The Demon Dead

by Arthur M Wyatt

  “Get to the point please,” John said anxious to hear her theory about Susan.

  “When most people die the soul leaves the body and the average zombie gets back up. No soul, no brain activity other than what’s essential to exist on instinct. Then you have the demons, and this is where it gets really interesting.”

  “Well,” John said, “what’s the significance?”

  “The significance is I believe the demons are actually just that; evil spirits, inhabiting the bodies of the dead. Occupying the space vacated by the soul.”

  “Keep going,” John answered.

  “They’re more intelligent than the other zombies because they don’t need the brain of their host to think for them. They can think for themselves. They only use the zombie’s body as a vehicle. A way to manipulate the physical world. Something they couldn’t do otherwise because they live in another dimension. At a different frequency. It’s like a secondary infection. First the person dies and becomes a zombie and then, that’s when the demon takes over. They couldn’t exist any other way. They’re just parasites riding the coattails of the initial infection you know. Opportunistic parasites. They saw an opening and went for it,” she paused and took a breath. “John, does this all make sense or do you think I’m crazy?”

  “I don’t know Amy. What about the gomers? What about Susan?”

  “I think the gomers are semi aware because the soul is still inside the body. Trapped. It never left. I don’t know if they know who they are or whatever but I think somehow the consciousness of the zombie and the host person are somehow connected. It's like the zombie is somehow able to access information from that person," she paused and rubbed her eyes. "I don’t know John, maybe the process went screwy and the soul never got a chance to leave. Maybe it's trapped because there was no gap between death and reanimation. No time to leave. Maybe the transition started before the person was actually dead. You know, like Walt's nephew Kyle. He said he never did just die completely. Remember? He said he was laying there sick one second then his eyes popped open and he got up and walked out,” Amy looked at John. “What do you think?” she asked.

  John looked out the front door into the yard and took a deep breath. Then he looked back at Amy.

  “I don’t know. It would explain what happened back their with the homeless guy,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The homeless zombie. He was a gomer right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, when I went over to put him down, he stopped moaning and looked me in the eyes. Amy, he looked at me and nodded as if to let me know it was ok. It was like he wanted me to kill him.”

  “Wow.”

  “It could just be a coincidence, but then again,” John said then paused for a second. “Go get Jimmy and take him to the truck. I’ll be out in a minute. I can’t leave her like this. What if she’s still in there? Here, you take this,” he said handing her the shotgun. “I’ll take the pistol. I want this to be as clean as possible.”

  John took the pistol from her and turned to go back into the kitchen.

  Amy went back upstairs and gathered Jimmy and the few belongings he had and led him to the truck. She sat him in the middle, started the truck, turned on the radio and sat back.

  There was nothing but static. They had tried listening to the radio for some kind of broadcast many times but never heard anything. She pushed search but the display went around the entire FM range and started over again. Then, she switched to AM and pushed seek again. The radio searched for a second then stopped. There was a tone similar to a civil defense alert. She listened.

  Inside the house, John pulled a chair around and sat down backwards in it near Susan. She turned to look at him briefly then turned back to the window.

  “Susan, do you hear me? If you can hear me look at me please,” he pleaded as a tear rolled down his cheek.

  She didn’t look at him.

  “I have to leave, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I always loved you, you know that right?”

  A drop of blood ran out of the corner of her eye and down her face. She turned slightly toward John but before their eyes met she turned back to the window.

  Was this some sign of recognition? He didn’t know but he preferred to think it was. Maybe she was trying to turn to look at him but the zombie regained control and turned away.

  “I’m going to free you now,” he said. “You won’t have to suffer any longer?”

  Another bloody tear left the corner of her eye but she didn’t turn to face him.

  John stood up, raised the pistol to her temple, said a quick prayer and pulled the trigger.

  Outside in the truck, Amy heard the faint gun report over the radio noise. Jimmy didn’t seem to notice.

  Susan fell over to the side and out into the kitchen floor. John felt neither relief nor remorse. He hoped he had sent her on her way. If Amy was right, her soul was free.

  John felt that he had tied up this last loose end. He wanted to take one last look around the house before he left. He stepped back into the foyer and headed up the stairs and into the master bedroom. It was in disarray. The TV was smashed up and lying on the floor, the mirror was broken into a thousand pieces and the bed covers were strewn about the floor.

  He walked into the bathroom and looked down on the counter. What he saw knocked the breath out of him and made the bile rise from his stomach. He leaned over and heaved into the toilet. It felt like someone had kicked him in the gut.

  “Oh God no,” he cried between dry heaves. “Please...no. Oh my God I’m so sorry”

  On the counter were two pregnancy tests. John collapsed to the floor on his back. He felt numb. He reached up and took one of the pregnancy tests off the counter and looked at it again. He threw it into the bedroom and reached for the other one. Both were positive. He lay there staring at the ceiling. Tears streaming down his face.

  Outside Amy became worried and woke Jimmy. Together they went back into the house.

  “You stay right behind me ok?” she told him.

  She walked far enough down the hallway to see into the kitchen. She saw Susan on the floor. Hearing footsteps on the stairs she raised the shotgun.

  “John, is that you?”

  “Yeah,” he answered back weakly.

  She rejoined him in the foyer.

  “Are you ok? What happened?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to talk about ok. Not now.” He put his arms around both of them and led them back outside.

  At the truck he turned to look at the house one last time.

  “Get in,” he told Amy, “ I have one more thing to do.”

  With that he turned and headed for the garage. The side door was locked. He kicked it in and grabbed two containers of charcoal lighter fluid, a box of matches and headed across the yard to go back in the house.

  Amy rolled the truck window down. “What are you doing?” she shouted. “John, what are you doing?”

  He looked back and held up a finger. “One minute,” he said then disappeared into the house.

  He went into the dining room, covered the table, chairs and drapes with lighter fluid then went upstairs into the master bedroom.

  He pulled some of his and Susan’s clothes out of the dresser then opened the closet and grabbed a handful of shirts and pants and tossed them out into the hall.

  John poured more of the lighter fluid on the bed, drapes and furniture. Then standing in the hallway he lit a match and threw it inside.

  The room lit with a whoosh and was quickly blazing. He picked the clothes up off the floor, went back downstairs, and threw them onto the porch. He stepped back inside, lit a match, and threw it into the dining room.

  As the flames erupted he walked to the kitchen and stood over Susan’s body. It was Susan’s body again after all, he thought. Now that she really was gone.

  He poured the remaining fluid onto the lifeless corpse soaking the clothes. He then lit another match and dropped it onto her chest. He t
urned and walked out as the flames engulfed her body.

  He walked past the blazing dining room. Flames shot out the double door, licked at the ceiling of the foyer and came perilously close as he walked by. John seemed not to notice as he stared straight ahead.

  Amy, watching all this unfold from the truck, watched as he emerged from the house. Smoke curled around his head and drifted away as he stepped out onto the porch.

  What an eerily apocalyptic image, Amy thought.

  John gathered the clothes and walked calmly back to the truck. He threw them in the back and leaned on the fender to watch.

  Amy stepped out of the truck and stood beside him. “Why did you do that,” she asked.

  “Pure symbolism... my old life is dead,” he paused. “Amy I hope I did the right thing. It makes it easier.”

  “You did the right thing John. Either way it was the right thing to do.”

  “She loved this house,” he said, “she was always working on it. Painting, putting up wallpaper, working in the yard. This was our dream home,” he took a deep breath and exhaled. “We were going to raise a family here. But now…It’s over.”

  He reached over and pulled Amy closer. She felt warm and comfortable against him. He had been attracted to her from the beginning but had pushed those feelings away even though they had grown over the past couple of days. He would have to figure out in the days and weeks ahead if these feelings were real or just a symptom of the circumstances they found themselves in. Time would tell.

  Flames leapt from the roof as the blaze roared out of control. His dream home had become a funeral pyre.

  Soon the heat became unbearable. They got back in the truck, drove to a park and pulled over in the shade. Jimmy was still asleep.

  John sat staring at the swing set in front of him. He could see in his minds eye the little gomer girl swinging back and forth just like she did when she was still alive.

  Instinctively Amy knew what he was thinking.

  “Thinking about that little girl? At the park?” she asked.

  “Yep,” John said. “I wonder if she’s still there. Still swinging. Waiting on some other kid that will never come to show up and play with her. What if she’s still in there? Like you said. What if that little girl is trapped inside? No way to get out. Totally at the mercy of the zombie. Just along for the ride. Just waiting for the zombie to die so she can leave. Can you imagine the terror?”

  “I think everything happens for a reason John. Even all of this. We can’t understand now but maybe we will later on. We just have to have faith,” she said. “It’s all in God’s hands now.”

  “I envy your faith Amy. I really do but I think God is just watching at this point. We’re on or own.”

  “Maybe, and maybe not…” Amy said. “What now?”

  “We need to find a safe place to hide. Somewhere that is easily defended,” he answered.

  “What about Fort Sumter?” she said.

  “Wow,” John said looking at her with a broad grin, “why didn’t I think of that?”

  “We could find a boat. Load it with supplies and go there until we can figure out what to do.”

  “Right,” John said, “we’re closest to the marina at the point. We’ll go there first.”

  “Sounds good to me,” she replied. “You don’t think any zombies or demons could be there do you?”

  “No, I don’t think so. How would they get there?”

  “You’re probably right,” she said.

  “There’s a grocery store just up ahead. We can stop there and load up on food and water,” John said as he got out of the truck and opened three cans of tuna.

  Jimmy sat up and rubbed his eyes.

  “Hey buddy, have a good nap?” John said

  “I’m hungry,” he answered.

  John handed Jimmy a can of tuna and a plastic fork.

  “Drink the juice, we don’t want to waste anything ok,” John told him.

  “Where are we going?” Jimmy asked.

  “Fort Sumter,” Amy answered, “ever been there?”

  “Once with school when I was in second grade. It was ok. Are there other kids there?”

  “I don’t think so. There aren’t many people left Jimmy,” he said sadly.

  Jimmy looked at him, then shrugged his shoulders and dug into the tuna.

  “Oh,” Amy said, “while you were in the house I tried the radio again. There’s a steady tone on AM. Lots of static though. It sounded like a civil defense alarm maybe.”

  She reached over and turned the radio on. The tone was still there. They listened for a few minutes and turned it off. Amidst the static John thought he could hear a distant voice but it was impossible to tell for sure.”

  “What do you think it is?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure but it has to be coming from somewhere. The problem is, there is no telling where. I don’t think it’s anywhere nearby. We need a better radio. Like they have aboard Navy ships for instance.”

  “We’ll keep checking it. You never know,” Amy said.

  “Right.”

  After they finished their tuna, John started the truck and pulled out into the road. The street was littered with debris and abandoned cars.

  Bodies were strung out beside the cars and on the sidewalks.

  “John, why do you think there are so few survivors?”

  “I don’t know. I think there were a lot more in the beginning but they were attacked early on and killed. The first day I saw a lot of survivors but by that evening there were very few.”

  “Uh oh, look,” she said pointing.

  A zombie in a police uniform, pistol in hand, wandered around two police cruisers partially blocking the road. A second zombie lay on the pavement underneath the open door of one of the cars. They were Mt. Pleasant police officers.

  John stopped the truck and grabbed the shotgun, ready to jump out and shoot. The zombie on the ground struggled to its feet, walked toward them and tumbled back to the ground. They watched it but it didn’t move again. Then, surprising them all, the second cop put his gun back in its holster then started waving them forward.

  “Gomer cops,” John said shaking his head.

  “Amazing,” Amy added.

  Slowly, they drove around the body of the cop lying in the road. As they neared the second officer he stepped in front of the truck and held up his hand.

  “Here,” John said passing the shotgun to Amy.

  The police officer’s gomer stumbled around to the side of the vehicle and walked up to the driver’s side window. John rolled the window up six inches from the top. The gomer leaned over, grunted something unintelligible, then touched the bill of his hat with his index finger and waved for them to keep going.

  John gave a quick salute, pulled around the cruisers, and continued on.

  “Wow,” John said, “that was awesome.”

  “Awesome? Are you crazy ?” Amy said.

  “Yep,” John said grinning. “You have to admit… that was pretty cool.”

  “Pretty scary,” she answered.

  They drove on to the grocery store. The parking lot was strewn with carts and empty cars. Some of them were burned. The front glass of the store was still intact except for the doors. Cans and boxes of food littered the sidewalk. The store had been briefly looted but it look like who-ever was doing the looting had to leave in a hurry. Two bodies lay half in and half out of the store. They were face down and it wasn’t apparent weather they had been zombies or not. More bodies were inside the store.

  “How are we going to go about this?” Amy asked.

  John thought for a moment then turned the truck around and backed it up over the sidewalk into the glass causing it to shatter and explode inward.

  “Ok, what’s the plan?” she asked.

  “Jimmy you stay in the truck. Amy get the shotgun. We’re going to fill the back of the truck with stuff. We’ll only take things that will last a long time. Canned goods, dry stuff like rice, beans, toilet
paper, plastic plates and forks. We’ll need matches, batteries and charcoal. The instant light kind. Ready?”

  “Ready when you are,” she shot back.

  “Ok, you stay here by the back of the truck while I check the store out before we start loading. We don’t want any surprises. If you see anything, call out?”

  “Gotcha.”

  John stepped over the window frame and into the grocery store. The place smelled of rotten food mixed with the stench of the dead. Unfortunately they had become used to it.

  There were skylights in the roof providing plenty of light. He looked down the aisle. A few bodies but nothing walking around. He did the same at each isle and was satisfied that no one was there. Living or not.

  He grabbed a cart and walked back to the broken window.

  “I’m going to start bringing stuff up here. You stay put. When I fill the cart I’ll bring it back and get another one. You can unload it while I get more.”

  “John, when you get through I have a few… um… feminine hygiene type things I need to get,” she said.

  John smiled. “Yeah no kidding, how about something for mood swings while you’re at it…” he mumbled as he turned.

  “What?” Amy asked.

  “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  “Yes you did.”

  John headed off into the store without answering.

  “I heard that John,” she said as he disappeared down the isle.

  John pretended not to hear her.

  First he filled the cart with water and took it back to the truck. Then he went to the shampoo isle and took several bottles of shampoo, body wash, toothpaste and a handful of toothbrushes.

  He grabbed some mouthwash, disposable razors and shaving cream. Then he finished filling the cart with baby wipes, plastic plates and forks and other items.

  He took these back to the truck, grabbed a bottle of the shampoo, a gallon of water and headed for the front of the truck.

  “What are you doing,” Amy asked.

  “I’m going to wash my hair. What does it look like I’m doing? Guard me please.”