by Brown, TW
The figure stepped back and Jason watched in awe as the person put a foot on the shoulder of the walking corpse and yanked a three foot machete from the crown of the skull of the now defunct zombie. The body toppled unceremoniously as the figure turned to face him. Pulling the hood back, a woman’s face was revealed in the weak glow of the overhead parking lot lights.
“Just standing there is a good way to get bit by a zom,” the woman said with a sniff. She leaned down and wiped her blade clean on the shirt of the zombie she had just dispatched. After sliding it back into the leather sheath on her hip, she reached a hand out to Jason. “Erin West, and I wouldn’t stick around in this parking lot very long.”
***
Ken felt more than saw the figure move past him and plow into the zombie that had not been as easily distracted as the others. His mind made a note that this one had been the closest; that might be important.
He saw a wickedly curved and sturdy machete come down in an overhand chop that cleaved the approaching man with the ripped shirt that was torn from the left shoulder. Even in the light from above, Ken could see the huge chunk torn away from what had probably been a pretty beefy trap. This guy’s muscles had not done him any good fighting off a zombie.
The figure that had come out of seemingly nowhere made a bit of a show of pulling the machete free and then turning to face them. “Just standing there is a good way to get bit by a zom,” the woman said with a sniff. She leaned down and wiped her blade clean on the shirt of the zombie. After sliding it back into the leather sheath on her hip, she reached a hand out to the guy Ken had decided was either a gang member or ex-con. “Erin West, and I wouldn’t stick around in this parking lot very long.”
“Jason. Jason Edwards. And that is Juanita Reyes.” The man pointed to the Hispanic woman that stood a few feet away, her head trying to turn every direction at the same time as she watched the zombies once again redirecting their steps to come for this most recent bit of noise. “And maybe we should get the hell out of here before—”
Two cars came barreling into the parking lot, cutting off whatever else the man was about to say as they slammed into each other. The smaller compact model did not stand a chance against the SUV and careened into the curb and then bounced up and into the shrubbery that had been planted around the big sign announcing the entrance to the Legacy Emergency Room.
Ken watched as the SUV barely even slowed down and continued into the parking lot. His eyes tracked it as it raced to the covered entrance and skidded to a stop.
“We should go,” the woman named Juanita said in a nervous tone that made her sound almost like she was being choked.
“Good idea,” the woman wearing the hooded sweatshirt piped in. She sounded more enthusiastic than she did afraid. Ken thought he might like this stranger. She was certainly a person of action.
“Where do you suggest?” Jason asked, moving back to Juanita’s side and looking around with clenched fists.
“Out of the city,” Erin spoke up. “I was trying to get to my friend. She is a nurse here, but I was on the third floor looking for her when I ran into about thirty of those things…the zombies. Sad to say it out loud in front of strangers, but I decided right then that it was every man and woman for him or herself.”
Yep, Ken thought, I like this gal just fine.
“I have a pickup, managed to get a few things from Freddy’s, but not nearly enough to last longer than a couple of days if the five of us stay together.” Ken shifted the girl in his arms that had remained unconscious through this entire ordeal.
He was surprised at the instant urge to simply put her someplace like the back of a car or something, and be on his way. It wasn’t like he was responsible for her. Besides, with the bullet wound in her leg, she was not going to fare well without medical assistance.
“Let’s meet up around the corner at Albina Park and figure out what to do,” Erin suggested.
There was a scream from the hospital’s emergency room entrance. Everybody turned at once to see figures almost vomiting forth from the entrance/exit doors. Apparently the SUV’s owner had let out or drawn the attention of however many of the undead had built up in the emergency room. He turned back to see Erin already backing away.
“We’ll see you there,” Jason was calling over his shoulder as he and Juanita hurried to their car.
Ken went to his truck. He paused at another pickup. This one had a nice camper shell over the bed. He leaned against the rear bumper and checked the hatch. The knob turned and he looked around like a guilty child expecting to be discovered at any second.
Shifting the girl over one shoulder, he opened the little shell covering the truck’s bed and then laid the girl down. He glanced at the leg. She was lucky. From his cursory gaze, it looked like the bullet had passed through the muscle. Had it hit bone, she would certainly be done for.
“Sorry, kid,” Ken whispered. “You ain’t my problem.”
A voice in his head ranted that he was doing the wrong thing. It was a voice he’d heard many times over the years. It was a voice that he had learned to ignore.
Closing the hatch, Kevin climbed into the cab of his truck. He barely got the door shut when something bounced into the front seat. He’d almost forgotten about the dog. Actually, in truth, he had forgotten entirely. That is why he had reached out and grabbed the excited Golden Retriever by the throat out of sheer reflex.
“You stupid dog,” he grumbled, his hand releasing its grip. Almost like it had already forgotten the momentary harsh treatment, the dog leaned forward and licked the side of Ken’s face.
He saw a car pull out of a nearby parking space and then head for the exit. He saw it turn left.
“I guess we are going to a park,” Ken muttered. He did not even notice the Golden Retriever’s ears perk up at the use of the “P” word.
***
Rose flung the door open and rushed out into the hallway. Just across the hall and to her left, Crystal was trying to keep her brother Jacob at bay. The boy was reaching and clutching at his sister.
His damaged hand was a hideous mess, and almost made worse by the several Band-Aids that still dangled, now stuck in place by the dried and blackened blood. The thing that caught Rose’s attention was the complete lack of emotion on the boy’s face. It was slack and blank. Were it not for how he was snapping his teeth as he tried to bite his sister, he might look more like a discolored mannequin than anything else.
Charging in, Rose yanked Crystal away and kicked the little boy backwards. The little girl reacted a second later, screaming for Rose not to hurt her little brother. The toddler was struggling to his feet as Rose wrapped Crystal in her arms to keep her from running to Jacob’s aid.
And then the strangest thing happened. The little boy stood, cocking his head to one side and then the other before turning and walking away. He vanished around the corner into the living room. Now Rose was very confused.
She turned to Crystal and gripped the girl by the shoulders, making it a point of looking her in the eyes. When the girl’s head started to turn to look into her mother’s room, Rose caught her by the chin and eased her head back so that they were looking at each other again.
“I want you to go into your room right now.” Rose paused and considered the situation and what she could do. “You stay there until I call you out for dinner.” The little girl opened her mouth to protest and Rose cut her off. “I mean it, young lady!” In that instant, she winced inwardly as she heard her mother as well as her sister in that line.
Amazingly, it seemed to work as the little girl turned obediently and went into her room. Crystal turned and gripped the edge of the door, her eyes narrowed and lips pursed.
“You’re being mean. You used to be the nice Auntie Rose, but now you are just a big meanie!” And then the door slammed.
Not for the first time in her life, Rose thanked the powers that be that she had never had any children of her own. That was starting to feel like a blessing.
“Must be a country thing,” Rose said to herself as she shut the door on Violet’s room. One problem at a time. She had to tend to Jacob first.
She reached the end of the hallway and paused, listening closely for any sounds coming from the living room. At first there was nothing, but then she heard the squeak of somebody stepping on a loose floorboard.
“Jay-cob!” Rose sing-songed.
A soft moan came from the living room with a guttural sound that had no business coming from that baby. She reached the corner and has hit once more with the stench that she was now certain indicated that Jacob had whatever his mother had come down with. She knew what she had seen, but that did not make it any easier to accept that this was some sort of horror movie nightmare come true.
Holding her breath, Rose snuck a look around the corner. Jacob was standing in front of the television, his head cocked to the side. From behind, and with his damaged hand out of sight, he could be perfectly fine; just a little boy staring at the images on the television. Rose glanced at the screen herself and saw footage taken from the air. It showed a section of a city, she had no idea if it was Portland or someplace else. However, she saw several clusters of people engaged in things that a child should not be watching.
The camera zoomed in as three individuals dragged a woman to the ground and began tearing into her. The red spray that shot up made it clear as to the woman’s fate. There were bodies in the street. And worse.
Is that a leg? she thought as the camera continued to pan the screen.
The reporter was speaking in a voice that was not normally heard on the evening news. This person was afraid, and the words he was reading from his teleprompter did not really match his face or tone.
“…instructed to remain home. The rumors that this is some form of terrorism seem unfounded as the reports have come in from practically every corner of the globe. The CDC insists that this is simply an illness and that these are not the dead come back to life. Dr. Linda Sing had this to say…”
There was a flicker as somebody in the control room switched over to the canned video reel of the CDC spokeswoman. A middle-aged woman with short, dark hair appeared on screen with her name and title just above the news ticker. Her pale skin looked even more washed out under the lights. This was exaggerated further by the fact that she wore absolutely no make-up.
“Those rumors of the dead coming back and attacking the living are beyond ludicrous. Ignoring the pure physiological impossibility, there is simply no way this can be considered with any seriousness.”
Rose was pretty sure she had already heard this exact same report. She needed to hear something new…and helpful. She needed to know why people with their insides torn out were walking. She needed to know why a bite was turning her sister into the creature in that bed. And then, there was Jacob.
She stepped out into the living room. The little boy continued to ignore her. Looking around, Rose spied something that gave her an idea. It was a spool of rough twine; the same kind that had been used to tie up Violet!
There was a voice in the back of her mind that was telling her to heed Violet’s letter. Despite all that she had seen, Rose warred with what she should do. After all, this was not some random stranger; it wasn’t even her jerk of an ex-husband. This was her sister…her nephew.
Moving over to the island counter that divided the kitchen from the dining room, Rose grabbed the spool of twine and turned back to discover Jacob was now watching her. His little head was tilted to one side. She forced herself to ignore the filmed over eyes with the black capillaries making him look sinister. She kept her eyes from looking at the missing digits on his hand or the blood that he had smeared all over himself while in his room.
For just a second, Rose had to fight back tears. What had that poor baby been thinking after being bitten by his mom? How painful must it have been to actually have two fingers bitten off? She’d slammed hers in the door more than a few times over the years and that had been terribly painful.
“Jacob?” Rose knelt and tried to sound as sweet as possible. Maybe that would help. She could not necessarily take the fact that he had tried to attack his sister as proof positive that he was a monster. He was a little brother, after all. Didn’t that make him a little monster in some manner already?
The little boy took an unsteady step forward. She could not attribute his awkward gait to anything. After all, he was still just a baby. Yet, his head kept twitching; just a bit, first one way, then another. His eyes locked onto her in a way that was disconcerting to say the least. It was not the look of her favorite nephew excited to see his Auntie Rose.
His mouth opened and Rose felt her gorge shift for what felt like the hundredth time this evening. His tongue was a hideous gray thing that flicked just a little as that deep moan escaped his bluish lips.
Rose unraveled a little bit more of the twine. That action seemed to alarm or maybe even anger the little boy. Without warning, Jacob lurched forward, hands reaching and mouth smacking. The few teeth that he possessed snapped together with a sharp clacking sound.
Out of reflex, Rose threw out an arm and swatted the child backwards. He landed awkwardly on one side and there was a nasty snap as something broke. He slid a few feet and his head smacked into the edge of the raised brick in front of the fireplace. It wasn’t hard, but the angle was perfect for the corner to put a nice divot in the little boy’s face where his cheek struck.
Rose knew that the little boy should cry, yet, he began immediately to try and regain his feet. Before he could, Rose rushed in and yanked his arms behind his back and bound the wrists. With a rush of adrenaline, she had them secured before she realized that she had cinched the rope tight enough to cut into the flesh, yet Jacob made no sounds except for the moans and groans. She shoved him down on his stomach and tied his ankles as well.
Once she was finished, she rolled the little boy over onto his back. He had gone still and was looking up at her with those hideous eyes. Yet, for an instant, she swore that she saw something pass across his face. She told herself that she had to have been imagining it. As she started to reach down to pick him up, the child craned his neck and tried to bite her again.
Being careful, Rose scooped up the boy and carried him in to Violet. Maybe that would help. Perhaps having them together would spark something. Anything to debunk the possibility that this was exactly what Violet proclaimed it to be.
She walked into her sister’s room, and the reaction from Violet was instant. She began to writhe and gnash her teeth, her eyes locked on Rose in a way that was extremely unsettling. Still, Rose moved around the bed and ducked in to lay Jacob at Violet’s side.
Stepping back, Rose was stunned. There was a definite reaction in Jacob. He had gone still, seemingly content to be at his mother’s side. Sadly, Violet showed no such change in her desire to get at Rose and take a bite out of her.
Rose grabbed the thick comforter that had been kicked to the floor. After a few minutes and some serious effort, she had trussed the two down so that they were both secure in the bed. She wanted to gag them, but she was satisfied that, between being tied down, and the door being shut, neither of them would be much cause for concern.
Now that she had that taken care of, Rose walked back out to the living room. The television had the “Emergency Broadcasting System” notice on the screen. The crawler at the bottom had the message: “An announcement from state and national government officials is forthcoming…please stand by…”
“This ought to be good,” Rose sighed as she flopped down in the chair and thumbed the volume on the remote. Every channel had the identical announcement.
At last, the screen changed and a man in a rumpled suit came to a podium. The American flag hung on one side. The man
wiped his hand down his face and then looked up at the camera. If he was some important politician, Rose sure did not recognize him.
“My fellow Americans, we are currently dealing with a situation that is unprecedented. As I address you, the president and several key members of the cabinet are en route on Air Force One to a secure location. They will be working endlessly with the CDC until a solution to this strange epidemic is found. We ask that you please heed the announcements from your state and local officials as we take the steps to stem this horrific tragedy that is being suffered around the world.
“In a moment, your local emergency broadcasting systems will inform you of what to do. Afterwards, the president will address the country. God bless America, and the rest of the world, as we can hopefully come together and resolve this crisis.”
There was an instant as the man gathered whatever he had brought to the podium that the camera lingered on his face. Rose saw the sweat running down in rivers. This man was just as scared as everybody else. And then there was the fact that he had obviously not made the cut when the president gathered “key members” of the cabinet.
“That has to suck,” Rose whispered, her eyes glued to the screen.
And then the screen went back to the EBS test signal. The ticker informed Rose that an announcement from the local network would be carrying region-specific information in one moment. Time felt sluggish, but at last there was a camera shot of a large desk. The Oregon state flag was on one side, the American flag on the other. A gray haired man in a suit sat behind the desk with a few sheets of paper. He seemed surprised by something and then looked up at the camera.
“People of the Portland-metro and surrounding areas, we are facing something that is unprecedented. There is a terrible virus or contagion that is sweeping through not only our city, but the world. As reports flood in from around the world, the symptoms are consistent.
“This is what we know for certain. Those infected are currently described as hostile and displaying violent, cannibalistic characteristics. The CDC has confirmed that this disease is communicable. There is no known prevention other than to avoid contact at all costs.
