by Steve Wands
“Think we should leave the food and stuff in the car?”
“Yeah, never know when we might need to get out in a hurry.”
“That’s smart.”
Sarah opened the door and entered the home, “We should check the window.”
“Go ahead. I’m right behind you.”
14 MASHED BRAINS
(back to top)
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
A police officer in a filthy blue uniform dragged his shredded leg along the street. His uniform sported many a tears that framed bite marks and gouged flesh. His leg was mostly bone and thin slivers of muscle tissue with the frayed ends of veins dangling with each step.
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
The soles of his dress blacks looked chewed as well, but it was simply the wear and tear from dragging along the blacktop. He walked with a hunch, as if he could fall over at any moment and his left hand twitched erratically. His right hand was missing most of its digits and at a distance it looked like a red stump.
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
His face was mostly intact aside from a large chunk of meat missing from his cheek and jaw line. It looked like a bear could’ve just taken one swat and ripped it right off. His pallor was waning to a steely gray color like the tie clip that still held his dark blue blood covered tie in place.
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
“What’s that noise?”
“Heads up. Sounds like a deader around.
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
“I think I see ‘em.”
“Scott! Right there.”
“Oh, shit. I got it.”
Scott retrieved a crowbar from the car and jogged over to it as it shambled closer.
Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
He swung the crowbar over his head and down onto the shoulder of the deader. The man in blue went hard to the ground. His ravaged leg giving way immediately to the blow. The dead thing continued to crawl forward as if it meant to drop to the ground and nearly grabbed Scott by the foot as he smashed the crowbar down on the deader’s head.
A wet cracking noise filled the air as Scott brought the bar back up to swing again. Another hit and a hole formed in the back of the dead man’s head. Gooey blood and a lump of mashed brain oozed out of the hole and onto the street.
Scott pushed the dead thing with the crowbar. Aside from its twitching it seemed to be dead again.
“I think we should wrap up our little break and get back on the road. Agreed?”
“Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
As everyone dispersed to their vehicles more of the shambling dead appeared from off the road and out of the catacombs of vehicles that clogged the roads.
“Looks like we started moving just in time,” Frankie pointed out, almost unemotionally.
“Holy shit,” Eddie said, “Let’s move! There’s a bunch more.”
Alexis hurried the kids to the car, Carrie ran past them, knocking Stacey to the ground and jumped into the passenger’s side without so much as a care. Abdul stood in the street waiting for the kids to get in before he started the truck. When he soon did, he gave Carrie the look of death. His patience with her was starting to wane. She seemed unimpressed.
Janice looked out the window, wishing she’d been outside and within reach of the terrible dead things. She closed her eyes, almost wincing from the guilt she felt from the thought. She didn’t want to feel this way—she didn’t want die, but she knew she couldn’t really live anymore.
Joseph saw the look on her face. Figuring she was simply upset at the sight of the dead things he put her arm around her and tried to comfort her.
“It’s okay mom. They can’t get us. We’re moving.”
“I know, honey, I know…”
But she wanted them to touch her. She wanted them to pull her down and rip her to shreds so she could feel what the broken pieces of her family felt and so that she could be with them again.
Jon-Jon pushed the pedal down hard and started to make up for the time lost pissing and bitching on the side of the road.
The dead things disappeared in the dust kicked up by spinning tires.
The dead man in blue continued to twitch, like a car in the dead of winter failing to start.
15 OLD MAN MOMENT
(back to top)
A fuzzy orange sun started to rise up above the horizon. The sky looked like a set of melted crayons, streaky hot wax being pulled and pushed into a pleasing morning light.
Walter sat on the stoop, drinking water from a coffee cup, and staring at the dead things shambling around.
Where were they going? Why did they want to eat us? Why are they here? What have we done?
No one answered his questions and the dead began to notice him, shifting on stiff legs to change their direction.
“Yeah, come on over boys. I still got plenty of fight left in me,” Walter said, putting down his glass and reaching for the bat.
He began walking toward them, hunched over like a predator, bat held off to the side ready to strike. His knees clicked as he walked. His neck grew tight. He cursed his aging body.
The dead thing was in reach.
Walter swung the bat. It connected with the dead things neck and sent it reeling off to the side, but it didn’t fall. Before it could steady itself Walter struck the dead thing again. This time it went down.
A few other deaders began to shamble closer.
Walter put his foot on the throat of the dead thing, pinning it to the ground. Its dead fingers wrapped around his foot. It was trying to pull his foot closer to its dead, dry mouth.
“What do you want from us?”
It gave no answer.
“Is there anyone home in there?” Walter asked, tapping the bat on the dead things head.
Still, no answer.
The other deaders were getting closer, but Walter couldn’t take his eyes off the one under his foot. He was studying it. Searching for something in its eyes, but there was nothing to find.
There was no shred of humanity. No emotion. Nothing. Just reanimated flesh. Lifeless limbs that mimicked man, a puppeteer’s creation come alive with no use for its strings and all fluidity lost.
“Dad! What the hell are you doing?”
Walter took the bat, raising it above his head and brought it down full force into the top of the dead things head. It’s head exploded from the impact and black blood spattered up Walter’s pant legs.
“Just talking to the neighbors, sweetheart. You have the rifle?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well what are you waiting for? I could use a hand.”
“You come out here like this by yourself again and I’ll shoot you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Atta girl.”
Barbara took aim and fired. She hit one in the stomach. Another shot and she missed. Walter took down another.
The shots brought Jeff and Maria to the door. Jeff grabbed a spade shovel and ran to his father’s side. Maria watched in admiration as Barbara held the rifle and took aim at the deaders. She took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The kickback rocked her entire frame. The bullet tore through the throat of one of the dead things. Jeff finished it off.
They stood among the scattering of dead again twitching bodies.
“What were you thinking doing this by yourself?”
“I wasn’t. I was having one of my old man moments, okay. Just leave it.”
“Fine, but you know it was stupid, right?”
“Leave it.”
“Fine.”
“So, I’m thinking…maybe we should start burning these things. We’re asking for disease if we just leave them here.”
“Agreed, but that’s going to be disgusting. Do you think the fire would draw more of them here?”
“No more than the rifle will, I’d think.”
; “Can it wait till we’re done scavenging?”
“Sure can. Will do it tomorrow. Since we’re all up, maybe we should get started with that, eh?”
“Guess we should. Also, I want to get the kids outside for a little bit.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too.”
“How so?”
“Well, I think Davis had a good idea about walling off the town. Maybe he was thinking too big too soon. I don’t know, but what I do know is that we can fence off the house. It’d give us a buffer; make things harder for the deaders for sure. And it would allow us to take the kids outside without having to worry so much. I know they need it—hell we all need it. They’re getting cooped up and running amuck inside.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I will. But first things first, let’s get what supplies we can today. Burn these things up tomorrow and see what we can do about fencing off the house the day after.”
“Sounds good. You going to come with us?”
“Might as well.”
Maria hadn’t noticed, but Tommy had come to the door. He was standing just behind her with the look of shock on his face. As Jeff and Walter made their way back to the house they saw him, and both hoped he had not witnessed any of the violence.
“Tommy, what are you doing out here?”
Maria turned around gasping. “Honey, what are you doing out here?”
Laura came running to the door, “There you are! Tommy.” She knew the boy had seen something he shouldn’t have. She felt the need to explain, “We were playing Hide and Seek. Tommy should’ve been hiding, but I…I guess he came out here. I’m so sorry. Did he…?”
“It’s not your fault, ma.”
“Tommy, did you see anything?”
“Are those people dead?” He pointed to the bodies scattered around the lawn.
Maria wrapped him up in his arms.
“Yes, Tommy,” Jeff said. “Those people are dead. There is something wrong with them…something made them turn into bad people—into monsters—they want to hurt us, so we had to stop them.”
“M-monsters?”
“Yup…it’s sort of like that comic you like, Mutant Man. The one where he fights zombies.”
“Those people are zombies?”
“They were.”
“But the ones in Mutant Man are from space, and they’re green. These look like people. Like dead people.”
Maria held him tighter, her tears running down his cheek as well as her own.
“We didn’t want you to see this, Tommy. This is why we don’t come outside much, and why there’s no school. Something happened, and now zombies are real. They’re not green monsters from space with glowing eyes, they don’t run or fly, but they’re still monsters, and we have to be the good guys.”
“Like Mutant Man?”
“Yup, just like Mutant Man, but we don’t have any special powers. Are you okay, now?”
“I guess. I don’t like seeing them, dad. The dead people like that. It’s scary.”
“I know. I know it is. Me and grandpa are going to take care of it okay?”
“Okay,” Tommy said.
“Now why don’t you go back inside with grandma and play with Wally and Sandra?”
“Okay, dad.”
Maria kissed him on the forehead and he ran inside with Laura.
Walter patted his son on the shoulder, “We couldn’t keep it from them forever. Sooner or later they’d have to see one. It’s better this way. At least he didn’t see one of them up close and trying to eat him.”
“That would certainly scar him for life. I just hope he didn’t see us bashing them.”
“I don’t think he did. He just seemed freaked out about all the bodies. If either of us walked out thinking everything was honky-dory and saw all these bodies we’d get pretty freaked out too.”
Jeff nodded. He knew he wouldn’t be able to shelter his kids from the dead outside forever. Part of him felt relieved. Another part wanted to bring Sandra and Wally outside and let them have a look so it would all be done and over with, but he decided not too.
“Okay, Maria, I think you should head inside and lock everything up. Barb, you set to go?”
“As much as I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s get this over with,” Walter huffed.
16 OFF-ROADING
(back to top)
“Well, we were doing good for awhile.” Jon-Jon said, staring at the clogged road just up ahead.
“Damn,” said Eddie as he sat perched over Jon’s shoulder.
“I knew it wouldn’t last.”
“Think we could take this van off-roading?”
“That’s about our only option if we want to stay in our vehicles, I think, but look how steep it is.”
“Think we’ll tip?”
“Fucked if I know.”
“Wanna get out and check it out?”
“Nope, but I will.”
“Let’s do it.”
Most of the usual suspects got out of their vehicles when they saw Jon-Jon and Eddie head out of the van and to the side of the road. The road was thick with vehicles. Many had bumped into each other, others looked as if they had tried driving other vehicles off the road. It was a small taste of what the chaos was like on the first days.
“Let’s keep some distance between us okay?”
“Yeah, it’s really tight so everybody maintain some breathing room incase we need to move back in a hurry.”
“I’ll climb up this truck and be the eyes in the sky,” Chung-Hee said, hopping into the bed of a pick up truck and then onto its cab.
Eddie stood on the edge of the road looking off, “Damn. It is really steep. And looks like a few folks gave it a shot before rolling over.”
Jon-Jon surveyed the area and took in the vehicles that had ventured off road. They indeed rolled due to the incline, but maybe they were going to fast or turning to sharply he thought for a moment.
“Maybe if we drove down straight and into that gulley.” Frankie pointed out.
“Yeah, the brush doesn’t look to thick over there and the land levels out a bit. Then we might be able to follow it through and bypass the congestion.”
“Let’s just hope we can get back on the road at some point.”
“So long as we keep moving forward we should be able to.”
“Hey guys,” Chung-Hee yelled, “we got company.”
Scott jogged over to Chung-Hee and hopped up onto the truck with him. “Shit. We got a lot of company!”
Judy ran over to her husband. Concern, worry, and fear all blended together into one expression across her plain, yet attractive, face.
“We need to move!”
“Where are they coming from?” Frankie yelled out.
“They’re coming from the brush on the other side. A few dozen of them. Too many for us to take on.”
“Jon, can you lead us down there?”
“What choice do we have? We’re going to have to back up a touch to get around these cars to get over there,” Jon-Jon said as they began to hurry back toward the vehicles.
“Hey, Abdul, you’re gonna have to back up and lead us around, okay?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Jon-Jon yelled.
Scott and Chung-Hee jumped down, racing back to their vehicles. Judy grabbed Scott’s hand and pulled him to a run.
Abdul spun his truck around. The dead were mere yards away and could be seen as clear as day on the road now. He drove closer to them causing Carrie to scream at him. If she weren’t so annoying he’d have enjoyed her growing anxiety. He turned the truck sharply and headed over to the side of the road. A small sedan was in the way of an otherwise relatively clear path to the other side.
“Hold on tight.”
“You’re not going--”
Abdul slammed on the gas and sped forward, hitting the sedan hard enough and at such an angle that is pushed the car to the side and only cost them a bumpy ride and a
headlight.
“You’re fucking crazy,” Carrie screamed, “you almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Would you rather a heart attack, or having your skin ripped off by those things we just passed? Well?”
He took the truck down the side of the road. The incline was steep and the truck went down fast. The ride was bumpy and Carrie bitched and moaned the entire way down. Abdul hit his head on the ceiling at one point and as they reached the bottom he almost steered into a tree.
Scott and Judy were right behind them, bumping up and down just as much. Abdul moved his truck away just in time as Scott and Judy began to fish tail right into them. They hit the tree that Abdul almost had, but only barely.
Jon-Jon held the van at the top of the road till Scott turned the vehicle the right way around and followed Abdul through the level patch of land. The dead were clawing at the back of the van now and moving up its sides.
“Go! Go now!” Dawn screamed, as she stared at them through the rearview mirror.
“All right, all right!”
Jon-Jon gave the van just enough gas to start down the slope and once the van was on it, it bounced quickly and violently down.
“Hold on tight!”
The van dipped so hard forward from one of the bumps near the bottom that the front bumper caught and dug into the earth, crunching under the weight of the van as it tipped end of over end, landing on its roof and partially crashing into the tree that Scott had barely hit, crushing the rear doors rendering them useless.
The dead shambled slowly down the hill as the sounds of panicked screaming continued inside the van.
17 RAIDERS
(back to top)
Walter, Jeff, and Barbara headed over to the neighbors house. Walter drove the pick up truck to the closest neighbor. Walter didn’t particularly care for these neighbors. The man was an ass who treated his wife like shit. He always seemed to be arguing with her about something stupid. Walter once made it clear to him that if he ever hit her he’d have to argue with her through a wired jaw.
