The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Buried Instincts

by Henson, Lynn

  “That’s ridiculous,” Doris threw in, “Didn’t you ever see that video with the cat saving a baby?”

  “Oh yeah!” Tiffany exclaimed, “That was so nice!”

  “Pfffft,” Kyle replied.

  “Why not keep it for now?” Lisa said, “We do have lots of tuna and Bob might be good for morale. Like Kim pointed out, pets do return love.”

  “A dog would be more useful,” Gao snorted. “A dog does return your love. That cat only cares about himself.”

  “You don’t know that,” Doris said, annoyed. “Pets have all kinds of personalities.”

  “This is pointless,” Bree pointed out.

  “I have to point out though, that slightly more of us are in favor of keeping Bob,” Kim said.

  There was a brief moment of silence as people tallied those who spoke against the cat vs those who supported him. Carrey covered his face with the palm of his hand and muttered, “Fine.” He dropped his hand and looked at Blake, “But just remember, if it comes down to us eating or him, it’s going to be us.”

  “Fair enough,” Blake agreed.

  “Ok,” Bree said, “Let’s get out of here. This place is starting to give me the creeps.”

  Everyone started grabbing their belongings, looking considerably more rested compared to yesterday. I feel like I could’ve used another four hours though. As long as I don’t drive first, I should be cool. Blake shouldered his backpack and surveyed their dining area for anything that might’ve been forgotten. Dishes were stacked up in a half-assed attempt at cleaning up. Given the restaurant was abandoned, it was entirely unnecessary to clean up after themselves at all, but when everyone had finished eating, individual diners attempted some degree of cleanup. Well, except Gao. When he’d finished eating he had tossed his plate over his shoulder and started picking his teeth with obvious disinterest when some of the others had stared at him. He kind of adjusts well to some of the changes of reality, but if there’s something he doesn’t like he makes a big show of how it’s horribly inconveniencing him. After quickly ascertaining that nothing had been left, he followed after the others towards the back. It was just before he was walking through the door that the sound of breaking glass and white shrapnel exploded to his left.

  Blake whirled around, looking for who had thrown the dish, but the darkened dining room was completely devoid of anyone. Kyle came out of the doorway and looked down at the broken dish.

  “What happened?” he wanted to know.

  Blake shook his head slowly, “I don’t know. Someone threw a plate at me, but I don’t see anyone.”

  Kyle continued to scan the room grimly, and then put his hand on Blake’s shoulder while his eyes still went over the dining room. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here.”

  Blake had no problem with that and was backing out of the room, unwilling to divert his attention when a shadowy figure rose from behind a divider. The person’s head lolled to the left, like someone who’d fallen asleep sitting up. He towered over the divider. He must be like nine feet tall.

  “What the fuck?” Kyle asked, echoing Blake’s feelings. It was at that moment that the figure flew directly at them with unexpected speed.

  Blake made a startled sound and threw himself backward through the door, trying to avoid the thing. Something landed directly on top of him and Blake fought furiously with him, flailing his arms as he tried to use his legs to push the attacker off of him. There were more sounds of breaking glass, and Blake was vaguely aware of movement around him as the attacker grabbed his shoulder. Terrified, he managed to use his knee upset his assailant’s balance and he limply fell to the side. Hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back, inducing another shriek from him. He clawed at the hands which were withdrawn with surprising ease.

  “It’s me, Blake! I’m trying to fucking help you!” Kyle protested.

  Blake rolled to his belly, got a foot under him, and tried to push himself to his feet, only to have that foot slide on something which dropped him on his face. Fueled by terror, he tried again with the other foot and managed to rise up enough to start sprinting away from the room only to careen into Kyle who let out a woof of air, sending both of them back down in a heap.

  “God damn it Blake, you fucking spaz!” Kyle spat as he struggled to untangle himself from him.

  Blake pulled himself to one side and used the wall to pull himself upright. He looked aghast at the doorway where another figure floated about three inches off the floor. The figure’s limbs and head all hung loosely like he had been hanged at a gallows. The figure was then propelled forward towards him, making Blake think briefly about video games using ragdoll physics.

  The new attacker had landed short of Kyle and Blake and the pair ran away with the faint sounds of maniacal laughter mocking them from the dining room.

  Kyle sprinted down the hallway and Blake followed blindly after him. Kyle slammed against a door with a metallic crash and sunlight flooded the hallway, temporarily blinding him.

  “Hey!” he heard behind him.

  He turned to look and saw one of the elderly cadavers that had formerly been confined to wheelchairs floating behind him, dangling arms and drooped head, looking a lot like the floating shadowy figure. He’d had enough and bolted out the loading dock door and tried to get it closed as fast as he could. He closed it most of the way when there was an impact on the door, and the cadaver’s head and arm protruded out of the doorway as Blake continued to push as hard as he could. The door closed on the body and there was a disturbing crunching sound. Disgusted, Blake gave up on the door and walked quickly backward when the ground disappeared from under him and he fell. He lay on his back stunned. He saw someone run to the door and heard a loud thud, immediately followed by the sound of splattering meat when something rolled off the loading dock and onto his crotch. He looked down at it, and the head from the cadaver stared back at him. Revolted, he swatted the head away from him and got to his feet. Tiffany stared down at him, her face a mix of remorse and being grossed out.

  “Ew... um... sorry?” she managed.

  A brief look at the door with blood splatter that flowered along the edge and the dismembered arm that lay close by were testament to the fact that someone had managed to brute force it closed. Looking around, he saw that their vehicles were parked here, and the rest of his companions were close to them. They were staring at the door, too stunned to do anything else.

  “Can we please just get the hell out of here?” Blake pleaded.

  thirty-eight

  Someone was shaking him, Blake realized. He opened his eyes and he found himself in the back seat of the SUV. The sun was setting and the passenger door was open. Carrey was at the door and was the one doing the shaking.

  “Come on man, wake up. It’s your turn to drive,” Carrey informed him.

  He struggled back to reality and gently pushed Bob off his lap. The cat dropped gracelessly to the floor of the car and gave him an indignant look. Blake nodded to Carrey and got out of the car. Carrey took his seat, closed the door, and tried to settle into a comfortable position for a nap.

  Blake walked along the right side of the car, making his way around the front towards the driver’s side. Kyle glanced at him, his expression unreadable through the dust covered windshield. Up ahead and behind them, the other two cars were also going through a change of drivers. He got in the driver’s side and adjusted the seat so that he could manipulate the pedals comfortably. The fuel tank was full, the temperature gauge was normal. He buckled his seatbelt which completed his pre-drive checklist so he watched patiently for Bree’s car to start moving.

  “What the hell happened back there?” Kyle asked, still staring straight forward.

  “I still think it’s just your mind playing tricks on you,” Carrey replied tiredly. “Those corpses must’ve turned into zombies and chased after you.”

  “That just doesn’t feel right,” Kyle replied.

  “He’s right,” Blake confirmed. “Those elderly corps
es weren’t moving themselves. It was something else. Something was tossing them around.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Kyle, thoughtful, “Now that you mention it, they did seem to move like puppets.”

  “They were floating off the ground just before they were tossed,” Blake added.

  “Come on...” Carrey said skeptically, “That doesn’t make any sense at all. Levitating corpses?”

  “Makes as much sense as zombies,” Kyle replied.

  There was a moment of silence as the twins came to the same impasse they had probably reached before Blake had taken over driving. Then he came to a decision.

  “There’s more,” Blake recounted his events in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping.

  “Are you sure you didn’t just have some kind of nightmare?” Carrey asked after Blake had finished. “And why didn’t you say anything before?”

  Blake shook his head. “I didn’t really think anyone would believe me if I had told them about it. I don’t think I dreamed the whole thing up. And since I was alone, it’s not like I have any proof. Maybe I did dream the whole thing.”

  “Add throwing dead bodies and that sick fucking laughing to it and there might be something to it,” Kyle reasoned.

  “Just a little more believable because two of you saw the same stuff,” Carrey observed, “But still, that’s really hard to swallow.”

  “Yeah? So is a buttload of people spontaneously turning into brain dead cannibals,” Kyle countered.

  “Touché,” Carrey conceded.

  They rode in silence. Carrey nodded off in the back, while Kyle stared out the window, watchful.

  The road stretched on, and in this particular part of the world, things almost felt normal. Vast amounts of nothing extended endlessly to either side of the roads. Cruise control made driving dull work as Blake’s only task was to orient the vehicle to the contours of the road which mostly ran on straight ahead. This kind of driving turns into a struggle against boredom and Blake yawned continuously against the unchanging landscape despite feeling rested.

  It wasn’t long before they hit a substantial city. Blake sat up in his seat suddenly more alert, the previous disinterest vanishing completely. Businesses displayed “Closed” signs in their windows. Of the undead though, there was also no sign. That at least was a positive thing. They had gone a couple of blocks through the town when Bree’s car started flashing her hazard lights and began to slow. Blake groped around and activated his own hazard lights. A glance at his rearview mirror confirmed that the minivan was doing the same. Bree turned into a gas station and Blake pulled in after her. They drove around to the rear of the gas station where they would be obscured from the street and Blake turned off the engine. The subtle change woke Carrey up who looked around trying to get his orientation.

  They exited the SUV and walked over to Bree’s car, the passengers of which were also getting out.

  “We were thinking it would be a good idea to take a look at some of these houses,” Kim began when everyone had congregated together.

  “Why now?” Carrey wanted to know.

  “Well, we saw a couple that have solar panels on top of the roof,” Kim explained. “If we can find one that has mainly electrical appliances, we could cook something and maybe take a hot shower. And if there are enough supplies in this area, we could potentially ride this disaster out here.”

  People were nodding. “Alright, that sounds plausible,” Carrey agreed, “But we’ve got to be careful. If some of the houses here can generate their own power, then their occupants might still be in there.”

  “And who knows how receptive they might be to guests?” Kyle shrugged.

  “We haven’t seen anyone at all since we’ve arrived here,” Lisa offered, “It might be that this town was evacuated.”

  “Or maybe they were forced to leave for some other reason,” Bree replied.

  “That sounds ominous,” Blake observed.

  “We need to gather more information,” Carrey rationalized, “I’d vote for staying here if we can find a place, but until we find out what happened, don’t assume it’s safe.”

  “Fucking A,” Kyle agreed.

  “How long would we stay?” Blake wanted to know. “What about finding a city that’s still got it together?”

  “If it’s safe here, why not just stay?” Lisa pointed out. “Especially if we can be comfortable, we can just wait it out here until the authorities get the situation under control.”

  “Yeah,” Gao agreed, “We are not the pros here. We should just stay out of the way.”

  “But what if they can’t get it under control?” Blake asked. “What then?”

  “We’ll figure that out later,” Carrey declared. “Right now there are just too many unknowns. Wouldn’t you agree though that having a place we can call home would have certain advantages?”

  “We might be able to get in touch with family,” Kyle agreed.

  “We can store our food and fuel,” Bree nodded.

  “Alright,” Blake conceded, “Points taken.”

  “Now that we’re all more or less in agreement, we want to head back to check out some houses we had passed by,” Kim said. “If there’s a couple that are workable, we can then investigate the supply situation here.”

  “And when we do that,” Bree added, “we’ll be able to determine how long we can stay.”

  thirty-nine

  They backtracked a little, following Bree down a side street that led to a more residential area. Blake noted that some of the houses did indeed have solar panels installed on their roofs. They passed these by though and wound their way through smaller streets, driving like they were looking at Christmas lights during the holiday season. After about a half hour of this, they found themselves at a dead end street with a circular turnaround surrounded by houses. Two of the houses had solar panels on the roof and were adjacent to each other. Carrey pointed at them and said, “THAT has potential,” as he pulled up the handbrake and shut the engine off.

  With all the cars parked, the group exited their vehicles and stood together in front of the houses, covered in shadows. Blake looked at the windows, seeking any sign of activity, but it was totally still. Just like the rest of this town. No people. No animals. No birds. Not even any zombies. What the hell happened here?

  “I’m going up there. You guys hang back,” Kyle declared as he jogged up to the front door of a two-story house painted in pale blue. He took the wooden porch steps two at a time and walked up to the front door. After trying to peek into the curtained windows, he knocked on the door. Blake waited, wondering who would open the door.

  “Hello? Anyone home?” Kyle asked the door as he knocked yet again. He even gave the doorbell a couple pushes. After another pause, he tried the door handle. Blake guessed it must’ve been locked when the door didn’t open. Kyle turned around and trotted back to where they were waiting.

  Kyle shook his head, “It’s totally quiet in there. Might be our house.”

  “Let’s look for an alternate entrance,” Carrey suggested, and everyone walked to the right side of the house. They walked around the side and tried some of the windows, but they were all securely closed. They made their way around to the backyard which contrasted with the desert around them by having a grass lawn, several trees, and bushes that had been tastefully grown to complete a picture that proclaimed, “Home Sweet Home! Even in the middle of the fucking desert.” The back doors were of the glass sliding variety, but a tug on them proved them locked as well. Blake peered inside and was pleased to see a large, furnished living room. There was a fairly large flat screen TV, a comfy looking sofa, coffee table with a leafy plant on it that splayed its single leaves up and out like it was doing its impression of an explosion. He also saw a bookshelf, a small table with a lamp on it, a breakfast bar with what must’ve been the kitchen behind it. Just your normal American household. Blake stepped back and saw that the group had moved on to complete their house exterior inspection with th
e exception of Tiffany who had removed her shoes, carrying them in one hand as she walked barefoot in the grass. She had this goofy grin on her face and after a minute looked up at him and shrugged. “Couldn’t help it,” she said apologetically. He returned her smile and watched her a little longer as she shuffled around the lawn. His eyes were drawn to a flower bed that was adjacent to the rear wall of the house. It was bordered by a series of rocks that defined the space. There was one, in particular, that seemed off to him and he picked it up. He examined it more carefully, but after ten seconds he decided it was just a rock after all and moved to put it back in position. Something glinted in the light and he squatted down to see what it was. It was a key he realized, picking it up. He replaced the rock and stood up.

  “Come on Tiffany. I think I found a way in,” he said excitedly.

  “Cool,” she praised, and plopped her shoes down in front of her and started wedging her feet back in them.

  After her feet were properly outfitted again, they walked to catch up to the others who had congregated at the front door and having a discussion.

  “I say we break that window in the back,” Gao argued. “It is not too big, and we can just cover it with wood.”

  “I’d hate to have to break a window,” Carrey lamented. “It feels like we’re home invaders.”

  “We are not trying to take over someone’s house?” Gao countered.

  “I don’t really have a better solution,” Carrey admitted. “Alright, let’s find something appropriate.”

  “Let me try something,” Blake offered, stepping through the congregation and placing himself in front of the door. He managed to get it into the lock and he gave it a turn, but it didn’t move. He pulled it in and out and this time when he turned it something hard gave way and the lock turned. He removed the key and pushed the door open.

  Kyle stepped inside first and looked around cautiously. People filed in eagerly, emboldened by having gained entry so easily. Blake waited, allowing his comrades to go in ahead of him. Bree paused on the way in.