Zuckerman was right. Their only hope, was to get far away.
“Down here!” He led them through a field of corn towards a farmhouse. “They won’t see us in here.”
Stopping to catch his breath, Chad bent over, hands on knees.
“What happened in there?!” Zuckerman demanded.
“What? How the hell should I know what that was?” Chad asked incredulously.
“You were with him on the bus, did he say anything to you?”
“Yeah, he told me he was planning to chow down on all of us!” his voice full of sarcasm. “Of course he didn’t fucking say anything!” he yelled. “I have no idea what the hell that was! I’ve never seen anything like that in my life! That shit’s for the movies!”
“You’re telling me!”
Calming down a little, Chad stood, looking back towards the bus.
“Did you see who else got away?”
“I don’t know, man. I was focusing on getting us out of there.”
“I can’t believe he just… I mean… Fuck! How is this even possible?”
“I don’t know. Maybe his steroids sent him crazy.”
“Nah, I don’t think so. He was definitely hopped up, but could they really make you… eat your friends?”
Zuckerman started walking towards the farmhouse.
“Let’s think this through. What do we know? Was he sick before he got on the bus?”
“Nah, I saw him coming outta the supermarket. He was pissed, but he was fine.”
“So he just suddenly came down with some… disease?”
“Yeah, I guess. He got all sweaty and his eyes were bloodshot, they almost looked like they were changing colour.”
“His skin was kinda grey too.”
“Yeah, and then he had that coughing fit and said he couldn’t breathe. And then he passed out.”
Zuckerman began pacing. “I’m just gonna say it, man.” He pulled his cap off, raking his hand through his hair. “You know it, and I know it. There’s no other explanation. He’s a freakin’ zombie! He died and came back to life and started biting people!”
“Yeah, but how? I mean, why haven’t we heard about this?” Chad agreed.
“Maybe he’s the first?”
“Just out of the blue, turns into a zombie? I’m not buyin’ it. It had to have come from somewhere.”
They started walking again. The farmhouse was only a few hundred metres away. Zuckerman pulled Chad down behind a nearby tractor.
“We should be careful. We don’t know how far spread this is. For all we know, this place could be over-run too.”
“Or they could help us.”
“Okay, assuming that they aren’t zombies themselves, you honestly think complete strangers are going to believe that our team mate turned into one and started attacking people?”
“We don’t have much choice.”
Zuckerman pointed to the barn.
“We should find some weapons and go back. We might be able to save some of them.”
Chad frowned, contemplating it. He nodded, crouching low. They ducked back into the cornfields, keeping low to the ground. They edged their way closer, watching out for the occupants of the farm.
“Okay, it looks all clear. Ready?” Chad asked. Zuckerman nodded. “One, two, three!” They ran the one hundred metres to the barn doors, silently praying for them to be unlocked. They were in luck. Squeezing through, they pulled the door closed behind them, scoping the place out.
“Over there,” Chad whispered, pointing at a row of garden tools. Chad grabbed a garden fork and shovel. He then looked on the workbench to find some smaller weapons they could use too. He found a rusty pair of secateurs, a trowel and a hammer. Zuckerman had found his own selection of tools and was securing a tool belt around his waist.
“I can carry more this way.”
“Good idea.”
They loaded the tool belt up with as many ‘weapons’ as they could. Chad shoved the hammer in his back pocket and swung the garden fork over his shoulder, handing Zuckerman the shovel. With one final sweep of the