The Z Contingency

Chapter 45

As Earl turned down the cul-de-sac that led to his house, Bubba stopped him. “There’s a small horde of them up ahead. Stop the car.” Bubba pointed to a group of thirty or so figures standing in the front yards that lined the drive. The doors of many of the houses were standing open. Some of the figures were shuffling around slowly and aimlessly. Others just stood there not moving as if waiting in anticipation for something to happen. It was clear to both men that these were all zombies. “Well, this gives ’dead-end street’ a whole new meaning,” Bubba remarked humorlessly.

“Hey, a lot of them used to be my neighbors.” Earl frowned. “I don’t recognize some of the others.” He remembered getting a notice about a large block party that one of his neighbors was organizing, but hadn’t thought much about it because of the date conflict with Natalie’s visit and their group trip.

“Sorry,” said Bubba. “I wasn’t thinking. Are you going to be okay with me taking care of them?” Today, “taking care of them,” had taken on an entirely new meaning between the two.

Earl nodded. “I’ll help. They aren’t my neighbors any more. They’re just empty shells being moved around like puppets. We’ll be helping by putting them out of their misery,” muttered Earl. Then, turning to Bubba, he asked, “so, how do we take care of all of them? I don’t think we can just start shooting them. The noise would bring everything within earshot here before we could get them all, and I still have to spend some time locking down my house and collecting things. There’s no telling when we might be getting back this way.”

“What about plowing through them with your vehicle?” suggested Bubba. “This would be a good test for all those mods you made for just this situation.”

“Good point, but a lot of those were just for show. I never thought I’d really have to use them on real zombies. It’s worth a try, but how do we get them all in the road so I can try drive through them?”

“I’ll get out and draw their attention. You back up and get ready to floor it as soon as they converge on me,” said Bubba.

“You sure about that?” asked Earl with a strong hint of unease in his voice. “If something goes wrong....”

“It will be fine,” Bubba reassured. “Zombies are slow.” Without waiting for a reply from Earl, Bubba climbed out of the vehicle and walked in front of it. He turned around and motioned for Earl to back up. When he was satisfied that Earl had gone far enough, he held up his hand, palm facing Earl, indicating for him to stop. Turning back around to face the zombies, he slowly started clapping his hands, softly at first, then harder until zombies started turning their heads in his direction. As they turned, and started shambling in his direction, Bubba slowly backed away toward where Earl was waiting. He continued to clap, and retreat, as more and more zombies converged on him.

“Come on, come on,” Earl said to himself. Bubba was letting the zombies get too close. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, as his knuckles turned white. Suddenly, the closest of the zombies lurched at Bubba unexpectedly, startling the man and causing him to backpedal sharply. Bubba quickly turned toward Earl, and ran to the vehicle. He yanked open the door and climbed in.

“Floor it!” he shouted. “Those things are faster than I thought.” Earl stepped on the gas, and slammed his vehicle into the crowd of zombies that were making their way toward it with arms outstretched. With a jarring crunch, Earl’s Jeep scattered the first few zombies that it hit, and then slowed to a crawl, gradually pushing the other zombies forward. “Back up farther to give it a good running start,” Bubba suggested.

Earl shifted into “Reverse,” and backed quickly away from the zombies. Several were lying in the road, with a few flailing their arms away in the air. Some others were trying to stand up, but kept collapsing. The crash had shattered the bones, so the zombie legs were no longer able to support their weight.