by Gary Chesla
“Good luck to you too,” Tony said. “You want to let us out of the building?”
“Sure, follow me,” Paul replied.
They followed the old man down the steps to the main floor in the old abandoned general store.
He removed the boards that barricaded the front door.
Paul then opened the door a crack and looked outside.
He then turned and looked at Mike, “You’ll have to move quickly, once they see you they will start coming.”
“Thanks,” Mike said and held out his hand.
Paul took his hand a gave a firm shake, “If you can’t get very far, feel free to come back. But if you have a mob of them close on your tail, we won’t be able to let you back inside. We can’t take a chance that they will figure out we are inside. It’s the only thing that has kept us alive so far.”
“I understand,” Mike said. “If I ever get back this way, I’ll try to stop by and say Hi.”
“I hope we will still be here,” Paul smiled sadly.
Mike nodded at Tony and they quietly slipped out the door.
They both got in the car and closed the doors at the same time as quietly as they could.
Tony started the car, put it in low gear and began to drive slowly down Route 271 through the small town.
“What did you make of those people?” Tony asked as he shifted into third gear, leaving off the gas so the engine wouldn’t rev during the shift and attract any attention.
“They are a sad lot,” Mike replied.
“Pathetic is more like it,” Tony added. “The lot of them cowering in that building, scared as hell. Then telling us if we come back, they might not let us back in. I hope this isn’t what we are going to find everywhere we go.”
“Did you believe all that stuff the old guy was telling us last night?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to believe him, but after what we have seen, how can we not believe him,” Tony replied. “We’ve seen just about everything he was talking about. I’m afraid he is right, but I am hoping to hell he isn’t, especially about what he said about how this has spread across the entire country.”
“Yeah,” Mike sighed as he looked over the battlefield that was at one time the town of Twin Rocks. “Let’s just concentrate on getting home and taking care of our problems and hope the rest of the world can take care of theirs.”
“Either way, there isn’t much we can do about it except go home,” Tony said.
They drove slowly, watching the walkers stagger from the side streets onto Route 271 and try to follow the car.
By the time they reached the last building in Twin Rocks, they could see that they had attracted a crowd of twenty walkers that were determined to follow them.
“I hope we don’t have to turn around,” Tony said.
They followed Route 271 for about an hour and a half.
Other than the three or four walkers that they couldn’t avoid and had to hit to continue on their way, Tony and Mike’s drive went smoothly.
It wasn’t until they approached East Conemaugh, that things again began to get hairy.
Tony stopped the car in the middle of the road next to the ballfield at the intersection of Route 271 and Oak Street.
They stared down through town.
“What do you think?” Tony asked as he studied the staggering bodies moving down the main drag through town.
“The old man said we shouldn’t try to drive through them, he said you can’t do it,” Mike replied.
“But it only looks to be about six blocks to the other side of town where it begins to clear out,” Tony replied. “I think we can make it, it’s not that far.”
“This Buick isn’t in that great of shape anymore,” Mike said. “I don’t know, Tony.”
“They don’t build them like this anymore,” Tony added, “This thing is heavy like a tank. I say we go for it. Once we get through East Conemaugh, we only have five more miles to go. We need to decide, they know we are here. We either go now or we may not make it the way they are coming out of the side streets. We have to decide!”
Mike thought over what the old man had said.
His mind kept coming back to when the old man said, “Never try to drive through them, it just can’t be done.”
“If we assume the old man knew what he was talking about, I think this is too risky,” Mike finally said.
“We have to do something fast,” Tony said sounding worried, “They are going to be all over us in the next two minutes.”
Mike looked up Oak Street to his right. There were only a few of the walkers up that way.
“Wait here until they get to the stop sign at the next street,” Mike said. “I have an idea. It’s something the old man told us before we left.”
“I have an idea too and my idea doesn’t think they are going to stop at that stop sign,” Tony replied. “I’m getting real nervous here Mike, care to clue me in on your idea?”
“The old man said that when one of the walkers see something and start moaning, that all the rest of them come running,” Mike replied. “If we stay here for a few more seconds, just about every walker in the town should be right in front of us.”
“What the hell kind of plan is that?” Tony asked.
“It’s a distraction,” Mike replied.
“But we’re distracting them right to us,” Tony said nervously. “Shouldn’t we be distracting them away from us?”
“No, I think this is going to work,” Mike said, just be ready to get out of here when I saw go.”
“There are what, a thousand of those ugly things coming right at us, and your plan is to just sit right here?” Tony said as he watched the mob of dead staggering bodies coming at them. “I hope to hell you know what you’re doing. Another fifty feet and they will be crawling on all over the damn car.”
“When they reach the corner, turn right and go up Oak Street,” Mike said.
Tony nervously looked to the right up Oak Street.
There were only a few walkers on Oak Street, but directly ahead of him the main street looked like all the demons in hell had just escaped.
Then what Mike had in mind hit him, “This might just work, but I would appreciate you letting me in on your plan the next time before I have a heart attack.”
As the dead moved to within ten feet of the car, Mike yelled, “Go! Get us the hell out of here.”
Tony threw the car into low gear, hit the gas and popped the clutch.
The car jerked and then the engine stalled.
“Damn stick shift,” Tony yelled as he turned the key to restart the engine.
He hit the gas again, this time the car shot forward, the tires screeching as he yanked the steering wheel to the right and sped up Oak Street.
“Go up about five streets and turn left,” Mike shouted as he looked out the back window to see the mob starting to come up Oak Street after the car.
Tony struggled with the steering wheel and guided the car onto Fourth Street.
“Go about four or five blocks, then turn left on the first street that looks clear,” Mike said.
After five blocks, Tony said, “We’re out of streets, we have to turn here.”
He swung the car to the left and sped down Hendricks Street.
He hit the gas and plowed through five walkers that hadn’t followed the others up the main street through town.
One of the dead, bounced off the front of the car and came crashing into Mike’s side of the windshield.
It bounced up over the car, leaving a large crack under a bloody smear across Mike’s line of vision.
“I see a sign for 271,” Tony said excitedly and hit the gas again.
He guided the Buick to the right and back onto Route 271 then he drove on to the main street and out of town. He glanced to his left and saw the tail end of the mob of bodies were still trying to go up Oak Street.
“Man, that was tense,” Tony said as he looked at Mike. “That was a good idea, but you ha
ve to let me know what you are thinking a little sooner next time. I was beginning to think you had become suicidal.”
“Sorry,” Mike said. “It just came to me at the last second as I thought about what the old man said.”
Tony guided the Buick across the bridge, then turned right to follow 271 along the river.
“It would have been a lot more intense if we would have tried to go down through the main part of town,” Mike said. “I don’t think we would have made it.”
“I don’t know, I don’t see how those scrawny dead bodies would be able to stop us,” Tony replied. “But, I’m just glad we didn’t have to find out.”
“How’s our gas?” Mike asked.
Tony glanced down at the dash, “One fourth tank. We only have a few miles to go, we’re fine.”
Mike leaned his back against the seat and closed his eyes.
“God, I hope Linda and Jamie are OK,” Mike said.
Tony kept the Buick moving at a constant thirty-five miles an hour.
Route 271 turned onto the Johnstown Bypass that avoided the downtown area of Johnstown.
Tony slowed the car down to avoid the cars that were sitting, abandoned all down the highway.
A few dark bodies moved around the abandoned vehicles, but nothing that posed any serious problems.
As the bypass went over the main part of town, Mike looked down into the city.
“The old man was right,” Mike said. “It is a different world down there. In my worst nightmares, I could have never have imagined I would see Johnstown like this.”
Tony glanced down off the overpass to see thousands of rotting bodies, standing and staring up at the Buick as they drove above them.
“I guess the whole world has gone to hell like the old man said,” Tony replied. “Unbelievable. Hey, I can see me office from up here. From the looks of things down there, I guess it’s not my office anymore.”
“By the way, I’ve decided not to take you up on your job offer,” Mike said.
“You get a better offer?” Tony asked.
“No, I just think I’ll have my hands full for a while,” Mike said. “Maybe when things settle down, if the position is still open, I’ll reconsider.”
“Well don’t think too long,” Tony grinned, “the word is out and they are lining up at my front door. It looks like they are dying to get that job.”
“Shit,” Mike sighed. “I can’t believe this. What the hell are we going to do?”
“I don’t have a clue,” Tony replied.
“Take me home,” Mike said. “I hope I still have a home and family to go back to.”
“Think positive,” Tony replied as he turned off the overpass and began up the steep hill that would take them up into Westmont.
The old Buick chugged and struggled up the steep grade.
When they reached the top of the hill, Tony swung the Buick right and drove down Drexel Avenue, Mike’s street.
Mike looked ahead nervously, Drexel Avenue looked like just about every other street they had seen the last few days, a bloody battlefield.
Cars abandoned and sitting haphazardly across the street, bloody and broken windows in the cars and houses along the street.
Unlike downtown Johnstown, there were only a few of the dead staggering along the streets.
But just like downtown, the sickening smell of the dead was as strong here as everywhere else.
Tony made it a point to run into any staggering body out on the street.
“One less to worry about later,” Tony said as another body bounced off the car.
Mike just sat quietly as they drove closer to his house, his hands shook nervously as he worried about what he would find.
Tony stopped the car a half block away from Mike’s house.
Dozens of the dead were moving through the yard while dozens more were fighting to get in through the open back door.
“I think Linda and Jamie are OK,” Tony said.
“How can you say that from out here?” Mike asked.
“The damn zombies are still trying to get inside,” Tony replied. “If Linda and Jamie were no longer alive, why else would they still be here trying to get inside.”
“It makes sense, I think,” Mike said. “But how are we going to get in the house to find out?”
“Where does that road go at the end of your street?” Tony asked.
“That’s Hester Street,” Mike answered. “It just runs down to the end of the block and comes back around behind the house. You can see it behind the house on our right. Why?”
“Where is your bedroom?” Tony asked again.
“It’s that window over the garage roof,” Mike pointed. “Linda and Jamie should be in the attic above the bedroom.”
“Maybe we could use another distraction,” Tony said as he studied the house.
“How?” Mike asked.
“We drive up to the house and get the zombies attention,” Tony replied. “We wait until they start for the car and we can drive slowly around the block and lead them away from the house for about three or four blocks. Then we circle back to your house.”
“That might work for the zombies out in the yard, but I don’t think the ones inside are going to come out,” Mike said. “I still have to get inside, get past all the ones inside and get upstairs?”
Tony studied the house for a few minutes.
“This won’t be easy, but it could work,” Tony said. “If I could get you up on the garage roof, do you think you could crawl up on the roof above your bedroom?”
“No problem,” Mike replied. “There are steps built into the side of the chimney. They aren’t really steps, it was supposed to be an esthetic design but they work just like steps. When I had to go up on the garage roof to rescue George, I discovered the chimney design worked like steps. Unfortunately, so did George, about two minutes before I did. But why do I want to get up on the roof?”
“The weakest part of any house is the roof,” Tony smiled. “All contractors use particleboard on the roofs now. In the past, they always used solid boards. But as finances became tight about ten years back, one of the things we all did was to start to use cheap particleboard on the roofs. The walls on these houses are almost impenetrable, the windows double or triple pane, the doors heavy metal, but the roofs are just cheap particleboard disguised by fancy looking shingles. If you can get up on the roof, you can use the tire iron from the Buick and dig through that roof in five minutes.”
Mike nodded but looked concerned.
“I could do it in three minutes, but since you can’t drive a stick, you will have to do it,” Tony added. “Unless you have another idea.”
“No, let’s do it,” Mike said. “I don’t want to waste any more time. This will only work if we don’t have to deal with any more of these things.”
Tony glanced out the windows, shut off the engine and hopped out of the car.
He ran back, opened the trunk and returned a few seconds later, holding out a large L shaped tire iron.
Tony handed Mike the tire iron, “You sure you’re up for this?”
Mike looked at his house and stared at the roof above his bedroom.
“I have to be,” Mike replied. “Linda and Jamie need me. I can’t leave them up there. I have to get them out while we can. Let’s get started.”
Tony nodded, started the Buick, shifted into low gear and started slowly driving down the street towards Mike’s house.
When Tony stopped the car in front of Mike’s house, the staggering bodies in the yard noticed the car and began to move away from the house and come towards the car.
“Here they come,” Mike said.
Tony looked in the rea view mirror and then in front of the car.
“I think if we wait until they are almost to the car and then start moving slowly down the street, this should work,” Tony said nervously.
“Just keep your eyes open,” Mike replied. “Remember the old man said that distractions work both ways. They s
tart that moaning and the next thing you know there are zombies coming from all directions.”
“Then maybe we should start moving,” Tony said. “You keep an eye on the ones coming from your yard and I’ll watch the streets.”
“Speed up and stop near the corner,” Mike instructed as he spotted six zombies coming around the other side of the house.
“I have a few coming from this side too,” Tony added. “Just let me know when they are almost to the car. I don’t want any to get in front of us. How does your yard look?”
“It looks like most of them are out on the street behind us now,” Mike replied. “Pull around the corner now. They’re getting closer.”
Tony hit the gas and slowly moved the car ahead another thirty feet.
Tony stopped the car and watched the zombies coming up behind the car in the rearview mirror.
Every few minutes Tony moved the car another block further from the house.
When they had traveled six blocks away, Tony asked, “are you ready?”
“I guess I’m as ready as I’m going to get,” Mike replied.
“I’m going to run down to the end of the next block and turn right,” Tony said. “Hopefully once I make the turn and get out of sight, we will lose a few of them. I’ll run back down Drexel and pull in your yard. You hop out, climb up on top of the car and get up on the garage roof.”
“What are you going to do?” Mike asked.
“I’ll pull back out on the street and watch to see if any of the zombies came back,” Tony replied. “If they do, I’ll try to lead them away again until you get Linda and Jamie out of the house.”
“OK, let’s do this,” Mike said nervously.
Tony stepped on the gas and the Buick shot down the street.