by Steve Wands
“Go see if they work,” Jon-Jon said, still looking around in case they weren’t the right ones.
Joseph grabbed the coats and ran outside. He tossed the coats to the group, “If you’re cold, grab one. Check the pockets too.”
He hopped into the truck, trying to fit each key into the hole. Eventually one of them slid right in. He turned the ignition and the truck roared to life. He slapped the steering wheel and as he was about to honk the horn, Scott, Judy, and Jon-Jon came running out of the building.
“Fuck yea!” Jon-Jon shouted.
“Everyone in,” Judy yelled.
Scott and Judy ran to the front seat.
Jon-Jon ran to Dawn, “Come on, let’s get in the back.”
***
Joseph spun the truck around, being mindful of the passengers in the back, and pulled around as his brother and the others came down from the bridge.
“About time, get the fuck in.”
They climbed in and Joseph started driving away.
Jon tapped on the window to the back of the cab and Scott opened it up. “We need to follow the train tracks up the Hudson to get to the marina. Go towards the water and make a right.”
Scott gave him a thumbs-up and relayed the message to Joseph.
“Guys,” Jon said, “it’s going to get real bumpy once we get to them tracks so we all need to hold on tight.”
46 THAT SAD SMILE
(back to top)
Joseph slowed the truck down as it bounced on the rocky terrain. The moonlight on the water lit the area well and Joseph was able to see the train tracks without a problem. The tracks ran underneath the bridge and they reminded him of all the times he’d gone drinking down by the tracks back home—when he had a home.
He then drove the truck along the tracks following them toward the marina Jon had spoke about. Which couldn’t have been too far away considering he could see the sails of some of the boats in the water, but he guessed those could just be adrift.
“I like the idea of being on a boat.”
“Me too, I always wanted one.”
“Well, now you can get one okay?”
“Better late than never.”
“Did you have a boat Joe?”
“Me, no…my, uh, my dad used to have one when we were kids. I don’t remember what happened with it exactly, but he got rid of it. I think it was too expensive and he wasn’t using it much. He wanted to get another one when he retired.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Joe…”
“It’s okay. Maybe he’s got that boat now.”
“I bet he does.”
“He’s probably got himself a Mojito and a line in the water.”
“Yeah, man, he’d love that. Just kicking back…finally.”
After a quite moment, one of reflection for Joseph, and one of trepidation for Scott and Judy, Joseph asked, “So how long do you think it’ll take us to get out of here once we’re on the water?”
“Hours. The longest part will probably be getting out of the Hudson, but once we get into the open waters we can just follow the coast up and be near Maine in a few hours.”
“Cool. I just want to sleep for a few days.”
“That sounds good.”
“I want a nice hot bath first, and then to sleep.”
Janice held her hand around her ankle as she sat cross-legged in the bed with Yussef in her lap. She didn’t think the scratch would’ve been enough to turn her into a deader, but she could feel something wrong inside her. She stared at her son and smiled, trying not to cry.
Eddie smiled back, thinking she was just happy to get off the bridge, but he knew that smile. He knew that wasn’t a happy smile. There was something else in it—sadness. It reminded him of the day his grandmother died. She smiled at him that day. She was happy to see him, but she had the bad news to deliver. It was that same smile.
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t want to say anything. Not around the others. “You’re all grown up, Edward.”
Her eyes were wet and her lips were dry.
“Mom…”
“I remember when you and your brother were small. The two of you were joined at the hip, always playing with your toy guns, and all those little figures. You’d leave them all over the place. I used to hate stepping on them. They hurt like hell, and it must’ve took ten years for you two to ever pick them up on your own. Probably seems like a lifetime ago to you doesn’t it. Well, it seems like yesterday to me. It all went by so fast. Too fast, sweetheart.”
“We’re fine mom, everything is going to be okay, you’ll see.”
“I know. You remember the boat your father used to have?”
“Of course.”
“He used to love the smell of the water. We used to be able to sit out there all day. I would read, and you three would do your fishing. You probably don’t remember, but your father and I started talking about having other children back then. It took a long time to happen, but that’s kind of where…”
Eddie moved over to his mother and held her as she broke down into tears, “It’s gonna be okay, Mom, it’s gonna be…okay.”
Janice put her hand on her son’s face and looked up at him, “You keep your brother safe. Keep him close, just like you used to be. You hear me?”
“I will.”
“It’ll just be the two of you soon.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m dying, sweetheart. I can feel it.”
“Wh—how?”
“On the bridge. When that thing tried to get me and the boy.”
Eddie tried to hold it all in. He didn’t want to accept what he was hearing, “No. No, fuck no. You weren’t bit.”
“It scratched my ankle, I didn’t even know it right away. Then I started to feel it. It kinda feels like being hungry, but I’m not.”
“Does it hurt?”
“No baby.”
“Are you scared?”
“Not really. I’ll get to be with our family again. Your daddy’s probably waiting for me. The kid’s are probably driving him nuts, especially if there’s no beer in heaven.”
“There better be, or he’ll be pretty pissed off.”
“If I survive the boat trip, son, I want you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“I want a funeral. I want you to cremate me and I won’t really care how. Scatter me somewhere nice if you can. Just don’t leave me walking around or mangled up somewhere.”
Eddie simply nodded and held her tight.
Yussef had moved off of Janice’s lap and nuzzled up to Alexis. They, along with everyone else in the back of the truck, watched as Janice continued to cry into her son’s shirt. It should’ve been an intimate moment, but there was no privacy to give. Even those who looked away still heard every word.
Joseph could see the marina. There were plenty of boats docked, rocking gently on the silvery black water.
“We’re so fucking close, babe.”
Judy kissed him hard and bounced with excitement, ready to open the door and run out to any one of the boats out there.
47 IT’S ALWAYS CROWDED
(back to top)
Walter, Jeff, and Barbara drove around town, weaving through the familiar streets. Deaders staggered about like they were tumbleweeds blowing in the wind. The sound of the truck alerted them, and as they found where the noise came from, Walter drove on past.
They drove past a car with bloodied handprints and streaks all along the windows and doors, but no one was inside. They past homes boarded up but appearing bare of life. Storefronts were adorned with broken windows and the streets were littered with signs of the living dead.
“Maybe there isn’t anyone left,” Barbara suggested.
“It does look pretty dead out there, pardon the phrase,” her father replied.
“Let’s just head back toward home,” Jeff said, “we can get back to scavenging for supplies.”
“I don’t want to just give up l
ike that,” Walter said, “there just has to be a few people left. They’re probably just too scared to go outside.”
“Well, it’s your gas, I guess,” Jeff said, eyeing the gauge which Walter never let go further than halfway before refilling.
***
“I ain’t feelin’ so hot anymore,” said Clem, sounding like a bullfrog.
“You’ve got a heck of a fever, and your sweating.”
“I don’t know how much longer I got. Starting to feel like I got the flu or something.”
Danni was about to break down again, but she held strong. Not for herself, but for Clem. He’d been a rock throughout everything. He needed her to keep her shit together now and she was determined to do so.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing you can do kiddo, except to get the hell out of here.”
“Do you feel like you’re turning into one?”
“Not yet, but I can’t imagine it’s far behind. Topher…come here, will ya?”
“Whattya need, Clem?”
“Can you help me get covered in that shit?”
“What? Clem no.”
“Danni, I got to get you out of here. I’m dying. I can feel it tearing me up inside. Way I see it is I’m so close to death those things won’t want to bother with me. If Topher can cover me from head to toe in that filth than maybe I can get you out of here. Give my death a little more purpose. Hell, maybe I can see daylight one last time.”
“And what if it doesn’t work. You shouldn’t have to go out in pain like that. Them eatin…”
“Shhh. I want to do this, I don’t want to die in here, okay?”
“O-okay.” She said, hugging him so tightly he began to cough. She then kissed him on the forehead and turned to Topher.
“You ready?”
“No, but let’s get on with it.”
“Clem…I’m…I’m sorry…”
“Don’t sweat it Sheriff. You just make sure she gets out of here and we’ll call it even. If that thing didn’t bite me, we might all have died in here anyway.”
Topher knelt by the twitching corpse in the middle of the cell. Clem, ushered over by Danni, stood just behind him.
“You care if I stand? Not sure if I take a knee that I’ll be able to get back up.”
“That’s fine, want to hold out your hands?”
Clem stood there with his hands cupped together as Topher dug into the dead man’s body. He piled clumps of grey matter and goo into Clem’s hands and Clem started to rub it onto his body. Danni backed away and started dry heaving. Had she eaten anything it would’ve certainly come up.
The dead man’s head was pretty much cleaned out but Topher scooped out what he could and dropped it into Clem’s hands. The man’s stomach was ripped to shreds and most of his guts were already on the ground, but Topher managed to pull out fatty tissue and clumps of coagulated blood that clung to the inside of his body.
His mind was somewhere else but every once and a while it came back and wondered just where and what his hands were doing. It felt like he was watching himself do this as opposed to doing it.
Topher wrapped his hand around what he guessed was the man’s lower intestines and began to pull it out of the widening whole in the large man’s stomach. It smelled terribly and once he saw his hands pulling out more than a foot of intestine he vomited all over the corpse. He couldn’t believe how many feet of intestine were still inside as he pulled it out, still vomiting as he did so.
Danni was retching again in the corner and now Clem was starting to heave as well. Davis just sat and watched in some disconnected state of reality.
Clem took the rope of intestine from Topher and it almost slid out of his hands. He pulled it up and draped it over his shoulder. Topher ripped into it with his fingers, and Clem draped it around his neck like a scarf. Topher pulled out more and more and Clem continued to drape it atop himself.
By the time they had Clem covered in gore everyone had vomited several times over. The floor was one giant puddle of blood and vomit and Clem stood like some sort of monster covered in ropes of intestine, blood, and chunks of random gore. Aside from the whites of his eyes there wasn’t a clean spot on him.
He stood near the door of the cell, his fever burning hot. He felt as if he wanted to collapse but as the dead paid him no attention he knew that he could not. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was that Topher’s idea solely had worked or if it was the combination of that and Clem being so near death.
The rest of them crowded into the corner yelling at the dead. The dead tried again to grasp their prey. Clem turned the key and slowly opened the door. Not a one turned to look. He stepped out, his legs burning with each movement. He closed the door, and looked back inside once at Danni and only Danni. She was crying, and so was Clem now. He turned back and began to walk around them. In a few steps she lost sight of him.
He walked slowly and staggered on his own.
I’m coming home, Lorraine.
He was behind the dead now, and going around them. They didn’t seem to care.
Once out of sight he began singing in a raspy terrible voice. He sounded like Tom Waits with bronchitis.
Heartbreak Hotel was one of the few songs he could remember all of the words to. Not that he was a big fan of The King, but just because it was one of those songs that got stuck in his head and never left, so he went with it and began belting out the verses. He smashed things and kicked things and threw the intestines off his body, trying to make as much noise as possible so that the dead would follow him on out as if he were the Pied Piper.
He tiredly pushed aside what was left of the barricade by the front doors and stepped outside. He stared at the sun, singing as loud as he could. He could hear the dead shambling behind him now. They were starting to follow the noise.
“…And although it's always crowded, You still can find some room, Where broken hearted lovers, Do cry away their gloom…”
“He did it, they’re leaving, and following him out.”
“Don’t get too excited, just hold on and keep quiet. Keep listening, and when I tell you, run like hell.”
***
Barbara had taken a turn behind the wheel, hoping she’d have better luck coming across someone than her father was having. She drove toward the outskirts of town, near the VFW hall. She slowed the truck down to a crawl, just long enough to survey the dead twitching bodies scattered around the grounds. Walter peered out the window, taking note of the police cruiser that looked as if it had been in a war, covered in blood, dirt, and dents.
He shook his head and Barbara drove on.
48 THE PROTEAN
(back to top)
Several deaders were shambling around the front of the marina. They lurched with weary limbs. Joseph and Frankie took the lead, running out to greet the deaders while they were still spread apart. Chuck followed behind.
Frankie smashed one across the face, knocking its jaw nearly off, spinning it off balance and then kicking it to the ground. He swept out the knees of another and as he was about to go for a third, Chuck swung into action and knocked the dead thing down first. Joseph was bashing a deaders head into pulp and Frankie and Chuck were doing the same to the ones they had knocked down, turning them into a twitching mass of black blood and putrefying remains.
Scott, Judy, and Jon led the group through the carnage, while the others finished off the remaining deaders. The marina office itself was a small building that sat right near the water. To the left of them was a ramp that led to the side of the building and most likely to the dock behind it. Scott jogged over and waived everyone on.
“This way. The coast is clear.”
Frankie caught up to the lead, Joseph not far behind him. Joseph looked back to see where his mother and brother were. He noticed the two of them walking side by side and that something seemed off. His brother was usually in the midst of the action, taking charge. It seemed like he didn’t care what was happening.
“Joe, there’s
a few over here.”
He turned and ran over to Frankie. Behind the building was an outside patio. Many of the tables had been overturned and thrown about. Some where bloodied but most were not.
“Chuck…take point and find us a boat,” Frankie yelled.
Chuck then ran ahead to the dock, eyeing the offerings for one that would be able to fit everyone—or as many of them as possible.
“I’ll come with you,” Jon-Jon called out.
The night wind coming off of the water was cool and salty, but there was the hint of something else…something dead.
“I smell it too,” Jon said, “Let’s hurry the fuck up.”
“Not going to be that easy. The dock isn’t exactly full, and we got a few people here. Most of what I’m seeing can’t carry all of us.”
“Can you walk us through how to drive one?”
“Honestly. It’s a lot harder than I made it sound earlier, but I’m sure we can find something. It’s not like we need to adhere to the SOLAS convention, we can just cram into a smaller vessel. We’re used to sitting on top of each other.”
“That we are. What the hell’s a SOLAS?”
“It’s just about passenger safety.”
“Yeah, well, we can forget about that.”
Chuck paused, stopping at the start of a new row, “Right there,” he pointed.
“You ever drive something like that?”
“I basically lived on something like that. Want to go check it for deaders?”
“Not really, but let’s do it.”
They jogged ahead as the group followed cautiously behind.
Joseph had finished dispatching of the deaders in the area and joined his mother and brother who were lingering near the back of the group.
“Hey, what’s a matter with you two?”
“Sorry, sweetheart. I told your brother while you were driving…”
