Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse

by Sean Schubert

  The doctor, impressed by her report, said, “That was very thorough.”

  “Thanks. I’m a transcriptionist. It paid to have good instant recall.”

  “I believe that. You doin’ okay?”

  “Okay? Are you? I mean, what does that even mean anymore? Is there okay anymore?”

  The police officer handed each of them a cup with some Bailey’s and a napkin with half a sandwich on it. He said by way of apologies, “It was the best I could do.”

  The doctor nodded and thanked him. They ate their meal in silence, except for the unfolding news on the television and an occasional sob from the bathroom. Soon though, there was only silence other than the TV.

  Standing at the window, Officer Ivanoff observed, “The days are already getting shorter. It’s still early but it’ll be dark in a handful of hours. We stayin’ here for the night or trying our hands at movin’ on to someplace else?”

  Emma suggested that Dana be involved in the discussion. They hadn’t really checked on her in at least an hour either, so she walked to the bathroom door and knocked softly. No response. “Dana, you okay in there?” Still no response. “Dana?” Nothing.

  The two men were already on their feet. While Emma continued to solicit any word from inside, the doctor and police officer leaned into the door and eventually broke it from the simple and insubstantial frame. There, on the floor of the bathroom, lay Dana, apparently unable to face the events of the day, and instead elected to swallow a bottle of pills taken from the medicine cabinet and then cut her wrists with a razorblade removed from a man’s razor. On the floor around her was a mixed pool of deep red blood and foamy white vomit.

  Dr. Caldwell dropped to his knees beside the woman and checked her heart. “I think I can hear a faint heartbeat. She barely has a pulse but it’s there.”

  Emma laid her hand on the doctor’s shoulder and said somberly, “Let her go, Doc. We don’t know what she lost today. Maybe she knew that this was the best thing for her.”

  The police officer, eyes agape, offered, “But it’s a sin. We can’t just sit back and let her eternal soul be damned.”

  The doctor looked at the other man, considering what he said. Emma however was nonplused by the suggestion and decided to fire back. She said, “You think it could be any worse than this? Besides, maybe she didn’t buy into that story.”

  “It doesn’t matter whether she believed in the Truth or not. The Truth is just that: Truth. Her belief or lack of doesn’t diminish that. As a Christian, I...”

  Emma, chuckling lightly, said, “You can still, after all that has happened today, believe in some benevolent God sitting in the clouds on some big Lazy Boy Recliner watching his creation unfold? That is either unshaken faith or just sheer delusion. Either way, I really don’t want to hear any more of that horseshit. We got a deal? I won’t belittle your mythology and you don’t thank or praise God for every Goddamned thing that happens. ‘Kay?”

  Stung, the police officer stood up and walked away. Catching the doctor’s questioning look, she said, “Sorry. I guess I’ll go apologize to him too. I just have to hear that nonsense from a coworker all the time and it drives me crazy. Everything is ‘we Christians think that’ and ‘we Christians believe’. I just can’t stand hearing it anymore. Especially if the amount of time I got left here can be possibly measured in hours, I really don’t want to hear any proselytizing. Is it too much to ask?”

  “I don’t know what to think anymore,” Dr. Caldwell answered honestly. He was completely distracted and unable to concentrate on anything at hand. Again, he thought of his family. He was glad that his children were away at college already. They were conceivably safe and away from this horror. His concern for his wife was immense, however. Maybe she’d been able to get out before all hell had broken loose. Maybe she was able to connect with some other survivors and find themselves a good hiding spot. He doubted it though. This thing had begun at such an early hour of the morning and spread so quickly. He wondered if it would at least be quick for her. He didn’t want her to have to suffer. She didn’t deserve that. She was just too good a person and too good a wife to deserve it. He also knew though that the kind of death that struck these victims was anything but quick and was nothing but suffering. To be gnawed and chewed and clawed and eaten was hellish. The anguish was inconceivable. He felt sick to his stomach again. They stooped there over Dana for a quiet few moments. Neither of them was sure when heart and breathing stopped, but the next time the physician checked her pulse it was gone. Not even an echo of life.

  Emma disappeared for a moment and then reappeared with a sense of urgency to her step. “I think the cop flew the coop. He’s gone.”

  “He’s what?”

  “He’s gone. He’s nowhere down here. I went down there to apologize and the front door was open and he’s gone.”

  “And he’s got our only gun.”

  Emma smiled and said proudly, “That’s the other thing we gotta talk about.” She raised the shoebox she was holding and said, “I found this.” In the box was a black revolver and a box of shells. It looked like a .357 Magnum; probably a Smith and Wesson. It looked big and powerful and comforting. “It was sitting on the table in the hall near the door leading to the garage. Driver probably set it down going through the door and then forgot about it.”

  Dr. Caldwell smiled and said, “Good find my friend.”

  Emma smiled back and handed the box to the doctor. Loaded and in his belt, the gun did deliver a certain sense of security. He and Emma moved Dana’s body to the backyard and covered her with a blue tarp. Neither of them knew Dana. They didn’t even know her last name. They stood quietly after covering her and looked down at the blue plastic package. Without a word, the doctor hoisted Dana up under her shoulders and Emma grabbed her feet, each hoping that they wouldn’t upset the tarp covering the expired soul beneath. They carried her further into the yard and laid her out near a small garden that was doing its best to yield a modest crop of carrots, cabbage, and lettuce, despite the cool air.

  Emma asked, “Should we say something?”

  Dr. Caldwell didn’t know. He wasn’t a priest. In fact, he wasn’t very religious at all and couldn’t recall any Bible verses to recite. He had never been that interested in church or religion. It just wasn’t in his nature. He wasn’t one who mocked the religious though. And then it hit him. He looked up from the tarp-covered body and recited, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player. That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.”

  After a quiet few seconds, Emma said, “Kind of nice, Doc, but kind of cold too.”

  “It’s the best I could do under such short notice.”

  “Was that Shakespeare?”

  “Yeah, Macbeth, I think.”

  They stood there quietly for a bit longer, Dana’s quick memorial service being extended, for each of them, to all those they had seen fall during the day and all those that were to fall in the coming hours and days. The silence was nearly absolute. There were neither birds nor insects lending their voices to the day’s choir. The doctor looked up at the woman and was going to ask what the plan was now when they both heard that stampede sound again. The sound all at once filled the void and it was getting louder and louder by the moment.

  It had been an hour since Officer Ivanoff had struck out on his own. Standing on the woodpile leaning against the seven foot cedar privacy fence, the doctor could see the man running as hard as he could trying to get back. And immediately on his heels was a crowd of a hundred or more of the beasts chasing him.

  Dr. Caldwell shouted at Emma to get over the fence and set out across the adjacent woods. He thought he could see other houses on the far side of the small wooded lot. Maybe they could get over there and find some safety. If the ghouls could be stalled long enough getting through the fence, perhaps they could get some distance between themselves and their pursuers.


  Emma didn’t hesitate. She picked up a five-gallon bucket partially filled with birdseed and covered tightly with a heavy-duty plastic lid. She set the bucket against the fence and, using it for an extra lift, hoisted herself up and over. The doctor tried to get the police officer’s attention. He shouted, “Go over the fence! Use the bucket and get over the fence! We’ll meet you in the woods! Don’t look back! You can make it!”

  The doctor got down from the wood and then got himself over the fence. He felt better having the storm behind him. The sound was slightly muted thanks to the houses and fences separating him from it. He saw Emma just ahead of him and increased his pace slightly to catch her. She jumped and screamed slightly as he touched her on the shoulder.

  They emerged in another neighborhood with another street and more houses. The sound was still thankfully behind them. They were standing in a dead end cul-de-sac that was perhaps five houses deep with three houses situated on the curving court. It was pretty standard suburban planning. It also looked as deserted as the area from which they had just departed.

  Emma, out of breath, panted, “Looks like everyone left in a hurry.”

  “Yeah, a big hurry. Such a hurry that someone forgot their car.” He pointed to a car that was sitting in the middle of a driveway across from them, driver’s side door hanging open.

  Emma looked at the doctor and then at the gun tucked into his belt. Like a gunslinger walking into the OK Corral, he pulled the revolver from his belt. He pulled the eager hammer back to have the gun at the ready. He knew that it wasn’t the safest way to hold the firearm, but he was comfortable with his decision. He didn’t feel like he could afford any delays.

  With trepidation flavoring each footstep, the two of them moved forward. They arrived at the car without incident. Emma kept an eye out as the doctor checked in the car. It was a little Subaru Forester, an older model but still in very good shape. It wouldn’t be a bad car in which to make a getaway.

  Meanwhile, Emma heard a sound emanating from behind the closed garage door. She stepped cautiously to the door and listened. Nothing. She knocked two quick raps on the heavy door and waited. Her response was a rasping, guttural, ravenous groan and fingernails clawing at the other side of the closed door. She retreated from the sound as if she had been touched by something very hot or very cold. She turned and saw a disappointed doctor looking at her.

  “Keys?”

  “I’m afraid not. What’s in the garage?”

  “I think it’s more of those things. Maybe the folks who were loading this car. Maybe they got attacked and retreated into there with one of them already bitten. That one died and then we know what happened. They were trapped and there they stayed trapped.”

  The doctor added, “Yeah, but the real tragedy is that the keys to this rig are in the pockets of one of those things in there. Right now this car is just a big paperweight. Unless of course one of us wants to go in there and get the keys.”

  “No, I think that...”Emma trailed off and then continued more hopefully, “Hey Doc, is there a purse in there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Look for keys in it. Maybe the wife left hers in there for us.”

  Leaning in, Dr. Caldwell yelled triumphantly, “Emma, you’re a fucking genius. You really are.”

  Their celebration was cut short when the slanted front panes of glass from the house’s south facing solarium exploded outward. The shards of flying glass were followed by a thrashing and desperate ghoul who was made all the more horrific by the dozens of cuts and deep gashes inflicted upon him by jumping through the window. He hit the still moist grass and tried to continue running, but instead, slipped clumsily and fell, rolling onto the paved sidewalk. Seemingly unfazed by the misadventure, the creature leapt to its feet and was starting to run toward the doctor, who was still leaning inside the car and in shock. Emma screamed for the doctor to do something, anything. He couldn’t swing himself around though. He got his hands on the keys tightly, hooked his arm up and around, and then tossed the keys to Emma before the thing could get its hands on him.

  Two quick cracks rose above the beast’s bloodthirsty growl and then the thing fell forward, its own momentum carrying it against the side of the Subaru. There, standing in the middle of the street, was Officer Ivanoff, his sidearm raised and still at the ready. “We clear? Is he dead?”

  The doctor inched a little closer to make sure and then said candidly, “He’s dead enough for me. Come on and get us the hell outta here will ya?”

  Emma, furious, shouted, “What d’ya mean, ‘Get us outta here’? It’s his Goddamned fault we’re on the run again. Why don’t you drive?”

  Dr. Caldwell could sense her disapproval and tried to cool the situation with simple logic, “He has been professionally trained to drive in heated conditions. Am I not correct in assuming that?”

  The officer nodded.

  “So it merely makes sense that he should drive. Let’s let each of us do what we’re best at and maybe we can all get out.”

  Not entirely placated but wanting to get away quickly, Emma threw open the passenger door and slumped into the seat heavily and unhappily. Dr. Caldwell climbed into the backseat and Officer Ivanoff sat in the driver seat. The doctor watched out the back window as the first wave of their pursuers was just emerging from the unfenced yard through which the three of them had come.

  Immediately after the gunshots, there was a temporary pause in the riot sound coming from the house they had just vacated on the other side of the trees. And then the sound changed and became even more furious, as if they had been provoked by the sound...aroused.

  The good thing about the vehicle was that there were actually some supplies already in it. Bottled water, bread, canned foods, and several blankets were piled neatly in the trunk area along with some beautifully decorated personalized family scrapbooks.

  Still fuming, Emma finally couldn’t hold back anymore, “Why’d you do it? You led them right to us. Why?”

  Not taking his eyes from the road, he answered, “Those things were after me. What’d you want me to do? They were coming for you, too. You oughta be thankful that I shot that thing before it got the Doc. Where’d you be now if that thing got him and then went after you? You’d be on foot right about now.”

  Nodding her head and laughing, “How many of those things did you run into while you were running back to us? I bet it was a big fat zero because we weren’t even on those things’ radar. And you had to lead them right to us. We might have been able to stay there until help came for us but now we’ll never know because you led them there. What the fuck were you thinking? Did you have a fleeting thought about the jeopardy that you might be putting us in...the people that you are supposed to be protecting and serving? Or were you only thinking about your own ass? “

  From the backseat came, “Emma, give it a rest. He was only scared. We’re away now and maybe in better shape than staying there. We’re on the move and maybe we can find help.”

  “Yeah, or maybe we’ll just get backed into a corner. Trapped.”

  “It’s probably not that bad. Let’s just figure out the best...” Dr. Caldwell trailed off.

  Emma had turned and was facing him, and Officer Ivanoff was looking at him in the rearview mirror. He exhaled a sigh. “Let’s just stick together. We have to watch out for one another so that we all can get out of this. Right now it all looks bad, but we can make it if we work together.”

  Emma nodded but shot an accusatory glare at the police officer.

  Officer Ivanoff didn’t say a word. He looked out of the corner of his eye at the woman sitting next to him. Who was she to question him like that? He’d never let his wife speak to him like that. Of course, he and his wife were separated and hadn’t spoken in years, but when they were together, you better Goddamned believe that she wouldn’t have been permitted to speak like that to him. He chewed his bottom lip while he imagined the things that he could have said or should have said to save face in front of that doc
tor. Officer Ivanoff was concerned what the doctor thought of him. He didn’t want to seem weak or afraid, like that woman suggested.

  Chapter 25

  He didn’t think he had been afraid now that he thought about it. After he left the house, the doctor, and that woman behind, he went out to the main road, where there were some cars here and there but there weren’t any people at all. He felt like the last man on earth. He could only think that he was feeling how Adam must have in Eden. Despite all that had happened today and all he had seen, he felt at peace. Dr. Caldwell and Emma weren’t going to save that woman, Dana, from her horrible mistake. They refused her any chance at salvation because it was just more convenient for them. That woman, Emma, said it was what Dana wanted and to let her be. He was certain it was just because she didn’t want to be hassled with having to help her in her time of need. And that doctor...he obviously wasn’t moving to help either. Emma probably bewitched him.

  Officer Malachi Ivanoff didn’t believe in witches spells or magical hexes, either positive or negative. His belief in the paranormal was limited to his knowledge of the Holy Ghost as part of the Trinity. He did, however, believe that there were women and even some men out there who knew how to manipulate and control others. And in so doing, these manipulators could change the minds of some very smart people just through their wiles. He could see it in the doctor’s eyes already and the doctor had no idea. So, he knew that the other man was going to do exactly what she told him to do. Officer Ivanoff just couldn’t bring himself to stay with and protect people like that who had no care for the immortal soul of others. So he ran.

  As he made his way east on the road though, these thoughts and justifications rambling through his head, he looked out and saw a line of cars that extended several car lengths in either direction of a railroad crossing. It was then that he could hear the thunder of an approaching train. The road in that direction appeared to be blocked to vehicle traffic. He found it odd that the trains would still be running and then began to wonder how the locomotive would get through the intersection with cars across the tracks as they were. He still couldn’t see the train coming, but he could certainly hear it. It sounded as if it were coming from the north. His sense of civic duty, still a driving impulse within him, led him to start running toward the crossing to see if he might be able to move the cars himself.