Nightfall

by E.L. Middleton

  Jennifer cocked her head to the side a little, disbelieving.

  “I find that hard to believe,” she said.

  “Why is that?”

  “Well…” she said, beginning to blush.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I just think that a guy on this campus who is good looking is a prime target. I mean I’m sure you know that we were ranked in a men’s magazine as having some of the most attractive girls?” she said.

  Ewen had heard that rumor before coming to the college. Of course, after he had been on the actual campus for a semester he began to believe it was exactly that: a rumor.

  “You obviously don’t know me very well. The girls here aren’t interested in a guy like me,” he said, confidently.

  “Sure they are. Why not?” Jennifer asked, surprised.

  “Because I don’t run with the in-crowd.”

  Jennifer sighed, frustrated.

  “That’s a term I never thought I’d have to hear at a Christian campus,” she said.

  “You and me both.”

  The waitress suddenly appeared with their food. They each welcomed their plates with open arms as they began to eat, talking to each other in between bites.

  The two security guards were the first to see them. Danny and Boyd had been working the small booth that was positioned at the entrance to the campus. Their jobs were quite simple; if you were trying to get on campus by vehicle you had to go through them and you had to have an MVU parking sticker. If you didn’t, you were questioned and given a guest pass—but that was if you had proof of who you were. No ID, no entrance.

  As the sun disappeared just over the horizon Danny and Boyd watched as over one hundred figures made their way down the bottom of Carver’s Mountain and toward the campus. Whoever they were, there were a lot of them and Boyd, the newest to the job, didn’t think they were going to be checking in. You could barely make out the details of what they looked like from the distance they were at, but there was something strange about them—all of them. They seemed to move differently than most folks Boyd had ever seen. They almost seemed to jitter, violently, and drag themselves as if being pulled by an invisible force above them.

  Danny had been a campus security guard for four years at MVU. He had seen plenty of things he hadn’t expected but he knew Carver’s Mountain-what it was and what the students did up there-and never in four years had he seen this many bodies leaving the mountain. Where were their cars? No, this was wrong and he knew he needed to act fast before they got any closer to campus.

  “What do we do?” Boyd asked, his eyes unable to break from the crowd of figures.

  “Get the dean on the phone,” Danny replied, watching the them just as intently.

  Without even looking, Boyd picked up the phone and dialed the number to the dean.

  Dean Jacobs had been in bed since about three o’clock that afternoon. Without warning he had been struck by some type of head cold. His body ached, he couldn’t breathe through either of his nostrils and he generally just felt like he was on his deathbed. His wife had caught it too and earlier in the evening as they both tried to hold down some chicken soup, they had lamented about how they must have caught it from one of the students.

  Tissues, too many to count, were wadded up and sitting everywhere around his bedroom. He had just fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion when the telephone rang.

  He nearly jumped out of bed and then quickly became annoyed when he realized there was no fire, no burglar and certainly no dinner bell going off anywhere nearby. It was the phone, and he hated the phone. It never brought him good news, only more problems; problems that, tonight, he needed to do without.

  “Hello?” he said, sounding clogged and miserable.

  The voice that spoke to him was the last one he ever expected to hear.

  “Dean Jacobs?” the voice said, sounding shaken.

  The dean sat up in bed and as he did his wife stirred beside him, groaning a little in her sleep.

  “Boyd? Is that you?” the dean asked.

  “Yes, sir. I’m sorry to bother you, sir.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  The dean could feel his head beginning to throb again and chills broke out on his arms. My fever’s getting worse, he thought.

  “We have some trespassers on the grounds, sir,” Boyd said, searching for the right words.

  The dean’s concern quickly turned to aggravation once again.

  “Boyd, tell me you didn’t wake me up just to let me know we have trespassers. It’s your job to deal with things like that, is it not?”

  “I know, sir and I’m sorry for calling but there are just too many for us to stop and check.”

  The dean looked perplexed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, there are, what appears to be, a large group of men and women making their way down Carver’s Mountain and toward the campus.”

  “How many of them are there?” the dean asked, sliding the covers off of him and exposing a pair of blue pajama bottoms.

  “Too many to count, sir,” Boyd said.

  Suddenly, a horrifying thought occurred to the dean, his eyes widening in terror.

  “Where are the students?” he asked.

  “It’s seven o’clock, sir,” Boyd said. “They’re at the revival meeting.”

  He slid his legs out from under the covers, placing his bare feet on the floor. He flipped the light on by the night table, waking his wife. She instantly turned toward the light, leaning over him.

  “Call the police. I’m on my way,” the dean said, hanging up the phone.

  Boyd stood in the small booth holding the phone to his ear as he stared out at Carver’s Mountain. The figures were getting closer to the campus and they no longer looked like blurry, black shapes. The men and women appeared to be less human now and the closer they came Boyd could see mud and dirt falling from their limbs.

  “What about the students, sir?” Boyd said into the receiver.

  No reply.

  “Sir?” he said again, getting a dial tone.

  Boyd hung up the phone, looking over at Danny.

  “What did he say?” Danny asked.

  Boyd looked back out of the booth, completely unnerved.

  “Call the police. He’s on his way,” Boyd said, no inflection in his voice whatsoever as he stared at the crowd coming down the mountain. “Somebody better get here soon,” he said. “They’re heading straight for the Romero Center.”

  Jennifer and Ewen sat at their table, reviewing their empty plates and enjoying each other’s conversation. They had been talking through the entire meal without any uncomfortable silences and it was amazing to both of them how much they had in common, especially their struggle to fit in.

  Jennifer sat back from the table, sighing.

  “Wow. I can’t believe I finished my plate. I never do that on a date,” she said, blushing a little.

  Ewen laughed.

  “Well, that’s either really good or really bad. It depends on how you look at it,” he said, still laughing.

  Jennifer started to laugh with him.

  “As long as I don’t go back to the dorm tonight and realize that I have something in my teeth and it’s been there since dinner, I think finishing my plate will be the least of my concerns,” she said.

  “You definitely don’t have anything in your teeth,” he said, still laughing.

  Jennifer began to laugh a little harder and as she did Ewen was struck again by how beautiful she was. Everything about her from the sound of her voice to the way she smiled endeared her to him. She noticed that he had stopped laughing and now seemed to be admiring her.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, wiping a joyful tear from her eye.

  “Promise you won’t think I’m weird?” he asked.

  Jennifer suddenly became serious.

  “Ewen, I would never think you’re weird. If I ever needed proof that there were still guys out there that actually acted normal, I think
I got it tonight,” she said.

  Ewen looked at the table, embarrassed.

  “So, what’s wrong?” she asked again.

  Ewen looked back up and their eyes met once more.

  “Every minute I spend with you I can’t help but notice everything that you do and how beautiful it is. I’ve never been with anyone in my life that makes me feel so alive,” he said.

  Jennifer was speechless. All she could do was smile, which was perfectly fine for Ewen. After seeing so many forced and fake smiles on campus, her beautiful and genuine smile could entertain him for hours. Suddenly, though, Ewen realized he had weighed the mood down a bit.

  “This was probably not the right time to tell you that. We were in the middle of a fun conversation,” he said.

 

  Jennifer immediately protested.

  “No, no, no. Anytime you want to tell me how beautiful I am go right ahead,” she said, starting to laugh. “Even if we’re talking about Scooby-Doo or something silly.”

  Ewen started to laugh.

  “Scooby-Doo is no silly matter. I take my Mystery Machine very seriously,” Ewen said as they both burst out into even bigger laughter.

  Screams of terror were filling the sky above the Romero Center. The creatures had made their way down the mountain and onto campus. The crowds of hundreds heading inside of the large dome immediately attracted their attention and they had made their way to it.

  The first attack happened so quickly. It was as if the creature had picked up incredible speed after seeing a young man making his way up onto the curb. He hadn’t even noticed the thing running toward him, thinking that it was just another student going to the service in what was left of the natural light.

  It latched onto his shoulders and as he began to scream out in pain he turned his head and saw the living corpse that had hold of him. The mud from It’s hands smeared across the young man’s dress shirt as the pain became too much and the creature was able to bring him down.

  The other students, who were making their way into the building at the last minute, saw the creature feeding and they all began to run for the entrances to the Center. For most of them, it was too late.

  Music was emitting from inside the building, filtering outside through the open doors and mixing with the screams of the students. The undead attacked, running from one student to the next, grabbing them and pulling them to the ground. Several of the students inside noticed what was happening and began to call for help.

  Daniel Fabian, a handsome sophomore, ran to one of the entrance side exit doors just as some of the students inside shut it.

  “Let me in!” he screamed, tears of terror threatening to fall from his eyes.

  Daniel began to pound on the metal exit door as hard as he could as he looked behind him and saw one of the creatures making Its way toward him. It had been injured somehow, either before or after It had died, and was dragging Its broken foot behind It. Daniel turned back toward the metal door, still screaming out for help. He pounded his fists so hard on the door that the skin on his knuckles split.

  “Please! Somebody help me!” he screamed out.

 

  Inside, three students—one of them Gary Mann, a soccer player for the college—were standing on the other side of a metal door listening to the screams of another student as they pounded on the door. They were all looking at each other, trying to decide what to do. Their eyes were filled with a fear they had never felt before as the crowds of thousands inside the Romero Center were yelling and crying behind them.

  “Open it up, Gary! Let him inside!” one of the students said.

  “What if one of those things gets in here?” Gary said, his tone less than conversational.

  “You can’t just leave him out there! He’ll die!” the student said, red with anger.

  Gary took no time to think about what the student had said. He had already made up his mind.

  “And if we let those things in here, we die!” Gary yelled, a vein popping out along his temple.

 

  Outside, Daniel Fabian was still pounding on the metal door. By now he had stained the door with blood and was becoming drained of all of his energy. He turned around to see where the creature was and came face-to-face with It. Its breath, rotten and musty, filled his nostrils and made him queasy, but before he could turn to be sick the creature grabbed him with incredible strength, wrapping Its dilapidated tendrils around his throat.

  From inside the Center Gary and the other two students listened as the pounding stopped. Suddenly, they heard pounding again, lower, louder and more like kicking and then the screams began once more. They didn’t last long and as they faded Gary turned toward the other two students. They had all turned away, pretending not to be a part of what had just happened.

  CHAPTER 9

  Mass hysteria was still going on within the confines of the Romero Center except for a small group of people who had gathered near the platform on the basketball court. Robert was among them and remained surprisingly level headed throughout the situation, considering he had helped two students break free from one of the creatures and had gotten them inside. He didn’t know what they were, or maybe he was supposed to say who they were, but in either case they reminded him of something that was both ridiculous and terrifying at the same time.

  He was a fan of horror films, especially the old ones he use to watch with his Dad when he was young. He wasn’t much for baseball, basketball or any other sport for that matter but when it came to movies—particularly the ones that contained monsters in them—he and his Dad had been able to bond. King Kong, Godzilla, Dracula and even The Mummy had all been a part of his cinematic diet when he was growing up. Even after he got older and watched more recent horror films—ones that his Dad never would have dreamed they would ever make—he still enjoyed watching them.

  One night, while staying at a friend’s house, he had been flipping through the channels when the original Night of the Living Dead came on television. They had both never seen the film before and so they decided to watch it. No sooner had they begun to eat their popcorn had Robert’s friend passed out on the couch from exhaustion. Robert checked the clock and noticed that it was 2:30 in the morning. He was tired too, but he couldn’t go to sleep without seeing the rest of the movie. Glued to the set, even through the commercials, he watched until the very last frame.

  As he stood at the bottom of the Romero Center, surrounded by screaming, crying and terrified conversations, he thought about the creatures in Night of the Living Dead. Zombies, he thought. There’s no way that’s what these things are. They can’t be. These were definitely thoughts he planned on keeping to himself. After all, he might never get a job at the radio station here if they all thought he was a complete nut. Fictitious horror movie monsters were the last thing on everybody’s minds. There was blood covering the streets just outside of the Center and lives of friends and, perhaps, even relatives had been lost. This was a very real situation and there had to be a very real explanation for it.

  Gregory Davis, a middle-aged and balding man, stood in the middle of the group. Most everyone, including Robert, had gathered around him as he began to flip through the dial on a portable radio. He tuned in station after station, searching for any sign that someone else was experiencing the same event. After reaching the end of the band, and flipping back through it once more, he shut it off turning back to address the group.

  “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s like this isn’t even happening,” the man said.

  “Maybe it isn’t,” Robert said, immediately drawing the attention of the group.

  It was strange how they all looked at him. At first Robert thought they looked angry at him for interjecting and then, upon a closer examination, he realized they were all looking to him for an answer.

  “What I mean is, what if this is only happening here? It wouldn’t be all over the radio, would it?” Robert said.

  Suddenly, a young girl sitting in a chair
just out of the group spoke up. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was visibly shaking.

  “Why is this happening at all?” she yelled, more tears beginning to flow.

  Robert looked at her, scared with her. He wanted to say something, anything that might calm her down, but the truth was he didn’t know what to say.

  The girl screamed again, this time directed toward the rest of the Romero Center.

  “What’s happening?”

  Her voice resonated through the entire building and for the first time, silence swept over the crowd. As everyone looked down at her the sounds of the creatures outside pounding on the doors began to fill the auditorium. They’re still trying to get in, Robert thought.

  Another student rushed over to the young girl, trying to comfort her as Gregory turned to Robert.