Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel)

by Swanson, G. E.

  Everyone grabbed their packs and headed for the door, but there were already too many of them out front. Mark and Jeff grabbed a display shelf and slid it up against the glass door. The zombies pushed on it and the shelf moved a little, but the door didn’t open.

  Lisa said, as she looked for another way out, “This really sucks. I hope there’s a back door to this place.”

  “I’ll check,” Jet said as she ran to the back. A few seconds later, she yelled out, “There is, hurry!”

  They ran to the back and out through the door, right into an alley where four zombies were there waiting for them. Jet used her sword to slice deep into the chest cavity of the first one. Mark said, “Special delivery.” As he aimed and fired a shot into the face of one wearing a postal uniform.”

  Lisa shot at the third one and took the top part of the skull off. Tami hit the fourth one directly in the forehead with the pipe. It staggered as it took a few steps, but seemed to shake it off. Dedee came in from behind it and swung, she hit the back of its head so hard it caved in and both its eyeballs popped out of the sockets. Black goo dripped from the openings as it fell to the ground.

  Tami screamed as one of the blue-white eyes hit her neck and fell down the front of her shirt. Carefully, she reached down her shirt to try to scoop it out. Just as she touched it, the outer membrane burst. A yellow puss that smelled like rotten eggs and old gym socks ran down her chest and stomach.

  Seeing and smelling it, Tami began to retch profusely. After she had emptied her stomach, she wiped her lip. Amy looked around, found a dirty rag from a nearby dumpster, and handed it to her. Tami reached up under her shirt with it and wiped off as much as she could. Mark wrinkled his nose and suggested she stay downwind from everyone if she could, and everyone confirmed with a nod.

  Jet saw a group of about fifteen come around the corner from the far end of the alley. She yelled and pointed at them as they came closer. Everyone turned and started running the other way. As they ran out onto the street, three more zombies were there waiting and grabbed for them.

  Jet took her sword and swung it as she passed one of them. This one had on a yellow button-down shirt with a DMV nametag pinned to his chest. The hand on its left arm looked like it had already been eaten off just above the wrist and several inches of bone was exposed. She cut through its right arm just above the elbow, when it hit the ground it began flip-flopping around. Dedee finished it off with a solid blow to the jaw from her bat.

  Jet managed to slice through one leg on the second one and it went down as it hissed. She gave it a quick chop to the head and split it open like a ripe melon sitting in a tub of ice water. She swung at the head of the third one, but missed when it ducked her blade.

  Lisa quickly ran up to it and kicked it in the face with all her might. The head snapped clean off, and it flew high into the air, flipping end over end. They all stood and watched as it came down and landed on the roof of a building across the street with a thud. Mark yelled and pointed to the housing area down the street as dozens more came pouring from around the corner of the main street.

  They ran two blocks before coming to the fenced back yard of a corner house. Jeff helped boost Amy and Dedee up and over the six-foot fence. Both he and Mark boosted Sheryl and Tami over the top. When everyone was over and in the back yard, they knelt and tried to catch their breath.

  It took less than a minute for the zombies to reach the fence and start hitting it. Mark said, “They can’t climb over it, but we better move on to the next yard.”

  Lisa watched as Mark went across the yard to another fence. She noticed he had a slight limp when he walked, so she asked him, “What’s wrong with your leg?”

  He gave her a surprised look. “Nothing, it’s fine.”

  “Then what’s with the limp? I’m not blind, Mark. Please, look me in the eye and tell me nothing’s wrong.”

  He looked away and let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, it’s just a little slow. I can still run, but after a while it starts to lag a bit.”

  She yelled out, “Sheryl, Tami, come over here please.”

  He looked over to where the zombies were at and noticed some of the pickets were starting to loosen a bit, so he said, “Let’s get over to the next yard first, and then we can talk about it.

  Tami and Sheryl were the first to go over the fence and everyone else followed. Mark went over to a patio table, sat down in a chair, and waited for Lisa to finish talking to them. Sheryl came over to him and Lisa followed right behind her. “Mark, I’m not a doctor, but I’ll tell you this. When that bullet went through your leg, it caused quite a bit of damage. There’s a chance it could have done some nerve damage that didn’t heal properly. There might also be some small fragments of it still in your leg; I have no way to tell. If there is, your muscles will heal around them, but they could cause you some problems.”

  He asked, “How long do I have to put up with this?”

  “I don’t know. It might go away in time, but there’s also a chance it will be like that for the rest of your life. We’ll just have to wait and see. Since we’re on the subject, why don’t we step inside the house and let me take those stitches out.”

  Before they went in, Jet and Lisa did a check of the house to make sure it was clear. When they came, out Jet handed Tami a clean shirt she had found in a closet. She went over to the pool and cleaned herself off while Mark and Sheryl went into the house. Lisa watched Sheryl carefully cut and remove them, one at a time.

  When she was done, Mark went over to a window at the front of the house and peeked out. He noticed there weren’t any zombies out in front of the house. They appeared to only be following their path so he went into the backyard and told everyone what he thought. They heard several loud pops and cracks as the first fence collapsed. After hopping six more fences, he and Jeff went into the house and looked out the front window.

  After they discovered it was clear, everyone snuck out the front door. Sticking close to the front of the houses, they quietly made their way down the block. When they had made it to the edge of town, they broke into a full run. Mark looked back and saw nothing followed them, but continued to run. Lisa kept her pace so she stayed next to him. Finally, after about half a mile, Mark’s leg began to bother him, so they slowed down to a walk and continued moving, putting more distance between them and the town.

  When they stopped, Amy sat down at the edge of the road on a small rock. The first thing she did was take off her boots. Dedee pulled out the cream and bandages from her pack and took off her boots too. Tami and Sheryl went over, looked at their feet, and helped them with the cream and bandages. When they put their boots back on, there was a pile of empty bandage wrappers and strips on the ground.

  Mark pulled out the map and looked it over. He figured the next town was about five miles away, but there would be a lot of uphill walking to get there. Both he and Lisa decided it would be best if they camped there for the night and started out again in the morning. When they rolled out their blankets, everyone else quickly followed suit.

  After sundown, Tami took the first watch of the night. She sat on a small rock and listened for any sounds of movement. She could hear Jeff whispering and an occasional giggle from Jet. She heard someone snoring, but wasn’t sure who it was. A couple of hours into her watch, she heard something moving around in the dark. Fear shot through her and she gripped her pipe so tight, her knuckles started hurting.

  She worked her way over to Jeff and told him about what she heard. He listened for several minutes, but didn’t hear a thing. Just as he was about to say so, there was more movement and he heard a twig snap. There was definitely something out there and it wasn’t too far away from their camp. He picked up his rifle and listened to get a better idea of the direction.

  He leaned over and whispered in Jet’s ear for her to get her sword ready. When he heard it again, he could tell it came from at least two different locations. Jet crawled over, woke Mark up, and told him about it. He grabbed his rifle
and woke Lisa up. The sounds became more frequent and they realized whatever it was, had them surrounded.

  The next time they heard it; Mark turned on his sidelight and pointed it in that direction. He saw two sets of eyes looking back at him. Jet saw them too and her skin began to crawl; she thought that was about the creepiest thing she had ever seen and she quickly moved back closer to Jeff. Mark saw whatever it was move as the eyes disappeared.

  Jeff turned on his light and scanned the area around them. The next time a set of eyes appeared, Jeff fired a shot. More eyes appeared in their lights and more shots were fired. Everyone was awake and watched as the eyes appeared and then fell after being shot. When it seemed they had shot everything out there, Mark got up. He patted Lisa on the leg and told her to stay there.

  He crept out to the area where he had shot one of them, staying low to the ground. She heard him laugh as he stood up and said, “Hey, Jeff, come take a look at this rot-bag.”

  Jeff and Lisa both went out to where he was. When they got there, they saw he was standing over a big black and tan dog. They checked the rest of the area and found four more of them. Lisa said, “Poor puppies, I bet they came from that town we just left.”

  Mark looked back toward the town. “I bet they did too, but we just announced our location to all of its rotting residents.” He shook his head and checked the time. “Okay, Jeff, you’ve got watch. Keep an ear open for any noise coming from that direction. Just make sure you know what it is before you shoot, we can’t afford using up what little ammo we have left on stray dogs.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Sheryl sat up and watched Lisa as she took a feather and lightly brushed it over Mark’s face while he slept. Every time Mark would rub his face, Lisa would smirk. She did it to the tip of his nose, his forehead, and his lips. The last time, she giggled and woke him up. She leaned in closer and brushed the tip of his nose again as he watched her, and then she gave him a kiss.

  Sheryl didn’t know either of them that well, but she did know that look in their eyes. Even though she had never met anyone she felt that way about, she was happy to see it was still possible with all the tragedy going on around them. She saw Jeff and Dedee waking up and knew everyone else would be awake soon.

  Dedee rolled over and saw her sister and Mark talking and smiling. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her sister look that happy before. She got up, saw Jeff waking Jet up, and thought they both looked happy too. She wondered if she would ever get the chance to feel that kind of excitement. Taking an energy bar from her pack, she peeled the wrapper back and took a little bite. She sighed and stared at the ground as she slowly ate the rest of it.

  Once everyone was up and ready, they started their long walk to the next town. Even though their sleep had been interrupted, they still felt rested and it didn’t take long for them to get there. They looked down upon the town and watched the streets as hundreds of zombies walked around. Given the choice, they would have bypassed it completely, but they were all on their last bottle or two of water.

  The best plan they could come up with, was to split up. Two people would distract the zombies, and the rest would look for water. At first, Mark suggested that he run decoy, but that changed as soon as Lisa said no. Jeff and Jet decided they would be the ones and everyone else would check for water.

  They ran into town, Jeff fired a single shot and dropped one on the spot. Jet slashed the belly open on another and it shuffled around, trying to stuff its intestines and liver back in the gaping gash. On the next one, she swung and sliced its chest open, ribs cracked and popped as it opened up wide. When the decomposing muscle tissue fell away, all of the internal organs were exposed.

  She saw the lungs expand as they pulled in air and contracted when it hissed at her. She noticed that the heart did beat, but only once about every five seconds. She swung again and took off the right leg above the knee. Black fluid poured from the stump onto the ground as it fell to the side. She yelled at the rest of them in the street, “Hey, douche bags! Bite me!”

  When the zombies started toward them, she and Jeff ran down one of the cross streets. Once the main street was clear, they ran down and started going through the buildings. The first place was a hair and nail salon. Mark and Tami ran into the break room in the back and found some bottles of green tea on the counter. Lisa saw some nail polish on a display out front and stopped. Looking at her plain fingernails, then to the back where Mark was at, she thought for a second, then grabbed a few bottles from the shelf and put them in her pack.

  They ran into the next shop. Before he reached the back, he heard Sheryl scream. He turned to see a zombie standing behind the counter and Sheryl was jabbing it in the chest. Lisa quickly drew her knife and stabbed it in the left eye. When it fell over onto the counter, Tami began to beat on it with her pipe and only stopped when its right arm came off. The long shirtsleeve jiggled a bit as the arm slid out and fell to the floor in front of the counter.

  After they had gone through the break room and found more water, they moved on. The next place had an old accordion-style security gate pulled across the front. Mark looked in and saw a sign that said ‘Guns and Ammo sold here’.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Jet looked back and saw they had almost a two-block lead on them so they stopped to catch their breath. Jeff asked, “Douche bags? Bite me?” He let out a short laugh. “Were did that come from?”

  She smirked as she said, “Their almost here. Let’s go this way.” She pointed to her right.

  They began to jog until the horde had rounded the corner, then they started to run again. The next corner they came to, they saw five zombies in a circle. One saw Jeff and Jet and started running toward them. This one was a woman. Jet assumed from the way she dressed, she must have been a prostitute. She wore a very short, red metallic skirt, a semi-transparent, black lace shirt, and torn fishnet stockings.

  Jet swung at her as she reached out and tried to grab Jeff. Her first pass caught the right arm just above the wrist and the hand fell to the street. The second pass sliced across her chest, two silicon bags popped out and her chest appeared to deflate as she hit the ground. The rest were pretty slow and they easily dodged them as they ran down the street.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Mark stood back and turned on his laser sight. With a careful aim, he fired two shots before the lock disintegrated. Lisa ran over and slid the gate back. She tried to open the door, but found it locked too. With one shot, the lock gave way and the door swung open a little. Lisa pulled the door open and the smell hit them hard. The stench of rot was overwhelming and they all took a step back.

  Mark took a deep breath and ran in while Lisa held the door open. He saw the gun displays were empty, but there was a lot of ammunition on the shelves. He found a partially decomposed body of a man in a hallway that led to a back room. He checked the back room and found four locked gun safes. Mark ran back outside and took several deep breathes before he said, “They have ammo, but I can’t get to the guns, they’re all locked up. I found the cause of the stench too.”

  Lisa asked, “Is it a zombie?”

  Mark shook his head. “I don’t think so, the man is already started to rot real bad. It looked like he was grabbing his chest when he died, so maybe it was a heart attack or something. He has everything he needs to survive in there, and he just drops dead, that has to really suck for him.”

  Lisa said, “Hold the door for me. I’ll go in next and grab some things. We can take turns and it should go faster.”

  Mark nodded as he tried catching his breath. Lisa ran in and grabbed several boxes of 9mm ammo before running back out. Mark went in and carried out two cases of water, then ran back in. He was inside for a long time before coming out. When he did, he had a sawed off double barrel shotgun in his hand with three boxes of shells.

  He said, “Here ya go, Dedee. I found this behind the counter under the register. I bet you can put this to good use.”

  She smiled and quickly grabbed it
up. Handing the bat to Amy, she said, “Here ya go. This thing can really knock ‘em dead.”

  Lisa ran back in and took one last look around. When she came back out, she had a few bags full of MREs and more boxes of 9mm ammo.

  They put what they had in their packs. Mark looked at his watch and said, “Time’s up. We need to head out and meet up with Jeff and Jet outside of town.”

  They ran down the main street and waited just outside of town. Ten minutes passed, but Jeff and Jet didn’t show up. Mark paced back and forth and was becoming inpatient. When they heard the gunshots, everyone started to run back into town. Mark went around one corner and stopped. Jet sat in the grass in front of a house and Jeff knelt down next to her, firing at a horde of zombies.

  Mark started firing as he ran over to help them. Lisa drew her pistol and followed Mark over. The zombies kept coming down the street and they were soon surrounded. Jeff said Jet was hurt and couldn’t walk very well. Sheryl and Tami checked the house to make sure it was clear, then helped her up and took her inside.

  The rifles soon ran out of ammo and they went to their pistols. Mark had Amy and Dedee refill the empty magazines as fast as they could. There were so many coming at them, that Tami had to come out and help reload. The bodies started to pile up and slowed the zombies down as they approached. A few times, Dedee was able to load her shotgun and fired at them.

  Zombies continued to fall and the empty brass littered the ground around them. After a little over five minutes of heavy shooting, the number of zombies was less than a dozen and easily picked off. Everyone, deaf from all the shooting, had to wait for the ringing in their ears to stop before talking.

  The bodies of the zombies lay everywhere as the black goo drained and ran off, filling the gutters. Mark looked at all the brass, then at all the dead zombies. “I’d say it’s close to two hundred.”

  Jeff and Lisa both agreed. Looking at the remaining ammo, Lisa said, “I think we need to go back and try to get some more.”