Soul Survivor: A gripping tale of the living, the dead, and the struggle to survive in an apocalyptic world. (6 page)

   The two
zombies that killed the dog and the old woman were still where they fell. But now they were a mass of stinking rotting goo. The juices from the decay spreading out in a greasy puddle around them.

  
The other two were where Amy had dragged them some days ago. They were now black and bloated. Their skin crawling with so many maggots it seemed to be alive.

   It was early morning
and the sky was clear. The sun was low in the eastern sky. It looked as if it would be a beautiful day.

  
Amy told Tommy to wait at the door and to go back inside and lock it behind her if needed.

   She
walked over to the side of the house and looked down the driveway. She saw two of the dead walking around in one of the backyards a few houses down the street. Three more were writhing and squirming on the ground nearby in there last desperate attempts to stay undead.

  
They clacked their teeth together, slowly and rhythmically. One was trying to pull itself forward with his arms but was making no progress. Amy told Tommy to lock the door and follow her.

  
She pointed to the three un-dead nearby, “Ok Tommy, lets put these down,” she said.

   Tommy looked at her nervously
. His grip on the pistol tightened. Sweat began to break out on his forehead.

   They
walked up to the first zombie. It turned its head toward them. Eyes wide he looked directly at them making eye contact. Tommy raised the pistol.

  
“Don’t shoot yet Tommy,” Amy said. “Wait until I tell you. There’s something different about this one.”

  It made no threatening movement toward them and seemed to be pleading with its eyes. Begging them to end it for him.

  
Its nose was completely gone leaving a gaping hole where it once had been. One ear was missing and the scalp was peeling away from the side of its head.

   It
propped itself on one elbow and raised the other arm toward them as if reaching out for help.

   Tommy stepped back.

   It then lowered its head. Its hands closed tightly digging into the lawn and clutching the grass.

“Now
Tommy,” Amy whispered quietly, “now.”

 
Tommy fired once, the reverberation echoing throughout the neighborhood. The zombie went limp and crumpled to the ground. One last breath escaping its body. Its grip on the grass loosened as the muscles relaxed.

  
They stood in silence. Amy looked at Tommy as a tear escaped the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek. A lump formed in her own throat, her eyes became misty and she had to choke back the urge to cry.

  
This was the first time she had become emotional during this entire nightmare. The realization of that hit her suddenly and she was a little troubled by how hardened she had become.

  
There was no satisfaction from killing this one. This was different.

   She thought back to Miss Lillian. There had to be some kind of connection.

   Miss Lillian, as well as this one, seemed to want their life as one of the un-dead to come to an end.

  
Amy closed her eyes and said a prayer. It was the first time she had prayed since all this began.

   They stood for a moment then the struggles of the other two drew their attention.

   These two
were snarling ferociously, teeth snapping and clawing their way toward them.

  
Regular old zombies,
Amy thought.

  
Their eyes were wild, hazy and filled with hatred.

   T
wo rounds were unceremoniously fired into each. They flopped to the ground face first. Blood spread out around them staining the ground. Amy felt nothing.

   They scanned the street look
ing for movement. Bodies littered the sidewalks and lawns. There were no birds chirping, no squirrels, no sound at all. The street and the neighborhood was lifeless.

“Lets go,” she told Tommy. 

 
They threw their things into Amy’s truck and started the engine. The sound of the throaty V-8 was music to her ears. She hadn’t heard that sound in almost 4 weeks.

  
They made their way slowly down the driveway and out into the street. The sound of rotting corpses squishing and crunching under the tires was nauseating.

   A glob of greasy red matter
splattered a mailbox after a particularly loud pop came from under the truck.

   “Oh my Go
d,” Amy said feeling sick.

   She
tried to avoid running over the bodies as best she could but sometimes it couldn’t be helped.

  
There was no sign of life or the living dead. Amy saw bodies stacked at the front door of several of the houses as they passed by. She was puzzled by what this could mean of anything.

  
She didn’t point them out to Tommy and he said nothing if he noticed.

   T
hey made their way out of the neighborhood and onto the main street passing many scenes of death and devastation on the way into the heart of town.

  
The stench of death was overwhelming. Bodies in various stages of decay and dismemberment lay scattered about.

  
There was still no sign of life as they pulled up to the red light at Birch Avenue.  

   In th
e middle of the intersection was a police cruiser. The driver’s side door open. In the driver’s seat sat a dead police officer slumped over the steering wheel.

   The sound of the idling truck reverberated through the morning air.

   “What is it?” Tommy asked.

   “Shh
…” Amy whispered. “I think it moved.”

  
As soon as the words were out of her mouth the dead police officer raised its head to look at them. Chills went through Amy’s body.

   “Uh oh
,” Tommy said.

   The zombie slid out of the seat and
stood up. Amy could see his shiny black shoes underneath the door.

   “Give me the pistol,” Amy said quietly.

   Without taking his eyes off the zombie Tommy handed her the gun.

   T
he dead officer stepped from behind the door and faced them. Gripped in his right hand was a pistol.

   “He has a gun,
” Amy said. “Get ready to get down.”

   Tommy stayed where he was. Too afraid to move.

   Just as Amy was about to get out of the truck and start shooting, the zombie stepped to the center of the intersection in that high stepping manner she had seen in the mailman and Miss Lillian.

  “It’s ok,” she told Tommy. “He’s like the mailman.”

   He stood staring at them.

  “What does he want?
” Tommy asked.

   “I’m not sure,
” Amy answered.

   T
he officer’s zombie stood still. Watching them closely.

   Amy looked at
Tommy then reached up and turned on her left blinker.

   The zombie stumbled back a few steps out of the way the
n raised its left arm to waved them through.

   “Go,”
Tommy said. “He’s letting us through.”

  
Amy pulled out slowly and turned onto Birch. Tommy nodded as they passed the dead officer who was standing with a heavy list to the right. It nodded back and continued to wave them on.

   Just as th
ey finished the turn a scream echoed through the truck.

   Amy stopped
and looked up in the mirror. Tommy turned in his seat to see what was happening.

   “Oh no,” she
said. “It’s one of them and it’s heading straight for the policeman’s zombie.

  
Amy grabbed the shotgun and jumped out of the truck. She raised the barrel and was ready to shoot. The zombie was only yards from the dead officer by now.

   They watch
ed in amazement as the officer’s zombie raised its pistol and fired. The recoil knocked the pistol out of the policeman’s grip and the gun flew backwards landing in the street six feet away, but, the bullet had found its mark.

  
The demon zombie’s skull exploded sending a red mist out the back. It stumbled a few more steps then fell face first sliding to a stop at the officer’s feet.

   The officer kicked at it weakly
with its foot as if to make sure it was dead, then went back to its cruiser and sat down.

  
Amy lowered the weapon. “That’s the craziest freaking thing I’ve ever seen,” she said getting back in the truck.

  “Cool
,” Tommy said still looking back.               

   They continued on and soon
pulled up to the corner in front of the courthouse, stopping by a yellow fire hydrant and park bench.

   The courthouse was a
two story red stone building with a clock tower on the front corner. There were two large green doors on each side of the tower. The doors on the right were wide open. The glass had been blasted out. On the left side one door was hanging haphazardly by one hinge and the other, mangled, twisted, full of bullet holes and covered with blood, lay at the bottom of the steps.

  
Blood stained the side walk. Bodies lie on the front steps where they had fallen. The red stone around the entrance was pock marked with gun shots. Sunlight glistened off the bullet riddled glass of the upper floor.

  
A police cruiser and a TV news van were parked in the grass near the entrance. Blood was smeared on the outside of both vehicles. An arm dangled from the open door of the van. The arm began to move then a head appeared and turned to look at them.

   They watched as the dead man
crawled out of the van and stood facing them.

   Tommy raised the
pistol. “Don’t,” Amy said. “It’s not one of them.”

   The zombie
stared at them for a moment then high stepped over to a camera lying in the grass a few yards away. It picked it up, headed off toward the courthouse then disappeared through the green doors and into the darkness of the building.

 
   Amy checked their weapons and stepped out of the truck. She gripped the shotgun tightly and stood for a moment listening. A cacophony of silence met her ears. She realized for the first time just how loud silence can be. It was overwhelming.  

She
gestured for Tommy to join her. He exited the truck and stood beside her pointing toward a Deli across the street.

  
Amy gave Tommy a thumbs up. “We’ll look for food first,” she said, “then check out the courthouse.”

“Alright
,” Tommy said. “I bet they have pickles.”

“Keep your guard up,” Amy added.

 
She was concerned about going into the courthouse anyway. This would give her a chance to consider how to approach it. If at all.

  She
had a very bad feeling about this. Even though she had hoped to gather information about what was going on, maybe they would skip the courthouse altogether and go back home. Live to fight another day. Amy gestured toward the Deli and they turned to cross the street.

  
Suddenly a scream echoed through the courthouse shattering the silence.

  
Amy pushed Tommy behind her as another scream came from an open window on the second floor. A zombie, half its body leaning out the opening, glared at them from above. The sound of someone bounding down a wooden staircase drifted out and met their ears.

   Th
e zombie stared down on them with hate filled eyes. She knew instantly it was one of the demon dead.

   Just as it
pulled itself back inside the window another scream was let loose as one of the evil dead burst through the courthouse doors and sprinted toward them.

  
Amy took the 9mm from Tommy’s hand and began firing. She fired six rounds in quick succession managing to only hit it in the torso. It continued to bear down on them.

   With the thing only twent
y-five feet away now, she took more careful aim and squeezed off two more rounds. The second one finding its mark and entering the zombie’s head just above the left eye. It stumbled for a few more steps then finally fell face first and slid to a stop.

   Before she had a chance to savor the victory, another one, possibly the one in the window, came flying out and leaped over the steps. It landed in mid stride and bolted for them.
Another one of the slower regular dead shuffled out behind it and started down the steps.

  
Amy ignored the second one and took shaky aim. She fired four more shots from the pistol emptying the clip. None found their mark. The zombie continued un-abated.