Dead Outside (Book 1)

by Oliver, Nick

  There were no cars to be seen, they must all have been put to use in the wall. And any bodies would have been piled into the burn piles I’d passed.

  At first I wondered why the wall was so widespread when I hadn’t seen a soul since crossing the wall. But after a few minutes it made sense, the survivors were probably holed up in larger buildings until the wall was complete. It was for the future. Once it was done they could safely repopulate the houses and know their streets were clear.

  I was nearing the edge of the area I’d called Crime Hills for most of my life when I saw a kid standing in a yard. He couldn’t have been more than eight years old. At first, my instinct was to raise my shotgun at him, but he was clearly not dead or anywhere near it, though he looked hungry. He just stared at me with big green eyes. I blinked a few times expecting the color to change, but it didn’t.

  As I got closer we just stared at each other. I thought about what I would do if this kid started yelling, to warn others that I was trespassing, but he didn’t say a word. I was probably more afraid of him then he was of me as calm as he looked. His eyes looked at me with a look of relief, not fear.

  I wasn’t more then ten feet from him when I stopped, I was just about to ask him where his parents were, when a woman came running out from behind a house and grabbed his hand. “What did I tell you about running off like that?” she yelled at him, completely oblivious of my presence, or so I thought, “The streets aren’t completely clear yet, you’re lucky this man on patrol found you before a walker.”

  I let out a sigh of relief, this woman thought I was a patrol here, part of her community, not some outsider, passing through or trying to invade or anything.

  She looked up at me, and her grimace turned into a smile, “Thanks for watching over my boy. He still ain’t used to the rules yet. We were gathering supplies from the next street over when I notice he’d run off.”

  I returned the smile, “No problem. The streets are pretty clear out here now.” I looked down at the boy, who was still staring at me, “You should probably stay closer to your mother. You wouldn’t want a walker to grab you when she wasn’t looking, then she’d never know what happened to you.”

  She looked down at her son, who didn’t say anything at first. She nudged his shoulder. “When someone gives you advice, what do you do?”

  He looked from his mother to me, “Thank you Sir, I won’t run away anymore.”

  “Glad to hear it.” I patted him on the head, “You guys head on back to your gathering mission. I have to patrol the rest of this street.”

  She nodded and thanked me again. Once I started back down the street I could hear her scolding her son again, which brought a smile to my face, not just because I’d gotten away, but because there was still a sense of normalcy. I used to do the same thing to my mom when I was younger.

  I guess from all the hype I expected more of a challenge, especially once I reached the wall on the other side of Pine Hills and hadn’t seen another person aside from the mother and child, let alone a patrol. It was then and there that I realized this wasn’t some plot of land being run by a gang vying for territory, this was land that people had grown up on, and it was people protecting their homes after their government abandoned them.

  I couldn’t blame them for wanting to go their own way. Hell, the mother thought I was part of their community even though I wasn’t from there. She just assumed I was a patrol, not some trespasser. It gave me hope, knowing that even the roughest areas still had some trust left to give out, even if it was because of a case of mistaken identity.

  I still kept an eye out for patrols on the other side of the wall. I’d seen the truck on the Orlando side, and didn’t want to screw up, so I stayed as close to the storefronts as I could just in case.

  I was getting hungry, so I finally decided to take a break at the local mall, about a half hours driving time from home, to stop and eat. Luckily the soldiers gave me an MRE before I left. I found an overturned semi truck in the parking lot and went into the trailer to stay out of sight. As I was tearing open the packaging of the meal I remembered the last meal I’d had was the day before, other than a protein bar for breakfast that morning.

  It wasn’t the most satisfying meal I’d ever had, it was supposed to be a Veggie Omelet, but it didn’t taste very good, which was probably why the Soldiers were so willing to part with it. Despite the awful taste, it sure beat the hell out of all the granola and protein bars I’d been living on for a week. I tried my best to savor it, but my stomach wouldn’t have any of it. I scarfed it down in probably five minutes. I was full, but I knew I’d probably be hungry again in a few hours. I still had a bit of food in my bag. Hopefully there would be something at home.

  As I put my backpack on and gathered up my other supplies, I couldn’t help but wonder how well the mall would be as a place to hold up from the walking dead, but it shook my head right away. It had too many entrances, too many glass doors and walls for anyone to hold out for any length of time.

  The further I got from Pine Hills the more cars I saw, most of which were in pileups or just abandoned in parking lots. I’d seen worse on the road since leaving Ohio, but I was walking down a road I’d driven down almost every day. I knew every bump, every pothole. It’s one thing to see someone else’s town torn apart, it’s another thing entirely to see your own.

  The road was too congested to drive a car down, but luckily I saw an abandoned bicycle chained to a light pole. I looked around and didn’t see anyone, except for a few zombies stumbling slowly toward me from the south.

  I drew my pistol, “Well, whoever left this won’t need it anymore,” I said to myself, and then shot the lock off.

  Whoever invented the phrase ‘like riding a bike’ was an asshole, because I felt like an idiot, almost falling over five or six times before I finally got going.

  I was almost out of breath by the time I reached Grovemont. I passed the community college I was technically still enrolled at, the coffee shop Roxie worked at, the restaurant Nick used to work at, and then finally I reached the street we lived on.

  I wasn’t even sure how to express the emotions I was feeling. I didn’t stop but as I saw the corpse of a neighbor I knew for years rotting next to his mailbox I felt my eyes water up a bit. I didn’t have time to worry about neighbors who I only saw when I drove past them every day.

  I reached our house, and noticed immediately that my truck was gone, and then noticed a few bodies littering the yard. When I got closer I noticed the windows were boarded up, but had what I assumed was dried blood on them.

  The front door was ajar, which naturally worried me. I pushed the door open to find the living room a complete disaster. The carpet had muddy footprints all over the place, the coffee table was knocked over, and the television was smashed. The walls were smudged with what must have been blood or something.

  My room was the same, everything that had been on my dresser and desk was now on the floor. I knelt down to pick up a broken picture frame, taking the picture out. It was a picture of Sarah and me. I had said something funny right before the picture was taken, and we were both mid-laughter. I reached up and took my hat off. I was wearing it in the picture. It had a bit of blood splattered across it now. I tried to wipe it off, but it was dried in now.

  My eyes were watering up again, so I put my hat back on, the picture in my pocket and left the room. I didn’t need anything else in there, not anymore.

  I’m not sure why, but I closed my door. It was more like I was closing the door on that chapter of my life. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I went to check the other rooms in the house.

  I glanced into Nick’s room, saw the same damage, but didn’t go in. The bathroom was already picked clean of anything useful. I checked the kitchen last, the cabinets were all open and empty, and not even a granola bar was left.

  I leaned against the counter for a second to collect my thoughts and wipe my face of the tears that finally stopped flowing, when I noticed
a sign magnetized to the fridge. It took me a second to realize what it was, but when I did I practically fell over grabbing it off the fridge.

  It said, “Sam, we went to Nick’s Uncle George’s house, down that old dirt road off highway 27. Don’t go to the school, its overrun.” It was signed by Roxie.

  My heart practically skipped a beat. They were alive, and better yet, they weren’t far. Nick’s Uncle’s house was only about a forty-five minute drive from here.

  It was about 5:30 and I didn’t have much time before the sun went down. I probably should have stayed and headed there in the morning, but I couldn’t wait, not when I was this close.

  I went out the back door, and ran through my backyard to my neighbor’s backyard. His wife’s van wasn’t in the driveway, so I hoped, rather cold heartedly, that they’d taken that and left his car in the garage. I went into their screen room, and looked inside through the sliding glass door. I didn’t see anybody, so I broke his sliding glass door and stepped inside. Nobody screamed or came running after I broke in, so I went right toward the garage door. I saw his keys hanging from a key ring by the door. Luckily the keys to his car were still there. I grabbed them and went into the garage to find his car still there.

  The power was out, so I had to manually lift his garage door. The few zombies I’d seen down the street earlier were getting closer. I hopped in the car and fired it up. I sped off past the zombies in the street, swerving around them, and then past my neighbor rotting next to his mailbox.

  I had a twenty minute drive to Nick’s Uncle’s house. I’d ridden along with Nick and his Dad a few times to the house to pick up and drop off a big trailer his Uncle had. The main roads were congested, but luckily I knew a back way to get around most of the congestion. So I started off that way, passing more familiar sights, hoping that Roxie, Sarah, and Nick made it to the house, and that they would be there waiting for me when I arrived.

  Chapter Eleven: Nick and Roxie

  7:00 PM, July 4

  Nick’s uncle’s house was just ahead. It was mildly secluded, being twenty minutes driving time from any major highways, and only five neighbors within two miles. The sun was beginning to dip over the horizon. I probably should have found some shelter and waited until the sun came back up tomorrow, but I’d traveled this far, I couldn’t wait anymore, not when I was this close.

  Nick’s Uncle George was what I guess you could call a hoarder, he had more vehicles then any other two people I knew, from dirt bikes, to dump trucks, and jet skis to house boats, he had it all, even though most of it was rusting away and filled with hornet and wasp nests. I recognized the driveway even in the dark from the stack of dry rotted tires stacked up next to the mailbox.

  The house was surrounded by several large trees and bushes, but I could still see several dozen Zombies surrounding it. I felt a smirk curl up from the corner of my mouth. Zombies only stay somewhere as long as they think food exists there, otherwise they’d move on somewhere else.

  My heart started racing when I saw movement in one of the upstairs windows. I brought the car to a stop and flashed my headlights a few times at the house trying to get the attention of someone inside. An unfortunate side effect of doing so was getting the attention of some of the Zombies closest to me.

  After a few seconds of not seeing movement in the house, I honked the horn, catching the attention of the rest of the Zombies outside. A figure appeared in one of the windows holding a handgun, staring at me. It was Nick.

  “Nick!” I cracked the window and yelled out, “It’s Sam, let me in!”

  “Sam?” I heard him yell back in amazement.

  “Yes,” I yelled out in response, “it’s Sam, open the goddamned door!”

  “Ok, just a second.” He stalled, “Wait until they are far enough from the door for you to get it.”

  I honked the horn, and flashed the lights a few more times, trying to draw the Zombies to me faster, though they kept their slow steady pace. When they were close enough to spit on the front bumper I floored the gas, shooting gravel and dirt out from under the rear tires, before the car jerked forward and plowed through the crowd of corpses.

  After clearing the mob, I turned the wheel sharply and hit the brakes. The back tires lost traction and fish tailed to the left, coming to a stop just a few feet from the front door. I grabbed my backpack, bat, shotgun, and swung the car’s door open.

  There was a Zombie with its legs pinned underneath one of the tires of the car. I ignored it and tried to open the front door, but it was still locked. The door was beaten up pretty badly. The paint used to be chipped in places, but now there was hardly any left on it, after having a bunch of fists and claws pounding and clawing at it for god knows how long. I felt something grab my right ankle, and pull my feet out from under me.

  I kicked my leg free, and tried to crawl away. “Open the door please!” I shouted as I crushed the skull of the pinned zombie in with my boot. Just then the door swung open, and Nick drug me inside, and slammed the door shut just as several Zombies were about to reach the door.

  Nick had a huge smile going from ear to ear. “Where the fuck have you been?” he asked trying to hide the surprise that was still all over his face. He must not have shaved in a few days, he had a dark five o’clock shadow covering the bottom half of his face.

  A tear rolled down his cheek, and he grabbed me in a bear hug and patted me on the back.

  “Traffic was terrible,” I responded with a joke after he let me go. I could feel my throat choking up, it was just now hitting me that he was really alive, and this wasn’t a dream.

  “Sam!” I heard a shrill voice echo from upstairs. Roxie practically flew down the stairs, and tackled me in a hug. “We thought you were dead,” she sobbed happily. Her hair was starting to get frizzy, probably from a lack of washing and straightening.

  After a few more minutes of hugs and tears, I looked around. They already knew what I was about to ask, even before I asked it. “Sarah?”

  Nick’s face went from happily excited, to a sympathetic frown. He opened his mouth slightly, but closed it a second later and shook his head.

  My heart dropped. A thousand images flashed through my mind, all the nightmares I’d had over the last few weeks were true. I was too late.

  “When?” I could barely form the word with my vocal cords. I’m not even sure if I even said it, or if I’d just moved my lips. Either way, Nick understood.

  “We got separated,” he wasn’t making eye contact, talking to the ground. “At the school, when all the people who’d been infected began to reanimate in the courtyard. We managed to get to the gate, but there were so many people…” he stopped. He was blaming himself, mad that he wasn’t able to keep her safe.

  Roxie continued for him, “So many people were pushing, shoving, trying desperately to get out. Every other person was one of those… things. Somewhere between the school and the gate we lost her.”

  I felt a spark of hope come from deep down. “So you didn’t actually see her die? Or get bitten? She could still be alive!”

  Of course, it was just irrational hope, even more irrational than the hope I’d had on the way here. If I gave up, what would be the point of going on?

  “Sam, we looked everywhere.” Nick tried to make me see reason. “I miss her too, but you have to look at the facts, the number of people that died is staggering. The chances that she made it…”

  “Chances?” I cut him off angrily, “What are the chances I’d be able to travel a thousand miles full of those damned things? What are the chances you and Roxie would make it here, especially after being in a cluster fuck at the school with all those Infected and stampeding people?”

  Nick just stared at me. His eyes said he was considering the possibility she could have survived, but the rest of his face was still in a state of denial. “You shouldn’t get your hopes up.” He again tried to reason with me.

  I just shook my head. “You know how stubborn she is,” I argued angrily, “She�
��s out there right now alive, and we need to get to her. I mean shit, did you even look?”

  “How dare you ask if we even looked?” Roxie was giving me a death stare.

  “Did you find her body?” I demanded. Granted I was getting ready to cross some emotional lines, but that didn’t matter, I wanted a straight answer. “Well?”

  She didn’t break her stare for even one second, “We risked our lives looking for her. We looked for a week, everywhere we could think of.”

  “You didn’t look hard enough!” I yelled right in her face. I should have known what was going to happen next.

  Nick’s fist connected with my jaw hard, knocking me off my feet almost instantly. I was dazed for a second. If he’d have hit me any harder I would probably have been knocked out. I came to my senses and kicked Nick in the leg, making him fall down right next to me. I rolled on top of him, pinning one of his hands with my right knee, and the other with my left hand. My right hand was balled in a fist, held back by my head.

  “Hit me again,” I challenged him. “I dare you.”

  “We looked,” he looked me in the eyes. “I promise you, we looked everywhere, and we didn’t find her.”

  I stared back, shaking my head in denial, “I don’t believe it.” I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt the tear rolling down my cheek. I punched the ground next to Nick’s head. I wasn’t intending to scare him, although it did also accomplish that, I was just angry, not at Nick or Roxie, angry at myself. It wasn’t their fault.

  I rolled to the ground next to Nick, and tried to compose myself. It wasn’t long before Nick and Roxie were getting choked up. I wiped my face and got up, “I’m going out there to find her.”

  “Like hell you are!” Roxie protested in her mom voice.

  “Watch me!” I walked past her toward the door, where my bag was still sitting.

  “It’s the middle of the night,” Roxie yelled, pointing at the window, “How are you going to find anything with it so dark?”