Z Day is Here (4 page)

I have been out and about all night and all
day today and have yet to find Cole or his soon-to-be-zombie
friend. Damn teenagers, they always think they are right. Why the
hell am I even out here? I could just say forget that stupid kid
and head home. But what kind of person would that make me? I hate
my conscience. I have been put through Hell the past few hours and
for what? Some kid that will either be dead or ungrateful that I am
there to save him. Me saving someone. Yeah, I'm a regular
Superman.

Getting out of the gate yesterday was no easy
task. I had my trusty bat, the same bat I’d used to kill an
innocent man, and some food and water. I opened the gate slightly.
Only two zombies were standing at the front. They were walking
directly into the wall, like a blind dog after moving the furniture
around in the house. They must have been blind before their
"change." I stepped out onto the still-wet sidewalk. The gate
slammed shut. Before I could even think, both blind zombies smelled
their next meal. They both turned toward me with their mouths
hanging open, fresh blood and meat hanging from their incisors. I
waited for them to get close to me. With one strong swing, the bat
struck them both in the head. The bat made contact with the first
one, and his head slammed into the second one’s. They hit the
ground. They were still very much alive, or undead, however you
wish to call it. I took out all my anger on both of them. I bashed
their skulls into the ground as if I were playing the Whack-A-Mole
game I used to play at Chuckee Cheese, only this time, I didn't win
any tickets. Covered in zombie blood and exhausted, I made my way
into the woods surrounding the complex. I decided to keep to the
shadows and avoid fights and confrontations as much as
possible.

I think humans are losing this war. The
undead were everywhere. Maybe it was the zombie blood covering up
my stench, because there were many times I would pass by a group of
them and they would not even glance at me. I'll have to remember
that. I’m not sure why the blood didn’t change me. Maybe it has
something to do with the blood hitting the air. Maybe whatever it
is in the blood that infects people is suppressed or killed by the
oxygen that keeps us alive.

As night turned into day, I found a lot of
candy wrappers on the ground, candy wrappers just like the ones
back at the house. I was getting close.

As I came out of the woods, I noticed a large
building directly in front of me. Of course, it would have to be
the one place to NEVER go during a zombie outbreak. A fucking
mall!

Stupid kid.

I have been hanging around outside here for
hours waiting to find a break between zombies so I can climb onto
the roof. Once night falls, I will make my way up, if I can make it
till night fall. This place is crawling with the ghouls.

Oh. I need to go NOW! There are none around
that can get to me before I make it to the fire escape ladder. Sure
they will see me, but they can't climb. I can make it.

Shopping malls.

As if they aren't bad enough, now they are
crawling with zombies. But if you think about it, weren't they
always? I mean, they were full of thousands of brain-dead people
wandering around aimlessly, ready to bite your head off if you got
too close to them. Very little difference. I almost feel safer
now.

Yesterday, I saw an opening between two
groups of zombies and made a run for it, my ankle still throbbing
from the fall a few days ago. When I got to the side of the
building, I realized the ladder was much higher up than it had
looked from the wood line. By that time, it was too late. I had
committed, and the zombies had spotted me. There was no turning
back. Looking around, I had found an old metal dumpster that I
could push under the ladder. By the time I managed to get the
dumpster under the ladder and climb on top of it, I was completely
surrounded by the undead. Their smell had gotten worse. The fumes
were too much for me to stomach. As I began vomiting, my memories
began taking me back to a time when I was a child playing in my
father’s barn. I flipped over a bail of hay to find a freshly
rotting opossum. In my mind’s eye, I could still see the maggots
and worms covering the body. I opened my eyes to see the same
sight, but now they were covering the bodies of the living dead.
Once I came back to my senses, I grabbed my bat, pretending to play
golf; I swung at the nearest zombie head I could find. He hit the
ground about three feet away with a thud and a grunt. I didn't have
to do it for my survival; I did it because I could. Those bastards
have put me through hell, so now I plan on sending as many of them
back there as I can.

I made my way to the roof and found a door
leading into the mall. As I began walking down the stairs, I heard
people talking and arguing. The closer I got, the louder they
became. I turned the corner to see a group of people arguing about
what to do with a young teen they had found wandering around in the
mall. I glance around the room to see Cole sitting in the floor,
curled up like a beaten dog. His eyes were wide and unfocused, but
over all, he unharmed from what I could see.

I was not going to allow these people to
decide the fate of this kid, so I straightened myself, hid my bat,
and approached the group slowly with my hands in the air.

I had not made it three feet before they
noticed my approach. After another three feet, I had five guns
shoved in my face. One more step and I received a nice smack to the
back of my head with what must have been the butt of a shotgun.
When I awoke a few hours later, I could feel the nice golf
ball-sized knot forming on the back of my skull. I opened my eyes
to see the same group of people standing around me. This time,
though, no guns were drawn. After a few apologies from a very
British-sounding man, they began asking me questions about "the
outside." What was it like now? Where were the safe places? Was I
there to rescue them? Question after question was thrown my
direction. I had no answers.

After the barrage of unanswerable questions,
I informed them I came for the boy and would be on my way after I
rested. The group began arguing again. Some wanted to go with me,
and others insisted I stay. Hours went by. Finally, in the end, I
had convinced them to allow me to take the boy, and we (alone)
would leave the mall with anyone who dared go with us.

Cole slowly stood up and made his way over to
the group. With hollow eyes, he looked directly at me, ignoring
everyone else. "I had to. I mean, I just had to." That was all he
could say. There was nothing else he had to say.

We head out later tonight. I am taking Cole
and three others. I can only pray I am not leading these sheep to
their slaughter.

Fallen ill.

Everything was set yesterday to leave the
building. We had our new supplies, weapons, and even a hand-drawn
map for each of us in case we got separated from each other. We
were ready. All I had to do was take that first step. I could not
move. My body felt like it had been hit with a dump truck. I felt
feverish and had the sniffles. I knew it was a sinus infection.
They did not. In fact, most of the group swore I had been bitten
and was now infected. The group broke into a full-blown fight over
when to shoot me! I was surrounded by idiots. These people needed
to be eaten alive. If all the guns weren't firmly planted in my
direction, I would have run or even shot them all, but I couldn't.
I was stuck, waiting for them to decide my fate, the fate of a man
with a sinus infection.

After about half an hour, they came back with
a decision. They would lock me (and now Cole, only because we knew
each other) in a room until we changed, then they would shoot us!
Great! My life is getting better by the second.

So here I sit, a prisoner wrongly imprisoned
for having a runny nose, Cole imprisoned for just knowing me. I
don't know, maybe it is better this way. After all, I am not much
for taking out zombies in this condition. Plus, I could use a few
days of sleep and rest. Thankfully, Cole doesn't say much. He knows
the difference between a cold and "the change," so he is not
worried either.

Well, I am feeling a little dizzy now, so I
am going to lay down for a bit. I'll update ev

Wait!

Oh, Christ! The zombies are in the mall!
There must be hundreds or thousands of them in here! I have to get
out of here. Cole is freaking out. We are like big old worms on a
little bitty hook in here.

They are still in here, and so are we.

The beauty of being locked in a room is, even
though we can't get out, they can't get in either. So here we sit
in a sort of stalemate. We are desperately trying to find a way out
while they are staring at us as if we were lobsters in a tank. It
is only a matter of time before they break down the gate. The
bottom is already starting to give way. I would say that within a
matter of hours, they will be all over us.

I just saw all three people that were going
to leave with us. They are now zombies. Kind of funny how they were
so worried about me that they never realized they were about to
turn themselves.

That’s when I see exactly what I was looking
for: the keys to the room hanging from one of their belts! All I
have to do it get close enough to the gates to reach it without
getting bitten.

I am alive. For now, that's all I care about.
I have the key, and Cole has found a vent just big enough for him
to crawl into.

We have a plan!

Cole is going to crawl through the vent till
he finds an opening. From there, he will distract the undead
bastards. I will unlock the gate, sneak out of the room, and make
my way upstairs to the roof. Once I reach the roof, Cole will meet
me there. We won't have much time, so we will have to climb down
the ladder and make our way into the woods.

A long shot, yes, but it's our only shot. We
have found some things we can use as weapons lying around in the
room, and I can see three guns on the ground right next to the
room. We are ready.

Ok, Cole is in the vent. I need to sign off
and get ready.

I am exhausted! I am tired, sick as hell,
beat up, cut up, bloodied, but alive and infection free. Cole is
the same minus the sickness. I am only able to rest for a few
minutes before we have to make our way back to our safety. God, I
can't wait to get back. Sure, the "fortress" is cramped, but it is
safe.

So I am guessing you want to hear about what
happened yesterday, right? Well, it was insane! The plan was
working fine, and Cole made a very nice distraction, just enough
for me to unlock the door, squeeze out unnoticed, and grab the
guns. What we didn't count on, though, was the one lone survivor of
the other group. That stupid bitch just about got us all killed.
Just as Cole was sliding back into the vent, out of nowhere this
woman comes up behind me, screaming and crying, begging me to take
her with us.

Right as she began screaming, every zombie
within a one-mile radius turned. You all have seen the movies where
the nerdy white kids go into the predominately black bar, and when
they get in, the music stops and everyone turns to look. Yup, same
thing here! I couldn't think of what to do, so I turned and
screamed for her to shut the hell up. She was caught off guard,
just long enough for me to watch three zombies rip into her neck
with their teeth. Blood covered me and everything nearby.

I ran. I ran faster than I had ever run
before. I looked like a slalom skier, swerving back and forth to
avoid the undead.

I reached the top floor before I ever had to
use the gun. The sound of the zombie’s head exploding was louder
than the gunshot itself. I put the barrel of the gun directly at
that bastard’s nose and pulled the trigger. I am now getting a
little concerned; I enjoy killing and hurting these things too
much! That first shot was not the last, not by a long shot. I used
every round I had for one of the guns. I believe it was a .45.
Regardless, it did its job.

Once I reached the roof, I was alone. Cole
was nowhere in sight. I cursed under my breath. Bam, bam, bam, the
vent burst open, and a very dirty Cole slid out, coughing dust
clouds. We had made it halfway so far. We barricaded the door so
the zombies couldn't get onto the roof. I knew it wouldn't last
long, but we did what we had to do. Next, we ran over to the ladder
and crawled down onto the dumpster. Zombies everywhere! We decided
to just have fun with it. I handed Cole a gun (now I am not saying
I believe in kids with guns, but during a zombie apocalypse, it is
necessary). Together, we sent at least twenty of them back to hell.
We jumped off the dumpster, running with everything we had in us.
Once we got to the woods, we never turned back. We ran until we
could no longer hear the dull moaning.

I have to rest some. My sickness is getting
worse by the second. We will rest for just a few hours here, and
then we will make our way back to safety. I cannot wait.

They are all gone.

We arrived at the "safe house" early this
morning to find the place destroyed. The gate was pushed over, and
blood covered the ground and side of the house. Inside, the house
was trashed and covered in blood. All the bodies were gone, except
for a few zombies with smashed-in faces lying around. It must have
been a massacre.

As my mind wandered to Deanna and how I hoped
she had made it out in one piece and without getting bitten, I
turned to see her standing in the doorway. This was not the Deanna
I had left, not the Deanna who helped save me just a few days ago.
This was her body, but everything else about her was gone. Most of
the side of her face had been removed, and she was missing an arm.
She slowly shuffled towards me, moaning, with fresh blood streaming
out of her mouth. She had eaten recently.