Thanks god

Tag

So far so good, keep it up artboy.

needs more please

Arty, we don't believe you are back.

Post a couple more chapters, stop teasing your audience with one chapter after almost a year.

Give us a chapter per week at least, something, anything, if you hate it now, just say it's over.
A once epic online zombie book, is lagging into despair.

Artyboy more chapters!          Please

I will get around to it.  Sorry guys but this is a hobby for me.  Sometimes I'm in the mood to churn out chapter after chapter and other times I just don't feel like writing.  I'll get around to finishing it eventually.

Originally Posted By artyboy: I will get around to it.  Sorry guys but this is a hobby for me.  Sometimes I'm in the mood to churn out chapter after chapter and other times I just don't feel like writing.  I'll get around to finishing it eventually.

i want to read more this story is awesome

I just found this thread. Its great reading Arty. Looking forward to more of your work in the future.
Anyone have any cool zombie reading sites?

tagged

Chapter 28

Liz didn't leave the radio off for long.  They only went a quarter of a mile or so before she turned it back on.  It had already gone quiet.  They knew that it was only a matter of time before the sheriff sent some men to investigate.  The dirtbike that had passed them earlier would probably be back at their base by now telling them all about the zombie attack.  Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"What if they're still alive?" Cecil asked, finally breaking the silence.

"If they are then they're holed up somewhere safe away from those goons," Liz told him.  "They'll be fine till we can get back.  Fighting through that mob would be suicide."

No one seemed to want to talk about the subject so they all stayed quiet as they drove.  The noise that they had made was obviously attracting a lot of attention.  They could see dozens of zombies scattered throughout the fields as they drove past.  They were all walking in the direction of the house.  Some of the ones that were closer to the road noticed them driving by and started towards them.  "They're going to follow us all the way back to Jim's house," Eric said.  "Look at them.  They're relentless."  They were all thinking the same thing.

"And every time we stop to thin them out all of the gunshots give them a new target to focus on," Amy suddenly realized.  "Maybe we should just keep driving and try to lose them."

"Where are they all comin from?" Cecil asked.  "It's like there's more and more of em out here every day."  

"I guess there aint much food left for em in town," Liz said disgusted.  "Maybe the smart ones figured out that they can find more in the country."

"The smart ones?" Cecil laughed nervously.  "They look pretty dumb to me."

"I guess they aint as dumb as they look, man," Jon said from the back of the truck.  That comment sent a chill up every one of their spines.  No one wanted to admit it but seeing the way they were acting it was obvious that he could be right.

"Don't be ridiculous," Eric scoffed.  They've been attracted to sound since the beginning.  When we were stuck in the house they followed some of us back to it from the interstate.  We got out of there easily with the radio and all of those power tools going.  When we were running through the woods they obviously heard us breaking through the brush.  Every time we get into a firefight they eventually show up.  There's been a lot of action around here over the last couple of days so of course they'd be attracted to the area."  No one could argue with his reasoning but it still left them all uneasy.  

"Well it won't do us any good to get back to Jim's with a hundred of these damn things on our ass," Liz said.  "What do we do about em?"

"I've got an idea," Amy said with a grin.  "If they're really attracted to noise then we just need to make a diversion."  

"And how the hell're we gonna do that?" Cecil asked her.  

"Liz, pull up to the next car you see," Amy said excitedly.  "There are abandoned cars everywhere out here."  They weren't as plentiful as they were when they were closer to the interstate but they did run across an abandoned car from time to time.  Just up ahead they saw one and Liz told everyone what was going on over the radio and pulled up to it.  

"Before you get outa the car you're gonna tell me what you have in mind, missy," Liz told Amy.  

"We just need to put something on the steering wheel to honk the horn," She said obviously proud of her idea.  If the sound is really what's attracting them then it should draw them all in for a mile or so."

Liz nodded her head impressed by the idea.  "Well it can't hurt to try," she said as she picked up the radio and started speaking into it.  "We need to clear the road guys.  We're gonna try somethin to get them to quit following us."

With that she got out of the car and dropped the closest zombie.  Everyone else followed suit and in no time the nearest monster that was still standing was over fifty feet away.  Cecil and Eric cleared the car.  The front door was open, though, so it was obvious that the previous owner had gotten out somehow.  Cecil found a good sized stick on the ground and jammed it between the steering wheel and the seat setting the horn off.  Then they all got back into their trucks and kept on going to Jim's.  The plan worked.  The zombies in the immediate vicinity were immediately attracted to the car.  Even the ones that followed the caravan as it started to pull away quickly lost interest and headed back to the source of the incessant noise.  The plan worked all the way back to Jim's.  By the time they pulled into the driveway and got out they could still hear the faint sound of the car horn in the distance.  

"Good thinkin kiddo," Liz told Amy as they got out of the trucks and headed inside.  Amy beamed back at her.  It was already starting to get light out and they were all exhausted.  They went inside, set up a guard shift and went to sleep.  

Eric had the third guard shift.  It took Cecil a few minutes to wake him up but he eventually got up and started walking around.  Without saying a word Cecil took Eric's spot on the floor and was asleep almost immediately.  The outside of the house was entirely made of brick.  The front door to the house was solid so Eric didn't think that anything would get through that.  There were also steel shutters on all of the windows.  It looked like they'd been put up hastily but they were solidly bolted into the window frames.  They had slits in each of them that made it possible to see outside.  It was a ranch house with a fairly open floor plan and sun roofs in the kitchen and living room that provided enough light to see by.  It would be easily defendable if they were swarmed.  

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an engine approaching.  As he listened closer he realized that it was two engines.  They weren't cars, though.  They sounded like they could be from a dirtbike.  "I hear someone coming," he said out loud.  "Wake up," he said loudly.  "There's someone coming."  As he was yelling for everyone to wake up he ran over to a window in the front of the house and peered through the slot.  Coming up the driveway he saw two ATVs approaching.  He recognized Greg immediately.  He was sitting behind Jess holding on to her with one arm.  Kevin was on the ATV right behind them.  He counted at least a dozen zombies coming up behind them.  He ran out the front door and started yelling for them to get inside.  Cecil was right behind him.  He had the foresight to grab his rifle, though.  

"Get the kids inside," he yelled to Eric as he raised his rifle and started shooting.  

As Eric ran over to help get them inside he realized that he couldn't hear the sound of the car horn that they had set up in the distance anymore.  The sight before him was horrifying.  He couldn't count all of the zombies that were headed directly for the house.  Greg was obviously having trouble walking under his own power so Eric slung his arm around his shoulder and helped him inside.  Cecil's gunshots had prompted everyone into action because they now had a firing line in front of the house trying to drop as many rotters as they could.  Eric knew that it would just attract more of them, though.  He couldn't help but think of the farmhouse that they'd originally been trapped in when he saw those things plodding towards them.  He pushed that thought out of his mind.  Now they had weapons and food...at least he thought they had food.  Once he had eased Greg into a comfortable chair he grabbed his rifle and ran outside to help everyone else.  

Jess and Amy were running in and out of the house trying to keep everyone supplied with ammo.  Everything inside was disorganized, though.  They were having trouble finding the right ammo for everyone.  On top of that there were at least three zombies for every one that they killed.  It wasn't long before the horde was getting dangerously close.  "This aint gonna work," Liz tried to yell over the sound of guns firing.  "Everyone inside right now."  The closest people, including Eric, heard her.  They got everyone else's attention and they all piled into the house.  Eric was the last one in.  He shut and locked the door behind him and then slumped to the floor.  

"Now what?" Steve asked.  The sound of a fist on steel against one of the shutters answered him.  The sound quickly multiplied.  

HEY !!!! ITS ON !!! THANKS ARTYBOY !!!

thanks buddy, i'd been waiting for that, keep up the good work....

Real nice welcome back

WoHoo!

sweet thanks arty

Thanks arty keep up the good work.



Ron

Thanks for the new chapter.

sweet

Ok, it's been a few days.  Where's the next chapter already??  
Keep up the good work arty!

Mike

Keep it up Artyboy way to go!

Man, this is an awesome story! i started it at 10 or 11 and now its 3 AM. im going to bed and im gonna have me some shoot-em-up zombiedreams! thanks again d00d!

How about putting an index or a chapter guid in your first post.


I have been following from the begining but have been away and now I cant figure out where I left off. It would be real nice to look at your original post and be able to see what pages what chapters are on and then a person wouldn't have to page through all the old comments. Just a thought.

Edited: Hotel23 (your linke on page one) has been weird for a while, I can't access any of the story's. It looks like they are all gone. Big bummer.

the suspense for me is getting to me

Originally Posted By Faustrocket: How about putting an index or a chapter guid in your first post. I have been following from the begining but have been away and now I cant figure out where I left off. It would be real nice to look at your original post and be able to see what pages what chapters are on and then a person wouldn't have to page through all the old comments. Just a thought. Edited: Hotel23 (your linke on page one) has been weird for a while, I can't access any of the story's. It looks like they are all gone. Big bummer.

That's odd.  The link works fine for me.  The stories are definitely still there.  You might have to register.  

exactly.

I think they changed things around a few months ago- I had to register to see most of the board

OK well maybe I'll go through it tomorrow and update page 1 then.  Registering on Hotel 23 only takes a few seconds, though.  It's free, painless and there are no ads or other bullshit that you have to deal with.  It's also got some cool peeps and interesting conversation.  It's not your typical mall ninja shitfest that you run into on most zombie fan sites.

Well, if it is that easy it shows you just how smart I am. I thought I was registered a rather long time ago but when I do the "I forgot my password" thing it tells me my email address is not the one on file for my user name.

So, I have many times tried to re-register and...... In the process it asks for an authorization code (the one that says "whats the name of this hotel at the upper left of this page?") I type in HOTEL 23 or 23 or hotel 23 or Hotel 23 etc. and always get the message that the authorization code was wrong. Then it will eventially say I have exceeded the number of tries for this sesion. Try again later.  

Moveing on with life and weeks or even months later I'll give it another try, same thing. I guess I am just out of luck.

I PMd raptorman (the site admin).  Hopefully he'll be able to get you squared away.

Thank you. That is more than I could have ever asked for. I really dig that site.

man this is an excellent read.

Chapter 29

Once everyone was safe inside they turned to the three new arrivals.  Besides a few bruises Jess and Kevin seemed to be ok but Greg didn't look good at all.  He was bordering on unconciousness and was extremely pale.  Liz and another woman immediately went to work redressing his shoulder wound and checking him for any other serious injuries.  Everyone else made sure that the house was secure after Jess and Kevin assured them that they were fine.  Jim had already gone to great lengths to fortify everything.  It wasn't likely that any number of zombies were going to be able to scratch and claw their way in.  Unfrotunately, none of them could get out, either.

"So how the hell did you get away?" Steve asked his little brother and sister.  Everyone in the house immediately turned their attention to them.  They were all anxious to hear the story of their escape.  

Kevin did most of the talking.  The deputy and his men had shown up less than an hour after they'd all dropped Greg off and loaded the truck up with ammo.  They had heard trucks drive up and then men shouting orders.  When they looked outside they saw at least a dozen men with rifles trained on the house.  Then there was a loud bang at the front door and before they could react there were five men inside telling them to get on the ground.  They were tied up while another team of men cleared the rest of the house.  After they had the house secure they pulled a couple of moving vans out front and started to load everything up.  They also sent out a few trucks to try and find the rest of them.  That's when they got into the firefight.  After the firefight the deputy was furious so they were all thrown into a closet in Jess's bedroom.  What the deputy's men didn't know was that the closets in all of the bedrooms on the first floor had false floors that opened into the basement.  The men stayed busy for several hours.  They could also hear sporadic gunfire outside that seemed to get more and more intense as the night went on.  Finally they could hear the men in the house stop moving around so much so they slipped into the basement.  No one had bothered to check on them once.  Everything important had been removed from the basement so there was no one down there.  They snuck out the basement door and managed to make it into the barn.  The men outside were concentrating on the driveway that lead to the road so they made it without incident.  

Once they got there they had a good view of the activity on the ground from the loft.  There were at least a dozen men outside shooting zombies whenever they saw them.  It seemed like every time they killed one that two more would replace it.  It wasn't long before the men started moving inside and people from inside the house were shooting out the windows.  They saw two men run out and get into one of the moving vans and then dissapear down the driveway before the horde got too large to manage.  They had put up some impomptu barricades in the house but they didn't last long.  The monsters somehow got in and they could hear screams and gunfire from inside the house.  It didn't last long, though.  Soon it was quiet so they decided that all they could do was try to get some sleep.

They were woken up by more gunfire coming from the road.  That drew several of the zombies away from the house but there were a lot of them still stuck inside.  That's when they decided to make their escape.  The barn was where they kept their two ATVs which the men never bothered to load up.  Greg was getting worse all the time but he could still hang on to one of them.  They took back trails to get away from the house but eventually they had to hit the road.  Avoiding zombies on the ATVs was pretty easy until they came up to a large horde in the middle of the road.  They barely managed to get around them but when they did the entire horde was after them.  Jim's was the only house nearby where they knew to go if they were in trouble.  

By the time Kevin finished telling them the story Jess was crying.  "I'm so sorry that we lured them all here," she sobbed.  "We should've just let em get us."

"Don't you talk like that," Liz snapped.  She was already furious after hearing about what happened to her home.  "We're fine in here until we can figure out how to clear them things out."

"Yeah, don't worry about it sis," Cecil said as he hugged her.  "There can't be that many of em out there."

"How's Greg?" Eric asked Liz.  

"The wound was infected," she said.  "I cleaned him up, though.  He should be fine."

Eric nodded and made a mental note to have her show him some basic first aid the first chance she got.  "So what now?" he asked.  "How long can we stay here?"

"We'll go crazy before we run out of food or water," Jim said.  The moaning and banging from outside seemed to get louder for just a moment to accentuate his point.  "The food I've got in the basement should hold up for..." he paused to make some mental calculations, "...at least a month for all of us.  Longer if we stretch it out.  The backup batteries are hooked up to a solar charger and a wind turbine so we'll have plenty of power to run the well and then some."

The mention of food made them all realize that they hadn't really eaten in at least a day.  "Speaking of food," one of the women said.  

"Well I guess we aren't really going anywhere," Jim told them.  "I'll start working on something right away."  Then he got up, went into the kitchen and started going through his cupboards.  Eric got up to help him but everyone else started dozing off completely exhausted.

"I don't know how they can sleep with that noise outside," Eric said as he walked into the kitchen.

Jim paused for a second and smiled.  "If you get tired enough you can sleep through anything."

Eric just nodded his head and shrugged.  "So what's your story?" he asked him.

"Liz is my sister," he said as he started cutting some potatoes.  He handed Eric a knife and some onions to start cutting.  "This community's always been pretty tight and I guess me and Liz did a lot to hold it together.  We always knew that something would happen so we wanted to make sure that we knew our neighbors."

"So you always knew that the dead would rise and start to eat us all, huh?" Eric asked with a sarcastic tone.

Jim just chuckled.  "There were a million things that could've happened," he told him.  "I'll admit that this is the very last thing that I expected, though."  Eric couldn't think of anything that could have left the world like this but he left it alone.  "So what did you do before all this," Jim asked him.

Eric told him about his job as a chemical salesman in Denver.  He told him about how his mom and dad lived in New England and how he very rarely even talked to them.  Then he explained to him that he was at a friend's wedding and heading home before all of this happened.  There wasn't much to tell.  His life was pretty mundane before all of this happened.  "It sounds like you were pretty lucky to be here when all of this started," he said as he started browning the meat for the stew.  "I can't imagine how bad things are in Denver."

"Yeah," he agreed as he sat down at the table.  "I still can't believe that it's barely been a week.  How did things go to hell so fast?"

"Society was always just a few hot meals away from a meltdown," Jim told him as he dumped the rest of the ingredients into the stew pot and sat down next to him.  "A lot of people took it all for granted.  We had everything handed to us for so long that people forgot what it was like to take care of themselves.  A lot of things could've happened.  Some terrorists could've let off a few nukes in US cities.  Our money could've become worthless.  A comet could've hit the earth and killed off everything.  An earthquake could've split the US in half."

They just sat there quietly for a minute while Eric thought about what Jim had just said.  A lot of things could have happened but there's nothing that he could think of that would have prepared him for this.  Finally he felt Jim's hand on his shoulder.  "You look tired.  Dinner won't be ready for a couple of hours so why don't you go take a nap."

Eric nodded and quietly walked into the living room where he grabbed a blanket and laid down.  He was asleep almost immediately.  


Chapter 30

A hand shaking his shoulder woke Eric up immediately.  His hand was on his gun as he bolted upright.  It was just Amy.  "Dinner's ready," she told him.

He still felt groggy.  Glancing down at his watch he realized that he'd only been sleeping for a couple of hours.  A few people were still curled up on the floor but the ones that were awake were eating.  Whatever it was smelled wonderful so Eric got up to get some.  Jim had a bowl ready for him before he made it to the kitchen.  "So what's the plan?" Eric asked him before taking a bite of the stew.

"I've been on the radio trying to get a hold of some of the neighbors.  Most of the people at the meeting didn't go with us to Genoa and a few of them want to help us get out of here," Jim told him.

"How do they plan on doing that?" Eric asked him.

"It's not like they'd be that hard to deal with," Cecil, who had been sitting right next to them, interrupted.  "If we can hit em from a couple of different directions we can keep em confused and movin around."

Eric nodded.  "So when is the cavlary arriving?"

"We're still working out the details," Jim said.  "I wanted to make sure that everyone was fed and rested before we start planning anything."

"Well we're fed," Liz said walking into the conversation.  "If we've got a way to get the hell out of here then what are we waiting for?"

Now everyone in the house was listening.  All eyes were on Jim.  "Now just relax," he told everyone.  "We're gonna get out of here but we've got to be patient.  We still need to work out some details.  I'm just gonna go downstairs and get started on the plans.  The rest of you should try and get some sleep."

"What about you?" Eric asked him.  "How long has it been since you've slept?"

"I'm fine," Jim assured him.  The dark circles that were starting to form under his eyes betrayed him but Eric decided not to argue.  He was too tired himself.  With that he got up and started downstairs.  Cecil followed him.  "Everyone try to get some more sleep," he said before dissapearing down the stairway."  Shortly after that they had a guard shift set up and, despite the muffled noise of the monsters outside, everyone got some more much needed rest.

***

The night was uneventful.  After talking with some of the neighbors and getting the start of a plan mapped out Cecil and Jim joined the others sleeping.  There were two families that intended to help them.  Some members had been at Jim's meeting but they decided not to go along on the scouting mission to Genoa.  One of them was a family of four with two teenage boys.  The father, Jack, had wanted to go but his wife convinced him that it was too dangerous.  With over a dozen people that he knew personally trapped in a house not far away she wasn't going to convince him not to help this time.  His boys, 14 and 16, had already proven their worth by taking dozens of zeds that had appeared on their land.  The other family was an elderly couple.  Glenn was an engineer and a custom gunsmith.  Even at 85 he could still outshoot anyone on a good day.  His wife, who's health was failing, was the main reason that he didn't go with them.  Jack and his boys were going to spend the morning scouting out the area to find out how many zombies were around the house.  Glenn would be with them.  They hoped that they'd be able to take out as many of them as possible and draw enough of them away so that everyone inside could get out.  The last thought that Jim had before falling asleep was how good it would feel to get back at the monsters that had made him a prisoner in his own home.

***

The next morning everyone woke up fairly well rested.  Jim was already awake and had been on the radio.  Jack and Glenn managed to get a few more people to agree to help them.  By now they were already in place scouting out the area.  Jim was in contact with them via a walkie talkie.  He was upstairs so that everyone could listen in on the conversation.  

"There's a lot of them," came a voice over the small hand held radio.

"Do you have an estimate?" Jim asked them.

"At least a hundred just around the house," Jack said.  "There are a lot more wondering around the area, though."  He and his son had walked to their position at the top of a hill so that they'd have a good view of the house and the surrounding area.  The occasional pop from where they'd left the truck told them that Glenn was probably busy taking long range shots.  None of them had gotten very close yet.  The noise was starting to attract them, though.  "We could spend all day out here shooting them and we would probably just attract more than we put down."

"All you need to do is draw them away," Jim told him.  "If we can get to the trucks then we should be fine."

"We'll see what we can do," came the response.  

"What now?" Kevin asked.  

"We wait," Jim said.  A few seconds later they heard the first far off crack of a rifle.  That was soon joined by more gunfire.  Before long they could hear it getting farther and farther away.  

"The ones around the house don't seem to be too interested in us," came Jack's voice over the radio.  "We've got a bunch of them following us now, though."

"I wish we could see outside," Cecil growled.  Then an idea came to him.  "Do you have a ladder in here Jim?"

"Yeah it's downstairs," he said.

"Let's get it," Cecil said as he headed for the basement door.  Jim and Cecil hurried downstairs followed by Steve.  Within just a minute they were back up with the ladder.  Cecil and Steve started setting it up in the kitchen.  "We can get on the roof through the sunroof," he told them.

Jim stopped them.  "That sunroof doesn't open up," he said.  "If it rains then we'll be flooded out of this place."  

"We can seal it back up if we have to," Steve insisted.  "This might be our best chance to get out of here.  We've got to help them."

Jim nodded and let go of Cecil's arm.  "You're right," he said.  

In no time they climbed the ladder and were through the sunroof onto the roof.  "Ho...ly....shit," they all heard Cecil say.  

"Get us a couple of guns," Steve yelled down through the hole in the roof.  Two AR-15s and a pair of fully loaded vests were quickly passed up to them.  Then they dissapeared from view and started shooting.  

Soon Eric, Jim and a few others joined them on the roof.  The site before them shocked them all into silence.  None of them expected to see so many of the zombies pressing up against the walls of the house.  "There has to be a few hundred of them," Eric quietly realized out loud.  He had to raise his voice to be heard over the incessant moaning of the mob of monsters.  The house was obviously well insulated to keep out so much of the noise.  

Jim slowly raised his radio and spoke into it.  "How are things going on your end?"

"We've got a lot of them after us now," came the voice on the other end.  "It looks like they're coming from all directions now, though."  They could hear the gunshots in the background.  Whether they were too far away to hear or the shots just weren't loud enough to hear over the moaning no one was sure.  If they couldn't hear the gunshots then neither could the zombies, though.  It was no wonder that the ones closest to the house didn't even notice that they were being shot at.

"Just try to keep em occupied," Jim responded into the radio.  "We're gonna start to clear out the ones closest to the house here."  Then he clipped the radio to his belt and ordered more guns to be passed up through the sunroof.  Soon there were ten shooters on the roof.  It was fairly flat so it was easy to accomodate them.  "Start at the back and work your way to the front," Jim told everyone.  

The mob at the base of the house didn't last long.  Unfortunately the gunshots only served to attract more of them.  More shambling corpses were coming from all directions.  "They just keep coming," Eric almost whispered, the hopelessness apparant in his voice.  

Chapter 31

As Eric continued to watch the carnage below he suddenly realized something.  They were starting to climb over the fallen bodies and on top of each other to try to get to the roof.  Everyone else was concentrating so hard on their targets that they didn't even notice.  "Cease fire!" he yelled.  "They're starting to climb over each other to get up here."  

Everyone else quickly stopped shooting when they realized that he was right.  The zombies still had a long way to go but if they kept piling up more corpses for them then they'd have easy access eventually.  They finally decided to get back in the house and try to come up with another plan.  

Once they got down Steve asked the question that was on everyone's mind.  "How in the hell are we gonna get out of here?"  

"Maybe we should just stay here, dude," Jon said.  "At least they can't get in here."

Steve gave him a dangerous look but Jim stepped in before he could say anything.  "I've got enough food in here to last us all at least a couple of months if it's necessary," he said.  "Before we do anything else we need to wait till we hear back from Jack or Glenn.  For now all we can do is sit tight."

Eric thought about mentioning the trick that they'd used to escape from the first house that they'd been trapped in.  He dismissed it almost immediately, though, when he realized how many more zombies were trying to get in this time.  Besides, he didn't want to start running again.  He thought about how lucky they'd been to make it here in the first place.  

Later that afternoon they heard from Jack over the radio.  Apparently they had all made it home with nothing more than a few stragglers to take care of.  They were safe and ready attempt another rescue.  The rest of the day was spent trying to come up with a new plan.  

A lot of ideas were thrown around.  Shooting their way out obviously wasn't going to work.  One person suggested burning them but the inherant risks with that plan were blatantly obvious.  Jon still supported the idea of sitting tight.  After all, how long could those things keep moving around on their own?  They had to drop eventually.  They might also just get bored.  It had already been over a week and no one had seen any sign of them slowing down too much, though.  It had been almost two days since they'd been trapped in the house and they had only seen more zombies coming.  None were leaving.  Steve suggested that they try to use explosives to blow them up or draw them away.  He was sure that he could improvise something with things around the house.  Everyone agreed that they'd save that idea as a last resort.  After hours of debate they finally decided to hunker down for a while.  

Liz had already started making a big batch of beans and rice.  They decided to set up a sleep schedule that rotated around the clock so that everyone could get a good night's sleep in a bed or cot.  The hole in the ceiling worried everyone so they improvised a trap door that allowed them to easily open it just in case they needed to get out on the roof.  It would keep at least some of the rain out if it rained at all.  Jim spent most of his time on the radio trying to keep updated on what was going on in the area.  

Before the zombies Jim had been very interested in amateur radio.  He had a good HAM setup that could broadcast for miles and pick up transmissions from even further away.  With law and order mostly gone a lot of radio operators had really ramped up their setups which made it even easier for everyone to stay in contact.  It also allowed people to get news from all over the country.  Several of the people in the immediate area had at least basic setups so everyone that was still alive and listening knew about the siege at Jim's house.  Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones with the problem.  

The people that had actually managed to survive in the cities couldn't even leave their homes.  A few isolated areas had managed to quarantine sections of street or even whole city blocks but those were few and far between and they were constantly dissapearing or becoming smaller and smaller.  Most of the more rural people were in better shape but even they weren't all safe.  Huge mobs of the monsters were reported moving around all over the countryside and as the cities fell the mob activity seemed to be increasing.  Where you saw one there were usually dozens or even hundreds of them not far away.  Noise seemed to attract them.  Once they sensed signs of life, though, they would relentlessly attack until they could feed on it.  Headshots stopped them, which they already knew.  Once they zeroed in on you the only chance you had was to kill the entire mob or outrun them and hope you don't run into any more of them.  

Jim stayed on the radio into the early hours of the morning.  Everyone that was awake listened intently right alongside him.  When he finally went to bed Liz took over his station.  He continued to think about how they could possibly get themselves out of there until he finally drifted off.  

Chapter 32

Eric woke up when Jim went to bed.  After eating soemthing he went and gathered around the radio with everyone else.  "Any word on the sheriff and his crew yet?" he asked Liz.

Liz shook her head.  "It's been pretty quiet since Jim went to sleep," she said.  "We might be too far to hear em, though, since all they've got are CBs and walkie talkies.  A guy in Kansas with a crop duster was talking about how he'd been flying around his area watching the zombies the last couple of days, though.  They definitely travel in packs and picking out the houses where they know people are inside is easy.  He's about the only one that's been talking."

"How's Greg?" he asked her.  

"He was awake earlier," she said.  "He'll be fine."

"Has anyone come up with a good idea on how to get out of here yet?"  he asked.  Liz just smirked at him, shook her head and went back to the radio.  

Steve, Jon and Kevin were all playing cards at a table in the corner of the room so Eric asked to be dealt in.  They were playing by led lamplight.  The deep freezer, the well pump and the radio were the only two things in the house that used electricity that they were allowed to turn on.  They only ran the freezer for a couple of hours a day.  If they didn't hear anything on the radio for more than five minutes they shut it off for thirty minutes.  With the generator outside in the shed all they had to rely on to charge the battery bank was the wind turbine and the solar panels.  So far it was working well but a few cloudy days could leave them without a radio or a freezer.  They had food, water, shelter and a means to contact the outside world.  The thought didn't comfort Eric much as he was dealt his hand.  

The basement had no windows so it stayed cool most of the time and they couldn't hear the beating, clawing and moaning from outside while they were down there.  That's also where the radio was set up.  That's where everyone spent most of their time.  

After losing a few hands he decided to go upstairs and see if it was getting light out yet.  With the sun quickly rising he got up on the roof to see if anything had changed with the horde outside.  There were only a few of them wandering around away from the house.  Unfortunately there were still a couple hundred of them surrounding the house trying to push and claw their way in.  Listening to the incessant moaning for only a few seconds was enough for Eric.  He was glad that the house was so well insulated because if it was this loud inside he'd quickly go insane.  He climbed back down and returned to the basement.

They were still playing cards down there.  Liz was sitting in a recliner reading a book so the radio was probably quiet.  He sat back down and was dealt in without saying a word.  "So what'd you do before?" Kevin asked Eric, breaking the silence.  

"I sold cleaning chemicals in Denver," he told them.  

"Were you married?" Steve asked.

"Nope," came the reply.  "I worked, trained martial arts, watched a lot of sports and tried to get up into the mountains whenever I could.  What about you?" he asked Steve.

"We all pretty much just worked on the farm with Mom," he said.  "Cecil was engaged but we haven't heard anything from her since all this shit started.  What about you, Jon?" he asked as he dealt out another hand.

Jon shrugged.  "I just did whatever, man.  I lived out of my car most of the time.  I had a few buds that would let me crash at their place whenever I wanted."

"What were you doing all the way out here?" Eric asked him.  

"Once a month I'd go to Kansas and pick up some product for a buddy of mine and take it back to Denver," he said nonchalantly.  

"What kind of product?" Kevin asked.  

"Don't worry about it," Liz interrupted.  "As long as he doesn't have any of that "product" in here."

"Oh man, I wish," he said.  "I got plenty of it out in the car, though," he grinned.

Liz just rolled her eyes.  "A lot of good that'll do us in here," she mumbled as she got up to check the radio again.

The rest of them kept on talking about their lives before while they played their game.  Eric just hoped that this would just be something else he could talk about in idle conversation someday.  This was not how he wanted it to end.

Yea...more more more

Thanks for another chapter.

Good job arty.  Keep up the good work.



Ron

saaaweeet

keep it up

Very good so far Artyboy, keep it up...

Please.

Artyboy way to go!

i want more, its a great story

Time for another chapter?

I love this story, can't wait for more.

Update coming this week?  

Originally Posted By gmill: Update coming this week?

maaaaaybe

we need more zombies on the interstate

It's been almost two months!  Don't keep your fans waiting!