The short story you are reading is a spin-off of a larger tale. If you enjoy the short then please consider reading more about this zombie infection in Guns, Booze & Zombies written by the same author.
Thank you!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - October 1932
Chapter 2 - Friend or Foe
Chapter 3 - The Camp
CHAPTER ONE
October 1932
"She's one ugly broad." says Martin as he passes my shoulder.
"Have some respect will ya?" I return as I rise to my feet.
"Already attached are we?"
"Martin please, she didn't deserve that." I say to my brother. He takes his bat and recreates his swing.
"Tell me something Walt- what should I have done?" He raises his eyebrows waiting for my answer. I have none. "Exactly. I did what I needed to do to keep us alive. Maybe you'll do the same when you realize we're in danger here. We're the victims brother." Martin crouches down and throws his bag over his shoulder. "Gather your stuff. We've got to keep moving."
I stare at the woman on the ground. She's in her mid-twenties at most and dressed like a nurse. I'm angry but Martin is right. If he hadn't bashed her head in she would've attacked us and Martin and I wouldn't be having another one of our trademark arguments where I always come out a loser. Her head is caved at her left temple and there's a puddle forming beneath the head. This puts us at eight kills for Martin and zero for me. It's sickening actually. You'd think my brother did this for a living. I, on the other hand, prefer to take the less violent road and avoid these creeps altogether. It's kept me alive since this chaos began several days ago but Martin will gladly gloat that he's the reason I'm still here. In actuality he's only saved me from three of those things.
"Hey princess when you're done putting on that make-up let's go." Martin says.
"Shut up."
"That any way to talk to your older brother?" We step out of the storage room and back out to the dock. It's dark but there's enough moon out to see what's around. Martin leads the way. He's always had that natural trait within him. I follow behind mimicking his low crouch. We make it across the way without any altercations. He leans onto another storage container and presses his bat onto my chest forcing me back.
"Shhhh… there's three of those creeps two containers down."
"Let's take the back way." I say to him almost believing that he'll consider my suggestion.
"It's three of them versus two of us but this here bat makes it a piece of cake."
"Martin, please. C'mon man we can just slip out the back and they won't even know."
"Yeah but I will. I'll know that we wussied out. I'll know that we had a chance to take out three of these assholes and we left them here to attack someone else. How are you going to live with that?"
"It's not our place to -" Before I can finish my sentence my brother turns and sprints toward the creeps. I follow behind at half the speed still worried there could be more of those things out here. Besides, Martin is a proven ace at taking these things down while I on the other hand don't even have a weapon. He winds his bat and delivers a downward blow to the first creep. The hit causes his bat to get stuck inside the attacker's head. Martin places his boot onto the dead man's dome and dislodges his weapon. I scream for him to look out for the second creeper who's hobbling his way. He gives me a nod and slams the weapon across the second attacker's face. The third man isn't moving quick enough to cause worry. Martin walks toward me, flips the bat and then jabs it into my stomach.
"He's all yours."
"Nu-uh, not gonna happen. You know I'm not going to take that bat. The guy is moving at a snail's pace, he isn't going to hurt anyone."
"You're wasting time. More of them could be on their way. You'd better waste this creep before they get here."
I shove the bat off my stomach and it falls onto the ground. My brother looks at me with disgust. It's as if he thinks this is normal behavior. Martin walks toward me and grabs my collar. He's breathing loudly but pushes me back before escalating things further.
"I'm getting tired of your cowardice Walt. Maybe I'd be better of on my own." He walks to the bat and flips it into the air with his boot. "I can't believe I've got to do everything around here." My brother closes the distance between himself and the third creeper when we hear a thunderous gunshot. I drop to the ground and Martin goes to his knees.
"You hit?" I yell to my brother.
"Not a scratch. Are you alright?"
"Where'd that come from?" The third attacker drops to the ground, his head crumbles like a watermelon. Someone's shooting in our direction. Martin grabs my collar again and drags me to a container to our left. I haven't seen him this scared since the first night of the attacks.
"You think it was one of the creepers?"
"Course not you fool. They don't know how to shoot a weapon." he says.
"Well how do you know that?"
"You keep up with these stupid questions and I promise you I'll make you live bait." We crouch behind a barrel with boxes on the top. There are footsteps on the outside and they're getting closer. There's a moment of silence, then the doors to the container begins to shut.