Saturday, March 22, 2014

Crash Callahan and the Great Zombie Apocalypse. Book two.. For What its Worth




Tuesday February 5th, 9:37 AM.

She was kinda hot, you know- for a dead chick. A slobbering- drooling dead chick that was running her dead little ass off. I knew that I was safe for the moment,  being locked inside of a moving vehicle with the windows rolled up, and so my morbid curiosity was beginning to get the better of me, and now- seeing as how she was all alone, I just had to see for myself where exactly she was running off to. That’s when I spotted the short pudgy fat guy  running HIS ass off right down the middle of Fordham road- Peckham County,  just twenty yards ahead of her. Sure he had twenty yards on her at least, but she was gaining on him fast. you know- sometimes when you see that a situation is dire, maybe not for you per se, but you can tell by watching events unfold that someone is about to have a really fucked up day. The fat guy- yeah,  his morning was definitely heading downhill fast.

So I pull the truck in behind her about 150 feet back, and I know that she must be really hungry because she doesn’t even break stride to look back at me.  So I carefully assess fatty’s situation and it has become readily apparent that I’m his only shot at survival at the moment. I give the truck a little more gas  as I reach for the Glock nine on the passenger seat.  I pull up beside of her about fifteen feet away  as I roll down the window and train the Glock on her head.
“Hey baby.. Sup?”
“Gaaaaaaaagh!”
She turns toward me and all it takes is one shot in the head to drop her like a stone. Meanwhile the big guy- yeah, him,  he’s turned onto Valley Creek road and he’s running towards an open field but still in the middle of the road.


I pull up beside of him and he’s wheezing really heavy,  covered in sweat, his face is red as a beet. I leave the window rolled down he doesn’t even look at me. the poor bastard looks like he’s ready to drop.
“Morning.”
He doesn’t break stride to look over at me, I think something akin to shock has set in.
“She isn’t chasing you anymore man, I put her down about a half a mile back.”
I slow down the truck as he slowly staggers to an eventual stop. he collapses against my left front fender trying to catch his breath. I study him for several minutes trying to determine whether or not he’s been infected.
“Have you been bitten?”
He looks up at me shaking his head no.
“Scratched?”
Again no.
“You got a name?”


Still half out of breath he tells me that his name is Louis Taft and that the woman that was chasing after him, the woman that wanted so desperately to eat his brain- the one that I shot in the head.. The zombie that had once been a fully functional human being-  was his daughter. Sometimes- you can say I’m sorry a million times, and no matter how many times you can hear those words coming out of your own mouth, it never seems to be enough. Louis Taft is broken now, much like the rest of the world, or what’s left of it. I still can’t be certain or not whether he’s been bitten, So I tell him to climb in the back of the truck and I throw him a box of Granola bars and a few Terryaki sticks in case he’s hungry. It’ll have to do for now. I turn the truck down Valley Creek road and head for State route 6. there’s a small little gas station/ general store not too far from there, we were going to be needing supplies soon.

In a different Light
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The General store for the most part was a pretty good haul, the electric is still working, the gas pumps are still operational so I refill all of the tanks in the truck and filled a couple of cans that we found in the garage part of the building.  While everything is clear we go into the store and  scrounge up a box of canned goods and some crackers and canned juice,  it was obvious that someone had all but cleaned out whatever they could carry, we load the rest into the back of the truck and head for the county line. We cross over into Crooke County at about 5:15 PM, it feels strange not seeing a lot of cars going down one of the most traveled roads in Cooke County, on State Route 6 we pass a few here and there that had went off the road for whatever reason, but mostly it just feels like Louis and me are the only two people left in the world now. six Miles from Vicksburgh we find out different.

There’s a little country store with one Jeep CJ in the parking lot, I slow the truck to a stop when we see the ten lumbering figures trying to claw their way into the store. inside the front window there’s  a young girl- probably a teenager and what I’m guessing is her little brother trapped by the drooling mob. I pull the S&W Auto Shotgun from behind the seat in the king cab and open the door the first two see me and start running toward the truck.  I tell Louis that I’ll distract them while he gets the kids out of the store and brings them back to the truck. He nods and jumps down behind me. I splatter the first two all over the road but the rest knows that we are there then.  I grab another clip for the S&W and draw them away from the store there are only six of them left, six snarling –drooling bugs, I had more than enough rounds to take care of the problem.  I cut the last one down as Louis is pulling the kids from the store. One more straggler comes running around the corner as they’re headed for the truck.

I take him out with  a shot from the Glock Nine. The kids make it the the back of the truck just as the next wave of bugs comes running out from the behind the store, I fire whatever I have left in the the auto shotgun into the snarling crowd Louis is still about 75 feet from the truck when he stops in the middle of the street, he looks at me and yells at me to run, he picks up a club from the side of the road,  for a split second I freeze as I see him running into the crowd of zombies swinging the club violently. they stop their advance and now all of their attention is on Louis Taft, they swarm over him like an army of angry ants. I jump into the cab of the truck and slam it into gear and head in the opposite direction. The two kids in the back hang on for dear life, and as I look into the rear view mirror I can’t see him anymore, they have fed. I pause if only for the briefest of moments in my mind to give thanks to someone that I barely knew but sacrificed himself so that I could escape. Louis Taft- is a broken man now.. or at least he was.. Now? he’s one of them.  


Scratch/A.B.T. Copyright ©  2014 

1 comment:

  1. ZOMBIES! Good lord I believe they're scarier than ghosts. Nicely done, and I'm glad I'm reading this in the morning. Seems kinda dark and cold in here. And something just...gaaaa....

    ReplyDelete