Dying Days: Origins
Armand Rosamilia
Edited by Jenny Adams
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without expressed written consent of the author and/or artists
This book is a work of fiction. Names characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living, dead or undead, is entirely coincidental.
Dying Days: Origins copyright 2013 by Armand Rosamilia
Dying Days: Randy Jackson copyright 2013 by Armand Rosamilia
Dying Days: Eric White copyright 2013 by Lisa McKinney
Cover Illustration copyright 2013 by Ash Arceneaux www.asharceneaux.deviantart.com
First printing November 2013
[email protected]
http://rymfirebooks.com
Special Thanks to a bunch of people this time around…
First, obviously all the fans that have made the Dying Days series such a huge success and made each new release an event. I thank you!
Tosha and Trista Shorb, two of my biggest fans… there would be no Dying Days: Origins book without you!
Claire C. Riley, Lisa McKinney and Jerry Benns and everyone else who read the first draft of this story. I know I forgot a couple but things have been a bit hectic!
The Extreme Undead series from Armand Rosamilia
Highway To Hell
Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer
Dying Days
Dying Days 2
Dying Shortly (2 shorts)
Dying Shortly Volume 2 (2 shorts)
Extreme Undead Collection (Highway To Hell/Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer/Dying Days/Zombie Tea Party 4-in-1 box set)
Still Dying: Select Scenes From Dying Days
Still Dying 2 anthology
Dying Days Collection (Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer/Dying Days/Dying Days 2/Still Dying 4-in-1 box set)
Dying Days 3
Dying Days: Origins 2 (coming soon)
Dying Days 4 (coming soon)
Dying Days: Origins… Page 7
Dying Days: Randy Jackson… Page 85
Dying Days: Eric White… Page 89
Author Notes… Page 111
Dying Days: Origins
Chapter One: Notorious
The apartment was cramped, smoky and the radio way too loud for the neighbors. Tosha Shorb tried to get to the window to open it despite the cold night, but several drunks were in her way.
"Excuse me," she asked the guy in front of her. He ignored her.
She was tired - she'd worked a double today - and, despite three shots was still sober. And now she was sweating because forty people were crammed into this shitty apartment.
"Excuse me," she said louder, trying to talk over the inane pop music blasting through the room. When he glanced down at her and smirked, putting his beer can to his lips, she lost it. Before she could think she'd swung around and smashed him in the face, the can crushing on his cheek and beer exploding in all directions.
"What the fuck?" he managed, and took a defensive position even as blood and beer streamed down his face and chest. He cocked his fist to punch but stopped, staring at his attacker.
Tosha was a slight redhead with piercing eyes, which were now filled with rage. She looked much younger than her twenty-seven years, which wasn't a good thing when you worked in a hospital and patients never took you seriously when you came for blood-work.
She put her hands on her hips, aware the music had been turned down and all eyes were on her. As usual. Glad her twin sister wasn't here to give her the motherly look, she tried to remain calm. "I asked you to move."
The guy laughed. "Are you even allowed in here, little girl? What are you, twelve?"
There were a few snickers from those guests that didn't know Tosha. To her friends and those aware of her reputation, they knew what was coming and took two steps back.
The rage was building. She had two choices: turn, walk out and go home, or take action.
She put her right foot back a step at the same time he wiped his face and winked at her. Tosha tipped her weight forward with her hard leather boot swinging, catching him squarely in the groin.
As he doubled over, dropping to one knee, she leaned over and got in his face. "I'm allowed wherever the fuck I want, you fat piece of shit." Tosha winked at him as people grabbed her by the arms and pulled her away.
"I think you need to leave," someone said to her.
"Of course. You can't have some little girl in here kicking dude's asses, can you?" Tosha shrugged off their grip and gave them the finger as she left.
Chapter Two: Flesh Eater
It was cold but her rage kept her more than warm. Her Lizzy Borden concert shirt - she'd picked it up in Allentown during their last U.S. tour - was sticking to her chest and her tight blue jeans were starting to bother her. Her toes still felt numb after kicking the guy in the balls, and the thought of it made her laugh.
The streets of Harrisburg were empty, as usual. "Should've listened to Trista and stayed in." Her sister was the introverted one, preferring to sit home after work and play videogames online with her imaginary friends instead of going out into the actual world and talking to actual people.
She even preferred to be called by her stupid online name, Mathyu. Tosha didn't know if that was the dumb part, or the fact that she'd started addressing her sister by the name.
In order to get to her apartment, she cut through an alley between the McDonalds and the Harrisburg Laundromat. It always smelled bad down here, but it was much worse during the summer, when the garbage heated up, rotten food and dead rats stinking. The bums loved this alley because the fast food garbage was tossed in the dumpster, and they'd rip the bags apart and feast.
Tosha decided to sleep in tomorrow, burying herself in her pillows and stuffed animals on her bed, curtains drawn, and threatening her sister to not wake her unless the world was ending.
She was so focused on her thoughts she stumbled into the bum, standing in the dark in the middle of the alley.
"Watch where you're going," she said loudly. Usually when you shouted or acted crazier than they did, the bums would leave you alone.
He didn't move.
When she tried to sidestep him, he grabbed her left arm. He leaned into her and his breath was like rotting meat and bile. Tosha nearly gagged, but knew she had to get away from this crack-head or drunk and escape before she was raped.
"Back off, dickhead," she said and pushed him away. He simply reached for her again. Tosha easily moved around him and ran down to the other end of the alley. When she looked back, he was walking slowly toward her. "Fuck you, asshole. Maybe I'll call the cops."
He kept coming with that staggered, insanely slow stutter step. What the fuck was wrong with this guy? Was he fucking with me, trying to freak me out? Playing some game?
As he got closer, she tried to see his face, but it was too dark. Was he smiling, laughing, stoned? Tosha had all kinds of overdoses in the hospital, and she'd seen too many drug addicts with faraway stares or looks like they wanted to kill you.
She walked backwards to the other side of the street, aware she was alone. A quick glance north and south confirmed her fear. There wasn't a person out this time of night. No cars went by on the cross streets, she didn't hear any traffic, not even a train rumbling by.
It felt like an hour but he finally made it to the end of the alley and stepped out onto the sidewalk and under the street light.
Tosha gasped. He was covered in blood, his mouth dr
ipping with it.
"Is this some fucking joke, asshole? It's not funny. Did you come from that lame party, and think you could fuck with me?"
She puffed out her chest and planted her feet. She was headstrong and didn't run away from a challenge, even if it was a dumb idea. Her past was littered with dumb ideas, and she thought this was about to be another one.
"Last chance to leave me alone," she said. He took another three steps forward, within ten feet, when she gasped.
Something wet and bloody fell from his mouth and to the pavement. His eyes were glazed over and dead, his mouth slowly moving like he was biting the air. His arms were bent forward, straining at her.
"Fuck this," she muttered and turned and ran.
Chapter Three: No Time to Lose
Tosha, out of breath, slammed the apartment door behind her and locked it, even the security chain. "Mathyu?" she called, hating that she'd used the nickname.
"In here."
Tosha went into the living room and wasn't surprised to see her sister, in her sweatpants and matching sweatshirt, spread out on the couch. Her fingers worked a videogame controller, a bag of chips at her feet.
"I hit level sixty just now."
"I need to talk to you." Tosha sat down on the arm of the couch.
Her sister ignored her as she played.
"Something happened tonight."
"Did you get into a fight again?"
Tosha laughed. Her twin knew her too well. They didn't have that Twilight Zone mind-link or anything psychic, but they knew the other one better than anyone. "Well, yeah, I got into a fight. But that's not what I'm talking about."
"No one was on tonight."
"Huh?" Tosha said.
Mathyu pointed at the television and then picked up her headphones, sitting next to her on the couch. "There are only a few people playing tonight."
"Normal people are out drinking, dancing, actually talking to real people."
Her sister shook her head. "You don't understand. Even on a slow night, I have a choice of talking or playing with seventy different players, mostly in the hundreds." Mathyu dug a hand into the potato chip bag. "Tonight there are four others online, and no one I deal with. It's weird."
"Can you pause that for a second? I had a really weird night, and I need to tell you about it."
"Yeah, I'm going to turn it off anyway. It's boring tonight."
"There was this weird guy in the alley."
"Which one?"
Which guy or which alley?" Tosha asked. Her sister had an annoying habit of interrupting stories to ask questions, like she was a detective. "Can I tell the story?"
Mathyu shrugged with a grin. "It's your story." She logged off of her game.
"Anyway, I tried to walk past him but he reached out and grabbed my shoulder."
"Did you punch him out? Sorry, go ahead."
"I pushed him away and ran."
"Great story." Mathyu said and switched on the television.
"You don't understand." Tosha stood up. "He was, I can't explain it; he was bloody and had strange eyes. There was something fucked up about him. His eyes were… dead. I know that sounds weird."
"Actually, not really." Mathyu pointed at the television and turned up the volume. "What's going on, Tosh?"
The scene on the TV was chaos, with a news chopper flying overhead and getting staggered shots of a large riot in downtown Pittsburgh.
As the camera zoomed in closer, at least three people, covered in gore, were biting into the limbs of a small child.
"What the fuck is going on?" Tosha said and stared at the screen, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Her sister pointed to the top right of the screen. "What are they doing to that guy?"
Tosha felt like throwing up. "They're… it looks like…"
"Are they raping him?"
"Yes," Tosha said quietly. "I could've been raped tonight."
When the power suddenly went out, both girls screamed, the darkness absolute, especially with it being a cloudy night.
"Where did you put the flashlights?" Mathyu asked.
"I didn't touch them. Do we have candles?"
The two collided in the dark and something cracked.
"That better not be my game system," Mathyu said.
Tosha struggled, through their apartment's clutter, to the window and pulled the blinds up, but it only offered a bit of light. Even the streetlight was out.
Mathyu turned on a flashlight and handed one to Tosha.
"What do we do now?" Tosha asked. She pulled out her cell phone. "Who do we even call at this point?"
"The police, I would think."
Tosha laughed. "Like no one else thought of calling the cops about this?"
Mathyu shrugged and found her cell phone and sat on the couch.
"What are you doing?" Tosha asked.
"Angry Birds."
"Are you serious? We need to do something."
Mathyu shrugged. "Do what? We can't go anywhere, there's no one to call, and it's really cold outside. It will probably start snowing heavily in the next hour. I say we put on some warm clothes, chill on the couch, and play games until morning. Have you seen my GameBoy?"
"Seriously? You're going to crash on the couch like nothing is going on and play video games?"
Mathyu seemed to think about it for a moment. "Yes. We need more candles."
"Unreal." Tosha was starting to get cold and decided to strip out of her 'sexy going-out clothes' and into something warm and comfy. It was going to be a long night.
As her sister found her handheld gaming system, Tosha decided to grab something to eat from the refrigerator. "Want anything before I open the door? No idea how long the power will be out and everything will go bad."
"A yogurt would be cool, and maybe some of the avocado dip."
"Yuck." Tosha picked out two cold beers, a plate of cold pizza and some turkey, ham and Swiss cheese to make a sandwich. Her side of the fridge was filled with meats, cake, pizza, beer, candy bars and enough junk food to kill someone. Mathyu was a vegetarian, with the three crisper drawers packed with green vegetables and fruit, a stack of yogurt, mineral water, natural juices and weird-looking and -smelling dips for her wheat crackers.
Tosha left her items on the counter to get to room temperature while she went to her chaotic bedroom. When she opened the door, piles of her clothes littered the ground, although, she had a system (she thought): clothes in the closet were clean, those just outside the closet relatively clean, and then her kinda-dirty clothes near the bed and the shit that stunk near the door. Once the smell was overpowering, she'd pick up the last stack and wash them.
Her Muhlenberg College sweatshirt (an old boyfriend had gone there and bought it for her, right before he cheated on her) and gray sweatpants were thrown on. She decided against bra and underwear, getting comfortable. She grabbed her pillows and her comforter from the bed and decided she and her sister would make this into a sleepover and have some fun before they froze to death.
They spent the next two hours talking about their childhood, making fun of each other, and bonding like they were six again. Wrapped in every blanket they had in the apartment, they drank and ate and fell asleep on the living room floor, the candles burning out and the world just outside their window going to Hell.
Neither wanted to address the elephant in the corner: there was something unfathomable going on in the outside world and they didn't want to leave the comfort of their apartment or talk about what was going on out there. Not right now.
Chapter Four: Love Kills
"The building across the street is on fire," Mathyu said, rubbing her eyes. The sky was overcast but the promise of snow hadn't been met yet.
"I'm freezing my ass off," Tosha said.
"It's surely big enough," Mathyu chided her, pointing at her own ass, nearly identical. "Not skinny like mine."
"Whatever." Tosha, still wrapped in her comforter, joined her sister at the window. "The power
must still be out everywhere. I don't see any lights."
"I don't see many cars, either." The street was empty as far as they could see.
"Wish we had a battery-operated radio," Tosha said.
"Maybe that old lady on the first floor has one."
"Why, because she's old?"
Mathyu shrugged. "Yeah."
Tosha thought about it. "Fuck it, let's go check. What else do we have to do? Get your shoes on."
They opened the door to their apartment but neither moved. One look and they began to laugh. "Chicken-shit, go first," Tosha said.
"No way. You go first, I'm not getting killed."
"Loser." Tosha made a big show of pushing past her sister.
"Wait." Mathyu disappeared back into the cold apartment, and Tosha didn't mind the wait. She didn't want to go downstairs, through the dark stairway and anywhere near the street. Whatever was really happening was fucked up and she wanted no part of it.
Her sister returned with a flashlight and a baseball bat, chipped and well-worn. They'd found it on the vacant lot behind the house months ago and Mathyu took it 'for protection'. Since then it had been taking up space in the closet.
Tosha took the bat. "Shine the light over my shoulder, but keep it out of my eyes." They were on the third floor, with four apartments on each. "Do we have neighbors?"
Mathyu shrugged. "I know the guy across from us is in jail. Oh, I forgot to tell you that! A couple of days ago the cops showed up and tossed his apartment and led him away in handcuffs. The Rasta Dude was watching and laughing."
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