The Dead Divide Us

by Vincent S. Tobia

  She was an old woman, had to be over 80 years in age. Her skin was rough and wrinkled; a black leathery texture. And her nurse uniform didn’t match that of the younger nurses in the room. Her uniform was older, not modern for the times. Everyone in the room, doctors and nurses alike, fell silent as the old black nurse approached Rita. Even newborn infant Robert, who was still being cleaned up, stopped his crying. The only sound was that of the cardiac monitor. Beep. Beep. Beep.

  “You ain’t puttin' no knife to this woman’s belly.” the old nurse said in a rough hoarse voice, and then she softly laid her hands on Rita’s stomach.

  “What? Who are you?” the doctor said to her. She completely ignored the doctor and leaned in close to the now worried Rita.

  “Take ease of your worries, child. Momma’s here.” And with that, the black nurse kissed Rita on the forehead. And in that instance Rita was overcome with an overwhelming sense of happiness and relief. Thomas could feel it too.

  “Now come round ‘ere, help an old woman do her duty.” the old woman said, two of the nurses came running to her side.

  “What should we do?” The young nurse asked.

  The old nurse began to move her hands along Rita’s stomach, becoming more and more intense with every move.

  “Now, you just put your hands on top o’ mine, I’ll do the rest, see.”

  The two young nurses followed her directions and laid their own hands on top of the old woman’s coarse hands. If you were to ask those young nurses if they felt a sudden jolt of joy upon touching the old woman, their answer would simple be “Yes!”

  The doctor watching this was so awestruck that he just stood there, lost in the moment. The old nurse guided her hands around Rita’s stomach, now poking and pushing more dramatically. Rita was not discomforted at all by it; the old nurse’s hands were actually quite soothing to her.

  “Yesum, I do believe we are makin' this right! Thomas, put your hand on my shoulder.” The old nurse exclaimed. Thomas Landry did just that, and he felt even more joy now.

  “What exactly are we doing though?” one of the young nurses asked as the doctor came closer to the foot of Rita’s hospital bed.

  “You’re turning the baby!” the doctor said with great relief.

  The old nurse smiled at Rita then turned her smile to the ceiling; still pressing her hands around the pregnant belly. And she began to sing:

  “Lord, I know thy name, and I know it true.

  Lord, I give you myself, through and through.

  Lord, I see your light, love shinin' bright.

  Lord, I know thy name, Jesus is you!” she sang.

  All at once Rita had a massive contraction. The women took their hands off her stomach as she cried out. The younger nurses ran around the room, positioning themselves for another delivery.

  "Okay, she’s going back into labor. Come on, begin your breathing again.” the doctor said, taking charge again.

  The old black nurse quickly turned and grabbed Rita and Thomas both by their hands. She spoke to them with tears in her eyes.

  “God loves your child, as he does all‘a his children. Take joy in her, as you do in your other little ones. But sometimes God’s plan don’t make no sense to us.”

  “Thank you.” Thomas said, as Rita screamed out in pain from another sharp contraction. The old nurse let go of their hands and she turned to walk away.

  “Just remember, God’s will is a strange one sometimes. But it’ll all make sense in the end. You‘ll see her again.” and with that, the old nurse left the room.

  Labor for Felicia Landry’s birth then was not very long. She was born; head first, a very healthy 6 pound 7 ounces. A few hours after the delivery, when things were calm again, Thomas and Rita asked to see the old nurse once more. They wanted to properly thank her for her help. None of the nurses or the doctor in their room had ever seen the old nurse before. Nor had any of the nurses in the emergency room. Nor had any of the doctors in the recovery wing. Nor had any of the women working in the cafeteria. Nor had the night janitor. Nor had the day janitor. Nor had the small team of round the clock security guards.

  Rita and Thomas felt that Felicia’s birth, through the old nurse’s help, was a miracle. And that troubled them some 18 years later, when Felicia was stricken with inoperable brain cancer and died within six months of the diagnosis. But perhaps the strangest thing of all was that Felicia Landry used to claim that her first memory was that of the old black nurse.

  2

  “Come on out now Robert! This is your last warning!” Major Frost yelled.

  Robert and Jan stood inside the front door, still contemplating their next move.

  “They shut off your truck!” Jan said.

  That could very well be the last time his truck ran, banging the starter column with a rock might not do the trick again.

  “I know. Listen, I don’t trust these guys.” Robert said.

  “Same here, but maybe we should just go back with them.”

  “My dad got bit by one of those freaks! If they find out, they will kill him for sure.”

  Jan gave Robert a troubled look and Robert knew exactly what that meant.

  “No. We aren’t killing him.” Robert said gravely.

  “Who’s killing who? Who’s outside?” Rita now said, coming out of the kitchen.

  “Nothing Mom, stay here. Keep Dad inside, no matter what! We gotta talk to these guys.”

  Robert slowly turned the door knob and opened it slightly; almost expecting a storm of bullets to descend upon him. But no bullets were fired. Robert could feel the crisp winter air rushing in. He put his mouth close to the opening.

  “Ok we are coming out. We are unarmed.” Robert yelled out and waited a few seconds for a reply.

  “Well, come out already. We don’t have all day.” Frost finally hollered back.

  Robert opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch, his hands raised up above his head. Jan followed Robert and closed the door behind him.

  “Hey, numbskulls. You aren’t under arrest. Put your hands down.” Frost said, and the other two soldiers chuckled. Robert noticed that neither of the soldiers had their rifles aimed at them.

  “Ok, so what is this then? I gotta admit I’m a little confused.” Robert said in earnest, as he walked down the porch steps and approached Major Frost. The army truck Frost and his men arrived in was still parked behind them.

  “You’re confused? Why don’t you try a little late?” Frost responded.

  “Why I wasn’t aware we had a date, Major.” Robert’s sarcasm was undeniable.

  “I gave you boys half an hours’ time to get your ass up here, collect your parents, and then return to the fire company. It’s been well over an hour boys. So I’m here to get ya.”

  “Did you see the downed tree? We had to take a detour.” Jan added.

  “Oh we saw the tree, we took the detour too. Right through them woods.” Frost said in a grave tone. That detour was a pretty gruesome affair for Robert and Jan. Having lost Jared Wheaton, then destroying three infected freaks; had Frost come to know what they did?

  “We saw three pretty badly mangled bodies, all dead. You boys care to enlighten me?”

  Robert froze. He didn’t know what to say. And by taking a look at Jan, he didn’t know what to say either. Had Frost thought them to be murderers? How hasn’t he, being a person of military prowess, confronted any infected people?

  “Listen, I’ll level with you here.” Frost said bluntly. Robert and Jan were keen on just listening.

  “A huge part of my job is control. Nine times out of ten, control don’t come easy.”

  Frost started to circle around Robert as he talked.

  “Sometimes simple knowledge can breakdown a system. Robert, I know you killed your landlord.”

  “What? How?” Robert asked immediately, fear making his stomach turn in tight knots.

  “My men, stationed outside your apartment? After you left they searched the entire building. A
nd by their accounts you really did a number on that fella, Carl Riggins.”

  “Ok, you don’t understand.” Robert said quickly.

  “Then we saw the three bodies, mashed up pretty good, on the back-road to get here. You boys killed those people too?”

  “We had to! We didn’t murder them, they were all…” Jan started to say, but Major Frost cut him off.

  “…infected.”

  Robert and Jan both looked more confused than before.

  “So you know about the disease?” Robert asked Major Frost.

  “Son, I was part of high-intelligence. I’ve known the disease has been here the whole time.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? Why have you been riding us so hard then?” Robert asked.

  “It goes back to control, son. We were hoping to contain this area; we didn’t want people getting scared. Scared people are hard to control. So we had to hide the truth.”

  “I think that you’re full of shit, how about that? Why are you telling us all of this now?” Robert fired back in anger. He glanced over to Jan for reassurance, but Robert didn’t like what he saw. Jan was horribly white, as pale as a ghost. And he was crying.

  “Jan, what the hell is wrong?” Robert asked, confused. Major Frost returned to his position between his two soldiers. He too now looked disturbed. Choking back his words, Jan finally spoke.

  “You didn’t come here to take us back did you?” Jan said to Major Frost. Frost didn’t reply; he just held his rifle tighter and inhaled deeply as his eyes became more intense.

  “There is no more fire company is there?” Jan questioned Frost. Robert gasped out loud at the thought.

  “We lost our stronghold at the fire company. Shortly after you boys left, we were overrun with those infected people. The town is lost.” Frost said, confirming Jan’s fears.

  “You fucking bastard! My family! I left them there with you, you son of a bitch!” Jan cried out and charged Major Frost. The soldier on Frost’s right hit Jan in the gut with the end of his rifle. The wind was entirely knocked out of Jan and he hit the ground; sobbing and trying to catch his breath at the same time.

  “I’m sorry son, when we left the fire company it was in pretty bad shape.”

  “So you just left? I hope you don’t expect us to let you stay here?” Robert asked.

  “We have no intention of staying here. We…” Frost was cut off by a loud noise from the stables

  Shit, Robert thought. The infected asshole that bit my father was probably still messing around in the stables!

  Immediately the three soldiers reacted by taking a knee and aiming their weapons in the direction of the noise. Jan quickly got to his feet and was able to silence his grief.

  Robert noticed a dead quiet in the heavy falling snow again, but this time there was something more, a low tone of unquestionable morbidity floating through the air. A collection of low tones that became louder. And louder. And louder.

  Robert and Major Frost walked around the army truck and looked down the hill. A tight group of two dozen infected people were shambling up the driveway; some of them had already locked their dead and vacant eyes onto them.

  “Fuck! There’s more! They must have followed us!” Frost exclaimed.

  “Where the hell did they come from?” Robert yelled back. Robert ran over beside Jan and looked desperately at his old truck, hoping it would somehow start. That was when he noticed the door to the stables was open. He looked around wildly until he spotted a sickly old man dressed in navy blue gas station overalls. He was walking up the front porch to the farmhouse. He was infected for sure, his mouth and face was covered with dark blood. Blood that most likely belonged to Robert’s father.

  “Men, spread out! Make every shot count!” Frost was putting his two soldiers in position to take out the group of infected, now getting ever so close. Their moans were so loud now; there was a heartbreaking aspect to their collective sounds. A harmonious choir of tortured souls.

  “Robert! Robert! Help, please.” Rita screamed, now running out of the house and onto the porch. She was dangerously close to the infected man in overalls.

  “Your father, he just tried to bite me!” Rita screamed, as Frost gave his men the order to fire upon the group coming up the driveway. The air and space around them was filled with eardrum shattering gunfire.

  3

  Robert whirled around as Frost and his men began to pump round after round of ammunition into the crowd of infected at the base of the hill. So many people started to drop to the ground in lifeless dead sacks. Frost and his men must have known the rules. Almost all of their bullets were headshots. Some of the direct hits to the head, just made a nice hole, then the infected fucker would drop. A few of the headshots caused the head to explode like large feces-filled balloons. One head, pop! Two heads, pop! Three heads, pop! In all of the commotion, noise, gore and fear; Robert began to lose consciousness.

  There was a sharp ringing in Robert’s ears. He slipped and fell, crashing onto the ground. His jeans were now wet and packed with snow. His vision was blurry; like he had just put on an elderly person’s pair of prescription glasses. The loud ringing in his ears was beginning to fade away. He could begin to hear other sounds now. Like screaming. His mother screaming.

  “Holy shit! Mom!” Robert said, snapping back to reality. As Robert righted himself, staggering in the deep snow, he saw Jan Goodman was already racing to Rita’s rescue. The infected man in overalls was already way to close to Rita.

  “Ma, get away from that freak!” Robert yelled.

  Jan, moving extremely fast for a large man, glided across the front porch and pulled on the back of the man’s overalls. Rita screamed again. The man went flying across the porch, hit the banister, and went soaring head over heels into the snow covered bushes below. Robert went to his truck and grabbed his bat; he was ready to take care of business yet again. He approached the man in overalls with the bat raised above his head. Robert didn’t want to give this one anytime to recover.

  “Don’t bother.” Frost said. He raised his gun and put a bullet into the infected man’s skull. Again, Robert was surprised by the gunshots.

  “Stop that, would ya?” Robert yelled.

  “Stop what? Saving your ass?” Frost asked back.

  “We had this under control ok?”

  “Sure you did Robert, just like you had a plan for that group of infected assholes we just slaughtered? Right?”

  Frost was right. What the hell was Robert going to do against a group of that many infected? He walked over so he could look down the hill, at the driveway. Bodies of the infected were laid on top of each other, a total massacre. The snow was painted blood red in the pile around them.

  “We do have you to thank for that.” Robert said to Frost. But Frost’s agenda was focused on that of Rita Landry.

  “Ma’am. What did you say before we started firing?” Frost asked.

  “She didn’t say anything, leave her alone god damn it.” Robert said, but was then pushed out of the way by Frost’s men.

  “Ma’am? The truth please. We don’t have time to fuck around anymore.”

  Rita began to look worried again, like she might start crying. Jan walked over to her and put his arm around her. Jan was still coming to terms with the loss of his own family and could empathize with her pain.

  “My husband, he tried to bite…”

  “AHHHH!!!”

  Thomas Landry, looking painfully sick, burst out of the front door. He smashed right through to Rita and Jan; both backed away quickly and carefully.

  “Thomas!” Rita screamed. She was frantic and crying.

  Frost and his men took aim at Thomas.

  “Back away from him, he’s sick!” Frost exclaimed.

  “Don’t shoot him. You can’t!” Robert pleaded.

  Robert’s infected father than slowly raised his head, locking his eyes with Robert‘s. He saw those dead eyes, sick and vacant. An awful pain came over Robert, a new pain that ma
de him wonder just how many secrets the human body keeps from us all. Now, one of his family members had succumbed to the infection. At that point Robert truly realized how fucked they were. How fucked they all were.

  “He’s just like them, god dammit! We gotta dispose of him!” Frost yelled back.

  Knowing Frost was correct, and hating him for it, Robert called out to his mother and Jan.

  “Guys get down here, now!”

  Jan grabbed Rita by the arm and pulled her away, heading toward the porch steps. Thomas reached forward and almost got Rita by her sweater. She screamed.

  “I’ll open fire.” Frost said to his men.

  “No, not yet.” Robert said, giving a long look to Frost. He then went to his mother and guided her into the stables. Jan followed them. Before closing the stable door, Robert took one last look at the gruesome image of his sickly father, about to be laid to waste by Frost’s bullets. Goodbye Dad. The pain Robert felt made him numb all over. Then he slammed the stable door shut.

  Robert, Rita and Jan stood silent for a few seconds. Inside, the stable was dark. And somehow it felt as if they had escaped the nightmares of the real world. Shadow and Sundance stood still as well, watching the three of them try to collect their emotions. Robert walked up to his mother, hugged her and put his hands over her ears. Jan joined their hug and also tried to cover Rita’s ears with his hands. They were trying to make it so Rita could not hear the gunshot that would kill her husband. Robert decided to start signing to help cover the sound. He was a terrible singer; Felicia was the musically talented one. But there was an old bible song that Rita taught him many years ago. A song she said she had learned shortly after his birth. Robert began to sign it out loud.

  “Lord, I know thy name, and I know it true.

  Lord, I give you myself, through and through.

  Lord, I see your light, love shinin' bright.

  Lord, I know thy name…”

  A loud shot rang out. And Robert knew his father was dead.