The Dead in River City

by S. A. McGarey

  “Kendra, we might have some trouble.” Alan spoke, directing her attention to the people just outside.

  “That can’t be good.” She said, mostly to herself. “I don’t trust them. We don’t need anyone else joining us.”

  Kendra, being more impulsive than Alan, rushed out through the doors, and confronted the group. Alan reluctantly followed, fearing he might lose Kendra as he had lost others before. She took the group by surprise, causing them to immediately produce weapons. The three boys each held a handgun aimed at Kendra’s head, and she knew she’d made a grave error.

  “Back the hell up!” The supposed leader of the group shouted, shaking his pistol at Kendra.

  Alan hadn’t yet reached the door, as Kendra had a sizeable lead over him. The group hadn’t noticed his presence yet. Alan stayed inside, just out of sight, waiting for the moment to strike. He knew he would have to take them out or, at the very least, disarm them. Outside, Kendra dropped her weapons to the cold hard concrete, and backed up.

  “Nice weapons you got here.” The leader spoke again. “Thanks for retrieving them for us!” He exclaimed, taking up the weapons for himself.

  “Those aren’t yours!” Kendra screamed in a rage.

  “They are now.” He coldly replied. “I think she’s gonna be a problem, boys.”

  “What should we do, boss?” One of the others asked.

  “She’s pretty… a little rough, and a few battle scars…” The leader trailed off.

  “I’ll take her...” The leader said, signaling his cohorts to stand down. “Over and over and over again.” His smile shifted to something far more demented and sinister.

  It took a moment, but his purpose clicked in Kendra’s mind. As the leader moved towards her, she caught him off guard, and wrapped her arm around his neck, holding him as a human shield.

  Alan saw the others pull their sidearm’s up, and knew he was out of time. It was now or never, and he was determined that it would be now. He ran forward, unsheathing his katana and throwing himself through the glass door, right into the nearest thug.

  They both hit the ground hard. Glass shards covered the ground and the other two were taken by surprise. The impact on the concrete nearly knocked out the thug that Alan had tackled. Alan forced himself up, breathing in the cool outside air, and swung his katana at the second thug, knocking the pistol from his hand. He followed up with a kick to the chest, staggering him and forcing him to drop to the ground. The two thugs were on the ground, still awake, but having a hard time of getting up.

  The leader threw Kendra off of him, and took up one of the katanas he had stolen from Kendra, and took a fighting stance.

  “Oooh, a tough guy, eh?” The leader mocked him “Let’s see you take me down!” He rushed at Alan with vigor and rage.

  Alan was no sword fighter, but he did his best to counter the strikes thrown at him. Fighting the Dead was one thing, but to fight the living required some real skill. Kendra took this opportunity to scramble for one of the pistols. Jumping towards the closest one, she grabbed the gun and dispatched the two thugs that Alan had briefly incapacitated, their blood staining the concrete. Unbeknownst to any of them, the Dead Ones in a nearby lot heard the shots, and began to shamble over to the source of the noise.

  The duel of amateur swordfighters went on, with each combatant inflicting the other with small cuts and abrasions. Alan was losing energy trying to fend off the fierce attack, and he knew he wouldn’t last much longer. Kendra aimed her gun, trying to get a clean shot, but Alan was too close and kept blocking the path of her bullet. Alan knew he was running out of time. He ducked, and swept the thug’s leg with his own, knocking the leader to the ground.

  Alan stood over him, holding the blade to the leader’s throat. “Yield!” He shouted to his defeated opponent.

  He did exactly the opposite. He struck back at Alan, knocking him down, determined to kill him. As he rose up, Kendra leaped at him, and grabbed his arm. She broke his arm bone and threw him back down on the ground. She slammed her foot down on his torso, breaking a few ribs and bruising a few more. She was going to ask him a few questions, but was suddenly interrupted by the very nervous voice of Alan.

  “Kendra! We’ve got incoming!” Alan exclaimed, seeing the Dead Ones come shambling towards their position.

  “Get to the car, I’ll be with you shortly!” She yelled back.

  Kendra began to gather the weapons off the ground. Taking one of the katanas, she stabbed it through the leg of the gang leader. She had fiery hatred in her eyes as she looked upon this thug who would’ve raped her with no remorse.

  “A human piece of scum like you deserves to die!” She proclaimed as she began to run to the car.

  She fired shots into the small crowd of Dead Ones as she ran to the car. Reaching the car, she quickly got inside and Alan floored the gas pedal. The Dead Ones shambled towards the gang leader, still on the ground with a katana through his leg. No one heard his screams as they ate him alive.

  4

  Kendra was silent as Alan drove away from the Dead Ones. She was always quiet, but this was different. This is the silence of someone lost in their own little world. This was silence born of the darkness of a person’s heart. Kendra was becoming haunted by her actions. If you were to look at her face, you would see the look of someone drowning in guilt, but also the look of someone who had done this before.

  “You’re awfully quiet.” Alan broke the silence.

  “You would be too if you knew my thoughts.” Kendra replied coldly. She was obviously in no mood to talk.

  “Is this about what happened back there?” Alan queried.

  “Yeah.” Kendra said after a few moments of dead silence.

  “Wanna talk about it? It might help.” Alan asked, trying to convince her to open up.

  Kendra only shook her head to reply. She had neither the energy nor desire to speak any more.

  “That’s fine. I won’t badger you about it.” Alan reassured her. “But if you change your mind, or ever need someone to talk to about anything, I’ll be right here.”

  Kendra smiled at that, even if she hid it deep down. She liked that about Alan. Sure he wasn’t necessarily bright and didn’t have the same survival knack that she did, but he was nice. He coaxed a smile out of her when she didn’t think she could smile. She was still prickly as a porcupine, but where she once barely tolerated Alan, she now didn’t mind being around him as much. It was actually a nice change.

  Alan kept driving down the road. It was only after a few minutes that he realized that they were so caught up in escaping, that they hadn’t thought of another destination. Alan was racking his brain, thinking of where they could go. Before his brain could produce an answer to his mental query, Kendra spoke up.

  “We need to find somewhere to stay.” She said, her eyes never looking away from the window.

  “I agree. Do we know what time it is?” Alan wondered aloud.

  “I can only estimate.” Kendra answered him. “The car’s clock is broken, and with the sun hiding behind the clouds, afternoon is no more discernable than evening.”

  “Better to find somewhere sooner rather than later. We won’t want to be out in the dark.” Alan mused.

  “True. They seem to be more active in the dark.” Kendra observed. “We need to find shelter, and then we’ll split up watch duties.”

  “Watch duties?” Alan asked abruptly.

  “Yes, watch duties.” Kendra confirmed. “One of us needs to stay awake to watch over the other. It is too risky to both be asleep at the same time.”

  “I guess I see your point.” Alan conceded. “Any ideas on where to go?”

  “Keep driving down Dixie for now. Once I think of something, we’ll change course.” Kendra told him.

  Kendra sat back in her seat and began to think. There were many places they could take shelter in Louisville. Hotels were a possibility, as there was no more business. Most people in the city were either dead, or zombified. The su
rvivors would be doing the same, looking for shelter and perhaps even trying to find their way out of the city. Outside of hotels, the options came down to abandoned apartments and houses, which were much less safe. Most survivors would have taken shelter in a house, and there’s no telling how many Dead Ones inhabit the houses they once owned when they were alive.

  “We need a hotel.” Kendra broke the silence, her eyes still shut.

  “Ok.” Alan confirmed, not asking her reasons. “There’s one I have in mind. It’s close to the fairgrounds. Let’s start there.”

  Alan changed his course to go to the hotel. Kendra leaned her chair back and dozed off, haunted by nightmarish visions of what happened not even an hour ago. Her whimpering and shuddering worried Alan, but he opted to leave her alone and continue driving. The sooner they reached the hotel, the better.

  After 20 minutes of weaving through the maddening maze of abandoned cars, Alan finally parked the car in the parking lot of the hotel. He shut the car off, hoping he’d be able to hotwire it as easily as he did when they left the peddler’s mall.

  “Kendra. Wake up.” Alan said as he gently shook her awake.

  “Huh? Oh, Alan. Where are we?” She replied in her dazed state.

  “We made it to the hotel. Let’s grab our weapons and head inside. Let’s see if we can’t find a decent room.” Alan said, motioning towards the building.

  Wordlessly, Kendra followed orders (which was new for her). She grabbed her remaining katana and the 2 empty pistols she took from the dead thugs earlier in the day. Alan grabbed the katana, attaching it to his person, while he carried the still unopened box containing the crossbow pistol. Together, they walked side by side, across the black pavement, and into the hotel that sat under the grey skies.

  As they entered the building, a powerful smell overtook them both. They both knew the smell all too well. This was what the Dead Ones smelled like. This pungent odor was the stench of death itself. By the looks of things, this hotel was once decent at best, but now, the lobby smelled of death, and already they had found corpses lying about. As they each looked around the silent room, they both pondered whether they should look elsewhere or not. Kendra looked around for any Dead Ones, while Alan walked towards the reception desk. As he began his approach, a man popped up from behind the counter.

  “Who are you?!” the man shouted, causing both Alan and Kendra to jump about a foot in the air. Kendra wasted no time drawing her sword.

  “Relax!” Alan shouted. “There are no Dead Ones. It’s just us.”

  The man backed away and Kendra lowered her sword. Alan stepped towards the frightened man and tried to get some answers.

  “Can you tell us what happened here?” Alan asked.

  “What do you mean? The bombs fell! That’s what happened!” the man became hysterical.

  “I know that part. I mean what happened in this building.” Alan rephrased himself.

  The man calmed slightly. “I’m the last one alive. They’re all dead. I’ve been hiding out in this building for weeks now.” He explained.

  “Can you tell us your name?” Alan inquired, hoping to calm him down.

  “Scott.” The man said, trembling from fear. “My name is Scott.”

  “Scott, what are you doing here?” Alan asked him.

  “I’ve been hiding here for weeks now. I am… I was the concierge here before the bombs fell.” Scott began. “Every so often, a few Dead Ones would get in. I refused to leave, for fear that they were waiting for me outside.”

  Alan took a closer look at Scott as he was speaking. He noticed the dirty hotel uniform and his apparent lack of hygiene. He was sweating and looked a bit sickly. His story was undoubtedly true. He hadn’t left this building for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Kendra examined the corpses of the Dead Ones in the room. Scott must have killed them as they came in. She noticed that each had fallen from the same thing: A shotgun wound. Kendra moved quickly yet calmly towards Alan.

  “He’s got a shotgun.” Kendra whispered in passing.

  Alan acknowledged her statement, and turned his attention to Scott again. “Why don’t you come with us?” Alan asked.

  Scott seemed uneasy, obviously fiddling with something just out of view under the desk. “I, uh… I dunno.” He said nervously.

  Alan stepped forward, trying to calm him down. Before he knew what was going on, Alan was staring down the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun. His eyes widened as he began to realize the situation. In that moment, he thought he was going to die in the hotel lobby, just like all the Dead Ones that Scott had blasted through.

  “Hey, now! Calm down!” Kendra found herself shouting. “You don’t need to do this, Scott!”

  Scott nervously shifted his look between Alan and Kendra. He was still sweating profusely, and really was quite unsure if he would shoot or not. As his trigger finger was deciding whether or not to pull back, a sharp pain shot through his right arm, causing him to falter.

  Kendra wasted no time. Her will to survive kicked in and she leapt towards him, kicking Scott to the floor as he faltered, making him lose his grip on the shotgun. Alan swung himself over the counter, and kneeled, keeping his knee on Scott to keep him down.

  “Check his arm.” Kendra instructed.

  Alan did so immediately. As he pulled up the right sleeve of Scott’s shirt, he saw what Kendra suspected. On his upper arm, the skin was broken, and was obviously the work of a Dead One.

  “He’s infected.” Alan confirmed Kendra’s suspicions.

  “We can’t risk anything, Alan. We’ll have to do something about him.” Kendra said

  Without a second thought, Alan drew his katana and drove it through Scott’s heart. He saw the dim light in his eyes die out, and felt his life disperse. The infection would die out now. His heart couldn’t pump the infected blood into his brain, and never would Scott become a full-fledged Dead One.

  “It’s done.” Alan said with a cold tone, removing the katana from Scott’s heart.

  Kendra tried to form words, but her shock prevented her from doing so. Finally, after fighting to construct a sentence, she got the words out. “Why did you do that?”

  Alan stood up and looked at Kendra. “Because something had to be done.”

  “I would have done it. You don’t need to be a killer.” Kendra said, not wanting Alan to suffer her nightmares.

  “You have enough nightmares as it is.” Alan flatly told her. “I don’t mind taking a few.”

  Alan walked away from the corpse, searching for the keycards for the rooms. As he found them, he threw some to Kendra.

  “Check these rooms. Let me know if you find one that works for us.” Alan instructed her. “I’ll grab the shotgun and whatever ammo I can find, and I’ll be with you shortly.”

  Kendra nodded and walked off to begin searching the rooms. Alan collected the shotgun, and a few small boxes of ammo that Scott had stockpiled. He walked out of the lobby, following behind Kendra, pondering the thought that he had just killed a man, even if it was all for the best. Both Kendra and Alan committed murder in the same day.

  “This world’s gone straight to hell.” Kendra said to herself.

  5

  Kendra searched a few of the rooms, and most of them were the same: 2 beds, a TV, bathroom, and not much else. Not like the TV would be much use. Nothing was really broadcasting anymore. But it had the bed and a bathroom. It would suffice for now. Kendra propped the door open and called out to Alan, beckoning him to the room she’d chosen.

  Alan located the room, and threw the sword and shotgun down on one of the beds. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he opened the box with the crossbow pistol and examined it. It was small, but still a viable weapon. It came with few bolts to shoot, so he’d have to choose his targets carefully, and re-use them whenever possible.

  Kendra sat on the other bed, and looked at Alan. She could tell just from his eyes that he was in no mood to talk about what just happened. In a way she was grateful, because she was unsure how she w
ould have handled another life on her conscious, regardless of how doomed the life itself was. On the other hand, she was a little upset that he’d been so quick to kill Scott. Alan seemed so innocent when it came to killing, mostly because she’d only seen him drop a few Dead Ones and he didn’t look like a murderer. Even with Scott doomed to turn; she couldn’t fathom why Alan was so quick to murder him. It gave her a feeling of unease that she couldn’t identify.

  They sat in the silent dim room, each thinking their own thoughts. Kendra observed the white walls and the ugly, dark red wallpaper, and wondered why the bombs couldn’t have just destroyed that instead of human life. Alan, meanwhile, cleaned the infected blood off of his blade, and tried to block out the events of the evening. He noticed the smell of the lobby wasn’t very strong in the rooms themselves. The rooms had more of a stale smell, as though they had been closed and uninhabited for quite some time (which wasn’t far off from the truth).

  Kendra wordlessly curled into a ball on the bed, and rested her head on the pillow. Alan looked up, seeing her movement from his peripheral vision.

  “Everything ok over there?” He asked, genuinely concerned.

  “I’m fine.” She replied, not even turning over to look at him.

  “Are you sure?” Alan said, not quite believing her.

  “Yes. I’m fine.” She lied to him, with silent tears leaking from her eyes.

  This day of traumatic events proved to be a turning point for both of them. Kendra, being generally unattached, was becoming connected to this person she’d met only this morning. She’d initially tried to fend off his help, and now realized that she’d be dead without him. She was learning that she would need others to survive. Alan was unsure of how he felt. He was happy to not be alone in this horrid world, but he was afraid that the cycle would repeat itself. He’d lost people before, usually due to his own actions or their stupidity. Kendra was different. She was intelligent and knew how to survive, even if she was sometimes difficult to get along with. He didn’t want to lose anyone else. Plus, he did like her. She kept him sane in many ways, most of which she might never know.