Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel) (3 page)

The intestines had been pulled out and mangled. They looked like they had been partially eaten and the legs had been stripped to the bone. Below on the ground, were the bodies of eight zombies. She had to look away before speaking. “They’ll hang people up and slice them open while they are still alive. The zombies hear the screaming, smell the blood, then come for an easy meal. The squad will sit off somewhere in the distance and snip them as they show up and start eating.”

Mark shook his head in disgust. “Sick bastards.” He saw the body move and heard it hiss at him. Instinctively, he raised his rifle and fired a single shot into its head.

Lisa jumped at the sound. “Keep it down! If the zombies or goon squad hears that, they’ll come this way.” She looked around and said, “There used to be a store just a couple blocks this way.” She pointed to the left. “Let’s get out of here.”

They had made it another block when they heard movement and several groans in front of them. They quickly ducked down behind a car parked alongside the curb and watched as seven zombies came around a corner.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the apartment, everyone had moved to the kitchen and sat around the table talking. Jeff pointed to Dedee. “Okay, you’re Dedee, Lisa’s sister.”

She nodded and pointed to everyone as she spoke. “Yes, I’m Dedee. This is my friend Janet from school, but everyone calls her Jet. This is Amy and her younger brother Todd; he’s only nine.” She pointed to a heavier-set boy with short hair.

Todd asked, “Jeff, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Okay, if zombies eat people…”

Amy cut him off. “Stop it, Todd. That question’s so gross!”

Dedee wrinkled her nose and Jet said, “Ewwww!”

Todd looked around. “But I really want to know. It’s a serious question.”

Jeff said, “Okay, Todd, ask your question.”

“Well, if zombies eat people, where do they poop?”

Jeff realized he should have let that question go unasked. He looked around the table and saw everyone looking back at him, except for Amy. She had her face buried in her hands as she shook her head. He thought before he said, “Ummm… I don’t know.”

“Do you think Mark would know?”

“No, if he did, he would have told me and I could tell you.” Jeff quickly looked at Dedee and asked, “Why did you stay here? Don’t you have a car?”

Jet spoke up, “Dedee and I have our license, but no cars.” She lowered her head. “But I guess that really doesn’t matter anymore.”

Jeff smiled a half smile. “But at least you got them and that’s something this mess can’t take away.”

Dedee and Jet thought about it and smiled at each other. Dedee leaned over and lightly bumped Jeff with her shoulder and said, “You’re right. We have our license.”

Jet scooted away from the table and went over to the counter where she picked up Jeff’s rifle. “Where did you and your brother get such ass-kickin’ guns?”

Dedee quietly said, “Jet!”

As soon and the words left her lips she realized he probably wouldn’t remember. Jet closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry, Jeff; I don’t know why I asked you that.”

Jeff turned in his chair. “That’s okay.” He got up and went over to her and Dedee followed. When he picked it up, it was like a light had come on in his mind. “This is a P90 rifle with a fifty round magazine of 5.7mm armor piercing rounds. This is the optical scope, this is the laser sight, and this is a rail light. Right here is the safety and here is semi-auto and here it is full auto.”

Dedee and Jet just stood there with their mouths agape staring at him. Amy sat at the table and listened, then asked, “Jeff, how did you remember all that?”

He stood there confused. “I don’t know. I really didn’t think about it. It just… was there when I picked it up.”

Amy got up from the table and ran down the hall. A minute later, she returned with a deck of cards and a jar of pennies. Every one sat down at the table as she shuffled the deck. Todd opened the jar and counted out pennies. He made sure everyone had an equal amount in their stack to start.

They played draw poker for a while; but no one seemed to be gaining any ground penny-wise. Jet thought Jeff was very nice and she kept watching him as they played. The few boys she knew from school all had a habit of looking at her chest when they talked to her. But Jeff was different. He didn’t do that. He looked into her eyes when they talked and she liked that.

Several times, Jeff noticed Jet staring at him as they played. Occasionally, he glanced up, but she would quickly turn her eyes another direction or down toward her cards. As they quietly played, there was a hard knock at the door and everyone jumped. They all looked around at each other, afraid to move. A few seconds later, there was another hard knock.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa and Mark quietly watched through the car windows as the zombies came up the street, only slowing as they walked around a car sitting out in the middle of the street. These didn’t look like they had been zombies too long and walked at a pretty good pace. From the opposite direction, they heard the roar of an engine and screeching tires as an old green pickup came flying around the corner.

Lisa motioned for Mark to stay down and be quiet. They watched as four men with guns jumped out from the back of the truck and two more got out of the cab. The men yelled and opened fire on the zombies in the street.

Lisa tapped Mark and lipped the words “goon squad” as she pulled the pistol from the holster. They listened until the shooting stopped; then they heard one of the men yell, “Spread out and check the area. I’m sure the shot came from around here.”

Mark set his rifle on single shot and motioned for Lisa to stay down and keep quiet. Before she could react, he jumped up and started firing rounds at the men as he ran down the sidewalk. Two of them immediately fell where they stood as his bullets found their target and sliced through the men’s bodies. The others aimed and started firing at him as he ran. Rounds hit the walls and ground in front of and behind him, sending chunks of concrete and stucco flying. He ran into the street and took cover behind a car.

All of their fire focused on that car. The tires blew out and it shook as the bullets punched through the metal skin. The glass shattered and fell to the ground. Lisa watched as the car began to disintegrate before her eyes. Her horror became real when the car exploded. She could feel the heat from the flames as they lunged out and up. She screamed, “Noooooooooooo!”

There was a brief silence, as the men looked her way. One yelled out, “Get her!” She knelt down and moved to the front of the car, hoping the engine block would provide better cover. She held the pistol up over the hood and blindly shot toward them. Returning fire, they cautiously advanced on her position.

When she emptied the first magazine, she quickly swapped it out with another and started firing again. One of the men was hit and thrown to the ground as the bullet ripped through his chest, but the other three continued to advance. Hot brass fell all around her like rain, making hollow pings as they hit the sidewalk. The smell of gunpowder filled the air.

When she dropped the second magazine to insert the third, one of the men came around the front of the car and pointed a large-caliber revolver in her face. She heard the double click as he pulled the hammer back and said, “You move and I’ll blow your fuckin’ head off.”

She slowly raised her hands and stared into the large bore at end of the barrel. Another man came up from behind her and took the pistol from her hand. Given a choice, a bullet tearing through her head was far better than being cut open and eaten alive by zombies, but she wasn’t ready to give up and die.

She felt someone from behind grab her hair and pull her flat onto her back. The man kept his gun pointed at her face as he straddled her and squatted down. “I see we have a pretty one here. I think we should have a little fun with her before we feed the zombies.”

She was disgusted by his dirty, sweaty face. His smell was foul and she almost gagged. His eyes were cold and she swore he had no soul. Thoughts raced through her mind and she wondered how she was going to get out of this mess. Mark was dead and everyone else was too far away to help. There was no way around it. She was all alone and about to meet a grizzly death.

One of the men grabbed her hands and held them on the ground over her head. The man on top of her set his gun to the side and unfastened her belt and holster. She struggled, but he was too heavy to throw off. He unbuttoned her pants and started to unzip them.

Gritting her teeth, she said, “Over my dead body, asshole.”

He put his hand over her mouth and reached behind his back. When he brought his hand around he had a large hunting knife in it. “That can be arranged. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re breathing or not.”

Her eyes were fixed upon the large blade as it drew closer. She struggled and let out a muffed scream as he held it in front of her face, taunting her with it. She closed her eyes and felt the sharp steel against her throat. Knowing she was about to draw her last breath, she let out one last muffed scream.

From somewhere behind, there was a loud pop and she felt the knife as it fell to the side. Her eyes opened and she saw the man staring down at her. There was a small round hole in his forehead with blood trickling out of it. He slowly slumped forward and lay on top of her. She heard two more pops and the other two men dropped to the ground next to her.

Lisa struggled to get the man off, but he was too heavy. His dead weight was forcing all of the air out of her body and she couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, his weight was lifted off her and she was finally able to take a deep, cool breath. When she looked up, she saw Mark standing over her with his hand extended. Grabbing it, she was pulled to her feet.

She looked over at the burning car, then back at him, trying to figure out what had happened. Lisa had an urge to throw her arms around him and took a step. When she realized what she was about to do, she stopped and stepped back. She straightened her shirt and buttoned her pants. In a firm voice she said, “I thought you were dead.”

“Well, for a minute there, so did I.”

“I can’t believe you just went off and left me!”

“I didn’t. I was trying to get them to follow me so you could get away. I didn’t intend to get pinned down behind that car.”

She looked back over at the car. Puzzled, she said, “But I saw you behind it just before it exploded. How did you survive?”

“Once I got over there, I saw an open manhole next to it and remembered seeing another one around the corner. I went down it and came up through over there so I could get behind them. As I went down I tossed a grenade in the car to distract them so I’d have more time to get into position.”

She thought for a minute, then slapped his chest, causing him to flinch and take a step back. “Then what took you so long?”

“I ran into a zombie down there. Did you know there’re zombies in the sewer?”

She fastened her belt and holster and then picked up her pistol. “I want you to know, that while you were down there playing with zombies in the sewer, I was up here by myself about to get my throat slit and gang raped!”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I moved as fast as I could. I didn’t intend for you to get hurt.”

She looked around. “We need to get out of here. I’m sure the rot-bags heard the shots and are going to smell the blood. They’ll swarm this whole area in a matter of minutes.”

Mark ran over to the truck, got in, then jumped back out. “We need the keys.”

They both heard a chorus of moans and saw dozens of them coming around the corner behind them. At the other intersection in front of them, more approached. They ran over and started pulling everything out the pockets of the dead men as the zombies moved toward them.

When Mark pulled the keys out of one of the pockets, a zombie reached down, latched onto his back, and tried to bite his shoulder. It was stopped short when Lisa fired a single shot into the front of its head. Black goo spattered out and onto the side of Mark’s face. He reached up and quickly wiped it off as he stepped away.

Mark and Lisa ran for the truck. Once inside, he locked his door. Lisa started to panic as they surrounded the pickup. She screamed, “I can’t lock my door! There’s no lock!”

Mark struggled to get the key in the ignition as he told her, “Push the door handle down.” She did and heard the click.

Mark turned the key and the engine fired to life. He put it in gear and it rolled forward about three feet before it came to a dead stop. By now, zombies surrounded the truck and they started banging on it and the windows. He put it in reverse and tried backing up, but it stopped again. He repeated this two more times before the windows started to crack.

He set his rifle on automatic and handed it to Lisa. He told her to pull the trigger and sweep over the front of the truck as he drove forward. She did and the front windshield blew out. Small fragments of glass fell on them and scattered across the hood. The zombies in front of the truck jerked wildly as the bullets ripped through their rotting flesh and into others behind them.

Most of the ones in front were cut in half and the top sections of their bodies tumbled and fell to the ground. The hood and grill of the truck became black and sticky from the zombie-gut blowback as pieces flew. Finally, it crept forward, crushing the rotting bodies beneath the wheels. When they broke free, Mark drove toward the apartment as fast as the old truck would go.

When they arrived, Lisa jumped out, ran to door, and banged on it. She waited, but no one answered it. There was no sound or movement from inside the apartment. She banged on it a second time and started yelling for someone to answer the door. When Dedee opened it, she ran inside and said, “Everybody grab your stuff and get it out to the truck. We only have a couple of minutes, so only take what you need.”

Jet asked, “We have a truck?”

Dedee was scared. She could feel every muscle in her body tighten as she asked, “What’s going on?”

“Yes, we have a truck right outside. Right now we have a bunch of rot-bags on the way here.”