Surviving When the Dead Have Risen

by Jeffrey Littorno

  “Like the old lady upstairs,” Lawrence commented.

  I looked over to find him still staring at the screen.

  The audience could hold back the questions no longer, and several of the people were on their feet yelling questions at the doctor.

  A tall red-haired woman in the second row shouted, “How is it possible for these things to speak if they are no longer breathing?”

  Dr. Cartwright stood and walked over to the podium. She smiled at Fields who handed her the remote control and sat down at the end of the table. “Please, I am asking that you take your seats,” she said into the microphone. After the room had quieted and the audience calmed, Cartwright continued, “I realize that the information being presented here today is like nothing you have heard before. To my knowledge, we have never encountered a viral mutation which has the effects of this one. However, as Dr. Fields stated our studies are ongoing, we are simply reporting our findings as of now.” She looked out at the audience to see many people shaking their heads in disbelief. The doctor suddenly smiled as if something occurred to her. “Okay, I heard one question being asked that I can answer. ‘How is it possible for these things to speak if they are no longer breathing?’” The red head smiled at the sound of her question. “The answer is that while the subjects are not breathing they are taking in air.” The audience mumbled its confusion, and I was immediately reminded of teaching a class full of high school students. “In other words, air is being inhaled to fill the lungs and make speech possible. However, the lungs and heart are not working to allow for respiration to take place. Likewise, we have been able to detect the faintest of heartbeats in subjects. Let be me restate that, we have detected something like a heartbeat but it is too weak to be heard with a stethoscope or register on most machines. It is surely too weak to do much more than circulate blood to tissue and slow the process of decay.”

  A tall man in a dark suit shouted from the third row, “If these things have a heartbeat, how can we say that they are dead?”

  A flurry of comments and questions followed.

  As soon as there was a break, Cartwright replied, “Perhaps, I wasn’t clear. The heart activity we have detected is very weak, too weak to be termed a heartbeat by any normal definition. It might be more accurate to describe it as heart twinge.”

  There were chuckles from the audience

  “Dr. Fields mentioned that eventually these things die from the virus,” a bearded, chubby man with curly black hair, standing in the aisle on the left side of the room, commented. “Do you have any sort of timeline on how long that takes?”

  “Dr. Fields?” She turned to address the seated doctor.

  He stood and quickly walked back to the podium. “Like I said, the time span of each stage has shown great variety. We have observed subjects that complete the process from shutdown to reanimation to ultimate death in approximately four to six hours, and there have been others that took around twelve hours to complete the process. In addition, we have received anecdotal reports of the process taking several days.”

  Cartwright leaned near the microphone to say, “At this point, I think the most accurate thing to say is that the process takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I understand this is a big window and less than satisfying, but it is better to err on side of caution here. We make no claims that our findings are anything based upon sound medical research. We are relying on purely observational findings. The case studies to this point are too few to supply reliable extrapolations. However, in the interest of public awareness, we agreed to this presentation today.” She looked over at Dr. Fields for encouragement before asking the question she was obviously dreading, “Does anyone have any other questions?”

  Immediately, the room became a squirming mass of bodies jumping up and stretching toward her and shouting questions.

  “How long until there is a vaccine for this?”

  “Why wasn’t something done to protect the public from this?”

  “Has any terrorist group taken responsibility for the introduction of the virus?”

  Cartwright resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the ignorance of the questions and began responding to them. “First of all, we are still in the very early stages of research into this viral mutation. In order to formulate a vaccine, much more--”

  The doctor felt herself being pulled from behind and dragged over the top of the table. She was aware of the teeth sink into her neck and the warmth of the blood spurting out of her. This was the last thing she felt.

  Chaos took over the room. Some of the audience members rushed towards the stage while others fled for the nearest exit. The result was a collision that prevented much movement in either direction.

  After a moment, the scene was replaced by a screen card that read, “WSB is experiencing technical difficulty. Please stand by.”

  “Well, shit!” Lawrence commented.

  Chapter 6

  Kelly, Lawrence, and I stared at the message on the screen for a long time.

  “Whoa! Things are worse than I figured,” Kelly said. “I absolutely made the right choice in staying underground.”

  “Looks that way,” I agreed and looked over at Lawrence who was still looking at the television. “You okay, Lawrence?”

  He slowly turned toward me. “Yeah, I guess it kinda knocked the wind outta me. Things have gotten worse than I figured.”

  Ever the optimist, I replied, “At least now we have some idea about what happened and what we’re facing.” I looked over at Kelly and noticed a clock on the table. It was a little after seven. “Crap, I didn’t realize it was so late! We’re gonna have some hungry and worried kids waiting for us.”

  “There’s others with you?” Kelly asked.

  “Yeah, there’s a teenage boy and a little girl,” I said without considering my words. Immediately, I sensed Lawrence’s disapproving stare.

  “So we gotta get upstairs, but we’ll be back tomorrow to start clearing out bodies,” Lawrence said.

  “Sounds good,” Kelly answered and opened the door for us to go out into the main basement.

  As soon as we were out of the basement and back on the first floor, Lawrence stopped and said, “I get that you wanna trust that there’s good inside everybody if you look hard enough. But me, well, I’ve dealt with too many douchebags and shit weasels to trust anyone.” He looked at me but found only confusion. “What I’m sayin’ is you really need to get in the habit of telling people only what you have to.”

  “Are you saying Kelly is a douchebag or a shit weasel?” I asked and was unable to stifle my snicker.

  “I’m only sayin’ we don’t know him from Adam, so we don’t need to go letting him know everything about our situation.”

  I must have been in a pretty good mood, because I felt good enough to needle Lawrence a little about his lack of trust in people. “The way I see it right now is that the number of people in the world has taken a big cut. Judging everyone according to the legal system of the past might be a luxury we can no longer afford.” Lawrence was looking down as if he was a little embarrassed. “It may be smart to trust each other a little more in order to survive.”

  “I guess you’re right,” he apologized. “I guess I’m too--”

  “Hey, I’m only messing with you,” I interrupted. “I have no idea whether we should trust the old hippy or not, but I don’t mind having someone else to help get rid of bodies and anything else we need to get done.”

  “Yeah, it’s good to have another set of eyes to keep everyone safe,” Lawrence said as if trying to convince himself. “But I’m not gonna lie and say I trust him.”

  “Me neither,” I agreed, knocking on the door to the apartment.

  The door jerked open, and I was immediately facing the end of a baseball bat.

  “What the hell,” Taylor yelled. “Where have you been?”

  I expected Lawrence to lay into the kid about his attitude or something, but he was quiet. Finally, I said, “What happened?
”

  “Nothing, except Christina got scared that something…you guys were gone so long.” It was clear that Taylor had also been worried.

  As if on cue, Christina stumbled out of the bedroom rubbing her eyes. Obviously, we had awoken her. How much of her eye rubbing was to make sure we realized that we had awoken her I was not sure. “Finally you’re back!” Christina scolded.

  Lawrence walked over and picked her up. He looked at her for a moment before saying, “Sorry we took so long, but we made a new friend.”

  The little girl pushed herself back from Lawrence and looked closely at him. “A new friend?” She scrunched her face into an expression of extreme disbelief. “And what is this new friend’s name?”

  It was impossible not to laugh at Christine’s performance. Lawrence chuckled and answered, “His name is Kelly.”

  The expression changed instantly. “Kelly from the basement?” She looked as if she had gotten a whiff of some terrible odor. “That’s your new friend? Mommy always told me to stay away from him, not even to talk to him.”

  Lawrence shot me a smug look and before saying, “Your mommy is very smart. You don’t need to talk to him.”

  “You mean there’s some guy living in the basement, and we had no idea that he was down there?” Taylor asked.

  Lawrence put Christine down and turned toward Taylor. “Yeah, he’s got a little hideaway down there. Seems like he knows less about what’s going on than us.”

  “That news conference made it pretty clear that things are going to shit out there,” I said before I caught myself.

  The big detective shot me a look designed to kill. At the same time, Taylor looked at me with curiosity.

  “What’s a pressed confence?” Christina asked.

  “It’s a silly meeting, honey,” Lawrence explained. “You don’t need to worry about it.” He sent another expression of disgust my way.

  Taylor started to say something but stopped.

  “Sorry, I… uh… there’s nothing to worry about you guys. Kelly is going to help us get this place all clean and keep it safe for all of us,” I apologized.

  “I still can’t believe the guy’s been hiding in the basement,” Taylor commented. “So what else did you find down there?”

  “Yeah, did find the store-age?” Christina asked.

  I answered in my brightest voice, “Yes, we did! We found the store-age!”

  “So what’s for dinner?” Lawrence asked.

  “I made spaghetti, but it’s probably cold by now,” Taylor answered, sounding so much like an angry wife that I chuckled.

  Lawrence chuckled as well and said, “Sorry, honey, I promise to do better next time.”

  The frustration on Taylor’s face was clear. “It’s not funny. If I’m gonna cook for everybody, you can at least be here on time.”

  “Knock it off!” Lawrence had clearly had enough. “We both said that we were sorry for being late. I don’t need a lecture about it. I appreciate that you’re helping out, but don’t act like your shit don’t stink.”

  Taylor spun around and left the room as soon as Lawrence’s last words were out.

  “Don’t you walk away from me!” Lawrence yelled and started to follow him out.

  I am not quite sure what gave me the idea that grabbing Lawrence’s arm would be a good idea, but that is what I did.

  “We ought to let him go cool off.”

  He turned on me with such ferocity that I expected to be on the floor in a matter of seconds. The fury was gone in the next instant, and he said, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. He’s gotta be tired and all.”

  Christina had been watching all of this and said, “We have to stop fighting with each other.” With that simple observa-tion, she left the room.

  “Well, I guess the princess has a point,” I said. “I wonder if she has any idea about how well she has you wrapped around her little finger?”

  He looked at me with a stern expression, which quickly melted into a grin as he said, “Yeah, I bet she has a pretty good idea about that!”

  “Well, let’s go see what Chef Taylor had made for dinner.”

  We found him in the kitchen at the stove stirring a big pot. The room was filled with the smell of tomato sauce boiling.

  “Man, something smells great in here!” Lawrence exclaimed.

  Taylor stopped stirring, let out a sigh, and continued stirring.

  Lawrence walked slowly to the stove and looked over Taylor’s shoulder at the pot. “I had no idea you were such a good spaghetti cook.”

  A puff of air was the response.

  “C’mon, Taylor, I’m trying here.” he said and turned to leave the kitchen.

  “I know that,” Taylor answered without looking away from the stove. “But when you guys didn’t come back I just started wondering about what I would do if… uh… if you never came back. I’m not sure if I could… keep everything together.”

  I looked toward Lawrence wanting him to say something. Instead, he just paused for a moment listening to Taylor and then left the kitchen.

  A few seconds later, Taylor turned away to see if he was alone in the kitchen and saw me. The tears welled up in his eyes despite his best efforts.

  “Hey, he cares about you,” I said, unsuccessfully trying not to sound ridiculous.

  The teenager looked at me unsure that I was serious and then asked, “Then why does he always act pissed off with whatever I say or do?”

  “Now, I’m just guessing here, but I’d say he acts that way precisely because he cares about you and wants you to succeed.”

  Taylor blew out a puff of air. “You really think he gives a shit about me? He sure don’t act like it.”

  I smiled at the absurdity of a childless man like myself acting like some expert on parenting, but I said, “Sometimes when an adult cares about a young person he might come across as mean to protect him.” I paused a moment to see if Taylor was listening or laughing. He was listening, so I continued, “I know you two have some history but not the details. The important thing is you found each other again in the middle of all this chaos.”

  “Yeah, when you think about it, that’s pretty crazy,” he commented. “But that still doesn’t explain why he acts like a dick.”

  “Well, that’s one I can’t answer. All I know is that some people act that way when they really care about someone or something they’re afraid of losing.”

  My answer seemed to satisfy him. After a moment, he said, “You should go tell him the food’s ready when he is.”

  I found Lawrence sitting on the couch staring into space. He was so deep in thought that I had to repeat, “I think it’s time for dinner.”

  Dinner was surprisingly enjoyable. Besides having some of the best spaghetti I can remember, Taylor and Lawrence got along better than ever. A couple of times, I thought I caught a glance from Taylor as if to say you may have been right. Of course, there is a very good chance that this was just my imagination.

  The next morning about six we headed back down to the basement and Kelly. It was clear that he was not used to being roused out of bed that early. We all realized that a gruesome day of body removal lie ahead of us, and that seemed to keep conversation to a minimum.

  “I’ve been thinking about all these bodies, man. It’d probably be better to get them outta of the building,” Kelly said. “I got an idea about a good place to put ‘em.”

  Without any further discussion, we followed Kelly to a dark back corner of the basement. There was a door which we had not noticed before. Kelly fished a ring of keys out of his pocket, unlocked the door knob, and turned the deadbolt. He pushed the door open a little, and a blast of cool air rushed at us.

  I could not remember the last time I had been outside the building. There was a sense of freedom, but I also felt more than a twinge of fear at the unknown which lay ahead.

  Chapter 7

  Kelly opened the door a few more inches and then waited, listening for any sound. Only silence. After a mom
ent, he took a deep breath and pushed the door open all the way. It opened on a cement set of stairs leading up to street level. Dead leaves and pieces of litter lined the ground in front of the door.

  “There’s a storage shed out here in the alley,” Kelly said quietly as he stepped slowly through the doorway. “I never had any reason to consider it about before, but that might be a good place to stash bodies.”

  I had to smile at the absurd idea of ever having considered good places to stash bodies in the world of a few weeks past.

  Lawrence and I stepped outside. I stood looking up the steps which appeared to lead right into the bright blue early morning sky. Under normal circumstances, this would strike me as something of a positive omen. Of course, these were anything but normal circumstances, and the sight now just seemed like a cruel hoax.

  I must have stood there looking upward longer than I realized, because Lawrence asked, “Any chance we can get started before dark?”

  I trotted up the stairs and stood beside Kelly. The narrow alley allowed very little sunlight make its way down to illuminate the area. Despite the bright blue sky, it remained dark and gloomy. The alley was about a hundred feet long and twelve feet wide. A tall brick building made up the other side. A white metal storage shed sat a few yards away from us.

  “So what’s inside?” Lawrence asked.