The Zombie Apocalypse Barn

The day the zombie apocalypse happened, Jared and I were working on our farm. He was running the tractor over the fields, to make them fallow, while I was going through the seed inventory to figure out what we needed to order. Neither of us were much for watching the news, but I had the radio turned on and was listening to some classical music when the music was interrupted.

“This is NOT a hoax. I repeat, this is not a hoax. Listeners of KRPB are advised to stay indoors and lock their doors and get whatever available weapons are on hand. Be ready to repel zombies. There are zombies in the streets here, and not the mindless, shuffling zombies you usually think of. These zombies are fast, rapid, and if they bite you and you don’t die, you’ll become infected by them. I repeat, this is NOT a hoax.”

“You don’t hear that every day,” I mutter to myself.

I walk out of the seed shell and wave to Jared. He sees me, and stops the tractor and then gets off of it and stomps toward me with an annoyed look on his face.

“I’m nearly done with the field. What’s all the commotion for?”

“The radio station just made an emergency announcement about zombies.”

Jared looks poleaxed.

“Zombies. I’m this close to finishing my chores for the day and being able to sit back and enjoy a brew on the porch because your radio show is telling you about zombies.”

“Come listen,” I say.

Jared reluctantly follows me. The radio announcer is repeating his announcement.

“You know they’re probably just running a gag. Let’s see what the other radio stations say,” Jared says and steps past me to flick the knob of the radio. It goes to another station and the same announcement is being shared on their. Jared changes it again and the same announcement is playing on the next station.

“Ok, maybe there is something going on with zombies. Go into the barn and get the guns and ammo out. I’ll get the tractor and bring it in as well and then we can fortify the house.”

“Alright Jared. Don’t take long with the tractor,” I nervously say and then head to the old rundown barn. We’ve been meaning to get it fixed up, but we’ve never gotten around to it. Running a farm is enough work that inevitably you fall behind on the things you mean to do. Even so the barn is sturdy enough.

I go into the back of the barn and open the gun locker door. Jared keeps some guns in the house, but he also keeps some out here, just in case. I’ve always thought it a funny reason, but this once I’m glad he’s got some guns out here. I pull out some ammo from the safe he keeps in the room and start loading up the shotgun and hunting rifles.

I’ve just finished loading the weapons when I hear a sound.

“Jared is that you?” I call out.

“Unnnggrrryyyy!”

“Jared, I’ll cook you some food when we get in the house. Get the tractor in,” I scold.

“Unnnngggrrryyyy!!!”

That doesn’t like Jared. I peek out and see five men. They’ve got blood around their mouths and a couple of them have bites on their arms. These are the zombies. I wonder if they’ve already gotten Jared. I can’t do anything about it, if they have, but I’m not going to let them get me.

I grab one of the shotguns, and calmly step out from the gun locker room. The zombies spot me.

“Unnngrrryyy!

I wait for them. They rush toward me, and when they’re close, that’s when I shoot the shotgun. The pellets blast out of the barrel and slam into the first three zombies, turning them into mincemeat. Fortunately I’ve got a double barreled shot gun so I blast the last two zombies into shreds with my next shot.

I hurriedly open the barrel of the shot gun and eject the two spent shells and then stuff two more into the barrel. If I’m lucky there were only five zombies.

“Unngrryyy!!”

“Guess I’m not so lucky,” I wryly say.

I see more zombies coming into the barn. There’s ten of them now. I grab the hunting rifle and put it by the door. I probably won’t have time to use it, but I’m going down fighting. I don’t want to turn into one of things. I heft the shot gun in my hands and wait. My heart is thudding against my chest like a snare drum.

“Unnngrrryyyy!”

All the zombies are framed in the broad doorway of the barn. I can see them looking around, sniffing the air, on the hunt for me, and whatever else is alive. I hope Jared isn’t one of them.

I aim the shotgun and get ready to squeeze the trigger when I hear the sound of the tractor coming into the barn. Jared’s driving it and he’s got a fierce bare toothed grin on his face.

“If you’re so hungry, come and get some!” he yells over the roar of the tractor. The zombies start toward him, but they no longer possess the intelligence that a regular person would have (maybe). They run into the bladed turbine of the tractor and it tears into them, shredding them. One leaps past the turbine blades, but Jared is ready. He’s got a pistol in hand and calmly shoots the zombie as it lands on the hood of the tractor. It falls back into the blades and becomes part of the zombie jerky mess that the tractor is creating.

“Sue, are you still alive? I hope so, because if you’re a zombie I’ll hate to have to put you down.”

My husband, the romantic. Still he came in the nick of time, so that’s something in his favor.

“I’m still alive, hub. Good timing on the save,” I yell out.

Jared turns off the tractor.

“Happy to be of service, but we better get into the house. I don’t know how many more are coming, but this barn isn’t the place to fight them.”

“Agreed.”

I toss him the hunting rifle and he catches it and then we run to the house. There aren’t any more zombies right now, but I’m sure more will be coming and we’ve got to be prepared.

To be continued...

Want more zombie apocalypse fiction? Check out my free story: The Zombie Apocalypse Hospital.