“Alright, let’s do this. That explosion is going to draw a lot of the dead and may clear the onramp for us. Let’s head to the overpass then see what the dead up there are doing,” Max said after everyone had their gear ready to go.
They hopped from one boxcar to the next until they reached the one which sat halfway under the ramp and halfway out. Looking up, they were less than a dozen feet from the onramp.
“This should be easy,” Jesse said as he pulled a length of rope from one of the packs. “There aren’t many dead on the onramp, and it looks like they’re all walking down toward the explosion.”
“Let’s give it a minute to put some distance between us and them,” Vince said. They decided to stop and have a smoke. That was about as much time as they were willing to give the dead that were moving away. They wanted to be on their way. “With all of that noise they’re not going to hear us and turn back around. I think we’re good.”
They’d made a makeshift safety harness for Vince out of some extra rope, though they hardly needed it for such a short climb. They could almost boost each other up but it wasn’t worth risking a fall or a broken leg. Either one could be a death sentence. So they used what safety gear they had as Jesse looped his length of rope around the pole of a streetlight on the ramp.
Jesse climbed up first keeping his head low once he reached the top of one of the concrete slabs lining the side of the ramp on the highway. He didn’t see any immediate threats. There were zombies on the street where it met with the onramp, but they were all turned toward the explosion and were shuffling very slowly toward it. The onramp itself was clear until close to where it merged with the freeway. About a hundred yards or so where the two merged, Jesse saw at least a half dozen of the dead stumbling around. Beyond that his visibility was limited.
“Nothing we can’t handle boys,” Jesse called down. “Half a dozen at the merge. Can’t see past that.”
“Alright, coming up,” Max responded. The climb was nothing compared to the climbs they’d made earlier in the day. He was up and over the guardrail in thirty seconds. A minute later Vince brought up the rear and started looping their rope, so they’d have it if they needed it again.
The onramp was nearly free of vehicles. A pileup at the bottom of the ramp explained that. It had blocked traffic nearly completely. Several cars that had tried to squeeze their way past the jumbled wreck had gotten themselves wedged in, rendering the ramp impassable to any other vehicles.
They walked a hundred yards or so until the ramp merged with the interstate. As they got closer they got a much better idea of what they were dealing with, but first they had to take out the half dozen zombies shuffling around the merge. Max swung his hammer down on the one closest to him. The hammer got caught inside its skull for a second and brackish blood lightly seeped out before the dead man dropped as the hammer slipped free. To his left, Jesse and Vince each took out two as Max finished his second with an easy thrust of his screwdriver.
The interstate itself was a mess but not anywhere near as bad as it could have been. As had been on the streets downtown, a lot of vehicles were wrecked or abandoned. Some still held the dead inside, fastened in snugly with their seatbelts. On others, the doors were wide open. Smears of blood were apparent on most of the cars. Signs of a struggle showed in various places, but most of it was free of the dead.
Behind them coming down the interstate from the east were hundreds if not thousands of zombies.
“Holy shit,” Max swore.
“Fuck, that’s a hell of a lot of zombies on our asses,” Vince said.
“One of the biggest hospitals in the city is a couple exits back that way,” Jesse said as it dawned on them where all of the zombies were coming from.
“All those zombies coming from the hospital,” Max said shaking his head in disbelief.
“They’ve probably been adding to their numbers ever since they started moving. Hell, they’re probably adding more now,” Jesse said.
“At least they’re a good half mile back, so we have a buffer as long as we keep moving,” Vince said.
They were prepared to walk for a while if they had to but hoped to find a suitable vehicle quickly especially after seeing the horde in the distance. Any kind of truck or SUV would have been ideal. As they walked, they killed an occasional zombie in their path. Surprisingly, this patch of the highway was fairly free of the dead, other than those trapped in the permanent tomb of their vehicles.
“Check it out. White pickup truck in the middle lane up ahead,” Max said. It caught his attention because it wasn’t wrecked or blocked in by other vehicles. As they got closer, they saw that its doors were closed which boded well for the battery. They would have to look inside to see whether it still held keys or not.
As Max stepped closer to the driver’s side door, he saw a crawler on the ground with its bottom half underneath the truck. A closer look showed that most of the flesh on its legs had been eaten cleanly away. His abdomen was torn open with a few loops of intestines torn to pieces. His ribcage glistened with dried bits of blood, muscle and flesh. His hands were eaten down to nubs and there was little flesh left on his forearms. Chunks had been torn from the dead man’s back and neck rendering him paralyzed. With so little left of him, Max was amazed that he was still one of the dead and not truly dead.
Hopeful that this was the driver of the truck and that it held the keys to it, Max smashed through its skull with one heavy swing of his hammer. He checked around the zombie’s hands and pockets, no keys.
“Damn it,” Max swore as he kicked the dead man to the side with his steel toed boot.
“Well would you look at that,” Jesse laughed. The keys were lying on the ground underneath the dead guy and hadn’t been visible until Max had kicked him. “Looks like we’ve got us a ride.”
Vince and Max grinned back. The truck was slightly oversized with an extended cab and a towing winch. Max climbed into the driver’s seat and the truck started up as soon as he turned the key. The gas tank was about three-quarters full. “Looks like we’re good to go,” Max said.
Chapter 19
Day 2
Michelle, Joey and Lucia seemed to be having a run of good luck after leading the dead away from the trapped family. She was able to make the next several turns without any zombies blocking her way. She was proud of her son. She’d been prepared to drive right past the house surrounded by the dead, but Joey had exhibited strong character when he insisted that they help the people trapped inside.
They were so close to safety now. Without further detour, they only had to make four more blocks to get to the street that ran parallel behind Max and Anna’s. Michelle made the next turn without incident. At the end of the street they had to take a right, go down one block then make their last left. That would take them to the property they planned to cut through so that they didn’t lead any zombies to the house.
Michelle cautiously weaved around two zombies in the street, keeping her speed at or below twenty. There were a lot of trees in this little development which hindered her visibility. The street ahead was clear, but she couldn’t see anything around the turn coming up on her right. She slowed to a crawl then let out the breath she’d been holding when she saw that the path was relatively clear.
Two cars had wrecked just around the corner, but there were no zombies walking the street. She inched her SUV around the wreck then moved forward. One more turn and it was a straight shot down two blocks to their destination.
A car appeared from the opposite end of the block heading toward them. The driver was going too fast and weaved erratically. Michelle had been driving down the middle of the street, so she veered to her right as the car rapidly approached.
In the distance at the end of the block, a few dozen zombies slowly trailed the car. The driver was obviously panicked and struggled to control the car. Just as Michelle thought it was going to pass by on her left, the car hit the front driver’s side of her SUV causing it to spin out. The SUV cam
e to a stop against a tree with the front end smashed in. Smoke instantly billowed up from under her hood. Even at her slow speed, the hit and resulting abrupt stop caused her airbags to deploy.
Both of her kids let out startled yelps. “Are you okay?” she demanded of both of them. Lucia was fine. Joey’s arm was lightly burned by the deploying of the airbag and his forearm took a hard hit. Otherwise they were uninjured. Michelle felt an immediate tightness in her shoulder where her seatbelt had restrained her but was able to flex her arm and use her hand. All in all they were in good shape, but their SUV was totaled.
The dead that had been slowly pursuing the other car were still a hundred yards away. Michelle looked over at the small car that had hit them. It had jumped the curb and spun on the front lawn of the nearest house before coming to a stop against a flagpole centered in the yard. The car appeared to be totaled.
“We’ve got to move,” Michelle told her kids. “Leave the gear in the back. Keep your backpacks. Joey, I need you to help me with the gun and ammo bags.” Michelle quickly put the shotgun into the gun bag while Joey kept his handgun. She shoved her 9mm into her holster and Lucia stuffed her empty gun into a pocket on her backpack. They got out of the car and struggled to add the two heavy bags to their loads. Joey somehow managed to shoulder the heavy ammo bag over one shoulder with the strap pulled tightly against his backpack.
“We need to check on those people, Mom,” Joey said.
“I know, now let’s move fast,” Michelle responded. “Lucia, you’re our eyes and ears behind us, okay? You watch our backs and make sure the dead don’t get too close.” After seeing Lucia’s nod of acknowledgment, Michelle and Joey rushed to the small car.
A twenty-something attractive blonde woman sat behind the wheel, hurriedly wiping tears from her eyes. In the passenger seat next to her, one of the dead was strapped in behind his seatbelt. The backseat was clear. Michelle silently said a thank you that there were no children in the car.
“I’m so sorry,” the woman started. “He was bitten but the teeth just barely grazed his skin.” She nodded toward the man in the passenger seat. His neck had broken in the crash so while his jaws still snapped at the air, just out of reach, the rest of his body remained still. “We thought he was okay. He was fine and then he suddenly turned and started grabbing for my arm trying to bite me. I had already sped up to try to ditch the zombies that were following us and when he was grabbing at me I just lost control of the car.”
“Were you bitten?” Michelle asked quickly.
“No,” the woman said emphatically and held up her arms for inspection.
“Then we need to move right now. I’m Michelle. My kids, Joey and Lucia,” Michelle said in response as she opened the woman’s car door to get her moving, worried about her going into shock or something.
“Emily,” the blonde said. She reached for a small duffel bag behind her seat then hurriedly got out of the car.
“We’ve got too much to carry and we can’t drop it. Guns and ammo,” Michelle started. “Can you give your bag to my daughter? I need you to carry this gun bag.”
Emily nodded and handed off her small duffel as she accepted the heavy gun bag from Michelle.
Michelle wondered about the man in the car. Emily didn’t wear a ring on her finger and seemed upset, but she certainly wasn’t devastated. There was no time to focus on that right now. The dead had slowly moved to within a hundred feet of them, so they needed to move fast.
“Let’s run behind this house, see if we can cut through some yards and come out on the street from that way,” Michelle said hurriedly.
“You guys have a plan?” Emily asked as they started past the house.
“We’ve got a destination. We just need to cut over to the street and head down a little ways. About the equivalent of a block,” Michelle answered as she picked up speed.
The four of them sprinted across the large empty back yard and slowed as they reached the end to make sure there were no zombies clustered between the two houses. When they saw it was clear they jogged past the rear of the next house before stopping at its back corner. The dead they’d left on the street behind them were still out of sight but were sure to reappear at any moment. Michelle wanted to cut across to the front of the houses before any of the trailing dead saw them. If they could keep out of sight, the zombies might just stay on the street where they’d left them.
They cut between the two houses and quietly made their way to the front. The surrounding yards were free of the dead. One of the houses bore signs of the infected. A car sat in the driveway with both doors open and blood streaked along the side. The front door of the house stood wide open with more telltale signs of dried blood on the white doorframe.
They kept low and quickly moved from one front yard to another. They stopped and squatted behind an SUV parked in a driveway when Michelle spotted the house they were looking for across the street. It sat on a large piece of land, most of which ran deep behind the house until it abutted the privacy fence at the rear of Max and Anna’s house.
Suddenly Lucia let out a blood curdling scream. A crawler that had been hidden just beyond the SUV in the driveway had wrapped its hands around her ankle. Joey tried to move quickly but was heavily weighed down by his pack and the ammo bag. Michelle was furthest away but upon hearing her daughter’s scream she spun around instantly, about to pounce on top of the zombie.
Emily was closest and dropped to Lucia’s feet. She quickly stabbed the zombie through its eye. Its grip immediately slackened, and Lucia jumped away. Emily wiped her scissors on the zombie’s shirt then slipped them back into her pocket. Lucia looked down at the milky substance mixed with blood oozing from the dead thing’s eye where its eyeball had burst. She was trembling from head to toe.
Michelle hugged her and quickly calmed her while checking to make sure she hadn’t been bitten. “It didn’t bite me, Mom,” Lucia’s tears cleared as she became calm.
Michelle reached for Emily and hugged her tightly. “I can never thank you enough,” she said. Emily hugged her back and shrugged off her thanks.
Joey had been weighed down with heavy bags and watched helplessly as everything unfolded. Seeing that Lucia was okay, his eyes met hers and they exchanged a quick little smile. Then he stuck his tongue out at her. In response she winked and flipped him the bird.
One or two minutes had passed from the moment the zombie had grabbed Lucia’s ankle. By some miracle, none of the zombies had caught up to them during that time. Michelle did a visual 360 then declared that they were clear to cross the street. They crossed quickly, keeping low and quiet. They weren’t sure if they’d attracted the attention of any of the dead when Lucia screamed, but they didn’t see any.
In front of them, everything about the large brick ranch appeared normal. Quite a few trees adorned the lawn in front of the house, and it appeared to be free of the dead. No cars were in the driveway and the front door of the house was closed. They crept quietly between the trees and around to the side of the house. A six foot tall privacy fence began at the rear of the house and encompassed the entire acre and a half that sat behind it.
Michelle rushed to the gate and almost prayed for it to be unlocked. The latch rose freely in her hand. A full-fledged grin covered her face. The property behind the house was heavily wooded but likely to be clear of the dead since the gate had been closed.
She motioned the others through the gate then followed, closing the gate behind her quietly. They all relaxed for a moment and cracked bottles of water. After everyone had a moment to catch their breath, they began to weave through the treed yard toward the back fence that marked the property line to Max and Anna’s house. The fence which signified safety.
Chapter 20
Day 2
Anna and Damon were doing a perimeter check of the yard. They’d carefully looked at what they could see of the front yard before climbing through the bars across the front door of their house. They both carried 9mm guns and sheathed fixed
blade knives. The guns were to be reserved only for a life or death situation in which they had no other option. They knew the dead hunted by sight and sound. A gunshot would be likely to bring the whole neighborhood down upon them.
They eased along the side of the fence nearest the driveway first. Every now and then Damon would pull himself up using one of their many trees to get a glimpse over the fence. Nothing looked abnormal around the rear or side of the neighbor’s house or yard. As they moved further along, Damon was finally able to see the front of their neighbor’s house. The front door stood open and the screen door was off its hinges. The large picture window adorning the living room had been smashed from within. Random shards of glass clung to the frame in various places.
He heard a raspy moan and followed the sound to the fallen body of his now dead neighbor. The elderly woman was one of the dead, but her legs sat twisted at awkward angles leaving her unable to stand up. Her elderly husband wasn’t anywhere within Damon’s sight.
“Mom, Mrs. Wright is a zombie. She’s on the ground. Looks like her legs are broken. I’m going to go finish her off,” Damon whispered to his mom.
“Absolutely not!” Anna hissed at him. “You are not leaving this property.”
“What the hell, Mom? Why are we doing perimeter checks if we’re going to leave the dead be? Her moans are just going to attract more of them,” Damon insisted.
“Damn it Damon,” Anna started then stopped. Normally she would call him on his language, but she generally knew when to pick and choose her battles. As for him finishing off the neighbor, Damon was as determined to protect his family as she was, and she knew she couldn’t stop him. “Don’t make any noise and watch out for Mr. Wright,” she relented.
Damon climbed a tree that had large thick branches hanging over both sides of the fence. He quietly perched himself on a branch on the neighbor’s side of the fence then checked his surroundings before dropping soundlessly to the ground below.
Chronicles of the Undead | Book 1 | Urban Gridlock Page 14