Mechanical Failure, Chap. 5d (zombie apocalypse novel in progress)

~continued~

 

It didn’t take long to discover that the back bedroom held something terrible. The thing started banging on the door, and it never stopped the whole time I was there. Fortunately, the rest of the house was zombie-free. Once my preliminary search was over, a trip to the kitchen netted me all kinds of goodies. I found crackers, pasta, canned goods, and several cans of soda. I chewed on some crackers while opening a warm grape soda. It had been so long since I’d had a soft drink that I was really looking forward to it. Maybe my taste buds had changed, but it was a big disappointment.

I filled some cloth grocery bags with food and put them by the front door. Taking a moment to check the garage, I found a beat-up truck that I didn’t quite trust, so I left it alone. There were a few cardboard boxes in a corner, so I brought them in to load up more of the food.

It took a few trips to get everything into the car, but I was pleased to see that the street was still clear by the time I was done. I went to check out a few other homes in the neighborhood, killing five zombies in all. One house had a bunch of tools as well as a pistol and a shotgun, both with ammo. That made my day.

I’d recently learned the basics of shooting from a man named Dan Hixson, though I still knew almost nothing about guns. I could tell a shotgun from a rifle, and I had been introduced to both a revolver and a pistol. I even knew what a magazine was. Training time had been limited, and my instructor had mainly concerned himself with making sure I knew how to plant a hole in the head of a zombie. He’d planned to teach me more, but there hadn’t been time. He and his friend had been forced to leave town suddenly, just before everything had gone to hell here. I haven’t heard from Dan and George since then. They were both really great guys, and I hope they’re still alive. I’m sure I wouldn’t even be here right now if it hadn’t been for them.

~to be continued~

Mechanical Failure, Chap. 5c (zombie apocalypse novel in progress)

~continued~

I spent a couple minutes searching for a key underneath the car, which is a scary thing to do when horrible dead things could be sneaking up behind you. I had no luck finding anything, and the doors were locked. A quick glance at the house had me wondering if it was occupied. Looking back at the street to gauge my time, I knew that my options were limited. I hurried up to the front door and rang the doorbell, glad when nobody answered it. My buddy the crowbar helped me to get the door open quickly, and we went inside. I decided that if I couldn’t find the car keys right away, I’d go through the back of the house and over the wall.

The kitchen was my first stop, and I lucked out. Next to the refrigerator there was a whiteboard in a wooden frame. The bottom of the frame, which held an eraser and a blue marker, also had a build-in key rack hanging beneath it. I quickly scanned the keys, grabbing the set that looked like they belonged to the car. Back outside, I was dismayed to see that the crowd had moved much closer than they’d been two minutes earlier. I unlocked the car and immediately tried to start it with the key. The battery was deader than a doornail, as my grandmother used to say.

From both ends of the street, the dead were shuffling their way closer, but I knew that there was still time to get the car running, or so I hoped. I opened the driver’s door and turned the steering wheel downhill. Bracing my feet on the cement, I pushed the vehicle as hard as I could, rolling it very slowly out to the street. Once I was free of the driveway, I gave the car one more shove to keep it moving, and I jumped in, pulling the door closed. Some of the uphill zombies were within fifteen feet now, which was far too close for comfort. I was also rolling too slowly for my liking, and I knew that if I hit one of the downhill zombies the impact just might bring me to a stop. Fighting with the steering wheel, I weaved between the bodies, barely missing my old paper boy on the left and two men on the right. It was really hard to steer and I was certain that I was going to hit one of them, but before I knew it, I’d passed most of the crowd and was picking up speed. I was almost at the bottom of the hill when I popped the clutch, yelling with joy when the engine sputtered a bit then started. I was getting pretty good at this, but there was never a guarantee that it was going to work.

I had a grin on my face as I turned the corner and went up the next street. There was so little to be happy about these days, but avoiding a horrible, painful death always made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. As I made my way around the neighborhood, I finally got up the nerve to swing by my house. There were a few of the infected milling about, and my truck was obviously trapped behind the crushed garage door. The dead turned to follow me, and I soon collected a small parade of them.

My list of needs included food, a better vehicle, and shelter, and I set out to see what I could do about it. Leaving my neighborhood, I drove across town, ditching the horde of zombies that had been following. My destination was one of the neighborhoods I’d seen on the map, and when I reached it, it was obvious that it wouldn’t work for my plans. Not only were the houses all single story homes, but it was a neighborhood that had wooden fences, many of which had already been knocked down. I needed a good, solid cinder block wall surrounding an entire neighborhood.

Still, that didn’t mean that the homes couldn’t provide food or a better vehicle. I stopped the car and looked around, seeing no movement. Though I was reluctant to turn the engine off, it was necessary since the noise would draw the dead. Stepping out of the vehicle, I eased the door closed and approached the nearest house with my knife ready. After ringing the doorbell, I waited, and when nothing answered I tried the doorknob. I finally used my credit card to gain entrance then stepped aside quickly. Nothing rushed out, and nobody shot at me. The day was getting better all the time.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is anybody here?” Again, no reply. I stepped inside and pulled the door shut before looking around. The smell of death was strong in the house. That might mean death, or it might mean zombies, but I had to find out. Taking a deep breath, I began my search.

~*~

Mechanical Failure, Chap. 5b (zombie apocalypse novel in progress)

~continued~

 

I took a side street before reaching my house, not ready to face it yet. I was still angry that I’d been driven from by home, but I also had no idea what to expect, and I didn’t want to get trapped inside if I decided to do some exploring. The street I turned onto wasn’t exactly devoid of un-life, and one of the faster creatures lunged at me as I passed. I was able to dodge him, but there were two more ahead of me that were going to be a bigger problem. I could have avoided them easily if I’d been walking, but I was still acquainting myself with the bike, and wasn’t quite confident in my ability to nimbly slip around the two corpses. Since they weren’t too close to each other, I lay the bike down and went after the first one, jabbing the knife into its eye and twisting. It dropped instantly, its body jolting with a few spasms before laying still. The next one was bigger and therefore more of a threat. I needed to take it down before I could kill it, but that was never difficult since they’re not very smart. I moved the bike so it was lying lengthwise across the zombie’s path then I stood in front it, glancing behind me to make sure there was nothing else to worry about. As I had hoped, the dead thing tripped over the bike and I was able to jam my knife into the base of its neck before it could get up again. Getting the heavy body off the bike was the hard part, and one glance behind me told me that others were getting close. There wouldn’t be time to drag the bodies off the road, but I’d come back and get them when I could do it.

I took just a moment to clean my weapon on the dead thing’s filthy clothing. Sheathing the knife, I continued on to the next street, ignoring the vehicles I passed, since this street was flat and I needed a street on a hill. I turned the next corner and rode the bike up the incline, but I didn’t see any vehicles that looked like they might have manual transmissions. I had no more luck on Oleander Avenue, and by the time I reached Ocotillo Way, I had company. Two of the undead were following me and moaning loudly. Great. The dinner bell. I turned down Ocotillo, knowing I’d have to find a vehicle soon, or I’d need a place to hide. I was almost halfway down the street when I saw a nice, new truck that looked like it should have been safely tucked away inside a garage. I held my breath and peered inside, but was disappointed to find that it was an automatic. I continued all the way down the street without finding a single vehicle that would work, which meant I had to ride back up the next street, not seeing another choice. My legs were growing tired, but I pushed on and finally found something toward the top of the street. It was a small car, parked in a driveway, but it had a large shifting knob with a diagram on it that told me it was a manual transmission. It looked like it would be light enough for me to easily push out of the driveway. I hoped so, because now there were zombies at the top and bottom of the street. I was going to have to jump over a wall if the car wouldn’t start. 

~to be continued~