Randy shot him in the face. He could already hear Zombie screeches picking up all around him. He hurriedly grabbed the weapons and ammunition he saw in the cab of the pickup truck and ran back over to the van. Kelly was standing beside the van with her M-16 in her hands.
“What kind of terminator cop movie crap was that?” She asked. She seemed pretty pissed for someone whose husband had just pulled off a seriously bad ass move.
“It worked. Now we just need to get out of here before the Zombies swarm all over us. Hop in and hold on.” Randy said as he threw the guns and ammo he’d collected into the front of the van.
He couldn’t put the guns in the back where the tied-up guard may figure out a way to sneak one into his own hands. Maybe they should just kill that guy and get it over with. The longer they had him around the weirder it was going to be to kill him. Randy had just killed two guys without even thinking about it so maybe right now was the time to drag the guard out and leave him tied up in the street for the Zombies to eat. It might even slow the Zombies down enough where they wouldn’t chase the big, loud van driving down the narrow road in the middle of the day.
The first wave of Zombies came running down the road towards the smashed pickup truck. Summoned by the sounds of gunfire and crashing metal the Zombies leapt forward seeking the normal humans they associated with those sounds. They came from all directions. In ones and twos, the fast ones getting there before the slower ones even though the slower ones had been closer. Randy watched as one of the Zombies ran down the middle of the street hurdling over broken down cars. He saw another one leap off the side of a building to get around a broken utility pole.
Randy kept the accelerator firmly pressed down. He hoped the Zombies would be more interested in the fresh meat in the pickup truck than they were in the large van driving away from the scene of the accident. He nursed that hope for about twelve seconds. Clinging to it even as he saw all the Zombies ignoring the wrecked pickup to focus on the van rolling through their midst. A loud banging noise told him one of the Zombies must have leapt onto the top of the van and taken it upon itself to start beating on the roof. Out of the corner of his eye Randy saw another of the fast-moving Zombies leap headfirst into the passenger window.
A loud shattering noise and Kelly’s shrieks told him the Zombie had managed to smash the window with its head. He started slowing the van down and fumbling around for his pistol. He was trying to stop the van and not crash into anything while still dodging other Zombies.
“Keep going! I’m good. I think it sliced it’s neck open on the window. Hurry though! There are more coming!” Kelly yelled. She was holding the Zombies long hair up and making sure the thing was dead when the weight of its body made it fall out of the window. She no longer had anything between her and the Zombies trying to surround the van. She slid over in her seat and pointed the M-16 out the window. If any more of them tried to come through the window, then maybe a bullet would work better than glass to keep them out.
Randy slammed his foot down on the accelerator and threaded the van through the incoming Zombies. He dodged wrecked cars and piles of garbage. At one point he smashed through a line of police cars that’d been setup as a barricade back when there still hope. Zombies were running along both sides of the van. More were pouring out from the roads in front of them at the various intersections. Randy was driving insanely fast through the narrow streets full of junk. An accident at this point would doom him and the girls. Something as stupid as a flat tire would be the death of them.
A Zombie jumped for Kelly’s window. It got its hands hooked and pulled a grinning face into view. Kelly put the barrel of her rifle against its head and pulled the trigger once. The dead Zombie tumbled out of the window and flipped head over heels down the street. The other Zombies ignored it and continued to make the same mistake trying to get in her window. Kelly pulled the same trick each time. She knew she’d eventually run out of ammunition or a Zombie would come through the window too fast or the gun would jam. They couldn’t keep this up indefinitely.
Randy pulled the steering wheel hard to the left to avoid an overturned motorcycle. The van screeched to the left before momentarily becoming airborne as the front tires struck a ramp made partially from a desiccated pile of bodies lying in the street. While in the air Randy found himself wondering how a pile of corpses ended up in the middle of the road in the shape of a ramp. Seeing the fire hydrant dead in front of them he stopped worrying about the biological ramp they’d just hit and started worrying more about where they were going to land. He debated brakes versus gas.
He pressed his foot down hard on the gas and turned the wheel to the right as far as it would go. They hit the ground and the van responded to the wheels turned and the gas pedal pressed by trying to flip onto its side. Sticking to his plan Randy kept the wheels turned as the steering wheel fought against him. Through the miracle of power steering and the automotive industries fear of lawsuits due to vans and SUVs rolling over too easily the van stayed upright. The back wheel did tag the fire hydrant hard enough to dent the back wheel well.
Randy drove on. The buildings they were passing kept getting bigger. He looked ahead and saw the familiar skyline of downtown Orlando. Arms slammed against the windshield. The roads were getting so tight he was getting worried if he’d be able to keep moving forward. Seeing what looked like a flood of Zombies coming down one road he swerved the other way down an intersection. Ahead of them the road was impassable thanks to a firetruck parked sideways in the road. There was room on one side to get through, but Zombies were already pouring through that gap and rushing at the van.
“Go in the garage!” Kelly yelled. She had the M-16 out. She’d pulled the trigger twice in the last twenty seconds. A Zombie was beating on Randy’s window. They were rapidly getting surrounded as they idled in front of the fire engine blocking the road. Randy realized where they were at and suddenly got what Kelly was talking about. He shifted into reverse and backed right through a couple of Zombies who’d caught up to them. He shifted into drive without slowing down. The engine made some clunking noises followed by a high-pitched whine, but they started moving forward.
He jammed the van up the ramp to the garage entrance marked ‘Valet Only’. The entrance was tiny. The van bounced off one side and he almost lost control. Kelly was staring intently at the tiny entrance they’d gone through.
“Stop! Follow me!” She yelled. Randy slammed on the brakes bringing them to a stop.
“What?” He asked. Kelly was already opening her door and jumping out. Not knowing what the hell she thought she was doing he jumped out as well. She was shooting while she ran based on the gun fire coming from the other side of the van. Randy ran around the van and followed her towards the small entrance they’d just come through. Kelly was staring at the side of the entrance while she swapped out the magazine on her rifle.
Randy sprinted over to help her. He’d realized finally what she was looking at. There was a big metal gate that could be slid across to shut the garage down. It was probably there to keep people from stealing crap out of the cars the valets parked in there. They’d been lucky no one had gotten around to closing it when everything had first started going to hell.
The gate was held in place with a big latch you had to push down in two places while pulling the gate to close it. Kelly pushed the latches down and screamed for Randy to close the gate. He grabbed the gate and pulled as hard as he could to get it moving. He saw it rake over Kelly’s knuckles, but he kept pulling it. At the other side was another two latches you needed to press down then push the gate over. He was sure there was an easier way to do this but for now he just slammed the gate against the latches as hard as he could. That worked for the top one but the bottom one was being stubborn.
Zombies were ramming into the gate. Screeching their hatred for all things normal. Screeching out their hunger to rend uninfected flesh. A skinny Zombie shoved his way under the gate. Randy pulled his gun out of his holster and s
hot the Zombie in the head. A few arms came under the gate reaching for him. He put bullet holes in all the arms, but they kept waving around at him. He finally ducked down and started shooting under the gate right into the Zombies lying on the other side. Kelly rushed over and slammed her body into the gate a few times trying to get it to close all the way.
The one latch finally did what it was supposed to do, and the gate was secured. There was only about six inches of space between the gate and the ground. A few Zombie arms were waving around underneath it. It did nothing to stop the horrifying screeching noise. Randy pulled Kelly to him and kissed her quickly. He remembered her hands and had her hold them out so he could see them. Blood ran freely where a bunch of the skin had been ripped off the top of her hands in the gate closing fiasco.
“I really hope they can’t get through that gate.” Kelly said. She had to speak up to be heard over the screeching.
“They’ll get through eventually if enough of them show up. I say we work on not being here when that happens.” Randy answered.
They made it back to the van and drove around until they saw a door leading into the hotel. It was locked. It was also a very solid door. Rather than mess around trying to pry it open they got back in the van and drove up another level to find the same issue. They tried the doors on all the levels and none of them would open. Finally, they parked on the top level and started working with the tire iron trying to pry the door to the hotel open.
While Randy worked on the door Kelly went to open the back of the van and make sure everyone was doing ok. She knew she’d have hated to have been stuck in the back of the van not knowing what was going on during all that crazy driving.
Chapter 13: Scavenger Camp
Kyler and Jeff moved slowly through the woods off the interstate. They had a rough idea of where the scavenger camp was, but it still wasn’t going to be the easiest place to find. They had to beat their way through a mile of brush and woods to get to the general area the tents would be setup in. They moved quietly through the woods in the dark before dawn. Kyler was thinking it may be easier to wait for the sun to come up instead of walking face first through every spider web in the woods. He was on the verge of mentioning that idea to Jeff when he tripped over the rope connecting a small tent to a stake.
Kyler went tumbling to the ground. A bearded dude with dreadlocks wearing a pair of boxers with a big smiley face on them shot out of the tent and attacked Kyler with a baseball bat. Kyler and Jeff both hissed at the terrified man to calm down. The man turned paler when he realized he’d been whacking someone dressed like a soldier. Then he noticed just how well armed Kyler was. The man fell to his knees and started begging Kyler not to hurt him or his family. The necessity to maintain noise discipline had been so thoroughly drilled into all of them that even the terrified man’s sobs and begging were done in a subdued manner.
“Calm down. Calm down. It’s all good. You thought I was a Zombie, right?” Kyler rhetorically asked the cowering man. The sun had come up at some point during the exchange. Kyler was able to see the man in the early light. He looked over at Jeff who was grinning really big. He’d obviously been highly entertained seeing Kyler get beat down by a mostly naked man.
“So sorry mon. I didn’t see you there. I thought you be one of the Zombies mon. So sorry sir.” The man continued apologizing with his head bowed.
“Don’t worry about it. You thought I was a Zombie. I’d have done the same thing if I was you.” Kyler rubbed his arm where he’d been struck with the baseball bat. It hurt like hell but in the grand scheme of things wasn’t a big deal. He’d taken so many hits at this point that he was just getting used to it. He asked the man which way the command tents were.
Jeff and Kyler started walking through the early light of dawn towards the tents they’d be spending the daylight hours in. Both of them exhausted and wanting nothing more than to sleep for a day or two. Kyler looked around curiously as they walked noting the one and two-man tents spread throughout the woods. There was no campfires or gatherings of people chatting. Just tents spread out haphazardly in every direction. He assumed they spread everyone out to make it harder for Zombies to encircle the camp and take them all out at one time.
They finally saw some larger tents up ahead. One of them had a line of people in front of it. Kyler and Jeff headed for the tent with the line in front of it.
“What are they waiting in line for? Breakfast?” Kyler asked in a low voice.
“Nope. That’s the oxy line. On top of their families being back in one of the more permanent camps a lot of the people stay for a guaranteed pill per day. I guess being medicated daily is how they deal with everything. Turns them into Zombies. Which is kind of ironic. Alanis Morrissette should figure out a way to include them in that song of hers. Assuming she’s not dead.”
They walked past the line of fidgety people impatiently waiting their turn to drop in and drop out. The men and women standing in the line did resemble Zombies. They were all obviously impatient to get their fix. Three soldiers stood at the front of the line checking names off a list as they rationed out the pills from a large Tupperware bin. As they watched one wired looking guy got into a hushed argument with one of the guards. The guard nonchalantly swung the hilt of his knife into the guys temple dropping him like a rock. The other junkies just stepped over him as the line continued cycling through.
“What do you think that was about?” Kyler asked.
“The dude probably wanted an extra pill to get a better high. Or he’s taken too many and caused issues. I don’t pay too much attention but when you’re on that detail you’ll hear them saying all kinds of crap to try and get extra pills. Some of them are so strung out the only way you can get them to shut up is doing what that guard just did. It’s the only language they seem to understand.”
They kept walking until they ended up at a tent with a Georgia state flag planted in front of it. They walked up to it and the guard standing outside recognized them.
“Hey guys. Assuming there were no issues with the trucks or anything the commander told me to let you know you can both grab a tent and get some shuteye. He’s already turned in for the day.”
Kyler and Jeff wandered in the direction the guard had indicated when he’d said they should turn in for the day. A small circle of tents had been setup beside the command tent. They walked around until they found two that weren’t occupied yet. Someone had already put in some sleeping bags and ground pads they could use. Kyler told Jeff he’d see him in a bit then crawled into the tent and zipped it up behind him. He kicked off his boots and arranged his weapons around him hoping he didn’t need them anytime soon. Then he spent a few minutes trying to get comfortable. It was a little difficult getting situated due to an arm that hurt a lot more now than it had when the guy originally hit him with the baseball bat.
He’d just shut his eyes when the sound of a pistol going off had him sitting straight up. He shoved his boots back on and made sure all his weapons were hanging where he needed them. He shrugged on his go bag, grabbed his rifle and was out of the tent less than thirty seconds after hearing the first shot. In the clearing a group of soldiers was rapidly gathering. All the ones who’d been asleep now geared up and ready for action. The commander showed up and asked if anyone had a clue what’d happened. As he was waiting on a response a soldier came jogging into the clearing.
“Sir. One of the junkies pulled a knife and attacked Wallace. A couple of other ones tried grabbing the box of pills and running with it. Wallace shot the junkies before they got anywhere with the pills. We told everyone to fall back and tossed out a handful of pills for the junkies still in line. I came over here to find you and report.” The soldier nervously finished up. He was working hard to catch his breath.
“Pass the word to the people. Bug out and we’ll pick them up tomorrow. Tell them Plan ‘A’. They should already be doing it anyway. Those gunshots were loud. Did the idiot who pulled the trigger die or is he still alive?” The c
ommander asked.
“He was alive the last time I saw him sir.” The soldier responded.
“Too bad. Alright. Fighting retreat men. Zombies will be coming to visit any time now thanks to Mr. Wallace. Our job’s to give the people a few minutes head start so they can get to where they need to be without being eaten. Let’s hit the line hard for about five minutes then haul ass out of here. I’ll see you all at the rendezvous point by morning. Try not to die.” The commander turned and ran with two of the soldiers towards the south side of the camp.
Kyler and Jeff were assigned to the north side up near the town they’d been busy looting. They made sure they were locked and loaded then started jogging towards their section. Kyler was hoping this was all an overreaction. A couple of pistol shots was pretty loud locally but shouldn’t carry more than a mile or two. There was a real good chance this exercise would prove to be just an overabundance of caution. He repeated the phrase overabundance of caution to himself as he ran. They were the sweetest sounding words he could think of.
Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide Page 11