Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (33 page)

“I don’t
think so. They seem to be drifting into Chadron and then just milling about,
not leaving. Well, there are some on the east and west roads, but only a few.
It could be something random on their part.”

I had no
clue as to what motivated zombies, aside from a desire to feed on human flesh.

“We
can’t let them follow us back,” said Alec. “That many would overrun the camps
real fast, even with our new fence. We don’t want any wandering about the
forest either, not if we can help it.”

“No
problem there.” Lizzy strode forward and smashed a zombie skull with her tire
iron. “We’ll take a side road heading another way and then cut back out of
sight. They can’t see for shit.”

“They
can hear,” said Mary.

“Yeah,
the hearing does suck, which is why I now have elementary school zombie brains
on my shirt.”

There
were a lot of turned children in the area, something I found personally
upsetting. Killing adult zombies wasn’t hard, not any longer, but shooting what
had once been a seven year old was still difficult. I mean, they might have
pallid cracked skin and the gray filmed eyes and a fucked up appetite for
people, but they still looked like little kids. Why couldn’t they be more
messed up, like the zombies in movies?

“We’ll
drive further out, carefully,” continued Lizzy, “to make sure they can’t follow
the sound back to the forest.”

“By the
way, Alec, you too Dean, and I know you’ve both been told this so don’t get
mad.”

They
nodded at me.

“Remember,
gunshots always attract zombies, so at times like this bash them instead.”
Lizzy favored a tire iron but most of us had taken steel crowbars instead. “Try
not to get anything in your eyes or in any open wounds. Zombie blood and guts
on you won’t cause an infection, not even their saliva. We’re not so sure if it
gets inside you.”

“Keep
your sunglasses on,” added Lizzy, tapping hers, “and your mouth shut. You may
want to tie a bandana over it.”

“Do we
get infected if something gets in our mouth?” asked Alec.

She
shrugged. “No fucking idea, but it can’t taste good.”

“We
should take a closer look,” said Briana, “but we’d get mobbed if we just drove
down the road like normal. We would have to turn around before we even got that
close.”

“I have
a plan,” I began.

“Yay!”
clapped Mary. “I so love your plans.”

I gave
her a level stare. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

“So
far,” she giggled, pushing her hair back with one hand. Mary needed a haircut,
but then, so did most of us. “What’s the plan?”

“We are
going to approach the town, honking horns and making lots of noise. When the
zombies converge on us we go around them and drive up some side roads to see
what we can. They’re slow enough for us to get a pretty good look before we
have to pull back. It’s not a full search, but we can get out again real fast.”

“Are we
going to try for any looting?” inquired Lizzy. “I know we didn’t plan on it,
but if enough follow us out, we might be able to grab something or at least get
an idea of what we can come back for.”

“I don’t
think it’s safe enough for that,” said Lois. She looked worried, more so than
normal. “Not with that many of them. This is way more than anything we’ve tried
before.”

“Do we
actually need anything that bad,” asked Briana, “anything we can’t find in the
forest or Hemingford?”

“Some
books,” said Dean.

We all
looked at him, except for Lizzy who moved to drop another zombie. There were
more coming, but they were few and far between. We were too distant for the
bulk to have noticed us.

“What
sorts?” I asked. This hadn’t come up before.

“Cabin
work. I can do normal carpentry all day long, but there are guides that give
detailed information about working with logs. I don’t really need them, but
they’ll help big time with weatherproofing and comfort.”

“Where
would we even look?” asked Briana.

He
smiled, with teeth not quite as straight or white as my sweetie’s. “There’s a
bookshop we can get to, I think. I stopped there before. They had books on that
sort of thing, mostly for tourists, but they’ll still work. I’ve flipped
through them. They’re the real deal.”

“Books?”
declared Lizzy. “I was thinking guns or food when I mentioned looting. Grabbing
a rifle or a few cans of whatever is easy, but you’re talking about specific
items. You have to find the right rack, the correct shelf, the exact books you
want. Can you do that fast?”

“I know
exactly where they are,” replied Dean, confidently.

“If we
do a fast in and out to grab them, it might be doable,” I said. “Where’s this
store located?”

“Fast in
and outs are for lunch time, in bed,” stated Lizzy. “Trying to run while
looting is asking to fall on your ass and get bitten.”

“Is
there something you aren’t telling Lois?” asked Briana.

“What
are you talking about?” The short woman was glaring at her friend, thinking,
rightfully so, that she’d just opened herself up.

“Well
Lizzy, the two of you aren’t equipped for an in and out.”

Mary
broke into laughter, her older sister looking somewhere between horrified and
embarrassed, mostly horrified.

“If
you’re implying I’d cheat with some guy…”

“Or a
turkey baster,” finished Briana.

I joined
in the laughter – couldn’t help myself – while Dean and Alec looked on, totally
confused. We’d let them in on the joke later, maybe.

“Zombie,”
said Briana.

Lizzy,
her face a dark purple, cursed and spun about to bash its head in. Then she
wheeled back toward Briana. “My point is that we should either loot properly or
not at all!”

“You
just said you thought we could do a quick snatch of some canned food.”

“Briana...”
Lizzy was seething. “...do not point out my contradictions!”

“Enough
with the fun and happiness and being pissed off,” I interrupted. “Everybody get
a grip. Now Dean, where is the store exactly?”

The
building turned out to be near the edge of town – otherwise the idea would have
been nixed immediately – but the directions were confusing enough that Dean
would be leading the way. We’d get there and attempt to quickly recover the
books and run. It was going to be more dangerous than we liked but seemed worth
the risk.

*
* *

Using
back roads, and sometimes driving over dirt, we approached Chadron from the
west, well away from the forest. Once positioned, we began honking our horns to
get as many of the zombies moving toward us as possible. Then we drove off,
slowly enough for them to follow. With the mass of undead safely, if only
temporarily, repositioned a couple miles from the town, we zipped around with
Alec in front.

Reaching
the bookstore, Dean hopped out of the passenger seat and hurried for the door.
Lois was driving the Grand Cherokee and Briana the Wrangler. This allowed Lizzy
and I to quickly get into the street as well. I promptly fired at a zombie,
missing. The thing was only twelve feet away. They don’t dodge or duck,
nothing. Pathetic. My second bullet took it in the head.

“Door’s
locked!” shouted Dean.

I
glanced up and down the street. There were dozens of the monsters coming and
plenty more in sight further back. We messed up. We acted too quickly and
didn’t lure nearly enough away. Hell, the size of the town made that next to
impossible, no matter how we planned it. What a cluster.

“Shoot
it,” I ordered.

Lizzy
opened fire with her .45, shattering the lock, and a good kick forced the door
open.

“Get
your books!” she yelled. “Hurry!”

Dean ran
inside and promptly screamed. Lizzy and I turned toward the door at the same
time.

“Keep
this spot clear,” I said. “I’ll get him.”

Alec
revved the engine. “We can’t stay long,” he called. “More are coming!”

Lizzy
began shooting. Briana opened the driver’s door of the Jeep and popped off a
few rounds of her own. It helped, but there were just too many, and they were
coming from all directions.

I ducked
inside. Only seconds had passed since Dean screamed, which was just as well. I
found him on the floor grappling with a zombie, one that outweighed him by a
good fifty pounds. I shot the monster in the side of the head, sending a stream
of brains and flesh into a stand of month old fashion magazines.

“Up,” I
said, extending a hand, “and get your gun.”

He
muttered his thanks and retrieved the pistol. Then he moved toward the back.
Outside, I could hear Lizzy cursing.

“We are
out of time Dean. Grab the books. We have to go.”

He
snagged several off a rack on the far wall, next to an open door, and ran back
the way we’d come. I preceded him and began to fire at the zombies closing
around Lizzy. It took both of us to clear enough space that we might get into
the vehicles without being grabbed. Oh yeah, we did real good with this plan.
One of our best, without a doubt.

I
suddenly found myself back in the Jeep Wrangler, unharmed, and was locking the
door as Briana shifted into reverse. A quick glance outside assured me the
others were inside theirs as well. She rushed backwards looking for a place to
turn around. There was no way we’d be able to escape going forward. That
direction was now a wall of corpses.

Then she
hit a zombie as she spun the wheel. If not for my racing heart, and the several
hundred shamblers that were closing on us, I would have made a comment about
getting zombie blood and possibly innards on my Jeep. Besides, running them
down was just asking to smash in the engine or to lose control and crash.

As it
was, Alec almost did wreck, though not due to a collision with one of the
reanimated. He managed an impressive spin, getting the pickup turned around and
facing the correct direction faster than either Briana or Lois, but he bounced
against a curb and clipped a fire hydrant, knocking it loose. There was no
longer any water pressure, and nothing came out, but that was still a heavy
chunk of steel. It left a good sized dent in the truck and shattered a
headlight, but at least the pickup remained operable.

After a
hundred yards, we slowed down, trying to determine the fastest and easiest
route out of Chadron. Then Lois stopped, and Lizzy hopped out of the passenger
door of the Grand Cherokee, darting around the hood to get into the driver’s
seat. Lois slid over inside so her girlfriend could drive. It was not the best
time for such a maneuver, yet Lizzy was by far the more capable driver.

“Stop
the Jeep.”

The
moment Briana did so, with Alec following suit behind us, I got out and held up
the radio. “We have to change directions,” I said into it. I pointed
frantically at a nearby alley. There was lots of debris, ordinary trash mostly,
but we could easily push past that. “We’re going that way.”

Those
zombies initially led away were returning en masse on the road ahead of us.
They were still pretty far back, but, even so, I didn’t think we could get past
them before the route was completely blocked. Damn. Damn. Damn. Then I was back
inside the Jeep, and Briana roared down the alley and turned onto a different
street. She took another turn, and we saw an open path out of town. Finally.

“Don’t
leave us!” crackled someone over the radio.

“What?”
I asked, speaking into ours. I could see Lizzy and Alec behind us. No one was
being left behind.

“Not
me,” said Lizzy.

“Give
Lois the radio when you’re driving!” I demanded. “You can’t do both!”

“Not us
either,” said Dean.

“We need
help!” came the message again. “Can you hear us?”

“Slow
down,” I told Briana.

We were
in the clear.

“Who is
this?” I asked.

“You can
hear us! We didn’t know if we had the right channel.”

“Who are
you?” I interrupted, “and where?”

“We’re
stuck in the town, in Chadron. We can’t get out. Please help.” The voice
belonged to a young man, maybe a teenager.

“Okay,”
I said. “We won’t abandon you, but we need to move to the outskirts and stop
somewhere safe to get sorted out. You have a range long enough to keep in
touch?”

“Think
so.

“All
right then. Hang on. Dean, Lois, all of you good?”

“Good,”
confirmed Dean.

“We’re
good too,” said Lois, “a bit rattled though, and Lizzy wants her radio back.”

“No
radio for Lizzy at times when both hands are needed on the steering wheel. Hit
her in the head if she bitches. Now, let’s get out of here and park so we can
figure out what’s going on.”