A Glimpse Of Decay (Book 2): Staring into the Abyss

by Santiago, A. J.

  “Like hell,” Randy said. “There’s some more of those things across the street, and they’re breaking into the houses…I mean going right through the damn windows.”

  “Okay, let’s get into the backyard at least,” Trent said. “And I know this is going to sound shitty, but we’ll just have to leave that old lady and the cat man alone. Leave his attention on her, not us.”

  Kara, throttled by Trent’s reasoning, sat with her mouth open in disbelief. She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t find the right words. What Randy had just described was beyond all her comprehension and she was having a hard time trying to process even the most basic thoughts right now.

  “Come on, let’s move,” Trent said as he started making his way towards the backyard fence. Randy followed and then Kara—startled back into consciousness by yet another scream from the elderly lady—crawled along the base of the home as she controlled her breathing. She was trying to be as quiet as possible.

  Trent opened the gate and quickly darted into the back yard. He had the pistol raised as he scanned the entire yard and the porch. Kara secured the gate behind them and they all lined up along the back wall. Randy stepped onto the porch and made his way to the back door. He nervously looked at the others as he reached for the door knob. He twisted it gingerly and the door opened.

  “Guess it’s open,” Kara said. “I wonder if anyone else is inside.”

  “We’re about to find out,” Randy responded as he stepped in. Kara and Trent quickly followed with Trent locking the door behind them. Kara peeped out into the backyard through a window blind to make sure no one had followed them.

  “Hello, is anyone here?” she called out.

  “Shush,” Trent scolded. “If someone is in here, we don’t want them to know we’re in here too. We’ll just check room to room.”

  “And hope that there’s not some homeowner in here with a shotgun getting ready to shoot the hell out of us,” Randy whispered.

  “Well, let’s start with the down stairs first,” Kara suggested. “Looks like there is a living room that way and maybe a dining area off to the left. And looks like this door here goes out to the garage.” She cautiously opened the door to the garage and slowly walked in. She leaned back into the kitchen and said, “Hey, there’s a car in here.”

  The two men followed her into the garage and Randy found a wall switch that turned on a set of fluorescent light tubes. A small Ford compact car sat in the garage, and from the looks of it, the owner had it washed and waxed on a regular basis.

  “Now all we have to do is find the keys to it,” Trent chimed. “We also need to see how much gas it has in it.”

  A cry of, “God help me!” could be heard just on the other side of the garage door.

  Kara cringed and she began to weep. “I can’t believe she’s still alive.”

  Trent walked out of the garage and back into the kitchen. He then made his way to the front door and looked through the peep hole. “Shit,” he mumbled.

  Randy and Kara followed him and Randy questioned, “What is it?”

  “Look for yourself.” Trent stepped away from the door to allow Randy to look.

  Tentatively, Randy stepped up to the peep hole and peered out. He saw that the cat man had been joined by two other reanimated people, and all three were chewing on their victim. Her rib cage was now exposed and her clothes had been ripped away; her blood covering the white hot pavement of the driveway. Randy lowered his head and touched his brow against the door. After a moment, he looked back through the peep hole and saw the elderly lady take her last labored breath before her head was ripped away from her torso. Her arms flailed about as her nerves continued to fire off dying signals throughout the rest of her body.

  Randy then began to focus on other scenes beyond the driveway. Through the fish-eye view, he could see slow movers shuffling about through the neighborhood. He also saw numerous runners darting up and down the street, including two who were dragging body parts. Terrified screams and shrieks could be heard from somewhere beyond his view, and he could only imagine what was taking place. He looked down and saw that the door was unlocked and he quickly secured it while trying to be as quiet as possible.

  “She’s dead now,” Randy whispered. “But there’s a whole bunch more of those things out there. Both kinds.”

  “Both kinds?” Kara asked.

  Randy began to walk back towards the garage. “Yeah, both kinds. The live ones and the dead ones.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like me and Trent were explaining back at the station. Some of them seem to be alive…the ones that run and scream and yell and move fast. Then there are the ones that move slow and just kind of moan and groan. Those are the ones who have come back to life.”

  “You mean like zombies?”

  “Yeah, like zombies,” Trent said. “I know it’s hard to believe, but that’s what we saw. And when we were driving over to the police station, there was an emergency broadcast that said as much. It said that the dead were returning to life.”

  “I never heard that on the radio or saw that on T.V. One of my friends said that the president had gone on the air and was saying something about dead people coming back to life, but I don’t listen to that right-wing nut. And anyway, that can’t really happen, right? People coming back from the dead?” Kara fell silent and looked back towards the front door. She was vigorously shaking her head in disbelief and she found herself going back into mental overload.

  “Uh, we should check out the rest of the house…just to be safe and make sure there aren’t any other unlocked doors,” Randy said. “But before we do anything else, I saw something in the garage that I want to get.” He stepped back into the garage and went over to the far wall. Neatly arranged along a lattice were lawn and garden tools, including a three foot machete. Randy pulled the machete off of the wall and held it out for Kara and Trent to see. “Now I’m ready to check the rest of the house.”

  “Okay, cool,” said Trent. With cautious steps, the group cleared the remaining rooms on the first floor and then made their way up to the second floor. As they entered the woman’s bedroom, they guessed that she was married, or at least had a male partner, based on the men’s clothes and shoes in the closet and the pictures on the walls and dresser.

  “I wonder where he’s at.” Kara said out loud as she looked at one of the pictures on a dresser—a tranquil beach sitting with an elderly man sitting next to the now dead woman. Seeing a set of cars keys next to the picture, she announced excitedly, “Oh, look, I think these are the keys to the car.” She grabbed them and put them in her pocket.

  “Good deal,” Randy said. “No telling where the husband is, or if he’s even still alive. I just wonder if he has a gun in here somewhere. Or if I might fit into his clothes. I am going to check the closets.”

  “Good deal…I’ll check the other rooms,” Trent said. He walked out of the bedroom and made his way down a hallway. At the end of the hall was bathroom, and bedrooms were on either side of the hall. As he was about to enter the bedroom to his right, he heard the squeal of tires and the throttling of a car engine. He walked over to a window in the bedroom and pulled back the drapes so he could see outside.

  A large sedan, a young couple and their three young children inside, was speeding down the street. The driver, a panicked looking father, was braking hard and then throwing the car into drive in a desperate attempt to shake off the runners who were hanging onto the vehicle. In all of the confusion, he had failed to see a car that was parked along the curb line, and he rear-ended it in a violent crash. Within a matter of seconds, the family was being drug from the car, kicking and screaming in terror. Trent backed away from the window and turned. He raised his hands and covered his ears to block out the dying cries of the family.

  “What was that?” Kara asked Trent as he walked back into the hallway. The commotion outside had caught her attention, interrupting her search.

  Looking at her with tea
r-filled eyes, he grimly said, “You don’t want to know.” He walked past her, numb and silent, and leaned against the wall as his head began to spin. It was all finally becoming to be too much for him—the grief, the exhaustion—and he felt like he was going to fall to the floor.

  Intrigued, yet fearful, Kara stepped into the bedroom and began to make her way over to the window. The sound of a screaming little girl stopped her in her tracks and she quickly turned around. She decided that it was best that she didn’t see what was happening out there. She walked back into the hall and saw Trent—now sitting down with his legs drawn in and his hands covering his ears, quietly weeping—and she knew that he was right…she didn’t want to know what was going on out there.

  Stepping into the hallway, Randy saw Trent sitting against the wall. “What’s wrong?”

  Trent didn’t answer and Kara walked over to him, gently touching the top of his head. “I think it’s all just getting to him.”

  “Uh…yeah, I can see how it has.” Randy glanced back into the woman’s bedroom and then looked back to Kara. “I found an old shotgun in the closet…and five shells.”

  “Five? That’s not very many.”

  “Yeah, I know, but it’s better than nothing.” Randy walked into the hallway and over to Trent. He knelt down next to the grieving man. “Hey buddy, you’re going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay. We just gotta hold it together. Alright?”

  Trent looked at Randy, tears running down his cheeks, and he said, “My wife…my son…they’re gone. And I don’t know why. I don’t know why any of this is happening. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t understand…I can’t explain…what’s happening. And I don’t know why my family is gone.”

  Seeing Trent’s distraught state, Kara knelt down next to the two men. As the three huddled against the wall, she placed her arm around Trent. “I don’t know why any of this is happening either, but we can’t break down right now. We’ve got to keep fighting.” Feeling fear and anxiety building up inside of her, she tried to take comfort in her own words and she fought the urge to curl up next to Trent and cry herself.

  “She’s right,” Randy said. “I know you’re hurting for your family, but I know that your wife wouldn’t want you to give up right now. She’d want you to keep fighting to stay alive.”

  Feeling comfort in the closeness of his new found friends, he wiped the tears from his eyes and he forced himself to stop crying. With a deep, heavy and sad sigh, he rubbed his wet palms on his thighs and said, “I’ll be alright. I just broke down for a minute, but I’ll be okay.”

  Sensing that Trent had turned the corner, Randy stood up. He too was fighting the urge to break down and he forced himself to focus his thoughts on something else. “I’m gonna get that shotgun. Oh, and I can fit into those clothes too.”

  “Good, that’s good,” Kara said as she stood up. “Come on, let’s finish checking the rest of the rooms.” She looked down and extended her hand to Trent.

  After the three finished searching the rest of the house, they went back down stairs and into the kitchen. They sat at a small breakfast table and finally took a well-deserved breather.

  “Okay, looks like we might be alright here for at least a little while,” Randy said. He laid the machete and the shotgun across the table and Trent followed suit, putting the pistol on the table.

  Kara stood up and walked over to the refrigerator, opening it up and taking stock of its contents. “Looks like she has a few things in here we can eat…like sandwich fixings and hotdogs. I’ll check the pantry and see what kind of canned food she has.” After locating the pantry and looking inside of it, she walked back over to the table and plopped herself down into the chair. “I’d say that there’s enough stuff in there to last us about a week or so if we’re careful.”

  “Man, thank God this house has a good working air conditioner,” Randy said. He leaned back and stretched himself out, taking in the cool air of the home.

  Kara looked at the two men and said, “I suggest that we stay upstairs tonight. There’s a T.V. in the bedroom, so we can keep it on and see if there’s any news updates. Let’s build some kind of barrier across the stairs just in case those things get in here. That will give us enough time to get out of one of the windows up stairs and get onto the roof if we need to.”

  “That sounds good,” Randy agreed. “Also, I think we should keep the lights off. We don’t want to draw any attention to us, especially not knowing if those things are attracted to light or anything like that. If we need light for any reason, we’ll use one of the interior rooms that have no windows…like the bathroom upstairs.”

  “Also,” Trent added, “we need to find something to pack that food into. We can’t stay here forever, so we need to be ready to leave in a hurry if we need to. We don’t know if help is coming or who is left in this neighborhood. I would imagine that the cops are going to come and check on their station when they find out that it got knocked off-line, and if they do, we can go to them. But, if they don’t come around, then we have to be ready to fend for ourselves.”

  “If we can get some food in our stomachs and get a little rest, maybe even a shower, we’ll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings,” Kara said. “Lord knows I need some rest, and I haven’t even experienced half of what you guys have gone through today. Also, I just want the two of you to know…that you can depend on me. I know that I probably got a little shook when we were outside earlier, but I’m alright. It’s just kind of hard having to process what’s going on, especially when it’s happening so fast.”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself,” Randy said. “I think we all have been shaken today. Anyway, don’t get offended at me when I ask, but just how old are you?”

  “I’m twenty-four, and no, I’m not like those sensitive chicks who get their panties all twisted up when someone asks them their age.”

  “Well, for a twenty-four year old, you have handled yourself just fine today.”

  “Thanks, Randy…I haven’t known you very long, but that means a lot. You know, I’ve always practiced on how to survive if I ever found myself in a situation like a plane crash or getting stranded on some island out in the ocean, but I never ever dreamt that I would have to be putting my survival skills to the test right here in the middle of San Antonio.”

  “Well, I for one am glad that we came across you,” Trent said. He looked at her and smiled. “You’ll probably keep us alive through all of this.”

  “I’ll do my best.” She fell silent for a moment and looked off into the distance. “I just wonder how my parents are doing.” She pulled the cell phone from her pocket and was unsuccessful in getting a signal. She then stood up and walked over to a telephone that was sitting on the counter next to mail holder. No signal either. She started looking through the envelopes in the holder. “Guess her name was Judy. Judy Arkin.”

  “Who?” Randy asked.

  “The lady out on the driveway. That’s the name here on the power bill.” Kara held the envelope for a moment and caressed it gingerly. “I wonder why she went outside.”

  “Who knows,” Randy said. “Poor lady.”

  Kara returned to the table and sat back down. She put her cell phone next to the machete, shotgun and pistol and stared down at them. “Shit, a machete, a half-empty pistol, a rusty old shotgun and a damn cell phone that can’t get a signal.” She giggled to herself and ran her hand through her curly brown hair. “I can hear my dad now. He’d tell me that either the glass is half full or it is half empty.”

  “So, what do you do for a living?” Randy asked her.

  “Well, I work for an advertising firm and I’m a personal trainer on the side. When I graduated from Texas, my dad wanted me to go into the military as an officer—he’s a retired Marine—but I didn’t want to have to answer to anyone or follow anyone’s rules. I especially didn’t want a guy trying to tell me what to do or have him trying to show me up just because he’s a male. I think I inherited my dad’s toughnes
s though. I believe that nothing can beat me, no matter what it is, and if I set out to accomplish something, I’ll get it done.”

  “That’s a good philosophy to have,” Trent said. He quickly glanced over at Randy with a perplexed look, and after thinking about it for a second, he then said, “But not all guys are out to put you down…just so you know.”

  Deciding to disregard his last comment, she asked, “And you, what kind of work do you do?”

  “I’m in management with a home improvement store. Lombard’s.”

  “Yuck…big corporation,” she said as she hissed to express her dislike. “But I really can’t bitch because I spend half my paycheck at your store. I’m always doing things around the house, always fixing something or adding something. My friends know that if they can’t find me at my home, I’m probably at Lombard’s or Victoria’s…Secret.” Kara felt an awkwardness at her clumsy revelation. “Oops, sorry about that. A little too much info?”

  “Don’t worry about that. I used to love going there with my wife. We could spend hours in there. I think I spent half my time there with her and half my time at the toy store with Diego.”

  “What did your wife do for work?” Kara meekly asked, not knowing if she should really be asking such questions.

  “She worked for a big time lawyer downtown.” Trent sighed out loud and giggled to himself. “He was the biggest dirt bag in town. He represented all the high profile drug pushers and gangsters. He knew they were all guilty, and yet he was still able to get a lot of them off. To be honest, I really didn’t care for his clientele…my dad was a cop in L.A. and he got killed when I was a kid. Anyway, before working for him…way before I met her, she used to be a model.” Trent reached into his pocket and retrieved his wallet. He pulled out a small picture of the three of them. They were standing in front of the zoo entrance and Diego was holding a small stuffed tiger. “Here, this is them,” he said as he handed her the picture.

  Kara took the picture and looked at it. Again she felt awkward and she really didn’t know what to say. Here she was, looking at a picture of this man’s family, a family that had tragically died not more than a few hours ago, and she didn’t even know what to say to him. “Your wife is beautiful, and your son is very cute.” She handed the picture back to him.