The First 30 Days: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel

by Powell, Lora

  “Get the dog and let’s get out of here.”

  He didn’t have to tell me twice. Sprinting the short distance to the hole, I bent down and coaxed, “Rex. Come on boy. Come here, through the hole.”

  Rex whined and crouched just on the other side, obviously thinking about crawling through. A commotion behind me had me looking away from the dog and over my shoulder. I couldn’t see what was going on, and I jumped to my feet.

  Someone came barreling out of the shadows and ran headlong into me, sending the both of us to the ground in a heap. I yelped as my back made contact with the ground hard, but didn’t have time to think about the pain because the man who had jumped me immediately started trying to pin my hands with his own.

  “It’s a girl. Not one of the ones from the cage,” the guy called over his shoulder. He managed to get a hold of my hand with the machete before I could swing the weapon at him.

  Over my own panicked breathing, I registered the sound of fighting not far away. Rex was barking frantically and the fence rattled as he threw himself against it. From out of the darkness, a voice that I recognized as Mack’s said, “Tom, stop fooling around and get her under control.”

  “I’m trying.”

  I looked at the face of my attacker for the first time and saw the swollen eye and bruised face of the guard who had been on the front gate during the day. Grappling with me for control of the machete, he dug a knee into my abdomen, driving all of the air out of my lungs. My vision swam and I almost missed when someone grabbed Tom and ripped him off of me.

  I lay there, semi-stunned, and listened to someone cursing colorfully. When I heard a voice yell, “Just shoot him!”

  I forced myself to move. Struggling upright, I found Shawn on top of Tom, his hands wrapped around his throat.

  Two more men, Mack and the other guard, appeared. The guard aimed his gun at Shawn but seemed to be having trouble finding an angle that wouldn’t be likely to hit Tom. I lurched to my feet.

  I took one drunken step toward the guard. Seeing that I was up, he swung his aim my way.

  A flash of dark fur sprinted past me and straight into the guard. Snarling, the dog latched onto his arm and refused to let go.

  Mack cursed again when he saw the dog hanging from the guard’s arm. Turning, he kicked at Rex, but I knew by now that nothing was going to get that dog to let go before he was ready.

  Distracted by his attempt to kick the dog, Mack missed my lunge in his direction. I didn’t think, just acted.

  The machete cut deep into his arm. A warm spray of blood covered my neck and chest as I pulled the weapon free. The shocked look in his eyes as he stared first at me then the wound that was pouring blood with every pulse of his heart, almost made me feel bad for him. Almost.

  “We’ve gotta go!” Shawn grabbed for my arm as he ran past me, toward where Maya had just started the van. Drawn by the noise, more people were coming out of the buildings, their flashlights giving them away.

  “Rex!” I shrieked at the dog as we ran.

  The van started to roll slowly through the grass, angling toward the gate. Someone inside threw open the sliding door and we ran for it.

  Rex jumped into the van and I threw myself inside after him. Diving in behind me, Shawn jerked the door closed just as the first of the bullets hit the vehicle.

  FORTY-THREE

  DAY 22

  The sound of a window shattering had me diving for the floor of the van. Maya floored it, and the tires spun on the grass before biting hold. The vehicle lurched forward and bounced roughly over the uneven ground.

  More gunfire and shouting followed us. I kept my head down in fear of catching a bullet. When spider cracks appeared on the windshield from a bullet coming from ahead of us, I knew the guard posted at the gate had started to fire. Maya kept her foot pressed to the floor and we flew past the guard and through the gate. The chain link didn’t even slow the van down.

  Gravel pinged off the underside of the van. When several seconds passed without the sound of bullets flying through the air, I dared to sit cautiously upright again.

  The trees flew by in the darkness. Maya hadn’t turned on the headlights, and it seemed she was keeping the vehicle on the road by sheer force of will. Nothing else explained how we didn’t end up in a fiery crash as we flew along the dark, unfamiliar road. At the last second, I thought I recognized where we were.

  “Turn here! Left!”

  She wrenched the wheel and we somehow made the turn, tires sliding in the dirt. Turning around in my seat, I checked for the pursuit that I was sure couldn’t be far behind, but the road behind us remained dark and empty.

  My eyes traveled to the two people in the back seat. Fallon and Devon had sat up and looked shell-shocked, huddled in the back seat. Sunburned, filthy, and exhausted, they looked ok other than the obvious paleness of Devon’s face. I turned back around.

  “Is everyone ok?”

  Next to me, Shawn was sitting upright, watching behind us for any sign of the strange group. It was shadowy inside the van, but I could still see that his face, which had already looked like he’d been hit a few too many times, was worse after our fight with the guards. But he was alert and I didn’t see any signs of the kind of injury that time wouldn’t take care of.

  “I’m good,” Maya answered me briefly as she concentrated on getting us out of there in one piece.

  “I’m ok,” Bill’s voice was weak. From what I had seen of his condition before, he looked like he had lost a lot of blood. When we were far enough away, I was going to have to see what I could do for him, but without our medical bag, I didn’t begin to know what I could do.

  When I told him my plan, Bill replied, “Don’t worry about me. We just need to get as far away from here, as fast as we can.”

  The van never slowed down as we dashed for freedom. I did my best to recognize the turns and guide us back to the highway, but I didn’t heave a sigh of relief until I caught sight of the gas station. My fear that we would be lost in the winding back roads did not come to pass.

  We flew on by and I felt a twinge of remorse for Carrie. She deserved better than to be left lying in that building, but we couldn’t stop. It would take time to bury her body. Time which we didn’t have.

  A zombie was wandering on the on-ramp that we took to get back to the highway. Swerving slightly, Maya clipped it with the side of the van. I watched behind us as the zombie spun and rolled along the pavement. That was when I recognized that the sun was starting to come up. I could see the zombie tumbling through the gloom just before dawn.

  Everyone was silent. The cuts to my back burned and I flexed my shoulders, trying to find a more comfortable position. All I succeeded in doing was send pain shooting down my back. Giving up, I leaned slightly forward to keep from touching the back of my seat. When we stopped, I was going to have to ask someone to take a look, but for now, I didn’t want to cause anyone more worry. There were two other members of our little group who were more in need of care than me.

  When the engine of the van started to make alarming noises, probably in protest of the speed that it was being pushed, Maya finally allowed our speed to drop a little. I didn’t know why the other group was not following us, but it seemed like we had actually managed to make our escape. Nothing but the occasional zombie moved on the deserted stretch of highway that we had been driving.

  A hand eased itself into my own, interrupting me from staring out the window blankly while my mind raced. Looking over, I smiled weakly at Shawn. He had finally relaxed into his seat and I wondered for how long he had been watching me.

  The sun had climbed completely into the sky. It looked like it was going to be another blisteringly hot, sunny day. I could finally get a clear view of his face and I held back a cringe. Black bruises had circled his eyes, his nose was still a little off center, and the cut to his cheek probably could have used a stitch or two if going to the ER was still a possibility. But he was alive, and the small smile that turned up on
e corner of his mouth had never looked better.

  I opened my own lips to tell him so when a shout from the front seat cut me off.

  “Bill!”

  Maya brought the van to a screeching halt and practically threw herself towards her husband. Mass confusion reigned as everyone began trying to figure out what was going on at the same time. Lurching forward, I leaned over the front seats to try to get a look.

  It was hard to see over Maya as her body blocked my view. I was shouting for her to tell me what was happening, but she ignored my questions. Frantically talking to her husband, she did something that I couldn’t see because of the angles.

  Climbing across a confused Shawn, I slid open the side door and jumped from the van. Whatever was going on up front, it was bad, and I needed to see. Ignoring Shawn’s exclamation to stay inside, I hit the pavement, with the sounds of more feet and the click of dog paws following me.

  Flinging open the passenger door, I looked at Bill.

  The first thing I saw was blood. It had run down the side of the seat and soaked the carpet of the vehicle. Following the trail with my eyes, I found Maya’s hands pressing against his shirt. A shirt that was stained bright red with fresh blood.

  FORTY-FOUR

  DAY 22

  Blood coated my hands, rising up my forearms, and dried on my shirt. Completely spent, I sat with my knees drawn up, uncaring that the hard pavement was unforgiving on my backside. Resting my arms on my knees, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the blood that had dried on my hands.

  “Let me take a look at this.”

  Shawn’s fingers passed lightly over my skin, just above the gouges into my shoulders. Without the strength left in me to do anything but obey, I woodenly reached for the tail of my shirt and pulled it up around my neck.

  I dimly registered his sharp inhale, but my mind was elsewhere.

  “Maya, let me see! You have to let me look at the wound so I know how bad it is.”

  I already knew it was bad. The amount of blood that had pooled in the van wouldn’t have been good coming from a healthy person. Bill had already been in bad shape from the first gunshot.

  Finally managing to move her hands, I saw exactly where the second bullet had hit him: The right side of his chest, lower than the first shot which had hit him in the shoulder.

  “Ok, let’s get him out of the van. I need to check for an exit wound. Fallon, bring me anything that we have that may be remotely useful.”

  My back stung as I felt Shawn doing the best he could to clean it up. A trickle of water ran down and soaked into the waistband of my jeans. I knew that we were down to our last half a bottle of clean water, and I wanted to tell him to save it, but it seemed like too much effort.

  Rolling Bill over slightly, I searched his back. There was only one hole back there. The second bullet was still inside him. Trying not to panic, I eased him back down. Blood was still trickling from his wounds and was already starting to stain the pavement, but the flow was slowing. I wasn’t altogether sure that that was a good thing.

  “This is it. They cleaned everything else out of the van.” Fallon dropped my nearly empty backpack next to me and held out the small first aid kit that had been in the glove box.

  “I think these need stitches, but this will have to do for now.” The burning increased as he wiped antibacterial ointment from the first aid kit into the wounds.

  Rex hadn’t left my side since I climbed out of the van. My crimson stained hands were again resting in front of my eyes. Moving in front of me, he nudged my hand with his nose.

  Using my knife, I cut the remnants of his shirt away. The wound to his shoulder was no longer bleeding, but it looked angry. A circle of red was growing around it.

  The shot to his chest, however, was still bleeding. It took precedence. I wasn’t sure how much more blood he could lose. Clamping a hand holding his waded up shirt to the wound, I handed my knife off to Shawn.

  “There’s water in my bag. Clean this off as well as you can.”

  “What are you going to do?” Maya looked up from where she was crouched over her husband’s head. I could read the anguish in her eyes as they pleaded with me to do something.

  “I, uh, I’m going to have to get the bullet out and stop the bleeding,” My voice shook at the thought of what I was about to do.

  “Wait. You’re going to use your knife to cut into him? Is that safe? It’s been used on zombies.” Fallon looked from the knife in question to where I knelt next to Bill.

  “I don’t have a choice.”

  The paper wrappers off of the Band-Aids crinkled. Meticulously placing a row of them down my back, Shawn covered the wounds the best he could.

  He tugged my shirt back down and scooted around to sit next to me.

  My hands were shaking. Bill had only been semi-conscious since we pulled him from the van, but he was completely passed out now. The pain from me digging around in his wound with a finger, looking for the bullet, had been the last straw.

  I hadn’t found the offending piece of metal, and now I was poised to use the knife on my friend.

  The blood began to flow again as I cut. Suppressing a curse, I tried to work faster.

  “Here, let me see your hand.”

  I allowed him to use the damp material to scrub at the drying blood. My eyes began to wander.

  Still lying in the same place on the pavement, Bill was unmoving. Sitting with his head in her lap, Maya leaned brokenly over him. Her shoulders shook as she cried.

  Standing a few feet away, Fallon and Devon stood to watch over our group.

  “I think I found it.”

  My muttered sentence was more for my own benefit than anything else. I had been starting to worry that I wouldn’t find the bullet. But the tip of my knife had just scraped across something hard. I was fairly sure it wasn’t bone.

  Carefully working the knife, I pried the hard object free. The mangled metal popped out of the wound.

  Such a small object, but one that had caused so much damage.

  “Bri. You did the best you could, better than any of us could have done.”

  I slowly turned to meet Shawn’s eyes. I had done the best I could, but I was frightened that my best wasn’t going to be good enough.

  It had seemed to take forever to get the bleeding to slow down again. The wound was ragged and ugly now that I had dug around inside it. I had smeared a generous glob of our one tube of antibacterial ointment inside and then taped the largest pad of gauze on top.

  With a sigh, I noted that a tinge of red began to bleed through the white in seconds.

  There wasn’t a lot I could do with the limited supplies on hand. Not that I was a real doctor, anyhow.

  I moved to do what I could for the first gunshot.

  Needing comfort, I leaned slowly sideways until my shoulder rested against Shawn’s.

  “What if he doesn’t make it?” I whispered my fears out loud.

  The shoulder supporting me lifted in a sigh. “Then we will deal with it. That’s all we can do.”

  “He hasn’t woken up yet.”

  “No. But maybe that’s a blessing. When he does wake up, he’s going to be in a lot of pain.”

  I felt a hot tear run down my face and drip from my chin.

  “Bri, listen to me. We would all be dead by now if it wasn’t for you. Those people were not going to let us go. We all owe you our lives. Maybe Bill won’t ever wake up, but you need to know that if he doesn’t, it will not be because of you.”

  FORTY-FIVE

  DAY 22

  The bone-chilling scream from not so far away caused all of us to leap to our feet. An answering shriek followed, even closer than the first.

  It had been stupid of us to sit out there, exposed like we were, was my first thought when the pair of zombies bolted out of the trees beyond the far side of the highway. They’re definitely the fast ones.

  My second thought was prompted by Rex, as he began running to meet the zombie in the lead. />
  I had been so preoccupied for the last few days that I had completely forgotten to worry if zombie blood was dangerous to dogs. The answer seemed to be no, but that was of little comfort at the moment, as I watched the dog run towards danger.

  I grabbed the machete and bolted after him. Fallon had been hanging on to my knife; she’d picked it up after I discarded it, unwilling to hang on to its bloodied handle for another second. As the only two people in our group with weapons, we were going to be on the front line for this one.

  “Bri, wait!”

  I ignored the call. Ahead of me, Rex leaped to collide with the first zombie.

  This time, the zombie was much fresher, and it stayed on its feet. The dog had latched onto its arm with a death grip, but the zombie seemed more irritated than pained by his bite. The creature cocked its head sideways and studied the dog for a fraction of a second. Then it snapped its teeth his way and reached for him with its free hand.

  My sneakers pounded onto the second wide strip of the highway as the second zombie reached the fight. Rex had his hands full tangling with the first one, and I took the last few steps as fast as I could to push myself. A little wildly, I swung the machete. My aim was off, and I sliced into the second zombie’s neck instead of its head.

  The machete cut deep, but not deep enough. The zombie’s head stayed attached to its body, and the creature turned from its assault on the dog to me. Hissing like some sort of demonic, enraged feline, it lunged my way. My second strike with the machete was worse than the first and it sank into its shoulder. I cringed, expecting the zombie to run into me full force, but instead, I heard it collapse onto the pavement.

  Fallon stood over the corpse, my knife sticking out of its skull, panting like she had run a marathon. With one zombie down, I turned my attention back to the one that Rex had effectively detained.