Urban Decay

by Paxton Matthews

  "Holy shit," Erica stood there murmuring.

  Theo got off the floor and went over to Erica. "That's two I owe ya."

  "I can't believe I just did that."

  "You had to," Theo answered her.

  He walked back over to the bedroom doorway and peered around the rest of the upper flat, trying to see if there were anymore corpses up there with them, but Theo couldn't spot any. However, Theo and Erica both could hear the shuffling of feet coming from the lower flat.

  Both Theo and Erica quietly went over to the steps and took a quick glance down the stairs; there looked to be three corpses wandering around in the kitchen. Theo and Erica retreated back to the bedroom.

  "Theo, what are we gonna do?" Erica asked him. She was beginning to panic.

  Theo put his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her down. "I really don't know. But we'll think of something."

  "We can't stay up here forever."

  "Yeah, I know that."

  "The only thing I can think of is shooting them."

  Theo shook his head. "No, that won't work."

  "Bullshit it won't."

  "No, what I'm saying is those gunshots will lure the ones that are outside right to us."

  "Then what the hell do we do?" Erica wondered.

  "Ask them to leave? You know, politely of course," Theo joked.

  Erica shot Theo a disgusted look, "Are you serious?"

  "No," Theo answered sheepishly. Theo looked at Erica's pistol that she had been clutching in her right hand. "You know, I think I might have an idea though."

  "Good, because I've got nothing."

  Theo thought about it for several seconds before telling Erica what his plan was. "Okay look, the houses around here are close enough together that I can jump from roof to roof with little effort. I'll take your pistol and hop on over to the last house on the block and then fire a few rounds from your gun. I'm hoping that the sound of the gunshots will lure the dead things out of the house."

  "I like the sound of that," Erica replied. "But, why don't you just scream and shout? That might do the trick."

  "It might. But I need something that's really loud. I grew up around here, I've heard my fair share of gunshots. Believe me, sound travels really well in this neighborhood. Unless there's some pots and pans around here that I can bang together, the pistol is the best option."

  "Well it just so happens that there are pots and pans in the kitchen downstairs, Theo," Erica said.

  "Would you like to go get them?"

  "No, I'd rather not. I guess we have to do things your way," Erica answered.

  "Okay good. But here's the part you're not gonna like."

  Erica sighed, "What?"

  "I'm going to need you to get out onto the roof with me."

  Erica's light green eyes opened as wide as saucers, "Oh no. No way."

  "You have to. I need you to look over the edge of the roof to let me know if the dead things run out of here, that way I'll know if I have to fire a few more rounds or not."

  "Shit Theo, I don't know if I can."

  "Well, it's only a matter of time before those corpses downstairs get a little curious and wander on up here. And our two buddies laid out on the floor here are going to get pretty ripe."

  Erica ran her fingers through her hair and then redid her ponytail. She handed her pistol over to Theo, "Alright. Let's do this."

  "You hate me, don't you?"

  "Yep," Erica replied tersely.

  Theo and Erica scurried past the stairway avoiding the corpses in the lower flat and went to the bedroom at the front of the home. Theo led Erica out of the house and onto the awning with Erica clutching at Theo's forearm with an ironclad grip. Theo winced as he pulled Erica up to the roof and led her to the chimney. Her fingernails left deep marks in Theo's skin.

  "Erica, you need to open your eyes," Theo told her.

  "Do I have to?" Erica said, her voice trembling.

  "Yeah. Normally I'd tell you to just not look down, but you're gonna have to do that as well."

  "Oh, I really hate you now."

  "Sounds like both of my exes and their attorneys. I'm going to hop over to the house at the end of the block now, I need you to do this."

  Erica reluctantly opened her right eye and then her left. Theo waited until Erica crawled on her belly over to the edge of the roof.

  "See? It's not so bad is it?" Theo asked her.

  "No, it's worse. Start jumping."

  Theo smirked at Erica and then looked at the road in front of the house. There were a couple of corpses down in the street, but they hadn't noticed Theo or Erica up on the roof. Theo took a deep breath to steady himself and then leaped across to the roof of the next house. He landed on his feet, and then jumped across to the next house, continuing onto the home on the corner. In the small gap between the houses, there were two of the dead things eating a body.

  "Shit, I better not fall, that's the last thing I need," Theo thought to himself.

  Standing on the roof of the last house on the street, Theo looked across the road to his old house which looked to be untouched, save for the side door still open. He then looked down the road at his car, it was right where he left it.

  Theo shrugged, "Whatever. I was getting screwed on my lease anyhow," he said and then he raised the pistol in the air and squeezed the trigger.

  All Theo heard was a clicking sound. He examined the gun, "What the hell?"

  "Hey!" Erica shouted from back at their place. "Take the safety off, dumbass!"

  "Yep, I'm a dummy."

  Theo flipped the safety off and raised the pistol once more and fired three rounds into the mid-afternoon sky. From all around the area, the dead things were worked up into a frenzy, charging towards the house that Theo had been standing atop. The corpses were circling the building in a mass of bodies. Theo playfully waved at a few of the corpses that were reaching up towards him, and then he looked towards Erica. She nodded enthusiastically at Theo and then gave him a thumbs up. Theo waited until a sizeable group of the undead had gathered around the home. The dead were climbing over one another in an attempt to get at Theo. Some of the corpses were standing on each others shoulders they were so desperate to get at Theo. That's when Theo decided that he'd been standing there long enough and then jumped back over to Erica.

  "It worked!" Erica told Theo. I saw three of them run out of the house."

  "Good, good," A relieved Theo replied. "Let's get back inside."

  "Gladly. Please, get me off of this damn roof."

  Theo and Erica slipped back inside their home and stood in the bedroom. Both of them could hear the dead things down the street, snarling and roaring.

  "Damn, listen to that," Erica said.

  "I'm pretty sure I wasn't followed back here by any of them," Theo told Erica.

  Before Erica walked into the rest of the house, Theo stopped her, "Wait a sec," He said. "Hey! Any dead things still in here!" Theo yelled into the home. No corpses came charging up the stairs towards the two of them, so they figured that they were safe for the time being. "I think we're all clear," Theo told Erica.

  Erica and Theo walked over to the steps and peered down into the kitchen area, the lower flat seemed empty. Theo smacked on the nearby wall in an attempt to lure any dead things up the steps, but nothing happened.

  "Okay, time to start cleaning," Theo said.

  "Man, I don't wanna touch these things," Erica grumbled. "Gross."

  "We have to get these dead things out of here," Theo told her, referring to the bodies of the undead that they had put down earlier in the day. "They're already starting to stink. Just pretend you're doing laundry, that might help."

  "Yeah, I doubt that," Erica fired back. "Never liked doing laundry to begin with."

  "Me either."

  Once they were down in the lower flat, Theo went right over to the living room windows. Looking at the broken middle window he said, "We have to do something about this window first and foremost."
/>   "What about these dead bodies in here?"

  "They're not going anywhere."

  Erica groaned at Theo. "You really can't help being a smartass, can you?"

  Theo didn't answer her. He was too busy thinking of what they could use to barricade the broken window.

  Erica glanced outside and didn't see any corpses walking around the street, but they both knew that it wouldn't be for long. "What can we do?" She asked Theo.

  "Not exactly like we can board the thing up. The corpses will hear us," Theo answered.

  "You know they're going to spread back out this way once they're done being all worked up."

  Theo looked at the furniture in the living room. Erica had placed the couch behind the front door when everything started with the dead things, but there was another smaller sofa, and a television stand with a flat screen television up against the wall across from the windows.

  "Wait a second, the couches," Theo said.

  "Yeah? What about them?"

  "We can put one of them up into the window frame here at an angle. One end of the couch will stick out of the window. The corpses out there can push on it all day, and it shouldn't budge."

  Erica nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that could work. But, what about the other windows?"

  "We'll deal with those later. Let's just take care of the middle window first, then we can remove the corpses."

  Since it was longer, Theo and Erica moved the couch that had been placed behind the front door and propped it up into the window frame. The two of them jammed the couch into the window. One end of the couch extended about a foot out into the front porch. Theo was right; the corpses could push on the couch all day and it wouldn't budge. Now, Theo and Erica had to focus their attention on the four dead bodies that remained inside the house. The two of them decided to remove the two dead things that were in the upstairs bedroom first.

  Erica noticed that Theo was examining the two bodies, "What is it, Theo?" She asked him.

  "I'm trying to see if I recognize any of these dead things."

  "Oh yeah, you used to live around here. Do you recognize these two?"

  "No, thankfully."

  Theo grabbed the male corpse in the business suit and dragged him over to the top of the steps. "Sorry about this dude," He said to the body, and Theo rolled the corpse down the steps. The dead thing slammed on the kitchen floor with a low bang.

  Erica sent the female corpse right after. "Man, that's loud. I hope the corpses out there didn't hear that."

  "Well, we'll know sooner rather than later."

  Theo checked to see if there were any lingering corpses still in the backyard, but there weren't any. Theo and Erica decided to place the dead bodies in the small gap between the garage and the privacy fence. They did the same thing with the other two bodies resting in the living room. Theo was able to finally pry the butcher knife from the corpse's head. The noise that it made once the blade was removed made both Theo and Erica sick to their stomachs.

  "Damn, was that nasty," Theo said, wiping the meat cleaver on the grass.

  "I know. I almost lost my breakfast. Let's try and fix that back door now," Erica told Theo. "It sounds like the dead things weren't as riled up as they were earlier. We have to get moving."

  The doorknob was broken and they wouldn't be able to fix it. The only thing they could do for the time being was to move the fridge up against the door.

  "That's pretty sturdy," Theo told Erica. "We should be okay."

  "Good. I say we take whatever supplies we have up here down into the basement and just lay low for the time being."

  "I like the sound of that. It's been a rough day."

  "Got that right."

  Once downstairs, the two of them both collapsed onto their makeshift bedding. Theo kicked his boots off right away. Erica's shoulders were sore from all the heavy lifting.

  "Thanks for saving my ass back there," Theo told Erica, his voice was tired and weary.

  "Don't mention it. Something happens to you, I won't have any company," Erica replied. "Nobody to irritate me."

  Theo laughed. He started to think about the new neighborhood that he had moved into. Theo was Wondering if it too was teeming with the corpses. "I moved out of this neighborhood two months ago, and now I'm back. Stuck."

  "What was your new place like?" Erica asked.

  "It was nice. A small little bungalow out in the suburbs. Nice and quiet. Well, except for those damn lawnmowers. I bet some of my neighbors if any of them survived, are going nuts right about now that they can't cut their grass."

  "Oh, I know. My parents were the same way. Every Saturday afternoon."

  "Where did you live?"

  "A tiny little apartment about forty-five minutes from here," Erica answered. "Me and two other girls. I hope they're okay. It's driving me crazy not knowing how they are."

  "I can imagine. I'm thinking the same thing about my friends and family."

  "Last time I talked to my folks was earlier this week, they were just about to head out of town for a few days for their vacation," Erica said.

  "Well right now, there's nothing we can do about it, unfortunately. We need to focus on just surviving. That's how I'm getting through all of this."

  "Do you think this crap will all blow over?" Erica wondered.

  "I have no idea, I really don't. Hell, we have no way of knowing if this is all over the place. Nationwide, worldwide even."

  Erica didn't reply to Theo. He could tell that she was fast asleep due to her light snoring. Soon, the basement was cast in complete darkness, and Theo shut his eyes and tried to get some rest himself.

  Chapter 4

  Theo didn't think he'd fall asleep at all, but he was out cold when Erica shook him awake. Theo could tell from the sunlight streaming in through the basement windows that it was later in the morning.

  "Damn, how long was I out?" He asked Erica.

  "A little bit. I figured I'd let you sleep."

  "Thanks, I needed the rest. What's going on upstairs? Anything?"

  "I haven't heard anything since I've been up. I did spot one of the corpses outside wandering past the house though. But it didn't see us."

  "Wanna head upstairs and see if our barricades held up?" Theo asked Erica.

  "Yeah, we might as well."

  The two of them walked upstairs nervously. Erica clutched her pistol with both of her hands, staying close behind Theo while Theo had a firm grip on the butcher knife. Theo walked up the steps, and cracked the basement door open, just to get a peek.

  "Anything?" Erica whispered, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could.

  "Well I don't hear them. Nor do I smell them, so I think we might be okay," Theo answered, pushing the kitchen door open all the way. "Hello? Anyone there?" Theo called out into the middle flat. Nothing.

  Theo and Erica set foot in the kitchen and looked around. Their fridge barricade held up through the night, it hadn't moved. And they were both pleased to see that the living room couch was still askew in the window.

  Erica elbowed Theo's arm, "Nice thinking there with the couch. I never would have thought of that."

  Theo smiled. "Hey, it's ghetto fabulous, but it works."

  "What about the other two windows?" Erica asked.

  Theo gave her a shrug. "I don't know right now. I'm a little too hungry. What's for breakfast? French toast? Pancakes? Bacon?"

  "Granola bar," Erica replied curtly.

  "Yum," An unenthusiastic Theo replied.

  Erica stood by the kitchen windows nibbling on her granola bar and peering out of the back windows. Theo took notice, "What's going on out there?"

  "Nothing much at all. No corpses, nothing. It's a dull, gray morning out there. Looks like it's getting ready to rain."

  Theo remembered how when he lived back at his old place, how he dreaded when it rained. The roof leaked like a sieve. "Any umbrellas around here? Maybe we can take a leisurely stroll in the rain."

  "Yeah and wind up as lunch? I
don't think so."

  Erica joined Theo at the kitchen table. Just as she sat down, there was a distant thunderclap. "Ah, here we go."

  "I'm not the biggest fan of the rain," Theo told Erica.

  "Why not?"

  "At my old house down the road, the damn roof was made out of Swiss cheese."

  Erica grabbed her stomach, it was rumbling lightly. "Oh Theo come on, you're making me hungry. I love me some cheese."

  Theo chuckled, "Sorry."

  A few minutes later, the rain began to fall. First, it was a light sprinkle, but it quickly turned into a downpour.

  "Oh man, imagine what those dead things are going to smell like now, all soaking wet," Erica said.

  "Damn sure won't be a rose garden," Theo replied. "Maybe we can run out there and spray em with glade."

  Theo and Erica sat there in the kitchen watching the rainfall. On occasion, a corpse would walk past in the alley. One dead thing in particular, an older woman wearing a maroon bathrobe fell flat on her face. Erica shook her head while Theo tried to hold in a laugh. Then the dead thing got back to her feet and continued on down the alley.

  "You know, days like today remind me of when I broke up with ex-wife number two," Theo told Erica.

  "Happened during a downpour?"

  "Yeah," Theo nodded. "We had just left her parents house and we were arguing about something I had said to her folks. They didn't like me, and the feeling was mutual."

  "I can't see why anyone would dislike you, Theo," Erica said with her tongue firmly planted in her left cheek.

  "No comments from the peanut gallery, please," Theo fired back. "Anyways, we were just sitting there in her car screaming at one another. After about a half hour of that utter garbage, I decided that I was finished. I got out of the car and just started walking down the road. I walked for about an hour until I found a gas station and called a buddy from a payphone to come and get me. Last time I saw her, before divorce court that is, she was sitting in the car, waiting for me to come back with my tail between my legs."

  "Damn Theo, that was rough. I'm sorry."

  "Don't be. I'm not. The nasty cold that I got from walking in that rainstorm was worth it. Even though she got the house in the settlement and I had to move back into this neighborhood."