The Apocalypse

by Gary Chesla

  Then the entire first floor erupted into one loud sickening moan.

  Linda gasped for air as she threw herself back into the stairwell, falling on her back on the bottom three steps.

  The ugly dark bodies began to bump in to each other as they fought to enter the stairwell, sensing Linda was within their grasp.

  As the first body fell at Linda’s feet, she quickly rolled over on her hands and knees and began to frantically crawl up the steps.

  In near panic, she didn’t stop until she reached the landing on the second floor.

  Still on her hands and knees, she turned to look down the stairs, expecting to see the mob of bodies on her heels.

  Instead, she saw what looked to be a free for all at the bottom of the steps as the gruesome bodies fought to climb over each other to come up the steps after her.

  A pile of mangled bodies lay on the floor and bottom step as others crowded into the entry way, climbing over their fallen companion’s bodies to get to the next step.

  Linda breathed rapidly as she watched the bodies staring up at her, never taking their eyes off her as they struggled to climb the steps.

  Linda took a few long slow breaths, trying to calm herself and think.

  She jumped up from the floor and ran into her bedroom which was to the left at the top of the steps.

  She frantically looked around until she spotted Mike’s tall dresser next to the open door.

  She ran over, put her shoulder against the side of the dresser and began to push.

  She struggled and gasped for air as she pushed the large dresser, inch by inch closer to the doorway.

  Five minutes later, much longer than she had hoped it would take her, she finally had Mike’s dresser through the doorway and at the top of the stairs.

  Linda nervously looked around the dresser and down the stairs, not knowing what to expect.

  Most of the grisly things were still trying to get through the narrow archway, but one determined body had managed to stagger half way up the stairs.

  Linda got behind the dresser and again began to push.

  She felt the end of the dresser drop down over the top of the first step.

  She took another breath and pushed against the dresser again until she felt it begin to move.

  Finally, she felt the dresser begin to feel lighter as its center of gravity shifted.

  She let go and stepped back as the large wooden dresser began to tip over into the stairwell.

  With a sigh of relief, she watched as it began to tumble down the steps, end over end until it finally came to rest against the archway and effectively blocked the entrance to the stairs.

  The body of the thing that had climbed half way up the stairs apparently had been crushed by the dresser on its way down, and was now lying motionless on the stairs.

  It’s two arms, broken, each in at least two different places, were twisted behind the creatures back, bent in ways the human arm was never meant to bend.

  Linda dropped down into a sitting position on the top step, as a sense of relief swept through her body.

  She leaned her head down on her arms that were crossed over the top of her knees, exhausted.

  She just breathed and tried to get her body to stop trembling.

  A moment later, Linda’s head jerked up when she heard a creaking sound.

  She began to look for the source of the sound.

  The dresser was still firmly in place and the mangled body on the stairs was still where she had last seen it.

  When she caught a motion out of the corner of her eyes, she looked at the door to Jamie’s room, to see her wide eyes looking out through the three-inch space between the door and the frame.

  “Back in that room,” Linda said in a gravely voice, as her throat still burned from bile that had come up in her throat earlier.

  “I heard a big noise,” Jamie replied softly, “It scared George.”

  “Back in that room, now!” Linda shot back sternly as Jamie’s door closed.

  Linda’s heart beat began to settle down.

  The last thing she wanted Jamie to see, was that dead body on the steps.

  But Linda knew, no matter how protective she was with Jamie, after what she had seen today, there was only so much she could do.

  Jamie would be forced to deal with life very soon, no matter how screwed up it was.

  Even under normal times, a situation would arise where Linda couldn’t be there to protect Jamie from the world.

  Linda hoped today was not that day, or an indication of what the world had become.

  That and Jamie was going to look down the stairs before long. Kids had a way of doing the things you didn’t want them to do, especially Jamie.

  “Besides,” Linda thought, “I can’t keep her in that room forever and I definitely can’t clean this mess up by myself.”

  Linda decided to rest her head on her arms again for a short rest to compose herself before going back into Jamie’s room.

  Again, she heard a noise and quickly looked back at Jamie’s door.

  The door was still closed this time.

  Linda looked down the steps and saw the body on the steps moving.

  It struggled to get into a standing position and fell back against the dresser.

  With its back against the dresser, using just its legs, it slowly pushed itself into an upright position.

  It looked up at Linda and moaned, then it began to shakily move up the steps again slowly.

  Linda jumped to her feet and ran back into her bedroom.

  A moment later she pushed the TV out of the bedroom on the TV cart.

  This was much easier than pushing Mike’s big dresser.

  The TV cart was smaller and it had wheels.

  She positioned the cart at the top of the stairs and pushed.

  The Cart bounced down the steps and hit the figure across the legs above the knees.

  The legs bent backward and flipped the creature into the air, which then landed on its back on the steps.

  Linda looked down at the body.

  The body wasn’t going anywhere now, but it didn’t stop moving either.

  The creature’s head rolled over, the eyes swirled in circles until they finally located Linda, stopped and stared at her, making her skin crawl.

  Then the creature let out a loud moan.

  The moan was answered many times over from behind the dresser blocking the archway.

  Linda went back into her bedroom and came out carrying her Kirby vacuum cleaner.

  She dragged it down the steps until she was a few feet above the moaning creature.

  She dragged the cleaner around her, holding it above the creature’s head where she began to drop it on the creature’s head again and again until the moaning finally stopped.

  Linda let the sweeper fall onto the now unmoving body and ran up the stairs and into Jamie’s room.

  She dropped down onto Jamie’s bed, trying to hold back the tears that wanted to gush form her eyes.

  She closed her eyes tightly and tried to pretend she couldn’t hear the eerie sounds echoing through the house.

  Chapter 17

  May 9th at the Cabin

  Mike and Tony ran down the path through the woods until their sides ached.

  “I’m exhausted,” Mike gasped, “I need a break. How far from the cabin do you think we have come?”

  “I guess about a mile,” Tony replied as he stopped, put his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath and looked back up the trail. “I haven’t seen anything behind us for the last ten minutes. They are probably having a hard time with all the rocks and tree roots.”

  “I’m sure they are still coming,” Mike replied. “Let’s keep moving. If we walk instead of running for a while, I think I can catch my breath while we keep putting some distance between us and them.”

  “Sounds good,” Tony said. “Just keep your eyes open so we don’t run into another group of them on the trail. I don’t know what directi
on they were coming from to get to the cabin, I just hope it wasn’t this way.”

  They walked down the trail for another half hour and stopped by a small creek for a break.

  Mike looked at the cool clear water as is flowed down the creek. The sound of the water was hypnotic.

  “Do you think that water is safe to drink? I could use a drink,” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t drink it,” Tony replied.

  “Why not?” Mike asked. “I realize a few deer probably shit in the water somewhere up stream, but at this point I really don’t care about that.”

  “You asked what might have cause the people around here to become zombies,” Tony replied, “I jokingly said maybe it was because of a rabid squirrel. But what if something got into the water around here?”

  “I guess you’re right,” Mike said as he licked his lips and stared at the running stream, “I guess I can wait until we get somewhere where I can get a beer or a soda in a can. How far away is the closest town?”

  “Well,” Tony replied, “If we can keep this pace we should reach Route 219 in a couple miles. About a mile down Route 219 is a little town called Cherry Tree. We should be able to get a drink and something to eat there. We might even be able to make a call and get a rental car.”

  “I think we should call the police, right after I call Linda, and get someone up here to figure out what the hell is going on,” Mike added. “When we first saw that staggering thing up at camp, I said it reminded me of Night of the Living Dead. But the more I think about it, I think it reminds me more of Deliverance. Did you ever see that screwed up movie? These guys go camping up in the mountains and get captured and screwed over by a clan of hillbillies.”

  “Yeah,” Tony replied. “I saw it, but I’m sticking with Night of the Living Dead. No one got eaten in Deliverance.”

  “You’re right,” Mike said. “Night of the Dead Hillbillies then.

  No one could make up shit like this.

  “You have that right,” Tony replied. “We better keep moving. The sooner we can get back to civilization the better. I’m not looking forward to telling Ryan’s parents about what happened. It seems like I can’t get away from that damn job. I suppose that is why I never got married. I never wanted my wife to have someone from the Marines to show up on her doorstep to tell her I was dead. Either that or I was just so screwed up after what I saw in Iraq, that no woman wanted to be around me.”

  “I say it’s because you’re ugly,” Mike said, “but that’s just me.”

  “Thanks,” Tony laughed.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mike said and started walking down the trail again.

  Tony took a quick look behind them and then followed.

  Finally, the trail and dirt road that they had followed for the last two hours came out onto Route 219.

  They took Route 219 south and walked on the highway.

  “It looks like we are going to end up walking the whole way home,” Mike sighed. “I haven’t seen a car all day and I was hoping we could get a ride once we reached the highway.”

  “It’s Sunday,” Tony laughed. “Everyone is either in church or home having Sunday dinner. But if I had a choice to

  walk all the way home or still be crawling in the dirt under the cabin, I think I would prefer to walk.”

  “Sorry if it sounds like I’m complaining,” Mike laughed, “For some reason I didn’t get my morning coffee today. By the way, this job you are offering me, does it come with regular coffee breaks? I guess I should have asked about that before I agreed to take the job. I’ve become used to regular coffee breaks.”

  Tony laughed, “Shut up and keep walking.”

  Tony pointed to the sign next to the highway, “Cherry Tree, 1 mile. What do you say we pick up our pace. After we call the cops, maybe we can negotiate the terms of your employment. The guy I have doing that job now has a coffee pot at his desk and can drink coffee whenever he wants. If you want to limit coffee breaks to once in the morning and once in the afternoon, I could live with that. It would probably save me money too. What other ideas do you have to save me money, I’m all ears?”

  “It sounds like I better watch what I say around management,” Mike chuckled.

  They walked until they came to where Cherry Street turned right off Route 219.

  After crossing over the Susquehanna River, Cherry Street led into the main section of the small town.

  “If I remember correctly, Jenn’s Diner is on Front Street to the left right up ahead. We can get lunch while we make a few calls,” Tony said. “The police will probably want us to go back up to the cabin with them, so we should probably get something to eat. You should probably call Linda too and tell her you won’t be home until late this evening.

  “I guess we’ll have to go back up with the cops,” Mike said. “At least we won’t have to walk, but it will be good to finally get all this behind us.”

  “Jenn’s is right down this…..,” Tony stopped and stared.

  “What the hell,” Mike said as he walked up next to Tony.

  Down the length of Front Street, cars were scattered across the street.

  Some cars sat across the sidewalk, many apparently had run off the road, across the sidewalk and crashed into the buildings that lined the street.

  Some cars appeared to have been deserted as they sat with their doors hanging open in the street.

  Other cars looked like the drivers and passengers had left the cars, but not willingly.

  The car’s windows had been broken and blood was smeared across the jagged edges of glass that remained.

  Large bloody stains were spread across the road and sidewalks next to the cars.

  “Shit,” Mike said quietly, “It looks like the zombies that came up to the cabin, were here first.”

  “Or maybe this is where the zombies came from in the first place,” Tony whispered back. “Maybe something happened here to cause what we saw at the cabin.”

  “What was this place?” Mike asked. “Was this a steel town, or a mining town? Maybe they dug up something in the mines. You know, like they hit a pocket of poisonous gas or something.”

  “I’m not sure, most of these small towns were old coal mining towns,” Tony replied.

  “I didn’t expect this,” Mike added.

  “I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised, we are only six miles from the cabin, Tony said. “We should probably keep moving before we run into any problems here like we did up at the cabin.”

  “You mean move on to the next town?” Mike replied. “What’s to say that all of this didn’t start in the next town? I think before we move on, we make the most of our opportunity here first. Let’s find a telephone.”

  “OK, good idea, but we should probably get off the street before something spots us,” Tony said. “I don’t know if there is anyone around here or not, it looks like a bloody ghost town.”

  “Ghosts or zombies, I don’t care for either one,” Mike replied, “There’s Jenn’s, let’s go.”

  Tony grabbed Mike’s shoulder, “Move slowly so we don’t attract any attention in case something is watching.”

  “You think that would make a difference?” Mike asked as they moved slowly towards Jenn’s.

  “I don’t know, but if they think we are one of them, maybe they might ignore us,” Tony replied.

  “Unless it is someone looking at us through a rifle scope,” Mike added as they ducked into Jenn’s.

  “Damn, it looks like a riot took place in here,” Mike said as they looked at the blood covered tables and floor. “All the blood we’ve seen in here and out on the street, have you seen any bodies lying around? There had to been a hell of a lot of people killed with all this blood, but I haven’t seen a single body.”

  “Maybe the zombies are dragging the bodies away somewhere,” Tony replied. “Like what must have happened to Ryan’s body.”

  “I don’t know, but let’s see if we can find a phone and get the hell out
of here,” Mike said.

  They quickly ran behind the counter and looked around.

  “Is there a back room or a pay phone?” Mike asked.

  “Over here,” Tony said as he came to the end of the counter and picked up a phone and set it on top of the counter. “As soon as I call 911, you can call Linda.”

  Mike rushed over next to Tony as Tony grabbed the receiver and held it to his ear.

  Tony clicked the button three times, then looked at Mike, “No dial tone.”

  Mike grabbed the wire at the base of the phone and followed it to where it was plugged in on the wall behind the counter.

  “It’s plugged in,” Mike said. “The phone’s must be out. Now what? If there were bodies around we could look for a cell phone.”

  “Let’s try next door,” Tony suggested. “Maybe they will have a phone that works?”

  “What’s next door?” Mike asked.

  “I think it’s a gas station,” Tony replied.

  Mike walked over to the doorway and looked outside.

  “It still looks clear,” Mike said.

  “Thank God,” Tony replied.

  Tony and Mike slowly walked out the door of the diner and moved towards the gas station.

  “Down to the right,” Mike whispered, “Two of them coming out of the next street.”

  “I see them,” Tony replied. “Just keep moving slowly. No sudden moves.”

  “I think it is working,” Mike said as they walked into the station. “I hope the phone here works because I don’t want to try that again when they get any closer.”

  Tony ran behind the counter and grabbed the phone and held it to his ear.

  He looked at Mike and shook his head.

  “Shit,” Mike said as he turned to look out the window. “There are eight of them out there now. Maybe our zombie impersonation isn’t working as well as we thought.”

  They both stared out the window for a long moment, watching the flow of bodies coming out onto Front Street from the side streets.