by TJ Weeks
The two EMS workers ran into the dark from the back of their truck and the two officers emerged together. They turned and began walking through yards of the nearby onlookers. A man came out with a shot gun to question what was going on and no answers came from the police. The man with the rifle pulled out his gun and began explaining the situation loudly to the emergency dispatch. The two officers turned towards the man speaking with volume and took him down to the ground before he could drop his phone and raise his gun. They each took a bite from his arm that had held the phone and proceeded to move to his other arm. His wife ran to the road and begged them to stop. One of the officers rose and placed his bloody hand in her hair and bit a chunk from her face. She fell to the ground with piercing screams of agony.
“Oh no!” Richard stated in almost a whisper.
What! What is this Richard?” She asked her husband.
“This is the real thing, the real turning of zombies.” He stated in the same tone as before.
“No fucking way!” Milissa said with disbelief of her husband.
“Look at what they are doing Milissa, tell me this is not the beginning?” He questioned.
Richard and Milissa continued watching from inside their house as more and more people came out to help and were bitten by the officers or the man that had called for other law enforcement and soon the woman would turn.
“Go get all the guns from under the bed, call the babies and tell them we are on our way to get them. We need to get the hell out of here.” Richard instructed.
Milissa ran on her way to do as told. She brought all of the guns and laid them on the living room floor in a row with the ammo. She then called her daughter who was confused on the situation but readied herself and her children anyway. Richard loaded two pistols and grabbed two of their largest kitchen knives out of the drawer and a hatchet from the chopping block and stuck them in his back pack by the door, he loaded the ammo and grabbed the rest of the three guns that laid on the floor.
“To the car quietly, understand? If anyone comes near you, shoot the fucker in the head.” He told his wife handing her a pistol. If something happens to me, you just go; go to somewhere that looks safe and there are other humans, but make sure they are not these infected screwballs. I love you.”
Milissa’s eyes wide, she nodded with understanding of what he was saying. Richard opened the door as quiet as he could and stepped onto the porch with a gun in one hand and his other arm filled with the rest of the guns and his back pack hooked to his shoulder.
“Let’s go.” He whispered.
Milissa followed close behind her husband to the car and opened the car door quietly. He made his way to the driver’s side and put the bag in the floorboard of the driver’s seat, he put the guns over the front seat into the back and slid in. Both of them closed their doors with ease as to not draw any attention. He flipped down the visor and the keys fell into his lap. Starting the car and looking behind him, Richard realized he was blocked in by the ambulance and had to back out and go across their yard and off of the curb. The small white Ford Taurus bottomed out as the front tires went over and a few of the ‘already turned’ focused on the noise and started heading their way. Richard hit the gas and spun the tires to get off of the curb and took off down the small road. Milissa covered her eyes as he fish tailed the car around a corner to get away from the chaos as quick as possible. Richard steadied the car and placed his hand on Milissa’s leg.
“It’s fine babe.” He assured.
Milissa removed one hand and saw that they were on the highway. Richard slowed to the normal speed limit, Milissa spoke from under her other hand covering her face.
“Where are we going?”
“To get the kids, but we should have gotten gas before we came home the other day.” Richard told her.
“So are these things everywhere, or just in our neighborhood?” Milissa asked.
The car sputtered some and came to a stop. “What are you doing?” Milissa asked.
“Out of fucking gas!” Richard stated in defeat.
Richard dropped his head while Milissa pulled out her phone and began searching for her daughter’s name.
A busy signal sounded through the receiver and Milissa pulled the phone away from her ear. She tried again and got the same response.
“No phone service.” She told him.
“Figures.” Richard said.
“We are gonna have to foot it. Her house is a few miles outside of town, Let’s get after it.” He ordered.
The two exited the car, Richard took hold of the bag he had loaded down and placed the pistol in the front of his pants, he grabbed two of the rifles and handed the other to Milissa. He fumbled into the bag and handed her a knife as well.
“Come on!” Richard demanded.
Milissa walked around to her husband as he started walking towards their daughter’s house on the outskirts of town.
“See that? That plant is where we need to make our way to. It is going to be the safest bet at getting away from this shit.” Richard informed her.
Milissa nodded and walked on. The sun was up and they were at least able to see now. Richard stopped mid step and put his hand across Milissa’s chest beside him. A man shuffled from the side of the road and tried making his way up the small hill, he fell twice and then decided that crawling would be easier. He stood when he made it to the asphalt and stared at both of them. Neither of them moved a muscle or even breathed, apparently that did not make a difference, the scrawny man made his way to them and reached for Richard, Richard hit him in the head with the butt of the rifle he carried. He fumbled his bag from his back and withdrew a knife. He stabbed it in the weak looking man’s head while he was still lying on the ground. He pulled it out and wiped it on the man’s shirt.
“How do you know that was one of them?” Milissa asked.
“He definitely wasn’t normal. You kill whatever is not human looking and he was unhuman looking.” He explained.
Milissa nodded and they walked on. They were able to see some of the men and women that had turned off the side of the road that didn’t notice them as they hurried past and some that did that they were able to just outrun and move to the other side of the road. They rounded the corner to the small country dirt road that their daughter lived on.
“I know you are tired of walking babe, but just a few houses down and we are there.” Richard told her.
Both began to run as the single wide trailer came into view. The front door stood open and they could hear one of the children violently crying.
Richard walked in first looking around to find the rest of his family. He yelled all of their names while Milissa stood at the doorway. Richard found the only grandson they had hunkered in the corner of the first bedroom with their youngest granddaughter laying on top of him chewing at his neck, the screams echoed through the room and the little boy shifted his eyes to his grandfather and reached his arms to him. Richard pulled his eyes away and then back to the two on the floor. He ran to his grandchildren and cut a slice into the small girls head and pulled her off of him. The boy stayed where he was and bled profusely from being bit multiple times by his sister.
“Where is Mom?” Richard asked.
The little boy was only able to scream in pain. Richard told his grandson to stay there and he would be back; he knew that there was no possibility of saving him. He walked out of the room and closed the door.
“Was that my babies?” Milissa asked.
“Two are gone Milissa, we still have one granddaughter and a daughter somewhere to find, let’s worry about them.” He told her and pulled her to the other end of the house. “If they have turned they are going to have to be taken out, do you understand that? They will not hesitate to take you out.” He explained.
Milissa knew what he was insinuating and knew that is what he did to the others. The two opened the door where they hoped the others were hiding when their daughter jumped from behind the door. Their last grandchild lai
d on the bed torn to pieces, her body was scattered about the room and blood covered their daughter’s face. She had remanence lingering from her mouth and growled as soon as she made eye contact with them. Without thinking Milissa raised the pistol and shot her daughter in the head and then dropped to the floor next to her.
“Oh my God!” Milissa shouted.
Richard grabbed her and pulled her away and led her out of the door.
“Remember, the plant is where we need to go.” Richard stated.
They made their way quickly through the wooded area behind the small trailer. They pushed branches and trees out of their way and watched for any movement around them. The tears filled Milissa’s eyes at losing all of her grandbabies and her one and only daughter. They came upon a small path that led through the woods and began to follow it, hoping that it led to the road. Milissa walked in front of Richard so that he was able to keep an eye on things from behind and on the sides.
Milissa saw the top of a truck up ahead and turned to her husband behind her to point it out.
“Richard, look the road!” Milissa pointed in front of her.
Richard nodded and pushed her from behind to keep going. She turned one last time and smiled and took a few more steps when she heard her husband wince in pain. Milissa turned to see a small woman’s stringy hair laid across her husband’s face. Richard had already dropped to the ground and the woman had taken a bite out of the top of his head. Milissa lunged at the woman and knocked her off of her husband, she reached for the knife that she had put in her back pocket and stabbed the woman four times in the head. She peered at Richard and he had no sign of life. She felt his chest and there was nothing. She had lost the one and only person that was able to help her through this mass of bull shit.
“Richard, please!” She whispered.
She scanned the area and up to the road to look for more that may jump out to try and get her and saw no movement. She looked back at her husband and begged for him to wake up. She lowered her forehead to his chest and cried. Richard’s voice ran through her head. “If something happens to me just go!”
She remembered his words and took herself from the ground, she grabbed his backpack and the pistol he had in his hand, she gathered the rifles he was carrying and stuck the butts of them into the backpack and zipped it up to hold them secure and ran up the side of the hill to the road. She looked around and saw no movement of life at all from anywhere. There were numerous abandoned cars but no people, she could see the smoke from the plant and quickly headed that way. She stopped and scanned through each empty car for keys or anything she could use. She found one that had a half full water bottle in the floorboard; she grabbed the bottle and opened it and chugged the contents before wondering if that was the smartest idea with all the weird shit going on. However, she needed something to drink. She moved on and found an old bag of opened chips in a truck that had the window down. She grabbed them and grabbed a few and stuffed in her mouth. The Cheetos were stale and some even soggy, but at this point she needed something to put in her stomach. The taste made her gag and she almost threw them back up, but she held them down and searched the vehicle for something else to drink. A bottle with a few swallows of soda laid in the floor board. She grabbed it, opened the bottle and took the drink. She could feel a bit of moisture come back into her lips and a tad of color coming back into her face. She needed more.
She moved from vehicle to vehicle taking half eaten things and half drank bottles and using them to her own advantage; all the while keeping an eye out for apparently people that would use her for a meal.
She had seen one so far and she ducked into the car she was next to where she ended up finding a small back of twizzler licorice and an unopened bottle of orange soda. Both were hot and the twizzlers had been melted together, but she laid quietly over in the seat and took a bite anyway and washed it down with the hot soda. The walking dead man passed on by her and back down the small incline into the woods.
Milissa kept on her track to keep her hydration and energy level up until finally reaching a hill. She was able to see a fence far off that surrounded the huge plant that was pumping steam into the air. There were not anymore cars on the road until you got to the fenced area. It looked to be hundreds of miles from her. She thought it was a bad idea to have nothing to hide behind and be out in the open and scanned the area she was in for a better route. Her only options were the woods off to the side of each road and the open road itself. She had to choose.
Milissa moved off to the side of the road, but stayed outside of the tree line. She began the rest of her journey to the plant in hopes to find life and safety. She was leery of being on the side of the road and so close to the woods, but she watched and listened carefully with each step she took. She viewed the woods on a constant basis and kept an eye over her shoulder. She had her knife ready since she learned that noise attracted these zombies.
Milissa heard the leaves crack to the side of her and stopped her slow strides. She looked over and saw a man twice her size. He was coming straight at her, he busted through the branches with ease and appeared to be able to control himself rather well, unlike the one from the street at her house. His arms were looked like watermelons attached to his shoulders, his head was bald and skin had been torn from walking through the woods. He was bare chested and looked to be a well-built man.
Milissa peered at him and ran the thoughts through her mind of what in the hell she was going to do with this massive man approaching. She was not going to be able to reach his head to stab him in the head. She grabbed the pistol from the front of her pants. She aimed it at him and pulled the trigger. The man was close enough that she felt the ground shake as he hit. She was glad that she made the choice that she did, because it is then that she realized how big the man actually was. His hands were the size of her head and he could have easily just crushed her.
She scanned the area to see what she may have attracted with the noise of her gun going off. She saw two that were headed her way and made a beeline for the road above her. She ran as fast as she could toward the plant. A woman and child were on the road and she tried to side step them when the woman grabbed her shirt. She sliced the woman’s hand and looked down at the evil looking child. Its eyes were glaring at her while he took another step towards her and opened his small mouth to take a bit. Milissa closed her eyes and lunged the knife forward and into the small boys head. She opened her eyes and pulled out her knife, the child fell to the ground with a thud and tears escaped her eyes. She was angry at the world for making her kill children and for taking her family. The woman still came at her with blood spurting from where her hand should have been, she poked Milissa with the bloodied part and growled at her. Her hair was so matted that it looked as though she had not washed it in years. Milissa steadied the knife and quickly slid it into her temple and pulled it out. The woman fell on top of the child she had just murdered. Milissa continued on her way. The breath had diminished and she was unable to run any longer, she slowed her pace to a fast walk while she breathed in through her nose and out of her mouth. She did not want to deal with these things anymore.
She was so close, she could hear the noise of people talking from behind the fence when three more zombies made themselves known by a low growl of hunger coming between her and the fence. The adrenaline welled inside of her and she screamed with a raspy growl of anger and ran toward the three coming towards her. She pushed one to the side and thrust her knife into another’s skull and tackled the other one to the ground. She began stabbing it in the forehead as its blood splattered onto her glasses. She jumped up quickly sure that the other one was making its way near her. She turned just as it fell to the ground. Milissa stepped back and looked around and back at the zombie that she had not killed and laid dead, then up to a man that stood with a bloodied knife over the fallen zombie.
“Well, that is one way to take them out.” He told Milissa.
The man walked over and stuck his hand out to M
ilissa.
“I’m Martin, gate guard at this here palace.” He joked.
“You’re real?” Milissa asked before putting out her own hand.
“As real as they get. You okay?” He questioned her.
“Everything okay out here?” A bearded man appeared around the fence line.
“Yeah, except we are out here with no coverage, sooo you gonna come in here so I can lock this gate back, or stay out here with these dead guys?” Martin asked Milissa.
She followed the two men in sat down inside the fence and began to cry with thanks for safety. The two men let her have her moment and took her to get cleaned up. Milissa had made it to safety.
STORY SIX
RACHEL/SILVIA
“I can’t believe it has already been a year!” Rachel told her best friend. “We have actually lived a whole year without our parents, done with school and made it.”
“I think we have done pretty damn good on our own right out of high school. I am glad we decided to do it together.” Silvia stated taking a bite of her fantaboulous food.
“I’m glad we decided that Red Lobster is where we wanted to celebrate.” Rachel said with a mouthful of shrimp.
Silvia laughed at her friend that she had known all of her life.
“Apparently your manners have escaped you over the years.” Silvia joked.
The two laughed about her comment.
Silvia and Rachel had grown up together since they were babies. They were born two days apart, lived on the same street since they were born and had been inseparable since they were born. They had always ended up in the same classes together when they were young and always changed their schedules as they got older to be in the same classes in high school. They had been through boyfriends and school drama, along with the joys and adrenaline of sneaking out of the house and lying to their parents to go to a lame party that they ended up leaving early from.
Last year, they graduated high school together and moved out of their parents’ house that same day into their two bedroom, all bills paid apartment. It had been a whole year. Both were going to school; Rachel part time to be a pharmacist and Silvia had taken on veterinary school. Both had plans and goals taped to their living walls and crossed them off as they accomplished them. They were set, they were going to be successful women in the world and nothing was going to stop them. They had both sworn off men until they were through their first year of school and decided that they would support each other, work and save money. They also decided with all of bullshit in the world they wanted to be stable before they began those parts of life.