WorldLost- Week 1: An Infected Novel (8 page)

“So we should check out some of these other apartments after
we eat and before it gets too late,” I say as I walk into the kitchen  stepping
around Butch and remove the steaks from the oven. I grabbed two plates, silverware
and proceed to put the steaks out to eat.

I have to say, the steak was the best I’d had for some time.
Who knew, it might be my last meal.

Butch sat down and took a bite. We sat there for a while,
eating, not really saying anything.

I threw the plates into the sink and grabbed my bat. “Let’s
go.”

“We should clean up, Amy won’t like us leaving this mess.” He
said.

“Seriously? The world is ending, a little mess in the sink
won’t make a difference. Let’s go so we can get out of here to your parents.”

Butch shrugged his shoulders and grabbed
his knife. We both had empty backpacks
hanging off our shoulders.

We stepped by the couch blocking the front the door, unlocked
the door and stepped out into the hallway.

We headed into the first apartment next to Mike’s since I had
already been in his place. The door to the apartment was locked, but Butch was
able to kick the door in, letting us move inside.

Mistake number one never bust in a locked door open when you
don’t know what is in the room. Standing in the middle of the living room was a
chubby old woman that I had seen before but didn’t know her name.

“Hey, Ms. Hinckley,” Butch said to her as he moved past me
and into the living room.

Ms. Hinckley’s bloodshot eyes looked at Butch as she reached
for him. Butch didn’t even seem phased by the look she gave him, he just pulled
out his knife and drove it into her head through her left eye socket. She
instantly dropped to the floor, motionless.

“That is so wrong,” I said to Butch as I tried to hold back
the steak we just ate from exiting my body. “Truly, just wrong.”

“We’ve got to be more careful,” Butch said as he looked
around the room. “Busting through the door was a bad idea. We’ve got to come up
with a plan when entering into unknown places. That’s the only way we will make
it.”

“No more breaking down doors without knocking first,” I replied
as I moved into the kitchen space. “ Got it. It is rule number 1.”

‘Rule number 1 is staying alive.” Butch said as he moved
through the living room looking for anything that might be of use to us. “Rule number
2 is to watch each other’s back.” He moved to the bedroom area. “Rule number 3
is to be quite.” He said loudly from the bedroom.

“Rule number 4 is head shots only. That is what drops them. And
rule number 5 is knocking before entering a room,” Butch said as he moved into
the kitchen. He repeated each rule counting them off on his fingers.

“You’re just making it up as you go along. But I get it.” I
said to him.

I moved through the kitchen picking out items we could use,
things that would last. We found some canned food, water, and some basic medical
supplies. Everything went into the backpacks and we headed out of the apartment.

At the next apartment, we knocked first instead of just
breaking the door down. We listened at the door for any movement. we knew this
apartment belonged to a younger woman that worked at the hospital on the late shift,
so chances where she was at work. After a few minutes, we broke in the door and
were rewarded with an empty apartment with no surprises.

We really didn’t much of anything except for the pistol in a
drawer in her nightstand, which we took. We were a little surprised she had it since
she really didn’t seem like the type to own a gun. But, then we found the
handcuffs, the whip, the black corset and various sexual toys that an S&A
mistress might have. Again, we were both shocked as she really didn’t fit the
bill for that type of behavior.

“I’m definitely coming back when this is over to see if she‘s
interested in a new slave” Butch laughed. “I hope she makes it through this and
we meet sometime down the road.”

We moved out of her bedroom to check the rest of the
apartment. We found some more food and water, but nothing much else we needed.
If we were here longer, we could always come back for the other food and water.

Before Leaving, I stopped Butch and said, “We need to think
about weapons.”

“What about them?” Butch replied.

“What would be the best weapon. I mean, guns seem like the
best choice, but they are loud and require bullets. Maybe they should be used
as a last resort.”

“My knife works pretty well. The only problem is that you
have to be close to them. Maybe we could attach a knife to a broomstick, kind
of like a spear.”

“A spear would be good. We should check each apartment for
broomsticks. We could sharpen the ends. They’re pretty light, so we could carry
more than one, attach them to the backpacks.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Body armor would be good too, just
in case they get a hold of us and try to bite us. I bet you they couldn’t bite
through padding used for football or biking. That kind of stuff. It could save
our lives.”

We agreed that body armor would be a good thing to pick up
the next chance we had. With nothing else in the apartment to take with us, we moved
out to the hallway and headed back to Amy’s apartment to drop off the items we
had collected.

We empty the items we found and notice that Amy wasn’t on the
couch anymore. I walked down the hallway and saw her bedroom door open. Inside
I found her on the floor holding Shelby as she cried.

Amy cried even harder as she looked up at me. “We need to do
something with her; we can’t leave her here like this.”

“We will, we need to stay here tonight and determine our next
move,” I said to her as I helped her off the floor and helped her place Shelby
on the bed and got her covered up again.

We walked out to the living room and we all sat down on the
couch. “We have some supplies that we got in a couple of apartments. We still
have some of the apartments to still check out. We think we need to get out of
the city, maybe go to Butch’s parents place up north.”

“My parent's place would be a good place. Lots of land, out
in the middle of nowhere and close to the lake.”

“What’s the point of the lake?” Amy asked.

“Zombies don’t like water; it could be the best place to be,
out in the middle of the lake.”

“How long do you think it will take to get there on foot or
should we steal a car?” Amy asked. “If we steal a car, we can bring Shelby and
bury her on the way.”

“We’ll decide tomorrow. Let’s finish the sweep of the other
apartments and see what else we can find.” I said as I stood up.

Just then, it hit me and I really started to feel the strain
of the day. My muscles were stiff, my hangover was slowly making its way back after
drinking the Jack with Butch. The adrenaline was wearing off.

“Let’s get this done before I fall over.”

Before leaving, Butch let Amy know about the rules we came up
with. We all grabbed a weapon; I grabbed my bat, Butch grabbed his knife and
Amy grabbed one of Mike’s swords. With our empty backpacks slung over our
shoulders, we headed back out into the hallway.

We headed past the last apartment Butch and I had been in arriving
at the next apartment. The door was open so we figured it was empty.

Once we all inside, we found some pot plants in a closet in
the bedroom, a few bongs and pipes and a bowl full of different colored pills
on a small dining room table. “I always knew this douche was a pot smoking,
pill popping freak,” Amy stated. “You could smell the pot out in the hallway.”

With nothing of importance, we moved on.

At the next apartment door, we knocked first. “She’s not home,”
Amy said. “Andrea was on a business trip and I was taking care her plants.” Amy
pulled out the apartment key and opened the door. “I wonder if she is walking
around in some foreign city, eating people or if she is running for her life
trying to make it back home.”

“Let’s hope she is safe and in a safe place.”

We found the typical supplies, but we also grabbed her broom
and used Butch’s knife to sharpen the end. I had my first spear. We also found
some duct tape which we could use later. I also grabbed some large stainless
steel cutting knives which we could use to make our spears even more deadly.

We moved to the next few apartments, finding food, water,
some Gatorade, more broomsticks, another bat, a .22 rifle (which we left) and
some tools. Amy and Butch thought I was stupid for bringing the tools, but I
wanted to see if I could fashion a weapon that would have some killing power
when used.

I was still concerned that I wouldn’t have what it takes to
kill one of the infected, but I could at least make sure I had a weapon just in
case. It would also help to keep my mind busy on something instead of thinking
about all the bad things I had seen today.

After taking everything back to Amy’s we moved to the south
side of the apartment complex. There were three apartments, two doors opened and
one closed and locked. I knew this because I had tried it when I first came out
of the elevator.  We didn’t find anything out of the ordinary in the two
apartments that were open. At the locked door, we knocked and listened.

After waiting for a minute, we didn’t hear anything so we broke
in. “I don’t really know the guys that live here” Amy stated as she walked
inside. The apartment was like all the others, a kitchen just inside the
doorway, a small dining area between the kitchen and the living room and a
hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom. This was a two bedroom apartment
and all three doors down the hallway were closed.

We all moved into the apartment. As usual, we decided to
check the rest of the place before looking for supplies, making sure it was
clear of infected. I was designated as the last person in line with one of the
others leading the pack. This time, Amy was first to head down the hallway and
at the first bedroom door, she knocked and got no response.

Amy whispered to Butch, “You open the door and I’ll take the
lead.” Butch nodded and counted to three before turning the handle. The door had
just opened a crack when a hand reached through and grabbed Butch’s hand on the
door knob. “Oh shit, we got a live one here.” He screeched.

“Hold the door just enough so we can see its head, I’ll stab
it and then we can move in,” Amy replied as she moved into position to stab the
infected in the head. Butch opened the door a bit more and through the small
opening, the infected’s head appeared. It opened its mouth to moan, but nothing
came out.

The infected esophagus and windpipe had been ripped out and
all that was left was a spinal cord with a head on it. Amy drove the tip of the
sword straight into its eye and the sound of the brain popping could be heard. A
blackish blood squirted out and landed all over Amy’s shirt.  The infected
dropped to the floor as Butch pushed the door open so we could enter.

Amy stood at the door and looked down at her t-shirt. “Son of
a bitch, this is my favorite t-shirt.”

“You can wash it and it wouldn’t matter,” I commented as a
loud crash came from the bedroom.

Amy rushed in and saw that Butch was up against the wall
being held there by the other occupant of the apartment who had also turned.

This infected’s throat was ripped out just like the first
one, so it couldn’t make a sound. Amy took a step towards it hit the infected clean
through the neck. The heads fell to the floor, but it was still snapping its
teeth, moving its bloodshot eyes around looking at each of us.

The body fell to the floor while a rush of black blood poured
from the open neck wound. Butch rubbed his neck and shoulder where the infected
had been holding him against the wall. “That thing came out of the bathroom
like a bullet and grabbed me quicker than I could react.” He kicked the head
like a soccer ball and it skidded under the bed, still snapping and moving its
eyes. “Piece of shit. That was not expected.”

“I’ve seen fast ones before. It seems like the older they are
the quicker they are, especially when they have fed.” I explained. “Not sure
what this one was feeding on. The other one seemed slow and only had its neck torn
out. Look at it, just the neck, no other bites.”

We looked around the room and saw some serious amounts of
guns lying on the bed with boxes of ammo. Against the wall were three gun safes
with the doors wide open and empty. These guys were getting ready to deal with
the problem outside and then one of them had turned and attacked the other. At
least that’s what it looked like.

One or both must have had a flu shot and that started the
whole problem.

“We should each grab as many guns and ammo as we can carry
and take everything to Amy’s and then come back and check the rest of the apartment,”
Butch said as he grabbed a handful of guns and ammo. He headed for the front
door without looking back, so Amy and I both grabbed what we could and followed
him out the apartment.

Both Amy and Butch made a second trip to move the remaining
guns. I headed into the bathroom between the two bedrooms, but found nothing of
importance except for some basic home medical supplies, so I move into the
second bedroom and found something I thought I would have never seen in my
life.

Tied to the bed, with hands, and feet tied to the four posts
of the bed, was an infected teenage girl, completely nude, with an S&M ball
in her mouth. There was blood all over the bedroom; on the walls, the floor,
and the bed which was drenched with it.

A video camera was set up at the end of the bed and it was currently
turned on and hooked to a laptop on the desk. As I was standing there taking
everything in, I heard Amy and Butch enter the other bedroom.

I quickly moved back into the first bedroom and held up my
hands to stop them both. “There is an infected girl in the room, tied to the
bed. She was being videotaped by the two guys that lived here. Just want to
give you fair warning.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Amy said as she moved passed me
and headed into the other room. She quickly covered the infected girl up with
the sheet on the bed so here nudity was covered.