Savannah's Only Zombie (Book 2): A New Darkness (4 page)

Jeremy found himself again staring out
the passenger seat window, watching miles and miles of open countryside pass
him by. According to Josh, they were getting closer. Before stopping for the
night yesterday, they pulled onto a bypass that took them around the edges of
Statesboro. Josh wanted to avoid the college town as much as possible. He
assumed there would be a large population of dead there within the campus of
Georgia Southern University. Nobody argued with him.

Right now, they were somewhere between
the small towns of Portal and Twin City. Both were small enough that if you
blinked passing through, you just might miss them. But both were booming metropolises
compared to Hopeulikit, which consisted of a small thrift store and a gas
station. Lexx thought it was at first pronounced ‘I hope you lick it,’ but Josh
assured him that it was ‘like,’ not ‘lick.’

Jeremy looked back through the rear
window of the cab to the bed of the truck. He could see the heads of Tori and
Lexx, her head leaning against the man’s shoulder. He turned back with a smile.

“Whatchu smiling’ at?” Josh asked.

“Oh, nothing’. Just glad those two were
able to both make it out alive. Not sure what I would have done with just one
of them.”

Josh’s face contorted slightly at this.

“I didn’t want to leave him behind,” he
said.

“I know. And I understand. I think Tori
does too. But we’re also glad you changed your mind,” Jeremy said with a smile.

“Ha. Well, I didn’t have much choice with
a gun pointed to my head!”

They both laughed. Maybe Tori had been a
little too audacious with the pistol to Josh’s head, forcing him to help and
rescue Lexx. The woman did have a certain amount of chutzpah to her.

“So man, what did you do for fun before
all this?” Josh asked, as he turned onto a smaller country road.

Jeremy thought about the question.

What did I do for fun before all this?

Most of his time was spent working. He
would often find himself working doubles at the grocery store. His spare time
was spent sleeping. Every now and then a bowl of pot, but what did he do for
actual fun? He wasn’t a big gamer and he didn’t read much.

“You there man?” Josh asked after a
significant amount of time passed.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I was just trying to
think of what I did do for fun before everything went to hell,” he answered.

“Wow, really? You’re having this hard of
a time? Oh, jeez…”

Jeremy shrugged and grinned.

“I worked all the time. I slept most of
my free time. Uh, music. Does listening to music count?” He said.

“Yeah that counts! What kind of music did
you listen to?”

“Um, mostly rock. Lots of Muse. And I’ve
been on a big Radiohead kick lately,” Jeremy rattled off.

Josh’s face got serious.

“No way. Everything you just said, is my
favorite thing to do too. Every. Day,” he answered in his best Nacho Libre
accent.

Jeremy smiled at that because it reminded
him of something else he did for fun. Movies. He use to watch movies all the
time. Mostly comedies. Anything with Will Ferrell.

“Favorite Radiohead album on three?”
Jeremy proposed. “One. Two. Three.”

“Ok Computer,” both of them said at the
same time.

“Did we just become best friends?!” Josh
said.

“Yup!”

Both of them fell into fits of laughter.
If there is anything that brings two men together, it is the quoting of
one-liners from funny movies. Once the laughter subsided, they rode in silence
again for a few minutes. Josh turned down another small, country road and
stopped suddenly, sending Jeremy sliding forward in his seat. The seatbelt
finally stuck and tightened around Jeremy’s chest.

“What the hell man?” He asked, but as he
looked back up towards the road, he saw the reason for the sudden stop.

***

The four of them stood there in the
middle of the road, staring at the burned-out tanker truck that ran horizontal
across the two-lane highway. It was a charred shell of metal skeleton flipped
over on its side. Whatever the driver was trying to avoid, was now long gone.
Maybe it was a deer, or some other forest animal. Or maybe it was a zombie.

“Well, what are we gonna do now?” Tori
said, breaking the silence.

Josh walked over to the back end of the
tanker and eyed the ditch. Jeremy could tell what he was thinking. Their truck
would be small enough to fit in between the tanker and the edge of the tree
line. The problem was the ditch. It was wet. With the slick mud, there was good
chance they would get stuck. Going around the front end was out of the
question. The cab of the semi was contorted within the blackened trees of the
opposite side.

“Well, if we turn around we might make it
to the cabin by dark. Maybe after. But, if we try to get around this mess,
we’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Josh answered.

There was a collective sigh from the
group. They did not want to lose any more time. Especially being so close to
their destination.

“Can we walk?” Lexx asked.

“We could. It’s only a few miles. I just
don’t really want to leave the truck here. With the supplies and all,” Josh
said, looking towards the bed of the truck.

They had amassed a decent amount of goods
over the past few days. There was a generator, several tanks of fuel, and
clothes for the four of them. Plus, they had a duffle bag full of canned and
dry food.

“What if we try and pull it out of the
way some?” Tori asked, walking up to the truck. “We could use the straps on the
underside of your truck.”

“Yeah, I thought of that,” Josh said.
“But if you look closely, you’ll see that the metal frame has melted to the
pavement. I don’t think anyone will be moving that thing.”

More silence.

“Ok. We’ll try getting around it. And by
we, I guess I mean me,” Josh said, taking a deep breath and heading back to the
cab.

“Okay man. We’ll spot you,” Lexx said,
motioning for Jeremy to follow him to the ditch.

They got on both sides of the ditch; Lexx
taking the tree side. He waded through the mud; his shoes sinking in several
inches as he went. On his last step, he went to pull his foot up and came up
shoeless.

“Ah man! Stupid mud!”

He reached down and pulled his shoe free
from the muck, a small sucking sound coming from the mud as he did. Once his
shoe was back on, he motioned for Josh to come on through with the truck.

“Watch his side Jeremy. Make sure he has
clearance,” he said.

Jeremy gave him the thumbs up and watched
as Josh began to inch closer towards the ditch.

The front tires sunk into the mud as Josh
pulled the truck into the ditch at an angle. The wheels continued to creep
forward and not get stuck, so Josh kept giving the truck gas. All four tires
were in the mud. He was halfway there, the driver side door past the end of the
tanker.

“Alright!” Lexx yelled. “Jeremy move out
the way! Josh give it some gas and get out of there!”

Jeremy and Josh both nodded. Jeremy moved
back out of the potential path of the truck, as Josh roared the engine, and
lurched forward.

***

Tori had been watching the truck ordeal,
but her focus was on the road behind them and the trees around them. Her grip
on the .22 rifle tightened as she saw shadows move from out of the tree line
down the road a ways. There were zombies out there, and all the noise with the
truck and Lexx’s yelling were drawing them in.

They might as well be ringing the fucking
dinner bell
, she
thought.

In the background, she heard the truck’s
engine scream and a wet sound. She slowly turned, knowing what she was hearing.

The truck was stuck.

The rear tires spun, spitting out
fountains of mud behind the truck, sinking the truck deeper into a hole. Josh
stopped, put the truck in reverse, and tried to back out. He moved about half a
foot, before the truck bogged out again. He threw it back in drive and began to
try to rock the truck out of its hole.

Tori turned her eyes back to the shadows
behind them. A good number of zombies had wandered out from the surrounding
woods. Ten, maybe fifteen of them. She readied the rifle, setting the butt
against her right shoulder.

“No pressure, but we’ve got company!” She
called out.

The men all took notice.

“Go find something to get under those
tires!” Josh yelled. “A branch or a rock. Anything solid!”

Jeremy and Lexx ran off into the woods.
Jeremy returned first with a decent-sized tree branch. He jammed it under the
left tire as Lexx returned with a similar piece of wood. Once both branches
were under the tires, Josh put the truck in drive again.

A shot rang out behind them. Tori dropped
the nearest z with a headshot. The group of dead was slowly making their way
towards the truck, but was getting much too close for Tori’s comfort. She set
her aim on the next one, putting its forehead in between the iron sights, and
squeezed the trigger. The small caliber shell erupted from the barrel and
rocketed towards the zombie’s skull. The result wasn’t as spectacular as the
.30-06 she had before, but still nonetheless effective. Zombie #2 took a dirt
nap.

The truck lurched forward, gaining
traction on the dead wood. Jeremy let out a ‘whoop,’ once the truck was free,
and on the other side of the burned-out tanker. But Josh shut off the engine
and got out of the truck.

“Wait- What are you doing?” Jeremy asked.

Josh pulled out his steel pipe from
beside him on the seat.

“We have to take out these zombies,” he
said.

“Why? Let’s just get out of here!” Lexx
said.

Josh shook his head.

“We’re too close to the cabin. We can’t
risk these things following us back. We have to take them all out.”

Lexx let out a sigh, but nodded. They all
understood that the zombies would follow you no matter what. Just like the ones
that followed them down Interstate 95. It would take them some time, but as
long as nothing else distracted them, it would only be a matter of time before
they reached the cabin. Better to take them on now.

Lexx reached into the back of the truck
and pulled out a crowbar. He gave it a twirl and nodded to Josh. They both
walked towards the oncoming horde, Jeremy joining them with his machete. The
zombies were making their way into the ditch, trying their best to tread
through the mud. Their feet began to sink, the same way the truck tires had.
With mud up to their ankles, the undead were failing at making their way to
their prey.

“They’re stuck!” Lexx exclaimed.

Josh nodded and walked towards the
closest zombie.

It was a dead woman. Her blonde hair was
matted and mangy, stuck to her face with grime. She snarled as Josh got closer;
her arms reaching out to pull him in. He stayed his distance, looking at her
with pity before swinging his pipe towards her head. The ninety-degree elbow
connected with her temple, quickly ending her struggle in the mud.

Jeremy and Lexx came up from behind him
and the three men took their time going through the mud-stuck zombies, making
sure that none would follow.

***

It was not long after that, they reached
a small dirt road leading deeper into the woods. There was iron swing gate not
twenty feet from the main road. Josh stopped, got out, and took his keys with
him to unlock the gate. Once they drove through, Jeremy jumped out, locked, and
shut the gate.

Once back in the truck, Jeremy noticed
that Josh was gripping the steering wheel tighter and that his constant grin
had faded.

“You okay man?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Josh answered. “I just got the
thought of ‘What if they’re not there?’ flashing through my head.”

He forced a smile at Jeremy.

Jeremy had not thought about that. What
if Josh’s family wasn’t here? What if they never made it this far? The way Josh
had talked about them made it seem like he was confident about them being here.
But then again, something did happen that resulted in the loss of his niece.
Could it be that maybe his whole family didn’t make it?

Jeremy cut his worrying short as they
turned around one last bend of trees. The two-story farmhouse came into view
once around the curve. It was bigger than Jeremy expected. What a house this
size was doing in the middle of the forest was beyond Jeremy. It had a wraparound
porch on the lower level, rocking chairs lining the front side.

As Josh pulled the truck to a stop,
several figures stepped out onto the porch. They stood there for a moment,
staring at the truck that had just pulled into their driveway. Josh shut off
the engine and stepped out. Jeremy watched as the man’s face lit up and he took
off running towards the house. One of the people on the porch, made their way
down the steps.