“What’s going on?” Bobby asked as he came downstairs with Jordyn.
“Ned has a rock.” Tommy answered.
“What? Nick he can’t go outside.” Bobby said, as Nick threw his arms up in the air.
The Fortress members gathered for breakfast before Tommy and Bobby took off for Pittsburgh. Tracey volunteered to make a feast of bagels, eggs, frozen waffles, and microwaveable bacon. Tommy kept a tally of how many times Bobby and Jordyn smiled at each other during breakfast, it was 11. Borderline gross he thought, but he was happy for them. Casey went on and on about why cheerleading competitions are a sport, everyone just kind of nodded even though nobody believed it, it seemed important to her. Bobby told the story of how he and Tommy would shovel the snow off driveways for $1 each, regardless of the size of the storm or driveway. When people tried to pay more they wouldn’t let them, except for Mrs. Thomas down the street who would give them 10 dollars each and claim she didn’t have any singles in the entire house so they had to take the 10. Then they would take the day’s earnings and buy whatever they could afford at the local mini mart. Candy, gum, hot chocolate, whatever peaked their interest. But the breakfast couldn’t last forever, to everyone’s dismay, as the Nagels loaded the Humvee with food, drinks, supplies, and most importantly, guns and ammo. Bobby and Jordyn kissed, their lips lingered, neither one willing to utter the word “goodbye.” Tommy smiled from the car, and simply said “Don’t worry, I’ll keep him safe.” They were on the road by 9:00, giving them plenty of time to find Melanie before sundown. That is, if all goes as planned.
Bobby won the “who drives?” debate by arguing Tommy’s emotional investment in this trip would negatively influence his driving ability. Not that Bobby believed that, he just wanted to drive. They spent the first thirty minutes arguing about Martha Stewart. Yes, Martha Stewart.
“I’m just saying it’s ridiculous that after going to federal prison that they just gave her a cooking show, did she learn some amazing recipes in prison, Bobby?” Tommy said.
“She did her time. You can’t keep punishing people for past mistakes.”
“She was convicted of felonies!”
“It’s not like she killed someone.”
“Still a felony is a felony.”
“She only had to serve like half a year.”
“Well that’s even more ridiculous!”
“Oh my God.” Bobby sighed.
“Alright still, even if she NEVER went to prison or did any of those things, what makes her such a master chef that she gets a cooking show? Huh?”
“I don’t know man I guess she’s a good cook who cares?”
“And she has, like, her own bedding line and stuff. It’s like ‘Oh let’s just forget about her jail time because she makes great bed sheets that are crazy expensive and therefore better than other bed sheets!’ Why?”
“Because she’s a good entrepreneur that’s why! There’s a reason her bedding crap is successful she’s doing something right!”
“What? What is she doing right?”
“I’m not a bedding expert, Tommy!”
“I hate Martha Stewart.”
“I see that.”
“It’s not like Bernie Madoff has his own cooking show.”
“Bernie Madoff stole BILLIONS of dollars and got life in prison! That’s totally different. Martha Stewart was just insider trading!”
“Yeah so was Gordon Gecko in Wall Street, is he a good guy?”
“He’s a fictional character.”
“I hate Martha Stewart.”
“Tommy… You know that soon we’ll be in serious zombie territory, maybe we should focus on that.” And with that, the tone of the conversation changed drastically.
“I know… but it’s not like we’ve passed any zombies yet.”
“We’ve passed six.”
“How do you always do that?”
“It’s really not that hard.”
“...We’re going to have to take on a whole flock of them aren’t we?”
“A whole horde…” Bobby said, causing both of them to smile, “We’ll be fine, man. I just want you to be ready.” A long pause ensued, while they thought about what was waiting for them.
“I’m ready.”
They drove in silence, and mentally prepared for what they were about to drive into. The number of stray zombies kept increasing, but no groups yet. Every now and then Bobby would have to dodge a stray on the road, but it wasn’t too hard, Tommy joked that he could’ve done a better job with each near hit. Tommy tried to focus on what he was doing this for, on who he was doing this for. But it was hard to focus on Melanie when he was about to face hundreds of former humans waiting to kill him. But he had to do this for her, he had to know she was safe. But this time, it wasn’t just Tommy who had a girl waiting for him.
They started to notice more and more zombies coming out of the forest that bordered the three-lane highway, still no groups of them. They also had to deal with stray cars that had been abandoned, or destroyed. A zombie ran right out onto the road, Bobby swerved into the left lane and dodged it. Then another in the left lane, so he swerved sharply back into the right lane.
“Dude, you’re going to flip the thing!” Tommy yelled.
“What do you want me to do? I can’t just run right through them!”
“… Why not?”
They both thought about it, then Bobby smiled and plowed right through two of them in the beast of a truck. They both let out a laugh. The Humvee rolled through zombies, one, two, even groups of four or five of them. The zombies crunched under the tires, they flew over the roof of the car, they were thrown to the side. The Humvee seemed invincible. They ran through more and more zombies, but the number of them increased, and how much abuse could this machine take?
They were about to find out, as up ahead, there was a group of over 100 zombies, waiting for them.
Bobby accelerated, he pushed the pedal down to the floor, he figured this Humvee flying down over 100 miles per hour would be unstoppable. The horde was running towards them now, it was only seconds until impact with the rows and rows of zombies. Tommy took out his assault rifle, just in case. Finally, the Humvee collided with the front of the pack, barely slowing the machine, and sending many zombies over the roof of the car. One of the zombies landed hard into the windshield, which made a cracking sound that sent shivers through the Nagels’ bodies. The amount of constant force opposing the Humvee was causing it to lose speed, making it less of a killing machine. The pack was getting less tight, but there were still hundreds of zombies scattered in the area ahead of them. They kept plowing through, as the windshield cracked more and more with each hit. Tommy knew it would not hold out much longer. He turned the safety of his gun off, ready to shoot.
Another zombie crashed into the windshield, and another, and another. All of a sudden, one flew over the front bumper, and his arm was sticking through the glass of the windshield.
The glass only had a small hole in it, but the arm protruding into the car didn’t sit well with them. The zombies body blocked Bobby’s vision, as more and more zombies crashed over top of the Humvee. Finally, Tommy decided to shoot the zombie off, firing mercilessly up and down the body. Bullet after bullet went through the glass and into the corpse, and it eventually went over the top of the roof, taking a massive chunk out of the windshield with it.
Chapter 19
Zombies were still attacking the Humvee from all angles, and with the windshield basically missing, it seemed the most promising angle. The plow-through tactic was now over. The swerve and shoot tactic had begun.
Bobby tried his best to avoid head on contact with the zombies. Tommy shot from both the hole in the windshield, and out the window which he rolled down. He mainly kept his focus on the zombies Bobby couldn’t avoid. The last thing they wanted was an “alive” zombie to fly right through the window and into their car. Bobby swerved from lane to lane, trying to desperately to find holes in the zombie army. Tommy ke
pt shooting out the front windows, stopping charging zombies in their tracks. The lack of momentum caused most of the zombies to fall under the wheels of the vehicle.
The amount of zombies was decreasing. They were almost out of there. Tommy tried hard not to lose focus, he stared out the windshield waiting for a zombie to get in the way of the car, he fired round after round into zombies. Headshots would kill them, body shots would slow them down enough to make them go under the Humvee.
Just one zombie at a time, Tommy told himself. Bobby swerved hard into the far left lane, scraping the median guardrail, it felt like the Humvee was about to tip over. Tommy fired two shots through a zombies head, causing them to hit another “speed bump.” Bobby squeezed the Humvee between two zombies, just barely smashing them on the two front sides of the bumper, but neither went through the window. Another zombie was charging and Tommy fired through his chest and neck, causing him to fall and be crushed by the weight of the vehicle.
The amount of zombies kept dwindling, and they finally made it to the clear. The only zombies in sight were behind them, and the Humvee kept trucking along the highway.
Tommy and Bobby looked at each and laughed. They were so relieved they made it out of there. Tommy’s heart was still pounding through his chest, and he was struggling to find his breath through the laughs of relief. They finally started to get it together, as Tommy rolled up his window since there was no more threat. They looked at each other again and started laughing again. Tommy again struggled to find his breath.
“OH SHIT!” Bobby yelled at the top of his lungs, Tommy looked up as Bobby jerked the wheel as hard as he could to the left, he saw three zombies directly in front of the car. Except with Bobby’s knee-jerk reaction, they were now on the side of the car, as the Humvee was perpendicular to the street they were driving on.
The Humvee flipped. The first flip landed on Tommy’s side, and square on the bodies of all three zombies, flattening them like bugs. But the car didn’t stop there, it rolled and rolled down the middle lane of the highway. Once, Tommy told himself, the car had flipped once. He grabbed anywhere he could to try to keep steady. Twice. Tommy tried to keep track of his orientation, but it became harder and harder to know whether he was right side up or upside down. Three times, or at least he thought. His right hand, which was holding the ceiling, slipped as the top of the car struck the pavement. He struggled to grab something with his right hand, something to balance himself, but he couldn’t.
And when it was his side of the car’s turn to hit the ground, his head joined the window in meeting the road. And the lights went out.
Chapter 20
Tommy woke in a daze. His vision was blurred. He had no clue where he was. He felt a sense of peace, as if there were no troubles in this state. He was about to let his mind drift off, and forget all his worries, when he heard Bobby’s voice.
“TOMMY! TOMMY WAKE UP!” he yelled. Tommy began to come to, his vision began to clear, he realized he was upside down in the Humvee, still buckled in his seat. He struggled to fully awake.
“TOMMY!” Bobby yelled again, with more of a sense of urgency. But Tommy couldn’t quite make it back, until the sound of Bobby’s rifle jarred him fully awake.
He turned to see Bobby kneeling on the what used to be the ceiling of the Humvee, his head ducked under the window to fully see outside the car. He fired his weapon at a small pack of charging zombies, Tommy couldn’t make out how many. Tommy tried to get out, his body aching with every move. He winced through the pain and unbuckled his seatbelt, dropping his head onto the ceiling which almost sent him back into adrift. He rolled over in broken glass to right side up, moaning in pain. His gun was in arm’s reach.
He grabbed the rifle and crawled up next to Bobby, who was focused on his targets. Tommy counted five more. The sound of Bobby’s rifle rang his ears, sending his head into a searing pain. The zombies were getting closer. Bobby managed to take out two more, but had to reload. Tommy aimed, and began firing recklessly at the targets. He couldn’t manage to catch them in the head. He stopped firing, took a deep breath, and refocused on the targets. They were getting dangerously close now. Tommy aimed, the three zombies blurred together, and Tommy struggled to get focused on one. He started firing, along with Bobby. Bobby took out two and Tommy took out the last one as he began to reach towards them. They sighed in relief.
“You ok?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah I’m fine, you?”
“Yeah I’m g-“ Bobby was cut off by something slamming into the Humvee. It felt like it almost it would tip over on its side. Then it began to rock back and forth. Tommy turned to see the ripped up shoes and jeans of a zombie on the passenger side. He shot at its feet, causing it to fall to the ground. The gray-faced former woman began crawling towards them, and Tommy and Bobby both unloaded bullets into her head.
“We have to get out of here.” Bobby said. And Tommy couldn’t agree more. They climbed out on the driver side window. Bobby pulled the bag of weapons and ammo out and threw it over his shoulder, he then bent down again, grabbed the backpack full of food and water, and handed it Tommy. In the distance they could hear the groans and screams of the zombies from the direction they just came. They were about to leave when Tommy remembered something. The map. He climbed back in, the map was laying right next to the face of the dead zombie woman they had just killed. He slowly reached in, gun raised, just in case the 5 bullets in her skull hadn’t don’t the job. He grabbed the map, and the Nagel’s took off on foot, away from the madness behind them.
Chapter 21
“Well, this just got a lot more difficult.” Tommy said.
“Yeah, it has. We’ll find a working car and hotwire it to get going.”
“Every car that we’ve passed has been destroyed-”
“We’ll find one.” Bobby snapped.
Tommy could tell that Bobby was feeling just as pessimistic as he was. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, walking down the highway they were just flying down at 90 miles per hour. Not to mention Tommy ached with every step. His head, right shoulder, right rib cage, and left leg (particularly the knee) were all in agony from the accident. He definitely had a concussion, and most likely a sprained ankle. He didn’t mention it to Bobby, whether out of pride or a false hope that the injuries would go away if he didn’t think about them. He wondered if Bobby was covering up injuries like he was, if he was hurt he was hiding it well.
Every car they passed was unable to be driven. The zombies had torn them apart. Tires were flattened, engines were ripped apart. It was almost as if the zombies still had enough of a brain to know how to screw them over. They walked alongside the highway near the tree line. The air was chilling. Tommy’s black fleece wasn’t as warm as he thought it was, same with the camo pants.
“Hey, this is the first time our camo actually helps us, with the trees and all.” Tommy said to break the silence.
“Knew they would come in handy!” Bobby said as they laughed.
They walked for miles, into the late afternoon according to their watches. They had about two hours of sunlight left and they did not want to be out in the streets at night. Either they find a working car soon, or they’d have to hide out in a tree until morning. Tommy’s body was really starting to break down. His left knee gave out on many of his steps, almost making him fall down. His head throbbed with every step; just the light force of the next foot hitting the street was enough to send shockwaves through his head and body. Just when he was beginning to lose hope, he thought of Melanie.
*****
“I’ve got it all planned out.” She said.
“Well do tell.”
“Two dogs, a girl Labrador retriever and a boy Husky named Frankie and Scout. Two sons, and a daughter who’s the youngest. A house with a big yard and huge porch, preferably one that wraps around the house, but I’ll settle for just a big front and back one. There’s rocking chairs on the porch by the way. And you, obviously.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Of course!”
“Well what if I want a boxer instead of a Husky?”
“Well it’s open for debate, I suppose.” She said in a hushed voice with a sly smirk, as Tommy twirled her body around to kiss her. It was night, they were stammering through the campus with a slight buzz as it was clearly becoming Friday morning instead of Thursday night. But they never considered the night over until they were in bed, so to them it was still Thursday night as the clock passed 3:00 a.m.
“I love you, Melanie.” She’d heard it a million times from him, but he felt the need to say it at that instance.
“And I, you, Mr. Nagel.”
*****
What a difference between those two walks, Tommy thought. On one hand the only care in the world was running into a glorified mall cop that was the campus police/security. They wandered across the campus helplessly in love. They talked about their future together, and it seemed so sure, so defined. They felt pure happiness, the kind that only comes a few times a year if you’re lucky.
Then on the other hand, grueling pain with every step, uncertainty on where he’ll sleep tonight, or if he’ll sleep tonight, a constant on-edge feeling knowing that at any moment they could be attacked by a number of zombies so great that they would have no chance in fending them off, not knowing if the girl he plans on spending his life with is even alive, and to top it off the feeling of guilt knowing he put his brother in the same screwed-up situation he is in.
The only thing even remotely in common between the two instances was that he was walking.
“Tommy, look!” Bobby said to snap Tommy out of his thoughts. Up ahead was a charcoal colored, old Jeep Grand Cherokee. It looked like Tommy’s car on steroids. The wheels were massive and raised the car a few feet. From a distance it appeared to be intact, it even looked clean. Could this be the break they were looking for? They started walking at more a brisk pace, excited that things were looking up. When suddenly, it hit Tommy, and he stopped walking.
The Fortress Page 10