by Josh Vasquez
The pig went berserk. It began to unsuccessfully try and ram the zombie off of its back. The other two took advantage and piled onto it. I watched as the pig screamed in agony as the dead devoured it.
I’m not sure why, but I began to grow very angry. I don’t know if was the way they ganged up and attacked the hog, or maybe it was just the fact that I got myself so psyched up for bacon. But whatever the reason, I felt the anger begin to rise; my skin grew warm and my muscles tightened. It was unsettling. It was a feeling of anger that I had never experienced before. The scariest part of it all was I think I liked it.
Maybe it was the events of the past few days. With the loss of my sister and my home. The way my family has seemed to have fallen apart. With these dead freaks. I was furious.
The three, feasting zombies were completely unaware of my standing there, something I planned to use to my advantage. I lifted the rifle and placed the sights on the back of the head of the nearest zombie. I had my target within milliseconds, faster than I’ve ever taken aim before. I pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet erupted from the barrel on a colliding course with zombie #1’s skull.
The impact was different than my .22 rifle. The back of the skull caved in and brain tissue exited through the zombie’s face. The other two took notice of this.
Before they could register what just happened to their dead buddy, I already loaded another round into the bolt action rifle and took aim on zombie #2. He quickly joined his faceless friend on the ground.
The last zombie looked down at his fallen friends and then back at me, but by that time I had the next round in the chamber, ready to fire. I couldn’t believe how fast I shot, something seemed to be fueling my accuracy and efficiency. Maybe it was the anger that I felt flooding through my veins. It was somehow controlling my actions, making me somehow a better fighter. A better warrior.
A small smile crept in around my lips as I pulled the trigger for a third time. The smile grew as the zombie’s head came to the same fate as the others. Once the three of them were dispatched, the smile faded. I looked at the sow in front of me as she struggled to breathe, her skin flayed and ripped open from the zombies’ attack. I walked up to her heaving body and looked down in pity. I felt the anger begin to flush out of my body.
I loaded the gun one final time and put her out of her misery.
Stupid zombies. Ruined a good meal.
I turned to walk back to the house, to let everyone know that some zombies had gotten on our property. We would need to work on our defenses quickly. I took a few steps and stopped. There was another noise off to my left.
More? I wondered.
I stood still and honed in my hearing, listening for any trace of sound. I heard rustling in the leaves and brush next to me, so I readied the rifle again. I had two shots left. If there were more than two zombies, I was going to be in trouble.
They came quick. Five small, dark shapes came charging at me full speed. It took a second for me to realize what was coming at me so aggressively.
It was five piglets.
The sow must have been their mother. She must have been protecting them from the zombies. They now seemed to be trying to avenge their mother by attacking the last shape on two feet. Their little grunts were filled with furry, but only came across as adorable.
Once they got closer to me, their attitudes changed. They took a couple of good sniffs of me, stopped, and turned tail back for the woods. Whatever they smelled must have scared them off. I wasn’t sure where they were going, but they most likely wouldn’t last long without their mother. They didn’t seem to be that old and were barely a foot long.
Right before they reached the brush line, I got an idea. I took a deep breath and made the best hog-sound I could. The piglets stopped and paused to look at me. They waited a second before running back in my direction.
Holy crap. It worked.
They rushed back towards me. I quickly set the rifle down on the ground and readied myself for what I planned on doing next.
Once they were within reach, I leapt through the air towards the nearest one and grabbed it.
It immediately began squirming and squealing, trying to kick itself free from my grip. The other four took off into the woods, leaving their brother in my arms. I fought its squirming for a few minutes, until it finally calmed down and relaxed.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” I told it.
It reluctantly looked up at me and snorted.
“I’ll take care of you. It’s not safe out there for you now.”
The piglet snorted again in reply. He seemed to be ok with me, for now. He wasn’t too heavy yet, and I was able to hold him with one arm. He no longer tried to free himself, but almost seemed to snuggle himself into my chest. I picked the rifle up of the ground and smiled.
Hailey would have loved you.
She loved animals and wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. No doubt she would have been ecstatic to have a pig as a pet. I felt the sadness creep back into me, into where the anger had just consumed me.
I looked down at the pig and he back up at me. It could have been my imagination, but it seemed like he sympathized with me.
“It’s gonna be okay pig,” I said out loud. “We’re gonna make it through this.”
I began to walk back towards the house, stopping by the road that led into our property.
“Soon Uncle Josh is gonna be here, pig. And he’ll know what to do.”
The pig snorted in reply.
“What am I going to call you?”
He grunted and snorted again.
“How about Hank? Hank the Hog?”
It grunted, and I swear, swayed its head no.
“No? Well, how about Bacon? I’m promise we won’t eat you Bacon.”
It snuggled its little head into my chest, as if in agreement with my naming.
“Okay. Bacon it is then.”
We made our way back to the house, but I stopped to look at the dirt road one last time.
C’mon, Uncle Josh. You gotta get here.
I went inside and showed everyone our new pet.
END
Preview of A New Death
Chapter One
Jeremy Riggins sat in the break room, procrastinating about going back to work. Brian, his douche of a manager, told him before his ten minute break that when he was done, Jeremy was on shopping cart duty. Jeremy hated shopping cart duty. What made it worse was that Jeremy was a cashier, not one of the courtesy clerks. They were short a few people that day, so Brian told Jeremy to close his register and take care of the carts.
Now, the carts weren't below Jeremy; he had no problem doing what needed to be done. He was a team player. He just didn't like Brian. Brian was one of those guys who, once they got a little authority, liked to flaunt it and abuse it. Everybody was now his peon. He must have had a rough life in high school and now it was his turn to be on top of the food chain.
Jeremy downed the last sip of his energy drink and tossed the can into the recycling. He slowly made his way back downstairs. He was in no hurry. It was way too hot outside. Middle of November and still ninety degrees out. He was already wearing his work polo and khakis. Add the reflective vest he had to wear while in the parking lot and you had one extremely sweaty Jeremy.
As he passed by the registers towards the time clock, Ashley smiled at him and mouthed the word, 'sorry.' He nodded. She felt bad for him.
Great, he thought. The pity card isn't exactly the way I wanted to work things.
The two of them had just started “talking”. Jeremy had yet to work up the nerve to ask her to go see a movie or something. Timing just hadn't been right. But now that he was going to be all hot and sweaty bagging her groceries, now seemed like the opportune time.
Jeremy clocked back in, grabbed the safety vest off the rack and then began to make his way outside. He soaked in the store's air conditioning, mentally preparing himself for the sauna outside. Savannah's heat wasn't
just hot, it was humid too. Within a minute, he'd be drenched.
"Jeremy!"
He turned to see Brian behind him. His large, obtuse belly hung over his belt and his hands were sitting on his hips. The man was tall, which probably led to more awkwardness and ridicule in his teen years.
"Hurry up with the carts. We need you back in here bagging too."
"I can't be in two places at once, Brian," Jeremy said. "Maybe you should bag while I'm out there frying in the sun."
Jeremy noticed Ashley giggle, but Brian turned bright red. This wasn't the first time that Jeremy shot back at him but it always produced the same results.
"Just hurry back in here!"
He pointed towards the doors. Jeremy started to say something else, but decided against it.
What was the point?
***
"I hate my job."
Jeremy whined to himself as he pushed the train of shopping carts back towards the building. It was hot. Just like he knew it was going to be. His clothes were drenched in sweat. The sweat dripped off his forehead like a heavy summer rain. Except that, this summer, there was no rain. Just heat. And sun.
He pushed the carts back into their appropriate place within the building and turned back to the parking lot to continue his torture of collecting them all.
"Sweet Jesus, it's way too hot for this," he mumbled to himself.
Jeremy watched as a woman on the opposite side of the parking lot pushed her cart onto a curb, got in her car and drove off. The very action annoyed him down to his core. Her car was two parking spots away from a cart corral. Two.
"Why can't you people put the carts back into the corrals? It's not that hard of a concept! You take a cart, you put it back! It‘s not rocket science!" He asked out loud as an elderly woman passed by.
She didn't seem to be too amused by Jeremy's tone because she huffed and scurried herself into the store. He let out a sigh and walked towards the rogue buggy. She was probably going to go complain to the manager. Who just so happened to be Brian. He thought about the lecture he was going to receive once he was done with the carts.
And that's when he heard the screaming. Screams came from inside the building. Blood-curdling screams. The kind you don't run to and investigate. Jeremy left the buggies in the middle of the road and sprinted for the store. He ran in past the door and stopped dead in front of the registers. It was there he saw something he thought he would never see.
A human eating another human.
There really is no way to prepare yourself for that kind of thing. A small, Asian woman was hunched over the register, clawing and biting the face of one of the cashiers. There was blood everywhere. So much bright-red, fresh blood. His hand went to his mouth, as if to hold back the impending vomit, but nothing came. The scene had shocked him so badly that it took him a moment to realize who was being attacked.
It was Ashley.
Jeremy's mouthed opened to scream, "No!" but no sound came out. He was frozen in place as the woman began to maul the girl he'd been dying to take out to a movie. The store was in full panic now. Customers were running, knocking things over and bumping into each other. Some even tried to make off with their groceries. Brian ran up to the woman attacking Ashley. On top of being a huge douche, Brian was also not very bright. He was holding a mop.
Yeah, good choice Brian, Jeremy thought.
He swung. Missed. Swung again, missed and lost his balance. He tumbled forwards, arms flailing, into the woman. She lurched forward and began ripping and tearing into her new snack. It all was happening so fast it almost looked choreographed. Things this bad couldn't run so smoothly. Jeremy barely had any time to react. He quickly snapped out of it and grabbed the mop from the floor.
"Ma'am!" he yelled. "I'm going to need you to stop eating Brian!"
Perhaps yelling at the person who just started eating people's faces off wasn't such a good idea. She lost interest in eating Brian and was now completely focused on Jeremy. She moaned and began to shamble over towards him. He swung the mop back and forth, trying to keep a good safe distance between the two of them.
"Lady! Back off!" he shouted.
She didn't listen. She didn’t even seem to comprehend. She just continued to claw at him; her jaw clamping up and down. Jeremy realized there was no reasoning with her. She was insane. The car was running but there was nobody behind the wheel-kinda thing. He swung the mop again but this time she caught the mop head, breaking it off from the handle.
"Great, now all I have is this pointy stick..." he muttered to himself.
Instinct kicked in and he jabbed her in the right arm. The splintered wood sank into her flesh like a hot knife into a tub of butter. He expected screaming and pain, but it didn't faze her one bit. No grimace, no shrieks. She just continued to try and eat Jeremy. He was not going to let her do that.
A rage sunk over Jeremy, a kind of anger he never felt before. Something primal, something buried deep within him. He yanked back on his makeshift spear, pulling free from her arm. The jolt sent her back a few steps. She regained her footing and came at him again. He hit her again, this time square in the right lung. Nothing. Again no screaming or any signs of pain.
What in the world is going on?
He yanked back on the mop again, freeing the handle. She lost her balance again, but quickly was right back on top of Jeremy. This couldn't be happening.
She should be dead right now...
The anger rose up in him. He set his feet, let out a yell and lurched forward, sinking the stick directly into the girl's eye socket. It sunk in deep and she fell to her knees, then to the floor. She was dead. For good this time.
Sweet Jesus, what did I just do? He thought to himself. I had to. I had no choice. It was self-defense. I just had to. She wouldn't stop...
As Jeremy reasoned with himself, trying to find some reason to make what just happened okay or believable for that matter. The store was empty now. All the customers and the rest of the staff were long gone. It was now just Jeremy and three dead bodies. One of which, was because of his doing.
"Uhh..."
A moan came from Ashley's collapsed body. Jeremy ran over to her and knelt down next to her. He pulled her up into his arms. She was still alive. Her breath was shallow, her breathing affected by the loose, mangled skin covering her face. She looked completely unrecognizable to him. The only thing that Jeremy could connect with her former self was her bright, blue eyes, which seemed much more vibrant compared to the ground hamburger look of her face.
"Ashley," was all he could muster up.
He sat there and watched as she died in his arms. Her body tensed and then relaxed as she breathed her last strained breath. She was dead. Jeremy sat there for a moment, soaking in everything that was happening. He was having a hard time believing it. He so desperately wanted to be dreaming, but he knew that wasn't the case. He laid Ashley back down on the floor gently.
What the hell is going on? I just killed a woman and Ashley just died in my arms. What the hell? And Brian's dead too, but who the fuck cares about Brian?
As he hung his head low, eyes shut tight; he tried to figure out what to do. Mid-thought, he heard movement. The store was still empty. The movement came from in front of him. The girl that just died in his arms, the girl who he felt the life go out of her, was now getting back onto to her knees and attempting to stand back up. This was not good. There was no thinking, "Oh, good! She's alive!" No, this felt all wrong. This was not a happy ending.
Jeremy watched on in horror as she began to do the same chomping movement that the other girl had been doing. He tried to slowly back away towards the door, not trying to draw any attention to himself. She didn't seem to notice him. Brian was also making his way to his feet again. The two of them just stood there, in what seemed like a daze. They were aware of each other. Brian tilted his head back and let out a bellowing moan.
It was horrible. Long and drawn out, it was filled with anguish. It seemed to last forever. Jerem
y was mere feet from the door, his steps quiet and calculated. There was no need to bring attention to himself. The two newly reanimated corpses began to shuffle around, noses up in the air, sniffing for something. It seemed that Ashley was having trouble, seeing that she had lost her nose. But it quickly dawned on Jeremy what they were sniffing for. They were looking for food. They were looking for him.
As soon as his foot hit outside the doors, he turned and bolted for the back of the building. He had chained his bike up there before his shift. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the parking lot was a mess due to all the panic. There were cars smoking from collisions, a few people yelling but most had just fled the scene. Which was exactly the same thing Jeremy was planning on doing. He had no intentions of sticking around here to see what happened.
His bike was still there, chained to a fire hydrant sticking out from the building. He heard moans in the distance. They were outside the store. He quickly unlocked the chain and jumped on his bike, heading back out towards the front and to the road. He saw both Ashley and Brian on his way out. They were both now attacking the two guys who were arguing over what now seems like a very minor car accident. Jeremy just pressed on.
Peddle like hell, he thought.
He had to get home. And he had to get there quick. Everything was going to hell around him. He had to make sure his mom was okay.
Chapter Two
It seemed as if the whole island was falling apart. Wilmington Island was one of the few coastal islands near Savannah, one that was mostly golf course and suburban sprawl. For a middle to upper class dwelling place, it seemed as if things had shifted upside down and the apocalypse was upon us. Seeing the dead rise will have that effect on you.
