Living the Dead

Chapter 5: Got Schooled

You knew too much time had past when they had sometimes forgotten that this wasn't always their life. Every day was just another tick off an endless checklist of never-ending repeating items. Wake up, do run-downs, go on a run, clean-up, sleep, and again the next morning. The zeds had lost their scary factor which could either be an advantage or a bane depending on the case. They were so commonplace, seen more frequently than a fly or the random squirrel. Bodies regularly piled up beyond their barricades and someone was always assigned the grueling chore of dragging them elsewhere. But they had to always keep in mind that those things were dangerous and to not get too comfortable with them. Going out there, they had seen the poor tragedies that fell on some people that could not make it. It was all a reminder to not end up like them.

Supplies were usually available, but they had to readily go out on runs. It was dangerous work, but they had to do it in order to stay alive. They then had a regular group of runners now. Selected people from the group they knew were good fighters and could hold their own when the situation called for it. The crew were usually composed of: Gaffney, Marco, Ryan,  Alana, Katheryn, or Nicole. They were dependable and always got the job done. Of course everyone had their role. The benefit of having a group was that each individual contribute to survival.

Their home was made to be more fortified and defendable. They begun to fix up fences around the perimeter of the house. On it was barbed wire they improvised. Zeds didn't feel pain, but it would stop them in their tracks and give them time to get up and close to kill them. They also dug a pit for bodies. Every few days, they would go around and clear the area of zeds. They would drag the bodies into the pit and light them on fire for proper disposal.

To keep track of the year and also their sanity, they kept a calendar. They were use to going to school to help keep track of their days but obviously that was no longer going to happen. The day was Monday and it was morning. Time for the daily zed clean up.

Ryan, Gaffney, Peter, and Nicole stepped outside. They got their stakes and walked to the fence. They had a system for jobs like those. It was efficient and safe. On good days, they would end up eliminating a good fifteen zeds just in one session.

Gaffney banged on the fences and called out the zeds.

"Hey, you! Yeah you! I know you're hungry. Come on! Come get me!"

He caught the attention of around five of them. They went up to the fence, but because of the wire, their soft bodies were stuck in place. The four of them used their stakes and stabbed them in the heads. Ryan thrusted his stake into the zed's head. He could feel the metal rod going past the skull and into the undead brain. Once he went far enough, he pulled it out and watched as the body fell to the ground.

The group continued to repeat the process until their numbers started to dwindle. By the time they were done, a row of zed bodies piled on the other side of the fence. It smelled awful but soon they would be nothing but ash and bones.

The four of them wiped the sweat off their foreheads and high-fived eachother. A new day, another day of being alive.

They went inside and had some fruit to energize themselves. They also had begun to grow a garden in the backyard. They used the seeds from the run at Wal-Mart and planted them. With proper care, they could start to grow their own food for sustainability. They had read enough about pirates to know the danger of scurvy. They could only stomach dried goods for so long.

While munching on a juicy apple, Gaffney was chatting with Marco.

"How's our food stock going along?" he asked.

Marco thought to himself and made a rough estimate. "Enough for another week or so? We're really going through these fast. We need to start rationing better or we're never going to make it far."