CONTINGENCY PLAN
eight-NARROW ESCAPES
Crystal was covered in blood. Thankfully, none of it was her own, though she hadnt been sure for a while there. The one thing Crystal was sure of was that Josh’s injunction against attacking the undead no longer applied. People in Santa Barbara were attacking anything that moved, without bothering to check first if it was infected or not.
It had begun yesterday. Crystal had been packing her things up to go and head back to the valley, when Jenn had convinced her to go out for one more dinner. Crystal had reluctantly agreed. While they were at dinner, several students had wandered in the door of the pizza parlor, acting strangely. Strangely to anyone who hadnt had zombies described to them anyway. While they were milling about the entrance, another impatient student had come up behind the group and tapped one on the shoulder
“cmon dude, some of us are hungry too.”
At which point the student he had tapped turned around and bit him on the arm. His scream of pain and outrage attracted the attention of the remainder of the group, not to mention the other patrons of the restaurant.
“Motherfucker! What the shit did you bite me for! fuck man! You fuckers need to restrain your drunk ass friend so he-WHAT THE FUCK!”
The student stood no chance as the other five zombies quickly turned their attention to this easy prey.
Crystal stood up, pizza in hand.
“Time to go, Jenn”
Jenn, wide eyed, allowed herself to be led up from the table and out the back door of the restaurant, while Crystal watched as the other patrons either ran to go stop the fight (stupid of them) or went for the exits. They exited into isla vista
“Shit.”
They were surrounded. It wasnt like the movies where things were on fire, people were crashing or running around with moaning zombies chasing them. In fact, the eerie bussinesslike silence was all the more terror inducing. The zombies just wandered around wherever the mood seemed to take them, to cars, restaurants, down the middle of the street, almost as they had when they were simply students. The living were easier to identify because they were usually alone or in groups of one or two, as compared to the ever growing amoeba like mob of the infected. Even the survivors werent making a lot of noise. Many just cowered in place, hiding in doorways or cars hoping they wouldnt be noticed. And for many it would have worked were not the crowd of infected thickening by the moment. After all, even the most dimwitted predator will notice something in its personal space, and as zombies flooded the streets from who knew where, places to hide were becoming few and far between.
“Cmon, we have to get to my car, we can get out of here”
“He was right”
“What? who was right?”
“Josh was right”
“Duh, but lets focus on not dying right now, mmkay? CMON”
“I need a weapon. my stick!”
“Screw your stick, its a piece of freaking wood…I have two swords and a crobar in my car if we can make it, let;s go!”
“Must have a weapon…only way to be safe”
And Jenn went bolting off to the dorms
“Jenn!”
But her friend chose not to hear her, running instead toward the crowded dorms, a place sure to be swarming by now. Well, screw that. Jenn was her best friend, but Crystal was not losing her life or humanity to someone determined to die. She would get to her car and procure herself a weapon. Then, if she had time, she might seek out Jenn. Friends dont let friends become zombies. She set out toward the visitor parking lot, and wondered how the others were doing
…………………
Phil was checking his instant messenger like a madman, looking for any kind of communication from anyone. He didnt doubt Josh was alive, but clearly he was unable to respond. And Phil couldnt afford to wait any longer. The zombies were present in great enough numbers that he didnt dare go outside without someone to watch his back. Just the other day he had seen one of the neighbors go out to try and scare off the mob of what appeared to her to be well dressed homeless. As she repeatedly hit them with brooms, a few of the zombies did move away. Right up until the point when another walked up behind her and bit the back of her head. The moment of confusion was all it took for three more to swarm her, and down she went. The scariest part was how it all happened in silence. None of the neighbors had left their houses since then and the zombies had free run of any with open doors. The carcass of the neighbor lay in the street, mute testimony to the truth of zombie existence. With the majority of her head gnawed off, Phil didnt think she would be getting back up, either.
Well, he wasnt staying here anymore. Crystal wasnt coming back to this neighborhood even if she had made it out of Santa Barbara, and he only had enough food supplies for a few weeks. Phil was going to set out for Santa Barbara himself, though not before making sure he was better prepared. So Phil went down to the garage, hooked two bicycles onto the back of his civic, and put half the food and weapons in the trunk. He kept the other half of the food in the backseat, and a hammer and wrench on the dash. The last thing he grabbed from his house was batteries, and every available cell phone. He may not be able to wait by the computer, but with AIM availble on most phones, any messages Josh left would get forwarded to whichever phone he happened to leave on, at least until the power cut out.
Phil got in the car and opened the garage. The noise attracted the attention of about 15 zombies, who had lined up in front of him like tenpins by the time the door was fully elevated. Phil took a deep breath. “They’re already dead man, you can do this.” Then he put the pedal to the floor and drove through the crowd. Two went over the windshield and one under the tires with a sickening crunch. But Phil was clear. Despite knowing he shouldnt, he looked back to see a man cut nearly in half, intestines spilling out but trying to crawl toward the car nonetheless. Phil breathed a sigh of relief…that sight, disturbing as it was by itself, meant he had been right. He hadnt risked killing innocents and these zombies, like the stories said, probably had to be taken out by head shots. He eased back in the chair and took a moment to gather himself. It was almost his last.
A fist crashed through the driver side window, showering Phil with shards of glass. While he had been staring behind him, another zombie had come up in Phils blind spot and with one attempt broken through the window. This one looked like a teenager, but no teenager phil knew was that strong. While the arm missed Phil, it did grab the steering wheel, Phil slammed on the gas, but the zombie merely got dragged along down the street, not loosening its hold in the slightest, reaching for Phil with its other hand even as the first one continued to maintain a death grip. Phil knew he wouldnt be able to shake the zombie like this, but he wasnt abandoning the car…he needed it, at least for now. So Phil hit the breaks, and as the zombie swung forward, it’s free hand missed Phil by inches yet again. With the car stopped, Phil grabbed the hammer beside him, kicked open the driver side door and jumped out. The zombie turned toward Phil and released the steering wheel. Phil let it follow him several steps away from the car, all the while watching as other zombies closed the distance. Once the first zombie was four paces away from the civic, Phil ran in close and ducked. As he predicted, the zombie made another grab for him, its arms closing over empty air. Phil popped up as they closed their loop, and used one hand to hold the zombies arms against itself so it couldnt grab him. The other arm brought the hammer down right at the bridge of the zombies nose as Phil attempted to smash its head in. The first few times, he heard a crack a bone, but the continued movement told him he dare not release his grip. Instead he continued hammering in a straight line up the zombies skull. Just as he was beginning to fear that he had been wrong and these zombies were immune to head injury, Phil heard one more crunch and the thing in front of him went limp and heavy. Phil wasted no time examining where the sweet spot was, instead running for the car as other infected closed the distance. He made it in, closed the door and peeled out down the street, his last view of the curtains of another house parting as he sped off to a more relative safety than his neighbors were likely to have. He may be safe for the moment, but those injuries would slow him down considerably, especially if they got infected. Luckily, he knew of a hospital nearby where he could pick up medical supplies, and hopefully a medic. For the moment, at least, saving Crystal would have to wait.
………………………………
Brian was enjoying himself. All of a sudden, it seemed it had become socially acceptable to hit people with baseball bats. Now Brian was not by nature a violent person, but dude, this was just like playing a video game. Brian had returned to his apartment to find it surrounded by a mob of zombies, too thick for him to make it through. That meant his survival for the moment depended on what he was carrying in his backpack. His list of supplies numbered thus: 3 packs of batteries, 5 boxes of shotgun shells, a metal baseball bat, 12 nutrigrain bars, a pack of beef jerky, a flashlight, a cell phone, and his digital camera along with 5 dv tapes, only one of which was even remotely full. Sadly, the shotgun was in the apartment, so Brian was without his preferred weapon, but c’est la vie. He grabbed a bicycle from the rack, and headed back toward the hospital he had seen last time and the nearby Wal-Mart. The police were there and clearly uninformed about the threat they were dealing with. One policeman was already down and surrounded by a mob who were devouring him like a blue light special. The other had opened fire on the zombies poring out of the walmart, but it was only serving to draw attention to himself from the zombies both in and out of the shopping complex. Brian watched as they put bullet after bullet into the chest of each of the zombies, wounds which bled, but neither slowed nor stopped the inexorable advance. Brian coasted down the hill and shouted, “GO FOR THE HEAD” As he gave one of the infected a good solid whack, dropping it like a sack of bricks. The terrified policeman quickly complied and began having a much higher success rate. Right up until he ran out of bullets. Brian and the policeman locked eyes and in that instant, Brian knew he couldnt make it in time. Nonetheless, he was determined to try, and as he pedaled toward the mob, he saw the policeman pull a shotgun from the back of the car and use it as a club. However, his angle was bad, and he couldnt deliver the force needed to crush skulls. One of the zombies finally got a hold of his foot and pulled him down. As it sank his teeth into the policemans leg, Brian made one last desperate shout-”Throw me the gun! I have ammo!”
The halfhearted toss landed amidst 4 zombies in the middle of a shopping cart. The effect would have been comical if Brian hadnt wanted the firepower so badly. He couldnt count on his drive by technique to take out the zombies, they were too close together. So He stopped the bike well back of the line of scrimmage, and ran toward them screaming. They didnt react. He didnt expect them to, It just made him feel braver. The first one dropped before it even got an arm up, and the second shortly after. Brian just missed the third zombie and instead landed the bat on its shoulder. He spun and smacked the legs of the fourth, knocking it to the ground just as it was leaning in to bite him.
“Wait your damn turn”
Brian turned back to deal with the third zombie. He waited til it came slightly closer, then he feinted left. As the zombie took the bait, Brian went right, came up behind it and caved in its head. He then grabbed the shotgun from the cart, and quickly loaded a few shells into it. Just as he finished, he felt a hand on his ankle. The fourth and final zombie had crawled over to him, and seized his leg. Brian sighed, more exasperated with himself than anything. As the zombie pulled itself closer, in an attempt to bite Brian, he twisted his body, turned and pointed the barrel right at the zombies face.
“This. Is. My. Boomstick.”
Then he pulled the trigger, and the hand on his ankle released as the excuse for a mind controlling it got spattered over the pavement. Brian looked around at his options. The Walmart was out of the question, since most of its shoppers were either zombies, or too stupid to leave a walmart full of zombies. The hospital however still only had a few zombies in front of it. There were undoubtedly more inside, but there was also a cafeteria. And Brian was famished. Until he could find a place to stock up on non-perishables, he could sneak in for a quick meal of hospital food, maybe some medicine, and some survivors who might be able to help him. Brian walked the bike over to the hospital, leaned it against the wall, and entered the lobby. As he headed down the deserted hallways in search of survivors or sustenance, he wondered how his brother was doing…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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