The Zombie Apocalypse Orchard

“Turn left, here!” Jared says.

I pull a sharp left turn onto a dirt road that leads into the orchard.

“Give me more of a warning next time,” I snap.

“Sorry! It’s been a while since I’ve been this way.”

“What next?” I tersely ask.

“It’s a straight drive to the orchard. Once we get there we’ll park the car behind the barn and then go into the trees, so we can ambush the people following us.”

“Sounds like a simple and solid plan. What about zombies?”

“Hopefully there aren’t any there. If there are, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“That really concerns me, Jared!”

“Sue, all I can do is plan with what I know. I don’t know if zombies are there. If they are, then we’ll be dealing with them as well as the raiders following us, but it was either lead those people here or have them follow us home. I prefer the former option, don’t you?”

“I get it. I just don’t like it,” I reluctantly concede.

I look in the rearview mirror. There is a cloud of dust getting kicked up behind us. The raiders from the aquarium have followed us.

“The ride is about to get bumpy,” I say.

“What do y-” Jared starts to say, when I put my foot on the gas pedal and our car starts rattling like it’s the Millenium Falcon flying at light speed.

We bounce down the dirt road going far faster than I’m comfortable with, but it gives us a bit more distance between us the raiders chasing us. Jared grunts in surprise and frustration and grabs the arm of the door as I drive. We finally reach the barn and I pull in behind it. For a moment Jared and I look at each other silently, and then we get out of the car. We don’t have time to talk. The raiders will be here soon.

I feel achy as I get out of the car and from the looks of Jared, he’s feeling stiff as well. The older you get, the more you feel your body protest when you put it through things that your younger self would take for granted. He grabs the assault rifle out of the back, and then goes to trunk and grabs some ammo. I grab the hunting rifle, with the scope and some ammo and then we wordlessly part ways, each of us going toward the left and right sides of the orchard.

I find a pear tree and climb up into it. I get myself positioned just in time. Two vehicles come driving by at the same speed I was going and skid to a stop at the barn. I get myself into as comfortable a position as you can get in a pear tree and lean the hunting rifle on a branch and then look through the scope.

There are six of the bastards. One of them is the women from the aquarium. There’s another women and the rest are men. They all look scruffy, but they’ve got weapons and a hungry look about them. I wonder if this all the people at the aquarium. I hope so, because then we can go back and secure the fish. Still, it would be pretty bold of them to leave the place undefended. Or maybe not. It’s not like there’s lots of people around here. There are zombies, but they just want to eat you, not your fish.

“Spread out and find those two. I see their car, so they’ve got to be here,” the woman from the aquarium yells.

“What if there are more people here?” one of the men asks.

“Then we kill them or conscript them. I’m in favor of the former, but I know the boss wants to try and get people to join our little community. Of course she isn’t here, so what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her and its less mouths to feed,” the woman replies.

I sight her head in my scope. The safety is off. Once I fire my gun they’ll know they’re in an ambush. I hope Jared is ready.

She’s saying something else to the men, but I block all that out. The only thing that matters is the image of her in the scope. I squeeze the trigger and a moment later her heads puffs into a red cloud and she falls over dead. The people around her jump in surprise and look around wildly. I eject the bullet out of the hunting rifle and fumble the next one in. Jared still hasn’t opened fire. What is he up to?

I look down the scope again. Two people are crouching next to the dead woman, trying to figure out what happened to her (as if that wasn’t obvious enough). The other three have spread out and are looking around. Who should I take out next? The easy targets are the people crouching by the dead woman, but taking one of the others out could be more helpful. Decisions, decisions.

I sight one of the people crouching by the dead woman and get his back lined up with my scope. His head is bent down, so there will be no skull capping his ass. The other person is across from the man. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get a two for one special. I take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger. The man’s back spasms and he slumps over. I can’t tell if he’s dead, but the other person, another man yells, and scrambles back on his hands and knees. It would be comical in other circumstances.

Jared still hasn’t fired his assault rifle. I look over to the other side of the road. There he is and it looks like he’s just getting set up. I’m not sure why it’s taken him so long, and at this point the four remaining people are running around yelling. One of them spots Jared, points toward him, and then fires her gun at Jared. Jared jumps, and finally, finally, starts shooting the semi-assault rifle. He takes out the woman and one of the men with his shots. The other two men run to one of the cars they came in on, and get in.

I’ve loaded the hunting rifle. I put the car in my scope. These men aren’t getting away if I can help it. I aim for where I think the engine is. I’m hoping the bullet will go through the hood of the car and take the engine out. I squeeze the trigger and a couple moments later that car has smoke pouring out of the hood. The two raiders try to start the car, but it just wheezes and dies. They get out of the car, and by that time Jared is on them. They hold their hands up in surrender.

“Sue, get out here. Looks like we got them and I want to get some answers,” Jared yells.

I scramble out of the pear tree and walk over to join Jared.

“There were only two of you?” one of the men splutters.

“Two was enough,” Jared grimly says.

“What are you going to do with us?” the other man hoarsely asks. He looks at both of us and I can tell he’s thinking about whether or not he can take us.

“It depends on how cooperative you are with my husband’s questions,” I say. I casually pull out my pistol and hold it on the guy who eyed us and I watch his shoulders slump in defeat.

“What do you want to know?” the first man asks.

“How many of you are there, other than you two, and the others we shot?” Jared asks.

“There’s twenty of us,” the first man says.

Jared shoots the man in the arm and he shrieks in surprise.

“Tell me the truth,” he says.

“Th-there’s only six of us.”

“I hope that’s true for your sake,” I say.

The other man looks terrified now. He wets himself.

“What weapons and defenses do you have?” Jared says and points his gun at the terrified man.

“W-we just have a few guns. There’s no defenses. It’s an aquarium.”

“How did you freeze the pond?”

“W-we used dried ice to freeze the pond.”

“Ok. Good to know. Final question: Do you know what caused the zombie apocalypse?”

“It’s the Zombii Spray, sold by Zombii Co. It was supposed to repel the zombies, but it just turns people into zombies instead,” the wounded man says.

“Hunh,” Jared says. “I guess for once my crazy conspiracies aren’t so crazy, Sue.”

“For once, Jared, I guess not,” I reply. He just has to rub it in, in front of prisoners no less!

“What are you going to do with us?” The wounded man asks.

“That’s a good question,” Jared says. He’s about to say something else, but I calmly shoot both men in the head with my pistol.

“Wh-why did you do that, Sue?! I was going to tie them up.”

“There’s no point in leaving them alive. They’ll either free themselves and warn the people back at the aquarium, or they’ll get attacked by zombies and either die or become zombies. I’ve done them a kindness.”

“You never used to be this way, Sue,” Jared wistfully says.

“The world changes honey, and we have to change with it. Now what do you want to do about the aquarium. You know they’ll come looking for these people, but if we take them out, we can secure the fish and rid ourselves of a problem.”

Jared sighs and says, “You’re right Sue. We can’t leave them be. I guess we should go back and take them out.”

“Let’s grab the guns and whatever other gear they’ve got and then finish the job,” I say.

To be continued…

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