The Z Contingency

Chapter 35

He awoke with a feeling of dread from something he had heard from the television. Remembering that he had turned it to the horror network on cable to keep himself awake while waiting up for his wife, he relaxed. She had gone out to a bachelorette party for one of the girls from work while he stayed home with their daughters. As he listened to the sounds of a newscaster warning of a zombie invasion, he thought how funny it was that all these movies like Godzilla, and War of the Worlds overused newscasters to give warnings to create panic.

The dread suddenly returned as he realized that he hadn’t been watching a zombie movie. They had just started showing a remake of The Blob when he was dozing off. The credits were coming to an end now. He fumbled for the remote, and switched over to a local broadcast station, where they were in the middle of an Emergency Alert.

“... and if you are indoors, lock all of your doors and windows, and shelter in place. This is not a drill. If you think you have been infected, call the number at the bottom of the screen.”

Infected? What the hell are they talking about? Rapidly flipping through channels he found a station with the news on. The reporter was standing at the mall that was no more than five miles from home as her backdrop. She must have been at the far edge of the parking lot because the building seemed so small. He could see tiny people milling about outside, only their movements seemed strange. When she spoke, there was real fear in her voice. Gone was the usual calm tones that were common to all television news reporters.

“The people you see behind me are all zombies. Something is infecting local residents and causing them to attack people. This reporter personally witnessed one victim attacked by several of them as he emerged from the shopping mall you see behind me. It appeared that the attackers were tearing the victim apart, and eating the parts. The police are nowhere to be found.”

We will check in again with more developments. This is Kylie Singh, reporting live from….” Before she was able to complete her report, she let loose a blood-curdling scream as the camera crashed to the ground.

Through the cracked lens, he could see the cameraman lying face down on the ground, two zombies pulling at his face. As his head finally split open, the zombies greedily scooped out his brains and shoveled the matter into their gaping mouths.

He turned off the television, fighting back the urge to vomit. That’s only a few miles from here. We’ve got to get as far away from here as possible. He ran upstairs to his daughters’ room. “Girls!” he shouted. “Quickly, grab some clothes. We have to leave.”

“Where’s Mommy?” his older daughter asked.

“We’re going to go get her now. Then we’ll head over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Okay?” He tried to keep his voice steady, lest he telegraph his fear to his daughters. He pulled out a suitcase, grabbed some clothes from each of their dressers, and quickly stuffed those along with a few other items into the case.

“Quickly, girls. Get into the car.” He picked up the suitcase, grabbed his younger daughter’s hand, and together they followed his older daughter down the stairs and into the carport. After making sure the girls were buckled in, he tossed the suitcase into the back of the car. Backing slowly out of their driveway into the deceptively quiet night, he drove the car down the road toward the address of the bachelorette party.

As soon as he turned onto the street where the party was being held, he saw that all the houses were surrounded by hordes of zombies. Doors had collapsed and windows had broken from the sheer weight of the number of bodies pressed against them. Those dwelling inside could be seen or heard screaming as they were torn apart and consumed. There was no way to get to his wife. He instinctively swerved as two of the creatures stumbled into the road in front of him, causing him to knock over a trash can that had been set out for the next morning’s garbage pickup.

When he saw the zombies turning toward him, drawn to the commotion, he made a U-turn, and started driving away. “Where’s Mommy?!” screamed his girls, as the tears stung his eyes.

He prayed that she was dead, and had not become one of... them. “Mommy’s gone.” He sped back out of the neighborhood and onto the nearest freeway out of town.

He didn’t stop driving until he realized the car was out of gas. He was just able to pull into the nearest station, albeit on fumes. The station was already closed for the night, so he decided they would sleep in the car, and gas up in the morning.” He figured they were far enough away from Atlanta now to be safe for a while.

He was awakened again, this time be the screaming of one of his daughters. “They’re coming for us!” In the dim light of the breaking dawn, he could make out large numbers of bodies plodding and lumbering towards the car with contorted and tortured movements. They were still several minutes away, but they were coming from all sides. There would be no refueling of the car. They would have to get away on foot.

He realized that his girls would not be able to run through the gauntlet of zombies by themselves, so he would have to carry them.

“Girls, listen to me carefully. We have to run past them....”

“No!” they screamed in unison. “Lock the doors, Daddy! Don’t let them in.”

“You saw how they broke through the doors of those houses last night, didn’t you? We can’t stay, girls. We have to run. Daddy has to run, and he’s going to carry you.” Turning to his older daughter, “I’m going to give you a piggy-back ride. You remember how you always loved those, right? Well, we’re going to do that again, and we’re going to have fun. You have to be brave, but you have to hold on to me harder than you’ve ever held on before. Okay?” She nodded.

Turning to her younger sister, he said “You’ll be in front, and you have to help hold onto your sister, to make sure she stays on Daddy’s back. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

He scanned the approaching throngs to find the best path out, and started running as fast as his legs would carry him. It’s going to be fine. They can’t move all that fast. I just have to weave through them, and we’ll be in the clear.”

As he neared the first of the zombies, he began to dart between them. He nearly panicked when the nearest one suddenly lifted its arms and jerked in his direction, covering ground in a fraction of the time that it had been in its usual movement. My God, was that some kind of spasm or convulsion? If they can all do that and keep it up, there’s no way we’re getting away!

He saw that he was nearly through the thinnest part of the horde, so with a burst of new-found energy, he sprinted through the opening.

Just as we was bursting past the outstretched arms of the last of the zombies, he felt a sudden jerk backwards, and simultaneously heard his younger daughter scream.

“Daddy!” He spun around and saw the last of his older daughter, kicking and screaming as the zombies tore at her from all around. He could not go back to fight them off. He had another daughter to protect. Choking out a whispered “I’m sorry, baby” he turned around and continued running, clutching his remaining daughter as tightly as he could to his chest.

After several miles, he was finally unable to run any further, and collapsed, still holding his daughter tightly. They both sobbed silently until they fell asleep.