Surviving When the Dead Have Risen

by Jeffrey Littorno

  “Everything okay?” Lawrence yelled over the sound of the chainsaw.

  “Yeah, it’s just all the racket brought a whole herd of them to the gate!” I yelled back. “The gate looks strong enough!”

  “Well, let’s clean up!” Lawrence shouted as he drug a garbage can near one of the bodies and began putting the severed limbs into the can.

  A minute later, Kelly finished cutting and turned off the chainsaw. The whole scene took on such an absurd appearance that it was actually fairly easy to convince my brain the whole thing was unreal. I actually caught myself grinning as I watched Lawrence and Kelly lifting an armless, legless torso into one of the trash cans. The one thing for which I was thankful was that the shells did not bleed a lot. Since their hearts were no longer beating, the blood did not circulate. Never having cut up a fresh body, I can only imagine that there would be much more blood present.

  I stepped up and started dragging one of the full bags toward the shed. I had only gone a few yards when Kelly trotted over and lifted one end of the bag.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  He nodded in reply.

  We dropped the bag against the back wall of the shed. That was the first of many bags and cans in the shed. When we were all done, I threw two of the tarps over the top.

  As we left the alley, I looked over to see that the crowd of shells had thinned out considerably.

  Chapter 9

  After a quick lunch in the basement which was surprisingly good despite the grisly sights of the morning, we headed back to finish clearing the second floor.

  I cannot say that the task of clearing the bodies ever got pleasant, but the repetition and practice at removing myself from the reality of the task made it bearable. I think the doctors call it disassociation although it probably does not matter much what it is called. The important thing is it worked.

  By around six, we had the second floor cleared with the bodies littering the alley below. Just as we had the day before, we headed to Kelly’s place in the basement for an ice cold beer. I cannot remember a beer tasting so good. After another of Taylor’s delicious dinners, I slept better than I had in a long time. Nothing like a day of physical labor to quiet the brain, I suppose. Never mind that the work involved dismembering corpses and bagging body parts.

  The next morning we started back at the job of clearing the alley of bodies. This time we had only the smaller trash bags gathered from various apartments, which meant all the bodies needed to be cut up.

  It did not take Kelly long to emerge from the basement with his chainsaw, goggles, and bloody canvass apron. For the most part, Lawrence and I simply stood back and commented as Kelly went about his work.

  “It sure is nice to see a man who clearly enjoys his work!” I yelled as Kelly began cutting an extremely large male body.

  Lawrence stared at me for a minute, trying to decide whether I meant to be serious or not. Apparently, he decided that I did not, because he answered, “I wonder what union he belongs to!”

  We both laughed, and Kelly glared at us with curiosity. Lawrence shook his head to let him know that everything was okay. The goggled hippy shrugged his shoulders and went back to cutting.

  Strangely, I found the task of bagging the dismembered corpses much easier than dealing with the whole body as we had done the previous day. Whether the separate parts seemed less than human or that I had become numb to the whole process, it did not matter. The result was I made it through without any problem. By noon, we had bagged all the parts and stashed the garbage bags under the tarp in the shed.

  Before going inside, I again went over to the gate to check out the crowd that had gathered at the sound of the chainsaw. There appeared to be quite a few more than the day before as if word had gotten out about the noisy alley. The idea stayed with me, and I wondered if the shells had any means of communication. As I observed a woman dressed in a tank top and running shorts move aimlessly through a crowd of other shells and occasionally bumping into them, the idea of any sort of communication seemed unlikely. The intermittent grunts seemed to be nothing more than reflexive, signifying nothing.

  My companions headed into the basement. The disinterest of the others in the behavior of the shells surprised me. It seemed clear that if we had any chance to survive we needed to understand everything we could about the shells.

  Another thing that surprised me was Kelly’s apparent disinterest in visiting our apartment. We had invited him several times for dinner, but he had found a reason to decline each time.

  My curiosity about his behavior was swept away as I caught sight of the shell of a chubby teenage girl wobbling quite a bit, standing near a light pole on the edge of the sidewalk. The swaying grew until the teenager was stumbling around a few steps here and there. Finally, the movement stopped. She stood in place for a moment and then collapsed to the ground as if her legs had turned to rubber. I waited for further movement that never came. The other shells did not seem to notice the body. Well, most of them did not notice the body.

  A muscular-looking shell with short blond hair shuffled his feet right into the body. The presence of something blocking his movement appeared to confuse him. He stared downward for a moment before resuming his shuffling. The result was that the body on the ground moved slightly with each impact of his feet. This continued for what seemed like five minutes before the shell gave up and shuffled off to the left of the body.

  I wondered at the sudden collapse of the shell. I thought of the shell we had found in the apartment that seemed to have just quit moving. Perhaps there was some connection. My focus on the shell was very deep, which caused me to jump when the hand touched my shoulder.

  “Everything okay?” Lawrence asked.

  “Uh, yeah… I just noticed one of the shells that just quit running and collapsed like the one we saw upstairs.”

  “And you think there has to be some connection, right?” He asked with more than a hint of ridicule.

  “Well, I don’t know if there’s a connection or not,” I shot back. “But it might be important for us to know.”

  He nodded and said, “You’re right. I just don’t like being around those things.”

  The giggles burst out before I could catch them. They were not the contagious sort of sound that might come after hearing something silly. After a moment, I managed to bite off the sound although the tremors continued.

  “You think I like spending time with them?” I asked.

  He shook his head and grinned. “No, I don’t suppose you do. But the fact is you’re still out here talking instead of inside.”

  I realized he had a point and laughed. “Okay, I can’t argue with you there. Time to get inside.”

  We walked together inside. Still, I could not shake the feeling that I had just noticed something significant about the shells even if I did not completely understand it.

  Once we were back in Kelly’s room enjoying a lunch of microwaved hamburgers and cold beer, I could not keep my thoughts inside. “What if those things are dying?”

  It was as if I had hit the Pause button. All movement stopped instantly. After a moment, both faces turned toward me.

  “Whoa, are you thinking those things might be short-timers, dude?” Kelly asked as if he was overwhelmed by the concept.

  Lawrence did not show any such reverence. “C’mon! That’s horse shit! You think these shells, walking corpses, or whatever you wanna call them are just gonna fall over?”

  “Right, my idea is that these things are running out of steam is horse shit, but the fact that dead bodies are walking around is perfectly logical!” My voice had risen to a scream, leaving Kelly and Lawrence stunned and uncomfortable.

  “Whoa! Dude, calm down,” Kelly said. “You’re gonna have a coronary or something. None of us know exactly what’s going on or what’s gonna happen. You could be right.”

  He looked over at Lawrence as if to signal him that it was his turn to offer something.

  It took him a few seconds
to put his words together. Finally, he said, “Sure, none of us can tell the future, I guess. Who the hell knows what’s gonna happen? The thing to do is worry about getting through right now.” He looked from me to Kelly as if checking to see how his comment was received.

  “I don’t know, I guess I am just looking for a reason to be hopeful,” I replied. “Without hope for the future, I don’t see much reason in even bothering to worry about getting through right now.”

  There was a long pause, before Lawrence broke the silence with a chuckle. “Well then let’s just hope you’re right!”

  Kelly giggled a little, and I just shook my head.

  We headed inside to Kelly’s room and had a surprisingly enjoyable lunch. Maybe it was the comfort of having a routine that put each of us in a good mood.

  The mood lasted through the day and into the evening. When Lawrence and I returned to the apartment, Taylor and Christina were happy to see us as always. We had truly become a family.

  Over the next few weeks, we managed to clear the building of all the bodies, stockpile the supplies from all the apartments in a few places, fortify all the places where shells might be able to get inside, and, perhaps most difficult of all, get Kelly to join us for dinner.

  The whole thing was actually pretty uncomfortable. From the second he walked through the door with a six-pack, the maintenance man was obviously uncomfortable. I introduced him to Taylor which went as expected. The introduction to Christina was another matter.

  From the instant the two made eye contact, the loathing of one another was clear. No matter how many times the conversation got lively it wound up with Kelly and Christina ignoring or glaring at each other. In fact, I do not remember either of them directly addressing the other.

  It reminded me of a party Bonnie and I had thrown. It had been her idea to invite a couple of old friends who were recently divorced. When I voiced some concern about inviting both of them, Bonnie had replied, “We’ve known them for years. I’m sure our friendship can survive even though their marriage couldn’t.” The result had been that the party had a decidedly chilly atmosphere as the two

  spent the evening alternating between glaring at one another and trying to impress the other with how much fun they were having. The affected laughter and conversation was more than irritating. Near the end of the evening, the two finally confronted one another which resulted in a loud shouting match. As far as I can remember, that was the last time we saw either one of them.

  It seems odd to get the same awkward feeling from a little girl and a man, but that is precisely what I got.

  Anyway, at the moment we finished eating, Kelly made an excuse to get back to the basement. As soon as he closed the door behind Kelly, Lawrence turned and asked Christina, “What the hell was that all about?”

  I thought I saw the little girl batting her eyelashes. “What’s the matter, Lawrence?”

  The big cop could not keep from smiling and said, “I think you know what the matter is. You and Kelly looked about ready to kill each other the whole time.”

  “Yeah, Chris, what’s up with that?” Taylor asked.

  With three sets of eyes focused squarely upon her, Christina realized that she was not going to escape the question and answered, “I told you Mommy said to stay away from him.” She looked around at the blank expressions of her audience, then she turned her eyes to the floor and mumbled, “And one time... he… uh… tried to kiss me.”

  A second later, Lawrence was standing near her. “What did you say, Christina?” It was a quiet voice but one which was obviously struggling to stay calm.

  The room was silent for a moment, until the little girl said, “He… Kelly… he tried to kiss me… and stuff.”

  A sort of grunt burst out of Lawrence, and he spun around and headed for the door.

  “Hold on a second!” I called, but he continued to unlock the door without pausing.

  I leaned against the door as he unlocked the last deadbolt. “We need to talk about this. You don’t know the whole story, and we need Kelly’s help to…”

  A look of pure rage from Lawrence cut off any further words. I backed away from the door as he yanked it open and walked into the hallway.

  I looked at the terrified expressions of Christina and Taylor before hurrying out of the apartment.

  “Lawrence! Let’s talk about this!” I called.

  He did not even pause as he strode toward the stairs.

  Taylor moved past me. “Detective Lawrence, you gotta slow down,” the boy said as he moved in front of him. “Don’t do something stupid.”

  Lawrence did stop this time. But as I watched, he was tense while trembling slightly and looked as though he was getting ready to swing at Taylor. After a few seconds, his shoulders relaxed and the trembling stopped. He chuckled as he said, “You’re right. I can’t go off half-cocked and end up doing something I’m gonna regret.” He looked over at me, flashed a crooked smile, and then turned back toward Taylor. “I’m just gonna go talk to him and find out the whole story. Hell, it’s probably nothing.”

  Lawrence stepped forward. For a moment, Taylor stood in place but then moved out of the way. The big cop walked past him, but this time his gait had an exaggerated casual manner.

  Taylor glanced over at me as if looking for guidance. I shrugged and trotted after Lawrence. Neither of us said anything as we walked down the stairs to the basement.

  When he reached the door to Kelly’s room,

  Lawrence looked around as if checking to see if Taylor and I were still there. “I’m just gonna find out what happened. Bet the whole damn thing is some silly mistake,” he said in an amazingly calm voice as he knocked on the door.

  Taylor and I exchanged looks of amused embarrassment as we realized that we had overreacted to Lawrence’s anger.

  After a moment, there was rattling from the other side of the door as locks were turned and a chain was unhooked. The door opened to reveal Kelly’s smiling face.

  “You guys back for another cold--”

  He never got a chance to finish his question. As soon as the door was open, Lawrence threw himself inside. The door flew back with such force that it seemed as if it would shatter.

  In the next instant, Lawrence had Kelly on the ground and was sitting astride his chest. I rushed to get the two apart. Somehow before I laid a hand on Lawrence, he had his gun in his hand and was pointing it in Kelly’s face. I had no idea where he had gotten the gun. The weapon could have been tucked inside his belt, but now it did not matter. The gun was in his hand, and he was ready to kill Kelly.

  “So you like to kiss little girls, hunh? Well, here’s something else you can kiss,” he said through clenched teeth. Kelly’s eyes widened with fear as Lawrence forced the barrel of his gun into his mouth.

  Everything in the room froze until there seemed to be absolutely no movement.

  Whether real or imagined, it seemed that Lawrence’s finger actually trembled on the trigger, and I waited for the explosion as the bullet blew out the back of Kelly’s head. Rather than by an explosion, the silence was shattered by Christina’s scream.

  “Lawrence! No!” She ran up next to him and howled, “Don’t hurt him!”

  Lawrence twisted around to look at the little girl. The gun came out of Kelly’s mouth, and he turned toward her with an expression of terror combined with over-whelming confusion. Taylor’s eyes as well as my own were also fixed on her.

  Being the center of attention did not please the girl. She began to tremble, and the slap of her small shoe on the concrete floor echoed through the basement.

  “He didn’t do the stuff I said,” she muttered with her eyes fixed on her shoes. After a moment of no sound, she started to bawl and ran from the room.

  Lawrence’s knees cracked as he raised himself off of Kelly’s chest. He extended a hand to help Kelly off the floor. The maintenance man regarded the hand for a moment before slowly taking it. Once on his feet, he stumbled backward a few steps and glared at La
wrence.

  “What the fuck, man? What was that all about?” He went on without waiting for an answer. “That is completely uncool!”

  Now it was Lawrence’s turn to look at his shoes.

  “Sorry, I thought… I mean… Christina said you tried to kiss her.”

  Kelly let go with a laugh that was anything but cheerful. “Are you serious, dude? You came down to my place and stuck a fucking pistol in my mouth because of what that little bitch told you?”

  Lawrence’s body tensed at the attack on Christina but then went slack again.

  “She said you kissed her,” Taylor said quietly.

  “No, I never touched that little… I never touched her,” Kelly said. “The only reason she has to hate me is ‘cuz I complained to her mom about leaving toys in the hallway. Some days you could hardly make to down the hall with all the dolls and tricycles and--”

  The scream was faint and high-pitched, but it was enough to stop everything else. Before Lawrence or I had even reacted, Kelly was flying up the stairs. His long legs seemed like a blur as we hurried after him.

  By the time we got into the hallway, three shells were shuffling toward Christina. The little girl was huddled into a ball in the corner at the opposite end of the hall. Her head was tucked down, so I couldn’t see her face. Her body shook with the spasms of sobbing.

  “Christina,” Lawrence yelled. “Stay right where you are!”

  The shells turned slowly at the sound of Lawrence’s voice. The little girl did not react but simply continued to shake.

  Lawrence and I looked at one another trying to decide on the best course of action. In the next instant, Kelly rushed forward into the crowd of shells. The movement seemed to catch the shells completely by surprise. Kelly moved by them without much trouble. There was a young guy wearing only light green boxers and a black t-shirt with large skull and crossbones, an older woman in a pink terry cloth bathrobe and one slipper, and a heavyset black man wearing a dark blue sweat suit.

  Kelly had scooped up Christina in his arms by the time the shells turned and began shuffling toward them. The young guy was very close to grabbing Kelly when Taylor charged in with a block that would have made the defensive line of the Oakland Raiders proud. The shell was on the floor with Taylor standing defiantly above it. Kelly managed to zigzag his way past the others without being touched.