by Rob Fox
Day 22
That stupid fucking kid went to get a car while I was out of it!
I thought I was dying for a few days. But I awoke today alone in this abandoned house of death. With all the dead people wandering around, plus all the rain I’d been wandering around in, it's no wonder I have been so sick. I am feeling a little better now, though. I am still very weak and don't think I can go anywhere. I hope that little idiot blocked the gates! I am not going to go looking for him this time. He got into this mess. He can get himself out of it. I don't want anything to happen to him, but I can't battle the undead today...and YES, they are zombies, not some alien invasion. I would think the rotting flesh would have tipped him off to this fact. Maybe I will run into him somewhere down the road soon. I hope I don't run into his little ass as a zombie. I kind of liked the kid and don't want to have to shoot him. Plus there's the promise I made to his mother to consider.
So I guess if I am feeling a little better tomorrow, I will leave here. I have to make my way home. I had dreams about being at home. More like nightmares.
In my dream, I walk to the front door, where Darcy greets me, still as beautiful as the day I met her. She greets me with a hug and a kiss. It is a very sweet kiss. We stand face to face, holding each other, our bodies intertwined into one, noses brushing against each other as we stare into each other’s eyes. We are in love like no one has ever been in love before. We begin to kiss again, a long, deep kiss. However, this time, she begins sucking on my mouth. I can't breathe. She is sucking the air out of my body. When I finally pull away, she is a zombie. Her face is still perfect, except her eyes are a stone white, and the rest of her body is quickly decomposing. She screams and begs me to come to her. I can't help but walk towards her, slowly, gasping for air. I reach for her, but when I touch her, she turns to powder. I scream in horror. The feeling of loss overwhelms me. I collapse onto her ashes. As I am lying there weeping, a cold hand slowly wraps around my neck. I turn to see the perfect, angel-like Darcy standing there in white. She easily picks me up by the throat and turns me toward her. I can't breathe. She stares into my eyes and tells me she loves me. She then pulls me close to her and sinks her perfect teeth into my neck. I lay there as she devours my body, unable to move. She saves my face for last so I can see what she is doing. As she begins to rip my eyes out, I wake up. I have had this dream twice now. What could it mean?
I am feeling weak again. I have to rest some more. I need to rest so I can leave tomorrow.
I hear someone screaming!?! God, it’s Cole! He is close and getting closer.
Day 23
We have added two more people to our little group, thanks to Cole.
Yesterday, when Cole was screaming, I crawled out of bed and made my way to the front gate as quickly as a sick person could. By the time I got to the gate, Cole was banging on it as hard as he could, but he was not alone. In fact, there were three people with him. They were screaming and banging on the gate, begging for me to open it. As I opened the gate, Cole forced his way past me, panting and white as a ghost. Behind him, a a guy who looked to be military was pulling a cute blond into the front. The last person was a brunette female. She was limping and crying; she was a good ways behind the others and looked as though she had been bitten many times. Directly behind her were what appeared to be about twenty zombies. Because of her slow pace, the monsters were quickly upon her. One of them reached out and snagged her by her long, curly hair. The sudden stopping of her head made her feet fly out from underneath her. She landed on the ground with a heavy thump, and four zombies fell on top of her. They began making a meal out of her face and arms. She screamed until they ripped out her vocal cords, then the only sounds we heard were the crunching of bones and the distinct sounds of teeth ripping flesh from muscle. I quickly closed the door. God, I have seen too much of this kind of brutality.
As I turned to the group, the blond (Tonya) was hysterical. She was sobbing and asking for Mary. I later found out from Ken (the military guy) that Tonya and Mary were lovers. They had met years ago and were together when the uprising began. Apparently, Tonya and Mary had met Ken while they were escaping the city. They had been on the run, but their car had gotten stuck in some mud while maneuvering around stalled cars on the side of the road. As they tried to get the car out of the mud, it attracted some unwanted attention, rather unexpectedly. Mary was grabbed first and bitten quite a few times before Ken could get her to safety in the car. Cole heard the commotion and came to the rescue. He shot four zombies, just enough for them to escape from the car. Before they could get very far, the gunshots attracted even more attention. They ran as fast as they could towards the house. Tonya tried to help Mary as much as she could, but knowing that her fate was already sealed, Ken pulled Tonya on ahead.
After hearing the story from Ken, we all rested.
We awoke this morning to find Tonya standing by the gate. Her head was down, tears streaming down her face. Her right hand clutched a picture of her and Mary, and her left hand was pressed against the gate. I allowed her to say her last goodbyes before I called a meeting. We discussed a strategy for staying alive. We decided to work as a team. We would not kill any unless we had to. We had to find a safer location before every zombie within one hundred square miles was upon us. We agreed to split up and gather supplies in the house and meet back under the tree where Deanna was buried just before dark. This was Cole's idea. He wanted to say goodbye to his mother one last time.
Tonya was upset and rightfully so; she had just seen the love of her life ripped apart before her eyes. She wanted revenge! It took a little convincing, but in the end, she agreed that Mary would have wanted her to live and be happy. I promised that when the opportunity came up to kill one of the undead, she would get the first chance. Hell, she could kill them with her bare hands if she wanted to, and I think she just might.
Ken is a very quiet person. He hasn't said much about his past. I only know he used to be in the Navy. I am going to try to find out more about him. I am glad he is with us. I need someone strong beside me.
We have a good team. I am confident we will make it to a new safe house without any problems. I am just hoping our next safe house will be my house.
Day 24
Ken's Story.
Since nothing exciting happened through out the night, other than seeing quite a few large groups of zombies pass by us, I thought I would tell you Ken's story as he relayed it to me.
Ken was in the Navy as an aircraft mechanic for eight years. When he got out, he secured a well-paying job with a huge airline company. A few weeks before the "uprising," he was laid off from the job. Getting laid off sent him into a huge depression. He said he wanted to end his life. He had planned on taking a handful of pills and drinking himself into a coma that he would never wake from. He put on his best suit, left notes for all his friends and family, and gathered about fifty Xanax pills and a bottle of Jack. He sat on his bed and placed all the pills into his mouth. That’s when the phone rang. He decided to answer it. After all, maybe he could tell someone goodbye before he finished himself off. On the other end of the phone was someone calling for a job interview in the city. The pay and benefits were much better than what he had been making, and he was very qualified for the position. He decided to wait to find out about the job before offing himself.
A few days before the interview, he said he remembered watching the news about that Damon kid but didn't think much of it.
The day of the interview, the city was total chaos; however, he was not going to let anything stop him from making that interview. When he got to the building, he realized something was very wrong. People were running all over the place and being chased by other people covered in blood.
Ken said it was like a light bulb going off. Something was definitely wrong. People were being eaten alive on the streets right in front of him. He’d decided to leave the city when he saw two women trapped in a burning car that was surrounded by "these things" (as he called them).
He grabbed his tire iron and went to rescue the women.
When he approached the car, two of the "things" turned around just to get a nice piece of iron implanted into their skulls. The last two slowly walked towards him. With one downward swing, the tire iron crushed in one of their heads, and with a powerful uppercut, he nearly removed the other one’s head. He got the girls out of the car and ran for safety. They took shelter in an old warehouse that had been scheduled for demolition within the next few weeks. They lived there the last few weeks, scavenging for food and water whenever it was safe. Ken felt like he had a purpose, a reason to live again. He needed these women to be okay.
They fled the city two days ago when their warehouse had become compromised. They found an exit and made their way to Ken's car and headed out of the city as fast as they could. That was when Cole found them.
I like Ken. I think he will be one hell of an ally. A man with a purpose for living is not a man to mess with.
Day 25
What a strange day!
I awoke this morning to the sounds of Ken and Cole arguing over whether or not we should get a car. It was getting pretty heated until Tonya ran over and separated them. Cole wanted to get a car; Ken did not. They both had very valid points, but I am sick of walking, so my vote was for a car. Tonya cast her vote with Ken, so we were deadlocked. We were in a sort of stand off. No one would budge on the issue. I know Tonya wanted a car, but Ken saved her life, so she felt like she owed him something. It's not that I was on Cole's side; it's just that my lazy ass did not want to walk any more. We all stood in an old tool shed we had found in someone's backyard, facing each other, tempers rising. I guess the sounds of arguing had attracted the attention of a few nearby zombies, because before any of us knew it, the building was surrounded. We chose this place because it had no windows and only one door. Plus there were quite a few power tools lying around. We had no idea how many were outside, but we knew there were quite a few.
Panic began to set in. How could we all make it out without getting bitten? The odds were stacked against us.
I glanced around the shed, looking for the perfect weapon. We were running short on bullets and needed something, anything to take out the undead bastards. Cole grabbed an old machete with duct tape on the handle. Ken and I both grabbed for the chainsaw hanging on the wall. There was no time to argue, so I reluctantly let him have it. Tonya grabbed a garden hoe from the corner and prepared for battle. I looked around for something. I found it! Underneath an old blue tarp was a push mower just small enough for me to pick up.
I grabbed the mower, blades facing out. Ken pulled the cord, and with my hands carefully gripping the sides, I kicked open the door and blindly ran out. Within seconds, I had mowed down three of them. Their bodies sliced in half with ease. The amount of old rancid blood covering my body was amazing. I was swinging the mower from side to side, slicing and dicing the undead as if they were weeds in a yard. I had turned to my left, clearing a path for the others, when I slipped on the entrails of one of my sliced zombies.
I hit the ground with a thud. The mower fell on top of me, crushing one of my ribs. The engine must have flooded, because it shut off. I shoved it off to one side and quickly scrambled to my feet. I was looking around, admiring my trail of blood and guts, when an old dried hand wrapped around my arm. My stomach sank. All I heard was the moaning. I could feel the anticipation radiating through him and could smell his rancid breath getting closer to my head. No one was around to save me. I could feel my legs getting weak as I braced for the bite. It never came.
I heard the moaning stop with a sudden crack. I turn around to see some big guy pounding the zombie in the face with a wooden bat. He was huge and wore an orange skull cap, a Rob Zombie t-shirt, camo shorts, and a fanny pack. He was a very strange-looking man. He stopped crushing the monster’s head in and looked directly at me. All I could think to say was, “Thanks.” He motioned for me to follow him. I told him I would once I found my friends. Together, we went looking for them.
The others were busy hacking and slashing their own zombies. Tonya had a little smile on her face every time she planted her hoe into one of their heads. She got her revenge this day. When the battle was over, we all followed the strange tall man to his home.
When we arrived at his house, it was an old two-story home converted into a full-time haunted house. He introduced himself as Spook. He told us about how it was always his dream to run a haunted house. Horror movies were his favorite. He told us about his wife Paula, who’d gone to the grocery store when the major outbreak began but never returned home.
Spook is cooking a warm meal for us right now. God, it will be so good to eat a warm meal again. Even though it is kind of strange being in a house surrounded my fake dead people, it feels safe.
Thank you, Spook, for your kindness.
You get your dream. Not only do you have a house full of zombies, you get a world full of them too.
Day 26
We went on a tour of the haunted house today. I don't know which is scarier: this house or being outside with the undead. The house is crazy, with "zombies" that jump out from walls and other assorted monsters hanging from ceilings and in staged "death" scenes. Maybe it is because of what has been going on lately, but I was in no mood to go through this place. I left the house early and wandered around the back area, behind the scenes. He had a pretty neat set up going. While I was wandering around, I came across a room full of guns! Every type of gun you could imagine. There were even grenades and LAW rockets lying around in boxes. This Spook guy was ready for a war. While I was looking around, Spook came into the room. He seemed a little irritated at me discovering his stash. He asked me to leave the room immediately. Now any other time, I would have been shocked, but in this house and in this situation, nothing surprises me. I asked him how long he’d had the weapons. He responded with, “Quite a while, even before the zombies. I was afraid of the terrorists.” He just smiled. I know we were both laughing a little inside. Hell, I wish it were the terrorists we were fighting. At least they don't bite you and turn you into one of them.
After seeing the room, I suddenly feel much safer now.
Today was another quiet day. Maybe we are thinning out the undead population. Maybe they are starving themselves to death. I wonder how many normal people are out there.
I really like being here, but I am going to leave tomorrow. I have somewhere to go. I am on a mission. Nothing is going to keep me from getting home.
Day 27
The word of the day yesterday was arguments. All night, it was a battle between all of us. I was leaving, no matter who liked it or not. Cole decided he would follow me anywhere. Tonya and Ken wanted to stay with Spook and wanted us to stay as well. "She's dead. Get over it," was all they could say. They told me it was suicide to travel through the city with just a fourteen-year-old kid. I was pissed. No one would tell me where I could and could not go. The decision had been made. We would leave first thing in the morning. We spent the remainder of the night packing up and gathering supplies from the house.
At about seven-thirty this morning, Cole and I were walking out the front door after saying our goodbyes when we all heard a truck horn blaring. It was a semi truck, just the cab, no trailer. It was headed straight for the house. Following quicker than I thought they should have been able to was a group of close to one thousand zombies. The truck came to a stop inches from the front door, and three people came out of the cab. They were bloodied, bruised, and starving, but they were alive.
The first out was a young boy that appeared to be barely older than Cole, and behind him was a girl around my age. She was wearing a shirt with a nametag that read "Hi! My name is Erin." The "I" in the name Erin had a little smiley face on top instead of the dot. The last person out of the truck was the miracle that gives me more hope than I have ever gotten. Spook’s wife, gone for over three weeks, crawled out of the driver’s side door.
Spook dropped to his knees crying. There was no
time for the reunion, though, because no sooner did Paula step out of the truck than the horde of the undead was upon us. We ran inside the house with just enough time to get the door shut and blocked.
Spook and Paula embraced in front of the door. I ran to the weapons room. Once inside, I grabbed as many guns and as much ammo as I could carry. I ran back to the front door. Tonya was hysterical; Cole kept an eye on the back of the house. I threw Ken a shotgun and a rifle. Spook got his M-16 from behind the coat rack. (Yes, this man keeps a machine gun behind the coat rack!) I passed out the remaining weapons to everyone else. We were ready for anything.
We’ve spent the rest of today waiting. The house is very secure. They cannot get in. My fear, though, is how long we will have to stay here. Every hour, more and more show up. They are all shapes and sizes. I have seen babies barely old enough to crawl covered in dried blood. What few teeth they have are rotting and falling out. I have also seen old people. Their conditions are getting worse, their bodies slowly decomposing.
This miracle today has also brought a curse. It seems I will never get home. Darcy may be alive. She may be okay, but I may never know. I am trapped. I cannot leave. I must be cursed.
Day 28
The word for today is target practice.
We have spent the better part of the day shooting the zombies that have surrounded the house. I haven't had this much fun in years. I guess that’s kind of a bad thing to admit. "Hi! I am an addict. I am addicted to shooting people in the head." I must have killed one hundred of them so far today. We decided to crawl onto the roof just to get a better idea of how many were out there. I was shocked! There were so many that I lost count. It was amazing. I even saw an old neighbor of mine. His name was Rey. He was a really nice guy who used to be in a band. I think he was the singer. Though after taking an M-16 bullet to the head, I doubt he will ever sing again! The first shot grazed his shoulder. He barely flinched. The second shot took off his jaw. Finally, the third shot removed the entire back half of his head. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. First my dog shits in his yard, and then I blow off his head!