Urban Decay

by Paxton Matthews

  "Well that's a lovely image," Theo quipped. "I know I'll sleep soundly tonight."

  "When are we going to discuss the supply situation?" Erica wondered. The basement windows were the least of her worries. "And Macey being able to defend herself."

  "Damn, I almost forgot about that," Theo replied.

  Macey didn't say anything, she just looked around the kitchen, almost as if she was trying to avoid the subject.

  "Macey, you're gonna have to head out there with us sooner or later, and you're gonna have to be able to defend yourself," Erica told her.

  "Yeah, I guess so," Macey said quietly.

  "I don't like getting up close and personal with those nasty bastards any more than the next guy, but you have to do what you have to do," Theo told her.

  "Theo, she doesn't even have a weapon," Erica reminded him.

  Sensing that Macey was becoming tense, Theo turned to her and said, "Relax Macey, I don't think we're going anywhere today. Are we Erica?"

  Erica shook her head, "Don't think so. There are probably too many dead things out there to deal with at the moment anyway."

  Macey sighed with relief. "Oh good. Is there any aspirin around here? My back's stiff and I have a bit of a headache."

  "Yeah. The bathroom's down the hall, first room on the left. Should be in the medicine cabinet."

  Theo looked out into the backyard; it was empty. There weren't any corpses wandering down the alleyway either. It almost seemed normal out there, until Theo spotted the lifeless body of the undead thing he put down a few days prior laying in the yard next door. The body was rotting away in the springtime sun. Erica propped her legs up on the edge of the kitchen counter and stretched out. She yawned loudly.

  "Erica, you're making me sleepy," Theo told her.

  "Sorry, I'm just-" There was a loud crash coming from down the hallway, the sound of glass shattering.

  "Help Me!" Macey bellowed from down the hallway.

  Theo and Erica stormed out of the kitchen and ran towards Macey. The bathroom was empty, just the medicine cabinet was open.

  "Where is she?" Theo asked Erica.

  "In here! Ahh!" Macey shouted.

  Macey was in the back bedroom. Theo and Erica ran inside and saw that a dead thing had broken into the house from the side window, and had his arms wrapped around Macey's waist. Macey reached out with both arms and Theo and Erica grabbed onto her, trying to pull her away from the window. The corpse had a firm grip on Macey however. Theo spotted the shards of glass on the bedroom floor, he grabbed a piece and started slicing at the dead thing's arms and hands. It didn't matter, the corpse wouldn't let go.

  Erica kicked at the corpse's hands, its grip loosened momentarily, and Erica tried to pull Macey free. The corpse grabbed the back of Macey's shirt and tried to pull her out of the window and to the outside. Falling backward, Macey stuck out her left hand and tried to catch herself on the window frame. A large piece of broken glass sliced into Macey's left forearm, producing a five-inch gash. Macey screamed out in agony as her blood spilled out onto the bedroom floor.

  Using every ounce of strength that they had, Theo and Erica pulled Macey away from the dead thing and back into the home. Erica dragged Macey out of the bedroom and down the hallway, leaving Theo to deal with the dead thing that was still trying to get into the house.

  The corpse had to be six foot eight easily. Bald and barrel-chested, Theo saw the bite marks that littered his torso and both of its arms. It growled at Theo as he tried to get inside the house. Theo kicked the corpse in its chest, but it didn't do any good, The corpse pulled itself up and into the house.

  "Uh, Erica? We've got a situation here!" Theo shouted.

  "Here!" Erica shouted back to Theo. She slid Theo's crowbar along the hallway floor, it bounced up against Theo's right heel.

  Theo snatched up the crowbar, the corpse reached for him. Theo swung upwards at the undead, connecting with the curved end on the corpse's chin. The blow split the corpse's lower jaw in two. Bone fragments protruded through the dead things' flesh. The corpse stumbled only slightly, and Theo swung once more, only this time the dead thing deflected the blow with its right arm. The crowbar fell from Theo's hand and landed on the floor. The corpse lunged towards Theo, grabbing him by his shoulders.

  It took everything that Theo had in him to keep the corpse back. Theo could see the bits and pieces of flesh embedded in the corpse's gums and its broken teeth.

  "Erica!" Theo shouted. He needed help, and fast.

  Erica, soaked from the blood spilling out of Macey's wound, left Macey on the living room floor and rushed to the bedroom. Seeing the dead thing about to bite into Theo's neck, Erica kicked the corpse in the side of its left knee. The kick caused the dead thing to buckle. It loosened its grip on Theo as it dropped down to one leg. Theo snatched the crowbar up off of the floor and drove the pointed end through the side of the corpse's skull. The dead thing fell down on the ground; a gigantic mound of undead and rotting skin.

  Theo and Erica didn't have time to catch their breath, they stormed out of the room and went right back to Macey. She was losing blood at a rapid pace.

  Theo and Erica set their friend down on the living room couch, Erica went back to work trying to stop Macey's bleeding. It seemed as if Macey was turning paler by the second.

  "Theo, she needs stitches," Erica said.

  "Okay, where are they?" A panicked Theo asked. "Where's the first aid kit?"

  Erica shook her head, "There are no stitches Theo. And Bandages won't cut it."

  "Shit. What are we gonna do? We can't let her bleed out like this."

  "I can stop the bleeding as best I can, but she WILL need stitches."

  Theo began pacing around nervously. "What the hell are we gonna do? What the hell are we gonna do?"

  "Theo, I need you to calm down," Erica told him.

  "Pharmacy," Macey whispered quietly. "Go to CVS."

  Erica leaned in to hear Macey better, "What was that, Macey?"

  "Pharmacy," Macey managed to get out once more.

  "Yeah, the pharmacy. Are there any around here Theo?"

  Theo nodded. "Yeah, right down Michigan Avenue, but with all the dead things, I can't-"

  "You have to. I'd go, but I don't know this area and I have to help out Macey. You're gonna have to go."

  Of all the things that Theo wanted to hear at that moment, that wasn't one of them. Having to run out there all by himself to try and get some sutures wasn't on the agenda for the day.

  "Erica, I don't know if I can," Theo said. "What if I get there, and there's no first aid kit or stitches or anything?" Theo was breathing rapidly, trying to catch his breath.

  "You have to at least see, try and get what you can." Erica grabbed Theo by the shoulders, leaving bloody hand-prints on Theo's shirt, and looked him in the eyes. "Theo, Macey needs you right now. You can do this. I know you can."

  Theo closed his eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. "Okay. I'll go."

  "Good."

  Theo ran to the bedroom and pried his crowbar from the skull of the giant dead thing laying on the floor. He grabbed the duffel bag.

  Before Theo ran out to the backyard, Erica stopped him and handed him her pistol. "Just in case. There are only a few rounds left."

  Theo took the pistol and tucked it into the back waistband of his jeans. "Thanks. Keep Macey alive, will ya?"

  "I'll do everything I can. You be careful out there, and make sure you get your bony ass back to us, got that?"

  Theo smiled at Erica, "I got this," He whispered and he ran out to the backyard, wondering the best route he could take to get to the CVS.

  Chapter 9

  Rather than run down the alleyway towards Michigan Avenue and risk running into any corpses, Theo jumped from backyard to backyard until he was at the last house on the block. He would have to dart across the road and into the alley that ran behind all of the buildings that lined the avenue. Before Theo could do that, he had to make sure t
he street was clear in front of him.

  Theo carefully walked along the side of the home and headed towards the street. He stayed close to the house in order to not be seen by any corpses that may or may not be inside. Sure enough, there was at least one dead thing in the home. As Theo walked past the side window, he could hear the groans and grunts of a corpse. The undead was stumbling around inside the home, it sounded like a female. Theo wanted to look inside the window, but he couldn't risk getting caught, he stayed low and continued on towards the front porch.

  From what Theo could see, the section of road was clear of any undead. There could be some dead things lurking in between the houses or in the shrubs, but Theo had no choice, he had to continue moving. He counted down from three and then darted across the street and into the alleyway, stopping once he was clear of the road. Theo spun around with his crowbar raised in the air, ready to strike down any dead thing that came in running after him, but he wasn't spotted by the corpses.

  "I hate this. I hate this."

  Theo wiped the sweat from his brow and took a deep breath. He could feel his heart racing like a machine gun inside his chest. Theo carefully walked down the alleyway towards another street that he had to cross. As he was walking, something reached out from the tall, overgrown grass to Theo's left. At first, Theo figured that his foot got caught on a tangled vine. He looked down and saw a slender, gangly hand wrapped around his left ankle.

  "Ah, shit!" Theo yelled as he tried to shake the decayed hand from his foot. As Theo tried to pull away, a badly rotted corpse slithered out from the grass. The corpse's skin was so rotted away that Theo couldn't tell if it was male or female. It was shirtless, but its badly sun-burnt skin barely clung to its bones.

  The dead thing hissed at Theo. Theo wrested his leg free, but he tripped on a nearby rock and fell backward in the alleyway. Theo's crowbar went flying, he heard it clang on the ground, but he couldn't see where it landed; he was too preoccupied with the dead thing crawling towards him. Theo kicked at the corpse, but the undead creature latched onto Theo's right ankle and bit down on the top of Theo's foot.

  Theo winced momentarily and then realized that he didn't feel a thing. The corpse's bite didn't penetrate the top of Theo's boot.

  Theo pulled his foot free from the corpse's grasp and got back to his feet. He picked up the large rock that he had tripped over and lifted it up over his head. The dead thing looked up at Theo, its eyes were white and vacant. It emitted some type of low scowl as it reached for Theo once more. Theo brought the stone down onto the back of the corpse's head, shattering its skull. The dead thing twitched ever so briefly and then stopped moving.

  Realizing that he had just been bitten, Theo pulled off his boot to check on his wound: Nothing, not even a bite mark. Theo plopped down next to the corpse and began laughing in relief.

  "Yeah, that was a little too close. Erica's not out here to save my ass now," He thought to himself as he slid his boot back on. Theo found his crowbar and then prepared to cross the street into the next alley.

  Before he could continue down the alleyway, Theo peeked around the corner of a nearby building and peered out onto Michigan Avenue. It was the closest he had been to the street since the beginning and he needed to see just how bad it had gotten. That section of the street at least. That particular stretch of the avenue looked like a battle had just ended. There was the burnt out remains of an overturned ambulance smack dab in the middle of the street. On the sidewalk on the other side of the road was a dark green pickup truck with a body pinned underneath the left front tire. Theo could hear the snarls of the dead thing stuck underneath the tire as it tried in vain to wriggle out from underneath the vehicle.

  Dotting the landscape were numerous torn away body parts. A leg here, an arm there. Several corpses were huddled on the ground near the entrance of a building across the street feasting away at some poor soul that had attempted to make an escape. All Theo could do was shake his head at everything that he saw. It was almost enough to make him turn back around and go home.

  "You have to do this. Macey needs you."

  Theo quickly scurried across the side street and into the next alleyway, stopping once again to make sure he wasn't followed. Nothing was behind him, so he kept moving. Theo stopped running once he remembered where he was; Mel's dollar store. Theo was standing right behind the place. The backdoor was still closed and looked to be untouched. Theo pulled on the handle and the door wouldn't budge.

  "Hm. Maybe someone's inside."

  Theo would have to worry about that later. He had to get to the CVS. Theo was only three blocks away, however, the pharmacy was on the other side of Michigan Avenue.

  Once Theo arrived at the section of the avenue that he needed to get across, he observed the CVS parking lot. It was packed with vehicles, it would provide a decent amount of cover should Theo make it across Michigan Avenue. Theo huddled next to a mailbox on the corner and looked up and down the road. To his right, in the direction of downtown, the road was dotted with abandoned and wrecked cars, just as the section Theo was on. It seemed as though there were more undead in that direction, however.

  To Theo's left, the corpses wandered in and out of buildings and stumbled among the crashed cars.

  "Come on Theo, you got to get your ass over there."

  Theo came up with the idea to use the wrecked vehicles in the road to stay out of the corpses' sight. Theo jogged out into the middle of the avenue, stopping next to the remnants of a burned police cruiser. Theo popped his head over the hood to see if the corpses had spotted him, but he appeared to be in the clear. Then he Darted from the vehicle and hopped over the small wrought iron gate of the CVS and huddled down in between two cars, looking at the entrance to the store.

  Inside of the small purple sedan to Theo's right was a corpse, trapped inside the vehicle. A slim blonde woman with stringy hair. She had a single bite mark on her left forearm. She tried to lunge towards Theo, but the woman was still strapped into the driver's seat by her seat belt.

  Theo smirked at the undead woman, "Buckle up." He couldn't help himself with that quip. Erica would have groaned if she heard that.

  Theo then made his way over to the front entrance of the CVS. The glass in the two large sliding doors had been shattered. The red metal frames bent inwards in some places, and outwards in others. From top to bottom, the entrance was blocked by stacks of shopping carts.

  Theo sighed in frustration. "Great, now how in the hell am I gonna get in there?"

  He briefly considered pushing the stack of carts down, until Theo saw a small gap in the lower right-hand corner of the entrance that he could crawl through. Theo got down on his belly and made his way into the store. Once inside, he quickly stood up and looked around. The interior of the CVS was dim. The place was only illuminated by the sunlight shining in through one set of windows that were set high up above where the cash registers would be.

  "Hello? Anyone home?" Theo called out into the store. "I don't want any problems, I'm just here to get some supplies for my friend."

  Theo waited for several seconds and then said, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I come in peace." Theo shook his head. "What the hell Theo? 'I come in peace?' What the hell. Dork."

  Figuring that he was alone inside the store, Theo made his way to the back of the building towards the pharmacy area.

  The store was trashed. Numerous shelves sat askew or were tipped over entirely. Theo felt like he was stepping on store merchandise everywhere he set foot. The place had been looted, probably at the start of it all. Once Theo made it to the pharmacy area, he was surprised to see that it was all intact for the most part. Pill bottles lined the shelves behind the counter area, peoples' prescriptions that would forever go unclaimed. Theo began looking around for a first aid kit and some sutures, he figured some fresh bandages wouldn't hurt either.

  Theo searched all over the area, finally finding a small first aid kit on the ground, and a package of sutures sitting on a shelf. He quickly stuf
fed them in the duffel bag and began to head towards the entrance when he stopped. Just to be on the safe side, Theo figured that Macey might need some antibiotics, so he turned and went back over to the shelves with all of the pill bottles. Theo didn't notice it earlier, but sitting on the floor of the pharmacy near the drive-through window were four sleeping bags and a small battery operated lantern.

  Theo looked around the store again, "Hey, anyone here?!?" He didn't get an answer. "If I hurry and get the meds, they won't even know I was here."

  Theo found a small bottle of antibiotics and hopped back over the counter and started towards the entrance, then he heard a gunshot coming from the parking lot. Theo ducked down in an aisle and hid behind a shelf. He heard some footsteps heading towards the entrance and then some shouting, although he couldn't make out exactly what was being shouted.

  Theo sighed quietly, "Of fucking course. You just had to get the damn pills, didn't you?"

  Theo knew that the gunfire would undoubtedly attract the undead towards the store, but he was confident that he should be able to sneak out of the CVS unnoticed.

  "Come on! Get your asses in here before the rotters get a hold of you!" A gravelly voice screamed.

  Then came a grunting noise. Theo peeked over the top of the shelving unit and saw a man crawling into the store. The guy stood up and retrieved his shotgun from the floor. The man was short with a large belly. He was balding, with long wiry black hair that hung down onto his shoulders. The portly man also had a goatee that stretched from his chin down to his chest, and a gray flannel shirt that was covered in dirt stains or blood. Theo couldn't be too sure from his vantage point.

  The man hunkered down near the entrance and shouted, "Silvia! You, Lisa, and Marty get the hell in here! Now!"

  Theo could tell that this guy had the potential to be trouble.

  After a few moments, another person slid into the CVS. A woman with light brown skin and short, dark brown hair. She wore a plain white t-shirt, with not a stain on it. Which was remarkable given the circumstances, and she wore black fatigues that she tucked into her green jungle boots. She took her pistol and slid it into the holster on her right hip.