by Dallin Smith
“The hell is a bandit? I’m sorry, the heck is a bandit?”
“You know, guys with guns?”
“you’re meaning to tell me you were jumped by people?”
“Looters man, some of them just went crazy and started turning on people too. That hummer pulled up at the last moment and saved me. I was heading back to the Temple too but, you looked like you could use the help.”
“Yeah I appreciate it, Tommy. Still, we gotta figure out how to get out of this situation.”
“I’ve got an idea!” Tommy exclaimed with excitement as he pointed at another car a few feet away. “I’m willing to bet that car’s got an alarm or something. If you try and throw your sledgehammer you can probably smash a window and trigger an alarm!”
Jason glanced at the little red sedan a few feet away. It was sitting quietly and most newer cars these days did have anti-theft systems. “Alright, fine,” he said. “We’ve only got one shot at this. I throw this thing, it breaks a window, the alarm gets going and then we run as soon as we spot a break in the swarm.
“Run to where?” Tommy asked.
“I don’t know, run to uh,” Jason paused and glanced around. He spotted stairs leading up into a bookstore. There were quite a few signs of forced entry as the doors had been shoved open, but the bookstore was several stories tall and having a good vantage point would definitely help them navigate through the city. “Run to that bookstore! We move quick and don’t try to fight any of these things unless they get right in front of us.”
“Yeah, sure, got it.” Tommy said.
“Alright, here I go.” Jason said as he swung the sledgehammer around and gave it a good throw. The hammer went careening right into the side of the car window, smashing it to pieces. No alarm went off, however.
“Ah great. That didn’t work. Now what?” Tommy asked.
Jason shrugged at that as he watched. The noise had attracted a few zombies but it wasn’t enough to move the entire horde away from the truck.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” came a voice from inside of the car with the broken window. A bearded man slid up to the front of the shattered front view mirror and looked right at Jason. “I’m trying to hide out in this thing and you done broke mah window!”
“Uhhhh, sorry!” Jason shouted. The zombies were growing more agitated at seeing the ragged man sticking his head out of the broken window of the car. They began to stumble towards the man.
“Run!” Jason shouted.
“Run? Run?” the ragged man said as he emerged out of the vehicle armed with a shotgun. “I’m killing all of them and then I’m killing you both for messing with me!” With that he began shooting at the waves of undead that were now rushing at him in a blind fury. The swarm of zombies grew incredibly agitated at the sound and sight of a meal and began howling and shrieking as they ran.
“Well we can’t help him he doesn’t want it!” Jason said, “let’s go!” He turned to climb down but saw that Tommy was standing and staring at the horde.
“Tommy! Snap out of it, let’s move.”
“There’s so many…” Tommy muttered.
“Yeah and there’s going to be more with that maniac shooting like crazy,” Thomas replied as he grabbed his companion and pulled on his arm. The homeless looking man on the sedan was still going strong, shooting as the zombies continued to scramble over one another to get to him. He was positioned a little above them but it was enough to stop them from mobbing him outright.
“That all you got? I’ve got enough ammunition to last all night!” the man shouted as he continued to blast away at the corpses. One of the zombies managed to get up on the side of the car and bit the man in his ankle. “Ouch!” he cried as he kicked the undead off of him. “Oh you think a bite is going to slow me down? Think again!”
“Look we gotta go, Tommy. I don’t care how many there are, this guy’s about to become bad news really quick. Come on!” Jason said. “I know you’re afraid but you’ve got to act because you’ve got people depending on you. I’m depending on you right now, kid.”
“Depend on me…” Tommy repeated. He shook his head, apparently snapping out of his funk. “Let’s move!” And with that the young man hopped off the truck and began to slash his way through the horde of zombies. Jason jumped off the side of the truck and began running toward the bookstore. A few zombies were directly in front of them, between them and the bookstore, but Tommy was rather handy with a meat cleaver. He chopped quickly, slashing his way through several of them cutting legs and arms and sometimes even managing to split through a head. The boy seemed to be rather energetic and was quite capable of killing the undead despite the fact that they just kept coming.
“Come on!” Tommy cried as he slashed through a few of the zombies. Jason was right behind the boy as they ran up to the bookstore. Tommy stopped short right at the entrance.
“Why did you stop?” Jason asked. “Come on let’s get in there before-“
“Spray paint! Look!” Tommy said as he pointed to a hastily scrawled message on the front of the bookstore promotional for a new book. It read: Counted 50 inside, do not enter.
“Counted?” Tommy asked.
“Probably someone scouting for supplies,” Jason said. “Not everyone here thought running was the best idea.
“Well I vote we don’t go in there then,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, good thinking. Come on, we need to get moving.”
The majority of the undead had moved away from the street and toward the noise of the shotgun and Tommy had cut down a few stragglers, leaving the entrance of the bookstore to be very isolated. At least the outside was. Jason shivered as he looked at the propped open doors of the bookstore. Who knew how many of those things would come pouring out of that place at a moment’s notice?
“Hey!” cried a man as Jason and Tommy began heading down the street toward a vehicle. Maybe they would be able to get it running so they could drive through the streets instead of risking life and limb walking.
Jason glanced up to see a man who had been hiding up in a tree. The bearded man’s face was barely sticking out of the tree and his calling managed to catch Jason’s attention. “That place is infested! It was an evacuation spot at first but someone in there got bit and then, well…you know how it goes.”
“Thanks for the heads up, we figured from reading the sign.” Jason said. “What are you doing up there?” He glanced ahead to see a few zombies stumbling towards them but they seemed to be more aimless than threatening.
“I broke my damn leg, had to jump from the third floor of that bookstore once everyone started to get all bitey. Scrambled up this tree and been up here since. I can walk but not fast enough if these things see me. So I figure I got a few weeks to wait it out or I’ll starve to death.”
“What about water?” Tommy asked. “You need water too.”
“Oh shoot, forgot about water. Hmmmm. I figure I’ve got three days to wait it out or die of dehydration,” the man replied.
“What’s your name?”
“Tudson. Yours?”
“Jason Fraley and this here is Tommy.”
“Well it’s a pleasure, why haven’t you evacuated yet? I mean most folks are running out of the city, not into it,” Tudson asked.
“Looking for my wife,” Jason replied.
“He means his fiancee,” Tommy interjected.
“Is there a difference?” Tudson asked.
“No!” Jason said.
“Well if I see her I’ll say hi for ya,” Tudson replied sarcastically.
Jason glanced behind himself to see that there were a few dozen zombies coming from the direction that they had just escaped from. He grimaced at seeing a panicking young woman staggering away from the horde, clutching her neck. They were running her down fast and she didn’t stand a chance.
“Oh my goodness…” Tommy whispered in horror as he watched the screaming woman fight in vain as she was torn to pieces by the zombies. They were relentless in
their attack and had completely covered her. Almost twenty zombies dressed in suits and ties were bending over on the screaming woman biting and feasting.
“We better move before that horde catches up with us,” Jason said. “Come on.”
“Where you thinking of going?” Tudson asked.
“Well my wife was in one of two places when this went down, home or Brewvies, where she worked.”
“The film place? I don’t know if that would be a good place to hide, what with all the general chaos,” Tommy said.
“Well I don’t have much to go on.”
“Tell you what pal, you get me to my home base and I’ll see what we can do to help you get to Brewvies,” Tudson offered.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I was scouting out potential evacuation zones for my crew.”
“Crew?” Tommy asked
“Yeah, I was part of a motorcycle club called the Knuckle Dusters. Good guys, pretty easy going. Anyway when all of this went down we tried holing up in Squatters Brewery, ironic isn’t it? Fortified the place, well actually we fortified the second floor, the first floor is a mess. We got manpower, weapons of some kind.”
“Guns? You guys have guns?” Tommy asked excitedly.
“What? No we’re a bike club, not a gang. We have tire irons, baseball bats, stuff that break a face but no guns. I was supposed to find guns but I can’t really move around with my leg the way it is.”
“Is your bike nearby?” Jason asked.
“Nah I took my car; it’s a few blocks ahead.”
“Great, we can take it to get to Squatters, I use to go there all the time before they banned me for uh, doing magic tricks. That's near my house, we can check there first for my wife and then back to Brewvies if we have to.”
“Magic tricks? Wait a second, haha, I heard of you!” Tudson exclaimed” You’re Jason, Three Fingers, Fraley. Hah, you used to try and do some kind of scam on patrons there till one of them broke your fingers for trying to palm a wedding ring.”
“Engagement ring, and yes, they broke two of my fingers.
“Why were you trying to palm an engagement ring?” Tommy asked.
“A magic trick where I make their savings disappear, come on let’s go,” Jason said, a little irritated that his past had somehow managed to catch up with him even in the zombie apocalypse.
“They got a picture of you on the wall, says banned until you grow a brain,” Tudson continued laughing.
“Yes I’m well aware of the picture. And the YouTube video. Here, throw me your keys and I’ll get your car.”
“Oh no, I ain’t staying behind while you make off with my ride! You’re carrying me to it.”
“Carrying you? You’re huge.”
“Excuse me, but you can help me limp or you can never see your wife again. I mean I am perfectly content to just slowly die in this tree.”
“Fine, but hurry. That wave is starting to move towards us,” Jason said as he looked back at the scattering of the undead. They were staggering in a weird formation that made him shiver a little bit. It was strange how they seemed to clump together into a large mass and move slowly across the road.
“Yeah the wave is an odd thing,” Tudson mumbled as he began to climb down. “If you ask me, something’s moving them. Like they seem coordinated in some strange way. Waves passing in very strategic areas, clogging up the roads and sometimes…sometimes it seems like they’re looking for something.”
“The only thing they’re looking for is something to eat, now come on, let’s go,” Tommy said hastily as he stepped back a few feet and readied himself. A zombie had emerged from the book store and was a few feet away from the trio.
“Woah! Ahh!” Tudson screamed as he fell out of the tree and hit the ground with a loud clatter. The zombie immediately snapped its head towards the sound and dove towards them.
“Let’s go!” Tommy hissed as he cut the zombie down with deftness.
“How are you so good with a cleaver?”
“My uncle used to make me cut logs all day during the summer, to build my character.”
“Thanks Uncle!” Jason said as he reached down to grab Tudson and help him up.
“Yeah I meant to climb down but I fell,” Tudson mumbled.
“Ugh, you reek of alcohol.”
“Had to numb the pain somehow,” Tudson replied.
“And you thought ‘gee I should get hammered while the world ends’?” Jason asked as the two began to make their way toward the car.
“Well in my defense I was pretty drunk before I fell out of the window too.”
“Unbelievable.”
And with that the three began to make their way to Tudson’s car. It was a rather large Honda built for cruising and Jason felt his heart pound with excitement as he looked at the vehicle. It was rather in pristine condition and it would be able to quickly get them to Squatters. He was a little worried about letting Tudson drive but the man demanded that he was the one to drive and that he usually drove “a little hammered” anyway, so they would be fine.
Everything was looking great until Hudson started the engine. Screeeee! the vehicle cried out as it roared to life. Screeee! It was loud. Louder than anything else on the street. The noise seemed to echo throughout the entire city. From the depths of the city came an ever louder cry back, it was deep throaty noise that seemed to rattle windows of the vehicle. Aiiighhhhhh the voice shrieked.
“The hell was that?” Jason asked.
“Swearing!” Tommy shouted as the car began to roll forward.
“The heck was that and why is your car squealing.”
“Brakes need fixing or something, I dunno, I’m not a mechanic,” Tudson said as he began to drive the car forward. Several zombies in the area took note of the sound and began shambling towards the car. The roaring came again.
“What is that horrible noise?” Tommy asked.
“Dunno, come on we gotta move,” Tudson replied as he revved the vehicle up more and began to drive through the small patches of zombies that were nearby. He hit a few of them with his car knocking them over and atop the vehicle.
“Don’t drive into them! What if they break the window!” Jason shouted.
“Relax, most of these things are so banged up they barely hold together when you hit them. Fall right apart,” Tudson replied as he swerved through the road. “Brewery ain’t too far from here.”
The roads were far more clogged than Jason had initially believed. With so many cars, trash and destroyed zombies strewn throughout the roads it made navigating very difficult. Jason tried to just look forward and ignore the devastation but it was growing harder by the minute. There were so many bodies in the streets, his once beloved city lay in ruins and he didn’t even know what or how it had happened. He felt his heart in his throat as he wondered if he would ever actually find the woman of his dreams or really even if there was a chance that he would survive this thing.
People had been fleeing from Salt Lake City like crazy, Jason remembered the guy in the Hummer saying, but there was some assumption on his part, that this wasn’t happening in other cities. What if a place like New York had been struck with this kind of plague? If this was not just an isolated event, then Jason knew the world was over for certain. Perhaps Utah was one of the safer places to be on account of how small the overall population was.
Another loud roaring snapped Jason out of his pondering and bemoaning of his fate. He could see in the distance there was a small group of armed men shouting at one another as they were shooting their way through a relatively large horde of the undead. They were pushing their way out of a bank and despite the horde of zombies coming at them, they worked extremely well together. The men were in formation and were easily blasting through zombie after zombie.
“Wait are they carrying bags of money?” Tommy asked with incredulity.
“As if money’s going to have any value now,” Tudson muttered as they drove past the group. The undead were fiercely moving towards
the five men, but the small group held tightly together. They pressed backwards into the back, still shooting and screaming orders to one another.
“Should we help them?” Jason asked. “They got guns.”
“That’s exactly why we shouldn’t help them,” Tommy replied. “Anyone who’s stealing money and armed to teeth will probably just kill us and take our supplies.”
“The kid’s right,” Tudson said. “We’ve got a vehicle so they’ll probably shoot us without hesitation.”
“Not worth the risk huh?” Jason said. “I’m having a little trouble believing it. I mean, sure, most people are pretty awful to each other but this is different. This is survival and everyone should be depending on each other.”
“Yeah but they’re thinking the same thing we are right now,” Tudson said, “they’re thinking ‘oh man those guys will probably kill us and take our guns’. Right now paranoia isn’t a mental illness, it’s a survival strategy.”
“Yeah true. Just man, you see how quickly guns’ tear through those things?”
“Yeah I get that,” Tommy said, “but guns tear that quickly through a regular person too. Let’s keep driving.”
Jason glanced over at the five men who were busy laughing as they ruthlessly cut through a few dozen zombies without much of effort. One of them connected eyes with Jason and grinned wickedly at him, causing him to shiver. They certainly looked like the kind of person who would just kill and take whatever they wanted. He decided to defer to Tommy and Tudson’s judgment and said no more about the subject.
After what seemed like forever they Rounded the corner on 300 South off of State Street. “Heads up, we’re almost there,” Tudson said as he pointed to the big red letters that read Squatters displayed high on an old, three storied, green building.
“There she be.”
“It’s on fire,” Tommy muttered.
“Oh come on!” Tudson shouted as soon as he realized smoke was billowing out of the windows. “We gotta get in there.”
“How? First off your leg’s broken and secondly, the place is on fire, Tudson. That means if we go in we’ll choke to death,” Jason said, shaking his head.