The Mississippi Zombie Chronicals

Chapter 30: Southern Comforts

                                                                                POV:Morgan

We all sat in the office of the fuel depot, looking over the spoils of our most recent battle.

These guys had some serious firepower, AK-12's and HK-416's, definitely paramilitary.

The guns and booze was great, we had enough liquor and guns to last us a while, but the real wins were the fuel and medical supplies.

But the one thing they didn't have was Crown Royal. And I wanted some bad.

So, I devised myself a little plan. Sneak out tonight and raid me a liquor store.

"Bob, will you watch the place a minute? I've gotta take a leak outside cause Cody's in the bathroom with Drew and one of Shane's guys cleaning up the blood." I said.

"Yeah, I gotcha." Said Bob.

I snuck around the outside of the fence and found the road. I still had all my gear and my Siaga, so even if I got lost or separated I'd be okay.

I walked down the road a ways and found a small truck, a Nissan. It still had a little gas in the tank and fired right up.

I drove into the nearest town, which was Pearl. I just thought it looked terrible before the outbreak.

I stopped by a tobacco store, the place still had a few shelves of tobacco, mostly snuff but cigarettes too. I found a backpack in the back room and filled it up with cartons of menthols, keeping a few packs out to keep on me.

I finally found what I was looking for, a liquor store. The bright red and green neon sign was still lit and the store still had a few lights on inside.

I opened the door and walked slowly down the aisles looking for Undead and my whiskey.

I found one poor bastard in the corner, rotted to hell and missing all his limbs. He was still chomping at me, trying to eat me.

I stomped his head in and kept searching until I found it.

Three whole crates of Crown Royal Regal Apple in the back room. I loaded the crates into the back of the Nissan and threw in a couple bottles of vodka and rum for the others.

I drove back to the depot, pulling to the gate and unlocking it, pulling through and making sure I lock it back.

Everyone rushes outside to see what the commotion was all about, seeing it was me.

"Well, I made a couple stops." I said, lighting a cigarette and chugging a bottle of Crown.

"You are one crazy bastard, you know that?" Said Bob.

"You wouldn't love me otherwise" I said, handing him a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of vodka.

"You need to lay down, you stupid, glorious bastard." Said Drew.

I wobbled to the barracks and undressed myself and passed smooth running out in the bed.

                                                                                      POV:Jake

We left the house from grabbing all our gear and weapons. Maria and I were exhausted and really needed to rest but we knew we could rest at the depot.

We got back to the depot about the same time Shane and his survivors did.

The entire complex was surrounded by zombies, Bob and Morgan steadily trying to fend them off.

I grabbed my stop watch and my Python and an M-60 from the trunk.

I focused and drew all my friends into the time warp. We started unloading round after round into the massive horde.

We were almost finished when the loop returned to normal. Bob finished off the last of the zombies with his .44 and we all met up by the office.

"What in the holy hell was that all about?" I asked.

"Well, we may have gotten a little rowdy last night.." Said Morgan.

I saw the cases if booze sitting beside a pile of 9mm casings.

"Don't you ever fucking pull some shit like that again. You could have gotten us killed." I said, a stern tone in my voice.

"Alright, alright I just wanted some Crown." Said Morgan, still half drunk.

A few hours later, we were all in the barracks, talking, laughing, smiling.

Bob and Morgan were on watch on the south and west end, with Philip and Drew on the north and east.

The great thing about the fuel depot was the catwalks surrounding the fuel tanks. They formed a circle around the tanks and had ladders that ran up to them, so no zombies could get up.

I sat with Zig, Maria, Cody, and Shane, playing cards and drinking.

Morgan did think about me, he knew how much I loved rum and menthol cigarettes, even though the cigarette case had a literal infinite supply.

"So, what's the plan for this place?" Asked Cody.

"I plan on fortifying it with concrete or steel. I know of a few places where we can get the materials to build the walls. We can build guard towers sort of like a prisons, except with machine guns. I figure it'll take us a while, so I say we put temporary fences up and build behind them. Two layers of fencing couldn't hurt." I said.

"Hand me a bottle of whiskey and a cigarette." Said Zig.

"You sure?" I asked, shocked. The statement almost made me rock back in my chair in disbelief.

"As sure as I've ever been." Said Zig.

I lit him a cigarette and handed him a bottle of JD.

Zig took a sip of whiskey and a drag of cigarette and I could see the stress rolling off of him.

"Well that's something I thought I'd never see. Zig drinking." Said Cody.

"Hell, hand me a bottle." Said Cody.

I handed him some whiskey. Two of the most sober people I knew just cracked the seal on stout whiskey.

Damn, this really is the apocalypse.