World of Dead | Vol. 1 | Issue 2

by Johnson, Broderick

  Issue 2

  Kyra had never seen as much blood in her entire life as she had in the last 24 hours. She also had never seen a gun before, at least in real life. Yet, there she sat, on the floor with her hands shaking as they held a pistol. Blood soaked her palms and drops off it could be seen on her cheeks.

  She was traumatized, scared, and she needed to find a way to pull herself together or else she was going to die where she sat. All that was going through Kyra’s mind, however, was how she had even gotten into that position in the first place.

  The sun had rose that morning just like it did every morning, but that was just the smoke and mirror illusion of a normal morning. It didn’t take Kyra long to remember why she had her little sister in her arms all night. The terrifying events from the previous night flooded her mind almost instantaneously.

  Kyra, taking out the trash for her father, never expected two strangers to attack her in the front yard of their lake house. She definitely didn’t expect the strangers to begin biting chunks of flesh out of her father’s body when he attempted to save her. Not in a million years could Kyra have predicted that she would watch her father’s eyes go lifeless as he lay on their couch. Then again, Kyra kept remembering that the world she lived in was no longer the one she was used to.

  She carefully sat up in her bed, making sure to not wake her baby sister Kassidy, and then laid Kassidy back down to continue resting. Kyra left her mother in the living room to mourn her father’s death, but she wasn’t entirely sure where her mother was that next morning. She cautiously made her way out of her room and down the hall.

  As she turned the corner into the living room, the sight hadn’t changed much since the night prior. Her father was still lying on his back, one leg hanging off of the couch as the other was straightened out across it, with his dead eyes staring off into space. The image brought tears to Kyra’s eyes once more as she watched her mother sleep on her dead father’s chest.

  Kyra battled through the tears and made her way closer to her father and mother. She reached down and closed her father’s eyes. He deserved to rest finally, she thought. Kyra then reached for her mother, but decided to let her sleep. She was sure that her mother had been up, mourning and sobbing most of the night. Kyra just lost her father, but she couldn’t imagine losing a life partner.

  The silence in the lake house was eerie, but maybe that was just because of the recent events. Kyra acknowledged that it was always silent at the lake house and that if the circumstances weren’t so traumatic it might actually be nice. Still, though, Kyra needed to do something productive.

  She made her way to the kitchen, where dinner from the night before was still on the dining table. Kyra opened the refrigerator to find a surprisingly empty sight. She remembered that her father mentioned needing to go to the store soon, but she didn’t realize that it would be that soon.

  Kyra knew that they had run out of milk a while ago, but what she didn’t know was that they were dangerously low on baby formula and baby food. She found out as soon as she opened the cabinet where they were keeping all of the baby formula and saw only one container left. There were still a few containers of food, but not enough. Kyra knew that it didn’t matter how much of the formula was left in the container, somebody was going to have to get some more supplies from the local store.

  Kyra shut the cabinet and looked at the ground before glancing up at her mother. She wondered whether she should wake her or not, but then Kyra remembered what her father told her the night prior. Her father, Dave, made Kyra promise to him that she would protect her mother and sister. In that moment, it became clear to Kyra that her mother was in no condition to be outside with the monsters that wait for them.

  Kyra made her way back to her room and gently moved her baby sister to their parent’s room where her crib was located. She then made sure that the door was shut, just to make sure that nothing would accidentally wonder into the room. Kyra prepared herself to go outside. Despite the fear that was coursing through her veins, Kyra managed to get dressed, put her hair up in a ponytail, and slip on her hiking boots.

  She grabbed her backpack before making her way down the hall and turning towards the front door, but stopped herself at the last moment. She was wondering whether she should tell her mom where she was going or if she should just let her rest. She gripped the knob with intent as she stared at her mother before finally deciding to let her rest.

  “I’ll be back before you know it,” she whispered to mother, although nobody could’ve heard it except herself.

  As Kyra made her way down the porch, she found herself staring at the horrors of the night before. The man that attempted to eat her and the woman that bit a large chunk out of Kyra’s father’s neck. The man lay there, just as Dave had left him, with the top portion of his head separated from the bottom. The woman, whom Dave had decapitated on the ground, was also how he had left her, but Kyra noticed something truly terrifying.

  Kyra got closer to the woman’s head and noticed that it seemed to be moving as it lay on its side. Kyra circled around and found that the eyes and mouth of the decapitated head were still moving. The eyes looked around viciously as the mouth chomped away. Once Kyra was visible to the woman, the eyes locked on her and the mouth became more aggressive. Yet, the body didn’t move at all.

  Kyra attempted to investigate the man as well, but the scene was just too gruesome for her. His literal brains were out on the pavement of the driveway getting baked by the sun coming in. Kyra decided to worry about cleaning the scene up until after she found supplies, but she stopped her departure at the sight of the shovel.

  It was the same shovel that Kyra had grabbed the night before, in a panic, as she tried to do anything to help her father. The same shovel that she smashed the man’s nose and teeth into his skull and the same shovel that her father used to cut the man’s head in half and decapitate the woman. It was a reminder for Kyra; she probably shouldn’t go anywhere without a weapon of some kind.

  Kyra opened the garage door and looked around for a moment. She wasn’t entirely sure about what she was looking for, but her parents didn’t have any actual weapons like guns or hunting knives around. As she searched through the supplies, however, she came upon a longer blade. It reminded her of a machete, but she couldn’t have been sure that that’s what it was. Kyra wondered how it had gotten there. Was it her father’s?

  She wrapped her hand around the handle and lifted the blade from the rest of the junk that lay on the floor of the garage. It felt surprisingly good in her hand and, suddenly, Kyra found some courage building in her. She closed the garage door and turned, beginning her journey down the driveway.

  Kyra had gone on hikes around the lake before with her father, but not in over a year. She could feel her legs beginning to tire out fairly quickly, yet she was enjoying it. It reminded her of simpler times as she followed the road. The silence was quite peaceful, as well, she thought.

  The road through the woods was not usually busy, but in the new world it was absolutely dead. Thirty minutes into her journey and Kyra still hadn’t seen a single car drive by. It made her wonder just how empty the world had become. How many people were dead or even worse; how many people were now those monsters?

  Suddenly, the silence was broken. As Kyra walked, she heard a sound coming from the woods to her side that stopped her in her tracks. The sound of movement in the trees, rustling of fallen leaves on the ground, caused Kyra to begin looking around in fear. Was it one of those things or was it just an animal?

  Kyra gripped the handle of the machete-like blade a bit tighter as fear trickled down her spine. This was something that she told herself she would be ready for, but the trut
h was that she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be ready to face these monsters alone. Kyra turned quickly as she heard more rustling in the trees and found herself staring into the eyes of a young doe.

  A deer, looking at Kyra with just as much fear as Kyra looked at her, was chewing on something just a few yards from the road. The fear that had struck Kyra so quickly bypassed as she became overwhelmed with joy. It was a nice sight to see such an innocent animal in its natural habitat.

  Kyra dropped to a knee and allowed herself to watch the young deer. She reached down and touched the asphalt with her free hand as she whispered, “You scared me.”

  She found herself giggling at the silliness of being so frightened by something so innocent. Kyra’s relief however wouldn’t last long. Just as she was enjoying the nice moment, another crack of a twig came from behind her and the deer suddenly took off into the woods. Kyra turned quickly and found herself face to face with something much worse than a deer.

  His eyes were pale and dead as his mouth hung open, allowing his yellow and black teeth to show. He reached out with both of his arms as if he was desperate to catch something. Kyra quickly panicked, letting out a scream as she swung her blade. She connected, but not where she should have.

  Kyra’s aim was way off and the machete found itself deep in the neck of the attacking monster. The impact knocked Kyra back and she tripped, falling onto the asphalt. She quickly began to crawl backwards as the monster, nearly unaffected by the blow, kept moving towards her with the machete still lodged into its neck.

  She couldn’t create enough space to reach her feet, crawling as fast backwards as she could. The monster reached down, groaning loudly in the process, and grabbed at Kyra’s feet to which Kyra let out another scream. She began kicking at the hands reaching for her, before finally kicking at the handle of the machete. One kick from Kyra pushed the machete deeper into the neck of the dead man attacking her, but it still did not phase the monster.

  Kyra’s kick was just enough to create space, however, as the monster stumbled backwards with the machete being push deeper into it. Just as Kyra prepared to run, she watched as a pick-up truck slammed into the man attacking her violently. The truck came to a screeching stop after running over the man and Kyra wasn’t sure if she should begin running or see who her savior was.

  The driver side door opened from the truck, which Kyra noticed was one of the newer models of electric truck. She wondered how the driver had managed to charge the battery of the truck considering electricity had gone out months prior. The door shut and the sound of footsteps began as Kyra felt her heart rate rise.

  A man stepped around the back corner of the bed of the truck and looked at Kyra with concern before glancing down at the body of the monster that was attacking Kyra. Mangled and bloody, the monster still groaned as it gnawed at the air and showed no concern or sense of pain.

  The man kneeled down and carefully picked Kyra’s machete up from the ground. He then plunged it into the skull of the monster and finally the gnawing and groaning came to a halt. Kyra’s savior pulled the machete back out and slowly approached her with it. Becoming nervous, Kyra started to crawl backwards away from the man.

  “There’s no need to be afraid anymore,” the man said. He held the machete with both hands and kneeled down in front of Kyra, offering her the weapon. Kyra began to calm as she realized that the man was not a threat after all. She carefully took the machete back and felt embarrassed.

  “Thank you,” she said. The man softly smiled and offered his hand to Kyra.

  “My name is Jason,” he replied and Kyra took his hand. Jason helped Kyra to her feet and then turned back to the monster in the road. Kyra analyzed Jason, having been too concerned before to do so, and noticed that he was an older man. In fact, he looked to be closer to Kyra’s parents age than her own.

  Jason grabbed the dead body and began to drag it to the side of the road before leaving it where no car could run it over. Kyra, confused by his actions, asked, “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t want anybody to hit it and crash,” Jason explained, “So the best thing to do is to move it to the side of the road.”

  “There’s not exactly a lot of cars driving on these roads, though,” Kyra answered, “I’m not sure anybody will be crashing because of that thing.”

  “Maybe not,” Jason said as he finished moving the body. He turned back towards Kyra and continued, “But it’s the right thing to do. Just because the world ends doesn’t mean that we should stop caring for others.”

  Kyra smiled as she heard Jason’s explanation. It had been three months since she had seen anybody besides her parents and sister and she was starting to wonder if there was anybody left at all. Not only was there someone else, but he still cared about the world as if there was something to save. Deep down, Kyra thought the same thing.

  “I didn’t catch your name,” Jason said. He started towards his truck again as he spoke. Kyra noticed the dirty jeans and boots that Jason was wearing, along with the thick jacket, and thought about her father on some of their vacations up here.

  “Kyra,” she replied.

  “What are you doing on the road, Kyra?” Jason asked. He opened the tailgate of his truck and revealed a can of gasoline waiting near the back of the bed. Jason then began to pour gasoline onto the body of the dead monster before lighting it and letting it burn.

  “I was on my way to the store. My family is running out of food back at our lake house,” Kyra explained as Jason continued his task, “Why are you burning it?”

  “The dead walk among us because of a virus,” Jason replied, “I’m burning it so that the virus doesn’t continue to spread.”

  Kyra remembered the news reports that her family used to watch a few months back and debated, “But the news was saying that if we weren’t infected almost immediately then we were immune to the virus. Why burn it if we’re already immune?”

  “We’re immune to this version of the virus,” Jason explained as he put the can of gasoline back in the bed of his truck, “Viruses grow. They can learn how to fight against medicines and can become stronger. So every dead person that you see walking around is carrying the early version of this virus that you’re immune to, but what happens when the virus evolves and you’re no longer immune to it?”

  “We’ll all be infected,” Kyra answered as she began to follow along.

  “And if we’re all infected then that means we’re all dead. We can’t come back from being dead,” Jason finished, “Back to you, though. Why are you the one that’s going to get the food and not your parents?”

  Kyra opened her mouth to answer, but found herself speechless as the thought of her father’s death came back to her. She wasn’t sure what to say or where to even begin. Kyra just lowered her head and let out a sigh.

  “It’s that difficult to talk about, huh?” Jason said. His face showed that he was understanding of the difficulty to discuss certain topics. He didn’t push it anymore and, instead, closed the truck bed before walking over to his passenger side door and opening it.

  “I’m sorry,” Kyra responded, “I really just don’t know what is going on anymore.”

  “I understand,” Jason said as he held the door open, “I’m on my way to the store as well, for my family. It would be much safer if we went together, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know anything about you though,” Kyra argued, “How do I know that I can trust you?”

  Jason stood there, thinking about what Kyra said for a moment, before pulling out his wallet and taking a picture out. He made his way to Kyra and handed it to her. Kyra was surprised by his response to her question and glanced down at the picture.

  It was a picture that Jason had taken with the front facing camera on his phone. In it, you could see Jason smiling immensely with a beautiful woman in the background. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail as her face, bare of make up, had streaks of happy tears falling down to a perfect smile. The woman was holding a newb
orn baby in her arms.

  “That’s my wife Amy,” he said, “Six months ago we had our daughter. Honestly, Kyra, I’m just going to the store to get some stuff for us. It really would be safer for you to ride along instead of walking the road.”

  Kyra felt tears coming to her eyes as she thought of her baby sister, Kassidy. She looked up at Jason and handed him the picture back before nodding in agreement. Kyra was so amazed by the picture. The simple joy in the picture before everything fell apart. A very happy moment. It was beautiful.

  She wiped the tears from her eyes as she sat down in the passenger seat of the truck, allowing her machete to fall to the floor. Jason opened the driver side door and got into the truck as well, but stopped to check on Kyra. He asked, “Are you okay?”

  Kyra nodded and Jason started the truck with the press of a button. They began to continue down the road and Kyra found the speed of the trees passing to be pleasant. She was definitely tired of walking. Kyra glanced down at the mirror and could see the fire burning behind them.

  “Thank you for saving my life,” Kyra said as she stared at the flames that were slowly fading off in the distance. She looked over at Jason and continued, “I have a baby sister. She’s almost nine-months-old now and I have to take care of her. If you wouldn’t have saved me, then I would most likely be dead right now.”

  Jason smiled and answered, “I’m no hero. It was just the right place at the right time.”

  Kyra began to think about her mother. Had she woken up yet? If so, was she worrying about Kyra? She then began to think about everything that her mother and father had gone through in their lives. The conversation she had with her mother by the lake was becoming more clear to her.

  “Hey, Jason?” Kyra said, “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  “Go for it,” Jason answered.

  “Everything that’s happening right now,” Kyra explained as she looked out the window at the trees, “It’s a complete and sudden change to the world, or my world, I suppose. It reminds me of what my mother was telling me about the Battle of Earth.”