Dead Outside (Book 1) (23 page)
“Oh
my god!” Sarah exclaimed, “They got in! What are we going to do?”
It
took me a minute to process what was happening. I rubbed my eyes again. It was
definitely one of them, stumbling around right outside the window.
“Go
get Nick. We need to check the perimeter, and see how many there are.” I looked
over at Sarah. She was breathing heavily, almost to the point of
hyperventilation.
“Its
pitch black out there,” She grabbed my arm, “You’re going to get killed if you
go out there.”
I
put my arm on her shoulder and gestured with my head to the window. “The storm
shutters on the second floor aren’t shut. That one may not have realized we’re
in here, but if they do, that glass isn’t going to hold them for long.”
Sarah
sniffled and shook her head, “It’s not safe.”
“We’re
not safe like this,” I reminded her. “If we don’t shut those shutters they’ll
get in here and then none of us will be safe. Now go tell Nick to come out
here, and lock yourself and Roxie in our room with some guns.”
I
didn’t wait for Sarah to move, I walked around her to get my bat and rifle. My
bat was leaning next to the gun rack. A machete was right next to it. I grabbed
them both and left the gun. It would be damn near impossible to aim in the
storm anyway.
Sarah
wasn’t in the living room anymore. She must have gone to get Nick because he
and Roxie came running from their room. Roxie had her rifle and was loading
rounds into it.
“Nick
we need to go around and shut the storm shutters.” I tossed him the machete,
then walked up to Roxie, “Roxie stay here with Sarah and lock yourselves in your
bedroom till we get back.”
“What!?”
Roxie asked, clearly upset. “Why am I locked up in here? I can help you guys
out there!”
Nick
was about to argue when I cut him off. “No, stay here.”
“I
am just as good with a gun as any of you,” she argued loudly. “You need me out
there covering your asses.”
“I
need you to stay here,” I yelled back. “I need you to keep Sarah safe while
we’re out there. Can you handle that?”
She
didn’t like it, that was for sure. It was all over her face, but she nodded,
“Fine, I’ll keep her safe.”
“Good,”
I started walking toward the door leading outside. “Nick we do this quick and
easy. We’ll do a circle, shutting all the storm shutters and then come back
inside.”
“You
got it.” He pulled the machete out of its sheath, “How do you think they got in
the perimeter?”
“I’m
sure we’ll find out once we get out there” I put on my gloves to grip my bat
better, and then put my hat on. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Rain
hit my arm so fast and hard it felt like I was getting pelted by gravel. The
wind was so strong I had to hold onto my hat just to keep it from flying off.
“This
is crazy!” Nick was yelling but I could still barely hear him. “This is some
storm!”
“This
isn’t just some storm!” I yelled back, putting the key into first storm shutter
to drop it, “This is a damned hurricane!”
The
wind was blowing so hard it made Nick lose his footing. He grabbed onto the
handrail just in time to keep himself from falling over completely. “This isn’t
going to be easy!”
“No
shit! I yelled back, pulling the key out for the first storm shutter. “We have
five more of these to close.”
“Only
five?” Nick yelled, regaining his footing. “There are a lot more windows then
that!”
All
of the sudden a large mass flew between us and smacked into the storm shutter I
just closed. I thought it was a branch until it moved. It reached up and tried
to grab my leg. I kicked its hand away and swung my bat down on its head. “You
really want to try to close every second floor storm shutter in this weather?
It’s raining zombies for fuck’s sake!”
Nick
looked over the balcony. “You’re right, let’s do this quick.”
The
winds picked up again and almost knocked me over. I grabbed onto the handrail
next to Nick and handed him the key to shut the shutters. “Go shut the shutters
that are around our safe room, leave the rest.”
He
wiped water off his face only for it to be replaced a moment later, “Where are
you going?”
“I
need to check on the buses,” I yelled, wiping the water off my face only for
the bandage on my forehead to come off with it. “If the winds are this strong
they might get knocked over.”
“Don’t
do anything stupid!” he yelled. “Just look, and then get the hell out of there.
No hero stuff!”
“You
know me,” I smirked then ran off toward the cafeteria. The two buses there
filling up the walkway were easily our weakest point of defense. I had to grab
onto the handrail over a dozen times to keep from falling over. The wind speed
was insane.
The
undead outside were having even more trouble than I was with the wind. They
were plenty clumsy on their own. With strong winds the ones not packed against
the building were either just knocked over, or rolling along the ground being
blown like leaves and twigs.
There
were a few more undead that must have been blown up onto the balcony by the
wind. I took care of two of them easily enough, but as I was about to swing at
the third the wind knocked us both off our feet.
It
reached up and grabbed my head. I struggled and pulled my head out of its grip,
but it still clutched my hat. My bat was to my left so I reached over and
grabbed it, only to see the zombie chewing on my hat when I went to crush its
skull.
I
set the bat back down and grabbed my hat, trying to pull it out of the zombie’s
mouth. It was bearing its teeth and snarling it must have tasted my sweat in
the hat or something. I punched it in the cheek to try to loosen its grip but
it didn’t work. I punched it a few more times until it did.
I
put my hat back on then smashed its skull in with the side of my bat. “Never
touch the hat!” I yelled.
I
stumbled to my feet and continued on. As I rounded the corner the weather
seemed to get worse. I had to hang onto the rail the entire time just to keep
from falling over.
When
I finally reached the point where I could see the two buses I saw one of them
was on its side. It must have been the wind, which was blowing in from the east
still, and the bus was pushed in toward the west. Most of the undead were in
the front of the school, but there were still at least a hundred behind these
two buses waiting to get inside the school.
Whenever
the undead pushed those buses in too far, we would use the truck for supply
runs to push it back into place. I looked down and saw there was enough space
for them to squeeze through, and they already were with the wind behind them.
I
looked over the edge of the balcony and saw the roof of the bus that wasn’t
knocked over. The stairwell was on the other side of the school and with this
weather it would take me forever to get back there. After taking a few deep
breaths I hopped over the rail and onto the roof of the bus.
As
soon as my feet hit the roof they slid out from under me. My body hit the bus
hard and I lost my grip on my bat as I started sliding down the wrong side of
the bus toward the sea of undead. As I reached frantically for anything to stop
myself from sliding off my hat blew off my head toward the courtyard. My legs
were dangling off the side of the bus when I finally grabbed onto a yellow
light on the roof.
“Shit!”
I cursed. I could feel them grabbing at my feet trying to pull me down. Luckily
the rain was keeping them from getting a good grip. I pulled myself up, just
barely.
There
were already dozens of zombies inside the courtyard. I slid down the side of
the bus facing the courtyard as carefully as I could and landed in a puddle
with a splash. I scrambled to my feet as the zombies near the buses started
closing in on me. The wind was still strong but the buses were shielding me
from it. I couldn’t find my bat. It must have fallen off the other side of the
bus.
I
didn’t have time to find another weapon. The zombies were still pouring through
the space between the buses, so I ran as fast as I could toward the auto
garage. I shoved a few of them out of the way on the way there nearly falling
myself, but I kept my footing.
The
rolling door was still closed so I opened the door next to it and went inside.
The truck we used for supply runs was still half filled with bags full of food,
and every second counted.
I
looked over at my truck that was only recently reassembled. “Baby if I ever
needed you to start on the first time, it’s now.”
I
pulled open the rolling door and hooked the chain to keep it open. Rain started
blowing in almost immediately. The keys to my truck were on a table covered in
tools. I grabbed them and got in my truck. I took a deep breath before I turned
the key, but when I did the deep hum of the engine rumbling to life filled the
cabin. It was quite honestly the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.
The
moment didn’t last long, the sight of one of the undead walking past the
rolling door snapped my attention back to the problem at hand. I shifted it
into drive and slammed on the gas. As soon as I hit the water outside the
garage the truck hydroplaned, slamming into the wall of the next building,
slamming a zombie, crushing its body against the opposite wall.
I’d
driven in rain before, and I’d driven on ice, but this was a whole new beast.
The wind speeds were still ridiculously high, and the rain was pooling up,
there was so much of it. It was more like I was driving through a river, there
was so much water on the ground, and so much wind speed, I was surprised I kept
control of the truck.
It
took me at least five minutes to drive toward the knocked over bus, I had to
drive carefully to avoid wrecking the truck. I must have run over at least a
dozen zombies on my way there, most of them weren’t killed, most likely just
had their bodies crushed under the tires.
When
I got to the bus wall, I could see several dozen of the undead stumbling around
the courtyard being knocked over by the wind. I stopped about twenty yards away
from the bus that had been knocked over, and saw that more were squeezing every
minute.
The
engine roared as I slammed the gas. There were three of them between the truck
and the bus, two of them were deflected off to the side, and one went under the
right tires. The grill guard hit the bus and it lurched forward slightly. I
backed up and hit it again. Every hit closed the space between the buses ever
so slightly.
I
drove over to where the buses met and saw that I’d closed up the space well
enough to stop the flow of undead into the courtyard.
I
drove my truck over to the stairwell rather than back to the auto garage. The
hurricane wasn’t calming down any and with all the zombies now loose in the
school I didn’t want to have to walk back.
I
scratched around the wound on my forehead and remembered my hat blew off
earlier. I felt like I’d just lost a finger or something, Sarah gave me that
hat, it was by far the only possession in the world I cared about. When I
brought my hand back down I saw blood all over it. I must have blown my
stitches. Roxie was going to be pissed.
I
got to the safe room, closed and locked the door behind me. Nick was sitting at
the kitchen table with a bottle of whiskey and a glass in front of him.
“I’ll
take one of those.” I said grabbing a glass from the counter and sitting down
across from him.
3:00
PM, December 12
The
hurricane was still going strong. We kept the doors locked, but every once in a
while Nick and I would open the door to see how bad it was. There weren’t any
more zombies in the courtyard that we could tell, which meant the bus was still
blocking that walkway.
We
fired up the generator to watch a movie to help pass the time. Everybody was
pretty stressed out, so rather then just the one movie we were having a Star
Wars marathon while having a few drinks.
I
reached up to my hatless head and scratched the skin around my fresh bandage
Roxie had just put on a few hours ago.
“Stop
fiddling with it,” Roxie scolded. “You’re going to pop your stitches again if
you don’t leave it alone.”
“I’m
not exactly hopping off balconies,” I defended myself. “I’m not going to pop a
stitch by relieving an itch.”
“Remember
when we were kids and we would beat the shit out of each other with those
plastic light sabers?” Nick asked, mixing another drink. “We got pretty good at
sword fighting from all that.”
“Remember
when the plastic ones broke so we had to use sticks and pipes?” I reminded him.
“I
can still feel those bruises sometimes,” Nick shivered.
“You
guys are such nerds,” Roxie taunted. “Always chasing each other around with
some kind of weapon.”
“You’re
just upset because we wouldn’t let you play,” I made fun of her. “I remember
you used to run to mom yelling ‘Mommy, Mommy. Sammy and Nick won’t let me play
Star Wars!’ It was hilarious”
Nick
spit out some of his drink he laughed so hard, “You have to admit that was
pretty funny.”
A
maniacal smirk grew on Roxie’s face, “I don’t know. You didn’t have a problem
playing Star Wars the other night, Isn’t that right Anakin?”
Nick’s
face flushed almost instantly. He took a gulp and mumbled something quietly to
Roxie.
“What
was that?” she asked loudly. “I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“Yes
Padme,” he said loud enough for Sarah and me to hear.
Sarah
and I erupted into laughter, which made Roxie laugh as well. Nick just sat
cross armed and was too embarrassed to laugh.
It
was moments like these that made it all worth it. The things I’d done in the
last few months to be able to enjoy these moments would have made me cringe a
year ago. Now they were becoming second nature. I put my arm around Sarah.
When
I did she leaned in closer to me and rested her head on my chest. A smile crept
up my face. Fuck who I was a year ago, I didn’t care that the dead were walking
around trying to eat us. Just having Sarah made it all worth it to me.
12:00
PM, December 13
The
wind and rain had stopped earlier that morning. Nick and I went outside to
check if it was just the eye of the storm but saw the clouds were only to the
west, with clear skies to the east.
We
all sat down at the kitchen table to talk about what we needed to do to clear
out the school again. The storm had blown quite a few of the undead into the
school, and the knocked over bus also let a few sneak in.
“I
want to check the buses before we start clearing out the courtyard.” I took a
sip of coffee, “If another bus was knocked over in the storm we could be
ringing the dinner bell. I can see them all from the second floor. I won’t have
to go downstairs.”
“There
are still going to be some up on the second floor,” Sarah added. “We heard them
get thrown up here by the wind.”
“There
won’t be too many,” Nick was loading clips for the handguns. “We can handle a
few of them. The problem is going to be the stairwell. As soon as they see us
they’re going to come up the stairs.”
“After
we clear the second floor walkways we can just put one of us halfway up the
stairwell to pop them as they walk in,” I suggested. “They aren’t very coordinated,
and can’t climb stairs very fast, so one person should do the trick.”
“Where
do you want me?” Roxie asked anxiously. “In the stairwell or on the walkways
taking them out from up there?”
“Walkways,”
I answered without having to think about it. “Just place your shots carefully.
Try not to waste too much ammo.”
“Okay,
let’s go clear out the second floor walkways and check those buses.” Nick
finished loading his last clip.
I
stood up rather slowly. My side was still hurting me from when I nearly fell off
the bus the other day. Roxie said it was most likely just bruised, but it could
be a small fracture, when she checked me out that night.
Roxie
saw me place my hand where the pain was coming from. “You should sit this one
out. I can clear the walkways with Nick.”
“No,
I’m fine, it’s no big deal,” I shook my head. “It just hurts when I stand up or
sit down.”
“Yes,
it is a big deal.” She put her hand on the rib and poked, which made me wince
even more then when I stood up. “If you overdo it now you could make this
worse. You stay here with Sarah and we’ll take care of the walkway. Once we’ve
checked the buses we’ll call you guys out and we’ll start working on the
courtyard.”
“Roxie’s
right Sam,” Sarah put her hand on my shoulder. “They can handle it. Just take
it easy. You don’t have to do everything.”
I
didn’t like it, but I could tell Nick agreed with them based on the look he had
on his face. “Fine,” I said reluctantly. “Just be careful out there.”
“We’ll
be back in no time,” Nick tried to reassure me, but it didn’t work. I hated not
being useful, and I hated being on the sidelines even more.
Nick
and Roxie went outside to start clearing them out. Sarah and I sat at the
kitchen table with our rifles and boxes of ammo waiting to go clear out the
ones in the courtyard.
After
about twenty minutes the radio chirped, “Buses are solid, and we cleared the
ones on the second floor out and Nick is in the stairwell already, waiting on
you guys.” A shot rang out just as Roxie cut off her transmission.
“That’s
our cue,” I said, grabbing my rifle and a box of ammo. I stood up a little
faster this time to show it didn’t hurt as much but it still did.
“Nice
try,” Sarah saw right through my ruse. “Pain is in the eyes, not in how fast
you move.”
“Yeah,
well you can’t blame a guy for trying,” I admitted as we walked outside.
There
were a bit more than I expected to be in the courtyard, but not too many. Roxie
fired again and I saw a distant body collapse. Sarah and I brought our rifles
up and followed suit.
There
was plenty of other debris in the courtyard besides the undead. Tree branches
and random pieces of garbage were all over the place. There was even a slide
that looked like it came off of a playground.
A
few of them wandered toward the stairwell, but I could hear Nick’s pistol
firing as they disappeared into it.
“This
is almost getting too easy,” I heard Roxie gloat as she dropped another zombie.
She
was a good shot for sure, but it worried me that she was getting so cocky. I
didn’t say anything, no sense in getting into an argument right then.
It
only took about an hour to clear out all the ones that were walking around.
There would most likely be crippled ones that couldn’t walk anymore strewn
about, but for the most part we were in the clear.
Nick
went into the courtyard to see if any were under the second floor walkways that
we couldn’t see and gave me the thumbs that it was clear.
“Okay
Nick, lets start dragging these bodies over to the burn pile,” I yelled to him
as I slung my rifle across my back and drew my pistol out of the holster on my
belt.
“I
thought I said not to overdo it?” Roxie asked, pointing at my side.
“Roxie
you weigh ninety pounds soaking wet,” I exaggerated slightly. “You can’t lift
those bodies at all, and I don’t want them lying there too long. I’ll be fine.”
“Fine,”
she relented. “But take your time, it’s not a race.”
“Yes
Mom,” I said sarcastically as we started walking down stairs. “Why don’t you go
around and take care of any crawlers. I ran over quite a few of them that
night, and I’m sure the storm could have crippled some of them. I don’t want
any surprises.”
“Yes
Dad,” she answered sarcastically and walked off toward the auto garage.
Nick
and I started dragging the corpses back to the burn pile we made when we first
took the school months ago. It was tucked in a corner where we didn’t normally
go. The walls next to it were still charred black from the fire we made back
then.
Sarah
was picking up other debris like the branches and garbage and putting it in big
black garbage bags.
Nick
and I dropped off two bodies at the new pile we were making next to the old
one. We were walking back to the courtyard to grab more when Sarah walked up
with something familiar in her hands.
“Look
what I found stuck in a tree branch,” she held out my hat, still soaked from
being in the rain for over a day. “I can’t believe it didn’t blow away.”
“I
can’t believe it’s still in one piece,” Nick said grabbing another corpse,
“What the hell is that thing made of?”
“Holy
shit,” I was shocked. I grabbed it from her and went to put it on but it was
still soaked, “Maybe I should let it dry before I put it back on.”
“That’s
probably a good idea.” Sarah took it back and started picking up debris again.
“I’ll go put it in the sun for a few hours.”
“Thanks
babe!” I thanked her and then grabbed another corpse to drag back to the burn
pile.
On
the way back to the pile I heard a gunshot coming from the auto garage. Roxie
must have found a crawler or something. Nick was still setting the body he just
dragged onto the pile.
“So
how are you and Roxie doing man?” I asked, figuring a little conversation would
help pass the time.
“Better,”
he admitted. “Ever since you two went on that supply run we’ve been getting
along pretty well,” he cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed. “I still want
to talk to you about what we said before that run.”
I’d
almost forgotten about that. We left the pile of bodies and started walking
toward the courtyard to drag more bodies back.
“I
don’t know if we need to have that conversation anymore,” I tried to avoid the
subject. “Do you?”
“Come
on Sam,” Nick grabbed the shoulders of another body. “Were you really going to
throw me out of here if Roxie and I couldn’t work it out?”
“Oh
I don’t know,” I groaned as I bent down to grab another body. “The day’s still young.”
“Ha
ha,” he said sarcastically. “I guess I’d do the same thing if you did all that
to my sister.”
“You
don’t have a sister,” I said dropping off the body I was dragging at the pile.
“Yeah,”
he said, dropped off the body he was dragging as well. “But you know, I mean if
I had a sister for you to argue with constantly and think about breaking up
with.” He paused for a moment, and then said, “Never mind, stupid comparison.”
“I’ll
say,” I chuckled, which only made my side hurt.
We
made a few more trips then Nick finally spoke up again, “What’s our end game?”
“End
game?” I thought out loud. “I don’t know. I’ve never been one for looking too
far into the future, you know that.”
“Well
what are we going to do if something else like that hurricane happens?” he
asked. “What if something knocks those buses over and we can’t put it back in
time? Where the hell do we go then?”
I
scratched above the bandage on my forehead and thought about it, “I have no
idea. I think this is the safest place, but if something were to happen, I’d
say we should go north.”
“What’s
north?” Nick asked skeptically.
“Not
this damned heat for one thing,” I wiped the sweat off my face. “But in all
honesty think about it, these things are dead, they don’t have any body heat,
what’s to stop them from freezing in the winter?”
The
skeptical look on his face faded, “And it won’t go below freezing here. That’s
a good idea, but it’s a long distance over hostile terrain.”
“Wouldn’t
be the first time I’d have to do it,” I reminded Nick. “And that was in the
opening weeks, there weren’t just zombies out there. I had to deal with
psychopaths too. I damn near got killed in that warehouse.”
“True,
but think about it,” he said, grabbing onto another corpse to drag. “We’re
pretty well settled here, I’ll bet there are a lot more people out there
settled in larger communities than ours.”
“And?”
I asked, trying to figure out his point while grabbing another corpse myself.
“And,
why should we have to survive alone?” he asked. “If we ever do have to leave
here and we end up bumping into another group we should join them.”
“Absolutely
not,” I disagreed. “I think we’re better off alone, we can’t trust anyone
else.”
“Why
not?” he questioned. “Not everyone is a bad guy Sam. Just because you bumped
into some low life’s, that doesn’t mean that everyone still alive is.”
Just
then we heard another gunshot. Roxie must have found another one crawling
around. We both looked over to where the shot came from, and sure enough we saw
her holding her gun in the air.
“Fuck
yeah!” she yelled across the courtyard. She was so far away I could barely hear
her over the moans of the ones outside, “That’s the last one!”
We
both gave her thumbs up and continued dragging the rest of the way to the pile.
We dropped the two bodies onto the rest of the pile. About two thirds of the
bodies in the courtyard were already on the pile.
“Whatever,
we can figure out how to cross that bridge when we get there,” I said as I
grabbed a can of gas and started to pour.
