For the more discerning survivor that doesn’t smoosh everything they see from horizon to horizon with their mighty fortress-mobile, there is the smaller nimbler death buggy. It nips in and out of cities with the agility to get through streets without damaging the potential salvage but has enough armor to smash zombies and not explode.
Here is the story of my Death Buggy.
As I climbed the hill out of the small town of Crater Lake I stopped for a moment and looked down at my house. Wreathed in fire and attracting the hapless monsters like moths to a flame, I shivered. Not because I was unnerved by the shambling grotesques that were all that was left of the human race, but because I was freezing my ass off. I had woken up in my bathroom, God knows how long I’d been out. There was one of those… things, It had lost its legs somewhere, and it was reaching over the lip of the bath and scratching at my leg.
It must have been doing it for a while, because the skin was puffy. Probably infected. Maybe it’s not the fact I’m wearing nothing but a towel that’s making me shiver. I just need to make it to the EVAC shelter. There’s got to be a first aid kit there, right?
2 Weeks Later…
I’m lucky to be alive. I caught the flu while I was recovering in the EVAC shelter but the place is completely empty. Even worse, it’s empty because I ripped the place apart for firewood. I made some crude clothes and a short spear with a knife on the end, but living on dog meat isn’t cutting it. I clambered up onto the roof of the shelter the other day, and far over the other side of town I can see that mansion. The one built by the guy who won big on the lotto. I used to play it, you know? Before this, hoping to make it big some day. Now I just don’t want to die. Having said that, not dying in a Mansion would be nice. I’ve got to get through the town though…
The next day
The guy in the house opposite mine on the near side of the city had a small van, it looked kind of like the old VW camper vans. Tall and slim, with a near vertical windscreen, he used to wash the thing every weekend. I used to laugh at him while I watched movies and ate pizza. Considering I really need to know how to get one working now, I wish I had been a mechanic. I’ll never hot-wire a car. Fortunately I was nosy and I once noticed he hung a spare set of keys up in the garage. I just need to make it back to the house. If one of those things get too close I’ll just poke it out of my way, they aren’t too fast it seems, but holy crap there are a lot of them.
A few hours later
CLUNK! THUMP-THUMP F**k! At least it didn’t get caught in the wheels. This thing is so flimsy, what’s it made out of? Paper? The mangled corpse rolled away in the rear view mirror as the descent took me out of the town towards the river and the Winner’s Mansion. I could already hear noises I would define as “unhealthy” coming from the engine. Not good. I saw a crater and a pile of rubble to the north and made a note to check it out later. There was no driveway up to the mansion doors and I had to drive the last half kilometer through muddy grass. Getting out and looking at the mansion, I was shook my head. The foyer was all glass and filled with what looked like replica Samurai gear. Next to it was a pool and on the other side a courtyard. Lottery winnners. More money than sense.
Then I looked at the mini-van. Everything was dented. There were too many zombies to dodge. I had to hit them. broken headlight, damage to the wheels. I have no idea what’s going on with the engine but I can hear it ticking and cooling and I’m not sure it will even turn on again. I don’t know how much food this place has but I’m going to need to go back into town for food eventually. I’m going to have to do something about this van.
The end of summer that year
I found some soldering stuff in the mansion and managed to make enough tools to bash out the dents in the van. I’ve been thumbing through a copy of “Under The Hood” I found in sitting by the pool and it’s been pretty enlightening. That crater turned out to be a military transport, a small cargo plane carrying engines and small munitions. It must have crashed just before the end of things because the corpses, well, they were just corpses. I managed to use leftover parts to keep the engine running in the van, but it’s just a tiny in-line 4, It barely has enough torque to get it going. Definitely not enough to keep it going through a crowd of zeds. I found a V8 in that crash site. It would take too long to swap it out though, and I need food, I’ve cleared out Crater Lake. Time for a road trip.
Later that day
I was on my to St. Steven’s when I heard it before I saw it. POP-POP-POP-POP. I nearly swerved into the river. A military bunker, it’s defences had gone haywire, and were shooting anything that moved. Fortunately I was moving quite fast, but not fast enough. I planted my foot and over-revved the engine to get the hell away. The whole dashboard lit up and the veins in my neck nearly exploded. I made it out unscathed but the van wasn’t so lucky. I must have hit nearly 100mph before the engine exploded and I rolled to the outskirts of St. Stevens on the momentum. Looking “Under The Hood” I noticed one of the bullets had gone straight through fuel injection pump. It was completely destroyed. I pulled a long Japanese sword from the mansion off the passenger seat. This van just saved my life. Time to repay the favour.
The start of Autumn
I was combing through the crater again today when I realised some of the heavy duty frames from the aircraft would make an excellent bumper for the van, and I reckon that if I could weld some wire around the glass I could reinforce the windscreen. That van has kept me alive much longer than I expected. I’ve got almost enough Junk food stored up in the mansion to get me through the winter and I’m going to need a project. Even with a huge bumper it still won’t be very strong though. I wonder if the plating from the plane would work, there’s not enough of it though. Maybe I could put the V8 in the back too…
Picks up the single pristine military composite plate left from the aircraft and sees a 3ft long cylindrical tube underneath
“M72 LAW extend and push button to fire… what the f**k?”
Spring the following year
I was exploring in the runner when it happened. I finally found a military vehicle with the same plating as the aircraft. I saw it and then I saw the robot. It was shooting small mammals that ventured anywhere near the roadblock. I want the panels so badly, I’m sick of bashing dents out of the Runner, but how am I going to stop a robot like that? Then I realised. Over winter I’d taken out the trunk and replaced it with three giant crates from a crashed lorry on the outskirts of town. There, underneath the rags and scraps of leather I’d collected it was sat, with the bold yellow lettering. M72 LAW Time to see what you do…
6 Days into summer
Finally I’m done upgrading the van. The military vehicle yielded giant armored wheels as well as the plates. They wouldn’t fit in the arches of the van, but with the solar powered welding rig I’ve managed to fetch up , I manged to extend the axles and get them onto the front and back. I added an extra axle under the cargo carriers to offset the weight. with the new solar panels and floodlight on the roof, I feel like I’ve actually accomplished something. When I wash the greenish blood off the reinforced windscreen and think back to my neighbor and how he washed this van every weekend, I see why. I love this van too…
