The Complex: (The Reanimates) (4 page)

I looked over at Drew. His eyes were full of tears as he pet the dog. The dog occasionally looked at his face and licked the tears that spilled out. "It's all crazy out there. It's crazy and gross and it's scary. I wanna go home but now I'm scared of the zombies. What if they get us? What if we get eaten on the way home?"

"We are not getting eaten. Your grandpa has guns and I am going to take them with us. We are going to get in that truck and going to run over anything in front of us. We are going to get home and get safe. We are thinkers and we aren't stupid like those idiots that did get infected. Those guys were standing out in the open and were pretty much wearing signs that said I'm stupid eat me. That lady in the heels didn't have the sense to take them off to run. The reporter was standing out there and didn't bother to check her surroundings. She was told that they took down the security check point to escape but didn't put together that if the people trapped in the airport can get out easier now then so can the zombies. We aren't stupid so we are going to be fine. Now you and your mom need to get Tesla and those last bags of food in the truck and I'll be right there." Trent got his point across well and Drew seemed to be uplifted by these words.

When the last of what we needed got loaded into the truck Trent said he'd be right back. He ducked inside and came back out with a picture of his parents on their wedding day, different than the one that I had grabbed off the living room wall, and his dad's gun case in one hand. His other hand had a large tackle box. He tucked his finds behind the drivers seat, climbed in, turned the key, and we were off.

And Back Again

The congested roadways we saw on the way to mom's had nothing on the roads now. Before there were occupants in the cars tensely driving out of town. The cars now were abandoned. Doors were left wide open on some. Bumpers touched each other as though no one put the cars in park before fleeing them. As we drove past some cars we saw signs of the battle that had just happened. Copious amounts of blood filled the seats of several empty cars. On more than one occasion a bloody shoe was left behind with what I swore was still filled with a foot. We passed through an intersection and in the distance down the cross street I saw people running away from blood covered figures ambling after them with arms outstretched as though they were going to reach over the distance and capture their prey.

"Oh. My. God." Trent whispered to me. "What the hell is this?"

"Drew, baby," I said, "lie down in the back there. Keep your eyes closed. I don't want you to see this. Love you. Trent, hon, we have to get out of here. The people are gone so use the sidewalk if you have to but we have to be home." Tesla offered a little yap in agreement from her safe spot in the back seat wrapped in Drew's arms.

I was worried a bit over what we were going to find when we got back. Would there be blood filled apartments and dead things stumbling about? If the zombies took over the complex where were we going to go? Getting back to mom's house was not an option, we couldn't pass through that carnage again. What were we going to do?

In some sort of miracle the roads started to clear up the closer we got to our complex. The cars we did come across were occupied and in motion. It appeared like the craziness of what we had just seen hadn't yet reached this area. There was a small flicker of hope that maybe we would have a place to go after all. Maybe, just maybe, we would find the complex unscathed. The scene before us was amazing. It didn't seem to be the scene of impending zombies but rather an F-5 tornado. There were no zombies here yet. I wanted to fall on my knees and kiss the grime crusted asphalt right then and there. I laughed out loud as Trent drove over the curb, on the sidewalk path between the buildings, and parked on the lawn in front of our building so we could off load our stuff. People were finishing the loading as we started to unload. Walking towards the apartment with stuff in our arms and a stupid grin on my face instead of fleeing the place with an expression of terror had earned me a few weird stares. As we reached the stairs Mrs. Mendez came out from her apartment directly below ours.

Mrs. Mendez gave us an incredulous stare as she began to say "You're staying? Really? Why? It's not safe!" Mrs. Mendez was an older devout Catholic woman. She supplemented her income by doing people's laundry at times, mending clothes for any extra money she could make. When she got paid immediately she put a portion in one jar for the church, a large portion to send to her family in Mexico, and the smallest bit to use to feed herself. Mrs. Mendez was a proud woman and refused to take charity from anyone. She believed in earning her way though life. Trent and I knew that every little bit of money made a difference in her life. Since she wouldn't take hand-outs, sometimes while Drew played outside in the common area we would pay her to keep an eye on him. We knew full well he didn't need a sitter and that we were constantly checking on him ourselves, but this was the only way she would take money from us. She adored Drew and would constantly remark on how polite and well behaved he was. He would take play breaks to run over to where she sat on the patio and would ask her if she needed anything or to tell her a story about school. When we paid her for watching him she would chuckle a bit and say “With a boy like Drew I should be the one paying. He is so kind to an old lady.” To see her afraid of the world and worried about us deciding to stay behind broke my heart.

"This is home. This is where we belong. Where are you leaving to?" I asked.

"We hear there are no monsters in Mexico. That's where my family is. I am going to my grandson's house first then we are leaving this Godforsaken country and go to where He will protect us. This demon filled land is a direct result of the lack of God in the lives of the people." She crossed herself quickly.

She looked at the supplies in our hands and then said "If you are being called to stay in this then you must follow God's plan for you. When I go, you can have whatever I have left behind. Don't know if it will be of any help but I don't need it. Mija, I will pray for you and your family that you will survive this. Your family has shown me kindness always and I pray that Jesus will send you a kindness in protecting you."

I hadn't noticed that our other neighbors had come out to hear our exchange. Daniel, our upstairs neighbor, said he and his girls were staying too. I was glad to hear it. Daniel was an athletic guy with a sweet disposition. He was a doting father to his girls, the oldest was three and the baby was a year and a half. His downstairs neighbor said to him that he would follow the example that Mrs. Mendez had set and that Daniel was welcome to have first dibs on anything left in his place. We walked Mrs. Mendez to her old car, packed to the gills with family photos and religious icons like her collection of saints. We wished her the best and watched her car pull out of her space and out the gate. We took a moment to collect ourselves then got back to unloading the truck. As we unloaded the last of it the TV let out the emergency alert tone.

Trent and I stopped in our tracks, staring at the TV transfixed by the tone.

A haggardly dressed official person came on camera. He wore a look of shock. He took a drink of water, cleared his throat, and began.

"Today our resources in dealing with this virus have been overrun. We were unaware of the widespread ramifications of the virus. We didn't know there were so many sick people. We thought the people with the fevers would be in the hospital. They weren't. Oh God... maybe one in ten went in with the fever."

He picked up his drink with very shaky hands and pulled a long sip from the glass. I had to wonder if it was something besides water. I know that's what I'd want if I were in his shoes. He filled his lungs with another deep breath.

"We are declaring a state of marshal law in the state of California. This is for your protection. It is estimated that 30% of the population has reanimated in these last few hours. This is likely a conservative estimate. The amount of reanimates grows exponentially with every passing moment. The reanimated people are killers. Lock your doors. Do not open them. They are coming. Most of Los Angeles has been lost with surrounding areas falling quickly. Again, go into a secure location now and do not leave it. Do not open the doors. God be with you."

With that the emergency broadcast ended. The station went back to the national news with a rolling ticker at the bottom giving those ever so helpful little tips on how to stay safe, like not opening the door for anyone and to make sure you ask friends and family if they had any contact with the infected.

"What's the plan Trent?" I asked. He grabbed his tool box, pulled out a power saw, and said "We'll start with keeping them out of our place. I don't know if they can climb but I don't want to learn the hard way that we should have kept them unable to get on the balcony. Gonna rip out the downstairs patio, so no one or no thing can climb up." He set off down the stairs. Daniel overheard this and went downstairs with Trent. After he made the cuts, Daniel said he had an idea and yanked the wood fencing from the patio pile and dragged it up to our balcony. He asked for a hammer and long nails, which I grabbed from Trent's toolbox. He started nailing the planks from the patio to the railing and rafters. The effect was much like a cage but nothing was coming through, that was clear. Trent asked Daniel if he wanted the same done for his patio, as though he had to ask. He got to work. Soon six other families were coming by to see what we were up to. They all soon asked for the same to be done on their apartments as well. Of all the neighbors only Tyreese and his family were living in a downstairs unit. The upstairs unit had been vacated a week before and the complex had been in the process of preparing the unit for a new occupant. Tyreese had decided to move upstairs to hopefully add a layer of protection and be able to take that extra security precaution of a fenced in balcony. It was amazing how quickly the important stuff, mostly his food, bedding, and a couple changes of clothes for right now, had been moved from his unit by his two teen aged kids and wife. He planned on continuing to shift his stuff into the new unit on an as needed basis. This was good planning on his part, I thought, because who wanted to really take the time to move furniture and knick-knacks when the world could end in a moments notice.

Steven had lived in an exterior upstairs apartment but he decided to occupy the last vacated upstairs interior facing unit. Steven was an artist living a minimalist lifestyle so moving him was rather easy. He had very little furniture and was not attached to any of it, so he didn't bother to move any, especially since the unit he was moving to had furniture left in it. His only must takes were a couple paintings he was working on, his paints, a practice drum pad, and his food. I wondered if he would have moved at all if he had not been a minimalist. I figured that maybe later on he would remember something in his old place that he wanted. I had to envy him a little, there are very few people that could pack up their world with a backpack filled with art supplies and a practice pad and feel as though they would still be complete.

Shady Groves Apartments is the name of the complex we lived in. It was set up in four buildings making up a square, and a separate laundry room with the rental office attached to it stood in front of the north building. Each building had a total of eight units, four units in the interior faced a common grassy area and other four faced the exterior of the complex including the parking lot. It helped that the entire complex was tucked into the foothills of a mountain range so those with the exterior view had that perk. 30 of the 32 units were occupied this morning. Now only eight were.

This complex was a gated community with one wrought iron gate that opens with a key card to let you in and automatically opens when a car sets off the sensor to allow you to go out. We set a bike chain lock on the gate so it would not open on its own or be pulled open. The walls around the complex were about six to seven feet high made of cinder block with decorative iron spike looking things on the tops. I had seen teens try to jump over the wall in the past hoping for a shortcut to school and fail unless they climbed a close tree. I talked to Trent about borrowing a saw to trim the branches away from the wall when Steven had mentioned that he had seen hedge trimmers as well as a chainsaw being used by the maintenance crew and that they stored that sort of thing in the shed in the back. He offered to take care of the trees himself. He had an almost excited gleam in his eyes to have something to do to prepare the complex for being a safe zone and skipped over to the shed to get to work.

With the gate locked, the trees trimmed, and the patios secured there was nothing left to do but to wait to see what the night would bring. Everyone retired to their units a bit early to distance themselves from the outside world and to spend time with their family. All I wanted in the world was to be with my family and I imagine that's all anyone else wanted too.

First Night/First Full Day

We didn't hardly sleep that night. Drew had opted to sleep in the bed with us and while you could tell that he had fallen asleep it wasn't the deep restful kind. He tossed and turned all night as did Trent and I. Tesla probably was the only one that slept properly. In this town wind blew all the time. Often on a regular day I would be right on the edge of sleep when a twig would hit the building, jolting me awake. This night was so much more. Trent was in a similar boat. With every creak we jumped. The sound of the wind's howls brought tense muscles as we twisted around. I was beginning to really wish I hadn't worked the night before as I hadn't had any sort of nap to that point. When dawn came with nary a sighting we breathed a sigh of relief. There was no sign that anything had been by.