When full darkness had fallen, she was afraid to drive at all. She thought about pulling over or pulling into the driveway of one of the many houses she passed, but she was afraid she would become surrounded or trapped. Zombies had a way of showing up just about anywhere at any given time. She was also aware that her fuel gauge was getting low, and she didn’t have any way to refill the gas tank. She was going to end up on foot again soon, only this time in the dark and that seemed much scarier to her than what she had gone through the day before.
She perked up when she finally came upon the street she had wanted to turn onto. Originally she’d planned to go all the way to Detroit Road, but after passing so many wrecks, she thought she would be better off cutting over on a smaller street. Railroad tracks ran parallel to the street, so the area wasn’t heavily populated. It was mostly lined by businesses that she had never heard of or paid any attention to. Camille hoped her decision to take this route would turn out to be a good move. She figured there would be far fewer zombies and little to no gridlock. As she made the right turn, she was relieved to see the open road in front of her. The lighting was poor, so she fumbled for a moment to figure out how to turn on her brights. Doing so lit up the entire street in front of her with no cars or zombies in sight. As she slowly passed business buildings on her right, she saw an occasional zombie stumbling around while the railroad tracks to her left were empty.
Camille relaxed a bit at finally having an open stretch of road without having to constantly dodge zombies or weave around cars. Going down the little street to cut over to the next road would normally have been about a two-minute drive but took her twenty minutes because of her overabundance of caution. With the fuel gauge on empty and the gas light on, Camille began to accept the fact that she would soon have to abandon the SUV and finish her journey on foot. She made it to the next road and turned left. She was only a mile or so from home and teared up a little bit, thinking about seeing her mom again. As she wiped her eyes with her arm, a lone zombie appeared on the road directly in front of her. She swerved to avoid it but turned the wheel too hard to the right, and before she could try to correct herself, she slammed into a telephone pole with a loud crash.
The front of the SUV caved in, and steam rose from under the hood. The airbag deployed, throwing her back against her seat, and her seatbelt dug painfully into her shoulder. She was stunned and shaken but tried to clear her head to take inventory of her injuries. Her shoulder was throbbing, and her left wrist was sore, but the rest of her body seemed to be okay. She was trembling from head to toe, but she knew that was just from the shock of the accident. Suddenly she remembered the zombie in her path that had caused her to run off the road. She quickly looked at her rearview mirror, but it was so dark outside that she couldn’t see anything. Not knowing where it went was scaring her, but there was nothing she could do until he caught up to her. She was definitely going to go looking for him in the darkness, and if he were to show up at her door, she would just go out the passenger side.
She grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat and painfully pulled it over her shoulders. She quickly chugged a bottle of water and forced herself to eat a granola bar because she knew she was going to need to keep her strength up. She removed her knife from her belt to carry it in her hand.
Another look out the rearview mirror showed nothing, but a glance at her driver’s side mirror showed that the zombie was just a few feet away from the car. It was a middle-aged man in jeans and a t-shirt stained with blood. Most of his throat was missing, and his head wobbled around loosely because of another huge bite taken from the side of his neck. At least he’ll be an easy kill, she thought to herself. She opened the car door, took a step toward the zombie, and plunged her knife through his ear. She sighed and looked around to make sure there weren’t any others, then started her long walk home.
It was so dark outside that a zombie could come within a few feet of her without her seeing it, but she hoped to be able to hear the dead before they got too close. She heard the sound of crickets chirping as she kept her focus on the area directly in front of her when a new noise began to fill the emptiness of the night. It sounded like a car or truck was coming up the road from behind her. She briefly considered her options trying to decide whether she should wave down whoever it was or if she should move off to the side where she wouldn’t be seen. At the last second, just before the lights from the truck came within sight, she stepped back when she heard raucous laughter and yelling coming from at least a few guys. The headlights weaved back and forth as the driver carelessly swerved to either side of the road. The sudden incredibly loud noise of a shotgun blast caused her to duck down into a ditch as she tried to make herself invisible. She shook with fear and desperately hoped that no one had seen her. Just when she thought the truck was going to pass by her completely, it slowed to a stop at the house next door to the one she had hidden in front of.
Various men’s voices spoke loudly and drunkenly over one another, with laughter interspersed as they all climbed out of the truck. Camille thought they had to be drunk to carelessly make so much noise but was certain of it when she heard slurring and incoherent speech. One of them was yelling something about his boss’s house to the laughter of the others. The whole group approached the front door of the house, and a couple of the men fired shotguns. The house was dark and appeared unoccupied to Camille. It was difficult to understand everything they were saying, but her impression was that they were going to hurt the boss if he was in his home. She wanted nothing more than to take off running, but she was afraid of what would happen if one of the men saw her. The bright lights of the truck would probably expose her if she moved, but if she stayed in the ditch, they were unlikely to see her. It took every ounce of her willpower for her to force herself to stay still.
She listened as the men loudly broke into the house and were yelling complaints that they hadn’t found the man that they had been looking for. She heard something about a fire, and the next thing she knew, they were trying to burn the house down. They must have found gasoline in the garage because the smell of it assaulted her nose. Then a barrage of gunshots rang out as it sounded like every single one of them fired their guns all at once, followed by cheers and shouts as the house went up in flames. Camille could feel the heat of the fire, and the area was quickly lit up with flames shooting up into the dark sky. She ducked down lower and hoped against hope that they wouldn’t see her with the night now better illuminated from the burning house.
A pain-filled scream suddenly interrupted the drunken cheering and laughing. “Shoot the fucking thing,” someone yelled as a second man started crying out in pain. She heard gunshots and peeked to see just how bad the situation had gotten. The dumbasses had brought at least two dozen zombies down on them, and that was just what she could see from her hiding place in the ditch.
“Shit,” Camille said quietly. Zombies were probably homed in on them and coming from every direction. She had to get out of there. She glanced at the truck but didn’t know if the driver had left the keys in it. If he hadn’t, there were too many men nearby that would probably come after her once they saw her, and they were closer to the truck than she was. At least half a dozen men had been in the bed of the pickup, and two or three had been in the cab. From what she could see, only two had been bitten. She found herself hoping that the others would fall to the zombies as well. Never could she have imagined herself thinking such a thing, but the whole group was bad news.
She decided to stay where she was instead of risking being seen or shot by a stray bullet. These idiots were clueless about survival, and she hoped their foolishness didn’t lead any zombies toward her in the ditch. They kept firing their guns as they made their way back to their truck. A third man went down screaming as he was attacked by a zombie, while his friends jumped into their truck, leaving him to suffer instead of putting him out of his misery. As they backed out of the driveway, there were more whoops and hollers, and the truck ran over tw
o zombies in the road. By the time they turned and went on their way, there were at least three dozen zombies visible due to the flames lighting up the sky.
Camille breathed a big sigh of relief when they drove off without seeing her. She noiselessly climbed from the ditch, but her silence didn’t matter much with so many zombies around. Scared to death but knowing she had no choice but to get moving, she started running down the road. Within a few seconds, she managed to run right into a zombie at full force, taking them both to the ground. Before she could stop herself, she screamed in terror but managed to hold onto her knife and plunged it through the zombie’s eye. With not a moment to waste, she was back up on her feet and running before any of the others could get too close to her.
She was starting to feel like she was repeating her escape run from yesterday, only this time it was in the dark, making it that much more difficult and terrifying. She picked up the pace and ran, dodging zombies as she saw them, often at the very last second. Others she shoved out of the way, and occasionally one was right on top of her forcing her to stop and use her knife. She cut down the next side street she came across, running as fast as she could, then turned left down another. The path was taking her away from the worst of the zombies and closer to home. She ran for twenty minutes before she found herself clear of the dead that had been drawn in by the assholes in the truck. There were still zombies around but in smaller numbers, and they weren’t coming at her from every direction. She had run far enough to find the dead shuffling around aimlessly again with nothing holding their interest. It was much easier to sneak past them when they weren’t focused on anyone or anything.
Camille returned her focus to getting back home. She was so close now.
Chapter 20
Night 4
Anna and Emily had thoroughly searched their area over a few hours. It was mostly businesses with very little residential mixed in. They’d found no signs of Camille or any buildings surrounded by zombies. Anna’s heart ached with worry for her daughter, and hopelessness crept in. It was getting close to midnight and nearly time to meet Max.
“We should try to meet Max now,” Emily said. “We’re nearly out of gas, and it’s just about time to meet him.”
Anna sighed and headed for the pharmacy at the corner of the intersection where they had planned to meet. “I appreciate your help, Emily. You’ve been putting yourself in harm’s way all this time when you don’t even know my daughter. It means a lot.” It was unusual for Anna to open up to someone she hadn’t known and trusted for ages, and Emily knew it.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Anna,” Emily replied warmly. She wanted to find Camille almost as much as Anna did.
They pulled into the parking lot and saw the doors to the pharmacy were shattered from the outside, presumably by looters. By necessity, everyone was a looter now, so it didn’t mean the looters had been bad people.
“Max isn’t here yet,” Anna started. “I’m going to go inside and check the pharmacy. There are so many medications and first aid supplies we may need, and they’re probably going to be hard to come by pretty soon.”
“If you’re going, I’m going,” Emily said. When Anna started to protest, Emily continued. “If Max arrives while we’re inside, he’ll see our SUV. You know it’s safer to do everything in pairs.”
“You’re right. Just make sure you have your knife ready,” Anna said.
They got out of the SUV and silently walked toward the door. The store was fairly dark with just its overnight lighting turned on. They could see well enough as long as they moved slowly and carefully, but it would have been easier if all of the lights had been on. They must have been on an automatic timer since the power was still on. Once inside, they paused to look and listen for zombies. There was a slow shuffling noise toward the back of the store, but they didn’t hear anything else. Looking around from where they stood just inside the front door, they could see that someone had thoroughly trashed the place. Displays were knocked down and destroyed, and bullet holes stood out prominently on the counters near the registers. Coolers full of drinks near the registers to their left were broken, the glass having been shot out. So many things were broken that it was apparent that someone had trashed the store for no reason. There weren’t blood trails on the floor or dead zombies lying around. There were no signs of a struggle, just destruction. Broken glass from a counter full of makeup and perfume covered the aisle to their right. A wall of cosmetics was knocked to the floor.
“Whoever did this is gone,” Anna shook her head with disgust. “I get coming in and taking what you need, but I don’t understand the idiots tearing up the place.
“I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot of this,” Emily said.
“You’re probably right. Let’s double-check these aisles to make sure there are no surprises,” Anna said. “Then we’ll take out the zombie in the pharmacy.”
The store wasn’t very big, so it only took a minute to look down each aisle. From pantyhose to dog treats, it looked like someone had gone through the place with a baseball bat knocking things to the floor in every aisle. The beer case was empty, but the small wine section was untouched. They headed to the pharmacy at the back of the store and found a lone woman in a nurse’s uniform mindlessly lurching back and forth. She had numerous bite wounds up and down both arms and was missing several fingers. As Anna approached, the dead nurse leaned across the pharmacy counter, making it easy for Anna to grab her hair and plunge her knife through her ear.
“All clear,” Anna said as she hopped across the counter. “Why don’t you grab basic first aid supplies, cold medicines, and all of the other general over-the-counter stuff. I’ll look through this mess,” She gestured toward the pill bottles that were scattered all over the floor of the pharmacy as she grabbed a handful of bags for Emily to fill.
“I’m on it,” Emily replied. She began to pick through the mess left on the shelves and the floor in the aisles in front of the pharmacy. She grabbed every package of gauze, tape, bandages, and antibiotic creams that she could find before moving onto medications.
Anna went through the pharmacy and found some areas untouched. Whoever had ransacked the place hadn’t paid much attention to some of the most important medications. She filled bags with antibiotics, medications for blood sugar, blood pressure, thyroid, pneumonia, bronchitis, eye drops, and a few other things. She assumed the narcotic pain killers had been wiped out but checked anyway. All of the stronger prescriptions were gone, but she found a large supply of lesser-known drugs, mild pain killers, and muscle relaxers. She’d filled half a dozen plastic bags by the time she was done with the pharmacy. She looked out to see that Emily had nearly a dozen bags herself.
“Let’s take all of this to the front of the store,” Anna said. “Then we can come back through to pick through anything else we can use.” She grabbed two bottles of bleach from a shelf as she walked by it. If they needed to purify water, later on, the bleach would do the trick.
Together they carried all of the bags to the front door and looked outside to see if there was any sign of Max or zombies. Seeing neither, they went back in to do a little more shopping. Anna filled bag after bag with canned foods, energy drinks, instant coffee, and prepackaged ready-to-eat foods before heading over to the candy aisle. Thinking of Camille and Damon, she filled several bags with their favorites then added a few of her own. Just the thought of chocolate becoming a thing of the past made her fill a few more bags. There was no such thing as too much chocolate.
Emily stepped into the aisle, saw the bags full of candy then laughed. “I was about to stock up on chocolate, but you have us covered.”
“I feel like a kid in a candy store,” Anna laughed. “I was just imagining a future without chocolate and went a little crazy, I guess.” She still wore a big grin on her face. She looked at Emily’s bags and was thankful that she was a little more sensible in her shopping. Emily had taken what looked like every last package of batteries, lighter
s, flashlights, and boxes upon boxes of feminine products.
“You sure did shop a bit smarter than I did,” Anna laughed again. “At least one of us was thinking clearly.”
“Oh, I threw in some frivolous stuff, too,” Emily grinned. “But then I thought about not having tampons and changed gears.”
They lugged all of their bags toward the front door of the store. They had so many bags that they were going to nearly fill the SUV, but to them, it was worth it. They took a look around for zombies and saw only two at the far end of the parking lot. The dead were so slow that it would take a good five minutes to get over to them, so the women began to quietly load the SUV. It was nearing midnight, and Anna felt a twinge of worry about Max. They had planned to meet at this intersection after finishing their search grid, but if they missed each other, they were supposed to meet at their house at midnight. They had both known going in that it might not be possible to meet up, but she was going to do her best to catch him at the house. After all of the bags were loaded, she decided to give him a few more minutes.
The two zombies had slowly staggered toward them as they loaded up the car and were now close enough that they had to be killed. Both were women dressed in torn and bloodied summer clothes. One still wore sandals while the other was barefoot with her skin sloughing off from walking. Anna took the one on the right while Emily took the one on the left. Anna thought that sometimes it seemed almost too easy to kill them, but that was a dangerous line of thinking, and she knew it. She reminded herself that just one mistake or one moment of carelessness was all it would take. Even if she did everything right 100% of the time, it still didn’t mean she would survive. She mentally scolded herself for taking the situation too lightly, even if it were only for a moment.
SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2) Page 15