Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 1): The Fall of Man

by Jeff DeGordick

  They heard the groans outside and knew they were there, but she didn't know exactly where or how close they were. David crawled underneath her arms and peeked out from beyond the door, too.

  A pack of zombies were stumbling around the street outside, about a dozen of them in total. They shambled without purpose, baking in the hot sun.

  She turned to him. "Are you sure you can do this?"

  "Yes," he said. "I know I can."

  "Okay."

  She hesitated for a moment, brushing her fingers against the necklace he made her. It seemed like the strangest thing, but just touching it brought her such comfort and warmth, and it gave her the confidence to see her plan through.

  "Are you ready?" she asked.

  "Yeah," he said. "I can't wait to get there."

  She looked at him with a smile. "Me too." They gave each other one last hug and then David got to work.

  He leaned out the door a bit and stared at the zombies.

  They continued to stagger around for a few moments, then all of their heads perked up in unison. Their rotted legs started to churn into motion as they marched past the door Sarah and David were hiding behind and continued down the street.

  Sarah had mapped out the way to the carnival in her head from up in the clock tower, and she counted the number of streets they would have to pass and which turns they would have to make to get there. She didn't know exactly how many bandits would be in their way, but if her plan worked the way she thought it would, and David was as skilled in his powers as he believed he was, then they would be fine.

  The zombies stumbled down the street, and Sarah and David followed. They made their way down several blocks ahead without running into anyone. The streets of Durham were a mess, ransacked even worse than Roanoke had been. But there was no sign of any other human survivors as David led his zombie brigade down the street.

  She counted in her head the number of streets they passed, keeping the names of the street signs in mind just in case it came in handy later.

  David marched on, staring intently at the cluster of zombies. Every once in a while, one of them would stray off to the side of the group, but then it would be reined in. Sarah was nervous that he wouldn't be able to hold out doing this for very long, like it would exhaust him, and she kept checking in with him, making sure he was okay.

  He always casually told her he was fine, and she tried not to distract him too much. She held onto the pistol in her waistband and kept it at the ready as her eyes darted across streets and intersections, looking for any ambushes. When they got close to where she saw the bandits prowling, she directed him to follow her to cover, and they started moving from the edge of one building to the next as he continued pushing the zombie cluster down the street.

  They hid behind the edge of the building up ahead just in time to see a bandit come out onto the street from around the corner of the next block. He carried his rifle in tow, whistling himself a tune, not noticing the zombies to his immediate right. When he turned around and saw the dead a few yards away from him, he nearly had a heart attack.

  "Christ!" he yelled, jumping a foot off the ground. He landed and staggered backward, raising his rifle and firing a spray of bullets across the zombies. A couple bullets hit them and sank into their torsos uselessly as they staggered on. The zombies' eyes went wide and they became excited, starting to run after the bandit.

  The bandit retreated back around the corner he came from as the zombies pursued.

  "Is that the way?" David asked Sarah, making sure.

  "Yeah, we want to start heading that way."

  "Okay," he said, and they made their way up to the other end of the building and peeked around the corner.

  He reined in the zombies a bit, making sure they didn't get too ahead of them.

  The bandit ran down the street screaming for the others. "Zombies! Zombies!" he yelled. He ran a few blocks down the street and turned, crouching down and aiming his rifle. He unloaded the rest of his magazine toward the zombies, and Sarah and David hid back behind cover until he was done firing. The bullets flew down the street in a messy spray, completely missing all the zombies as they started to run after the bandit. He realized he was out of bullets, then clumsily pulled the empty magazine out of the rifle and produced a new one from an ammo belt around his waist. He jammed it into the rifle and stood up, running away as the zombies came close to him and disappearing around another corner.

  Sarah and David ran out from cover, following the zombies. As they made their way down the street, she looked above the buildings next to them and saw the top of the Ferris wheel off in the distance. She knew they were getting close.

  The pack of zombies were approaching the corner where the bandit had disappeared, and there was another group of zombies down the street. Suddenly their heads perked up and they joined the main pack, totaling about twenty altogether. They rounded the corner and Sarah and David peeked around the building.

  "There they are!" the man yelled to two other bandits that were standing in the street near him. They split up on either side of the street and began firing at the zombies.

  David made them split up as well into smaller groups, chasing down each bandit. Their bullets ripped into the zombies' flesh, but didn't do much to slow them down. Bullets tore into a couple of the zombies' brains, causing them to crumple to the ground, the last vestiges of life that they kept in their undead state, extinguished forever. The rotting bodies hit the pavement with a leathery slap, their eyes still wide and their mouths hung open.

  Two of the bandits retreated down the street away from the zombies when they realized they couldn't stop them, and the other one took cover in an alleyway between buildings.

  Sarah and David kept low as they turned the corner and moved along the street, keeping cover behind the zombies. David sent a couple of them off after the bandit who disappeared into the alleyway and they could hear his screams ring out into the air as they passed. The screams turned into gurgling, followed by silence.

  The Ferris wheel was in full view now, just several more blocks ahead and a little to the left. They were almost there. If David could just hold on a little longer, they would make it.

  "Are you doing okay?" she asked him.

  "I'm fine," he said, but his face started to look weary.

  The bandits disappeared around another corner to the left, and David directed the zombies after them.

  "No, straight ahead!" she said. "For another few blocks."

  "Oh, sorry," he said, his eyes scrunching up as the zombies slowed and changed direction. He sent a couple zombies continuing around the corner to make sure the bandits didn't come back behind them, lessening the numbers of the zombie ball he controlled, but as they moved down the street, he saw a few straggling zombies that he added to the group.

  They came up to the buildings at the end of the street they were on and turned left. More bandits were around the corner in the street, and they fired uselessly at the group of zombies, dropping some of them, while most of them remained unharmed. The bandits cried and screamed, trying to alert the others as they retreated. Sarah glanced behind her occasionally to see if anyone was coming up on them, but saw no one. When they got near the carnival, the bandits' tone sounded like they were just about ready to give up.

  Sarah and David made a right turn and the carnival sat directly at the end of the street ahead of them. There was a large defense of about a dozen bandits in front of the carnival, and David had about twenty zombies in his pack. The bandits took cover behind a wall of sandbags that they had set up, and Sarah and David watched from behind a building as he caused the ball of zombies to break apart and weave sporadically as they made their way down the street.

  The bandits fired all across the street in front of them, creating a hailstorm of bullets. The random movements of the zombies helped preserve them as they closed in on the bandits. The bandits shouted expletives as they ran out of ammo one by one and had to stop and reload. Rotting corpse af
ter rotting corpse fell to the ground with head wounds, their funerals long past due, but the main pack was still strong.

  The undead reached the sandbags and the men scattered to either side of the road, running away, while a couple of them remained behind the sandbags, ducking down low and spraying more bullets. They managed to take out a few more, but others came from behind and tackled them. Their screams pierced the otherwise pleasant summer air as the zombies chewed on them.

  David broke up the last remaining zombies into two groups and sent them to either side of the road, chasing after the bandits. He and Sarah ran up the road, her hand still gripped tightly on the pistol in her sweatpants, glancing down the alleyways and intersections that they passed.

  There was no sign of Jericho among any of the bandits, and she wasn't surprised; she knew he was a coward, using his men to do his dirty work for him. He was probably back up on the bridge, raping all the poor women trapped in the cages.

  They arrived at the end of the road just before the carnival and looked down the street to their left and right. Most of the bandits were still running, with a few lying dead in the street as zombies devoured them, their blood spilling everywhere.

  Sarah glanced all around, but there were no more bandits to stop them. The carnival stood in front of them, a big banner hanging over the entrance way, welcoming them. They could see all the tall rides in the distance, the roller coaster closest, the Ferris wheel seeming to be right in the middle of the carnival, and the boat at the end.

  They crossed the street and went into the carnival. Stands for hotdogs, kettle corn, and spiraled potatoes were empty and lifeless. A row of midway booths sat to either side of them. Milk jugs, baseballs, rings, darts and stuffed animals lay scattered in all of them, forgotten by time.

  It must have been quite a sight to behold before the apocalypse came, and one that she wished David could see in all its glory.

  They moved through the carnival cautiously, looking around each corner, waiting for something to ambush them. But it was empty. There was no sign of any bandits, zombies, or anyone from what they hoped was Noah's Ark.

  "Where is everyone?" he asked.

  "I don't know," she said. "Let's just keep going." She had a bad feeling about all of this, and she pulled the gun out of her pants, holding it ready by her side.

  They worked their way past the roller coaster as he looked up at it in awe. They wove their way around more booths set up near the middle of the carnival and passed a fun house, then a teacup ride. They came into a clearing and stood before the Ferris wheel, which was the tallest ride, right in the center of the park. They stared up at it, expecting something to happen, or see some sign of life anywhere around them, but it just looked sad and broken down, long forgotten like all the other rides.

  "Where is everyone?" he asked again, beginning to frown.

  "Let's go to the boat, honey," she said. "That has to be it." She pulled him in close to her, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as she led him past more rides.

  The big brown boat was visible above another set of tents ahead of them, and she didn't want to admit it, but it looked just as desolate and empty as the rest of the place. Had they really come all this way for some folktale that was a figment of someone's imagination? She refused to believe it. It couldn't be.

  "Take one more step and I'll blow his head apart."

  They spun around and saw Jericho standing behind them, aiming a big revolver at David's head.

  He had a crazed look on his face and he stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

  Dozens of bandits poured in from the sides of the carnival and formed a circle around them.

  Sarah and David spun around on the spot, looking at everyone. They were trapped with nowhere to go.

  23

  END OF THE LINE

  Leering faces surrounded them, all caked with grime and filth, all masking perverted thoughts. All the bandits in the street were just bait, leading them into their trap. Sarah didn't know what to do. For every situation they stumbled into, they always found a way out. But not this time.

  Jericho flashed a perverted grin at her. "Toss your gun on the ground," he said.

  She hesitated, but he wiggled his gun to remind her that he was still aiming at her son's head. She knew there was no way out. There was only one round left in her gun and there were dozens of men.

  She tossed it on the ground in front of her, and Jericho smiled. A bandit came up from behind them and grabbed David and dragged him beside Jericho.

  Sarah yelled, but then tried to contain herself. The bandit held David by the shoulders, and David obediently stood there, keeping quiet. Jericho put his large magnum into his holster and patted the boy on the head, stroking a hand through his hair. A shudder ran down Sarah's spine, seeing the pervert touch him like that.

  Jericho sauntered over to her, sizing her up and down. His rotten breath made her nauseated and she shuddered when he started patting her down for more weapons. His greasy hands strayed and ran up her chest, cupping her breasts.

  She stood there and took it, her eyes pointed up at the sky as she held a tight knot in her throat. She was just waiting for it to be over.

  But he was taking his sweet time. His hands ran down her back and patted her butt, grabbing a big handful and squeezing. She let out a little disgusted noise under her breath, but she kept quiet. His hands ran down her legs, patting the outsides, then going around the front and running up the inside of her thighs. He placed a big meaty palm on her back to hold her in place and ran his fingers up to her crotch, stroking them along. He flattened his hand against her and squeezed hard, causing a swell of pain to ripple between her legs. She winced and she staggered a bit on the spot, but he held her in place.

  When he was satisfied, he took a step back.

  "Did you really think you could get away from me?" he asked. "Did you really think I'd let you leave?"

  She remained quiet, letting her eyes fall on him. It really was a hideous sight to behold. His pale glass eye sat like an unmoving sentinel in his eye socket, staring straight ahead past her as his good eye moved salaciously all over her.

  "No one has ever tried to escape from me before," he said. "No one has ever had the guts. But you... you're different, I can tell. I like you."

  He leaned in to her and licked his tongue up the side of her face.

  She let out a soft cry and he grabbed her by the throat. Her face contorted like she had just eaten a grapefruit, and shallow breaths shot in and out of her chest. Her hands tensed up into balls and she instinctively leaned back away from him, but his strong hand kept her rooted to the spot. She pried open her eyes and saw David standing behind Jericho, watching helplessly.

  "Maybe my men didn't read you the rules when you came to me," he said, "but no one gets past my bridge without my say-so. And I always get my cut. I take what I want, when I want. Any bitch seen wandering around my territory becomes my property. Your pussy is mine. I own you. And I'm gonna make sure you never forget that."

  He shoved her head backward from the neck and she staggered a couple of steps. He wound up his hand and smacked her across the face with the back of it. She fell back into the bandits behind her, who shoved her back toward Jericho. As she stumbled forward, her stomach was met with a harsh blow from his fist. All the air rushed out of her lungs and she collapsed onto her hands and knees, gasping.

  He bent down slowly and put a hand under her chin, gently lifting her face up. "It all gets easier when you stop fighting me. You can ask any of the other whores on the bridge. They'll all tell you it's not so bad; you just have to let yourself go and accept your fate."

  He stood up and kicked her right in the sternum. She lifted a couple inches off the ground and collapsed flat on the grass. Her body shook violently. It felt like she couldn't breathe and she would die of suffocation.

  "If you don't," he said, "you'll wish you had." He lifted her head up by her hair and punched her in the face. She felt a crack and
her head jerked to the side and she fell onto the ground.

  She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to writhe around on the grass, but her body was incapable of any of it. She didn't want to die like this, not in front of her son. She knew he was standing there watching, scared to death. She fought against the pain and opened her eyes, even though it felt like they were swollen and closing up.

  David stood still in the bandit's grasp, but he wasn't crying. He didn't look horrified, either. In fact, he wasn't even watching; his hands were balled into fists and his eyes were squeezed shut, a look of tremendous concentration on his face.

  Sarah tried to say, "Oh my God," but her vocal cords wouldn't work. She knew what he was doing.

  Jericho raised his hand again, closing it into a fist. He grabbed her by the hair again and lifted her head, ready to swing. But he paused and cocked an ear.

  All the men around them heard it too. They knew that sound. But they'd never heard so many before.

  A tidal wave of hungry groans surrounded them, followed by the thunderous pattering of feet running across pavement.

  The bandits turned around and started backing into the center where Sarah and Jericho were. They raised their guns, their hands shaking. Their eyes darted everywhere, looking past all the booths and carnival games, but not seeing anything.

  And like a tidal wave crashing through a city, a flood of zombies came into view, coming out from behind all the rides and booths. They ran with their arms flailing, their mouths wide open, ready for their meals. There were hundreds of them, and they came from every direction.

  David's eyes remained closed, still directing all of them toward the bandits.

  The bandits screamed and started to fire in all directions. The front rows of the zombies soaked up the bullets and kept coming. When some of them fell, more zombies flew out from behind them.

  The scene turned into a bloodbath, and sprays of blood soaked the nearby white plastic of the carnival booths. Screams filled the air, and Jericho let go of Sarah and staggered backward, looking all around him. He pulled out his magnum and started firing at the zombies. The bandit holding David had let him go, but David stayed in place, still focusing.