Savannah's Only Zombie (Book 2): A New Darkness by Josh Vasquez

about
was more like a mud puddle in the middle of the woods. The steel erections of
the building were up, but not much after that. There were several shipping
containers and office trailers located around the yard, plus the few backhoes
and other construction equipment.
    “Yep,” was all Josh said, as he pulled their
truck through the open gate.
    “And there’s stuff we can use here?” Jeremy
asked, his eyes looking around for anything of value.
    “Oh yeah.”
    Jeremy rolled his eyes. The place was a ghost
town and it did not look like anything of use was there. Maybe one of the
backhoes, but what were they going to do? Drive that noisy thing all the way
back to the cabin?
    Josh pulled the truck up to one of the large,
steel shipping containers. It was a mix of blue and rust.
    “C’mon, let’s go,” he said.
    They both got out the truck and looked around,
making sure that the coast really was clear. It was and they continued. Josh
led them to one of the office trailers and began walking up the creaky metal
stairs.
    “I have to get the key to the container. Should
only take a second,” he said as he reached for the doorknob.
    The door swung open and out stumbled a well-decomposed
zombie. With a hard hat on its head and orange reflective vest, there was no
doubt that at one time this was one of Josh’s co-workers. Josh grabbed it by
the vest and swung it in Jeremy’s direction. Not missing a beat, Jeremy brought
his machete down on the creature’s head, splitting the skull open right between
the eyes. Its dark, black eyes rolled back into its head and the body fell limp
to the ground. Jeremy reached down, yanked the blade back, and there was a sickening
slosh of brain-juices as the machete exited.
    “Good teamwork,” Josh said.
    “Yeah, well, I didn’t really have a choice when
you chunked that thing at me.”
    “My bad, I thought you knew what’s up.”
    Jeremy rolled his eyes again. The gesture did
not seem to bother Josh at all. He opened the trailer door all the way,
slightly more cautious this go around. After peeking his head in and taking a
look, he motioned it was all clear and Jeremy followed him.
    The room smelled of death. The zombie must have
been in there for a good while, because the room was dank with the scent of
rotten meat. Over in one of the corners, Jeremy saw the remains of someone
else. It was impossible to tell who it could have been. Any kind of
distinguishing features were now long gone, given way to bite marks and decay.
Jeremy felt his stomach turn, which surprised him, because it had been a while
since the gore did that to him.
    Guess there’s still stuff that can gross me out.
That’s good news, I guess?
    Josh didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care. He
went straight to a small, metal cabinet on the far wall. It was cracked open.
He swung the door open and rows of keys filled the cabinet.
    “Hmmm…” Josh said. “If I had to guess, I would
say… This one.”
    He pulled a key ring with several keys on it.
    “What makes you so sure,” Jeremy asked.
    “It has a tag on it that says ‘Container’,” he
said.
    “Fair enough.”
    The two of them walked back outside, which was
literally a breath of fresh air. Jeremy rubbed his nose, trying to knock out
the last bits of stink molecules. It seemed to be working, or maybe he was just
telling himself that. They walked back over to the container’s doors and after
several attempts; Josh finally found the right key. He swung open the massive
doors and Jeremy understood what all the fuss was about.
    Sitting towards the front of the container, was
a large, square, metal box. It was on a two-wheeled trailer, red, and one side
filled with switches. Two flat, black panels were on top of the box, slightly
tilted upwards.
    “Is that… Is that a generator?” Jeremy asked.
    “Yep. A solar powered one too,” Josh replied,
his smile making its way back to his face. “C’mon help me pull this thing over
to the back of the truck.