Alone No More

by Philbrook, Chris

  “Oh my guh...” It was only slightly louder than a whisper, but the bitten girl heard her. So did the third girl. When they both moved Deb realized that the first girl bitten was eating the neck and throat of her friend. The other girl, the third girl, was helping devour her as well, eating from the stomach. Deb could see the dark circle of blood covering the sheets of the bunk now. Now that it was too late. The two dead cannibals turned and started to rise off their bed, reaching up for Deb.

  Deb screamed as long, and as loudly as she could. The room became hysterical in the blink of an eye. The only light coming into the room was through the window, and that light was the orange haze of the streetlight down at the corner. The dim amber glow didn’t illuminate the room enough for the women to figure out who Deb was screaming at until the two zombies had done more damage. Some of the girls rushed over to help Deb, thinking she was hurt, and inadvertently stepped into the path of the two undead. They were tackled to the floor from behind and savaged like a predator’s prey. Their screams joined Deb’s, throwing the room even further into chaos.

  Jenny, the captain, was finally up and screaming for silence, “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Finally her roars quieted the room. All that was left was the whimpering of the two freshly murdered girls, and the sickening chewing in the dark. The heavy wet sound of human flesh being torn from a body was there as well. One of the girls reflexively vomited, knowing even in the dark what that sound was.

  By then enough of the girl’s eyes had adjusted to the dark. Kim was pressed against the door her bunk was blocking, knees folded into her chest in a bizarre fetal position. She struggled to draw in every breath, hitching, gasping, trying to stay still, trying to stay silent. Right at her feet, not inches away she watched as the two girls slowly tore away strips of flesh from the girls she’d been talking to just hours before.

  Jenny searched around her for a weapon. There was nothing. The only thing she was the television set on the bureau, so she decided to make that work. With a grunt, she ripped it off the top of the bureau and brought it down heavily on the back of one of the attacking girls. The plastic casing of the TV cracked with the heavy impact against the skull of the zombie. The TV rolled away and propped itself up against the frame of the bed next to them. Jenny skirted the zombie she’d just hit and went for the screen again, to smash with it once more.

  The other girls in the room watched her making her assault, and suddenly built up the courage to join her. They started raining down debris on the heads of the two undead teens, trying to knock them down, trying to kill them. Minutes went on as they repeatedly tried to kill the zombies to no avail. In several cases their makeshift weapons went awry and hit their living allies instead, causing unneeded injuries.

  Finally one of the undead girls went limp, flopping her bloody carcass down on the body of the teenager she’d freshly killed. Once she stopped moving the rest of the girls focused their rage on the remaining zombie. Jenny brought the television down over and over on her head, until all that was left was the heavy glass screen itself. Finally even that shattered, giving the zombie enough time to lunge at one of the girls.

  The monster grabbed a random ankle, sinking her teeth deep into the flesh above the foot. The bite scissored through tendons and ligaments like rubber bands. The unfortunate victim screamed out and collapsed backwards, clutching her ruined foot. All the girls stopped, paralyzed for a second. Just long enough for the zombie to lunge once more at a different target.

  The girl right beside Jenny had turned and knelt to help her fallen teammate. A final, fatal gesture of friendship. The zombie had coiled its legs just enough to propel itself forward, smashing into her target, sending her sprawling headfirst into the corner of a desk. Her head hit harder than her neck could take and with a sickening snap, her skull kicked sideways, finally resting at an impossible angle. Despite dying instantly the zombie bit her several times anyway, tearing into the soft meaty flesh of her hips. There was a sickening sucking sound as a chunk of flesh broke free into the dead girl’s mouth.

  Suddenly there was a flash of something metallic coming down in a wide arc, finishing almost level with the floor. Kim’s fist clutched a nail file, and with a giant haymaker swing she sank four inches of the etched steel deep in the ear of the zombie. The dead girl went limp immediately, and the mouthful of soccer player fell to the floor from her slack mouth, rolling a few feet before coming to a rest against the wall.

  The room was silent again except for the sounds of gasping and wheezing. The surviving girls were trying to catch their breath, shed some of their panic, and gain some sense of safety. Some of them collapsed to the floor, others rushed to the aid of the girl with the bitten ankle. Kim and Deb grabbed each other in a desperate hug and started to sob, trying to make sense of the world and the horror suddenly thrust into their laps. Minutes later everyone was mostly calm again.

  “What the fuck just happened?” One of them asked quietly into the darkness.

  Deb answered meekly from her top bunk, “The girl who was bitten died after we all passed out. She killed one of her friends. I think they killed the third girl. When we all woke up, they got more of us.” She left out the part about her rousing the undead women. There was a pause as everyone considered their situation.

  “We’re dead. We’re all gonna die tonight,” one of the younger girls blurted out suddenly. There was no fear in her voice, just the knowledge of the most likely ending to their story. The girls looked around the room at each other in the dim orange light, feeling sober about their possible fate.

  Jenny tried to motivate her friends as she tried to bandage the destroyed ankle of her moaning teammate, “Look, we need to have a plan here. We have four more dead bodies in here that are gonna sit up shortly, plus one more of us has been bitten, and we all know now how that story ends.” She looked sadly down at her friend as she finished with the tape. “We don’t have much time.”

  Her words could not have been more prophetic. The two girls who had just been murdered began twitching, starting to rouse again to their deathless, murderous state. The third girl, the one who had been killed while the rest were sleeping, slowly sat up on the edge of her bunk blood running thickly from her tattered neck. The girls in the room started to back away, pushing things in front of themselves to put something, put anything in between the new monsters and their bodies. Some of the girls, Kim and Deb included, sprang to the top bunks to get some elevation from the new threats.

  Jenny stood up confidently and looked around her space to find a weapon. The only thing she could see was a heavy wooden chair that was too heavy for her to lift. She grabbed it anyway and put her everything into getting into some form of striking position, but the effort was for naught. Just before she could get the chair to a destructive zenith, her two ravaged undead friends collapsed into her. In a twisted mercy, the heavy chair came down on her head, sending her instantly into unconsciousness. Her two friends ripped her open, and spread her innards without her knowledge.

  Having lost their leader the room became complete anarchy. None of the remaining survivors mounted any form of a sensible defense. Kicking, scratching, screaming, one by one each was beaten, and eaten until they stopped moving. Deb and Kim sat shaking, clutching one another watching on Deb’s top bunk, watching it all happen in slow motion. Even in the faint light coming from the streetlamps they could see the blood stains spreading on the carpet. Soon there was no carpet visible, just a pool of blood running from wall to wall.

  The two friends sat there for what seemed like forever. After their piece of forever the room fell silent. The only sounds the two girls could hear were the crunching, chewing noises coming from the teammates that were slowly resurrecting, one by one. They were outnumbered by the undead in the room in short order. So long as they remained perfectly still, and perfectly silent in the dark, it seemed as if they were safe on the bunk. Both girls felt like divers trapped in shark infested waters.

  They watched in horror
as eventually the center of the room filled with the twisted, mauled shapes of their prior fellow survivors. They stood statue like, waiting for prey to present itself. They cast dark shadows onto the floor from the light of the window. Each shuffled their feet, occasionally bumping into one another, sending a flurry of uncontrolled rage at one another, an almost instinctive violence. These bursts ended quickly though, their true malice was only for the living.

  Deb and Kim kept their hands pressed together tightly all night. Eventually the sun began to rise, illuminating the horror in the room that was obscured by the night. Nearly a score of previously young and vibrant women had been murdered in the room hours prior. Their flesh hung off their bodies in tatters, their throats ripped out, their entrails tossed aside. Some couldn’t even stand on their ruined legs. Some of the girls had broken their own feet kicking at the unstoppable zombies. Those unable to stand crawled in circles, licking the blood smears on the walls and furniture absently. Even the indignity of the trash bin they had been using as a toilet had been knocked over, leaving the raw stench of human waste powerful and thick in the air, partially obscuring the smell of dead bodies.

  Deb and Kim finally saw everything as it was in the dawn light. They saw the end of sanity. Deb started crying. As if controlled by some sadistic, evil puppeteer the zombie women turned on their strings, looking up at the two remaining survivors. They rushed to the bunk, reaching up, clawing, and scratching at their legs and feet. Deb and Kim pressed their bodies as hard as they could against the door the bunk was against, trying to stay as far from the edge and the undead as they could. Their efforts bought them some time, but not their lives.

  One of the zombie women, a girl really, had been wearing a large ring. As she reached up to claw at her prey the ring caught on the sheet, ripping a hole in it. When she reached up again her hand slipped through the hole, catching there. In a confused rage, like a wild animal caught in a trap, the little monster pulled away savagely, tugging the sheets slowly off the bed, one inch at a time. Deb and Kim saw the sheets start to move, and shortly after felt themselves being tugged towards the edge of the bed. They started to scramble, to get off the top of the sheet, but Deb wasn’t fast enough.

  “NOOOOOOooooooo!” Kim screamed like an animal as her best friend stared at her in horror. As the hands got closer to her friend, Deb looked blankly at Kim. Her eyes went wide in fear.

  The captain, Jenny, or what was left of her, was right at the edge of the bed, her long, strong arms reaching further onto the top bunk. Her powerful grip latched onto the ankle of the blonde, and tugged strong. And just like that, Deb’s leg was snared, and she was dragged off the bed like a slab of screaming meat. Her body hit the floor hard face first and her breath was knocked from her. Unable to scream, she kicked and punched until she couldn’t anymore.

  Kim looked over the edge of the bed for a moment after she saw Deb’s struggles cease. They feasted on her. Even as Deb’s body was ripped apart slowly, she had a spasm, and kicked over one of the undead chewing at her calf. The undead girl scrambled back onto her body and bit her savagely in return, almost out of spite, tearing another chunk of skin and muscle clean off.

  This infuriated Kim. She looked around the top of the bunk for a weapon, finding only her tightly balled fists. It would have to do. No one fucked with her best friend like that.

  Kim let loose one bloodcurdling scream in the glowing light of the dawn coming in the window, and leapt from the top bunk. She would kill every one of these monsters, or die trying.

  In the end, she died like her friends did.

  Scared, and screaming.

  December 2010

  Continued

  December 3rd

  I have managed to survive to today despite my earlier attempts to jinx myself. Sometimes, I am stupid. I have been lucky lately though, and have dodged putting the kibosh on myself. I really need to watch what I say. Eventually I WILL say something and regret it.

  Where to start? Let’s talk about the weather Mr. Journal. It’s fucking cold out. I’ve had to turn the heat up a little at night to stay warm. Currently I’ve got the heat on 60 at night, and it seems to be running almost all night. I’m still pretty chilly, but with Otis and pile of blankets, I’ll survive. At this rate, I’ll burn through my fuel supply much faster than I anticipated. I need to keep a good watch on how long my generator’s tank lasts me. I suspect I’ll need to get up to fill it during the night if I keep at the rate I’m going. I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I thought I was good at figuring this shit out too. I’ve been wrong on so many things.

  As you might imagine it has also been cold during the day. Not quite as cold as at night, but still pretty cold. Solid 35 to 40 degrees during the day, dipping down to 20 to 25 degrees at night. It’s only early December too, and if this trend keeps up, February is going to be a motherfucker.

  My thumb is much better, but it’s terribly stiff. I take a couple Ibuprofen for it every 6 hours or so, and that makes it more or less fine. I hate sprains, they take so long to heal and generally just gum up the works while they’re taking their sweet ass time. Whatever I guess! It is what it is and it’s almost all better. At least I didn’t get bitten. Sprains are much less fatal.

  My venison obsession has come to an abrupt halt. I’ve eaten far too much of it already. I set up my makeshift fridge for the meats upstairs in a room that I’m not heating. It stays about 40 degrees all the time, which is just good enough seeing as how it’s all smoked. The meat has kept great for me, but I just over indulged and now I need a break. I have half a mind here one of these early mornings to try and bag some of the turkey I used to see roaming the fields before the shit hit the fan. I actually wonder if the zombies have eaten them? Turkeys can move though, so maybe they’re safe.

  The lake has started to freeze. There’s a fine crust at the edges that’s millimeters thick. In another couple weeks if these temperatures hold there will be a really good freeze going on. Kinda makes the whole island aspect of this place seem pointless eh? I guess it’ll keep vehicles out, but any shambling zombies can just march across the ice once it’s cold enough.

  Speaking of cold enough, I wonder if the zombies will freeze? Is there any body heat being generated inside them? I haven’t seen that many since the temperatures really dropped, so it stands to some reason that they’re all freezing solid out there somewhere. Although it’s strange, because when I shoot them now, they still kinda… ooze blood, which makes no sense at all. All their blood should be fully gelled up inside them.

  This really makes me wonder what the hell is causing all this. A virus? Biological weapons? Is it supernatural? Fucked if I know. I wonder if anyone has found out what’s going on. I’m sure somewhere on some huge military base they’ve got a good idea of the story. Out here in the sticks on campus I don’t know shit beyond my doorstep. Hell I haven’t even been into town in… a very long time.

  I should talk more about my early times here. Before I do that though, I’ll tell you about yesterday and today. Yesterday I finished clearing Auburn Lake Road. There were two houses left on the street, and I got them searched and emptied with no danger involved. Both houses looked to be left exactly as they had if someone was supposed to be coming back. My bet is the residents never made it home “that day.” They’re either holed up and stuck somewhere, or they died. Either way, their shit is now mine.

  Two items came up at the second house that I was unable to retrieve. The people living there were snowmobile enthusiasts. This is a good thing. Sort of. For some reason there was no snowmobile trailer in their yard, so I had no way to get the machines back to campus. I’ll have to wait for snow, and then just drive them back. They had two of them, incidentally. That little find will go a long way towards making winter safer, and more tolerable. The four wheeler is a nice toy, but in really deep snow it’ll struggle. Once I get a trail packed for the snow machines, I’ll be all set to get around in a pretty wide area regardless of the weather.

>   As I said, I didn’t get a whole lot more of use. Blah blah. Today I started to work on the houses on Jones Road. If you’ll recall Mr. Journal I mentioned before that there were nine houses on Jones Road, and the last one is a rather large farmhouse. I’m really hoping that farmhouse has cool shit. I’m saving it for last on this road. Earlier I did three houses on Jones Road. Lather, rinse, repeat. Apparently no one in this neighborhood made it home that day. Most of the houses coming up here have been abandoned. As in, the owners never came home, or they came home and left all their shit. Whatever I guess.

  All three houses were stocked reasonably well. I found a few dead animals in them though, which smelled bad and put me on red alert. I’m always sad when it comes to animals getting hurt or dying. I always make myself feel like there was something I could’ve done. Shitty thing is there WAS something I could’ve done. I could’ve easily checked these houses long ago and rescued these animals. All I had to do was open the doors and let them out. Of course if I had done that, I would be exposed because of dumbass barking dogs. I guess it’s a mixed bag. Dogs scare me. Not like, Adrian is afraid of dogs in that sense. More of a… dogs bark, barks are loud, noise is bad, noise brings zombies, therefore dogs are bad. Plus it’s hard enough to feed myself ongoing. If I had done something about these animals I’d be the Dr. Doolittle of the post zombie apocalypse, and I’d likely be starving myself to save them.

  At any rate, the houses were cleared out of bodies and remaining decent supplies, and that’s the end of the Jones Road story for today Mr. Journal.

  I can rewind a bit here and talk about the early days here on campus. I went back and re-read the entry I put up awhile back talking about my trip back down the grocery store and realized I skipped the most informative part of that time period.