Evolution of the Dead

by R. M. Smith

  “Yeah,” Carmen called out, lowering her head. “Her name’s Maria. Is she dead?”

  Nick nodded, his long hair swinging. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

  “Damn,” Carmen whispered.

  Scott said, “Come on, let’s go get her out of the way and get the keys.”

  Carmen said, “The door to the left - right when you get in - leads to a hallway. It goes down to the loading dock. That’s where the trucks are.”

  “We’ll get them,” Scott said hurriedly. “You two just wait right there. We’ll be back for ya in a sec.”

  Scott followed Nick and Janet back into the building.

  Kim turned around in the seat to face Carmen. She said, “I’m Kim.”

  “Carmen.”

  She looked down at Carmen’s leg. “How did you break your foot?”

  “I jumped out of a building.”

  “No shit? Are you ok?”

  “Other than my foot, yeah, but I’m scared to death of this crap.”

  “Yeah, me too. I wonder what caused it.”

  “I don’t know. It happened so fast.”

  Carmen turned in her seat, too. Both of them watched the back door of the Rent-A-Center. Their heads were like swivels as they looked from the back door, to the corner of the building expecting at any second for the worst to happen.

  Inside, Nick, Scott and Janet stood with their backs to the wall next to the shut manager’s office door.

  Scott whispered, “You ready?”

  Nick nodded as he held his piece of window frame like a baseball bat.

  “You stay back,” Scott motioned to Janet as he quickly turned the knob on the door, unlatching it. He kicked it open. It slammed back against the door stop.

  Maria stepped out into the hallway. Her skin had all dried. Now it hung on her in large powdery chunks. Under her skin, in spots, rivers of worms swirled madly through her veins. Some had blackened and were dangling out of her cheeks. Her hair was in the process of falling out. Something larger was hanging out of her mouth. It had gotten stuck there when she vomited out all of her liquids. To Nick, it looked like she had thrown up her stomach, but then he realized that it was a fetus in a dried collapsed amniotic sack.

  “Aww shit,” he said, holding back vomit. He used the window frame, stabbing her in the chest and pushing her back into the office. With Nick holding her back, Scott avoided Maria’s flailing arms. He quickly stepped into the office. The walls were covered in puke and blood. It had run down the walls.

  “Where’s the goddamn keys?”

  “There, by the calendar,” Nick said pointing as Maria reached for him.

  Each key had a plastic color coded ring on the end of it. There were five of them hanging in a row on a pegboard.

  Scott yelled, “Let’s go!” He scooped the keys off into his pocket and ran out of the office past Nick.

  Nick pulled his beam away from Maria’s chest as he pulled the door shut, blocking her in.

  “Ok, let’s get to the warehouse!”

  When they pulled the door open to run down to the loading docks, a woman with long blonde curly hair, red lipstick and large breasts met them. They scared each other. Fanning herself with her hand she asked, “Are you here to save me?”

  “No, we’re saving ourselves,” Nick said as he ran past her. “Come on. We’re taking the trucks.”

  “You can’t take those,” Rita called after them.

  Realizing these people didn’t care what she said, she ran down the hall after them. She hoped Norman was ok, wherever he was.

  In the parking garage, all six of the trucks were backed up to the loading dock.

  Scott gave the keys to Nick. “They’re color coded to the trucks."

  “Right.”

  He pointed at Janet and Rita. “You two. Go with him. Get in the first two trucks he starts.”

  “The name’s Janet,” she said.

  “Fine, whatever, we’ll get to the formalities later, ok? Right now I’m going back for the other girls after I get these overhead doors open.”

  “Alright,” she said as she followed Nick.

  “There’s buttons on the wall by the doors,” Rita called after him. “They open the overhead doors.”

  The three of them ran down the line of trucks. Scott ran over to the overhead doors. Each one had its own electric door opener. He hit each button as he ran down the length of the building but none of the doors opened. Cussing, he ran back along the doors. He had to open each one manually. As each door opened, the group of the dead gathering in the street grew bigger and bigger.

  He shouted, “We need to hurry! They’re gonna get in here!”

  After the first door opened, Kim and Carmen came driving into the loading bay in Scott’s car. Kim parked out of the way. She got out and ran around to help Carmen get on her feet.

  Getting out, Carmen slung her arm over Kim’s shoulder. Kim was a little shorter than her. She made a good crutch as they hobbled over to the trucks.

  Nick started the first truck. The key had a red color code which matched a large red dot on the fender near the front wheel well of the truck. After it was running, he got out. Janet got in. He told her to wait to be told what to do.

  Scott went to help Kim. He asked Carmen, “Can you drive a truck?”

  With no care for the pain in her foot, she said, “Yes, I’ll drive.”

  He and Kim helped her get into the next truck Nick started.

  “I’ll direct you guys in when I get my truck parked,” Carmen shouted over the engine to the rest of them.

  “You take the next one he gets started,” Scott said to Kim. He yelled up at Janet. “Follow her where she goes, then you,” he pointed at Rita.

  Rita nodded, “Ok, what are we doing?”

  Bridgework

  Carmen drove her 14 foot truck out of the garage. With her foot banging in pain, she drove out of the parking lot, along the frontage road, and then across the bridge directly in front of the Rent-A-Center. The bridge spanned the silent highway below. She drove her truck to the other side.

  The bridge itself was four lanes wide with a double turning lane in the center. Carmen drove her truck down her side of the road. When she got closer to the other side of the bridge, she cranked the steering wheel hard to the left, driving through the turning lanes, bringing the nose of the truck right up to the bridge railing. Putting it into reverse, she backed straight back so that the rear of the truck was touching flat against the bridge railing on her side of the road.

  Janet followed her onto the bridge. Carmen got out of her truck. Hopping around to the front of it, she directed Janet to back her truck up so that it would be directly facing, parked nose to nose, with hers.

  Janet rolled down her window. “I won’t be able to line it up with yours,” she shouted. “The front’ll be sticking out at an angle. The trucks won’t be lined up – they’ll be crooked.”

  “We’ll use the next truck to push the front of yours in.”

  Janet backed her truck up so that hers was facing Carmen’s. With the rear passenger side of her truck nearly touching the bridge railing behind her, Janet killed the engine, hopped out, and ran to the passenger side. Kim was coming across the bridge in her truck. Behind her, the large group of the dead had turned away from the Rent-A-Center and were now slowly approaching the bridge.

  “Shit, we gotta do this faster,” Carmen whispered to herself.

  As Kim rolled her window down, Carmen directed her to push the front of Janet’s truck over so that it was lined up nose to nose with hers. After she did, Carmen yelled up to her, “Ok, now back up so that the box end of your truck is parked against the front of these two.”

  She nodded, did a U-turn on the bridge and backed her truck up to the other two. The three trucks formed a ‘T.’

  Janet and Kim helped Carmen limp over to the other side of the bridge. Carmen directed Scott to back his truck up like hers on the other side.

  Seconds later, Rita came driving onto the
bridge. Carmen directed her to wait in the middle of the bridge as Nick backed his truck up, lining it up with the front of Scotts. When Nick had his parked, Carmen told Rita to do a U-turn and drive her truck up to the front of the other two. She pushed Nick’s so that it lined up with the nose of Scott’s forming another ‘T’ on the opposite end of the bridge.

  Rita leaned out her window. She asked, “Do I turn my truck around now?”

  Carmen thought about it for minute. “No. Leave it like that. We can use the box end of your truck for shelter in case it rains or something.”

  Now the bridge was theirs.

  The dead were blocked out.

  The dead stood on the other side of the truck barricade.

  They were silent.

  Their dead eyes stared.

  Their arms reached.

  Carmen said, “It’s creepy how they just stand there, not moving. They’re like statues.”

  Facing toward the center of the bridge, Carmen sat in the truck’s passenger seat with her broken foot propped up on the dash. Outside, Kim stood beside her, leaning her back against the inside of the open door.

  Twenty minutes had passed since the trucks were positioned on the bridge.

  When they all realized that they had found a brief area of safety, they all hugged one another, happy to be finally somewhere the dead could not reach. They introduced themselves to one another. The men shook hands, the women hugged. Scott told Carmen that she had saved them all. He kissed her on the cheek, lifted her up, and carried her over to the truck she was now sitting in.

  In the middle of the bridge, Scott, Janet, Rita and Nick stood looking out into the city. Every once in a while, one of them would walk to the side of the bridge and peer over the edge.

  Kim said, “We need to get something for your foot. Does it hurt very much?”

  With a shake of her head Carmen said, “No. Moving all of the trucks and stuff pretty much has put the pain out of my mind.” She smiled. “But thanks for reminding me about it.”

  Kim smiled back. “Well…you should have something for the pain.”

  She laughed quietly. “Like what? Crutches? Where we going to get any?”

  “I meant like pain killers or medication.”

  “Yeah. I could really use some pills. I should take some. I wonder if they got any when they went inside.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll go ask.”

  “Ok.”

  Kim walked over to the other four. She put her hands in her pockets, grabbing her small penlight, her security token as she liked to call it. She had used it many times.

  As she approached the others, she shrugged.

  Scott asked, “How’s she doing?”

  “She doesn’t have any pain…for now. Did you guys find any pills in the Rent-A-Center?”

  Nick shook his head. “No. It was too mad of a rush in there.”

  Janet added, “Yeah we were too busy tryin to stay alive.”

  “Ok. I’ll let her know then.”

  Rita offered, “Norm had some pills in his office, but I think they were depression pills or maybe they were for high blood pressure.”

  “Yeah we don’t need those,” Nick said. “We need pain pills, not depression pills.” He asked Kim, “Did you happen to see?”

  “No?” Kim turned. “See what?”

  He motioned toward the edge with his elbow. “Take a look.”

  With questions on her face, Kim stepped to the edge of the bridge. Peering over, she saw hundreds of the dead reaching up to her. She said, “They don’t even move.”

  “No,” Nick said. “They haven’t moved since we got here.”

  “I think we could outrun them,” Scott added. “We really don’t need to stay here.”

  “Yeah but we’re safe here,” Kim said strongly.

  “Yeah. But what if they suddenly decide to move?” Janet asked. “What if they attack?”

  “I don’t think they will,” Kim answered. “We haven’t seen anything like that since this whole thing started. The only trouble we’ve really had was with the lady in the water. She was easy to get around, though. Scott just kicked her out of the way.”

  “Right,” Scott agreed. “But if these things start attacking – or even show a sign of attack, I wanna get out of here quick.”

  “And go where?” Janet asked.

  “The airport. I was supposed to meet my family there and fly out of here. I’m a pilot. I have my own plane.”

  “We could take the frontage road,” Nick suggested as he pushed some of his hair out of his face. “Why don’t we just take one of these trucks and drive through all of these fuckers?”

  “I’m down for that,” Janet said.

  “But we just got this all set up,” Kim disagreed. “We should stay here until tomorrow morning, at least. We need to get our energy back.”

  “I’m ready to go now,” Scott said. “You two with me?”

  Nick looked at all of them, then glanced over at Carmen who was watching them from inside the truck. “Yeah, but what about her?”

  Kim gave Scott an evil eye. “Don’t you dare say anything like you did about Carmen when we first saw her.”

  Scott looked at his feet.

  Janet asked, “Why? What did he say?”

  “She was a distraction. She was keeping the dead people’s attention. He wanted to drive by and leave her be.”

  Janet asked, “What's wrong with that? What's wrong with wanting to live?”

  Nick put his hands on his hips. “Damn you guys, that’s kinda fucked up.”

  “It was the heat of the moment,” Scott said, flustered. Janet didn’t respond. Scott asked, “Goddamn Kim, what do you have? A photographic memory?”

  “I’m a school teacher,” she said with a smirk on her face. “I have to listen when people talk.”

  “Oh shit,” Nick said with a laugh. “A school teacher?”

  “Oh yeah?” she snipped. “What are you? A member of a rock band?”

  “No. I’m a level designer.”

  “A what?” Rita asked with a laugh in her voice.

  “Level designer. I design levels for video games.”

  “You mean like Ms. PacMan?” Janet asked, ribbing him.

  “Oh come on,” Nick said. “Don’t you guys have any kids?”

  Everyone shook their heads no.

  Nick laughed. “Me either, well, one on the way. Ok then, what do you do, Mr. Airplane Pilot?”

  “I’m an architect.”

  “No shit? Hell, that’s pretty much the same as level designing.”

  “Not quite.”

  “Ok,” Rita said, “I’m gonna go check on Carmen.”

  Janet laughed, “Yeah. Me too.”

  “Yep,” Kim agreed.

  Scott and Nick didn’t hear them. They were off in their own world talking about world design.

  Kim stuck her thumb over her shoulder as she got close enough for Carmen to hear her. “They’re already talking their man stuff.”

  “Already talking about building their man cave,” Janet added.

  “Yep. Pretty soon they’ll be comparing dicks,” Rita said with a smile.

  Carmen laughed. “I didn’t think it would take very long.”

  Kim leaned her back against the inside of the passenger side door again. She asked, “Carmen, what do you do for a job?”

  “Rita and I both work at the Rent-A-Center. I’m a shipping and receiving clerk. Rita’s a cashier.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Kim said, nodding her head.

  Carmen asked Kim, “How about you?”

  “I’m a school teacher.”

  “Nice. What grade?”

  “Third and fourth.”

  “Cute kids,” Rita said.

  “Some,” Kim nodded. “Some not.”

  Carmen smiled. “Do you guys have kids of your own?”

  Kim answered “No. You?”

  She laughed. “No. I’m only 21.”

  Janet asked, “Boyfriend
?”

  Carmen’s face dropped. John had totally slipped her mind; his hard hat, the mayonnaise on his moustache. She started crying.

  “Oh, shit, honey, I’m sorry,” Janet said. “I didn’t know.”

  “No, no, it’s ok,” she said through her tears.

  Rita put her hand on Carmen’s shoulder. She asked, “John’s dead?”

  Carmen nodded with her head down.

  “Oh God.”

  Kim put her hand on top of Carmen’s bare leg. “I’m sorry, too, Carmen. I didn’t know.”

  Carmen put her hand on top of Kim’s. “It’s ok.”

  Backing away, Rita bit her bottom lip, jealous of Kim touching Carmen’s leg. She wished someone was touching hers right now, or holding her, keeping her safe. She was very scared. She hoped Norman was ok.

  “Well, at least you two were happy,” Kim said, offering comfort. “My husband abused me.”

  “No!” Janet said angrily. “Really?”

  Kim nodded with a stiff lip. “I’ve got years’ worth of bruises on my ribs. I can only wear a one-piece swim suit.”

  “Shit, if a man did that to me, I’d rip his balls off,” Rita said with her hands on her hips.

  “Yeah,” Kim smiled, nodding slowly. “But, I don’t miss him. I’m glad he’s gone. I hope he died a painful death. The son of a bitch didn’t even let me wear make-up.”

  “That’s cold,” Janet said. Mine left me years ago. I just been living with my sister.”

  Wiping a tear from her eye, Carmen asked, “What did you do for work, Janet?”

  “I was a stripper.”

  Carmen and Kim had shocked looks on their faces. Rita smiled slyly.

  Janet laughed. “A paint stripper. Me and my sister painted homes. We had a very profitable business.”

  The four ladies laughed together.

  Something caused the box end of the truck to shake.

  Carmen’s eyes widened. Her thoughts of John were gone. The other three ladies stepped back from the side of the truck.

  Had a dead person figured a way to climb over the trucks?

  “Scott!” Kim yelled. “Get over here!”

  He and Nick came running over to the truck. “What’s going on?”

  “Something moved the truck,” Carmen said, her voice cracking.