Savannah's Only Zombie (Book 2): A New Darkness (2 page)

The wood crackled and shifted in the brick
fireplace. Lexx leaned forward and placed another log into the slowly dying
fire. It quickly caught flame and the fire grew. Before reclining back into his
spot against the couch, he pulled a small sliver from the fire and held the
burning tip to his newly found cigar. He puffed patiently, allowing the tobacco
to light. A sweet smelling smoke filled the room, but no one seemed to mind.
The man grinned his boyish-grin and sat back into his spot next to Tori on the
carpet.

Josh lay adjacent to them in the love seat; his
feet pointed towards the warmth of the fireplace. His eyes were shut, most likely
resting, not sleeping. Every now and again, his toes would wiggle, almost to
acknowledge he was still awake.

Jeremy found himself in the well-broken-in
recliner. With his feet popped up, (also in the direction of the fire), he was
doing his best to fight off the sleep which tried to overtake him, even though
he needed it.

They all needed it.

Everyone was exhausted. It could be seen on each
one of their faces. The events of the past few days had been physically
wearing, and just as emotionally tiresome. After leaving Savannah and the
trials that they faced there, the road to Josh’s family did not seem any
easier. Three times already they have had to find an alternate route due to
road blocks. Once, they actually found themselves on I-16 which should have
been clogged with fleeing traffic, but due to a massive pile-up, was mostly
empty past Effingham County.

And then there were the dead. Their numbers
weren’t swollen like in the city, but the small groups that banded together out
in the country could be just as frustrating. They did seem to group together.
Josh was convinced that the undead didn’t “communicate” in a normal sense, but
when one moaned, the others heard it and moved in that direction. He was afraid
of them grouping in large numbers, like at the grocery store and the day he
rescued the others.

But despite all this, despite that they were
probably still a day’s journey from his family, everyone was in good spirits.
The house they were currently in was a God-send. It was tucked out of the way,
away from the roads and neighboring homes. And best of all, it was left almost
entirely intact. Whoever lived here, left everything and split. There was the
possibility that they never came home, but no one ever brought that up.

“This is a good-ass cigar,” Lexx said, breaking
the peaceful silence.

Jeremy smiled.

“Ass-cigar? That sounds-”

“Haha, you are so funny,” Lexx interrupted, not
amused by Jeremy’s clever word play.

Jeremy’s smile faded.

“Ben would have liked that joke.”

The room was silent again, but not so much in a
restful way, but a painful one.

“I would have liked to have met him,” Josh said,
eyes still closed. “From the way y’all have talked about him, he seemed like a
great guy.”

“He was,” Tori said.

Jeremy tried not to think about Ben, to which he
immediately felt somewhat guilty for trying to do. He did want to remember him,
but it was still hard. The two men had formed a friendship against the backdrop
of the end of the world. Jeremy was just glad that the Lumberjack got what he
deserved for killing Ben.

It was ironic that, it was Ben who continued to
vouch for LJ, and in the end, was killed by the monster the man turned into.
Jeremy was not sure why LJ turned the way he did, and when they asked Josh
about it, he did not have any zombie knowledge to enlighten them with.

“So, Josh,” Lexx started. “I still haven’t heard
how you ended up being in the right place at the right time. I didn’t have the
pleasure of riding in the cab of the truck.”

Josh’s eyes opened, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yes, I would like to know as well,” Tori added.

“I was almost asleep,” he said.

“C’mon man. Tell us and then we’ll turn in,”
Lexx insisted.

Josh sat up in his seat and spun his feet around
to the ground. He rubbed his face a few times, scratching at the stubble on his
chin.

“Okay, but me and Jeremy get the kid’s room.”

“Deal,” Tori answered before even consulting
Lexx.

“Yeah, that’s fine, I guess. Not like we’ll be
sleeping much anyway,” he said, playfully elbowing Tori in her ribs. She pushed
him away, but couldn’t hide the small smile on her face.

“Jeez guys, you’re gonna have to give it a rest.
We’d be there already if you two weren’t always sneaking off,” Jeremy said.

“I can’t help that she finds me irresistible.”

“Oh yeah, that’s it,” Tori interjected.

Josh cleared his throat.

“So, I’m going to start telling my story now.
I’m sleepy, so let’s get this over with.”

Everyone settled down. Tori and Lexx moved from
the floor to the couch; Jeremy brought the seat up, but left the footrest out
for optimal foot warming from the fire. Lexx reached over, grabbed the blanket
sitting on the arm of the couch and then to proceeded to cover himself and
Tori. She snuggled into his side.

“Please begin,” Lexx said to Josh, with his hand
held out.

***

“Work sent me down to Brunswick late in the
afternoon last Thursday. We were finishing a job down there, a high school, and
had to get a whole bunch of our ladders and tools out of the building. It was
this whole last minute “fiasco” (he uses “air-quotes”), and the stuff had to be
out of the school by that night. So, I got the pleasure of driving south and
picking everything up.

I left our shop- Can I just say something real
quick? I think it’s crazy how the warehouse that y’all met in and spent your
first night together, is the same place I work. I mean, what are those odds?
That you would stay there and then later, when all hope seems lost, who shows
up? Just a guy driving a truck from the same exact place! Anyways, just thought
I’d say that.

So, I left the shop sometime around two, I
think? Yeah, it was around two, because I remember thinking about how Brunswick
is an hour away, and that meant two hours of travel time and however long it
would take to load everything on the truck. And it was so hot that day. So
freaking hot.

I get down to the job site around three.
Everything was still normal then. A couple of the guys met me outside the
school and informed me that they were still hunting down ladders within the
building. Tools have a great way of disappearing on construction sites, but I
digress.

It takes us an hour to track down the last five
remaining ladders. The school was massive, this two-story deal, with a huge
courtyard in the middle of it. Everything there was state of the art. Real
top-notch kind of place. Kids would have been lucky to have gone there if they
ever got the chance. But now they won’t. At least for now.

As we finished loading the last few ladders onto
my truck, Johnny, one of our guys, was telling me how a few of the other
workers around the school had been acting strange all day. Word was that some
kind of stomach bug was going around.

Great,
I thought.
That’s all I need is to get sick
and bring it home to my wife.

I was fixing to crank up the truck and leave,
when we heard the first of the screams. They came from the front side of the
building. The three of us ran towards the commotion; I left the keys dangling
in the ignition. I quickly passed both of them. Both were chain-smokers and
both were having trouble catching their breath. What they were about to see,
would not help.

I got there first and knew instantly what was going
on. When I saw the four bodies hunched over the kicking and screaming man, I
knew exactly what I was looking at. There was no question in my mind.

But, even though I knew what was happening, my
body wouldn’t react. I remember standing there, frozen to the ground; my brain
racing to process this new information. I screamed within my skull, yelling at
myself to move, to act somehow.

Johnny and Larry finally arrived next to me.
Johnny was keeled over, trying to catch his breath. I seemed to snap out of my daze
when they showed up. Larry’s jaw hung open. He went to move forward, to try and
help the attacked man, but I held him back. There was nothing we could do for
him now. I’ll spare you the details, because I’m sure you’re aware of the gore
these monsters are capable of inflicting. Even if we did get him away from the
feeding, there was no way the three of us blue-collar boys would know how to
put everything back in him, in the right places.

The four zombies were a mixed bag of characters.
One construction worker, complete with reflective vest and hardhat. One college
kid from the neighboring local university across the street. A guy in business
suit and one soccer mom. Of the four, she looked the most fresh, but I would
still have classified them as the ‘slower’ ones.

She noticed us first. Forgetting about the meal
in front of her, she slowly stood up, meat hanging from her mouth, and began
shambling in our direction. I think my co-workers were still confused at the
time as to what was really going on. Larry moved forward again, and for the
second time, I held him back.

‘We have to help her,’ Larry said.

‘Help her? She just fuckin’ ate that guy,’
Johnny hissed.

The other zombies were beginning to notice us as
well.

‘There’s nothing we can do for her now, Larry,’
I said. ‘We have to go. It’s not safe to stay here.’

He looked at me like I was insane. His shoulder
jerked out of my hand as he made his way towards the dead woman. Her arms
reached out to him, welcoming his approach. I motioned to Johnny for us to
leave. He hesitated a moment, but nodded, and we turned to run.

We heard Larry’s screams as we got back to the
truck.

‘What the fuck is going on?’ Johnny said as we
both climbed into the cab of the truck.

I looked around. More corpses were wandering
onto the jobsite. How there were that many, so quick, I don’t understand. It
was almost like a switch was flipped and they came off an assembly line.

I remember trying to calm Johnny down and trying
my best to explain what was going on. I could tell he did not want to believe
me at first, but the rotting evidence walking around outside was enough to get
him to listen to me.

We made the plan to go to his house first. He
lived right outside of Brunswick, so it wasn’t far. I knew I had to get to my
family back in Savannah, but between my brother-in-law and father-in-law, I
knew they would get out of the city safely. My plan was to get Johnny set at
his place and then go north from there. At the time, I didn’t know it would
take me several days to get back home.

I spent that first night at Johnny’s place,
helping him set up some defenses. His plan was to hunker down and ride this
thing out. And for him that was a great plan. He had mountains of those
military meal-ready-to-eat’s, guns galore, and a great location. His home was
situated deep within the woods and far enough away from the general population.
In the whole time I’ve known Johnny, I never would have known he was a doomsday
prepper.

I left early that next morning. He offered for
me to take some MRE’s for the road, so I took several. Those things are
definitely designed for essential nutrition, not taste! (He chuckles to
himself.) The military’s take on mashed potatoes was indeed questionable. I
thanked him and wished him luck before I drove off.

Interstate 95 was out of the question. From the
exit ramp, I could see it was completely clogged with cars and chaos. I knew I
would be taking back roads, but which ones I was unsure. Normally, I would
carry a map of Georgia with me. Despite my driving all over the state for my
company, they seemed to think that directions scribbled down on a yellow piece
of paper were far more superior to a GPS system. I got lost one time too many,
so I finally broke down and bought a good old-fashioned folding map. Never got
lost again.

Highway 17 would have been my next best choice
of getting home as quickly as possible. And it would have been, if I didn’t
keep running into roadblocks of all freaking kinds. Car wrecks were the worst.
Some I was able to get by, thanks to the new brush-guard my company bought for
the truck. Others on the other hand required some extensive backtracking and
huge losses of time. I eventually had to stop for the night. I didn’t want to
risk anything in the dark. Being out in the country, the only light I had was
the moon, the stars, and the headlights of the truck.

Long story short, I found an old, abandoned barn
to sleep in. I didn’t want to sleep in the truck, running the chance of getting
surrounded and trapped. My cell phone didn’t have any reception, and I don’t
think it was because I was in the middle of nowhere. I had the sneaky suspicion
that no cell phones had reception. Anywhere.

The next morning, I woke up and made my way down
to the truck. I was stopped when I saw one lone zombie wandering between the
truck and myself. It was a little boy, maybe ten years old. He wore a Buzz
Lightyear t-shirt and stained matching pajama pants. His skin was their
trademark pale, his eyes sunken and dark. Small bits of blood gathered around
his lips.