I looked at them lining up in a neat row and decided that the shotgun was just too much for this. I felt relatively safe for the moment. There was no way they were coming into my fortress. I liked the word fortress. Against these Zombies, so far it was impenetrable. Against a normal human being, it wouldn’t last a second.
I left them standing there and walked back to the house. The dogs must have thought I was nuts. They barked louder. I found the gunsafe I had in my garage and opened it up. I pulled out my Sig 9mm pistol and 10 magazines out along with another 100 rounds of ammo. I put them in a little sack and brought them out to the fenceline. The dogs continued to growl in my absence and didn’t stop when I returned.
I moved forward to about ten feet from the outreaching arms. I looked at all of them individually. Some were in their pajamas. I had one fat guy in a suit reaching toward me. I saw an old lady in her housecoat. I saw one guy with a toupee that was barely hanging onto his scalp. I saw a really muscular guy with a tattooed neck wearing a wife beater. What I didn’t see was anything resembling a human being. Whatever the disease was that was ravaging their brains, it had completely eroded any and all traces of humanity from them. It actually made me sad.
I put the weapon and the magazines down on the ATV and put on my hospital gowns. I put on my faceshield and finished up with ear protection. I was ready.
I called the dogs to me. “Go in the house.” They looked at me funny. I’m sure they were upset they weren’t going to go into battle with me. Too bad. I couldn’t take the risk of disease splashing them. The last thing I needed was Zombie dogs. For a second I wondered if that was possible. Then I put it out of my head.
I yelled out, “MOVE!” The dogs disengaged immediately and ran into the house. I was pleased at their obedience.
I turned to the Zeds who were all grabbing for me and detached from the situation mentally. I took a deep breath and then started to breathe regularly. I raised the pistol and front sighted the closest Zed to me. I didn’t look at its face. I looked only at its forehead. I thought it would make it easier.
I gently squeezed the trigger. The growls stopped suddenly from the first one, and the Zombie fell straight back. The next Zed moved forward stepping on the fallen Zombie’s legs. It promptly put its arm through the bars. I pulled the trigger again. The same effect occurred.
I pulled the trigger again and again- twenty-two times in all with body after body splaying to the ground and beginning their inevitable involuntary twitching. Finally I heard nothing else. No animal or bird noises were heard, and no sirens were audible to announce that the Police were coming to take me away. I looked and saw nobody else standing around me.
I sat down on the ground right there and looked at the carnage I had wrought. It was terrible, and this time I just felt numb. I didn’t feel remorse. I felt that I needed to do this to protect the people I love, and it felt right. I kept thinking about it, running the last hour’s events over and over again in my mind. I know that I did the right thing. I would have done it all over again. I couldn’t have let those poor girls get taken and eaten. I couldn’t have lived with myself. I was in the right. That didn’t make what I did any easier.
I looked down at my clothing. There wasn’t a splash of gore anywhere on me. I slowly took off the clothing, observing sterile technique. I placed the covers down on the ground. I bent over and examined everything. There wasn’t so much as a drop of blood or snot anywhere. I was pleased. I would reuse the gowns and facemask.
I looked back over my shoulder through the gate and shuddered. I would have to clean up the mess I made. Right now I didn’t have the stomach for it. They would have to wait.
I walked back into the house to check out my new girls. I think I owned two new kids right now. I seemed to be collecting them.
I walked through the garage and into my kitchen. I went right to the fridge and got myself yet another sandwich. I seemed to be eating a lot more than I used to. That made me worried for a second. I didn’t want to equate food with killing.
I turned as all my kids and their new friends came down the stairs. They all seemed to have wet hair. I looked at my wife who nodded happily to me. She had obviously checked the new kids for wounds and found none. I momentarily panicked at the thought of one of them with a fresh bite mark. I had no idea what I would have done then.
Maria came forward. “Dad this is Erin and Emily. They’re sisters.” I shook their hands and noted that they could have been twins. They couldn’t have been over nine years old. Erin and her freckled face looked about a year older than her sister.
The sisters looked at each other and jumped forward hugging me. They held on for dear life. I tried bending down to hug them and failed because they were holding on too hard to my legs. I settled on just putting my arms down onto their shoulders and back. My wife laughed at my position. I again came to the conclusion that I had done the right thing.
The girls finally let go, and I went down on one knee. I hugged each of them in turn. “Girls, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to our home, and welcome to our family.” They hugged me again.
“How did you two get into that position to begin with?” They looked at the floor and didn’t say a word. I waited patiently without saying a word. I was faking patience. I really didn’t have any. I sat there looking at them kindly for over a minute.
Finally, I sat down on the couch because my knee started to hurt. Emily said, “My mom sent us outside to play. We didn’t want to go out, but she made us.” She looked hurt. “She said we needed to see the sun. We shouldn’t be playing video games during the summer.” She was actually quite mad. She blamed her mother.
I had to stop this. “This wasn’t your mother’s fault. She only wanted what was best for you. How could she know this was going to happen?”
Erin chimed in, “She’s our mom. She knows everything. At least she should.” She looked down. She had suddenly realized that her mother was mortal and made mistakes. It was a tough lesson for any kid to learn. Unfortunately she had almost learned it with her life.
I looked at them both. “There was no way, and I mean no way, that your mother should have known this. I’m sorry, but I would have done the same thing. It’s a beautiful day outside. We were just lucky.” I gave my kids a dirty look because they were about to argue with that last statement. These girls didn’t need to hear it.
I continued, “Anyway, you two are welcome here with my family. Have you tried calling your mom?”
They both shook ‘no.’ I could tell they were worried sick about what could have happened to their mom.
“Let’s call her. What’s her number?” I dialed as they simultaneously gave it to me. I could tell they had done this a hundred times.
I got the answering machine and left a message telling her that her girls were here with us and safe. I kept it upbeat despite the worry I felt that something happened to their mom.
“Does your mom have a cell phone?” They nodded yes immediately.
I dialed that too and got a voice mail. I gave the same message and left a detailed address of my house so her mom could get here. I hoped she was just sleeping.
I smiled at the girls. This was a bad time, and it could get a whole lot worse for them too. I hoped not, but I was ever the pessimist.
“All right, I think you all have chores before you get to your video games.” I heard a collective groan. All kids loved chores. I left them to whims of my dictatorial wife. She would get the kids’ minds off of our current terror through hard work. Hard work cured everything at my house.
I walked outside and thought about what I could do to reunite their family. I found the dogs barking at another two Zombies. I wished I had bought a silencer or a suppressor for my weapons when I had the chance. I didn’t think about the need for quiet when I was prepping for all this.
The Zeds before us had obviously heard the commotion and wandered up for a tasty bite. Again, I cursed myself for never having bought a sound suppressor. Mayb
e I could head to a gun store when all this was better. Then again, I wouldn’t need one when all this was over.
I moved forward to about twenty feet away from the gate and told the dogs to move away. Once out of range, I put the Zeds out of their misery.
I moved forward and didn’t see any more of them. I did see body after body. It was truly disgusting. It was also too much for me to do all by myself. I needed my wife to help for sure. After what happened last time, I felt dread about it. But I soon realized that there was absolutely no choice.
The first thing I had to do was get the fire blazing hot. I walked to the wood pile again and grabbed dozens of logs. I threw them over the fence and hopped over myself. I couldn’t get the ATV out through this door because of all the bodies piled up in front of the gate.
I landed away from the bodies and pulled out my pistol. Always, I scanned and looked for targets. I sighed at this perpetual annoyance. I grabbed the wood and threw half of it into the fire. I waited a few minutes until they all caught. The flames and smoke poured out of the pyre sickening me. The smell of burning fat was atrocious. I turned around and looked at the carnage on the ground. There were over a dozen bodies lying around pretty much doing nothing. What else could they do with a bullet in their brains?
I sighed at the sight. I really, really did not want to do this. Fuck me.
I stood there and looked downhill at the city. It looked pretty in the fading sunlight. I saw what I hoped were people milling about. Then I looked closer. They used to be people at least. I had to get to work.
I hopped back over the fence and got my protective gear. I put it on and strapped my pistol on the outside of my gown. Finally, I double-gloved.
By this point my wife had come outside to watch. She just nodded at me. I picked up the shotgun and handed it to her. I took off the safety and hopped over the fence once again. She didn’t argue this time. I think she learned that guns were a necessary evil. I did see that she kept her hands as far from the trigger housing as possible.
I started with the bodies nearest the pyre. I pulled them all either by the hands or the feet and dragged them toward their final resting place. The fat ones I rolled with difficulty. It took me hours to finish the work, and I was exhausted by the time I was finished.
I wasn’t used to working in high heat in my barrier protection. I usually kept the surgical suites as cold as possible because of the gowns and the lights. I wasn’t used to sweating in the sun. I was perspiring more than I ever had in the past. I needed gallons of water.
Finally, I got to the last body. I had to break his left arm to get it out of the bars of the gate. He had simply wedged it in too tightly to get it out any other way. I yanked, heard a crunch, and looked up just in time to see my wife cover her ears cringing. She had a point.
I dragged the guy by his feet and very slowly pulled him toward the fire.
“Look downhill! There’s a car coming!” My wife screamed it at me. I’m glad she did. I saw her holding the shotgun by the barrel with both hands. She either forgot that the weapon was loaded or planned on using it as a club. I had to teach her how to properly use it as a weapon in the future, or she was going to accidentally shoot herself. I shuddered at the thought.
I dropped the Zed’s feet and pulled out my pistol after removing one glove. I didn’t want any gore on the weapon. I kept it in my hand at my right side ready for anything as the car sped uphill toward me.
The blue GMC Gremlin sped past me and slammed on the brakes. It stopped right before it hit the fence plowing through to the other side. We were lucky it didn’t crash right through. I realized right there that I had to put out something that would stop a car. We would be defenseless without it if some idiot decided to keep going when he was panicked.
A woman got out of the car and started screaming at me. “What have you done with my girls?” She was crying hysterically with anger.
She moved quickly at me, and I thought she meant to strike me. I put the pistol up and aimed it right at her left eye. She didn’t stand a chance if she kept going. She kept going, and I didn’t have it in me to kill her. She batted the pistol out of her way. Either she was tough as nails, or she was clinically insane. She put her hand out to slap me when I think she finally noticed that I was covered in goo from the waist down and had a plastic face shield on my face.
It was a good thing she stayed her hand- tough or not I was going to knock her the fuck out. I saw her looking around, and then she focused in on the dead body near the fire. I saw her eyes well up with tears. Then I saw her look into the pit of flames. She literally collapsed in a heap.
I stepped over her. I went to the body and dragged it in to the pit. I finished it off and threw the remaining wood on top of them all. I hoped it would be enough. I took off my protective clothing and threw them into the fire. I made sure that I had no goo on me before I went any further.
I went to the woman and helped her up while she continued to sob. I brought her to the gate, found a dry spot, and pushed her up and over to the other side. I had the gate locked just in case anything got past us. It was either go up and over or stay outside. My wife put down the shotgun and grabbed her hand. She pulled her toward the house. I stayed at the gate and looked at the body fluids arrayed around my front entry. It was disgusting and oozing into the ground. There would be no way to clean it properly. Yuck.
I went back to the garage and filled up a spray bottle attached to a garden hose with simple bleach. I proceeded to spray down every square inch of the area including the ATV. It smelled like an over chlorinated pool. I waited ten minutes for it to evaporate and then I did the same thing with ammonia. I stayed far away in case I accidently created a lethal gas out of the two chemicals mixing.
When I was done, I took off my clothes and bathed myself in the hose. It felt weird to be naked in my front yard, but I figured no one was going to call the cops on me. Besides, it was almost dark. I put on a pair of shorts and flip-flops and walked into the house.
I found a new family sitting on my couch hugging each other and crying. Erin and Emily ran to me as soon as they saw me and wrapped their arms around me. I saw my son Matthew get annoyed at that and turn red. I knew that he considered me his property and not that of some stinky girls. I winked at him and gave him a thumbs up sign. He calmed down. Then the mom came up and hugged me tightly too. She didn’t seem to mind that I was shirtless. I looked at my wife who instantly reddened too. I didn’t have the guts to flash Jen a thumb’s up. She came over instead.
“Let me formally introduce my husband, John.” She said it loud and clear, letting the woman know that I belonged to her. At least my son had the common courtesy to not say anything about the girls. I kept my poker face and didn’t so much as crack a smile as the woman hugged me tightly.
When she released me she kissed me on the cheek forcefully. “Thank you so much for saving my girls. Without you...” She started to cry and hugged me close. She didn’t need to say the rest. She knew and understood in her soul what would have happened. I let her cry until she was spent.
When she let go, she moved to her daughters and hugged them. With strain in her voice she said, “We’re going to have to go home now kids. Let’s pack up and get out of here.”
My wife and I simultaneously yelled out “No!” We both stepped forward right in front of them.
I talked quickly. “There is no way you ladies are going anywhere. You’re staying right here. And I’m not taking no for an answer.” I looked stern and I meant it. I didn’t save these kids lives only to have them eaten out on the streets tonight. There was no way in Hell they were going anywhere.
The mom looked sheepish. “We really couldn’t impose on you nice people.”
My wife stepped in front of us. “Look, there are really bad things out there looking to kill every living being in the world. Why would you want to leave?”
She looked momentarily angry. “We don’t need any charity. We’ll be fine. I appreciate all you�
��ve done...but we’re going to be just fine.”
I knew the type because I grew up the same way. She was poor, but she was a worker. She earned everything she ever had, and she was damned if she was going to stoop to getting handouts. I knew her well, having just met her.
I knew that she lived in a small place with her kids. She never accepted welfare and probably worked two or more jobs to give her kids what they needed. I also knew that she was fiercely protective of them and her independence. I liked her immediately.
I smiled at her rather than look at her incredulously like Jen. “You are in a fortress whether you realize it or not. We are unbelievably prepared. I have enough supplies to last us years. I have enough weaponry and ammunition to take out an army of the undead. I figured out what was going to happen and prepared. Without this preparation, we would all be screwed. I’m not here to protect you. We’re here to protect each other. This is going to take hard work on all our parts. I can’t do this alone. I need your help. And you need mine.”
I continued, “We all know what’s going to happen if you go out there. Without weapons, an unlimited supply of food, water and a strong fence, nobody is going to last long. I’m sorry but those are the facts.” I left out that there was no way to combat these Zeds with two little girls hanging on to her legs. They would all soon fall. There was no doubt in my mind.
I let the argument sink in to her head for a few seconds before continuing. “I really mean that I need your help too. I’ve been patrolling these gates at night by myself and fighting these things all day long. All that plus the fact that I’ve been taking care of the crops and animals too, and I’m damned tired. We can definitely use your help. Together, we’ll be stronger.”
I saw that she wanted to stay, but the stubborn streak in her head kept telling her that this was all a plot to make her a dependent. That, she could never have.
My Last Testament Page 8