by Josh Hilden
The doors of the car opened and Jennifer, Kyle, and Benny stepped out. Each was armed with a hand to hand weapon. Kyle the crowbar they’d taken from Toys “R” Us, Benny the corresponding fire axe, and Jennifer wielded two extendable riot batons that she’d liberated from the dead police officers three days ago.
They waded into the crowd of the Dead. They’d all augmented their fall weather clothing with additional layers to protect themselves from stray bites and splatters of blood. Kyle and Benny did an efficient job of putting down half of the Risen Dead between them, but it was Jennifer that was the star of the show. She whirled and twisted like a macabre ballet dancer, smashing in one skull after another with the dual weapons that seemed to be an extension of her arms and hands. When it was over, the ground was littered with dead, and the three of them were breathing heavily but they were far from gasping.
The passenger door of the lead vehicle on the opposite side of the gate opened. A man dressed in what appeared to have started off life as a dark suit exited the vehicle. He had short cut salt and pepper hair, and he walked with the aid of a dark wooden cane with a steel sphere for a handle. Kyle was tense as he walked toward the gate to meet the man, but he tried his best not to let any of the tension show.
“Nice work,” The man with the cane said.
Kyle fought back a desire to shoot him. Nice work?! he thought to himself, Why the fuck didn’t you get your butt out and help us? He wanted to ask but he refrained.
Kyle sighed and turned to face the man, “So I guess this means that this place isn’t safe either, doesn’t it.” This time the question came out as an unmistakable statement.
The man looked tired when he replied, but there was a clarity and strength to his voice that sparked a little hope in Kyle, “I’m afraid so, son, the base has been breached.”
Kyle could have sworn that the man was keeping a constant eye on Jenifer as he spoke. Kyle figured he was either a pervert, or that he’d identified Jennifer as the most dangerous member of their quartet. And the “son” comment stuck in his craw a little. He’d always hated being talked too like a little kid. That this guy, who’d been safe on the base while they’d been fighting their way across the valley, had the nerve to address him like a kid irked him. The idea that maybe the man used the word because he felt some respect for Kyle and his people wouldn’t occur to him until much later.
“Well shit!” Benny not quite yelled, “Now what Kye?” He asked and Kyle was not thrilled with the options left open to them.
“I guess we move on, we can always head for the river.” Kyle said. He was partial to the idea himself. At least they could sleep safely on a boat, but he was horrified by the thought of how they would get Jennifer onto a boat, even if they found one.
Right as if she’d been cued from “off stage” Jennifer Carson the 17 year old little sister made her first appearance since they all hooked up in German Hills “I am not trapping myself on a damn boat unless there is no choice Kye.” She said it in the same voice she used when she wouldn’t let him in the bathroom. He fought a fleeting but strong impulse to hit her.
The feeling shamed him.
“You guys can come with us, we’re heading north.” The offer from the man sounded a little too much like he wanted it to seem unimportant to him if they came or not. Kyle suspected that they wanted people with them who’d already demonstrated an ability to survive among the risen dead in a bad way.
Kyle could feel the gazes of his friends and sister on him without turning around. Instead of answering with an inane remark, he turned and huddled up with them.
“What do we do now?” Benny asked. He was trying hard to look around Kyle and stare at the convoy of vehicles, and the dead that were approaching them from the interior of the base.
“Not a clue, maybe these guys are bugging out, but the rest of the base is still a going concern?” He meant it as a statement, but it came out as a question.
Jennifer shook her head, “I doubt it, the place is burning to the ground and there are dead back there,” she glanced up and then back down, “I can see them.”
That seemed to settle the issue. So Kyle returned to the gate with their answer. “Alright we’re in.” he said and offered his hand through the gate, the man with the cane took it and they shook.
The man with cane looked pleased and said “Let’s make some miles, son.”
That word again bugged him. Kyle said nothing as he, his sister, and Benny walked back to Scarlet in the waiting cruiser. They needed to put some distance between themselves and this Valley of the Dead. The gate opened and the convoy exited. Scarlet dropped the cruiser into the spot made for them behind the lead Humvee. Then they were off into a gray cold morning., and an uncertain future.
Behind them the base burned and the Dead howled for their breakfast.
First Interlude
“The Events of Day One”
“Under the Bed”
Boulder, Colorado
Thursday October 18, 2012 AD (Day One)
Terri shivered as she bit down on her lips to stop herself from screaming. She wanted to stay as quiet as possible but her arm really hurt and she was very tired. She lay as still under her bed as she could, in her left arm she clutched her Winnie the Pooh. Until today she had thought that maybe ten was too old to still want her Pooh Bear. Now she held onto him so hard that she was sure some of his stitching had split.
Mommy’s feet passed again in front of her eyes as she stumbled around in Terri’s room. One slipper was still on mommy’s foot but the other was bare and Terri could see where the blood had dried as it ran down mommy’s leg from the hole on her neck.
Mommy had been going outside to put the trash in the trash can while Terri had been eating her Fruit Loops. As far as Terri was concerned Fruit Loops were the best cereal ever made. When Mr. Johnson from next door had come walking up to her. Terri had been watching through the window and she thought that Mr. Johnson had been walking very funny. When mommy had said hello to Mr. Johnson he had started to moan and had stumbled toward her. Mommy had tried to run but had slipped on the ground and lost a slipper. She had screamed for Terri to hide as Mr. Johnson dropped on her and started to bite her on the neck and face. Terri had screamed and run upstairs to her room and hid in her room.
A long time later Terri had heard noises from downstairs, it had sounded like glass breaking and shuffling. She had gathered up all of her courage and opened her door and tip toed to the head of the stairs to see who was down there. She saw mommy walk by and ran down to her yelling because she was so happy to see her. But just as she was about to jump into mommy’s arms she saw the blood caked and dried on the front of her robe and the weird look in her eyes. Terri tried to run back up the stairs.
But mommy had seen her and grabbed her arm. Terri had fought and thrashed, she did not want mommy touching her because mommy looked scary like Mr. Johnson had. And then mommy had bit her right on the arm! It had hurt her so bad and the sight of her own blood had made her freak out and actually start hitting and kicking mommy.
Terri finally managed to pull free and she had run upstairs and dove under her bed, forgetting to shut and lock her door. For almost an hour now mommy had walked back and forth in front of her room and Terri stayed quiet. But it was getting harder and harder to stay awake … maybe she would just take a little nap and everything would be all better when she woke up.
Terri closed her eyes. A little while later she woke up and joined mommy, they headed outside to find something to eat. Pooh Bear stayed under the bead. Perhaps he was hiding from Terri.
“Must Have Been the Burgers”
Jolliet Illinois
Thursday October 18, 2012 AD (Day One)
His fucking car would not start! Clayton Alexander thought that he was having the worst luck today. First he over slept, and then when he finally arrived at McDonalds three hours late half of the staff were absent. Even the Restaurant manager had not shown up, that dyke bitch had not even both
ered to call in and inform them that she was not coming in.
The lack of business, mixed with the lack of staff and the bizarre fucking reports on the break room television had resulted in a vote by the employees to shut the franchise down. The only representative of Management, a squint eyed shift supervisor, had been the first to get the hell out of dodge. Clayton had been the last to leave. He just did not feel right throwing all of that food away.
When Clayton had tried to start his little Geo Prism, god he had been pissed when his dad had given him the eighteen year old piece of shit, the damn thing wouldn’t start. He had just had the Alternator replaced three months ago but it was doing the same thing now that it had done then. The sky was starting to get dark and he could hear a lot of sirens in the distance, cars were streaking down the road a lot faster than they should have been, and damnit was that a gunshot he heard?
He slipped his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his house maybe his mom or step dad would come and get him. But the phone didn’t ring, instead a recorded message with a sexy British accent said.
“We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have the problem fixed as soon as possible.”
He had never had a problem placing a call as long as he had a signal. This was starting to freak him out. He looked across the parking lot to the Sunoco Gas Station that was anchored there and sighed before he began to walk. Clayton was a big man and at nearly three hundred pounds he dreaded the idea of walking any distance that caused him to break a sweat. This qualified.
He approached the gas station but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. Why was there a car parked at the island but nobody attending it? And where was Justin, the kid who jockeyed the counter? He couldn’t see him through the big front windows.
He opened door and was assaulted by the smells of shit and what he could barely identify as blood. He heard what sounded like grunting from behind the wide counter, he walked up to it and looked.
Less than four seconds later he vomited up the Big Mac and fries he had saved from the restaurant trash can. Justin had some lady in a short skirt pinned to the floor and was eating her arm.
“Jesus Christ!” Clayton screamed and started to back away.
Justin had obviously heard him because he raised his head from arm and looked right at Clayton. And then he started to stand up and moaned.
Clayton had just a second to notice the bullet hole and dried blood on Justin’s chest before he turned and ran from the gas station as fast as his fat ass would carry him. From behind him he could hear the shuffling and moaning as Justin emerged from behind the counter and followed him outside. Clayton’s heart was thundering away inside of his chest and perspiration was pouring down his face in sheets.
He heard moaning that was not coming from behind him and he stopped in the middle of the road and looked around. Ice filled his stomach as he counted no less than seven forms shambling out of the shadows toward him and moaning. Pain lanced down his side and through his arm, it felt to Clayton that his heart was trying to beat its way out of his rib cage.
“Aw fuck!” he thought to himself, “I’m having a goddamned heart attack!”He dropped to his knees and all but forgot about the people that were approaching him as the elephant that was settling on his chest got heavier and heavier. He didn’t even feel anything when Justin reached him and sank his teeth into his meaty shoulder.
“Last Train Out”
New York City, New York
Thursday October 18, 2012 AD (Day One)
Tammy Bailey was trapped inside a subway car of all crazy things and she was pretty damn sure that she was going to die there. All she had wanted to do was get to her mother’s house in New Jersey after all of the craziness had started a few hours ago.
The television had started off talking about riots and other violence in downtown Manhattan and was advising people to just stay in their homes until the police had restored order. That had been ok for the first hour, but when the sexy Latina reporter had her cute little nose bitten off by a kid who looked like he was no more than ten. The kid had looked like he was dead for Christ sake so Tammy decided to get the fuck off of the island.
She had packed a small bag and headed out onto the streets. There seemed to be a lot of people running around screaming and acting like it was the end of the world. And for all Tammy knew it was. There also seemed to be a lot of people who were just aimlessly wandering around and moaning at the people that ran past them. Tammy remembered the demise of the sexy reporter who had once upon a time filled her solo time with so many pleasurable fantasies and decided to stay away from everyone.
And a lot of those people acted like they had gone crazy. They also looked like they had absolutely no business walking around with all of the open wounds and extreme injuries.
She had reached the entrance to the subway station and noted with approval that there was an armed guard posted there. She was a bit disturbed by the almost two dozen brown and red stains on the concrete surrounding the entrance.
“Ma’am,” the guard said firmly, “I need to make sure that you are uninjured before I let you in.” He glanced past her at the popping sounds of distant gunfire as he finished the obviously well rehearsed speech.
Tammy started to get indignant, she wanted to scream at this jacked up Rent-A-Cop like she had when she had been in High school after 9/11 and there were so many fucking cops everywhere in the city. That one in Times Square had been sorry he had ever fucked with Tammy Lee Bailey. She was just about to open up at full volume when she noticed that the guards hand was firmly on the butt of his automatic pistol, then she remembered the stains on the ground and for the first time wondered if all of those people that had left those stains were the injured crazy ones or were they people that just had not been able to keep their mouths shut?
Without a peep of protest, a thing that would have shocked her mother, Tammy allowed the guard to look her over for signs of trauma. He then waved her through to the station below.
Below ground was barely controlled chaos. Police officers in Transit uniforms directed people onto cars so packed that Tammy was shocked that anyone could breathe in them. She jumped a bit when she heard three sharp gunshots from above. Tammy assumed that another red and brown stain had been added to the concrete.
It was almost an hour before Tammy was shoehorned onto a train car and by that point she was getting really scared. For the last fifteen minutes the gunfire above had become heavier and heavier also the sounds of hundreds of people moaning could clearly be heard whenever there was a lull in the fire. As the train was leaving the station Tammy thought she saw someone come running down the steps from the surface firing up as they descended but she was never sure.
The train traveled for more than twenty minutes and passed two stations. The first station seemed abandoned, Tammy could see that the platform was empty and the gates were closed. The second station was something from her worst nightmares. There were dozens of people milling around on the platform but they were all covered in gore. There was blood and body parts strewn all around and the gates seemed to have been torn from there anchors in the walls of the platform. As they passed the creatures, she no longer thought of them as people, all turned toward the train and began to jump off the platform and follow them. The result was several of the monsters made contact with the third rail that powered the electric motor of the train.
The train glided to a stop and in the silence the moans of the dead could be heard coming toward them. The other passengers began to panic there were screams and several people were badly injured in the panic. Two men managed to force the doors of the car opened and the passengers started streaming into the subway tunnels. Tammy’s belief that this was a really bad idea was soon confirmed when the screams of the former passengers were carried back to the ones in the car as they met the other travels in the tunnels.
Tammy helped several others who had stayed on the
car close and barricade the doors that had been forced open. They watched horrified as the people who had left ran like blind mice trying to avoid being attacked by the people that had to be dead. One by one the screams stopped and one by one the ranks of the dead were increased and their moans and pounding were enough to drive anyone mad. If it were not for the fact that they did not seem to understand that they had to climb up onto the stairs before they could try and enter the train everyone inside would have been quickly consumed.
