The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (20 page)

The
creatures focused on killing one person after another. They had attacked
between 60 and 80 people the previous night and had killed every single one of
them.

The
four teenagers were doing fine for now. They kept an eye out for where the
creatures were, but they could see that there were more creatures on the street
than when they first started to attack people two hours ago.

These
creatures, like all the creatures around the world, later dubbed ‘zombies,’ did
not move very quickly. They stumbled, walked or staggered at a slow pace. The
people who were being killed didn’t pay much attention to where they were
running. They just ran, and some ran directly into the creatures. Those people
paid dearly with their lives.

By this
time, the shadows had shifted from one side of the street to the other. Later
that day, as the sun started to go down, the four teenagers knew that they
needed to find a safe place for the night. As they walked in the center of the
street, they came upon an upscale department store that looked empty. The doors
of the building were cracked open just a bit. Jerry was the first to realize
that they needed to get off the street quickly. He called to the others, “Guys,
come look at this. This store is wide open. I don’t see anyone inside. We need
to find somewhere to hole up before it gets dark. Come with me to see if we can
find a safe place in here.”

They
went inside, carefully watching to see if there were any of the murderous
monsters inside.

“Jerry,”
called Mike. “Look at this room. What do you think?”

“This
looks like it’ll work for us. The door is solid. There are no windows or other
doors. We can be safe in here. Come on, girls, let’s go. This is where we’ll
spend the night.”

“Jerry,
are you out of your mind?” said Jennifer. “This place gives me the creeps.
There are no beds, no windows, no bathrooms… nothing. Tell me again why we’re
staying in here?”

“Jennifer,
we are staying in this room so we don’t wind up dead tonight. Is that a good
enough reason for you?”

“Okay,
Jerry. What if we have to use the bathroom or something? And where are we going
to sleep?”

“We’re
gonna take all of the clothes off the racks just outside the room and use them
to make beds. If we have to go to the bathroom, we’ll just have to go back
there in the corner. Either that or we can just sit out here on those couches
and see if we get killed being out in the open. I hear the night manager is one
of those creatures.”

“Jerry,
just because you were…
are
in ROTC doesn’t put you in charge,” said
Jennifer. “I might just sleep out here. Mary will stay with me, won’t you,
Mary?”

“Jennifer
are you
insane?
I’m going to go where Jerry goes. I trust him. He’s the
only one of us that has any training at all. If that means I have to pee in the
corner, so be it. I’ll be
alive
while I pee. What about you? Are you
going to stay out here by yourself? Do you think Mike is gonna stay out here?
Look, he’s already making a bed.”

“Mary,
why do you always have to point out that Jerry is always right? Mike’s just as
smart as Jerry.”

“Jen,
I’m with Jerry, in this case,” said Mary. “I’m scared out of my mind. I don’t
know
what
to do. For right now, I’m doing what Jerry tells me to. If you
want to stay out here, then you’re gonna be by yourself. We’re going to close
the door and block it until morning.”

“Okay,
fine. Jerry, you’re right,” said Jen. “Is that what you want to hear?”

“It’s
not about being right or wrong. It’s about what will work best for us right now,”
said Jerry. “I think this is the best thing that we have going for us. If you
ever think I'm wrong, please tell me so. I’m certainly not perfect. So if we’re
going to agree to stay here, then we have some work to do before it gets dark.”

With
that conversation done, they cautiously entered the room to make sure it was
safe. They looked for creatures in the shadows of the room. Finding none, they
closed and locked the door. The good news was that the electricity was still on,
so they had lights, for now. They made beds out of the clothes. They set up a
small wall back in the corner for a bathroom. They ate their cold hot dogs and
the last of their candy. Lying down for the night, they knew that tomorrow it
would start all over again, but tonight they were safe.

Their
goal was still the Grand Central railroad terminal. As they closed their eyes
to go to sleep, they didn’t know that they had passed Grand Central Station several
miles back, and that missing the terminal wouldn’t mean much to them even if
they could find it, since the trains had stopped running the day before.

They
soon found there was no viable transportation. The days turned into weeks. Each
day brought more of the same thing: Run towards home during the day. Find a
safe hiding place at night. The only good thing about this was that the screams
at night had fallen off. During their trip, they met various groups of people.
The people who had survived the first week of the zombie attacks had learned to
be very cautious of their actions. Knowing what they did could result in their
deaths if they weren’t careful.

By
this time, the electricity had failed. With it went the running water. Now
water was a prized commodity. The police and firefighters had vanished as well.
One day they came upon a stretch of buildings that had caught fire. They saw
that the buildings had burned to the ground.

Occasionally
they found would find a little food that they gathered up. They rationed it to
make it go farther. When they found water, they rationed that well. When it
rained, they set out tarps or plastic sheets to capture the water. They found
small, one- or two-gallon water jugs to carry their water. The worst thing was
the lack of food.

For
the last sixty days they had endured as they walked step by step closer to home
back in East Norwich, Long Island. Sixty days ago, eight teenagers sneaked off
to New York City for a late summer pre-senior year vacation. Now, sixty days
later, Stan and Rosie were dead. Unbeknownst to the four, their other friends Teddy
and Cori had been turned into the very things that they were fleeing from, the
very things that had been killing every person they could. They now belonged to
the zombies. Now there were only four that remained of the original group of eight.

Night
had fallen again. They couldn’t get very far at night. Along with the zombies,
there was another enemy they feared: Gangs of thugs that would kill for
something to eat.

Having
finally found the Brooklyn Bridge, they stopped for the night just past the bridge,
in the Brooklyn Historical Society building. By the end of the next day, they
were still in Brooklyn, in a building on Atlantic Avenue just east of Nostrand.
The four teenagers had only managed to walk a total of 26 miles in the 60 days.
They still had nearly 14 miles to go to get to their homes in East Norwich.

It was
getting late in the afternoon. They were tired. All they were managing to do so
far was hide from the zombies and the gangs of thugs. With all of these
diversions, they could not walk very far each day. This afternoon they had
walked east on Atlantic Avenue from Nostrand to Sheffield Avenue, a distance of
about a mile and a half. They found a suitable place that they could secure for
the night, and decided to stay there for the night. They had gotten out of the
commercial area of Brooklyn into a small business and residential part of the
city. The side streets led to single family housing. All of them were deserted
like the businesses.

They
took the time to break into some of businesses and homes that they came upon,
looking for food, water and clothing. As the days wore on, it had gotten colder,
and all they had was the clothes on their backs. Foraging took time —time that
they should have been using to walk towards home. Without food, water or adequate
clothing, however, they were not going to get home. They found that there was
not much food to be had. Other survivors had gotten to most of the available
food long before them.

What
meager food they did find was not enough to fill them. They were always hungry.
They had not eaten more than a few bites each over the last 40-plus hours. They
were hungry — not just the ordinary average teenager hungry, but rather a nearly
starving hungry.

For
now, the building they were resting in was secure, which was a good thing, but
the luxury of good food would have been such a wonderful treat to add to their
day.

Their
plan to walk back East Norwich was well under way. All they had to do was walk
another 14 miles. From the start, they knew it would be a long walk.
Unfortunately for them, there was no other way to get home. Five days ago,
outside Garden City, they came upon another group of three. Mike was the first
to see them. He nudged Jerry, holding a finger to his lips to indicate quiet.
He pointed towards the three, who were coming out of a building across the
street from them. Jerry leaned in to Mike, whispering in his ear, “They’re
looking for food, like us. I don’t think they’ve seen us yet. I’m going to walk
over and greet them. Are you good with that?”

“Dude,
that’s fine with me. Just be careful.”

Jerry
walked into the street in front of the building where the others were. He stood
there until they came out. When they saw him, everyone stopped. Jerry called
out to them.

“Hey,
man. How are you? My name is Jerry. We don’t want to hurt you. There are four
of us. I see that there are three of you. Can we talk?”

The
other group stopped, seeming uncertain. They seemed to be whispering among
themselves. Then one of them spoke up. “Yeah, if you want. I’ll come to you, if
you stay right there. These two will go back into the building while we talk.”

The
other man walked out to meet Jerry. Jerry offered his hand to shake. The other
man did the same.

“Hi. Like
I said, my name is Jerry. We’re just trying to get back home. What about you?
How are you guys doing?”

“We’re
okay. I’m Gary. We’re from Queens. We’re just out looking for food or whatever
we can find to keep going another day.”

“It’s
good to meet you, Gary. We’re from East Norwich, out on Long Island. We were in
Harlem when the zombie thing happened. We’ve been trying to get back ever
since. There are four of us. Mike, his girlfriend Jennifer, and my girlfriend
Mary. They’re over there in that other building, waiting for us to finish
talking. What about you guys?”