The Zombie Virus (Book 1) by Paul Hetzer

case we had to hoof
it anywhere. Holly and I threw a tarp over the stacked supplies in
the bed and secured it with an elastic cargo net. We had a one day
supply of water and food in the cab with us along with a couple
spare cans of ammo. We were ready.
    So far during the loading process we had seen
none of the infected on our street. The sun was up and shining
brightly as we finished our preparations, which we accomplished
with minimal noise so as not to attract any unwanted attention. I
had cleaned all of the blood off of the windows, doors and seat
with a bleach solution. Even though my research had shown that the
Zombie Virus quickly became inactive when exposed to air, we
couldn’t take any chances.
    Turkey vultures descended on the corpse lying
in our street and we did our best to ignore them while they fed. It
got me thinking though, about birds as a vector for the virus. I
would have to keep that in the back of my mind. By 0715 hours we
were all piled in the truck and ready to leave. We programmed our
GPS for our farm. It showed six hours and five minutes of travel
time and I nearly laughed at that estimate.
    I started up the truck and headed off up the
street, scattering the vultures when we went by. We cleared the
neighborhood without any problems. The few infected that we saw
were easily avoided and we were soon pulling onto the main road.
The horde that I had led away yesterday was nowhere in sight. I
would hate to be on that dirt track in the woods right now.
    Our route would take us back across the
bridge from yesterday. I dreaded the thought of retracing my way
through the horrors again. This time I knew the path was clear and
we wouldn’t have to stop.
    “Why are there so many abandoned cars on the
road?” Holly inquired as we turned southbound on State Route 4.
    “I guess many people tried to ignore their
illnesses and go to work or to wherever their plans for that day
were taking them. This disease hits fast and hard, and by the time
they realized just how bad they really were it was likely too late.
I believe many just couldn’t drive any further.”
    I weaved past several abandoned cars. “Some
must have passed out while they were driving and caused some of the
accidents that you see. It was rush hour on the East Coast so even
with the pandemic there were still a lot of people on the
road.”
    We reached the area approaching the bridge.
In the northbound lane I could see the scattered bodies that I had
left behind yesterday. Here too, vultures and crows were feasting.
We watched in awe as a Loony sped out from behind an SUV and jumped
one of the vultures, biting its neck when it landed on it. Several
more came running and tore the bird apart. One of the feasters had
become the feast.
    Further down the road, crowds of infected
were milling about, their heads rising and their pace picking up
when they heard us go by. I avoided hitting the few that were on
the road.
    “That’s your car, Papa, isn’t it?” Jeremy
said excitedly as we drove by in the other lane. The wrecked
carcass of what had been my Jetta sat where I left it. I shuddered
at the memory.
    “Yeah, son. That’s it.”
    “Wow, you sure tore it up!” he said
wide-eyed. We squeezed by the two cars I had pushed aside yesterday
then we were up and over the bridge. So far so good.
    “They’ll die soon if they don’t eat and
drink,” Holly said to no one in particular. “And what will they do
come winter?”
    “Hopefully freeze to death,” I spat out
coldly. “As far as food and drink, they’re like wild animals,
they’ll make do,” I added glumly.
    We were on a short rural stretch of road
between major road crossings and didn’t see very many of the
Loonies.
    At certain points along the drive the going
was slow, especially around concentrations of civilization where
there were many deserted vehicles or roaming Loonies that had to be
avoided. Once we were into Maryland’s rural area approaching the
Potomac River we made better