Hell Bound (Book 1): A Vacation From Hell (5 page)

Chapter 8

If you are going through hell,

keep going.

- Sir Winston Churchill-

             
“We have one bat for protection,” Kat says from the back seat.

    “Then I guess we have no choice but to go into Bass Pro Shop, might have some first aid kits, I didn’t see any at WalMart,” I say while scanning our surroundings. 

              Outside is just as bad as WalMart, people are all over the place, going crazy. They are running away from zombies screaming for help, dodging vehicles in the street, others are looting televisions, DVD players, and anything else they can get their hands on.

              We drive around in what seems like a big circle looking for the Bass pro shop when, finally we see it in the parking lot of a strip mall. Great just what we need is a busy mall full of scared people. 

              We pull into the bass pro shop and, of course, our luck isn’t that good, just like WalMart there are people screaming and running in and out of the store. Pushing the button on the armrest, to roll down my window and try to listen for any signs of the horrible screaming.

              “I don’t think I hear any zombies,” I say while rolling my window back up.

              “Good hopefully it stays that way, but look at the people, they are going crazy,” Mathew says worriedly as he parks the car. We leap out of the car and we run like hell inside the store.

              We head straight for the second story ignoring every person in site but paying close enough attention to any signs of zombies in the store. We reach the hunting section and start grabbing bows, hunting knives and anything else we think would be helpful.

     I see backpacks hanging up in an aisle and grab four of them. I pass them out to Mathew and Kat. I keep the other two with me so we can fill up all four bags. 
It doesn’t hurt to have extra weapons in hand
.

              Shoving as much stuff inside of our bags as possible, bows, arrows, and hunting knives. The bows that we have we put over our shoulders along with the backpacks.

              I have no clue how to shoot a bow but hopefully we can learn later on. I find two first aid kits in the hunting isle and shove them in my backpack. “Did we get enough?” I yell as I try to talk over all the other people in the store.              

    “Yes enough for now, but I think they sell MRE’s here. Let’s grab a couple just in case.” We start looking down every isle trying to find MRES but find nothing. My shoulders are starting to ache because of all the weight I am carrying.

              I can imagine even Mathew and Kat’s shoulders hurt too. We keep going down each aisle, grabbing anything we may need to survive, getting bumped and pushed by other panic customers. Jogging back down to the first floor, I see two women fighting over a pair of hunting boots.

              It’s literally a cat fight; the taller of the two women grabs the shorter one by her hair and starts pulling her down to the floor. The other woman is holding on to the boots for dear life.

              Good God, what happened to humanity?  Since this morning, the whole world turned upside down and it’s every man for them self.

              Ignoring the two women that are fighting, we keep jogging to the exit. We pass the registers, and make it outside. We make it back to the car without any other incidents. As we are about to jump into the car, we hear the screeching scream of a zombie.

              We turn our heads towards the sound and two zombies run inside of Bass Pro Shop. Horrible, terrifying Screams feel the store, “What the hell! How did they get here so fast? Is it spreading that quickly?” I question, knowing Mathew and Kat don’t have the answer.

   “Try calling your parents or Jennifer again,” Mathew says as he gets the car started.

              Trying to grab my phone from the car charger in the middle counsel, but my hand is shaking so bad, I keep losing my grip on my phone and dropping it on the floor. Using both of my hands, I finally dial my parent’s number.

              Ringing feels the phone speakers, “it’s working!” I say while smiling. It rings three times before I hear my mother’s voice on the other end.

    “Sam! Is that you?”

My mother voice sounds nervous, scared.

   “Momma! Are you guys ok? Are you safe? Are our boys ok?” speaking quickly into the phone, afraid that the phone could cut out at any moment.

      “Yes we’re all fine; we are safe at home still. Are you ok?”

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.

              “Yes we are ok; we are still in Arizona, but on our way back home. How bad is it there?”

    “It’s Bad Sam! Real BAD!! We boarded up the windows and doors. For once I am glad we don’t have a lot of neighbors living around us.”

     “Ok momma we got supplies, we will get to you as soon as possible?”

       “Ok, please hurry sweetheart.” 

      “I don’t know how long the signal is going to last on our phones. But I will try calling you back when we get closer. Please keep everyone safe and hug our boys. Keep an eye open for Jennifer please.”

              Before my mom had a chance to reply the phones cut out. I look from the phone and hug my husband. Even though we are still so far from home, it felt good to know my parents and boys are ok. I sigh and look up at my husband and give him a kiss on the lips.

              Mathew starts the car and shifts gears to reverse. I look around, watching everybody running away from the store. Some are running towards their cars and others are running towards the mall parking lot. What would have been a beautiful hot summer day turned into a day of Hell.

              I wish we could help some of these families, but we don’t have room in the car. I am sure we can try, but we can only fit one more person.  I’m afraid that whoever we pick up may have a gun and try to rob us of what we were able to get. If that happens, where would we be?                                                        “I wish we grabbed a map of this state, I don’t want to jump on the freeway. Not unless we have too,” Mathew says out loud.

    “We need to get gas anyways; maybe we can grab a map?” I mention.

    “If we thought WalMart and Bass Pro Shop was bad. Can you imagine trying to get gas?” Kat speaks up from the back.

   “She has a point, how are we going to get gas?” I ask curious and scared of what a gas station may look like.

              Chapter 9

We are living on the brink of                 the apocalypse,

     but the world is asleep

        -Joel C. Rosenberg-

             
I really don’t want to get out of this car. I’m terrified to even set foot outside the door or even open the window a crack. I feel safer in our little car, like it will protect us from the outside world.

              “We can look for a gas station that is more isolated?” I say with excitement, like I thought of the best idea on the planet.   

              “That is not a bad idea. I know a little gas station outside of town; it’s on the boarder of California and Arizona. Can we make it that long?” Kat mentions.

    “ummm maybe….. We have less than half a tank right now. I guess we can try and if we can’t make it, then we will go to the gas station Kat told us about than we can find another one closer.” 

              I nod to Mathew and just stay quiet. I’m so tired; my legs feel like jelly from all the running we did earlier. I don’t even have the energy to talk. My eye hurts, my head is throbbing, my feet are full of blisters from all the running we are doing. I just want to go to sleep in our bed and not wake up for days!

              Two days ago, I was so happy to be going on vacation away from work and my boys, but now I just want things back to normal. I want my busy schedule back, Work, kid’s, house, cleaning, cooking, it all sounds so wonderful.

              I wake up to someone shaking me awake. I didn’t even know I fell asleep.

    “Sam baby wake up.”

     I look around with the one good eye that I currently still have, all I can see is pitch black outside “where are we?” I ask while checking my phone for any missed calls or text messages or missed calls but unfortunately there is still no signal.

    “We need to stop for a bath room brake and stop for the night. I’m all over the road,” Mathew says.

     Mathew’s eyes look puffy from lack of sleep; his face looks like they are forming winkles from all the stress. He looks like he aged three years over night.

    “Where are we?”  I ask again, while rubbing my eyes.

              “I was about to get on the on ramp to the freeway, but there was a long line of cars, as far as I can see. I figured it would be safer to take the side roads, but without a map I got lost. So I pulled over,” Mathew answers me, as he gets out of the car and stretches his arms above his head.

              I turn around to check on Kat, who is fast asleep; her head is leaning against the window. Poor thing she doesn’t look very comfortable, she looks so cramped. I shack her leg to wake her up, she stirs and then looks up at me.

   “Where are we?”  

    “We’re still in Arizona, but on the back roads.”

She sits straighter and looks around, “It’s dark.” 

    “Yeah it is, Mathew is tired and we need gas.” 

       “I can’t drive around and I don’t want to stop at a gas station at night. I saw a sign for a gas station two miles down this road. But I pulled over so I can rest; I don’t think I can make it two miles.”

    “We will keep watch, come morning when it’s safer we will drive down to the gas station,” I mention to Mathew as I gently brush his hair back.

      Kat and Mathew switch spots so he can be more comfortable sleeping in the back seat.

      “I haven’t seen any zombies, but I saw several cars going in the same direction as us.”Mathew says while he tries to get comfortable.

              I have first watch so I’m sitting here staring out in the darkness. Mathew must have fallen asleep because he’s snoring really loud in the back seat. Kat is sound asleep mumbling something, I can’t seem to catch. I look up in the dark sky to see a billion stars twinkling in the distance. 

              I roll down all the windows a crack, just enough to get some fresh air inside of the car. The dash board says its one hundred degrees, hopefully we will get a fresh breeze and it will cool down the inside of this sauna. Man, how can anyone enjoy living in Arizona?

              Its ten thirty at night, it should be cooler not hotter. I check my phone hoping the internet would work but still no signal. It would be nice to know what is really going on in the world and how bad everything is.

              Trying to text Jennifer or my parents again, but my phone keeps saying “message failed.”

              Needing to pee but I don’t want to go outside by myself. I also don’t want to wake any one up. They need to sleep. Sometime later, I’m starting to do the potty dance in my seat.

              There’s no way I can hold it. I lean over and grab Mathew and try to shake him awake. He’s out cold and wont wake up. I have seen enough zombie movies to know that, it’s stupid of me to step outside by myself. But I really need to go!

              I lean over and grab a flash light on the floor of the car. I shine the light outside and look for any sign of movement. 

     Thankfully don’t see anything, I don’t hear anything but Mathew’s snoring. I try one more time to shake Mathew but he still doesn’t move.

              I open the door just a little bit, just in case something pops out of the dark. I open the door all the way and turn around and set the flash light on the driver seat and shine it towards me.

              I pull down my pants and squat down right there in front of the open door. No need to go wondering off in the darkness when there are zombies around. I’m about to finish up, when I hear twigs snapping somewhere nearby.

              My heart starts to race as I hear more Twiggs snap. I know it could be anything but I don’t want to go looking around to find out.

              I hurry and finish up, jumping back in the car. Wow I think that was the fastest I have ever pee in my life. I shine my flash light towards, where I heard the twigs break. A couple minutes go by and I still don’t see anything, must have been a rabbit.

              I push the button to double check that the doors are locked, just in case. Realizing its mid night and Kats turn to get up to take watch. I lean over and start to nudge her awake. “Kat it’s your turn, time to get up.”

      She opens up her eyes and slowly gets up, putting her hand on the door handle.    

    “Wait; let’s just jump over each other. I don’t want to walk around outside in the dark.” She nods her head and tries to climb over me. Luckily we manage to climb over each other without falling.

              I try to get comfortable in the passenger seat but my butt hurts and my head is still pounding. I pop two more Tylenol extra strength pills into my mouth and drink some water. I lean my head against the cool window and drift off into a peaceful slumber.

              I slowly open my eyes to the bright morning sun shining in my face. The temperature seems to be just as hot as it was last night. Does the weather ever cool down? I wipe the sweat that is dripping off of my fore head, looking around. I see Kat past out in the front seat and turn around to check on Mathew.

              I start to panic when I don’t see Mathew in the car; I look around the outside of the car and don’t see any signs of Mathew. He might have gone to the rest room?

              I grab my knife by my feet and put it in my pants buckle and get out of the car. I close the door behind me and yell for Mathew, “Mathew! Mathew!”

       A couple minutes go by and I don’t hear or see anything. I don’t want to walk to far away from the car just in case Kat wakes up.

              I decide to walk just a couple feet around the car to see if I can see where he went. “Mathew! MATTHHEEWWW!”

  “Babe! I’m over here lower your voice!” He calls, coming around the corner of a tree.

   “Where were you? I was afraid you where hurt,” I pull him close and hug him, I start checking for any sort of bite mark or scratch on his body.

              “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up. But I just walked down the street a ways to see how far the gas station is.”

    “Oh, how far is it?” I say while I lean up to his face and give him a kiss on the check.

    “Well about a mile down the road. The problem is there are a lot of people there. It looks like they are fighting over the gas pumps.”

    “Just our luck isn’t it. What are you thinking?” He’s silent for a couple minutes, lost in thought, when Kat comes running up to us

   “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Good morning sun shine. We are talking about the gas station down the road,” I say, as I give her a good morning hug.

              “I’m thinking that we hide the car further from the road and walk to the gas station,” Mathew says.

I look at him with a questionable look,

“Why, would we do that?” 

              “So no one tries to steal our supplies, we will just take the little ten gallon gas tank with us and fill it up.”

   “Okay, can we eat first then get a move on,” Kat says impatient.

   “We eat on the go; I don’t want them to run out of gas by the time we get there.” Mathew says while holding my hand and walking back to the car.