Decaying Humanity (13 page)

    “Told you … assholes,” Desmond said.

    I just stood there with my hand resting on the top of my head in disbelief.

    “We’ll be okay, Jim,” Desmond said patting me on the back.

    “I fix,” Pablo said and went to grab his tools.

    “What happened to the gate?” Shay asked, coming up from behind us.

    “Where were you?” I asked.

    “I stepped out back for a minute. I’m not a fan of big brother,” she responded.

    “Are you that girl?” I asked.

    “You don’t trust me?” she asked offended.

    “I do trust you. I just … just if you ever had a secret, I hope you would trust me enough to know that I would never leave you. No matter what.”

    That night we didn’t indulge ourselves like we had been recently. She lay in the bed facing away from me and I stared at the ceiling. Why wouldn’t she just tell me if she was wanted from the Army? I would protect her from danger, but I needed to know the truth. Why would she hide it from me? I thought about this the whole night and it was almost as though she could feel my concern, like it was wafting in the air. She tossed and turned until I finally fell asleep.

    Everyone was on edge as things seemed to get worse. Each day turned to night and night into day as the lack of food, boredom, and fear began to take its toll on our ragged little family. We had all gathered that day for lunch. A single granola bar, a spoonful of whey protein, and a snack size bag of chips was split between five people. That night had been the first time we didn’t gather around the card table for dinner. My stomach hurt and I knew tomorrow we would have to choose what kind of people we were.

    Pablo had done his best to repair the gate with a couple dissected wooden pallets from the back lot. It would hold out zombies, but anyone with a hammer or truck could have it apart in a minute. Beneath all of my worries, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that Shay was hiding something that could kill us all.

    Shay and I retired to our room for another night of silence. Desmond, who was holding down his end of the fort, better than I, had taken up the night shift voluntarily.     

    “I can’t sleep. I’m going to check on Desmond,” I whispered.

    Shay didn’t respond and instead made a soft grunt and rolled over, stealing nearly all the sheets. I effortlessly made my way out of the pitch black room. My world had grown much smaller and I knew my way around the motel in the dark better than any other place in the light. I got to the hallway and peeked out the window. I couldn’t see Desmond, so I made my way outside.

    When I entered the courtyard, I could see the moon reflecting off the rippled surface of the pool which stirred slightly from a gentle breeze. Desmond was nowhere to be seen.

    “Dez! Desmond!” I called out in a raised whisper. I walked over to the fence and surveyed the area. I called out to him again, and this time I heard his voice in the distance.

    “I almost had it, I chased that thinker. It led me into an ambush. I killed six before I finally got away. Damn this disappeared on me,” he yelled from across the street.

    “What? You should have got me.” There was a faint humming sound coming from somewhere and I looked around trying to identify it.

    That sound got louder and louder and it finally registered. It was the sound of a truck engine. “Truck!” I yelled at him    

    He turned his head, saw the vehicle and hesitated on which direction to go. The truck turned on its lights and purposely swerved to hit Desmond as he ducked away too late. The red truck slammed into him, going easily over 30 mph. There was a loud crunch as it sent Desmond hurdling through the air. A white truck pulled up beside the first one. From what I could see, they were full of people. I ducked behind the pallet gate and began to panic. I grabbed at my belt and realized that I had left the pistol on the nightstand beside Shay. The only thing I had were the two machetes, which were always on my belt. I wanted to jump out and do some ninja attacks, but unlike Peter, I was not a ninja.

    There was the sound of doors opening and multiple voices.

    “I got one,” said a gruff voice.

    “These are the bastards that killed Tommy. See, there is his truck over there,” another voice said. I put my head down in shame. How could I have left it in the open like that?

    “Is he alive?” one of the voices asked.

    “Yeah, look at ‘em, it’s a wonder our airbags didn’t go off.”

    My brain started a war with itself like always. One side kept telling me,
“You have to save him.”
While the other side told me, “
You have no weapons and there are at least six armed men a good distance from you. Don’t bring a machete to a gunfight.”

    “Put him in the truck, we need more scarecrows anyways,” one voice instructed.

    What the hell was a scarecrow? I’m not a coward; my choice to hang back was merely tactical. I had to keep telling myself that as I slipped through the shadows around the pool and back to the front door.

    “
Desmond, I swear I will save you.”

    “Light ‘em up, we’re done with these motellers.”

    I was almost at the door when their two spotlights kicked on. What was it with these people and their spotlights? Except, I soon learned that
light ‘em up
, had nothing to do with spotlights as they proceeded to unload their weapons in my direction. I dove inside and slammed the door behind me. Bullets were whizzing everywhere and I could hear them cracking through the studs in the wall. I dropped to the floor and yelled, “Raiders!” as loud as I could. It was doubtful that anyone needed my announcement, but it still seemed mandatory. I started to crawl towards Shay’s room to get the pistol and defend her.

    Pablo was shouting what I could only imagine were obscenities from his room. He came out of his room rolling a wooden table that had been plated with sheets of metal. It looked like metal he found off the ice machine and other random things. He propped it near his window and squatted behind it, gripping the rifle. The table-shield was large enough for everyone to fit behind and he motioned for me to join him. “Not yet!” I shouted.

    I continued to crawl towards Shay’s room and she came out of the room staying low to the ground. She held the pistol and fired it three times out the hole in the window. These boards on the window were meant to keep zombies from crawling in; they wouldn’t stop bullets. Tiny pillars of light were shining through the multitude of holes in the wall. Their gunshots were relentlessly tearing and penetrating our walls. Some even punched through to the wall behind me. The volume was tremendous and I felt as though I would go deaf.

    “Shay get behind the … Pablo shield,” I said to her as she sent two more shots out the window.

    “Not yet. Where is Peter?” she yelled through the crash of gunfire and splintering wood.

    We were firing completely blind into the light. They had us pinned down. I just kept thinking about the sniper across the street. Three shots man, that’s all I’m asking for. Our neighbors offered no help and I realized we were alone. The lifeguards had left the beach.

    “I’m going for Peter,” I said.

    “Where is Dez?” Shay asked firing the remaining rounds from her clip.

    “They took him,” I yelled back.

    Shay’s face immediately turned sullen and her eyes seemed to grow darker. Her face contorted into a sneer I hadn’t seen before. She slammed a fresh magazine in and began firing madly out the window.

    “Peter! Stay down, get under the bed. Peter!” I cried out. There he stood in the doorway holding his pillow tightly. “Peter, get down!”

    “They’re in the courtyard!” Shay shouted.

    Peter looked at me with pure terror in his eyes. A bullet cut through the window blowing glass shards all over me and punching through a wooden stud in the wall behind me. It sent splinters spiraling onto the floor. Peter was standing there unmoving, a wet spot forming in his superhero pajamas.

    “GET DOWN!” I screamed as loud as I could.

    “I’m scared,” Peter said clenching his pillow.

    Then in an instant, there were white tufts of stuffing floating across the room. The stuffing danced between the beams of light that needled the hallway. There Peter stood, clutching the exploded pillow, red soaked fuzz balls falling onto the floor like snow. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed on the floor, the pillow falling to the side. The wound, God it wasn’t even a wound, it was just a crater. He must have been hit with a high caliber slug, because his poor little body was devastated.

    “PETER, NOOO!” I screamed as the realization set in.

    Shay bolted over and fell at his feet. She just kept repeating
no
, over and over under her breath. My heroic urge finally kicked in and I felt a stupid power wash over me. That power came from accepting that we were all going to die in a hail of bullets. That realization sent me over the edge.

    I reached for Shay’s pistol. As I did, her voice, repeating the word
no,
grew hoarse and terrifying. I removed the pistol from her grip, but as she turned her head towards me, I caught a glimpse of something monstrous. It was dark and I couldn’t make out the exact features, but her face had contorted into something inhuman. I could only turn my focus back to our attackers, all the while asking myself,
“What the hell was that?”

    I braced myself in the window frame and started shooting at the men moving across the courtyard. Shay put her hand on my shoulder and threw me back as if I were weightless. I flew off my feet and into the sheetrock behind me. I created a sizable dent into the wall and fell to the floor somewhat dazed. Shay launched herself through the window like a rocket, effortlessly shattering the remaining glass and boards into confetti. There was a brief pause in the shooting and then it started again. There was screaming, squealing tires, and gunshots ringing out in a haunting chorus.

    I started to drag myself to the window. The sound of gunfire disappeared completely and there was an eerie silence that followed. I got on all fours and began to pick myself up when something pulled at my shoe. I darted my eyes back to see Peter grabbing my shoe and chewing at the air.
“Please don’t make me do this,”
I thought to myself. I kicked at his small head, knocking his grip lose. His blond hair was stuck, matted to his face as he loosed a high pitched moan. I took the machete in my hand, sighed sadly and swung down at the top of his head. Shay had been right, we all turn in death.

    The screams had died down and I dragged myself to the front door. Pablo was paralyzed in fear behind his shield. His rifle was rattling up against the table and he continued to pull the trigger despite the weapon being out of ammo. I put my hand on his shoulder for a second before stepping outside to see one of the vehicle-mounted spotlights hanging loosely from its mount. The other truck hadn’t made it very far. The door had been ripped off of its hinges and blood and body parts littered the road. Centered in the courtyard was a creature with long sharp fingers, digging into a dead man’s head like his skull was a candy bowl. I froze in place. The creature surrounded by shattered bodies was wearing little black shorts and a bloody white undershirt. I took a step forward and whimpered her name, “Shay?”

    The monster spun around to look at me with blood-red eyes and a protruding jaw. I was terrified, but underneath that horrible beast I could still see
her
. Her veins ran black under her skin. Within seconds they began to fade and she started to transform back into her old self.

    “Shay, it’s me. Everything is going to be okay.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Her hands cracked and bent as they returned to their original dainty form. She uttered a short cry of pain and looked down at her bloody hands. In her lap was the desecrated corpse of a middle aged man. Her head dropped down and she began crying quietly in the darkness.

    I stepped out of the doorframe and called out to her. “Shay, come inside. I’ve got you now.” Then I heard nervous mutterings, coming from behind me. I spun around just as a shorter man in a green T-shirt and jeans fired a pistol into my chest.

    One, two, three the bullets tore through me. I could feel the air escaping my lungs. I jerked the trigger on my pistol as I dropped to one knee. For a moment we exchanged bullets and soon he dropped his gun and fell against the wall of the motel. I struggled to breath and a warm river of blood ran down my chest. I started to see bright sparkling orbs that danced across my vision.

    Pablo came around the door and put the rifle to the injured man’s head and with one thundering shot, sent his brains sailing out the back of his skull.

    “Pablo, I, ugh, Shay, where is she?” I tried to mutter as I lost my balance and fell onto my back. I instinctively touched at the gunshot wounds and then held my fingers in front of my face. They were painted red with my own blood. My head grew hot and everything started to spin. The urge to vomit came on strong.

    “Shay! Shay! Help!” Pablo yelled out.

    I started to black out and felt a firm slap across my face. “Don’t you dare die,” Shay screamed as she held me up with both hands. Tears were streaming down her face.

    “I don’t want to. I’d miss you too much.”

    Shay looked around frantically in the dark and then Pablo ran up to her with the medical kit. I chuckled hoarsely at the attempt and smiled weakly. “I don’t think bandages are going to … cut it this time.”

    “You just hang in there, I’m going to save you,” she said while rooting through the kit.

    The edges of my vision had gone black and the darkness started to creep in on me. I kept her in the center of my vision as everything else began to fade away. “Shay, I want to tell you…”

    “Shut up!” she screamed. “Where is it? Where is it?” she said to herself flinging supplies out.