“Believe me,” Jamie said, “I’m not anxious to go back out into that, but I’m getting hungry. I can’t eat socks, blankets and dresser drawers like George. You know he hasn’t gone to the bathroom in two days. Not that I’m complaining because he is always going to the bathroom, mostly where ever he happens to be at the time, but I’m beginning to worry he is going to explode.”
“I think that board on the front of that dresser drawer will take longer for him to digest than his dog food,” Levi chuckled. “Remember when he ate Buddy’s squeaky toy?”
Jamie got a painful expression on her face.
“That wasn’t pretty.”
Levi laughed, “That drawer was made of particle board. He will be OK, a little constipated but he’ll live. He always does. Besides, I thought you said we should eat George if we didn’t have any food.”
“I couldn’t eat George,” Jamie sighed.
“Yeah, he is sort of family now,” Levi replied.
“No, he would give me food poisoning,” Jamie added, “It would be like eating a damn tough little rat.”
Levi got up and started to walk closer to the window.
He glanced over at the bed.
Logan and Jamie (#2) were snuggled up, sleeping.
George was lying in between them on his back. His four stubby legs were sticking up in the air.
Levi smiled to himself, George also snored.
Buddy was curled up on the bottom of the bed, quietly napping.
“My family,” Levi smiled as he thought to himself, but his smile turned to sadness as he remembered Lottie.
Levi turned back to the window.
He moved closer and looked outside.
He studied the street on this side of the office and then the main road that passed by the front of the building.
He walked back over to Jamie and sat down.
Jamie watched Levi looking out the window. She looked up at him as he sat back down on his chair.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Levi thought for a few minutes before he answered her question.
“There aren’t as many on the street as we saw out there yesterday, but there are still too many for us to risk running down to the car. If the car didn’t start we might not be able to get back here,” Levi said.
“All of us going out there, then all the noise we would make running down the road and trying to start the car,” Levi added, “we would probably attract every one of those things around here within half a mile.”
Jamie nodded.
“But,” Levi looked to be in deep thought as he continued, “I might be able to slip out on my own and find something for us to eat.”
Jamie was shaking her head no before Levi had finished talking.
“No, you’re not leaving me here alone again,” she said.
“You won’t be alone, Logan and Jamie will be here with you and don’t forget Buddy and George,” Levi added.
“I don’t want you being out there with those things,” Jamie insisted.
“You’re hungry, and I know they will be hungry,” Levi said. “Come here.”
Levi took Jamie by the hand and led her over to the window. He pointed up the road.
“See the Antler Inn and Grill?” Levi asked.
“Yeah, we ate there the first night after we came up to our cabin,” Janie replied.
“I think I can work my way up to the Antler Inn by staying behind the tree line and the other buildings without being seen,” Levi said. “You will probably be able to watch me the entire way up to the restaurant,” Levi paused then continued, “It’s less than a quarter of a mile. It shouldn’t take me more than ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes,” Jamie frowned, “That’s what you told me the night you left me at the cabin for an hour by myself.”
“I won’t go if you don’t think it is a good idea,” Levi said. “It was just a thought.”
Jamie walked over to the window and looked down at the road.
The road was red from the bloody traffic that had staggered over it nonstop since the night of the wedding.
This morning, however, in both directions, she could only see about a dozen staggering bodies.
Jamie turned back to Levi, “Maybe if you wait a little longer, they will all go away.”
“They might,” Levi replied. “If that happens, then we’re are all getting out of here. But what if what we see is only a break in the mob going by the office. We could be here for another week.”
“We aren’t going to starve yet,” Jamie said. “I’m not sure this is worth the risk.”
“I know that is a big risk,” Levi replied, “but I know what I am dealing with now. It’s also light out and I can see them.
I don’t think this will be all that difficult.”
“Damn it, Levi.” Jamie said looking frustrated. “Why did this happen?”
“I don’t know any more than you do,” Levi replied, “All I know is we have to find a way to cope with it until we can get home.”
“Are you going to take Logan with you?” Jamie finally asked. “Maybe he can watch your back.”
“No. let him sleep,” Levi said. “Two of us would make it easier to be spotted. It’s better if I do this myself.”
Levi found a few plastic bags and stuffed them in his pockets. He also found an old Pirates baseball cap in the closet and pulled it down over his head.
He then picked up his fireplace poker and looked at Jamie.
“Just stay here and keep George quiet and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Do you want me to come lock the door behind you?” Jamie asked.
“No, the doors will be fine,” Levi smiled.
He started down the steps.
When he undid the latch on the wooden door and pushed it open a few inches, the smell of the rotting dead stung his eyes and nose.
“God, I didn’t think this smell could get any worse,” Levi thought as he slipped through the opening and pushed the door closed behind him.
Levi stood motionless for a few moments, turning only his head slowly to examine the office.
The five bodies that were on the floor when he had gone upstairs, were still where Levi had left them.
Normally this fact would not be a big deal, but after the events of the last few days, finding that the bodies hadn’t moved gave Levi a sense of relief.
Next Levi looked through the blood smeared office windows to scan for any signs of movement near the office.
As much as he wanted to be sure things were clear around the office before he attempted to go outside, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t spotted in or near the building.
Attracting a crowd to the office could be a disaster, even if those things couldn’t get up the stairs, Levi and his family wouldn’t be able to get out of the building.
He knew, one way or another, they would soon have no choice but to make a run for it, or starve.
The road outside the office was clear, so Levi walked slowly across the office area, careful not to slip and fall on the slimy blood covered floor.
The suction sound his feet made, every time he lifted his foot to take the next step, made a sickening echo throughout the dead silence in the office.
When he reached the door, Levi slid the board out of the door handle and sat it near the bottom of the frame next to the door.
Then Levi slipped out the door and stood with his back against the side of the building.
After making sure there wasn’t anything on Grandview Road next to the office, Levi ran across Route 189 and into the woods.
Levi followed Route 189, using trees, brush and the occasional rustic house as cover.
He covered the four-hundred yard distance quickly without running into any problems.
When he reached the Antler Inn and Grill, Levi was tempted to wave in the direction of the Pine Rose Cabin office so Jamie would see him. He was sure she was a nervous wreck as she stood at the window trying to watch him m
ake his way down the road, but the sound of moaning, echoing off the surrounding buildings made him think better of it.
The sounds worried Levi, it had been an almost eerie silence the entire way to the restaurant, but now he knew he could soon be getting company.
He decided to get inside, grab a few things, enough to hold them for another day or two if needed, and go back to the office as quickly as he could.
From the back corner of the building, the easiest way to get inside would be to go around to the front deck and break one of the big front windows.
With the sounds coming from somewhere out on Route 189, Levi decided to play it safe and find a way in through the back of the building.
He moved along the dirt road that ran behind the restaurant. “It must be some kind of access road where they take deliveries,” he thought.
There were two doors on the back of the building.
Next to one door, a large mushroom shaped ventilation fan was mounted on the wall.
Levi figured the vent would be for the kitchen and he decided to try to get in through that door. The kitchen would be where all the food would be and he could get in and out quickly.
Levi had his cast iron poker, but the problem was this door did not have a window.
With the poker, Levi could have smashed the door knob and lock, or broken through the wooden door itself, but that would make too much noise.
He didn’t want to make any more noise than he had too, so he walked to the other end of the back wall to look at the other door.
Levi felt relieved to see this door had a window.
He tried to look in through the window, but couldn’t see past the red velvet curtains that hung over the inside of the door.
Levi raised the poker and was about to push it through the bottom left corner of the glass, when he looked at the space between the door handle and the frame.
“It doesn’t look like it’s locked,” Levi thought as he looked but didn’t see where the dead bolt had been engaged.
He reached out his hand and pulled the door knob and the door opened.
Levi quickly ducked inside the building.
It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but he soon saw that he was in a hallway.
When he recognized the doors on his right for the men and women’s restrooms, Levi knew where he was.
The night he and Jamie had dinner here, their table was at the end of this hallway, then right to the main dining room.
More importantly, ten feet past his table was the swinging doors where he saw the waitress come through when she brought his meal.
The Kitchen.
Levi walked silently down the hallway, turned right into the dining room and stopped.
He looked past the tables and at the swinging doors to the kitchen.
A girl with long blonde hair was standing at the doors and she seemed to be looking at something in the kitchen.
Levi stared at the girl, not sure what he should do.
She looked familiar.
When Levi noticed that she was wearing bright green shoes, he knew who she was.
Her name was Tammy. She had been his waitress the other night. Levi remembered her name because, for some reason Jamie had taken a dislike to the girl.
Apparently, Jamie thought Tammy was paying more attention to Levi than she was to her.
“Maybe Tammy will get that for you, or would you ask Tammy to get me more water, she just ignores me,” Levi heard more than a few times, as Jamie exaggerated the pronouncement of the girl’s name.
“Women can be like that,” Levi thought as he studied the girl.
But Levi’s problem now was that he needed to go through that door.
Should he try to talk to her?
He was a salesman, talking to people wasn’t a problem. Not talking to people was usually more of a problem for him.
But after the last few days, just going up and talking to someone posed additional considerations.
First and most importantly, was the person alive or dead?
Levi looked Tammy over, he didn’t see anything unusual from this angle, but her pants suit hid her legs and Levi couldn’t see her arms or face.
The fact that she was wearing two shoes was a plus though, most of the dead he had seen were in their bare feet, bloody bare feet.
Levi readied his poker and moved into the dining area.
When he was within a few feet from her, he said quietly, “Tammy?”
Tammy began to turn, the first clue to her condition, Levi saw the dark gray skin on the side of her face.
When he saw the milky white eyes, Levi brought his poker down on top of her head before she could start to moan or try to attack him.
After a sickening thud, her small body crumbled to the floor.
Levi stared at her for a moment.
She was in better physical condition than most of the dead he had seen, maybe because she had been locked in the small confines of the restaurant and hadn’t been attacked like the others he had seen.
He hoped her little boy, Peter, was safe at home with his grandparents. She was a single mom that had dropped out of UCLA when she got pregnant. She had been hoping to become a teacher, but had to give all that up when Peter came along. Her boyfriend decided he didn’t want to be a father and disappeared. She had come to Lake Arrowhead a year ago to find work after she had been fired from her job at the Hilton.
Apparently, she was missing too much work.
Levi thought about this for a second, “And apparently, maybe I shouldn’t talk so much to the waitress when my wife is around.”
Levi began to focus on why he was here.
He slowly stuck his head in through the swinging doors and looked around through the kitchen.
Thankfully there weren’t any surprises waiting for him in the kitchen.
Maybe Tammy had stayed to clean up the night everything started.
She probably was going to lock up after she was done, but something had happened to her.
Levi didn’t have time to look her over further, besides at this point it didn’t make any difference.
He needed to put his curiosity aside for the sake of his family.
Levi pulled the plastic bags out of his pockets and started rummaging through the kitchen.
He grabbed a block of cheese from the refrigerator.
He also grabbed a few soup bones for the dogs.
He found a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a freshly baked apple pie.
He packed everything into two bags, surveyed the kitchen and made a mental inventory in case he needed to make another trip back to the restaurant in the near future, then he walked back out into the dining room.
Levi hadn’t taken more than three steps into the dining room when he felt that something had changed.
It seemed to be darker in the dining room than he remembered.
Levi’s eyes drifted to the front windows of the restaurant.
It was darker in the dining room, because hundreds of bodies were blocking the light from coming into the dining room.
Dozens of lifeless eyes were staring in at him.
The windows began to shake as dozens of hands started to pound against the glass.
The decorative colored glass began to crack. Large cracks began to run through the face of the windows, then the sound of shattering glass filled the restaurant as it hit the floor. Thousands of jagged wedges of glass ricocheted across the dining room.
The mangled bodies came pouring into the dining room.
Levi looked towards the hallway where he had entered the restaurant, but that avenue of escape was no longer an option as the dead filled the room.
Levi turned and ran back into the kitchen.
He spotted the door and ran over and grabbed the handle.
He heard the groans before he tried to open the door.
He had barely begun to open the door when the mob of bodies crashed against the outside of the door, for
cing the door to close in Levi’s face.
Panic began to cloud Levi’s thoughts.
He turned and looked back at the swinging doors to the dining room.
He could see the gray rotting skin and bloody hair on the tops of the heads that staggered towards the doors.
Levi frantically looked around the kitchen.
He spotted the oven, he looked at the preparation tables, both held possibilities, but not many.
Levi began walking backwards as three bodies fell into the kitchen, followed by an awkward procession of ghostly bodies.
Levi was about to run for the oven as a last-ditch effort when he spotted the large metal door on the wall around the corner from the grill.
Levi ran over and yanked at the handle.
The large door swung outward, the cold air flowed around Levi’s ankles, making him begin to shiver.
He ran into the cooler and pulled the door shut behind him.
No sooner had the door closed, it began to shudder under the force of the blows from the gruesome bodies colliding against it.
Levi sat down on the cold floor, his entire body shivering as he sat helplessly in the dark.
Chapter 31
Logan’s eyes opened.
Jamie was snuggled up next to him, but somewhere in between them it sounded like a fairy on a motorcycle running an obstacle course.
He knew it was George.
They had tried to teach George to sleep in the large doggy bed they bought for him at Pets or Us, but come morning, George always ended up on the bed, often in the most inconvenient places.
They had also been trying to teach him manners and to stay off the furniture, all with about as much success as getting him to sleep in his own bed.
One thing they had given up on was teaching him to swim.
They tossed him in the pool a few times but had to go in and rescue him.
Dead Man Walking Page 23
