“Yeah,” he agreed. “Your form is good,” he added.
“Thanks.”
They sat and stretched for a little while, drank some water, and enjoyed the nature surrounding them. They had followed the road out of Raven, rather than into it, and they were surrounded by fields and random trees. There was a lone zombie walking on the road, but it was far away from them.
“Want to go kill it?” Mark asked.
“Nah,” she shook her head and finished her water bottle. Then she hopped up. “Race you home.”
Alice took off running. Adrenaline filled her with excitement and courage, bravery and happiness.
She could do this.
She couldn’t do much, but she could do this.
Chapter 7
Kyle woke up sore and tired. His neck hurt and his arms were aching.
“Hey.”
He turned to see Torrance from her position beside him.
“Hey.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“About as well as you’d expect,” he said. She just laughed and sat up, setting the book she’d been reading aside.
The SUV was big when they were driving, but their impromptu parking lot camping in the vehicle had left them wanting for space. Kyle wasn’t incredibly particular when it came to being able to roll around freely, but he wasn’t a short guy. He was ready to get out of the car and stretch.
The two of them got out and looked around. The parking lot was just as deserted as it had been the night before when they’d stopped just outside of Hawkville. They’d chosen not to go into the town completely because it had been so late when they’d finally gotten there. After a few stops at random gas stations and a couple of houses, Kyle and Torrance were exhausted.
They’d crashed in the car and now, judging by the sun’s position in the sky, it was mid-morning.
“What do you want to do?”
“I’m starving,” Torrance said. She walked around the car a few times, pushing her arms over her head in various stretches.
“We’ve got food.”
“Do you want to look through a few more buildings before we go back?”
“Sure.”
They were on the edge of Hawkville. They could see the edge of the city from here. There were probably zombies wandering around like crazy, but it was still a Midwestern city. It wasn’t like New York. It wasn’t Chicago. The buildings were spread out with plenty of open roads and places to get away.
They weren’t going to be overrun.
“What are you in the mood for?” He asked as they started to near a couple of stores. Sure enough, there were Infected wandering around. A few of them were in the road. There were a couple of broken-down vehicles, too. Kyle knew they wouldn’t be able to go too much father. Soon the roads would be completely clogged, but here, on the very outskirts, they could have some fun.
“Fast food,” Torrance pointed out. “Sounds delicious.”
“There’s a gym,” Kyle said. “And a bookstore.”
“You had me at bookstore.”
Kyle pulled into the parking lot. Torrance hopped out of the SUV with a baseball bat. She had her gun holstered, but she didn’t start firing right away, which was good. They were definitely in the city now and didn’t need to attract any extra attention. They had more than enough of that to go around already. He counted six zombies in this parking lot. That wasn’t counting the ones hiding between cars or inside the store itself.
He grabbed a two-by-four with nails in the end and walked up to one of the walkers close to him. It was old and decrepit: not the person, but the creature itself. When it had been alive, the zombie had probably been a businessman. Now it seemed like something from a bad horror movie or a monster lurking in a dusty old closet.
He took a swing and connected with the Infected. It went down easily. A few more smacks to the head ensured it wouldn’t be getting back up. Kyle felt something brush against his shoulder and he jumped, leaping back. There was another behind him.
He swung again. This time, he missed. Fuck. He needed to perfect his aim. He was doing a terrible job surviving in the zombie apocalypse if he couldn’t even kill a fucking walker. A slow one, at that.
Finally, he hit it, knocking it to the ground. He kicked the creature’s head with his boot before attacking it with the board.
“Nice work,” Torrance said. Kyle looked up. She’d cleared her side of the parking lot.
“How many did you knock down?”
“Four.”
“No surprises lurking between the cars?”
She shrugged and smiled at him. She wasn’t worried. He liked that. Getting out of the house had been exactly what they both needed. Kyle liked that they had a home base to go back to. They had an awesome lodge to store supplies in and they had a place where they could hole up during the winter, but this?
Exploring?
Getting out?
This was fantastic.
Torrance was fantastic.
They went through the parking lot and looked for any lurkers. Torrance found half of a zombie under one of the cars. She quickly shot that one. It was just a single headshot. They looked around, but didn’t notice any watchers or runners. They seemed to be okay, at least for now.
When they got to the front of the bookstore, they found the front doors to be unlocked. They went inside and were instantly overwhelmed by the scent of the Infected.
“Apparently, this was the place to be before the Infection,” Torrance said.
“Do you want to bail?” Kyle counted four Infected. They were all moving steadily toward them.
“Nope,” Torrance said. “But I do want to clear this place quickly. Fighting has been fun, but I’m ready to get some books and head home. Sound good to you?”
“It’s a deal.”
They pulled out their guns and started shooting. The four Infected went down quickly. Both Torrance and Kyle were quickly improving their aim. He felt a little bad wasting so much ammo, but there would be more.
Hopefully.
Besides, he felt like it was worth it to get the practice in. Maybe Mark and Alice would disagree, but to Kyle, having a proper aim was vital. What if he had to shoot a watcher someday? What if there was a runner? There would come a time when he wouldn’t be able to get by with a sloppy aim or a crappy shot. He didn’t want to choke when that moment came because he was out of practice.
“Any others?” Torrance asked. The shots should have brought any other Infected to the front of the store, but they didn’t notice any.
“I’ll look around. You start shopping.”
“A shopping spree in a bookstore? Feels like my fucking birthday,” Torrance said, heading toward the cozy mystery section. Kyle chuckled and started walking up and down each aisle.
He was having fun. He liked reading and he liked Torrance. She made him forget, somehow, that they were living in a fucked up world. She made him feel the way he used to. Back before. Back when he was just an ordinary guy living an ordinary life.
He picked up a bestseller he’d been thinking about reading before the zombies came. Now was a good chance to sink his teeth into it. Then he looked around for something Mark or Alice might like. He wanted to show that he’d been thinking of them while he was out with Torrance.
It wasn’t that Kyle thought he owed his friends.
He didn’t.
They all looked after each other.
He did want them to know he cared, though, and a gift was a good way to show that. Kyle picked up another book and smiled. Then he found one more.
“Hey,” Torrance called. “Find anything good?”
He looked over her. The sun was streaming in the windows of the bookstore, casting a lovely glow on her soft hair. She looked delicate and feminine, and he smiled at her.
“Yeah,” he said. “I found something good.”
Chapter 8
Torrance balanced the stack of books she had collected and made her way to the front of the store.
She fished around for a couple of plastic bags, filled them, and then kept shopping.
It was the best thing she’d experienced since the fucking Infection started. She loved to read and now she was going to get to enjoy all of those books she could never have afforded back then.
Back before.
By the time she and Kyle had finished with the store, the sun was just starting to set. They’d somehow managed to spend an entire day at the little bookstore, but she didn’t care. Even if they had to stay another night somewhere or if they rolled up to the lodge really late, it didn’t matter.
They had books now, and more food, and all sorts of fun little stuff they’d found during their scavenging.
“Ready to go?” He said, reaching for her bags. Kyle was ever-the-gentleman. She didn’t think she’d ever get tired of that.
“You’re polite, you know that?”
He smiled at her. It was a genuine smile. Kyle was happy. They might be having a hard time. They might be going through hell. He always managed to find something good in the world, though.
“I guess my Mama raised me right.”
“She did.”
They went out to the car, loaded up their stuff, and got inside. Torrance pulled her seatbelt on, and that’s when she saw the smoke.
“What the fuck? Look.” She pointed toward the center of Hawkville. The two of them were still on the edge of town. They’d barely gotten in city limits, but they could see the town burning.
“It’s…on fire,” Kyle said, stating the obvious. Even from where they were, they could see orange flames licking the sides of buildings and smoke was billowing up and out.
“We need to go,” Torrance said. “Now.”
Kyle didn’t hesitate. He pulled the vehicle out and turned back toward Raven. Their town. Their home. Torrance turned and stared out the back window at the flames licking the town, eating them alive.
“What do you think happened?” Kyle asked. “I mean, I’m from Colorado. Forest fires are totally a thing, but in Kansas? Do you guys get fires in Kansas?”
“No.”
“So someone started it.”
“Yeah.”
Someone had started it.
She didn’t know who and she didn’t know why. Well, that last part wasn’t true. Nobody liked the dead. The infected. The monsters. Nobody wanted to live in a world with them walking around. Maybe the fire was a way to stop it.
The only problem was that there was no one around to stop the flames when they reached the edge of Hawkville. From her vantage point in the car, Torrance didn’t think it looked like this fire in particular was going to die out anytime soon.
No, it looked like this one was going to burn.
And burn.
And then burn some more.
“What if it spreads?” She asked. Fear gripped her heart, slowly spreading to the rest of her body. She hadn’t felt really, truly scared in weeks. Infected rarely came to the lodge and these days, Alice and Mark just took care of everything. They didn’t want the injured house members – Kyle and Torrance – to risk getting hurt again.
She hadn’t had a chance to be afraid.
Now she was.
A million scenarios raced through her head and none of them were good. Even if the fire didn’t reach Raven, which it likely wouldn’t due to the miles and miles of fields that separated the towns, fire wasn’t going to be their only problem.
“It’ll burn out before it reaches us,” Kyle said.
Neither one of them knew if that was true exactly.
“The Infected are going to be wandering out of the city,” Torrance said, swallowing hard. They could go any direction, but this was the end of the world and Torrance knew their luck had run out. What were the chances a horde would come to their little town?
What were the chances the zombies would find them?
“Maybe,” Kyle answered noncommittally. Maybe he didn’t want to freak her out. Maybe he just didn’t know for sure and felt there was no reason to worry, but something in his tone made her think there was something else on his mind entirely.
“Kyle?”
“Hmm?”
“What is it?”
“I was just thinking,” he said, and then Torrance noticed just how very tightly he was gripping the steering wheel, how his knuckles were almost white from holding on so hard. He was squeezing it like his life depended on it.
And maybe it did.
“There are other things in the city, Torrance. Things that are living.”
“You mean people?”
“I mean survivors. I mean people who are used to fighting to get what they need.”
“You think we’re going to be in danger.”
“I think,” Kyle said. “That we need to get home and tell Mark and Alice because it’s not going to be long before we have that company we’ve been expecting. Not long at all.”
Find out what happens next in Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse, Episode 9! Get updated on release day by joining L.C.’s mailing list or following her on Facebook.
About the Author
L.C. Mortimer lives in the Midwest with her husband and two kids. When she’s not writing zombie stories, she’s playing zombie video games, which are almost as fun. Readers can connect with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorlcmortimer.
Lost in the Apocalypse
Want more zombies? Please enjoy the first few chapters of Lost in the Apocalypse by L.C. Mortimer.
Prologue
Staff Sergeant Neil Swift stared at the stopwatch in his hand and frowned. He hated running PT. Hated it. Physical training was an important part of military service, but he hated it just the same. Thompson had finished running and was standing off to the side, drinking water. Baker and Allen were still making their way slowly – too slowly – around the track.
“Pick up the pace,” he called out. “Let’s go.” He frowned. He was supposed to be the one pushing them to do better. If they failed their tests, they’d be the one to suffer the consequences, but he’d still get his ass handed to him.
This was already a makeup test. None of them had made it to their originally scheduled test the week prior. Now Neil was stuck, sitting around, counting pushups for people who could barely meet the minimum requirements for staying in the Air Force.
Airman Allen slowly made his way around the track. Allen, who was at least 15 pounds overweight, but somehow still managed to pass his waist measurement every time. Neil glared at the pudgy airman. Allen was nice enough, but he was slow and lazy.
Neil just wanted to go home, shower, and have a cup of coffee before he went to the office. Oh, he’d spend his day doing paperwork, but it was better than being out in the blistering heat timing runs and counting pushups.
“Sorry we’re late.” Neil turned at the sound of voices. Two airmen ran up to him: one male, one female. They were both in PT gear, complete with their reflective belts, so he wouldn’t bitch too much, but they were at least half an hour late.
“Where were you?” He asked, giving them weary looks. He knew them both, but only barely. The male, Airman Peterson, was a strong runner and a hard worker. The female, Airman Albert, had her hair pulled back in a half-assed ponytail. Her makeup wasn’t within regs, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to go home: not complain about her heavy eyeliner.
“Medical,” Peterson said, slapping the tiny bandage on his shoulder. “Had to get my vaccine this morning.”
“I had to drive him,” Albert added helpfully. The look they exchanged told Neil that she didn’t have to drive him, but rather, he had slept over the night prior and didn’t have his car with him.
It was a bit early for their yearly required flu shot, but there was a new recommended vaccine out that everyone was getting: Artovax. It was supposed to be a two-in-one AIDS and flu shot vaccine.
Neil was skeptical, but rolled his eyes. He was scheduled to get his after lunch. He glanced at his watch again. It was already 0900. He was supposed
to be at the office in ten minutes. Apparently, that paperwork was going to have to wait.
Baker and Allen both made it back and picked up their water bottles while Albert and Peterson took off around the track. It was a tiny track overall, but a few laps got the job done. With military budget cuts every year, the base couldn’t afford something nicer. They didn’t need it, though. The track worked well enough.
Neil squinted against the rising sun as he watched his airmen run. The only sounds were the chugging of water and the slapping of rubber against pavement.
Run. Run. Run.
The airmen maintained the same pace during their first lap but broke off during the second. Peterson began to fall behind, much to Neil’s surprise. He was usually ahead of the others. Neil watched as Peterson began to slow, then stopped altogether on the opposite side of the track.
Albert slowed and looked over her shoulder, but didn’t stop. She ran another lap. When she reached Peterson, she stopped and said something to him, then glanced over at Neil.
“What’s the problem?” He shouted across the track. Suddenly Peterson lay down on his stomach. Was he seriously getting sick from the run? He had barely even started to run. Maybe he was coming down with something. Fuck. Maybe he was a diabetic.
“Somebody’s hung over,” Thompson said in a sing-song voice. He finished his water and headed to his car. “I’m out,” he said over his shoulder, and drove away.
“What’s wrong?” Neil yelled again. Peterson still wasn’t up.
Albert looked at him and shrugged, but the casual look on her face quickly turned to horror. Peterson suddenly jumped up and grabbed her, then pushed her to the ground. She cried out and tried to push him away, but Peterson covered her with his body.
“What the fuck?” Neil dropped the stopwatch and ran across the track. He knew Baker and Allen were right alongside him. Neil made it halfway to the couple before he saw what was happening and stopped.
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