In the Dead: Volume 1

by Jesse Petersen

  He sighed and got into the car. He started up the engine and rested his hands on the wheel. Maggie reached over and patted his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  He nodded as he pulled into traffic. “I can’t believe we lost.”

  She shrugged. “Well, is it really that big of a deal to build a fence? We’ve been fighting this for three years and all we’ve managed to do is throw a bunch of money down the drain. Maybe this is a sign that it’s time to give up.”

  Bobby stared at her for a brief moment then forced his gaze back to the road. “I can’t believe you would say that. Not after everything that’s happened.”

  “What’s happened except that you and Rex have screamed and yelled at each other, dragged each other to court, called 911 at all hours of the day and night, given yourself an ulcer…”

  Bobby shook his head as he pulled into the small local airport. “Come on, it’s way more than that. That bastard killed our tree, ran over my flower bed with his mower and I swear he poisoned the dog.”

  Maggie sighed as he pulled into a short term parking space. She faced him. “The dog was fourteen years old, Bobby. He died of old age.”

  “He wasn’t sick, Maggie!”

  She rubbed her hand over her face. “Bobby-”

  “Seriously, how can you not be pissed about this?”

  She laughed, but the sound was anything but amused. “Oh, I am pissed. Pissed that two grown men have wasted so much time and space fighting over a foot of difference on a property line. Twelve inches, Bobby. That’s what I’m pissed about. At both of you.”

  She got out of the car and slammed the door behind her before she reached in the back seat and grabbed her wheeled travel bag. She pulled the handle out and tugged it around to the other side of the car where Bobby stood.

  “I’m just going to be at Momma’s for a week. When I come back, I don’t want to talk about property lines ever again.” She arched a brow. “Got me?”

  Bobby pursed his lips and nodded. She leaned up and kissed him. “Now you go on and go,” she said with a motion for him to get back in the car. “I can get in myself.”

  Bobby blinked. “You don’t want me to go in with you?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. You’ve got some thinking to do. Start doing it now.”

  She patted his cheek and then rolled off toward the terminal. Bobby watched her until she reached the little street that separated the terminal from the parking lot. Then he got in the car and started it. For a long time he just sat there, staring at nothing in particular.

  Maggie was pretending to be ok, but she was tired. Hell, he was tired of fighting, too. But he didn’t agree with her that this was a petty fight. It was a matter of principle, damn it! A matter of pride and ownership. Why didn’t she get that?

  But she was right. This needed to end. And he had to end it. One way or another.

  #

  Rex grinned as he got out of his truck and stared out at his yard. All of his yard, including the foot that the court had verified was his today. Yup, life was good. He’d won and that was all there was to it.

  He heard Bobby coming up the street before he saw him and turned to watch him pull into the driveway next to his own. He stopped at the end, sending rocks flying up onto the grass and threw himself out of the vehicle without even shutting the door behind him.

  Rex tensed. He and Bobby had come close to blows over the years, but now his neighbor looked pretty damn serious.

  “You’re an asshole,” Bobby said as he crossed the lawn and onto Rex’s driveway.

  “You’re on my property,” Rex replied. “I could call the cops about you trespassing.”

  “Again?” Bobby shrugged, but the way his jaw tensed made it clear that he was anything but nonchalant about this situation. “I could probably break your nose before they got here, too.”

  Rex shook his head. “But you won’t. Because then you’ll get arrested and poor Maggie will have to come bail you out. And I’d bet you already spent part of this month’s mortgage money paying that shitty lawyer you had in court with you today.”

  “You’re a motherfucker,” Bobby bit out as he advanced on Rex.

  Rex set his feet, but when Bobby shoved him, he still staggered back a few steps. But now he was seeing red and nothing else mattered anymore. He lunged forward and shoved Bobby even harder than he had been shoved. Bobby caught his arms and the two of them started grappling.

  Bobby was stronger than he looked with his wiry frame and glasses and Rex was almost impressed. Except that he hated the guy with every fiber of his being, so he refused to allow that.

  “You killed my dog,” Bobby growled through clenched teeth.

  Rex shook his head. “What?”

  “I think you killed my dog!” he repeated, this time louder. “And I know you killed my apple tree.”

  “That tree was more on my property than yours.” Rex pushed him back and they hit Bobby’s car. The door slammed shut with their combined weights. “And you destroyed my mailbox.”

  “It wasn’t my fault it sticks out too much in the road.” But Bobby was grinning like he was proud and that pissed Rex off even more. “What about you mowing my flowerbeds?”

  “On my property,” Rex shouted and shoved hard. Bobby staggered back and managed to catch his balance when he hit the grass. He straightened up and glared at Rex.

  “There’s only one way to resolve this, you know-”

  Rex smirked. “Oh yeah, what’s that?”

  Bobby opened his mouth, but before he could speak the loud, piercing whine of the tornado siren filled the air. Both of them stopped and looked up at the clear summer sky.

  “Not a cloud,” Rex muttered. “And it’s not the right time for a test.”

  Bobby nodded. “Could it have gone off accidentally?”

  “The box is locked,” Rex said. “You have to have a key to open it. And I know they just checked all those boxes for shorts, so I doubt it was that.”

  Bobby blinked. “How do you know that, smart ass?”

  Rex looked at him. “I work for the city, dumb ass.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s probably why you’re such a jerk.” Bobby looked up. The siren was still blaring. “So if you’re so smart, why are they firing that thing off in the middle of the day, off schedule and without a tornado threatening?”

  “There must be some other emergency,” Rex said with a frown. “I don’t smell smoke, so not a fire. The river isn’t close to flood stage, so it can’t be that.”

  “A terrorist attack?” Bobby said, more to himself than to his neighbor.

  Rex shook his head. “Why would anyone attack here? There are what, three thousand people in this town and no infrastructure that would make it worthwhile.”

  Bobby motioned behind Rex. “I guess we could ask Jenkins. I see him over there in his yard.”

  Rex turned. His neighbor on the other side, Jenkins, lived further down the street than Bobby. He’d never had any problems with the man. He lifted his hand to wave, but Jenkins didn’t wave back. He just stood there in his yard, staring at them.

  “Think he saw us fighting?” Bobby asked and he looked chagrined.

  Rex felt it, too. Acting like an adrenaline-fueled asshole was one thing. Getting caught acting like one was another.

  “Maybe. Look I’ll walk down there and see what’s up.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Bobby insisted as Rex walked away. “I don’t trust you to tell me the truth even if you did find out what it was.”

  “Christ man, whatever,” Rex sighed. “Come with me, stay at your house, I don’t give a shit.”

  He didn’t look at Bobby as his neighbor followed him up the street toward where Jenkins was standing. Just standing, staring at them. As they got closer, Rex frowned. Jenkins had a weird expression on his face. Sort of blank and faraway. His skin was pale and he had a little something red on his shirt. Like blood.

  “Hey man, you okay?” Rex called out as they entered Jenkins’ ya
rd. “Do you know what this whole siren thing is about?”

  Jenkins looked at them for a long, silent moment. Then he opened his mouth and vomited a thick, black, bilious fluid. It sprayed onto the ground and also all across his plaid button-up shirt.

  “Oh shit,” Bobby said as he shoved past Rex to their other neighbor. “You okay man?”

  Jenkins didn’t seem fazed by the vomit. He swayed gently and then, without warning, lifted his gaze to Bobby as he came closer.

  “Um, Bobby, his eyes are all weird.” Rex wrinkled his brow. “They’re like, red or something.”

  Bobby tilted his head. “Trippy. Jenkins, buddy, you’re sick, okay. You should sit down and we’ll call for an ambulance.”

  Jenkins stared at Bobby, watching as his hand extended to rest on Jenkins’ forearm. Then he let out a weird roar and grabbed for Bobby, pulling him closer and biting at him.

  “Fuck!” Bobby shouted as he braced his fists against Jenkins’ shoulder and shoved backward. Unlike Rex earlier, Jenkins didn’t move. It didn’t seem to matter how much Bobby strained, Jenkins, who probably gave up ten pounds to Bobby, didn’t move.

  “What the hell?” Rex jumped forward and grabbed Jenkins from behind to tug him away. “Get off!”

  Jenkins swiveled and began snapping at Rex. His breath smelled terrible, like rotting meat. Rex flinched away from him and barely dodged his grinding teeth. He shoved with all his might and Jenkins careened away, tripping over his own feet to sprawl across the grass.

  “What is wrong with him?” Bobby asked as the two men watched Jenkins flip over and begin crawling toward him, still snarling and biting.

  “It’s like he’s rabid or something,” Rex said with a shake of his head. “Come on, we can call 911.”

  “My cell is in my car,” Bobby said, and sprinted after Rex toward his house. “I’ll go grab it.”

  Rex looked up ahead. There were more people now in the yards. In Bobby’s yard. And they were all swaying and staggering the same way Jenkins had been. A sick feeling started in his stomach.

  “Um, I’m not sure your house is the best choice,” he said, motioning up ahead. “Look.”

  Bobby blanched and his steps faltered as he saw the same group of people Rex did.

  “Come on, into my place,” Rex barked as he sprinted into his garage. Bobby got inside just as he hit the door button and the garage shut with a clank of gears.

  “God that thing is loud,” Bobby snapped. “You know it wakes Maggie up some morning?”

  “Right now you want to talk to me about the garage door?” Rex asked while he unlocked the back door and let them both into the house. “Don’t you think we should deal with the people outside first?”

  Bobby snapped his mouth shut. “Fine. You think they are why the tornado siren is going off?”

  That stopped Rex as he passed through the mud room and into the small kitchen. He turned to stare at Bobby. “If they fired the siren for that, it would mean some kind of mass sickness.”

  Bobby moved past him, through to the living room where he looked out onto the street. “Yeah, I’d say this might qualify.”

  Rex stood in the kitchen for a minute and then slowly made his way to join Bobby. There were at least twenty people milling about on his lawn now and even more up and down the street. By the way they held their limbs, some were clearly injured. Others vomited that same black material Jenkins had. Even others were carrying what looked to be… meat in their hands. Raw meat that they gnawed on.

  Rex turned his face. “I’ll get the phone.”

  “Yeah,” Bobby said softly. “You’d better do that.”

  Rex moved to the end table next to his couch where his cordless phone was resting in its cradle. He picked it up and turned it on, but when he lifted it to his ear, there was no dial tone waiting for him. Instead, there was dead air on the line. He clicked the phone off and on a second time, but it was no use.

  “Phone is dead,” he said softly. “And I don’t have a cell.”

  Bobby turned toward him. “How do you not have a cell?”

  He shrugged. “Just don’t need one. You said yours is in the car?”

  Bobby looked outside. There were four or five infected people next to his car. “Um, yeah. But I’m not going out there.”

  “Chicken shit,” Rex muttered.

  Bobby glared at him. “You want to do it?”

  Rex looked outside and shook his head.

  “Yeah I didn’t think so.” Bobby moved away from the window. “Turn on the TV, maybe they’re talking about… whatever this is.”

  The remote was next to the phone, so Rex grabbed it, clicked on the TV and sank into his comfy LazyBoy to watch. He had been watching “The Deadliest Catch” on Discovery the night before, so he was ready to change the channel to CNN or a local channel, but he was surprised that there was already news on Discovery. They were sharing a feed with MSNBC.

  The news reporter had her “serious” face on and she was talking about infections, outbreaks and… to Rex’s utter surprise, she said the word “Zombie.”

  Bobby moved to the couch where he could see the television. “Did she say zombie?”

  Rex nodded. “That’s what I heard.”

  They both leaned forward and for the next hour they just watched, taking in how an Outbreak had started hundreds of miles away in Seattle and spread like wildfire across the West. And that word: zombie. ZOMBIE. They said it over and over. Until it was no longer shocking.

  Until it seemed normal. Just like the pictures of people like their neighbors, roaming through cities and killing each other. It gave Jenkins’ attack a whole new element.

  “I’m going to take a piss,” Bobby said.

  Rex flinched. He’d almost forgotten his neighbor was sitting with him. “Yeah. It’s the first door on the right in the hall.”

  “Huh, just like in my house,” Bobby muttered as he walked away. “They must have the same floor plan.”

  Rex got up and paced closer to the television. He leaned against the wall and stared as pictures from the initial Outbreak flashed over the screen. Seattle. Death. Blood.

  With a shake of his head, he clicked the TV off just as Bobby came back into the living room.

  “Why did you do that?” Bobby asked.

  Rex shrugged. “I’m not sure we’re learning anything new. And I don’t want to look at it for a few minutes.”

  Bobby shook his head. “Who knew you were such a softie.”

  When Rex didn’t answer, Bobby walked over to the shelf near the couch where Rex’s movies were stacked. He looked over the selection and smiled. “Hey, some of my favorites. Eastwood, a little Die Hard…”

  Rex stared. “You mean we actually have something in common?”

  “I guess.”

  There was a moment of awkward silence and then Rex stood up straighter. “Hey, where’s Maggie? Is she okay?”

  Bobby paled. “She was going to visit her mom in St. Louis today. She’s on a plane right now. I would text her, but my phone…”

  “Is in the car.” Rex looked outside. “With the zombies.”

  Bobby moved to stand next to him. “Yeah.”

  There were five of them actually at the car and four more between the car and Rex’s front door.

  “Well, I’m sure it will take a while for any of this to reach the Midwest,” Rex reassured him. When Bobby frowned even deeper, he reached out and patted his arm.

  Bobby looked at him out of the corner of his eye and Rex removed his hand.

  “Did you kill my dog?” Bobby asked.

  Rex shut his eyes. “No. I swear. I thought about it, since I knew you wanted to build that fence to keep her in… but I’d never hurt a dog. I was actually kind of sad when she died, she was a good dog.”

  Bobby smiled. “Yeah. Sorry about letting her shit in your yard.”

  Rex turned on him. “I knew you did!”

  He shrugged. “Well, all’s fair in love and war. Mostly war.”


  “Over a foot’s worth of property.” Rex shook his head. “It really feels stupid now.”

  “Yeah.”

  “When you pulled up you said there was only one way to resolve this,” Rex said. “So what was that? Kill me?”

  Bobby laughed. “I thought of it, too. But I was actually going to offer to buy six inches of lawn from you. Split the difference.”

  “Why?” Rex asked. “After all this time?”

  Bobby shifted uncomfortably. “Before she left, Maggie told me to knock it off. And I thought it might be nice if she came back and found out we wouldn’t ever have to go to court again. That I ‘acted like a grown-up’ like she always said I should.”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Rex said after they’d both been quiet for a while. “I’ll give it to you. I’ll even help you build the fence once there aren’t, you know, rabid killers in my… our yards.”

  “Yeah, about that, I don’t suppose you have any guns in here?” Bobby asked. “Because the news keeps saying the only way to control these things is to kill them with headshots or sever the head somehow. I assume at some point they might try to make it in here. Or we might decide to get out.”

  Rex laughed. “Oh yeah, I’ve got a collection. It’s small, but it will hold us against a siege, at least for a while. Come on, I’ll show you where the safe is.”

  He turned to go, but Bobby stopped him by saying, “Hey Rex?”

  “Yeah, man?” Rex turned back.

  Bobby shifted. “Thanks. You let me come in here without even hesitating.”

  “Well, you would have done the same for me,” Rex said. “Now come on. This ain’t no time for Oprah shit. We’ve got guns to load.”

  Til Death

  “I swear to God, Donna, if you fuck up my hair, I’m going to punch you.”

  Donna squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten before she smiled at her sister Heather in the mirror. “I promise, I won’t mess up your hair,” she reassured you. “You’re a beautiful bride.”

  Her sister smirked as Donna gently smoothed some of her sister’s blonde hair across her forehead. “Of course, I am. I’ve only eaten watermelon and laxatives for the past three days.”