Randy saw more muzzle flashes but was getting thrown around in the back of the truck so wildly he didn’t even bother trying to shoot back. He kept waiting for the squeal of the brakes and the sensation that the truck was flipping but somehow Kelly kept them rocketing backwards without losing control. The Zombie bodies had shifted back towards them again, so Randy kicked on one of the bodies in front of Tony’s unconscious body to hopefully shield him from any random bullets. They were getting close to the intersection. Randy was wracking his brain trying to remember if he’d ever seen any movies with a car chase scene quite like this one.
He was thinking at least it couldn’t get any worse than this when the night air behind them lit up like a giant dragon had sneezed fire at them. Mentally cursing himself for jinxing them yet again Randy sat up in the truck bed and ignored the bullets striking the metal all around him. He heard shots coming from the front of the truck as well. The girls must’ve shoved some gun barrels out the windows to provide some return fire. Anything to keep the people shooting at them from being able to calmly aim. At the thought of his girls up in the front of the cab a dead calm descended over Randy.
He aimed at the spot where the moron shooting the flame thrower should be standing based on the arc of the flames. He breathed deeply then exhaled letting loose a three-round burst. He was rewarded when the flames jerked straight up in the air before falling to the ground to taper off. What kind of idiot brought a flame thrower to an automatic rifle fight? Especially when it was raining? He was kind of jealous of the Brotherhood for holding out on him that they had flamethrowers though. Those must be pretty awesome against a big herd of Zombies coming at you. You could just set the bastards on fire, lock your door, and set the timer for an hour until they were fully baked.
Kelly smashed right into the truck parked in the intersection. That truck skid backwards from the impact hard enough to break all the ribs of the Brotherhood soldier who’d been standing on the other side of the truck shooting at them. He fell to the ground under the dented truck and lie there in pain. A few minutes after he hit the ground the Zombies in pursuit of Kelly’s truck found him lying there and brought him to a new level of pain when they dove in and began eating him alive.
Kelly spun the wheel and stomped on the brakes when she collided with the guards pickup. She ended up executing a perfect turn by bouncing off the other truck. They spun a few more times and wound up facing the direction they needed to go down the intersection. She’d never admit to anyone that she’d been positive they were about to crash and burn. She was twice as surprised as everyone else when she opened her eyes and saw they were safe and sound and facing the right direction to keep driving.
Looking over her right shoulder she saw the Zombies leading the herd bounding through the air towards them, so she slammed her foot back on the accelerator again. The big truck took off down the two-lane blacktop towards yet another intersection. She heard Randy cussing in the back of the truck as he was slammed around by the sudden acceleration. It couldn’t be pleasant trying to take care of an unconscious Tony while being pin balled around the back of a pickup truck that was full of freshly dead bodies seeping fluids everywhere. Kelly was just happy to be alive and driving in the correct direction. She wasn’t overly concerned about Randy’s discomfort at the moment. As long as he was alive that was good enough for her right now. Good enough for all of them really.
Chapter 5: Better Living Through Chemistry
A couple days of wandering the woods in sight of roads finally led him to a group of houses that looked like they may have a decent car for him to snag. The problem was the road leading to the houses was on the other side of the road from the woods he was hiding in. There were a few Zombies wandering slowly down the road who’d sound the alarm the second he tried to cross over. They were spread out far enough he couldn’t think of a way to quietly take them all out. He could take out any of them individually with minimal difficulty but the meandering group of them was proving to be problematic.
He knew he should consider moving down the road some more, but he was beat. Physically and mentally he was exhausted. His body ached all over from the injuries he’d sustained over the past couple of weeks. The exertion of hiking through the woods to get this far had sapped what was left of his strength. He was thinking he might get lucky if the Zombies just kept up their pace and went right past him. One actually did disappear around the corner but then two more popped up from the other direction. At the sight of those two extra Zombies he gave up on watching for an opening and decided his best bet was to sleep all day. He’d cross the road once it got dark.
It wasn’t like he had any place he needed to be. At this point he was only hurrying to try and get back to the outpost before the commander and everyone who knew him managed to get themselves killed. He didn’t want to have to start all over again with the Brotherhood BS. He found a tree surrounded by a pile of pine needles and settled in to wait. Trying to sit in the forest alone with his thoughts was too much for him though. One of the reasons he’d made it as long as he had was because he didn’t like slowing down. Slowing down made him introspective and being introspective made him seriously depressed.
He cracked open the backpack and took out a couple of Oxy. Not really certain how the milligram thing worked he dry swallowed two random ones and hoped for the best. He was wondering if two was going to be enough when he felt a wave of warm drowsiness wash over him. He made himself comfortable in the pine straw and promptly fell asleep.
It was dark when he woke up. He panicked at first not knowing where he was. He calmed himself and gradually figured out what’d happened. He made a promise to himself to try and remember that drugs were bad. He struggled to remember if he’d laid any of his gear down or if it was all still hanging off of him. Muddling through his cottony medicine head he finally got himself organized and upright. Remembering the reason for all of this he headed stealthily through the woods to the road. He was careful to look in front of him as his eyes adjusted to the dark to make sure he didn’t step on any slumbering Zombies.
He crossed the road without incident. His stressed-out brain focusing on trying to make up why the Zombie crossed the road jokes. He made it to the other side without coming up with any material he’d have felt comfortable taking on the road. He walked down the short driveway leading to the houses that’d been the reason for him stopping in the first place. There was three of them he’d seen from the other side of the road on a cul de sac that came right off the two-lane road. All of the houses were decent in size but built in architectural styles that didn’t mesh well together at all. Kyler wasn’t there to try and see if he could get them on HGTV though. He just wanted to find a car that would actually start. Preferably in a garage that had some gas containers for the lawn equipment sitting around as well.
He didn’t have to hunt for long. The first garage door he hoisted up revealed a car under a tarp. Cars under tarps were great finds. These were normally collectors cars that people stored in their garages just to take to car shows or to wait for them to appreciate in value. The best thing about them in Kyler’s mind was that when you stored a car under a tarp you normally made sure you’d be able to start it when you took the tarp off. That meant the battery would’ve been disconnected and set on a shelf nearby. The bad thing about these cars was they were normally some kind of funky stick shift that he’d have to work out.
Mike had taught him how to drive a stick when he’d turned thirteen. Kyler had figured out how the clutch worked and gotten the truck from the driveway of one apartment complex to the Target down the street. Mike had been drinking out of a ‘water bottle’ and offering words of encouragement centering around Kyler not screwing up the transmission unless he wanted to pay to have it fixed. It hadn’t been the most pleasant experience ever, but Kyler had felt about ten feet tall when he rolled that truck into a parking spot at Target. He hoped to be able to summon up those lessons if needed as he pulled the tarp off the car in the g
arage.
The car underneath was as gorgeous as it was impractical. A bright red old model convertible Corvette. Kyler would’ve been a lot happier with a solid metal shell around his body to protect him from Zombies. Not a whole lot of practical application for a convertible when you were driving through a Zombie apocalypse. On the plus side, it looked like the mid-life crisis mobile had an old-fashioned automatic transmission so that was good. He was able to figure out how to pop the hood and it only took him about fifteen minutes to find the battery that fit into the Corvette. A mere hour after entering the garage he was ready to try starting the car up. All he needed were the keys.
The keys were nowhere to be found in the garage. The door from the house to the garage was locked. Kyler stood in the dark garage wondering why the hell he’d spent so much time putting in the battery before checking to see if the keys were around somewhere. He carefully worked his pen light around the work benches and over the walls in the garage to confirm he was screwed. Once confirmed he started looking around for tools to open the garage door. A chisel looking thing and a rubber mallet later he was pounding away on the door frame of the garage door as quietly as one could hammer away on anything without it being a complete waste of time.
Thirty minutes of tapping on the chisel like a sissy later he gave up and whacked the rubber handle of the chisel hard enough to actually work it into the door frame. He pried it around until he’d ripped off a bit of the door frame and could actually see the bolt. A few more whacks with the hammer and some screwing around with the lock later he was swinging open the door to the house. Felling pretty proud of himself he stepped into the house hoping to find the keys quickly and get out of there now that he’d just made all that noise. Noise in Zombie town was like throwing a bunch of chum into the water off your surfboard. You were summoning man eaters to the location you were hanging out in. Not smart unless you were sitting up in a nice big boat with a spear gun.
Kyler didn’t have the big boat option, but he was hoping he’d be able to drive out of there in a minute or two in the shiny red sports car option. The laundry room had a long wooden key hanger shaped like a whale hanging on the wall above the dryer. There was a set of keys dangling from it, but they all looked pretty modern. Not having much hope Kyler pointed the key fob at the car and clicked it a few times. The fact that he hadn’t expected it was going to work didn’t make him feel any better when the key fob failed to elicit any sort of beeping or light flashing response. He’d really been hoping he was wrong.
He needed to be out of there. He’d made way too much noise to hang out much longer. Frustrated he tossed the key fob down on the floor and walked back to the garage through the door he’d made so much noise busting open. A hand slapped against the other side of the big garage door. Kyler spun around to head through the house to get out. Somewhere inside the house he heard the sounds of a window breaking. He spun back around and headed for the garage door to pull it up. He’d rather fight off the Zombie he could see than go wander into the house to play hide and seek with a killer cannibal.
Kyler grabbed a heavy crowbar off the work bench. He walked over to the garage door the Zombie was pounding on and jerked it up a few inches. The Zombie kept pounding away, evidently not realizing the door had just come up off the ground a couple feet. Kyler assumed it didn’t really matter if he made a little noise since the Zombie sounded like he was auditioning for Blue Man Group on the other side of the door.
“What’s up?” He said in a normal tone of voice pitched to carry outside the garage. He’d never tried talking to the Zombies, so he wasn’t totally sure it was going to work. The Zombie stopped banging on the door. Kyler had a mental image of a decrepit old Zombie outside in the dark cocking it’s ear to one side to try and capture that human voice again it’d just heard.
A tiny figure wedged itself into the crack Kyler had made as a pair of hands started yanking the garage door up from where he’d heard the banging coming from. Kyler had the waif of a Zombie on one side who was crawling in on its back and a much larger Zombie flinging the garage door up on the other side of him. He dropped to one knee and swung the crowbar as hard as he could at the large Zombie’s knee. The crowbar connected nice and solid knocking the Zombie’s knee out. Kyler hoped he’d broken the kneecap or at least messed it up enough to cripple the big Zombie. The big figure fell to the ground and log rolled itself into the garage. That move had completely backfired.
Kyler raised the crowbar to hit it again. He was knocked off his feet by the smaller Zombie striking the back of his leg. He tripped over the larger Zombie and fell to the ground with the smaller Zombie trying to work it’s teeth through his jeans. He hit the floor and swept the crowbar around to strike the smaller, hissing Zombie in the face. It’d been thrown away from him when he hit the ground. He connected knocking the smaller Zombie away from him for a second or two at least. The larger Zombie reached over to grab him by the shirt. Kyler flung both his arms behind him and pushed himself to his feet. He kicked the smaller Zombie in the mouth as hard as he could and jumped into the open Corvette to avoid being grabbed by the large Zombie with the busted kneecap.
Kyler slid from the passenger side to the driver’s side and spun around to jump out of the car and run out the garage. His rifle barrel hit the visor on the passenger side as he was scrambling across. A set of keys fell to the floor with a little metallic tinkle. He was surprised, pissed off, and ecstatic all at the same time. He’d checked the driver’s side visor. What kind of sneaky communist put the keys on the passenger side of the car? It just wasn’t right.
The Zombies had started screeching on seeing him in the garage. Now he was hearing echoing screeches from outside. He also heard them coming from inside the house. That was getting way too close. Telling himself to ignore the impending avalanche of death crashing down on him he felt around on the floor until his hand closed over the key ring. He grabbed it and shoved the key in the ignition as he plopped his foot down on the brake. He prayed he’d plugged the battery in correctly and there was gas in the tank. With the car sitting in the hot garage this long he was also hopeful the oil wasn’t sludge. So many things could go wrong. If only people had known a Zombie apocalypse was coming in time to get their vehicles properly serviced.
The engine purred to life. He’d been expecting failure so much he was already cussing and getting ready to jump out of the car to make a run for it. In his second of surprised happiness the small Zombie hopped in his lap, the big Zombie hoisted itself into the passenger seat and a Zombie came storming out of the house through the broken garage door and jumped on the back of the car. Kyler also realized the garage door he needed to drive this super-sized Barbie mobile through was still closed.
The tot sized Zombie trying to bite his face off was his first priority. He was way past the point where he needed to worry about making any noise. He reached down to yank out the pistol he’d been carrying with him from the holster on his belt. He cussed the little sports car out for not being roomy enough to allow someone to easily access their weapons with one hand while holding a screeching murderous toddler by the throat in the other. By the time he had the pistol out and the barrel resting on the soulless kids forehead the little Zombies eyes looked like they were popping out of their sockets he was squeezing the neck so hard. He’d remember that kids face in his nightmares for the next month.
He pulled the trigger spraying brains all over the windshield. The rearview mirror got hit by the bullet or a piece of kid skull hard enough to fly off the windshield and hit the Zombie in the seat next to him. The big Zombie in the seat next to him was finding out what lots of would be lovers had discovered in these little sports cars. They may help you get the girl to the scenic make out spot but the teens with moms minivan were going to have a lot more fun once they got there. Kyler had a moment of insanity where the thought flashed through his brain to just pull the Zombies seat belt down and fasten it so he could have someone to drive around with. He ruined his own i
dea by prematurely pulling the trigger on the pistol three times with his pistol aimed at the Zombies head from point blank range.
The big Zombie he’d just shot spasmed a few times before it stopped moving. Kyler opened his car door to get out and open the garage door. The Zombie from the house who’d jumped on the back of the low-slung corvette reached forward and grabbed Kyler by his hair. The female Zombie with long lanky blond hair yanked him back into the car. Then she hopped forward over Kyler’s head and ended up with her head stuck between the steering wheel and his crotch. Her legs wind milling like crazy around his head while he put all his energy into keeping the insane blond cannibal from taking a chunk out of his family jewels. He felt around for his pistol with the hand that wasn’t smashing the blonds head into the steering wheel. With exaggerated care he picked up the pistol and put the barrel on the back of the Zombies head. He pulled the trigger twice hoping he wasn’t going to accidently blow off one of his own fingers. There were other appendages he was even more concerned about, but he was aiming as far from those as he could.
Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide Page 4