A New Death (Savannah's Only Zombie Novel) (13 page)

“I work at the port. Loading and unloading the shipping
containers. I was nearing the end of a twelve-hour shift, fixing to start a
double, when a huge tanker came in from Asia somewhere. Not sure where exactly,
all those funky letters look the same to me. I overheard someone say China, but
I knew for a fact we didn’t get anything from the Chinese here.

I was returning from my mandated break, heading back to the
lift I worked. The ship was just getting in. It seemed to be cruising pretty
fast for the river. The tugs were guiding it in, but it almost seemed like it
was picking up speed. Must have been my imagination, cause the thing came to
dock with no problems. I was already exhausted before everything went to hell.

Not even sure how it happened. Customs was making a huge
deal about the ship and its containers. From where I was seated in the lift, I
could see custom’s officers arguing with the ship’s crew over a few containers.
It looked like the custom’s guys wanted in, but the crew was refusing. Well,
that’s just not gonna fly. You ship something into the States from another
country, you better be ready for us to take a peek.

It all happened so quick. The container door swung open and
those dead freaks started pouring out. The fast ones mostly. You know which
ones I mean?”

The Lumberjack looked to the group. They all nodded.

“Yeah, we call them runners,” Jeremy said.

“Runners?” said the Lumberjack. “Yeah, I guess that makes
sense. We called ‘em pinkies, cause of their pink skin compared to the greys.
You got a name for the greys?”

Jeremy shook his head.

“Not really, just zombies or z’s for short.”

“Zombies? Huh, I never thought of that. I guess they are
kinda like zombies. Anyways it was a fuckin’ bloodbath. Not a lot of guns and
shit around the ports, for obvious reasons. Customs had some, but those tools
didn’t last long. After most of the pinkies ran out, what was left of the greys
came tumbling out of the containers. I say what was left of them, because it
looked like the pinks beat the shit out of them. Anger problems those pinks.

Like I was saying, things went real bad, real quick. Dock
workers get this kinda image going for them where they’re just these hard-ass,
dumb brutes. And to be fair, some of the guys are exactly that. But man, I
can’t tell you how many grown men I saw just break down and start crying. Grown
ass men. They just gave up the will to live. This one kid, who looked young,
maybe twenty five, just fell into the fetal position, and started sucking his
thumb. From where I was sitting, I could see everything. I almost thought about
just staying up there where nothing could reach me.

But then I saw the picture of my wife and little girl that I
kept in the cab of the lift. I couldn’t imagine these things getting to them.
They went to my in-laws for the weekend, but what if this wasn’t the only place
this was happening? I remember fumbling for my phone. I kept getting a busy
signal. Everyone must have been trying to call the people they loved by that
point. I put the phone back in my pocket and proceeded to climb down from my
lift.

When I got ground level, people were running all over the
place. The pinks were chasing everyone. The ones that weren’t completely ripped
to shit came back quickly as more pinks. Well, most of them came back as pinks.
There were a few of the more battered ones that went straight into grey mode.”

“Grey mode?” Tori asked.

“Yeah, the pink ones eventually tire out and turn into the slower
greys. You haven’t seen that?”

“No. But then again, we haven’t really stuck around to find
out,” she said.

“Well, I didn’t really have much of a choice,” the
Lumberjack continued. “I met up with my buddy Burton and we were able to find a
small maintenance shed to hide out in. A few other people I’d never met joined
us. That’s where I found this axe.”

He holds up the axe before setting it back down onto his
lap. He pauses for a moment, looking off in thought. He snaps out of the daze
and looks back to the group. His eyes finally rest on Jeremy.

“They just kept coming. Waves and waves of ‘em. We fought
them off deep into that first night. It was unsettling at first. Killing them.
But when we realized that it was kill or be killed, that primal instinct of
survival kicked in. I remember the switch in myself.

There was a woman in our group who strayed out too far and
was picked off by the pinks. I watched on as they relentlessly ripped her to
pieces. They showed no remorse or concern. They only wanted to feed. And not
even eat for necessity. They’d attack one person and move on to the next before
they were even finished. They were never satisfied. Always wanting the next
kill. That’s when I switched to survival mode.

When their numbers began to finally dwindle, I tried again
to reach my wife. No answer. I started to devise a plan on how to get to them.
Her parents just lived across town. If I could just get out of the ports, I
could get there and get them out of Savannah. As I was thinking about all this,
my phone rang. It was my wife.

At first, all I could hear was static. Then her voice
finally broke through. I could tell she was worried, her voice was tense. She
began to ramble on and on about the news and everything that was going on. I
kept trying to ask her if she and Emma were ok, but she just continued to
babble on and on. I heard a loud banging in the background. Before I could even
ask her what is was, she was telling me to hold on and that someone was at the
door. I began yelling into the phone not to open it. Burton kept trying to
quiet me down as my screaming was attracting more dead.

All I could hear was the screams of my wife over the phone.
I could do nothing. The phone fell from my hand as I began to hear the screams
of Emma. Mommy! Mommy! No! No!”

He stopped again. Tears poured from his face. His expression
went blank as he began to wipe the tears from his eyes.

“I don’t remember what happened in between then and now.”

Tori looked over to Jeremy as the Lumberjack said this. Her
face was one of concern. Jeremy noticed and turned his attention back to the
broken man.

“What do you mean, you do”'t remember?" Jeremy asked.

The Lumberjack looked at him, his eyes bloodshot.

“I mean I don’t remember. My mind has just blacked it out.
Look, I told you what I remember. Can I go to sleep now?” He answered, his
voice stern.

“Yeah man,” Jeremy said. “Lexx, can you show him one of the
offices where he can sleep?”

Lexx nodded and motioned for the Lumberjack to follow him down
the hallway.

“Hey man, what’s your name?” Ben asked.

“Andrew. But my friends all call me LJ.”

“LJ?”

“Yeah, they all say I look like a lumberjack, so they call
me LJ for short.”

Lexx’s mouth dropped open.

“All right LJ, get some rest,” Jeremy said.

***

Once Lexx returned, the four of them gathered together in
the storefront part of the building, away from the offices. They stood in
silence for a moment before Jeremy finally spoke up.

“So, what do you guys think?”

“Well, the guy’s a fighter for one. He’s been out there
since the beginning and he’s still alive? That’s amazing. And from what it sounds
like, most of the time he’s been alone,” Ben said.

“That is what it sounded like,” Tori pitched in. “What did
you guys think about his story? Did everything seem ok to you?”

“What do you mean?” Lexx asked.

“Well, for starters, how about the fact that he doesn’t even
remember how he got here? If his story is correct, he clocked out somewhere
last night. He doesn’t remember what happened at all today? His memory just blocked
out a whole entire day?”

“She does have a point,” Jeremy adds. “I know that sometimes
your brain will block out traumatic experiences. No doubt hearing your wife and
daughter scream like that would be extremely traumatic, but I
saw
my
mother get ripped apart and eaten and I have full memory of it. In fact, I can’t
forget it.”

Jeremy tried to push the thought away. He looked at the
others. Out of the three of them, Tori looked the most concerned.

“Tori, what do you think?” Jeremy asked.

“I think,” she started. “I think we should let him stay. For
now. We could use an extra guy, especially one with an axe. Safety in numbers,
right? I don’t know. We should probably keep an eye on him though. He seems,
um, unstable.”

“Alright then, we let him stay. Any other concerns?"

Lexx and Ben both shook their heads.

“Good,” Jeremy said. “Let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a long
day ahead of us, because tomorrow, we are going to get out of this city.”

Jeremy woke up to loud banging and yelling. He jumped to his
feet as the others were stirring awake. He went out into the hall and ran down
to the office that LJ was sleeping in. He wasn’t there.

“What the hell is going on?” Tori said, walking up behind
Jeremy. “Where's LJ?”

Jeremy shrugged.

“I’m guessing that’s who’s making all the noise.”

He turned and looked at her. She held up her pistol,
flipping the safety off. He nodded and turned to walk outside. They both walked
through the warehouse out into the yard. Ben and Lexx, now awake, followed them
outside.

There was LJ at the fence, shaking it, and yelling at the
zombies beginning to surround it. Jeremy looked back at the others. They all
had the same look on their face. The same look he had on his face. Concern.

“Hey! Hey you fuckers! Come here, you dead sons of bitches!’

As the dead got closer to the fence, LJ would take the pick
end of his axe and push it through the chain link, hitting each one square in
the forehead. With each one he let out a chuckle. Then he would yell again,
attracting more corpses to the fence line.

“Hey, uh, LJ,” Jeremy said, very nonchalantly. “Hey man,
whatchu doin?”

The Lumberjack turned around to look at the group. He seemed
surprised to see the four of them standing there, as if the noise he was making
shouldn’t have woken them up. He smiled and walked away from the fence.

“Just killing some of these zombies. Why? What’s up? You
guys ready to leave?”

“Almost. But you know that noise attracts these things
right? It’s gonna be hard to leave when the streets are crawling with these
z’s,” Jeremy answered.

“Yeah, I know noise attracts ‘em. What do you think I’m
yelling for? Just let me know when you’re ready to clear out. I’ll take care of
this. Them.”

He turned back to the fence and begins mumbling something to
the zombies.

“You killed my wife. You killed my daughter. I’m going to
kill every last one of you fuck-nuts.”

Jeremy looked to the group and motioned for the four of them
to retreat back inside. Lexx mouthed the word “cuckoo” and grinned. Once they
were back inside, Jeremy closed the door and made sure LJ was still near the
fence. He was.

“So, I think LJ may be cray-cray,” he said.

“You think?” Tori said.

“Yeah, I’m starting to think that. Call it a hunch.”

“Ok. So what do we do then?” Lexx asked.

“I don't know,” Jeremy started. “The guy’s been through a
lot. I feel bad for him, I do. He has a reason to be pissed with the zombies
and maybe he’s just blowing off steam. An unconventional way of blowing off
steam, but nonetheless, blowing off steam. Plus, he hasn’t tried to harm any of
us yet. I suggest we just keep an eye on him, but maybe he’s all right?”

“Jer’s got a point guys,” Ben added.

“Yeah, but we just don’t know this guy. What if he was
psycho before all this went down? I mean, he seems to barely know himself,”
Tori said.

“So what do you suggest we do with him then, Tori?” Jeremy
asked back.

She looked at Lexx for a moment as she thought about an
answer. He nodded as if they were communicating telepathically again. She
looked back at Jeremy.

“We leave him.”

“No way,” Ben interjected. “We can’t just leave the man!
What if the Padre left Jeremy? Or hell, if Jeremy left me? Or if you and Lexx
didn’t join up? Out there, we are dead if we’re on our own. If we leave him, we
might as well just put a bullet in his head and I don’t want that blood on my
hands. I already have enough.”

The end of Ben’s sentence trailed off, everyone noticing and
immediately realizing he was referring to leaving his grandmother in the
hospital. Tori and Lexx share another look, knowing that if they want to make
their case, they would have to tread lightly.

“Hey man, the guy survived out there on his own pretty all
right so far,” Lexx said, the calmest of the group.

“You saw how exhausted he was last night. He may have been
able to last a couple of days on his own, but there is no way that he can do
that forever,” Ben said.

“Maybe he’ll find another group of people. Maybe we’re just
not those people.”

“This is crazy,” Ben said, throwing up his hands. “We are
talking about a man’s life, aren't we?”

“We helped him out last night. Gave him a place to rest.
Hell, he can stay here for all I care. I’m just saying, we don’t owe him
anything and he doesn’t have to come with us,” Tori said.

Ben shook his head.

“This is just wrong,” he said.

“Wrong? Do ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ even have the same meaning
anymore? He was right about one thing last night. Life is about survival now.
Right and wrong are just ideals now,” Lexx said.

“The world went to hell man; it doesn’t mean that we
shouldn't have morals anymore.”

“Morals were a luxury. We just don’t have that luxury
anymore. It went out the window when dead people started eating people. It’s
survival of the fittest now. Well, it always was, it’s just a lot more tangible
now.”

“Damn right.”

The Lumberjack was standing in the doorway. Everyone looked
surprised to see him there. He had snuck up on them without making a sound. He
walked into the room, his head hung somewhat low.

“Hey, I’m sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean to scare
you guys. You probably think I’m crazy don’t you?” he said.

“Hell yea-”

“We don’t think you’re crazy,” Ben interrupted Tori,
shooting her a dirty look. “We know you’ve been through a lot and we
all
understand that. But, are you gonna be okay?”

The question hung in the air for a moment, as Andrew
pondered it. He knew what they meant. As soon as he saw them this morning
outside, he knew that he had startled them with his freak out. He didn’t even
remember waking up and going outside. Just being there, seething in anger.

“Yeah, I think so,” he finally answers. “I just hate those
things so much. Took everything from me. Everything important.”

Ben walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He
seemed to appreciate it.

“Look, Andrew,” Jeremy said. “You’re welcome to join us get
out of town, but do you think you can keep these episodes to a minimum?”

The man nodded.

“Good,” Jeremy said, turning his attention to the warehouse.
“There’s an old delivery truck in the back of the warehouse. Let’s round up
what supplies we can out of here and fill it up. Then, we’ll begin our trek
west.”

***

They all split up to scavenge what they could. Once the
others were gone, Tori pulled Jeremy aside. Her voice was firm but one of
concern. Her body language on the other hand screamed that she was pissed. Her
hands sat on her hips, which were cocked out to one side. She was biting her
lip.

“Yes, Tori?”

“I don’t think he should come along.”

“You’ve made your concerns very clear. And I understand. I
do. But I just think it’s a bad idea leaving him here. It’s just messed up. I
can’t imagine losing my wife, let alone a daughter. Give him some time.”

“There’s no time to mourn in this world.”

“I know. And that’s why we have to stick together.”

She took a deep breath.

“Fine. But if he goes all banana sandwich again, that’s on
you.”

She pushed him aside and walked off.

***

Once the truck was loaded, Jeremy gave LJ the signal to open
the gate. Zombies were now wandering all over the street. Jeremy counted nine.
Like a baseball player headed up to bat, LJ gave his axe a practice swing
before revving up and bringing it down on the skull of a dead police officer.
He knelt down and removed the still holstered Berretta. He waved his new find
in the air before sticking into the back of his pants.

“Do you think someone should help him?” Tori asked from the
passenger seat.

“First, you want to leave him and now you think he needs
help? Make up your mind woman!” Jeremy said.

“I’m just saying...”

“He said he’d handle it since it was his fault they’re here.
Besides, Ben and Lexx are in the back ready to help him jump in when we pull
out of here.”

The two men were holding on to handles in the back of the
box truck. Once Jeremy drove the truck out of the lot, LJ would jump in the
back of the truck; they would close the door and drive away. Simple plan. In
theory.

“Holy shit!”

Jeremy snapped out of his daydream of everything working
together smoothly to Tori’s exclamation. LJ had reared back and Casey Jones’d a
z’s head right off her shoulders. The head went spinning through the air, mouth
still snapping, and matted hair swirling. He turned with a smile and gave
Jeremy the thumbs up. Jeremy put the truck in drive and pulled out onto the
street. He watched as LJ jumped into the truck, via the side mirror, and heard
the rolling door close in the back.

“He’s in. Let’s go,” Tori said.

A smile formed on Jeremy’s face as he drove away from the
warehouse. For once, everything was going according to plan.