Hell Bound (Book 2): A World Apart (3 page)

“Okay,” I nervously agree with Mathew. Kat softly starts shaking John. John sits up and rubs his little brown eyes. He stretches his arms above his head and yawns.

“Did we find my daddy?”

“No, not yet buddy, but we're going to the high school to look for him. Can you help us find him?” Mathew says, turning around to look at John.

“Yes, I can, Daddy is so tall,” John says proudly, with his head held high.

“Let's first hide the SUV and eat something,” Mathew says, as he starts the vehicle and backs up a little bit so he doesn’t hit the K-rail in front of us. He turns the SUV towards the trees to our left and jumps on the nearest dirt road.

Mathew stops the car a couple minutes down the dirt road, He pulls the SUV into a big group of wild shrubs and trees that have grown out of control from the lack of people using this road. The dirt road is more of an old hiking trail than a road, it leads up into the mountains to an old abandon camp site.

“Well, unfortunately, that's the best I'm going to be able to hide the SUV,” Mathew says while putting the car in park. Kat passes around some cold, hot dogs and water. I reluctantly take the hot dog out of her hand. I love cooked hot dogs, but can’t stand uncooked hot dogs.

I cringe when I take my first bite of the hot dog. I force myself to finish the whole thing, trying not to show how nasty the hot dog taste. Food is food and God only knows how long our food supplies are going to last.

Jumping out of the SUV I grab my backpack. Opening up the backpack, I place four water bottles inside and some granola bars for later. I swing it over my shoulder and tighten the straps to fit my shoulders.

I check my gun and make sure it’s fully loaded and the safety is on. Kat places her knife in her pants buckle and holds the bat. John sits on the dirt next to her playing with Athena’s head. He hasn't cried since he woke up or mentioned his mother, hopefully, he’ll be okay, maybe it hasn't completely sunken in that his mom is dead.

“Okay, ready,” Mathew says as he checks the shotgun again. Walking up to Mathew I swing my arms around his neck. Planting a big kiss on his lips. He hugs me back and slaps my butt playfully.

“What's that for?” He questions with a smirk on his face.

“For helping us survive the zombie apocalypse. I love you.”

“I love you too, let's go, baby.”

“Okay, lovebirds! Can we please get a move on? Some of us would like to get to this so called safe heaven,” Kat says sarcastically.

I stick my tongue out at her and start walking. Athena paces from the front of the line to the back of the line. She is in full alert mode and I personally like having her around. She makes me feel safer.

~~What we fear, we often rage against.~~

We reach the barricade and stand there for a couple minutes. Staring at the ghost town ahead of us. Empty gun shells scattered on the road by my feet, tons of dead zombies lay on the street soaked in their own brownish red blood. Their bodies covered in bullet holes. The air reeks of dead zombies and a mix of a barbecue smell. How odd who would be barbecue right now? Maybe there are people at the high school.

“Looks like a war zone,” Mathew says as he puts his foot on the Humvees bumper.

“It smells weird,” Kat says as she gives John some water.

“Yeah, a mix of the dead with Barbecue,” I add.

“Not very appetizing,” Mathew says jumping over the K-rails. Kat and I jump over while Mathew grabs John and helps him over. Athena jumps over and growls at a dead zombie on the road. I point the nose of my gun down towards the zombie and kick its belly several times, making sure it’s dead not zombie dead. I walk to the Ten ton and hop on the side of the truck and take a peek inside the dirty blood stained window. No soldiers, No weapons, not even a dead soldier Weird. It’s like humanity never existed. Wouldn't there be bodies?

“Where is everyone?” I ask as I jump down from the ten ton.

“Let's keep walking. Keep your eyes open,” Mathew says as he starts walking towards town. He's alert and focused. Behind me Kat holds onto John's hand, John keeps playing with a loose string that hangs down from his shirt. His cute little face is so filthy, blotches of dirt cover his forehead, his shirt is torn at the collar, he needs a good scrub down. Athena walks close to John’s ankle.

Scanning the buildings around us, the country pub comes into view on our left, the front doors are smashed in and the windows are all broken. Feet lay spread out by the front door. No need to look to see if it's dead, the smell alone gives it away. What I wouldn't do for a nice cold Blue Moon right now.

Just thinking about having a pitcher of beer is making my mouth water. Ignoring my urge to walk right inside of the pub and grab a couple beers, I walk a little faster to catch up with Mathew. Mathew stops and holds up his hand, motioning for us to stop walking. He points his index finger to the alley for us to run and cover.  Not wasting any time asking Mathew what he saw, we take off running towards the alley. Quickly we kneel down next to the dumpster.

“What did you see?” Kat asks Mathew as she pushes John against the wall.

“Six zombies at the grocery market. They're just standing there,” Mathew says quickly.

“We can try to go around them? Or do we kill them?” I ask as I look behind us to make sure there are no zombies.

“We can kill them, but I don't want to use

our guns. The sound may attract more of them. Let's follow this alley around them.”

Kat and I agree and follow behind Mathew down the alleyway. The alley leads behind the set of business, where the loading trucks come and go. Mathew walks ahead of us checking to see if the street is clear. He signals us to follow him and puts his finger to his lips.

“John, can you be super quiet? They’re evil people around and we don’t want them to find us right?” I say as I kneel down to be face level with him. John nods his head yes and grabs Kat's hand again. Standing back up I follow behind Kat and John.

The street is empty except for a bread truck that is parked sideways next to the door that says grocery store. Walking up to the bread truck, crates of bread loaves are stacked neatly in the back of the truck. I point my gun inside before I jump in the truck and pull out a loaf of bread and shove it in my backpack. I throw one to Kat and she puts it in her backpack. Jumping out of the Bread truck we start walking behind Mathew again.

The high school is another ten minutes away, my heart starts to pound making me want to run to the high school. Holding myself back from running and giving us away, I start to speed walk. We pass the rest of the business without coming in contact with any zombies.

We come to the cross street that you can take to go right to the town's theater or left to the High School. We turn to the left towards the direction of the high school. All the cars are pushed off of the street, clearing a pathway to the high school.

“Mathew don't you think it's weird we haven't seen anybody?” I say walking next to him. This place gives me the creeps, walking down the empty road makes me feel like we are walking talking meat. I feel like I have a sign taped across my forehead saying “fresh meat! Come and eat me.”

“Yeah, and I haven’t seen any dead bodies either,” Mathew adds as he points his gun towards the cars as we continue to walk by.

“And who pushed the vehicles out of the way?” Kat chime's in.

“Military maybe?” I say looking behind us. “Maybe, either way let’s stay quiet and alert,” Mathew says shushing us. Minutes goes by before the high school comes into view. A big smile spreads across my face.

“Mathew look!”

“Finally, it's about damn time,” Mathew says as a big goofy smile spreads across his face. He seems to be getting just as excited as I am.

“Guys!! They're coming!” Kat screams as she picks up John and runs. Mathew and I look behind us, the horde of zombies is slowly creeping up on us from behind. Athena bows her head and growls at the group of undead behind us.

“Run!” Mathew says as he runs to catch up with Kat and grabs John out of her hands, he runs towards the direction of the high school. Kat grabs Mathew’s shotgun and runs behind him.

“Hurry! They're gaining on us!” I scream in panic as I turn my head to see the zombie horde start to pick up speed.

The high school is a couple minutes away. The zombies are getting closer and closer by the second. It's as if they are faster than they were four days ago. We turn into the high school entrance, the front door is a couple feet ahead of us. A big white sign written in black letters is tapped along the front doors. The sign says “HELP INSIDE” Military vehicles park along the grass in a straight line, but no sign of

soldiers. Nothing, no one, this place is quiet, and from the looks of it empty. Not slowing down fast enough my body slams full force into the front doors. Rattling the doors and the glass window above them. I try to pull the doors open, but they are locked.

I pull forcefully several times but still nothing. Kat stops next to me and starts pounding her fist against the door screaming for someone to open them. Mathew puts John down against the door and tries to pull the doors open. Turning around I pull my gun out and aim towards the oncoming zombie horde.

The group slowed down to a crawl, slowly creeping up on us. They cross the grass, I can swear I see the drool coming down the side of their mouths. Toying with us, at any second they can pounce on us and eat us whole, but they aren't even trying to. Kat Grabs John and shoves him behind her. Mathew grabs the shotgun from Kat and points it towards the zombies.

“Mathew what do we do?” I question as I turn the safety off on my gun off.

“Kat keep banging on the doors, maybe someone is in there,”Mathew says with a shaky voice.

“Hello is there anyone in there? Please open up.” Kat repeats several times. The zombies are only ten feet away from us. Rattling comes from the other side of the door.

“Hurry please hurry,” Kat says as she continues to bang on the doors repeatedly. John sits on the floor between her legs crying hysterically, his hands cover his ears and his eyes are shut tight.

The doors swing open, an older man stands on the other side holding a revolver in his hands, aiming it towards the herd of hungry flesh eating zombies. A shot rings out from the Mathews shotgun as a zombie runs toward us.

“Get inside! Hurry!” The man yells at us, he starts shooting the horde behind us. Kat grabs John off of the floor and pulls him inside practically throwing him inside of the school

“Mathew, please hurry,” I scream at him as I run inside of the double doors. I turn around as a zombie jumps onto Mathew and he falls to the floor.

“Mathew!” I scream as I start to shoot at any zombies that come running towards us.

Mathew kicks and punches at the zombie on top of him, the old man pulls a knife from his jean pants and stabs the zombie in the head. It falls limp on top of Mathew, he pushes the zombie away as he tries scrambles to stand up.

“I'm almost out of bullets!” I scream over the sound of gunshots. Mathew grabs me by the arm and yanks me into the high school. The old man slams the doors shut and starts to tie the chain through the handles of the doors when the doors are forced open. The old man loses his grip on the chain and it falls to the floor. He closes the door and puts his body weight against it to keep it closed. Mathew hurries to him and puts his body weight against the door to help too.

More and more zombies start to push the doors open. I scramble to my feet and grab the chain off of the floor and rush to put it through the handles.

“For the love of god Sam hurry up,” Mathew screams at me as he is being pushed and shoved from the impacted of the zombies trying to get in.

Greenish gray hands with long dirty black fingernails manage to fit in between the doors. I pull out my knife from the waste of my jeans and start stabbing the hand. A piercing scream irrupts from the zombie as the hand disappears giving me enough time to reach the chain through the handlebars.

I shove the lock into place and lock the top and bottom of the doors quickly. Turning around I lean against the door and slide my body to the hard tile floor, leaning my head against the big metal doors. Sweat runs down my face and neck, drops fall from my forehead down to my arms. Leaning my head on my legs, slowly trying to catch my breath.

“Thank you, if it wasn't for you, we would be zombie chow,” Mathew says shaking the old man’s hand.

“No problem, sorry it took me so long. We were not sure if it was them trying to trick us into opening the doors. Or actual humans who needed help.” the old man says while pointing towards the double doors.

“What's your name, old timer?” Kat says, pulling John into her lap trying to calm him down.

“Devlin, what's yours?” he says uneasily, watching us like a hawk. His eyes are a light green, His gray shaggy hair is tied back in a ponytail. His long gray beard hangs loosely down his front. His beer gut hangs over his jeans. His pants are torn at the knees and his shirt is discolored with what can only be zombie blood.

“I’m Sam that furry thing is Mathew, my husband, and Kat and John, Athena, is the one sniffing your shoes,” I say jokingly, trying to break the tension.

He lets out a loud chuckle and shakes our hands. He leans down and pats Athena’s head and rubs the back of her ear. She leans into his hand, wagging her tail. Enjoying the attention.

Mathew helps me up from the tile floor and pulls me into an embrace. Hugging him for a couple seconds I push him away and start checking his body for scratches or bites.

“Are you okay? Did the zombie bite you?” I say still looking over his body from head to toe.

“No baby, I'm okay. But he got awfully close to biting my head off,” Mathew answers back.

“Oh god, don't say that,” I say, pulling him back into an embrace.

“Where are the soldiers?” Kat asks as she tries to stand up, but John clings to her like a new born baby clings to his mommy.

“They left yesterday,” Devlin answers back.

“What? No, they were supposed to leave today. My family is here, where did they all go?” I question frantically, trying not to burst into tears.

“I'm not sure why. But the military took

everyone that made it. There is a billboard in the gym with the survivor’s names who went with them on it. It also states where they went,” Devlin adds.

“Why didn't you go?” Mathew questions suspiciously.

“I got here too late too, so did several other survivors who are in the gym right now. About four of us total. I was driving a diesel truck when all this happened. I rushed home as fast as I could. I was also looking for my family. Luckily they're on the alive list.”

“Could you show us, please?” I ask with a shaky voice. Scared my family won't be on the alive list. I don't know what I would do if I don't see their names on that list.