Dying To Live & Fighting To Live-Book One and Book Two (Zombie Overload Series) (17 page)

And what does
everyone decide to do? Yep. They stop.

I give a huge
exaggerated sigh and throw up my arms. Startled, Will looks at me.

"What? Whats
wrong?"

"Don't any of
you people watch scary movies? Ghosts could be here or psycho
killers. Who would stop in a place like this?" I ask with
exasperation.

"Oh, Honey,
that's just the movies," I watch him as he stops cold halfway
out the door, remembering the 'it's just a movie' situation we are
living in right now. He turns his head back to me and I raise a brow
at him. He gets back in and slams the door shut. His wrists rest on
the top of the steering wheel and he chews at his bottom lip, looking
around nervously.

I watch as Jake and
Dad walk to his window. Will avoids looking at them. They just stand
outside the window, staring at him. I wonder how long this game will
go on. Them staring, him avoiding. Finally, Dad raps his knuckle on
the window. Will jumps and acts like he didn't even know they were
there. Men! And they say we are the dramatic ones.

Lowering the window,
Will grins at them and says, "Hey, guys! Didn't see ya there."
Hehehe! Rrriiight
"What's going on?"

Dad and Jake cross
their arms and stare at him for a moment.

Finally, Dad speaks,
"Well, we thought it might be a good idea to check some of these
buildings out, considering there doesn’t appear to be anyone
around."

Jake, "Yeah.
That is, unless you'd rather stay with the women and kids. I mean, we
can handle it."

Such total asses!
And of course, Will being a man and all, has to prove it. He gives me
a look saying, 'sorry but I have to' and gets out. I punch the dash
and let out a low frustrated scream. I sit back against my seat and
am totally in the 'I'm gonna kill my husband' zone when I feel a hand
come down on my shoulder.

I scream and jump
forward, banging my head on the windshield, not to mention smashing
my boobs on the dash. I whip around and see the top of my son's head
hiding behind the seat. Grabbing my chest where my heart is trying to
pound through, I fully turn in my seat and lean over the back.

Touching Ash's head,
I tell him it's ok. He raises his face to me, looking as if he's
going to burst into tears. I fling my arms around him and pull him
up. I tell him to climb over and he does. I hold him and he
apologizes for scaring me. I laugh and tell him I know he didn't mean
to and I love him. I hold him for awhile until he calms down and then
I scoot over to the driver's seat. Starting the truck, I see the men
burst out of the grocery store. I wave at them and tell them I'm just
moving up beside Mom. Will waves and nods and they go back inside.

Parking next to the
passenger side of my parents Hummer, I lower my window and Mom does
the same with hers. I see Bo in the back playing on his Gameboy and
Kaleb passed out in his carseat. Glancing back at Mom, I notice she
looks a little uneasy.

"Mom, whats
wrong?" I ask her

"This place
just isn't right. I don't like it here. We shouldn't have stopped."
She tells me.

I nod my head and
tell her I had told Will the same thing. She shakes her head and
mutters, "MEN!"
See?
Men!

We grow quiet as we
search the shadows for....well, anything! I hear the men as they
leave the grocery store and head toward Jake's truck. They have their
arms loaded with bags. Ok. So, if there were food in there, that
means someone would have had to stock it. But who? And where are the
others? This just doesn’t make any sense. If anything, there
should be bodies. At least
one
!

The men leave Jake's
truck and head to the pharmacy. I think I see movement down by the
gas station. I stare harder but still can't tell for sure. I whisper
to my mom and she starts watching that area, too. Suddenly, we see
several shadows moving in the fog at the opposite end of town, only
two blocks away. I turn and look behind us for the men but, instead,
my entire life flashes before my eyes.

Both ends of the
main street are now packed with human forms. Stumbling, shuffling.
Yeah, it's the damn dead alright! I don't know what to do, scream or
honk? Mom makes the decision for me. She honks
and
screams. I
look at all the buildings trying to find them. At last, I see my dad
and Jake running for us. Jake jumps in his truck and Dad in his. I
don't see Will!

"Where's Will?"
I scream over at my dad.

"He went
upstairs in the pharmacy. I thought he'd be here by now." Dad
looks back and still, no Will. I see Jake moving his truck sideways
in the street. Dad does the same. All I can do is look for Will.
Watching the door of the pharmacy, I keep honking. Surely he's heard
me by now!

I hear the sound of
rapid gunfire coming from Jake's truck and see him standing in a hole
in the roof. A gun is propped up by a tripod and he's dropping the
dead quick. Hearing the same sound in front of me, I swivel my head
and see my dad doing the same. Well, what the hell? I turn, look up,
and see a knob in the roof of our truck. Twisting the knob, I raise
the hatch until it bangs against the top of the roof. I tell Ash to
stay in the front and watch for his dad, then moving the baby in her
carrier to the floor, I lift the backseat to see what other goodies
are in there that Jake was kind enough
not
to tell me about.

Oh. my. God! Guns
galore! I'm lovin' this! And in the corner, nestled into their own
little pouches, were what looked like hideous Christmas ornaments.
Oh
boy!
I know what those are!
But just because I've seen
grenades used in the movies, I hardly think I'm brave enough to try
them myself. Jake has some teaching to do. Just as I'm putting my
hand out to grab the big machine gun like Jake and Dad are using,
which by the way is right next to the grenades, an explosion rocks
the truck. I scream and fly down in the floorboard next to the baby,
certain I somehow set off a grenade and am now dead.

Realizing it wasn't
me, and I'm obviously not dead, I jump back up and grab the gun. I am
so
pissed now! I hate being scared. Popping up out of the
hatch, I set the gun up and look around. Dad and Jake have done a
good job keeping them back but some have still gotten through. I see
Jake throw something into the crowd and this time, I'm prepared for
the big boom. But I wasn't watching Dad and his damn grenade made me
scream and duck. Some of the zombies that got past the men are now
pounding on their vehicles and some are heading toward us. I take out
the ones I can but realize I can't hit the ones around the vehicles
without risking lives....of the living.

I duck back down and
snatch up my handgun and the rifle. By this time, the dead are
beating on our truck and Ash flies into the back with me. He sits on
the floor close to the baby, putting one arm over her and one arm
covering his head. My boy is shaking in fear and that's not good for
the undead. You just don't piss off a mom!

I go back to the
hatch and climb out onto the roof. Crawling across to each side, I
use my handgun to take out the ones beating on our truck. When those
go down, I switch to my sniper rifle, shooting the ones on my side of
both Jake and Dad's Hummers. When Jake sees the zombies drop, he
looks back at me with surprise. Then he gives me a big grin and a
thumbs-up.

I turn and continue
shooting whatever gets through the two men while, at same time, still
looking for my husband. I hear him calling my name but I can't see
him. I look wildly around and finally spot him on the roof of the
three-story pharmacy. I yell for him to stay there and he nods. I
look around and take out two more zombies before leaving the roof of
the Hummer and going back inside. Jumping into the drivers seat, I
turn the truck on and race it over as close as I can get to the
pharmacy. I tell Ash to stay down and that I would be right back with
his dad, knowing the undead couldn't bust through this glass. Calling
Jake, I tell him what I'm going to do and he argues with me not to go
but I win this argument. Telling him Ash will have Will's phone, I
hang up. I hand him his dad's cell and show him how to call Jake. I
yell up at Will through the hatch to start back down. He yells
something to me and I assume it was an 'ok' or something along those
lines. Opening the front passenger door, I get out quickly, shooting
the two zombies closest to me, and I hear Will scream something at
me, but I can't hear him with the guns and grenades going off. I run
inside the store.

I shut the door to
keep the others out and, turning, look for the stairs. I find them in
the back room, where thousands of prescription bottles of different
size and shapes sit on rows of shelves. Racing up the stairs, I come
to an open room. And stop. The room is dark but I can see shadows of
objects. The room is filled with these shadows. Except for the guns
and grenades outside, inside it's quiet. But I still feel that
something isn't right. I hold my gun out in front of me, my eyes
sweeping from one side of the room to the other, my gun following
that same path. I see a movement to my right and spin towards it. But
there's nothing but shadows and darkness. Moving inside the room
slowly and still alert, I wonder why Will isn't down yet. Then a
serious sense of urgency crashes through me. Something is telling me
to find Will
now
! I get an intense feeling he was in extreme
danger!

Forgetting the dark
and the shadows, I fly through the room, banging and crashing into
things I can't see. I search for open doorways, closed doorways, the
stairs, but I can't feel anything except the walls and all the crap
I'm knocking off them. I'm feeling panicky and frantic with fear. I
try telling myself to calm down, there
has
to be a door here
somewhere. How else had he gotten up? Taking a few deep breaths, I
start over, searching the walls. Finally, I find it. It's tucked into
a corner of the room. Frantically, I twist and pull at the doorknob.
It won't open! In frustration, I punch it hard with the side of my
fist. It opens out, squealing on hinges that desperately need oiled.
I shiver at the sound, a sound every horror movie fan knows well.

I stand at the
bottom of the steps looking up into pure darkness. Again, where the
hell
is Will?
Is
he in danger? If not, he would be down
here already, right? I place my foot on the first step and hear
movement behind me. Whipping around, gun ready, I see.....
nothing
!
I convince myself it was only a mouse, hell, even a rat. At this
point, mice and rats are tame compared to the infestation we have
now. I take another look around and start back up the stairs. I make
it halfway up when I hear another sound. This time, above me. Will!
Finally!
I hurry up the stairs, as fast as I can in the dark,
and smash my face into a door. Clutching the handrail as tight as I
can to keep from falling down the stairs, I drop my gun. At this
point, the gun was the furthest thing from my mind. I bring my right
hand up and gently touch my nose. I feel a warm, thick liquid run
over my lips and I can hear a 'plop, plop' noise on the step below
me. Little bursts of light are shooting around in my eyes.
Son-of-a-bitch, that hurt!
I remember the extra socks in my
fatigue pocket and yank them out. I wipe as much of the blood on my
lips and chin as I can. I roll it into a ball and, not wanting to
trip on it when we go back down, shove it back in my pocket. Taking
the other one, I hold it to my nose.

Something slams into
the door above me. I jump back and once again clutch the handrail for
dear life. I wait for more sound, but none come. Bending down, I run
my hand along the steps, looking for my gun. The door starts banging
and jerking in it's frame.

"Will?" I
call out. "Will? Is that you?" No response. What the hell
is going on? I can't hear any moans or grunts, two trademarks of the
zombies.

Still searching for
the gun, I keep my eyes up, toward the door that I can't see even
see. With a crash, the thin door comes raining down on me in large
pieces. I scream and throw my arms up to cover my head. The force of
something large tumbling down slams into me and I fly down the
stairs, backwards. I hit the bottom floor, mostly with my back, but
my head smacks the wooden planks pretty hard from the force of the
fall. The pain is incredible, but I can still move and I stay
conscious, so I'm sure the injuries aren't serious. Something heavy
is laying on me. The shattered door at the top allows some light in
but not much. I look down and see long, blond, stringy and tangled
hair. Instantly, I freak! Shit! Now what? She's skinny and light
enough I'm able to move her off of me. She's facing up now and I can
just make out that she's wearing a green and white checked sundress.
Her face is bruised with small round circles in several places. Her
face is gaunt, mostly bone, very little fat. Those same small round
bruises cover her hands, arms and legs. She doesn't look like a
zombie, though. At least, not yet. She hasn't moved or made any
sounds. I dart my eyes around looking for my gun, too afraid to take
my attention from her for very long.