“Whoa,” I said as we rolled slowly underneath the sign. “Hey, I’ve read about those! It’s a hack of the system. They’ve done them all over the world.”
Ahead of us, a legless zombie dragged himself along the shoulder, holding a severed hand in his mouth that he worried like a dog with a bone, shaking it back and forth. Eventually the pinky finger broke off and flew out of my line of sight.
“I’m not sure it’s a hack this time, Sarah,” Dave said as he gripped the steering wheel tighter.
I didn’t respond. Amanda only shivered in the back and for a while we rode in silence.
Dave maneuvered the car through the wreckage and for the first time in a long time I felt lucky that we could only afford this compact piece of shit. We were easily able to fit our way through small spaces that bigger cars would have struggled with.
“At some point we might have to move some cars,” he finally said quietly as he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “Can you handle it or do you want to drive?”
I swallowed hard. He meant I’d have to get out of the relative safety of our vehicle. Outside the possibility of a tangle with zombies was almost one hundred percent. But it had to be done.
I managed a nervous nod. “I-I can handle it. But…”
I turned around to look at Amanda. She stared back at me, wide-eyed and oblivious as usual.
“Hi,” she said.
I smiled, hoping to keep her calm as I told her what I’d need her to do. “Hi. So Dave has to drive and I may have to move cars. But I need someone to cover me from the car with a gun while I’m out and can’t protect myself as well. Do you understand what I mean?”
Dave’s gaze flashed to me, “Sarah! She can’t —”
“No,” Amanda interrupted from behind us. “Look I know you think I’m dumb, David, and I guess I probably am. I just never had to do much after cheerleading. But I can learn things, you just have to explain them.”
Dave kept driving in silence, his clenched jaw speaking what his lips wouldn’t, but my smile for her grew wider as I motioned to one of the rifles on the seat next to her. You had to give the girl points for being willing to try.
“Okay, Amanda. Here’s the thing about loading a gun…”
For the next ten minutes I explained the mechanics of the rifle to her and got her to the point where she seemed pretty comfortable with both loading it and clicking the safety on and off.
“Are you ready to try a few shots?” I asked as I used the power window button to roll down her window partway.
“We can’t waste ammo, Sarah,” Dave said and I could tell he was trying hard not to snap.
I glared at him. “Well, I’d rather not have her shoot me because she hasn’t practiced. If you feel like that’s wasting ammo, please let me know.”
He let out a sigh that told me everything, but he nodded. “No, you’re right. Just don’t do too much. We might regret it later when there are zombies.”
“If you see zombies, Amanda, shoot for them. Otherwise, pick a target and squeeze the trigger gently,” I said, hoping to reassure her. She looked pretty nervous and Dave’s attitude wasn’t helping.
She nodded as she braced the gun on the window ledge. “I’m going to shoot the window out of that van over there.”
I nodded at her choice of targets and waited as she squeezed off the shot. It was pretty close to the mark and zinged off the side mirror instead of the window. Amanda made a little noise of frustration and I reached back to pat her leg.
“It’s okay, just try again.”
Her second shot went better and the window shattered.
“I did it!” Amanda squealed, raising the gun up. It slapped the roof and she barely caught it as it slammed back down.
“Careful,” Dave admonished her. When I glared at him, he smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “But good job.”
She grinned before she popped off another couple of reasonably good shots.
“Okay, that’s enough. Dave is right,” I said. “We can’t waste any more ammunition. But do you think you can stay calm and do exactly what you just did if there are zombies outside when I have to move a car?”
She looked nervous. Honestly, I felt nervous even as I tried to keep it together. She could easily shoot me while trying to “protect” me. I didn’t relish the idea of having a hole in my shoulder while trying to fight off a zombie. For all I knew, the smell of my blood might even bring more.
“I can do it,” Amanda finally said.
“Well, we’re about to find out,” Dave said as he motioned his head toward the road before us. There were six cars across, without any space to get around them on either shoulder.
I grabbed for a handgun from our stockpile in the backseat and made sure it was fully loaded before I popped it into my waistband. Slowly, I opened up the door and looked around for any zombies.
I hadn’t fully gotten out when Dave grabbed my arm. “Be careful,” he said softly.
I leaned forward and kissed him, hoping to reassure him even though there was no way to do it. The fact was that I was about to go into the fire and I might not make it through.
I shut the car door behind me, vaguely aware that Amanda was climbing up from the backseat into the front so she could pull off easier shots from my window.
My heart throbbed as I made my way up the highway. I pulled the gun from my back waistband and carried it at the ready as my eyes scanned from one side of the big highway to another. I tried to find a medium-sized car to move, hoping to create a large enough space that our smaller car wouldn’t struggle to fit.
There was a red town car in the middle of the fray so I approached it with caution. It was too close to the big truck next to it and I had to wedge myself between the vehicles to look inside. As I peeked into the backseat there was a groaned growl that echoed from somewhere in front of me.
I leveled my gun toward the sound and pulled off a shot when a zombie dragged itself up along the shoulder. He fell instantly, dropping the bundle in his arms. When I saw it was a baby blanket, I made myself look away. I didn’t want to see anything else, especially since whatever was in the bundle didn’t cry.
Behind me another shot exploded and I looked over my shoulder to see that Amanda had dropped another zombie drooling black sludge into a car behind me. I raised my free hand to give her the thumbs up before I returned my attention to the town car. Its backseat was empty and it looked like a good prospect.
Immediately, I realized that I couldn’t get the car door open with the vehicle so close to the one next to it so I used the butt of my hand gun to break the glass.
Carefully I dragged myself through the shattered window and turned the key that had been left in the ignition. As I put it in drive, I noticed a pool of blood in the seat beside me and shivered. The car inched forward until I bumped against another car.
I couldn’t help it. I grinned as I slipped my seat belt into place.
Have you ever just wanted to smash a car? Or break a television? Or maybe burn a big fire in the middle of a city square? If the answer is yes, then you’d have some fun during a zombie infestation. It’s the little moments, you know?
Anyway, I gunned the car and slammed forward, shoving the smaller vehicle in front of me. Throwing it in reverse, I backed up and slammed forward again, blowing the car in front of me out of the way.
I reached my hand out the window and motioned Dave forward. In the side window I saw him creeping our car through the space I’d made. As he pulled up next to me, I popped the glove compartment to see if the previous owner had anything of use.
Tic Tacs were all I got, but I pocketed them before I got out and started toward the backseat of our car. Hey, they were one and a half calories, right? In a pinch they’d provide some value.
Before I got back to our vehicle, a zombie opened the passenger door of a nearby SUV that had flipped on its side and half crawled, half fell out of the vehicle. This one was a woman dressed in what appeared to be some
kind of stripper outfit. I stared, unable to help myself, at her skintight vinyl nurse’s uniform that was unbuttoned to her bellybutton, which was pierced, of course.
But my shock at the ridiculousness of her appearance faded as she let out a roar and from behind her came five more stripper zombies, like she was their leader calling for a charge.
“Shit,” I cried as I dove for the car. “Drive!”
I closed the door behind me and Dave burned rubber on the asphalt as the stripper zombies threw shoes at the vehicle and limped at us with that weird “Zombie Speed” that they seemed to sometimes have.
“Well,” Dave said as we swerved around a broken-up motorcycle. “I’m guessing those girls may have been the day shift.”
But none of us laughed even as I looked through the back window to see that we had lost them.
Address one issue at a time. You can’t load gasoline, pick up food, AND kill fifteen zombies all at once.
Well, we have a problem,” Dave said after we had repeated the car-moving excitement a few times and made it all of five miles up the freeway.
I couldn’t help but snort out laughter from the back seat. “Just one?”
“One more,” he conceded with a glance toward me in the mirror. He looked nervous and my brow wrinkled in suspicion.
“What is it?”
He hesitated before he blurted out. “It looks like we’re pretty low on gas.”
I leaned forward and stared at the gauge over his shoulder. He was right, the needle was under a quarter of a tank. I glared at him. I knew he could feel it, even if he refused to look at me anymore.
I clenched my teeth.
“I thought you told me yesterday morning that you would fill it up before you picked me up at work to go to therapy,” I said, trying really hard to keep my tone even but failing.
This was another of those bullshit things he did that drove me crazy.
“Yeah. I did,” he admitted, his tone way softer than mine. “But I forgot.”
“You forgot,” I repeated as I flopped back in the seat and folded my arms. “Great.”
He was silent, but in the rearview mirror I could see his dark brown eyes boring into me. They were apologizing, but also sending me a message that he didn’t need any additional punishment from me.
I sighed. “Look, I know you were busy yesterday,” I finally said. “And how were we to know this would happen? I’m sure you would have stopped if you’d realized a zombie outbreak was on its way.”
“I would have done a lot of things if I’d known that.” He nodded. “But you only asked me to do one thing and I fucked up. Sorry.”
“There’s a Gas Guzzler right off exit 165,” Amanda offered helpfully. “It’s kind of busy most days, but I bet we can get in and out quickly.”
Dave sighed. “Well, it’s not that we think there will be a line, Mandy. It’s more a zombie issue.”
Her smile fell. “Oh. Right. I guess they could be roaming around there. A gas station is where Jack got bitten by that homeless guy.”
I shut my eyes. She still didn’t totally get this situation.
“Well, we’re armed and we’ll just have to be careful,” I said, swallowing hard.
Dealing with the freeway zombies was scary enough. I was trying not to think about surface streets where more of the horde would be roaming free.
Dave nodded as he worked his way to the exit ramp, got off and turned toward the Capital Hill area of the city. It was actually one of my favorite places in Seattle. There were a couple of universities up there and a lot of houses, stores and restaurants, plus the aforementioned Gas Guzzler which was right off the highway. We pulled up to a gas pump and Dave cut the engine.
It was quiet, but by this time we’d started recognizing the difference between quiet and too quiet.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Dave whispered before any of us even unbuckled our seat belts. “I’ll get out and start pumping the gas. You guys will have to cover me as best you can because I won’t be able to watch my own back. Once we’re done, we’ll lock the car and go into the convenience store and get anything we can from the shelves.”
Amanda nodded and so did I. With a brief look between the three of us, we each opened our door and stepped out with weapons drawn.
It’s a weird thing to be in a city that is, essentially, dead.
Undead. Whatever.
I hadn’t realized just how accustomed I’d become to the rush of cars on the freeway, the honk of horns, the chatter of people on the street, even the whine of airplanes up above.
Now there was an eerie silence that seemed as loud as any freight train. I shivered even in the warm summer air but forced myself to pay attention as Dave popped the gas tank door and moved around to start pumping fuel into our car.
I faced the front of the vehicle and Amanda took the back. Any movement was suspect, any sound made us lift our guns. But somehow, some way, we managed to keep from drawing attention from the infected the entire time Dave was gassing up. Finally he pulled the pump away and capped the tank.
He looked around. “I don’t like this.”
I nodded. “Maybe we should just go. Not try for supplies.”
He stared at me. “Earlier all you wanted to do was search.”
“That was then,” I said. “This is now. Our task is to get to Longview and as slow as we’re driving right now it could take the whole day to get past the airport, let alone to safety.”
Dave moved toward me. “You’re scared.” I edged away, but he caught my shoulders. “We’re all scared. But we’re here now and we should look.”
I looked toward the store. For some reason Dave was right, I was freaked the fuck out. More than I had allowed myself to be since this mess started. Maybe it was because the store was an unknown. A zombie standing three feet in front of me was starting to become commonplace. But I was scared about what I’d find in a convenience store.
“Come on,” Amanda said with a bright smile. “Maybe we can find some antibiotic cream for the cut on my arm.”
I sighed. I couldn’t deny that request. We hadn’t had many first aid supplies back at our apartment and certainly they hadn’t either. It was only smart to keep all of us healthy as best we could and that meant preventing infection.
“Okay,” I said quietly. I grabbed a handful of ammo and stuck it in my pocket before I locked the car and followed Dave and Amanda.
The automatic doors were still working, which was a bad thing. There wasn’t anyone in the store, which meant that whoever had been working at the time of the outbreak hadn’t had the wherewithal to lock up the store.
We peered in as the door slid open. As it shut in our faces, I nodded. “Okay, it looks pretty clear.”
When the door opened a second time, Dave stepped into the store with us behind him. It wasn’t the biggest convenience store in existence. Probably three hundred square feet at the most, with six or seven low aisles of food. Coolers lined the back walls. Although the store had been unmanned for at least some amount of time, it hadn’t been as cleaned out as I would have suspected.
In some way that made me nervous. No looting meant there weren’t many humans left to loot.
Dave motioned toward the back of the store and I nodded, realizing he wanted us to clear the store from back to front. Amanda was less aware of pretty much anything around her, so instead of following us, she roamed away toward the aisle with cupcakes and candy.
Dave opened his mouth like he was going to call her back, but then he shut it and just moved forward. I angled myself to the other side of the room and did the same. I reached the back wall and looked for a moment at the cooler in front of me.
Beer.
Fuck that sounded good. Even though it was barely eight-thirty in the morning. But zombieism breeds alcoholism. It’s true. Look it up.
I managed to get it together, though, and watching David out of the corner of my eye, I moved along the length of the store, checking each corner and every c
ooler (hey, you never know, wouldn’t it suck to reach in for a Coke and come out with a zombie gnawing your hand off?).
When we reached the front, we walked toward each other and met near the front door.
“It’s so quiet. How can there be no zombies here?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But let’s take it while we can get it.”
He popped behind the counter and grabbed for plastic bags, which he handed out to us.
“Okay, ladies, let’s shop,” he said with false brightness. “Non-perishables, medical supplies, liquids if we can carry them are our priorities. If you’re hungry right now, feel free to grab some perishables that you’ll eat in the next few hours.”
He stared at the walls of cigarettes and to my surprise he started pulling boxes off the walls.
“Um, are we taking up smoking?” I asked as I shoveled armfuls of beef jerky and chips into my bags. “I thought you were so against it, I mean the shit you gave me when I was trying to quit last year…”
He arched a brow. “They might be worth something to trade later.”
I stared at him. “David, that’s prison movies, not zombie movies.”
He didn’t answer, but came around the counter and dumped some candy bars into his cigarette bag.
“I have medical stuff,” Amanda said, bring out a bag brimming with those materials. She’d picked pretty well as far as I could see. She had different sized Band-Aids, creams and even some painkillers. I’m not sure I would have stocked up so thoroughly from the selection in the gas station.
“All right then, let’s go,” Dave said, motioning us out the door.
“I’ll drive if you want,” I offered as the automatic door slid open.
“Yeah, that might… be… good…”
Dave trailed off and his bag hit the ground. So did mine. Even Amanda couldn’t dumb her way out of this one. If the zombies hadn’t been in the store, there was no shortage of them waiting outside. A group of maybe fifteen of them stood in a semi-circle in the area behind our car. And they were all staring directly at us.
Married with Zombies: Book 1 of Living with the Dead Page 8