The Failed Coward Read online

  ADRIAN’S UNDEAD DIARY

  Chris Philbrook

  Book Four

  THE FAILED COWARD

  Adrian’s Undead Diary: The Failed Coward

  Copyright © 2012 Christopher Philbrook

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author. Your support of author’s rights is appreciated.

  Published in the United States of America

  First Publishing Date March, 2012

  All characters in this compilation are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover design and interior layout by Alan MacRaffen

  This book is dedicated to all of the Hall E residents who helped AUD find its way onto the printed page:

  Antonio Ablog

  Santiago Ablog

  Dean Adams

  Akraven

  Carey Anderson

  Joe Aplet

  Chris Arena

  Misty Arensdorf

  Bahzu & Mobo

  Eric Banninger

  Robert Barker

  Linda Bartholomew

  Brent Baxter

  William Benn

  Pat Berechree

  Russ Berner

  Scott Bernstein

  Liz Berry

  Junior Black

  Maya Bolinger

  Bryan Bonilla

  Mark Boudrieau

  Christopher Brown

  Michelle Brown

  Adrian Burt

  Derek Carrier

  Lindsey Carrier

  Vincent Carrier

  Michael "Haus" Cartwright

  Ryan Catucci

  Matt Chambers

  Josh "EthalienHosh" Christensen

  Nicholas Clark

  Brett Cox

  Garland Cox

  DeLaina Craft

  John Crayton

  John L Crowll

  Tyler Davidson

  Kaden Devine

  Johnathan Dotson

  Lawrence Alex Dunham

  Matthew Eddy

  Micah

  Misty

  Max & Matthew Davis

  Pamela Deaton

  JC Edualino

  Sarah "Savy Cha Cha" Englehardt

  Shana Festa

  Dave "NGIB" Fitzgerald

  Michael Floyd

  Justin Fooshee

  Annalisa Foster

  Dirk Frailey

  John Ryan Gardner

  Martin Garlant

  Steve Gideon

  Jay Glasco

  Lauren Grafing

  Michael Gray

  Rachel Hamilton

  Michelle Hansen

  Russ Hawkins

  Jason HilleyRobert Hollis

  Adam Holmes

  Justin Holmes

  Jay Honsey

  Mike Howard

  Chris Hughes

  Norrie Huth

  Matt Isgro

  Joe Keneson

  Matt Keneson

  Pistol Annie James

  Jezebel in Hell

  Jared Johnson

  Jeffery "Jefro" Johnson

  Ray "Pixelcide" Johnson

  Lynne Johnston

  Kara Jones

  Sherry Knight

  Elleisha Latcham

  Justin Lawrentz

  Brian Leazenby

  Adam Lewis

  Edward Lopez

  Eric Loveless

  Mary Kristine Macapagal

  Michael McCready

  Nora McCulla

  Alanna McDermott

  Chris '28' McDowell

  Matt McLaughlin

  Mary Miller

  Micah B Minor

  Brittany Moore

  Brian Morelli

  Jon Mosher

  Justin Mueller

  Brian Mullett

  Jolanda Musca

  Conrad Nark

  Mark Nichols

  Jeremy Norman

  OILBURNER

  Patrick Olsen

  Buz Ozburn

  Scott Page

  Erik Paulson

  Dennis Pekkala

  Gary Perkins

  Dan Pettyjohn

  Culex Pipiens

  Shannon Procknow

  Tina Redanz

  Lisa Reynolds

  Kirby "RED DOG" Richard

  Chuck Rice

  Les Roach

  Michael Robbins

  Rob "Ontos" Roche

  Joseph Rodriguez

  Tony Rodriguez

  David "SuprDave" Roe

  Sean Rofe

  Jeff Roller

  Jamie Rogers

  Sharon Sanders

  Mackenzie Schauer

  Arthur Scheel

  SgtDuster

  John Skokan III

  Jesse Smith

  Tony Smith

  Veronica Smith

  Kevin Sowers

  Eric Stenzel

  Will Stowe

  Mary Sutton

  Sonya Tapley

  Ruth Thomas

  David Walker

  Josh Warren

  Warrior

  Casey-Andrew Webber

  Adam Weber

  Zebulon Weber

  Josh Wheeler

  Donnie Williams

  Dave Williamson

  Tracy Wilson

  Ross C Worden

  Rich "Secretsquirrel" Wresneski

  Larry Yadouga Jr

  Eric Zaldivar.

  Also by Chris Philbrook:

  Elmoryn - The Kinless Trilogy

  Book One: Wrath of the Orphans

  Coming Soon:

  Book Two: The Motive for Massacre

  Book Three

  Adrian’s Undead Diary

  Book One: Dark Recollections

  Book Two: Alone No More

  Book Three: Midnight

  Book Four: The Failed Coward

  Coming Soon:

  Book Five: Wrath

  Book Six

  Book Seven

  Book Eight

  TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  Auburn Lake Preparatory Academy map

  MARCH 2011, Continued

  March 5th

  March 7th

  Sweetest Amy

  March 8th

  March 9th

  March 11th

  March 12th

  March 14th

  March 16th

  March 18th

  March 20th

  March 22nd

  March 24th

  March 26th

  March 27th

  Gasoline

  March 29th

  March 31st

  APRIL 2011

  April 2nd

  April 4th

  April 6th

  April 7th

  The Siege of Mildenhall

  April 9th

  April 11th

  April 13th

  April 15th

  April 17th

  April 18th

  April 19th

  April 21st

  The Golden Palace

  April 23rd

  April 25th

  April 27th

  April 29th

  About the Author

  Additional Online Content

  AUD Merchandise

  March 2011

  Continued

  March 5th

  We are still alive. All of us, mercifully. I wasn’t able to write last night, and to be honest, I’m writing this entry on a tiny amount of borrowed time.

  It occurs to me that it is Saturday night. If the world hadn’t fallen apart in June, I wonder what I would be doing right now, instead of
fighting off what appears to be an unending siege of the fucking living dead. I wonder what Cassie and I would be doing?

  She’s dead. I think we’ve proven that. At least I think I've proven that to myself. I haven’t dreamt of her, or anyone else since that night. Probably because I haven’t really slept at all since then. We are benefitting from our marginal success in fending off the zombies. Oddly enough. Christ I am tired.

  I need to keep this short. Or take frequent breaks to go shoot more of them.

  The entire night of the… 3rd? Whenever my last entry was, we sat awake in the upstairs rooms watching the crowd build and build until every single open yard of space had at least one zombie in it. There had to be five hundred of them. Just as I said before there was…. AFK.

  Banging on the front door again. One of them managed to climb over the mound of bodies and tumble down the pile against the front fire door. I had to lean out the second floor window with the .22 pistol to kill it. Thankfully we have an abundance of .22lr ammo. We desperately need another damn .22 weapon though. The way we’re pumping rounds through the two we have, the barrels are not going to last if we make it through this.

  Sigh. I’m having a hard time making heads or tails of everything right now. Based on what Patty, Abby and I talked about the other night, I know Cassie is dead. Dead but not gone apparently. I haven’t revisited my writings about my dream since I wrote them. I get the feeling a lot of emotion will hit me like a truck, and I need to stay sharp until we get through this. If we get through this.

  Yesterday we made the decision to reinforce all the windows and doors with the wood I had in the basement. There wasn’t much raw material available, but we had a few 2x4s, and one sheet of plywood, and using a kitchen knife with a serrated edge, we managed to quietly score the sheet enough to snap it into smaller sheets to cover the areas we felt were most likely to get hit hard. It was a good decision. The windows in the living room downstairs were broken this morning when the undead reached them. The bodies are stacked high enough now outside that a few of them have managed to walk across the top of the pile and get to the windows. I never accounted for bodies being stacked that high. I guess that was a mistake on my part.

  This is a nightmare Mr. Journal. It is the worst thing you can imagine to watch them come, one after another, over and over, reaching, clawing, and scratching. They’re trying to get inside to kill us, and either we will have enough bullets, or we won’t. I hope running away is an option if that happens. I think we have enough bullets to last though. I hope that doesn't turn into another mistake on my part.

  The crowd is much thinner outside right now, but that’s not what worries me most at the moment. Dimly inside I have the strong feeling we will survive this. I don’t think this, no… that’s not what I am trying to say. I FEEL like this was not an attempt on our lives. This siege.

  I know that might sound stupid. They certainly are trying to kill us in here. Gunshot. AFK.

  Patty shot one trying to climb the deck on the side of the Hall. Haven’t seen them try to climb before. I hope that’s not a new thing they’re gonna start. Fuck that noise.

  At any rate, what I am trying to say, is that there is a... I don’t know, a feeling about this that I can’t shake. I just get the impression that if these things really wanted in to kill us, they would’ve done it already. Why would they wait for us to fire on them before rushing the building? Why are they all holding books? Why did it take them this long to get here? Why March 3rd?

  Wait a second.

  January, February, March.

  At three am on the third night of the third month I have a dream of three people sitting in a white room.

  I am suddenly more afraid of that train of thought than I am of the undead outside. Someone or something is trying to send us a message. I need to get through this, and figure out what that message is, or the next time the undead come, I get the distinct impression they are not going to wait for us to fire on them first, and they WILL get in here. I am reminded suddenly of that zombie with the watch.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Three taps. Motherfucker.

  Mike from Westfield will be here on the 7th. We need to get this handled before his people drive onto campus and get caught up in what’s happening. Gilbert is at his house being as quiet as possible. He said over the radio that there are just a few outside his house, but they are standing outside, almost as if they are keeping guard on him. He told me through the windows he can see that there is one or two of them on each side of his house. Like they’re keeping him inside. Focusing on us here.

  That’s not creepy or anything.

  More fucking gunshots from downstairs. I gotta go.

  -Adrian

  March 7th

  Operation: yank our asses out of the fire has been largely completed. I just woke up from the first decent sleep I’ve gotten in what feels like an eternity. I’m scared to sleep now. Genuinely apprehensive about putting head to pillow. Ever since the 3rd and my “white room” dream followed by the fucking onslaught we’ve had here… I don’t know Mr. Journal. It’s like there is no forgetting about what I saw, and what has happened.

  Things are different today. People are looking at me strange. Maybe it’s all in my head and I am just hallucinating that they are looking at me strange? I can’t say for sure. I guess it doesn’t matter in the short term.

  Where to start? So much bullshit has gone down here it’s hard to find a single moment or event to start with. I mean... ah fuck it. Where did I leave off last? I think it was late evening on the… 5th? Yeah. So we had another surge right after I hit save and shut the laptop. The entirety of the day and evening of the 4th we were at the windows of the second floor firing down into the crowd of undead pressing into Hall E more or less nonstop.

  Ironically, they didn’t start attacking us initially until we started firing on them, which was odd to say the least. We know they saw us through the windows, so it’s not like they didn’t know we were in here. Almost like they were giving us time to prepare or something. Definitely fucking odd.

  I may or may not have said already that we formulated a battle plan that revolved around using the .22 caliber weapons primarily. We’ve got an abundance of that ammunition here, and it made sense to use as much of that as possible before we switched to anything else. All we have for .22 weapons right now are the Browning pistol, and the Tac .22. We had some issues when we poured it on too, not surprisingly.

  Firing over three or four hundred rounds in any situation is pretty bad for a gun. Wear and tear, residue builds up, the barrel and internal shit gets really hot, and can warp, there’s just a plethora of things that can go wrong. Military grade weaponry is designed for hard use, but we’re sorely lacking in that kind of stuff. Two hours into our Waco-style standoff with the horde we started having jams. Stovepipes mostly with the pistol, but not long after the rifle started to fail. These guns are simply not designed for that volume of fire.

  We switched out once it was clear the guns needed to be cleaned and given a rest. Now in my infinite wisdom, I still had not taught the girls how to fully break them down and clean them, so we wound up misfiring a lot of rounds until we got new weapons to the windows to keep the rate of fire up. Gilbert kept radio’ing us every five minutes asking how we were doing, and as we could, we kept him up to date.

  Our second best option for ammo was the M15 and the crate of 5.56 we’d just bartered for. However, none of the girls had fired the M15, which meant I had to clean the guns and do all the shooting myself, which wasn’t the best idea. We opted for Abby to go to town with the Beretta firing very slowly, and limiting her to 30 shots. That gave me enough time to get the .22 rifle cleaned for Patty, and get her back in the fight. I cleaned the .22 pistol while Abby waited, and then I gave it to her. I let the two women resume our firepower session and I got us fresh drinks and food so we could keep up the barrage. I also checked all the doors and windows on the first floor to ensure nothing had gotten inside,
and we were good to go.

  That process went on for something like ten hours. Eventually we had killed so many of them the bodies were stacking up so high the windows were in danger of being smashed, and then the zombies could find a way to get inside. About that same time the number of zombies outside began to thin, but they kept coming in waves as more and more made their way across the bridge and into the center of campus. The thinner mass of undead meant we could rest some though, and I let Patty take a break.

  Abby refused to leave me alone. That girl is a worker Mr. Journal. There’s just no fucking quit in her. I watched her that day and night as she fired her little pistol down into the crowd, and she’s a machine. She lines up her shot, controls her breathing, and gently squeezes the round off. One after another. Textbook. If I had a camera, I could use her to teach other people how to shoot. It’s crazy to think she was just a normal, nerdy high school girl a year ago. Today, she’s a hardcore post apocalyptic badass bitch with a snarky sense of humor. I’m smiling just writing it. I'm so fucking proud of her.

  We pissed through over a thousand rounds of .22 the past few days. I haven’t done an official count since, but we were firing a lot of bullets. The weapon jams came and went, and got better when we cleaned the guns and gave them a break to cool down. Unfortunately, while the .22’s were down resting, we switched to the M15, and the Ruger M77. We had a fair amount of .270 kicking around, and with the additional range afforded by a scope, I was able to let Patty warm up to the M15, and I hammered down a handful of the undead further out. We saved all the brass on the outside chance we find reloading gear. Sooner or later we’re bound to.

  Upside: killed a lot of fucking zombies. Downside: we pissed through all but five rounds of .270, and we burned up 300 or so rounds of the 5.56mm. This was such a bitch. I mean, I can’t say I didn’t expect us to have to deal with the undead, but not all at once, and not right here on campus. What good fortune Mike brought all that ammo for the trade. Wow, right? Either I’ve got a guardian angel, or the devil takes care of his own. Shrug.

  Where was I? So yeah the entirety of the past few days have been a shit storm. The 4th, 5th, and 6th were all the same. Waves and waves of the cocksuckers drawn in from the noise we were creating. We did notice some weird shit. Remember how I said they were all carrying books? Well, after we started firing into the huge crowd, they tossed the books, and sort of returned to “normal.” None of the additional dead folks that came to campus had books, just the first two or three hundred or however many we had.