by Ben McElyea
“Do you really mean that?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Are you going to put the gun down or not?”
Jake slowly lowered the pistol and put it back in its holster.
“You better not get me killed, Dan. We’re going to have to kill living people. We won’t show mercy. If someone is alone, we kill them and take their possessions. It’s survival of the fittest.”
“We’re going to be merciless?”
“That’s right. They’re not going to be merciful, so we aren’t. Anyone still alive is desperate enough to do anything to increase their chance of survival. We have to be the same way.”
“We need people. Good people.”
“It’s complicated. I’m not being crazy. I’m just being realistic. We’re going to do our best to survive. I don’t care what it takes. I wish I had a taco.”
“That was random. I want an energy drink.”
“We’re out of energy drinks. You drank them all.”
“I know. Wish I had one.”
11
Time passed. They only had enough food and water to last for three more days.
“We should go to the supermarket, Jake.”
“No, Dan.”
“Where else would we go?”
“Before we head to the supermarket, we need to live off of everything we find in this neighborhood.”
“That does sound like a better idea than heading straight to the supermarket.”
“Maybe Cedric is still alive.”
“Would he try to shoot us?”
“Maybe. If he’s home, we’re going to shoot him first.”
“You’re serious?”
“I’m serious.”
The time came when they only had enough food for two days. Just before the morning came, Jake and Dan sat in the basement and tried to mentally prepare themselves for whatever was about to happen. They gave some practice swings with the machetes.
“Remember,” said Jake. “If you can, use your machete on the zombies. Gunshots will make a lot of noise and attract every one of those things in the area. Conserve ammo. Make your shots count. Only go for the head. Do not hesitate.”
“Okay.”
“Do you have one in the chamber?”
“I do.”
“Are you ready?”
“No.”
“You have to be. Get a few hours of sleep. It’ll probably be a while before we get to sleep again. We’ll leave when the sun starts coming up.”
Jake got no sleep that night. He was too jittery and nervous about what the morning would bring. When the sun began to rise, Jake and Dan looked out all the windows. They could only see one zombie. They packed everything they could carry and walked into the basement one more time before departing.
“We’re going to trick Cedric,” said Jake.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve thought of a plan. We’ll act friendly and gain his trust. When he goes to sleep, I’ll get him with the machete.”
“So I won’t have to do anything?”
“If he overpowers me, kill him.”
“I’m not ready for this.”
“I’m not either, but we have to do this.”
“Yes, we do. What about all the stuff we can’t carry? If we leave it here, won’t someone take it?”
“If they take it, so be it.”
“I wish the water was still on.”
“Let’s go.”
They looked out the front window again. The one zombie was still standing several feet from them. Jake unlocked the door. As soon as he walked outside, the zombie turned and slowly hobbled toward him. For a moment, Jake froze. He then began a fearful walk towards the zombie. Dan watched his younger brother give the zombie a swift, hard downswing to the head. The machete went in deep.
Jake pulled the blade out of the head before two more zombies stood at the side of the yard. With them being beneath the window, Jake and Dan couldn’t have seen them from inside. Jake looked at Dan and gave a nod. Dan nodded back and slowly walked down the yard. The zombies limped at the same speed, making it easy for the two brothers to dispose of them like Jake did the first. They walked to Cedric’s front door. Jake knocked. For a moment, no one answered. Suddenly, there was beating on the door coming from inside.
“He’s one of them now,” said Dan.
“I’m opening the door. Be ready.”
Jake turned the doorknob. As soon as he did, he and Dan jumped back before the zombie on the other side of the door pushed the door open. Jake gave the zombie’s head a hard piercing through the eye. The half faced creature collapsed and fell to the ground. Jake rolled the zombie off the porch with his foot. Dan followed Jake inside. They checked every nook and cranny of the house. Nothing living or dead was inside.
“Did you shut the front door?” Jake asked.
“Yeah.”
“Did you see anything other than the potato chips, bottled tea, and cans of tomato sauce and hotdog sauce?”
“I found a pocket knife in the junk drawer.”
“We’re going to stay here tonight. We’ll head to the next house tomorrow.”
“Those things used to be humans.”
“They aren’t anymore.”
“I feel bad about it.”
“So do I. We can’t do anything about it, though. Let’s eat the tomato sauce and a half can of hotdog sauce. We’ll spread it out throughout the day.”
The mattress was placed in the living room. Long hours of silence made the day go by slowly. The next day, they searched four houses. They found lighters, cigarettes, liquor, breakfast cereal, potted meat, canned vegetables, and two cigars. The next few days were not fruitful. Neither were the few days after. After the entire neighborhood was searched, they moved on to the next neighborhood and so on. Their searches led to the backroads leading to the main road. They killed several zombies. Some still wandered on the road. Some were trapped inside cars. Many were inside the houses. Jake and Dan did not adapt to killing zombies quickly. They’d nearly freeze when they made eye contact with the zombies’ gaze.
Eventually, they had nowhere to sleep. It grew dark more quickly than they expected and there were no houses nearby. All they could think of was to climb a tree. Of course, they received no rest that night. Jake and Dan were resting on a thick tree branch when they heard a gunshot. They remained quiet. In minutes, they saw a horde. It was passing through.
“They’re searching for the source of the sound,” Jake whispered. “Hopefully, they’ll pass by.”
There were several hundred spread out across the field. They came from a large opening next to the woods. Jake and Dan looked down and watched as zombies slowly walked by all night long. Dan held in a cough. Jake had to urinate but couldn’t. When the majority of the zombies moved on, they climbed down the tree and took care of the stragglers. Jake relieved himself and the two moved on. Later, they reached another small community. After searching all nine homes, they chose the home with the most furniture and barricaded it. There was enough food and liquid to last them for one week. They were eating some canned peas when they heard a truck pull up across the street.
“We kill whoever it is, Dan.”
“I wonder how they got through all the vehicles stuck in the road.”
“I think they came from the dirt road around the corner.”
“There’s no chance of them being friendly?”
“No chance at all.”
“Guess it’s time to use the assault rifle.”
“Guess so. I’m using the shotgun. We’ll wait just inside the front door. If they come inside, we kill them.”
12
From inside the window, Jake and Dan saw four men get out of the large truck. In the bed of the truck were a young man and a young woman. Their hands and feet were tied. The armed men began searching the houses. The four men reached the house Jake and Dan were in. When they opened the door, the two brothers were ready. They opened fire on the four men. All
four men were shot before they were able to pull their triggers. Machete blades were then shoved into their brains.
They put the pistols they looted in their duffle bags along with much of the ammunition. Knowing zombies would soon come their way, they untied the man and woman and dragged them into the house.
“What do we do with them?” Dan asked.
“Well, they were prisoners. They might be good people. They might be crazy and try to kill us.”
Dan ripped the duct tape off the captives’ mouths.
“Don’t hurt us,” said the man.
“Don’t talk unless you’re answering our questions,” Jake snapped. “Have you killed anybody?”
“Yes.”
“Were you defending yourself?”
“Before I shot one of them, there were five of them. Those men broke into my house. They killed my mom and brother. We were about to be eaten. They said we were breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t know why someone would resort to that so early on, when food is scattered all over. During our captivity, those men raped and killed two women and killed a kid.”
“You’re good people?”
“Yes. I promise we’re good people.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me you’re good people.”
“We’re good people.”
“I believe you. Dan, give the man a gun. Give the woman one, too. What are your names?”
“I’m Dakota. This is Alex.”
“I’m Jake. This is Dan. If you try to betray us, we will kill you.”
“We won’t betray you. We can work together. We won’t do anything stupid.”
“My brother and I will be watching the two of you very closely.”
“You saved our lives. We owe you.”
“Zombies are probably coming this way. They’re attracted to sound.”
“Do you have any food or water?”
“We can spare a little. You two can share some bottled water and some tuna.”
“Thank you.”
“Be quiet. The zombies will be here very soon.”
The zombies showed up minutes later, shambling and slapping the pavement with uncoordinated steps. Jake shook his head, sat on the mattress, and waited for the majority of the mass of zombies to pass through.
“They were headed in the direction we were going,” said Dan. “We can’t go that way now.”
“We continue traveling in the direction we planned on going or we turn back,” said Jake. “If we keep going the way we were going, we may cross paths with that horde. If we head back the way we came, we’ll be out of food in no time. I think we should keep going.”
“I think we should keep going too,” said Dan. “I don’t like that idea, but it’s the most logical choice we have.”
“I’m with you two on this,” said Dakota.
“Let’s turn back,” Alex said softly. “I don’t want to see more of those things.”
“No matter what you do,” Jake began, “You’re going to see them. You have to get over your immense fear of them. It’s okay to be scared, but you can’t be too scared.”
“I can’t help it.”
“You need to change that soon. If you hesitate or make a bad decision, you can easily die.”
“No promises.”
“You can’t be weak.”
“He’s right,” Dakota said to Alex. “You have to be strong.”
“I can’t do it, Dakota.”
“You have to.”
“I’m not ready.”
“You need to be.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
The next day, the group of four swept the neighborhood of stray zombies and moved on. Not having a melee weapon, Dakota and Alex stayed behind Jake and Dan. After hours of traveling and thinning the numbers of the undead, they finally reached the next road. They were now in the outskirts of the city.
“Where are we going?” Dakota asked.
“We’re making stops as we make our way to the supermarket,” Jake answered.
13
“There will be a lot of things everywhere,” Dakota said worriedly.
“We’re running out of options,” said Jake.
“Will the people at the supermarket try to kill us?”
“I don’t know. Let’s keep moving.”
The group stopped at every convenience store they came across. Nothing was left. They had an altercation at a corner store. A group of people walked in on Jake, Dan, Dakota, and Alex while they were looking around. They held the other group at gunpoint and vice versa.
“We don’t want to hurt any of you,” Jake lied. “We were just searching for supplies and bumped into you.”
“You’re not to be trusted,” a woman stuttered as she pointed the barrel of a revolver at Jake’s face. “No one can be trusted out here.”
“Are you going to shoot at us?”
“We don’t know yet. We’re more numerous than the lot of you. If we wanted to, we could easily kill all of you. Get out.”
“If we turn our backs on you, will you and your friends shoot us in the back?”
“Get out. Get out or we’ll shoot!”
“Okay. We’re going to the supermarket. We heard a radio broadcast about survivors being there.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“We’re from the supermarket. We’re a scavenging team.”
“How many of you are there?”
“As of right now, there are sixty-five of us.”
“Can we go to the supermarket?”
“Only if you walk there with us. You and the rest of your group have to give us your weapons and walk ahead of us.”
“We’ll give you our weapons when we get to the supermarket.”
“No. You’ll hand over your weapons now.”
“You know we can’t do that. How about this? We’ll hand you every weapon we have accept for one for each of us. We need weapons to defend ourselves with.”
“You heard the broadcast?”
“Yes, we did.”
“Then you know we were going to disarm you.”
“If there’s a zombie attack on the way there, we’ll need weapons.”
“Keep what you have. Don’t be stupid. Very slowly walk out of the store and down the road towards the supermarket.”
Jake, Dan, Alex, and Dakota did as they were told. Halfway across a bridge, they were stopped by a much larger group of people standing guard.
“Who are these people?” asked one man hiding behind a parked car. “More people to add to the population?”
“Maybe,” the woman answered. “Possibly. We don’t know if they’re crazy yet.”
“Everybody who’s still alive is crazy, Lonna. We’ve all had to resort to doing crazy things to survive.”
“What kind of things?” Jake asked.
“We’ve had to kill a lot of people,” said the man who was now standing up instead of hiding. “There used to be more than one hundred of us. Someone got bit and didn’t tell anyone about it. The man died in his sleep while everyone else was sleeping, rose from the dead, and killed and wounded several people before the situation was taken care of. Those who were wounded died and came back as those monsters. Here recently, we’ve been doing nothing more than hunting, scavenging, and guarding our territory. Bandits are everywhere.”
“How bad of a problem are the bandits?”
“We’ve killed over forty of them. In the beginning, we were allied with everyone. When everyone got desperate and wanted some of our food, we said no. We had to cut people off in order to take care of ourselves. We can’t help everybody. The military has control of the supermarket. Over thirty people in there are military.”
“It’s good to know we’ll be protected.”
“The rest of the way to the supermarket is as safe as it’s going to get. We strategically parked cars on the sides of the roads to keep zombies off the road and in front of each other near the supermarket to keep intruders f
rom getting too close before we see them. Give us your weapons and go.”
“Will we get our weapons back?”
“Eventually.”
“I’m going to trust you.”
“You’re heavily outnumbered. You have no other choice but to trust me.”
Jake and the others handed over their weapons. They headed across the rest of the bridge and up the large hill. On the other side of the hill was the supermarket and large parking lot. There were rows of parked cars.
“They built a good defense,” Jake said to Dan.
“Yeah. Zombies can’t get in.”
There was a big sign on the side of the road. “Stay out or be shot” was spray painted on it. Jake and the others approached the front of the supermarket.
A man walked outside.
“Your radio broadcast said good people are allowed here,” Dakota said to the man with the assault rifle.
“We’re a lot more cautious than we once were.”
“What kept you from shooting at us?”
“Instinct, I guess.”
“Thanks for not shooting us.”
Jake and the rest of the group saw stacked furniture and bags of sand and mulch against the inside of the glass exterior. Two more men came out.
“Who are these people?” one man asked.
“New people, Aaron.”
“They’re going to be with us?”
“Well, they’re unarmed and made it past Lonna and everybody at the bridge.”
“Listen up, you four. I’m going to show you around. What’s your name?”
“Jake. This is my brother Dan. This is Dakota and Alex.”
“Jake, you and your brother look able bodied. You two are going to be scavengers. All the scavengers are wearing white shirts. Dakota, you’ll add to the bulk of our guards. Alex, you’ll help our gardeners. Frank, lead these two to the rest of the scavengers. I’ll take Dakota and Alex to where they need to be.”
Everyone was led to where the people wanted them. Jake and Dan were led to the electronics section. They were introduced to everyone. People gave nervous waves and nods. Dakota was given back the pistol and led down to the bridge. Alex was led to the roof to tend to the crops. The entirety of the roof was covered by a big garden.
“Can’t you use the roof to alert aircraft?” Alex asked Aaron.
“We could, but we know better than to believe anyone is coming to assist us. This place is under military control. Even then, it’s still nowhere near good enough. We only have ourselves.”