Dead Outside (Book 1)
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and Conditions:
The purchaser of this book is subject to the condition that he/she shall in no
way resell it, nor any part of it, nor make copies of it to distribute freely.
All
Persons Fictitious Disclaimer:
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and
situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is
unintentional and co-incidental.
To
Jonathon and Samantha, my two best friends.
I'll
try not to bother you as much about the next one.
Chapter Eleven: Nick and Roxie
Chapter Seventeen: Day in the Life
Chapter Eighteen: Food Mission
5:30
AM, June 29
I
awoke suddenly, nearly falling off the couch I was sleeping on. My face was
covered in sweat, and I was trying to catch my breath. I sat up and let my bare
feet touch the cold hardwood. The floor vibrated slightly beneath my feet every
couple of seconds, in perfect rhythm with a loud knocking.
I
looked at the door in front of me. It shook on its hinges with every vibration
I felt, and every knock I heard. If I hadn’t leaned the refrigerator against it
they would have made it inside by now. I wiped the sweat off my face with both
my hands and checked my watch. It was 5:30. The sun would be coming up in half an
hour. I let my body fell back down, then rolled onto the floor and did my
morning push ups.
“Fifty.”
I said out loud as I finished the last one and collapsed to the floor. I
reached over to my backpack and pulled a Protein bar out of the front pocket. I
bit off a little more then half of it and began to chew.
They
tasted like cardboard, but at least it was consistent taste. I swallowed and
stuck the rest in my mouth. While I chewed I dug out my hygiene bag and went
over to the bathroom sink. After I finished picking the crumbs out of my teeth
with a toothpick I pulled out my toothbrush and toothpaste. I took my time and
brushed all the surfaces and spit into the sink, and then I pulled the handle. Of
course the water didn’t work. But it didn’t hurt to try.
Without
any more dentist visits in the foreseeable future, there’s no one to fill a
cavity, I took a swig of mouthwash and began to swish it around in my mouth for
about a minute, before gargling and spitting it out. I glanced into the broken
fragments of the mirror left on the wall to make sure I hadn’t missed any
plaque. In the corner of my eye I noticed a little light coming through the
boarded bathroom window.
I
walked out of the bathroom, pulled my backpack onto my back and clipped the
straps together, put on my lucky hat, and then I slung my shotgun over my
shoulder and made sure my bat was still in its makeshift sheath. I looked at
the front door I had run through last night.
It
was still shaking on its hinges. I walked down the hallway leading away from
the front door. I had checked all the bedroom doors last night before I fell
asleep and they had been previously nailed shut.
One
door looked to be weaker than the others, so I kicked it. It was nailed to keep
things from getting in, not out. It came loose relatively easily. The moment
the door swung open I had my bat held up ready to swing at anything.
The
room was trashed, debris covered the floor, and it looked like it had been left
in a rush. There was water damage, leaves and sticks in the room. I opened the
closet slowly. It was the same as the rest of the room, trashed. The bedroom windows
were broken, there was glass on the floor in front of them, and they had been
broken in a while ago, explaining the state of the room.
They
must not have had enough boards for all the bedroom windows, so they just
nailed the doors shut. I tried not to think about where the owners of this
house were now. In all honesty they were probably outside right now trying to
get back in. I pulled out my mirror on a stick, it looked like an oversized
dental tool, but it was for car mechanics or something. I held it outside the
window to see the ground and surrounding area without poking my head out.
There
was nothing I could see anywhere right outside the window, but I stuck my head
out just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything before I jumped out.
I
dropped to the ground and braced the fall with my right hand.
The
sun was to my left as I hopped a small chain link fence dividing the
properties.
I
must have walked through about a dozen backyards, there was the usual, swing
sets, sandboxes, a few pools, and of course the occasional rotting corpse.
After about a half hour I figured I had ditched the ones outside the house I’d
just left. It was only a matter of zigzagging and not leaving a linear path for
them to follow.
Unfortunately,
I still had a problem. I could hear more moaning in the street to my left. They
must have heard me walking. To my right was a large concrete wall, probably
blocking the neighborhood from a highway or a forest or something. In front of
me there was a wooden fence, but when I looked over it there were five Infected
roaming around in the backyard. They limped and shuffled aimlessly, almost as
if they were bored or lost.
I
took a few steps back to think about what to do. The moans were getting louder the
longer I stayed put. The one's following me wouldn't be too far behind.. I
looked back to my left to see if any were close and saw one glaring right at
me. His eyes were trained on me intently, carving a hole in my soul as he shuffled
in my direction.
His
blue tracksuit was torn above his left knee, showing the mottled grey skin of
what was left of his leg. Part of the calf was missing, bits of flesh dangled
from what had to have been the bite that infected him. The wound gave him a
limp, but despite the injury he showed no pain, only hunger. The blood dripping
from his stained teeth also meant he'd bit somebody else recently.
Not
wanting to waste what little ammo I had, I looked around the backyard I was in
for something, anything I could use to maybe climb up the concrete wall next to
me. I saw a lawn mower, a trampoline, a grill, and a picnic table. I looked to
my left again and saw over a dozen of them now, men and women, each with
wrinkled clothes and stains of red and brown in various places all coming at me
at a slow but steady pace from the street. A chill went down my spine, and a horrible
fear ran through my mind. The one in the tracksuit was only about five feet
from me now. I didn’t have my bat in my hand so I kicked the man in the
stomach, knocking him off his feet and having an almost domino effect on those
behind him.
I
sprinted over to the table. It was about twenty feet from the concrete wall. I
squatted down and lifted with my legs. It was heavy as hell but with a grunt I
got one side up and I pulled it toward the wall. Each step took tremendous
effort, The Infected gaining on me every step I took. I couldn't even guess at
the table's weight, but it was made of solid wood, not flimsy plastic. Once I
got there I lifted it up to chest level then pushed with all my might, flipping
the table up against the wall.
I
climbed up on top of the picnic table. I felt a tug on my leg as I reached the
top of the concrete wall. One of them had grabbed my boot. I shook my leg and
he lost his grip, but not before his boney hands left four parallel scratches
on either side of the leather. There were ten of them there now, reaching up
for me. I checked the other side of the wall, there were a bunch of cars, but
no Infected in sight, so I dropped down.
I
ran as fast as I could away from the fenced in yard for about a half hour. By
the time I stopped to catch my breath I was nearing the end of that particular
suburb. I took a quick survey of my surroundings and saw a large storm cloud
approaching from the north-west.
I
kept moving along the wall until I reached an intersecting road. It had plenty
of crashed cars. A few had hit trees, but mostly they were crashed into each
other. I saw a motorcycle, but it was so badly charred that I couldn't even
tell what color the paint used to be. In the distance I saw a semi truck. It
was half off the road, and the cab was severely damaged. Of course there were
always a couple dozen bodies littering streets, but as long as they weren’t
trying to eat me I ignored them.
I
followed the road until about 9:00, when I saw a supermarket. I ducked behind a
car and pulled out my binoculars. I looked all around me, and counted two dozen
Infected. Only a few even had clothes on, most were only wearing underwear or were
completely nude. Their pale grey skin seemed to almost wrinkle on them, and
their genitals were enough to make me almost gag up my breakfast, but I fought
back the urge. I hadn’t been spotted yet, but they had heard me because they
began to moan and move slightly faster. They couldn’t pinpoint where I was, so
they just wandered aimlessly. I took my time and moved quickly but quietly to cover
behind another parked car.
Unfortunately
I didn’t take a good look at the area I was running to, and didn’t notice one
of them was crawling out from under the car until it grabbed my leg.
It
pulled my foot out from under me, knocking me over. I braced the fall with my
left arm, scraping my palm in the process. The left half of her face was burned,
leaving charred flesh from her neck to her hairline, where some of her hairs
were melted together. Her eyelid was missing making her left eye, looked
bloodshot in brown instead of red, and made it look nearly twice as large as
the right, both were eyeing me with ravenous desire. I then noticed there were
two bloody stumps where its legs should have been. It brought its jaws up to my
foot and clamped down. I could feel the pressure of its bite on my toes, but luckily
it couldn’t bite through the thick leather of my boots.
I
kicked its head with my other foot as hard as I could. Its teeth left marks on
my boot where they slid and snapped off. Now that it was free I pulled up my
shotgun and blew its head apart.
I
stood up and brushed the blood and grime from my pants. Then I realized sound
of the gunshot must have attracted the attention of the others in the parking
lot.
Where
as they were wandering with no sense of where they were, staring blankly and
listening intently before, now they were all staring at me. Their milky blue eyes
were wide, and their mouths were now snarling and chomping.
“Son
of a bitch.” I cursed at myself, and then took off for the door of the
supermarket.
There
was one Infected between me and the door. He was a mess, his jeans were torn
into awkward shorts from various bite and scratch marks. His shirtless upper
body was a sickly grey with dried blood dripping from his jaws.
I
hit him in the forehead with the butt of my shotgun, knocking him backward off
his feet. I paused long enough for his head to hit the pavement with a dull
thud, and then smashed it in with the butt of my gun emitting a satisfying
crunch. I didn’t waste time after that. The others weren’t far behind me.
I
pulled the handle. The door lock had been broken a long time ago, along with
the glass that made up a majority of the door. As I pulled it shut a piercing
screech echoed through my ears.
I
glanced behind me and saw the other Infected were only about ten feet behind
me, and were moving along and a brisk walking speed. They always managed to
move a little faster when they saw food.
“Fuck.”
I whispered. I looked left and right for anything to block the door. I saw a
row of carts to my right. I ran behind them and leaned into them pushing the
whole row in front of the door, keeping them from getting in. The closest one
reached the door as I blocked it. He reached as best he could over the carts,
but what was left of the door didn't give them enough room to climb.
Being
inside stores wasn’t fun. I could hear moans echoing throughout the store, they
were definitely in here, and must have heard the shot I made earlier. They just
didn’t know where to go.
It
was too big to do a full sweep by myself, so I just had to work fast. kept my
bat in one hand ready to go. Something could jump out from around a corner at
any moment. The floor was covered with cans, boxes and just plain garbage all
over the place. Most of the shelves had been swept clean, looters took care of
that I guess, but one thing they never were was thorough, looting was frantic
and sloppy, and they always left something, at least, that's what I hoped. My
first stop was the register aisles. I found plenty of batteries, enough to
charge my flashlight, radio, and music player. I emptied the packs into my
backpack and left the packaging on the floor, no sense in wasting space.
I
reached the grocery section next. The sour smell of rotting vegetables, fruits,
dairy and meats wafted out. It was worse because it was all over the floor, not
just in the now dead cooling units. As I passed dairy I heard a moaning around
a corner. My grip on my bat tightened as I turned the corner.
He
couldn't have been more than five feet tall. His back was rubbed raw to a
bloodied mess from a fallen shelf he'd been trying to crawl out from under of.
Once he saw me he began to squirm in my direction, shaking the fallen shelf. I
didn’t want to take any chances of him getting loose while I was in the store,
so I smashed his head in. It made a sound not unlike a watermelon. The next
aisle was canned foods, it was a horrible mess, and I didn’t even attempt to go
in. The entire floor was a discolored green mess, the rotten remnants of
spilled soups and sauces and broken cans strewn about.
Finally
I reached the dried foods. I grabbed what I could find, graham crackers, granola
bars, and toaster pastries. My bag was almost full when I realized I had
forgotten to check for medicine or other medical supplies. I worked my way back
to the pharmacy to grab the essentials.
I
got there and saw one of them was trapped in the pharmacy room, clawing
relentlessly at the thick glass between it and me. part of her scalp was torn
off, her skull now exposed, and nearly the same color her now blood stained lab
coat must have been. I grabbed some bandages and ibuprofen. I could have gotten
more, but the moans in the store were getting rowdier, I was overstaying my
welcome.
I
could hear the Infected at the front door trying to get passed the carts all
the way at the back of the store, so I looked down the middle aisle and
realized they were pushing the carts ever so slightly.