Ashton Memorial

by Robert R. Best

  Park reached out and caught her wrist. Angie jerked to a halt, straining her shoulder.

  For a second they hung there, shaken and panting. Seconds inched by. Maylee and Dalton clung to their railing. Park had one hand on his railing and the other hand clutched around Angie's wrist. Angie had her feet on the edge of the deck. Her back bent backward, her head pointed toward the parking lot.

  Angie slowly looked up and saw the corpse laying on the deck next to Park. The corpse groaned, then slid toward Angie.

  Angie gasped and time began to speed up. “Inside!” she yelled as the corpse plummeted toward her.

  Dalton and Maylee scrambled off the deck and into the apartment. Angie leaned to one side, doing her best to avoid the falling corpse. Her wrist, wet with rain, slipped in Park's grip. He clutched tighter, his knuckles turning white.

  Moaning and reaching, the corpse bounced off Angie's shoulder and fell to the truck below. Angie heard the windshield shatter.

  Park grunted and pulled Angie toward him. Angie reached up with her free hand and grabbed the edge of the deck doorway. Time returned to normal.

  Then the deck broke free of the wall.

  Angie screamed and pulled herself into the apartment. Park, still clutching her wrist, began falling. Angie spun and grabbed Park's arm with both hands. She put her foot up on the door frame to brace herself. The deck crashed into the truck beneath Park. The side windows of the truck exploded, shooting glass out to either side.

  Angie's back strained. Park kicked at the wall, trying to get traction. The wood of the ruined deck shifted below, hunks of it falling away from the truck. The corpses of Uncle Bobby and the woman in the closet appeared underneath. Bobby's face was split from his fall and the woman's legs were broken. They moaned, gargling in the rain, and reached for Park. Their fingers scraped the bottom of his boots.

  “Shit!” Park said, kicking at the corpses and trying again and again to get a foothold. His boots slipped off the wet brick of the wall and dangled back over the corpses.

  “Hold on!” yelled Angie. She pulled as hard as she could. Park inched up, but not enough. And not nearly fast enough.

  “Kids!” Angie yelled. “Help!”

  Maylee and Dalton rushed up behind her. Maylee grabbed hold of Park's arm. Angie felt cold sweat as Maylee's hands brushed hers and knew how scared Maylee was. Dalton grabbed hold of Angie's waist.

  Angie readjusted her foot on the inside of the door frame. Despite her nap in the car, she was shaking from exhaustion. Her back ached. Her knee burned.

  She drew in a breath. “Pull!” she yelled. She and the kids pulled. Park moved upward, more steadily than before. Then he stopped. Suddenly he seemed twice as heavy.

  Angie strained her eyes downward, not wanting to bend forward and lose any of the lift they had gained. “Shit!” she yelled.

  Uncle Bobby was dangling from Park's left leg. He moaned and bit at Park's boot.

  “Fucker!” Park yelled, kicking at Bobby with his right boot.

  Park kicked again, harder than before. The motion sent a shudder up his arm and into Angie, Dalton and Maylee. Maylee's grip slipped off. Park dropped several inches. Angie's back pulled hard and Dalton dug his arms into Angie's waist.

  “Shit!” yelled Park. He dropped closer to the corpses below. Bobby tried to bite him farther up the leg. Park's kicks were the only thing keeping the corpses at bay. The woman from the closet could not stand on her broken legs. She reached up, her bloody fingers grasping at Park. The legless corpse from the truck bed was climbing over the roof of the truck. Angie's whole body shook. She knew she couldn't hold on much longer.

  “Sorry!” yelled Maylee. She reached past Angie's hands and grabbed hold of Park's arm. “Pull!” she yelled.

  All three of them pulled. Angie's muscles ached. She strained as hard as she could. She pushed her foot against the door frame so hard the thin metal of the frame bent.

  Park gave Bobby one last hard kick to the forehead. Bobby grunted, blood spattering from his mouth, then let go.

  Angie and the kids heaved upward. Park rose to the lower edge of the doorway. He grabbed the edge, his fingernails clawing at the carpet, and pulled himself the rest of the way up. Maylee and Dalton let go. Angie let go, almost falling over backward.

  Park stood up. He spun and slammed the glass door shut. “Fuck me backwards!” he said, panting into the glass.

  “You okay?” said Angie, her back and knee aching.

  “Yeah.” Park nodded, then turned to look at Angie and the kids. “You guys okay?”

  Maylee and Dalton nodded. “Yeah,” said Angie.

  Park nodded. Angie walked over to the glass and looked down. The truck was destroyed beyond any hope of driving.

  Park saw what she was looking at and smirked. “So much for the truck, I guess.”

  “Looks that way,” said Angie.

  They fell silent, staring at the truck. A soft scratching noise wafted through the apartment. Scritch-scritch-scritch.

  Angie looked around, stepping away from the glass door. “What is that?”

  Park looked around. Maylee and Dalton looked around. Scritch-scritch-scritch.

  Angie's back went taut. “Shit,” she whispered “The door.”

  Everyone listened intently. Scritch-scritch-scritch. The noise was coming from the front door. From the hallway beyond.

  Angie put a finger to her lips and slowly walked through the living room, toward the foyer. Park slipped the rifle off his shoulder and followed. Maylee and Dalton brought up the rear.

  Slowly, they all crept into the foyer. Scritch-scritch-scritch, went the noise behind the door. It was low, near the bottom. Angie put her hand on the handle and looked back at Park. Park nodded and readied the rifle.

  Scritch-scritch-scritch.

  Angie drew in a breath and opened the door.

  The corpse of an old woman was on her knees in the hallway. The woman they'd seen earlier, in the open apartment down the hall. She'd been eating the man's liver.

  Angie pulled back, ready to run or fight. But the corpse stayed where she was, scratching at the carpet just inside the door. She moaned, softly. There were many rings on the woman's hand. She was wearing an expensive-looking top and had long dangling earrings. Angie wondered what the old woman had been dressing up for, what she'd been about to do with her husband, before the death plague hit and she ate his liver instead.

  “Come on, guys,” said Angie, turning around and motioning for Maylee and Dalton to back up. “Let's go.”

  She led her kids back into the living room. She sat them down on the couch and looked back to the foyer. Park stared down at the old woman. He rubbed his face with one hand, then aimed the gun down on her.

  He paused, then sighed.

  “That's two,” he said, softly.

  Then fired.

  Five

  Ella twisted back and forth in a free chair in the Communications Office. The breakroom to her left was crammed full of Keepers, all talking nervously. Ella ignored them, trying to focus on the relative quiet of the room she was in. She stared at the screens, dials and buttons. She understood none of them. She'd never cared too. Now, she wished desperately she did. She wished she could use them to find Lori. She'd set Lori free and then they'd get out of this zoo. This place Gregory had built. Stepdad.

  She was still trembling. The look that teenage boy had given her, kneeling before the freshly-killed body of his father. The raw, bleak hate in his eyes.

  You're dead, bitch.

  Caleb sat a few chairs down. He clicked switch after switch, changing the screens to different camera views around the zoo. Every so often a camera would catch a visitor, sometimes whole families, who'd been trapped in the zoo overnight. Some huddled together, some argued with each other. All looked scared and angry.

  “How could we?” Caleb asked, staring at the screens. “How could we forget all these people?”

  “We were distracted by the things outside,” said Shelley,
leaning against a chair across the room. She chewed at her nails and tapped her foot. Ella thought she looked scared.

  “But what do we do now?” said Caleb, turning to face her.

  “Nothing,” said Shelley, dropping her hand and glaring at him. “We're only making it worse. They're trapped in here? So are we. We'll leave well enough alone and wait all this crap out.”

  Caleb shook his head and turned back to the screens. “No. We need to get everyone together. Pool our resources. Help. Something.”

  Lee stepped up, still holding the tranquilizer rifle. “Are you nuts? You can't trust these people. You saw what happened.”

  “Please Lee, shut up,” said Caleb, gritting his teeth. He didn't look at Lee, but Ella saw his back tense. “I'd rather not talk with the murderer right now.”

  “Don't you dare!” said Lee, pacing and gripping the rifle. “Don't you fucking dare! He attacked us. We're Keepers, Caleb. Keepers stick together.”

  “The man was scared, Lee.”

  “The man was a bully! A goddamned bully who thought he could yell and threaten things into his way. He needed to be put in his place!”

  “I said shut up, Lee!” yelled Caleb with a force that surprised Ella. Caleb turned to glare at Lee. Lee fell quiet and stepped back. Caleb slowly turned back to the screens. He reached over and flipped a switch. The screens switched to cameras placed outside the zoo. Each one showed corpses. “We’ll let the cops sort it out,” said Caleb after a moment.

  Shelley started pacing. “I doubt the cops are coming, honey.”

  “Somebody, then,” said Caleb. “Someone in authority.”

  “We're in authority,” said Lee, quietly.

  Caleb ignored him. Ella stood from her chair and stepped over to Caleb. She watched the corpses on the screens wander and reach at nothing. “How did Stepdad get in?” she said.

  “Hmm?” said Caleb, turning to face her.

  “Gregory, I mean,” said Ella. “He got in the zoo after the things outside had surrounded us. How did he do it?”

  Caleb sighed. “He got lucky. Watch.”

  Caleb turned back to the instruments. He flipped through cameras until he found one that only showed a small group of corpses, four or five at the most. Ella watched them for a moment, almost entranced by their jerking movements and silent chewing mouths. After a moment, the corpses dispersed, some distracted by something off screen, some just carried away by their own jerking. For maybe twenty seconds the street in front of the camera was empty. Then, more corpses stumbled into view. Some the same as before, some new.

  “See,” said Caleb. “Those things just stumble around all the time. I sat up all last night, looking for a back door we could get out through.”

  Ella nodded, imagining escape. The cool air on her face.

  “But,” Caleb continued, “every time I'd find a place like this, a small break in the corpses, new ones would fill in the gap long before we could have ever made it there. We'd have no way of knowing which doors were safe before we got to one and opened it. And even then, we'd maybe only have seconds to open it and get out. And once we were out, those things would just close in from every side.”

  Ella nodded, watching the corpses.

  Caleb flipped to another camera, then back to the first one. “So it's almost impossible for us to get out that way. But, if you wanted to get in, you'd only have to hide from those things and wait for a gap. You could rush through one of those openings and have the door open and shut before they could get you.”

  “So that's what Gregory did?” Ella asked.

  Caleb nodded. “Yeah.”

  “How do you know for sure?”

  Caleb sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I saw it.”

  “What?”

  “After your dad called last night, I went back through the camera recordings. I saw him sneak in with your sister.”

  “I want to see it.”

  “Ella, there's nothing to see.”

  “I want to see it.” Ella stepped closer, using her best insistent face. “Please.”

  Caleb sighed, looking at her for several seconds. “Fine. Hold on.”

  He spun in his chair and fiddled with some knobs and switches. One of the screens changed to a fast-moving blur of images. Corpses stumbled in and out of frame, so fast and jerky it would have been comical if things were different. Ella quickly realized she was seeing a recording from the middle of last night, going by at high speed.

  “It'll take a moment,” said Caleb watching the screen.

  Ella nodded, watching the images race by. After another minute, a different blur rushed across the screen, toward the zoo. Caleb clicked something on the panel and the image froze. He clicked again and it reversed. Then it paused, showing a single frame of empty street just outside one of the back doors into the zoo. Ella knew corpses were hiding just out of frame, unseen by the camera, but the single image gave the impression that none of this had happened.

  Caleb turned back to face her, leaving the image frozen on the screen. “Now, Ella, this is...”

  “What the hell's that?” said Lee, stepping up and gesturing at one of the other screens. Ella turned to look. Caleb and Shelley followed.

  The camera showed the outside of Zoo Bites, the zoo restaurant. The Keepers who manned it stood outside. A group of visitors surrounded them, gesturing and telling. The Keepers looked like they were struggling to remain calm. A few of them had already started yelling back.

  “Sons of bitches,” said Lee. “Those sons of bitches are trying to take over the Bites.”

  “What the hell do you mean `take over'?” said Caleb, stepping over to face Lee. “It's theirs as much as ours. We should be sharing with them.”

  Lee turned to Caleb. Ella could see his eyes. They reminded her of a dog she'd seen once just after it was hit by a car. It had happened right in front of her. The dog was injured badly, injured beyond living, but it hung on for several minutes. And while it did, the pain in its eyes gave it a fury and rage Ella had never seen in a living thing before. That dog's eyes then were Lee's eyes now. His eyes scared her.

  “There's no sharing with those people,” said Lee. “They will take and take unless you keep them in line. That's where we come in. We're Keepers. We keep.” He nodded to Caleb, then turned and started toward the door leading out into the zoo.

  “Where the hell do you think you're going, Lee?” said Caleb.

  Lee stopped, turning back. “To stop them. To save the Bites. We run this zoo, not them. If we let them have their way, we'll have chaos, looting. More death. And you know damned good and well what dead bodies mean now! Are you coming to help or not?”

  Caleb sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “This is crazy. Shelley, help me out here. This is crazy, right?”

  Shelley held up her hands and stepped back. “Don't drag me into this. I say we just ride things out here. Let the outside do whatever the fuck it wants.”

  Caleb shot her a look. “Fine. Tom, is this crazy? Tom?”

  He stopped, looking around. “Tom?”

  Ella looked around. They all looked around. Tom was nowhere in the room. Ella tried to remember when she last saw him. Had he even been in the room this whole time?

  “Where the hell is he?” said Caleb, walking to the breakroom. He shook his head and turned back. “Tom?”

  “Use your thing,” said Shelley, pointing to Caleb's belt.

  Caleb looked down at his belt, then pulled off a small handheld communicator. Like a walkie-talkie, only much more expensive-looking. Stepdad had been proud of those as well. He insisted Ella not call them walkie-talkies. They looked like walkie-talkies to Ella.

  “What's Tom's frequency?” said Caleb, turning a small dial in the top on the communicator.

  “957, I think,” said Shelley.

  “We're wasting time,” said Lee, sighing and adjusting the tranquilizer rifle on his shoulder.

  “Just hold on for one fucking moment, Lee,” said Caleb, stil
l turning the dial. He stopped and held the communicator to his mouth. He clicked and held down a button. “Tom? Tom? You there?”

  He released the button and they all paused, listening.

  Nothing.

  Caleb clicked the button again. “Tom? Do you hear me?” He released the button.

  Nothing.

  Caleb growled to himself and walked back to the bank of screens and dials. He switched the screen showing the Zoo Bites to another camera. Then another, then another. All showed different animals or visitors. No Tom.

  Caleb sighed and clicked quickly through camera after camera. Images flew by so quickly Ella barely had time to register any of them.

  Caleb stopped and slapped his palm on the panel. He lifted the communicator back up and clicked it. “Tom? Goddammit, Tom?” He released the button, sighing.

  “Nothing?” said Lee.

  “Nothing,” said Caleb. “I went through all the cameras too.”

  “Not all of them,” said Shelley.

  “What?” said Caleb.

  “You didn't do the one right outside,” said Shelley.

  “Right outside where?”

  “Right outside here. Outside this office.”

  Caleb blinked, looking back to the screens. Ella knew Shelley was right. There was a camera just outside the office door. They rarely used it. Usually it was easier to just open the door and look outside.

  “If he was right outside why wouldn't he just come in?” said Caleb. He turned to look at Shelley. They all fell quiet.

  “Dammit,” said Lee. “Again with the time wasting. I'll just go open the door and see.” He turned and started for the door.

  “Stop!” said Caleb, holding up a hand. Lee stopped.

  Caleb turned to the screens and put his hand on the controls for the camera. Lee stepped up and looked at the screens. Shelley followed. Ella stayed in the back but kept her eyes locked on the screens.

  Caleb clicked a control and a screen switched to the view just outside the building. There was the familiar walkway. There was the familiar large tree which the walkway had been built around.