Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 01 Read online

  "Is is gone?" she asked through the glass. Alex motioned for her to open the window.

  "Could you hand me a golf club? Driver please..." As if waiting for the party in front of him at a golf course to tee off, Alex calmly stood outside the window, scanning the backyard and surrounding area for any other signs of movement. Morgan quickly returned with the golf club and handed it to Alex with a puzzled expression on her face.

  "Thanks," Alex chirped as he turned away. "Go ahead and close the window. I'll be back in a minute." Taking the club in his right hand and swinging it like a scythe, Alex practiced for what he was about to do. "Sam, hold my left hand and don't let me fall." Grasping his father-in-law by the hand, Alex leaned out over the edge of the house and placed the club head next to the creatures left temple. With the practiced ease of a golfer Alex brought the club back smoothly then, reaching the top of the swing arc, brought the club down and through the target.

  A sickening, wet crack echoes through the backyard, silencing the moaning of the creature immediately. For a few seconds after only silence could be heard; no guns, no screams, no terrifying moans of the damned zombies. To Alex, it was peaceful.

  "Is it dead?" Sam's harsh whisper broke Alex's revery.

  "Well, technically it was already dead," Alex snarked as he hauled himself back from the edge of the roof. "But if you mean will it walk again, no. You have to destroy its brain to kill it, and I think that gold swing took care of the job." He peered over the edge once more. "How did it get back here anyway?" Alex scanned the surrounding fence line and walked the perimeter of the yard. The side gate hung open. "Well I'll be damned. We nearly had a serious problem on our hands because we forgot to lock the side gate." Alex crouched at the edge of the roof and pivoted, swinging his body around in order to lower himself to the ground. Hanging from the gutters about to drop to the earth, Alex's heart stopped.

  A deafening moan sounded from his left only feet from where he hung from the roof. A shambling nightmare appeared from the darkness, reaching its broken and bloody hands for Alex who was desperately and unsuccessfully trying to pull himself back up to safety. A gray, lifeless hand grabbed his shoe...

  The rifle exploded above Alex's head, tearing the creature's head from its body. What was left of the zombie slumped to the ground and remained still. Alex's ears sounded as if a bomb had gone off in his head and he realized that he was holding his breath. Alex gasped for the air to fill his lungs and began to hyperventilate, causing his vision and senses to become overwhelmed with the rush of oxygen. His vision began to fade and stars burst in his eyes. He lost his grip on the roof. Alex's last thought was to push himself away from the corpse lying on the ground under him. He landed off-balance and the tunnel vision made it impossible for Alex to keep his feet under him. Alex landed hard against the fence, slamming his head into the wooden supports and finishing the job his hyperventilation had begun. Alex's world faded into darkness.

  -----

  Alex awoke to gunfire and something cold pressed against his forehead. He could hear crying as if from a long way distant, he sat up suddenly, realizing it was Gemma. The quick movement was too much for Alex's pounding head. He leaned to the side just in time to keep from retching all over himself.

  Once the contents of his stomach had emptied realization set in. "What did you do?! Why am I here? Dammit, you should have shot me when I was knocked out." Alex struggled to get out of bed, hands and a spinning head keeping him from doing so. Paula was holding him down.

  "Lay down, Alex. You took a really hard fall and need to rest." Alex had stopped struggling and now allowed Paula to readjust the washcloth on his head. "Sam and Tony are on the roof handling things so you stay put." There was a tremor in her voice that she could not hide.

  "Where's Gemma and Morgan?" Alex felt as if there was something being kept from him. "How long have I been here?" This last was asked with urgency.

  "You've been asleep for almost three hours, but you lost a lot of blood when you hit your head. You need to take it easy for a while. Morgan and Laura are with Gemma right now...they don't need you," Paula cut off her last sentence abruptly, pain and embarrassment washing across her face. She winced and tried to take back what she had just said.

  "I'm sorry, Alex. That's not what I meant it to sound like. Of course they need you, I just meant..."

  Alex interrupted her. "I know what you meant to say, Paula. It's okay." Alex moved again to get out of the bed and Paula tried once more to stop him. "I don't want to be rude, but don't try to stop me again. Those two are making the situation worse, not better."

  Alex struggled to his feet and made straight for the window. He threw open the window and began yelling at the two men on the rooftop to stop shooting. "Put the guns down, dammit! You're going to get us all killed." Alex struggled onto the roof, the exertion causing his head to spin wildly. He had to hold on to the window frame for support and to keep from tumbling off the roof for a second time.

  "All you two have accomplished is to announce our presence to every zombie in a five mile radius and waste our all too short supply of ammo," Alex noticed that even without the gunfire, the noise level was unbearable. The moans of the walking dead were deafening coming from a single creature. Alex could not even count the number that now fought their way to the front of the house.

  Raising his voice above the din of noise below them, Alex began issuing orders. "Both of you get inside and find everything I'm about to ask for. We need golf clubs and baseball bats out here on the roof immediately. We also need some for of rope or cord...something to fasten us to the roof in case we slip. If you fall into that mob, there will be no chance of rescue." Sam and Tony look at each other confused. "We need to destroy the brain, but we also need to do it quietly. The rifles will continue to bring in zombies from the surrounding areas, so our only other option is to hang from the roof line and crush their skulls one-by-one." Alex looked apologetic. "This isn't going to be fun or easy, but it's what has to be done."

  At that Alex motioned for the men to find the requested items. "Oh, and bring back one rifle. Just in case." The two men scampered inside, bent on completing their assigned task. Alex turned to face the assaulting mob, a desperate plan forming in his mind.

  -----

  Hours passed and the horde of undead kept coming. Alex had glanced at his watch at the start of their assault...1:30 in the morning. It was now two in the afternoon and the untold number of dead from the night before were now a mere handful. Alex had lost count of the number they had killed, but by the mound of corpses piled against the house, it had to be in the hundreds.

  Alex's plan had worked, but it had been far from perfect. The golf clubs that they had started with were designed for launching a 12 ounce golf ball through the air, not for bashing in the skulls of the walking dead. The clubs had quickly been rendered useless with many zombies still at and coming to the house. Bats, crowbars, even studs from the walls that were ripped free were used to dispatch any zombie attacking them. Actually, the wall studs proved most useful, providing the defenders with sharp and jagged objects with which to pierce the skulls of the attacking horde.

  As the sun baked down on Alex and the defenders, the last of the creatures was dispatched, its body rolling down the mound of corpses piled almost as high as the roof top. Their success was a double-edged sword. As the bodies piled higher, the men were forced to wait as the next few zombies to make their way to the top of the pile before having a chance to take them out. There were times that too many zombies would crest the pile of bodies threatening to overwhelm the defenders. Each time Alex and the others were able to hold them off, but only just. Alex knew that there was a better way to secure themselves, but it couldn't happen here.

  "Okay" Alex huffed through his exhaustion. "Everyone inside." Each man crawled through the open window back into the relative safety of their home. Sam collapsed once inside, shaking uncontrollably and Tony retched on his shoes.

  "M
organ" Alex called through the house. Morgan's head appeared around the corner of the door. She was afraid to enter. "Morgan, I need you to take the next watch." Morgan gasped.

  "I...I can't...I don't know how..."

  "You don't have to do much. Here, take this rifle," and Alex handed the 410 bore double barreled shotgun out for Morgan to take. "If you see anything moving, stick your head in the window and holler for me. I'll be right here in this room, but I'm exhausted and have got to get some food and rest. Sam and Tony are the same. If you think something is getting too close, just aim and pull the trigger. It doesn't kick that much." The shotgun hung there in his hands waiting for her. She did not move to take it.

  "Morgan, you know I'm right about this. I'll be right here of you need me for anything. And I do mean anything. But we've got to let your dad and Tony rest. They can't take much more."

  Morgan physically shuddered at the prospect, but moved to take the shotgun from Alex. "You don't even have to go all the way to the edge. If you could just sit right outside the window and keep a watch out, Sam and Tony can get some rest and relieve you soon." Morgan took the shotgun. It was cold and heavy in her grasp, something deadly and frightening.

  Alex placed a comforting hand on Morgan's shoulder. "I'll be right here." He took her hand and helped Morgan through the window onto the rooftop. After settling against the wall of the house Alex asked her if she could handle this.

  "I'll be fine, Alex," Morgan said with a tenderness he had not heard from her in a long time. "Get some rest. I'll call you if I need anything. Go rest."

  Alex ducked back inside the window and chose a spot on the floor where he could lean against the wall and see directly out the window. Morgan leaned around the window frame and started to ask him a question. Alex was already fast asleep.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Flight

  Alex had been asleep for almost two hours when an urgent whispering woke him. "Daddy?" a tiny girl's voice said. "Daddy? Are you awake?"

  Alex's eyes fluttered open and the face of his five-year-old daughter was in front of him. Her question floated in his mind, a moment of childhood innocence that he was not sure he would hear again. "Of course I am sweetheart. What's the matter?" Alex straightened his back against the wall, wincing at the pain and soreness of his body. He wasn't old by any measure, but the brutality that his body had just taken would take its toll on anyone. Gemma crawled into his arms and curled in his lap.

  "Daddy, I'm scared." Gemma's voice quivered and she sounded as if she would cry at any moment.

  "Everything is okay, sweetheart. Mommy and daddy won't let anything happen to you, okay?" Alex squeezed the tiny person closer to him, desperate to take away any of her fears.

  "Okay," Gemma sighed as if resigning herself to something that she didn't quite believe. She paused for a moment and Alex sensed that there was something else that she wanted.

  "Gemma, is there something else that you wanted to say to me?" His daughter had always been a very forth-coming child, but considering everything that she had witnessed over the last two days, Alex was not sure how much she would be willing to confide.

  "Daddy," she hesitated. "Did you kill that man back at the school?" Gemma looked up at her father, tears welling in her eyes. Alex could not tell if she was angry or sad at what he might say. He had never lied to his daughter and he supposed now was not the time to start.

  "Yes, Gemma. I killed that man. Are you angry with me for doing that?"

  "No, not really," Gemma creased her brow and looked away from her father's gaze. "He hurt people, didn't he?"

  "Yes, sweetheart. He hurt a lot of people very badly. And he was trying to hurt you and Becky. Daddy was just trying to protect you and get you two home safe. If I hadn't done what I did, he would have hurt you and Becky very badly and probably hurt more people too." Alex gently lifted Gemma by the chin and turned her to face him. "Gemma, do you understand that daddy had to do what he did? Can you forgive me?"

  Alex and Gemma sat quietly for a few moments before Gemma kissed him and gave him a big hug. The tension and stress of the previous days drained from Alex. His shoulders relaxed and he began to cry. "Don't cry, daddy," Gemma said. "You'll fix everything...you always do."

  Alex squeezed his daughter to him a little tighter. "Thank you, sweetie." He broke the hug and pulled her back from him so that he could look her straight in the eyes. "Gemma, can you go and find you grandma and grandpa and tell them that we all need to talk? Tell them to meet me in the big bedroom. Okay?"

  With a big nod that shook her entire body, Gemma said "Okay," then climbed out of his lap to run down the hall to find her grandparents. Alex got to his feet to check on Morgan. His body protested the simply act of getting up from the floor, his muscles screamed at him to sit down and fall back asleep. Willing his feet to move, Alex headed for the window, careful to keep away from the sick that still covered the floor and filled the room with an every growing rancid smell.

  Alex could see Morgan still sitting outside on the roof, her knees pulled up to her chest, her body rocking slightly from side-to-side. "Morgan," he called as he stuck his head out the window.

  Morgan jumped and swung the rifle in Alex's direction. He ducked back inside the window and crouched beside the window leading to the roof. "Morgan, it's me...it's just me." A quiet crying floated in through the window and slowly Alex peered back around the edge of the window frame. The shotgun was still pointed in the direction of the window, but Morgan was covering her mouth with her hand, the barrel of the shotgun resting on the rooftop. Carefully, Alex reached through the window and took the gun from Morgan. She did not resist, but let Alex take the gun from her, the now free hand joining the other in a desperate attempt to hold back the tears and crying that were beginning to overtake her.

  "Take my hand, Morgan. Come back inside. You did great." Alex held out his hand to Morgan, who took it and with great effort climbed back through the window. "Wait right here," Alex said as he closed and locked the window behind them. "Everything is okay, Morgan. I promise." Alex placed an arm around Morgan's shoulders and led her out of the room.

  -----

  "You want to do what?" Tony shouted.

  "Just hear me out, Tony. I think you'll agree with me when I finish." Alex was trying to keep his calm, but Tony was not making it easy.

  "We have everything here that we need and you want to just up and leave? We've already proven that we can keep the damn things out of the house. Why would we simply walk away from that?" Tony's face was red with anger and his body showed that he was gearing up for a fight.

  "Rotting and diseased corpses are not a very good thing to have lying around, Tony. Those things out there are going to start to decompose, and when they do, the smell will be the least of your worries." Alex gestured towards the front of the house where the hundreds of dead bodies were piled so high they blocked all light trying to come in through the windows. "In a couple of days it won't be the walking dead that kill us, it will be the disease that we won't be able to stop. There is no other option here...we have to leave. And the sooner the better. It'll be getting dark soon and I think we can all agree that being outside in the dark with those creatures is the last thing anyone wants."

  Tony's eyes were wide with anger and he stared at Alex, body heaving as he fumed with rage. Turning to Sam he said, "Do you believe this guy? He actually wants us all to walk out those doors straight in to the damn zombies." Tony was jamming his finger at the front doors of the house.

  "Well, actually," Alex began, "I would recommend we go out the back doors. I think those would be a little hard to open." Alex's sarcasm was the last thing that was needed in this situation.

  Tony lunged at Alex grabbing him by the front of the shirt and pulling him forward. Tony raised his fist to punch Alex.

  "Stop it, Tony!" Sam yelled. Tony stopped suddenly, his head turning to face Sam. "So far he is the only one of us who has had any ideas that have actually
been worth a damn." Sam met Alex's eyes. "I think we should hear what he has planned."

  "I don't believe this," Tony spat. He released Alex's shirt, giving him a shove backwards in the process. Alex stepped back a couple of paces, then reached up to straighten his shirt. "Sam, I have always listened to what you've had to say in the past, but this is ridiculous. Are you listening to what he is saying?" Tony threw up his hands in mock desperation.

  "Well, I'm trying to listen to what he is saying, but I can't hear him for all the damned screaming you are doing. Just shut up and listen. After we hear everything, then we'll decide if it is worth anything." Tony stood motionless staring at Sam. After it seemed that Tony would cause no more disruptions, Sam motioned for Alex to continue what he had started.

  "If you just think about it, the answer is simple," Alex began again. "Where is the greatest concentration of people? In the cities. More people, more infected. And the denser the population, the quicker it will spread. If you could get yourself to an rural center, the concentration of infected is going to greatly diminish. Properly supplied and defended, one could hold out for a long time. Maybe even for the duration of the main crisis." Alex looked from one face to the other as he calmly tried to make his point clear. The three women nodded their heads gently in agreement while Sam and Tony remained motionless. "Even a well stocked and defended home is going to need additional supplies, but if you could get yourself set up initially, one could give themselves enough time to make additional plans."

  Alex crossed his arms in closing, letting the two men ponder what he had proposed before saying anything else. Sam spoke first.

  "So where do we go?"

  Tony looked as if he had been struck. "Sam, you can't be serious? Do you know what it's going to be like out there? Can you..."

  "No, Tony. I don't know what it's going to be like out there, but I sure as hell know what it's going to be like in here. And I'm not going to resign myself and my family to a slow death from disease when there is another option," Sam crossed his arms, ending any argument from Tony before he could speak. "I suggest you come with us, but I can't force you. You have to choose for yourself." Sam looked again to Alex. "When do we leave and what do we need to take with us?"