Chapter 11

Vantastic

“Benji, this is not working. Try and shoot every other zombie this time and let a few through. When they start climbing the bleachers I will try and put them down with the .22 pistols. That should save us some ammunition. If the situation doesn’t change, we are going to have to cut and run in about five minutes.”

“Ok Mark, I will switch it up now.”

When Benji paused to reload this time instead of my rifle I picked up the first .22 target pistol. When shooting at targets I can usually hit a head sized target at around 50 meters with a pistol. Let’s half that distance, because this is the real world and not a shooting range, so 25 meters should be my long shots with the pistol. Ten meters is probably more realistic, but I will find out soon. I guessed that the bottom of the bleachers was about 25 meters away. I would let them get to the bottom before I started shooting with the pistol. The first one had just reached the bottom stair and I was about to shoot when it stopped.

What now? I stop myself from shooting and watch closely. It is almost like it is deciding what to do about climbing. It wanders along about 3 meters before it reaches the actual steps and not the higher bench. Once it reaches the steps it starts to climb. So the bench of the bleacher was high enough to confuse it. Probably not enough to stop it, but it definitely slowed it down. I aim and fire one shot into the chest of the climbing zombie. I hit center mass but not much happened. Okay, smaller bullet means either more shots or more accurate shots. I aim for the heart area and fire off another shot as it reaches about 15 meters away. This shot causes it to stumble. It is not dead yet, but it can only crawl now. I must have nicked the heart causing it to have problems moving. My final shot I aim for the head and watch as bullet actually ricochets off the skull. Ok note to self, hollow point .22 bullets do not have the penetrating power at 15 meters to get through the skull of a human. I bet it would work on the side of the head as that is thinner bone.

Oh well, I can ignore that zombie anyway, it is going to bleed out. I continue shooting at zombies as they reach the bleachers. Each one takes at least two shots, some take three, and one large gentleman took five before he went down. My pistols are not as efficient as the rifles, but since I have a thousand rounds of ammunition I don’t have to be. After another five minutes I check in with Benji.

“Ammo supply and situation.”

“I am down to my last 50 rounds or so and still have your 50 rounds, so about 100 shots left I guess. The zombies are starting to actually thin out. I think if we continue on we will be fine.”

“Alright, I have about 40 rounds for the .30.30 and over 750 rounds of hollow point and 500 rounds of target for the .22 pistols. Let’s keep going.”

About eight minutes later Benji fires one last shot and states, “That’s it, I don’t see another one.”

I finish off the two zombies that have made it to the bleachers and reply, “Let’s wait a few minutes just to be sure.”

“Okay.”

After a couple of minutes, the adrenaline produced from the situation started to wear off. I started to notice not only the sights around me but the smells. Particularly the smells associated with the large amount of dead bodies near us. None of the zombies had showered any time recently. The body odor alone was starting to become overwhelming. On top of the body odor was the coppery metallic scent of blood, with just a hint of released bowels from when some of them perished. Basically it was horrible.

“I can’t stay here any longer Benji. Please tell me you don’t see anything and we can climb down and move to somewhere that smells better.”

“I don’t see anything and I second your vote to get out of here. The smell is starting to make my eyes water and my stomach churn.”

We quickly climbed down from the roof of the press box and removed the blockage from in front of the door. When we open the door the smell we thought was bad on top of the press box became ten times worse. To top it off there was a steady dripping sound from the blood of the zombies on the bleachers hitting the ground. Both of us step out and turn, thankfully, to opposite sides and threw up what we had in our guts. I rinse my mouth from a water bottle and don’t even say a word. I just look for the best way down. Since we had let some of the zombies reach the bleachers there really was not a good spot for us to leave the bleachers without going over at least one or two bodies. Forget that, I am not going any closer to that smell. I start climbing over the back fence and down the scaffolding of the bleachers. When Benji sees what I am doing he quickly follows. Two minutes of climbing and a quick 60 second jog away from the overpowering scent I finally start walking and talking.

“Well Benji, we definitely learned some things from this adventure already. First and foremost is that many zombies and bodies equals nausea and vomiting. We definitely need to make sure to bring not only ear protection like we did for the gunshot sounds but nose protection for afterwards.”

“I agree. I think we learned some other important information also. It seems that zombies don’t climb well and that we should estimate twice as many out of sight then what we can see, just to be safe.”

“I think you are right. Although the extras may have been drawn in by sound also. As long as they are not bunched up, dealing with the zombies seems rather easy. Clean up on the other hand is going to be problematic.”

“I guess that just means that whenever possible we need to eliminate zombies away from wherever we are staying.”

“I wonder if they are drawn to smell as well as sound? Do you think that we should come back by here in a couple of days and check on the piles of dead zombies?”

“Nope, I think that we would have a hard time distinguishing what was eaten by the zombies and what was eaten by wild animals.”

As we were talking, we were walking and soon had reached the supply and maintenance building. I had remembered seeing it the last time I came down to the campus for a school meeting at the business and education center. Something about text book adoption I think. Anyway, as we got closer Benji and I both became quiet and slowly approach the gate to the maintenance shop. I pull out my .45 pistol just to be safe and see Benji do the same. Close quarters means that the rifle will be a liability. Too hard to swing it quickly to cover the different angles. We clear the gate area and see nothing inside of the maintenance area.

So far so good. Suddenly I stop and Benji lets out a little squeak. “Really Benji, did you just squeak?”

“Shut Up Mark. Why did you stop and scare me like that?”

“Sorry I just realized that we should close this metal gate and then we won’t have to worry about anything from the outside coming into the maintenance department while we look around.”

“Great idea brother, but next time try to arrive at this idea without scaring the bejesus out of me.”

I just grin and start closing the gate. Benji shakes his head and goes over to the other side. In less than 30 seconds we had secured our flank which made me feel much better. I spotted the vans we wanted along with several SUV’s, one minibus, a couple of tractors and several zero-turn lawn mowers.

“Where do you think they keep the keys?”

“If it was me I would either keep them in the vehicle or in that office over there.”

“Alright let’s check the vehicles first and then the office.”

We carefully check under, around and behind each vehicle before opening it up to look for keys.

“No keys, they must keep them inside and check them out when needed.”

I make a quick note of the two best looking vans. They each have a rack on top and are labeled USC- A4 and USC- A5. I assume that stands for USC-Aiken van 4 and USC-Aiken van 5. I move towards the office looking building and Benji follows close behind. I line up with my back on one side of the door frame like you see in the movies. Benji instinctively does the same on the other side of the door. I guess we do watch a lot of the same movies. I motion to him that I am going to try and open it on three. I silently count down with my fingers and try the handle, locked. I look at Benji and he looks back at me and we both grin. “On three again”, I whisper. He nods.

One, two three, Benji and I both spin towards the door and kick forward with all of our might. I am glad that this is the end of the world. Both Benji and my feet just make a thudding sound against the door and instead of flying open we both stumble backwards off balance. Luckily neither of us actually fell down. If someone else besides my brother had been there to witness the utter failure of kicking in the door movie style, I don’t know if I would die of embarrassment, but I definitely would not be able to ever return and look someone else in the face.

“Okay Benji instead of living out our demented film fanasy, which did not work, I do have a solution to this problem.”

I pull my axe bar off my waist and wedge the crowbar section where the lock is. With a minimum amount of effort, I pop the lock and we stare at the inside of the maintenance office. There are four desks and on the back wall is a large pegboard with the words VEHICLE CHECKOUT written on it. Well that is a little anti-climactic, but on the other hand at least we don’t have to waste time searching for what we need. We quickly clear the rest of this building and the maintenance yard itself before we start loading up with what we want to take.

As we were checking the area for safety we both noticed a variety of useful tools and other things we could use in the future. My big find was the refueling tank they kept in the maintenance yard. They had a 300 or 400 gallon fuel tank that was at least ¾ full that they used to refill all of their lawn mowers and school vehicles. It was set up on top of a metal framework. I fire up a one of the two forklifts in the yard and lift the whole thing off the ground. I stop the forklift there and Benji and I dismantle the legs on the metal framework with the tools available. Once the tank was free of its legs I set it down on one of the 5 X 8 trailers they used for hauling around the lawn mowers. We tie it down so it won’t come free from the trailer and voila, instant refuel for the trip, no need to stop. Ben backs up one of the vans we are going to take and we hook the trailer up.

Next we load up every rechargeable battery operated tool we can find on another trailer. I have a few ideas for these things in the future. We filled in empty spaces with anything we thought might be useful. That included tools, hats, jackets, plastic gas cans, extra batteries for the van, and so much more. Once we had everything loaded up I grab the eight walkie talkies and their chargers that I saw in the office and also made sure to clean out their soda machine. I hand Benji one walkie and say, “Channel 4. Are you ready to go?”

“Yep let’s go.”