Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 3): Horde Ravaged (6 page)

            "They're all in the house," Ralph said. We were all panting. My machete arm ached from all that butchery. The blade was bowed, so I took the time to straighten it under my foot. "This might be our only chance."

            I didn't bother to answer. I led the way toward the tree-lined road. The trees and underbrush was intertwined with an almost invisible barbed wire fence. We ducked and forced our way through, dropping to a knee in the ditch beyond. I looked up and down the road.

            "Clear," I whispered, and we raced across to the trees on the other side.

            There was about ten feet of trees and underbrush, and then an eight foot high concrete fence. I never thought about how developers liked to build those faux brick fences around subdivisions, but it kind of ticked me off right then. I interlocked my fingers and let Olivia step in, before lifting her up to vault over to the other side. Ralph managed to climb over on his own, so I tossed the pack over before joining them.

            "Wow, that was close," I whispered.

            I used leaves and dirt to quickly clean my machete. Then I put it back into its canvas sheath. Olivia and I helped each other clean the blood off our face.

            "That's so cute," Ralph said, rolling his eyes. "Are you two finished?"

            I scooped up a handful of dirt. "You want some help cleaning up?"

            He gave me a dirty look, and then turned to look around. I looked around as well. We were in an alley behind homes with rear entry garages. Most of the backyards were behind six foot privacy fences. No survivors or zombies in sight.

            "I saw zombies wandering around over here," Ralph said. A zombie groaned on the other side of the house before us. "Told you."

Chapter 8

            I slung the pack over one shoulder and headed for the nearest gate. The privacy fence would hide us from unfriendly eyes. Ralph followed, and Olivia more slowly.

            "Why are we going in there?" she asked.

            I paused halfway through the gate. "You have a better idea?"

            She didn't. So I continued inside. It was a well-kept lawn once, though overgrown without anyone to tend it. Lawn furniture was scattered around, looking more storm blown than zombie tossed. The sliding glass door was open.

            I hesitated. A locked house guaranteed a zombie free zone. An open door was an invitation to one and all. At least the gate was shut. Zombies rarely, if ever, shut doors.

            "Be ready for anything," I whispered, and pulled my pistol. I slowly pushed the slider all of the way open. I listened, but heard nothing. "Shhh."

            I eased into the family room. It was in good order. Nothing obviously out of place. Then I noticed the front door was open, too. There were three zombies about halfway up the block, but walking away from us. So I very gently closed the door and locked it.

            "Close and lock the slider," I said.

            Olivia closed it, and a bar lock dropped down. It banged into place. All three of us jumped. And something else. Footsteps thumbed across the 2nd floor, heading for the stairs.

            "Shit!" I cried, opening the front door and heading out. "Come on!"

            The zombies down the street turned around. I stopped and Ralph slammed into my back.

            "What the hell?" he asked.

            I holstered the pistol and pulled the M16A2 off my shoulder. Ralph and I took aim and a three round burst from each of us put all three zombies down. Olivia unloaded on the zombie that followed us out of the house.

            "There are more inside," she cried. "Run!"

            The house was on a cul-de-sac. We only had one way to run. More walkers appeared at the intersection before we got two houses down the street. Looking around, I noticed all of the front doors were shut. If they were unlocked, the zombies would've opened them to check inside. Then I noticed a gate into another backyard.

            "Through the gate."

            A pair of zombies came out of the house behind us. There wasn't a lock on the latch, so I propped a lawn chair under it. And just in time. The zombies started rattling it, trying to get inside. They could probably open it with a little time and effort.

            Olivia pulled up another lawn chair, climbed up, and shot over the gate. Twice. That put an end to that.

            "You have always been a problem solver," Ralph said. "Usually not so ruthlessly."

            "They were annoying."

            Hurrying over to the gate to the back driveway, I climbed up and peeked over the top. No one to be seen or heard. So we rushed to the alley, crossed it, and entered another fenced backyard. The house was locked up, but we didn't take the chance. Out the front gate we went and into the street. That street was clear, and also a cul-de-sac.

            We fell back into our modified V formation as we moved up that street. The houses all looked deserted, but a few windows were smashed. None of the doors were open. I noticed a pile of decaying human remains in the middle of one front yard.

            "Shouldn't we be heading back out of this hell hole?" Ralph asked.

            "There are zombies back there, too," I said. "At least in here we can evade them by ducking through houses and backyards."

            "That's yet to be proven."

            "Hush," Olivia said, pausing and cocking her head. "Do you hear that?"

            I held my breath to listen. There was a sound. It was in the middle distance to the north. The sound of breaking glass occasionally punctuated the underlying sound.

            "What is that?" I asked. "It sounds kind of familiar."

            "Zombies," Ralph said. "A lot of zombies. Let's get the fuck out of here."

            He was right. It was a mix of low groans, shuffling feet, and things being broken. To be that loud there had to be a shit ton of them and they had to be very close.

            We took off running toward the west.

            "Oh. My. God," Olivia said when we reached the intersection. To our right was the horde, about two blocks up that cross-street. There had to be thousands of them. It was second only to the horde around Emory. "Run!"

            "I am running," I cried.

            "Run faster!"

            I couldn't. My wounded hip was on fire. There was no way I'd be able to run very far. It was hurting more and more with every step.

            "If I fall behind, don't come back for me," I gasped out.

            "If you ever say anything like that again, I swear I'll kill you," Olivia said, looking quite fierce, too.

            "I agree. We leave no one behind," Ralph said. "We'll help you."

            "Finding a vehicle will help," I said. I looked up and down the street. "Looks like a commercial area ahead. Let's try to find a running car or truck."

            "And here come our little friends," Ralph said.

            Zombies were coming around the corner. Their crazy eyes locked on us. My heart skipped a beat. Even after two weeks, they scared the bejesus out of me.

            We took off. Wounded, I wasn't much faster than them. We couldn't afford to waste ammo on them, as much as I wanted to shoot them all down.

            "Shopping center," Ralph said when we reached the next intersection. "Go left."

            Turning south on that four-lane street, we ran over to a gas station. The zombies rounded the corner before we reached it, so turned after us. They weren't fast, but they were relentless. So we kept going west down the next street. Then south down the next street.

            "Look. Trash dumpster," Olivia said, pointing behind a 7-Eleven store."

            "So?" I didn't want to hide in a dumpster. "Maybe we can get inside the store before they see us."

            "No, no," she said. "It's pushed up to the wall. I think we can climb onto the roof from it."

            It was worth a try. I've never seen any zombies look up for victims to eat. Didn't mean they didn't. She led the way over. Climbing atop the trash dumpster was easy, but the roof was a little higher than it appeared. Still doable.

            I tossed that heavy-ass rucksack up on the roof, while Ralph shouldered his rifle and took a flying leap. He caught the edge, and pulled himself up with some effort. Olivia handed me her shotgun, and took a leap. Ralph helped her the rest of the way up. After handing up her shotgun and my rifle, I took my chance. And I almost didn't make it. Only Ralph and Olivia grabbing my arms saved me.

            We sprawled out atop that store, gasping for air, and discovered it was incredibly hot from a long day. Rooftops in summer were never good places to be. Though, being so late in the afternoon, the surface had cooled enough to lay down upon.

            We laid up there side-by-side and listened to the horde pass by. It must've taken an hour for the entire horde to move past us. Even then none of us wanted to crawl back down. For once I felt kind of sort of safe.

            "Are we having fun yet, boys and girls?" I asked, only half joking.

            "Duh. I haven't had this much fun since losing my boots in that nice house," Ralph said. "Though, those zombies were a lot more fun."

            "Yep, smaller hordes are more fun," Olivia said. "Not as many mouths to feed."

            I sat up and looked around. It was residential to the south of us, and commercial to the north. Both east and west was residential, as well. The largest, most imposing landmark was that ten story high-rise building I'd been walking toward all afternoon. It was about two blocks to the west. Earlier I thought it was a bank, but then I noticed it had balconies. Condos? After a nice drink of water, I stood up.

            "Well, you two are feeling your oats," I said. "I guess we should head out."

            I studied the high-rise. We could survey the city pretty well from up there.

            "Someone has oats?" Ralph asked, sitting up. "Like oat meal? Last thing I ate was a can of pinto beans. I hate beans."

            "I love beans," Olivia said. "I love them more when they're hot, preferably with some fried chicken and gibbet corn, and a tall glass of ice cold tea."

            My stomach rumbled.

            "Shut up, you're making me – "

            Gunfire erupted south of us. I dropped to one knee, and all three of us had fingers on triggers while looking around. More gunfire. We relaxed. The zombie horde must've rooted out a survivor. It was obviously a single weapon firing. After a few moments his gun fell silent, and I silently prayed it wasn't because the zombies caught him.

            "Well now, that certainly killed our mood," Ralph said. "You want to go down and see if this 7-Eleven has something to eat other than beans?"

            "Thought you'd never ask," Olivia replied.

            I was preoccupied. I walked over to the north-west corner. Yes, my eyes were not deceiving me.

            "Hey guys, I think we may have transportation," I said. I lifted the binoculars to read the sign out front. There were two open bays in back. "There's a motorcycle repair shop half a block away. Motorcycles and ATVs. I bet we can find something that runs."

            We went through the 7-Eleven first. Picking up some sodas and pastries, we ate as we headed for the motorcycle and ATV garage. I could already imagine us on three ATVs. We could go places even the jeep wouldn't go.

            Once we were across the street from it, we all dropped to one knee and looked both ways. It only took one zombie to spot us and then they'd all converge on our asses. They were worse than wolves.

            "Ralph, you go first, then Olivia," I said. "I'll bring up the rear."

            "No, you're the walking wounded," he said. "You set the pace. You go first."

            "Give me the pack," Olivia said. "You've carried it too long."

            Ralph took the pack. I objected, since I was supposed to carry it until dark. Yet, my hip was hurting like hell. I didn't object much. Olivia was supposed to carry it next, but Ralph took it anyway. Who knew he had any chivalry at all?

            The run across the street was frightening. Zombies were known to be in the area. Nothing happened, so I waved Olivia across. She moved quickly, crouched over, and alert. I spotted some zombies when she was halfway across the road, but she made it across without being seen. Ralph had to wait another ten minutes before the street was clear in both directions.

            I sent Olivia into the garage to start looking around for any keys. When Ralph was about a quarter of the way across the street, she tried to kick start a motorcycle. Did she know how to ride a motorcycle? Ralph and I both had beginner dirt bikes when we were young. She never showed any interest in them.

            A zombie wail came from the shopping center. Ralph froze, looking incredulously in that direction. Then he took off running at full speed.

            "Walkers coming!"

            "Shit." I turned toward the open bay doors. Olivia ran out, looking startled. "Did you find anything that might run?"

            "No, everything but one motorcycle is disassembled."

            "Follow me," I said, running past her and around back. There was an alley there, and we raced up it. Okay, I did a limping run kind of thing, but it was still faster than any zombie could do. "Head for that high-rise."

            It looked like a high security building from atop the convenience store, so probably a safe place away from zombies. We could only hope.

Chapter 9

            "Hurry, Kyle!" Olivia cried. "They're gaining on us!"

            I'd have to stop running to fire effectively at them, and there were too many to stop. I'd be overrun by them in a heartbeat.