For Anthony
Plague of the Desert
By
Alli Rayfield
Chapter 1
I keep thinking that I’m going to wake up from this nightmare. That the living dead were all just a bad dream. That the last six months haven’t been a living hell. Everyday has been a fight to survive and in all honesty, I’m extremely tired.
It never really ends. The fear, the stress, the waiting. Waiting for them to attack, waiting for the cure. Though a cure seems more unlikely every day that passes. I haven’t even seen an official government institution still up and running. They took away everything. They destroyed everything. The few people they didn’t destroy have to figure out a new way to live, a new way to survive.
I’ve spent the last six months at an apartment complex that was converted into a safe haven. As safe as one can hope for during these times of zombies seeking out flesh to eat. It was never my intention to stay there very long. My friend Emma and I were going to stay temporarily and then make our way to California. After a week, I couldn’t get Emma to leave. She felt safe and she was already shacking up with the second in command of the safe haven. I didn’t have the means to leave on my own, though it pained me to stay.
I was supposed to meet my sister Shelly in California. Though deep down I knew she never made it there herself. The likelihood that she made it off of Guam seems very low. I still have hope she’s alive and as well as can be on Guam but I know she didn’t make it stateside.
I still keep my cell phone on me at all times, which is utterly ridiculous. I know it is. I use a car charger to keep it charged. In case by some miracle the towers start working again and I get that call from her. The one letting me know she’s survived this mess and that she’s okay and that there are people who care about her and will take care of her. I still think she’s alive, as weird as it may sound, I still feel that she is. I think if she was gone, I’d feel it somehow. Like when I broke my arm and she said she felt a pain in her right arm at the exact same time even though she was in her English class. Some people you’re deeply connected too and no time or distance can change that.
I try to keep myself busy. I work on the cars at the safe haven and go on runs with Ian. Ian doesn’t like being at the safe haven any more than I do. This is why we have spent roughly the last three months planning our escape. We have a Chevy Van that we keep locked up in an abandoned garage and stock it on every run. We have enough stocked to make it for a while. The only reason we haven’t left yet is because I’m hoping to get Emma to come with us. I know that if I’m honest with myself that won’t happen. She doesn’t see the safe haven the same way we do. She still thinks it’s a safe place. I think it’s a dictatorship that is run by a mad woman and her annoying son. The son that Emma is infatuated with. I can’t tell if her fascination with him is genuine. I don’t know if its sex, love, or that keeping herself in his good graces keeps her protected from his wrath and higher on the totem pole than the rest of us.
My mind tends to wander a lot and analyze the way things have turned out. It’s not always the best thing since to survive one must be vigilant. I think I owe most of my survival to Ian. Ian who was at that moment was rummaging through a case in the back of a grocery store while I tried to keep look out.
It was hard to find any food in grocery stores anymore as most of them were picked clean. The best things were usually to hunt, grow veggies and fruit, or raid vending machines. Though the vending machines were difficult and usually required making a lot more noise than one would want when trying to avoid the undead. And for some reason that I could not understand, Aaron and Laura would not start a hunting group.
However, on our way back to the safe haven Ian noticed a Safeway we’d never tried before and wanted to check it out. The aisles as expected were empty, except for the occasional wrapper or splatter of blood. Zombies had been here at one point and they had fed on someone, probably many someones. They appeared to have moved on but there was never a guarantee. Quiet scared me more than the growling, more than the smell that followed the undead. The quiet was unsettling. But if they weren’t around, you had to stay quiet. It was never ending silence. I missed life, the way it was. Loud music, loud engines, just the noise of life that disappeared. That’s what happens when the dead walk the earth.
“How’s it coming in there?” I asked Ian.
“Not so great,” he replied. “This place has been picked clean.”
I looked into the storage room. Ian was wiping sweat off his brow. His beautiful dark skin glistening with sweat. It was very humid out. We both thought it might rain and wanted to get back to the safe haven before it did. I wanted to make it back to make sure the mason jars I had on my back porch worked as I had hoped and weren’t knocked over by my dog Milo or taken by someone else.
Water had been in short supply as of late. Being in the desert was not the best in an apocalyptic situation. I decided to keep the jars out in case it did rain, even though that wasn’t often. I did worry about the fact Aaron had keys to all the apartments and he was no stranger to ours being as he was seeing Emma. I don’t know if he would take the water but at the same time I wouldn’t put it past him.
Ian had a theory that Aaron and his mother kept a stock of food for themselves and didn’t distribute it properly. I understood what fueled this theory since we both knew what they had or should have but I also thought maybe they were trying to be smart and make the food supply last as long as possible.
That’s not to say Aaron isn’t a self-serving jerk who would do something like take my water. I’m willing to share of course, we’re all crazy thirsty but I want to have control of how it’s distributed.
I noticed a box in the corner of the storage room.
“Did you check that one?” I asked pointing to the back of the room.
“No, I completely overlooked that one.” He said.
He made his way over to the box and opened it with his pocket knife.
“Jackpot,” he said with excitement.
“What’s in there?” I asked.
He held up two cans of chili for me to see with a big grin on his face.
I smiled. “Awesome. That’s the best score we’ve gotten in a long time.”
“Well, I could think of a better one we could get,” he stated and winked.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “shut up Ian.”
“How you’ve been able to resist me for so long Cate, I just don’t know.”
I laughed, “Look Casanova, you need to get over yourself a little bit.”
“Well, don’t come crying to me when your opportunity has long since passed and I’m dating a super model,” he said.
“You live a very interesting fantasy life there don’t you Ian?”
Just then I heard it. The shoveling of feet and the growling. I turned to see two zombies making their way towards us.
“Damn it,” I said, cursing myself for letting my guard down. I knew I shouldn’t do that, not even for a second. Danger is constantly around every corner.
I put my gun on the floor and pulled out my hunting knife to conserve bullets and not make too much noise.
“What’s going on?” Ian asked.
“We got company. It’s just a couple though,” I replied as I made my way to the zombie in front.
It began to move its jaw, trying to get a bite but its reaction time was so slow and it was just biting air. I stabbed my knife deep into its skull.
After pulling my knife out of its head, I did the same with its friend.
Just then, as if on que, a hoard of about twenty came around the aisle way.
“Shit,” I muttered.
I couldn’t believe it. The place had been so clear. There was no sign of a single zombie on the premises let alone a damn group of them. They were worse in a group. Being together seemed to make them faster, almost competitive with each other. Whatever it was, it was never good for the living that were anywhere near them.
“We got trouble,” I called to Ian as I made my way to my gun.
I picked it up and shot at the hoard coming at me. I got three right in the middle of their grey decaying skulls when Ian grabbed my arm and pulled me into the stock room. He shut the door behind us.
“Help me with this,” he said, indicating the shelfs that were in the room.
I helped him push the shelf in front of the door. We got it in place just in time as there was a window in the door and I could see just how close the zombies had gotten.
“How are we going to get out?” I asked a little winded.
He pointed towards the back of the room where there was another door.
“That leads to a hall where there’s a delivery entrance,” he said.
I nodded, “Should I lead the way, since you got to carry the box of chili?”
“Might be the best plan, though I don’t like the idea of a woman being the first in the line of fire.”
“Very chivalrous of you but I’m guessing that box would be uncomfortable for me to get to the car, so the line of fire might be best.”
“Yeah, right. You just like pretending you’re a badass,” he said.
“There’s no pretending, I am a badass.”
Just then there was a scraping sound as the zombies were beginning to work together to get the door we blocked open. They had managed to move the shelves about four inches.
“Enough jokes, we got to high tail it out of here,” Ian said.
I headed towards the door as he put his gun strap over his shoulder and grabbed the box.
I opened the door slowly. I was overwhelmed by the small of rotting flesh. It was very dark in the hallway. I got out a flashlight and shined it down the hall. There didn’t appear to be any zombies but they had been there. There were body parts and blood lining the hall.
“Yuck,” I said as I made my first steps into hall. “Do you think we’ll ever get used to seeing this?” I asked Ian.
“I don’t want to get to the point of being used to seeing this,” he replied as he shut the door behind him.
“Well, do you think we’ll get used to the smell enough to where we don’t feel nauseous or feel like passing out?” I asked. I was partly making conversation to keep myself from panicking. Ian was used to this tactic from me by this point and he went along with it.
“Most likely not but it could happen, if we live long enough.”
“You have to say it like that?” I asked.
“You want honesty or for me to blow smoke up your ass so you can feel better?”
“Normally I want honesty but when there’s a hoard of zombies behind me and God knows what ahead of me, I would prefer the smoke,” I replied.
“Well, you never clarified that, sorry.”
We made it to the end of the hall without incident. I felt myself beginning to breathe normally as I opened the door. The door led to a loading dock with garage doors for the semi deliveries. All the doors were closed.
I heard the growling immediately and shined the light in the direction it was coming from. A zombie missing the lower half of its torso was in the corner. This wasn’t something that stopped the dead from coming after you, as I had seen more than a few use their arms to make their way after food. However this one was pinned in by several chairs and shelves. It even appeared to have one of its hands nailed into the ground.
I scanned the room for any other possible threats but none were there. We made our way into the loading dock. Ian shut the door.
I went over to one of the garage doors and opened it. The sight that appeared before me was extremely unpleasant. There was another hoard of zombies in the back alley way behind the grocery store. The noise of the garage door got their attention and they turned our way. They seemed to growl in unison at the sight of us, the sight of food.
It was like when a crowd would cheer in unison when a band or performer would take the stage. Maybe that thought only crossed my mind since we were on a platform elevated above them. Above our adoring fans who only wanted to rip us limb from limb and devour our insides.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“I’m going to leave the box with you. You keep the high ground. I’m going to fight my way through the crowd and get the car,” Ian said.
I looked at him. I could feel that my eyes were the size of dinner plates and about to pop out of my head.
“You can’t be serious?!”
“Cate, you gorgeous girl. That’s the best I can do with less than sixty seconds to plan.”
I could feel the panic rising in my chest.
He looked into my eyes. His dark brown eyes penetrating into my soul.
“Have we ever not made it before?” He asked.
“No,” I replied.
“Then why should this time be any different?”
“Because our luck isn’t going to last forever.”
“Yes it is. This is why we never won the lottery. God was saving all our luck for this.”
With a wink he jumped off the platform into the swarming crowd of the undead.
“Ian!” I screamed after him.
He was gone. I couldn’t see him. But I saw dead bodies fall to the ground lifeless. I didn’t see any fresh blood or limbs flying up but that was no comfort. That didn’t mean he wasn’t dying. There were no screams from him but that could just mean they got his throat first.
I was lost in terror when I felt the weight on my left foot. An ugly dead woman was grabbing at my shoe. I took my knife and knelt down to stab her in the head. She fell to the ground but she was followed by more ugly dead things.
I continued to stab them in a seemingly endless repetition. The good thing was that the higher ground was an advantage that helped keep me safe.
Now that I had my barring’s back somewhat, I made sure to keep my eye on the door when I caught a break from the swarming crowd below, in case the other hoard made it through and came after me. I didn’t want to be blindsided.
I swallowed my panic even though it was difficult. I was worried about Ian since losing him in the crowd and it felt like a lot of time had passed since he jumped from the platform. Though it had probably only been a few minutes.
The crowd was getting smaller. Only a few stragglers remained. In the carnage of the motionless zombies, I didn’t see any fresh blood or body parts that would belong to a recently dead human. I took that as a good sign that Ian had made it through.
Just then, I heard the engine of the Mustang revving as it turned the corner to the back alley coming my way. Ian stopped in front of the platform but not before crashing into one of the zombies. The walking corpse went flying about five feet from the car.
I smiled and turned to pick up the box of food. The whole point of this mission. As I bent down to pick it up, I heard a loud crash.
I looked up to see the door from the hallway standing wide open and the hoard from inside spilling out.
I moved the box to the edge of the platform as quickly as I could. The zombies were on the move fast. They were hungry and apparently they thought Cate was on the menu.
I jumped off the platform and grabbed the box off the side. I barely missed getting my hand bit by the lead zombie.
With no time to thank the Lord for quick reflexes and a little luck, I ran to the car. It wasn’t easy as the weight of the box was slowing me down significantly. I got to the car and opened the door with some difficulty as I didn’t put the box down.
I tossed it in the backseat causing several cans to spill out on to the floor. I hopped into the passenger seat and shut the door. Looking out the window I saw the zombies throwing themselves
off the platform. It took them a second or two to get there bearing’s and get back up. But get up they did. It was feeding time and their dinner was on the move.
“Buckle up,” Ian said.
As I put the seatbelt on, Ian put the car in reverse and sped out of the alley. He turned the car around quickly, barely missing the edge of the building.
Ian slowed down as we made our way through the parking lot and away from the zombies.
“Well, that was fun,” he said.
“So much fun,” I replied sarcastically.
“Come on Cate, don’t you feel the blood pumping through your veins? The adrenaline going crazy?”
“Ian, don’t make me punch you in the back of the head while you’re driving. I’d hate to cause you to flip the car.”
“Yes, it would suck to die in a car accident after surviving a full scale zombie attack.”
“I wonder why that wasn’t a line in the song “Ironic”, it would have been so fitting.”
Ian laughed, “We’ll have to rewrite the zombie apocalypse version.”
I began to laugh with him.
We were making our way to the house where our van was hidden to add some of the cans to our stash. I often felt bad for taking some of the food we found but we never took too much. Just a can or two here, a bag or two there.
I also saved as much of the rationings I got at the safe haven as I could. Though having food leftover when your new ration came in was frowned upon. I found that very odd but it was. Many families who tried to portion their food so it would last longer received less in their rations the next delivery. The attitude seemed to be that if you didn’t eat it, you didn’t need it. It wasn’t fair as I thought everyone should get the same.
I kept my extra food hidden from the guys that distributed the food so they wouldn’t report back to Aaron that I had leftovers. It wasn’t hard to hide my food as my apartment wasn’t under the same scrutiny. There were no random checks that some of the other tenants endured. That was about the only upside to having a roommate who was sleeping with the corrupt bastard running the place, I could slide under the radar a bit more.
Plague of the Dead (Book 2): Plague of the Desert Page 1