How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

The street outside was silent. As in a pin could drop three blocks away and I would have heard it quiet. It made me painfully aware how loud my breathing was and how heavily my heart was beating. My footsteps were loud too. Hell, everything seems loud in the silence.

I held my crowbar ready but I didn’t run into any more trouble until maybe two blocks from the building site. As I got closer I could hear the sounds of infected, heavy machinery and gunfire. This worried me. If everything had gone to plan they shouldn’t have had to fire a single round.

I set off at a jog, not wanting to run full pelt into a complete shit fest. I rounded a corner, expecting to be across from the building site, which would be on the other side of the road, shut off by a high grid fence. That wasn’t what I was faced with though. At some point I must have taken a wrong turning or something because instead of that nice tall fence there was just a wall of zombies.

They all had their backs to me. Their attention was being occupied by Zak and the others. They were trying to lure them into a huge, newly dug pit. This had been pretty much the plan. The plan hadn’t predicted that our guys would get flanked.

The guys were pretty much completely trapped, backs against the pit, faces against the un-dead. I could see two diggers and a fork-lift had one of Kitty’s guys in each of them. They were desperately trying to forge a path for the others.

I stopped and held my breath. The last thing I needed was to be discovered before I had a plan. I had to help the others, Sandy was in there, and Kitty had been in a really bad way when she’d been carried from the hospital.

The hoard seemed thinner on the left side of the pit. If I could get the hoard on my side of the hole to follow me back into town, the others would be able to escape. We’d gotten what we wanted from the hospital, it was obvious this town was too big for us to clear just then so the new plan was to simply survive, isn’t it always?

I backed up maybe fifty feet, going back round the corner so I could no longer see the infected. Then I took a deep breath, then screamed with all my might. Then I ran.

It didn’t take long for the infected to come into view. I didn’t stand around watching or anything but I couldn’t help glancing back to make sure they were following, and boy were they following! Their jaws snapped for me. Their fingers clawed for me. It was all I could do not to panic, I had to keep running.

I just kept leading them further away from the others, I had to buy them as much time as possible. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking much of myself at this point. I just wanted to help the others get away. I had next to no plan, apart from run. Survive if possible.

Then, a plan presented itself to me, in the form of a garbage truck.

The keys were in the ignition, the doors were unlocked and there was nothing nasty waiting for me in the front seats. A garbage truck is a lot harder to drive than a regular car. It’s heavier to control and a lot stiffer and by the time I’d gotten it straightened out I was surrounded by infected.

I floored it and soon I was out in the fields once again, a safe distance from infected. I still had a major problem though. How the hell was I going to get back? How could I get back to the tree on the hill? I couldn’t. I couldn’t even let the others know I’d survived. Of course the infected suddenly running away should be a pretty big hint.

I realised then that my only option was to kill all the infected chasing me. Approximately two-hundred of them. Bring it. Go hard or go home. If you’re going to do something, do it right. I said all those things to myself as I turned the truck round and began picking up speed. The only weapon I had was the truck I was driving. I was going to do some hitting then running.  

It was easy. They didn’t run away, not even the last few who had seen all the others be crushed beneath the wheels of my truck. They just kept coming at me, like zombies for the slaughter.

On the outskirts of town, I saw them. All my friends limping towards me. Alive, but they could have been the infected. All their faces were pale and drawn, covered in mud and blood. It was only Sandy’s cursing that told me they were still alive. I stopped the truck and they all piled inside.

“Thank fuck you’re here.” Zak grunted as he lifted Kitty into the seat beside me. “They’re right behind us, get us out of here.”

“Clean up first.” I said before ramming into the crowed that followed my friends. There weren’t as many in that hoard and soon they were all mush on the tarmac. A few people leaned outside to puke too. I can’t say I blame them, the smell was horrific.

“Alex?” Kitty gasped next to me. “Has he told you yet? It’s really important.”

“Shh, you can tell me, as soon as we get back to your people. You got the medicine, you did it, you saved your friend.” I tried to comfort her. Sweat soaked and a sickly yellow colour, I felt sure Kitty didn’t have long left. I didn’t think she’d survive the trip back to her camp.

Now I could see her properly I could see that something had crushed her leg. I couldn’t see any bite marks though and I didn’t know how she could be so unwell.

“Hold on Kitty, Mike will fix you up when we get back.” Geoff said, holding Kitty’s shoulder tightly.

“Whose Mike?” Asked Zak.

“A medical student. Closest thing we’ve got to a doctor. He couldn’t leave Andrew, the guy whose ill, or he’d have come to get the medicine himself.”

“Geoff, take the wheel I don’t know where I’m going and I think I’m going to pass out.” Geoff slid into my place and I sat with Kitty’s head in my lap, stroking her hair slowly as she groaned in pain,

“What happened in the hospital?” Asked Zak, eyes scanning the woods outside.

“The special got out, I killed it with a pair of cordless drills.” Zak just looked at me.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I came to find you but you were a little occupied. I screamed, got them following me and stumbled upon this garbage truck. I led them out of town and then realised the only way I was going to get back to you was to kill them all. So I ran them over. Then I came back to see if you were dead or not. I’m glad you’re not by the way, really glad.”

“Yeah me too. Let’s just hope we can keep it that way.” He said, looking at Kitty.

“Hmm, you’ll be ok, won’t you Kitty? You’re a survivor, and you know what survivors so? They keep surviving, no matter what.” She reached out for my hand, eyes clenched shut. I took it and squeezed it tightly. “Just a little longer Kitty, just a little longer.”