89.4 Zombie Radio

I couldn't sleep at all. I always had trouble sleeping sober, and I was honestly afraid to take a sleeping pill. I didn't want to be out of it, if and when we got swarmed by a horde of zombies. I spent most of the night counting how many times Layla rolled over in her sleep. I counted about seventeen. In between rolls, I just stared up at the ceiling and pondered what to do next. I knew we had to avoid civilization at any cost, but where were we going to go ultimately? All this aimless wandering was getting us nowhere, we needed a plan. We needed to figure all this out pretty quick too. I'd bring it up in the morning. Hopefully somebody had a good plan.

It seemed like forever, but finally the sun had risen. It took a little while longer before anybody woke up. Slowly they all did though, one by one. We all gathered downstairs and discussed what to do next. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking about it. Some suggested we stay put and wait for help. I shot the idea down pretty quick. I hadn't seen a search helicopter yet, I wasn't counting on that. If we wanted, we could stay there a few days, but there would always be that fear of them finding us. I suggested we find a sanctuary of sorts. We needed a destination. Everyone agreed, and Lucas made a suggestion.

"Well, in this comic I read, these survivors went to Alaska, because they figured that no zombies could survive the cold and they'd be safe." It was a solid plan, and nobody really had a better suggestion.

None of us had any clue how we'd pull it off or even how to get to Alaska, but until somebody had a better plan that was what we were going to do. I noticed the radio in the corner, which I hadn't noticed before and I remembered my DJ friend. I wondered how he was doing, so I walked over and turned it on. He sounded desperate this morning, I'm guessing nobody had called in, and he thought he was the only one left. I was surprised he had kept this up for as long as he had. I would have said the hell with it a long time ago, but something inside him told him to keep going, so I figured I'd give him even more of a reason. I was going to make the call.

I busted out my cell phone and turned it back on. I was amazed it still had service, I guess zombies just weren't concerned about knocking out cell phone towers. That was a good thing. I dialed the number he'd been saying on repeat since I had found this station. Everybody huddled around the phone, in anticipation of his answer. There was music playing on the station right now, but at about the second ring, he cut it off. You could hear our conversation blaring over the radio.

"Hello! You got DJ Double Tap on the phone! Who is this?" He said with so much enthusiasm you would have thought he won the lotto.

"This is Bob," I said. "I've been listening for a while now. Would have called sooner but things got kind of interesting, if you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean Bob, I'm glad somebody else is still out there, I was starting to get worried. So Bob, how'd you survive this mess?" he asked. I wasn't really sure how to respond to that.

"Well, I guess I should mention there's six of us right now. We've all been through some shit. Can I cuss on the radio?" I asked.

He laughed, "Bob, that's one of the things I love best about this whole thing. You can cuss all you want, the FCC is busy eating people right about now. In fact, fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. I've always wanted to do that. I'm sorry Bob, continue you're story." I couldn't help but laugh, I think I must have just made his year with this phone call.

"Well, three of us got out of the city, and we found the other three inside a cafeteria. I honestly have no idea where we are now. Some recently vacated house out in the country." DJ Double Tap got quiet for a moment.

"What do you think all this is Bob? How are we still alive? What's your take on it?" This guy had some questions. Guessing he was just sitting around thinking them up all day.

"Well, I honestly don't know, but I have a theory. I know it was that illness that was on the news, that's pretty obvious. As to how it spread, I think it had something to do with meat. I can't prove that theory though," I told him.

"Bob, I have to say, I think you're on to something there. DJ Double Tap doesn't eat meat either. I've been living off of salad for the past month and a half."

"Me too!" blurted out Layla.

"And who's that there?" he asked.

"That's just Layla," I awnsered. I was honestly shocked she said anything. A girl as shy as her, and now she wants radio exposure. She was just full of surprises.

"Hi Layla! Glad you're still alive." Layla didn't respond. Now that shyness came right back to the surface.

"She's a little shy, even though it may not seem like it," I told him.

"Well guys, you survived the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, what are you gonna do next?" he asked.

"We're going to Alaska," I answered. I felt like I had just won the super bowl in hell. "What are you going to do man?" I asked him.

"Well DJ Double Tap is going to keep up this radio show for as long as I can. I think pretty soon here I'm going to head over to the big studios uptown and start doing this nation wide. I think DJ Double Tap can do some good out there."

"You know, you really don't have to speak in the third person all of the time," I told him laughing. After that we both bid our farewells to each other over the airwaves. I could hear him over the radio after I hung up. Now he was begging for more people to call in. I wondered how many more people could be out there. There had to be more, and maybe it would benefit us to meet them.

I decided it would be to our advantage to leave the radio on at all times. Just in case somebody else out there needed our help. I remembered the time when I said the more the merrier and didn't mean a damn word of it, but now I felt differently. I was now going on the strength in numbers theory. We needed to find as many people as we could and get them all working together. It was our best chance at survival. So far that theory was working. Thinking back, none of us would have made it on our own. I don't know what I was thinking trying to abandon everyone. Then again, I did know what I was thinking, but it was something I was over now. Thank you Layla.

Before we left the house we decided to loot whatever goodies we could find. I was guessing the zombie upstairs, stuffed in a closet, with half a face wouldn't need it anymore. We didn't take too much, soap, food, just stuff everyone thought they were going to need at some point. I remembered my CD collection was gone. We left it behind in the wreckage of the Lincoln, and there was no way I was going back there. I felt it necessary to start rebuilding it. I went through the collection of the former house owners, they didn't have much I wanted. They seemed like country music fans, my least favorite genre of music. All I managed to find was a lone Kansas' greatest hits CD, the rest were all dudes with cowboy hats strategically looking away from the camera. I always wondered what was going on over there that was so important in pictures like that.

After rummaging through the house, we loaded up the bus with the loot and headed out. We still had no idea where we were going, but at least we had a destination in mind. It would be to our benefit to stop soon and get an atlas of some sort. Alaska was going to be one hell of a journey. I remembered the little navigation thing on my phone again, it was time to bust it out. It was still up and running, thank God we automated nearly everything with computers before all this happened. I knew I couldn't use the navigator for too long, I just wanted to get us in the right direction. I couldn't waist battery life on my phone, given I forgot my charger at my apartment, and I definitely wasn't headed back that way.

I'm not sure exactly how many miles we had driven before the bus sputtered out and died. In all our excitement we never remembered the damn thing was probably low on gas. This was going to be a long walk on foot. A long, dangerous walk at that. Right now we would probably be alright, but when we hit a town, it could be game over. Really we weren't safe anywhere, even with the bus, but we were safer in it, than exposed like this. Everyone grabbed what they could carry and we headed on down the road. I don't think it was even a mile into the walk and already Riley was complaining. Her feet hurt. It was too hot. After a few comments like that I was already ignoring every word out of her mouth. I just hoped somebody said something to her at some point, because I'm way too nice to do it.

We walked for about two hours. I was starting to dread what we were going to run into. I knew we had to be getting close to something, I just hoped it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. My leg was still killing me from the crash the day before, maybe I should start complaining I thought to myself. That's when I saw it up ahead. The shadows of an unknown town in the distance. My stomach crawled into my throat, and I started regretting not finding a damn weapon in that house we were at. I knew I was forgetting something when I left, but I almost always felt that way, even when I wasn't forgetting anything. The closer we got, the more nervous I became. Things were going to escalate quickly, I was just hoping everyone was ready.

It wasn't a big town by any means. The type of place you drive through in five minutes and forget it even exists. I knew we had to keep things quiet and avoid being noticed. It wasn't going to be easy. Why didn't I say something earlier about going around this place? I need to start speaking up, or my shyness is going to get us killed. It didn't take long before one of them saw us. I heard the screech get louder and louder, until it was almost right on top of us. Suddenly the scream was interrupted by the loud firing of a gun. I looked over to investigate the noise and saw Riley standing, holding the weapon, frozen in fear from the blast. So much for keeping it quiet. Not to mention she missed the approaching zombie by God only knows how much. Kwame didn't waste any time rushing in and taking it out with the machete, but now we had a whole new set of problems. Again, Roxy said exactly what I was thinking.

"You dumb fucking bitch! What the fuck are you thinking?" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Riley didn't say anything, she just broke down into tears. I knew at this point that Roxy and I both had the same theory on what attracts them. Something about loud noises just sounded like a dinner bell to these bastards. It wasn't going to take long before they were right on our asses.

"Where'd you get that piece at girl?" Kwame asked.

"I found it in the room I was in last night," Riley answered.

"We don't have time, we gotta get out of here, now!" I shouted. It seemed like only Roxy and I knew the weight of the situation. It was probably pretty apparent by how panicked we were at that point.

"Shit, whats the matter ya'll? She just tried to bust a cap at 'em. Its all good and shit, just chill," Kwame said.

"No, its not all good, we're gonna get fuckin' swarmed now dipshit!" Roxy yelled, again saying exactly what was on my mind. I grabbed Layla by the arm and her, Roxy and I started walking back the way we came.

"The fuck ya'll goin? We gotta go this way mothahfuckahs!" Kwame shouted as we were speed walking away. "Fuck ya'll! I'm goin' this way!"

Damn it, now we had a serious moral conundrum. It was either survive the easy way like I preferred, or try and help the other three survive this place that was soon to become hell. I stopped and turned around.

"Dude, fuck them! We gotta watch out for ourselves here!" Roxy pleaded with me.

"I know, but at the same time, maybe we should..." I didn't get to finish my sentence before I was interrupted by the loud screams of approaching zombies.

I saw the horde running full speed in our direction. Now it was too late to make a decision. We were all in this together. The other three saw the swarm and started running in our direction. It was time to play leader again, because if I didn't, we'd all stand around with our proverbial dicks in our hands waiting to get devoured.

"Follow me!" I yelled with absolutely no plan in mind. I was going to have to wing it again, my specialty. There wasn't anywhere to run but back, and eventually they'd catch us if we tried that. I seen a house out of the corner of my eye and started heading towards it. What I was going to do when I got there, I had no idea, I just figured it was the best plan for now. I could improvise from there. If anything we could hold them off one or two at a time from inside. We might have to slaughter an entire town in the process, but these things happen.

We reached the door and by some miracle of God it was unlocked. I was never fully convinced there was a God until all this zombie madness struck. Now I'm almost certain there is, and he likes to leave me weapons and unlocked doors whenever possible. I let everyone in before me and locked the door behind myself. Now it didn't matter if we got a little loud. Now was the time to bust out the guns. Roxy was way ahead of me, but I felt the need to play director of bloodshed.

"You take that window, I'll take this one, anything comes through, fire," I told her. I threw a pistol to Kwame and told him to watch the door and both of us. If we needed back up, we'd yell for him. I grabbed the gun from Riley and handed it to Lucas, and told him to watch our backs. I honestly didn't want Riley anywhere near a firearm.

It didn't take long before they were trying to bust the walls down. They started coming through the windows a little quicker than I had anticipated. We both started unloading into the bastards like we had an infinite ammo cheat code activated. I knew in the back of my mind we didn't and this was going to go badly. This very well could be it, I started thinking. There was no way we could pull this off, what the hell was I thinking? I could hear Riley crying in between gunshots, and it wasn't helping my morale at all. Layla was surprisingly calm during the fight. I think she still had that thing that as long as I was calm, things were okay. The truth was I was starting to freak out, but there was no way I was going to show it. I needed to start thinking again, maybe it was time to high tail it out the back. We thinned their numbers a bit, and if we kept fighting like this, maybe we could make it. Just keep making little stands like this, and maybe we could pull this shit off. I yelled at the top of my lungs "Time to go! Out the back! Now!" I wasn't sure if zombies still understood English, but I was just praying to that God I knew was listening that they didn't.

We made a break for the back door, but before we could get there I heard a loud explosion from outside. The explosion was followed by three more explosions right after. Then gunshots, lots and lots of gunshots. I noticed the zombies weren't pursuing us. "Hold on!" I commanded. Everyone stopped and looked back. I slowly crept toward the door and peeked out it. It seemed someone had slaughtered the entire town in a matter of seconds. Grenades and semi automatics will thin out zombie hordes pretty quickly I suppose. I saw a van in the distance, and I started to approach it. I watched my legs to make sure none of them survived and tried to take a chunk out of my leg or something like that. I had played Resident Evil too many times to fall for that trick. Again, another case where my nerdiness was paying off. There were no signs of life, or afterlife, or whatever you called the state zombies were in. The doors of the van started to open and out came five people. I recognized one of them immediately. It was Randle, the old foreman at work.

"Holy shit! Randle! What are you doing here?" I asked, ecstatic to see someone I knew.

"Shit, I could ask you the same question," he responded. I thanked them for helping us out and saving our lives. I knew we were probably doomed if they hadn't of shown up, although it was tough to admit,. I, like all men, have a sense of pride when it comes to things like that. I asked them how they knew what the zombies were after.

"Just an educated guess," responded the man standing behind Randle. He then introduced himself as Dr. Grant. This was almost too good to be true I thought to myself, a doctor and a gun totting redneck. This is exactly what we needed. The other three then introduced themselves. There was a girl dressed in all black, with the palest skin I'd seen in a while. Her name was Raven. Then there was another guy with jet black hair who seemed maybe a bit over confident. He introduced himself as Gabe Spencer, a reporter for some newspaper I was pretty sure didn't exist anymore, so I didn't pay attention. Then there was Trevor. He was nice enough, shook my hand and all the formalities that go along in meeting someone new. There was something about this guy I didn't like though. Maybe it was how particularly nice he was to Layla and Riley both. Five minutes in and I already didn't like this guy, but maybe that feeling would change.

"Need a ride?" asked Dr.Grant. We all piled into the van that was clearly not meant to fit eleven people at a time. I felt like I was in a pack of illegal immigrants waiting to be smuggled across the border. Not to mention the loads of ammunition and guns these guys were rolling around with. It was cramped to say the least. Somehow we all managed to fit though and we rolled on down the road, right through the town that I officially renamed Hell number two. I think I would encounter about at least seventy versions of hell by the end of this trip. I was hoping for less, but a philosophy of mine is to always expect the worst and hope for the best, you're only pleasantly surprised that way. I was just relieved we had found some more people to help our cause. Maybe things were going to work out after all. In fact, things were starting to look pretty good, and to think, I was supposed to be dead today.