Zombies! Rising from the Dead (13 page)

“I will,
I will, get your ass out of here!
”
he said as he ushered me out.

I left the safety of structure, I was only feet away from my truck but remember
thinking about how at any second that thing was going to pop up out of nowhere and sink its
teeth into me. It
was
still headed in our direction but moving so slowly it would take it an hour

just
to get up to the door; if it didn't fall to pieces before it got here.
Until
I was safely
in my truck with the door closed and locked, I knew it was going to get me somehow.

For a moment I sat in his driveway and thought about my situation. Rick and Amanda
were now home and safe...for the moment at least.
Frankie and Brit were in Panatauk, and who knew if they were even still alive? I was out
of options, I had done
e
verything I could for the moment; I had taken care of everyone
else; it was
time to get home and take care of myself.

Inside the cab of my truck I gazed out the windshield at the horrible thing lumbering
towards me, and thought to myself
“It’s just me now...just me”.
I revved up the engine and headed towards home not knowing if
,
or when I would ever
see any of my friends again.

Finally I came around the bend at the top of the hill and could see my home off in the
distance, there it sat peac
efully
nestled in the midst thick
O
aks
and
surrounded by
heavy thickets; my undisturbed fortress of solitude. Never in my life had I felt such a sigh of
relief as I did that day.

I
backed slowly into the drive;
so close in fact that the door and
the tailgate nearly met. I didn't want to take
any
unnecessary risks, granted it would have only
taken a few extra minutes to unload
but it was time I couldn't afford
to waste
. Plus, I didn't want to
turn my back to whatever might be making its way through the tree line
.
B
acking in as I did
ensured that I had a clear line of sight and a
s
traight path.
I unloaded my supplies in what only
took minutes;
but it seemed like hours.

I made my last trip and after securing the truck I ran inside
a
nd hastily fastened the front
door behind me. M
y back slammed against the wall. As
I leaned there with only the wall
holding me up I looked out
upon my living room, from
in here nothing seemed out of

Place;
all was as it should be
,
nothing seem
ed amiss. It was dark and quiet,
a peace and
serenity I hadn't been privy to all day.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief, my adrenaline supplies spent my legs
buckled and I slowly slid down until my ass was squarely on the floor
with
my legs outstretched
before me, the
linoleum was cool and soothing. The adrenaline rush faded and was replaced by
exhaustion...I
inadvertently
drifted off to sleep.
I
awakened thirty minutes later startled by the fact that I had allowed myself to
pass out in such a precarious situation. I did my best to shake it off and got to my feet. I took a
cursory look around the house,
“
time to get busy.
”
I thought.

I separated my supplies and set to task. I started with the
o
utlying rooms first, rooms that
would be the first point of entry if any of those things managed to get
through.
The bedrooms,
living
room and kitchen
were first; b
oarding them up, sealing cracks
; all the while checking
outside from time to time to
see if any of these
h
ellish monstrosities headed my way. Luckily
I had seen nothing
other than what Rick and I had
run
into. Funny thing . . . you don't realize how big most
homes are until you have to go through them room by room like this. I had all the windows and
doors boarded up in a day, but it took several days before I felt the place was truly secure.

I talked with Rick on the radio throughout the next few day
s
, just to keep check on him
and find out how things were going
on his end.
As expected Amanda was a mess and not really
able to do much of anything;
it was all going to be up to Rick to do what needed to be done.

A few nights later I was awakened from something that I guess could be called sleep,
although as li
te
as it was most wouldn't consider it as suc
h. It was 3 in the morning when Rick’s f
rantic voice came over the radio.

“Alex pick up, you there? I really need to talk to you, please man,
pick
up!”

“Hey, I'm here, what’s going on?”
I said

“Fuck man, they are here! They’re fucking here!
Awww
shhitttt
, what do we do now?”

He was on the verge of losing it.

I thought he was mistaken, after-all there had been that creature skulking about when I
had left only days earlier; I thought perhaps that was what he was seeing.
“Slow
down,
slow down, what’s going on?”

“Fuck dude, they're outside, they're outside. We...we...were asleep upstairs, and I started
hearing things . . . 'thought maybe it was an animal or something. I went to check it out, and I
saw six of '
em
at the door. They know were here man, I don't know how, but they know.”
His
voice trembled over the radio.

I tried not to show my alarm.
“Listen, listen...Stay calm, STAY CALM DAMNIT! They
DON'T know your there, okay? They're probably just acting out of instinct, you heard that guy
on the radio remember, RIGHT? Your safe, those things are weak, they can't get in. Just calm
the fuck down. Besides you don't want to get Amanda worked up do you? It's going to be okay.
You just have to hang tight.”

The fact of the matter was I really
didn't
know wh
at these things were capable of;
no
more so than Rick or anyone else. All I had to go on was what we had been told and what we
had seen in person.
I
did
know one
thing;
it wouldn't do any good for
Rick to freak out. We had to try as best we could to keep our heads on straight.

“You’re right, you’re right. I have the house all boarded up,
ain't
no way these fuckers
can get to us. I'm sorry, I just lost my cool”
came
his
reply.

“It’s okay, I
understand;
j
ust do what you can to stay calm. Relax
and go take care
of Amanda. Try not to listen to what’s
h
appening out there, and if you need anything just
cal
l
me”

*
From here I will leave off and pick up where my journal begins. You
must
remember for several days as this all went down Rick and I were running on nothing but
adrenaline, our minds were racing a mile a minute with narrowly a thought as to what we were
doing,
so in reflection now some exact events in those early days were lost and I have to resort
to my journal entries.. I will do my best to clarify as needed, between my memory, and my
journal (plus Rick filling in a few gaps here and there) I will try to reconstruct the events over
those next few months.

Chapter Five:

The Zombie Chronicles

Day Five

I have decided to write a log
of the days as
they pass, it gives me something to do. The house is all boarded
up;
this place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox. I don't think
those things could get in here if they tried, but I certainly hope
they don't; I don't want to test
I decided to start writing a journal to keep track
their resolve. I've done all I can
for now. I'm
exhausted;
I’ve been working for days on this lace. I
have to try
as best I can
to get some rest.

Day Six

Rick is home he is as trapped as I am, funny thing, I dropped him
off only days ago, it just all happened so fast. We are staying in
touch with 2-way radios. We use them sparingly to save the batteries.
He was going to come down here if things got too bad, but now he
can’t
even get out his front door; those things have them surrounded.