Dead Living (5 page)

“They'll figure out how to get out
eventually,” he said. “What are we doing?”

An engine fired up in the parking lot. Denise
looked down to see Frank Kinkade sitting behind the wheel of a
minivan. He backed out of his parking spot, running over a dead
body as he did so.

“Frank!” she called. “Hey, Frank!”

He stopped the van and looked around. It took
him a moment to find the voice. He looked up at Denise.

“Can you give us a hand up here?”

Cop or not, Frank was tempted to drive away.
He wanted to live through whatever was happening. The more he
stopped to help people, the less of a chance that would happen. But
he saw Denise and the man whose name he didn't know in the waiting
room. They had another woman and a baby with them. He'd never
forgive himself if he didn't help.

“I'm gonna back up as close as I can,” he
shouted. “Hurry up!”

Frank parked under the roof close to the
front of the emergency room. Margie jumped on top of the van first
and accepted the baby from Denise. Denise was right behind her. Joe
was ready to make the leap when he saw Frank pull his gun and aim
right at Joe's head. He fired a single time. Joe flinched as the
round went past his ear and struck the creature between the eyes
behind him that managed to climb out the window.

“Hurry the fuck up!” Frank said.

The women made it inside the van first. A
creature shambled toward them from the waiting room as Joe landed
on the ground, but a shot from Frank dropped it.

Joe jumped in the side and shut the door. Six
creatures seemed to come out of nowhere. They pounded on the sides
and back, trailing blood across the van. A creature that used to be
a security guard lost its fingernails as it dragged them down the
side. The rear window cracked, sending spider-lines across the
glass. The baby was awake and crying in Margie's arms.

“Go, go, go!”

Frank hit the gas. He weaved his way in and
out of parked cars and ran through a row of bushes next to the
sidewalk. He drove past car accidents, creatures shambling through
the streets, people dying in the allies. Margie was in the front
seat, Joe, Denise, and the baby in the back. Everyone cried except
for Frank. He wanted to join them, but knew he had to keep his
composure, even after he saw his sister eating the hand of a doctor
in the intensive care.

The world is falling
apart,
he thought.

“Frank, thank you, thank you so much,” Denise
said. “Your sister?”

He didn't say anything, just shook his
head.

“I'm so sorry.”

Frank ignored her. “Look, everyone. I don't
know what's going on, but my grandfather used to have a house way
up in the woods in Cumberland. I'm going there. You guys can come
with me, or I can drop you off somewhere.”

“You're a police officer,” Denise said.
“You're just gonna run?”

He shot her a nasty look in the rear view
mirror. “I don't see you back there taking temperatures.”

She was quiet.

“Margie,” Joe said. He still had trouble
talking, but he had to know. “What happened?”

The memory was still fresh in her mind. She
wasn't sure if she could talk about it without breaking down.

“I lied, told them she was my sister, so I
could be there. Sarah . . . Sarah died. Doctor Blair, he tried his
best. But everything was screwed. There were people right outside
the delivery room, killing each other. She had an aneurysm or
something, right when he was born.”

She cried a moment. Denise put a hand on her
shoulder from the back seat.

“He was right in the middle of a C-section.
He told me I had to leave, but I wasn't going out there, not with
those things. He almost had the baby out when . . . when Sarah
reached up and bit Doctor Blair. She was dead, but she still got
up.” She paused a moment. “I-I cut the cord myself, grabbed the
baby, and hid in the bathroom. I could hear Sarah eating him just
outside the door. I think he got up too. They beat on the door.
They sounded so awful. Something would distract them, then they
would beat on it some more.”

Margie cried at the memory. The entire hour
she was in the bathroom she expected them to bust the door down and
kill her and the baby. She could hear people being attacked and
killed just outside in the hallway.

She remembered something Sarah said.

“Joe. Sarah, before he put her under for the
C-section, she said 'Tell Joe Aaron'. Do you know what that
means?”

He sobbed. Sarah and Joe came up with
hundreds of names for their baby over the past eight months. One of
the early ideas they liked, but shied away from later, were names
that could fit a boy or girl, like Aaron or Erin. Aaron had the
bonus of being the name of Joe's father, who Sarah adored as her
own before he died.

Joe held out his arms for his son. Denise
handed him over, and the baby stopped crying.

“It's okay, Aaron. I'll take great care of
you.”

Frank made it to the highway. It was almost
as bad as the streets near the hospital. Cars were on fire, dead
bodies on the shoulder of the road. He even had to maneuver his way
around a big rig that was on its side with its trailer blocking
most of the highway.

Everyone in the van was quiet. Frank didn't
like it, and turned on the radio.

Two deejays debated and theorized as they
took calls from several listeners.

“I'm telling you, these things are walking
dead bodies. My neighbor got bit by one, and I can see him now from
my kitchen window. He's just standing in his backyard wandering
around.”

“Yeah, I've heard the same thing here. It
looks like even people that are dying of natural causes are getting
back up. Only damaging the brain seems to do anything. I mean, what
is going on here?”

“You think it's a terrorist attack?”

“I doubt it. This is worldwide, and no one
has claimed responsibility. Maybe God's just pissed off at us.”

“Whatever it is, for anyone listening, just
stay inside. They're dangerous, but they don't seem that smart or
fast. I've had a few callers say they've seen a few that can run,
but not any faster than you or I. So please-”

They were cut off by the sound of glass
breaking.

“Andrea, are you okay? Oh my God-”

Those were the last words. Denise put a hand
to her mouth as they listened to two men dying over the air waves.
There were screams, then they turned into more of a liquid,
gargling sound as their throats were ripped open. They could hear
whoever Andrea was feasting.

“We're all gonna die,” Margie said.

Joe found strength, and it wasn't a mystery
where it came from. He looked at little Aaron, still sleeping in
his arms.

“We're not gonna die,” he
said. “We
will
get through this.”

“Amen to that,” Frank said. “I hope you guys
like the outdoors, cause that's where we're headed, at least until
this blows over.”

They continued on the highway in silence.
Each one of them pondered their future.

Frank was wrong.

It didn't blow over.

It didn't take long for the world to die. Two
weeks after the dead began to rise, the news stopped broadcasting
altogether. There were the assaults on supermarkets and department
stores. The power went out slowly across the world, as less and
less people were around to maintain the facilities that had spoiled
society for a century.

There was no stopping the walking dead. For
every person that died, there was one more walking corpse to avoid.
Even deep in the country and small towns, the dead walked. For
reasons that science was never able to determine, they didn't
decompose like normal corpses.

The living did just as
much damage as the dead. People killed each other for food and
supplies. The world of the dead brought out both the best and worst
in people. Unfortunately, the
worse
seemed to have the greater numbers.

Time passed, but for survivors, time was
meaningless. What did the passing of a day, a month, even a year,
matter to people surrounded by walking corpses?

A lot of time passed for Joe Thompson and his
new family.

Joe was in the middle of a nightmare. It was
a variation of a nightmare he had throughout the years. He was in
the middle of a busy city street, but he didn't know what city it
was. The walking dead surrounded him from every angle, building,
every alley. They were led by his wife Sarah. She wasn't a walking
corpse, like the others. She was alive and beautiful. As she got
closer she slowly decayed in front of his eyes, before shoving a
hand inside his stomach.

“Dad! Dad, wake up.”

Joe woke up with a start. He sat upright and
looked around. It was pitch black, but the familiar feel of the
couch under him told him he was in the living room, in his home for
the past fourteen years. His body told him it was late. The sheet
he'd taken in their last supply run felt good against his skin. He
couldn't see Aaron, but he knew where he was standing, right in the
hallway that led to the three bedrooms. Denise and Margie shared
one bedroom, while Frank and Aaron both had their own. Joe shared
with Aaron for a long time, but was more than happy to give it up
when Aaron wanted a little more independence.

“You alright, Dad?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah. Just having a bad dream. Nothing new,
I guess. Especially with Frank's cooking.”

Aaron laughed. “You want me to stay up with
you a while?”

Joe smiled in the dark. That was Aaron, a
caring soul. They'd all done their part in raising him, and he was
turning into a fine young man, even in the world they lived in.
Sadly, Joe didn't know how old his son was. Thirteen, maybe
fourteen years old.

“No, you go and get some sleep. We'll hit the
lake, bright and early. Catch us some breakfast.”

“Alright. Love you.”

“Love you too, son.”

Joe listened as his son walked down the hall
and back into his bedroom. All their ears had gotten sharper over
the years, especially at night with only candles and moonlight to
light the way. Aaron climbed into bed and shifted around for a
minute. It was quiet, until a male voice cut through the air.

“Hey Joe. You mind keeping it down out there?
Some of us who aren't pussies are trying to sleep.”

Joe smiled. “Bite me, Frank.”

The women laughed in their bedroom.

He stood up from the couch and stretched his
arms over his head. He knew he should try to get more sleep, but
after the nightmare, he wasn't quite ready to put head to pillow
just yet. He easily navigated around the coffee table and loveseat
and walked outside to the porch.

It was a beautiful night. The full moon hung
high over the lake that was just outside the house. Joe walked to
the edge of the dock and sat down, letting his toes touch the
surface of the water. The breeze felt great.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
The sounds of the lake and nature soothed him. Crickets chirped,
birds flew overhead, fish hopped out of the water. It was hard to
believe that just four miles away, in the nearby town, the corpses
walked the streets.

The corpses never wandered back into the
woods. Every now and then, a lone straggler would show up. But
Frank always thought it was just a hermit deep in the woods, and
not a sign of a corpse invasion. So far, he'd been right.

Joe didn't ever think he'd be the outdoors
type. All things considered, he liked their lifestyle. Fresh water
in the backyard, peace and quiet. Food could be a little rough.
There were times he thought he'd die if he ate one more fish. But
Margie did most of the cooking, and did a great job, even if she
hated lighting the grill.

It took them a while to get used to the
changes. Night was very black with no electricity. All the chores
had to get done before sunset, or they didn't get done. Sleep
schedules changed, no more sleeping in till mid-morning. Everyone
was up at dawn. When supplies ran low, they had to brave the nearby
town to get the things they needed. They hadn't driven the van in
years, relying on bikes for transportation.

Their new life could be hard. But they were
alive.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He didn't
even hear her coming. His heart skipped a beat as he turned and saw
Denise. The moonlight hid certain parts of her while giving a gray
hue to others. She wore her favorite summer nightgown, and looked
great.

“Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.”

He laughed. “It's okay. Just enjoying the
night air.”

“Want some company?”

“Sure.”

She sat next to him. Joe was suddenly
conscious of what he was wearing, which was just a pair of shorts.
Her nightgown rode up her legs a little, and Joe caught himself
trying to steal a look at them.

“I couldn't sleep,” he said.

Denise had the hint of a smile. “Yeah, we
heard.”

“Sorry if I kept you up.”

“Look Joe. If you want we can take turns on
the couch. I don't mind at all.”

“No, I'm fine. But thank you.”

They were quiet for a moment. Joe enjoyed
watching the moonlight bounce off the ripples in the lake. He
enjoyed spending time with Denise, more than he admitted. He owed
her a lot. Not just for saving his life, but Aaron wouldn't be who
he was without her.

“It's gonna get cold soon. I'll start working
on some wood tomorrow.”

She nodded. “We might have to head to town
soon too. Some of our blankets are falling apart.”

Denise scooted an inch closer and carefully
leaned her head on his shoulder. The closeness made Joe's heart
pound just a little harder.

She wasn't sure when she
fell in love with him. She had long arguments with herself that it
even
was
love.