3.2 As the World Dies Untold Tales Vol. 2

by Rhiannon Frater

  The Hispanic man covered in bruises and blood continued the story. “We had to drive up the embankment to get off the highway. Then everyone started to try and do it! We were the first ones off, so we made it to the frontage and we just floored it!”

  “Look, we’re hearing about the violence in the cities and a thing or two about the car wrecks on the highways but that doesn’t give you the right to speed down these roads. There are children, pets, old people-” one of the highway patrolman started to say.

  “Then give us a ticket and we’ll leave!” This was from the first woman clutching the baby. “We’ll leave!”

  The town’s only policeman, Chief Murphy, pulled up on his belt and said in a soothing voice, “Okay, everyone just calm down. I know you folks saw something bad back there, but we need to keep this orderly.”

  “You have no idea what we saw back there!” one of the drivers shouted. “You have no idea.”

  Mr. Cloy leaned toward Lenore and Ken and whispered. “City folk always think they can just come out here and do what they want.”

  “Did you hear what they were saying?” Lenore asked him incredulously. Mr. Cloy had a one-track mind, but he was being ridiculous

  Ken nodded in agreement. “I don’t blame them for freaking out. What they said sounds crazy, but look at them! They’re freaking traumatized.”

  Mr. Cloy frowned deeply, his hands in his jean pockets. “Say what you will, but this is the kinda thing that always turns out wrong. City people coming out here and making up their own rules and--”

  “Carlos, help me!” A woman’s shrill scream sent Lenore’s skin crawling. “Something is wrong with the kids!”

  A man rushed to open the door of one of the cars and the gathering crowd surged forward to see what was wrong. Mr. Cloy pushed the door to the shop all the way open and the three of them took several steps outside to see what was going on.

  The highway patrolmen hurried forward and told everyone to step back as the Sheriff helped the distressed parents lift one of their kids out of the back of the car. It was a teenage girl and she was having an appalling seizure. Blood gushed from a wound in her neck. A second child stumbled out of the car, clutching at the older girl. As everyone watched in terror, he leaned down and took a large bite of flesh from her forearm.

  “Ramon, no!” His mother grabbed the boy and wrestled him from his sister.

  “Oh, shit!” Ken seized Lenore’s arm and squeezed. “Did that just happen? Did that just happen?”

  Lenore felt queasy. “Uh huh, that baby just went crazy and tried to eat his sister.”

  The highway patrolmen pushed the gawking spectators back, then turned their attention to the girl on the ground. Her father was cradling her in his arms and sobbing. Meanwhile, the little boy who had taken a hunk out of his sister was chewing as his mother and several other people tried to drag him a safe distance away.

  “Get it out of his mouth!” his mother screamed.

  One of the people trying to help her reached toward the boy’s mouth.

  “This is gonna get bad fast,” Lenore said in a low voice.

  “Uh huh,” Ken agreed.

  Together, they started backing toward the door to the beauty shop.

  4.

  Things Getting Worse Faster

  Ken’s grip on Lenore’s hand tightened as they backed toward the open doorway of the beauty shop.

  “Hey, don’t touch that kid,” Mr. Cloy called out, stepping into the street.

  The man reaching out to pull the chunk of flesh from the child’s bloodied mouth hesitated. The kid swallowed what he was eating and lunged forward. The man and the mother of the child screamed as the kid’s hard teeth clamped on the fingers paused before his face.

  At the same time, the teenage girl on the ground stopped convulsing and her father let out an anguished cry. He attempted to throw himself over her, but one of the highway patrolmen shoved him back.

  “Hold on! Let us work on her,” the patrolman said in an authoritative tone.

  Screams and shouts filled the morning air as one group of people tried to wrestle the child off the screaming man while the other group gathered around the girl lying bloodied and dead on the road.

  “Get inside, get inside!” Ken whispered urgently to Lenore.

  “I ain’t arguing.”

  They both slipped into the shop, shut the door, and stared through the thick glass.

  Mr. Cloy hovered near the edge of the crowd watching with a shocked look on his face.

  “Why doesn’t that damn fool get inside?” Lenore muttered.

  “Why don’t any of them?” Ken clutched her arm tightly. “This is not good! So not good!”

  A tug of war continued as the mother pulled on her child and two men pulled on his victim. The boy’s hard little teeth rent most of the skin off the two fingers as they were ripped from his mouth.

  Clutching his bloodied hand, the man howled in pain. He ran along the street with several of his friends behind him.

  “Oh, crap,” Ken exclaimed as the kid wiggled around in his mother’s grasp and tore into her chest.

  “Okay, Damian needs to be put down,” Lenore decided firmly.

  The boy’s seemingly-dead sister sat up and people applauded with relief even though ten feet away the other child was taking huge bites out of his mother. The insanity of the moment made Ken’s head hurt. People were just not getting what was going on. Hell, he wasn’t sure what was going on.

  The highway patrolman motioned everyone back and turned to the resurrected teenager. The father of the girl again tried to reach for her, but was pushed away.

  “Sir, just step back. We got an ambulance on the way,” he told the father a soothing tone. Kneeling down, he gazed into the blank face of the teenager. “Miss, you’re going to be all right.”

  People clapped again as she gripped him by the neck. It was obvious they thought she was going to hug or kiss her rescuer. Lenore grabbed Ken’s arm as the girl opened her mouth wide and drove her teeth into the officer’s face.

  “And now we’ve got Carrie!” Ken couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  At long last, the crowd of people, from both the cars and the town, comprehended the true danger of the situation. The girl pinned the patrolman to the ground and ripped huge bites of skin from his face and neck. The second patrolman drew his gun, flicked off the safety and pulled the trigger. The bullets punched through the girl’s body and into the patrolman beneath her.

  Her father wailed in despair as he spun around in a circle, becoming aware that all his family had become monsters. The older man grabbed the father’s arm and shoved him into a car.

  “We need to go!” the older man shouted.

  Much to Ken’s relief, the woman with the baby crawled into the van as the rest of the highway refugees piled into their vehicles.

  Nearby two men managed to get the boy off his mother and she collapsed to the ground, her neck spurting long fountains of blood. The boy thrashed between the two men. The men seemed at a loss as to what to do now that they had him off the mother.

  The dead girl sluggishly stood up and lurched toward the remaining patrolman. He finished reloading and began firing at her again.

  “Get out of here!” Sheriff Murphy shouted at the last of the shocked bystanders.

  People sprinted away as the cars performed a crazy dance, attempting to maneuver out from between the highway patrol cars and escape.

  “This can’t get worse,” Ken said in a soft voice.

  Mr. Cloy finally seemed to register that he was in danger and retreated toward his store. A van, full of panicked people, crashed into the side of one of the patrol cars as it tried to skirt around it.

  Sheriff Murphy ran toward the van, attempting to wave to the driver, but the vehicle reversed and lurched forward again. It struck the Sheriff. The older man’s body was thrown by the impact and skidded to a stop near Ken’s shop. The driver of the van didn’t even seem to realize what he had done a
s he crashed his vehicle into the patrol car again, finally scooting it out of the way.

  “Oh, no, honey. It’s worse,” Lenore said in a trembling voice.

  The zombie girl leaped onto the lawman shooting at her. The patrolman she had been chewing on minutes before rose to his feet and let out an ungodly screech.

  The two townspeople struggling with the little boy seemed to finally get a plan together and swung him back and forth between them, gaining momentum before releasing him. The kid arced through the air and smashed into a departing car. The two men then turned to run. One of them let out a yelp as the boy’s mother dragged him down to the ground. She did not hesitate in biting into his arm.

  The bloodied and torn undead patrolman let out another ungodly howl and ran after the last man trying to dodge the departing cars and escape. The van that had run down Sheriff Murphy disappeared from view and the other cars followed.

  “Where’s that demented little freak?” Lenore asked anxiously.

  “There.” Ken pointed to the boy as he limped on an broken leg toward Sheriff Murphy. A bone was sticking out of his thigh, but the kid moved with determination toward the fallen lawman.

  “Do something!”

  “Like what? Go tell him he’s bad and put him in the corner?” Ken looked around at his shop, unable to even comprehend what he could use to stop the little boy.

  Lenore grabbed the coat rack next to the door, yanked the door open, and charged out. Ken gasped, but shadowed after her. Lenore rushed to the Sheriff’s side and swung the coat rack, knocking the zombie kid off his feet. The kid hissed, trying to get up, but Lenore smacked him again.

  “You lil’ bastard, stay down!”

  Ken took hold of the Sheriff’s arms and started to drag him back to the shop. It was difficult, but he was physically fit from his daily workout and managed to get the bigger man up over the curb.

  Close by, the teenage girl was pulling the intestines out of the screaming patrolman while his former partner ran down the man who had tried to save the mother. The zombie tackled the man to the ground and ripped into him with his teeth. Meanwhile, the mother was still attacking the second man who had tried to help her.

  Lenore smacked the kid off his feet again as she shifted backward toward the shop. “Get the Sheriff inside.”

  “Almost there,” Ken huffed, dragging the Sheriff into the entrance.

  The kid climbed to his feet and charged Lenore. Again, she used the coat rack to knock him on his ass. This time she continued to smack him with the rack, trying to keep him down.

  Beyond Lenore, the mother was done eating. She climbed to her feet as her victim crawled to his knees behind her and let out a terrible moan of hunger.

  “Hurry up, Lenore,” Ken shouted at her. “I got him inside!”

  Lenore gave the kid one more big push, then ran to the shop.

  Ken felt his throat tighten as the two mangled adults and the demonic child charged after her.

  “Lenore, run! Run!”

  Lenore was amazingly fast despite her size and hurled into the beauty shop. Ken slammed the door and moved to lock it.

  “The keys!”

  Lenore looked at him quizzically as she set the coatrack back in place, then understood. “Oh!” She stumbled over the Sheriff as she moved to snag the keys from the cash register.

  Ken looked up to see the three crazed cannibals rushing toward the door. He quickly pulled the shade down over the window.

  “Like that’ll work,” he muttered, then looked toward Lenore. “Keys would be, like, so good right now.”

  “Hold on, looking for them. You always put them in the wrong place,” Lenore answered as she rummaged through the drawer under the register.

  “Okay, like now, you know, would be good.” Ken held out his hand. He let out a girly yelp as something hit the door on the other side. He shot a look at the doorknob and felt his heart began to beat even faster.

  “Catch!”

  Ken glanced up just in time to see the ring of keys flying at his head. For a moment, he thought he wasn’t going to catch them, then his fingers caught the miniature Barbie doll dangling from the ring. He quickly inserted the key with the big pink heart on it into the lock as the door vibrated under the assault of the people on the other side. The doorknob jiggled and Ken had to fight to twist the key in the lock. Finally, the big bolts slid into place and Ken backed away from the door.

  Lenore stepped next to him and they both stared at the door.

  “Will it hold?”

  “It’s a hundred years old and like petrified wood,” Ken answered.

  “But will it hold?”

  “Um...”

  They both stared at the quivering door as the Sheriff moaned softly at their feet.

  5.

  It Gets Even Worse

  “Okay...so...” Ken waved toward the door. “They’re like...um...”

  “Zombies,” Lenore said.

  “Yeah. That.” Ken frowned deeply. “Which means I’m either drunk, high, insane or-”

  “-the dead people decided we’re good eatin’.”

  “Right.” Ken arched an eyebrow. “Great.”

  Lenore frowned even more deeply than usual before motioning to the big antique wardrobe that served as storage for hair dyes. “I think we should move that in front of the door.”

  Ken eyed the Sheriff warily. “What about him?”

  “First things first,” Lenore answered, heading over to the wardrobe.

  Ken scurried into the back storage room that doubled as his office to retrieve the dolley.

  Lenore gave the trembling shop door a dark look before tossing all the bottles of dyes and creams onto the nearby sofa. She wasn’t too worried about the bottles breaking since she figured the dead getting up and eating people was much more important than fighting with the supplier over the availability of certain colors. Behind her the Sheriff moaned, but didn’t stir. Of course, that wasn’t half as worrisome as the growls just outside the front door.

  Ken rushed back with the dolley and together they wrestled the big piece of furniture in front of the door. There was much cursing and general swearing, but they managed to get the wardrobe positioned. Pushing it flush against it was difficult though.

  “Push harder,” Ken ordered her.

  “You push harder, skinny boy,” she grumbled. It was unnerving to even be near the shaking door and hear the moans and screeches from the other side.

  The heavy oak wardrobe finally slid into place and they both stepped back to survey their work.

  “Well,” Ken said, “that really doesn’t make me feel safer.”

  “Not with those two big freaking windows behind the curtains,” Lenore agreed.

  “Let’s put stuff in front of the curtains to slow them down if the get in,” Ken suggested.

  Together they dragged every heavy piece of furniture in the shop over to the windows to build a wall up behind the curtains. They were too afraid to actually move the curtains and press the furniture up against the glass. They noticed the zombies were actually quieter now that they couldn’t see the humans inside the shop.

  “Think they gotta see us to get riled up,” Lenore wondered aloud.

  “Or maybe they’re eating someone out there,” Ken offered.

  “And you say I’m doom and gloom.” Lenore put her hands on her hips and surveyed their handiwork. “Might slow ‘em down.”

  Again, the Sheriff moaned behind them.

  “We really should see if we can help him and maybe call 911,” Ken decided. He knelt next to the older man and gaped at him fearfully. “His breathing sounds really bad.”

  “I think his lungs are filling with blood,” Lenore answered, moving toward the phone.

  “You took medical training?”

  “No. I watch House.” Lenore picked up the phone and punched in her grandmother’s phone number. As she expected, the line was busy. “World is coming to an end and she’s gossiping about her soap opera.” With
a sigh, Lenore dialed 911 and held out the phone so Ken could hear the busy signal.

  “This is not happening!” Ken exclaimed. “Seriously, I’m asleep and this is not a good dream. I would much rather have Daniel Craig as James Bond whisking me off to the French Rivera.”

  Lenore rolled her eyes, walked over and pinched Ken as hard as she could.

  “Bitch!”

  “You’re not sleeping or dreaming,” Lenore said firmly. She could feel her brow puckering as she frowned. Regardless of all her grandmother’s warnings about frown lines she didn’t really care right now. She was annoyed to no end that the world had decided to go to hell today. It was damn inconvenient and she really didn’t want to deal with it. But, of course, she would.

  “Let’s drag him out the back door and take him to the hospital,” she said finally.

  “Okay, but should we move him?”

  “You already moved him once. If that didn’t make it worse, this probably won’t either.” Lenore sighed wearily. “Let’s do it. We’ll get him to the car, go get my grandma, and head to the hospital.” She was worried about her grandmother and the Sheriff was looking pretty bad. Ken was keeping it together a bit better than she’d expected, but she knew they were both probably in some sort of weird shock.

  The pounding on the front door was reduced to what sounded like small fists now. Probably the evil zombie kid. Lenore carefully split the curtain near her with her finger and peeked out.

  The little kid was still pounding on the door, but the adults were not in sight. The street appeared empty. The puddles of blood and bits of flesh strewn about the haphazardly-parked police cars made Lenore’s stomach clench. She slid her gaze to the little one banging on the door. He was snarling and hissing and she had the desire to slap him silly. Of course, he’d only try to eat her.