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Posted: 7/28/2008 6:32:19 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WIDeerHunter]
The stockyard

To most the attack came at a good time.  While this might sound horrific, those survivors looking back realized that while their lives have been drastically altered and in many cases shattered, in some ways things improved.   The country had been going steadily downhill for many years.  The stock market was tanking along with the job and housing markets.  People were up to their ears in debt and health care costs were skyrocketing.  Children were growing up with only 1 parent and family life in general was deteriorating.  

Now people are living in very close nit communities and have a true sense of the term family.  Elderly are respected (although most admit there are not many elderly anyway).  Children have adults that they can look up to and from whom they can gain knowledge.  Mutual funds and savings accounts are still a thing of the past but have been replaced by communities that take care of fellow neighbors in times of sickness.  While modern medicine techniques such as heart transplants won’t be coming back anytime soon, healthier living and herbal remedies have made a lot of those things unnecessary.  Also, since a trip to the barn for eggs or the cellar for canned food has replaced the nightly trip to McDonald’s, obesity is nonexistent.  Now if there was only a way to prevent the dead from rising from the grave and eating people…..

Chapter 1

Like most guys that are passionate about hunting, Jim spent almost all of his internet time on hunting or gun related websites.  At dinner parties and backyard barbeques Jim would always find himself discussing the latest hunt or the last new toy.  Of course this topic would always turn towards guns.  While Jim kept to himself at work, there were a few coworkers he ate lunch with occasionally.  Jim made a point of not discussing too much about his personal life, especially his hobbies.  Unfortunately one day he let his excitement about an upcoming league get the better of him.

“Jim Connor, paging Jim Connor to the front desk”

Jim sighed and thought “what does the security guard want now?”
Putting down his water bottle, Jim headed to the desk and noticed his supervisor Debby was waiting there as well.  

“Crap, that’s not a good sign,” Jim mumbled as he walked up.  

“Jim, I think we have a problem,” said Debby.  “Someone on the team overheard that you have a shooting club after work on Tuesday nights.  Do you go to this club after work?”

“Of course but it’s not until 7 so I usually work late until after 6.  What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that firearms are not allowed on company premises.  I know you must have one of those things in your truck if that’s where you are headed.  Per company policy and the document you signed when you started we have the right to search your vehicle.”

“Over my dead body,” Jim let slip before he could catch himself.  “You have no right to search my property regardless of whatever forms you have.  Furthermore take a look at my file and you’ll notice that form is not included.  I would never sign a piece of garbage like that.”

“We well will be searching your vehicle as all employees are required to submit unless of course you would like to find a new job?”

“You’ll have to either fire me now or smash the glass out of the window because you aren’t getting my keys.”

“Fine, consider yourself terminated immediately.  We’ll send any personal belongings home in a box.  Guard, please take Jim’s ID badge and escort him off the premises.”

As he drove himself home, Jim thought “Great, how the hell am I going to explain this one to the wife???”  

Fortunately for Jim, his wife would quickly forget about the job loss.

Chapter 2

The next morning Jim woke early and went for his morning run.  During the run he thought about what a pain in the butt it would be to be interviewing again especially considering this was his third job in as many years.  “On the plus side I’ll be able to spend a couple weeks finishing up some projects and spending time with the family,” thought Jim as he climbed into the shower.  

After a quick shower and granola bar, Jim was ready to start the job search.  After firing up his piece of crap laptop, Jim realized the darn internet was down again.

“Crap, nice way to start the morning.  I guess I’ll just weed the garden one last time and cut the grass”

After sitting on the mower for half an hour, Jim saw his wife Becky holding his 2 yr old daughter Jenny and waving to him.  Jim thought maybe Becky had made an early lunch so he headed on in.  

“Jim, the cable’s out again.  Did you call the cable company yet?  I want to watch my soaps.”

Jim couldn’t imagine why anyone would watch that crap but responded, “Nope, but I’ll call now”

Jim’s cell phone got terrible reception indoors so he went on the back porch.  After still not getting any dial tone, Jim was surprised to hear the tornado sirens going off in town about 3 miles away.  Jim asked Becky if she had heard anything about bad weather and she hadn’t heard anything as it was still a bright blue sky.  Jim turned on the kitchen radio but just got the emergency broadcast beep on all stations.  As Becky started to ask a question the power went out.  Jim yelled, “Lock the back door and get to the basement, NOW,” as he rushed for his home defense shotgun.  Running down the stairs, Jim had a million thoughts rushing through his mind.  Was this just another tornado or wind storm but the sky was still bright blue?  Terrorist attack, foreign invasion, meteorite, or United Nations takeover?  Jim couldn’t help but wonder if he was just overly paranoid after reading all those crazy stories online.  

Unlocking the gun safe Jim handed his wife his Bushmaster AR15 and her 9mm pistol.  She gave him “the look” but the look on his face caused her to take them immediately.  Becky had this $150 Hi-Point 9mm that Jim had bought many years ago from a hardware store.  At the time, Jim didn’t know anything about handguns having grown up in a household that only had a couple rifles, shotguns, and a few boxes of shells for each.  Jim never really liked the cheap feel of the Hi-Point but after 3,000 rounds with only 1 fail to feed he could trust his life on it as well.  The Remington 870 HD with Knoxx stock, 2 shot extension, and Surefire light had hung up on more than that over the years.  Jim had the Remy filled with buckshot and had 4 slugs in the TacStar side saddle.  Both Jim and Becky were wearing jeans and t-shirts so handed Becky a belt holster and few extra mags for her pocket.  Jim put on his own holster with a 9mm Glock and slipped on his tactical vest which held 6 more 30 round mags for the AR and 2 extra mags for the Glock.  Jim didn’t really have a good way to hold more shotgun rounds besides a 6 round belt holder.  It seemed silly to carry around the 30 round AR mags when he wasn’t even carrying it.  Jim was kicking himself for not buying another vest for Becky and some sort of shotgun shell bandolier.  

Now that they were secured for the short term, Jim started arranging some of his supplies and gathered toys to keep Jenny occupied.  The basement was a full walkout so Jim closed most of the blinds and kept Becky and Jenny in the back storage room.  Jenny was getting fussy so Becky quickly started rummaging through some of the food boxes to make a quick lunch.  Jim had gotten a little worried about food supplies after hearing about the rice shortages and had spent $175 on the basics at Wal-Mart.  Jim was amazed at how much food could be purchase so inexpensively when you are buying basics and not pre-made meals.  The $175 filled 4 large Rubbermaid tubs and half the pantry!  Those tubs combined with 5 10 gallon filled water jugs and a Katadyn water filter did give Jim some piece of mind at least at the time.  After purchasing the house, Jim had a wood burner installed in the basement to not only heat the house but also provide a cooking surface as well.  

During lunch, Jim heard the occasional police siren which was surprising as they lived 2 miles from town.  The radio was mostly static with the occasional warning for people to stay in their homes.  For the rest of the afternoon, Jim and Becky stayed in the basement playing with Jenny and getting things arranged.  Jim would occasionally look over his preps and wonder what he had missed.  Jim also spent some time loading a few things into his truck in case they had to bug out quickly.  Becky of course just kept looking at the stack of ammo and began to realize what was in all of those 30 pound packages the UPS man had been bringing all of those years.  

All 3 were dozing around 4PM when they awoke with a start to the sound of a cell phone ringing.  Jim jumped up and quickly answered the phone.  It was his sister Catrina who lived in a trendy neighborhood on the south side of Milwaukee about a 35 minute drive to Jim’s place in the north suburbs.  She was frantically telling him she was on her way but didn’t think she would ever make it.  Traffic was backed up and there were accidents everywhere.  Jim tried calming her down but to no avail.  Catrina just kept yelling “They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere,” when the line went dead.  

Jim jumped up to drive down there when Becky yelled, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“I’m going to get my sister,” Jim yelled back.  

“If there is that much traffic you know you’ll never make it down there.  Plus you have no idea what is even going on.”

“But it’s my sister.”

“Do you even know where she is?”

“No, but…”

“No buts about it.  You aren’t going anywhere until you find out what’s going on out there.  I can’t believe you would get me all scared with your stupid stories and then try to leave.”

Jim knew he couldn’t win this argument so he just suggested they say a short prayer for his sister.  Hopefully his sister’s fiancé Drew was at least with her.  He was a scrawny guy and not very good looking but was at least dependable and treated her right.  Jim started planning everything he would need to bring if he actually had to go get her when he heard loud knocking from the front door.

“Hey Jim, did you hear the news,” asked Jim’s neighbor Don.  

“No, all we’ve been getting is static on the radio and with the power out my TV isn’t working.”

“I turned on my generator for half an hour earlier so we could run the well pump and flush the toilets.  The cable is out but there are a couple local stations broadcasting.  It’s nuts man.  In Milwaukee there are all sorts of rioting and fricking bodies lying in the street!”

For a moment Jim thought about how lucky Don was to be able to use a toilet but his mind quickly flashing to his sister stuck in traffic.

“So Don what’s going on down there.  Who’s killing who?  And why?”

“No clue but look there’s Dick driving by.  Let’s go ask him.”

Dick was Jim’s neighbor on the other side.  Dick was an old retiree who lived with his wife in an older but well maintained house.  

“Honey, I’m heading over to Dick’s to see if he knows anything.  I’ll be back in a few minutes” Jim asked?  

Becky quickly responded, “You get your butt back here in 5 or I’ll come over there after you!”

Jim quickly answered the usual, “yes dear,” as he headed out the door.

Jim and Don caught Dick as he was closing the garage door.  He eyed them suspiciously especially Jim’s full chest rig when Jim said, “Hey Dick, have you heard what’s going on?”

“I haven’t heard squat.  I took the misses to the doctor this afternoon and the place was a madhouse.  They wouldn’t even let us in and wouldn’t even let us reschedule.  Then some punk crawled out from between 2 cars and bit Cathy on the leg!  I pulled him off her and that little bastard bit my hand.  He must have been hopped up on something because it looked like his leg was broken and he kept crawling after us even after I kicked him in the face.  A nurse patched Cathy’s leg up and sent us home.  She’s starting to get a fever so I just went out to grab some medicine.”

“A kid bit you???  How old was he,” asked Don?

“How the hell should I know?  They all look like punk to me.  I wish I would have…”

A loud thump came from Dick’s back door.  

Don said out loud what everyone was thinking, “what the hell was that?”

“Darned if I know,” responded Don.  “I hope Cathy’s ok,” as he opened for the door.  

Before anyone could stop her, Cathy let out a horrible moan and bit a huge chunk out of Dick’s neck.  Don started screaming and Dick was just making a gurgling noise as the blood sprayed out of the gaping hole in his next.  Cathy didn’t let up and dragged him the ground.  After freezing for a second, Jim remembered the shotgun in his hands.  Jim quickly brought the gun up and fired quickly into the top of Cathy’s head as that was the only shot available.  The 00 buck found its mark and at 10 feet didn’t have a chance to spread out even from the 18” barrel.  Cathy’s head blew apart like a giant splitting wood.  Jim and Don both stood there in shock for what felt like an hour but was actually just a few seconds.  Dick was lying on the ground with the last of his blood slowing seeping out.  
Don finally broke the silence by yelling, “Holy shit.  That was totally fucked up.  We gotta get out of here and call the cops!”

“No shit, let’s go!”

As they started hurrying out of the garage they heard movement behind them.  Dick was rising to his feet and let out that same moan when he saw Jim and Don standing there.  

Jim and Don stood still in shock as Dick came towards them moaning.  Jim noticed that half of Dick’s neck was missing and quickly thought back the Dawn of the Dead movie he had watched several times.  Jim quickly brought the gun up and blasted.  The shot went slightly low and ended up severing Dick’s head almost entirely from his body.  As the nearly decapitated head moaned back at them, Jim pumped another round into the head silencing it for hopefully ever.  Jim looked over at Don and couldn’t help but laughing as the entire front of Don’s pants was soaked through with pee.  

Don finally just started yelling, “I can’t believe you shot them.  What the hell were you thinking?  He’s our neighbor.”

Jim surprised by the onslaught yelled back, “What was I supposed to do?  Let her kill him?  And did you see him when he got back up?  Half his dang neck was missing.  Nothing can survive that!”

Don silenced for a few seconds responded, “Man, it’s like one of those crazy horror flicks.  You really think they are what I think they are?”

Jim responded, “I’m a little embarrassed saying yes but then again I just killed my neighbors after his wife tried to eat him.”

“Well let’s go see if we can get a hold of the cops.”

As they turned back toward Jim’s house, Jim topped off his Remy with 3 more rounds of 00 buck from his belt holder.  He couldn’t help but thinking, “This is only going to get worse, much, much worse.”

Chapter 3

Catrina’s morning had started out much worse than Jim’s.  While Jim so far had only dealt with 2 zombies (as they were now calling them), Catrina liked to wake up very early and go for a 3-5 mile job.  It was during her jog that she encountered the first few problems.  Just as she was making the turn to return home, Catrina passed a trendy condo complex near Lake Michigan that was favored by many wealthier professionals such as doctors and lawyers.  It was there that she witnessed her first gruesome attack of the morning.  A BMW convertible was just pulling out of the garage with the top down when a man in scrubs jumped from the bushes, dove into the open top, and started biting the driver.  The driver immediately freaked out and floored the accelerator almost running Catrina over.  Catrina dove out of the way and ended up in the same bushed from which the zombie attacked.  This actually saved her life because as she lay in the bushes collecting herself, she quickly witnesses another scrub clad individual race towards the now stopped BMW and being tearing at the driver.  By now the drivers screams had faded and all Catrina heard was the tearing of flesh and the splintering of bones.  She stifled several sobs and slowly moved farther into the bushes.  

The still running car drew the attention of another neighbor getting his morning paper.  As Catrina sat frozen in the bushes, the scrubbed clad individuals rose from the BMW and made their way to the new target.  Upon seeing 2 people covered in blood with bits of flesh dripping from their lips, the neighbor immediately ran towards his front door.  Not even trusting his neighbors enough to leave the front door unlocked during the 50 foot walk to the newspaper box, he was fumbling for his keys when the attackers reached him.  As the first attacker tore into his back, he managed to get the door open allowing both attackers entry to his condo.  Catrina slowly crept out of the bushes and started running towards home.  The screams of the man and now his wife could be heard behind her.  Catrina realized that while the attackers were mobile, they couldn’t run at a pace faster than a job.  This knowledge would allow her to live at least through the morning.  

During the quick run back towards her condo, Catrina saw the same scene played out several other times.  People leaving for work getting pulled down and attacked or disoriented people walking in random patterns moaning loudly.  Several times people came after Catrina but she quickly put her months of marathon training to work and pulled away from them.  Arriving back at her apartment, Catrina rushed to wake up her fiancé Drew.  Drew spent several minutes trying to calm his frantic fiancé when their Rotweiller appropriately named Wolverine started to whine loudly.  Catrina’s eyes grew wide with fear as bloody hands appeared on their first floor windows.  Drew rushed to the window when Catrina started screaming “Stay Away!”  Drew pulled Catrina close and tried to get her to calm down.  After a few minutes Catrina settled down and told Drew about her morning run.  Drew not really believing her, stood on a chair and looked down onto the street.  Now that the sun was coming up, Drew looked in amazement at the groups of people rushing down the street attacking anyone in their path.  Several groups noticed Drew in the window and rushed over trying to reach him through the glass.  Fortunately the windows were 6 feet off the ground and the attackers didn’t seem to be coordinated enough to climb.  Drew would remember that piece of information over the next few weeks.

Not really knowing what to do next, Catrina and Drew hunkered down in their living room and tried to get some information from the news.  The power failed around 9AM and the batteries for the radio were all dead.  Even the cells phones just kept repeating the all lines are busy message.  They weren’t really the types to have a lot of extra food on hand and only figured they had about 4 days of food.  Unfortunately without any sort of stored water they wouldn’t last more than a day there.  Throughout the morning they tried to figure out different options.  Catrina still refused to believe they were actual zombies although Drew was leaning that way the more he looked outside.  By noon the situation wasn’t getting any better outside so they came up with a plan.  There was a fire exit on the same side of the building as Drew’s pickup truck was parked.  Unfortunately there were also about 15 attackers on that side.  Drew always meant to buy some sort of firearm but other expenses always seemed to get in the way.  Now that meant that they would have to distract the zombies in order to get out that way.  The front door was crawling with zombies and several were trapped in the front entryway so Drew had to lower himself to the ground from one of the first floor windows.  Quickly running to the zombies by the fire exit he started screaming and yelling to get their attention.  While that worked better than expected as he now had over 50 zombies quickly surrounding him, Catrina was able to slip out the exit with Wolverine and get to the truck.  As she fired up the truck and pulled away from the building, more zombies came from around the other side of the building.  Several crunched beneath her tires as she plowed through the crowd trying to reach a running Drew who was 1 block ahead.  Drew barely heard the truck’s engine over the load moaning but somehow managed to swing himself into the back of the truck as Catrina drove by him.  After a few blocks, the zombies got distracted and Drew and Catrina found themselves on the path to Jim’s house.  
Living on the south side of Milwaukee meant they would either have to drive 20 miles west out of their way to get around the city or try to make their way through Milwaukee hugging the coast of Lake Michigan.  Only having a quarter tank of gas helped Drew and Catrina make the decision to follow Lakeshore drive to the northside of the city.  The trip north was shocking to say the least.  Large downtown buildings were on fire and smoke was starting to obscure the skyline.  There were a few wrecks along with way but Drew was able to get around them by driving on the curb.  For a minute Drew checked his rear view mirror to see if any cops were around but found himself laughing at that thought.  Several times one of the attackers tried confronting the vehicle but Drew was able to avoid the worst of the groups.  Drew was just reaching the outside of the city limits and Catrina had finally gotten a cell phone signal when the mob surrounded them.  As Catrina screamed at Jim on the phone, Drew was flooring the truck through what seemed like hundreds of zombies.  Catrina could see the blood stained doors of a middle school flapping in the breeze as Drew jumped the curb to avoid yet another group of wrecked cars.  The pickup fishtailed violently and slammed sideways into a large oak pinned several zombies between the truck and the tree.  Catrina’s window shattered and her face was covered with shards.  Drew jammed the truck into 4WD and had rooster tails coming off all 4 tires as he plowed through the slick grass.  Body after body was flown into the windshield as Drew continued to mow his way through the zombies.  Realizing his truck couldn’t take much more of this even with a strong brush guard, Drew ducked down a side street that was mostly clear of the attackers.  After a few miles, they were far enough out in the suburbs to pull over and take a deep breath.  As Drew helped clean the glass from Catrina’s face, they both spotted the small bite mark rapidly turning purplish green on Catrina’s arm.  

Chapter 4

Jim, Becky, and Jenny had just finished dinner when they heard the screech of metal on concrete coming from the driveway along with the hiss of hot steam.  Jim grabbed his 870 and instructed Becky to stay in the house.  As he slowly made his way around the garage, Jim’s stomach dropped.  Drew’s pickup was sitting sideways in the driveway, covered in blood and chunks of flesh.  Not a single piece of glass was intact and the truck was driving on the rims on the passenger side.  By this time Becky came running out of the house and grabbed Drew as he collapsed out of he driver’s side door.  Jim quickly pushed her away and let Drew fall to the ground worried that Drew might have gotten bitten.  When Jim looked to the passenger seat, all of his fears came to light.  Catrina sat belted into the passenger seat with a rag tied around her head covering her mouth.  Her eyes were vacant and she snapped snarling at Jim.  Wolverine was still crouched on the front seat growling at his former master.  Jim jumped back and quickly covered Drew with his 870.  Drew slowly looked up and just said, “I couldn’t do it.  You’ll have to.”  Jim instantly knew what this meant and felt the color drain from his face and felt tears forming already.  Becky started screaming and Drew just stared at the ground.  Jim drew his Glock without thinking about it further and put 2 rounds into her head forever silencing his favorite sister.  Jim shook Drew from his trance and did a quick search for any bites.  Knowing the sound could attract more zombies, Jim led Drew and Becky into the house.  Becky hugged Drew and comforted him.  Wolverine refused to leave Catrina’s side and remained howling at they walked away.  All 3 of them shared tears as Jenny played with her blocks in the living room totally unaware of how much her life would be changed by today’s occurrences.  

As Drew reviewed the events over the past few hours, Jim was busying boarding up the exposed basement windows and glass patio doors with some left over plywood.  Drew commented on the apparent lack of strength and dexterity from the zombies they had encountered earlier after Jim voiced his concerns over the thin particle board.  A whining noise could be heard from the front door so Becky ran up to open it.  Jim, remembering what had happened at the neighbors bolted upstairs as well.  Just as the door opened, Jim spotted 2 hulking shapes making their way to the front door.  Running quickly he pushed Becky out of the way and double tapped each of them in the chest with his Glock.  The first one, a mid sized male accountant type, dropped to the group from an apparent spine shot.  The second zombie increase its pace closing the distance in seconds.  As it reached out to grasp Jim’s arms, a flash of black named Wolverine appeared, flying towards the zombie.  Wolverine seized the zombie by the throat and dragged it to the ground.  Jim tried to pull the snarling Rotweiler from the zombie but was unable.  Jim did notice that creature was not fighting back with Wolverine but was still trying to grasp for Jim.  Jim moved around the zombie and was finally able to put a round in its head without hitting Wolverine.  Feeling the zombie go limp, Wolverine loosened her grip.  Jim, still hearing moaning, looked at the zombie laying on the ground.  The bullet had entered just below the neck which was high enough to disable the arms and legs but high enough to hit the brain.  Jim couldn’t believe those movies had been right about the brain thing.  Jim thought about leaving the beast on the ground to see how long it would last but was worried about getting his foot bitten while getting wood from the woodpile behind the zombie.  Plus he didn’t want Wolverine eating it so he placed the Glock over the right eyeball and pulled the trigger sending 124 grains of Federal Hydroshock into the zombie’s brain.  Wolverine!!!!  
“Crap,” Jim yelled.  
Would she get infected from chewing on it?  Would she become some sort of zombie bog?  Would she
“Jim!!!!!!” Becky screamed from the doorway causing Jim to notice that several more were heading down the sidewalk.  He grabbed Wolverine by the collar as she took off after them.  She fought him all the way into the house as he slammed the door shut.  The pounding on the door quickly replaced the sound of his heart beating.  Too much was going at once as his mind raced for solutions.  Jim yelled at Becky to be quiet, locked Wolverine in the spare bedroom, and ran to the back door.  Peeking through the side window, Jim didn’t see any zombies in the back.  Jim grabbed his AR from a now silent but scared Becky and ran out the door.  Looking around the corner of the house, Jim saw it was now 4 not 2 of them.  Aiming at the closest zombie, Jim slowly squeezed the trigger.  The shot surprised him and he was reminded of the aftermarket trigger he installed.  The zombie dropped but the remaining 3 had a new target.  They started shuffling towards Jim and were quickly covered the 50 feet between them.  Jim fired off 5 more shots dropping 2 of them before the 4th zombie was in his face.  Jim shoved the barrel in the creature’s mouth and pulled the trigger splattering blood over the side of the house.  Shooting at those things on the move was nothing like shooting at a running deer.  They swayed and stumbled back and forth liked a drunken ship.  Thankful there were only 4 this time, Jim made his way back into the house.  
No sooner than he got back in the house, but more shapes were walking by the front windows.  Jim handed Becky her AR and told her to shoot anything that made it into the house.  Jim ran downstairs and shook Drew out of his trance.  

Drew simply said, “Let me die, my love is gone.”

Dropping to his knee Jim said, “Listen, she was my sister as well.  I don’t want to lose anyone else I love today but I really need your help.  Those things are multiplying faster than I can shoot them and I need another gun around here.  Take my AK and watch the backside.  I’ve got to figure out how to get rid of them.”
Drew didn’t say anything but took the AK.  

Jim said, “There’s a 30 rounder already in it and she’s locked and loaded.  The safety is off.  Don’t forget to aim for the head.”

Jim ran upstairs with Drew following behind.  The exposed basement was secured, but there was still the 2 front windows, 1 side window, and the laundry room window that were at ground level.  Jim couldn’t help but bitch he had spent an extra $2400 on additional windows for the house!

They zombies couldn’t really tell exactly where the shots had come from so they remained near the sidewalk looking in Jim’s direction.  Jim ran to the garage and grabbed the last few pieces of plywood.  Jim was able to get the last 2 screwed over the side and laundry room window as no zombies were currently on that side of the house.  The front windows would be a problem.  Jim realized the zombies would quickly notice his movement and head towards the house.  Jim had some 2x4’s leftover from the basement remodeling so he dragged them and some long screws to the bedroom.  Crouching down, Jim started 2 screws in each 2x4.  Jim then had Becky come in and keep an eye on the guests in the front yard.  Popping up with the 1st 2x4, Jim quickly screwed it in place over the bottom half of the window.  The zombies noticed his movement and started towards the window moaning loudly.  Jim got 1 screw in each side of the 2x4 when he heard 2 gut wrenching sounds.  First the sound of breaking glass inches from his face and second the slow whine of a screw as the drill battery gave out.  
“Damn rechargeables” Jim yelled as Becky fired at the first zombie.  Jim joined the fray by bringing his Glock to bear quickly displacing the first head that appeared between the 2x4’s.  Drew hearing the commotion, showed up with a hammer and some long nails to pound the 3rd 2x4 into the window.  Jim and Becky took turns blasting zombies driving them back so Drew could be the board in.  Once finished they backed up noticed hands blindly grabbing through the gaps and loud moans outside.  What they didn’t notice was the crowd being attracted by the moans.  

With the front 2 windows blocked and no windows in the garage door, they were unable to see the mob of zombies gathering at the front of the house.  The zombies couldn’t see them in the house any longer but the moans were attracting other zombies in the area.  As the sound got louder and louder, Jim started to get really worried.  The 2x4’s were appearing to hold but Jim couldn’t imagine that a few zombies could be that loud.  Drew suggested they sneak around the house for a look but Jim wasn’t comfortable with that idea.  If there were any more than 4, he could become overwhelmed fairly easily.  Jenny then started crying in the living room which broke Jim’s train of thought.  Becky shut the door to the bedroom and they headed to the living room.  Drew made a comment about at least having a roof over their heads.  Jim slapped his head and said, “The roof!  We could go out onto the roof and shoot them from there.  That way they wouldn’t be able to reach us.”  
“Great idea,” replied Drew.

“What if you fall off?” said Becky.

“Well it’s a pretty flat roof so that shouldn’t be a problem.  Plus how many could there be?” said Jim.  

Jim gave Becky his shotgun and took the AR to the roof access port in the closet.  Jim climbed into the attic and slowly made his was over the rafters towards the decorative vent fixture installed over the garage.  Jim peered out the vents and almost dropped the AR in the insulation.  There had to be over 50 of them all trying to scratch and claw their way into the house.  Jim made his was back over to the hatch and discussed the situation with Drew and Becky.  Drew didn’t the 2x4’s would hold and Becky was worried about them pushing in the front door with that many fists.  Jim told Drew to get some more nails in the 2x4’s and get him his chainsaw.  Becky was to start bringing food, water, and ammo into the closet near the access port.  Once back in the attic, Jim used the chainsaw to cut out the vent fixture to open up a shooting window.  Jim momentarily thought about what a 3x3 hole in the siding would do to his resale value.  Hearing the sound of the saw brought a fresh round of moaning.  The chunk fell out and landed on several of them but they quickly rose back up.  Jim slung the rifle out the hole and started blasting.  Like moths to a flame, they were quickly drawn to the sound of the rifle.  Not knowing any better they remained under Jim as he blasted zombie after zombie.  Jim burned through 3 30 round magazines before their numbers started to slacken.  He did notice that none were trying to get into the front window anymore.  Jim saw a few more approaching from the distance so he took his time to finish the rest.  The pile of bodies was getting pretty large by now and they were climbing over the dead trying to reach Jim.  Jim did make sure to only shoot them either in the front yard or in front of the main garage door as he wanted to make sure he could get his truck out in a pinch.  By now Jim had fired over 150 rounds and dispatched probably just over 100 of them.  A few were still several blocks away when Jim climbed back into the house.  

Becky and Drew had a pile of supplies at the foot of the ladder so Jim and Drew spent some time hauling things into the attic.  The last few small scraps of plywood helped them avoid falling through the ceiling but after hauling up 10 gallons of water, a few days of food, the campstove, a gallon of gas Jim quickly realized there was no way they could stay up there with a baby and a dog.  

“Crap, the dog,” Jim yelled.  

Drew looked at Jim in shock and starting running for the bedroom door.  Before Jim could stop him, Drew threw open the door.  Wolverine jumped through the door opening throwing Drew back and pinning him to the ground.  Jim was just about to put 2 rounds into her head when he noticed the slurping sounds from Drew getting his faced licked clean.  Jim voiced his concern that is might take longer for the effects to set in so Drew suggested they put her in the dog crate in the garage.  Jim thought that was a good idea and discussed his plan of creating a fall back area in the garage.  The garage door seemed to be holding and the interior door was steel.  Drew agreed so they started hauling everything they could into the garage.  

Half an hour later, Jim and Drew looked back at their progress.  All of Jim’s guns and ammo, non perishable food and about 20 gallons of water were stacked in the truck.  They also had Jim’s bins of Y2K stuff, clothes for everyone, toiletries, campstove, propane grill, water filters, and several air mattresses.  Besides a few trips inside for things she thought the guys would forget, Becky stayed in the garage with Jenny and Wolverine.  

Jim and Drew were making a quick run through the house when Jim heard screaming from next door.  He ran to the window and saw that the group of zombies that was reforming at his house had moved next door.  The front window was shattered and zombies were pouring into the house.  Don’s wife didn’t allow guns in the house so Jim didn’t hear any shots being fired.  Drew and Jim opened 2 living rooms windows and tried shooting at the zombies outside in order to lure them away from the house.  Several made their way over to Jim’s house but couldn’t figure out how to climb up to them as the living room windows were 15 feet off the ground due to the house being built on a hillside.  Suddenly Jim saw a chair fly through his neighbor’s 2nd floor window.  Don’s wife was climbing onto the roof ledge.  Don was just starting to climb out as well when he was suddenly pulled back into the room.  Jim could hear Don’s screams and then only the loud moaning.  Don’s wife was screaming his name when several zombies appeared at the window.  The zombies were climbing out the window onto the roof.  Several lost their footing and tumbled to the ground.  Jim noticed some of them were wriggling on the ground unable to rise.  Drew said he wished they would have fallen on their heads.  By now Don’s wife was moving to the far side of the roof.  While most of the zombies were falling off the roof, a good number of them were making their way towards her.  Jim and Drew opened fire at them and were able to knock several of them off the roof.  While a bullet to brain appeared to be the only way to kill them, a spine shot or leg shot would at least knock them down.  Drew’s only experience with guns was a 30/30 he used for deer hunting and Jim’s single shot 10 gauge turkey gun so he quickly burned through the AK’s 30 round mag without much success.  Jim was only doing slightly better as he realized just how hard it was to hit a moving watermelon at 75 yards.  Don’s wife was out of roof when the first zombie grabbed her arm.  Jim felt his heart skip when he saw the blood spray out from the second zombie tearing into her neck.  She fell backwards screaming off roof to the ground with 4 zombies tumbling with her.  Several more walked off the roof without hesitation after her.  Jim watched in horror as those zombies already on the ground started feasting on her body.  The sounds of bones breaking caused both Jim and Drew to cease firing.  

Drew went to check the front bedroom window and covered windows in the exposed basement.  Jim switched over to his Ruger 10/22 and settled into a comfortable position.  He had installed a $40 Bushnell scope the past summer and it was a real tack driver.  With the 30 round magazines and a brick of ammo at his feet, Jim started his payback.  First he shot the zombies under his window and then started on the zombies coming out of his former neighbor’s house.  The zombies around Don’s wife were fighting each other for a spot to eat and it took Jim a few extra rounds to connect with all of them.  The little pop of the 22 rifle still drew the zombies in the area.  By the time Drew reported back, Jim was just finishing his 3rd magazine and had over 50 bodies already on the ground.  Jim mentioned to Drew that sometimes the little round must sometimes just skim along the skull as some head shots weren’t dropping them.  Jim had Drew check to see what else they could use to reinforce the front windows while he reloaded his magazines from the brick of ammo.  

After a few minutes Jim noticed there were now around 10 of them stumbling around the yard so he dispatched them.  Becky came out with Jenny and they all discussed what to do next.  Drew said he was up for anything besides taking a drive which brought a small laugh to the group.  He quickly remembered what was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck and his smile faded.  Becky offered to make some food for Drew as he hadn’t eaten in hours.  The sun was beginning to set and Jim discussed their options for the night.  They wouldn’t be able to shoot anything out of flashlight range and wouldn’t be able to see if any big groups were heading their way.  Jim did have a tritium front site on the AR and AK, Meprolight night sites on his Glock, and HS night site system on the shotgun but he was still worried about being overrun by an unseen enemy.  Jim also mentioned to the group his concerns about continually shooting the zombies.  It appeared that for every 1 he shot, 2 more would take its place.  This wasn’t a problem now as Jim had around 15k rounds for the .22 but he was worried about the smell from the rotting bodies.  Becky and Drew agreed those were valid concerns but they too didn’t have a good solution.  Burial was out of the question with how many were out there.  Drew suggested they stack the bodies in the neighbor’s house and burn the house.  While Jim liked that idea, Becky didn’t want them going outside.  Yawning, Jim said they should all think about it and decide in the morning.  They all moved into the garage for the night.  Drew wasn’t tired yet so he took the first watch.  It didn’t take long for Jim and Becky to quickly fall asleep with Jenny snuggled between them.  

Jim woke to someone shaking his shoulder.  The garage didn’t have any windows so it took a moment for Jim to realize where he was.  The thought about how it all was a dream quickly faded with Drew whispering in his ear, “I think we have a problem?”

“What?”

“They are right outside.”

“Who?”

“Them.  The zombies.”

“More of them than before?”

“I think a lot more, let me know you.”

Drew took Jim quietly through the garage door and into the house.  In the dim moonlight Jim could see movement all over the yard.  

“Where did they all come from?”

“I don’t know.  They’ve been slowly appearing over the past few hours.  Maybe they heard the shots?”

Jim thought that must be the reason and voiced his agreement.  

“So what do we do?” asked Drew?

“I don’t know but whatever you do don’t make any noise or let them see you.”

Jim and Drew slowly made their way back into the garage.  Jim was careful not to let the door lock click behind him.  Jim told Drew they would just have to shoot them in the morning and Drew should be some sleep.  Jim spent the rest of the night laying on the living room floor watching the zombies in the yard stumble around.  

Jim awoke to the sound of Jenny crying.  He shot up about the same time a roar of moans echoed through the neighborhood.  The pounded on the garage door was the next sound that reached his ears.  Jim threw open the window and shot the first couple zombies below him.  Taking in the scene, Jim’s stomach did a flip flop.  The number of zombies had grown exponentially over the course of the night.  There had to be over 200 of them rushing towards the sound of the shots.  Jim still couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t seen any of his neighbors besides the ones next door and where these things were coming from.  Jim’s house was near the back of the subdivision with a swamp in his back yard and woods surrounding most of the back part of the subdivision.  There was a huge subdivision across the street from his which marked the start of the village but Jim just couldn’t imagine everyone had make their way to his yard.  His subdivision which was technically in the township had 80 homes but even the whole village was only 3000 people.  Drew ran up besides him, breaking his thoughts.  Drew had the AK with an ammo can of 6 30 round magazines.  Jim still had the .22 so both of them started laying down fire to not only draw the zombies away from the garage and the front of the house but also to limit their numbers.  The pile of bodies was quickly growing as even Drew couldn’t miss a watermelon 15 feet below them.  As Jim discarded his 2nd magazine he noticed another problem.  The pile of bodies was now over 5 feet tall.  Zombies were crawling over their fellow dead to reach the 2 shooters above them.  The based of the window was only 15 feet off the ground so Jim started to worry about the dead being able to climb the pile and reach them.  Jim told Drew to stop firing and they both moved the deck off the back of the house.  Jim didn’t like being in the open like this but didn’t see much of a choice.  Both of them continued for fire for what seemed like hours but in reality was only about 15 minutes.  Thankfully none of the zombies figured out how to push in the plywood on the basement windows.  Becky had brought Jim his last 3 .22 mags which he used to finish any stragglers.  Drew was empty so he went into the garage to grab another ammo can.  The .22 was a newer purchase so Jim only had 6 mags for it.  Jim was always afraid of another ban so he always made sure to buy 30 – 30 round mags for his rifles and 20 – high caps for both of his Glocks.  Unfortunately Jim just hadn’t had the funds yet to finish stocking up on the .22 mags.  Drew took over watch on the deck while Jim loaded up the .22 mags.  

Becky was able to calm Jenny and start on breakfast.  Jim gave Drew the .22 and went inside to police the .223 brass scattered about the house.  He also swept up the .22 and 7.62 steel cases into a bucket.  No sense in falling down in the middle of a gunfight, thought Jim.  Jim climbed into the attic to survey the front yard.  The brass he shot from up there was buried in the insulation which was a loss.  Jim had single stage RCBS reloading press and could reload his 30-06, .223, and .300.  Jim had several thousand primers and lots of powder but only around 500 .30 cal bullets and 1000 varmint bullets for the AR.   Jim also had a Mec Jr 12 gauge shotgun shell reloader and the components for around 1500 rounds.  Jim wondered if the birdshot could penetrate the brain?  Jim had purchased both of his reloading setups fairly cheap just to see if he liked reloading and wasn’t setup for high volume.  Based on how much ammo they were burning through, Jim was already worried about running out.  Jim wasn’t as much of an ammo whore like some of the AR guys but did have a sizeable stash now sitting in the back of his truck.  He figured he had just over 2k loaded rounds left for the AR, 1800 rounds for the AK, around 15,000 .22 rounds, 200 slugs, 200 buckshot, and 500 assorted rounds for his other hunting rifles.  Jim had easily 3 months food for the 4 of them as Becky didn’t so much mind Jim spending money on food.  Guns and ammo just didn’t make it very high on her former priority lists for the family.  

Switching gears, Jim thought more about how many zombies they were seeing and the lack of neighbors.  Most of his neighbors would have been at work or school about the time things really started to spiral out of control.  If they had anything like the trip Drew had, they probably didn’t make it back.  Perhaps some of them went into town to check on things or to stock up on food once the power went down and didn’t make it back?  Most of the people seemed to be the yuppie types with their foreign compact SUV’s or Toyota compact cars so it’s also possible they are stuck indoors without any sort of firearms?  Now if any of them did have guns and sat by watching while Don’s house was overrun and Jim’s house almost overrun, Jim would be more than just a little upset.  Jim spent some time contemplating this hearing only the occasional pop from Drew shooting a random wanderer.  

Jim walked back onto the deck and noticed the sun was now fully up.  

“Feels like I’ve already put in a full day’s work,” noted Drew.  

“Yeah, I know what you mean.  It’s only the 2nd day since this crap started and we have a mountain of dead people stacked up around the house.”

“How long you think we can keep this up?” questioned Drew.  

“No clue but we don’t have much of a choice unless you got any better ideas?”

“Be nice if we had more people.”

“More people would also use up more food but you are right.”

“Holy crap, you see that!” exclaimed Drew!

Jim looked towards where Drew was pointing and noticed the black smoke on the horizon.  An occasional siren could be hear and the slight echo of the higher power rifle rounds.  Jim hoped there were also lots of smaller caliber rounds he wasn’t hearing.  Drew suggested they head inside and hopefully an undead in the area would eventually be attracted towards the village if they stopped firing for long enough.  Jim thought that was a good idea but was worried about keeping Jenny and Wolverine silent.  Wolverine still didn’t appear to be showing any symptoms expect for filling the spare bedroom with big piles and moistening the carpet.  

Chapter 5

The rest of the morning was surprisingly quiet.  The occasional zombie would wander in the area but eventually moved towards the village.  A few tried crossing the swamp but got hopelessly stuck.  Jim hoped that none were coming through the woods and was surprised when a pair popped out from the lot on the end.  The woods are at least 500 yards long so something caused them to wander through it.  Fortunately the 2 headed down the main road of the subdivision towards the village just like the others had earlier.  They all stayed quiet and out of sight.  

Around lunchtime, Becky finally spoke up, “What are you going to do about the smell?  I don’t know how much longer I can take it.”

Jim sniffed the air and realized she was right.  There was no way they could stand the smell of the rotting corpses for too long.  “Not sure what we can do?  I don’t want to risk our lives dragging bodies that may of may not be totally dead. I wish we had a Bobcat or small dozer.  We could somehow just push them into the neighbor’s house and burn the whole thing.”

“That might work but how many more will it attract?  Plus where the hell are we going to get a Cat” replied Drew.  

“What about a tractor with a front end loader?  There’s a guy down the street with an 80’s John Deere that seems to run pretty good.”

“Those are pretty slow and don’t have any sort of cage to protect the driver.  We really need something bigger with a cage.  It could even crush those bastards with the treads.”  
Jim thought for a moment and said, “What about the county?  They have lots of heavy equipment in their yard?”

“Yeah but how do we get there and back,” replied a now worried looking Drew.  

“I guess we could cut through the woods or…” Jim was cut off by the wail of a siren quickly approaching.  

Looking towards the back yard, Drew said the words all 3 of them were thinking, “What the fuck is that????”

A bright red fire engine was driving down the old train tracks that ran about 100 yards behind Jim’s house.  Every light was flashing and the sirens were incredibly loud.  Even more surprising and frightening were the hundreds and hundreds of zombies both following the fire truck and hanging from all sides of the truck.  All 3 of them watched in horror as the truck slipped off the edge of the tracks into the muddy swamp along the tracks.  They couldn’t see in the truck but guessed that some brave soul was trying to lure the zombies outside the village.  ‘Too bad they ended up in my yard’ thought Jim.  As expected the glass windows didn’t hold and zombies could be seen pouring into the truck.  Others were enraged by the flashing lights and sirens and spent their time pulling off or smashing the annoying devices.  The last siren had just went silent when Jim suddenly realized that every zombie was now looking in their direction.  Wolverine was howling at the siren which was then causing Jenny t0 cry.  With a shout, Jim instructed Drew to shut the dog up.  Jim grabbed his rifle and ran towards the deck.  
Becky quickly grabbed his arm and shouted, “We need to get out of here now!  There are too many of them to hold off.”  

“Where are we supposed to go?” yelled Jim as Drew returned with a now quiet Wolverine.  

Quickly thinking, Becky replied, “What about the county yards?  They have the big dozers you wanted and they have a huge fence.”

“Fine, let’s go but we have to leave now!”

Jim, Drew, and Becky tossed what few things had made their way out of the previously loaded truck.  By now the moans and pounding could be hear from the lower level windows that faced the back of the house.  With a quick glance out back, Jim could see only heads bobbing through the marsh as the hoards seemed to block out the ground.  Fortunately the garage was on the opposite side of the house so Jim fired up the truck while Drew manually raised the garage door.  Gunning the truck as Drew hopped in, Jim flew out the garage door and over the small pile of dead bodies in front the door from yesterday’s shooting.  Fortunately they had managed to keep the bodies away from at least 1 side of the garage.  The zombies streamed around the house after the truck but Jim was already barreling down the street.  

On the way out of the subdivision they all noticed several houses that appeared to have been ransacked by the zombies along with a couple wrecked cars in the yards.  One house’s front door was hanging half off the hinges and a dark stain could be seen in stark contrast to the white door.  One car was stuck under a light pole.  The door was open and blood covered the windows.  Nearing the front, Jim noticed several houses outside the subdivision were still smoldering.  The occasional zombie was also seen lumbering down the road but Jim managed to avoid most of them although he did crunch a few with the truck.   The ride to the stockyards only took 5 minutes but to Drew it felt like a lifetime.  Having lost the love of his life during his last car ride, this one had put him in a near panic.  When they pulled up the stockyards, Jim had to shake Drew back to the present.  The gate was only locked by a small chain which Drew quickly removed with a set of bolt cutters.  After pulling in, Jim had Drew secure the gate with a piece of wire hoping zombies wouldn’t figure out how to slide the gate sideways on its tracks until a new lock could be fashioned.  

Surveying the stockyards, Jim was impressed with Becky’s recommendation.  The stockyards were about 15 acres and bumped up to the community pool which had another 10 acres.  Everything was fenced with extremely heavy gauge chain link fencing topped with razor wire with different areas sectioned off based on their respective use.  There was the brand new “green” administration building that had been the ridicule of many editorials due to the added cost of making the building green by including natural light, geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels, and every other energy saving feature in the book.  The repair shop was only about 10 years old as well and included pretty much every tool and part to repair the 40 or 50 different dump trucks, plow trucks, and road construction equipment on the property.  The scrap yard included random piles of gravel, dirt, old concrete, scrap metal, bark chips, and a mountain of branches and logs waiting to the chipped.  The village water tower was just outside the fence but the maintenance hut was on the property.  The pool property had about 5 acres of green space in addition to the pool, water slide, and changing rooms.  Besides the front of the administration building that faced the road and the 1 gate they entered, the only other entrance was an old school metal cage revolving door for the pool entrance.  Everything else was behind the fences.  Fortunately the entire property, including the buildings were locked up at the time and there weren’t any indications of any forced entries.  

Jim had pulled his truck behind the repair shop and out of view from the roads that ran along the east and south sides of the property.  Their first order of business would be to gain entry to each of the buildings and search each building to make sure they were in fact alone in there.  Jim also knew they would also need to securely barricade the administration building windows and the fancy glass entrance door that faced the road.  

Drew meanwhile had located a ladder propped up alongside the repair shop which he used to climb through an open ventilation window.  Fortunately the pegboard in the shop also contained keys to the administration building so no windows would have to be broken.  After manually raising one of the smaller garage doors, Jim pulled his truck into the shop.  Becky quickly setup a small play area for Jenny in the shop manager’s office and Wolverine spent some time exploring this new area.  Jim found a large lock with several keys and quickly ran outside to secure the gate.  When he returned he found Drew staring at the windows lining the shop.  

“What happens if they get through that fence?” said Drew.  

“Well I was kind of thinking this place would be like the Alamo.  If they get through th fences we can use this as our strong hold.  We’ll need to secure the ground level windows on this building and then the administration building.  We can jump across the roofs but should probably build some sort of bridge that could be used as well.  Important supplies should be split up between the rafters of the shop and the 2nd story of the admin building.  We’ll need to block the stairwells to the 2nd floor and build ladders to reach the rafters of the shops.  Kind of like Robin Hood.”

“Yeah, well he had his merry men.  It’s just the 2 of us” replied Drew.  

“Hey now, I’m part of this team as well,” said Becky walking over.  

Jim quickly responded, “I know, but I have a feeling we won’t be alone for that long.  There has got to be more people out there.”

“You think they will want to come in here?” said Becky.

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t and unfortunately I don’t think we should stop them for 2 reasons.  1 we are on public property and 2 we could use the extra help.”

“What if they are infected?” replied Becky.

“I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes and determine some way of checking for bites.  My biggest fear is some idiot crashing a car through the fence and letting hordes of those things inside.  We’ll probably need to get one of these trucks up and running that could be used to cover any such holes.”

Drew said, “Why don’t you work on that and I’ll get to work on securing these windows.  We should at least secure this building before screwing around with anything else.  There are several piles of sheet metal that must be left over from building this place that I can use.”

“Sounds good and Becky can work on getting things arranged in here for now.”

“So we’re staying here?” asked Becky.  

“Yeah, I guess for now the stockyard will be home.”
Link Posted: 7/29/2008 9:12:14 AM EDT
[#1]
Good start.

More, please!  
Link Posted: 7/29/2008 2:22:20 PM EDT
[#2]
looks like another good story line,  What a shock to have to waster your next door neighbors!!!
Link Posted: 7/29/2008 3:02:33 PM EDT
[#3]

Originally Posted By SEMO:
looks like another good story line,  What a shock to have to waster your next door neighbors!!!


Not so bad...like a zombie apocalyse, it's pretty much in most peoples imagination anyway.  

Link Posted: 7/29/2008 11:26:40 PM EDT
[#4]
I personally always figured that it is as close to genetic memeory as you can get. Things like the fear of the dead and say, fear of glowing firey red eyes. Those are things you don't have to be told to fear. You instinctivly do it. Good start and a nice intro keep it up.
Link Posted: 7/30/2008 8:45:24 PM EDT
[#5]
Good stuff keep it coming.

Constructive criticism  - chapter 3 you used "job" a few times instead of jog.
Link Posted: 7/30/2008 11:21:51 PM EDT
[#6]
Nice  job, keep it coming!
Link Posted: 8/2/2008 6:22:48 PM EDT
[#7]
What happened to Drew and Catrina's Rotweiller appropriately named Wolverine? Did they leave him stranded in the apartment?
Link Posted: 8/3/2008 6:49:48 PM EDT
[#8]
Good catch.  I totally forgot about the dog.  I'll have to do some editing.  I only added the dog in because my brother in law is a huge X Files fan but likes the books better than the movies.  In the movies Wolverine is really badass but in the books Rogue is the strongest so he named his Rott Rogue.  I always give him crap about it.  
Link Posted: 8/5/2008 12:08:44 AM EDT
[Last Edit: lumper] [#9]
Drew jammed the truck into 4WD and had rooster tails coming off all 4 tires as he plowed through the slick grass.

They have air lockers?
Link Posted: 8/5/2008 8:23:32 AM EDT
[#10]
Air lockers???  Not sure what those are....but when I floor my Dodge Ram on wet grass all 4 tires spin and shoot mud up.  
Link Posted: 12/10/2008 8:07:58 PM EDT
[#11]
Still patiently waiting for more..........
Link Posted: 12/31/2008 12:50:40 PM EDT
[#12]
fast45,
Thanks for kicking it to the front of my mind!  

I have the next few chapters outlined and I'm about half way done with chapter 5.  I also made some of the corrections as noted in the comments.  Thanks for the feedback!

Link Posted: 6/16/2009 1:35:19 AM EDT
[#13]
Originally Posted By WIDeerHunter:
fast45,
Thanks for kicking it to the front of my mind!  

I have the next few chapters outlined and I'm about half way done with chapter 5.  I also made some of the corrections as noted in the comments.  Thanks for the feedback!



ETA on another chapter???......
Link Posted: 6/17/2009 9:15:02 PM EDT
[#14]
Been a while, but a great update. Im tagging this one so dont let it fade
Link Posted: 11/10/2009 10:23:38 AM EDT
[#15]
How about a new chapter ...........
Link Posted: 11/12/2009 12:55:37 AM EDT
[#16]
GAH! i thought there was more than just the first post! ITS THE ZOMBIE APOC! STOP WORKING AND TYPE!!!

Thanks for the story so far!! I like it!
Link Posted: 3/10/2010 12:28:55 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WIDeerHunter] [#17]
I added Chapter 5.  I've been dreaming more and more about this story lately which has encouraged me to write again.  Plus my new job doesn't allow access to any webmails!  I'm writing chapter 6 this week.  I still can't believe how long each chapter takes to write.  I definitely have a lot of respect for those guys that have a finished story.
Link Posted: 3/10/2010 4:42:12 PM EDT
[#18]
Good job picking it back up after the break. Chapter 5 was great.
Now more more more, and don't you even think about stopping again till you are done
Link Posted: 3/12/2010 1:31:05 PM EDT
[#19]
Here is chapter 6.  I'm gone this weekend but should have another chapter next week Friday.

Chapter 6

With dark quickly approaching, the group began to settle down for the night.  Any ground level windows in the shop were covered with sheet metal and ladders were built to access the rafters and roof.  Drew had arranged some of the sheets to include viewing portals on some of the windows.  The occasional zombie had wandered to the fence after probably hearing them working but after a few tense moments wandered off in search of the distant gunfire that could be heard throughout the afternoon.  Jim had rigged up one of the dump trucks to served as a hole plug in case of a gate crasher and took time to clean all of the guns.  After a makeshift dinner, Drew went off to crash since he had the midnight to 4 night watch.  Becky had put Jenny to bed and climbed up on the roof with Jim.  The glows of distant fires could be seen and the gunfire came and went in waves.  

“Jim, are we going to be safe here?”

“Honestly, I have no idea.  There are a million possibilities and not too many of them look good.  I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.”

“What about the cabin and all of that United Nations food you have stored there?”

Jim’s family had a cabin that was pretty well stocked for any sort of prolonged disaster and had always jokingly referred to the United Nations attacking as the reason for his preps.  

“Right now, I don’t think it’s safe to attempt the trip.  We’ve got pretty good security here and enough food to last a while.  I’m hoping if things settle down we can head there but after Drew’s car ride here I’m just not sure it’s safe enough to go.”

“Wasn’t the whole point of all those stupid bins of food, ammo, and even seeds for just this occasion?” asked Becky.

“Yeah, I know.  I just never figured we wouldn’t be able to get there.  Plus I can’t believe how fast things have went downhill.  I hope at least my parents made it there.”

With that, Becky began to cry.  “What about my parents, do you think they are ok?  Do you think this has spread by them as well?”

“Well I’m sure they are having this same crap down there as well but you dad should be able to handle anything that comes up.”

“How can you say that?  He’s just an accountant and absolutely hates guns.”

“I guess I can spill the beans now, but just because your dad hates guns doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.  Last Easter your dad promised me that if anything happened to him that I should pull the wood paneling behind his office.  After I pressed him about it, apparently he squirreled away his 45 and M16 when he was discharged after the war.  I also know he has at least a couple cases of ammo because he was mainly concerned if there ever was a fire.  It definitely wasn’t because he wanted me to have them!”

“But I thought he carried one of those thumper things in Vietnam?”

“He did, just because he always claimed he couldn’t hit shit with those plastic guns.  I also noticed the pouches on his old vest didn’t appear to be empty so I wouldn’t be surprised if he snuck that thing back as well.  I know he did love it especially the fletchette rounds.  Plus it did save his butt a few times.”

“Well hopefully it’s saving both of their butts right now.”

“Speaking of butt, you better get your butt to bed.  Your shift starts at 4.”

“Ugg, I do not want to be up there early.”

“Just pray we make it that long.”

Jim’s shift ended up being pretty quiet.  The zombies that walked by didn’t notice Jim sitting on the roof.  After making sure Drew was awake, Jim crashed for the night.  Becky had setup their air mattress on the floor of the manager’s office and all things considered it was surprisingly comfortable.  Jim didn’t even hear Becky leave for her shift.  

The next morning at breakfast, Jim went through a status report with Drew and Becky.  Drew had seen several cars drive past but only once did zombies follow the cars and even then the zombies weren’t moving very quickly.  Becky reported seeing movement on the roof of the one apartment building visible from the stockyards but couldn’t tell if it was human.  Becky did see 1 group on bikes and a couple individuals running out of the village with zombies in pursuit.  

“I wasn’t sure if I should wake you guys in those cases.  I really wanted to yell for them to come in here but since we never talked about that, I wasn’t sure.”

“Well, I guess now is a good time.  Drew, what do you think?” asked Jim.

“I think we should first get the administration building secure.  Then we could sit up there and really start picking those bastards off.  Even if the people don’t stop here, at least we can help them.  I feel like a pussy just sitting here doing nothing to help.”

“While I’m concerned for Becky and Jenny, I also think we need to help when possible.  I know the gunfire will attract more of them but then fences should hold until we can dispatch them.  Even if the entire village turned into zombies, that’s still less than 10,000 people.  If we stick with the 22’s, I’ve got more than enough ammo.”

“You idiots want to take on 10,000 of those things?  Are you nuts?  First of all, what are we going to do with 10,000 of those stinking dead bodies and second of all, do you really think they will just line up one at a time?  What happens if all 10,000 come at once?  Even a thousand at once?”

“Jim, she’s got a good point.”

“I know but what can we do?  If we do nothing, eventually everyone will become one of those bastards then we’ll be screwed anyway.  We at least need to try.”

Becky replied, “You at least need to make sure we can get out of here if we are overrun.  Can we at least put one of those big trucks someplace we could get to?”

“Good idea.  Let’s stage a dump truck by the edge of the roof.  If things get too hairy, we could drop down into it and head to the cabin.  Let’s also agree to start picking those things off whenever possible. The river is 200 yards away so we could just start dumping the bodies in there with the front end loader.  It’s got a wire cage so the operator should be safe enough.  Worse case you can drive it back into the lot, we’ll seal the gate with the dump truck, and shoot any zombies that made it in.  Simple right?”

“Yeah right.  You sitting in the loader?” asked Drew.

“Well you’re the one that knows how they work.  Plus you can’t shoot worth a shit anyway.”

“Alright you idiot boys, get to work.  No shooting until this place is locked down.”

The first order of business was to check all of the fences to make sure they were intact.  After confirming that, Jim and Drew went to explore the administration building.  Both were fully loaded out and practiced their room clearing skills or lack thereof throughout the building.  Drew, carrying Jim’s AK, simply had a backpack full of magazines and a couple stuffed in his back pocket.  Jim had also given Drew his 40 caliber Glock as a backup.  Fortunately the building was undisturbed.  What really surprised the guys were the working lights, heating, and refrigerators.  Jim knew from the newspaper articles that the solar panels only supplemented the building’s electricity but apparently could keep the building running when the 30 or so offices and 5 conferences rooms weren’t lit up with people on computers.  Jim also thought he remembered something about a battery bank.  Plus between the break room fridges and the vending machine stockroom, they now had an additional month of food not including whatever they could find in people’s desks.  Using the key ring from the shop, Jim opened the front glass doors and stood guard while Drew screwed the sheet metal pieces to the front windows and all of the glass doors.  Fortunately they had pre-cut the panels using the newly found electric source after sneaking out first to take some measurements.  Inside the glass door was an additional security gate that Jim lowered once the front the building was secured.  Jim figured that between the brick exterior and the sheet metal, the building could withstand pretty much any sort of weight a couple hundred zombies could generate.  Jim had picked off 5 or 6 zombies that ventured into the area and could now see additional ones moving in the distance so they moved indoors.  

Keeping quiet indoors, Drew and Jim could hear the eventually hear the pounding on the exterior of the building.  

“You know, I’d like to make sure we are 100% ready before we blast any more that we don’t have to,” said Jim.

“I hear ya.  We need to sheet metal the windows and doors of this building that are inside the fence and get supplies distributed between the 2 buildings before we have to deal with more than just a few of them.”

“Agreed.  Let’s move onto the other work and hope these ones wander off.  I also want to get a dump truck situated just in case.”

Drew quickly measured the windows and doors that were inside the fence and went to the shop to begin cutting.  Fortunately he was able to run an extension cord from the administration building.  After finding the battery/electrical room and seeing the power usage was 85%, Jim went through the administration building unplugging anything they didn’t need to help with the power load on the panels and batteries.  He also turned off any of the motion activated lights he encountered not wanting to attract that attention at night.  Jim then gave Becky and update and the two of them worked on caching supplies in each of the buildings.  The two doors to the second floor of the admin building were steel fire doors with very sturdy locks so Jim simply left a cordless drill, steel bars, and lag bolts at each of them just in case they needed to be barricaded further and quickly.  Jim heard running behind him and then Drew shouting “We’ve got company!”

Apparently one of the zombies roaming by had seen Drew screwing the panels to the windows.  That zombie went crazy, moaning and clawing at the fence.  That brought the other zombies around the side of the building whom also starting making a much louder commotion seeing a fresh meal just 50 yards away.  That causes other zombies already search the area from Jim’s earlier shots to come as well eventually increasing the horde to around 40.  

Jim ran to the shop to warn Becky.  She was already prepared and handed Jim his 10/22, a brick of .22, and a few 30 rounder magazines.  Jim noticed she had the food already staged in the rafters and was ready to move with Becky and Wolverine if needed.  Jim regretted not having time to finish the administration building windows and getting the dump truck staged.  

Walking up to the fence, Jim appraised the situation.  He could hear Drew’s teeth chattering behind him as the zombie horde went even more ballistic with their appearance.  Jim instructed Drew to stay behind him and just make sure Jim didn’t run out of full mags.  Jim stopped about 10 feet from the fence, lined up his sights through the links, and pulled the trigger.  A small hole appeared in the zombie’s forehead and what appeared to be a repair man in his late 40’s simply fell over.  Jim went right down the line repeating the process.  Occasionally the .22 would skim the skull or hit a chain link but 3 shots was the most one of them took.  Jim’s biggest fear was that he would recognize one of the people he was shooting.  Fortunately he didn’t and quickly dispatched the zombies at the fence and a additional ones the joined them.  

Handing Jim a fresh mag, Drew said “What about the fence?”

“What about it?”

“You think all of those holes will matter?”

“Darn, I didn’t think about that.  I haven’t broken more than 5 or 6 links so far but you’re right.  We need some sort of elevated platform so we can shoot down on top of them.”

“I guess we could raise up one of the buckets although it would be tricky getting down if we were overrun.”

“Yeah, I guess we should probably do our shooting from the roof of the admin building.  There is a nice ledge to use as a rest and it’s not that far to the ground.”

“What about the bodies?  You want me to run the loader today?”

“No, let’s try and limit our time out of the fence.  We can let them pileup for a couple days and then clean them out at once.  There are more heading this way so let’s just ignore them for a while and get the panels installed.  We’ll then lure then to the front and shoot them.  Plus you need some practice missboy.”

Jim stopped back to let Becky know the plan.  Her only requirement was that if the smell got too bad, they would need to move the bodies sooner rather than later.  By the time Drew and Jim finished with the administration building windows, the horde had grown to 30 or 40.  Jim drew them to the front of the building and let Drew spend some trigger time with the .22 picking them off.  Shooting almost straight down but Drew quickly got the hang of it.  Once finished at least until the next batch showed up, Jim fired one of the dump trucks and parked close enough to the roof of the cab so they could jump down onto it.  Then Jim and Drew built a small bridge between the shop and the admin building.  Becky, Jenny and Wolverine moved into a couple of the offices glad to be out of the smelly shop.  By nightfall the entire group had rearranged several of the offices into makeshift bedrooms after finding out most of the couches were in fact sleeper sofas. After taping the windows on one of the conference rooms, they were also able to take advantage of the lights running off the battery bank.  Before the shooting light ran out, Jim cleaned out the 20 zombies that had gathered down below.  Unfortunately, Jim could see more eyes approaching in the distance.  
Link Posted: 3/13/2010 12:47:08 AM EDT
[#20]
YEAH! Enjoying your story DeerHunter.

A couple of technical points:
(1) .22 LR will not damage good chain link fence. It just splits/splatters the bullet.
(2) Positioning the dump truck inside the fence to protect the gate from a crashing vehicle is backwards.
     It should be OUTSIDE the gate so the vehicle hits the truck instead of the fence. The dump truck is
     a good vehicle barrier but a lousy zombie barrier (too easy to get around/under the big truck.
     The fence must stay intact.
(3) I am a little confused on the layout of the compound. Is the administration building inside the fence or not?
     If it is inside the wire, the part where Jim could "eventually hear the pounding on the exterior of the building"
     doesn't make sense.

Keep up the good work!
Link Posted: 4/26/2010 3:55:00 AM EDT
[#21]
Keep up the good work  
Link Posted: 4/30/2010 6:38:50 AM EDT
[#22]
MOAR!


Originally Posted By BroncoMafia:
YEAH! Enjoying your story DeerHunter.

A couple of technical points:
(1) .22 LR will not damage good chain link fence. It just splits/splatters the bullet.
(2) Positioning the dump truck inside the fence to protect the gate from a crashing vehicle is backwards.
     It should be OUTSIDE the gate so the vehicle hits the truck instead of the fence. The dump truck is
     a good vehicle barrier but a lousy zombie barrier (too easy to get around/under the big truck.
     The fence must stay intact.
(3) I am a little confused on the layout of the compound. Is the administration building inside the fence or not?
     If it is inside the wire, the part where Jim could "eventually hear the pounding on the exterior of the building"
     doesn't make sense.

Keep up the good work!


I was picturing the building with the front side open to the street and the remaining 3 sides inside the fence.
Link Posted: 5/28/2010 9:30:43 PM EDT
[Last Edit: ilove762NATO] [#23]
The story is good so far...

Jim needs to cobble together some suppressors for his 10/22 and his deer rifle if he brought that with him.


A suppressor should be pretty easy to build in a machine shop, just tubing with holes drilled in it and an expansion chamber, or two different diameters of tube with washers and other shit.


Bombs are also what I notice a lack of in EVERY zombie story in this forum.

A directional/frag bomb placed at head level would take out several and cripple more per device.
Link Posted: 6/1/2010 1:34:44 AM EDT
[#24]
MOAR!

great read so far
Link Posted: 7/8/2011 3:48:16 PM EDT
[#25]
no more? :(
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