Life As We Know It Read online

  Rory walked over to the zombies, letting them free.

  The zombies didn’t just go for Penny as expected, rather they each went for all of them, causing rather a lot of panic. Jack got out his pistol and shot the first one in the head. Rory went to shoot but found that his gun jammed. Luckily, Rory had taken what Charlie had said to heart in the gun store earlier, and he grabbed his knife from a sheath on his belt and stabbed the zombie through the eyeball, hitting the brain and killing it instantly.

  Penny shot a zombie that was about to bite Jack. The bullet hit its mark and the zombie went down. That would have been all except for one other zombie that was standing behind Charlie. Just as the zombie was about to bite Charlie, he swung around and sliced his sword in an upward motion, and everyone watched in awe as the two halves of the zombie separated.

  The top half of the zombie gurgled and spluttered, but only until Charlies heel came down on top of the it’s head and crushed it like a rotten pumpkin.

  After things had calmed down, Jack had a look through the cupboards and realised that they were starting to get low on basic supplies.

  “We’re going to have to drive down to the supermarkets and grab some stuff.” He said.

  “But we don’t have any money left.” Said Charlie.

  Every one else looked at Charlie as though he was the biggest idiot on the planet.

  “Oh.” He said, as it dawned on him.

  “I’m only ever going to take one person with me at a time.” Said Jack. “That way, we don’t attract too much attention to ourselves. So then, who wants to come?”

  Charlie stuck his hand up like he was in school, answering a question.

  “Ill do it!” he said enthusiastically.

  Jack looked at him strangely, but agreed to take him along anyway. They walked out along to the van and hopped in. Jack fired up the ignition and the van rumbled to life. As they sped along the highway, Charlie’s thoughts started to wander. Was this a long-term thing? He supposed that if he was going to live through a zombie apocalypse, he was glad he was surviving it with three others in a nice big house. As they pulled up to the store, Charlie noticed about 20 zombies here. This was a big one.

  “We can’t go out there with all of those zombies. They’ll swamp us before we can fire a shot.” He said to Jack.

  “I have an idea.” Jack said. He peered out the window and saw the zombies advancing on the van. He put the van into drive and did exactly that. He drove. The zombies didn’t stand a chance against the armoured van’s thick chunky tires. Jack ran over at least 8 of them within 30 seconds.

  “There. They are not all dead, but at least now we have a chance to get into the store.” Jack said.

  They got out of the van and surveyed the damage. There were zombie brains covering the van and blood and entrails plastered on the ground. Charlie pulled out his sword and swiftly cut the first zombies head off. Jack pulled out his gun and blew another zombies brains out. Charlie got his Colt out of the holster and pistol-whipped a zombie in the head. It went down and Jack stomped on its face. One of the zombies grabbed Jack, but he flipped the zombie over his knee and Charlie put a bullet in his brain. One last zombie came stumbling towards them. Charlie cut both its arms off, and stabbed it through the throat.

  It fell with a thud.

  Charlie and Rory sprinted into the store and started throwing general items into their bags. Things like toothpaste, bread, milk, just boring everyday things that their life now depended upon. Charlie grabbed some more boxes of cereal and then they headed out.

  “Right. Next stop. Back to the gun store.”

  ***

  “We never got extra ammo for he guns.” Jack continued. “I was just looking over our remaining ammo, and we would have been out in days.”

  They got back in the van and left for the gun store, ‘accidentally’ running over some more of the corpses.

  When they got to the gun store, Jack got out of the van and ran into the store. He came out 5 minutes later with armfuls of ammunition.

  “Holy shit!” Exclaimed Charlie.

  “There’s even more where that came from! Come with me!”

  Charlie followed Jack into the ammunition part of the store and just started grabbing armfuls of ammo. They walked out 15 minutes later with enough ammunition to last them months. They also took four extra handguns, in case their own pistols failed them or were lost. With all the danger outside the shops gone, they walked back to the van and got in. On the drive back home, Charlie had a look through the bags. They had gotten enough food to last them a week, maybe a bit more. This would NOT be the last trip to the shops. They got back to Jack and Penny’s place. Penny and Jack embraced and Charlie and Rory shook hands.

  “How did you go?” Rory asked them.

  “Actually, we went pretty good. We took down like 20 zombies all up though.” Jack replied.

  “We did get a whole lot more ammo though, and extra guns in case we ever lose ours or they break. I want everyone to attach a second holster to themselves and carry this extra gun at ALL TIMES. Got it?”

  “Yes.” The survivors said.

  “Good. Now I’m going to go grab a cup of coffee.”

  ***

  So the survivors started to get used to this world. They made regular runs to the store, and when they ran out of ammo, they went back to the gun store too. The found 3 more cars, and stationed them around the house as ‘getaway cars’ in case of an extreme emergency.

  Penny became a real badass with a gun, yet Rory continued to take them outside and train them all extensively every week. He also taught them rigorous offence training that he had learnt while in the police force.

  Their world was indeed dying. But they were living. They were surviving.

  In fact, they managed to survive five whole months before the shit REALLY hit the fan.

  Chapter 3: Beasts

  Almost five months later, Charlie Gilroy woke up at 8:38 AM. His damn watch kept waking him up at that time. Oh well. At least it wasn’t something horrific like 1 or 2 in the morning. He got up, said his hellos to everyone and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “Morning guys.” Penny said. “How are you?”

  “Good, really good.” Charlie said. “Right. How are we for food?”

  “Not good.” Rory replied.

  “Ok then.” Jack said. “Me and Rory will make a run today.”

  “Later.” Charlie said. “We’re good for another 4 or 5 hours. Besides, we just woke up.”

  Charlie went outside and mowed the lawns. It seemed like such a non-apocalyptic idea but they did it so zombies couldn’t sneak through the tall grass. It also made them feel a little bit better about the world they now lived in.

  As Charlie did this mundane but potentially life saving job, Penny went outside and started to check the cars, making sure each one was working in case of a quick getaway. It had been Jacks idea and she thought it was a rather brilliant one. None of these cars would even come close to withstanding what the armoured van could, but at least they would provide a quick getaway. Jack was getting the van ready for the trip to the shops later on, and Rory was lovingly cleaning out his gun.

  About an hour later, when everybody had finished with their jobs, they all convened in the kitchen.

  “Right.” Jack said. “I plan on leaving in the next hour or so, but before we go, I want Rory to go and take a look out in the nest. Sound alright?”

  “All good man.”

  The ‘nest’ was actually the attic of Jack and Penny’s old house. After they completely hollowed the room out, the turned it into a rather handy snipers nest. After the survivors had taken out the whole North wall of the attic, it had given them a fantastic view of the whole North side of the house. They had set up a sniper that they had taken from the gun store and now every time they saw a zombie they would simply shoot it from the safety and relative comfort of this room. As Rory walked up the stairs to the attic, he reflected on just how lucky he was to be part
of such a group. Not one of them have even been injured that badly, except for the time that Charlie had accidently dropped his small knife and it had stabbed Jack in the toe. Rory still chuckled at the memory of it. As he reached the top of the stairs he pulled open the hatch to the attic and climbed in. He sat in the comfortable camping chair they had set up in case for particularly long waits. He grabbed a pair of binoculars a nail on the wall and tried to see if any zombies were around. There was one zombie. Shplat! The zombie fell down, its head a gooey mess. Rory saw another zombie. It met a similar fate. Then another. And another. Strange, he thought. They usually don’t come in packs of more than two or three. Then he saw them. Dozens, if not hundreds of zombies were making their way towards the house.

  “Shit.” Rory muttered.

  ***

  “GUYS, WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM UP HERE,” Rory screamed, panic and terror cracking in his voice.

  Rory heard them sprinting up the stairs. “WHAT IS IT, WHATS GOING ON?” Jack yelled.

  Rory thrust the binoculars into Jacks hand. “Look” he said.

  “Holy fuck.” Jack whispered, too scared to even speak clearly.

  “What is it Jack?” Charlie and Penny asked in unison.

  “Zombies. At least a hundred of them. All heading this way.”

  Jack put his head in his hands and started shaking. It seemed they were going to have a decision: Stay and defend their home, their sanctuary, and risk almost certain death, or leave, and face the world they had tried so desperately to escape?

  Jack was still in meltdown mode, and the zombies were approaching fast.

  Charlie got up and smacked Jack in the face. Hard.

  “SNAP THE HELL OUT OF IT!” He yelled.

  Jack looked at Charlie. He had that strange look in his eye that he got when he was really determined.

  “Your right.” He said. “Lets move.”

  The survivors got into the main part of the house. They made sure that they had everything possible packed if worst came to worst and they had to leave.

  “Ammo?”

  “Check.”

  “Food?”

  “Check.”

  “Clothes?”

  “Check.”

  “Fuel for the cars?”

  “Check.”

  “Weapons?”

  “Check.”

  “First aid kit?”

  “Check.”

  “Alright then.” Jack said. “Lets fight these undead sons of bitches.”

  Charlie brought the bags containing these things out on to the porch. He dropped them by the front door and walked out with the rest.

  Jack, Penny, Charlie and Rory stood outside of the house that had protected them from every zombie attack they had had since they had moved in here. But those attacks had only come from zombies in groups of two or three, and very rarely, sometimes four. There had to be at least one hundred zombies here, and they were all bloodthirsty.

  As the zombies approached, everyone made sure that their guns were loaded, their blades were sharpened, and then they readied themselves for the biggest fight of their lives.

  ***

  As soon as the zombies were within shooting distance, the survivors hit them with everything they had. Within the first 2 minutes of them arriving, they had already taken down about 20 zombies. But around there was where their luck ran out. Charlie holstered his gun and drew his sword instead. He swung it at one of the zombies and sliced through its neck like it was made of hot butter. As the zombie’s head bounced along the ground, another zombie grabbed Charlie and tried to bite into his arm. Charlie had chosen to wear his heavy-duty riding jacket, and Charlie was able to kill the zombie before it bit into his skin.

  However, this is when things started to get tricky. As Charlie was in the process of killing the zombie that had tried to eat him, Rory was having trouble. 6 or 7 zombies were advancing on him, and his gun simply was not fast enough to kill them all before they killed him. He was forced to retreat into the armoured van before he was devoured. Meanwhile, while Rory was in the armoured van, Jack and Penny were taking on some other zombies. Thankfully for them, Jack had taken a machine gun with him from the gun store, and it was proving its use now. The heads of the zombies exploded like rotting fruit, and the zombies fell to the ground.

  The gun however, immediately ran out of ammo after that.

  “FUCK.” Jack yelled. He threw the now useless gun at an advancing zombie and it bounced harmlessly of its head. Charlie was now officially in trouble. He just couldn’t get in a good hit. Every time he killed one zombie, two would take its place. Finally admitting defeat, he too retreated to the safety of the armoured van. Jack would not let up. He had put way too much work into this house and he was not going to lose it now. He felt a tugging on his sleeve as Penny tried to drag him to the van.

  “NO!” He yelled. “This is our HOME! We have to stay here and protect it for Christ sakes.”

  Penny looked terrified, but finally realised that there was no choice other than to stay and protect the house that had protected them for such a long time. Jack picked up a spade and slammed it into a zombies face. There was a hideous crunch as its nose smacked into its brain, killing it instantly. Penny fired a bullet at an oncoming zombie. The bullet blew its way through the zombie’s head, shattering its skull and liquefying its brain. The zombie dropped to the ground and gave an involuntary twitch. Jack was exhausted. He dropped down to the ground and sat there. A zombie was fast approaching, but this was it. He had given up.

  Inside the van, Charlie and Rory looked at each other. They realised that they couldn’t just sit here in the safety and comfort of an armoured van while Jack and Penny – the people who saved their lives, took them in and taught them how to survive – took on these undead freaks by themselves. Charlie ran out of the van and took the head of a zombie with the blade of his sword. Rory put a gun in the mouth of a zombie and blew its brains to hell. Jack looked up in amazement. The newfound hope forced him to get to his feet and start again. He took his knife out of its sheath and stabbed a zombie through the eye with it. Foul blood spurted out and the zombie fell to the ground. Penny retrieved an umbrella that was lying in the dirt and stabbed a zombie in the chest. While it didn’t kill the zombie, it halted it enough for Penny to fire a bullet into its brain, leaving a star-shaped hole in the back of the zombie’s skull.

  Jack, Penny, Rory and Charlie battled the zombies like this for nearly 25 minutes until Jack looked up at what was left. There were only about ten zombies left! They could do this! They could actually survive! Jack ran at one of them and opened the zombie’s throat with his blade. The zombie tripped over its own blood and cracked its skull on the hard ground.

  Rory tripped a zombie over and threw a brick at its head. The brick destroyed the zombies face and the zombie fell back and slumped against the ground. Charlie swung his blade and swiftly decapitated a zombie, then sliced its head in half before the head had even hit the ground! Penny stabbed a zombie through the back of the head, and it fell to the ground. Things continued like this for a while until Charlie put his sword through the back of a zombie’s head, and it flopped to the ground.

  The survivors looked around. There were at least 150 zombies lying scattered all over the front yard of the estate. Against all odds, they had beaten these zombies, and most importantly, all of them had lived through this terrible ordeal. And so had the house. Charlie looked up at the house and smiled. He knew that, as terrible as this event was, it had given them the hope and the knowledge that they could take whatever this new world was going to throw at them, and they were going to do it like the badass survivors they were.

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe.

  “We need to burn them.” Said Charlie. He made his way over to the zombies and started to pull the foul corpses into a pile. Penny grabbed his arm.

  “Later.” She said softly. “For now, we rest.”

  “Your right.”

  They walked back int
o the house. As they did, a previously unseen zombie shuffled out and started walking towards them. Without missing a beat, Rory threw his knife straight at its head, and it landed there with a dull ‘thunk’. The zombie halted in its tracks and fell to the ground.

  “Dumbass.” Rory said.

  ***

  Once they were back inside the house, they found that they couldn’t rest. The adrenaline was still pumping through their veins like crazy. Instead, after about an hour of desperately trying to calm down, they decided they might as well burn these corpses, so that other zombies couldn’t smell the corpses and come and investigate.

  As Jack walked out the front door, he had a sense of loss, almost as though the worst was yet to come. He shook the feeling off and went over to completely get rid of these bastards.

  He walked out the front door and out into the front yard. The bag containing the weapons and ammo and the bag containing the food and the clothes and the first aid kits, plus the canisters if extra fuel for the car were still outside, where Charlie had dropped them earlier.