She was coming up on Bradley Road when she saw another multi-car accident. Five cars were wrecked in the middle of the three-way intersection. Two of the cars held zombies still fastened in by their seat belts. The windows were smeared with gore from the zombies pressing their faces and hands on the glass. The sight didn’t faze her as she had become so accustomed to seeing zombies. It only seemed logical to her that a lot of the cars would have zombies inside of them. Camille slowly crept forward to the intersection, trying to find a way around the accident. The shoulder was grass, and there was no curb, so she decided to turn onto Bradley while driving partially on the grass. After successfully negotiating the turn, her confidence in her driving abilities grew a little more.
About a block down, a dozen zombies were shuffling around in the street. Camille wasn’t sure if she should try to drive through them or turn around. She didn’t want to have to negotiate her way around the accident behind her again, so after a moment’s thought, she decided to speed up to try to go around them. She veered to the right hoping that she wouldn’t hit them, and pressed hard on the gas pedal. Again she went faster than she had intended to, not realizing that she had pressed the gas pedal to the floor. The SUV jumped forward and slammed into three of the zombies head-on. One somersaulted over the car, another was sucked underneath, and the third landed on the hood. The dead man’s face was bloodied, and his left arm was ringed with bite marks, but it didn’t stop him from reaching toward the windshield. Before his hands could find a grip, Camille hit the brakes hard. The zombie flew off the car instantly while Camille’s seatbelt dug painfully into her shoulder. She winced slightly but kept her focus as she put her foot back on the gas. She couldn’t believe that she had just driven through three zombies without any apparent damage to the SUV. She was well aware of the fatal damage that a single zombie could cause to the vehicle, but she had thought she could pass by them and had been afraid of trying to backtrack.
She continued for another couple blocks until the next pileup. It was another three-way intersection with four cars long since wrecked and abandoned. Once again, she brought the SUV to a stop so she could figure out what to do. She desperately wanted to keep going straight as it was the most direct route to her house, but she was afraid she might have to turn right. Turning right would add at least a couple of miles to her trip while taking her through busier streets and intersections. As she looked ahead to see if she could pass the cars and continue on her heading, there was a sudden thump on the rear of the SUV. Camille nearly jumped out of her seat in surprise and fear. Unaccustomed to driving, she’d completely forgotten about her mirrors. A glance in the rearview showed several zombies from the group she had driven past that had caught up to her as she sat there at a standstill. One of them had hit the rear window with its hand.
Out of time and with fear making her decision for her, she hit the gas and drove around the left side of the accident to continue straight down the street. The SUV clipped a truck, and the passenger side mirror was torn off, but she managed to get past the wreckage without being forced to make the turnoff. Her heart beating out of her chest, she breathed a sigh of relief and vowed to herself that she would keep an eye on the remaining mirrors. She had almost learned the hard way that coming to a complete stop could be a death sentence.
For the next two blocks, the road ahead was free of zombies. Camille drove painfully slow and very carefully around abandoned cars but didn’t have to worry about any of the dead for a few minutes. She saw a handful of zombies coming from homes on either side of the street, but she was well out of harm’s way before any of them could reach even the sidewalks. Her nerves were frazzled, but she was becoming slightly more confident in her driving. She was testing the gas pedal to slow down and speed up to avoid another sudden accidental burst of speed when she came upon another group of zombies. There were only five or six of them, and having already learned her lesson about coming to a complete stop, she sped up slightly and drove around the group missing all but one of them. The lone zombie glanced off one of her headlights, and she kept going.
Camille was amazed at how long it was taking to drive such a short distance. She’d left the mansion nearly an hour ago, and she still hadn’t made it to her planned second turn. She wondered if this was how it had been for Michelle, Joey, and Lucia back on the first day and desperately hoped that it wouldn’t take her two days to get home.
She drove the equivalent of another block when she saw that the road up ahead was completely obscured by both vehicles and zombies. A huge multi-car accident mixed with dozens of zombies shuffling around made it completely impassable. To her right were the start of several side streets and about six blocks that she could cut through to try to go around and come back out on the other side of the accident and the dead. She made a wide unpracticed right turn onto the first street, nearly jumping the curb. The way ahead was mostly clear. There seemed to be just the usual parked cars on either side of the street and only three zombies within her line of sight. She drove to the end of the block and then stopped to make sure the way was clear before she turned left. A few houses down, she saw dozens of zombies surrounding a home. She figured that there must be someone trapped inside but didn’t think she could do anything to help. She could barely drive and was afraid she’d wreck the car. She slowed to a crawl to give herself a moment to think. A few of the dead noticed her and turned their heads her way. When she realized the SUV itself could be enough of a distraction, she looked ahead to make sure the street was wide open for the rest of the block then made a decision. She hit the horn a few times, feeling terrified as the crowd slowly turned toward her and away from the house. She hit it twice more then drove past them and down the street. This time she remembered to keep an eye on her rearview mirror and glanced at it every few seconds. The zombies moved achingly slow, but they left the house and followed her. Camille had no way of knowing whether or not she had helped whoever might have been inside the house, but she felt good about leading the zombies away. As she increased her speed, the dead fell further behind and were soon nearly a block behind her.
Camille decided to drive a little further before trying to turn left to make her way back over to Bradley and around the zombies and wrecked cars that had blocked her way.
Chapter 15
Day 4
After hearing Frank and Junior’s story, Michelle decided to go lay down for a bit. She was glad that Max and Jesse had been able to rescue them, but she wasn’t up for any more conversation. With her heart aching so badly that she didn’t know what to do with herself, she tried to sleep to pass the time. Her presence wasn’t needed for anything. The men and the boys had everything covered with the house and were doing perimeter checks. Lucia had decided to join her brother and Damon because she wanted to learn how to protect herself against the zombies.
Frank and Junior left Michelle to herself to grieve while they tried to make themselves useful. After what had happened the night before with Damon and Joey, they felt they should take on more of the risk to relieve some of the boys’ burden of protecting their families, so they started making regular perimeter checks. They were also doing the cooking and cleaning up afterward. Working for the fire department, they both had plenty of experience with making nice home-cooked meals.
Joey and Lucia were both devastated over the loss of their father but understood that there was too much for them to do to sit around crying, and they both found it helpful to keep busy. They did cry and would certainly cry some more, but they were learning to compartmentalize their emotions so they could focus on whatever task was at hand.
Lucia carried tremendous guilt over Camille’s absence. She felt that had she not frozen in fear, she might have been able to help Camille kill the neighbor zombies, and Camille wouldn’t have had to take off running to lead the horde away from the house. Damon and Joey tried to reassure Lucia that there was nothing she could have done, but Lucia knew better. She kept picturing Camille’s face as her eyes pleaded
with her for help. There was work to be done, and they all needed a distraction, so they decided to spend a good part of the day next door at the Wright’s house. Four days into the apocalypse, Mr. Wright and his granddaughter’s body were growing ripe in the heat of summer.
“We’re going to have to pull these bodies out of the house,” Joey said as they walked into the living room. “That smell is going to stick to everything.”
“Yeah, I’d much rather let them rot outside before this place is overrun with bugs, rats, and who knows what else. Our supplies could end up being damaged,” Damon said in agreement.
Lucia wore a horrified expression on her face, but she had vowed to herself that she would do better. She wanted to be an asset instead of a liability and was trying to make up for the guilt she felt over Camille. “Okay, let’s do this. With all three of us, we may be able to lift the bodies instead of dragging them, so we don’t leave a bigger mess on the floor.”
Damon and Joey shared a quick look, both surprised but proud of Lucia.
Mr. Wright’s body was closest, so they decided to move him first. Lucia and Joey each grabbed an arm and shoulder while Damon grabbed the feet, and they lifted as one. To their surprise, the deadweight was much more difficult to lift than they had expected.
“This isn’t going to work,” Joey panted with exertion. “Why don’t we roll him onto a sheet? Then we can drag him outside.”
“That’s a good idea,” Damon said. “Kind of like when my dad had to move the old fridge out. Once he had something underneath it, it was pretty easy to move.”
“I’ll go find something from the closet in the hallway,” Lucia said as she left the room. She was freaked out from touching the old man’s body and was relieved when her brother had thought of a different way to do it. The linen closet was full of sheets, blankets, comforters, and quilts. She chose two thin blankets and brought them back to the living room.
“Perfect,” Joey said. He and Damon had already pushed the coffee table far to the side so they had easier access to both bodies. He laid the blanket on the floor and, with Damon’s help, rolled the body over onto it. The boys grabbed the end and started pulling it across the floor quite easily. As Lucia reached out to help out, Damon shook his head.
“Open the front door and make sure we’re clear. We’ve got this,” Damon said. Lucia checked the yard to find it was empty other than what remained of Mrs. Wright’s body. The boys made quick work of dragging both bodies out then went back inside the house. They were hot and sweaty, so they went to the huge farmhouse-style kitchen at the back of the house to get some water.
“Do you think we should board up the big window in the living room?” Joey asked. It had been broken since day one, but since they were counting on being able to use the house and its supplies as needed, it was worth consideration.
“I doubt anything or anyone is coming in here,” Damon replied. “But I suppose it couldn’t hurt. I don’t think we need to fortify the house or anything, but yeah, we could board up that window and fix the front door, too.”
“There’s enough wood in the garage here,” Joey said. “I don’t think we need to grab anything from your house.” He turned to Lucia. “Can you keep an eye out front? We’re going to be making a little bit of noise, and I don’t want any zombies getting the jump on us.”
“I can do it,” Lucia gulped. “Can you please help me with my knife? I mean, I know how to hold one, but I don’t know if I can stab one of those things the right way.”
“Yeah, let’s go practice on the bodies we just dragged outside,” Joey said. “It’s gross, but there’s no risk.”
“I’ll grab the wood and tools from the garage while you guys do that,” Damon said.
Joey spent the next ten minutes teaching Lucia how to stab through the eye and ear of a zombie while Damon gathered supplies for the window and the front door. The front yard and the street remained clear of zombies, so Joey left Lucia to keep watch while he and Damon went to work.
Lucia was so nervous that she was shaking, but she vowed to herself that she would stay at her post in the front yard. After about five minutes, two zombies slowly lurched into sight. The minimal noise that the boys were making was enough to draw their attention. Lucia was so eager to prove to herself that she could handle things that she didn’t call on Damon or Joey for help. One of the zombies was dragging a badly damaged leg behind him. He was dressed in the uniform of a mail carrier and still carried a bag over his shoulder. Dried blood ringed his mouth, and his abdomen was torn open, exposing decaying entrails. With the other zombie a dozen feet behind the first, she decided to take on the former mailman by herself. She had yet to kill a zombie herself, and her adrenaline started pumping as she closed in on him. He was about her height, so she decided to try to grab him by his hair then go in for the kill. She wrapped her hand around a wad of the hair on the back of his head and tried to stab his ear. Her knife missed and sliced off the bottom of his ear as his teeth snapped near her face. Undeterred, she aimed again and successfully plunged the knife through his ear. When he didn’t drop immediately, she pushed the knife further and gave it a twist causing the zombie to finally fall dead to the ground.
By then, the second zombie was only a couple of feet away. A teenage girl in a swimsuit with rings of bites up one arm leaving just strings of flesh holding her muscles in place, tottered toward Lucia with her arms outstretched. Lucia grabbed one of her arms, causing the flesh to shift and a muscle to plop out and onto the ground with a wet slap. She tightened her grip and thrust her knife into its eye. Milky putrid fluid poured from the eye as she drove her knife in deep. The zombie girl dropped to the ground before Lucia could pull her knife back out. Gagging, Lucia bent down to retrieve her knife and wiped it clean on the grass. She quickly stood up to take a good look around to make sure there weren’t any other zombies closing in. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that everything was clear. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Joey came running up from behind her.
“Holy shit, Joey,” Lucia said. “You scared the crap out of me.”
Joey was busy looking at the two bodies on the ground. “Why didn’t you call for help? You didn’t have to take them out all by yourself.”
“Yes, I did,” Lucia said firmly. “Now I know that I can do it.”
“For fuck’s sake, Lucia,” was all Joey could say before he pulled her in for a hug. He was proud of his sister but wanted her to know that she had nothing to prove to anyone. “Next time, let someone help you. No more unnecessary risk, okay?”
Lucia nodded. She’d done what she needed to do and promised Joey that she wouldn’t take chances like that again.
Damon walked up, having just finished with the repairs. “You did good, Lucia,” he said, then took a look around to make sure the area was still clear. “Let’s go inside and finish searching the house for supplies.”
The three of them went inside and quietly closed the front door behind them. They finished exploring every nook and cranny to find every possible supply they could use. They loaded up the car and the truck in the Wright’s garage. If they had to leave in a hurry, there were two vehicles stocked and ready to go. They had collected additional supplies and left everything in the mudroom off the garage for quick and easy access.
After they finished, they went back over the fence to Damon’s house. Frank and Junior had left a spread of home-cooked food on the kitchen counter, and the three of them were famished. They ate second and third helpings until they were stuffed. The firemen went out to do a perimeter check so the kids could have some space.
“Oh, I ate too much,” Lucia moaned.
“You practically ate a whole damn cow,” Joey teased. “I think you ate more than me and Damon combined.”
“Shut up, dumbass. My stomach hurts,” Lucia threw back at him.
“Well, it should. You didn’t leave anything for anyone else to eat,” Joey said. “Shit, now you’re going to have to cook, and everyone’s goin
g to be in trouble.” He made fake gagging sounds at the thought of eating her cooking.
Damon just sat back and grinned. He was happy to see Joey and Lucia starting to act more like themselves again. Their constant teasing and bickering was their normal, and it felt good to watch them go at it.
After their food settled, Damon and Joey decided to spend a few hours introducing Lucia to guns. It would be a while before she was truly comfortable using them, but at least she was no longer afraid of them. They couldn’t exactly take her out for target practice, so they patiently taught her as much as they could over a few hours and planned to continue to teach her more each day. They wanted to help her get a few zombie kills, but firing a gun was like ringing the dinner bell for all of the zombies in the area. When the time came that they would have no choice but to use guns, they hoped to have taught her enough that she would be able to handle herself.
Their earlier plan had been to teach her how to kill a zombie with a knife the next time they saw just one or two lingering in the street. It would have been a fairly controlled situation, so the risk would have been minimal, but after her two kills earlier that afternoon, they could see that she had gained some confidence in her abilities.
With the day’s gun lesson complete, they settled in to eat some dinner. Frank and Junior were keeping to themselves for the most part, but they were making sure that freshly cooked food was ready whenever anyone was hungry.
Everyone was worried about Max, Anna, Emily, Vince, and Camille. Zombies popped up everywhere, hordes appeared from out of nowhere, and there wasn’t any truly safe place. Damon worried that he might lose his entire family and hated staying at the house while they were all out there somewhere separated from each other. He was voicing his concerns to Joey when he heard a vehicle in the driveway.
“Someone’s here,” Damon said and quickly rushed to the door with Joey on his heels.
SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2) Page 12