Dead EndEscape

by David Menard

  “We will fight back, like I said Burt!” Kelly asserted. She was supported by Gabe and Melody, the were a team, the three of them. She looked to Burt, confidence exuding from her..

  “Yea, we fight. I am getting everyone out of here one way or another. Guy, Glenn, Stanley, Jeff, Mary and John. They all died so that I could be here, I refuse to lose anyone else lose their life,” Anthony said remembering his fallen family.

  “Same,” Cindy added, having more admiration for the astounding young man. “Now, let’s direct our attention to the matter at hand. We need to check to see if there are still people inside,” the group nodded in agreement, everyone in the group was rescued at one point or another in this apocalypse, no one would leave potential survivors behind.

  Anthony and Kelly walked up to the door and joined Cindy, with Gabe and Melody close behind. They were going on a rescue mission for people who were likely dead. Little did they know that a predator was watching them closely.

  Chapter 22: A Predator in the Night

  The previous night

  The abomination ran through the street in search for meat. It ran silently, with intense speed and deadly nails trailing behind it. The monster’s speed was incredible, each stride covered twice the distance a normal human being’s legs would. The monster’s sense of smell was elevated and it could smell it’s prey. The building ahead had partial lighting from candles. It quickened his pace and slammed through the dimly lit window.

  Jack Clover and Franklin Nash were once teachers, but when the shit hit the fan they were quick to act. They locked down the first floor where the infected resided, and brought up a handful of kids to the teacher’s lobby. They were able to save three adolescent children, Billy, Crystal and Steven. When citizens were escaping the dead, they took shelter at the school, a local FEMA center. Unfortunately, some of those who took shelter were infected. Thoughts of escape crossed the survivor’s minds, but was short lived when they saw the pandemonium outside of the school.

  The group only left the lobby to use the bathroom or for a food run. For trips to the bathroom they would go together, Frank in front with a fire axe and Jack in back with a fire extinguisher. After a day and a half they knew they were alone on the second floor, but didn’t take any risks. When it came to food scavenging, Jack navigated through the vents to the cafeteria downstairs to get the school lunches and the food from vending machines.

  “Jack, we need to think about getting out of here, rescue is not coming,” Frank whispered as he glanced at their three guests. He did not want to be overheard. Frank was a middle aged man, balding, wearing a polo and shorts. He straightened his glasses and looked over to his colleague.

  “The maniacs have seemed to thin out over the last few days. There are hardly any of them out there. But what do we do? Where do we go? We are perfectly safe here, we can survive off the cafeteria supplies for a couple of weeks,” Jack replied looking to his partner for an answer. Jack was a handsome man with wavy blonde hair. At fifty two, he was the subject to many flirtatious gestures of women. Their attempts were all in vain, as he was homosexual.

  “Dammit Jack! I don’t want to die here! What if they come back? Or, God forbid, they escape and come for us up here?” he hissed indicating the dead downstairs. He scratched his beard fiercely and glanced to the children, ensuring they were still unheard. “We have always been stereotyped as unmanly or girly. Let’s prove those ignorant assholes wrong! We take the kids and we go straight for the town line. It will either be the entrance to a safezone or, the psychos will be there too. It is worth the try regardless!” Frank added intensely.

  “Yea, you are right! In the morning, we take the kids and get the hell out of here!” Jack replied confidently. He dropped his fist into his hand as he said this, a smile forming on his face.

  The two men never expected the dead to reach them, they awaited rescue in their safe haven. They thought they were safe until a horrifying monster busted through their window. The creature’s first victim was Billy. Billy was lucky for he didn’t have time to react or see the monster. Upon contact with the window the creature stabbed the youth with his sword like fingernails. The nails penetrated his skull and reappeared through his forehead.

  “What the fuck is that thing! Jack exclaimed over the squeals of the other two children. He ran over and shielded the other two children. “Kids! Run!” he added, fear in his voice.

  Frank grabbed the axe on the floor and attacked the beast, but was ripped apart. It grabbed his neck and bit his neck almost decapitating him with one bite. With it’s other hand, it stabbed Frank’s mid section and severed it from his torso. Frank had not died from the original bite, he survived just long enough to feel the intense pain of being ripped in half.

  Jack sprayed the fire extinguisher into the face of the monster, halting it momentarily. He took this moment to sprint out of the door, following Crystal and Steven. The beast barreled after it’s prey, hungry for flesh. It caught up to Jack and tackled him to the ground, the man began screaming. Bruce grabbed his face with his enlarged hand and slammed his skull against the floor. Blood escaped every orifice of Jack’s face as he gargled blood. The monster slammed the man’s head down once more, crushing it.

  The two children as their savior was savagely murdered in front of them, paralyzed. The abomination slowly approached them, blood flowing from it’s mouth. Steven soiled himself as the creature approached. It now stood in front of the immobilized children. The monster grabbed crystal with it’s enlarged hand and forced Steven to the ground and began feeding. Crystal and Steven were both devoured alive, screaming as the beast feasted on them.

  Chapter 23: Ambushed

  Cindy slowly opened the front door. It creaked as she leveled her gun for defense. Her comrades followed in an almost professional formation. They walked past the nurses office and turned the corridor. The classroom doors were all closed, so far there was nothing to be seen. Blood was smeared across the floors, trailing into the closed doors. It appeared that someone closed off the dead into those rooms. With no present danger they proceeded. They came upon double doors, leading to the gymnasium. Anthony and Cindy stood on opposite sides and each opened a door. With the worst possible luck they had stumbled onto a small horde. They started firing, all of them but Gabe and Burt who covered their backs from any sneak attacks. Burt then knelt down reaching into his bag.

  “What are you doing Burt!?” Gabe yelled in fear. He kept switching his gaze from Burt to the hallway. He could hear his fellow survivors firing their weapons, but could not look to see what was going on, he could not leave his post.

  Burt was once a soldier so he knew some tricks. He withdrew a bottle of kerosene that he grabbed at Target, then he put a cloth in it. Burt stood up and took out a lighter. “Fire in the hole!” he exclaimed as he threw his makeshift incendiary grenade into the gymnasium. He ran to the doors, closed them and backed everyone off. “I knew I would need that at some point, now let's find some survivors,” he said triumphantly.

  A loud, ear deafening roar erupted, startling the survivors as they surveyed their surroundings. They heard panting and running coming from above them. The group glanced up to the second floor from the nearby staircase, nothing was there, yet. Cindy looked to Anthony and without saying a word they made the decision. “Run!” they said in unison.

  “What the fuck was that?” screamed Kelly as they ran, their footsteps echoing in the corridor. She cocked her gun and ran ready to fire at whatever came her way. She looked over to Melody and Gabe, Melody was crying and Gabe was pale with fear. This was not a typical undead, this was something else entirely.

  “I don’t know what it was but it sounded big,” Anthony yelled back. He could have been out the door if he was running by himself but he was not going to leave his new family. He looked in the nurse’s office to make sure whatever it was, it wasn’t waiting for them. A undead leaped at him as he did so, but was met with the butt of Cindy’s shotgun. The undead woman toppled onto th
e ground, jaw broken from Cindy’s blow. Cindy flipped her weapon over and fired. Another trap laid by the undead.

  Gabe and Melody had fallen about ten feet behind the rest, with Burt covering their backs. Melody was too afraid to run normally. Her legs felt numb and were shaking as she ran. Gabe stayed with her, ready to protect her from whatever was coming for them. Shooting from the roof was easy for her, she was not actually close up to the undead; being in the open, away from the safety of the store terrified her. She regretted leaving the store, everything was peaceful there. She and Gabe were happy. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a grunt above her and looked up.

  She saw a gory monster descending down from the second floor balcony. The monster isolated them from the group and attacked. It jumped off the balcony aiming his claws for the kill. When he hit the ground his nails impaled Melody through the skull, through her neck and into her chest. Blood splattered on the walls and all over Gabe. Her head was gushing blood from the entry wound. Melody’s body went limp and collapsed to the ground pooling blood. The monster’s nails had snapped off inside her chest when landing causing it to roar in pain.

  Gabe fell to the floor when the monster landed his kill. His face went blank as he saw his love slaughtered in front of him. If anything made this world worth living it was Melody, she was what made living in this cursed world bearable. He now had nothing, first his mother then his father and now the last person he cared for. He stared, horrified at Melody’s corpse. Her beautiful face was now torn into two and her chest cavity was separated, revealing her organs as the blood poured out.

  Anthony saw Gabe would be the next victim unless he killed the beast now. He took fire with both his pistols. The monster shielded its face behind its enlarged hand. The bullets penetrated the monster but it didn’t budge. Cindy and Kelly joined in the fire but even their weapons were not providing the fatal shot. Burt halted them and ran to Gabe, machete in hand. He swung with all his might and sliced off the monster’s injured arm. “Get out of here! All of you!” Burt yelled as he began his second stroke.

  The monster swung his remaining arm and slammed Burt into the wall, knocking him to the ground. He appeared unconscious. Gabe was motionless, he was witnessing pure gore. He couldn’t process what he was thinking. The abomination turned his attention to Gabe, and with catlike swiftness he grabbed him by the neck and tore his face off with his teeth, snapping his neck in the process, leaving a bloody skull visible. Gabe died instantly and his body dangled in the monster’s grip. The monster turned to the three survivors standing in the doorway, chewing the skin in his mouth. The right side of his face was missing, showcasing his teeth ripping the flesh through his missing cheek. The monster threw Gabe’s corpse aside and walked slowly towards them.

  Cindy cocked the shotgun and shot the monster in the chest. The giant beast recoiled but did not stop. She started to retreat when Kelly fired the shotgun, a clear shot to his shoulder. This sent the monster off balance, toppling it over. It rose slowly, disoriented,. The monster glared with yellow eyes, and was about to rush the survivors until a pain hit it’s back.

  Burt managed to stand up in the midst of the monster’s attack on Gabe and the others. He saw that the creature was going in for the kill. He grabbed his machete and threw it into the back of the beast. The aim was perfect, it wasn’t meant to kill, only to grab the creature’s attention. He would never have caught up to the creature if it lunged at his friends. The creature turned instantly and pounced towards Burt in a rampage.

  “Get the hell out of here!” he screamed as he approached the gymnasium and opened the double doors entering the burning gymnasium. The monster followed behind, the machete still in it’s back.

  “We can’t just leave him! We cant!” Kelly screeched. She lost her best friend and her newly found friends. He was like her father in the apocalypse; Gabe and Melody, her brother and sister. She was fighting Anthony as they were running. Cindy was ahead ready to kill any infected in their way.

  “Kelly we can’t go back. That thing will rip us apart. The only way to survive is to get out of here now!” Cindy exclaimed. She slapped Kelly, returning her to her senses momentarily. She made eye contact with Cindy and nodded in understanding.

  “We can still make it Kelly. I just need you to keep going on. His sacrifice will have been for nothing if we die.” Anthony said calmly. He let go of her and started walking with her. A roadblock was visible a mile up the road.

  “If YOU didn’t make us go into that fucking building, they would all be ALIVE!” Kelly exploded at Cindy when Anthony released her. Her eyes were filled with contempt, she briskly walked up to Cindy.

  “I am sorry! But it wasn’t just MY decision! Everyone agreed to go in, to possibly save people, including YOU! Do NOT put their deaths on me. Don’t you DARE!” Cindy fired back. She braced herself, Kelly looked like she wanted a fight. Cindy clutched her fist, ready to deliver it if Kelly attacked.

  “Which one us will die next? Maybe Anthony? You seem to like him so much! Let’s go back to the plaza, check the bookstore for survivors since we are trying to kill our people off!” she asked Cindy sarcastically as she was now face to face with Cindy.

  “Kelly, stop! We can’t do this! Don’t push me! I lost people too! I won’t have you put their blood on my hands. I feel bad enough!” Cindy sneered as she kept eye contact with Kelly.

  “Stop it, both of you! We are almost out of here! I refuse to die, or let you die when we are this close. Look the barricade is right there! That means we can escape this shit!” Anthony exclaimed as he got in between them. He grabbed Kelly by the shoulders and took her aside for a moment. “What are you doing? Cindy lost close friends too. We all agreed to the plan and don’t forget, we would be dead without her. Kelly, it is no ones fault,” he said calmly to her.

  “You are right…..I am sorry,” Kelly whispered as she cried, her face in her hands. She looked up. “Tommy, Marcy, Melody, Gabe and now Burt. I am running out of people I care about. I have only you, I don’t know Cindy as well as I do you. I don’t want anyone else to die,” Kelly added tearfully.

  “No one else will die, we are home free. Now make up with Cindy,” Anthony said softly as he walked back towards Cindy, his hands in his pockets

  “Cindy, I am sorry. I just….I just can’t handle losing people. I have lost everyone close to me, except Anthony. Burt was like a father to me. I don’t want anyone else to die,” Kelly apologized as she approached both Cindy and Anthonie.

  “None of us will die,” Cindy responded. She waited for Kelly to catch up and put a hand on her shoulder. “I have lost everyone too. Wallace, Marie, Sharon, John, Gabe and Melody. I feel responsible for all of their deaths. I knew what these things were, but was too afraid to warn Wallace. If I saw the signs with Sharon, I could have stopped her from taking her life. If I didn’t make this stupid plan, no one else would have died.” CIndy paused for a moment to wipe away the tears. “I am not dying and neither are you or Anthony. We are almost at our destination, we will be fine,” she added while picking up the pace.

  Chapter 24: Fight Fire with Fire

  James Alastor walked into his kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. He hadn’t slept well last night because the President authorized incineration of the town. The conversations between the President and military leaders had taken several days. The President’s morality delayed the town’s incineration, he stated that the government owed the citizens the time to escape. Alastor, along with countless other authoritative figures tried to convince him that waiting would only make matters worse. He looked out of his patio door and recalled the prior day’s conversation between himself and the President of the United States.

  ….

  “Mr. President, we need to act swiftly! Too much time has passed, the infection could breach the perimeter at any time!” Colonel Alastor stated sternly, hoping to sway his leader.

  “Colonel, are you suggesting we annihilate an entire town, along with its citizens? That
is preposterous! We have blockades up and full military force protecting the surrounding areas!” President Geihart questioned furiously. He sat at his desk, peering over to James Alastor.

  “Sir, most of the population is surely dead. Let’s say we wait any longer, and the infection spreads to the next town. We would not be able to contain the situation. The United States would fall within weeks of the pandemic,” the Colonel explained. He stared at his commander, waiting to hear reason. Sweat rolled Alastor’s face, he was keeping a dark secret.

  Although the President authorized evacuation for all uninfected citizens, Alastor commanded his men to contain them no matter the cost. It was a necessary evil that would save his country. He appeased some of the men stationed at the blockades by insinuating the possibility of screenings and evacuation of the citizens. He even had them redirect people to predetermined locations in case the civilians became hostile. He held a conversation with his leader, withholding a treasonous secret.

  “They told me when I was elected that I would have to make difficult decisions. However, I did not envision anything quite like this,” President Geihart walked over to his cabinet and retrieved some liquor. He poured some aged whiskey and took a hard sip. He looked out the window and then back to Colonel Alastor. “Order the air strike for tomorrow,” he added solemnly.

  ….

  The Colonel sipped his coffee again and walked over to his counter. This whole mess would finally be contained and no one would ever hear the truth. The napalm would hit the town in the next two hours. So long as the President did not ask for semantics about the quarantine, he would be in the clear. The Colonel set his mug down, picked up his telephone and began calling the blockades.

  “Hello?” answered Cody. Raymond looked over and saw Cody nodding his head listening to whatever the person on the line was saying. “Yes, okay sir” he said concluding the call. He stood up and stretched, a smile on his face.