Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 (9 page)

Jennifer was doing her best to attract more
freaks. Although she had a weapon in her hand, her task was to keep yelling and shouting at the undead corpses that had surrounded the gas station.

Within thirty minutes we had killed twenty two freaks. Their dead bodies were piling up in front of the sto
re.

In a flash I had a thought. My firearm was still in my pocket. I pulled out the revolver and looked at the women beside me.

“Should I fire it?” I asked. “It will hopefully attract the rest of them.”

“Go for it,” Jennifer said.

“Cover your ears everyone,” I said.

I put a pair of foam ear plugs into my ears that I had obtained from the health and beauty aids department. I looked at the women beside me, saw Jennifer give me a thumbs up, and I fired the revolver.

The sound of the bl
ast echoed across the landscape.

Only a split second later, every freak that
hadn’t already been heading towards the grocery store was turning in our direction.

We began to work tirelessly to kill every freak that we had attracted. The only problem was
that the gunshot had obtained the attention of more freaks than we had expected. An hour later we had killed forty more freaks.

“Where are they all coming from?” Ms. Suzy asked with her sweaty, red hair in her face.

“Everywhere.” I responded. “They’re even coming from down the road.”

“I wonder how far away the sound of the shot traveled,” Jennifer asked.

“I would guess a mile at least,” I responded, while trying to catch my breath.

It took another hour to kill the last of the freaks. After climbing back
on the roof of the store we looked across the road. No zombies were currently surrounding the gas station, but there was also no sign of the woman. I looked with my binoculars through the windows of the store, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“Do you thi
nk she’s still in there?” Jennifer asked.

“I don’t know,” I responded. “But I think we can use her van.”

The first step of our plan to get out of the parking lot had been to clear it of the freaks. That part was now complete. The second step had been to obtain a vehicle and drive it through the docking bay into the stockroom.

“I’m going to get that car,” I said. “Who wants to join me?”

“I will,” said Jennifer. “I’m not letting you go out there alone.”

Ms. Suzy stayed on the roof as Jennifer and Katie fol
lowed me to the meat department. I had remembered Mr. Allen’s secret stash of knives. About six months ago the company had sent out an updated budget to each meat department in the district. According to the new budget, only a hundred dollars a year could be spent on cutlery -- a ridiculously low amount of money. To get around it, Mr. Allen had placed an order with a distributor for a large number of knives. We were going to use them.

I went to the corner of the room and pulled a large cardboard box out fr
om under a table. I reached down and pulled up two large knives. Each of the two knives had a huge blade, and they were razor sharp.

“Be careful with this,” I warned Jennifer. “It’s insanely sharp. You especially do not want to cut yourself with it if you
get any of their blood on the blade.”

“I’ll be careful,” she said.

In a small backpack that I would wear, we placed a few additional items.

We approached the emergency exit door.

“Keep this door open as long as you can,” I instructed Ms. Suzy. “But don’t take any chances. If a freak gets too close make sure you don’t get bitten.”

Jennifer and I walked through the emergency exit. No freaks were in sight, so we headed towards the parking lot. The stench from the pile of rapidly decaying freaks near the s
tore’s entrance was horrible. I tried not to breathe through my nose as we carefully navigated the parking lot.

One freak approached us, but it had a broken leg that slowed it down. We ran right past the freak and headed to the road. We
quickly crossed and came up to the white utility van. It was very large and mostly empty; only a few tools were scattered about inside of it. Luckily, the keys were still in the ignition.

“Do you think this van will run?” Jennifer asked. “Yes, I think so.
It doesn’t look too damaged.”

The front bumper of the van was dented, but other than that the van looked to be in good shape.

“Let’s try and start it up,” Jennifer said.

“No, we have to go inside and look for the woman first,” I said.

“Stay out here and keep a lookout. I’m going inside to see if I can find the woman,” I said. “If you see any freaks coming call out to me.”

I started looking into the windows of the gas station. I saw a man’s body on the floor, but it was not moving. There had obviously be
en some kind of struggle inside the gas station, because candy bars and packages of chewing gum were scattered everywhere. Also, a large bottle of pickled pigs’ feet had fallen and shattered on the floor.

I decided to go inside.

“Is anyone in here?” I called out in a hushed voice, as I tried to open the door.

It was locked, so I decided to walk around to the back of the store. The rear entrance was open, so I walked in.

I began to search the station for the woman. I couldn’t find her anywhere. However, the gas station sold ammunition, so I grabbed a box of twenty rounds of .357 cartridges for my revolver. I opened it up, quickly loaded my revolver, and stuffed another box of ammo into my backpack. While inside, I also grabbed a couple road maps and put them in my backpack as well.

Suddenly, I heard Jennifer call out.

“Hank, get out here quick!” she shouted.

I ran to the front of the gas station, unlocked the door, and stepped outside.

Officer Harvey was standing next to Jennifer, with a black pistol pointed at her.

“Have you been bitten?” he shouted at her. “Answer me now!”

Jennifer was waving the large knife from the meat department at him.

“Get away from me!” Jennifer yelled back at him. “I’m not infected!”

I pulled out my revolver and quickly pointed it at the officer.

“Put your gun down now!” I screamed. “None of us are infected.”

He then pointed his gun at me. Pure adrenaline filled my blood stream as I fought back the urge to pull the trigger.

“None of us have been bitten,” I repeated.

“Put that gun down or I’m going to blow your head off,” the officer ordered.

“How do I know you won’t blow my head off anyway? You think
we’re infected.” I said.

“You’re right. I might just shoot you anyway. I’ve shot enough people already today. Two mor
e won’t make much of a difference,” he said.

I glanced at Jennifer as she stood with her eyes wide open.

“Look, I promise that I’m not infected and she isn’t either.” I said. “I’m putting the gun down.”

I slowly lowered the revolver and put it on the
ground. He lowered his pistol.

“I’m on orders to kill anyone who shows any sign of infection,” he said. “Anyone who is infected is already as good as dead.”

“Four of us are holed up in the grocery store over there. We’re planning to try and make it to the rescue station at the library. Do you know if it is still in operation?” I asked.

“You really don’t want to go into town,” he said. “There are still monsters everywhere.”

“My mother might be in that library,” I said. “If she could be there I have to go.”

The officer sat down on a bench in front of the store for a moment.

“They took a busload of people from the library to the relocation center outside of Dublin this morning,” he said. “I heard everyone else is going to be evacuated tonight.”

“Were you in
the library?” I asked.

“Briefly,” he said.

“My mother is the assistant librarian there. She’s a short woman with dirty blonde hair, about fifty five years old, and should have had on a library uniform. Do you remember seeing her?” I asked.

He looked down
the road at a group of freaks approaching us. They would be upon us in a few minutes.

“I think so,” he said. “But I would advise you to stay where
you’re at. This area of town is safer.”

He stood up and walked over to his police car.

“Sorry for pointing a gun at y’all,” he said. “My nerves are shot today.”

He then opened the door to his police car, got in, and drove towards the small group of freaks walking towards us. Upon stopping his car he rolled down his window, fired four shots, and killed the frea
ks. He then accelerated away.

We had to act fast. The gunshots would draw attention.

“Get in the van and crank it up,” I told Jennifer. “Then head towards the back of the store.”

The van started up with a single turn of the key. We crossed the road and d
rove to the back of the store.

“Get ready to drive the van into the stockroom,” I told Jennifer. “I’m going to run inside and open the bay door.”

I hopped out of the van and ran around the corner to the emergency entrance. Ms. Suzy was still standing there holding the door open.

“I wondered when you would show up,” she said, looking very relieved.

I ran inside and started pulling the chain that would raise the docking bay door. Quickly, the door began to move upwards revealing the van outside. I waved for Jennifer to drive it inside when I saw two freaks emerging from the woods behind the store. As soon the van was inside I began to close the bay door.

With only moments to spare, I managed to shut the bay door before the two freaks could reach us. Jennifer
got out of the van and handed me the keys.

“Next time you’re driving,” she said.

I informed Ms. Suzy and Katie of what the officer had told us. They were eager to get ready for our attempt to reach the library. We packed food, water, and weapons into the van. We also loaded up some hose that we would need to siphon gas from one of the parked vehicles in front of the store. And just in case they were needed at the library, we also picked an assortment of antibiotics from the pharmacy.

Before leaving, we ri
gged the emergency exit so that it wouldn’t automatically lock when it closed. However, we placed a chain and padlock on the door. The freaks might be able to get a peek inside if they tried to open it, but they wouldn’t be able to open it more than a few inches.

As we opened the bay door to drive outside, we were ready for the freaks that were still leaning against it. Ms. Suzy speared one with an ice pick on a broom handle, and I smashed the other freak’s skull with a piece of shelving. Seeing no more f
reaks in the immediate area, I jumped out of the van and rapidly pulled the bay door closed, then got back into the driver’s seat.

We drove slowly to a position behind the dumpster. Jennifer, who was sitting in the passenger seat, let herself out. She
then set one of the remote control vehicles we had seen earlier on the ground. She switched on the MP3 player we had taped on top of it, and remotely drove it into the street and then into the road. The freaks in the parking lot started walking toward the sound of a country music, as we drove slowly towards the closest vehicle. We tried to make as little noise as possible as we exited the van. I then began siphoning fuel from a small green truck that was close to the entrance of the store.

Before I was half
way done the freaks had destroyed the MP3 player. The music stopped playing and our distraction was gone. We tried to hide behind the van and the small green truck as I finished. A few of the closest freaks had heard our voices and started walking slowly towards us.

Picking up the large knife at my side I walked toward the closest freak. The swollen face of the female monster snarled at me. With one quick slice I chopped her head off. With dark blood dripping from the knife I approached another freak. It w
as wildly swinging its arms at me so I carefully tried to dart behind it. Before it could turn around I struck its back with my knife. The freak collapsed, but its face was still snarling at me.

I ran back and saw that Ms. Suzy was pouring the gasoline we
had siphoned into the van’s gas tank. Jennifer was busy trying to siphon additional gasoline from the truck. Turning around, I realized that more of the freaks were coming.

“That’s enough, Jennifer,” I said. “Let’s take what we have and go!”

We all rushed into the van. It only had two seats; both of them were in the front. Ms. Suzy and Katie sat in the back of the van on blankets, and Jennifer sat next to me. I started the van and drove out of the parking lot.

I looked at the gasoline gauge. We had one ei
ghth of a tank of gas. It should be enough to take us to the library and back, if we didn’t have problems.