Dead Outside (Book 1)

by Oliver, Nick

  The moment didn’t last long, the sight of one of the undead walking past the rolling door snapped my attention back to the problem at hand. I shifted it into drive and slammed on the gas. As soon as I hit the water outside the garage the truck hydroplaned, slamming into the wall of the next building, slamming a zombie, crushing its body against the opposite wall.

  I’d driven in rain before, and I’d driven on ice, but this was a whole new beast. The wind speeds were still ridiculously high, and the rain was pooling up, there was so much of it. It was more like I was driving through a river, there was so much water on the ground, and so much wind speed, I was surprised I kept control of the truck.

  It took me at least five minutes to drive toward the knocked over bus, I had to drive carefully to avoid wrecking the truck. I must have run over at least a dozen zombies on my way there, most of them weren’t killed, most likely just had their bodies crushed under the tires.

  When I got to the bus wall, I could see several dozen of the undead stumbling around the courtyard being knocked over by the wind. I stopped about twenty yards away from the bus that had been knocked over, and saw that more were squeezing every minute.

  The engine roared as I slammed the gas. There were three of them between the truck and the bus, two of them were deflected off to the side, and one went under the right tires. The grill guard hit the bus and it lurched forward slightly. I backed up and hit it again. Every hit closed the space between the buses ever so slightly.

  I drove over to where the buses met and saw that I’d closed up the space well enough to stop the flow of undead into the courtyard.

  I drove my truck over to the stairwell rather than back to the auto garage. The hurricane wasn’t calming down any and with all the zombies now loose in the school I didn’t want to have to walk back.

  I scratched around the wound on my forehead and remembered my hat blew off earlier. I felt like I’d just lost a finger or something, Sarah gave me that hat, it was by far the only possession in the world I cared about. When I brought my hand back down I saw blood all over it. I must have blown my stitches. Roxie was going to be pissed.

  I got to the safe room, closed and locked the door behind me. Nick was sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of whiskey and a glass in front of him.

  “I’ll take one of those.” I said grabbing a glass from the counter and sitting down across from him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Company

  3:00 PM, December 12

  The hurricane was still going strong. We kept the doors locked, but every once in a while Nick and I would open the door to see how bad it was. There weren’t any more zombies in the courtyard that we could tell, which meant the bus was still blocking that walkway.

  We fired up the generator to watch a movie to help pass the time. Everybody was pretty stressed out, so rather then just the one movie we were having a Star Wars marathon while having a few drinks.

  I reached up to my hatless head and scratched the skin around my fresh bandage Roxie had just put on a few hours ago.

  “Stop fiddling with it,” Roxie scolded. “You’re going to pop your stitches again if you don’t leave it alone.”

  “I’m not exactly hopping off balconies,” I defended myself. “I’m not going to pop a stitch by relieving an itch.”

  “Remember when we were kids and we would beat the shit out of each other with those plastic light sabers?” Nick asked, mixing another drink. “We got pretty good at sword fighting from all that.”

  “Remember when the plastic ones broke so we had to use sticks and pipes?” I reminded him.

  “I can still feel those bruises sometimes,” Nick shivered.

  “You guys are such nerds,” Roxie taunted. “Always chasing each other around with some kind of weapon.”

  “You’re just upset because we wouldn’t let you play,” I made fun of her. “I remember you used to run to mom yelling ‘Mommy, Mommy. Sammy and Nick won’t let me play Star Wars!’ It was hilarious”

  Nick spit out some of his drink he laughed so hard, “You have to admit that was pretty funny.”

  A maniacal smirk grew on Roxie’s face, “I don’t know. You didn’t have a problem playing Star Wars the other night, Isn’t that right Anakin?”

  Nick’s face flushed almost instantly. He took a gulp and mumbled something quietly to Roxie.

  “What was that?” she asked loudly. “I couldn’t quite hear you.”

  “Yes Padme,” he said loud enough for Sarah and me to hear.

  Sarah and I erupted into laughter, which made Roxie laugh as well. Nick just sat cross armed and was too embarrassed to laugh.

  It was moments like these that made it all worth it. The things I’d done in the last few months to be able to enjoy these moments would have made me cringe a year ago. Now they were becoming second nature. I put my arm around Sarah.

  When I did she leaned in closer to me and rested her head on my chest. A smile crept up my face. Fuck who I was a year ago, I didn’t care that the dead were walking around trying to eat us. Just having Sarah made it all worth it to me.

  12:00 PM, December 13

  The wind and rain had stopped earlier that morning. Nick and I went outside to check if it was just the eye of the storm but saw the clouds were only to the west, with clear skies to the east.

  We all sat down at the kitchen table to talk about what we needed to do to clear out the school again. The storm had blown quite a few of the undead into the school, and the knocked over bus also let a few sneak in.

  “I want to check the buses before we start clearing out the courtyard.” I took a sip of coffee, “If another bus was knocked over in the storm we could be ringing the dinner bell. I can see them all from the second floor. I won’t have to go downstairs.”

  “There are still going to be some up on the second floor,” Sarah added. “We heard them get thrown up here by the wind.”

  “There won’t be too many,” Nick was loading clips for the handguns. “We can handle a few of them. The problem is going to be the stairwell. As soon as they see us they’re going to come up the stairs.”

  “After we clear the second floor walkways we can just put one of us halfway up the stairwell to pop them as they walk in,” I suggested. “They aren’t very coordinated, and can’t climb stairs very fast, so one person should do the trick.”

  “Where do you want me?” Roxie asked anxiously. “In the stairwell or on the walkways taking them out from up there?”

  “Walkways,” I answered without having to think about it. “Just place your shots carefully. Try not to waste too much ammo.”

  “Okay, let’s go clear out the second floor walkways and check those buses.” Nick finished loading his last clip.

  I stood up rather slowly. My side was still hurting me from when I nearly fell off the bus the other day. Roxie said it was most likely just bruised, but it could be a small fracture, when she checked me out that night.

  Roxie saw me place my hand where the pain was coming from. “You should sit this one out. I can clear the walkways with Nick.”

  “No, I’m fine, it’s no big deal,” I shook my head. “It just hurts when I stand up or sit down.”

  “Yes, it is a big deal.” She put her hand on the rib and poked, which made me wince even more then when I stood up. “If you overdo it now you could make this worse. You stay here with Sarah and we’ll take care of the walkway. Once we’ve checked the buses we’ll call you guys out and we’ll start working on the courtyard.”

  “Roxie’s right Sam,” Sarah put her hand on my shoulder. “They can handle it. Just take it easy. You don’t have to do everything.”

  I didn’t like it, but I could tell Nick agreed with them based on the look he had on his face. “Fine,” I said reluctantly. “Just be careful out there.”

  “We’ll be back in no time,” Nick tried to reassure me, but it didn’t work. I hated not being useful, and I hated being on the sidelines even more.

  Nick and Roxie
went outside to start clearing them out. Sarah and I sat at the kitchen table with our rifles and boxes of ammo waiting to go clear out the ones in the courtyard.

  After about twenty minutes the radio chirped, “Buses are solid, and we cleared the ones on the second floor out and Nick is in the stairwell already, waiting on you guys.” A shot rang out just as Roxie cut off her transmission.

  “That’s our cue,” I said, grabbing my rifle and a box of ammo. I stood up a little faster this time to show it didn’t hurt as much but it still did.

  “Nice try,” Sarah saw right through my ruse. “Pain is in the eyes, not in how fast you move.”

  “Yeah, well you can’t blame a guy for trying,” I admitted as we walked outside.

  There were a bit more than I expected to be in the courtyard, but not too many. Roxie fired again and I saw a distant body collapse. Sarah and I brought our rifles up and followed suit.

  There was plenty of other debris in the courtyard besides the undead. Tree branches and random pieces of garbage were all over the place. There was even a slide that looked like it came off of a playground.

  A few of them wandered toward the stairwell, but I could hear Nick’s pistol firing as they disappeared into it.

  “This is almost getting too easy,” I heard Roxie gloat as she dropped another zombie.

  She was a good shot for sure, but it worried me that she was getting so cocky. I didn’t say anything, no sense in getting into an argument right then.

  It only took about an hour to clear out all the ones that were walking around. There would most likely be crippled ones that couldn’t walk anymore strewn about, but for the most part we were in the clear.

  Nick went into the courtyard to see if any were under the second floor walkways that we couldn’t see and gave me the thumbs that it was clear.

  “Okay Nick, lets start dragging these bodies over to the burn pile,” I yelled to him as I slung my rifle across my back and drew my pistol out of the holster on my belt.

  “I thought I said not to overdo it?” Roxie asked, pointing at my side.

  “Roxie you weigh ninety pounds soaking wet,” I exaggerated slightly. “You can’t lift those bodies at all, and I don’t want them lying there too long. I’ll be fine.”

  “Fine,” she relented. “But take your time, it’s not a race.”

  “Yes Mom,” I said sarcastically as we started walking down stairs. “Why don’t you go around and take care of any crawlers. I ran over quite a few of them that night, and I’m sure the storm could have crippled some of them. I don’t want any surprises.”

  “Yes Dad,” she answered sarcastically and walked off toward the auto garage.

  Nick and I started dragging the corpses back to the burn pile we made when we first took the school months ago. It was tucked in a corner where we didn’t normally go. The walls next to it were still charred black from the fire we made back then.

  Sarah was picking up other debris like the branches and garbage and putting it in big black garbage bags.

  Nick and I dropped off two bodies at the new pile we were making next to the old one. We were walking back to the courtyard to grab more when Sarah walked up with something familiar in her hands.

  “Look what I found stuck in a tree branch,” she held out my hat, still soaked from being in the rain for over a day. “I can’t believe it didn’t blow away.”

  “I can’t believe it’s still in one piece,” Nick said grabbing another corpse, “What the hell is that thing made of?”

  “Holy shit,” I was shocked. I grabbed it from her and went to put it on but it was still soaked, “Maybe I should let it dry before I put it back on.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” Sarah took it back and started picking up debris again. “I’ll go put it in the sun for a few hours.”

  “Thanks babe!” I thanked her and then grabbed another corpse to drag back to the burn pile.

  On the way back to the pile I heard a gunshot coming from the auto garage. Roxie must have found a crawler or something. Nick was still setting the body he just dragged onto the pile.

  “So how are you and Roxie doing man?” I asked, figuring a little conversation would help pass the time.

  “Better,” he admitted. “Ever since you two went on that supply run we’ve been getting along pretty well,” he cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed. “I still want to talk to you about what we said before that run.”

  I’d almost forgotten about that. We left the pile of bodies and started walking toward the courtyard to drag more bodies back.

  “I don’t know if we need to have that conversation anymore,” I tried to avoid the subject. “Do you?”

  “Come on Sam,” Nick grabbed the shoulders of another body. “Were you really going to throw me out of here if Roxie and I couldn’t work it out?”

  “Oh I don’t know,” I groaned as I bent down to grab another body. “The day’s still young.”

  “Ha ha,” he said sarcastically. “I guess I’d do the same thing if you did all that to my sister.”

  “You don’t have a sister,” I said dropping off the body I was dragging at the pile.

  “Yeah,” he said, dropped off the body he was dragging as well. “But you know, I mean if I had a sister for you to argue with constantly and think about breaking up with.” He paused for a moment, and then said, “Never mind, stupid comparison.”

  “I’ll say,” I chuckled, which only made my side hurt.

  We made a few more trips then Nick finally spoke up again, “What’s our end game?”

  “End game?” I thought out loud. “I don’t know. I’ve never been one for looking too far into the future, you know that.”

  “Well what are we going to do if something else like that hurricane happens?” he asked. “What if something knocks those buses over and we can’t put it back in time? Where the hell do we go then?”

  I scratched above the bandage on my forehead and thought about it, “I have no idea. I think this is the safest place, but if something were to happen, I’d say we should go north.”

  “What’s north?” Nick asked skeptically.

  “Not this damned heat for one thing,” I wiped the sweat off my face. “But in all honesty think about it, these things are dead, they don’t have any body heat, what’s to stop them from freezing in the winter?”

  The skeptical look on his face faded, “And it won’t go below freezing here. That’s a good idea, but it’s a long distance over hostile terrain.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time I’d have to do it,” I reminded Nick. “And that was in the opening weeks, there weren’t just zombies out there. I had to deal with psychopaths too. I damn near got killed in that warehouse.”

  “True, but think about it,” he said, grabbing onto another corpse to drag. “We’re pretty well settled here, I’ll bet there are a lot more people out there settled in larger communities than ours.”

  “And?” I asked, trying to figure out his point while grabbing another corpse myself.

  “And, why should we have to survive alone?” he asked. “If we ever do have to leave here and we end up bumping into another group we should join them.”

  “Absolutely not,” I disagreed. “I think we’re better off alone, we can’t trust anyone else.”

  “Why not?” he questioned. “Not everyone is a bad guy Sam. Just because you bumped into some low life’s, that doesn’t mean that everyone still alive is.”

  Just then we heard another gunshot. Roxie must have found another one crawling around. We both looked over to where the shot came from, and sure enough we saw her holding her gun in the air.

  “Fuck yeah!” she yelled across the courtyard. She was so far away I could barely hear her over the moans of the ones outside, “That’s the last one!”

  We both gave her thumbs up and continued dragging the rest of the way to the pile. We dropped the two bodies onto the rest of the pile. About two thirds of the bodies in the courtyard were already on th
e pile.

  “Whatever, we can figure out how to cross that bridge when we get there,” I said as I grabbed a can of gas and started to pour.

  “Didn’t you yell at me one time for starting a fire with gas?” Nick asked half sarcastically.

  “Yeah I did,” I said as I set the can down far enough away from the pile so it wouldn’t catch when we lit the fire. I grabbed my bow that was lying on the ground and used a match to light a cloth wrapped arrow head, “But how else are we going to burn a pile of soggy corpses?”

  Nick had a big grin on his face, “I get to do it for the next pile.”

  “Get your own bow,” I laughed and then fired. It hurt my side to do both of those, but the pile exploded in a brilliant fireball which made it worth it.

  Nick must have seen me wince after firing, because he said, “Maybe you should go take a break, I can get the rest of this.”

  “You sure?” I asked mostly to be polite. I really did just want to lie down and relax for a bit.

  “Yeah I got this,” he started walking over toward Roxie where the rest of the corpses were laying.

  It didn’t take me long to get to the stairwell and then up the stairs. I took off my blood stained clothes and threw them in a biohazard can we had been using for a laundry basket. Roxie thought it was appropriate.

  I washed up and put on some fresh clothes so I didn’t get anything dirty. Roxie would be furious if I got brain matter on the couch.

  I thought about going to my bed but I would just fall asleep, so I opted for the couch in the living room. As I was about to sit down I saw my hat sitting on the table. Sarah must have used a hair dryer to dry it off or something because it was warm. I put it on so it would block the sun from getting in my eyes and I laid down.

  I couldn’t have been lying there long, but it felt like time was flying by. I must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, but all of the sudden I was thrown from the couch. Everything in the room jumped almost a foot and a deafening roar echoed through my ears.