Fear the Dead: A Zombie Survival Novel by Jack Lewis

truck
yesterday, because working cars were rare these days. There were plenty of them
scattered around and most of them still had the keys in the ignition, most
likely because their drivers had met an untimely death. The problem was that
batteries soon drained, and there weren’t exactly any mechanics out there
waiting for a callout.
     
    “Let’s get a car!” he said.
     
    “Not that simple.”
     
    Rare as they were these days, I knew
someone who had one. He was also the only man alive besides me who knew where
the farm was. The problem was, I didn’t have any desire to see him again. It
wasn’t that he was a bad guy; more that he reminded me of what I had lost, of
who I had failed to protect.
     
    Getting a car would be easier than
getting enough food to last the trip, but it wasn’t an option.
     
    “How dangerous is the wholesalers,
really?” I said.
     
    Justin looked at the floor. His eyes
looked grave. “Kyle, please. Let’s not do that.”
     
    “Come on kid, can’t be that bad.”
     
    Above us a grey cloud had gathered. The
edges were white, but in the middle of it was a heavy darkness. It started to
spit, and I felt the flecks of rain drop on my head. I was in for another
drenching if this carried on. I should have just picked up a new raincoat when
I was in town.
     
    Justin pulled his hood over his head. He
looked at me, and I could see in his eyes that he was scared.
     
    “Moe sent five guys there once. They
were supposed to be gone a week and come back with loads of stuff. Two months
later, we’re still waiting.”
     
    “Hunters or infected?” I said. I hated
having to ask that question, and I thought back fondly to the time when the infected
were all I had to worry about.
     
    “Your guess is as good as mine,” said
Justin.
     
    The rain was coming down heavier, and
the storm cloud seemed like it had deliberately positioned itself above us.
That was the way the world was now – it actively worked against you. Once man
was the king of the planet, and now our home was trying to destroy us. How else
could you explain all this shit? The infected, the stalkers, men hunting men.
This was the end.
     
    I wasn’t going down so easily.
     
    “They must be ready now,” I said,
nodding at the beans. My stomach ached.
     
    Justin dished us both a share. The smell
of them was intoxicating, and my mouth watered as I lifted them to my lips.
They tasted amazing; it was the most glorious breakfast I’d ever had.
     
    So here was the choice then. We could go
get a car, and I’d have to face someone I had no interest in ever seeing again.
The only other option was to go to the wholesalers and run straight into a den
of either the hunters or the infected. It all came down to this question; would
I rather risk emotional pain, or would I rather risk my life?
     
    I shovelled another spoonful of beans
and felt a warm glow in my stomach. Above us the rain cloud gathered force and
blotted out the sun. The rain thickened into a torrent, the water battering the
grass as it landed. I closed my eyes and made my decision, knowing the choice I
made could mean the end of myself mentally, or the end of us both physically.
     

 
    Chapter
11
     
    GO AWAY.
     
    I looked at the message painted in red
letters on the wholesaler wall, and I wondered if we should listen to it. The
building was a giant warehouse with a main entrance that faced us as well as a
row of windows, though the glass was dirty to see anything inside. Round back a
truck was parked up, and although I couldn’t see it, I guessed there would be a
larger entrance that was used for deliveries. The whole place was deathly quiet,
and if there were any infected hanging around, I couldn’t see any of them.
Above the main entrance there was a sign that read ‘NJB Foods”.  The place
looked so silent I wouldn’t have believed Justin’s warning of how dangerous it
was were it not for the spray of bullet holes carved into the brick wall facing
us, and