My Zombie Shelter (open to everyone)

The car really seemed out of place way out in the wilderness. But it was well stocked with survival gear so it likely was some poor bastard's home for a while. It was getting rather dark, so I figured I may as well break in have a place to sleep for the night. It would be better than most nights at least. No worries of rain and cold.
I can't hold back a shudder though. The nights with shelter might be the worst of all. With survival not forefront in my mind, it leaves room for memories to come forward. Those nights are the worst.
I drop my pack to find the shim borrowed from the abandoned AAA truck. It was probably my most useful tool. It always seems odd to find locked cars now. I'm pretty sure the walkers have no idea how a door handle works.
I still haven't gotten any good with the shim, but I figure an hour or so at worst and ill be in.
The monotonous work of trying to find mechanism to unlock the door gives me time to think, my children's faces flash in my mind when I close my eyes. They are probably dead, but how can I know? The not knowing is the worst part. It gives me hope when I know there isn't any. They are too young. My wife is strong, but no one can keep 3 toddlers alive in this mess of a world. She "was" strong. I need to let it go. They "were" too young. The hope will only make it hurt more.

I growl at myself and give up with the shim. "Fuck it." I mutter, then smash my wiffle ball bat through the window. Good, no alarm. I tell myself how dumb the risk was but sometimes I don't even care. What's the point. Still, my bat always makes me grin. It's amazing what a little quick dry cement will do to make a children's toy into an amazingly effective weapon. Especially since no one thinks of you as a threat with a yellow wiffle bat.

I unlock the door and brush the glass away, looking at all the stuff in the car. Well, there is at least another week or so of food.

gearhead73 said:

"Yeah, I got your back." I said to Mike as I made my way toward the gate. "Where's the pig?"

Click to expand...

I caught up with Randy at the gate. "It's about a quarter-mile out," I answered him. "I hid it behind a stand of trees just to the west of here. We follow the road and it will be off to the left."

I checked my gear and mags and gave Randy and Alli a nod. Max was at my left side. I took him off the leash. "Let's move," I said.

"It's about a quarter-mile out, I hid it behind a stand of trees just to the west of here. We follow the road and it will be off to the left." he told he as I watched him check his gear. he released Max and we both opened the gate to the road we needed to travel.
"Let's move," he said and I nodded in the affirm as he walked past me.
Normally I would have let Alli go in front of me if for no other reason than to watch the sway of her hips as we walked. But here, in the dark, survival is my main concern. I fall in behind Mike at his five o'clock leaving ten yards of distance between us.
I brought my rifle from my shoulder and looped the sling around my neck. I knew this would get uncomfortable after a bit, but as my Daddy used to say, ' that rifle ain't gonna do ya any good on yer back'. I felt good about moving in a group, but there was still that chance we could get overrun. I had been in way too many close calls to take anything for granted.

I make myself comfortable in the Subaru, guzzling the last of the water in my canteen and refilling it from cars plentiful supply. I can't help but smirk at the amount of ammunition in the vehicle. Another gun nut. There wouldn't be nearly as many of the walkers if it weren't for people getting greedy and shooting each other over the dumbest of things.

I lean the seat back and try to get some rest, hoping the morning will come again, and soon. As they do each night since the craziness started, the vivid memories of devastation come back to me. It starts of course, with the unsettling feeling that something is wrong as the sailors stop talking to us. Murmured conversations of "no contact...we haven't heard anything.." Until finally they we approached shore. The next thing I knew they were kicking us civilians off the boat. "Not safe to stay with them, " they said. I knew they meant, "not enough food for everyone." They put us in a few small life rafts and we headed for land, the submarine that had been our testing grounds for the last week silently dipping beneath the water. Well, if engineers were anything, they were resourceful. How bad could it really be out there?

We knew it was bad though. If the military is losing comms, its bad. The Chinese maybe? The Russians? I shake my head to clear the vision..... I'd happily be speaking Russian right now to avoid this reality.

Alli didn't say much to anyone when she stepped into the mist of men gathered around discussing the location and directions of where this car was. Her gaze drifted to each one before coming to a familiar face. She only smiled at him for a moment before casting her gaze into the darkness.

Her hand moved about making sure that the M-II was in it's spot and the sig was cocked and ready to roll. She shook her head when Randy moved ahead of her. "Yeah okay. Be my guest." she fell back behind the men. She just smiled when she realized that ore than likely they will need her to bail them out so it was better that she hang back a little.

She remained quite while she followed. Her gaze staring out into the night keeping a keen sense about her.

As we walked into the night I couldn't help but think about all of the times that I had been in a similar yet oh so different situation. MY mind went back to when I was younger and me and my buddies would go off coon hunting at night after school. We would walk for a while and then stop to listen for the hounds bark as the caught a secnt and broke into pursuit.
It was still hot although much better than this afternoon and the moon while not full cast an eery glow on our surroundings. We were able to move in relative silence except for the crunching of gravel beneath our boots and the clicks, pops, and muffle rings our gear made as it moved with us.
I started to think about the company I was in now compared to walking with Ritchie or Travass as we would head to that familiar holler just south of Ritchies grandad's farm. Mikw seemed squared away and like a guy I would want with me in a fight. His movements were thoughtful and precise a testament to his years of training and experience.
Max was a rock star, strong and alert, and so well behaved. I liked how he never left Mike's side and although curious at all of the smells and sounds around us he never seemed to stray to investigate them as I had seen even the best hound do.
Then there was "Bruce Leann" behind me. It wasn't that I disliked her, in fact quite the contrary. She was young, beautiful and tough; everything that I liked in a woman. I didn't take our little tussle back at the compund personally, I just thought we were getting to know each other. I don't think I culd go as far as saying I trusted her just yet, but then again she really hadn't given me a reason not too. She hadn't hesitated a bit to try to de-nut me, and that could be useful if things get hairy.
The grumbling of my gut broke me out of my musings. I hoped we found the car soon and got back to safety. I was always more comfortable in an overwatch position where I could avoid a close quarter fight.
'Bring on the ham!' I thought as we made our way up the hill.

(Falls into a fitful sleep in the driver's seat)

Night was starting to fall, and she quietly remembered how sound seemed so much louder in the dark. The young woman pulled her hood back and knotted her hair at the base of her neck, straining her eyes against the failing light and listening carefully. There were hardly any animals around anymore, the last deer she had found had already been set on by walkers and she'd been too scared to scavenge it for meat.

It had been weeks since she'd seen a human being who hadn't had that vacant look in their eyes, the hissing noise emanating from their throat, the way their fingers clawed for their prey. She shivered, trudging forward through the trees, toting a baseball bat in her hands. It had a leather studded belt wound around it, with what looked like nails sticking out of it.

She had been steadily heading north, but was obviously unprepared for the outbreak. Denim jeans, ripped and bloody in parts, a pair of battered chucks, and a dirty Star Wars tee shirt with a faded, too-big hoodie, and a kid's backpack slung over her shoulders made it pretty screamingly vivid that she wasn't the survivalist type. But there was a quiet, angry sort of determination in her green eyes that said she wasn't the type to go down without a fight.

She froze. There was a noise. A low sort of noise, like a drone. She gripped the bat, her eyes wide and searching. It took her all of five seconds to notice the moonlight glinting off the car's window and see the source of the noise within: a snoring man. She detoured around the car, silently, her eyes never wavering, scanning her surroundings constantly, her head snapping to check her rear as she silently backed up the hill.

More noise.

Sounded like walkers. A group, maybe not walkers... There wasn't any moaning, there was too much noise. Her eyes were wide, her mouth set in a grim line as she flexed her fingers around the bat, backing against a large oak and waited.

The silence was creepy, it was like the silence before the storm hit, but in this case it was the eye of the hurricane that they were wondering into, a storm that if not negotiated correctly would end in bloody mess. She shivered at the images that her mind played or her, ones that she hoped would stay only nightmarish images.

Her gaze moved fom the horizontal front to the backside of Randy. She liked the guy but would never tell nor show him that she did. She laughed at her own silly little game for now she felt like that little girl in the forth grade writing a love letter to a boy she had a crush one, circle yes or no if you want to be my boyfriend. She giggled lightly to herself.

Damn, she whispered as the incline in the hill reminded her of just how sore she was from all the days activities, not to mention how really tired she was for getting a sound sleep hasn't really been achieved since..hell she couldn't even remember. She shook her head as if to clear it of all thought and refocus upon the here and now. They were out in the open, some of the men's gear making that faint noise that the walkers seem to home slightly angered her, but bickery would be a whole lot louder quailed her temperament so what.

She refocused her attention to the darkness before her, listening for any signs of movement besides theirs. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest with each step she took. Something just didn't seem right. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stick up.

She had a deep slash in her back from the last time she had encountered another survivor; a woman who had lost her family when the outbreak had hit Lewiston. The woman had tried to kill her, she'd gone mad. As she backed against the tree, the wound stung and she hissed in discomfort, clapping her hand across her mouth and cursing inwardly at herself. She leaned forward a little, peering around. No one had come over the crest of the hill yet, she could still hear the snoring man in the car.

A thought crossed her mind. It was highly likely that he would get killed. Who lies asleep in their car at a time like this? That was reckless. She wondered if she should warn him, and cursed herself again as she stood frozen to the spot. She could still hear the footsteps. Her heart thudded against her ribcage like a trapped bird. There was more than one. She wasn't going to be able to take them all.

She wondered if she should run, and before she could decide what to do, she heard that too-familiar moan come from off somewhere in the darkness of the woods.

One of the benefits of having children is enforced light sleeping. Chances are you are going to need to get up at some god awful hour to help them use the bathroom or to change a diaper or just to soothe them. You learn to hear things when you're asleep whether you want to or not. The moaning that brought him out of his slumber wasn't that different that a sobbing child, but that small difference meant an awful lot.
Without making any sudden movements he reached into his bag and found one of the toys he had rigged up for these unfortunate happenings. With any luck he wouldn't need to use it and the walker would pass by. Batteries were getting damned hard to come by and the few solar cells he'd scavenged were total shit. As a precaution he grabbed some earplugs as well. If it got to close he'd need to make a run for it, but he'd rather stay with the car if he could.

He kept up his slow relaxed breathing, eyes mostly shut, stomach churning.

Her palms were sweating, she wiped each hand on her jeans and gripped the bat tightly. Her lips moved silently, like she was praying, or chanting a mantra as her eyes flitted around. The moonlight glinted off the car, she could still hear the movement beyond the hill, and that moan that made her blood run cold. She shrugged off the kid's backpack and let it fall to the ground. It made a slight noise as it landed on some dried leaves, but before it had settled she was moving towards the noise as quietly as she could, skirting around the edge of the trees, keeping the car in sight.

It was just one. About thirty metres away. A man. He had one arm, looked like he'd been dead for months. He was grey and rotting, the skin hanging off around his jaw and his hair hanging limply over his forehead. She moved around to his right, keeping a good distance, her muscles tensing as she tried to move as quietly as possible. She closed the gap, now only a few feet between them as she crept up behind him.

The wind picked up then, stirring her hair and the walker stopped. She stopped. She lifted the bat, and thought "Batter up," to herself before exhaling slowly, and swinging that weapon with all her might at the side of the walker's head. There was a horrible crunching sound, but he didn't go down. He leaned like a tree in a gale, and then rounded on her. She pushed the corpse with her foot, wrenching the weapon out of the walker's temple and scooted back a few feet, ready to swing again.

As we neared the top of the hill I saw Max's ears perk up as he froze trying to hone n on the source of whatever he heard. He was looking ahead of us off to our left.
"Mike, contact eleven o'clock!" I whispered a little louder than I probably should have to maintain any sort of stealth in our movements. As if practiced by many weeks of training, the three of us stopped at the same time to investigate what had riled Max up. I peer into the darkness moving my torso side to side and up and down trying to catch a glimpse of anything. I took a half step forward and caught a glint of light about waist high maybe thirty yards ahead in the direction that Max was looking. It didn't appear to be a flashlight or torch but more of a reflection of the moons light from something shiny. I guessed that it would be the windshield of the car we were looking for.
I breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that the car and possibly the scent of supplies had come across Max's nose. However, my whole body tensed as I heard the familiar moan of a walker.
'Fuck!' I thought as my hand went to the Kimber and my fingers released the retention lock so that I could come to full draw. If tonight had been just a little brighter, I would have tried scoping the area with my rifle and we could end this thing in a hurry. Unfortunately the winds had blown a few scattered clouds across the moon and the flickering light wouldn't lend itself to a one shot scenario.
Mike motioned for me to flank him toward the car and I passed the word to Alli with a series of hand signals that would rival the Yankees. I had no real idea what I was doing, but even now I didn't want to let her see what an idiot I really was.
Back on task I move to the left trying to gauge each step. The last thing I wanted to do was give that fuckin thing something to hone in on, even though in my current state it could more likely smell me coming. I tightened the grip on my pistol and I could feel the change from gravel to grass beneath my boots.
'God I hate this part!' I think as I move one measured step at a time toward the noise. I dart my head to the side and see Mike ready to engage should it make it past me. He had a hold on Max's collar and was doing his best to keep him quiet. I had a brief thought to turn and take a look at Allie, but another groan replaced any thoughts I had of how she filled out those jeans.
Right after the groan I hear a loud crack as if a watermelon had been hit. I can hear the rapid shifting of feet as whoever had hit the walker moved around it. I take a knee where I am as I strain to hear what's going on just a few yards away. I hadn't entered the tree line yet and the brambles that often grow on the edge of clearings obscured any possible view of what was happening in the trees.
My heart began racing and my pulse thumped in my ears as I realized there was something even more dangerous than a walker out here with us, another human.

The walker lurched forward, it's hand grasping for her, and she tightened her grip on the bat bringing it around her shoulder again, setting her feet apart to get a better stance and before she knew it she had caught her foot on a tree root and was falling backwards. Her back, more to the point the angry wound on her back, connected with more roots. She almost sobbed, feeling the fresh blood sticking to her clothes and she could swear the walker sniffed.

Blood meant more of them. And he was still lurching towards her. She couldn't get a swing from the ground, and scuffled frantically at the weird looking metal object bound to her thigh. It was a crafted railroad spike. The walker's feet caught on the same root hers had and it tumbled forward, it's hand catching purchase on her shoulder.

"No!" She pulled her knees up, getting the damn thing's mouth away from her before forcing the spike through its right eye socket. It stopped moving, and that horrible old blood smell just reeked from it. She pushed it off herself and turned, throwing her arm across her mouth and coughing, trying not to be sick as she scrambled to her feet. She shoved the spike into the ground to clean it and slipped it back into the strap on her thigh.

She'd done it. She'd killed it. She leaned on the bat, a feeling of triumph. She smiled at herself before she doubled over and threw up. Steeling herself, she forced herself to remember the noises from before. Someone else was out there and God, she wanted to sleep so badly. She lifted the bat again, bracing herself, as she stood over her foe, looking back in the dark, her face as pale as the moon itself.

'I'm ready,' she thought, her green eyes fierce as she held the bat, waiting. She licked her lips, and spoke lowly. "I know there's someone there. I'm not one of them..."

He was relieved to hear words and not more groaning after the struggle. It was surprising to hear a feminine voice though. She apparently wasn't afraid of dealing with a walker at close range, or at least was capable of it if she had no choice. Her voice was strained, like she was in pain but trying to hide it. He looked around the car for some first aid supplies but in the back of his mind he knew there might be more call for the bat. If she had a been bitten she would try to hide or disguise it. They almost always did. The brave or noble ones found creative ways to ensure they would stay dead, but they were few and very far between.

"Are you alright? I've got some medical supplies." He said it to the general darkness mostly to let her know he was friendly. He opened the door an shouldered his pack, waiting for her reply. It had been a while since he'd encountered another person, and he actually checked himself out in the rear view mirror. His hair was a tangled mess of wavy brown, but his face was clean. He barely recognized the eyes looking back at him. Green orbs that used to be so full of joy and happiness, had given way to something that seemed both sorrow filled and somehow more wild. Like a wolf who lost his pack. Like a father who list his family and was on the run from fucking zombies.
He hefted the wiffel bat onto his shoulder, "No bites right?"

She was uneasy, her voice raised a notch or two, betraying her fear. "Who are the others? Are you all together?" She wielded her bat, not moving an inch but it was obvious she was trembling with fright. It had been a long time since she'd seen another human, and they were more dangerous than the undead. At least with the corpses you knew where you stood.

A mild hiss left her throat as she tensed, the back of her hoodie staining a little with her blood. She knew she needed to get it seen to. "How do I know there's no bites with you?! Show yourselves!"

As if the sound of the struggle hadn't been enough to make my hair stand on edge, the sound of another voice just in front of me just about stopped my heart. I was still on one knee, but I couched just a little try to conceal my position even more.
"I know there's someone there. I'm not one of them..."
The voice was female, and sounded young. She obviously knew I was there, but still hadn't laid eyes on me just yet. I was about to answer when to my surprise someone else answered for me.
"Are you alright? I've got some medical supplies." I heard him say.
'Holy shit!' I thought as I realized that there wasn't just one person, but two people within spitting distance of me. I gripped my pistol just a little tighter and tried to control my breathing as I tried to decide what I should do. Now that I had crouched I didn't have a visual on Mike or Alli anymore. If I moved to get a better view I would most certainly give away where I was and so far it seemed that the two strangers weren't together.
"No bites right?" I heard him ask and I could tell there was movement as if they were moving to greet each other.
It became clear that this guy had been in or near the car that we had been on our way to which led me to wonder if he was with Mike and this little trip had been a trap to lure us out. That didn't seem to be Mike's M.O., but anymore, who knew about people.
"Who are the others? Are you all together?" I heard her say the anxiety coming through clearly in her voice.
This was good, she knew there were others but she didn't know who we were or where we were. This also meant that she had no idea that the two of them were basically surrounded. I steadied my nervous the best I could and decided to maintain my position until the situation became just a little more clear. If they man was with Mike, my separation from him and Alli, could be useful. If he wasn't, the surprise was on our side and that was almost always useful.

She shuffled a little, wincing again at the pain in her back. Her stomach turned and she leaned back against the tree and threw up water. She hadn't heard anything for a few minutes. Maybe there were more walkers, maybe it was a trick. It was almost completely dark now. She blinked, her vision was a little blurry. And now the darkness didn't help. Paranoid and worried as she was, another human voice had been comforting. Especially when it had asked if she needed help. It couldn't be all bad.

"Just ... give me a ... minute ..." She leaned against the tree, breathing heavily and beating back the anxiety and spoke again, this time almost to herself. "Just til I get my bearings..."

She sucked in a couple of deep breaths and turned, trying to focus, gripping the bat in her left hand, her right reaching to the tree for purchase. She needed to get out of here, find somewhere to sleep. This day was only going to get worse.

Others? Fuck, what others? He'd seen too many of these situations go from bad to worse quickly. There had to be a way to calm things down, but nothing was really coming to mind. It was too dark to just show a friendly face, but more shouting was likely to attract more walkers. He could see her form struggling now that her voice had given him a better idea of her position. He approached at a quick walk. "Shhh keep it down if you can. Let's not attract more unwanted attention." He was talking in a harsh whisper. "What others? Are there more of the beasts around?"

He squatted down next to her and the stench made him immediately recoil. No matter how many times you faced it, there was no avoiding that gut reaction. There was a lot of blood, but with the dark it was hard to tell if it was hers or not. She could see he was in a pair of mostly torn jeans, a very worn pair of running shoes and a dark hooded sweatshirt. He kept swiveling his head around to peer into the trees, but he didn't notice anything so he tried to concentrate on the situation at hand. "I've got some disinfectant and a few bandages. I can't really see where you're hurt, but its going to have to do the trick till you can find better treatment."

In the far back of his mind he couldn't help but notice how attractive she was, even covered in blood and grime, and he hated himself for it.

She moved away, like a frightened animal, still brandishing her bat. "How can I trust you?" Her green eyes looked enraged, scared and a little lost. "There is someone else... I heard them...." She shivered, wincing again, her face grimacing in discomfort.

How could she trust him? She had heard others. How could she believe him... It was just the two of them out here. Maybe she could....

Her eyes widened in horror at her own thoughts and she shook her head, pursing her lips together and blinking warily.

"Just ... give me a ... minute ..." her words came between heaving breaths as she responded to the guys offer of help. "Just til I get my bearings..."
She was close and when she started to move I caught a glimpse of her movement just a few yards in front of me. I could hear her panting heavily and though she was relatively quiet in her movement I could follow the seemingly unsteady movement of her feet through the grass and leaves.
She was getting closer so I come up from my kneeling position and crouch ready to shoot or run depending on what was warranted. A few seconds later she was right in front of me. Only a small greenbrier bush separated us and I watched as she leaned against a tree to rest. She shifted her weight and set her forehead against the rough bark of the oak as if trying desperately to catch her breath.
I noticed the club in her hand and figured that if I was going to make a move I need to do it now while she was weak and unsuspecting. I lunged forward separating my hands so one could hold the Kimber and the other wrapped around her head to cover her mouth.
Wit all of my strength I whipped the two of us around and pulled her tightly to me. I pressed the barrel to her temple and harshly whispered, "Don't make a fuckin' sound, I don't want to hurt you, just calm down until I sort out what that dude wants."

She immediately regretted wandering away. The press of the cold steel against her temple was oddly comforting. She clamped her teeth around the soft skin of his fingers and bit down, hard, trying to scream and struggling against his grasp. She lifted her foot and stomped on his, the slash in her back screaming in her mind as her eyes darted around for the stranger from the car.

She scrambled away from him, and he stalled for a moment. How to handle the situation...it was easy to recognized the look of a scared, hurt child who didn't care if what you were going to do was for the best. At times reason could work, but it was less about words, and so much more about demeanor. He remained in a crouch, hands spread wide, letting his comically yellow bat lay on the leaves. He looked right in her eyes, "I'm just trying to hel..." She was gone, pulled away by some unseen assailant. The way she moved it was clear that it wasn't under her own power. He knew his next moves were going to be important, so he made them quickly and without hesitation. Fighting an unknown adversary in the darkness was not his thing, the girl would have to fend for herself. He put his earplugs in pressed the only button on the device in his pocket, dropped it, then turned and fled at top speed.

Two seconds later the silent darkness was broken by the blinding flashes of a bright blue strobe light accompanied by an absolute ear splitting siren. The light was just for distraction, it was the sound that would pull hands to ears, and with any luck away from triggers. It would only last for a minute on the battery if it didn't catch fire from the current draw first. With ear plugs and at a dead run away, he still found himself covering his ears from the pain of the siren. Still, he couldn't shake his anger.

He fucking hated wasting batteries.

Suddenly, pain shot clear to my elbow as this bitch bit down on my fingers. A millisecond later her heel comes down on the top of my boot and she starts trying to scream.
"AHHHHH, motherfucker!" I scream ash she is tying to wriggle free of my hold. The steel toe in my boot had protected my feel but my fingers were in agony. It's a wonder I didn't blow her fuckin brains out, but instead I pushed her forward away from into a neighboring tree as hard as I could. As soon as I her her collide into it's bark I squeezed the trigger sending a round that I hoped went near enough to make my point, but didn't hit her.
"Mike! There's a bitch with a club over here and some dude at the car!" I yelled hoping that the rest of my team would hear me, even though I know they would have heard the shot.
Shaking my hand trying to make it stop hurting I advance on the girl and kick at her feet trying to get her to the ground.
"What the fuck is wrong with you! I don't want to fuckin kill ya, but don't think I won't!"

Blood gushed from her nose and lower lip as her face connected with the tree ahead of her and she gasped as the shot went off. Her head was spinning and her stomach heaved again.

Her feet were swept from beneath her and she swung the club around , aiming blindly as she heard her assailant yell and curse at her, before whatever that thing was that went off, sending her eyes blinding white and the siren that almost deafened her. She covered her ears, her face contorted in pain and she looked up at the man in the brief flashes of the light. Her eyes were full of pain and pleading.

She hoped to whatever god there was that he would be able to figure out that a sound like that meant one thing.

More walkers.