Dead of Knight: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale (13 page)

“Good for us, though,” said Mike Jr.

“That’s for sure,” I said.

And there it was.  Somebody was going to die in a few minutes if not sooner.  Maybe several somebody’s.  And because of that fact, the three of us were safer because it was drawing the zombies off in a different direction.  Just another day in a world gone mad.

We walked south on Meeting St toward Line St just two blocks away.  As we approached, we could see a few zombies staggering through the intersection in the direction of the gun fire which had grown more sporadic.  We turned left on Line St and immediately found ourselves with 8 zombies directly in front of us, staggering and shambling toward the sounds of the gun fire. 

We raised our crossbows and fired.  At that short distance, we all hit our marks.  Five to go.  But they were close and none of us were quick at reload the crossbows yet so out came the tomahawks.  The remaining five zombies were spread out somewhat and their heads were bashed in short order.  After retrieving our bolts, we walked about ten more yards and turned into the parking lot to find the buses.  They were both right where they were supposed to be.  It was a little sad to me really, neither bus would ever give another tour.  As expected, they both started right up.

“Michael, do you want to bash through the barricade or drive safely behind?” I asked.

“The way he drove the RV he should do the bashing,” said Mike Jr.

“Oh, very funny,” Michael replied.  “But, you’re probably right.  I’ll do the bashing.”

“Okay, the older bus has some occasional issues occasionally so we’ll use that one to do the bashing.”

Mike Jr and I got into the newer bus and Michael climbed into the older one.  He led the way back out onto Line St and back the way we came.  There was only barely enough room in some places with all the wrecks and stalled cars.  It took longer to drive back to the barricade than it had to walk from it.

I held back while Michael tried to push his way through the small hole in the barricade.  It wasn’t budging.  So, after a few tries he backed up and gunned it.  The bus smashed into the barricade and made the hole larger.  Another try and he was through.  Michael pulled the bus over a little farther past the barricade.

“Why don’t we keep both buses?” he asked.

“I don’t want to split us up and we don’t have time to go back to the house and then get to Costco.  Besides, you’re leaking anti-freeze pretty good.  C’mon, let’s get rolling.  Your bus smashing was loud.”

A little farther up the road I fished the locking pliers and the wd-40 out of my bag and passed them to Michael.

“I want you guys to see if you can get a few of those seats in the back loose.  If we can keep, maybe, half that would give us a lot more space for supplies.”

Michael and Mike Jr got to work on the bolts that secured the seats to the floor.  I drove slow anyway because of the wrecks and abandoned cars.  Each time I turned sharply or was about to hit a bump, I called out so the guys could prepare.  I didn’t want them hurt while on the floor of the bus.  The roads were clogged with vehicles as expected and it took twice as long to get to the Costco as it should have.  By the time I pulled into the Costco parking lot they had unbolted the back eight seats.

“That’s excellent work guys.  Really.  We can get a few more out later on at the house.  Ideally, I’d like to have a little more space for supplies, but I didn’t think you’d get that far.”

The Costco parking lot had 30 or 40 vehicles in it.  Many more than I was expecting to find.  There was also the matter of the adjacent apartment complex that I had forgotten about.  There were more than a few zombies that could be seen milling about in front of the buildings.  But, they were several hundred yards away.  The more immediate concern was closer.

“Where are all the people that those cars belong to?” asked Michael.

“Good question.  They’ve got to be inside, dontcha think?  There’s no reason you would’ve just left your car at the Costco,” I replied.

“But, why would you leave the house at all if you were that sick or that close to turning?” asked Mike Jr.

“Maybe they got bitten here.  They came for supplies and got bitten at the store?  I don’t know.  But, I do know that if they are all inside we’ll have our work cut out for us,” I said.

“This’ll be fun,” said Mike Jr.

“Just another day in a world gone mad,” I said.  “Let me pull up closer so that the passenger door faces the entrance.”

“Do we have a plan?” asked Michael.

“Well, we have to clear the store, obviously,” I said.  “But, I can’t make a plan until we see how many are near the front.”

I put the bus into ‘park’, but didn’t shut it off.  Something felt wrong but I didn’t know what it was.

“”What’s up, Mr. Knight?” asked Mike Jr.

“Ryan, Mike.  Call me Ryan.  And I don’t know.  I just feel like we’re being watched.”

“Well, there are quite a few zombies at the door who look awfully hungry,” Mike Jr replied.

“Yeah, I see em.  But that’s not it.  I feel, I don’t know.  I wish I had some binoculars.”

I sat for a minute, looking out at the parking lot, trying to put what I felt into words.  Finally, I shut off the bus, opened the passenger door and stepped out.  We sized up the situation at the door.  These entrance doors would normally slide open when you walked up but the power was out.  I didn’t think they’d be locked.

“Okay, same plan as when we first met down in Yemassee yesterday.  I open the door a little and let one through at a time.  Only today we start with the crossbows.  Take turns shooting.  We can’t reload very fast and if we all shoot at the same time, we’re vulnerable.”

“You sure you want to be that close?” asked Michael.

“No, but I don’t want to break the glass.  It’ll be too loud and it’ll let too many through at once.  Who’s shooting first?”

“I will,’ said Mike Jr.

“Good.  Then Michael shoots, then me.  Get ready.”

I stepped up close to the door and the other two got ready to fire.  There were maybe 15 zombies right at the door.  There were only ten when we first got out of the bus.  The others were attracted by the moans of the ones already there who saw the prey.  I hoped that they would all come up to the door to be fed.  That way we wouldn’t have to hunt through the store.  But I knew that wouldn’t happen.  I looked back at the others who nodded.  My best case scenario here was to hook the door closest to me with the pointy end of the tomahawk.  Then I could pull it towards me and open both doors at once.  Staying out of the opening would minimize my exposure.

I pulled on the tomahawk handle with both hands but the door only opened about a foot.  Crap.  And, of course, there was a zombie right there trying to get through.

“Mike, Jr, hit this one in three, two, one.”

Mike Jr, loosed a bolt and hit the zombie in the left eye.  At the same moment, I placed the tomahawk on the other side of the door and grabbed this side with my bare hands.  Pushing on the tomahawk and pulling on this side, I managed to open the door about 30 inches.  I pulled away from the opening and promptly fell down.  Michael loosed a bolt then Mike Jr finished reloading and did the same.  The dead zombies in the doorway made it difficult for the one behind to get through.  This gave us more time to reload.  I managed to get myself and my crossbow up while the other two reloaded.  I loosed a bolt and took out the next zombie trying to get through the door.

“They’re not too bright are they?” asked Mike Jr.  “They can’t figure this out.”

“I agree,” said his father.  “They might be able to climb a hill but steps and door handles are out of the question.”

“Watch them as they fall, though.” I cautioned.  “A bite to the foot or ankle is still a bite.”

All at once there were no more zombies at the door.  We had killed 32 using the bottleneck at the door.  Cautiously, Michael and I moved closer to the door and dragged the bodies away trying to only touch the clothing.  Mike Jr kept watch.

“How’s the apartment complex look, Mike?” I asked.

“About the same.”

We policed our bolts and got ready to enter the store.  Michael and I pulled the doors the rest of the way open with Mike Jr ready in case something came through the door.  Nothing did.

“Do we stay together or split up to do this?” asked Michael.

“Stay together to clear the building,” I replied.  “Once we’re done with that then we’ll split up to gather supplies.”

We closed the door behind us.  No point letting more zombies in while we were clearing the place.  The building was dark without power.  A few emergency lights were still on and the skylights helped a little.  We could see only 35 feet or so in front of ourselves.  Walking slowly together, we used our flashlights to look for zombies.  Once found, the light was shined in their eyes and another person shot them in the head.  The light from the flashlight seemed to disorient them in the darkened building.  Maybe their pupils didn’t dilate quickly.  That might be important to remember.

We found 19 more zombies in Costco, including a child in one of the bathrooms that Michael hesitated to shoot.  I did it, with some measure of regret.

“Sorry,” said Michael.

“Nothing to be sorry about.  We all hesitated.”

With that exception, each zombie had been dispatched without much difficulty and there were no close calls.

“I think we got them all,” said Michael.

“Looked like it,” I said.

“I think so, too,” Mike chimed in.

“Time to split up then.  You two, take flat carts and get as much water as you can possible get.  Wait…”  I walked over to a display near the door and found one of the things I wanted to find.  Walkie-talkies.  There were ten 2-packs and I took all of them.  Each came with the AAA batteries needed and had more channels than we would ever need in the zombie apocalypse.  We opened two packages and loaded the batteries.  The other packages went in my cart.  After a radio check, I got back to what I was talking about.

“Water.  All of it if we can.  Things like Gatorade aren’t bad either.  When you’re ready to come back up front, call me.  I want all of us up here when we’re loading.  I’m going for medical supplies.  Do any of you need prescriptions?  How about Lois?”

They both shook their heads.

“Okay, I’ll grab AAA batteries on the way.”

We split up and headed into the store.  I went first to where I remembered the batteries were.  I grabbed all the AAA batteries they had.  My flashlight also took AAA’s.  Right next to the batteries was a display of headlamps.  Score!  I opened one and loaded the batteries.  Also AAA.  It worked great.  With the headlamp on I could be hands free.

The pharmacy doors were rolled down and locked when I got there.  I grabbed the pry bar out of my bag and jimmied them open.  Inside, it took some time to find the antibiotics.  While looking I found the Vicodin and grabbed all of that.  Then the antibiotics; Amoxicillin, Keflex, Cipro and Augmentin.  That should cover anything we come across.  No point leaving any.  We weren’t going to be able to go to the doctor’s office for a while.  I found the Percocet and then happened upon some Xanax.  The zombie apocalypse was gonna be stressful, might as well have something to help us sleep. 

Just then the radio came to life.  Damn it was loud in the quiet store.

“Ryan, we’re ready at the front.”

“10-4. On my way.”

When I got up to the front, the other two guys were looking through the other displays near where the walkies had been.  Mike Jr came over to my cart.

“Hey, you need any help with all that?  It looks heavy.”

“Look punk, the pharmacy was locked and I had to break in.  It took a minute.  My stuff wasn’t just stacked in a big pile,” I replied.  My smile must’ve given me away. 

“I’m just kidding, you know,” he said.

“And, I’m just giving you shit,” I replied.

“Are you two done?” Michael asked, chuckling.

We pried the doors back open and went cautiously outside.  No zombies nearby.  I looked over toward the apartment complex and it didn’t look any different than it had before.

But, hadn’t there been a truck in the lot?  I was sure I had seen a big, white pickup truck in the Costco parking lot.  It had a cap on the back.  I was sure it had been there.  Or, was that yesterday at the Bass Pro Shop?  Crap, I didn’t know.

I shook the thought out of my head and helped Mike Jr and Michael.  First, to bring the seats out of the truck.  There was no point hauling them back to the house.  Then we loaded the water and threw the med on one of the seats.

“Should we have somebody watch the bus?” asked Mike Jr.

Michael looked like he was about to say ‘no’ when I interrupted.

“Yes, definitely.”

“What are you thinking,” asked Michael.

“Look over toward the apartments.  Do either of you remember a white pickup with a cap parked over there?” I asked.

“Not that I remember,” said Mike Jr.

“I really wasn’t looking,” answered Michael.

“I was sure that there was one over there when we pulled up and now it’s gone.  I was sure of it.”

“And you said you felt like you were being watched earlier,” said Mike Jr.