Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger (2 page)

“William! I swear to God, you shoot one more round outta that loud ass gun, I’m throwing you off this building.”

“Don’t get your panties twisted Casey, I’m just killing a few Zeds.” Will replies all nonchalant.

“Yeah, but your attracting 50 more of them in their place. Go clean out the razor wire with Andy, do something productive.” Casey stated, waving Will off the area.

Will goes off muttering to himself about having no fun around here. Casey walks along the roof, toward the edge where about 2ft of sand bags are stacked up high, to look down. He sees quite a few Zed’s milling all around the parking lot, searching for their next meal of live flesh. Andy and Will are down there now, along with 2 other guys, it’s a rule implemented. No one ventures out in a group smaller than four, especially to clean the razor wire, not after what happened last time. Andy begins to line up his makeshift flamethrower and torches the zombies that are caught in the razor wire along the fence that they erected just last fall. The flame throwers they use are more like a propane tank with tubing and metal pipe that allow fire to come out the end. They were lucky enough to rescue some engineers in their travels. That has to be one of the best ideas Casey came up with though. The fencing.  The whole front of building has been surrounded with cyclone fencing and yards of razor tape concertina at the base of the fence, a couple rows round and round piled up on top of each other that they liberated from a nearby prison, sorry corrections facility.

The building’s roof does not run flush with the walls, in fact the roof hangs over about 3 feet or so. In order to keep people dry from rain so they could walk store to store, along the outside strip mall, this little over hang was brilliant and functional for back in the day, but the only thing it did now was allow the Zeds to hide next to the building without being seen. Any extra safety or help in keeping the zombies at bay is always welcome. They managed to get a perimeter set up just before winter started this last year. The Zeds just walk right into the stuff, and the more the struggle the worse it gets. They can never escape. They just lay in razors, moaning and writhing, reaching for something that’s not there. It really cuts up their rotting flesh, sometimes it severs a limb or two as well. Every once and a while though they would see the occasional smart zombie, how he would see his brethren trapped and he’d try and go around to find another way in. Or the one zombie that would try and crawl up his friends bodies that lay caught in the wire. This is what scared the survivors the most, and they tried to put these ones down quick, just in case any of the others decided to follow suit.

Casey had then come up with the brilliant idea of burning the bodies that were caught up in the wire instead of shooting them, if others tried to use them has a stepping stool they’d burn too. Zeds burn up good, basically to ash, but they take a long time to burn, but that is how they kept the surrounding area body and rot smell free. The first time they tried this new method of burning the bodies in the fence it was disastrous. Zeds were crawling all over in so many different areas, and with the cumbersome propane tanks, the perimeter was breached in no time. One of the guys wasn’t paying attention, he felt a tap on his back, thought it was his buddy and he turned, *Bam* Zed bit right into his neck and must have hit his nervous system or something to that affect, because he squeezed down on his trigger toasting the other guys who were also down there burning the fence areas. And what happens when you shoot fire at a propane tank with hosing attached to it that also has propane seeping out, it explodes. The hot flames shot right up the side of the building, there is permanent scorch mark on the front of the brick building. The whole place shook that day and almost burnt down. Now it was one person on a tank, and one person looking out for him, anything to prevent another breach and loss of life. Everyone was in pairs now a day. That could be taken in a couple different ways too, everyone seemed to have someone now and the normalcy was great again. Casey looked out across the parking lot, to the stores across the street then farther off, remembering the hustle and bustle of people, him pushing a stroller, seeing pudgy fingers pointing interestedly at a seemingly inane objects, he still smiled at that. It was moments like this, being up on the roof, all alone when he thought about his wife. How much he missed her, missed his baby girl, how always after a long crappy day of work, she always made everything ok with her baby talk and gurgles.

“Hey Casey.” a shout came from behind him.

“Hey Kurt, what’s happening?” Casey replied casually, resurfacing from the memories quickly.

“I heard you yelled at Will”. Kurt said.

“Christ. The frick’n kid was shooting off the roof again with that 50 cal rifle again. You know we can’t have loud noises like that, more Zeds will be here in the morning because of that, which means more work fighting them all back. Plus we only have so much ammo for that one gun, what happens when we really need and have no shells? The kid doesn’t think. We have to be three steps ahead of these dead fucks.” Casey was getting irritated now.

“Slow down Casey, I hear what you’re saying, but the kid is only 19. Man he was in college before this, studying and trying to get laid. The last thing he thought he’d be doing for the rest of his life would be hanging out in Kohl’s department store with a bunch of strangers.” Kurt stated.

“Look, I’m not the only one in charge to make decisions, there’s three of us remember, but it sure feels like I’m sure as hell the only one enforcing the rules around here lately.” Casey turning now, his shoulders suddenly feeling heavy, quietly he continued.

“I’m not sure how much more I can take of this. We can’t afford to slip up yet, or be lax, there’s still too many Zeds out there, still so much we need to do. I don’t care how old he is, he’s old enough to follow rules. . . . . otherwise he can go at it alone.” Casey said more quietly.

“I know you don’t mean that. Just cut the guys some slack, everyone’s been working so hard, trying to keep up with you and your ideas. Which those are great ideas by the way, but everyone needs a day of rest now and again.” Kurt said putting a calming hand on Casey’s shoulder. Too bad the guy was straight he he’d love to be that shoulder for him to lean on Kurt thought.

“Fine, then give little Will some new jobs that make him happy and gives him plenty of play time, but keeps him quiet, I don’t want to hear any complaining when the switch is  . . . . . . . . . . “ Casey’s speech came to a halt has he saw the car out in the distance speeding up the street towards them.

“What’s wrong?” Kurt asked worriedly looking at Casey’s face. Some of the other people on the roof noticed it right away too. 

“That’s a car.” He pointed well out into the distance. ”We’ve got to get their attention so they come here.” Kurt got on his radio to the gate crew to let them now about the potential new arrivals, Casey ran over to the edge and unfurled the banner down the side of the building that said SAFE HOUSE in big red letters, with an arrow pointing to what looked like a two car garage door on the far end of the building.

“Come on, see the sign.” Casey was muttering to himself. The car was racing around a corner, and Casey could almost see the second the people recognized the sign for what it was and popped the curb and started heading through the parking lot towards the side of the building. Plowing zombies over, the car was making its way to them fast. Casey had total faith in the gate crew/door men, they were efficient and fast, they practiced and drilled on their routine half the day, to make sure it was minimal movement, no casualties on our side. As Casey stooped to start bringing the banner back up he was looking out again, across the parking lot, across to the other stores on the other side of the street, and saw the horde of zombies getting closer in the wake of the car that just arrived. The sun was just starting to set and Casey was thinking what a long night this is going to be.

All of sudden she was drowning. Water up her nose in her mouth, she couldn’t catch a breath. Jill shot up fast, trying to acclimate herself to her surroundings and suddenly tasty the water and wondering how can she get more of it into her mouth fast.

“Dude you totally scared the hell outta me just now.” Jack exclaimed, while holding a glass with water in it.

“Where am I?” Jill said all groggy and sleepy.

Jack blinked “Your in my house remember, you fell through the roof?”

“That’s right. I remember now.” Jill said as she lay back down with an audible sigh.

“I put ice on your ankle and elevated it, I figured since you weren’t moving anywhere it was a good time to start to heal you.” Jack said

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.” Jill said plainly. Worried she might crack her hardened facade from Jack’s innocent kindness. Not having experienced either in a very long time, kindness and innocence.

“Yeah I did. You’re dehydrated and injured. What would happen if we had to jet out of here?” Jack said back to her.

“Well thanks, it’s been a while since anyone has done anything for me. Can I have some more water?” 

“Sure, we’ll have to get some food in you too. Sorry it won’t be much.” Jack said going into the kitchen and taking out some cans. “Were running low on lots of stuff, thankfully you choose this house instead of the neighbors, I’ve already cleaned them out. I’ve got some pancake mix left, does that sound ok?”

Jill blinked a few times setting the glass down on the table, and then sat up on her arms to look at Jack over the back of the couch. “Pancakes?” she inquired “Pancakes.” She said the word again, almost as in testing the word out. “Are you talking about those beautiful fluffy, golden brown, round things with butter and maple syrup?” Jill’s mouth was watering now just thinking of them.

“Yeaaah.” Jack said hesitantly, with a confused look on his face.

“Oh Jack, you’re my hero”. Jill practically swooned as she lay back down and shut her eyes.

“You don’t understand I haven’t had real food in like seven or eight months. Last thing I ate before I got here was a bag of stale chips from a broken vending machine in a factory I was staying in. I don’t even recall the last time I had real breakfast food. How are you going to make this all?” Suddenly realizing the logistics for cooking and that electricity is required, and also realizing that the TV was on and so were other electrical appliances.

“Using the stove, how else do people cook?” He again was giving her that confused look.

“Well I am so down for pancakes. Do you have any coffee too?” She asked hopefully.

“I’m pretty sure we do, mom loved coffee, I can check the cabinets to see what's left. I don’t have cream but there’s sugar if you want.” Jake a little upset he couldn’t offer more. He was starting to feel sort of like a man, cooking breakfast for his lady friend. The normalcy made him smile and hum as he mixed batter and cook.

Full of pancakes with slightly old syrup and hot, sweet black coffee, Jill lay back down on the couch and closed her eyes in contentment. Not realizing Jack was staring at her, his mind wandered with thoughts.

“So how does this place still have power, I don’t hear any generators.” She asked. He clearly thought that was the last question she’d ever ask, he stared blankly at her for a moment.

“I have no idea, I guess I never questioned it, but we’ve had electricity since everything began.” Jack explained.

“Oh can I take a shower? That would be lovely. My bathing usually consists of creaks and/or lakes and ponds depending where I’m holed up at the moment.” Jill went on.

“Yeah sure, everything is upstairs.” Jack helped her back up the stairs, and started to show her where everything was located for a shower. About an hour later, emerging from a steam filled bathroom Jill came out uncomfortably in a towel, because she just couldn’t put her grubbing clothes back on her clean body.

“Um, do you have any clothes I could borrow?” She asked a nervous, again reminding her that it had been a long time since she’d been around people. “And where do we sleep?” Jill asked ready to crash for the night.

“Oh . . . uh  . . . I’ve been sleeping up in parent’s bed, it’s huh  . .  .a California king. You could sleep with me?” Jack said then realized how it sound when he saw the smile creep on to Jill’s face.

“Wait that’s not what I meant . . . .  .. " Jack said while blushing.

“It’s ok Jack, I knew what you were talking about. Don’t worry. I can sleep in one of the other rooms and I’ll be out of your hair in the morning.” Jill said.

“That’s probably not safe. I’ve got my parents room locked down and rigged up with supplies for a grab-n-go in case something bad happens. Why would you leave, you only just got here?” He looked at her quizzically. “There’s sleeping blankets we can use and the bed is so big wouldn’t we wouldn’t even touch each other.” Jack trying to sell his point further about her sharing the room and staying with him was a good idea.

“Plus, the windows in there are weather proofed and all that, so it keeps the moans out, you can actually sleep. It’s nice”. Jack said looking down at his shoes, which was becoming habit.

“Ok Jack we can share the bedroom. I just didn’t want to kick you out of the room you had been using.”

Jack was helping Jill get to the bed, and he went over to his mother’s dresser and began pulling out a number of her pajamas.

“Jack what are you doing?” She asked chuckling, watching him on whatever mission he had created for himself now.