Judgment

by Tom Reinhart

  She just shrugged her shoulders, the symbol for “I have no idea”.

  “Do you want to eat something?”

  Another enthusiastic nod. “Alright, get your pack and let’s see what the town has for us today.”

  With both our backpacks, Evelyn’s metal pipe and my shotgun, we stepped out into the morning sun. Of what day it was I had no idea. I couldn’t remember the last time a day had a real name, at least a name other than “Shitty day”, “Rainy day”, or “I’m fucking hungry today.” I also didn’t realize that we were moving out in the open much more carelessly now. It had been so long since we’d seen a Judge we’d simply gotten too relaxed about keeping an eye out.

  The sky was a little strange looking this morning. It was sunny where we were, but a thin odd looking layer of clouds covered the entire sky, and seemed to thicken off in the distance. Far off, the sky was really dark, like a storm was coming, a really big one. “Looks like we may get some rain later. Good time for a shower. Let’s make sure we grab more soap out of that grocery store, ok?”

  Evelyn gave a muffled sounding “Mmm Hmm”, some of the few sounds she could make that didn’t require vocal cords. She adjusted her backpack and moved a little closer to me as we walked up the highway towards town. The dust, as always, kicked up under our feet. Just when you started to forget the predicament you were in, there was always something there to remind you. We were forever walking on the remains of mankind.

  The only sounds we could hear besides our own footsteps were nature sounds. Birds chirped in the trees and locusts buzzed in the grass. On either side of the highway small herds of deer grazed in the tall weeds. About fifty yards ahead of us a large gathering of vultures milled about in the middle of the highway. They pecked at the road and pecked at each other, fighting for a piece of something on the ground.

  As we got closer, we saw the body moving. A maledicted, half eaten, but still alive. Well, not alive I guess. It was a woman, her long hair tangled and matted with all manner of disgusting things. She had been dead for a while, her body withered and rotted. Much of her was gone, her torn dress revealing ribs and hip bones. She was crawling along the road, the parade of vultures happy to follow along and take bits of her as they all moved down the highway together. Perhaps this was what Hell has been all along.

  As we neared, she saw us. She seemed to shift direction, trying to move towards us. As we passed her she reached out with a withered arm. She tried to speak but most of her neck had been eaten or simply rotted away. I could see the bugs moving on her. I could smell her, that horrible smell of rotting human. I grabbed Evelyn around the shoulder and pushed her along. “Just keep moving.” For another fifty yards I could hear the vultures fighting behind us for bits of meat.

  As we entered town we both became a bit more on edge. Surrounded by buildings, you never knew what you might run into every time you turned a corner. At least out in the open you could see what was coming. Here, every new street and every unopened door hid danger. It was still quiet, the only sounds coming from some dogs somewhere further up the road. Probably the same pack from the night before. They were feral, but they weren’t overly aggressive. They were just hungry.

  As we headed down the streets that lead to the grocery store, we passed a few streets of houses that we hadn’t been to before. “Maybe we should check some of these out today,” I told her.

  Evelyn took a look around, then just looked at me and wrinkled her lip a little. I could tell she was apprehensive. “It’ll be fine. We’ll make a lot of noise before we go in. We’ll probably find some good stuff.” She gave me a noncommittal nod, one of those uncertain ‘if you say so’ gestures. I smiled. Somehow in the midst of all this madness, her cuteness managed to show through. “It’ll be ok.”

  One by one we began searching homes as we moved along the street. We banged on doors and windows first, testing for the maledicted. All had been quiet and empty; Evelyn and I seemingly the only living people in this ghost town, all of its treasures ours for the taking.

  Most homes held the usual bullshit, all the material items that people had cherished during the naïve lives. All the false gods they had created and worshipped; very little of any use now in this world. We made note of the ones that had canned food, or detergent, or usable fabrics and clothing. We would come back for those things on other days. No sense in loading up with it all now, we had all the time in the world.

  The sound of the dogs grew louder the further we moved down the street. When we got to the last house on this block, I could tell they were in the backyard. We made noise at the front door, but the dogs paid us no attention. Moving through the house, we entered the living room where we could see the backyard through the large sliding glass doors. There, the pack of dogs were gathered, circling the patio with excitement. Several of them leaped sporadically up into the air, trying to reach something higher up.

  I nudged Evelyn to get her attention. “Go ahead and check upstairs. I’ll look around down here.”

  She nodded, and slowly went up the stairs to the upper bedrooms. Once out of sight, I went back out the front door and around the side of the house to the back. As I turned the corner, I could see what the dogs were fighting over. The second floor had a large wooden deck, and from the side railing a woman had hung herself, her legs dangling several feet below the deck.

  Her dead body swung in the breeze. From the smell it was clear she had hung herself weeks ago. The feral dogs leapt at her feet. She squirmed endlessly, a dead body with a living soul, as the animals tore the rotting flesh from her legs. She looked at me and I knew she wanted me to end her suffering, but I could not. There was nothing I could do.

  I turned and went back into the house. Evelyn was just coming down the stairs. “Come on. Let’s get to that grocery store.” I saw her look out the back window towards the dogs, and she pointed and gave me a look that said “What’s out there?”

  “It’s nothing,” I told her, “just the dogs being crazy chasing a squirrel.”

  Outside the sky was darkening. The rain storm was moving closer. It was odd looking though. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It looked like a really severe storm, the clouds dark and brooding. It stretched for as far as I could see across the horizon, and it was definitely moving our way.

  Damn that looks nasty.

  “We should try to get back before that hits, okay? Let’s get what we need and get out of here.”

  Evelyn nodded agreement, and we began the rest of the walk to the store.

  The parking lot of the grocery store was a world unto itself. Littered with shopping carts and abandoned cars, everything was exactly where people had left them in a hurry months ago. Weeds were growing through the cracks in the asphalt, and papers and plastic bags were blowing around in the wind.

  We entered the front door as we had the day before. From my backpack I pulled out the flashlight I had gotten from that aisle every store has, the one with the car air fresheners and batteries in it. Even though we had just been in here, it didn’t calm the eeriness of the moment. A large grocery store, one like we had shopped in all our lives, except now it wasn’t full of bustling people shoving carts full of crap around and counting their coupons.

  Now it was just a dark and empty haunted warehouse, filled with the ghosts of a society no longer alive. Our voices echoed as Evelyn and I walked the aisles. She shopped by the beam of my flashlight, the darkness around its edges always threatening to suddenly reveal something we didn’t want to see. My peripheral vision screamed with paranoia.

  Every now and then we would hear a strange creak or a sound from outside, and we would freeze in place and just listen. More than once I turned off the flashlight, and we stood motionless in the dark until it seemed like the noise was nothing.

  I could tell by the growing weight on my back that Evelyn was filling my pack. She was hungry, and so was grabbing way more than she would actually eat today. We spent extra time in the soup aisle. Canned goods were the
staples of life now. Boxes of cereal were hit or miss. Some we would open just to find mold inside, others seemed fine. I guess not all preservatives are created equal.

  “Get me that one, the tomato and rice. See it? On the bottom.” She grabbed the one I asked for, and then fumbled around a bit until she found a clam chowder.

  Yuck.

  “Hey, let’s go find the wine aisle.” Evelyn rolled her eyes at me, but followed along. Half way down the aisle, she poked me in the back, When I turned she was making a motion with one arm in the air and the other rubbing her armpit. The universal sign for “Don’t forget the soap.”

  “Ah, right. That’s on the other si….”

  Then we heard the crash. A loud metallic sound, followed by a bunch of rolling cans.

  That’s inside the store

  It sounded like a shelf had fallen over, a few aisles away. Evelyn and I immediately ducked down and I turned out the flashlight. We squatted there in silence, listening to the footsteps. Someone was walking around inside the store. No, not walking, more like shuffling along.

  A maledicted. Dammit.

  We didn’t dare move for several moments. I realized from the sounds there was more than one maledicted in here with us. I kept seeing light bounce off the ceiling and then go out again. It was coming from somewhere in the back of the store, and I realized it was a back door. It kept opening, and maledicted kept following each other in. The noises grew along with lots of movement. We could hear gurgled attempts at speech. The sounds of footsteps and more junk hitting the floor were all around us. It was a mob of maledicted, all traveling together, and now they were rummaging through the store.

  I could feel the fear growing within me. We were really outnumbered. I couldn’t see the details of Evelyn’s face in the dark, but I could feel her fingers digging into my arm, her breathing quickening. I could sense her fear. I could smell the maledicted as several sets of shuffling footsteps came closer.

  In a split second decision I decided we needed to just run. If we waited, tried to hide, and they found us there was no telling what they would do. After a certain amount of time they all seemed to go insane and they were capable of horrible violence against the living. I whispered into Evelyn’s ear. “We need to run for the front door. When you get outside you just keep running, back to the motel. Just stick with me, you understand?”

  I could see the dark silhouette of her head nodding agreement. As quietly as possible I adjusted my backpack and turned myself to face towards the front of the aisle. Evelyn was doing the same. “Are you ready?” I whispered to her.

  I saw her nod, grabbed her arm, and went for it. Jumping to our feet we took off in a full sprint up the aisle towards the front door. As we came out of the aisle near the registers, I ran smack into a maledicted. Caught completely by surprise I knocked her down and Evelyn and I both fell over her. I could smell her instantly, feeling slimy rotten flesh touching my own, parts of it tearing off and sticking to me. It took her rotting brain a few extra seconds to understand what was happening, but as Evelyn and I got up and started to run again I heard her gurgling screeches followed immediately by many more. Inhuman yells echoed throughout the store behind us as we broke out into the parking lot.

  We ran right into two more maledicted, who began screaming obscenities and tried to grab us. The parking lot was no longer empty. A dozen more were wandering around, stumbling, mumbling, some on their knees trying to eat the weeds growing through the pavement. They were all months into their malediction and insanity, their rotted brains driving them to attack us the minute they saw us.

  Evelyn and I ran as fast as we could, dodging bodies and shopping carts as we headed for the road back towards the motel. Halfway down the street where we had searched all the houses earlier, we had to stop. I was no track star and Evelyn was pregnant; I was completely out of breath and Evelyn was bent over with cramps. “It’s okay, catch your breath. They’re slow. They won’t catch us.”

  As I looked back behind us, I saw eight or ten maledicted following us, shambling slowly but determined. Behind them appeared a dozen more. They kept coming out of the store, one following the other, until the whole group was making its way towards us.

  Evelyn turned to look and her eyes widened when she saw all of them. She immediately grabbed my arm and motioned for me to get going. “Yeah, ok.” As we started off I noticed the storm again, much closer now. All around the sky was growing dark, the winds picking up strongly, warning of the approaching storm. “Let’s get back to the hotel before they see where we go and this rain hits.” Evelyn nodded as we began jogging up the street.

  We were moving a bit slower now that we had some distance between us and the maledicted, but kept up enough of a pace to get out of site so they couldn’t find us at the motel. As we neared the end of the street, I heard the pack of dogs again barking furiously. Turning to look back, I could see the whole feral pack had come out of the yard and were attacking the mob of maledicted. Some struggled under the attack, some fell to be swarmed and torn apart while many others continued their march in our direction. I urged Evelyn on a little faster. “Can you make it?” She nodded, and we continued on up the highway,

  As we neared the motel the sky darkened even more, the day beginning to look more like night. The massive black clouds were almost on top of us, the wind pushing hard at my back. Just before entering the motel room I felt a drop of rain on my neck as the sounds of thunder began to grow. Evelyn closed and locked the door behind us, drew closed the curtains, and collapsed on the bed. I watched her chest rise and fall with her breathing. I could see her pulse pounding in her neck. “You okay?”

  She nodded, then suddenly threw her hands in the air and smacked them down on her thighs.

  “What?”

  She made a disappointed sort of face at me, then put one arm up in the air and rubbed her arm pit with the other; now the universal sign for “We forgot the soap.”

  She smiled and I laughed for a minute before collapsing on the bed next to her. We lay there for a while, listening to the sound of thunder moving ever closer. “Did you ever count when you were a kid, to see how far away the thunder was?”

  Evelyn smiled and nodded. “Mmm Hmm.”

  We both waited for the next bit of lightning to flash outside the window, and we began to count, me out loud and her cutely on her fingers. “One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousa….”, and the crack and boom of thunder interrupted the count. “So, like that’s supposed to be three miles away right? I don’t know. I don’t know how it works. That storm is sitting right over us now though. Look how dark it is outside.”

  I got up and opened the curtain a bit to show her, and stared right into the rotting face of a maledicted.

  Holy shit.

  The walking corpse immediately yelled and began pounding on the window. Behind him I could see the rest of the pack, now all moving towards the motel. Several of them were still being attacked by the dogs that had followed them all the way up the highway.

  I pulled the curtains shut and doubled checked the locks on the door. Evelyn was now sitting up on the bed, and I grabbed her and led her into the bathroom. “Stay in here.” I stood in the doorway of the bathroom, watching the door and window, wondering how long they would hold up.

  They’re going to break that damn window.

  Quickly I ran over to the side of the bed and grabbed the shotgun and the metal pipe. I brought the shotgun to Evelyn and I kept the pipe. I told Evelyn to lock the bathroom door. “I’m going to hold them off out here if I have to. You blast anything that comes near this door. You understand?”

  She furiously shook her head from side to side as she tried to pull me back into the bathroom. She was desperately trying to spit out words her throat wasn’t ready to say. “No, I’m not going to have both of us get trapped in this bathroom. I can bust them up as they come through the front door. Just stay in here just in case, okay? Just do it. It’ll be okay. I promise”

&nb
sp; They’re going to fucking kill us.

  Evelyn finally relented. I kissed her on the forehead, smiled at her, and pulled the bathroom door shut. I heard the lock click behind me.

  God please don’t let them get to her.

  Outside the thunder raged and the maledicted pounded relentlessly against the glass and the old door. I could hear the growls and barks of the feral dogs attacking them as they attacked the motel room wall.

  I sat on the edge of the bed, just listening to the sounds of madness that my life had become. The gurgling babbles of insane, rotting human beings that were no longer really alive, but not dead either. I could hear the dogs tearing at their flesh. A bright flash of lightning lit up the curtains, showing the shadows of the monsters clawing at my window.

  I can’t take this anymore.

  An extremely loud boom of thunder filled the air, and I heard the downpour of rain begin. It was sudden and loud, like someone turning on a shower. I lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the not-quite-dead to burst into the room.

  This isn’t fair. None of this is fucking fair. Why did you do this to us? Fuck you, God. Fuck you.