Outbreak: Tales from the Quarantine Zone

by Robert Van Dusen

  Doc rolled her dark green eyes and dug around in her cargo pocket. “Here.” she offered him a couple rectangles wrapped in tinfoil. She was secretly grateful that he only took one. “If you find any cigarettes remember I was nice and shared my gum.” Doc said with a grin.

  They drove on in silence down the tree lined road for a little while Brian guiding the truck around a stalled vehicle here or a downed tree there. There was a sharp bend in the road forcing him to slow down to negotiate it and the truck bounced as he ran over a thick tree limb jarring the passengers. Doc scowled at Brian who shrugged apologetically. Presently the trees thinned on the right side of the road and a handful of small farmhouses revealed themselves.

  They passed by several more houses as they had pretty much picked them clean during the earlier summer and autumn. Brian felt a chill when he noticed a handful of slouching staggering figures coming towards the noise of the truck's engine. If they were lucky the hills would make it harder for any of the zombies farther away to pinpoint the source of the noise...

  Two large houses presented themselves on either side of the road neither of which they had gotten around to checking out earlier. “Which one?” Brian asked. The one on the left had a driveway in plain sight while the one on the left looked like it might be farther down the road.

  Doc shrugged. “Let's do the one on the left first and then the other one.” she said and swallowed her gum. Brian shrugged back and then steered the truck onto the gravel driveway of the house on the left gently letting the vehicle glide to a stop. The structure had been an impressive two story colonial with white vinyl siding however now it had all the charm of a dead five dollar hooker. It's siding was falling off and it looked to Brian like he could probably kick his way from one end of the building to the other. When the truck came to a stop the two of them jumped out and hid behind the side of the vehicle facing away from the house.

  Brian and Doc looked at each other waiting for some sign that someone had heard the truck coming. The two of them exchanged nods and stood slowly with their firearms ready in case someone in the house started shooting at them. After a few tense moments they ran from the truck and up onto the front porch of the house. They waited again on either side of the front door... Brian reached out and pounded on the door hard four times with the butt of his fist.

  They waited ears straining for the sound of any creatures inside coming. Doc cautiously reached out for the door handle once they were reasonably certain that nothing was inside. Or rather nothing inside was falling for their little ruse... The picture window behind her shattered with a crash making both of them jump out of their skins.

  A thing that used to be a willowy young girl in a filthy blue floral print sun dress lay writhing on its stomach trying to get to its feet. The broken glass on the planks created a myriad of bloodless slashes in its palms and forearms. Brian was on it in a flash his hammer streaking downward in two sharp blows smashing in its skull before it could move.

  Brian stepped over the zombie and carefully stepped through the broken window so he wouldn't cut himself on the shards of glass sticking out of the frame. He stood in what looked like a parlor or living room. A couch and a recliner were arranged around a television on a wooden stand a few feet away all of which were covered in a thick coating of mold and dust. The dust was so thick that he could tell that the zombie that was now on the porch had come through the doorway about ten feet away. Was there any more in there?

  He quickly walked over to the door and let Doc in. The pair of them made a quick sweep of the first floor discovering a dining room that looked like a tornado had hit it as well as a kitchen and, most importantly, a small pantry. There was also a small laundry room attached to the kitchen. There was a set of stairs that led to the second story in the dining room. Brian picked up an empty laundry basket that was sitting on top of the dryer and handed it to Doc. “Put the stuff from the pantry in here.” he said as he rushed out to the living room.

  Doc made a strange face but put tucked the Glock into her waistband and went back into the pantry. There was pretty slim pickings: some dusty cans of Spam, some tuna fish, a few cans of miscellaneous vegetables...not really enough to justify the trip so far. She returned to the kitchen and started going through the cabinets. This was a little more profitable as Doc discovered several Tupperware containers with some rice, flour and sugar as well as a supply of salt in a cardboard tube. There had been a few boxes of cereal in one cabinet but the mice appeared to have made short work of them.

  The woman paused between the kitchen and the living room. Brian was crouched next to the cabinets next to the television muttering to himself as he rooted through the contents. He growled under his breath and shifted over to the one next to it. Doc shrugged mentally before walking quickly to the truck and putting the laundry basket in the back.

  “FUCK!” Brian shouted as he kicked the door to the cabinet he'd been searching shut. Doc turned on her heel and sprinted into the room machete drawn. The woman chuckled relieved when she saw that Brian was alright but standing in the middle of the room with his hands clenched at his sides. The look he gave her cut off any further laughter.

  “Are you alright?” she asked after a few seconds of awkward silence. Doc slid her machete back into its sheath and took a few tentative steps towards Brian. He took a deep breath and looked at the woman. Doc was suddenly a little concerned for the man's sanity.

  “It's Danny's birthday in a couple days.” Brian said quietly. The man smiled awkwardly and motioned towards the cabinets and shelves he'd been searching. “I wanted to give him one good day... I was hoping to find a movie, one of my favorites when I was his age, and hopefully some popcorn or candy or something.”

  Doc smiled. “You know what? That sounds like a fantastic idea to me. Let's see what we can do.” she put her hands on her hips and looked at the stairs. “I wonder if the people that lived here had kids. We'll probably find something if they did. What one are we looking for in particular?”

  Brian looked at the floor suddenly a little bashful for some inexplicable reason. “The Princess Bride.” he said and cleared his throat before meeting the woman's gaze. He smiled a little when she didn't burst out laughing straight away.

  “Inconceivable!” Doc exclaimed with a wide grin. She started towards the stairs and looked over her shoulder. “Let's hope we find a copy. I take it you've got something to play it on?” The power had been out at the house they were crashing in when they arrived so the TV and DVD player in the living room would be useless.

  Brian grinned back. “I hid one of those portable DVD players in the attic.” He had found the player along with a supply of batteries the last time he had gone out scrounging for supplies. Terrance had been sworn to secrecy and Brian was glad the man had kept his word.

  The two of them pulled their hand weapons and crept up the stairs. The stairs ended in a hallway lined with two doors on the right side and one on the left. Light streamed in through the door on the left. Brian paused at the top of the stair frowning thoughtfully then pulled his key chain out of his pocket and tossed it down the hall. The keys slid and clattered down the wooden floor of the hallway making plenty of racket. Doc and Brian waited, muscles tensed to spring or flee depending on what and how many things came out of hiding...

  After about five nervy minutes Brian decided that nothing was going to come out so he crept up the stairs hammer ready. Then again they had been making enough noise downstairs that anything up here would have heard them and come looking. The open door on the left looked like it was some kind of storage space as there were boxes stacked around the room. The closet was stuffed with odds and ends of clothing the air heavy with the scent of mothballs. Dust motes floated in the air tickling Brian's nose as he slowly pushed the door the rest of the way open and tiptoed into the room.

  A sneeze like a shotgun blast shook the air. Doc wheeled and faced the unchecked hallway machete raised should something happen to come stumbling out into the hal
l. Brian sneezed again and again the motion of the air stirring up thick clouds of dust. “Get that shit under control!” Doc hissed over her shoulder.

  Brian dug a handkerchief out of his pocket and sneezed into it a couple more times. “You're supposed to say 'God bless you'.” he said, his voice muffled by the fabric. The man wiped his nose then stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket. They waited again ready for something to come bursting out of the closet or out of the room at the end of the hall. Doc cast a pointed look over her shoulder at Brian who only gave her a small shrug. “Sorry.”

  Once they were reasonably certain that Brian's sudden sneezing fit wasn't about to bring down a horde of flesh eating undead monstrosities on their heads the two of them moved out into the hall. “We'll check there later.” Brian whispered. “Bound to be something good in there.”

  The door at the end of the hall opened into a spacious bedroom. Brian's mouth curled into a hint of a smile as he crossed to the nightstand and tugged open the drawer while Doc closed the door behind them. “Ha!” he crowed happily. “I knew it!” There was an antique though well cared for revolver in the nightstand. Brian picked it up, liking the feel of the weight in his hand as he pushed the cylinder release forward and grinned. There were six cartridges in the cylinder so he snapped it closed with the palm of his hand and jammed the weapon into the back of his waistband.

  Doc glanced over her shoulder at Brian inspecting his prize. She busied herself checking the drawers of the dresser searching through the clothing for anything more useful. So far she had turned up a deck of playing cards with naked women on them (which she left), a small pocket knife (which she slipped into her front pocket) and a tin container filled with coins. On a whim she stuck the coins in an empty pouch on her backpack then went about searching the rest of the dresser.

  When they had given the room a quick once over the two of them went back out into the hall to check the room behind the closed door. “What's behind door number three?” Brian asked quietly. Doc chuckled and rapped on the door. The saying was an old joke between them but it still struck her as kind of funny. When it seemed clear she slowly eased the door open to find the house's bathroom. A corpse in the bathtub looked up at the woman as she entered. Doc put her machete in its head before the animated corpse could rise and pulled it free with a grunt of effort.

  A search of the bathroom turned up some recently expired aspirin, some allergy pills, two scented candles and (most importantly) four rolls of toilet paper. Stuffing their prizes into Brian's backpack they returned to the first room they had entered and set about poking around in all the boxes. The first box Brian opened contained nothing but old dishes covered with a thick furry coat of dust. He frowned and set it on the floor to go through the one under it.

  “I got a box of old books here.” Doc said as she rooted through a container on the other side of the room “Think we should take it?” Not waiting for a response she took the box over to the door and set it down then went back to the stack of cartons she had been going through. The woman flipped back the cardboard flaps and ran a trembling hand over what she found inside. A soft blue baby blanket...a knot of baby clothes...Doc gritted her teeth and set the box aside.

  Brian glanced out the window as he opened a carton. It looked like some winter clothes packed away for the summertime by the owners of the house. He took the carton over to where Doc had set the box of books down. “C'mon. I think we're about done here.” Brian said at last as he tried to get a look at where they had parked the truck. “Let's take these and try our luck someplace else.”

  They put the cartons in the bed of the truck and climbed into the cab. In a matter of moments Brian had the vehicle parked in front of the bigger house on the other side of the street. There had been a small blacktop road leading to the...well...the word farmhouse didn't fit this structure. This was a McMansion: one of the spacious multi-level homes for the upwardly mobile manufactured by the dozen before the real estate market went belly up back in the mid-2000's.

  Brian noticed that the roof looked like it was in terrible shape as they waited out front. He hoped that the place was still sound. Brian had been a teacher before the current state of affairs made him have to take a permanent sabbatical and had worked summers as a construction worker. His mind drifted for a moment, thinking about how much work would have to be done to repair the wind and water damage to the building's roof.

  A figure stumbled through the thick trees off to their left crunching leaves and branches underfoot. The telltale lack of stealth told Doc that it was one of the walking corpses and not a living person. They waited for the solitary form to stumble and trip its way through the thick underbrush and into the driveway. Brian slapped its groping hands away and put its lights out with his hammer leaving what might have been somebody's grandpa once lying on the blacktop.

  The two of them waited a couple more minutes to see if Grandpa Zombie had come to visit all on his own or if he had brought the whole family. Finally Doc climbed the stone stairs leading to a glass door that was meant to look like it was made from old fashioned leaded glass and peered through it. “Looks clear.” she said quietly as Brian walked over to stand at the foot of the stair. “There's a little...what do you call 'em? Mud room and then a foyer.”

  Brian nodded and Doc tried the door. “Locked.” she grumbled and looked around. The woman reached up to feel around on a small ledge above the door and grinned when her fingers found something small and metallic. Doc fitted the key in the lock and eased the door open. There were pairs of shoes arranged in neat pairs just inside the door on the tile floor of the mud room. “I think we might find what we're looking for here.” Doc whispered motioning towards the three children's sized shoes.

  The heavily water damaged floorboards creaked and groaned under their feet as they crept through the entryway and into a large family room. A massive flatscreen television dominated one corner of the room with a huge fireplace a few feet away. The furniture also spoke of the wealth of the house's former owners: the couch and chairs were upholstered in fine leather tacked down with brass. There were still framed pictures sitting on top of the mantelpiece. Brian avoided looking at them as he stepped into the room hammer ready.

  The layout of the first floor was open enough that they could see pretty much everything from where they stood in the family room. There was a large oval shaped table made of dark stained wood with a few chairs scattered around it in the back corner and an area that was separated from the rest of the floor by a half wall with a counter top built into the space. “Kitchen.” Brian whispered and motioned towards the spot they couldn't see.

  The two of them crept as quietly as possible to the opening revealing what used to be a nice kitchen. The floor was covered in tile with granite counter tops with stainless steel doodads arranged on them that Doc could only guess what most of them were for. She stepped into the area and contemplated opening the fridge but thought better of it. Without power to keep the food inside cold it would have all spoiled ages ago. “I'll start in here.” she volunteered.

  Brian nodded and made a beeline for the entertainment center. He knelt and started running his index finger along the backs of the actually rather impressive DVD collection on display. “C'mon...c'mon...” he muttered under his breath as he searched “It's gotta be here...” Brian's finger froze over the back of one of the movies in the middle of the bottom shelf.

  Doc found one of those reusable shopping bags that had been all the rage. She reflected that now recycling your plastic shopping bags was probably pretty low on everyone's list of priorities. The woman snorted a tiny laugh at her own internal joke as she pulled open cabinets and started going through the stuff inside. She found a few cans of various fruits and vegetables in the second cabinet, more flour in a Tupperware container, some dry pasta... “Holy shit!” Doc pulled a box off out of the cabinet over the refrigerator. “There ya are ya spongy yella delicious bastards!”

  Doc leaned forward showing Bri
an an entire unopened and miraculously non-rodent chewed box of Twinkies. “Doc, you are awesome.” Brian said happily as he picked up a movie and held it up “Found it. Let's take a quick look around and get back to the house.” Brian stowed his newly acquired copy of The Princess Bride in his backpack along with a few other movies that looked like they might be good as Doc finished stuffing what food she could find into the shopping bag. It wasn't much but it was more than they had and well...they had Danny's birthday presents.

  Just as she exited the kitchen a board let out a loud groan under her feet. Doc and Brian had just enough time to exchange puzzled looks and then the floor gave way underneath her. Brian leaped forward hoping to catch Doc before she fell into the basement but missed. Doc had her hands on either side of the hole keeping herself from falling through but leaving her legs kicking in the air of the level beneath her. “I'm alright.” she told Brian as she tried to wriggle up through the hole.

  Then she felt a hand brush her calf.

  “OH HOLY SHIT!” Doc shouted kicking her feet furiously as if that would make her shoot up out of the hole. “HELP ME, BRIAN! SOMETHING TOUCHED MY LEG!” Her arms trembled with the effort of keeping herself from falling into the basement.

  Brian caught the woman under her arms and pulled dragging Doc out of the hole with a grunt of effort. Somehow she ended up on top of him breathing heavily and seemingly almost on the verge of hysterics. He gently pushed the woman off of him then stood and helped her up. Brian pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and moved towards the edge of the hole Doc had made in the floor peering into the dimly lit space under their feet.

  A half dozen swollen doughy faces stared up at him making hungry gurgling noises in the backs of their throats as their hands clawed at the air. I think we found the owners... Brian thought, his mind reeling on a wave of nausea. He turned to Doc. “C'mon. I think we're about done here.” he said quickly as he turned and tried to not run to the door.