Zombie Rules (Book 3): ZFINITY

by David Achord

  “Holy shit,” I said again in wonder. The coffee table was up against the couch with a few corpses lying across it. There were dead zombies literally within inches of where they had made their final stand.

  I spotted a lamp lying on the floor and got it lit. Setting it on the coffee table, I looked at the two of them standing behind the couch, fatigue and uncertainty etched on their faces, like they were not convinced all of the zombies had been killed and there would be more coming through the doorway at any moment. I motioned behind me.

  “Fred and I got the rest of them. Are y’all okay?” I asked.

  It was a stupid question, yet it didn’t stop the two of them smiling gratefully, if not somewhat tiredly. I looked pointedly at Julie, not quite certain what I should do. She finally stepped over the couch and hugged me tightly. Wanda and Jessica walked in from the back room a moment later. Both were armed with a pair of my Glock nine millimeter handguns. I looked at them questioningly.

  “Someone had to cover the back of the house,” Wanda quipped. I nodded gratefully. Fred used his hand to sweep all of the cartridge casings littering the couch, maneuvered it away from the doorway and pointed at it.

  “All of you ladies come over here and take a load off,” he ordered and gently guided them toward the couch. Jessica was ashen faced. Wanda put a protective arm around her.

  “Jessica did good,” she said with a gentle squeeze of her shoulders. “Y’all should have seen her. She was a regular Annie Oakley.”

  Jessica pulled her shoulders up to her chest and even though she was a year older than me, she looked like a frightened child. Fred gave her a fatherly smile, patted her on the knee, and disappeared into the kitchen. I could hear him rummaging for glasses in the cabinets. I sat down beside Julie and gently took her hand. The adrenaline was wearing off now and all of them were sitting beside each other with shivers running through their bodies.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked.

  “We were all asleep,” Julie responded shakily. “I woke up hearing one of the donkeys braying and then Curly started raising hell. One of them was coming through the door when I walked into the den. I was dumbfounded for a second but Curly attacked him and gave me enough time to start shooting.”

  There were tears streaming from her eyes and I looked to see what she was staring at. Curly, our dumb lovable dog, was lying on the floor off to the side beside a dead zombie. His throat had been ripped out. Julie buried her head into the crook of my shoulder and began sobbing. After a minute, she collected herself and looked up at me.

  “I swear to God, Zach, I locked everything up tight before I went to bed. I’ve no idea how they got in.”

  I looked around in wonder. There must have been at least a dozen who had actually made it inside the den. It was amazing they had not been completely overwhelmed. I squeezed her hand.

  “You ladies kicked some major zombie ass, didn’t they, Fred?”

  “Yes indeed,” he replied as he brought in a pitcher of water and glasses. He set them down on the coffee table and poured a glass for everyone.

  “I want each of you ladies to drink slowly, but finish the glass. Adrenaline and fear will make you thirsty as hell,” he said.

  I looked around then and realized someone was missing.

  “Where’s my son?” I asked with sudden worry.

  “He’s fine,” Wanda replied, “he’s in his crib. Who do you think we were protecting back there?” she asked sarcastically. I breathed a sigh of relief and then realized there was one additional person who was missing.

  “Where’s Janet?” Julie looked around in confusion.

  “She usually sneaks out after everyone has gone to bed and heads to the bus,” Andie said. Julie looked at her questioningly. “A couple of nights a week she and Rowdy meet up. He’s been fucking her brains out.”

  “Well, I think we’ve figured out how the door was left open,” Wanda said with some more of her patented sarcasm. She finished her glass of water, scowled at the glass and stood. “I’m going to fix some coffee,” she said and stepped over some corpses as she headed toward the kitchen.

  I was seething inside at the realization Wanda had hit the nail on the head. Janet, that foolish imbecile of a woman, had endangered everyone’s lives. I was about to comment on it when we heard a couple of gunshots coming from the direction of the homestead. I jumped to my feet and started toward the door. Fred held up a hand.

  “I’ll go, why don’t you stay here and clean some of this up,” he said and motioned toward the pile of corpses lying on the den floor. He then gestured at Andie. “Why don’t you come along?” he asked her. “I need someone to watch my back.” Andie jumped up and headed down the hallway. I noticed for the first time she was wearing only a tee shirt that didn’t quite cover her bare ass. She walked back in a moment later wearing jeans and sneakers. Grabbing her assault rifle, she checked it before walking toward the door.

  “Maybe you’ll be covering my back,” she retorted. “I feel like killing some more of these sons of bitches.” She kicked one of them as she walked out.

  I sat together with the three women. All of them were wearing basically the same thing, tee shirts which were now soaked with sweat, and shorts. Julie looked quite sexy, Jessica still looked skinny as a rail, and Wanda looked, well, I kept my eyes averted. We sat together on the couch drinking our coffee, silently staring at the stinking corpses.

  “It was a close one,” I said quietly, “I’m glad you ladies are okay.” They replied with tired but grateful smiles. I got up and inspected the door. The women watched me silently.

  “There’s no evidence the door was forced open,” I opined. “It was left unlocked and the zombies have either learned how to open doors, or it was left standing open,” I waited for a response, but the three of them remained silent.

  “Oh, and by the way, the gate appeared to have been left unsecured too.”

  Wanda scoffed, but didn’t bother adding her two cents worth. Julie stared at me, as if waiting for me to accuse Janet. She was utterly exhausted, all of them were. So, I was not going to start offering my opinion on the matter. It could wait until a more appropriate time.

  “Alright, we’ll discuss all of this later. Right now, I’m going to get these bastards cleared out of here. You ladies sit and relax, you deserve it.”

  None of them argued. I found a pair of thick rubber dishwashing gloves under the kitchen sink, put them on, and began the arduous task of dragging the bodies out into the front yard with the numerous other corpses.

  I heard three additional gunshots coming from the direction of the homestead, which is where the tour bus was parked. Eventually, the headlights of the approaching truck signaled their return. Another truck was following, which had to be Terry and Konya.

  The six of them exited their respective vehicles and made their way through the corpses before the headlight timers ended and plunged the yard into darkness.

  “Is everyone okay?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately,” Andie said. I took her response as a yes and we walked inside together.

  “I got them all out of the den, but we’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do in the morning,” I said to them all as we stood there looking around.

  “That black stuff is going to be hell to clean up,” Wanda lamented as she pointed around. At her direction, everyone moved into the kitchen where it was much cleaner. Julie lit two more lamps while everyone got seated. Wanda poured everyone a mug of coffee, intentionally omitting Janet. I could plainly see Janet’s contemptuous glare in the dull lamp light. Wanda acted indifferent.

  “What the hell just happened to us?” Rowdy asked.

  I repeated Julie’s story to the rest of them and then asked Terry what happened to them.

  “Konya’s dogs started raising hell about the time we heard the first gunshots,” he replied.

  “I’d say there was about a dozen of them surrounding the homestead,” he said. “They hit both the front door and back
door at the same time,” he paused a moment and shook his head before continuing. “It seemed almost as if they were trying to keep us contained rather than trying to break in. They did a pretty good job of avoiding our kill zones. It took us longer than it should have to kill them off.”

  “I’d say Terry summed it up pretty good,” Konya said and looked around at everyone. “Did anyone get injured, or bit?”

  I watched as everyone shook their head. Everyone except Rowdy, he was staring at the floor. I grabbed a lamp and brought it close to him. He remained motionless as I gasped. Both of his arms had multiple bite marks. The teeth marks were deep. Blood seeped from them and they were already turning black around the edges.

  “The sons of bitches got in my bus before I knew what was happening,” he lamented.

  I swore. Fred did not hesitate. He hurled himself at Rowdy, tackling him from behind and dragged him to the floor.

  “Hold him down!” I yelled. Terry, Konya and Andie dog piled on top of him and held him tightly. I looked somberly at Rowdy and he stared back with fear in his eyes. He watched as I used my shirttail to take the hot protective globe off of the lamp.

  “This is going to hurt like hell, Hoss,” I said, “but you’ve got to let me do it.”

  He whimpered and was on the verge of panicking. I grabbed him by the shoulder and squeezed. We made eye contact again and I nodded slowly. He was afraid, deathly afraid. Nevertheless, he slowly extended his arms. I put my knee across one and held the lamp’s flame to the bite marks. He screamed loudly.

  “Do it!” he screamed over and over, like a mantra as I moved to the next arm. It was unsettling, but the only other noise in the house was Frederick back in the bedroom, crying. When I got the wounds cauterized, I nodded at the others. They released him and moved back away from him. Rowdy slowly sat up, cradled his arms and sobbed in pain. Everyone was quiet, deathly quiet, except for little Frederick. He was alone and crying. Julie tore herself away and hurried toward the bedroom.

  “We’ve got to put you in the cage now,” Fred said somberly.

  Rowdy eventually sat up and tried clumsily to wipe his face. “Yeah, time for the cage,” he replied weakly. Andie grabbed a napkin and began wiping his face.

  “Don’t worry,” she said soothingly, “I’m going to stay with you.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, you don’t have to go and sit with me,” Rowdy said. “It’s a little chilly out tonight and those things can’t get to me if I’m in that cage. Besides, I got myself into this mess, there’s no need for you to suffer through it.”

  Andie pointed at Janet. “You’re not stupid enough to think she’s going to wrap your wounds and sit with you through the night, do you?” she asked scornfully. Rowdy looked at Janet, who didn’t respond, but instead got up and poured herself some coffee. He looked back at Andie and nodded sadly.

  “I’d be most grateful,” he muttered quietly, stood awkwardly, and walked out before anyone could say anything.

  Terry and I drove them to the barn. Rowdy was quiet. He exited the truck and walked into the barn without complaint. I locked him in and stood there, looking at him with what I hoped was an encouraging expression.

  “Alright, Hoss, there’s enough water to get you through the night. There is a bottle of antibiotics in the bag there. Take four of them right now and wash ‘em down with as much water as you can drink.”

  Rowdy complied without question. Once he swallowed them, he looked at me questioningly.

  I nodded in approval and pointed to my pair of socks, still lying on the ground. “Pretty soon you’re going to get a fever. Take those socks, wet them down and wrap them around your head. You’ve got to keep your brain cool. Trust me, it’ll help.”

  “Okay,” Rowdy said tentatively and continued staring at me. “Do you think I’ll be alright?”

  I nodded reassuringly. “First thing in the morning, I’m going to bring you a big breakfast and we’ll tell each other a tall mess of stories.”

  “How bad was it for you, Hoss?” he asked.

  I frowned at the memory. “I know I got a bad fever. I think I hallucinated and it felt like spiders were crawling all over me at one point. I don’t remember much else, but Julie got me through it,” I said. The thought of her staying with me during that time made me realize how much I missed her. “Andie is going to do the same for you.”

  “It worked out okay though, right?” he asked. I held out my arms.

  “I’m still here, Hoss,” I said with a grin. Rowdy nodded and looked at his cauterized arms.

  “One thing’s for sure, I’m going to have a mess of scars to brag about.”

  Everyone was quiet now. Terry cleared his throat and looked at Andie.

  “I think I should lock the barn doors when we leave. If you have any trouble, start shooting. We’ll come running.”

  “You got it,” she replied. “You guys get out of here.”

  Fred was standing outside, scanning the area with night vision goggles as we walked back to the house. “I’m seeing nothing but dead zombie bodies everywhere,” he said. “There’s nothing else out there.”

  “We need to secure this place,” Terry said. “Let’s start with that damned gate.”

  We made a careful sweep of the perimeter before heading to the gate. It took several minutes to drag several bodies out of the way, but managed to get it secured.

  “I wonder who dropped the ball on getting the gate secured for the night,” Fred commented idly as we walked back to the house.

  “All I can say is someone went to their former residence, got some of her clothes, and came back about the time the sun was setting,” Terry responded. “She said she locked it up, but I should have double-checked it myself.”

  Neither Fred nor I responded. When we got back to the house we looked over the exterior. There were several dead corpses stacked up on the porch and around the door. It took us another thirty minutes to drag all of them out into the yard. It was laborious work, but necessary.

  Afterward, we sat on the porch and scrubbed our hands clean with a bucket of water and lye soap. I was tired, dead tired. I sat in one of the chairs and could have easily fallen asleep right there. Julie brought me a fresh glass of water. I nodded in thanks.

  “Tomorrow we’ll get one of Mac’s dump trucks and haul those things out of here,” I said. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m just too exhausted to do it tonight.” Everyone voiced their agreement.

  “I believe we should retrieve more than just the dump truck,” Fred said. I knew what he was thinking. Julie looked at us.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “That is technically all of our equipment. Those Huntsville people have no claim to any of it.”

  “Yeah, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.” I said. “Let’s get inside and try to relax.”

  Julie stayed close beside me as we went inside. The den was dirty, but it didn’t stop me from plopping down in my favorite easy chair. Much to my surprise, Julie sat in my lap. Her closeness was wonderful and comforting. We watched in tired silence as Wanda worked the floor with a mop, attempting to clean up some of the black ooze all over the den floor.

  “We’re all tired, that can wait until tomorrow,” I said. Wanda made a face.

  “I’m not going to let this shit dry and stain these nice floors,” she retorted. I shrugged. I was too tired to argue. Julie leaned forward until her lips were close to my ear.

  “Can I talk you into staying here tonight?” she whispered. “I’d feel a lot safer.”

  It was what I was hoping to hear. I looked at her and nodded.

  Even though I was dog tired, Fred and I waited until everyone went to bed and then talked quietly about the night’s events. After yawning a few times, he ordered me to bed as well and I didn’t argue. Julie was asleep already, so I slipped off my boots and most of my outer clothing as quietly as possible before gently slipping under the blanket. She must have sensed my presence and immediately snuggled up against me.
It was comforting and reinforced how much I missed her. I fell asleep immediately but only for a few hours before awakening with a start. I think I was dreaming about those damned zombies getting into our house and had sat up, expecting to be attacked. When my senses sharpened, I looked out of the window to see the sky turning gray. I eased out of the bed and checked on Frederick. He too was sleeping soundly. Quietly moving into the den, I saw Fred sitting beside the radio.

  “I tried calling them all night, they just now answered,” he said with clenched teeth. “Kelly said they had no troubles and everyone had gone to bed.”

  I shook my head in disgust. We had impressed upon them to maintain hourly radio contact in the event something like this happened. The dogs came scampering up the stairs, followed by Konya.

  “The kids said you two were awake.”

  I forced a tired smile and poured a cup of last night’s coffee. It was lukewarm and brackish. Fred stood up and stretched.

  “Let’s go take a look at the damage.” He said.

  The carnage was even more unbelievable in the daylight. Fred pointed.

  “It looks like they all came in through the gate and went straight toward the front door.”

  I nodded. There were dead corpses everywhere, but most of them were concentrated at the gate and the front yard. I pulled out the keys to the padlocks.

  “I suppose we need to check on Rowdy,” I said heavily. The ride only took a couple of minutes. I knocked loudly on the barn door and waited for the verbal challenge. It was quiet inside, which seemed odd.

  “Andie, it’s us, we’re coming in!” I opened the two padlocks on the door and swung it open. Andie was waiting for us. It was obvious she had a rough night. Her eyes were puffy and her short cropped hair was disheveled. On the other hand, Rowdy appeared to be sleeping soundly. I walked over and tapped the metal of the cage with one of the padlocks.

  “Hey, Hoss, how’re you doing?”

  There was no response. I suddenly became concerned and looked closer. Rowdy’s features were contorted and there was a bullet hole between his eyes. I gasped and looked over at Andie. Tears were falling heavily down her face.