Forest Park: A Zombie Novel (20 page)

Kathy waited behind him holding their backpacks as he gently began to open the window, he didn’t dare make a sound.

It’s opening. C’mon, keep going...

Steve hadn’t realized before how loud he actually was until everything that had happened, happened. However, now he worked on being quiet, silent like a cat in the dead of the night.

The window opened, without a sound. Steve poked his head out of the window and looked along the side of the house. In one direction was the garage, which was still locked up tight, and in the other direction was the Ram, parked, all alone and draped in orange-flavored darkness.

A moment later he had one leg out of the window; it wasn’t easy. He wasn’t a small man, not in the all-important mid-section anyhow. Even so, he forced himself to double up and squeeze his torso through --- just ... his shoulders barely making it. Dropping down to the ground, his feet hit the earth silently.

He glanced about again as the fire flickered next door. It wasn’t a raging fire yet! Nevertheless, in time it would be, he was sure of it.

The smoke was only just beginning to billow out, making the air thick with choking smoke.

“Pass me the bat,” he whispered to Kathy, who gave it to him through the window as the fire crackled away.

“Pass our bags please.”

She gave both to him. They were rather weighty, he thought, are we off to Florida? No, we’re abandoning our home.

Kathy then stuck her head out from the window and looked over both ways as he did.

“Give me your arms,” Steve said.

He pulled her out through the window.

Then there they were, standing in their driveway ready to leave; but the feelings of sadness had become overwhelmed by the feeling of urgency that they both sensed in the smoky darkness. Kathy squeezed her husband’s hand as he gave her a smile. “Let’s do it” Kathy said.

He nodded.

Stepping carefully they walked toward the Dodge.

With each step, the gravel, which formed the foundation the house’s driveway awakened.

It sounded loud, but not as loud as the thudding coming from the back door, and the crackle and pops of the fire next door.

Suddenly, they heard a screech! The sound came from inside. The sideboard must have given away a fraction at the back door.

Steve gripped Kathy’s hand.

“It’s alright.”

He was just as scared as she was, but tried not to show it.

In the eerie orange light, he gave her another smile and whispered, “We’ll be gone soon.”

They slipped along the gray weatherboard with their backs up against the wall, wearing their backpacks over their shoulders. Steve held his baseball bat loosely in his hands; he was trying to judge its weight.

It’s hitting power.

He reached the corner of the house and peered around it.

He couldn’t really see anything clearly, but he could hear noises coming from the front yard, the sounds of footsteps on the front porch. Uncoordinated footsteps, at least one of those things were there.

Steve glanced over to the Dodge and saw another dead one standing alone at the end of the driveway, swaying in the breeze and staring at the fire next door. Its head nodded from side to side and was slightly tilted upward like Stevie Wonder working his magic on the keyboards --- except this Stevie Wonder wasn’t black or blind, just dead. Steve released Kathy’s hand and reached into his pocket for the key to the Dodge’s ignition. He separated it from his other keys to lessen any chance of noise.

CRACK!

The rear door to the house was failing; they had no other option now.

Steve waited for another second or two. His nerves were almost getting the better of him. It’s now or never! He glanced back to Kathy and pointed toward the Dodge, the passenger side door.

She nodded, and understood.

Steve reached out his hand and touched the Dodge’s bonnet. It was cold and a little dusty or sooty.

The Viper-stealth XV, according to the brochure Steve had read long ago, was the state of the art when it came to car alarms. It not only relied on a loud siren to alert the owner. It also alerted the owner by sending a text message to the owner’s I-phone, if the owner downloaded the App. Steve had forgotten most, if not all of this, but was soon reminded when he forgot to disarm the Viper-stealth XV, before he had attempted to open the Dodge’s door. For the first time in his life, he regretted buying the state of the art.

Peep! Peep! Steve’s phone had received a text. The chances of that happening, he considered later, after all that had happened with telecommunications, was astronomical to say the least.

Flash! Flash! The indicator lights and headlights also went.

Then the alarm sounded.

Both Steve and Kathy remained absolutely, totally and completely still in shock as the second-rate Stevie Wonder spun about to face them standing next to the Dodge.

The footsteps on the front porch also ceased as two, not just one creature, turned and stared, both of their mouths dropping open ready to bite.

However, worst of all were the five or six others standing silently in the garden and who wandered the grassed area under the old oak. Steve hadn’t seen most of them…

GODDAMN!

“Goddamn it!” Steve said as he looked back toward his home’s open window.

Then from inside the house came a SMASH!

The house was now off limits. Kathy leaped toward the truck’s door as Stevie Wonder took some steps in their direction. In a few seconds, he would be at the rear of the Dodge, only a few feet from her.

The other Undead on the front porch gingerly stepped down on the gravel, as the others slowly moved across the grass toward them both.

Steve tried to unlock the Dodge quickly, but then unfortunately dropped the Dodge’s key on the driveway, as he panicked.

“Steve!”

“I’m on it,” he said as he accidentally kicked the key under the Dodge into the darkness below.

ON THE ROAD

Tyler pulled over to the side of the road where it seemed quiet. He couldn’t see anyone, but it was dark and the stars were badly obscured by rising smoke.

Lieutenant Anderson sat in the Humvee with Tyler. He was in the passenger seat next to him, and standing up in the rear was Williams, who was scanning the area with his night-vision goggles. His hands firmly gripping the .50 caliber heavy machine gun placed on the top of the vehicle.

The WolfPac pulled up behind the Humvee, with Charlie at its wheel and Susan sitting in the passenger seat. She was looking irate, as was normal.

Sitting in the middle of both Charlie and Susan was Officer Cook, who had scrambled into the WolfPac after everything had gone south, ignoring Susan’s protests as he did. Cook was still covered in sweat and grime, just as he was when they had abandoned Fort Gillem.

“What the fuck now?” Susan said as she stepped outside of the Wolfpac and stormed toward Tyler’s Humvee. He saw her coming, and with a sigh climbed out of his vehicle.

“What the fuck are we stopping here for?” Susan said loud enough to wake the dead.

“Miss Shaw, please keep your voice down, God knows what’s out there.”

“Yes! That’s the point, Captain Tyler. God knows what’s out there! So why are we stopping here.”

“Miss Shaw,” Tyler said as he gave her a stern look, “please lower your voice.”

“Or?”

“Or you don’t want to know...”

A bandaged Williams looked down at Susan, wearing his night-vision goggles; she ignored him. He looked so ridiculous in those things playing soldier.

However, upon seeing Lieutenant Anderson sitting in the passenger seat, she smiled.

Even when it all went to shit, he looked great while playing soldier, she thought.

“Are you going to answer me, Tyler? Why are we stopping?”

“Here is as good as any place, Miss Shaw,” he answered.

She placed her hands on her hips. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Williams, keep a tight eye over the area, we might be here for a while.”

Williams nodded and said, “Will do.”

“Why?” asked Susan. “Why on earth would we stay here? Maybe you should listen to me when I say we have to keep moving because it’s not safe. I need to get back to Atlanta. People are relying on me, the public needs information more than ever.”

“We have priorities,” Tyler said as he kicked the Humvees rear tyre.

“Priorities! I’m your priority!”

“Just hold on a minute, Miss Shaw, please,” Tyler said patiently as he walked off toward the WolfPac.

Charlie watched him approach in the dark while the WolfPac’s engine ticked over.

“What’s your fuel situation?” Tyler asked.

“A quarter of a tank,” Charlie answered.

Tyler rubbed his chin as he considered their options.

“We’re a little low too.”

Charlie nodded.

“Don’t you army guys have Jerry cans and stuff like that?” Charlie asked.

Tyler smiled and said, “Tonight we don’t. I didn’t plan on someone blowing our refueling station to smithereens. I should have listened more in training, expect the unexpected.”

Officer Cook leaned over. “If you need fuel, I know where we could get some.”

“I need diesel,” Tyler added.

“Yeah, diesel’s no issue.”

“Is it far?”

“Are you that short on gas?” asked Cook.

“Short enough,” Tyler said, “and I want to avoid the main roads if we can. I can only imagine the city center may be a mess as well.”

“That shouldn’t be a worry,” said Cook. “By the way, where we going?”

“Fort McPherson. It’s as good as any place at the moment.”

“What about the people left behind?” asked Cook.

Tyler shook his head and looked down at his boots. “I don’t know?” he said after some thinking.

“It wasn’t your fault, Captain Tyler,” Cook added.

Tyler didn’t look up.

Susan stood in the background with her arms crossed. “Wasn’t his fault, you might as well get a fucking room. Now can we just get moving?”

FORT GILLEM

NOT LONG BEFORE

Captain Tyler and Lieutenant Anderson sat on the steps that led into the administration building. The sun was bright and warm, though the sky was hazy; its blue hue was lost within smoky wisps.

Just by them was a pre-teen mix of boys and girls playing a fierce game of soccer on the road near the now-defunct supply depot.

The larder was empty; too many people and not enough time to prepare.

The realities of the supply depot didn’t worry the kids though, they seemed as if they didn’t have a care in the world, and maybe they didn’t, for now.

“And that’s about the facts and figures of it, sir,” Lieutenant Anderson said. “We can’t take any extra in the cages, and we don’t have the supplies to build any places to house more. We don’t have the skilled hands anyhow for either. Our only option is to eject some of the civilians from the bases larger buildings and store the infected in those.”

“Okay,” Tyler said.

He sounded like he was a little distracted as he gazed at the kids playing soccer.

“The other option is to stop rounding up the infected near the gates and inside the base, and neutralize them as a threat completely,” Lieutenant Anderson added. It was a cold way of dealing with things, but Tyler understood where Anderson was coming from.

“That’s not an option, Lieutenant, you know that --- detain unless it’s life threatening. Furthermore, consider this, if we start shooting these things on the base, and don’t get me wrong, I want to. Although, if we start we’ll have a riot on our hands, many of the refugees here have family in those cages.”

“Things have changed, though,” Lieutenant Anderson said.

Tyler smiled as he watched a young blonde girl attempt a pass, but her foot rolled over the top of the ball sending her ass first to the ground.

“Nobody said it was a good idea, Lieutenant, but orders are orders and if this thing is reversed…”

Tyler considered what he was saying, he didn’t believe the condition could be reversed, and he knew Anderson was aware of what he thought, but what other options did he have?

The girl stood up and dusted herself off. She looked at Tyler a little embarrassed, but the game went on and within a few seconds, she had forgotten all about it.

“Sir, many of these people who have this condition are in no state to have the virus reversed, they’re dead anyway it goes.”

“I know that, Lieutenant. I just hope that the people further along the food chain understand that too. Be that as it may, we can’t begin shooting the infected, especially with so many civilians on the base. They won’t understand, at least the ones who have family members locked up in the cages. They’ve already formed a committee due to that damn reporter encouraging them to petition for a more humane treatment of the infected. I swear she does things for the sake of creating trouble. In my opinion, this is all about to boil over into something nasty,” Tyler said.

Lieutenant Anderson nodded dejectedly and said, “She’s not all that bad. She means well.”

Tyler let Anderson’s comment slide by and continued, “At best, we can remove the refugees from some of the larger and more secure buildings on the base if the cages get dangerously overloaded, which is not far off. Only as a last resort, the living must still have priority.”

“I can’t wait until all of this over with,” Lieutenant Anderson said.

“At least the super flu mutated, it could have been worse,” Tyler answered.

Lieutenant Anderson rubbed his eyes. “If lying dormant until you die is better, I suppose so.”

“That’s only a rumor; don’t believe everything that’s twittered on the emergency band. At least, it gives us a chance,” Tyler said, “more than we had at the beginning. You know as well as I do we’d all be dead if the damn thing didn’t mutate into something less lethal.”

Lieutenant Anderson sighed.

“Anyhow, we’ll have to expand tent city and ---”

Crack!

Tyler and Lieutenant Anderson looked at each other.

The kids didn’t pay any attention to the shooting; they had become immune to the sound of gun shots.