Z Day is Here (14 page)

The rain continued on throughout the night
and into most of today. Thankfully, the air strikes have stopped.
We found some shelter in one of the houses in the neighborhood. The
house is a nice brick five-bedroom home crammed right in between
two other houses. The houses look just the same, like so many other
neighborhoods located on the outskirts of the city. From the
pictures hung around the house, this was a family of four. The
perfect little family: Mom, Dad, and the son and daughter. They
were probably lawyers or something similar. All the house was
missing was the little picket fence.

After we checked out the house, I called a
meeting; we needed to figure out what we were going to do. There
was little debate about whether or not we should go ahead and make
our way through the city. We have to get as far away from the city
as possible, and the only way to do that is to go back the way we
came or head straight through. We decided to go straight through
and take our chances on the burning city. The way I figure it, most
of the zombies will be blown to pieces because of the blasts, so it
should be the safest route. I am also hoping the military will
decide to bomb somewhere else since they have already destroyed the
city.

We gathered some supplies from the house and
planned on heading out first thing in the morning. I am hoping we
can get pretty far tomorrow. All we have to do is make it to the
other side of the city and then about fifteen more miles and I am
home. I hope I have a home. There is an Air Force base less than
two miles away from my home.

At this point, I am not even sure why I am
going home; it has been seventy days. Darcy would have run out of
food by now, if she survived the initial wave of the undead. I have
little hope of her being alive. I guess it is this gut feeling I
have that she is okay. Hope for her being alive is the only thing I
have to live for. It is what I have been fighting for.

Tonya just came into the room to tell us that
she saw someone walking along the side of the house. I now see him
also. He is looking in the windows of the house right beside us. He
just turned and is looking directly at me. Friend or foe, I guess
we will soon find out.

When the stranger looked at us in the window,
he saw me looking directly at him, so he ran. Dustin, Cole, and I
all ran after him; if he was military, he would tell the others
where we were. Cole, being the skinny kid that he is, got to him
first. He kicked the stranger’s feet out from under him, causing
him to flip head over heels before coming to a stop. We surrounded
the guy, ready to pounce if necessary. I could tell he was scared;
I could also tell he was certainly not military. He had dyed black
hair and black fingernail polish on, though most of it had been
scratched off. He kept begging us not to kill him.

Once we got him calmed down, he shocked us
all by introducing himself as Shaughn. He said he had to get back
to his girlfriend that was waiting for him at the amusement park!
We didn’t know what to say; how do you tell someone his girlfriend
was turned into a zombie, so we killed her? We said nothing about
her.

Shaughn told us what it was like in the city
before the military strike as well as the conditions on the other
side of the city. He told us about the hundreds or thousands of
zombies that were covering the streets in the city. He said he made
it through the city (just barely) and made his way to the Air Force
base, where armed guards are posted inside the fence with
instructions to kill anything that approached. He told how he
watched soldiers open fire on an unarmed family that was trying to
get to safety on the base. He said after seeing that, he knew it
was time to head back and to stay far away from the base. He
decided to go around the city instead of taking a chance on going
through it again. Had he gone through the city, we would have been
nothing more than burning flesh right now. After talking for about
two hours, he said he needed to see if his girlfriend was alive or
not, so he left. We let him go without telling him of her fate. I
don’t know if it was the guilt of killing her or the fear of what
lies ahead that silenced us.

We have a hard decision to make. What a
horrible time for a dilemma.

We decided to go ahead with our original plan
and make our way through the city and head towards my house. We all
agreed that we would avoid the military base at all costs.

Traveling has been slow today because of the
destroyed terrain. The city looks so alien now with all the
buildings destroyed and on fire. We only made it a few miles before
we had to stop for a break. We found an old convenience store that
looked to be mostly intact and decided to stay here for the rest of
the day. The only zombies we have seen today have been severely
wounded to the point of only being able to crawl around. The ones
we came across we would destroy and put out of their misery. The
whole place was covered in soot and ash as far as the eye could
see, which, because of the ever-increasing smoke, wasn't very
far.

From the room I am in, I can see what used to
be a bus station. All the windows have been blown out and the roof
has caved in. You can see three or four dead people/zombies lying
under the rubble, their hands burnt and broken. The smell of the
burning city is enough to make even the strongest stomachs turn
inside out. I don't know if it is the smell of all the burning
flesh or the smell of all the rotting corpses; hell, it is probably
a combination of both. In order to block the stench, we have all
tied rags around our faces so we all look like bank robbers from
the Old West times. Great, now we're playing cowboys and
zombies!

In the background, we can hear helicopters
flying around. I am thinking our best bet is going to be to find
somewhere underground, maybe a sewage system. Anything to get us
off the roads (or what is left of them). If there is even a sewage
system anymore. If I listen even closer, I can just barely hear the
faint unmistakable moans of the living dead. Though the sounds are
faint, they seem to be getting stronger as the day goes on.

Machine gun fire can now be heard off in the
distance. From the sounds, it seems to be coming from the
helicopters. Part of me is happy for them taking out as many
zombies as they can, but the other part hates them, not knowing if
they may be taking out survivors. The helicopter does not sound
right. It sounds like it is having some mechanical troubles.

Oh! The helicopter crashed. There was a loud
explosion that shook the building we are in. Dustin wants to go
check it out, so it looks like we are going to head that way. If
nothing else, maybe we can find some weapons.

We didn't have any trouble finding the downed
helicopter; all we had to do was follow the ball of flames. When we
arrived at the crash site, it was hard to determine what was
helicopter and what was building. The copter crashed into a
destroyed office building, breaking apart all the way to the
ground. As we got closer, we could see the pilot hunched over the
controls, his head almost completely removed just above the mouth.
A metal rod from the building impaled the co-pilot. We quickly
removed a few weapons we found laying beside the copter and had
begun to head back to the convenience store when we heard a few
cries for help. We had no intention of helping—these people had
tried to kill us just a day or two earlier—but Tonya, being the
caring person that she is, could not just let them die, no matter
what they may have tried to do.

The first person we came to was a soldier
laying about fifty feet away from the downed craft. He was laying
face down in on the ground, and both arms looked to be broken. He
was very bloodied but alive. Dustin and I carefully turned him over
onto his back. His nose was broken, and he was missing his front
teeth. As we began checking him for any additional injuries, I felt
a hard piece of metal jam into the back of my neck. From behind me,
I heard a man’s voice telling me to get the hell away from him. I
turned to see a soldier wearing full chem gear, gas mask and all,
holding an M-16 to my throat. I tried explaining to him that we
were just trying to help. He was not listening to me or he did not
care; either way, he was not budging. I threw my hands in the air
and backed away from the hurt soldier.

Less then two seconds after I backed away, a
white hand flashed out from under a downed wall. The hand grabbed
the downed soldier and yanked him halfway under the wall. The
soldier began to scream in agony and pain.

Dustin grabbed the soldier by the shirt,
pulling on him as hard as he could to get him away from the
feasting zombie. He pulled one really hard time, and the soldier
came sliding back out. Only this time, it was only the top half of
his body. The soldier behind me yelled in anger, pulled a grenade
from his belt, and lobbed it toward the wall. As the grenade hit
the ground, we all ran. Everyone except Dustin. He just stood by
the wall, holding the now-dead half soldier in his hands. The
grenade exploded less than two feet away from Dustin. The grenade
scrap metal ripped through Dustin's body and destroyed half the
downed wall.

With the sounds of the explosion still
ringing in my ears, I looked around to see Tonya crying and running
towards Dustin's lifeless body. Cole was lying on the ground beside
me, his eyes wide with the shock of what had just happened. The
soldier looked down at Cole and me as he stepped over us, heading
towards the wall. When he got to the wall, he pointed the M-16 down
and began shooting where the zombie once was. He glanced back at
Tonya and Dustin and then turned towards a pile of rubble on the
other side of the downed helicopter. As the sound began returning
to my ears, I could hear the horrific sounds of the undead
approaching. I scrambled to my feet, helped Cole up, and then went
to help Tonya. She was holding Dustin’s limp body in her arms and
rocking back and forth.

"I am sick of all this death," she said over
and over again. I tried to calm her down as best I could. I assured
her I would do my best to shield her from anymore death. I lied. I
had to; we had to get out of there and in a hurry. We all three
made our way quickly back to the store. As I was closing the door
behind us, I scanned around to make sure no zombie eyes had seen us
make our escape.

Looks like another night of silence. Silence
other than the occasional scream and quick burst of machine gun
fire.

The screams and machine gun fire tapered off
late last night, until it was nothing more than machine gun fire;
then nothing. We are not sure which was worse: the noise or the
lack of. We had every intention on heading out today, but we
changed our minds when we saw the number of zombies that passed by
our little shelter. We lost count after about two thousand. It
looked like an undead army marching into battle. At first we
thought they were wandering around with no place to go, without a
direction, until it dawned on us that they were all going in the
same direction the entire time. I wonder what they could have been
going after.

All day they have been walking by us, totally
unaware of our presence. Just about an hour ago, they stopped
walking by. Every now and then, we will see a straggler or two, but
the mass migration has passed for now. We have decided to leave in
the morning as long as everything is clear tomorrow.

We have guests.

The migration had ended, so we packed up
everything and started to leave. As we were about to walk out the
door/hole in the wall, in walked two soldiers carrying a third
injured one. We scared them as much as they scared us; the only
difference was they had machine guns already in the ready position.
That now makes two times in the past three days that I have had a
gun pointed at my head!

The soldiers began screaming at us to get on
the ground with our hands up. We had no choice but to comply. This
new breed of military is "shoot first, ask questions later, if
ever." They were all wearing gas masks and suits that resembled
shark dive suits. The one who appeared to be in charge walked up to
us and asked if any of us had been bitten or scratched by one of
them. The soldier asked if anyone was sick or feeling ill at all.
Once we said no, the soldier ordered us to stand up and remove all
our clothes. We just stood there for a moment. We were not about to
just strip down naked in front of anyone! The soldiers prepping and
turning their guns’ safeties off made us change our minds.

The "chief" of the group laughed a little and
said, "Trust me, boys, you have nothing to worry about. You’re not
my type." As the words passed over the chief’s lips, the soldier
removed the gas mask to reveal a woman with almost white hair
pulled back into a pony tail. She walked in front of all of us,
looking very closely at our bodies, inspecting for any bite marks.
As she passed by each of us, she made snide remarks and giggled a
little, then told us to get dressed. When she got in front of
Tonya, she said to her, "Now you are definitely my type." Without
warning, Tonya slapped the chief very hard across the face. The
soldier took a couple of steps back, holding her face and looking
shocked. She began to laugh and told Tonya to get dressed. The
soldiers lowered their weapons.

Once we were all dressed, the chief
introduced herself and her soldiers. She said her name is Alisha,
and she was a reservist that got a call to be at the base right
before the zombies started appearing. The other soldier, the
uninjured one, introduced himself as Jeremiah. He said he had been
stationed at the base in South America where everything first
started. He told a long story about the first few days that I will
relay later. Alisha introduced the injured soldier as Ed. He was
also a reservist that got the call to report at the same time as
Alisha. Ed was injured but not severely. His foot had been crushed
when the helicopter crashed. Alisha said she recognized us from the
crash site and said she was sorry for our loss. She didn't have to
say who she was talking about. We knew she was talking about
Dustin.