A Zombie Survival Series (Book 1): Infestation Iowa (5 page)

              “Get off!” David yelled, as he struggled to push Doc away. David released his head and placed his hand around Doc’s throat; Doc nearly pushed him over and lunged at Holiday but David put the gun to Doc’s head and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked and nothing happened. Just then Doc flew back, going head over heels. Holiday ran up holding a door handle from the glass doors he found lying on the ground and he smacked Doc right in the head. Holiday jumped on top of Doc and held him down; he raised the handle and hit him again and again in the head until Doc finally stopped moving. Holiday stood up and turned towards David,

              “It wasn’t fully loaded,” Holiday said as he pointed to the gun David held. “Specially made .44 magnum bullets in a revolving cylinder containing six chambers.” David looked at the gun as Holiday spoke. “It makes a lot of noise and it’s scary,” he continued. “Not much of a practical weapon for a sheriff huh?” Holiday walked past David and back toward the doors. David couldn’t believe that the gun he was carrying wasn’t fully loaded.

              “Don’t suppose you have any more ammo on you for this behemoth?” David asked as he waived the empty gun around.

              “Top drawer of Viv’s desk,” Holiday said as he walked to the door staring out into the city. David walked back to the desk and kicked the arm out from behind it. He opened the top drawer and saw a handful of at least twenty bullets.

              “Least we have some ammo.” David said as he sighed loudly and opened the cylinder on the gun, sliding six .44 magnum bullets into the gun. He clicked it closed and scooped the remaining bullets into his hand. He put them in his jean pocket and started walking toward Holiday.

“You reloaded?” Holiday asked loudly.

“Ya, why?” David stood beside Holiday and began looking into the city. “We are going to need more bullets.” David said as he stared in terror at the dozens of people walking slowly toward the station. Some of them he knew very well.

“Fucking zombies,” Holiday said as he bent down and picked up his gun. “Never thought this shit would actually happen.” He cocked the gun back and aimed it into the group of zombies clamoring toward them.

“They are so slow we could just walk right by them,” David said watching the group getting slowly closer.

“That girl wasn’t slow” Holiday said looking at the tiny dead girl beside Doc’s dead body. Then he looked back at the group outside, “Neither is that one!” He shouted and pointed with his gun toward a zombie running at high speed through the horde outside. It snarled and spit as it ran freakishly fast toward them. It had its mouth covered in dripping blood and David could see the bits of flesh stuck in its teeth from where he was. Holiday shot his gun four times, hitting it in the chest and arms. He then fired a fifth shot that flew a bullet straight into its head. It slid on the ground in front of them, crashing into the steps outside. The horde of zombies started to surround the sheriff office; they shuffled around Holiday’s car out front blocking them from being able to get to it. Within seconds, zombies had blocked off all escape they could see. The gunfire drew them from blocks away. Holiday and David had nowhere near enough ammunition to kill all of them, and even with them being so slow they seemed to be able to swarm very effectively. There was no time to waste. Holiday grabbed David’s arm and yanked him inside. He pointed to a door at the side and walked over to it. He swung it open revealing an alley beside the office. The alley had only enough room for one person to walk at a time. They would have to walk in a single file line between the office and the brick building next door. They wouldn’t have any room to move around and could get surrounded by zombies very easily. The sun was starting to rise making it more and more visible outside.

Holiday bolted into the alley as the zombies pushed up the stairs in front of the office. David followed him closing the door behind them. They started walking down the alley towards the back of the sheriff’s office. At the end of the alley they saw nothing but that soon changed as the sun grew taller in the sky. A dead body was lying at the very end of the alley – right where they had to go. They walked as quietly as they could not to draw the attention of the horde now inside the office. As they reached the body, Holiday slowly stepped over it, being extra cautious not to touch it or make any noise. Next it was David’s turn. As he stepped over the body the door they had closed behind them burst open. A bunch of zombies spilled into the alley face down as more crawled over top of them. The dead body David was stepping over raised its head causing David to hop over it. The body slowly pulled itself to its feet. Zombies staggered through the alley, their moans echoing off the brick walls. Zombies still filled the street in front of the office as well. The commotion from earlier had drawn an enormous crowd. As David and Holiday ran past the next house to the south, they knew they would have to be quieter in the future. Sound seemed to attract the horde.

“So some are slow,” David said as they walked around the corner from behind the next building. Ahead of them was the park that all of Lone Tree was developed around. “But some are fast.” He said quietly to Holiday as they stopped and leaned up against the wall of the building.

“I guess,” Holiday replied, “either way we have to be more quiet.” He continued.

“But why are some faster than others?” David asked.

“Who cares? No way for us to know. We have to keep going.” Holiday pointed to the park, “Going through the park is probably the best way to get to Viv’s house.”  For the size of the city the park was rather big. It was almost like a forest in the middle of town but the trees where around the outside only and the middle was wide open with a few swings and sandboxes for children.

“Ya, the zombies on the street might not see us but for all we know there are a lot of zombies inside the park. I say we take the street.”

“Way too risky,” Holiday said shaking his head, “the park is the best option and it’s straight across to Viv’s” Holiday started to walk forward but David grabbed his arm.

“We don’t know if Viv is even gonna be there sheriff,” Holiday pulled his arm away. “We should go to the gun store.” David pointed down the street beside the park. “Then if we go into the park and there are a shit ton of zombies, at least we stand a chance.” Holiday nodded and peered around the corner of the edge of the building toward the sheriff office building. Zombies still staggered around by his car but not as many as there were before.

“More guns and ammo will help when we need to get out of here too.” Holiday said walking crouched to a turned over car on the street. David followed and slowly they crept down the street towards Bartley’s Guns and Ammo store as a loud monstrous roar filled the city from an unknown source.

Chapter 4 – Meeting Destiny

“What the hell was that?” Jane asked as she tied her blonde hair into a ponytail. She snapped the elastic on her hair and adjusted her pink sweater to cover her stomach. She grabbed her rifle off the desk and ran toward the front door holding the gun backwards.

“Stop asking,” Eric replied staring through a peep hole cut into the barricaded front door of the gun store. “You asked the same thing when we heard gunshots ten minutes ago.” He walked away from the door rolling his eyes as he saw her holding the rifle backwards. She flipped it around now holding it the right way. Eric sat down in an old wooden chair, hoisting up his baggy jeans to make it easier; He rubbed the short stubbles on the top of his head and continued. “They were gunshots.”

“Ya but that was a roar just now,” she said in a nasally squeaky voice.

“There ya go; you answered your own damn question. It was a roar.” Jane smiled as if she was complimented. Eric grabbed a hand mirror off the small table beside his chair and pointed it at his face slowly shaking his head. With his other hand he poked at his cheek beneath his eye slightly wincing at the pain. The gun store had its own generator and with all the windows and doors boarded up from the inside nothing outside could see the lights or get in. Earlier Jane had hit him in the face with her rifle when it got stuck on a gun rack. She could not get it off and while tugging at it Eric came to help. She got it free when he got closer and bashed him by accident. “I told you to not fuck around with the guns!” He said slamming the mirror back onto the table.

“I said I was sorry Eric!” She exclaimed. “It’s just a little bump anyways! Why are you being such a baby?”

“It’s all swollen and bruised! What do you mean little bump?!” they both spoke at once - neither clearly hearing the other.

“What?” he asked staring at her intently with his brown eyes. Not sure exactly what she said but still hearing enough to take offence. He raised one of his eyebrows.

“I said how is it going to bruise?” she replied and placed the rifle down on a table. She then stood with one hand on her hip and the other one was raised as she waited for an answer.

Eric shook his head, “You are not that blonde?!” He said, now sure he was offended. Jane’s face turned to confusion.

“Black men don’t bruise …. Right?” she asked relaxing her arms. Eric erupted in anger at the question and began screaming at Jane.

“Of course we do!” He continued as; Jane screamed back trying to be louder than Eric. Suddenly, another person appeared in the room.

“What the fuck are you guys doing!?” She hollered stomping down the stairs. “Calling every zombie in town? Shut the fuck up!” She walked past them and headed into the back room. Eric and Jane stopped yelling and turned away from each other.

“Sorry Destiny,” Eric said as he turned his head to check out her ass in her mini jean skirt as she walked.

“Just my luck I get stuck with a ditzy blonde and the only whiny black guy in the entire state.” She muttered under her breath. The others didn’t hear her. She called herself Destiny although that was not her real name. She prided herself for having exceptionally long black hair. She was heading through the state trying to put as much distance between her and her abusive ex as she could. On her way to ‘anywhere’ she decided that if her ex-boyfriend caught up to her, it would be best if she had some protection. She was at the gun store when everything started going to hell.

“Hey Eric!” she yelled into the front room from the back room. “Come gimme a hand will ya?”  She said as Eric walked into the room. She lifted up a box and set it on a table. The entire back room was filled with boxes but they had no idea what was in them. The owner, a man named Bartley, died shortly after going outside to see what was happening. The others barricaded themselves in and were now out of food. Destiny pulled out a hunting knife and cut into the top of a box. “Grab a box and help,” she said. Eric grabbed a box and placed it beside hers. He pulled out a Swiss army knife and cut into the top of his box. Destiny chuckled slightly.

“What?” he asked as he held the tiny tool.

“Nothing,” she said clearing her throat, “just didn’t know people still carried those.” She opened the top of her box and searched through it. A bunch of small fireworks was all that she found. Eric rolled his eyes at her and opened his box. It held the same thing as well as an assortment of large ones.

“Well that is just great.” He said pushing the box off the table spilling out some of the fireworks. He stormed off back into the front room as Destiny put her box on the ground and followed him sighing loudly.

“Find anything to eat?” Jane asked, perky as always.

“No Jane,” Destiny said as she opened the gun cabinet behind the front desk and pulled out a pair of 9mm pistols. “We didn’t find anything to eat.”

Destiny began walking towards the front door, checking her two guns to see if they had ammo as she walked. They were full of ammo and even though she had never fired a gun before, she had been around her ex-boyfriend for too long. She knew if she had to she could use them.

“What are you doin?” Eric asked walking in-between her and the door. “Don’t think going out there is such a great idea right now Hun.” He said reaching for her guns. She pulled away and gave him a very angry look.

“I will go wherever the fuck I want,” she said, “We need food and are a block away from a supermarket.” She pushed past Eric and up to the door looking out through the peephole. “Don’t ever call me Hun again,” she said putting her guns on the ground and grabbing a hammer that was lying in front of the door. The door then slowly slid open towards her with a creak. She looked at the door; a big strong wooden door, with boards all around it. The only problem was, the boards were only nailed to the door and not to the frame around it. She looked at Jane who sat in the chair looking at them innocently; it was Jane who ‘barricaded’ the door. Eric leaned down to Jane and softly said,

“You nailed the boards to the door and not the frame?”

“I don’t know physics! Thought it looked good enough like in the movies and stuff.” Jane replied as Eric placed his hands on his head and turned away in frustration.

“Right, good job!” Destiny said sarcastically as she dropped the hammer and picked up her guns. “I’m gonna go, Eric would you please fix this?”  Eric nodded as Destiny closed the door behind her as she left the gun store.

She was immediately on the side walk which ran down the street close to the buildings. Beside the gun store was the Pharmasave Drugstore. It had lots of medicine but no food; not even a single vending machine with snacks. She would have to go around the corner and down a few buildings before reaching the Superdeluxe Mart.

              She pointed her pistols all around her; she felt like she was in a video game and her body surged with adrenaline. No zombies were in sight but she knew that could change quickly. She started heading down the middle of the road. The trees of the park blocked her view of what was around the corner and she wasn’t taking any chances. She walked quickly, watching the tree line and the alleys for any runner kind of zombies. The slow ones were a joke, at least to her; they were not worth wasting a bullet. Last night four of them saw a man who was a zombie running toward the gun store, they thought it was a real person but quickly discovered it was not when Bartley went out to help and was attacked. In Destiny’s eyes that made the fast zombies the problem. She had seen dozens of slow moving zombies walk by the store. Some tripped over their own feet; others just went in circles for no reason. That was not scary or even a big threat to her. She neared the corner which had a big tree at the edge of the park. She walked up to it and placed her back against it. She leaned around the corner smirking at how easy it had been so far. Her smirk faded as she saw what awaited her at the supermarket just down the street. Out in front of it, she could see six zombies standing motionless staring off into the park’s tree line. She couldn’t tell if they were fast or slow ones but knew it was a major risk finding out. To make matters worse, inside the massive glass windows lining the front of the supermarket, she could see at least a dozen more zombies. From the angle she was at, she couldn’t see much more and she didn’t need to. She sighed with disappointment and thought about what to do next.