SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2)

by Jaime Hernandez

  “We’ll probably only be able to make one more stop before we take these back to the house,” Maggie said.

  “Frank, keep watch, would you?” Max asked. “The rest of us can fill these up, and we can get out of here before more zombies make their way over.” As Max filled some of the gas cans, he looked at the sky to the east. The fire he’d accidentally set seemed to be burning itself out. There was far less smoke than there had been the day before, and the smell wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been. He was relieved that it wasn’t going to spread any further.

  The intersection around the gas station was still nearly free of the dead. As two zombies got a little closer to the parking lot, Frank was quick to take them down. He kept looking around in every direction to make sure none could take them by surprise. Nearly ten minutes later, all of the gas cans were full and loaded into the truck beds.

  “There’s a gas station at the next main intersection,” Emily said. “Do you want to head there or go for a smaller one?” The next intersection was a busier one with a lot of shops and restaurants.

  “Let’s try the path of least resistance for now,” Max answered. “If there are many zombies in the area, we can head for a different one.”

  Everyone got into their trucks and followed Max and Maggie down what used to be a busy street. There were many scattered, abandoned, and wrecked cars filling up the roadway, so Max started weaving around them. The closer they got to the intersection, the more zombies he saw. “Fuck,” he mumbled. There were too many to risk it, so he slowed to cut down another street while watching his rearview mirror to make sure the others safely followed him.

  “No worries, Max,” Maggie said as she sensed his tension. “There are plenty of places to choose from.”

  Max nodded and lit a cigarette. At the end of the street at the next intersection, there was a small, older gas station, so he planned to try that one next. About halfway there, several dozen zombies shuffled around in the middle of the street. They had been wandering aimlessly but saw the trucks coming and shifted their focus to the vehicles.

  “Motherfucker,” Max said in frustration. He slowed and took the next right down a little side street. The others followed closely behind him. They were about to enter a maze of small housing developments, and he didn’t want to get caught up in any of those. He slowed to a crawl at each stop sign looking for a street he could cut down that would lead them back to the main road. At the sixth stop, he finally found what he was looking for and turned left. A minute later, they were back on the main road and a few blocks from the next gas station.

  “The street looks pretty clear,” Maggie said with surprise. There were many businesses in the area, so she had expected to find more cars and zombies than they were seeing.

  “Let’s hope our luck holds,” Max said. As he eyed the gas station coming up on his right, he saw only a few of the dead in the parking lot. The opposite corners appeared to be completely free of zombies, so he pulled into the gas station and right up alongside a pump. The others drove in behind him and parked at other pumps.

  “Good call back there,” Frank said as he and Junior got out of their truck. “I was afraid we were going to get lost in that development.”

  “There’s a lot of twists and turns in there,” Max said. “So it took me a minute to find the street I wanted.”

  “I don’t know why the hell we’re always running into random crowds of zombies like that,” Anna started. “Nothing and then dozens of them.” She had been getting irritated with the detours as her hatred for the dead grew.

  “There generally doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason,” Emily said. “They just pop up everywhere.”

  Anna walked closer to Max. “Don’t think I didn’t see you were smoking back there,” she admonished.

  “Oh shit!” Max thought to himself. Just as he was about to apologize, she surprised him with a sly grin. “It’s okay, baby. Enjoy them while you can.” She figured cigarettes would be hard to come by soon, and if they helped Max’s nerves, she was okay with it.

  Max looked at Anna dumbfounded. “Seriously?” he asked tentatively. He hadn’t been thinking, or he wouldn’t have lit one when he did. Anna nodded and said, “Just don’t come complaining to me when you can’t find them anymore.”

  “Well, now that you’ve got that settled,” Frank started. “Let’s get moving here.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they had as much gas as they could carry, and they headed back home.

  Chapter 26

  Day 5

  Damon and Joey were excited to get out and go looking for gas in neighbor garages. As soon as they had gotten the go-ahead, they’d hurried out the door before anyone could change their mind. They’d hopped fences into the Wright’s yard and then the next yard beyond it. They crept and stayed alert of their surroundings, but they also felt like kids again running around and sneaking into places.

  “The people who lived here are dead,” Damon said. “It’s the family Camille killed before she ran off from the horde.” They were crouched by the fence, looking around the yard and the front of the house. Everything looked clear, so they moved to the garage. At the side door of the garage, Joey tried the handle and found it unlocked.

  “Ready?” Joey asked, and Damon nodded. He opened the door to find the garage free of the dead. Enough sunlight shone through the windows of the garage door that they had good visibility. A quick look around turned up two full gas cans by the lawnmower. “Awesome,” Joey said.

  “Hey, these people are dead and gone,” Damon started. “Why don’t we check out the house? We might find some good supplies inside.” He nodded toward the door that led to the attached house.

  “Cool man, let’s do it,” Joey said with a grin.

  They opened the door to the mudroom and stood silently for a moment to make sure they couldn’t hear any zombies moving around inside. They fully expected the place to be empty but knew better than to act on assumptions. Greeted by nothing but silence, they made their way inside.

  “Let’s clear the place first just to be safe,” Joey said. “Then we can take our time looking through things.” Together they quickly checked every room in the house then made their way back to the kitchen off the mudroom. They started opening kitchen cabinets and drawers, finding knives, matches, batteries, a can opener, and a couple of flashlights. Damon opened the pantry, and his face lit up. There was a whole shelf full of nothing but junk food. “Hey, look what I found,” he said to Joey.

  “Yes! I’m going to grab some bags from the mudroom,” Joey said with a grin. They filled three large recycled bags with nothing but junk food then noticed a container on the top shelf of the pantry. Damon pulled it down and opened it. “It’s full of candy!” he said gleefully.

  They bagged up all of the bottled water and canned foods, then gathered all of the bags by the mudroom. They wanted to check the master bedroom for weapons. The room and the attached master bathroom were a mess, with a lot of dried blood on just about everything. They guessed that this is where the family had attacked each other because there were only small blood smears throughout the rest of the house.

  “This place is nasty,” Damon said as he carefully opened a drawer on a nightstand. There wasn’t anything useful there. “Anything on your side?” he asked Joey.

  Joey’s face turned beet red. “Um, some adult toys or some shit,” Joey said, then quickly closed the drawer. They both burst out laughing. “Glad you took that side,” Damon said. “I sure as hell don’t want to touch that shit.”

  “Let’s check the closet,” Joey said. ‘Whoa, check this out.” He pulled an expensive shotgun down from a custom-made rack in the closet.

  “That is sweet,” Damon said excitedly. “There’s gotta be some shells in here.” He looked through the closet and found six boxes on the top shelf. A look through the rest of the closet didn’t reveal a gun cabinet or any other weapons, but they were both thrilled about the shotgun.

  “My mom’s g
oing to kill us for searching inside, but wait until everyone sees what we found,” Joey grinned. His mom couldn’t get too mad, or maybe she could, but it wasn’t like she could ground him.

  “Let’s take everything outside. It’s going to take a couple of trips to get all of this back to my house,” Damon said. Joey carried the shotgun and bin full of candy while Damon grabbed all of the bags of junk food and the supplies they’d found in the kitchen cabinets and drawers.

  “Do you think we should bring the gas cans back first to soften the blow?” Joey asked while thinking of his mom’s temper.

  “We can make two trips and leave everything outside by the enclosed front porch,” Damon said. “We’ll go inside to check in quick, then head back out to find more. We don’t want to take the gas inside the house anyway.”

  They were ready to carry their newly found supplies outside, stopped to take a look out the side door of the garage, and saw three zombies slowly shuffling their way. “I’ve got this,” Joey said as he quietly dropped his bags. There was no reason for Joey to go up against three on one, so Damon set his bags down and followed him.

  A twenty-something man in jeans and a t-shirt led the three, his teeth gnashing loudly in the otherwise quiet of the day. Dried blood ringed his mouth and splattered his shirt. Joey couldn’t even tell where the man was bitten because of all the dried blood from others. He quickly darted to its side and kicked the back of his knee, causing the dead man to stumble and fall to the ground. Joey thrust his knife through its ear then jumped back to his feet, ready for the next one. Damon had gone after the second zombie that looked like she’d been a soccer mom before her abdomen had been viciously torn open. As she moved, bits of what little of her entrails remained slipped out and hit the ground with a splat. Damon quickly overtook her and plunged his knife through her ear. Joey was face to face with the last zombie, an unremarkable middle-aged woman dressed in cargo shorts and a tank top. She had a small bite mark ringed with purple on her left forearm but otherwise appeared free of blood or injury. One small bite was enough, as she reached for Joey in search of her first meal. He grabbed her by her long hair and stabbed his knife through her ear.

  They looked around to make sure they hadn’t drawn the attention of any more zombies. There weren’t any within sight, so they started grabbing supplies and carried them over to the fence. It only took two trips to carry everything, but it would take a little longer to climb up and carry them over into the Wright’s yard and then on to Damon’s house. Working together quietly, about a half-hour later, they had everything just outside the enclosed front porch.

  “We’d better go check in with your mom before we head back out,” Damon started. “She said every two hours, and it’s been almost three.”

  “Fuck,” Joey said. “We’re gonna hear about that.” He shook his head and hoped for the best.

  Michelle must have been watching for them because she opened the door before they could. “Get inside,” she said in a loud whisper. When they closed the door behind them, she got louder. “What did I tell you about checking in? Do you have any fucking idea how worried I was?”

  “Sorry, Mom,” Joey said quietly.

  “Yeah, sorry,” Damon echoed Joey. “We didn’t mean to worry you.”

  As Michelle’s expression softened, Joey said, “We found gas, a very nice shotgun, and some other supplies. It’s all stuff we need.” She pulled both boys in for a hug then ushered them to the kitchen.

  “Sit down and have a sandwich. You need something to eat before you go out there again,” Michelle said. Damon and Joey both looked at each other with surprised expressions. They couldn’t believe they had gotten off so easy for being late, and on top of that, she was going to let them head back out. They both quickly wolfed down their food, eager to search more garages and houses.

  “We’ll try to check back in two hours, but you know how it is out there Mom,” Joey said. “We’re being careful, and there are hardly any zombies around.”

  “We promise not to be gone for too long,” Damon chimed in.

  “You boys be careful out there and don’t make me come looking for you,” Michelle admonished as they headed back out the front door.

  “Wow, that went better than I thought it would,” Joey said quietly.

  “Yeah, I thought your mom was going to go off on us for sure,” Damon said.

  “Let’s keep heading the same way and hit the house next door to the one we just cleaned out,” Joey said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Damon said with a grin. Excited to be out on their own again, they planned to scavenge as many supplies as they could. They hopped fences until they were two doors down from the Wright’s house. It was a large home that seemed promising. As they crouched on the ground beside the fence, they tried to get a look at the front door. They saw dark splotches on the light-colored door, which was ajar and could only mean one thing.

  “The door’s open, so it might be empty,” Joey whispered. “Want to check out the garage first?”

  The garage was attached to the house the same as most of the homes in the area. They figured they could check the garage for gas cans then see if the place looked empty. As they silently crept around the side of the garage, they were surprised to hear the raspy moans of the dead because there weren’t any in sight. They double-checked the area around them and found it clear.

  “There can’t be that many zombies in the house,” Damon said in a low voice. “Where are they coming from?”

  Joey shifted to look at the privacy fence that started at the rear of the house. “Shit, I think they’re in the backyard,” he whispered. “That sounds like a hell of a lot of zombies.”

  “Well, the fence seems to be holding, and they can’t see us,” Damon said. “Let’s check the garage quickly and get out of here.”

  They moved silently into the garage and found one large gas can in a corner. The door from the garage to the house stood open. “Want to go take a look?” Joey mouthed. Damon nodded, so they carefully slipped through the door which opened into the kitchen.

  “Keep low, so they don’t see us through the windows,” Damon breathed. There didn’t seem to be any noise coming from inside the house, but they did a quick walk-through anyway, to be sure. While they were at it, they decided to check the master bedroom for guns. It seemed to be the place that most people kept their weapons.

  “You can look in the nightstands this time,” Joey said with a sly grin. He didn’t want to find any more adult surprises. “I’ll check the closet.” Damon shook his head and checked both nightstands. He didn’t find anything useful but some prescription medications. Not knowing what they were, he pocketed both to give to his mom later. Joey found another shotgun in one of the bedroom closets. It wasn’t anything fancy, but he knew eventually, they would need all the firepower they could get.

  They quietly left the bedroom and took a peek out the dining room window into the backyard. It was nearly half full of the dead.

  “I don’t think we should try to find anything else in this place,” Damon said. “Way too many fucking zombies out there. If we make any noise trying to go through stuff in the kitchen, we’ll be screwed.”

  “We should probably grab the gas can and head back home. When all of the adults come back, we’re going to have to take out all of those zombies,” Joey said. “There’s way too many of them, and they’re too close to home.”

  “Yeah, if they break through the fences, we’re done,” Damon agreed.

  They carefully made their way back through the garage and grabbed the lone gas can then darted for the fence to head home.

  Chapter 27

  Day 5

  Just as Joey and Damon hopped the fence back into their yard, they heard the sound of vehicles on the street. They listened for a moment then saw Max opening the gate. After all three trucks came through, Junior hopped out to close the gate behind them. He carefully guided everyone to park off to the side of the driveway between the trees so that no
ne of the vehicles would be blocking one another in. The adults all quietly made their way toward the front door.

  “Look what we found,” Damon said softly with pride. “Gas, guns, supplies, a shitload of junk food, and a huge tub of candy.”

  “Language,” Anna gently admonished him.

  “But Mom, look,” Damon whispered. “It really is a shitload.” He couldn’t help but wear a huge grin on his face. Anna shook her head and stifled a laugh.

  “Check out this gun,” Joey pointed out the expensive model they’d found two doors down.

  “Nice,” Max said as he picked it up. “I’ve always wanted one of these.”

  “Let’s get everything and everyone inside,” Anna said. “Then we can catch up some more.”

  Everyone grabbed a bag or weapon from the boys’ small stockpile then slid through the bars across both doors and into the house.

  Michelle was eagerly awaiting everyone’s return. Camille and Lucia had just finished a perimeter check, and now that everyone was home, she felt a calm come over her. She hated every minute that anyone was out there exposed to danger. She’d been cooking, and the countertops were nearly overflowing with a dinner that smelled amazing.

  “Um, before everyone starts eating, we’ve got something to tell you,” Joey said. His expression serious, he continued, “Three houses down the backyard is full of zombies. Too many to count.”

  “Two houses past the Wright’s place. We got a gas can from the garage and one of the shotguns from a bedroom,” Damon started. “Oh shit, and these prescriptions, too.” He handed the medications to his mom. She grabbed the bottles then glared at him for his language. He looked down for a second, then continued, “There’s way too many of them to leave them be. If they all start pushing up against a fence, I think there are enough of them to bring one down.”

  “Well fuck,” Max said. “I guess we’ll have to reheat dinner later. Thanks for cooking, Michelle.” Her face fell when she realized that no sooner had she relaxed because everyone came home that they were all going to go out again.