The Mississippi Zombie Chronicals

Chapter 33: Better Days

I sat in my bedroom, headphones in, vibing out to Eminem. As I lie there in my bed, listing to the music and thinking, a vision crossed my mind.

I could see the world burning in my head, people eating each other.

I changed the song to something different, something lighter.

Nickleback played over the head phones as I Wanna Be A Rock star came on.

But it was still there.

I could see their faces.

Twisted and disfigured.

I got up and turned off my music, picking up my PlayStation controller, and started to play Metal Gear Solid.

I let my mind drift off into the game and the faces went away.

"Jake, do you want some of these porkchops? Suppers done." Said my mom.

"Yes mam, I'll be there in a moment." I replied.

I went in the kitchen and fixed myself a plate, the grilled pork chops looked delicious, along with the mashed potatoes, gravy, toast, and salad.

I sat at the table, enjoying my meal with my little brother, Jared. Or Bob as we called him.

"Hey Jake, did you see the new Mustangs? They changed the body style to a fastback style, like the originals!" He said.

He was only about 12 at the time, but lord knows that boy knew more about cars than any other twelve year old I knew.

"Yeah dude, they're pretty sweet. They even upgraded the 5.0 engines, they added the supercharged and turbo charged versions as an optional package." I replied.

"Boys. Eat." Said my dad.

"Yes sir." We replied.

After supper, Bob and I had a few traditions, either play video games, look at hot rod magazines, or gun magazines.

"Jake, look at this dude! That's pretty cool, right?" Said Bob, showing me a picture of an M-4 Sopmod.

It was a beautiful rifle, tan and brown with the most advanced attachments.

"Think we'll ever have anything like that, Jake?" Asked Bob.

"Someday buddy, someday." I replied.

If I had only known that we would have gotten it sooner than we expected, and not like we had planned.

                                                                                           Present Day

I sat up on the desk with the massive blue jar in my hands.

"Holy shit man, how in the hell did you do that?" Asked Wade.

"I focused man." I replied with a grin on my face.

"So, how the world is this stuff supposed to work? Inject it? Or do we uh, drink it?" Asked Morgan.

"I have no clue, your guess is as good as mine." I replied.

"Well, speak to the higher powers and figure it out." Said Bob.

Hardy, I have the vaccine. How do we use it?

Injection. Bring the vaccine to us so we can make more, it could be the last hope for humanity.

Where?

Tupelo

Tupelo? Why there?

It's where we're hidden, inside a forest.

Alright.

"Injection. Do you guys have any needles?" I asked Wade.

"Yeah, we've got insulin needles. How many do we need?" He replied.

"Well, lets see. There are at least twenty three people here, including us. Then there's Zig, Philip, Cody, Shane, Jess, and three others at the depot." I said.

"So thirty. Hopefully we'll have enough left over for Hardy." Said Bob.

We got the insulin needles and everyone together in the middle of town, including my crew from the depot.

We injected ourselves with the vaccine, with still half a jar left for Hardy.

"Well, that's one thing we won't ever have to worry about. This was a godsend." I said to Zig, who was standing beside me.

"If it works." He replied.

"It will, it worked for Wade." I replied.

"Yeah, but Wade's a flake, even to death." He laughed. It was the first time in a while.

We all returned to what we were doing earlier that day, Wade and I in his office discussing terms.

"The clinic has a lot of medical equipment, if we set up the doctor in the clinic, then he'd have access to procedures he couldn't normally do. And if we moved some of the fuel here to your little town, you wouldn't have to come to us just to refuel." I said.

"Well, my biggest concern is water at this point. We can only collect and conserve so much." He said, spitting tobacco spit in a cup.

"True. What if we dug a well?" I asked.

"Too risky. We don't have the equipment or man power. We'd be dead before we got deep enough." Said Bob, walking in.

"True. Damn. There has to be something." I said.

"Well, there is a water treatment plant just up the road, its small like the one near your house, just a water tower, a couple pumps and some offices. Maybe we could get some water from there?" Said Wade.

I leaned back in my chair, contemplating the idea.

"What if we got the whole system running again? Maybe man a couple people down there, possibly set up another settlement?" I proposed.

"Yeah, that's an idea. I've got a couple guys that have mechanical knowledge. We could put Morgan and Cody down there in charge." Said Wade.

"What about me? I'm mechanical." Said Bob, chuckling.

"No, mister robo man, we need you here working on cars. You are, after all, an auto mechanic." I said sarcastically.

"Well, all I know is, we need water. Let's see about getting the system up again. I'll ready my men." Said Wade.

We all met up outside, Wade and three of his men met Bob, Morgan, and I in the street.

"I need to run back and grab some gear, the boys already have theirs. Give me just a minute." I said, Wade shaking his head in response.

I drove back to the depot to inform the others of the situation. Maria met me at the gate.

"Where have you been?" She asked.

"We found Wade and his group, they're just down the road, of all places." I replied.

"Where are the others?" She replied.

"Still there. They asked our help. We may get a doctor and some food out of it." I responded.

"Oh wow. That's like really good. What do you have to do?" She asked.

"Clear out and repair a water purification plant." I replied.

Just then, I hear gunshots from down the road.