Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel)

by Swanson, G. E.

  Apocalypse Z

  Written by G. E. Swanson

  Cover by Z. Schoeb

  ©2012 G. E. Swanson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be given away, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.

  If you have a copy of this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased specifically for you, please check your favorite online bookseller to purchase a copy for yourself. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction as are the characters in it. They are all products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any real person, living or dead.

  I

  Steve Jacobs looked through the blinds of his window out onto the street. It was a warm Saturday morning and normally there would be children outside playing and neighbors working in their yards. However, today all he saw were empty driveways and yards littered with suitcases and clothing tossed to the side last minute as the residents left in haste. He just stared outside as he thought. It took mankind thousands of years to achieve what we have, and less than a month for it to all go to shit.

  He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard his wife Joan. “Do you think we waited too long before leaving?”

  Steve shook his head. “No, we had to wait or we would have been detoured east to the Medical Quarantine Compounds out in the desert like everyone else. We need the roads clear so we can head north to Dad’s cabin.”

  Nervously biting her lip, she asked, “Do you think its okay to leave now? I know those damn things are out there and this waiting is driving me crazy. I’m afraid if we stay any longer, they’re going to find us.”

  Steve stepped away from the window. “Alright, have they boys get their gear on and put their bags in the Expedition.”

  Joan went to the back of the house to get their sons, Mark and Jeff. Steve opened one of the black duffle bags sitting on the couch. He reached in, removed several stacks of new $100 bills, and set them on the coffee table. He took out a bag of gold coins and poured some of them into his hand. By this time, Joan came back, saw the bills on the table and asked, “Why did you do that?”

  Steve looked at the stacks, then back at Joan. “It’s worthless. Right now, it’s just paper. Even this gold isn’t worth what it used to be. The best barter we have is food and bullets.” Steve put a couple of the coins in his shirt pocket before putting the rest back into the duffle bag. “I’ll hang onto these just in case.”

  Mark and Jeff came from the back of the house with their backpacks and took them to the garage. Steve picked up two duffle bags and Joan grabbed the other; then they headed to the Expedition parked in the garage. Mark stood on the passenger side and Jeff on the driver side, each with a P90 rifle.

  Steve stood between them and said, “Okay, boys, I want you to remember that bullets are precious. I know we have a lot, but we don’t know how bad it is out there. We’re going to have to make every one count so only shoot when you have to.”

  They nodded and raised their rifles up, ready to fire, as Steve raised the garage door. They did a visual sweep of the area as their father started the vehicle and drove forward. They both jumped in the back seat and pointed their rifles out the open windows as they pulled onto the street and quickly accelerated away.

  As they drove through the neighborhoods, Mark zoned out while he stared at the houses they passed. In another week he would have graduated from high school and started preparing for college. That’s the way he expected to leave—not like this. Everyone he knew was either a zombie or imprisoned in one of those MQCs.

  He didn’t like much of what his father had told him about them. Originally, they had been set up to quarantine the infected, but the virus has spread so fast that they were turned into housing for those that hadn’t been infected. Facilities designed for 10,000 now housed over 30,000. But for now, the people inside them were safer than those wandering the streets.

  They approached the freeway and Mark was happy they hadn’t come across any zombies yet. Once Steve had cleared the on-ramp, he kicked the truck up to eighty mph. They saw a few broken down and abandoned cars on the side of the road, but for the most part, the lanes were wide open and the road was clear as far as they could see. Everyone closed their eyes and relaxed as Steve raced down the freeway.

  Joan felt a little more at ease, but they still had a long ways to go. She didn’t know what lay ahead so she kept one hand on her shotgun just in case trouble reared its ugly head. When the vehicle started to decelerate, she opened her eyes. In front of them were three military vehicles blocking all the lanes. Posted beside them were six armed soldiers. Steve whispered, “Son of a bitch!”

  Joan looked over at him. “What are we going to do now?” Then she turned to the back seat. “You boys cover your weapons.” And she tried to hide the shotgun between her seat and the door.

  Mark and Jeff put their rifles on the floorboard behind their feet as the vehicle rolled to a stop. One of the soldiers told Steve to go down the off-ramp where he would be escorted to MQC-147. Instead, he held up his Department of Defense ID card and called out for the sergeant to come over. The sergeant approached and looked at it. “That’s a civilian contractor ID. I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to exit here.”

  Steve paused before speaking. “Sergeant, I need to keep heading north.”

  “What do you do for the DOD, sir?”

  “Test and develop weapons and weapon systems.”

  “Believe me, sir, we really appreciate everything you folks do, but I have my orders.”

  Steve reached into his pocket and held up a gold coin. “Do you know what this is?”

  The sergeant looked at it. “Yes, sir, I do. It’s a gold double eagle.”

  He held it to where only the sergeant could see it. “Let us through and it’s yours.”

  The sergeant looked at it and thought. He slowly reached out and took it before asking, “What if I keep it and don’t let you through?”

  Steve smiled. “Then your men find out and you have to turn it in to your superior or split it six ways. Or you can let me through and keep it all for yourself.”

  The sergeant smiled and casually put it in his shirt pocket. “Well, if you all want to travel straight into zombie land and get yourselves killed, be my guest. But I have to warn you, we’re no longer extracting people out of that area, and at 1600 hours tomorrow, we’re pulling out of here to help defend the compound.”

  Steve nodded and said, “By that time, we’ll be halfway to our destination.”

  The sergeant stepped back, stood at attention, and saluted. In a loud voice, he said, “Sir! I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t realize who you were.”

  Seeing this, the others followed by jumping to attention and saluting. Steve looked them over then returned the salute. The sergeant turned and yelled, “Corporal Dickens! Move this Humvee so the colonel can get through!”

  One of the soldiers ran to it and quickly moved it out of the way. After they had gone through the roadblock, everyone let out a sigh of relief. For the next few miles, Steve kept checking his rearview mirror to make sure the sergeant hadn’t changed his mind and sent someone after him. Almost an hour had passed before he began to relax and the fear of pursuit subsided. As he looked at the gas gauge, he realized they had another problem. “We have to pull off and get gas.”

  Joan turned and in a panic asked, “What do you mean, we need gas? I thought both tanks were full when we left?”

  Steve reached over and put his hand on hers. “It’s okay. We’re not out. We still have one full tank, but the other is at a quarte
r. I don’t think it will last us until tomorrow morning and I don’t want to stop and fuel up when it’s dark. I want to get it now while we still have daylight and can see what’s going on around us.”

  She relaxed a bit and set back in her seat. “Scare me to death—I thought something was wrong.” She turned to Mark and Jeff. “Okay, boys, get ready to cover me and your father while we do this.”

  Mark and Jeff answered in unison, “Okay, Mom.” And they both readied themselves to jump out as soon as they stopped.

  Steve took the next off-ramp and began searching for a station. The first one they found had a car sitting where the pumps should have been. The car had been burned and the hull already had rust setting in. They slowed and passed cautiously as they looked over the area.

  All the windows had been broken out of the building, and dried blood had been smeared all over the outer walls. Between the burned-out car and the front door, they saw two arms and a part of a leg rotting on the ground. A few feet from the leg was a head that looked like it had been opened up and hollowed out.

  They pulled back onto the road and continued. Two blocks down the street, they passed a grocery store with a large parking lot. In the center, there were three bodies on the pavement. They were definitely zombies and it looked like one was missing a head. All three were severely bloated and looked like they would pop any second. They saw another one eating the fingers off a hand, standing by a bus stop. As they passed, it pulled the hand closer to its chest and hissed at them.

  Steve drove another two blocks before finding a station. As soon as the truck stopped moving, Mark and Jeff jumped out and did a sweep of the immediate area. After checking the inside of the store and around the outside, Mark signaled the all clear. Steve went to the back of the truck and took out some bolt cutters. After he lifted the inlet cover, he went to work on cutting the oversized lock.

  Joan brought the pump over and stood next to Steve with her shotgun in hand. Before he could get through the lock, Jeff heard movement from around the side of the station. As he lifted his rifle, he said, “I have something over here.”

  A moment later, they heard a moan as a zombie came shuffling around the corner of the building. Its face was drawn up and part of the left cheek was missing. The eyes were blue-white and had started to shrivel in their sockets. It had on a set of blue coveralls with the name ‘Bob’ stitched above the left pocket.

  Jeff lined up the shot through the scope and fired a single round. Small amounts of spatter flew from its forehead and even more from the back of its head where the bullet exited. The zombie went limp and dropped to the ground like an old rag doll. He turned toward his dad and yelled, “We have company and probably more on the way.”

  A few moments of silence went by before they heard moans coming from all around them. Mark and Jeff backed up closer to their father, who was still working on the lock. They stood with their backs to him, facing out. Steve thought they must have heard the shot because there were a lot of them and they were coming from every direction. They began firing shots and dropping them as they drew closer. The numbers continued to grow quickly and they were having trouble keeping up.

  Mark and Jeff were becoming overwhelmed so they switched to full automatic and continued to fire. It seemed for every zombie they killed, two more would take its place. They each went through two magazines before they started to feel like they were making any progress.

  While they were focusing on those approaching from the streets, another one came up from behind the station and jumped on Jeff’s back. He yelled and tried to shake him off, but the grip was just too tight. Mark was still working on full auto just to keep from getting over run.

  Joan ran over, started to pound the zombie in the face with the butt of her shotgun, and yelled at the same time. “Get… off… of… my… son… you… prick!” And with the final blow, it let go and took a couple steps back. It looked at her and hissed like a pissed off cat. Joan flipped the shotgun over and pulled the trigger. The zombie’s head exploded and pieces of it flew in every direction.

  Jeff looked over with a smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

  She returned the smile and in a loving motherly voice, she said, “You’re welcome, Jeffrey. Now go help your brother so your father and I can gas up the truck.”

  Jeff returned and opened fire until Steve yelled, “Hold your fire! The gas tank is now open.” And he switched the pump on.

  Mark and Jeff ran away from the vehicle and distracted them with occasional fire as they yelled and drew the zombies toward them. Joan grabbed an old piece of rebar from the ground and swung it like a bat on the few remaining behind. Zombie heads caved in and bones snapped under her assault.

  Once the tank was full, Steve put the pump back in an empty ammo box and threw it in the back. Joan started the truck and as soon as Steve had jumped in, she drove toward her boys. She ran down half a dozen of them as she pulled up next to Mark and Jeff. They quickly jumped in the back seat and they were off.

  As the truck sped down the road back to the freeway, Steve said, “I had no idea it was this bad out here. How many did you boys take out?”

  Mark shrugged and said, “I lost count after forty.”

  Jeff said, “Just a guess? I would say about ninety all together.”

  Mark and Jeff looked at each other, smiled, then bumped fists. Steve couldn’t help smiling too. When it came down to it, no one panicked and they all worked well as a team. Joan shrieked as she hit the brakes hard and the truck went into a skid. Everyone looked up and saw something blue to the right. They heard the sound of crumpling metal and breaking glass as their world spun out of control, and then everything went black.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Dedee and Jet ran along the shelves in the store, searching for canned food, and sticking it in their bags. Lisa stood watch just inside the glass doors with her shotgun. She turned to them and asked, “Are you two done yet?”

  Jet looked up. “Not yet, a lot of this stuff has already expired.”

  They all stopped when they heard gunshots off in the distance. Lisa knelt down and raised her shotgun. “Hurry up, that might be the goon squad and those shots aren’t that far away.”

  Dedee looked at Jet before saying, “But they’ve already made their patrol through this area a few hours ago.”

  They all stopped and listened. The shots soon became longer sustained bursts and Jet said, “That isn’t them, they don’t have guns like that. Hey! Maybe it’s the Army?”

  Lisa shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen them here in almost a week. Even if it was, you know how they operate. They figure everyone’s already a rot-bag or infected, and they only shoot to kill—no rescues.”

  After a few minutes, the shots tapered off to a few sporadic bursts, and then it was silent again. Lisa waved them over. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Jet and Dedee grabbed their bags and headed for the door. Once outside, they slowly started making their way down the sidewalk back to their apartment, using the abandoned cars to keep out of sight. They traveled a block when they heard the screeching of tires and a loud bang, followed by the sounds of metal bouncing across asphalt.

  They looked at each other and listened for a minute before Lisa broke the silence. “That didn’t sound good at all.”

  Jet tapped Lisa on the shoulder. “Maybe we should go check it out? Someone might need help.”

  “She’s right, Lisa. Somebody might still be alive and we can’t just leave them as zombie bait. That’s something only the goon squad would do.”

  They both stared at Lisa and waited for her reply. She looked at them and sighed. “Oh, alright! We’ll make it quick and move on.”

  Lisa led the way as they quickly headed in that direction, grabbing cover occasionally to avoid being seen by any wandering zombies. They worked their way to a corner and Lisa cautiously peeked around. In the road, she saw the crumpled body of a man not far from a blue pickup lying on its side. Beyond it was a black SUV in a smold
ering heap. Slowly, they rounded the corner and approached the wrecked SUV. Lisa stood watch as Dedee and Jet check checked the passengers.

  Dedee checked the man and woman in the front for any signs of life. The woman behind the wheel was crumpled in a very unnatural position and was not breathing. The man in the passenger seat had blood coming out of his ears and nose. She checked and he wasn’t breathing, either. She told Lisa, “These two are dead, probably killed on impact.”

  Jet looked into the back seat through the broken window. On the floor, she noticed the two rifles and she opened the door. Jeff moaned, but he didn’t move around. He looked like he was about her age and she thought to herself, he’s really cute. She saw the other one in the back with him was breathing, but he didn’t move, either. Jet called out with panic in her voice, “These two are hurt, but they’re still alive.” She stepped back and held up one of the rifles. “I think these were the people we heard shooting a little while ago.”

  Lisa smelled the odor of gasoline and saw a small trail running from under the vehicle. “Okay, let’s get them out and back to the apartment before this thing blows.”

  They had just gotten them and their bags out when a small fire started to burn under the hood. Within a few minutes, the vehicle was engulfed in flames and the fuel tanks exploded. A large fireball and black smoke shot high into the air.

  II

  Mark slowly opened his eyes and saw a girl looking down at him. She had straight black shoulder-length hair with dark red streaks running through it. He squinted as he tried to focus and get up. She put her hand on his shoulder and whispered, “Don’t try to move yet.”

  “Who are…”

  She put her finger over his lips. “Shhhhh. We have to be quiet or they might find us.” She looked around, then back down at him. “My name is Jet. We found you and brought you back here. But don’t worry. You’re safe for now.”

  Mark started to get up, but quickly pulled the sheet back over himself as he realized that’s all that was covering him. “Where are my clothes?”