She opened the closet door and started moving through the hangers. She picked up some sweatpants and put them on over her underwear. She found a jacket and some shoes as well. “Thanks for last night,” she said from inside the closet.
“No problem.” By this time, Professor McMiller had come into the hallway from Josh’s bedroom. She and Ethan shared eye contact. Ethan stood still as she slowly limped on her good foot. “Ethan, whatever you think—”
“It’s cool,” Ethan cut her off. “Not a word. I’m cool like that.” Looks like I’m passing now, he thought as he reflected on the previous day. “Josh is cooking breakfast, I think,” he continued and motioned to the kitchen.
They all sat in the living room. Ethan, Josh, and Jenna sat quietly and ate waffles and scrambled eggs while McMiller stared at the still static television. Jenna finally broke the silence. “So what now? Think we can stay here?”
“I’m cool with that,” said Josh.
“I think we need to go outside and have a look around.” Ethan stood up, kept his coffee mug in hand, and lifted one of the plastic blinds from the window. “Oh boy,” he said with a sigh.
“What is it?” Josh asked.
“Have a look.”
Josh came to the window to witness a large number of pale-skinned creatures standing around the cul-de-sac of Josh’s housing structure. “They’re standing still.” He said, “I don’t think they know we’re here.” As he said that, there came a noise from the door.
Ethan grabbed the shotgun from the side of the couch and moved silently toward the door. He peered into the peephole. He saw a familiar basketball jersey number brushing its arms against the door. “Sssshhhhhhh-it!” Ethan quickly made it back to the window to peer out. The other beings in the cul-de-sac were beginning to shamble toward their place of residence. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!” he said quietly. “Everyone, get your shit as quietly as possible.”
“What is it?” Jenna asked.
“A problem. A big fuckin’ problem,” he said as he moved to the kitchen and quietly removed books and notepads from the backpacks he carried yesterday.
He tossed his empty one on the floor and began rooting through Parker’s backpack. Something stopped him in his tracks. He quietly picked up the object and held it out in front of the others. “Holy shit!” McMiller said as she saw the object. Parker’s backpack held a large bag of marijuana, along with some books, which were dumped, and an index card with something scribbled on it. He quickly stuffed them back into the bag and moved onto the pantry of canned food. Josh went into his bedroom and grabbed his gun from under his mattress. He found a box of ammunition in his closet. He too emptied his book bag and began stuffing it with random items in his house. Toilet paper, socks, a phone charger, more condoms, and miscellaneous hygiene products were crammed into his bag. They all reconvened in the living room.
The banging on the door intensified. More creatures were pressing against the wooden door with the chain and dead bolt beginning to move. “Couch!” Josh shouted as Ethan quickly helped him push the couch to brace it against the door.
“Does this place have a back door?” McMiller asked.
“Yeah.” The four of them gathered their things and made it out the back door to Josh’s small backyard. Josh’s shoes on Jenna’s small feet clopped on the ground as she walked. Ethan took the lead with the shotgun and the pistol on the gun belt. They silently made their way around the side of the house. The creatures were still focused on the door. “OK,” Ethan whispered. “They’re busy. Only a couple of them can see us. I say we make a run for the truck.” He took the keys to the security truck from his pants pocket.
“How far?” Josh asked.
“Thirty feet max. We can make it.”
“Ladies, we’ll lead. Give Josh the backpack. Jenna, I’m gonna need you to help her into the truck. M’kay?” She nodded and made eye contact with the teacher.
“Ashley. My name is Ashley.” The teacher said to Jenna.
“We’re ready,” Jenna said to the men. Ethan gave her a quick kiss on the lips and turned to pace to the truck. Ethan stuck the keys in his mouth and gripped the shotgun with both hands.
When they got closer to the truck, Ethan tossed the shotgun to Josh who stood guard as Jenna helped the still-limping Ashley into the car. Ethan struggled with the key, scratching the paint on the white security truck. The noise caught the attention of those banging on the door. They turned in unison toward the truck. Jenna finished pushing Ashley into the backseat of the truck as Josh threw his bag into the passenger seat. One of the creatures made its way to the tailgate of the truck. Josh took aim with the shotgun and fired a round into the crowd. It didn’t faze them. “Fuck this!” Josh said as he mounted into the truck. He closed the door as one of the creatures pressed its face against the window. “Go, dude. Go!” he said as he pointed the shotgun at the window. Ethan squealed tires as he launched the truck out of the cul-de-sac.
JUNK FOOD
CHAPTER 27
TUESDAY 0630
MILLINGTON
Devin and Erica had driven for a while in their respected vehicles. They pulled over next to some fields and got out of their vehicles. Devin and Erica hugged for a few seconds. “What did I miss?” Erica said as she released herself from Devin’s arms.
“Not much. Saw some people. Got some supplies. ”
“Were they…normal?” she asked sheepishly.
“Yeah, most of them,” he said with a smile. She reached in the minivan and grabbed the basket of stuff from the gas station that recently got wiped from the surface of the planet. She grabbed a sweet bun and began to crinkle the wrapper as she opened it.
“Where are we?”
“Um. No idea. I know we’re on a back road, and I know there are less of those things in the wild.” She looked at the empty fields of cotton. It seemed so strange that the world became so empty so quickly. She began to munch on the prepackaged pastry.
“I see you made some friends along the way,” she said as she motioned to the soldiers crawling out of the vehicle. There were a couple of vehicles that pulled over behind them on the side of the road. They looked like common folk, and they approached them as they munched on junk food.
“Millington?” One of the driver, an old man asked. Devin nodded. He motioned to the rest of his caravan. “It’s them!” he shouted as he motioned for the rest of the party to exit their vehicle. “You got the weapons, you got us out of there, and we’ll follow you,” he said to Devin and the soldiers.
BIOLOGY
CHAPTER 28
TUESDAY 0800
MEMPHIS
“Where are we going?” Jenna asked.
“Millington. There is the air base. There are soldiers with bigger guns, and that seems like the most logical place to go,” Josh said to her as he steadied the security truck. Josh and the two women sat in the truck quietly for a few moments while Ethan rode in the back holding his shotgun tightly. Ethan tapped on the back window. Ashley opened the sliding window, and a rush of wind came with Ethan’s voice.
“Air base?” he asked. Ashley nodded with bright eyes of hope. “Traffic is going to be a nightmare!”
“I’m not sure if you know this, but we’re in a nightmare!” Josh retorted from the driver’s seat.
“Only if you want it to be!” Ethan said with a whirl of air as the truck raced down the street.
“What does he mean by that?” Jenna asked.
“Well, my companion here believes there is a normal order to things. He’s quite a complex character,” Josh said with a smile. “He’s always looking on the bright side of things…only with a sarcastic and pessimist attitude.” Jenna turned to look at the man she had spent the night with. His hair was blowing in the wind, sunglasses hiding his eyes so the world could not see his true feelings. Everyone was scared, but she knew this man was strong. He positioned himself in the corner of the truck bed against the window. He began opening the toolbox attachment on the bed of the truck
trying to find something useful.
“What about you?” Ashley asked as she touched Josh for the first time since their encounter last night. He could feel her warm fingers on his shoulder, as she moved herself to the middle of the backseat with Jenna in the front passenger seat looking at the two.
“Me? I’m just a college kid trying to find roots. I try to stay open minded about everything.”
Ashley then turned to Jenna. “What about you, Jenna, right?”
“Yeah, I’m just a dog groomer. I like animals more than people.”
“Well, you’re certainly going to love Ethan when he gets angry.”
“Why is that?” Josh snorted as he recalled a time when he played a prank on Ethan. “He starts turning into an animal. He’ll pound his chest like a gorilla, lower his head like a dog, and one time he actually howled like a wolf.”
“Did he get ferocious and hump your leg or something?” Ashley asked.
“Oh shit!” Josh exclaimed as he slammed on the brakes. Ethan, who was busy looking through the toolbox, slammed his body against the back glass. “Aw! Fuck!” he expelled from his aching body. Ethan reached down his back and pulled his fingers up to reveal small amounts of blood. He was cut from a broken shard of glass. “What the shit!” Ethan said furiously. Josh sat with an idling engine as all three of them peered from the cab. Ethan placed a hand on the roof and stood himself up. His head peered over the roof of the truck to see an ungodly sight.
Many of the former residents of the college had come back to life. They were standing in the street looking for their next meal. Ethan immediately ducked his head into the window of the truck. “How many?” he said.
“Can’t tell there are too many cars.”
“Can you go around?”
“Maybe.”
“Wait,” Ashley said as she placed her hand back on Josh’s shoulder. “Look at them. They aren’t human anymore.”
“We’re kinda aware of that professor! Some new information would be helpful!” Ethan forcibly whispered not to attract any more attention to themselves. “Watch how they move. You might learn something. Slow, uncoordinated…Look!”
All eyes focused on a human man. He was tall and slender in a black shirt and baggy pants. He wore a backpack, and his only mode of transportation was a skateboard. The skateboard made a rubbing sound as the wheels rolled over the rough concrete sidewalk. The plastic wheels became a dinner bell for the large group of former college attendees. “He’s coming this way!” Josh said as the skateboard rolled past the truck.
“Sh! Get down!” Ethan said as he lay in the bed of the truck with the shotgun in the ready position. Jenna rolled down her window.
“Kid! Get in the truck!” she whispered as loud as she could without breaking a decibel. The man on the skateboard didn’t hear her. He was too busy trying to roll away from everything that had happened to him in the last twenty-four hours.
“Jenna. Roll up the window,” Josh hissed as he crouched in the driver seat.
“Why are we hiding and not running?”
“Too many of them. Can’t spare fuel,” he said quietly as he pointed at the dashboard as the gas meter sat on E. “Sh! I can hear them!” The women were already in the lowest place they could be. Ethan was lying in the bed with the shotgun in his hands and the pistol around his waist with the safety already off. Josh looked in the side mirror. The humanoid shapes were overlapped by the words “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”
The sound of the skateboard came to an abrupt stop. That was followed by the sound of flat-soled shoes running back toward the truck. He’s fucked, Ethan thought. Ethan could only lie still as he saw the shadow of shambling craniums pass by both sides of the truck. He couldn’t move. The smell was atrocious. All he could do was stay still and stay quiet. Ethan heard a scream, but he dared not move. “Leave me alone!” he heard from the tailgate side of the truck. “Get away!” he heard again. The skateboarder was being encircled. He swatted at them with his skateboard. When the heads stopped causing shadows across Ethan’s face, he switched around and lay prone. He lifted his eyes over the tailgate to see the creatures encircling the man. The harder he swung the skateboard, the more he lost his footing. He tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. He rolled on his back to see the blood-red eyes and drooling mouths.
They moved in unison as they unhinged their jaws and began feeding on the skateboarder. They latched on with their arms first. It seemed their motor sensors were solely hand to mouth.
He screamed as too many faces to count were connecting their sharp teeth on his body. Ethan watched as these things were eating the human like pigs in a trough. They tore open his skin and began eating anything that had blood on it. Blood, he thought as he remembered his aching shoulder blade that was now exposed to the open air. He quickly rolled on his back to attempt to cover his smell. He was a wounded animal in an uncaring environment.
He looked up at the sunny sky with white clouds. He heard a single pair of shuffling feet. Something with flat soles was scraping against the asphalt. Ethan could begin to smell something that reminded him of nickels. Something metallic. He heard something that sounded like someone was sniffing the air. The familiar skullcap of the skateboarder had cast a shadow on the driver side of the truck. It smelled the air as it turned its way closer to the truck. It made eye contact with Ethan through his sunglasses. Ethan felt around for his pistol. This distance was too short for the shotgun. He stayed flat as he reached out and grabbed something with a rubber handle. As the red eyes approached from the side of the truck, he grabbed whatever this object was and swung as hard as he could. He connected the side of a hammer against the creature.
It tweaked as it fell limp against the side of the truck. Ethan realized what was in his hand. He spun it right side up and placed the head of the hammer against the black skullcap as hard as he could from a lying position. He was on his knees in the bed of the pickup truck and continuing to smash the hammer into the head until the creature fell from the side of the truck. Ethan looked around for the other creatures that had fallen to the ground. After their meal, they watched as the group of creatures tweaked on the ground ferociously. It was as if they had just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner and decided to take a nap in the middle of the road. As they lay there, their meal stood quickly and attempted to eat Ethan for lunch.
Josh and the women peered up from the cab of the truck after Ethan had finished banging on something. “Get us out of here!” Jenna said. Ethan climbed through the window and fell on top of Ashley as he pulled his belongings through the window. The back of his shirt became sticky with blood from his cut shoulder. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Professor,” he said as he looked at Ashley underneath his body. “Dude, go!” he said to Josh as he sat up in the seat.
“Are you OK?” Jenna said as she looked back at Ethan.
“Fine.”
“You’re bleeding,” Ashley said to him. Meanwhile, Josh was trying to start the truck again.
“Your boyfriend’s amateur driving skills,” Ethan said as he looked deeply at Ashley.
“Not now, man! The truck won’t turn over.”
“Kick it!” Ethan said as he became increasingly agitated at their current situation.
Jenna looked past Ethan to see heads beginning to stand up from behind the truck. “We need to move!” Jenna said as she motioned to the back. Josh turned the key again as he gawked at the rearview mirror. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” he said as he tapped on the gas pedal. The bodies were moving toward the truck. After a few paces, they stopped and began to howl. Only Ashley and Ethan could see what they were doing. As they continued to howl in pain, liquid and stool came from their backsides.
“What the fuck?” Ethan said.
“Digestion,” Ashley said calmly. “They ate that guy and just pooped him out. I guess everyone does poop.” Ethan hoisted the shotgun barrel out the former back window that was crushed by his large frame.
“If we sur
vive, I’ll give you brownie points for that,” he said to Ashley for her pun. “Josh!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m trying!” Josh said as he continued to turn the key.
“They’re getting closer!” Jenna said as she sank down in the floorboard of the passenger seat. Ethan readied himself. He handed Ashley the pistol. “Know how to use one of these?”
“No,” she said looking down the side of the pistol.
“Point. Aim. Pull trigger. Make sure the safety is off.” He had his eyes fixed on her to acknowledge her reaction. Suddenly, the gun jumped from her hands with a deafening boom. A thud was heard as a creature’s head bounced off the tailgate.
“Like that?” she said as she caught her breath.
“Yeah. Just like that. Make them count.”
The engine came back to life as Josh slammed the shifter into the drive. “Yeah, baby!” he exclaimed as he hurled the truck onto the sidewalk and around the street full of abandoned cars.
“Seat belts!” Ethan shouted over the roaring air pouring in from the broken window.
“Which way?” Josh asked.
“Interstate is a deathtrap!” Ethan shouted, still deafened from Ashley firing the gun.
“Back roads!” Ashley exclaimed. “We’ll have to take main streets until we hit the back roads!” shouted Ethan.
“What about the river?” Jenna chimed in.
“The river? Like the Mississippi River?” Ethan asked.
“The base is near water, right?” Jenna asked as the truck became silent from everyone thinking of the local geography.
“Sure…I think. But we’ll have to go north, against the current,” said Ethan.
“But we won’t be on the roads,” Ashley stated.
The Week of the Dead Page 10
