Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 01 (8 page)

Their trek out of the neighborhood proved uneventful and surprisingly easier than thought possible. Making their way north through the streets, Alex and his party came to a dilapidated fence, the only physical obstacle between them and the highway that would take them to Liam and Trinity's house. Tony began prying at a piece of fence which seemed to just be hanging when gray, rotting hands reached through at him.

The creature's head thrust through the opening, the flesh hanging from its face where something had ripped the skin away. Its broken teeth bared and it tore at Tony's hands. Tony screamed and wrenched away from the zombie, fingers breaking and skin tearing. Tony's blood was everywhere.

A tremendous moan went up, its call being picked up by other creatures in the area. Tony writhed on the ground clutching his hands to his chest, screaming for help and cursing Alex. "This is your fault, Alex! I told you this would happen!" Tony began to climb up from the ground, using his broken and torn hands to push him up from where he lay. "I'll kill you for this," he screamed as he reached for the rifle he had placed against the fence.
 

"I'm sorry," Alex whispered, the gun already aimed at Tony. "I'm sorry..."

The gunshot rang out and Tony's head snapped back. Bone and brain matter spraying out the fist sized hole in the back of his head, a bloody cloud dissipating quickly from behind the man. Tony's body convulsed once before falling to the ground.

Cries from Tony's wife were drowned out by the report of the handgun firing again, this time into the brain pan of the zombie struggling to get through the fence.
 

"What the fuck..." Sam began to yell.

"Move! Move now, we've got to find another way out of here!" Alex snapped into motion, grabbing one person and shoving another back down the road they had come. He had to physically drag Linda away from her husband, yelling at her to keep away from the infected blood. She tore at Alex's arms with her fingertips, scratching and punching at him to let her go.

"What did you do?!" Morgan screamed at Alex.

"What I had to do. He was a dead man." Alex struggled with Linda, literally dragging her behind him kicking and screaming to be let go.

"They weren't that bad, the wounds. We could have helped him..." Alex interrupted Morgan.

"There is no help once you've been infected. If you are bit by a zombie or contaminated by their blood, the only help is a bullet to the brain. Either we finish him off now, or we do it later when he's turned." A zombie stumbled out from behind a house, the right side of its body mauled and hanging in shreds, its face a ragged hole where the lower jaw and right eye should have been. Sam raised his gun towards the creature and hesitated.
 

"Shoot it!" Alex yelled and raised his own gun at the creature. Sam's rifle cracked and another gapping hole opened in the zombie, this time softball sized in its chest. Alex's pistol cracked and what was left of the zombie's head dissolved in gray matter and bone.

"Head shots, god dammit! Aim for the fucking head!" Another creature shambled towards them from down the street, nearly whole and moving faster than the last on legs that worked better than Alex would have preferred. Morgan quickly raised the shotgun she carried and pulled the trigger. It thundered and the shot flew a little high, but the spread of the shot was such that a few found their mark, dropping the creature to the ground to remain motionless.
 

The shotgun blast had been close and it startled Alex enough that he lost his grasp of Linda. She headed back in the direction of Tony.

"Linda!" Morgan screamed.

"Let her go, she'll want to be with him." Alex reached behind Sam, grabbing for the 22 caliber Remington repeater. "She needs to be with him." Linda sank to the ground, clutching at Tony's body and wailing for her love. She straightened at looked back at the Morgan, Tony's blood covering her clothes, hands and face. The rifle cracked and Linda's body slumped over Tony's

"Run," Alex breathed. There were more zombies now coming at them from every direction. Alex spun, looking everywhere for a way out. There was nowhere to go, not even back to the house they had abandoned just an hour before. "Oh god, I'm sorry."

Gunfire erupted from the four adults, dropping a zombie with almost every shot. The creatures kept coming, they killed more. An eternity passed and Morgan yelled that she was out of ammunition for the shotgun. It clattered to the ground in front of her as she knelt and clutched her daughter close to her. Each gun sputtered and went silent as they were forced to reload, losing precious moments in the process.
 

The creatures were closing in on them, only feet away from Alex when his rifle click on empty. Without hesitation he grabbed the hot barrel of the weapon and swung it over his head, crushing the skull of the nearest zombie. With a swing another creature fell, and another. Almost a dozen zombies had been killed before the stock broke, one more swing causing it to come free with a sickening crack. Alex's left hand desperately groped for the baseball bat in his back pack.

A horn blared and tired screeched. A blur of yellow and the rapid thudding of bodies being slammed into by a fast moving object. Alex turned at saw a large truck heading in their direction, changing direction to find the next target, the next walking dead to destroy.
 

The truck flashed in front of Alex slamming into the zombies almost simultaneously and clearing a path in front of him. "This way," Alex yelled not wishing to waste the miracle that had been presented to him. He reached down and grabbed at Gemma's coat, pulling her to her feet and then into his arms. He was determined to get her out of this danger.

Weaving in between the bodies the scattered the ground in front of him, Alex ran towards the only refuge he could think of. Back to the house he had forced everyone to abandon. The gunshots from behind him died away as Sam, Paula, and Morgan raced to follow Alex in his mad dash for safety.
 

The rev of an engine caught Alex's attention and he glanced left. The smiling face of Liam greeted him sitting behind the wheel of the truck. "Need a lift?" he laughingly asked.

-----

Alex and his family were crowded into the small cab of Liam's truck. "What are you dong here?" Alex asked somewhat annoyed. "You should have stayed at home and kept safe."
 

"What, and let you have all the fun taking a stroll on this beautiful day?" Liam was grinning from ear-to-ear. "I thought that you might need a lift, so I jumped in the truck and headed your direction."

"You've probably made things worse, Liam." Alex barked at his friend as if Liam had just gotten him in trouble with the school principal. "It's not safe driving around in a car."

"Then what the hell were you doing walking?" Liam snickered at the thought. "I'll have an easier time outrunning those bastards on a truck than on foot. And I can take a few of them with me in the process." Liam braced himself as another zombie thudded against the grill of the truck. Everyone was thrown back and forth as the zombie was then dragged under the tires of the vehicle. "Shit man, that one hung on for a while," Liam said more to himself that to anyone else in the car.

"Jesus Christ, Liam. You've just announced our presence to every fucking zombie in the whole area." Alex was furious and he was taking his anger out on Liam.

"I've announced us? Then just what would you call guns blazing in the middle of the street? I could hear you over the engine." Liam was not going to let Alex place the blame on anyone, even himself. "Damn, Alex. It seems to me that you were doing what had to be done. Fight or flight, man, and it didn't look like you had any chance to fly anywhere unless you was planning to sprout wings." Liam reached over and punched Alex on the leg. "You worry about the fightin' and I'll take care of the flyin'." Liam's laugh seemed maniacal and ecstatic at the same time. "Come on, let's get out of here."

The engine roared as Liam stepped on the gas. He swerved through cars on the highway narrowly missing collision after collision. Zombies were beginning to approach from everywhere it seemed, drawn to the road by the loud roar of the truck. Liam chose his targets carefully and turned into them, trying to catch them just on the corner of the fender, breaking their bodies and pushing them to the side of the road at the same time. Alex looked back after each successive strike trying to determine if the creatures had been killed. Some tried to move, many lay still just at the side of the road.

"You know we can't go back to your house in this thing, don't you?" Alex's temper was ebbing and he was beginning to think a little more rationally.

"What do you mean? We'll just step on the gas, outrun the bastards and then drive right into the garage. They'll never see us." Liam glanced quickly at Alex before returning his attention to his next target.

"You're right, Liam. They may never see us, but that doesn't mean they can't find us." Alex looked in the back of the cab to check on his family. "We've just let every creature in a five mile radius know where we are, and they are right now telling every other zombie where we are going. Their moans will lead every undead creature right to us." Alex looked forward through the windshield. The successive bodies that had crashed against it were beginning to take their toll. The glass was beginning to spider and crack. "We've got to abandon the car somehow. And we've got to do it away from your house to draw the creatures away."

Liam sneered at Alex. "And just what do you have planned?"

-----

Morgan and Sam held the door of the truck open slightly, Paula clutching Gemma to keep her from falling out of the truck. Sam and Morgan looked at each other, trying to find reassurance in what was about to happen.

"Okay, when the truck stops, all four of you get out and run like hell into the house. Trinity is already at the door and she will let you in and lock the door behind you. Get your asses in the attic and pull up the stairs. And whatever you do, don't come down and look for us. We'll be there as soon as we can be. I promise." Alex's focus and attention were on the road and area ahead of him. He had to be sure that there were not any zombies at or around the house, and if there were, he had to kill them quickly before they could react and call any more zombies in the area to the house. If there were too many, this plan was doomed.

Liam took the final corner leading to his house a little to tight and fast, nearly spilling Morgan out of the door. Sam grabbed her just as the door swung open and pulled her back inside as the door slammed shut.

"Sorry," Liam apologized. "I'll work on those corners." He grinned over at Alex. "You guys ready?"

"I don't like this plan, Alex," Morgan protested. "You two need to get in the house with us. We'll be able to handle any of those creatures that follow us..."

"Stop whining and get ready to run. You know that we've got to do it this way so just do it! Get yourself and Gemma inside as fast as you can. Liam and I will draw any other creatures away from the house, ditch the truck and meet you back there." Alex turned to face Morgan. "Keep our girl safe," Alex asked. "I'll see you soon."

"Looks like there's a welcoming party," Liam announced. Two zombies were shuffling down the road in their direction. Alex could see their mouths open, could hear their moans starting over the rumble of the trucks engine. They would be at the house before the zombies could be taken out with the truck. Alex's grip of the 22 rifle tightened and his hand moved to the door handle.

"Get inside, I'll handle this." Alex was already calculating the distance, preparing himself for the shot.

"Hold on," Liam warned as he took the curb, angling through the trees in the front yard of his neighbor to get them as close to the front door as possible.

"Liam, kill the engine as soon as we've stopped." Alex's last minute command was met with a confused look. Guessing at the question forming on Liam's lips, Alex answered. "We need to be able to hear if there are lots of those things in the area already heading this direction. We won't be able to hear clearly enough with the truck running, so kill the engine and listen for a moment. Then we'll crank her up and get them out of here."

Liam looked impressed. "Damn, man. You're good." Liam made another adjustment to the path of the truck and prepared to hit the brakes. "Hang on everyone."

The tires locked and the truck began to wobble back and forth. "Shit," Liam cursed as he fought to regain control of the truck. The back end of the truck began to swing around and everyone was thrown to the opposite side of the cab. "Shit!" The back end of the truck slammed into the support column holding up the awning covering the front door. The truck was spun around 180 degrees crashing into the corner of the garage where is stopped suddenly.

"Is everyone okay?" Liam asked.

"No time," Alex yelled, forcing himself from the floorboard and wrenching the door open. "Everyone out! Liam, kill the engine." Alex was out of the truck cab in a flash, taking two steps away from the truck and kneeling to the ground in one fluid motion. The gun raised to his shoulder and he took aim at the approaching corpses.

The rifle cracked followed almost immediately by a second, dropping both of the zombies before Morgan, Sam and the others could exit the truck. "Everyone out, now!" Alex was on his feet grabbing at the opening door and nearly pulling Morgan out of the truck by her arm. "Get her inside," Alex commanded grabbing for Gemma's outstretched arms. The front door of the house swung open and Trinity appeared in the doorway.

"What the hell just happened?!" Trinity was looking at the car with a questioning look, and finally through the cracked windshield at Liam. He shrugged his shoulders and mouth "Sorry" to her.

Paula and Sam were scrambling over the rubble of the destroyed column, turning to help Gemma and Morgan over the ragged pile of bricks and mortar that blocked their way to safety. Everyone stopped in mid-run. It sounded as if a million voices had just been awoken.

"Get inside!" Alex yelled and he dove back into the car. Morgan and Gemma were pulled over the remaining rubble pile and rushed towards the door, Trinity ushering everyone in through the door. Just before Morgan disappeared from view she looked back over her shoulder. Alex could just make out the words "I love you" on Morgan's lips. "I love you, too," he whispered to himself.