The Demon Dead

by Arthur M Wyatt

  EIGHT - DAY SIX: ZOMBIE SUICIDE

  The sun rose from the Atlantic and lazily gained altitude until the entire disc was visible. Derek woke when he felt the warmth on his face. Groggily he raised his head and looked around.

  “Shit,” he said, “I was hoping this was all just a crazy dream.”

  The sky was clear, the water calm and a light breeze blew across the deck.

  Nice day…for weather anyway, he thought.

  Inside the cabin John, Amy and Jimmy were still asleep. Suzie, asleep on her side, was at the foot of the bed where Amy and Jimmy lay. Derek opened the cabin door flooding the room with light.

  “Hey,” Amy said, “what’s with the spotlight?”

  “Sorry Amy. Come on girl,” Derek said to Suzie, “I can’t take you for a walk but I do have an idea.”

  Suzie followed him outside where he picked her up, lifted her over the side and set her down on the concrete footing of the bridge. She stood there looking at him puzzled as if he was going to leave her.

  “Go ahead, go to the potty,” he said.

  The dog didn’t budge.

  “Here,” Derek said, “I’ll show you.”

  He climbed up on the footing, walked around to the other side to be out of sight and started emptying his bladder into the water. Getting the hint Suzie sniffed around for a suitable spot and relieve herself right beside the boat.

  “Great, now we get to enjoy that until we leave?” Derek said laughing.

  “Number one ok, but number two, you could have made your deposit somewhere else.”

  She wagged her tail, obviously pleased with herself.

  Suddenly Suzie lifted her head up toward the overpass and started barking. Derek kneeled down beside her.

  “Shh,” he said, “what are you barking at girl?”

  She stopped barking as suddenly as she had started. Derek listened to see if he could hear anything.

  He listened for a moment. Then heard a faint scream coming from the roadway above. A scream for help. Suzie started barking again.

  Awakened by the barking, John and Amy came outside. When he first emerged from the cabin and didn’t see Derek or Suzie John imagined they had fallen overboard and were struggling in the water.

  “Hey, get Suzie,” Derek said alerting them to his and the dogs whereabouts, “there’s someone on the bridge calling for help.”

  Amy rushed to the side and Derek handed Suzie down to her.

  Jimmy came out to see what all the commotion was about.

  “What’s going on,” he asked.

  “Jimmy, take Suzie inside and keep her quiet ok?” Amy said.

  “But what…?”

  “Just do it ok,”.

  Jimmy took Suzie by the collar and led her back into the cabin.

  “How do you know someone’s on the bridge?” Amy asked Derek.

  “Listen,” he said.

  “I don’t hear anything,” John said.

  “Just listen.”

  Finally they heard it again. A scream of anguish and despair.

  “Please somebody help me,” the woman screamed again.

  The sound now came from almost directly overhead. Derek raced up the ladder to the bridge and blew the horn twice.

  “Help,” screamed the reply.

  Derek blew one more short blast. The woman cried for help again. They strained their necks to look up but could only see the bottom of the bridge.

  Then Derek saw it first. In a moment of horrified apprehension he realized what it was.

  “She jumped,” he said.

  They watched as the woman fell in a horizontal position on her back. Arms outstretched, head back as if lying on a bed, she plummeted toward the water.

  Just before the moment of impact Amy turned away. Unable to watch. Derek and John followed her all the way to the water but wished they hadn’t. The impact mangled her body and killed her instantly.

  Amy began to cry. All was silent again.

  Stunned by what they had just seen, no one noticed that another body had separated from the bridge and was in free fall. Amy sobbed as the body sank. Derek and John stared at the point of impact. Dazed. Amy looked up and to the spot where the body had sunk.

  As they watched the ripples die out, suddenly, in the same spot was another splash and another body. All three jumped back. Startled.

  “Oh my God,” Amy said stepping back.

  After the initial shock of seeing a second body hit the water, they realized this wasn’t a survivor but a demon. Broken by the collision with the water it struggled to swim. It’s arms, legs and back shattered.

  “It jumped after her,” John said in amazement.

  “Why would it do that?” Amy asked.

  “It was so focused on it’s prey it simply followed her off the bridge. They may be “evolving”,” Derek said making quotation marks with his hands, “but they’re still pretty freaking stupid.”

  The demon moved around on top of the water somehow managing to stay afloat. Derek pulled his pistol out and raised it taking aim at the zombie.

  “Wait,” John said, “maybe we should leave him here like he is”

  “Leave him like he is?” Derek said. “What the hell for.”

  “If we kill him now we may have to deal with him later.”

  “That makes no sense what-so-ever John,” Derek said, “you said demons were zombies being controlled by evil spirits. Why wouldn’t we kill it?”

  “Because,” John paused to collect his thoughts for a second then continued. “You remember what I told you about Amy’s theory about the different types of zombies?”

  “Yes”

  “Well, I have a theory of my own that takes her theory a bit further. I think once the demon takes possession of the zombie, he’s trapped there, just like the gomer, until the zombie is killed. So if we kill it now, it can move on to possess another zombie.”

  “Oh, ok,” Amy said, “that explains what you did back at the Grocery store. Right?”

  “What did you do?” Derek asked.

  “We were attacked by three demons. I killed the first one then we were jumped by two more. I took the second one out with the shotgun and Amy emptied the 9mm into the third one. I got off one shot at it with the shotgun. It went tumbling into a display but was still alive. I decide not to kill it so I practically shot its arms and legs off and left it there. It’s probably still squirming around on the floor now.”

  “How do you know for sure they can’t move to another zombie anyway?” Derek said.

  “I don’t. It’s just a theory, but from what we’ve seen I think it‘s a correct one. Think about it. Look at him,” John said gesturing toward the water.

  They turned to look at the demon again. He was on top of the water struggling to swim. The hatred still evident in his fiery eyes as he stared them down.

  “If he could leave of his own free will he would have already. Don’t you think?” John looked to them for agreement.

  “What if you’re wrong? What if it’s not a demon at all but a very mean, semi intelligent zombie. Or maybe even a gomer that was really a bad dude in real life?” Derek said.

  “A bad dude?”

  “Yeah like a violent convict or something.”

  “I don’t think so. I could be wrong but I don’t think so.”

  “If that’s the case then why did you shoot the one on the road and the two in the water?”

  “It’s simple. They were immediate threats. We had to kill them. This guy is toast. He’s no threat now. He can’t hurt us unless of course, he takes over another zombie and comes after us again.”

  “Ok, let’s say you’re right, still, that doesn’t mean I can’t shoot the son of a bitch anyway,”

  Before John had time to speak Derek began unloading the pistol into the zombie.

  “Wait,” John shouted.

  Derek ignored him and continued to fire into the zombie’s shoulders and torso being careful not to hit it in the head. Suzie began bark
ing angrily inside the cabin.

  The gun empty, barrel smoking, Derek lowered the pistol.

  “So much for our little piece of heaven,” he said.

  “Feel better?” Amy asked him.

  “Hell yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” Derek said as he pulled more rounds from his pocket, dropped the clip, and started reloading, “thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Amy said, “I understand completely.”

  In the water the demon struggled, groping at the waters surface for a few more seconds, then slowly sank. Bubbles rising to the surface. Derek looked at John and smiled.

  “Now that I think about it,” Derek said, “the thought of that bastard lying on the bottom getting eaten by crabs is, rather pleasant I must say.”

  “I must say?” Amy said, the tears drying up. “You sound like the guy with the greasy spiked hair from Saturday Night Live when you say that.”

  “Who?” Derek asked.

  “Never mind,” Amy said.

  “Saturday Night Live, the 80’s, Martin Short? Man, don’t you know anything,” John said smiling.

  “Must be a white thing,” Derek said then looked up and grinned.

  Everyone laughed.

  The cabin door opened and Jimmy and Suzie stepped out onto the deck.

  “What’s so funny?” Jimmy asked.

  “It’s a white thing Jimmy. You wouldn’t understand,” Derek said laughing.

  “Hey I bet I would. I have lots of white friends don’t I Mr. Beckham.”

  “He’s right. Most of his little buddies in the neighborhood are white,” John said grinning.

  “Ok then Jimmy, have you ever heard of a guy on Saturday Night Live with greasy spiked hair who says “I must say” all the time?” Derek asked.

  “Yeah, Martin Short. My Dad has the DVD’s?”

  “Oh wow,” Derek said laughing, “you’re going to fit in great with these two.”

  “You like Star Wars too?” Derek said.

  “You don’t?” Jimmy asked him with a straight face.

  Everyone laughed again, except Jimmy. He didn’t get it.

  “Don't you think it's weird that we can see things like what just happened and then stand here laughing just a few moments later," Amy said. "It just feels, strange. Can you imagine doing that before?"

  "That was before," John answered. "Now it's different. It's like people who work in the ER at the hospital. They see so much that they can stand there and joke while a man's on the table dying. You get used to it. Doesn't mean that we, or they, are bad people, it's just that you become hardened. It’s how we cope."

  "Right," Derek said, "life goes on."

  Amy sat down in a deck chair.

  "Guys," she said, “how many more survivors do you think there are?”

  “I don’t know,” John answered. “I think there are a lot more than we think.”

  “But we haven’t seen them. Why?” Amy asked.

  “They’re hiding,” Derek said. “Like I was. If you have a safe place to hide and have food and water why would you show yourself?”

  “You wouldn’t,” Amy said.

  “Right,” John said. “The only reason we’re out here is because we were searching for our families. Otherwise we would probably be holed up somewhere ourselves.”

  “Maybe the demons are doing like mop up duty,” Derek said, “tying up loose ends. The ones we’ve seen seem to have been on the hunt. For survivors.”

  “Good point,” John said. “You may be right.”

  “Do you think there is a safe place somewhere? Maybe controlled by the authorities?” Amy said.

  “Could be,” John answered. “I never said anything, but the day I found you a plane flew over.”

  “What kind of plane?” Derek asked.

  “I don’t know, it was cloudy, raining, but it was a jet plane of some kind. Hard to tell what size. It sounded like a two engine plane, which could be just about anything.”

  “Then it could have been just a private citizen escaping to somewhere,” Amy said.

  “Yes, but, maybe, just maybe, it could have been a military or some other type of government plane,” John said.

  “Could you tell which way it was headed,” Derek asked.

  “Yes, it was heading North East. Which means, if it remained heading in that direction, it would have crossed the coastline roughly in the area of Virginia.”

  “Derek did you hear any planes go over?” Amy asked.

  “Nope.”

  “So what does that mean?” Derek asked.

  “It means,” John said, “that there could be a friendly base nearby with a usable airstrip.”

  “Could the plane be connected to the radio signal?” Amy said.

  “Could be, could be.”

  “What signal?” Derek said.

  “There is a civil defense tone on an AM frequency,” John said. “No talking just the tone. We have no idea what it means but one thing we know for sure is you have to have power to transmit that signal.”

  “It could be an automatic alert at some radio station,” Derek said.

  “Right, but if it was, the generator would have ran out of fuel long before yesterday.”

  “So, there must be someone responsible for it,” Amy said, “right?”

  “I would think so,” John said.

  “I’ll go check it now,” Derek said getting up from his chair and climbing to the boat’s bridge.

  Climbing up to the helm Derek turned the radio on. The tone was there. Clear and steady. Derek turned the radio off and climbed down.

  “Hey John,” Derek said, “is there some way to home in on this signal to tell where it’s coming from?”

  “There is but not from this boat.”

  “What would we need to do it?” Amy asked.

  “The coast guard would have the equipment,” John said.

  “Where?”

  “On a coast guard ship maybe or a helicopter.”

  “What about the light house?” Derek asked.

  “Lighthouse?” Amy said.

  “I’ll be damned, your right,” John said, “Sullivan’s Island lighthouse.”

  “What about it?”

  “It’s an active lighthouse,” Derek said. “Still operated by the coast guard. There are tons of antennas hanging off that thing. It’s just over there,” Derek pointed in the direction of the old carrier, “the ship is blocking it but it’s in that direction about five miles away as the crow flies.”

  “It would have generators too,” John added, “and probably stocked pretty good with food and water.”

  “Not food,” Derek said, “MRE’s,”

  “Right,” John said laughing.

  “What are MRE’s?” Amy asked.

  “Meals Ready to Eat. Military rations,” Derek said, “good stuff.”

  “Actually,” John said, “they’re not bad.”

  “Ever live off of them for several months?” Derek asked.

  “No.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  “MRE’s aside,” Amy said, “can we get to the lighthouse by boat?”

  “Derek?” John said deferring the question.

  “We can get close. We could take the boat in behind the island and tie up at one of the houses on the backside. There’s a marina over by the bridge but that would leave us a lot further away. If we tie up at a private dock we would be more secluded. Less chance of running into trouble. We would need transportation from there of course but I don’t think that would be a problem.”

  “How far would we have to go from there to the lighthouse?” Amy asked.

  “Depends on where we find a suitable dock. A couple of miles maybe.”

  “I’m all for it,” John said.

  “Me too,” Amy added.

  “We’re in,” Jimmy said peaking out the cabin door.

  They all laughed as Jimmy and Suzie joined them.

  “Maybe we should cruise around the harbor, by the city, the aquarium, t
he battery, see if we can find more survivors before we go to the lighthouse," John said. "You never know."

  "Someone may come out to meet us," Amy said.

  "Zombies, that's who'll come out to meet us," Derek said.

  "Maybe, but we won't know if we don't try," Amy said. "We found you didn't we? Besides, were on the water what could happen?"

  Derek thought for a minute.

  "I'm game, anything to get away from this spot," he said climbing back up to the boats bridge, “it’s giving me the creeps.”

  "I'll untie us," John said climbing out onto the footing.

  "I'll make something to eat," Amy said.

  "Can I come up with ya'll," Jimmy asked.

  John shrugged and looked at Amy.

  "Ok," she said, "but you have to come back down to the cabin if they see anything. Got me?"

  "Got you."

  Jimmy climbed the ladder and joined Derek.

  Derek sat Jimmy in the second seat. Starting the engines he let them idle while John untied the boat then climbed back on. Derek eased the boat away and headed slowly up river. John joined them with the rifle and binoculars.

  "What do you think," Derek asked.

  "Lets head up river a little then go around the north side of Drum Island and back down the other side. Then we'll go back under the bridge on the other side of the river and follow it around by the Port Authority and on to the battery. If we don't see anything we'll go on to Sullivans Island. Keep your eyes peeled Jimmy."

  "What for?" he asked.

  "Anything moving."

  "Got it."

  Derek pushed the throttle forward. The bow lifted as the boats propellers dug into the water. The rumble of the engines felt good to him. He had dreamed of one day owning a boat like this. He looked over at Jimmy who was grinning from ear to ear. Finally getting to hang out with the guys.

  John opened the windscreen so they could feel the air blowing through. It was a peaceful clear morning. He stood in the opening letting the wind swirl around him. This seemed like any other day on the water except for the absence of other boats. He could almost imagine that none of this was happening. If only he could close his eyes and open them to a normal world.