The Road to Macon: A Zombie Novel by Micah Gurley Page B

and after making sure the attacker was dead, moved down the hallway to his parent’s room.
    He opened the door to find his mother laying down on the bed. She was dressed and had a rifle on the bed beside her. but she wasn't moving. Eric called out to her and moved to check her pulse. There was none. He quickly looked over her body for signs of a struggle or violence, but found none. Panicking, he tried to revive her with what little CPR he had been taught. Minutes passed and nothing changed. He began to notice that her skin was cool to the touch. He leaned back on his knees and looked at her. Heart attack? He didn't know what killed her, but he was grateful that she didn't have that look of terror on her face that his father had. It was small consolation at the moment though. Tears finally broke through and the grief gushed out as he leaned to down to hug his momma.
    Hours later Eric sat mentally and physically exhausted. He had buried his mother and father in the front yard by a water oak that his mother enjoyed reading under. He had taken his neighbor and put him into a shallow grave not far into the woods. He was still in shock but his thinking was returning and he knew that he needed to check on his friends and their families.
    Eric walked back to his truck and called out on the CB to his friends. No answer. He figured they were just away from their trucks. So, reluctant to leave his parents, he jumped into his truck, and after reloading his sidearm, pulled out and went further down the road.
    Eric first made it to Troy's house, but noticed that both his truck and his other friend's truck were in the driveway. He was beginning to pull in when throaty growls reached him. He saw Troy moving toward him in a drunken manner and Eric knew that he had been bitten. A quick look around the place showed seven people outside, all turned toward him. All growling and screaming.
    "Boys what happened?" Eric said quietly. He had never experience so much sadness in his life. His parents and best friends were all dead, or at least as good as dead. The front yard to Troy's place was big, but the walking diseased would be there in a few minutes. Eric knew that if he left to go back to his place the diseased would just follow him, so he grabbed the rifle and got out of the truck. He moved to the other side of the truck bed and rested his rifle on the side of it. He turned his optics on and sighted down on his friend Troy. A moment passed, Eric looked into the face of his friend and knew that it wasn't him. He pulled the trigger. Six other shots rang out and Eric climbed into the truck of his bed and hung his head.
    Eric had been wrong when he said all of his family was gone. After returning to his house, he remembered. He pulled into the backyard that resembled more of a shed convention than anything else, and quickly moved to the back. He heard them. Eric started running and slid to a stop in front of a large cage that had a cement bottom. Inside, yelping and crowding to Eric were three beagles. Spotted brown and white, they all looked the same, but Eric knew each of them intimately. He had raised them from pups and they were still there. He opened the cage and all three of them rushed to him, jumping on his legs. They sniffed and yelped as Eric scratched and petted all of them. They were a relief to him. A soothing balm in what had become the worst day of his life. But what now? Macon.
    The next hour saw Eric gathering and packing supplies for the short trip to Kyle's. He decided it wasn't that far out of the way and he might need help. He collected all the guns, food, and tools that he could gather, and put them into his work trailer that was now hitched to his truck. After another quick trip to say goodbye to his family, he pulled back onto the dirt road heading toward the friends he had left.

Chapter 14
    Kyle was relived just to be in his neighborhood, but also noticed there were was smoke coming from a few places in the relatively new