Chapter 4: On the Move

Zayna and I walked around the Deli, talking for a while longer. We both glanced up at the clock. It was already 3. "Ya think we should wake those guys up?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, "let's go." We walked behind the Deli counter and walked over to where everyone else was sleeping. We began to shake them awake and, one by one, they all began getting up. We got around to Seth and he was mumbling something in his sleep. I looked over at Zayna who rolled her eyes. "Here goes nothing," I said.

I reached down and grabbed Seth's shoulders. I shook him as I said, "Seth, get up." Nothing. He snorted as he pushed my hands off of him and rolled onto his side.

Zayna pushed him and said, "Come on, Seth, we don't have all day." Seth stirred in his sleep, but he didn't wake up.

"Watch out, guys," I heard Will say from behind us. I turned to see him holding a bucket of water.

"Are you crazy?" asked Zayna, "Don't you realize how mad he's gonna be if you do that?"

"I've done it before," said Will, "He'll hit me once and bitch about it for five minutes after. Then, he just forgets about it."

"Whatever you wanna do," I said as I got up. Zayna smirked and rolled her eyes again. We both stepped out of the way and Will swung the bucket, throwing the water onto Seth. Seth instantly woke up and he wasn't a happy camper.

"What the fuck?" he yelled as scrambled to his feet. He slipped in the water several times, but finally got to his feet. He looked around at us, looking for the one who'd woken him. He stopped at Will and noticed the bucket in his hands.

"Morning," said Will.

"Ya sleep well?" asked Amos.

"Enough of your smart ass remarks," said Seth, "Now I wanna know why the hell you threw water on me."

"We would've spent another twenty minutes trying to wake you up if I hadn't," said Will defensively. Seth shook his head and wiped the water off of his face. He walked between Zayna and I and walked towards Will. He brushed past Will and punched him in the stomach as he passed by. Will doubled over and started gasping for air.

Seth had hit him pretty hard. Enough to knock the wind out of him. Will coughed for a few seconds and was starting to turn purple when he finally caught his breath. He held out his hand and I helped him to his feet. The others stood around us, trying not to laugh at Will. I thought it was kinda funny too, but I managed to keep a straight face. "Alright, guys," I said, "get your shit together. We gotta go." Everyone spread out and began gathering their belongings. It took us all about five minutes to get our stuff together and when we were ready, we all walked over to the doors.

We stood and looked out of the glass doors into the zombie-filled parking lot. "Ya guys ready?" asked Seth, who was still wearing his wet clothes.

"Hell yeah," said Jacob as he put another clip into his Uzi.

"Good here," said Michael as he readied his pistol.

"Let's go," said Will as he shouldered his AR-15. I looked over at Amos. He nodded at me and readied his Uzi. I looked over at Zayna and she also nodded.

"You ain't ready," I said to her.

"What? Why not?" she asked. I reached over and took the MAC-10 from her. I switched the safety off and handed it back to her.

"Now you are," I said. She smiled and we all looked back out of the windows. "Alright," I said, "I know that there's a Boomer and a Smoker out there. I saw them out there earlier. I'm thinking that we're gonna get barfed on right away. While we're distracted, that Smoker's gonna try and snag one of us. Watch for that."

"It's go time," said Amos as he pulled the keys out of his pocket. He put the keys in the door and turned the doors slid open and we shined our flashlights out of the door. The zombies turned to look at us and a Boomer pushed his way through the crowd. He sent his green puke flying straight towards us, and Seth, Michael, and I were missed by it. Everyone else was slimed and quickly wiped the goo from their eyes.

A Smoker's tongue shot out of the crowd and wrapped around Will. "Fuckin' called it," I yelled as I began shooting into the horde of zombies. The others all began shooting as well, and the Boomer got caught in the crossfire. He exploded, sending some of his flesh-eating friends flying. The I saw an explosion of smoke to confirm the death of the Smoker and Will fell to the ground. Amos and Jacob quickly helped him to his feet and he started shooting. A zombie ran up to me and I rifle-butted him. He fell to his back and I put my foot on his chest. He struggled to get up and I blew his brains out with my shotgun.

Amos and Jacob nodded at each other and rushed forward, clothes-lining a couple of zombies and then stomping on their heads. Will tripped a zombie and fired a couple bullets into its head. Seth had dismembered a zombie and was beating up other zombies with a leg. Zayna had somehow wound up with Seth's shotgun in all of the confusion and just blew off a zombie's legs with it. He crawled on the ground towards her and she kicked him in the face. That didn't stop him, so she shot again, taking off his head.

Michael had got a hold of Zayna's MAC-10 and was beating a zombie to death with it. He had it down on the ground and fired a burst into its head, killing it. I heard a Hunter screech and I quickly stepped to the side. He landed on the ground where I had been standing a few moments before. I kicked him in the head and he stood straight up. He swung at me and cut my left arm slightly. "You motherfucker," I said. I punched him straight in the face and he staggered back. I took a step towards him and blew his right leg off with my shotgun. He fell to the ground and tried to claw at my legs. "Gotta do better than that," I said. I fired, taking off his head.

I turned around to see a Boomer right in my face. I quickly pushed him and he fell backwards. He fell onto his back and was unable to get up (like a turtle). We all took a few steps back and fired upon him, popping him like a zit. The zombies stumbled back and Seth and I looked at each other.

"We really doin' this?" he asked

"Hell, yeah," I said.

"Zayna!" he shouted, "Shotgun!" Zayna tossed him the shotgun and we both charged forward into the crowd of zombies, shouting obscenities as we went. We locked arms right before we hit and plowed through the mob of zombies.

"You crazy motherfuckers!" I heard Jacob yell.

"It's what we do," said Seth with a smile. We stopped and looked all around us. Zombies looked at us hungrily and began closing in.

"Do work, son," I said. Seth and I began firing our shotguns, destroying the horde from the inside out. We ran out of ammo and dropped our guns. We locked arms once again and charged through the crowd, punching zombies as we went. We emerged from the fleshy mound and ran back to the group. They started shooting and quickly mowed down the remnants of the zombie assault force. Seth and I were still breathing heavily and we slapped each other a high five.

"You guys are insane," said Zayna as she reloaded her MAC-10.

"I thought it was pretty fun," said Seth, "What about you, Paul?"

"That might've been the funnest thing that I've ever done," I replied with a smile. We all kind of laughed and Seth and I began searching the mound of zombies for our weapons. After about a minute of digging through zombies, we found our guns and reloaded them. We stood in the parking lot and looked around. We were all kind of baffled by the amount of bodies there were.

"Wow," said Zayna, "we're total bad asses."

"Damn straight," said Seth.

"So what's the plan?" asked Michael.

"Simple," I said, "we go to Farmington and get to the airport. Jesus, Nigel, it's not rocket science."

"OK, OK," said Michael.

"Well, then let's get a move on," said Seth, "We can't stand around here all day." We all began walking west towards Farmington and we killed any zombies we saw as we walked. We walked past a school bus on the side of the road and we all stopped and stared at it.

"Should we take it?" asked Zayna.

"I don't see why not," said Will.

"I call I'm driving," said Michael. Michael began running happily to the bus when we heard what sounded like a crowd of zombies screeching. Michael stopped dead in his tracks and we all readied our guns.

"That sounded pretty close," said Zayna. Just then, a mob of zombies came running out from behind the bus. We all opened fire and started mowing them down. I quickly looked behind us and realized that they were coming from there too.

"Shit!" I shouted, "Stand back-to-back!" We all tried to scramble into formation, but we were quickly overwhelmed by zombies. We all had to fend for ourselves in this brutal free-for-all. I glanced to my left to see Will on the ground, being stomped on by zombies. Michael was wrestling with one of them and Seth was just kicking ass.

I was being hit by zombies from all sides and I was about to be taken down when I heard a strange beeping sound. I saw a red flashing light go by us and the beeping continued. The zombies all ran towards the red, beeping thing and we quickly got Will up. The zombies were all crowding around something and fighting over it.

The beeping got faster and suddenly, there was a huge explosion from inside the mob of zombies. Bits of zombie showered the area and we all groaned in disgust. "AW, HELL YEAH!" I heard someone shout. I turned to see Devyn Daniels walking towards us. I had met Devyn when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. He was about 6' 1" with brown hair (he had a mohawk) and light brown skin. He had a pretty muscular build and he had always been the one that motivated me to push myself to my limits. He carried an AK-47 in his hands and a belt with several bombs on it. The bombs were pipe bombs with wires all over them and a little red light.

"Devyn!," I yelled, "What're you doing here?"

"Saving your ass," he said as he walked up to us.

"Thanks for the help," I said, "If you hadn't shown up when you did, we would all be mince meat by now."

"I guess I was just in the right place at the right time, huh?"

"Guess so," said Seth, "So where you headed?"

"Nowhere really," answered Devyn, "just kinda wanderin' around, killin' some zombies. What about you guys?"

"We were thinking about heading to the airport," I said.

"Don't waste your time," said Devyn.

"Whaddaya mean?" I asked.

"I just came from there," he said, "whole place is crawling with zombies." My heart instantly sank. I wondered if my parents had made it out of there OK. Zayna must've seen that I was upset because I felt her hand upon my shoulder. I looked up at her and she smiled slightly.

"Paul, I'm sure they're fine," she said reassuringly.

"Who's fine?" asked Devyn.

"His parents had gone to the airport," said Zayna.

"Oh, shit," said Devyn, "I'm sorry, man. I hope they're alright."

"Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do now?" I asked, "The airport was our ticket outta here and it's out of commission."

"Should we just go to Farmington anyways?" asked Michael, "There might still be an evacuation center there."

"I guess so," I said, "we don't have much of a choice. You wanna tag along, Devyn?"

"Do you really expect me to leave you guys alone after the display I just saw?" he asked, "HELL NO!" he answered his own question. "Without me, you muthafuckas would be dead! I ain't gonna let you guys walk around by yourselves!"

"Alright then," I said with a slight smile.

"You guys got a car?" asked Devyn.

"We were actually planning on using that," said Amos as he pointed to the bus. Devyn looked at the bus and shook his head.

"Are you fuckin' serious?" he asked, "That's some elementary school bullshit, but I guess it's better than walkin'." We all walked over to the bus and found the door open. There was nobody on there, not even a body. We all spread out around the bus and Michael sat in the driver's seat.

"OK, ladies and gentlemen," said Michael, "please, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times." He started the engine and the bus started crawling along. We quickly got out of Bloomfield and headed west towards Farmington. On the way, we told Devyn the names of all of the zombies we'd seen so far. After we told him that, we all sat in silence for a while. I looked a few seats behind me and saw Seth roll down his window.

"Are you about to do what I think you're about to do?" I asked. He stuck his shotgun out of the window and started shooting at the zombies that we were passing. I glanced over at Devyn. He shrugged and rolled down his window too. He began shooting at zombies and I chuckled.

Zayna looked over at me and shook her head as she smiled. "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em," I said. We both rolled our windows and began shooting at zombies. We killed zombies drive-by style until we entered Farmington. Then, we all sat back down in our seats and took a breather.

"I got 17," said Devyn, "What about you guys?"

"23," said Seth.

"20," I said.

"15," said Zayna.

"16," said Amos.

"19," said Jacob. We all looked at Will who looked embarrassed.

"What about you?" I asked.

"7," he said quietly. We all stared at him in silence for a moment and then started laughing. Zayna was the only one who didn't laugh, but she looked like she wanted to.

"What a bitch," said Seth.

"Hey," said Will, "you guys got a head start on me."

"By about thirty seconds," said Devyn, "Paul and Zayna started at the same time you did and they still beat you. And Zayna's a girl!"

"But I'm also a bad ass," said Zayna. We all laughed and reloaded our weapons.

"OK," said Michael, "where we goin'?"

"Shit, I don't know," I said, "Wal-Mart?"

"Sounds good," said Michael as he made a sharp right turn towards Wal-Mart. We drove a few blocks then I heard the engine sputtering.

"Fuckin' figures," said Jacob. The bus came to a stop a few moments later and we all sat in silence for a few seconds.

"Fuck!" yelled Devyn. We all began pouring out of the broken down bus and stood in the street for a moment. We began walking down the street towards Wal-Mart. We saw a few cars abandoned in the streets, but we didn't even think about taking them at the time (If we had, maybe things would be different now). The buildings were so much different now. Buildings that were once so bright and full of life were now dark havens for the undead. Dead bodies littered the streets. Not just men, but women and children also. Zayna covered her mouth in shock as we walked past a dead woman holding her dead child.

Zayna looked like she was having a hard time holding back tears. "You OK, Zee?" I asked. She swallowed hard and nodded. We continued walking and I could see the Wal-Mart less than a block away. Just then, I heard something that sounded like a pig squealing. We all stopped dead in our tracks and looked around. I saw something moving around behind a tree and I peered into the darkness, trying to get a better look at it.

"Over there," I told everyone, pointing my flashlight towards the tree. Someone walked out from behind it and we all froze. At first, I thought it was just a normal zombie...until I looked at its right arm. The rest of his body was normal, but his right arm was huge.

"Holy sheep shit Batman," I said as I looked at the zombie. Suddenly, it shouted and began sprinting at us. Normally, we would've taken it down quickly, but this zombie was a lot faster than any other we'd ever seen. In the blink of an eye, he whizzed by us and grabbed Jacob in his right hand as he passed. They skidded to halt and the zombie raised Jacob over his head with his massive right arm.

The zombie drove his fist to the ground, slamming Jacob to the ground. Jacob screamed and I heard bones crack. We quickly opened fire, but the zombie had time to slam Jacob one more time before he fell. We rushed over to Jacob and he was lying on the ground, choking on his own blood.

"Damn it," I said. His arms and legs were contorted and they were obviously broken. I wouldn't be surprised if every bone in his body was broken. "Pistol," I said as I held my hand out. Zayna reached into her holster and handed me one of her M1911's. I walked over to Jacob and crouched down next to him.

He coughed and mumbled, "Finish it." I put the pistol to his head and I took a deep breath. I pulled the trigger, and the gunshot followed. All was silent for a moment, and then we all exhaled at the same time (I guess everyone else had taken a deep breath too). I stood up and looked down at Jacob.

"You were a hell of a guy," I said, "you deserved a quick death. Rest in peace." I walked back over to the others and saw that everyone except Seth and Devyn had been facing the other way. I walked over to Zayna and offered her the pistol back. She took it from me and put it back into the holster. We all stood in silence for a moment and then Devyn broke the silence.

"So, what're we gonna call those guys?" he asked. We all thought for a moment.

"OK, so that guy was really fast, right?" said Seth, "He didn't exactly look it, but he was fast. So how about Charger?" We all agreed on the name and continued walking towards the Wal-Mart.

"Anyone got the time?" I asked.

"Yep," said Devyn as he looked at his watch, "its 6:23." I had a hard time believing that it'd already been three hours since we'd left Farmer's. The sun was just about to come up as we walked into the parking lot of Wal-Mart. We looked up to see a mob of zombies crowding around something and someone yelling profanities. We stood and watched for a few seconds until the zombies were all killed by the unknown survivor. The sun was just coming up and I was unable to see who it was. All I could see was that they were holding a bar stool in their hands.

"Why do you have a bar stool?" I asked.

"I had to improvise," said the survivor in a mysterious voice.