Plague of the Dead (Book 1)

by Rayfield, Alli

  I probably would’ve slept for days had I not been woken up by the sound of glass shattering.

  Chapter 16

  “Damn it! You’re got to be kidding me with this shit,” Daniel said getting to his feet.

  “What is it?” I asked sitting up.

  “Not entirely sure but it can’t be good. Can you help me with this?” He asked indicating the bookcase.

  “Yeah,” I said getting up from the couch.

  “What’s going on?” Phoebe asked appearing in the bedroom doorway.

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Daniel answered.

  Phoebe said nothing else; she came over to help us move the bookcase. She didn’t make eye contact with either of us. I could tell though that her eyes were blood shot. I felt bad for her and wanted to give her a hug but we had to deal with the task at hand.

  With a bit of effort we got the bookcase out of the way. While Daniel untied the door, I grabbed my knife out of my bag.

  I followed Daniel out onto the little porch. Phoebe stood in the doorway.

  I looked around. The sky looked angry. Trees had fallen and I noticed that the shed was missing some of its panels. The air was thick and heavy. The storm seemed to be over but the humidity was awful.

  I hadn’t seen Daniel grab his gun but he was also armed.

  “What the hell?” Daniel said.

  He bent down and picked up a giant brown and grey rock that was lying below the window in a pile of glass.

  “How did that not knock out the boards on the inside?” Phoebe asked observing the size and the density of the rock.

  “Someone threw that right?” I asked.

  “Had to have, I just don’t understand who,” Daniel said.

  “Think maybe the owners,” I suggested.

  “Isn’t it obvious,” Phoebe said. She was leaning against the door frame. “That was Freddie.”

  I looked at Daniel’s face. He had a look that spoke volumes. He obviously didn’t think that was possible.

  “No way,” he said. Speaking what I thought I saw written on his face.

  “It’s him,” Phoebe stated. “I can feel it in my bones.”

  “That means he would’ve been following us and where was he when the storm hit?” I asked.

  Phoebe looked a bit exasperated that we didn’t agree with her theory.

  “Well, a zombie didn’t throw that rock at the window.”

  Daniel nodded. “Phoebe you stay inside. I’ll check out the back, Shelly you get the front.”

  “Okay,” Phoebe and I said in unison.

  Phoebe shut the door while Daniel headed round back. I stepped out into the yard. It was hot and muggy. I felt like I was walking into an oven. I was sweating ridiculously and my clothes were sticking to me.

  I walked out further into the yard. I got an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was concerned about the zombies popping out from behind the bushes or the shed. Where were they anyway?

  I stepped on a stick that cracked loudly; I stood still to see if I attracted any zombies. After there were no undead creatures trying to get me, I continued on.

  I heard a rustle of leaves from the plants in front of me. I brought my knife up, ready to attack.

  “Hello?” I said cautiously.

  I heard a laugh come from the plants.

  Freddie came out from behind the plants. Phoebe had been right. I brought the knife down to my side.

  “Freddie? What are you doing here?”

  “Just thought I’d confront some people who needed confronting,” he said. He had a strange look on his face.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Daniel needs to pay for what he’s done.”

  “He hasn’t done anything,” I stated.

  He scoffed at me, “Of course you would defend him. He got the love of my life killed.”

  “That was his sister dumbass. And you sure didn’t act like you loved her that much.”

  He looked angry then. He stepped forward. I took a step away from him. He noticed this and grinned maliciously.

  “What are you scared of Shelly?”

  I felt my blood go cold and I knew then I needed to get away from him. I turned the opposite direction and began to run.

  I wasn’t fast enough. He caught up to me and knocked me to the ground. My knife went flying out of my hand. I flipped over and kicked him in the stomach. He grabbed his midsection in pain. I tried to get away but he latched his other hand around my ankle and dragged me back. He pinned my arms to the ground with his knees. I’d never been in so much pain.

  “Stop it,” he said. “You’re going to enjoy this, trust me.”

  That’s when I let out the loudest scream I could muster. Freddie slapped me hard.

  “Shut up bitch. You want to attract every zombie around.”

  “That’s exactly what I want,” I said. “You can’t rape me if your skin is being ripped off your bones by the living dead.” I said and let out another scream.

  He raised his hand to hit me again. Before he brought it back down, a grey face came and latched its teeth to his hand. The blood splattered down onto me.

  Freddie yelled in pain. His attention was now on the zombie attacking him and he took his weight off of me.

  I crawled to my knife and got up. I turned to see Freddie winning his fight with the zombie.

  He turned towards me. “I can cut off my hand and be fine,” he said.

  I raised my knife to stab him as he began to walk forward. He took two steps and then I heard a gun go off. Blood shot out of a small hole in the center of Freddie’s forehead and he slumped to the ground.

  I turned to see Daniel with his .45 pointing at where Freddie had just stood. “Better safe than sorry,” he said.

  Chapter 17

  Daniel walked over and helped me up from the ground.

  “Thanks,” I said as I wiped the dirt off of my shorts.

  Phoebe came rushing over to me. I didn’t see her open the door to come out.

  “You alright?” She asked.

  “I think so yeah.”

  I heard the sound of faint growling. We all looked at each other. We all knew without saying it, we needed to head back to the house and fast. We made our way quickly to the front porch.

  I looked back before going in. A small herd of those creatures was coming from just past the stables. They looked to be maybe 25 feet away.

  We hurried in and shut the door behind us. Daniel tied the door of with the rope. Phoebe and I helped him with the bookcase.

  “Do you think our safety is compromised?” Phoebe asked pointing to the boarded up window Freddie had thrown the rock at.

  “Doesn’t look like it,” Daniel said observing the wood more closely. “Just don’t have that extra layer between us and the undead.”

  “I like that extra layer,” I said,

  I could hear the growling getting louder. Between the alcohol, the zombies, and being attacked I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “Daniel, can you hold down the fort for a little while?” Phoebe asked.

  Daniel looked at her a moment and nodded, “Yeah. I really think we’re fine.”

  “Okay. Shelly, why don’t you go take a shower and then join me in the other room,” she said.

  I nodded and Phoebe handed me my bag. I headed to the bathroom and took a cold shower. I felt disgusting with Freddie’s blood on my face, although that was the least of why I felt disgusting.

  I dried off and got dressed. I headed into the bedroom. She shut the door behind us and gave me a big hug.

  “You really are alright?” she asked in my ear.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  She let go of me, “Me either.”

  We both sat down on the bed. We were silent for a few minutes.

  “He was really going to rape you?” she asked. “Wasn’t he? I mean I always knew how much of a jerk he was but I never would’ve guessed he’d attempt something like
that.”

  I shook my head, “I think something in him snapped. He looked strange. He was a bastard before but there was a sense of evil in him that was really creepy.”

  I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. The mere thought of it made me feel ill. I was thankful it didn’t go any further than it did. He didn’t even rip my clothes. I was lucky. I wondered what other women surviving this crisis might be going through. Was it not only the undead that they had to fear?

  “How are you holding up?” I asked Phoebe, desperate for the change of subject.

  “I’m breathing. I guess that’s as good as can be expected.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, it’s not easy but you’ll get up every day and catch your breath. Something inside you won’t let you give up. Even at the worst of times, something deep inside will drive you to somehow stay alive.”

  She swallowed, “Did something happen to you? Did you lose someone?”

  I nodded, “My daughter and my husband.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She said as she sat up in the bed. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I talked about it with Daniel but I really didn’t want to bring too much attention to what I’d been through. Didn’t want to seem weak you know? I didn’t want to appear as broken as I felt.”

  “You could have said something. No one would think you were weak.”

  I smiled and gave her a hug.

  Phoebe and I ended up talking for a long time. She told me stories about Robert. I let her do most of the talking. I did mention a few things here and there but I still wasn’t ready to go into detail about my life with Jackie and Adam.

  Both of us fell asleep after a little while. When I woke up, I was disoriented. I felt really bad to have left Daniel out there by himself for so long, protecting us from the zombies. Phoebe was still asleep so I quietly went to the bedroom door and walked into the main room.

  Daniel was sitting on the floor on his sleeping bag when I came out of the room. He was facing the door covered by the bookcase.

  “Hey,” I began. “Everything alright?” I sat down next to him.

  “Yeah, I could hear them eating on Freddie but most of the herd I think went on past the house. I heard like one or two on the porch but that was it.”

  I sighed with relief, “Good, I was worried. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

  “It’s alright. Both of you are pretty stressed out. How are you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner,” he said.

  “He didn’t do anything to me; just the intention has me unnerved.”

  He nodded. “That was smart to draw in a zombie like that.”

  “I was trying to get a zombie or you. I was worried I would draw in a horde of them which happened but I was at a loss of what to do.”

  “It worked. That’s what matters.” He said with a smile.

  I sat down next to him and we began to talk for a while. He was trying to take my mind off what had happened I think. Phoebe was still asleep or at least she wasn’t coming out of the room.

  Daniel talked about his parents and his childhood. He told me a lot about Jamie. She was extremely smart and had been accepted into Yale but chose to move back to Guam and go to the University here. I didn’t understand how someone so smart could end up with someone so terrible like Freddie. I didn’t dwell on it though since the very thought of Freddie made me want to vomit.

  Daniel and I talked about the shows we were going to miss like Family Guy and Elementary. We also talked about how we’d both miss watching baseball in the summer. It was bittersweet to reminisce. We had lost so much in such a short amount of time. Even the little stupid stuff was gone. We’d probably never enjoy a soda again. No fast food, movies, even surfing the web. It was all gone now.

  It had gotten late and neither of us was ready to sleep. I knew we needed to since we planned to leave in the morning. Instead we just kept talking.

  After a while I felt the air change, aware of the tension. I knew deep down it had been there all along but it still surprised me. I was of course attracted to him. However, I still felt like a married woman. As if I’d be doing something wrong to pay attention to the growing longing.

  He leaned in first and I met him halfway. I was surprised by how tender his kiss was. It flowed so easy, his lips lining the curves of my neck. He knew all the right places to touch me.

  Maybe it was being threatened by death so closely and I just wanted to feel alive and I gave in. I just needed to feel the heat of skin on skin. Feel the urgency and kiss of passion.

  Afterwards Daniel fell asleep. I was too wired to sleep so I stayed awake and kept watch. I felt a bit strange about what had just happened between Daniel and me. I’d never been with anyone but Adam. It was weird but kind of nice too.

  I sat in the dark listening to the wind outside. The rain had gone but the wind was still strong. I could hear the occasional moan of the dead. They didn’t sound close to us. It sounded like the wind was picking up the voices. There was really no telling how close they might be.

  Halfway through the night I heard something different, the shuffling of feet. I listened hard, trying to distinguish what I was hearing over the wind. It was close. The shuffling and the moans that followed. There was something dead on the porch.

  I put my ear against the wall between the door and the window. I could hear nails scrapping along the other side of where I stood. It was right there, so close to us. I heard an angry groan and the scrapping and shuffling stopped.

  I backed away from the wall. I had a feeling that dead creature on the other side sensed my presence. I got my gun ready just in case, though I felt strangely calm. I wasn’t as scared as I should or had been in the previous encounters with these things. Maybe it became easier over time or maybe it was all the trauma I had been dealt since this mess started. Maybe dealing with the dead creatures wanting to eat my guts out was an easier thing to deal with than everything else that had come my way.

  The dead creature must have lost its interest because I heard it shuffle the other way. Eventually the shuffling faded completely. I put my gun away. I would just tell Daniel and Phoebe what I heard when we left in the morning.

  The morning, I hadn’t thought about that. We were finally going to continue our journey in the morning and would split up somewhere along the way. I would finally make it to the Navy base.

  The thing was, was there a point in continuing on to that destination? I didn’t know anymore. It was the only thing that kept me going after the loss of my dear Jackie and Adam. It was what kept me breathing and surviving. It was the thing that kept me fighting.

  So why give it up now? Was it worth it? Most likely they wouldn’t let me on the Navy base or what might be left of it. They probably wouldn’t have any ships leaving. So much time had passed now. Though, deep down I had to admit that staying now would have little to do with logic and all to do with emotion. I couldn’t deny that if I stayed I’d be staying now because of having slept with Daniel. Was that anything more than a moment of pure human need? Would he be worth staying for? And what was love in a world like this anyway?

  I knew I couldn’t stay. I needed to try and get to Cate. That was my mission and I couldn’t abandon it. I couldn’t turn my back on what had kept me alive and kicking. I had to see it through, even if it was going to be failure.

  Chapter 18

  “Did you sleep?” Daniel asked as he packed a blue shirt back into his bag.

  “No,” I answered.

  He looked at me for a long moment before he spoke. “Won’t you be tired?”

  “I’ll be alright,” I replied. “Besides it’s not that far to the Navy base.”

  I looked at him and saw the look of surprise on his face, though his expression changed quickly.

  “Yeah, that’s true. Should be alright,” he said as if the words were falling out of his mouth. “I’m going to check on Phoebe.”

  Daniel walked towards t
he bedroom and knocked on the door. I didn’t hear Phoebe answer but she must have because he walked in the room and shut the door behind him.

  I went over to the bookcase. There were so many books that I wanted to read but knew that I couldn’t take many with me. I decided on three to take Tale of Two Cities, Catcher and the Rye, and The Shining. The first two I had never read and the last was an old favorite.

  I raided through the cabinets and found a few boxes of some fruit bars. I added a bunch to my bag before tearing one open and eating it.

  I was ready to go but it was about 30 minutes or so before Daniel and Phoebe appeared from the room. Phoebe looked a bit tired and pale.

  “You ready?” she asked.

  I nodded in response.

  “I’m not,” Daniel said.

  “Hurry up. I’m ready to get out of this shit hole.”

  I handed a bunch of bars to Phoebe. “Put these in your bag.”

  She smiled, “Thank you.”

  I handed another handful to Daniel. He took them without looking at me. “Thanks,” he said so low I barely heard him.

  After a few more minutes of Daniel throwing things into his bag, we headed out. It was a very quiet journey. There were no zombies out it seemed, which would have been nice if any of us were talking but no one said a word.

  Phoebe seemed to be in some kind of state of shell shock. I didn’t really know why Daniel wasn’t speaking. I was just much more tired than I had realized.

  After a few hours of walking in weird silence and a zombie less path, we came to the point where we would part ways.

  “You going to be alright? You want us to come with you? It’s not too far out of the way,” Phoebe suggested.

  “No, you both can go to your destination, I’ll be fine. Thanks though.” I said.

  “Okay,” Phoebe said. “It’s weird how much I’m going to miss you.” She then gave me a long hug.

  “Me too,” I said into her smooth black hair.

  She let go and Daniel walked up handing me a piece of paper.

  “What’s this?” I asked.