Z14 (Zombie Rules)

by Achord, David

  “Hey.” I said. She continued staring straight ahead until I snapped my fingers several times. She finally looked over at me. She looked like she was in shock.

  “You’ve saved my ass twice now. You’ve done good.” She stared at me as if my words did not register to her.

  “Hey!” I yelled. Her eyes widened. “Don’t be zoning out on me!” I lowered my voice.

  “Listen to me, we’ve just been through a nightmare, but we survived. Okay?” I asked. She continued looking at me, but finally nodded her head. “Good girl. Now, let’s go home.” Andie nodded and started the jeep.

  Using the mirror on the sun visor, I took a look at my injuries. I had a knot on the side of my head the size of a softball. The cut to my cheek looked to be less than an inch long, but it was deep. I could see my cheekbone through the gash. I worked my jaw, and although it was swollen and ached, it didn’t seem to be broken. I knew my leg was going to have a large bruise, but my main worry was when he kicked me in the gut. I was having a lot of pain there.

  We arrived at the Allen’s new home approximately twenty minutes later. Julie and Rowdy jogged outside to greet us. I saw Howard standing inside the doorway with his shotgun at the ready. Julie gasped when she saw us.

  “Oh my God, are you two alright?” She asked as she helped me out of the jeep. I smiled at her. It was only an hour ago I thought I’d never see her again.

  “We got our asses kicked, but I think we’re okay. Help me inside and I’ll tell everyone about it.”

  I put my arm around Julie and Rowdy practically carried Andie inside. Everyone gathered around as I was assisted to a chair at the head of the kitchen table. Lashonda hurried about fixing a meal while Julie fussed over me. I was in too much pain to eat.

  “You should eat,” Rowdy said to Andie. “Put some meat on that skinny butt.” Andie tried to smile, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  Julie looked worriedly at the gash on my cheek. The bleeding had almost stopped now, but I had no doubt it was a pretty ugly wound. I tried out a carefree smile while I offered advice.

  “I would suggest pouring some peroxide in the wound and then sealing it with super glue. If we have any ice or anything cold, I sure would like to put it on my head. Andie can use some as well.” Julie gave me a condescending look, but did as I suggested while I told them of the encounter with the Captain. Rowdy got a wet rag and began tenderly cleaning up Andie’s face.

  I told them everything, except for the remarks the Captain said about Andie. When I had finished, everyone seemed to be in stunned silence.

  “So this Captain fellow, he’s dead now?” Rowdy finally asked. I nodded, and then felt the need to speak further.

  “I want y’all to know something, Andie came through. If not for her, I’d be dead.” I looked over at her and patted her hand. “It was a very hard decision for her to kill her own uncle, so I hope you guys understand and not pester her with questions about it.” Everyone nodded in understanding.

  “Are all of them dead, Zach?” Howard asked.

  “I’m not sure. There are three unaccounted for, not counting the baby. One of the women ran out of the house with the kid, so they may be okay. The others may have escaped or they may have burned up in the fire. Either way, I don’t believe they are a threat, not anymore.”

  “What are we going to do now?” Julie asked. She had finished with the gash on my cheek and began wiping the blood and dirt off of my face with a wash rag.

  “I want to go to our old house and take stock of how much is ruined.” I said.

  “We’ll do it first thing in the morning.” Julie said.

  “I really want to do it now. Tomorrow, I would like to get everything that is undamaged loaded up and moved into the Riggins’ home. Besides, we need to get those bodies burned.”

  Rowdy grinned broadly. “For once, I am one step ahead of you Mister Gunderson, sir.” He said smugly. I looked at him and then at Julie. She was smiling too.

  “Rowdy has already stacked the bodies by the sinkhole and pulled everything out of the house that was doused in gas.” She said. “He was going to burn them, but we thought you might want to look them over first.”

  “Yeah, we were going to wait a day or so, and if you didn’t come back I was going to go ahead and burn them.” Rowdy said, and then realized what he implied.

  “Sorry.” He murmured.

  I shook my head, which sent a minor wave of nausea over me. “No need to apologize, your reasoning is perfectly logical. Alright, let’s go look them over.” Even though Julie was very much against it and demanded Andie and I straight to bed, my stubbornness won out and we rode in the jeep over to the sinkhole. Secretly, I wished I had listened to her. Every bump sent waves of pain through me.

  Andie pointed at one of the corpses. “That’s Eddy, he must have been the sniper you shot.”

  “That was some pretty good shooting Hoss, you put two holes in his head, side-by-side.” Rowdy said. “Oh, here’s what he had on him.” Rowdy went to the truck and returned with a sniper rifle. It was a Remington model seven hundred with a scope, fluted stainless steel barrel, and a black synthetic stock.

  “That is a nice looking rifle.” I commented. Rowdy grinned. I pointed at the bodies. “So, none of these are George?” I asked Andie. She shook her head. So, George, the Marine, was still out there somewhere. It was cause for concern.

  We were interrupted by an unusual sound. All of us looked around and then saw something none of us had seen in quite a while.

  A helicopter flew overhead.

  Chapter 38 – A Message From Above

  It was a military helicopter, a Chinook by the looks of it, although I was no expert. It was painted olive drab, and it was flying low, maybe five hundred feet.

  “What are they doing?” Julie asked as it went into a banking maneuver. We watched as someone standing at the rear of the helicopter threw an object out. Whatever it was, it was small. There were a couple of long white pieces of cloth attached to it and they were furling in the wind as the object descended. It landed about a hundred yards from us.

  Andie ran after it. It looked small, not much larger than her hand. She jogged back to us a minute later.

  “It looks like a small tube.” She said and handed it over to me. I opened it while everyone peered closer. It was a typed memorandum and looked like it had been photocopied many times over, with the exception of a handwritten paragraph at the end. I read it aloud.

  “Attention to orders: The Provisional Government of the United States of America is hereby requesting all surviving personnel to report to the nearest military facility in order to receive care and treatment. Upon arrival, personnel will be processed accordingly. We offer housing, health care, food, and most importantly safety.” I looked at my friends.

  “The rest is handwritten. It says the nearest military facility is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and there will be a military transport plane waiting at Smyrna airport the rest of today and tomorrow to pick us up.” I finished. Julie took the memo out of my hand and reread it. Rowdy shook his head slowly.

  “I don’t know about this Hoss. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad there are other people still out there, but I surely don’t like that word – processed. That’s the word they use when they lead cows to the slaughter house.”

  “What do you girls think?” I asked.

  “I think I’m with Rowdy on this one.” Andie said. I looked at Julie. She had her head down and was looking at the memo.

  “Julie?” I asked. She looked up at us.

  “They said they have medical care. I’m just thinking about the baby.” She said. “But I’m not overly fond of abandoning everything we’ve done here.”

  “Okay. We’ll show this to Howard and Lashonda. In the meantime, let’s get this shit burned.”

  We dumped all of the gasoline soaked items from the house and used it to burn the bodies. The ruined items included Rick’s old chair, which didn’t help my sour mood. We watched the
m burn for a while and then headed back to our home. I did a walk-through in silence. Although Julie and Rowdy had opened all of the windows, the house still smelled of gas. Julie and I went down into the root cellar. Everything was intact, but I could still faintly smell the gas odor. She stood close and I instinctively grabbed her butt. She slapped at my hand.

  “Don’t get something started you won’t be able to finish. You really need to be in bed right now, for rest, not for sex.” She chided. She was right. I was sore as hell.

  “I agree, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t get a firsthand look at all of this.” I responded.

  “So, what do you think?” She asked after a minute.

  “If we try to live in here I’m afraid the fumes will get us sick. Not to mention we won’t be able to use the stove or fireplace. I think it’s time to move into the Riggins’ home.” I said.

  “I like that house. The master bedroom is big enough for us and the baby.”

  “They have well water and a generator hookup, but no barn or greenhouse. It’ll be a lot of work.” I said.

  “So what else is new?” She asked sarcastically. “You thrive when there’s hard work. In the meantime, I’m getting you to bed. No arguing with me, you look awful.”

  I smiled at her reassuringly, but she was right, I felt awful. I explained to Rowdy what I wanted to do on the ride back to the Allen’s house.

  “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll get right on it.” He said with a wide grin. “I’d like to play around with this rifle though.”

  I shrugged. “It’s yours, I hope you can shoot.”

  “Thank you kindly, Hoss.” Rowdy said and caressed the rifle lovingly. “Yeah, I can shoot. I was raised in southern Alabama, of course I can shoot.” He said.

  Julie insisted I eat. I forced down a couple of boiled eggs while Howard and Lashonda read the memo.

  “It seems promising.” Howard said. “I mean, we didn’t think anyone in the government was left.”

  “It’d be nice having a semblance of society again.” Lashonda added. “A hospital to go to when you’re sick, a school for the kids, Sunday church, that’d be real nice.”

  I didn’t blame her sentiment, but still, I was wary.

  “Alright, why don’t a couple of us go pay them a visit in the morning and see what they have to say?” I suggested. They readily agreed. I was thinking about the last time we encountered soldiers. It did not end well.

  I awoke in the middle of the night. The four of us were sleeping in the den of the Allen’s new home. It was like a slumber party and I was the one who had eaten too much candy. My gut was still hurting from the kick the Captain gave me, may he rest in hell. In truth, I was hurting all over. There must have been a few punches and kicks I don’t remember receiving.

  I went to the restroom and shined the flashlight in the bowl. My urine had an orange tint to it, indicating blood. Not a great deal, but enough to concern me. I went back to the den and lay beside Julie. Andie’s eyes opened and she watched me as I got comfortable. She was snuggled up beside Rowdy, who was snoring contentedly. Her face was bruised and swollen, but Julie had managed to straighten her nose. I gave her a small wave, a simple hand gesture to let her know I cared and was glad she was here. A little smile crept across her face. I closed my eyes.

  The next day, Howard, Rowdy, Lil’ H, and I took the truck and drove to the Smyrna airport. I had Howard drive and directed him to take a route down Rocky Fork Road, which was stupid because we had to stop and cut up three trees that had fallen across the road. I was hoping to see Toby and his kids, or even Moe. The only thing we saw was a zombie, with its peculiar, distinctive amble, walking down the middle of the road. We had the windows protected with hardware cloth, so I saw no immediate threat.

  “Howard, drive up close to it on the passenger side and take a look. Get ready to pop it with your handgun Rowdy.” He nodded in agreement.

  When we approached, the zombie suddenly stopped. It must have heard us, but it didn’t turn around, it only stood there with its back to us. I drove up beside it and stopped.

  It was a female, wearing jeans and a torn beige jacket. She slowly turned her head and stared at us. I’d several encounters with zombies over the past year, but this one made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. She stared at us with black eyeballs while slowly gnashing her teeth. Suddenly, she lunged at the jeep and clawed at the window. Rowdy jerked back in fright, but then stuck his handgun through the hole in the mesh and fired. She continued staring at us for another second before falling to the road.

  “Wow. That was weird.” Rowdy said. Howard and I agreed.

  We elected not to spend the time burning the corpse, and instead hurried toward the Smyrna airport. Surprisingly, there was only one crashed plane off in a field. The hangars had a few planes tethered down, but many others were empty.

  The olive drab cargo plane on the tarmac was easy to spot, and a cadre of soldiers milled about near a hangar. I stopped the truck on Fitzhugh Road a hundred yards away from the hangars, looked at Rowdy and pointed at the M4 assault rifle.

  “Would you mind staying here by the truck with that M4 handy, just in case? I asked.

  Rowdy gave a curt nod. “I understand. But if they’re friendly, and there’re women around, you better give me a whistle. I chuckled and confirmed he knew my hand signals before Howard and I walked toward the group. They saw us coming. Two of the soldiers approached.

  “Welcome, before we proceed, you will need to surrender your side arms.” One of them said while holding his hand out. The other soldier had an M4 with a front sling. He held it casually, but I had no doubt he could swing it around in action quickly. I shook my head and gave the warning hand signal. His rank showed he was a corporal. He was in his early twenties, clean shaven, and clear blue eyes. He didn’t look at all like Corporal Leon Hart, but the rank and attitude reminded me of him all the same.

  “That’s not an option.” I said calmly, but deliberately.

  “I’m afraid it is.” He replied in the same tone.

  “Then we’ll leave.” Howard said. He was getting a little miffed as well. Howard motioned to me and we turned to leave.

  “Hold up just a moment.” He said. We turned back toward him. “It’s just a precaution.” He continued. “We don’t want anyone playing around and having an accidental discharge.”

  “I see. Why are you and your fellow soldiers armed? How do I know one of you won’t have an accidental discharge, hmm?”

  He looked at me incredulously, and then sighed. “Will you do me a favor and wait here while I get my sergeant?” I looked at Howard. I was done with these guys, but I knew Howard was going to have to answer to Lashonda when we got back.

  “Okay, please make it quick.” I said. He smirked at me, as if to say, okay smart ass, and jogged off to another group who were standing by a couple of rectangular tables. There were soldiers sitting there and four people in civilian clothes on the other side. They were all looking at us curiously.

  I watched as the corporal spoke to a short Hispanic soldier, who I assumed was the sergeant, before pointing at us. The two of them walked back toward us. He was a compact man. His torso made a V shape down to a narrow waist, indicating athleticism. His uniform was clean and even appeared to be starched. He walked up to us, stopped, and assumed a parade rest position.

  “I’m First Sergeant Santiago. I’m Puerto Rican, so don’t you dare call me Mexican unless you’re ready to fight.” He said with a distinctive accent.

  “I’m Howard Allen and this is my friend, Zach Gunderson.” Howard said. We shook hands formally. He looked at both of us for emphasis. “This is Corporal Alexander.” The corporal nodded at us with a pleasant smile. “He advises me the two of you are refusing to relinquish your weapons.”

  “He is correct.” I said.

  “May I ask why?” He said.

  “Certainly. The last group of soldiers I encountered tried to kill me.” I pulled some
of my hair aside, pointed to the scar on the side of my head, and looked at the corporal. “I certainly don’t believe it was an accidental discharge.” I said. Sergeant Santiago eyed us both closely and reached a decision.

  “You’ve been in another recent altercation, it would appear.” He said. I didn’t respond. “Very well, but keep those side arms holstered at all times. If you will follow me I would like to introduce you two to the commanding officer.” He came to attention, did a smart about face, and marched off without bothering to see if we were following.

  He led us into a hangar, told us to wait a moment, and then walked over to a man sitting at a table reading something. The man looked up in mild irritation, listened to the First Sergeant, and said something. First Sergeant Santiago waved us over.

  “I guess the Captain feels you are worthy enough to have an audience with him.” The corporal said under his breath. We walked over together and stopped in front of the table, whereupon we were pointedly ignored for several seconds. He was in his forties, balding with a little stubble sticking out on the sides. He used store bought glasses to read with. He looked more like a book editor or a college professor than a soldier. He finally looked up, glanced at us, and then glared at the First Sergeant.

  “First Sergeant, I thought I made myself clear. When rounding up these people, they are to be disarmed for purposes of safety.” Maybe it was because I was not feeling the best, but I was instantly irked. First Sergeant Santiago started to speak, but I interrupted him.

  “First Sergeant, tell the arrogant Captain we will not disarm for anyone.” I heard the corporal snort behind me while his captain looked over and glared at me. He spoke while still staring at me.

  “First Sergeant, inform this young man that I am to be addressed as sir, Captain, or Captain Steen. Anything else is unacceptable and may lead to charges.” The first sergeant eyed me.

  “First Sergeant! Please inform the arrogant, bald headed prick that I am not in the military and therefore don’t give a shit what his rank is!” To my surprise, the first sergeant snapped to attention, clicking the heels of his boots loudly.