Now that the car stopped, the Zeds attacked full force. Their heads and their hands pounded on the car full force. Luckily, the car was armored as an armadillo.
I saw Sam panic. He was gesticulating wildly trying to get me to open the gate. I shook my head and screamed ‘NO!’ I saw his eyes bug out at that. He thought I meant to leave him there. I almost laughed, but that wouldn’t have been right at this moment.
I looked at the two women at my side. “Ladies, now’s the time to learn what to do against an attack. Pull out your guns and take aim.” I could tell my wife had no desire for this. It was just too bad. She had to learn sometime, and the best time was when she was fully protected behind a gate. It would be much harder if she were to do this out in the open.
They unholstered their weapons and took aim. I just watched them, making sure they were targeting appropriately.
“Just shoot when you are ready, ladies.” I nodded to them and kept my eyes on the Zeds. I didn’t want any of them getting past us into the compound.
Mary Kay fired first and took her target in the left eye. I wanted to scream ‘out vile jelly’ from King Lear but kept my stupid mouth closed. They wouldn’t have found the dark humor funny right now. I saw the Zed collapse instantly. I also saw the Johnson family literally hit the floor of their car. They obviously realized they were in the way of any stray bullets.
My wife fired and hit one in the mouth. The bullet smashed through its teeth and kept going right out the back of the neck. The thing fell straight to the ground. She had obviously taken out the brain stem. It was a perfect shot. I was proud. I saw her gag. Her pistol lowered for a second, and then she recovered nicely. I heard another shot fire from Mary Kay with good result, and then my wife swallowed her bile and shot again. The round hit perfectly. She was taking her time and getting the shots right. Mary Kay took out the last two. She obviously felt more comfortable. They were done.
“Outstanding, ladies! Welcome to my Army.” They just looked at me. I was being serious for once. They ignored me. I looked downhill and saw dozens coming uphill right to us. They were stepping up their ataxic gaits, a fancy Doctor term for ‘they walked like Zombies.’
I saw that all the near Zeds were down and that the others were far for the moment. It was my break.
I opened the gate and moved to the driver’s window. I rapped on the window. I saw my friend flinch deeper under the steering wheel. He was going to be great in a fight.
“Hey dumbass! How have you been?” I said it with a smile on my face. I saw him look up slowly at my dumb redneck grin. I kept it up until he smiled back red faced. I shook my head at his position. He just shrugged.
I told him to lower his window. He sat up and did so. I looked inside at their tear-stained faces. Everybody looked ok. The car was packed with no inches to spare with all of their crap and food. I saw a baseball bat on the console between him and his wife. It was obviously his daughter’s as it was pink and had a tassel coming out the bottom. If that was his only weapon... I let the thought die as quickly as he would have fighting with the piece of crap bat.
“Pull up just inside the gate.” He nodded and did as I asked. He spun the tires getting inside the compound. He was obviously in a hurry.
I looked down and saw that all the near Zombies were dead. I looked up and saw the far dead flinging themselves up the hill at us. Dozens of the fresh Zed were heading right at us. I moved backward with my pistol in my hand. I closed the gate behind me.
I turned and saw the Johnson family exit the vehicle. My wife was taking care of them. I made sure the gate was fully secured. I looked through as I was locking and barring the gate and saw the number of undead launching themselves at us had now tripled. There had to be at least fifty of these things. I saw men, women, and yes children running at us in their falling forward gait. They sped up as they saw us and screamed out their moans. Together they sang out a song of terror composed by Satan himself. This was not good.
I turned and saw my new guests were now naked. My wife was making them do it to prove they were still without any bites. I heard protests that lasted up until Jen cocked the pistol. They realized she was completely serious and playing for keeps. I was pleased.
I turned to look downhill once more. There were dozens of screaming nasties heading to the fence. They looked angry which was impossible, as they were brain dead. Still, to my eye, they looked like they retained their reptilian need for aggression. I don’t know why I thought this way at this moment. It was a stupid waste of time. I guess it kept me from flipping out- but barely.
They hit the fence en masse. I flinched backward at the sight. Thank God the fence was thoroughly grounded by concrete. I was afraid it was going to fly back at me like a cartoon. They kept coming and coming without end. It was like being trapped at the edge of a mosh pit coming at you hard.
I stood there watching them as they lined up one next to another. I didn’t know where to begin. I gazed outward staring at my own mortality. I was grateful that I was not one of them. I momentarily memory-flashed on my own kids when they were infants. I saw them clearly in my mind as the helpless beings they once were, wondering how many millions of other children were now that age and vulnerable. They were completely at the mercy of these predators unable to defend themselves. It made me desperately sad and angry that this could have ever happened.
I felt the two women come stand right on either side of me. My friends had run into the house. They would have been worse than useless for what was to come.
“All right, this is what we’re going to do. You two start on either end and work your way to the middle. I’ll start in the middle and take out everyone in front of me. Don’t forget to breathe slowly and comfortably. Don’t hyperventilate. If you miss, remember that they’re all moving their heads. Don’t sweat it. Remember, the last shot does not count. It’s always the next one that you have to pay attention to.” I saw them nod. Funny, but I gave the same speech to my daughter the year before when she was pitching softball. She had a tendency to psych herself out if something went wrong.
I made sure they all had enough ammo. They both had five magazines of 9mm each. That was about 90 rounds each. It would have to be enough. I hoped. I made them put in their ear plugs and place the eye protection tightly on their noses. I didn’t want any hot brass shooting back into their eyes.
They both moved to their positions. I took five steps back because I wanted to avoid any blood spray. I saw them follow my lead. This seemed to incense our adversaries. They obviously wanted us to move closer. We wouldn’t give them the chance.
I raised my pistol and took careful aim on the midface of the dead woman standing before me. She was spitting and drooling from her deformed jaw which she had obviously broken at some near time. Her hair was gray and wild and covered in bloody clots. She reached for me just as I pulled the trigger. The bullet caught her right above the nose, right at the septum. She flew back and was promptly replaced by an old man in his pajamas. The front of his shirt was covered in fresh blood. I looked at his face and saw that he had turned days ago by my reckoning. That meant he had fed recently. I shot him mid-forehead.
I heard shot after shot ring out from my two women. I really needed to stop thinking of them as my two women. I only had one woman. The other one I guess was one of my soldiers. She was under my command and we were becoming friends- but that was all. If my wife caught me calling her my woman, she would deservedly have my balls.
I fired at a young boy and what appeared to be his mom next to him. I thought to myself, ‘it was good to spend quality time with your children. It would prevent him from growing up to be a bad apple.’ I did it as I took off the top of their heads. I stopped thinking after that. My black humor was at an end. I was pissing myself off with my own stupidity.
I fired round after round at these Zeds. I hit maybe 90% of my shots. My two soldiers hit maybe half that which was not surprising. I had been shooting for years. The more you practiced, the less
you missed. It was like everything else in life. It took a good ten minutes for us to turn my driveway into an abattoir. There were dead bodies everywhere and blood and gore was dripping downhill toward the little shining town below us.
I tore my eyes away from the dead and looked downhill. There were a good dozen more coming at us. This was getting ridiculous. I reloaded and waited. They scampered forward quickly to join the fight that was already over and done. They hadn’t realized yet they were heading to their final resting place.
I was about to shoot when the rain started on us. I looked up instead and felt the torrential downpour drench my clothes. I was soaked within seconds.
It may have slowed me, but the Zeds kept coming and coming. They needed to eat. They couldn’t care less about staying warm and dry. Shelter from harsh weather and storms were a part of primitive humanity that had been with us since before the beginning of recorded history. They lacked this basic need. Thousands of years of evolution, and this is what we’d become.
Too bad for them the guns still worked. We squeezed our triggers and put them down without a second thought. We needed to get warm, and they were wasting our precious resources.
When they were all dead, I looked downhill. Two more attempted to head on up toward us. I saw them slipping and sliding trying to negotiate the hill. Each and every time the Zeds fell, they got back up. But they were getting nowhere as the water cascaded downhill toward them. Before I had four wheel drive, I once had the same problem getting up into my driveway. It pissed me off so much I traded my BMW convertible in for an all-wheel drive Jeep. I was glad to see these Zeds having the same problem.
They kept this up for twenty minutes without getting anywhere. I finally gave up standing there. I was freezing, soaking wet, and thoroughly disappointed that my fire pit had filled with water. There was no way that I was ever getting that one back. I was going to have to dig another one.
I turned and walked back toward the house. I stripped down and changed in the garage and headed inside. I seemed to always be hungry after combat with these things. I would have to watch that or I was going to become fat- but not today. Today I wanted ice cream.
I grabbed an ice cream bar and plopped down next to my new guests on the front room couch. They seemed upset about something- I couldn’t imagine what exactly.
I was getting colder and more jaded by the second. I had become like this in residency, and it took me years to overcome it once I became an attending. Now I was reverting. I told myself that I didn’t like the feeling, but my heart said the opposite. I liked not giving a shit.
“Welcome to the party Sam. You too Carolyn. You guys are welcome here always even if you think I’m delusional or schizophrenic.” I smiled condescendingly at them. I liked being right always.
Their faces turned red. I had them at my full mercy, and they knew it. In order to take care of their families, they needed me far more than I needed them. I saw them look at the floor. They said nothing. For some reason I wasn’t going to let them off the hook. I had a burning desire to fight. I found myself growing angrier.
“A month ago, you came into my house to help me through my problems, my mental illness. You were fucking wrong. Get on with it.” They knew what I wanted. I saw the kids, who were standing in the doorway watching us, disappear. The kids felt that there was a storm brewing in this living room, and they were right. I was ready to snap. Maybe it was because of the stress I had been under the past couple of months. Maybe it was because of the fact that I had been ostracized by everyone. Maybe it was because I had been stuck taking care of everyone in this house by myself against this horrible threat. I don’t know, maybe it was because of the fact that I had been slaughtering all these former people because the world was coming to an end. Who knows? Maybe it’s just because I’m a total asshole when I want to be. I just knew that unless they kissed my ass, I was going to make them bleed. And I was going to paint a masterpiece of gore all over my walls with their bodily fluids.
I sat up suddenly ready to fight. My eyes flashed angrily, and I wanted to start kicking and punching for all I was worth. It was payback time for everyone.
Carolyn let out a sob. I saw her fall to her knees in front of me. She grabbed onto my legs and put her head in my lap weeping. She pulled herself closer to me and began sobbing hysterically. I looked at my friend, her husband who had his head in his hands. He was crying as well.
I thought, ‘what the fuck!’ I wanted to fight. I didn’t want this. Shame overcame me. The piss went right out of me. I was a douche. What the fuck was wrong with me? I was completely embarrassed. I tried to stand, but couldn’t.
I pulled at Carolyn’s arms and brought her up to me. She didn’t want to let go and wound up sprawled all over the top of me. I momentarily thought ‘God, she’s heavy’ before thinking ‘I’m a complete asshole’ right after that. What the Hell was wrong with me?
She sobbed uncontrollably on top of me with her arms wrapped around my neck. I held her tightly not saying a word. Her husband was sitting on the couch doing the same. They stayed that way for what seemed like hours. In fact, it was only for about a minute. My shame grew exponentially during that time.
Finally I said, “I’m sorry.” It actually hurt to say it. I felt horrible. What a dick I could be.
Carolyn pulled herself away from me. She looked shocked. “Shut up, don’t say that.” She actually looked mad. “You saved our lives. We owe you everything. We wouldn’t be alive except for you. And we made fun of you!” She cried all over again. She pulled me in and gave me a tear stained kiss right on the lips. She kissed me on the cheeks and the forehead and then went back to my lips.
I was getting embarrassed. I stopped her by pulling away. “Stop, enough, we’re ok.” I was red. It was what I wanted from them before, and now I was more than sorry that I got it. I tried to stand and failed. She wasn’t letting go.
Sam was still sitting there with head in hand. He looked down and stated clearly, “We’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.” He couldn’t look me in the eyes. He was shaking from the stress.
I sighed. I looked at Carolyn, and she finally let go. She stood and I moved over to Sam putting my arms around his shoulders. He stayed there looking down. He put his hand on mine and squeezed. I didn’t want this anymore. I stood to move outside. Carolyn blocked my way. She hugged me quickly and let me go.
I walked to the open garage and looked outside. The rain was almost horizontal. Wind was pushing everything around outside. I concentrated on the fence line looking outward. There were no walking dead there trying to get inside my compound. At least we had that. I was sure that it was going to be just as hard for them to move around as it was for us.
I went back inside. I didn’t think that there would be any more attacks during the rain. I hoped it lasted a good long time. I needed the break. I only wished that the Weather Channel still existed so that I could see how long it would last. Based on the sheer number of Zeds walking around, I doubted that TV would come back for a lot of years.
Sam walked outside with me and stood next to me saying nothing. He didn’t have to. We both knew how close he had come to the end of his everything.
He walked outside into the rain to his car. He was drenched instantly. He kept his head up high and pretended that it didn’t bother him. We both knew that was bullshit. He probably couldn’t see because the rain was driving so hard. He kept a nice steady pace and didn’t waver. I was actually proud of him. He was learning about pride of appearance and was walking like a warrior- which he now was. The worm had definitely changed for him. He was now blooded.
He got in and started it, driving right to me. He backed up so the rear hatch was dry in the garage. After turning off the car and getting out, he opened it up and started unloading the remnants of all of his possessions. He had nothing left in this world. All his hard work for his house, his cars, his schooling and everything else was gone save for his family and the few things he managed to salvage. Everyth
ing else I would provide. He knew it and was grateful, but we both knew that it was a complete kick in the nuts.
We took all of his stuff inside. It only took us about five trips each. Not too bad for a lifetime’s worth of stuff. Shit.
He went in the car when we were finished to move it. He sat down and grabbed the girl’s baseball bat on the console. He looked at it, and I saw he was having a nonexistent flashback. We both knew that if he intended to use it on a Zed, it would have resulted in the deaths of everyone he loved. He handed it to me and drove off.
I turned and put it where it belonged- in the kids’ toy box.
Chapter 6
Cold rain always got into my bones and joints. It also made my allergies go nuts. I was sneezing, rubbing my eyes, rubbing my nose, and mouth breathing for the next four days. I did all my work in the rain with an all over aching body. And yes, I was whining like a little bitch. This little baby felt sorry for himself. But what was I going to do? I had no choice. I worked the fields as I called them. Unfortunately, they were more like a swamp right now. I tended to the animals, and I popped the occasional Zed in the forehead with one of my air rifles. There were always threats, and I had to keep vigilant throughout this, or all Hell was going to break loose- or at least plunge me deeper into the depths of Hell. Hell had already opened up. I was just trying to keep it from entering my piece of property and hurting all those that I loved. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. Or so my religious brethren would have me believe. I don’t know if I believed that stuff. I just knew that I was just another guy keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings in the hopes of having his kids survive him and surpass him. I was scared shitless. I didn’t fear death. I feared for the safety of my kids. It was the bane of every parent since the beginning of time. So I watched and waited and acted as Sheriff of my tiny enclave, offering all my skills that I accumulated since I was little myself.
My Last Testament Page 11