Zombie Dawn

by J. A. Crowley

  That night, we stayed in the town library. It was empty and easy to secure since it was an old stone building with a few small windows. We all “checked out” a bunch of materials and figured we’d never have to pay the fines.

  During that night’s meeting, I told the group that I needed to check on my sister, who lived to the east about fifteen miles, and then my brother, who lived about fifteen miles to the west, before we could head north. I needed to know what had happened to them. To my surprise, everyone agreed.

  Chapter Fourteen: Jenny

  We left at 5:00 a.m. the next morning and headed east. It took about three hours and thirty plus miles to cover what was usually a straight, fifteen mile shot. Many of the roads were blocked and we saw more and more zombies as we got further from town. Stan ran down as many of them as he could.

  At about 6, we passed a police station and decided to check it out. It was empty, but we were able to get two AR 15s in .223, 500 rounds of ammo, and a dozen round magazines. Just before 8, we drove along the back of a large sporting goods store and decided to give it a shot.

  We’d thought about larger stores and knew that it might be risky, but we needed as many weapons and camping supplies as we could find and decided it might be worth it. We had thought it out a bit. First, we arranged the vehicles in a circle and put a shooter on top of each vehicle for security. We decided that Stan, Jake and I would go in. We carried only our .45s.

  There were only a few cars in the parking lot, but we found a BMW 735 with its keys in the ignition, along with the former owners who were mindlessly struggling in place. We busted into the car and ended the occupants. The car started right up and we rigged it to drive right into the store. We rolled down the windows, turned the radio up as high as we could, and launched the car into the store. It smashed through the front window going at least thirty miles per hour and crashed through the store. We figured that would draw the attention of any zombies. We waited for five minutes then slowly entered.

  The place was empty. Most of the good stuff was already looted from the shelves but we broke into the storeroom and found some valuable items, including a dozen high end sleeping bags still in the box, a case of Maglites with batteries, a box full of Coleman lanterns, two cases of freeze-dried camping food, and two big tents. Jake broke into the manager’s office and found a huge gun safe in it, which was open and full of goodies, including cases of .223, crates of .22 and .45, and lots of 12 gauge shells. Also, there were three Mini 14s in there in .223 and half a dozen .45s. Magazines for all of it. On the way out, I saw that the store had a Thompson .45 and two drum magazines mounted in a framed display case high above the gun case. I grabbed a stepladder from the back, broke into it and grabbed the Tommy gun and magazines. I’d figure out later if it worked.

  We loaded our finds into the van and moved out.

  Jenny lived about a mile from the store. Her neighborhood, a gated condo complex, was barricaded and looked intact. It was a really nice complex. Jenny had divorced well.

  Mike, Jake and I drove up slowly in the pickup and beeped the horn. The rest of the cars were hidden out of sight. After a few minutes, a man called out: “Go away. We have you in our sights and will fire on you if you try to enter.”

  I called back, letting him know we were survivors looking for my sister, Jenny. He hesitated, and I could hear him talking to someone else. He said “They aren’t in here. This place was empty when we got here. Go away.”

  I called back, letting them know we were leaving peacefully. We rejoined the others. “Something’s wrong there,” said Jake. “Shouldn’t that guy have been happy to see more survivors?”

  “Did you notice that you asked about one person and he responded with ‘they’?” said Stan.

  “Yeah, I think we’ve got to get in there and take a look around.” There was a DPW garage close by and we decided to clear the garage and spend the night inside it. There were quite a few zombies in there and we cleared them quickly. We decided that whoever was not going on the “mission” would stay in the cars, and be ready to go immediately when we returned. That would keep them safer from zombies, and allow us to bug out quickly if we were chased or followed back from Jenny’s.

  Mike, Jake and I went in. We carried M4s and .45s only plus small rucksacks with some food and water. I carried six grenades. Mike carried some heavy bolt cutters that we’d found in the garage. Jake carried 2 Claymores with some wire and detonators. The plan was to circle the complex and see what was going on. If we decided to enter, Jake would create a diversion by blowing one of the Claymores. We’d cut a hole in the fence and come in the other side. Jake would then set up outside the hole and cover our retreat with the other Claymore.

  As we walked around, we could see some lighted areas in the compound. There were quite a few people inside, mostly women and children. Initially, I thought they were zombies because they moved oddly, but when we got closer I could see that their feet were shackled. We saw five or six men who were not shackled yelling at the women and hitting them. There were about eight women and twelve kids. One guy grabbed one of the women and dragged her into a condo while the other men laughed.

  I’d seen enough. We decided to return to the garage for reinforcements. I wanted to bring Christina and Kate as sharpshooters. Jake and I would go in and attack the captors. Mike would free some of the captives and arm them so that they could defend themselves. We decided to go in silently, without a diversion, at 3 a.m.

  I silently cut a large hole in the fence. Jake wired the two Claymores to the sides and set them up for Christina to blow when we retreated. Christina set up in a tree across the street, with a good view into the compound. Kate set up in a tree further down. She had a good view of the opening and Christina’s tree; her only job was to cover our retreat.

  The three of us entered as quietly as we could. It was quiet, but we could hear noise coming from the clubhouse and pool area. These assholes hadn’t kept any guards out, so we were able to approach the windows and look in. There were eight guys in there, drinking and smoking and laying around. They looked like a bunch of fat losers playing soldier.

  They were trying to get some of the women to dance like strippers. The women refused and were getting beaten. There were about a dozen women and sixteen kids. Jenny and her kids were in the back. They seemed okay but who knew what had happened to them in the past few days. They looked like hell.

  We could hear the guys talking. They had lost interest in the women for a moment. A few were playing cards and two were shooting pool. Three of them, who seemed to be the leaders, were talking and we could hear everything they said. They were talking about raping these women, killing more survivors and finding more women to rape. Jake, Mike and I exchanged a glance that made clear that their deaths would be slow and painful.

  The leader began to talk about “Speeders” and “Brains.” We had no idea what they were talking about so we stayed and listened.

  “Snake nailed the quickest Speeder yet yesterday,” he said. “He was in a pod and it appeared to be led by a Brain. This Speeder was big and he was fast. Jimmy was taking his time and picking off some Z’s from his truck. Snake was watching from a rooftop. Jimmy was waiting as long as he could to drop the Zs and was having fun with them, laughing, and blowing them to hell. He was sitting on this seat and had the door open. All of a sudden, this Speeder came out of nowhere, climbs over the roof of the truck, and rips Jimmy’s throat out with his left hand while he grabbed his gun with the other. Snake said the Speeder’s movements were smooth—no shuffling or anything.”

  “Next was the amazing thing—the Speeder ran over and handed Jimmy’s gun to another Z, a really tall one. They did not speak but the Speeder was like a dog getting a bone from his master, he just seemed happy. The tall one seemed to direct the other Z’s; Snake said they’d move wherever it moved and even where it was looking. Snake grabbed Duke and they dropped the Speeder and Jimmy but the Brain disappeared.”

  “That’s all
we need,” laughed the fat suckup next to the leader. “Zombies smarter and faster ‘n we are.”

  “Not hard to be smarter or faster than you, you piece of shit,” snarled the leader.

  That was it for useful information. We moved away from the clubhouse and made our plan.

  “Jake, you take that window to the left of the women. Your first shot is the blond guy with the beard, the leader, and your second will be the fat Asian guy. Mike, you go around to the door to the right of the women. Your first shot is the fat black guy, the suck up, and your second shot will be the little guy with the bad leg. My first shot will be the guy in the biker vest and second will be the guy next to him without a shirt on. The other two are so shitfaced that we can clean them up later. See where they stacked their guns? They’ll be trying to get over to them, so plan on your next shot tracking them that way.”

  “See that open window? I’m going to roll a grenade across the floor from there. I won’t pull the pin, but they’ll see it and they’ll be distracted. As it rolls, I’ll go to the front door. Don’t shoot me. Jake will take the first shot, then Mike, then me. After that, fire at will. These are not zombies—shoot them right in the chest. Got it?”

  They were clearly scared shitless, as was I, but we’d been through a lot and knew we had to do it. We were also pissed off and disgusted and wanted to get these guys.

  I went over to the open window and dropped a grenade in. It didn’t roll much, and they didn’t notice it. One of the women did, but she was smart and didn’t do anything about it. I tried again, and this time the grenade rolled lazily across the floor. I was already on my way to the door, but I heard one yell “Hey” and another said “Get down,” then Jake shot, followed by Mike. I saw my guy and fired but shot low and hit him in the stomach. The guys were moving quicker that I expected so I went to full auto, as did Mike and Jake. The captors flipped the pool table over and got behind it. I pulled the pin on a grenade, waited a second, and flipped it over the table. A bang, a loud scream, and it was pretty much over.

  Two of the guys were still alive—the guy I’d shot in the stomach and one of the drunks. Mike had nailed his two guys with two shots. Jake had taken four shots. I was very impressed with them but disgusted with myself.

  Jake and Mike dragged the survivors out while I used the bolt cutters to free the women and kids. They looked much worse up close than they had before. I grabbed Jenny and her kids and gave them a huge hug. I decided right then not to ask much about what had happened. Ever.

  Some of the other women and kids had run out and attacked the survivors. One of them got Mike’s knife off his belt and stabbed a captor in the eye. The rest kicked and punched the other one until he begged Mike and Jake to help him. Jake handed his knife to another one of the survivors and she cut the last captor’s throat.

  Jenny told me that there were two more bad guys. Just then, we heard a Claymore go off, followed by a shot. “Not any more,” I said. We had a brief meeting there with the survivors. All of them wanted to come with us. The captors, who called themselves the “New Aryans,” had killed all of their husbands and boyfriends. They had planned to kill the boys the next day.

  We sent them to get their things. I radioed Kate with an update. “Jenny, TJ, and Katy are fine. The bad guys are down. Did you finish the last two?”

  She told me that Christina had got them with the Claymore and finished one who moved with a shot to the head. I told her that we had a bunch of new recruits.

  “Holy shit! How are we going to work that?”

  “There’s a bus back at the garage. Maybe we can put them in that. I don’t want them driving yet; they’re pretty weak.”

  Mike was ecstatic to see TJ and Katy and we knew Bobbie and Sean would be, too.

  We headed back to the garage and spent some time getting to know our new members while they got to know us. They were exhausted and in shock, so we set them up as well as we could so they could get some sleep. We slept, too.

  In the morning, Stan and I went out to see if we could get the bus started. The keys were in it and it started right up. We grabbed some rolls of chain link and fortified the bus windows with it. We covered the door up, too, because that was a weak spot. You had to get in through the emergency door in the back, which was inconvenient, but safer.

  We decided that Jake would drive the bus. Stan and I took a test drive over to the condo complex since we figured that the “Aryans” had some stuff we could use. They did. They’d been very busy looting the local area. Since they were stupid, they had a lot of cash and jewelry, but they’d also grabbed guns and ammo and lots of food and water. We took all of the water, and all of the food. Like us, they’d focused on certain calibers of weapons. Their rifle of choice was the AR-15 in .223 and they had lots of magazines and ammo to go along with a dozen rifles. They had a Barrett .50 cal scoped sniper rifle and some cans of ammo for it. For handguns, they’d collected Taurus .40 calibers. Since they had a dozen pistols, over a hundred magazines, and crates of ammo, we decided it was worth it to take them.

  We returned to the DPW and everyone was ready to go. We loaded the new people into the bus and armed the few of them who said they knew how to shoot. Mike insisted that we build him a shooting platform on top of the bus and we told him we’d think about it. We did let him ride shotgun.

  Jenny, TJ, and Katy rode in the pickup with me, Bobbie and Sean. It was tight, but we wanted to be together. We didn’t talk much, but it was great to see them.

  The convoy was getting pretty big. It went pickup, Expedition, van, bus, Expedition. We pretty much stopped at every gas station we saw to fill up and scrounge for food and water. Our logistical requirements had just totally changed so we wanted to stay ahead of it. We picked our way back to town without event. We had decided to see if we could stop at Tom’s place for the night.

  Chapter Fifteen: Survivor Issues

  Tom and Li were glad to see us. In fact, after further reflection, Tom and his family had decided to come with us. The crazy bastard had rigged up a huge Hummer with chain link armor and a trailer and they were loaded and ready to go. Tom had brought most of his gunsmithing tools. We made sure that he had his reloading stuff for .223, .45 and .40 plus all of his bullets, powder and brass. He had everything loaded and ready to go. Tom’s wife, a gorgeous Korean, was named Li. Li was a dental technician and we started thinking of her as our dentist immediately.

  Tom’s son George was 17 and his son Sumner was 18. All of them were excellent shots and nice folks; this was a great addition to our team.

  We all crashed in the library that night. We were starting to be a pretty big group. Everyone seemed to enjoy having a bit of a crowd around. The kids ripped off all of the DVDs and CD’s they could find.

  We got off to a slow start the next day. Everyone knew that we had decided to head west and check on my brother Jim. There was some grumbling since everyone had family members to worry about. One of the women we’d just rescued was named Carol Nathan; she was proving to be a huge pain in the ass. She kept whining about trying to find her elderly mother, who was in a nursing home. Even her kids, Jay and Timmy, tried to shut her up but she kept it up. I thought with relish about how I’d handled Santos, when Marj came to my rescue.

  “Jack’s our leader. He’s risked his life time and again for all of us. He’s lost his parents. We wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for him. He just rescued you, for Christ’s sakes. You don’t have to stay with us and are free to leave if you think you can survive without us. Jim is a heavy equipment operator and builder and his wife is a pharmacist. They’ll be valuable members if we can get them. Your mother is elderly and almost certainly dead or a zombie. Make up your mind right now. We’ll give you weapons and food and you can leave to find your mother or you can stay with us. Your boys can make up their own minds, by the way.”

  To her credit, Carol stuck to her guns. She and three of the others decided to stay and look for their loved ones. “Okay,” I said. “But your kid
s are going to make their own decisions. Let’s discuss the facts. If you stay with us, you’ll be with a group that has learned to survive. There is strength in numbers. If you leave, you’re on your own. You’ll have to deal with zombies and survivors who may try to hurt you, enslave you, or kill you. Here’s what we’ll do. All of the new kids will have a meeting to discuss what to do. All of the new adults will, as well. But the kid’s decisions will be independent of the adults’. Anyone who wants to stay is welcome and anyone who wants to go will be provided with a pack, weapons, and food. We’ll get together in one hour for a final decision.”

  Stan, Tom and I decided to start a betting pool among the original group as to how many would stay. Tom began: “I bet they all stay. Why the hell would you go out there again, when you immediately got captured, raped and enslaved.” Stan had a different viewpoint: “Carol is pretty persuasive and she’s harping on everyone taking care of their family and friends. Marj said that women have this nesting instinct and it can sometimes override common sense.”

  I didn’t really care. All I wanted was to know what they planned to do and move on. We set the kids up in one room and the women in another.

  We did have fun with the number, though. I set the over/under at seven of the twelve adults and twelve of the sixteen kids. You either had to take the over or the under. Tom, Kate, Christina and Jake took the over. Stan, Mike, Julie and Marj took the under. We’d started to treat Mike like adult; why not let him bet? The wager was first choice of the next prime weapons we found. It wasn’t much of a bet, because we’d share them anyway. But it was kind of fun, and the beginning of a rich gambling tradition among the group.

  It ended up being more complicated than we thought. The kids had come up with three votes: stay, go, or do what mom decides. We had eight stays and eight “moms.” Carol’s kids were firm “stays,” which I considered as proof that Carol was in fact a complete loser.