Jude walked over to the door and held up a hand that started the countdown to three.
One . . . two . . . three!
He pushed the door open and Manuel rushed through it with the red-bearded dude I could now assume was Big Ben following closely behind. I heard moans and grunts of engagement just before I cleared the doorway with Jude on my heels, making sure he secured the door behind us.
In my peripheral vision, I saw that Big Ben had the front passenger side door open and was sliding in behind Manuel when several zombies shambled around the side of the building to join the noise that a few others were making as they attacked Zach and Ghost.
As I ran toward the trio of zombies closing in on Ghost, intent on helping him, he let out a muted war cry and launched himself at the two furthest away from me. When I reached him, he had already taken down two of the zombies. I came up behind the zombie who had his sights set on the tall soldier and I dove, slashing the backs of the leg muscles of the rather huge monster.
The knife went in smoothly and cut all the way to the bone, causing the zombie to fall backwards when his legs couldn’t hold him up any longer.
As soon as he fell, I shoved my knife deep into his forehead.
A shadow fell over me and I spun, bringing my knife up into a defensive move, pulling back just in time to keep from pushing the blade into Jude’s back.
I wasn’t used to having humans around me in the midst of fighting the undead.
“Easy, Tiger,” Jude cautioned. He swiveled, swiping his blade across the throat of a zombie to his left and in one smooth movement, shoving it into the eye of a second zombie on his right.
I finished off the one who was now missing most of its throat.
“Move, Melody!” Jude barked from beside me.
“Aye, aye, Captain!” I shouted.
I jumped to my feet and ran to the SUV, following behind Ghost’s disappearing feet. I scrambled across the seat quickly so I could make room for Jude, which put me right on top of Ghost. Jude was right behind me and I never felt more relieved than I did when I heard the door slam shut behind him. Manuel gunned the gas.
The second and third teams were hot on our heels.
“Booyah!” I shouted with a fist pump when we cleared the front gate area. I glanced around at the men in the silent truck and immediately felt foolish.
“Too girly?” I asked seriously.
Ghost started laughing and the deep rumbling made me grin and immediately reminded me that I was sitting in his very large lap.
“Sorry, Ghost, I didn’t mean to squish you,” I mumbled, scrambling off of him.
“Hey, no hurry. You were okay right where you were.” His voice was deep, and I could hear a grin in it as he spoke. My cheeks warmed, which only made Ghost chuckle more.
“Just a joke, Jude,” he said with a nonchalant shrug.
I glanced over at Jude who quickly averted his eyes while Ghost continued to chuckle. I ignored both of them and whatever little inside joke they had going on between them and leaned forward until I was hanging in between the two front seats. I pulled back the center console, hoping to find something good.
“Melody, what are you doing?” Jude asked, sounding exasperated.
I ignored him and kept searching.
“Aha!” I squealed. I pulled my prize out of its sleeve and leaned forward far enough to shove it into the player. I pushed a button and when the familiar sounds of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds blasted through the speaker system, I sat back with a small sigh of satisfaction.
Ghost flashed me a sad smile, but I could feel the tension seeping out of the vehicle as we drove further away from the base.
A Foraging We Will Go
It was slow going during the next hour or so of travel as we headed towards Gastonia.
I don’t know what I had been expecting, but I hadn’t been to see the world outside the Army base, Light Oak, and my secret lair out in the woods since before that first day.
The world had irrevocably changed.
It wasn’t just the dead, though that, of course was a lot of it. Everywhere you looked you could see the dead, the dying, and the undead. Dead bodies. A dying culture and way of life. And the undead whom had now become a permanent fixture in our new reality.
But those things weren’t as terrifying as the things that were now missing in our terrible new world. The hole left behind by the deafening lack of life. The black noise of traffic we all loved to complain about so much, the sound of children playing nearby, their laughter floating on a summer breeze.
All gone as if they’d never even been.
You didn’t realize how much those little normal, day-to-day things meant to you until they became extinct.
“You okay?” Jude asked softly. I nodded, my eyes on the landscape outside the window. I was grateful for his quiet concern.
I watched as dense forest foliage gave way to small towns, tiny gas stations, and abandoned stores and shops. We pulled onto US-74, a larger road, that would lead us directly to Gastonia in half an hour, and I could tell immediately that Gastonia had been hit even harder than Light Oak.
Maybe all cities had.
About two miles outside of Gastonia, we found that the highway was blocked by cars sitting abandoned bumper to bumper. Even the space on the side of the road was cluttered with vehicles.
People had gotten desperate and tried to drive around the blockage, creating an even more of a pile up.
Jude pulled off to the side of the road, the other cars behind us following his lead. I glanced around the area, spotting only a few zombies in comparison to the large number of deserted and overturned cars.
We were all standing among the abandoned vehicles a few moments later.
“It’s weird,” I mentioned.
“What?” Manuel asked, glancing around us.
“Why were these vehicles heading into Gastonia and not out of the city?” I frowned.
Big Ben spoke up. His voice was softer than I imagined. I don’t know why, but I guess I’d thought of him as some kind of Scottish or Viking warrior with his huge stature, flaming red hair and beard. His voice did not match the backstory I’d made up for him in my head.
“They were heading toward a CDC ‘safe zone’,” Big Ben answered, his deep green eyes pained.
“CDC safe zone?” I questioned.
“A place where people were urged to go to seek shelter those first few days.” Ghost answered in his deep, booming voice.
I glanced around at the highway thickly littered with cars the question at the edge of my lips.
“These cars are the people they wouldn’t let in,” Big Ben answered my unasked question. “They invited them and then realized the problem was too much for them to handle so quickly. They roadblocked the entire city, not allowing anyone in.”
Big Ben stalked away to kill a zombie that had headed toward us.
“Big Ben was one of those who were cut off from entering the Gastonia quarantine zone,” Jude said softly. “He and his entire family were just outside the blockade when they quit letting people in, and all hell broke loose.”
We were all silent a moment after that. No one had to explain.
“Okay, let’s get going. We all know the stakes,” Jude told everyone.
“So, once we find supplies, how are we supposed to get it all back to the base?” a young man who went by the name “Z” asked.
Z had the blondest hair I’d ever seen in my life. This particular shade of blond was so light it was nearly white and was so fluffy it floated with the slightest breeze. I imagined it felt like cotton candy to the touch. It gave him an angelic quality that belied his army getup and guns.
He pushed a pair of glasses with thin wire frames up the bridge of his nose.
“The plan is to find a truck big enough to haul everything and everyone back to the base. We have several guys who can drive semis on the team, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure finding an abandoned eighteen-wheeler or sm
aller won’t be a problem either,” Jude answered.
No one mentioned how hard it might be to drive the large truck out of the city with the roads as they were. We were going to have to get lucky and find side routes.
As we continued our journey on foot into Gastonia, North Carolina, we settled into a pattern of sorts dispatching the zombies that we encountered.
At first, the guys bordered on over helping me, always on the alert and just a few feet away from me any time I had a zombie in my pathway. Eventually they realized that I could hold my own just as well, if not better, than most of them and they relaxed just a fraction. It wasn’t long before I was a legitimate part of the group rather than just a female interloper, someone to protect and look out for.
It felt nice to be part of their group.
“Mel.” Ghost nodded to me and I ran with him quickly and as silently as possible.
“Lime Green Leggings is all yours,” I stage whispered.
“You can have Blue Joggers,” Ghost conceded.
“You guys should stop playing around,” Jude cut in under his breath. I grinned over at Ghost. He was smiling back. He held up a hand as we got up close and personal to the two overweight zombies with their backs to us.
I met Ghost’s eyes.
He made a quick jerk of his head and we both moved in. Ghost went low and I went high.
My knife caught the man who had a huge, bald cranium in his temple while Ghost’s knife swiped across the backs of the legs of the forty-something year old female zombie wearing lime green leggings and a zebra patterned blouse.
Both zombies dropped with a loud thud. Jude’s blade entered the woman’s milky blue eye and exited the back of her skull.
We all stood over the two corpses with a grin on our faces.
“Easy peasy,” Ghost prompted.
“Lemon squeezy,” I finished as we bumped fists. Jude sighed which made us smile even wider.
We joined the rest of the group.
“When we get into the city, let’s split up,” Jude said, keeping his voice low and tone moderated. We were very close now.
“I’ll take a group to scout pharmacies and drug stores,” Manuel offered.
“Good. Take Big Ben and six people with you,” Jude agreed. Manuel nodded.
“Ghost, Melody, and the rest will go with me to find that Sam’s Club, half a mile away from where you’ll be headed.”
We all nodded in understanding.
“We’re here,” Jude whispered to the group as we entered the city.
Manuel nodded and Big Ben winked at me before they lead half the group to take on their mission. We had to stock up on medicines, but more importantly, we had to find that insulin for little Ava.
We moved away in the opposite direction.
“Mel,” Jude warned. I glance over my shoulder at the undead waitress ambling my way.
“Got it.” Everyone had a zombie or two to take care of for several minutes after that.
The streets were teeming with them, and the diversity of undead stuck out in stark contrast to the zombies I’d encountered in Light Oak. In Light Oak, I’d taken down a lot of soldiers and a lot of people who were used to living in a teeny tiny town with teeny tiny town activities and opportunities. Most of them wore very casual clothing.
And while we had a handful of neighbors of different nationalities, religions, and personalities, it was nothing like here in Light Oak where every other zombie was completely different from the ones I’d taken out before it.
We’d just ducked into a quaint indie bookstore about a block away from our destination when a larger group of zombies lurched around a corner and down the middle of the street. I took that time to really look at our surroundings through the glass doors of the bookstore while the zombies lumbered past.
“There are a lot of bodies in the streets,” Ghost whispered near me. A rivulet of sweat dripped down his temple.
I nodded. Too many bodies were in the street.
The stench of the undead wafting off the pavement was nearly toxic and definitely strong enough to make you tear up as you walked past. I searched the streets beside Jude and Ghost with my heart sinking further and further.
Something just wasn’t right.
“It’s not only victims from those first days out there,” I noted. “There are dozens and dozens of undead who look like they’ve been taken down recently, littering every single street.”
I shook my head. This couldn’t be good.
“Damn it,” Jude muttered darkly as we stood there and watched the majority of a larger group of zombies pass us by. “There has to be another group in this area.”
Ghost muttered something darkly and backed away from the door, leaving me with Jude.
“Maybe they’re not hostile.” I tried to sound hopeful, however, the truth of the matter was that if there was a large enough group in the area to clear out dozens of zombies at a time, more than likely they’d laid claim to all the supplies in the area or at least would make it very difficult for other groups to pilfer anything worth taking.
Jude swore again and we both stood, wondering if we should move forward or head back the way we’d come and find the rest of our group. We used the walkie-talkies we’d brought with us to tell the other group to be extra careful as they moved through the city.
I pulled out the map and list of stores, hospitals, pharmacies, and such we’d made before leaving camp.
Hunching down, I spread the papers out on the ground, using my mini flashlight to look over them. I found what I was looking for and pointed it out to Jude when he squatted down next to me.
“That’s where we need to go,” I said, pointing to the scribbles.
“Ashbrooke High?” Jude questioned.
I smiled broadly and snatched the papers off the ground.
“Think about it, Jude. The schools would have had hundreds of kids on a daily basis. Most schools have high fences for security and not many people would try to loot a school during a zombie outbreak.”
“I mean, there’s a chance it’s been found already, but if not, we may just hit the jackpot without risking moving further into the city and deeper into another group’s territory!”
Jude stared at me like he knew I was getting to a point, but he wasn’t sure what it was. I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. “How much food do you think a regular sized school would have stocked up to feed hundreds of hungry teens at any given time?”
Jude eyes widened and then he grinned at me. My insides did a weird kind of flip flop when his dimple made an appearance. I quashed the foreign feeling.
“I knew that,” he said. “I was just testing you.”
I chuckled under my breath and followed him over to the rest of the group, listening while he told them about our change in plans.
The road to the high school was paved with more bodies and even more of the undead. We tried to play it safe, only engaging the zombies when we had to, keeping to the buildings and ducking behind cars whenever possible.
Sometimes, though, we had to fight tooth and nail for our lives, for the lives of our comrades, and to make it further into the city and closer to our destination.
“Jude!”
“I see her.” We moved together. The zombie fell quickly, her faded purple hair splaying out around her when she hit the ground.
I was pulling my knife out of the eye of a particularly juicy zombie wearing a tracksuit that screamed Pimp and no less than three heavy gold chains when I heard Ghost grunt to my left.
He was fighting off two zombies with a third moving in. All of the zombies around us seemed off. Acting weird. I’d noticed it when we first entered Gastonia but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what I’d noticed.
Was it just me or were they almost moving in sync?
I shook my head and ran over to help Ghost and a small guy called Jeffery.
I yanked a small, Asian zombie back that was getting too close to Jeffrey for comfort. I kicked out hitting the
zombie behind the knees and he dropped to the ground.
My knife entered the top of his skull just as Jeffrey screamed.
An arch of blood sprayed across the pavement, some of it spritzing my face when a zombie with long, black dreads bit into Jeffrey’s throat, ripping a huge chunk out. The carotid artery had been severed and Jeffrey was dead in moments.
I gasped and shook myself out of my frozen state. I launched myself across the Asian zombie at my feet and used the forward momentum of my body to drive my knife deep into the forehead of the dreadlock zombie who had just killed one of our people. I stood there, my knife pinning the zombie to a red brick wall behind him unaware a tear was tracking down my cheek.
Jude’s hand brought me back to reality.
I turned, my eyes held wide so I wouldn’t cry in earnest.
“It’s over,” Jude soothed. “We need to move.”
I saw the other still fighting in my peripheral vision. I understood but I hated to leave Jeffrey in the middle of the street like garbage.
Jude’s closed his much larger hand over mine which still held the knife embedded into the dead guy that had killed Jeffrey. He squeezed my hand gently and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Let’s go, Melody,” he said softly.
I searched his eyes for just another second before my shoulders relaxed under his hand and I nodded. Jude stepped back and I removed my knife letting the corpse slide down the wall to the ground at my feet.
Jude took care of Jeffrey so he wouldn’t reanimate.
And then we all moved away from where one of our own had fallen as quickly as possible.
High School Still Sucks
Some things never change. The sense of apprehension that used to plague me every time I went to school certainly hadn’t.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t apprehension for quite the same reasons— like, who was dating who, what my friends would think of my new hairstyle, or wondering if Lisa Kasey was pregnant, or had just gained a lot of weight— but there was some major stress involved in breaking into a high school, most of it having to do with the fact that we had no idea what lay on the other side of the barbed wire fence we were cutting into.
State of (Book 1): State of Decay Page 10