Kirk Allmond - What Zombies Fear - A Father's Quest

Leo sighed, finished the water in her cup, and continued, determined to get through the rest of her story. “I heard John yell, almost the same cry I let out when the blonde in the bathroom took a bite out of me. My skin felt tight and prickly. The redheaded attacker had me by the neck, blocking my view with her body. I remember feeling frustrated, and then with one strong thrust I ran the kukri upwards through her jaw and out the back of her head. Her blood splashed onto my face before I dropped her to the ground. John was struggling with the pale woman. She was on top of him, and had him pinned down, her face buried in his shoulder. I couldn’t imagine how a small thing like her could have so much strength.”

“She was incredibly strong, and in my defense, I didn’t know yet that you had to shoot them in the head,” said John defensively.

“Before I could get close to help him, John pressed the gun to her chest and fired twice. It didn’t seem to hurt her, but the impact jarred her loose, allowing him to roll her off backwards. John sat up, switched the gun to his good arm and shot her twice more straight through the head. Her corpse fell over in a heap.” Leo was gaining momentum in the telling now, speaking more quickly. Her accent was getting even thicker. “Kyle had moved on to the big pack now, killing three more. The big lump of flesh that used to be a biker was lying on the sidewalk beside him, his head blown off. The biker’s leather jacket had ten or fifteen bullet holes in it. Kyle finished them all off one by one, before the rest of us could have a go, each one shot to the head, they dropped like flies.”

We were all on the edges of our seats. Despite her accent and sometimes-odd phrasing, this was a riveting story.

“John cussed and yelled at his luck,” she said. “He kicked the corpse in front of him before turning around to face us. I didn’t say anything, I knew how he felt, if the movies or stories or zombie websites had taught us anything, it was that once you are bit, you become one of them. I watched as Kyle started to drag one of the bodies to the front yard of a house, dropping it and picking up another one. I didn’t understand why we were wasting time to pile up bodies on the side of the road, but I didn’t question him either, I decided to help him instead. Kyle was angry. ‘Fourteen of them, a couple of hours ago they used to be human, now they are just rotting flesh,’ his voice heavy with emotion. We’d all talked about zombies before, but no one really believed it could happen. Kyle continued, ‘I think we should clear up a house here, spend the night, reinforce it while there is still daylight, it seems the shit has hit the fan in the speed of light’.”

Several heads nodded their agreement at both the speed with which the outbreak occurred, and the need to find a safe place to hold up for the night.

“Two of us were injured and we were running out of ammo, it seemed like a rather valuable idea to me, and John agreed. We walked past a few houses, until we found one with the door standing wide open, a stain of red marked on the white porch. It seemed like a better idea to start by luring the zombies out, if there were any inside it would be best they came to us, rather than trying to fight them in a hallway or a bathroom. We made some noise and waited for a while but nothing came towards us, Plan B was to sweep the entire house, making sure it was clear of the infected. Coming past the living room, I noticed a pair of legs protruding sideways from behind a couch. I signed to John towards it and aiming his gun at it, he slowly approached it. The deceased’s legs once seemed to belong to a male, but it was hard to tell. There wasn’t much left of the corpse aside from the lower appendages. We cleared out the rooms one by one, locked the front door, dropped the blinds and closed the curtains. Kyle made sure that the back door and the garage door were also secure.”

“That fucking smites more then when I got hit in the gumnuts by a boomerang. I don’t recommend getting bitten by a zombie to anyone,” said John rubbing his shoulder, remembering the pain of the bite.

Leo almost cracked a smile at that, which I would bet was John’s plan. He was a lot like me, we both use humor to diffuse uncomfortable situations.

“I passed the first aid kit I took from the ute to John to take care of his wound,” Leo said. “He looked at me and curled his lip. He nodded a thank you and sat on the couch. I sat across from him, watching him as he poured antiseptic over the bite, he didn’t bother to bandage it up.”

“Seemed like it needed air,” John mumbled. I grinned to myself. Again, it was exactly something I would say.

“I remember Kyle questioned me about my skill with the kukri. I didn’t really have an answer for him. The truth is - I had probably sliced the air with the damn thing ten times since I got it, but killing those zombies out there came almost naturally to me. I couldn’t explain it. I felt different.” Leo said. “We sat quietly; John flicked the television, each channel showing the same thing, people attacking people, warnings to stay inside. I wondered what he was thinking, he wasn’t really paying attention to the TV, I could tell by his unmoved gaze. Suddenly almost, as if he heard me he turned around to look at me. He told me he was worried about his family back home. We talked about our lives at home for a couple of hours, I learned about his children and his wife, how close he was to his younger brother, Sean, who often got mistaken for his twin.”

“By then, it had been a couple of hours, and we didn’t seem to be turning,” interjected John. “My bite healed up really quickly, and Leo’s did too. Within those few hours both of our bites were gone.”

“By then, Kyle had climbed onto a single bed in one of the rooms and was snoring away, I felt tired myself but I was too paranoid to close my eyes. More hours passed, we circled the house numerous times, watching carefully through the blinds on the street outside, a couple of cars went by but other than that, not much movement was detected. I kept my backpack on my shoulders, ready to run if I have to. We kept the light turned off, limiting ourselves to the illumination the TV created in the living room. I found a gym bag in the main bedroom and emptied it from the dirty sweaty clothes. Rampaging through the kitchen I filled the bag with whatever non-perishable foods I could find, and filled a couple of empty bottles I found with water.”

John interrupted again, “That’s when it got ugly.”

“This is my story,” said Leo, eyeing John. “I will tell it how I want too. Anyways, I placed the bag on the couch in the living room and turned, aiming to check on Kyle who was still sleeping, when John grabbed me by the wrist, and told me something wasn’t right. It seemed as if we automatically attuned to each other, we moved in unison. John was ahead of me with his gun ready. We moved down the dark hallway towards the bedroom where Kyle was asleep, when we came across an opened cellar door I did not recall seeing earlier. We continued until we found ourselves outside the bedroom, I slowly pushed the door, squeaking as it swerved open. We heard a growl, Kyle was pinned in the bed by a zombie, one of its hands covering Kyle’s mouth, I could see his body pulsating underneath the weight, the zombie had taken a chunk right out of his neck, and the bed was covered with his blood. The zombie pounced towards John; he fired before it could reach him, throwing it backwards behind the bed. I ran over to Kyle and placed a sheet over his neck, desperately trying to stop the bleeding, his body still shaking, unable to speak; he looked at me his eyes wide.”

“Poor Kyle,” said John.

“Kyle grabbed my arm tightly, to the point it felt it was going to break and his expression changed from fear to hatred in seconds. John must have sensed the change and grabbed me by the shoulders. He pulled me backwards, forcing me free from Kyle’s hand. I watched in horror as he pointed the gun at his head, just as the zombie he shot before jumped over from behind the bed throwing him backwards outside the door. I leaped up to my feet and sprinted to the front door, Kyle hot on my tail. I ran onto the road and my eyes met with the bright lights of a truck that had stopped in the middle of the street. That’s when you, Victor, yelled ‘Ma’am get down!’ I yelled back that Kyle was my responsibility. I turned around and took the kukri out of its sheath, swinging it downward like an axe, splitting Kyle’s skull in two. His body dropped; I had just killed my friend. I freed my kukri of his skull, wiped it, and then holstered it back to its sheath. That’s when I turned around now to face the mysterious man and the special kid that was looking at me through the back window.