Survival

Kevin Steward 3/11/2009

Survival

  “Billy…. Billy”! Wake up! The alarm is going crazy!

 “Five more mins, mom, just fivv mur mns.. “SLAP” Get up Billy, they’ve triggered the alarms out by the chicken coop! They’re getting close!

My eyes burst open wide, my adrenaline factory began pumping at full steam, rushing instant energy throughout my entire body, I leap out of bed in my boxer shorts and t-shirt, grabbing dad’s hunting rifle laying next to the door and made my way down the hall. Sara’s yelling woke up the twins and they were standing at their door as I blazed past them like a white streak. I yell back to Sara, “Get the twins back to bed”; I take the stairs in three jumps, landing almost sliding on my socks and crashing into the coat rack. “James! Get up here; they’re at the chicken coop! James is already in the kitchen loading his shotgun. To be only fifteen he sure was on the ball, I was glad to, he has really stepped up in the past couple months and I’m proud of that, though I wouldn’t tell em, he would just get a big head.

‘Ok you ready”, I said “Almost” James said as he rose up from tying his work boots. He was also in similar gear, faded black Sabbath t-shirt and boxers.

“How many you think are out there,” He said, as he cocked the shotgun.

“I dunno, Sara didn’t say, and I haven’t had a chance to look out, I hope not many, we are a little low on shells”

“That’s all right, if I run outta shells, I can then give my new invention a whirl” he said as he leans behind the kitchen table to reveal a long thick metal tube.

“I call it the crusher,” James said proudly, raising the metal bar. It was fitted with a rubber grip handle, running up halfway on the bar; at its end was a solid metal cube, with metal spikes jutting.

“That’s fine, tell me later, we gotta get the area clear, we don’t need em up at the house” I said reaching over towards the wall.

I reached over to flip the switch to kill the house lights; I close my eyes to allow them to adjust to the darkness. By this time Sara had made her way down to secure the door.

“Be careful Billy”. She says as she lightly grabs my shoulder.

“Be ready to shut the door and take position by the window. We will signal once the coast is clear”

“Ok” she says, her voice is shaky, she hates it when we have to clear the yard, but we have no choice.

Slowly I opened the door trying to miss the squeaks and creaks of 50 years wear and tear, luckily though I’ve learned the spots when I need to pick up the handle and leverage the hinges to minimize the noise.

The night was warm and the moon was full which helped, I was able to see quite a ways in my peripheral, the yard was clear, no signs of trouble. The alarm had stopped, whatever triggered it must have moved on past.

“I wondered where it is,” James said, whispering

“I don’t know, lets head over to the coop. Take the right side of the yard, I’ll take the left, lets see if we can flank it,” I said as flicked on my flashlight. Our flashlights have a red cone on the end to help us see without affecting our night vision, they came in handy; I was thankful for finding them in that abandoned truck a few weeks ago. I motioned James to begin flanking the right side, whatever was over there it shouldn’t have gotten far, those things move like turtles. Their smell usually gave em away.

I could see James red cone swaying back and forth as we closed up on the chicken pen. The pen was the on east side of the cattle barn and ran down the length of it. My dad and I ran up a trigger wire attached to an electric alarm that would go off in the house anytime something tripped the ground wire. We had problems with wolves coming after our chickens, it was James’s idea and it worked great, even more so now since those things started showing up.

The wind began to rustle the trees and I stopped, I could see James did as well. I raised my head and caught an awful smell. It smelled like old moldy road kill, and it was strong. Almost made me heave over. Just then, I heard rustle to my left, it was close. Before I could turn to see, the smell hit and strong hand grabbed my shoulder. I could feel cold wet fingers grasping at my skin. It moaned hungrily as it reached in to bite my neck. I turned to my right in a sharp motion trying to break its grip, but it had my shirt held tight. It almost pulled me back off of my feet if it hadn’t been for the worn material, the shirt ripped from my body as I swung around. It began lurching for me as I raised my rifle.

James had heard me wrestling and came running, I turned to see, still pointed at the ghoul as he came running past me with his new invention swinging behind his back he took one more step and slammed the “crusher” into the ghouls head. It exploded like an over ripe cantaloupe. Gore flew everywhere, all over James and myself.

“EWWWW, damnit James you got that crap all over me” I said wiping the chunks of brain matter from my chest with what was left of my torn shirt.

“That was friggin cool!” James said still leaning down on his new crusher, which was still lodged into the ghouls body. “ Did you see that? Its head just popped, like a water balloon. That was sooo cool”.

“Yeah, that was real cool alright” I said sharply. “ You know that all it takes is one piece, one drop of its blood to get into you and its over! Don’t you remember what happened to Dad?”

James excitement quickly fades, “yeah…. yeah I remember”. He shakes off the remaining mess from the weapon. “ Do you think that was it”? He said, still looking down, trying not to make eye contact with me.

“I dunno know” I said, still angry, “Lets make a sweep on the house and see, and for god sakes, warn me next time if your going to use that hammer”

“Whatever” James mumbles as he starts walking toward the side of the house.

Maybe I shouldn’t have snapped at him, everything he’s been through, hell what we’ve all been through. But he has to be more responsible; this is no time to stupid. We have to be on our toes, things have changed…. the world has changed.

It was only 6 months ago but it seems like it was 100 years ago, our lives were completely different, normal to say; now it was like hell had burst through the ground and taken over the world. It started from what the news said in a small country in India, a virus had infected this little village; the people got very sick and began dying faster than any doctors could help. The new report said that the virus caused the villagers to run very high fevers and vomit blood, after only a few hours they would die. They said the entire village of 120 died in just 24 hours, only they didn’t die it seemed. Reports flooded out of the village by locals and doctors who survived that the dead after only a few hours of being dead rose back to life and attacked the doctors and nurses and anyone that was close. They said that the “dead” were biting and eating the people, after they killed one, it would rise up and follow the villagers attacking any living person. By the time the news hit America, this disease had spread over three quarters of India and into other countries. America had put us on Red status and martial law was in affect. People were told to stay in doors and lock everything up.

We thought we were safe over here that whatever was happening in India and those countries were going to stay there.

We were wrong.

2 months after the outbreak overseas, reports starting showing up in the news about similar attacks in some of the bigger cities. People coming into the hospital with bite marks, a lot of bite marks. Then they would do the same thing, get sick and die, then get up and attack. It spread like wildfire, 2 months later, most of the big cities dropped off the map, we were told to stay away from cities, big or small it just wasn’t safe.

My dad said we would be fine, that we were far enough from the any cities that we didn’t need worry about much. We had plenty of supplies and protection he said. He had James and me board up the house and set up alarms around the outside of the yard line protection. It was a long time before I had a chance to see one, I mean sure we saw em on the TV a lot, all the time, while we still had TV, before it got real bad and the stations stopped broadcasting.

I got to see one the day Mom and Dad got killed.

My Dad was working out back behind the barn repairing the barbwire fence; my brother and I were fixing the wood supports on the windows when we heard a blast. We took running around the house to see Dad stumbling from behind the barn and hit the ground. His gun by his side, he was holding his forearm. Behind him was a body, a dead body. We walked him back to the house where momma was standing. She was worried. We all were. The news said that people who got bit would die and come back. Dad said he was all right and asked me to just get him some medicine for his wound. Mom sat him down and wrapped his arm. He told us to head back out and fix the windows.

We came in around dinnertime; everyone was sitting at the table except Dad. Mom said he wasn’t feeling well and was lying down. She was fixing him a plate to take up. She told us to sit and eat and she would be right back. Mom was finishing fill his plate when looked up to see Dad standing the kitchen doorway, leaning on his wounded arm against the door frame. He shirt was covered in brown blood, all down his front, his face had turned bluish gray, and his eyes had become cloudy white. Mom dropped the plate crashing against the floor; dad threw his head toward the noise and mom. Before she could move, dad was on her, ripping at her face and neck. We were all screaming, NO DAD, STOP, but he didn’t. I yelled at Sara to get the twins up stairs. James jumped on dad’s back trying to wrestle him off. Dad was going crazy, mom had stop moving. I didn’t know what to do, so I kicked dad as hard as I could in his face. He went reeling back, his head snapping up with a loud pop. James was knocked back against the wall. Without losing stride he jumped at me. I barely had time to grab his arms, before he slammed me against the wall. He smell was choking me; he was foaming at the mouth. I screamed for James to help but I couldn’t see him. I fought for what seemed forever but it really was only a few seconds, before dad went limp and dropped to the floor. James was standing behind him with claw hammer, dripping with blood and his eyes wide open. Dad lay on the floor not moving. I reached down to check for a pulse but was stopped short to see mom back on her feet and charging towards James's back. I reached up and pulled James towards me as I jumped to my side, mom crashed into the kitchen cabinets and landed on dad. She wasn’t fazed; I can remember her white flowery was now the color of red. Blood streamed down the front of her dress, her neck was completely gone, she hunched over dad growling at us. She leaped across the kitchen table at James knocking him down which caused him to drop the hammer. She was all over him; he was doing his best to fight her back. Without thinking I grabbed the hammer and all I remember afterwards, was James lying on the floor crying with mom’s lifeless body lying on his chest.

I am brought back from my daze by the sounds of shotgun blasts. BOOM, BOOM

James! I thought as I took off running toward the sounds.

“BILLY, BILLY…HELP”! He screams. I run harder. As I turn the corner of the house by the storm cellar I slam into a charging body.

“OMMPH” as I land out on my butt, it was James.

“James. You ok” as I try to catch my wind

“There are tons on of Billy, tons! I’ve never so many, there was like forty of em coming up the yard and more behind em.”

“Shit!” I say as I try to get back on my feet. “Forty? Are you sure?” I said and before I could finish I looked behind him, off in the distance under the full moon I could see em, they were closing in on the yard line, forty or fifty, easy.

“We gotta get back…” I was cut short; a scream came from in the house. It was Sara.

Without speaking James and I ran back to the back door to see it was wide open. We charged in, I flipped on the breaker and the lights blasted on. We were blinded from being out side, our eyes adjusted to the darkness. Sara screamed again, it was coming from upstairs; I shut the rear door and latched it. James had already run towards the stairs when I heard glass and wood breaking. It was coming from the living room! They are breaking in! I ran into the living room towards the noise to see a head popping through the newly made hole. I raise my rifle and fired, the bullet went wild and took out a vase on the table. I launched the casing out, and reload loaded, raised and fired. This time the bullet met its mark; the ghoul’s skull popped and went limp. I took up the stairs towards the scream. I hear James shotgun go off and Sara’s screams stop. At the top of the stairs James was standing over a man that was wearing coveralls, blue ones, like the kind the mechanic in town wore. I ran up to James. “ You ok?”

“Yeah,” he said staring at the body.

Another crashes, this time from the window at the bottom of the stairs, then another from the living room.

“Hurry, they are breaking into the house,” I said,” We gotta get some where safe”

I begin pounding on the bedroom door, “Sara, open the door, we gotta get to the attic. These things are in the house”

She opens the door and the twins come running out and grab me by the waist.

“Are you two ok”? I said hugging them tightly.

With whimpering voices they agree.

“We gotta get in the attic,” James yells as more windows break.

We turn to run towards my room and see a very tall man, dressed in suit and tie, covered in blood and missing his right arm come charging at us. I barely had time to raise my rifle and fire, my shot missed but caught him in the neck, he spun to his side crashing into the wall over the hallway table. James came in before I could reload and shot it in the head. I grabbed the screaming twins and Sara and pulled them running across the hallway, we pass the stairwell to see them running up after us. We crashed into our room. Barely able to slam the door, they were beating and clawing at us as we tried to shut the door. I yelled for James and Sara to push the dresser against the door, it helped. We were able to get the other dresser and bed pushed against the door.

We had no time to rest; they were beating so hard we thought the hinges were going to shoot off.

I pulled down the attic latch, but it was stuck. The door’s wood was giving way; it began to splinter against their pounds.

“Hurry” Sara cried,” Hurry”! the twins were yelling, James had his gun raised at the door.

Finally the latch opens, the stairs slide down.

“Go, get up the stairs”

“James, you too, get up there”

As soon as he was up top, I began raising the stairs.

“Wait! what are you doing”!? James yelled, reaching down as I pushed up the stair latch.

“Don’t worry,” I yelled, I’m going to be right back, I’m just going to lead them away from the latch.

The door was almost off its hinges, the dressers were beginning to give up their weight and push back from the door. The moans were deafening.

“NO BILLY…”Sara cried,”please, come up here with us” She was holding the twins. James was still trying to fight the stairs against me.

“James, I will be right back, keep the girls quiet and don’t open the door till I get back. I’ll be back in no time, I promise”

From the look on his face, he knew I was lying. He pulled back and grabbed the string to close the attic latch.

I looked out of my bedroom window; our house had a roof ledge that ran the length of the side. I looked back to the door busting open, pouring through; toppling over the dresser was a hallway full of ghouls.

I raise my gun, firing into the crowd; I hit two before they were completely in the room. I turned and busted the window out with the butt of my rifle. I jumped through onto the roof ledge; the ghouls came crashing out the window after me. I didn’t have time to catch myself and was knocked off the ledge with the zombies. I hit the ground hard. It knocked the breath out of me. I didn’t have time to recover, the zombies were closing in from the sides of the house, the noise of the glass and upstairs battle had caught their attention. I was on my feet and running, not sure where, just away from the incoming horde.

As I ran, I prayed hard that those things weren’t smart enough to think to look for that attic. I remembered the news reports said that these things had no power to think or solve problems. I hoped that was still true. I ran towards the barn, ghouls still on my heels. I slam the barn door shut and throw the wood plank down over the lock hatch. The ghouls crash in the door, almost taking it down. It knocks me back on the ground.

More to come, I just need to finish it before class today