Zed Days USA (Book 1) Read online

  I walked briskly towards the road leading towards the beach. I figured if I ran I might lose it and panic. As I walked by the pickup I saw four more Zombies walk onto the road I was headed towards. Now I had six behind me and four in front of me and I was loosely surrounded. They also seemed to be getting the hang of walking and sped up a bit.

  I raised the AR15 and started shooting. I only missed one shot and dropped all of the ones threatening me. I had messed around with various scenarios during shooting practice and always kept a count of my ammo. I was lucky the AR15 had a full 30 clip and not some lame-ass 6 clip for hunting. I had 17 rounds left. I started walking towards the road to the beach, adrenalin flowing, trying not to panic, piss myself in fear, or puke. As I walked by the dive shop I could see the white sandy beach and glittering Gulf water only a couple of hundred feet away. I carried on towards the sand and saw a man walking out of the water with a full wetsuit and dive gear on.

  There were a few beach front houses either side of the road and as I cleared them and my view of the beach widened, I saw five Zombies heading towards the diver, two from one side, three from the other. The diver was only just taking his mask and tank off and putting them on the sand. When he caught view of me he froze on the spot and put his hands up. It took me a moment to realise I was carrying a rifle, pointing it vaguely in his direction, and walking briskly towards him. I have no idea what the expression on my face must have been, but it can’t have been encouraging. Then he looked either side of him as the five Zombies started to get closer and speed up, but he froze.

  I started running, waving my hands, and shouting, ‘Run, get away’, but he seemed stuck between the Zombies fast approaching him, and I guess what must have seemed like a crazy woman in a bikini holding a gun and shouting. He recoiled as the first two Zombies hit him and he fell beneath them. I couldn’t shoot the two on top of him safely, but the other three were close so I stopped, tried to breath, and tried to drop them. They were moving and my heart was racing so it took 7 rounds, but I got them.

  The diver was fighting the two on top of him off but one had bitten down on his arm and seemed intent on staying there, he screamed. He had managed to shove the other one off him, but it was almost on top of him again. I ran towards him and when I got close I shot from the hip, putting two rounds into the one about to get on top of him again, mouth open, lunging towards his neck. It registered the hits, distracting it for a moment, but it didn’t drop. The man hit the Zombie when it paused. By that stage I was close enough and I would have kicked it, but I had no shoes on. I swung the AR15 like a club and hit it in the face. It fell off to the side, temporarily dazed.

  The other Zombie had worked out it couldn’t get through the wetsuit and released its bite to go for the neck. I swung the rifle again hitting it over the back of the head and it fell. By then I could see the man was Mathew, the owner of the dive shop I saw from time to time. Mathew filled up at the gas station sometimes and always seemed to have a calm happy air about him, and young eye’s. I had asked one of the guys that had gone to him for diving lessons his name once. He ribbed me for a few days that I fancied him; he wasn’t wrong.

  The Zombie I had knocked off him was just getting oriented again, but I shot it at point blank range in the head. Mathew managed to shove and wriggle his way out from underneath the last Zombie, kicking it away from him as it came round and tried to bite him again. I’m not sure where the move came from, it seemed like something that would only happen in the movies, but I was low on rounds and I didn’t want to miss. I jammed my foot on its neck and shot it in the face from an inch away.

  I can still remember that Zombies eye’s looking up at me, no humanity left, pale and unnatural looking, but looking at me none the less. It didn’t move after I shot it, but its eyes were still staring up at me. It wasn’t like in the movies, its head didn’t explode when I shot it. I noticed that they didn’t seem to bleed, more like leak, and that whatever had happened to their blood, it had turned a sickly grey colour.

  Mathew shuffled backwards on the sand away from me, still on his back. He looked terrified, but eventually he stood up, cradling his arm. His mouth opened and closed, looking around at the strewn bodies and gore, but no sound came out. Impatiently I said, ‘I have no more idea than you do, but everyone’s like it except you and me. I’ve killed several more outside the club and I saw them eating someone before they came at me. They don’t seem to feel pain and only headshots seem to stop them.’

  I was slightly surprised by the pragmatism of his first words to me. He had an Australian accent I couldn’t help but love the sound of, ‘How many bullets do you have left?’

  When I didn’t answer immediately he nodded his head to indicate behind me and I looked over my shoulder, there were several groups of Zeds coming towards us, way more than I had bullets for. I said, ‘Not enough.’

  Then I walked over to stand beside him, waning adrenalin making me feel almost as nauseous as its surge had done, ‘I have 6 rounds but they just seem to keep coming. We can’t fight them all, even if they do seem dumb and uncoordinated.’

  Mathew turned and smiled at me and it was the first time I’d properly seen his eye’s, they were pale blue with green flecks but it wasn’t so much the colour that had the impact, they just seemed kind. I was used to mean eyes, calculating eyes, and confident or arrogant eyes. I was used to and the kind of eyes that lingered on my tits before looking at me, but I really wasn’t used to kind eyes. He said, ‘We don’t have to, as long as you can swim?’

  I sighed internally from not having thought of the obvious solution, and before I even realised it I rolled my eye’s at him said, ‘I live here, of course I can swim.’

  A couple of the groups of Zombies were getting close so we both turned and jogged toward the water. The Zombies seemed to struggle on the shifting sand and we easily out ran them. We turned as we got to the water and there were about seven or eight where we had been, about forty feet away. I have no idea what made me think about it, let alone act on the thought, but I said, ‘Hold on a minute’. Then I aimed and shot at the oxygen tank he had left on the sand. I guess I figured the explosion would kill a few, but it seems really dumb now.

  I hit the tank first time and recoiled from the noise. The bang was louder than I had expected and there was white smoke, or gas, or something, and some shrapnel. Some of the shrapnel flew to one side of us into the water and my stomach was just twisting from being so dumb when Mathew grabbed my shoulder and shouted, ‘You bloody idiot, are you deliberately trying to kill us. Drop the damn gun and get into the water, it’s a decent swim and it’s too cumbersome.’

  I was used to people shouting at me and I was used to shouting back, even though it didn’t usually help. I did so before I could stop myself, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, ‘From my cold dead fucking hands. I’ll make the swim with it just fine.’ With that I slung the rifle over my shoulder and waded into the water. The explosion had knocked a couple of the Zeds over, and a couple were limping, but the ones that went down started to get back up again immediately.

  We waded into the cold spring water until we could swim and I noticed Mathew was pale and sweating. Although he must have been a good swimmer, his stroke was short and he groaned a few times. I still had burning cheeks from the embarrassment at what I’d done, and from shouting at him, and just before we were out of our depth I said, as kindly as I could, ‘I’m sorry, you’re right, that was dumb. You’re hurt, let’s stay here and see what happens. They seem to struggle to even walk properly, I don’t think we’re in any danger.’

  Mathew nodded and we turned around and bobbed up and down on our toes in the gentle waves. The Zombies’ eyes were fixed on us and they waded into the water. The first three into the water carried on wading, but seemed to struggle with the whole concept of walking through water. When the lead one was up to his shoulders, and not far away from us, a small wave knocked him, or it, off its feet and it panicked. It groaned loudly before
getting dunked and proceeded to flail and writhe around. The two behind it got level with it and it knocked one off its feet, which repeated the exercise. Then it grabbed at the remaining one, pulling it down with it.

  We backed up a little until we were treading water and watched the scene unfold. There was a lot of splashing and thrashing about and it didn’t take long before the first three stayed under, though they carried on moving for at least a minute or so, longer than I would have expected, before they were still. It was gruesome to watch and the urge to help was strong. I could see it was even stronger for Mathew. Despite the fate of the first three, the others kept coming into the water to repeat the process, all apparently fixed on getting to us.

  As the number of dead bodies in the water in front of us increased Mathew turned to me and said, ‘What do you want to do? I was going to swim to the marina. I have a boat moored there. Although from what you said there could be more there, the boat is towards the end of a mooring and easy to get into and started. I’m always forgetting my keys so I have some hidden in the boat. I figure we could make a quick escape and we’d be safe.’

  I looked back at him and feeling the heavy rifle, already making it harder than it should have been to tread water, I replied, ‘That’s a ways and it would be easier to walk, or jog, rather than swim. I have the rifle and your arm isn’t great.’

  I looked at what appeared to be the last visible Zombies wading towards us and added, ‘I don’t think there are any more that have seen us so it should be safe to get back onto the beach in a few minutes. We can jog along the beach and if we attract more we can’t outrun, we can always retreat to the water again.’

  He nodded and after the last two to come at us had finished thrashing around we got back on to the beach and started walking towards the marina.

  Chapter Two – Dive shop

  I have a pretty foul mouth and although I was trying to make a good impression, it came out before I could stop it, ‘Fuck knows what’s going on here, but when I was on the road it was happening as far as I could see in any direction. We can’t stay on the boat for ever and we’ll need food and water eventually, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing if we end up clearing out any locals as we go along by attracting them into the water.’ I looked at him, knowing he hadn’t actually killed any yet. What I was suggesting was basically the same as deliberately killing loads of them when we had no idea what was happening, or how long it might last.

  He looked back at me and held my eye’s for a while as if searching for something. Then he replied, ‘Ok, finding some food and water sounds sensible. My arm really hurts, so I can’t really fight, but I don’t think it’s broken.’

  The tide was about halfway out so there was 150 feet between the water and the beach front houses. We carried on down the beach towards the marina, which was at least a mile away. As we started walking Mathew said, ‘My names Mathew by the way, what’s yours?’

  To me the question seemed almost naïve, like he was talking to a child, but from him it felt genuine. I didn’t sense any hidden intent or plan. I answered, ‘I know, you own the dive shop. I used to see you sometimes when I worked at the gas station and someone told me your name. I’m Mary-Jane, but I think under the circumstances you can call me MJ.’

  Then he turned and looking me up and down, which I hadn’t notice him do so far, he smiled and said, ‘And what brings you outside at 8.30 in the morning wearing that?’

  I smiled back and felt myself blushing. My nipples were hard from the cold water and my bikini was small and thin and not really designed for the water. I don’t know if it was the stress heightening everything, or that despite him being several years older than me I found myself attracted to him in a way I hadn’t really experienced before, but I felt my nipples harden further and I shivered. I couldn’t look at him when I answered, ‘You know I work in the strip club, everyone knows, and you’ve probably seen me going in during the day sometimes. We were interviewing a new girl and I usually show them some moves on the pole to see if they can copy them. Frank, the owner, and the new girl, went funny and started scratching at their heads like there was something in them. Then they turned into these Zombies or whatever they are and started grabbing at me. I ran from the club but there were more outside and I had to shoot my way to the beach. That’s when I saw you coming out of the water.’

  Mathew replied, ‘Ok MJ, I think under the circumstances you can call me Mat. We’re going to have to find you some clothes, the nights are still chilly and I don’t have anything on the boat.’

  Then he stopped and said, ‘I guess clothes, food, and water are important aren’t they. If you’ve already killed the ones on the road outside my shop, and we’ve attracted more from the beach front and…managed them, we can probably get into my shop, grab some stuff, and get away again before we attract anymore.’

  I looked at him smiling and he met and held my eyes. I never usually felt self-conscious about my body, but standing there in front of him, looking into his eyes, I felt it. I had to stop myself covering my chest with my arm. I said, ‘That’s a good idea. I guess we should take anything useful as we don’t know if or when it might be safe to come back.’

  We started walking cautiously back towards the road and the dive shop. Curious, I asked, ‘What were you doing on a beach dive at 8.30 anyway? It doesn’t seem like something a dive shop owner with a boat would do?’

  Mat pinched the fabric of his black wetsuit and replied, ‘I was just trying out this new brand of wetsuit. I don’t sell any dive products I haven’t used and I didn’t need to go out on the boat to see what it was like.’

  Rubbing his injured arm he added, ‘It’s Just as well it’s a good quality thick one or things might have been different.’ Then pausing he said, ‘You used the word Zombie before. Is that what we think this is? It seems a bit farfetched, and we don’t know if it’s just a local or temporary phenomenon yet.’

  I thought about it. ‘I know. The Zombie thing certainly fits their behaviour, but for all we know everything’s fine in town. If it is, I’m going to have some serious explaining to do and it could get messy. I hope…’

  Mat interrupted, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you. You’ve saved my life at least once already after all.’

  We both slowed down and scanned the area carefully as we reached the beach front houses, but there were no more Zombies that we could see. Then, as we headed up the short road to the dive shop, a single Zombie emerged from the back of a house and shuffled towards us. Mat froze. I smirked and said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll handle this one, and not with gun, it just attracts more of them.’

  Looking around I picked up a fist sized rock and handed the gun to Mat. Mat said, ‘Are you sure, they’re pretty dangerous?’

  I turned to look at him for a moment and tried not to smirk, ‘Trust me, I’m sure. I don’t just pole dance and shoot like a pro, I can fight as well.’

  Mat raised his eyebrows and nodded. I couldn’t help wiggling my hips a little as I walked towards the Zombie and I’m sure I heard Mat groan comically behind me. I imagined he was rolling his eyes and I smiled. The Zombie sped up as I got close and reached for me. It was an average to small framed woman so I stayed traditional and landed a front kick in the centre of its chest. It staggered backwards then fell over as its feet hit a small line of white washed stones marking the boarder of the yard it had come from. I tried not to think about what I was doing as I leant over and bashed it’s head in with the rock. It’s skull collapsed and warm, thick, grey goo splattered up my arm. For a moment I wretched at the look and feel of it, and yes, at the thought of what I’d done. The Zombie lay still and I almost jumped when Mat spoke close behind me, ‘I guess that’ll do it. We could use better weapons if we’re going to be doing a lot of this.’

  I dropped the rock and stood up, ‘Yes we could. Where I come from we have an expression, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but a bullets gonna kill ya.”

  Mat interrupted, ‘Bu
t I thought gunfire attracted them. I was talking about hand to hand weapons and I thought you came from here?’

  I rolled my eyes sarcastically, ‘Yes I suppose we’ll need some hand to hand weapons too, but this is America. If everyone’s turned Zed, guns and ammo should be easy to come by and it’s a hell of a lot safer and easier to pull a trigger from fifty feet away than it is to try and bash skulls in. If noise attracts more, we just need to make sure we have enough ammo. As for the other thing, yes I’m from here, but there is the respectable, kids do well at school, mummy and daddy have a nice SUV here, and the Redneck Hicksville, kids are trouble makers and have a shooting car in back yard kind of here. I’m from the latter.’

  Mat blushed and before he could speak I added, ‘Don’t worry, it’s fine. I was working at the club so I could go to college and look after my Aunt Elle who has a bad chest. The club was a temporary gig. I left home a couple of years ago after my dad sexually assaulted me and went to live with her.’

  Then it hit me, Aunt Elle. She would be at home just a couple of miles down the beach. I grabbed the gun back from Mat and started walking back towards the road. Then I felt his hand on my shoulder and he said, ‘Ok, I get it, we’ll go and see if she’s alright. But storming off and getting yourself killed isn’t going to help. We’ll go together, but we should really find you some clothes first.’

  I stopped, feeling his warm hand on my shoulder, not gripping me, Just holding me. He hadn’t touched me before and when I thought about it I tingled in the few places I still had covered. Images of Aunt Elle flashed through my mind but I knew he was right. I wanted to turn and fall into his arms, I wanted to cry and have him comfort me. I wanted to him to kiss me, but there was no time. I reached over and rested my hand on his, my back still towards him. Pushing the words through a constricted throat I said, ‘Thanks, I know your right. I know time probably doesn’t matter now, but I need to know. One way or another, I need to know.’