The Adventures of Steve and Terry: The Zombie Chronicles (8 page)

“We’ve been fighting zombies for a
long time, my man.” Steve said. “But never with this kind of firepower. I mean,
look at these guns! They’re badass!”

“Every zombie in the city has
heard you two jackasses by now. If we don’t get out of here we’re gonna be
overrun.”

The two men looked at each other.
Steve shrugged. Terry nodded.

“Okay,” Terry said. “Let’s get out
of here.”

Dillon led them back to the rest
of the group, who gave the two men hard stares. Steve just smiled at them, not
quite sure why everyone was so pissed off. Robert just shook his head and they
returned to the side entrance of the store. They moved all the debris and were
quickly inside.

They walked through a long
concrete corridor. Finally, they entered the store itself through a fire door.
Everyone hit the floor as Steve suddenly opened up with a full burst from his
M4. He fired wildly from the hip, screaming a high-pitched war-cry the whole
time. Finally his ammo ran out, his screaming dying off shortly after.

“What the hell was that?!” Robert
asked angrily as he got to his feet.

“Sorry, sorry,” Steve said.
“Thought I saw some zombies.”

Everyone looked incredulously at
the man. They then looked into the department store to see several shattered
mannequins modeling clothes.

“You thought
those
were
zombies?”

“Well, they
are
pale,”
Steve said defensively.

“And bald with no arms!”

“Some zombies don’t have arms,”
Steve said quietly as the group continued on. The group moved quickly, having
visited this store several times. Steve and Terry on the other hand stopped and
stared, Steve letting out an appreciative whistle.

“I bet they got a lotta good stuff
in here,” Steve said.

“It kinda reminds me of the mall
we were in that one time,” Terry said.

“I was thinkin the same thing!”
Both men quickly crossed their hearts. “Hey, have you noticed we seem to
stumble from disaster to disaster?”

“Yeah, man, people just aren’t as
equipped as we are to handle this plague,” Terry said in all seriousness.

“It’s kinda sad really,” Steve
said, shaking his head. “But you know, the fit survive man.”

Terry nodded emphatically. The two
noticed the rest of the group was getting away from them. They shouldered their
growing arsenal and hurried to catch up. The group stopped near the middle of
the store, Robert calling them into a huddle.

“Okay, people,” the man said. “We
need to split up. We’re looking for anything that can be useful back in camp.”
The group all nodded. Robert looked at Steve and Terry and decided he didn’t
want them wandering off by themselves to wreck god only knew what kind of
havoc. He pulled a small two way radio from his pack and handed it to Terry,
who seemed to be the more responsible of the two. “Okay, you two go up to the
roof, make sure everything is good. Anything out of the ordinary you radio us,
okay?”

Terry nodded. He and Steve took
off to find a way to the roof. After they were gone, the rest of the group
looked at each other. Finally, Smiles asked what they were all thinking.

“You really trust them with
something like that?”

Robert just shook his head. “How
can they screw it up?” he asked. The others all thought about it and then
nodded. It seemed logical. “Alright, let’s split up and get searchin.”

Steve and Terry both sat collapsed
in the stairwell. Terry was sitting on the steps; Steve was collapsed on his
back on a landing. Both of their chests rose and fell rapidly.

“Good god!” Steve exclaimed. “How
many damn stairs are there in this place?”

“I—know,” Terry panted.

“What floor are we on anyway?”

Terry looked to the placard above
Steve’s head. “Three,” he exhaled.

“Ugh! How many floors in this
place again?”

“At least twelve.”

“Why do we always get the hard
assignments?” Steve complained.

“Because we can be counted on,
man,” Terry said, climbing to his feet.

“Right,” Steve said, determination
filling his eyes. He tried to sit up, but then collapsed back to the ground. He
tried again, but his stomach seemed to be getting in the way. Finally he looked
to Terry. “Uh, a little help here.”

Terry rolled his eyes and pulled
Steve to his feet. The two soldiered on.

Robert heard banging, ringing
throughout the store. He followed it to the front where he saw a group of
zombies clustered around the closed glass doors. Several of them were pounding
on the glass with their fists.

“Stupid zombies,” he said to
himself before moving on.

The group had been searching for
maybe half an hour when Robert’s radio squawked.

“Eagle’s nest to alpha,” Terry’s voice
said.

Robert heard Steve in the
background, “I said crow’s nest.”

“Eagles are cooler,” Terry
asserted.

“Crows are smarter!” Steve shot
back.

“Guys, guys!” Robert said. “What
the hell is this about?”

“You might want to come up here,”
Terry said.

“Why?” Robert asked, trying to be
patient.

“Cause we got some random dude
riding through the streets.”

This got Robert’s attention. He
quickly collected the group and they ran up the stairs to the roof. They burst
onto the roof to see Steve and Terry staring over the side. They joined them to
see a lone man riding a horse through the streets, a massive horde of zombies
on his tale. The man was firing into the horde, dropping zombies left and
right.

They watched as he turned a corner
and ran into another group of zombies. The man turned to go the other way, but
the first group had cut him off. The man fired wildly into the zombies. They
swarmed him and he fell from his horse. The zombies pulled the kicking horse
down and quickly started to rip it apart. The man used the distraction to climb
up on a tank in the middle of the street. He quickly climbed inside and
battened down the hatches.

“Well, you don’t see that every
day,” Steve said with a smile.

“We gotta help him,” Robert said.

“You crazy?” Doyle asked. “No one
in their right mind would go down there.”

“I will,” Dillon said.

“It’s suicide,” Smiles said.

“If we can direct him to that
alley over there, then cross that building roof and come down in that alley
over here,” Dillon said, pointing. “We can be inside before the zombies even
know what’s going on.”

“It’s crazy,” Angela said.

“What if that was one of us down
there?” Dillon asked.

The group avoided his gaze.

“Okay,” Robert said. “If we’re
gonna do this, then let’s do it.” The group started to make their way back to
the stairs. “You two,” Robert said to Steve and Terry. “Stay here and keep an
eye on things.”
Terry nodded seriously, as if the whole operation hinged on him. The rest of
the group made their way down into the store.

“Give me the CB,” Dillon said. Robert
pulled a CB from his pack. Dillon quickly got on it. “Hey, you in the tank.” No
response. “Hey, dumb ass.”

“Who is this?” a desperate
response came back.

“Your only friend in the world.
Listen to me and we can get you out of this.”

Steve and Terry stared down at the
tank. Both had their M4’s resting on the ledge of the building and aimed.

“This is it,” Steve said. “Time to
separate the men from the boys.”

“Right,” Terry said.

They waited for several minutes.
Finally the top of the tank burst open and a man jumped out. Steve opened up
with a quick burst. The man screamed and jumped back in the tank.

“What the hell are you doing?!”
Terry asked.

“Sorry, sorry. Thought he was a
zombie.”

Terry just shook his head.

Dillon watched from his place in
the alley as gunfire drove the man back into the tank. “What the hell?” the man
screamed over the CB.

“I don’t know, but it’s clear now.
Hurry.”

The man once again climbed out of
the tank. He ran toward the alley where Dillon was, shooting zombies as he did.
The man was a crack shot. Other zombies seemed to notice the man and quickly
gave chase. Gunfire rained down from the roof, peppering the zombies, and
almost hitting the man a few times.

“Shit dude!” Terry yelled. “You
almost hit him again!”

“That wasn’t my fault,” Steve
complained. “If he wasn’t bobbin and weavin all over the place he’d be a lot
safer.”

“Just focus man.”

The man reached Dillon and the two
booked it down the alley. “What the hell is with the guys shooting at me?!” the
man cried as they ran.

“I’m sure they were just trying to
help,” Dillon said, but he wasn’t so sure.

They reached a ladder built into
the wall and started to climb, zombies hot in pursuit. They finally reached the
top of the building and got onto the roof. They were quickly across and into
another alley.

Suddenly an explosion knocked them
to the ground. Zombies that had been pouring into the alley were scattered.

“What in the hell was that?” the
man from the tank cried.

Something small, round, and metal
fell into the alley with a clink. Dillon and the man both looked at it with
cocked heads. Dillon recognized it first.

“Oh shit!” he cried, curling up in
a ball and protecting his vitals.

The grenade went off with a loud
boom and shrapnel flew through the air.

“What the hell is going on?” the
man from the tank screamed as they climbed to their feet. They ran for an open
door and soon found themselves in the department store with the rest of the
group. Dillon and the newcomer collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.

“I told you they would make it,”
Steve said. They were both on at the edge of the roof looking down.

“Do you think those grenades
really helped the situation?” Terry asked.

“Undoubtedly,” Steve said in all
confidence.

“Who are you?” Robert asked as the
newcomer got to his feet.

“Jamie,” the man said, still
breathing heavily.

“What were you doing out there
anyway?”

“I’d heard Atlanta had a safe
zone, a place for survivors.”

“Sorry friend,” Robert said. “They
were overrun weeks ago. Only a few of us made it out.”

They all turned when they heard
pounding. More zombies had joined those at the entrance, only now a few had
pieces of concrete and rubble.

“That door’s not gonna hold
forever,” Doyle said.

“We need a plan to get out of
here,” Matt said.

“I saw a construction yard on my
way in here,” Jamie said. “They had some cube vans. They always keep the keys
to those on site.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Angela said.

“But how do we get there?” Robert
asked.

“The back of this store opens up
on an empty street,” Dillon said. “I could make a run for it.”

“I should go, too,” Jamie said. “I
know where the site is.”

“That’s it, just run for it?”
Doyle asked.

“You got a better plan?” Dillon
asked.

The group was silent for a moment.
“Okay, we go for the cube van then.”

Steve and Terry sat on the roof.
“I wonder where everyone is?” Terry asked.

“Still in the store I would
assume,” Steve said.

“God I’m bored.”

“Me too!”

“Hey,” Terry said
conspiratorially, “you wanna shoot some zombies?” he asked with an evil smile.

“Uh, hell yeah!”

They had just stood back up to
kill undead when Steve spotted two people down in the street.

“Hey, where are they goin?” he
asked.

“Looks like they’re headed for
that construction site.”

“What are they goin there for?”

“Ya got me.”

The two men watched as the two
runners quickly scaled a fence, zombies hot on their trail. One ran to a cube
van while the other smashed open a small gray box on a pole. The one grabbed
keys and both climbed into the cube van and hauled ass. They smashed through
the fence and then zombies, heading straight for the store.

The group sat in one of the
loading bays. They heard a crash, shaking the building. Then someone pounded on
the rolling steel door. They quickly rolled it open to find Dillon in the back
of the cube van.

“Come on guys, we gotta go!”

Everyone piled into the van and
they sped off. They slammed the back of the van door back down and everyone
collapsed against the walls with laughs.