The Infected Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Zuko, Joseph

  Tina pointed behind him, “Grab some knives!”

  Cliff pulled his boot out of the display and checked out the butcher shop behind the meat section. In two steps he was up and over the counter. On the far wall a magnet strip held a full set of butcher knives and one monster sized meat cleaver.

  In a snap Cliff was back over the counter with a large shiny butcher’s knife and a well-used meat cleaver. He liberated twenty pounds of prime steak from the cold shelves outside the meat department.

  Maybe I’ll get one last great meal.

  He rejoined his family, dropped the meat off and handed the knife over to Tina. The cart was getting pretty full. Tina did some fast math in her head and calculated that if they stretched out the portions it might be enough to feed them for a month. They would not be stuffed every day, but they would not starve either. It was enough for now.

  She pulled at the cart, “We should get medical supplies!”

  Cliff took his position back behind the rig and gave it all he had to get it rolling again. They headed down the aisle with toiletries and snatched up some extra toothbrushes, shampoo and lady products. Tina made sure she grabbed a couple medical kits, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and some Ace bandages.

  They had enough food to take care of their mouth holes but what about the other end of their bodies. Cliff grabbed two of the largest toilet paper cases and Tina tossed a big box of baby wipes onto the pile. The last row they headed down was produce. Tina tossed bags of fruit in. They sprinted to the front of the store. An end-cap filled with batteries and flashlights caught Cliff’s eye. He seized a couple flashlights and a dozen batteries to power them.

  Infected-Darleen got up off the floor and chugged like a locomotive for Tina. She could feel her heart climb up into her throat, “Ay guey! Un zombie!” Tina reverted to her native tongue.

  Cliff was busy tossing the last few batteries into the basket and did not see that his wife was in danger. Infected-Darleen’s eye had been scooped out and the left side of her face had been torn open. Her jagged smile was open so wide that Tina could see her back molars. Tina was raised in a pretty tough part of Mexico, but it had been a long time since she had been in a fight. Infected-Darleen spotted the three children at the front of the cart and made a move for them.

  Don’t touch my kids!

  Tina was not afraid to cut a bitch. She backhanded infected-Darleen with the knife. The culinary tool designed for slicing meat did an amazing job of rearranging what was left of infected-Darleen’s features. A chunk of flesh was stripped off the right side of her face. She was practically all skull and unrecognizable now, but the strike was not enough to finish the job. Her snapping teeth were relentless as she pulled Tina to the floor.

  “CLIFF!”

  The children cried and helplessly watched from inside their plastic toy car.

  Chapter 4

  Tina was able to get the edge of the knife up against infected-Darleen’s neck. It was the only thing stopping it from taking a bite. The blade sawed deep into the soft flesh as the creature fought to get closer to its prey.

  Cliff landed a kick into the side of the monster’s head. A second later he brought all eight inches of the cleaver’s blade down onto the back of its skull.

  The body went limp.

  He had to put his foot on Darleen’s neck to pull the blade back out. He lifted Tina to her feet.

  “You okay?!”

  “Yeah! I’m fine! I almost had her!”

  “I know.” Cliff looked over the gash that resided in the back of Darleen’s skull. A hunk of her gray matter was exposed, “You have to get the brain to take these people down.”

  The other humans in this store had finished filling their baskets and were making their way to the exits.

  “Is there anything else we need?” Cliff wiped the sweat from his forehead.

  “To get the fuck out of here!” Tina hovered over the scared children.

  A few infected stormed toward the family. Cliff stepped in front of his wife and plotted his next move. He couldn’t aim for the skull because it would get stuck again and the second monster would get him. He tightened his grip on the cleaver’s worn handle. The weight was close to the hammer he used at work. Every tool had its intended job. This one’s job was to chop through bone. His plan was complete. Go for the neck. Separate the head.

  He swung his powerful arm horizontally at the first infected and his plan worked perfectly. The cranium left the neck in one move. He twisted his wrist and the blade faced the other direction. He swung his arm backwards and the cleaver hit its target.

  The noggin rolled across the floor. Cliff double-checked the area and it looked clear for now. Most of the people had run outside. He took a step forward and stepped on something metallic. It was soaked in blood but he could easily spot the pearl handle of the switchblade under his foot. He picked it up and closed the blade. As he pushed the cart to the front of the store he slid it into his jeans pocket.

  He kept the cart far enough back from the door so it would not set off the sensor and open it. He snuck up to the edge of the glass and looked out into the parking lot.

  It was absolute chaos.

  Half of the people that had escaped had been bitten. The vehicles at the front of the lot were all covered in blood. Unmanned carts rolled without purpose across the asphalt. Their van sat ten spaces deep into the lot. It was extremely clear that it was safer in the store now than out there.

  “What are you doing? Let’s go!” Tina was ready to charge.

  “You need to stay here with the kids! I’ll go get the van!”

  “Are you insane?! You can’t leave us here!”

  “Look!” He pointed out the window.

  She joined him and took a peek. Cliff was right. There was no way they could get through the lot with this cart, unload the kids and the supplies without one of those bastards taking a chunk off them.

  “I’ll hide behind the counter with the girls.” They pushed the cart behind the counter that sold lotto tickets and cigarettes. The cart was completely hidden behind the display.

  “Hold tight!” He begun to push her down behind the counter as well, but she grabbed him by his shirt collar and planted a deep kiss on him.

  “Be safe!”

  “Always am.” He had to rip himself away from her. He pulled the keys from his jeans and had his thumb ready to hit the door lock. Cliff had to psych himself up for this. It felt like a suicide mission, but what other option did he have? They couldn’t live in the Safeway. He got his game face on and rushed out the door with the cleaver ready for action. It took every fiber of his body to keep going and not freeze up from fear.

  The parking lot looked like a warzone, like a warlord’s rampage on the people after a coup. Bodies lay across the ground and shook as they made the change from human to infected. The people that made it to their cars were smashing their way through the parking lot. They hit every parked car as they made their escape.

  It had been a long time since Cliff played high school football and when he did it was on defense, so making his way through a net of dangerous monsters was quite foreign territory. He wasted no time and charged hard out from under the store’s covered sidewalk.

  Cliff veered to the right and zigged past a pack of infected. He laid down a few strategic strikes with the cleaver. Blood splattered with every chop. Gallons of bodily fluids doused him.

  The infected heads rolled.

  He approached a shaking body on the ground. Bite marks crisscrossed the woman’s face. Her mouth pulled tight. Eyes were already black.

  Why wait for her to get up?

  Stomp! Cliff’s boot crashed down onto her head. The skull cracked and her brains shot out of a ragged split in her scalp. He tapped the button and the brake lights flashed on the van. He hit the button again and the side door began to slide open on its own. Cliff had never been so happy that the salesman up sold him on that feature. Cliff darted into the side of the van and slammed the d
oor shut behind him. A set of teeth crashed into the tinted window. The infected clawed at the glass.

  Cliff stepped and fought his way over the captain’s chair. After a push of the start button the V6 engine came alive and the seat belt sensor beeped over and over. Should he have taken the two seconds to click the belt into position and silenced the stupid thing?

  Nah.

  Cliff watched as a truck sped through the parking lot. It was on a collision course with a gas station at the edge of the shopping center. It rammed the pump on the front row. The metal box folded in half and gas sprayed into the air. Cliff ducked down below the dash in anticipation of the explosion. Nothing. From across the parking lot he could hear the trucks engine revving. Its horn blasted.

  He sat back up. The front of the truck rested on top of the pump that had been pushed over onto its side. He put the vehicle into reverse and didn’t even check to see if someone else was pulling out. He just stomped on the gas.

  The station erupted into a colossal fireball. Cliff had been to Nine Inch Nails concerts that were not as loud as this explosion.

  Inside the store the ground under Tina’s butt shook from the massive explosion outside.

  “Come on girls. Be quiet,” she whispered, “Daddy will be right back. I promise.” Doubt crept in.

  What if he didn’t?

  What if he was dead right now?

  How the hell would she get out of here safely with her three children? She couldn’t possible carry them all.

  A set of bloody hands crashed down on the counter inches from her head. She vomited out a scream. The nasty creature pulled itself over the counter. It was about to drop down on her. Tina clutched the knife with both hands and forced the blade up into the jaw of the beast. She was blasted with blood. The warm sticky syrup drained down her chest and formed a waterfall of blood between her C-cups. Its body went limp and fell on the floor next to her. The three little ones cried and reached out for their Mama. Tina extracted the knife and rolled back over to her children, “It’s okay! It’s okay. Mama’s okay. Where the hell is your father?!” she wiped the blood off her face.

  CRASH!

  The backend of the van exploded through the sliding glass doors. The back hatch opened and Cliff climbed out.

  “Tina!” he ran to the counter. She popped up and gave him another round of thankful kisses.

  “You’re okay!”

  “I’m fine.”

  The dead body blocked the cart from getting out from behind the counter. Cliff grabbed the body by the belt and dragged it across the floor. It left a black streak across the tile. Tina and Cliff slipped a little on the slick surface as they maneuvered the cart for the back of the van. They crashed it right into the back bumper.

  “Get in!” Tina pulled at her children. Eve got out first and climbed up into the back of the open hatch. She helped pull up her sister Alex by the wrist and got her into the van. Cliff pulled Brea out of the toy car and handed her over to his oldest.

  “Get her in her seat!” he told Eve. Brea was terrified and cried uncontrollably. The children climbed over the back row and got themselves strapped in.

  Tina and Cliff moved with haste and unloaded the cart into the back of the van. It took them no time at all to empty it. An infected shuffled toward them. It was the old man that owned the switchblade. Cliff hit him with a back kick and the old infected man fell over a display of beer at the front of the store.

  Tina loaded the last bag of rice, “Grab some of those brews!”

  “What?” Cliff pulled the cart away from the back of the van.

  Tina had started to climb in herself. “It’s like liquid bread!”

  “Good point.”

  The infected old man got back to his feet. Cliff chopped down onto his skull so hard that it split it in two. He kicked the old body in the stomach again and pulled the cleaver out as it fell to the floor. Cliff muscled up four cases of the finest Tecate. It was a brand of Mexican beer that they both loved. Somehow he found room for them.

  Once all of the food and supplies were secure, he pulled himself up and over the pile. He hit the button that automatically closed the hatch and made his way over the kids and dropped his tired body down onto the driver’s seat.

  A group of infected scratched at the hood of the van as Cliff shifted into drive and smashed his boot to the floor. The infected were thrown off the hood.

  Blood sprayed up onto the windshield.

  Cliff hit the wipers and windshield wash. The van dropped down with a crunch off the sidewalk and sparks flew as the suspension system bottomed out.

  “Get us home safe!” Tina grabbed his forearm and squeezed it tight.

  The gas station fire had grown so big that it had caught the bank next door on fire. From inside the van they could smell the smoke. The gas fumes were undeniable, but there was something else in the air that their brains couldn’t identify. It was the smell of burning money. The other smell they couldn’t quite work out was the smell of cooked human. The infected stepped out of the flames. They looked like The Human Torch. The van raced past the structure fire. They counted at least thirty souls that had been set ablaze.

  “Girls, keep your eyes down!” Cliff wished he could do the same, but someone had to steer. He weaved the van through the parking lot and tried his best not to hit a body straight on. The last thing they needed was to blow the radiator or to have a burnt body crash through the windshield. The front of the van crunched down onto the street as they pulled away from Safeway.

  “What do you think this is?” Tina pulled her seat belt across her lap.

  Now that they were sitting still they could feel just how badly the stress and horror was affecting their bodies. They were both trembling with fear. Their chests heaved as they struggled to catch their breaths. Cliff’s knuckles were blanched white on the steering wheel. He shook his head and thought about saying it looked like “The End” but the truth was it was only the beginning.

  Chapter 5

  Karen pressed end after her call from Jim. She fought the urge to cry. Crying would not help. Her mind raced. She needed to focus and calm down. None of this made any sense.

  How did a dead person come back?

  They are dead.

  Dead is dead.

  She turned off the TV and stepped hastily over to the sliding glass door, closed and locked it. She pulled the blinds shut and turned off the light in the playroom. The back of Karen’s place faced a fence made of tall trees. There was nothing else back there. No people or other apartments to look in on them. It was one of the few things Karen liked about the place. It felt private. Even though she lived with hundreds of other people in the complex, the trees made it so she could walk around the living room in the nude and not worry about someone seeing her.

  A large window sat above the couch in the living room. She dropped the blinds and closed the curtains. Karen turned off the floor lamp in the corner.

  "What are you doing, Mama?" Valerie looked up at her from the couch.

  What am I doing?

  How do you explain this to her?

  "We're going to play in the bedroom. You wanna play with the computer?"

  "Yeah!" she perked right up. Valerie never got to play with the laptop. Karen knew that if she put on one of those kid’s games it would keep her and Robin busy for a while.

  "Come on girls," Karen said as she picked up the computer and took them to the bedroom.

  She set it up on the bed and got an Internet game going.

  "You guys play sweet, okay?" Karen made sure the bedroom window was locked then she closed the blinds. She peeked out the window into the parking lot.

  It looked clear. Nothing weird was going on.

  Maybe it is only in Portland?

  She clicked the Internet app on her phone and typed, “Portland infection” in the search bar. There were already thousands of posts. She clicked the first one. It was a photo from the top of a hospital. The shot was of the main emergency entrance.
There were so many bodies lying dead on the ground. From this angle and height they were only human shaped blood spots.

  The next photo was a close up from the inside of a car. A rage filled infected human was pressed against the other side of the glass. Its eyes were black and teeth stained red. The thing’s bottom lip was torn and hung lower than its jaw. She quickly read over the articles. Some said they couldn’t be killed. Others said to shoot them in the brain. The next photo was of a young girl, maybe ten and she was eating the guts out of a man’s stomach. He could have been her father.

  Karen closed the Internet app. There was no need for her to see that kind of gore. Karen did not even like horror movies. After watching one, the intense imagery would keep her up all night. She called her Mom. She had to warn her. The phone rang and rang, but Penny did not answer. Her call went to voicemail.

  "Mom, call me right away. I love you." Karen’s phone beeped. The battery was at twenty percent. She clicked it in to the charger next to the bed. Karen caught her reflection in the full-length mirror. It was spring so she had worn a pair of shorts, a tank top and flip-flops. She needed to get more clothes on. She pulled her new jeans from the dryer. Grabbed a pair of Jim's athletic socks and her leather boots that covered her shins.

  "Where we going?" Valerie noticed her Mama getting dressed.

  "Nowhere baby. Mama needs to put more clothes on that's all. Play your game."

  Karen put on her sports bra and a workout tank top. She wanted a thick shirt to cover her arms but all of her clothes were weak designer fabrics intended to only look good, not protect her from the harsh elements outside. She pulled down one of Jim's old thick cotton button up shirts. The shirt smelled like Jim and that made Karen feel warm all over.

  High on the shelf in the closet was a black box. She pulled it down. The word Ruger was molded into the hard plastic lid. She popped it open. A handgun and two magazines rested on the foam padding. She had shot the thing twice at a range and it freaked her out.