by Jason Deyo
They covered Jimmy’s face. Yellowish white maggots filled the cracks of his mouth and fell from his nostrils and eyes as the swarm took flight. His blond hair took on a black color from the dried blood of Mrs. Kim’s victims. It was thickly matted to his head and crusted onto his face in thick and dark twisted strands. Blood was smeared across his mouth and up his cheeks. Dried flakes of blood fell from his face as he stretched his mouth.
“Thank you, Mrs. Kim,” Jimmy said. She saw him clean faced, with rosy red cheeks, and as perfect as any other eight-year-old child.
The flies no longer affected her as she grabbed the lever and pulled it. With the first jolt of movement Jimmy fell on the body biting his neck.
“Jimmy, you are so welcome.” She smiled as he pulled up, swallowed the flesh, and smiled back at her. His beautiful green eyes glimmered with each bite. He then deeply bit down into the same spot.
Dave’s legs jerked and his body arched. Jimmy’s head was lifted up by the momentum and pushed down toward Dave’s stomach. Dave tried to scream, but nothing escaped his lips. Blood bubbled as it exited his neck. He grabbed his neck and the small monster bit into his stomach.
Jimmy growled and Dave tried to scream, but Mrs. Kim could only hear Jimmy’s sweet laughter.
“I feel great, Mrs. Kim!!!” he yelled as he bit off more flesh from the naked body.
Dave grabbed him by the face and awkwardly punched him. Amelia was standing by Mrs. Kim now. “You don’t hurt my son. Kim, stop him!”
Mrs. Kim ran next to him and tried to strike his head with the small hammer. Dave held the creature’s head up with one hand and tried to fight Kim with the other. She swung the hammer wildly, but he was able to deflect the blows so that they only landed on his wrist and shoulder.
Jimmy grabbed Dave’s hand and bit it right below his small finger. He winced in pain and Kim struck the top of his head with the rounded portion of the ball peen hammer. His body went limp and his eyes stayed open.
“How dare you hit my child,” Amelia said. “Are you going to take care of the others?”
Mrs. Kim breathed deeply and stood next to Amelia. “I think I should let him eat a little more and then I’ll put his hood on. It’s easier to cover him when he’s eating.”
*****
Rod moved toward the stairs and could make out a dim light shining at the top. He climbed the stairs slowly, trying to be as stealthy as possible, but as he began one step screamed out. He stood still for a few seconds waiting to see if anyone heard him.
After that one stair they were surprisingly quiet and he congratulated himself for moving very stealthily. At the top of the stairs he saw light coming from under the door directly to his right.
He moved closer and tried to hear what was on the other side. For a second he thought about what Dave would say if he were caught listening in on him and this woman, but he could sense something was not right. He listened and could hear the rhythmic noise of something soft being moved or molded. He wasn’t able to quite place it, but the sound was familiar to him. He did not want to believe it could be the sound of a zombie behind the door.
Reaching for the doorknob, he opened it slowly, peeking inside. Immediately he was able to identify the familiar noise of a chain, because he saw taut links stretching across the small room. He was unable to see where the chain led because it was hidden behind a bed frame. He opened the door wide and was hit by the smell that lingered beyond the candles and potpourri. The smell made him nauseous, but he continued to push it open and saw Kimberly standing with her back to the door in her fuzzy blue robe. The door creaked, startling her, and she jumped to face the intruder. Kim’s hair was wild and her face was no longer happy and pleasant, now taking on a sinister appearance.
She was standing in front of Rod as if she were trying to block his view. “You’re supposed to be sleeping,” she said with a strong southern accent that surprised Rod, followed by a half-forced smile and an uncomfortable giggle. She placed her left hand on his chest, grabbed the open door and started pushing him out of the room.
Rod stepped forward, stopping her from closing the door. His heart was pounding and something heavy sat in his throat. Something was definitely not right here. Rod didn’t want to see, but he couldn’t stop himself. The adrenaline in his body made shoving the woman off to the side easy work. He looked over at the soiled, stain-ridden mattress blocking his view of the chain and saw that it was wrapped around two bare feet.
Stepping into the middle of the room, he gasped as David stared up at him with lifeless eyes. Rod’s eyes were fixed on the dead emotionless features of David’s face, not believing the events that were taking place. A small boy wearing a bloody light-blue pajama set was bending over Dave’s midsection. Rod forced himself to look at the boy and examine the scene.
The child looked up from Dave’s midsection. The boy’s face was covered in fresh blood as he grasped two handfuls of flesh.
It stood up, holding onto the intestines that were still attached to Dave, and let out another growl. The innards that hung from the small ghoul’s jaws muffled the growl.
Rod looked back down at Dave lying on his back, stomach ripped open, and with a large head wound. Time seemed to stand still while Rod looked into his friend’s eyes, thinking of all the things he should do. I should get him out of here. I can’t leave him like this. We might be able to save him? Just then he felt two powerful hands push him forward.
He tripped on the taut chain and fell onto his hands and knees, almost landing on his friend. Rod froze, until he felt the fists of the undead child rub across his back. The ghoul did not grab him because it refused to release his grip on Dave’s intestines. Although the boy was not holding onto him, he was about to feel the demon’s bloody teeth sink into his skin.
The small zombie let go of the intestines that now clung to Rod’s back and grabbed ahold of his shirt. Rod snapped out of his trance and jumped up, a chill running through his body. The demon child refused to let go and lurched forward with its mouth open wider than any human mouth should open. Rod was able to turn his body to face the creature and punch it in the face. The child’s face broke inward as its right hand lost its grip on Rod’s shirt.
The zombie swung wildly, but maintained its balance by hanging onto Rod’s shirtsleeve with its left hand. It came charging after him again with renewed vigor. Rod broke the child’s grip on his sleeve and punched him in the face a second time. This time the power of the punch sent it falling backward over Dave’s body.
Rod turned toward the door and was going to make a run for it just as he saw Kim pick up the small hammer on the dresser next to the lantern. Kim swung at him, enraged after witnessing him assault the boy. She clawed at his face and swung the hammer wildly. He was able to protect his head, taking the strikes to his shoulders and arms. Rod pushed the woman out of the way. Kim partially maintained her balance and instead of falling away from the door, she fell into it, slamming it shut.
Rod wrestled her for the hammer and screamed for Eric. Once he had the hammer, he quickly tossed it on the other side of the room. She continued to fight and felt him trying to force her away from the door. Kim grabbed the bedframe, making it harder for Rod to escape. Now he was not only fighting the woman, but had to move both her and the bed.
He grabbed her waist, ignoring the pain in his hand, and tried to pry her off the bedframe, but she had a tight grip and she was sprawled out in front of the exit. Rod grabbed Kim’s reddish-blond hair and pulled her head up from the frame, bringing his right leg back in preparation of kneeing her in the face.
Searing pain flowed through his body, starting in his right calf, as the boy bit deep into him. Rod pulled away and followed through with kneeing the woman in the face. When it connected, Kimberly fell limp and into a heap directly in front of the door.
Hands wrapped around Rod’s right ankle and he felt another bite to his calf. He tried to pull away, but the young ghoul’s grip was too strong. Holding onto the bed frame
with his back to the boy, he stomped down backwards with his left foot on the zombie’s jaw and stood up, pulling his right foot from the powerful grasp of the undead. His right leg was free, but now the ghoul fought for control of his left foot. Rod jumped up, turned, and kicked the eight year old in the head.
The zombie rolled backwards, but quickly managed to get onto its hands and knees. The little beast opened and closed its mouth, as if it were chewing on something, even though its jaw was damaged severely. Rod stepped forward and kicked the boy in the face again as it crawled toward him.
Eric was trying to force the door open, but Kimberly’s body lay in a ball in front of it. She started to move, and Rod grabbed her by her hair and unraveled her folded body. She slowly reached up, supporting her hair, and started to show signs of a stunned recovery. Rod pulled the woman away from the door by her disheveled hair.
Eric peered into the room just in time to see Rod kick the crawling creature for the third time. Then he noticed a foot sticking out from the end of the bed. Eric immediately knew it was Dave’s foot, but had to see for himself and stepped into the room. Dave’s body lay with his stomach ripped open and his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling. Rod pushed on Eric’s chest and said, “There’s nothing we can do for him, we need to get out of here.”
“Don’t leave me.” They did not recognize the voice and turned to Mrs. Kim. The voice was not Mrs. Kim’s. She was trying to get situated, but they could tell she was still very disoriented. She ran her hand through her hair to get it out of her face and tried to hide her naked body, exposed by her open fuzzy blue robe. Something about her was off. She didn’t act or move the same. She physically looked the same, but she was not the same person.
Rod looked at her as he shoved Eric out of the room. “Go!” he hollered, as he slammed the door behind him.
Amelia tried to sit up, but fell over. Jimmy crawled toward her. “Jimmy, it’s me your mom. It’s Mom. You still remember me don’t you?” Amelia opened her arms as her son cried. His face was bruised from where Rod had kicked and punched him.
“Come here, baby. Mommy will take care of you.” Jimmy crawled into her lap and bit her. Amelia pushed her son off of her, but he kept coming. The small zombie grabbed hold of her leg as she tried to kick it back and bit into her bare thigh.
“Don’t you remember me? I love you,” Amelia screamed. “Stop!”
Jimmy looked up at her with his white eyes and dull blue pupils and bit her in the stomach. She tried to push him off, but nothing she did could break its powerful undead grip.
As Eric and Rod ran down the stairs they could hear the woman pleading for her son to remember her. She pleaded for her son not to come near her. She pleaded for her son not to hurt her. She begged for her son to stop.
THE END
If you liked Mrs. Kim please follow the rest of Eric, Rod, and Drew’s journey in Winter’s Salvation. The first chapter of Winter’s Salvation is attached.
Chapter 1
Best of Friends
“You’re not Puerto Rican,” Eric said as he picked up a buoy scraper.
“I’m probably the only Puerto Rican you know,” Rod responded, slightly offended. He, too, pulled one of the scrapers from a large blue plastic trash can and shook it. The scraper consisted of a long pole with a piece on the end that resembled a thick putty knife, and this one was loose. Rod put it back and grabbed another from the bin.
The smell of dead fish, crabs, and rotting sea urchins filled the thick hot humid air as they fried on the buoy deck of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Maria Bray. June was miserable in Jacksonville, Florida, and the last place anyone wanted to be was on the metal frying pan called the buoy deck of a buoy tender. The crew on deck, most under the age of twenty, wearing blue coveralls and orange reflective life preservers, were covered in sweat mixed with the crud that grew on the five-ton buoy that was lying chained to the deck.
“No, my friend’s stepfather’s sister’s boyfriend Negro is Puerto Rican. He’s Puerto Rican, you’re not.” Eric attempted rolling his r in Negro in a horrible Spanish accent.
“You lie.” Rod paused for a second. “What makes him more Puerto Rican than me?”
“I didn’t say he’s more Puerto Rican. I’m saying you’re not.”
“Why’s that?” Rodriquez began to scrape the side of the green rusting buoy while some of the more senior deckies climbed to the top of the cage to change out the lights and solar panels. The buoy was larger than anyone on deck. Eric walked around and began scraping the other side. With every scrape of the buoy, sea urchins, crustaceans, and barnacles fell to the sizzling metal deck.
“Because he’s bad ass,” another scrape, “and he has an awesome accent.”
“I assume he’s black, too.”
Eric nodded behind the buoy. “Your point?”
“Yeah, negro means black in Spanish.”
“I was very confused growing up,” Eric said.
Rodriquez couldn’t help but laugh. “You know this is not what I signed up for,” Rod grunted as he scraped critters over the green buoy and into Eric’s face.
Smiling, Eric clenched his lips tight, but some of the foul black sea mixture had already managed to fall into his mouth. Finding the last halfway decent spot on his sleeve, he wiped his face clean. He finished scraping the side of the buoy to his standards. His scraping wasn’t to the standard of many of the other deckies, but he was a machinist and cared little for working on buoys and besides, he had been volun-told to work with the deck crew. A small striped crab made a desperate run across the hot deck; Eric reached down and grabbed hold of it very gently from behind with his thick leather gloves.
Rod had more pride in his workmanship, and was not quite done his side. He was very much aware that he was not going to get away with throwing crud into Eric’s face, and watched as his shipmate licked his lips. That was code for I’m going to get you back.
“Yeah, the Guard I signed up for showed Coasties kicking in doors and drowning Cubans,” Eric said, trying to get a rise out of him.
“Help me grab this chain,” Rod said as he stood his scraper up in the trash can.
Eric followed, not saying a word, tossing his scraper into the bin. He cupped the crab, hiding it from everyone’s view.
Rod kicked over one of the chain links that was about the size of a football and pulled it with a chain hook. “I’ll pull it out if you can drag it to the other side.”
“Yup,” Eric said with a grin. As Rod bent over, Eric dropped the mysterious crab into the pocket of his baggy blue coveralls where he kept his cigarettes.
“I can’t wait to get home and make love to Julie.” Rodriquez licked his lips at Eric, just to drive in the insult of throwing buoy crud in his face.
“Me too.” Eric’s response was quick. “I mean goin’ home and makin’ love to Julie.”
Rod drove a hard punch into Eric’s shoulder, but Eric greeted it with a laugh. Eric was a stocky, five-foot-nine former Olympic wrestling hopeful; the wiry Rodriquez was half a head shorter, but he didn’t let anyone get away with trash-talking his wife—not even Eric. Julie, a blond who was gorgeous despite weighing twice as much as Rod, was the type of woman who would do anything for anyone at the drop of the hat. And as Rodriquez reminded Eric often, family is number one to the Puerto Rican people.
After they’d dragged the buoy back into the water, the deck crew stopped to take a break. “So who are you hooking up with this weekend?” Rod asked snidely.
Knowing Rodriquez was about to jump into another of his long-winded family tirades, Eric did his best to derail the conversation. “Depends on who Julie’s bringin’ home,” he jeered.
“Being a father and husband are the two greatest things that have ever happened to me.” Julie had come with a son from a previous relationship, but Rod treated Drew like his own. If ever a couple should have had lots of kids, they were the ones and they were working on child number two. But Rod could see the men rolling their eyes as they res
ted on a scuttle. “You all just don’t know.” He reached deep into his pocket for a cigarette, screamed, and pulled out a crab that was latched onto his right hand with both claws.
The men laughed. Eric rolled hysterically and then was called to the bridge.
*****
Later that night Eric and Rodriquez sat on Rod’s uncomfortable blue couch. It was the type of couch that sits in hotel rooms and is really there for decoration, not for actual use. The stuffing that filled the cushions consisted of a piece of carpet padding and a blue, almost denim, cloth material. They sat watching the latest movie from Red Box, and Eric migrated to the floor, figuring the carpet was better suited for sitting.
Half way through the movie, the front door’s knob shifted and then was thrown open. It was Julie, coming home from work and obviously in a foul mood. “Hey babe, I didn’t expect you home so early,” Rod said as he paused the movie. “Good day?” He reached up to hug her massive six-foot-tall body.
“Anything but.” Julie looked irritated, and beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. She had to bend over to wrap her large arms around Rod’s small upper body and give him a quick uncomfortable hug. She pulled the scrunchie from her long blond hair, releasing her pony tail and relieving the stress as the hair stopped pulling at her scalp. She wore the classic nurse’s outfit, blue scrubs with white tennis shoes. Just above her right breast, she had a large fresh red stain. “Babe, I really need to take a shower and just lie down for a bit.”
“Ok. You hungry? I could go for some Pizza Pizza right now.” He skipped backwards in front of her. Pizza Pizza was their favorite carry out sub and pizza shop.
From down the hallway Rod’s stepson Drew hollered through his closed bedroom door. “I could go for some Pizza Pizza!”
Eric watched and pictured Rod as a little puppy begging for attention from its master. It didn’t matter what type of attention it was, just as long as he was attended to. Eric laughed at the thought and was about to say hello when Julie bellowed, “God, Rod, get out of my face already.”
