The Dead Zone

Chapter 2

Waking up is always the hardest part of the morning. Every morning is a breath of dead decaying air, with a hint of cedar wood today. For the last two days Terri and I have been shacked up in this old suburban house, which has been a nice change of pace. We had came to Atlanta in hopes that the large number of corpses wandering around would scare off scavengers enough for there to at least be a couple of days worth of food. After hours of hiding sneaking and running we hit a small jackpot in the form of an old 18 wheeler loaded with health bars and other non-perishables . The downside was it had been near a hospital. Hospitals no matter how small or how long ago they'd been overrun were always dangerous. The undead were always packed in as if attending some sort of businesses meeting. If you wanted some great supplies you could take the risk, but you'd die before leaving. Fortunately we'd managed to get in and out of the truck without drawing too much attention, and netted about two weeks worth of food. When we found this place we were a bit suspicious at the lack of corpses but didn't want to pass up an opportunity to rest so we stuck around. It didn't take too long this morning however,for me to notice we couldn't stay much longer. There was a small moan coming from outside that was unmistakable to anyone who was still alive. After taking a look out the window I saw it was only one, but where there's one there's always a lot more. After grabbing my duffle bag and putting the two solar powered lamps away, I picked up my bat and went to check on Terri. As usual she was sprawled across her bed in nothing but a bra and underwear on prompting me to throw a sock at her open, slightly drooling mouth, waking her up quickly. "What the hell?!" She shouted before falling out of bed with a thump sound that probably got some unwanted attention. When her head popped up again she had the most hilarious expression on her freckled face. Her electric blue eyes darting around the room looking for me as she slowly caught on to me, standing there silently laughing. She was probably would've said something to me if she didn't hear the thumping on the front door. I nodded and closed the door, and went downstairs to meet our new friend. After opening the door I jumped back and waited till the former nurse lunged at me and I nailed her on the head. It was the end of the bat and the biter, a tragedy really. I liked that bat, made pretty solidly and had a nice whooshing noise in its swing. By the time I moved our rotting guest out to the yard Terri had come down with a crow bar in one hand and her bag over her shoulder. She smirked when she saw my bat and whispered "karma" into my ear then walked out side. Occasionally when we have the chance, such as these last few days, we'd run into a place that still has running water, and boil water to bathe in to keep a degree of hygiene. So this morning after making sure nothing else was on its way we took our turns in the bathroom. Cleaning our clothes in whoever, if possible, got second's bath water afterwards. After cleaning up I looked at myself in the dusty mirror in the room I was in. I was about 5'10 with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. I used to get a bit attention for my looks. I never thought I looked particularly interesting but I never complained. Kinda lean but somewhat muscled nowadays but I stayed in shape out of necessity. The faded black t shirt and navy pants I'd been wearing for weeks were still somewhat damp and dripping which I took note of but wasn't what caught my attention. Scrawled on the mirror was a small letter from some small child looking for their parents. It made me a bit sad but that's when Terri opened the door looking for me. "Come on, you know we gotta go." She told me and walked out. My sister had always been someone that got a lot of attention. She was the dream girl so many guys wanted. She was about 5'3 black haired with a slim athletic build. She let me deal with all the guys she didn't want around a lot, but don't let it fool you. Our dad had made us take boxing classes together from the age of five to fourteen when she quit because she wanted to "have a life" as she put it. I quit from lack of interest a week later. Now that training comes in handy since neither one of us completely dropped all of it anyway. Personality wise we're completely different. I'm usually calm and collected. Usually I'm the one whose thinking things through and taking notes of everything around us. On the other hand she's hot tempered and risk taking. Often times she gets easily frustrated when she can't figure something out and tends to get mad quick. Following her out into the neighborhood we started walking north up the street. As we walked we saw other houses that people had tried to make stands in but became quick death traps. Houses like the one we had been in were spared from the lack of living presence. If there was nothing for them to eat there, the dead would simply avoid and area. Only returning if a sign of life was detected. After getting out of the neighborhood we followed the highway, avoiding car pile ups and hordes as much as we could. Taking down the occasional walker as we traveled down the long apocalyptic road. Once we had gotten out of the city we took a bit of a break and then started looking for shelter. Night was coming soon and it wasn't a good idea to be out after dark. While the zombies patrolled during the day, at night the more seriously infected came out. Some people were affected more by the virus than most and became more ferocious than the rest. While they were rare they had a tendency to run and were stronger than your average Z which wasn't a pleasant experience for someone fighting one. It was luck that the daylight makes them rot faster slowing them down, so they gained a weird hibernation phase and hid during the day, coming out at night to play. During the search I managed to find another crowbar which I used to open the trunk of a car to find a lighter and some bolt cutters. Taking both I met up with My sister to tell her what I found. She had managed to find an RV that wasn't stripped of parts but wasn't going anywhere either. Using my crowbar I popped the door and luckily didn't break the lock. After locking it down me and Terri slept on the floor that night. A horde passed by heading south that night and we had luck with us, as they didn't smell us. By morning they were gone and we ate breakfast while moving away from the RV. It was a bit of disappointment that nothing was there but an empty bottle of Benadryl, but it was quick forgotten.
The next few days were uneventful aside from a few run ins with some scavenging corpses. Other than that it took a week to leave the state.