Chapter 3.. Barriers...
"Dude, I have enough kills to be a tenth prestige by now", Colin shouted over the roar of the 427 big block Yenko Camaro from 1967. Caleb laughed as the two teens rode down highway 259 in the sensational Chevy. Somehow they had miraculously survived the zombie outbreak in Diana, a small town north of Longview. Earlier on this particular day, a few of the New Diana teachers went into Longview and bought Chick-fil-A for themselves and a few students. Consequently, considering almost the entire population of Diana was at the school, the community was infected extremely quickly. The food was actually brought specifically for these two young men but as they were in the gym shooting some hoops, they didn't catch word of the arrival of the food. What they did catch their attention however, was the shrill screams coming from the main wing of the school. After the sound continued for roughly three minutes, Colin and Caleb, walked over towards the main wing of the school to investigate what was happening. As soon as the entered the double doors connecting the gym with the rest of the school, they instantly turned around. A horrific sight caught their eyes. The friends and classmates they had grown up with, as well as teachers were going berserk. The two boys instantly knew what was going on. Their school had been taken over by zombies. More stealthily than they had entered, they slipped back through the doors, made their way outside and ran up to Caleb's F-150 Upon arrival, they jumped in and sped off, never looking back on the frightening scene they had just encountered.
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"JT, make sure all the locks are in place," Bobby shouted across the tire shop that they owned.
The nineteen year old son was shutting all of the vertical bay doors to the shop and locking them tight. He double checked every door and made his way over to his father who was barricading the only door. Thousands of pounds of tires, equipment and tools were pushed up against it to ensure that even the strongest of zombies were not able to enter. Afterwards, they carried their firepower up the loft where all of the rations and food were located. They moved a refrigerator upstairs as well as dry foods and the two men had at least a weeks worth of food, and hopefully ammunition. Although they couldn't see any zombies outside of the windows of the shop, they knew that the undead were out there, and their population was rising. These two intelligent men were prepared for the worst. The only thing that could help them out a little more was more ammo, but they were both very good shots. They had duck hunting to think for that. All they were hoping for now is to last until the zombies fled from this area so they could meet up with Josh, Monday, and whoever else was alive.
JT sat down for a moment on one of the toolboxes, put his head down, closed his eyes and prayed. He knew at this point prayer was his only hope. After he lifted his head and wiped the tears from his eyes he looked over to notice that his dad was doing the same thing. For all he knew, he had lost his wife and youngest son. Bobby lifted his head up and looked over at JT, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Text everyone in your phone, a mass text, see if anyone is alive and well." Bobby said in a quiet tone.
JT obeyed. He sent a text to everyone in his contacts list. The two sat in silence for a long while. Even as JT's phone started to vibrate, they still didn't move. Clearing their thoughts and strategizing seemed to benefit at this moment. Of course, they would love to know who was alive out there that they knew but right now it was just the two of them and the space outside the shop doors felt like lightyears away. The Droid buzzed a few times but the two of them at this time were much too busy handling shotgun shells.
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"Nice shot Monday, I didn't know you were a beast with the shotgun!" an excited and impressed Keelan shouted over our firing.
We had just arrived in the Summer Green Apartment complex parking lot and were unloading supplies into my apartment. On a trip outside to fetch more, we discovered a small parade of zombies loitering near our newly found truck. Upon encountering the beasts, we fired at them. Catching the zombies off guard was luck. The group of about twenty zombies surely would have subdued us if something else outside hadn't caught their attention. Monday was the one doing all of the subduing. Before Keelan or I had a chance to get outside, Monday had all of the zombies killed before they knew what hit them. When the area was zombie-free we walked over to examine what had put the creatures in such a wild frenzy. What we saw almost made me sick.
"Ugggghhhhh, uuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh..............." Keelan, however, did get sick.
"Dude, you alright," I asked, " I mean, that's gross but me and Monday saw much worse inside Academy."
There, less than twenty feet away from the truck in the middle of the parking lot, lay a young woman. Or what was left of her. Her body was in about half a dozen pieces, with each piece looking as if an entire pack of wolves had collected it and used for general devouring purposes. The head lay approximately ten feet away from the rest of the pieces. The woman was so defiled and ripped apart that we didn't even have to worry about her awakening moments later as a zombie. We collected a few more supplies and brought them inside. I was the last person to walk inside, right before I walked through the door, I heard an eerie, high-pitched deafening scream. I whipped around expecting the worst, pulling the Glock from my waist. What I saw made me chuckle just a bit. With a single shot I put a hole through the screaming head.
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Colin and Caleb rode together in silence for a few minutes. After they left the school Caleb drove to his house. This seemed more fitting then going to Colin's. Primarily because Colin's mother was already a zombie or dead, but also because there was a rather voluminous gun safe located at the Garrett household. They got out rushed inside the house. Nothing seemed out of place here. The only thing missing was Mrs. Sheri's 2010 Camaro SS. Caleb bottled up tears as memories of his mother crossed his mind. Being a best friend of Caleb for years, Colin knew what Caleb was thinking instantly and made efforts to comfort him.
"Caleb, it's alright. We're men, we gotta defend ourselves. Right now, what are we gonna do? Do you want to stay here, or meet up at Josh's apartment?"
During the ride to the Garrett residence, they had been texting JT. They were almost positive that Josh, Monday, and whoever else was with them were alive. That seemed like their only chance of joining anyone, at least for the moment. The shop had already been barricaded and it would be unsafe to let the boys roam around in an attempt to remove it.
"We're gonna going to the apartment," Caleb said softly, "I'm not leavin' my bros"
"Let's get it!"
The youngest Garrett and Rosser, loaded all of the ammunition into the back of his truck, got in and started it up. Caleb looked down at the blinking light on his dashboard.
"No gas, we won't make it far,'' Caleb sighed, "come on Rosser, me and Dad filled up the '67 yesterday."
After opening the garage and transferring all of their firearms, supplies, and rations, Caleb started up the old Camaro, gave it a few hard revs, and peeled out down the street towards Summer Green Apartments.
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Back in Gilmer, JT sat reading his texts.
"Caleb and Colin are okay. They're headed to Longview right now. Kyle's headed there from Tyler. No text back from Mom yet. Josh, Keelan, and Monday have had a few encounters but they are all fine, just waiting on their company."
"Great." Bobby replied, "I'm glad everyone is alright We'll make a move soon. Is that the only people you've heard from?"
"Yes. I assume everyone else is either dead, a zombie, or just tending to their own affairs."
His phone vibrated yet again. He looked down at the screen of his cell phone and wondered how in the world he was receiving a text from this person. Very surprised, he cracked a smile. The text was from David Ramsey and the text was only six letters long.
"Duhh JT."
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