Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse
Issue #3 – October 2015
Other Zombie Apocalypse Stories
Published by Michael Anthony
These Stories are all Free if you are a Kindle Unlimited Member.
Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse Issue #1
Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse Issue #2
Clearing the Zombies from the Tampa Zoo
Zombies Attack a Day Care Center
The Rabid
Miguel and the Zombie Apocalypse: Getting Out of Jail
Table of Contents
One Last Chance – by Kendra Stoffel
The Immediate Choices of Death – by Jackson Hewlett
Decay on the Wind - by Jack Blare
Maria and Tomas – by Garrett R.
Haunted with Hell – by Jackson Hewlett
Zombies in Amish Country – by P. Analiase Ramirez
Human Hunters – by Cheri Faulkner
The Rewards of Chaos in a Dying World – by Jackson Hewlett
Rescue in the Maternity Ward – by H. K. Sutherland
Scorn of a Woman – by Kendra Stoffel
“One Last Chance”
Story #1
By
Kendra Stoffel
Dawn ducked as the zombie in front of her tried to grab her once again. She used the motion to slice open what was left of its abdomen, spilling thick black goo on her cargo pants and boots. The metallic and slightly earthy smell of rotten flesh mixed with feces permeated the air. The sound of gagging from behind told Dawn that her daughter wasn’t as immune to the awful smell as she was. Even with its innards pouring out, the zombie in front of her continued on its quest. If this had been a normal fight, this zombie would have been dead already, but it wasn’t normal. Dawn had her small daughter Faith to protect and that limited her movement.
Dawn was hesitant to use her gun, she wanted to save the ammo just in case. Her supply was limited to what she had been able to grab before they fled the bloodbath that used to be their home. They had almost made it too, when she ran right into this zombie. She could only assume it had straggled behind the rest. It was just Dawn’s luck that she would have to dispatch it before making it fully out of camp. Just as Dawn pulled her arm back to deliver a final blow to the zombie in front of her, Dawn heard her daughter let out a bloodcurdling wail. She spun around, the creature in front of her forgotten as she absorbed the horror taking place behind her. Faith, her own little baby, was clawing at the ground as she tried to escape the clutches of a zombie.
Dawn’s vision went red. The creature dragging her daughter was missing its legs, which explained why Dawn hadn’t seen it claw its way over to them. She had been too focused on the monster in front of her to realize that her daughter had been pulled out from behind her protective stance. Faith had clamped her eyes shut as she screamed and the sound tore at Dawn’s heart like no other sound could. With a primal roar, Dawn leapt at the creature whose jaws were snapping in anticipation. Before the creature could sink its teeth into Faith’s foot, Dawn had chopped down, her lethally sharpened blade breaking though the exposed skull. Dawn braced her boot on what was left of the dead thing’s skull and pulled her blade free. Mind still fuzzy with rage, she did an about face and decapitated the zombie she had been fighting earlier. Sides heaving, Dawn reached out a gore covered hand and pulled Faith to her feet. She wrapped her daughter in a fierce hug before leaning down to grab the bag she had dropped in the fight. A last look behind her had Dawn tugging at Faith’s hand, urging her into a run as the first rays of daylight broke over the bloody horizon.
-0-0-0-
At 23, Dawn had almost forgotten what it was like to have hope. Her last bath had been almost a week ago and she was covered in dirt, leaves, and other unknown substances. She had been fleeing for days. How many exactly? She lost track after they all became a blur. The food she had been carrying had run out the day before and the water hadn’t made it past mid-morning. Dawn knew she couldn’t stop now though. The dead were everywhere. They infested these woods the way mice infested abandoned buildings and Dawn was the only living thing out here. Well, one of the only living things.
Dawn allowed herself a small smile as she peered out the corner of her eye. She was met with a mop of copper colored curly hair, obscuring what she knew would be dirty and tear stained cheeks. Her little Faith. Her daughter was the only light left to her now. Dawn had started carrying her small daughter on her back sometime the day before when the blisters on her small feet had become too painful. All she knew was that her arms burned from holding the 30 pound girl for so long. At 4 years old, Faith was the spitting image of her father. A father Dawn hadn’t loved, but she had cared for Edward. They had even tried to be a family for their daughter.
Dawn had heard of a commune set up somewhere out there and that’s where they were headed. She thought if they could be safe anywhere, it would be there. However, finding it was proving more difficult than she originally thought it would be. In her exhausted state, Dawn had managed to lose the map. It was merely a rough drawing on a worn out piece of paper given to her by Edward before he left on his last raid. If she had known that would be the last time she would see him; Dawn would have begged with him to leave with her that very night. Dawn had held that small map so many nights after, debating the dangers of leaving their current life to try and find a hazy-maybe dream. She had left it until they had no choice but to flee. Looking up at the dark blue sky Dawn prayed to any listening deity that she remembered the rough drawing as well as she thought she did.
Dusk fell upon them causing Dawn to stumble in the growing shade. The added weight of her daughter had Dawn falling to her knees. The movement jarred Faith awake as she fell from her mother’s grip.
“Momma? Momma?!” Her daughter cried out in the darkness. Her small head whipped around, trying to figure out where they were. Dawn had long ago lost feeling in her arms, but still managed to find and grasp the small girl. She nestled Faith to her chest. Her daughter’s soft cries were easy to hear in the deceptively tranquil forest.
“Shhh baby. It’s okay, I have you.” Dawn began to rock and whisper soothing noises to her daughter. She used one hand to push herself up and kept the other around her child. She whispered promises of safety and love while she walked as fast as she dared through the black and grey foliage. When Faith’s cries quieted to small whimpers, Dawn hummed to her softly. She hoped to cover the noise of death roughened feet swiftly closing in behind them. Night was their time, and Dawn had only a wish and a prayer to keep her ahead of them. The sounds of bones rubbing and exposed ligaments squeaking were her only warning. Dawn held her daughter tightly and stumbled through the moon dappled forest. She needed a place to hide her child.
The groans of undead around them rose in excitement at the chase. In the dark, where twigs and leaves confused the sounds, Dawn couldn’t tell exactly how many there were. She didn’t have time to focus on their pursuers now. She had to make sure her baby was safe. The sudden warmth running down Dawn’s arm and the acidic smell wafting up from her shirt told Dawn her daughter had lost control of not only her bladder, but stomach as well.
“It’s okay sweetie. Momma’s got you. I’ll protect you baby.” Dawn forced the words out. Her daughter’s plaintive cries spurred her on and she quickly outdistanced the zombies following. She knew that the respite was only temporary. When they came to a small clearing Dawn stopped and searched frantically for a place to hide her little girl. She crashed to her knees at the sudden lack of movement. Even in her exhaustion, Dawn’s screaming muscles refused to release her daughter i
n the face of danger.
It was as her eyes raked in the scene around her that Dawn saw it. There was a gap in the roots between two ancient looking trees. The space was almost too small for her baby. It would have to do though. Dawn was running out of time. The sound of the dragging of feet was closer now. She shuffled on bruised knees to the gap and shoved her daughter in. From a standing position, there would be no way to tell the small girl was there. Dawn looked deep into her daughter’s bright green and panicked eyes.
“Sweetheart. This is important. Don’t make a sound. No matter what you hear or see, don’t make a noise. Don’t move. Do nothing until I tell you. Okay?” Her daughter nodded and moved one small sun-kissed hand over her pink lips. “I love you. More than anything.” Dawn whispered, and kissed her forehead before moving away.
Dawn felt a rush of adrenaline when she stood and saw the five undead advance into the clearing. Normally, Dawn could have taken them all. She had been killing these monsters from the time she had been orphaned at the tender age of 8. With rest, a full belly, and enough water, these five would have been child’s play. Only three out of the group were fresh. The other two Dawn was surprised to see moving at all in their skeletal state. One of the fresher corpses was painfully familiar, but Dawn pushed the heartache to the back of her mind. Instead, she drew on the last of her strength to make a final stand. It was her one last chance to protect her child.
They formed a loose half circle around her, oddly organized for a group of undead. Dawn tried to watch them all at once. Dawn removed one of the guns that rested on her hip when she turned and locked eyes with Edward. She realized that he was no longer the man who helped create her beautiful Faith. That man was gone. A sudden movement to her right startled her. An emaciated woman with one arm leapt first and Dawn panicked. She had thought her former lover would lead the assault and barely aimed before pulling the trigger. The shot went wide and took out the woman’s leg, blasting it off like a splintered twig. With one leg gone, the woman went down. The shot seemed to be a signal for the rest. They came at her from all sides.
The swollen white corpse of a man she recognized from camp fell upon her first. His larger weight took her down, pinning her under him. Dawn fought to get her arms free from where they were trapped between the zombie’s chest and hers. She kept her head tucked down, a trick she had learned to protect her neck. Finally, she managed to get one arm free just as his blackened teeth grazed the top of her head. She brought her forearm up, forcing his mouth shut. Her other hand still held her pistol. Dawn wrenched her arm out from under the bloated body and clumsily held the gun to his side. It was the only part of his body she could aim at while she squeezed the trigger. The power of the blast rocked the zombie and she pushed him one way and rolled the other. Dawn’s momentum came to a halt as she rolled right into the woman whose leg she had taken off earlier.
The woman brought her remaining arm around and hugged Dawn, dragging her body close for a deadly embrace. Before their chests could touch, Dawn shot her right between her death whitened eyes. One down, four to go. Before she could celebrate the small victory, Dawn felt one hand at her ankle and one wrap around her neck. She kicked out and the hand, long exposed to weather and decay parted from its wrist yet stayed clenched around her ankle. The hand around her throat was less easily dealt with. Dawn slipped a hand down to the waistband of her pants, pulling out the long knife she housed there. The hand on her throat tightened. Dawn had a half formed idea to cut through the arm holding her. Her sharpened blade sliced through the sun-ripened flesh like a hot knife through butter, only to get stuck in the bone. Blade still in hand, she thrashed about. Dawn struggled to free both herself and her blade from the cold hand.
As her vision began to swim with black dots, Dawn kicked up and out. She used the momentum the movement gave her to force her body up and away from the clenching hand. Her knife came with her, making a horrible squelch sound as it was released. Dawn turned to face her assailant, another fresh zombie. She had recognized this one as well. They had been as close to friends as one got in their hell-hole of a world. Dawn could see right through her to the trees thanks to the creature’s mostly missing chest. The spine and a few ribs seemed to be the only things holding the woman upright. Dawn could see one hand was still curled in on itself; as if it were still squeezing her neck. Dawn stared at her almost-friend for a heartbeat before lunging. She took the recently freed blade and decapitated the woman. Dawn was briefly distracted as she watched the thickened blood well up from the zombie’s neck.
Three to go.
Dawn allowed something dangerous to bloom in her chest. Hope. There was a chance they both would make it out of here after all. As the thought crossed her mind, Dawn gave a feral smile. She put the knife back and released a second, much larger, gun and laughed maniacally as she crossed her arms. A gun in each hand, she shot the undead that were coming at her from either side. Dawn kept shooting, reloading as she went, and they kept coming. She pumped their rotten flesh full of lead until they would have sunk a ship, but still they came. Dawn laughed the entire time. Some part of her had snapped.
The man from camp got to her first. His pale grey flesh was streaked crimson from the chest down. Every line was a souvenir from her heated pistol. She didn’t give him the chance to force her down again. Once he was in range, she dropped the smaller pistol, grabbed her knife and gutted him like a pig. Intestines and other innards fell from the gaping maw, tripping the flayed man where he landed face down. Dawn fell to her knees, her body giving out under her. She lifted a shaking arm and blasted a hole right though the back of his head. Pink and grey brain matter sprayed out of the crater, splattering Dawn’s face and hands.
Dawn rose from the carnage, legs splayed wide with the effort of holding herself up. She had a piece of a creature’s entrails hanging from her head, the black ichor slowly dripping down her neck. Her knife was lost under the remains of the zombie she had just dispatched. Head canted down, she looked at the man standing in front of her through her sticky lashes. If it wasn’t for the exposed black tissue on half his face and the eye hanging from its socket, Dawn could almost believe that Edward wasn’t a zombie. As it was, she lifted her head and bared her teeth at him in parody of his own exposed skeletal grin.
“I didn’t expect to see you here Eddie. You’ve seen better days.” Dawn was panting now. Chest heaving with the effort it took to breathe. She was met with a blank stare, this wasn’t her Eddie. It hadn’t been for some time now. Dawn watched him closely, trying to anticipate what he would do. When she saw the ropey muscles on his thighs tighten to spring, she shot. A shot she took, but didn’t have.
She was out of ammo. He leapt, and she dropped to avoid his out-stretched arms. Edward fell in a heap behind her. His body was less graceful as a zombie, but more powerful. The perks of being undead, Dawn smirked at the stray thought as she fell to her hands and knees, coating herself further in muck. Dawn braced to push herself up and instead found herself flattened in the slick grass. She quickly ducked her head, feeling the displaced air as his jaws snapped shut just above her exposed neck. He reared back for another attack and Dawn used the small space to roll over in his arms.
Her new position allowed Dawn to see one of the creatures she had forgotten about. A gaunt twisted man limped toward them, his missing hand was still wrapped around her ankle. She hadn’t seen him as much of a threat. Too worn out by the sun and death to do much damage, she’d thought. The pistol in Dawn’s hand seemed heavier as she used it to hit Edward in the head. Between her blurred vision and weakening muscles, the hit did no damage.
By that time the other zombie had reached the struggling pair. With Edward pinning her down, Dawn had no way to protect her bottom half. The pain of having muscle torn from her leg by rotted teeth made her yell out in pain. Reflexively, she tried to rear up to dislodge the thing’s mouth from her leg. The habitual action was a wasted effort. Edward had used her struggle to wrap his jaw around her neck, the forc
e of which pushed her back while he bit down. A snap of closing teeth rang in her ears.
Dawn had no airway to make a sound in her last seconds. With her pained widened gaze, Dawn searched and locked on the last thing she would ever see: A pair of green eyes.
“The Immediate Choices of Death”
Story #2
By
Jackson Hewlett
Part 1: The Anticipation of Hell
Over and over again, Nolan smashed the ax down onto the zombie's face with all the strength he had. The first blow burst open the forehead, an eruption of broken bone and blood through the open slit in its skull. As he brought it down again for the second time, fragments of bone broke free completely and the face itself lost part of its form. Three times, and blood soaked the dirt around where he stood; it seemed like the zombie's face would slide right off, but he did not stop.
Nor was his aim perfect, and within seconds, the zombie was no longer moaning and screaming. Its entire head was a mass of pulp that was being pulverized, wide and thick slashes marked every inch. Another blow landed square on the left eye, and it seemed to pop before splitting, thick fluid seeping out. The little patches of thick dark hair that were left were covered in blood. There was the sound of breaking and pounding. Within a minute, the zombie's entire head was little more than a stain for Nolan to crash his boot into.
"Dad!"
The screaming of his daughter brought him back to reality, though it was not any less bloody than the nightmare he had just being trying to destroy. Turning around, he rushed to her to find that on her wrist were the deep set teeth marks of where the zombie had bitten her. It wasn't clean or pretty: the zombie had dug its teeth into the flesh and tried to tear away, leaving long, ragged slashes with flesh hanging off of them. Nolan thought for a moment that the wounds already looked like they might be festering, though it had only happened moments ago. His wife beside him was visibly crying.
Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse (Issue #3 | October 2015) Page 1