After an hour of this, I slowed to pass a stalled car in the middle of the street and acquired a dozen new followers. They seemed to prefer moving targets to the already dead in the car. It was very odd.
I hit the outskirts of town finally and felt free. There was nothing in front of me. I felt that I had finally done it. My heart rate increased at the anticipation.
Sam got on the radio, “All right, you are four blocks from the turnoff. You need to get ready for what’s to come.”
I thought to myself, ‘that sound ominous.’
He continued, “About four blocks ahead of you, you’re going off-roading. I need you to turn on the four-wheel drive.”
I stopped suddenly and flipped the lever. I took off when one of those things hit my tailgate. They were closer than I thought. I went back to idle speed after a few seconds and listened for them. I couldn’t hear them over the sounds of my speaker.
Five minutes later, “John, I need you to turn right at the next field. There seems to be a path in the corn field that looks completely dry. Kick it up to twenty miles an hour to avoid getting stuck. Ready? Turn right NOW!”
I turned hard right and went down a small bank that I wasn’t expecting. My forehead hit the steering wheel hard, and I saw stars. I shook them off and hit the path. I really couldn’t see it too well. The port didn’t allow me to look down, only forward. It was like driving in a maze. I followed the lack of corn in front of me in the middle of an unpicked corn field. I had déjà vu from last Halloween when my kids and I were stuck in a corn maze in the middle of the dark. I heard my son’s whining about how we were lost ringing inside my head. I ignored it and kept going.
Luckily for me, the ground was solid. I saw ahead another embankment, this one up. I sped up to 40 mph. I hit it hard and fast. The nose went up and over. The rear of the car never left the ground. The front popped a wheelie for a split second and then crashed straight down. My neck spasmed from the jolt. I felt a burning down into my traps. I slammed on the brakes and shook my head. I rubbed on my neck muscles to try and get the pain to lessen. When it reverted to a dull throb, I looked through the port. I saw nothing but corn in front of me.
“John, I need you to make a hard right and face us again.” I did as I was told. I saw nothing but empty road in front of me. “All right John we’re waiting till all of them get into the field. They all seem to be heading toward you. Please wait.” Then there was a pause. “All right, take off fast right to us. Turn off the speaker and go as fast as you can.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. I sped as fast as I could. At fifty I heard a grinding and pulled back. I must have hurt something under the car. It vibrated at less than highway speeds. I couldn’t take the chance that this was going to get worse and strand me. I slowed to thirty and kept a steady pace.
Then the unthinkable happened. The car just stopped. There was no warning and no grinding. The car just stopped- mother fucker!
I was four miles from home. I put the car in park and tried to restart it. I got nowhere. The battery was dead. Holy shit. I almost crapped myself.
I almost panicked at the lack of noise. There were no engine sounds, and no sounds coming from the speaker above my head. I was angry at the noise before and couldn’t think straight. Now the silence was pissing me off to no end.
I made up my mind. I had to get out. I had no choice. The problem was that I was effectively blind on three sides of the car. I put on my gear: my football helmet with the faceshield, my Kevlar gloves, my holsters with my guns, and I put my shotgun in my arms with the strap over my shoulder. I slung my rifle and loaded as many magazines into my clothes as I could. I left my bat behind and half my ammo. There was no way to carry this shit and fight at the same time. Holy shit. I was fucked. I also felt guilty about leaving so much ammo behind. It was stupid of me to bring it.
I got on the radio. “Ah guys, I have no power. I have to go the rest of the way on foot. Is there anyone outside my car?” I sounded like a whiny puppy, which is what I was.
“Sorry, man. We can’t even see you right now. You’re behind a couple of buildings. Sorry dude.” Sam sounded distraught.
I ignored his voice and the fact that he called me dude. I hated that. I was on my own.
I turned sideways in the seat and pulled my feet up to my chest. There was no time like the present. I kept the shotgun pointed directly out the driver’s door. I unlocked the door, pulled the handle so the door released slightly, and then kicked out with all my might. I had no idea if anyone or anything was standing outside my door. The door slammed out at full force. I moved forward with my shotgun at the ready. I saw nothing but a parked car at my side. There was no movement. I got out of the car and did a slow 360 looking for threats. There was no one home. The place was a ghost town.
Then I scanned outward to see if there was anyone outside my immediate radius. Again, there was no one. I wondered if I just got lucky. I went back into the car and grabbed my bag full of ammo and the bat. Now that I saw no threats, it was time to gather everything. I might need it. I put on the backpack which weighted fifty pounds.
It was a bear, and it was going to slow me down. I would ditch it if I needed to and come back for it if I could.
I adjusted the strap on my shotgun to keep it at the ready. I moved forward quickly. I scanned everything forward, left, and right. I figured I was moving fast enough not to be caught from behind. At least I hoped that was the case.
The sun blazed hot over my face right where I was going. I squinted my eyes at it and looked down. I wish I could have brought my sunglasses. I ran in a shuffling gait forward toward home. This shit was heavy. I kept going.
I passed the movie theater. I saw the ice cream shop where I brought my kids every two weeks. I saw the little used bookstore with no name that I loved. They were deserted except for the dead bodies in the road that had been gnawed and chewed.
I kept up a good pace not wanting to get caught like them. I smelled their rank, foul stench. There was nothing like the smell of a dead body festering for a couple of weeks. I hated it. It was the main reason I didn’t go into Pathology.
After a mile, I started to tire. I only had three miles to go, but I was over laden with all this equipment. I tried to ignore the straps as they cut into my shoulders. I stopped to readjust them with no success. There was just no comfortable way to alleviate the pressure.
I continued forward as fast as I could. I didn’t want to run for fear of bumping into one of those things. I put the thought out of my head. I moved forward and scanned constantly. My adrenaline was definitely shooting through my blood stream. I was shaky, angry, and on edge. I felt like I was on a coke binge. Not that I knew what that felt like. I was way too much of a control freak to try it. I forced myself to calm down.
I saw the road in front of me had six cars on top of each other. They had been abandoned after the initial accident. I saw dead bodies surrounding the scene.
I stopped thirty feet from it and looked around carefully. I did a 360 turn, and then I moved to look under the cars. There was no movement.
I ran forward and dove around the cars putting as much distance between me and them as I could. I didn’t want to spend any time at this obvious choke point.
I left the business district and entered a small residential area. It was a one mile stretch of little homes. The cars were all parked in a row in front of the homes. I saw no dead bodies. Most of the windows were boarded up with plywood. Some appeared to have had the boards ripped off the frame. I didn’t want to think about the inhabitants. It made me shudder.
My feet were getting very sore. I guess I had let my aerobic tolerance go over the past couple of months. I would have to fix that in the future. I walked down the middle of the street and stayed away from the cars. Other than the boarded up windows, the houses and cars looked absolutely normal. I fully expected kids to run out and start jumping rope. The thought almost made me cry. What a fuckup this world had become.
&nb
sp; I started running to get by this area. Up ahead I saw movement. There were a good dozen Zeds pounding on a door on a yellow bungalow. I almost turned the corner to get away. I heard screams coming from inside the house. They sounded like kids. Still, I almost ran away. I turned the corner and stopped. Fuck me, I couldn’t do it.
I came up on their blind side. They completely ignored me. There were five of them lined up neatly in a row facing the wood panel over the door. They didn’t see me. I did a slow turn around my position to make sure there were no more around here. It seemed clear.
I took careful aim with the shotgun as I moved to the front stairs. Then I stopped. I realized the shells would penetrate their heads and wind up going through the doors. I couldn’t do that. Shit.
I put the gun on the stairs at the ready just in case. I hated this. I pulled out my bat. I put the bat in the ready position. I was ready to swing for the fences. I walked up the stairs as quietly as I could which I think made no difference. These five youngish males all dressed in their black clothing ignored me and continued pounding on the wood. They struck me as former gangbangers who used to prey on the weak. I guess they hadn’t changed that much.
I took careful aim at the nearest one. I swung down as hard as I could on his head. The aluminum bat ‘THUNKED’ on his bald head. He went straight down. I ignored him and went at the other heads. They didn’t have time to turn around. They all fell straight down. Then I went back to hitting them all three more times each. I made sure they never got up again. The dents in their heads made sure of that.
I ran down the stairs and picked up the shotgun. I scanned the area all over again. Their friends must have missed the ringing of the bat.
I dreaded this next part. I had to make noise.
I yelled out, “They’re all dead. I took care of them. None of them are left. Please come out, or I’m leaving to go back home. Hurry up, I’m exposed here!” I whined that last part out at the top of my lungs.
I heard nothing for a few seconds. I saw some movement through the plywood on the front room window. I was being sized up. I waited for thirty seconds. I looked around on edge. I was very nervous at being out alone without moving toward home.
Finally I had it. I turned around and yelled toward the well-kept yellow house. “You have thirty seconds, or I’m leaving. I have a family of my own. I risked my life to help you. Don’t leave me hanging.” Now I was getting pissed.
I counted slowly to thirty. There was no further movement in the window.
“FINE. BYE!” I left. This really got to me. This was complete bullshit. I turned and walked away. I thought for sure there was going to be someone coming out to stop me. There was no one. I slowed my gait. Still there was no one. I kept thinking to myself ‘what the fuck?’
After two blocks I stopped and looked back. Dead silence on all sides as I stared at the house. I sighed and walked away. The people in that house must have thought to themselves that I was trying to trap them. It actually made me sad at how pathetic that was. I was trying to throw them a life line, and all they wanted to do was hide their heads in the sand in the hope that everyone would just pass them by. I hoped they had not signed their own death warrants.
I moved toward home faster. I was a mile and a half out. This eerie little walk was hopefully coming to an end soon. The place was deserted on the outside. I wondered how many people were really trapped and how many were dead inside their permanent mausoleums.
“Where are you John?”
It came from the radio and scared the shit out of me. I flinched at the noise so bad I actually burst out laughing. I’m sure I looked like an idiot in the middle of the street. I grinned at the image in my head and realized I was way past caring what others thought of me. I kept walking and pulled out the radio.
“I’m about a mile and a half away. I’ll be out in the open in about four blocks. Let me know if there any Zeds around me. Miller out.” I didn’t have time to talk right now.
I reholstered the radio and kept moving. My calves were on fire. I would need to soak my feet. I’m sure I had lots of blisters.
I moved on at a steady trot forward toward home. I saw two Zeds moving about in a gangway. I decided to just ignore them and outrun them. Three blocks later I saw my hill and my driveway.
I became extra cautious. I figured there were a lot of those things by my house as it had so much activity around it. I scanned as I ran. I slowed when I got into the open. There were many stores in the area and several gas stations. I passed the police station. I saw a Zed on the ground alive but harmed irreparably. It crawled toward me. I just ran past it. One block later I heard screams. They were high pitched and coming from behind me. I scanned quickly forward and to the sides and then turned around. I brought my shotgun up to my right side and stood perfectly still just listening.
There were two voices- one on top of the other. They sounded female. I moved forward toward them. What the Hell was I doing? Home was the other way.
I ran forward thinking I should move. I heard a voice in my own head whining ‘home is the other way!’ I ignored the voices in my own head. The screams outside on the other hand only got louder. Then I started to hear the moans of the undead. I abruptly stopped. There seemed to be a lot of them over here. I looked around and saw nothing. I got nervous. I breathed through it. I moved forward again with the Benelli at the ready.
I came upon an intersection. I heard the moans and screams coming from the right. I checked my backside and walked slowly toward the noise.
I finally saw six of those things. They were revolting. The clothes were ragged, they smelled of decay, and gore dripped from their faces. They had been dead for a while.
“Hey mister, up here!” They yelled it to me. I kept my sights on the dead things. I wasn’t going to take my eyes off them. The ladies above me kept screaming it over and over.
The Zombies finally noticed me. I sighed in exasperation. There was no way to avoid these guys. The last thing at the end of this day that I wanted was a fight. All I wanted was a hot bath and a good nap.
The Zeds realized that I was an easier target. They moaned and came at me. At thirty feet, I took careful aim and opened fire. The Zeds’ head nearest me exploded from the deer slug. It surprised me. I thought I had loaded the weapon with double ought buck. Oh well, I would just have to take better aim.
I fired slowly and surely. The targets went down hard. One was completely decapitated when I hit her in the neck. Whatever. At least it worked.
I looked around for more targets and found none. I reloaded immediately. I stepped over their dead bodies and moved to where the windows were. I looked up at the two old ladies who seemed in shock.
“I can’t believe you killed them. You shot them!” The lady appeared to be about sixty-years old. Her friend was about the same age. They were wearing pastel track suits. I hoped that meant they worked out. I wasn’t about to carry their asses. I was already overloaded.
I lifted off my helmet. “Hello ladies, how can I be of service?” I smiled at them.
They burst out laughing. At least they were in good spirits. It made me laugh too.
“We would like to introduce ourselves to our gallant knight in football armor.” She cackled at her own humor. “I’m Marjorie, and this is Peggy.” They bowed to me. “And who might you be?”
I loved these ladies. They were awesome. We would have a lot of fun with them.
“I’m John Miller. I’ve come to take you home with me.” I said it with a leer. They laughed louder.
Peggy said, “Sir John, twenty years ago I would have had my way with you for that. Now, I’ll settle for some food and shelter. I assume you could do better than this crappy apartment?”
I smiled. “I live at the top of the hill. We have a small ragtag bunch up there with lots of food and secure fences. You’ll be safe up there. I need you to come down quickly with just what you can carry for a mile and a half.”
They looked at each other and nodded. �
��We’ll be right down. They slipped back inside while I made sure the perimeter was secured.
After a few minutes I started to get annoyed. I didn’t want to just stand around and wait for either them to come downstairs or boogiemen to come out of the woodwork. I wanted and needed to get back home. I kept up a constant moan of ‘hurry up’ inside my brain as I scanned for targets.
Then I heard three gunshots coming from inside the building. I instantly became alert. Two seconds passed, and then I heard two more shots.
Thirty seconds later I heard the lock on the front door in front of me turn. The ladies stepped out into the bright sunlight and smiled.
Peg was holding a 9 mm Beretta in her hand. She had it pointed at the floor. It had a little smoke coming from the barrel. I looked at her and smiled. This woman was awesome.
“Trouble?” I guessed she had to put a couple of Zeds down that were in her way.
“None whatsoever, Sir John. Ready to go?”
“Absolutely. I’ll let you two set the pace.” I waved my hand forward up the street. We took off at a relatively quick pace. I was having a problem keeping up with all the weight on my back. Of course that didn’t affect the girls’ pace. Now I felt guilty about not exercising as much as I should.
They each carried shoulder bags with what looked like clothes in them. They were overstuffed. Both seemed unaffected by the weight. They smiled happily.
“You ladies are in great shape.” I huffed out at them, breathing much heavier than usual.
“We are. We walk every day at the mall for over two hours. Most people can’t keep up the pace.” Marjorie was pleased with herself.
The radio came on. “John, you looked like you picked up a harem.”
It made me laugh. I depressed the button. “Right now they’re pounding me into the dirt. We picked up two new recruits.”
My Last Testament Page 16