Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4

by Zachary Stone

  We left that night. I drove the bus for hours.

  Every so often we would come across a freak or two. I would either dodge them or stop the vehicle, roll down a window, and shoot them.

  The Chihuahua roamed around the bus as we drove. He seemed to be in a good mood.

  At one point I saw a mob of freaks ahead of us. I couldn’t go around them, so I decided to try something new.

  “Candy, get me the gamma emitter,” I said.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “Watch,” I said.

  I got out of the bus and walked towards the mob of freaks that were approaching. I pointed the rectangular box at them and pushed the button. Suddenly, they started to collapse to the ground. As I walked back to the bus I saw another group of freaks. I pointed it towards them, pushed the button, and watched them fall down.

  I then pointed it at a freak that was approaching from about a hundred feet away. It had no effect. I waited until it drew closer. Finally, at a distance of about fifteen feet, it collapsed. The weapon was effective, but had a short range.

  When I got back into the bus, Candy was excited.

  “That is awesome!” she said.

  “Just make sure you don't point it at any of us,” Jennifer said.

  “The level of radiation emitted is fairly low,” Candy said. “As long as the exposure was brief it wouldn’t do significant damage.”

  I continued to drive, heading west towards the relocation facility which was near Drysdale, Alabama. We stopped at a few gas stations along the way and scavenged for supplies. We were able to syphon diesel from abandoned trucks to keep the bus running. A few times we had to move cars off the road. The gamma emitter proved very effective as a weapon since us to kill the freaks silently without drawing the attention of others with gunshots.

  By morning we were nearing the relocation center.

  “I wonder what we will find,” Jennifer said, nervously.

  “I don't know,” I answered.

  “My sister is a tough woman,” she said. “I think she’s going to be okay.”

  Thoughts of my mother filled my mind. She’d be excited to know that I was engaged.

  We continued until we came close to Drysdale, where the relocation center should be, according to the directions I had written down.

  “Help me look out for Lacosta Highway,” I asked the other passengers. ”It should be somewhere here on the left.”

  We kept driving, looking at signs for roads turning off the main highway. I started to worry about whether I had somehow made a mistake in copying the directions.

  “Here it is! On the left,” said Candy.

  “Good,” I said, “It should be just a couple of miles down this road,” I said.

  Looking ahead I could see a group of buildings surrounded by trees on a hill in the distance. That must be it. I had looked forward to getting here for a long time, but now I felt a sense of deep anxiety. What would we find?

  We got closer to the hill and came to a road that led up the hill to the facility. This was definitely the place.

  “Should we drive up to it?” Candy asked.

  “I think so,” I said.

  We turned on to the road and started up the hill. Everyone was silent. Jennifer’s eyes were wide open and her hands gripped her seat. As we approached the front gate I began to realize something horrible. There were snarling, growling freaks looking at us through the fences that surrounded the compound.

  Chapter 7

  Jennifer screamed and began to cry as we looked at the hundreds of freaks pressed against the fences of the relocation center. They were all trying to get out. Behind them there were hundreds more.

  “My sister is dead,” Jennifer wailed.

  “If she is, she’s in a better place,” I said. “But don't give up hope just yet. She might be trapped somewhere in the center. There are lots of buildings she could be in.”

  “But how are we going to get in there and search for her?” Jennifer asked.

  “We’ll have to get all the freaks out first,” I said.

  “We’re going to need to lure them out,” I said. “I’ll park one of the vehicles far away and turn on the stereo. When they get close to me I’ll blast them with gamma rays.”

  “I have a grenade that should work for opening the gate,” said Robert.

  “That probably won't get all of them out,” Meredith said.

  “It will get enough of them out for us to start searching,” I said. “But we’re going to stay together.”

  We proceeded with the plan. Jennifer stayed in the bus with the dog. I drove the truck to the middle of a large field and turned up the stereo as loud as it would go. I got out and readied myself for the horde of freaks to arrive.

  Robert made his way through a wooded area with the grenade. He was able to get close to the gate without attracting the attention of the freaks who were fixated on the music and were straining at fence try and get out. Robert launched the grenade and blasted the gates open. Soon the freaks started pouring out. There were hundreds of freaks coming my way, and I was ready for them with the gamma emitter

  The first few freaks dropped dead in front of me. Their rotting flesh smelled awful.

  More and more of them approached and I continued to blast them with gamma radiation. Once a freak got within fifteen feet, it only took a second or two for the gamma rays to destroy the pathogen that reanimated them. However, these two seconds allowed them to get somewhat close. Just in case one of the freaks got dangerously close, I held the emitter with my left hand and kept my pistol in my right hand.

  In ten minutes I had killed hundreds. Their bodies created a natural barrier that slowed down the remaining freaks.

  Then I saw her. It was my mom.

  “Oh God,” I said to myself.

  My mother, Arlene, was walking towards me. Her face was twisted and rotting, but I could tell it was her. I hesitated for a moment, but then I remembered that her soul was not in the body. She was in heaven.

  I lifted the emitter and she fell to the ground.

  A few minutes later I had killed all of the freaks that had exited the compound. I fell to the ground next to my mother’s corpse and started to talk to her.

  “I'm so sorry, Mom,” I said. “I should’ve gotten here sooner.”

  I started to cry. I lifted up her putrid body and carried it with me to the bus.

  Walking towards Meredith, I could see her gasp.

  “Get me a blanket,” I called out. “We’re going to bury her later.”

  I wrapped her body in a blanket and left it beside the bus.

  For some reason, a small number of the freaks were still roaming around the inside of the facility. I yelled at them, but they didn’t respond.

  “Take this,” I told Candy, handing her the emitter.

  I climbed into the bus where Jennifer was sobbing.

  “I need you, Jennifer,” I said.

  The little dog ran up to me, and I picked it up and petted his head.

  “What do you need me for?” she said.

  “I need you to look at the bodies and see if any of them is your sister,” I said.

  “Oh, no! I can’t bear to think of her being one of them.”

  “Please, Jennifer. We have to do this, or you’ll never know.

  She sat for a minute or two, her head in her hands. She then stood up.

  “Ok – I’ll do it.” She seemed to have a sudden air of determination.

  “I don't know if you should be walking,” I said. “I can push you in the wheelchair.”

  “I can walk,” she responded firmly

  She held onto my arm and we got out of the bus. We then had the disgusting task of walking among the bodies of the corpses of the freaks. We both held our noses as we scanned the bodies lying around. Silently I turned over those corpses that were face down.

  “She’s not here,” Jennifer said after walking among the freaks for about half an hour.

&
nbsp; “Then we have to go inside,” I said.

  Robert, Meredith and I decided we would go inside and kill the remaining freaks.

  For the most part, clearing out the open areas was easy. I just pointed the emitter, and the freaks dropped dead.

  The remaining freaks were no longer attracted by sound. They seemed to be deaf and blinded by the daylight.

  “I wonder if their eardrums are decaying.” I asked Meredith.

  “I think you might be right,” she said.

  Once the open areas were cleared we called for Jennifer to come in and examine the bodies. None of them were her sister.

  “We will have to go through every building,” I said.

  “No, that could be dangerous,” Jennifer said.

  Looking around I suddenly noticed something moving in the window of a building in the distance. Looking closer I could see someone in a window of a building waving their arms.

  “Come on,” said Robert, taking off running “She might be in there!”

  Meredith followed close behind Robert. Jennifer tried to run, but fell over. I picked her up and held her arm around my waist as we moved along as fast as her strength would allow.

  When we reached the building, Robert was pounding on the door. The sign on it read Clinic.

  “Let us in!” Robert was shouting.

  We heard the door slowly unlock and an elderly man peered cautiously through the cracked door.

  “We’re humans!” said Robert “We’re here to help!”

  The man opened the door, and we entered the room. There were dozens of people, men, women and children huddled together on the floor on one side of the room, below the windows.

  “Thank you, for coming – and taking care of the monsters” the man said. “We thought we would be stuck in here forever.”

  “We were almost out of food and water,” a woman said.

  I then saw Jennifer. She was looking around for her sister.

  “Oh my God,” I heard her yell out. ”Mary!”

  Jennifer rushed over to the far corner of the clinic was a young woman was strapped onto a bed. A woman was standing next to the bed with a wet cloth, wiping her face.

  ”This is my sister! What has happened to her?” Jennifer shouted.

  The woman spoke. “Oh, my dear girl! I can’t believe you made it here. Mary was bitten on the hand by one of the creatures as she was running to take shelter here in the clinic. We have been hoping and praying that she wouldn’t turn into a monster – and so far she hasn’t. We’ve done as much as we can to clean the wound. We have her tied down for everyone’s protection.”

  Mary had a deep wound on the back of her right hand, and she looked extremely pale and weak. But on seeing her sister her eyes lit up and a smile appeared.

  “Jennifer, I didn't think I would ever see you again.” I heard her sister say.

  Jennifer wrapped her arms around her sister. “Oh, Mary, my dear baby sister -- I have been so worried.”

  “Stand back, Jennifer,” said Candy, holding the gamma emitter. “Let’s hope we have gotten the cure to her in time.”

  Candy applied the device to Mary’s hand for a few minutes.

  “I hope that will do it,” she said.

  “Hank, come over here,” said Jennifer, standing by her sister again.

  “Mary, this is Hank. I'm engaged to marry him,” she said. “He saved me and got me out of Sandy Hills. If it were not for him, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “Thank you,” her sister said in a weary voice.

  “I want you to know that our friend Candy just gave you the cure. Low level gamma radiation kills the pathogen. You should be alright,” I said.

  I left Jennifer and Mary to talk together and walked outside and scanned the area. I didn’t see any more of the freaks.

  Several people followed me outside, and one of them, a black woman came up to me.

  “Thank you for getting us out of here, son. We’re going to need more of your help. There are others trapped in the mess hall,” she said.

  “Where is the mess hall?” I asked.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  I decided it was fine to follow her. Jennifer was safe with Candy, Meredith, and Robert.

  We approached the mess hall. The windows were too high for me look through.

  I knocked on the door, and I heard nothing.

  “How can we get in?” I said.

  “There is a side window at the back of the building,” she said. “I used to work in there. Follow me.”

  Around the back of a building was window low enough for us to peer through. I could see that it was to a storage room. Using the end of my pistol I broke the glass, reached in, unlocked the window, and pushed it up.

  “You stay out here,” I told the woman. “This could be dangerous.”

  I pulled myself up and climbed in through the opening. I found the storage room door and slowly opened it. I was looking into a dark kitchen that seemed to be empty. I took a step forward and looked around. I bumped into pots and pans as I slowly walked towards the serving area.

  I then saw a girl, balled up in the corner of the room.

  “It's okay, I'm not here to hurt you,” I said.

  I walked closer to her and she screamed.

  Suddenly, a freak came through the door to the serving area. Apparently, this one was not deaf and had heard the girl's scream. I pulled my pistol at the freak, and tried to aim for the head. However, it was dark and I missed. The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the room. The freak lunged at me and knocked me down. My pistol fell out of my hand and slid away. I held back the monster with one hand while I pulled the small knife out of the sheath on my belt. I stabbed the freak in the temple, and it fell to the floor.

  Before I could get to my feet, three more freaks came through the door. One of them dove onto the ground and bit into my leg. I pulled out my revolver and shot him in the head. I then pointed the revolver at the other freaks approaching me. I fired, but my shots missed.

  I was out of ammo in my revolver, so I pulled out one of my Derringers and shot at them again, this time hitting them both in the head. I could hear more commotion outside the kitchen; more were coming. I noticed that the kitchen window had a dark curtain across it blocking out almost all of the light. With my leg bleeding I crawled to the window and pulled myself to my feet. As I did so more freaks appeared in the doorway and started lurching towards me. I grabbed the curtain and pulled it open

  Light poured into the room and the freaks seemed to be startled. I stood up, took out my large butcher’s knife and started to hack into them. However, more freaks were approaching. I couldn’t take all of them out. My route to the supply room was also cut off.

  I looked for the girl who had been balled up in the corner of the room, but she was gone.

  I sliced the head off one freak. Another one came at me and I split its head in two. However, my knife was stuck in its skull.

  Beside me there was a frying pan. I grabbed it, and I swung it at another freak. It fell backwards to the ground.

  Turning around I saw another freak approaching. I saw a knife on the table beside me, grasped it, and stabbed it in the freak's eye.

  I pulled out the knife and saw several more freaks pouring into the room.

  “Get down,” I heard a voice say.

  It was Candy.

  She pointed the emitter at the freaks and they dropped to the ground.

  I hobbled towards her, and she helped me get out the window.

  “That was stupid,” she said. “You shouldn’t have gone in there alone.”

  “How did you know I was in there?” I asked.

  “I heard the gunshots,” she said.

  “Let me see your leg,” she said, kneeling down. She pulled up my pant leg and looked at my calf muscle which was covered in blood.

  “That’s a nasty bite, Hank. I have to get you back to the clinic, so I can clean that and bandage you up.” she said. “But first let me treat
you with the emitter.”

  She pointed the gamma emitter at my leg for a minute or two.

  “That should prevent you from turning,” she said. “Now come on, let’s get you to the clinic and get the wound taken care of.”

  When I came through the door with Candy Jennifer gasped and ran over to me.

  “Hank! What’s happened to you?”

  “He’s been bitten, but I’ve given him a good dose of gamma rays,” said Candy. “Sit down here, Hank, and let’s get this wound fixed.”

  “Why do you always have to act the hero? – You could’ve gotten yourself killed – or worse,” Jennifer said to me, looking at my leg that Candy had begun to clean.

  “I’m just trying to make sure that we’re all kept safe, Jennifer.” I said, but that didn’t seem to satisfy her.

  “Please, Hank, please don’t put yourself in harm’s way unnecessarily. I need you – we all need you with us.”

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say. I was just doing what I felt had to be done, but I knew that was not an explanation that Jennifer wanted to hear. I sat and let Candy clean and bandage me up. When I stood up I was surprised that my leg felt okay. There was a little pain, but it wasn’t enough to keep my off my feet.

  I went and talked to a few people about the girl I had seen. No one knew who she was. It bothered me that she’d disappeared. The young woman had seemed terrified. I could only assume that she’d been locked in the building with the other survivors. One of them must have been infected and spread the infection to the others. Hiding and staying away from the freaks was what saved her life. I hoped she’d find the other survivors and join them.

  We spend the next few hours going through the compound, checking every room and every building for freaks, but found none. Happily we did find the young girl locked in one of the bathrooms. She was very traumatized, having lost her family members in the freak invasion, but was in good health, and she was quickly taken under the wing of some of the survivors.

  We managed to secure the main gate with supplies found within the compound and felt safe enough now within the facility to move around freely. Overall, there were forty five inhabitants of the camp that had survived, and we began to discuss what we should do. The consensus among survivors of this camp was to get to one of the other four relocation centers that I had told them were still apparently secure from freaks. The closest one was in southern Tennessee, and the survivors at the Drysdale facility felt this was the best destination for them. They began to organize themselves to start a journey in that direction. There were still plenty of working vehicles here that would be capable of making the journey and transporting people and supplies to Tennessee.