Zombies! Rising from the Dead (18 page)

My hand was shaking as I thought about what I was going to tell him.
“Rick, you there?
”.
My finger came off the button as I waited....

“Yeah, I'm here.”

“I want you to take a deep breath and listen close, we only have one shot to do this right.
First I need to know what your situation is, how many of those things have you got out there? I
need to know Amanda's condition; tell me everything.”

“Alright, there's um...... 'bout a hundred of those fuckers outside,
most of them are in the
front yard. Amanda is tired and nauseous, but she can make it,”
he said.

“Okay, here is what I want you to do. Get Amanda on her full medication; we need her as strong as possible. You are going to have to prepare h
er;
she is going to have to face these
things and we don't need her freaking out on us, we will have enough to deal with as it is. I
want you to get a backpack and stuff it full of everything you need, and make sure you bring
your twelve-gauge; you got me so far?”
I asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I got you.”

“Alright now, does that side window by the kitchen still work?
”,
I questioned.

“Yeah, it does”
Rick answered.

“Have that window ready, when I get to your house I am going to drive slow to draw their
attention away from the house; see if I can't get them to start coming towards me. Then once
they change direction I am going to floor it and loop around to that window. You will have to
bail out quick. I
’m not going to have
enough time to wait for
you,
you have to be ready
to go
understand? You’re going to jump into the bed. As soon as it's safe I will get you inside the
cab. Oh, and make sure she brings those prescription bottles so we can match them up...”

“Okay, I got it.”

“Alright we are
doing this
tomorrow morning around 11:00am okay? But please get
Amanda ready!”
I told him.

“I will, I will...we'll be ready,”
Rick promised.

“Okay, I'm going to go and start getting myself ready. If you need anything let me know.”

“I will, and uh....thanks man.”
Rick said thankfully.

“No problem.”

Then, silence.

As I put the radio down I looked out across
the house. I
t was
dark, quiet and rather
peaceful; except for the moans drifting in from outside. I walked through the house, upstairs,
downstairs, living room and even into those rarely used bedrooms.
Looking at what I had built
over the year
s; a
ll the scrimping, saving and hard work.
I knew for certain that I would never
see this place again. I
felt like al
l I had done was for nothing; but my
f
riends needed me and I wouldn't turn my back on them.

I sat down to dinner and had myself a feast, a last supper of sorts. It
could
very well be the
last meal I had. I splurged having a full can of soda, a can of beans and a pack of snack cakes
that I had been saving for a special occasion. As I ate I realized I had to come up with a plan of
action for getting out of the house unseen. I had given plenty of thought about how I was going
to get Rick and Amanda out, but none to myself.

After dinner I decided to open up the attic and see if I couldn't get a better look outside to
see what my condition was. I went into the first bedroom and pulled down the retractable stairs
to the attic; I hadn't been in the attic in years. I climbed up into the narrow crawl
space,
it was
filthy and dust-laden from years of infrequent use. Several feet up ahead there was a window
that gave me an unobstructed view of the yard. It would be the first time I had seen the front
yard in its entirety in over a month. I pulled up to the small rectangular window and slowly
adjusted the slates so I could see out; careful not to make a sound.

My truck was backed into the carport, just as I had left it. The driver side door was closest
to the house. It would be a straight shot, but I couldn't just walk out the front door and face
those things head on, doing so would be suicide, I would have to find a way to draw them away
from the house. I looked out upon what was a grotesque sight. There were between eighty and
a hundred creatures, from what I could see. I could get a pretty accurate head count from my
vantage point, and it was more than I expected. I couldn't see under the carport however, my
view being obstructed by the overhang of the roof.

It was truly a frightening and macabre scene as the creatures staggered around in various
stages of decay. Over the last thirty days some of the more badly decomposed had deteriorated
till finally they dropped into a heap of bones; all organic material having rotted away from
exposure to the elements. It was good in that there weren't many of the Walkers around, so for
the most part I could easily outrun any of them that approached. The only problem was for
every
one that corroded away two more would rise up to take its place. Once again it was that
persistent problem of numbers. Decades, if not hundreds of years of corpses were revitalized all
at once and on the prowl. They lumbered about incoherently, some of them scavenging on the
ground for what they could find with a few even feasting on their fallen comrades. It would
seem everything was fair game.

Anything that had been killed by those things also reanimated. The cat that one of them had
gotten to earlier in the month had ‘come back.’ It was a sickening sight, the poor thing laid
there on the ground bloated, festering and covered in maggots . . . and yet it lived. Almost
severed in half by the creature that devoured it, all that remained was the head and a small
portion of the upper torso. It had no real body to speak of, except for a thin spinal column
which connected the front half to the rear quarter of the animal. It couldn't walk as it no longer
had the necessary muscles to facilitate movement. It just laid there twitching, hissing and
moaning; its tail whipping back and forth spasmodically from time to time.

I looked out further noticing how high the grass had grown. What concerned me was what
might be hiding in the tall blades. Almost at the end of my line of sight I could see the nose of
the truck jutting out from under the carport. Having backed in as I said earlier, the driver side
door would be a straight shot from the roof. I could sneak across and drop down, almost right
on top of it. The only catch would be getting from the roof to the vehicle unnoticed. I thought
for a moment that it might be better to attempt this at night because they wouldn't be able to see
me. Then I thought better of it as I realized that I wouldn't be able to see
them
either.

I surveyed the rest of the area and everything seemed in
decent shape. Despite the fact that
human corpses had risen from the grave and were standing in my front yard it looked like a
pleasant day. I could see a plume of smoke coming from Barkley’s direction, no doubt the
situation in town was far worse. The condition of Barkley, Panatauk and the other outlying
towns was something of an unknown that we would have to take into consideration as we
decided what course of action to take.

I watched for a little longer then retreated back inside and climbed down the ladder, making
sure to retract the ladder and lock it securely; you just never know. I was very paranoid and
rightfully so. It was doubtful that one of those things could find its way onto the roof and
virtually impossible that it could manage its way in the
window and into the house
, I
was
still taking no chances.

Later that afternoon I began to pack my supplies. One backpack apiece, that's what I said. We
couldn't afford to be weighed down by bunch of unnecessary equipment. I gathered only the
things I needed; bottled water, snack bars, a flashlight and a few other items. Towards the evening I called Rick over the radio to discuss the situation in detail.

“Hey Rick, you there?”
I asked, waiting for
his response
. It took him several moments
to get to the radio.

“Yeah, I'm here. What’s up?”
He sounded tired.

“I'm sorry man, were you asleep?”
I asked.

“Just trying to get some rest while we can, that's all, what’s going on?”
He asked in a
groggy
voice.

“I just want to go over some things before tomorrow. Did you sit down and talk with
Amanda?”

“Yeah I did
, I
think she is going to be okay, she's as ready as she will ever
be but w
e’ve got to
first thing tomorro
w. She'll be out of medicine in
a few days”
Rick
replied.

“Okay, like I said . . . 11 am, be ready and waiting. Remember, only one backpack
.
Listen I know that when all this shit goes down it's going to be crazy. Make sure when you
jump in the truck you close that kitchen window so those things don't get in. I don't wan
t
tp
get
back and find out that they got inside while we were gone.”
I continued.

“I know, I won't forget. We have everything ready to go”
Rick reassured me.

“Alright, I just want to be sure. We've only got one chance to get this right. You know that
once this goes down, things are go
ing to
be different. Until now they didn't know we were here,
but now, well, they will be looking for us”,
I told him.