Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (34 page)

*
* *

It
turned out there were seven survivors holed up in a two story, concrete
building. The bottom floor contained a restaurant and the top a pair of
apartments. These could be reached through a stairwell that exited into the
street or by a spiral staircase leading down to the rear of the restaurant. The
entire building was owned by a single family who lived above their place of
business.

Originally
there had been twelve of them. The owner, his wife, and three others had
perished, four from bites, with the fifth committing suicide. Making matters
worse, the lower floor had been overrun. The zombies had broken through the
restaurant’s plate glass windows. The survivors managed to barricade and then
board over the interior staircase, and the other exit was securely locked.
Unfortunately, most of their supplies had been in the restaurant’s storage
room. They were now nearly out of food and water.

They had
an old style police radio and used it to call for help, but there’d been no
replies since the first day. Eventually, the group gave up trying, until they
heard the shooting. One person went up on the roof to see what was going on and
spotted Lizzy and me. He claims he shouted and screamed trying to get our
attention, but we never heard him. Then he saw the radio in my hand. Rushing
inside, he retrieved theirs and started calling out desperately, going from
channel to channel.

“We can
get you,” I said, “but we have limited space. Most of you are going to be
riding in the back of the pickup. Actually, when we get you, all of you will
jump in and hang on until we’re out of Chadron. Do you have any injuries that
would make this impossible?”

“We’re
not at our best,” said Eric. He was standing on the roof. “But we can do that
at least.”

“I’m
going to turn this over to Briana. Hang on.”

“Hello
Eric,” she said, after I handed her the radio.

“Greetings.
We are so glad to see you guys.”

I could
see him in the distance through my binoculars. Lizzy was busy stalking about,
cracking the skull of any zombie that came too close with Dean assisting. Alec,
Lois, and Mary were keeping watch. As infested as Chadron was, they found no
shortage of the monsters.

“Ask him
to move and point at the door they’ll exit from,” I said.

Briana
did so, and I watched as Eric gestured. It was on a wide thoroughfare, closer
to the edge of town than the bookstore had been.

“Thirty
minutes, if they can be ready by then. They need to pack up anything important,
small bundles only or it’s going to be left behind, and get down the stairs and
be by that door. When we arrive, they open it, load up, and we boogie.”

Briana
relayed this as well. They understood and said they would be ready. We planned
on leading the zombies away again, with some alterations. Lizzy would drive
about to distract them, but she would keep going so they wouldn’t promptly turn
around and return. I would then go in with Dean and Alec following. After we
retrieved the others, everyone would head north, away from the national forest.
Rejoining Lizzy, we’d carefully circle back and go home.

*
* *

“You
ready for this?” I asked.

“Oh,
yeah. I owe the fuckers. Almost got bit back there.”

“You’re
going to distract them, not hunt them,” I said sternly.

She
glared at me defiantly.

“I mean
it Lizzy. No stopping to bash a few. Get them far, far away. We’re on a rescue
here, remember?”

“We’ll
just distract them,” said Lois. “Then we’ll meet up. Right, Lizzy?”

She
grumbled an affirmative.

“Go for
it then, and try not to blow a tire.”

Lois
paled but didn’t say anything. It probably wasn’t the best remark I could make,
and I was beginning to think my sense of humor was more morbid than it should
be.

We
watched them head off, and Lizzy slowed as she neared Chadron’s outer edges.
She began to honk the horn and even shot a zombie from the window. That
certainly helped get their attention, but she only did it one time. Most likely
all their ears were ringing. It worked though. A mob was following.

“Time
for us,” I said.

We drove
down the road, back into this shithole of a town – it used to be quite nice
before the apocalypse – making for the restaurant. As we approached, Eric said
that they were moving and to radio when we wanted the door opened. It had no
peephole so they wouldn’t be able to see us. He then vanished from the rooftop.

I
stopped just past the steel door and nodded at Briana.

“We’re
here,” she said. “Come on out.”

True to
their word, they pulled it open and stumbled outside. The group was not in good
shape, looking even more dehydrated and famished than Miranda, something I
hadn’t thought possible. Was it going to be like this for the holdouts
everywhere, trapped and starving? It was a depressing thought.

Dean
moved to help them, and Briana and I hopped out ready to shoot any zombies. The
ones we saw were far enough away that we had everyone loaded and were moving
before that became necessary. Thank God. I then led the way out, moving slowly
to ensure Alec, who was following, kept his speed down. That pickup was way
overloaded. One good bump and somebody was going to be road splat.

*
* *

We
rejoined Lizzy and the others fifteen minutes later. Taking a rural road, we
accelerated, quickly leaving the town and its mass of horrid horrors behind.

“Stop,”
ordered Briana, without warning.

I did so
immediately.

“What’s
up?” asked Lizzy.

Briana
radioed back. “A house to the side of the road, the green one. The sign in the
window says alive inside.”

“Think
more survivors?” asked Dean.

“Maybe,”
she replied. “We should take a look. We’re pretty far out now, and I don’t see
any zombies.”

I cut
the engine and got out of the Jeep to look around. It seemed clear, and we were
in an open area with an unobstructed line of sight in all directions.

“We want
to check out this house,” I said, approaching our new friends, many of whom
seemed apprehensive. “There’s a sign in the window saying alive inside which
might mean someone’s in there, but unlikely after all this time.”

Eric
looked at the others. “We don’t mind. I mean, we don’t want to be leaving
anyone behind, not ever, but do you mind if we wait here while you do it? It’s
not that we’re…”

I cut
him off. “None of you are in any condition to be running about.” That was
certainly true. “Lois, Mary, why don’t you give them some water and something to
eat.”

Their
heads picked up at that.

“I don’t
think this’ll take long.” If anyone was inside, he would have likely called out
by now. “Mary, keep an eye out too.”

Lizzy
and Briana went with me to check the house. We followed our normal system of
opening the door – it was locked, so we kicked it in – and yelling for any
zombies to come on out so we could shoot them. Or, as Lizzy said this time,
“Come get juicy bits of Briana meat.” Briana slapped her across the back of the
head in retaliation. Nothing appeared, and Lizzy and I went inside. Briana
followed and took up a position in the living room. The house was small, only
three bedrooms, and totally empty.

“Back
door was open,” said Lizzy. “I went ahead and closed and locked it. Kitchen is
a mess. Animals had been at some of the stuff.” She shook her head. “Wasteful,
with lots trashed, but we might as well loot what’s still edible.”

“I’ll
let the others know. Oh, see if there are any clean clothes. The newcomers are
going to be needing some.”

“I’ll
start on those,” said Briana, “if Lizzy wants to work on the kitchen.”

“That’s
fine with me, since I’m sure you’ve been on the lookout for crotchless panties,
see through lingerie, maybe edible underwear.”

“I…
Whatever.” Briana headed for the bedrooms.

I darted
outside to let the others know what we were doing. “It’s empty, but we’re going
to grab any food we find, along with the clothes. We’ll stuff it all in the
back seat of the Grand Cherokee with Mary.” I pointed to her, and she waved
back. “It’s not as efficient as we normally work, so no thinking poorly of us,
but there’s ample room, and I’d like to get all of you back to our camp
quickly. We still have plenty of daylight, but I’m sure you’d rather not be so
exposed.”

“We’re
fine,” said Eric, “and none of us have a problem sitting around. We’ve been
doing little else for a month.”

“Toothbrushes
would be nice,” added a woman with fiery red hair.

“Yeah,”
agreed Eric. “The apartments were pretty bare.”

“We hit
some stores previously. We are full up on all sorts of personal hygiene
toiletry stuff, and we have plenty of food at our camp.”

“A
zombie,” called Mary, quite calmly.

Their
heads spun about wildly.

“Where
at?” I asked.

She
gestured. “Way, way, way off there, down the road. I don’t think it can even
see us yet.”

“We’re
out in the open,” gasped a woman. Her fists were tightly clenched, the knuckles
white.

“Zombies
have lousy eyesight, a few hundred yards. They don’t see you if you’re far off.
They can hear like a normal person though,” I added. “If it gets close before
we leave, we’ll shoot it. Not a problem.”

She did
not look convinced.

“They’re
slow and stupid,” I continued. “It’s when they get you by surprise or if there
are a lot of them that you have to worry. That’s why we always have people on
watch when we’re out.”

“We’d
been holed up in that building since it started,” said Eric. “We haven’t
learned much other than they attack and bite.”

“We’ll
fill you in on the details later,” offered Dean, “but Jacob is right. You saw
how bad things almost went in town when we got surrounded by too many. If
there’s just a few, they can be shot and put down without a fuss. Kind of an
all or nothing thing, at least in a standup fight.”

Lizzy
and Briana started coming out with armloads of stuff. Most of it was put in the
backseat of the Grand Cherokee, and judging from the amount, Mary would be
cramped. Good thing she was so tiny. Lizzy did drop a bag of Oreos and an
unopened gallon jug of water in the back of the pickup, receiving some thank
yous for her consideration.

“Got a
diary,” said Briana. “Put this in the Jeep. I want to read it later.”

I took
the small, leather bound book. “Is it about the zombies?”

She
nodded. “I scanned the back, and it covers at least part of all this shit.”

“Watch
your language young lady, or the pastor might lecture you,” I chided.

Briana
laughed. “After getting together with you, he has more than a few bad words to
lecture me about. He doesn’t lecture anyway. He just says please mind your
manners or something like that.”

“In that
case, mind your language or you’ll get a spanking and not the fun kind.”

She
looked around, probably to see if Lizzy was nearby, but I was learning to mind
my tongue when she was within earshot. As it was, Lizzy had gone back inside
for another load. A few of the newcomers offered to assist, but they’d been
told to stay put.

“Threatening
to be mean to me.” Briana turned to head back in herself. “You’re going to owe
me. I’m thinking a foot rub tonight.”

“We’ll
see,” I replied. The odds were good she’d receive it.

I turned
my attention to the zombie Mary had spotted. It was still quite distant,
although I think it had heard or possibly seen us at this point. It seemed to
heading directly for me. There was something funny about the way it walked.

“Why’s Briana
smiling?” asked Lizzy, after she came out the second time.

“She
found someone’s diary.” I held up the book. “She gets to pry into another’s
personal secrets. You know, the sort of thing you like to do.”

“I want
a read too.”

“I’m
sure Briana will share.” I opened the door and tossed it inside. “I promised
her a foot rub as well, or rather she insisted on it. I’m pretty sure it was
never going to be optional. You can probably borrow it then, or whenever.”

“That
sounds good. I’ll threaten Lois into giving me one later tonight.”

I shook
my head. “If there’s anyone on this planet, still breathing, that you would
never threaten, it’s Lois and Mary.”

“I’ll
have you know that I treat them the same as everyone else, with heaps of abuse
and disdain.”

“Lizzy,
not to be rude shifting topics, but don’t you think there’s something really
weird about the way that zombie is moving?”

The sun
was behind the thing, making it hard to see, but it was definitely walking
slower than normal and swaying from side to side.