“But that’s Bill,” Kelly said. “Shouldn’t we do something?”
“I can’t shoot Bill,” I replied. “If he even knows who he is, did you see the look in his eyes? If I found an animal in as bad of shape as Bill, I would probably put him out of his misery, but it just doesn’t seem right to shoot Bill. At least not until I understand what is happening to him.”
“OK, but let’s get in the house before he gets up,” Kelly said. “I guess it can’t hurt if we just let him get up and walk away. I’m sure, with him being able to move around in his condition, that he’s definitely not feeling any pain. And I think you might be right, it wouldn’t be right to do anything until we knew whether we would be helping him or doing more harm.”
We quickly ran over to our house, went inside and down to the basement. We both went over to the window to watch and see what Bill would do.
He finally made it to his feet and staggered around in a circle for a few minutes, then walked by the side of our house and out of view from our window.
I looked at Kelly.
“Did we do the right thing?” I asked.
“I don’t know, I think so,” Kelly replied.
“I don’t know if I would want to go on living if I was in his condition,” I said, “but I wouldn’t want to be responsible for taking someone’s life without knowing what I was doing. I just don’t know what to think.”
“Don’t get yourself upset,” Kelly said. “I don’t know if anyone would know what to do, I feel we did the right thing under the circumstances. I still think the radiation or the fallout from all those nukes going off around the country is causing this. You said yourself that we don’t know what side effects we are going to have to deal with, but I think we have just discovered what one of those side effects might be.”
“That is one hell of a cruel side effect,” I sighed. “I’ve always heard that the worst part of a nuclear bomb wasn’t the explosion, but the radiation that came afterwards.
Never in a million years could I have ever imagined that radiation could do this to people, cause ugly wounds to appear all over their body. Then to drive them insane like that to the point where they can’t feel any pain, leaving them to wander aimlessly until their bodies can’t take anymore and they finally just drop dead.”
“Hey, we’re still alive and for now that’s all that matters,” Kelly said. “We’ll get through this somehow.”
I gave Kelly a hug.
Everything that had happened today had been so confusing.
It was also frustrating to realize that I had just started to think that I would know what to do to get my family through the aftermath of a nuclear war, but the truth was I now knew that I didn’t have a clue what to do because I had no idea of what I was dealing with.
As soon as I thought I had something figured out, I learned that it was something completely different than what I had thought.
Suddenly I heard a loud crash coming from upstairs, followed by the sound of a girl screaming.
I quickly turned to look at the girls.
“Where is Jamie?” I asked, when I saw Tammy sitting by herself.
“She went upstairs to get some more money for the Monopoly game, she said we didn’t have enough money,” Tammy replied. “She has more money hidden under her bed.”
In a panic, I grabbed my shotgun and ran up the stairs.
I yelled back for Kelly to stay with Tammy.
When I reached the top step, I threw open the door and began to run towards the girl’s bedroom.
My body froze when I entered the room and found Jamie on the floor, backed up against the wall.
Bill had somehow gotten into the house and was now after Jamie.
Bill dropped to the floor and grabbed Jamie’s leg before I could move to do anything.
I grabbed him by the arm and jerked him away from Jamie, but not until he had sunk his teeth into her leg.
Jamie screamed with pain as I pulled Bill off her and threw him against the wall.
Rage overtook me when I saw Jamie cowering on the floor and the bloody gash on her leg, and then I saw the blood running down Bill’s chin.
He looked at me with those sick eyes, opened his mouth and groaned as he got up and came after me.
The concern I had for my neighbor, about what was the right thing to do, was quickly forgotten.
There was only one right thing to do now.
I raised my shotgun and fired, splattering his head across the wall behind him.
I ran over and picked up Jamie and carried her down to the basement.
Kelly was holding Tammy in her arms, they both looked scared as they huddled together near the back of the furnace.
Kelly began to cry when she saw Jamie’s leg and came running over to meet me.
“What happened?” she asked.
“It was Bill, he got in the house and attacked Jamie” I said. “Quick, get the first-aid kit.”
Kelly and I cleaned and bandaged Jamie’s leg and wrapped her in her blanket. We then laid her on the cot she had been sleeping on the last few nights.
Her eyes looked like her mind was somewhere far off into another world. She didn’t try to fight us about going to bed early, so we knew Jamie was not feeling well.
Tammy sat with her little sister as Kelly and I walked across the basement to talk.
“The wound on her leg looked bad, did you see how it happened?” Kelly asked.
“Bill bit her on the leg,” I replied. “I couldn’t get to Bill in time to stop him.”
“I heard the gun go off,” Kelly added.
“I did what I should have done out front,” I replied angry with myself. “He was an animal. I now feel when someone reaches that point, they are at the point of no return, the next step is that they are going to die. I don’t know if shooting Bill out front would have made any difference to Bill, as you said he wasn’t feeling any pain, but it would have made a hell of a big difference to Jamie. I don’t know why I had to be so damn stupid, he was going to die anyhow and when people reach that point, they should be put down so they can’t hurt anyone else.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kelly said. “We didn’t know what to do, we had no way to know this would happen.”
“Why did I hesitate?” I asked.
“Because you are a good man that cares about others,” Kelly said as she put her arms around me. “It’s why I married you and why you have been such a great husband and father.”
“It doesn’t make me feel any better,” I sighed.
“I know it doesn’t, but it is the truth,” Kelly replied. “We couldn’t have predicted any of this, all we can do is the best we can.”
“I have a feeling that our best is not going to be good enough,” I said softly.
“That’s what my father said after I told him I was going to marry you,” Kelly smiled. “Where did I go wrong? But as you see everything has worked out for the best.”
I hugged Kelly and smiled.
“I wish we could get Jamie to a doctor,” she said. “I felt her head and she is burning up.”
“Me too, but that’s not an option,” I replied.
“I’ll stay with her and keep a cool cloth on her forehead to try and keep the fever down,” Kelly said. “Hopefully her fever will break by morning and she’ll be OK. She probably should have had stitches, but I tried to tape the wound together the best I could.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
“No, you just keep an eye on us tonight and hopefully everything will be better in the morning,” Kelly smiled and gave me a kiss.
She then turned back to the girls.
She slid her cot over next to the girls, pulled the cooler of water over to the cots and began to put a cool damp cloth over Jamie’s forehead.
As the light outside grew darker, I made myself comfortable.
I was too agitated to sleep, so I made up my mind that I was going to sit up and watch that no other harm would come to my f
amily tonight.
The girls all went to sleep and soon the only sound was their breathing. Two girls breathing the long slow breaths of a sound sleep. One girl’s breathing was short and labored.
My heart ached for poor Jamie.
I could only have imagined how terrified she felt when Bill and his gruesome appearance came at her, that awful moaning, as he ripped her leg apart.
I blamed myself, I knew I should have reacted faster, figured things out sooner, I could have prevented this.
I closed my eyes and listened.
Soon I too fell into a light uneasy sleep as the night progressed.
If I had known then that my world would come to an end in a few hours, I would have never let myself fall asleep.
But again, it was going to end no matter what I did now, but maybe I could have salvaged something.
But like Kelly had said, there was no way we could have predicted any of this.
Or was there?
As I look back at things, I know I could have changed something.
But, it is too late now.
It was sometime in the middle of the night that I was awakened by the most terrifying sounds.
I heard Kelly scream, the sounds of a struggle and that inhuman moaning echoing through the basement.
The sound of a wild animal attacking something in the night.
The sounds that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I was startled out of my sleep and quickly reached for my flashlight.
I recognized the sounds and what they meant, I was terrified thinking what I would find when I turned on my light.
I knew what I would see was going to be bad, but I had no idea how bad.
As I turned on the flashlight, dark shadows danced a violent dance across the back wall of the basement.
The source of the shadows were Kelly and Jamie.
Jamie was on top of Kelly, frantically attacking her.
When my flashlight lit up the area where the girls were sleeping, Kelly seemed to get her bearings and could see that it was Jamie that was attacking her. She grabbed Jamie’s arms, rolled her over and sat on top of her.
That’s when I heard Kelly begin to cry hysterically as she got her first good look at Jamie and then at Tammy.
“No! No! No!” she screamed and cried uncontrollably.
I ran over to Kelly, shinning the light in front of me as I went.
“Stay back!” Kelly yelled between sobs.
“What?” I asked surprised by what she had said.
“Charlie, stay back, please,” she cried. “Light some candles to give me some more light, but please don’t come any closer.”
Kelly continued to struggle with Jamie, but by sitting on top of her and holding Jamie’s arms out, she was able to restrain and keep Jamie immobilized, but the awful moaning and snapping of teeth continued.
I ran from candle to candle with my lighter, then turned back to Kelly after I had all the candles lit.
It was then I saw Tammy.
She was lying on her back in her cot, then I noticed the blood.
Tammy’s throat had been torn out and one side of her face was unrecognizable.
Blood was dripping on the floor from the red blood-soaked blanket that covered Tammy’s little body.
I started to run towards the cots, but Kelly again yelled for me to stay back.
Tears ran down my face as I stared at Tammy, then my attention shifted to Jamie.
I dropped to my knees, almost unable to move by what I was seeing.
Jamie, her tiny face was all twisted and contorted into some horrific scowl. Her white eyes darted back and forth between me and then up at Kelly.
Blood dripped from the corners of her mouth as she growled and snapped her teeth, trying to bite Kelly’s arms.
I lifted my head and looked desperately at Kelly.
“What happened?” I asked, barely able to get the words out. “How?”
Kelly sobbed harder for a moment as tears ran down her cheeks, leaving clear paths through the blood splatters that covered her face.
“I know what’s happening,” Kelly cried. “Charlie, we’ve had everything backwards. We have been looking at this all wrong.”
“What have we been looking at wrong?” I asked and moved closer.
“Don’t get any closer, not yet, Charlie,” Kelly pleaded. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I got down on my knees again, still ten feet away, but I was now at eye level with Kelly as I looked over at her.
“OK, I’ll stay here,” I replied. “Kelly what happened, what have we been looking at all wrong?”
“The people that came through our yard today, they weren’t sick like we thought,“ Kelly said, “they were dead!”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“We’ve been thinking that the radiation has been making people get sick,” Kelly continued. “We thought that becoming sick that it was making them go crazy, like Bill. But we had it backwards.
The radiation makes them get sick and die. Getting sick doesn’t make them crazy, it just makes them die.
After they die, something else is making their bodies start moving again and makes them attack the living people around them.”
Kelly looked down at Jamie and began to sob uncontrollably again.
I looked at my family, one dead, one covered in blood and one out of her mind and I didn’t know what to say or what to do.
My eyes connected with Kelly’s eyes.
“It finally all came to me a few minutes ago,” Kelly sobbed as she continued. “First it was Bill, the way we found him dead in his front yard and then he came back as one of the undead. Then he bit our Jamie, and Charlie, now Jamie is dead.”
I just looked at Kelly then down at Jamie.
“She’s moving,” I stammered.
“But she is also dead, she is cold, she is so cold Charlie, it’s breaking my heart,” Kelly began to cry again. “Don’t you see, something is killing people and then turning them into zombies. That’s what happening out there. We had it all backwards.”
“Kelly?” I said as I watched Jamie struggling to get free from Kelly’s grip.
“We have to set her free, put her out of her misery,” Kelly sobbed. “It’s the only thing we can do now. We can’t leave her like this, not our Jamie.”
“What, I can’t,” we can’t,” I replied as my stomach churned at the thought.
“We have to,” she cried.
“What if you’re wrong?” I said. “She could get better?”
“It’s too late, Jamie is dead,” Kelly cried. “She may be moving, but she will never be alive again. She will never be our little girl again, she’s gone. Look at her Charlie.”
I just looked at Kelly and the girls, my heart breaking.
“I can prove that I’m right, Charlie.” Kelly said sadly.
“How can you prove something like that?” I replied. “We don’t know.”
“I know,” Kelly said. “I wish to God that I didn’t know, but I know.”
“How?” I asked.
“Watch Tammy,” Kelly said.
I was about to say that Tammy was dead, but then I understood what Kelly was saying to me.
She was saying that Tammy would soon start to turn into one of the undead, that her dead body was going to start moving and she would start attacking us.
It was so hard for me to accept that my little girl was dead, but to realize that both of my little girls were going to turn into one of the undead, was too much for me to handle.
The vision of the undead walking through my yard flashed across my mind, then I saw Tammy and Jamie walking with them, horribly disfigured, but staggering along with the others.
Tears flowed down my face.
It was just yesterday that I had shared cereal with the girls, had hugged them and carried them around in my arms, had tucked them into bed and told them not to worry because I had checked under their bed and there were no
monsters. Told them that I would always be there to protect them.
Now there was nothing I could do to help them, the monsters under their bed had won.
“Charlie,” Kelly yelled, shaking me out of my thoughts.
I looked up at her.
“Give me your gun,” she cried. “Give me your handgun, not the shotgun.”
I looked at Kelly and our eyes met, I have never seen so much pain showing in Kelly’s eye before.
“Hurry,” she said as she looked down at Tammy.
My eyes followed her gaze and I saw Tammy starting to move, white eyes snapped open and she began to moan.
I knew deep down in my heart that Kelly was right about what was happening around us, what had happened to our girls, but I didn’t want to believe it. Once I handed Kelly the gun, I knew there would be no going back.
“I can’t do it,” I said.
“I don’t expect you to do it,” Kelly replied. “I will do it.”
“You’re their mother, I don’t want you to live the rest of your life carrying that guilt with you,” I said.
“I won’t be carrying that guilt for long,” Kelly replied as she forced a tearful little smile. “Look at my arms.”
I looked at her in shock, I was so focused on the girls, it hadn’t even occurred to me that something could happen to Kelly. Her arms were bloody and covered with bite marks from being attacked by Jamie.
“I don’t want you to have to live with any regrets about the girls, unfortunately, I can’t save you from what I will need you to do later,” Kelly added. “I would do it myself, but I made you a promise. We made each other a promise.”
I remembered our conversation after Tom had taken his own life, the conversation that I didn’t take very seriously at the time.
I remembered laughing at the time, I never thought it was a promise that either one of us would ever have to keep.
Apocalypse- the Plan Page 32
