Apocalyptic Series:

The Lord Of The Hoard

Part 1

Hi, my name's Benjamin Freight. I live in New York City, and unbelievably I am one of the last survivors of the worldwide mass plague of… Zombies, as they're so adequately called.

Here I am at a gas station just outside of the city, collecting supplies for the long journey I am about to begin.

I am travelling to a rumoured military bunker one-hundred miles south of New York.

Why, you may ask. Because I am a seventeen year old kid, with no knowledge of the world and no one to help me with my current situation. Such a situation that, I'm sure, Superman would have trouble with. The situation I am talking about is this…

"Come on, come on" I shouted, searching the aisles. "Where are the Hershey's?" I fumbled around for my favourite chocolate as the three snarling, dead creatures outside tried to infiltrate the shop.

"Oh forget it" I said cocking my double-barrelled shotgun. The zombies smashed the window. I was still fumbling with the cartridges, they, on the other hand could smell me, and were on their way. One barrel done. A small fat zombie turned onto the aisle and ran for me. Two barrels done, I cocked back the gun as the half-decapitated creature pounced at me. BANG, its head was blown off, it stumbled then fell. I pushed the gun back in its holster on my back.

I crept slowly out of the shop, past the zombies. Ding, went the bell on the door. The foaming-at-the-mouth freaks turned their heads towards me. "Oh, SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as I ran to my car. Oh, it's a Hummer by the way; not bad eh?

To no surprise it was fucking locked. I pressed the 'unlock' button…nothing. The zombies were gaining on me, I ran round the car and unlocked it manually. A gnarled hand stopped me from closing the door. "FUUUUUUUUCCCKKK!". I shot him. The other zombie jumped on the bonnet, like in the films; so I did the heroic thing and ran him into a pillar. Bad idea. Sure he was cut in half but he crawled through the smashed glass and grabbed me by the neck. I couldn't reach my gun, so I pulled off the gear lever and rammed it in his face. Good idea. He slid off the bonnet, it was actually quite funny. I grabbed what was left of the gear stick and slammed it in reverse.

I stopped driving mid-afternoon, when I ran out of gas.

Long-story-short there was no fucking bunker, it was just a stupid rumour started by some fucked-up, retarded, inbred, dick-flicking, mother raping, fanny faced, ass licking, son of a bitch…

I searched for most of that day, then headed back for the city with a replenished tank of fuel. Yet again it seemed to be a bad idea.

Night came very quickly, and as you already know zombies multiply, if you will, at night. My knocked up Hummer wasn't very well equipped for night time traversing due to having smashed-up headlights, so I kinda' thought I was screwed.

Over a small hill came six incredibly bright lights. A broken down Ford Mustang eventually came into view. I drove up next to it, wound down my window and rested my arm on the pane, like some kind of a battle-hardened trucker.

Stood under the hood of the muscle car was someone who really looked like a battle-hardened trucker. I felt like a six-year-old talking to a bully when I said:

"Need a hand buddy?" as I looked closer I noticed he had a handgun pointed at my face. Then I really thought I was in the shit. I thought he was going to take my SUV and ride off, leaving me to be 'Zom-Chow'.

So I returned his cautiousness and whipped out my Assault Rifle from the back seat.

We stayed staring down barrels at each other.

"You gonna help me, or what?" he shouted gruffly.

"Urm…yeah, uh, sure" I whimpered.

The man was about six foot six, shaved black hair with a mass of writhing muscles. He seemed like the kind of guy you needed in a Zombie invasion.

"Thanks kid…you got any jumper-cables" he barked, while holstering his gun.

"Yeah, here" I tossed him the leads and stepped out of my derelict Hummer. He ripped up the bonnet of my SUV and clipped the leads up. With a few revs of each engine his Mustang sprang to life.

"Get y'ur stuff, you can ride with me" he forcedly offered.

"But my Hummer…" I stuttered.

"…Is gonna' get ya killed, you moron; a big yellow thing with no windscreen, no headlights and no protection, I'm surprised you've lived this long…now get in!"

I could tell this guy wasn't gonna' take no for an answer, so I took my guns; ammo; knife sets and other weaponry, threw them in the trunk and got in the passenger side.

The inside of his car was like the inside of the A-Team's van; a sawn-off-shotgun was nailed to the dashboard; the windows had metal grids on the inside and outside; there were no seats in the back, just a rack full of every gun imaginable; there were flashing lights and buttons D.I.Y'd everywhere. Sat on the bonnet were six huge spotlights, that, with a flick of a button lit up the road for as far as I could see. Bright lights illuminated from beneath the chassis and a great roar of power emitted from the beast of a car as it sprang to life.

He drove silently, unblinkingly for quite some time. I tried to come up with conversation starters, but none of them seemed appropriate.

After a long time of contemplating, I came up with this:

"So where are you headed?"

"New York"

"I've just come from there, nothing there but empty buildings"

"That's what I need, I was thinking about a penthouse in Trump Tower" he laughed, in a heavy deep tone.

"Sounds good to me…Hey, I never got your name?"

"Name's aren't important, lets just get to where we're going"

The bellow of the engine was the only thing to be heard for more than an hour. I struggled to stay awake. He, on the other hand, was still staring unblinkingly at the road.

To my surprise there was a huge lack of Zombies on the road, usually they stand in hoards and wait for unsuspecting drivers, but that night I had seen less than twenty over a two hour drive.

"Hey kid, check that out!"

"What?" I mumbled, trying to make out dark shapes beyond the reach of the spotlights.

"Over there, near the edge of the road!" Stood near a banking, on the side of the road was a terrifying creature. A beast I had never seen throughout the months of "The Invasion"; An undead bear, its matted fur hiding lumps of missing flesh. Its terrible teeth unnaturally long and sharp. Everything about the bear was fearsome and gruesome. I was terrified!

"Mother nature's gone fucked up! Hahahahaaaa!" he laughed.

"Yeah…fucked up" I cowered.

"Lets show this pussy how us living creatures role!" he shouted, pulling a massive hunting rifle from the rack behind us.

"He cant expect me to go out there with…THAT!" I thought. He obviously thought differently because he passed me a shotgun very similar to my own. He opened his door, threw his arm out and fired aimlessly. He then slammed his foot on the brakes and spun round so that his outstretched rifle was five feet from the bear's nose. He launched himself from the car and began blowing chunks out of the beast from close range. When I say close range, I fucking mean close range; he was less than an arms-reach from the bear! I sat, staring at this crazed, feral man.

The bear began to weaken and the massive guy slowly moved closer and closer. With a swift move of his foot, he landed a blow to the bears chest. The bear was tossed to the ground. He leaned in, whispered something to the creature, rested his gun on its chest and fired a shot straight through its jaw and into its brain.

"FUCKING HELL!" I shouted awestruck "That was AWESOME!"

"WHOOO! Should have joined in kid, that was great!" he roared. The adrenaline pumped so fast his dilated veins were highly visible through his skin. A bead of sweat dripped from his brow, as he sat back into the car and racked-up his smoking gun.

"That, is how you kill a zombie!"

…

To Be Continued