Our Undead (62 page)

The daughter sees something
moving in her peripheral to her right and checks it. Coming out of
the alley on the other side of the building are more zombies, four
of them, and they are heading right for them. The daughter yells at
her parents to stop banging on the door and look at what is coming.
The father is unsure if they can take four of the monsters,
especially with his injury, so he makes a quick decision, telling
his family to follow him. They do, as he heads backward and turns
up the other alley, the same one they had just been attacked from.
It is empty now. No zombies or people can be seen in it all the way
through to the other end, but the father is looking for neither of
those things.

He eventually finds what he
is looking for, the lifeline of a side door to the hostel. He runs
over to it and starts up again with the banging, using his shovel
to pound on its metal. His wife and daughter join in again, as
well, but it isn't too long before the four zombies that are
stalking them, turn the corner and start coming down the alley for
them. When they look to be getting too close, the father steps in
front of them and readies his shovel to defend his own, but ends up
not having to. Someone answers their prayers and opens the
door.

A young girl opens it. She
has the same blonde hair as the daughter, just a little dirtier and
a little longer. They both look about the same age. Their female
savior opens the door up wider for them to come in, and the
daughter calls out to her father, who is still waiting for the
zombies. He turns and runs to the door. They all thank the girl as
they enter, grateful that she may have just saved their
lives.

The hostel's occupancy is
already quite crowded. They figure it is mostly made up of people
who were staying there before the outbreak began, but they also
realize that they couldn't possibly be the first people on the run
to check and see if the hostel is a safe place to stay. As they
walk through a crowded room of people led by their savior, the
family takes in how many of these people are huddled together. Some
are crying together, some speaking with each other normally, and
some people completely by themselves. It's seems safe for the most
part, the perfect sanctuary they could stay in for a day or
two.

Someone from the crowd sees
the family being led through the room and notices the father
nursing his arm. The riled up man stands up and points at them,
yelling out for everyone to beware of the bitten man, that he and
his family should be sent out before they kill everyone. Everybody
in the room goes on about their own business, not bothering to heed
the loud man's words. Nonetheless, it is still very embarrassing
for the family. The girl that let them in assures them that it's
all right and leads them out of the main hall.

She takes them through a
series of hallways, and they end up in a room. The girl flicks the
lights on and welcomes them in. It's a small room, with only a
single bed, a couple of bedside tables, a dresser drawer and a
chair. It isn't much, but it's the best this hostel has to give.
They thank the girl, and she excuses herself, leaving the family to
be alone.

The father wretches in the
pain of his arm, and his wife and daughter urge him to lie down,
taking the shovel out of his hands. His legs wobble slightly, while
walking over to it, and when he sits down, his face breaks out into
a cold sweat. The color is drained from it already, replaced with
hundreds of the tiniest little sweat beads. His wife takes his
dress shirt, shoes and socks off, and lies him down. He takes a few
deep breaths, trying to keep hold of his orientation while his
ladies stand beside the bed not knowing what to do. The wife tells
her daughter something, and then leaves the room.

Alone with her father, she
places the family portrait on the bedside table, takes the room's
only chair and sits by his side. Tears begin to well up in her
eyes, and her father says something to her, trying to reassure her
that things will turn out fine. She takes his hand in both of hers
and weeps, praying inside that things will be okay. But they never
get better.

For the next three days,
his wife and daughter never leave his side. At night, they sleep
cuddled together on the floor, and by day, they sit by his side.
The girl who had let them in is kind enough to bring them an extra
chair, as well as some bandages and any sort of medicine she can
find that might help ease their man's suffering. They wrap up his
wound and give him what painkillers they can, but with each passing
hour, the father's condition gets worse. He develops a cough and
his complexion continues to fade even more.

On the second day, he
begins vomiting a dark brownish spit up. They are able to get a
bucket for him, but half the time, his throw up comes without
warning and he gets a lot on himself anyway. By the evening, he can
no longer speak. He tries to say things, tries to tell his wife and
daughter everything he's had neglected to tell them when he was
well, but he can't get the words to sound right. His girl's try to
but can't understand him, so they tell him to be quiet and just
rest. As painful as it is to quiet his last few words, they don't
want him to stress himself out. The family photo of the three of
them sits out in the open on the bedside table, a reminder of how
good things used to be. This night, all of the lights in the hostel
are cut-off.

On the third day, the father doesn't open his eyes in the
morning. His wife and daughter don't bother to wake him, although,
they know he is alive because of his breathing, which is so shallow
that they don't notice it stop five hours later. They spend this
third day with him until a commotion starts up somewhere inside the
hostel. The wife goes to figure out what all the noise is about and
tells her daughter to stay with her dad. Alone in the room, the
weeping girl takes her father's hand again and starts talking. She
spills her guts about everything, confessing and apologizing to his
body everything she had ever held inside. She lets it all out, but
doesn't get the chance to finish before a frenzied man stops at her
room's door and yells at her.
"There has
been a breach."
The daughter doesn't know
what to do. Should she stay with her father or go see if her mother
is okay? She looks to her right and sees the framed picture of her
and her family resting on the bedside table. She picks it up and
absorbs it. In her heart she knows that this will be the last time
she sees her family happy, but no matter what happens, she wants
her father to know that they will be together always and forever.
She decides to go and find her mother, but before she leaves, she
slips the picture out of the frame and stuffs it into the pocket of
her father's dress pants. Standing at the door, she looks back at
her father and blows him a kiss, then empties the doorframe in
search of her mother.

SUHH SUHH, EYE TO EYE

Alarms and a siren wail in
chorus. General Feleider didn't have to shoot any of the members of
The Mav-Elite to stop Sharp and Holden from fighting. The loud
popping of his gun is enough to get everyone's attention. It jolts
everyone in Laboratory D-9 to a stop. All eyes are on Feleider, and
the moment of peace gives Kerrick the opportunity to pull Sharp off
of Holden. He pushes him away, and Holden gets back up to his
feet.

Margaret:
ABE!!!!!!!!

From the General,
everyone's eyes shift to the screaming girl, and then to the
infected test subject, still attached to the lifted observation
bed. General Feleider's bullet had found its home in the zombie's
skull. Abe's head hangs loosely in front of him, still partly
upright due to his neck's harness. Billy can't believe what he is
seeing. In the beginning, it seemed strange to befriend a zombie,
even to just be around one without immediately wanting to kill it
or have it try to kill him, but as he got to know Abe, all of that
changed. On their journey, Billy found that he could actually have
some sympathy for the monster, but now that Abe has been killed,
his heart overflows with it. And then, he remembers that someone
cares for Abe much more than him.

He looks to his friend and
her face is just as in shock as everybody else's. She stares,
unblinking at Abe's hanging body, no longer undead, but truly
deceased. Her eyes become glassy, but no tears fall from them. It
is a wonder with the emotional turmoil she feels inside, and now,
the stinging ache developing in her throat. Her body shakes with
disbelief, and Billy fears how she might react.

Feleider:
That's more like it.
Holden,
come!

Margaret:
I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!

Her sleeping rage awakens,
as she takes one leaping swing on her crutches over to General
Feleider and throws a right jab. The General tries to dodge it in
time and shoot her, but the flat base of her crutch lands deep into
his neck and sends him stumbling backward. He coughs harshly and
tries to catch his breath, rubbing at his neck with his free hand.
That was the last thing he expected to happen, but it had. There is
no way in hell he can let her get away with such misbehavior. She
tries to charge after him again, but Billy gets a hold of
her.

Feleider:
You're going to regret doing that for the next two and a half
seconds. After that, you'll be dead.

He takes aim at
Margaret.

Erika:
You
pull that trigger, and you'll be dead half a second
later.

The General looks to the
side and clears his throat at the gun Erika has locked on him. He
decides to lower his own.

Feleider:
All right! I don't have time for this.
Holden!

This time, he turns away
safely and walks for the door. Margaret fights with Billy to let
her go, but he manages to keep her from chasing after him. She
begins to settle down, but only after he exits the room. Holden
follows behind him. His disappointed teammates watch him
leave.

Erika:
We'd better start making some moves ourselves,
people!!!

Bernard:
She's right! We have to make our way to the lifts before it's
too late! We can take the carts outside!

Everyone heads for the door
except for Margaret, Billy and Gwen. The grieving girl shrugs Billy
off of her and limps over to where Abe's dead body is hanging. Gwen
and Billy follow behind her. Erika waits by the exit to make sure
that everything is all right, but a reaffirming nod from Gwen let's
her know that it's okay for her to wait outside.

Gwen:
Margaret, honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to
happen.

Margaret ignores her. She
stops in front of Abe and looks up at him. It's funny how this
moment reminds her of the very first days of meeting him. She
remembers in the cabin how lost his eyes looked. They were alive
and wild with no real direction, just mostly in hers for wanting to
eat her. They were lifeless looking. Over the time they spent
together, she noticed that they had changed. They were still grey,
but had acquired a glimmer somewhere along the way, like there was
something inside of him that appreciated again. It was like he had
regained a small piece of his humanity, of his lost life. Margaret,
she felt, had helped him achieve it, and maybe he would have
improved even further over time, but now she would never know. She
looks up at his eyes, and they look the same as the day they first
met, lifeless and empty. It becomes too much for her, and she
breaks down into tears.

Gwen:
Dear, it'll be okay. I promise you, I won't stop trying to
find a cure, but in order for the fight to continue, we need to
leave, right
now
.

The sound of Gwen's voice
has the opposite effect on Margaret than the professor expects it
to have. The tears stop coming, and the sadness dwindles away.
Being sad, being scared, those were exactly the emotions that were
the cause for everything bad happening in her life. She remembers
her promise to Abe and Billy, to her late parents, that she
wouldn't be so blindly fearful anymore. She had failed moments ago
when she hadn't forced Gwen to lower the goddamn bed. If she had
just made sure, instead of constantly getting swept back into the
General's bullshit, Abe would still be alive, at least, conscious.
She looks back up at Abe and starts getting angry. Her grips
tighten around her forearm crutches' handles, whitening her
knuckles while everywhere else on her body begins to glow red, and
then she drops her gaze to the floor, breathing intensely. Billy
notices the emotional shift, so he calmly addresses it.

Billy:
Margaret, we have to go. Don't let it end here. You made a
promise to us both.

It's Billy's voice that has
the desired effect. The sound of it brings Margaret back down to
earth, and he knows it by the way her rate of breathing slows
again. He places a hand on her shoulder to let her know that
there's someone still around to care for, who cares for her very
much. She looks at him briefly but says nothing, just looks back to
the floor. Erika calls out to them from the door.

Erika:
I
don't mean to be a bitch, but if we want to live, we
really
have to
go!