Trudge: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (6 page)

Leo and Ike watched the news for an hour and tried to piece together what had happened to their parents.

Their mom had been a janitor in a high-rise office building downtown and worked the swing shift. She must have gotten infected downtown or at her job, turned undead sometime after and attacked their dad when he came downstairs all dressed up for church. Unfortunately they would never really know what happened.

They were very fortunate that Leo had gotten them out of their house alive, and truly blessed Cade came along when he did.

Cade had talked Leo and Ike out of going home to bury their parents. It was a noble thing to do but with all of the undead walking the streets, it wouldn’t be safe.

Leo told Cade that most of their extended family lived in Georgia and Louisiana. Cade suggested they go with him and they could look for their family members together. The brothers had no other family in Portland so there was little hesitation. Leo made the executive decision, "We will go, but can you teach us to shoot a real gun, so we can defend ourselves?" After giving it some thought, Cade answered, “I’ll teach you guys the safety part first. If you can grasp that...then, yes."

With the third row seat folded out of the way there was plenty of room for the supplies they intended on taking. The silver Toyota Sequoia should serve them well on their cross country trek.

Chapter 12

Day 2 Southeast Portland

Rawley had himself quite a fan club. From his vantage point in Raven’s bedroom on the second floor, Cade could see at least twenty walkers around the front and sides of his neighbor’s house across the street. One of the putrid fuckers was on the porch pawing at the door.

It looked like Rawley had shored up his big picture window. The bottom of the sofa was visible through the glass.

Fortunately the narrow basement windows were too small for the ghouls to fit through and the windows on the sides of the house were well above ground level.

Cade couldn't remember what Rawley’s back yard looked like, even though he'd been to a few barbecues there. He did remember that Rawley’s ribs were awesome. Over the years he had proven to be a pretty nice fellow. He played guitar and looked the part, his long hair was dyed black and he had full sleeve tattoos on both arms. Rawley occasionally toured with a rock band, this meant a lot of different girls came and went from his house. Cade knew these were the perks of the lifestyle and as far as he knew he didn’t have an exclusive woman living with him.

It looked as if his plan of circling the wagons with his guitar and supplies wasn’t going to work. Rawley had been a little careless and let the walkers see him taking things in the front door.

The undead’s senses weren't that adversely affected. Their movement suffered a little and their speed was usually about halved, some were faster and some were slower.

The lone zombie on the porch had lost its infatuation with the door and started banging on the big plate window. The glass shattered with a loud report, drawing the attention of other walkers in the vicinity.

What happened next was the last thing Cade had anticipated. The front door opened and Rawley emerged with an SKS assault rifle, pregnant with a fifty round drum magazine. It was the type of rifle that the two bank robbers used to outgun the police in North Hollywood in the early nineties.

Rawley dispatched the one on his porch with two well-placed shots to the head. Flesh and brain matter splattered his welcome mat.

Carefully aimed bullets cut down more walkers on the bottom stairs leading to the porch.

Cade had never seen Rawley mad before. Now he was channeling Rambo.

Cade left his perch at the bedroom window, went into the office and punched his PIN on the gun safes keypad. He pulled out his Colt M4 and four loaded thirty round magazines. It was a civilian model kitted out just like the personal weapon he used on deployment. Uncle Sam kept the fully automatic M4 when Cade left the teams.

Returning to the room that overlooked the front of the house, by feel he seated a magazine, pulled the charging handle and switched the selector to fire. Bracing the rifle against his shoulder he practiced steady controlled fire and made his contribution to the body count.

Rawley looked up at him with a bewildered look but kept on shooting. 

Ike and Leo joined him in the front bedroom upstairs and marveled at the shooting display. It was not planned but Cade and Rawley had the undead in a withering crossfire.

Cade yelled above the din at the two brothers "Ike go downstairs load the truck with all of the canned food and then throw in all of the dry stuff that will fit.”

Gesturing towards the open door in the hall he said “Leo, go into the office over there and take all of the ammo and magazines from the safe and throw them in this” tossing a long black bag his way.

“Do you know what a magazine looks like?"

"It’s the square thing that fits in the gun right?”

"You got it. When everything is in the bag, have Ike help you put it in the Sequoia" Cade said.

The two boys sprinted down the stairs. Ike stopped near the front door as a shadow moved past the living room window. Curiosity got the best of him, Ike reached up and pried opened the louvered wooden slats a half an inch. A gaunt grey face with milky eyes peered back at him.

Ike bolted back upstairs out of breath exclaiming,   “The walkers are on the front porch now. I looked out the kitchen window and it looks like the back yard is still clear if we need to leave that way.”

Leo added, “The sound of the shooting sure is attracting a lot more of them."

Having concluded that the house wouldn't be safe for much longer, Cade told the two boys to go downstairs and get in the truck and be ready to go.

Rawley had culled most of the undead that had his house under siege. At least fifteen of the corpses were piled around the porch. The dead girl in the bloody sundress was splayed out exposing herself in an unflattering way. She faced downstairs head first and her dress was pulled up around the top of her torso. Flip flop boy in the PBR shirt had been shot through the eye socket and now lay on the pile of corpses as well.

During a lull in the gunfire, Cade yelled loud enough so Rawley could hear him "We are coming out in three minutes and are going to create a diversion for you!” He then entered the garage and drew his Gerber knife and cut two four foot lengths off of the coiled garden hose hanging on the wall. “God Damn!” Cade remembered that he had left the ice axe strapped to his bike in the alley; it would have to stay behind.

He had the two Glocks on his person, he stowed the M4 carbine up front in the truck, safety on, with the stock fully collapsed.

Cade put a second long black canvas bag that contained his other rifle and tactical gear in the back of his truck. A box marked camping gear held the headlamps, a pair of two way radios, Bushnell armored binoculars and a camp stove. Next went the tent and three sleeping bags which they tossed unceremoniously into the back of the truck. Lastly he threw two empty five gallon potable water containers on top of everything and closed the door.

Peering through the small glass windows lining the top of the garage door he saw that the bulk of the remaining walkers were now on his porch and trampling the front yard. A very large ghoul was trudging up the driveway.

A pair of walkers leaned on the front window and fell into the living room riding a wave of shattered glass. The smell of death permeated the home.

Cade climbed into the truck and turned the key in the ignition. The V8 rumbled to life. He punched the remote button that started the garage doors plodding upward movement. Achingly slow it revealed the sunny outside and the giant rotting roadblock standing five feet away. He was missing most of his left arm, with each step the stub twitched like a dogs cropped tail. Along with the arm, most of the flesh was missing from one leg leaving the white femur and kneecap exposed all the while lending to his slow gait.

At first sight of the truck and its occupants the one armed gargantuan started moaning, alerting the other walkers of his find.

The ghouls swarmed inside the house through the broken front window, spilled into the garage and began banging on the back of the SUV.

“Go, go, go….!” Ike screamed hysterically from the back seat of the Sequoia, staring eye to eye with Cade’s dead next door neighbor, Dave. Judging from his condition, he wasn’t here to borrow tools.

The instant the door was fully opened, Cade gunned the truck forward. Several undead now flanked the driveway. They pawed at the closed side windows as the 3 ton truck sucked the muscular one armed ghoul under the front skid guard, its skull popped like an overripe melon as a rear wheel rolled over it.

Cognizant of the ghoul filled garage behind them, he stopped the SUV momentarily to survey the scene across the street. There was no sign of Rawley.

Chapter 13

Day 2 Southeast Portland

The walkers were converging on them from both directions.  From the west came the most walkers he had seen yet. Cade noticed that the more walkers there were in a group, the faster they seemed to move.

Easing out onto the road fronting his house he paused to steal a last glance at the home that he grew up in.

He planned to creep slowly east up the street, and try to get as many of the dead to follow them as they could.  At this slow of a pace the walkers were crowding around trying to get into the truck. The ones that were too slow to get out of the path of the truck ended up fleshy speed bumps. The trucks windows were getting smeared with gore from the zombie’s attempts to get at them. 

In the rear view mirror Cade noticed flashing headlights; it was Rawley in the Bronco trying to get his attention. He pulled over to the right on the shoulder and waited.

Rawley opened his window as he pulled up next to the Sequoia.

“Man, those fucks were getting thick out there. Your house was on the verge of getting overrun also”

“A couple of them broke my front window, right as we were finishing loading up the gear. Persistent bastards aren’t they” Cade said.

“Persistent is an understatement. I was hoping to ride this out at home. You’re right, those fucks are very determined. Were lucky, it looked like we both got out of there just in the nick of time. Hey, I need to thank you for stepping in when you did. Where the hell did they all come from anyway?" asked Rawley.

"The two that saw you unloading supplies alerted the others in the area when they started that fucking moaning”

“I had no idea that it was that bad, but I wanted to get some groceries just in case” Rawley said.

“What store was open?” Cade queried him.

“The only one that I found was the Mini Mart on Holgate. I had to use my credit card because every marked price was jacked up twenty fold. I had no beer in my house either, I got their last case. That little bit of stuff ran me four hundred dollars. The beer alone was half of the cost. No worries though, if I ever see another credit card statement I’ll be amazed. Shits changed forever man.”

Nodding his head in agreement Cade said “You hit the nail on the head. I was hunkered down in my house since this all started. I have to confess though. I haven’t been very neighborly lately. I had to kill Ted from around the block....he left me little choice.”

An incredulous look adorned his face as Rawley asked what happened.

Sparing no detail Cade told him about his first introduction to this new reality.

Shaking his head, “Heavy shit man. If I turn into one of those fuckers, please finish me quickly will ya?” Rawley implored his neighbor, with a deadly serious look thrown in for good measure.

Reaching into the center console Cade said "Take this".

A two way radio sailed through Rawley’s open window. "10-1, is the channel we will be on, were heading southeast to find Brook and Raven. Along the way I hope to help these two find some family."

“Mind if I tag along?”

“We could use another set of eyes and ears. Just wondering, where did you learn to shoot like that?”

“I come from a family of hunters. I’ve been hunting since I was six or seven. I like to shoot recreationally as well”

“And the SKS…”

“Oh this little guy” he said patting the rifle on the seat next to him “I bought it at a gun show quite some time ago. Hell of a fun weapon to shoot!”

Cade smirked, “Yeah I could tell.”

They had been sitting on the side of the road for a few moments before Leo interrupted.

“There are some of those dead thingys coming.”

 Cade saw the walkers. They were far enough away that they weren’t a threat, but there was also a small compact car, with those stupid blinding blue headlights, closing very fast from the same direction.

Rawley attempted to wave the car around but the driver locked the brakes and slewed the gaudy Nissan to a sudden stop in front of the two SUVs.

The neon-green import sported a rear wing that belonged on a top fuel dragster. Low-rider was an understatement. The car sat so low it nearly scraped the pavement. The car’s occupants glared at them. The passenger in the front seat was a Hispanic male wearing black wraparound sunglasses. A bloody do rag covered his head, gang banger style. Sitting in the rear passenger side of the four door Maxima was an Em-n-Em wannabe white kid with bad acne, he was brandishing a chrome semi-automatic pistol. The front seat passenger flashed an Ingram Mac-10 machine pistol. He had a shit eating grin on his face and his gold grill glinted in the sun. The driver was mostly obscured from view.