by Weeks, TJ
“So, I am pretty sure if we wait any longer here that we will be
surrounded by them. Pack some shit quick, we are getting the hell out of here!” He demanded his wife.
Chelley didn’t know what else to do but obey, since she had no idea what was going on or who the people were. She grabbed a few pieces of clothes and shoes for her and Kevin and stuffed them in a bag. She grabbed both of their cell phones and chargers, and Kevin’s diabetes meds, she hooked Rocky up to a leash and held him close to her and stood at the front door.
Kevin got dressed and headed for Chelley. “I am going to open the door, no matter what is out here, don’t stop and get into the car, understand?” Kevin told her.
Chelley nodded and waited for Kevin to open the door. He kissed his wife on the cheek and pulled the door open. A mass of people stood on their front lawn with even more lying on the ground. Chelley ran to the car and opened the door with the partial free hand she had that was stuck through the loop of the leash. She sat in the seat squished by the bag and Rocky and reached to close the door. Before she was able to pull the door closed, Rocky jumped back off of her lap and rolled onto the cement driveway.
“ROCKY NO!” She hollered. Chelley threw the bag into the back seat of the car and placed a foot onto the driveway readying herself to run to get him.
“Chelley no!” Kevin yelled as he opened the driver’s side door. Chelley stopped mid-rise of getting out of the car and watched a man grab their fur baby by his hurt leg and pick him up and take a chunk of the bandage and all into his mouth. Rocky winced in pain and a howl echoed through the air as the man took another bite.
Chelley quickly closed her door and then reached for the handle again and decided against it when the man took a large chunk from the dog’s back. His spine withdrew from his body with ease and Rocky’s large limp body hung in the air from the dirty hand. The man looked to be enjoying the taste and with blood dripping down the front of him and the spine of the animal still hanging from his mouth, he went in for
another bite while a woman pulled on a back leg and tore him into two pieces. The rest of the bones crackled as the two tore him to shreds in the front yard of their home.
Chelley shielded her face from the scene and leaned over to Kevin and began to sob.
“What the hell is going on?” She cried.
“Apocalypse.” Kevin stated calmly almost in a whisper. Chelley quickly raised her head and looked at Kevin in confusion. She turned to look back at the horde that covered her front lawn of St.
Augustine grass and then back at Kevin.
“Like fucking zombies?” She asked. Kevin nodded and placed his fingers on each side of his head. Chelley began to look around them at all of the people that were closing in on their car.
“Okay, we need to go!” She spat quickly. Kevin jumped as one of them hit the side of the car and they were able to hear the growls of the man wanting to get to them.
Kevin shakily put the keys in, started the car and backed out. Like the typical zombie movies, he hit the one that was in the way and spun the tires as he proceeded forward.
They slowed in front of the hospital where Kevin worked and watched as the electric sliding door closed and opened, a white coat covered man laid in the door way and two others dressed in dirty white coats were kneeled beside him taking him on as their lunch.
“The hospital has already been taken over.” Kevin stated sadly thinking of his colleagues.
He kept driving and pulled into the parking lot of the local store that sold just about everything, it was like the Walmart’s in other towns, but their small town wasn’t big enough for one of those. Cars sat abandoned and the doors were closed. Chelley pointed across the lot to a man that was running with two men following him. The man ran to a picnic table that sat outside and placed the table between him and the two zombies.
“We have to help!” She told her husband.
“No we don’t Chelley!” Kevin stated. “Kevin, that is inhumane. We are supposed to help our fellow
neighbors.” She stated back.
Kevin looked at Chelley knowing that she was right and dropped his head.
“Stay your ass in the car.” He instructed. Chelley nodded as she watched her husband get out. He grabbed the one small knife that he had brought and headed to the man that was trying to keep himself from being eaten. Kevin walked behind one of the flesh eating men and stabbed him in the back of the head. The man ran to Kevin from the other side of the table and stood behind him as the other zombie made his way to them and Kevin stabbed him under the jaw, hoping that was enough to kill him.
“Thank you.” The man stated and ran in the other direction as Kevin was going to offer him a ride. Kevin knew better not to scream or yell and draw attention to himself and headed to the car.
He hurriedly closed the car door and peered at Chelley to make sure she knew that he tried to get the man to come with them.
Chelley was doubled over in her seat holding her stomach.
“Honey what’s wrong?” He asked grabbing her shoulder.
“I don’t know, I just started having pains.” She cried to him. Chelley screamed as another wave of sharp pain pierced her stomach. She sat up as the pain lightened. She breathed deeply and sat up semi straight in her seat. She grabbed the handle on the side of her seat and leaned it almost all the way back. She breathed heavily as she could feel the sharp pain again. She drew her knees to her chest and hollered out as the pain grew across her mid-section.
Kevin rubbed his wife’s head and tried to comfort her. “Kevin, I thin k I am having a baby!” She told him with tears streaming down her face.
“What! We just started trying last night.” He stupidly replied.
Chelley looked at him with a look that told him he was an idiot.
“Oh, I get it. What can I do?” He quickly asked.
Chelley began to lift the robe up. “I need you to see if you can see it.” Kevin had seen a birth, but he was a surgeon and knew nothing about delivering a baby, except that if something went wrong he could save someone with surgery.
Kevin leaned his head down and was able to see a small head poking out of his wife.
“Yeah, the baby’s head is already out!” He faintly mumbled. “Calm down, I have it. Okay, push.”
Chelley inhaled and pushed as hard as she could, she held her breath and continued to push until she felt the baby come out. The baby girl fell into Kevin’s hands. He grabbed her and wrapped her in whatever piece of clothing he grabbed out of the bag from the back, he cut the umbilical cord with the knife and pulled the baby close to him.
Chelley pushed again and the placenta fell to the floorboard. Chelley searched for a syringe she had grabbed in case she needed it for Kevin’s insulin and pulled off the needle, stuck it in the baby’s nose and pulled the plunger, she sucked out all of the remanence of amniotic fluid and did the same from her mouth. The baby began to cry. Chelley heaved a sigh of relief and dropped everything to the floorboard as Kevin handed the new baby over to her.
“How did you not know?” He asked. Chelley shrugged and placed the baby to her breast and began to let it suckle.
“We have to get you and the baby cleaned up and get the placenta out of the car.” Kevin stated as he leaned over and gathered the placenta in one of his shirts Chelley had packed, he rolled down the window just enough and threw it out into the parking lot.
Zombies began to gather around it pulling it from the cloth that
surrounded it.
“Get out now, quietly and g o into the store, I will be behind you.” Kevin told her.
Chelley nodded and pulled the handle on the door with one hand while holding the baby with the other. She stepped out, looked over the top of the car and watched the monsters feeding off of her insides. She pushed the door to until she heard the slight click and quickly tip toed toward the store.
Kevin followed on her heels and made it to the dead man that laid blocking the door way. He
pulled the man by his foot away from the door, pushed Chelley forward and pushed the levers up on each of the doors to secure them. Kevin breathed a heavy sigh of relief and turned to his wife and child. He took them both in his arms and held them for the first time as his family. He took the baby
carefully from Chelley’s arms and pulled it to his chest.
“We need to find some cloths and get some warm water and a blanket for this sweet thing.” He told her.
Chelley turned to go gather what was needed as Kevin made his way to a set up patio furniture display in the front of the store and sat down with his newborn. He cried tears of joy as he looked at his daughter.
Chelley arrived back with a basket packed full of baby things and
necessities. She had a hot towel draped across her arm and handed it to Kevin. She unloaded all of the things from the basket and began laying them out across the table that was part of the display. She laid out baby blankets to lie her on, diapers to change her into, clothes, hats and socks to dress her in. She had found a breast pump and some bottles and had bagged up some formula just in case, along with baby lotion and diaper rash cream and anything from the baby aisle she thought might be needed.
Kevin wiped down the baby and listened to her heart by putting his ear to his chest, he listened to his
daughter’s breathing pattern and pulled her eyes open a bit wider to look at them. He gave her ‘the once over’ as he had heard the obstetricians say.
“She looks good to me Chelley, she is beautiful.” Kevin told her. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up and I will get her dressed?”
Chelley looked down at herself realizing she still only had her robe on and she did need to clean up.
“Oh God! I just had a baby and I am a mess. I’ll be right back.” She said holding her hands out like she didn’t want to touch her body.
Chelley made her way to the female hygiene area, grabbed what she needed and then to the women’s clothing area to gather a few things to dress herself in since the bag she had packed was left in the car and went straight to the bathroom. She began cleaning herself with a washrag she had snagged from a shelf on the way in, she brushed her fingers through her wavy hair and made it as
presentable as she could, making a mental note to grab some ponytail holders.
Finally washed up she pulled the door open from the bathroom and walked back down the small hall she had walked through to get to the bathroom. She turned the corner and came face to face with a man in a suit and tie with a name tag that showed his name was Lance and manager printed on the bottom of the tag. She peered up at Lance just as he looked down at her.
“KEVIN!” She screamed as she turned and ran the other way. She ran down an aisle full of housewares, back up a main aisle towards her husband and child. She turned to see Lance walking towards her faster than she thought he should have been able to being a zombie. His dirt covered hands were reaching out to her as he tried to make his way to his next meal. She turned back to watch where she was headed and smacked head on to her husband’s chest. Chelley pointed at the quick moving man and grasped her
husband’s arm. Kevin pushed Chelley behind him and let Lance come to him as he stood still and waited. His hands shook as he held the knife, ready to take the man down. Lance approached Kevin and grabbed at him. Kevin shoved the knife into the man’s soft skull and let him fall to the floor. Chelley hugged Kevin from the back burying her sobs into him, Kevin turned in her arms and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’ve got you babe. It’s okay now.” He stated.
Chelley pulled back quickly and her sobbing subsided. “Where is she?” She demanded an answer. “Where is my daughter? If this one is in here, there has to be more.”
Kevin quickly realized what she was saying and pushed past her and ran as fast as he could back to where he had left her laying on the fluffy blanket on the floor. Chelley stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the same thing her husband did once to the patio display.
“She was right here, I left her right here!” He stated. The two started spinning circles and saw a man a few aisles down limping through the shelves of fruit and vegetables. The two ran towards the man screaming trying to get his attention, hoping that what they were thinking was not the case.
They both made it to a bin of bagged potatoes at the same time and watched the large man limp away from them holding their daughter upside down by a leg. He turned to them and brought their daughter up to his mouth which it appeared he already had taken one bite of the baby. His mouth was covered in blood and the baby’s dangling head was only half there. Bloody strings hung from their daughter’s head and dragged the floor. The man looked at them as though he had no interest in them and bit the small foot that stuck through his mangled fingers. He grabbed an arm and began to pull and leaned forward to take a bite from the small torso. The crunching sound was unbearable as it echoed through the store and to Chelley and Kevin’s ears. Blood made a trail as the man
wobbled from one side of the area to the other.
Chelley charged the oversized plump man with the blue apron. She grabbed the man around the neck from behind and began to squeeze and scream at the top of her lungs. The man dropped the bloody and limp child to the floor, he grabbed Chelley by the shoulders and tried to lean down to take a bite of her, she quickly ducked away from him and kicked him in the knee as hard as she could. The popping sound was a welcomed sound as the bloodied faced man dropped to the floor with a thud. Kevin looked for something to use as a weapon and saw a fire extinguisher that hung on the wall only a few feet away. He ran and yanked as hard as he could and pulled it to him and ran back to his wife. Chelley was already stomping on the man’s head with her new black tennis shoes she had accumulated, brain matter had splattered across the floor. Kevin backed away as he watched his once sweet wife bludgeon the man that had taken the life of their one and only child. Tears streamed down her face as she continued to stomp his body.
Chelley soon grew weary and stopped her anger and backed away. Kevin walked up behind her and touched her shoulder, pulling a bit urging her to turn to him. He took his sobbing wife into his arms and held her. As the two grieved over their child, a clatter sounded behind them. Chelley and Kevin let go of each other and made their away back around the bin of vegetables to a woman that was pacing back and forth between the registers. Her skin was not dirty as the others and it was almost a normal color. There was no blood on her clothes and her blue apron was not tattered as the others had been, but she a bite on her neck was visible. Chelley and Kevin looked at each other then back at the woman banging into racks of gum and candy and turning as they spread across the floor. Kevin raised the fire extinguisher, ran up behind the woman and hit her in the head as hard as he could. The confused woman fell to the floor and Kevin hit her again.
Chelley ran to him and pulled him up, he had slipped on the mess that her dead brains had made and fallen to his knees. She walked backwards with him looking full circle for any others they might run into.
“We have to find weapons
Chelley.” He told her. “Kevin, my baby! They took my god damn baby!” She cried to her husband.
“I know honey, I am so sorry.” He said putting his arms around her. “You fucking left her there to die!” Chelley screamed pulling away from him.
She punched him in the face again and again. She kicked him as she had the zombie earlier and watched him fall to the floor.
“CHELLEY STOP!” Kevin
screamed at her. “You left our only child to be eaten!” She screamed punching him in the head.
Her knuckles bleeding and torn from the hard punches she had thrown she grabbed the fire extinguisher and slid it over next to him hitting him in the head as she pulled it to her. She raised it into the air and brought it down on top of him giving the final blow that took his life.
Chelley fell backwards onto her ass and scooted herself across the blood splattered floor stopping only when her back hit the wal
l. She held her stomach as she cried and stared at her husband she had just murdered. She could barely breathe and was gagging from the thought of the child that just came from her body only a little bit before already being gone and now her husband that she had just killed. The one and only man that she had ever loved and had loved her just as equally lying dead in front of her.
Chelley was lost, she had gone crazy and lost the lives of the two people she loved more than the world.
“I have no reason to live.” She whispered to herself. She sobbed until she fell asleep. She woke to the sounds of banging on the window from above her head. She raised her head from the floor she had fallen over on and turned to see zombies standing outside of the store window trying to get in. She slithered across the floor in something of an army crawl and out of sight of the window. Blood, now dried, still covered the floor and she wondered how she was supposed to move forward with life as the memory of what happened a few hours before came back to her.
The sun was beginning to go down and she knew that she had to make it back to her car to find other people that were alive or stay there all by herself. At this point she wanted to die, she did not want to be without her husband and new daughter; but did she really want to chance that the apocalypse would never be over? Did she want to try and find others and see what happened with this world? Did she want to move forward at all?
She sat for a moment across from where the man had eaten her small daughter and stared at him and her torn apart baby.
Chelley took to her hands and knees and began crawling across the floor to somewhere she would not be seen by the ones outside trying to get in. She was finally able to rise to her feet and walk down an aisle; she made her way to the back of the store and began gathering weapons as Kevin had suggested earlier and stuffing them in the pockets of her jeans. She found hunting knives and other different sized ones that she would be able to use. She held the biggest one in her right trembling hand as she made her rounds through the store to see what else she could find to help the situation she was in. She grabbed a long machete from the lawn and garden area, content with her weapon collection she placed the other knife in her bag and began to clasp onto the machete with a death grip. She soon began to realize she had not eaten or drank anything since they had left the house and she was bleeding heavily.
