Beyond Death (Book 1): Origins

by Silas Cooper

  “Bullshit, you’re bags read Biomedical and UCLA. You guys are like science geeks, and one with military experience. I’m guessing you know something. I’m Dax, by the way. Why don’t you guys come in for something to eat and tell me all about why you needed to steal my car,” he demanded instead of asked, motioning with his gun toward his house.

  “Fine,” Chase said. ”I’ll tell you everything, but we have to be quick. Really quick.”

  “Sure. This way,” Dax ushered them to the door.

  Behind the door, Chase took a second to take in his surroundings. The windows were neatly boarded up, and all the doors but the one they’d entered into had boards across them as well. Some furniture like bookshelves and a cedar chest were pushed against some of the boards.

  “I love what you’ve done with the place,” Chase said.

  “I didn’t leave when the rest of them fled the hordes of those things the TV people are finally calling zombies, for lack of a better term they say. This is my mother’s place. I was here packing it up when the shit hit the fan.”

  “Is your mother here?” Chase asked.

  “No, she died a few months back. I was just finally getting around to taking what I wanted so I could sell the rest along with the house. I ended up having to make the place anti-zombie though. Don’t suppose I’ll be selling it anytime soon now anyway. I have lunch meat, chips, and a few cold beers I’d brought for my stay. You are welcome to make a sandwich,” Dax offered.

  “We’d appreciate that, but do you mind if we talk as we make it to go. I’m on a tight time frame,” Chase added.

  “Yeah, I bet you are. Quicker you give me the details, sooner you’ll be on your way,” Dax smiled.

  Chase relented and filled the guy in. They were out in no time at all, only they had to take gun-man, Dax, with them.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I wish those things would stop banging on that damn door and wall and whatever,” Sherri huffed, then sighed.

  Jayda gave her a sympathetic look, then took a deep breath to calm herself. The sound of whatever guttural groans they made, and the constant knocking sound that was just them continuously walking into the door and walls of the house, did tend to wear on one’s nerves, even when it hadn’t been going on that long.

  “I’d suggest music to go with our fancy dinner, but it would probably only encourage them. I don’t know what their hearing is like, but they haven’t seemed to follow us, as in they haven’t come around to this side of the house just because we changed rooms. Maybe they just hear a sound or pick up a scent, like a bloodthirsty dog, and keep at it. Any home would smell of humans,” Jayda thought out loud.

  “Here is your fancy dinner ladies,” Richard said as he sat down at the table with a steaming plate of microwaved chicken patties.

  “Yum,” Jayda exclaimed in a soft voice.

  “We couldn’t risk the banging of pots and pans. We don’t want them surrounding the house. I’m not sure how the wood on the windows will hold for one,” Richard said in disgust as he kept glancing through to the living room. “And as they seem to multiply out there, I meant just given the sound increase I’m guessing they have, I don’t even know how the house will hold. I can’t imagine they’d come busting through a wall, but a few days ago I thought the dead stayed dead and meningitis was just a nasty disease, not a supernatural one.”

  “I really want to get out of here,” Sherri sobbed lightly, her assembled but uneaten sandwich poised at her lips.

  “We need to wait for Chase. He’ll have answers, I’m sure. We don’t even know what it’s like out there. Can a car outrun them? Do they just overtake the car?” Jayda asked no one and then took a large bite of her sandwich.

  The patty was hard to chew. Her already dry mouth moved the mush around as she willed her throat to swallow. She’d had fresh hamburger buns in the house, but that didn’t seem to make the food more palatable.

  “We need to eat,” Jayda encouraged. “No matter what happens once Chase gets here, I’m sure we’ll need our strength.”

  “I don’t get why you trust him,” Richard grumbled as he chewed. “You just forgave him for all he did to you.”

  Jayda jumped in her seat to turn her body squarely at Richard as she rebutted, “There was nothing to forgive. Accidents happen. People do the best they can in the horrible situations they’re put in. I try to keep in mind that whatever happened, and I’m fuzzy on details, Chase would never have intentionally hurt me. He loved me.”

  “Obviously, in his own deluded way, he still does,” Richard said to her, his blazing eyes looked right into hers. “It’s been how long you’ve been divorced from the guy? Wait, let’s count back from the years we’ve been married.”

  “I won’t have you treating him bad when he gets here. He’s risking his own life to save your hide,” Jayda spat, though her voice remained stifled for the sake of those whom it seemed lived again only to harm them.

  “He doesn’t care about my hide. He only cares about yours. A little too late if you ask me.”

  “Well, I didn’t,” Jayda added as she chomped on another big bite.

  “How can you just forgive him? You lost your leg! I was the one here to help you heal. Seems that means nothing,” Richard threw his words at her. The hushed tones did nothing to disguise the anger in the room.

  “You’re unbelievable. I don’t compare. And I don’t give out hero awards,” she countered.

  “Really?”

  “No. I’m going with the smartest bet, the one with the most connections to hopefully save our lives. You’re the one who can’t see the truth for your jealousy. You want us all to die so you can be the hero?” Jayda challenged him.

  When Richard failed to answer, just glaring at his uneaten sandwich, Jayda let the subject drop. She focused all her efforts on eating. And at the moment, it took every ounce she had to get the rubbery excuse for meat down.

  “So, Sherri, tell us how you met your husband. I’m sorry if you mentioned before, I can’t seem to recall now,” Richard asked.

  Jayda shot him a quizzical glance.

  “What? I’d like to talk and maybe drown out that infernal sound. Thought maybe it would be nice to remember him with good memories,” Richard explained himself.

  “Nothing exciting. A mutual friend introduced us at a party. We didn’t have a lot in common, but somehow we never ran out of things to discuss. He opened my eyes to being a much more accepting and compassionate person. The chemistry between us was undeniable, and neither of us over the years seemed to dare to let some differences of opinion get in the way of that,” Sherri smiled as she talked, her sandwich now just a prop she held. “I remember the wedding and the honeymoon like it was yesterday rather than eighteen years ago. We had so many great years together. I want to grow old—”

  Sherri’s quiet sobs drowned her words. Jayda shot Richard a look. She was appalled he’d make the poor woman cry again for his own selfish reasons. She figured if the woman wanted to talk about her dead husband she would, on her own terms.

  “Do you think he knew that I allowed him to be killed? Do you think they understand anything, sick or dead or whatever, that some part of them still remains?” Sherri asked as her lungs tried for large gulps of air.

  “No,” Richard said a little too loudly. He looked over his shoulder then as if he could see anything. “It was not him anymore, Sherri. Whatever is happening in their bodies, it’s not human. He was gone already. You did the humane thing for the man you love.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Nothing will really ever matter again,” she sighed, her lungs still fighting for jagged breaths she tried to stifle.

  “Sherri,” Jayda began, “Do you remember that trip we all took to your parent’s cabin? What an amazing time. We had so much fun.”

  “Yeah. That’s a great place. I’ve used it more times than they’ll ever know,” she grinned, though it was short-lived.

  A loud sound of furniture moving drew their attention. Jayda s
aw one of the boards over the big picture window start to give way. Hands, ones with flesh hanging from them, soiled with dried blood, forced their way through the opening, grasping at the air. Before Richard could get there, the board gave way, and the zombie fell through.

  The thing rebounded fast. He moved at them without grace, but with great speed. He reached Sherri first, but Richard struck it with his trusty bat. He pushed Sherri behind the island in the kitchen.

  “More are coming,” Jayda pointed to the window. “You need to fix it. I’ll deal with him.”

  Richard moved fast. He struck several heads coming through. He pushed their stunned bodies back out through the window, and grabbed the fallen board. He yelled to Sherri to come push against it as he pounded in more nails.

  As they worked, the zombie in front of Jayda stirred. Wrapping her hand in a dishtowel, she grabbed a kitchen knife. With a swift dexterity, she plunged the knife into the zombie’s eye. He stopped moving almost instantly. Grateful it wasn’t anyone she knew, she stayed poised over it in case it reanimated again.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Richard work. Not muscle-bound like Chase, he still got the job done. He’d always taken care of her, but he wasn’t the best of protectors. She’d never needed anyone but herself. She was the one with the training. He loved her, and she him, but something about Chase wiggled in her brain, wormed its way back into her heart with just a thought.

  Ancient history, she thought as she watched her husband finish up at the window and wrap a hysterical Sherri in his arms. She knew she loved Richard, and she hated his jealousy. She and Chase had history, a whole hell of a lot of it. Touched he’d still think of her after all this time, in this type of unbelievable situation where it seemed from the news that the living and the dead were only out for themselves, that was all it was. She’d appreciate any help he offered and make sure Richard did the same.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Awake only from the bad coffee he’d gulped at Dax’s, Chase drove feeling like a zombie with a lead foot. Eyes wide and burning, but constantly scanning the road for obstacles like abandoned cars and them, he kept going on overdrive and over-caffeinated delusion of strength. Miles stretched endlessly. Ghost towns came and went. They’d stopped briefly to loot a small mom and pop store that miraculously had no broken windows.

  With the trunk stuffed with supplies, they’d had to hit a few and swerve around a few of them that had gotten too close for comfort during their raid of the store. Risks. Their lives had become an endless mirage of them just to get by. Even stopping to take a leak proved life-threatening. He dared not even roll down his window to escape the smell of three sweaty, dirty men who hadn’t showered in who knows how long.

  “Where are we?” Dax asked.

  “Why?” Chase asked abruptly.

  “I know another guy who lives just a little ways from here. He’s ex-military and has a nice arsenal of weapons in his shed that he brags about. I know he has silencers. I tried to call him several times before you guys showed. But I either didn’t get through or got no answer.”

  “Silencers, huh?” Chase asked.

  “Yeah. I noticed that these creatures, these zombie-like things, they seem hyper-sensitive to sound. And they move fast, at least as fast as us. Guns with silencers have to be better than the kitchen knives we have. Might be worth the short detour,” Dax proposed.

  “I think you’re right. Jayda said they were boarding themselves in. No telling what we’ll come across at any time. Would be good to be armed well. Just tell me where to go. I think it’s a chance we have to take,” Chase added.

  Adrenaline rushed through him as he made a hairpin turn at a speed too high to pull it off had the road not been abandoned. He couldn’t chance hitting another car, but for the most part, he was free and clear to move as he pleased.

  “I really hope this part of the country was just hit worse, because all these empty roads and empty towns are starting to freak me out. I feel like the last men on earth. We just watched on the TV a few hours ago chaos in the big cities still. So, hopefully it’s the more rural towns this has happened too. Even the zombies aren’t hanging around,” Chase said as he shuddered.

  “I’m sure you’re right. The wealthy fled. We are talking the suburbs of LA here. Look, turn here,” Dax added.

  When they got to the house, they could see no signs of life. Chase took the lead, and Dax and Lucas flanked him. With all sides in view, they moved as one. A few quick lessons in the store, and they’d followed Chase’s lead to form a stealthy unit.

  “The front door is open,” Chase whispered as he adjusted his grip on his knife.

  One of the ones advertised to cut through soda cans, he hoped a zombie would be a piece of cake. They inched forward until just a few steps from the door. Chase motioned for them to stand back a few steps. He stepped cautiously to the door, and peered around. Seeing a dead body, he waited to see if it would move.

  Noticing a few remnants of his brains hanging out the side of a cracked skull, he motioned for Dax and Lucas to come into the house. He heard Dax’s sharp intake of breath as he reached the horrid scene.

  “Be quiet. One of them or more could still be in the house,” Chase warned in a harsh whisper. “I assume this is your friend?”

  When Dax didn’t move, but just stared at the dead guy on the floor, Lucas nudged him. Nothing. Chase shook his head. He hoped at least they’d gain weapons, not just this suddenly useless man.

  “Dax,” Chase hissed. “Come on man. Snap out of it. We need to get to the shed and get out of here.”

  Dax started to break down and mutter some gibberish about his friend. Chase got the gist of it. He figured if this guy couldn’t survive an attack, he had a snowball’s chance in hell. In trying to get Dax to shut up, he didn’t hear the zombie enter the room. The thing lunged toward Dax, who’d shut up only because he’d gone back to frozen.

  Stepping forward, he went at the dead guy with his knife raised. In a swift move, he angled the knife and brought it right down into the zombie’s temple. As the thing fell, he did a quick check of himself and Dax. No visible scrapes, he saw Lucas standing on the other side of Dax, knife raised. Relief flooded him. At least he wasn’t alone.

  “Dax,” Lucas hissed. “Let’s go. You have to stay quiet and keep moving.”

  Dax didn’t even blink.

  “Dax, please man. You move or you die,” Lucas tried again.

  “Forget it,” Chase grumbled low. “Just walk him if he’ll let you. We have to move. This way.”

  “Key,” Dax finally choked out one word.

  He’d pointed to the kitchen. Chase led them in the direction Dax pointed. Dax moved only as Lucas directed him.

  “Where?” Chase hissed when they got there.

  “Drawer,” Dax stated and pointed again.

  Chase managed to secure the shed key and move them out of the house to the back yard. Thankfully, the zombie had been alone. Maybe a friend or neighbor already in the house with the guy. Either way, Chase barely held back his excitement when he got the door to the shed open.

  “Who the hell keeps guns like this in a shed?” Chase asked. “We have at least twenty military grade weapons here, with ammo. How the hell did he get all of them anyway?”

  “Long story,” Dax finally answered. “Let’s just grab them and get out of here.”

  “Fine by me,” Chase added as he got to work filling Lucas’ and Dax’s arms as full as he could.

  Without further incident, the trio moved to the car with their finds. They stuffed the thing so full there was barely room for them with the food supplies, the lab stuff, and now the guns. Chase felt set to take on the world. Or at least get Jayda to safety. This time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Let me see your phone,” Richard demanded.

  “It wouldn’t kill you to talk nice. I know it seems like we’re in the middle of some zombie apocalypse right out of some horror movie, but with more reality than we�
��d like, but seriously, you’ve done nothing but criticize and bark orders since our neighbor—” Jayda left off, the memory too overwhelming still.

  “Give me your phone, please,” Richard said.

  Jayda could tell he’d made a frail attempt to change his voice, even though he’d failed miserably.

  “Why?” she asked.

  His irritation only made her more testy and ready to do battle. Before she realized what he was doing, she felt him rip her phone from her hand. He turned from her, and she followed.

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “See,” he shouted under his breath. “Chase hasn’t returned one of your last six calls. He’s not coming and we’re leaving. You stay if you must, let the guy let you down once again. But Sherri and I are leaving.”

  Sherri had followed them into the kitchen. Jayda knew it had nothing to do with hearing what she and Richard had to say; she just didn’t want to be alone. Who could blame her? Jayda, with Sherri on her heels, followed Richard upstairs.

  “Give me back my phone,” she demanded.

  “Here. Have it. You wait for him. I wish you the best. He already ruined your military career, but I guess you have another leg to give up still,” he huffed as he slammed the phone into her outstretched hand.

  Despite the sting of his words, she tried to understand how he felt. He loved her, and right now every nasty thing he said came from a mix of two emotions, love and fear. He feared losing her, to a zombie or Chase. He wasn’t military. He didn’t have the grit she and Chase had. She’s married him for his kindness. Even though he didn’t show it now, she knew this impossible situation had silenced it out of his own survival instinct.

  “Jayda, get me some of your clothes for Sherri. Just an extra shirt and pants, maybe a jacket, then we’ll pack what food we can—water bottles and energy bars for the road. The car is in the garage. We can pack it up as full as we can, then take off out the front. We’ll run their asses over if we have to,” Richard ranted.