As I watched the video, the next thing I knew, all the dead bodies began to move, then they got up and all staggered away. The reporter was stunned as he tried to explain what he was seeing. In twenty minutes, Times square was completely empty.
So, you see, all the dead bodies that are lying around in Pittsburgh, all the people killed by the first wave of zombies are going to turn into zombies and will join the other zombies to look for anyone still alive. It will happen over and over until every last living person in the city is dead and turned into a zombie. It is the basic law of zombie behavior, I should have seen it coming, but the alien factor made me hesitate to expect it would happen in this particular instance. Thank God I saw that piece on TV before I hesitated much longer. I’m getting out of here today and you need to make your move too before it is too late.”
“You’re sure about this?” I asked. “After someone gets bitten or killed, how long before they turn into a zombie?”
“It varies, anywhere from an hour to three hours is my estimate,” Wilson replied. “And I’m as sure about this as I have been about everything else that has happened,”
“All of this has been so crazy,” I said.
“But even you have to admit that I’ve been right ever since that first night I left the barracks and went over to the hangar to explore,” Wilson said.
“Sitting here in my attic, hiding from zombies, I guess I not in any position to disagree with you,” I sighed.
“Think Mike, there has to be something you can do, you were always the one in our group that was able to come up with a solution when we had a problem,” Wilson said.
“Watching all of this the last few days has paralyzed my damn brain, I can’t think anymore,” I replied.
“I think you’re fighting it instead of trying to find a solution,” Wilson said. “Remember your Army training? What did our boot camp sergeant always drill into our heads?”
“Think like your enemy, be your enemy, then decide what you would do,” I replied.
“Exactly,” Wilson replied. “Like zombies, you didn’t believe in our enemies either, but that didn’t stop you from putting yourself in their shoes and figuring out what to do. In the war games we always kicked everyone’s asses because of you. Think Mike, I’m counting on you, your mother is counting on you.”
I thought for a second, then an idea began to creep into my mind.
“I have a zombie question for you,” I said.
“OK, what is your question?” he asked.
“As I see it, we can’t shoot the zombies, they keep multiplying and they don’t seem to be afraid of anything. If they bite us, we become infected and turn into a zombie ourselves. Do they have any weaknesses?” I asked.
“There are only two weaknesses that I can think of,” Wilson replied. “They are slow, and they aren’t very smart, but on the other hand with as many zombies as there are, they don’t have to be either. With their superior numbers they can just surround you. That and they are determined as hell and once they see you, they just don’t give up.”
“But, can they swim?” I asked.
“Swim?” Wilson asked, then there was a long pause.
“Did I just stump the zombie expert?” I asked.
“No, I just wasn’t expecting that question,” Wilson replied. “With all the conventions I’ve attended, I don’t remember anyone ever talking about zombies swimming.”
“Well, can they swim?” I asked again.
“I don’t think so, they can barely walk, they’d be too uncoordinated to swim. When they go after something, they will walk off a cliff, fall in holes, walk into burning flames, they don’t appear to have the ability to recognize hazards and realize what is going to happen,” Wilson replied.
“So, if they were to walk into rapidly moving water, they would end up just getting washed away and not be able to follow their victims?” I asked.
“That’s right,” Wilson replied. “What are you thinking about, I can hear those rusty wheels turning all the way up here in Ohio.”
“I just started thinking about a secret hideaway I had when I was a kid,” I replied. “I hadn’t thought about it for years until you started me thinking here the last few minutes.”
“You mean your secret island?” Wilson asked, “Hey, that might be perfect.”
“My what? How did you know about that?” I asked.
“The night before we all enlisted, you were drunk on your ass and you were jabbering away about your secret island. You were going to take us all for a tour, but you were too damn drunk to find your canoe,” Wilson said. I could hear him chuckling over the phone.
“I don’t remember that, but if zombies can’t swim, they wouldn’t be able to get out to the island, the river currents would sweep them away. I haven’t thought about that place for years,” I replied. “Do you remember where it is?”
“It is sitting there in plain sight. Mike, this could just work. You won’t have to go far, and, no, zombies can’t swim, it should be the perfect solution. Do you still have a canoe?” Wilson asked.
“I still have a canoe, but the house and garage are both surrounded with zombies. The problem is that I don’t think I would be able make it out to the garage,” I replied.
“Just be patient,” Wilson said. “Zombies travel in waves. Be patient and wait for this wave to move on. Watch out for stragglers, but you should have an opening where you can make a break for it sometime in the next twenty-four hours. Trust me, zombies are my thing.”
“OK, I’ll keep my eyes open and give it my best shot. But what do we do about your other thing, the aliens,” I replied and felt a smile come over my face.
“Pray,” Wilson replied. “But hopefully you can come up with a solution to our alien problem too when the time comes.”
“Thanks for jogging my memory, my brain doesn’t seem to be working right anymore, I’ve just felt overwhelmed,” I said.
“Everyone always feels overwhelmed during their first zombie apocalypse,” Wilson replied. “Just relax and enjoy it. Just like now, when push comes to shove, I know you’ll do fine.”
“Funny,” I replied.
“My battery is low, I’m trying to save what little power I have left for when I get closer to you,” Wilson said. “I’ll try to make contact when I get near Pittsburgh, but if not, I will see you on the island.”
“Good luck buddy,” I replied. “Thanks for calling, I needed a little friendly conversation and encouragement right about now.”
“Same here buddy,” Wilson replied then he was gone.
My conversation with Wilson had revived me somewhat, in a way it had helped me get past my identifying with the fly and back to being me.
Wilson had been right, I needed to change my thinking. If I kept thinking of those things outside my house and the hordes overrunning Pittsburgh as people, instead of what they really were, zombies, I would never find a way to survive this. If Wilson was also right about what Professor Johnson had told him about the red brain implants, we really didn’t have anything to survive for, but that was getting too much to deal with all at one time. I needed a way to survive the zombies first, then I could worry about aliens later.
So, first things first.
Zombies.
I felt like an idiot at first, thinking about zombies, thinking about how to outsmart a zombie, how to escape zombies, how to think like a zombie and how to kill a zombie. But since nothing else I had been thinking about the last few days seemed to have helped me much, so other than feeling like an idiot, I didn’t see what else I had left to lose.
I still didn’t remember ever telling Wilson about my secret island but going to the island did seem to be a good idea. If I could make it down over the hill to the river on the southside, the island was only a ten-minute paddle from there. If Wilson was right and zombies couldn’t swim, it would be perfect. I had never given it much thought, so I hoped we were right about zombies not being able to swim because the island was small. Onc
e we were on the island, there would be nowhere else to run.
If I could get my mother down out of the attic, which should be a lot easier than getting her up here, I could pick her up and run to the car. I just needed to get out to the garage and get the canoe down from the rafters then tie it to the roof of my car first. I could imagine running to the garage, I could also imagine picking up my mother and running out to the car, but I had a hard time believing that I would be able to have enough time to do both.
Maybe if I was able to quietly secure the house again, that would eliminate one big step and reduce the time needed to make our escape.
It was an idea, besides my idea about going out to Burnot Island, it may have been my first productive idea in days, but how could I manage to clear the house.
If I was a zombie, what would it take to get me out of the house? I needed something to lure the zombies out of the house or a diversion. But that brought up another problem, whatever would lure zombies out of my house would also lure other zombies towards my house.
Maybe this thinking like a zombie wasn’t going to be so easy. I kept thinking, surely I was smart enough to be able to find some way to out think a dead person.
I crawled over to the vent and slowly removed the screws holding it in place. After removing the screws on the right side of the vent I pulled that side inward, creating an opening large enough to see outside. When I looked down into the yard and out across the street, things didn’t look promising. Dozens of staggering zombies moved across the yard. The yards across the street also appeared to be of interest to the zombies on the street as they walked into the other yards, stood and appeared to be searching and listening.
I crawled across the attic and opened one side of the west facing vent and looked out. This side of the house didn’t look much better. I guess I needed to take Wilson’s other advice and just be patient.
I began crawling back towards my pillow, deciding to take a nap, feeling that I might be able to catch some sleep since my conversation with Wilson had made me feel less tense than I had been feeling.
On my way back to my pillow and blanket, I had to smile to myself when I saw my mother sitting next to the other vent, doing her crossword puzzle in the light shinning in through the opening I had made. Maybe my mother was adapting to our present situation better than I thought.
Chapter 24
The mob of zombies around the house had hung around all day yesterday. I laid around all day just trying to be patient. My mother quietly worked on her crossword puzzle and napped on and off.
I managed to get some sleep during the night, now with some kind of plan, a way out of my present situation, I now felt more optimistic.
As I laid awake this morning, I don’t know if it was my imagination, wishful thinking or it was actually the case, but it seemed much quieter outside this morning than I remembered it being yesterday morning.
Hopefully this was the break Wilson had told me to expect.
I wouldn’t know for sure until the sun came up, maybe in another hour. I just tried to close my eyes and rest, but my thoughts kept turning towards how I could clear out the house, get my canoe out of the garage and then get Ma out to the car so we could make our escape.
However, the unknowns kept me thinking about the worst-case potential outcomes. But I was determined not to let that happen.
I must have dozed off, because when I next remembered opening my eyes, the attic was much brighter than it had been.
I rolled over and began to crawl over to the vent facing Overbrook Boulevard and the main street in front of the house. Ma was sitting at the vent.
“It looks much better outside this morning,” Ma said. “It looks like most of those people have gone away.”
“That’s good,” I replied. “Hopefully the rest of them will go away soon too. I was talking to Mickey on the phone yesterday and he said we need to get out of the house because a lot more of those people are coming and we need to find somewhere safe before they get here.”
“I like Mickey, he always seemed like such a nice young man,” Ma said. “Most kids would have a growth spurt before they graduated high school. You were only five feet tall at the start of your freshman year, but you were six feet tall before the year was over. Did Mickey ever grow anymore after he left school? He always looked so funny when I saw him with you and your other friends, he looked like someone’s little brother.”
“No,” I smiled. “Mickey was still only five feet tall the last time I saw him.”
“It must have been tough having to grow up in Beltzhoover,” Ma said. “I always heard that Beltzhoover wasn’t a very good place to grow up in.”
I had to chuckle to myself at the choice of words my mother used about growing up in Beltzhoover. I don’t know if she was trying to be funny, like when she was younger, or if the words had just been a coincidence, but I’m sure even Wilson would have found humor in what my mother had just said. Unlike most people that had grown up in Beltzhoover, Wilson had a sense of humor.
“Ma, I am going to see if it is possible to go down into the house. If I can make sure that there isn’t anyone in the house any longer and block the front doorway, maybe we can go back down there for a little while.
“That would be nice, it is so dirty up here, I’m going to need a good bath,” Ma smiled.
“Until I come back, I need you to just stay here and remain very quiet,” I said. “It would help if you would keep watching out front and let me know if you see any more people coming down our street.”
“OK, but you be careful,” she said.
“I will Ma,” I replied.
I began to look around the attic, knowing that I would need something to keep any zombies that might still be in the house from getting too close to me. There didn’t appear to be much in the attic, but I was surprised to find my father’s old golf clubs lying in the far corner. I didn’t remember my father being much of a golfer.
Unfortunately, my dad had died before I was went to high school, it felt like it had been a few lifetimes ago. My most vivid memories of my dad were when we went to Kennywood Park. He always rode the rollercoasters with me when no one else would. He and I would also sneak off and have ice cream. He had also taken me to a few Steeler games, even though at the time I didn’t know much about football, it was still fun going with my dad. I could only remember him going golfing one time, he came home that day in a bad mood. Maybe golfing just wasn’t his sport.
He must have decided to give up golfing after that day and just tossed his clubs up in the attic so he wouldn’t have to see them lying around, reminding him of whatever had put him in a bad mood that day.
I grabbed the biggest and longest club, it was a Big Bertha driver, hopefully it would come in helpful. I would have preferred a baseball bat, I knew how to use a bat, but today I would have to take up golfing. I guess the basics of using a driver and a baseball bat were about the same.
“Mike,” I heard my mother’s voice.
I turned to see my mother staring out through the opening by the vent overlooking the front of the house.
I crawled over next to her, “What is it, Ma?”
“The Kelley’s look like they are trying to leave,” she replied.
“I looked out across the street and saw Mr. Kelley ushering his family out through the front door of the house. Mrs. Kelley had their five-year old son in her arms, Mr. Kelley was carrying two large bags. They both looked terrified as they ran towards their car which was parked in the driveway, watching as five groaning zombies began to stagger across the road heading straight for the Kelley’s car. Mr. Kelley stood at the passenger’s door, fumbling with the keys as his wife pleaded with him to hurry up. The five zombies were within ten feet of the car before Mr. Kelley finally got the door unlocked. His wife jumped into the car and he slammed the door shut, then ran around the front of the car. His wife had leaned over and unlocked his door.
Mr. Kelley had just managed to get in the car and clos
e the door before the first zombie reached the car.
A thumping sounded as the zombies began to pound against the doors and windows of the car.
Then I heard the sound of the car, the starter grinding, over and over.
“Why don’t they drive away?” Ma asked.
“I think there must be something wrong with their car,” I replied. “It doesn’t want to start.”
“Maybe you should go over and see if you can help them get it started,” Ma said.
I watched as there were now eight zombies pounding against the car, far fewer than had been out on our street yesterday, but still the situation looked intimidating.
Then I heard something fall over in the house below.
I perked up and listened, wondering what was going on in the house below. Suddenly I saw I zombie come into view below me. I watched it for a moment before I realized that the commotion over at the Kelley’s had attracted the zombie to come out of our house and move towards the Kelley’s.
I looked up and down the street in front of our house, there were now only a total of nine zombies out in front of our house. This had to be the break Wilson told me to expect.
I grabbed my golf club and looked at my mother, “You stay here and keep watching out front, I’ll be back for you as soon as I can, then we have to leave.”
“Are you going to help the Kelley’s?” Ma asked.
“There isn’t time Ma, I have to do a few things so we can get out of here while we have the chance,” I replied. “Just keep quiet and wait here.”
I quietly slid the trap door to the side and looked down into the hallway. An awful smell hit me as I lowered my head down, but from my experience in Roswell, I knew to hold my breath before sticking my head down through the opening. The house was a mess, but now seemed to be free of zombies.
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