Outbreak of the Living Dead (Book 1)

by Guerra, Aaron

  “They seemed like they were in their mid twenties to me, well the guy that is. The girl looked younger in a way,” she said. The blond woman had looked down as she remembered the look in their eyes when they had awoken on the road. “I think something happened to them to where they had snapped like that. Drugs is a possibility but the Doctor didn’t mention that when I was at the hospital.”

  Jen stood up while unbuttoning her blue shirt.

  She had asked nicely, “Could you be a dear and hand me my top?” The woman had removed her blue shirt to reveal her black lacey bra. “Oh, it’s in my locker over there,” she said. Sarah had got up and went over to retrieve it from the locker. When she opened the old creaky metal door, she noticed a picture of one of their friends taped to the side. It was Ryan. A man that acted like a child and sometimes could be a bit of a dick if you humored him a bit too much. Sarah turned back to Jen after handing her the top to her police uniform.

  “Do you have a thing for Ryan?”, Sarah had asked with a sly smirk on her face. Jen shook her head quickly while putting her shirt on.

  “No way! No! We’re just friends!” Sarah couldn’t help but smile as her arms rested in front of her chest. The officer had laughed before asking her another question about that subject.

  “Sure you two aren‘t going to be something more later on?” Sarah teased.

  The door to the Armory/Locker Room had swung open as the Sheriff walked in. He stood tall with his eyes glaring over towards the two women to his left.

  “Alright!”, he had said with a low tough voice. “James told me you were looking for me! Now spill it!” The sheriff was in a bad attitude after all. “I don’t have all damn day! Some of my best officers are out sick and the new bloods here are messing up all the paper work!” Sarah quickly stood up straight with Jen doing the same.

  “Sir!”, Sarah had said while facing the angry man. “I picked up two people while on my way here and-” The man punched the wall with his face turning bright red.

  “PICKING UP PEOPLE?!”, the man shouted. “THAT’S WHAT YOU CALLED ME DOWN HERE FOR?! DAMN IT OFFICER PARSON! GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND GO PATROL THE SOUTH LIKE YOU’RE SUPPOSE TO BEFORE I LOSE MY FREAKING TEMPER!” It got quiet real fast after he left the room. The two of them both sighed at the same time, before smiling at each other.

  Sarah playfully poked her friend‘s cheek before saying, “It’s going to be one of those days…Isn’t it Jen?”

  Chapter 1

  It was a cold lonesome night on Thursday August 14th as Billy Joe, a mechanic in his late 30’s was driving past a wreck near the outskirts of his hometown in Little Bow. He was told to drive around the outside of the city to see if he could find a wreckage, since he owed Jen some money. Billy was your average man that loved to have his late evening drives to settle his mind after a long stressful day at the shop. A cold beer could really calm his nerves right about now, but since it was a work night he couldn’t do that neither. He then parked his very old vehicle to the side of the road when he found what seemed to be the area he was searching for. The man unbuckled his seatbelt and slowly got out of his old trashy vehicle. Billy slowly walked over to the cars that were smashed into each other with a flashlight in his hand. There was no sign of life in the first car he checked. The other vehicle was upside down with flames consuming the back of it.

  “Is there anyone here?!”, he had called out, but there was no answer. The closer he got to the second turned over vehicle, the more he was able to make out small whimpering and light groans. Obviously they were badly hurt. “Listen now, I’m going to go back into town and get the sheriff!”, said Billy. “You just…You just stay here and I’ll come back with help! Don‘t worry, Billy will bring the ambulance so that everything will be okay!” Billy Joe turned around to run back to his vehicle, but the sight of death itself had stopped him in his tracks. A tall man standing by his car was what startled him. The man was covered in wounds from head to toe as he reached out to Billy slowly. Most of his face was scraped off and burned from the accident that had occurred the day before.

  The man pleaded to the injured person in front of him, “Sir! Please! You need to lay down!” Billy took a step back as he continued to talk to him. “I‘m going to head back to town and get help for you and the others!” Billy slowly approached the wounded person cautiously before he started to hear movement from behind him where the car that was upside down was located. As soon as he turned to witness a few of the people crawling out, a swift sensation of pain shot throughout his entire back which made him cough out some blood. The mechanic slowly glanced down to see a hand sticking out of his chest. The tall man had pulled Billy closer with his rotting teeth sinking into his neck. Blood started to spill out as Billy tried to fight off his attacker. He had struggled to break free but was soon ambushed by the others. They had found their way to him from the smashed up cars with their white soulless eyes looking into his. Billy Joe’s screams were soon muffled by his blood as the victims of the car crash began to tear him apart and devour the man throughout the night.

  Sherriff Bruce Matthews was in bed with his wife the next morning. What woke him up from his sleep was the telephone ringing next to his face. The man had grabbed his old phone and answered it quickly.

  “You better have something important to say for waking me up so god damn early!”, said the Sheriff. He rubbed his silver moustache before continuing to talk through the phone. “Now who is this and what do you want?“ The man had sat up on his bed after learning what had happened during the night.

  “Sheriff! Something terrible happened out here.”

  “Alright now! I’ll be heading that way in just a few. Don‘t do anything stupid!”

  “It’s pretty messed up out here”, said the officer on the other end.

  The Sheriff had turned to his wife to see that she was still asleep.

  He said quietly while giving the love of his wife a peck on the cheek, “I’m sorry darling, but I have to go to work now.” Twenty minutes had passed since he first left his house. He noticed up ahead that one of his men’s vehicle was parked near two cars that were smashed together. The Sheriff turned right and drove up to the crime scene next to where the other police car was. He then exited his vehicle and walked over to where the other officer was standing. Deputy Harvey Santos waved at his superior while coughing to the side. Harvey had moved to Little Bow a few months back after being transferred to this department. He was still getting the hang of how they did things here, compared to where he first originated from back at Travis.

  “Sir, we have a serious problem here,” Harvey had said to the Sheriff with a grim look on his face. He was still not use to the dark side of the police force when it came to morbid.

  “Son, I’m going to need you to call in Sarah and George right now,” said Bruce. “We’re going to need more help with this shit. Just look at it!” The sheriff had slowly walked towards the wreckage and the abandoned vehicle that was parked a few feet from it. Between the cars, there was a pool of blood and some torn clothing.

  Harvey walked up behind the Sheriff, startled to see a familiar patch on the clothing soaked in blood. It was a dark blue jump suit with Initials on it.

  He said while examining the spot, “Sir! That’s Billy Joe’s!” The man was going to reach for the small patch, but he stopped himself just in time. “I was just talking to him yesterday afternoon about fixing up one of our patrol cars that was acting up recently.” Harvey knelt down closer to the pool of blood, wondering what the heck had happened to Billy.

  The sheriff rubbed his chin before saying, “Well son, maybe he was attacked by a wild animal.” The man was looking down at the dried blood stains as he continued to talk. “I can’t see any bodies in the other vehicles…so we’ll have to assume that Billy came here to help them when he was attacked by a few coyotes or something for now.” Harvey didn’t want to believe that, since there was no tracks made by animals near the dried blood. The Sheriff stretched out his ar
ms as he began to yawn from his lack of sleep. Harvey got up and went straight to his car after examining the blood some more. He opened the door and sat in the driver‘s seat and reached for his radio. The man had brought up the device and firmly pressed the button down as he spoke through it.

  “Sarah, this is Deputy Harvey Santos, come in, over,” he said. The radio made a static sound before a young female’s voice came out of the speaker.

  “This is Sarah,” she said with a cheerful voice. “What seems to be the problem Officer Santos? Over.” A smirk grew on his face as he tilted his head, pressing the button on the radio again for him to speak.

  “We’ve talked about that darling. Just call me Harvey or Deputy. Over.”

  A small laugh came from his radio as she started to reply to him.

  “Alright Harvey. What seems to be the problem? Over.”

  The image of Billy from the day before had crossed his mind for a second before he got back to the main topic.

  “Listen, the Sheriff wants you and George to come on down here. This looks like it might take a while to figure out what the happened here. Over and out,” said Harvey.

  Sarah had just finished talking to Harvey from her end and went off to search for Officer George Perez in the Police Department. She found him sitting in the Armory room alone. He was always fascinated with the heavy weapons that they never got to use. George was around her age, in the late twenties but still young at heart like a teenager.

  “Hey warrior boy!” she said with her serious face on. “The Sheriff wants us to help investigate a possible animal attack outside of the town.” George stood up while popping his knuckles like a kid before putting his hat on.

  “Finally, something to do. Wait…why an animal attack?” he asked while standing in front of the woman. “Isn’t that the Animal Patrol’s thing? Did we get demoted to do their work now?” Sarah shook her head, causing her blond pony tail to bounce around as she walked out of the room.

  She hoped that he would actually follow her and not be forced out of the room filled with the guns he admired so much. George adjusted his hat once more before hitting the lights and walking out of the room. Many of the police officers in there were all stuck at their desk or running around to solve their own crimes that they were assigned to while the sheriff wasn’t there to get on their asses. He was a tough son of a bitch, but still the best Sheriff they’ve had at Little Bow for the past twenty three years. The two had made it to where their vehicles were parked.

  The woman turned over to look at him before asking, “So, who’s driving?” The man hit the top of his car and motioned for her to get in his vehicle. Sarah had opened the passenger door to George’s car as he got in to the drivers side. He checked his pockets first, but realized that they weren’t in there.

  “Oh no,” he said while patting down his pants. “I think I lost my car keys again!” Without saying a word, Sarah had reached over to the ignition and turned the key to start the vehicle.

  “Darn it George,” said Sarah as she gave him her sheriff’s impersonation. “You left the keys in here again! You’re lucky the Sheriff isn’t here to yell at you again!” George couldn’t help but laugh at the face she was making. She said with a low voice, “You remember how hot blooded he was the last time you did that?” George let a soft sigh escape as he shut his door the same time she did. Together they drove off to meet up with Harvey and the Sheriff that were outside of town.

  Bruce was sitting in his truck when George and Sarah pulled up beside him. It was already after 8am when they finally arrived at the place. The sheriff had a red face due to the heat and lack of sleep when he confronted them.

  “You two sure took your time getting here,” he said while rubbing his face. “What the hell were you two doing?” Sarah had exited the car first to meet up with Harvey by the wreckage while George made sure to remove his keys from the ignition this time. The way the Sheriff sounded was more then enough to scare him into becoming the perfect police officer for the rest of the day.

  “Sir, we got lost on the way here,” said George with a scratchy high pitch tone in his voice. Bruce took a moment to get out of his vehicle as he glanced at the other two by the cars, then back to George.

  “Well at least you’re here now son. Now, go help Harvey and Sarah figure out what had happened to the missing bodies,” Bruce told him.

  The Sheriff turned back and entered the vehicle again before buckling up.

  “I’m going to head back to the station to see if anyone is calling in on missing persons,” said the man in the truck. “I want the three of you to look after each other incase those animals come back.” George nodded as the Sheriff started his truck and began to back up before driving out of there. By the time George had made his way to the broken down old vehicle, the Sheriff was long gone from his sight.

  Harvey stood beside Sarah before asking, “What do you think happened here?” He had looked at her before continuing to talk. “Bruce believes that coyotes were eating the remains when Billy Joe tried to stop them.” The man had rubbed the back of his neck while staring down at the dried blood stain below. “That’s when he was probably attacked and killed.” Harvey stared down at the dry blood that was in front of him. Sarah looked all over the pool of blood to see some of the clothing fabric soaking in the middle. The smell however, is what caught her attention the moment she got closer to it.

  She had covered her nose before asking them, “Do you smell that?” She had used her wrist to cover her nose when she quickly walked away to get some fresh air. Harvey and George then walked closer to the wrecked vehicles before catching a whiff of something horrible in the air. George quickly removed his hat and used it to fan in front of him while he walked away.

  “God damn! That is foul,” said the officer as he continued to fan the smell away with his hat. George looked down to the blood before facing Harvey. “Smells like something‘s been rotting here for days,” he said.

  Harvey’s hand had reached down for his gun that was resting in it’s holster. He then pulled it out with his eyes dead set on something in the tall grass near the road.

  Harvey said loud enough for both to hear, “We’re not alone.” Sarah and George quickly armed themselves with their guns the moment he said that. The two had aimed over towards the grass where Harvey was pointing to. They started to slowly walk over to Harvey as all three switched their gun’s safety off. George had moved ahead, but soon stopped in his tracks. The man couldn’t help but make a disgusted face when he was standing in the tall grass. That horrible dead stench from before was growing stronger the closer they got to the tall grass that was moving slightly. Sarah had looked around as the two male officers went closer to check it out together.

  George called out to the woman near the cars, “Hey Sarah, stay there incase something jumps out at us.” George gave her a random thumbs up for some odd reason before he turned to face Harvey.

  “Ready?” asked Harvey. The other officer nodded and took a few more steps closer to the tall grass. That’s when he saw it. Harvey couldn’t believe what his very own two eyes were seeing. George had fell to his knee’s when he found what made Harvey freeze in place.

  The man lost control of his stomach as he began to vomit into the grass that he was kneeling in. Billy Joe’s corpse, or whatever was left of him was laying in the grass a few feet away from them. He was missing most of his neck and his eyes were pure white with blood covering his shredded chest. Harvey turned around and waved to the officer that was by the vehicles.

  “Sarah!” Harvey had yelled to catch her attention. “Call in Erik! We found Billy!” He placed a hand on George‘s shoulder to calm him down. George quickly stood up and walked away while wiping his lips clean with his wrist. The smell that was coming off their dead friend was worse than any other corpse they‘ve come across during their years of service. George had made his way back to Sarah while she was on the radio with someone. He was standing beside her with his face looking pale.
She ended the brief conversation with Erik on the receiver and turned to face him.

  “How’re you feeling?” she asked. George coughed and shook his head in disbelief.

  He said with a shaky voice, “I can’t believe something did that to Billy.” The man had coughed into his hand before looking away. “I’ve known that man for over ten years.” Sarah sighed heavily as she began to rub his back to try and comfort him.

  “I never knew something like this was going to happen,” she said. Sarah stopped what she was doing and just stood there. “I just wanted someone to help me find the wreck that Marilyn and Matthew were in.”

  Harvey was still near the devoured corpse. The image of him ripped to pieces was grossing him out, but he had work to do. The officer started to examine the body without touching it. He was able to see teeth marks near the neck that didn‘t resemble any kind of animal he‘s seen around here.

  “Those sort of look like…human bite marks,” he had thought to himself. The man stood up slowly and looked around to see if there was someone else was in the grass near him. But he couldn‘t find anyone else but what seemed to be Billy’s legs that were just a few feet away from the body. “What is going on here? What would do this?” The man thought to himself so that no one could hear, “Coyote my ass!” He decided to just wait there until Erik could retrieve the body and take it back to Little Bow for further examining. Erik was the man that did the autopsies before sending the dead to their rightful family to put to rest.