Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse (Issue #2 | September 2015)

Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse

Issue #2 – September 2015

Other Zombie Apocalypse Stories and Collections Published by

Michael Anthony

These Stories are all Free if you are a Kindle Unlimited Member.
Otherwise, only 99 cents each.

Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse Issue #1

Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse Issue #3
Clearing the Zombies from the Tampa Zoo
Zombies Attack a Day Care Center
The Rabid
Miguel and the Zombie Apocalypse: Getting Out of Jail

1. Stuck on the Freeway – by Michael Anthony
   
2. A Story of Nothing, Least of All Living – by Jackson Hewlett
   
3. Family Dinner - by Christina Estrada
   
4. Zombie Apocalypse, The Generations Suffer – by H.K. Sutherland
   
5. A Dead World is Born from Chaos and Pain – by Jackson Hewlett
   
6. Fire and Blood – by Jack Blare
   
7. Surprise, Surprise – by Jennifer Fuson
   
8. The Feast – by Christina Estrada
   
9. The Estimation of Death and the Undying – by Jackson Hewlett
   
10. Last Chance – by Brendan Cole
    

“Stuck on the Freeway”

Story #1

By

Michael Anthony

“
The Mayor has issued a mandatory evacuation order for Phoenix and all surrounding communities. Please evacuate the area immediately. The Mayor has declared a state of emergency in Phoenix and all surrounding communities.”

The message droned on over and over again on every station. Then that annoying Emergency Broadcast System tone that did nothing but worsen everybody's anxiety and fear as well as cause headaches started blaring again.

“
Please stay tuned to this station for further instructions. *Annoying Sound* The Mayor has issued a mandatory evacuation …
click.”

Jacob switched off the radio and wiped the sweat from his forehead. That emergency broadcast noise was like nails on a chalkboard, screeching through his brain and leaving a massive headache in its wake.

“This is bullshit, Jake. Why didn't you get that damn AC fixed?”  His wife asked in her usual nagging tone.

“In the middle of a god damn evacuation and you’re bitching at me about the AC??” Jacob shook his head in bewilderment then wiped more sweat from his forehead. First there was the dripping sweat then that irritating noise on the radio, and now he had to deal with his wife bitching and whining about the AC. His headache pounded in unison with her every word.

But then again, he shouldn't really blame her, it was 110 degrees outside. But inside his cramped 1995 Corolla with no AC, it felt like 210 degrees. Even putting all the windows down didn't help much. With no breeze and the car at a stop on the freeway under the blazing sun, it was no wonder Jake, Susie and their 6 year old son Cody were baking in the old Japanese oven made by Toyota.

Jacob switched the radio back on, hoping for some news about why this sudden evacuation was happening. No luck, the same Emergency Broadcast message kept playing over and over again. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, he wondered what could cause this, it sure wasn’t a thunderstorm.

Horns started blaring behind them. They had been on Interstate 17 stuck and not moving an inch for more than an hour. Jacob wished more than anything that he had some ice cold Budweiser with him. Again no luck, drinking and driving was still illegal in Arizona.

“Daddy, I have to go pee.” Cody whined.

“Why didn’t you go before we left, Cody?” His mother snapped at him.

“We’ve been stuck here for a long time, hun… Cody, go ahead and go to that bush right there.” Jacob pointed to a dried up shrub off to the right side of the freeway.

Cody got out of the car and rushed across the two lanes of completely stopped traffic, hiding behind the bush.

“Why would they evacuate the entire city? There ain’t a cloud in the sky?” Jacob wondered out loud.

“I don’t know, but I really wish you had fixed the AC in this piece of crap.” Susie snapped at him again. She wiped her face with an old T shirt.

“Why can’t you stop bitching for just a minute? Something weird is going on.” Jacob’s train of thought was cut off by the sound of helicopters overhead.

Ten Apache choppers in a V formation were flying back toward the city, fast. The sound of the rotors was deafening.

It wasn’t until the choppers had long passed that Jacob and Susie heard Cody yelling as he ran back to the car.

“Monsters!! Monsters!!”

Then gunfire.

“What the hell?” Jacob leaned his head out the window to look behind their car. There were people outside their cars shooting at other people with rifles, shotguns and pistols.

“Get in here!! Hurry!!” Susie opened the passenger door, leaned forward and pulled Cody into the back seat of the Corolla. “Stay down, sweetie.”

“They just keep coming. Nobody could take getting shot a dozen times in the chest and still keep walking.” Jacob was baffled at what he saw behind their car.

There seemed to be dozens, maybe even more than a hundred people walking up the freeway toward them. Not alongside the freeway, just walking on the freeway in between cars and trucks. And they weren’t really walking, more like shambling and dragging their feet. They were moving so slowly and the gunfire did nothing to stop them. As they came closer they would grab at the people shooting at them, pull them to the ground or bite at their necks, faces and arms.

“Some really crazy shit is going on here.” Jacob said to Susie. “Hurry put up your window and get down.”

As they rolled up their windows and slumped down, the horde of people or monsters reached their car. Cody started crying in the back seat.

“Shhh… quiet.” Jacob said, looking back at his frightened little boy.

One of the stumbling people stopped at the Corolla and looked in the window, then another and another. In just a moment, the car was completely swarmed on all sides.

For the first time, Jacob got a good look at these monsters, as Cody called them. And they did look like monsters. Every one of their faces looked dead with cloudy eyes and grey skin. Many of them had been injured and looked like they had been torn apart by something. The one pawing at the driver’s side window was missing a huge chunk from his neck. He obviously used to be a man in his mid 30s. He was still wearing a suit and tie, but the front was covered in drying caked on blood. His windpipe was mangled and hanging out of the gaping hole in his throat.

The woman on the passenger side window was missing one of her eyeballs and the opposite side of her face was gone. Her tongue squirming inside her mouth was easily seen through the torn up flesh and missing teeth on the side of her face. Her breathy gasps and creepy moans could be heard clearly through the closed up window.

Three others crawled up on to the hood of the Toyota, reaching up to the windshield, desperately clawing at the glass and making those horrific growling moaning noises.

“Oh my God, Jake, what is happening?” Susie covered her face, tears were pouring down her sweat drenched face. She had never been so terrified.

Cody was crying loudly in the back seat yelling, “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die.”

“It's like they're zombies, right out of the movies.” Jacob said quietly to his wife.

“Whatever they are, they need to get the hell away from us!” Susie's voice was panicked.

“Mommy, I don't feel good.” Cody said weakly.

“Just stay down, honey. Everything will be okay.” She tried to comfort him, even though she couldn't hide the terror in her tone of voice. She wondered if Cody knew that she was lying to him. She had no idea if they would ever get out of this alive.

The twisted mangled zombie faces were almost completely covering every inch of every window of the Corolla. The growling, hissing noises were so loud, Jacob could barely hear himself think. They kept pushing at the car, rocking it back and forth. Jacob and Susie slumped down as far as they could in their seats while Cody laid down in the back seat. All three of them dripping sweat in the scorching heat.

The zombie creatures continued rocking the car back and forth, growling and moaning and making those eerie unnatural gurgling noises that make the hairs on the back of the neck stand up and tremble.

“Mommy, I feel sick.” Cody said in a weak voice from the back seat.

“Just hold on baby.” Susie replied to him. All she could think about was how badly she wished these ugly creatures would go away.

All three were having trouble breathing in the sweltering heat of the car. An hour had passed since the zombies swarmed the Corolla according to Jacob’s watch. The temperature was nearly unbearable. Jacob and Susie both spent the entire hour wiping the sweat which poured down their faces while they tried to avoid looking into the horrifying faces in the windows.

Then the sound of Cody vomiting broke through the noises of the undead surrounding their car. Jacob sat up in the driver’s seat and reached back to check on his son. Seeing Jacob move seemed to excite the zombies outside the car, they rocked the car back and forth with much more vigor than before. Jacob and Susie both tried to stifle themselves from making any gasps or noises that might agitate the zombies further.

Cody began to seize violently just as Jacob reached back to him. His skin felt hot and dry. His face was bright red. He felt under Cody’s nose, he was still breathing but fast and shallow. Blood started pouring out his mouth. The seizure made Cody bite deep into his tongue.

“Cody is sick. We gotta get him out of here.” He whispered to Susie, his voice trembled. He didn’t know what was wrong with Cody, but he knew he needed to get to his only child to the hospital and fast.

“How do we do that? Do you see these monsters all around us??” Susie responded with anger and fear.

“I don’t know but we gotta figure something out. He is really sick. The heat is getting to him and we’re outta water to cool him down.” Jacob spoke as calmly as he could, hoping that Susie would follow suit and regain her composure.

Jacob wished that they had prepared for something like this. He thought back to when his neighbor was trying to convince him to buy cases of water and MREs. Now Jacob felt real stupid that he used to make fun of his crazy doomsday prepper neighbor. He could really use some cool water to help his son right now.

“Those things are gonna break through the windows and kill us!!” Susie nearly shouted and the zombies outside reacted by pounding on the windows and windshield harder and faster.

Just as she finished her sentence, the windshield cracked slightly right in front of her where the zombie was pounding its fists on the glass.

“See? We’re gonna die, Jake!! How are we gonna get outta here??” Susie was yelling and unable to control her fear any longer.

“We’re outta time baby. You gotta calm down, we have to think of something.”

Several more minutes passed but neither of them could think of a way out. The zombies kept cracking the windshield more and the windows were sounding ready to crack as well. Jacob looked at his watch. Twenty minutes had passed since he checked on Cody last. He stretched to reach the backseat where Cody was still laying, he wasn’t moving at all.

“No… Oh my God, no.” Jacob felt Cody’s neck, then his wrist, desperate to find a pulse but there was nothing.

“What? What is it?” Susie started panicking as she sat up and turned in her seat to look at her child.

“Cody… wake up buddy… come on Cody… wake up.” Jacob started shaking him gently, but there was no response, no breathing, no pulse. His skin was still hot and dry. All of them were literally cooking in the hot car.

Jacob rested his head on his little boy’s unmoving chest, he cried as silently as he could.

“How could this happen? What is happening?” He seemed to be asking nobody in particular or maybe God.

“Oh my God!! Cody??” Susie started screaming and the zombies outside beat on the car windows with a renewed energy.

Jacob lifted his head and gently shook the boy’s body again. “He can’t be gone. He can’t be.”

“Baby… wake up… please wake up.” Susie said desperately as she stroked the dead boy’s hair.

BANG

BANG BANG BANG

Several gunshots drowned out the noise of the zombies. Susie looked up at the rear passenger window. The monstrous creatures were losing interest in the car and slowly turning away.

“Jake, look they’re leaving!! Those things are leaving!” She started pulling on Jacob’s shirt. “We can get out of here.”

Jacob looked up as the zombies turned their attention away from the car and shambled toward two people with shotguns outside the passenger side of their Corolla. After a few seconds, even the zombies on the driver’s side and crawling on the hood of the car joined the others and stumbled towards the man and the woman firing the shotguns.

Jacob quietly got back in the driver’s seat and opened the car door.