“See, Lisa? Now, let’s all calm down and go inside.” Lisa slowly turned and walked away, Jeff ushering her back to the house. He looked at Dedee and nodded for her to go over to Tami.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Todd and Amy were in the kitchen with Sheryl while she looked through the cabinets. After the dinner Lisa and the girls put together last night, she was hoping to find something that would at least come close. The only thing she was finding in the cupboards were cans of corn. She wasn’t quite sure why, but the people who had lived there must have had a corn fetish.

Todd started to become antsy and wanted to go outside. Amy liked the idea and asked Sheryl if she minded coming out with them. Searching the kitchen, she found a large cleaver in one of the drawers. The house and surrounding area had been zombie free, but she thought it better to be safe. Before they left the house, Sheryl leaned into the room where Mark and Jet were talking to let them know they would be out front.

Todd opened the front door and the bright light shined into the room. He walked out with Amy by his side and Sheryl followed. She saw movement and a hand with gray skin reached from the left and grabbed Todd’s arm. At the same time another come from the right and grabbed Amy by her hair. Amy let out a high-pitched shriek as it bit down on the top of her head.

Acting quickly, Sheryl swung and hit the zombie across the forehead with the cleaver. Bone cracked and split as the cleaver sank deep into its skull. The zombie fell straight back and landed on the grass. Sheryl pulled Amy toward her and shoved her back inside the door. She turned just in time to see the other one put Todd’s left hand in its mouth and bite down.

Todd screamed as his finger bones snapped under the zombies powerful jaws. Before Sheryl could take a step, Jet ran through the door with her sword. Jet swung, there was a hollow swoosh as her blade easily sliced through its head and completely removed the top part of its skull. The zombie let go of Todd’s arm and dropped to the ground, taking three of Todd’s fingers with him.

Todd cried out and drew his hand into his chest as blood ran down his arm. Jet stepped back and did a quick visual check of the area. She stood ready out front until Sheryl got Todd back inside, then she carefully backed into the house and closed the door behind her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tami and Dedee stood outside the back door while Jeff and Lisa checked the kitchen and pantry. Jeff found five full cases of bottled water and took it outside to put in the van. On his way back in, he told Tami and Dedee to follow him and he took them to the back bedroom.

When Tami saw the spatter on the wall along with the devoured bodies and the smell, although faint by now, hit her, she ran into the bathroom and started heaving. When she couldn’t heave anymore, she returned. Lisa gave her a cold stare and shook her head. They went through the closet and dresser taking any clothes they thought would fit. Lisa left the room and went back into the kitchen to give it a second going over.

Tami whispered to Dedee, “Is your sister always like that?”

Dedee said as she dug through the drawer, “She’s really nice once you get to know her. She’s just very protective.”

“She scares me; I thought she was going to kick the crap out of me outside.” Then she asked, “Is she like a Marine or something?”

Dedee smirked. “No, but she is Miss Ventura County.”

Tami’s jaw dropped and she looked at Dedee. “I knew I saw her somewhere before. She really looks a lot different in those clothes. You must be really proud of her.”

Dedee nodded as she said, “I am, but she wasn’t after the title. She only needed the scholarship for college. You see, our dad worked at a gym and didn’t have the money for her to go.”

Lisa yelled down the hallway, “Bag that stuff up and get it in the van.”

When Tami passed by the kitchen, she noticed Lisa was watching them. Trying to avoid eye contact, she lowered her head and pretended not to notice. Jeff and Lisa brought out more boxes from the house and put them in the van. Once they had everything, they started for the little store.

When they arrived, Jeff pulled up to the front and stopped. They all got out and assessed the area. The front door of the store had already been broken and from what they could see of the inside, had already been gone through. Lisa had Jeff and Dedee go in and look around while she stayed outside with Tami.

They had only been inside for five minutes, when Lisa heard a low moan coming from the side of the store. Peeking around the corner, she saw only one. It was walking slowly and dragging is right leg. She waved Tami over and said to her, “I want you to go and take it out, but don’t worry; I’ll be right behind you.”

Tami began to tremble. “I don’t know. I’m not really used to it.”

“Well, here’s your chance to get used to it. There’s only one and it’s slow.” Lisa gestured to it as she spoke. “So go kill it.”

Tami took a few steps toward it and started to cry. Lisa shook her head as she said, “Will you quit?” She gestured toward the zombie again. “Just kill it. Now go!”

Sobbing, Tami took a few smaller steps and stopped. Lisa asked her, “What the hell are you doing? You plan on dancing with it or what?”

Tami turned and pointed to Lisa’s pistol. “Yeah, but you have that. I only have this.” And she held up the pipe.

Lisa went over and jerked the pipe from her hands. “Here, hold it like this with your hands together. Then swing it like a bat.” Lisa walked over to the zombie. “You can break arms.” She swung and hit the zombie’s elbow. It made a sickening pop and its forearm dangled, held only in place by some decomposing tendons. “You can take out legs.” She swung and caught the back of the zombies left leg. There was a crack and the zombies went down to its knees. “You can cave in a rib cage.” She swung again, striking it in the chest. There was a series of rapid cracks and crunches as its chest cavity caved in.

Tami could almost feel it and rubbed her hand across her own chest as she said, “Ouch!”

“Or you can mash heads.” She stood behind it and brought the pipe down on the top of its head. The top of the skull cracked as it caved in and the sides shot out. Nasty smelling black slime shot out of the eye sockets and splattered all down the front of Tami.

Tami shrieked and jumped back. Pouting, she tried to shake it off her hands and arms. Lisa held out the pipe and she took it. Lisa looked at the mess and said, “That’s it for today’s lesson. Next time, you’re doing it.”

Lisa walked around to the front of the store, followed by Tami as she heaved. When they got there, she saw Jeff tossing empty five gallon water jugs out through the front door. After he had thrown out about a dozen of them, he and Dedee emerged from the store.

Lisa picked one up. “What are you going to do with these?”

“We’re going back to that farm house and fill them up. That way we’ll have water, just in case I can’t get the generator going.”

Dedee held up a bottle of bubble bath. “We can take a bath tonight.” And she excitedly ran to the van and put it inside.

Lisa glanced at Tami and said, “Good, some of us are past due for one.”

He looked over and saw Tami covered in zombie pus. “What happened to you?”

Still visibly shaken, she answered, “Lisa showed me how to kill a zombie.”

After the empty bottles were loaded up, and filled up at the farm, they started back for the house. When they pulled up, Lisa and Jeff saw the bodies laying in the front yard. Jeff drove around the barn and the back of the house to make sure it was clear.

When they stopped in front of the house, Jet was waiting outside for them. Before they went in, Jet told them that Todd and Amy had been attacked. One tried to eat Amy’s brain, but only got a mouthful of her hair thanks to Sheryl. But Todd had three fingers eaten off his hand by the other.

Lisa rubbed her head after hearing the news. There was no doubt Todd had been infected and it was only a matter of time before he turned into one. Tears began to fill her eyes as she thought about what had to be done and how Amy would take it. Somberly, they went into the house. Todd had a blood-soaked bandage on his left hand. Both he and Amy were sitting at the table crying. Sheryl tried to hide it, but she, too, was emotional.

Lisa went to Sheryl and looked down at her without saying a word. Sheryl wiped her tears and said, “I’m really sorry, Lisa. I know I was supposed to keep them safe and I screwed it up.”

Lisa knelt down and put her hand on Sheryl’s. “I’m not blaming you. You fought and saved Amy. That’s worth something.” She looked down at the floor before she said, “Jeff, let’s go talk to your brother.

They went into Mark’s room and closed the door behind them.

Mark looked at them both. “You know what has to be done. We can’t have him turn and kill or infect any more of us.”

Lisa rubbed her temples frantically with her fingertips. She took a deep breath and spoke. “I’ve known that kid his whole life. I can’t… There is no way I can do it.”

Mark pointed to his wound. “I can’t even walk yet. Hell, I try to just stand up I get light-headed and fall down.”

Jeff looked at them both in the eye and sighed. “Well, I guess it fuckin’ sucks to be me right now.” He shook his head as he said, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”

Mark sighed. “I don’t know… Just take him for a walk and do it. Make it as easy on him as you can.”

Jeff sat there for ten minutes thinking before he stood up. “This isn’t going to be any easier the longer I wait.” And he went over to the door.

Lisa looked at Jeff with tears in her eyes. “I’ll make sure Amy stays in the house.”

They both stepped out into the living room. Lisa sat down on the couch and Jeff went over to Todd. “C’mon, buddy, we need to go for a walk and talk.”

Todd looked around the room as if someone would tell him what to do, but no one spoke. He got up and walked out the door with Jeff. Walking across the back yard and out into a field, Todd began to cry even more. “Jeff, I don’t want to die, man. I don’t want to die.”

“Todd, we can’t let you stay here. You’ve been infected. Not too long from now, you’re going to turn into a zombie. We can’t have you bite or kill anyone else.”

“But, Jeff, I won’t do that. I swear I won’t. I don’t want to turn into a zombie and I don’t want to leave.”

Jeff pulled his pistol from the holster and pointed it at Todd. “Go now, Todd. Just walk away and don’t ever come back.”

Todd slowly turned and started walking across the field. He took about ten steps and glanced back. Jeff raised his pistol again, pointed it at Todd, and said, “Go. Keep walking and don’t look back.”

He turned back around and took a couple more steps. Jeff aimed and fired the shot. Todd’s head jerked as the bullet entered the back of his skull, his body flew forward, landing face-down in the soft dirt.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The room was silent. Amy looked at everyone, but they all turned their gaze away or looked at the floor. Her voice cracked as she asked, “He’s not coming back. My brother’s not coming back, is he?” She continued to look around the room, but no one looked up. Even though it was expected, everyone flinched when they heard the shot from outside. She let out a loud cry as she jumped up, ran down the hallway, and into the bedroom slamming the door behind her.

Dedee said as she got up, “I’ll go see if there’s anything I can do for her,”

Lisa said, “No, stay here, Dedee. She needs to be alone right now. Let’s give her that.”

Jeff came back in the house an hour later. Every one watched as he sat down at the kitchen table. Without looking at anyone, he said, “I got a shovel from the barn and buried him.”

Jet grabbed a chair and sat next to him. She rubbed the back of his shoulders and softly said, “If you need to talk, I’m here.”

Without looking up from the table, Jeff said, “I know he was infected and didn’t have much time, but all I could see was a scared nine-year-old kid. For a minute there, I actually thought about letting him… just walk away.”

Jeff heard the front door open and saw Lisa going outside. When she came back a few minutes later, she had some of the things they had gathered earlier. Jeff and Jet got up and helped her bring the things in. When Jeff asked where she wanted the big jugs of water, she just pointed to a spot by the living room wall.

Jet looked into the boxes and started pulling things out. Cans of soup, a variety of veggies, some candles, but when she came to the bubble bath, she looked over at Dedee. She grabbed a large pan from under the counter and started opening cans of vegetables, then mixing the contents into it.

When they ate, appetites were small and there was little in the way of conversation. Lisa took some to Amy, but she turned it down. She tried to talk to her, but Amy responded to everything with a shrug as she lay in bed, facing the wall. Lisa finally set Amy’s food on the dresser and went back into the living room.

IX

Lisa stood in the doorway watching Mark. When he realized he wasn’t alone, he invited her in. Patting the edge of the bed, he said, “Have a seat.”

Lisa sat down and looked at his wound. “It looks like its getting better.”

Mark ran his hand over it. “Yeah, but I’m worried about Amy. How’s she handling the situation?”

“She’s still in the bedroom. She didn’t eat last night and skipped breakfast this morning.” Lisa watched Mark as he stared up at the ceiling. The urge to lie down and hold him was overwhelming and she barely managed to maintain control.

“If I wasn’t stuck in this damn bed, I could have saved him.”

Lisa saw the anger in his eyes as he said it. “Mark, you don’t know that for sure.”

He sat up and said, “Give me a hand; I’m getting out of this bed.”

Mark slid over to the edge of the bed. She held onto his arm and helped him up and out into the living room. Lisa watched him grit his teeth every time he put weight on his leg. She wanted him back up and moving around, but started to think it might be a little too soon. Sheryl and Tami watched as she helped him over to the couch and sit down.

Tami shot him a stern look and said, “You know, you should have waited at least one more day.”

“No, today is the day. If no one wants to help me, then I’ll do it on my own.”

Tami sighed. “Yeah, you already tried that and look what happened to you.”

Lisa pursed her lips and asked Mark, “What is she talking about? What happened?”

Mark lowered his eyes and remained silent. Lisa looked over at her. Tami flinched and took a small step back. With a firm tone, Lisa asked, “Tell me what happened!”

Tami swallowed hard and said, “He fell.” She looked over at Mark. “It took everything I had to pick him up off the floor and get him back into the bed.”

Lisa looked around at everyone. “And nobody bothered to tell me this?”

Jeff was at the kitchen table and said, “Sorry, but I thought you knew.”

“And when did this happen?”

He turned in his chair. “Yesterday morning, just before I came to your room.”

She gave Mark a hard look. She started to say something to him, but stopped. She asked Tami, “You picked him up by yourself? Why didn’t you get anyone to help you?”

Tami took another small step away from Lisa before she answered. “Because everyone was asleep.”

Lisa thought and felt some relief as the weight on her chest seemed to lessen a bit. She still didn’t completely trust Tami and there was a chance she might have feelings for Mark. Lisa was tempted to tell him, but there was still the chance he might reject her, and that fear kept her silent. Calmly, she said, “Tami, if you ever need any help with him, I want you to come and get me.” Making it sound more like an order, than a request.

Tami nodded and said, “Okay.”

Lisa sat on the couch next to Mark, but he didn’t look up. She finally spoke, “Please, don’t ever do anything like that again. Next time, ask for help and I’ll help you.”

Mark sat there for a few minutes before he asked, “Alright, can you help me out to the barn?”

Sheryl objected. “Not so fast. Before you go out in that dirty barn, I want to change your bandage and wrap it.”

While Sheryl changed it and put a wrap over it, Lisa went through the clothes they had gotten the day before. She found a pair of jeans she thought might fit and gave them to him. After she helped Mark back into the bedroom to change, she waited outside the door. When he was ready, he called her back in so she could help him outside. She started to giggle when she saw him standing there. The jeans did fit around his waist, but they were too short and set four inches above his ankles.

Lisa helped Mark out to the barn where he was going to work on a generator Jeff found under a tarp. When they got there, Jeff was finishing a small cross made of 2x4s. He looked up at them as they entered and set it off to the side, then followed Mark over to the generator. Lisa looked down as she walked by the cross and noticed he had painted Todd’s name on it.

She sat on a bale of hay and watched them as they worked. Jeff started with the engine and Mark on the wiring. Lisa laid back on the bail and listened to Mark and Jeff talk to each other while they worked. Mark instructed Jeff on how to clean the carburetor and put it back together. They hoped to get it hooked up to the pump so they could at least have running water in the house.

As they talked, she thought she heard a noise in the hayloft above her. She watched through the cracks of the boards for any kind of movement. It looked like there might have been a shadow up there, but she wasn’t sure. Staring at it for a while, she thought the shadow looked like it was moving.

She looked over at Mark when he asked her to hand him an extension cord that was hanging on the wall. She stood up and brushed the loose straw from her back and her hair. When she glanced back up to the loft, she saw a blue-white eye looking between the boards down at her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet stood by the window looking out back while she fidgeted with her sword and wondered where the zombies that attacked them yesterday had come from. She heard someone walk up behind her and saw a reflection in the glass. Turning, she saw Amy standing there. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

Amy just said, “Yeah, I’m hungry.”

Amy followed her to the kitchen and sat at the table. Jet warmed a can of vegetable beef soup on the stove and put it in a bowl. Amy watched as Jet set it on the table in front of her. She blew on it as she stirred it around and asked, “Jet, what am I supposed to do now? I don’t have any family left. My parents are gone and it was just me and Todd.” She sighed. “Now, it’s just me.”

Jet realized she had asked that same question after her parents had taken her over to stay with Dedee and Lisa. She tried to explain it to Amy the same way Lisa did to her. “Well, Amy, you’re not by yourself. You have me, Dedee, Lisa, Mark, and Jeff just to name a few. We’re all your family now. We might not be related by blood, but we care about each other, help each other, and we’re there when you need us. Lisa, Dedee, and you are my sisters. I’m not alone and neither are you.”

Dedee came in and sat down next to her. “That’s true. I consider you a sister. Don’t you remember the barbecues we had together? And remember why you came to our house that day your parents didn’t come home? You said it was because we were like family to you.”

Amy sat there and thought. “Yeah, I remember that. Cause, you guys are like family.”

Sheryl ran through the front door and into the kitchen. “Something’s wrong out there, I just heard Lisa screaming inside the barn.

They jumped when they heard gunshots coming from outside. Jet grabbed her sword and Dedee her bat; then they started to run for the barn.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Shit!” Lisa said as she jumped back and drew her pistol. She pointed it up toward the hayloft. “There’s something up there. I just saw it looking at me.”

Both Mark and Jeff instinctively drew theirs and pointed them the same direction. Mark asked, “What was it?”

“It’s one of those zombies; I saw it looking down through the cracks.”

“But I thought you and Jeff already cleared the barn?”

“We did, bro, twice, and there wasn’t anything in here. I checked the loft myself.”

Mark stretched to see up over the edge. “I can’t see anything. Are you sure you saw something?”

“Damn it, Mark, I saw the stinkin’ eyeball looking right at me.” She returned her pistol to the holster. “Cover me, I’m going up.”

“Wait! Jeff, go up with her. But give me a second to move closer to that ladder.” Using the workbench for support, Mark worked his way over. “Okay, now you can go.”

Lisa started to climb the home made 2x4 ladder attached to the loft, cautiously taking it one step at a time. She would stop and listen for any sound or movement before taking the next step. Just before she got to the top, she stopped and whispered down, “When I get to the top, I’m going to peek over.”

Before she could look back up, a hand reached out and grabbed onto her wrist. She screamed and tried to pull her arm away, but the grip was too tight. In the struggle, she lost her footing and hung in the air by her wrist. Jeff grabbed her legs and Mark took careful aim at the floor of the loft next to the ladder. With her right hand, Lisa pulled out her pistol and held it out around the ladder. Simultaneously, Lisa and Mark started to fire at the loft floor.

As splinters from the wood planks fell, the hand let go of her wrist and drew back into the loft. Jeff was able to steady her enough so she landed on her feet. A dark black liquid began to pour down through some of the bullet holes onto the ground below. Lisa rubbed her wrist and said, “Damn that hurt!”

The barn door swung open, Dedee and Jet ran in. Sheryl, Amy, and Tami followed. Jet looked around with her sword drawn back and ready as she asked, “What happened?”

Lisa pointed up to the loft. “Zombie.”

There were still sounds of movement from above as Lisa said, “Damn, is that thing gonna die or what?” She sighed. “I’ll go up and finish it off.” Taking the first step of the ladder, she felt a pain shoot from her right ankle up to her hip. She cried out, “Shit!” and pulled herself against it. “I think I hurt my ankle when that thing dropped me.”

Dedee and Sheryl helped her from the ladder and over to the bale of hay so Sheryl could look at her ankle. Sheryl saw it was starting to swell a little and had Tami go back to the house and bring her a wrap.

Jeff said, “I’ll go up.”

Jet put her hand on his shoulder. “Please, be careful.”

He nodded and started up the ladder. He slowed just before the top and looked down. He saw Jet right next to the ladder, looking up at him, and she smiled. Amy and Dedee were watching and he could see the tension in their eyes. Slowly, he peeked over the edge onto the loft. It was there by the edge, about a foot from his face, and it hissed at him.

He jerked back and almost fell from the ladder. He pulled himself back up and peeked over again. It hissed, but it didn’t move. It was flat on its belly with some serious gunshot wounds to its upper torso and neck. Jeff pulled his pistol and pointed it at the forehead. He fired and the round punched through the frontal part of the skull, jerking its head back. The weakened neck tore as it flipped over, the back of its head rested on its spine with its eyes looking up at the roof. Black pus flew from the neck and splashed on Jeff’s hand and pistol.

“Crap!” He looked down at Jet and said, “Step back.” The goo flew from his hand as he flung it around. He looked at his pistol and said, “Damn! And I just cleaned it too.”

Dedee and Sheryl helped Lisa into the house. Sheryl said she would have to stay in bed and off her ankle for the next two days. Jeff and Tami helped Mark into the house. By Sheryl’s instruction, he was to be put in the same room as Lisa, and that Dedee, Jet, and Amy would have to share Mark’s old room. When Lisa saw him being placed in the bed next to hers, she smiled and quietly thanked Sheryl. Sheryl whispered in her ear that she had two days and not to waste it.

“How many days you got?” she asked with a smile.

“Sheryl said two, maybe three. She said I almost tore a stitch, but I don’t see it.”

“Well, at least we’ll have each other for company.” She glanced over at him and noticed he smiled.

“That’s true; I guess a couple of days won’t be so bad.” He sat up in the bed and looked over before he asked, “Wait, you don’t snore do you?”

She laughed. “No, I don’t snore.”

He said, “My right leg is good and your left is good. Put the two of us together, we make one complete person.”

She rolled over, watched him for a minute, and wondered if he was hinting at something. In a softer voice, she said, “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet watched Jeff put the engine back together, then she helped him carry it out. Opening an old rusty box next to the pump, he carefully spliced the wires from the extension cord into it. He had to pull the rope several times before the engine popped and came to life. Jet plugged the cord into the side of it and waited. A few seconds later, the engine revved up a bit and the pump clicked on and started filling the big silver tank.

It didn’t take long before the tank was full and the pump shut off. Jeff smiled as he turned the generator off and unplugged the cord. He stood back and said, “Now, we have running water and a propane water heater. That means hot baths and showers for everybody.”

Jet jumped with excitement and gave him a hug. When they got back in the house, they went to see Mark and Lisa. Jeff told them about the generator and hot running water. He also told them he double-checked on the zombie they killed out in the loft. It appeared an infected person climbed up there and turned after they had already cleared the barn.

Jeff needed to go out and check a different house up the road for gasoline and food. Mark told him to take Jet along, Lisa added that Tami should go too; she felt three people would be better than just two. Reluctantly, Tami got in the van with them and they headed east this time.

Jeff pulled into the first house they saw on the long country road. They checked around the outside and entered the house through the open front door. The living room and kitchen were clear so they proceeded down the hallway. Tami stood in the living room while Jeff and Jet checked all the bedrooms and hallway bathroom. They too were clear.

Jeff pulled a sheet off the bed in the master bedroom and threw some clothes from the closets and dressers on it. Setting it on the living room floor, he got another and went into the kitchen. Jet grabbed all canned goods she could find, including eight boxes of macaroni and cheese, and put them in the sheet. Jet and Tami carried them out to the van while Jeff stood watch in the front yard.

Jeff pointed to a large metal shed behind the house. “We need to check for some gasoline.”

They started for it and stopped when they heard a loud thunderous roar coming from the south. They all looked up as six F-22 Raptors flew over, heading north. They could hear the windows of the house and the metal on the shed rattle as they passed. Within seconds, the planes were only dots on the horizon.

Jet looked back down in amazement and said, “Those must be Air Force. I haven’t heard a plane in weeks. What are they doing?”

Jeff shook his head. “I don’t know, but they sure were in a hurry.”

Returning to the task at hand, they approached the shed. Jeff peeked around the corner into a large open bay. He raised his rifle and waved for Jet and Tami to follow as he entered. Jet kept her sword in front of her ready to strike in any direction while Tami held her pipe over her right shoulder like a bat.

Farther inside, Jeff saw two tractors and a flatbed pickup. He heard something from behind; he turned and saw one sneaking up on Tami. He yelled, “Tami! Behind you!”

She turned and shrieked. One very large zombie stood there staring at her. It was every bit of six feet tall. Tami threw the pipe at it; it hit its chest and bounced off, falling to the ground. She just stood there screaming as it reached out and grabbed her by the throat. Pulling her closer, it opened its mouth to bite into her forehead.

Jet ran and stepped up onto an old wood picnic bench. Leaping into the air, she flew toward it and swung her sword at a downward angle as she passed. She caught the zombie just under the tip of the nose and sliced all the way through to the base of the skull. As she landed, she hit a barrel with her hip and knocked it over.

The top section of the head slowly slid back and fell to the ground behind it. Its grip loosened from Tami’s throat and she took a deep breath. A small amount of thick black blood stained the rim of the skull that remained and some trickles ran down the neck as the body teetered, then fell to the side.

Tami turned and leaned over as she started heaving and spewing green bile on the ground at her feet. Jeff ran over to Jet and helped steady her; she rubbed her hip and took a step. Jet winced as she limped over to where Tami was still throwing up, to see if she was all right. Jeff picked up the pipe, and for a minute, was tempted to use it on Tami.

When she finished, she turned and wiped her lip. Jeff reached out to grab her by the throat, but was able to stop himself from doing so. Tami flinched and jumped back when she saw the fire in his eyes. He growled, “What the hell do you call that? Jet had to save your sorry ass and got hurt in the process. Now, how is she supposed to defend herself? I mean its one thing to need help, but to just stand there and scream like a little bitch, is bullshit!”

She looked over at Jet. Her voice cracked when she said, “Sorry.”

Jeff grabbed Tami’s hand and held it up to her face. “Do you know what these things do to people?”

Before she could stutter a response, he continued. “They eat people! They start with your fingers, biting them off, one at a time.” She looked at her hand and started sobbing. “That’s just an appetizer. Then they eat your arm; sometimes they get rough and pull it out of the socket, or rip it completely off.”

Tami pulled her hand back and folder her arms into her chest. Jet limped over and added, “Yeah, you know that has to hurt. But you want to know the worst part? If they’re still hungry, they grab your head and eat your face off!”

With a petrified look, she said with a squeak in her voice, “Really?”

Jet nodded, “Can you just imagine how it feels to have your face ripped off the bones? If you’re lucky, you will die. If not, you’ll slowly starve.”

Tami squeaked again in between sobs. “Huh? Lucky?”

“Yep, you’ll be a zombie walking around with no arms and no face. You can’t catch anything to eat because you have no arms.”

Jeff handed Tami the pipe back and said in disgust, “Take it, and next time, you better use it.”

Tami screamed and pointed toward where the tractors were. Standing there was another zombie, this one had a pair of worn out overalls and a faded blue shirt on. Jeff gestured and said, “This one’s all yours.”

Still, she just stood there trembling. Jeff put his rifle down on the bench and stepped behind her. He reached around her waist and picked her up. He said to Jet, “Screw this shit! I’m just going to feed her to the zombie now and get it over with.”

Jet screamed, “Jeff, no! That thing is going to tear her apart!”

“Good, then we’ll let it have its last meal before we kill it.”

Tami jerked and squirmed as Jeff carried her closer. She almost got free so he tightened his grip. Screaming hysterically, she begged, “Jeff, please, don’t do this. Nooooooo!”

Jeff stopped, but the zombie came closer and started to reach out. He stood and taunted it with her and said, “C’mon, zombie boy, come and get your lunch.” Jeff could feel her heart beating and swore it was about ready to pound right out of her chest.

Jet screamed, “Tami, hit it! Hit it!”

She cried out, “I can’t!”

Jeff whispered in Tami’s ear, “Just look at those teeth, its mouth is already watering for you.” He took a half step closer. The zombie grabbed at her, missing her arm buy inches. She screamed again and jerked even harder. About to lose his grip, he said, “Good-bye, Tami. Here ya go, zombie boy, enjoy your lunch.” He let go and the zombie lunged at her. She let out a blood-curdling scream so loud, it hurt his ears.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl sorted through the clothes and discarded the ones that obviously weren’t going to fit anyone. She looked at a few pieces from the keep pile and a big smile came across her face. Separating a couple of pieces, she took them into the bathroom and set them on top of the hamper, then went into the bedroom to get Lisa.

She told Lisa a warm bath would make her feel better and she helped her to the tub. Lisa ran the water and added the bubble bath Dedee had brought back. When she slid into the tub, it felt so nice. Pulling the band from her hair, she let it fall and ran some of the warm bubbly water through it. She sat back and closed her eyes as she relaxed.

She started to doze off, but woke when Sheryl came back in. Sheryl told her she would return in about ten minutes and help her back to the bedroom. After Lisa had dried, she looked for her clothes, but they weren’t there. Instead, there was a nice light blue sleeveless shirt and a skirt that came to mid-thigh on the hamper. Not having much of a choice, she put them on.

When Sheryl came back in, Lisa asked her, “What happened to my clothes?”

“I’m going to wash them so I brought these in for you.”

“I really don’t care to wear dresses that much and would prefer to have some pants, just in case I have to fight.”

“Well, you’re not going to be doing much of that with your ankle like it is. Besides, blue really sets off your eyes.”

Sheryl handed her a small red bag and Lisa asked, “What’s this for?”

“That’s for your lashes and I think just a small bit will do. You won’t need anything else in there, trust me. When he sees you in that, he won’t know what hit him.”

Lisa put the band back in her hair and went through the bag. When she was done with the makeup, Sheryl made her take the band back out and she went to work on her hair. When Sheryl was done, Lisa looked at herself in the mirror; she saw her hair had a nice fluffy look. “Well, I guess that’s okay.”

Sheryl said to her, “Lisa, you look absolutely beautiful. Just watch his reaction when you go back in the room.”

Fidgeting in the dress, she said, “I sure hope you’re right. I feel really awkward in this.”

Mark heard them coming up the hallway to the door and he said, “It’s about time, I thought…” When he saw her, his jaw dropped and he stared. He watched as Sheryl helped her over to the bed. He could feel his heart pounding away in his chest and he was completely speechless. He knew she was pretty, but now without a doubt he knew she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Lisa asked him, “Is there something wrong?”

Still speechless and his mouth agape, he shook his head.

Lisa watched as Mark turned his gaze away from her briefly, and she could hear him whisper to himself, “Wow, drop dead gorgeous.”

Lisa smiled; Sheryl leaned over and whispered in her ear, “See? What did I tell you?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tami jumped back and swung the pipe wildly from left to right, and then back again. First, she hit its hand and tore off two fingers. On the next pass, she hit its forearm and it completely snapped it off at the elbow. It flew across the shed and disappeared on the other side of a tractor. On the next one, she hit its hip. There was a loud crack and it leaned to the side.

As she brought it through again, she hit the side of the head. It jerked as part of the face flew off and splattered on some wood boxes by Jet. On the last pass, she caught the side of the skull and the head spun around with a grinding crunch and it was facing backward. The zombie fell, landing on its back, and face, on the hard dirt floor.

Nearly out of breath and still hysterical, Tami turned to Jeff, “You son of a bitch! You were going to hold me while that damn thing ate my face!”

“No, I wasn’t. I was just trying to motivate you.”

She looked at Jet as she panted. Jet nodded and said, “That’s right. We kill zombies, not our friends.”

Jeff started to laugh. Tami gave him an angry look and asked, “What’s so funny about me thinking I was going to be eaten?”

He shook his head and pointed at the zombie. “No, look at what you did to it. You tore that poor bastard all up.”

She looked down at it, then back up. “I did that?”

Jeff said, “You and that pipe you have.”

She was silent, then asked, “Umm… Can I go back in the house and clean up a bit?” She turned to Jet. “Oh, I’ll need some clean underwear from the van too.”

There was the loud thundering roar from above again. They looked up and watched as the Raptors shot by, headed south.

X

The van pulled onto the road and they headed back to the house. Tami sat in the back in silence and had calmed somewhat since her ordeal. Reflecting on it, she felt a little upset at how they had gone about it, but understood their reason. Jet had a pretty nasty bruise on her left hip from having to save her because she froze. She felt a little embarrassed because everyone else was doing what had to be done, but she freaked out under the pressure. Looking at the pipe on the floorboard next to her, she hopped she could do it again the next time.

The van slowed before making a right turn and stopping in front of the house. Jeff started to get out and noticed Jet was starting at something through the dusty windshield. She asked, “What’s that?” and pointed.

Jeff looked out and saw a large black cloud rising from the ground and spreading across the horizon. “That looks like smoke, a whole lot of smoke.”

Tami heard their conversation and looked. She gasped before saying, “That fire must be huge.”

Jeff swallowed hard and asked, “Do you think those planes we saw did that?”

Jet shook her head and mumbled. “I dunno.”

They sat in the van for a while watching the cloud of smoke grow before Jet and Tami got out and took the stuff into the house. Jeff grabbed the small gas can, took it over by the pump, and filled the tank of the generator. Inside, Tami told Sheryl about seeing the planes and smoke on the horizon. After Jet talked to Dedee and Amy, she went to tell Lisa and Mark about it. Before she could open the door, she was stopped by Sheryl and told they were resting and no one was allowed in the room.

Jeff went back into the barn and took down an extra-large pair of pruning shears that hung on the wall. The wood handles were strong and in good shape. He removed the bolt that held them together and filed the blade on the end. Now, both sides of the blade were sharp and would cut, plus the heavy-duty wood handle was great for striking. Proud of his handy work, he took it in the house with him and gave it to Sheryl.

Amy had been waiting all day for Jeff to return and to have a free moment to talk. When she saw he did, she asked, “Jeff, are you going to put the cross on Todd’s grave tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I was going to do it today, but that zombie showed up and we had to flip-flop our plans around.” He noticed she was holding something in her hand.

“Okay, I’ll need the shovel too.”

He was a little curious, so he asked, “What do you need that for?”

She opened her hand and showed him an acorn. “I need to plant this.” She talked as she looked at it. “Before we left our house, we picked these up from our back yard. My dad planted a tree when I was born and another when Todd was born. This came from one of the trees. We were going to plant them wherever we ended up so we’d always have part of home with us. I want him to have one so part of home will be close and he will always have shade.” She looked back up at Jeff. “Maybe after all this is over and I’m older, I can come back and look for his tree. I know my brother will be close by and I can talk to him.”

Jeff nodded and said, “I’ll help you plant it.”

Just before dark, Sheryl took some candles to Mark and Lisa for the night. Jeff set up the watch schedule and made one last check around the house before dark. Looking to the north, he could still see the smoke and a faint glow from the fire on the horizon. When he went back inside, Jet was there ready for the first watch. Jeff lay down on the couch and Jet sat down next to him. They talked for a while before he finally went to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark was memorized by Lisa’s beauty and stared into her eyes as she talked. “I think we need to get out of here as soon as we get back on our feet.”

He nodded. “I agree. I expected to be a lot farther along than what we are now.”

Lisa bit her lip as she said, “I have to confess. I’m a little nervous right now. I mean, there were those planes, and then they saw the smoke. I wonder what that was all about.”

He stared into her eyes as she looked into his. “I don’t know, but they have to be related. Those kinds of planes aren’t used for general ground recon, let alone six of them.”

She nodded. “Well, Jeff and Amy will be going out to where Todd is buried in the morning and they shouldn’t be gone long. Sheryl said we have about three days worth of food left. Then we have these zombies appearing from pretty much thin air.”

He thought everything about her was beautiful. He even liked the way her lips moved when she talked. He said, “Yeah, I don’t like the way they’re just appearing. Something isn’t right. That one from the loft climbed up and turned while he was up there. That means he went up while we were here inside the house.”

“When I see Sheryl in the morning, I think I’ll tell her to have Dedee start packing up some of the supplies. That way, they’ll be ready to go and we can leave the morning after that.”

Mark didn’t respond. He had focused so much on watching her that he missed most of what she just said. She asked, “Mark? What do you think?”

Focused only on his feelings for her, he opened his mouth and it just came out. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

Lisa gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. Mark looked at her in confusion and replayed the last few minutes over in his mind before he realized what he had said.

She stared at him in surprise and asked, “What did you just say?”

He hoped he hadn’t ruined anything. He knew from experience that girls like Lisa never went for guys like him. If all they could be was friends, then he would be happy with that, but he had just opened his mouth and blurted it out. He stammered, “Umm… oh boy.”

She moved over and sat on the edge of his bed. “Mark, please tell me you just said what I think you did.”

Hearing her say that made him a little more confident, and he hoped there was a chance they could be more than just friends. In a clear, but still nervous voice, he said, “Lisa, I think… no… I know I’m falling in love with you.”

She leaned over and kissed him passionately. She came up only to take a breath and say, “I love you too.” She barely said the word ‘too’ and she was kissing him again. Without stopping, she said, “I need to feel you inside me.”

Mark was kissing her back and loved how she tasted. He felt her tongue pass his lips and gently caress his. A sudden rush of energy entered his body and exhilarated him. He put his arms around her and slowly ran his hands down her back as she climbed onto the bed. She unbuttoned her shirt while his hands moved over her hips and onto her thighs. He felt her every curve as his hands moved up under her skirt. Neither wasted any time, undressing the other, as they kissed.

She straddled him and he felt her soft wet heat as she slid down, taking him in. He kissed her mouth wildly as she intensely raised and lowered herself. Matching her intensity and rhythm, their breathing became heavy and his hands gently caressed her smooth feminine body. She wrapped the sheet around her hands and pulled it free from the mattress. He held her tightly against him and thrust deep. Their energies merged into one as he erupted, releasing all his warm liquid love inside of her. Leaning back, she closed her eyes and let out a quivering sigh of pure pleasure as her orgasm resonated through her body.

They looked into each other eyes and he loved the feel of her skin against his. Caressing her arms and kissing her wrist, Mark could see passion burned hot in Lisa’s soul. She felt satisfied, but didn’t want to stop. She took his hands and put them on her soft breasts. Leaning forward, she kissed him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl walked into the living room. “Okay, Jet, I’ll take it from here.”

Jet looked at her, but didn’t get up. “I’ll never get to sleep back there. Don’t they realize we can hear everything there doing?”

Sheryl just smiled and said, “Well, when you’re ready for that kind of affection, you’ll understand. When all of your attention is focused on that special person with you, the rest of the world just kind of fades out.”

“Okay, I guess, but they’ve been at it for over an hour.” She giggled. “I was wonder if they’re attempting a new world record or something. I mean, this is like the fourth time.”

Sheryl stopped and asked, “The fourth? Really?”

“Yep.”

They heard Lisa moan as she had another orgasm. Jet nudged Jeff. “Slide back a little more and make room for me.”

He mumbled and slid against the back of the couch, lying on his side. Jet lay down and snuggled up with her back to him. She took his hand and set it on her stomach as she caressed his arm. Hearing them in the room, she sighed. “Again?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet’s eyes opened and she saw Amy standing there. She felt Jeff behind her still asleep. Sitting up, she noticed Sheryl wasn’t around. She shook Jeff as she said, “Hey, wake up. It’s your turn to take watch.”

Amy said, “No, it’s not. I took it.” She looked down the hallway. “I wasn’t sleeping very good anyway.”

Jet glanced down the hallway, then back at Amy. With a smile, she asked, “You heard them too, huh?”

“Who didn’t?”

In a groggy voice, Jeff asked, “What’s going on?”

Jet chuckled. “Your brother and Lisa kept everyone awake last night.”

“Why? What happened?” He looked at them both, but they didn’t answer. “How come no one woke me up? What’s going on?”

Jet gave him a pat on the arm and said, “I’ll explain it to you later.”

Jet helped him up from the couch. After he washed his face and woke up, he and Amy went out to the barn. A few minutes later, Dedee and Jet joined them. They went out into the field and Jeff put the cross in the ground. Amy stared at the acorn as Jeff dug a small hole for it. She carefully placed it in the hole and whispered, “Don’t worry, little brother; I’ll come back some day to visit you.”

When they returned to the house, Tami and Sheryl were in the kitchen. With a smile, Sheryl looked at Jet and asked, “Really? Face eating for dessert?”

Jet grinned as she said, “Well, it sounded good at the time.” She didn’t hear Mark or Lisa moving around in the bedroom, so she asked, “Aren’t they up yet?”

“No, they were up pretty late last night… or should I say early this morning?”

Dedee said, “Yeah, no kidding. I swear, I think they’re part rabbit or something.”

They heard movement and the bedroom door opened, Mark carefully stepped out and into the hallway. He stopped when he noticed everyone staring at him. Lisa came out and strolled down the hallway toward the kitchen with a beaming smile. She passed by Tami. “G’morning, Tami.” Peeking out through the window, she said, “Looks like another wonderful day outside.”

Tami turned to Sheryl and asked, “Who took our Lisa and replaced her with this person?”

“I guess you could say this is our new Lisa.” She looked at them both. “Lisa, it looks like your ankle is doing better. Mark, you better be careful. I don’t want any stitches popping out.” She winked at Lisa.

Lisa said, “Mark and I have talked and we need to get things ready so we can leave.”

Mark added, “Yeah, I don’t like the way these zombies have been showing up. If we can, I’d like to leave this afternoon.”

Dedee, Jet, and Amy began packing the food and usable clothing. Tami got the medical supplies together while Sheryl took another look at Mark’s leg. She felt it was healing nicely and she would probably take the stitches out in a few days. Lisa got her regular clothes and changed into them. When she put her things in the bag, she made sure the little blue skirt and shirt were in there.

Sheryl gave Jet a strap for her sword she had made from a pair of denim jeans and Jeff attached it for her. She put it over her shoulder; it fit nicely up against her back and was easily accessible. All she had to do was practice drawing it without cutting her hair or scalp with the sharp edge.

By early afternoon, everything was packed up and loaded into the van. Before they left, Lisa insisted they stop back by the first farmhouse and top off the tank. Even though it was only a few gallons, she said the distance it would cover was equal to a day’s walk. After thinking about it, everyone agreed.

They stopped at the farm and pulled around back by the fuel tank. Jeff stepped out to top off the tank while Dedee and Lisa kept watch. As he was removing the cap from the tank, they all heard something fall inside the shed. Jet jumped out of the back with her sword. They listened and heard more movement from inside. Lisa looked over and said, “Hurry up, Jeff.”

The wind picked up a bit, a door on the shed swung open and slammed against the metal skin with a bang. Lisa ran over and turned the valve of the tank on. Dedee shrieked and Lisa looked back. She saw four zombies coming toward them, but only two of them were moving fast. She noticed the two slower ones had parts of their arms and faces eaten off.

Lisa drew her pistol, but the two faster ones were already on her sister and had her on the ground. Lisa aimed, but they were too close to Dedee for her to get a clear shot. She ran over and kicked the first one in the ribs twice before she fired and blew the back of its head out. Dedee had her bat against the throat of the second one, holding it back.

Lisa saw a long stick appear to her right. Looking over, she saw Sheryl jab the handle into its mouth. The teeth broke and fell away as it slid in and the double-sided blade popped out from the back its neck. Sheryl twisted the handle and lifted; the zombie immediately went limp and fell to the ground.

Jet charged the third one, slicing its gut wide open as she passed. There was a nasty gurgling sound as intestines and maggots poured out through the gash and the smell of rotting flesh and sulfur filled the air. Her second swing cut clean through the neck and severed the head.

Jet looked at the last one and saw Tami beating its face and head with the pipe. The skull bone began to weaken and there were indentations of the pipe in its forehead. It managed to grab her and leaned in to take a bite. She screamed loudly, “You’re not eating my face, ass bag.” She brought the end of the pipe up as hard as she could into the soft under part of the chin.

The edge of the pipe cut as it penetrated until it hit the top inside of the skull bone and caused the head to jerk up. The neck snapped and the head ripped completely off. Tami held the pipe up with the zombies head on the end of it and yelled, “I got this one.”

She set the head on the ground upside down and placed her foot on the base of the skull. Tami jerked up on the pipe until it came back out. She looked and saw there was a round hole under its chin where the pipe had been. Casually, Tami tapped the pipe against some concrete blocks until the contents inside it slid out onto the dirt. Once it was all over, she bent over and heaved several times before straitening up and returning to the van.

Jeff finished and waved them over as he said, “C’mon, let’s go.”

Lisa jumped back in the passenger seat while Jeff, Dedee, and the rest got into the back. Jeff saw five more running toward them. He raised his rifle and fired, dropping the closest two. He got the doors closed as the other three reached them. One managed to get its hand in the door, but it was severed as the door slammed shut.

Mark threw the van in gear and punched the accelerator. The back tires spun, kicking up a trail of dirt and pebbles. The back of the van fishtailed wildly as they drove toward the road, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. Once they were on the pavement, the tires squealed and white smoke billowed into the air. The tires slowly grabbed traction and they were launched forward.

Lisa looked back and said, “Tami, that was some nice work back there.”

Mark glanced into the rearview mirror. “Yes, nice job. That zombie looked like a giant Halloween PEZ dispenser.” He laughed.

Lisa looked over at Mark and said with a smirk, “Okay, I’ll give you that one. It was kinda funny.”

They got on the freeway and headed north. Lisa kept a close eye out for anything that may come up behind them or from the access roads running alongside the freeway. They were finally making some good time and Mark started to feel a little better. He figured that if they kept up a good, steady pace, they would be at the cabin in a just few days. But that would be if nothing else happened along the way. The way things had been going so far, it seemed there was a surprise waiting for them around every corner.

Mark slowed and came to a stop; he put his head in his hands and sighed. The overpass in front of them was partially collapsed and only a narrow section of road remained. Lisa looked through the windshield, but couldn’t see the ground below. Mark turned to her and his eyes widened as he looked beyond. He said, “Oh shit!”

Lisa looked to the right through her window. She was shocked. She sat speechless for a moment, then asked, “What in the hell happened here?”

Everyone in back got out and stood, staring out at the landscape. The area must have covered a square mile. The ground was black except for a dozen or so small craters scattered through it. There were charred frameworks that were once portable trailers. Toward the center, was a scorched concrete structure, now hollowed out. The multiple fence lines that once enclosed and secured the area now had sections knocked over or completely missing. Though they didn’t see any smoke, its odor still lingered in the air.

Without taking his eyes off the blackened earth, Mark said, “I bet this is what the planes were doing. This had to be where all the smoke came from.” Mark had to pause before continuing. “This is one of those MQCs they held the uninfected people in.”

Jet whispered to Jeff, “What happened? Where are all the people?”

Jeff looked at her and shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m sure some of them got away.”

Jet got a sick feeling in her stomach as his words sank in. She remembered Mark saying some of the compounds had 30,000 people living inside. If only some of them got away? How many were still inside when it burned? Those were questions she really didn’t want the answers to.

Mark went over to the edge and looked down. The ground below was about twenty feet down and was littered with asphalt and concrete debris. “It’s pretty narrow, but we should be able to make it across.”

Lisa saw him standing on the very edge and started to get nervous. “Mark, get away from the edge. It looks pretty unstable.”

He glanced over at her. “Nah, it looks okay to me.”

Lisa shook her head as she sighed and said quietly, “I swear, he’s going to drive me nuts.” She watched as Mark jumped back, a section of road where he had just been standing, crumbled and fell away. She shouted, “It looks okay, huh? Does it still look okay?”

“Yeah, well, I think it’s stronger over here where I’ll drive across.”

“What? Drive across that? Have you totally lost your mind?”

“Look, Lisa, by the time we go back and zigzag around, we’ve lost the better part of a day. Or we can just drive fifty feet over to there.” And he pointed to the other side. “Not to mention the fact it will probably leave us close to empty.” He gestured to the landscape around him. “And I don’t see any fuel around here either.”

“And what are you going to do if the road collapses?”

He shrugged and said, “I’ll open the door and jump out, but I don’t think it will.”

She looked at him like that was the most insane thing she had ever heard. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed your leg slowing you down. You won’t be able to move fast enough if you have to jump.”

Jeff said, “Yeah, but I will.”

All eyes turned to him. Jet got a nervous twitch in her stomach as she stared at him. She had this horrible vision of watching the road collapsing from under him as he crossed. “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked.

“Would you rather walk the rest of the way?”

She didn’t even have to think about it. “Yep, I’ll walk it.”

Jeff smiled as he said, “Well, it’s not going to come to that. Trust me, I’ll be fine.” Then his smile faded. “Just in case, let’s carry our stuff over before I drive across it.”

They carried all of their supplies to the other side and waited. Jeff slowly started to drive the van over. With nervous anxiety, Jet watched him creep across. Halfway, a small section of the road collapsed and fell after the front tire had gone over it. Jet shrieked and told him to stop. Mark checked it out and told him to hug the concrete divider and he would be okay.

Jeff angled the van over, but now there was no room for him to open the door and jump if he had to. As he proceeded, a little more of the edge crumbled away and the side of the van was now up against the concrete divider. Jet looked away with her hands over her ears. She hated the sound of the metal scraping the concrete; it was like finger nails dragging across a chalkboard.

She heard the muffled sound of everyone screaming, the engine of the van revving up, and the scraping metal. She started to scream too, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and look. She continued screaming until she felt a hand on her arm. Opening here eyes, she saw Amy standing in front of her staring.

Concerned, Amy asked, “Are you okay?”

“No, I can’t look, was he able to jump out of the van?”

Amy shook her head. “No, why would he?”

“Huh?” Jet turned and saw the van on this side of the overpass and Jeff picking up their supplies. She ran over to him, and then looked at the road behind the van. All but about a two foot wide section of the road had collapsed and was gone. “I thought you fell,” she said to him.

“Close, the road started to fall apart so I had to punch it.” He smiled. “No problem though and we don’t have to walk it. Let’s get this stuff back in the van so we can get going.”

XI

Dedee sat in the back and tried to catnap like everyone else, but she was too excited, so she asked Jeff, “What’s it like up at the cabin?”

“I remember it’s way up in the mountains.” He thought hard, trying to remember what it looked like, but he couldn’t get a clear picture. “And I know there’s a lake pretty close by it, but that’s all I can tell you.”

Jet smiled as she looked up at Jeff. “Oh! I love to go swimming.”

“Me too!” Dedee said, then she asked, “Are there a lot of wild animals up there?”

“I’m not sure.” He sighed.

Mark said from the front, “Yes, there are bear, deer, raccoon, and skunks. You also have dozens of different kinds of birds.” He smiled. “In the winter it snows. We’ve had some killer snowball fights up there before and there’s a place where we can ride sleds down the side of the mountain. One thing you won’t have is zombies walking up to the door.”

Tami looked to the front and said, “I think I can handle living without them.”

Sheryl asked, “Is there a rest stop ahead? I really need to pee.”

Mark pulled to the side of the road. “Here it is.”

Lisa looked all round, “Where? I don’t see one.”

“Right here.” Mark got out and went over to the passenger side. “Right there.” He pointed to a bunch of bushes.

Dedee jumped out and ran toward them as she said, “If somebody sees a car, holler.”

Lisa looked him in the eye. “You better hope I don’t get bit in the ass by a snake.”

Mark smiled and said, “Don’t worry. If you do, I’ll suck the venom out.”

She smirked as she walked away and said, “Yeah, I’m sure you will.”

Mark and Jeff waited on the other side of the van and kept watch for any cars that might happen to pass by. When everyone was accounted for, Mark pulled back onto the road. After an hour, Lisa turned on the radio and started checking for a station that might be on the air. Mark didn’t think she would find anything, but it kept her mind busy.

They drove for hours and saw mostly countryside with an occasional small town dividing the fields. When Mark saw a truck stop, he slowed and pulled off the freeway. Stopping behind a yellow building, Mark and Lisa watched a fuel pump midway across a large parking lot for a few minutes. Neither one saw any activity in the area so Mark got out and went over to it.

After standing there for a minute, he waved for them to come over. Lisa drove the van over and parked by the pump. Jeff jumped from the back and took the generator over by the pump. He popped the cover off and began hooking up the wires directly to the pump motor. It only took him a few minutes to get it going and the van filled up. Once they were back on the freeway, Lisa kept an eye out for nicer hotels close to the road.

Just as they were on the verge of leaving one of the larger towns, Lisa tapped on the window with her finger as she said, “That one! Right there.”

“Why that particular one?” he asked.

She leaned over and glanced into the back before whispering in his ear with a seductive tone, “Suites with satin sheets.”

He saw her smile and the look in her eyes. The sound of her sweet voice and warm breath in his ear woke something inside him. Glancing into the rearview mirror, he said, “Okay, guys, we’re stopping here for the night.”

After driving around the hotel, he parked the van down in a loading dock behind some trash dumpsters. They made their way to the front and slipped in through the door. Mark and Jeff raised their rifles and Lisa her pistol as they checked and cleared the lobby. They made their way over to the check-in counter.

Jeff stepped around behind it and went through all of the drawers. He took several stacks of plastic cards out of one and set them on the counter. Mark picked them up and threw them back down. “Shit! These locks are on a keycard system and we don’t have any power.”

Lisa ran behind the counter and looked for herself. “There has to be keys, even on a card system, there has to be some master keys for the doors. Look for a big ring somewhere.”

They heard Amy say, “Maybe they have them.” They looked over to where she was pointing and saw three zombies, dressed hotel uniforms, coming down the hallway. When they entered the lobby, they split up. One headed toward the counter and the other two went toward Dedee and Amy.

Tami raised her pipe and swung at its head as she ran toward it. The zombie reached up and grabbed the pipe. Tami shrieked and instinctively kicked it in the groin. It froze in place and moaned, making it an easy target as Sheryl jabbed the sharpened blade into its forehead.

Black tar oozed out from the slit and ran over its brow and down its nose, before dripping on the floor. It slowly leaned back and fell like a board. Tami’s stomach tightened, she fought hard, but spewed on the polished granite floor anyway.

Jet said as she laughed, “My gawd, the zombies have nards!”

Dedee swung the bat at an upward angle and hit the bottom of its chin. There was a crunch as the lower jaw went behind the top teeth and up into the skull to the point where the chin almost disappeared. It began jerking wildly before falling to the side.

Mark took his knife and tried to thrust it up through its chin, but the zombie grabbed his hand. He struggled, but it was a stalemate. Lisa came up from behind the zombie, drove her knife into the base of the skull at an upward angle, and wiggled the blade. The zombie went limp and dropped to the floor.

Mark stepped back and stared at it. “What the hell? That thing was pretty damned strong for a zombie, and it acted like it knew I was trying to kill it.”

Lisa wiped the blade and slid it back into the sheath. “I don’t know. Maybe a fresh turn? The color is pale, but it hasn’t started to rot or smell, so there are probably more of them around.”

Tami came over to them and said, “Mine did the same thing. It reached up and grabbed the pipe.”

Mark and Lisa checked the pockets, but they didn’t find any keys. Lisa went over to a closed door behind the counter and checked it. She said, “This one’s locked, might be a manager’s office though.” She picked up a large fire extinguisher and went back to the door. “Well, here goes nothing.” She threw it against the door as hard as she could. The door held, but the doorframe by the latch gave way with a crack as the wood splintered and it swung open.

A fast moving zombie charged out from the office and took Lisa down to the floor. It took both of her hands to hold the head back so it couldn’t bite her. Mark saw it and thought to himself. You bastards have taken almost everything away from me; I’ll be damned if you’re going to take my Lisa. He set his rifle on the counter as he ran over, grabbed it by the back of the shirt, and pulled it up. It had such a tight grip on Lisa; she was pulled up with it. It took both her and Mark to keep it from biting her.

Tami ran over with her pipe, but couldn’t get a clear strike. Mark yelled, “Put it across its mouth! Put the pipe in its mouth!”

She did and Mark quickly grabbed the ends and pulled the pipe back toward him. This gave him more leverage, and he was able to pull the zombie back away from Lisa. He felt the back of its skull up against his chest. Mark grunted and pulled the pipe back as hard as he could. There was a loud crack as its jaw broke and popped out of its socket.

The head jerked wildly and the lower jaw swung around as it hung by a few strands of muscle tissue. The tongue flip-flopped and twisted around inside the swinging jaw. The zombie reached back and grabbed Mark’s shirt then began to tug on it. Mark dropped the pipe and grabbed it by the side of the head, then started slamming its face on the top of the check-in counter. It made a wet thwack sound with every impact as the rotting tissue began turning to mush.

Mark felt his muscles getting tired and his arms and chest were very sore. He didn’t know how much strength he had left, but this thing was not going to die easily and he wasn’t going to stop until it was dead. He grunted and continued to slam its face into the counter. Black goo splattered outwards with every impact. Finally, he started to hear a cracking sound when its face made contact with the counter.

After slamming into the counter over a dozen times, the zombie finally went limp. He dropped it and let it fall to the floor as he stepped back. Almost out of breath, he shook his head and puffed as he leaned on the counter. “Damned son of a bitch didn’t want to die.”

He heard it hiss from the floor; taking his foot, he stomped its head until the skull collapsed. Gray goo, mixed with the black, shot out in every direction on the floor. Tami saw the mess and ran to the other side of the counter where she started throwing up.

After he wiped the bottom of his boot on a clean section of carpet, he looked at Lisa. With tired eyes, he gestured to the open door and said, “After you.”

She looked at the mess on the counter and floor, then back up at Mark before going in. Jeff followed her while Mark leaned against the counter, slowly catching his breath. Lisa went through the desk and found a large ring with keys. When she came out through the door, she was smiling and holding the ring out on her index finger. She asked Mark, “Are you ready?” He nodded and stood up. She said, “Good, now let’s go up to the eighth floor and find our room.”

He moaned. “Eighth floor?”

She said with a smirk, “C’mon, I’ll even hold the door to the stairs open for you.”

Jeff said, “You guys go ahead, me and Jet are going to check out the kitchen and see and what we can find.”

Jet asked, “Anyone want to join us?”

Amy ran over to them. “I will.”

Jeff, Amy, and Jet started down the hallway opposite of where the three zombies came in. They passed a gift shop and lounge before they came to the restaurant. As they entered, they noticed a sour smell in the air so they proceeded cautiously, watching and listening for any movement as they made their way around the tables.

They came to a set of doors that led into the kitchen area. As soon as they entered, the sour smell became more pungent. Jeff had his rifle ready, Amy remained close behind him, and Jet kept to his side with her sword drawn. They checked the food service area and almost gagged as they came across several counters full of molded and rotting, meat and produce. Amy had one hand over her mouth and the other pinching her nose as she gagged.

Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, they held their breath and went back to the food storage area. The smell was still in the air, but not quite as strong. They all took a in a breath of air as their eyes watered. Going farther back, they found six carts full of canned food. After taking a quick inventory, Jeff sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Jet asked.

Jeff pointed to the cans as he spoke, “Whole kernel corn, Spanish corn, creamed corn, and mixed vegetables with corn. I’m kinda getting sick of nothing but vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate having food to eat, but where’s the frickin’ meat? Guys need meat, ya know.”

Holding a can of creamed corn, Amy stared at him. “You know, that does sound kinda good right now.”

Jet looked into his eyes and saw his disappointment. She said, “Okay, we’ll see if we can find some canned meat.”

They looked over everything on nearby carts before moving to some metal shelves mounted on the wall. There they found some tuna and some canned pork. Satisfied with the find, they started for the doorway leading back into the food prep area. As they took a breath before entering, they heard something metal hit the floor toward the back of the room.

Jeff turned with his rifle up and Jet raised her sword. They looked at each other in silence. Jeff motioned for Amy to stay there and for Jet to follow him. Looking down the barrel, he worked his way to where the sound had come from. They passed the large racks of canned goods and went around a corner.

Jeff stopped and held up his hand for Jet to stay where she was at. He took a few steps forward and kicked a galvanized trashcan before he said, “Okay, you two come out real slow and I want to see your hands.”

Jet watched as he stood there, looking down the barrel of his rifle. For a minute, there was no movement or sound, except for Jeff’s breathing. Then she saw a man slowly climbing out from under a portable counter with his hands raised. He looked like he wasn’t much older than Mark, probably twenty or so. A few seconds later, a girl about the same age as the man crawled out, holding her hands over her head.

She said, “Please don’t hurt us.” She slowly took off her wedding ring and held it out. “Here… I’ll give you this… just please, don’t hurt us.”

Jeff lowered his rifle and said to her, “Put it back on. We’re not here to rob or hurt you.” Then he asked, “What are you doing here anyway?”

The man let out a sigh of relief and said, “We escaped from the compound south of Bakersfield and have been on the move ever since.”

Jeff said, “We saw it, what’s the story with that?”

The lady said in a shaky voice, “The zombies started breaking through the fence. The Army guys held them off for days until they ran out of bullets. There were thousands of them that came through the gate and broke down the fence.”

The man added, “Yeah, we just barely made it out before the planes got there and fire bombed it.”

Jet asked, “Were there more people with you?”

“Yeah, about fifty or sixty of us made it out. We stuck together for the first twelve hours and then we split up. Some of us came this way; a few others went south. We’re headed for Canada; I hear there’s a zombie-free zone up there.”

Jet sighed and asked, “How many people were in that camp?”

The lady said in a soft voice, “About 36,000.”

Jet closed her eyes and cringed. “Jeff, I need to go up to the room. I’m feeling kinda sick.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa ran over to the front doors and started going through the keys on the ring. Once she found the right one, she locked them so nothing could come in. Tami and Sheryl grabbed the bags and they all started for the stairs. Lisa drew her pistol and took the lead while Mark and Dedee brought up the rear.

When they got to the second floor landing, Lisa heard something a couple of floors up. She held her finger to her lips and pointed up. She quietly looked up between the flights of stairs. At first glimpse it was clear; she took a couple of more steps then saw a face peer over the rail, looking down at her. Most of the skin had been torn off the face and the muscle tissue had a dry black scaly look to it. They eyes were blue-white and one had started to wrinkle up more than the other.

She thought to herself. This is definitely the fugliest rot-bag I’ve run across yet. When it hissed, it sent chills down her spine. Dedee looked up to see what Lisa was pointing at. When she saw it, she shrieked and jumped back as she shuttered.

Tami looked up and said, “Oh my gawd, something ate its face off.”

They went up to the floor just below it. Lisa said, “No problem, one shot and its out of commission.”

Mark said, “No, Lisa, this is concrete and bullets can ricochet off the walls and stairs.”

“Fine, Dedee, give me your bat.”

She holstered her pistol and started up the stairs with the bat in her hands. When she was halfway up the last flight of steps that led to the landing it was on, she stopped. It stood there waiting for her and hissing. She swung at it a few times, but it always grabbed for the bat. She realized she had to be on the landing to hit it with the bat, but first she had to take it out so she could get on that landing.

She stood there for a minute thinking, and then had an idea. She took one step up and started to jab at it with the end of the bat. She hit the legs a few times before it was able to grab a hold of the bat. Making sure it had a tight grip; Lisa dropped to her knees and hugged the wall while she used her weight and strength to pull back on the bat.

This threw the zombie off balance and it teetered on the edge of the landing before falling forward. It hit the steps hard and slid down the rest of the flight face-first, bouncing over every step. Sheryl ran up and jabbed the blade of her shears into its ear. She pushed as she wiggled the handle and it made a wet squishy sound as she drove it in deeper.

Tami leaned over and started to dry heave. Mark quickly said, “Tami, please, don’t. We still have to walk on those steps.”

Tami covered her mouth with both hands and retched several more times before she stopped. With watery eyes and bile breath, she said, “Don’t worry, I swallowed it.” She fanned herself as she took a breath. “I need some water; I still have some chunks at the back of my throat.”

Mark felt the saliva in his mouth getting thick and his stomach tighten, but he held it back. They stepped around the corpse and made their way to the eighth floor. There were three doors in the hallway, so Lisa chose the middle one. She opened the door and she stepped in first. It seemed quiet and Mark stepped in behind her.

Everyone else stayed out in the hallway by the door and waited. Lisa went into one of the bedrooms to check it and immediately came running back out as she shrieked. Mark heard the commotion and brought up his rifle as it chased her into the living room area. She saw him and screamed, “Not in here! I don’t want zombie spatter all over the leather couch.”

She ran out the door, followed by Mark as he kept his rifle aimed at it. When he stepped out into the hallway, he caught one of the bags with his foot, fell backward to the floor, and dropped his rifle. As it came up and leaned over him, he brought up his right foot and kicked in it the chest, pushing it back. Lisa said as he took aim, “Checkout time” and fired a shot. The zombie flew back through the air and bounced when it hit the floor.

She stepped in front of Mark and held her hand out. “Now just look at this, laying around when we have all this stuff to carry in.” She grinned.

Mark took her hand and she helped him to his feet. He grabbed two of the bags and Tami grabbed the third. Lisa took a look at the bedrooms as Mark and Tami set the bags down by the couch. She pointed to one of the rooms as she said, “That one right there is ours.”

Mark went in and fell onto the bed; he started to grit his teeth as he rubbed his thigh. He took some deep breaths and heard a knock at the door. Dedee went over and opened it, Jeff walked in and set the cans of food on the coffee table. Amy and Jet brought in some plates and silverware from the restaurant. The man and woman followed them in and sat on the couch.

Jet said, “Hey, this is Gary and Sharon. We found them down in the kitchen. They escaped from that burned out compound we saw and they’re on their way to Canada.”

Jeff held up a can of pork and said, “We got some meat with our veggies tonight.”

Tami shook her head. “No thanks, I’m not really that hungry right now.”

Dedee grinned as she looked at Jeff. “Yeah, she ate on the way up.”

XII

After they all ate, Gary told them their story about the compound and how they had gotten to the hotel. Jeff and Lisa checked out the suite next to theirs and made sure it was empty before Gary and Sharon went in. Mark gave them a set of car keys he had found in the room that belonged to the zombie they had killed out in the hallway. Lisa gave them a candle and said she and Jeff would see them safely to the car in the morning.

Mark and Jeff sat on the couch looking at a map, trying to figure out how much farther they had left to go. Lisa stood behind the couch and started to rub out some of the knots in Marks shoulders and neck. He grunted and winched as she rubbed. She told him that’s what happens when you beat the crap out of rot-bags with your bare hands.

Tami and Sheryl had already gone to one of the three bedrooms and were asleep. Amy and Dedee excused themselves and were on their way to bed, but Jet decided she wanted to spend some quality time with Jeff first. Lisa told Mark she was going to bed and wanted to know when he would be joining her. He looked up from the map and said he would be there in five minutes.

Not wanting to wait, she leaned over and whispered in his ear then kissed the side of his neck. A smile came across his face and he excused himself for the night. Jet didn’t waste any time moving over to Jeff’s lap and putting her arms around his neck. They waited until Lisa closed her door, then they started kissing.

The next morning, Lisa woke to the sound of squealing tires from outside. Running over to the window and looking down to the parking lot below, she saw a gray Cadillac racing through it and four zombies chasing the car. Even after the car was on the street and long gone, they still continued to run in the direction it went. Lisa smirked and shook her head as she watched them run.

She heard Mark ask, “What’s going on?”

“Oh, I think Gary and Sharon just left. I hope they find what they’re looking for in Canada.” She sat on the edge of the bed and asked, “Do you know when we’ll get to the cabin?”

“Best I can figure is a couple of days, maybe part of a third. That’s if everything goes right.”

Lisa lay back down and snuggled up to Mark. She ran her hand over his chest as she said, “A life free of zombies is something I’m looking forward to.” She smiled. “And sharing it with you makes it even better.”

He put his arm around her and gave her a kiss.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dedee woke up and looked around the room. Amy was asleep in bed next to her, but Jet wasn’t in there. She went out into the living room area and saw her on Jeff’s lap. He had his arms around her and they were both still asleep. She shook Jet until she started to wake up. With her eyes half open, she asked, “What?”

“Were you guys out here all night?”

“Yeah, I guess.” And she laid her head back against Jeff’s chest.

Dedee shook her again. “Come on. It’s time to get up.”

Jet started to get up and woke Jeff. He rubbed his face and looked around. “Is it morning already?”

Dedee said, “Yes, it’s time for you two to get up.”

She heard a door open and saw Sheryl come out of her room and put some towels in the duffle bags. Jet stretched as she rubbed the back of her neck and said it felt a little stiff. Dedee suggested she go check with Tami and Sheryl to see if they might have something that would help. Jet went in their room to talk to them while Dedee sat on the couch and waited.

When all the bags were packed, they sat waiting for Mark and Lisa to come out. After ten minutes, Dedee became impatient and knocked on their door. Lisa answered it as she put a band in her hair and told her they would be out in a minute and for her to be ready to go.

On their way down to the lobby, they made sure they used a different stairwell than they did coming up. Mark took the lead when they went outside. Two zombies across the street spotted them as they went out the door. They ran to the van as quickly as they could and threw the bags inside. Mark rolled the dumpster toward them to try to slow them down. It missed the first one, but the second just stood there as it slammed right into her.

Lisa started the van and Mark jumped in the passenger side. The zombie was able to grab the door and hold on as Lisa peeled away. Mark pulled out his knife and started stabbing and slicing at its elbow. The sharp knife cut through the rotting flesh quickly and the elbow joint separated with a pop.

As the zombie hit the road, it rolled right under the wheels of the van and its mid section blew out. Guts shot out of it like snakes launched from a cannon, covering the pavement. The hand on its arm flexed wildly, like it was still trying to grab onto something as Mark pushed the door open and tossed it out.

As Lisa approached the on-ramp, she made a hard stop and everyone slid forward. Mark looked out and saw a girl with short red hair standing in front of the van, running in place. She just stayed there, looking in through the windshield at them, and screaming with a terrified look on her face. They watched as four zombies ran up to her and started taking bites out of her arms and chest.

Dumbfounded, they looked at each other and then back at her. They were stunned; they couldn’t figure why she would stand there and let them catch her. A fifth one came up and bit into her face, it pulled back and tore part of her cheek away so that one of her blue eyes now dangled from the socket. The zombie stepped back, chomping and smacking as her flesh hung from its rotting lips, flapping around as it chewed. It stared at the van for a moment and then lunged at them.

Lisa punched the gas and they flew forward. There were thuds as they plowed the girl and all five zombies down. They could still hear her screams and the zombies hiss as they were dragged under the van. Lisa drove about fifty yards before the screaming stopped and the mangled bodies dislodged from the undercarriage. Bumps and bangs were heard as they came out from under the back, twisted and tangled together, in one bloody heap.

Once they had gotten back on the freeway, Lisa kept it at a comfortable sixty miles per hour. Three hours into the trip, Mark pointed to a sign that said the Oregon boarder was five miles ahead. Lisa gave him an excited smile and he stretched back in his seat.

Gray smoke started to billow out from under the hood and the engine sputtered. He watched as Lisa frantically looked over all the gauges in the dash. It let out one last sputter before they heard a loud bang, and coasted to a stop. Lisa looked at him with panic in her eyes and said, “I swear, I didn’t do it. It’s not my fault.”

“No, it’s not your fault, Lisa. This thing was in the maintenance shop for a reason, and we’re lucky it got us this far.” He looked in the back and said, “Okay, everyone, we’re on foot from here.”

There were moans of disappointment as everyone got out and grabbed the bags. On foot, those five uphill miles seemed like ten, but they finally made it to the border. Just on the other side was a very small town, consisting of a few homes and several businesses along the street, nestled under the tall trees. As they walked, Amy pointed out an extremely slow rot-bag wearing a yellow dress with pink flowers that followed them.

Mark picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it. It hit the zombie in the forehead and disappeared on impact as it sank into the skull. A nasty yellow puss, with strands of black mixed in, ran from the hole and down its face. They stopped and watched as the puss continued to run out and the top of the head slowly began to sink in.

In less than a minute, the top of the head was flat like a deflated balloon. Mark walked over to it and gave it a little push. It fell over and hit the ground with a thwack. The thin outer skin popped and tore open. A liquid that looked like runny oatmeal and molasses, shot out in every direction.

He quickly stepped away and they began walking again. Looking at the trees and hills, everyone was beginning to get an idea of what it must be like at the cabin. Just before they left the little town, Mark stopped. He saw the last building on the right was a camping surplus store. He said, as he pointed to it, “We’ll get some supplies from here before we get too far into these mountains.”

He opened the door and a little bell attached to the inside rang. His insides and muscles tightened up when he heard it; he reached around and grabbed the bell. He took his knife and carefully cut the string, then set the bell on a shelf. Lisa followed him in, trying to take in every detail in just a few seconds. They silently made their way around the shelves and racks, as they looked everything over. Mark saw a display with heavy-duty backpacks and picked a stack of them up.

Lisa heard the floor creak and thought it came from the back. She signaled Mark, but he was already looking that way. She saw him set the backpacks down and come toward her. Together, they crept toward the back, Mark leading the way. She watched him go through a doorway leading to a back room. She turned to wave for everyone else to stay back before proceeding through herself.

When she turned to go through, she saw Mark with his hands raised in the air. There was a shotgun pointed at the back of his head and she heard a voice say, “Sonny, don’t you be a movin’ now or I’ll blow that head of yours off.”

With her pistol in her left hand, she reached around and put it to the temple of the person holding the shotgun on Mark. Lisa said, “Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you.” The person stood perfectly still. “Okay, Mark, I have your cover.”

Mark turned around and took the shotgun. Lisa switched hands as she walked in, but kept it pointed at the person. Standing there was an old woman with short gray hair. She figured the lady must have been in her seventies. Lisa holstered her pistol and asked, “How did you manage to stay alive by yourself this long?”

“Well, as my husband used to tell me before he died, I’m an ornery old bitch. I don’t take shit from no one.”

Lisa couldn’t help but smile. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The old lady gave her a hard stare for a minute, then broke out in laughter. “I could swear I only heard that bell ring once.”

Mark removed the shell and gave the shotgun back to her. “Sorry about that. I cut the string. I didn’t know if there were any zombies in here and didn’t want to tip them off. But don’t worry, I’ll fix it before I leave.”

“I hope you kids were planning on payin’ for that stuff. But I only take cash; I don’t mess with that credit bullshit.”

Mark said, “We have money and we’ll pay for it.” He waved and everyone came in. “Okay, everybody get one of those canvas back-packs over there, some boots that fit, four pair of heavy socks, two thin blankets, a mess kit, and a couple rolls of toilet paper. Oh, and get some energy bars too.” He whispered to Lisa, “Might want to get some more hygiene products while you can.”

The old lady grabbed a pencil and paper. “Okay, let me total that for ya.”

“No need.” Mark took a gold coin from his pocket and set it on the counter. “Will that cover it?”

She picked it up. Looking it over, she said, “Yep, and then some.”

Marked leaned over the counter and said, “If anyone else happens to pass through, cash is pretty much worthless right now. I’d only take barter like this.”

She looked at him in surprise and then smiled. “Thank ya, I’ll remember that.”

Outside, Mark watched Lisa as she talked with Jet and Sheryl. It seemed Lisa was doing more listening and nodding than talking. Jeff was busy trying to help Tami get her boots on and laced up. Dedee and Amy had theirs on and were putting a few supplies from the large duffle bags into their packs. When they were emptied, Mark threw them in a trashcan.

When everyone was ready, they started out on their walk. They walked until the sun was high; then Dedee and Amy requested a break. Amy complained about having to wear the boots, but Mark told her they all needed the ankle support the boots provided. Dedee said she understood, but the boots still felt heavy on their feet and slowed them down.

Mark noticed that Sheryl, Jet, and Lisa were talking again. He watched as Sheryl took something from her pack and gave it to Jet. He waited until they were finished talking, then approached Lisa. When he asked, she told him Jet had been having some stress headaches lately, but she would be fine and no special accommodations were needed.

After a twenty-minute break, they started walking again. They walked well into the evening, and just before dark, they stopped. Mark told them to catch as much sleep as they could because they would start again in about six hours. No one bothered to unpack; they just used the packs as pillows as they lay on the ground under the trees.

Although the ground was far from comfortable, Tami and Amy were asleep almost instantly. Dedee sat with Jeff and Jet as she took off her boots. Her legs were tired and her feet hurt. As she changed her socks, she noticed a couple of blisters had formed and popped on her left foot. The loose skin was wrinkled and when the air hit it, it started to sting.

Sheryl set her bag next to Lisa and Mark as they talked. She asked, “Am I interrupting anything?”

He said, “No, what’s on your mind?”

“I could use a few more supplies. So if the next town we come to has a pharmacy or drug store, I need to go in and pick up a few things.”

“Okay, I guess we can do that. We’re probably going to need a lot of pain medications for headaches and sore muscles anyway.” He lay back.

Sheryl looked at him without saying anything, then over to Lisa as she spoke. “Yeah, I told him about Jet’s headaches.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, poor kid, she been having a tough time with it.”

Mark lay on his back looking up at the stars. “There’s a town up ahead. We’ll be going into it tomorrow, there should be one there.”

Sheryl stood up and said, “Thanks, I’ll get Jeff up in three hours to take his watch. You two get some sleep.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When it was time, Jeff woke them all up to start toward the town. Jet reached under her back and pulled out a small stick she hadn’t realized she had been sleeping on, until now. Mark noticed Lisa was lying on her side and watching him with a smile. He asked, “What?”

She just continued to smile and shook her head. “You.”

“What me? Do I have something on my face?” He ran his hand over his face and looked at it.

She laughed. “No.” She leaned over and gave him a peck as she started to get up.

He reached up and grabbed her, then pulled her back down. Putting his arms around her, he gave her a long kiss. “Mmmmmm,” she said softly as she kissed him back and then giggled. She saw something from the corner of her eye and looked over to see Amy sitting next to her pack, watching them with a smile. Lisa said, “C’mon, were being watched.” And she got up.

Mark led the way with Lisa at his side, and it took a little longer than Mark had estimated to reach the town. By the time they had arrived, it was almost noon. It looked like most, if not all the businesses sat on the main road of town. He noticed the street ran straight for about ten long blocks through the town. Behind the business sat mostly smaller single-story houses.

They entered the town and stayed on the sidewalk. Lisa didn’t think about it at first, but there were no cars on the street or parked along the sidewalk. She got a bad feeling in her gut as they walked. All she could hear was their footstep on the concrete. She looked at Mark, his jaw was tight, his eyes were constantly shifting from one side of the street to the other, and she knew he sensed it too.

Four blocks in, she saw an eight-foot-tall round metal post standing in the middle of the street. It looked like it had been driven into the ground and concreted in place. Attached about three quarters of the way up the pole, were two short chains with something that looked like shackles on the ends.

On the ground at the base of the pole, were large pools of something that looked like dried blood. There were layers of it, one on top of another, building up. She also noticed there were footprints coming out of it pointing in different directions.

They walked past the pole, and if she hadn’t known any better, she would have sworn it was used for some kind of sacrifice. She was tempted to look back at it, but at the same time, she didn’t want to think about why it was there. They walked another block before she saw a sign that said ‘Pharmacy RX’ on it. Going inside, she noticed it had already been gone through and most of what had once sat on the shelves, was now gone or scattered on the floor.

Dedee and Amy picked up boxes of bandages and antibiotic cream for their blistered feet. Tami and Sheryl went behind the pharmacy counter and started looking over the shelves. Those shelves seemed to have been hit the hardest and there wasn’t much left on them. She saw Sheryl open her pack and stick various bottles inside. Tami held some bottles up, Sheryl pointed to one bottle and nodded and the other she shook her head and waved her hand. Tami put the first one in her pack and set the other to the side.

Jet and Jeff grabbed a couple of small plastic flashlights from the toy section and a package of batteries they found sitting on a shelf. Mark stood by the big front window, looking out as if he were waiting for something. Lisa stood behind him and could feel his anxiety. She asked him, “You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Yeah, its way too quiet, this is a bigger town, yet there are no cars or rot-bags walking around.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but this whole scenario stinks.”

Dedee shrieked and ran from the area she was in. Mark, Lisa, and Jeff ran over to her to see what was wrong. Dedee was shaking her hands around and doing a little dance. “Eww, eww, eww. “ Is all she would say.

Mark asked her, “Dedee, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer; she just kept doing the dance and shaking her hands. Lisa grabbed her arms and asked, “Damn it, Dedee! What’s wrong?”

She had a petrified look on her face as she pointed to where she had been standing. “It’s over there somewhere.” She held up her hand and said, “It touched my hand. Eww, eww, it was so gross. I was moving stuff around and it ran over the top of my hand.”

Lisa looked over at the shelf, then back at Dedee. “I don’t see anything, what was it?”

“It was a rat! It was so hairy and gross! Ewww!”

Mark sighed and went back to the window. Lisa said, “Okay. Dedee, please, don’t ever scare us like that again, alright?”

Mark stepped back from the window. “Everybody, get down. I knew it was too good to be true.”

Lisa bent down and went over to him. “What’s wrong?”

He pointed out the window and down the street. “We have company coming this way.”

XIII

Lisa watched as a large group of about twenty zombies came up the street. “Oh shit!”

Mark said, “You think that’s bad? Look the other way.” And he pointed.

She did and saw another group of about thirty coming from the other direction. She turned to Mark with a hopeless look on her face and sighed, “Double Shit.” She yelled out, “We have company; you guys need to hurry because we have to go.”

Everyone grabbed their packs and headed for the door, but there were already too many of them out front. Mark and Jeff grabbed a display shelf and slid it up against the glass door. The zombies pushed on it and the shelf moved a little, but the door didn’t open.

Lisa said, as she looked for another way out, “This really sucks. I hope there’s a back door to this place.”

“I’ll check,” Jet said as she ran to the back. A few seconds later, she yelled out, “There is, hurry!”

They ran to the back and out through the door, right into an alley where four zombies were there waiting for them. Jet used her sword to slice deep into the chest cavity of the first one. Mark said, “Special delivery.” As he aimed and fired a shot into the face of one wearing a postal uniform.”

Lisa shot at the third one and took the top part of the skull off. Tami hit the fourth one directly in the forehead with the pipe. It staggered as it took a few steps, but seemed to shake it off. Dedee came in from behind it and swung, she hit the back of its head so hard it caved in and both its eyeballs popped out of the sockets. Black goo dripped from the openings as it fell to the ground.

Tami screamed as one of the blue-white eyes hit her neck and fell down the front of her shirt. Carefully, she reached down her shirt to try to scoop it out. Just as she touched it, the outer membrane burst. A yellow puss that smelled like rotten eggs and old gym socks ran down her chest and stomach.

Seeing and smelling it, Tami began to retch profusely. After she had emptied her stomach, she wiped her lip. Amy looked around, found a dirty rag from a nearby dumpster, and handed it to her. Tami reached up under her shirt with it and wiped off as much as she could. Mark wrinkled his nose and suggested she stay downwind from everyone if she could, and everyone confirmed with a nod.

Jet saw a group of about fifteen come around the corner from the far end of the alley. She yelled and pointed at them as they came closer. Everyone turned and started running the other way. As they ran out onto the street, three more zombies were there waiting and grabbed for them.

Jet took her sword and swung it as she passed one of them. This one had on a yellow button-down shirt with a DMV nametag pinned to his chest. The hand on its left arm looked like it had already been eaten off just above the wrist and several inches of bone was exposed. She cut through its right arm just above the elbow, when it hit the ground it began flip-flopping around. Dedee finished it off with a solid blow to the jaw from her bat.

Jet managed to slice through one leg on the second one and it went down as it hissed. She gave it a quick chop to the head and split it open like a ripe melon sitting in a tub of ice water. She swung at the head of the third one, but missed when it ducked her blade.

Lisa quickly ran up to it and kicked it in the face with all her might. The head snapped clean off, and it flew high into the air, flipping end over end. They all stood and watched as it came down and landed on the roof of a building across the street with a thud. Mark yelled and pointed to the housing area down the street as dozens more came pouring from around the corner of the main street.

They ran two blocks before coming to the fenced back yard of a corner house. Jeff helped boost Amy and Dedee up and over the six-foot fence. Both he and Mark boosted Sheryl and Tami over the top. When everyone was over and in the back yard, they knelt and tried to catch their breath.

It took less than a minute for the zombies to reach the fence and start hitting it. Mark said, “They can’t climb over it, but we better move on to the next yard.”

Lisa watched as Mark went across the yard to another fence. She noticed he had a slight limp when he walked, so she asked him, “What’s wrong with your leg?”

He gave her a surprised look. “Nothing, it’s fine.”

“Then what’s with the limp? I’m not blind, Mark. Please, look me in the eye and tell me nothing’s wrong.”

He looked away and let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, it’s just a little slow. I can still run, but after a while it starts to lag a bit.”

She yelled out, “Sheryl, Tami, come over here please.”

He looked over to where the zombies were at and noticed some of the pickets were starting to loosen a bit, so he said, “Let’s get over to the next yard first, and then we can talk about it.

Tami and Sheryl were the first to go over the fence and everyone else followed. Mark went over to a patio table, sat down in a chair, and waited for Lisa to finish talking to them. Sheryl came over to him and Lisa followed right behind her. “Mark, I’m not a doctor, but I’ll tell you this. When that bullet went through your leg, it caused quite a bit of damage. There’s a chance it could have done some nerve damage that didn’t heal properly. There might also be some small fragments of it still in your leg; I have no way to tell. If there is, your muscles will heal around them, but they could cause you some problems.”

He asked, “How long do I have to put up with this?”

“I don’t know. It might go away in time, but there’s also a chance it will be like that for the rest of your life. We’ll just have to wait and see. Since we’re on the subject, why don’t we step inside the house and let me take those stitches out.”

Before they went in, Jet and Lisa did a check of the house to make sure it was clear. When they came, out Jet handed Tami a clean shirt she had found in a closet. She went over to the pool and cleaned herself off while Mark and Sheryl went into the house. Lisa watched Sheryl carefully cut and remove them, one at a time.

When she was done, Mark went over to a window at the front of the house and peeked out. He noticed there weren’t any zombies out in front of the house. They appeared to only be following their path so he went into the backyard and told everyone what he thought. They heard several loud pops and cracks as the first fence collapsed. After hopping six more fences, he and Jeff went into the house and looked out the front window.

After they discovered it was clear, everyone snuck out the front door. Sticking close to the front of the houses, they quietly made their way down the block. When they had made it to the edge of town, they broke into a full run. Mark looked back and saw nothing followed them, but continued to run. Lisa kept her pace so she stayed next to him. Finally, after about half a mile, Mark’s leg began to bother him, so they slowed down to a walk and continued moving, putting more distance between them and the town.

When they stopped, Amy sat down at the edge of the road on a small rock. The first thing she did was take off her boots. Dedee pulled out the cream and bandages from her pack and took off her boots too. Tami and Sheryl went over, looked at their feet, and helped them with the cream and bandages. When they put their boots back on, there was a pile of empty bandage wrappers and strips on the ground.

Mark pulled out the map and looked it over. He figured the next town was about five miles away, but there would be a lot of uphill walking to get there. Both he and Lisa decided it would be best if they camped there for the night and started out again in the morning. When they rolled out their blankets, everyone else quickly followed suit.

After sundown, Tami took the first watch of the night. She sat on a small rock and listened for any sounds of movement. She could hear Jeff whispering and an occasional giggle from Jet. She heard someone snoring, but wasn’t sure who it was. A couple of hours into her watch, she heard something moving around in the dark. Fear shot through her and she gripped her pipe so tight, her knuckles started hurting.

She worked her way over to Jeff and told him about what she heard. He listened for several minutes, but didn’t hear a thing. Just as he was about to say so, there was more movement and he heard a twig snap. There was definitely something out there and it wasn’t too far away from their camp. He picked up his rifle and listened to get a better idea of the direction.

He leaned over and whispered in Jet’s ear for her to get her sword ready. When he heard it again, he could tell it came from at least two different locations. Jet crawled over, woke Mark up, and told him about it. He grabbed his rifle and woke Lisa up. The sounds became more frequent and they realized whatever it was, had them surrounded.

The next time they heard it; Mark turned on his sidelight and pointed it in that direction. He saw two sets of eyes looking back at him. Jet saw them too and her skin began to crawl; she thought that was about the creepiest thing she had ever seen and she quickly moved back closer to Jeff. Mark saw whatever it was move as the eyes disappeared.

Jeff turned on his light and scanned the area around them. The next time a set of eyes appeared, Jeff fired a shot. More eyes appeared in their lights and more shots were fired. Everyone was awake and watched as the eyes appeared and then fell after being shot. When it seemed they had shot everything out there, Mark got up. He patted Lisa on the leg and told her to stay there.

He crept out to the area where he had shot one of them, staying low to the ground. She heard him laugh as he stood up and said, “Hey, Jeff, come take a look at this rot-bag.”

Jeff and Lisa both went out to where he was. When they got there, they saw he was standing over a big black and tan dog. They checked the rest of the area and found four more of them. Lisa said, “Poor puppies, I bet they came from that town we just left.”

Mark looked back toward the town. “I bet they did too, but we just announced our location to all of its rotting residents.” He shook his head and checked the time. “Okay, Jeff, you’ve got watch. Keep an ear open for any noise coming from that direction. Just make sure you know what it is before you shoot, we can’t afford using up what little ammo we have left on stray dogs.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl sat up and watched Lisa as she took a feather and lightly brushed it over Mark’s face while he slept. Every time Mark would rub his face, Lisa would smirk. She did it to the tip of his nose, his forehead, and his lips. The last time, she giggled and woke him up. She leaned in closer and brushed the tip of his nose again as he watched her, and then she gave him a kiss.

Sheryl didn’t know either of them that well, but she did know that look in their eyes. Even though she had never met anyone she felt that way about, she was happy to see it was still possible with all the tragedy going on around them. She saw Jeff and Dedee waking up and knew everyone else would be awake soon.

Dedee rolled over and saw her sister and Mark talking and smiling. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her sister look that happy before. She got up, saw Jeff waking Jet up, and thought they both looked happy too. She wondered if she would ever get the chance to feel that kind of excitement. Taking an energy bar from her pack, she peeled the wrapper back and took a little bite. She sighed and stared at the ground as she slowly ate the rest of it.

Once everyone was up and ready, they started their long walk to the next town. Even though their sleep had been interrupted, they still felt rested and it didn’t take long for them to get there. They looked down upon the town and watched the streets as hundreds of zombies walked around. Given the choice, they would have bypassed it completely, but they were all on their last bottle or two of water.

The best plan they could come up with, was to split up. Two people would distract the zombies, and the rest would look for water. At first, Mark suggested that he run decoy, but that changed as soon as Lisa said no. Jeff and Jet decided they would be the ones and everyone else would check for water.

They ran into town, Jeff fired a single shot and dropped one on the spot. Jet slashed the belly open on another and it shuffled around, trying to stuff its intestines and liver back in the gaping gash. On the next one, she swung and sliced its chest open, ribs cracked and popped as it opened up wide. When the decomposing muscle tissue fell away, all of the internal organs were exposed.

She saw the lungs expand as they pulled in air and contracted when it hissed at her. She noticed that the heart did beat, but only once about every five seconds. She swung again and took off the right leg above the knee. Black fluid poured from the stump onto the ground as it fell to the side. She yelled at the rest of them in the street, “Hey, douche bags! Bite me!”

When the zombies started toward them, she and Jeff ran down one of the cross streets. Once the main street was clear, they ran down and started going through the buildings. The first place was a hair and nail salon. Mark and Tami ran into the break room in the back and found some bottles of green tea on the counter. Lisa saw some nail polish on a display out front and stopped. Looking at her plain fingernails, then to the back where Mark was at, she thought for a second, then grabbed a few bottles from the shelf and put them in her pack.

They ran into the next shop. Before he reached the back, he heard Sheryl scream. He turned to see a zombie standing behind the counter and Sheryl was jabbing it in the chest. Lisa quickly drew her knife and stabbed it in the left eye. When it fell over onto the counter, Tami began to beat on it with her pipe and only stopped when its right arm came off. The long shirtsleeve jiggled a bit as the arm slid out and fell to the floor in front of the counter.

After they had gone through the break room and found more water, they moved on. The next place had an old accordion-style security gate pulled across the front. Mark looked in and saw a sign that said ‘Guns and Ammo sold here’.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet looked back and saw they had almost a two-block lead on them so they stopped to catch their breath. Jeff asked, “Douche bags? Bite me?” He let out a short laugh. “Were did that come from?”

She smirked as she said, “Their almost here. Let’s go this way.” She pointed to her right.

They began to jog until the horde had rounded the corner, then they started to run again. The next corner they came to, they saw five zombies in a circle. One saw Jeff and Jet and started running toward them. This one was a woman. Jet assumed from the way she dressed, she must have been a prostitute. She wore a very short, red metallic skirt, a semi-transparent, black lace shirt, and torn fishnet stockings.

Jet swung at her as she reached out and tried to grab Jeff. Her first pass caught the right arm just above the wrist and the hand fell to the street. The second pass sliced across her chest, two silicon bags popped out and her chest appeared to deflate as she hit the ground. The rest were pretty slow and they easily dodged them as they ran down the street.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark stood back and turned on his laser sight. With a careful aim, he fired two shots before the lock disintegrated. Lisa ran over and slid the gate back. She tried to open the door, but found it locked too. With one shot, the lock gave way and the door swung open a little. Lisa pulled the door open and the smell hit them hard. The stench of rot was overwhelming and they all took a step back.

Mark took a deep breath and ran in while Lisa held the door open. He saw the gun displays were empty, but there was a lot of ammunition on the shelves. He found a partially decomposed body of a man in a hallway that led to a back room. He checked the back room and found four locked gun safes. Mark ran back outside and took several deep breathes before he said, “They have ammo, but I can’t get to the guns, they’re all locked up. I found the cause of the stench too.”

Lisa asked, “Is it a zombie?”

Mark shook his head. “I don’t think so, the man is already started to rot real bad. It looked like he was grabbing his chest when he died, so maybe it was a heart attack or something. He has everything he needs to survive in there, and he just drops dead, that has to really suck for him.”

Lisa said, “Hold the door for me. I’ll go in next and grab some things. We can take turns and it should go faster.”

Mark nodded as he tried catching his breath. Lisa ran in and grabbed several boxes of 9mm ammo before running back out. Mark went in and carried out two cases of water, then ran back in. He was inside for a long time before coming out. When he did, he had a sawed off double barrel shotgun in his hand with three boxes of shells.

He said, “Here ya go, Dedee. I found this behind the counter under the register. I bet you can put this to good use.”

She smiled and quickly grabbed it up. Handing the bat to Amy, she said, “Here ya go. This thing can really knock ‘em dead.”

Lisa ran back in and took one last look around. When she came back out, she had a few bags full of MREs and more boxes of 9mm ammo.

They put what they had in their packs. Mark looked at his watch and said, “Time’s up. We need to head out and meet up with Jeff and Jet outside of town.”

They ran down the main street and waited just outside of town. Ten minutes passed, but Jeff and Jet didn’t show up. Mark paced back and forth and was becoming inpatient. When they heard the gunshots, everyone started to run back into town. Mark went around one corner and stopped. Jet sat in the grass in front of a house and Jeff knelt down next to her, firing at a horde of zombies.

Mark started firing as he ran over to help them. Lisa drew her pistol and followed Mark over. The zombies kept coming down the street and they were soon surrounded. Jeff said Jet was hurt and couldn’t walk very well. Sheryl and Tami checked the house to make sure it was clear, then helped her up and took her inside.

The rifles soon ran out of ammo and they went to their pistols. Mark had Amy and Dedee refill the empty magazines as fast as they could. There were so many coming at them, that Tami had to come out and help reload. The bodies started to pile up and slowed the zombies down as they approached. A few times, Dedee was able to load her shotgun and fired at them.

Zombies continued to fall and the empty brass littered the ground around them. After a little over five minutes of heavy shooting, the number of zombies was less than a dozen and easily picked off. Everyone, deaf from all the shooting, had to wait for the ringing in their ears to stop before talking.

The bodies of the zombies lay everywhere as the black goo drained and ran off, filling the gutters. Mark looked at all the brass, then at all the dead zombies. “I’d say it’s close to two hundred.”

Jeff and Lisa both agreed. Looking at the remaining ammo, Lisa said, “I think we need to go back and try to get some more.”

XIV

Mark went over to the couch where Jet sat and asked her, “What happened to your leg?”

She looked at him with big sad eyes, but didn’t answer. He glanced at Jeff, then across the room to Sheryl, neither one of them said anything, either. Sarcastically, he said, “Funny, I can hear myself talking, but it seems no one else can.”

Sheryl came over to him and sighed. Quietly, she said, “Jet was bitten.”

He stepped back and gave her a blank look. Rubbing the back of his head, he asked, “Are you sure?”

Lisa came into the room. “Sure about what?”

Marked paused, then said, “Jet was bitten.”

Lisa gasp, Dedee and Amy heard him too. Dedee ran to her and knelt down as she asked, “Is that true?”

Jet’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded. Jeff put his arm around her and lowered his head. Mark looked at Lisa; she shook her head and said, “No.”

Jet turned to Mark and took a deep breath. “I know what has to be done, but please wait. If I only have a little time left, please, let me spend it with Jeff while I’m still myself. When I start to turn, then do what you need to do.”

Jeff said, “Please, bro, please. Just give us that.”

Mark saw the tears on his brother’s face. “I need to think about this.” He said, and he walked down the hallway.

Jet started to cry and Jeff pulled her close to him. Dedee sat next to her on the couch and started to cry with her. Lisa watched, then started down the hallway and Sheryl followed. They stepped into the room with Mark and closed the door.

Sheryl spoke first. “Mark, I do need to point out that it’s not a direct bite. She was bit through her jeans and she might not even be infected.”

“Can you say she’s not infected with 100% certainty?”

She slowly shook her head. “No.”

“Well, I can’t risk anyone else’s life, but I can’t kill my brother’s girlfriend, either.”

Lisa sat him down on the edge of the bed. “Mark, if that were me out there, what would you do?”

He let out a long sigh and said, “Find something to tie her feet and hands with.”

Lisa went to the closet, found a couple of belts from some robes, and took them to the living room. When Mark returned, they had tied her ankles and started on her wrists. He said, “No, behind her back.” He looked Jet in the eye and said, “Once you start to turn, time’s up. Those ties will stay on at all times, even if you have to pee. Also, there will be no kissing my brother. If I catch you even thinking about it, I’ll shoot you right then and there, myself. Is that clear?”

She nodded. “I promise… And thank you.”

“Lisa, we need to make a quick run back to the gun shop while this area is fairly clear.”

They emptied their packs so they could carry more supplies back. On their way out, Mark had to stop and look at the pile of bodies out front. He realized, at one time they had all been people and almost felt sorry for them, but he hadn’t forgotten what they had done, either. Now, they had caused Jet and his brother even more grief.

As he and Lisa walked to the shop, he reached out and took her hand in his. He focused his thoughts on their destination, he figured in about a week they should be there. Only seven more days in zombie hell, then they could have a lifetime of peace.

Suddenly, they heard a metal trashcan lid hit the ground and a loud hiss to their left. They both drew their pistols as they turned toward the sound. There, in the side yard of a yellow and white house, they saw two cats with their backs arched having a standoff. They looked at each other and started laughing as they holstered their pistols and continued to the shop.

Inside the shop, Mark got another box of twenty gauge shells for Dedee and packed up all of the rest of the 9mm ammo they could find. He grabbed some camping lamps and Lisa got more water and MREs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tami checked the bite on Jet’s leg and cleaned it again before injecting an antibiotic. She was a little puzzled when she noticed it looked like it had started to scab over. Sheryl told her it was completely normal and the virus took more than just a few hours to show itself. Jet was quiet for a while, then asked to be alone with Dedee.

Once the room was cleared, she said, “I want you to promise me something.”

Dedee wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Sure, what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to take care of Jeff for me. He’s a really special guy, and you know he’s having a hard time with his memory. Please, just look out for him and… be patient with him.”

Dedee softly said, “Okay, I’ll promise, but he won’t need me. He’ll have you for that.”

Jet called Jeff in and he sat down next to her. She asked, “Can I please have one last hug from you?”

Jeff put his arms around her and held her tight. Her eyes began to tear up and she wept on his shoulder. He tried to be strong for her, but he had some rolling down his cheeks too. They heard footsteps from outside coming up the walkway to the front door.

She told Jeff to move away so Mark wouldn’t get the wrong idea and shoot her. Jeff grabbed a blue reclining chair from the other side of the room and pulled it up close to the couch. That afternoon and evening, everyone sat around the couch with her and ate. Jeff helped her eat before he sat down and had his.

Just before dark, Tami noticed about half of a dozen zombies off in the distance, but they seemed to stay at least two blocks away. She told Mark, and he thought all the dead rot-bags around the front of the house might be working as some kind of a repellant. Mark came in and checked on Jet before she went to sleep. He pointed to everyone in the room and had her tell him their names.

Mark took first watch and he heard a lot of noise off in the distance. Just like Tami said, it was always two blocks or more away. He figured some of them might start to get bold and wander closer to the house, so he and Lisa should scout the area in the morning and do some clearing of the town. The thought of killing all the zombies in at least one town gave him a good feeling.

Lisa came out and checked on Jet before she took over the watch. She was a little slow with remembering the names, but she did remember. Lisa figured that since she was just woken up, that may have been the reason and let it go. She took over and Mark went back to their room to catch some sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet opened her eyes and noticed light coming in through the back windows. She saw Jeff still asleep in the chair across from her. Throwing her legs over the edge of the couch and fidgeting, she managed to sit up. She peeked over the back and saw Sheryl standing at the window, looking back at her. Sheryl came over and knelt down in front of her.

Jet looked over at her pack. “Sheryl, can you please give me my pill?”

She felt it wasn’t something Jet needed, but it wouldn’t hurt, either. “Sure, I’ll get you some water too.”

Jeff woke up to see Sheryl giving her a drink. He waited for her to step away before he whispered, “Jet? Are you still you?”

“Yeah, I’m still here. I know I’ll be changing soon, but I don’t feel any different.”

Jeff leaned in closer and stared into her eyes. She asked, “What’s wrong? Am I starting to change? I swear I don’t feel it happening.”

He glanced to make sure Sheryl wouldn’t hear him, then he whispered to her, “I don’t know, but do me a favor. Don’t look anyone in the eye for more than a second. Turn your head, look down, anything. Just don’t look them in the eyes, okay?”

“Yeah… okay.”

Mark and Lisa came out of their room and started going through the MREs. After they had eaten, they checked on Jet. She did what Jeff had asked and no one noticed her eyes. They said they were going out three blocks in each direction and take out every zombie they saw. When they left, they took Tami out with them.

They walked three blocks and then went in a counterclockwise direction. There was plenty of ammunition, so they planned to take out any rot-bag they came across. On the second block, they ran into one wearing a lime green leisure suit and moving slow. Tami took advantage of this and said she would do it by herself. After she snapped its right femur with a quick blow, she broke both its arms then crushed the spinal cord.

Lisa was impressed with Tami’s confidence and noted she didn’t even gag this time. As they continued down the block, they heard music coming from a big blue and gray house. Mark looked in through a window, but only saw furniture inside the living room. The front door was locked, so he used his good leg and kicked it in. Lisa went in first and Mark followed. Checking the living room, Lisa found an MP3 player in a speaker dock on the table.

The living room was clear, but the sliding glass door leading to the back patio was covered with blood. Lisa slowly slid it open and peeked out. She saw more blood all over the cement and around the pool. The water had a red tint and there were a couple of beach balls floating in it.

They saw a slightly overweight man with excessive body hair, wearing a blue Speedo, lying across a barbeque grill. His chest was well done, his skin had melted to the metal grill, his back had been eaten away and his white ribs were exposed.

Not far from him, was woman in a yellow bikini at a patio table sprawled out in a chair. Her face and throat had been eaten away and there was dried, crusty blood all down the front of her. Lisa could tell by the chew marks on her shoulder that her left arm had been eaten off her body and was now sitting on the table in front of her.

Mark stepped onto the patio, trying to find the zombie responsible. When he looked down into the pool, he saw three more bodies at the bottom. He heard a shot and turned, the woman that had been at the table was running toward him. Lisa fired another shot and sent her flying into the pool where she quickly sank to the bottom.

The man melted to the grill started jerking and hissed. Mark drew his pistol and shot him once in the back of the head; it flinched and went limp. He looked at it and said, “That’s for that… whole Speedo thing.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dedee sat down on the floor by the couch, when Jet glanced at her, her eyes got big and her jaw dropped. Dedee heard Jeff say, “Shhhhhh.”

Jet whispered, “It’s me, Dedee. Please, don’t say anything.”

Dedee stared in shock and whispered, “My gawd, Jet, you were infected.”

Jet made sure no one was around before answering. “I guess I was, but I’m not sure what you’re seeing. All I know for sure is that I’m still me.”

Jeff went to the table, “Jet, do you want turkey, ham, or meatloaf?

“Turkey, please,” she said, then turned back to Dedee. “I might need you to help me. Try to keep anyone else from getting a close look at me without being obvious, okay?”

Dedee nodded and said, “Okay.”

Jeff returned and helped Jet eat her MRE. Sheryl came from the back and asked her, “How are you feeling?”

She anxiously awaited an answer and was relieved when Jet said, “I’m doing okay. Jeff’s helping me eat some turkey.”

Sheryl stepped over behind the couch and looked down at her. Dedee asked Sheryl, “Can you take a look at the blisters on my feet and put something on them for me?”

“Sure, come over here and I’ll have a look.”

Sheryl followed Dedee to the kitchen and sat at the table next to her. They heard a few gunshots in the distance and everyone looked toward the door. Jeff said, “I guess they found some.” He nervously looked at Jet. He wondered what was going to happen to her when they saw the changes. He was a little confused as to what was happening, but then he had never watched anyone as they turned before.

Between his and Dedee’s efforts, no one got close enough to Jet to notice anything. A couple hours before sundown, Mark, Lisa, and Tami returned to the house. Jet quickly lay down on the couch and closed her eyes. Lisa came over to check on her. Jeff told her Jet was tired and resting. Lisa looked and wondered why Jet still appeared to be completely human. Sheryl mentioned her jeans may have been enough to prevent the zombie’s saliva from getting into the bite and she might be okay.

Mark said they had looked for a truck or van while they were out, but couldn’t find anything larger than a compact, so they were still on foot. After Jeff helped her eat dinner, Jet lay back down and went to sleep for the night. During the night Mark, Lisa, and Sheryl checked on her, but didn’t wake her up.

The next morning when Jet woke up, Lisa was kneeling down in front of her. When she opened her eyes, Lisa gasped and jumped back. She drew her pistol and pointed it at Jet. Jet closed her eyes and cried out, “Lisa! Please, don’t shoot me!”

Jeff woke up and saw Lisa pointing her gun at Jet and he said, “Lisa, don’t! She’s okay!”

Mark ran into the room and asked, “What’s going on here?” Everyone else came running down the hallway and into the room.

Lisa pointed at Jet as she said, “Look at her eyes!”

Mark came around the couch to see and jumped back when he saw them. “Shit!” And he carefully took a closer look. “What the hell? Jet, are you still in there?”

“Yes, I am, Mark,” she said, “Please, tell Lisa to put the gun away.”

Lisa looked over and Mark nodded, then she slid it back into the holster. They both took a close look at her eyes. Mark called Sheryl over to see what had happened. She gasped when she saw them and then looked around, confused. Mark told Jet to stay there while they went into the other room to talk.

Mark asked Sheryl, “Can you explain this?”

She shrugged as she shook her head. “No, I have never seen anything like this before. I have been there when a couple of people changed, but the pain of change is the first thing that sets in as the body slows down.”

“But haven’t you been giving her some medication for her headaches? Could that have helped with the pain?”

Sheryl and Lisa looked at each other, then Lisa said to Mark, “Sheryl hasn’t been giving her pain medication. Jet has been taking birth control medication.”

Mark looked even more confused. “Do you mean her and Jeff…”

Lisa quickly said, “No, but Jet has been considering it. I do need to add that she’s never been with anybody that way before and it’s a pretty big step for her, but she hasn’t said anything to Jeff about it yet.”

He looked at Sheryl and she nodded; then he asked, “Do you think those pills could have had anything to do with this? Or maybe it was a combination of that and the antibiotic Tami gave her?”

Sheryl shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but I doubt it. If she has been infected, she should have turned by now. The most plausible thing I can think of is she’s somehow immune to the virus.” She turned to Lisa, “Didn’t you say her parents were bitten? What happened to them?”

Lisa sighed. “They were, but I don’t know. They said they didn’t want to become zombies and hurt anyone. Jet doesn’t know this part, but after they dropped her off, they went some place took their own lives.”

Mark asked, “So you’re saying she might be immune?”

“That’s the only reason I can think of. With any pandemic such as this, there always seems to be a very small percentage of the population who is immune to it. I guess it’s nature’s way of preserving the species.”

He thought before he said, “That might be true, but I don’t know. I’d feel better if we gave it another day, just to make sure.”

Lisa said to Mark, “About the medication she’s been taking, please don’t say anything to her or Jeff. Let her be the one to tell him about it when she’s ready.”

Mark nodded. They went back to Jet and told her they thought she might be immune, but were giving it another day. She understood and asked for a mirror so she could see what was happening to her. Lisa brought her one from the bathroom and held it up in front of her. When she looked into her own eyes, she gasped. There was a thin blue-white ring around her pupil that gently feathered into her brown iris.

She said, “Oh my gawd, what happened to my eyes?”

Jeff put his hand on hers. “You know, I think it’s kinda hot in a way.”

She glanced at him and then back to the mirror. “Really?” He nodded. With a nervous smile, she said, “I guess it does look kinda cool.”

Mark said, “But you will still have to wear the ties until we feel it’s safe to remove them. And that kissing rule still applies until I decide otherwise.”

Over the rest of that day and night, the blue-white feathering continued to slowly reach out until it nearly covered one quarter of her iris. The next morning, Mark untied the belts holding her wrists and ankles and set them aside. The first thing she did was to hug Jeff. Mark said, “Hugs are okay, but remember, the kissing rule still applies.”

“But I’m immune,” she said.

“You are, but my brother’s not. I just want to make sure all those zombie cooties are dead before you do anything like that. I think I’d feel better about it if you waited at least a couple more days.”

She said to Jeff, “Your brother’s right. Besides, I couldn’t live with myself if I infected you.”

Mark picked up his pack. “Okay, we’re still without transportation, so let’s start walkin’ before that stench outside kills us.”

On the way out the door, Amy asked him how far it was to the next town. Mark said it was about twelve miles, and if they hurried, they could make it there before it got dark. They walked all day up and down through the mountains, stopping only twice for a break. An hour before sunset, they looked down on a small community in a valley.

Mark said they could either go down there now to find a house for the night, or sleep there and go down in the morning. Amy and Dedee pointed out they didn’t push themselves all day just to look at it and sleep on rocks. Lisa laughed and told them he was only kidding and they would have a soft bed to sleep in tonight.

They hurried down the hill and stopped at a house just outside of town. Jeff and Jet went in to check it out while everyone else waited outside. Jet was excited and she felt good about being back in action. In the entryway, they found two blue tennis shoes with the owner’s feet still inside them. There was a bloody handprint smeared on the wall, spatter all over the gray tile floor, and a large blood trail going across the carpet over to tan couch in the living room.

They slowly worked their way over to the couch. They found a head face-down on it, but they couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. The face had been eaten off, the top of the head had been pulled apart, and the brain was missing. On a blood-soaked cushion next to it was a lady’s hand. Jet noticed the long fingernail on the index finger had been broken off and she figured it probably happened as she fought for her life.

They noticed there were some bloody footprints going from the couch into the kitchen. When they checked it out, they found part of a thigh on the linoleum floor in front of the sink. Devouring the fleshy ruminants on the bone, were several hundred large roaches that looked to be about two inches long.

Jet shuttered. “Ewwww!” She immediately said, “We need to check another house. I can deal with zombies and dead bodies, but I hate roaches. They give me the creeps and I’m not spending the night in this house with them running around and crawling all over my body.”

“Okay, let’s go out and tell Mark we’re movin’ to the next house.”

Jet went right up to Mark and told him. He gave her a strange look, but said they would check out the next house. Jet and Jeff went in again. The first thing Jet did, was check the couch and kitchen. As they went through every room in the house, she moved items around and checked in the cabinets and drawers for any signs of insect life. Once they were through, everyone came in and selected a comfortable spot to sleep for the night.

XV

Amy and Dedee ate and quickly slipped into a big soft bed. Tami and Sheryl checked on Jet, and then talked for a while, but they too went to bed early.

Jeff sat on the floor with his back against the couch. Jet sat on his lap, facing him. This time, she was the one helping him eat. She giggled as a piece meatloaf fell from the fork and rolled down his chin. He caught it before it his shirt and fed it to her. They both smiled at each other as she chewed it. She started to lean in and kiss him, but she caught herself and stopped. She said, “Just a couple more days.”

Lisa watched as Mark lay on the bed looking at the map. He said, “So close, yet so far. If we had transportation, we could be there in about a day or so.”

“We’ll find something. If not, it shouldn’t be much longer anyways.”

“No, we’re close, but once we get to the sawmill it’s still a six mile hike up into the mountains. The trail can be a major pain in the ass, but at least the zombies won’t be able to get up there.”

“If it’s so remote, how’d your grandfather build it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He built it a long time before I was born and I never bothered to ask. To me, it’s always been there and that’s all I really know.”

“Maybe we’ll find something tomorrow. I know it has taken way longer than what you expected, but I think some things have turned out pretty good.”

He put the map to the side and moved closer to her. “I know you’re right about that.” He leaned in for a kiss.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa woke up and heard an engine and screeching tires off in the distance. She woke Mark and he listened, he quickly got dressed and grabbed his gear. “I think we better check this out.”

Mark opened the front door and heard Jeff say, “Hang on, bro. We’re coming with you.” Jet and Jeff joined them and they started toward the noise. They had to kill a few of zombies on the way, but made it to what looked like the center of town. They saw two guys, about sixteen, in a big red four-wheel drive pickup, driving around an oval shaped park. One of them was in the back with a baseball bat and they heard him yell, “Go for the one in the blue shirt.”

The truck drove toward it, and when it passed, the guy in the back swung the bat. He hit the zombie in the shoulder and spun it around as the arm flew off, and the zombie fell. The driver yelled, “Single, advance to first base.”

“No way! That was a double!”

“Nope, single is all you get.”

“Fine! Then that means all my bases are loaded.” He looked around, “Hey, go for the one in the red t-shirt”

The truck drove toward it. As it passed, the guy in the back swung. The bat made a metallic ping when it hit. The zombies head flew off, breaking into pieces as it sailed through the air. “Grand-fuckin-slam!” he cried out, and held his arms up in the air as he yelled, “Woooo whooooo! Yeah!”

As the truck passed them, the driver hit the brakes and the guy in the back slammed against the back of the cab. He yelled out as he fell into the bed of the truck, “What the hell, asshole?”

“Dude! We got people here.”

The driver got out. The one in the back jumped out and asked with a smile, “Where do I enlist?”

Mark asked, “What?”

“You know, enlist. I want to serve with her.” He pointed to Lisa.

She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “We’re not Army.”

“Oh, are you responding to one of my web posts?”

“No, we’re just passing through.” Then he asked, “You have internet?”

“Not now, I did have before the power went out. I posted about this place and I had a bunch or replies saying they’d be coming. We’ve been here waiting for them to show up.”

He started to take a step toward Mark. As he did, Mark and Lisa both put their hand on their pistols. He stopped and said, “No, the bat’s not a weapon. We’re just paying a little zombie baseball.” And he set it down on the sidewalk. “By the way, I’m Mitch, and this is my friend Joe.”

Mark said, “I’m Mark. This is Lisa, my brother Jeff, and that’s Jet.”

They both waved, then jumped back when Jet looked at them. Mitch said, “Whoa—shit! What happened to your eyes?”

Jet just stared at him without answering the question, then she asked, “Know where a girl can get a pair of shades around here?”

Joe pointed to some stores behind him. “Yeah, right over there.”

They followed them across the street to a sunglasses store. Jet tried on several pairs before she found one with sleek black frames and a darker tinted lens. They fit nicely and both she and Jeff liked them. As they walked out, Mitch offered them a ride back to the house and they gladly accepted.

Once they were there, they all went inside and Lisa introduced them to everyone else. Mitch immediately smiled at Dedee as he said, “I can see pretty runs in the family.” Dedee blushed and returned a shy smile. Lisa cut the conversation short and offered him a seat at the table. Dedee pulled out a chair and sat down across from him while Joe sat at the end.

Mitch told them about his web posts on all the social networking sites and that about twenty people had responded to them, but Joe was the only one who had shown up so far. Mark told them about his grandfather’s cabin in Washington. Both Mitch and Joe sounded interested, but said they were still waiting for more people to show up and needed to stay in the area for a little while longer.

Mitch also told Mark about an RV rental place in town and said he may use one of them to come up and visit some time. Mark’s ears perked up and he asked more about it. Mitch said it was in a zombie-infested part of town and it was kinda dangerous to go into. He offered to take them to the edge of it, but until the zombie population thinned out a little more, he wasn’t going in.

No one wasted anytime packing up and they were ready to go in less than ten minutes. Mitch drove them back to where they had first met and headed west from there. After driving five more blocks, he stopped and got out. Pointing north, he said to Mark, “Walk six blocks north, and then make a left. Go another four blocks and you’ll see it on the right hand side of the road. If you go to the back entrance, there’s a gate that has a weak latch, just give it a good kick and the gate will open.”

Mark waited for everyone to get out and said to Mitch, “Thanks, if you guys ever get tired of this place, there’s plenty of zombie-free mountains and RV parking where we’re going.”

Mitch nodded and replied, “Be very careful. The zombies around here are mean, nasty, and pretty fast. Believe me, you’re gonna need those guns and a fast aim. Good luck and I hope to see you again someday soon.” He smiled at Dedee and said, “Especially you.” He got back into the truck and waved at them as he drove off.

Mark checked his magazines, pulled two extras out of his pack, and put them in his back pocket. Lisa and Jeff did the same, and Dedee made sure her shotgun was loaded and ready. She opened a box of shells and stuffed a bunch of them in her front pockets so she could get to them fast if she needed to. Jet took off her glasses and put them in her pack, out of the way. Amy, Tami, and Sheryl all nodded when they were ready.

They walked down the middle of the street. Mark figured if something was to jump out or lunge at them, this would give them a few more seconds of response time. The first two blocks were quiet; there was no movement or sound. Halfway through the third block, one came at them from out of an auto parts store. Mark did a quick point and shoot. The bullet impacted the chest, a little blowback spattering on the road. Its feet flew up into the air and it landed on its back with a mushy thud.

They had only taken a few more steps, when two more came running at them from the left. Lisa fired once and hit one of them in the head. Dedee caught the other one in the abdomen and tore it in half with the buckshot. Intestines, a kidney, and part of the liver flew back and splattered on the storefront wall behind it. The top part sailed back a little, while the legs took another couple of steps forward before falling to the ground.

At the same time, two more came from behind. Tami hit one, and the left side of its face caved in. Jet swung at a downward angle and opened the other one up from the left shoulder to the right hip. As it separated, nearly liquefied vital organs poured out from it like chunky maple syrup onto the street.

More came out from the buildings and gathered in the street in front of them. Mark, Lisa, and Jeff fired at them, dropping one with each shot, but the numbers continued to grow. Some more came up from behind them. Tami swung wildly breaking ribs and arms. Jet severed arms, hands, and legs with every swing. Sheryl stabbed and cut each one that came close enough.

Amy hit one and broke its leg, while another came up and grabbed her arm. She screamed as it jerked her into the air. Sheryl ran over, grabbed hold of her pack, and managed to break its grip as she pulled Amy back. Another reached in and grabbed Amy by the throat and lifted her off the ground. Sheryl pulled again, but Amy’s pack slid off her back.

Jet ran in and was able to slice its arm off as it tried to bite into the top of Amy’s head. When it dropped her, Amy hit the ground hard and went down. Jet delivered another strike, and severed its head. Four more ran up to them. One reached around Amy and picked her up. Lisa turned around just in time to see it. She took aim, but it held Amy in front like a shield.

Amy screamed and reached out for someone’s hand as she kicked and struggled to get free. Lisa ran toward them as the zombie squeezed her, and she heard a couple of snaps. Amy’s body jerked as two ribs broke through the skin and tore a hole in her shirt. Blood began to pour down her side and legs, and onto the street.

Amy coughed and a small amount of blood shot out over her lips. Her mouth moved as if she was pleading for help, as the zombies had a tug-of-war with her body. Within seconds, there were the sounds of snaps, pops, and wet rips as her arms and legs were broken and torn from her body, one at a time.

Her skin stretched as far as it could and snapped back as it tore. They surrounded her and ripped her abdomen and chest open with their hands, then pulled the organs from her body and began eating them.

Lisa and Dedee started shooting and continued firing on them until there weren’t any left standing. They turned to see the number of zombies to the front had started to dwindle. They ran up next to Jeff and Mark and began firing forward. Slowly, they started walking toward the gauntlet of zombies ahead of them. When there were no more zombies left to shoot at, they started to run down the street.

They ran another block and a half before ducking into an auto body shop. Mark opened Amy’s pack and had everyone put some of the stuff into theirs. While they watched through the front window, more zombies walked by. They refilled their empty magazines and got ready for another fight. Mark looked around the shop and saw several cars being worked on. There were tools, fenders, scrap metal, and a couple of torches. Lisa saw an evil grin stretch across his face.

Lisa sighed as she said, “Oh shit! I know that look, Mark. Just what do you have in mind now?”

“Were gonna have a little party. I need to get as many of those rot-bags in here as I can.”

“Are you nuts? I hope you don’t expect me to hold the door for them.”

“No way! I’ll prop it open.”

He set a candle from Amy’s pack on the front counter and used her lighter. Once he lit the candle, he moved to the back and peeked out the back. “Okay, I’ll need everyone back here.” He gestured to the door.

He took a set of oxygen acetylene tanks and rolled them outside. After he cut the ends of the hoses with his knife, he set the ends inside. He ran over and propped the front door open. Jet stepped out and yelled, “Hey, maggot brains! Can’t catch this!” She did a little dance, wiggling her hips. She and Mark ran back inside. When they started coming in, they waited for a minute, then ran out the back door and closed it.

They could hear the zombies inside moaning and hissing as they hit the door, trying to get through. When it sounded like the building was nearly full, he looked at Lisa and asked, “Care to do the honors?” and gestured to the tanks.

She smiled and opened the valve all the way. The hiss could be heard through the door and they all ran as fast as they could. They had only gotten two blocks, when they heard a loud explosion. The ground shook violently, and they all nearly fell, as a giant fireball rose up into the sky. They heard some secondary explosions; then Mark said, “Love that barbequed zombie.”

They started to walk again and Mark felt his felt leg tighten. He had to stop and draw in a deep breath. They hadn’t gone far, when Lisa noticed he wasn’t next to her. When she looked, she saw him back where they stopped running. He was leaning forward with his hands on his knees and breathing hard. She said, “Wait.” She ran back to him. She asked, “Is it your leg again?”

He nodded as he straightened up and replied, “Yeah, its cramping up on me.”

She got under his arm to help support some of his weight and they started walking. He fought every time he had to bring that leg forward and it took a lot of strength to keep moving. They had only covered another block, when more zombies came out into the street.

Jet ran toward them and went for some simple severing of the legs. She managed to take out two of them and Sheryl took out a third one by running the small blade into its groin area and lifting up. Its insides slithered out and coiled up on the ground at its feet. The zombie tried to take another step, but became entangled in its own intestines and fell to the pavement, face-first, with a mushy thwack.

Tami hit the fourth one upside the head. Its neck snapped and its head fell to the side and sat on its right shoulder. Mark felt his leg tighten even more and he had to start dragging it. He said to Lisa, “You need to leave me here and come back after you get the RV.”

She pursed her lips and said to him, “Like hell I will! You better get your ass moving!”

“Believe me, I want to, really I do. But my leg isn’t cooperating.”

Jeff had an idea and said, “Hang on a second, bro.” He ran back down the street and went into a business. A minute later, he reappeared with a red appliance dolly. “Here, get on this.”

Mark looked at him like he was crazy. “Are you flippin’ serious? I’ll look ridicules on that.”

Lisa smirked, but insisted. “You better get your ass on it, we’re running out of time before this area is infested again.”

Mark shook his head, but he got on it. Jeff leaned him back and started to push it at a slow jog down the street. As the zombies appeared, they fired at them. Though most had been taken out by the explosion, there were still quite a few stragglers walking about. When they got to the rental place, they went around to the back gate just like Mitch had told them.

They saw the latch could easily be opened with a good solid kick, but it now had a chain running around the frame with a new heavy-duty lock on it. Jeff held it in his hand and said, “Our pistols ain’t going to be able to shoot this lock off. It’s all about up and over on this one.”

Mark looked at the three strands of barbed wire running along the top that angled out. He didn’t know how he was even going to get to the top, let alone go over the wire. They all stared at it for a while and thought, then Jeff said, “I have an idea. Mark, give me the strap from your rifle.”

They both dug in their packs and removed the straps from the rifles. Jeff climbed up the outside of the fence a few feet before he said, “Sheryl, Lisa, I need for you to push and keep me against the fence.” They did, and Jeff went to work. He placed the straps around the barbed wire about four feet apart and pulled them tightly together.

Dedee folded one of the blankets twice and then handed it to him. He carefully set it over the barbed wire to act as a barrier. Then he leaned into it and had Lisa run the straps through the chain link below and pull them as tight as she could, then tie them off.

Jeff cautiously reached over and pulled himself up. Starting with this right leg, he threw it over and used his foot to balance himself on the top bar while he brought his left leg over. Slowly, he lowered his right leg and climbed down the other side. He said with a smile, “Okay, bro, you’re next.”

Mark started to climb, but his left leg was more dead weight than help. Suddenly, he felt two hands on his butt, pushing him up, and then he felt them squeeze. He asked, “Lisa? Is that you?”

He could detect a smile on her face as she said, “I’m just trying to help you over.” He heard Sheryl and Tami giggling. With Lisa and Jeff’s help, Mark was able to make it over the fence. Jet tossed her sword over to Jeff and she went next. Dedee followed, but when she was halfway over, a few zombies appeared on the outside of the fence. When Mark pointed this out, she got nervous. She lost her balance and almost fell back over.

When Tami started to climb over, she mentioned there were also zombies on the inside. Jet turned to see a faster moving one coming their way, so she started toward it. Mark drew his pistol and kept it pointed through the fence for cover against the ones outside. As Tami’s feet hit the ground, Mark fired and dropped two. Sheryl tried to hurry, but it only slowed her down when she swung her legs over the top.

When Lisa started to climb, she stopped and said, “What the hell?” Mark and Jeff both looked behind them. They saw a zombie running away and Jet was chasing it. Just as she caught up to it, she swung her sword and severed the spinal cord. As it lay on the ground, she thrust her sword into its head and twisted it. Mark fired two more shots at the ones outside the fence and told Lisa to hurry over. In no time at all, she had gone over the fence and stood on the inside.

When Jet returned, Mark couldn’t help but ask, “What was that all about?”

She shrugged as she said, “I dunno, it came running at me, hissed, and the next thing I know, it’s running away. I figured what the hell, so I chased it down and killed it.”

Mark said, “Okay, seeing a zombie die always brightens my day.”

They began looking over the RVs and selected a nice larger one, with room for everybody. Lisa and Jeff broke into the office and found a bunch of keys on a board. They brought them out and found the set that belonged to the RV they selected, and then put the board back into the office.

Mark went right for the back and stretched out on the bed. He suggested they pull around and fill everything up before they left, so they did. With the tank and the generator full, they pulled up to the front gate. Jeff figured the only way out was to ram it, because it was locked just like the one in back.

Lisa told Jeff to back into it so he wouldn’t tear up the radiator and headlights. Jeff flipped it around, and with a running start, ripped right through it.

XVI

Mark lay on the bed in the back. Looking up front, he saw Jet talking to Jeff as he drove. Lisa was busy talking to Tami, Sheryl, and Dedee. Mark watched for a little while, then got up and went over to sit next to Lisa. Sheryl looked across the small table and asked Mark, “Is your leg still bothering you?”

“A little, but it is feeling better now.”

Lisa ran her hand over his thigh and smiled. “I think you’re pushing too hard, maybe if you took it a little slower, it wouldn’t be as bad.”

Sheryl agreed. “I think she’s right. Maybe when we get to the cabin, you could do just a short, slow jog everyday and build up from there.”

He nodded and said, “When we get to the cabin, I will. Right now, I’m only doing what I need to do. Those damned zombies aren’t giving me much of a choice, ya know?”

Sheryl glanced between Lisa and Mark before speaking. “I know, but there is one thing that concerns me. If there are still small fragments in your leg, they’re not anchored. They’re free to move around and could work their way toward your artery. If that happens, they could rub against it and maybe even cut into it, causing bleeding. You could literally bleed to death internally, and there’s nothing Tami or I could do to stop it.”

Hearing those words, Lisa felt her stomach knotting up. She turned to Mark with a worried look on her face and set her hand on his arm. He put his hand on hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze as he said, “There are a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ in there that I’m not worried about right now. I promise you, I’ll be careful, and that you’re gonna be stuck with me for a very long time.” He gave her a smile.

He noticed Tami hadn’t said much since they left the town, so he asked her, “What’s on your mind?”

She stared at the tabletop as she answered. “I’m thinking about Amy.” She looked up. “We were there walking down the street. She was so excited and telling me about some of the things she wanted to do once we got to the cabin. Then a few seconds later, we were surrounded by those things and they were tearing her to pieces right in front of me.”

That only reminded Mark of what he had already lost. No matter how hard he tried to put it behind, there were constant reminders tapping him on the shoulder. He looked around and knew everyone there had to have at least half a dozen stories of loss.

Jet looked out at the trees and rocks as they drove through the hills. In the towns and cities, it was violence and chaos. Out here, things were quiet and peaceful. She said to Jeff, “I can’t believe she’s gone. We are so close, and now she’s gone. Amy, Todd, her parents, an entire family, completely erased. I mean think about it, all of us here are like the only surviving members of our families. Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents… They’re all gone, except for us.”

Jeff sighed and said, “I don’t remember any of them, except for my brother. I guess this memory loss thing has some advantages. I mean, how can you miss someone you don’t know?”

Sheryl knelt behind Jeff and asked, “Why don’t you take a break and let me drive for a while?”

He glanced at her. “Have you ever driven one of these before?” She shook her head. As he stopped, he said, “Just keep it slow and don’t make any sudden turns and you’ll be fine.”

Mark had Jeff lay down for a while so he would be alert enough to drive through the night. Tami and Dedee checked out the propane stove and heated some of the food they had. It had been a while since anyone had hot food and it helped raised everyone’s spirits a little.

After sundown, Jeff took the wheel again. Sheryl, Tami, and Dedee went to the back to lie down. Mark stretched out on the small couch and Lisa lay down next to him. Jet sat up front with Jeff, and the gentle curves of the mountain roads slowly rocked her to sleep. She slept for several hours before Jeff woke her up.

Looking around, she saw they were in a valley and she asked, “Are we almost there?”

He pointed to the dash. “Wake Mark up and tell him we have three eighths of a tank and we need to get some gas before morning.”

She went to the couch and shook him, but Lisa woke up first. Seeing it was still dark, she asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Jeff wanted me to tell Mark we need to stop for gas.”

“Mark, wake up,” Lisa whispered as she shook him. Mark just mumbled, but he didn’t wake up. She tried again, whispering a little louder, “Mark! Wake up!” Again, he just mumbled and moved a little. She sighed and whispered in his ear, “Mark, c’mon, we gotta go kill some zombies.”

His eyes shot open and he sat up. “Where?”

Jet smirked. Mark looked around, still half-asleep and rubbing his eyes. She said to him, “Jeff said we need to stop for some gas.”

He just stared at her like it wasn’t registering at first, then he said, “Right, gas.” He went up front and stood behind Jeff. Looking at his watch, then out through the windshield, he tried to calculate about where they were. “There should be a station just off the road up ahead.”

Jeff drove another twenty miles before they came to it. He pulled off the road and up next to the pump. There was no town or any other buildings around; it was just a little store in the middle of nowhere. Mark got into his pack and took out the mini flashlight Jet had got from the drugstore. Mark, Lisa, and Jeff stepped out from the door on the side of the RV with their pistols out.

Mark turned on the flashlight and started looking around. They only sound they heard was the wind blowing through the tops of the trees. Jeff brought the cord that was plugged into the generator around and opened the side of the pump. Mark told him to stop and put the cord back up as he shined the light on a sign in the window that read ‘Sorry out of gas’.

Jeff coiled it up and put it back while Mark and Lisa stood watch. Jet saw Jeff rolling the cord back up and stepped out. Lisa pointed to the sign in the window and she looked the place over. Jet thought it looked rundown and dirty. There was a lot of scrap metal and wood lying around and up against the side of the building. It reminded her of the hideouts used by the killers in the slasher movies and it gave her the chills.

Mark said there was another station in a small town about fifty miles up the road and they would check for gas there. Mark took the wheel and Jeff sat back on the couch with Jet next to him. He laid back and closed his eyes; just as he felt like he could drift off to sleep, he heard the engine winding down and felt the RV come to a stop.

The first thing they did when they got out was check for a sign in the window. This place was a little cleaner, but not by much. There were old buildings on both sides of it and they looked like they were in similar rundown condition. Jet stood outside to lend a hand if they needed one. As she watched, she noticed something moving in the shadows off to the side, but it didn’t make a sound.

Jeff was busy attaching wires inside the pump and Lisa was looking toward the back of the RV. Jet saw Mark looking in the direction of the movement, but he didn’t seem to notice it. She raised her sword and started walking toward it. It saw her coming and tried to move farther back into the shadows, but she could still see it as it moved.

When she was about five feet away, it lunged at her, but she was ready. Her sword fell, slicing through its face and severing its right hand. She drew it back and swung again. She cut through its left forearm and across its throat. The arm fell and hit the ground with a thump. It fell back against the wall with a crash as it knocked over an old metal trashcan.

Marked asked, “What the hell? How did you know that thing was there?”

“I saw it moving in the shadows.”

“But… I was looking that way and didn’t see a thing.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but its dead now.”

She went back over to where she had been standing before and kept her eyes open for anymore movement. Jeff finished filling the tank and rolled the cord back up. Once they were back on the road, she relaxed a little. Jeff sat on the couch and she lay down with her head in his lap. When she woke up, she saw Jeff looking down at her with a smile. She looked toward the window and noticed the sun had already come up.

She asked, “Where are we?”

Jeff said, “We entered Washington about an hour ago. Mark said we should be starting our hike to the cabin tomorrow morning.”

She smiled and sat up. She started to lean into Jeff for a kiss and stopped. “Mark? Does the kissing rule still apply?”

He called out, “Sheryl, can you check her blood?”

Sheryl grabbed a test kit and pricked Jet’s finger. Jet felt the little pinch and watched. For a second there was no sign of blood, but then a small drop appeared on her fingertip. Sheryl took a cotton swab and placed it on the tip of her finger and wiped it away. She held up so Mark could see it and said, “Its red human blood.”

Mark smiled and said, “Go ahead.”

Jet quickly sat on his lap and they put their arms around each other and exchanged a long wet kiss.

Mark drove for a couple more hours before Sheryl came to him and asked if they could stop somewhere and pick up some new clothes. Since they only had what they were wearing, and the there wasn’t any at the cabin for them, Mark agreed. As they passed through a larger town, Sheryl pointed out a large two-story mall she saw from the freeway.

Mark took the next off-ramp and drove toward it. As he pulled into the parking lot, he stopped just inside the entrance. He didn’t have an exact count, but it looked like there were about three hundred zombies milling around by the glass doors of the main entrance and in the parking lot of the mall. They sat there trying to figure out a plan that would allow them to safely get inside the building.

They watched as the zombies began to gather and start toward them. Mark smiled as he said, “Let’s do it like we did at the hospital.”

Lisa stared at him. “Are you serious? You just want to wait for them to surround us and race for the doors? What about when we want to leave? Don’t you remember what happened to the truck?” Then she buried her face in her hands and moaned.

He waited until most of them were right on top of the RV and he hit the gas, plowing through them as he raced across the lot, but he didn’t go for the door. He turned around and drove toward them again. There were thuds, bangs, and squishes as he drove through the horde of walking, festering, rot-bags. He was able to make three passes before they all spread out again.

He figured he took about a quarter of them out before he had to calculate another plan. He drove around the mall until he found a smaller side entrance. Carefully, he drove up onto the sidewalk and approached the entrance, pulling up as close as he could, almost scraping against the building before he stopped. The RV blocked the zombies from reaching the recessed entryway, and gave them safe passage back when they left. They opened the side door and fired shots at the four zombies trapped between them and the mall’s glass door.

Once inside, Mark looked up and noticed there were domed windows on the roof that let in a lot of light, making it easier to see. Lisa pointed out twenty zombies wandering around on the first floor they had to get past. Everyone ran as quickly as they could to the motionless escalator and climbed it to the second floor.

Once they were up there, they looked around in the common areas and didn’t notice any wandering around. The first store Sheryl pointed out was one of those high-dollar name-brand stores with all kinds of women’s fashion. Looking in through the display window, she smiled and insisted they get their clothes from that store.

Mark and Lisa both fired at the locked on the roll up gate, but nothing happed, until he had Dedee shoot at it. The lock and the wall around it disintegrated under the buckshot fired point-blank at it. Sheryl rolled the door up with a glowing smile on her face.

Mark went over to the railing and looked down onto the first floor. Just about all of the zombies were gathered around the escalator and a few were trying to come up. Jeff pointed out there was a men’s wear store a couple of doors down from where the girls were. Mark hollered inside the store to Lisa and told her where they would be. Without looking up, she nodded and kept going through clothes on the rack.

This store had a similar gate and lock. To save on precious ammunition, they both lifted a heavy metal trashcan by a planter and heaved it through the display glass window. They climbed in and each one grabbed about half a dozen pair of jeans and a dozen shirts. When they returned to where the girls were, they stood outside and waited. After standing for twenty minutes, they had a seat on a metal bench outside.

Half an hour later, Lisa came out pushing a large stock cart loaded with bags of clothes. Mark’s jaw dropped and he asked her, “Do you think you have enough?”

She grinned as she said, “Yeah, Tami and Sheryl are in the back getting carts for their stuff.”

“More carts? I thought this was for all of you.”

“No, this is just for me and my sister.” She flashed him a sweet smile and said, “I also got a very special ‘little’ something for our first night at the cabin, I really think you’re going to like.” She slipped a bag into her pack.

Mark smiled and his mind ran wild with vivid images. Jet walked out with seven bags in her hands, went over to Lisa, and held two of the bags open. Lisa whispered something to her and pointed at the pink bag; Jet smiled as she looked over at Jeff and immediately put it in her pack before she sat down on the bench next to him. Five minutes later, Tami and Dedee came out with another cart full of bags. They all sat down and waited for Sheryl to come out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sheryl slid the last box off the cart and let out a deep breath. Grabbing the handle, she started to pull it back, but she bumped into something that stopped her. A hand came around and covered her mouth. At the same time a large knife was held in front of her face. She heard a man’s voice behind her say, “Don’t struggle and you won’t get hurt.” The knife came closer to her face and the sharp edge was placed against her cheek, the tip just inches from her eye.

She tried to gasp, but the hand was too tight for her to even breathe through her mouth. She could feel her heart pounding and she thought it even skipped a beat a few times as he pulled her backward through the room. She watched the sharp tip move closer to her eye, then farther away with every step.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They sat and waited for Sheryl to come out of the store. Ten minutes passed, so Lisa went in to find and help her with her bags. After checking the sales floor and back room, Lisa came running out with Sheryl’s clipper handle and said, “She’s gone!”

Tami felt a sudden jolt of urgency and jumped to her feet. “What? What do you mean she’s gone?”

“She’s not in the store or back room. She’s not in there anywhere, she’s just… gone!”

Mark said, “Hurry, check for any open shops up here.” And they all ran off in different directions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The man took her into a room and closed the door. Dragging her over to a bed, he threw her on it, face-down, then bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape. He rolled her onto her back and placed another piece over her mouth. Now, she was finally able to see him.

He was somewhat plump with a round head that looked like it was a little too small for his body. His eyes were like tiny black marbles set in his head and spaced too far apart. He was bald on top with long stringy light brown hair on the sides and back of his head. He said to her in a raspy voice, “You must be good or I will be forced to punish you.”

Sheryl lay there in shock as she watched him leave the room. Surrounding the bed, she saw about two dozen female mannequins, and they were all dressed in lingerie and had makeup applied to their faces. She felt a chill shoot through her body as her muscles tensed and her stomach began to knot up. A few minutes later, the man returned and stood over her. He didn’t say a word; he just stared at her with those small black eyes.

He wore no expression on his face as he appeared to be studying her. He turned and looked at one of the mannequins that stood by the foot of the bed. A minute went by, and he said to it, “No, don’t worry, my love; she’s not going to take your place.” Then he was silent for a few seconds before he yelled, “I said no! Now shut up, bitch!” He stepped toward it and punched it in the chest. Surprised, Sheryl flinched; the mannequin broke into pieces as it flew through the air and slammed against the wall. He looked back at Sheryl and took a step toward her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark waited by the bench as Dedee and Tami ran up to him. “She not in any of the rest rooms and we didn’t see any open shops down that way,” Dedee said as she huffed for air.

Lisa, Jet, and Jeff returned a few minutes later. Jet shook her head. “There’s nothing down that way.”

Mark walked to the railing and looked down to the first floor. The zombies were still gathered by the escalator, trying to get up. “We have to check the first floor.” He stepped away. “I’m not leaving until I know what’s happened to her. Good or bad, I have to know.”

Tami asked, “Do you really think she may have been eaten by a zombie?”

He shook his head. “I dunno. I hope not. We need to figure a way to get past those things and check the first floor.”

Dedee said, “There are some steps back that way and I don’t think there are any zombies waiting at the bottom.”

They ran to the stairs and went down to the first floor. As soon as they got there, the rot-bags that were by the escalators started toward them. Jet ran up and sliced the throat out of one and both legs off the second. As she went for the third one, she slipped in a puddle of black goo on the tile floor and landed on her left hip. It came up to her, bent over as it reached out, and grabbed her legs.

Tami ran up and swung her pipe, hitting it in the face. The skull caved in and the neck made a tearing sound as the head ripped off and flew up. They all herd the hallow thumps, echoing through the mall, as it bounced across the floor of the second story. Jeff helped her up as she moaned and rubbed her hip. Even though the rest of the zombies moved a little slower and they were able to dodge them, Jet stopped to cut a few of them in half as they started checking the first floor. Mark noticed this, and a big smile came across his face.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He stood at the edge of the bed, looking at her with his hand on the knife that he wore on his belt. “I won’t have to punish you, will I?” he asked.

Sheryl shook her head as she stared at his twitching hand that rested on the knife. Her eyes wide with fear, she glanced at the door, then back at him. He noticed this and leaned over her as he drew his knife and placed it against her collarbone. She felt the tip of the knife at the base of her throat and a sharp pinch as it lightly pierced her skin, drawing a small drop of blood.

He said to her, “Thinking about that is punishable and you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Good,” he said with a smile on his face. He went over to one of the mannequins and caressed its face before he leaned in and roughly kissed it on its mouth.

He told her he would be back shortly as he left the room. She looked at the broken mannequin on the floor, then at the other with the smeared lipstick. Not wanting to know what he had in mind for her, she broke down and wept.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tami yelled out, “I found an open store over here!”

They rushed in and everyone went a different direction, calling out her name as they ran. As Lisa went into the back room to check, she ran into two zombies wearing dress slacks and shirts with store nametags. Mark was right behind her and quickly grabbed a large fire extinguisher hanging on the wall.

He swung it up and hit one in the groin, there was a loud crunch and it fell to the ground. He raised the extinguisher and slammed it down on the side of its head as hard as he could. He heard a crack as the head collapsed; bone and rotten flesh shot out from under it and slid across the floor.

Lisa grabbed the other one under the chin and slammed it into the wall as she pulled out her knife. She began jabbing and slicing its abdomen with it as the zombie hissed at her. It pushed her back as black blood poured down the front of its white dress shirt and blue-checkered tie. It lunged at her. Slipping in its own rotten blood, it fell backward and its head slammed against the floor.

The back of the skull broke open like an egg. A greenish-gray brain slid out of the hole and shook like gelatin as it hit the floor. When it sat up, the brain hug from the back of the head and swung from the still-attached brain stem. Lisa stuck her fingers inside the hole and pulled it out a little farther before she got a good grip on the brain stem and ripped it from the spinal cord.

Using its shirt, she wiped the sticky slime off her hand. They checked the rest of the back room and didn’t see any sign of Sheryl. They ran back out to the front and met Jet at the checkout counter. Mark yelled out, “Did anyone find her?”

Everyone responded, “No.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He walked back into the room with a pleased smile on his face and said to her, “Well, your friends think the zombies got you and left. It looks like they have abandoned you. You’re all mine now.” He went to her and ran his fingers over her forehead, around her left eye, and down her cheek. His hands moved down over her body, feeling every part of it. He said, “Yes, you will be able to suit my needs.”

He went over to the wall and carried two of the mannequins over. She saw one had arms that were dried up and badly decomposed. Reaching into the eye sockets of the other, he pulled out two dried-up human eyes. He looked at them as he said, “These used to belong to Ann from the pet shop, but Valery has grown tired of the color. She tells me she likes your eyes better.” Then he pulled the rotting arms off the first one and said, “Karen has been looking forward to some new arms, and yours look like they will do nicely.”

He pulled out his knife and started toward Sheryl. When he got close enough, she brought up her feet and kicked him in the groin. He grunted and dropped the knife on the floor. His face tightened and he grabbed her by the throat. He started choking her as he said through gritted teeth, “Why did you do that? Why are you making me punish you?”

He raised his arm and backhanded her across the face. She felt the burning sting of his hand and the taste of blood in her mouth. He climbed on top of her and began slapping her face as he said to her, “See? See what you are making me do?”

She began screaming and wailing through the tape over her mouth as he beat her. She glanced at the door and thought. Please, guys, hurry and come through the door. I need your help. With every strike, she saw a flash of black and fought to keep her eyes open as her vision blurred. Her strength was draining fast, and she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on.

XVII

As they stood at the checkout counter, they noticed the zombies had found them and started to come in. Tami stepped up, swung, and hit one in the leg, it snapped and folded up as the zombie fell forward. She raised her pipe over her head and brought it down hard on its rib cage, causing it to cave in. Jet decapitated another. The arms flailed about wildly as black liquid shot up out of its neck like a fountain, and the head hit the floor with a hallow thunk.

Mark and Jeff quickly picked up a clothing rack and ran to the door with it. Using it like a battering ram, they pushed them back out and onto the floor. Jet quickly ran in and started slicing; Tami followed and struck some in the head. Mark, Jeff, and Lisa started stabbing and slicing throats with their knives until they were all dead.

They stood outside of the store amongst the mess of dead and mutilated zombies. Mark looked back into the store they had just come from, then to the one next door. He thought one of the stores looked a little longer than the other. Lisa noticed he had strange look on his face as he looked back and forth. He said, “Follow me.” He ran for the escalator with Lisa right behind him. She followed him up to the second floor and back inside the store.

He ran into the back storage area and started moving boxes. He said, “I’ll check this side. You check the other for some kind of opening in the wall.”

She did the same, and behind one large stack boxes, she found a door. When she opened it, she saw Sheryl on a bed and she was struggling to get free. There was a man on top of her back with one hand grabbing a fistful of her long hair and pulling her head up. There was a knife in his other hand with the tip of the blade being held close to her face, just below her right eye.

Lisa drew her knife as she ran toward them, coming up from behind. Grabbing his hair, she jerked his head back and to the left. Lisa ran her sharp blade across his throat and up the right side of his neck, slicing deep. Before he could react, blood shot out of his neck and covered the mannequins. In a matter of seconds, he had bled out and lay dead on the floor. She wiped her blade, then cut through the tape that bound Sheryl’s wrists and ankles.

When Lisa set her hand on Sheryl’s shoulder, she flinched. Lisa could feel her whole body trembling under her touch. She said softly, “Sheryl, it’s okay now. We’re here.”

Sheryl recognized Lisa’s voice and turned toward her. Lisa gasped in shock when she saw her bruised and swollen face. “Oh my gawd, Sheryl!” She removed the tape that covered her mouth. That is when she noticed Sheryl’s torn clothing. She pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her.

Through her tears and quivering voice, she said, “He hurt me, Lisa. He hurt me bad.”

Looking at her face, she started to speak, and then she looked down at her torn shirt. “You mean…?”

She nodded and said, “Yes, but please, don’t tell anyone. Please, promise me you won’t ever tell anyone.”

Lisa put her arm around her shoulder and softly said, “Okay, I promise.”

Sheryl looked at his body as Lisa helped her up. She spat on him and said, “Rot, you dirty son of a bitch! I hope you burn in hell forever, you bastard!”

Mark ran to the door and froze when he saw Sheryl. His jaw dropped and he was speechless as he watched Lisa help her to the door. Looking around the room, he was stunned as blood ran down the mannequin’s arms and dripped from their fingers. Lisa said, “We’ll meet everyone outside. It got kinda bloody in here and she needs to change.”

Mark nodded and went out in front of the store to wait with everyone else. When she came out with Sheryl, Tami jumped up and ran over to them. Taking Sheryl’s arm, she said she would take her to the RV and clean her up while everyone else took care of the bags.

They managed to get all the bags to the first floor and over to the exit door. Mark took some bags into the RV and noticed the parking lot and sidewalk were clear. He asked Tami, “Where did they all go?”

She looked up as she cleaned some dried blood off Sheryl’s face. “Where’d who go?”

He pointed to the front windshield. “All the zombies. Where did they go to?”

She shrugged as she replied, “I don’t know. They weren’t here when we came in.”

He ran back into the mall and said, “The zombies that were outside are gone, we need to keep…” There was a loud crash down by the main entrance.

They saw the doors and broken glass on the floor as the zombies began to pour in. Quickly, they formed a line and started passing as many of the bags as they could out the door and into the RV. Tami started grabbing bags and throwing them into the back as they came in. They had most of the stuff inside before Mark and Lisa drew their pistols and started firing.

Jeff had to stop and start firing as they drew closer, while Dedee, Jet, and Tami worked on moving the bags. Mark yelled, “Screw the bags. We have to go. Now!” As they backed out the door, Mark stopped firing and said, “Shit! I need more bullets!”

Lisa stopped firing and said the same thing. Jeff and Jet closed and held the door while Mark and Lisa got inside. When they heard the engine turn over, they both ran for the side door of the RV. The zombies, however, moved just as fast as they did. Jet jabbed their hands and arms with her sword and Jeff tried to close the door as Mark slowly pulled away from the side of the building.

The zombies started to fall away as Mark accelerated; one fell and was caught under the back wheels. The tires broke traction as they went over it and pieces of it flew back through the air, hitting some of the zombies that were chasing after them. The RV bounced sending Jeff and Jet onto their backs and causing the door to slam shut.

Mark left the parking lot as fast as he could, then headed back to the freeway. Jeff went to the back with Jet and Dedee. He sat on the edge of the bed as they went through bags and showed him some of the clothes they got. Lisa sat down and placed her hand on Sheryl’s, giving it a gentle squeeze, while Tami cleaned up the table. Sheryl put her other hand on Lisa’s as she looked over and said, “Thank you.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark pulled into a service station and said as he got up, “This will be the last fuel stop we have to make.” He glanced at his watch. “We should be just below the logging camp in another three hours.”

Lisa stood up with a big smile on her face as she said, “Let’s do it then.”

Jeff woke Jet up so she could come out with them while he fueled up. Mark and Lisa stood by the door with their backs against the RV, their eyes constantly looking for threats. Jet stood with Jeff as he worked on the pump and hooked up the generator. When he started it up, the place came to life.

Two appeared on the sidewalk across the street and four more a couple of blocks away. Jet drew her sword and Jeff looked around quickly, before looking back at her. He said, “Oh, shit!” as he ran back to the pump and started to fill the tank.

Mark and Lisa drew their pistols and fired on the two across the street. Both fell to the pavement as they stepped off the curb, but the other four kept coming. Jeff watched as it pumped, he could feel his anxiety rising as the numbers on the pump slowly advanced. He said out loud, “I had two pumps to choose from and I had to pick the slowest frickin’ one in the state.”

Lisa yelled that they were almost completely out of ammo and for him to stop and get back inside, but they were so close to the cabin, he had to try and get all that he could, so they would not be forced to walk again. Three hours of driving or one week of walking, he thought to himself. This was pretty much a no brainer, but those damned zombies may force them to walk again.

Jet swung as the first one reached for Jeff and she sliced its leg. It fell to the ground and grabbed Jeff’s ankle with its right hand. Jet drove her sword into the back of its head and wiggled the blade as black fluid bubbled up through the small hole. She raised it over her head and brought the blade down right on top of the second’s head. It cut through and stopped in the center of its chest.

Pulling the blade out, she wiped the black smears onto its shirt as it teetered and fell. She yelled for Jeff to hurry as a third drew near. He didn’t have time to unhook the wires, so he just pulled the cord from the generator and closed the hatch. He pulled the nozzle out and threw it on the ground as he jumped back inside.

Mark hit the gas and pulled away. The slower moving one, a woman, stood in the street in front of them and looked like she was ready to jump through the windshield as they approached. When they were almost on top of her, she lunged right at the windshield, but instead of coming through it, she exploded on impact, like a water balloon on concrete.

Goo, innards, and rotting skin ran down the front of the RV and Mark had to turn on the wipers just to see out. Lisa wrinkled her nose and whispered, “Ewww.” Hair tangled in the wiper blades and liquefied brain matter was flung off to the side. A retched stench was pulled in through the vents and quickly filled the air inside.

Mark rolled down his window to let some fresh air in and Lisa did the same. After driving the last few hours, they arrived at the sawmill below the logging camp. Mark decided everyone should get a little sleep and they would start at sunrise.

Before they started their hike, Mark filled them in on the details. “We have a three mile hike to the logging camp. After that, it’s another three miles to the cabin. The camp is pretty isolated, so I don’t know if the virus made it there or not. But we need to be ready just in case it did. With that in mind, we also don’t know where people would have been when they turned, just like in the barn, so we could run into some along on the trail.”

Jet took her shades from her pack and put them on, just in case they ran into someone that hadn’t turned. She didn’t want to chance having her eyes freaking them out and having an axe buried in her head. Dedee pointed out there were birds in the sky circling over something ahead, and Mark took that as a bad omen.

The first two and a half miles were clear. The sounds of birds in the air and an occasional cool breeze had a calming effect on everyone. It was the last half mile that they ran into trees that had been cut down and were lying across the trail. One at a time, they climbed over them, but this slowed them down and they started to tire quickly. The third tree they had to climb over was almost six feet in diameter.

Mark gave Lisa a boost to get up, as she reached over, something cold and rough grabbed her hand. She shrieked and jumped back, almost knocking Mark to the ground. She told him what happened so Jet climbed onto Jeff’s back to look over it. On the other side, she saw two men, and they were huge. Both were well built and stood almost six and a half feet tall.

Jet reached over with her sword and started swinging; she quickly brought them down to size as she cut through their necks and chests. A little embarrassed, Mark said, “Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that almost all of them are over six feet tall and built like tanks.”

Lisa sighed. “And you just remembered this?” She shook her head and asked, “By the way, how many of them are there?

He thought before he answered. “Anywhere between thirty-five and eighty-five of them… Well, minus two now.”

They climbed over the trees and continued to the edge of the camp. They watched as dozens of tank-like zombies moved about in the camp. Mark pointed through it to a trail on the other side and said, “Okay, all we have to do is make it to there, it’s just a short 400-yard run and we’ll be back on the trail.”

Lisa asked, “Why can’t we go around it?”

Mark said as he pointed, “This side has an eleven-foot rock wall and the other has a few hundred trees on the ground with four- to six-foot diameters.”

Tami looked at him and sarcastically said, “Only a short 400-yard run through all these zombie tanks? Not a problem.”

Mark nodded. “Ready?” Then he said, “Go!” They all started to run through the middle of the camp. They had only covered a hundred yards before they were noticed, and the lumbering zombies all moved to intercept them. Mark pointed his pistol as he ran and fired a shot into ones chest. The only thing it did was piss it off.

Lisa was right behind Mark and fired a second shot, hitting it in the head and stopping it. They kept firing as they ran, clearing a path down the center. When they were a little more than halfway across, they ran out of ammunition and had to start a zigzag pattern to avoid them. When Mark and Jet were almost to the trail, he heard a shot and looked back. Somehow, everyone else had been cut off and they had gone inside one of the buildings.

The first ten feet of the trail was pretty steep, but they made it up quickly. They both watched as the zombies flocked around the building and trapped their friends inside. Mark turned to Jet and said, “Jet, I need you to do something. You have to run to the cabin, get more weapons and ammo, and run back. Be careful that you don’t run into anymore zombies on the trail. Oh, and before I forget, you have two keypad entry doors you need to remember the combinations for.”

Her eyes grew wide and her stomach turned into knots. “Huh? But how?”

He put his hand on her shoulder to calm her. “It’s easier than it sounds. When you get to the cabin, go up to the door. To the right of it, count up five boards, then over three knots. Push it with your finger and lift the board up. Take the key and put it in the lock, then give it a quarter turn clockwise. Enter the code 07041776 on the pad—just remember Independence Day. The light will turn green and open the door, but be sure to turn the key back to the original position before you remove it.”

“Okay, is that all?”

He shook his head. “No, but it’s really easy like I said. Once you’re inside, go to the green metal door, use the key just like you did on the first one. On that key pad enter the code 12071941—just remember Pearl Harbor. Go inside that room and get a shotgun with a pistol grip from the wall, there’ll be a red zippered gym bag on the floor right under it, get that too.”

“Is that it?”

“No, just a little more.” Her eyes grew even larger, her breathing became rapid and she started to panic. He continued. “Grab some more pistols. These will be forty calibers and have a longer barrel. Get three of them and a lot of magazines, then put them in the zippered bag. Look for some green boxes of shotgun shells with white number twenties printed on them. Grab two boxes and put those in the bag too. Be sure you close all the doors and bring the key back with you. Now… can you remember all that?”

She nodded as she gasped. “Yeah… Gawd, I hope so.”

“Good, now go, and please hurry back.”

She jumped up and started running up the trail as fast as she could.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa held the door as everyone ran inside. Dedee was the last one through and fired both barrels at the zombies outside, just before Lisa slammed the door shut and threw the latch. Jeff and Sheryl slid a bunk bed across the floor and up against the door. There were no windows, only open square holes covered with a heavy wire for a screen. Dedee sighed as she took out her last shell and placed it in the shotgun.

Tami looked out and said, “Hey, Mark and Jet made it to the trail.”

Lisa went over and saw Mark talking to Jet, after a couple of minutes, she took off running up the trail and Mark stayed behind. They watched and saw the numbers were growing, as more zombies came up to the bunkhouse. Lisa sighed and said, “Well, looks like there’s about fifty of them out there now.”

Tami asked, “Can we close these shutters? I can’t stand seeing all those rotting faces looking in here at us.”

Lisa went around and closed them all, except for the one with a view of the trail. She watched as Mark threw rocks at other buildings, trying to distract some of them. At one point, he stood up on a boulder and started yelling at them. This pulled a few away for a short time, but they returned to where Lisa and the others were at.

Sheryl gasped when the latch broke and the door hit the bed they placed in front of it. Lisa and Tami quickly leaned another bed over onto the first one to add more weight. Dedee looked around and said, “That’s the only way in or out. We’re trapped in here.”

Jeff and Lisa began trying to figure out a way they could escape if the rot-bags started coming in through the door. They went around and checked all the wire screens, but they were attached really well and weren’t going to give any. Jeff found a large axe and said as he held it up, “We can chop our way out.”

Lisa shook her head. “That won’t work. This place is surrounded and they’ll be waiting for us on the other side before we even make a hole large enough to fit through.”

“I’m not talking about a chopping through a wall.” He pointed up.

He and Lisa moved one of the bunk beds close to the back wall where the roof was lower. He lay on the top bunk and began chopping at the planks. Lisa, Tami, and Sheryl moved two more beds over against the door. Every time the door would swing in, the beds were pushed back little more. Jeff continued to chop upward and hit the planks, trying to break through to the roof.

The door swung open enough for one of them to reach in and grab the beds to try to push them away. Jeff started to break through and a beam of sunlight shot down onto his face. He felt a little hope and began to chop faster. The door swung open again and one was able to step through and began to push on the beds against the door.

Jeff broke through and a few planks flew outward with a loud crack. One by one, they climbed on the top bunk and Jeff helped them up on the roof. The door flew open all the way and more started to push the beds back. After he helped Tami up through the hole, he jumped up and started to pull himself onto the roof. He shouted, “One’s got me!” as he started sliding back inside.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jet ran up the trail, she figured buy now, she must be at least halfway to the cabin. Her legs were starting to feel tired, but the thought of Jeff and the rest of her friends trapped, kept her going. She saw movement on the trail ahead and wasn’t sure if it was a person, animal, or one of those logger zombies. When she was almost right on top of it, she froze. A big bear stood next to the trail and she thought it must have been the largest one that lived in area. It looked up at her and sniffed the air, but didn’t seem to be concerned as it went back to eating its meal.

There was no doubt she would have to leave the trail and go around it, and that would cause a delay in her return. Moving as quickly as she could, she had to climb over an outcropping of rocks and a few fallen trees to work her way around and back to the trail. Once she was back on it, she pushed herself to run even faster to make up the lost time.

When she finally got to the cabin, she did exactly as Mark said. After she opened the green door, her jaw dropped. Along the wall to her right, were more rifles, pistols, and shotguns than she could have ever imagined. To her left, the entire wall was lined with shelves all loaded with boxes of ammunition. She thought there was enough there to supply a medium sized army.

She went through and grabbed everything Mark had requested. When she was done, she closed the doors just as he had said and put the key in her pocket, then started her return run.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa dove and grabbed Jeff’s arm as the zombies tried to pull him back in. Sheryl and Tami quickly grabbed the other, and a tug-of-war pursued. Jeff cried out, “The son of a bitch is biting my ankle!”

Dedee lay down on the roof and leaned over into the hole. Tapping it on the shoulder with the barrel of her shotgun, it looked at her as she said, “Nighty-night, jerk-off.” She pulled the trigger. Its face flew to the right as the buckshot ripped it away. Jeff was quickly pulled back up and stood on the roof, rubbing his ankle.

Tami examined his ankle and saw his boot was badly chewed up. She had Jeff take it off so she could get a better look. She noticed there were no teeth marks, and the inner layer of leather in the boot was undamaged. As she smiled, she said, “You’ll be fine.”

Lisa yelled over to Mark, “Where’s Jet?”

He replied, “Cabin!” He held his hands far apart. “Big guns!”

Lisa turned and said, “Let’s hang on until she gets back.”

They sat on the roof and watched the zombies walk around the outside of the building and look back up at them. Under them, they could hear the zombies walking around and moaning inside the bunkhouse. Going through their packs, they realized they had only one bottle of water and the sun was getting warm. They opened it, and each one took a small drink. Jeff was last and took the remaining swallow. After almost two hours of waiting, they saw Jet running back down the trail and up to Mark.

She handed him a shotgun and the red bag as she hunched over and tried to catch her breath. Mark took out one of the pistols and put some of the magazines in his pouch. He took one of the round drums, attached it to the bottom of the shotgun, and hung two more from his belt. He set two more on a rock by the trail before he said, “When I draw them away from the building, I want you to take the bag over and toss it up on the roof.”

She nodded and said, “Okay, what do you want me to do after that?”

“Just stand back and only take out what attacks you. Our first goal is to get them down and on the trail; we can come back later and clean out the camp.” A big grin came across his face. “Wanna see something really cool? Watch what happens when I shoot them with this.”

He chambered a shell and casually walked down into the camp. He yelled at them to get their attention, “Hey, fugly freaks! I dare you all to come and try to get me!”

They watched from the roof and Jet watched from a rock by the trail as they started to turn. He began walking backward as more started walking his way. Lisa saw him break out in a big smile as he brought the shotgun up. They all heard him yell out, “Watch out for falling rocks!”

He fired a shot; there was a very small amount of blowback as the slug sank into the zombie’s chest. A second later, its head flew into the air and the arms spun off to the sides as its torso exploded into teeny tiny fragments, leaving only a set of legs standing in place. Mark yelled out, “Timber!” as he watched them fall to the side.

Mark stood in place and repeated this as fast as he could point and pull the trigger. He emptied the first drum and replaced it with the second. From the roof they saw the ground covered with zombie heads, legs, and guts. Jet ran over to the building and tossed the bag up to them. Lisa opened it and handed Dedee a box of shells and Jeff one of the pistols.

They slid the magazines in and started firing down into the heads of the zombies that still walked around the outside of the building. Some of the heads blew outward and others cracked wide open as the forty caliber rounds punched through the thick bone. Dedee went over to the hole in the roof and started firing down into it. Hands and arms flew against the walls and beds as heads disintegrated into bone and hair fragments.

Lisa loaded a fresh magazine, held another in her left hand, and put another between her teeth. Then she dropped through the hole and onto the top bunk. She quickly scanned the room and fired at anything that moved, even at a couple of things she thought might move.

When the first magazine was empty, she ejected it, loaded the second, and continued to fire until the room was still. She told them it was clear and to come down. Lisa went to the door and peeked out; she saw there were only a few zombies close by that would have to be taken out. She opened the door and they all charged out of the building. Lisa and Jeff fired as they ran. One stepped in front of Dedee and Sheryl, and was blown into little pieces when Dedee fired both barrels into its chest.

Mark saw them running from the building and he turned and followed. Once they got to the trail, they started up. Lisa turned and waited for Mark; once he was up, they fired on a few more that tried to climb toward them, but they were stopped, dead in their tracks.

The last three miles were taken at a slower pace and was zombie free. The only one they saw was where Jet had ran into the bear on her way up. This one was already dead and a good portion of it had been eaten by the bear. When they got to the cabin, Mark asked Jet for the key. When she reached into her pocket, a horrified look crossed her face. “I don’t understand,” she said. “I put it in my pocket, but now it’s not there.”

“Crap! We can’t get in without that key.” Everyone looked at Jet. Then Mark said with a smile as he held it up, “You dropped it on the trail down by the camp. Good thing I found it, huh?”

She sighed in relief as he opened the door. Lisa checked out the rooms. She stood inside one with a nice king-sized bed in it and looked at Mark. “This one is ours.”

Sheryl said, “This one has two beds. Tami and I can take this one.”

Dedee found another with two beds. “Jet and I can take this one.”

Jet took a pink bag out of her pack, grabbed Jeff’s hand, and pulled him toward his room as she said, “If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to Jeff... in private.” As she closed the door, she looked at Lisa and lipped the words, “Jeff and I will take this one.” She smiled.

Lisa asked, “What about all our stuff in the RV?”

Mark said, “It’ll be okay. Let’s take a couple of zombie-free days to relax and enjoy the scenery before we go back down for it.”

She looked around and asked, “Where’s all the food?”

Mark opened the green door and she looked in. Lisa saw all the guns and ammunition and shook her head. “Okay, I still don’t see it,”

He pointed to a set of steps that went down and said, “It’s all in the shelter downstairs, behind the rest of the guns and ammo.”

Dedee flicked a switch in her room and a light came on. She said with a big smile, “We have electricity!”

Mark smiled. “Solar panels and batteries. The pump, water heater, stove, and refrigerator—everything in here runs on solar power.”

Epilogue

After taking a couple of days to relax and rest up, they went through the logging camp and sawmill, killing every zombie in sight. The following two weeks, they completely cleared the town, making it a large zombie-free zone. After that, Mark checked the local propane distribution center and snagged the parts he needed to convert the RV to run on propane.

Two months after they arrived, Mitch and Joe showed up. Joe stayed in the RV they came in while Mitch converted one of the bunkhouses in the camp into a two room cabin. Not finding what they had been looking for in Canada, Gary and Sharon arrived and are currently living in a small house in town.

There are a now total of twenty people living in the old camp, and another fifty-two in the town. A few people found their way there, but most came back with them from some of the supply runs they made. So far, Mark has built a little over three dozen solar generators; some have been used to get the sawmill going again while others are used in the camp or for homes in the town.

Even though there haven’t been any zombies in the area for the last eight years, they’re still out there. Mark, Lisa, Jeff, and Jet patrol around the cabin and the camp four times a week. The people in town have organized a neighborhood zombie watch that patrols the streets for any that might wander in.

When Lisa is not out hunting game with Mark or on a patrol, she spends part of her time searching the internet trying to find updates on the zombie status, but most of it with their three-year-old son, Steven. She still has the little bag that Amy kept her acorns in, and plants one out front every time a child is born in the cabin.

The bullet fragments that were in Mark’s leg eventually worked their way to the surface and Sheryl has removed them. He’s still is not as fast as he used to be, but he can now run a couple of miles without any trouble. He spends most of his time at the cabin working on projects and with Lisa and Steven.

Janet and Jeff have a two-year-old daughter, Rachel, and a one-year-old son, Michael— they both have their mother’s eyes. Only part of Jeff’s memory has returned and he still does not remember his parents or the accident that took them. He spends part of his time installing the solar generators that Mark builds, and the rest with Janet and their children.

Janet dedicates most of her time to her two children. She is trying to convince Jeff into having a third. She has become proficient with firearms, but still prefers her katana. Her eyes freak some of the new people out at first, so when she leaves the cabin, she makes sure she has her shades with her.

Tami has since moved from the cabin and into a newly built three-room cabin in the camp. She reads every medical book that is brought back and is usually called upon when someone in town is sick or hurt. She is currently pursuing a personal relationship with one of the men that came back with Lisa and Mark after one of their supply runs to Seattle.

Sheryl still lives in the cabin where she feels the safest. She adores Lisa and Janet’s children and spends as much time with them as she can. They know her as their Aunt Sheryl. Although a few men in town have shown an interest in her, she has chosen not to pursue a personal relationship at this time.

Three years after Mitch arrived, Dedee moved out of the cabin and in with him. They currently have no children, but they do plan on having one in the near future. She no longer looks at it as surviving just to exist, but as having a second chance and playing an important role in mankind’s new beginning.

Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Please visit my Facebook Author Page for updates & information on upcoming books or special promotions.

G.E. Swanson

Or you can follow me on Twitter.

@GESwanson

Greg Swanson currently lives in California’s southern San Joaquin Valley where he grew up. He has a wife and two grown children. While serving in the U.S. Army, he has lived in Virginia, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Japan. From a very young age he was fascinated with the paranormal and science fiction, and now writes about it. His loves anything that has zombies and is on a constant hunt for it.

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Table of Contents

Copyright

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

Epilogue

About the author