Time of Death 01: Induction

by Shana Festa

  "The doors won’t hold. We need to get to the garage!" As Jake said it, he grabbed me and looked me in the eyes. "Emma, we need to get out of here."

  We ran toward the garage and made it to the kitchen before the glass door shattered. The zombie was in the house. Mere feet away, I could smell its decaying flesh as we ran for our lives. Blood oozed from a neck wound and it let out a wet gurgle.

  "Jake! The Keys!"

  "Go," Jake said. "Get in the car. I’m right behind you." He shoved me through the door and closed it behind me.

  "JAKE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I could hear muffled struggles from the other side of the door as I panicked from the thought of losing him. At once, I knew what I needed to do. I ran to the car and opened the door. Dropping Daphne on the driver’s seat, I reached under it and groped around for the crowbar I always kept handy. My father grew up on the outskirts of Boston, and it had been ingrained into me at an early age to always be able to defend myself in a carjacking.

  Finding my prize, I yanked it out and hefted the weight in my hands. I closed Daphne in the car and ran back to the garage door. Flinging it open, I saw Jake pinned to the kitchen floor by the zombie. He had his hands up under its throat and was using the leverage to keep it from biting him.

  Like a banshee, I raced into the kitchen, crowbar held over my head and brought it down on the zombie’s head. Again and again I struck it until it slumped over to one side and lay still. Jake lay on his back panting. Rivulets of sweat beaded off his forehead, and blood splatter stained the front of his shirt and face. "My legs are pinned. Help me roll him off."

  We got him out from under the dead thing, and I helped him to his feet, clutching him in a tight embrace as I cried into his chest. "Don’t ever—" I sucked in a wheezing gasp, stricken with terror. "—leave me again." I panted.

  "I won’t, baby," he mumbled into my hair. He held up his hand, keys dangling. "Let’s get out of here. The front door is about…" I’m quite certain his next words would have been to give…because that’s exactly what happened. The door splintered inward and through the doorway stumbled in one disgusting vision after another. We hauled ass back to the garage. No way did I need to be told twice.

  * * *

  Chapter 06

  Out of the Frying Pan…

  If this had been some B-rated horror movie, our SUV would have sputtered and died. Thankfully this wasn’t a movie, and we had always been diligent about keeping our vehicles in good shape.

  I started squeezing my way around the front of the car as Jake got behind the wheel, and the back of my shirt snagged on something.

  "Get in the car," Jake yelled through the windshield. "Emma, get in the car, NOW!"

  "I can’t get free," I cried. I was unsuccessfully yanking my shirt as the first zombie entered the garage through the flimsy door. Tears streamed down my face as I worked to free myself. Jake began frantically yelling to get their attention and beeped the horn. Contrary to popular belief, while the horn may be activated from within the vehicle, the actual sound comes from the hood, which was exactly where I was currently located.

  First one, then another zombie turned and began shambling toward me. My sheer panic increased to near intolerable levels as I saw them approach. As the first one reached out for me, I recoiled in disgust and became wild with fear.

  You know what they say about mothers being able to lift entire cars to free a trapped child? That’s what I felt like as I made one final tug to free myself. Then a stack of boxes filled with my old textbooks fell from the shelves. One of the boxes caught me in the back of my head and I face planted into the hood of the SUV.

  White sparks of light clouded my vision and I was felt a searing pain in my nose. Blood started to flow like a dam had burst. My vision hazy, and stunned by pain, I could hear Daphne barking and Jake screaming for me as everything came back into focus. I could also hear movement and the moans of the dead coming from the other side of the boxes as they attempted to reach me.

  I closed the short distance to the car and flung myself through the open door as Jake hit the automatic door opener. Thanking God for the very small favor of continued electricity to power the door, we watched it ascend through the vehicle’s reverse camera. As the gap widened, the first thing I saw were feet…a lot of feet. The garage door let out a wicked squeal on its unoiled track and those feet started to turn in our direction.

  Blood flowed from my nose, and I glared at Jake through gaps between my fingers where I attempted to staunch it. "Oiled it last week, my ass!"

  A hand slapped Jake’s window, causing me to jump in my seat and yelp. Looking in at us was what had once been our pleasant pothead neighbor, Chet. His sandy blond curls were matted with streaks of blood, and the left side of his face was devoid of skin. Muscle and bone exposed an empty eye socket, making him look like a hideous monster. He left the window smeared with bloody fingerprints in his vain attempt to reach us.

  The door had raised just enough to allow the bodies crowding our driveway to enter the garage, but not enough that our SUV could fit through the opening. The garage darkened as the stormy day from beyond was eclipsed by the rush of bodies making their way up the sides of the SUV and closer to us.

  "Jake," I coughed out. "Hit the gas. We won’t be able to get out if they keep packing in."

  Jake slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the SUV shot out of the garage. The thunk of bodies hitting the back bumper made me wince. The reverse camera looked like someone had made spin art on it, and it felt like we were in a parking lot with way too many speed bumps.

  We backed out of the driveway and onto the street. Just as Jake was about to throw it into drive, I leapt from the SUV and ran to the front lawn. "What are you doing?" He shouted at me.

  I gave Officer Donnelly’s dragging corpse a wide berth as I made my way to the front of the cruiser and plunged my hand into the growing puddle in search of his handgun. Eureka! I struck gold! Gun in hand, I sped back to the car and closed the door behind me. "Now, we can go." I lifted my prize in triumph as muddy goo seeped from the muzzle and onto my already drenched clothes.

  Jake put the gear in drive and we drove away from our home. The only place we had ever lived together, and where a decade’s worth of memories had been shattered in the blink of an eye. I cried softly to myself and Jake took my hand.

  "It’ll be okay, baby. I won’t let anything happen to you." He brought my hand to his mouth and was about to kiss it. On further inspection, he opted out of the kiss, considering my hand was covered in blood, mud, and who knew what else. "Yeah, let’s revisit that after we come across some hand sanitizer," he said, and patted my knee instead. Though I suspected it was less to comfort me, and more of an attempt to wipe his hand discreetly.

  I glanced through the blood-smeared back window to pay a final farewell to our home and saw a lone figure running toward us. Not shambling, not stumbling, actually running. "Jake, stop the car! Stop, Jake, STOP THE FUCKING CAR!"

  "What the hell, Em? Do you have a death wish or something?"

  "It’s Alicia. Look." I pointed out the back window to a running figure. My next door neighbor’s daughter, Alicia, was flailing her arms to get our attention. She was easily outpacing what was a disturbingly large number of zombies.

  "Emma, I can’t."

  "What do you mean you can’t?"

  He looked at me sadly, "One bite, Emma, one bite and it’s over. What if she’s been infected? I can’t take that risk."

  "She’ll die if we don’t stop. Please, Jake, I don’t want to be the reason she dies a horrible death. I won’t be able to live with myself. Or you."

  Alicia’s pace was slowing; she was getting tired and looked to be nearly out of steam. Jake sighed and put the gearshift into reverse. What the zombies lacked in speed, they surely made up for in stamina. They didn’t show signs of slowing and trudged on like predators stalking their prey. She made it to the back door and attempted to open it. Her face shone in terror as sh
e realized the door was locked.

  Goddamn fucking automatic door locks. I fumbled with the buttons on the door and finally heard the locks pop open. Alicia yanked open the door and climbed into the backseat, sobbing as she closed the door behind her. I didn’t need to hear the story to know that she had lost her family. She was only seventeen, still a baby, and she lived with her parents and two brothers. My heart ached for her. I reached back for her hand and squeezed.

  "I’m sorry, Alicia," was all I could think of to say. Jake drove forward and exited the neighborhood we had all called home.

  * * *

  Without a destination, we drove slowly through the winding streets until Jake spotted a baseball field. He turned off the road and parked in the middle of the diamond. "Why are we stopping?"

  "There’s nothing here, and we can see anyone coming at the car from every angle." He turned in his seat and faced a still-crying Alicia. "Alicia, I need to ask you something. It’s important." I stared at him quizzically. "Have you been bitten?"

  Alicia’s head shot up and she stammered. "Wh-Why?"

  "Whatever is happening out there is spread through bites. Just answer me. Did one of them bite you?"

  "And what if they did? Would you leave me here to die? Would you watch them tear me to shreds like I had to watch them do to my parents?" She spit out the words like they were venom, and I saw Jake flinch from their impact.

  "Yes, I would leave you here. If you’ve been bitten, then you’re a danger to me and my wife. I can’t have that."

  Alicia looked as if she’d been slapped in the face by Jakes words. "NO, okay? I haven’t been bitten. Happy now?"

  His face scrunched up like he had to go to the bathroom. "No, I’m not. Emma, check her for bites."

  "What the fuck, Jake? Leave her alone."

  "Or what, Emma? Do you know what the consequences will be? Death! Our deaths."

  I sat there dumbly, staring at him in shock.

  "If she says she wasn’t bitten, then she wasn’t. Why would she lie about it?"

  "Just do it!" He bellowed.

  "Whatever." Alicia pulled her shirt over her head and turned to give me a view of her back. She unzipped her jeans and pulled them down past her knees and yanked the legs up as high as the snug denim would allow, leaving only a thin strip of fabric.

  "Satisfied?" she asked, after some fancy backseat contortions. Without waiting for an answer, she turned away, leaning her head against the window and closing her eyes.

  My eyes bore holes through Jake as he focused intently on the road. Daphne had finally stopped barking and had settled down on my lap snoozing fitfully. I wondered if she was having nightmares about what had happened today or if she was chasing after an elusive bone. I stroked her soft fur and leaned my head against the seat.

  I withdrew inside myself. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Jake was right. We couldn’t afford to take any risks. Even the smallest mistake could mean death.

  "It was so bad," I heard Alicia whisper from the back seat after a few minutes passed. Her voice was thick with congestion, and she sniffled into the sleeve of her shirt. I pivoted in my seat to find her upturned face looking at me in abject misery. Her features wrinkled and her chin wobbled as her mouth screwed up and let out a cry of anguish. Burying her head in her hands, her body shook and convulsed as if she no longer had command of it. She struggled to breathe with each desperate gasp of air she took, only to release it again in another forceful sob.

  * * *

  Chapter 07

  A Mother’s Love

  The shrill ring of my phone startled me and Daphne bounced in the air when I jumped in surprise. I took one more forlorn look at Alicia and dug into my pocket, chastising myself for forgetting it was there. It took what seemed like forever to get to the phone, and I feared the caller would hang up before I answered. Kat’s number flashed across the screen, a photo of her and her two little girls smiled back at me without a care in the world. Hitting send, I gasped into the phone, "Kat, Kat I’m here. Thank God you’re okay. Where are you?"

  Kat sobbed into the phone, "Emma, I need help." She took a few deep breaths and continued on. "Last night, at the grocery store, someone bit Sara. The store was in chaos. We barely made it out of the car before a guy covered in blood rushed us. I tried to hit him with the car door when he came at us and he fell, but then…then." A fresh wave of sobs echoed out of the speaker.

  "I was turning to get the girls back in the car, he grabbed Sara’s ankle and bit it. I tried to get her to the hospital for a tetanus shot or something, but all the entrances were cordoned off and I couldn’t get through. I went straight home and disinfected it as best I could and didn’t know what else to do. So I gave her some Motrin and put her and Lilly to bed."

  A wave of nausea came over me then. Sara and Lilly shared a room. Sara was bitten, and Lilly was closed in the room with her. Kat caught her breath and went on, but I knew I didn’t want to hear anymore. I knew how this nightmare ended.

  "A couple hours later we heard Lilly screaming. We thought she was having a nightmare, but when Sam opened their door Sara was on top of her. She was still tucked under the blankets, and there was blood everywhere. Sara had ripped the skin right off her back and was eating it. She wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing. She was dead, Emma. I swear to God she was dead. And then she just…wasn’t.

  "She came at me, but it wasn’t her. I know it wasn’t my baby. She looked dead, and all that blood. I pushed her away from me and right into Sam. They killed him. Ate him alive as I stood there and did nothing to help, but he got back up too." Kat dissolved into hysterics and I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

  "Kat," I said in a soft soothing tone. "Calm down. Where are you right now?"

  "I ran to Sam’s office and locked myself in. I can hear them beating on the door trying to get to me. I’m scared. I moved the desk in front of the door but I don’t think it’ll hold them."

  "Did they bite you, Kat?"

  "No, they were focused on Sam." A muffled cry came through the phone as she spoke the words.

  "I’m on my way to your house. Find a way to block the door better and stay away from the windows. It’s not any safer outside. We’ll be there in ten minutes. And, Kat, I’m sorry about your family." I hung up and looked at Jake. The color had drained from his face and his eyes were wide. I explained to him what Kat had said. "We have to. We can’t let her rot in a room alone and get eaten by her own family."

  I loved Jake more in that moment than I think I had ever before. He didn’t question me, didn’t fight me on it, he just put the car into gear and drove.

  * * *

  The drive to Kat’s was slow going. The rain had worsened and it covered the windshield in a constant sheet that made it near impossible to see more than ten feet in front of us. Gusts of wind strong enough to move the entire car made it even more difficult to navigate the roads. There were bodies, too. The lucky ones littered the streets inert, too mangled to get back up, while the reanimated population of our rural town shambled without direction. They meandered between the abandoned cars, sidewalks, lawns, and through front doors. Every once in a while we passed crowds banging on the doors or windows of a house. This was what disturbed me the most. If I had learned anything it was that these zombies went after the living. Which meant there were people alive in those houses. The question was, for how long?

  As the car passed them, they would take interest and start following, only to get distracted and forget about us when they realized we weren’t obtainable. And that was just fine with me. I turned to face Jake and Alicia. Alicia had cried herself to sleep in the back seat, and I decided to give her that little bit of peace.

  "Jake," I said softly, "we need a plan. I know the layout of Kat’s house. Sam’s office is next to the front door. If we can get the window open, we can pull her out without having to go in the house and face her family. Alicia is asleep. If the neighborhood looks clear, I don’t want to wake her.
Plus, I don’t know what state of mind she’s in right now, and I don’t want to risk her losing it and getting herself or one of us hurt."

  Jake nodded his head in agreement but didn’t take his eyes off the road. He was dodging zombies like they were mines. Every once in a while, he bumped one and I felt a thump thump as we ran over it. Funny how fast the wincing from that action stopped as it became old hat.

  We pulled onto Kat’s street and it looked clear. Her house was buttoned down with hurricane shutters just like ours. "Shit. We’re going to have to remove the shutters over the window in order to get her out. And we’re going to have to do it without attracting any unwanted attention," I said.

  I dialed Kat and waited for her to answer. She picked up on the first ring. "Emma, I can’t take it anymore. Tell me you’re close."

  "We are. We’re outside your house. Hang on just a little longer and we’ll get you out of there." I relayed our plan to her before hanging up and told her to open the window when we got the shutters off. I dug around the glove compartment for anything I could use for tools but came up empty. "You’ll have to use the crowbar," I told Jake.

  Glancing back at the still-sleeping Alicia, I placed Daphne on the floor and we exited the car. Jake with the crowbar and me with the gun, we crept toward the house, our heads on a constant swivel for threats. The shutters were the same kind as ours—horizontal slats of aluminum overlapping each other from top to bottom and fastened with bolts. Once a shutter was in place, the bolts were tightened.

  Jake started to pry the bottom shutter but stopped immediately when the sound of metal on metal echoed around us. "The noise is too loud. It’s going to draw too much attention to us," he said. I pulled my rain soaked sweatshirt over my head and handed it to him.