Zombie Rules

by Achord, David

  “Don’t even think about if fuckers! If any of you move, Leon here gets it between the eyes.” It sounded good, but it did not exactly go as planned. It seems as though they did not like Leon any more than they liked me.

  Chapter 32 - Shot

  One of those damn soldiers shot me. He was not in the least bit swayed by the fact I was aiming a weapon at his fellow soldier. It sure didn’t work like the movies. The soldier who shot me, perhaps he did not think I would really shoot, or maybe he believed he would be able to kill me before I fired. Or maybe he did not care one way or another if I shot Leon.

  Whatever his thought processes, he sealed the fate of Corporal Leon Hart.

  I shot Leon twice before I fell to the ground. I think that I blacked out then. Maybe just a few seconds, maybe a minute, I was not sure. My next conscious thought was of a close up of asphalt and hearing the sound of frantic screaming along with multiple gunshots. I can’t say how, but I intuitively knew that they were no longer shooting at me.

  I could hardly see, and my head was pounding. In addition, there was something warm running down my face. I reached up and tried to wipe my eyes. My hand came away warm and sticky. It definitely was not a good sign. I felt around. When it felt like I was digging a red hot iron rod into the side of my head, I realized that I found the gunshot wound. So, I’ve been shot in the head. No wonder I hurt so badly.

  I forced myself to think. I had no idea why I was not dead. Maybe I was. Or maybe I was in the process of dying. I would have to figure it out later. I looked around and tried to determine what the hell all of the shooting was about. The problem, anything beyond a few feet was nothing more than a fuzzy blur. The only thing I could readily make out was Rick’s big red truck. It was right in front of me, I think.

  Slowly, painfully, I worked myself onto all fours. It seemed to take forever. I reached out and made contact. A little voice told me it was the front bumper. The gunshots continued at an intense fury, along with a lot of panicked yelling, but I did not feel anything hitting me. Maybe I was bullet proof.

  No matter, my inner voice was telling me to get the hell out of there. I worked my way down the side of the truck. Somehow I got the door open, crawled inside, and shut the door behind me. I searched with my hands until I found something made of cloth. I grabbed it and gingerly held it to my head. The gunshots were growing fainter. At some point everything went black.

  *****

  “I’m going to find a way to get up on the roof.” Fred whispered. He set the bug out bag on the ground. “You stay here and keep watch baby girl, I’ll cover Zach.” Julie nodded and watched as Fred disappeared behind a building. She was crouched down beside a car and watched with a small pair of binoculars. She could see Zach and Corporal Hart. Although she could not hear what was being said, the hand signal for caution was very clear. After a minute, she watched as Zach retrieved his radio and was startled when she heard Zach’s voice. Oh shit, she thought, I’ve got the volume up way too high. She fumbled with the volume knob and turned it down as she listened to Zach.

  “Hello, Julie? Why don’t you come on down and join me with Corporal Hart and his soldiers. You’re going to be surprised, he’s in charge now.”

  Surprise? Surprise meant danger. She took a deep breath. Don’t panic, she thought. She pushed the talk button and responded good-naturedly, repeating the code word to indicate she understood. She was anxious now. Julie stood and turned to go find Fred. Instead, she was stunned to see a soldier standing behind her. He had his assault rifle pointed at her and an unfriendly smirk on his face.

  Fred listened in silence to the radio conversations. He heard Zach use the code word. It was his idea. Fred realized he probably never would have thought of setting up code words and hand signals. He was sitting in the middle of the roof, and had started to sight in on the Corporal when he heard the second radio conversation. He froze in position, silently cussing at himself. He should have anticipated something like this, he thought. So, they had Julie. Fred figured one of them was going to keep guard on Julie and the other soldier was going to keep hunting for him.

  Fred left his rifle lying on the roof. He was going to come back for it, but he had some close up work to do first. He quietly worked his way to the back of the building, crouched down, and waited. He knew the other soldier was looking for him, he only hoped he could take dispatch him quickly. His fatherly instincts were causing him to worry about Julie. In spite of the chill in the air, he was breaking out in a sweat.

  He did not have to wait long. The soldier led with the barrel of his rifle as he made his way around the back corner of the business. Fred saw it poke around the corner first, a rookie mistake. He readied his pistol. He was just about to shoot when he heard gunshots. They were coming from the direction of the roadblock.

  The soldier took off at a dead run back toward the road block. Fred ran over to the rifle and used the scope to get a look. The first thing that he saw was Zach lying on the ground. Make that Zach and the Corporal. Julie apparently saw it too. She had wrenched herself free from her captor and was running toward Zach. The soldier was running after her. Dang it all! He took aim and fired.

  Fred shot him between the ears. He was dead before he hit the ground. The other soldier stopped as he heard the gunshot. He spotted Fred on the roof and began wildly firing. Fred had no choice but to take cover. He cursed at himself. The gunfire ceased momentarily. Fred took a quick peek and spotted the soldier. Actually he only saw one boot. It was sticking out in front of the tire of a car he had taken cover behind. Fred aimed the rifle and waited. The soldier got a fresh magazine inserted and then stuck his head over the hood of the car. He was just about to shoot at Fred, but Fred was a touch quicker. The bullet struck the soldier between the eyes. The two threats had been efficiently and quickly eliminated.

  He stood and shouted at Julie. She had run approximately fifty yards, but stopped when she heard Fred.

  “Grab the rifle, I’ll cover!” He yelled. Julie ran back to the first dead soldier and retrieved the M-4 from his death grip. She was just about to start back toward Zach when there was an intense fusillade of gunfire. She instinctively hit the ground. Fred quickly brought the scope up and looked at the roadblock. He saw that the soldiers were yelling and firing, but not at them. They were shooting at somebody, or something, on the other side of the roadblock.

  Julie could barely feel her legs. She was scared. The soldier, one she had never seen before, leered at her unabashedly. He was unshaven and did not look like he had bathed in a while. Another one appeared on the other side of the car. She did not recognize this one either. He was not much cleaner than his friend.

  “Drop the gun bitch. Now!” She reluctantly obeyed and her AR-15 clattered onto the sidewalk. He used a walkie-talkie to inform Corporal Hart that Julie was now their prisoner. He was leering at her the whole time. He had not shaved in several days. He probably thought it made him look ruggedly handsome. Julie could see blackheads on his face so large they looked like freckles. Where the hell was Fred?

  “Where’s the old man we seen you with?” The leering soldier must have been reading her mind. She certainly knew what he was thinking.

  She hoped Fred was on the roof and waiting for the right moment to shoot them. “He said something about looting some of the buildings. I think he was just scared and took off.”

  The soldier scoffed and relayed the information to Hart. Once receiving their orders, the two soldiers conferred a moment. One agreed to stay behind and the other was going to escort Julie to the roadblock and the waiting hands of Corporal Hart. As they walked, the only thing she could think of was to work her way toward the middle of Nolensville Road so Fred would have a good shot. Then she heard the gunshots coming from the roadblock. She just caught the sight of Zach falling to the ground. She could not see everything, Rick’s truck partially obstructed her view. Only a part of him was visible and it did not look good.

  “No!” She screamed. She struggled out of t
he soldiers grip and started running.

  Toward Zach.

  All she could think about was she needed to get to him. She heard a gunshot behind her and thought for a moment the soldier had just taken a shot at her. She looked back just as she saw him fall. She watched as the second soldier took cover behind a car and started shooting at Fred. It did not take long for Fred to kill him as well.

  She started running again when Fred yelled at her and directed her to get a weapon. She ran back to the fallen soldier, grabbed the M-4, and started running toward Zach again. But, she quickly realized something was not right. The remaining soldiers started shooting, but not at her. They were shooting in the opposite direction, the other side of the roadblock. As she got closer, she saw Zach get on all fours and then make his way down the driver’s side of the truck. She smiled, but only briefly. His face was covered with blood.

  Then she heard the other two soldiers scream as they were being attacked by zombies. No matter how much they fired, it was not enough. The men were grabbed and pulled to the ground whereupon they became zombie sandwiches.

  There were too many to count. They were swarming around the roadblock in a massive horde and had surrounded Zach’s truck before Julie could take another step.

  Chapter 33 - Trapped

  Julie watched in horror. The invading legion engulfed the roadblock and truck in mere seconds. The horde crammed against the cars and their sheer volume actually pushed them out of their way. The front ranks fell. Zombies began stacking up, which allowed the rear ranks to walk over them and continued their relentless juggernaut.

  She began shooting then. There were multiple targets, and in her panic she forgot rule number one. She ran out of ammunition quickly. When the noise of the gunfire ended, it was replaced with a deafening din of moans and wailing.

  They started working their way toward her. Their inertia propelled them forward. Julie tried desperately to espy Zach, but she only saw zombies. There were so many now she could barely see the truck.

  Several of them jumped on Leon’s now lifeless body, and several more spotted Julie. She knew she had no choice but to turn around and seek safety. She saw Fred waving frantically and then he started shooting as well.

  Fred saw the zombies closing in on Julie. He started methodically shooting them, but the sheer numbers were threatening to overtake Julie before he could shoot them all. He shot as quickly as he could. He desperately wished for a high capacity weapon like an M4. He shot and reloaded his bolt action rifle as quickly as he could, and still the zombies were closing in on Julie. They were now within ten feet. He continued firing. “Run around to the back of the building, I’ve got a ladder!” He yelled. She did not need to be told twice.

  When Julie made it halfway to the top of the ladder, Fred leaned over, grabbed her arm, and yanked her to the top. Julie grunted in pain. “I’m sorry baby girl, no time to be delicate.” Fred yanked the ladder up just as a large man/zombie reached for it. There was a brief moment of a tug-of-war with the ladder, and then other zombies joined in. Fred was overpowered. He had no choice but to let go, or else be pulled off of the roof. He got his pistols out of their holsters and prepared to shoot.

  He did not have to.

  He watched in surprise as the zombies tore at the ladder for a minute, dropped it, and then stood there stupidly reaching upward toward him.

  Julie tentatively walked over and looked down. She was breathing heavily, both from running and the adrenalin pumping through her veins. “Why aren’t they trying to use the ladder?” She asked.

  “I don’t think they know how to anymore.” He grunted. “Let’s move away from the edge so they don’t see us, maybe they’ll forget about us and move on.”

  Unfortunately, they did not.

  Chapter 34 – Rooftop Purgatory

  “Don’t they ever stop moaning?” Julie and Fred were sitting against an HVAC unit on the roof. They talked in whispers so the zombies did not hear them. They were still hoping the zombies would wander off. Some did. Quite a few did not. They continued to either aimlessly wander in circles or stand in one spot awaiting some unknown stimuli.

  “It doesn’t seem so. I don’t think they sleep either.” Fred looked at his watch. They’d been trapped on the roof for twelve hours now, and their bug out bag was still sitting on the sidewalk where he had left it. He silently cursed himself for his faux pas. “You feel up to telling me about Zach now? I’m afraid I had my hands full and didn’t get a good look at what happened.”

  Fred had asked Julie about Zach earlier, but she just could not talk about it then. She felt the tears and quickly wiped them away. “One of the soldiers shot him.”

  “Was it Corporal Hart? I’m going to kill…”

  Julie interrupted him. “No, it was one of the soldiers standing on top of the cars. When he shot Zach, it looked like Zach shot Corporal Hart. And then Zach went down. It seemed like the zombies showed up immediately after. The soldiers started shooting at them, but there were way too many.” Julie shuddered at the thought. “If Hart was still alive, the zombies got him too.” She took a slow deep breath. “Fred, I saw Zach get up and make it back to the truck. I think he got in.” She could see Fred nod his head in the dark. “Do you think he’s still alive Fred? Please tell me what you think.”

  Fred was quiet for several long seconds before he answered. “Baby girl, it’s hard to say. It depends on what kind of wound he has…”

  “His face was covered in blood. That’s all I saw, his face covered in blood.” An involuntary sob escaped before she could stifle it.

  “And if he is in good enough shape to administer first aid to himself.” Fred continued. “He’s smart enough to know he has to get the bleeding stopped, and don’t forget, there is food and water in the truck. So, he may be okay, for now.” Fred sighed. “We’re not so lucky.” He felt her shudder again and put his arm around her. “We can’t last up here for very long without water. We can go several days without eating, but we need water. Three days, we can’t go longer than three days without liquid.” Fred silently cursed himself for getting all of them in this predicament.

  “So what are we going to do?” Julie asked.

  “Eventually, we’re going to have to jump off of this roof and make a run for it.” Julie gasped. “We’ve got no choice. If we stay on this roof, we’ll get weaker and weaker.” Fred thought about the bug-out bag Zach had carefully packed with, among other things, food and water. It was currently lying on the sidewalk, unmolested by the zombies walking around it. “We’ll either die of thirst or we’ll be too weak to make a run for it.” He gave her a squeeze around the shoulder. “We can try to wait them out for a little while longer, see if they move on, but eventually we’re going to have to make a break for it.”

  Julie stifled a sob. “We’re stuck on this damn roof and Zach is all alone, and we can’t help him.” Julie started crying freely now. “I’m sorry Fred, I always get overly emotional when it’s that time of the month.” Fred grunted. “I know, TMI. I’m sorry.”

  “What does TMI mean?” Fred asked.

  “Too much information.” Julie said. It was getting colder. “You’re an old soul Fred, but I like you. In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve been more of a father to me than my real father ever was. My mother and father had a strange relationship, and he wasn’t around much. Don, my mother’s boyfriend, he was actually a nice guy, but it wasn’t the same.”

  Fred squeezed her shoulder. “I’m glad you think so, because I have a bit of an idea. It might give us a chance to make a run for it, but it’s going to be a little bit embarrassing for you.” He began telling her what he had in mind.

  Chapter 35 – Escape

  I had no sense of time. My first thoughts upon waking were, my head hurt like hell, I was seeing double of everything, and my mouth was as dry as an old woman’s cooter.

  Now, understand, I did not just wake up immediately. It was a long, drawn out process. I think I dreamed or hallucinated, I’
m not real sure. Then my eyes sensed some type of brightness. It was daylight I guessed. The bright sunlight was a subtle clue. Apparently, it was some sort of primordial cue for my brain to give a command to my bladder, which led to the next conscious thought I had, which was, I was pissing myself.

  Very embarrassing. Even though I was alone. Anyway, it was quite a while, I think, before my brain rebooted itself and I became aware of what had happened to me. Without thinking of the consequences, I reached up and touched my head. Oh yeah, I was rewarded with a stab of pain.

  Better idea, use the rearview mirror. I could see how bad it was without touching it. Good idea Zach. Using the mirror was much less painful, and although I was still seeing double, I could make out a little. It did not appear I had an extra hole in my head per se. More like a long crease from the top of my right ear, going in a downward trajectory. The bleeding had stopped, and now the side of my head was a coagulated mass of dried blood.

  Remembering my thirst, I found one of our plastic military surplus canteens and took a deep gulp. It tasted like manna from heaven. There was a small part of my brain telling me to slow down and take small sips, which I readily complied to. As I drank, the memories of how I got shot slowly worked its way back into my conscious thought. Looking out of the window of the truck, I saw quite a few zombies aimlessly standing around. Any thoughts I had that they were not aware of my presence were stymied when one of them slapped the passenger side of the truck and tried to claw his way in. It caused me to jerk, which sent spasms of agony through my head. The pain was reminiscent of the beat down I had suffered not very long ago.