Trailer Park Zombies

by Jason H. Jones

  15.

  I still couldn’t sleep. I could feel the dreams on the edge of my consciousness and could see them out of the corner of my eye. I walked around the House one more time and could feel every eye watching me. When I turned my head to catch them looking at me most looked away but a few actually returned my gaze. I could see doom and hopelessness in every eye.

  Feel it in my gut. We were all doomed.

  I tried not to disturb Fannie Mae as I sat back down next to her but my jostling back into position woke her up. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and yawned. “What time is it, Dukey?”

  I looked at my wrist, at the watch that was not there, and then looked around the room for a clock. I squinted at it. “Eight, it looks like. A little after.”

  She sighed. “Where were you? I woke up once and you weren’t here.”

  I debated on what to tell her, but we’d been pretty honest with each other today so I didn’t want this to be between us. I told her where I’d been and what I’d been doing.

  “Are we safe?”

  I shrugged. “As safe as we can be, I guess. Washington took me seriously and he’s upped the guards on the doors. I saw him send a couple guys to the basement a little bit ago and he even took Wilkinson off the back door. We might be okay, Fannie Mae.”

  She took my hand in hers and tightened her fingers on mine. I looked at where our hands met and flashed onto seeing her in my dream. I shuddered. “But you don’t think so, do you, Dukey?”

  “I don’t see how we can be, Fannie Mae. We’re talking about zombies here. All of our friends are dead or dying. We’re huddled in the House with no hope of rescue and a handful of bullets to protect us.”

  She sighed and bit her lip. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. Change of subject.”

  “What do you want to talk about then?”

  “Us?”

  I grinned. “I think that’s too heady of a subject for right now. Maybe we can do that when we get out of this mess.”

  She grinned back. “So never then? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Pretty much.” A thought occurred to me. An even bigger grin crossed my face. It occurred to me that this wasn’t really being respectful to Barrett but then I realized that he would want us to go on with our lives.

  She saw the look on my face and said, “What? What did you just think of?”

  “I’ve got something we can talk about.”

  “What?”

  “Your name. Why can’t I ever just call you Fannie or FM or something like that?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t really want to talk about that.”

  “Please?” I fluttered my eyelashes at her.

  She giggled. “Okay, then. I’ll let you in on a little secret. My name isn’t really Fannie Mae.”

  “What?” This actually was news to me.

  She frowned and looked down and played with my hand. “I was actually born Francine Mary Jennsen. My mom used to go around just calling me Francine when I was little.”

  I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be a good story. I opened my mouth to stop her but she cut me off. “I never told you about my grandma, Dukey. My Mamaw. She was the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to run away from the trailer and live with her. She lived in town and I probably spent at least two or three nights a week with her. Even when I was little mom was just such a terror to me. She’d yell and scream and just be so hateful and daddy was such a wimp that he wouldn’t say anything. Mamaw was the only one who’d step up to her for me.”

  She wiped tears from her eyes. “Mamaw used to call me Fannie, since its short for Francine. Or that’s what she always said, anyway.” She smiled at me through her tears. “She used to call me Fannie Mary and when I was really young I’d always go up to her and say ‘Mamaw, your Fannie Mary loves you,’ but since I was real little I couldn’t say it very well. It became Fannie Mae to me. So Mamaw started to call me that all the time and it kinda stuck.”

  I’d never heard her mention any of this in all the years I’d known her. “What happened?”

  “I was six when mom came home one day and told me that Mamaw was dead. She’d had a heart attack in the middle of the night and died in her sleep. Ever since then I’ve made everyone always call me Fannie Mae, no shortening and no nicknames. I do that for my Mamaw. Even mom finally relented and started calling me it. I think it pisses her off to no end, but a six year old can be stubborn when you don’t call them by the name they want to be called.”

  I put my arm around her. “I’m sorry, Fannie Mae. I didn’t think the story would be anything like that.”

  She looked up at me in my embrace and said, “That’s okay, Dukey. I wanted you to know.” She smiled at me. I don’t know what else would have happened because that’s when Washington Jones came up to us and interrupted.

  “We have a problem.” He looked concerned and scared as hell.

  I sighed and stood up. “Of course we do.” It must have been a big problem for him to come to me.

  He tried to lead me away and Fannie Mae stood up, too. “Duke?” Concern was etched all over her face.

  I smiled at her. “I’ll be right back.” Hopefully.

  Washington led me to the back of the House. There was a group of three or four men standing by the back door. I was glad to see that they’d at least done what they could to cover up the glass. I had my shotgun cradled in my arms again. I wasn’t about to leave that bad boy behind.

  Jennings was back there, too. He studiously ignored me.

  “What’s going on, Washington?”

  He sighed and looked around at the other men. It was apparent that they were leaving this all up to him. “Do you hear that, Duke?”

  I cocked my head. “All I can hear is the rain, Washington.”

  He pulled me closer to the back door, pushing the other men out of the way. “Listen.”

  So I listened as hard as I could. Beneath the rain, behind the noise of the men shuffling and whispering around me, over the noise of the people huddled for safety in the front room, I heard something. I cocked my head at it and got as close to the door as I could. Finally I looked at him.

  He nodded at me silently.

  I grimaced. “How long has that been going on?”

  “About 10 or 15 minutes,” he replied, looking grim.

  I looked around at the group of men. What a bunch of cowards. “So you’ve been hearing someone crying out for help for the past 15 minutes and not one of you has done anything about it?”

  Jennings spoke up. “What are we supposed to do, boy? Risk all of us to help one person out there?”

  “Yeah,” I said, getting up in his face. “How can you call yourselves men if you’re not willing to do that?” I got even closer to him. So close that I could feel the shotgun pressing up against him. He backed off a step. I looked around at the rest of them. “I don’t expect Jennings to do anything. He’s nothing but a coward, a chicken in men’s clothes. But the rest of you? Are you really willing to let whoever that is die out there?”

  I walked back to Washington. “Does that sound like an adult out there to you, Washington?”

  He shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. Calm down, Duke. That’s why I called you in here. We need to figure out what we’re doing and do it soon. You’re the only person in this place who’s faced one of these things down today. We need your help.”

  I heard Jennings mutter something under his breath. I whirled back to him and rapidly closed the distance. Before I could stop myself and before anyone there even had the chance to do anything I shot out with the stock of the gun and smacked him in the belly as hard as I could. He dropped like a stone to the floor, wheezing and grunting for breath. I looked back at Washington. “Get him out of here. He’s a worthless sack of shit.”

  Washington nodded to a couple of them and they dragged Jennings out of there. I’d felt a savage satisfaction at hitting him like that but I also felt a touch of sh
ame. I hadn’t intended to hurt Mason the night before, either, but that’s what had happened. I didn’t want anything else on my conscience. There was enough as it is.

  “What should we do, Duke?”

  I sighed and looked out the window. “Do we have any idea where it’s coming from?”

  Wilkinson stepped up behind me. “No. We’ve tried to pinpoint it but the rain’s making it too hard to tell.”

  I looked back at Washington. “We’re going to have to get a few men – maybe four or five of us – and go out there. We’ll need that many so that we can watch all four sides. If that kid really has been crying that long I’m guessing the zombies are heading straight for him, too.”

  He nodded. “You have your men right here.”

  “You’re not coming, too.”

  “Yes, I have to, Duke. I can’t ask anyone, especially a 16 year old boy, to do something I’m not willing to do myself.”

  I stepped closer to him. “These people here need you. In case,” I stopped and took a deep breath, “we don’t make it back.”

  “There’s no point in talking about it, Duke. I’m going.” It was weird how quickly they’d accepted me as one of them.

  I searched his face, looking for any pause or weakness. There wasn’t any. I sighed and shrugged. That’s when Fannie Mae walked into the room.

  She looked around at each of the men. None of them would look her in the face. Finally her eyes rested on me. She didn’t say anything. Her arms were crossed on her chest and she looked pissed.

  “You heard?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah, I heard.”

  “I have to do this, Fannie Mae.”

  “I know, Duke,” she said, shuddering. “I know. Your courage is one of the reasons I love you.”

  A thunderous silence followed that statement. My mouth was open wide enough to catch flies. One of the men behind me coughed and shuffled his feet. I took a step forward. “Fannie Mae. . .”

  She closed the gap between us and put her finger on my lips. “Hush. You go do what you need to do. Just make sure you come back. I’ll be waiting for you.” She pulled me into a hug and put her lips next to my ear. She whispered so low that I could barely hear her. “If you have to run, you run. Don’t look back and don’t sacrifice yourself for these men. They’re not worth it. Come back to me.”

  She pulled back from me and held me at arm’s length. Searched my eyes and said, “Do you understand?”

  I nodded without saying anything, trying to keep my emotions off my face, and she finally nodded back, squeezed my hands and turned away, going back to wait for me.

  Geesh.

  Pressure, much?

  “All right,” I said, looking around the room. “If we do this everyone needs to make sure that they’re fully aware of what’s going on. Someone needs to watch each side. They could come out from anywhere.” I felt like I was channeling Barrett. “They make no noise other than their feet on the ground and in this rain we’d be lucky to hear even that. Shooting them anywhere but the head doesn’t seem to really slow them down. Shoot for the head or you’re wasting a shot. From what we saw earlier it seems they travel in groups. Even if we get attacked by a group in front someone needs to always watch out behind us or we’re screwed. I don’t think they’re that smart but if we’re not paying attention one will slip through. All they want to do is eat us.”

  I looked around at the men, for a moment amazed that they were actually taking orders from me. Not a one of them would have looked at me twice a day ago.

  “Does everyone understand what we’re doing? We go find whoever’s yelling for help and we bring them back here. That’s it. No other side missions, no lollygagging, no nothing. There and back. That’s it.”

  Washington looked me in the eye. He looked spooked, but resolute. I nodded at him. “Any other parting words?”

  He shook his head. “No. Everyone stick together.”

  Wilkinson stayed behind and guarded the door as the rest of us exited slowly. I guess he’d been relegated back to guard duty out of necessity. The House would be screwed if we didn’t make it back. We were taking most of the firearms with us.

  Washington went outside first and did a quick recon on both sides of the door to make sure nothing was waiting for us. He waved at the rest of us and we went out in order: Rodriguez next, then me, then Felix and then some guy whose name I didn’t know. We’d all seen a movie or three in our day so we tried our best to treat this like a military operation. Each man fanned out a little and made sure that we were at least safe for a minute or two.

  I had my shotgun braced against my shoulder and pointed at the ground. The safety was off, of course. I wasn’t going to have that issue again. As soon as I stepped outside I was soaked to the skin with the rain. It was coming down hard enough that you couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you.

  “Shit,” I said.

  “What?” Washington hissed.

  “Does anyone have a flashlight? It didn’t even occur to me.”

  Three flashlights popped on simultaneously, all pointed at my face. I hissed and put a hand over my eyes. Washington, Felix and the unknown man all had flashlights out. I looked at the guy I didn’t know. “What’s your name?”

  He didn’t bother looking at me. He was stabbing the dark with the flashlight like it was a lightsaber. He looked scared shitless. “Stubby.”

  I looked at him. He was as skinny as a beanpole. “Stubby?”

  Felix chuckled behind me. “Don’t ask.”

  Whatever. “Okay, guys,” I whispered, “We need to keep moving. Keep your eyes open and make sure nothing sneaks up on us.”

  We trudged slowly through the dark. With no power and no moon to guide us the only light we had was the little shining from the House behind us and the feeble light from the flashlights. The rain was cold and I was chilled to the bone already. The night seemed full of hate and probing eyes and relentless hunger. Occasionally lightning would cross the sky and light our way a little bit but it didn’t really help.

  Washington led the pack and Stubby was watching our rear. Felix and Rodriguez took the sides. For some reason I was smack dab in the middle of the group, not that I was complaining. I don’t think they did it consciously, but maybe on some level they wanted to protect me as the youngest one there.

  The cries of help coming from the darkness were sporadic but we were definitely getting closer to them. As best I could tell they were coming from a cluster of cars up ahead. I could sense more than see the cars. They were about a hundred feet up ahead. The skin on the back of my neck prickled and I could feel a tightening in my gut. Abruptly the rain slackened and stopped. We were already soaked to the skin but at least now we would maybe be able to move a little faster.

  Stubby let out a little scream and fired his gun, a 9 millimeter. He fired a half dozen shots before I could swivel around to see what was happening. I brought my shotgun to bear but couldn’t see anything. His breath was coming in quick, wheezing gasps and I could see that his hands were shaking. He finally stopped firing.

  “Stubby,” I hissed. “What did you see?”

  “I, I,” he stuttered and pointed. “There was something over there behind that trailer. I think I got it.” His chin quivered. Hell, I thought maybe he was about to pass out.

  Washington spoke up behind me. I looked around to see that he was still sweeping his flashlight in front of us. Good. “Did anyone else see anything?”

  A bunch of grumbles and grunts met his question. No one had seen a damned thing. Stubby turned to look at me and Washington imploringly. “I saw something. I swear. It was wearing white and moving. It ducked back behind the trailer when I shot at it.”

  “Dammit, Stubby,” I said. “If it ducked behind the trailer then it wasn’t a zombie. You’re seeing things.”

  “I am not,” he hissed, taking a step toward me. “I saw something moving. It had to be a zombie.”

  The cry for help broke the night again sudd
enly. Whoever it was had heard the shots. “Please. If you’re out there please help me. I’m in a car. Please help me.”

  I looked back at Stubby. He looked at me. “I saw something. I swear.”

  “Well is it there now?” I hissed.

  He turned around and shone the flashlight back behind us. The zombie attacked him without a sound. Its claws buried themselves in his face. It was wearing a white shirt and nothing else. Its long stringy hair was stuck to its head and its pale face stared blankly at us all. The eyes were red and filled with blood. It was a woman. I have no idea who she was. He screamed and fired the gun again and again into her stomach. Each shot jostled her and she shook from the blasts but she already had her claws in him.