Merit Badge of the Undead

by Brian Robillard

canopy of leaves was illuminated with a white hot flash of electricity. The two scouts could now see every horrifying detail of the creatures hiding in the woods. A warm trickle of urine ran down Scott’s leg. Three figures stood directly in their line of sight not more than two hundred feet away. Their grotesque frames were hunched over, limping and clothed in tattered bloody rags. Their wounds were slick with a bloody slime. Jordan and Scott were terrified as the figures appeared to be staring directly at the two boys. Their burning red eyes glared at them, devoid of any emotion or feeling. In an instant, the white light was gone and darkness once again consumed the forest. The boys could still see the afterimage of the monster’s torn flesh and broken bones when they closed their eyes.

  Fear permeated through the entire campground reaching every scout and adult. Everyone in the field saw the hideous figures in the lightning and couldn’t believe how close they were to danger. Finally, Jimmy yelled, “Come on Jordan get back here!” The two boys turned and ran the short distance back to camp as fast as they could before Jimmy finished his sentence. The rest of the scouts and parents started scrambling and some started to pick up knives and hatchets “just in case” while others started to flee in the opposite direction. In the ensuing chaos, Mr. Johnson desperately tried to keep the boys together, “Gather up, come on, Chris, John, dammit you guys get over here!”

  Jordan’s heart was pounding from the sight of the awful creatures and now the fear of being separated from the main group was making it difficult to breath. He could hear branches moving in the woods and it was clear that the creatures were following him.

  North of Camp

  Jimmy’s dad was racing back towards camp when he heard his name from behind. “Nate! Nate, the phones are dead.”

  “Battery?”

  “No. It’s weird. No service. Nothing, like we’re in a cave. I swear I had full bars before we saw the choppers!”

  “We have to keep moving. I’m sure someone at camp has a working phone.”

  Scout Camp

  It was pandemonium at the scout camp as the creatures came out of the woods. Tents were knocked over and some of the younger scouts were pushed to the ground in the panic. The group that started to run looked back in terror as one of the creatures began moving across the field pursuing them, while the other two monsters continued toward the main group near the tents.

  Jordan and Scott caught up with the main group. Scott yelled at Mr. Johnson, “What the hell are those things! Were they just waiting in the woods? For us? They’re…they’re still coming. Right for us!” Their leader was in shock, unable to answer Scott’s questions and continued in vain to corral the scouts into one area and calm them down.

  “Look, boys, settle down before someone gets hurt. Let’s ju…”

  “Gets hurt!” Yelled Jimmy. “We’re all going to get hurt. Look at those things!”

  Other scouts started to shout, “let’s run for it. Back to the cars.”

  Jimmy appealed again to anyone who would listen. “We can’t go back to the woods. That’s were those things came from. Who knows how many more are out there or where.”

  “Well, then, if you know everything…What should we do? Stay here, get eaten!?”

  “Yes.” Said Jimmy.

  “What, you’re crazy, you can stay here, but I’m leav…”

  “Yes, we stay here. But we don’t get eaten. We fight back,” exclaimed Jimmy. “It’s our only chance. Those things are slow, look at them practically crawling across the field. We could throw rocks at them or maybe they’re afraid of fire or something.” The scouts started to listen and some began to offer their own suggestions for fighting the creatures.

  “We have hatchets”

  “My scout knife is sharp”

  “Maybe fire would work; we have propane for the camp stoves.”

  The scout’s ideas kept coming, but so did the dead. Jimmy noticed that the crowd of boys started to move away from him. He looked back and saw that the creatures were only ten yards away. His eyes frantically searched the camp for something, some way to defend themselves. “The hurricane stakes. Pull ‘em up. We can use them like bats..” Before Jimmy finished his sentence, stakes were being pulled and kicked to get them out of the ground. Two or three boys would be pulling at once trying to get a good grip. The rain had soaked the ground, making it easier to pull them out.

  The fight or flight instinct took over and these scouts chose to fight. Each boy picked up rocks from the ground and began to pelt the two undead monsters lumbering towards the main group. Soon a barrage of sticks, rocks and camping gear was being hurled in defense of the camp. The first rock to find its target made a dull thud as it hit one of the creatures in the face. The scouts cheered after seeing it stumble from the impact. More rocks, larger rocks were becoming the weapon of choice.

  The assault slowed the monster’s progress, not because they were afraid of the onslaught or in pain, but the sheer number of projectiles made it hard to move forward. One of the more muscular scouts they called Rudy, picked up a huge stone the size of a football. Using his well-honed track skills, he ran toward the monsters, planted his feet and spun around. Rudy heaved the stone like a shot put with deadly accuracy. The group cheered as the stone found its mark and stuck the dead EMT’s forehead. The monster was knocked backward, lost its balance and fell to the ground. Rudy wasted no time; he ran to the monster and stomped on his chest. Soon a group of scouts were using the heels of their hiking boots to keep the creature on the ground. The second rotting monster moved towards Rudy and was about to inflict a painful bite.

  “Rudy, duck!” yelled Jimmy. Jimmy ran at the monster with one of the large hurricane stakes and impaled it just as Rudy instinctively crouched and rolled to the ground. The stake, with the weight and speed of Jimmy’s attack, struck the monster in the shoulder and knocked him over. Rudy looked up and realized how close he came to being bitten. “Nice shot Jimmy. Now it’s my turn.” Rudy pulled the stake from the monsters shoulder, raised it up and with two hands drove it back down into the creature’s chest. The sound of the stake sliding through its rotting flesh was disgusting and made some of the boys wince. Rudy started to vent his anger and fear focusing it on the fallen creature. “You think you’re gonna bite me! Huh. Not gonna happen.” Rudy grasped the stake tighter and drove it further down into the monster and finally into the ground. “Nobody sneaks up on me like that.” Rudy pulled it out and gored the creature again and again. “I’m gonna make sure you never get up. Tryin’ to sneak up on me. No friggin’ way!”

  Rudy’s adrenaline began to fade. He released his grip on the stake, stepped back and looked at his hands. They were bleeding after driving the stake with so much force and anger. “It’s alright Rudy. It’s alright man.” Jimmy placed his hand on Rudy’s shoulder and tried to pull him away from the fight.

  The hurricane stake now pinned the monster to the ground. The creature squirmed and growled. It snapped and gnashed its bloody teeth, but it was trapped. Stuck like a bug on a pin board.

  The other scouts saw what Rudy had done and quickly pulled up other stakes and began to impale both monsters. In short order, each thrashing corpse was pinned with several of the large stakes. The scouts used hammers and large rocks to drive them far into the ground to ensure that the monsters would not be able to get back up.

  The main group started to high five each other and celebrate with cheers and shouts. Their victory soon turned to horror as one of the scouts noticed that the third creature had caught up with the group of boys trying to flee the campground. These boys were younger, frightened and had no weapons or the rational thought to improvise. “No!” Jimmy yelled.

  Some of the main group started to run towards the last creature, but were too far away. The monster had chased the others to the edge of the woods and was only a few feet from taking his first victim. Frankie was only in first grade and could
n’t have imagined a creature more terrifying in his worst nightmare and yet here it was staring directly at him. Frankie fell to his knees, covered his eyes and screamed as the creature hovered over him. The creature’s lips were torn from previous feedings. Even with its mouth closed, Frankie could see its cracked and jagged teeth. The last thing Frankie saw before curling into the fetal position was gnarled teeth parting to take a bite.

  “Mommy!”

  Wyndmoor Agricultural Research Center

  Dave was standing in the control room reviewing the latest press release that DHS had drafted regarding the premature detonation of a” terrorist’s bomb” in Connecticut. “Jeez Hannah, these guys can get pretty creative when they need to.”

  “I especially like the headline, ‘Fires of Hell explode near Devil’s Hopyard’. They’ll be wordsmithing this one for a long time,” Hannah noted as Dave’s blackberry rang again.

  His phone was resting on the table and Dave pressed the speaker phone icon to answer. “Hey Rich, what have you got for us?”

  Rich’s voice sounded tinny over the little speaker in the cell phone. “Afraid it’s bad news.”

  “I thought our flyboys hit their mark.”

  “They did, but the area wasn’t as contained as we thought. Apparently, there were a bunch of scouts camping in the