Zomblog II (13 page)

I crept through the dusty—but nicely decorated— living room, and to the front door. On my way, I peeked out the curtains. I expected to find a zombie mob, but it was clear. Not even a lone shambler. I peeked out the peep-hole, but it was clear. Still, Coach kept nudging me, and he had his muzzle pressed to the crack at the bottom of the door.

I probably should’ve waited for the others. I probably should’ve paid more attention to Coach. But no-o! I opened the door after taking off the useless chain and twisting the deadbolt. I would’ve half-expected Coach to shove past me and lunge outside. What I didn’t expect was for him to suddenly tuck his tail between his legs, turn, and bolt!

Then, the earless, almost hairless giant dog’s head thrust itself inside. Eyes, so thick with black tracers that you could barely see the white film, rolled up at me. A greyish-black tongue lolled out, and a muzzle of broken teeth made an attempt at snapping on my leg. Instinctively, I kicked out hard and connected just under its jaw. There was a snap and a crunch, but this thing didn’t take even the slightest notice. The door pushed the rest of the way open and revealed the entirety of the horror now intent on killing me.

It had been a big Husky. Its thick fur was missing in many places where it looked to have been rubbed off. It had no bodily injuries so I have to guess that whatever ripped off its ears passed on the infection. I’d heard reports of dogs turning, but not cats. I wrote it off as simple rumor. I knew that livestock didn’t seem to draw the notice of zombies, but I’d seen them follow dogs and cats. I think Sam mentioned something, too, but I’m not sure…and don’t feel like searching.

Anyways, as I backed away and readied my spear, Jenifer and Shari came skidding around the corner from the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Both of them gasped and froze in place. Had things not been so damned scary, what happened next would’ve been hilarious. Jonathan came next and plowed into the pair of slack-jawed idiots. The good thing was that Zomdog turned his head at the disturbance as my three companions tumbled to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. That was all I needed. I drove my spear into the side of its head, pinning it to a leather recliner.

Jonathan was gallant enough to drag the body back out. Jenifer was gonna clean the dark trail of filth it left, but I told her not to bother, we weren’t staying. I had to actually coax Coach- the-Fraidy-dog out from under the bed.

The other day, when we found this place, it was agreed that we’d switch to day travel. While we’ve heard a bit of gunfire on occasion, it’s much less common than when we were moving through the neighborhoods of Portland. None of us feel that The Genesis Brotherhood is a threat. We are outside of their territorial zone as far as we can tell. From what Victor said, they were pre-dominantly working the eastern side of the hill, down into Portland. One more problem is that, while we can move with a nice clear sky and a bit of moonlight, there is no denying that the zombie traffic has picked up again. We’ve had too many close calls lately. The last reason, but sorta important, we didn’t find any batteries for our red-lensed flashlights. We have one more swap out set and need to conserve them for an emergency.

For breakfast, we had some nuts, a can of peaches, and some instant milk. That is the one true advantage to folks who find a place and make some sort of defensible home: food. It can be so easy to take it for granted.

After breakfast, we decided that this place had potential for supplies since it seems to have been evacuated
en masse
. Jonathan had already checked out some of the closer units—that’s where the canned peaches came from. We paired up; me and Shari, Jenifer and Jonathan. Coach was content lying in a square of sunlight, taking a doggy nap.

There were absolutely no signs of the zombies in any of the closed up apartments. Some of the ones with doors open or windows missing have seen traffic. I just don’t get it. It’s like finding a completely intact dinosaur. This place is an anomaly. We did find a decent amount of non-perishable food here. We picked some things, my prize is a sealed jar of marinated artichoke hearts. Shari’s was a jar of sundried tomatoes.

By noonish we were ready to move after a lunch of canned beef barley soup and a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. We decided to cut through these thick woods that ran parallel to the highway. They weren’t too treacherous. They weren’t very long lasting either. When we came out the other side, every single one of us froze in our tracks.

The blackened ruins of a building was the first thing we saw. But it was what lay on the other side. Before us we saw sprawled the largest cemetery I’ve ever seen in my life. This place looks like it’d been napalmed. Very few stones were intact. A large fountain off to our left had the remains of a huge, granite monument. I imagine it used to have the name of this place. The only chunk still standing has the letters “Funer”, and it doesn’t take a genius to glean
funeral
from it.

The grass is gone. I mean burned to the dirt. Only, I don’t see a single sign of disturbed earth. I don’t recall any reports of dead people rising from the ground. And granted, after what I have seen in the past year, nothing would surprise me. It’s just that from all I know or heard, this started as something infectious and was transmitted from somebody who died from it, then came back and infected somebody else.

Jonathan said he’d heard about an incident where the military mixed it up with a large number of walking dead. They were using area-of-effect weapons like HE rounds and hand grenades. They blew up a bunch of the zombies, but a lot of the soldiers got misted with blood. A bunch turned that night inside their own perimeter. It was things like that, the lack of knowledge, that helped it spread so fast. Couple in the disbelief factor, along with people reluctant to kill friends and loved ones, and you have the recipe for a real apocalypse.

Sorry, I got side-tracked. We moved out into the wide-open ground and were able to actually find a mostly-intact path to follow. It took us up to a ridge where we could see across the highway into a fairly large neighborhood. It also gave us a peek at a body of water on the far side of the cemetery. It wasn’t the pond that got us excited, it was the herd of deer at the water’s edge!

Jonathan saw them first. He raised his hand in the universal signal for stop-moving-and-keep-your-mouth-shut. We froze and followed his finger. All this time watching out for zombies, or possible survivors who may or may not be hostile, I was the last to actually see what he was pointing at.

We huddled and Jonathan pointed out the path he would take. Jenifer would drop down near the highway and follow the charred tree line. Shari and I would stay put with Coach and keep a zombie watch. The most likely problems would come from that big neighborhood across the hiway. If they could bag a deer with minimal gunfire, we could work our way back to the apartments we stayed in the past couple of days by using this valley that is shielded from view by the big sloping hill of the cemetery. I think my mouth started watering before those two disappeared from sight.

Shari and I unslung our M1 rifles and I helped her climb up on this four foot high tomb cover that used to have some sort of statue on top. All that remained were a pair of sandaled feet. There had been a lot of trees spaced throughout this cemetery. Now, there were only blackened husks pointing sharply skyward.

Across the highway, I noticed the occasional lone shambler, and even a small cluster or two on the expanse of visibly cracking concrete weaving their way amongst the scattered, mostly abandoned cars. Coach sat obediently at my side for a while. Every so often he would sniff the air and stand. A couple of times he even went out to mark a little territory.

I heard the echoing crack of a rifle. A moment later, deer bounded from some trees and across the highway into a heavily wooded area. Every zombie in sight turned, paused, and began at a slow, awkward walk in the direction of the shot.

I wasn’t too surprised to see several begin emerging from houses. Shari hissed through her teeth. When I asked what, she said a small herd was emerging from the far side of the thick woods across the highway that the deer had vanished into.

Suddenly, Coach started growling. He was looking back the way we’d come from. Coming up the blackened hill out from a cluster of ruined pines and firs were a mob! As soon as they saw us, moans began drifting on the air, but there was an echo. Up from what had to have been a blind spot in the ravine below us was another group! We were caught in a pincer-trap.

I scanned for the best escape route; only, they all of a sudden seemed to be materializing from every direction. Then I heard gunfire from Jonathan
and
Jenifer’s general direction at almost the same time. Coach was growling and now stood pressed up against my legs as if guarding over me.

“
Better start shooting,” Shari barked and brought her rifle to her shoulder, dropping a grossly fat, polyester clad female zombie.

“
Help me up!” I yelled. “We can stand back-to-back.”

“
Better idea,” Shari jumped down. “We move back towards the trees we came through when we left the apartment. We can lose those things in the woods.”

“
What about Jenifer and Jonathan?” I felt a chill in my chest as a series of rapid-fire shots came from their direction.

“
They know where to meet us.” Shari nudged me towards the distant woods.

That took us directly towards the larger of the mobs. We began shooting. I swear, every time I fired, I’d see a body jerk, then continue towards us. Now, of all times I couldn’t hit a damn thing. Glancing over my shoulder, I felt sick. There were hundreds pouring onto the highway from the big neighborhood across the way! I can’t ever recall so many being intent on me personally. I realized Shari was at my hip, and Coach was there, too, but the basic point is that I was standing in the bullseye.

We walked as fast as I could. Then, just as we came up even with the destroyed fountain, the contraction hit and brought me to my knees. I cried out and Shari tripped over my ever expanding ass. Coach took that moment to bolt. I’m certain that is what saved us, since several of the closest zombies turned to follow the barking, snarling dog.

Shari had to gather up her gun which had fallen from her hands and slid a few feet away through the dirt and scorched ground. I was absolutely useless for several seconds. Bless Shari’s heart, she stood over me emptying her weapon into the nearest threats. One got close enough, an old man in his late fifties by my best guess; when it fell, its head was less than an arm’s reach away. I stared into its milky, black tracer-shot eyes, fixated on a rancid piece of meat stuck between a gap in its broken front teeth. How long had that piece been there? Who had it been torn from? Was
that
person in this group trying to get us?

Finally, the pain was easing and I could stand. The situation hadn’t changed. Those things were everywhere. Coach was darting around the corner of the ruined building ahead of us, leading at least a dozen of those things on a fruitless chase. Somehow I just knew they’d never catch him. I still heard shots—but from only
one
source—in the direction that Jonathan and Jenifer had gone.

I brought my gun up in time to pop a round through the forehead of a cop that looked like a stereotypical donut-eater. A big, ugly gash had been made in that ample belly. I instinctively glanced at his wide, black belt. It was empty of anything useful. Ironically, my next target was wearing cuffs. Its throat had been ripped open, and none of the fingers remained on either hand. The metal of the cuffs were embedded in the flesh. Whoever had arrested this guy hadn’t been able, or felt inclined, to lock the cuffs so they wouldn’t tighten further.

At some point, a clearing made itself available and we hurried—I can’t claim to have actually done anything resembling running—through it and into the welcoming gloom of the woods.

Even amidst the trees we could see the occasional zombie lurching and stumbling. We zigged and zagged until coming out the other side. I huffed and puffed up the stairs. Shari came a few seconds later assuring me that none of the zombies had been in sight when we ducked into the same building we’d left just a couple hours earlier.

So we sat. We waited. Me. Shari. Coach. Outside, we saw them stumble past in no particular direction. It was like a hellish snow-globe. All the zombies had been shaken and swirled around. Every so often, we’d hear a gunshot or two. Only, we had no idea who.

Then, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs…in a hurry. It was no zombie. Shari beat me to the door, but only because I’m hideously pregnant. It was Jonathan. I felt my heart skid sideways. I was happy to see him, but Jenifer—

“
She’s two buildings over.” Jonathan put his hands on my arms. Maybe he knew I was gonna sorta collapse.

And so here I sit. Waiting for dinner. The building Jenifer went to had most of its roof blown off by something. Anyways, she took the deer there. They gutted and dressed it. Then, Jenifer made a fire pit in a bathroom! No windows! So, while smoke rises and a glow can be seen, zombies—much like dogs according to some—don’t look up! Dinner’s here!