This Would Be Paradise (Book 1) (10 page)

“No, I’ll have to do it one day, why not start now?” I said, proud that my voice hadn’t given way to my unease.

They backed up a few feet, and I removed the silenced Beretta from my hip holster. The brushed metal coating reflected the dimming light, as I lifted the pistol to eye level and flicked the safety off. I took a deep and slightly shaky breath as I aimed, and slowly squeezed the trigger.

I stared up toward the ceiling, as the scene from earlier kept plaguing my mind. The problem wasn’t that I missed, it was that I didn’t. In fact, my shot was dead on, which wiped the smirk off of Taylor’s face. I remembered how the infected’s head whipped back as a mass of discolored brain matter and blood sprayed out behind him. It was like someone had spit out a mouthful of Campbell’s Chunky Soup. I was mixed up in what I should be feeling; I mean that guy was alive once, maybe he had a family who was still waiting for him to come home.

Was I technically a murderer? Were the infected even alive? I mean no living creature could survive with the amount of damage and decay that guy had.

“Stop rolling around so much,” Zoe hissed from the other cot.

“Oh, I’m keeping you up? That’s rich.”

She mumbled something as she flipped away from me, and I assumed it wasn’t her telling me how awesome I was. Finally, I gave up trying to sleep and decided to get some fresh air. I closed the front door quietly behind me and was surprised to find Ethan sitting on the open truck gate. He glanced up at the sound of my approach and visibly relaxed when he saw it was me, not an infected.

“Can’t sleep either?” he asked as I hopped up onto the gate.

“No, I keep thinking about that infected guy,” I admitted.

“Me too.”

“You weren’t there,” I pointed out.

“No, I mean if one got here then how long before more show up?”

“Oh joy, now there’s that to worry about,” I sighed and I could see the corners of his mouth lift up.

“You upset ‘bout shootin’ the thing?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

He seemed to think about it, “Probably.”

“Very helpful,” I muttered.

He shrugged. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. And it will happen to the rest of us, too.”

“It’s depressing.”

“Yeah it is, but it’s ‘bout survival now so we gotta do what we gotta do,” he said with conviction.

“But we live in a society that punishes those who kill; even those who kill in self defense are persecuted in a way.”

“Society changes. It never used to be that way, look at Western times compared to now,”

Ethan brought up a good point. “Touché, country boy. Touché,” I smirked.

“I did learn a few things down here in the South,” he said exaggerating his Southern accent with a grin. “’Sides learnin’ to suck the heads off crawfish.”

“That sounds…dirty,” I scrunched up my face and Ethan laughed.

“So you gonna be okay on our supply run tomorrow?” Ethan eyed me as I yawned.

“I’ll be fine thanks.”

“You can stay here with Zoe if you want.”

Zoe had opted to stay here with Chloe and even though he put up a fuss about it, Darren reluctantly agreed to stay behind in case something happened. So our scavenging group consisted of Ethan, Taylor, John and I.

“You trying to get rid of me?” I eyed him back.

“Naw, just with what happened earlier I thought maybe you would want to.”

“The last thing I want to do it sit here and think about it,” I sighed. “Plus, the more hands the better.”

Ethan nodded, disbelief marring his features. Hell, I don’t think I believed myself, but I knew that sitting around here wasn’t going to help. And we really did need supplies since it looked like a rescue wasn’t about to come for us after all. We hadn’t seen or heard so much as a helicopter since the beginning of all this two months ago. It was hard to believe we were that screwed; there had to be some sort of military operation somewhere. Maybe we just had to go to them instead of waiting to be rescued.
Lazy government
.

We made small talk for another hour, staring at the blackened sky. The only illumination came from the moon and the stars which I could see clearly, as if I were looking through a telescope. I said my goodnight as the yawning began and trudged back to my uncomfortable cot to try for sleep. That night I didn’t dream of zombies, but for the first time of my family back home.

We took our turns showering that next morning. The lukewarm water was still better than no water. Chloe was quietly bristling in her loft. She was mad that Ethan was going without her and refused to talk to anyone. Zoe was trying to get her to say something, but all it earned her was a glare, so she gave up. I dumped out my backpack contents and filled it with water, some measly amounts of food and extra ammo. My second pistol was thrown in there, with the safety on, and the other one was secured to my belt. John had the map spread out on the picnic table to try to plan the route out.

“Okay, so our best bet isn’t to go back into New Orleans, but to hit up a town or city around it,” John said, his fingers swiping across the arteries on the map. “I was thinkin’ Duson since it’s not too far off from our location.”

“What’s the population like?” Darren questioned.

Even though he wasn’t coming on the trip, he still wanted to be part of the planning.

“Decent size. We’ll find lots of stores and houses to gather supplies from. There’s even a police station we could check out,” John answered. “But it’s not so big that we would have a sea of infected to go through.”

“Zombies,” Chloe finally spoke.

“What?” Ethan asked, his face scrunched.

“You keep callin’ them infected, but they’re zombies,” Chloe said exasperated.

Well she wasn’t wrong; I guess we still felt stupid actually saying it out loud.

“All right, we won’t have as many
zombies
to worry about like we would in New Orleans,” John reiterated.

“How far is it from here?” I asked.

“Two hours give or take, dependin’ on what we come across,” John said.

“How do you always know these things?” I asked, genuinely curious.

John chuckled, “I grew up here darlin’. I know the area pretty well and have been readin’ maps since before I was five.”

I couldn’t even tell you what direction I was facing at the moment.

“I think we should take my truck,” Ethan said. “Even though it’s not as quiet as your car, it will carry more.”

“Probably a good idea, just in case we run into a group of infected somewhere. Your truck will have a better chance of not gettin’ caught in it,” Taylor added and John nodded.

“You three packed?” John looked around at all of us with our backpacks and gear on.

“Looks like it.”

We tossed our bags into the back of the truck along with some cable ties, which we would need for when we brought all the supplies back. Chloe grabbed onto Ethan and refused to let go, he had to basically pry her off. Zoe came up to me and gave me a giant hug.

“Can’t breathe,” I wheezed out through her squeezing.

“Don’t die, okay?”

“Well since you asked so nicely,” I grinned. “And same goes to you. Use your secret hillbilly skills if need be.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you about the gopher hunting,” she shook her head.

Next Darren gave me an awkward, one armed hug.

“Please don’t accidently shoot anyone.”

“Hey, I’ve improved!” I said indignantly.

“Just saying,” he shrugged, and I resisted the urge to kick him in the shin. 

Ethan got into the driver’s side and John went into the passenger seat since he was the navigator. Which left Taylor and I to share the back. I walked past Chloe and ruffled her hair.

“Don’t be too big of a pain, kid.”

She grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Please take care of my brother.”

Her eyes were glassy as she pleaded with me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” I said. “I know how brothers get.”

She smiled a little at that and nodded.

“And make sure you bring me back somethin’ good,” she added for good measure.

“Barbies it is,” I grinned at the horrified face she made and jumped into the back before she could yell at me.

Ethan gave me a questioning look, as I jumped in, but I just shrugged in response. With one last wave goodbye, we were off. The sight of the three standing at the top of the dirt driveway slowly faded as we sped away. The bright morning sun shone through the windshield, reflecting off the rock chips as we headed toward the main drag. We had decided to try out the interstate first because it would be the fastest route, but if it was too clogged, we would opt for a detour. John already had a few back up plans up his sleeve.

The overpass we used to get onto the interstate was unobstructed. The road was also clear up until we hit the more populated areas; that’s when the exit ramps became clogged with abandoned vehicles. Some cars had been left on the side of the road, some even in the middle. Since the interstate was multi-lane, we were able to get around the parked cars with no problem. As we slowly passed by the abandoned vehicles we got a better look.

Some were just left with their doors hanging wide open, while others had long dried blood smeared up the windows. An infected-
sorry, a
zombie
- launched itself from the inside of a Kia against the driver’s rear passenger window. This surprised us all and I jumped back from the window instinctively, right into Taylor.

“You know he’s stuck in there right?” Taylor said as he rubbed his side where I accidently elbowed him when I made my hasty retreat.

“Still, it jumped out of nowhere!” I shot back, easing myself into my own seat once again.

The rest of the drive was virtually quiet except for any directions John gave. We passed a few straggling infected, which stumbled after us as we passed. They weren’t very fast, it seemed like they couldn’t even run and most were in a state of major decay. Their clothes hung off them in tattered rags and all had discolored scaly skin. One that used to be a woman, at least I thought it was a woman because of the long stringy hair dangling from its scalp, was even missing a major portion of its arm. No blood poured from the wound as she wagged her stump back and forth in an attempt to gain speed to chase us.

I knew we were still a ways from Duson, but I saw a sign calling in the distance. It was no longer lit up, but I could see it in the perfect late morning light. Walmart.

“Guys, I think we might not even have to go to Duson,” I said as I pointed out the giant, warehouse looking building.

Ethan stopped the truck as he spotted the far away blue writing. We all looked at each other.

“Best place as any,” John stated.

“Which exit should I take?” Ethan asked.

“The one labelled Crowley,” John said as his eyes scanned one of his maps. “That’s the town it’s in.”

We slowly drove up to the one signed Crowley only to see that an old Dodge was blocking the entrance.

“Come on Taylor, let’s push it outta the way,” John said as he unbuckled himself from the front seat.

We peered out all the windows to see if they would make it unnoticed, but a few of our groupies were still hanging on and closing in on the parked truck.

“You got your huntin’ knife?” Ethan turned to me and I gulped.

“Yeah.”

“All right, Bailey and I will take those three out while you two push the truck outta the way,” Ethan rattled off and before I could voice my unease, everyone vacated the vehicle.

As soon as my feet hit the pavement, I unsheathed the hunting knife strapped to my belt and followed Ethan who had a machete now gripped in his hand. I kind of wished I had brought a bat or something else with length so I didn’t have to get so close. I saw Ethan hesitate as the first one approached him with its arms outstretched and it let out a loud groan. Ethan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed before he launched himself at the infected.

The machete came down hard on the zombie’s head and embedded itself deep inside its skull. The thing dropped like a stone and took Ethan’s weapon with it. He placed his boot on the infected’s head and heaved the blade free with a sick, sucking sound. After waving the blade around to clear it of the muddy blood, he looked at the other two closing in. I wasn’t being much help as I stood there terrified, so I approached the remaining two. Ethan took the one on the left, which meant the one on the right was mine.

I saw the infected’s teeth clang together in anticipation, as it neared me. It was once a teen girl. Too bad she wasn’t wearing a Justin Bieber shirt; maybe I would feel better about this. My blood pumped faster and faster the closer she got. I wrinkled my nose at the smell, which was worse than road kill left in the summer heat.

I swiped my leg underneath both of hers and she hit the cement hard. Unfortunately, it didn’t faze her, but it bought me time to kneel and bring my knife down into her left temple. The decaying skull gave way to the sharpened blade extremely easily, her movements ceased and her flailing arms dropped beside her.

I sat there for a few seconds, just staring at the aluminium handle sticking out of her skull. I had just taken out one of the infected, but I felt no better for it, in fact I had the distinct urge to vomit. I breathed through my mouth to avoid the smell which would only further my need to throw up. Once I centered myself, I wrapped my hands around the hilt and pulled. The blade slipped out of her head, slowly at first, then completely dislodged with nasty wet sound. I took a bunch of steps backwards with the bloody knife still in my hands. I saw Ethan motion for me to head back to the truck, the body of the other infected down by his feet.