Zombified (Episode 2): Yankee Heights (9 page)

"No problem, Stumpy."  Matty said. 
This is fuckin' crazy!
  He thought. 
There are zombies—motherfuckin' zombies!—and I'm being held at gunpoint by the owner of a bait shop
.  He took a few deep breaths. 

The door opened and a kid of no more than twelve placed two boxes of bullets on the front step; he gave Matty a brief nod and then shut the door. 

"All right then, go ahead and take them," Stumpy said; "then git gone!" 

CHAPTER 8

"No fuckin' windshield," Matty grumbled; "he leaves me with no windshield, driving into a shitstorm of zombies… what kind of asinine…" He fumed for a while, putting a healthy distance between Stumpy's and himself. 

It had been going on for a few minutes before Matty registered the
thump-thump-thump
of a flat tire.  He pulled to the side and screamed an animalistic roar of fury, beating on the wheel and thrashing around in the driver's seat. 

Then he stopped, cleared his throat, and calmly took out his pistol and the empty clips.  He pushed the rounds into the magazines, focusing on the task and letting the anger subside.  When the clips were topped off, he dumped the remaining fifty-five rounds into the front pouch of his backpack and closed the zipper.

Over the passenger seat, he glimpsed a pinprick of light off in the woods.  Blinking and rubbing both eyes, Matty tried to focus: it looked like a candle or a small fire. 
What the…

Then a flashlight blinked on and off in rapid succession.   

Matty got out of the car, keeping his gun in hand but out of sight, and waited.  The flashlight blinked again, but it was closer and brighter this time.  After a moment, he heard the crunch of leaves and twigs.

"Hey," a man's voice called out.  "You all right?"

Matty burst out laughing and put a hand on the car for support; a wave of hysteria washed over him. 

"I'll take that as a no?"  The man stepped out from the deep shadows of the forest.  He wore hunter's gear: camo pants and jacket, black knit cap, and dark green gloves.  A knappy brown beard sprouted from his face. 

"I'm pretty fuckin' far from okay, dude!"  He reigned in the hysterics and wiped tears from his cheeks.  "Right this moment, I'm in one piece and don't have a hankering for brains."

"Sweet."  The guy shouldered a pump shotgun and strolled around the car.  Matty slipped the pistol into his belt.  "JD" He stuck out a gloved hand.

"Matty."  They shook hands and sized each other up.  "You look prepared, JD.  Was it by accident?"

"Hell no!  I smelled this coming a mile away."

"Good on you, man." Matty nodded at the flickering firelight.  "What's with the camp?  The munchers aren't that far away."

"Munchers?"  JD raised an eyebrow.  "Fitting name, if I do say so.  The camp is temporary.  We've been keeping to the woods, trying to get away from the city and into the mountains."

"We?  How many are you?" 

"Three.  My wife, Kate, and her brother, Alex." 

"Did you run into the horde of munchers near the shopping center?"

JD chuckled.  "I'm not stupid.  We went right to the woods and stayed there." 

Matty scowled.  "I guess that makes me stupid.  I drove right through it.  Forgot all about it."

"Why?"  JD gave him a 'why the fuck would you do that' look. 

"Dude, I've danced with the devils tonight.  I watched my girl get eaten and lost two friends along the way… shit like that tends to make you lose track of things like the location of shopping malls."

JD pursed his lips.  "Sorry to hear that, Matty.  Look, if you're hungry you can join us for a bite before we move on."

Matty nodded.  "I'm ravenous, dude.  Thanks."

Grabbing his backpack, Matty followed JD into the trees.  They walked a football field's distance into the woods.  Surrounded by a low wall of stones, the small fire flickered on the faces of JD's companions. 

Kate was gorgeous, and her stunning beauty stirred memories of Kayla.

"This is Matty."  JD introduced Kate and Alex. 

Alex stood up and shook Matty's hand.  He was tall, clean-cut and clean-shaven, and had the bearing of a military man.  Slung over one shoulder, Matty spotted a Garand rifle.  It looked to be in pristine condition.

"Whoa… dude, is that an M1?"  Matty nodded at the rifle.

"Yeah."  Alex handed it to Matty.  "It was my Dad's gun.  Shoots like it's brand new, too." 

Matty shouldered the rifle and whistled.  "This thing is primo, dude!  How many rounds do you have for it?  They must be hard to find."  He handed the gun back.

"A little over a hundred," Alex said. 

"Hey," Kate spoke up; "did you hear those gunshots earlier?"

Matty tried not to meet her eyes; they were the same shape as Kayla's.

"Yeah about that…" He recounted the encounter at Stumpy's up until meeting JD on the road.  "So I'd avoid that area, if I were you.  That bastard tends to shoot first."

"Okay," JD said.  "Important safety tip, thanks Matty."  He sat next to the fire and rummaged in a canvas pack, pulling out a sealed foil bag. 

"Is that part of a military ration?"  Matty took the pouch and sniffed at it. 

"Beef stew," Alex supplied.  "We don't have any heaters, though."

"Are you kidding?  Hot or cold, food is food."  Matty tore the pouch and squeezed out a mouthful of meat, veg, and viscous broth.  "That's pretty damn good."

They ate in silence.  Matty was listening for any hints of approaching undead, and he guessed they were doing the same.  Alex kept the Garand over his left shoulder; he sat erect and alert.

"Were you in the military, Alex?"  Matty asked.

Alex nodded.  "Navy.  My Dad was in the marines and his Dad was a seabee." 

"The construction crew guys, right?"  Matty slurped down the rest of the stew.  "My buddy's Dad was a seabee and he's a whiz with welding, carpentry, machinery… pretty much anything manual."

"Yeah, he taught me a lot," Alex said quietly.  Kate's eyes were distant, watching the fire dance.  Matty got the hint: their dad was dead.

"What's your plan?" JD asked. 

"I'm heading for Wooneyville," answered Matty.  "My buddy and I talked about all this shit and made some preparations.  I was at Colonial when it started."

"What were you studying?"

"Philosophy."  Matty chuckled.  "Thinking deep thoughts about the lack of a job."

JD shrugged.  "I guess it doesn't matter what any of us were doing, huh?" 

"Not really," Matty replied.  "What direction are you guys going?"

"I figured we'd follow this forest west and then turn north and hike up into the heights."  JD slugged down a bottle of water and belched.  "That was… liberating."

"Any final destination in mind?  Is there a cabin or something up there you know about?"

"Not yet," Alex chimed in.  "We brought tents until we can build a permanent shelter.  Plenty of trees up there."

"No doubt.  What do you guys think is my best route to Wooney?" 

Crack
.

Everyone jumped up.  It sounded like a branch snapping, but it was off in the distance behind them.  Alex had the rifle pointed in that direction; JD held the shotgun at his hip; Kate gripped a slim .22 lever-action.  Matty had his 9mm in both hands with the barrel pointed at the sky.

Crack-snap
.

"There's more than one," Alex whispered.  "Those sounds came from two different directions."

JD turned and doused the fire with a bottle of water; he kicked dirt over it stifle the smoke. 

"They heard the gunshots."  Kate was looking at Matty, but he couldn't read her expression in the darkness.

"Easy, Kate," Alex said.  "He didn't know we were out here."

"It doesn't matter, Alex!" she hissed at her brother.  "If he didn't go there, we wouldn't be dealing with this, would we?" 

Crack-snap-crack
.

"Run," Alex said. 

"What?"  Kate and JD spoke in unison.

"He said run."  Matty shouldered his pack.  "Get to the road."

"No fucking way!  They'll move faster on the road.  What are you, a fucking idiot?"  Kate shot at Matty.  Her voice was well above a whisper.

"Whatever.  Stumble around in the trees if you want."  Matty turned and headed back to the road, moving at a rapid walk. 

"Run!"  He heard Alex's voice bark out the command.  The groaning and gurgling of munchers filled the woods. 

As soon as they sensed where we were, they started calling
.  Matty shuddered. 

BANG! BOOM! PING!

Behind him, the three weapons fired again and again.  Matty cleared the woodline and stumbled out onto the road. 

The gunfire continued and between bursts, Matty heard Alex shouting: "Run!  Get out before we're surrounded!"

Hollow moans emanated from the lightless forest, spilling out onto the road and making Matty's sphincter twitch. 
All of them from the shopping center… they cut right through the woods, following Stumpy's rifle
.

The shooting stopped.  Matty heard the gaggle of zombie groans and the smashing of brush and branch.  If they were running, he couldn't tell where.

He looked east but the road disappeared behind a curtain of black. 
I can't go towards the shopping center.  Fuck!  West takes me farther from Wooney
.  He stood near the car, gun in hand, and his eyes darted east to west and back again.

Alex burst onto the road fifty feet away.  Matty whistled and ran over. 

"Did JD and Kate come out?"  Alex was sweating.  "We couldn't see anything in there."  He reloaded the Garand and jammed the cartridge into the receiver. 

"No."

"Alex!  Ahhhhhhhh!"  Kate's scream ripped through the woods. 

Alex sprinted off in pursuit.  Matty paused and then jogged behind, keeping his eyes on the trees.  The munchers were there, chasing after the quarry; he heard them thrashing and moaning, but beyond the first few trees, Matty couldn't see anything.

JD's shotgun barked and lit up the forest; Alex homed in on it and crashed through the brush.  Matty stopped ten feet from the trees, taking a step back and raising his pistol.  He heard the distinctive sharp crack of Alex's Garand interspersed with the booming shotgun.  The flashes created a strobe effect and Matty saw the tall shapes of trees broken by the hundreds of shambling and thrashing bodies of undead.

"Get out of there!"  Matty yelled.  "There are too many of them!"

A burst of rifle and shotgun fire tore through the trees, temporarily drowning out the cacophony of gurgling and groaning.

Kate stumbled out of the forest; she tripped on a cluster of rocks and went down.  She rolled onto her left side and didn't get back up. 

Matty took a step forward and stopped.  Kate's left arm was soaked in blood and a piece of her shirt was torn open at the shoulder. 

"Kate?"  Keeping his gun on her, Matty approached and knelt down.  "Are you hurt?  Can you walk?"

Her eyes were fluttering.  Matty looked closely at the shoulder: a half-circle of skin was peeled up, exposing the muscle underneath.  He couldn't tell if it was a bite.

Alex dove out of the trees, thrusting a clip into his rifle.  He spun around and fired three quick shots.  Sweat poured down his face, and his breathing was quick and heavy. 

"They got JD," he said flatly; his eyes tightened, but he didn't look at Kate.  "We might have a few minutes to get away while they—"

"While they what, Alex?"  Kate screeched.  "While they fucking eat my husband?  Is that what you were going to say?"

"Kate," Alex faced her; "we have to leave, right now.  There are hundreds of them in the trees."

She sat up and glared at Alex.  "He pushed me away."  Kate's hand brushed the wound at her shoulder.  "I fell on a snapped branch, but he didn't know it was there."

Alex shifted his eyes to Matty. 

"Kate," said Matty, "I don't care if you blame me or not, but if you want to live a second longer—"

"Fuck you!"  She snapped to her feet and ran at him, slapping and punching.  "It's your fault!  You killed him!"  Kate spit at Matty.  "I'm not going anywhere with you, you piece of shit!"

Alex grabbed her uninjured arm.  "Kate, stop it.  He didn't do anything.  He was trying to survive, just like us.  Whoever shot at him is the one to blame."

Kate tore out of his grasp.  As she turned and stormed off, zombies emerged from the shadows of the forest in droves. 

A teenage boy wearing a football jersey charged at Alex.  Matty fired and the shot took the boy down, catching him in the hip.  More and more undead staggered out of the woods, moaning and stretching out their arms.

Matty and Alex backed up across the road, firing until their weapons were empty.  Kate retreated behind them.  Sprinting zombies shoved past the slow movers and crossed the road, waving windmill arms and growling.

"Run!"  Matty popped in a fresh clip and took down the closest runners.  There was only one direction to go: back down the lonely road. 

They pumped arms and legs, beating down the center of Tarkwood Lane.  Steady slapping of a thousand feet drove them harder than any whip. 

"I was saving something."  Alex slowed to a jog and pulled his pack loose, holding it in front of him.  "I made a couple of grenades from PVC pipes."  He handed Matty a six-inch section of white plastic tube with a wick extending out one end; he had another one in his hand.  "These should give us some breathing room, but we need to funnel them through a narrower area."

"The highway," Matty said.  "We need a vehicle, anyway.  Let's get them in an area with abandoned cars and set these off."

Alex nodded.  "Aim for the gas tanks.  We'll create a wall of rubble and fire behind us." 

Kate yelped; Alex and Matty stopped and spun around.  She was on the ground, clutching her knee and clenching her teeth.

"Kate!"  Alex ran back and pulled her up, draping an arm around his shoulders. 

"My knee," she whimpered.  "I can't put any weight on it."

Matty let them limp ahead; he gripped the gun in both hands and started firing at the fast moving undead.  His first shot tore the scalp off a lady in jeans and cowboy boots; the next bullet blasted through two undead, but missed the head of both.