Chronicles of the Undead | Book 1 | Urban Gridlock

by Hernandez, Jaime

  Anna decided to continue her perimeter check by walking the rest of the property along the fence line. She moved slowly and quietly and tried to catch glimpses of her next door neighbor’s home through occasional tiny gaps in the boards of their privacy fence. There were so many trees that she couldn’t see anything. She risked pulling herself up to take a quick peek over the fence and saw nothing unusual. Her neighbor’s property was remarkably similar to Anna’s with lots of trees and a heavily wooded front yard allowing for nearly complete privacy. She dropped down from the fence with a sigh of relief. So far so good, other than the SUV with the door open.

  Anna slowly continued her perimeter check passing the other side of her house where the garage was attached. There was only one window on that side, and she saw that it was already boarded and barred. Damon was a miracle worker and with Camille’s help, they were nearly finished. Anna continued along the fence toward the back of the yard, listening intently for any sounds that were out of the ordinary. She didn’t see or hear anything. She boosted herself up to take a look over the rear of the fence and saw nothing moving within the trees back there, so she turned and slowly walked along the last of the fence on the other side as she made her way back up to the house.

  Damon and Camille were adding bars to another window, so Anna went to Max’s workshop looking for the wheelbarrow. She managed to stack several sheets of weathered plywood on top of it, then searched for the tools she needed. This job would have to be done quietly just to err on the side of caution. She gradually made her way toward the front of their property, specifically the large wrought iron gate. As she had done earlier, she peeked through the gate from behind the brick wall. Everything looked the same as it had when she last checked nearly an hour ago. Nothing seemed abnormal or out of place other than the open door of the SUV. She listened carefully but didn’t hear anything coming from any of the neighbors or from Damon and Camille. They must have been working on the back of the house now because she didn’t hear the noise of any tools or of the iron bars being installed.

  Using nothing but rope, zip ties and bungee cords, Anna covered the inside of the gate with three sheets of weathered plywood. A person couldn’t fit through the bars of the gate and it locked. The plywood was just to seal off the last bit of visibility in their yard. When she had finally finished, she was exhausted.

  She thought she should do another perimeter check before stopping to rest. She knew the dead would show up sooner or later and she wanted to make sure that they weren’t there yet. As she downed a bottle of water and grabbed the now empty wheelbarrow to turn back toward the house, she heard a noise that was out of place. She risked a glance through the gap between the gate and the wall. Her eyes were drawn to the house with the SUV in the driveway. She was sure she had heard a thumping sound from that direction. She watched quietly for five minutes before she saw it. It was one of the dead. She recognized the couple who lived in the house by sight, but she didn’t know their names. The middle aged husband was shuffling around between the car and SUV; occasionally bumping into one or the other, hence the thumping sound. His face and upper body were covered with blood. His mouth was dripping bright red blood onto his already blood stained shirt. If Annalise had to guess, she’d say that he was bitten, came home to treat his wound, turned, and then made a meal of his wife. Whether she was right or wrong didn’t matter. What mattered was that the dead were now here in her neighborhood.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Anna breathed. She needed to get back to the house as quietly as possible. She didn’t think her dead neighbor would hear her. There was enough distance and plenty of obstacles between the two of them to obscure any sound she made. From where she stood at the very front of their property, she couldn’t hear noise of any kind coming from back where Damon and Camille were working on the house. She had never been happier than in this moment that they had decided to buy this house, with both its natural and unnatural privacy and protection. She assumed the kids were finishing up with the bars on the rear of the house, but she couldn’t hear anything from her place by the front gate. It filled her with hope that they would be able to remain hidden and safe from the dead.

  Anna made her way back to the house, glimpsed Damon and Camille installing iron bars over the outside of the patio door and returned the wheelbarrow to the garage workshop. Hanging the iron bars was indeed a noisy project, but one that couldn’t be heard at the front of the house. She watched for a moment as they finished then approached them.

  “I covered the front gate,” Anna started, “and I saw the first zombie in our neighborhood. Man across the street a couple houses down. He couldn’t see or hear me.” Anna told her kids.

  Damon nodded as if he’d been expecting this news, but an expression of fear covered Camille’s face.

  “Mom,” she started then stopped. She was scared but didn’t know what to say.

  “Camille, go inside, drink some water, take a shower and get some clean clothes on,” Anna instructed. “The power and the water are going to go out, but I think it’ll take at least a few days. Calm down, relax, and enjoy your shower. We’ll be in soon.” She wrapped her arms around Camille in a tight hug, and then released her.

  Camille was smart, strong and stubborn but she was also fourteen. In the span of eight hours she’d gone from playing in the pool to watching the horrors of the TV news reports to boarding up their house to finding out the dead had reached their street. A simple shower would do her a lot of good.

  “Shit! Eight hours already?” Anna exclaimed out loud. It would be getting dark soon. The inside of the house was already unnaturally dark due to the windows being boarded. She realized that they would need to allow a small amount of natural light to reach inside. She told Damon to finish up quickly before he ran out of light, while she ran out to the garage workshop looking for tools. She grabbed an electric drill and some sort of power saw as Damon placed the last bar on the patio door. He saw the tools in her hands and realized what she had in mind.

  “Don’t worry, Mom, I’ve got it,” Damon told her. “Just the back windows and the patio door, right?” That’s where most of the natural light came in given the trees spread throughout the rest of the yard. The back of the house saw plenty of sunlight because of the large open area surrounding the swimming pool.

  “Thank you,” Anna spoke with relieved sincerity in her voice. She was amazed at what Damon had accomplished throughout the day and realized just how much he took after his dad. He was smart and he understood building concepts from working on projects with Max. He knew without being told how to make openings near the tops of each window and the patio door, between the bars and through the plywood they’d hung on both the inside and out. He worked fast, so he would be done before it was fully dark outside.

  Anna took a quick, quiet walk along the fence nearest the rear of the house to make sure nothing was going to surprise Damon while he worked. She walked back around to the front to reinforce the enclosed, attached front porch. She attached several single iron bars across the front door. They could easily climb between the bars to enter and leave the house, but she hoped they would slow down the dead if they showed up.

  Once inside, she lit two of the decorative scented jar candles spread throughout the house. She placed one in the main bathroom and one in the kitchen. As long as they had electricity they would use it, but she wanted to have some candles ready for the moment the power went out. She had a few shelves full of them in a closet off the living room, so they would have enough to last a while. She looked around the house to see if there was anything she had forgotten. She felt like they had done everything possible to secure their home. After Damon came back inside through the front door, they would put in place the metal drop bar they had installed earlier. They had hung brackets midway down the door frame on either side so that the bar would extend across the front door and just beyond the frame. Once they placed the metal bar in the brackets, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to push the doo
r open from the outside.

  Damon quietly entered the front door, finally finished with the hard work he’d been doing all day. He easily climbed between the outer bars, then closed the door and placed the interior metal bar. Everything looked good. Anna gave him a hug and sent him off to shower while she heated up something for dinner.

  “I’ve got dinner, Mom,” Camille told Anna as she pulled leftovers and a package of chicken from the fridge. “Since we don’t know how long the power is going to last so I’m going to cook as much fresh food as I can.” Camille seemed much better, her usual self after showering and changing out of her grimy clothes.

  Anna nodded her thanks then glanced at her phone on the counter. Even though the phones weren’t working, she decided to gather all of the phones, tablets and laptops so she could plug everything in to charge. She figured it would be a good idea to keep a full battery on everything just in case they could use any of it and because she didn’t know how long the electricity would last.

  As she picked up her phone, she saw that she had a new text message. Her heart skipped a beat as she hoped against hope that it was from Max.

  Chapter 6

  Day 1

  Michelle turned away from the TV and told Joey and Lucia to stay quiet while she checked to see if there were any dead outside. She quietly walked toward the front window and looked through the open curtains. They lived two blocks from a busy main street. It was only a two lane road, but it saw steady traffic all day long so she worried that the dead would make their way toward her street quickly. Her next door neighbors were hurriedly packing up their car. She watched as the mom rushed their kids into the backseat while their dad topped off the trunk. Within a minute, they had backed out of their driveway and sped down the street.

  She looked toward her neighbor’s house to the left. Everything appeared to be quiet there. Across the street a young couple was loading up their Prius with what few belongings they could fit inside of the tiny car. The other houses looked still and quiet as if it were a normal day. She wondered whether the people inside were oblivious, had already left or had decided to stay in their homes.

  With no dead in sight, Michelle opened the door and walked outside. She reached the sidewalk in front of their house before she stopped upon hearing a piercing scream. A quick glance to her left answered her biggest question. Far down the street she saw a lone woman being attacked by one of the dead. A quick look to her right revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

  She rushed back into the house, closed and locked the door, then closed the blinds and curtains at the front of the house. She hoped the zombie she saw was the only one nearby so they would have time to pack a few things.

  Joey and Lucia were still waiting for her on the couch.

  “There’s only one zombie out there right now and it’s way down the street. We need to pack and leave quickly,” Michelle said.

  “Only pack necessities, whatever you can carry on your back,” she instructed. “Clothes, toothbrush, a picture or two. Lucia, you can bring your journal. You’re going to have to carry some food and water too, so pack lightly.”

  “What about soap and shampoo?” asked Lucia, horrified at the thought of leaving behind sweet smelling body washes, perfumes, and make-up.

  “Anna and Max have plenty at their house. It’ll be fine. Now get going, we have to hurry,” Michelle said soothingly. She knew Lucia was having a hard time processing what was happening. She would be as patient and understanding as she could until she couldn’t anymore.

  Michelle grabbed all of the phones, tablets and chargers and plugged them in on the kitchen counter. She looked, but still no call from Jesse.

  While the kids packed what little they would be bringing for themselves, she quickly rounded up all of the duffel bags and backpacks she could find from various closets. Michelle thought they should pack the most important things in their backpacks since they could wear them. She didn’t want to lose their most important supplies in a duffel bag that might have to be dropped somewhere along the way.

  She started in her bedroom. Jesse kept a gun in a drawer in his nightstand with ammo under a false bottom. She collected the gun and loaded it, putting the remainder of the ammo into an oversized backpack that Jesse used when he went camping or hunting. Inside her closet, just out of sight, was a shotgun mounted on the wall. The shells were on a shelf above it. She loaded the shotgun, set it next to the backpack, and added all five boxes of shells to the bag. She moved across the room to Jesse’s closet. Pushing aside a row of hanging shirts, she stood looking at his gun cabinet. She grabbed the key from the false bottom of his nightstand drawer and opened the cabinet. He had several hunting rifles, a shotgun, and four handguns. She loaded every single gun, then put every last box of ammo into the backpack.

  Looking at the pile, Michelle realized that she was going to have to prioritize one of the duffel bags in addition to the backpacks. She placed every gun into an extra-long duffel bag and tested its weight. It was heavy as is, so she decided not to add to it. They needed to be sure they could keep hold of the gun bag. The backpack was very heavy with all of the ammo inside, but she knew she could manage it.

  She looked at the top shelf of the gun cabinet at the row of knives Jesse had collected over the years. Most of them were hunting knives and were of high quality. She wasn’t familiar with knives and had never used any of them. She debated for a moment then placed all of them into another backpack. She added flashlights, batteries and matches. She topped the bag off with a few t-shirts and a change of clothes for each of them.

  “Damn it,” Michelle said. There were more necessities to pack. “How am I going to carry all of this shit?” She struggled to the kitchen carrying both backpacks then went back to her bedroom to collect the duffel bag. It would be easier once she was wearing one of the backpacks.

  Joey and Lucia were waiting for her in the kitchen. Michelle checked their bags to see how much room they had left. Joey had packed one change of clothes, a roll of toilet paper and a toothbrush. Lucia had packed several outfits, extra shoes, her journal, some books, a few card games and every photo that had been plastered around the mirror in her room. She also had her wallet and purse, both bursting at the seams.

  “Lucia, pick one practical outfit, one picture and your journal,” Michelle gently admonished her, “We’ll fill your bag with necessities and if there’s any room left, we’ll see if we can add any of that other stuff back in.”

  “Okay, fine,” Lucia sniffed with a little bit of attitude. Michelle was used to teenage girl attitude, so she let it go without giving it a second thought. Besides, she knew that once they left the house life was about to be turned upside down for them and there was no way it would ever be the same. So she let Lucia sigh and moan over each item she was forced to remove from her bag.

  “Joey, empty the pantry,” Michelle continued, “Think practical and put as much as you can in your backpack.” Joey started putting cans of food into his backpack. His backpack was oversized, well made and had many pockets. It was the bag he used to go hunting and camping with Jesse. Michelle watched for a moment as he emptied two boxes of protein bars into an outer packet. She grabbed a can opener and he slipped it into another of his many pockets. She could see that he had it covered and was choosing the right kinds of foods from the pantry, so she left him to it.

  “Lucia, empty both medicine cabinets into your backpack. Get the first aid supplies from under the bathroom sink, too.” Lucia sulked to the bathroom but did as she was told.

  Michelle grabbed some water bottles from the fridge and put two in the outside pockets of each backpack. She grabbed a case and put it next to their growing pile. If they were able to stay in their car, they’d keep the water. If they had to go on foot, she knew they would have eight bottles of water between them.

  Michelle found another duffel bag and emptied into it all of the remaining food and water she could. She threw in batteries and a flashlight from the junk drawer. The ex
tra supplies might come in handy, but it was another bag that could be left behind if they had to ditch their car.

  Lucia came back into the kitchen with her backpack nearly full. Michelle topped it off with a few more bottles of water.

  “You won’t need your wallet, Lucia,” Michelle told her. “Fill your purse with any extras you can fit, and you’re done.” She could probably fit a couple books and some pictures in her purse.

  Joey had finished with the pantry. Michelle grabbed all of their phones, tablets and chargers and added them to the gun bag.

  “Mom, I want a gun,” Joey told her. “A knife too.” Michelle quickly nodded and handed him a loaded 9mm with four boxes of ammo. Joey grabbed all of it. She pulled a random sheathed knife with a fixed blade and passed that to him as well. The knives didn’t mean much to her, but Joey was ecstatic as he accepted the Gerber from her. He made room in his pockets and found a place for each item. Michelle knew he was well trained with the gun and could handle himself. Jesse had taught him well at the shooting range and on hunting trips.

  Lucia on the other hand, had never fired a gun. There was no time to teach her anything right now. Michelle pulled out one of the lightest handguns and handed it to her. “This is the safety. Turn it off, point at what you want dead, and squeeze the trigger,” Michelle instructed, ignoring the horrified expression on Lucia’s face. That was all she had time for at the moment.

  She debated for a second, and then reached into the backpack that held the knives, pulled one out at random then handed it to Lucia. “Just in case,” she said gently.

  Michelle armed herself with her 9mm and an extra box of ammunition.