Outbreak of the Living Dead

by Aaron Guerra

  “Everything is going to be alright! We’re here to help!” said Phillip as he held the hand tightly. The woman could be heard clearly from the other side after the large hole was made. She didn’t sound happy through her screaming, more as if she was trying to warn the ones on the other side.

  “YOU WOKE IT UP! RUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” she had yelled. Phillip started to panic when the muscular arm tried to pull him through the hole. He tried to fight back against it’s strength, but it was too much for him. Phillip’s entire arm was forced through the hole itself as he started shouting in great pain.

  “DAMN IT!” Bruce yelled out as he grabbed Phillip and tried to pull him away from the wall with every bit of strength he had left in him.

  Large heavy grunts could be heard from the hole as Phillip continued to yell out in extreme pain. The Sheriff watched in disbelief when the skin started to tear apart. The entire arm was ripped clean off the next second that had passed. Blood spilled out of the wound as Phillip fell onto the floor. The desks that were blocking the side door to the small hallway were finally pushed aside. A few of the Crimson Falls Police came rushing in with their sights set on the wounded person on the floor. Bruce fell back in shock as he watched the horde of rotting officers spill in from the hallway. They quickly crawled onto the young man before they started to tear through him like hungry wolves.

  “Phillip!” Bruce quietly said to himself. The cops were too busy eating their new meal to care for the old man by the knocked over desks. The large arm from the hole was able to grab one of the reanimated bodies by the neck. It easily bashed it’s head against the wall a couple of times to make the hole bigger. Bruce quickly got up before running to the first door that they had came through. But the desks that Phillip put there were too heavy for someone his age to push by himself. “Shit! Damn it!” He yelled out. The wall finally came tumbling down on top of the creatures that were feeding on Phillip Blake.

  A horrible 6 foot tall body builder beast of a man came through the destruction of the wall. The monster roared loud with it’s devilish blood red eyes looking around. It still had Phillip’s arm in his left hand with the red liquid dripping out from where it was torn off. The beast finally noticed the Sheriff from across the room when Bruce had knocked over a chair from backing up. The arm was crushed in it’s tight grip which caused the blood to spray all over the floor below.

  The sheriff was able to see the woman through the man-size hole. She was in a jail cell near the back wall of the other room.

  “Please!” she said in a low voice. “Help me!” She ended up screaming to catch the creatures attention for a moment. Bruce gripped his revolver’s handle tightly while aiming at the large beast.

  “Over here muscle head!” said Bruce. It’s red eyes had narrowed at the Sheriff once more before it started to walk towards him. The man aimed his gun up high before firing a shot to it’s head. Bruce carefully took a couple of steps back when he learned that the bullet went straight through it’s mouth and out the back. “Shit!” He had yelled. He pulled the trigger again, but the weapon was finally empty. The beast began to roar louder which caused the walls to vibrate. The other creatures that were under the fallen wall started to twitch again. A few of them started to stand up with fresh blood dripping out of their mouths. Phillip was one of them. He appeared to be torn to shreds from all over when he stood up tall. “You should‘ve stayed at the store. Now look at you boy,” Bruce said with a sad expression on his face.

  The tall muscle head had conveniently tripped over a chair that was in its way. This allowed the sheriff enough time to jump over it’s body. He used the hard end of his gun to smack a corpse away from him when he entered the next room through the large hole. The woman used a key to unlock the cell that she was in. He quickly closed the cell door from the inside when entering it. The keys were used to lock the metal door once again to keep the creatures out.

  “I told you to run earlier! Why didn’t you listen?!” said the woman. The Sheriff kicked the bars while glaring at her.

  “Damn it lady! We thought you were some of these fine folks here! Just who in the hell are you?” Bruce asked in a demanding way. She looked down to the floor before facing him again.

  “I’m the person that caused all this to happen. I destroyed Crimson Falls,” said the woman.

  Kim was holding onto Jen’s handgun while examining the sides of it. She waited for Susan and Tristan to return from their scavenging hunt for supplies. Her eyelids were growing heavy since she didn’t really have any time to actually rest.

  “Long day, long day indeed,” Kim said to herself. Their current hideout was in a small tree house by the high school. It’s a place where the teenagers would sneak over to skip some classes. The neighborhood was quite new to her since she was originally from Travis. Kim recently moved to Little Bow to attend the small college that was located here.

  Her eyelids felt real heavy once more to where her head was bobbing side to side due to the lack of energy she had left in her. Kim fought the urge to doze off by looking out the small window to see the open area.

  “Maybe a little nap will help me focus better. I‘m also pretty hungry though. I hope they can find some stuff to eat,” Kim said while rubbing her growling stomach. She placed the gun down on the hard wooden floor beside her. Kim decided to lay her head against the black bag that she brought with her. She hoped that the others would be back soon since she didn’t like being by herself. Especially during this never ending nightmare.

  “Why do we have to go back for her? She has done nothing to help us so far! We even had to waste our bullets back there to save her scrawny ass! We could just go and take off right now,” Susan said as she glared at her companion. She was releasing some anger on the man, but he sort of knew that she didn’t mean any of it.

  “Quiet down there little one. We don’t want any of those things to know that we’re here, now do we?” said Tristan. The teenager bit her lip before kicking a corpse that was already disposed of when they entered the stranger’s house. Tristan walked into the kitchen to gather anything that looked edible for them.

  Susan was just tired. She wanted to escape this nightmare that took her normal life away.

  “I wonder if any of my friends are still alive,” said Susan. “I was talking to Rachel on the phone when my father came home. Then he attacked us.” Tristan had turned around to listen to her words. He was able to understand where her mood swings were coming from now.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe they escaped with their family or locked themselves in their house until all this blows over,” Tristan said. She smiled. It wasn’t enough, but it was something that she needed to hear.

  The horrible smell started to leak through the back door to the kitchen. Tristan had walked over to the sink to find a large steak knife in the dirty dish pile.

  “Susan, go to the front and see if it’s clear for us to leave. If there’s any trouble, come back here quickly but quietly,” he said while looking at her with a serious glare. She nodded and entered the small hallway to the living room where they first entered. The door was locked and closed off from the outside. “It’s locked? But we just came through here. Also, where is the body I kicked earlier?!” she had thought to herself. Susan looked around the living room to see a trail of blood leading upstairs. “No way am I going up there on my own,” said Susan.

  Tristan walked over to the backdoor in the kitchen before quickly opening it. There was a little girl standing in the backyard all by herself. She was holding onto a bloody teddy bear with half of her shoulder missing.

  “What the?” he said quietly. The little girl started to walk towards him with her white clear eyes searching for any movement. It was hard, but he knew what had to be done. Swiftly, he penetrated her skull with the long kitchen blade that he found in the sink. She instantly fell to the ground after he removed the knife from her head. He started to tremble from the sight that laid before him. She was just a little kid,
maybe the child that lived in this house. Tristan picked up the teddy bear before putting it back into her arms for her to hold as she finally slept in peace. “Goodnight, little darling.” Tristan sadly said to himself.

  Kim woke up from the sound of something trying to open the latched door in the corner. She had picked up the gun before taking the safety off. The frightened woman aimed it at the entrance. The banging continued for a few seconds until she heard Susan cussing from down below the tree house. Kim crawled over to the square cut on the floor and unlocked it for the two to enter.

  “Took you long enough!” said Susan. Kim scooted away after hearing Susan climb up the wooden ladder. Tristan climbed up right behind the red head. They placed a couple of heavy bags against the wall before they fell flat on the wooden floor. Finally they were able to relax as the girl with the gun sat down between them.

  “So, did you run into any trouble out there?” Kim had asked them. She was looking down to both of them as she rested the pistol between her legs. Tristan turned over to look back up at the girl.

  “We found enough food and first-aid stuff to help us on our way. Hopefully we won‘t need any of the bandages during our escape though,” he said with a yawn escaping afterwards. She smiled as well as he did, but Susan turned her back to them.

  “You two be quiet! I’m going to take a nap before we leave the tree house,” Susan said with an angry tone. Kim narrowed her eyes before looking away from the teen. Clearly they weren’t going to get along on the trip.

  Sarah had awoken to the sound of thunder that came from outside.

  “Where am I?” she asked herself. The woman looked around the new area that she was in. It was a large locker room that belonged to the High School Football players. “I’ve been in here a few times,” said the blushing woman. She remembered one of her old high school boyfriends. “Luke…I wonder if he’s still alive…that bastard still owes me $20!” said Sarah.

  Pain shot up her side where the wound was from the car wreckage.

  “What’s this?” she said in pain. The woman lifted her white shirt to see that the wound was bandaged up. A voice came out from the shadows, a voice that was familiar to her.

  “Glad to see that you’re finally awake. Honestly just glad to see that you‘re still alive,” said a man from the shadows. Sarah had looked across the locker room to see a man dressed in black. He was holding onto a long metal pipe with blood stains on it.

  “Who the hell are you?” she asked. The man started to walk over to her after placing the pipe onto one of the blue benches. He slowly started to reach for her side but she slapped his hand away.

  “Easy there fierce kitten! I’m just checking to see if you need your bandage changed,” said the man. Sarah’s eyes narrowed slightly when she tried to see who he really was. The man’s face was hidden behind a black cloth. Only the eyes were visible while everything else was covered in black.

  “Like I already said, who are you?” she calmly asked this time.

  He had sighed deeply before removing the black material from his face. She sat against the cold locker that was behind her after learning who he really was.

  “You should’ve just told me your name from the beginning you big idiot! What’re you doing here anyways? I heard you left town a few years ago to find better work!” said a very angry Sarah. The man started to smile after lighting a white candle. He carefully placed it between them on the floor.

  “I did leave. But I recently just came back to town,” said the man. The officer lifted up her shirt slightly to reveal the bandage to him.

  “Explain yourself then,” she said. The man smiled once more as he started to change the bandages.

  “I was in Crimson Falls for the last couple of weeks. I was helping a friend out with some important shipment she was assigned too,” he said. Her eyes were looking into his as her curiosity started to rise.

  “Shipment? Don’t tell me it was Drugs! Maybe money? Better not have been illegal Weapons! People?!” Sarah kept guessing until she came to a stop. He finally fixed up the new bandage before laying her back down against the warm blue blanket she was resting on.

  “No, none of that kind of stuff. I kind of wish it was something normal like that,” said the man in black.

  Sarah closed her eyes as she started to think of the time they had together.

  “Then what was it, Luke?” she asked. The man sat down beside Sarah while placing a hand on hers gently. The memories from his past came into play.

  “I was helping Rebecca Lee, a woman I met a few years ago. She was assigned to transport a crate from Crimson Falls to Travis. We were hit by another vehicle on the way over there,” said Luke. He looked down with his face somewhat frowning. “Whatever was inside the large container escaped when the truck fell over. The C.F.P.D. found the collision after awhile and arrested Rebecca and I for transporting suspicious cargo,” he said with a heavy sigh escaping him afterwards. Luke looked at Sarah before removing his hand from hers. She wanted to know more about this mission he had, and especially about the woman known as Rebecca Lee.

  “Then what happened?” Sarah had asked as a flash of light filled the night sky for that moment.

  The woman that was sitting beside Bruce Matthews had tried to explain what happened after the wreckage, but the snarling creatures against the bars were breaking her concentration.

  “Listen Ms. Lee, how about we hold off on the story telling until we get out of here?” Bruce said in a calm voice. The Sheriff stood up from the bench that was embedded into the wall. It appeared to be made out of some heavy concrete stones.

  “Well, I have the keys for the cell. But there is no way I’m opening the door while they wait for us on the other side,” she said with a dark look in her eyes. Bruce had sat back down on the bench while combing his fingers through his short grey hair.

  “I might be able to take out the small ones with my empty revolver, but that big guy there is the real problem,” he said while staring at it.

  From across the jail room through the broken wall stood the heavy muscle head that tore off Phillip‘s arm. It’s bloody eyes were staring straight at the sheriff as it just stood there in place. Rebecca smiled at the sight of it, though it was a horrible time to find humor in their current situation.

  “He doesn’t seem to like you very much, sheriff,” she said while resting her hand under her chin. The man stood up to point his finger at the ugly beast on the other side.

  “Well I don’t give a two shit bit about that ugly ass freak! He killed a good young man earlier! All of them did! I hope you ugly stank piles of shit rot in hell!” Bruce had yelled out in anger. The enraged man went up to the bars as the hungry monsters tried to reach for him. They were also officers of the law which gave the sheriff a sudden idea. Some of the meat bags were basically item holders if you looked at it the right way. “Look over here Ms. Lee! I think we found ourselves a gold mine,” said Bruce. She slowly stood up before looking at the officers behind the bars. Each of them carried a night stick and a holster for a firearm. Radios were attached to a few of their belts. Some of them however looked broken or unable to be fixed up.

  “I see what you mean! Maybe we can get out of this alive,” said Lee.

  Bruce carefully grabbed two arms that were moving around between the bars. He started to bend them against the opposite direction so that they became useless.

  “Come help me disable these pricks! Then we can reach over and get some of their stuff to aid us!” he said in such a hurry. Doing what she was told, Rebecca began to break their arms as he continued to get the others on his side. The large beast was wandering around the office room that had the constant flicking light hanging from above. It started to knock some of the desks and chairs away when he bumped into the pile. “There! That should do it,” said Bruce with a bright smile.

  The creatures were trying to stick their heads through the bars but failed each time. While the Sheriff was getting their attention up high, Rebecca w
ould grab the things they needed down below. After a few risky minutes she then sat back down against the wall.

  “Let’s see, we have three police issued handguns and two night sticks. I was able to grab three Radio’s and a few clips for the guns as well,” she said while inspecting the radios. Bruce grabbed one of the pistols before placing it in his coat with his revolver. She ended up handing him the other handgun to use. He started to load a full clip of ammunition into it.

  Rebecca decided to take two clips for herself along with the remaining firearm. After a quick examination of the weapon in her hand, she learned that the it already had a full clip inside.

  “This guy didn’t even get to fire his weapon. He must’ve been off guard when he was suddenly attacked,” said Rebecca Lee. They stood up tall while aiming their new weapons at the creatures. Their disgusting bodies didn’t have the terrible stench, but they sure were ugly as hell. He noticed that their faces had small patches of a black substance across the skin.

  “That’s new to me. What the hell is that shit?” Bruce said while examining them still. Rebecca had put a bullet in one of their heads instead of answering his question. It didn’t take more than thirteen shots altogether to kill the creatures by the bars.

  The large beast finally lost it after the loud gunshots ended. It ran to the cell at full force. A few of the bars were being pushed inward from it’s brute strength. It caused the two survivors to fall back against the bench. Without warning they both started to unloaded the rest of their bullets into the monster’s thick head. The heavy creature started to stagger around for a few seconds before falling down beside the decaying bodies.

  “That…was actually a lot easier than I expected it to be,” said Bruce as grabbed the keys from the bench to unlock the door. “Reload your gun before we move out. All this gun play must’ve attracted the rest of them within the police station. Which reminds me-” Bruce said before turning to face the woman behind him. “How’re you the cause of this shit?” He had asked with his full attention on her alone.