Undead Flesh

by Dennis McDonald

  “What the frack!” Doug said, slamming on the brakes of the RV as the cattle truck roared by the Winnebago.

  Jack braced himself against the side door to keep from being thrown by the violent deceleration. “The shit’s going down now!” he said.

  “What is?” Telia asked, grabbing the kitchen counter to hold herself up.

  “The Cordells’ payback.”

  The semitrailer came to a rumbling stop in front of the church, and Jack’s gut went on high alert. Hands reached out through the gaps in the trailer’s side walls, and an eerie wailing rose from inside.

  Jack’s breath caught in his throat.

  The trailer’s packed full of zombies!

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Brody Cordell jumped out of the cab and raced to the rear of the cattle trailer. He swung the back doors wide open.

  “Stick this up your ass, Reverend!” he shouted toward the church before sprinting away.

  A mass of zombies shambled out of the trailer and headed toward the doors of the doomed chapel. Unaware of the approaching danger, the choir continued singing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” in an ironic twist.

  “Kate’s still in there!” Jack said, opening Natalie’s side door.

  “What’re you going to do?” Telia said.

  “Save her.”

  “Wait! I’m coming with you.”

  He had already jumped out of the RV. His only thought was to reach Kate before the zombies could. With shotgun in hand, he sprinted toward the chapel as fast as his legs allowed. As he raced across the compound, two deacons ran out of the chapel doors and opened up with their AR-15s on the advancing zombies. Undeterred, the wave of undead engulfed the deacons, ripping apart their flesh in seconds as they screamed in horror. The gruesome zombie procession pushed past them through the chapel doors.

  Knowing that the front of the church was blocked, Jack raced for the stained glass windows lining its side. More gunshots sounded above the screams of the congregation. At the back of the building, a fire had started, preventing anyone from escaping out the rear of the church. Jack realized that the little chapel was fast turning into a death trap. He had to get Kate out of there!

  Reaching the church’s side window, he covered his eyes with one arm and dived through the stained glass. He landed hard on the wooden floor before rolling against the side of a pew. He leapt to his feet and searched for Kate in the chaos.

  The worship hall was now a scene of unbelievable carnage. The Coleman lanterns had been knocked over, creating a spreading wall of flames at the rear of the church. The robes of several choir members had caught on fire, and they ran screaming in agony down the center aisle of the chapel. Throughout the room, zombies attacked everyone in a mindless frenzy. Church members shrieked in terror as the undead dragged them to the floor to be eaten alive. Ten feet from Jack, a horrified deacon blazed off rounds from his automatic rifle at the approaching undead. Spent cartridges flew from the weapon as he emptied the magazine into his undead attackers in a last act of desperation. The zombies closed in and bit a chunk out of the screaming man’s face.

  “Kate!” Jack yelled above the noise.

  The rampage continued sweeping into the room. The unrelenting horde devoured men, women, and children. Jack spotted Reverend Matthews on the pulpit holding a Bible in front of him.

  “Stay back in the name of Jesus Christ!” the reverend shouted at the approaching undead mob. “I command you with the power of Christ to stay back!”

  One zombie lurched forward and chewed through the fingers holding the book. Reverend Matthews dropped the Bible to the floor and staggered back in shock, blood pumping out of his finger stumps.

  “No! Stay away,” he said. “Dear God, stay away!”

  Like a swarm of undead piranhas in a feeding frenzy, the zombies tore into his flesh. Blood blubbered out of his mouth as he prayed one last time for God to save him. He disappeared under a mass of rotting undead devouring his body.

  “Kate!” he yelled above the slaughter. “Where are you?”

  “Over here!” she shouted from somewhere in the back of the room.

  Jack searched through the thickening smoke in the direction of her voice and found her huddled in the corner of the choir box. A dozen zombies had also sensed her location and were closing in. Jack snapped up the Mossberg and emptied the shotgun into the throng before they could reach her. Spent shells arced through the air as he dropped multiple zombies from buckshot blasts to the head. His barrage managed to thin their numbers enough for Kate to escape the choir box. She rushed onto the main floor of the chapel and was surrounded by more undead.

  “What do I do?” she shouted at Jack.

  “Crawl under the pews to me!”

  She ducked under the first pew just as another zombie grabbed for her.

  With the Mossberg empty, Jack dropped under the nearest pew and slid along on his back toward Kate. He slipped his last shotgun cartridge into the weapon.

  “Jack!” Kate screamed.

  He rolled onto his stomach in time to see a zombie slithering under the pews like a hungry snake headed straight for Kate. The nightmarish thing was an old woman with frazzled white hair and a gore-covered dress. Jack fired the Mossberg, and the blast blew away half the woman’s skull in a spray of bone and flesh.

  “Keep coming to me!” he shouted and jacked the last shell out of the shotgun.

  The horrible screams of the church members had died down, leaving only the moans of the zombies and the roar of spreading flames. Kate was twenty feet away, crawling as fast she could, when a burning pile of debris crashed down on the pews and blocked her path to him. He lost sight of her through the embers and choking smoke.

  “Kate!” he coughed out.

  No answer.

  “Screw this!” Jack shoved aside the pew and stood.

  Ten feet away, a group of zombies detected his presence and lurched toward him between the pews. He turned to escape but found his way blocked by fire and more undead.

  “Hit the floor!” Telia shouted from outside the window he had jumped through earlier. He lay prone as she opened fire with the AR-15. Bullets blew apart the zombie’s heads, sending their inert bodies falling around him. Jack jumped to his feet and raced to the window and found Telia standing on the other side with Doug, Kerri, and Brett.

  “I’m out of ammo,” he said, handing Telia the Mossberg through the window.

  “Get out, Jack,” she said. “The church isn’t going to be standing much longer.”

  “I’m not leaving Kate.”

  Behind him, more burning wood fell onto the pulpit in a flaming avalanche.

  “Then take this.” Telia put Max’s .45 automatic in his hands.

  “Thanks.” He jacked the slide on the pistol. “Take the kids and make that airlift if I don’t make it out.”

  “Okay,” Telia said.

  “Dad, save Mom,” Kerri said, looking toward the fire. “Hurry.”

  “I will.”

  Jack turned with the pistol ready. The church had become a scene straight from hell. Oblivious to their imminent destruction, zombies staggered through the thick smoke, mindlessly hunting for more living flesh to devour. Several were on fire but still lurched about while the flames immolated their decayed bodies. No sign of his wife amid the smoke and chaos.

  “Kate!” he shouted. “Where are you?”

  “Here,” she called back and coughed. “Hurry.”

  He found her standing between the pews surrounded by a group of zombies.

  “Run to me!” he screamed but realized that the approaching undead and the fire blocked the way.

  “I can’t,” she said.

  “I’ll come to you.”

  He ran toward her in a desperate rush. Before he could cover half the distance, a zombie grabbed Kate’s arm and bit into her with its rotten teeth. She screamed as the other zombies moved in to feed.

  Jack snapped up the .45 and fired at her undead attackers. His shots went wild a
nd failed to hit any in the head. The undead swarmed Kate and began ripping apart her flesh with their hands and teeth. There was nothing he could do. With only one bullet left in the pistol, he took a firing stance, and their eyes met for the last time. Her gaze showed no fear. Kate understood what he was about to do.

  “I love you,” she mouthed silently.

  Jack shot her through the bloody cross on her forehead. The bullet passed through her brain, and Kate slumped from sight amid the zombie mob.

  “No!” He screamed in anguish at the burning ceiling. Tears blinded him and he fell to his knees. “Not Kate!”

  He slammed his fist against the floor.

  Flaming wood crashed to the pews beside him. He looked up to see more zombies moving toward him through the fiery destruction. In that moment, he lost all will to survive and waited to join Kate in death.

  From outside the church window, Kerri shouted, “Dad? Mom? Where are you? Get out of there now!”

  Hearing his daughter’s frantic voice renewed his resolve to escape. He still had his children to protect. Staggering to his feet, he searched through the thick smoke for the window where the others waited. The unbearable heat sucked the last of the air from his lungs. Coughing and gasping, he stumbled blindly over corpses for another fifteen feet. Hands suddenly grabbed him and dragged him out through the broken window. He landed on the ground, with Telia and Doug standing over him, their worried faces illuminated by the flickering church fire.

  Jack coughed smoke out of his lungs and sat up.

  “Where’s Mom?” Kerri said

  “I couldn’t save her,” Jack said and coughed again.

  “She’s still in there?”

  “I’m so sorry, baby. Please forgive me.”

  “No!” Kerri rushed toward the broken church window. “Mom! Mom!” she yelled above the roar of the fire.

  Doug grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back a second before flames erupted out the window.

  “Let go.… My mom’s still in there,” she said, struggling against his grip.

  “There’s nothing you can do for her now,” Doug said.

  “Let go!”

  “I won’t let you die, too.”

  He wrapped her in his arms and held her until she stopped struggling. She finally relented and wept against him in wracking sobs.

  “Did Mom die?” Brett looked up at Jack.

  “Yes, son, she’s gone to heaven now.”

  “Mom’s gone”—Brett rushed to his father’s arms—“to heaven.”

  “Just remember she loved you. She loved all of us.” Jack hugged him close as a deep wrenching sadness filled his heart.

  “No more Mom,” Brett cried.

  They wept together until Telia put a gentle hand on Jack’s shoulder.

  “Jack, we have to go,” she said in a soft voice. “We’re running out of time to make the airlift.”

  “I know,” he said, releasing Brett. “Everyone head back to the RV. It’s not safe here.”

  Brett wiped away his tears. “Okay, Dad.”

  They hurried to the Winnebago in silence. Once inside, Jack sat on the couch with his grieving children while Doug put Natalie in gear and headed onto the Salt Fork River bridge. There was no sign of the Cordell brothers. Jack assumed they had continued over the bridge and fled into the night, but somehow he didn’t think he’d seen the last of them.

  With Kerri and Brett crying in his arms, he stared out the side window at the flaming church. He realized how lucky he was to be alive and still have his children. Even though Kate was no longer with them, they were still a family. Nothing could take that away.

  Through his tears, he watched the raging fire collapse the church into burning wood and rubble.

  “Goodbye, Kate,” Jack whispered.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  They left the flaming ruins of the Victory in God Church behind and turned onto another country road. Physically and emotionally exhausted, Jack retreated to the bedroom with Kerri and Brett. Together they sat on the bed and talked about their mother in loving reminiscence. Numbed by sadness, Jack turned his attention to the back window. The dreary scenery was the same as he had seen ever since the events of the morning: dark rolling plains and large open fields under a brooding sky with no stars. Even the blood-red moon had faded from sight. Kerri looked up with a tear-streaked face, and Jack again noticed how much she looked like her mother.

  “I miss her,” she said.

  “I know you do, Kerri. It was her idea to stay with the church until they opened the bridge. I was going back for her when the Cordell brothers showed up. Then it was too late. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save her.”

  “You tried.” Kerri wiped her tears and took his hand. “I’m glad you made it out alive.”

  “It was only because of you and your brother. I would have gladly died with your mother if it wasn’t for you two.”

  Brett sat back on the bed and stared at the ceiling with tears in his eyes.

  “Are you okay, buddy?” Jack said.

  “Are we going to die, too?” Brett said. “Like Mom and Max? Are the zombies going to kill us, too?”

  “Not if I can help it.” Jack patted his leg. “I promise you that. We’ve made it this far and we’re not turning back. Right, champ?”

  He nodded with a haunting sadness in his eyes.

  “You guys try to get some sleep.” He kissed both their foreheads. “I’ll let you know when we reach the town.”

  Kerri and Brett curled up on the bed and fell asleep. Fighting back the urge to join them, Jack returned to the front of the RV instead.

  “How are they doing?” Telia asked from the passenger seat.

  “The best they can under the circumstances,” Jack said. “They passed out.”

  “They’re tough kids, Jack. I’m so sorry about Kate. She was such a beautiful woman.”

  “Both inside and out. It’s too bad she got stuck married to me.” Jack sighed and looked over his shoulder toward the bedroom. “It’s strange not to see her in there with the kids. Her death hasn’t hit me completely yet. It will once we get on that airlift. How’s our progress?”

  Doug pointed to the dashboard clock. “Two hours and ten miles to go.”

  “We’re not going to make it in time using these country roads,” Jack said. “They’re too slow. We have to see if taking a highway’s faster.”

  “I think you’re right. I’ll head for Highway 11. It’s about a mile north of here.”

  “It’ll mean more zombies,” Telia said. “I did an inventory of our ammo. We have full ammo in the AR-15 and the Glocks. There’s one round left in the sniper rifle but no shells for the Mossberg or spare magazines.”

  “Speed is what we need now,” Jack said. “We’ll drive around everything in the road and won’t stop. Try to make the best time you can, Doug.”

  “You got it, Mr. G.”

  Jack eased onto the couch and placed his face in his hands. Every muscle in his body ached. He looked up to find Telia standing over him.

  “Jack, we got this. Why don’t you get some sleep? You look like shit. I’d rather have you rested when we get to Watkins.”

  He shook his head. “I’m too worked up and we’re too close. I’ll sleep after I get my children safely to Fort Riley.”

  Telia opened a kitchen cabinet door and rummaged through some pans. She pulled out a canister of instant coffee and blew the dust off it. “In that case, how does a cup of coffee sound?”

  “Hell yeah,” Jack said, surprised.

  Telia opened the lid and smelled the contents. “I hope it’s not too stale. It looks like it’s been here awhile.”

  She grabbed three cups from the cupboard, added tap water to each, and put them in the microwave. Jack studied her in the soft glow of the kitchen lights. Her disheveled dark hair had come untied and framed her strong features. Telia radiated a different kind of beauty from Kate’s demure look. She had a passive strength that could switch to full-throttle bad-ass i
n a second. He now understood why she was single. She was far too intense for most men.

  He chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Telia said.

  “Seeing you in the kitchen. You don’t exactly give off a housewife vibe wearing pistols and a machete.”

  “I’ve fixed early-morning coffee for a few lucky men over the years.”

  “I bet.”

  The microwave beeped. She stirred in the grounds and handed everyone a cup before settling back in the passenger seat. Looking at him over her shoulder, she ran her hands through her tangled hair. “How is it?” she said.

  He took a sip and felt it warm his chest. “On a scale of one through ten, I’d give it an eleven.”

  “The best cup of coffee you’ll find this side of the apocalypse.” She smiled.

  Jack smiled back. “Thanks, I really needed this.”

  “We’re coming up on Highway 11,” Doug said, putting his cup in a holder.

  Jack turned to the view through the windshield. Broken asphalt stretched like a black ribbon as far as the headlights reached. The damaged road was littered with debris chunks, but it appeared to be drivable. Doug turned north on the highway and accelerated. After a couple of minutes, they rolled past a road sign that read “Watkins 8 miles.”

  “Eight miles to go,” Telia said and checked the dashboard clock. “One hour and fifteen minutes to zero hour.”

  “I hope the airlift is running behind schedule.”

  “They’re often late, as far as my experience with military timetables goes,” Telia said. “There are too many contingencies for the rescue to be exactly on time. We still might have a chance to get there before they do.”

  “God, I hope so. I would hate to think it was all for nothing after we’ve sacrificed so much.”

  Doug nodded out the window. “It looks like a wrecked truck’s up ahead.”

  A large semitrailer on its side took up one lane of the highway. As they approached the wreckage, the headlights illuminated a throng of zombies stumbling into the road.