Outbreak of the Living Dead

by Aaron Guerra

  She felt his grip loosen to where she was able to push him away. The large man collapsed on the lawn next to her brother. Jake was still looking up at his sister with blood coming down his mouth. A few tears escaped from her eyes when she aimed the gun down to her brother once more. A loud bang echoed throughout the neighborhood when she pulled the trigger. His head was laying flat on his father’s shoulder with a bullet hole on forehead. More gruesome sounds could be heard from the shadows all around her after that gunshot. She couldn’t help but place her hand to her nose to cover it from the rotting smell around her family. It was stronger than when they were active just now.

  “D-Disgusting! Why do you smell like this?!” she had said before quickly turning around to walk back to her house. A few of the rotting freaks were already blocking her doorway. “When the hell did you get here?!” said Susan. They had made a gasping sound before their bodies started to lurch towards her with their hands reaching out. The girl smacked their bloody hands away while taking a few steps back carefully. Susan brought the handgun up again and calmly shot each one of them between the eyes. A wicked smile grew on her face when they fell over. “I’m starting to like this thing. I can see why Jake wanted to play with it. It’s awesome!” she said to herself. Her eyes suddenly picked up something moving in the street. It was dark outside since her neighbor‘s porch lights weren’t on still. The teenager had looked down at her brother, then to her father. She gripped the gun in her hand tightly when she thought of her late mother for a brief second. “I won’t end up like neither of you. I’m going to survive this nightmare and escape from here,” Susan said.

  James drove into a quiet neighborhood that was close to the shopping district. The people were still walking around with bags in their hands, totally blind from the events that were going on in the other side of town. Sarah exited the vehicle to let Kim out from the back seat. The young girl smiled warmly at the blonde officer before turning around to wave to James and Jen. He had got out of the car to look at the two from the other side of the vehicle. He then looked around to see that it was still pretty normal in the area they were in.

  “Are you sure you’ll be alright, Kim?” said James. “You know what‘s going on now in this town. I don’t think this is going to die down anytime soon.” Kim looked up at the night sky to see the stars twinkle a few times before giving her answer.

  “To be honest, I’m afraid to be alone right now.” she said to him. “My family is out of town and I was asked to stay behind to look after the place until they return.” A soft sigh came from her as she glanced back to Sarah, smiling.

  Sarah slowly looked over to James, then down to Jen. They both smiled back to her, as if they already knew what she was going to say.

  “Hey, Kim? Why don’t you just come with us? We’re going to head over to the Old News Station.” Sarah had said. “We will get this story out to warn everyone in Little Bow! This just may save their lives.” Sarah had gently placed a hand on Kim’s back. Jen slowly scooted over to the edge of the seat while looking up at Kim.

  “C’mon sweetheart, we’ll protect you from those creeps!” said Jen. “James might not look like much, but he can pretty much do anything!” James made a confused face before he started to tap his fingers on the roof of his car. He decided to sit back inside the driver’s seat. Sarah looked at Kim again with the same smile on her face.

  “I have an idea that you might like! Why don’t we let Jen stay with Kim at her house? She can keep you safe while you gather some things from your place. Meanwhile, James and I will head over to the News Station to get the word out!” Sarah said.

  James shook his head as he looked through the windshield to see the shoppers across the street.

  “No, we should all stick together. I don’t want to risk splitting our firepower,” he said. Jen quickly got out of the car and stood next to Kim.

  “I know that you two will be fine without me. Plus, I’m sure there’s some important stuff for Kim to take as a memento. We don’t know how long this nightmare is going to continue!” said Jen. Once again James had opened his door, but he didn’t step outside. He just had it open with his hand resting on the top part of the car.

  “Can we just agree on a plan already? We’re wasting valuable time here!” he had blurted out. Kim started to wave her hands around nervously from the way he said it like that.

  “I-I’ll stay with Officer Jen. I might hold you guys back if there are any more of those psycho’s along the way,” said Kim. The short haired brunette officer had patted Kim’s shoulder playfully.

  “See? Kim wants to stay with me because I’m the cutest officer on the force!” said Jen. Sarah gave Jen a playful look when she made that random statement.

  “Jen, you know that if I still had my long hair I would be the cutest, right?” Sarah said to her. Both of the female officers started to glare at each other before turning away at the same time. Kim looked over to see James sighing heavily while putting both of his hands against his face.

  “Alright, you two stay inside until we come back for you. Kim, I suggest you put it on the news channel at 9pm. That’s when we’ll hopefully have this broadcasted throughout the entire town,” James had said as he gave her a smile with a corny thumbs up, which made Kim laugh.

  Kim and Jen were sitting inside the Kohn’s small quiet living room. Jen was looking at all the family photos that were placed on the wall near the television. Frankly, some of them were quite silly. They were wearing a lot of matching outfits together in their young years. In a different photo, Kim was as dressed as a superhero when she was a child. The picture must’ve been taken during Halloween.

  “Officer Jen, I’m going to go upstairs to my room to gather some stuff to take with me,” said Kim. “Will you be alright by yourself down here?” The woman chuckled abit with her hand reaching up for her short brown hair.

  “I should be the one asking you that. But yeah, I think I’ll be just fine by myself for a little bit. So only take the things that mean a lot to you. You might not be able to return to this place for awhile,” said Jen. Kim slowly moved her hand down her shirt to reveal a necklace around her neck. There was a silver ring dangling from it instead of a pendant.

  “This is my grandmother’s favorite ring,” said Kim as she continued to explain about it. “I’ve had it since I was a little girl. I almost lost it one day when I was younger. It slipped off my finger and went into the street. When I went to go pick it up, a random vehicle was speeding towards me. I remember a woman in black pushed me out of the way, but I can’t seem to remember her name or what her face looked like,” she said. The young woman had kissed it lovingly before tucking it back inside her shirt. Jen was a little curious about the hit and run, but she figured that she would ask about that for another time. Kim gave her a friendly wave before going upstairs to her bedroom. When she slowly opened the door, she noticed that some of her clothes were laying all over the floor and bed like a slob. “I forgot to clean up again. Mom would totally kill me if she found this mess,” Kim had said to herself.

  Jen started to walk around the living room for a few minutes while Kim was upstairs. She looked at all the pictures and small statues of animals on the shelves for the third time now. After viewing most of it, she decided to sit down on a comfortable maroon chair in the corner. She reached over to grab the remote to turn the TV on before lowering the volume down. She was able to hear movement coming from the ceiling above her.

  “I wonder if she needs any help? But, I just got comfortable on this chair,” she said to herself while getting more comfortable. Jen looked back at the TV and changed it to the News channel. A large wooden clock was on the wall above the television. The time was 8:23pm. They’ve only been there for twenty minutes so far and it honestly felt longer than that. “Come on guys! What‘s the hold up?” said Jen as she pulled the side of her hair from frustration. “I could’ve drove there in half the time!” The woman had closed her eyes when she heard a familiar voice
coming from the TV. It was the blonde anchorwoman that was always on during this time of the day. She was talking about power outages that were in some of the small neighboring towns near by. Jen quickly sat up and leaned forward with the volume being turned up with the remote.

  The anchorwoman had abruptly fixed her hair before continuing her story.

  “We haven’t been able to reach any of our fellow neighboring towns about the problem. The power outage seems to have spread across them, which leaves us alone to ourselves with active power. Scary, isn’t it? Well don’t you worry! I’m sure the maintenance men will have their lights up and running sometime soon!” said the news woman in a cheery tone. She began to laugh on the set as she smiled warmly to the viewers that were watching her from home. “We’re going to take a short commercial break and then return with a story you don’t want to miss!” she said. The female officer lowered the volume once more when a commercial for kids came on the screen. All of a sudden a loud screeching sound came from outside. Jen placed the remote back down on the little coffee table before standing up. Her hand was resting against her gun’s holster, shaking somewhat. It was just a car alarm that was going off from the distance. She went to the window near the front door to see what was happening with her own eyes.

  “Now what?” Jen said to herself.

  A massive fight broke out from across the street near the stores. Many people were attacking each other in front of a new Electronics Store that opened up last month. Some of the people were swinging their fists around to strike each other while a few others screamed for help.

  “Didn’t I tell you that I would kick your sorry ass?” said a skinny man. He was an elderly man around his seventies that said that to a group of delinquents in front of him. They seemed as though they were still in high school from what he assumed.

  “Just give us your wallet you old fart, or you’ll end up in the hospital’s morgue by tonight!” said one of the teenage thugs.

  A different teenager had hit his fist against his palm to intimidate the old fellow. The elder man swung his bag again at one of the guys that was trying to get closer to him.

  “Get out of here! We‘re tired of you little bastards always starting fights here!” said the old man. The leader of the group finally came out from the back while holding a rather large baseball bat in his hand. He was wearing a black leather jacket with studs embedded randomly on it.

  “Hey Gramps, just leave your wallet on the sidewalk and you can leave with your life,” said the Leader.

  The old man had took a step back to get some room, but he felt himself being pushed towards the others from behind. There must’ve been at least a dozen of them surrounding him.

  “You punks get out of here before I whoop your asses! I use to knock some heads back in my day, so don’t think I don’t know how to defend myself!” said the old man. The leader couldn’t help but laugh at the old man‘s outburst. He started to swing his bat around playfully near the old timer to give him a scare. The leader of the group had stopped swinging it when he noticed the old man grab his own chest.

  “Alright, that’s enough! We’ve given you plenty of chances to walk away! Now we’re going to take your shit by force!” said the Leader of the group. The older gentlemen began to cough up blood with his eyes closing tightly from the pain he felt in his body. Many of the teenage thugs had moved back when the blood had sprayed out of his mouth. They watched closely as he suddenly fell to his knees with his hands covering his mouth.

  They began to laugh at the old fool as more people surrounded the area now to watch.

  “Look! He’s already dying! HA!” said one of the punks. The old man collapsed against the cold sidewalk with more blood sliding out of his eyes and mouth. The punks could see a fresh wound on the back of his neck when they got closer to him. It was covered in a bandage, but it was already sliding off.

  “That’s disgusting! Is that a bite mark?” a teenager girl had said. One of the scrawny teen’s had pointed down at it with his boney finger.

  “Got bit by someone crazier than us from the look of it!” said the scrawny punk. Once again they started to laugh until a horrible smell overpowered their joyful moment. Each of them covered their noses before staring at each other.

  “Alright, who the hell farted?!” the punk girl said while covering her face. Some of them started to laugh again while the others tried to blow it away with their hats and jackets. The leader slowly walked towards the old man’s body to get a better look at him. He knelt down to him with the tip of his baseball bat touching the guy’s head.

  “I think it’s this old fucker that stinks like shit. He probably ate some nasty stuff before coming here to die,” said the Leader. The people that were watching the fight had started to walk away from the stench instead of staying to help. However the little gang of punks decided stay there and mess with the corpse.

  The boss had grabbed the old man’s white hair to lift his head up from the sidewalk. He could see that his pupils were pure white with bloody veins all around the sides.

  “Look at this shit! Is this fucking normal?” he said while examining him some more. “Maybe he was on some kind of freaky drugs?” The old man started to twitch in his grasp as the others watched.

  “He isn’t dead yet? Quick, get his shit and lets bounce!” said the punk girl. The scrawny teen quickly went to the old man’s back pocket to fish out his wallet. The main thug with the bat had lifted the head higher near his face, but that was a mistake. A powerful amount of the horrid stench came out of the old guy’s mouth which made the leader start to gag.

  “It is this fucking prick! His breath stinks like pure horseshit!” said the leader from disgust. The eyes twitched once more before his entire elder body launched at him with great speed. The teen thugs all moved back as they watched the old man bite down on their bosses face.

  Blood started to splash all over the pavement as the guy in the leather jacket screamed for help. The baseball bat fell out of his hand with the old man chewing on his face like a hungry animal.

  “Hey! Get the hell off of him!” the girl had screamed. The scrawny one with the wallet had kicked the old man in his ribs, but it didn’t do anything to him. He just kept chewing everything that he tore off with his old rotted teeth. The elder’s head had slowly turned to look at the others standing around him. The smell that came from his body grew stronger when he threw their leader to the road. The powerful stench was strong enough to make them unable to focus. Some of the teenagers started to fall over with tears in their eyes from the constant coughing. The scrawny one was forced down by the old flesh eater now. He felt his neck being ripped off which caused his entire body to tremble from the fear of being consumed.

  The old guy started to tear through him with his bloody hands reaching through his chest to remove his heart. Some of the people that stuck around finally decided to return to their cars or into the stores for shelter. The other thugs took off after they watched two of their companions be ripped apart in front of them. A few seconds had passed when the leader of the gang started to twitch a couple of times. He stood up from the bloody sidewalk with his body slouching to the side. His nose and lips were missing from being chewed off and consumed by the old man. He started to growl as the odor emitted from his body with fresh blood leaking out of his mouth. A security personnel had finally arrived to check out the fight he told about. But he was easily tackled down by the man in the leather black jacket. He tried to reach for his sidearm to fight back against his attacker, but it was too late. The people watched in horror as the security cop was being torn apart by the Leader of the gang and the old man. A few seconds later, the revived scrawny teen had sat up with his eyes being white like the other two. He had quickly crawled over to a woman that was crying near the wall from what she witnessed. Blood splattered all around her when she felt his teeth sink into her cheek. She started to scream as loud as she could, but that was just a signal for more of the flesh craving monsters to come
out from the darkness. The people started to flee when a large amount of the slow walking creatures came into the light. They just kept walking towards the shopping stores that were packed with many people that were hiding inside.

  Kim finished shoving a few of her stuff into the black bag that she always carried around. It was heavier than she expected it to be when she stood up with it. She couldn’t just leave the things behind if she had to leave town for awhile. Kim could hear the sound of car alarms going off in the distance. The girl had walked over to the window to look outside. From her height, she could see the shopping district that was just down the street.

  “I sure hope someone just bumped into a car on accident,” she said to herself. Kim continued to look out the window to see if she could spot any suspicious people nearby.

  “Hey Kim! Are you done packing yet?” the voice of Jen could be heard from downstairs which made her jump by surprise. The girl closed the curtains to her window and went back to the 2nd floor hallway. It was a habit of hers to rush down the stairs ever since she was a little girl. When she came down to the first floor, she found Jen sitting in front of the TV with the news channel on, but the volume was low.

  It was the same anchorwoman that was on the television. She continued to explain about the power outage across the county, but the way she did it made it all seem a little strange.

  “Now it seems that all communication have been cut off. We’re truly alone, and we don’t know the cause of this. We’ll be back with more information on that subject, so please Stay Tuned Little Bow for further updates,” said the news woman. She had then picked up her papers from the desk that she was sitting behind. The woman started to tap them against the hard wooden flat surface to get them straight and neat. She had got up from her chair and went toward the large double doors that led to the main room where everyone else was located.