Authors: Christopher Cox
She said to her son, “Take your brother over there- stay where I can see you.” She paused as the pair of footsteps rose, and then fell as they passed.
With the children out of earshot, she continued in a hushed whisper. “The parents all ran blindly to try and find their children, but since they had been playing hide and seek it wasn’t easy. The children came from all directions trying to find their parents, and others ran home to hide. I couldn’t find my babies. I ran; I ran to all of their favorite spots but they weren’t there. I couldn’t find them.” Her voice quivered with the terrifying moment of that day; she was clearly back in the moment. “By then, the things were all through the town, but I wasn’t going nowhere until I found John and Sayer.”
“We still have nightmares about it,” She said sadly. Only a few dozen of us or so made it back to our homes. Some of the parents never found their children, and some of the children never found their parents. The screaming… it didn’t stop for hours. My husband, Clyde, he was a good man-” I noted the past tense, and took the small advantage of her pause.
“Thought you said his name was John?”
“No, I made that up. I don’t know who that was, just same poor jerk who got in an accident, I guess. Clyde, he was a good man,” she repeated, “and he already had the windows boarded, had our hunting rifles laid out, and had food ready. I thought he was being too paranoid, but thank God he was- the rest of us just didn’t know how bad it had gotten, thought it was just like that bird flu that we saw a while back; but Clyde was always a ‘big picture’ guy. That’s the only reason we made it. We watched home after home being forced open, and heard the screaming again… The worst part was when they stopped.”
“I think, eventually, we were the last survivors. Days passed, then all at once, it was like we were just discovered; the whole crowd came at us, beating on our door and cracking the boards on the windows. We just locked the boys in their room with the rest of the food and started shooting. Some of them we knew, they were our neighbors and friends- we shot them, too. You know you gotta shoot them in the head, right?” She waited for an answer.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Good.” She started again, “After a couple hours it was dark; that’s when they made it inside, they broke one of the doors open and came pouring in like ants to a picnic. We shot evr’thing we had at them until we ran out, then we started fighting with anything we could hit ‘em with. By the end, they were all dead. So many were dead.”
“We let the boys out; we hugged, we cried- we were safe. We fixed the windows and the door and loaded the bodies in the guest room; we piled in our bed until the kids fell asleep. Clyde pulled me aside and told me he was bit and pulled down his bandage. It was covered by his shirt, so I didn’t see it ‘till he showed it to me. It was real deep; I cried in his arms until I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was still and on the floor- he had already started turning into one of
them
.” She spit the last word. “I pulled him into the side room and kissed him one last time… I smashed in his skull with a brick. He didn’t make a sound, he just… twitched a bit. Do you have any idea what that feels like?” That time, she didn’t wait for an answer.
“We didn’t have enough food left to last much longer, and we didn’t have anything to protect the boys with, since we were out of bullets and all. I saw your headlights last night and knew it might be our only shot, so I set this up before morning. I had to take it… I’m really sorry about it, but I had to.” Deep down, I knew I would have done the same thing.
“Who’s in the RV?” She asked.
“No one, we’re alone,” I said.
“I’m taking the RV. I don’t want to be surprised when I go in there. I really don’t want anyone to get hurt. Who’s in there?”
Aimee answered, “My kids. I have my kids with me. Don’t hurt them, we wanted to help your boy, remember? Please, I’m pregnant.”
The woman paused, thinking. I saw her outline through the haze of my vision. “Okay. I can take them with me; I’m going to find someplace sa-”
“No.” Aimee broke in. It was final.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “We’ll take you with us.”
“You know I can’t trust you,” she said patiently, seeing through me. “I’ll have to sleep sometime, wont I?”
I heard the hammer of the pistol pulled back, accenting the point. “You’re going to call your kids out. There’s shelter in Oak Bridge, and plenty to scrounge up now that nothing’s moving; we probably killed everything there anyways, so you’ll be okay. Go ahead, call them out.”
She was the one with the gun; I didn’t see too many other options. “Madi!” I called. I heard the window slide open.
“Daddy? Are you okay? Mommy?” Her voice was terrified.
We weren’t okay, it seemed clear, but this was another case where lying was preferable. “We’re fine, baby. Listen, you need to get Jake and come out here. Get his diaper bag and the bug-out bag and come out now.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She didn’t argue; I heard the sound of the door opening, followed by the soft concussion of the diaper bag and bug-out bag being pushed to the ground. Madi’s footsteps followed and closed in. “Are you guys okay? Why are you crying? Are you-” She stopped with a sharp inhale; she hadn’t seen a dead body up close before. Even with everything we had been though, I had been able to protect her from that; I supposed I couldn’t have expected to forever, given the circumstances, but I resented that it was forced on us.
I didn’t answer Madi, but instead spoke to the woman. “You have what you want, just leave us alone.”
“I know you’re not going to believe me… but I’m really sorry about this. I hope you guys make it, too.” She paused. “Madi, right?” Madi didn’t answer. “Madi, there’s shelter, food- everything you need straight that that way about a quarter mile. There aren’t any monsters around here, so you’ll all be just fine. You’re mom and dad, they’re going to be able to see just fine here pretty soon. Just keep pouring water on their eyes- it’ll help.”
Madi didn’t answer, but instead hugged at my neck. Without a word, I heard the woman walk to our home and knew her children would be following behind. Through the blood-red haze of my vision I could see their shapes disappear around the side of the RV; a moment later it lurched to life and roared into the distance, fading out entirely after a few moments. I heard water splash on the road as Madi rinsed Aimee’s eyes, then felt a moment of cool relief as I felt the same. There was silence as we each adjusted to our new situation.
“Daddy?” Madi said finally. “I kept my gun.”
I smiled through the pain. There was hope yet.
Madi did her best to care for the family. She fed and changed Jacob, and nursed her mother and me until the pain subsided. My vision was still blurred beyond use, but at least it had stopped hurting. Now that I was no longer distracted by the pain, I was quietly worried that our only sentry was an eight-year-old girl.
We sat in the shade of the nearby overgrowth, with Jacob sleeping soundly in his mother’s arms. Once my vision cleared, I would check and collect the new-found supplies before we moved into Oak Bridge; we tried not to stay in one place for too long, when we could help it.
“Let’s see… How about ‘I Spy’?” Madi suggested with a giggle.
“Nice try,” I shot back, relaxing in the cool breeze.
We sat together for some time. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, or perhaps just the time that had passed, but my vision was beginning to clear, as was Aimee’s. While not perfectly restored, we’d be able to move soon- I wasn’t going to explore a strange town, already once overrun, without having every possible advantage.
The evening chill was beginning to arrive; we’d have to get to shelter before long. We were able to see, more or less, and started getting ready to leave and find Oak Bridge. While I began looking through the wreckage and cursing at the deceptively empty battery boxes, Aimee opened a jar of food from the bag and began feeding Jacob; we were very careful that he was dry, fed and warm as much as possible, especially when we didn’t know if undead ears could hear him cry.
Madi came to me sheepishly. “Daddy, I gotta go potty.”
I sighed, but couldn’t argue with the need. “Okay, let’s go around to the other side of the car.”
“Can you wait here? I need privacy.”
“Okay, I’ll wait right here.” I took a quick look around the car and didn’t see anything.
“Okay, thanks.” She hurried around the vehicle and I continued loading bottles of water onto the sheet.
A moment later, a scream pierced the air- Madi. It was a scream like I had never heard before, one from pure terror. I immediately bolted for the car, and saw Aimee bolt up to do the same as Jacob’s bottle crashed to the ground. Before I could reach the car, a shot rang out. Then nothing; silence. Panicked and swearing at myself for my stupidity, I reached the overturned car and rounded it at full speed.
Madi wasn’t there; but I heard her before I saw her. “In the head or we’re dead in the head or we’re dead in the head…”
She was crouched around the front, breathing heavily and standing over the corpse of a young girl about her own age. The girl was dressed in a blood-stained and torn nightshirt; her eyes were open and unfocused, and brain and blood was leaking from the top of her skull. Her hand had fallen on Madi’s foot, but she didn’t seem to register it. She just clutched the smoking pistol in her hands, repeating the same monotoned rhyme; “in the head or we’re dead, in the head or we’re dead.”
Aimee and I stared in horror, not sure of the surreal situation. I put my hand on Madi’s shoulder and pulled her away from the corpse; the hand slipped of her sneaker and fell unmoving to the ground. I took the gun from her and pulled her away from the scene, leading her to a place where she wouldn’t have to see the death. She didn’t resist, but followed automatically, mumbling the rhyme over and over again. Once we were on the other side of the car, I stopped and kneeled to look for bites or scratches. She had wet herself, but was otherwise unharmed. Her eyes drifted towards the car, like the inevitable flight of a moth to a porch light.
“Madi,” I said. No response. I shook her fiercely, feeling Aimee’s hand on my back. “Madi!” I said again, forcefully, “Look at me!”
She did, her eyes shifting lazily to meet mine. “Daddy… It was a little girl.”
Aimee chimed in, “No, baby, it wasn’t. It wasn’t a little girl any more. It would have hurt you, and the rest of us, too. You did the right thing.”
She looked at me, “Why didn’t you protect me, Daddy?”
The question tore my soul and I felt tears well in my eyes, “I’m sorry, Madi. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, ever. I promise.” I hugged her. She hugged me back. “I’m sorry, Madi,” I repeated. I heard Aimee sobbing behind me. Jacob was oblivious. It wasn’t only the creature that died today- Madi’s youth died with that shot, as well.
She sighed, “It’s okay, Daddy.” She was trying to sound brave, but she had a different look in her eyes. “I guess I’m kind of grown up now, huh?”
She wasn’t supposed to be, but I realized that our adulthood rituals had changed; perhaps forever. “Yeah… I suppose you are.” I surveyed the scene and turned to Aimee; “It’s going to be dark soon. That bitch said there’s some safe homes in Oak Bridge, let’s go.”
“Honey!” Aimee scolded, “The kids…”
Madi spoke up, “Mom. He’s right.”
I smiled as I checked Madi’s revolver. Five rounds left. I tucked it into my pocket.
We pushed through the brush, emerging on the other side with reddening scratches, but relieved at the unexpected clearing. Madi clung to my neck as I held her close, but none of us spoke as we crossed the dead, but still plowed, fields towards Oak Bridge. The distance wasn’t too far, but Madi’s weight and the soft ground made travel grueling.
We closed on the town as the sun fell low at our backs, spilling our shadows far before us. I spotted a human form- dirty, still and face down- in the dirt several yards to my right; no one else seemed to notice, so I continued walking. We increased our pace, knowing we were racing the waning sunlight.
Exhausted from the day, we reached the outskirts of town with enough light left to see the carnage that was left. The scene was violent, chaotic and tragic. “Cover your eyes, Madi,” I whispered.
“Oh, Lord,” I heard Aimee behind me, but I didn’t feel that we’d find God here. The streets were still, but overpowered by the now-familiar stench of death and decay; bodies could be seen in every direction- men and women, the young, the old. None showed any signs of mercy; instead, some had been pulled forcibly from their homes and were consumed where they laid. Some had died huddled together, families perhaps, and were left as nothing more than a butcher’s pile of discarded meat. Others, the rare ones, had the tell-tale head would of a reanimated corpse that had been destroyed. The horrors that filled the streets contrasted eerily with the quant beauty of the town.
Amongst all the death, the body of a young woman caught my eye. She was draped over the curb and lying halfway in the street. Her eyes were open and stared blankly in our direction; she didn’t move, but instead seemed to be more grotesque than any actual threat. Her lower jar was gone entirely and her tongue hung limply from the gaping cavity. Her hand, bloody and locked, still grasped the hair of an unkempt man in a hospital gown; his face seemed deformed, as though he had too many teeth for his mouth. Repulsed, I realized- they were
her
teeth.
Night had nearly fallen, and I was growing concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find a safe place for the night. Nearly every home or business that we passed had shown signs of breach- nowhere seemed to be untouched in this strange time, but time was running out and we had to find somewhere while we could still see. Hurriedly, we passed from building to building, finding not one without broken windows or doors; in one case, a home was missing the majority of an entire wall- it had been breached by a large pickup truck. The driver’s seat was empty; I hurried past.
“This is creepy as hell,” I whispered over my shoulder to Aimee- the pun was unintentional, but fitting. Aimee, however, didn’t answer. I whirled around, my mind already running over the countless terrors and tragedies that I was sure I’d find. But she had simply stopped, staring off the road with a look of solemn concentration fixed on her face. I joined her side and followed her gaze.
We stood in front of a simple and unremarkable building. It was old, but homely, and was identified only with a simple bright painted sign; “Happy Hearts Daycare”. Poorly, but lovingly, painted images of teddy bears and ducks accented the border. She turned to me and said, simply, “Most of Jake’s things are in the RV.”
I knew what she was asking me to do. She was right. “Yeah,” I answered. “I’ll be right back.” I took a few steps towards the door before reason overrode my fears and I returned to the street. “Take this,” I said, handing the revolver to Aimee. You need to run- run, we’ll find each other. Just keep the kids safe, okay?”
“Okay,” she answered. There was worry in her voice, although the idea was hers in the first place. It wasn’t worth anything to tell them to hide- it didn’t seem to help. Whether the undead could sense the living, or smell us, or hear us… whatever it was that they used to hunt was appallingly effective. The only thing that could keep the living in their current state seemed to be distance.
I went around to the stairs; the ramp was partially blocked by a pair of overturned wheelchairs that had become jammed together and formed a barrier. I didn’t want to consider why- there was no possible reason that I cared to know. The heavy wooden door opened easily on its well-oiled hinges, spilling the fading light into the windowless lobby. It was mostly intact, but the room showed clear signs of panicked traffic. Papers were flung uncaringly to the floor and furniture was pushed towards the wall by the flood of what I assumed was frightened parents. A long-dried bloodstain painted the wall and dripped onto the floor, and children’s toys and other belongings had been dropped and abandoned. I could only imagine the chaotic actions that had happened here, which belied the uneasy calm that I now saw. I shut the door and flicked on my mini-maglight before the outside light was cut off completely; only the narrow beam of artificial light lit my way now.
Beyond the large reception desk were two doors on opposite sides of the room, with a third directly ahead leading to a small kitchen and laundry area. From here, I could see that the kitchen had been devastated, and wouldn’t likely produce anything of value; however, just to be thorough, I’d check on the way out if time allowed. To the right, the door was decorated with a hand-painted butterfly, although the paint had faded from years of use and children’s unwashed hands. The left was similarly decorated, except with a spotted and smiling ladybug. I had no idea what each picture was supposed to represent, so I randomly chose the butterfly room. I swing the door open and shined the light inside; the window shades were down, but the sparse light from outside pushed through the cracks.
Most
of the parents had made it there for their children.
The sense of ‘wrongness’ from seeing an undead infant is beyond any possible description, yet I was confronted by the image and the accompanying sensation of fundamental injustice as soon as I stepped into the room. The creature lay on its back in blood-stained blankets with all of the muscle control that it had in life. Its arms and legs kicked violently as though it were in the middle of a tantrum; but there were no tears and there was no wailing- there were only horrible, empty eyes that followed me as I walked, and a mouth that snapped open and shut with a repulsive gurgled moan. It was a moan that sounded disturbingly like a wounded animal trying to mimic human speech.
The same sounds began spill from some of the other cribs- sounds coming from those whose parents never made it back. The room spun and faded as I tried to take each sound, every instinct telling me to run. Unfocused, I dropped my flashlight, which crashed noisily to the ground and cast menacing shadows on the walls. The sound of the falling light brought me back to reality, and I bent to pick up the mag-light. My child was still living, which meant I couldn’t afford to break down.
I walked past the neat rows of cribs. Some were empty, while others were occupied by similar creatures- I didn’t look in those. Instead, I applied the entirety of my concentration on blocking out the rising sound of inhuman moans and, in the exaggeration of imagination, hungry cries.
But there was one that I couldn’t ignore. The child was perhaps a year old when it was alive and now struggled to climb over the bar of a low crib. His tooth-gapped mouth snapped open and shut with bloodcurdling anticipation as its bare leg kicked towards the top of the frame. I watched the pitiful creature for a moment, wondering at the tragic end to its short life.
Then the back of my pant leg moved.
My blood turned to ice when I looked down and saw what had touched me. The creature that still held onto my leg was toothless, filthy and ravenous; it pulled its small frame towards my leg with underdeveloped young arms. With an equal mix of instinct and revulsion, I kicked my leg with a panicked urgency. Dislodged, it slid across the floor and crashed noisily into an overturned chair, flipping violently onto its back. While my instinct immediately felt concern for what was otherwise and infant, the fact that it wasn’t crying, or even phased, was unnerving. Instead, it struggled until it was able to turn over and resumed its slow, determined crawl towards me. The discord was physically unpleasant, and sat thick and heavy in the pit of my stomach.
Again I forced myself to focus, so that I could retrieve anything of value and leave this horrible place quickly. I grabbed a nearby child’s backpack and emptied it into the floor; the only thing that the child had packed that day was the small, well-used stuffed dinosaur that fell to the ground. That toy, lonely on the ground, told the entire story of what was lost here; I knew that I was doomed to a lifetime of that memory, however long that turned out to be.
I swept the room with my flashlight and saw that the creature that had touched me wasn’t the only one that was on the floor. Among the toys and child-sized furniture, I could pick out other small creatures which were determinedly crawling towards me as quickly as they were able. The sound that they made now reached a fevered pitch as they came closer; some of them were distracted, but only for a moment, as they passed the partially consumed body of a man that lay draped over a low table. His arm hung over the side of the table and his hand nearly touched the floor. From where I stood, I could see that all of his fingers were missing.
I allowed myself the luxury of time to vomit. It was surprisingly refreshing.
I quickly grabbed whatever clean clothes, diapers, toiletries and other items that were nearby, taking anything that looked to be undamaged and useful- what I took now could be sorted later, and my main priority was to escape this hellish place. The young creatures had drawn closer, the nearest had gotten to within a few feet of where I stood, before I bolted for the door, wishing that I could have explored further but at the same time, relieved that I hadn’t had to. I don’t know what drew me to it, but I took the moment to reach down and recover the stuffed dinosaur toy that had fallen; it didn’t feel right to leave it behind. Perhaps Jake would like it.
I threw open the door and slammed it hard behind me. It was probably entirely irrational, but I pulled a heavy wooden chair to the doorway and jammed it under the doorknob. Somehow, it made me feel better to have that added layer of security between me and the hideous infants.
I was right about the kitchen- it had been completely destroyed and anything of value was long gone; if the living hadn’t gotten to it, the insects had. I approached the other room, but stopped before I reached the door. The ‘ladybug’ side must have been for the older children; the doorknob rattled and the door shook, and I could hear frustrated moans on the other side. Quickly, I retreated to the exit, pausing to compose myself for my family. Even if I didn’t feel it, I had to look to be that pillar of strength that my family needed. I strode out the front door to the visible relief of Madi and Aimee, who had waited in the street with Jake. While their emotions were visible, my calm walk and easy smile was only an unbearable lie over the cracks that had begun to widen in my mind.
“That should last us a while,” I smiled, perhaps to widely to be convincing, as I reached the group.
“You okay?” Aimee asked.
“Oh, yeah, fine,” I said. “Just ready to keep moving. Let’s get out of here.” She could always tell when I was lying, too.
No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t forget what I had seen; lost in my thoughts I was surprised when I saw that night was suddenly upon us, and that we would have to choose between the lesser of many evils. In my mind, I started running through the buildings that we had seen, considering which might offer the most protection for the night- based on what we had seen so far, the pickings were slim. I thought of the handgun in my pocket and hoped that I wouldn’t need it- and if I did, the five precious rounds that I had left would most likely only stall the inevitable.
Five is enough
, I thought ironically…
there’s four of us.
We rounded the last street when we saw the woman’s house, recognizable from the story she had told. It was a welcome sight in the dim starlight. The home was surrounded by bodies, the perfect image of a last stand. They had fallen in waves, forming an unusual spiral that’s found when just one or two of the living are trying to defend all directions. The spiral tightened until we reached the wall of corpses- they had been held off here, for a long time, it seemed. Hundreds of still bodies had piled over each other, trying to reach the meal that was within, and formed a fleshly barrier as they were killed trying to reach the other side of the pile. The wall was surprisingly far from the house, clearly due to the skill of the shooter, so the house had held.
“I think she said the back door was open,” recalled Aimee.
We circled around to the back of the house and saw that the wall was unbroken. We didn’t have a choice; with Madi clinging to my back and Aimee clutching Jacob in her free hand, we made the disgusting and arduous climb over the uneven pile of flesh and gore. The climb was difficult- the bodies would shift as we moved over them- but we made it to the other side, not far from the back porch where tables, wooden chairs and a barbeque grill had been torn apart by the undead hands that had reached that far.
“Madi, I’m going to put you down next to Mommy. Keep your eyes shut until we’re all inside, okay?” I lowered her to her feet, which were unsteady from travel.
“Daddy… I had them open the whole time,” she said. “It doesn’t bother me anymore.” Perhaps, at one time, this would have been defiance; maybe she would have gotten a swat and sent to her room. But times, without a doubt, had changed.