END OF NEW ARLEN.
Joseph was lifting weights by candle light when he heard shouting from the Hill's residence.
"Probably nothing" He grunted to himself in the middle of a rep. He heard scratches on the front door.
"Whose there?" He asked. His heartbeat picked up rapidly. The only reply was more scratching and a low moan.
"Bobby? Is that you? Is this some kind of joke?" He grabbed a loaded pistol and slowly crept to the door. He reached out, his fingers touching the handle, before grasping it and pulling it open.
"ARGH! OH SHIT!" He jumped back as three zombies reached forward, just missing him.
"DAD! GET IN HERE!" Joseph screamed, opening fire at point blank range while retreating to the back end of the room. The master bedroom door burst open as Dale jumped out, two semi automatic pistols in hand, fingers pulling at the triggers.
"WINGO! Three dead zombies!" Dale exclaimed. He looked at Joseph's shocked expression, "Joseph, what's wrong? They're dead... wait" Dale paused for a second "... they're not suppose to be in here... oh no! Oh shit! NANCY!" He yelped for Nancy as a couple more zombies invaded the home.
"Lucky, come on, hurry up!" Luanne whined. She was sitting down on the mattress, watching Lucky prepare some more meth.
"Just a minute, hun, this stuff takes time" Lucky replied, his eyes focused on the jury rigged chemistry set.
"Do you hear something?" Luanne asked.
"That's just the beaker burning" Lucky replied, ignoring her, to focused on cooking meth.
"No... there's something outside, go check what it is!" Luanne demanded.
Lucky stopped and looked at her, "I think you're hearing things, I don't think you should smoke any candy tonight-" SMASH. The back window of the trailer broke open as zombie arms reached in, groping for prey.
"Oh shit!" Lucky stated, grabbing his shot gun.
"Kahn Junior, you listen to your mother! This is important stuff!" Kahn aggressively ordered his daughter.
"But Dad, there's no reason to study this, I want to sleep!" Connie argued back.
"Don't talk back to father, you need learn this stuff, important for future" Minh said.
Connie and Minh were sitting on the floor around a salvaged coffee table, studying an advanced arithmetic textbook, while Kahn leaned against the wall.
"Once world gets back to normal, and schools open again, my Kahn Junior will be first student to get into New Harvard!" Kahn said in an aggressive tone.
"Dad, I keep telling you, that's not going to happen! Not until after i'm dead... do you hear something?" Connie asked. Gunshots could be heard in the distance, and faint shouting.
"Who knows, maybe Bill drunk again" Kahn said, walking to look out the window. From the few lanterns set up up and down New Arlen, he could see lots of movement, especially near Bill's shack. There were too many bodies moving about, at least three times the population of New Arlen, and they were not moving in a natural manner.
"oh... shhh... grab the guns! NOW!" Kahn ordered to his family while reaching for an assault rifle he hung on a shelf. "Grab the car keys too!" He added.
Bill was drinking Boomshine all alone in his shack, sitting in the darkness. His eyes had long adjusted to the darkness, but his heart had never adjusted to the crushing loneliness and depression he always felt, especially when he was alone at night. It was nights like these that he contemplated ending it all.
His shack stank. Mold grew up and down the walls, on the ceiling and in the dirty crevices of his feet and the tips of his toes. No one in New Arlen ever came inside his shack. Empty beer cans and Boomshine bottles littered the dirt floor, along with most of his clothes and possessions. The only furniture in his shack was a plastic chair, a little plastic table holding a loaded handgun and a cot to sleep on.
Outdoors, he swore he could hear movement all around, but he was certain it was just the alcohol. He always heard movement outside his shack at this hour, when his only company was the bottle and the end of his pistol. Realistically, he knew that there was nothing outside his walls, but at time like this, he was sure the inner demons in his soul came out to harass him. To mock him and his failures.
Maybe this would be the night.
No one would miss him.
He put down the bottle and reached for the gun.
He picked up the pistol and pushed it up to his head.
A single tear slid down his face.
No more tears, just peace.
The door burst open as several zombies poured into the shack, arms outstretched to grab and devour Bill. The demons had truly come. His military and survival instincts kicked in, as he swung around and blasted the first zombie, painting the walls of his shack. The second one was mere inches away from Bill, the only thing keeping its jaw away was the end of the handgun.
He pulled the trigger , spreading out brain matter over top the mold of the shack.
The third zombie hit him from the side, it's teeth digging straight into Bill's shoulder.
"ARGH DAMN IT!" He screamed, unloading three bullets into it's skull. He pushed it off and got to his feet as two more zombies reached for him.
"I'M THE BILLDOZER!" He unloaded the clip into the pair, but four more followed them in. The space was getting tight. Bill tossed aside the pistol and grabbed two loaded automatic combat shotguns off the gun rack above his cot. While his back was turned, one of the more ambitious zombies bit straight into his ribs. He brought down his elbow on it, squeezing its head between his arm and side while spinning around to face the hoard. With one shotgun in each hand, he blew apart the zombies, decimating the walking corpses into chunks of meat.
He blasted his way out of his shack, only to find himself surrounded by at least thirty zombies on all sides.
"Everyone, into the den!" Hank shouted to Peggy and Bobby, who were both staring at the door that was barely holding back the undead.
"God Dangit! What the hell is all this!" Buck Strickland screamed from Bobby's room.
" !" Hank yanked open Bobby's door. The room was barely illuminated by one small candle. had retreated to the corner of the room, hugging his knees while staring at the barred window, where several zombies were reaching in.
" , come on!" Hank called out, extending his hand.
"Dad, grab the guns!" Bobby screamed. Hank grabbed two rifles from Bobby's gun rack and tossed them to Peggy and Bobby, just as the front door broke down. The home invaders made it about two feet before they were torn to shreds by gunfire.
"Grab all the guns!" Bobby shouted. Hank tossed out two more files, before taking a shotgun for himself and helping up .
"Everyone, into the den!" Hank ordered again. The Hill family retreated into the den, which had a ladder to the roof built in.
"Bobby, get up there!" Peggy ordered as she slammed the only entrance shut. Bobby nodded and quickly climbed up the ladder.
"How the hell am I suppose to get up there?!" cried out.
Hank looked at 's ankle, which was still twisted, then to Peggy, who was holding the door.
"Peggy, help get up the ladder, I'll hold the door, Bobby, take his hand!" Hank said, switching spots with Peggy. She gave him a "Are you fucking insane?" look, before helping up the ladder. The zombies reached the door and began pushing. Hank could feel it giving way. Bobby looked like he was having trouble pulling Buck up, until Buck used his own arms to get onto the roof.
"Peggy, get up there!" Hank ordered, just as the door gave way. He fell backwards as zombies fell into the room, groping and reaching for prey. Hank punched the nearest one in the face, knocking it backwards before reaching for the ladder. Peggy was already onto the roof as Hank scurried up. One ambitious zombie, who in his life before had been a skinny red haired social worker, grabbed Hank's foot and tried pulling him back down.
"They got me! Help!" Hank shouted, trying to kick the zombie loose, but the grip was like iron.
"I got him, Dad!" Bobby took the shot, decapitating the zombie social worker that had once tried to take Bobby away from his family with a high caliber round.
Hank shut the hatch to the den and took a moment to catch his breathe. He could hear shouting and gunfire all over New Arlen.
"How did this happen!? What the hell is going on?!" Peggy screamed, looking around.
Hank shook his head, "I don't know... we gotta get out of this though."
As if on cue, the Gribbles came running out of their home, Dale and Joseph in the lead with Nancy covering the rear, all armed.
"Dale! Get the Dead Bug Van!" Hank shouted from the roof.
Dale looked up at him, gave him a thumbs up, then opened fire on a handful of zombies heading his way.
"It looks like most of them are by shack!" Bobby said, pointing down to the opposite end of New Arlen. He was right.
While there was only a few dozen zombies around Hank's home, there was at least fifty or so crowded around Bill's Shack and Luanne's trailer.
"How did they get over the trench..? Oh shit..." Hank looked over at the part of the trench closest to his house. The light from the lantern hanging on the outhouse showed an uncountable mass of zombies just outside the trench line, while others simply walked over the trench. So many zombies had been drawn to the location that they had simply filled up several spots of the trench.
"Why did they all come here?!" Hank asked out loud.
Across the street, the Souphanoushinphones, with Kahn in the lead, ran out of their house towards their SUV. Kahn saw Hank on the roof.
"REDNECK! GET YOUR TRUCK!" He shouted, waving his gun in the air to attract Hank's attention.
"I've done a bad thing, oh lawdy" Buck Strickland said to himself quietly.
Peggy turned to him, while Bobby picked off zombies that drew to close to the gribbles or Connie.
"What did you say?" Peggy asked.
"It wasn't suppose to be like this, oh lord. They're suppose to help! This wasn't what was suppose to happen!"
"What did you do! Are you saying this is your fault!" Peggy shouted, aiming her hunting rifle right between Buck's eyes.
"Wah?! no... I mean... they said... they said there wouldn't be this many zombies, and they would come clear them out!" Buck said, as sweat started dripping down his forehead.
"What, who!?" Hank lowered Peggy's weapon while staring Buck Strickland straight in the eyes.
"This... group... they sent me here with a thing that attracts zombies... they said they would come in once the attack started.. but they're not here!" Buck was starting to get teary eyed as the realization set in that death was just around the corner.
"Who... what group?! Oh... no... no!" Hank looked away, remembering the man from in the ruins. He had mentioned someone coming in with a zombie tracker.
"What the hell did you bring! What's bringing them here!" Peggy demanded, prodding Buck with the rifle barrel.
Buck opened his mouth to reply, but Bobby cut in, "You left the suitcase in the trench! It was behind Bill's shack! You drew them here!" Bobby pointed his rifle at Buck too. Hank stepped in between his family and .
"Come on, calm down! We can't turn on each other now!"
