Stay Dead: A Novel (19 page)

It was just like in the movies, dirt covered hands
reaching up from out of the ground. Insanity! Sal thought, but they
were all seeing it. This was not sitting well with Sal. This had to
be something more than a virus, or a disease, he thought. It had to
be God…or the Devil. It had to mean the beginning of the end. It
had to, he thought.

Sal stepped out of the car and walked over to the
tall iron gates that served as the entrance to the cemetery. After
their initial search of the grounds weeks ago the police had locked
the gate with a chain which still held. The dead things clawed at
it and as Sal approached the gate, they reached for him too, their
skin ripping as they did so. He stood staring at them for a moment,
half expecting to see his parents, both of which were buried there,
and was slightly relieved when he didn’t. He unclipped his
walkie-talkie.

“
Sheriff, we got ourselves a
little situation,” Sal said.

Sal stood waiting for a reply as he stared past the
gate looking for his parents and praying he wouldn’t find them,
praying that they were at peace and didn’t want to rise up against
the living. Sal wasn’t much for praying, usually only when
something bad had the possibility of happening. Faith has a way of
showing up when people need it, and it has a way of disappearing
when they don’t.

“
Kinda busy…what’s up,” Davis
responded.

“
Dead people at the cemetery,” Sal
mumbled.

“
That’s where they should
be.”

“
Yeah, well, they’re coming up
from the fucking ground.”

“
Fuck.”

“
Yep.”

***

Davis handed Angus the needle. His belt was wrapped
tight around his wrinkled old arm, the tail of it pulled taught
from his mouth. His arthritic hand quenched in a fist while the
other shakily took the needle from Davis. They sat on the tail of
Davis’ truck under a streetlight near the edge of town. Angus
pushed the needle into his vein and pressed its contents into his
blood. He opened his mouth and the belt around his arm loosened.
His head tilted back and he moaned a sigh of pleasure. Davis moved
away as Angus began to spasm. His breathing became labored and he
went into shock. He fell off the truck and spasmed on the ground.
Davis drew his handgun and fired into the man’s head. He waited,
and moments later as Angus began moving again Davis fired again,
and again, and again.

CHAPTER 1
9: Moths to the
flame

When Davis showed up at Mourningside Cemetery Sal
had managed to contain the long dead within the cemetery yards.
With the help of the two stoners he went around the outside of the
grounds and found a few holes in the fence. The concrete walls,
though, looked fine. He kept rope in the trunk of his cruiser, and
used it to tie together the severed ends of the fence as best he
could. It would help for a little while, but the dead things would
eventually tear through it—he’d deal with that when the time
came.

Through their trek around the grounds they came
across the dead thing that had startled the two stoners earlier.
This time the deader was accompanied by two companions who looked
no better for wear. Sal had emptied a full clip into their heads,
but they continued to stumble forward with chunks of head and face
missing. He reloaded and attempted to shoot them some more.

“
It’s not working, man,” Brian
began to shout.

Sal snapped back at him. “No shit, kid.”

“
Fuck, oh, fuck, what’re we gonna
do now,” Teets added.

“
Shut the fuck up,” Sal yelled,
emptying the rest of his clip into the dead trio’s
heads.

“
We got to burn ‘em up,” Sal said,
almost to himself.

Davis came with the only two flame-throwers he had
in the armory. They had rarely been used, not in the time since
Davis had been a part of the department. They were old, but
functioning, and functioning well enough to burn up the dead. He
handed one to Sal and then strapped the large bulky unit to his own
back. Sal began to fasten his on as well. Davis stepped toward the
cemetery gates igniting his flame-thrower. He throttled the
trigger, and the flame went from small enough to burn a finger to
large enough to burn off your face.

At the gates, Davis throttled the flame all the way
to burn-off-your-face levels and ran it from left to right setting
fire to the dead things that reached through the gate. They did not
flinch, or pull back from the fire. They didn’t even moan in
protest. They moved forward, reaching through the gates to grasp at
them. There arms becoming black and smoldering like trees after a
forest fire. There was little left to burn but weathered skin
wrapped around bone.

The recently deceased creatures were much easier to
burn. Their flesh took almost as quickly as their clothes did, but
not these. These almost refused to burn. Davis didn’t sweat it
though, he kept at it, and eventually they fell to the ground
smoldering. Given enough time, just about anything will burn.

By the time Sal had joined him near the front of the
gate the two stoners had taken off. They began jogging away toward
home, their highs long gone. Sal stood a few feet from Davis and
followed his lead. The two of them knew that the flame-throwers
wouldn’t be enough for all the dead things inside the cemetery, so
they stood at the gate and let them come to the fire. Like big dumb
bugs buzzing into a zapper they silently staggered toward the
fire.

Maybe the fire was their salvation, Sal wondered, a
way for them to move on? Why else would they walk right into it
without the slightest hesitation? Were they just that dumb? Or, did
they know it could kill them? Sal shook his head, trying to shake
himself from his thoughts and focus on the task at hand. He was
tired and his mind needed sleep to work out his thoughts. He
wondered if he’d ever sleep again.

Before too long, the tanks to the flame-throwers ran
dry. The gates were swarmed with the well-dressed, long dead. Those
that burned had melted to the iron gates and then slumped into the
dirt and gravel, unmoving. Whatever it was inside of them that made
them tick was burned to a crisp. The others would have to wait
their turn.

Davis wondered why the dead and buried—the long
dead—wouldn’t go down with a bullet to the head. It worked for the
fresher ones, why not for them as well? He couldn’t shake the
overbearing feeling of dread that began to blanket him as his
thoughts wandered. Few things ever got under Davis’ skin, and
nothing had gotten under it like this. In Davis’ world you lived
and then you died, then you rotted away in the ground. There was no
heaven and no hell, and there certainly was no resurrection.

The flame-throwers had overheated. The tanks
themselves were cool but the nozzles were steaming hot and Davis
nearly burned his hand trying to take the bulky unit off his back.
He eventually managed to, but only after singeing the hair off his
arm with the nozzle. Sal squirmed out of his just fine, and the two
of them placed their overheated packs on the back of Davis’
truck.

“
I’m getting sick of smelling
burnt skin, man,” Sal said.

“
Me too. Can’t get it out of my
nose, but what’s the alternative?”

“
None, I guess.” Sal scratched at
his neck.

Davis pointed at the cemetery. “What’ya think we
should do about this?”

“
Shit, only thing we can do is to
keep burning them. But those flame-throwers aren’t gonna cut it.
They’re good, don’t get me wrong, but maybe we should just douse
the place in kerosene—toss a few buckets over the
walls.”

“
Yeah, these things are neat and
all, but my back’s already killing me from it—fuckers way a ton. I
just can’t believe this shit…no more surprises, please.”

Sal patted him on the shoulder. “You said it
brother. Wanna drop these off and get the kerosene?”

“
No, no I don’t, but what choice
do we have?” Davis walked to the driver’s side.

The truck drove off leaving the long dead to cool
off. More limbs ripped through the earth to pull up their bodies.
There was only a few more deaders still underground, soon all whom
were buried there would be above ground. Except for one small
rotted baby too tiny to sift through the earth.

CHAPTER 20: Standing still

With the majority of power back on, and the long
dead being put back to rest at Mourningside Cemetery, Davis moved
on to the next step in his plan; a town meeting. He had every one
who wasn’t working on either one of the roadblock’s or up at
Mourningside go house to house to inform every one who stayed in
town to assemble at the town hall at sundown.

By the time sundown came around the job was barely
finished. Everyone who was capable came to the meeting. Jeff and
Walter Caulfield came out while the rest of their family stayed
home. They both agreed that the children had no reason to come out
to the gathering and their better halves were content to stay the
course.

People were excited to be outside, and some of them
took it as a sign that things were on there way back to normal.
Though that certainly wasn’t the case. Jeff and Walter stood at the
back of the room, nodding and smiling at everyone. The air was full
of small talk and speculation.

Once everyone was gathered Davis began the meeting.
It took him a moment or so to quiet the room down, but he
eventually did. He asked how everyone was doing and if they were in
dire need of anything. He asked if anyone had come across the dead
and most had. Some had dispatched creatures while others avoided
them altogether. Walter asked about the city bombings, and if they
should be concerned about nuclear fallout. Davis went at length
about being better safe than sorry. He used it to touch on other
subjects as well but didn’t think fallout would be much of a
concern given the distance and time elapsed, but stressed that he
wasn’t certain and that there just wasn’t any real information
other than their own speculation. It was an issue, just not an
immediate one.

From that came the topic of radiation sickness, and
then just sickness in general. That led to medical needs and the
realization that they were pretty much on their own in that
department. There were no doctors or dentists among them. There
were a number of people trained in CPR and at least two people
capable of stitching wounds and reading x-rays, though.

They talked about food, fuel, energy, water and how
best to conserve them. What to do with the garbage. They talked
about many things. Then Davis began to steer the conversation to
where he wanted it to go.

He brought up the need for everyone to be capable of
defending themselves. He brought up the notion that help may never
arrive and that they should be prepared for the worst. That the
days ahead could get darker than anyone could imagine. Davis worked
the crowd into fervor and then laid it on them: his master plan,
The Wall.

There were some scoffs, as was to be expected—it was
a crazy idea, but these were crazy times—but there were more nods
of approval than anything else. Some people left, and once one left
there were always followers, and they left too. Most of the people
were on board with his idea to wall off the town, though, which
made Davis very happy. He hadn’t thought of what he would do or say
if it turned out to be ill-favored. Davis smiled and began to wrap
things up.

The meeting slowly came to an end. People had a lot
of questions and probably just wanted to be out and talking to each
other. It went as well as he could have expected, and starting
tomorrow the planning would begin. Tomorrow at sunrise Davis would
have a dozen or so people gathered at the station to help draw up
the plans for the wall. They would scout for supplies and tools and
begin to gather up what they would need to put the plan in
motion.

That was tomorrow though, and right now Davis was
needed at Mourningside to make sure the long dead stayed dead. He
shook a few hands, then headed out in a hurry.

CHAPTER 21
: If it’s the last thing
we ever do

Jon-Jon fumbled for words. “I know we have
something…I’m not sure what exactly, but you know it’s more than
nothing.”

“
I know,” Dawn said with a half
smile.

“
I don’t think it’s a good idea to
stick around. This sheriff guy is out of his mind. You’ve seen
what’s around here—nothing but death and destruction. We need to
get away, far the fuck away from all this.”

“
I don’t want to stick around here
any more than you do, but where can we go? Hmm, I mean seriously,
this is all just fucked. Those things are everywhere. Dead people
are everywhere, and anywhere that we can go will be other people.
At least we know these people.” Her lip trembled.

“
True, but…what if we go somewhere
cold. Someplace where they can freeze and you and me can get cozy
by a fire.” He smiled at her.

“
That sounds great, but…but…how
the hell can we get there? The roads are shit. We barely made it
here and look how many lives we lost along the way. Do you really
think the two of us can just drive off into the sunset?”

“
Maybe. Once we get past Titan
City we can head northwest, not even have to worry about New York
and just head toward Canada?” Even as he said it he didn’t fully
believe that the two of them could do it on their own.