Middletown Apocalypse

by Brett Abell

  Pam was twenty-two years old with red hair, probably around 5’11” tall. She was thin and freckled, and always pleasant. She had been one of West’s best students, and she had flirted with the single, thirty-seven-year-old professor more than once. If he was being honest, he had a thing for redheads, and had flirted back once or twice.

  “They seemed to already know what I was telling them,” said West. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  “Why?”

  “For one, the material that got on Charlie’s skin is still out there, in that room. I don’t think you have anything to worry about because you didn’t get anywhere near it on your way in, but there’s an open jar with residue out there, and I don’t know what it might do when exposed to the environment. There’s a slight chance it could become airborne.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  West shook his head. “No idea. It wasn’t supposed to come here. When it detected Charlie’s bare skin close to it, the cells went for him. Bore through his skin and entered his bloodstream.”

  “It detected him? What? Like recognized him as … meat?”

  West shrugged. “I have no idea, but yes. Something organic. That’s all I can figure.”

  “I don’t know if I’d describe Charlie Noble as organic,” she said. “Why didn’t it go for you?”

  “I was in full coveralls and respirator. All taped up and sealed.”

  “Lucky you,” she said. “How long did it take?” asked Pam.

  She was a good student. She was asking all the right questions. “Seconds,” said West. “It moved from his hand to his elbow in under a minute.”

  “Flesh-eating virus?”

  “Not the way we’ve known it in the past,” said West.

  “How can we get out of here?” asked Pam, looking around.

  The phone hanging on the wall rang. It was an inter-University phone that only dialed room to room. West went to it and picked up the handset.

  “Biology Lab, who is this?”

  It was the university’s chancellor, Sally Lauster. “Dalton?” she said, her voice on edge.

  “Sally? Where are you? What’s going on?”

  “I was calling to ask you that,” said Sally. “Dalton, it’s crazy. I’m locked in my office. Students were screaming and running, and I heard that your assistant, Charlie Noble, was in the bathroom injured.”

  “Shut him in there!” said West. “Whoever you can get, they have to keep him contained!”

  “Too late!” shouted Sally. “The paramedics got there and the next thing I heard he was tearing out of the bathroom and mowing down students as he ran for the door. Dalton, he smashed through the front doors!”

  “Keep trying 911, Sally. Stay where you are. Make announcements to the students to stay where they are and keep the doors closed. We’ve got a big problem. I don’t know how big.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In the lab with Pamela Howard. She made it in here. It’s just us.”

  “What’s going to happen?” asked Sally.

  “I don’t know,” said West. “Sally, check your arms and legs, particularly the veins. If you see anything moving along them, you have to find a way to isolate yourself. Check anyone else who comes in, but do not touch them! Just have them hold their arms and legs out. Don’t tell them what you’re looking for, but check everyone!”

  “I’m not opening the door,” said Sally. “Wrong or not, I have a family. I’m not opening it for anyone.”

  “Do what you have to do,” said West. “Call me if you need me.”

  “Then I shouldn’t hang up,” said Sally. “I need you!”

  “We’ll try to figure something out and come and get you if we can,” said West.

  “Okay. Hurry!” pleaded Sally.

  “We’re doing the best we can,” said West. He disconnected.

  A second later, he pulled out his phone again. “I’m calling my mom,” he said. “I suggest you call whoever you know who might be able to do something from outside.”

  Dalton West held the phone, listening to the ‘We’re sorry, all circuits are busy. Please try your call again later,’ message.

  “Circuit’s busy on Verizon,” West said. “What service do you have?”

  “I’m on AT&T. Same thing,” said Pam. “Professor West, someone will come, right?”

  “I don’t know. We need to get the hell out of here. Do you have a car?”

  “No,” she said.

  “My keys are out there,” said West, indicating toward the classroom.

  They turned, and Pam screamed, her tone piercing and shrill. West even gasped.

  The room behind them was jammed with clawing, gnashing crazies. Students, teachers, janitors and the university nurse.

  Their eyes were black and shifting. All of them.

  *****

  Charlie Noble – who was, for all intents and purposes, no longer Charlie Noble – moved jerkily but fast across the large field that ran alongside Highway 236 toward the dorm buildings. Behind him at a distance, a modified golf cart with campus security aboard gave chase.

  “Fucker’s movin’ fast,” said Leo Jackson, who sat in the driver’s seat.

  The passenger was Tina Sedgwick, who had just started in security the week before. She was a hefty woman, every bit what Leo typically looked for in a female companion. Milk-colored skin, blonde hair, big boobs, big butt; all the requirements. Leo fully intended to show her what good, tough security detail was all about, not to mention the benefits of what might be her first black lover.

  He’d have her in bed within a week after this display of security prowess.

  Tina was still out of breath. “He plowed into me in the hallway, but instead of chasing him, I thought I’d better come and find you,” she said. “Good thing you were just outside when he broke through that glass door.”

  “Smart move,” said Leo, smiling. “You’re too green to take this on. Look. We’re gaining on him.”

  “I’d hope so,” said Tina. “How fast is he running anyway?”

  “I’m doin’ eighteen,” said Leo. “He’s movin’ pretty good.”

  As they approached the running man, Leo turned the wheel to the right came up alongside him. “Hey!” he yelled. “Stop!”

  “Wish they armed us,” said Tina.

  “We won’t need a gun,” said Leo. “Hey! Stop, Mr. Noble!” Leo called, using his strongest, deepest voice.

  Suddenly, Charlie made a hard right turn toward them, his arms reaching out. He flew into the golf cart as Leo jerked backward to avoid being hit. Charlie’s body knocked Leo’s hands from the steering wheel as he flew past him, slamming into Tina and knocking her completely out of the cart. As Noble’s knee clipped Leo’s jaw, he saw stars for a few brief seconds. In a half-aware fog, Leo’s foot found the brake pedal, slamming the cart to a stop.

  Without a seatbelt, Leo found himself flying forward; his body crashed through the plastic windshield, which fragmented and broke away. Leo came to rest in front of the cart on his back, dazed.

  When he got his bearings, he crawled to his knees. Charlie Noble was on top of Tina, his face burrowed into her. “Hey!” he wheezed. “Hey, stop! What are you doing?” He scrambled to get to Charlie and the other security guard.

  “What the hell?” asked Leo, as he got closer. Blood poured from Tina’s neck as Charlie tore into her flesh, tendons and arteries pumping blood streams into his face even as he drank the blood and chewed the ripped flesh to ribbons.

  Leo limped back to the cart and pulled the miniature baseball bat he’d bought at a Fort Wayne TinCaps baseball game. It was light but solid. He fought the searing pain in his lower back as he hefted it, wondering if it would be nearly enough, and made his back toward the carnage.

  Leo drew his arm back and slammed the bat into Charlie Noble’s shoulder blades. He had tried to hit his head, but the student was rocking back and forth so frantically as he tore at the now twitching woman’s body, Leo missed.


  Fighting a dizzy spell, Leo looked up. Students poured out of the distant entry door now, some of them chasing the others like maniacs. There were other pairs on the ground looking very much like Charlie Noble and Tina Sedgwick.

  Leo felt something grab his arm and when he turned back, Charlie Noble stood upright, his ghastly face staring into Leo’s. His coal black eyes churned and moved as though they had miniature lives of their own, and before Leo could register anything else, his vision went dark as Charlie’s face thrust forward and his teeth clamped over Leo’s eyes and nose.

  Leo tried to scream, but before he could emit more than a squeal, he heard cartilage popping as he felt his face tear away; he staggered backward, his hands pressed against the ragged wound. Blood poured between his fingers, and he pushed Charlie back and broke free, running blindly with every bit of strength left within him.

  *****

  West pulled open the trash chute. “We can fit in here,” he said.

  “How?” asked Pamela. Her terrified eyes would not leave the classroom, visible behind the thick, laboratory glass. In the room, dozens of students and faculty pressed against the glass, their bloody teeth gnashing, their fingers clawing.

  A couple of times West had pushed the ‘listen’ button so he could monitor what they were saying; no words met their ears. The sounds coming from all who occupied the room on the other side of the glass were primal growls and haunting cries; hungry and wanting.

  They were not clamoring to get inside; not for safety. The only things of interest the room seemed to hold for the transformed humans in his biology classroom were Dalton and Pam. Every pair of metamorphosed eyes focused on them.

  “Look,” said West. “There’s a dumpster at the bottom of this chute. We only put recyclables down there; paper, cardboard boxes, some plastic. Nothing chemical and no metal. It’s picked up once a week, so it should be pretty full right now. If we can take off this outer panel, we should be able to easily slide down.”

  “Why don’t we just stay here?” asked Pam, her eyes darting between West and the creatures outside.

  “More are flooding in,” said West. “Yeah, we’re safe in here for now, but what about our families? My mom lives near the City Building, so I hope somehow she’s already in the bunker there, but I sincerely doubt it.”

  “I don’t have any family in town,” said Pam. “My folks live in Indianapolis. You know I already tried to reach them.”

  “All you can do is keep trying,” said West. “In-between, browse to a news site or something and see if this thing is widespread. I’ll work on the chute.”

  As Pam punched her phone, West found a pry bar he used to peel the lids from 55-gallon drums. He was able to slide it between the stainless external housing and the wall and force it outward. He pried it an inch or so away from the wall all along the top before working his way down the sides.

  “I got something,” said Pam. The next words she spoke were through tears: “Outbreak is the headline, Mr. West,” she said. “It’s already out.”

  “Where’s ground zero? What caused it?”

  “They don’t know what it is yet,” said Pam. “But we’re ground zero. That’s what they’re saying.”

  “How did they find out so fast?”

  “A FedEx driver crashed into a bank and started biting everyone. Some he bit started to change, too. There aren’t many reports after that, but he was here before he … turned into that … thing.”

  West felt an invisible weight on his shoulders. “He brought that stuff here. Delivered a package with a broken jar inside.” West shook his head. “There’s no telling when that package became compromised or how many other parcels and letters were cross-contaminated. I can just about guarantee that virus, or whatever it is, is going to be on the move. We also don’t know if any more of that stuff got shipped anywhere else.”

  With one final pry, the outer panel dropped to the floor with a loud, vibrating clang. West kicked it another two feet away, and reached over to grab a chair, which he positioned beneath the chute.

  “Okay, stand on this chair and lean against me while you get your feet in.”

  “You go first, Mr. West,” she said. “I can watch. Then I’ll know how.”

  “No. You won’t come. You’re a student here and you’re my responsibility for now.”

  She touched his arm. “Thank you,” she said, her expression grateful.

  “Thank me once we make it out,” said West.

  She got on the chair. He supported her back as she inserted her right leg into the 30” wide by 24” deep chute. This was followed by her left leg as she perched on the edge. “You’ll come right down, okay?”

  “Yeah, just slide out of the way once you get down there. I’ll be coming right after, and I don’t want to hit you.”

  “Okay,” she said. She didn’t move.

  “Go!” said West, shoving her back.

  With a scream, Pamela Howard dropped out of sight. The scream echoed all the way down.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “Great way to draw attention to yourself.”

  Dalton West stood on the chair and held onto the top edge of the chute as he fed one leg through. He thought for a moment and stopped.

  West withdrew his leg and got off the chair. Running across the room to the instrument drawer, he opened it and withdrew a long-bladed, stainless steel knife. It was what he used for large animal dissections. The point would pierce even the thickest hide, and the blade would carve meat like a hot knife through butter.

  Grabbing a second, smaller knife, West returned to the chair. With one blade clenched in his teeth and the other in his right hand, he climbed up, got his feet through, and prepared to take the plunge, hoping he didn’t end up with a knife in his gut when he landed.

  West wanted to call down first, just to make sure Pamela had scooted to one side, but he did not want his call to draw the strange, transformed humans toward them.

  Hoping this wasn’t the biggest mistake of his life, he let go and plummeted straight down.

  *****

  “You took so long!” whispered Pam as he struggled to find his bearings within the almost pitch black dumpster. Narrow beams of light stabbed through the dusty blackness within.

  “Had to get some weapons,” he said. “I’ll push the lid up and take a look at the situation out there.”

  “There’s a wooden fence around this thing, right?” asked Pam. “This is the one at the front right corner of the building?”

  “Yeah,” said West, standing. He pushed the lid up slowly; after hearing nothing just beyond their cover, he stood all the way up and eased the lid back into an open resting position. “I don’t see anyone moving through the gaps in the fence,” he said. “C’mon.” He held out his hand.

  Pam took it and stood, clinging to him just a bit longer than Dalton felt was natural.

  West climbed out, holding the long knife in his teeth as he did so. Pam passed him her knife and crawled out on her own. When she was safely out, he gave the smaller blade back to her.

  “I can’t stab anyone, you know,” she said.

  “Yes you can,” said West. “If it’s them or you.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Pam, I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t have to, but be ready.”

  West peered through the slats for a moment, then went around the dumpster and looked out the front and sides of the enclosure. The large, green box was butted against the fence so the rear fence not accessible, but from what he could see, it was all clear in the immediate vicinity.

  Lifting the latch, he eased the gate open a couple of feet and stepped out.

  Pam came out right behind him, clutching the knife in her right hand, her knuckles white from her grip.

  “I want to see if we can get to Sally,” he said.

  “Chancellor Lauster?”

  “Yeah,” said West. “I hope she’s still in her office.”

  “Want me to wait in the dumpster?�
� asked Pam.

  “I might not make it back here,” said West. “So you’d better come with me.”

  West scanned the area. It looked clear, but there was a large row of thick bushes and trees between them and the front entry. Anything could lie beyond.

  “No time like the present,” said West. “Stay close!” He took off in a slow jog.

  He heard her behind him, but as the forward path grew more threatening, he turned. “Stay even with me so I can keep an eye on you,” he whispered as loudly as he could. She followed his instructions, and now they ran side-by-side. Pam was having difficulty as her shoes hit the grass, but she grunted and pushed on.

  As they rounded the hedges, all hell broke loose.

  The sick, transformed people – for that is what they were to West at that moment – were everywhere. He heard screaming from near and far as what appeared to be uninfected men and women tore across the lawn trying to escape their pursuers. Others who had not been fast enough were being feasted upon by those who chased them down.

  “My god!” shouted Pam.

  Several of them turned toward her and West.

  Zombies, he thought. The word entered his mind and would not vacate.

  These are zombies.

  “Go, Pam! Be ready! If those things get near us, just stay far enough away from me that I can use this knife without cutting you!”

  West ran, his eyes searching far ahead so that he could angle away from any oncoming crazies. He zigzagged left, then right, suddenly finding himself blocked on all sides. No angle in any direction would put him in the clear; he would have to use his weapon.

  He had never stabbed a living creature of any kind. That was about to change.

  “Pam, are you ready!”

  “No!” she screamed.

  “You can do this!” said West, as the fast-moving young man got to within two feet of him. West jumped to his left and jammed the knife deep into the man’s midsection, near his solar plexus.

  West’s momentum carried him past the staggering man-thing, and the knife, now slick with blood, withdrew as they cleared one another. Relieved he’d maintained a grip on his weapon, he saw another of the sick people charging directly toward him, and this time he knew her. She was the English Literature professor, Debra Ainsley. Her eyes were wide and black, and her mouth spat chunks of something she must have just consumed.