Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  How bad could a ghost that read books be?

  But no, the guy couldn’t have been a ghost. He wouldn’t believe that until he saw the guy walk through a wall or something. Even then it would be hard to accept. Ghosts weren’t real. They were just creepy stories someone made up.

  “Yea, like the story about zombies,” Ricki grinned to himself.

  “He wasn’t a ghost,” Ricki repeated, “he was just some kid that was living in the school, or at least somewhere near the school.”

  “But it had to be the school,” Ricki thought. “The mud smeared on the inside of the windows was smeared there by a real person for a reason. Ghosts didn’t need to smear mud over the windows so no one would see them. If they didn’t want to be seen they could just disappear. Only a living person would have smeared the mud over the windows.”

  “Back to the plan,” Ricki told himself.

  “What plan,” Ricki laughed again to himself. “Right now all I have is an idea. I need to think up a plan.”

  Ricki’s idea so far was to find a way to get him and his brother to New Florence, lose the gang and get into the school building. Not much of a plan. Hopefully with a real plan he would find some other people in the school that would be willing to let him and Denny stay at the school with them. If there wasn’t anyone there, at least they would have a place to stay away from the gang.

  If they did find people there but they wouldn’t let him and Denny stay with them, well he would deal with that when the time came.

  First things first, he and Denny had to get away from the gang before they ended up dead.

  The idea was probably a long shot, but it was the first realistic idea he had come up with since Jamal gave them the option to join the gang or else.

  Ricki knew if he didn’t give this idea a try, he might not get another chance. Jamal, Devon or George would either kill them for the hell of it, or they would get killed going into some house to make sure it was safe before the gang would go inside, or they would starve to death.

  One way or another, if he stayed here much longer he would end up dead.

  Jamal and Devon were starting to talk about going back home to the city. Ricki doubted they would just leave and let Ricki and Denny stay behind. If the gang left, leaving Ricki and Denny safely behind was not the gang’s style.

  No, he and his brother had to make their move while they could.

  The trip to New Florence however had worried him. They had been in three stores and a few houses on their trip yesterday but they hadn’t seen a single scrap of food. That worried Ricki. If he did manage to make it to New Florence and was able to lose the gang, how would he live?

  Seeing that guy at the school, there had to be a source of food in town somewhere. If he found people in the school he was sure he would also find food.

  Buy what if he couldn’t find anyone living at the school?

  Would he be able to find food before he and Denny starved?

  Ricki decided it was worth the risk. He and his brother would manage. After all, he wasn’t like Jamal, Devon and George. He was willing to work and he would find a way to survive.

  But before he dealt with that problem, he had to find a way to get himself and Denny to New Florence. The problem was the gang only took one of them when they went out to look for supplies.

  Ricki needed some help to come up with a plan. He needed to talk this over with Denny. If Denny didn’t like the plan, Ricki would have to think of something else. He wouldn’t leave without his brother. Of course he didn’t think his brother would object to any plan that would get them away from Jamal and his friends.

  Ricki turned his head and looked at the bunk beds across the room from him. Jamal, Devon and George always slept on that side of the room.

  The three creeps were snoring loudly.

  Ricki studied them for a few minutes to make sure they were really sleeping.

  He wouldn’t put it past them to be faking it so they could catch him and accuse him to being up to something.

  It would be a perfect opportunity for the gang to get rid of him for good. It was also one big reason Ricki decided it was time to leave, before the gang decided to eliminate him or his brother. With food becoming scarce, sharing was not one of the gang’s virtues.

  Ricki listened to the snoring coming from the other side of the room. He quietly pulled off his blanket and sat up.

  When the snoring continued, Ricki pulled on his pants.

  With the light starting to come in through the windows, the gang would soon be up and complaining about everything.

  If he wanted to talk over his idea with Denny in private, he needed to do it now.

  Ricki stood and pulled his smelly t-shirt on over his head.

  His head was now level with the second bunk, where his brother slept.

  Ricki slid his hand over his brother’s blanket and placed his hand over his brother’s mouth.

  Denny’s eyes shot open.

  “It’s me,” Ricki whispered quickly.

  Denny calmed down when he saw Ricki.

  “I need to talk to you,” Rick whispered again. “Let’s go down stairs where we can talk. Be quiet so they don’t hear you and meet me down on the basketball court.”

  Denny nodded.

  Ricki removed his hand, bent down and picked up his tennis shoes and moved quietly to the top of the stairwell.

  He stepped into the stairwell and sat down to put on his shoes.

  He kept glancing back to watch Denny’s progress.

  He held his breath, half expecting to hear Jamal shouting at any second, “Where the hell do you think you’re going runt?”

  Denny finished pulling up his pants and started walking barefoot towards Ricki.

  “So far so good,” Ricki thought. “This is nerve wracking just trying to talk to Denny in private. How the hell are we going to be able to get away from them if just trying to talk is so hard?”

  Ricki watched Denny, only another twenty feet and they would both be in the stairwell.

  Ricki looked confused when he saw Denny stop and set his shoes on the floor.

  Ricki started to worry when he saw Denny get down on his hands and knees and start to crawl towards Jamal’s bunk bed.

  “What the hell?” Ricki thought.

  Ricki slowly moved his head around the bottom of the doorway so he could watch Denny.

  He expected to see Jamal ordering Denny to crawl on the floor on his hands and knees. The gang took every opportunity to humiliate him and Ricki whenever they felt like it.

  Denny looked over at Ricki and smiled.

  “What are you doing?” Ricki mouthed silently.

  Denny just ignored him and continued crawling towards Jamal’s bunkbed.

  Ricki watched nervously as Denny crawled next to Jamal’s bed, picked up something off the floor by the bed, put it in his pocket and then started crawling back towards his shoes in the middle of the floor.

  When Denny reached his shoes, he grabbed the shoes, stood up and quietly moved towards Ricki.

  Ricki waited until they were to the bottom of the steps and had taken two steps out on the basketball court.

  “What they hell were you doing back there?” Ricki whispered.

  Denny smiled and reached in his pocket and pulled out Jamal’s switchblade knife, “I saw his knife on the floor and decided to take it. He won’t be threatening us with this thing anymore.”

  “If he finds you with his knife he will probably kill both of us,” Ricki whispered looking horrified.

  “He won’t find it on me,” Denny smiled as he walked into the shower room.

  Ricki followed Denny into the locker room and watched as he dropped it into the bottom of the garbage can and moved some garbage over the knife to hide it.

  “I don’t know anything about no knife,” Denny smiled. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  “You’re crazy,” Ricki said.

  “Guilty,” Denny smiled. “Grab a basketball an
d let’s go out on the court in case one of them comes down here.”

  Ricki nervously picked up a basketball and followed Denny out onto the court.

  “What’s on your mind?” Denny asked as they stopped under the basket at the far end of the court.

  Ricki looked around and listened, “I think I saw some other people in New Florence. I think they are living in the old elementary school.”

  “Does Jamal know?” Denny asked.

  “No,” Ricki whispered. “They sent me to the school while they went into a house by the funeral home. I spotted a guy going around the side of the building. I tried to look through the windows to see if I could see anyone, but they had smeared mud on the inside of the windows so no one could see inside.”

  “Did you say those guys went into a house by themselves?” Denny asked.

  Ricki smiled, “Yea, the chicken shits stood at the door and flipped a coin for five minutes to decide who had to go in first.”

  “Could you hear their knees knocking together from where you were?” Ricki grinned.

  “No, I was too busy trying to look inside the school building,” Ricki whispered back, “but I had to run back to the car when a few hundred of those dead things started down the street. When we were leaving they asked me if I saw anything. I lied and told them the school was crawling with the dead.”

  “Why did you do that?” Denny asked.

  “I didn’t want them going back to the school,” Ricki said, “because I thought maybe you and I could go back to the school and see if we can join up with those people. We need to get away from these assholes.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Denny whispered.

  “They are planning on going back to New Florence in the next couple of days,” Ricki replied. “If we can talk them in to taking both us with them at the same time, I thought we could slip away and go over to the school and find those people.”

  “I thought everyone said there wasn’t any food in New Florence. What would we do without food?” Denny asked.

  “If there are people living in that school, there has to be food somewhere,” Ricki whispered back. “I think it’s worth the risk just to get out of here before they decide to kill us or something.”

  Denny thought for a minute, “Hell yea it’s worth a shot, but won’t they come looking for us.”

  “Probably,” Ricki replied, “I’m sure they will eventually work their way back to that part of town and want to take a look at the school building. Jamal said he thought there had to be food in the cafeteria supply room. But we can worry about that later.”

  “What kind of people did they look like?” Denny asked. “I wouldn’t want to leave one group of assholes just to end up with another group of assholes.”

  “I only saw one person,” Rick whispered. “He looked about our size and he was carrying a bunch of books. I don’t think these assholes here can even read.”

  Denny grinned, “Book worms are usually pretty harmless but I don’t like the idea that Jamal and his boys might come snooping around after we go there.”

  “I don’t think we can worry about that now,” Ricki said. “I just want to get out of here unless you have a better idea.”

  Denny thought, “I have a better idea, let’s just take the car and go without them. If we have their car they can’t follow us or show up at the school.”

  “Right,” Ricki replied.

  “No, I’m serious,” Denny replied. “Jamal keeps the keys in his pants pocket. I took his knife, I can take the keys.”

  Ricki looked at Denny, “I thought you were always getting into trouble because you were unlucky. Now I know it was because you’re crazy.”

  “You know about all the times that I got into trouble,” Denny smiled. “But you don’t know about all the things I got away with. Believe me I got away with a lot more than I got into trouble for.”

  Rick shook his head.

  “I’m serious, I can get the keys,” Denny said.

  “What if you get caught, he’ll kill us,” Ricki said.

  “If I just happen to be walking in my sleep, he’ll just call me names,” Denny grinned, “but he won’t catch me.”

  “Are you sure?” Ricki whispered.

  “I think it is worth a try,” Denny replied. “How much worse can it get around here?”

  Rick just stared at Denny. He had never seen this side of his younger brother.

  “I can do this,” Denny said. “It’s too late to try it today, but I say we try it tonight. We get up in the middle of the night and leave.”

  “OK,” Ricki said. “If you are willing to try it, I’m game.”

  “OK, we go tonight,” Denny said.

  “If they decide to go to New Florence today, then we convince them to take us both with them,” Ricki said. “Then we slip away like I first said. We can’t pass up any chance to do this.”

  “Ok, I agree,” Denny said. “One way or another, we get out of here by tonight.”

  Ricki let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to know they might soon be able to get away from Jamal and his buddies.

  “OK,” Denny said loudly, “We both have an ‘S’, the next one wins.”

  Denny bounced the ball on the court and lined up and took a shot.”

  Swish, the ball went through the hoop, hitting nothing but net.

  “What are you two runts doing down here?” George asked.

  Ricki turned surprised by George’s appearance. Lucky Denny had better hearing than he did.

  “We just wanted to get some court time before you guys got up and hogged the court,” Denny replied.

  George laughed, “I thought you two were too short to play basketball. At least real basketball.” George laughed.

  “We do OK,” Denny grinned. “Did you ever play ‘HORSE’?”

  “I thought you runts would be playing ‘PONY’,” George laughed.

  “I can beat you at either,” Denny said.

  George laughed, “You have to be joking.”

  Denny turned and took a shot. Swish.

  “’P’,” Denny said and grabbed the ball and bounced it towards George.

  “Lucky shot,” George said. George took a shot. It bounced around the rim and finally dropped down through the hoop.

  “’P’,” George grinned.

  They both hit the next two shots. Denny’s shots were all net, George’s shots managed to drop through the hoop after precariously bouncing around the rim.

  Denny picked up the ball and smiled at George, “If I make this shot, the pressure is on. I hope you don’t get nervous and miss your shot.”

  Denny glanced over at Ricki.

  Ricki shook his head, “No.”

  Denny smiled, shot and missed.

  George laughed, picked up the ball and made his shot.

  “Too bad runt,” George laughed then looked at Ricki, “Don’t feel left out little guy. I plan on teaching you how to play baseball one of these days.”

  Ricki just smiled.

  “Now you two runts get your asses back upstairs,” George said. “Jamal wants you upstairs. He wants to plan another trip to New Florence.”

  Jamal turned and walked into the locker room.

  “I could have beat that asshole,” Denny whispered. “Why did you stop me?”

  “I know you could have,” Ricki whispered back, “But we need to keep them happy for one more day. We want them happy and careless. Otherwise they will be on us all day.”

  Denny grinned.

  Chapter 10

  The doctor looked at the struggling creature on the bed in front of him.

  The creature’s eyes followed every move the doctor made.

  Its bony arms strained against the straps holding it securely on the bed.

  It followed the doctor’s movements having no understanding as to why its hands weren’t around the doctor’s neck. Its arms strained, its ghoulish fingers clenched tightly as if it had a hold on the doctor’s fleshy body as its mouth open
ed and closed rapidly in a chewing motion.

  It didn’t think about why it wasn’t tasting the doctor’s flesh, it didn’t wonder why, it didn’t think about anything, it just did what it had always done when it saw living flesh. It grabbed and chewed.

  The doctor noted the creature’s actions and then looked at the other creature strapped down in the bed behind him.

  That creature was reacting in the same manner.

  The milky white eyes moved when the doctor moved.

  “Eye sight,” the doctor said out loud. “I guess that is the logical first place to start.”

  The doctor picked up his notebook and began to write.

  “When I entered the room, the creature’s eyes locked onto me immediately and followed my movements around the room. When I approached the creatures, they began to clench their hands as if they were grabbing on to me. Then their mouths began what I can only describe as a chewing motion. Apparently my close proximity to the creatures caused this response. I assume they associate closeness to their prey with eating the prey. But what triggers the response. It is the sight of the prey?

  My first experiment will be a test to determine if this response is triggered by sight.”

  Side note: “If the response is activated by sight, a possible weapon against the dead would be to create a condition that would disable this sense. It may then be possible for us to pass by the dead safely and unnoticed.”

  The doctor walked over to a table he had set up in the room with different materials he planned to use in his experiments. He looked at the materials he had gathered. A can of black spray paint, a can of raid and a can of putty he had found in the janitor’s closet. A can of mace he found at the nurse’s station. A bottle of rubbing alcohol, a vial of sulfuric acid, a bottle of penicillin, a vial of antibiotics, a pack of birth control pills, a scalpel, forceps, scissors and miscellaneous medicines.