Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  “Ed!” Debbie called out in a loud whisper.

  “Damn it Ed,” Debbie said to herself as Ed ran around the corner.

  Debbie started to run faster.

  She had to catch Ed before she got out in front of the school.

  If the dead spotted her and Ed running around out front, that could really screw up today’s plans.

  Debbie rounded the corner and ran into something solid.

  The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back. Bright lights seemed to be flashing in front of her eyes as everything else around her appeared to be spinning.

  Debbie felt herself being pulled to her feet.

  She started to panic and tried to pull away, but someone was grabbing at her sweatshirt.

  She tried to spin around and slipped out of her sweatshirt and felt it being pulled over her head. That person was now left holding her empty sweatshirt.

  Debbie turned to run, but someone else now had her by the collar of her shirt.

  She pulled against the hand and heard her shirt begin to tear.

  Before she was able to pull free again, she felt two hands grab her left arm and then someone else had her by her right arm.

  The two boys spun her around.

  She was now staring at two glaring boys. They had tattoos covering both of their arms. One of them had some kind of lizard creature tattooed on his ear and cheek.

  Even without the gross looking tattoos, the look in their eyes would have been enough to make Debbie cower in fear.

  “This must be what little Ricki found and was planning on keeping all to himself,” Devon laughed. The lizard tattoo on the side of his face looked to be dancing on his face as he laughed.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these,” George smiled.

  “What, a pink bra?” Devon laughed.

  “No. A girl asshole,” George replied, “and a cute one too.”

  “What are we going to do with her?” Devon said.

  Then they both started laughing.

  “Little Ricki’s girlfriend,” Devon smiled.

  “Who is little Ricki,” Debbie asked nervously.

  “You never had a chance to meet little Ricki,” George laughed. “The dead fixed his ass before he had a chance to introduce himself.”

  Both guys started laughing again.

  Devon started to look serious, “Are you here by yourself?”

  Debbie was scared to death with these two creepy guys yanking her around, but that question made her look down at the ground to keep them from seeing how bad their question had scared her.

  “I see she doesn’t want to answer that question,” Devon laughed. “I bet she has a sister somewhere close by.”

  “Shit,” Debbie thought. “It’s bad enough I’m in trouble. I can’t let those bastards get their hands on the Shrimp.”

  “I live nearby with my dog,” Debbie answered, keeping her eyes to the ground. “She got loose and I was chasing her.”

  “I bet,” Devon laughed.

  “What do you think?” George said, “I’ll flip you for her or how about I just let you keep my shoes.”

  Devon smiled, “No way, but Jamal is waiting for us. He will get pissed if we don’t let him in on this. We better take her out front. He is probably out there having a fit because we aren’t out there already.”

  “When he sees what we found,” George said, “He’ll calm down real fast.”

  “Not if we make him wait an hour for us to get out there,” Devon laughed.

  “I guess you’re right,” George replied, “Damn it.”

  Devon release Debbie’s arm and grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head, “Let’s take a little walk, bitch.”

  George continued to hold tightly to her arm and they began to drag her along with them.

  They dragged her past the dumpsters and toward the other end of the back of the school building.

  Debbie was shaking with fear. She glanced out of the corner of her eyes as they walked by the dumpsters, hoping not to see the Shrimp sticking her head out to look at them.

  Jim crawled out of the coal bin door after first tossing up the rope he had found to use to restrain Ed.

  As he crawled out of the opening, he saw Monica cowering against the back of one of the dumpsters with tears running down her face.

  She looked terrified.

  Jim crawled over to Monica, “Moni, what’s wrong?” Jim looked around, “Where is Debbie?”

  Monica looked up at Jim. She was shaking all over.

  “Two boys took her,” Monica choked out the words.

  “What?” Jim replied shocked. “Where did they take her?”

  Monica pointed with her shaking arm. “They took her that way.”

  Jim quickly crawled to the corner of the dumpsters and looked towards the end of the building, but there was no one there.

  He crawled back to Monica.

  “Moni, I’m going to lower you back down into the boiler room. I want you to stay there and be quiet until I come back, OK?” Jim said urgently.

  Monica’s head bobbed up and down.

  Jim led her back to the bin door, grabbed her by the arms and lowered Monica down into the boiler room.

  “I have to drop you Moni,” Jim said. “It’s not far, you won’t get hurt. Just go hide behind the furnace until I come back.”

  “OK,” Monica cried as Jim let her go.

  He heard her fall to the floor, “Are you OK?”

  “I’m OK,” Monica replied.

  Jim closed the door and moved back to the corner of the dumpsters.

  All Jim could think about was what he had seen happen around New Florence during the first few weeks after the dead had arrived in town.

  The people that had survived changed.

  The people that were left weren’t anything like they had been before. People started fighting with each other over the smallest things.

  Jim had seen an adult, attack a little kid and steal the kid’s food and then walk away as if he had just found the food on the street. The poor kid just lay on the ground, crying and bleeding from the beating.

  In the stores where people were searching for food, he had seen a couple kill an old lady over a small pack of pretzels.

  He was worried about Debbie. If people were like that before, he could only imagine how desperate they would be now.

  As far as he knew, there hadn’t been anyone left alive in town other than him and his two sisters. Whoever these guys were, they had probably come from a nearby town like Seward or Bolivar. Those kids were like animals before the dead had arrived. His parents would never let Debbie go to one of those towns unless they went with her.

  Jim knew he had to find his sister and find her fast. He had to find her before something happened to her.

  But Jim also had another problem, Moni.

  If in trying to save Debbie, if something happened and he wasn’t able to return, Moni would never be able to get out of the boiler room on her own. She would starve down there.

  Even if she figured a way to get out, she wouldn’t last long on the outside on her own without him.

  It would be a nightmare if he found himself in a position where he had to make a choice.

  Letting one of his sisters die in order to save the other one would be a nightmare. A nightmare worse than the ones that haunted him every night now.

  Worse than the nightmares of the dead surrounding him in the school. Nightmares of him being paddled in front of the class would be a humorous joke compared to deciding which of his sisters would live and which one would die.

  Jim ran to the corner of the building and stopped.

  He moved his head slowly until he could see down the side of the building and to the front corner of the school.

  His blood began to boil when he saw two grimy boys dragging Debbie along with them.

  One of the guys had a painful looking grip on her hair and seemed to be enjoying jerking her head from side to side. />
  The other guy had her by the arm but his attention was directed elsewhere as he kept looking Debbie over closely.

  Debbie’s shirt had been torn and hung down over her right shoulder.

  What made the problem even worse was the crazy looking guy with the evil grin on his face out in front of the corner of the school.

  The guy was leaning against the front fender of a little white car watching the progress of the two guys dragging his sister. If the look on the faces of the two guys with their backs to Jim was anything like the sick grin on the face of the guy waiting by the car, Debbie didn’t have much time.

  If that guy wasn’t out front looking this way, Jim could try running up behind the two holding his sister. With that guy out front looking back this way, Jim would be spotted as soon as he took his first step out from behind the building.

  With the three of them, Jim wouldn’t stand a chance.

  He couldn’t save Debbie and in all likelihood, Moni would starve in the boiler room.

  But if he didn’t do anything, Debbie would die. Jim was sure she wouldn’t die right away. They would keep Debbie alive for a week or two, until they got tired of her. But one way or another she would die.

  But he couldn’t let that happen to Debbie.

  He couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t at least try.

  But if he was going to do anything, he had to act fast.

  Once they had Debbie in that car, for all practical purposes, it would be over.

  Debbie would be gone.

  There was also no reason to think those guys wouldn’t come back looking for more.

  The only way Jim could live with himself was if he tried to save Debbie.

  Jim turned and started running back towards the dumpsters.

  He passed the dumpsters and continued to run towards the other corner at the back of the school.

  He didn’t stop running until he reached the front corner of the school.

  Jim looked around the corner.

  He could still see the guy leaning against the car looking out past the building.

  Jim ran out onto the street and used the bloody cars to hide him as he moved closer to the guy at the car.

  Jim was now panting heavily from trying to catch his breath and also from fear.

  He knelt down behind an old Chevy Blazer trying to calm himself down and think.

  “Now what?” He thought.

  There were still three of them and they were all bigger than he was.

  The only thing he had going for him was all three of those creeps were too busy looking at his sister to notice him hiding off to the side among the wrecked cars.

  The two guys came past the front corner of the building.

  Debbie looked desperate but firmly under the control of the two creeps.

  There would be only seconds left before they had her at the car.

  Jim did the only thing he could think of. He stood and ran out from behind the car. He knew they would see him, he only hoped they would be too occupied with his sister to see him before he was right in front of them.

  The guy leaning on the car heard him first. He turned his head to see Jim only seconds before Jim collided with the two guys holding Debbie.

  Debbie and the two guys fell to the ground.

  Jim grabbed his sister’s hand and yanked her to her feet.

  Devon was back to his knees and grabbed Debbie’s other hand and pulled.

  Jim slugged the lizard tattoo on the side of Devon’s head and Devon fell back to the ground releasing Debbie’s hand.

  Jim pulled Debbie’s hand, “Follow me.”

  Jim ran, pulling Debbie along with him towards the front door of the school.

  He glanced at the guy leaning against the car.

  Instead of chasing after Jim and Debbie, the guy just started yelling at his two friends.

  “Get up you shitheads,” the guy yelled, “Don’t let her get away.”

  Jim didn’t expect that, but he welcomed the few seconds that it gave him.

  “In the school,” Jim yelled to Debbie.

  “Those things are still in there,” Debbie gasped between breaths. “We’ll be trapped.”

  “They’ll run us down if we try to go anywhere else,” Jim shouted back. “We don’t have a choice.”

  Debbie didn’t want to go in the school, but going in there with Jim was better than staying outside with those other creeps.

  Debbie hung on to Jimmy’s hand and struggled to stay on her feet and keep up with him.

  They ran on top of the walkway roof which was not nothing more than a ramp on the ground that led up over the steps and to the open front entrance of the school.

  Jim pulled her in through the opening. They started to hear the shattered glass on the floor crunching under their feet as they ran into the front hallway.

  There were three of the dead that had made their way to the front hallway apparently being drawn in that direction by the shouting out in front of the school.

  Jim didn’t slow down.

  Debbie watched as Jimmy ran directly into the three creatures, knocking them to the ground.

  The hallway behind the three dead creatures was clear, but as they turned towards the right to go up the hallway towards the fourth grade classroom where they had lived for the last six months, there had to be at least sixty of the dead who had apparently been standing at the far end of the hall, unable to get out through the locked side door of the school.

  They all turned to look at Jim and Debbie, then slowly began to stagger down the hall towards them.

  “We’re screwed Jimmy,” Debbie yelled, “we can’t get up to our room and those creeps will be behind us any second now.”

  Jim started digging through his pocket. Debbie looked at him like he was crazy. “What are you doing?”

  Jim didn’t pay any attention to her question.

  He pulled out a roll of string with a fishing hook attached to one end.

  “Come on,” Jim said as he ran over to the door that led down to the cafeteria.

  “You locked that door, remember,” Debbie yelled

  Jim just pushed the end of the fishing hook into a little hole on the door knob.

  Debbie turned back towards the corner of the hallway that led to the front of the school where the door had been.

  The crunching sound of glass on the tile floor was getting louder.

  Jim yanked to door open and pulled Debbie into the stairwell.

  As he closed the door, he saw the two creeps that had been dragging Debbie, running around the corner of the hallway.

  When they saw Jim going through the door they started to run towards him, swearing as they ran.

  The lizard tattoo looked alive on the side of the guy’s face.

  Jim slammed the door and pushed in the button on the door knob and twisted it to the right.

  Jim pulled Debbie down the steps as George and Devon began to shake the door handle and then they started pounding on the door yelling obscenities at the Jim and Debbie. Telling them what they were going to do Debbie when they caught up with her.

  Halfway down the stairs, Jim and Debbie heard the cursing turn to shouts of fear.

  Then they could hear the shouts turn next to screams of pain.

  “Bastards,” Debbie said.

  Jim pulled Debbie to the boiler room door.

  “Moni, its Jimmy, open the door,” Jim yelled.

  They waited for a second as they heard movement in the room.

  The lock clicked and the door slowly opened, revealing a relieved face, wet from tears.

  “Inside,” Jim said.

  Debbie pushed into the room.

  Jimmy followed and relocked the door.

  “Moni, you stay here a little longer,” Jim said quickly, “Debbie and I will be right back.”

  “Where are we going now?” Debbie asked.

  I want to see something,” Jimmy replied.

  “Whatever you say big brother,” Debbie
answered.

  Jimmy pushed open the bin door and climbed out.

  He pulled Debbie up after him.

  “Stay quiet, Moni,” Jim whispered in through the opening and quietly closed the door.

  “Where are we going?” Debbie asked again.

  “I don’t know yet,” Jim replied, “just stay with me.”

  Debbie followed Jim towards the corner where Ed had disappeared and where those two creeps had grabbed her.

  Jim kept moving until they reached the front corner of the building.

  Jim signaled Debbie to stand still then he took a quick look around the corner.

  Jim pulled his head back.

  “Who’s out there?” Debbie asked.

  “Just that guy that was leaning against the car. He didn’t try to catch us or go into the building,” Jim said. “He must be the leader. He was leaving the dirty work to those other two.”

  “Now what?” Debbie asked.

  Jim looked around the corner and watched Jamal.

  Jamal was looking nervously at the school.

  “He keeps looking at the building and then back at the car,” Jim answered. “I know he heard those other two screaming. I think he is trying to decide whether to wait a few more minutes or to get out of here.”

  “I hope he decides to go inside and join his two buddies,” Debbie said angrily.

  Jim thought for a second then looked around on the ground near their feet.

  “I have an idea before he decides to leave but I’m going to need your help,” Jim said.

  “Anything to get back at those bastards,” Debbie replied with hate in her voice.

  “OK hold up your arms,” Jim said.

  Debbie shrugged, confused by what Jimmy had asked her to do. She didn’t know what good holding up her arms would do, but then again she didn’t know how running into the school was going to save them before. But she was sure Jimmy had an idea. She held up her arms.

  Jim grabbed the shoulders of her shirt and pulled her shirt off over her head.