Decaying Humanity

by James Barton

  I didn’t have to kill him. I should have, but dammit, who was I to make that choice for him? I held the shaking pistol up, trying to decide. I just couldn’t do it. He unlocked the gate and stepped out onto the street. He closed and reset the lock and walked over, standing across from me through the bars. He stood beside the two hungry monsters. They were still reaching and clawing for me. He looked at them and then turned to me smiling. “It’s almost peaceful.”

  “I’ll miss you,” I said with tears welling up.

  Harvey reached through the bars and extended his machete handle first. “Take good care … of her.” I took the machete and my lip starting to quiver.

  “I will.”

  Harvey made a two finger salute from his eyebrow and then turned and walked into the night. I stood there and watched as he disappeared down the street. Then, he was gone. I unsheathed my own machete and held one in each hand—their weight felt good. I squinted angrily at the two flailing men in front of me. “Goodbye friend,” I said and brought down a blade for each of them. The blow split their skulls, bringing them crashing onto the pavement. Then, I truly was alone in the night.

  Chapter 9: Hunters

  There I was, lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to process what had happened two nights ago. The room was hot and humid and the cheap drapes were slightly illuminated from the moonlight. There was no sound of jingling locks coming from outside tonight. We had thrown an ice machine on its side against the gate. I would imagine that is why the thinker hadn’t shown up to mess with the lock. Damn thing was probably smart enough to realize that the gate was now no longer an option. I wondered what it would do next. A visualization of it using a blow torch to melt the bars made me chuckle to myself.

  I felt lost and the days had passed oddly disjointed without Harvey around. His turning wasn’t the only thing that troubled me.

  We had to cut back on our rations. My stomach growled from the measly two meals of a granola bar and cereal. The buckets of water we used to catch rain water had run dry and the water cooler only held about four gallons left. We needed food or we would simply die, but what crimes would we have to commit to acquire it? I wasn’t ready to kick in someone’s door like John had done with us. As I was stabbed with a hunger pain, I wondered, how long until I was willing to kill innocent people to live?

  We were being hunted by a zombie that thinks. There were raiders from the Allmart that were just attacking everyone and it was only a matter of time before they came for us. We had to act, but I couldn’t think of an action that would result in a happy ending.

  There was a light tapping on my door.

  “Come in,” I said.

  The door opened and I could barely make out the figure in the dark. The doorway was wrapped in shadows even tighter than my moonlit tinged room. Somehow, without seeing, I already knew who it was.

  “Can I join you?” Shay asked timidly.

  “Of course, what’s wrong?” I asked as my mind ran through hundreds of scenarios for this late visit.

  “I can’t sleep,” she said. She crawled onto my bed passing through a single sliver of moonlight that shone through the curtained window. It revealed her slim figure barely disguised by a thin white undershirt and tight black shorts. As she glided across the tangled sheets, I could feel the heat of her body as she curled up next to me. I struggled to figure out the right move. Should I try to hold and console her, or keep my distance and sit up talking?

  She grabbed my right arm and pulled it around her as she lay beside me, gently resting her head on my chest. “I can’t believe he’s out there somewhere, all alone,” she said quietly.

  She faintly smelled of chlorine and sweat, but beneath that was the unmistakable scent of a woman. Even though the batteries in my lamp had died days ago, I could envision every part of her as she huddled close to me.

  “I know, he made the choice and I just couldn’t shoot him,” I said. While we talked my body was responding to her touch in the most inappropriate way.

  “I still can’t help but think that it’s my fault. If I never went for that truck, he might be cracking jokes with us right now.”

  “I never heard him crack a joke,” I responded.

  “True, but still.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. Who knows what could have happened if we tried to walk back without that truck?”

  There was a pause in the conversation and she simply squeezed me tighter. She looked up at me, her eyes sparkling in the near darkness. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but I’m just so happy your car broke down that day.”

  “Me, too. It has only been a short time, but I just feel … that you are worth fighting for,” I swallowed as I felt my comment may have been too much.

  Shay leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. She pulled back for a second and I just looked into her eyes. “Shay I think I…” I started.

  “I can’t wait for you anymore,” she interrupted.

  “What?” I said before being caught off guard as she grabbed me in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “I guess you feel the same way,” she remarked. The tone of her voice and that devilish grin told me she wasn’t just here to talk. In one smooth motion, she sat up, pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor behind her, revealing the perfect shape of her smooth breasts in the dim light. I said nothing … I was done talking.

  The next two days went surprisingly well. Very few zombies had shown up and I started to wonder if, possibly, things were going to settle down. I watched the fence uneasily, expecting to see Harvey reaching in. As we looked at the nearly empty rucksack, we discussed leaving or going scavenging. The incident with Harvey had made everyone wary of leaving the compound. We would have to do something tomorrow, but I couldn’t imagine any places that hadn’t already been raided or defended. I wasn’t ready to hurt innocent people, at least, not yet.

  There were no forms of entertainment to be had, so Shay and I made use of our newfound hobby, ironically in a cheap motel. I don’t think I had ever had so much sex in my life. If this was how things were going to be during the apocalypse, I could stay here forever.

  “We have to find food and I don’t even know where to start,” I said to Pablo and Desmond. I was standing in the hallway and I could see the nearly empty case of cereal. My rucksack had deflated like a balloon with only a handful of items remaining.

  “This is getting really old. We need something more permanent,” Desmond said.

  Pablo made a remark I didn’t understand and we both looked at him with frustration. He made a gesture of putting things into the ground and then holding something over them. We didn’t quite get it and he sighed. Then he bent over and made his hand rise from the carpet, he picked something from it and pretended to eat it.

  “A farm!” Desmond shouted. Pablo smiled, probably assuming we figured it out.

  “Ding ding ding, I think you won Desmond!” I said.

  “Is it a new car?” he chuckled.

  “A farm would be good,” Desmond said. “It would need defense, some land, and it needs to be secluded. We could find a van or small bus and us it as our sleeping quarters for protection from nighttime zeds.”

  “I know a place,” Shay said as she walked up. “There are tons of areas of just woods a few miles up. We just cut our way into the woods, chop down some trees and fortify the area. Then we start planting and hunting.”

  “That’s actually not a bad idea,” I said. “No one goes looking to loot and rob people in the woods; they wouldn’t even know we were there. Not only that, but zombies are most concentrated in the cities. They would be almost non-existent there.”

  “Hey, Jim, I need your help real quick, the shelf fell off the wall in my room,” Shay said.

  I left the group to help her, but found that her shelf was still firmly bolted to the wall.

  “Lock the door,” she said while taking off her shirt.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  We
continued our conversation, after our activities.

  “So you really think the woods are the place to be?” I asked while lying under the white sheets.

  “It makes the most sense, as long as we could make it defensible. Using a vehicle to sleep in at night is a great idea. That is until we can build something better. I mean, we cut out a clearing, plant some seeds and catch rabbits.”

  “Rabbits?”

  “Yeah, I had a friend who raised them for the meat. You just build them a cage that sits on the ground and move it around every day so they can eat the grass. They multiply and bam, you got meat.”

  “Just like that?” I asked.

  “Sure, I guess. I mean it’s worth a shot right?”

  “We could even build a perch up in a tree. It would give us a vantage point,” I said.

  “I think if we could pull this off, we could just wait out the disease. Everything might go back to normal one day,” she said.

  “I don’t know if I want normal anymore,” I said and smiled at her.

  “You know where we have to go to get the supplies, right?” she asked.

  “Outdoorsman stuff, seeds, fencing, nails, stuff like that? Yeah of course we just go to Allmart … oh wait, you can’t be serious,” I said.

  There was a firm knock on the door. “Jim, get out here,” Desmond called through the door.

  I shrugged at her and crawled out of bed. I threw my clothes on and met him in the hallway. He pointed out of the hole in the boarded up window. Outside was a military Humvee with a chain attached to our gate. “Stop them!” I yelled out while running to the front door.

  “Stop what?” Desmond asked. He glanced out the window and then quickly followed me. “They weren’t doing that earlier.”

  “Stop, stop! I’m here!” I shouted while waving my arms at them. One of them took a shot at me that missed and went sailing into the alleyway. I dropped to the ground and I could hear a cease fire order called.

  “Dammit, Coffman, ceasefire! I’m going to take your weapon and force you to engage with a spoon from now on,” the leader said to the shaken troop. The Humvee was revving its engine and the thick chains were wrapped all around the gate.

  “Stop, don’t mess with our gate, I’ll let you in!” I called out.

  “Told you they were assholes,” Desmond whispered.

  “We caught word of you harboring our patient. We are looking for a girl named Tiffany Mason,” the military leader said as he held up the picture we already had.

  “I’ve seen the picture and I’m sorry, but that girl is not here,” I said.

  “I keep hearing that, but you see … we had a man tell us you did. He ran into our roadblock just past the superstore. It seems he used to live here.”

  “Todd, that rat bastard,” Desmond whispered in frustration.

  “I would hate to have to come in there by force.”

  I stood up slowly and motioned for Desmond to do the same. We pushed the ice machine out of the way and opened the gate. The army leader stepped in and a few of his men followed. The rest of the soldiers stood watch by the truck, nervously looking for attackers.

  “You see, we aren’t some evil organization everyone makes us out to be. I had a job just like you before this all went down. The only difference is, I showed up to work every day, while you all started stealing and shooting each other,” he said and walked towards the building.

  “Easy for you to say when someone is paying you with food, shelter, and weapons,” I said dryly. He glared at me for a moment before beaming a fake smile and pushing past me.

  Pablo stepped out and looked around somewhat confused.

  “You two inside, search the place. As for you, I brought a translator this time. Sanchez, tell our hombre what we are looking for and let me know what he says.”

  The soldier moved with a look of subdued agitation and the translator began speaking to Pablo. Private Sanchez finished his conversation with the words “chica?”

  Pablo nodded, “Si.”

  “Sir, he said he has seen the girl,” Sanchez reported.

  “Well, find out where.”

  Sanchez started asking him questions and Pablo looked around before answering. Pablo nodded to the soldier with a look of pride. Hearing those unknown words still sent a chill up my spine. It wasn’t Shay, but she looked close enough that they would probably take her away from me anyways. When they found out it wasn’t her they would probably have already killed her.

  “He said the man with glasses drove away with her,” Sanchez said.

  The leader threw his hand up, “Worthless! That wasn’t the girl at all.”

  He started to reach for the doorknob and it abruptly burst open as his soldiers piled out.

  “Well?”

  “She’s not here,”

  “Is that a real gun?” Peter asked. “I had a real gun once, but it shot lasers and you had to load batteries in it.”

  “That’s great kid. Sir, can we go?” the soldier asked, clearly aggravated.

  “Do you think the tooth fairy turned into a zombie? I think so, because I lost a tooth and she didn’t show up.”

  “Yes, Carter you may report back to the …”

  “Then again I don’t really need money. If she wasn’t a zombie and she did bring me a present, I think it would be a flashlight or a sandwich, or maybe a flashlight that makes sandwiches.”

  “Report back to the truck,” the leader cut in.

  “Thank you,” the soldier said while speed-walking away.

  “Alright, pack it up everyone, the girl isn’t here,” the captain commanded.

  “What girl? You mean Shay?” Peter asked. I cringed.

  The captain stopped in his tracks, but the rest of his men just kept walking. “Hmm, maybe I finally got something here. Who is Shay, little boy?”

  “Shay is my new mom.”

  “New mom? Does she live here with you?”

  “Yeah, she just had a baby named Piper, he’s five years old too. We live in this mansion and that’s our pool. All the kids are jealous of my pool. Every day we ride go-carts and sometimes we sneak candy into the movie theater. She’s a ninja like me.”

  “I’m done,” he said shaking his head in annoyance.

  The captain rounded up his men into the Humvee and looked back at us disdainfully. “I really want to find this girl. The sooner I find her the sooner I can get out of this hell hole you call a town.”

  “Wait, captain,” Desmond called out. “Do you guys have any food?”

  “We sure do. Alright boys, let’s go home!” The Humvee roared into motion and I looked back at the gate where the chains were still attached.

  “Wait!” I screamed. It was too late. The Humvee snapped the fence off its hinges as if it were held together by twigs. The vehicle came to a stop a moment after the fence clattered onto the street.

  “Oh, the Army apologizes for that mistake,” he said from the driver’s seat. “You should be receiving a compensation check from us in three to four months,” he said sarcastically while driving off dragging the gate bouncing behind him.

  “Told you … assholes,” Desmond said.

  I just stood there with my hand resting on the top of my head in disbelief.

  “We’ll be okay, Jim,” Desmond said patting me on the back.

  “I fix,” Pablo said and went to grab his tools.

  “What happened to the gate?” Shay asked, coming up from behind us.

  “Where were you?” I asked.

  “I stepped out back for a minute. I’m not a fan of big brother,” she responded.

  “Are you that girl?” I asked.

  “You don’t trust me?” she asked offended.

  “I do trust you. I just … just if you ever had a secret, I hope you would trust me enough to know that I would never leave you. No matter what.”

  That night we didn’t indulge ourselves like we had been recently. She lay in the bed facing away from me and I stared at the ceiling. Why wouldn�
�t she just tell me if she was wanted from the Army? I would protect her from danger, but I needed to know the truth. Why would she hide it from me? I thought about this the whole night and it was almost as though she could feel my concern, like it was wafting in the air. She tossed and turned until I finally fell asleep.

  Everyone was on edge as things seemed to get worse. Each day turned to night and night into day as the lack of food, boredom, and fear began to take its toll on our ragged little family. We had all gathered that day for lunch. A single granola bar, a spoonful of whey protein, and a snack size bag of chips was split between five people. That night had been the first time we didn’t gather around the card table for dinner. My stomach hurt and I knew tomorrow we would have to choose what kind of people we were.

  Pablo had done his best to repair the gate with a couple dissected wooden pallets from the back lot. It would hold out zombies, but anyone with a hammer or truck could have it apart in a minute. Beneath all of my worries, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that Shay was hiding something that could kill us all.

  Shay and I retired to our room for another night of silence. Desmond, who was holding down his end of the fort, better than I, had taken up the night shift voluntarily.

  “I can’t sleep. I’m going to check on Desmond,” I whispered.

  Shay didn’t respond and instead made a soft grunt and rolled over, stealing nearly all the sheets. I effortlessly made my way out of the pitch black room. My world had grown much smaller and I knew my way around the motel in the dark better than any other place in the light. I got to the hallway and peeked out the window. I couldn’t see Desmond, so I made my way outside.

  When I entered the courtyard, I could see the moon reflecting off the rippled surface of the pool which stirred slightly from a gentle breeze. Desmond was nowhere to be seen.

  “Dez! Desmond!” I called out in a raised whisper. I walked over to the fence and surveyed the area. I called out to him again, and this time I heard his voice in the distance.

  “I almost had it, I chased that thinker. It led me into an ambush. I killed six before I finally got away. Damn this disappeared on me,” he yelled from across the street.