The Last Days (Books I, II, & III)

by Julie Cooper Brown

  I put my index finger over my lips to let him know to be quiet and went into the living room and carefully laid Angel on the couch and covered her with the afghan throw that was on the back of it.

  “Oh, only about an hour. You feel better?”

  “Yea, a little bit. I’m assuming you didn’t get any at all. Where’d you find the girl?”

  ‘She was here all along; it’s her aunt’s house. Jillian mentioned hearing light footsteps, so it must’ve been her. Her Dad brought her here and left her alone. Told her someone would come and get her, and it looks like we’re it.”

  “What are we going to do with a child? We can hardly survive ourselves.”

  “We’re not leaving her here when we go.” I said, almost mad at him because I thought that was what he was implying. I should’ve known better. Dave couldn’t do that if he tried, he’s too good hearted.

  “No, we’re not. I couldn’t do that. I just don’t know how we’re going to travel.”

  “We’ll figure something out, she’s pretty small. You can carry her in your pack.” I tried to make it funny, but the tone in my voice was flat, and I sounded like I was serious. It did to me anyway.

  I was too tired to try to sort it out, my eyes were stinging and I was having a hard time keeping them open suddenly.

  “Go lie down, Kate. If she wakes, I will watch her, until she starts acting like a nut anyway. Most kids that small do. How old is she anyway?”

  “Six.” I left Dave in the kitchen and went to sit in the recliner. I kicked out the foot rest and fell asleep within seconds.

  It was dark and I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. I heard a clap of thunder but did not see a flash of light. I could hear the rain begin to pound the roof, and I put my hands out in front of me in search of a wall or a light switch and found none. I heard the voice of a preacher in mid sermon, in the distance, shouting out scripture with conviction in a powerful voice.

  “But… the children of the kingdom… shall be CAST OUT... OUT into the outer darkness…There shall be weeping…and gnashing… of TEETH!! Can you say Amen, Brothers and sisters?”

  I pictured him leaning against the podium as he removed his handkerchief from his breast pocket, wiping the sweat from his brow, and looking out upon the people of his congregation with scorn. “AMEN!!”

  The congregation shouted in unison. It was getting louder and I tried to follow it to its source; I continued to feel my way around, moving forward inch by inch until my hands passed over a door.

  “The Foxes of the earth have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where… to lay his head.”

  “AMEN!”

  I found the knob and turned it.

  “Follow me, and let the dead…bury the dead…”

  The door easily opened into a room that wasn’t as dark, and I could now see a little from the flashes of lightning illuminating the room for a second at a time; giving it the effect of a strobe light.

  The voices of the preacher and his pupils had died away and I saw that Dave was holding Angel up in the air by the hair of her head and was forcing his other hand into her belly.

  She was kicking her legs and her mouth was open in a silent scream, her hands beating at Dave’s arm, trying to make him release her. Her teddy bear had fallen to the floor below her and the blood from her stomach began dripping onto its face.

  I tried to run to save her but I could not move my feet, I looked down and my feet were gone; emerged into the floor up to my ankles. I grabbed the back of my right knee to pull my foot out of what suddenly became a foul-smelling puddle of blood and raw meat. It would not budge. I tried to pull my gun, but it wasn’t there.

  The thunder and lightning continued and Dave had yanked a fist full of Angel’s bowels out and shoved them in his mouth, the rest of her entrails spilled out onto the floor.

  I tried to scream and found I had no voice. Her body went limp and he flung her like he was throwing a weightless rag doll, across the room where she slammed into the wall, bounced off of it and landed in a twisted heap on the floor.

  She was facing me and her eyes were open and a look of fright was forever etched on her face.

  It all seemed like it was happening in slow motion. It became dark again and I started to panic. Another quick flash of lightning revealed Dave coming at me with his teeth bared and I threw my arms up in front of my face to fend him off.

  I fell backwards as he toppled onto me and ripped into my arm.

  I awoke with a scream, and Dave and Angel looked at me in confusion. They had been sitting on the floor working on a puzzle.

  “You, okay?” Dave asked.

  “Yea, damn nightmare.” I said as I leaned forward and covered my face with my hands in relief. It was just a dream; a very vivid, lucid dream. It seemed so real. I heard scripture clear as day. I don’t know one verse from the Bible by heart. How did I get all that? Are those even real verses?

  “Where’d you get a puzzle?” I asked to get my mind off the haunting voice of the preacher and the macabre image of Angel’s eviscerated body in a mound on the floor. Angel pointed to the entertainment center, the bottom storage door left open. There were several more puzzles stored within.

  “Aunt Vibian wubs puzzles. This one looks like Heaben, Kate. Isn’t it butiful?”

  I picked up the puzzle box and it did look like Heaven, the sun shining brightly through the clouds to illuminate a waterfall running into a crystal blue stream. Flowers of all colors shapes and sizes scattered all through a green landscape with a golden road leading behind the cliff of the waterfall. Several birds dotted the limbs of majestic trees, and many other animals positioned at the edges of the road.

  For some odd reason all I could think of was ‘Follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow’, something like that, and it was becoming a mantra in my head.

  Shit, I didn’t need that at the moment. It was not the time to sing tunes from a seventy three year old musical. If I didn’t get it out of my head, I would surely start singing it just to scratch that itch.

  And now that I think about I; it did help to wipe the nightmare out of my head, as it served to distract me just now.

  She got up to point out something in the picture.

  “My house is right there. You can’t see it because it’s hiding.” She pointed to the road leading behind the waterfall.

  “I’m sure your house is beautiful. I will have to see it sometime.” I gave the box to her and she sat down in the floor and resumed arranging the pieces of the puzzle.

  “I didn’t know how to entertain her.” Dave said “I told her I wished I had games for her to play, and she came up with this. It’s better than nothing.” He got up off the floor and we walked into the kitchen, leaving Angel to study the pieces of the puzzle intensely.

  “Did she say much of anything?” I asked him.

  “Yes. I think the zombie in the laundry room is her father. She said he had gotten bitten on their way here. I assume he left her here because he didn’t want to hurt her; the problem was, he became an Abled and came back for her. He must’ve thought it was her in the attic.”

  “I’m glad she didn’t see him like that. She told me earlier that the scary monsters started chasing her when she went outside to look for her dad. I guess she forgot to close the door while running from them and the ones upstairs followed her in. Preston said the back door was open when we got here. Jillian said in her notes she heard someone run into the other room, but she had left her bag in the hall and opened the door to get it. They saw her; it distracted them from going after Angel.”

  “It saved her life. She’s a lucky girl. We’ll pack up and leave at first light. I’ll carry her until I get tired, then it will be your turn.” He said.

  “I have no problem with that…” My walkie-talkie crackled to life. It had been days since we’d received contact and I grew excited.

  “Hello… anybody on this frequency?” There was a little static bu
t we could hear just fine. I responded.

  “Yes! Who am I speaking with?”

  “My name is John ma’am. We’re looking for other survivors. How many are with you?”

  “There are three of us.”

  “Where are you?”

  “We are in Punta Gorda,” I struggled to remember the numbers I had seen on the front of the house. “The address is nine two six Spirit Lane, just off U.S. 41.”

  “We’re about twenty minutes from there. Do you want us to come and get you?”

  “Yes, but we want to wait until morning. It’s too dangerous in the dark. Where are you coming from?”

  “We are in North Port. And daylight is only a few hours away. Hang tight and I’ll radio you when we head out. Will you be okay for that long?”

  “Yes, we’re safe right now. My name is Kate, and I’m here with Dave and Angel. We will look forward to meeting you. And thank you. We didn’t know how we were going to get out of here.”

  “You’re welcome. See you in a while. I’ll keep my radio tuned to your channel… in case you need to contact us beforehand. Be safe.”

  “I will keep mine on as well.”

  Dave and I looked at each other. They say the Lord works in mysterious ways. We were both thinking the same thing. We were going to get out of this house, hopefully; As long as nothing happened to them or us in the meantime.

  I decided to try to get some more rest, the dream kept me from benefitting from my sleep, and I was still so exhausted. I looked at my watch and it was 3:30 in the morning already. We didn’t have long to wait.

  “I’ll set my phone alarm for six,” Dave said “I’m gonna sleep a little more too. You take the couch this time.”

  I looked into the other room and Angel was asleep in the floor. I picked her up and she didn’t stir. I lie back on the couch with her on my chest and quickly fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

  ESCAPE FROM SPIRIT LANE

  “Spirit Lane, are you ready?” I shot off the couch and got my radio off of the kitchen table.

  “Yes, we’re ready.” I saw that Dave was already up and had our packs ready to go.

  “We will be there in ten minutes, wait for me to give you the okay to come out. I wanna make sure you have clear passage to the van.”

  “Okay. We’ll see you then.” Dave moved the couch away from the door and looked out the peep hole. “There are a few Infected out there.” He moved to the window and peeked through the curtain.

  “Quite a few. Get on the radio and tell them. There are five that I can see.”

  “John, there are five out in front of the house.”

  “Gotcha, Kate. Tank will take care of it. We’ll be there in a sec.”

  I grabbed Angel by the hand and readied myself at the door, Dave beside me.

  “Where are we going?” Angel asked and I replied, “I don’t know, but away from here.”

  “Are we gonna go where Daddy said I had to go?”

  “I’m sure we’ll get there sweetheart, but right now I just need you to be quiet and get ready for me to pick you up. You got your teddy?”

  “Yep, I don’t go anywhere wifout Teddy.”

  We heard gunshots and I looked out the window again to see a bearded, heavy set, gray haired man with aviator shades in the driver seat of a blue Chevy van, picking off the Infected. That must be Tank.

  From the kitchen we heard a door slam into the wall, at first I thought it might be one of our rescuers coming in. Angel squealed, “Daddy!” and tried to break free of my hand, I jerked her back and she realized that her daddy was not okay. She screamed louder and started sobbing, saying “No, Daddy, no.” She hid her face in the crook of my neck.

  I could not believe what I was seeing. I don’t know why considering all the other impossibilities that have become possible over the last six weeks.

  Dave shot him right between the eyes earlier, he disabled the brain. How is he back up and standing? Blood was had dripped down the bridge of his face from the wound and spread out across his lips and chin. The pattern probably created while he was lying on his back in the laundry room.

  Dave was as shocked as I was and stood staring at him in disbelief. I turned my back to Dave offering him the machete strapped to my back since a bullet obviously wasn’t enough to do the job. He removed the weapon and I turned back around so Angel could not see her Fathers final fate.

  In one swift motion Dave decapitated him and his head hit the floor and rolled a few feet away. His face holding the same expression I had seen on Angel’s face in my dream. His body dropped on its knees, fell forward and remained animate.

  It tried to pull itself forward and blood seeped from the stump creating a dark red puddle that spread out, like it was in search of a host and almost touched my feet. I stepped back so not to get any on my boots and get further away from the headless body in the floor.

  I instantly thought of Jillian and Preston among the other dead upstairs. Were they going to come back again?

  Dave and I stood stock still and listened closely for those upstairs to rise. We didn’t hear anything but Angel’s soft sobs into my shoulder, and decided that they weren’t coming back to life anytime soon.

  “COME, NOW!” John said over the radio. He didn’t have to tell us twice. Dave tossed the machete across the room and threw the door open, he put his hand on my back to guide me out first. I held tight to Angel and ran as fast as I could to the open back doors of the waiting van. I noticed the bumper sticker said, “If God is for me, then who can be against me?”

  Tank and Dave were shooting the Infected that had begun to drift towards us. There were many more than five.

  Once Dave was in the van, Tank hit the gas and turned left on U.S. 41, still firing out his window. I remember thinking how lucky we were to survive in there that long. There were so many more infected out there than I thought but yet there were none outside when we arrived. Angel was still quietly sobbing and I positioned her in the middle of the seat between Dave and me. She protested, “Don’t let me go.”

  “I’m not letting you go; I’m only putting you on the seat so I can be comfortable. I’ll still hold your hand.” I told her.

  “Okay.” She squeezed my right hand tightly and snuggled Teddy in the crook of her elbow and put her thumb in her mouth. I was going to come up with a way to break her from that, but for the time being I left it alone.

  The van was really nice, one of those custom jobs. It had gray fuzzy seats that looked like they were very comfortable. The first seat in the back was full length and even reclined a little. There were two bucket seats behind it that were just like the two front seats, and another full length seat that could be folded down into the floor of the van to make space in the very back. The windows even had cute little curtains. A spirit bear necklace was hanging from the rear view mirror.

  I recognized it only because a former employer of mine had given me the exact same one a few years ago. I still have it somewhere in my back pack.

  THE SPRINGS

  “Nice to meet you, I’m John and this is Tank.” Dave and I both shook the hand he held back to us. John was a little older than I expected, and Greek. He had short white hair and a friendly smile. Tank was a big man, on the heavy side, but it suited his temperament. He wore aviator sunglasses, and had graying hair and a full beard. He possessed a nice smile as well. Changed the way you looked at him.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too. I am obviously Kate and this is Dave.” Dave gave a quiet salute, I don’t know why he didn’t say anything, and I think he was just unable to trust as easily as before.

  “And who is this little angel?”

  “Angel.” I said.

  “Oh, so she is an Angel. It’s very nice to meet you Angel.”

  “It’s berry nice to meet you too. Are you gonna take me where I gotta go, cause I fink my house might be there and I wanna go.”

  “Well, where are you to supposed to go?”

  “I don’t know, I fought you kn
ow.” And with that she just hugged Teddy tighter and folded into my lap.

  “So you two are military. I gotta tell you, when we saw your outfits, we almost hightailed it outta here, but I saw the girl. You know the troops that are left are killing everyone.”

  “Yea, we know. We don’t follow those types of orders. We took off on our own. We’re in the business of saving lives, not taking them.” I answered.

  “I tell you that is good to know. You know what Angel? We have a little girl back at our camp just about your age and she’s been a handful. But I think with a new playmate, it might calm her down. Would you like a new friend Angel?” John asked her. Her thumb remained in her mouth and he nodded her head.

  Yes she would, I hope it would brighten her spirit. Kids are resilient and I think with a little distraction she may be able to forget about her father for a little while.

  “So, where are we headed?” Dave asked.

  “We have shelter at the Mineral Springs in North Port. There are ten of us all together, well thirteen counting you three. Let’s see. There is Tisha, my wife. Our nephew Allen and his girlfriend Krista, they are just teenagers, a couple of elderly women that were already there when we got there Maude and Jewell. She’s cranky, you have to ignore her. Kimmy, she is five years old, her social worker, Miss Blake and a young man we picked up on our run yesterday, Seth, I think his name is. We’ve set up there, it’s the perfect place. There’s a café, showers and the main attraction, the mineral pool. Everything is in working order, at least until the generators run out of gas. We’ll burn that bridge when we get there.”

  “Sounds great. How do you know it’s safe?”

  “Most of the residents there took off when the Infection surfaced. The ones who remained turned and the troops took them out. So, Tank and I set up a perimeter around the site everywhere that access was visible. There’s still a little left to finish, but hopefully with your help, we’ll get it done in no time. Of course we’ll give you a chance to rest. We’ve got extra sleeping bags and pillows. We’ve set ours up in the hallway. We can lock the doors on both ends and will be able to see any infected that might be able to wander its way in. Really convenient actually, we’ve been there for the last seven weeks and everything’s been going good so far.”