After searching quickly through the two rooms downstairs, Nikki rushed up to the second floor to search for any supplies that could be used to clean and bandage James’ wound. Had they been able to bring the cars with them, she could have easily scrounged up the needed medical supplies. Now, she would have to search through the mostly ransacked condo to find anything of use.
Corbin gingerly elevated the old vet’s leg onto a nearby footstool; James continued with his zombie encounter. “Yeah, like I was saying – I got confused and couldn’t see anything. I ran around in circles trying to confuse those undead shits anyway that I could. I figured if I was lost, then those damn cranium cannibals would be all turned around too.” James paused as Nikki came back downstairs with an armful of supplies.
“This is all I could find,” Nikki said, laying all the items on the floor. She had procured a bed sheet, some sewing needles, thread, a large bottle of isopropyl alcohol, two leather belts and some pain medication.
James reached down for the pain pills and shook the bottle; the medication rattled around inside. “Nice work! I can’t believe those are still here. How did the looters and crack heads miss these drugs?” He popped open the bottle top and downed five of the pills and put the almost-full bottle into his pocket.
“So what did you do to your leg?” Kara inquired as she wiped away the blood from around his knee.
“I jumped over a fence as I was coming back here. I heard a noise and turned around, thinking some undead prick had followed me… I wasn’t looking where I was running and I slid full force into a boat trailer hitch. It hurts like a son of a bitch.”
Corbin and Nikki cleaned out the wound as much as they could. While the wound was pretty deep, the shin bone was only showing in a three-inch section right below the knee, the rest of the wound was grotesque for sure, but easily stitched up. James grimaced a few times here and there as the couple doctored him up. Nikki tore the sheet into three pieces and made a large bandage, placing it on the wound below the knee. Corbin cinched one of the belts around the midsection of the bandage to hold it in place – it wasn’t tight enough to be a tourniquet, but it was enough to hold the thick bandage in place and to slow the bleeding.
James stood up and flexed his knee back and forth. He moved from side to side but was unable to put full pressure on the injured leg. “Thanks…that feels much better.”
Exhausted from running around the previous night and combined with the early morning zombie mob encounter, the group made their way to the second floor of the condo for some much needed rest. Two mirror image guest rooms and a common bathroom were on the east end of the floor while a small office on the west side of the condo completed the layout of the upstairs floor. The outside balcony ran lengthwise, parallel to the bedrooms.
Kara and James settled down in the bedroom closer to the top of the stairwell. The room was small with two twin size beds snuggly placed against opposite walls. Corbin and Nikki helped guide the old vet into the room. He had already become quite groggy from the pills. Kara rummaged around in the closet and found two old quilts. She covered her brother and thanked her friends for bandaging his wounds. She lay down on her bed and covered herself as well.
Corbin, Nikki and baby Megan took the other room. This room was a bit fancier, having a nice queen size bed, with all the linens. It was kind of weird, the room looked untouched. Nothing was out of order. No furniture broken, like in the rest of the condo. Even the bed was fully made. Corbin and Nikki crawled into the bed under the thick covers. Baby Megan, placed on top of the covers, slept soundly between her loving parents.
“I’m exhausted,” Corbin said. “It seems like we’ve been doing this shit forever.”
Nikki rolled over and moved closer to him. She glanced down at her gorgeous baby girl between them. She loved her child so much and would do anything to keep her safe. She looked back at Corbin and softly brushed the hair around his ear.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” she said. “We need to get out of here early tomorrow and get back on track for finding this Mount Hope place in Maine.”
Corbin kissed Megan delicately on the forehead and gently kissed Nikki on the side of the mouth. He stared lovingly at her in the pale moonlight. With the whirlwind of events over the past few months, he had forgotten one very important question and now seemed as good of a time as any to ask.
“Would you marry me?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” she replied nodding her head affirmatively.
“I’d get down on my knees and promise you the world,” he said, “but it isn’t worth shit right now.”
“It’s the thought that counts.”
The young family quickly fell to sleep in the warm clutches of the old bed. Tomorrow would be a new day. Tonight they held onto each other and dreamed the dreams of lovers of an age seemingly long since past…
Chapter 24
January 3, 2014: Friday, 5:55 AM – Charleston, West Virginia, a small condo in a retirement community …
SCRITCH!! SCRITCH!!
Kara awoke from a fitful sleep filled with bad dreams. She lay motionless in her bed. Flashbacks of her early childhood darted around in her mind. When she was younger and had become frightened, usually from a scary story James had told her prior to bedtime, she would pull the covers up over her head and wish the “monster” away. She doubted that would work now.
SCRITCH!! SCRITCH!!
There it was again, she hadn’t dreamt it; there was definitely a scratching sound or something just outside the window. Kara looked over to her brother. James was out cold due to the narcotic effects of the pain pills he had taken earlier. She slowly built up enough courage and silently rolled out of the bed. She crawled to the edge of the window where the sound was the loudest and grasped the edge of the silk curtains.
SCRITCH!! SCRITCH!!
Could the zombies from earlier have climbed up to the second floor balcony? The scratching sound stopped abruptly. Kara strained to hear any movement outside the window. Nothing. Maybe she had imagined it? She turned towards her bed hoping for a few more moments of sleep.
SCRITCH!! SCRITCH!!
“What the hell?” She muttered barely above a whisper. She pulled the thick window curtain slightly to the side, expecting the worst. A large tree branch danced with the wind rhythmically tapping on the glass.
She sighed deeply - relieved that it was only a large pine tree tapping on the window pane and nothing more. The dim, early morning sunlight trickled through the pine needles; the warming rays felt wonderful on her face.
CRAAACK!! A deafening sound echoed from the first floor moments later.
Kara knew that the sound from downstairs was definitely not a tree branch. The loud crashing noise was the exact same that the front door had made earlier when she had made her not-so-graceful entrance. She heard light footsteps outside her door moving towards the railing. Kara rushed to the door and peeked out. Corbin stood at the railing looking down.
“Shit! They’ve found us,” he said quietly.
Kara looked over the railing. Ten or so ice and snow covered zombies moved in through the obliterated front door in single file. Soon the first floor filled with zombies. The stench from their rotting flesh wafted quickly up the stairs. It filled Kara’s nostrils and she felt the urge to vomit.
Three zombies awkwardly attempted to ascend the stairway. Like a scene from a Three Stooges’ movie, the zombies comically bumped into one another and slipped down the stairs. Undeterred, the undead reached out and grasped each of the wooden stairs by hand. The creatures pulled themselves up one step at a time, each clawing handful of stair echoing a terrible grating noise like fingers across a chalkboard.
“They’ll figure out a way up here soon,” Kara said. “We’ve got to slow them down.”
Corbin darted across the floor from the railing in front of his room to the opening of the staircase where a large armoire stood. He positioned himself behind the antique and lowered his center of grav
ity trying to force the armoire towards the stairs below. The massive piece of furniture defiantly held its ground - barely budging a few inches.
Kara hurried over and looked down the stairs. Two zombies were upright and had made their way to the middle of the stairs. She stepped behind the armoire and pushed with Corbin. The wooden front feet creaked across the floor inch-by-inch; the dresser lurched past its tipping point and cart-wheeled down the staircase bouncing off the wall and smashing into the interlopers.
“That will only hold them for a few minutes,” Corbin said as he looked at the newly created barrier at the base of the stairs.
Nikki burst out of the bedroom holding Megan tightly to her chest. The baby cried loudly and Corbin saw a look of fear dart across his fiancée’s face. Corbin had never seen her so startled; she appeared almost ghost like…
“What is it, Nikki?” Corbin asked, rushing over to the mother of his child.
Before she could answer a loud crash echoed out of the room behind her. Corbin had his answer - zombies had infiltrated the second floor. The two-pronged, almost planned assault kept his mind occupied; he was unable to fully rectify how one set of zombies could barely ascend a staircase…while other zombies were able to climb up to the second story of the condo with apparent ease. Maybe some zombies were smarter than others?
“I’ve got to wake James,” Kara shouted as she ran into her bedroom.
“Wait!” Corbin yelled.
Kara kicked open the bedroom door. The shy, early morning sunlight slightly illuminated the interior of the room. Four zombies surrounded James’ bed. Kara froze, unsure what to do next. A fifth zombie was straddled above the covers on the bed, violently thrashing and ripping deeply into the linens. She was too late. Her brother had survived the earlier zombie encounter, surely he was now dead.
BOOM!!
A shotgun blast from the opposite side of the room deafened Kara. She clutched her ringing ears, dropped down to one knee and glanced over her right shoulder.
BOOM!!
A muzzle flash from the closet gave away her brother’s position. Apparently the old vet had been prepared, even with enough narcotics in him to down a small horse. Kara looked over to the closet and she couldn’t quite make out her brother’s face, but she had a strange feeling that he was winking at her as he pumped more rounds into the zombies.
Two zombies lurched towards the closet. James shoved the barrel of the shotgun into the lead zombie’s mouth, busting out the final few rotten teeth of the creature; the vet pulled the trigger.
BOOM!!
Two heads exploded in unison, spraying gory bits of undead flesh all over the opposite wall. The bodies slumped to the ground. The other three zombies moved towards the closet.
“How the hell…did these meat bags get up here?” James asked as he jumped from the closet, grabbing his sister’s wrist and pulling her into the hallway. Kara slammed the door behind them as they exited.
“They must have climbed up the back stairs,” Kara said.
“I know I lost them…it doesn’t make any sense – how did they find us?!” James asked as he looked over the railing at the pool of zombies on the first floor.
James and Kara grouped up with Corbin, Nikki and Megan. Violent scratching and moaning came from the zombies trying to get out of James’ and Kara’s former room. The zombies from Nikki’s bedroom began to emerge and the undead from downstairs had moved to the top of the indoor staircase; the group was completely surrounded by the living dead.
James rapidly pulled the trigger over and over again but the shotgun remained silent. He handed the empty weapon to Kara. She grasped the barrel of the gun and held it like a professional baseball player. Now Corbin and Kara were back-to-back. Nikki and Megan moved away from the zombies and James stood between the undead emerging from the bedrooms and his companions.
“We’re surrounded,” Corbin said, pointing at the zombies moving up the staircase.
“Bullshit!” James yelled.
The old marine ran towards the zombies at the top of the staircase. He heaved himself into the air like a human spear wrapping his arms around the waists of the zombies tackling the mindless beasts like a linebacker. The zombies moaned and clawed at James as the whole pile flipped end-over-end down the stairs. Kara rushed to the railing and looked down to the first floor.
The cannonball of flesh came to rest at the bottom of the stairs next to the shattered armoire with James underneath two of the zombies. The marine threw uppercuts and elbows from the ground bashing faces and busting jaws with each blow, but the zombies did not concede. The larger, once-female zombie hunched over and bit James on the back of his right shoulder.
“NO!” Kara screamed as she saw blood spew from her brother’s wound.
The three lingering zombies from Kara’s former room burst through the door and combined forces with the four zombies from Nikki’s room. Nikki and Megan were surrounded. The frightened mother instinctively turned her back to the zombies shielding Megan as the undead groped her. Corbin snapped off part of the railing and began swinging wildly.
THUNK!! THUNK!! THUNK!!
The sound of wet, dead flesh being pummeled by the solid oak railing turned into a weapon filled the upstairs. Zombies collapsed like dominoes from the vicious blows.
Nikki dropped into a semi-fetal position to cover her baby. The zombies did not slow down, even with Corbin waylaying them over and over. One fat, gray haired zombie bent down and grabbed a handful of Nikki’s hair and pulled violently. Another zombie that appeared to be a young teenager reached down and grabbed Megan’s leg. Megan shrieked with fear.
“Help! One of them has Megan’s leg!” Nikki cried as she clawed at the zombie’s hand.
Corbin began smashing the oak club in a downward motion repeatedly onto the teenage zombie’s spine; it shuttered as if having a seizure and fell motionless to the ground. Nikki kicked and flailed against the fat, gray haired zombie but the creature would not let go of her hair. The obese, undead creature smashed her head against the ground multiple times. A flash of light and searing pain filled her head as she blacked out.
Corbin looked over where Kara was standing mere seconds ago, but she was no longer upstairs – she had run down the stairs to aid her brother. Corbin could see her swinging wildly with the empty shotgun trying to save her brother’s life. Corbin turned as he heard Nikki’s head smash against the ground.
The former firefighter ran full speed, leaping into the air and drop kicked the fat zombie away from his fiancée. The force of the kick catapulted the obese zombie through the closed office door; the rotten faced undead creature crashed violently through the window to the unforgiving earth below. Corbin landed awkwardly on his back, smashing his head on the hard flooring. He rolled onto his right side and looked over to his family – they would surely die if he lost consciousness.
Corbin took a deep breath and pushed himself up to his elbows, his adrenaline pumping full force – keeping his aching muscles firing on all cylinders. As he got onto his knees, he saw the teenage zombie roll over next to Megan. The creature opened its mouth. Corbin pushed off the ground with all his might, but it was as if he was in molasses, time had ceased to function. In a millisecond, which seemed to last an eternity, Corbin lunged for the teenage zombie’s throat but it was too late. The teenage zombie bit Megan’s tiny left leg. The baby wailed in tremendous pain.
Corbin swung the oak railing like a samurai sword, decapitating the teenage zombie, but the damage was done. Nikki lay unconscious on the floor. Megan whimpered. In a berserker rage, the distraught father massacred the rest of the zombies on the second floor. He collapsed to his knees next to his would-be wife and his tiny daughter. Nikki regained consciousness as Corbin held baby Megan close to his chest. Nikki’s motherly instinct kicked in – she knew her baby was injured.
Corbin’s eyes filled with tears as he held his baby. He looked down at his wife. “I...couldn’t stop them…they bit our baby…I…” Corbin, overcome
with grief was unable to speak.
“Oh my God,” Nikki cried as she struggled to a seated position. She enveloped Corbin and her baby in a desperate hug, horrible thoughts running through her mind of losing her child.
Downstairs, Kara had cleared away the zombies from her injured brother. James groggily stood up placing his left hand on his shoulder applying pressure to slow the bleeding. He stooped down and grabbed a large piece of the broken armoire. In tandem, brother and sister swung their weapons from side-to-side clearing a path to the front door.
“Get down here now, guys,” Kara instructed, “we’ve cleared a path. We need to get the hell out of here before the other zombies get in!”
Corbin stood up and held baby Megan in his left arm. He bent over and scooped up his injured wife and slung her over his shoulder – the classic fireman carry came in very handy as he sprinted down the stairs. His exhausted body wanting to give in but his mind and heart urged him forward – he had to get his family and friends out of the slaughterhouse.
The battered group stumbled out into the snow covered grass on the front lawn. The fog had retreated from the bright sun. The early morning sun watched silently as the group scrambled away from the condo to find safety.
Chapter 25
January 3, 2014: Friday, 6:30 AM – Charleston, West Virginia, an empty street leading towards an old bookstore …
For almost half an hour, the group ran in a mostly southerly direction away from the condo, led by James; he attempted to lose any zombies that might be following them. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure on the direction to the vehicles; this frightened him. Excruciating pain echoed up and down his entire body from the massive shoulder wound, but the old vet pushed forward. It wasn’t just the physical pain of the wound. He had definitely had worse. However, he could feel something burning deep inside of him; he knew it was the virus. His whole body ached, like a terrible flu but deep within his very core.
Z1N1: The Zombie Pandemic: 2012 Was Just the Beginning Page 24