Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying (11 page)

Jim swerved nearly hitting a deader
that was stumbling down the road. He wanted to yell at the thing.
To tell it to get the hell out of the road, but it would’ve been
useless.

A few more deaders were in the
distance—nothing more than shadows wearing shredded clothes and
dragging swollen feet along the warming asphalt. The sun glistening
behind the dead things—a big warm ball of hope that made everything
seem normal with its presence. But this was anything but. This was
certainly something new under the sun.

They rounded the corner and Sarah
could see the school in the distance. The sun glinting off the
flagpole, and the aluminum flashing around the edge of the roof.
But where was the sun glinting off the cars and trucks that formed
the convoy? There was only one truck left—a simple box truck. Where
were the others? Sarah’s mind reeled and her stomach felt
sick.

They left.

They left her.

“
No…”

“
What? This is the school
you meant, right?”

“
Yeah, this is the school,
but they left. They fucking left me!”

Jim didn’t know what to say. He
continued to drive.

“
They left me for
dead.”

“
Maybe they thought you
were dead.”

As they came upon the school she could
see she was wrong. There was another car that had been blocked by
the truck. They pulled over to it.

“
Holy shit.”

“
Oh, God…oh, my god.” Sarah
cried.

Inside the car was a dead little girl
reaching her hands through the driver’s side window in a futile
attempt to get out. She was pale, but aside from her complexion,
the bullet in her throat and the dried blood that covered her body
she looked alive. Sarah recognized her. She couldn’t remember the
kid’s name, but she knew her face. She stared into the kid’s eyes
and cried.

“
Go.”

“
Go where?”

“
Just go back to your
place.”

“
What about
her?”

“
Do you want to go put her
out of her misery?”

“
I…no, no I don’t want to
do that.”

“
Then just go, if we had a
gun I would put her down, but I don’t. So just go already,
okay?”

With that, he drove away.

Sarah didn’t have to turn around to
see the lifeless little girl staring through the grimy
glass.

“
Do you want to try and
catch up with your group?”

“
We’d just get lost. We’ll
never find them. They could be hours away by now. We’re better off
just laying low at your place till we can think of something
better.”

“
Okay, yeah,
sure.”

“
Are you okay with
that?”

“
Yeah, it’s been working
out just fine for me. I was just excited to hook up and get the
hell out of here you know?”

“
I can imagine. I’d
probably’ve lost my mind had I been stuck at home alone through all
this.”

Jim remained silent as the bad
thoughts invaded his mind again. He’d never acted on any of his
darker impulses before, but the reasons not too seemed nonexistent
at the moment.

They arrived back at Jim’s house
without incident and managed to get inside without drawing too much
attention. The street was empty of deaders and the last few they
drove past were too far away to follow them with any sort of
precision, though they had no problem figuring out where people
were. Sarah would say they were drawn to people—some sort of
instinct.

“
Think we should leave the
food and stuff in the car?”

“
Yeah, never know when we
might need to get out in a hurry.”

“
That’s smart.”

Sarah opened the door and entered the
home, “We should check the window.”

“
Go ahead. I’m right behind
you.”

14
MASHED BRAINS

(back to top)

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
Scrrrtttttch.

A police officer in a filthy blue
uniform dragged his shredded leg along the street. His uniform
sported many a tears that framed bite marks and gouged flesh. His
leg was mostly bone and thin slivers of muscle tissue with the
frayed ends of veins dangling with each step.

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
Scrrrtttttch.

The soles of his dress blacks looked
chewed as well, but it was simply the wear and tear from dragging
along the blacktop. He walked with a hunch, as if he could fall
over at any moment and his left hand twitched erratically. His
right hand was missing most of its digits and at a distance it
looked like a red stump.

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
Scrrrtttttch.

His face was mostly intact aside from
a large chunk of meat missing from his cheek and jaw line. It
looked like a bear could’ve just taken one swat and ripped it right
off. His pallor was waning to a steely gray color like the tie clip
that still held his dark blue blood covered tie in
place.

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
Scrrrtttttch.

“
What’s that
noise?”

“
Heads up. Sounds like a
deader around.

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.

“
I think I see
‘em.”

“
Scott! Right
there.”

“
Oh, shit. I got
it.”

Scott retrieved a crowbar from the car
and jogged over to it as it shambled closer.

Scrrrtttttch. Scrrrtttttch.
Scrrrtttttch.

He swung the crowbar over his head and
down onto the shoulder of the deader. The man in blue went hard to
the ground. His ravaged leg giving way immediately to the blow. The
dead thing continued to crawl forward as if it meant to drop to the
ground and nearly grabbed Scott by the foot as he smashed the
crowbar down on the deader’s head.

A wet cracking noise filled the air as
Scott brought the bar back up to swing again. Another hit and a
hole formed in the back of the dead man’s head. Gooey blood and a
lump of mashed brain oozed out of the hole and onto the
street.

Scott pushed the dead thing with the
crowbar. Aside from its twitching it seemed to be dead
again.

“
I think we should wrap up
our little break and get back on the road. Agreed?”

“
Yeah, let’s get the fuck
out of here.”

As everyone dispersed to their
vehicles more of the shambling dead appeared from off the road and
out of the catacombs of vehicles that clogged the roads.

“
Looks like we started
moving just in time,” Frankie pointed out, almost
unemotionally.

“
Holy shit,” Eddie said,
“Let’s move! There’s a bunch more.”

Alexis hurried the kids to the car,
Carrie ran past them, knocking Stacey to the ground and jumped into
the passenger’s side without so much as a care. Abdul stood in the
street waiting for the kids to get in before he started the truck.
When he soon did, he gave Carrie the look of death. His patience
with her was starting to wane. She seemed unimpressed.

Janice looked out the window, wishing
she’d been outside and within reach of the terrible dead things.
She closed her eyes, almost wincing from the guilt she felt from
the thought. She didn’t want to feel this way—she didn’t want die,
but she knew she couldn’t really live anymore.

Joseph saw the look on her face.
Figuring she was simply upset at the sight of the dead things he
put her arm around her and tried to comfort her.

“
It’s okay mom. They can’t
get us. We’re moving.”

“
I know, honey, I
know…”

But she wanted them to touch her. She
wanted them to pull her down and rip her to shreds so she could
feel what the broken pieces of her family felt and so that she
could be with them again.

Jon-Jon pushed the pedal down hard and
started to make up for the time lost pissing and bitching on the
side of the road.

The dead things disappeared in the
dust kicked up by spinning tires.

The dead man in blue continued to
twitch, like a car in the dead of winter failing to
start.

15 OLD MAN
MOMENT

(back to
top)

A fuzzy orange sun started to rise up
above the horizon. The sky looked like a set of melted crayons,
streaky hot wax being pulled and pushed into a pleasing morning
light.

Walter sat on the stoop, drinking
water from a coffee cup, and staring at the dead things shambling
around.

Where were they going? Why did they
want to eat us? Why are they here? What have we done?

No one answered his questions and the
dead began to notice him, shifting on stiff legs to change their
direction.

“
Yeah, come on over boys. I
still got plenty of fight left in me,” Walter said, putting down
his glass and reaching for the bat.

He began walking toward them, hunched
over like a predator, bat held off to the side ready to strike. His
knees clicked as he walked. His neck grew tight. He cursed his
aging body.

The dead thing was in
reach.

Walter swung the bat. It connected
with the dead things neck and sent it reeling off to the side, but
it didn’t fall. Before it could steady itself Walter struck the
dead thing again. This time it went down.

A few other deaders began to shamble
closer.

Walter put his foot on the throat of
the dead thing, pinning it to the ground. Its dead fingers wrapped
around his foot. It was trying to pull his foot closer to its dead,
dry mouth.

“
What do you want from
us?”

It gave no answer.

“
Is there anyone home in
there?” Walter asked, tapping the bat on the dead things
head.

Still, no answer.

The other deaders were getting closer,
but Walter couldn’t take his eyes off the one under his foot. He
was studying it. Searching for something in its eyes, but there was
nothing to find.

There was no shred of humanity. No
emotion. Nothing. Just reanimated flesh. Lifeless limbs that
mimicked man, a puppeteer’s creation come alive with no use for its
strings and all fluidity lost.

“
Dad! What the hell are you
doing?”

Walter took the bat, raising it above
his head and brought it down full force into the top of the dead
things head. It’s head exploded from the impact and black blood
spattered up Walter’s pant legs.

“
Just talking to the
neighbors, sweetheart. You have the rifle?”

“
Of course I
do.”

“
Well what are you waiting
for? I could use a hand.”

“
You come out here like
this by yourself again and I’ll shoot you.”

“
Promise?”

“
Promise.”

“
Atta girl.”

Barbara took aim and fired. She hit
one in the stomach. Another shot and she missed. Walter took down
another.

The shots brought Jeff and Maria to
the door. Jeff grabbed a spade shovel and ran to his father’s side.
Maria watched in admiration as Barbara held the rifle and took aim
at the deaders. She took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger.
The kickback rocked her entire frame. The bullet tore through the
throat of one of the dead things. Jeff finished it off.

They stood among the scattering of
dead again twitching bodies.

“
What were you thinking
doing this by yourself?”

“
I wasn’t. I was having one
of my old man moments, okay. Just leave it.”

“
Fine, but you know it was
stupid, right?”

“
Leave it.”

“
Fine.”

“
So, I’m thinking…maybe we
should start burning these things. We’re asking for disease if we
just leave them here.”

“
Agreed, but that’s going
to be disgusting. Do you think the fire would draw more of them
here?”

“
No more than the rifle
will, I’d think.”

“
Can it wait till we’re
done scavenging?”

“
Sure can. Will do it
tomorrow. Since we’re all up, maybe we should get started with
that, eh?”

“
Guess we should. Also, I
want to get the kids outside for a little bit.”

“
I’ve been thinking about
that too.”

“
How so?”

“
Well, I think Davis had a
good idea about walling off the town. Maybe he was thinking too big
too soon. I don’t know, but what I do know is that we can fence off
the house. It’d give us a buffer; make things harder for the
deaders for sure. And it would allow us to take the kids outside
without having to worry so much. I know they need it—hell we all
need it. They’re getting cooped up and running amuck
inside.”