“Max. I’m really thirsty. Can I have a drink?”
“Sure Max, I’ll get you some water. Try to sit up, but don’t stand yet. We don’t want you passing out again. Stay here with Larry. That’s him over there. He’s my son. I think you two are about the same age. He can keep you company and I’ll get you a drink and some food.” She turned towards Larry for the rest, “You be nice Larry. He’s had a rough couple of days.”
“Max, eh? How old are you?”
“9, you?”
“11. There’s a couple of kids here. They all want to meet you. Mom says we need to let you adjust.”
“Your mom seems nice.”
“She’s ok. You get to drive that truck all by yourself?”
“I had to, but my Dad taught me.”
“Yeah? That’s cool. Wish I could drive. We aren’t allowed to leave the church. Only the grown-ups leave the church.”
“What, are you prisoners?”
“Nah. They just say it’s safer. You see a lot of zombies?”
“Yup. Killed a bunch too.”
“No way! That’s awesome. I’d do that if they would let me try.”
He got real quiet and stared at me. I could tell he thought I was so cool for killing zombies. I just kept seeing my Dad’s face when I shot him. I see that a lot. I also see the night at the farm with Mom. I don’t really remember the moaners I killed. I only know how many because of the notches I carve on my belt for each one. I’m up to 14 notches. Not bad for a kid.
Rocky got up and sniffed my face. He gave me one big lick then jumped off the bed and went out in the other room. He must have thought his job was done. He is one smart dog. He must have been hungry too if he laid on me for 2 days. Maybe he was as tired as I was. I hope they let me stay with them. I liked sleeping in that bed. Might be fun to hang out with some kids again.
Larry’s mom came back in with some water and a bowl of soup. She even had fresh bread. It was the most delicious thing I tasted ever. I loved my Mom’s cooking, but I was never this hungry when I ate it. It was warm and in a bowl. Larry’s mom sat and watched me eat. She asked a bunch of questions that I really didn’t hear. I was too busy chewing. Then I got really sleepy again. She must have saw I was tired. She told Larry to leave, and let me rest.
She came over and took the bowl. She kissed my forehead, and gave me a huge hug. I slept all the way until the next morning. Rocky was back on my feet when I woke up again. This time my room was empty. That was nice. I really don’t like sleeping with people staring at me. I sat up real slow, and stretched my legs. My whole body hurt. Dad always said if you laid around too much you would get sore. He was right. It took me forever to get out of that bed. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to leave the room, but I had to pee really bad.
Rocky followed me out and put his head in my hand. He led me down a hall and into the kitchen. There were a group of people eating breakfast in there. It was so weird to see that many people. They were just eating and talking like nothing was wrong. I really hope they let me stay. Rocky looked around the room then ran over to a little girl. She took her food, broke off a piece and gave it to Rocky. I guess he made friends while I was asleep.
Mick
Being with Amy and the kids is strange. The girls warmed up to me right away, but Garett was a tough one. I did my best to not make him feel like I was taking over his territory. It’s just taking me time to get used to being around people again. The hardest part is being with the kids. Reminds me of my own, and how much I miss them. All the shit I missed. There’s nothing like the end of the world for you to figure out what a douchebag you were. I keep hoping the girls are alive and safe with their mother, but the more we drive the less likely that seems.
Sometimes I wonder if they are immune like me. Speaking of immune, crazy as this is, Amy is immune too. She isn’t sure about the kids, and isn’t going to test it. We spend the nights bullshitting and I couldn’t believe it when she told me the story about her getting bit. Crazy shit her and those kids have been through. She’s one tough broad. When she found out I was bit too she almost fell outta her seat. She’s right, what are the odds of two people who are immune finding each other? You got a better chance of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery.
We just kept driving towards that address on the flyer. Grabbing stuff on the go, and driving. We got too close to a city one day. A swarm of the dead was on the horizon. They looked like bugs they were so far away. It was impossible to get a count of how many there were, but it looked like those TV shots you see of people marching on DC. It looked like it would never end. Whipping the car around, and driving away as fast as I could seemed like the best plan. All we could do was pray that they didn’t hear us and follow. There was no way we could handle a swarm of that size.
Being stuck in one place even if it is moving all the time will drive even the sanest of people crazy. We made the decision that we were going to sleep somewhere other than this damn vehicle as soon as the opportunity presented itself. We ended up in a small town like the one I was trapped in for so long. Amy suggested we try to find a roof to spend a few days on. The weather had turned cooler and the truck would still be there if it was going to rain. Driving slowly up and down the streets we kept our eyes peeled for a place that would allow us a bit of reprieve from the cramped living quarters we have called home. The town hardware store had potential. The roof was large and flat, and there was a ladder on the exterior of the building that provided the only access. I scouted the roof first to check if it was really the sanctuary we had been searching for. Once I gave the all clear, we hauled all the supplies we thought we needed to make the barren rooftop a home for a few nights.
Amy unpacked all the camping supplies with the girls and I took Garett down to the store below to see what we could scavenge. The boy may be young, but he is a capable second when you are rummaging around in unfamiliar territory. Being lucky is a big part of surviving in this new world. At this store, we were winning the lotto lucky. The shelves had been cleared of a lot of the goods people needed in the beginning, but not picked clean. It was strange. I’m not the kind of man who looks a gift horse in the mouth, so I didn’t give it much thought until we were up on the roof again with our awesome haul.
“You see any of them down there?” Amy asked fearfully.
“Nope, not one. It’s like this town is empty. No dead and no living.”
Garett was jumping out of skin with excitement to show his aunt all of the goodies we had pulled out of the store. “The place was still full of stuff. Can you believe it? I got the girls some games, and chalk. Do you think they can use it on the roof? We got a few tabletop charcoal grills. Mick thinks they would be a good way to have campfires up here. He said sleeping in the car we haven’t really had to feel how cold it has gotten at night.”
He went on and on until his sisters came over and demanded that he play with them. We had found a few backyard games down in the store, and it was nice to see the kids get to be kids for a little while. I don’t think that the girls had ever played Frisbee golf, or ladderball before, but it didn’t matter since no one was keeping score. I sat and watched for a while and then I headed over to Amy and helped her finish setting up.
“I don’t trust it.”
“Don’t trust what Amy?”
“The quiet. Where is everyone? Everywhere we have been there are dead wandering the streets, hidden in the stores. Why isn’t this town like the rest? I’m afraid of the quiet.”
I scooped her up in my arms and held her as she quietly cried. Some people break down as a crisis happens, others break when the calm comes. Amy must be in the second group. It felt so right to have her so close to me. She breathed in deeply, and wiped her eyes. When she looked up at me all of the fear and pain she had been trying so hard to hide lay on her face. I don’t know what came over me, but I kissed her. I tilted her head back and lay my lips against hers. I half expected her to slap me and pull away. Before the zombies a woman l
ike Amy wouldn’t have been caught dead talking to me, let alone being held by a loser like me.
She didn’t push away. With an intensity that I never think will be matched, she kissed me back. Her hand slid up to the back of my head, and she gripped my hair as she pulled in closer to me. Nothing would have pleased me more than to carry this woman off to bed, but we had no bed. We were up on a rooftop in a barren town with three kids looking to us for all the answers. As fast as the fire in her built, it died. She pulled away with a sad longing on her face, and went back to getting camp ready. What I didn’t expect was the hatred in Garett’s eyes when I turned back to see if they were ok. He had seen everything, and he was fuming.
Daniel
You ever walk through the woods? You ever walk through the woods for a really long time? You ever walk through the woods for a really long time trying not to get attacked by zombies? You ever walked through the woods for a really long time trying not to get attacked by zombies with the smell of shit clogging up your sinuses? I washed my pants at the first stream I came to, but you know, even with a bunch of detergent that smell never really comes out. Neither do the stains. So I walked around for a long fucking time. No idea where I was or where I was going. Funny thing about waiting to die, you don’t give a shit about anything anymore. I drank when I found water, ate when I found food. Once I grabbed a handful of what I thought were edible berries. They weren’t. I spent what I figure was a day or two tripping my ass off and when I woke up, I had shit my pants. Again. I think I got bitten again while I was out of it. There was blood all over me. So I just kept wandering. And not dying. Fucked up shit.
At one point I came up to a wall. Looked like it was put up in a hurry. With nowhere else to go I started following it around. I heard people on the other side, but before I could run I heard a shotgun rack and the bolt of a rifle slammed into place. I put both hands in the air.
“Don’t shoot!” I called out, “I ain’t a fucking zombie!”
I saw two heads peak up over the top of the wall behind a rifle and a shotgun.
“P-p-put your hands up!” Mr. Shotgun said, scared shitless.
I looked at my hands already in the air and the looked back at him trying to keep the sarcasm off my face.
“No problem Chief. Just take your finger off the trigger for me. I ain’t armed and I’m not crazy either.”
I could tell right away that these two had no idea what to do with the weapons they held, but at ten feet, everybody’s a sharpshooter.
We stood there for a surreal couple of minutes shooting the shit like the world wasn’t burning and they weren’t sort of holding me at gunpoint. I told them who I was and where I’d come from. I left out the part about shitting my pants. And the part about getting bitten. After a few minutes they began to let their guard down. Fucking amateurs. If I really a threat I could have taken them both out no sweat. Pulled them down off the wall and beat their fucking heads in with that fancy rifle. All of the sudden I hear this screechy voice on the other side of the wall.
“Timothy! What’s going on?! Who’s there?!”
“There’s some guy here. He seems okay,” one guy says. I’m guessing that one was Timothy.
“Is he armed?” came the voice.
“Doesn’t look like it,” the other one said.
“I’m not armed,” I called over the wall, “And I’m pretty harmless I guess.”
“I’ll get Reverend Mathis.” Then I heard her scurry away.
“Who’s the broad?” I asked.
“That’s the Reverend’s assistant. Francine. She can be a bit abrasive.” That was the other guy, Not Timothy.
“A bit,” I laughed, “Yeah seems that way.”
We stood there for a while, them pointing guns at me. Me smelling like shit. I wondered if they could smell me from where they were. I could hear the broad coming, talking a mile a minute to some poor bastard.
“Timothy, bring him around to the gate.” A male voice, calm-like. I wish he would have told the other guy to do it, then I could know his name.
Timothy motioned me to head south along the wall. I walked until I found the gate they were talking about. I heard a couple latches let go inside and it slid sideways along a track.
I stood face to face with an old guy who just had to be the Rev they were talking about. Francine was there too. Bouncing around behind him like a fucking Chihuahua on crank. Firing off questions without waiting for him to answer.
“Quiet Francine. Let us greet our new guest. My name is Samuel Mathis. This is Francine and Timothy, you’ve met. The other gentleman is Robert. Pardon the firearms, we can’t be too careful. There have been others not so polite as yourself coming around as of late. As if a plague of the walking dead were not enough to deal with… Ah well, if Man were not inherently evil perhaps we would not be in this situation… But before I break into a sermon. Please tell us your name.”
“Daniel. Daniel Forster. At your service.”
After making the acquaintances they led me inside the gate and closed it. I saw them throw three heavy latches and drop a huge log in place. Weird, but for the first time since this whole fucking thing broke out, I felt relief. Not safe, not by a damn sight, but relieved. I was around people, real people. Not like the jag offs from my unit. Those guys were real assholes. These people were good. I could tell right off the bat. I liked this reverend guy. I took a look around at their little compound. The wall looked pretty solid and as far as I could tell circled the whole place. There was scaffolding around most of it. Smart move. Good firing positions around the whole perimeter. Looked like they were trying to farm in some areas. I could see animal pens too. I immediately started thinking about bacon. My stomach growled and I realized I hadn’t had anything real to eat in at least a few weeks.
“Someone sounds hungry,” Mathis laughed. “We should get you fed. Francine, go and have Mary fix a plate for Daniel.”
He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “We should probably get you a new pair of pants too.”
I laughed it off like it was a joke, but I will tell you right now, and fuck you for judging, but I almost cried right there. After how many months of dealing with assholes and cannibals, to have somebody offer to do something nice for me, something good… Even something as simple as offering me a clean pair of fucking pants. The Rev gave me the nickel tour. It was a fairly solid little spread. Pretty defensible from a military standpoint, even if it looked like most of the people here looked they wouldn’t know how to field strip a taco, let alone a rifle. Still, with a little training and the right fortifications this place looked as good as any for a standoff against a couple hundred walking corpses.
“Quite the setup you got here Rev,” I said.
“We have done what we can with what we have been given. There isn’t a man among us with any real training for this sort of thing. We have a few farmers, a couple of auto mechanics, various and sundry tradesmen, some with hunting experience, but no real military training. That is, until now.” He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder, stopping us in the middle of the street. “You see, I prayed to the Lord to send you here, and now you have arrived praise God.”
“Whoa there Rev. I don’t know how much the Big Guy had to do with my getting here. I just wandered through the woods waiting to die… with no real destination and I just sort of ended up here. I’ll help out if I can and stick around until it’s time for me to leave, but don’t go throwing any divine providence bullshit at me. I can’t handle that kind of pressure right now.”
“As you wish my friend. We could certainly use your expertise here. And I won’t force my divine providence as you call it, on you. For now, get something to eat and get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll put you to work.”
He laughed and clapped me on the back. The group led me to what passed for a mess hall around here. I had two plates of chow, some kind of stew, and more water that I think I have ever drunk in one sitting. I ripped off a loud belch and excused myself.
> “He likes your stew Fran,” The Rev called into the kitchen. “I have instructed the residents here to leave you alone until after you have some rest. Needless to say they are quite anxious to meet you. We haven’t had any newcomers in some time, except for the boy, but you will meet him as well. For now, I have taken the liberty of preparing my own room for you. It’s one of the few areas that affords any privacy here I’m afraid. Tomorrow we will show you the rest of the compound and allow some of the others to introduce themselves.”
With that somebody came and took my plate, then the Rev walked me outside and up a hill to a house. An actual, honest-to-goodness house with four walls and a roof. We went inside and up the stairs to the softest, sweetest looking bed I have ever seen. Really it was just a cot mattress and an old box spring with a ratty blanket, but it looked like the fucking Hilton to me.
The Rev wished me a good night and closed the door. I asked if he was going to tuck me in. He just chuckled and said he would be downstairs on the couch if I needed anything. I don’t know what happened, but as soon as my head hit that pillow I was out. Next thing I know the sun is coming in the window and stabbing at my eyes.
Amy
Two weeks passed like lightening on the rooftop. Mick, Garett and I spent a few hours each day scouting the town below. There were no people, and no zombies. After the first week of no sightings we allowed the girls to come with us on our trips. Zoe was prepared as usual. She had a notebook filled with lists of items that would help us when we finally moved on from the slice of paradise we had found. I began to rethink the notion that we needed to follow the flyer. Why leave a perfectly safe and abundant shelter? If we changed our plans we could find a building in the area and fortify it.
Aftershock: A Collection of Survivors Tales Page 8