Zombies! Rising from the Dead (22 page)

plowed
a path through the rotting flesh that stood between me and the open road.
Chests
caved,
heads popped and rotted organs burst under the weight of the heavy tires; I felt a sense of glee as I mowed them down. All these long weeks they had kept me locked away, a
prisoner in my own home. They had been in charge, now it was my turn.
I hit the open road, once again it became obvious that these things were remembering
fragments of imbedded memories from their former lives, because they only seemed to be
interested in houses; the highway was virtually free of any threat. There was the wandering
corpse here and there, but nothing that presented a real
problem.
I was in the clear and on my way to Rick's. I looked back at my house as it faded into the
distance;
it was surrounded by more than a hundred of those things. I would never have known
just how large the threat was if I hadn't gotten out. If I didn't know how well the house was
fortified I would have thought it to be overrun, but looks are often deceiving and I
had
worked
very hard to make it impenetrable; I knew it would be there when I got back. If I was really
lucky perhaps those things would sense that no one was there any longer and finally disperse;
but that was stretching my expectations.

Rick's house was only a couple miles up the road
and
the surrounding area didn't look
too
bad.
Plants and trees weren't affected,
nor were the sky and sun. Y
ou could scarcely tell that
anything was wrong at all. However, if you looked closer there
were
hints that something was
amiss, as off in the distance smoke rose from Barkley
I was reminded of the undead threat again as I came upon Rick's. I rounded the corner and
as I approached the number of dead began to increase like a trickle of army ants leading a path
to a morsel of candy that had been carelessly discarded.
I stopped the truck short of his house and pulled out my pack. I fumbled through the
supplies until I found the radio buried on the bottom.

“Hey Rick, you there?
I'm sitting a little off from your house, you ready?”
I didn't have to
wait for his reply.

“WHERE THE HELL
HAVE
YOU BEEN?”
He shouted,
“We have been worried sick
asshole! What’s wrong can't turn on your fucking radio, or is that too hard?!”
He yelled.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there wasn't anything I could do! I ran into trouble, but I'm here
now,”
I told him.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes I'm fine, I just had a lot more of those things to deal with than I expected. I hurt my leg getting out, but nothing serious”,
I assured him.

“Come and get us! We're ready and waiting!
”
I was surprised that he sounded so gun-ho;
but just like myself he was a bit of an asshole in that he liked being in control. Those monsters
had robbed him of that, so I figured he was ready for a bit of retribution.

“Ok
ay, I'm only a few yards
away ,we’ve
got
to
do this quick . . .
here I come!”
I said in my
most fearless voice

I put the radio down on the seat,
Here
we go
,
I thought to myself.

I put the old Ford in drive and pulled forward, the engine idling loudly in my ears
, his
house edged into view. I will admit when I first saw the situation panic nearly overtook me. I
thought
my
place was bad, but Rick was completely surrounded. In all our
conversations his estimates were around a hundred. The reality of it was more in the
neighborhood of two to three hundred. His place was completely engulfed in a sea of undead
horror. How the windows and doors hadn't already given way under the enormous weight of
them still remains a mystery.
I pulled closer, his house now in full view. As I looked out upon row after row of the
undead my hands began to shake and sweat. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in
a
effort

to
qualm the anxiety.

Too late to second-guess myself now
,
I thought.

I waited for one of them to take notice and inevitably one of them did. It only took one to
sound the alert, and the others quickly followed suit. Numbers, numbers, numbers
;
it always
comes down to numbers. These bastards weren't fast, weren't strong, smart or graceful; but for
all the things they lacked they had volume on their side. Even as slow as they were, I
knew I would have to plow through some
of them to get to Rick and Amanda.
I tensely sat in the cab of my truck and they drew closer, it seemed to take forever. They
were all drawn to my scent, every single one of the mother fuckers could smell my blood and
wanted to latch their teeth into me. They would get a little closer and I would inch the truck
f
orward ever so slightly to keep them moving.
They just seemed to keep coming, and before long I had attracted the attention of them all.
It was coming right down to
it,
I had them right where I wanted them
.
The moment was now!

I picked up the radio,
“HERE I COME!”
I yelled.

I couldn't hear anything but scuttling as Rick and Amanda prepared to make their run.
I slammed on the gas, the tires squealed as they spun past the growing horde. They turned
and stared in dismay, not knowing what to think as the truck speed past them. I made a sharp
left turn, leaving the paved road and drove through Rick's yard kicking up dirt, grass and
gravel as I did so. I was tossed about as the truck bounced across the uneven terrain but
somehow I managed to hold onto the wheel and keep control.
I turned the corner took out another three with the grill of the truck. I
felt the impact as
they hit the front and fell underneath, bouncing twice as I drove over the monster’s chest.

“One down, 199 more to go....”

I came roaring up to the kitchen window and slammed on the brakes, the heavy tread of the
tires digging into the dirt. Everything happened so fast, I pulled up to the window and that
very
second the window flew open with Rick pushing Amanda into the bed. Half a second couldn't
have passed before they were out that window and into the back of the truck. Rick reached up
and slammed the kitchen window back down to prevent those things from getting in.
I looked in the rear view
mirror;
Rick was staring back at me. He was huddled down with one arm draped around Amanda who was down on her knees with her arms covering her head.
H
e was motioning his arm and pointing forward frantically.

“Go
Go
Go!!!
”
he screamed.

I floored the accelerator, and for a moment the tires sat just spinning on the dewy grass. I
lifted off the gas allowing the tires to gain traction, and off we went. I mowed down several of
the creatures on the way through, the bumper and grill taking a heavy beating in the process.
Thank you Henry Ford
!
I
praised, as if he had
personally
had a
hand in building the truck for the
express purpose of surviving an undead onslaught, nonetheless I was grateful to the man

a
t
that moment.

As we sped off I looked back at Rick's as it faded into the morning light. It all
h
appened so fast it seemed like it barely happened at all. The creatures just stood,
watching dumbfounded as we drove off. Realizing how many of them there were I knew there
would be no going back to Rick's, we stood a better chance if we all stayed together.

I looked down in the
bed;
Rick and Amanda were huddled down
with
the wind blasting
them
in
the face. Rick managed a winced look up; just enough to see me looking back and he gave a
reassuring “THUMBS UP”, it gave me a great sense of relief as I realized everyone was safe
and secure.

I drove down the road until we came to a clearing,
not far removed from where we had run into
Mrs. Martinez. Thankfully that was long ago and she was long gone, but I wasn't going to
risk anything. I drove out into the middle of the barren field so we could
see anything coming
at us from a mile in either direction, there would be no surprises...for now.

The brakes squeaked as the truck lurched to a stop in the middle of the field. I placed it in
park and resting my forehead on the steering wheel. Someone made a tap at the window, Rick
and Amanda had already exited the bed.

“Hey, you okay in there?”
He said with a huge smile.

I opened the door and stepped out.

“Hey there buddy, we made it! We actually made it!”
He yelled, I couldn't recall ever
seeing him so happy.

“
Yeah, we sure did
didn't
we?! Who would have
thought!
”
I said.

I looked over at Amanda, tears streaming down her cheeks. I had never been close to
Amanda but she reached out and grabbed me around the shoulders and hugged me tightly,
crying the whole time.