Zournal (Book 1): It All Started

by Randall S. Merritt

  John quietly laughed again, “Ha. Sorry, I see my coffee comment has gotten you upset. I won’t even mention how good a blueberry muffin to go with the coffee would be.”

  I mimed reaching for my sword and swinging at him, “Dude, you’re killing me. I think we have some granola bars and a half bag of chips in my bag. Unless you guys got some food stashed away then after that we’re going to need to figure something out. I was thinking maybe we try and hit a convenience store or something like that. I was also thinking we go to the truck store and see about getting us a couple of more durable automobiles to drive. I’m looking to get up to Tennessee and check on my parents and hopefully stay there until this ends or whatever. What are you guys thinking? Where you headed?”

  “We have no idea.” Rhonda said as she sat down between Johns legs and leaned back against him. “My aunt has a place in the Keys that I was thinking we may head down to. Big place on the beach down a long and lonely road. I’m thinking she may be ok as well. I never got a text back from her before the phones stopped working but she always sucked at texting anyway.”

  We kept talking for a while trying to figure out our next move. We weighed the pros and cons of Tennessee cabin versus Keys Beach house. We considered what amount of effort it would take to get to each. We skirted around too much discussion of whether or not we thought the person we would be going to see may still be uninfected or not. Rhonda mentioned that she was not planning on using the word Zombie since that was silly and they were just people who had some kind of disease. When pressed for what word she thought best described them she finally relented and we all agreed to go with ‘Zombie’ versus the half-ass euphemisms we had been throwing around.

  After a lot of debate fueled by stale chips and two granola bars, washed down by plenty of water, we opted to not make a decision until we reached I-95. At that point we would either stick together and head somewhere or we would split up with them headed South and me headed North. It was agreed that their car was not up for the journey. Especially once we discussed my experiences with the crappy Red Sentra earlier in more detail. We ended up agreeing that we should all pile in their car, head for the truck lot, avoid being eaten by Zombies, try not to wreck the car and also look for a place that we may be able to get supplies on the way. Once at the truck lot the plan was to find two solid off road type vehicles with spare tires and try to figure out a way to steal as much gas as we could for the journey.

  The Vape shop did not have much to offer in the way of supplies. We searched around for a bit but all we managed to locate was the owners stash of weed. We decided that would be a bad idea to do right now then ended up having John roll a joint and passing it around for a couple quick hits each to try and get the nerve up to venture outside to the car. As we were sitting there I added that we should try and find a garden hose we could cut to use as a siphon to get gas and any canisters we could find to put gas in.

  Once we had run out of excuses for not going and the fear of starving to death overcame the fear of being eaten we quickly went out to the car with John and I getting in the front and Rhonda in the back. John started the car and we all winced as the noise of the engine catching seemed to each around the whole town. Nothing came and jumped on us immediately so John started backing up and then carefully turned onto the main street and started heading into town towards the truck lot.

  Entry 13: Car Buying Made Easy

  John drove us out of the Vape plaza and onto the main road running through town. From previous experience, I knew this road would open into a four-lane road through town with a few stop lights then would collapse back into a two-lane road before finally merging on the road that takes you all the way to I-95. I also knew there was pretty much nowhere on I-95 to stop for anything once we got to it. My other concern being that when we did finally get there the road may be so clogged with stalled cars we couldn’t drive on it anyway. I’m hoping to convince Rhonda and John to come with me to Tennessee to my parent’s cabin. I know it is a lot further to travel than their aunt’s condo but I am thinking a cabin in the mountains is almost guaranteed to be safe versus a condo on the beach. Regardless of their decision, I am planning on continuing towards Tennessee as I need to know how my parents are doing.

  The scenery as John drove was straight out of any of your standard Zombie movies. Trash was strewn all over the place, there was plenty of evidence of people having crashed their cars into various places, and there were the bodies. We were moving fast enough so that you could let your eyes just kind of glide over the bodies, which is what I did. John and Rhonda had not been as exposed to this as I had though. They were staring pretty hard at the bodies and John was actually slowing down to look at them and being overly careful about avoiding them.

  I had no idea how to tell them to stop looking at the bodies without sounding insensitive. I wanted these guys to like me so they would agree to go to Tennessee with me. The thought of heading North all alone again was terrifying. John continued to slow down as he stared at the bodies.

  My eye caught something in the side mirror and I turned around in the seat to look out past Rhonda. I noticed she had tears in her eyes and started to say something before I figured out what I had caught the glimpse of in the mirror. I completely forgot about her tears as I saw that the road behind us was full of Zombies stampeding straight for the car.

  Instead of just yelling at John to speed up I figured it was faster to tell him to look in the rearview mirror. He did. He sped up, a lot.

  We were humming along fast enough now that I was worried we may hit something and wreck the car after which we would be swarmed and eaten like bloody Vienna sausages being pulled out of a crushed can by a group of drunk red necks.

  “Maybe slow down a little?”, I shouted over to John. Who ignored me and I think may have actually sped up a little bit more as he took another glance in the rearview mirror. He was very obviously freaked out, looking in the backseat Rhonda was obviously losing her shit too. From where I sat in the passenger seat there was pretty much nothing I could do to alleviate any of the issues. I tried to use the fact that I was the calmest seeming one out of the bunch to try and calm the others down.

  “At least they are getting further behind us.” I said, before noticing that a large group of them were now also moving towards us from about a mile away down the road in front of us. That should pretty much be near where the truck dealership was. I pointed out the group ahead of us to John. He sped up and almost flipped the car taking a sharp turn through an intersection and down a small side street.

  Once I was able to talk again after that maneuver I looked over and asked, “Do you know this area really well? We should try and find someplace that may have supplies for us to lay low in.”

  John kept his eyes glued to the road as he navigated us down the street. “I am thinking we get past this building and there is a subdivision back here somewhere. We can look for a house to hide out in until those things settle back down.”

  Looking behind us I did not see any currently headed in our direction but assumed they were still coming. I turned around and started looking for a house as we drove into the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ subdivision. It looked like most of the houses had been ransacked already, either by the infected or by humans, no way to tell really. We rolled down the street until we spotted a home that appeared to be about twice the size of the others. John drove around an overturned trashcan that was in the middle of the street and pulled into the long brick paved driveway.

  As soon as we opened the car doors we all heard the moaning and yelling noise that seemed to be emanating from down the street in the general direction we had just come from. That was our signal to get the hell in the house. Also, a pretty good indication that moving forward we should try and keep our windows rolled down so as not to obstruct our hearing. I jumped out with my sword, John had his pool cue and Rhonda brought up the rear of our party with her lacrosse stick gripped tight in her hands. Both of them were looking pretty scrag
gily at this point but I figured I was not much better. At some point Rhonda, had actually wrapped tape around the waist of my sweat pants she was wearing to keep them from falling off and you could tell my clothes were pretty loose on John too. I’m a fairly stocky, short, muscular guy where Rhonda and John were both on the tall and skinny side so there were some definite fashion faux paus going on.

  Jumping out of the car we headed towards the front of the house. I figured we could try the front door and if that was not open try and work our way quickly around to the back yard. Getting to the front door we could not get it open. I motioned for them to follow me and ran around the house towards the back yard. I got to the side of the house and there was a vinyl panel fence in front of me with a padlock on the gate. I put my hands on it to pull myself up but stopped as John tapped me on the back.

  He put his hands together to give me a step to take to get over the fence. I put my foot in his hands and pulled myself up by one hand to take a look over the fence. The sword was making this super awkward so I went ahead and tossed it over the fence. Not seeing anything on the other side I went ahead and put my hands on the fence and pushed myself over it. I had pictured landing and absorbing the impact with my knees slowly to get down on the ground. Instead I landed with one foot on some kind of kids firetruck toy causing me to simultaneously twist my ankle and crack my head against the fence as I fell backwards.

  Head swimming and feeling a bit nauseous I looked up in time to see Rhonda come barreling over the fence where she had evidently also gotten a big boost over from John. I started trying to roll out of her way and saw a little kid trying to claw his way to us from the back porch of the house we were attempting to enter. Sidetracked by the kid and not very mobile at the moment anyway I ended up getting knocked down again as Rhonda landed on me. Completely knocking all the air out of my body.

  Loud moaning was coming from the screened in back porch and I was trying my best to stand up as Rhonda reached up to help pull John over the fence. He managed to not land on me which was something I deeply appreciated at that point. I saw him staring over at the back porch.

  Rhonda reached down a hand to help me get up. “Do you see what is on the back porch?” she asked me.

  I nodded. It was a little boy. Probably about five or six. He was obviously infected and screaming his head off. He was currently trying to beat his way through the screen around the back porch to get at us. It looked like he was making some headway on it. John had half-heartedly approached the screen holding his cue stick above his head. I wondered briefly if he would be able to do it. Looking at the boy, I knew I probably could not do it.

  The noise outside in the main street area of the neighborhood was growing. It sounded like the mob who had chased us had gotten split up but there was still a substantial number of them out there. They were starting to quiet down and move more slowly doing that shuffling sniffing thing they seemed to do when looking for something. The problem is the boys screaming seemed to be getting their interest and would soon be the loudest thing around. There was a swing set in the yard.

  “Do you think we could tie the kid up?” I asked John.

  “I’m not sure. I am pretty sure we don’t want to get bit or scratched or even touched by this kid. I’m trying to psych myself into just going ahead and taking him out but he looks a lot like my nephew…”

  The screen ripped outwards and the kid Zombie came tumbling out and ran straight for John. Instead of trying to knock the kid out with the cue stick John tried to use the stick to push the kid on the ground. The kid ignored the cue stick to his face and rolled off the jab to his chest, getting inside of Johns reach he wrapped himself around Johns leg and started ripping and trying to bite at Johns clothes. Rhonda jumped in and swung the lacrosse stick at the kid’s head knocking him off John momentarily. With a scream the kid jumped back on him and crawled his way up John who took a step backwards and tripped.

  I stepped forward with the sword, lining up a swing to knock the little Zombies head off. Even as I was lining up and pulling back to start the swing I saw the kid pull himself up Johns chest and latch his mouth on to his face. Pulling back with a big mouthful of Johns cheek. Blood was pouring out of Johns face. John was trying to shove the kid off of him even as I swung the sword as hard as I could. I connected with Johns wrist and glanced off that into the kid’s open mouth. I felt and saw his teeth shatter and lips split as the hard-dull metal of the sword beat its way through the small boy’s head.

  The Zombie fell to the side as Rhonda jumped on John screaming and trying to stop the blood pouring out of his cheek. I ran over to the screen door and climbed through the hole the little Zombie had made while escaping. I went through the porch and up to the sliding glass door. It was standing open already so I went into the house with the sword held in front of me. I was desperately looking for anything we could use to help John. I opened doors until I found a bathroom. There was nothing useful looking in the medicine cabinet but I did see a big bottle of Listerine and some towels so I grabbed all of that and headed back outside.

  The Zombies had evidently located us as I heard several of them starting to bash themselves against the fence. I knew these vinyl fences were not very strong so we had a very limited amount of time. I unscrewed the Listerine and poured it on his face right where the bite was. He screamed as I tried wrapping the towel around his face. Rhonda was just staring at him. He had stopped screaming so I looked down at him as well and saw that it looked like he had passed out. I grabbed under his armpits and started dragging him towards the house.

  A section of the fence in the back had a couple of the panels pop out as the arms hammering away on them finally got through. A Zombie was squeezing himself through already while more hands were appearing to come in as well. I started pulling John even faster. I hopped backwards into the porch after letting Rhonda go through the screen ahead of me. I was dragging him towards the sliding door when the Zombies started coming on the back porch. One of them ran across Johns body to get at me and I had to drop John and back up to stay out of his reach. The Zombie slipped on the body and hit the ground where Rhonda had jumped forward and was beating his head in with the lacrosse stick.

  I looked inside the house where my sword was and rushed over to grab it and get back out and into the fight. I grabbed the sword and spun around in time to see another Zombie jump over John and take a solid hit to the face from Rhonda before pulling her down under him on the ground. Her head bounced off the concrete as the Zombie mounted her in a macabre imitation of a lovers embrace and began biting her face and neck. Ripping off pieces as another Zombie was attacking her legs and more of them were pouring onto the porch though the original hole in the screen which had now been greatly expanded.

  I pulled the sliding glass door shut and locked it as the Zombies slammed into it and started clawing at the glass and slamming into it to try and get to me. Forgetting my rule about not wanting to get caught upstairs without an escape route I turned around and ran up the stairs. When I got to the top there was a loft surrounded by doors to bed and bathrooms as well as a laundry room.

  I heard glass shattering below as the Zombies forced their way in so I made the decision to pick a room based on it having a window for me to escape out of as needed. I thought briefly about trying to go to the back of the house but couldn’t remember which side faced the street at this point so I just ran into the only door on the left side which turned out to be the master bedroom. Not a bad room either. It was easily as big as my apartment had been. It also had a door leading to a bathroom in it. I could see the bathroom had a window in it so I shut the door to the bedroom and went in the bathroom, shutting and locking that door behind me as well.

  I went over to the window and looking down it was pretty clear that I would not be able to just open the window and hop out. If the fall didn’t break one of my legs, then the large number of Zombies on the side of the house in the alley in between would definitely conspire to ruin my day. The
water closet had yet another door on it so I headed in there, shut that door and sat down to wait.

  It wasn’t until I sat down and the adrenaline died off a little bit that a wave of sadness hit me about John and Rhonda followed by a wave of pain from my ankle. I had forgotten until now that I had even hurt it.

  Entry 14: Trapped

  My ankle hurt like a son of a bitch. It was also getting big so fast I was pretty sure I could actually watch it swell. I welcomed the pain though as it distracted me from thinking of Rhonda and John. Every time the pain went away a bit and I closed my eyes I could see them being ripped apart by the Zombies. While I stood just a few feet away unable to do anything except watch through the glass of the slider.

  The throbbing pain in my ankle may have been a welcome distraction but the noises outside the bathroom door were definitely not welcome. By the sound of it at least a few of the Zombies had managed to bash their way through the bedroom and bathroom doors and were now hanging out in the bathroom. Which was not good since I was sitting on a toilet behind a flimsy door just a few feet away from them. It did sound like they had settled into their wander around aimlessly mode though so I did not appear to be in much danger right now.