Still Alive (Book 4): Zombie Oasis

by Javan Bonds

  “Yeah, but was he blue?”

  Shrugging at Devin’s response, I looked out the window “Sooo …”. “How fast is it spreading?”

  He looked grim. “No way to know. The national news isn’t really carrying it and local news doesn’t want to seem crazy. I’m thinking it probably moves pretty quick. I mean, after one bite, the infected goes to the next person. They can infect a hundred people walking down the street in just a few minutes.”

  I was incredulous. “You mean they don’t know where it is?”

  “If they know, they ain’t talking.” He cracked his knuckles. “The military isn’t even that worried about it. We ain’t in lockdown or anything. It only takes one bite and most bitten take just a few hours to turn. It could be everywhere by now.”

  This was stupefying. It could actually be the end of the world and it’s not headline news. I don’t know why I took Devin seriously. This could be a joke. It wasn’t like I wanted there to be a real zombie plague, but everything he said just seemed honest.

  “Well, we are pretty safe here, right?”

  Devin shrugged at my question. “I don’t think the zombies are getting through chain-link and concertina wire, but I wouldn’t want to be here forever.”

  “So what should we do?”

  “I was thinking about that. If it gets bad like I know it’s going to, we’ll probably be safe on the base for at least two weeks. Eventually, I want to get airborne and check on my family over in Texas. Your family’s still in Alabama, right? We can go see how they’re doing. Of course, anybody else that is left and has family on the way can go.”

  I shook my head. “Devin, listen to yourself, man! You’re talking like we could just get in a plane and fly because we wanted to. There are regulations that …”

  He interrupted. “There won’t be anyone giving orders soon.”

  I was flabbergasted that he spoke with such certainty. “How the fuck do you know? This might not get that bad.”

  He looked at me as if I was the crazy one. “I’ve seen movies, man. This shit always goes exactly the same.”

  “Movies? What the fuck? This is real life. There are no screenwriters!”

  As I berated my friend, I could see out the window a group of naked men – obviously civilians – rushing the gate and the lightly armed guards.

  ☠☠☠

  Privates Matt Kladstrup and Brian Walker stood just inside the open gate and tried to intimidate the group of insane rioters pushing closer.

  Walker moved forward with his hands spread, demanding these protesters turn back. They had to be high. They were naked, slobbering, and screaming or howling rather than speaking. Private Kladstrup waved his pistol around trying to scare the men, and it wasn’t working.

  He fired a couple of shots into the air. His brother in arms jumped right along with the protesters, caught completely off guard. The naked people paused as if momentarily frightened by the loud booms, but recovered insanely fast and charged the guardians at the gate.

  A single bar that could be raised or lowered was the only impediment between the infected and warm meat. They charged and leapt over it, ready to tackle both guards. Kladstrup fired wildly at the closest attacker, missing and striking his fellow serviceman in the neck. Walker was facing his own attacker and was about to be fallen upon when everything suddenly went black.

  The body collapsed, dead in an instant. The sight of fresh blood so close drove the attackers insane. All three jumped onto the body, sinking their teeth into the warm, juicy private.

  Private Matt Kladstrup could do nothing but stare at his friend as he was devoured by naked people. His trigger finger was frozen. He had just killed his best friend and was now watching him torn apart by cannibals. Pieces of stringy, bloody meat dangled from their snarling mouths, all while the private watched with an unblinking gaze.

  These protesters couldn’t be people. They had the look of rabid dogs in their eyes. The private was trying to convince himself that it would be okay to shoot weaponless civilians just when one of the lunatics looked up at him and started rising to charge. He had just shot his friend by accident and was having trouble raising his firearm. The only good thing, he thought, was now he would not be able to shoot any innocents if he missed.

  These crazies apparently didn’t understand English. Kladstrup pleaded as the man got closer. “Freeze, motherfucker!” The attacker did not even seem to recognize that he had spoken. He fired three rounds from his G19 into the center mass of the coming nutcase. Blood sprayed as the attacker launched into the air, slamming Private Kladstrup back against the grill of a parked Humvee.

  The private’s head violently bounced against the winch on the front of the Humvee. His neck was lodged in the sharp hook on the end of the metal rope. The body of the bleeding-out naked man landed on top of him, forcing his body down while his neck remained stuck. His body was pulled down as what appeared to be his spinal cord remained in the hook. His lifeless corpse lay under the dead infected. Another free meal for those infected finishing his best friend. It didn’t take them long to gobble up most of the sloppy remains. They were on the new dead and uninfected corpse in an instant, attempting to quench their insatiable thirst for fresh human blood.

  ☠☠☠

  I was sickened. “Did you fucking see that?”

  Devin was already at the window, staring with gaping mouth. “I know what this means. They’re here. Most of the people on the base are gonna die.” He spoke with such finality it was hard to question him.

  I still had trouble coping with the fact that he knew all this. What if these were just guesses? Was he in contact with some type of Oracle? He could just be blowing things out of proportion. Those crazies outside could just be doped up and this whole thing isolated to a single bad batch of drugs. “What if it’s nothing?”

  “It’s something. It’s on the base. We need to start getting people together.”

  I wanted to laugh. Everything would be normal tomorrow and I would be making fun of him. Things would be like they always were and I would make sure to bring this up years down the road whenever I wanted to shut him up. He couldn’t know. It wasn’t like he was some type of fortuneteller.

  ☠☠☠

  Within four days, the virus completely consumed nearly the entire city of Los Angeles and the surrounding area. Being so close to what was thought to be ground zero, the base fell unimaginably fast. These infected ghouls had no fear of men with guns. They couldn’t understand the spoken word and didn’t know we were telling them to beware. They had no problem attacking women and children. Most soldiers had difficulty shooting unarmed, naked Americans, so the infection was inside the wire in just a few hours of the initial outbreak.

  ☠☠☠

  The brave men and women on the base hesitantly fell back and most were taken down by a mere break in the skin. They would continue to fight, but would eventually turn and become the enemy of their former comrades. It was heartbreaking to see best friends turn on one another when one of them became blue. Compare it to a rabid dog biting its owner. The dog might love its owner and would never do such a thing, it just has no idea what’s happening. The virus clouds all vision, all memory, everything but the nagging hunger.

  ☠☠☠

  Devin tried to convince anyone that would believe him, telling them to stay indoors at night or on cloudy days, and only leave the barracks to perform searches of the base whenever the sun was shining. He went out every day and but found less people each time. Convincing even less to come back and button up in the barracks with our surviving group. Almost a week after May Day, he returned to the barracks after a search, downtrodden and alone. It wasn’t that he couldn’t convince a soul to return, it was that there were no more souls to be found.

  ☠☠☠

  We spent a few more days on base, loading up ammo, gear, MREs, and anything else useful we could find. Twenty survivors had been rescued from the base, all servicemen, and we decided the most comfortable transp
ort available was the AC-130 I flew in on. Azrael 2.

  17

  Mo Journal Entry 3

  I CAME CLOSE to skipping from my dad’s office, outside, and through the parking lot to the gym. I was definitely going to get to do what I wanted and not have to come out as the selfish asshole I am (as if everyone didn’t know of my narcissistic tendencies already). The only downside to this trip is that (assuming that this German doctor is alive) Von Spiegel will be coming back to Guntersville with us. I’ve seen the movie “Downfall.” I can imagine this guy’s hand shaking as he takes his glasses off. He will then lose his mind, screaming at anyone within earshot! We all know that German is not a very soft language. Come on, have you ever watched German porn? You’d be crying by the time it was over! For some reason Germans speaking German sounds something like Hitler. And no, I’m not calling them Nazis, it just sounds like they are yelling about the People’s struggle and all that.

  ☠☠☠

  That reminds me, we’ve all seen clips of Adolf Hitler giving speeches on The History Channel. I even remember that special where they were trying to find a close imitation of Hitler’s natural speaking voice. It sounded weird if you ask me. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever heard many other dictators speak. Sure, I’ve heard Gaddafi and Chavez talking. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video of Stalin, Lenin, or Hussein (Saddam. No, I don’t mean Barack) speaking. I’ve just always pictured them sounding something like Yakov Smirnoff.

  Anyway, enough digression. Back to the story.

  ☠☠☠

  I walked to the door of The Running Man and was about to knock. I was greeted by my Old Friend and his simian familiar coming outside to enjoy a midmorning protein shake.

  “Mo, when did you get here? Want to come lift some weights with us?”

  “I’ve been standing out here for hours just waiting for someone to come out and offer to force me to do physical labor,” I almost said. I swear, being within a certain distance of my brother’s perfectness seems to dumb some people down.

  I chose not to be a dick. “I just came over from the courthouse. I know Easy’s inside. What about Aka?”

  The Old Friend lowered his drink. “Well yeah man, of course, who else you think I would be working out with? Oh, and she’s our spotter.”

  I managed to avoid sighing. “I would never have guessed. I need to talk to all three of you.”

  We entered the weight room and I wasn’t surprised by what I saw. My shirtless brother was lying on a bench, pumping a bar with an unrealistic amount of weights on it. His chocolate beauty of a wife could not possibly hold that much weight, but there she was, defying physics. She was just as out of breath and drenched in sweat as he. I was fairly certain I have never sweated half as much as either of them.

  Bradley pointed to the giant stereo system blasting out screaming death metal. Mary immediately charged to turn it off to give us sweet silence. He said, “Hey dudes! We got a visitor.”

  The couple looked up from their present activity of being extremely healthy. I could immediately see my sister-in-law wrinkle her nose at me. Easy yelled across the workout center at me, “Yo, Mo! Wanna come give it a rep?”

  This wasn’t the first time he had offered to let me join in his humanly impossible workout sessions. I was never sure if he was actually seriously offering to help me kill myself with a push-up bar. Maybe he knew I would decline to guillotine my head and just wanted the chance to call me a pussy. I suppose his seeming airheaded lack of a sense of the people around him is to blame.

  “Nah I’m good. I just got done with a jog.” If you count a leisurely stroll for a few hundred yards as a jog. “Daddy wanted me to talk to y’all about something.”

  Ebony and Ivory had been getting closer as we talked and were now mere feet away from me. Close enough for me to smell the sweat and HGH seeping from my sibling. My brother was drying the back of his neck off with a towel. I swear to God you could wring that thing out and swim in it!

  I tried to make it sound like the entire roster of main protagonists was ready to go on a trip. “We are gonna take the boat down to the Gulf and I wanted to know if y’all wanted to come.”

  I sighed, realizing nobody was taking the boat anywhere unless I convinced my sister-in-law to go with me. “We gotta go save some doctor that supposedly has a cure.” I tacked on, “And Smokes’s cousin needs saving down in Tuscaloosa. Y’all wanna go?”

  Easy smiled. “Me and Bradley have been wanting to go down that way. I think we can go with you if we can make a stop to pick something up.”

  Quid pro quo? I stared blankly before finally asking the question. “What are you planning on doing?”

  My brother chuckled. “Well, we were hoping to stop close to Tuscaloosa and pick up the SEC Championship Trophy. Maybe some other Crimson Tide stuff if we can find it.”

  Holy God, really? The world has been destroyed by blue cannibals and my brother is worried about fucking football memorabilia. I’ll admit that is a cool trophy. But I don’t really want to take the risk of running into a three-hundred-and-fifty-pound, former linebacker turned peevie. It did seem a little convenient that they wanted to go to where The Oracle’s reason was. Could it possibly be more than convenience? Maybe it was fate or all part of the plan that my brother and his entourage would find some way to get to Tuscaloosa. On the return trip of course. I sure as hell wasn’t going to the Gulf down the Tennessee River.

  I could see the pleading in Aka’s eyes. I understood that she desperately wanted this for her husband. The question I did not want to ask had to be asked. “Do you know where it is?”

  Bradley answered as if it should be obvious. “Yeah.”

  “Exactly?”

  Easy smirked. “Well duh.”

  Of course, I have been under the constant threat of being turned into a naked monster for over a month. I was almost murdered by a crazy guy with three-quarters of a penis. Next, I could have nearly met my end thanks to an insane communist running a prison. Just as icing on the cake, I could’ve again possibly been enslaved by that lunatic eunuch. It goes without saying my brother knows exactly where a damn football trophy is! He even experienced some of the previously mentioned horrors with me. But fucking sports is at the forefront of his mind.

  I knew that if Easy went, his wife would go. If I didn’t give him what he wanted I wouldn’t even get close to the ocean. I dropped my head in defeat. “Okay, but I’m thinking we do it on the way back.”

  Bradley started cheering. My new sister-in-law squealed with delight. Mary was even chirping and clucking. My brother almost tackled me in a bear-hug. “Thanks dude, this will be awesome!”

  I attempted to ignore it but I’m pretty confident that my brother wiped his eyes as he finally let go of me. I detailed my thoughts on men crying in public in my journal. I’m not much of one for hugs either. I don’t mind a quick “dude hug” lasting no longer than three seconds. But I don’t like tender, tearful embraces with men. If I wrap my arms around anyone for an extended period of time, she better be getting naked soon.

  I had Easy hooked now. “We won’t be leaving for the next couple days. “

  His sureness faltered. “Come on, Mo!” My still-shirtless sibling was aware of my promise-breaking. “You are such a slow ass!”

  I wanted to scream, “I’m just not in a hurry to fucking die for a piece of crystal shaped like a football!” I swallowed my argument. Quietly, I conceded, “Fine, be ready to move out tomorrow.”

  I can’t believe I’m letting my brother rush me into putting my and possibly several other lives in jeopardy. Oh well, The Screenwriter must be smiling down on me. I just got another two main protagonists! One of The Reasons, The Old Friend, and my only way to get through all the locks and dams just signed on to this voyage.

  Shit, I’ve only got twenty-four hours left on the island. I guess that means I better hurry up and go talk to Gene about going. I can go over this planned journey with the Love Interest tonight when she comes t
o sleep in my bed before we have incredibly hard sexual relations. By the way, I just wanted to remind you that I enjoy intercourse with a female regularly.

  I exited the gym with plans to go see The Tech. I buzzed my dad on my walkie-talkie. “Daddy?”

  I could imagine my father sighing. Then he would look up to ask God why I was such a failure of a son. “Mo. Gray Fox here. Over.”

  Why haven’t I thought up a nickname for myself yet? This bothers the hell out of me and I think about it all the time. I could start having him call me “Savior of My Favorite Son.” That wouldn’t really work for everyone else, though. I still can’t come up with anything better than “Brown Mo.”

  “I just left The Running Man. All three of them agreed to go. Well, Mary’s going. All four of them?”

  “Gray Fox here. Really, Bradley too? Over.”

  He’s in a wheelchair and I’m pretty sure the jungle or Cuba or wherever the hell we are going will be extremely non-ADA compliant. But I’m not going to tell him he has to stay home again after the last trip I know he wanted to go on. “Yeah, him and Easy want to swing by a museum or something in Tuscaloosa.”

  He seemed satisfied. “Gray Fox here. Understood. Tell them to be sure to pick me up a houndstooth hat. Over.”

  “Will do. I’ll holler at you after I see Gene.”

  “Roger. Over and out,” his reply came.

  Following the sidewalk up the hill I made my way to Excelsior. After pulling and pushing on the doors I realized they were locked. Strange, The Tech almost never closes during the day. After pressing the doorbell, there was no sliding of doors or an impersonation of Patrick Stewart. He apparently wasn’t in the shop. I reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper to write “COME SEE ME ASAP” in bold letters and held it up against the window. I knew the motion sensing security cameras inside would pick it up. I turned to make my way to the Cora, being sure to toss the paper in the nearest garbage can. I care about the environment. The realization just came to me I could have simply radioed him without having to make a special trip. Dammit, I’m a good time waster!