by Joseph Zuko
“Pee-wee Herman.”
“That’s right and he had the crazy show.”
“Pee-wee’s Play House.”
“I’ll always remember that day. Here comes little Cliff running up to me in the kitchen and he asks me if I knew that Pee-wee was real. I asked you what you meant by “real” and you said-”
“He’s alive and not a cartoon.” Cliff smirked. It wasn’t the first time she told him this story.
“He was real Mama and not a cartoon you said. It took me a little bit to figure out what the hell you meant by not a cartoon. I sat down and watched the dumb show with you and then I could see what you meant. He acted like a fucking cartoon character. So damn funny.” Morgan giggled to herself. “He’s real!” She laughed a little harder.
“I was five. I thought everything on TV was a cartoon.” Cliff playfully defended himself. Morgan’s laughter calmed down and then she reached over and patted Cliff on his knee.
“I love you too.” She winked at him. “You son of a bitch.”
Cliff chewed on his lower lip. It had been a long time since she had said the “L” word. He leaned over her armrest and pulled Morgan in for a kiss on the cheek.
“Damn it, stop that, that’s why I don’t let this shit get mushy. You turn into a wet noodle and want all this affection bullshit.” Morgan muscled him off of her. He released her from the kiss and sat back in his own chair.
“You love me,” Cliff teased.
Morgan rested her weary head in the palm of her hand, “Please, shut the fuck up.”
Jim exited the bathroom fresh and clean. He had removed the bandage from his forehead and the jagged stiches on his forehead made him look like Frankenstein. He thought it might be a good idea to let it air out before he had Tina wrap it again for the night. He sported Cliff’s old black T-shirt and blue jeans. He felt a million times better with the dried sweat and blood cleaned off his body. Now he was ready to eat. He could smell its amazing aroma from the bathroom. The pit in his stomach begged for a full meal. The cereal he had scarfed down was only an appetizer and now his appetite for meats and vegetables had to be fulfilled. Both Bert and Ernie were cleaned so he placed them in his main backpack for safe keeping.
Everyone else had just fixed themselves a plate of food and found a place to sit at the table or in the living room.
“Help yourself,” Tina pointed to the range and then she took a bite off her fork.
“There’s cold beer in the fridge,” Cliff added.
“Thank you,” Jim found the plate and fork that was left for him. He piled the food high onto his dish and snagged a fresh can out of the fridge.
He entered the dining room and took a seat at the table next to Frank and Sara. Jim popped open the can and took a long swig of Tacate. He dug into his food and the flavor was overwhelming. He tried to pace himself and not just shovel it into his mouth, but it was difficult to hold back. The apartment was quiet, except for the soft sounds of humans chewing. If Jim concentrated he could hear the chaos outside. The sound of gunfire and chaos continued on and Jim thought to himself.
Was this what it was like for the families in wartorn Europe during World War II?
Your life must go on even though someone else’s was coming to an end?
The internal noise his mouth made while chomping the food helped drown out the new war taking place in the background.
Jim finished off a fork full of beef and turned to his hosts, “This is amazing. Thank you guys for everything.”
“It’s our pleasure,” Tina answered.
More silence.
It was tough for the group to conceive an appropriate conversation. They weren’t friends and this wasn’t a party. What could they possibly talk about? What do normal people talk about at gatherings? Movies, TV shows they had recently seen, music, books, online videos, gossip, things you saw on Facebook and the other day to day bullshit people love to retell. All of that seemed pointless.
Who cares if you liked a silly piece of pop culture?
Every one of us had almost died today.
Well that’s something in common. Jim thought.
As he finished his food and beer it dawned on him that who they were in the past didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was survival.
Did they have what it would take to make it through this?
Jim hoped so, but he wasn’t sure. Could this be stopped? Was there a cure? Or was this the future? Would they soon all be racing around on homemade muscle cars, wearing football pads, mohawks and killing everyone they came across in the barren wasteland that was once Vancouver, Washington? It was a depressing thought.
Finally after nearly fifteen minutes of silence they were all done eating, Frank cleared his throat.
“I got up early this morning to go do some fishing, like I always do.” Frank’s hands were laced together over his empty plate and he kept his head down, almost in prayer as he talked. “I crept out of the house so I wouldn’t disrupt my wife sleeping. My boy had come home for the week. He was on leave and we were supposed to go fishing together, but his old high school friends had taken him out to a bar last night and he had gotten pretty wasted. I found him passed out on the couch. He reeked of booze and I knew it would be more torture than fun for him out on the boat so I let him sleep in.” Frank paused to take a sip of beer.
He had a captive audience and this unprovoked story came from left field. Jim just figured the silence had gotten to Frank and out of the uncomfortable awkwardness he felt compelled to tell his tale.
Frank set down his can, leaned back into his chair and continued, “The waters were calm and the fish were biting. It was a perfect spring morning. By noon I was ready to call it a day so I packed up and headed home.” Frank’s voice took on a slight tremor as he went on. “The second I got home I knew something was wrong. I could smell it in the air. Sick smell to the living room. On the couch where my boy’s head had been laying was a pile of vomit. I got so mad at him. I couldn’t believe that he hadn’t cleaned it up. One of the reasons my boy joined the service was because of his O.C.D. He was the cleanest, most orderly kid I had ever met and the military was right up his alley. When I called out his name I did it in anger. I yelled, Michael! There was no answer. I set down my tackle box and rod on the table then there was a noise upstairs. I went to see what was going on, maybe he had passed out in the bathtub? The closer I got to my bedroom the louder the noise grew. I couldn’t make it out. When-” Frank’s voice cracked and his eyes filled with tears. Sara reached across the table and held his hand. “When I opened the door. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t make out what was happening. I could see my wife’s legs poking out from the comforter, but everything looked red. Like it was all covered in red. Michael’s head rose up from the center of the mattress. His eyes were black. His face was caked in his mother’s blood.” Frank’s tears streamed down his face as he relived the nightmare. “He launched across the room at me. I’m no coward, but Michael is two hundred pounds of pure muscle and if he wanted to hurt me there was nothing I could do to stop him. So I ran. I slammed the door in his face and ran. He had choked on his own vomit, died, came back as one of them and killed his own mother.” Frank wiped away his tears and fought to get control, but the day had been too much for him and he needed to get it out. “If I had waked him up. If I had made him come with me. They would both still be alive.”
Jim reached out and took Frank’s other hand. They squeezed each other’s palms, “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how you are feeling right now, but know this. The three of us,” Jim indicated Sara, Devon and himself, “we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”
“We are a new family now,” Sara told him as she wiped away a tear from her own cheek.
Jim nodded his head, “She’s right. We stick together, watch each other’s backs and we will get through this.”
Frank took in a long full breath and let it out, “Okay. I’m okay.”
Tina brushed awa
y a salty drop from her eye, “Oh my God you guys. You’re killing me over here. My heart is going to explode.”
“I think we all need another drink,” Cliff said as he got to his feet and headed for the kitchen. “Anyone else need a new one?” He asked.
“Yes!” Everyone but Devon answered.
CHAPTER 13
Karen laid in her mother’s bed. The soft glow of a nightlight filled the room. She could just make out the shapes of the furniture in the room. A little girl was tucked under each of her arms. She had just finished reading them a story and now they were snuggling until Robin fell asleep. This had been the routine for the last year and it worked. She had downed the double shot that Leon had mixed for her right before she told the girls to head for the bedroom. It really hit the spot and helped Karen feel a little more relaxed. She wasn’t quite ready for bed herself, but it was late enough to get Valerie and Robin down for the night.
“Mama, why are we sleeping in Ganny’s bed?” Valerie rolled over onto her side to look at Karen’s face.
“We are having a sleepover with Uncle Troy and our new friend Leon. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“What’s a sleepover?” Valerie slunk back down into the nook of her Mama’s armpit.
“It’s when you stay over at someone else’s house and your friends get to stay there with you. Go to sleep, baby.”
“Mama? I’m tired.” Robin spoke soft and low. She was very close to falling all the way asleep.
“Good. Close your eyes and sleep.”
“Okay,” Robin made one last turn over to her side and less than a minute later she was out. That’s what Karen was waiting for. She could get up and head back out to the living room as long as Robin was asleep. Valerie could lay there by herself until she finally succumbed to the Sandman.
Karen slipped her arm out from under the little redhead’s noggin, “I’m getting up to check on Uncle Troy. You stay here and make sure Robin keeps sleeping. Call me if you need me, okay?”
“Okay, love you Mama,” Valerie lifted her head to allow her Mama to escape. She reached out her arms for one final hug before her night came to an end. Karen leaned over the bed and hugged her baby.
Valerie cupped her hand to her mouth and whispered, “Mama, I got a secret to tell you.”
Karen got her ear close to Valerie’s cupped hand, “What is it?”
“I like sleepovers,” that was as juicy as her secrets got.
“Me too,” Karen planted one last kiss on her forehead and then she stepped over to the bedroom door, “Love you baby. Now go to sleep.” As Karen exited the room she kept the door open in case they called for her.
Leon had the TV switched over to a news channel. He sat a few feet from the screen with the volume down low. Only he could hear what was being said by the news anchor.
Leon noticed Karen at the entryway, “It’s global. Every inch of the Earth has been touched by this madness.” Leon sipped at his glass.
Karen took a seat next to her brother on the couch, “Turn it up.”
Leon got up, pulled his chair back and thumbed the volume button.
The TV had a satellite photo of the Earth with red splotches all over the map. At the top of the screen read the words “Infected areas marked in red.” Every single major city was covered.
“…areas with a dense hospital population were hit the hardest today. The numbers of fatalities are impossible to calculate at this time. Some experts have estimated over twenty-five percent of the world’s population has been lost due to the infection and the number is steadily climbing.”
The video footage cut to a long shot of the White House. Infected monsters milled about on the front lawn. A gun battle had taken place and the humans had lost. The white exterior of the President’s home had been charred black and the building was half burnt down.
“The President and his cabinet are unreachable at this time and there have been no updates coming out of Washington DC.”
The footage cut to a shot of the Pentagon. Dead bodies littered the surrounding area and fires poked out of the building’s windows. A security team raced across the parking lot toward a helicopter. They blasted their side arms at the encroaching horde that chased after them. The helicopter’s rotors began to twirl as the team entered, but before they could lift off, the horde crashed into the chopper and overtook it.
“The Pentagon’s last report was logged an hour ago and its final words mentioned that they were under heavy attack from the infected humans and were about to be overrun.”
The footage cut to a shot of an army base. Fires burned, explosions blasted smoke into the sky and infected people roamed the grounds like lost children. Machine gun fire popped in the background, but they had clearly lost this battle.
“Military bases have been hit hard. Small pockets of resistance are still fighting to take back control, but communication has been lost and reinforcements are scattered. Repeated tries to contact anyone in charge has failed.”
The footage cut to a set of black and white cruisers that were covered in blood and gore. A trapped infected woman sat in the backseat of the cruiser. It banged its cuffed wrists against the window, unable to smash its way to freedom.
“The police have been decimated along with the fire departments and first response medical teams. Even the National Guard has folded under the pressure of this infection. Other startling news that we have recently confirmed is this disease is communicable for all mammals. We have shocking footage taken from the San Diego Zoo.” Text scrolls across the bottom of the TV’s, it read disturbing footage ahead.
It was cell phone footage of a woman running. Her cries for help distorted the audio. The video shook violently and was facing the direction from which she was running. A large object, too blurry to make out, rampaged through a crowd of people. It knocked pedestrians to the ground and ripped their limbs off. The creature leaped through the air and landed feet from the woman running the camera. She spoke English, but they could only understand every tenth word. “No and God” were the only ones Karen could make out. The object became clearer as it stormed in her direction. It was a four-hundred pound Gorilla. It wasn’t just loose and running wild, it had been turned. Its powerful fangs ripped into a human only feet from the camera. It was a wrecking ball. A human eating machine. In the minute long video it killed and turned twenty people with its bites, hits and stomps of its monstrous feet. The gorilla chomped down onto a woman’s shoulder and snapped her leg at the hip. It tore the mouthful of meat off her body and then tossed the dead body into the camera operator. The screen went red and the impact distort the audio.
The video cut and changed to a security camera. It was black and white and angled down, overlooking a few different animal habitats. An infected rhino plowed over park visitors like a tank. It impaled them on its horn, snapping most of its victims in half. The beast gnawed on the bodies that hit the ground. Then it took off again and crushed skulls into blood stains on the concrete pathway as it trampled over a group of men that were trying to stop the infected beast. The rhino was unstoppable. It ran through another group of fleeing humans then it veered off camera.
The video cut and changed again to another camera phone. The shot peered through some bushes and the voices behind the camera whispered.
“It’s right over there. Quiet.” A hand shook as it reached out and pulled a branch down out of view and the camera focused on a normal looking lioness. She majestically ate the guts out of what looked like a zoo worker. The workers tan outfit was splayed open and covered in dark red stains. The lion laid out on the ground with one paw draped over its meal. It looked perfectly content. Lord knows how long it had been since it got to hunt for its meal. Suddenly the dead zoo worker’s arms jerked alive and wrapped around the neck of the lion. The infected zookeeper had flipped the table on the animal and now lion was on the menu. The camera operator stifled their whimpers. The lion retaliated. It nearly swiped the head clean off of the zookeeper’s neck with a powerf
ul swat of its razor sharp claws. The damage had already been done. The infected had sunk its teeth into the skin of the lion and it had drawn blood. It didn’t take long for the transformation to occur. The lion dropped to its side, shook violently on the ground, turned and rose to its feet. The infected animal sniffed at the air and lunged toward the cameraman. The video cut with a hardy crunch.
The TV program cut from the footage to a visibly shaken news anchor. She didn’t have time to prep with makeup or fix her hair. She looked like she was in desperate need of a nap. Her eyes held the telltale signs of heavy and recent crying. She scrambled to reshuffle her papers in front of her once she noticed the camera was back on. She cleared her throat, “There is still no known cure for this new disease. At ten o’clock this morning it began to spread at multiple locations all over the globe.”
Pictures of famous cities covered the screen just over the anchors shoulder. New York, Paris, London, LA, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Rio were all ablaze and looked like war zones. The footage was all shot from the windows of tall buildings. They panned over the cityscape and down on the action on the streets. Humans raced from the growing hordes. Some tried to stand their ground. They fought back with melee weapons, but were quickly gobbled up. A man tossed a Molotov cocktail into a group of infected. The burning bodies spread the fire all over the street.
“With the little information we have on its origins some specialists have concluded that it is not biological warfare. We have been unable to reach anyone at the CDC to confirm that theory or to give us an explanation on this infection. No terrorist organizations have stepped forward to take credit for the attack and all regions of the globe being affected, it is unlikely to be the act of a single group.” The anchor shuffled her papers and a graphic of a cross appeared on the screen next to her.
“Reverend Toby Blake, the leader of a Christian Coalition of America posted this online. “God’s wrath has descended. This is the end of times. Prepare to meet your maker. To the Godless whores, homosexuals, atheists and all the sinners of the world, ready yourselves to burn in hell for eternity.” End quote. With so many unanswered questions about this pandemic perhaps it is the end of times or maybe Mother Nature has had enough of mankind and is wiping the slate clean. For continued coverage of this outbreak please stay tuned. We will remain on the air for as long as we can. I’m Kristina Swan and this is CNN News.” The broadcast cut to a commercial about adult diapers.
