Outbreak: The Zombie Chronicles

by Mark Clodi;Mike Keleman

  Max noticed a small hand appear on the back fence, as he watched a small boy pulled his head above the fence line, there was blood running down his face. As he pulled himself over the fence Max could see he was still clutching a tire iron. It was too soon to tell if he was a zombie or not, but given a choice Max would rather face a zombie child than a zombie woman any day of the week.

  Max leveled the pistol at the zombie woman coming towards him, hoping he had one more bullet left, as she approached to within four feet he shot her once in the head and she dropped spinelessly to the ground.

  "Is Amelia okay?!" yelled the boy as Max turned towards him.

  Lowering the gun, and moving towards Steve, Max replied, "Who?"

  "Amelia! She found me in the hotel." As if that explained everything. He continued to climb over the fence and Max could see he had a large bruise on his back that was oozing blood through his torn shirt, in addition to the cuts on his head. As his legs cleared the fence Max saw more of the damage, a bloody cut running down his right leg, dripping blood and finally there was another cut on the top of his left foot that was also bleeding, one foot was bare, the other had a large flip flop on it. Seeing Max watch him Cory said, "I had flip-flops that I stole from a convenience store, but one of them flew on the roof when she threw me over the fence. Amelia got me more shoes in the car. I think my game boy is broke too." He took a small square of plastic out of his front pocket and showed Max, there was a long crack running across the front of the device and despite Cory's insistent pushing of what Max assumed was a power button, nothing was happening.

  Looking at the carnage in his backyard Max contrasted it to the small boy pressing the buttons on his game. His life had become a surreal nightmare. Going over to Steve he knelt down and checked his friend. Steve's eyes were rolled back into his head, he was not breathing, but his mouth was moving feebly open and closed, open and closed. Then that movement stopped too and his friend was deathly still. Tears wet the corners of his eyes and he stood watch over his friend for a moment, waiting to see if he would rise from the dead and reloading his pistol in case he needed it. After a couple of minutes of vigilance Max decided that Steve wasn't coming back. He turned back towards the house, dragging the boy along with him as he went, carrying the bleeding boy over the broken glass littering his back porch. As he carried him over the glass Max said, "My name is Max. What is your name?"

  "Cory. Is she okay? Is Amelia okay Max?"

  "I don't know, I didn't see her in the house, so...I don't know."

  As they entered the kitchen Max set Cory down well clear of the broken glass, the boy ran yelling towards the living room "Amelia! Amelia! Where are you?"

  Stewart was leaning up against the wall halfway from the living room to the kitchen, a trickle of blood was coming out of the corner of her mouth. She grunted and rolled over to her hands and knees, as Max brushed by her.

  Once in the living room Max called up the stairs, "Sarah! Sarah, if you are there it is me! Max! Sarah are you up there?"

  Cory had gone out into the front yard and was looking wildly around, calling for Amelia.

  Cries of "Daddy! Daddy!" came muffled from upstairs and Max bounded up them two at a time until he was standing underneath his attic access door. The floor was covered with loose insulation and next to the door in the ceiling was a hole through the drywall, blood was smeared along one side of the hole. As Max watched a small face appeared in the hole and looked down at him.

  "Nick?" Max called up to his son, "Is everything okay buddy?"

  "No mom is hurt, something pulled her leg down into the floor and hurt her, she is bleeding really bad, help her dad!" Max's son said.

  Another voice joined his son's, "Max is that you?"

  Nick's face was pushed aside rather quickly and Max found himself staring at Amelia, the secretary from work.

  "Amelia? How did you get here?"

  "I drove, I thought you would be here when we got here."

  "We thought you were dead. When did you get here?"

  "About twenty minutes ago. Let me push the ladder down."

  Amelia moved sideways and Nick's face reappeared, dirt streaked and anxious. The swinging door opened and the rickety wooden stair ladder unfolded.

  Chapter 50

  Max climbed up into the attic, not knowing what to expect, when he was fully up into the gloomy interior Amelia pointed at the makeshift bed onto which she had brought Sarah. Jessica, Max's daughter, was near her mother's head, telling her everything would be okay. Max stepped over to them and took his wife in his arms.

  "Oh Sarah! Sarah! Thank God!" he sobbed with relief, "I was so worried, when we got here and the door was open, with a body in the yard, I thought, I thought it was you!"

  "Max?" Sarah mumbled, "Is it really you? You're bleeding?"

  Behind Max his son came up and put his arms around his fathers waist, not saying anything. Amelia stood awkwardly near the access door, then finally cleared her throat and said she better go stop Cory, whose plaintive cries for 'Amelia' could be heard through the venting, from yelling his head off in the front yard.

  "Thank God you're alright! He stayed there for a moment hugging his wife and children, before he felt Sarah stiffen. "What?"

  "I think one of them bit me Max." she said softly.

  "What? No, no that can't be! Where did they bite you? You were in the attic, did they get up here?"

  Sarah pushed Max back and pulled aside the blankets her children had lain down upon her. Max didn't want to believe what he saw, she had a small t-shirt folded neatly pressed against her leg, the wound underneath had bled through and Sarah gently lifted it out to reveal a wound, that was still bleeding furiously. In the darkness Max couldn't be sure it was a bite wound. "Flashlight" he said, his son let him go long enough to hand him a small LED flashlight which Max turned on and used to examine the wound. It was a bite mark, Max could see where the top row of teeth had pierced her skin.

  "Oh no."

  "This is bad?" Sarah asked.

  "Did you disinfect it?"

  "With what?"

  "Shit." Max stood up abruptly, toppling Nick into some boxes, where Max caught him with a quick grab, "Sorry bud, stay here, I'll be right back!" moving quickly Max went down the ladder into the bathroom linen closet and grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some clean washrags and towels. He scrambled back up the stairs and back to Sarah's side, where he unscrewed the bottle cap and poured it onto her wound, she tensed up momentarily. "Does it hurt?" Max asked.

  "No it is just cold. What's wrong Max? What's wrong?"

  "I...human bites are very bad for you...there are not going to be any more doctor visits or co-pays or anything for a long time, if ever again. We have to take care of ourselves better now and fast, we can't wait around to treat stuff like this."

  "Is that it?" Sarah asked.

  "I'll tell ya later." Max answered, which was parent code for 'when the kids were not around'.

  Sarah nodded and lay back as Max finished cleansing the wound and then pressed a wash rag over it. Finally he tore a towel into strips and used one to bind the makeshift bandage into place.

  "Can you move?" he asked.

  "I think so, it is deep but not like through the bone or anything."

  Together they made their way downstairs where Amelia, Tom, Cory and Stewart were waiting. The front door had been shut and the couch moved over behind it. Stewart was on the couch looking back towards the kitchen, her pistol on her lap.

  "Stewart." Max said, "You okay?"

  She raised her head to look at him and answer, "Fuck no. I think I have broken ribs."

  Wincing at her language around the kids Max said, "So you will live?"

  "Yeah, Steve?"

  "Steve didn't make it."

  A look of alarm and disbelief came over her face, then she clamped down and made her face into a neutral mask once more. "What happened?"

  "Steve chased Veronica into the backyard, I don't know what happene
d, but..."

  "I do!" said Cory softly, "He..they, the zombies caught me when I came over the fence one...one had each of my hands, that guy with the shotgun came out and shot one of them, the other one tried to keep him from shooting her and when he was getting close that Veronica zombie hit him with a chair. Then she jumped on him and they were rolling around, only she was all messed up and couldn't fight very well, so she called on the lady holding me for help. That lady threw me over the fence. He kinda saved me."

  "Yeah, I bet he did. When I came out, he was getting up off the ground, she had shot at him a couple of times and missed, but I missed her head when I got my shot off. She shot him with the shotgun, his own shotgun. Well your's really. Gut shot him, at point blank. He just stood there for a second, then tried to take a breath, but couldn't, then he spun around and collapsed. I can't believe it happened. If I would hit her in the head I could have saved him." Max said bitterly.

  "He came along knowing what could happen Max, he died trying to save a kid, not many people can say that and it is better than being eaten or becoming one of them. This is Sarah?"

  "Yes, this is Sarah. Sarah this is Officer Jane Stewart, we all call her 'Stewart'. I think Sarah is okay...but one of them, I think, might have bit her."

  Stewart stiffened visibly at this news, which Sarah noticed, "What? It isn't anything fatal, I mean it hurts, but it is not that bad."

  "I poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on it." Max began only to be interrupted by Amelia.

  Addressing Max's children she said, "You must be Max's kids, what are your names?"

  "Nick."

  "Jessica."

  "Well Nick and Jessica this is Cory, his about your age, huh Nick? Do you think you might have some extra cloths he could use? His are all dirty and both of you should get dressed, we might be leaving today. Why don't we all go upstairs and you can show me your rooms while your mom and dad talk with Stewart and Tom."

  The children were reluctant, but Sarah pushed them off, telling them to brush their teeth and comb their hair too. Amelia herded them upstairs and soon the other adults were able to hear the sounds of quiet laughter and running water as the kids cleaned up.

  "Now what? It is the bite isn't it. It's like infected or something, isn't it?"

  Max stood stoically, for a moment, then hugged her close and said, "It is how they kill us and make more zombies. The bite infects you, then you die. Then you come back as one of them."

  Sarah's eyes puffed up and a tear welled out of one of them. "Are you sure? Have you seen it happen? Who told you this?"

  "Blake, on the radio and a lot of people called him to say so too. And it happened at work, but when we were there the zombies actually killed the people, so I don't know anything for certain. Maybe you will be okay."

  "How much time do I have?" Sarah asked.

  "I don't know, how do you feel? Maybe the hydrogen peroxide disinfected it?" Stewart wouldn't meet his eyes, Tom shook his head slowly.

  "Max we don't know, we won't maybe we can call the dj and see if anyone knows?" said Tom, "We should try and secure this place a little better, Stewart says the back door is all busted out. Lets take care of safety first, then make some calls."

  Stewart and Max were the most wounded of the four of them, Sarah's bite hurt, but Max had torn open his wound again and was bleeding pretty badly. They took a moment to pull Stewart's Kevlar vest off and then bind up Max's ribs again. The bruise under Stewart's vest was terrible; it a was deep blue circle as big around as an orange with a small dot of red in the middle of it that was weeping blood. Pressing her hands against the wound Stewart said, "They might not be broke." To which the others just shook their heads. Tom and Sarah pulled some lumber out of Max's garage, most of it would not work, but Max did have some plywood and old table tops that he had taken from his father in law with the intention of refinishing a long time ago. The two more able bodied adults, who were soon assisted by Amelia, propped the various bits against the opening where the glass patio doors had been, making a sizable barricade. At the very least they would hear anything trying to get through it.

  Sarah, with the help of Amelia, then made them all a halfway decent breakfast and they sat down to try and call Blake at the radio station and make plans for what they were going to do next.

  After breakfast Tom went into the backyard from the garage, which had a regular door to pass through and pulled Steve's body to the side of the house. He also pulled the other corpses to the side and covered them with sheets from the house. When he came in he called out, "Stewart? Hey yeah I checked out the yard trying to find the shotgun, but no go, it is gone. But I found this." Tom walked into view carrying a plastic Target bag. The rest of the adults were sitting in the living room. Max's kids were upstairs, trying to decide what to pack. Cory had fallen asleep on the couch head resting against Max.

  "What is in the bag Tom?" asked Stewart.

  "Check it out." He handed the bag to Stewart, she opened it and gave him a puzzled look.

  "What the fuck is this shit? This yours Max?" Stewart asked, thinking maybe it was a gift for his kids that somehow ended up outside.

  Max looked at Cory sleeping beside him, then at and into the bag and shook his head, "You're gonna have to change the way you speak, no swearing around little kids. And no I don't know anything about that stuff. Is there a receipt in the bag? Receipts have dates on them." He said to Tom's puzzled look. Max also knew that Sarah kept the receipts in every bag, especially with gifts, if there was not a receipt the bag was not from their house.

  "Nope, nothing. Look at this stuff, hand held games, one, no, two different systems, the new PSP and the DS, expensive stuff too. Where'd this come from?"

  They sat and stared at each other for awhile before Max said, "Maybe Cory picked it up?"

  Amelia shook her head, "Not when he was with me, we passed a Target, but we didn't go inside and we didn't get anything like this stuff."

  "Yeah and Cory tried to show me his game in the back yard, it got busted or something. I don't think he would have cared if he had a bag of the stuff." said Max.

  Chapter 51

  "Why the fuck are you way over here?" Jimbo asked Bobby, when he finally caught up with him.

  Bobby glared at Jimbo and said, "He wasn't so bad. Cory, wasn't so bad, I could have like him a lot."

  "I know, but how did you get here?" Jimbo shifted his eyes and looked at the ragged quiet girl that Bobby gripped tightly with one hand, she was probably eight or nine and scared speechless.

  "Well I liked Cory, only he didn't have a PSP and we couldn't play together head to head with just one. So I figured we would go get one, now that they are free. You didn't tell me not to!" Bobby said defiantly.

  Sighing, Jimbo said, "Alright, it is water under the bridge, okay? No big deal you wanted to get your friend a video game, is that it there?" Pointing at the sack the Bobby held.

  "Yeah I went and got it anyway, I figured you would catch Cory."

  "Well no, we didn't, I never saw him."

  "He is probably at the house, can we go and get him?" asked Bobby.

  "Wh-what? Are fucking nuts? Bobby those guys practically killed me! And I think they killed everyone else!"

  A third voice joined the conversation, "No. They didn't."

  Turning they all looked at Veronica as she stood in the doorway of the convenience store where they had taken refuge. "They almost did, no thanks to you Jimbo. Who is this?"

  "Veronica, Jesus, you look beat! What the hell happened? This is Bobby and his little, scrumptious friend." said Jimbo, thinking to himself, 'This bitch steps outta line and I will kill her, she is so torn up I could do it.'

  As if reading his thoughts she said, "Relax Jimbo, truce okay? Like I heard you say a moment ago, water under the bridge, I need your help and I ain't Nancy."

  "Okay, truce, but what do you want?"

  "There is strength in numbers Jimbo, me, you, Bobby and the girl, that is a start. Lets do it again, only t
his time we are going to find some guns, no more of this hand to hand shit. We recover our strength and go after a few more people, get a group together, find a car and get the hell out of here."

  "Yeah, I think so, that sounds good." turning to Bobby he said, "We need her Bobby, I am weak, Veronica is worse off than me. Sorry, but we gotta have her."

  Bobby looked at them, "Yeah, okay, she is a girl anyway, I want another boy. I am gonna go find Cory and give him this." he said, lifting the sack in one hand.

  "Don't be stupid Bobby, save it for the next boy we find, okay?"

  "No! You get the girl I go drop this off." he let the girl go and she scrambled away into the back of the store to hide in the shadows, Bobby moved in the other direction, towards the front of the store, where he quickly ducked under a pane of broken glass and out into the morning.

  Veronica gave a start and raised a questioning eyebrow.

  "Aw let him go, the kid is stupid and stubborn, but I like him. Reminds me of me at that age. I have the feeling we are going to be making another trip to Target for another DSP when we find another boy close to his age. God I hate killing the little ones."

  "DSP? It is PSP Jimbo, aren't you with it enough to know what is 'in'? I hate offing the kids too. Do you think we could just bleed her a bit and find someone still alive to take her? I am tired of killing."

  Jimbo thought about it for a second, then nodded, "Yeah that would ease my conscious a bit. We'll have to be careful."

  Together they turned back towards the girl cowering in the shadows.

  Bobby found his way back to the backyard of the house behind Max's and cautiously peered over the fence. Nothing, no Cory, but his eyes spotted the shotgun on the grass. He climbed over the fence, picked up the shotgun and sat the bag down. As he was getting ready to climb back over the fence he spotted a shotgun shell in the grass, he bent to pick it up and spotted another one, he retrieved that one and noticed it was heavier than the first one, looking at the first one he saw that it has a hole in the front end, not like the second one, which was snub nosed and folded closed. It didn't take a genius to figure out which one of them had already been fired. He tossed the empty down and looked around for more shells, he only found more empties and decided one was better than nothing. Someone started moving around in the kitchen near the broken glass doors, not sure who it was Bobby leaped up and jumped for the back fence. He cleared it in a single bound. When he got back to the convenience store he only saw Jimbo.