Among the Roaring Dead

by Christopher Sword

  The vodka threatened to melt his nostril hairs when he placed the bottle to his nose. He wished he had found a bigger bottle.

  But before he drank, the key fell out of his hands onto the floor and started a thought in his head. The accident had happened quite late and Toni would have likely been getting the kids ready for bed since it was a school night. The high school was several streets over. Not far at all if one was lucky and young.

  His mind was racing with possibilities. What if they were dead? They could be anywhere. Even if they were at the school – what would they be eating? He brought the bottle to his nose and smelled. It was such a welcoming odour – drink me and I’ll make it all go away.

  “I’m tired Orson,” he said, raising the bottle to his lips. “Is there any way out of this?”

  “Historians believe the men who met with most success in life were those who had a passion for something that kept them going – I guess you need to find that passion.”

  Jess kept thinking about the school. Nowadays, they built those buildings like fortresses, with bars over the windows and locked doors everywhere – parents couldn’t even get in without the right authorization.

  When he picked the key up he saw the one for Toni’s car. He went back to the stairwell and descended each step, his pace quickening with his new found enthusiasm back in place. The key was held tightly like spikes between the fingers of his fist. He remembered many years ago Toni coming home from a self-defense course and telling Jess about the idea. Move to punch someone in the face and the key could end up hitting an eye. In desperate circumstances, it seemed like a good plan.

  The parking garage was like a dark cavern full of unknown dangers. It curved like a circular spiral about three floors down. There were thick concrete support beams between each parking space that lent plenty of space for shadows to play their tricks.

  Jess got to Toni’s parking spot and found the minivan arse-out, as Toni was apt to do.

  “Orson, can you unlock the doors.”

  “Let me check. Okay, the doors are now unlocked.”

  There was an audible click as the locks on the doors gave way.

  He flung open one of the back doors, expecting nothing but inside was Dustin, cowered down in the space designed for legs and feet. Michael was in the front and screamed a torturous scream and came flying over the seats and out the door, punching and kicking like a crazed person.

  Jess wrapped his arms around his oldest son, saying: “It’s me, Michael! It’s me, dad!”

  Michael still struggled a few brief moments until he was able to make out his father’s face. Dustin also perked up and piled on top of the hug.

  Chapter 17

  Jess pushed them back in the car and locked the doors. It smelled like something awful inside.

  He hadn’t noticed this from the outside but the boys had stuck black garbage bags to all the windows.

  “How long have you guys been in here?”

  “I don’t know,” Michael said. “A few days I think. After the explosion mom told us to wait here. She said she was going to talk to the superintendent for a minute. We went upstairs about an hour later but we couldn’t find her.”

  “Okay, you did good. It’s going to be alright now.”

  Dustin sank back down in the rear seat and spoke quietly: “Where is mom?”

  “I don’t know,” Jess said. “Maybe we can find her. There are a lot of sick people out there who just aren’t doing well. I don’t know if this was a chemical attack or what, but it’s not safe. Now what have you two been eating?”

  Michael opened his backpack. He had a half-eaten banana and some crackers.

  “We’ve been rationing our lunch.”

  “Okay good, but that’s not going to last long and you guys stink. Let’s go inside to the laundry room and get cleaned up.”

  The laundry room was a communal area with five washing machines and five dryers. There was a mirror, a big washtub sink and a small bathroom. The boys objected at first to bathing out of a large sink, especially without a privacy barrier but Jess insisted.

  “You guys smell like you’ve been rolling around in each other’s sweat and shit for days. As happy as I was to hug you both, it was pretty disgusting all the same. Besides, I just might have something to make it worth your while.”

  Out of his jacket pocket he retrieved the smartcard and held it out for his boys to see.

  Michael’s eyes lit up.

  “Orson?”

  “Yep. Battery isn’t doing too well but I have a charger in my van.”

  “Since when do you drive a van?”

  “Since yesterday. Don’t ask.”

  After they had cleaned themselves Jess handed over the PAL. Michael sat back with it and Dustin leaned in close to watch.

  “Hi Orson,” Michael said.

  “Just going to do some digging around, don’t mind me.”

  “I certainly won’t,” Orson said.

  Michael pressed a few buttons and then they all heard the ringing that indicated an outgoing call was in progress.

  Hi, this is Toni. I can’t take your call at the moment...

  “That means her smartcard is powered and on,” Michael said.

  “It’s probably deep in her purse where she can’t hear it,” Dustin added. “She never answers.”

  “It doesn’t seem she has her GPS on and I can’t reach her PAL,” Orson added.

  “Well, it gives us some extra hope,” Jess said. “Now listen, you guys look like you haven’t had a good meal in days. I’m going to go get the van ready and look for food at the store across the street.”

  “I want to come,” Michael said.

  “No way. It’s dangerous out there. People are acting crazy and violent. I need you to both wait here until I get back.”

  Dustin started crying, big open-mouthed wailing like Jess hadn’t seen the kid do since he was a very little boy.

  “What are you doing?” Jess said. “What’s going on?”

  It was like he was consuming the sobs, trying to force them back inside so that he could talk.

  “That’s what mom said before she left.”

  “I won’t leave you guys for long, I promise,” Jess said. He looked into their eyes and saw uncertainty. “Michael, what time have you got?”

  “8:46”

  “Okay, good. I’ll be back within 30 minutes. That’s like no time at all.”

  Jess closed the door behind him, saying as it shut: “Remember, don’t open the door unless you’re sure it’s me.”

  He went back across the sharp cornered layout of the garage. There was a blue water hose coiled up on one side of the garage. He unscrewed it from the wall and attempted to siphon H-gas from some of the cars still in the garage. He had never done this before but saw it in movies – what he didn’t know was that the gasoline had a sweet flavour to it. Some had remained on his lips as he started the flow with his mouth. He had filled most of a large plastic bottle that he found in a nearby garbage bin.

  There was a long set of stairs leading up to the rear of the building. He noticed that the garage door was open - probably the default action for when the power cuts. The boys were lucky the things on the street hadn’t found their way down. His face collided with various spider webs as he climbed the stairs. He pushed the door at the top open and was confronted with a cold wind coming off the valley at the back of the building. He hated having to leave the boys again so soon after finding them but it was incredibly dangerous out on the street and he needed a plan to get them safely to the van.

  It was dark and save for the wind, quiet. A small children’s playground was covered in grey ash, not a single footprint had disturbed its cover. He walked slowly out to the front of the building, thinking that he could maybe move undetected in the darkness if he was quiet enough.

  It took a few minutes to get to the van but it still sat where he left, windows all intact and nothing to be seen within the interior. He opened the rear doors and thr
ew the empty can in the back.

  When he turned, he was confronted by Toni.

  She stood still and again cast her face upwards to the dark sky. Jess could have sworn for an instant that he saw her nostrils moving open and closed like a dog searching for a scent.

  The opportunity to analyze the situation was soon lost as Toni’s attention suddenly changed and her white marble-like eyes moved to his position. Her arms went up and for a split second Jess remembered how badly he wanted to hold her all this time. Her mouth opened showing dirty teeth and she took a menacing step forward.

  But at the exact moment that Jess’s brain was deciding whether to run or hit her, a phone rang with a melody that Jess found familiar.

  Chapter 18

  “She’s not answering,” Michael said. “Are you sure she’s nearby Orson?”

  “The signal I’m getting is far from accurate but it’s good within 100 feet. If she’s not close by, her PAL is.”

  “We should go if she’s that close.”

  “Your father told you to wait.”

  “And what if we miss a chance?”

  “He won’t be long.”

  Though the laundry room was without any indication of power being present, there were several windows present and surprisingly let some light in because although it was black as night outside, it seemingly wasn’t pure darkness out there.

  The light from Orson’s screen cast them in a warm bath of blue light, making them more visible than anything else spying them. Michael pulled out a hologram of a map of the area nearby. It was a square of blue light floating in front of them. Dustin reached out to try and distort it with his hands.

  “Are there any good games on that?”

  “Are you crazy? There’s 20 per cent battery left and you want to waste it on games? What if mom calls back and the phone is dead? A lot of good it will do us then brainiac!”

  Michael turned the screen of the smartcard off and they sat in darkness for some time. For a brief moment it looked like there was a mouse on the floor – just a small black shape scampering over to the corner where the ground meets the wall. Michael couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like it carried something in its mouth, the colour and shape of a hand.

  Michael had a flashlight from the car in his pocket - too afraid to use it until now so he pointed it in the direction of the shadow and depressed the button, creating a beam of light that showed an empty floor. Either the mouse had never had been there, or it had found a tiny escape route unseen to his scrutinizing eyes.

  One of the oddities about sitting in the dark for too long is that your eyes attempt to get used to the darkness and for the most part, they do a good job of it. Your eyes will dart around a room trying to find a familiar shape, or some movement. In all that frantic searching, the shadows at the edge of your vision have plenty of time to play tricks on you.

  The brothers played games to occupy themselves. It was some kind of variation on football where they rolled a ball over to the other, trying to avoid the goalkeeper’s blind hands. The room was about 12 feet wide and 20 feet long. They were two levels down from the street, in the dark. They had one flashlight that barely provided enough light see to the end of the room. There was no other source of illumination and the building was oddly quiet. When they first waited in the car, people came and went for the first day or two, determined to get in their own car and drive away, despite the dangers that waited outside. Some came from outside the building, covered in dirt and grime or blood and sweat. The people went up to their apartment and then left minutes later.

  Michael asked one older woman what was happening outside.

  “It’s awful, horrible! But I have to know if my children are okay,” she said, pushing her way out into the underground garage. She carried two suitcases, one of which seemed to be leaking a small trail of liquid behind her. She wore full winter gear, a big blue puffy jacket and a scarf wrapped several times around her neck. Her head was topped with a brown toque with a white fuzzy ball on top that bounced around with each step she took forward.

  Although it seemed safer to wait, none of them would.

  Michael flung a penny past Dustin, which went under a washing machine.

  “Fuck, that was our last one!”

  “So what, it was a stupid game anyway.”

  There was a loud burst of noise and the floor beneath them seemed to shake slightly.

  “What was that?” Dustin said.

  “I don’t know. Shut up; I’m listening.”

  There was a thud against the door.

  “Dad?” Dustin said.

  Michael’s eyes opened wide and he motioned for Dustin to stop talking with a finger in front of his mouth.

  “Who’s there?” said someone from the other side of the door. “Can you help me? I’m hurt!”

  The brothers both looked at each other.

  Michael stood up and put his mouth close to the door.

  “Go away, we can’t let you in.”

  “You have to help me.”

  “What are you doing here? Go to the hospital.”

  “Hospital? Who’s in there? Is that Toni’s boy? Let me in, I know where your mother is!”

  Again, the boys shared a look and Michael unlocked the door and pulled it open.

  The woman clutched her side and groaned in pain, falling against the door. When Michael trained the flashlight upon the woman, he saw that her shirt was saturated in blood.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “Come in. Hurry.”

  “It hurts so much,” the woman said, arching her neck back and tensing against the pain.

  Michael sat her down against the wall and slowly lifted the woman’s shirt up a few inches to see her back. It stuck against the moist flesh and had to be pulled free with some force.

  “Dustin,” he said, “come here. Hold the flashlight.”

  It looked like a small circular swath of skin had been ripped free. A small flap of flesh was hanging to the side.

  “How did this happen?”

  The woman slumped back against the wall and took a deep breath before speaking.

  “The guy... dog.”

  “What do you mean? A dog did this?”

  She shook her head, no.

  “The guy with the dog. It shit outside my door. I yelled and kicked it and then he came out and attacked me like a freaking animal!” She was fighting hard to catch her breath. “He just jumped on me and tried to bite me like a beast!”

  The gash of missing flesh was oozing. Michael took off his sweater and tried to stop the flow unsuccessfully.

  “Can you stand? I need to get you to some water. It’s not far.”

  The woman nodded but needed both Michael and Dustin to help her get to her feet.

  They pushed open the door to the bathroom and sat her down on the closed toilet seat.

  “Where is our mother?”

  “Outside.”

  “Outside where?”

  “I saw her walking around. On the street.”

  “We need to find her!”

  “You probably don’t want to do that,” the woman said.

  “Why?”

  “Everyone’s acting crazy, kid. I saw your mother from my apartment. She just seems to stand there looking at the building entrance, waiting for something.”

  Michael walked over to the large metal sink and tested the taps. They still worked, and the water seemed clear and was without odour.

  “I’m going to try and clean your wound a bit,” Michael said, “and then we’ll see if we can patch you up somehow.”

  The woman nodded, clutching Jess’s sweater behind her.

  The beam of the flashlight flitted around the room as Michael started to work. The room was square-shaped with white tiles lining the walls. Michael asked Dustin to find a clean piece of cloth from a dryer and his brother opened the doors of three dryers before he found something inside that would suffice. It was a small blue towel with a white and yellow flower stitched into t
he middle. He held it up in the air and smelled it – it seemed clean.

  He went back to the woman and knelt before her.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Tired, “she said. “Like I’m drifting. Like my heart is slowing down and everything is becoming calmer.”

  “That’s good,” Michael said. “You need to calm down. Now why wouldn’t I want to find my mother? Because she’s acting weird? Because she’s sick?”

  “She is sick.”

  “So are you.”

  “True, but she’s not herself.”

  “Well, maybe once you feel better you can help us find her.”

  “Why would I help you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  The woman looked up at Michael, her face suddenly changing to that of one who was suddenly irritated by something.

  “I was banging on that door for ages before you decided to let me in! You were prepared to let me die out there! With nothing but those monsters and this noise in my head. It’s like a voice. It might be chanting, or a beat, or screaming from very far away. Maybe it’s just a buzz in my ears from the explosion, but I swear it’s getting louder! That fucking animal probably infected me with rabies!”

  Michael applied the towel to the woman’s wound and wrapped her up with someone’s newly cleaned bed sheet.

  “You’re going to be okay,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

  He slipped through the door into the laundry room and found Dustin sitting in the same spot in the dark.

  He knew that the flashlight would eventually die and did his best to use it only as needed. The batteries were already fading but it was important to save them for when they really needed it. So they sat in the dark.

  He checked on the woman every once in a while and encouraged her to sleep. She seemed either tired or in a state of shock and had to be roused several times to get an answer out of her. Her breathing was slow but strong.

  The boys were tired but dared not sleep, even with the disarming sounds of sleep echoing from the bathroom. Michael realized he had to accept that there was no way to know what was going on outside. The woman was delusional or hysterical.