Zombie Apocalypse Series Books 1-3 (Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set)

by Jeff DeGordick

  The other bandit turned his assault rifle on the killer, spraying the remaining bullets in the magazine at him. The killer dashed behind a few zombies, using them as a shield as he stabbed each one in the brain.

  The bandit's rifle clicked, letting him know it was out of ammo as the zombies in front of him dropped like flies. Before he could reload, the killer appeared like a blur, lunging toward him and driving the blade of his knife into his heart. He gasped for air as his eyes bulged out of his head, and he dropped the empty rifle onto the floor.

  The killer held the bandit close, his head nestled beside the bandit's as he squeezed the life out of him. The bandit's head slumped forward, giving Sarah a view of the killer's face as his head suddenly snapped to the side and looked at her. He withdrew the knife from the bandit's chest and threw the dead body onto the floor as he turned his attention back to Sarah.

  Sarah ran, turning a corner and heading down another branch of the mall. The killer followed, and she knew he would catch up to her.

  Blood dripped from the end of his knife as he held it by his side, leaving a dotted recording of his destruction behind him.

  More stores sat on either side of Sarah ahead, and the corridor soon came to another corner, heading to the right.

  A bandit suddenly appeared from around it, and he raised his gun and fired.

  Sarah and the killer dropped down on their stomachs, and she instinctively held her arms above her head to shield herself. When she looked up, she saw that the bandit wasn't firing at her, but at a pack of zombies that had come in the corridor from the main concourse.

  The bandit crouched down near the inside of the corner and focused his fire on the approaching dead. He paid no attention to Sarah and she took her cue and started crawling across the floor past him.

  She looked over her shoulder and saw the killer crawling toward her with alarming speed, his appendages awkwardly slapping across the tile in a bizarre caricature of how a human was supposed to move.

  Sarah pushed herself up to her feet and broke into a run. She rounded the corner and dodged overturned benches, garbage cans and big round pots filled with dirt and dead plants that had been thrown across the area as barricades. All the bandits along the corridor were dead and a few zombies were hunched over them, chewing on their flesh and sinew.

  Sarah frantically searched for an exit, but still didn't see one as she flew past the zombies and cut through the corner of a jewelry store, heading along another corridor leading back to the concourse.

  The fire had started to consume large portions of the mall ahead, and the smoke was becoming thick, choking out her vision and breathing. Sarah kept low as she went, coughing on the hot, toxic air.

  A pile of flaming bodies lay in front of her between the corridor and the rest of the mall, and she skirted around it and stopped in the familiar concourse. She looked behind her and saw that the killer had disappeared, and she knew that he could be anywhere.

  Sarah frantically glanced around at the main exits of the mall. The one she and Dale had been brought through on the west end was too far away, and there was still a sea of roaming zombies and bandits between. But the exit on the east side wasn't far, with only a smaller pocket of wandering zombies in the way.

  She headed for it without any more hesitation, knowing she would do whatever it took to get there. She could see the end in sight, and she didn't think about what would happen after that; the only thing on her mind was escape.

  Dead and bleeding bodies littered the ground around her as she snaked her way through them. Some were on fire, and some others were smoldering black corpses, extinguished from the flames but still smoking and filling her nose with a pungent, eye-watering smell.

  A raging fire burned a collection of flammable objects in the middle of the concourse ahead, causing the zombies around it to shy away from the intense heat. Most of them were bent over, feeding on unburned bodies, but there were a dangerous few that wandered around aimlessly.

  Sarah kept her eyes on the doors at the end, never letting her will and focus be distracted. Her lungs felt ready to burst, but she ignored all complaints and pains that her body gave her. She started to pass through the undead as some of their heads perked up and craned toward her. Some of them were bandits that had already been turned, their arms outstretched for her and their flesh cracked and gray. Assault rifles and a few pistols littered the ground next to the bodies, but they had all either been burned in the fire or were too close to the zombies to make a grab for any of them.

  The heat licked at her and was almost too intense to handle, but she ran for the fire in the middle, aiming for the narrow path between the flames and the lurking zombies who started to move toward her.

  Sarah dashed past the towering fire as the blistering heat singed her exposed skin. She made it through without any serious damage and continued to head for the exit, only a few dozen yards away now.

  The fire had swept along the side of the corridor, consuming the stores below the second floor where the food court was. The flames climbed up wooden pillars that held up a short overhang from the second floor above, and it reached the exit ahead, making the doors closest to the fire impassable.

  Sarah dodged all of the undead and the path to the exit was clear. She looked over her shoulder and saw a handful of zombies had tailed her. Their motor skills were stunted compared to a healthy human, but she was still limping, and the dead were slowly gaining on her.

  The body of one solitary bandit lay ahead of her near the fire, but it was unburned. On the floor next to him was an AK-47, untouched and available, and extra magazines of unexpended ammo were clipped onto the dead bandit's vest.

  Sarah picked it up and shifted it between her hands like a hot potato when the burning metal touched her skin, finding her way to the still hot but cooler wood of the butt and the hand guard. She started to reach for the magazines on the bandit's vest when gunshots rang out behind her.

  She turned and saw the leader of the bandits come out of a maintenance hallway between two stores. His body was covered in cuts and bruises, and he stepped out into the concourse, firing his rifle at the approaching zombies and dropping them one by one. When he took care of the threat, he turned his attention to Sarah.

  "You!" he cried. "You did all this!"

  Sarah froze, looking at him like a puppy with its tail between its legs.

  "You planned all this!" he screamed. "You brought them all here and now you're going to die for it!"

  He raised his rifle and aimed at her, squeezing one of his eyes shut and training the other along the iron sights.

  An arm reached around from behind him and plunged a knife into his ear, destroying his eardrum and sinking into his brain. His arms fell immediately and his eyes slid up into his head as a stream of blood dripped out of the wound and off the knife.

  The knife slipped out and his body crumpled onto the floor as the killer stood behind him. He stepped over the bandit and marched for her, breaking into a crazed run as he waved the knife through the air.

  Sarah pointed the AK-47 that she procured at him and pulled the trigger.

  Click.

  He was only a few yards away now, holding the knife poised and ready to strike.

  She reached over for the magazines clipped onto the dead bandit's vest, grabbing one in her blind panic and shooting up to her feet. She ran for the doors, ignoring the burning heat of the magazine in her hand as she went. She heard the knife whooshing through the air behind her as she tried to figure out how to put the new magazine in, but she knew she wouldn't have the time or the focus to do it before he reached her.

  The fire next to the doors had spread all the way up the walls and the wooden pillars holding up the overhang, licking up the railing on the second floor.

  One of the pillars gave way suddenly, snapping and causing the weight of the overhang to shift onto the pillar closest to the doors. The load was too much to bear as that pillar strained and ripped apart under the weight, tip
ping over toward the exit and carrying the inferno along with it.

  Acting purely on instinct, Sarah dove for the doors farthest from the fire. Her body sailed through the frame where the glass had been broken by the invading zombies, and she landed on the hard concrete outside the mall as the pillar slammed onto the floor inside and shook the ground.

  Pain shot through her arms and legs where they had struck the ground, but she forced herself up to her feet and turned around.

  The wooden pillar had fallen right across all of the doors and pulled some of the overhang above along with it, creating a tall pile of rubble and flame that sealed off the exit.

  The killer stood on the other side, motionless and staring. His smile slowly faded and his face became blank, almost serious, as he watched her.

  Sarah pulled out the empty magazine from the assault rifle and roughly shoved in the fresh one with a shaky hand. She raised the gun and aimed at the killer, but he was already gone.

  As the mall burned, she backed away, taking one last look at the carnage before turning and running into the night.

  14

  At the End of Her Rope

  The first snowfall of the season began with just a few flakes sprinkling down here and there. There was hardly any wind and it fell peacefully down to the ground, a few of them landing on Sarah's face and bare arms, kissing her skin with wetness. The bandits had taken her coat in the mall and she walked through the dark edges of Raleigh in a blouse and a pair of jeans, freezing. The intense heat of the fire that surrounded her in the mall had exacerbated the problem, singeing her skin like a sunburn and making it more susceptible to the cold.

  She stumbled along in a ditch that ran concurrently to the road, trying to conceal herself if the killer was following. She looked behind her constantly, but she didn't see anything, despite the darkness. She clutched the AK-47 in her hands, taking a good two miles before she finally felt comfortable enough to let her finger off the trigger.

  Sarah thought she was heading into Raleigh, but she really didn't know; for now she just needed shelter. She figured there would be some suburbs up ahead, but she was currently walking along empty fields.

  A harsh chill suddenly ran up her spine and she shook violently, the AK rattling around in her hands. This set off a terrible coughing fit as she could still taste the charred death on her lungs. Bright flame still burned her vision, even though all she could see was darkness. It took a while for her to get the smell of smoke out of her nostrils, but it had never left her tongue. All of the terrible events that happened in the mall ran through her head and they wouldn't stop. It all came back to the killer. She couldn't understand why he was coming after her and why he would stop at nothing to get her. She just wanted it all to go away, but she knew it wouldn't.

  She pictured him standing at the end of that dark hallway, closing her and Dale in with the zombies. The way he stood with his knife shining in the light and that insane smile on his face, despite all the carnage that was happening around him... it was like he feared absolutely nothing. How could she possibly stand up to someone like that?

  The horrifying final moment of Dale's life was the worst memory of all. Even in all the confusion, she remembered hearing the sounds of the knife stabbing Dale in the chest. That plunging sound, slicing and being retracted with a wet suck, pulling his blood out with it... she heard the gurgles in his throat as he choked on his own blood, and she even heard when the killer shoved the knife in his eye and the little, almost inaudible pop that it produced.

  Sarah doubled over suddenly and threw up. She kneeled down and put the AK on the grass as she threw herself forward with her hands on the ground in front of her and threw up again even harder. Her stomach was tumbling like a dryer, and she didn't feel well at all on any level. She thought about just lying in the ditch and giving up, but she knew that freezing would be a painful death.

  When her stomach settled, she picked up the rifle and carried on down the ditch along the road. She walked another quarter of a mile, and then she saw a dark shape far in the distance.

  It was a farm, and it was just as dark as the night around it, with nobody in sight.

  She stopped and looked behind her, listening.

  Nothing moved, and the only sound was from the rare gusts of wind drifting its way across the empty fields.

  She cautiously climbed out of the ditch and crossed the road to the other side where the farm lay. There was a barn next to the house, with a silo standing behind it. Any of the structures would probably be suitable to stay in for the night, as long as there was something warm to wrap herself in.

  Sarah hobbled across the field toward the barn, which was the closest building. She was really starting to feel the pain in her ankle, as all the activity and strain had taken its toll. If she hadn't damaged it enough already, it soon might have been to the point where she wouldn't be able to walk on it at all.

  The whole property appeared to be empty, and when she pulled open the barn door, she was greeted by a cold draft and nothing else.

  She pulled the flashlight out of her pocket and flicked it on. She swept the light across the interior of the barn. There were a couple hay bales stacked in the corner and some old farm equipment sitting around, and a ladder leading up to a small loft. But otherwise, the barn was empty.

  Sarah pulled the barn door shut and threw the latch across to lock it. She walked over the floor, keeping the flashlight trained on the ground to look for something warm to wrap herself in. She made a round and found nothing but dusty straw. When she pointed the light up toward the loft, she saw something she wasn't expecting.

  A hangman's noose hung from a rafter next to the loft. No one's neck had been occupying it, but the sight made her jerk around, throwing the flashlight into all corners of the barn, suddenly unsure if she was really alone.

  But she was. Whoever had been here before, through whatever circumstance, appeared to have left a long time ago. A chill came over her, and she didn't feel comfortable staying in the barn anymore, but she was too tired and too beaten-down to move anywhere else.

  Scanning the light along the edge of the loft above her, she saw the corner of a blanket hanging down. It was right next to the ladder, and it looked pretty thick. She set down the rifle on the floor and hobbled over to the ladder. She gripped the flashlight tightly in her hand and grabbed onto a rung before looking down at her feet and wondering how she was going to do this with her ankle. She leaned to her good side, putting all the weight on it, then she pulled up with her arms and hopped her good foot up to the first rung. She reached up to the next rung with her hands and carefully hopped up again. She took her time, and eventually she got high enough to reach the blanket.

  Putting the flashlight in her mouth while she held onto the ladder with one hand, she reached out with her other hand and grabbed it. It slid off the loft easily and she let it fall over the edge and drop to the ground. She carefully made her way back down to the floor and pulled the flashlight out of her mouth, laying the blanket out flat before flicking it off.

  The blanket was made of thick wool and it was more than big enough to cover her body. She scraped together a small pile of straw on the floor to one end of the blanket to use as a pillow, then she slowly climbed under the blanket, feeling all the aches and pains shoot through her.

  Everything was silent and peaceful, and she was already dead tired. Falling asleep would be easy.

  But it wasn't. She closed her eyes and let sleep take her, but it didn't visit her just then, and she tossed and turned endlessly as terrible thoughts forced their way into her head. The horrifying images from the mall flashed behind her eyelids, like a projector was playing them on a screen. She saw every sight, heard every sound, and felt every bit of heat, pain and emotion. The projector rewound the reel and played earlier films, showing her the killer crawling out from under the bed and attacking her, chasing her and causing her to fall out the window. She heard his voice in the woods. She saw the sleeping bag and
all the blood surrounding her, the four cold and lifeless heads watching her dream. The movie showed her the first dead body she came across, stabbed and bitten.

  Just when she thought it would stop, it went back further. It went to the massacre at Zed's camp. It played her son's death, every foul encounter on their way to Noah's Ark, and everything they had endured for the past eight years leading right up to his birth and that terrible night when her husband drove her to the hospital and something felt a little off.

  Sarah cried. And then she sobbed uncontrollably, choking on her own uneven breaths. Her chest heaved up and down shallowly as a tight ball wound up inside of it. She clutched at it in pain as she rolled around on the dirty floor beneath the musty blanket. Everything came to her all at once—every emotion, every painful memory.

  She couldn't take it anymore. Even after everything she'd been through, she pushed forward, stubbornly fighting against the fate that the world was trying to hand to her. But she wasn't going to fight it anymore. She was tired, she was afraid, and she was alone. Above all else, she couldn't stand being alone.

  She looked up and saw the dark ring of the noose hanging from the rafter. It had scared her when she first came into the barn, but now she understood that it was a message. She threw the blanket to the side and got up to her feet, still sputtering for breath. The pain was unbearable, but she knew it would be over soon. She made her way to the ladder again and climbed up. It seemed harder this time, like she had a heavy weight tied around her waist, trying to drag her down. But she fought against it and made her way up one rung at a time.

  When she was three-quarters of the way up the ladder, she carefully turned around and reached out for the circle of rope. She pressed a hand against the rafter to steady herself, and she leaned her head forward and slipped it through the noose. The weight on her leg felt so heavy and it suddenly felt like a toothpick, ready to snap from the strain. All she had to do was let go and she would be taken care of. She told herself she would get to see her son again. She would get to see her husband again. At the very least, she wouldn't have to be afraid anymore, and that in itself was worth it.