The Dead Rise (Book 1): Zombies and Chainsaws

by Evans, Mike

  He didn't check the peephole; it was late enough that he knew it was either her or Chuck wanting very much to have a place to crash. He swung the door open a smile on his face that melted into one of concern and panic instantly. Kindra was standing at the door, no ice bucket in her hand and the previously perfect body was now mangled. He looked at her unable to speak. She had blood gurgling from her mouth, a large bite wound on her neck, her breast and her side. Kindra stood in a pool of her own blood unaware or uncaring that it was coming out so quickly. He wasn't sure what to do for her and after a second her knees buckled and she collapsed falling down fast. Jude picked her up uncaring about the bloody state which she was currently in. He carried her over and laid her down gently on the bed. He ran back and kicked the door shut locking it tightly. She started convulsing on the bed. He looked at her unsure what he was going to be able to do for her.

  Jude ripped a pillowcase from the bed and applied pressure to her neck with it unsure what else to do for the woman but watch what seemed like the last minutes she would have on earth. He watched as her eyes fluttered and then became still. He sat on the bed next to her letting the pillowcase off of her neck. He stared at the blood on his hands trying to wipe some of it on the bedding. He looked at the phone next to him seeing two numbers secured with masking tape next to it. The first said; if you are hurt call Doc Wilson, the second said; if you need help call Sheriff Gareth. Jude picked it up unsure what he should do next realizing there wasn’t anything anyone was going to be able to do for her now.

  He picked up the phone and spun the rotary dial and listened to a ringing that never got picked up. He set the phone down and didn’t have a clue what he should do next. He didn’t have too long to ponder it because a long breath came from behind him.

  Jude turned around seeing her chest moving slowly, but the hole in her neck made it impossible for the sound to come out correctly, blood bubbles came out of the side of her neck.

  Jude said, "Oh my God, can you hear me? Hey are you, are you okay Kindra?"

  No answer came from her. Jude stood up dialing the phone for the medics when a lady on the other end asked to please state his emergency he just said, "I need help, and I need it, right goddamn now."

  “What seems to be the problem sir?”

  “There is a lady in my room, she uh, well I don’t know what the hell happened to her. She went to get some ice for our beer and when she came back she looked like a pack of dogs had torn into her,” Jude said.

  “Can you explain her current state please?” the dispatcher asked.

  Jude looked behind him seeing her rising off the bed he said, “Hold on just a minute. Kindra are you okay, I thought you were gone?”

  She pushed up off of the bed stumbling at first and her face was numb no expression showing at all, she looked like she hadn’t ever walked before. Jude stepped forward gripping her arm and holding her up. She sniffed and then snapped her neck to the side staring with lifeless eyes at Jude. He saw the blackened eyes and let go of her arm and took a step backwards. Jude dropped the phone as she stumbled for him quickly with her mouth open. Jude stepped to the side slamming her downward toward the bed but she bounced off of it and pushed back up quickly.

  Jude walked backward toward the door, mouth open and unsure what in the hell he should do. Kindra walked slowly across the room picking up speed quickly as she rushed toward him. Jude's sense of having to help someone quickly faded. He opened the door as she leaped at him putting a foot up and pushing her backward sending her back to the bed a gurgling growling coming out of her throat.

  Jude slammed the door shut and ran backward into the parking lot stumbling over the parking barriers in front of the rooms. He pushed up off of the ground crab walking backward staring around. He looked down at his chest and had speckles of blood on it and his feet were soaked. A thud at the door made him stand and start walking backwards.

  He stared at the door unsure what he should do. The thudding continued and then it stopped. Two hands gripped him from either side on the bicep. He stepped forward throwing the hands on his right side off balance and to the ground. All he saw was the silhouette of a man in the dark. Jude, only thinking at this point about getting out of here and home to his family, brought his left arm forward bringing the second man off balance and then swung a right hook into the top of his head with everything he had. The hand let go of his left arm and slumped to a knee falling over to the ground then the second man tried pushing up and Jude ran at him making him look as if he were a football that needed to be kicked. The man exhaled all of his air with an "ugh" sound coming out. Jude yelled, "What the fuck is wrong with you two for God’s sake? You can't go sneaking up on a man in the middle of the night like that, you dumb shits!"

  Pete rolled over staring up at Jude the moonlight making it hard to see his features. He said, “Nice to see you too dickhead. What the fuck was that for? Christ would you look at Roger he probably has a damn concussion now, asshole. What are you doing out here anyways this time of night?”

  Jude was already talking before he could rationalize the amount of crazy coming out of his mouth.

  Jude yelled, “Kindra, the waitress she’s dead! I still don’t know what happened to her, but she tried to eat me!”

  Pete sat on the ground looking up tilting his head ever so slightly trying to understand what his friend was blabbering about. He said, “Jesus how hard did you screw her?”

  Roger said, “Ow that hurt you ass, she probably just passed -”

  “Would the two of you listen to me goddamn it,” he stepped closer so they could see his hands and feet, “We didn’t even screw for God’s sake! She went to get some ice for the beer, when she came back she looked like something had ripped pieces of her neck and breasts off, like a dog or God knows what attacked her.”

  Pete pushed up walking slowly toward Jude looking at his hands. “Jesus Jude, is she dead, or did she try and eat you, I'm confused man?”

  Jude, who didn’t think his brain was going to be able to take much more of what was happening given the intoxicated state he was trying to swim out of, didn’t have to answer. The thudding hitting and pounding stopped when the door broke in half and Kindra, or what used to be her, came out of the hotel room with nothing but the hunger of the dead in her eyes. At first Pete and Roger only focused on her naked body for moments as the blood came into view. Jude picked up Roger by the back of his shirt as the two stumbled backward. Pete pushed up and the three ran. Chuck was coming around the corner when the three of them were running and they slammed into him falling to the ground.

  Chuck screamed, "What the fuck is going on tonight! There's goddamn weirdos in the street moaning and shit! I got you dumb asses falling all over me, and on top of all of that I didn't get one damn girl who hit on me at the bar, they are practically indebted to me for -"

  Jude and the other two men just stared trying to push back up off the ground and finding it hard to be mad at him when he had no idea what was actually going on. Kindra came around the corner gaining speed. Chuck saw her and screamed like a girl.

  "What the hell happened to her Jude? You were supposed to screw her not murder her, Jesus, what were the two of you -"

  Jude could only think of one word having time to finally process what he was seeing thinking of her getting bit, dying, and coming back to life. Jude screamed, “Zombie, Chuck, she is a damn zombie!”

  He waited to hear a rebuttal, a reason why she wasn't but if Chuck had something that was great about him it was that if he had an answer and enough visible evidence he would take that to heart. He ran over to a dumpster finding a two by four board and ran back as she dived towards Jude who was still trying to get back up. Chuck ran straight for her staggering a bit and swung in a circle sending all of the force from a four-foot long board into her gut.

  It connected with her and sent her off of her feet backward and skidding across the concrete leaving a trail of skin and blood. Chuck walked up helping Jude and the others
to their feet unsure what was really going on there.

  Roger said, “Damn nice hit there Chuck. Thank you so much brother.”

  Chuck looked at his handy work but unfortunately it had done little but what seemed to possibly piss her off even more. She pushed back to her feet, the pain of the hit had already disappeared and she was back up ready to go. When she came at Chuck a second time he brought the board up over his head and brought it down with everything he had, to send it into her skull and split it open. She fell to the ground and the men stood nearby and just watched for a second. Chuck not caring one way or another walked up one more time bringing the giant wood down once more and did a finishing blow. Her head completely split and the brains spilled out of her skull.

  Jude said, "I don't think she was gonna get back up man."

  “I don’t give two shits Jude, she tried to eat us. We need to get the hell out of this town, there is something strange going on,” Chuck said.

  Pete pushed up rubbing at his ribs giving Jude a look, “Yeah you got that right.”

  Jude said, "I need to call Maria and let her know what is happening. What if this is not just here."

  Roger said, "Uh you can call her from the road dude we need to go. I get what you are saying, but something must have made her this way, and we have yet to find out who or what that was."

  Jude didn’t care and he said, “Well then we need to keep our eyes out.”

  Pete said, “No we need something to break their heads in and we need some guns to shoot as well.”

  Jude said, “What if shooting them in the head doesn’t work?”

  Pete said, “Of course it will work, it is common knowledge how you kill zombies stupid. I just don’t know where the hell we are going to find a bunch of guns in podunk Missouri.”

  Jude said, “Well let’s at least get back to the van. I think with all of this I got good and sobered up real quick.”

  Chuck said, "Well that's good because I feel like shit still and I'm going to have one hell of a hangover come Saturday morning."

  Jude said, "Lets hope we see Saturday Chuck. Come on we need to get going. We need to get outta here."

  Pete said, “You think you might want to go and grab your boots and stuff there Jude?”

  Jude looked down at himself. He’d forgotten he’d been half naked when he ran out of the motel room only wearing a pair of Levis and nothing else.

  He nodded, “Yeah boots might not be too stupid of an idea huh? I think we ought to try driving by the sheriff’s office on the way to and let him know, if he hasn’t already figured it out what is going on.”

  They headed back to the room to gather their things, which weren't much, they heard what sounded like an army marching. Chuck walked out peering into the dark he yelled to Jude.

  "Hey, Jude I think there are more of those things out there."

  Jude said, “Well how many of them do you think there are?”

  Chuck didn’t have a chance to answer because when he saw the horde walking toward him he was incapable of speech. He did a sign of the cross and ran to Roger and Pete’s room not knocking and yelling, “Get your shit and get to Jude’s room, there are hundreds of those things walking into the motel courtyard we got about a minute ‘til they are here. Come on over to our room, I think we ought to stick together if you know what I mean!”

  The two men came to the door seeing the mob coming toward them and realized instantly how unimportant a bag full of clothes was to them. They dropped their stuff where they stood and they sprinted out of the room and to Jude’s slamming the remains of the door shut. Chuck cringed when the door slammed and peered out the window guaranteeing the thought that there was a good chance these things could hear somehow because they started their walk toward the noise of the door shutting. Chuck watched as the sea of them made their way in. They never stopped filling the courtyard and within a few minutes they had the space crammed with bodies.

  Chuck walked past Jude who was pulling on a pair of cowboy boots and went to the bathroom staring at the tiny window that was useless. He looked down at his gut and knew even Jude would be hard pressed to be able to fit out of it. He thought about how little Pete was and that maybe they could push him out of it but didn't see him volunteering too much for being pushed out a window into the unknowing night to be alone. He stood on the toilet pulling the window down until he had broken the chains keeping it up, off. He twisted his head to the side looking out the window and nothing but dead eyes stared back at him. Chuck got off of the toilet and walked into the living and sleeping room quarters. Chuck said, “Hey guys slow down we uh got a -”

  Jude who was not understanding, cut him off, "What do you mean slow down, we need to shift into high gear and get the fuck out of here or we are screwed.”

  Jude ran to the bathroom verifying they were most definitely trapped. He said, “What do you guys think we should do?”

  Pete said, “Do you guys want to wait them out? Do you think they will get bored?”

  Chuck said, “I don't know if they will get bored. But some poor bastard might come walking through or driving hopefully and draw their undivided attention away from us.”

  Jude said, “I don't know if waiting around here is that good of an idea. I think we need to leave.”

  Roger said, “You know Jude I really like that idea of us leaving, but the van is over a mile away and those damn things are everywhere. You couldn't tell me how many you think there are without getting a much, much closer look at them.”

  Pete said, "So what the hell do we do? Eventually, they are going to figure out that if enough of those dumb asses push against the window it is going to break. We all know after that it is just a matter of time before enough of them pile together and they can fall through the window. I think we all know at that point what is going to happen.”

  Chuck who was not shy about facing the reality of the horrible circumstances they were under said, “Yes, they break the window we are fucked. It's about that simple.”

  Jude stared around at the room for a moment weighing the small group’s options quietly to himself in his head. He walked over ripping the sheets off of the bed that were stained with the waitress’s blood and tossed them all on the floor. He bent down next to the bed examining the rails and saw there were not even so much as wheels on the bottom of the bed as small spikes that they sat on keeping the frame in the air. The other three men stared trying to figure out what he was doing and if he had lost his mind.

  Roger said, “Jude what the hell are you doing man we need to figure out a plan, we need to get the hell out of here. Have you lost your mind?”

  Jude laughed as he stared at the bed. He looked up and he said, "You know I would say all in all, for being in the middle of some small town fucking zombie apocalypse, I think that I'm doing better than most. I don't have a lot to compare this too given you know, I've never had anything like this happen before."

  Roger said, “Yes I will give you that one. What is it that you want to do with the bed though?”

  Jude lifted it up off of the ground and pointed to the spikes. He said, "I think if we put this up against the window we could hammer the bed frame into the drywall and hopefully if we put Chuck's bed frame on the opposite side of it, we can make a makeshift fence and keep those things from breaking through once they figure out the window."

  Chuck who had no plan decided that Jude’s was better than nothing. He walked over helping Jude put it up against the wall and Jude held it while Chuck hammered at it with his two-by-four until it was into the wood studs tight. By the time they were done with the first bed Pete and Roger had already gotten the second bed stripped of the mattress and they placed it where it needed to be so that Chuck could continue hitting it into place. When Chuck had made his final strike on the frame the four men backed up admiring their handiwork. Chuck said, “Do you think that thing is going to hold, is it enough?”

  Jude said, "Well if it doesn't this room is going to be filling up pretty d
amn quickly."

  Watching the window and waiting for the inevitable to happen, the group of men did not have to wait very long. The moaning became louder on the opposite side of the window, and within minutes the group of dead had smashed every piece of glass out of the window frame. They watched in horror as the dead tried to eat their way through the metal bed frames, ignorant to the fact that it was an impossible feat to be had, but the word can't was not in their moaning vocabulary. Their teeth began to break on the railing of the beds and the men just stared, waiting for help that after a time they realized wasn't going to come.

  After a half hour Jude who had got side tracked with the dead remembered he had not called home to see if they were okay. Jude dialed the number and waited knowing he would be waking up Maria and most likely Patrick which was something that he could live with. The phone rang six times before Maria answered the phone groggy and not yet fully awake.

  She whispered, “Hello, Grimes residence, who the hell is this?”

  Jude on the other end yelled startling her, “Oh thank God you're still alive!”

  This made Maria popup waking confused if she had imagined the words he had said or in her tired state was just what was able to be understood.