by Crisp, M. L.
ZOMBIE FARM
M. L. CRISP
Copyright © 2015 M.L. Crisp
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1475270488
ISBN 13: 9781475270488
In loving memory of my father
Special thanks to Rhiannon Frater for all her encouragement during some of my darkest days. It was a tough time, but it was much appreciated. Also, thanks to Kevin Smith, I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him, but listening to his podcasts imploring people to follow their dreams gave me the final push I needed to get this book completed. Thanks Kev!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
It’s about damn time! Some of you with long memories might remember this book being advertised on the back of Rhiannon Frater’s zombie masterpiece, As the World Dies: The First Days, way back in 2008, in its original printing. Some of you with even longer memories might dimly recollect the original online version of this story way, way back in 2004. What happened? Well, it’s a long story, but the condensed version is that shortly after that blurb appeared, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Please pardon my French, but there’s no other way to put it, my father’s illness and death really fucked me up. I don’t want to bore anyone with the details, but let’s just say it was bad. Really, really bad. Writing in general was difficult, and writing a story with death around every corner just wasn‘t possible for me. That’s all in the past though, and today is a new day.
If any of you out there saw the blurb and were interested in checking out this book, I hope you find it worth the wait. When I wrote the online version in 2004, there were just a handful of zombie novels out there. Since then, there’s been a lot of zombie water under the bridge, and I realize there’s a seemingly never ending list of zombie novels competing for your attention.
I would just like to take this opportunity to apologize for taking so damn long, but it’s here now, and I hope you enjoy it!
M.L. Crisp
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
IT’S LIKE, TOTALLY THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
SCHOOL’S OUT
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 1
Allison was startled awake by a pounding noise. She sat up in bed, jet black hair covered her eyes, she yawned as she pulled it back. She leaned over and saw her husband, Mike, still snoring away. Even now, with enough noise to wake the dead. She nudged him, “hey, wake up sleepy head.”
Mike let out a final snort, opened his bloodshot eyes, and looked blearily at Allison. “What time is it?”
“10:08 a.m.” She said, showing him the alarm clock on the night stand.
“Damn, I worked a double shift yesterday, I was hoping to sleep ‘til at least noon. Who the hell could it be on Saturday morning?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, our nearest neighbor is miles away.”
Mike rubbed his eyes. “Shit,” he said, and climbed out of bed. He looked out the bedroom window, down at the front porch. But the pounding was actually off to the right. A man was standing in Allison’s rose garden, banging furiously against the side of the house.
Mike turned toward Allison, and raked his hand through his bed hair. “It’s Ted Zanger.”
Allison looked confused, “Ted? Wasn’t he going into Oklahoma City this weekend, for the fair?”
“Yeah for that big concert, it’s all he’s been talking about for days.”
“Well, I guess you better go down and see what he wants. It must be important, judging by all that racket.”
Mike grinned. “I think he’s probably drunk, he’s standing in your rose garden.”
Allison’s eyes widened. “I’ll knock the crap out of him!”
“I wonder what set him off?” Mike asked, scratching his beard.
“Carol probably dumped his ass again.”
Mike glanced outside. “Damn, that’s weird I don’t see his car out there.”
“Great, he probably wrecked it. Ok, go down and let him in. I’ll be down in a minute and fix you guys some coffee. Slap him in the head for me, and make sure you tell him it’s for fucking up my flowers!”
Mike chuckled, threw on some old jeans and a white T-shirt, and headed downstairs. Allison sighed, Ted’s a good friend, but he damned sure should have known better than to screw with Alison’s roses.
Mike yawned as he opened the door. “Goddamnit Ted, you know I worked a double last night. Allison’s fit to be tied, you know how much she loves her roses. What’s the matter, did Carol….” Mike’s eyes adjusted to the bright morning sun. As he stood in the entryway, he fully saw his friend. The front of Ted’s shirt was covered with blood. Mike could see that it had come from a horrible, gaping wound in his neck.
Mike gasped at the sight of his friend. As Mike stepped onto the porch, Ted whirled around and charged at Mike. Ted tripped over the metal wire that bracketed the rose garden, and landed on the ground with a thud.
Mike ran to his old friend‘s side, and knelt down beside him. Ted looked up at him. There was something different about Ted’s eyes, Mike instinctively drew back, just as Ted snapped his teeth at Mike’s outstretched hand. Ted grunted and scrambled to his feet.
Mike wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but it was clear Ted wasn’t in his right mind. Mike stood up, and bolted for the door. Ted’s hand grabbed Mike’s ankle, and he fell face first onto the porch.
Before Mike could get to his feet, Ted was hovering over him. Mike grabbed one of the wicker chairs on the porch, and held it between them. Ted knocked it out of his hands.
Mike grabbed Ted‘s wrists, and tried to hold him at bay. Suddenly a frying pan slammed into Ted’s face, knocking him back. Ted tripped off the porch, back into the rose garden. Mike looked up and saw Allison standing there in her bathrobe. She had hit Ted with such force, the pan had dislodged from the handle.
Mike grabbed Allison’s hand, and lunged back inside. He quickly closed and bolted the door. Ted was almost instantly at the other side, banging with all his might.
“What the hell is going on?” Allison asked, out of breath.
“I don’t know, Ted attacked me! He’s hurt! Blood all over him! He‘s, not in his right mind! We need to call the police, an ambulance, or something!”
Mike grabbed the phone, and dialed 911, as Allison went into the living room. All he got was a recording saying that all lines were busy. Mike was stymied. He paced around the foyer, then remembered the phone book. He pulled it from the small desk the phone was perched on. He quickly paged through it, finding the number for the local Greer County sheriff’s office. Hurriedly, he dialed the number. This time the phone just rang and rang. Mike finally gave up on anyone answering, and called 911 again, but just got the same recording.
Mike felt powerless, he couldn’t get through to emergency services, and his friend was still on the porch, wounded, bloody, and banging madly on their door. He was about to dial 911 again, when he heard Allison calling to him from the living room.
Mik
e entered to see Allison standing in front of the television, adjusting the rabbit ear antenna. “It’s on all three channels, it’s going on everywhere!” She said, her gaze not moving from the television.
“What? What’s going on everywhere?” Mike asked, but he soon saw what she was talking about. Allison flipped through the channels, all of them showed the same scenes, throngs of bloody people running wild in the streets. Police and soldiers in riot gear trying to fight them back. As Mike watched, he noticed that there were soldiers and police that had joined with the rioters.
On another channel, there was footage shot from a helicopter, you could see people being pulled from their cars by the rioters. The newscaster said that people needed to pay special attention to this footage. The camera lingered on one of the victims, his body mutilated. Allison buried her face in Mike’s chest. Then it happened, the man got up and started walking around aimlessly. Mike nudged Allison to look again. Then the man noticed something, or someone, out of range of the camera, and took off running.
Just minutes earlier, the same man’s heart had been ripped from his chest. Mike tried to make sense of what he just saw happen, but he had no frame of reference for it. But then he realized he did, Ted. He was so frantic after seeing his old friend hurt that he hadn’t really been able to process what he had seen. Now that he thought about it, Ted’s injury wasn’t something he should have been able to survive. The front of his throat was basically gone.
Mike’s mouth was agape, he sunk into the couch. Allison sat beside him, leaning forward, watching intently. For several minutes they watched the chaos unfolding on their television screen, all the while hearing the ceaseless pounding. Some commentators were calling the crazed people ’zombies.’ It was like something out of a bad movie, Mike thought to himself. Talking heads on the television babbled incoherently about whether the Soviet Union had something to do with this. Gorbachev had assumed power only months ago, and promised reforms. There were now unconfirmed reports that the same type of mass riots were happening behind the iron curtain, and that there had been a coup by hard line communists.
Mike turned the channel, one of the talking heads was a well known TV evangelist. He said he could feel God’s hand at work. But when asked if this was the rapture, he seemed to consider that for a moment, and then his jowly, round face frowned. No, he said, if that was the case, he wouldn’t still be here. “What an ass.” Allison said, almost absent mindedly.
The phone suddenly rang, Mike and Allison stared at the yellow phone sticking out of the wall, cradled in Garfield’s hand, as if they had forgotten what you’re supposed to do when you hear that sound. Mike walked to the wall and picked up the phone, “hello.” He said tentatively. Mike looked a bit relieved and turned toward Allison, “it’s your mom.”
Allison jumped up and yanked the phone from Mike’s hand, almost pulling the cord out of the wall. Mike leaned in to listen, “hello, mom, are you ok?”
“Allie, honey, I’m so relieved to hear your voice!”
“Mom, where are you? I can hear so much yelling in the background.”
“I’m at the fair, we got here early for the big concert. It seems like half the city is here. Then this, started happening. Are you safe Allie? I need to know you‘re safe.”
“Mommy, we’re safe….” Allison almost told her about Ted, but thought better of it. “What about you? It sounds like a mad house on your end.”
“I’m ok for now, I’m in the Space Needle, when people started going crazy, a bunch of us made our way here. The attendant took us to the top. The fair park is just a mass of people, it’s hard to tell if they’re all the crazy ones from up here. The attendant is letting us take turns on the emergency phone. A man on the loudspeaker was telling people to go to the Centennial building, there was a gun show going on there, he’s saying they will protect people. I got separated from your dad, hopefully he went there. Everybody‘s talking about going back down and making a break for the building, some people want to vote on it.”
“Don’t move from where you’re at mom, me and Mike are going to get in the truck and come there and get you.”
“No Allie, absolutely not! I can see the city from up here, it‘s mass chaos! You’re in a rural area, you’re safer there. Stay put Alley Cat, I just wanted to hear your voice in case…hey, wait your turn, stop pulling on the cord, you‘re going to brea…” The phone went dead.
“Mom, mom are you there?” Allison frantically grabbed the phone book and searched for the phone number for the Fairgrounds. Mike reached up and gently touched her hand. Allison slammed the phone back down on its perch, and paced around the room for a moment, then she looked at Mike. “Mike, we need go get my parents and bring them back here!”
Mike violently shook his head. “Allison, we can’t, you heard her, the city would be a death trap right now. This just happened, I’m sure the authorities will get this straightened out soon. We just need to sit tight.”
Allison pointed at the TV. “Does that look like something that’s going to be straightened out soon?”
Mike put his hands on her shoulders. “Allison, I love your parents too, but your mother was right, we need to stay put. If we drive into the middle of that and get killed, we haven’t helped anybody.”
Allison knew he was right. She began sobbing, Mike held her. Soon, Mike was sobbing too, his grip on her tightened. A few minutes later, Allison looked up at Mike, “what?” He asked.
“The banging stopped.”
Mike listened, she was right, there was no sound except for the television. They got up and went into the foyer, Mike peered outside through the small window. He could see Ted in the distance, walking up the dirt path, leading up to the main road.
“It looks like Ted is leaving.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?
“I don’t know, if he’s like those people on TV, he’s probably looking for…I guess, something to eat.”
“More like someone.” Allison said.
1 week later
Mike entered the kitchen, Allison was standing in front of the sink, looking out the window. “Ted still out there?” He asked.
“Yeah, he’s been circling the house since this morning, it’s like he never gets tired.”
Mike stood by Allison, and sure enough, Ted was coming around again. This time he stopped at the window, and stared inside. Then he began throwing himself against the wall. Allison looked at Mike, he knew what she wanted him to do.
“Look, maybe he’ll wander off again, like he did before.”
“Then what?”
Mike looked perplexed.
“No, seriously Mike, then what? He’ll come back eventually. That is, if he doesn’t find a way in this time. Except for Ted, we’re pretty safe out here, there’s nobody for miles around.”
“Allie, that’s Ted Zanger, he was the best man at our wedding, can’t we just wait a little longer?”
Allison put her hands on Mike’s shoulders, her beautiful green eyes met his. “Mike, whatever that is outside, it’s not Ted. Not anymore, he was my friend too, but this needs to be done, and you know it.”
Mike was silent, Allison sighed, “fine, then I’ll do it.” She grumbled, and started to leave the kitchen. Mike put his hand on her shoulder, “wait, I’ll do it, just give me a minute, ok?”
Allison embraced him, “I love you Mike.” She whispered in his ear.
Mike smiled weakly, and went upstairs. A few minutes later, Allison followed. She found him in their bedroom, looking at an old photo album. Mike looked up, “sorry, I just wanted to look at our wedding album first. Look, there’s Ted making that goofy face of his. When we were kids, his mom told him it might freeze that way.”
“I think all moms say that.” Allison observed.
Mike closed the album, “yeah, I guess.” Mike pulled a heavy parka out of the closet, and his old, Mangum Tigers, high school football helmet. “Before we lost the signal, the TV said it was confirmed the bite is what tur
ns people. Might as well have as much padding as possible.”
Allison hugged Mike, “look, sweetie, I know it’s hard. Maybe we can wait a little while longer.”
Mike shrugged, “no Allie, you’re right. I mean, I’m probably doing him a favor. I know I wouldn’t want to end up like that.”
Mike put on the parka, zipped it up. Allison picked up the shotgun leaning against the wall, and handed it to him. Allison walked downstairs with Mike to the front door. They embraced, and kissed. “Maybe I should suit up too, give you some back up out there.” Allison said.
Mike frowned, “no, I want you to stay inside. I’ll have a height advantage, I’m going to get up in the tree out front.” Mike said, and donned his black and orange helmet.
Mike opened the door and stepped outside, in all his protective gear, he felt like he was entering an alien landscape. He could still hear Ted flinging himself against the wall out back. Mike had fashioned a homemade strap for his shotgun, he slung it over his shoulder and climbed up on a sturdy looking branch. He positioned himself, situated his shotgun, and then hollered, “hey Ted over here!”
Ted came barreling around the corner, he stopped for a moment, and then noticed Mike in the tree. Ted made a bee line for the tree. He stopped underneath the branch Mike was stationed on. Mike almost threw up. His friend looked even worse than he had before. The blood was dried, and matted on his body, his hair disheveled, his skin had taken on an ashen white pallor. His clothes were tattered, and his skin was covered with deep gashes.
It occurred to Mike that Ted must have wandered onto the neighboring farm‘s pasture. It had been deserted for years, but rusty old barbed wire still surrounded the property. Ted had probably been entangled in it all week, that’s why it took him so long to return.
Mike was shaken out of his musings when Ted began jumping up and down, grabbing wildly at the air. Mike aimed, at the head, just like they had said to do on TV, and pulled the trigger. The recoil nearly knocked Mike off his balance, he hadn’t shot in ages. The bullet ripped through Ted’s stomach, and besides knocking him back a little, it didn‘t seem to phase him. Mike popped his neck, and aimed again, this time bracing for the recoil.