The Dead Chapter 9

Book 1: The Dead

Chapter 9

This time we were prepared for them, we got into our vehicles, Wendy, Nicole, Monica, Daniel and me in the 4WD, Caleb on the bike and Todd and Daphne in the Ute, Brooke with Simon in the back. While Simon had shown signs of waking up, he had fallen back asleep, a blessing I thought. I didn't want him freaking out in the middle of an attack. I checked the fuel gauge on the 4WD, we had managed to get it almost full before we left, and hopefully that would be enough to escape from the horde. We began to drive away but the Ute seemed to be dragging its feet, part of me itched to tell Nicole to stop and see what they were doing, but from what I could get from Brooke's posture and expression, this was according to plan. With ear though I wondered whether they were planning to sacrifice themselves to buy us time.

The horde was getting closer to them and us, Nicole and Caleb had obviously also noticed their lack of speed and slowed to see what they were doing. Brooke was now having to fire shots at the front runners of the horde, she seemed a bit more panicked now, and she was beckoning us to keep driving. Nicole kept driving but Caleb turned and began to drive back for them. I rolled down the window, leaned at and yelled as loud as I could back to Caleb, ‘no stop! Come back!’ Caleb stopped and turned around in his seat but he looked confused and conflicted. Brooke seemed to be out bullets and the main section of the horde was now stampeding through the petrol station. Brooke raised her gun and it was then that I realised what her and Todd were planning and I yelled for Caleb to get down as she fired and hit one of the petrol tanks in the station.

The explosion was large and loud and I regretted opening my window, not that it would have made a difference as the shockwave blow out the back window of the 4WD. I shook my head and my hearing returned to normal, I got out of my car and ran towards Caleb who had been knocked off his bike. He was grabbing his arm in pain but otherwise he seemed alright. The plan had worked, the explosion took out a large portion of the horde and blocked off most of the rest. Todd and Brooke, who had recovered the most, were now taking out the incapacitated dead using the axes to conserve ammo, I assumed we had already used most of it. Nicole had also recovered and helped me get Caleb up and was taking a look at his arm, ignore his cries of ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ Wendy walked over and punched Todd in the face sending him sprawling, then screamed ‘you idiot!’ at the top of her lungs, then hugged him.

…

We spent the night there, using abandoned cars and the wreckage to form a sort of wall around us. Simon had finally woken up and was resting upright in the Ute with Daphne and Nicole watching over him, filling him in on what was going on. I walked over to Caleb who was making sure the bike hadn't been damaged by the explosion. He saw me and nodded but didn't say anything so I started, ‘thanks for today, you were great’

‘No I wasn't’ he replied, not stopping his work, ‘all I did was attracted a horde of zombies then almost get myself killed in an explosion we caused trying to stop them’

‘But you also lead us safely, and you only attracted the horde because we sent you to the hospital,’ I suddenly remembered that we hadn't talked about that yet. ‘What was the hospital like?’ he froze at the question, it took him a few moments to answer. ‘The horde came from there,’ he began, and I hoped that by drawing it away he had increased our chances, but as he went on he dashed my hopes, ‘but that was only a tenth of what was at the hospital.’ I sighed, but it wasn't any different than I expected, Nicole walked over, hearing the end of the conversation. ‘We have to find another way then,’ she said calmly, leaning against one of the cars

‘Does Simon show signs of infection?’ I asked

‘Maybe, he has a slight fever, but once again, I’m not a doctor,’ she stressed that last part

‘But you’re the best we've got,’ Caleb said, finally standing away from the bike, ‘what about a pharmacy? Would that have the medicine we’re looking for?’

‘Possibly,’ Nicole replied, then an idea came to her, ‘there’s a clinic near Fountain Gate that has a pharmacy, but it also might have an MRI or an X-ray machine, something I can use  better assess his injuries.’ I gave her a playful punch on the arm, smiling, ‘who needs a doctor huh?’

…

We set off the next morning, moving towards the clinic, hoping that it would be clear. Daniel had made the helpful point that any of the original infected would have been brought to the hospital when they began vomiting up blood, so it wasn't likely that we would find newly risen dead there. The previous night Todd and Brooke had taken inventory on our ammo, although once again the question of where Brooke got her knowledge from went unasked. The gun we got of the dead policeman had only two shots left and Brooke’s revolver had only one left. We couldn't afford to get into another fire fight.

We came across another roadblock of abandoned cars, there was no way around that we could risk. We had to leave the Ute and the 4WD, we loaded the semi-conscious Simon on the bike behind Caleb while the rest of us carried the most supplies we could carry and as quietly as we could through the maze of cars. I was both sad and happy to say goodbye to my mother’s car, sad that we had to leave it behind when we had gotten used to it, but happy to leave behind another reminder of a world now gone. Once we got through to a clearer street we found two cars that weren't trapped, had fuel, and still had their keys: a people-carrier and another, newer, Ute. This time however we took Simon and put him in the people carrier, using the back of the Ute for supplies. We were so busy and focused on getting our new set-up prepared we didn't see the other cars driving towards the clinic.